A HEALTHY Kid’s Meal

I work as an early childhood educator. So at breakfast, lunch and snack time I get to take a peak at what parents are sending their kids to school eating every day. What I have found is far from ideal to downright bad. Here is a list of things in school brekafast, lunch and snack boxes –

• Little plastic tubs of dry sugared cereal
• Little plastic tubs of cookies (for breakfast)
• Potato Chips
• Plastic baggies for cereal, fruit, and crackers
• Yogurt in plastic cups
• Fruit snacks packed in plastic
• Cookie and cracker packs packaged in plastic
• Convenience lunch packs

All of these items are packaged in throw-away containers or plastic packaging and are not in almost anyway healthy or nutritious for kids to be eating. Now I am not trying to be overly-critical, I grew up eating snack packs like fruit snacks and little debbie snack cake with my lunch every day and drinking kool-aid or soda once a day. I do believe kids should get the chance to eat too much candy on Halloween and get a stomach ache, or have an cookie or potato chips. My problem come with children eating these foods on a daily (sometimes multiple times a day) basis. The standard child’s diet should not involve a daily cup of packaged cereal that contains 26 grams of sugar a tub, or a “healthy” yogurt that contains 15-20 grams of sugar. These are not every day foods kids should be consuming. To watch the sugar and processed fat being downed and the plastic and packaging being thrown away it has become a sad reality to think that our food advertising has made packaged processed 100 calorie cookies healthy when they contain 10-15 ingredients- most of which you can’t pronounce and are all single serving wrapped and then boxed in cardboard meaning even more materials will go to waste.

So what is the way to go?

Instead of packaged cereal that is nothing but sugar, how about oatmeal, fresh fruit, or dried fruit with nut butter? All things that take almost no preparation, are low in cost and can be bought as whole foods and packed in reusable containers or reusable snack bags.

For lunch pack a nut butter and sliced strawberry or banana sandwich, or a pile of fresh cut veggies in a reusable snack bag with hummus or avocado on the side in a small reusable container.

For snack carrot sticks, celery sticks, plain soy or almond yogurt (buy the yogurt in big tubs and portion out each day, you will save money and save plastic) with fresh fruit or granola on the side to mix in. Sweet potatoes can be cooked up as fries or potato chips and stored in reusable bags for a tasty and healthy snack.

Of course throwing in an occasional treat is not a problem, we all have a need for a square of chocolate or a cookie on occasion, but I challenge you to rethink the lunch boxes you are packing for your kids or just for yourself. What are you considering to be “healthy”? How much packaging do you end up throwing away each meal at work or school?

Some other tips

• Bring a reusable stainless steel water bottle or pack one for your child
• Carry a mug or thermos with you for coffee and tea. It can save you money and save you from throwing away plastic cups at cafes
• Pack silverware in your or your kids lunch box instead of using throw away plastic.

I hope these tips are helpful and encourage you to rethink what “healthy’ packed lunches means for you or your family. Here is a link to an awesome vegan blogger who has two daughters and has some amazing family recipes

http://peasandthankyou.com/recipage/

Here is a link to buying reusable snack bags, that are machine washable and will save you from buying plastic baggies at the grocery store!

http://www.amazon.com/ChicoBag-Recycled-Baggies-Sandwich-Reusable/dp/B00701ROB0/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1374966407&sr=8-1&keywords=reusable+snack+bags

Vegan and Eco-Friendly Teeth- A Small Step Change

Hello! How is everyone?!

First off, I must apologize for disappearing for so long. One of the first things I always hear about having a successful blog is post consistently, and I definitely broke that rule-oops 😦 I am allowed a beginners pass on this one, right? If not than I have a list of excuses for you too- work, school, second job, summer, vacations, you know the usual stuff. The important thing is that I am back and I will be posting often! 

I decided to put together a post on changing a small aspect of your life to something green and vegan. I think often the idea of overhauling every aspect of your life to fit into a environmentally friendly vegan lifestyle is overwhelming and often off putting. I know it took time for me to adapt all of my habits and methods to this lifestyle and I am still working on some of them. 

