Podcast Episode #27: Is Your Shampoo Killing You?

Podcast episode number 27 from BenGreenfieldFitness.com welcome.

To the BenGreenfieldFitness.com podcast, your free weekly audio exposure to cutting edge fitness, nutrition and wellness information. My name is Ben Greenfield and I'm an exercise physiologist, certified personal trainer and nutritionist. Each week I'll be bringing you information that goes outside run of the mill exercise and diet advice. We so whether you're an Ironman triathlete or you're just trying to lose a few pounds, enjoy this week's podcast episode from BenGreenfieldFitness.com.

Welcome to podcast number 27. This is Ben Greenfield. In today's podcast, I've got a really interesting interview with former Miss America, a woman who has more than 20 years of experience in the beauty, cosmetic and personal care products industry. I personally probably use about one tenth of the personal care products I should be using. Yes, I'm the guy who swims in the pool and doesn't wear the swim cap and forgets to put my lotion on and doesn't use the special chlorine treating shampoo and I don't use shaving cream. I use a bar of soap and I don't use aftershave and I have all sorts of personal beauty care product issues that I should probably be seeing someone about. Regardless, I know that there are a lot of listeners out there who do use personal care products, whether it be shampoo, moisturizer, lotion, conditioner, creams, toners, exfoliators, or any other number of things that you put on your body. Almost every day we're going to be learning quite a few interesting things about that aspect of health and wellness. In today's podcast, I have no listener Q and A. Now here's the reason for that. In this week's listener Q and A. The question that we were going to ask was whether rice milk or out of rice milk, almond milk or soy milk, which are the healthiest alternatives to dairy. And rather than answering that question myself, I decided that next week I'm actually going to get an expert on the show to go into detail about that aspect of dairy and a lot of other considerations when it comes to milk, yogurt, cheese, and any other dairy products. A great nutritional podcast coming up next week, so we're just going to have a few special announcements and then we're going to be going straight on to the interview with Susan Jeske, who's going to fill us in on why our shampoo is killing us. Special announcements from BenGreenfieldFitness.com okay, so first of all, if you remember last last week I announced that I am taking on a limited number of individuals who I'm going to personally bring through 2009 with unlimited access to me as a personal trainer and as a nutritionist. I'm giving those people a free gym stick, a free bottle of the Thermo Factor Metabolism boosting supplement, a free bottle of the Enterprise Superfood Multivitamin, a free copy of my book 100 Ways to Boost yout Metabolism, and full access to me, as well as monthly meetings with me. And in exchange, I am going to have full photo and video access as well as access to any correspondence that I have with the individuals who are in that program. Can you still sign up for it? You absolutely can. It's still available. I'll put a link to it in this week's show notes. You have to sign up by midnight on December 31st if you want to be part of this program. And I'll review each questionnaire that I receive to see if I'll actually be letting you in when I get your questionnaire. But the announcement is that you can track these people. I've put up a special page@BenGreenfieldFitness.com help. That's BenGreenfieldFitness.com help. I'll put a link to that page in the show notes and there will be photos and videos where you can basically track their weight, their nutrition, their meetings and their correspondence with me. And basically you can see if these people are actually going to be successful. Now the other announcement is that of course, January 4th, Sunday at 5:00pm 5:00pm Pacific Standard Time. All you have to do is go to BenGreenfieldFitness.com there's going to be a link right there where you can go to a live TV channel for 90 minutes. I'm going to be doing a free live 90 minute video interview and Q and A on fat loss and weight loss going forward into the new year. So this is going to be a chance for you to interact with me live via video. You'll be able to type questions to me via chat. I'll answer them to the best of my ability. And it should be a lot of fun to be able to interact with you in real time. So don't miss out that. That's January 4th at 5:00pm Pacific Time.

Okay.

