For Goodness Sake - Cosmetics Can Kill You

Why must everything be a struggle? I think I am doing my teenage girls a favor by buying what I consider to be high-end facial cleansers, moisturizers and make-up, in hopes that their chance of getting cancer will be reduced through the use of "organic, natural" products. Silly me - just because it says it is organic does not mean it really is - for goodness sake - what was I thinking?

A friend sent me to a web site called safecosmetics.org which completely undermined my sense of trust in the company making our "natural" cosmetics. The first story I read was about Herbal Essence, of course a favorite in our house with their bright packaging and great names like "drama clean" and "none of your frizziness," as well as catchy ads about "organic experiences." Little would you know that the maker of herbal essence products, none other than Proctor & Gamble, puts chemicals linked to cancer and reproductive problems and fragrance in their products.

Then I read a 2007 report from their News Room about the amount of lead in lipstick, which was just as disturbing. I learned that Maybelline, Cover Girl, Dior, L'Oreal all produce lipsticks with higher than acceptable lead levels.

The Campaign for Safe Cosmetics recommends avoiding products with "fragrance" on the label and using things only scented with essential oils because companies are not required to list any of the chemicals used in a fragrance mixture on the product label - who would have known?

If you want to know how safe your personal care products are, you can go to Skin Deep, the cosmetics safety database and have your confidence destroyed, too! There is also an interesting-looking book called "Not Just a Pretty Face" The Ugly Side of the Beauty Industry," which I may just have to review.

There was some good news - Whole Foods Market just introduced a "Premium Body Care" seal that will appear on products that are free of synthetic fragrance or any of 250 chemicals on a “unacceptable list” that do not meet a high standard for efficacy, safety and environmental impact. Oh my, never a dull moment!

Photo credit: eperales

Labels: Beauty, Health Fact, Healthline

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Protect and Care for Your Skin

There was a great article in the New York Times 12/27/07 by beauty skeptic Natasha Singer suggesting the best eight ways to care for our skin, at all ages, are as follows:

• Discard old beauty products that you put your fingers into ( like face creams) after one year to avoid the growth of micro-organsisms. The FDA suggests discarding mascara three months after opening it to avoid eye infections.
• Stop smoking. Smoking ages skin prematurely, and gives you more wrinkles.
• Do not squeeze pimples, it pushes the bacteria deeper into your skin, and can create scars.
• More sleep and less stress. Stress and sleep deprivation are associated with skin problems, slower healing, and even hair loss.
• Wear sunscreen to prevent skin cancer but also keep the skin softer and more consistently colored.
• Do not use too many skin products, it can inflame your skin. Use a mild cleanser, a sunscreen or better yet a moisturizer with 15 spf sunscreen in it, and maybe one other product with vitamins C , A & E, soy, green tea, or peptides.
• Wash your face at night to take off the make-up or debris gathered during the day.
• Finally, watch the cost. The author suggests never spending more than $30 on a product. There is no way to know more expensive products work any better than what you find in the drugstore. Many times the high cost is for packaging, advertising, and celebrity endorsements.

Photo Credit: sunshinecity

Labels: Beauty, Body Image, Skin Care, Teen Health

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Seventeen Magazine and the Body Peace Project

Sometimes I get so excited about the media coming around, but then my hopes are dashed! I had heard that this month's Seventeen Magazine included a "Body Peace Project" to help girls love their bodies just as they are, so I was even planning on buying the October 2007 issue - to the utter surprise of my teens - but then, I looked at the contents online and no where did I see "Body Peace."

Instead, there are articles about the beauty secrets of stars, clear skin, mini makeovers, the cutest flats, make overs for making men hotter, dancing your way to a better body, eating your heart out, the real reason guys act so obnoxious, and dating drama. If the "good stuff" is in there - I will never know, because I cannot buy the issue now. I am back to disappointed!

When I searched the search function I did find a page on the web site that does include the Body Peace Pledge, which has some redeeming qualities. People can sign the pledge to:

• Remember that the sun will still rise tomorrow even if I had one too many slices of pizza or an extra scoop of ice cream tonight.
• Never blame my body for the bad day I'm having.
• Stop joining in when my friends compare and trash their own bodies.
• Never allow a dirty look from someone else to influence how I feel about my appearance.
• Quit judging a person solely by how his or her body looks - even if it seems harmless—because I'd never want anyone to do that to me.
• Notice all the amazing things my body is doing for me every moment I walk, talk, think, breathe...
• Quiet that negative little voice in my head when it starts to say mean things about my body that I'd never tolerate anyone else saying about me.
• Remind myself that what you see isn't always what you get on TV and in ads—it takes a lot of airbrushing, dieting, money, and work to look like that.
• Remember that even the girl who I'd swap bodies with in a minute has something about her looks that she hates.
• Respect my body by feeding it well, working up a sweat when it needs it, and knowing when to give it a break.
• Realize that the mirror can reflect only what's on the surface of me, not who I am inside.
• Know that I'm already beautiful just the way I am.

The pledge includes signatures from pop starts, which is great, but if I am not mistaken, some of them have "augmented" their bodies - which makes them hypocrites in my book.

Oh well - back to being responsible for helping my daughters love their (imperfect) bodies, and be conscious and critical of the messages they receive from the media - no help there!


Photo credit: Running Toddler

Labels: Beauty, Body Image

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Onslaught Video by Dove

Sometimes the beauty industry does good! I know Dove is selling its products with the "Campaign for Real Beauty," but I really like the new video called "Onslaught" that encourages parents to talk to their kids before the media does. They are also providing a great real beauty web site for parents and mentors with some great activities to help build media literacy and protect self-esteem.

