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I'd agree about my statements "weakening my argument," if, in fact I was arguing anything. I wasn't. I merely stated what I do. It's not my choice to take in any toxic chemicals when I have a choice, however diluted they may be, and however many other people may be doing it "with no problems." There are MORE than enough toxins entering our systems that I really have no choice about, so that when I DO have a choice, I'm going to opt out. That's just ME. In no way am I telling, or have I told, anyone else what to do, nor have I made any claims about Sevin one way or the other.
And no, we don't avoid plastic altogether, but we do avoid plastics with pthalates. You won't find any plasticware in this house that's not at least labeled PET or PP. It's not a perfect solution, but again, it's a choice I can make that's pretty painless. We do not heat food in plastic of any kind.
As far as trans-fats, you won't find any here, unless something has REALLY snuck in under the radar. Peanut butter? You can make your own pretty easily, or for store-bought, I recommend Arrowhead Mills' natural PB--it's sweetened with honey and salted with sea salt, and emulsified with soy lecithin, which keeps it from separating like other natural PBs. And because it's salted and sweetened, it tastes like the PB you're used to. If you have something that really needs "shortening," you can use Spectrum Spread, Smart Balance (which now comes in sticks made 50/50 with butter) or just plain palm oil (though there are environmental impacts with palm oil to consider). Crisco even makes a "non-hydrogenated formula" now which I believe is simply palm oil.
We avoid parabens. We minimize our intake of soy, especially soy that is not aged or fermented, because of the phytoestrogens. I try to minimize our exposure to any xenoestrogens wherever I can. I don't buy cereals preserved with BHA/BHT or Ethoxyquin. I don't buy all organic produce, but I do avoid conventionally-grown produce from among the "Dirty Dozen" as defined by Consumer Reports and various environmental agencies. As far as meat goes, it's difficult to get non-CAFO meat around here, so I concentrate my efforts on obtaining better quality among the fattier meats, like beef and pork, my thinking being that any toxins will be concentrated in fatty tissues more than in muscle.
All of the above might make me seem "nutty" to many of you. But I've survived (by a matter of mere weeks, according to my team of surgeons) an endocrine/reproductive disease that very nearly took my life, and is ready to return with a vengeance at any time. I've lost my reproductive organs to it. And I KNOW how I ate and lived for the first half of my life. It's no wonder I had estrogen-dominance issues. And I have a young daughter. According to my doctors, my disease process had already begun by the time I was the age she is now. This is one BIG reason that I don't buy the whole, "Oh, I've been doing this or that forever with no problems" argument. For most of my life, I was eating/living the way I was with "no problems," when really I just couldn't SEE the problems until it was almost too late. Not to employ hyperbole, but I'm sure the first smokers who developed lung cancer and emphysema had smoked cigarettes for years and years with "no problems." That, to me, is a "weak argument."
So, yeah. I guess what I'm saying with all this blathering is that I'll just go ahead and stick to my "weak argument." If I wind up with a lice problem, I'll treat it. But I won't eat eggs or meat from those birds for a LONG time after said treatment. You can say that makes me foolish, but it's my choice to make, "foolish" or not.
