The price of “beauty”, by Natalia Rose

Most young women in our culture are suffering from moderate to extreme toxicity. This manifests in symptoms such as acne, migraines and depression, and also in fertility issues.

It is ironic that in their attempt to attract potential mates, young girls and women engage in self-care regimens that render them less fertile – and that the very products that women typically use to “enhance” their appearance actually have the opposite effect by eroding their health from the inside out.

The modern female, starting from ever younger ages, is a stupendously good consumer. The average female body takes in countless toxins on a daily basis – not only through all the make-up and other synthetic “beauty” products she uses, but also through unfit food and drink, pharmaceuticals and oral contraceptives, alcohol and other recreational drugs. These substances create all kinds of problems and wreak havoc on the body’s natural cycles.

In short, we women are moving further and further away from the true meaning of health and beauty. More to the point, we are moving further and further away from what it means to be women. Just consider the rising rates of infertility. Infertility has become a widespread affliction of modern society, and it’s only getting worse. Granted, many women are waiting until later in life to have children, but this argument only goes so far.

A healthy woman should be able to procreate for at least 30 years, but the average woman today is far from healthy. And infertility isn’t the only female health issue that is reaching epidemic proportions, and occurring earlier and earlier in life. We can add to that list other issues such as amenorrhea (lack of periods), ovarian cysts, breast cancer and thyroid imbalances.

And how many women and girls are completely debilitated for several days each month, whether through chronic PMS, painful periods, excessively heavy periods, or all three? Rather than questioning what is causing all this, oral contraceptives are typically doled out to young women as an easy solution. All of these health issues spring from the same common cause: the cycles of the female body are breaking down under the heavy burdens of modern toxicity.

Over the course of human history, we women have been by turns worshipped, vilified, loved and feared for our femininity. This is largely because women are endowed with the power to give birth to new life. Whether you consider yourself an old-fashioned girl or a die-hard feminist, the fact remains that this is the hallmark of our gender.

Fertility is the ultimate indicator of health for a young woman, yet the way most women live today, it is slipping through their hands like sand through an hourglass! Even if you have no interest in having babies, or are already past that stage of life, you still want to be radiant and healthy, right? Well, you cannot separate your overall health from the health of your reproductive system.

Let’s consider this mother-daughter scene, which I recently saw in a movie: An 11-year-old girl proudly announces the arrival of her first period to her mother. They are in the grocery store filling their cart with various mainstream feminine sanitary products. The girl then tosses a box of sugary cereal and milk into the cart as she and her mother continue down the aisles kvetching about their bodies and the agony of calorie restrictions. They also talk about when the daughter may lose her virginity.

Now let’s look at this more closely: The modern girl who has just begun to menstruate has not been taught to draw any connection between her body and her spirit. She knows nothing about honouring her body, her womb, or her sacred sexuality. Her intuition has been prematurely cut off, and she is offered no life-generating sense of direction when it comes to caring for herself. She is left wide open to chemical toxins, insecurity, and harmful behaviour patterns – all the messages that will cause her a lifetime of physical and emotional suffering.

Don’t be surprised if in 25 years she’s shopping around for a plastic surgeon and a “fertility specialist” – or what passes for one these days! The young girl’s future is laid out right there in the grocery store with the tampons, the sugary cereals, and the sexual misguidance from her very misguided mother.

Is it any wonder that so many young women suffer on account of their bodies, and end up struggling with infertility? As a society and a species, we are on a non-viable trajectory. The rising number of adults seeking infertility treatments is not just a question of age, but a result of so many years of defying Nature’s warnings.

Think about it. If your body is trying to tell you that it’s not a viable home for hatching new life, do you really think it’s wise to override its message with more chemicals and synthetic hormones? Sure, you might be able to trick the body with science in the short term, but what are the ramifications in the long term? How much toxicity and mutation can a body – or a species – take? To continue along this trajectory at this rate is to play a very dangerous game indeed.

What’s a modern girl to do?

• First, she must take charge of her self-care regimen, questioning everything she’s ever been told by her elders, her peers and the media. Surviving womanhood today with her beauty and health intact means braving a whole new frontier. The mainstream lifestyle is a recipe for a lifetime of unnecessary pain and disappointment. This calls for a paradigm shift – from the model she inherited to one that harks back to her feminine roots and honours fertility.
• Second, she must understand that anything that carries toxins into her body will contaminate her blood and organs, and then will begin eating away at the integrity of her entire system – including her future offspring, should she ever bear fruit!
• Third, she must recognise the direct connection between her menstrual cycles and symptoms and her future fertility. For example, excessively painful, premature, heavy, malodorous or otherwise troublesome periods are cause for concern. They are signs of an imbalance that needs to be corrected by diet and lifestyle changes – not masked by pharmaceutical drugs.
• Fourth, she must develop a health and beauty regimen for herself that is distinctly life-generating – one that improves her blood chemistry and the vitality of her organs. This means cleansing the body and adopting a largely organic, vegetable-based diet with minimal acidic substances in her food and environment.

How much longer will mothers pass down to their daughters the conventional “wisdom” of their toxic lifestyles? How much longer will medical prescriptions and procedures masquerade as answers to deeper problems? How much longer before we heed Nature’s warning signs?

We don’t even have to scratch the surface to see that we are poisoning ourselves. Consider the noxious odors that emanate from the armpits, groin, mouth and sweat of the average body. Notice the pimply, dull or prematurely aging skin. Count the numbers of pills popped and sick days taken on account of painful cramps and heavy bleeding.

Women of wisdom, where have you gone? You know the answer is not in the drugstore aisles, nor at fancy fundraisers! This calls for a profound paradigm shift – a literal return to our bodies and what they are so desperately trying to tell us!

Above all, we must protect our blood chemistry from any further onslaught of environmental and chemical toxins, and we must teach our daughters the language of their bodies and reproductive systems. It is never too soon to do this.

For instance, my 10-year-old daughter goes to a highly sought-after school, and I suspect she will choose to go to college one day. However, I would not consider her well educated if (a) she did not know how to care for her body, or (b) she were not highly literate in the language of Mother Nature.

I owe it to her to give her all the knowledge that she needs not only to survive in the modern world, but to thrive in her body throughout her lifetime. Now is the time to lay a strong and healthy foundation.

Women today are far from liberated, at least when it comes to our bodies. If we want to reclaim our health, we must reclaim our reproductive health. If we want a brighter future for ourselves, our children, and our children’s children, we have to make the world – and our bodies – a viable place for all of us to thrive. Every woman has a right to rejoice in the full power of her femininity!

Natalia Rose is a clinical nutritionist and the author of The Raw Food Detox Diet, Raw Food Life Force Energy, The New Energy Body and Detox 4 Women. For more information see www.detoxtheworld.com.

Read my 2010 interview with Natalia here.