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What about green food?

January 9, 2012 By Leave a Comment

veggies What about green food?There is so much hype these days about diets, super foods, tonics, elixirs and other catchy things that will make us strong and vibrant, but do we really need to be geniuses or food science savvy to eat healthy food?  After reading Michael Pollan’s book, The Omnivore’s Dilemma, this question came to the forefront of my thoughts.  It can often be pretty difficult to distinguish what foods are really good for you and your family when you are browsing through the many aisles of your local grocery store.  However, I use a simple rule to keep my food supply healthy: if you cannot easily recognize what the primary plant or animal source of the food is, it probably is not a good healthy choice.

Take for instance, Cheetos.  If you read the ingredient list, you will notice that one of the first ingredients listed is some form of flour, but the list of ingredients is pretty long and you may not even be able to pronounce some of the ingredients.  This is a good sign that it is not on the list of healthy food.  If you go to the fruit and vegetable section, it is very easy to identify what these plants are because they are in their raw form.  No high fructose corn syrup, no potassium sorbate, no dextrose or monosodium glutamate.  Just apples, oranges and potatoes.  Admittedly, some of the packaged foods with many ingredients may be easier for people with busy lifestyles, but a bit of cooking and planning can make choosing healthier foods as easy as those that are not so good for you.

One of the many ironies of our modern food system is that healthier food items often cost more than items that are not good for you.  Why? well, because the system of food production supports growers that grow single crops on large acreage of land and send the raw crops to processing plants where chemicals are added to them, they are packaged and cheap gasoline combined with bulk shipping makes it profitable for these products to be shipped all over the country without being to expensive for the consumer.  Yet the more we choose to buy foods that are not processed and loaded with artificial ingredients, the more the market will respond by making these healthy foods more available and easy on our pocketbooks.  So vote with your dollar and be healthy.  Of course, there is always the option of growing your own food to ensure what goes into it.

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Green choices and good love

January 6, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Sometimes recognizing the fact each one of us is only one in seven billion people can lead us to believe that our individual actions have no impact on the fate of this planet.  Yet we know small things that we do can have a snowball effect on other people and eventually turn into global movements.  Well, this video suggests something even more enticing…making green choices to expel less carbon dioxide can also enhance our love life.  Take a look!

We have been conditioned to believe by our culture that lots of noise, activity and other byproducts of modern technology are good and that these are habits of successful people.  There is a simple way to test this theory: turn off your tv, turn off your phone, drive or walk (if possible) to your nearest forest and sit in the middle of it.  Take a romantic partner with you, if applicable.  Sit quietly for twenty minutes.  What do you notice about the way you feel?  What do you notice about the living things around you…the trees and their leaves, the animals and insects scurrying about?  You will quickly notice that you become part of this ecosystem. Kiss your partner.  Do you notice anything different about the experience?

When you return to the world, what do you notice about it? One of things you may be thinking now is that you would rather stay in the forest.  If each of us makes small changes everyday to make our loves more green, then eventually we can bring the forest to us.  We can plant more trees and have more leisure time to enjoy these forests. Any good psychologist knows that the way we improve our mental well being is by making small, deliberate changes.  We can improve the health of our natural world in exactly the same way.

 

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How to reduce your carbon footprint

January 1, 2012 By Leave a Comment

Believe it or not, reducing your carbon footprint can actually be fun sometimes.  There are many little things that you can do to reduce your carbon footprint. The Nature Conservancy has a carbon footprint calculator on their website.

1. Buy reusable materials - you can buy glass jars instead of plastic and reuse these bottles for multiple purposes: instead of buying fruit preserves or jam, make your own by boiling the fruit with some sugar and water and store it in your old glass jar.  Glass is made of sand and can be reused virtually forever!  A jar of homemade preserves can also make a great addition to a potluck or picnic or just as a gift to a friend.

2. Ride your bike – riding your bike may not always be an option, but most people can ride at least for recreation if not as a means of transportation to work.  Around half of all the residents of the Netherlands ride their bikes to work!!!  No wonder the Dutch women look so good! You can also check out another carbon footprint calculator from the carbon footprint website.

3. Use meat as a side instead of the main dish - being a vegetarian is not for everyone…myself included, but I find it more enjoyable to use meat as a garnish to my meals rather than the main focus.  Most beef, pork and chicken raised in the U.S. is done under pretty nasty conditions and cows produce methane, which is four times stronger than carbon dioxide as a greenhouse gas.  A simple rule of thumb is double the vegetable portion on your plate and half the meat portion.  You will find that you probably have more energy, also.  I do.

