A long-time fan of author and consumer advocate for green & clean living, Debra Lynn Dadd, I was quite happy to receive a review copy of her latest paperback, TOXIC FREE: How to Protect Your Health and Home from the Chemicals that Are Making You Sick, published by Tarcher/Penguin of the Penguin Group, 2011. ($15.95).

I first discovered Dadd several years ago via her website, debraslist.com and was struck by her practical, down-to-earth advice. When The New York Times crowned her the Queen of Green, we cheered. After reading TOXIC FREE, we’re still cheering.

backstory – In 1978, while in her early twenties, Dadd was diagnosed with MCS (multiple chemical disorder). In search of information, but without much readily available, Dadd’s quest led to a lifelong journey to discover how to live a toxic free lifestyle. Piecing together research on chemicals in everyday products and how they affect our bodies, she quickly realized how the interplay of what’s around us — what we eat, what we put on our bodies and what’s in the environment — all affects our overall health. 

Her latest work, TOXIC FREE, explains how to avoid the chemicals that are all around us, and choose healthy, green alternatives instead. As Dadd says, “In more than thirty years of living toxic-free, in almost every case I’ve been able to find a non-toxic alternative to every toxic exposure.”

Included are 4 main chapters: Toxics, Home, Environment and Body with a comprehensive guide to non-toxic solutions to everything from vitamins and perfume to shoes, bedsheets, deodorants, wine, glue and much more – the gamut of household and personal products.

Extremely useful to me is Dadd’s explanation of how the body’s detox system works. She provides practical tips on how to protect and strengthen your detox organs – kidney, liver, intestines, skin and lungs. With straightforward illustrations and graphics, I’m transported back to good ol’ school days. Only it’s more meaningful this time around.

Then you get to the real juicy stuff – the Appendices – a wealth of material regarding How Toxics Affect Your Body Systems and How to Read a Material Safety Data Sheet (MSDS) – the nitty gritty stuff of everyday life.

Hey, we only have one round on this earth — make it a healthy, productive and happy one.

You can purchase the TOXIC FREE paperback and receive a free ebook as well @ debranontoxic.com. Or find on amazon.com.