Nat Kringoudis

Each and every day, without even realizing, the majority of us follow the same routine. For some of us it involves a shower, breakfast, a quick brush of the teeth and we’re out the door, ready to hit the ground running. For others there’s maybe scrubbing and grooming with more lotions and potions involved. Chances are, it’s all done without much thought, often on auto-pilot, especially for those of us who aren’t of the ‘morning person’ variety.

What’s scarily shocking however is the potential chemical exposure that may come with our seemingly innocent morning routine, unless we choose wisely. The average woman is said to utilise around 12 or so personal care items per day, between body wash, hair shampoo, deodorant, moisturizer, makeup and so on. Within these 12 or so seemingly harmless products there are estimated to be around 167 chemicals, and not the variety you necessarily want to be lathering yourself up against. This continual exposure, day in-day out quickly begins to impact our health and our hormones.

You don’t need to be an endocrinologist to grasp the idea that this kind of chemical exposure isn’t ideal. Constant exposure to these same toxins found in conventional body products as well as plastics, household cleaners and so on are terrible news for our hormones. Such chemicals are known endocrine disruptors, meaning they cause substantial hormone imbalance. That is they alter the way our hormones behave. It might not sound like much but each and every body function requires a symphony of hormone signals. What seems to take the biggest knock down when it comes to such chemical exposure are our sex hormones. You might not yet be ready for babies or you might even be past that stage of your life, but whoever you are and whatever your age, it’s a good idea to keep your hormones happy to avoid some nasty symptoms including weight gain, anxiety, headaches, dizziness, PMS and more. These same chemicals begin to alter or mimic our own previous hormones, changing the way in which the body fundamentally operates. This can lead to a host of diagnosis including infertility, conditions like Poly Cystic Ovarian Syndrome, Endometriosis, Oestrogen Dominance and more. We do not want anybody else playing boss with our hormones, ever.

Even some of the ‘healthiest’ marketed versions of our favourite body products can be questionable which leaves us asking, is there anything left that we can safely enjoy? Before you contemplate leaving the house in a spacesuit, we get it; it can be completely overwhelming to make decent decisions around what’s ok and what’s potentially going to take our health somewhere we would prefer not. What may seem to be very natural ingredients, once processed soon become more of an enemy. Take castor oil for example, natural process of castor oil provides a 40% yield which is why commercial castor seed oil is chemically extracted using petroleum or chemical based ingredients. This is not good news for us at all. Petroleum jelly, found in many of our favourite papaya products is an absolute disaster for our endocrine system. Made from crude oil (shudder), I’m personally not sure who on this earth thought that would be a good thing to rub on our skin. The skin is the body’s largest organ and whatever we apply to it, it is absorbed directly into our blood stream.

Petroleum jelly is found in a swag of cosmetics and beauty products because it is cheap. When it comes to treating wounds and burns, I’m told it doesn’t actually do anything at all to assist in healing the actual skin but rather creates a seal or film over the wound, acting as a barrier. Could be good in theory however this is the perfect environment for bacteria to become trapped in its stickiness creating further issues. If it’s of no benefit to wounds, is cheap and nasty and attempts to take hormones to the dark side, I feel you’re with me in deciding to choose better.

There are a truck- load of papaya ointments on the market, simply because the properties of papaya are so wonderful. You might be shocked to learn that some of the leading brands contain up to 96% petroleum jelly, the same product we are slathering across our babies bums, our lips, burns and wounds. We’re proud at Pure Papaya to say we are the only certified natural papaya ointment. Ever. Whilst others may say they are natural, they often contain these same toxins like castor oil that whilst for some can be moisturizing, don’t have the same healing properties. We use Shea Butter, widely known for its incredible moisturizing ability, it’s anti-inflammatory love and a beautiful consistency second to none.

We don’t tell you all this to scare you. We tell you all of this because we want you to be well informed, to make choices that take your health towards where you want it to go and because smart choices lead to long term wellbeing. We love helping take you to your best and we know that you will love P’ure Papaya Care as much as we love making it for you. Natures goodness all in a small tube gentle enough for every member of the family.