Green Your Kitchen Space

Eco Shopping Bag and Reusable Shopping bags are all the rage these days - so why not step out in style while you're out buying your organic groceries? Wrapsacks also makes great reusable gift bags which you can login and see how far around the world your gift bags gets!

Green Your Kitchen Space

Fill the Dishwasher

Energy Star dishwashers can be more efficient than hand washing. Run full loads, air dry, and skip the prerinsing (most newer models don't need it). When you run your dishwasher, use green dishwasher detergents.

Green Your Kitchen - Use Green Dishwashing Liquid

Green Dishwashing Soap

For greasy pots and pans: Try scouring with salt. For burned saucepans: Fill the pan half full with water, spoon in baking soda, let it soak overnight, and bring to a boil.

Green Your Kitchen Space - Use Foil Sparingly

Use aluminum foil sparingly -- and reuse it before you recycle it. Stop wrapping leftovers in foil; store them in glass containers instead. The manufacture of new foil is energy intensive -- another reason to ration. Buy recycled foil, which is produced using 95 percent less energy.

Green Your Kitchen Space with Reusable Towels

Try Reusable Towels

Paper towels cause waste -- even if you stick to the recycled brands. Microfiber towels grip dirt and dust like a magnet and don't let go. After use, toss the towels into the laundry and reuse over and over.

Green Your Kitchen Space

Say Yes to Convection
Because it continually circulates heated air, thereby reducing cooking time, a convection uses 20 percent less energy on average than a conventional oven.

Beauty Remedy - Walnuts

Rich in oil, walnuts make for extra-gentle sloughing. Blend 1/4 cup shelled walnuts or walnut hull powder, 1/2 cup olive oil (for extra emollients), and a tablespoon of honey (to seal moisture into your skin) in a food processor set on a slow speed, creating a fine-particle scrub. Standing in the shower (if you're scrubbing your feet) or over a sink (if it's for your hands), work the mixture thoroughly over your skin for a couple of minutes. Rinse with warm water.

Energy Support: Arctic Root

Arctic root, or rhodiola, can enhance endurance, reduce harmful effects of stress, and improve mood and memory. It may increase sexual energy as well. Buy products standardized to 3 percent rosavins and 1 percent salidroside, and follow dosage recommendations.

Energy Support: Eleuthero Ginseng

Formerly called Siberian ginseng, eleuthero ginseng has a long history of use by athletes, military personnel, and cosmonauts of the former Soviet Union due to its energy-enhancing properties. Buy products standardized for eleutheroside content, follow dosage recommendations, and wait six to eight weeks to evaluate the effect.

Detoxification: Milk Thistle

Milk thistle is an herbal remedy with an excellent reputation for protecting and enhancing liver function. Anyone who drinks alcohol heavily, who takes drugs or medications that can harm the liver, who has abnormal liver function for any reason, or who works with solvents or has a history of toxic exposures should take milk thistle. Look for extracts standardized to 70 percent to 80 percent silymarin, and take two capsules twice a day or as the label directs.

Energy Support: Asian Ginseng (Panax Ginseng)

Asian ginseng is esteemed as a sexual energizer for men. American ginseng (Panax quinquefolius) is valued for its stress-protective properties. Buy products standardized for ginsenoside content, follow dosage recommendations, and don't expect to notice results until after six to eight weeks of regular use.

Anti-Aging Supplements - Detoxification

Protection from toxins begins with minimizing your exposure to them -- drinking purified water, eating lower on the food chain and pesticide-free food when possible, not ingesting toxic substances, not smoking, and not living near hazardous sites such as toxic-waste dumps. You also can help support the liver, the organ responsible for processing toxins. If you indulged more than you should have over the holidays, consider some herbal teas and supplements that might help you body with detoxification.

Anti-Agng Immune Support: Astragalus

Astragalus has a long history in Chinese medicine, where it's used to ward off colds and flu. Dr. Weil often recommends it to people who "get whatever's going around," to cancer patients undergoing chemotherapy, to those with immune deficiencies, and to everyone during flu season. Look for standardized extracts in capsules and take them as the label directs.

We're Voting Every Time We Go To The Supermarket

Do you like pesticides, hormones and antibiotics in your food? Every time we pick up a fork, we are voting for industrial produced food or naturally-raised, organic food...
Make Your Vote Count - Eat Organic

Anti-Inflammatory Support: Ginger and Turmeric

Ginger and turmeric can, of course, be added to food but are most effective taken in supplement form. You can take a starting dose of 1 gram a day of ginger (after a meal) and 1 gram of whole extract of turmeric (rather than a preparation of curcumin, only one of the spice's active components). Many people find their musculo-skeletal and other ailments disappeared after using ginger, while extract of turmeric may have a preventive effect against Alzheimer's disease and may also reduce the risk of cancer.