Wordless Wednesday

What Foods Need to be Organic?

If you'd like to buy organic food but can't always afford it, I can help you choose where to invest your hard-earned money. The following is a list of food that typically contain the most pesticides:



1. Meat - Chicken, beef and pork are fed chemicals and hormones. It's very difficult and expensive to find organic meat so it's best to just limit it altogether. Beef is especially contaminated and no amount of cooking will get rid of pesticides and hormones. Beef is also the number one consumer of water and energy in the food world. It's healthy for you and the planet to do your best to avoid it.



2. Milk - Milk has the same problems as meat. However, it's much easier to find organic milk. For those of you who are lactose intolerant, organic soy milk is an excellent alternative.



3. Coffee - Not only do coffee beans absorb a lot of pestisides but the typical coffee plantation uses precious land where trees have been cut down leaving local wildlife nowhere to live. You can choose to buy shade grown coffee which is grown under a canopy of trees.



4. Peaches - Peaches have a very delicate, fuzzy skin that makes pesticides easily absorbed. If you aren't eating organic peaches, you're ingesting approximately fourteen different pesticides. ICK!



5. Apples - According to The Daily Green on msn.com, "Scrubbing and peeling a fruit doesn't eliminate chemical residue completely so it's best to buy organic when it comes to apples. Organic apples taste sweeter than conventionally grown, too."



6. Peppers - If you thought peaches had a lot of pesticides, watch out for peppers. They are commonly sprayed with forty different pesticides that seep right into their thin skin.



7. Celery - The fibrous nature of celery means no amount of scrubbing will wash away the pesticides.



8. Strawberries - All those little seeds on the surface of a strawberry are like little pores just soaking up the pesticides sprayed on crops every day.



9. Lettuce - Again, the thin, basically non-existent skin absorbs everything. And since bugs love lettuce, farmers use tons of pesticides.



10. Grapes - The pesticides penetrate grape skins and get trapped inside the watery center and stay there until you chew it up.



11. Potatoes - Not only do potatoes contain pesticides but you also have to worry about fungicides that are added to the soil the spuds grow in.



12. Tomatoes - Like grapes, tomatoes have thin skin that absorb pesticides which then get trapped in the watery center.



If this list hasn't convinced you to buy organic, take a look at this quote from Sara Snow, Discovery Network's own eco-expert:



"Studies show that organic produce actually tastes better, but there are other reasons for it as well. If all Americans would buy just 10% organic foods, 98 million daily servings of drinking water would be free of pesticides, 20 million daily servings of milk would be produced without antibiotics and growth hormones, 53 million servings of fruits and vegetables would be free of synthetic pesticide resides (that’s enough for 10 million kids to get their five-a-day) and it would eliminate the need for almost 3 billion barrels of imported oil annually (that’s equal to 406,000 Olympic swimming pools). Start by buying even just 2% organic and work your way up from there."

HGTV Update

If you saw the HGTV special Green Home, you saw the beautiful eco-friendly house on Hilton Head Island, SC that one lucky person will win. Patrick and I watched in awe as the host and designers showed us all the thought and care that went into building and decorating this house in a way that is gentle on the earth. Ultimately we decided that we will be the winners and we're moving to South Carolina. ;)

If you missed the show, you can check out the house at HGTV.com. While you're there, take a minute to read ten ways to get greener.

Happy Green Easter!

The Easter Bunny brought me a basket full of green goodies. Here's what it included:

- Organic Hojicha Green Tea

- MaraNatha Natural Peanut Butter

- Organic Bath Co. Exfoliating Scrub

- Sweet Cactus Farms Blue Agave Nectar

- JASON Tea Tree Body Powder

- Desert Essence Lip Rescue

- Gopal's Rawma Bar

- Gopal's Ayurvedic Bar

- Gopal's Mexican Power Wrap

- Gopal's Texas BarBQ Power Wrap

- Soy Natural Peanut Butter flavored Brownie

- Annie's Oatbars

- Sjaak's Organic Dark Chocolate Bar with Caramel

- Divine Fair Trade Dark Chocolate Bar

All these eco-friendly treats came in a basket lined with recycled scrap paper that Patrick shredded.

