Healthy and Green Living

Pregnancy is a great time to establish green habits because it’s always easier to be healthier for someone else’s sake. Parenting store babycenter.com reports that 56 percent of moms say that pregnancy is what inspired their move to a greener lifestyle. Not only do they have more reason to leave the world a better place for their bambino, they also want to keep their loved one safe from unnecessary risks and pollutants. Choosing organic products and actively recycling are two of the most common solutions, but there are more simple steps that you can take to make junior’s world safer and a more eco-friendly place to grow.

Five things to do while you’re pregnant:

1. Cut the Chemicals Out of Your Diet
While you’re feasting on fresh fruits and veggies, make sure you’re not also overloading on pesticides, hormones, antibiotics and other chemicals. By consistently choosing organic food, you keep your meals—and junior’s—healthy. If you eat meat, choose lean meat that is hormone and antibiotic free.

2. Filter Your Drinking Water
Filter your drinking water and drink from glass, not plastic, as much as possible. Don’t reuse plastic water bottles. When they degrade, either from heat or cold, they leach chemicals that you won’t get from drinking from a glass.

3. Use Caution With Beauty Products
When you’re pregnant, it’s best to avoid nail polish and nail polish remover, as well as, products with alphahydroxy. Choose make-up with more organic ingredients. Also, if you color your hair, a weave is a better choice as the color never touches your scalp. Always avoid hair colors with coal tar.

4. Choose Biodegradable Cleaning Products
Replace your non-organic products with ones that don’t contain bleach, ammonia and other harmful chemicals. By choosing biodegradable products that avoid these harsh chemicals you keep the indoor air quality of your home as clean as possible while waiting for baby’s arrival. Some eco-friendly brands are Method (available at Target) and Bene Life Green (available at www.benelifegreen.com).

5. Take a Cleaner Shower
Your skin is porous. The same pores that emit sweat also absorb liquids that are on your skin. Most municipal water contains chlorine. In addition to drying your skin and hair, chlorine also vaporizes with hot water so it is inhaled into the lungs while you shower. By installing a filter in your shower head, you can keep the water that cleans you free of chlorine and other additives. Check out the Premium Shower Filter at www.watersavers.com. The filter is easily installed and it costs $49.99. You can also purchase recyclable replacement cartridges for $24.99.

Also, if you have a shower curtain, replace it with one that is free of PVC. Ikea sells a great PVC free shower curtain.

For more information or to subscribe at the introductory price of $10 a year, go to positivelygreen.com . Positively Green magazine launches in 2008. This quarterly women’s magazine will cover every aspect of green from eco-friendly vacations to green fashion to green health. With articles that don’t just explain the problems, they outline solutions for busy people who want to make the change but don’t have the time to research solutions.  
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