Healthy and Green Living » Natural Pantry

Don’t Let Good Produce Go Bad

Mel, selected from DivineCaroline — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 20:01:25 +0000

By Allison Ford, Divine Caroline Every Saturday morning, I go shopping at the San Francisco Ferry Building farmer’s market, and I always go home with a dizzying array of colorful peppers, perfect peaches, gorgeous greens, and a host of other things I can’t wait to cook over the course of the week. Sure enough though, by [...]

12 Problems with Ocean Fish Farming

Mel, selected from Food & Water Watch — Sun, 06 Sep 2009 19:02:08 +0000

Also called open ocean aquaculture or offshore aquaculture, ocean fish farming it is the practice of growing finfish in huge, often over-crowded cages out in open ocean waters. Before any regional or federal plan for ocean fish farming moves forward, we need to better understand how these intensive fish farms affect human health, the economies [...]

5 Tips for Gardening with Kids

Megan, selected from Green Options — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 18:25:05 +0000

Kids will eat anything they have a connection to growing or harvesting themselves.� A simple equation:� the more we can get kids into the garden, the better we eat and the more our nation�s health improves. Engaging kids in the garden requires a sprinkle of extra thought toward ways to create a child-friendly growing space.� [...]

8 Foods that Fight Fat

Michelle Schoffro Cook — Fri, 07 Aug 2009 00:16:19 +0000

Tired of that spare tire? Sick of your love handles? You can increase your body's fat-burning power by eating more foods that strengthen your liver (your body's main fat-metabolizing organ) to burn fat better. The result? A leaner you! There are many great liver boosting foods, but here are eight of my favorites.

Milk Alternatives: Easy Greening

Melissa Breyer — Sun, 26 Jul 2009 18:11:11 +0000

Some people have pretty compelling arguments against drinking milk. And while it's true that we are the only species to drink the milk of another species�we are also the only species that cooks its food and can open a bottle of red wine (should we give that up too?). Truth be told, there are a number of persuasive reasons to wean oneself from cow milk�find out here if you should stop drinking milk, and read about non-dairy alternatives.

10 Kick Acid Tips for Great Health

Michelle Schoffro Cook — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 19:07:32 +0000

Did you know that too much acidity in your body can cause pain, weight gain, fatigue, and other health problems? Or, that high protein “weight loss” diets can be harmful to your health due to their high levels of acidity? Even glands and organs can be impaired from excess acidity in your diet and [...]

8 Meat-Free Sandwich Ideas

Veronica, selected from Green Options — Thu, 21 May 2009 15:40:58 +0000

By Marygrace Stergakos, Eat. Drink. Better. During my first year of being vegan, I didn�t really know what to eat. The fact that I was a teenager who had never learned to prepare anything more complicated than a bowl of cereal probably didn�t help much, but suffice it to say that twelve months involved a steep [...]

Farm to Table: Ramps and Wild Leeks

Melissa Breyer — Tue, 31 Mar 2009 19:09:56 +0000

OK, so technically ramps (also called wild leeks, depending on where you live) aren’t exactly farm to table, but I don’t have a series of posts called Forest to Table, and I can’t not write about ramps now that they are poking their pungent pretty heads up through the last of the winter produce at [...]

Sugar: The New Health Food?

Melissa Breyer — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 20:45:10 +0000

First, the good news: some of the biggest players in the American food business have begun to phase out high-fructose corn syrup–a highly processed sweetener that is produced by a complex series of chemical reactions that includes the use of enzymes and caustic soda. The most common argument against high-fructose corn syrup is the correlation [...]

What to Avoid in Spring Produce

Melissa Breyer — Wed, 18 Mar 2009 21:19:58 +0000

What a world-gone-crazy time it is when you can write “produce” and “avoid” in the same sentence. In my version of paradise we don’t need lists to tell us what not to eat because of pesticide contamination, thanks to a spiraling out-of-control food system. But here we are, with the newly published 5th edition of [...]