I asked my Linkedin connections to send me questions starting with “why, how or what”. I want to improve my writing and write about things that my network would find interesting. I do not have all the answers, I am trying to shine a light on them from my perspective and background.

This is a starting point for a good discussion. Please join the conversation and contribute your thoughts and knowledge in the comments. Be respectful and curious, who knows what a simple question can lead to - for you and your business. So far, this experiment has been fun, eye-opening and humbling for me. Having such passionate and wonderful human beings in my circle makes me jump out of bed every day. Thank you to everyone!

Jeff Brown asks

WHAT MEASURES CAN WE ALL TAKE TO IMPROVE NZ’s WATER QUALITY?

He adds: ”make it about what all people can do i.e. farmers following best practice, councils having the best treatment systems and urbanites washing their car on the lawn (soaks up and treats the pollutants), using less detergents and composting instead of waste disposals! And somewhat fewer cows ;)”

Well … first of all … I think Jeff is much better suited than me to write about this topic in specific detail, with all the stats and scientist whistles! I thank him so much for sending me on a research, write and edit journey of over 20 hours and hope you get as much value from this information as I did.

This article in a nutshell?

GREAT companies will feed us, clean us and make us feel pretty WITHOUT leaving our planet hungry, dirty and ugly. GREAT people will buy their daily products from them, making them grow and prosper.

I will focus on simple, practical steps that everyone can do. I walk you through a “typical” New Zealand DAY - your food, your beauty and cleaning products. I will list some disgusting facts and show you alternatives - after some basics about H2O!

WATER

Water is life. Around two thirds of the planet are water - 97% of that water is saline (=salty, ocean water). Only 3% is fresh water, the element we need to survive. We drink and cook with it, shower, clean and water our gardens. Of the 3% fresh water, over two thirds are frozen (glaciers, arctic, antarctic). Around 30% is stored in the ground and around 1% is surface water (rivers, lakes…).
In New Zealand, Auckland has the most polluted waterways, 62% are graded poor and zero percent are considered to be good. 

There are thousands of chemicals that we use daily.

Some of them are bad for our waterways, where they do things like making fish infertile. Most of us won’t really worry about infertile fish (unless you love fishing or until the fish n chips shops triple their prices). Those chemicals go into OUR bodies. Whether you eat them or put them on your skin - same same.

CHANGE

Whenever it comes to changing something, often people look to the council/government/law to initiate those changes. This is the wrong way around, as history has proven many times.

When people really want something, they will go for it, no matter if it is legal or not. If something is good and logical for many smart people, it can become a positive movement. One family educates another family, and soon the whole street or village does things a certain way. Eventually those single cases and grassroots actions make it into courts and parliaments to change our laws.

We can whinge about dairy farming, phosphates and 5G as long as we want, the government or our businesses will only change products, services and laws when enough people are intelligent enough to vote with their money and buy from great companies.

Some activists act only from a place of anger and frustration. They try to get attention with aggressive rallies, twisted conspiracy theories and loud protests, but those approaches often do more harm than good. For example, I could use a statement to shock you and get attention, like:

“Want some manboobs with your beer?

Your lady might soon share her bras with you! Contraceptive pill hormones go into her pee, down the toilet and the treatment plant cannot filter them out. Cheers! Gulp those estrogens down! Not enough? Use plastic water bottles and lunch boxes if you ever wanted to know what impotence feels like (BPA). How about a CANCER SHOWER? Sure, wash your hair with KILLER SHAMPOO (parabens), use TOXIC (aluminium) DEO and you might soon have to rush off to your next chemo appointment. That outlook makes a side of diarrhea with your next outdoor mission look like a walk in the park - you probably have heard of the nasty giardia bug in New Zealand’s rivers and lakes. The newest thrill - fill up your water bottle on a hike and feel like playing russian roulette. But that will be fine by the time you grab your toxic POTS and pans!!!”


