Latest / Two Girls and a Cup of Wellness / Microplastics: What Stuck With Us After The Plastic Detox | Ep 34
Transcript
- Crissy and Marie: Hey everyone, welcome back for another Two Girls in a Couple Wellness chat. Today it's just Marie and Justin, and we're very pumped. We're pumped. Okay. So not sure if you all have heard of the documentary The Plastic Detox, but Marie has been talking about it for a while. She's been wanting to do a chat around plastics and microplastics, and she was like, watch this. I was like, okay, yes, ma'am. And so I watched it. And yes, no, you're right. There's a lot of feels in it. There there's a lot of feels. Like I cried, Chrissy cried. I did. I also cried in the Little Mermaid. So that doesn't Listen, I can cry in public's commercials. So right. You can't really take what we have with a grain of salt. But it w you know, I guess when you're when you are passionate about something When you start seeing things that are way less than what you wish in the world, it's very emotional and it can be emotional. So it's like it puts you kind of into action for some people. And some people may just ignore it. But for those of you who are looking to make a difference, not only in your world, but our world, then continue listening. And if you just want to kind of live in a little bit more, you know, naive my like world that's fine. I'm not judging by no means, but maybe this one isn't for you, but it should be for everybody. Please listen. And I think too, I think that the people that I've mentioned it to haven't watched it because they are afraid of anxiety. And I didn't watch it for the longest time because I was afraid because I am that person that'll go down the rabbit hole. I was pleasantly surprised to have known, not that I'm bragging, most of the information I agree from my own research over the last 15 years. So And I was super excited. I don't know if you noticed in the video they actually talked to a person in there, a male with red hair. And that's that book that I love all the time. Dr. Tresande. I'm not sure if I'm pronouncing his name right, but Fatter, Sicker, Poorer. Excellent, excellent book. And a lot of that information is in there. But it's it's excellent. And I don't I think you should go in it with an open mind and take what you need from it and make slow changes. That's what I tell everybody. Don't get overwhelmed. Because, you know, after watching it, I started kind of looking around my household and the clothes I wear and like, okay, Chrissy, don't get overly crazy about it one thing at a time. What's one thing today that I can cut and start to do? What did I do? I picked out a hundred percent cotton dress to wear, right? I might start looking at I really need to look my yoga clothing. It is a tough one because I love one very popular brand very, very, very, very much. I love the way it fits. I love the way I feel in it. She loves the way she sweats in it. I I do. But there's that, right? So it's tough. And I I know I thought about like underwear and listen, I'm not gonna throw everything away. Yeah. Because Paul watched it, my husband, and he said, god, we're good. And I No, I'm not throwing stuff away. I'm not going crazy. But when I make those next purchases, they will be more mindful. I will see where they're sourced and who's making them and look for better ingredients. Yeah. No, absolutely. Ingredients. Ingredients. Are they ingredients in clothing? or are they my gosh, I'm having a total brain falling. Me too. Now you got me gun. No. is an ingredient. It's a substance. It's What it made with? Yeah. Wow. Here's the perimenopause, everybody. 40s are awesome. But you got me thinking the same thing or not thinking. Like I just can't recipe. No. No. Because that would go with the ingredients. Anyways, whatever. Yeah. No, whatever. Like, but just, you know, and and really looking at the labels and what are they made of, right? It's it it we don't really want. So is that what shocked you the most, you think, looking at the clothing? The well, I've also been kind of hearing this. It's been in the back of my mind for a while. so I don't want to say that's what shocked me the most. what was one of the one thing that I was like, wow, they were saying that by 2030, yes, 70 cent 70% of clothing will be basically plastic. I know. Or have like the the nylon and pile. polyester, acrylic, and spandex. And I just thought, gosh, man. You know, and sad. It's scary. And it is. I I I worry about the kids because they're like little sponges. So they can suck those chemicals up so much more. But I gotta say, you know, my daughter over the last probably year and a half has already been making changes little by little. I think it's starting to ripple out in the younger generation, in the 20s, Because a lot of these girls, I'll say girls in particular, are are looking at a hundred percent cotton underwear and their recycled clothing or cotton clothing when working out and bathing suits made from in America rather than like, you know, other places and and and good quality. Good quality. And that's the thing, like stuff falls apart. Yeah. You're like, great, this is this is a great t-shirt and it's five dollars. And the next thing I noticed there's holes in it. Yeah. And I'm like, why are there so many holes around the like where I wash dishes? And you know, I I feel like I purchase more and throw more out. And that comes with that like over consumerism concept. Like why have 20 a something when you can have two or three of very, very good quality something and have it for years? Yeah. And that was one of