June 29th, 2009 - Leslie Billera
 I’m about to become a first-time mom at age 40. Literally, at any moment.
I don’t know how I will feel when I first see my baby (my guess is a post mortem cocktail of thrill and terror), but one thing I definitely do know: my time – and sleep – will be limited. That’s what everyone has been telling me for the last 10 months (yes, it’s actually 10 months, not 9…but that’s another blog subject!).
Soon, my husband and I will have less time to make buying decisions – but more pressure than ever to make the greenest and healthiest choices for baby. The hours I formerly spent clicking around eco product sites, languorously reading ‘about us’ and ‘press’ sections to try to discern a given product’s ‘true green value’ will be but a hazy memory.
To prepare, I’ve saved these green washing sites – green washing is misleading marketing about the environmental benefits of a product – that I now share with other busy moms, dads, or just busy people in general…
Green America’s Responsible Shopper
I’m a Green America Business Network member, so this one is close to my heart (as a copywriter, I’m Green America-Approved and have the seal to prove it!). This site ranks companies in 27 industry categories from best to worst based on research focusing on such key issues as human rights, social justice, environmental sustainability and more. Check out the user-friendly “Act” section in which you can join campaigns to battle corporate abuse, or sign up for instant emails to get actions delivered to your inbox.
Skin Deep Database from the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics
This searchable database matches the ingredients in more than 25,000 shampoos, makeup, deodorants, sunscreens and other personal care products with 50 toxicity and regulatory databases. It provides the most safety information anywhere about the products you put on your body – and on the body of baby too!
The Greenwashing Index
Enviromedia Social Marketing’s website asks consumers to send examples of both good and bad green marketing campaigns, which visitors then rank using a five point index that includes 1 for Authentic, 3 for Suspect and 5 for Bogus. Also includes “ripped from the headlines” exposes on worst offenders, i.e. the recent charge from the FTC that Kmart Corp., Tender Corp., and Dyna-E International are making false and unsubstantiated claims that their paper products were “biodegradable.”
Terrachoice
Check out the free report entitled the Six Sins of Green Washing and get tips on the top suspect terminology – i.e. the use of ‘chlorofluorocarbon-free’ even though these chemicals have been banned, by law, for years.
Laura Klein’s Green Club
Shameless plug here (I am the chief copywriter for Laura Klein’s green lifestyle membership site), but there’s no doubt that in addition to lots of good, green info and action-oriented tips, membership in Laura Klein’s Green Club gives you one-on-one consultation from Laura herself on any question relating to going green. It’s like having a personal eco consultant at your finger tips, so it makes for a truly great value.
Babies away!
Tags: babies, children, grocery shopping, healthy eating, healthy living, motherhood, newborns, Organic Food, parenthood
Posted in Green Living, Health, Organic, Organic Food, Organic Food Recipes, Organic Living, Parenting | 1 Comment »
June 29th, 2009 - Gerald "Gerry" Pugliese
 I’m naked right now! Just kidding, that’d be creepy. But for a lot of people walking around naked is a lifestyle. I call them crazy people.
However, nudism or “naturalism” is catching on. More and more people are shedding their clothes and bearing their giblets. Many of them claim it’s green.
Being naked from time to time means you’re not wearing as much clothes, so you’re not doing a lot of laundry, using up water or releasing detergents into the sewers.
But some people take it a giant step further. Instead of just staying inside, they take naked vacations with other naked people. On these nude getaways vacationers do activities and eat diets with very low ecological impact.
And the idea is spreading! In France, nearly a third of vacationers at the Aquitaine region on the French Atlantic coast are foreign nudists.
I wouldn’t have a problem with nudism, if it weren’t for every other nudist looking like Archie Bunker or Mimi from The Drew Carey Show.
Via Green Inc.
Posted in Green Living, The Environment | No Comments »
June 22nd, 2009 - Laura Klein
It’s hard to imagine that there’s even more reasons to steer clear of plastic water bottles…but surprise: there is!
This time the focus is polycarbonate plastic water bottles, which are popular reusable canteens like the one pictured here.
A recent Harvard School of Public Health Study shows that drinking from polycarbonate plastic water bottles will quickly and dramatically increase a person’s bisphenol A (BPA) levels.
So now you can add ‘fast-acting’ to BPA’s resume. As if being a contributor to health problems ranging from diabetes and obesity to infertility and heart disease wasn’t enough!
The study showed that tested students who drank from stainless steel bottles for a week, and then switched to polycarbonate plastic bottles, found that the amount of BPA in their urine shot up 69% in just a couple of days!
