Grist Review: Eco-Friendly Toothpaste
March 25, 2008 by Ali
Filed under Green Living
Let’s face it, toothpaste is very personal. Everyone has their favorites and being one of the products we use daily for health, and meet first thing in the morning, having a good toothpaste is an important part of our daily routine.
With that in mind, Grist’s Katherine Wroth has done a great job of rounding up some eco-friendly favorites and testing them out on her family, well her sister’s family actually because there were more mouths there and they were a good group of subjects representing a mix of mainstream and green toothpaste tastes.
Katherine combined the results of the toothpaste tests with info from the Environmental Working Group’s Skin Deep cosmetics database, and voilah, a great resource for readers on the best eco-friendly brands including Dr. Ken’s, Tom’s of Maine, Kiss my Face and more.
Find the review at Grist.
I keep telling myself that after this round of mentadent is used up, I’m taking the plunge to straight up baking soda. But I haven’t done it yet. Hubby loves it. I’ll get there….
Oooh interesting. I just switched to buying Trader Joe’s version of Tom’s but I’m torn between the kind that has fluoride or the kind that has xylitol. Both seem weird…?
Ok, I just tried the Trader Joes brand.
Michelle, I chose the one with xylitol. I like the flavor but its a little too sweet. Not sure if I would get used to it if I used it every morning. The taste reminds me a bit of Good Earth’s Sweet and Spicy herbal tea.
I used to try all the different “natural” brands too but I kept coming back to the fact that baking soda is really the only safe bet – you can make your own flavored by adding few drops of natural mint I guess. The flavor doesn’t bother me while brushing and I just use some natural breath mint drops *after* I brush. Glycerin in particular causes your gums to not “stick” to the tooth as much and can create problems I’ve learned.