The Big List of Things That Suck

By Rachel Lincoln Sarnoff

"With the number of chemicals and toxins added to our foods, personal care products and homes these days, it's tough to differentiate the good from the ugly. The Big List of Things That Suck just tells it like it is: This is all you really need to know." –Kim Barnouin, Skinny Bitch

"The Big List of Things That Suck is really educational...entertaining too. It's definitely food for thought." –Jenna Elfman

“The Big List of Things That Suck is a great resource for people who want to make a change. It's realistic, but it's empowering, too.” –Mariel Hemingway, Healthy Living from the Inside Out

“Read[ing] The Big List of Things That Suck is one of the most valuable things you can do for your health and the health of our planet. It’s wonderful because it informs you and then gives you a simple greener solution. Fantastic! Read it, then forward it!" –Emmanuelle Chriqui

“The Big List is the Cliff’s Notes on what not to do. Unconscious living is hazardous.” –Gabrielle Anwar

"We all need eco guidance and The Big List of Things That Suck is a comprehensive and easy-to-use source of reference. Being green just got a little easier." –Rachelle Begley, “Living with Ed”

“I love The Big List of Things That Suck because it gives me a starting place for things to look out for without making me feel like I suck if I'm not following all of them.” –Jennifer Taylor

• Language: English
• Publisher: Rachel Lincoln Sarnoff
• Release date: Oct 29, 2013
• ISBN: 9781311981653

Rachel Lincoln Sarnoff

As a sustainable fashion, beauty, parenting and lifestyle expert and journalist who founded EcoStiletto, I was featured in Los Angeles and Lucky magazines and appeared on “The Today Show,” “Access Hollywood” and “CNN Headline News,” among others. Today, I publish MommyGreenest.com, a resource for healthier parenting with less judgment—“because you shouldn't have to be a scientist to raise healthy kids." I'm also a brand consultant and prenatal yoga teacher, who helps families with private Healthy Home Assessments. As part of Maker Studios, I post videos at YouTube.com/RachelSarnoff. I live in Los Angeles with my husband and three children.

Book preview

FOREWORD

From a very young age, I talked the green talk. I grew up keeping an organic garden and going to pow-wows—my father was a professor at UCLA whose specialty is Native American literature. My nickname in college was Flower. But, like many, my eco-focus stopped at water conservation and recycling. I bought conventional cleaning products because that’s what my family used—even though I saw the natural cleaners on the same shelf, I wrote their claims off as marketing rather than turning over the bottles and comparing their ingredients.

I didn’t really make the connection between the environmental impact of how I lived until 2006, when I met Christopher Gavigan at Healthy Child, Healthy World (he went on to found The Honest Company with Jessica Alba). I was nine months pregnant with my third child.

We sat in his no-VOC painted office filled with oxygen-emitting plants and as he explained his mission of protecting children from toxic exposures I basically had a panic attack. Then I went home and got rid of my chemical cleaning products.

But there was a missing link in my conversations with Christopher: Basically the problem was he wasn’t a girl. He didn’t wonder about the health implications of hair dye and nail polish; he didn’t covet the latest It Bag.

So I started doing my own research. And I quickly realized how much of an impact what I bought for myself and my family could have on the environment—and the marketplace. Women are responsible for 85% of the buying decisions in a household. What we spend our money on matters.

As I learned more, I started applying this knowledge to my life. I wrote about eco-beauty for women’s magazines—and found it increasingly more difficult to write about conventional alternatives. I was asked to do marketing for a major denim label—and turned them down when I learned that takes an astounding one-third of a pound of toxic fertilizer to make one cotton t-shirt (keep that visual in mind the next time you go shopping).

How could I promote this stuff, with what I knew?

That’s when I started The Big List of Things That Suck. First, it was just a reference list for me to use when I was writing. Then, when I started EcoStiletto, it became a place to link to for more information so I didn’t have to repeat the facts over and over again. I even linked to it from Mommy Greenest. And now? It’s a book—so you don’t have to log on every time you want to look something up.

Why does this stuff matter? Let’s take the cotton connection, for example. Say one manufacturer makes the decision to use conventional cotton, and a second manufacturer decides to make a similar t-shirt in organic cotton. They make the shirts, and put them side-by-side in a store.

Now if everyone in that store knew about the toxic chemicals that go into producing conventional cotton, and made the decision to buy the organic cotton shirt, the conventional cotton would go unsold and the organic would sell out.

The next time the manufacturer makes shirts, a good businessperson would choose organic cotton because it sold so much better. The organic cotton farmer has more business. There’s more competition in organic cotton and the price goes