Question from C. W.

I’m wondering if you could recommend a dark chocolate bar plain that is at least 74% cocoa. I don’t know how to “read” the labels to tell. For instance this Hershey’s Dark Chocolate I have here Ingredients: Sugar, chocolate, cocoa butter etc. I would think cocoa would be at the top of the list?

I want to try to put this article to the test:

Debra’s Answer

The percentage of cocoa is listed on the label for dark chocolates that contain significant cocoa. Not on Hershey’s because I don’t think they make one with that high a percentage. If sugar is listed first, then there is more sugar than cocoa, which means the cocoa is less than 50%. If you are looking in a regular supermarket for a high cocoa chocolate, check the labels of good “bittersweet” chocolate bars. These will be sweetened with refined white sugar, but a very small amount.

I suggest going to a good natural food store in your area and look for a natural brand. Dagoba 74% bittersweet is one that I know meets your needs.

Natural brands are often made with organically grown cocoa and sweetened with evaporated cane juice the whole sugar direct from the cane unrefined instead of refined white sugar. You might also try cacao nibs, which are 100% chocolate and no sugar. These taste a little odd at first, but I like them. They would be the best if eating chocolate for the health reasons you cite above.

Another option is to mix up your own chocolate using cocoa powder. You can mix a little with butter, cocoa butter, or coconut oil and any sweetener you want.

For more on chocolate, visit Debra’s List: Organic, Shade Grown, Fair Trade Chocolate and especially read my article “Choosing Healthy Chocolate”.

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Question from M S-M

I live in Orford Qc where there is a conservation national parc, a very delicate ecosystem. Unfortunately , it is a very beautiful mountain also and a promotor is now on is way of exchanging the land for another to built around 2000 condos and new golf courses. The builders have already constructedfor the many sidewalks and belvedere in the parc with ACQ wood they say, to me it smells like CCA wood. Suppose moment it is ACQ, is it safe for a prolong exposition to wild life and for the drinking water of the community?

I am concerned and I asked the promotor during the BAPE hearings yesterday. He said that it is safe and the park authorities also. I am not conviced, since he is using vinyl a lot in other constructions.

Do you have any comments on the safety of ACQ?

Debra’s Answer

ACQ stands for Alkaline Copper Quat. The main active ingredient is copper, which was the main active ingredient in CCA chromated copper arsenate pressure treatment, which was phased out in 2003. Though the copper remains the same, the other ingredients in ACQ are much less toxic than the chromium and arsenic that were used in CCA.

According to manufacturers’ literature on ACQ, quat acts as a co-biocide, providing additional protection from fungi and insect attack that copper alone would not control. Quats are commonly used in household disinfectants and cleaners, and in swimming pools and spas. Quats are biodegradable in soil.

Recently my husband and I were faced with a decision as to whether or not we would use ACQ treated wood for posts to hold a garden gate. At both Lowe’s and Home Depot, free information on ACQ treated wood was obviously displayed. These are interesting documents. On the one hand they say wear a dust mask when cutting, wear gloves when handling, wash exposed areas thoroughly after handling, wash work clothes separately from other household clothing, do not use where it may come into direct or indirect contact with drinking water or where the preservative ma become a component of food, animal feed, or beehives, and do not use for mulch. On the other hand, use recommendations include hand rails, fence posts and decking, and one brand was the winner of the 2002 EPA Presidential Green Chemistry Award!

We were in a situation where we needed two ten-foot 4×4 posts, which are not sold at either Home Depot or Lowe’s. Here in Florida, the choices were ACQ and cedar. We went to lumberyards and started off saying “We don’t want ACQ because it’s toxic” and lumberyard men would look at us blankly and say “No, it’s not.” We would show them the manufacturers’ flyers from Home Depot and they had never seen them before. They were handling and cutting these boards and posts all day long with no precautions and had no concerns whatsoever. Everywhere we went it was the same.

Coming from California, where we would use redwood instead of CCA treated wood, we thought we could just use cedar instead. But we found out that today, cedar is cut too young to have developed the insect-resistance of a mature tree. We were told that if we used cedar, here in humid Florida, the wood would be rotted in three months. The only wood you can put in the ground here and have it last at all is pressure-treated.

We ended up going with the ACQ posts and we’ll be painting them with a water-based exterior latex paint, both to protect the wood, and so we and our guests will not have to touch the ACQ treatment directly when we touch the gate posts. It was the practical choice here.

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Question from P. A.

Due to a lack of time and energy, I’d like to hire someone to clean our carpets for us; however, I have serious concerns about the toxicity of the products used.

Do you have any suggestions? Do you know anything about ChemDry? Their website says they use “hot water extraction with the power of carbonation.” Do you know what this means?

Any help you can provide would be greatly appreciated.

