Toothpaste may not be something on your health radar, but did you know that most popular brands of toothpaste contain many harmful ingredients? Do you really want your family swirling these toxins around in their mouth twice a day?
According to Dr. Mercola, “Your mouth is actually one of the most absorbent places in your entire body. This is why some medications are administered sublingually, or under your tongue.”
I was brought up believing that Crest was the brand to buy – never Colgate… it was no good. Oh how my brother and I longed to try Aquafresh. It seemed so cool and eye catching with it’s tricoloured swirl that created art on your toothbrush! Well, as it turns out, none of those three are too good for you. Some of the worst ingredients in these brands are:
- Triclosan – has been shown to help prevent gingivitis but the benefit comes at a steep price. The chemical has been linked to concerns over antibiotic resistance and endocrine disruption. This hormone disruption has been shown to promote health problems such as cancers of the breast, ovaries, prostate, and testicles. This chemical has been banned in hand soap and makeup.
- Sodium Lauryl Sulfate (SLS) – this is the agent in the toothpaste that makes it froth. It’s manufacturing process also releases carcinogenic volatile organic compounds into the environment. SLS is registered as an insecticide and may have toxic effects to marine life… Yet we put it in our mouthes. This is another chemical that is in almost every cream or soap that you find in drugstores.
- Aspartame- This chemical forms methanol in your body and it does not bond to anything, so it is not safely eliminated. The methanol created by the aspartame, is converted to formaldehyde which can cause damage to your tissues. Some symptoms from methanol poisoning include headaches, ear buzzing, dizziness, weakness, nausea, gastrointestinal disturbances, memory lapses among others.
- Fluoride- Well, here is a big one… although some believe that it aids in the reduction of cavity formation, there are certainly many arguments against allowing it in our water supply and it’s safety in toothpaste.. According to Dr. Mercola, as just one example, swallowing fluoride is especially detrimental to your health. The science clearly demonstrates that fluoride is a toxic chemical that accumulates in your tissues over time, wreaks havoc with enzymes, and produces a number of serious adverse health effects, including neurological and endocrine dysfunction. It has been proven that children are swallowing far more fluoride from toothpastes than what is safe.
- Propylene Glycol- Propylene glycol is a type of mineral oil that is used in antifreeze, paints, enamels, and airplane de-icers, and might I add, Gatorade until 2013. You can also find a variety of it in Duncan Hines boxed cake mixes and 17 of Coldstone Creamery’s flavours! The pharmaceutical-grade form is used in many personal care products, including toothpaste, as a foaming agent. Propylene Glycol is a known skin, eye, and lung irritant and may cause organ system toxicity. I’d rather not have that in my mouth thank you.
- D&C yellow#10, FD&C Blue#1 food dyes– Food dyes have a negative impact on children’s ability to learn and cause an increase in hyperactivity in children. They also have been linked to long-term health problems such as asthma, skin rashes and migraines. Blue #1 is linked to increased risk of kidney tumors and the ability to cross blood brain barrier with the potential for neurotoxicity.
For more information about toothpaste ingredients, and to check the sources of the information above, check out Dr. Mercola’s article here. Also some of this information was found on the Food Babe‘s website.
In order to get more information on options I decided to do a “taste test” so to speak…. I took a stroll through the toothpaste aisle at Shoppers Drug Mart and was amazed at the sheer amount of regular brand toothpaste options. It was a wall of colourful, shiny boxes. Many covered with words like: Enamel Health, Pro-Health, Advanced Health Whitening, and Truly Radiant. Somehow I felt that by putting all of those ingredients in my mouth, I was not going to end up being any of the above!
Next I headed to the health store, Nature’s Fare, to buy some different types of healthy alternative toothpaste brands. My favourite up until this point has been Green Beaver (Funny name right?! Can you tell this is Canada?) They have great flavours like Cinnamon, Star Anise, Orange, Frosty Mint, Mint Cilantro, Sensitive and Green Apple. They all taste surprisingly delicious! The Green Beaver products which include sunscreens, soaps, shampoos, deodorants and creams are from a small town near the Laurentian Mountains that we used to drive through on the way to my grandparents’ house. The husband and wife team, who started the company, left the pesticide and pharmaceutical industries to create healthier, natural products. Love those stories!
Green Beaver products do NOT contain: Fluoride, Triclosan, Sodium Lauryl Sulfate, Carrageenan, GMO, Artificial Flavours or Dyes, Chemical Preservatives or Artificial Sweeteners. They sell for around $5.99 per tube, but can often be found at Winners for $3.99.
Since I have tried and enjoy all of the Green Beaver brands, I decided to purchase a few other types to test out and write about. You can see a photo of them below. The brands I choose were: NOW Solutions Xyliwhite, Nature’s Gate, Earthpaste, Desert Essence, Himalaya Botanique, Auromere and Dr. Bronner’s. I also bought a locally made “tooth soap” that tasted just as it sounds so I didn’t include it… I felt like a kid in trouble ;).
Surprisingly I enjoyed all of them, but here is what I would consider the top for: taste, texture, clean feel, as well as most healthy/natural brand:
- Green Beaver, all flavours- made in Canada – still my favourite
- Auromere, ayurvedic herbal toothpaste- made in India
- Nature’s Gate, creme de peppermint- made in the USA
- Honourable mention: Dr. Bronner’s, peppermint- made in the USA. These four brands contain none of the chemicals mentioned at the top of the page and are non-gmo, cruelty free, vegan and gluten free! The rest were either too strong (Desert Essence), or didn’t froth enough to make it feel like my teeth were really clean.
I hope this post will inspire you to break out of the normal chemical filled toothpaste aisle and try something better for your health and the environment. I’d love to hear what you discover!