No More Plastic Bottles No. 2

More scientific research to back up the earlier Mother Jones article about the safety hazards I’d non-BPA plastics. BPA replacements are just as bad! Read the new article here: Plastic Update

Eating Out: Organic Chicken and Eggs, Oh My…

Looking for organic when you eat out? Charlie’s Pantry, located at the Glen Center and on Ventura Blvd. in Studio City, offers organic chicken and organic eggs throughout its breakfast and lunch menus.  

While Los Angeles is teaming with people who prefer organic, I’m always surprised at how few restaurants really have organic ingredients.  One of the inspirations for this blog was my discovery that there is a lack of adequate information about which restaurants in L.A. really have organic and/or grass-fed meat and other organic ingredients.  

While not everything on the menu at Charlie’s is organic, the chicken is organic and grain-fed and a multitude of other ingredients are noted to be organic on the menu, including eggs and spinach.  

Added bonus: the Beverly Glen location has wi-fi.  Just ask for the password at the register. 

My Mattress Isn’t Safe

The Center for Environmental Health is currently lobbying to garner support for California's SB 1019, which will update California's furniture labeling requirements …

Why You Should Love Yoga.

Yoga is the best multipurpose medication any modern girl or guy could ask for.  Bad mood. No problem. Feeling anxious. Perfect remedy. Have an injury. There’s a modification for that. Only believe in hard science. Yoga can stand up to that.

Yoga is preparation for meditation.  For me personally, yoga is a form of meditation.  When I practice yoga, I am completely present and am practicing mindfulness. Current research has been proving – yes, I said “proving” – that practicing mindfulness (i.e., meditating) can literally reverse damage done to your brain by being in a state of constant stress.  Most of us live in a state of constant stress because the way we live today is at odds with our biology.  You all know what I’m talking about – fight or flight – we react to a work deadline or the pressure of being in escrow as if we’re running for our lives to escape death by saber tooth tiger.  Our mind and body reacts to modern stress with a flood of cortisol that is, quite frankly, unnecessary.  It actually shrinks our pre-frontal cortex – the part of our brains that distinguishes humans from the rest of the animal kingdom.

Case in point: I am a lawyer. I am constantly stressed. I suffer from anxiety and depression, which is no doubt exacerbated by my career choice. Last year I tore a tendon in my ankle and couldn’t get ANY CARDIO. Can you spell D-I-S-A-S-T-E-R?!?!  My physical therapist (slash favorite person slash hero slash savior) was in the midst of completing her yoga instructor certification.  In addition to being my new personal guru (I’m exaggerating slightly, but inspiration covers the point) she incorporated yoga into my recovery and rehabilitation plan. The result? While I couldn’t run, do the elliptical, or hike, I can do tree pose, shoulder stands, an almost perfect down dog, and am working on the splits. Yes, you heard me! The S-P-L-I-T-S.  My mind is calm and I have incorporated Hindu philosophy into my daily dialogue as I talk myself out of a daily work-related meltdown.

Thank god for yoga!

 

No More Plastic Bottles.

Glass Water Bottle with Flip Cap & Silicone Sleeve, 22 oz, by Lifefactory. Available on Amazon.com.

Camelbak Eddy Glass .7-Liter Water Bottle. Available on Amazon.com.

A recent Mother Jones article, “The Scary New Evidence on BPA-Free Plastics,” discussed new research that shows the chemicals used to replace BPA in plastic bottles may be equally as harmful.

“CertiChem and its founder, George Bittner, who is also a professor of neurobiology at the University of Texas-Austin, had recently coauthored a paper in the NIH journal Environmental Health Perspectives. It reported that “almost all” commercially available plastics that were tested leached synthetic estrogens—even when they weren’t exposed to conditions known to unlock potentially harmful chemicals, such as the heat of a microwave, the steam of a dishwasher, or the sun’s ultraviolet rays. According to Bittner’s research, some BPA-free products actually released synthetic estrogens that were more potent than BPA.”

Yikes!  We all know that there are concerns about the affects of synthetic estrogens, and while it’s hard to know if every study is accurate, does it really hurt to use glass instead of plastic? Of course not.

An App That Helps You Find the Safest Make-Up

An App That Helps You Find the Safest Make-Up

This app is so exciting.  I’ve spent the last eight months researching beauty products that don’t have bad chemicals.  I just downloaded it and can’t wait to try it.  Think Dirty has partnered with the Campaign for Safe Cosmetics, which has helpful information about the chemicals in cosmetics.  The Environmental Working Group is also a great source of information about cosmetics.

