What I Put On My Body: The Everyday Products I Replaced

I talk to you a lot about healing through nutrition.

But what touches our skin is really no different from any other form of nourishment.

In my own healing process I started by changing my diet, but pretty quickly, once I was exposed to the real world (the one outside the matrix that sells us toxins in pretty packaging and ads), I understood there's no difference between nutrition and the rest of the products we consume.

I didn't know how far I'd go over time, because what started with less-bad substitutes eventually turned into making products myself.

So what touches us? In the simplest sense of the word.

What meets the skin when we brush our teeth, shower, rub on cream, put on fragrance, do laundry, and sweat?

Look, the skin isn't a barrier. It isn't a wall. It's an organ. It's alive, it breathes, it reacts, and it absorbs.

It's the largest and one of the most important organs in the body.

And we've been conditioned to need creams and tight clothing as a matter of routine, so the body doesn't breathe properly.

For years I poisoned myself every day, out of innocence, habit, and a belief that whatever's on the shelf must be safe, and sometimes even necessary, a sign of my masculinity.

When I started checking. Reading. Experimenting. I realized I was off course, and the change began to happen.

Not as a dramatic step, but as a chain of small, daily, quiet choices that were radical in their results.

Here's the list, not so you'll do exactly what I do, but to get you thinking about what touches you, in every possible sense.

Toothpaste

Most store-bought toothpastes contain toxins. It's no accident that the tube says not to swallow it and to go to the ER if you do.

And most toothpastes contain fluoride.

Supposedly good for the teeth, but in reality it's a neurotoxin, a poison that accumulates in the body and can affect brain function, the thyroid, and children's cognitive development.

This isn't the calcium fluoride that comes from nature, but sodium fluoride, which is a synthetic, toxic product.

There are other toxic substances in industrial toothpastes, like triclosan (a strong disinfectant that disrupts the microbial balance in the mouth), SLS (a foaming agent that originates in the cleaning industry), dyes, sweeteners, and fragrance.

And all of this, just to give a feeling of cleanliness.

A feeling of cleanliness. Not real cleanliness.

So at first I bought "fluoride-free" toothpastes, and later ones that were only "natural ingredients," but I also noticed I wasn't happy with how my teeth felt or looked.

So I make my own:

I mix together coconut oil, a natural antibacterial that also protects the gums.

Green clay, which cleans and absorbs toxins.

And baking soda, which disinfects, brightens, and balances the pH in the mouth.

And if you want to invest a bit more, you can add a remineralizing tooth powder to strengthen the tooth.

It doesn't foam. It doesn't smell like mint gum. But it works. And it's real.

By the way, it's so much better than toothpaste that it also whitens my teeth, and I no longer have any sensitivity.

Soap

For several years I'd find myself after a shower with mild irritation and redness on my skin, and not once did the thought cross my mind that maybe my soap was made of toxins.

It's amazing how many ideas and substances we let into our lives without checking.

The first soaps were based on fat, and today you won't find any fat in the popular soaps.

Try reading the ingredient list of an average shower gel sometime:

Fragrance, Parfum, Sodium Laureth Sulfate, Propylene Glycol, PEG, artificial dyes, alcohol.

Smells good? Depends who you ask.

A feeling of cleanliness? Yes.

But in reality, all of these erode the skin's protective layer, dry it out, and harm its biological balance (the balance between cells, bacteria, oils, water, and the skin's local immune system).

And they can penetrate into the bloodstream.

I use a simple, solid natural soap, the kind they used to make:

I don't make it myself, but there are plenty in natural health stores. The smell is less "exciting." But the skin breathes, lives, calms down.

A good body smell comes from a good diet, and a chemical soap won't help fix the situation.

Sunscreen

Growing up, I was taught that you have to put on cream, but almost no one told me (and I didn't check) the list of ingredients and substances these creams contain.

On a surf trip in 2018 I discovered that the locals don't put on sunscreen because it harms coral and fish. Meaning, I put it on, get in the water, and it washes off into nature. So out of great love for nature, I stopped.

At the time, I didn't even think about what it means if I'm rubbing this onto my own body.

Toxins like Oxybenzone, Avobenzone, and others that are derivatives of petroleum.

Chemicals that get absorbed through the skin, reach the bloodstream, and are linked to hormonal disruption, harm to fertility, and even cancerous tumors.

On top of that, they block UVB rays from reaching the skin, the ones that help create vitamin D.

So what's the solution? Not to give up protection, but to change the approach.

Personally, I don't put on anything at all. I prefer shade, a hat, and a shirt when I'm in the sun for more than an hour.

But if I'm surfing for hours, the hat and shirt aren't enough, so I use a natural cream based on Zinc Oxide.

(A non-toxic mineral that doesn't penetrate the skin.) The skin gets both protection and nourishment.

You can find Zinc Oxide–based sunscreens online and in natural health stores, and you can also make your own at home.

