Even if you are the “ideal” healthy lifestyle type, taking care of your health does not come without its share of sacrifices. Even away from the obvious things like exercise and good sleep, there are everyday household items that are seriously impacting your health. Here are some everyday household items that you should immediately abandon to lead a healthier life.
Bleach
Concentrated bleach can cause harm to your lungs if you inhale the fumes. Most people use acetone to clean their nails, but it is also in cleaning products, nail polish remover, and glue. It takes away the moisture from your skin (bad news for those with dry skin) and causes liver problems if one ingests or inhales it.
Alcohol-Based Hand Sanitizers
These may seem like a good idea at the time, but they actually cause more germs to grow on your hands than leaving them without any sanitizing agent at all (which isn’t ideal either). They also strip off natural oils of your hands and make them drier than ever.
Canned Foods
Buy fresh fruits and vegetables instead. Canned food is known to have high levels of Bisphenol A (BPA), an endocrine-disrupting chemical linked to infertility, cancer, and heart disease.
Nitrates From Processed Meats
There are other good reasons you should stop eating meat, but nitrates increase the risk of various cancers such as colon cancer and esophageal cancer. It’s a good idea to cut down on processed meats in your diet if not eliminate them completely. Processed meats include ham, bacon, sausage, and hot dogs, to name a few.
Tap Water
Even if it does come from a clean source, tap water can contain hazardous contaminants that can cause internal organ damage.
Non-Stick Pans
Teflon is one of the most common materials to make non-stick cookware. However, it contains dangerous chemicals that can cause cancer and congenital disabilities. These chemicals produce toxic fumes when heated to high temperatures, which can cause flu-like symptoms and, in rare cases, death from suffocation. So instead of buying them, go for cast iron or stainless steel cookware that are safer alternatives.
Margarine
Although margarine is a non-dairy product, it contains trans fat that will actually increase your bad cholesterol level and reduce the good cholesterol. Replace this with coconut oil and olive oil, which contain healthy fats instead.
Plastic Bottles
BPA, a chemical in plastic, is known to cause cancer and other health problems. Drinking water and soda from plastic bottles can harm your health because it can leach chemicals into the liquid present in the bottles. They also take up to 1,000 years to decompose in the environment.
