Nature provides natural substances for almost every human need: food, drink, medicine, clothing, building materials, you name it, and nature is only too willing to supply.

When we think of natural substances, we think of 'free from artificial junk', natural, not synthetic or man-made. Obviously, there are time when man-made materials can be very handy, plastic for example is a man-made material that has many uses and has found its way into almost every aspect of our lives. It would be difficult to imagine modern life without it, however, we dont want to eat it, do we?

Yet when it comes to the foods we eat, the drinks we consume to quench our thirst, and the various skin and personal care items we use in our everyday lives, we don't seem to think about whether or not these contain artificial or synthetic ingredients. But we should. Why? Because our bodies are designed to be able to absorb, digest, utilize and eliminate natural substances, not synthetic or man-made artificial 'stuff'. Now this in not true in every case, however, the human body is a natural biological organism that evolved to handle naturally occurring chemicals.

The problem with the use of non-natural ingredients in foods, etc., is not that they will all harm us every time we consume them, but many will accumulate in the body tissues and cannot be eliminated by the body and are therefore stored. Eventually, they may accumulate sufficiently to start doing us harm. This, by the way, is not exclusive to man-made chemicals, lead is a natural substance that, if in sufficient quantities present in our bodies, will lead to lead poisoning.

So why would we actually choose to use products in our daily lives that have the potential to poison us? For example, many commercially available skin care products are full of synthetic chemicals that are potentially poisonous. Yes, some are even derived from natural sources. For example, Parabens are derived from benzoic acid. Benzoic acid is derived from the gum of Benzoin. So, to some extent, parabens are "natural". However, it is not benzoic acid that is being used as the preservative containing the parabens, but an isolated, concentrated chemical constituent. This is the problem. Natural compounds such as benzoic acid (in tincture form) do not constitute a problem. It is only when from such compounds, individual constituents of a natural compound are extracted, concentrated and then added to a product, or made synthetically in a laboratory, that this becomes an issue. That is not to say that all naturally occurring substances are safe or non-toxic.

In natural skin care and personal products it may at times be necessary to use a preservative to increase their shelf-life, however, if the products contain sufficient quantities of 100% pure essential oils, for example, the antiseptic properties of these oils is usually sufficient to preserve the product, depending on the oils used.

Over the past few decades, consumers have become much more aware of artificial colouring, flavouring and the use of artificial preservatives in the foods they are buying; and rightly so. However, when it comes to skin and personal care, this seems to have been forgotten and only few people are aware that many of the same artificial substances are being used in these products, which are rubbed onto the skin and in many instances absorbed into the body. In other words it is as if they had been eaten. Now, if we do not want these substances in our food, why then do we indirectly choose to consume them anyway by using skin and personal care products that are full of them?

The next time you are purchasing your skin care products or shampoos, etc., stop and have a look at the ingredients list, and if possible, ask a few questions before you buy the products. You could be doing you health a very big favour.