Frugal Friday: Washing Dishes the "Green" Way

Photo Credit: Brooke Raymond

According to researchers who are paid to study such things, a load of dishes cleaned in a dishwasher uses 37 percent LESS water than washing dishes by hand! However, if you fill up one side of the sink with soapy water and the other side with rinse water - and if you don't let the faucet run - you'll use half as much water as a dishwasher does. Doing the dishes this way can save enough water for a five-minute shower!

If you do use a dishwasher, it also conserves energy and water if you wait until you have a completely full dishwasher to run it (instead of a partly filled dishwasher). This way you are getting the biggest bang for your buck of running it...one load of a full dishwasher uses less energy and water as running two loads of a half-full dishwasher.

Also, many dishwashers now have an "economy" cycle option. So if your dishwasher has this option, give it a whirl. Use it and save!

Related Topics:

• Green Cleaning Spruces Up Environment
• Saving Money the Healthy Way

Taste Test Tuesday: Two New Green Teas

Green Teas from Celestial Seasonings

Support Breast Cancer Awareness Month

Every time I see those pink ribbons on pretty much anything, it grabs my attention. Well, there are two new flavors on Celestial Seasonings green tea boxes proudly displaying the pink ribbon as a sponsor of the National Breast Cancer Foundation...just in time for National Breast Cancer Awareness Month in October.

The colorful and eye-catching art on the two boxes were designed by two artists who are breast cancer survivors. These boxes are so beautiful; you will want to keep them out on your kitchen counter! The bonus to this is you are much more likely to think about having your high antioxidant cup of green tea if it's sitting right there in front of you.

How did they taste?
What I loved about both of the flavors was that they still looked and tasted like green tea. Sometimes when you have a berry-flavored tea, the tea is literally red and overwhelmingly tart or sweet. Not the case here.

The Topical Grapefruit was nice and subtle and you might still enjoy this tea even if you aren't crazy about grapefruit.

The Cranberry Pomegranate Green Tea was also delightful. The berry and pomegranate flavors were noticeable and pleasant without being overwhelming.

I will be enjoying both of these new green tea flavors throughout Breast Cancer Awareness Month and beyond!

NOTE: Green tea is one of the 10 "synergy superfoods" I named in my most recent book, FOOD SYNERGY. The half life of some of the healthful phytochemicals in green tea is a few hours so have a cup in the morning and one later in the day or early evening!

Related Topics:

• Green Tea Ingredient Slows Breast Cancer
• WebMD Video: Green Tea for the Skin

Healthy Lifestyle of a Breast Cancer Survivor

I am often inspired by WebMD members who post on my healthy cooking community board! I read a post from a Stage 1A breast cancer survivor who described her usual day:

• She eats at least 10 servings of vegetables per day and at least 5 of fruit.
• She eats yogurt, nuts, lentils, raisins, brown rice, whole grain cereal, and edamame.
• She exercises 7 days a week, is 5'7" tall and weighs 125 pounds
• She doesn't smoke, drink alcohol or soda, doesn't eat junk food or fast food
• She doesn't eat meat
• She meditates once a day

Can you believe how awesome her lifestyle is? She wanted to know if I saw anything that she should change. Wow!

I told her that there are a lot of vegetables there so if she came down a bit in servings, she shouldn't worry too much - her produce base is definitely covered. I told her she could take a day or two off of exercising each week, as the joints do tend to need a day a week to rest and recover.

I won't question her reason for not eating meat, but studies show various health benefits to eating high omega-3 fish (and fish in general) and in some ways meat like poultry doesn't have the same health risks as other meat (it's more health neutral if that makes sense).

After reading her post though, I was left with the nagging question of whether she ever enjoys some dark chocolate or maybe a cup of frozen yogurt or something?

October is Breast Cancer Awareness Month. What are you doing to make your lifestyle more healthy?

Related Topics:

• Fight Breast Cancer at Every Meal
• Exercise and Nutrition After Breast Cancer Surgery
• Yoga May Help After Breast Cancer

Eating Healthy in a Polluted World: The Beijing "Shutdown"

How Researchers Are Taking Advantage of The Beijing "Shutdown"

It's no surprise that Beijing, where the Olympics were held, is known to be a highly polluted city. You may have heard during the Olympic coverage that there was something of an industrial "shutdown" that took place before and during the Olympics. Out of concern for the athletes, Chinese officials agreed to reduce industrial activity by as much as 30% and mandated cuts in automobile use by half to curb industrial emissions for the Olympics.