I recently bought a toothbrush at my local co-op that said natural and I picked it up, threw it into my cart and didn’t think twice. When I got home and pulled it out I did think again and read the back of the plastic wrapping only to discover it was made from boar bristles. Probably the last thing on earth I want to be brushing my teeth with! So I returned to toothbrush and picked up another one, this time a nylon bristled brush from the company Preserve. The toothbrush has all of these benefits (taken off their website)

• Powered by recycled yogurt cups™
• Handle 100% recycled #5 plastic; bristles new nylon
• Easy-to-grip curved handle
• Tiered bristles for gentle, thorough cleaning
• Completely recyclable after use
• BPA free
• Made in the USA

 I picked out a green one (my second favorite color behind purple) and was thrilled to check out making a green and vegan stance with something as small as my toothbrush. To think that every other toothbrush I had used might have been made from animals and creating more unnecessary plastic and now I can support a company whose mind is set on environmental and sustainable choice is fantastic!

On their website Preserve goes into depth about their environmentally friendly production methods all under their tagline “Nothing Wasted, Everything Gained” and they also offer a webstore to purchase packs of toothbrushes or a toothbrush subscription where you will receive one in the mail on whatever monthly bases you wish to. They also offer information about how and where to recycle your old Preserve toothbrush as well. 

I think I paid $3.50 for mine at my local co-op, which is slightly more than average old toothbrushes, but it is certainly worth the extra dollar to support a company doing everything right!

Now onto the toothpaste. I am sure most people are familiar with Toms of Maine who are a company that has created eco-friendly and natural products since the 1970s. I have been using their line of toothpastes for at least 2 years now and I love them. They are affordable and can be found at almost any grocery store and can boast amazing vegan and green benefits. I learned this all from reading the back of my tube of Toms of Maine toothpaste.

• No animal testing or ingredients
• They strive to maximize recycled content or their packaging
• 10% of profits are given to human and environmental  goodness
• 5% of employee time is spent volunteering
• Every ingredient and is shared and sourced on their website

They offer an entire line of kids and regular toothpastes, mouthwash, dental floss, soap and deodorant and can be found in most all grocery stores, but also can be purchased online, with free shipping over $25.

Some other toothpaste options are Kiss My Face which offers a number of great vegan and cruelty products and you could also make your own that is cheaper and even greener than the brands I mentioned because it can cut out all packaging and be made right in your own home! This recipe uses only three ingredients and prevents all chemicals and preservatives from entering your body. 

http://www.healthextremist.com/make-your-own-baking-soda-and-coconut-oil-toothpaste/

Who would think that picking up a tube of toothpaste or a toothbrush would be making such a statement environmentally or in favor of animal rights?! I hope this was a helpful look at adjusting one small aspect of your life to be more inline with your own beliefs, goals, and ethical values. It is all about making those small steps towards change!

I am providing links to all these great companies, please give them a look, let them know you love what they are doing and let me know whether you have tried them and what you think!

Thanks for reading!

 

http://www.preserveproducts.com/products.html

http://www.tomsofmaine.com/products

http://www.kissmyface.com/natural-oral-care

 

Planting the Seeds

Spread the vegan and environmental message every single day

I am not an outspoken, confrontational person or even that talkative with strangers. I want to be an outspoken advocate of social and environmental change as well as animal rights, but I am certainly not the person who can confront someone else on their own values and ethics. Therefore I have found a number of ways to let my beliefs speak out for me through many amazing animal rights, vegan, and environmental items. Here are a couple of my favorites as well as the companies they came from-

Herbivore Clothing

I adore this shirt and pretty much every single item that comes from this amazing vegan company. They are a company based out of Portland, Oregon where they have a shop in the vegan mini-mall (I need to go there!) and have an amazing online store with tons of clothing, jewelry, stickers, buttons, and much more. They always send me extra free stickers whenever I order and they are huge supporters of animal rights and vegan outreach groups.

