My Health and Beauty Shopping Cheat Sheet

People often ask me how I make my shopping choices. When I first started obsessing about which health and beauty products to buy, I would scan the Environmental Working Group's Skin Deep Database vigilantly ... for hours ... days ... sometime months ... yes, I'm serious ... trying to decide which shampoo or face cream I would buy.

But as the months passed, and my bordering on OCD research habits sucked up more and more of my time, I began to realize that there were a few basic rules I could follow to give myself peace of mind without teetering over the edge of insanity. (Please remember these are MY rules, not some official guidelines.)

1) Just because it is sold at a health food store, like Whole Foods, doesn't mean a product is safe, natural, or organic.

2) Accepting rule #1, the odds are, the product is still going to be safer than one you'd buy at a conventional grocery store or pharmacy.

3) A product is only really, truly organic, if it is certified. Some certifications include: QAI, Orgeon Tilth, CCOF, G.O.C.A, and USDA Organic. Anyone can slap the words organic and/or natural on a product, but it means diddly squat. Many products that claim to be organic without the certification are full of chemicals. But if you're short on time, an organic certification is a pretty good bet safety-wise.

4) Given rule #3, however, all products don't have to be certified organic to be fairly safe. Sometimes products with certifications are more expensive, and there's an equally safe option for few dollars less. (See rule #5)

5) If you know what all the ingredients are on a label and the list is under ten items long, it's probably a safe bet. If it's under five items long, and you know what all the items are, you're golden.

One obsession down, 67 more to go....