Satisfy your child's sweet tooth with peace of mind

Kids just love sweets and colorful food. Unfortunately, colorful sweets are nothing but sugar that does not contain any nutrition and is undoubtly bad for health. Most confectionaries contains artificial color and flavors. Imagine your kids popping fake fruits and colors into their mouth each time they eat a sweet. I always limit my kids' intake of sweets because of these reasons.

But kids will be kids.... They just can't resist sweets.. In order to satisfy their sweet tooth, I was happy to find "The Natural" sweets, a product from Australia. Their sweets are juicy and taste just like fruit chewing fruit juices. Best of all, it contains no artificial flavors and colors.You can find these in Cold Storage, The Cocoa Trees at Mid Valley Gardens and Jaya Grocers. Visit http://www.tncc.com.au/Home.aspx for more information about the company.
Here's what I currently have in my fridge:-

Try it - I bet you and your kids will both just love it!

Natural and/or organic cosmetics

Try Honeybee Gardens natural cosmetic products. I tried 2 products (Mascara and lipstick) and I just loved it. You can read the company story at http://www.honeybeegardens.com/aboutus.html . I stopped using lipstick recently for the fear of ingesting harmful chemicals. But after I find this product, I feel safe using lipstick once again.

I bought my lipstick via Iherb ( http://www.iherb.com/?rcode=TOJ670 ) for RM26.00 after a 29% discount from the list price on the Honeybee Garden online shopping website. This also equates to only 40% of the price a Clinique or Estee Lauder lipstick and contains no chemicals! The good thing about Iherb is that it has 2,000 brands for you to buy in ONE shipping package! Lots of choices at extremely reasonable price. There are product review information to help you decide which to choose too. Quote coupon code TOJ670 to get USD5.00 off your first purchase.

In my quest to find natural cosmetics, I bought Fancyl (preservative free cosmetic) lipstick. But I had to throw it after 10 uses because it was too dry and caused my lips to peel terribly. My friend had the same experience with Fancyl too.

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Magic Washing ball: An alternative to biodegradable washing detergent

Regular commercial washing detergent is made from chemicals which could cause irritation and allergy to sensitive skin. The detergent is also not bio-degradable which leads to water pollution!

I bought this Magic Washing ball (made in Korea) and have been using it for 6 months now. Initially I was worried that it would not thoroughly clean my clothes and rid the smell (without the fragrance of the regular detergent) but was proven wrong! The clothes smell fresh and clean after the wash! I bought 2 for RM149.00 at Jusco. Can’t find them in Jusco anymore but you can get them from Ace Hardware at the same price. For one, it is RM79.00. You need 2 balls if your washing machine load is big.

The Magic ball contains elements that does the following:-

a) Produces “negative ions” from the water to soften the surface and inter fabric adhesions so that the dirt can be removed without the use of detergent

b) Keeps the pH spectrum at the level that ordinary chemical detergent does to remove oil and dirt from clothings. (If you have heavily soiled clothing it is recommended to use a small amount of detergent to aid in the removal of the stain)

c) Eliminates the “chlorine” in the water, increasing the cleaning strength by softening the water surface tension in your wash

d) Creates anti-bacterial and anti-fungal properties

Try it - start saving the earth and yourself...

Harmful artificial colorings, chemicals and preservatives in food and daily personal care products

Some artificial colorings and chemicals in both food, personal care and cosmetic products should be avoided. Some are believed to contain cancer causing agents as indicated in the CAP GUIDE published by Consumer Association of Penang. I recently read 3 of these guides (priced at RM4.00 to RM6.00 each from Popular Bookstore) which list down the ingredients that are either confirmed/suspected to be harmful to human. I always look through ingredient list of the food and personal care products to screen for harmful preservative and chemicals but could not tell which is harmful until I read these guides...

Some of the harmful ingredients listed are Sulphur Dioxide (preservative), FD&C Caramel artificial color (E150), Saccharin (artificial sweetener), Chlorine (common in toothpaste), artificial Fragrance (in cosmetics and bath products to cover the bad chemical smell), FD&C Blue No. 1 (color in bath products), Talc and the common Sodium Lauryl Sulfate (SLS). There are many such items and we cannot avoid ALL but can definitely avoid most.

It was also published in the New York Times dated 30th Mar 2011 that the federal government is for the first time publicly reassessing whether artificial colorings is the worsen behavior problems like hyperactivity in some children.FDA concluded long ago that there was no definitive link between the colorings and behavior or health problems.The consumer science group is asking the government to ban the dyes, or at least require manufacturers to include prominent warnings that ''artificial colorings in this food cause hyperactivity and behavioral problems in some children.''

Many popular food, cosmetics and personal care products on the shelf contains artificial coloring. Just close your eyes, pick one and you will hit the bulls eye.

I was happy to find the Iherb online shop that provided me with the opportunity to buy reasonably priced, safer personal care and cosmetic products with natural ingredients. Click http://www.iherb.com/?rcode=TOJ670 and you will end up shopping with your fingers for hours and find lots of products that you can use. It is a totally reliable company. I've bought 2 shipments over 3 weeks. Enjoy USD5.00 off your first purchase by entering coupon code TOJ670. Follow my facebook page Natural Healthy Life http://www.facebook.com/pages/Natural-Healthy-life/173225486061490 for regular updates on recommended products that I've tried.

