We've spoken to a lot of people on the wood Life about motivation, cleaner eating, getting your exercise regime, or your goals sorted. We've never spoken to someone about how they can clean up their home and how a clean home can really impact your health. So today we're going to change all that because we're going to speak to an incredible lady who has coined the term low tox and she's going to give us some really practical, simple
tips on how we can low tox our lives. Then after that, we're going to talk diets with incredible Sharna. We're going to take the gloves off and talk about vegan and vegetarianism.
I've been thinking about going vegetarian myself, but I want to know is it okay to take meat out of my diet?
What should I be wary of if I do change my diet.
That's all coming up in the wood Life. I'm Sam Wood, and we're kicking things off by making your home healthier. Our next guest started her own mission by challenging what is in our food? What is in our cleaning products, what is in our beauty products? What are these things that are continually in our homes around us? That potentially are not doing our health any good. She's created a platform to educate people on the chemicals that we are ingesting.
And I can't wait to speak with you. Alex Stewart, Welcome to the WOODLFE.
Hey, Sam, how are you doing?
Thank you so much. I'm going to jump straight into it and you're right between the eyes. What does low tox mean? Because it's one of those terms that gets floated around, but I don't know if all of our listeners, me included, would really spee exactly what it's talking about.
Yeah.
Nice, And I think when I came up with it when my little guy was having a nap when he was about two months old, and I had been researching things for a few years from personal health reasons by that point, so I'd become pretty savvy and really knew what had helped me feel better.
And I was.
Sitting there thinking what do I want to call this thing? And I've always been a teacher, trainer, motivator across two different industries. That's always been my jam to help people move from where they are to where they want to be. And once I learned what I learned about the food system, chemical industry, etc. I wanted to provide really good, solid,
but soft education in this space. And what I mean by soft is I grew up in the nineties, you know, where Oprah had every second guest with a new diet, and we all had to do it this way. And if you didn't do it that way and you fell off the wagon and you didn't do it perfect, then you'd be ashamed. Then you failed. I hated that. I mean, it just didn't work right. And you know that more than anything with the way that you support your community. Sam.
So absolutely progress not perfection.
That's what it's all about, exactly.
And so I really wanted something, some sort of lifestyle phrase that would help people feel like they didn't have to quit everything, they didn't have to be know this zero that free from that, not that guru kind of vibe. And then I thought, well, we're trying to reduce toxins,
we can't completely eliminate them. Because I don't know about you, but I walked past a car getting my morning coffee this morning, and there's exhaust and you know, like, there's so many things, and if we freaked out about everything, we would literally go mad trying to be perfect. So lowtox life was born, and it's really about the food, body, home, mind, and planet elements that make for a life where we're just a bit more conscious. You know, we're thinking about
what that purchase is. I think, do I need this? Thinking how is this made? Where does it come from? Am I okay with the answers to those questions? And is there a better alternative? And really the last twelve years of my life have been around helping people discover those things and just move along in their own pace, their way. Some people get really passionate about the food side of things. Some people really passionate about like making
all their own cleaning products. Some people get passionate about supporting brands and buying great products from brands that are doing better for people and planets. So it really is a lifestyle where everyone has a spot.
I love that. I've got to admit I was driving in today knowing that we were chatting this morning, thinking about our chat.
You thought I was going to make you feel bad about everything, didn't you?
I did. Yeah, I was really a bit worried. I felt I was going to potentially leave our chat going. I now know more. I almost am frustrated that I know more, you know, like ignorance just kind of bliss in a way. And now I'm leaving this conversation going now I know more. Now I feel like I have to do more, but now I'm more stressed about it, or just guilty.
If you read my first book, Lotox Life, I paint a picture of this girl who's twenty seven and she's smoking a pack of day and she has a couple of tequilas after work and all this kind of stuff, and then at the end, I say, and by the way, that's me when I was twenty seven, And I just think people need to stop engaging with stuff that makes us feel awful about ourselves, because then it puts us in this paralysis mode or the shutout mode, like the total like I'm just not going to go there because
I feel bad. But I always say, you can't feel guilty for what you didn't know. You can only get excited about what you do know now and how that's going to make a really positive impact in your life.
And by the way, I'm not a non drinker.
I don't say that to say you have to start, you know, thinking about giving up drinking. Some people do. Some people don't big fan of a gin and soda on a Friday night. Sometimes it's not a purest lifestyle. Everyone has a spot, and it's really just about thinking what's lighting me up about doing better for myself and the planet. And I'm going to start there, and then we give people ideas about what that could look like.
