Green Options

Think a romantic meal of beef tenderloin with a side of potatoes sounds delicious? Maybe with a nice Bordeaux?  Perhaps it does (especially if it’s grass-fed beef!), but it may decrease your chances of conception.

A new study shows that men who want to be fathers should increase their intake of fruits and veggies and decrease their consumption of fatty foods like red meat and creamy dishes.

Men who ate healthy diets not only had faster sperm, they had more sperm in their semen. It was both a quality and quantity effect.

Dr. Jaime Mendiola of the University of Murcia, Spain said of his research:

In this study, we have found that people who consume more fruits and vegetables are ingesting more anti-oxidants and this is the important point.

We saw that, among the couples with fertility problems coming to the clinic, the men with good semen quality ate more vegetables and fruit than those men with low seminal quality.

There are obviously many factors that influence fertility, and this is only one.

Thomas Beatie was born a woman. “She” turned to “he” through sex-reassignment surgery and hormone treatment, but kept the uterus. Good thing for his family, too, as his wife Nancy was unable to give birth.

The family made news last year when they went on Oprah and in the LGBT magazine The Advocate to announce his pregnancy with the couple’s first child, a girl. They said they made the pregnancy public because,

Hiding a pregnant man is like hiding an 800-pound gorilla. Nancy and I wanted to tell our story from our own mouths before it got out.

Early morning on June 9, the family welcomed a baby boy through natural childbirth. His wife Nancy will breastfeed the child, as she did with their daughter. (Because natural birthing is so fabulous, even men want to do it!)

So how did they do it?

Eco-Artware is full of fun and functionally “green” products. Most of their items are handcrafted from recycled materials but these handy little bamboo eating utensils are made from all new bamboo and perfect for parents or anyone that often eats on the go.

In a hot custody battle, every little action is scrutinized. Or in this case, every big action: the act of breastfeeding.

In Toronto, a Canadian judge ordered the mother of a 29-month-old girl to adjust her breastfeeding schedule or begin pumping so her biological father could spend time with the girl. The girl is now 34 months old.

The woman, Jennifer Johne, had allegedly been limiting time for her daughter to spend with dad, Carl Cavannah, because the girl was still breastfeeding.

But Justice Alan Ingram said that must change. The law says that mothers and fathers are equally entitled to custody of a child.

Tim Barklage and Kevin Tibbs became dads around the same time and became much more aware of the world around them, especially once their little girls started crawling.

They wanted safe, eco-friendly products that wouldn’t harm their children. Kevin Tibbs has worked as a formulation chemist for the past 11 years creating over 300 products that can be found in stores everywhere. Tim Barklage is a self described dreamer with a passion for living green. Together they created Better Life.

Since Paul Erhlich wrote The Population Bomb, it’s long been recognized that uncontrolled human population growth is the greatest threat to our planet.  Coupled with an economic recession, many families, including the first family, recognize that small family size is crucial for surviving the current depression and climate crisis.  That’s why President Obama has endorsed a $10,000 tax credit for American males that undergo vasectomies, essentially making the surgical procedure free.

According to CNN Health:

Since then, the Cleveland Clinic has seen a 50 percent increase in vasectomies, an outpatient surgery that is the cheapest form of permanent birth control. Vasectomies are less invasive and cheaper than tubal ligation, which involves blocking, tieing or cutting a woman’s fallopian tubes to prevent pregnancy.

Finally, guys don’t have to use the ladies’ all natural goodies that smell like fruit and flowers and other essential oil yummies. Guys now have their own eco-skin care products.

Every Man Jack is a line of naturally-derived grooming products made just for the guys.

A group of Michigan moms have stepped up to feed a baby boy whose mom died shortly after birth.

Baby Moses Goodrich was in desperate need after his mom Susan died of a rare amniotic fluid embolism. Breast is best, of course, but the hospital didn’t have any breastmilk available for the little guy. The grieving father didn’t know where to turn.

Then he got a call from a family friend, Laura Janowski, who was still nursing her 1-year-old. Professor Goodrich made the good decision,

That’s when it clicked in my head. I wanted the baby to be nursed. That’s something that Susan would have wanted.

According to a British study done by CITV in connection to their new children’ show, Bookaboo, parents struggle to find time to read to their children:

“While 95 per cent of parents have read to their children at some point, only five per cent of those polled read to their children during the day. More than one in ten said they read every couple of weeks or less, and five per cent could not remember the last time they shared a book.”

The 97% of dads who did not read to their children claimed that they could not find time due to work commitments and being too tired. 89% of the moms polled did read to their children, but half admitted that they were distracted by cleaning, cooking, and other household chores.

I just finished reading The Mom’s Guide to Growing Your Family Green. I’ve got one word for you.

Yipee!

Finally, there’s a book for moms who are looking to go green that doesn’t make them feel like a failure. I’ve always been pretty green. It was recent that I realized that a lot of my peers don’t think about sustainable living. I’d just assumed that everyone went through the same processes that I did.

What I didn’t realize is that a lot of women (especially parents) felt like they had to do everything. By “everything” I mean everything from green cleaning products to the diva cup to growing their own food, and by being made to feel like a perennial failure, many parents are unwilling to attempt any part of a sustainable life, for fear of being mocked.

Oh, I’ve heard many reasons why we should circumcise a baby boy. Some of the popular ones are:

I want him to look like me.
He’ll be a freak in the locker room.
You have to.  Boys who aren’t circumcised are dirty.

Jennifer’s post last week, WTF? Baby Boys’ Circumcised Foreskins Used for Wrinkle Treatment made me laugh out loud.  Mostly it was her shock at upcycling foreskins.

As I commented on that blog, I’d already known they “reused” foreskins.  My sister had been involved with a skin grafting on a foot that used those circumcised scraps. If feet and penises combined for life aren’t your idea of fun, perhaps you’ve already hopped on the no-circumcise bandwagon.

Still not sure? Here are 11 Reasons to Avoid Circumcising Your Son…