Natural Living Carnival on Ethical Shopping

Welcome to the October 2012 Natural Living Blog Carnival: Ethical Shopping Choices This post was written for inclusion in the monthly Natural Living Blog Carnival hosted by Happy Mothering and The Pistachio Project through the Green Moms Network. This month our members have written posts about how they make purchasing choices.

-----

When I think of Ethical choices in shopping I first think about waste of food and waste created from not recycling.  By definition Ethical is "pertaining to or dealing with morals or the principles of morality; pertaining to right and wrong in conduct".  With so many children going hungry in the US and around the world, I find it sad to waste food.  What ways can I reduce waste and make good decisions through my grocery purchases. 

One of the biggest complainants I here in Nutrition is about the amount of food wasted.  Understand, It is not just those making the change to healthier eating, its everyone.  People just notice more if they bought something specific for a healthier meal and then never got around to using it.  I myself have been guilty of throwing food in the garbage.  I makes me so mad at the extra waste and the amount of money thrown away.  So how can you avoid this problem? 

Start with Making a List and Menu.

Look at your schedule in detail.  When I schedule my menu I take into account if we are going to be running to activities, if the husband is working late, if we will have guest over, even if we are traveling.  I don't want to make a huge meal if a few family members will not be there to eat it.  Or if family is missing you can still make a larger meal, but make sure to save for left overs the next night.  The problem is a majority of people do not like left overs.  Get creative in your left-overs, to make it fresh again the next day.  Thinking about what to make on certain nights will help keep you from wasting food and buying only what you will needing.  This actually helps people to use what food they have bought, resist buying food that is not needed, and to save money on their groceries.  Have you ever threw something in the cart and did not know what you would use it for?  Maybe you thought it was a good deal or that you would throw it in something at home, only for that item to go to waste.  These are impulse buys, things you don't need but get anyways.  I highly recommend making a menu and shopping list before you head out to the store!

Resist the Urge to Eat Out.  

 We have all had those days were things did not go as plan.  Maybe you got behind, now your tired, and then you come home and say "whats for dinner?"  You look at the Kitchen and the clock thinking, "I want to eat now not in 30+ minutes", then you pick up the phone and order out.  Maybe your errands ran later than you thought knowing you are going to be making it home late, so what's the first thing you think-Restaurant!  I am not saying eating out is bad, but what about your menu and groceries waiting at home?  Now you have an extra night of food that you will possibly end up throwing away.  Now you have bought those foods, and then you spent money on dinner.  How much did that night end up costing you?  If you know that a food item is being rescheduled for later and it is freezable, than freeze it right away.  Don't let any food spoil and become wasteful.  If you are tired and tempted by order out, look at your menu one more time and find some energy to make that healthier meal. 

Package Your Food Correctly and Stay Organized.

Packaging your food correctly will save you money and save you from wasting.  For the pantry I recommend investing in glass airtight containers.  I prefer glass over plastics because I like to see what I am storing.  We are a family of 6 and a Costco membership works great for us.  We can typically use all of our food withing two weeks, but there are a few items that I buy in a large bulk that last for months.  Rice happens to be one of the large bulk items.  I buy NonGMO products from Costco and they are usually LARGE packages.  (PLEASE read why buying GMO is so important.  I will not support companies who bully farmers and push them out of business so they can make a crop that is dangerous for out health.)  Before I invested in airtight containers I wasted half a bag of rice.  Last year, I looked in my rice package to use it and I had bugs!  This could have been avoided if I stored all of the rice, but I only stored half of it for easy reach.  I threw the bag away and got another 5 gallon jar for my rice.  If you can not store the bulk items correctly, then resist buying bulk.  My flours, rice, grains, and cereals are all in glass containers.  Why Glass?  I like glass because most plastics are dangerous for our food and health.  Another reason I use glass is to see what is in that container.  How many times have you stored something and forgot about it only to buy more.  On the other side, maybe you thought you still had that item only to open the container and its not enough.  If you can see what is in the container, than you know what you have and what is needed.  Another side note, be sure to keep your pantry organized.  You want to be organized so you know what is needed for your menu planning.  Take the time to store your food and organization to reduce wasted food and money. 

Use the Most Perishable Foods First.

