Eating Green

One easy way to improve your health, the health of your family, and the health of the planet is to EAT GREEN!

I LOVE FOOD! Who doesn't?!?! Our love for food has contributed to increased rates of obesity and many other health issues. Unfortunately, it has also made a HUGE impact on our planet!

Food is so much more that the fuel that keeps us going. It involves choosing, cooking, eating and sharing with the family and friends. Over the centuries we have gone from being primitive and foraging to only a handful of us being farmers and the rest of us getting our food at a supermarket. This is where things get a little sticky....something that was meant to be simple and stressfree has become a health concern.

Most of what we buy, cook, and eat has been tainted with synthetic chemicals at almost every stage of its existence. There are chemicals to kills things (pesticides), Chemicals to make things grow faster (fertilizers, growth hormones, anitbiobtics), and chemicals that make things look better than they would and last longer than they should.

Yes, the government does set limits on just how much of each chemical is used, and they claim that the levels they approve are safe. Yet, they do not conduct rigorous testing to make sure that none of those limits are exceeded.

How can we know that we are not putting these chemicals into our bodies? Buy organic!
Not even 100 years ago, all farming was organic!
The organic food market has grown drastically over the past decade. It used to be that you could only find organic foods in specialty stores, but it is now available almost everywhere. Even Wal-Mart is getting on the trend. Organic foods are even becoming an important part of restaurants and school cafeterias!

So what stops everyone from buying organic? Habit and cost. It really is not ignorance anymore. Shoppers understand that organic foods are better for them and their families. And yes, organic is a tad bit pricier than conventionally grown foods. But I have to ask, what is more important, buying more less expensive food or getting used to eating just a little less and eating organic healthier food?

Let me break down the reasons why organically grown food is more expensive. The first reason is because it's more expensive for farmers to produce. Organic seeds cost more money. Then, there is also a lot of manual labor involved without the use of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides. People cost much more than chemicals. There are also stricter requirements and inspections, which obviously cost more. And because of the labor and laws, most organic farms aren't as big as conventional farms. Organic farmers do not achieve what economists call "economies of scale," which means the more you produce, the lower the cost of each item.

Aside from mentioning what isn't in organic foods, I should also mention what IS in them. Researchers have found that organic foods contain higher levels of essential nutrients and more cancer-fighting antioxidants than conventionally grown foods. Here's an example, organic ketchup was found to have 5 times the amount of the antioxidant lycopene than conventional ketchup. This fact makes it even more worth the price!

Now here's a tip, YOU CAN BE ORGANIC ON A BUDGET!
Be smart about what you buy. The FDA found you can reduce your pesticide intake by 90% if you ate only organic versions of 12 produce items.

peaches

apples

sweet bell peppers

celery

nectarines

strawberries

cherries

pears

imported grapes

spinach

lettuce

potatoes

To top it off, if you buy Organic items when they are IN SEASON, they will be priced slightly lower and produced more locally, which contributes to lowering your carbon footprint!

You can also shop around. With the increasing popularity of organic foods, you can bet that every grocery store wants your buisness, therefore they are more inclined to try and compete through everyday values and sales. And when you do find a deal, buy lots of it if you can freeze it or if it isn't perishable.

BUY LOCAL!!!! Buying locally grown fruits, vegetables and meats has become easier. Many supermarkets feature them in season and there is always your local farmers market. If you buy foods in season they will be cheaper because they are abundant. Fuel costs (part of your carbon footprint) are not incorporated into the price. And I can pretty much guarantee that locally grown food will taste better.

Being that the major chains in supermarkets have caught on, there's a pretty good chance that the stores own brand will offer you organic choices cheaper than the big-name brands. Choose it!

There is always the option of growing your own produce! This is something to seriously consider. You'd be surprised at how much you can grow in a small amount of space. Don't have a garden or a back yard? Consider container gardening! With roughly two square feet, you can grow greens that will keep you satisfied for months!

There is also the meat factor. There are various reasons beyond concern for the environment to change the way we look at meat. The qaulity of life for livestock can be an influential factor. It has caused many people to become vegetarian. Instead of allowing cows and other animals to graze and roam naturally, they are confined and fed grain and corn grown using pesticides. Simply reducing meat consumption would make a HUGE impact in lowering you carbon footprint. And health wise, lowering meat consumption can help with lowering cholesterol and limit the intake of unnecessary chemicals such as hormones and antibiotics.

I will be honest, I love meat! But I do not need to have meat at every meal to survive! I try to limit my meat intake to a small portion at dinner time. I also have the family eat a vegetrian meal one night a week. My kids look foward to "veggie night" weekly.

Eating green alone is not the answer, it is a cummulative effort. And that has been the point to my blog. To present tons of small steps we can take to slowly become greener and live more in harmony with nature. We only have one planet Earth, lets try to preserve it for our current health and the health of future generations.

Green Cleaning.....better and safer!

Cleaning is basically a fact of life and has become a necessity. How you clean is entirely up to you. But what does "clean" mean? We all grow up with the over powering stench of amonia meaning that our homes are "clean." I grew up associating "clean" with the chemical stench of the many cleaning products that were assumed to be cleaning and sanitizing. Associating chemicals with clean is a common yet dangerous mistake.