And the final announcement. And I'll make this quick. I know that there are a lot of triathletes from specifically the Northwest that listen to this podcast. Well, for any of you that happen to be competing in any Triathlon Northwest series events, you're going to want to listen in. I have create a series of training plans to help you prepare for those events and you actually receive a $20 discount on any of those training plans at my coaching and training website, Pacific Elite Fitness. Now you can email me for questions about this. There will be a link on the Triathlon Northwest website. But I have created customized training plans for the Blue Lake Sprint and Olympic distance triathlons for the Pacific Crest Olympic and Half Ironman Triathlons, for the Troika Half Ironman Triathlon for the Coeur d' Alene Olympic Distance Triathlon, for the Black Diamond Sprint, the Black Diamond Olympic and the Black Diamond Half Ironman Triathlon plan. I've actually created a plan to lead you up to any of those events with zero guesswork. And remember, I also still have available on the website Ironman Triathlon training plans for Coeur d' Alene and for Canada. And those are written to begin on January 1st. So if you still need to get your training plan dialed in for Ironman, remember that you can get those. And also remember that the promo code to give you a discount on either of those training plans, those Ironman training plans $20 discount is simply all caps BGF as in Ben Greenfield Fitness BGF will get you a discount on Ironman training plans for Ironman Canada and Ironman Coeur d' Alene Triathlon Northwest members. You only to actually look at your membership perks or talk to Triathlon Northwest about the special discounts on any of the Triathlon Northwest training plans. So let's go straight on to the interview with Susan Jeske.

Hey podcast listeners, this is Ben Greenfield from BenGreenfieldFitness.com and I'm holding in my hands right now a newspaper article that happened to come out just the other day on personal care products and specifically the fact that personal care products have quite a bit in them that we may not really be aware about. As a matter of fact, there's an entire list here of chemical ingredients that we find in cosmetics and personal care products, including antibacterials, coal tar, DEA, which can affect hormones and cell functioning 14 dioxane, formaldehyde, phthalates, lead, mercury, nanoparticles, parabens, petroleum distillates, PPD, which has been known to cause irritation and damage to the nervous system and the lungs, as well as hydroquinone. And I was just fascinated by this article and decided that I'd like to get somebody onto the show today, who actually has some experience with alternatives to some of the personal care products that we're using on a day to day basis. And on the other line, I have Susan Jeske. And Susan is actually former Miss America. She's held many pageant titles nationally and internationally. And she has a career as an independent image, beauty and etiquette consultant. She's written for many newspapers and magazines, traveled to 26 countries as a goodwill ambassador and presidential envoy for the United States. She's been a spokesperson for Fortune 500 companies. And just last year she received the lifetime achievement award from the President of the United States for her contributions to charity and volunteerism. And I'm looking over your list of accomplishments here, Susan, and I'm just curious with as much as you've done, how did you actually get involved in skin care and personal care products and this side of the beauty industry?

Well, first, I'd like to thank you so much for having me on the show, Ben. It's very nice of you to call me up and I'm excited to be here. And that's a very good question. You know, I've always been involved with the beauty business, you know, for the last years, as you said. But what happened to me was several years ago I had severe health issues. And it wasn't, I had all kinds of, I had never been involved with the holistic or, or chiropractic or, you know, really believed in any of that kind of stuff. I always thought it was kind of like voodoo. But at one point I was supposed to have my gallbladder out. And when I was at the hospital, they said I had to wait for like a month in order to get to have surgery. But the nurse whispered in my ear and she said, go do a gallbladder flush. And so I did. And two weeks later I did this gallbladder flush, which was just Epsom salts, olive oil, grapefruit juice, and ultra phosph. And the first time I did it, I had one cup of gallstones. And then I waited one day and the second day I had two cups and we went back to the doctor and they did the ultrasound and my gallbladder was fine and I didn't have to have gallbladder surgery. And I was under unbelievable pain. And so then I realized, you know, what you eat is really important. I started doing all those things of eating raw food and vegetables and just really, really healthy towards that way. But I still had problems with my skin and I couldn't figure out what was wrong with my skin. So I went back to the doctor and he said, well, what are you putting on your skin? So I showed him what I was using and he said, well, what you're using contains synthetic chemicals and toxic ingredients, and these are making you sick. And I said, wow, that's pretty interesting. I didn't quite believe him, but he said, well, stop using it for two weeks and see what happens. And so I did. And all of my skin issues went away. And I had a lot. And what it was, it wasn't necessarily on my face, but it was in my hair. And what I had was I had scaliness, itchiness, seborrhea, I had bumps that had pus and I had scabs. I mean, there was a lot. And then the back of my just peeled, peeled, peeled. But my face and neck and negligee area was okay, but that was where I was putting my skincare products. And so then at the time, that was really, really difficult for me because I was working for an international cosmetic company. I had a six figure income coming in, plus a company car. And so that when I had to make a decision and then I quit my job, giving up my position, the company car, prestige, thousands of dollars a month in income. I did this in February of 2008. And then I just started on a journey studying everything that had to do with organic and natural cosmetics and skin care.

