How Do I Eat Healthy & Organic?

  

Although well worth it in terms of your health, eating healthy and organic foods can initially be tricky and time-consuming. You have to kick the junk food habit. You may need to upgrade your store of nutritional knowledge. Stopping to read labels can be critical in identifying organic foods, lengthening your grocery shopping trips. Most importantly, you have to get your taste buds on board, taking the time to savor the natural nosh of the moment, because a love of good food is the key to healthy eating.

Step 1:

Stock your kitchen pantry and refrigerator with healthy and organic foods. Whole grains such as brown rice, whole wheat and quinoa contain the fibrous grain coating that provides dietary fiber for your digestion, plus many B vitamins and essential minerals as well. Use more fresh and unprocessed foods, including raw fruits and vegetables, to maximize nutrition. Keep in mind the following tips: Increase your fresh produce intake; mix up your vegetable color scheme to get a variety of nutrients; eat protein such as lean meat, poultry, seafood, legumes, soy and nuts; and eat no-fat or low-fat dairy products. Verify that your fresh produce, dairy and other foods are organic by checking the labels for the USDA organic certification. Select those healthy and/or organic groceries that make your mouth water for best results.

Step 2:

Plan your week’s menus. Having a plan on paper will help you stick to a healthy, organic diet. Search for healthy recipes that call for the ingredients you have on hand, or be creative with your own menu ideas. Adapt recipes for your favorite foods to make them healthy. For example, rather than eating french fries prepared in hot oil, cut fresh potatoes in wedges, season them with herbs and bake them in the oven. Seek out new recipes each week to keep your menus varied and interesting.

Step 3:

Cook your own meals. You don’t have to be a trained chef. Tossing together a Saturday night salad is a simple matter of combining your fresh greens with other ingredients you like. For example, saute some skinless chicken in a nonstick pan and chunk it up as a salad topper. Add toasted walnuts, a few slivers of cheese, halved grapes, diced apples, radishes and cucumbers. Steam some brown rice for a side dish. Garnish with a glass of milk or herbal tea. If you run out of creative, fresh ideas, find out what other people are eating for good health.

Step 4:

Start your own organic mini-farm. One of the drawbacks of buying organically certified foods is that, due to the stringent USDA guidelines under which they are grown, they typically cost more than their conventional counterparts. Instead, economize and eat organic produce from your own garden. The primary requirements, as stated in the Organic Foods Production Act of 1990, are avoiding synthetic soil amendments and chemical insecticides. Even apartment dwellers can organically grow herbs and vegetables in patio containers. Taking pride in your own homegrown organic garden produce makes it more enjoyable than ever to eat healthy.

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Scrap Paper Recycling

Many of us think of newspapers when we think of recycling paper, but most paper products are recyclable. Since paper accounts for about 35 percent of the municipal solid waste in this country and recycling saves 3.3 cubic feet of landfill space per ton of recovered paper, it makes sense to recycle it.

What Paper is Recyclable

There are five types or grades of paper that are commonly recycled: old corrugated cardboard, mixed paper, old newspaper, high-grade de-inked paper and pulp substitutes. Only the first three are likely to concern the average recycler as the others are by-products of industrial processing prior to further recycling. For the most part, old cardboard or paperboard boxes, magazines, newspapers, catalogs, office papers and discarded mail are recyclable.

Where to Recycle

Recycling centers accept only those kinds of papers that they have equipment to handle. Contact your local recycling centers and ask what papers they collect or process and whether you must pre-sort. To find a recycling center, check the EPA’s paper waste recycling information page —- “Where You Live” —- for links to guide you to an appropriate facility in your community. 

Organizing and Sorting

For any recycling program to work, organization is key. Clearly mark bins and place them in areas where every member of the family can reach and use them. Unless local ordinances require a specific bin, an appropriately labeled, waterproof container near outdoor garbage bins will work for curbside recycling. If you take paper waste to a recycling center yourself, place a large bin in the garage —- where it will be handy for transport —- and empty smaller household bins into it as they fill. Locate the smaller bins near kitchen waste baskets, the printer in your home office or wherever you regularly use paper.

Waste Reduction

Reducing the amount of paper you buy in the first place is the best way to begin. To save forests from unnecessary logging, buy in bulk when possible or buy items with minimal packaging. Take reusable cloth bags to bring purchases home from the store. When buying paper products such as office supplies, household tissues or magazines, look for products made from 100 percent post-consumer recycled paper.

