If you're having a winter like ours, then your home must be filled with germs. We've had viruses with fever, strep throat, ear infections, bad colds, persistent sore throats, etc. Years ago, when I ingested cough medicine but the cup load, I never thought about what was in these liquid solutions or what was in those little pills.
Flashforward to today. When raw red onions in your socks don't bring down your or your child's fever, what to do? Ibuprofen, Acetaminophen... have you ever looked at the ingredients? Here is an example:
Anhydrous citric acid, butylparaben, D&C Red no.33, FD&C Blue
no.1, flavor, glycerin, high fructose corn syrup, microcrystalline
cellulose and carboxymethylcellulose sodium, propylene glycol, purified
water, sodium benzoate, sorbitol solution, xanthan gum.
Not pretty, is it? And these are the inactive ingredients... on top of the medicine.
Or how about those little tablets:
acetylated monoglycerides, colloidal silicon dioxide, corn starch,
croscarmellose sodium, methylparaben, microcrystalline cellulose,
pharmaceutical glaze, pharmaceutical ink, povidone, pregelatinized
starch, propylparaben, sodium benzoate, sodium lauryl sulfate, stearic
acid, sucrose, synthetic iron oxide, titanium dioxide, white wax
Glazes, inks, preservatives (something has to make them last on the shelf that long), colors, flavors, corn syrup, sorbitol, propylene glycol, etc etc....
This winter I had gotten stuck on a slew of antibiotics and my almost 2 year old had his first one, for an ear infection. For me, it was eight days of fever with strep throat. I tried ingesting honey with raw garlic and cayenne... I just couldn't do it.
If I could find a way to break out of the medicine world, I would! For now, I'm grateful that we only need this stuff once in a blue moon. And we are taking our probiotics religiously. I'm still baffled over the famous doctor line "it's perfectly safe" and how we all just seem to believe that.
Spring, you cannot come fast enough!
Showing posts with label propylene glycol. Show all posts
Showing posts with label propylene glycol. Show all posts
Friday, February 22, 2013
Friday, December 21, 2012
What do cookies and shampoo have in common?
It's been awhile since I posted. Partly because I am busy being a working mama and partly because even with 915 page views, I feel as if no one is reading. Having said that, a lot of things have been going on lately that have prompted me to get back to it.
1. The people at work think I'm crazy
I cannot stand the smell of industrial strength windex every time I walk into my place of work, nor the flowery Febreze in the bathroom and certainly not lemony clorox they want to wipe my desk down with. My boss says "don't listen to Pam, she's crazy, everything according to her gives you cancer." Well yes, I did change out my "green" lightbulb for a normal one - those other ones give you skin cancer. And yes, what is wrong with cleaning your house with baking soda and vinegar and other natural cleaners (my wood polish smells of cinnamon and lavender.)? I stand by my decisions and bring my own travel sized Dr. Bronner's to wash my hands with.
2. The title of my post (also work related)
The other day at work, we got a great big holiday gift basket, loaded with fruit, jams, cookies, brownies, coffee, etc. The first thing to go, of course, the cookies. My co-worker came into my office and showed me a little packaged snowman cookie covered in icing and said "It's all-natural." Well sure, that is what it said on the package... on the FRONT. The back was a convoluted mess of both "natural" and highly "unnatural" ingredients... carageenan, "natural" and artificial flavorings, coloring and my personal favorite, the most shocking of all... PROPYLENE GLYCOL. Yes the same stuff I avoid in shampoo. Here is what wikipedia says about it...