Wow, you started that journey when.

I started? Well, I mean, I have, you know, I was ill and I was taking care of myself holistically and getting rid of all these other issues that I had. But the skin care issue, I didn't really understand about natural and organic cosmetics until February of this year. I just want to cut my connection with another company.

And since then you've been researching this issue with the way that our personal care products can affect our overall health?

Yes.

I'd be fascinated to hear what you've actually found.

Well, I think what people first need to understand is that your skin is the largest organ in your body and it's the second largest detoxifying organ. And what you put on your skin is absorbed through. Your skin functions as a sponge. And it pulls everything it comes into contact with through the layers of your skin, into your bloodstream, into your liver and kidneys. The average square inch of a skin contains 65 hairs, 650 sweat glands, 20 blood vessels and 1,000 nerve endings. And when somebody told me that your skin is like a sponge, I thought, that's kind of baloney. But then they said, well, they have the Nicotine patch to stop smoking, the diet patch to lose weight. They have heart medications, you know, that administer through transdermal patches. And those were developed to utilize the skin's ability to absorb.

That's a good point.

And so then what I found out that what the problem is is that products that we use every day, including, we have shampoo, deodorants, lotions, makeup, skin care, they all contain chemicals that have been scientifically linked to cancer, birth defects, reproductive problems, learning disabilities, and all these other diseases. So that is a huge, huge problem. As a matter of fact, the medical news today, they wrote, they said that we are the first generation of people with chemical overload and that There are approximately 200 chemicals in the average person's body fat. And it's not a question of if we are carrying a burden of toxic compounds, but how much. And when you think about it, how many products did you use today? What kind of products did you put on your skin? We did shampoo, skin care, toothpaste, hair products, skincare products, and that's just personal care products. And they say the average woman uses 12 to 24 a day. And if you're doing that much, you're exposing yourself to 200 chemicals per day. And you're doing this day in and day out, over and over and over. So they have a cumulative effect.

And I think that's interesting that you note that the average person's body fat has 200 chemicals in it. I think a lot of people may not realize that, indeed, the body fat is where we store a lot of toxins and synthetic derivatives and chemicals, and the body can actually produce more fat cells to store these type of compounds. And so it's not just a health care issue. It may also be a weight loss issue.

It may also be a what?

A weight loss or a fat loss issue as well.

Oh, of course. Absolutely. And some of the chemicals on these products that we put on our lips, our eyes, our bodies, are also the same ingredients used to grease gears and make plastic soft. That's kind of gross, don't you think?

Yeah.

So these are being stored in our body. And a lot of the people are. You know, when you first think about it, most people would say, well, you know, like what? That doesn't sound, you know, what's going on? And a lot of people think that products on drugstore shelves must be tested for safety. But the answer, no, they're not. They're not tested for safety at all. As a matter of fact, Since World War II, approximately 80,000 synthetic chemicals have been introduced into commerce and into our environment. And the cosmetic industry and the federal government have failed to test 90% of these chemicals for potential links to cancer, birth defects, and other health effects.

So when you're shopping at the grocery store, you can purchase food that's been monitored by the FDA in one aisle, but then the next aisle over, where you're buying your skin care products, basically. Those aren't held to the same type of regulations.

No. As a matter of fact, Americans are less protected than consumers in other countries. And the European Union in Europe has banned more than 1,100 harmful chemicals from cosmetic products, whereas in the United States, only 10 ingredients are restricted. And it's been that way since the first world war.

Wow, that's amazing.

Pardon me?

I said I had no clue.

