Naturalpath

I was taking a stroll to lunch today when I discovered what looked like snow... "in the middle of san francisco" you say? "it's only 2007, global warming hasn't hit us with that yet" you say? to answer such concerns i took it upon myself to inspect this strange occurance up close. and yes, just as i suspected, it was styrofoam, loads of styrofoam. Off whiteish bits of styrofoam that worked to threaten the very drain that was to drain the street water in times of imperative drainage. yes, i was bothered; luckily, i had a place to take this feeling. I called the city water concerns line.

HEALTH AND/OR ENVIRONMENTAL ISSUES:

Infants are more sensitive to pesticides because of their more vulnerable nervous and immune systems. A government study of children whose diets were changed from regular to organic found their pesticide levels plunged almost immediately. The amount of pesticide detected in the children remained imperceptible until their diets were switched back to conventional food. All of this clearly explains the rise in popularity of organic baby food. Sales of organic baby food have jumped nearly 18% since last year, double the overall growth of organic food sales, according to the marketing information company ACNielsen.

Who knew Mommie Dearest was such an environmentalist when she so manically claimed no more wire hangers ever!! Typically, in the "green" world when we think of dry cleaners we think of the potential toxins of chemical cleaners and not the hangers. The fact is about 3.5 billion wire hangers escape from closets around the country and end up in landfills. Hanger Network has come up with an eco-friendly solution via eco-hangers which are made from 100% recyled paper so no trees are harmed and they are fully recyclable.  It is a unique business model encouraging dry cleaners (who receive the eco-hangers for free in comparison to normally paying 8 cents a piece for wire hangers), as the main channel of distribution.  Customers come home with their clothes on a  a conveniently branded eco-hanger.  While the company is currently only in test markets of New York and San Francisco, stay tuned for an eco-hanger dry cleaner near you!  In the meantime there our several other ways to help yourself and the environment when it comes to dry cleaners and other household chores.

Mantras for New Moms

When I was the mother of newborns, I used to put mantras on sticky notes and post them on my fridge. Here’s five that I still pass on at baby showers to friends who are entering motherhood.

1. I Can’t Spoil a Baby.

Sure, you can make bedtime harder or nurse longer than you need to, but you can’t spoil –as in “ruin”—your baby by giving him or her too much love and attention.

2. If Mama Ain’t Happy Ain’t Nobody Happy.

It doesn’t hurt your children if you take care of yourself – it helps them. So go ahead, put junior in the pac-n-play with some measure cups, slide him in front of the bathroom door or put on a baby monitor and take a shower! In fact, you can even take the time to shave your legs. Now take a few breaths before you step out into your biggest fluffiest towel. I promise, everyone will feel just a little bit better.

I read in the San Francisco Chronicle the other morning that the Strategic Alliance for Healthy Food and Activity Environments, a non-profit Oakland, California-based group of nutrition and physical exercise advocates, just completed a study about the actual fruit content of the most highly-advertised children's food and drinks.  They looked primarily at products linked with fruit, either through the product name, phrases on the label, and/or pictures displayed on the packaging.  They specifically looked to see if indications of fruit represented any link to actual fruit contained in the product.  The results were not surprising...  Two-thirds of the products reviewed contained little or no fruit, and were high in added sweeteners (such as high fructose corn syrup).  The Strategic Alliance concluded that the package labels and advertising regarding both fruit and sugar content were confusing not only for children, but for parents too.