Debra’s Answer

Carbonation is what makes the bubbles in club soda or any soft drink. It occurs naturally in some spring waters. To make carbonated beverages, liquid carbon dioxide is injected under pressure beneath the water in a sealed container. Each of us exhales carbon dioxide into the surrounding air every time we breathe.

Using carbonated water as a cleaning solution has been around for a long time. Once I was having lunch with my literary agent and a big New York editor at a fancy restaurant in San Francisco. I ordered an ice cream dessert that came in a pool of chocolate sauce. I put my spoon in the ice cream and the whole scoop slipped off the plate into my lap! My agent immediately ordered a bottle of club soda and the chocolate stain came right out.

ChemDry is applying this same method on a larger scale. Their website says:

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Question from T. A.

We need black-out curtains for our baby’s room, but I can’t find all natural material. All have some polyester, or vinyl, in them.

Debra’s Answer

Readers ~

I tried to find all-cotton black-out curtains or even black-out fabric, to no avail. All contained polyester.

When I couldn’t find an all-natural solution for her, T wrote to me and said, “I suppose i’ll just leave the piece of black wool material that i taped to the window in place.”

I suggested that she have that black wool sewn into her curtain as a liner, and that’s just what she’s going to do.

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Question from J. B-G

I want to tell you how fantastic baking soda cleans up the salad spinner “cage”!

This salad spinner of mine has been in regular use for about 25 years; periodically it gets hand washed with warm soapy water and after being rinsed, put out in the California sun to be sanitized; but this winter it suddenly got grey looking, sort of like what can happen to laundry sometimes.

Upon closer inspection, I recognized the signs of encroaching mold. Out came the old toothbrush and on came the baking soda, just sprinkled lightly on the bottom at first. After I scrubbed that part inside and out, I rinsed it, then turned the cage on its side and dusted the inside all around before working with the toothbrush inside and out again.

After rinsing, the whole cage looked and sparkled like brand new!

Debra’s Answer

Thanks for your tip!

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Question from M. B.

Love the newsletter. I cannot wait to buy the revised edition of your book!

I have a quick question – are there alternatives to vinyl lunch bags? My nine year old son has a vinyl lunch bag the cooler type that really needs to be replaced and we hate the smell of new vinyl. Paper bags won’t do, he really needs a lunch bag that stays cold for 4+ hours. No school lunch program yet, either. Help!

Thank you so much for all the GREAT info!!

Debra’s Answer

I don’t know of any natural fiber lunch bags that are insulated, but there are a number of nice cotton lunch-bag size bags available online–some are even made with organically-grown cotton and reasonably priced too. What I would do is get a cotton bag and then insert one of those cold packs that you can refreeze. See if that works well enough for you.

Browse the cotton lunch bags on Debra’s List…

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Question from P. G.

I have all three of your books, and thoroughly enjoy your newsletters! Thank you for all you do, and for sharing it all with us out here!

I am very committed to a healthy environment–organic beds, bedding, carpet, foods–just about everything. I spend a lot of money for it. However, for my clothing, I do purchase natural fiber cotton, linen, and silk clothing, but I don’t buy it organically. And there is my dilemma. I am aware of all the pesticide use on growing cotton, but does that residue REALLY end up transferring to our bodies when we wear it as clothing? Has any conclusive study or proof of this been made?

I understand the need to pre-wash new clothing of the residues from sizing and any other “new” fabric treatments before wearing (I wash my clothes with Whole Foods brand laundry detergent along with baking soda, and use vinegar in the rinse cycle), and appreciated your advice on avoiding non-wrinkle, stain-resistant clothing (which I now do–thanks!), but haven’t completely resolved this organic cotton clothing issue.

I ordered some swatches of organic fabrics to purchase to sew (I used to sew all my clothes) and may consider that. The prices of the fabric are very reasonable. But then I just wonder: is it really a valid concern????

Debra’s Answer

I’ve already partially answered this question in Q&A: Conventional vs Organic Cotton Clothing, but I wanted to specifically answer the question “Has any conclusive study or proof of this been made?”

My experience wearing non-organic cotton clothing is that I don’t feel any residues of pesticides present. But that’s not a scientific test.

So I asked Home Environmental Consultant and Certified Bau-Biologist Mary Cordaro to comment on this, because she has experience with product testing done by laboratories in Germany that are far more sophisticated than the laboratories we have available here in the USA. Mary said, “German fabric tests on conventional cotton fabric have shown that, unlike cotton batting, pesticides are not usually present in cotton fabric. The fabric milling and production process removes the pesticides.”

I’m not concerned about health effects from pesticide residues in cotton fabrics (though they are present in cotton batting, so it would be important to get organic cotton in a mattress or pillows). We all should be concerned about the pesticides from the growing of cotton making their way into the environment (which then come back to us in soil, air, and water). But as I said before, at this time there just isn’t enough organic cotton for all of us to wear it 100% of the time. At the same time, we should each take every opportunity available to us to purchase organic cotton to support the continued growth of the industry.