Clean Living: What It Means and How to Make It a Reality

Clean living. It sounds simple enough. However, understanding what clean living means, what it entails, why it matters, and how to practice it is not quite as simple as the name might imply.

It can be challenging to identify a solid definition of clean living, also known as green living, because it carries various meanings. For example, some people focus only on the dietary aspect by striving to eat organic and natural foods. For others, clean living encompasses an entire lifestyle that includes everything from diet to household products to reducing their carbon footprint.

The world is full of harmful and toxic chemicals. They can be found in the foods we eat, personal hygiene products, cookware and food storage containers, cleaning products, and even in clothing. Although it’s impossible to entirely eliminate contact with chemicals, many people choose to embark on a clean living lifestyle to improve their health, well-being, and the planet’s future.

What Is Clean Living?

Clean living encompasses multiple aspects of life, including intentional, healthy choices in diet, lifestyle, and household products. Mindfulness is a key component, with the products you choose with the cleanest ingredients promoting a healthier life.

Additionally, clean living can extend beyond individual lifestyle changes, encompassing an environmentally friendly philosophy in everyday life. These practices include eliminating single-use plastic, patronizing businesses that demonstrate a commitment to the environment, holding organizations accountable for their sustainable practices, and minimizing waste as much as possible.

The Link Between Clean Living and Health

The health benefits of a clean-living lifestyle offer positive results for many, particularly those with chronic health conditions.

Unfortunately, your home may be a source of many potentially harmful chemicals, including flame retardants in furniture or carpets, non-stick compounds in cookware, and toxins in plastic storage containers. Consequently, the scents you breathe in your own home may include chemicals known or suspected to cause serious health issues, including cancer. Some chemicals specifically influence your risk of getting breast cancer.

Clean Eating

Clean eating nourishes your body with healthy and nutrient-dense foods containing vitamins, minerals, high-quality protein, and healthy fats. Some of the main benefits of eating clean include improved heart and brain health, a more robust immune system, and increased energy levels.

Rather than a specific diet, clean eating is about making deliberate decisions to choose whole foods—vegetables, fruits, whole grains, pulses (beans, lentils, and peas), dairy, nuts, seeds, and plant proteins—instead of more processed foods. Processed foods can contain many harmful chemicals and toxins, including the pesticides used on traditional fruit and vegetables and the hormones found in meat, eggs, and dairy.

There are varying degrees of clean eating models. Some clean-eating advocates strive to avoid all traces of added sugar, high-fructose corn syrup, preservatives, artificial colors and flavors, and other additives. While admirable, this rigid diet is difficult for most to adhere to long-term.

Clean Environment

Research shows that the air inside most homes, workplaces, and other indoor places is often more polluted than the air outside. Many factors contribute to this unhealthy atmosphere, but chemicals in cleaners, detergents, air fresheners, and candles can be the culprits.

Keeping homes, schools, and workplaces clean is vital to stop the spread of germs, viruses, and bacteria that put those with compromised immune systems, including cancer patients, at risk of serious illness. Unfortunately, many household and cleaning products often include harmful chemicals. Even so-called “green” or “natural” products may contain ingredients that can cause health problems.

Fortunately, you can limit your exposure to these potentially damaging elements, but doing so requires close monitoring of ingredients. Federal and state laws don’t require companies to list the ingredients in cleaning products, making it challenging to determine whether a product contains chemicals linked to cancer or other chronic health conditions.

Many cleaning products contain industrial chemicals with ingredients linked to breast cancer. In addition, several ingredients used in cleaning products may include, or be contaminated with, chemicals linked to breast cancer.

Clean Personal Hygiene

Many grooming and beauty products—shampoos and hair care products, shower gel, face creams, and makeup—contain Endocrine Disrupting Chemicals (EDCs), which can affect your hormone system. These chemicals are often used to prolong shelf life and as fragrance solvents.

While many chemicals and contaminants in cosmetics and personal care products pose little risk to consumers, some have been linked to severe health problems, including cancer. In fact, nearly 600 cosmetics manufacturers have reported using 88 chemicals in multiple products that have been linked to cancer, congenital disabilities, or reproductive harm since 2009.

