Food Matters. Perhaps the Most Important Eco-Step of All

Those of you who have been following my blog know that I am quite passionate about a few things--especially when it comes to our health, well-being and taking steps to do better, feel better, be healthier, etc.   I recently came across this video and I think that most of the latest books about food and how we eat are really making the point that "Food Matters."  What we eat matters.  It matters to animals, to the air we breathe, to the soil our food is grown in, and ultimately to our own health and the survival of our species.  Throw in a bunch of cliches or sayings like "You are what you eat," or "Let thy food be thy medicine and medicine be thy food," and you get the point.  Take 3 minutes and check out this trailer.  I hope it gets you thinking.



There needs to be a great turning in our society-- a turning away from drugs and "magic pills" that artificially "fix" our health woes.  We need to be turning toward the root cause-- how we got to this point of sickness and disease in the first place, and start taking steps to reverse it.   We need to stop just accepting the poisons and toxins that come in brightly colored boxes on our supermarket shelves and start taking action to get better! 

For more information, you can find many resources here.

On that note, I will be exploring this topic further--perhaps in a new blog (still deciding on that).  And to reiterate one of my most favorite sayings:

“Never doubt that a small group of concerned citizens can change the world. Indeed, it is the only thing that ever has.”-- Margaret Mead

Take off Your Shoes and Breathe a Sigh of Relief

Many societies in the world consider it impolite to wear your shoes inside someone's home.  Well, they may be onto something!  When you think about all of the places your shoes have been during the course of a day (assuming you travel outside your house), and all of the crud that they can pick up, it seems only sensible that leaving your shoes at the door is a good thing to do.

Back in 1991, the EPA did something called a "Door Mat Study" to measure all of the bad nasties that we pick up on our shoes and bring home.

The bad news:   Their study found that we bring lead dust, chemicals, pesticides, animal dander and animal feces in from the outside.  That's pretty gross.  Of most concern was the lead dust and it's toxic effect on children.

The good news:  By doing a few simple things (like taking off our shoes at the door), we can dramatically reduce tracking all of these pollutants into our homes.  The Door Mat Study found that:

Using door mats cut toxic lead dust inside the home almost in half.
Taking shoes off at the door cut the lead dust by 60%, better than door mats.
Doing both actions — door mats and shoes off — over a five month period wiped away a stunning 98.5% of the toxic dust. Virtually eliminated all of it. 

So there you have it.  Get yourself a good door mat, take off your shoes and let your little piggies breathe cleaner air.   If you have pets that go outside, definitely go for the door mat!  And, the next time you feel weird about asking someone to remove their shoes at your house, don't.

Next up:  The Ugly Truth About Carpets (somewhat of a continuation of this post...)

Clean Your Air With House Plants

With the cooler weather upon us, most of us will be putting on our storm windows and battening down the hatches at home.  While that may bring nostalgic ideas of chestnuts roasting on an open fire and spending more time indoors,  it also brings up a far more unpleasant topic: Indoor Air Pollution.  Yuck!

On average, we spend 80-90% of our time inside buildings.  And the air we breathe inside is often more polluted than the air outside!  According to the American Lung Association, the air in our homes can contain molds, dust mites, pet dander, VOCs (volatile organic compounds) from carpets and glues used in furniture and paints, viruses and bacteria.  

What to do about it, you ask?  Plug in an air freshener?  NO!  Most commercial air fresheners and wax-based candles only cover up the smell-- and they actually ADD to the VOCs and bad nasties that you're breathing in.  Don't cover it up, clean it up-- with house plants.