BPA on Receipts, Even Whole Foods is Guilty

The endocrine disruptor that everyone wants to avoid these days seems more and more unavoidable.

Bisphenol A (BPA) has been discovered through lab tests to be lurking inside 40 percent of receipts from major US businesses like Walmart, CVS, McDonald’s, Safeway, KFC, the US Postal Service and even Whole Foods.

The levels of BPA found were 250 to 1,000 times higher than what’s  inside canned foods and baby bottles.

The culprit is thermal paper used for receipts. And the Environmental Working Group (EWG) warns that this paper shouldn’t be recycled as it could corrupt recycled paper with BPA.

Starbucks beats out Whole Foods when it comes to BPA on receipts!

All’s not bad news though. Some companies had receipts that were either free of BPA or contained only trace amounts. So, cheers to these companies: Starbucks, Target and Bank of America ATMs.

I guess I’m still naive when it comes to BPA, but thanks to the lab study commissioned by the EWG, receipt BPA is now on my mind. Awareness is a good thing though. I tend to keep up with my receipts as I need them for checking all the charges against my debit card. Now I’ll take care to wash my hands! (Read more at EWG)

How worried should you be over BPA on receipts?

If you work as a cashier, you should probably be concerned. A recent Swiss study showed that BPA absorbs easily into the skin at a depth that’s difficult to wash away. (Read more at CNN)

Are you surprised about BPA on receipts?

(image via flickr/rudolf_schuba)

Less Meaty, More Skinny!

So, you may know already that eating less meat is healthier for the environment, but have you really dug into the facts about what meat does to your waistline?

No? To put it simply, researchers say that eating more meat makes you heavier.

You can get the skinny on this meat and weight study at MSNBC.

Interestingly, poultry was associated with the biggest weight gain. It has to be from fried chicken, right?

The curious can learn more about meat-free eating at Meat Free Monday on Facebook.

Do you avoid meat to be thinner?

(image via morguefile)

Put a Lid on BPA

You may think that canning your own food in glass jars means you’re totally safe from BPA exposure. Nope.

Umbra at Grist has written about BPA in the lining of mason jar lids.

I would have never suspected it, but I guess BPA really is everywhere. If you want your canning to be totally BPA free, then go with some other lid options discussed in Umbra’s column: BPA-free canning lids from Lehman’s or glass lids from Weck.

(image via morguefile)

Creole Red Bean Soup with Shrimp

I have a fun, healthy recipe for you below, but first a word or two about shrimp! According to the Environmental Defense Fund (EDF), shrimp can be eco-friendly if it’s farm raised the right way, and there are couple good wild options too. However, when you purchase shrimp that’s imported from Southeast Asia or Latin America, you’re buying from a source that may not always abide by environmental regulations.

For best eco practices when it comes to shrimp, EDF recommends picking Oregon pink shrimp or spot prawns from Canada. Find out much more about the Eco-Best Shrimp and the Eco-Worst Shrimp.

While one cup of shrimp fried rice can have as much as 26 grams of fat, it’s possible to do shrimp the healthy way!

This recipe for Creole-Style Red Bean Soup with Shrimp comes from Dr. Howard M. Shapiro and Chef Franklin Becker, authors of Eat & Beat Diabetes with Picture Perfect Weight Loss: The Visual Program to Prevent and Control Diabetes

As a main course, the soup gives you the nutritional power of several vegetables, 5 grams fat per serving and great Creole-style taste. What more could you want?

Creole-Style Red Bean Soup with Shrimp
from Eat & Beat Diabetes with Picture Perfect Weight Loss

• 1 tablespoon olive oil
• 6 scallions, thinly sliced
• 1 medium green bell pepper, chopped
• 1 rib celery, chopped
• 2 cups vegetable broth
• 1 15½-ounce can red kidney beans
• 1 14-ounce can Italian-style tomatoes, chopped
• ½ teaspoon marjoram, crushed
• ½ teaspoon freshly ground black pepper
• 12 ounces medium shrimp, peeled and deveined, tails left on

1. Heat the oil in a Dutch oven over medium heat. Add the scallions, bell pepper and celery and cook, stirring frequently, for 4 minutes, or until the vegetables are tender, adding some of the broth, 1 tablespoon at a time, if the pan gets dry.
2. Stir in the beans with their liquid, tomatoes with their juice, marjoram, black pepper and the remaining broth. Bring to a boil over high heat. Reduce the heat to low, cover and simmer, stirring occasionally, for 15 minutes, or until the flavors have blended.
3. Add the shrimp and cook, uncovered, stirring frequently, for 2 minutes, or until the shrimp are opaque.

Yield: 4 servings

Per serving: 210 calories, 5 grams fat

Nature makes you lively!

