fruits Archives - Mommy Greenest

5 Rules to a Healthy Eating Habit

May 7, 2013 By Rachel Sarnoff 11 Comments

My kids are sick of healthy eating. They don’t want organic soybean butter and Farmer’s Market fig jam sandwiches, they want Lunchables: crackers, processed cheese, salty disks that pass for lunch meat and a whole lot of chemicals wrapped up in a plastic box.

My younger daughter confessed she dumps the organic carrot sticks the trash (and I thought the ranch dip was decadent). My oldest has been trading her edamame for candy.

Forget the veggie chips I carefully stowed in wax paper bags—heaven for these children would be to open up their lunch boxes and spy a bright-orange bag of Flamin’ Hot Cheetos. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Natural Parenting Tagged With: baby, child, cook, dad, eco, family, food, fruits, garden, health, home, house, kids, meal, mom, natural, obesity, organic, parents, pesticides, vegetables

Want a Natural Pregnancy? 12 Tips to Protect Your Baby for Life

April 17, 2013 By Rachel Sarnoff 17 Comments

Getting ready for baby—or pregnancy? Congratulations! Going green for your growing belly—or for when you bring that baby home—sounds good on paper, but is a natural pregnancy doable in reality? Yes! Here’s how:

1. Eat organic: The dangers of common pesticide exposure are equal to those of smoking during pregnancy: low birth weight and early labor. Studies have shown that eating organic for just five days can eliminate many of the pesticides—linked to cancer, among other health problems—in our bodies. Following the Environmental Working Group’s Dirty Dozen/Clean Fifteen lists can reduce your family’s exposure by 80 percent. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Natural Parenting Tagged With: adhd, allergies, antibacterials, asthma, autism, baby, bacteria, beauty, bpa, cancer, child, cosmetics, dad, eco, family, fashion, food, fragrance, fruits, garden, health, home, house, infant, kids, mom, neurological, obesity, organic, parabens, parents, pesticides, phthalates, pollution, pregnancy, safe, triclosan

Body by Vegan

April 16, 2013 By Rachel Sarnoff 10 Comments

A few years ago, a friend forwarded me a picture of Alicia Silverstone. The subject line was simple: body by vegan.

It got my attention. Because even though I try to exercise two or three times a week, there remains that stubborn five pounds of fat that took hold right below my belly button while I was pregnant and never came off.

Now I know that I’m active and healthy, and I knock wood daily for that. But there is a vain teenager inside of every woman. And on the day that my friend sent me Alicia Silverstone’s picture, that teen spoke up. I wanted to have a body by vegan. Desperately.

The photo-sending friend happens to be a vegan, mind you. And she also happens to be very thin, which may have less to do with the fact that she doesn’t eat animal products, and more to do with the fact that when you don’t eat animal products there is really very little that you can eat. Why live like that? [Read more…]

Filed Under: Healthy Living Tagged With: alicia silverstone, baby, beauty, body, carbon, celebrity, child, cook, dad, diet, dioxin, eco, environmental, family, fat, fitness, flab, food, fruits, garden, health, home, house, kids, meat, methane, mom, neurological, obesity, organic, parents, pescatarian, pesticides, pollution, recipe, smog, vegan, vegetables, vegetarian, yoga

2 Tricks to Ditch Dangerous Pesticides

April 14, 2013 By Rachel Sarnoff 28 Comments

Think “dirty dozen” and you might see a grainy picture of a gun-toting Charles Bronson in your head. Now flash-forward 40 years and update Chuck’s picture as surrounded by a cornucopia of pesticide laden fruits and vegetables.

This is today’s “dirty dozen,” the 12 fruits and vegetables that contain the highest concentrations of pesticides, as identified by the Environmental Working Group.

Why should you care? Because pesticides have been linked to cancer, among other things. Because, pound for pound, your kids absorb way more of them than you do. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Natural Parenting Tagged With: allergies, autism, baby, child, dad, eco, family, food, fruits, garden, health, home, house, kids, mom, organic, organic food, parents, pesticides, safe, vegetables

3 Facts to Face About GMO Foods

April 14, 2013 By Rachel Sarnoff 18 Comments

People often ask me, “What is GMO” and “What’s so bad about GMO foods?” I’m not an expert by any means, but here’s my answer: Genetically engineered foods—also known as genetically modified organisms or GMO foods (it’s basically two ways of saying the same thing)—begin as plants that have had their DNA changed in a laboratory.

That would be fine—I’m no science-phobe—except for the fact that most of these changes involve pesticides, herbicides and insecticides. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Healthy Living Tagged With: baby, child, dad, eco, family, food, fruits, ge, genetically modified, gmo, health, home, kids, mom, organic, parents, safe, vegetables

Healthy Children, Less Judgement

April 13, 2013 By Rachel Sarnoff 12 Comments

How do you raise a healthy child?

Once upon a time I stumbled upon this author who was looking for eco experts to comment for a book she’s writing about parenting healthy children. And here’s what she wanted to know:

How does one plant a garden for a new eater—like squash, potatoes, etc.—so that the little budding veggies would come up at the same time as the child’s little budding incisors? And I thought: What the f*&k? Has this woman even had a child?

[Read more…]