Series 7 : Home cook food

As a busy working mum, providing home cooked food for my family was truly a BIG challenge. Being not able to cook for my kids all the time, I started looking out for alternatives such as getting "Surrogate Mums". ;-)

"Surrogate Mum" alternatives that I've used are:-

a) Getting my neighbor to cook for my family - didn't last long as neighbor ran out of idea on what to cook for me and decided to stop the "service" after 1 year
b) Getting my neighbor to cook for my schooling kid  - she helped me fetch my kid back from school and provided dinner to him too. Her family were vegetarian (thank goodness my kid was not fussy) and this arrangement lasted for 2 years!
c) Getting the day care nursery to also provide dinner for my kid - some day cares provide this service. Put this as one of the criteria to look out for.
d) Look for school kids day care - my kid currently goes for tuition at a teacher's house in the morning. She provides him with home cooked food after tuition and then fetches him to school.

One last best option would be to cook simple dinner dishes after work for the whole family - this is what I currenlty do. I've successfully cooked 2 dishes a day (1 meat, 1 green vegetables) simple meal for 3 months consecutively now...Some suggestions are:- steam fish, steam chicken, steam minced pork, soya chicken, potatoes with carrot and minced meat, spaghetti PLUS selection of various green vegetables (fried with little oil/poached). Remember to use only fresh ingredients, where possible. Use less canned/preserved/dried ingredients.

Happy to share that my kids has no problem eating green leavy vegetables. I remember hating these when I was young!

Use natural and/or organic skincare products

As a mum, not only am I careful with what I feed my children and family, I try to use natural bath and skincare products which is free or contains minimal chemicals.


These days, we are exposed to so much free radical and chemicals that we cannot avoid from the environment we live in. This lead to the need for us to try to minimize exposure to other harmful chemicals from products that you apply on your skin daily and protect yourself with supplements that could help negate some of these effects.

Look for natural products with minimal harmful ingredients such as artificial fragrance, paraben, SLS, alcohol and/or harmful FD&C artificial colors. All these chemicals increases one's risk to cancer. Finding natural and/or organic bath & beauty products on shelf at reasonable prices n in Malaysia is not easy. I've bought some products from organic shops such as BMS Organics, Organic Farm and Justlife and premium bath & body products shops such as Crabtree and Evelyn and Origins at up to 4 times the price you pay for normal products. Recently, I found a good alternative that allows me to buy natural and/or organic products at no more than 2 times the price of the regular products that contains chemicals - online shopping. I found this reliable website that sells over 600 brands and 20,000 products. Already received 2 shipments over the last 3 weeks and counting....

You will be able to find some of the well-known brands like Aubrey, Avalon & Jason in there. They also sell re-known supplement brands such as Now Foods and Natural Factors.

I end up spending hours and find lots of things that I need at reasonable prices. I also found a product that I bought at an organic shop 50% the price. It’s unbelievable. Why pay more for the same product!

The name of this website is Iherb. Click http://www.iherb.com/?rcode=TOJ670 to visit the website. You can also enjoy US$5.00 off your first purchase. If this discount does not appear, enter coupon code “TOJ760”.


Some tips:

1. Each product comes with a detail description and ingredient list. Most products contain natural, non-harmful ingredients. Read through them-it helps you decide which to choose.

2. Iherb has a reward program – remember to check that out too.

3. Delivery using International airmail is not-guaranteed. Use it for low value products that you can risk losing. I received my first parcel via International airmail within 12 days in full. Alternatively, you may use courier– Iherb refunds 80% of any returned/missing products. I used courier for my second parcel and received it within 4 days.
 
4. Products are professionally wrapped with bubble wraps. If you receive any damaged products, send an email to them with a photo of the damaged products and Iherb will refund you at 100%. I received one damaged product in one of my parcel and Iherb provided me with a refund without further questions.

Series Six : Go organic as much as you can afford

Eating more vegetables and fruit that may be contaminated with pesticides is just as detrimental to the body as eating more meat and processed food.
One of the leading organic retail outlet under Berjaya Group is Country Farm Organics.
Before you buy organic products, you need to know whether they are genuinely organic. One of the best ways to find out is to look for organic certification logos on the labels. Below are some of the important certification bodies around the world that ensure the production, storage and processing of organic food are done within strict guidelines extracted from Country Farm Organics :-


One good organic food center that I frequent is Kenko Real Organic Shop in SS2, Petaling Jaya. This shop has its own 400 acres farm in Pahang and is certified organic by Skim Organic Malaysia.

However, buying organic food is not something that everyone can afford ALL the time. An alternative to this would be the ozone food and sterilizer machine. It removes 80% to 95% pesticides, antibiotics &  growth hormones from meats and vegetables, kills 99% living micro-organism, viruses, germs in the meat, vegetable and fruit and preserve food's freshness. It can also be used to sterilize kitchen utensils, baby bottle, etc. The sterilized water can also be used for facial purposes and to treatment skin diseases like athlete foot (Hong Kong foot), etc. For more information and illustration, visit Ozone machine information.