"45 % of propylene glycol produced is used as chemical feedstock for the production of unsaturated polyester resins. In this regard, propylene glycol reacts with a mixture of unsaturated maleic anhydride and isophthalic acid to give a copolymer. This partially unsaturated polymer undergoes further crosslinking to yield thermoset plastics. Related to this application, propylene glycol reacts with propylene oxide to give oligomers and polymers that are used to produce polyurethanes.[4]
Propylene glycol is considered Generally Recognized As Safe by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and it is used as an humectant (E1520), solvent, and preservative in food and for tobacco products. It is also used in pharmaceutical and personal care products. Propylene glycol is a solvent in many pharmaceuticals, including oral, injectable and topical formulations, such as for diazepam and lorazepam that are insoluble in water, use propylene glycol as a solvent in their clinical, injectable forms"
Umm, thanks but no thanks. I'd rather not eat it. I worry about what medications I've ingested that have it (please don't get me onto the vaccination conversation). And it might have been a placebo effect, but about 20 mins after said co-worker finished the cookie, he came back in and said he wasn't feeling so well. Or it could have been, it was really just a crappy cookie!
3. My latest greatest obsession in continuation with the above, FOOD!
A lot of my facebook post these days have to do with the big companies donating tons of money to defeat Prop 37. I won't get into it now but if you are interested, check it out here http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_26620.cfm
Having said THAT, food is the one thing I generally don't like to discuss. There is nothing more I hate than when other people butt into my food eating business. So I promise you I won't tell you what to eat (unless truly asked). Maybe I'll let you in on those nasty chemicals that can often be found in food products, but that's the extent to which I will go.
Till next time... P
1. The people at work think I'm crazy
I cannot stand the smell of industrial strength windex every time I walk into my place of work, nor the flowery Febreze in the bathroom and certainly not lemony clorox they want to wipe my desk down with. My boss says "don't listen to Pam, she's crazy, everything according to her gives you cancer." Well yes, I did change out my "green" lightbulb for a normal one - those other ones give you skin cancer. And yes, what is wrong with cleaning your house with baking soda and vinegar and other natural cleaners (my wood polish smells of cinnamon and lavender.)? I stand by my decisions and bring my own travel sized Dr. Bronner's to wash my hands with.
2. The title of my post (also work related)
The other day at work, we got a great big holiday gift basket, loaded with fruit, jams, cookies, brownies, coffee, etc. The first thing to go, of course, the cookies. My co-worker came into my office and showed me a little packaged snowman cookie covered in icing and said "It's all-natural." Well sure, that is what it said on the package... on the FRONT. The back was a convoluted mess of both "natural" and highly "unnatural" ingredients... carageenan, "natural" and artificial flavorings, coloring and my personal favorite, the most shocking of all... PROPYLENE GLYCOL. Yes the same stuff I avoid in shampoo. Here is what wikipedia says about it...
"45 % of propylene glycol produced is used as chemical feedstock for the production of unsaturated polyester resins. In this regard, propylene glycol reacts with a mixture of unsaturated maleic anhydride and isophthalic acid to give a copolymer. This partially unsaturated polymer undergoes further crosslinking to yield thermoset plastics. Related to this application, propylene glycol reacts with propylene oxide to give oligomers and polymers that are used to produce polyurethanes.[4]
Propylene glycol is considered Generally Recognized As Safe by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, and it is used as an humectant (E1520), solvent, and preservative in food and for tobacco products. It is also used in pharmaceutical and personal care products. Propylene glycol is a solvent in many pharmaceuticals, including oral, injectable and topical formulations, such as for diazepam and lorazepam that are insoluble in water, use propylene glycol as a solvent in their clinical, injectable forms"
Umm, thanks but no thanks. I'd rather not eat it. I worry about what medications I've ingested that have it (please don't get me onto the vaccination conversation). And it might have been a placebo effect, but about 20 mins after said co-worker finished the cookie, he came back in and said he wasn't feeling so well. Or it could have been, it was really just a crappy cookie!
3. My latest greatest obsession in continuation with the above, FOOD!
A lot of my facebook post these days have to do with the big companies donating tons of money to defeat Prop 37. I won't get into it now but if you are interested, check it out here http://www.organicconsumers.org/articles/article_26620.cfm
Having said THAT, food is the one thing I generally don't like to discuss. There is nothing more I hate than when other people butt into my food eating business. So I promise you I won't tell you what to eat (unless truly asked). Maybe I'll let you in on those nasty chemicals that can often be found in food products, but that's the extent to which I will go.
Till next time... P
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