How To Get Started With Clean Living

​​Transitioning to a clean-living lifestyle is a process that takes time and patience. While you could make sweeping changes to modify your entire lifestyle, this strategy is not attainable for most. Instead, try making incremental life changes, learn as you go, and build on your successes.

To get started, prioritize what’s most important to you. Is your diet your biggest concern? Are your cleaning products making you sick? Are you experiencing constant skin breakouts from personal care products? Take small steps to tackle the issues affecting your life the most.

A useful skill to develop is learning to read and understand labels. Warning: the ingredients you find on labels will probably shock you. If you don’t know what the chemicals and other ingredients are (and most of us don’t), look them up at Environmental Working Group (EWG) or ThinkDirty to learn more.

5 Simple Clean Living Tips

#1 Clean Eating

While there are several definitions for clean eating, most people agree that clean eating consists of eating whole, unprocessed, nutrient-rich foods when possible. Rather than trying to revamp your eating habits and meal plans overnight, you can begin by working toward the goal of including more of these types of foods more often. The following tips can help you get started:

• Avoid processed foods and artificial ingredients as much as possible.

• Incorporate more whole fruits and vegetables into every meal.

• Buy organic food whenever possible.

• Avoid highly processed foods with long lists of ingredients. If purchasing packaged foods, choose items that have five ingredients or fewer, especially with ingredients you can recognize and pronounce.

#2 Choose Safe Cookware

It’s counterproductive to embark on a clean eating program if your cookware isn’t safe. Non-stick cookware, such as Teflon, promised convenience and the ability to save consumers time and money, but it also includes harmful chemicals. Instead, cook with any of the following safe cookware options:

• Cast-iron cookware

• Ceramic cookware

• Stoneware

• Corningware and glass cookware

• Stainless steel cookware

#3 Avoid Plastic Food Storage & Food in Tin Cans

Don’t spoil the benefits of clean eating by making unhealthy food storage choices. For example, BPA (bisphenol A) contains hormone-disrupting chemicals that can mimic estrogen in the body, potentially affecting brain development, disrupting hormones, and negatively impacting fertility.

You should avoid any plastic containers and food that comes in packaging containing BPA. Unfortunately, research has shown that BPA alternatives can be just as harmful or even worse for your health! It’s especially important never to microwave food in plastic containers since heating plastic expedites the release of harmful chemicals.

You can ease into this change by starting with one replacement, such as swapping plastic food storage containers with glass alternatives.

#4 Swap Household Cleaners

Another way to avoid harmful ingredients is to swap out commercial household cleaners for more natural and eco-friendly options. Amazingly, there are no government regulations in the US that require companies to disclose their complete ingredient list due to proprietary trade secrets. However, there are still ways to avoid bringing toxic chemicals into your home, including the following methods:

• Switch to microfiber for an easy, safe, and non-toxic way to clean your home without any chemicals at all. You can save time and money while also cutting down on waste since microfiber cloths last for years while replacing cleaning solutions and paper towels.

• ​​Utilize natural cleaning solutions for more stubborn stains and situations. One effective and safe option is to use vinegar, baking soda, lemon juice, and fragrance-free liquid soap. In addition to eliminating harsh chemicals, DIY cleaning products can be a big money saver.

#5 Review Personal Care Products

According to the EWG, the average woman uses 12 products containing 168 unique ingredients every day. Skin is the body's largest organ, and the products used on your skin can be absorbed into your bloodstream. Therefore, the risk of health harm is greater when you use more products. To minimize negative effects from personal care products, reduce the number of products you put on your body, including makeup, body lotion, soap, body wash, and shower gel. Avoid all products with fragrance, which is a blend of ingredients that can contain up to 4,000 undisclosed ingredients, including harmful toxins such as phthalates. Additionally, many of the chemicals used to make fragrances can cause endocrine disruption, asthma, and even cancer, and should be avoided altogether.

Count on us to keep you informed as science uncovers information on how clean living can help you be as healthy as possible. In the meantime, explore our guidelines for a healthy diet, and become part of our empowering community, including our Breast Cancer Survivor & Friends Meet and Greets.

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