The first thing that pops into my head as we've chatted for five minutes is you've got my attention. This is something that really interests me. It's something that I think would interest most of our listeners. And the first question that pops into my head is where do I start?
Okay, so it sounds like a big question, but actually it has a pretty simple first answer for me, which is simply asking yourself every time you're going to buy
something or you feel propelled to buy something. You know, we're all in this dopamine hit consumerist culture like it's you know, I feel it as much as the next guy, especially if you're in a shopping center and you think you've just gone for one thing and then boom you leave with three shopping bags and a whole bunch of stuff you didn't even realize you needed or wanted.
Just ask yourself, if you really love.
That thing that you're considering, or if you even need it at all, Because the amount of stuff we're buying is hugely impactful on the planet. So that for me is like literally just raising your awareness on how useful, valuable, or joyful that thing's going to be for you is a fantastic place to start. Second place I would start is becoming conscious of synthetic fragrances. So I was the head of the perfume counter at downtown Judy Free Strand Arcade. It was like my big gig in my early twenties.
I was so excited, loved perfume, and ended up working for one of the most prestigious companies in the world after that, and I had every imaginable young woman issue from period stuff, cycle stuff, headaches, migraines, resistant, weight loss, you name it. And years later, when it was actually my baby Sharon, I had learned about the food system because I'd had to go gluten free and so I was really good at reading labels. Started reading the labels of all the stuff I got from my baby Sharon,
was like, Oh my god, what are these things? And it occurred to me that all the time while I was training sales teams all across Australia and the Pacific in fragrances and cosmetics throughout my entire early twenties, never once did we talk about two thirds of the chemicals
on the labels. We only talked about the really jazzy stuff at the top, So the rare agan algae that was gonna, you know, wipe women's wrinkles away, and all that stuff, the stuff you see in the ads basically, and so I thought, oh my gosh, half of this stuff, actually, it turns out impacts the way our natural hormone signaling is done and the way our natural hormones are produced.
So this is what we call endocrine disruptive chemicals or hormone disruptive chemicals that can affect sex, hormones, thyroid or dream norls, you name it, anything that's part of the hormone systems in the body. And I realized that for years I had been peddling stuff that was fiddling with
people's hormones. And any chick listening today to our show right now is thinking God is hard enough to balance my hormones on like the most perfect, relaxing, easy day of the month, let alone any other day, and yet we have all this stuff around our homes and on our skin that is actually impacting that as well. And I was just listening to this incredible panel with four of the top fertility experts in Australia and they were
talking about the most recent research and synthetic fragrances. I don't know about you, Sam, but when you give someone a hard after workout the gym, you've had a great time and then you can smell their after shave or perfume like five hours later. Still, so that stickiness of the fragrance, the thing that makes it last long is a group of chemicals called thalates. And for the nerds who like to look stuff up, that's ala tes.
Don't worry.
I'm not going to stay technical for too long here, but it's to say that the stickiness of the thollates is what makes fragrances last a really long time. And those thalates are one of the biggest hormone disruptive chemicals that are in our world today, largely unregulated, and some pretty shocking research around fertility and around men's fertility specifically.
So I think a lot of guys think, oh, yeah, my chicks into all this environmental lotox stuff, you know whatever, and we don't realize that it's actually harming our men just as badly, if not more, to wear these really stinky, heavily perfumed fragrances and deodorant sprays, and I remember prying one from my husband's house. Are like, we literally can't breathe when you put that stuff on in the morning.
So if you could think about synthetic fragrances, the scentered reads, the freshness, the plug in sprays, the thing that you put in the car dash board, the little Christmas tree, things that are hanging in the cabby's cars, all of those things. The fabric SOFTNA and don't quit it yet. If you're thinking, oh my gosh, like that is huge. I have all this sort of stuff everywhere. Another one is scented candles. Just put it in a box, chuck it in the garage and live without it for a month.
So fabric softna all your things that are air freshener oriented and even your personal fragrance, and then after two weeks to a month, bring it all back in, plug it in, light it up, chuck the fabric softener on everything. You will be shocked at your body's response to the toxins in these products. I'm just going to let you do that yourself, but it is honestly one of the most powerful experiments you can do.
Well, there you go. There's a great little bit of homework for our WOODLFE listeners to try. I mean, my wife says she loves scented candles.
I mean heaps of us do.
