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rawheadrex
Mexican chocolate is easy for kids to make
I remember as a child experimenting in the kitchen with recipes and concocting my own. It takes a special parent to allow children free reign in the kitchen, as the results can be disastrous, but the experimentation and wonderful ideas that result are worth the risk. My daughter loves to cook, and we have purchased several kids cookbooks for her. One of her favorite recipes (and a family favorite too) is adapted from Handstand Kids. I just love the fact that she can make this all by herself!
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I’ve never discovered organic baby powder before, and although I didn’t use talc on my babies, I do use baby powder in stinky kids’ shoes sometimes. Actually, Naturity’s organic baby powder is not made from talc, but its main ingredient is arrowroot powder. In addition, Naturity’s organic baby massage oil is nut and wheat-free, and it is “designed to mirror baby’s natural sebum”.
At Naturity, we pride ourselves on the organic integrity of our products, which are comprised of 99-100% certified organic ingredients. The organic ingredient percentages for all products are listed on the front of all labels. Product ingredients are clearly listed on all containers as well as beside each product description on our website. We do not use any synthetic preservatives, emulsifiers, additives, or fillers. But we do use certified organic ingredients from sustainable providers.
Best of all, every single Naturity product has received a score of zero on the Environmental Working Group’s cosmetic database Skin Deep.
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by Jennifer Lance on September 15, 2009 · 1 comment
One of the perks of being a mommy blogger is getting great new organic beauty products to try on my family. We recently tested Original Sprout “Worry-Free Luxury” Natural & Organic Family Collection. These products smell wonderful and are free of “added hormone disruptors, parabens, petroleum oils, phthalates, dioxanes from sulfates, formaldehyde, & propylene glycol.”
Do you know about PhytoEstrogens? PhytoEstrogens are called “dietary estrogens“, because they come from food sources, such as soybeans. They are often promoted for consumption in menopausal women for bone density, but there is concern that over exposure to PhytoEstrogens increases the risk of breast cancer and causes fertility issues. Original Sprout explains:
Working as estrogen mimics, phytoestrogens may either have the same effects as estrogen or block estrogen’s effects. Which effect the phytoestrogen produces can depend on the dose of the phytoestrogen. The phytoestrogen can act like estrogen at low doses but block estrogen at high doses. Estrogen activates a family of proteins called estrogen receptors. Recent studies have shown that phytoestrogens interact more with some members of the estrogen receptor family, but more information is needed about how these receptors work, especially in breast cancer. Finally, phytoestrogens acting as estrogen mimics may affect the production and/or the breakdown of estrogen by the body, as well as the levels of estrogen carried in the bloodstream.
Phytoestrogens – acting differently from estrogen – may affect communication pathways between cells, prevent the formation of blood vessels to tumors or alter processes involved in the processing of DNA for cell multiplication. Which of these effects occur is unknown. It is very possible that more than one of them may be working. Also, the effects in various parts of the body may be different. from Phytoestrogens and Breast Cancer.
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My kids love to make muffins, and one of their favorite vegan recipes is for chocolate chip muffins. We like to put a special dash of bran on the bottom and a dash of coconut on top for an extra treat. If you’ve never tried chocolate chips in a muffin, you will be pleasantly surprised! These muffins are quick and easy to make, but be warned: they will be eaten up quickly! [read the full article...]
For almost two years we’ve been eating vegetarian or vegan twice a week and seafood twice a week. I guess you could consider us part-time vegetarians. Eating this way keeps us from overloading our diets with too much meat or dairy and cuts down on our grocery bill. It forces us to eat more fresh produce and to shop locally so the produce actually has flavor.
It is extremely eco-friendly to eat vegetarian twice a week; eating meat takes a toll on the environment big time. The beef, poultry and pork industrial farms notoriously contribute to water pollution, use large amounts of fossil fuels and generate prodigious amounts of greenhouse gases. The United Nations has actually issued a call for citizens of the world to go vegetarian one day a week to curb global warming.
My girls love fresh veggies and fruit on their own, but I also like to puree it and add it to other meals. I’m not trying to hide it but it’s another great way to add more essential vitamins to their diet. When my girls were babies I made their baby food and always used organic ingredients. Their teeth came in quickly and they moved onto solids sooner than later, so both times I ended up with extra bags of frozen cubed baby food. I started adding the pureed butternut squash into their grilled cheese for lunch and whole grain pancakes for breakfast. During that time two cookbooks were released dedicated to adding pureed fruits and veggies to favorite recipes!
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Think a romantic meal of beef tenderloin with a side of potatoes sounds delicious? Maybe with a nice Bordeaux? Perhaps it does (especially if it’s grass-fed beef!), but it may decrease your chances of conception.
A new study shows that men who want to be fathers should increase their intake of fruits and veggies and decrease their consumption of fatty foods like red meat and creamy dishes.
Men who ate healthy diets not only had faster sperm, they had more sperm in their semen. It was both a quality and quantity effect.
Dr. Jaime Mendiola of the University of Murcia, Spain said of his research:
In this study, we have found that people who consume more fruits and vegetables are ingesting more anti-oxidants and this is the important point.
We saw that, among the couples with fertility problems coming to the clinic, the men with good semen quality ate more vegetables and fruit than those men with low seminal quality.
There are obviously many factors that influence fertility, and this is only one.
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Our kids take packed lunches daily. We do this for a multitude of reasons… Celiac disease which mandates a gluten free diet, dairy allergies which means no milk or milk protein. For two of our children, we end up packing wheat free/dairy free/gluten free/vegan lunches. The other two get wheat and dairy but otherwise vegetarian lunches.
Another reason we pack lunches for all our kids is to ensure they eat healthier and so that I can see what they are actually eating on a day to day basis. The leftovers come back home, so they can become snacks.
We do spend time brainstorming lunch ideas… the kids never complain but I get bored of packing the same foods over and over. [read the full article...]
by Jennifer Lance on February 17, 2009 · 5 comments
1. Naturity Organic Baby Massage Oil and Baby Powder