Just in time for the weekend comes news of a recent study that pretty much says nature can get your ass going better than coffee!

OK, they didn’t compare nature to coffee, but the lead researcher, Richard Ryan of the University of Rochester, said, “Often when we feel depleted we reach for a cup of coffee, but research suggests a better way to get energized is to connect with nature.”

In recent years, several studies have shown the positive benefits of spending time in nature, but this new study is different.

Researchers attempted to isolate the vitalizing effects of nature from the boost you get from physical activity and time spent with friends outside. They devised several experiments with hundreds of college students as participants. Sometimes the students really went outdoors, and sometimes they looked at nature photography and just imagined themselves outdoors.

The study results revealed that the participants who spent time in nature or imagined themselves doing so were consistently more energized. Ryan said, “Nature is fuel for the soul. ”

Nature’s energizing effects are somewhat of a mystery still. Whether you attribute it to chi, God, chemicals in your brain, etc., it doesn’t matter. The important thing is to get outside (out of your car) and have fun.

(image credit: University of Rochester)

Book Review: Be The Change

(This review, written by me, was originally published on another blog in January, and I’m sharing it here since I really like this book, and  I agree with the authors: Meditation can make us more kind. That kindness can extend to the earth, which needs some love!)

Meditation has a lot to do with everything. Or it can, if you let it. People practice meditation for many different reasons. Some of the health reasons noted for meditating include helping to conquer anxiety, stress, depression and pain. For some, meditation is part of religious practice.

Ed and Deb Shapiro, authors of Be The Change, contend that meditation can do so much more: It can open the door to loving kindness, to helping each other, to getting outside the world our minds have made for us to find reality.

By using meditation, we can learn to see others in a different light and be more open to helping them, instead of focusing on our own stories.

Does that sound deep?

It is deep. After all, a forward for Be the Change was written by HH The Dalai Lama. The book contains what I’m calling “thought excerpts” from more than 100 meditation practitioners from many different walks of life.

The contributions could also be called mini stories. You’ve heard of some of the contributors (Jane Fonda, Ed Begley, Jr.), but you can read more about any of them in the contributor bios in the back of the book. The contributors explain how meditation has profoundly touched their lives.

The thought excerpts are interspersed with text from Deb and Ed, a married couple dedicated to meditation. They’ve written more than 16 books on personal development, social action and meditation. They’re also corporate consultants, bringing peace to stressed execs.

So, does this book teach you how to meditate? Continue reading »

Good News for Artificial Hearts

We’re used to thinking of the term “artificial” as a bad thing, but when it comes to artificial hearts, the continuing technology is really amazing.

I want to share a video of Vanessa, who learned she needed a heart transplant at 27 years old. In 2007, she had moved to Las Vegas to start a new job, but instead she ended up getting flown to University Medical Center (UMC) in Tucson, Az. where she received an artificial heart called CardioWest, an FDA-approved Total Artificial Heart made by SynCardia. Continue reading »

Just 5 Minutes in Green Spaces Can Improve Mood

Green exercise can elevate your mood and improve your sense of well-being.

Researchers define green exercise as any physical activity in nature. That means gardening in your backyard is green exercise. Walking around in a park is green exercise, and so is cycling. You get the idea. And it’s yet another reason to hang on to our public green spaces and to create our own enjoyable green spaces in backyards. Continue reading »

Organic Food Can Make You Fat

Any food can make you fat! A recent study revealed that some people may overeat when they’re snacking on a food with an organic label. The reason? People are over-rewarding themselves for eating something healthy, and they’re underestimating the number of calories in organic food.

Researchers found that study participants who munched on organic cookies labeled as “organic” incorrectly thought that their snack contained 40% fewer calories than the same cookies without an organic label. Findings were presented this week at the Experimental Biology conference in Anaheim, Calif.

So, what should you do?

“Take your best guess at its calorie count. Then double it. You’ll end up being more accurate, and you’ll probably eat a lot less,” explained Brian Wansink, Cornell professor and author of the book, Marketing Nutrition.

(image via MorgueFile)

Earth Week Giveaway: Green Dieting

Clean up your eating habits by avoiding foods highest in pesticides and more with Clean, Green, and Lean: Get Rid of the Toxins That Make You Fat.

The author of this new and rather unique green dieting book is Dr. Walter Crinnion, a naturopathic physician and one of America’s foremost authorities on environmental medicine.

How to enter:

If you’d like to win a copy of Clean, Green, and Lean, leave a comment on this post before 11 pm CST on Friday, April 23, 2010. In your comment, please share what you’re doing in honor of Earth Day on April 22 or just say why you’re interested in this new diet book.

The randomly selected winner must have a US address and respond to my request for a mailing address within three days.

UPDATE 4/26: Congrats to the winner, Kerri R!