If you really want to green your life the best place to start is your own home. Green may well be the new “black” and not just for fashions sake, but for the earths sake. Start to green your life today by clearing out your toxic cleaning products.

The EPA estimates that indoor air is nearly 100 times more polluted than outdoor air with standard cleaning chemicals being one of the main culprits. Plant-based, biodegradable products are easier on the earth; gentler on skin, lungs and eyes and help you green your life without having to sacrifice cleaning strength.

How green, or healthy is your home? With all the things the average person has to do each day just trying to keep up with their lives who has time to think about this question much less research it. But the health of your home is critical and the cleaning products you chose make a big difference. To green your life isn’t all that hard; here are 7 easy tips to make finding good green cleaning products easier.

Are you concerned about the environment? Are you looking for way to be a little more environmentally friendly? Believe it or not the kitchen can be a great place to start with an eco-friendly household movement. For a greener home starting with your kitchen, try these great tips.

• Growing and Herb Garden: Growing an indoor herb garden is a great way to start an environmentally friendly kitchen. Not only does growing your own herbs help to ensure you stay organic, but it also enhance every meal. Choose a few of your favorite spices (Basil, Thyme, Oregano, and Garlic are popular ones), get a couple clay pots, and start your garden. You’ll want to set up your plants on a windowsill where they will get plenty of sunlight. Check out your online gourmet retailers like igourmet for herb garden sets that will supply you with everything you need to start your garden.

The first thing to pop into your mind is probably, “what does he mean by healthy cooking?” What I have in mind is that healthy cooking involves the preparing of foods that not only recharge and rejuvenate the family, but will also leave them better off than they were before. This can only be accomplished thru the use of organic ingredients.

When I talk about organics, some people think that I’m just talking just about produce. That’s not true; there are now organic versions of many animal products available also.

I advocate switching to organic ingredients for your cooking because most produce is sprayed with pesticides and grown with chemical fertilizers, Animal foods can contain growth hormones and antibiotics.

The hormones can cause premature maturing of children. Also, it’s a fact that bacteria are increasingly becoming resistant to antibiotics. Scientists say that one of the reasons that bacteriia have become so resistant to antibiotics is because of all the antibiotics in our food.

Have you ever had one of those days where you feel like you are rushed with work, and can’t fit lunch in? You are not alone! Everyone has them all the time, and they manage them in their own ways whether it is running to the local cafe, stopping by the vending machine, or not eating at all, however, a lot of people seem to push daily meals aside and make crazy headway on their daily errands. It is very important to not skip meals, so here are five ways to eat healthy while on the go:

1. Go for the fruit—It’s loaded with nutrients.

It sounds like a big deal, I know. Not eating for 10 days! But it wasn’t. Believe me. On the contrary, it was a wonderful, rich, and spiritual experience. In addition, I am back at my ideal weight, I have more energy, my skin is glowing, my nails are healthier, and I feel strong mentally. Well, thinking about it that way, I guess it was a big deal.

Let me tell you more about it.

I went to R.O.Y.L. Retreat. R.O.Y.L. stands for “Rest of your Life“ and it was, without a doubt.

The whole time I was under the supervision of Dr. Tosca A. Haag, a medical doctor who was raised under Natural Hygiene Law by her well-known mother in the field of Natural Hygiene, Dr. Vivian Virginia Vetrano, and her step father, Dr. Herbert M. Shelton, one of the fathers of Natural Hygiene. Dr. Tosca, as she prefers to be called, obviously knows very well about what she is talking. She was a Natural Hygienist before she was born. She has never taken medications or been vaccinated.

Five Organic Finds

The organic-food category is growing fast, and now the same concept has taken hold in the beauty industry; we love these organic* products for skin, hair and body.

The Healing Garden Organics Wild Honey body-care line ($6-$9 each; at drugstores) includes a scrub, body wash, soap and moisturizing mist–all formulated with organic wild honey to help skin retain moisture.

Avalon Organics recently overhauled its product line to eliminate the preservative parabens (the use of which has been banned in the European Union because of suspected carcinogenic effects). An herbal blend of 10 organic essential oils works as a natural preservative, keeping products–such as the Clarifying Lemon Shampoo ($8; avalonorganics.com)–fresh for up to two years.

Aveda Pure Abundance Volumizing Hair Spray ($15.50; aveda.com) adds body and hold to thinner, finer hair with a blend of organic acacia gum (a natural thickening agent) and organic marshmallow root.