Writing like this might get me lots of views and shares (from the wrong people) and likely result in getting hired by CNN (crisis news network), which is not what I want. Also, you would still be worried about what to do instead. I could bore you with stats and figures and get really mad at some companies but then I would be writing about gloom til doomsday. Ain’t nobody got time for that...

So I will look at our most purchased daily items in NZ. I list the biggest baddies you should know about and recommend alternatives. As with anything on the net, you can find pros and cons for everything. Your confirmation bias will show you things you look for, so do not take my writings as the be all and end all.

Please use the following ideas and links to start your own educational journey to health and cleaner water for all of us. Only then, companies will have to change, and eventually, the laws will follow.

Psychologically, a much better approach for social change is and has always been kindness, education and being an example by buying things that are a win-win-win for consumers, businesses AND our environment.

NZ Top sellers and better alternatives

If you can make some little swaps in those areas you can make a big change for your health and the health of our waterways.

Check out NZs most bought food, I will go through them here - also have a look at the “dirty dozen” and “clean 15”

BANANAS

deforestation/ monoculture
human mutation (e.g. babies with birth defects)
cancer
neurotoxins
hormone disruptors
kills bees, coral reef, tortoises, algae, fish, crocodiles

WHAT TO DO?

Don’t eat bananas. This is a little different from the other fruits and veggies in the top NZ groceries list that I cover next.
My perspective: if something doesn’t grow in your local area, needs to be sprayed with dozens of toxins that are proven to cause cancer in you, needs to be wrapped in plastic and shipped and flown across the world, kills animals and the rainforest and messes with your hormones and your nerves - why on earth would you want that in your body?
If someone could figure out how much a banana needs to cost to pay for all those things...you probably would not want to buy it.

The biggest benefits of bananas are that they give you potassium, magnesium, fibre, B6 and manganese. How can you get that without eating bananas? Check if any of the following foods are grown near you, buy them organic if you can or even better, grow them yourself.

Potassium
beet greens, spinach, kale, swiss chard, large white beans, lima beans, avocados, potatoes, white button mushrooms >> check out those fun mushroom kits at Mitre10!

Magnesium
almonds, avocado, black beans, cashews, edamame beans, kidney beans, oats, peanuts, potato with skin, raisins, spinach

Fibre
split peas, lentils, black beans, lima beans, artichokes, peas, broccoli, brussels sprouts, raspberries, blackberries, avocado, pears, barley, oats, flax seed, chia seed

Vitamin B6/Pyridoxine
balsam pear, NZ spinach, pak choi, squash, sweet potatoes, chickpeas (=hummus), drumstick leaves, potatoes, avocado, pistachio, raw garlic, peppers

Manganese
cloves, cardamom, ginger, cinnamon, hazelnut, spearmint, parsley, pine nuts, bay leaf, tarragon, thyme, turmeric

BREAD

Wheat products can create health problems for you. So many of my connections struggled with anxiety, depression, irritable bowel syndrome, gluten sensitivity, celiacs, weight gain, bloating and all sorts of trouble that mysteriously disappeared when they dropped grains from their diet for a month. I don’t suffer from gluten intolerance but when I had to cook gluten free for my partner, I experienced my brain (more focus, energy, creativity) and my body (less breakouts, weight fluctuations, joint pain, bloating) change for the better. The key word for bad stuff in all sorts of grain products is organophosphates, which can cause the inhibition of cholinesterase/ acetylcholinesterase in your body.

What is that? In a very simplistic nutshell, it messes up the communication in your central nervous system. The enzyme plays a key role for your muscles, arousal, attention, learning, memory and motivation. If you inhibit the natural process of this neurotransmitter, your nerve synapses cannot talk well to each other. Maybe that is why Germans have an expression “doof wie stulle/dumm wie brot” which is similar to the english “dumb as toast”? :-D

Various health problems and symptoms can be traced back to chemicals that agri companies use for grains before turning them into bread, pasta and other processed goods. Everybody is different, so just try it out for yourself. Eat organic or stop grains completely for a month and see how you feel.

