What's in YOUR Ice Cream?

With the holidays upon us, a popular item around my house is eggnog ice cream. Most of my family loves eggnog, and eggnog ice cream mixed with milk makes an outstanding eggnog shake. The other day, while waiting on my shake to blend, I reached for the carton of eggnog ice cream and, being the label reader that I am, I started perusing the ingredients list. What I found there nearly caused me to drop the container and flush the whole thing down the garbage disposal.

Past the sugar, whey, lactose, etc that you expect to find on an ice cream label, there was listed, among other scientific sounding ingredients, one word that I recognized - propylene glycol. To those of you who aren't as avid (or rabid) about eliminating chemicals from our foods as I am, this is one of the main ingredients in anti freeze, among other things. See the link in the title above for more places where this very versatile chemical is used.

Now, I'm sure some of you think I'm overreacting and hyper-sensitive about these kinds of things, but I firmly believe that our environment and our bodies are constantly inundated with a barrage of hazardous substances like this in our daily lives. Don't believe me? Read the labels of the products you use every day and the list of chemicals used in and on the products you come in contact with at home, work and in your car. Really look, find out what's in the paint on the walls, what was used to stain the trim on the woodwork in your house, what pollutants may be leeching from the pipes in your plumbing in your house or office, what chemicals were used, and may remain, on the clothes you wear or the detergent you wash them in? We rarely give a thought to these things, yet they impact our health in ways we have yet to fully understand.

Studies are still underway to prove the ill effects that even relatively low levels of exposure to these substances can cause to our health. The potential risks are already widely recognized. What many people fail to take into account is the many sources of exposure. Too often we think of only what we eat, drink, breathe or directly apply to our skin are the only methods of exposure, but think about your environment; could you possibly be inhaling fumes from the paint in the room you're in, or off a chair that you recently purchased, or from wood stain on the trim, doors or cabinets around you?

And do you really know what's in your ice cream? Read the labels of everything you eat - you may be amazed at the proliferation of chemicals in an average American diet. Various chemicals are used for everything from preserving freshness, color, smell and taste to enhancing the taste of the food that we eat. All at the lowest possible cost to the manufacturer, of course.

The star of this article, propylene glycol, is found not only in antifreeze, but also in skin care products, pesticides, fungicides, and air fresheners. What is it doing in my ice cream, you may wonder? I wondered that too, and a little research led me to discover that one use of propylene glycol in the food industry is as what they call a flavor carrier. Now, why they need a flavor carrier rather than just dumping the flavoring into the ice cream before it's mixed and frozen is beyond me.

If you take nothing else away from this article, please think about what you're putting into or onto your body and try to be more aware of the impact you make on your health not only by using those products and devices, but what impact they make on our environment. There are healthier, greener choices out there, and you can make a difference by using them. Together, we can make the world a better place for our children, for it is they who will inherit the toxic aftermath of our greed for easier, faster, instantly-gratifying lifestyle choices.

Check back later for more articles about opportunities to make healthier choices for you and your family, or see the links section of our website at www.starleafva.com/links for a list of some of our favorite earth-friendly products.

Biodegradable Jar!

Organic Essentials of Crescent City, CA is a truly Green company. They have developed a totally biodegradable jar made from 100% post-consumer paper, soy inks and an all-natural clear coating. The jars are coated in an all natural clear substance that dissolves upon contact with water, making these wonderful containers absolutely perfect for the compost pile.

What's even more amazing about them is that their developer, Ellery West, President of Organic Essentials, wants everyone to copy his design and offer their own organic and all-natural products in these earth-friendly containers. He can be reached through their website at www.Orgess.com

One argument that manufacturers of natural products may make is that their raw ingredients are expensive enough as it is; asking them to package them in containers that cost 5 times as much as plastic would make it difficult, if not impossible for them to maintain current margins on these products. In response to that very valid point, I'd like to echo Ellery's words "Essentially, all single-use plastic is theft from the environment and our descendants' future."

The plastic that gets thrown into our landfills does not biodegrade - it is estimated that it will be there for thousands, maybe millions of years to come. Think about that for a minute; you might save $1, $5, or maybe even $10 on that one jar if you buy it in a plastic container. Then what? Will you recycle it, or will it go to a landfill, there to sit, polluting our beautiful land, for lifetimes beyond reckoning. Now multiply that one jar times 6.7 Billion (September 2008 estimated world population according to the U.S. Census Bureau) That's assuming all of us use only one plastic jar. Is that worth saving $5 or $10 right now?