 Some foods spoil faster than others.  Berries are high on the spoil quickly list.  A couple years ago, there was an amazing deal on strawberries.  I got 3 lb containers for 88 cents.  My daughters love strawberries so I got four packages of them.  I was thinking strawberries in yogurt, pancakes, and snacks, but we like to rotation food in our house to keep from creating allergies. This helps us get a variety of foods and keeps you from eating the same foods day in and day out.  I was so upset when half way through the second week the strawberries were going bad.  I quickly cut off the spots starting to go bad and threw the saved berries in freezer.  I should have froze half right away for shakes later instead of letting some go to waste.  It was a great deal, but I should have thought ahead and froze what we would not be able to eat right away.  Using up your left overs is included in perishable foods.  When you have an item that perishes earlier than others, than change the menu to use that item first, or wait and buy when needed.

Do Not Over Stuff Your Fridge.

A few problems happen when the fridge is over full.  First it makes the refrigerator have to run higher to keep everything cold, which runs up the electricity.  Wasting electricity is a HUGE waste of money and resources.  The second problem would be forgetting whats in the fridge.  When filling your refrigerator try not to stack food on top of each other too much, and make sure you can see around items.  If you can not see everything in the fridge items get lost and spoil.  

Keep a Journal.

I love journals because it's a record of thoughts, accomplishments, and mistakes.  Keeping a kitchen journal is great for recipes you make and change, for staying organized, and for keeping track of menus and purchasing errors.  It would be beneficial to remember what you threw away, what you needed more of, and things you wish to try.  Life gets crazy, hairy, and out of control some times.  We can not remember everything, and a journal is a great reminder of those events.  I highly recommend keep a journal on how often you eat out as well.  Most people honestly believes they eat out less than they really do, until they start to track it.  It can become a waste of money, and I believe that eating our regularly is negative for your health.  The portions are too big, you have no idea what ingredients are being use, and how fresh is it?  Those are all things you can know and control in your own kitchen.  Have a kitchen journal to help you stay on track becoming a more Ethical Shopper.

Drop the Plastic Bags and Carry Your Reusable Bags.  

I have become a huge advocate for carrying your own bags.  In May of last year I took the Challenge to not use a single plastic bag for ANY purchases.  That was grocery, and departments store.  Any place I am taking a new item home, I had a bag in my purse for it.  Plastic bags are becoming a huge problem for our oceans.  They take too long to degrade and polluting the environment.  Taking a few conscience steps to reduce these waste can make a difference.  Remember to please recycle your waste.  I am pretty proud of my recycling container.  Because our family tries very hard to recycle and reduce waste, are trash can is hardly ever filled.  Our recycle receptor gets pretty full at times though.  A nice payback to bring your own bags is that some stores give you a discount for using reusable bags.  Since we are talking about recycling a bit, I want to ask for you to consider just skipping can products completely.  They lack digestive enzymes, because they have been stripped in processing, which causes digestive issues.  Cans usually contain a toxic BPA chemical that leaches into the food, causing health problems as well.  Canned goods have higher amount of heavy metals that can cause a multitude of health problems.  See my post on non-foods here.  Please remember to recycle and take steps to be a conscience consumer.

This could sound like a lot of things to do or change, but with gradual changes you could be making more ethical shopping choices.  We have become a consumer society.  We buy a lot of processed foods, we buy more extras, and we are a fast pace society.  I encourage you to relax, take time in your decisions, and make some gradual changes to a Healthier Greener Lifestyle. 

-----

Visit Happy Mothering and The Pistachio Project to learn more about participating in next month’s Natural Living Blog Carnival! Please take some time to enjoy the posts our other carnival participants have contributed:  

Disclosure: I am not paid for my reviews, post.  These are my personal thoughts and opions that I share to help others know about companies, lifestyle, and products I am passionate about.  

Watch Joe Cross in Fat Sick and Nearly Dead, FREE

Thanks to Reboot your Life, you can watch the movie free.  This is the movie that inspired me to do 30 days of just Juicing.  The movie is about a guy named Joe Cross who was sick, fat and dying slowly.  Joe was taking an assortment of pills to help him just walk around.  He knew he had to make some changes and it had to start with his food choices.
He was a fast paced business man eating pizza, burgers, all types of foods, causing him to be over weight, tired, and sick. Watch how he travels America while living off nothing but Green Juices for 60 days! 

This documentary has inspired more than 2 million people, including me, to reboot the way you look at food.  You can now watch the movie free! 

