January 31, 2014

The controversy over organic

January 31, 2014/ Kelly Pemberton

Last week I shopped at Costco, as I do about twice a month. What was different this time was that upon entering the warehouse and showing my ID, I was handed a brochure advertising Costco’s latest organic offerings. I was curious: there seemed to be a lot more organic goods than I remembered, and some of the items I had been shopping for had disappeared from the store shelves, replaced by these new, supposedly healthier, products. If I sound a little skeptical it is because I am inherently more distrustful of organic products offered by big box stores, especially their own organic brands, than of organic products made by my local organic farmer, or sold by the small, local health-conscious stores where I’ve shopped for organic products for years. (Still, this skepticism hasn’t always prevented me from buying Safeway’s O-organics brand or more recently, Costco’s organic offerings.)

Browsing Costco’s “Save on organic at your local Costco” brochure did make me wonder, though, why some stores seem to be increasing their organic foods inventory.

January 24, 2014

The Body Burden: why kids, older adults, and overweight people are more vulnerable

January 24, 2014/ Kelly Pemberton

(This is part of a series of posts based on interviews with Loni Mc Collin, MScCN, Clinical Herbalist and Nutritionist at Knowles Apothecary in Kensington, MD. You can find more information about Loni and her work, or schedule a consultation, through her website, www.lonimccollin.com)

As Loni noted in our interview, the Body Burden refers to the amount of chemicals that have accumulated within the adipose tissue and the fat tissue or in the body’s organs. Chapter 2 of my e-book, The Little Guidebook for Green Moms & Dads: how daily exposure to chemical toxins is hurting your kids (and what you can do about it) has more information about the body burden and how it affects the health of children (and adults). Because many of the toxic chemicals we are exposed to accumulate in fatty tissue, decreasing exposure is especially a concern with children.

January 22, 2014

Indoor pollution: how to protect yourself this winter

January 22, 2014/ Kelly Pemberton

In the hard winter months we bundle up and stay indoors more often. We rarely air out our homes, although we should do this even when it is cold outside. These are just a couple of the reasons why we’re more likely to get sick in winter – germs thrive best in closed spaces. There’s another reason why we get sick more in winter that you may not have thought about, and it has to do with the kind of long-term, often subtle illnesses that result from exposure to indoor pollutants. Winter is the time of year when our body burden can increase the most.