LIME.com - Healthy Living with a Twist

Troubleshoot for the Perfect Cup of Coffee

Kim.D — Thu, 12 Nov 2009 00:02:21 -0700

With organic, fair trade coffee beans running nearly $10 a pound at my local natural food stores, I expect my morning joe to deliver a total sensory “mmmm” day after day. When that doesn’t happen, I walk backwards through the coffee making process to find the weak link. Here’s how:

Clean the machine

First, take a look at your coffeemaker. Residue from past pots can make coffee taste bitter and even rancid. Hard water buildup can slow down your machine and cause damage. Follow these seven steps to clean your coffeemaker without toxins.

Step 1: Fill a large sink or tub with warm water. Pour in a ½-cup baking soda and stir to dissolve.
Step 2: Soak all removable parts of your coffee maker along with the carafe and re-usable filter for three hours or overnight.
Step 3: Wash and dry as usual
Step 4: Pour distilled white vinegar into the water reservoir to its maximum capacity.
Step 5: Replace the carafe and run the vinegar through the machine.
Step 6: Repeat steps 4 and 5.
Step 7: Rinse by filling the reservoir with clean water and run through the machine twice.

Keep your grind kind

Grinding your beans too finely also can lead to bitter coffee. Keep in mind that the finer the grind the faster the brew. So espresso gets the finest grind while a drip coffee machine does better with more coarsely ground beans.

Check your source

Old beans may also be the culprit of your not-so-stellar home brew. It’s a good idea to buy as freshly roasted as possible. Purchase smaller amounts at a time and store in a tightly sealed container at room temperature to ensure you’re always drinking fresh coffee.

These days, even coffee can seem like a splurge. Remember these tips to protect your investment and wake up to the perfect cup of coffee every morning.

Four Easy Food Substitutions

JessicaHarlan — Wed, 11 Nov 2009 13:45:53 -0700

As Kermit the Frog and one of my fellow Lime.com bloggers would say, It ain't easy being green, especially when it comes to food and eating. Making the most environmentally responsible choice isn't always the cheapest one, the most readily available, or the most convenient. The same holds true for if you're trying to eat more healthfully—after all, McDonald's locations blanket the country but it's not always easy to find a quick-service restaurant that serves healthy, eco-friendly options.

But for me, maintaining a healthy, green lifestyle involves taking one small step at a time, and incorporating these steps until they become second nature. Even the smallest action over time can have a huge impact on our world, if enough people commit to it. And the same holds true for eating healthier—even just something small, like learning to drink coffee and tea without sugar, or getting used to toast without butter, can incrementally help you maintain your health and weight.

If you're looking for a few easy ways to make changes to your own grocery shopping and eating habits for your health as well as the planet's, her are four places to start:

Choose dried beans instead of canned. From an environmental standpoint, a bag of dried beans is a much better choice than canned. Dried beans require less energy and other resources to produce, and because the packages are lighter (and don't include excess water), dried beans require less fuel to transport. True, they are not as easy to prepare as canned beans, but they can easily be made in a slow cooker or a pressure cooker. And many people argue that cooked dried beans are more flavorful and have a better texture. My sister-in-law is a big fan of dried beans (she orders heirloom varieties from Rancho Gordo) and she will make up a big pot of them and freeze them in individual portions.
Buy frozen vegetables instead of canned. Of course, ripe, in-season veggies (preferably local and organic) are the best, but as we head into winter and they're no longer available, your best bet is to opt for frozen vegetables. These are typically picked at the peak of ripeness and frozen immediately, so they retain a lot of their nutrients. In some cases, frozen veggies can even be MORE nutritious than fresh ones, which slowly lose their nutrients the longer they sit. Meanwhile, canned vegetables are heat-processed, which robs them of as much as one-third of their nutrients. Plus, many canned vegetables are loaded with sodium, so if you do buy canned veggies, look for the "no salt added" versions. Unfortunately, the decision isn't quite as clear from an environmental perspective. While frozen vegetables require less energy and resources to process than canned, they do require more energy with transportation and storage, since they need to be kept frozen.
Buy bread that contains more fiber and whole grains. If you automatically gravitate to loaves of white bread in the bakery aisle, switch to a more nutritious bread that contains whole grains and at least 2 or 3 grams of fiber in it. Even if you think you prefer white bread, you might be surprised at how quickly you get used to the heartier flavor of a whole wheat bread, and with every sandwich or piece of toast, you'll be automatically getting some of your daily recommended intake of fiber. For less of an adjustment, look for breads made with white whole wheat or oatmeal, which are the most similar to the white bread that you're used to. Better still, find a good local bakery from which to buy your whole grain bread. You'll be supporting a local business, cutting down on the resources expenditure of transportation, your bread will be fresher and it will contain fewer, if any, preservatives.
Buy cereal with less packaging. Do your Corn Flakes really need to come in a plastic bag AND a bulky cardboard box, most of which is just holding empty air thanks to the "settling" factor? No. I recently discovered Three Sisters Cereal which is packaged in a resealable plastic bag. Not only that, but the company uses wind power to produce its products, and has a strong recycling program. The all-natural cereals are a little better for you than other supermarket brands, too; many contain whole grains and are sweetened with honey. The only caveat—some contain animal-derived gelatin, so they're not all suitable for vegetarians. There are other brands of cereal that also have reduced packaging, such as Bear Naked, but the best option is to buy cereal in bulk.

