“We were green before green was popular”, it was this Melaleuca tagline that got my attention. I was excited to have been introduced to Melaleuca, they seemed to provide great products and a good referral program (if you like that sort of thing). I was a Melaleuca customer for almost 3 years, I trusted them…I have been deceived!
I was recently looking at Melaleuca’s children’s pain reliever that I bought for my beautiful daughter and I was astonished that it had red dye #40. Just in case you don’t know, red dye #40 has been linked by numerous studies since the 1970’s as causing behavioral issues, hyperactivity and other allergic reactions in children. Artificial dyes (red #40) are made from petroleum (oil) and that is why their safety has been debated for almost 80 years. 1
So why would a company that talks about wellness and health have such harmful ingredients in their products? I didn’t understand, so I dug deeper – I called Melaleuca’s product information center and started investigating more. I figured if a company let their values slip on red dye #40, what else have they turned a blind eye too? I thought I would asked about GMO’s – seemed like a fair question! Now if you read my article about GMO’s you will know that I am super concerned about these ingredients. Melaleuca’s product information person was able to tell me that there were GMOs in Melaleuca products but unfortunately there is no list available of which products. “What!!!” A wellness company that boosts “Caring for the environment since 1985” and “The worlds leader in natural heart health solutions” – do you think GMO crops help our environment, if you said ‘yes’, well sadly you need to investigate that matter further; and how can you claim to build healthier hearts with chemicals like red dye #40 and pesticide laden corn and soy crops.
I pushed further with Melaleuca’s product information department and they told me there is no list of products that specifies the GMO ingredients and the only people that know are the Research and Development department and they refuse to release a list – YES, they refuse!
So now I know that they have GMOs in their products, but how do I make an informed decision as to which products I want to purchase, if any at this point? So I had another idea: Melaleuca is in Europe, the Food Standards Agency requires all products in Europe to have labels indicating GMO ingredients. So I thought I could contact the Melaleuca European office to get a list, but sadly I was informed that this would be pointless effort as most products for Melaleuca Europe are different than the USA products, with many having different ingredients. At this point Melaleuca was increasingly becoming more aggressive and defensive and we were going round in circles, so I decided to cut my losses and move on with my life.
So the bottom line is that Melaleuca claims to be a wellness company and claims to only choose ingredients that are for the health and wellbeing of their customers – don’t be fooled (like I was), it just a big con! In my opinion they only care about is the bottom line. Melaleuca is just like Coca-Cola, Pepsi, Kraft, Kellogg’s and General Mills etc, they all want to deny American’s their basic right, to know what’s in our food.
Read my words, hear my frustration – We are changing things together!
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Hello, and welcome to my website! My name is Nicole Dooley and I am a yoga teacher, film producer, blogger, and devoted friend, wife, and mother who is passionate about healthy living and the wellness of our planet.
In fact, I believe that the word passionate falls short in describing my drive and desire in pursing a health conscious lifestyle for myself and the environment. I make an effort to continually research and investigate the latest health and environmental issues, and I stay at the forefront of this information to educate my family, friends, and the world around me.