the points made in the documentary where If you buy all of these clothes from, I'm not gonna name names from different parts of the country that you can get shirts for a dollar, you know, buying like that when your dry cleaning bill is going to be more expensive than the clothes itself, you're just gonna throw those clothes out and start over again. And I know myself, like I've I'm like, whatever, it's only you know five, ten dollars, no big deal. But again, it's that mentality of just like. Having so much because it's cheap, right? Rather than let me save a little bit more, get good quality pieces that you know that you can use over and over again. Right. So kind of having the basics. It's like it's it's not even just being cheap. It's the destruction to the planet, it's the destruction to our health. It's the overuse of resources. And then who's making those clothes? There's also that, right? Like The child labor law and acts, right? So even thinking about that, and then thinking about how are they packaging all of these clothes and sending them halfway across the world. They're all in plastic, right? And then they're in the sun. And yeah, it's just it really is. And I watched it feeling like wow. and one of the biggest things also that came to me was the the rates of infertility. Yeah. How Like men's sperm is really declining. And that was heartbreaking to me. There's a study that was over I don't know, it's like let's see if I get my brain right today. It's not working. 1973 to 2018. I'll have to find the stuff in the show notes. But they studied I want to say it was like 86,000 different charts going back and looking at men's sperm quality. And they have noted a 50% decrease. Yeah. Fifty percent. That's crazy. Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. And that's the thing, like that's our future. That's the future of our kids. That's a few you right. So it's like if men aren't able to produce more and then less and less people are being born, I don't know, maybe that's not a bad thing in the world, but there's a lot of people who really want babies and they can't. And that's that's that's just your like that's your God given right, like to be to be able to have a child and to procreate and the pain that people feel. So I love I loved the couples in there. Yeah. And I don't want to tell too much of the story. I don't want to tell too much of the story, but so so since that movie, I have bought sponges, plant-based sponges. They're pretty cool. They're on Amazon. There is a little, it said there was a polymer in there that's like a recyclable polymer plastic, but at least it's better than my favorite ones. You know, really scrub good. Yeah. And they're not that bad. Okay. I also bought, I had bought Different toothbrush before and I tried and it was just wasn't I needed to really scrub yeah. Yeah. So I bought a boar's hair with a bamboo toothbrush and it works great until my friend Donna was like, Well, what part of the boar hair are they pulling it from? And I thought, my gosh. Something you want to do. But it works. I mean, but then what do people do? Like for people who are really animal. This is very interesting. I don't know. Right. Like I mean I wonder like a sponge, but I guess a sponge technically is an animal, sea animal, sponges. Yeah. Yeah. Tarpoon Springs. It's a sponge capital of the world. Interesting. Florida. Yeah. Road trip. Yeah. It's just Yeah. It's I know. I was looking at like hairbrush, right? And trying to think, okay, I think it's time I change out my hairbrush and there's just it's everywhere. Right. It's everywhere. But so I tell people the first thing is if you think about a water bottle and it travels on a truck with the internal temperatures increasing so much to a hundred degrees Fahrenheit, it's leaching all that plastic into the water. So that's a huge, huge way to decrease your plastic exposure is to just stop drinking out of plastic water bottles. Now, don't go to the airport and don't drink water and get dehydrated when you're traveling. Yeah, 80 20. Again, 80 20. But if you're we were at a point where our entire back fridge was full of water bottles. yeah. And we just crack them when we go. And we can buy them from time to time. Or throwing them on the boat. And now I've really, really tried because I still get like salsa waters, just so you know, lined in plastic. Yep. Yep. Crazy. So that's a good way to reduce exposure. The microwaving, the dishwasher, not putting plastic in those. And then, you know, at like I said, as you go further, like maybe researching your soap that you use, I use a brand called Attitude. It's on Amazon. I like Attitude. I haven't used their Their dish soap yet, but I have used their shampoo and lotion. shampoo and conditioner. I don't know how much I love it, but I know it's clean. So for now, I make I do lotion. that lotion. The lotion I don't I like. I love your lotion though. but the shampoo and conditioner, I'm a little like on the fence off. But even coming back to like BPAs and and thinking about plastic lined things, that you gotta use also take into consideration your canned goods if you buy canned beans and canned tomatoes. But I do believe that if you are buying organic, they typically are not lined with BPA. But but Chrissy, they've just changed the molecule a little. So they don't know when when you read that book that I know you're gonna read, they've just basically changed the BPA molecule a little bit different. So now it's called BPS. So bisphenol S or bisphenol F. We don't know what that does to us. And like we didn't know what these things