I recently heard about Container Gardening for Health: The 12 Most Important Fruits and Vegetables for Your Organic Garden, a book that covers the most important crops to grow organically based on the “Dirty Dozen” list. This is a list created by The Environmental Working Group that tells consumers which fruits and veggies are best and least important to buy organic. The EPA just updated the list in spring of 2009, so this book which came out also in the spring contains the most current Dirty Dozen info.

I like the idea, because not only are the Dirty Dozen list items …read more

September is Ovarian Cancer Awareness Month this matters because this year alone as many as 22,000 women will be diagnosed with ovarian cancer. That’s a lot of women, maybe even some women you know and love. Sadly, many women don’t know all the risk factors, support options, or issues surrounding ovarian cancer.
In order to educate women about this important topic, Seventh Generation has teamed up with the Ovarian Cancer Research Fund (OCRF) and has dedicated September 1st, 2009 as “Let’s Talk… Period” Day. The goal is to educate women about ovarian cancer and to raise funds that will support this …read more

Pesticides and other harmful chemicals you put on your lawn are not only detrimental to the air, water, and soil (i.e. the whole flipping planet) but the health of your family and community. The pesticides you use for lawn care don’t stay on your lawn. You and your family drag them into the house on your shoes. Pets run through the lawn and spread the pesticides. And particles drift off into the neighborhood. Yay! Instead, keep it green and healthy by reducing your overall use of pesticides – in fact, many people don’t use any pesticides at all.

Here’s how to …read more

We know that obesity puts you at a higher risk for developing Type 2 Diabetes, but a recent study has found a link between “insecticides present in that fat.” Obese individuals with lower levels of organochlorine insecticides in their blood didn’t have diabetes (or insulin resistance) that other obese individuals did.

This could be one reason why certain people do not get Type 2 Diabetes, despite being overweight and out of shape.
One insecticide in particular, chlordane, was used to fight termite infestations in “approximately 30 million homes from the 1950s until it was banned in 1988.” The vapors of …read more

If you’re not familiar with the “Dirty Dozen” – it’s a list created by The Environmental Working Group that lets consumers know which fruits and veggies are best and least important to buy organic. The dirty dozen are fruits and veggies that have a larger amount of pesticides in them when grown conventionally.

The group just released their newest version of the list and it’s available for download (handy for shopping trips).
This year the five worst conventional produce buys are…

Peaches
Apples
Bell Peppers
Celery
Nectarines

And the five safest conventional produce buys are…

Onions
Avocados
Sweet Corn
Pineapples
Mangos

How to use the list …read more

Women that are exposure to chemical weed killers – pesticides and herbicides – may have a higher-than-normal risk of developing a particular form of brain cancer called meningioma as compared to women who weren’t exposed.
Meningiomas are slow-growing tumors that arise in the tissue covering the brain and spinal cord. They are one of the most common forms of brain tumor, and occur most frequently in middle-aged women.
Such were what a U.S. study result suggests as published in the American Journal of Epidemiology.
Researchers found that among more than 1,400 U.S. adults with and without brain cancer, there was no overall link …read more