Christy Robinson Jewelry

This jewelry designer based out of Dallas, Texas has an amazing website full of earth and animal friendly jewelry. Her jewelry designs often are made with the use of earth-friendly materials like recycled aluminum, copper, and sterling silver. Her studio is 100% wind powered and she packs all orders in biodegradable materials! She also supports vegan and environmental causes with giveaways of her amazing jewelry. She has necklace designs that have earth-friendly messages like save water, tree hugger, I am for global cooling, eco chick, and every day is earth day. She also has many vegan necklaces with message like club soda not a seal, I am not a coat, I am the voice for the voiceless, cruelty free, friend not food, ahimsa (a term meaning do no harm) and my own personal favorite Not a Nugget.

I highly encourage you to always have some sort of message piece on you or with you. I cannot tell you the number of times I have met other vegans or animal rights activists because they commented on my item or a curious stranger struck up a conversation on why I hold the views I do or they share their own journey to veganism and I can offer great resources to them. I often sit in a coffee shop to work on homework and there are always at least one or two people who will stare at the back of my screen reading all the stickers. Even if they don’t start a conversation or make a comment I am still planting those seeds in their minds which perhaps will encourage them to take their own steps towards a cruelty-free and environmentally friendly lifestyle. I wear my Christy Robinson necklace every single day as a reminder not only to myself, to my family, my friends and strangers alike that this is something I believe in very strongly. I have always believed that once you have felt the effects of a vegan lifestyle it is only natural to then turn towards others with the message of all you have learned and share as much as you can in your own ways.

 

 

Meat is NOT Green!

 

When I became a vegetarian almost four years ago I had no (and I mean absolutely no) idea I was making one of the biggest environmentally friendly decisions I could be choosing to make. I had absolutely no awareness of the fact that one-fifth (18%) of all greenhouse gases are caused by livestock production- more than all transportation combine (Bittman 2008). When I heard this for the first time it blew me away. Consider this- the greenhouse warming carbon gas released by driving your for one day is 3 kilograms. The amount released by clearing and burning enough rainforest to produce enough meat for one hamburger is 75 kilograms (Robbins 266.) My first exposure to these astounding facts and figures came when I picked up John Robbins 2001 book Food Revolution. Robbins is also the author of the very successful book “Diet for a New America” which can take credit for turning millions of individuals towards a plant-based whole foods diet. In Food Revolution, Robbins examines a plant-based diet from a health perspective, an animal-rights perspective and an environmental perspective. After reading this book I was even more assured that a plant-based vegan diet was not only a way to help the 10 billion land animals slaughtered for human consumption in the United States alone each year, it was also for the planet and for the preservation of the beauty of the natural area I have been lucky enough to call home almost my entire life.

Southern Vermont

Natural, grass-fed, organic, free range, hormone-free, antibiotic-free, local, and U.S. raised meat. These are all terms created to reassure the public that eating meat is healthy, ethical, and environmentally friendly. Living in a popular farming area of Vermont I know many families that raise animals for slaughter. I have a coworker who raises chickens, and pigs for slaughter and it may be argued that she is not contributing to global warming in the same way the industrialized, factory-farming is. I will argue that this free-range, organic, and local food production is still less effective, more time consuming, and less nutritional than the production of healthy organic  fiber rich whole grains, vitamin and mineral rich organic fruits and vegetables, and protein rich beans, nuts and seeds. The highest levels of macronutrients (aka what our bodies need nutritionally to thrive) are found in plant foods that are planted, harvested and eaten. NOT in animal-based foods and products that require the planting, growing, and harvesting of a crop to feed to an animal that will be raised, housed, fed, slaughtered, transported and then eaten. Why not simplify the process and go straight to the whole food plant sources that make the animals strong and healthy?

Amelia the piglet and her friend at Catskill Animal Sanctuary in New York (photo courtesy of http://casanctuary.org/)

               I do not have the time or space in this blog post to detail all of the scientific evidence to support the “meat is NOT green” statement I made at the beginning of this post. I do however have fantastic resources to direct you towards. There are so many great books, websites, films, documentaries, and podcasts to recommend, but these are my absolute three favorites.

Thrive Foods by Brendan Brazier- features recipes, great breakdown of plant-based nutrients and an informative section on environmental solutions through a plant-based diet.

