CT Green Scene

Goodbye, Food Dye

by Brittany Shutts
   
With every holiday comes a rainbow of vibrantly colored sweets and treats. Besides a variety of heart shaped candies, you might have seen a lot of red velvet cake this past Valentine’s Day. Anyone who has ever baked a red velvet cake or looked over a recipe will tell you that it takes an entire bottle of red food coloring to achieve that luscious shade of red. Green cookies and cupcakes are already making their debut on the shelves for Saint Patrick’s Day.

Besides baked goods and candies, food dye can be found in cereal, fruit drinks, yogurt, toothpaste, lunch meat, and even farm-raised salmon. Food dye gives an often false impression that the food contains healthy fruits or vegetables. Many prescription medicines contain artificial colors. These dyes are carcinogenic, neurotoxic, aggravate behavioral problems in children, and have many other health effects on children and adults.
   
Over the summer, the European Union demanded that products containing certain hazardous dyes referred to as the “Southampton Six” display a warning on the label. The name “Southampton Six” comes from a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study from the University of Southampton that connected artificial food dyes to behavioral problems in children. The effects were not only observed in children with suspected behavioral disorders.
   
The connection between food dye and ADHD has been debated since the 1970s. Dr. Ben Feingold, an allergist, was one of the first to notice the link between diet and behavioral difficulties in children. He began promoting a diet for children with behavioral disorders that avoids artificial food dyes and preservatives and observed positive results.

While the EU is using labels along the lines of the Surgeon General’s warning on cigarettes to identify products that have not willingly replaced their artificial colors, the FDA has taken few steps to limit their use in the United States. However, these chemicals are used more frequently on this side of the map. A strawberry Nutri-Grain bar in Britain uses natural dyes such as beetroot, annatto, and paprika extract, whereas in the US, the same strawberry Nutri-Grain bar contains Red no. 40, Yellow no. 6, and Blue no. 1.

The Center for Science in the Public Interest is calling for a ban on nine synthetic food dyes and for warning notices on artificially colored food products until they can fully implement this change. The FDA will hold a hearing this March to determine whether there is enough evidence to prove that the dyes are harmful. In the meantime, you can avoid these products by reading labels and by shopping at Trader Joe’s and Whole Foods, two grocery stores that don’t carry products containing these harmful artificial colors.

This doesn’t mean that you have to settle for white cake. Brighten up your baked goods with natural alternatives to synthetic dyes. To make red velvet cake without a bottle of red food coloring, try using the juice from a can of beets and substituting it for the part of the liquid in the recipe. The flavor of the beets will not affect the flavor as the sugar seems to cover it up. This recipe uses grated beets for its red tone at Dying For Chocolate. Here is another recipe that gets its coloring from beets, but also uses unprocessed cocoa powder to produce a deeper red at Bittersweet Blog.

Strawberries, cherries, and raspberries can also be used to the same effect. If you thaw a bag of frozen cherries, there is a lot of juice at the bottom that will make your batter sweeter and give it a rosy hue. Or cover a hibiscus tea bag in just enough hot water to let some of its bright red seep out. Puree, cook, and strain blueberries or blackberries for blue baked goods or frosting. Use a little bit of turmeric in place of yellow dye, but keep in mind that too much will give frosting a bitter taste. Spirulina—a bluish-green alga available in health food stores—makes the perfect shade of green for your shamrock-shaped sugar cookies when combined with a bit of turmeric.

If you prefer something that you can keep in your cupboard, NaturesFlavors.com provides bottles of natural food coloring. They are pricier than using canned beets or turmeric, but they’re always available when you want green pancakes just for the fun of it and you don’t have any algae on hand. Since Easter isn’t too far away, non-chemical Easter egg coloring may also be a worthy investment. You can purchase these food dyes here at Natures Flavors.

Image courtesy of DiscoMom.blogspot.com.

Vendors Wanted for ReStore Earth Day Event!

