You’re on your way to better hormone balance if you’re already focusing on regular meals that contain protein, healthy fats, and fiber, eating mostly organic, and are working on keeping that nervous system in check. BUT: certain chemicals can disrupt hormones, which can cause metabolic issues, mood swings, fertility problems, energy depletion, and interfere with losing weight and body fat. It’s about more than avoiding artificial dyes and flavors, seed oils, gums, added refined sugar, white flours, preservatives, and non-organic meats and dairy. Losing weight in particular is not just about calories and macros, but about WHAT you put in and on your body as well to help support a healthy hormone balance. Working on this now can make for a much smoother transition into pregnancy, postpartum life, perimenopause, menopause, or whatever transitional hormonal phase you’re in.
What Are Obesogens and Endocrine Disruptors?
Obesogens are endocrine disrupting chemicals, which means chemicals that disrupt hormone balance and interfere with our hormone systems. You may not have heard about these before because they’re definitely a modern problem. Some of the most common obesogens are bisphenol A (BPA), parabens, phthalates, and heavy metals such as lead, cadmium, arsenic, and mercury. It’s easy to ignore these because they’re not like medicine, alcohol, or caffeine, where we feel the effects pretty rapidly, whether they’re helpful or not. However, the daily exposures to these chemicals adds up and can interfere with your body’s natural signals by mimicking certain hormones, such as estrogen. Here are some examples of obesogens and endocrine disruptors that disrupt hormone balance:
Plastic water bottles, containers, non-stick cookware, cling wrap, cans with plastic liners – These often contain BPA and PFAs (per- and polyfluoroalkyl substances).
Cosmetics – Parabens, phtalates, and fragrance (unless these come from essential oils) are often found in cosmetics such as foundation and skincare, face wash, make-up, nail polish, and perfume.
Toiletries and personal care products – The same parabens, phtalates, and fragrances can be found in shampoos and conditioners, lotions, body oils, and hand soap. Deodorant tends to be a common culprit as well as it often contains heavy metals, such as aluminum, on top of these other substances.
Cleaning supplies – Do your floors smell great after you’ve cleaned them? Great, but it could be because of the same artificial fragrance that’s used in toiletries and cosmetics, so you’ll want to pay close attention to the actual ingredients in your cleaning supplies. VOCs (volatile organic compounds) are flagged as being endocrine disruptors as well.
Microplastics – I know you’ve heard about microplastics being present in seemingly everything, even our bodies. It’s in our water, our food, and even in synthetic fabrics – not what I wanted to hear since I LOVE my gym clothes. If this overwhelms you and you’re not sure if there’s anything left that DOESN’T disrupt hormones, fear not. Keep reading to find out what to do about all of this!
Actionable Steps To Reduce Your Toxic Burden
I’ve been trying to “clean up our act” when it comes to avoiding toxic chemicals for over a decade, so I have tried many different products and alternatives. Below are my favorites:
Swap plastic for glass – Start with your water bottle and food storage containers. I love these Ello glass food storage containers and aside from Yetis, my favorite water bottle is this Ello one as well. I actually think water taste better when you drink out of glass. I would also swapped aluminum foil and cling wrap for unbleached parchment baking paper. This stainless steel mixing bowl set continues to be one of our most-used kitchen sets and even comes with graters, so you can grate your cheese, carrots, or zucchini directly over the bowl! Although I try to avoid canned foods, if we do use them, they’re usually the ones without BPA in the liner (it will say this on the can), or we buy the Jovial brand, which comes in recyclable glass cans.
Choose better-for-you cosmetics – The cosmetics industry moves FAST and all if you’ve ever browsed Sephora or Ulta Beauty online, you know how overwhelming finding a “clean” product brand can be. Just because Sephora labels a product as “clean”, doesn’t necessarily mean that it doesn’t contain ingredients that won’t disrupt hormones. For better sunscreen options, check out The Best Non Toxic Sunscreen. For a tinted sunscreen I love Ilia’s super serum skin tint. My favorite mascara brand is from Honest Beauty, which also makes these excellent, non-toxic make-up remover facial wipes. Aside from those favorites, I don’t use much make-up as I’m very much into the whole “natural, make-up-less” look. However, Honest Beauty, Beautycounter, Ilia, and 100% Pure would be my recommendations for the cleanest make-up brands.
Upgrade your toiletries – The key with toiletries is to go fragrance-free. Whenever you see the word “fragrance” on the ingredient label, it means the product can have hundreds of hormone disrupting chemicals. Again, no big deal because you can’t FEEL that right away, right? Every time you use that product, you’re adding to your body’s toxic burden. Many “clean” product brands have switched over to essential oils, which still smell fantastic, but don’t have the negative effect of hormone disruption. My current favorite deodorant is Hume and my favorite PFA-free floss is DrTung’s. Our entire family cycles through body washes and lotions, but we like Everyone Soap, the Honest line of products, as well as anything from Primally Pure.
Clean up the cleaning supplies – Branch Basics, Biokleen, and Force of Nature are among my favorite cleaners for around the home. Many brands such as Method and Seventh Generation have OK products, but often take advantage of “greenwashing” by still adding in bad chemicals and fragrances. We still use the Seventh Generation wipes since they don’t contain “perfume / fragrance”, so definitely evaluate options on a product by product basis, but instead of blindly assuming a product brand is better for you, read your labels and do your research. It’s worth the extra few minutes.
Filter your water – Microplastics are present in a lot more than water, but I think the water you drink deserves some extra attention because of lead, arsenic, PFAs, and other chemicals. that you’ll find in here. Reverse Osmosis is a filtration method that will filter out most, if not all of the substances you don’t want in your body. We’ve had the privilege of building our home from the ground up and put in a reverse osmosis water filtration system at that time, but if you can’t do that, don’t worry! You can put either countertop filters or install one right under the sink. AquaTru is a trusted brand you may want to try. You’ll find some more pediatrician approved water filters here.
If you’re looking for more ways to reduce your toxin load and stay on top of hormone health, I would recommend using HEPA filters, avoiding vinyl in your home, and choosing furniture, clothing, and carpets that are not fire and water resistant, since they may have been treated with unwanted chemicals you don’t want touching your skin. Be sure to check my Favorites page for more recommendations as I plan to update this page regularly!
What did I miss? Would you add anything to this list? Leave a comment to let me know!
