Category: Conscious Consumerism: Shopping & Reviews

  • Food News Friday

    Food News Friday

    drinking orange juice

    It’s been a while since I did a link roundup, but there was so much about food this week I just couldn’t resist.

    1. Why ‘100% Orange Juice’ Is Still Artificial

    Because oxygen is taken out for longevity, making the OJ lose its natural flavor. So the slight difference in taste between brands? Happens as a result of the chemical formulations that add in the orange-ness back in, and does not have to be labeled. Time to start juicing.

    2. Got Enhanced Meat? USDA Rule May Make It Easier To Tell

    New packaging will have to carry labels such as chicken breast – 40% added solution of water and teriyaki sauce.

    “About 30 percent of poultry, 15 percent of beef, and 90 percent of pork are injected with some kind of liquid solution before sale, USDA says, and it’s usually something high in sodium.”

    No word on whether they’ll have to disclose fecal soup baths.

    3. Extremely High Levels of Arsenic Found in Mott’s Apple Juice

    “Various brands of apple juice and apple sauce were tested and unfortunately one sample of Mott’s Apple Juice registered 55 parts per billion of arsenic. To put this into perspective, 55 parts per billion is more than five times the level of arsenic that the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) allows in drinking water.”

    Apple juice is a concentrate, which means any pesticides are concentrated too. If you were wondering where to start buying organic, this is a good bet.

    4. Is Commercially-Prepared Food Responsible for Childhood Weight Gain?

    Um. Yes.

    Here’s some research to back up what everybody knows in their damn heart to be true.

    5. With few healthy options, teens eating more junk food

    “California teenagers are living and attending schools in junk food wastelands.. Researchers analyzed the number of healthy and unhealthy restaurants and food outlets near teens’ schools and homes. The result: For nearly 75 percent of teens, junk food outlets outnumber healthy ones at least 5-to-1.”

    Right. Now, refer to the previous link.

    6. Gout prevalence swells in US over last 2 decades

    Know what else has swelled in the last two decades? Fast food restaurants, and cheap meat.

    Know what the leading contributory causes of gout are? Obesity, too much meat in the diet, and hypertension (causes: obesity, lack of activity, excessive salt in the diet.)

    Refer to the last two links and connect the dots.

    7. McDonald’s Happy Meals get apples, fewer fries

    Eye roll. Sure, it’s better than no change at all, but let’s face it: kids are still being rewarded for eating a burger and fries. Let’s put a sincerely healthy option on the menu and then give the kids something better than a commercialized piece of crap that’s going to break in two days, mmmkay?

    To recap:

    Cook from scratch, juice your own, eat at home.

    Forever and ever, amen.

     

     

  • Outdoor Summer Fun: the Z-Curve Bow & Zing-Shot Launcher (Review)

    Outdoor Summer Fun: the Z-Curve Bow & Zing-Shot Launcher (Review)

     kid bow and arrow

    The child amidst his baubles
    is learning the action of light, motion, gravity, muscular force…

    -Ralph Waldo Emerson

    Hey! Your kids bored yet?

    Mine were singing the “I’m bored” blues maybe three days into summer vacation.

    The good people over at FreemanPR gave me a helping hand, sending me over a Z-Curve Bow & Zing-Shot Launcher from Zing Toys for the kids to test out and review.

    soft-tip bow and arrowKids can pretend they’re a modern-day, sharp-shooting Robin Hood with the Z-Curve Bow, the ultimate foam bow & arrow combo for indoor and outdoor entertainment. Hook the arrow into the loading zone through the patented loops system, pull back, then it’s Ready…Aim …Fire!  Kids can work on becoming a master marksman by loading up their choice of a stick-anywhere ZARTZ® SOFTEK™ foam arrow for high-tech archery and target practice, or a long-range Red-X ammo soft-foam arrow for bounce-back action!

    soft slingshotWhat’s summer fun without a slingshot? The Zing-Shot Launcher is a high-performance, safe and compact slingshot that features a Quik-Zip load system and specially-made Red-X ammo soft-foam balls that can fly up to 45 feet! Just load up the Red-X ammo soft-foam ball in the revolutionary two-prong launcher…pull back and release to watch it fly!