I know. And so then you're thinking, okay, well, then I'll just go buy organic foods, you know, Right. I'll just go buy organic and natural skin care products. That's what I thought. But there's also, unlike organic food, there's no regulation in the United States for organic or natural cosmetics either. So a company, they can put a word like organic or natural on a skin care product and it really means nothing unless they've had some kind of third party independent testing. As a matter of fact, I was told that if one of your products has 20% organic, then you could say the whole line is organic or natural.

So even though someone might be purchasing something at the grocery store, they read, for example, this newspaper article that I'm holding, and they see that they should buy organic. It's not as simple as simply going to the grocery store and picking something organic off the shelf in the skin care product line.

No, it's not. You have to actually start reading labels. And those ingredients that you were talking about, there's like 12 called like the Dirty Dozen.

12.

And you should be aware of those 12 names, which I don't have off the top of my head. I have some of them. But anything that contains any of those ingredients you should definitely ban and not buy. It's really important. Some people are asking, why does this happen? And there's an industry funded panel called the cosmetic Ingredient Review. It's not the fda, and they're currently in charge of reviewing the safety of cosmetics, skin care, and personal care items. This is a $50 billion industry, the US cosmetic and skin care industry. And they are routinely opposing laws that would protect consumers because it says it can voluntarily regulate itself. But I call that, you know, isn't that kind of like the fox watching the henhouse.

So we've basically got this cosmetic ingredient review panel and they profit from the sale of skin care products, is that correct?

No, I don't know that for a fact. All I'm saying, it's an industry funded panel. So guess who's paying them?

I see.

That's who pays these people to do that? I see, yeah. The people who pay them to do that job is the cosmetic industry and consumers suffer for it.

And the cosmetic industry for the large part is not organic and would actually suffer from the elimination of these dirty dozen ingredients.

The cosmetic ingredient review is what they do is they are regulating or saying what's safety and what's not safety, but the people who pay them to do that job is the cosmetic industry. So are we really going to believe what they say? No.

Well, why would a cosmetic company use synthetic or toxic chemicals?

Well, the reason why is synthetic and toxic chemicals, they use it because it's cheaper, thus their profit margin is a lot higher. As a matter of fact, people don't realize it, but there's a 1,000 to 2,000% markup on cosmetic and skin care in the United States having a private label. And I could have gone and purchased. If you just buy 12 of them, you could go to one of these places and they're already pre made and you could slap your label on it, whatever you want to say, Susan Jeske Cosmetics or whatever you want to say. And you just buy 12 of them and you buy them for 50 cent, but you could sell them for $15 and they look like Mac eyeshadows. So it's only cost me 50 cents each one and I'm selling it for $15. That's over 1000% markup.

Wow.

And then the other thing is industry. When you talk to the industry and you say, hey, what about these toxic ingredients? Well, they say, oh, the ingredients, you know, they're such fractional amounts that they cannot possibly be harmful. But I mean, that's like the tobacco company telling us that one cigarette's not going to cause lung cancer. It's the multiple packs of cigarettes day after day, month after month. It's the cumulative effect and that's what the problem is. And there are all these scientific research shows that even tiny doses of chemicals can disrupt hormones, interfere with development and cause disease and cancer.

And when we return to your explanation of the skin being a sponge, it might be that people are getting these tiny doses basically day after day after day, absorbed directly into their bloodstream.

Yes, absolutely. And Senator Edward Kennedy, he said in a briefing. He said long term illnesses ranging from cancer to birth defects may not be linked to to their underlying cosmetic related causes because symptoms of chronic toxic effects may not occur until months or years after exposure. And the National Geographic April 2008 issue, they said that the United States is known as the nation of guinea pigs. So. That's right. Ben, you are a lab rat.

Wow. I personally use.

You are a lab rat.

I get a hard time because I don't actually use a huge amount of personal skin care products, but just about everyone else in my life, including my babies. Every night we're slathering probably three different products on them for everything from eczema to dry skin. One of the first things I'm going to do after this interview is go look at those labels actually. But I would imagine that, you know, from. I see American. Oh, go ahead.

