If you're new here, you may want to subscribe to my RSS feed. You can subscribe via RSS reader or email (right). Thanks for visiting!

We all want our clothes to be clean and fresh right? But at what price?

Ironically the detergents that many people use to “clean” their clothes are actually leaving your clothes in worse condition than before you threw them in the wash. This is because conventional laundry detergents are full of toxic chemicals and these chemicals leave a residue on your clothing that may be absorbed by your skin or may evaporate into the air for you to breathe in. Some of the concerns in your laundry detergent are artificial fragrances, dyes, enzymes (which can burn your skin), and optical brighteners (which are meant to stay on your clothes and not wash off). Since we pretty much always wear clothes our cumulative exposure is great.

This is one aspect of natural living that has always concerned me. About a year ago I created a detergent chart where I rated various detergents based upon the number of non-ideal (unnatural) ingredients they contained. The more natural and eco-friendly detergents got the highest ratings. But still I was always bothered by the fact that even those “natural” detergents were not natural enough. They still contained chemically altered or produced surfactants and more then a few moms emailed me to share this concern. Sadly there have been few options for eco-conscious consumers.

Well a few weeks back I was reading Mothering magazine and I was excited when I read about a 100% natural laundry soap called soap nuts. Soap Nuts are a natural soap that literally grows on trees! I was so excited in fact I dropped what I was doing and contacted the company. I had a great conversation with Dariel Garner, one of the owners and I was convinced that Maggie’s Soap Nuts where just what I had been searching for. Dariel was kind enough to rush me a box of soap nuts for review. Dariel explained the fascinating history behind soap nuts and how they are relatively unknown in the Western world. Soap Nuts are the dried fruit of the Chinese Soapberry tree (Sapindus mukorrosi), similar to the lychee. A long time ago, local folks in the South East Asia figured out that when the nuts get wet, they release saponin, a natural surfactant, making them great for washing clothes! Maggie’s Soap Nuts are the only household cleaner made exclusively from Nature, by Nature.

A single soapberry tree produces hundreds of kilos of nuts per year! So they are very sustainable and fall to the ground in Indian and Indonesian forests where they are collected by folks who have used the nuts for centuries.

So the burning question is do soap nuts really work? I was delighted to find that they do! I have used them for several days now and I let my laundry pile up in anticipation of their arrival. My first load of laundry that was washed with soap nuts was a set of organic cotton sheets. It had just rained here in Ohio and my dogs were outside getting muddy. My son accidentally let them out of the mud room and they tore a muddy path down the hallway until they reached my bedroom where they jumped on my bed and rolled around on it. Yuck! Mud and dog hair were everywhere and a strong wet dog odor lingered. So I threw the sheets in the wash along with 4 soap nuts and viola .clean sheets. I slept on them that night to see if they were really clean and I was very pleased. I laundered cloth diapers after the sheets and that is another big test for this product but again I was pleasantly surprised and the diapers smelled very fresh and clean.

I also used the soap nuts to clean the carpet! I simmered a cup of soap nuts in about 4 cups of water, mashing the nuts by hand to release the saponins. Then I drained the liquid using a cheese cloth and I was left with a super concentrated liquid soap that I put in my Bissell carpet cleaner. It worked beautifully. The soap nuts work just as well as commercial soap products.

So how do they work? You take 4 nuts and put them in the linen bag that comes with the box, then use them 2 to 3 times according to the web site. I used mine 5 times. For heavily soiled clothes you can soak the soap nuts in hot water first to soften them up and then throw them in the wash. No fabric softener is needed. Maggie’s Soap Nuts naturally soften and add body to your clothes. Soap nuts won’t get your whites sparkling and white though. Dariel suggested using a bit of natural oxygen bleach. I suggested buying unbleached organic cotton clothing instead to avoid the issue. Soap nuts are great for delicates like wool and silk so that is a big plus.

I think soap nuts are quite possibly the greatest natural product I have come across in a long time. I love the soap that grows on trees! And there is great little free gift that comes in the box I either have some great new natural baubles to wear or I can grow my own soapberry tree! In fact I also found some soap nut earrings that look pretty cool. They would make a great conversation piece.

I hope you are as delighted by soap nuts as I have been. If you have tried them I would love to hear from you.

Technorati Tags: soap nuts, laundry, cloth diapers, organic, natural, chemicals, detergent

Like this Post? Help Me Spread the News:

Tag..I am it! Barb at Naturally Wahms has asked me to share 8 things about myself. I hope I don’t bore you to tears. Well, here I go with 8 things you may not know about me:

1. I play steel drums (or a steelpan). For many years I was in a steel drum orchestra as a baritone. My favorite song to play was Tequila followed closely by Under the Sea from the Little Mermaid.

2. I used to ride a motorcycle. I got my start riding on the back of my boyfriend’s (now husband) bike. I felt like such a bad ass wearing all black, a leather jacket and a black helmet. When I eventually got my own bike I picked a neon green Ninja and I got green leather riding gear to match it. I gave up riding when I got pregant with my first child.

3. I am a HUGE movie buff. I used to see 3-4 movies in a theatre a week! I hardly ever go now after the birth of three kids but I still LOVE movies. In fact my oldest child was named after a movie character named Payton Westlake. If you can tell me what movie that is from I will send you a canvas grocery tote! My daughter was named after a character from a TV show actually. Rose McGowan plays her in the show. Can you guess the charcter’s name?

My favorite movie at the moment is Pride and Prejudice with Keira Knightley. I also adore the Pirates of the Carribean movies.

