Earth Day: Green Tips

I love it that we have a day to celebrate our planet and turn our consciousness on to more sustainable choices and ways of living. Our planet and life should be celebrated every day, however, it's great that we have an international day to remind us of this. These are just some of the tips I could think of, that will help you, help our planet:

Food:

- Eat local, eat organic, eat as seasonal as you can and keep it raw vegan!
- Purchase food with recyclable packaging, or no packaging at all
- Say no to paper and plastic bags and shop with reusable canvas bags instead
- Eat at home and pack your own lunches for school and work
- Grow your own organic food!


Energy & Water:

- Walk, bike, carpool or use public transportation
- Use natural light as much as you can
- Keep lights and appliances off when not in the room or away from home
- Don't keep the water running while brushing your teeth or soaping yourself up in the shower
- Take more cold showers and less hot baths
- Don't keep the tap running while washing dishes (Soap in batches and rinse in batches)
- Collect rain water and use it to water your lawn and garden (Remember, plants like rain water much better than tap water)
- Weather proof your windows


Waste & Toxicity:

- Compost, recycle & reuse
- Use stainless steel or glass water bottles
- Save and reuse glass jars
- Buy second hand clothing, appliances, books, furniture, etc
- Use home made or green, non animal tested household cleaners (Baking soda, vinergar & water are a great start)
- Use home made or green hygiene products (Watch my "Keep it Clean" video)
- Buy recycled toilet paper
- Utilize handkerchiefs instead of tissue paper
- Utilize cloths instead of napkins and paper towels

No list of green tips is ever complete. There is always more to be added and said. Go ahead!


For even more tips, check out http://pub.ecoactionteams.ca/pub/resources/tips.php

Is Bread Bad For You?

It's quite unbelievable how big of a part bread and processed wheat products play in our culture. People are more and more addicted to these high processed "food products". In the video below I mention a number of valid points on why we should take a closer look and make major changes in our diet to improve our own health, the quality of life and health of our planet and feel really good and empowered about it.
However, I did leave out an important point that I would like to talk about here. Other additives and ingredients in bread! These are the ingredients in one of the commercial brands of bread, especially marketed towards kids and younger people:

Whole wheat flour, water, wheat gluten, high fructose corn syrup, contains 2% of less of: soybean oil, salt, molasses, yeast, mono and diglycerides, exthoxylated mono and diglycerides, dough conditioners (sodium stearoyl lactylate, calcium iodate, calcium dioxide), datem, calcium sulfate, vinegar, yeast nutrient (ammonium sulfate), extracts of malted barley and corn, dicalcium phosphate, diammonium phosphate, calcium propionate (to retain freshness

Now if you're still wondering, "what's so bad about that?", I'll break it down for you...

High fructose corn syrup- is possibly one of the worst things that you could put into your body. The amount of processing that goes into production of high fructose corn syrup is a joke to even refer to it as a corn product. It plays one of the major roles in our obesity epidemic.

Mono and Diglycerides, Exthoxylated Mono and Diglycerides, Datem - are all animal fat byproducts. Animal fat is the worst kind of fat for us to consume. Besides the moral and ethical implications, from a nutrition standpoint, all the toxicity that an animal accumulates in it's lifespan, is stored in the fat cells.

Dough Conditioners (sodium stearoyl lactylate) - Milk product. Why are milk products bad? That's a whole different subject and a whole different post all together. Briefly, its morally and ethically wrong to consume milk products and support the milk industry. Milk also contains all the hormones, antibiotics, herbicides, pesticides and other chemicals the cows are fed daily; alongside all the blood and pus from the infected and swollen udders of factory farm cows. Mmmm sounds delicious. I'm surprised they haven't made milk glow in the dark yet, to target even more kids.

These are just a few things I wanted to mention. There is much much more to be said, so watch the video below, and go ahead!



Sprouting is too easy. Check out this video to see how I do it :)

Swiss Bliss Salad

Check out this all around delicious salad, that will get rid of those cheese cravings you may get once in a while:

Beet Stack Salad

It's crazy to think that a vegetable that was once grown solely for it's leafy goodness is now one of the most commonly used plants for production of sugar. Since this post is not about sugar, let's just forget about it. Who needs processed sugar anyway right? So let's celebrate the beet!

Beet leaves are just loaded with vitamins K, A, C and minerals like magnesium, potassium and manganese just to name a few. The beet root however, packs a great amount of folate and most of it's calories come from sugar. That being said, I generally avoid juicing beets, since that exposes the sugars a lot more and makes them too absorbable (not a good thing). The recipe below is perfect for a weekend meal when you feel like doing something nice for yourself or a loved one and have time to be creative with the presentation. It's fun to play with your food, so go on and impress your friends, family and of course yourself. Enjoy!