Encouraging Red Tape
While the FDA continues to claim BPA is safe, the new administration may take a new stance. In an email sent to the Boston Globe recently, Michael L. Herndon, an FDA spokesman said that newly appointed chief scientist Jesse Goodman will “provide new leadership and take a fresh look at this important issue from a scientific and policy position, incorporating emerging science and appropriate input from both inside and outside the agency.”
Could adding the Harvard study to the mounting evidence of BPA health risks finally get the FDA to outlaw it? Let’s hope so. But until then, I’m holding tight to my stainless steel bottle and not letting go…and I encourage you to do the same!
Via: www.saferstates.com
Posted in Green Living, Health, Organic Living | 2 Comments »
June 12th, 2009 - Laura Klein
 “Food Inc. does for the supermarket what Jaws did to the beach,” according to Variety.
Quite an analogy!
Food, Inc. an eye-opening, mouth-closing documentary from director Robert Kennar, opens June 12 in select theatres in New York, LA and San Francisco. It expands to more cities nationwide on June 19.
What’s all the fuss about?
The documentary centers around the harsh reality of where our food comes from. The film argues that the branding behind our food products – that of friendly farms and happy, hardy farm workers – is actually one huge myth. Instead, the film points out, our food is churned out, assembly line style, from a small group of multi-national corporations.
This type of ‘factory food’ is abusive to both animals and humans. In order to shield us from the ugly truths behind factory food, the industry has deliberately dropped an ‘invisible veil’ between consumers and where their food comes from…because quite simply, if more people knew, they wouldn’t want to eat it.
Not very appetizing.
Monsanto’s Revenge
Meanwhile, the huge food corporation and maker of genetically-modified food (GMO), Monsanto, isn’t taking Food, Inc. lying down. They have posted an entire Food Inc. rebuttal section on their site. Special thanks to La Vida Locavore for discounting much of what the corporate food monster has posted there.
I’ve long been an advocate for fresh, seasonal, local and organic food – and the myriad health benefits therein. Organic food is more nutrient rich, and better for the planet. I’m thrilled that Food, Inc. will get people talking about the source of our food, which is both a huge health issue and one with deep planetary impact.
Do you plan on seeing the film? Share your thoughts here, either after or before you see it and let us know what you think!
Tags: animal cruelty, documentary, film, food industry, healthy food, hormones, obesity, Organic Food
Posted in Green Living, Health, Organic, Organic Food, Organic Living, Political Action, The Environment | 2 Comments »
June 8th, 2009 - Laura Klein
 Last week, I blogged about the superior nutritional value of pesticide- and herbicide-free plant-based organic foods vs. their conventional counterparts, something I’m deeply passionate about.
This week, I’ve got more fuel for the fire.
A recent study about chronic exposure to low-levels of atrazine, the most heavily-used herbicide in the U.S., links it to myriad health issues in lab rats including:
- insulin resistance
- obesity
- a heightened risk of diabetes, especially when exposure to atrazine is coupled with high-fat diets.
We’ve all heard about our nation’s unfortunate obesity problem; is it any wonder when obesity-enhancing herbicides are ‘baked in’ to our food? Check out the opening comments of the study…
“ATZ (atrazine)-usage and obesity maps [in the U.S.] show striking overlaps, suggesting that heavy usage of ATZ may be associated with risk of obesity.”
When you opt for organic food, your choosing high doses of nutritionally rich flavors and cancer fighting antioxidants, which adds up to a healthy dose of preventative medicine. When you choose and consume conventionally grown foods you are consuming the toxic traces left behind from herbicides like atrazine…all the more reason to spend a bit more for them at the market – or you can get my free report: The Definitive Guide To Shopping For Organic Foods on a Budget” when you sign up for our free newsletter). Or better yet, grow your own organic favorites or visit your local farmers’ market where you’ll find many pesticide- and herbicide-free fruits and veggies at great prices.
I always advise budget-minded readers that if they have to choose only a few organic foods to invest in, they opt for the ones they consume the most.
What are your experiences with shopping for organic foods on a budget? Leave us a comment – we love hearing from you!
Source: THE SCOOP – May 2009 Organic Center Newsletter Study: Soo Lim et al., “Chronic Exposure to the Herbicide, Atrazine, Causes Mitochondrial Dysfunction and Insulin Resistance,” Plos One, Vol. 4, Issue 4:e5186, April 2009.
Tags: atrazine, childhood obesity, children, eating habits, healthy food, obesity, weight
Posted in Green Living, Health, Organic, Organic Food, Organic Living, Parenting | 4 Comments »
June 3rd, 2009 - Leslie Billera
…it’s a heck of a good start!
When I found out that there were several bitter truths beyond the taste of my favorite dark chocolate, another layer of guilt was added my guilty pleasure.