What small changes have you made to how you eat to improve your health or the environment?

Image courtesy Photos by Mavis.

Green Eating While Reading

greenlagirl — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 23:28:16 -0700

Whether you're contemplating a vegetarian diet, thinking about planting a new tree in your backyard, or considering a winter garden, a new eco-foodie book's out to help you make some green decisions. Check out the reviews to see if you should pick up—or download—the whole read:

>> Deciding between a ficus tree or fig tree? You’ll likely choose the latter after reading Public Produce: The New Urban Agriculture by Darrin Nordahl. According to Jen Boynton at TriplePundit, Public Produce is “a book that lays out the public policy rationale for landscaping public lands with fruit bearing trees. Imagine if that shrub was replaced with an apple tree? It’s a pretty neat idea.”

>> Thinking about starting a winter garden? According to Jeff McIntire-Strasburg at Sustainablog, Janette Haase’s From Seed to Table: A Practical Guide to Eating and Growing Green “not only provides readers with gardening instructions and tips, recipes and menus, and essays on the environmental issues surrounding agriculture and food production, but does so in a month-by-month structure that gives you the information you need when you need it.”

>> Wondering if you should go veg? In an interview at Salon, Jonathan Safran Foer answers some questions about his book Eating Animals—and says opting for farmers’ market meat’s an “as effective a rebuttal” against the ills of factory farmed meat.

Fingernails & Your Health

savasthi — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 06:24:56 -0700

Eyes may be a window to the soul, but it seems that fingernails are a great barometer for our health.

I learned this after reading an article on WebMD about how our fingernails' color, texture, surface, and other details give experts insight about what is happening inside our bodies.

In fact, our fingernails can tip us off to both relatively minor health concerns, such as a mild case of dermatitis (or itchy skin) to serious ailments, including heart disease, diabetes, respitory illnesses, anemia, auto-immune disorders and other chronic diseases.

Here's a quick look at what they can reveal. I also found a slideshow at the Mayo Clinic's website with photographs of when to be truly concerned. It's a helpful reality check for those of us who find that this kind of health information brings out an inner hypochrondiac:

Yellow Nail Syndrome: Yellow, thickened, slow-growing nails may indicate serious respiratory ailments, such as emphysema, chronic bronchitis, and other lung diseases. Yellow nails with a slight blush at the base, however, might indicate diabetes.

Beau's Lines: A horizontal groove in your nails, like those shown here, are signs of uncontrolled diabetes, circulatory ailments, malnutrition or a severe high fever. A single horizontal line, however, could be the result of trauma or injury to the nail.

Clubbed Nails: If the tips of your nails expand, begin to extend around fingertip, or become inverted (like the one shown here), it could be a sign of anemia, liver or inflammatory bowel disease, or lung ailments.

Red Nails/Nail Beds: Red lines at the base of the nail fold could signal lupus or a connective tissue disease; a red nail bed, however, is a sign of heart disease.

I have to admit that apart from giving myself standard maintenance manicures, I hardly pay attention to my fingernails (My toenails are another matter).

In fact, the only times I ever really study them are if I need to trim off a stray hangnail and, of course, during those awkward pauses when I can't think of anything to say. (But, I'm definitely not thinking about my nails at those moments.)

Now that I know that my nails hold important health warnings for me, I'll tune in more often. I also just listened to this Lime podcast from The Herbal Pharmacist on nail health supplements. Meanwhile, though I rarely paint my fingernails, I'm going to keep them clear so that I won't, ahem, gloss over any early warning signals that my body is trying to give me.

Plastic: Not-So-Fantastic

ElizaS — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 17:15:01 -0700

Welcome to LIME's Organic Living blog, where organic lifestyle expert Eliza Sarasohn - author of The Complete Idiot's Guide to Organic Living - tackles your questions on the ins and outs of living la vida organica. This week, Sarasohn identifies the toxic culprit lurking in kitchens everywhere: plastic.

