Health

The word local is one of America’s hot new buzz words. Although the idea of buying locally grown food is not at all new, the local food movement has certainly picked up momentum in recent years and has therefore thrust the word “local” into all kinds of headlines. Forty years ago it was mostly grown hippies and environmentalists who promoted local food. College towns had food co-ops and bigger cities hosted weekend farmer’s markets. Today, politicians, white collar workers, blue collar workers, housewives, retirees, college students and people from all parts of society are getting on the local food movement bandwagon.

Ecotrust Canada’s ThisFish lets you track the course of the fish you eat from catch to your plate. How does it work? Participating fishermen in Canada tag their catch with a unique code, that can be used by consumers on the ThisFish website to find out details on the catch, including who caught their fish, and how and when it was caught…

Two of the world’s most loved soft drinks are making a few changes and many health conscious consumers are saying that it’s about time. Coca-Cola and Pepsi both are focused on changing how they manufacture one of their soft drink ingredients in order to avoid cancer warning labels being placed on their products…

Whole Foods Market announced today that it will stop selling red-rated wild caught seafood starting on Earth Day, April 22, 2012. Fish affected by this change are currently being over-fished and/or are not sustainable food sources. Whole Foods look to the Blue Ocean Institute or Monterey Bay Aquarium to make the determination of red, yellow or green ratings for fish based on how sustainable they are in today’s fishing environment. This announcement from Whole Foods Market comes a year ahead of its previously stated plans to eliminate these fish in 2013.

In a study published in Molecular Systems Biology, scientists revealed that the protein known as TOC1 plays the opposite role as was formerly thought. The previous concept was that this protein was the protein that “woke” plants up. Actually, it’s the one that tells the plant when it’s time to go dormant, much like melatonin in the body of a human…

I have been vegetarian for about 3 and a half years but it did not happen overnight, it has been a long transitional process over the past 25 years of my life. So, if you have ever wondered about the process of becoming a vegetarian, this is one woman’s story. While mine was gradual, many people make the change to eating vegetarian overnight due to health need or desire to protect animal rights. There are so many reasons that people become vegetarian but perhaps my story can shed some light on how it can evolve over time as you become more educated on what works best for you…

When it comes to factory farming there is a lot of misinformation out there designed to muddy the waters. Our goal is to help you understand the factory farming facts so you can form your own opinions on where to spend your money…

I have always considered myself to live a pretty healthy lifestyle. I eat vegetables, I exercise regularly and drink one cup of coffee a day. I have also considered my beauty regimen to be pretty low maintenance. I take a shower, apply body lotion afterward and face cream. Then I usually call it a day. If I’m headed out somewhere special, I may put on a little make-up, nothing too fancy. So, imagine my surprise when I started learning about harmful chemicals being used as ingredients in most of my personal care products. There I am going about my daily life thinking I’m doing the best for not only myself, but my family (husband and two little girls), only to find out that the personal care products I’m using may be causing more harm than good, especially in the long run…