Natural, organic products launch into baby care space

When it comes to baby care, it is no secret that moms are drawn to products that they feel are safe and gentle enough for their little ones. This has given way to new niche brands that largely compete in the natural, organic and hypoallergenic product space, but also has prompted larger players to launch products mom can feel good about.

“The population of children in the United States, parental concern for healthy hygiene practices, fear of excessive sun exposure and the quest for convenience and fun when brushing teeth, bathing and shampooing are the primary drivers of the market,” stated a recent Mintel International Group report on the U.S. children’s personal care market.

One such example is Kimberly-Clark, which earlier this year introduced several new and improved baby and toddler hygiene products under its Huggies brand.

Are you concerned about all of the toy recalls due to lead paint contamination. If you are like most people than your answer was yes. That is why it is always best to buy toys made right here in the US. You can’t really trust the supply from China, but toys made here are manufactured under strict guidelines, using the very best supplies. At simplygoodstuff.com, we only sell high quality toys that are both educational and safe.

Our Dado Cubes are a revolutionary building toy that has won several awards. It is a colorful (plastic, not painted) and clever twist on traditional building blocks. Notches in the sides of the cubes allow children to build all sorts of unique structures. They nest and interlock instead of stacking traditionally. The cubes are all different sizes and colors, so the resulting build is more like a sculpture than a pile of blocks. Your kids will play for endless hours as they learn and laugh and problem solve. Dado Cubes are made right here in America so you know they are safe. The quality and craftsmanship can’t be beat. This toy is so engaging you will find yourself playing with it just as much as your kids.

This is a great list of the most germ ridden places and things. Some of these are a little surprising, but for the most part it seems you will find the most germs in high-traffic, public places. It is important to prevent prolonged contact with these germs in order to remain healthy. This list was originally reported in Health Magazine and can be seen in full detail there. Here is the list:

1. Your kitchen sink
2. Airplane bathrooms
3. A load of wet laundry
4. Public drinking fountains
5. Shopping cart handles
6. ATM buttons
7. Your handbag
8. Playgrounds
9. Mats and machines at health clubs
10. Your bathtub
11. Your office phone
12. The hotel-room remote control

Is It Just Another Marketing Tool?

Many of you may have noticed the plethora of organic foods in the supermarkets these days. From the produce department to the frozen food section, it seems like everything is an organic food.

This is not surprising since consumers are buying more and more organic foods. The trend started small back in the 70’s when people started realizing how many preservatives and chemicals were starting to be a part of our food supply. Many organic food producers that are seeing such rapid growth today started back then. As people become older and more concerned with their health, demand for organic food is on the rise. Parents concerned about their children’s health are also demanding more organic food since even some brands of baby food have the organic label on it.

Natural and Creative Toys Alternatives to Plastic

Plastic toys seem to be the most popular choice for the consumer these days as the shelves of stores are filled with them. Maybe it is time to consider some alternatives. There are many natural and creative ‘toys’ that can be found in your home and nature.

Here are some alternatives to the toxic, sometimes noisy, plastic toys that you and the kids might enjoy more:

1. Small kids like to mimic what we do. Do you ever notice how they like to play in the cabinets and explore what is in there? Why not give them a cabinet and drawer in the kitchen filled with a wooden spoon, colander, wooden bowl, pot, lid, rolling pin, towel, washcloth, broom, dustpan and a fabric shopping bag. My one year old son spends so much time playing in this space and I always put in a few surprises for him to enjoy.

“Among the most exciting applications of herbal medicine lie in treating abnormalities of the immune system. Clinical studies have shown that various herbal products are effective in treating allergies, asthma, lupus, and rheumatoid arthritis. Herbal medicine also has a unique potential usefulness in balancing the immune system in cases of chronic infection, preventing the immune system from turning on the body and causing destruction.”

Phyllis A. Balch, CNC Prescription for Herbal Healing

A healthy, properly functioning immune system is absolutely vital to good health. It is the key to the healing process from the tiniest scratch - to the most complex virus. Even the aging process is intimately linked with the immune system.

Compromised immunity leaves us vulnerable to disease and impairs our ability to heal properly and age well.

SIGNS OF IMPAIRED IMMUNE FUNCTION

• CANDIDIASIS/ YEAST INFECTIONS
• RECURRING INFECTIONS
• CHRONIC FATIGUE
• LISTLESSNESS

Organic Gardening Organic gardening involves the utilization of materials derived from living things like compost and manure. The fertilizers contain only naturally occurring animal or plant materials with hardly any man-made chemicals or pesticides ever being used.

