Sometimes making an effort isn’t enough. When it was time to replenish my toiletries, I used to commend myself for walking past the incredibly convenient pharmacy to the health food store a few blocks too far. There I would squeeze through tiny aisles with spilled granola crunching under my feet, until I made it to the health and beauty section. Once ensconced in this zone of all things natural, I breathed a sigh of relief — I was safe here. Sure, the packaging wasn’t as sexy as the products at mainstream stores, but the contents of these tubes and bottles contained ingredients I could recognize, substances derived from plants and fruits and purified water.

Didn’t they?

Last year I learned the hard truth about ‘natural’ skin care [1], but it is only this week that I realized that my efforts to brush holistically are also in need of an upgrade. This time it isn’t about fluoride [2] — it’s about sodium lauryl sulfate (SLS), the surfactant or foaming agent that’s found in shampoos, soaps, and toothpastes.

Even if Tom’s of Maine [3] is your paste of choice, you are still exposing yourself to SLS, a chemical that has a growing list of potential health risks [4] including skin corrosion (ouch), hormone imbalance, eye irritation, and carcinogenicity [5]. Read more about SLS in The National Institute of Health’s Hazardous Substances Data Bank [6].

It’s time to dump Tom for Jason. Jason natural toothpaste [7] trades sodium laurel sulfate for sodium cocoyl glutamate, the scientific name for coconut oil. Spice up your daily brushing with cinnamon and clove gel, orange, cinnamon, and mint paste, or keep it classic with Powersmile’s Peppermint to the Max.

What’s your paste of choice? Would you consider using natural toothpaste?

[via National Health Information Centre [8]]

Image: Jason