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March 19, 2017

How to Help Green Technology Go Mainstream

March 19, 2017/ Kelly Pemberton

guest post by Mersad

Green technology is the foundation of a sustainable economy. And yet, individuals and companies alike face problems going from research based prototypes to mainstream implementation. Getting green technology to push past market barriers, move beyond a research based idea and into mainstream markets is now the biggest problem facing the industry. Without it, benefits associated with green technology won’t reach the businesses and individuals who need it most. However, with the right framework and investment, efforts put into creating a green economy can be fruitful.

March 14, 2017

10 Ways to eat organic on a tight budget

March 14, 2017/ Kelly Pemberton

The controversy over whether it’s better to eat organic or conventional food is still alive and well. Many of the debates have focused on whether or not there are any measurable nutritional benefits to eating organic food, while others point out that organic growers still do use pesticides, including a small number of synthetic ones. However, as a recent post in the Sacramento Bee points out, this is the wrong debate to be having.

March 05, 2017

What Everyone Needs to Know about Arsenic in Rice

March 05, 2017/ Kelly Pemberton

Exposure to arsenic is a growing global health problem, but there’s a lot that scientists and health workers still don’t know about the extent to which it is affecting the health of vulnerable populations.

What exactly is arsenic, and how does it affect your health? Is there anything you can do to reduce your exposure to arsenic in rice and other food you eat? These are a few of the questions that this week’s blog post aims to answer.

February 26, 2017

Easy, Natural Ways To Boost Your Energy Without Caffeine

February 26, 2017/ Kelly Pemberton

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.

February 22, 2017

Trees and the Environment: Why Our Life Depends on Them

February 22, 2017/ Kelly Pemberton

Guest 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.

February 19, 2017

Chronic Inflammation: what is it, and how to treat it without drugs

February 19, 2017/ Kelly Pemberton

07/31/2021

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.

February 13, 2017

Chocolate stories, and is dark chocolate really healthy for you?

February 13, 2017/ Kelly Pemberton

Chocolate 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.

February 05, 2017

Three factors that influence unhealthy food choices (they have nothing to do with being rich or poor)

February 05, 2017/ Kelly Pemberton

A 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...

January 25, 2017

5 Tips For Picking a Gym

January 25, 2017/ Kelly Pemberton

guest 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.

November 05, 2016

Lifestyle choices and the cancer connection: what you should know

November 05, 2016/ Kelly Pemberton

Almost 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.

October 22, 2016

Happy Green Halloween: staying healthy and sane during the (month-long) candy rush

October 22, 2016/ Kelly Pemberton

Halloween, 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.

October 15, 2016

10 Ways that Endocrine Disruptors are Screwing up your Health

October 15, 2016/ Kelly Pemberton

We 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.

October 08, 2016

Farm Aid – the best event you’ve barely heard about

October 08, 2016/ Kelly Pemberton

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

October 01, 2016

Cold prevention and treatment without the harmful chemicals

October 01, 2016/ Kelly Pemberton

It’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.

September 23, 2016

Urban gardening: plant cover crops this fall for a better, faster, and more abundant harvest

September 23, 2016/ Kelly Pemberton

As 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.