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RadioMD Presents: HER Radio | Original Air Date: May 7, 2015
Host: Michelle King Robson and Pam Peeke, MD

It's all about her. Her body. Her mind. Her wellness. Her sex. Her relationships. Her aging. Her beauty. It's HER Radio, starring acclaimed entrepreneur and women's advocate, Michelle King Robson and leading women's healthcare expert, the doc who walks the talk, Dr. Pam Peeke.

DR PEEKE: Hi, I'm Dr. Pam Peeke. Michelle's off today. I'm going to tell you the ten things you need to throw away for better health. That means toss them. Whip out your pen, your pencil, your iPad, whatever you need to do to take notes, because here I come. The first one, artificial sweeteners, you've heard me talk about this before. Aspartame, sucralose, that's code for Splenda, and more are tricking your body into storing fat and raising your risk of diabetes.

Who needs this? Now, I bet you didn't know that even something as simple as most of the artificial sweeteners that you find in those little packets at coffee shops, what they actually do is they play around with your insulin sensitivity. When they do that, they actually play with the brain's reward center and are able to give you that sense of "Oh, I need MORE sweetness!" Even more than refined sugar. Who knew? Most of this data came out about a couple of years ago, so it's fairly recent. You know what you ought to do instead? Stevia. Stevia is a wonderful herbal that doesn't play with your insulin.

And the other thing, too. Get natural ways to sweeten. Raw honey is filled with nutrients, just use a small amount of it. How about grade B maple syrup? How about molasses? We can do this. You have alternatives—use them. Pitch the artificial sweeteners. The next thing is plastic food containers and bottles. Oh, come on, you've heard this already! That BPA and BPS and the phthalates that are found throughout the plastics, we don't need this. You know, that they affect things like reproduction. Ladies, listen up on HER Radio. They are also associated with hyperactivity, even carcinoma. We don't need this.

What you can do is, to avoid the plastic containers, replace them with glass bottles and containers instead. We also have new containers out there that have absolutely no BPA in them. So, be on BPA-alert. Number three: non-stick cookware. This stuff is just filled with a chemical called PFOA, that's perfluorooctanoic acid. You don't have to write that one down. Just know – we don't want nonstick cookware. Instead, put out the extra bucks. Bypass this by switching to ceramic or glass cookware that doesn't emit the toxic fluoride that you get from this stuff.

Number four: air fresheners. Eww, who needs that? Come on, just cut some flowers and stick them around your house. Like real flowers, for instance. Because these are absolutely filled, these room deodorizers, with all kinds of chemicals in them that will cause issues. Health problems—they play with your hormonal system, they are endocrine disrupting, phthalates that are found in them. Just open your windows and doors from time to time and get some fresh air in there.

Use real, pure essential oils, if you really want to have some great smells around the house. Cut some flowers, too. And they better be your flowers. Number five—antibacterial soaps and detergents. We're not doing that. Don't keep routinely disinfecting your bodies and your surroundings. Because if you do, it causes more harm than anything else. You don't want these antibacterial compounds. They are linked with all kinds of problems from allergies to endocrine disruption to inflammatory responses.

All you really need is some simple soap and if you really want to have a one all-purpose disinfectant that works great for kitchen counter, cutting boards and bathrooms, is just three percent hydrogen peroxide and vinegar. You know, we love that stuff. Keep it natural and don't be putting yourself in harm's way by constantly disinfecting yourself like that with these products.

We don't need them. Commercial cleaning products is number six. Instead of all of these crazy hazardous chemicals that we're tossing around with all of this, and they smell like there is no tomorrow, we've got a simple starter list of what you need to make your own natural cleaning products. How about baking soda? White vinegar? Lemon juice?

Oh, my gosh, we can do this. Baking soda, hydrogen peroxide, liquid castile soap, organic essential oils. Certain ones like lavender and tea tree oil have their own natural antibacterial qualities. So, how about that? I love this and it really is nice to keep it natural. Number seven: personal care products. You know what I'm talking about here. We've got all kinds of problems with things like make-up. We've got the concealers, foundations, eye shadow, lipstick, lip glosses and they've got all kinds of heavy metal contamination in them. I'll bet you didn't know that 96% have lead.

Ninety percent have beryllium, 61% have thallium and 51% cadmium, 20% have arsenic. We don't need that. You have got to try to go with natural, natural, natural wherever you can and there are so many great ideas out there. You really want to be able to use natural mineral products. This is a much better way to do it.

If you're going to be using any other products, look for those products that do not have any of this contamination. So important. This is an interesting one—stale spices. Herbs and cooking spices have all kinds of great antioxidants, minerals and vitamins. They really help maximize and optimize the nutrients you find in your meals. There are certain ones that are very, very good at, for instance, quelling inflammation: cloves, ginger, rosemary, thyme.

But freshness matters. You've got to go to your pantry, you've got a million old spice bottles. I know, I do. I honestly have to clean this stuff out and I'm going to do that right afterwards. It's time to refresh your stock. Expired, stale spices don't provide you with much flavor anyway and you are going to be losing all of the antioxidant qualities. So, stay on top of expiration of your spices because you really need them and they are wonderful.

The next one is electronic devices. We have all kinds of devices out there that have long-term harm, if we keep them around forever and if we have a million of these going on at exactly the same time. You have got to be able to stay on top of expiration, and this includes everything, from all of our i-devices on. Ask a tech expert how long you should be keeping them around and what you do afterwards when you have to pitch them. So important because they are integral to our life. The final one is, guess what? Number ten is your chair. That's right, sitting disease. Look this up. Dr. James Levine at the Mayo Clinic has made this quite popular. Sitting disease is real.

It means if you sit too long—and that's code for you've been sitting there for at least an hour without moving—this glacierizes you. You can't metabolize your cholesterol, your blood sugar as well as you should, or your lipids. It's really important for you to get up and move around. That's why we make headsets. If you're going to talk to someone—walk and talk. Make sure to keep going with your physical activity all day long. There you have it. The ten things you need to pitch for better health. Artificial sweeteners, all of those plastics, cookware, air fresheners, antibacterial, stale spices, your chair and more.

I'm Dr. Pam Peake with Michelle King Robson. Like us on Facebook. Follow us on Twitter. And whatever you do, stay well.