Yeah, it's just the thing. I'm not really a massive fan of them. So this is great because I can go home and now I've got a reason that we get rid of them.
So this is a thing that comes up though, Sam, So one partner in the outfit like goes right, We're got to get rid of this stuff. It's toxic, and they're the other ones, Like I didn't get that memo. But one of the things you can do is create change through a gift. So you turn up with a beautiful bees wax hand rolled scented candle, just with the natural bees wax scent, and you just say, oh, I just saw this candle online and I just thought of you. I wanted to get it for you because I'd done
this interview. And turns out there's some pretty dodgy stuff in the other ones. Then that is like a really nice way to approach change.
So the synthetic fragrances does that then transition into body wash and shampoo.
And yeah, it's pretty pervasive. Like you know, you think of all the products you use that have synthetic smells and just like start asking yourself. I remember once I realized how bad they were, and that was like a good fire in the belly to start not wanting them because, as I said, like I was from that industry and loved all of that stuff. But once you see something for what it truly is, it's not as pretty or
as appealing. And so you now have really great supermarket brands even and then some fantastic pioneering brands, great small businesses that are doing products using natural essential oils or fragrance free.
And they're gorgeous.
Like when I went low tox fifteen years ago, trust me, it was not easy and like products just didn't perform the way they do now. But green chemistry has come a really long way, so we've got tons of options.
It's great to hear that it has come a long way, and it feels like it's only going to ramp right up in you know, with awareness that you're providing. And it's one of those things I am starting to hear more and more that probably even five years ago, it wasn't something that people were speaking about, you know, not too different to being gluten free and going and getting breakfast at a cafe.
It's oh, I know, right, I had to go gluten free seventeen years ago.
That would have made a challenge.
But you know, one of the things that it did for me, Sam, and this is my next tip, is it got me reading labels on food. It got me realizing that packaged food is like mostly a disaster sometimes. Okay, there are some really great brands that have cleaned things up. But to move from products to produce is my next tip. And you would teach this in your the lifestyle components
of the work you do. So it's really about just those fresh ingredients and as much as you can it doesn't have to be all now, all you know, perfect today, but just start looking in your shopping trolley and go, oh, yeah, there's actually quite a bit of processed food in here. Could I swap that with some carrots and hummus? You know, could I swap that one with like teaching myself how to make a nice lunchbox bar with like seeds, oats, nuts, and cocoa powder.
I'm aware all about eating real food and I absolutely love that. But you're saying, so look out for particular products and particul ingredients, and I then go, well, so what are they? Because they're so clever at confusing you. You know, the longest word you've ever seen with you know, x y Z one triples, you know seven like and you kind I have no people just read them, I'm sure like I do, and go, You've achieved your purpose by just throwing me off the scent, by confusing me.
Yeah, So on the labels, as far as that goes, you want to look for the words fragrance or perfun Okay, if you m because that. If it doesn't then have an asterixk to say natural essential oils or made with essential oils or something like that, then you're pretty sure
that it's synthetic. And we still have a situation where about ninety nine percent of mainstream products that do use synthetic fragrance do have these thalates in them which alter our estrogen signaling and production, so that for me, is the easiest thing to look out for and then just common sense. So you buy a fabric softener, let's say, and it says apple blossom like as it's fragrance, had they get like a apple blossom is the gentlest, like
you can barely smell it. You have to go like right close to it, and it kind of smells like something like a normal natural smell. But apple blossom fabric softener smells like it hits you like a ton of bricks. And so if you have to ask yourself, what does the natural equivalent of that fragrance smell like, and are they similar and they're not, then you know that it's synthetic.
And the stronger the fragrance is, the more likely there'd be thalatees in there to make it strong and make it last long.
I'm so glad you said at the start of our chat go at your own pace in your own way, because my brain and I'm just being really honest with you, I'd love to sit here and tell you that I'm thinking absolutely, as of tomorrow, I'm going to make all these changes. But there's a part of me that's saying I got up this morning, I went for a run, I had a shower, I put on my deodrent, I put on microlone, and I'm thinking that actually freaks me out a little bit.
Changes in morning, hasn't it.
We'll also often kind of use the same decrence and you know, one or two different cologns probably for twenty years. I mean, that's not something that I've questioned or challenged. You said at the start, you know, you've got to just have a bit more, have an open mind, and you had to challenge and question these things.
