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Aromahealth "The Natural Alternative "
Welcome to Aromahealth FAQs
Aromatherapy has been around and has been practiced
in one form or another since the beginning of civilization. It
is the art, and science, of using oils extracted from aromatic
plants to enhance health and beauty. |
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Our Devotion to Total Care
We strive to bring you current articles concerning your well being.
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Date Submitted:
Welcome to our updated website
Updated Jan 1.12
Happy New Year!!
This Is Family
http://www.backpackfoodie.com
Helene and I hug Grace, of Grace’s Traditional Foods. Poor Grace has tears in her eyes as she gives us one last poppy seed roll, a traditional recipe she has brought with her from Poland and recreates every week.
We also receive hugs from Paul and Janice from Aromahealth whose creams and natural beauty products Hélène has fallen in love with over the last year. From them, Hélène received a gift of essential oils to bid her health on our journey. Maureen gives us one of her delicious, spicy lentil soups that got us through winter. Tracy from Catfish Coffee Roasters gives us bags of coffee to drink with our friends and family in Montreal.
Over our last days in Edmonton, each meal brings back memories of the people who grew, raised or baked everything we eat. When we taste the flair of spices on Ayikarley’s Ghanaian chicken, we remember her easy laugh and generous smile. Tasting Mrs. Helbig’s stunning broccoli, I picture the kind, elderly woman plowing her field, her quiet strength brought to harvest the bounty of her land.
This is what we left behind in Edmonton. We left amazing food, but also a deep sense of community, a family.
I’ll miss it as I would a dear friend. And every time I will look at a new city’s urban sprawl, I will wonder what rebels hide behind this facade, keeping the soul of our society alive.
To Dom, Tracy, Jerry, Gisèle, Mrs. Helbig, Ruth, Walter, Molly, Dawn, Ayikarley, Paul, Janice, Grace, John, Madalina, Mariana, Sue, Maureen, and everyone else I have the terrible misfortune of forgetting in this post:
I will miss your food, your friendship and your kindness. You have taught me the true meaning of community, and for that I am eternally grateful
Edmonton Womans Magazine Oct 2011
Using products not harmful to you or the environment
by Louise Schutte
Many of the personal care products we use on a daily basis contain chemicals that are linked to cancer and reproductive and developmental toxicity.
Among them these chemicals are parabens that are an estrogen mimic and phthalates are hormone disrupters. Talc is carcinogenic if inhaled and sodium laureth sulphate, originally designed as a garage floor cleaner, is also believed to produce carcinogens. Personal care product chemicals aren’t kind to the environment either. For example, the plastic exfoliants found in several store brand sugar and salt scrubs are killing marine life.
But there are alternatives to mainstream cosmetics and care products that include toxic ingredients. These include "greener" commercial products and preparations you can make at home from common ingredients.
People are increasingly seeking products that are friendlier to the environment and themselves, according to aromatherapist Paul Ennis.
"I most definitely see the 'green shift' towards natural and holistic personal care products," says Ennis. "My customers need to be certain they are making informed choices for their family. The objective is for a chemical free household environment."
He adds, "I believe, as do many naturopaths, that the increase in childhood asthma and eczema is partially due to the harsh chemical ingredients in soaps, shampoos, creams and laundry detergents."
Large corporations sometimes confuse and overwhelm people with information that can perpetuate the notion that science takes better care of the skin, says Tanya Zurock, president of Wild Prairie Soap Company Inc., who challenges that notion.
"We believe that nature does a much better job!" Zurock says. "In terms of changing perceptions of skin care in the eyes of the consumer, I believe that companies like Wild Prairie Soap Company help educate people about the simplicity of taking care of yourself. Many large conglomerates are trying to follow suit with their own brand of ‘natural.’"
When searching for green beauty products, the consumer should look for: natural ingredients, biodegradable products, environmentally safe manufacturing processes, recycling program, and that they are not tested on animals. "We probably put more effort into finding the right car or even digital camera," Zurock says. "Taking care of yourself doesn’t have to be complicated."
Health Canada has not made ingredient listings mandatory on cosmetics labels.
"This does not [instill] much confidence with those concerned," Ennis notes.
Nevertheless, it is possible to ensure that a product does not contain toxic ingredients. Contact the manufacturer to get a breakdown of what is in it.
The other option is to simply use pure, natural substances rather than commercial preparations.
"A most effective treatment to moisturize your face naturally is using jojoba oil, a fine wax from the seed," says Ennis. "When we get fine lines and wrinkles it is mainly due to the diminishing of our natural skin oil sebum. Only one product in nature produces oils very similar to sebum and that is the bean of the jojoba plant
Take one tablespoon of jojoba oil and set aside. Put on dishwashing gloves and wring out a facecloth as hot as possible. Apply the jojoba to the steaming facecloth and as quickly as possible up to the face, covering your forehead to chin. Pat the cloth firmly against your face. Your pores will open drinking in the jojoba oil.
Within five seconds, the cloth will cool down and your face pores will close. Give your face a gentle wipe with the facecloth to finish. Add one drop of jojoba to your hand and use your finger to apply to your eye and mouth areas. Jojoba also contains mysteric acid, a natural anti-inflammatory that helps keep eye puffiness to a minimum. Apply three times per week and do not follow up with any creams or moisturizers.
November Special 120ml $14.95
Organic Jojoba Oil
Jojoba oil (pronounced: ho-ho-ba) is a unique naturally occurring liquid wax obtained from the seeds of the Jojoba shrub (Simmondsia chinensis). The plant is native to the Sonoran Desert (Northwest Mexico and Southwest USA).
Jojoba shrubs can take up to three years to reach flowering maturity from seed. The shrub's extensive deep root system and leathery leaves make it well suited to desert droughts and intense heat
Jojoba is cultivated for its commercially important oil crop, but it is also grown in difficult areas to prevent soil erosion. Jojoba oil is commercially cultivated in Mexico, Israel, Argentina and the USA. It is the only natural botanical substitute for spermaceti oil (from the sperm whale) and it is also being investigated as a possible source of bio fuel.
What it can do for you
Jojoba oil is unique because it is a naturally occurring liquid wax, similar in its properties to "Spermaceti" (whale oil). These types of liquid waxes have hundreds of uses and are very difficult to make synthetically. Whale oil comes from the head cavity of the Sperm Whale and used to be widely utilized across many industries - from lamp oil to soap making. Since the 1970s, pressure has been on to conserve whales and to eliminate the use of whale oil. Jojoba is an excellent substitute to it and in the last decades, commercial cultivation of Jojoba has significantly increased due to high demand for this wonderful substance.
The Facts
• When European naturalists first discovered the Jojoba plant in the 19th century, its botanical record was accidentally mixed up with other notes taken in China. That's why the Latin name "chinensis" was first assigned to the plant, even though Jojoba was not of Chinese origin.
• The English common name Jojoba is of Mexican-Spanish origin.
• Native Americans used Jojoba seeds and oil for a variety of purposes. They roasted the nuts and ate them when other food was scarce and used the oil to soothel and to condition skin, scalp and hair.
• Our Jojoba oil is cold pressed and organic and comes from a plantation located in Northwest Argentina. Brothers Adolfo and Alfredo along with Christian and others have grown the business during the past 20 years. Adolfo and Alfredo started as growers and farmers in the fields and have now developed the plantation into the largest Jojoba crop in the world with the highest yield of oil.They still use traditional drip irrigation farming practices, which reduce water evaporation and conserve reserves. The oil that we buy from this source is fully traceable back to the very farm it is handpicked from during harvest time.
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