Common Good Market Makes Common Sense

by Heather Burns

Have you ever bought something just because it was a good deal? Over the years, I’ve been guilty of “retail therapy,” like buying discounted designer shoes that were a half size too small; plastic, disposable toys made in China because they were 4 for $1; and a new comforter (full of fire retardants) with each new season that fell apart within months.  While these “bargains” may have temporarily quelled my urge to consume, not only did they mean nothing to me 5 minutes after walking out of the store, they came attached to an enormous ecological price tag.

My awareness has grown over time and I've made progress toward becoming a more conscious shopper (mostlly by avoiding places like the mall altogether), but Rick and Elizabeth Conrad, co-founders of Common Good Market have a mantra: buy things made to last by people who live and work in your community. An online marketplace of artisan-crafted home goods sourced and assembled in New England, Common Good Market has a vision of connectivity that inspires.

Quality vs. Quantity

“When we focus on buying items based on quality, beauty and utility – we surround ourselves with things that serve our needs and that we treasure, value and pass on,” Conrad says. “I’ve been married for thirty years and like a lot of people in that situation, we’ve accumulated a lot of stuff that has or will end up in the waste stream. Instead, we can buy things made by people whose story we know and whose work we love.”

Conscious consumer advocates would argue that this type of “conscious consumerism”—that is understanding that value extends beyond price – is more personally rewarding and has far less negative impact on the environment than purchasing disposable or products that suffer from planned obsolescence.

Building a Living Economy

And it’s not just the environment that benefits from products like those featured by Common Good Market – the local economy is also positively impacted by purchasing locally-sourced, handmade or small batch manufactured goods. “When we choose to buy a table made by a local artisan using sustainably harvested woods, we will absolutely spend more money on that table than we would spend for a table at the chain furniture store. The table at the chain may look nice and may even be made from solid, sustainably harvested wood. But if the table is imported, then how did that purchase support our local workforce? How much of what we spent went back to support the people living and working in our own neighborhood,” says Conrad.

“Visit our site (www.commongoodmarket.com) and read artisan profiles about the lives, passion and dedication of the artisans we’ve come to know and love,” Conrad says.

Green for Your Health

by Emma Crisci

Emma is a student and resides in Connecticut. She began writing at the age of four. Emma currently explores yoga, writing, and teaching. In her spare time, she raps.

Choosing a greener lifestyle has its benefits. From water conservation and air quality to shopping with reusable bags, there is no end to the things we can do—and not do—to better our environment.

Going green can be good for simple peace of mind in a shaky economy.  While the recession still has grips on many of us, the Web Nurse points out "you can save money by making your own household products, as well as save money on transportation costs when you adopt green practices." In The Daily Green, there are plenty of recipes to make your own cleaning products. If you’ve got lemon juice, baking soda, borax, or vinegar lying around the house, then you’ve got great way to make your house sparkle without using toxic chemicals.

Don’t Let the Bedbugs Bite

By Brittany Shutts



Brittany Shutts is a senior Creative Writing major at Purchase College. Her hometown is in Upstate New York in the Adirondacks, where she spent many years reading books on high tree branches. She recently returned from a semester in the Czech Republic. Brittany loves to talk with her hands and also writes fiction, drama, and a blog about nothing in particular. Brittany is passionate about holistic health and non-toxic, sustainable living. She enjoys thrusting unfamiliar vegetables on unwilling family members and gazing wistfully at the organic chocolate section of the supermarket.

Bedbugs are nocturnal parasites that feed on human blood. Once they latch onto beds, furniture, or clothing or make a cozy home behind your wallpaper it becomes incredibly difficult to get them to move out. If, until recently, bedbugs seemed to be the stuff of nursery rhymes, it is because they virtually disappeared in the US with the use of pesticides after World War II.

Now these forgotten parasites are making a comeback and spreading as people travel and commute. Dormitories are especially prone to infestation due to the number of students and the rate of occupant turnover. Traditional methods of extermination often involve spraying harmful insecticides, a process that often needs to be repeated before the problem goes away. All it takes for a second infestation is a couple of bedbug refugees. Fortunately, there are a few preventative steps that can be taken to avoid sharing a room with a thousand of your closest friends. If you’re already battling the bite there are also many effective, pesticide-free methods of extermination.