Reusing and Up-cycling

Most paper is recyclable, but if facilities are unavailable in your area, find other ways to reuse scrap paper around the house, such as lining a table for painting or in potty training a puppy. Scrap paper is also invaluable for “up-cycling” into craft projects. Use colorful photos from magazines in collages or scrapbooking projects, or shredded paper for paper mâché pinatas. Reuse papers printed on one side only for shopping lists or kids’ sketch pads. Even used paper is a valuable resource.

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How My Family Can Conserve Energy

                    

Conserving energy in your home is easier than you think. If you make small changes over time, you can trim unnecessary energy usage and lower your family’s carbon footprint. Most electricity is generated in power plants that burn fossil fuels like coal, oil and gas and emit carbon dioxide. By cutting energy use you can reduce the demand on power plants and save money in the process.

Get Together

Get the whole family involved in and excited about the idea. You are working together to develop an environmentally sustainable lifestyle and you need all hands on deck. Have fun. Use teamwork and encouragement. Post handmade signs around the house that give friendly reminders about energy-saving goals like turning out the lights. Keep a chart to document efforts.

Get Into Hot Water

You might not give hot water much thought, but it consumes 14 to 25 percent of your home’s energy, making it a good target for your family’s energy-saving efforts. Set the water temperature to 120 degrees Fahrenheit and wrap the heater in an insulating blanket if it’s an older model. For every 10 degrees that you reduce the temperature, you will save 3 to 5 percent on your water heating bill. Reduce your hot water use by installing low-flow shower heads and aerated kitchen faucets, taking five-minute showers, running the dishwasher only when it’s full and turning off the faucet while soaping up your hands. 

Lights Out

Lights consume about 10 percent of your home’s electricity, according to the EPA. One by one, replace incandescent bulbs with compact fluorescent or LED bulbs. They use 75 to 80 percent less electricity and last 10 to 25 times longer. Get everyone in the habit of turning off the lights when leaving a room and using task lighting rather than overhead lighting; focus electrical use only where it is needed. Take advantage of natural lighting and keep lights clean to improve their efficiency. 

Turn it Off

When TVs are turned off, they still suck up the amount of electricity generated annually by 21 large power plants. In the average home, the electricity used by DVD players, TVs and other small home appliances when they are turned off totals up to 438 kilowatt hours each year. This type of energy consumption is called “phantom load.” The simplest way to stop it is to plug the appliances into power strips and turn off the strips when the equipment isn’t being used.

Cooking

Every time you make a meal for your family, you have a chance to conserve energy. Use pots and pans that fit the burners; small pots on large burners waste energy. Cook with the lids on; the food will heat faster and less energy will be consumed. Reheat food in the microwave instead of the oven; it uses 70 to 80 percent less electricity. Bake in glass pans and you can set the oven 25 degrees lower. But don’t open the door to peek —- it lowers the oven’s temperature by 25 degrees. 

Celebrate

Making meaningful changes is difficult, and it takes time to be successful. Old habits die hard —- but when they do, it’s cause for celebration. Take time every week or two and reflect on the ways your family is saving energy, saving the planet and saving money. Treat yourselves to a candlelit pizza party, a bike ride or a family art night. Then pick the next energy-saving actions to commit to.

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Greener Grocery Shopping

Grocery shopping can create a lot of waste. One study has estimated that approximately thirteen percent of municipal solid waste is packaging material from grocery store products. There a number of ways you can buy food and other household supplies without creating such a huge Eco footprint.

                                   

• Buy in bulk. Many stores feature bulk food bins for items like pasta, rice, nuts, flour, and other dried foods; some also sell liquids like cleaning products and shampoo in bulk. If possible, take your own reusable containers. Food buying clubs and co-ops are especially good for this. (An added bonus is that bulk buying reduces the number of car trips you have to make to the store.)

• Avoid individually packaged, single-use items. Buy the larger size packages and then divide up the food at home in reusable containers for convenience.

• If bulk buying is not possible, choosing the largest size package available will save both packaging and money. Concentrated products also cut down on packaging.

• Avoid unnecessary packaging. Look for reusable, recycled, and recyclable packaging. (Make sure that the material is accepted by your local recycling program.)

• Bring your own reusable bags. Up to one trillion plastic bags are used every year, worldwide. A single plastic bag can take up to a thousand years to degrade. They are the second-most common type of ocean refuse, after cigarette butts. Cloth bags are best because they can be easily washed.