did to us years later, the domino effect. So I'm not saying don't eat beans, but just rinse it really good. Yeah. There's plenty of times where I jump the I'm like, why would I rinse this water out? It's all flavored with the beans. I used to I used to not put salt in there. No, now I'm So rinsing it good. And it's if you kind of know your meal plan for the week, you can easily buy dried beans. You have to soak them and you gotta boil them. And I think the soaking helps with the gas because you will get gassier with the Dry ones. Yeah. I don't know why there's the science behind that, but I didn't know that. Yeah. With dried versus already cooked and canned. Yeah. Interesting. I wonder if it's something to do with the sodium. I don't know. Interesting. Anyways. I also loved the when they did have the one fashion designer on there and talking about some of the the products that they try to use that you know they use hemp and cotton, flax, linen, viscos from trees. So when you are viscos. Viscose is as visc, she said viscose from trees. I wrote it down because I was like, interesting. Because you know, sometimes I get confused about what is man-made and what is naturally made, right? Or in organic and and made from the planet and the earth. And so when you are looking for clothes, you want to look at not the ingredients that are with them, but what whatever the word that it is that we can't think of. that it includes you know, like hemp, cotton, flax, linen, or viscos. Do you want to hear a funny story? I do want to hear a funny story. Okay, because what else is important when you buy clothing? well, you want to look good and you like the way the feels. And it's very colorful. Yes, yes, yes, good. So I had a farm. Chrissy knows this. And I had sheep on my farm, and I was gonna share my sheep and I was gonna spin my wool, and then I going to dye my wool. So my grandmother was a master dyer. And she was a master. A master wool dyer. And she used to to do rug hooking, which is it's actually beautiful. And her dyes were so gorgeous. People come from all over New England to buy her to take her dyed wool classes and buy her dyed wool. And when we got the farm, my grandmother had passed away. My mom was so proud to give me all these handmade dyes. Or not handmade dyes, the actual dyes. And they were like all in these little bags. And so I shared the sheep. And I scoured the wool. And then I was dyeing the wool in my kitchen pots and pans. Because I didn't think about that. So I'm making this gorgeous bright purple and bright blues in the kitchen, in the house, right? And then the next night we boil some potatoes. And my husband said, Why the heck are the potatoes blue? And I said, Well, because I I I mean, I dyed wool in in the pot. And he's like, What? Same what? You put sheep wool in our pot. pot? He said, first of all, it's disgusting. And I was like, yeah, that is. Now that you think of it. And he said, and why didn't you wash them? I said, I did. And he goes, Why they why are they coming out of the metal and into the liquid? So then we researched it and come to find out these dyes are extremely toxic, neurotoxic. My entire pot and pan set that I use, we threw away. That's not true. I actually used it for wool after that. Outside, because you're not supposed to boil that stuff in your house, dangerous. And My grandmother died of Alzheimer's. And I'm not saying that that's what caused it, but she was a huge dyer, and there was a link to neurotoxicity in those dyes. Interesting. So when we buy clothing and when we perspire, and if we don't wash our clothes good enough, I wonder, like they talked about the dyes, the synthetic dyes being bad for our health. And that's I don't I haven't researched any more other than that. But I did learn, I took a class in way out in Tennessee. And it was all based off Native Indian Americans and how they use the seeds, the nuts, the berries, the roots, all from the land to get the inc complete color wheel. Yeah. So then I started, you know, boiling the wool with some vegetables and beets. Yeah. I mean, think about beets. You cut beets and you your hands are red for you know, forever. So pomegranate seeds and there's so many. You can use like red onion The outside of the red onion, the skins, and there's all sorts of things that you can do. And it's obviously not going to be neon pink, but it's natural and it's beautiful. Yeah. Yeah. Someday I'll knit you a pair of underwear. I wouldn't And they'll be so plastic free. They'll be nice and scratchy. Whoa. my gosh. I and I know that we're probably gonna get some people who are asking, okay, well, so what brands do we use? I I do, like, like you said, for some. Houseware stuff and beauty stuff, the the attitude brand is good. branch basics, I hear, is pretty good. I have not used them. I don't know. I'm we're not, you know. but I I just gotta kind of go through. You just gotta use the environmental working group app or just Chat GBT. Just scan your dove soap and be like, are any of these toxic? Do any of these cause cancer? Are any of these at high doses? Cause they're always gonna be you have to when you use AI, you have to like word. things right because they're always going to be very general. And then you can say, well, in high doses are these endocrine disruptors disruptors. Disruptors. It's been a day. I'm really upset about the colonoscopy tomorrow. That's where her focus is, apparently. Yeah. But we have so many good resources. And there's things on Walmart. I buy a brand of face cream called Coco Kind. And it was environmental working group. Whatever