Most kitchens have a jumble of mismatched plastic containers gathered in some far-flung cupboard. While it might be difficult (if not impossible) to do away with all of them, keeping an organic kitchen definitely calls for reducing your use of these items — and for ditching the worst of them.

Plastics start out as petroleum, which makes them a less than eco-friendly choice in general, as their production releases toxic chemicals — styrene, benzene, and tricholorothane among them — into the air. Certain types of plastic can also leach and emit other nasty chemicals that you definitely don’t want in your kitchen or, even worse, in your food.

Of the various types of plastic used for food storage, these are the ones you want to avoid as much as possible:

• Bispherol A (BPA). Created in the 1930s as a synthetic estrogen, BPA can appear in baby bottles and stain-resistant food storage containers.

• Polyvinyl chloride (PVC). Used for wrapping meat and in some cooking oil bottles.

• Polystyrene. Also known as Styrofoam, used in disposable coffee cups and take-out containers.

Most plastic products are number-coded from 1 to 7 for recycling purposes, usually on the bottom; the numbers relate to the type of resin that was used to create the product. Products containing bispherol A are coded with the number 7, PVC is coded #3, and polystyrene is coded #6. Again, these are the ones you want to avoid.

Bottles and containers made from #1 or PET plastic are safe to eat or drink from but most containers made of this material are designed as single-use only. Don’t keep them around; they’re hard to clean and they can absorb nasty odors and bacteria.

Safer choices include:

• #2, HDPE; #4, LDPE; and #5, PP. None of these types of plastic transmit harmful chemicals to food. #2 is accepted in most recycling programs; #4 and #5 are more limited so you’ll want to check with your local recycling program to see if they’re accepted.

• Polylactide (PLA) plastics. These are made from renewable resources like corn, potatoes, and other plants that contain a lot of starch. You can’t recycle them but they will break down in a commercial compost.

• Non-plastic products, like glass or metal containers.

In general, you should never microwave food in plastic containers, even if they’re labeled as microwave safe. All this designation means is that the containers won’t break or melt in a microwave; it doesn’t mean they won’t leach chemicals into food. If you use plastic wrap when microwaving (which I would discourage), position it loosely over the container and don’t let it touch the food.

Avoid storing fatty or oily foods (meats and cheeses) in plastic. Consider buying meats direct from the butcher and wrapped in butcher paper instead of prepackaged items wrapped in plastic.

And finally, buy plastic containers and products that are made from the safer #2, #4, and #5 resins. The Green Guide has a good list of products to look for.

For a list of BPA-free baby bottles and dishes, go to here.

Excerpted from The Complete Idiot's Guide to Organic Living by Eliza Sarasohn with Sonia Weiss.

Early November holiday planning: Annoying or not?

jride — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 10:32:41 -0700

Green Gourmands on the Go, Part I of III

NG — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 02:30:44 -0700

As an enthusiastic traveler, I’ve developed a fondness/borderline obsession for street food. From puffed rice bhelpuri to rice noodle soup, ice-cold chicha morada to fresh-crushed sugar cane, hot dogs to hot dog, I’ll try anything being sold from a pushcart or taco truck at least once. Carts make it possible to serve fresh-cooked food to a hungry public at a much lower price than what the same food would cost at a restaurant since the overhead is much lower. And what with the still-growing ranks of the unemployed, it’s dawning on many of them that street food doesn’t have to mean substandard food; while some are joining the burgeoning number of food cart vendors, still others wait in line for their turn to nosh on an inexpensive breakfast burrito, bowl of gumbo, stir-fried rice, pulled pork sandwich, or crème brûlée.

Though street food has always been a staple of the New York experience, it’s new North American nexus may well be Portland, Oregon, whose vendors are not just concerned with serving food, but in many cases, with sustainability as well. Sure, you can still get a hot dog in Portland, but wouldn’t you rather get an omelet made with cage-free eggs, an organic fruit Popsicle, a meatloaf sandwich made with farm-direct meat, or a vegan rice bowl seasoned with “fire-breathing dragon” sauce? Catching up with the trend, food carts in San Francisco and Southern California are rolling in and up, offering organic asparagus soup, cooked-to-order Thai curries with seasonal vegetables, and antipodean meat pies made with organic lamb among other gourmet goodies. Combining old-fashioned sales techniques of visibility and mobility with the paperless modern conveniences of social networking (particularly Twitter) and blogging (especially at www.foodcartsportland.com), food cart vendors are finding that their biggest concerns aren’t finding enough custom for their trade, but having enough to go around when the custom finds them. But don’t fret, the more popular these mobile munch-purveyors become, the more chance there’ll be even more menu options at your next encounter.