In my mind this brought the point home that big pollution producers exist in the world and we all share the air. But I didn't bring this up to depress everyone. I was thrilled to read that American researchers were actually able to take advantage of this unique opportunity. A National Science Foundation funded project is using specially equipped unmanned aircraft to measure and track dust, soot and other pollution aerosols that travel from Beijing and other parts of China in atmospheric brown clouds. They will be able to observe how the atmosphere responds when a heavily populated area substantially curbs everyday industrial emissions.

Black carbon in soot is considered to be a major contributor to global warming. According to the chief scientist on the project, V. Ramanathan, "By determining the effects of soot reduction during the Olympics on atmospheric heating, we can gain much needed insights into the magnitude of future global warming."

Satellite and ground observations began on August 1 while pre-inspection test flights by the unmanned aircraft began August 9. Testing will continue through September 30. You can read more about this fascinating study on the National Science Foundation web site..

Again, as I said in my previous blog entry, "What does all of this have to do with eating healthy? Because what goes up must come down...The airborne pollutants eventually return to the land where they can contaminate the soil and water and that is where we grow the food we eat."

Related Topics:

• Eating Healthy in a Polluted World
• How to Be a Budget Organic

Taste Test Tuesday: Another High Fiber Pasta Choice!

New products include FiberGourmet Light Pasta and Mac & Cheese box

The difference between the FiberGourmet brand of high fiber noodles and other higher fiber noodles is that these noodles are strangely white. Which made me wonder where is all this fiber coming from? (The front label on the noodle package boasts "20 grams of fiber" per serving.)

Apparently it's almost all coming from the second ingredient, "modified wheat starch," which is a source of the lesser-known source of fiber - resistant starch. This form of starch is named "resistant" starch because it's resistant to being digested and absorbed in the small intestine (thus making it a form of fiber or something that travels all the way through the intestines and exits.)

Resistant starch is a form of fiber that is found at low levels in foods like unripe bananas, lentils and beans, whole grains like oats, rye, wheat, barley, and corn. Resistant starch can also form when foods like potatoes, rice and pasta are cooked and then cooled - this process physically restructures the starch links. The FiberGourmet company claims that one of the benefits to resistant starch as a source of fiber is that it doesn't get fermented until the end part of the colon and tends not to produce the gas and bloating that can come from other fibers fermented earlier in the colon. In fact, because of this fermentation in the colon, resistant starch is thought to act like a prebiotic because it seems to encourage the growth of good bacteria while reducing amounts of harmful bacteria.

Resistant starch doesn't appear to be calorie-free because our bodies end up eking out about half of the amount of calories per gram compared to other carbohydrates.


So how does it taste?
I tasted an earlier version of the FiberGourmet light pasta a year or so ago so I can say from experience that this new product definitely has an improved flavor and texture. I was also interested to try out their new seemingly kid-friendly Light Macaroni & Cheese in a box with 18 grams of fiber per one-cup serving.

My teenage tasters liked the macaroni and cheese but knew right away that it wasn't "the other" macaroni and cheese in a box. The lack of neon orange powder was a dead give away. This can be a good thing though! I thought it tasted pretty good too, but felt the need to add a sprinkling of reduced fat sharp cheddar over the top of my serving.

The ingredients for the macaroni noodles are: hard wheat flour, modified wheat starch, and wheat gluten.

The ingredients for the sauce mix are: whey, maltodextrin, wheat flour, salt, soybean oil, cheddar cheese, sodium caseinate, lactic acid, citric acid, xanthan gum (soluble fiber), buttermilk, natural flavors, annatto (natural colorant), tocopherols (vitamin E.)

The Nutrition Information per cup of the mac and cheese is:

170 calories (fewer calories than the standard type)
2 g fat (.2 g saturated fat and 0 g trans)
49 g carbohydrate (18 g fiber)
7 g protein
660 mg sodium

NOTE: FiberGourmet products are available at various markets around the country (there is a list of markets by state on their website: www.fibergourmet.com).

Related Topics:

• Lighten Up Your Pasta
• Recipe: Lobster (or Crab) Macaroni and Cheese