TOXIC FREE: How to Protect Your Health and Home from the Chemicals That Are Making You Sick, by Debra Lynn Dadd is a comprehensive, yet easy guide to access information for healthier, non-toxic living. She should know, as she has spent the last twenty-five years researching and writing about everyday toxins after she started experiencing chronic headaches, insomnia and other issues. In her search to understand why she was always sick, she came to understand that the greatest exposure lies right within our own homes. In Toxic Free, Dadd offers practical guidance on how to reduce your toxic exposure and increase your body’s ability to eliminate toxics in four chapters – Toxics, Home, Environment, Body.
Chapter One, Toxics, define toxics as poisons, both those found in nature and those man-made. Also shared is how our bodies collect and store toxic chemicals with a stunning fact that everyone alive today is contaminated with at least 700 chemicals, regardless of what we do!
Chapter Two, Home, includes the gamut of everything possible in our homes from the quality of our indoor air, to cleaning products, personal care products, food, water, pest control, clothing, interior decorating and home office. Here Dadd shares the critical information we need to know as to why something is toxic, and easy 
solutions to become toxic-free. For instance, is bleach is still one of those toxic bad-guys you just can’t seem to permanently keep out of your house? What I didn’t know what that clothes turn dingy because the minerals in hard water make soap and detergent stick to fabric, producing a film that dulls colors and turns whites to gray. The solution – a water softener, and something as everyday and simple as baking soda works just fine when adding enough to make the water feel slippery.
Chapter Three, Environment, takes a closer look at how toxic chemicals harm the environment and our health but as equally important, is how we contribute to toxic pollution and ways we can reduce our impact as it relates to home energy use, transportation, pesticides and global shipping pollution. Here is where the standard pillars of green living come into play – organic foods and materials, buying local, reducing emissions and energy consumption.
In Chapter Four, Body, she wraps it up by sharing how the body’s detox system works, how we can support our detox system with good health practices, how to protect and strengthen detox organs to restore back to natural function and how to remove toxic chemicals from our body. Many of these tips we have all heard, like 
drinking plenty of water, eating organic produce, using natural sea salt, avoiding processed food and exercise. Dadd also shares easy ways to help us get there, like a recipe for fresh cranberry juice or ginger root tea to help strengthen kidneys, breathing in steam and deep breathing techniques to strengthen lung function as well as foods like garlic and cilantro, along with a few recipes, that help remove toxins from our bodies. Plus interesting thoughts and studies are discussed on the use of activated liquid zeolite - tasteless and odorless drops she takes to further remove toxins from her body without removing essential nutrients.
Along with Appendices to include Be Your Own Toxicologist, the real message that resonates with me is that the choice is ours as consumers as to whether we live toxic-free or not. Right now we are faced with harmful chemicals in everyday life, so why not educate ourselves in order to ask the best questions, take the actions , and make the best choice to live the healthiest lifestyle possible.
While there are many other good books out there, this is a handy reference guide to keep nearby if you are getting started and want to learn more. Toxic Free will be on sale in bookstores this Thursday, September 8th, however, buy an advance copy online and get a free ebook!
Disclosure: I received an advance copy of the book in order to provide this review. The opinions shared are completely mine.
