October 26th, 2009 - Laura Klein
 The average American’s diet creates one and a quarter tons of carbon dioxide emissions per person every year.1
According to Time Magazine, our energy-intensive food system uses 19% of U.S. fossil fuels, more than any other sector of the economy.
It’s a fact: what we choose to buy and eat can help contribute to a better, healthier way.
Organic foods are more gentle on Mother Earth. Consider why:
- Organic farmers leave soil and crop residue in the ground rather than digging it up (known as the ‘no-till’ method). That means organic farmers release less CO2 into the air by sequestering it in the earth.
- Organic farming uses 50% less energy overall than traditional farming.
- Smaller-scale organic farms use 60% less fossil fuel per unit of food than conventional industrial farms.2
If we turned all of our farmland in this country to organic and regenerative methodologies, where we’re putting basically cover crops or compost back into the soil and not using chemical fertilizers, we could mitigate 25 percent of our emissions in this country alone.
-Timothy LaSalle, CEO of the Rodale Institute. Read the transcript or view the video of LaSalle’s response to critics who say organic farming is unsustainable and produces smaller crop yields.
So yes – support, buy and eat organic.
Other top tips for a global warming diet include:
- Eat grass-fed beef only: cows and ruminant chewing animals that graze on healthy pastures reduces greenhouse gas emissions, pollution, and overall energy consumption.
- Go meatless one night a week: This is a great money saving tip and will create room in your budget to add more organic veggies to your diet.
- Eat local: the closer the origins of your food, the less transportation and corresponding carbon emissions into the atmosphere. And the more likely your produce has been vine ripened which makes for delicious foods!
- Eat in season: foods that are in season are usually in abundance and can be more affordable delicious!
- Eat lower on the food chain: choose foods that consume fewer other foods and eat as much of a plant-based diet as possible (choosing organic, of course!)
Many people ask me if I eat locally conventionally grown foods, in other words foods sprayed with pesticides. My answer: no. Please don’t ask me to eat foods that have been sprayed with toxic chemicals, even if it is grown locally. If I told you to make a beautiful fresh garden vegetable soup and, oh by the way, pull out the ant and roach spray and lightly give your veggies a fine mist before cooking to ward off any pests that come crawling along your kitchen counter, would you do it? Probably not.
What are your favorite global warming diet tips? Share them with others – we love hearing from you!
1Gidon Eshel and Pamela A. Martin, “Diet, Energy, and Global Warming,” Earth Interactions 10 (May 2005)
2Ready, Set, Green; Eight Weeks to Modern Eco Living, Graham Hill & Meaghan O’Neill
Tags: earth, eating habits, environment, Organic Food
Posted in Green Living, Organic, Organic Food, Organic Living, The Environment | 4 Comments »
October 19th, 2009 - Laura Klein
 I love Whole Foods – buying their organic 365 brand is a favorite tip I regularly share with people who are concerned about the cost implications of an all-organic diet.
Whole Foods is deeply committed to the concept of community, something I also support via my Green Club. Surrounding yourself with like-minded people offers strength and reinforcement for whatever goals you hope to achieve.
In that vein, Whole Foods offers all sorts of super helpful free tips and tools with their Be Good to Your Whole Body series. Their Healthy Mood brochure is particularly interesting, harkening back to the old adage ‘you are what you eat.’ While depression is a very real condition and cannot be ‘fixed’ by diet alone, there’s definitely a link between what you eat and your outlook on life.
Here are some of my favorite tips from Whole Foods’ Healthy Mood brochure:
- Keep blood sugar in check: healthy diets should include sufficient protein, fiber, antioxidants and healthy fats (another vital Green Club tenet)
- Drink tea daily: green, black and certain herbal teas have all been linked to happier states of mind
- Enjoy low-glycemic foods which may be associated with a healthy mood
- Support your adrenal glands: they’re the manufacturers and gatekeepers of stress hormones; chronic stress overworks them (start by never allowing yourself to get too hungry)
- Provide your body with a steady supply of mood-enhancing and stabilizing vitamins, minerals, antioxidants and phytonutrients including 5-HTP, adaptogens, Vitamin B, essential fatty acids, ginkgo, iron, l-theanine, passionflower, SAMe, St. John’s Wort, Valerian and Vitamin D.
Other top tips for a healthy mood include acupuncture, massages using real essential oils and yoga, breathing and meditation.
What nutrition or fitness tips do you tap into to keep your mood elevated? Let us know – we love hearing from you!
