Being a huge fan of ready-to-eat meals all my life, I am always on the look out for new products to try. Just the other day, I was perusing the isles during my usual grocery shopping trip and came across a new ready-to-eat lunch box. Seeing that it was on sale, I was drawn to taking a look. After checking out the products within the gopicnic lunchbox, I was sold – and bought three flavors. Being familiar with the usual high amounts of sodium, fat, and sugars in other ready-to-eat meals, I was surprised to find a different quality (and taste) in the nutrition of these gopicnic products. Quite a pleasant surprise!
gopicnic brands gopicnic ready-to-eat meals is an innovative company based out of Chicago, IL. First founded in 2006 to provide airlines in the United States with easier food for customers, gopicnic has thrived over the years and is now available in retail stores across the nation (…Your Guide to Obtaining Fresh, Organic Produce in The Middle of Winter
Don’t you love the endless array and options of fruits and vegetables you get during the summertime? It’s like a free for all and anything we want we can grab for the taking. As lovely as it is to enjoy copious amounts of veggies and fruits in the summer it tends to get a little tougher for us in the winter months. It’s especially harder to find organic and on top of that it’s more expensive. Here are a few tips for obtaining organic produce during the winter time.
1. Know when to buy organic
Every fruit and vegetable that you buy does not need to be organic. There are certain fruits and vegetables that have the highest pesticide residues. These are the ones you need to worry about. They call these “The Dirty Dozen.” They also put out a list called “The Clean 15” which includes items that have very low levels of pesticide residue. These items are avocados, sweet corn, pineapples, cabbage, onions, sweet peas, asparagus, mangoes, papayas, kiwi, eggplant, grapefruit, cant…
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20 Universities That Encourage Green Living
1) Nanyang Technical University – School of Art, Design and Media
- The architectural structure of this building maximizes interior daylight, makes smart use of lack of space and land in the local area, minimizes materials, and uses lower water and electricity uses.
2) Yale University – Kroon Hall
- Kroon Hall at Yale University is made from 80% certified timber, 16% recycled content. Also, 34% of the purchased materials came from regional sources. As a result, there is an 81% reduction in annual potable water use, which saves an average 500k gallons of city water a year. They are also seeing a 61% reduction in energy use compared to a similar building and program. It features rooftop photovoltaic panel providing 25% of the building’s electricity. Half of the red oak paneling came from a forest in northern Connecticut that’s managed by the school itself.
3) Carnegie Mellon University – Gates and Hillman…
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World Humanitarian Day: What will you do for humanity?
Today, August 19, 2014 is World Humanitarian Day. A day designated to honor those who dedicate their lives to humanity’s betterment, most especially those whom have lost their lives for the cause. According to WorldHumanitarianDay.org,
“World Humanitarian Day falls on August 19, the day in 2003 when 22 aid workers were killed in a bombing at the UN headquarters in Baghdad. It's a day to commemorate all people who have lost their lives in humanitarian service and to celebrate the spirit that inspires humanitarian work around the world.”
Today, we say, “thank you”; today, we say, “how can we help?”; today, we say “enough’s enough!” Be brave and compassionate. People all over the world need your help in more ways than one. Many need financial help, many need shelter, many are starving and need food, many are persecuted for their own beliefs or race and need relief. Relief – a word most of us take for granted. I’m not talking about relief on your lunch break, or relief the sc…
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Protect our Humanitarians
Health-workers and humanitarians around the world are constantly facing danger. Helping groups of people who are involved, sometimes involuntarily, with conflict and violence often leads to new enemies. All around the world, health care workers are being targeted for helping those in need. Countries such as South Sudan, Iraq, and Syria are posting of such attacks. The World Health Organization, WHO, is calling for a stop to this madness. “Doctors, nurses and other health workers must be allowed to carry out their life-saving humanitarian work free of threat of violence and insecurity,” says Dr Margaret Chan, WHO Director-General.
According to WHO’s article (August 18, 2014) “World Humanitarian Day: WHO calls for protection of health workers in conflicts, disasters”, emergencies and need across the globe is increasing daily. The author writes,
On tomorrow’s World Humanitarian Day, celebrated every 19 August, WHO will draw attention to the continued trend of attacks…
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Food Safety Alert: Salmonella Outbreak in Chia Seeds
I have received a food safety alert from NutritionAction.com. It seems there has been an outbreak of Salmonella in Chia powder that has sickened and hospitalized people in the U.S. and Canada, over the last few days. This outbreak has led to the recall of “Organic Sprouted Chia Powder products produced by Health Matters America, Inc., … and by Navitas Naturals.” If you have purchased one of these products, throw it away or return it to the store for a refund.
The article, Food Safety Alert: International Outbreak of Salmonella in Sprouted Chia Powder by Caroline Smith DeWaal (June 18, 2014) describes the symptoms too look out for, the investigation of this outbreak, and more. If interested, read her words below:
Twenty-one people in 12 states have been sickened and two hospitalized after eating sprouted chia powder contaminated with Salmonella bacteria. In Canada, 44 have become ill and five hospitalized. Sprouted chia powder is used as a gluten-free…
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