Milk Does a Body Good

I am not a milk drinker. In fact it really kind of grosses me out. I have to turn my head whenever I see my husband tipping back his cereal bowl to drink the remaining milk - gross. But, when I was pregnant with Emma I knew from one of the countless pregnancy books that were piled high on my nightstand, that getting enough calcium was imperative for her proper development. I knew I had to start drinking more of it. So, a quick stop at the grocery store to buy a carton of 1% and a bottle of chocolate sauce, and I was prepared to replace my traditional morning cup of coffee with a morning glass of chocolate milk.

I had been in the habit of purchasing organic milk at this point. But downing 2 large glasses a day started to add up at $3.50 for a carton. And because I was picky and liked 1% my local grocer didn't carry gallon containers of 1% organic milk. So, being budget conscience, I bought some non-organic milk to try.

Let's just say one small sip later I dumped the entire gallon down the drain. It tasted terrible. It smelled funky (almost metallic) and left this really weird after taste in my mouth. Before I dumped it I made my husband take a sip and he agreed with my initial reaction, even asking if maybe it had gone bad.

Which got me to think about why? And what are the benefits of drinking organic milk?

Well, if you ask the USDA , there is supposedly no difference between regular milk and organic milk, aside from how the cows are raised and an obvious difference in price. Some are willing to leave it at that - paying more money solely to lessen their impact on the environment (awesome!). But others want to know they are paying more for a premium product. So the studies are building up...and here are just a few of the reasons that have been uncovered:

1. Organic milk has fewer pesticide residues - since pesticides are so widespread they seep into the ground and water supply pretty much infiltrating the entire food supply. So, while organic milk is not pesticide free it has significantly less amounts of these toxic chemicals.

2. Organic milk has more vitamins. It is on average 50% higher in Vitamin E (alpha tocopherol) and 75% higher in beta carotene (which our bodies convert to Vitamin A).

3. Organic milk has more antioxidants which are important for eye health and are effective in preventing numerous eye diseases.

4. Organic milk has more omega-3s. Regular intake of Omega-3 helps reduce incidences of heart disease, inflammations (in skin diseases such as eczema), cancer, and arthritis. One particular type of omega-3 that is higher in organic milk is DHA, which is important for fetal brain development.

5. Organic milk has 500% more CLA. Conjugated linoleic acid (CLA) increases metabolism, immunity, and muscle growth. It also reduces abdominal fat (bonus!), cholesterol, and allergic reactions. Since the human body cannot produce CLA, we get most of it through the milk and dairy products that we consume.

6. Drinking organic milk helps improve the quality of breast milk. European scientists have found that mothers who consumed mostly organic meat and milk had around 50 percent higher levels of rumenic acid in their breast milk. This acid protects against cancer and inflammatory diseases such as arthritis, heart disease and asthma.

Great, I was sold! It was worth an extra $1.50 a carton - that just meant one less chai latte from Starbucks per week. And not only was is it healthier for my family but it's also better for the cows.

But one point to note, this is assuming that the cows are actually pasture fed more than grain fed (imagine that! cows produce "healthier" milk when they are fed their natural diet!) and until recent regulations this was not the case. Because the rules were kind of blurry and to be organic certified dairy farmers just had to give cows "access" to pastures some took advantage (cough, Aurora Organic Dairy, cough) and called their farms organic if there was a door from the barn to a field but never let the cows into said field.

To read more about this click on the link below...this blog post has already gotten pretty long-winded:

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/13/business/13organic.html

So bottom line, organic milk is better. But just make sure that if you are going to spend the money, you support the brands that actually want to make a difference. I personally like Stonyfield Farm (and so does Emma - she loves their yo-baby yogurt).

My husband's lawn obsession...

So, I think my dear husband, Duane, has a problem. He is slightly obsessed with the yard. This isn't a new thing...in fact ever since we moved into our house 3 years ago he comes up with big plans for the yard each Spring. But then life happens and before you know it it's late August and the flower beds are still NOT mulched. Oh well.

But this year is going to be different (so he says) and last weekend was unseasonably warm so he spent 2 hours on Sunday raking the dead grass out of the front yard. To his credit, it does look much better. The previous owners didn't do much to the yard (much less rest of the house) at all. I am sure our neighbors will be happy.