Not-so-sweet truths about ‘conventional’ chocolate include:
- Pesticides used in ‘conventional’ cocoa farming impact the soil, water, and the health of cocoa farmers
- Unethical practices in the cocoa industry – especially in Africa – include forced child labor, unfair pay, and poor working conditions
That’s why I was pleased as punch to read about the World Cocoa Foundation’s June Partnership meeting in Washington, D.C. June 3-4th. The meeting will be attended by top U.S. foreign agriculture brass and many other key decision makers in the industry. According to the WCF’s President, Bill Gutyon, “Efforts to improve farming practices, incomes and overall wellbeing for the millions of people who grow this unique crop are expanding significantly.”
One great start is the Cocoa Livelihoods Program, a new, $40 million program funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, eleven leading chocolate industry companies, and other partners. The program aims to significantly improve the livelihoods of approximately 200,000 cocoa farmers in West and Central Africa.
Show your support for organic chocolate with this scrumptious cupcake recipe; and let us know what favorite organic, fair trade chocolate brands are in your cupboard. We love hearing from you!
Source
Tags: chocolate, cocoa, food, healthy food, Organic Food
Posted in Green Living, Health, Organic, Organic Food, Organic Food Recipes | No Comments »
June 1st, 2009 - Laura Klein
With all due respect to my fellow OrganicAuthority.com blogger, Gerry Pugliese, who recently shed doubt on whether organic foods are actually more nutritious: I strongly disagree!
It’s been proven, scientifically, that plant-based organic foods are higher in nutrients and better for our health. I am deeply passionate about this – in fact it’s one of the core reasons I launched OrganicAuthority.com several years ago!
After studying the science behind how conventional and organic foods are grown in culinary school, I had a paradigm shift. I discovered why organic foods taste better and are of superior quality: we aren’t spraying them with synthetic toxic pesticides that are designed to kill (see the EPAs definition of pesticides). And I discovered that we are poisoning the earth, humans, animals and everything in between with these same synthetic toxic pesticides (see our blog Carbofuran Gets the Axe – a single granule of the chemical can kill an adult bird).
Today, I consider organic food to be one of the most powerful forms of preventive medicine we have available to the human race; and is a key component to green and healthy living. The good news is, you can simply buy organic foods over the counter! If you think organic foods are expensive, I say try health care and prescription drugs. Now that’s expensive. There are truly miraculous stories of people healing themselves from serious disease and illness like diabetes, heart disease, cancer, MS and more, simply by switching to a pure organic whole foods diet. The added bonus, organic foods are of superior quality and flavor!
Myriad qualified experts agree that organic food is nutrient-rich and healthier than ‘conventionally’ grown foods…
Organic Produce: Nutritional Powerhouse
In a study published in March 2008 by The Organic Center,1 a host of past and present studies were analyzed.
One of them, The Worthington study, focused on fertilizers and food nutrition levels. In the study, four nutrients tested as being significantly higher than conventionally-grown food, while one “toxic” nutrient (Nitrate) was significantly lower in organic food (that’s a good thing):
- Vitamin C: +27%
- Iron: +21%
- Magnesium: +29%
- Phosphorus: +19%
- Nitrates: -15%
The same study also found higher quality protein in organic foods vs. conventional food (higher quality protein is determined by the number of amino acids that are evident).
Healthier Food, Organically Grown
In another recent study entitled “Living Soil, Food Quality, and the Future of Food,”2 the following was revealed:
- Organically grown spinach demonstrates significantly higher levels of flavonoids (an antioxidant) and vitamin C, and lower levels of nitrates.
- Organically farmed tomatoes have significantly higher levels of soluble solids and natural plant molecules called secondary plant metabolites, including flavonoids, lycopene, and Vitamin C. Most secondary plant metabolites are antioxidants, a class of plant compounds that have been linked to improved human health in populations that consume relatively high levels of fruit and vegetables.
Definition of Organic Food: Common Sense Dictates Better Health!
Organic foods are grown without the use of chemical fertilizer or pesticides and have not been processed using irradiation or added hormones.
Let me repeat:
- no fertilizers
- no pesticides
- no irradiation (the process of exposing food to radiation)
- no added hormones
I’m not a scientist, but this statement alone is quite convincing that organic foods are a healthier and more nutritionally rich option! Simply put, organically grown foods are not bombarded with synthetic, toxic chemicals that are linked to serious diseases like cancer.
As always, be an informed consumer:
- Products labeled “100 percent organic” must contain only organic ingredients with the exception of water and salt, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture.
- Products labeled “organic” must contain at least 95 percent organic ingredients.
- Products that are made with at least 70 percent organic ingredients are allowed to be labeled “made with organic ingredients.
Interested in step-by-step, personalized guidance on creating a healthy, green lifestyle? Check out my free Green Club online introduction video to find out more!
