More than a year ago, there was a huge exposé of the harmful levels of lead in many toys manufactured throughout the world. This was mainly due to poor factory practices in China and other eastern countries. After this information was made public, parents everywhere began switching to American-made or wooden toys for their children. Although that was a good move for many, there’s still a culprit lurking beneath the surface of those toys–plastic. Almost every toy on the market is made with cheap plastics that are full of harmful chemicals. Most bottles, nipples, and other baby products are also made of these plastics.
The Plastic Problem
According to the Environmental Working Group (EWG), children ingest more than 120 chemicals on a daily basis. Most of these toxic chemicals are absorbed through the skin or mouth. Although the issue has been brought to the FDA’s attention many times, the organization still hasn’t advanced research or increased regulation.
There are currently no restrictions on the various plastics used in everyday products marketed to children. These plastics contain many harmful chemicals that are categorized as carcinogens (cancer-causing chemicals). Many also contain phthalate (an additive to make plastic flexible and durable), which can cause reproductive disorders in males.
The Risk Factor
Babies and children develop at a much faster rate than adults, which leads to greater vulnerability and risk concerning these chemicals. An adult’s body is able to resist and overcome many of the toxins found in everyday plastic products, but a baby’s body is a blank canvas, open to everything it ingests. A child’s development can also be directly linked to the toxins in toys. Links have been found between these chemicals and colds, ear infections, allergies, and behavioral changes in children.
If you read my previous post about weight control, you know that eating a healthy vegan diet is an effective way to lose weight and keep it off. You probably also know that going vegan is a great way to lessen animal suffering and combat climate change. Of course, knowing that something is a good thing to do and actually doing it are two different things. So, if you’re one of the many people who have expressed interest in going vegan—but haven’t quite gotten around to it yet—these suggestions may help get you started:
“Veganize” Your Favorite Foods
Think about the foods you eat on a regular basis. You may be surprised to find that many of them “just happen to be vegetarian or vegan,” or can be made that way with minimal effort. You don’t have to eat entirely “new” foods; just substitute beans for beef in burritos and chili; use faux chicken instead of chicken flesh in fajitas, stir fries, and sandwiches; have soy sausage and scrambled, seasoned tofu for breakfast instead of pork sausage and scrambled eggs; and make pasta with marinara sauce rather than meat sauce—or make meatless “meat” sauce using ground crumbles from Morningstar Farms, Boca, Yves, or other vegetarian companies.
Than, expand your horizons a little. Before I went vegan, I ate meat and potatoes most every night. Now, I eat falafel, hummus wraps, soy cheese and spinach lasagna, lentil and kale soup, pasta and vegetable salad with Vegenaise vegan mayonnaise, potato croquettes, ratatouille, pad Thai tofu, vegetable curries, and other ethnic dishes.
Valentine’s Day is coming up…soon. And for those of us without a partner in crime, Valentine’s Day tends to be less than thrilling. Unless, of course, you consider romantic comedies and a tube of cookie dough to be thrilling.
But while everyone else is weeping silently over pictures of lost loves and giving the stink eye to every couple that passes, I am actually quite excited about being single this year. No, I am not some Samantha character who much prefers no-strings-attached sex, but I am someone who has learned to love the single life and I feel it is important to remind everyone out there of the good sides.
Body Maintenance
When I was in a relationship, maintaining my body for someone else was my biggest goal. Sure, I benefitted from the exercising and healthy eating, but being single is about doing it all for me! I work out because it makes me feel good, not because I’m afraid of the jiggles during sex. Plus, I don’t have to shave my legs every time I shower or go through monthly hell in the form of a bikini wax. Score one for single-dom.
Everything is on My Time
Do I feel like taking a 6:30 Pilates class while most people would prefer to be home cooking dinner? I can do it. Do I want to lay around in my underwear all day Saturday reading my books and catching up on my TV? I can do it. Do I want to meet up with the girls for a drink before meeting up with other girls for another drink? I can do it all. And I don’t have to answer to anyone!
You’ve probably heard that you should eat brown bread as opposed to white. But why? Is it healthier? Better for your digestive system? Lower in calories? It’s time to get to the bottom of this brown- vs. white-bread debate.
Why We Love White
Most of us grew up on white bread. From peanut-butter-and-jelly sandwiches to grilled cheese, a sandwich just wasn’t a sandwich worth eating if it didn’t come wrapped in white bread. Plus, white bread is softer, easier to chew, and mixes really well with most sandwich ingredients.
You might also say that we just have a love affair with white bread. Why would bread companies try so hard to make brown bread that looks like white if we were okay with the standard brown color? There are a million reasons why we love white, but the fact of the matter is that most white bread isn’t full of anything useful.
What White Bread Lacks
White bread is made from processed bread flour. This processed flour has been literally stripped of all its nutrients during processing. In fact, some flour companies need to add some of those nutrients back into the bread in order to make it semi-healthy.
The enriched flour that goes into white bread doesn’t have any helpful nutrients, vitamins, or antioxidants. In fact, it doesn’t have much of anything…other than that mushy goodness, of course. So, what about those white breads that claim to have all the goodness of brown breads?
The elusive topic of “what women want,” has long evaded psychologists, behaviorists, anthropologists, and ordinary members of either sex for centuries. In a recent New York Times article, contributing writer Daniel Bergner tries to explore the subject by examining several modern day sexologists and their experiments, theories, and discoveries.
Chivers and Her Videos
Meredith Chivers, a psychology professor and sexual researcher, has recently studied the levels of arousal among men and women of both homosexual and heterosexual orientation while they watched a variety of erotic videos. Though a highly-regarded member among the small canon of female sexologists “devoted to comprehending female desire,” Chivers is certainly not the first to take the question, “What do women want?” to a scientific level. 1929, Katharine Bement Davis surveyed the sexual experiences of over 2,000 women. Seventy years later, the desires of women are still baffling.