For all you natural product manufacturers out there who choose to use the cheaper plastic containers, I implore you to change your perspective and consider using or designing similar containers that will leave little or no impact on our environment. You are already creating earth-friendly products made from the fruits of the earth (and I applaud you for that!). Why not package them in eco-responsible ways as well? What kind of message does it send to your customers when you send organic shea butter, lip balm, shampoo, body wash and other fine products in plastic? Please take a moment to contact Organic Essence and coordinate with them to bring these revolutionary containers to the mass market so that we can all do our part to help heal our Earth.

Jess B Natural Lip Balm

I have a confession to make. I"m addicted to lip balm. Actually, I'm rather proud of myself for breaking the Carmex addiction. I found a fantastic alternative though! Jess B Natural peppermint lip balm.

Jess's lip balms also come in a refreshing tangerine flavor. Best of all, their blend of Almond oil, Shea butter, Beeswax and other soothing all-natural ingredients make them great for your lips and the environment as well!

I've been a lifelong lip balm user; although I drink about 2 liters of water a day, I still have terribly chapped lips. They used to crack and bleed when I was a child, until I learned to keep a stick of chap stick in my back pocket. I had to reapply it all the time, and the waxy feel made me feel like I was wearing one of those candy wax lips that they sell around Halloween. yuck!

Then my passion for natural foods and products led me to find a natural solution to my chapped lips. I found several that were great, and they had wonderful flavors such as coconut lime, cherry, even some awesome vanilla ones, but most of them felt way too oily and soft.

When I first tried Jess B Natural's lip balm, I admit I wasn't an instant convert. It was firmer than the oily one's I'm used to, but I soon discovered that I only had to apply it a few times a day, instead of constantly like the oily ones and the waxy, petroleum based chapstick I'd been using before. I'm not completely free of chapped lips, but I can go nearly all day now without having to apply any. That's an amazing change for me. If I forget to take a stick with me in the morning, no biggie, my lips have healed to the point that I can wait til I get home to apply more, because Jess's wonderful lip balm with its natural healing ingredients has healed my lips to the point that I almost don't need her delightful product anymore (though I'll still use it anyway!).

I highly recommend the peppermint if you're trying to break the carmex addiction. It's zingy feeling is almost as strong as Carmex but not as oily, and what a way to greet your signifcant other, give em a zingy smooch in the morning!

Give her lip balm a try, I bet you'll like it!

What do YOU do to be green?

I'm interested in what you folks do to help the environment and live a greener life.

At my house, we:

1. replaced all incandescent light bulbs with compact fluorescent (and haven't had to change a one yet! 3 years and counting!)
2. recycle paper, plastic, glass and steel cans. Our city even has a curbside recycling program. All we do is put it in the container they supplied and set it on the curb on pick up day. How easy is that? Cost? $4 bucks a month for 2 pick-ups per month.
   
3. turn off lights when we're not in that room; don't use lights when there's sunlight (we have skylights)
4. combine trips in the car so that all necessary trips are done in sequence, in a logical order so that we don't do a lot of backtracking.
5. purchase in bulk to reduce packaging waste
6. compost (or feed to the bunnies) veggie peels and other organic waste
7. buy organic when we can afford it (we limit this to things like grapes, carrots, apples, nectarines and other produce with thin skins that are heavily coated in pesticides/fungicides)

So what else could we do? I'd love to hear what others are doing!

Make Today Your B-EarthDay

Positive change can only come about when we use what we learn. Use these easy tips to change your life today and make today your B-earthday!

Reuse! If you drink more than one beverage today (as you should), reuse the container. Be it a glass or plastic bottle, cup, styrofoam cup or even an aluminum can. Try refilling it with water, flavor it if you need to, and see how much better you feel by not adding to your city's landfill.

Recycle! Many materials that we commonly throw away are recyclable. One almost universally recyclable material is paper. Most cities have paper recycling drop off locations. Here in OK, we have big green and yellow dumpsters in convenient public spots that take newspaper, magazines and plain old office paper. Look around! I bet you can spot a place to put that paper besides the waste basket.

Reduce! I know a lot of you eat on the go (I do too!). In today's busy world, who has time to sit down for lunch? Instead of just tossing that fast food (or gum, candy, even cigarette butt) wrapper on the ground, put it in a bag and wait until you get gas next - almost all gas stations have trash cans right by the pump. Many fast food places also provide trash cans in their drive-through lanes.

Save a little energy! At home, when you leave a room, turn the light off. If your house has sufficient natural lighting, just leave them off during the day. Try a compact fluorescent lightbulb instead of the old incandescent - we switched all our lightbulbs to CF three years ago and haven't changed one yet!

These are just a few of the things you can do to help reduce your impact on the environment and help make our planet a healthier place to live. Check back often to see what other little gem's we have to offer!