we use the following pesticides to grow grains in NZ

pirimiphos methyl (insecticide used when storing grains), can cause overstimulation of nervous system, dizzyness, nausea, confusion, respiratory issues

chlorpyrifos methyl (insecticide and acaricide/fungicide used when storing grains), effects similar to above, neurotoxin, skin irritant, skin sensitizer, dangerous for environment

chlorpyrifos, similar to above, linked to changes in brains and nervous system, especially elevated risks for children as their brains and nervous systems develop. Lung and prostate cancer, headaches, agitation, inability to concentrate, weakness, tiredness, nausea, diarrhea and blurred vision

fenitrothion (insecticide, banned in the EU), dangerous for environment, birds, bees, aquatic life

malathion, linked to cancer, ADHD in children, gene damage, killing amphibians, creating sperm and thyroid disruptions. Malathion is not very toxic; but when you eat it, it metabolises in your body to malaoxon, which is 61 times more toxic and 1,000 times more potent than malathion in terms of its acetylcholinesterase inhibition.

procymidone, fungicide, banned in all of EU, high toxicity, carcinogen = creates cancer, endocrine disruptor, affects reproduction, possibly toxic for liver and testes

WHAT TO DO?

Don’t eat grains - or swap them for the organic version.
This one was very hard for me. I grew up in Germany where bread is some kind of human right - we have a huge variety of baked goods and even our word for dinner is “evening bread”. But then I happened to meet someone who couldn’t eat gluten (and dairy), and so I chose my partner over pizza :-)

If you ever had the experience of living with a gluten free person, you know that there are a million delicious things you can eat that don’t include grains. Ever had a cauliflower pizza base? Do you know what magical things you can do with the brine in your chickpea tin> google “aquafaba”?

You will discover new, yummy ingredients and expand your repertoire of recipes. I went through a transition phase of trying all sorts of gluten free bread and pasta options, 99% were dry, crumbly, slimey or gooey insults for my tastebuds, so I quickly moved on from that. I started eating more porridge, legumes, stir frys, soups, salads and lots of roasted and steamed dishes - and popcorn! Your plate will change from white, beige and brown to rainbow colours. Even though I am not gluten intolerant, I prefer to eat like this as I experienced in my own body how much it boosts my energy and life quality.

BROCCOLI,
AVOCADO,
SWEETCORN,
STRAWBERRIES,
CUCUMBER,
CAPSICUM

All of those fruits and vegetables are on the top foods we buy list (like bananas) but they are also grown in New Zealand. So unlike the big banana paragraph listing toxins and suggesting alternative produce instead, I will be able to keep this one a little shorter as the principles are the same. Check out the chemicals that NZ farmers use on our produce and decide for yourself. Do you like them to end up in your body and in our water?
It doesn’t matter if they are under a certain “safety level”. Often those levels come from testing them on rats or other animals, and I wish to think that my brain and my nervous system are a bit more complex than that of a rat. We often don’t know the long term results of those substances and I refuse to be a guinea pig.

WHAT TO DO?

The fact that we eat a lot of these fruits and veggies and the fact that compounding all those chemicals creates diverse and profound health and environmental problems is enough for me to skip bananas and bread completely. For everything else, I seek out sprayfree or organic growers in my local area - because then I can cook for myself and the people I love without the feeling of poisoning them and our water. I love local farmers markets and the look and flavour of sprayfree and organic produce is incredible. I cook for my MYTURN guests too, and aim to only have organic, home grown and locally sourced produce on the table.

No one has ever complained that I do not serve bananas or bread during my workshop days. People love the colourful dishes and we don’t have afternoon energy dips. I get many questions about my mini hydroponic and gardening projects and learn so much from my guests.

Not sure where to start? You can save money, petrol and time driving simply by ordering online.