The fundamentals of organic gardening begin with the soil used for the process. The importance of organic gardening is laid on “feeding the soil and not the plant”. The soil contains organic matter, which serves as fertilizer providing nutrients to the plants. Organic matter consists of grass clippings, food scraps, leaves from autumn trees and ordinary trash; all of which can be converted into the perfect organic fertilizer and worked into the soil. The compost is also enriched with beneficial microorganisms and bugs both of which feed and protect the plants from disease causing microbes. All the organic gardener has to do is feed the beneficial microbes and let them do their work

There are many essential physical and psychological factors that will assist in the process of staying or becoming healthy. The most important of these have been listed in this article. It may for many people seem to be a very challenging list. If you are one of these people then I suggest that you make a start. Choose one thing that you can change about the way that you currently live. Make that change and stick to it and then make another change and so forth. If you find the list daunting then choose something relatively easy from the list to do - for example, increase the amount of filtered water that you drink in one day. This is adding something to how you live rather than taking something away. Adding in is easier than taking something away. When it comes to your diet try adding in eating one piece of fruit per day and do this for a week and then add in two pieces of fruit per day. Again you are adding in and not taking anything away. You may also be able to add in something for you mind or physical exercise. You will have made a good start.Attempting to change many things at the one time is very difficult and will make it difficult to succeed but you can make changes over many months - just keep the goal of improved health in your mind. Improved health is what you are working towards and having this in mind will help to keep you going when times get tough and you feel like giving up.

A mist fountain is possibly the best way to purify the air in your home or office. These decorative accents are great to look at, but they also have many health benefits as well. Put one in your home to naturally remove the air of pollutants, using the negative ions generated. Add just a few drops of fragrance oil to scent the air too. No more burning candles and emitting smoke into the air. A mist fountain gives you a clean and natural way to put fragrance in the air and eliminate contaminates. Plus they look great. LED lights and innovative design make these decorative fountains extremely popular.

Forget playing up the environment, data increasingly shows that it’s better to stress a product’s health benefits for humans.

When the dairy cows at Horizon Organic’s farms get sick, they are treated with aspirin and massages. The cows’ feed is grown in soil that is carefully cultivated to stay rich and healthy through crop rotation, composting, and careful tilling procedures. In fact, all the farming practices on Horizon’s farms are geared toward producing dairy products “in harmony with nature.” But do consumers care? Not really, according to Clark Driftmier, vice president of marketing at Horizon, the nation’s largest organic dairy company. So, rather than emphasize the environmental aspects of organic farming in its advertising and packaging, the company more often highlights the perceived health benefits of milk and yogurt produced without pesticides, hormones, or antibiotics.

In order to support a healthy lifestyle, one must think about more than eating right, regular exercise and taking vitamin supplements. A healthy body needs a healthy home to give it the all-around support that complements a healthy lifestyle - and choosing green cleaning products can help.Using harsh chemicals to clean contributes to unhealthy air in the home, not to mention a mixture of dangerous chemicals ending up in the septic system or the city sewage system. Increasing importance is being made of using green cleaning products because of the concerns over the health of our Earth. But, people need to realize starting their environmental efforts at home is the best way to make a significant difference toward establishing a healthy lifestyle. Different types of natural products often work better than harsh chemical cleansers and by doing so naturally, the environment will stay green longer. Thus the reason green cleaning is becoming so popular for those committed to a healthy lifestyle.

When it comes to nutrition-packed foods, Mother Nature has produced them in so much abundance that it gets difficult to pick one and leave out another in the top 5 list. It is, therefore, only more fair to talk of super food categories rather than individual foods. Here are the top 5 nutrition-packed foods that you must include in your daily diet in order to lead a healthy long life:

1) Whole grains
Grains serve as the main source of carbohydrates in our diet, but most of their other nutrients are lost when they are refined and polished to remove their outer skin in order to enhance their taste.
In addition to vitamins B & E and cholesterol-mopping soluble fiber, whole grains (i.e., grains with bran, germ and endosperm intact) contain valuable antioxidants that may not be found even in fruits and vegetables. They also contain minerals like magnesium and iron. The soluble fiber present in whole grains helps reduce cholesterol level, blood pressure and blood coagulation. Their antioxidants have been found to reduce the risks to many types of cancer. Whole grains like wheat, oats, corn and brown rice should be made a part of your routine diet.