certified and it's Walmart delivery. Yeah. You know? Yeah. So we it doesn't have to be super expensive. Right. No, I think some of the big name places are starting to realize that people are craving the cleaner ingredient type of products. Right. So they are wanting to carry them more and more. And I think Also Walmart and Target and all those places, they're starting to catch on that Amazon doesn't need to be the only one that everybody can buy everything from. I agree. So, so it's interesting. But I I think two, obviously, the more we can shop local, the more that we are gonna number one, help our area and the the packaging is less than, the footprint is less than. You know you're getting good quality stuff. And you know, I think that's just a really great tip to start with. And just pause and look in your house and think, what's one thing that maybe I can switch out today? And then maybe next week it's another thing, or the next time you go to the store and just make it small. Yeah. you ever think about that when you go shopping, you're like, why do I need the like this box? Yeah. Why is the cereal come in this other box and then there's a bat it is a little frustrating. Yeah. We were in the UK visiting family a few years ago and we went to a store where you bring your own containers. It was a grocery store and everything was in scoops and you scoop whatever you need, but you use your own containers. So your mason jars if you want your granola. that's great. I mean, I mean they have places like that for your like nuts and stuff like that. Granola, dry beans. stuff for the scoopy things. Yeah. Yeah. But even for more different types of products, probably like pastas and cereals. That would be so smart to do. We need a clothing store here in Palm City Stewart. Somebody start whooping up some homemade. I mean, you are the jack of all trades. Yeah. It's gonna take me like a year to make one soft. So I don't think I can get paid for that. I definitely do not have the gift of creating things like that. I can think of the design in my head, but the actual putting into action, that's not my that's not my jam. Yeah. Nor do I want it to be my jam at the moment. Mm-hmm. So, you know, some people are really good at it. Some people want to try. I don't care to try. Mm-hmm. I just I'm cool just paying somebody else to make it for me. Make it for me. I'm fine with that. I'm fine with that. so yeah, so we'll do a little bit of research on more brands and kind of see maybe we could do another little chat in the next couple of months where maybe we try. a few ingredients out and and products out and companies and see what we think and yeah, you know, but you guys can do the same thing too and let us know what you guys like. And we'd love to hear from you as well if you have sp certain organizations and companies that you like to buy bras, underwear, workout clothing clothing thing's gonna be a big one to research. Yeah. Yeah. I think that's also kind of one of the newest findings. Yeah. Right. We've we've we know the water bottles and they're and we know the cans and they're trying to get You can see the plastic when you buy a a water bottle. But thinking about clothing, you never think, like, I'm like, are is there plastic in my jeans? Right. Right. You know, I never really thought much about the plastic and clothing because it's not plasticky. Yeah. Yeah, right, right, exactly. Shoes, sneakers and stuff like that. But it's it's not it's amazing. It's amazing what they can do, obviously with it, but it's because it's so detrimental to. health of our bodies and our environment and our hormones and our future. Yeah. The the hormone situation for both men and women, I found to be alarming. Very alarming after watching that. There's also the metabolic impact. They did talk about obesogens on there. Obesogens are a subset of these these plastics that actually change our metabolism, how we store, burn, utilize and make fat. So it's making us prone to obesity, prone to that metabolic syndrome from chemical in plastics. Yeah. So that that I'm glad they talked about that. You know, they talked about that. What else did Talked about breast cancer. The cancer. Yeah. So I mean it's definitely it's linked. It's it's messing up things. So I don't know. It's I had somebody, you know, text about coffee because they were like, we use the carrot and we're listening to what you say, Marie, on Instagram and I'm like, yeah, I did too. And then I had a cute little coffee pot and then I thought the basket's plastic. Yeah, now I think a coffee pot. Behind Chrissy. There it is. There she is. It's stainless steel. Stainless steel. All stainless steel. Like a French press? French press. Okay. Every part. Because one of the first ones I ordered, actually, the plunger that went down was plastic. Right? So everything is and it was it was $37. So it's not expensive. It does take a little bit more time. It is a well that's good 'cause it teaches us patience. Right. Yeah. I mean you gotta get up and then you can drink your your glass of water, which we've talked about. Yeah how that's good for our bodies to get it going in the morning. So then it can give you some time to just kinda like enjoy the morning, even though I'm always running out the door to the gym, but it that's a simple sweat but swappy 'cause I do I have a speaking sweep swappy sippy. I do I do have a coffee pot that I brew every morning. And you're right. It's I know. I'm gonna have to maybe change to that now. Yes. And make it an enjoyable moment. I mean, I enjoy hitting the button brew every morning. Like