Green Options

As you plan for a season of holiday parties, why not serve eco-conscious cocktails alongside the organic free range turkey and local pumpkin pie? Get started with Organic, Shaken and Stirred. The drink recipe book by Paul Abercrombie will teach you how to make your home bar green and create 100 amazing concoctions using organic liquors, fruits and mixers.

There’s no need to pour guests a glass full of artificial ingredients, synthetic pesticides included. Instead, with eco tricks, you’ll support sustainable farming and products with eco-friendly packaging. And when friends imbibe in an organic cocktail like a Hot Buttered Maple Rum, Acai-Lum Sangria, Kentucky Christmas or Pineapple Caipirinha with Sweet Lime Espuma, you know they’ll be on board!

Cupcakes are still the dessert du jour, but forget chocolate and vanilla — try the green Matcha Meringue Cupcakes instead. Two secret ingredients give them a delicate green hue — finely grated lime peel and matcha green tea powder, a premium powdered green tea that’s used in the Japanese tea ceremony. Use organic ingredients to make the recipe even greener.

Even though these cupcakes are still a sugary, the addition of matcha green tea powder means each one will boast the benefits of green tea including weight loss, lowered blood pressure, decreased stress levels and increased energy. So when you try the Matcha Meringue Cupcakes recipe, you can feel a little less guilty about indulging.

If you feed your little one Plum Organics, here’s a baby food recall you need to know about. The organic baby food company issued a voluntary recall yesterday due to a botulism danger. The only product affected is the Apple and Carrot Portable Pouch, which comes in a 4.22 ounce bag.

The pouches are being pulled from store shelves because of a potential risk of Clostridium botulinum contamination, which can cause botulism, a sometimes life-threatening condition that you clearly don’t want to mess around with.

In a letter on the Plum Organics website, founder Gigi Lee Chang explains that “after a routine test determined the formulation was incorrect. Plum Organics immediately investigated the matter and confirmed that a mixing error was to blame which resulted in an improper blend of carrots and apples.”

Whether your child wants tiger stripes or just a few drops of vampire blood, the best Halloween costumes often come with a painted face. That’s a good thing in the eyes of safety experts who caution against masks, which can restrict breathing and obstruct vision, but not such a good thing when you think about what’s inside many face paint formulas.

Like many color cosmetics, face paints can contain parabens, phthalates, synthetic colors, fragrances and other potential toxins or allergens — even lead — and the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) doesn’t have the power to regulate them.

Earlier this year 43 Girl Scouts at an event in Ohio were left with red, bumpy rashes after using Shanghai Color Art Stationery Co. Ltd. face paint. This Halloween the FDA is cautioning parents. “Most of these products are completely safe, but there have been reports of adverse events and allergic reactions,” Linda Katz, director of the FDA’s Office of Cosmetics and Color told USA Today.

Since October is National Breast Cancer Awareness month, it’s fitting that Dandelion Earth-Friendly Goods just launched their new Pink Collection, a special group of organic baby toys that will help benefit breast cancer research.

If you’re not familiar with Dandelion, they have all the “eco-ssentials” for babies including rattles, teethers, development toys and even toddler feeding products made from corn. Their classic shape sorter even made Dr. Toy’s best green product list for 2009.

Bisphenol-A (BPA) has already been linked to loads of problems, but now scientists ask, is it making our kids mean, too? The latest research links BPA exposure during early pregnancy with behavior changes in two-year-old girls and boys.

According to the study published in the October issue of Environmental Health Perspectives, the higher a mother’s BPA levels were during the first 16 weeks of pregnancy, the more likely kids were to exhibit the behavior changes. Girls were more aggressive and hyperactive than the norm while boys were more anxious and withdrawn.

The study also examined the effects of a mom’s exposure to lead and cigarettes, oddly enough neither one was linked to toddler behavior changes.

Ask the average kid where milk comes from and he might very well say a jug. Bread? The grocery store. According to research by Kingston University in London, kids need more farm visits to dispel the ignorance and misconceptions about farming and where food comes from. Scientist Frances Harris, the author of the report, wants schools to take action to organize these visits.

Even if your child knows that milk comes from a cow, does she know that there is more than one variety of cow? A hands on approach at the farm could also help kids understand which foods are real and which ones are processed. They won’t see any Pop Tarts or red, blue and green grains that could make up their Fruit Loops on the farm. Showing your kids where food comes from could set them up for a lifelong, healthier lifestyle. And actually being able to reach out and touch a cow is invaluable compared to watching a farm DVD or playing a video game.

Swimming in pools treated with chlorine can increase kids’ asthma risk according to a recent study published in the journal of the American Academy of Pediatrics. Belgium researchers also found that kids who swam in indoor and outdoor chlorine-treated pools had a higher risk of other allergies including hay fever and allergic rhinitis.

The study compared chlorine pools with a healthier and more eco-friendly option, pools sanitized with copper and silver. Researchers suggest that the chlorine causes changes in the airway, promoting the development of allergic diseases. While more research is still needed, 20% of Olympic swimmers have asthma. Interesting, right?

Organic milk may cost more, but it may also pay off in the end. A recent Dutch study suggests that children are one third less likely to suffer from allergies before age two if they’re raised on organic dairy products.

In the study, children and breastfeeding moms ate organic milk, cheese and yogurt. The study author said the connection between choosing organic dairy and less incidence of eczema was clear. The risk for other allergies and asthma also decreased.

So why is organic better? It’s hard to say for sure at this point, but researchers believe it may, in part, be due to the higher concentrations of conjugated linoleic acids that are found in organic milk. Studies have shown that organic milk has 71 percent more omega-3 fatty acids, too, another important nutrient for growth and development.

Does your child’s school have plants in the classrooms? If not, they should. Plants could make going to school more enjoyable. A recent study published in the journal HortScience found that the presence of greenery in classrooms had a significant positive impact on the level of satisfaction students felt in relation to learning, instructors’ enthusiasm and instructors’ organization.

Since many Americans spend up to 80% of the day indoors, it’s no surprise that bringing nature inside is a good thing. Previous studies have shown houseplants can help clean indoor air, reduce tension, improve coping mechanisms, boost work productivity and help increase concentration and attention.