4. Buy food and clothing at local stores - buying food from local farmers means less gas used to transport the food, less packaging to keep the food good and better relationships between you and the people that grow your food.  Buying from local clothing stores supports small business owners and enhances the local economy.  It can also be fun to have styles that other people do not.  So be a trendsetter and shop local! You can find a great list of local businesses for Sonoma County, California to plan a vacation around.

5. Dine by candlelight – candlelight dinners are not only more romantic, but also greener.  Candles are easy to make and cheap to buy.  So instead of turning on the lights in the dining room light a candle and save the planet!

6. Take longer vacations – instead of flying or driving to your vacation destination for a few short days. several times a year, plan an extended vacation to your favorite spot.  You will use less fuel getting there on one extended trip instead of several short trips and you will probably enjoy the extended relaxation that comes from staying in a nice place for more time.  Their are some great options for green vacations that include Belize, Costa Rica and Antarctica!

7. Take it easy, lead foot – we use a lot of gas when we accelerate in our cars and the truth for most short trips is that we only get to our destination a few seconds faster if we accelerate more.  So go easy on the pedal.  You will save money in gas, burn off less carbon dioxide and probably keep your blood pressure lower as well.

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How to be green: 10 easy steps

December 26, 2011 By Leave a Comment

There are many small steps that you can take to make your life greener and put a little more fat in your wallet.  Being green does not have to mean being broke.  To the contrary, it is about being more efficient with the resources under your control.

Steps to be green

1. Make a compost pile - take all of those holiday meal scraps and put them into a compost bin.  You can buy these bins cheap.  They start at about $50 or you can build one yourself.  All you need is a few boards and some chicken wire or other sort of thin fencing to wrap around the boards after they are firmly planted in the ground.

2. Recycle - this one should seem obvious by now, but many places in the U.S. do not have curbside recycling.  In this case, you can press for your city to get curbside recycling and make it much more convenient to be green.  Recycling and composting are important because when we put organic material (anything that comes from a plant) in the landfill it is not exposed to the vital oxygen it needs to break down (via bacteria) and turn back into productive soil.  It basically sits there in the landfill along with all the manmade materials and takes up space that could be used for wildlife or human habitat.

3.  Share your vehicle - this has become a more popular option in larger cities like San Francisco these days, but even people in more rural areas can take advantage of this trend.  Sharing your vehicle saves gas ($$$) and you might even make a new friend!

4. Turn your lights and appliances off when you are not using them – it sounds foolishly simple, but there are still many people and businesses that leave on lights unnecessarily.  This will save you lots of money over the long run.

5. Use rainwater to water plants - rain barrels are fairly inexpensive and they are easy to install.  Residential water use accounts for nearly half of all water use in some areas of the country.  We can save huge amounts of water by installing rain barrels and using this water to refresh our plants and lawns.

6.  Shop vintage - many cities now have loads of consignment and vintage clothing shops with great finds.  The amount of clothing that we go through is amazing and buying second-hand saves both our wallet and the environment.  Buying in cosignment shops uses less petroleum than shipping new clothes to department stores, fewer toxic chemicals than making new clothes and employs local people in small businesses.

7.  Plant native plants - Native plants are plants that have adapted to local climate conditions over thousands of years and are thus experts at making the most of the amount of moisture available .  They require less watering.  They prevent erosion and provide habitat for other native species such as birds, bees and mammals.  They also regulate the flow of water into the ground, which manages our human water supply.  If you do not know what plants are native to your area, the USDA plants database is a fabulous place to start.

8.  Take a hike - hiking is a fun activity that keeps you in shape and uses almost no resources (other than maybe a little bit of gas to get there).  We often associate exercise with going to the gym, but we have millions of acres of beautiful natural space to exercise in so let’s take advantage of it.

9.  Pee outside - this one is fun and green!  This is one of my favorites.  Sorry ladies, guys have a leg up on you in this catergory, but this does not mean that you cannot do it, too.  An average toilet uses between 1.5 and 6 gallons per flush. If you use the bathroom five times per day that is up to 30 gallons of water to flush the toilet!!!  So find a tree and take care of business. Most soils are capable of filtering our wastes and rendering the liquid harmless by the time it reaches the groundwater.

10. Be creative with your junk -  it is amazing how much stuff we accumulate in our attics and garages.  You will often find that a lot of this stuff can be used to repair things around the house or make art.

So go green and be happy!

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