BP Gulf Oil SPill Still Causing Problems

Just when you thought it was safe to go back in the water, results of frequent dives in December from researchers at the University of Georgia have some disturbing news. Only 10% of the oil residue left on the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico has been dissolved by microbes. It was expected that more of it would be gone by now. In the meantime, animals that ordinarily would be thriving are dead or dying. See an excerpt below.

Scientist finds Gulf bottom still oily, dead
By SETH BORENSTEIN, AP Science Writer Seth Borenstein, Ap Science Writer – Sat Feb 19, 8:53 pm ET

WASHINGTON – Oil from the BP spill remains stuck on the bottom of the Gulf of Mexico, according to a top scientist's video and slides that she says demonstrate the oil isn't degrading as hoped and has decimated life on parts of the sea floor.

That report is at odds with a recent report by the BP spill compensation czar that said nearly all will be well by 2012.

At a science conference in Washington Saturday, marine scientist Samantha Joye of the University of Georgia aired early results of her December submarine dives around the BP spill site. She went to places she had visited in the summer and expected the oil and residue from oil-munching microbes would be gone by then. It wasn't.

"There's some sort of a bottleneck we have yet to identify for why this stuff doesn't seem to be degrading," Joye told the American Association for the Advancement of Science annual conference in Washington. Her research and those of her colleagues contrasts with other studies that show a more optimistic outlook about the health of the gulf, saying microbes did great work munching the oil.

"Magic microbes consumed maybe 10 percent of the total discharge, the rest of it we don't know," Joye said, later adding: "there's a lot of it out there."

Click here to read more.

Image courtesy of National Geographic.

Natural Medicine and Anti-Aging

by Dr. Amy Wiesner

Dr. Wiesner is licensed in both Naturopathic Medicine and Acupuncture in the state of Connecticut.  She obtained her Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Rochester where she also attended the Eastman School of Music.  She obtained her Doctorate in Naturopathic Medicine (ND) and her Master of Science in Acupuncture from the University of Bridgeport.

She has taught at both the College of Naturopathic Medicine and the Acupuncture Institute at the University of Bridgeport and has a private practice in Norwalk, CT.

Our society is obsessed with looking younger. Some people will do whatever it takes not to look their age, including injecting toxins into their bodies.

So are there nontoxic, more natural ways to look younger and slow down the aging process?

Watch the news and you can see the world we live in is inherently toxic and ages us faster than it did before industrialization. Pesticides, radiation, and smog are elements that are ubiquitous today. They create free radicals in the body that hasten the aging process through oxidation as well as contribute to disease. The high levels of stress that we have in our society also contribute to premature aging. Both prevention and treatment can address the free radicals that contribute to it.

A FRIDAY NIGHT FILM EVENT AT Audubon Greenwich

InGREEDients--a film about the many additives in food with Special Guest Speaker, Dr. Madhu Mathur

Friday, February 25
6:00-9:00 pm

Do you know what is in the food you eat on a daily basis? Do you know what partially hydrogenated oil is? What does zero grams of trans fat per serving really mean? If you eat food then you have to see this movie.

The documentary film inGREEDients took the independent film festival circuit by storm, winning several awards and was accepted at top international festivals. The film connects diet and health; teaches how to read a food label; and uncovers some scary truths about our food supply. Ride along on this culinary roller coaster as David sets the table with a cornucopia of leading researchers and the most respected scientists and healthcare professionals in the world. What you will discover is an alarming connection between what you put in your mouth and some of the most disgusting, unpalatable and life-threatening ailments known today!

Plus, Dr. Madhu Mathur, Director of the KIDS'FANS Wellness Program; Medical Director of the Medical Home Initiative Southest CT; and the Chair of the Obesity Task Force; for Stamford Hospital, will be the special guest speaker and take questions from the audience. 