I mean, there is so much science now to back it up. When you speak to the people at the forefront of the research, it's mind blowing to me that it's not making front page news and we're not legislating for it, to be honest, because I mean, you know, like it's very expensive to look after yourself. It is with all the painkillers. And then think about the job ROI for companies of people off with migraines and painful
periods like stop great. So we have a lot to gain by taking a long, hard look at synthetic fragrances. I mean, the annoying thing about it being the main thing that I wanted to share with you is that it is so pervasive, like you said, across so many different categories. But if you just today think I might just do the deodorant, but I might not put the
fragrance on on top. Let's start there. Or I might use half a cup of bicob soda in my laundry to make everything soft and add a teaspoon of my favorite essential like peppermint or lemon, one of the inexpensive ones, and.
Just start there. Really just want to go bit by bit.
And one of the things that one of my first students in my E course said was phase out, don't freak out, and I just thought it was the most fantastic little phrase.
I love that, And it.
Just means as you run out of stuff, you're like, Okay, what could I replace it with that's better, and you do a bit of research. There's so many beautiful brands that we can buy now. So it's actually not that hard.
GLaDOS that you brought up cost too, because another thing that popped into my head was this perception that to go for the better option is going to be far more expensive.
It's a reorganization of funds basically. You so you just have to think big picture It's kind of like when you're trying to switch to whole foods. If you swapped out all the snacks, the vacuous snacks that you didn't have to eat, and invested that into really good whole food meals that you had three a day of instead, and then forgot the snacks, then you can end up cost neutral switching from products to produce. It's a mindset of oh, I've been taught that this is good value
my whole life, and so I think it is. And part of it is actually peeling back those layers. And you know, switching from a body gel that costs like ten to fifteen bucks to a bar of soap there's no plastic, still just as effective. That's a huge saving.
I mean, the thing that pops into my head is just because it's how you've always done it doesn't mean it's how it should be done. I can't thank you and Alex for coming on the Woodlife today.
Well thanks so much. Sam, great to chat with you too.
So there you go. Like me, twenty minutes ago, you might not have even been familiar with the term low tox but now you are, and it's definitely been a good eye opener. Got me thinking, which I'm sure it has few too. I'm going to put a link in the show notes through to some more material from Alex that if you're really interested in this subject, will definitely be able to provide a bit more context and a bit more information for you, so make sure you check
those out. Next, it is diet time and we're talking vegan and vegetarianism with the one and only Shanna shaby.
So.
I always love it when we get food and diet related questions sent in because that means that we get to bring in our favorite nutritionists, Shanna who joins us in the studio. Shanna, Welcome back to the wood Life.
Thanks Sam. Great to be here.
We've actually got a question from one of our WOODLFE listeners, Maddie, which I'd love your take on.
Hey, Sam, it's really common these days for people to be on a vegetarian or vegan diet. I've been thinking about going vegetarian myself, but I want to know is it okay to take meat out of my diet? What should I be wary of if I do change my diet.
Yeah, So that's a really good question, and it's so true that lots and lots of people are going more towards the vegetarian and vegan diets these days. For some it's great transition because they're starting to eat more vegetables. Doesn't necessarily mean we need to get rid of the meat altogether. It's very much an individualized approach. It's the kind of thing with anything when it comes to food and nutrition, trying what works for us, seeing how we feel.
But some of the main considerations when we do choose to go on a more vegan or vegetarian diet would be making sure we are still getting a quality source of protein with every meal, because meat is generally the main protein source of meals. So you could just simply swap the meat for something like a lagume, which would be any sort of bean or lental. You could swap it for some sort of dairy product. If you're not going fully plant based or vegan, you could swap it
for eggs as well. Would be another option. You've got tofu and tempey, which are soy products, so they're meat from a lagom where you're getting that protein. I would recommend going for organic soy products if you do choose to go for tofu or tempei just to ensure it's not genetically modified. Soybean and tempey is actually the healthier of the two technically because it is a fermented product,
so it's less process than the tofu itself. But they're both still fine options to add in if you are choosing to go down the vegetarian or vegan rout or even for those of us that do eat meat as well, incorporating some tofu tempey into our diet and all the lagomes, all the dairy if we choose to eat it and eggs, it's still great to get that variety regardless or not of whether we're eating meat.
Yeah, it's a great answer. I think it's definitely still possible to get the protein into.
Our diet, definitely, and vegetables have some as well.