Working for Balance

The body is always trying to stay in balanced. Everything about it works down to a cellular level. It functions and repair that way. Food that was consumed yesterday, was sent through the night to replenish cells, that were lost or damaged. The ones that get stored thorough different organs are ready and waiting to digest and transport new working nutrients for the next meal. There is no real rest time for your body. When we are resting it is replenishing. When we are up and working they are working as well.
You can give your organs a little break to play catch up. When we do a fast, or Juice Fasting..... we still give the body nutrients the organs do not work as hard to process things. The stomach, intestines, and kidneys get to relax and allow the cellular system to aid damaged areas. When you fast it is always wise to still take in vitamins and minerals. If you do not the body works harder pulling things away from other tissues to make up the nutrients needed somewhere else.
Think about it this way. Take your job, you are performing your daily task and keep things in your control and in working order. When a fellow worker is running behind, or not at all, then they make you go and do their job, your work area start to fall apart. Not only are you trying to maintain your work, but also someone else's. Something is going to be damaged or lost. Not to mention the toll this is taking on you, one person performing the work of two burns up more than the two persons would do if the work remained seperate. The body burning nutrients works the same way.
I also want to make sure you know I am talking about organic sodium, which is the only sodium your body uses and absorbs in the form of various fruits and vegetables. Table salt is not the sodium that the body uses, it is called inorganic sodium. It just helps food taste differently. When we have too much table salt in our system is gets stored and logged in areas. Edema could possibly occur until the excess salt is removed from us, which extremely taxes the kidneys.
The food that we eat should be planned with that in mind. We should be thinking....OK, I should have plenty of vegetables to replace the sodium that I burnt up yesterday. From the time you start chewing your food, vitamins, and minerals are already processed from the previous foods are sent to work making enzymes for digestion, not just one but different ones need for specific times. Then they are sent as little workers where the body deems necessary.
It is difficult to understand but the body goes back and forth in an acidic and alkaline nature. Needing to balanced and work to do specific functions. When it can not work in time and function correctly that is when damaged cells start to allow disease. We think because we may feel fine, were healthy. The body will work to correct but when it can not, things start to fail and die. We will not be aware of the damage until it's already too late. Not to say that we can not try and correct the problem, but somethings will suffer a great a defeat and will not be the same.
My brother-in-law, a very fit and healthy person ate right for all we knew. But the body was taxed in a way he never knew until he started feeling a little off and knew something was not all right. He was found to have prostate cancer, which was a huge blow for us all because he was young and was what most would say is a very healthy person. He was mostly on a higher protein diet and I believe was not getting enough organic nutrients when things were working. Not to mention the foods we normally eat have lots of chemicals in them over taxing the body as well. Once he spoke to a cancer specialist they told him to have the surgery and put him on medications. He also started his own research and talked to a few natural physicians. He went to an organic diet and greatly increased his fruits and vegetables. He already had them in his diet but he discovered he needed more. He also started a really great product supplement out there call MonaVie. This is a juice that is LOADED with very beneficial nutrients. In the juice form it is easier for the body to absorb and process. Well, he actually started feeling better even before the surgery day, and thought maybe I can hold off and allow my body time to heal. It might have been able to slow the cancer down, but with great advice and counsel, he still had the surgery. This is an example that you never know that the body has suffered great damage until it is already done. When we have symptoms, those are signs of distress AFTER the body has already tried to heal and change, and to no avail. You have to be HELPING your body to live for tomorrow. By eating right and exercises you keep it in working order. It's in your hands, so what are you going to do?
If you want to see and hear more about MonaVie, it's such a great supplement. Even if you are not sick, you should be having these nutrients on a daily basis. I have been on it in my household and loved the way it made me feel. I did not know I could feel that much better until after I stopped taking it and was like, WOW why do I feel so sluggish, and then realized I had not taken the MonaVie in like three days. It only took three days for my body to show me it was lacking something it needed, and I saw that with a chuckle because I eat very well. So, to see a video and the information got to: www.thegreatproduct.com/hammond
The video is very informative, and there is a place to email any questions, OK.

Well here is the recipe for today.

Juice Smoothie..........Veggie Green, get over the color it Taste great

1/2 cup baby spinach
1/4 cup blueberries
1/4 cup strawberries
1 stalk of celery
1/4 cup of broccoli
1/2 cup of apple juice
1/4 cup of vanilla yogurt

If you are using any frozen fruit you will not need ice, if not throw some in. But then layer your produce in the blender, and mix until smooth. This taste great and is a great way to get in an extra helping of those so often forgot about veggies.

Have a blessed and Healthy day. Feel free to make comments or questions and thanks for visiting me today.