The average US girl has the opportunity to see an estimated 77,546 commercials by the time she is 12 years old. This growing phenomenon is having a direct impact on girls' self-image and most girls and young women report feeling anxiety or stress about their looks. As parents, we need to talk to kids about exercise, fitness, and development - so they have a realistic idea of how their genetics, size, and activity levels interact to maintain their unique body size. In addition, they are still growing and dieting is not OK. They need a healthy and varied diet. Parents and kids need to know that a child going through puberty will get stretch marks, can gain 40 lbs and grow up to 10 inches - which requires a lot of fuel. If kids do not get enough food they can get brittle bones.

Raising children who believe that enjoying life requires they be thin or with enough hunger and working out they can all look like a super model is just WRONG!!! Every person is beautiful and as parents, we need to help our children find their strength.

Photo credit: Xerones

Labels: Beauty, Body Image, Media, Parenting

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Hair Removal and Beauty

Oh please! As parents everywhere are trying to combat the media pressure on tween and teen girls to be obsessed with their bodies - Nair is promoting hair removal as part of "growing up."

The Nair Pretty web site starts "It's not that you're obsessed or anything but maybe you've noticed that the hair on your legs (and other parts of your body) is just a little bit thicker and darker than before. Chill. You're growing up ... it's all good." The message though - is it is all good because we have the products to remove the hair - so you can be pretty - which means "picutre-perfect, silky smooth, " e.g., hairless.

Another annoying thing about the web site is that all the characters are long-legged white girls, one with very ample breasts. Then there is the page for moms - which, in their defense, does say open communication will help your daughter feel confident, although they only seem to be referring to discussing her anxiety and self-consciousness about her body.

Please parents and media - be real - encourage girls and parents to talk about pressure to focus on bodies and "sex appeal" with real options - to remove hair or not - we cannot just assume every girl wants to continuing looking pre-pubescent and "hairless." Girls have options!

Photo Credit: greggoconnell

Labels: Beauty, Body Image

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Embracing Healthy Skin

For the last 25 years we have known that ultraviolet irradiation can lead to skin cancer not to mention wrinkles, but tanned skin still remains a beauty image promoted by fashion magazines, advertisements and celebrities. Having a tan is still associated with not just beauty, but leisure and upper-class privilege - beaches, tennis, yachts and spa time.

But the chic method of getting a tan seems to have changed. With laying in the sun and tanning beds deemed risky, the fashion and beauty industries are now promoting the idea of a "sunless" tan to be had using chemicals and products that give a person a beautiful glow without the risks. Self-tanners, bronzers, and "glow" lotions are now all the rage.

Without the skin cancer risk associated with the sun, maybe, but how safe can these self-tanning products that trigger a chemical reaction, causing a brownish stain to form on the outer layer of skin, actually be? Why is it that we cannot just embrace healthy skin as beautiful? As long as tanned skin is still seen as the gold-standard of beauty, teens will continue to strive for it, whether it is chemical, or irradiated, and I would bet that teens using these products are also still using tanning booths and sun bathing in search of the perfect tan.

I wish more celebrities would embrace pale, healthy skin so we could change the social norm about skin to embrace "healthy" not tan.

Previous posts: Skin Cancer: A fair trade for beautiful skin?
Photo Credit: Face-2-Face

Labels: Beauty, Tanning

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Reality TV and Teen Health

The Kaiser Family Foundation just published a paper entitled "The "Reality" of Health: Reality Television and the Public Health" that explores common health-related themes in the scores of reality TV shows available each day, as well as possible implications for viewers.

For those of you who are not "reality" TV (RTV) fanatics, their ratings suggest they hold considerable allure for millions of viewers from all demographic groups, in particular, preteens, adolescents, and young adults. The critics of RTV believe that they stress the importance of money, fame and beauty as well as promote meanness, casual sex, alcohol abuse, and bad language. The industry, on the other hand, suggests that RTV can inspire people to change their lifestyle by losing weight or giving up smoking, and provides "everyday" people as role models instead of super stars.

The nature of these shows makes viewers believe that RTV is "real" versus scripted, and that the actors are actually people like themselves, that they can identify with, making it more likely that values, attitudes, as well as behavior, will be influenced by the messages provided.

Reality shows considered in this paper included:

Lifestyle transformation shows
• The Biggest Loser
• Cold Turkey
• Honey We're Killing the Kids
• Weighing In

Makeover shows
• Dr. 90210
• Extreme Makeover
• Plastic Surgery: Before and After

Medical miracle shows
• Miracle Workers
• Mystery Diagnosis
• Untold Stories of the ER

The messages these shows convey are not meant to be educational, but are entertainment, and therefore still focus on being "hot," as the way to succeed, how wonderful health professionals are, and that the outcomes always outweigh the risks of the procedures, which of course, on RTV never fail.

The possible implications of these shows for audience awareness and knowledge however, are unlimited. Some health organizations have been successful in working with TV producers to bring us episodes about Osteogenesis, HIV, and diabetes. The web sites associated with these shows can also provide reliable and accurate health information about smoking and obesity, and bring attention to diseases and health behavior.

On the other hand, they may also create very unreasonable expectations in viewers, particularly teenagers, who may not have the media literacy skills to know that "reality" TV is not "real." Teens need to hear that there are no "magic" solutions to health problems and teens need help understanding that any health behavior change requires, knowledge, motivation, and support to bring about lifestyle changes that can be maintained.

Photo credit: hfb

Labels: Beauty, Media

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