Paleo In The Body/Paleo On The Body
I often write about what we put in our body…this is my True Paleo blog, after all, but the other day, a client wrote to me asking for advice about what to put on her body!
What a great idea for a blog topic.
What did cavemen use for shampoo, conditioner, shower gel and lotion? As if there was even a thought of such things!
Just as what we do with our modern Paleo regime- mimic the types of food that Paleolithic people had available to them with foods we can easily get at our grocery stores and farmer’s markets, we can use the same model with skincare products and the like in the sense that we can seek out the most natural versions we can find.
Hopefully we’re all reading labels of things we plan to put on our body just as cautiously as things we are going to put in it, and if you’re not doing so already, it’s definitely a good idea to begin now.
Have a look at that body wash you’ve been picking up at the chain grocery store, or the mega size, Costco brand shampoo and see first how many ingredients there are as well as how many you can actually identify as things that occur in nature?
Let’s compare.
One of my favorite products to hydrate my skin is organic coconut oil. You can use the same stuff you eat if you like! (But don’t do the opposite and eat the stuff sold as a body lotion- who knows what else could be in it!). The ingredient of my favorite brand, Artisana is: coconuts.
Looks good to me. I can identify this as something I know and is certainly about as natural as you can get.
Now, how about putting some of this all over your skin:
Parafinnum liquidum, PEG-150, methylparaben, butylparaben, ethylparaben, isobutylparaben, propylparaben, simethicone, BHT, parfum, limonene, geraniol, linalool, hydroxycitronellal, hydroxyisohexyl 3-cyclohexane carboxaldehyde, citronellol
Do you know what any of those items are?
Collectively, the make up the formula to a top selling drug store lotion, Nivea. I cannot identify any of the ingredients as anything I think occurs in nature but I do, however, see some key things that raise red flags, like the words ‘paraben’, BHT and anything with numbers.
So what are the best Paleo options?
Here’s where you come in. I’m asking you to write in and share your fave natural products for hair, for skin and anything else than comprises your regime, both men and women, and then I can compile a list and share all the information with you, my readers.
The more readers who reach out, the better the list will be, so send your recommendations today!