Where to Buy Meat and Fish.

If  you live in the Los Feliz / Hollywood Hills area like me, you live painfully far from a Whole Foods.  Sure, the big gleaming Whole Foods in Glendale is beautiful, but it’s not so convenient.  Neither are the two Whole Foods in West Hollywood. Yes, you can buy fish and seafood at the Larchmont Farmer’s Market, but only on Sunday mornings.  You can order grass-fed and grass-finished meat from far away states, but only if you have room for a freezer that will store more meat that you probably even eat in a year.

Luckily, I’ve been hearing great things about McCall’s Meat and Fish Company on Hillhurst Ave.  Run by chefs Nathan McCall and Karen Yoo, whose culinary backgrounds are impressive, McCall’s offers meat from animals raised humanely on traditional farms.  Fish is either wild-caught or responsibly farm raised, which is great because I actually prefer the taste of farm-raised salmon. McCall’s is across the street from Little Dom’s and it’s open Tuesdays through Sundays.

How to open a bottle of wine without a corkscrew.

Modern survival skills.

Finding Time to Read.

Overwhelmed: Work, Love and Play When No One Has The Time by Brigid Schulte.  The latest in a line of books about women’s struggle with work and motherhood, and how these traditional concerns are starting to affect men. I just started it, but so far it’s great (and validating as I try to make big life choices as a 35-year old woman who wants to have a child).

In the passage where an expert talks to the author about defining leisure time, he asks, “Well then, what does leisure look like to you?”  Her response, “A sick day.”

It was especially funny to me because the first time I’ve had a chance to read this book since I bought it was because I was at home sick.

I learned about the book in an article on the Atlantic, which appeared in my Facebook feed, and immediately purchased it through my Amazon app on my iPhone. Instant gratification or lack of impulse control? Maybe both.

 

What to Eat.

Five years ago, someone suggested that I read Marion Nestle’s What to Eat.  The definitive book on just what its title suggests, written by a professor of nutrition.  I immediately went out and bought it, but never read it.  Perhaps I’ve been afraid of what I might find out.  I don’t want to be one of those people who can’t go out to dinner with friends because I’m so picky about what I’m willing to eat.  I felt the same way about watching the documentary Food Inc., but to my surprise, it merely enforced what I already knew and validated my day-to-day decisions to spend more money to purchase organic produce, traditionally farm-raised and grass fed meat, and it reminded me that I really shouldn’t ever eat at McDonald’s – even once a year on a road trip.

True the 524-page count probably has something to do with why I haven’t read the book. This is no quick blurb from Women’s Health about the latest superfood to incorporate into your diet or toxic ingredient to avoid.   I have pulled it out many times, started reading and have yet to get past the introduction.

Life is overwhelming enough and figuring out what to eat, what not to eat, and then making choices accordingly seems to add just one more “to-do.”  But when I read about what’s in my food, or watch a documentary like Food Inc., it reminds me that, while I can’t control all of the poison in my environment, I can control the food I put in my mouth.  It’s been a commitment that I’ve struggled with.  It doesn’t help of course that my day job leaves me too drained to cook dinner or pack myself a healthy lunch.  I resort to a promise only to eat Amy’s brand organic frozen meals.

In Richard O’Connor’s book Undoing Perpetual Stress, he suggests that one way to help alleviate the constant overwhelming stress many of us feel every day is to take care of ourselves – exercise, get enough sleep, and eat well.  You can’t control whether your boss is an asshole or whether your child gets a cold, but if you can figure out a way to fit in these three essentials, you will regain a sense of control, your brain will slow its cortisol production, and you might be able to reduce the stress of coping with your daily life.

A desire to eat organic food and meat from cows that weren’t stuffed with corn and antibiotics before they were scarified to meet my nutritional needs is about more than wanting nourishing healthful food that doesn’t increase my body’s resistance to life-saving antibiotics.  It’s a reflection of my need for a more nourishing healthful life.

Starting with food is more than just a metaphor.  Research is starting to show that what we eat affects our mental health.  Cutting down on processed sugar may mean lowering your chances of developing Alzheimer’s and reducing depression.

Experts on just about every subject will tell you that if you want to change your habits – whether it be eating habits, spending habits, exercise habits, dating habits, etc. – writing down your behaviors, your goals, and your feelings about both increases your chance of success because you hold yourself accountable when you write it down.  Hence, GrasfedLA.