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guest post by Amy Trotter
If you find yourself lacking energy and going through your day a little more sluggish and slowly, you may need an all-natural energy boost. As strange as it may sound, you can skip the coffee and still feel alert and energetic all day. The key is in how you treat your body, especially with what you put into it.
Read MoreGuest post and infographic by Eamon Fennelly, Capitol Garden Services (Dublin, Ireland)
This fascinating infographic makes a compelling case for our interdependence on trees, with information about the role that trees play in our environment and on human health.
Read More07/31/2021
Did you know that many of the foods we eat, foods that have been labeled “healthy,” are actually sources of chronic inflammation? If you consume these foods on a regular basis, they are probably causing you to experience inflammation in ways that you may not have even thought of.
Read MoreChocolate has a history that goes back as far as 4000 years, when it was used by the cultures of MesoAmerica, beginning with the pre-Colombian Olmecs and followed by the Mayans and Aztecs. Back then, it was made as a bitter drink, cooked with water, spices, and no sugar. It was a “drink of the gods,” intended mostly for the elite, with one exception: evidence suggests that some sacrificial victims were given chocolate to drink (spiked with the blood of previous victims) to “get them in the mood” to die.
Read MoreA few weeks ago I woke up and read a Twitter conversation sparked by an article written by award-winning food writer Jane Black. Since then, I have thought a lot about the article and the conversations that followed in the Twitterverse. Jane’s guest column, on the website of the Stone Barnes Center for Food and Agriculture, points out how elite foodies are fundamentally out of touch with the reasons behind why less-affluent, rural, and/or poor families hadn’t made a switch to healthier eating.
What struck me most about her essay was her observation that one of the main obstacles preventing less affluent people in red-state America from eating healthy didn’t have anything to do with ignorance, lack of desire, or rebellion against elite coastal foodie cultures. It did have to do with economics, but not in the way you might think...
Read Moreguest post by Carl Turner
There may be tons of great gyms out there, but that doesn’t mean they’re all a good fit for you. Depending on your goals, you could be looking for anything from a hot yoga studio to a Cross Fit gym. When you consider your preferences and fitness goals, it’s also important to pick a facility that meets your standards, uses gym cleaning supplies regularly, and makes you feel comfortable and welcome. While you’re looking for a new gym, here are five tips to keep in mind.
Read MoreAlmost half of all Americans suffer from chronic health ailments; among these, cancer is second leading cause of death, after heart disease. Although screening and treatment options, as well as a reduction in smoking, have improved the survival odds for many different kinds of cancer, including the 4 most common kinds: lung, colorectal, breast, and lung, the numbers are still high. Over 595,000 Americans are expected to die from cancer in 2016, which translates into over 1600 people per day...
There's no foolproof way to completely eliminate your risk of developing cancer, but there are several ways to decrease your chances. These begin with making the kinds of lifestyle choices that will ensure that your immune system has the strength it needs to keep your body healthy and fight disease effectively.
Read MoreHalloween, the Day of the Dead, is a little over a week away, and as usual, I am wondering how to manage the annual candy rush. It makes me anxious, and I am otherwise one of the least anxious people you could meet. That’s because, in our neighborhood, Halloween is a VERY BIG DEAL.
Read MoreWe are all exposed to endocrine disruptors like BPA, dioxin, lead, arsenic, pesticides, and pharmaceuticals. Here's a list of what they can do to the human body and the environment, along with a resource to help you minimize your exposure to these harmful synthetic chemicals.
Read More
When Willie Nelson, Neil Young, and John Mellencamp founded Farm Aid back in 1985, sponsoring its first concert in Champaign Illinois, American farmers were in crisis. A series of droughts had devastated farms in the Midwest, Ohio Valley, and Great Lakes regions, with Kentucky and Ohio suffering their driest spells of the 20th century. Family farms were struggling to stay afloat, with many of them deeply in debt. Although the drought conditions would continue (and in some places, worsen) throughout the 1980s, Farm Aid brought the troubles faced by American family farmers to public consciousness for the first time. It also raised money to help
Read MoreIt’s official: summer is over and fall is underway! Kids are back in school and (hopefully) settled into their daily routines. If your family is anything like mine, you’ve already had to deal with the fallout from cold and flu season. Without fail, each time the season changes, the sniffles begin and (if we’re not careful), someone comes down with a cold or flu.
It’s not the temperature changes that cause colds and flu; it’s that certain viruses thrive in the cooler temperatures. Rhinovirus and coronavirus are the most common culprits that cause illness this time of year.
If you have realized that the fall season ushers in the first bouts of cold and flu in your household, there is something you can do to prevent illness from getting your kids (and you too!) off track this season.
Read MoreAs more and more people around the world have become aware of the ongoing problems with industrial, large scale farming, we’ve seen a rise in urban and peri-urban farming. This is ultimately a good thing, but it can also present some problems that exacerbate existing problems.
Whether urban farming can solve any of the current global agricultural crises (food waste, food deserts, soil erosion, overuse of pesticides, increased use of GMOs, monocropping) is debatable, but done efficiently, it can address some of these problems on a small scale.
Read MoreAgritourism, or agrotourism, as it’s also known, is often described as the intersection between agriculture and tourism. Broadly, it refers to the activity of visiting a working farm (or ranch). These days, it’s considered a form of eco-tourism because it aims to be small-scale, environmentally low-impact, and involves educating paying visitors in some way. Farm owners also aim to showcase their products, and in many cases, invite visitors to harvest some of their produce. While agritourism is an increasingly popular activity around the world, it is not a new one. However, it has changed a lot in recent years, especially in the US.
Read MoreAfter an unexpectedly long hiatus from blogging, the Green and Prosperous blog is lining up some engaging topics that relate to the book I've been researching and writing to bring to you, dear readers, Go Green without Going Broke, vol. 1. This is the second book in the series of Green Guidebooks (#greenguidebook), after The Little Guidebook for Green Moms & Dads.
I am so tired of saying that the book is "coming out soon", but REALLY, it is coming out in about a week. I'm finally down to making the last edits, writing the front matter, and creating copy to help publicize the book.
I just got the cover back from the book cover designer and it looks fabulous! I was so excited I couldn't wait to share it with you!
Read on for more information about all the good things coming down the pike at Green and Prosperous...
Read MoreMost household cleaning agents contain harmful chemicals that can cause a range of health problems. One set of ingredients in these cleaners is especially problematic, because they are known to cause cancer in humans and animals: formaldehyde and formaldehyde releasers. Sometimes formaldehyde is not actually used as an ingredient in cleaning solutions, but is present as a by-product. For this reason, it does not appear in the list of ingredients; instead, you’ll know that a product contains formaldehyde if you see the names DMDM hydantoin, or 1,4 dioxane listed among a product’s ingredients. It may also be present if other chemical ingredients like formalin, formalith, methanol, methyl aldehyde, methylene glycol, methylene oxide, paraform, or BFV appear in the ingredient list.
On the other hand, you can always make your own green cleaning products.
By making your own household cleaners, you can not only have more control over the ingredients that go into them, thereby reducing your exposure to hazardous chemicals, you can also save money in the process (especially by buying them in bulk).
Here are a few of my favorite DIY green household cleaners.
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