Hello, Best Hysteria fans! I am terrible at regular updates, and I apologize. But I caught wind of a good conversation on Facebook about Fluoride and what a battle there is about it. This gave me the jump start I needed to write about something that you should care about!
If you look on most toothpaste tubes, there is almost always fluoride listed as an ingredient (along with sodium lauryl sulfate, saccharine, glycol, and other harsh contents). For years we’ve been told about how fluoride is super great for teeth and protects your enamel, etc etc. But if you accidentally swallow more than the recommended amount for brushing your teeth, you are strongly advised to contact the Poison Control Center for further instruction. To give you an idea, let’s check out some symptoms of fluoride poisoning, here’s some symptoms from the least biased website I could find:
- Headaches
- Seizures
- Hyper salivation
- Vomiting
- Diarrhea
- Abdominal Pain
- “Various Arrhythmias”
- Shock
- Heart Attack
That’s the worst case scenario. I’ve probably inadvertently swallowed a gallon of the stuff over my life and I’m pretty sure that I’ve never had a heart attack.
One friend of mine explained to me that her oldest son (now 10) had terrible teeth rot caused from the use of fluoride toothpastes in early teeth-time. I could see this being a real problem as too much fluoride WILL destroy your teeth. And they put that shit in your water. They even make bottled water with that shit – marketed at mothers who are afraid that by not drinking tap wate, their children’s teeth will fall out. Wasn’t this a reason they started pushing bottled water? Because of all the effing shit they put into tap water? BPA and other rants about plastic coming another time, surely you know.
Now, I personally try to steer clear of fluoride toothpastes if I can help it, mostly because of fluoride and other such chemicals – like the sodium lauryl sulfate and the glycols. Polyethylene glycol is a humectant (or what they call a penetration enhancer, which makes for a running joke) that is recognized by the EWG’s Skin Deep database to be a skin irritant. And we’ve covered SLS before on this blog. It’s hard to avoid SLS as it’s in everything, and apparently so is Polyethylene glycol – it’s in foods. Beyond me why they would put a penetration enhancer in my chewing gum (spoiler: it’s an emulsifier too).
For those of you who are saying, “Well now Ms. Best Hysteria, how do you suppose I ought to go about changing this?” Lucky for you, the major toothpaste brands have already inadvertently given you a clue – baking soda, a popular whitening agent that is put into toothpastes! Granted, this stuff is kinda gross. I brush every day with the stuff and it’s not exactly nice. But you have to remember, most of our lives were spent growing up on synthetic tastes of mint, cinnamon, and other goofy flavors to make brushing your teeth fun and exciting. Baking soda is definitely not. It’s almost kinda salty. However, in two weeks your teeth will be noticeably brighter. And if the weird salty taste makes you gag, you can add some mint oil to it to give your breath a boost. Oh yes, that’s another thing – baking soda does not freshen your breath. There are several cheap, easy to make recipes for homemade mouthwash like Frugally Sustainable provides.
So if you want to free yourself of the chemicals and faux sweeteners, try using straight baking soda on your toothbrush for the next couple weeks. It’ll take some getting used to, but it’s well worth it. To good oral hygiene!
Best Hysteria 