Wait a minute. Men aren't immune to these problems. I mean, products that are marketed to men to color gray hair, that's Ben Gay and Grecian Formula 16. Those contain lead acetate, which can harm fertility and impact the development of a child before birth. Clairol, Herbal Essence, True intense hair color for men is among the highest concern hair color products around. And they have aftershave lotions, anti dirt, dandruff shampoo, tooth whiteners, sunless tanning products, men's hair removal products and colognes are also the highest concern in categories. I mean, it's not just women, it's men too. It's also babies. Oh, get a load of this one. You know how they say baby shampoo no more tears? You know which one I'm talking about?

I, I believe I actually have some over by the bathtub.

Okay, well, they say no more tears. And they say it doesn't sting the baby's eyes, but it actually does. It's just they put a numbing agent in it so the baby doesn't feel it. Wow. And then the word natural on a label doesn't mean it's safe or natural. Nitrogenia. After Sun's treatment with natural soy, that has one of the highest hazard ratings of the lotions. I mean, think about what's so natural about a product with more than 10 different ingredients that raise health concerns. And Neutrogena is owned by Johnson Johnson, which has marketed its products as superior because of their natural properties and recommendations from healthcare providers. Another example would be like the. Oh, gosh, what do you call that? The Barry El 10 piece natural nail care system. Those contain several ingredients of high concern fragrance urea. Despite the Word natural on the product name. I mean, nothing.

You know, on the podcast just last week we had a complimentary and alternative medical care physician come on and talk about the three main causes of illness. And one of those was nutritional deficiencies, another one was allergies, but the third was toxins. And I'd be interested to hear your take on how you feel these actually affect the body.

These toxic ingredients in skincare and personal care products.

Yeah.

How does it affect the body? Well, it goes into your bloodstream through the lymphatic system and to the vital organs, the liver, kidney, the brain. My friend Linda Chae, she goes around and talks about all this stuff too. And she had brain, she had brain cancer or had a problem with her brain. And it was linked back to her using hair care coloring products, coloring her hair. And one of the most highest concern cosmetics are marketed to African American women too. You know how they promised lighter skin and straighter hair. Those are huge problems that are, that are going around right now.

Well, there's obviously a huge issue here. Now what do you do? I mean you obviously use beauty and skincare products. What's your alternative? What's your solution?

Okay, so what I do is I use a product that are. First of all, I read labels. There's a couple things I do. I read labels, I have my. And I make sure that they don't contain anything that has that kind of bad ingredients in it. And I know it's hard to avoid all the toxins, but what I'll do is I have an air filter system, I have water system, I eat fresh fruits and vegetables and I'm selective in my skin care products. And what I do is I use a product called True Elements, which is a natural, organic, safe and beneficial product. And it even has an independent third party certification which is called EchoCert certification.

And you said the name of that was what? True Elements.

It's called True Element. It's Elements and it's made by a company called Nikken N I K K E N. And that's just a really, really great product. It's a Swiss organic skin line. And so they.

I'm sorry to interrupt. So you said you look at the, at the nutrition label for some of these compounds. And I think what I'm going to do is I'm going to take this newspaper article and actually put the name of some of these compounds in the show notes to this podcast. And I also want to put a link to what you just talked about this True Elements in the podcast. But go Ahead, what were you saying about it?

Well, the biggest issue the natural and organic skin care industry faces is authenticity. So right now there is a certification called EcoSearch Certification Label, and it's the highest certification one can receive in the world. In the world. For skin care and cosmetics. As a matter of fact, I was at the Esthetician show in Long beach, and it was the very first time, this was in October, that they had a green carpet section for organic and natural products, and they anticipated a booth. And the criteria to qualify for this was ecocert standards. And using these standards, only three companies qualified, and two out of three were organic teas. So they had to make the criteria less, and they ended up with 28 booths. But you walk the whole show and you're going to see all these things that say natural, organic, natural, organic, but they're not. So esocert is Europe, and it's the French Committee for Accreditation. In accordance with international standards, they guarantee natural and organic integrity. So then a lot of people may ask me, you have to understand, some people don't even know this, but there's a difference between natural and organic. A lot of people think it's one and the same. Did you ever think that?

You know, I know there's differences between the two, but what exactly is the difference? What would natural mean as opposed to organic?

