10 Toxic Kitchen Items You Should Declutter Immediately (what to do instead, part 2)

Today, I'm sharing 10 items that most of us have in our kitchen, but they could be dangerous to our health, so I think you should declutter them. I recently did a video on this topic. I will link it after this one, but you guys loved it, so I'm back with a part two. I've been doing a ton of research. What I'm going to do is I'm going to link all of the research below. Everything that I'm sharing today, you can find it online. You can do your own research, but I thought I would put it together in another video so that we have everything in one place, and I know this topic can be a bit controversial. I know that some of you won't want to hear some of this information, but I know some of you appreciate it, and a lot of you are on the same journey that I am, where I am trying to get rid of as many toxins as I can from my home. Obviously, what better place to start than the kitchen, a place where we spend a lot of our time, where we're eating, and this isn't about perfection. I am not expecting you to run out and immediately replace all of the things I'm talking about today. We're going to do things in a practical way. We're going to do this step-by-step. We're going to do it together. One of you commented something on the last video, which has kind of really stuck with me and I really loved it. You said that it's never too late to improve our health, and I totally agree. Okay, so I brought along some props. This first one is something that created a ton of comments on the last video, and it's something that hadn't even occurred to me until now. It's something I use every day, and I love it. It's your coffee maker. I have a drip coffee maker, and here I am thinking, it has a glass pot. It has a stainless steel exterior. Well, guess what is on the inside and what the water is boiling in every day and then passing through to make my cup of coffee? It's all plastic. I have gone to such great lengths to remove plastic from my kitchen, getting rid of those nylon utensils, getting rid of food storage containers, yet here I am every day drinking hot water, hot coffee that's coming from plastic. I am very against heating up any plastic, so now I'm on the hunt for a coffee pot, a coffee maker that does not contain plastic. I was hoping to have one for this video. I have so many emails out to manufacturers. A lot of them aren't very forthcoming on exactly where the plastic exists in their machines, so I have to send them emails, and I'm waiting for them to respond. I have a couple of good leads, but I will let you know if I find one, and I'll actually update the description of this video if I do in case you're also looking for one. You just don't want to put plastic in anything hot because that will break it down, and then it leaches into your body, and I know a lot of what I'm going to share, some of you may say, well, everything's toxic, everything is going to kill us, and what I say to that is I think that knowledge is empowering, and at the end of the day, you are the only one looking out for your personal health. There is no one else looking out for us. These manufacturers, they're trying to sell their products as cheaply as possible to make as much profit as possible, and our health is certainly not their concern. Okay, so in my previous video, I mentioned nonstick pots and pans, especially those with PFOA or Teflon in them, and one of the things that I wanted to talk about in this video is the bakeware. It's the nonstick bakeware. All of us have it. All of us are using it. What happens with this coating is, number one, it breaks down over time, and then it gets into our food, which is, it's highly toxic. You do not want it in your food, but then the second thing is, there's this thing called Teflon flu, and if you heat up Teflon to a certain temperature, I think it's over 400 degrees, you actually create this vapor in the air, you breathe it, and it makes you really sick. It could even kill your pet birds. These manufacturers have come to realize that there's a lot of consumer awareness of the dangers of Teflon, and of course, they don't like that, so they're going to start phasing it out. But before you invest in any bakeware or pots and pans, just do your research. I've shared before that stainless steel is great. When I make bread, I use glass, and they also have glass pie plates. They have glass cake plates that you can use, so these are great. These don't leach anything into your food, but before you buy anything, just do your research and make sure that it is not coated with anything like Teflon, any nonstick surface. You'll even see it called healthy nonstick. That means nothing. My mom recently spent a ton of money on these really nice ceramic pans, and she thought she was doing something good, and she thought it was healthy. After they arrived and she had been using them for a little bit of time, she decided she was going to check and see what they were coated in, because they were really nonstick and she really liked them. She couldn't find on the website of the pots and pans what they were coated with. She had to send them an email, and they responded, and they told her, oh, don't worry, it's coated with safe PFOA. Well, guess what? That's Teflon. Ideally, when you get this bakeware and these pots and pans, you want this stuff to last for years, and what happens is these are so susceptible to scratches that once it has a scratch, it's completely compromised. I'm not even talking about the big scratches that you can see. There are also microscopic scratches. There are tiny scratches you can't see with your naked eye, and again, it's leaching stuff into your food. Just think about the materials that you're baking your food in, that you're heating up, and that you're using, and what can you replace it with that's healthier and safer. I will link some things. I will link the things that I'm using. I'm slowly replacing my stuff. This next one's going to be surprising to you, and it was surprising to me. I think I found this out maybe like a year ago, but I don't use it anyway. It is the to-go coffee cups. You should not be using these, whether in your own home or when you're out. You think you're doing something good, right? You think, okay, it's a paper cup, and it's better for the environment, and it's fine, right? Well, guess what? These are all coated in plastic. They