Environmentally conscious shoppers don’t want their families, friends, or pets exposed to harmful substances. But let’s face it: Harsh chemicals are found in many of today’s popular, older-style cleaning products. Those chemicals invariably come into contact with people, while their bit of pollution to the environment. Fortunately, there are alternatives.

The markets for natural cleaning products has taken off in recent years, with more — and more environmentally safe — product offerings now available in enlightened stores. The surge in their popularity shows that an increasing number of consumers are concerned about the potentially dangerous ingredients found in the traditional product category.

Debra Lynn Dadd, author of Home Safe Home (J.P. Tarcher, 1997) and other natural-living titles, says there has been a definite increase in the popularity of natural products since 1982, when she began her career as a consumer advocate.

Best-selling food writer David Goldbeck, coauthor of the newly published The ABC’s of Fruits and Vegetables and Beyond: Delicious Alphabet Poems Plus Food, Facts, and Fun for Everyone (Ceres Press, June 2007, $16.95), says that he is tired of the “eat your vegetables” scolding. A former elementary school teacher he created this book to help kids develop a broad, easy-going relationship with these foods.

The ABC’s of Fruits and Vegetables and Beyond is noteworthy in that it is really two books in one. The first part, the ABC’s, consists of coauthor Steve Charney’s clever and zany poems about twenty-six common and unusual fruits and vegetables. Charney is a noted children’s entertainer, songwriter, author and literacy promoter. He brings the same genius to the poems as in the songs he wrote for “The Bear in the Big Blue House,” Jim Henson’s Emmy-nominated show.

People with allergies face the possibility of having a reaction almost everywhere they go. Though we cannot control the environments of other people’s homes, businesses or other public areas, we can make a difference in our own homes. Here are some tips for reducing allergens in your home.

Findings, made by Doctor Lu of Emory University in the US, show that children who consume an organic diet have less exposure to certain man-made chemicals. The children were tested for two common agricultural pesticides whilst eating a conventional diet, and then again 5 days after they started eating a mostly organic diet. The levels of the harmful chemicals (which have been linked to neurological disorders), fell dramatically within a number of days to a concentration six times lower than when the children were eating a conventional diet. The study concluded that children’s exposure to agricultural chemicals can be reduced through an organic diet, and also suggests that exposure to environmental agricultural chemicals would also be reduced with a switch to organic farming methods.

It is safe to say that most people in the United States go to the doctor when they feel ill. The doctor will treat the illness by prescribing some type of medicine. We then take what he or she has given us and hopefully feel better. This is how modern medicine works, and what we, as a society, come to believe is the only way to receive treatment. If anyone were to suggest we think about alternative medicine, we would probably dismiss it as foolishness.

That was not always the case though. Before the introduction of man made medicines, people of all cultures had to rely on home remedies. Some cultures used herbal medicines, while others would have a village medicine man who local people would visit for treatment of whatever ailed them. He would then pass on his knowledge of the healing powers of herbs to his apprentices so that they could continue his work. Today this is what we call natural medicine.

More and more people are demanding organic products – produce, meat, dairy, clothing, gardening and cleaning supplies, skin care, cosmetics, and so on. Why? People are beginning to understand the detrimental effects on their health when they use the chemical-laden products provided by the manufacturing processes in today’s world.

Holistic health practitioners have been preaching the harm of chemicals for decades as have many other health advocates. Society however gets caught in the media trap from misleading advertising, which is primarily for the buck instead of health. Since most people don’t take time to investigate but simply swallow the hook, line and sinker of what advertising propagates, serious repercussions are occurring through the breakdown of health and an upward flux in the number of serious and life-threatening diseases.

Copyright (c) 2006 Dr. Eileen Silva

As your calendar pages fly by, carrying you through October and into November, many of you will participate in that age-old tradition called fall housecleaning. You’ll be packing up the swim toys, summer clothes, picnic baskets, and oscillating fans. Then you’ll dig out the winter coats, boots, comfy afghans, fireplace tools, and, if you are lucky enough to live where snow falls, sleds and ice skates.

You’ll be busy cleaning out the dust and grime tracked in by kids and dogs and by breezes blowing through open windows all the busy summer long. Before you snuggle in for the winter to enjoy family evenings around the crackling fireplace or have those holiday gatherings with all their hustle and bustle, you’ll probably wax, polish, and clean your house until the fireplace glow is reflected throughout the room.