Food Revolution by John Robbins- Features one of the most detailed and well explained examinations of the havoc wreaked on the environment by the meat production industry

http://www.amazon.com/Food-Revolution-Your-Diet-World/dp/1573244872/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1369707435&sr=1-1&keywords=food+revolution

Ted.com- one of my absolute favorite websites for educational, informative and engaging lectures, check the food section for lots of updated and evidence-based speeches from nutrition experts like Ann Cooper to food experts like the NY Times Mark Bittman.

http://www.ted.com/talks/tags/food

               I beg of you that if you have taken the step of reading this post on the dangers of meat on the environment that you take another step towards social, ethical, and environmental change. Here are some ways to do so-

v  Go vegan

v  Become a weekday vegan

v  Become a vegetarian

v  Research the meat industry and be accountable for the choices you make when you shop

v  Stop eating at fast food restaurants

v  If you already are vegan or vegetarian take steps towards spreading the word in a way works for you- social media, message t-shirts or jewelry, bumper stickers, stickers, buttons or pins, or create an outreach group in your area

Resources for this post

Mark Bittman- What’s Wrong with What We Eat? posted May 2008 on Ted.com

John Robbins-Food Revolution-published 2001.

Introduction to me

Welcome!

First off thank you so much for giving my blog a look. It has been a long time coming for this blog and I think it is about time I got into this whole blogging universe. I have so much to share with you all. So I suppose the easiest thing to do would be to start at the beginning and just go from there right? Ok.

My name is Laura and I am a college student in Vermont. I have lived in Vermont from the time I was three years old and since then I have been a native of the southern part of this small rural state. About three years ago my younger sister, Sarah made the decision to become a vegetarian. As a compassionate animal-lover she could no longer stomach the idea of taking another being’s life for her own taste buds or dietary satisfaction. It was not long after that I also made the choice to give up meat (that includes all red meat, white meat, fish, and pork). The official date of my acceptance of a vegetarian lifestyle was November 2, 2009. I knew very little about the animal rights movement, the environmental benefits of my decision, or even the health benefits of my decision, all I knew was that I could no longer contribute to the murder of so many innocent lives.

So there I was a happy little veghead in Vermont with my little sister filling up on Greek yogurt, skim milk, and lots of veggie burgers when I decided to seek out some new vegetarian recipes. I stumbled upon Colleen Patrick-Goudreau’s podcast Vegetarian Food for Thought and began scrolling through the episodes. I clicked on “A Visit to two “Free-Range” Egg Facilities” and I was horrified with what I heard. I went on to listen to every single podcast that demystified the kindness of “humane” dairy farming, the debeaking of small chicks that came out of the egg industry, and the undeniable connection between dairy farming and the veal industry. I have not been the same person since- on January 13, 2011 I went vegan (no animal products in my diet or in my lifestyle) overnight. I knew little besides the fact that I could no longer contribute to that kind of mass suffering when I knew there was another way to live, to eat and to thrive. Now nearly two and a half years later I have not looked back once and I never will.

I am now beginning yet another piece of my journey towards becoming as compassionate and conscious as I can be in my daily life. I have never been exceptionally involved in environmental issues. I do what I can when I can to turn off lights, use reusable shopping bags, and unplug chargers and electronics when I am not using them, I don’t drink bottled water, and I reuse containers when possible, small steps that are helpful and are great environmental practices, but I feel somewhat lax when it comes to advocating change environmentally. I believe a whole foods plant-based diet is one of the best ways to lead a green life, and I want to be an outspoken advocate of this. There are so many steps that can be taken to stop destroying, damaging and abusing our planet with the implementation of a whole foods plant based diet and I am unbelievably excited to use this blog as a way to help you make plant-based green changes to your diet and lifestyle, or to at the very least take steps towards this amazingly rewarding and compassionate lifestyle change!

I plan on posting once or twice a week with ways that I have (and you can) implement green plant-based living into your daily life through the use of green vegan products, resources, recipes, and so many other plant-based cruelty-free outlets.