And if all of that is too much for you, at least try to make sure the sunscreen is mineral-based, meaning it isn't absorbed into the skin.

A fascinating mini-course on sun exposure is coming soon, where I detail everything you need to know about beneficial, safe sun exposure.

Deodorant

When I think about the years I used mainstream deodorant, the kind from the ads where men put it on after a shower, and it's like rubbing a chemical substance on your body is sexy, or worse, spraying a chemical onto your body, the kind that makes you start coughing if you breathe it in,

it seems insane to me.

First of all, sweat is not a mistake of the body.

It's a precise cleansing system, emotional and physical.

But culture taught us that "sweat is gross," so we block it.

Antiperspirant, the familiar substance found in most deodorants, blocks the sweat glands.

Meaning it blocks a natural and important bodily function for clearing out toxins, using aluminum salts that penetrate the body and accumulate, especially in a sensitive area like the armpit, close to the lymph nodes.

There's quite a bit of research on the link between these kinds of deodorants and breast cancer.

So what do I do?

I use only a natural mineral stone. You can find it in any natural health store.

It doesn't block. It only balances.

And the smell? There simply is no smell, and it's wonderful.

Face cream

Many women rub luxury face creams on their skin for most of their lives and have no idea what they're made of.

Most of the facial skin creams we see on the shelves are based on Petrolatum, a petroleum derivative.

A substance that clogs pores, prevents the skin from breathing, gives a momentary feeling of softness, but in reality weakens the skin's ability to take care of itself.

Add silicone, preservatives, and fragrance to that, and you get a shallow, momentary feeling of "care."

So what works? I know quite a few women (and sometimes me too) who simply take a banana peel, yes, really, from the inside, and massage it onto the skin.

Just as the body needs antioxidants and nutrients through diet, this is the only thing the body and skin can really use.

The banana is rich in potassium, antioxidants, and is anti-inflammatory.

Or cucumber, which is cooling, soothing, and tightening.

The skin doesn't need much. Just a diet rich in antioxidants, mainly fruits and vegetables, from blueberries to cucumbers.

And to not disrupt its natural balance.

Shampoo

After I wrote a long article about shampoo two years ago, suddenly, in the middle of my research, I understood deeply the biggest deception of the shampoo companies.

We usually use shampoo to remove oiliness, but the genius of the shampoo companies is that the synthetic substances in shampoo create increased oil production, which is why you "have to" wash your hair every day.

So I stopped with shampoo too.

Commercial shampoo is a cocktail of toxic substances: SLS for foaming, silicone for "shine," parabens for preservation, and synthetic fragrance that lasts a couple of days.

But,

the question isn't how the hair feels in the minute afterward, it's how it behaves over time.

An irritated scalp, dandruff, excess oiliness, these aren't hair problems, they're the result of products that confuse the body.

So first of all, I wash my hair once every few weeks. The hair isn't oily and doesn't smell.

I prefer the natural oil on the scalp over creating a dependency, because when the scalp is used to being cleaner, it produces much more oil.

When I do choose to clean my head, pay attention to the words, to clean and not to "shampoo,"

I rotate between:

Diluted apple cider vinegar, which balances pH, adds shine, and cleans

Baking soda (only once every 10 days), which removes oil

And sometimes a truly organic shampoo, the kind with only oils and plants, no words you can't pronounce.

You can find it in natural health stores and online.

Laundry products

Who doesn't love a good ad for the one product that can remove even the toughest stains and also make your clothes smell wonderful?

But why do our clothes need to give off the scent of synthetic flowers? Why does a garment need a smell?

The shirt we wear all day, the sheets we sleep in at night, the towels we dry off with,

all of it soaked in fabric softener and industrial fragrance after the wash.

Laundry detergents are full of optical brighteners (which don't actually whiten, they just change how light reflects), chemical scents that activate nerve centers, fragrances that disrupt the hormonal system, and substances that don't wash out.

And we just wear it, and those substances penetrate into our skin.

So I use only non-toxic substances:

Baking soda, which cleans and absorbs odor.

Apple cider vinegar, which softens, disinfects, and balances pH.

One or the other, not both together, because they cancel each other out.

Of course, there are also non-bad laundry products in natural health stores.

It feels different. It smells different. The clothes feel clean, fresh, and pleasant on the skin.

What does all of this really mean?

The content here isn't only about soap or toothpaste.

I'm talking about asking ourselves, in every moment:

What am I letting into my life?

Why am I allowing this to touch me?

What do I want penetrating into my body?

And what am I no longer willing to accept in the name of "normal"?

The moment I made this change, something balanced out.

All kinds of irritations, itches, and rashes that used to show up out of nowhere disappeared.

The skin calmed down. The body returned to balance.

But most importantly, the story in my head changed:

I don't need to smell from a distance.

Certainly not a synthetic smell.

When the diet is good and the body is clean from real soap, there's no need for extras.

And between us, you can't hide a bad smell with an air freshener.

Whatever you wouldn't put in your mouth, why would you rub it on your body?