Tags: depression, eating habits, happiness, mental health, mood, well being
Posted in Green Living, Health, Organic, Organic Food, Organic Living | No Comments »
June 15th, 2009 - Gerald "Gerry" Pugliese
 Modern man doesn’t scavenge for food. French fries don’t need to be hunted and doughnuts won’t run away. Just look around. There’s a Krispy Kreme or a McDonald’s on every corner!
And all this food means a lot of waste. Go to any public park or look outside any restaurant and you’ll find a ton of discarded food strewn about.
But crows love it! These crafty little scavengers snatch up garbage like a feast, but a diet of fast food and pastries is bad, even for crows.
Leftover junk food isn’t nutritious and the chicks of urban crows are smaller and deficient in protein and calcium, compared to crows living in rural areas. Suburban crows eating natural food grow up bigger and stronger.
Here’s the problem. Crows are opportunists and scientists suspect they’ll feed their young with whatever is easier to find and cities are hotbeds for scraps of junk.
Via Discoblog.
Tags: Crows, eating habits, food, Health, Junk Food
Posted in The Environment | No 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 | 5 Comments »
January 29th, 2007 - Barbara Feiner
 (Health Behavior News Service)—Despite recent national initiatives to encourage healthy eating habits, teens in middle adolescence are eating fewer fruits and vegetables than in 1999, a new study reveals. And the situation only worsens as they get older.
“Fruit and vegetable intake is important for the prevention of future chronic disease,” says lead investigator and registered dietitian Nicole Larson, MPH. “So it’s important to know whether intakes of teens are approaching national objectives for fruit and vegetable consumption.”
Larson and colleagues from the University of Minnesota undertook the study to examine whether teens in the state were increasing their intake of fruits and vegetables as recommended by the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Healthy People 2010 objectives and Dietary Guidelines for Americans.
The study, part of a larger initiative on factors influencing adolescents’ eating habits, gathered information about fruit and vegetable intake among 944 boys and 1,161 girls in 1999 and again in 2004. The study appears in the February issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine.
During the transition from middle school or junior high to high school, teens decreased their intake of fruits and vegetables by almost 1 serving per day, Larson and colleagues found—from roughly 4 servings to 3 servings for girls and roughly 2.5 to fewer than 2 servings for boys. They also found that from high school to early adulthood, the teens decreased their consumption by almost the same amount.
The researchers also compared consumption of fruits and vegetables between one group of middle adolescents in 1999 and another in 2004. They found that mid-adolescent girls in 2004 consumed almost one serving per day less than girls the same age in 1999. Mid-adolescent boys were also eating about a half serving less of fruits and vegetables in 2004 than in 1999.
“This is giving us the message that we need new and enhanced efforts to increase fruit and vegetable intake that we haven’t been doing in the past,” Larson says.
“I was surprised by the magnitude of the reduction in fruit and vegetable consumption,” says Karen Glanz, PhD, a professor and research scholar at the Rollins School of Public Health at Emory University, who is not associated with the study. “I wasn’t surprised that there would be a reduction because of the lifestyle of today’s teens.”
Dr. Glanz cites the increase over the last 10 to 15 years in the amount, variety and availability of processed and fast food as a major cause of the trend toward less healthful food choices among adolescents.
While both Larson and Dr. Glanz say there’s little research investigating exactly why adolescents might be choosing to eat fewer fruits and vegetables, they both agree that just educating teens about healthful food choices is not enough.
“Teaching adolescents that fruits and vegetables are healthy isn’t going to help. They already know that,” Dr. Glanz says.
“We need to address things going on in the environment, in the community or at home to help adolescents increase their consumption of fruits and vegetables,” Larson adds.
Environmental interventions could include increasing the availability and palatability of fruit and vegetables at school, in restaurants and at home, as well as decreasing the availability of less healthful, highly palatable foods. And research shows that more frequent family meals can help adolescents eat more healthfully.
“Parental and family attitudes are very important,” Larson says.
Note: Because you’re dedicated to organic living, OrganicAuthority.com recommends buying certified organic fruits and vegetables to maximize flavor, while minimizing your risk of exposure to pesticides, chemicals and preservatives.
Tags: eating habits, Health, obesity, teens
Posted in Health | No Comments »
September 6th, 2006 - Barbara Feiner
 Dr. Lisa Sheehan-Smith, a registered dietitian and assistant professor of human sciences at Middle Tennessee State University, has come up with a four-step plan for college students who want to avoid gaining the freshman 15 lbs. She calls it the E.A.S.Y. approach, and its philosophy meshes perfectly with the principles of organic living:
E = Eat three meals a day to develop a consistent routine and avoid haphazard dining. “I always tell people that they need to have a plan for success, which means planning in advance when and what they’re going to eat,” Dr. Sheehan-Smith says. “Don’t leave it to chance because the choices may be full of calories, fat and sugar, but little nutrients.”