Okay, so natural in cosmetics as existing in or formed by nature, not artificial. It means that it comes from a plant as a benefit to the skin. In other words, you can't just take a leaf and put it in your product and say, oh, it's natural, you know, and so now the industry, and if you compare it to the industry, their definition of natural is any ingredient derived from a natural substance.

Oh, go ahead, go ahead.

You were going to ask me a question.

Well, basically, what you're saying is this eco certification would look at a compound in cosmetics, and that compound would have to be something that we could also find in an unadulterated form in nature from a plant. Whereas the cosmetic industry definition of natural would just mean that that ingredient has to originate or originally come from some type of natural source, but it doesn't necessarily have to be in its natural state.

Right. For example, like you're at. How can you tell the real dealer, the supermarket? Well, if you go there, you see these long chemical names followed by the phrase derived from coconut oil. For example, to create cocamide DEA from coconut oil, this requires the use of the carcinogenic synthetic chemical dea. So then therefore, no longer natural and to insinuate it is a natural substance by adding the phrase from coconut oil I think is misleading. Right. And a good analogy would be is you wouldn't have a problem feeding your baby mashed potatoes, but you may have a problem feeding your baby vodka. And vodka is derived from a potato, right?

Yeah.

Just because vodka is derived from potatoes doesn't mean that it's good for you.

Yeah, I have a Polish sister in law who would probably disagree with you. But regardless what you're saying, actually it makes perfect sense.

In certified and in a certified organic cosmetic, at least 95% of the total ingredients are natural or of natural origin.

Okay. So when someone's looking at natural on an ingredient, there's basically two different definitions of natural that they should be aware of. Now how about organic?

One other thing I want to say in natural, natural would be water. Let's see, it would be like water salt. Another one would be minerals, because you cannot certify those organic. What does organic mean on label? Well, the history definition is any compound containing carbon. When you think of that. Well, carbon is found in anything that ever lived. So by using this definition of organic, we could say that the toxic petrochemical preservative, menthol paraben is organic. Right. Because it was formed by leaves loaded over thousands of years to become the crude oil used to make this toxic preservative. Which by the way, paraben is a suspected hormone disruptor.

Well, yeah, it's listed on this dirty dozen that it says that it has weak estrogenic effects in animal studies. And I guess that would be the same reason that we no longer microwave things in plastic. Right.

And so then. But now what does echocertified organic mean? So that's an independent third party guarantee of an organic claim. Means it's grown, cultivated and processed without the use of synthetic chemicals such as insecticides, herbicides and fumigants. And it must comply with stringent international standards. An organic audit trail from seed growing, harvesting, storage, transportation and processing right to the finish. That includes packaging. Even the writing on the packaging has to be certified. That's pretty impressive.

Yeah, it's pretty stringent. So this EcoCert certification, it's on this. What was the name of the products that you use?

This one called? True Elements. True Elements from Nikken N I K K E N. You could go to their website, nikken.com.

Okay, so the ingredients are natural, they're organic. And is there anything else about the EcoCert certification that sets it apart?

Well, none of the ingredients may be from a list of chemicals or non organic compounds. And that would include no synthetic perfumes or dyes, no propylene glycol or similar solvents, no emulsifiers like egg, no fatty alcohols or acids, no artificial preservatives such as paraben, no carbamer, no petroleum. By products or silicone, I mean none.

And no numbing agents for the children's eyes.

Children's eyes, that's right, no numbing agents. So when you, you find products that are EcoCert certified, that's independent third party guarantee of quality and purity of ingredients and you have the authenticity and integrity of organic and natural claims. And what I like best, it's the prevention of damage to the environment and humans by poisonous chemicals used in conventional agriculture. Like beauty with a conscience. Right, right. Organic skincare is not only saving your body from chemical overload, but also the environment.

Yeah, it's the same reason that people would, for example, purchase organic food or get local spinach that didn't have to use a few gallons of jet fuel to get transported into the grocery store. It seems like a good decision. Is there anything else in terms of the type of choices that people should make when selecting a skin care product that they should bear in mind?