• In the produce aisle, bypass those clear plastic bags. Feather-weight reusable mesh bags are increasingly available for produce that needs to be protected or that you buy in quantity, such as loose pieces of fruit. Or carefully open those plastic mesh bags that onions are sold in and reuse them. A head of lettuce or bunch of carrots doesn’t need a bag at all, and can be put into a reusable container at home.

• Not cooking tonight? Bring your own reusable containers when ordering take-out food. Just let the restaurant know when you order that you’ll be bringing in your own containers and make sure you take enough of them.

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Why Grow A Vegetable Garden

 Carol DiPirro’s reasons to own a vegetable garden. 

Long before ‘organic gardening’ was trendy, my grandparents had a great big vegetable garden in their back yard. Italian immigrants, they were religious in their daily tending, growing cucumbers, tomatoes, squash, eggplants, basil, watermelons, corn and rhubarb not only to feed their 10 children but to supplement their household budget.  I would love to help when their kitchen was changed into a factory full of jars, boiling pots on the stove, salt and vinegar as they canned tomatoes. I always knew that someday my own children would share in these traditions.

Fast forward several years, I find myself living in the home of my dreams with ample land for my first ‘serious’ garden.  You can find me daydreaming about the sun on my face and the soil in my hands all winter long, browsing seed books while charting my garden with paper and pencil. Living without a vegetable garden is simply not possible for me. Maybe it’s genetics but I take great pride in the fact that I can feed my family without a trip to the grocery store just as my grandparents did.

But why do it? Why grow a vegetable garden?

1. Taste

Ever taste a cherry tomato fresh from the vine? No? Steal your way into that crazy neighbors’ yard…you know the one with the straw hat and huge garden?!  I promise you will be hooked at first bite.

2. Safety

We hear scary stories about pesticides, salmonella, preservatives, genetically modified foods and additives almost every day when you turn on the news. According to the EPA, we use over one billion tons of pesticides on our food crops every year. For me, this is one of the most compelling reasons to garden. I know that the food I am eating is safe…period.

3. Cost

A packet of seeds costs less than two dollars. Saving seeds costs nothing. Buying fruits and vegetables in the store, however, can be expensive. Every summer we grow more food than we can possibly eat for almost nothing. When you just can’t look at another zucchini, freeze the rest for winter.  One of my favorite snacks in mid January is a warm slice of zucchini bread. You’ll be surprised at how much you can grow for the cost of one seed packet – $1.59.

4. Health

Studies have shown that gardening for one hour can burn more than 400 calories. Gardening involves walking, stretching, lifting and bending. It can build muscle as well as give a good cardio workout.  The fresh air and sunshine that makes my skin glow is just a bonus. 

5. Spirit

I LOVE my yoga!! But I’ll let you in on a secret; gardening is the closest I’ve ever found to that calm, grounded feeling I get from yoga. I know many friends who agree that working the garden can be immensely peaceful while the beauty you have created can lift the spirit. A vegetable garden can also lend a more spiritual link to life itself. Not only are you participating in the miracle of growth and the changing of the seasons, you will also become intimately linked to the process of nurturing your own life and nourishing your own body.

6. Security

Security? Yes, security. With the cost of energy and global climate change, our ability to feed ourselves is increasingly in doubt. We must each seriously rethink the way we live. I, for one, feel more secure knowing that I can grow a significant amount of food right in my own backyard. The price of my vegetables is not at all dependant on inflation. 

7.  Environmental Issues

Did you know that if each of us ate just one meal a week composed of locally and organically raised meats and/or produce, we could reduce oil consumption by over 1.1 million barrels of oil every week? That’s not gallons, but barrels. You can’t get more local than your own backyard.

Now if you’re still not convinced that gardening is for you, that’s okay. Not everyone yearns to take up gardening or due to lack of space or time it’s not a possibility for you. You can still get the health benefits and lessen your environmental footprint by shopping at your local farmers market or joining a CSA (Community Supported Agriculture). But if the idea sparks an interest, grab some gloves and join the millions who love playing in the dirt.

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Green Tips: Food

You are what you eat, but increasingly you need to be aware of where your food has come from and how far it has traveled to be on your plate.

1) Go organic where you can

It’s a booming area of agriculture. Some sneer that it’s as much about status as health, as often organic varieties can be more expensive than their non-organic versions.

However the condition of arable land certainly benefits with the reduction in the use of chemical fertilizers and pesticides.

Learn more about organic food.