    The day the box arrived, the kids were very well-behaved and waited until my workday was done so we could do the whole photographing bit that’s blogging protocol. Their father, however, discovered the package and had these things broken out and outside before I even knew what was happening 🙂

    bow and arrow, slingshot
    Obligatory mom blogger shot

    These things shoot FAR (the description says 125 feet, which feels about right.) Jeff was shooting them straight up into the air and you couldn’t even track them; they got swallowed up in the hazy summer sky (and one promptly ended up on the roof, insert dramatic rolling of eyes here).

    The tips and slingshot ball are a soft foam, so nobody’s getting hurt, but I still felt the need to remind the kids that these were outdoor toys and please do not shoot your sister.

    The shooting is easy and the distance is satisfying, but my kids were definitely not master marksmen right out of the box. In particular, they had trouble maintaining any kind of accuracy with the slingshot, so I would say it’s a good idea to abide by the suggested age range of 8+ so kids won’t be frustrated. Jake guesstimates they make maybe one bulls-eye out of 20, and that’s after quite a bit of practice.

    The upside? They’ve been doing quite a bit of practice. Outside. Not in my hair.

    Verdict: Good, clean, classic childhood outdoor fun.

    Seriously, the classic toys are the best.

    Sure, we could fashion our own bow & arrows and a slingshot from tree branches and rope and rubber bands (and we probably will, by summer’s end). But we won’t achieve the same sort of free-flying range we get from these suckers, and I’m not gonna lie: the constant running to retrieve arrows and slingshot balls before the puppy gets them is a major selling point in my mind. Sneaking in some exercise!

    Not to mention the whole business of learning about angles, force, trajectory… I mean, I could mention how these sorts of toys are fantastic for helping kids internalize the basics of physics. I could, perhaps, whisper something about predictions and measurable results and statistics and the scientific method. But what would be the fun in that? It’s summertime and the playing’s easy. No need for anyone to suspect any learning is going on 🙂

    The boys made a video so you could see the toys in action. (If you’re a subscriber you may need to click through to view the video.)

    Enjoy—

      

    Disclosure: I received a free Z-Curve Bow & Zing-Shot Launcher for review purposes, opinions are honest and my own.

    The Z-Curve and Zing-shot are available pretty much anywhere you can buy toys (Academy Sports + Outdoors, Amazon.com, Bass Pro Shops, Cabela’s, Calendar Club, Fred Meyer, Fry’s Electronics, Target, Toys “R” Us, etc). The links above take you to Amazon (who currently has the Zing-shot for about six bucks) and if you click through to purchase, I get a few pennies on the dollar. Just so’s you knows.

  • Meat Matters

    Meat Matters

    cutting up steakWhen someone asks me what kind of eater I am, I usually say “conscious.” I spent years defining myself as a vegetarian, only to obsess over an unattainable hamburger and then fall completely off the plant-based bandwagon when I couldn’t deny myself any longer.

    Last year, I finally stopped seeing the food world in black and white and realized that I was happier eating greens, beans and tofu most of the month, with the occasional serving of organic steak or wild-caught salmon once every 30-to-60 days—minus the guilt.

    It’s been truly liberating—although it’s also been a challenge to cook for my three kids, who were used to chicken or beef on a thrice-weekly basis. I still cook meat for them about once a week, but I also offer a veggie main course: They eat mostly meat and a little tofu; my husband and I stick to the tofu and skip the meat. It works out.

    Vegan, vegetarian, pescatarian, carnivore, omnivore. We have a label for every type of eating preference these days. But it seems to me that sometimes we spend more time thinking about the label than the decision-making process behind it.

    Last week’s release of the Environmental Working Group’s new “Meat Eaters Guide to Climate Change and Health,” showed how important it is to look at the physical—on ourselves, and our planet—repercussions of eating meat. Especially for parents, the guide is an eye opener.

    Find out more at HealthyChild.org.

    by Rachel Lincoln Sarnoff, Executive Director/CEO, Healthy Child Healthy World. Reprinted with permission.