Well, they need to be watching out for those natural and organic. Take those, what was it, the dirty dozen or Age accelerators, A list of those with them to the store and make sure that they're not buying products that have that look for echocert certified or, you know, natural. If you see that label, that's a good thing to do. There is a website called safecosmetics.org and they actually are taking petitions for people that you can sign and say, hey, you know, that's going to Congress. We have to start changing laws, you know, but until then, you know, we have to protect ourselves until we can convince the government to protect us. So those are, that's something that's really important to.

Okay, now I'm sorry you broke up there for just a second and I was in the process of asking this True Elements. You know, I personally am a bit embarrassed to admit the fact that I don't know a lot about skin care, but I did surf over to this website and I'm looking over the list of. It looks like six different products that are used in this True Elements. Can you just give me a brief overview of each of the different type of products?

Six products, they have True Elements Foaming Face Wash. They have a toner, a daily perfecting cream, Intensive Night Cream. They also have a Contour serum and an exfoliating mask. And everybody knows when you're going to wash your face. You have to wash your face once in the morning, once at night because that's going to remove the top layers of dead cells and oil, perspiration and pollution. If you don't cleanse, then your skin becomes dull and flaky and your pores are going to clog, which is going to cause problems. These ingredients that they have in this is Nectapure, which is a really expensive product. It actually, it fights city skin and aloe vera and hyssop. And when you put this on your face, your face feels so soft. Oh my God. You will absolutely love this product. As a matter of fact, men can use it as well as women. It's great for shaving, even for men. A lot of men use this product. I know it's a face wash, but you can use it to wash your hair. People wash their babies with this product. It's really fabulous. I mean, your skin feels so wonderful. I mean it's died for. It really is died for. It's a great, great product. They don't have any kind of smell to it that's offensive in any way, shape or form. It's really nice. And then the toner, there's no smell to the toner at all. Men just love this product as much as women. A toner will remove the excess soap and dirt and that prepares the skin for moisturization. It will infuse your skin with natural vitamins and minerals and they use that Nectapure, aloe vera and hyssop extract. That's a really, really great product. We have these two moisturizers that we have. We have a day moisturizer and a night moisturizer. But what I like about it is that you can use the day during the night and the night during the day, depending on your skin. And you can also add water to it so it will emulsify. So that if you have really oily skin you can make it even thinner yet it won't lose its potency or anything like that. In this one they have all this really intensive, high packed minerals and they use Edelvox and artemisia, maribium and Nectapure complex. Those are really, it's moisture retention, they have antioxidants, they have high radical scavenging properties. The artemisia, that's great for vitamin C and the meridian, but when you put this product on your skin, I mean it just, you can feel it just soaking up in Your face. And it just so makes your skin so smooth, evens out. Just a fabulous product. Fabulous. And the night cream, usually when you're going to a store, the natural and organic skincare line, they'll have like one or two ingredients, but we've got, like eight, I mean, eight big ingredients in it. Very, very nice product. So I do like that product a lot. The night cream is fabulous. The conversation is great to combat time and gravity. It's all natural. And it's a firming agent. And I mean, you put it on and your skin tightens up like you've never seen.

And you said that's called a contour serum.

A contour serum. It's a gentle lifting and firming. It decreases fine lines and wrinkles, has a great natural, just very nice smell to it, and it leaves your skin really smooth and soft, but yet it tightens it up. I mean, it, like, lifts. It's really cool. It's a cool product. And that one's got high concentrations of edelweiss and paratoria, maribium artemisia. And the firming agent is gum, a neutral gum. Pretty cool. So that one's a hot product. I put that on my neck and my negligee. I love that. And, you know, the bottles also, they give you a lot of product, like that contour serum. If you're in your 20s, you're only using it around your eyes. That's going to last seven months, I guess, if you're older. I'm in my 40s, so I'm using it from my negligee. It's probably lasted me about a month and a half. That's a good product. And then the last product that we have is the exfoliating mask. And that one you want to exfoliate because that's going to remove the dead skin cells and it creates a clear surface so your skin is able to breathe, repair, rejuvenate itself. It's really a key to having great, vibrant skin. And they've got these organic apricot stone granules, and it exfoliates. Plus it has, like, all these other vitamins and minerals and plants are in it. All botanical. Just a fabulous product. And you can use it to. I use it all over my body. You put it on in the shower, and then I will exfoliate my legs, and then I rinse it off, and then I'll use the. I'll use the. What do you call it? The foaming face wash. And then I'll use it on my legs and shave with it. That's a great product. Fabulous. I love that one. And I can't tell any difference. When I use the exfoliating face mask ours to any kind of micromabration, it's the same effect. So when you can use a product that's natural and organic and works just as well and it's good for you, why wouldn't you?