LOCAL SOURCES

Nelson https://www.fresh2u.co.nz/
Auckland https://naturallyorganic.co.nz/box/
Christchurch https://www.ooooby.org/christchurch
Wellington https://commonsenseorganics.co.nz/
Central Otago https://www.queenstownwholefoods.com/

NZ WIDE SOURCES

https://ceres.co.nz/
https://familypantry.nz/
https://www.huckleberry.co.nz/

If you think organic food is too expensive, remember that non-organic food does not include the cost of biodiversity loss and other environmental degradation. With organic food you pay for real food, you give the grower a fairer return and you help local farmers to grow their business and generate jobs in your region. You might even need to eat less because you feel more satisfied and nourished with all the benefits that organic food brings.

Consider how much you could save in medical bills and use of drugs. By having organic food you support a system which better protects our children and the environment. If you are in the business of growing produce, jump on the bandwagon and follow the market. The demand for organics has grown over 30% since 2015 and organics are the fastest growing multi-food sector in the world (OANZ).

MILK

One of New Zealand's largest export products is sadly also one of the dirtiest when it comes to our water. Between 1994 and 2002 the number of dairy cows increased by 34% and the land area used grew by just 12% resulting in a more intensive land use. In the same period synthetic fertiliser use across all sectors grew by 21% and urea (sounds nicer than “the nitrogen part of pee” doesn’t it?) use grew by 160%.

I don’t have a crystal ball, but that problem could sort itself out sooner rather than later - our demand for milk might go down as plant-based diets become more and more popular all over the world.

But even before you think about impact on water, you might want to do some reading around milk and health. There are many people out there looking at whether milk is good for us or not. Some say milk leaches calcium from our bones, and the countries with the highest amount of milk consumption also have the highest numbers of osteoporosis. Some claim there is pus in milk and that it makes acne worse, clogs lung capillaries, triggers asthma and causes phlegm to build up in sinuses. Some looked at menopause symptoms like hot flushes and found that japanese women do not experience menopause symptoms, until you put them on a western diet with lots of animal dairy products. Some people are worried about dairy because the drugs and hormones that dairy cows get for various reasons could go into the milk and build up in our bodies. Go on your own research mission and decide for yourself. It is such a hot topic that I decided to not include specific studies here, as that will just trigger arguments about the studies and won’t make people focus on their own research and experience = let me share a personal story instead.

My first experience riding the no-milk-train came long before I have seen any of those statements or read any studies.

I always loved to make food for others, especially baking. One day, I brought a cheesecake to work - it was a special recipe I tracked down and I was really proud of it. Until one of my favourite colleagues said that she cannot eat dairy. I must have looked like a dairy cow in that moment - big eyes and mouth open, a slight “moo?” escaping my confused lips. I still remember how I reacted when she said it.

”YOU CANNOT EAT DAIRY?? WHAT DO YOU EAT??”

Food flashed up in slow-mo before my eyes. All the things I ate on a daily basis contained dairy. Yoghurt for breakfast, custard squares, sour cream on baked potatoes, milk in my coffee, cream with cake, cheese in all variations on my lunch and dinner plates. And my awesome cheesecake masterpiece that she could not have. Moooooooo!

I always like to try things for myself before I judge. Also, it is great to try new stuff when you have a choice. Go and play with your options when you have time to think, plan, be curious and make mistakes. Why wait for my body to shut down like my colleagues and develop a severe illness? Why wait until I HAVE TO to see what it would feel like to not have dairy if I could just try it out for fun?
The week after my cheesecake rejection trauma, I started a dairy free month.

Wow.

All I can say is try it and see how you feel. Everybody is different and reacts in different ways. If that does not convince you, you can always go back to what you do now. You don’t lose anything but if you are similar to my friends and family who tried it, you will win in so many ways. And the more people do it, the more we support companies who create healthy and tasty alternatives to dairy, which will create new jobs and get rid of all those dairy cows poisoning our rivers, our seas and our air - because dairy farming is also responsible for half of NZ’s greenhouse gases.