2) Buy more local produce

By buying locally grown produce you cut down the amount of CO2 created in food transportation and minimize the “food miles” in you shopping basket.

If it’s local it also means it’s is more likely to be seasonal and will not have grown in overly artificial conditions.

Learn more about food production.

3) Don’t eat endangered species of fish

The pressures on the world’s fish stocks come from pollution, over-fishing and by-catch. By being selective in what fish you eat and how often you consume it you can help to preserve existing stock and species.

Try and avoid fish caught by bottom trawling, the most destructive method of fishing.

Learn more about endangered fish stocks and global fishing.

4) Compost your food waste

Don’t just bin it; creating your own compost can benefit your garden much better than fertilizers. Even if you don’t have a garden or even a flower box, some local authorities will collect organic waste as part of their recycling programs.

5) Buy minimally packaged goods

These days packaging is almost as important as the product itself. While necessary for many items, it can be avoided easily for others such as fruit and vegetables.

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How to Pack a Nutritious Waste-Free Lunch

A brown bag lunch can produce a staggering amount of waste — leftover foods, plastic bottles and packaging and the brown bag itself. Packing a waste-free lunch for your child makes a significant difference. Save yourself money and benefit the environment by packing nutritious and environmentally friendly lunches for school, work, traveling and picnics.

Step 1:

Pack reusable items. Avoid the brown paper bag that ends up as waste; instead, pack your lunch in a canvas lunch bag —- it’s sturdy, easy to clean and often equipped with insulation to keep foods fresh. Replace plastic baggies with reusable containers to hold snacks and a sandwich. For a waste-free lunch, include other reusable items, such as a refillable water bottle, ice pack, utensils and a cloth napkin.

Step 2:

Recycle plastics and aluminum. It’s best to avoid plastics such as water and juice bottles and foods with heavy packaging. If you’re on the go, however, sometimes it’s the only option. Be sure to dispose of plastics or soda cans in the correct recycling bin rather than in the trash bin headed for the landfill. 

Step 3:

Don’t let any food go to waste. If you didn’t get around to your lunch yogurt, preserve it for the next day. Eliminate food waste at home by using dinner leftovers for lunch. For a healthy serving of dietary fiber, select whole-grain breads, such as whole wheat or whole rye for your sandwich.

Step 4:

Select unpackaged fruit and vegetables; though designed to be convenient, the packaging creates unnecessary waste. Visit the farmers market and stock up for the week with local produce. Shop for potassium-rich fruits, such as bananas, prunes and honeydew melon, that give a nutritional boost during the lunch hour. Accompany raw broccoli, cauliflower or carrot sticks with a low-fat dressing for a great afternoon snack.

Step 5:

Buy snack foods in bulk. Individual packaging of crackers, cheese and other snacks generates waste. Buying in bulk is less costly and waste-free. For snacks rich in vitamin E, fill up a bag of seeds and nuts, such as sunflower seeds, almonds and hazelnuts.

Step 6:

Compost fruit and veggie scraps. These organic materials are excellent nitrogen sources for composing and contribute to making fertile soil. Shred your scraps and mix them into your backyard or school compost heap. Be sure to bury food scraps to make compost piles less attractive for wildlife.

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How safe are green cleaning products?

A growing number of people are seeking so-called “green” cleaners — products made with natural, nontoxic, and biodegradable ingredients. Sales of natural cleaning products totaled $105 million in the last year.

                                           

Some of these cleaners promise that they contain natural (instead of synthetic) agents, break down quickly in the environment, or pose less of a toxic threat to humans and ecosystems. But critics caution that just because the ingredients in green cleaners are plant-based or natural doesn’t necessarily mean they’re safe.

Although green cleaners may purport to list all ingredients, the market is largely unregulated — which means consumers still must be wary of what’s in the bottle. Even cleaning products labeled “natural” may contain some fraction of synthetic chemicals. Or they may contain natural ingredients consumers would rather avoid, such as petroleum distillates, some of which can cause cancer. And just because a cleaning product is biodegradable and made from plant-based sources doesn’t mean that it is without potential adverse effects on health.

Plant-based ingredients included in some green cleaners include limonene (a citrus-based oil), pine oil, and the foaming agent coconut diethanolamide – all of which can cause allergic dermatitis. And a recent study of natural and nontoxic consumer products found the suspected cancer-causing chemical 1,4-dioxane in roughly half of 100 tested products — including several dish washing liquids with words such as “Earth friendly” and “eco” in their brand names.