coat these in plastic so that the paper holds up a little bit better, because think about it. If you have pure paper, and you put a hot liquid into it, within half an hour, it's going to completely crumble, so they coat these in plastic. The other thing about these to-go coffee cups is they have a plastic lid on top, and so the hot beverage is heating up the whole container, and it's bouncing back off the lid. You're drinking through it. The liquid is passing through there. You're getting microplastics. If you enjoy content like this, don't forget to click that subscribe button below. I do all kinds of content on how to simplify your home and your life. Okay, so moving along here, this next one will probably be more relevant to those of you who are living in Europe. My mother-in-law is Bulgarian, and a lot of people in Europe and in many different countries use kettles. These are just a hot water kettle. It sits on your counter. You fill it with water, and then you can boil the water. I'll put a picture up for those who don't know. They're great inventions. I love them. Last summer, we were in Bulgaria, and I was noticing my coffee had a really strange taste. It took me about two days, and I finally realized what was wrong. The coffee water had this plasticky chemical taste. I went to the kettle. I smelled the inside of it, and it was the same smell as I was tasting. I realized then and there, this was a kettle made out of plastic. Honestly, I don't care if it's BPA-free. I know for a fact by the taste of my coffee that that plastic was getting into my coffee, and I was drinking it. We went out, and we bought a stainless steel one. They also have glass ones. I totally urge you, if you are using those countertop kettles, replace them. Do not use plastic. There is a much better way. This next one kind of sucks, and you're going to get mad about it. I think a lot of people maybe knew this and forgot, and maybe I'll just remind you. Canned food. Did you know that you think, okay, these are aluminum cans. The food is safe and fine. Well, guess what? Inside these cans, again, they are all lined in plastic. I know we can't completely stop using canned foods. I understand. I will say, however, this is unsweetened coconut milk. I think that's fine in the can. This is chipotles in adobo sauce. This is acidic, and I am certain that this is breaking down the can. I would recommend, if you're going to use canned items, don't do anything acidic like tomatoes, tomato sauce, tomato paste, chipotles, that kind of a thing. You can get glass jars for this. Okay, I have to share this next one because a lot of you commented about it, and I should have put it in the video, but I wasn't really thinking about it. It is this plastic wrap. This is saran wrap, heavy duty, made of plastic. Not the best. Of course, this is going to get into your food. Number one, they do have bees wrap, and that's made with beeswax, and you can use that. If you're going to keep on using this, just never use it on hot food. This stuff has this thing called LDPE in it, and it leaches out, and it's known to cause breast cancer in women. Maybe it's not in this, that LDPE, but you don't know because they don't tell you what's in it. Again, if you're going to continue to use this, and I do use it, and I'll tell you, I will never use it on hot food, and absolutely never, never put it in the microwave. That is a recipe for disaster. That is completely going to go into your food. You don't want to do that. Okay, I had to run down and get a couple more props for this next one. This is going to surprise you so much. I actually stopped using these, and I don't know. My kids still are using them, which I need to probably stop them. It's mugs. If you can believe it, the FDA, they still allow lead to be used in this kind of stuff. A lot of times, they add arsenic to the pigmentation so they get the color, or to the glaze. Of course, at the time of manufacture, so after they make it, they test it, and they make sure that the lead isn't leaching out. But then think about it. You get it home, and you put it in the dishwasher, you chip it, you use it, everything comes off. Look at this. See, this one's chipping. This one has a lot of chips in it, and it's chipping. This one is like, I think, a Starbucks mug, and this is also chipping. The other thing is, a lot of these are made in China. Actually every single one of them. I can't find a single mug that I own that's not made in China. China is notoriously lax for their safety standards. They have poor worker rights. Can we be sure that these are not leaching lead? Do we know? It's not the best. So while maybe these weren't leaching lead at the time of manufacture, how can I know that today they're not leaching lead? I'm going to link a website. It's called Lead Safe Mama. She uses an XRF testing device. It's kind of something that we wouldn't have in our homes. It's very expensive, and it's huge. She tests things like this for lead. What I noticed about her findings, which is what scares me, is that these companies are claiming that these are lead free, but her tests are showing otherwise. So what I think, if you are looking to replace your mugs or if you're using them regularly, just either use glass, they have glass mugs, or better yet, get a stainless steel mug. That's what I use. I have my Yeti. If you've watched my channel, you know how much I love it. I talk about it. I drink my coffee in it. I drink water in it. It's just awesome. I went down a whole rabbit hole of this next one, and it just kind of made me mad. As I'm making this video, I actually got mad, because I'm thinking, unless you know about some of these potential dangers, and unless you're thinking about it and doing a ton of research, you could just be exposing yourself to all of these toxins, and oh well. Nobody cares. And then we wonder why so many of the under 50s are getting cancer these days. And I only know about this stuff because it's a little bit what I do in my day job, and so that's kind of why I'm more hyper aware, I think, of these toxins and these environmental issues than maybe the average person could be. But what it is, this next one, it's dishwashing liquid, and it's dishwashing detergent. So the Environmental Working Group, and they kind of look at different products, and they rate their safety standards, they looked at over 300 kinds of dishwashing liquids, and they give them a score from A to F, A obviously being the best, and F being the worst. 