Space is limited & RSVPs required. $15 for adults. Under 21 years old: $5. Includes a wine & cheese reception from 6-7 pm. RSVP to Jeff Cordulack: 203-869-5272 x239 or email: jcordulack@audubon.org. To buy discounted tickets for adults online for $12, visit: http://www.brownpapertickets.com/event/158490.
This film is not suitable for younger children but is suitable for older children and teens. For more information about the film and the event, visit greenwich.audubon.org.

NIH links pesticides with parkinson's

According to yesterday's post on The Daily Green, the National Institute of Health has linked rotenone and parquat, two common pesticides in weed killers, with a higher likelihood of developing Parkinson's disease. While the chemicals are not usually found in household products, they are used on major crops like corn, soy, wheat, and potatoes.

See the excerpt below.

NIH: 2 Pesticides Linked to Parkinson's Disease
Those exposed to two common pesticides were far more likely to develop Parkinson's, according to a new authoritative study of possible causes of the disease.

By Dan Shapley

"Exposure to pesticides has been repeatedly linked to Parkinson's disease, and now the most authoritative voice on health research, the National Institute of Health, has highlighted the link.

In new research, the NIH said Parkinson's disease was 2.5 times more likely to develop in people who used rotenone or paraquat, neither of which are commonly used in households. Parkinson's disease is a a progressive degenerative disorder of the central nervous system. While both pesticides are used only by licensed pesticide applicators and Rotenone is used only to kill invasive fish, Paraquat is widely used on farms throughout the world..."

To read more, click here.

Image courtesy of ScienceMag.org.

Malloy taps Yale's Etsy as DEEP Head

Governor Dannel P. Malloy has asked Daniel C. Etsy, Yale University's director of the Center for Environmental Law and Policy and the Center for Business and the Environment, to head up the state's combined Department of Energy and Environmental Protection (DEEP). Touted as one of the leading environmental strategists, Malloy hopes Etsy's appointment will signify "a clean energy future."

See the excerpt below from The Hartford Courant.

Gov. Malloy Taps Yale Professor To Head Combined Energy, Environment Department
By CHRISTOPHER KEATING, ckeating@courant.com
The Hartford Courant
1:23 p.m. EST, February 10, 2011

HARTFORD — Gov. Dannel P. Malloy this morning named Yale University professor and environmental expert Daniel C. Esty to lead his recently announced state Department of Energy and Environmental Protection.

Esty, 51, serves as director of the Yale Center for Environmental Law and Policy and Yale's Center for Business and the Environment…

"Professor Esty's research has focused on 'next generation' regulation and the relationships between the environment and trade, competitiveness, governance, and development," according to his Yale biography.

Esty told reporters that it is "an honor to be asked to serve in this new role, to work with the governor on the consolidation that he has announced, and to insure that the people of Connecticut get lower-cost energy, a greater energy efficiency and really become leaders in the push toward a clean energy future.''

To read more, click here.

Image courtesy of Yale University. 

Fracking--soon to be a thing of the past?

In today’s news from Reuters, the EPA drafted a plan to determine if drilling for natural gas and oil in bedrock, shale, and tight sand—also known as “fracking”—is harmful to water supplies. In a previous article on this site, we discussed this topic in regard to the documentary Gasland, produced and directed by Josh Fox. One particularly telling scene from that indie film was a resident living in the Marcellus Shale area who lit his tap water on fire. So does fracking harm drinking water? Perhaps, that’s a rhetorical question.

See the excerpt below.

EPA releases draft plan for fracking study

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – “U.S. environmental regulators issued a draft plan on Tuesday outlining how they will determine whether a technique for drilling natural gas harms supplies of drinking water.

Congress commissioned the Environmental Protection Agency to study hydraulic fracturing, or "fracking", after complaints that the process pollutes water. The EPA is slated to make public initial results of the study by the end of next year.