A = Ask if there are healthier options when dining on and off campus. Some sample questions to ask yourself: What is my class/work schedule? Based on my class/work schedule, when can I plan my meals? Where—and what—am I going to eat? “I tell my clients that the key to choosing healthy meals and snacks is to try and include a serving from three of the five basic food groups: whole-grain breads and cereals, fruit, vegetables, meat and dairy,” Dr. Sheehan-Smith says. “This eating plan gives you a variety of foods throughout the day and a nice balance of food groups, which will provide a diet more dense in nutrients.”
S = Snack defensively to maintain energy, while contributing to overall nutrition. “Avoid vending machines,” she advises. “Bring snack bags of raw veggies and cut-up fruit. Stick low-fat/low-sugar granola bars or cookies in your backpack. Munch on whole-grain crackers with some peanut butter. And if you can manage a small soft-sided cooler pack, then yogurt and cottage cheese can be good snacks—but remember to watch the portion sizes.”
Y = Yes to being active, including walking—not riding buses—to class to help manage stress and maintain your fitness level. “Take a P.E. class each semester, or work out at the campus recreation center,” Dr. Sheehan-Smith urges. “Or try playing intramural sports—a great way to meet new friends.”
Tags: college life, eating habits, freshman 15, Health, obesity, weight gain
Posted in Health | No Comments »
September 5th, 2006 - Barbara Feiner
If you’re the parent of a college student, you may be familiar with the “freshman 15”—the 15 lbs. that undergraduates often gain because of late-night study sessions, inadequate sleep and regular snacking. It can be hard to find fresh organic food in a dorm, and many students rely on potato chips, caffeinated colas and fast food to keep them going.
“On average, kids do gain weight [during their freshman year of college], and it’s because of the change in lifestyle,” says Dr. Janet Colson, a registered dietitian and professor of human sciences at Middle Tennessee State University. “Most incoming college students don’t have mom to pick out their foods for them anymore or pack their lunches, and so they start making unwise choices.”
One university study revealed students gain an average of 4 lbs. during the first three months of their freshman year—a weight gain that’s 11 times higher than that for the typical 17- to 18-year-old.
“Accompanying late-night study is late-night eating,” Dr. Colson says. “And what do you do when you’re staying up late? You’re eating and adding calories.”
Complicating matters are all-you-can-eat campus buffets, which challenge one’s sense of portion control. Many students also opt to ride shuttle buses across campus instead of walking to classes.
“We hear students gripe about how far away parking is from campus and all their classes,” Dr. Colson says. “Really, we should be thankful it’s so far away because the exercise is needed.”
Tune in tomorrow for Part 2 of this story, which offers four Freshman 15 solutions.
Tags: college life, eating habits, freshman 15, Health, obesity
Posted in Health | No Comments »
February 6th, 2006 - Barbara Feiner
Many people decide to go organic after their doctor tells them they need to lose weight or adopt a healthier lifestyle. Based on the most current research, it’s a smart move.
Over the last few years, researchers have discovered that where you carry excess fat has significant health implications. Instead of relying strictly on weight and body mass index (BMI) to determine obesity, your doctor may soon take an up-close-and-personal look at your gut. A major international study now reveals that waist-to-hip ratio may be a more critical measurement.
“Waist-to-hip ratio was the most significant indicator of possible cardiovascular disease,” says Barbara Crishi, a certified diabetes educator at Baylor Regional Medical Center in Grapevine, Texas.
You can check your ratio by first measuring your waist (just under the ribcage). Next, measure your hips at their widest point. Now, divide waist measurement by hip measurement (both in inches). A ratio greater than .8 for women and 1.0 for men puts you at risk.
According to Crishi, it comes down to whether you’re apple- or pear-shaped: “The apple shape is more indicative of having cardiovascular disease than the pear shape is,” she says, as abdominal fat is more strongly associated with health problems like heart disease and diabetes.
Researchers don’t yet know why abdominal fat is linked to greater risk, so they’re encouraging more research to confirm their hypotheses.
Check out Organic Authority’s archive of Health, Organic Food and Organic Living articles for tips on staying fit.
Tags: body shape, eating habits, fitness, Health, Organic Food, weight-loss
Posted in Health, Organic Living | No Comments »
|
|
please Share the Love