Have you ever stopped to think about the WARNING labels on any product containing amonia or bleach? Why would there be a WARNING on a product that is suppossed to be helping me maintain a CLEAN AND SAFE environment for me and my family? Yes the government allows the use of potentially hazardous ingredients in these products, but we are warned that we should not have long exposure to nor inhale the products. We are also told that they could cause irritations, blindness, and potentially even death! Were you aware that companies do not have to list ALL of the ingredients in their hazardous products? They are only legally required to list the products that have already been found to be hazardous to our health. Honestly, the government has no clue as to what ingredients in common household cleaners are safe because they do not require manufacturers to test them.

There has not been sufficient testing done to determine the long term effects of exposure to commercial cleaning products. Many ingredients in common household cleaners have been linked to various childhood health problems, such as asthma or even some cancers. Is it your fault? NO! The manufactures do not inform us of the potential carcinogens, hormone dusrupters, neurotoxins, etc...Why should they inform us? They know that if we, the consumers, were aware that the products we depend on contained dangerous chemicals, we'd stop buying them!

Despite the warnings, consumers continue to buy hazardous cleaning products. So to help clarify things a bit, here are a few of the WARNINGS used on product labels:

DANGER: products with this word on it must be used with EXTREME care. If used incorrectly, you could get sick, hurt, go blind or die! This label is also applied to products that can explode if heated.

WARNING: less of a warning than DANGER, but still means that you get become sick or get hurt. This could also mean that the product can easily catch fire.

CAUTION: used on products that can irritate your skin, make you sick if you inhale the fumes, or hurt you if it were to get in your eyes.

Here's a little challenge for you. Go grab on of your conventional household cleaners. Examine the label. Think about what I've told you about the WARNINGS. Next look at the ingredients, I bet you can't even pronounce half of them! Go to the Household Products Database at the National Institutes of Health (hpd.nlm.nih.gov), and look up two or three of your favorite cleaning products. You can even try looking up one of the ingredients commonly in cleaners such as butylcellosolve. Believe me, you will be shocked, I sure was!

Knowing what you have just read, take it upon yourself to expose your family and yourself to less chemicals!

Over cleaning is one of the reasons why so many of use have developed allergies, we do not allow our bodies to develop an immunity to many things in our environment because we are always killing through over sanitizing. Sanitizing is needed for extreme cases, such as a cancer patient that might be undergoing a bonemarrow transplant and will not have an immune system for some time.

Choose or make effective green cleaners and clean kindly! Most green cleaners are plant-based so that soaps and detergents are biodegradable. Biodegradable means that they break down easily instead of creating more garbage. Use cleaners that contain plant based solvents and ammonia-free glass cleaners. Get rid of any cleaning products that contain any potentially harmful ingredients. As mom always says, it's better to be safe than sorry.

When getting rid of household cleaners, please dispose of them properly. Do not empty the cleaners into your sinks. The chemicals will up affecting the planet. Look up a local "CLEAN UP DAY." Workers take all of you potentially hazardous cleaners and chemicals to properly dispose of them. Take a close look at how these workers are dressed. You will notice that they look like astronauts, covered from head to toe. They wear protective gear so that they do no absorb any of the chemicals through their skin or inhale any of the fumes. Now how many times have you locked yourself in the bathroom with the same cleaners that these workers don't even want to be exposed to?

For a greener home, TAKE OFF YOUR SHOES!

In this world, there are many cultures in which people remove their shoes when they get home. It is also a sign of respect for one to take their own shoes off when visiting the homes in which this is practiced. The transition from outdoors to indoors is not only cultural, it also has practical implications as well as symbolic of treating the home as a sacred place.

In applying this to creating a green home, removing shoes is a way to not only cut back on the cleaning of your floors, but it also avoids tracking in outdoor dirt, pollutants, pesticides, germs, fungicides chemicals and even animal feces into your living space. Did you ever think that you could actually bring all of that into your home?

In our home we have a rule, no matter who you are, your shoes come off at the front door and you leave them there. It is kind of like washing your hands before you eat, or covering your mouth when you cough or sneeze. It just seems like common sense that shoes worn outdoors should not be worn indoors. We walk around barefoot, in slippers, socks, or a special pair of sneakers reserved for indoor use only. Especially if your house has any form of carpeting, in which outdoor shoes can rub all sorts of nasty stuff off the soles of your shoes and accumulate, no matter how religiously you vaccum.

This is one of the simplest steps with which we can reduce pollutants in the home environment, so it makes sense. It also adds a nice change of pace in your day by adding the recognition that you are stepping into a different aspect of your life, your home.

It may feel a tad bit uncomfortable to request that guests take their shoes off. You can suggest to your guests that you live with this custom by having a clear place to store shoes. We have a big welcome mat so that everyone can step in to take their shoes off. The mat can easily be picked up and cleaned. We also keep a boot tray out where we keep our shoes.

Having a specific area not only lets your guests know that you have a shoeless home, it also can create a feeling of being able to strip off the days stresses!

Even in the times when you have the occassional plumber or any worker come into your home with dirty dingy workboots, you have every right to request that they wear booties over their boots. It's usually the policy of most service companies to keep a supply of booties, but since they are usually not requested, most workers do not wear them.

In the end, whether it is due to cultural tradition, trying to save the planet or for the health of your own family and home, why not kick off your shoes? It will not only destress you, your health will also thank you.