So how does this relate to being green. Well, we have decided to get a lawn service this year. And all on his own Duane chose to go with this company: http://www.whygoodnature.com/

Good Nature Organic Lawn Care is based in Ohio. They offer a full line of organic products for your lawn, trees & shrubs. Check out their website for more info.

I am so proud of him! Maybe my "greenness" is wearing off on him. It is a bit more pricey than the traditional chemical filled services but in our opinion totally worth it!

Here's a fun fact from their website: According to the American Cancer Society and the EPA, "95% of the pesticides used on residential lawns are considered possible or probable carcinogens"

Not only is it better for Emma it's better for this guy too:















This is Max, our 3 year old Chocolate lab who LOVES being outside. He rolls in the grass, eats any stick he can find and swims like a fish. This picture was taken on vacation in the Outer Banks. He LOVED the pool at our beach house. In fact he was the first one in when we arrived.

So the point is, if you have kids or pets, please, please, please consider going green with your lawn service this year. Sure, Good Nature is based in Ohio but I bet a simple google search can put you in contact with a similiar company near you.



"Cut your grass so it's two inches high, and leave the clippings on the lawn. You'll spend less time mowing and raking, and you won't have to water your lawn as much. Forty percent of water in summer is allocated to outdoor usage when rates are highest. Also, less lawn care usually means fewer chemicals that will leach into runoff water and damage local fish and bid habitats" Source: the green book, elizabeth rogers & thomas kostigen

Join me on my quest

I have always been interested in doing things more green. For my sake as well as for the environment. Growing up we participated in our cities curbside recycling program from it's inception. I can remember almost always having half of the kitchen sink full of water with assorted bottles and jars soaking so the labels could be removed (a requirement to recycle at the time).

In middle school choir we put on an "Earth Day" concert for our parents. This was back in the early nineties, before going green was cool and environmental activism was on the rise in public schools. (Anyone else remember the 3 R's?) The music chosen for this particular concert centered around the Earth and the damage we were doing to it. I can still remember some of the lyrics to the songs...

Spoken lead in:
"Sun beating down,
burning everything in it's path.
People wrapped like mummies,
trying desperately to carry on normal lives.
Roam aimlessly.
You are about to enter a life without time and space.
You are about to enter LIFE WITHOUT OZONE..."

Enter choir:
"EVERY TIME YOU SPRAY A CAN, OPEN A FRIDGE, OR CHARGE A FAN CFC'S, AND HALON ESCAPE...THEY FLOAT UP TO THE ATMOSPHERE, EATING OZONE AND IT'S CLEAR BURNING RAYS OF SUN SEAL OUR FATE...WE GOT TO START NOW TO CHANGE IT SOMEHOW...WE'RE DESTROYING A PLANET THAT WE TAKE FOR GRANTED...WE'RE KILLING THE OZONE...killing the ozone...

Okay, I won't lie - I googled that. I am not that big of a dork. And looking at that lead in- wow! Kind of terrifying. But to be fair I do remember parts of it. And to this day I constantly yell at my husband for releasing halon into the ozone when he leaves the refrigerator door open too long (his school obviously wasn't as cool as mine!)

Today there are a lot of little things that I do to be "greener" - buy organic milk & eggs, use "green" cleaning products, unplug appliances that aren't being used, etc. But I know I can be better. I know that I want to do better....not just for me, but also for her.





Meet my little girl Emma. She turned one not that long ago (crazy!) and she is the light of my life. It's kind of crazy how that happens. How life changing having a baby can be. Shocking I know but I don't think you are even capable of grasping what that truly means until it happens to you. I knew from the second that she was born and the nurse placed her in my waiting arms that I would do ANYTHING for her.

Which brings me to my quest to be greener. To eat (and feed Emma) only the best - I didn't breastfeed her for a year to have all that good nutrition replaced with empty, processed calories! To eliminate as many nasty, dangerous chemicals used around the house as possible. To encourage my family and friends to follow in my footsteps and adopt similar practices.

I'd like this journal to serve as a place where I can talk about what I am doing to make our lives better. Post interesting articles I find (for fear that I am driving my family crazy with the emails). And to share realistic ways that the average working mom can make their lives a little greener too.


"If everyone in America simply recycled the paper, plastic, glass and aluminum products they would typically throw away, we would decrease the amount of waste sent to landfills by at least 75%. Currently, it takes an area the size of Pennsylvania to dump all of our waste, each year." Source: the green book, elizabeth rogers & thomas kostigen