Some natural cleaners still contain petroleum distillates such as benzene, or 1,4 dioxane, both of which can cause cancer, not to mention the fact that they come from a non-renewable resource (oil) which is, in and of itself, far from eco-friendly.

1,4 dioxane is also a suspected kidney toxicant, neurotoxicant and respiratory toxicant.

Based on the Organic Consumer’s Association’s review of natural and organic personal care and household cleaning products, the only products that consistently tested negative for 1,4 dioxane were those carrying the USDA Certified Organic seal.

Other dangerous ingredients to look out for include:

• Phosphates – cause algae proliferation in bodies of water, killing marine life
• Nonylphenol ethoxylates – cause reproductive defects, liver and kidney damage
• Phthalates – cause sperm damage and reproductive defects in boys
• Volatile organic compounds, including 1,4-dichlorobenzene – cause nose and throat irritation, dizziness, asthma
• Glycol ethers
• Ammonia
• Chlorine
• Ethanolamines

Consumer advocates have pressed for stricter labeling rules, but the industry has resisted, arguing that long lists of ingredients would create a distraction on product labels, drawing attention away from important safety information.

For many home cleaning chores, you can avoid commercial products entirely by making your own cleaners. 

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Recycling Old Electronics

Want a responsible solution for getting rid of old, no longer used televisions, computers, monitors and printers?

Find an organization in your area that accepts computers, computer monitors, printers, fax machines, and televisions for recycling. These programs are being designed in many cities by not-for-profit organizations comprised of industry and retailers, in cooperation with individual program managers.

                                    

What are your options?

1) REUSE: Functioning but still usable equipment maybe shared, traded or donated. There are even some organizations that can assist you in finding a suitable reuse option for your old electronic equipment. Consider donating unwanted electronics to a friend, family member or a local school or charity.

Before getting rid of your old equipment, ensure that the reuse option that you are considering provides for an equivalent level of protection for the environment and human health. For instance: ensure that your equipment will not be landfilled or shipped overseas; ensure that the reuse organization has a policy for ensuring the security of user’s information such as that contained on disk drives; and ensure that the organization uses a provincially approved recyclers for any unusable parts or equipment.

2) RECYCLE: Some of the issues surrounding the management of waste electronics include illegal dumping, shipping offshore to developing countries, improper handling or disposal of toxic materials, and inadequate health and safety systems for workers handling and processing this equipment. Guard against the land filling and improper handling and disposal of hazards materials, and dumping of any equipment or parts in developing nations.

At the rate modern day electronics tend to become obsolete, this is an extremely important issue. Do your part to minimize environmental impact from old electronic items.

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Disposal of Household Hazardous Waste

Many products commonly found around the house qualify as hazardous waste and are potentially harmful to the environment if not disposed of properly.  Hazardous waste is a substance that is toxic, corrosive, reactive or ignitable. Household chemicals such as motor oil, cans of leftover paint and cleansers and items such as batteries and fluorescent or incandescent bulbs can be harmful to humans, fish and birds if not disposed of properly. Here are some ways to dispose of these items safely.   

                           

Step 1:

Inspect each item for warning labels and consult any manuals that came with the item for warnings and disposal guidelines. Treat anything designated as poisonous or flammable or marked with the biohazard symbol as hazardous waste, and dispose according to manufacturer’s guidelines. It is advisable that you consider unlabeled substances or those of unknown composition as hazardous waste.

Step 2:

Sort your items for disposal. You may have to take different items to different recycling or processing locations. Hazardous waste items include paint, pool chemicals, pesticide, fertilizers, weed killer, motor oil, antifreeze, solvents, cleaning chemicals, batteries, aerosol cans, syringes and other medical waste, propane tanks, and fluorescent and incandescent light bulbs and tubes.

Step 3:

Call your sanitation department to find out if your community has curbside pickup of hazardous waste and the designated pickup days. Some places have separate collections for e-waste —- electronics, such as old computers and peripherals.

Step 4:

Check your municipality’s website to see when it holds hazardous waste roundups. These events are usually set up at a local fire station, school parking lot or other community building. The public may drop off old chemicals, batteries, motor oil and other items. Ask what kinds of items are accepted and whether any quantity restrictions are in place.

Step 5:

Call your local waste management authority for a list of places that have permanent drop-off sites for hazardous waste. These may be private companies that accept specific kinds of items. For example, some auto repair places are equipped to recycle old motor oil; some also accept cooking grease.

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Source: National Geographic

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