Why go natural?

There is a lot of buzz around at the moment about natural and organic products. But what's the big deal? For me it's about getting back in touch with nature - natural means balance. In times when everything is neatly packaged and over-sanitised it's easy to become detached from the natural world. But having experienced the delight that the smell of a flower can bring, or the wonder at seeing things grow, or the de-stressing effect of a good gardening session, I've been reminded just how important to our well-being a relationship with nature is.

In many cases the natural alternative is just as effective as its synthetic equivalent. It is well documented that the synthetic copy of a natural ingredient often does not have all of the components or subtleties of its natural counterpart that make the latter more effective. So why introduce a load of foreign material into your body unnecessarily, which your body may find harder to break down and use efficiently?

And it is not just the body that finds it harder to process synthetic chemicals. There are many environmental consequences of using synthetics. Like the detergents that are found in most commercial shower gels, shampoos and bubble baths, which are not very biodegradable and linger in rivers, harming aquatic life.

In short, using natural products should be about achieving balance with your surroundings. Enjoy all of the luxury, convenience or potency that commercial synthetic products provide, but with much less of the potential harm or long-term damage that they can do to either you or your environment.