Lose the Lard, keep the healthy glow

I just have to put in a plug for the folks at DHC where I go for cleansers, etc. Their products are outstanding, and all natural! They have makeup and are starting to do some food items, too. Link:http://www.dhccare.com/dhc/ I've been a loyal customer for years. I think they have a store in San Francisco, too...

I totally get your vegan commitment it, and totally honor it. The beeswax thing caught my eye, and I wanted to let you in on a little beekeeper secret.

I have bees, and i love them dearly. I've even named all 60,000 of them, (though I named them all Betsy, because it's too hard to tell them apart.....;)

Bees have to make bees wax. They make it like we make, i dunno, saliva or poo..... Most commercial beeswax has icky pollutant s in it, but if you can find organic bees wax, it's amazing stuff, and nothing was harmed in the process.

See, bees make their honeycomb out of beeswax and they work darned hard to do it. No self-respecting beekeeper would touch that comb, because the time they spend building it is time they don't spend gathering nectar for honey. However, when honey is harvested (which, again, does not harm the bees in any way) the bees have put a layer of beeswax over the top of the completed honey, and that is scraped off to harvest the honey. It's amazing stuff, beeswax, so no good beekeeper will through it away.

Bees will also build something called burr comb on top of honey frames and other places where it really isn't used for anything. Lots of theories as to why they do it, but i feel like they do it largely out of boredom. So beekeepers will scrape it off and melt it into their wax stores.

But bees have to make honey. They really can't stop themselves. And if they aren't foraging for nectar and pollen, then our plants and crops won't get fertilized and it would be disastrous for our food supply - both organic and "conventional."

In order for a typical colony to make it through the winter, they only need about 60 - 70 pound of honey. But int he course of a year, if there is enough plant life around them, they will easily make 200 pounds of honey. That extra is what beekeepers harvest.

But most of us - the hobbyists and small scale operations anyway - really love and spoil our bees. And the honey and wax are both really essential and wonderful products. The honey is the only thing that really helps my daughters allergies.

I know you didn't ask, but if you are vegan for animal cruelty reasons, honey and wax from small farms (like you'd find at a farmer's market) is natural and friendly. They have to make it, they literally can't stop themselves from doing it.

I make chapstick and lotions and hair balms from my beeswax, coconut oil and other yummy stuff.

That said, large scale commercial farmed stuff is full of pesticides, I'd stay away from it too!
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Alyssa Royse
JUST CAUSE
make some good news!
www.JustCauseIt.com ( http://www.JustCauseIt.com )

I don't buy products that contain animal products, and it's been very difficult to find lipstick that doesn't at least contain beeswax. So I've resolved to have very pale lips, for now.

I use Origins' Plantidote skincare line, because it's vegan and is the only thing my sensitive skin can tolerate. I'd love to know how it ranks in terms of safeness, but the Skin Deep site doesn't rate it, apparently.

SusanV
FatFree Vegan Kitchen ( http://blog.fatfreevegan.com )

I noticed in Sephora the other day, that Cargo has these new-ish botanical lispticks that are not only environmentally friendly but also the tube is made of corn and the outer cardboard is made of flower paper with actual flower seeds. Which means you can grow flowers out of your lipstick packaging. I may or may not have paid $20 for lipstick but it's so totally worth it. And the day Revlon does the same then I'll start paying less. But in the long run it evens out; even if you pay quite a bit for lipstick you're helping the environment.

Heather B.
Personal Blog: No Pasa Nada ( http://nopasanada.org )
BlogHer CE: Business, Career & Personal Finance ( http://www.blogher.com/topic/business-career-perso... )

Nice take on things Lisa! Although i am not a vegetarian, so my perimeters might be slightly different, my cosmetics rule has always been , "if i can't put it IN my body, i don't want to put it ON my body." i've made exceptions here and there, but that's my way of keeping it "real" and "natural." food grade cosmetics.....
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Alyssa Royse
JUST CAUSE
make some good news!
www.JustCauseIt.com ( http://www.JustCauseIt.com )

Thanks Siel - honestly, I cannot stand the thought that anything I put on my face could be animal-tested, but I haven't thought enough about what's in what I put on my face that won't kill me or harm someone else! :)

Great post. Kperfetto, I'll try that shampoo thingy.

Lisa Stone
BlogHer Co-founder ( http://www.blogher.com/member/lisa-stone )
Surfette ( http://surfette.typepad.com )

I wouldn't worry about lard (unless you're vegan) as much as I would some of the other chemicals in makeup, namely dyes and talc. (Though talc not as dangerous as once feared, I still don't use it.)

The Aubrey stuff is good, and I really like some of their shampoos (I prefer the original, non-cloying scent, though), but they don't last as long as conventional cosmetics due to the "natural" preservatives.
Available Light ( http://kathy-p.blogspot.com ) & Five Dollar Radio ( http://fivedollarradio.blogspot.com/ )

First, i totally agree that the chemicals we put in and on our body are a major problem. We go to virtually ridiculous lengths to get food, as well as health and beauty products, that are natural and un-processed.

But i think that you may be using 'lard' as a generic term for any solid fat, and it is quite different.

Lard is the carefully rendered solid fat from pigs. It is, in fact, a very healthy fat. It is easily digested, not mechanically or chemically processed, contains ZERO trans fats and helps to break down the natural nutrients in food. It is considerably better for you than any of most of the highly processed (chemically and mechanically) fats on the market and that regularly appear in our foods. It has been used - along with butter - for cooking, baking for centuries.

That said, getting "real" lard is almost impossible. The stuff on supermarket shelves is as processed and toxic as Crisco (which I consider one of the greatest health risks on the market, right alongside high-fructose corn syrup.)

Actually, lard is making a come back, big time. (Thankfully.)

Here are some interesting articles:
From Food and Wine: http://www.foodandwine.com/articles/lard-the-new-h...
From Weston A Price Foundation (they're a bit reactionary, but a pretty good source of info, taken with a grain of salt:) http://www.westonaprice.org/transition/fatfear.htm...
From The wealthier Life in the UK: http://www.westonaprice.org/transition/fatfear.htm...

But you can find many other articles, the vast majority of which, these days, will tell you that Lard is a much healthier alternative than just about anything else.

The problem, you have to make it yourself. Lard on store shelves has been so processed as to be not a food product.

But if you google "rendering lard" you'll find lots of articles about that too.

Now, what other natural alternatives can we find for the processed things in our lives? (I use beeswax and coconut oil on my hair, and it's gorgeous!)

And if you swtich, you will enjoy baked goods like you didn't know they could be......
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Alyssa Royse
JUST CAUSE
make some good news!
www.JustCauseIt.com ( http://www.JustCauseIt.com )