HGTV Green Home

Tune in Sunday night to HGTV for the premier of their new show, HGTV Green Home. I'm very excited because they will be giving away a featured green home and you can enter! (and I can, too) :)

Wordless Wednesday

My Chemical Romance

Not the band but my actual romance with chemicals. I hate them but I can't live without them...yet. As in any toxic relationship, I'll probably need therapy to break myself free. What the heck am I talking about? My shower and medicine chest are full of chemicals.

I try to use all natural products and food and yet I have standard shampoo, conditioner, body wash, face cleanser, facial lotion, body lotion, the list goes on and on. I feel such incredible guilt every time I shower and shave and apply lotion that I'm almost ready to toss everything and start fresh.

I recently wrote about how I have to dye my prematurely grey hair every couple of months. I decided to look for an alternative to that. Someone told me about henna hair dye and this source told me I can find it for blondes. So I'm going to take a look in Whole Foods to see what I can find. While I'm there, I'm going to look for some new shampoo and conditioner, too.

So I'm making my public pledge to wean off the chemicals and onto more natural products. I'll keep you updated on my journey. I'm sure it won't be an easy one but it's certainly a necessary one.

Wordless Wednesday

Toxic Warning

Household cleaners that we've all relied on are turning up in study after study as being toxic, especially to young, developing children and women of reproductive age. The authors of one of my favorite blogs, Broomhuggers, posted a two-part video of an expose featuring one of these studies. Believe me, those commercial cleaners aren't as safe as they want you to think they are. Please take the time to view the video. And keep in mind...they want you to BUY their products. And just because hospitals use them doesn't mean they're safe, either. We've ALL been duped by media and consumerism.

Remember...there are natural, non-toxic alternatives.

Antibacterial Gel Alternative

We all know that famous brand of anti-bacterial hand sanitizer that OCD germaphobes and mommies use regularly. Well, did you know it isn't so safe after all? It can actually cause more problems than they prevent. I remember seeing a news report recently that these so-called healthy gels and lotions can actually interfere with normal hormone production. And that's not the only problem. The Wall Street Journal reported that using alcohol-based hand sanitizer can lead to alcohol markers detected in urine tests. So even if someone hasn't been drinking it will appear they have been!



So what do you do when your baby's pacifier falls on the floor or you need to be monitored for alcohol consumption?



CleanWell to the rescue. Using plant oils instead of alcohol, CleanWell hand sanitizer is natural, non-toxic and safe for babies. It's also cruelty-free and biodegradable. You can find CleanWell products in your local Target store.

It's Just Good Common Sense

My sister-in-law, Mary, let me know about this site and now I'm passing it on to you. You can find everything from reusable bags to green school supplies and more. Check it out. It's just good common sense.

Do I Want a Bag???

NO! But gosh do they try to convince me to take one. These events all happened to me today.

1. The cashier at the grocery store tried to give me a bag for a greeting card.
2. The man in the curtain store tried to convince me he had to give me a bag because he had to staple the receipt to the bag. They actually have some kind of bizarre employee incentive that they will owe the customer $2.00 if they forget to staple the receipt to the bag. So I had to politely explain that I really did not want a bag because I'm trying to save the earth by not using plastic and I promised I would not take $2.00 from him. I should seriously write to that company about them forcing their customers to take their wasteful plastic bags. UGH!
3. The lady at the checkout counter of a discount store tried her best to get me and Patrick to take a bag, as if she'd be doing us a favor and we were just absolutely crazy to try to carry five items in our hands.

Today's events reinforced that we are all brainwashed to use bags whether we need them or not. Break the cycle. Bring your own bag or, if you don't need one at all, insist that you can handle carrying the birthday card all by yourself.