boop. I love that. And it just brews for me. So that will be a little bit of getting used to. It'll Do you guys drink coffee together or is it just you? It's just me. I'm the only one. They have a mini winny. But I French fries I really enjoy a pot of coffee. I don't drink the whole pot of coffee, but I make a pot of coffee and not the whole thing, but certain cups. And I just kinda drink it through the morning and it's kind of that's my thing. But I also drink black coffee now. I get my coffee from a local place that I absolutely love. The Brustos. Yes. And you know, he roasts the coffee. These beans are from all over the world. Grubs the coffee. He's very passionate about the coffee. So that I know that now I am Drinking in that same type of energy. Right. We should have him on the show and talk about the coffee. Yeah. Let's do that. Yeah, he would definitely be on. but but that that means something to me, right? Is like knowing that somebody is putting so much love and energy into what it is that they're doing, and then I'm consuming that. So now I know that something that means so much to me. I really enjoy my coffee time. And it's not even for me, coffee is not about the caffeine. Coffee for me is a celebratory thing in the morning. I wake up, I do have my cup of coffee or a cup of water first. I've been doing that for probably maybe eight years. I've been doing that for a long time. So a cup of warm water first. I've just recently do been drinking the AG ones, the athletic greens. drink that in between and then have my coffee. And it's just like that first cup of coffee and that first sip is like it just makes me so happy. It's just like I love it. It's like a Big hug, warm hug. And and I drink it black now. I don't throw anything in it unless maybe sometimes some cinnamon. Just a little ground cinnamon, put that in there. It's good for your blood pressure. Yeah. But I I I really, you know, right after I was diagnosed, I went I I eased my way out of the adding the creamer. And because my creamer was not a healthy creamer, it wasn't like a plant based creamer or anything like that. It was Peppermint. Straight up sugar free hazelnut powder. which it was was delicious. I used to drink all those coffee mates. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. Well years ago. Yeah. That's exactly what it was. That's all We've no none of us are perfect. We just make changes as we go and do the best you can. Right. And you you make the changes that you feel are aligned for you and your family. And don't stress about things. Right. I mean, we've been doing this like looking into ways to better our lives and become healthier versions of ourselves for a long time. And so we've already been starting to make some changes. So if you this is the first time you've heard of the word microplastics or heard that plastic is bad for you. Yeah, exactly. It's okay. Just start somewhere. Maybe you stop buying the water bottles. Maybe you stop using plastic Tupperware and you try to go to TJ Maxx or go to any store and buy some glass ones. The cups you drink. there's a lot of things that you can do just initially that don't break the bank either. And I still like befunkle myself when I realize I've been using something that's Again, another great word, befunkle. I befunkel myself. I'm like, Well, I didn't ever think of that before. There's another thing, we'll probably have to talk about this another time, is this whole tampon thing. yeah. With the I mean, I had a a physician early on say that he thought tan that The tampons and cancer link with ovarian was was definitely there. That was like twenty years ago. But recently they just tested a whole bunch of natural organic ones and they had levels of heavy metals in them. They did too. I was like, jeez. I haven't read the report because I don't want to see if my brand's on there. I'm like, You gotta be kidding me. I'm glad I don't need any of that anymore. Lucky that Thank you, Cancer. Well, I'm gonna just say that I guess maybe a silver lining of chemotherapy, chemopause, I guess. I don't know if it's a real thing, but for me and for a lot of women that I talk to, it stops their period. So that's another that'll be another topic for another day. But anyways, I thought this was This is good. Yeah. Just start thinking about it. Definitely watch the Posty Detox. Don't be afraid. It's on Netflix. I do recommend that children watch it, but there's some naughty stuff at first, so watch it first. Not when I say children, like even for my teenagers, I forgot that there was some, you know, just Furbage that you might not want your kids to hear, but there's parts of it I think that are good. So you gotta do the screening of it. Yeah. Yeah. I don't know if remember that. I I really I don't know. I I Yeah, you we don't we don't think about it. My kids are old now, so I don't think about that. I recommended my mom watch it with my kids and she's like, Moray They were talking about blah blah blah. I said, my gosh, like don't even realize it. Right. Well, they they're probably already hearing it in school. Yeah, one hundred percent. They're all teenagers. Yeah. Yes. All right. Well, you guys make your small changes and let us know if you have any amazing products that you love and and organizations and companies that you guys love. We'd love to hear from you. And if you're an organization and you have amazing organic lines of clothing and bras and underwear and and athletic wear, and you guys wanna send up some stuff, we'll try it out for you. Yeah. Definitely. Yep. All right, guys. Until next time. Bye. Bye.