65% of the dishwashing liquid that's on the market now scored a D or lower. I have been using Method for some time, and I thought that Method was great and in the clear. That also gets a D from the Environmental Working Group. There are no national requirements here in the U.S. to list the ingredients of dishwashing liquid. If you look at your dishwashing liquid, a lot of them will not tell you what's inside, you know, they'll give you some generic things, but they won't tell you the exact compounds. I did end up finding that 7th Generation gets an A. They've got the liquid dish soap that I use when I'm hand-washing dishes, and then I'm also using the powder dishwashing detergent. And I like the 7th Generation because I don't want any phthalates, I don't want any fragrance, I don't want any formaldehyde, and so that 7th Generation brand is really good, I can link it below. Now, just one other thing about dishwasher detergent and rinse aids, and I'm going to just tell you about this study, and I will link it below as well, because I did read the study and I did some research into it, came out in 2022, and it showed that dishwasher detergent and rinse aids were contributing to leaky gut syndrome. If you don't know what that is, it is the idea that your stomach, you know, your gut has this barrier, and it breaks down and causes food, toxins, water to go into your bloodstream. Doesn't belong in your bloodstream. Leaky gut causes all kinds of things. It causes depression, it causes IBS and other digestive issues, it causes autoimmune diseases. You definitely don't want a leaky gut, and you certainly don't want to wash your dishes, and then that contributes toward it as well. I mean, who would have even thought, right? So just to bring this all home, don't use rinse aid in your dishwasher, and try to use a detergent and a liquid dish soap that does not have the ingredient that does this, and I'll tell you actually what it is, and I'll put on screen what it is, the ingredient that does this. You want to avoid it. And again, that seventh generation does not have it. This next one, a lot of you commented on my video previously about it, and I totally agree, so I'm going to throw it in here. It's seed oils. You do not want to have seed oils. These are so rampant in our diet. These include anything, just canola, peanut oil, vegetable oil, palm, soybean, sunflower, the list goes on. The problem with these oils, and actually the main problem with them, is two things. They contain a high amount of omega-6s, which you do not want. You don't want omega-6s. Those cause a lot of inflammation in your body. The second thing is they often go rancid really quickly because of the production process. Just stay away from these seed oils. It leads to really bad things, everything from diabetes to cancer to Parkinson's, not to scare you, but it's just not a good thing, and it's getting really hard to avoid these seed oils because a lot of manufacturers use them because they're very cheap and they can make a better profit. Okay, the last one is going to be one that you didn't think of, but I will say if you ever are exposed to toxins in your kitchen, this probably isn't a huge source of toxins, but it's a surprising source, and it's your dishes. The main thing with dishes is lead. Again, we're back to lead, but then there's also things like cadmium. There could be plastics, BPAs, phthalates, that kind of a thing. This is the fiesta ware. What I found out is if you have vintage dishes and if you have vintage fiesta ware, which I have a couple pieces of, then there could be lead in it. What I'm going to tell you, first thing, check your dishes. Look on the bottom of your dishes, and you will see it will say on there lead-free. They do require dishes to be labeled, so this one says lead-free. Interestingly, this one does not, and I'm wondering if this is older. I need to look into that because my bowls don't say lead-free, but my fiesta plates say lead-free. The second thing is to look for chips and nicks. That could be leaching lead into your food as well, so you definitely want to examine your dishes. Also, if your dishes are brightly colored, red or yellow, then that could also be another sign that lead is used in them. Not to dump on fiesta ware, because it's my favorite and I love it. I did find on their website, I will link it up here and show it to you, they have a whole statement on lead and that their dishes are lead-free, so the new stuff is okay. It's just the old stuff that you want to be careful of. Then, most importantly, if you have on the bottom of your dish, there will be a statement. I will put the statement up here, but it essentially says that it's not for food use. You might be wondering, why on earth would there be dishes that are not for food use? Let me tell you, there are plenty of them. I found a website that talks about the safest dishes, and it links to where you can buy them if you're in the market for new dishes and you want to make sure that they're the healthiest dishes. They did say that the healthiest dishware is ceramic, glass and stainless steel. They also said that stoneware is pretty good, but you do want to make sure that the stoneware isn't coated with something strange. Then the last thing, if you do think that your dishes have lead in them, then they do sell lead testing kits and you can get those on Amazon. If you're interested, let me know. I'm thinking of doing a video where I'm going to test my dishes and go through my kitchen to see which ones have lead in it. Let me know if you'd be interested in something like that. The lead testing kits aren't that much money, and I think it could be maybe eye-opening. Okay, guys, if you are still here, thank you so much for watching. I know this is a lot. I know it's a lot to think about. I do hope that by putting this video together and making something that you can easily reference is helpful and you can, of course, do your own research. I do have the part one I mentioned, and I'm going to link that here. If you want to keep on watching, go ahead and click on it. Let me know if you like these kinds of videos because I will do more. I would even expand this to the bedroom, the bathroom. I think there are just so many things that we want to be aware of. Thank you for watching, and I will see you guys in my next video. Bye-bye.