1. The Organic Center, March, 2008 Report:
http://www.organic-center.org/science.latest.php?action=view&report_id=126
2. The Organic Center, March 13, 2009 Press Release:
http://www.organic-center.org/news.pr.php?action=detail&pressrelease_id=28
Tags: chemicals, food poison, food toxin, Health, nutrition, Organic, Organic Food, Organic Food Recipes, toxin, truth
Posted in Green Living, Health, Organic, Organic Food, Organic Food Recipes, Organic Living, The Environment, green cleaning | 5 Comments »
June 1st, 2009 - Gerald "Gerry" Pugliese
 My school was so outdated we had encyclopedias in the library that read, “Someday we’ll send a man to the moon.” So I doubt it was all that green.
Hopefully that’ll all change, because The House just passed a $6.4 billion school modernization bill that will devote money to build and update more energy-efficient school buildings.
Not unlike my college dorm room. Advocates of the bill said all students and teachers deserve a safe and healthy learning environment, but too often schools are literally falling apart.
The passage of the bill wasn’t all chocolate and roses. Opponents of the legislation, mostly Republicans, grumbled at the high price tag, but the money will come. Supporters of the bill say green schools save $100,000 a year on operating expenses and the typical school lasts 40 years.
However, the challenge is changing people’s perception. Most people think green schools cost more up front, but eco-friendly builders insist they do not.
Sounds like a sweet deal to me. Finally my old school will get that VCR they’ve been eyeballing!
Via CNN.
Tags: green, legislation
Posted in Green Living, Political Action | No Comments »
May 29th, 2009 - Leslie Billera
Relax! Lipstick makes you feel great – not sick.
Beware! Traces of lead, a neurotoxin found in some lipstick, accumulates over long periods of time in your body and can create adverse health effects.
What to believe?
Thanks to A Simple Smooch or a Toxic Smack, a recent New York Times article on the subject…that’s still unclear (with all due respect to the old gray lady and crack reporter Abby Ellin).
The piece quotes doctors like Dr. David Bellinger, who say simply “no level of lead exposure appears to be ‘safe;’” and still other doctors like Dr. Therese Bevers, who says “lead hasn’t been linked to breast cancer, colon cancer or other cancers.”
Need to know highlights from the piece include…
- One-third of 33 lipsticks had lead in excess of 0.1 parts per million, the federal limit for candy (according to research done by the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics)
- Worst offender #1: L’Oreal Colour Riche “True Red” lipstick (with a lead content of 0.65 parts per million)
- Worst offender #2: Cover Girl’s Incredifull Lipcolor “Maximum Red” (0.56 parts per million)
- Lead is typically found in the pigment of the reddest lipsticks
Price is not the Point
Wet and Wild Mega Colors “Cherry Blossom” contained no lead, whereas a $24 tube of Dior Addict “Postive Red” contained 0.21 parts per million.
How do you know?
The Times writes:
There are no F.D.A. standards limiting lead and other toxins in lipstick. The agency leaves it up to manufacturers to decide which safety and efficacy tests to perform on products. Cosmetics companies are required to list their “intended” ingredients on labels. But lead would be considered an “unintended” byproduct of the manufacturing process.
That sounds like a very convenient excuse for makeup manufacturers to me.
Be your own advocate – read up on the top personal care ingredients to avoid, and tap into www.cosmeticdatabase.com where ingredients of over 42,000 products are clearly listed. Only then can you pucker up with peace of mind.
Via: A Simple Smooch or a Toxic Smack
Tags: beauty, checmicals, dangers, Green Living, Health, lead, lipstick, make-up, Organic
Posted in Green Living, Health, Organic Living, The Environment, green beauty | 1 Comment »
May 20th, 2009 - Barbara Feiner
 When I was growing up, my grandmother would buy me a new box of Crayola 64-count crayons each summer, with the cool sharpener built into the package. Like most kids, I happily threw my old crayons into the trash.
Today, children can turn their nubby old crayon pieces into perfect new specimens through the National Crayon Recycle Program, which has prevented 44,000 pounds of crayons from piling up in landfills.
How about partnering with your local school for a crayon recycling drive? Kids in every classroom can bring their old crayons to school, and the principal can coordinate a single shipment to the program. Just be sure to read the crayon-prep rules, which include leaving labels intact for easy identification.
Parents and schools can also purchase the recycled results, called Crazy Crayons (available in 26 colors). They’re a great way to teach your children about organic living and the importance of recycling.
Additional Resources
Crayola’s Go Green! site for kids
Downloadable environment-themed coloring pages
Tips for raising creative kids
Tags: children, recycling
Posted in Green Living | No Comments »
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