It's definitely harder when you take out the meat you perhaps even realizing you're consuming as frequently as you do. There is a huge potential protein reduction that I think the key message is it needs to be replaced with something. You can't just not replace that protein when we know the protein is so critical in our diet. So I think that meat, fish, chicken, whatever it might be, yeah, really is kind of the hero of most dinners, in particular.
Some other things we can also chat about ah things like iron. So we obviously get a different type of iron through plant foods. It's non hem ion as opposed to through meat like red meat, which is one of the highest sources we get hem ion, so it's more easily absorbed by our body. Doesn't mean we can't get it through a vegetarian diet. It's still in many of
those things I've already mentioned. Some of those protein sources will be bringing in, like many of the legomes, those beans and lentils are a great iron sauce, so you can still get it. And there's other little ways to improve our iron absorption as well, like having iron rich sauces with vitamin C rich foods, so we get vitamin C in a number of things. It's in most raw
fruits and veggies. But one of the things I often recommend will be something like putting some raw red capsicum in a salad alongside whatever iron sauce you're having, because it kind of works well in a meal. Like many of the vitamin C sauces are actually fruits, so you're not necessarily going to have them with your main meal, but something like capsicum can be really easy to add into any maine.
You know, first week is a vegan, first week is a vegetarian. What are your top tips? Right? These three things on your fridge that you don't forget because they'll hold you in good stead.
So one of them would be still following a balance plate formula. So the balanced plate formula, just to summarize, is fifty percent vegetables, then one quarter protein, one quarter complex carbohydrate, and then a serve of healthy fats. So making sure you're still getting lots of veggies in the protein would just switch to a vegetarian sauce, or it might be those beans, lentils tofu tempe eggs or dairy if you're eating them. Steal nuts and seeds can also
contribute a little to that. You wouldn't want that as the sole source of protein though, and then the complex cover hydrates are things like your whole grains or your starchy vegetables like potato and pumpkin, So that's still really important, and you still can get some protein from whole grains as well, and you can get some important nutrients from them as well, which is why it's all part of that balance plate, particularly as a vegetarian, you want to
make sure you're still getting all those boxes ticked. And then the healthy fat would be something like a bit of avocado, olive oil, whatever you're using.
There's more of like a condiment.
Huge tick love that. What else would you put on that person's fridge?
One. I think that is actually really important, which is actually saying what to avoid would be the fake meat. So there's a lot of fake meat coming to the market, so a lot of processed stuff in the vegetarian and vegan space. Stick to the real food because the ingredients list often just looks like dog food. And I'm not exaggerating.
That's interesting, is that that's a huge statement. Yeah, because this is a billion, if not trillion dollar industry that's just exploding. Actually love to get you and someone from one of the fake meat companies, Yeah, in a heated debate. I mean, that's a fascinating conversation, definitely, and one that I would love to hear both sides of the arguments. So we've got balance plate, yeah, no fake meat yea. And number three.
Variety as well, so it kind of feeds into the balance plate and everything. But it's just really important to get that variety. So we're making sure we get a range of nutrients and vitamins for everyone, really, but particularly when you are going down the vegetarian and plant based root. But I think these labels can often confine us in boxes, and we might think, oh, I'm vegetarian now, even if my body is craving meat or craving fish, I can't
eat that. That goes against what I've just identified as.
But I think being a little bit flexible for that.
If your body is calling you to eat something, then listen to that. If it's against your morals or something, then don't obviously, like continue to listen to yourself and make the right decision for you. But don't feel like just because you've labeled yourself a vegetarian or a vegan or a pesquetarian, that can't change. I was a vegetarian
for eight years. I'm now back to eating everything. And I found one of the hardest things about that was the identity that people placed upon me and the identity I placed upon myself, and like kind of that shame about changing and being like, oh no, I'm.
Back to eating meat. What are people going to think of me? I went back on my morals.
But it's actually like no, things just change and evolve, and that's okay too.
I love that. I think, actually that's that's the best piece of advice. Sharna. As always, thank you so much for coming on the wood Life. You've answered that question of matter's beautifully. You've also hapened up a huge new cannabority, so we're going to explore it a later date.
See you so thanks Sam.
As always, Shanna is such a wealth of knowledge. I do feel like we really have scratched the surface there and we're going to have to dig a little bit deeper. Love those conversations, love where it might end up taking us. As always, thanks for sending your questions through. There's a link in the show notes for anyone that wants to send any question in about any subject matter regarding your
health at any time. Thanks for listening. I'll be back again in a month day for your next motivational moment. M h m
Hm.