Yeah, you know, I'm sitting here listening to you, and it's about 12 degrees here in Spokane, Washington. It's cold, it's dry. I Swam for about 45 minutes this morning. I've got goggle marks. My skin is chlorinated. And listening to your description of these products, this is one of the things that I'm going to be seriously looking into, not only for myself, but I'm going to be talking to my wife about these and also checking out the lotions and the shampoos that my little babies are being exposed to as well. So this is quite a bit of good information. And the Dirty dozen, we're going to put a list of each of those dirty dozen in the show notes to this podcast. We're also going to put a link to this True Elements Organic Skincare, this skin care product that has this EcoCert certification that Susan talked about. And I'm at that website right now, and it looks like you get all this stuff in just basically like a package. Susan, any other resources that you'd like to point people to?

I would point them to safecosmetics.org they can go there. There's another thing called Skin Deep, and you can look up products there if you're interested in purchasing, you know, the organic skin care line, one of the true elements in Spokane. There's Dave Johnson. I know that he, you know, he would probably love to talk to you, anybody about it, who'd like to know more about it and could get that product for you. Him and his wife Valerie are just fabulous. I could give you their phone number. Would you like that?

You know what? Do you think it'd be okay if I release it on the show? Notes of the podcast? You know what? Actually, to be honest with you, sure.

But I would think yes.

Okay. Well, he is. Yeah. Dave is one of the guys that I called after I read this article, and he recommended that I contact you. And so I guess if it comes full circle back to him, he asked for it. So what's the number? Let's get him on here.

His work number is 5092-555775-09255. 57-67-7. And his name is Dave Johnson and he's, he and his wife Valerie, they lived in, up in Spokane and just really wonderful people. Wonderful, wonderful, wonderful man. He's got great family and he has a lot of integrity. Integrity. Smart, smart, very smart man.

And I personally know Dave as well. He's a great guy and hopefully his phone doesn't ring off the hook for too long after this podcast is released.

He's gonna hate us.

I want to thank you for coming on the show today and giving us this information.

Oh, it's my pleasure.

All right, well, folks, that's Susan Jeske and all the information that she went over. I'll put a link to as much as I can in the show. Notes to this podcast. Until next time, this is Ben from BenGreenfieldFitness.com signing out. All right, Paul.

Hey podcast listeners, that's all for this week from BenGreenfieldFitness.com Remember, if you want to be part of the special nutrition and personal training package that I'm practically giving away, make sure you visit BenGreenfieldFitness.com and click on the link where you can find out a little bit more about how I can be your personal exercise and nutrition consultant to help you achieve your goals in 2009. Remember also that there were a bunch of new triathlon training plans up at Pacific Elite Fitness. That's at the URL pacificfit.net and if you have questions about any of those, just email me, Ben greenfieldfitness.com youm can also call the toll free number on that website and one of our representatives can help you with your training plan. And finally, remember to leave our podcast ranking in itunes. I'm trying to get the word out about a lot of the things that we discuss on this show to as many people as possible. So if you visit the itunes store and leave us a star ranking or even a comment, that would be fabulous. Remember, you can also comment on the blog as well and leave your questions on the blog or email them to me. And remember that this week's listener Q and A is actually going to be answered in next week's interview, which is going to be a pretty cutting edge interview on dairy products because I know there's a lot of confusion out there about whether they're good, whether they're bad, and what kind of substitutes or alternatives there are to dairy. So finally, Remember to visit BenGreenfieldFitness.com help to track some of the people that I'm going to be assisting with health wellness, nutrition, weight loss and performance in 2009. Until next time, this is Ben from BenGreenfieldFitness.com Happy Holidays and I'll catch you next week.

Sam.