Why would someone go Organic

OK, so today I wanted to mention a little more about why Sara Snow started it all for me. I began watching on the Discovery channel a few years back, and love that she finally made a book and DVD. It is nice to have all my notes in one place.

I would recommend this book for anyone that was beginning to learn more about nutrition and the benefits of reading labels, buying organic, and having a clean home.

Most of us think that because it is in the grocery store it is healthy and nutritious for us. This is false. Sara talks about the dangers of eating food that is laced with chemicals and preservatives. Studying food enzymes showed me the importance in knowing when foods are processed they usually get striped of the enzymes that help us to digest that food item. Making gas, bloating, and pain when the food does not get processed within our bodies correctly. They do this for a longer shelf life. She also talks about the dirty dozen and the list of foods that if we are not always able to buy organic, these are the foods that should be. In a perfect world, we would all eat organic because it has more vitamins and minerals, less pesticides, and other chemicals. Sara makes it very easy to slowly grow into an organic lifestyle with a gradual process which is great for learning about the lifestyle while also understanding your on a budget. She also talks about the labels of NATURAL and ORGANIC, how sometimes we think we are buying something when Manufactures are just using a key wording for better sells. She shows you how to look for things in the label. There are many other things she talk about from fair trade to greening each room in the house, and so much more.

I have also added her DVD for those mommies that would like to know more about making things safer for babies. She also touches on these ideas in her book as well.

One thing I want to share is that in our fast pace world we have stray from the way things were meant to be made, packaged, and consumed. We have a lot more health problems today than we did 150 years ago. There will also be another book that has been very helpful to me. My sister-in-law gave this as a gift to me and I have loved it. "Nourishing Traditions" has a great amount of recipes and knowledge about the way things previously were prepared and cooked and shows us how to get back to those roots. From canning, to cutting, storing, and cooking. This is a great addition to any kitchen.

Today's Recipe....

Make your own granola. Great start to the day and very healthy.

2 cups rolled oats
1/2 cup whole wheat flour or barley flour 1/4 cup maple syrup
2 tbs chopped almonds 1/4 cup canola oil
2 tbs chopped pecans 1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp salt salt
1/2 tsp ground Cinnamon
1/4 tsp ground nutmeg

Mix dry ingredients on left well. Then mix the liquid ingredients in with dry Ingredients. Spread on a lightly greased cookie sheet, I use one with edges this might be helpful. Bake at 325 for 20-40 minutes and mix around to make sure it does not burn. Cool
I store in a glass bowl with lid.
We love it with milk. You can add any fruit and it makes it a great breakfast or snack. We even add some over yogurt.

Tomorrow I will be talking about the Dangers of Additives and why they are so harmful to our children and ourselves.

Have a blessed and healthy day.

The Beginning

I love food. I know everyone probably loves food, but it has become a great passion for me.

I started out as a mother of four small children stumbling in the dark about what to feed them and trying to make sure that it was nutritious, or at least what I thought was nutritious. I was worried about the many times I had to take my children to the Physicians Office for a cold, or an ear infection, and I started to wonder if it had anything to do with what I was feeding them. I had started to watch different programs on the Discovery channel and found, now one of my heroes, Sara Snow. She spoke about everything you can do at home to have a healthier more fulfilling life. This was just the start.

So I started taking some classes on Nutrition just to make sure I was doing my part on the food side. My husband was very supportive and loved the idea that I was learning, so I give them the best start to everyday that I could.

Learning about the different vitamins and minerals in food has given me an understanding of what food does to the body. I am happy to say that I have changed my household upside down. I have learned from books, classes, and friends that everything we eat has either a good effect or BAD effect on the body. That is why I have started this blog. This is my journal of the long and satisfying road that I have traveled with Nutrition.

I will be sharing my experiences, good and bad, recipes, and how my family has benefited from it. It is such a great feeling knowing that I am giving my children a inheritance in GREAT health. I have stories to share and one that I am very happy about is the fact that we hardly have to visit the Physician except in our yearly well checkups. There will be times and reasons to see a Doctor.....but if we can reduce those visits by using good nutrition to stay healthy, than that's a great way to live. Staying healthy has many perks to talk about.

Here you will NOT find advice, but GREAT ideas that have worked for my family. I will also let you know about great books and items that I have found to be very beneficial to our household.
I hope that you will follow me down this road of discovery that I plan to share with you. I know that every parent wants the best for their children. I hope that even those of you that are not parents, have a desire for better health and life for yourself as well. Nutrition is for every person!!!! Lets all get back to basics and see where better nutrition takes you!!!!