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Most people understand the importance of a healthy diet (even if they don't always stick to one), but not as many understand that our health is also impacted by the cosmetics, cleaners, and other products we use on a day to day basis.

Take personal care products as an example. Your skin is the largest organ of your body, and is rather porous. The Environmental Working Group estimates that skin can absorb up to 60 percent of the chemicals we slather on it – meaning many of the chemical ingredients in our personal care products will enter the bloodstream directly. What you put on your body, as well as what you put into your body, actually becomes your body's contents. Are you seeing the connection?

Vanessa Williams addresses this issue in our book.

Too many Americans seem to miss the connection between all this toxic exposure and illness, an awareness that what we put in and on our bodies directly affects our health. People tend to be slaves to their taste buds and to convenience, and don't get that their habits exacerbate their risk for cancer, stroke, and all manner of diseases.

I am acutely concerned about this because my community, the African American community, we're more likely to get diseases in disproportionate numbers, and more likely to die from them – diseases like type-2 diabetes that are 100 percent preventable and reversible by changes in diet, exercise, and attitude. Recent studies conclude that breast cancer is growing most rapidly among African-American women. Many close friends and family members have been affected by these illnesses. Losing their breasts, their uteruses, their colons, their lives – it's not for no reason. After my epiphany, I was on the path to do whatever I could to make my life even greener and healthier. I started using exclusively non-toxic cleaners in my kitchen, bathroom, and laundry. Living as we do, perhaps there's no way to avoid toxic chemicals altogether. But taking action to reduce our risk is imperative.

When people do realize the impact of the chemicals in products they use liberally day in and day out, the light bulb moment can cause panic. You look inside your bathroom cabinet or below the sink, and feel like you're surrounded by toxicity. Wading in it knee deep – its everywhere!

But that moment passes, and you take a deep breath. Remember that every day offers a new opportunity to live healthier. And, just like with exercise or diet, no one's perfect, you just do what you can.

Vanessa William's quote taken from Healthy Child Healthy World: Creating a Cleaner, Greener, Safer Home. Reprinted by arrangement with Plume, a member of Penguin Group (USA) Inc. Copyright (c) 2009 by Healthy Child Healthy World.

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