Photo: The Ruby Dragon, via foodcartsportland.com

11-09-09

jride — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 00:23:28 -0700

Say Cheese: Whitening Without Frightening

TheGreenMakeupArtist — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 23:33:17 -0700

White teeth do a lot of talking. They talk about their owner—they say, "Hey, she's healthy, she's neither a smoker nor a heroin addict, and she practices good hygiene." Furthermore they say, "She's happy."

It may seem as though I'm obsessed with the ability of cosmetic products to make us look happier. Maybe you'd rather look younger. Fine, white teeth will also make you look younger. Our teeth naturally yellow with age, thus whiter teeth take us back to our prime. One of the easiest ways, in fact, to take a couple years off the face is simply to whiten your teeth. Doesn't matter if your teeth are crooked, if you have a hideous underbite, or are missing a few teeth altogether. Whiten them up, and reap the compliments.

A few of you out there have greyish teeth, rather than yellow stained teeth. This is often due to tetracycline poisoning (from an antibiotic you took as a child or your mother took when she was pregnant with you). Don't waste your money on tooth whiteners; the staining is from within, and if you'd like a great white smile then chat with a dentist about veneers. It could change your life.

If, however, like many of us, your dingy smile is due to the accumulative effects of coffee, red wine and blueberry pie, then whitening your teeth is easy as... eating blueberry pie. I get compliments on my teeth quite often, by women. (Men will tell me I have a nice smile, but women are more specific. They say, "You have really white teeth!") They ask what I do. Do I get them professionally whitened?

That's not my secret. While I think a professional whitening job can immediately improve a woman's self esteem, it's expensive (up to $500) and the ingredients are a little iffy for my taste. Speaking of taste—eww... would I ever want to swallow that stuff? I don't even use toothpaste with flouride! And skip the drugstore whitening kits, they're full of gross chemicals, too... unless you just have to have results this weekend.

The best thing you could do for your smile and your health is to make a decision to whiten your teeth every single time you brush, using a nontoxic method.

Here are a couple of my favorite teeth whitening tricks:

1. Use food grade peroxide to swish and spit with. It won't stick to your teeth to whiten them, but if you brush your teeth while it's in your mouth, you'll get an oxygenated tingling and foaming action that gently lifts stains.

2. Use baking soda as toothpaste. It's cheap, it works, it whitens. (It absorbs stains and scrubs them away.) Put a drop or two of food grade peppermint or spearmint essential oil in a cute one cup container of baking soda. Tasty! It's a natural abrasive, and the feeling of clean after you brush (dip a wet toothbrush into the powder) is the cleanest you will ever feel. Very similar to getting a professional cleaning. Do it for two weeks and you'll notice a whiter smile. Then do it for the rest of your life because it works and it's natural.

3. If you hate homemade stuff, try my favorite powdered packaged toothpaste, Eco-Dent Extra Brite. I like powders. Gels and pastes disappear too quickly, and whitening is about getting rid of stains. Peroxide bleaches, but powders SCRUB. This company makes a couple of formulas; I like the whitening one because they added peroxide. You just flip the cap, and sprinkle a modest amount on your wet toothbrush, and brush. (If you wet the toothbrush after, you wash away powder.) While I'm not a fan of the foaming agent sodium lauryl sulfate (the oceans need less foam, not more), this toothpaste is fluoride-free, it whitens and it's natural.

Become an Eco-preneur

jgrough — Sat, 07 Nov 2009 22:38:10 -0700

This fall I had the chance to write an article about three eco-preneurs. Rianna not only started her own holistic beauty line, Organic to Green, she also launched ReuseCycle, a program where she collects, sanitizes, and reuses glass bottles from local restaurants (she then packages her products in the bottles). Shallom of Urth Caffe is teaching farmers around the world about sustainable, shade-grown coffee beans. And Jeana from jclaypottery is making bowls in a community workspace full of artists who take extra care to conserve water and resources.

Small businesses owners who want to go green can find guidance in the new book Greening Your Small Business by Jennifer Kaplan. Going green, Kaplan says, means more than simply cutting back on energy use. “[It] involves adopting a set of guiding principles related to sustainability and implementing practices that support those principles throughout your business.”

The book starts off with 50 suggestions of ways a small business can go green. For example, did you know using Ariel Narrow font will reduce your printed page area by about 15%? Or that you can request a free home office energy audit?

Kaplan walks readers through issues such as writing a green mission statement, explaining green certifications and eco-labeling, and dealing with day-to-day details (like purchasing, supplies, and marketing) in an eco-friendly manner.

The book, printed on 100% recycled paper, is genuinely dedicated to advancing green strategies instead of engaging in “greenwashing” (defined as efforts by companies to portray themselves as environmentally friendly while actually overstating or misrepresenting their doings).

Greening Your Small Business by Jennifer Kaplan (Penguin, $19.95)