The study will investigate reported instances of drinking water contamination in three to five sites across the country where fracking has occurred, the agency said in the draft.

In addition, the EPA will conduct two to three prospective case studies, to take samples before, during and after water extraction, drilling and production of gas…

Congressman Ralph Hall, chairman of the House Committee on Science, Space and Technology, said in a statement that he would closely review the study because he felt fracking had been the subject of ‘misleading attacks.’

‘Natural gas is a vital resource, and hydraulic fracturing is a well-established process that is enabling greatly increased production of clean, affordable energy,’ he said.”

To read more of the article, click here.

Image courtesy of Zazzle.com.

Space, Materials, & Process: Tips on Greening Art

by Michelina Docimo

Michelina Docimo is a certified sustainable building advisor and writer. Her focus is on sustainable or “green” architecture, landscape, design, and the representation of nature in art. Her writings have appeared in CT Green Scene, ARTES Magazine, Culture Catch, D’Art International, and other industry publications. Visit her blog http://michelinadocimo.com/myartobiography.

Great art picks up where nature ends. ~Marc Chagall

Art is a process—creative, thoughtful, pedagogical, scientific, chemical, and natural. Often we think of artists painting happy plein air landscapes at an easel or spinning clay concentrated over a potter’s wheel. But just like any occupation, there exist risks, not only in their creative endeavors, but in their studios, the materials they use, and the processes applied. With ecology and economy being hot talk topics, artists pick-up on these social sensitivities and respond by prompting public awareness, seeking solutions, and catalyzing change. Here are some practical tips for artists, by artists (and me – a sustainable building advisor), to help minimize health risks and make art in a greener way.

Kids and PCBs

Think your kids are safe at school? According to this article in The New York Times, they may not be. Many of the schools in New York City have been found to contain harmful levels of PCBs. As a result, a growing number of parents are opting to keep their kids home. With medical evidence suggesting the physical and mental impairment caused from long-term exposure to PCBs, they have cause for alarm. See the excerpt below.

Parents Seek More Action on PCBs in Schools
By MIREYA NAVARRO
Published: February 3, 2011

"As the father of an 8-year-old attending Public School 36 on Staten Island, Richard P. Ghiraldi was alarmed to learn that students were being exposed to a known carcinogen.

Last month, Mr. Ghiraldi and hundreds of other parents kept their children home from school for four days after tests showed that lighting ballasts — the devices that regulate electric current for fluorescent lights — were leaking the highly toxic chemical compounds known as PCBs onto the light fixtures and floor tiles.

'I was surprised they still had these old ballasts in schools,' said Mr. Ghiraldi, a paralegal. 'You’d think the custodians and the teachers would think it’d be a danger.'

Yet as he and other parents in New York City press doctors and government officials on the risks from the aging classroom fixtures, which remain in some 800 of 1,200 city school buildings, the answers have been frustratingly vague. Adding to the parental stress, the Bloomberg administration has disputed the urgency of replacing all of the T-12-style fluorescent lighting, estimating it would cost about $1 billion. Its negotiations with the Environmental Protection Agency continue.

There is no immediate health risk from PCBs lingering in schools, all are told, yet with one important caveat: the longer the exposure, the higher the risk."

Click The New York Times link above to read more.

Image courtesy of Seton.com. 

Eco-Stationery in Fairfield

by Eileen Weber

Eco-friendly note cards are no longer a novelty. But they are when they come with a cartoonish image of pantyhose on a clothesline with the tag line, “Thanks for your support.”

Cait Morrison, owner of Fairfield-based Atta Girl! Stationery, wants you to keep these kinds of note cards on hand. Made from eco-friendly papers with vegetable inks that come in biodegradable sleeves,  these little gems are stocked in local stores throughout Fairfield County and they are getting a bit of a buzz.

Morrison said that the card industry mainly caters to women because they are the base market. Men write on stationery or cards that are given to them or pre-made. Think Christmas and Valentine’s Day. But these cards are for everyday use as just a humorous quick note to a friend for under $3.