And that - please try it out for yourself - goes for everything I highlight in this article. 3 simple steps:

1. Write down all your current physical symptoms, moods and feelings you can think of. Pain, wrinkles, weight, brain clarity…where is your general energy level from 0 - 10? How does your skin look? Take measurements and photos, because progress will be small at first and we forget how bad things were once we get better. 

2. Browse a few websites to get new ideas. Choose simple alternatives for your food, your beauty or cleaning products so you don’t spend forever searching for special ingredients. Change only sticks when you make it fun and easy to do.

3. Try one month without a certain thing and document what feels and looks different. Don’t change everything at once, because then you might miss what made the biggest difference.
   

BEAUTY and CLEANING

I could not find a “NZ’s most purchased beauty/cleaning products” report anywhere, and considering that all of you use different products, it makes no sense to go through a million different products and tell you what harm they might cause.

I will focus on the most common ingredients in our beauty and cleaning products. For me personally, this is a journey I have started many years ago. I love travelling and wanted to find solid alternatives that I could pack in my carry on - this led to a whole research stint on cosmetic ingredients. Years ago, I stopped using all kinds of medicine, hormones and many risky ingredients. Knowledge is power, and the more I learned and tried, the more I swapped my products for natural alternatives.

Nobody is perfect - I would still dye my hair, polish my nails and buy products with fragrance or synthetic colours every once in a while because I could not find a good alternative. Luckily, times have changed and we have many great companies now treat us with things that make us feel pretty and clean without making our earth ugly and dirty.

Get a big box and put all your bathroom and cleaning products in there. Look for some of the most controversial ingredients that your beauty and cleaning products might contain. Check for yourself if you like to keep using them or not. The links I found for you have a lot of different names/synonyms for the same ingredient to help you on your quest.

Parabens
Synthetic colours
SLS
Formaldehyde
Dimethicone
Aluminium
BPA (in plastic bottles for beauty and cleaning products)

WHAT TO DO?

Cosmetic

Ethique. I love love love their products - please note that I am very biased here as I have been a fangirl and investor right from the start.

Oh Natural has many great products and categories dedicated to wastefree products and samples if you like to try things out.

DIY. Have fun making your own products at home!
The link takes you to 200 recipes, so you can go nuts :-)

It is simple to do and cheap! Split the cost for some ingredients with your friends if you only want to mix up a small batch of something. Or, get a kit and make beauty products as gifts. Things like bath bombs and lip balms are always well received, save wasteful packaging and you can get super creative with colours and natural oils.

Cleaning

Baking soda and vinegar is all I use, plus some essential oil for fragrance and added cleaning power.
Why? Check this out!!!

You could try Dr Bronner's Castille soap, which is biodegradable and safe for septic tanks. For a while, I used it for everything while travelling, you can use it to wash your hair, your body, your floors - and a tiny bottle lasts forever…

Simple hot water is a great solvent too, and if I manage to really burn something in the kitchen, I just soak it and use a metal scrubber or bamboo pot brush. I always wonder: “If you need harsh detergents to clean your plates and pots, do you also drink dishwashing liquid to clean your arteries? We are made of 70% water, so if your cooking choices turn cleaning the dishes into a sticky mess instead of food coming right off with hot water, you might want to check what you are eating :-D

Isn’t anyone wondering why health problems like neurological/brain issues and cancer rates grow when so many of the things we put in/on our body are causing harm?

YOU are responsible to check what goes into your body - because the companies who sell food and beauty products don’t know - or they don’t care? Either way, you end up with the results. They want us to buy their things, so go and educate yourself and then make your choice.

SUMMARY

eat local, unsprayed/ organic food
treat your skin to chemical free products
clean with natural products, DIY is king

Clean up your kitchen and bathroom to keep nasties out of (y)our system.

Every day, every person, every product counts for our planet and your body and mind will reap the rewards even sooner.

Thank you so much Jeff Brown for asking this question. This is a big and complex topic and Linkedin is a big and complex network. Connect and collaborate, this is the only way for us to fix things we no longer want to can afford to accept. Comment with great companies and products below, so we can all learn and get better - together.