4. I graduated highschool and started college at 16. I was premed so I studied alot of anatomy and pysiology, chemistry, science, etc. and I even got to dissect a cadaver. I thought it was the coolest thing ever and I still have about 500 photos of it. Understandably the photo clerk was eyeballing me when I picked the photos up.

5. I started my first home based business at 14 years old and was making a 5 figure income after one year. I quit the business to go to college.

6. I used to write science fiction novels. I guess I got it from my mother who is a novelist with several dozen published books. Now I have no interest in writing anything other than non-fiction though. In fact I don’t even read fiction books anymore…go figure.

7. The people I would most like to meet are Al Gore, Leonardo Dicaprio, and Joan Gussow.

8. My wildest aspiration would be to go into politics and be a champion for environmental causes.

Well now I guess I need to tag a few people:

Mindful Momma

The Good Human

The Lactivist

Technorati Tags: Leonardo Dicaprio, Al Gore, Keira Knightley, environment, steel drums, politics

Like this Post? Help Me Spread the News:

Ever since my oldest child started all day kindergarten I have been concerned with the issue of school lunches. If you recall I had a few reservations about the school menu awhile back and this prompted me to start making his lunch every day.

While making his lunch fixed the immediate problem, the larger issue of unhealthy food in the schools is still looming. Recently my family was living out of a hotel while we moved into a new house and my son had to eat the school lunches again and I think it is no coincidence that that we saw some unfavorable behavorial changes. I ended up taking him swimming in the hotel pool for 3-4 hours each night before bed to get him to a level of calm that was favorable for sleep. If food is the body’s fuel then how can it “run” on junk food? This issue should concern everyone.

Last week I read the book Lunch Lessons - Changing the Way We Feed Our Children by Ann Cooper and Lisa M. Holmes. The statistics in this book are terrifying! Childhood obesity has doubled since 1970…35% of American kids are overweight…25% are obese….14% have type 2 diabetes. The authors also claim that new research shows that 40% of all cancers can be attributed to diet.

I have some personal experience with that and I would be heartbroken if my children ever had to face what I did. But as I have said before…my colon cancer made me see with supreme clarity that diet is the key to health and it is a lesson my kids are taught every day. “Changing the way we feed our children is not a luxury: It is an imperative”.

As Lunch Lessons shows, schools are contributing to the childhood nutrition crisis we now face. Yes, they try to meet USDA standards but many fall short and even then, the USDA’s standards are not nearly good enough in my opinion. Schools continue to feed kids frozen, processed, fried, and sugary foods.

The book goes on to explain how diet is contributing to many childhood and societal problems and why schools are having a tough time turning this around. Schools used to have a cook and an actual kitchen. Do you remember those days? I sure do. At my elementary school we had a real chef and several cooks and HOT meals. Now most schools have food service workers that unpackage, re-heat, and microwave.

Some wonderful examples are given of schools that have risen to the challenge of changing the way their students eat and have been hugely successful.

The Ross School in East Hampton, New York hired Ann Cooper (also called the Renegade Lunch Lady) as their executive chef. She helped to design their cafeteria, which included a wood burning pizza oven, actual ceramic dishes, glasses, and silverware. Can you imagine? It sounds like a restaurant! All food is cooked fresh by chefs and cooks. There are no steam tables, no re-heated or microwaved foods, and no fried or high fat foods. Ann Cooper’s experience at Ross showed that if you put delicious foods…even vegetables and whole grains…kids will happily eat them.

In the Santa Monica/Malibu unified school district the nutritional specialist formes a joint venture with local farmers markets to create a salad bar program in 14 schools. Now 1/3 of the students choose the salad bar option.

In Berkeley, California, the Alice Waters’ Edible Schoolyard program at King Middle School has been a great success. They grow a large portion of food on the school campus and have students do the bulk of the gardening and caretaking. They even do some of the cooking and food studies are a big part of the curriculum. This program has become the heart of the school.

It was so inspirational to read these stories. I could not help but feel that I should work with my son’s school to see how the lunch program can be changed. Only parental activism can spark widespread change.

That is why Lunch Lessons also has many pages of healthy menu options that kids will love as well as a policy guide model to be used by parents and schools to instigate change. Parents should read this book and then donate it to the nutritional advisors at their child’s school.

Technorati Tags: school lunch, nutrition, children, obesity, diabetes, food, Ann Cooper, lunch lessons

Like this Post? Help Me Spread the News:

I wrote a bit last week about viewing Earth day as a natural family holiday and making resolutions to encourage environmental concerns every day, all year long. BUT you won’t find the post here. I am writing as a guest blogger on occasion for Green Options or GO. So if you want to read all about it you will need to go here: Earth Day Resolutions.

Leave me a comment at GO and tell me about your resolutions.

Like this Post? Help Me Spread the News:

I was chatting with my friend Carrie a few days ago over at our community forum for natural business moms. We were discussing my “revelation” that the natural moms demographic was getting pretty broad and that it could be broken down into four smaller segments that I am calling Instinctive, Frugal, Green, and Healthy. If you are reading this blog then likely you have some interest in natural family living…but what motivates your interest? Are you a green mom that comes here to read about reusables and global warming or are you a healthy mom that wants information about natural cleaners and holistic medicine?

I decided that I wanted to see what the cloth diapering moms at my Diaper Jungle site felt about this and their motivations for cloth diapering…a typical natural mom practice. So I asked my blog readers over there to answer this question: What Kind of Cloth Diaper Mom Are You?

I am surprised by the results. So far 38% say that their motivation for living more natural family lives and using cloth diapers in particular, is one of economics. Natural products and alternatives seem to be the more frugal choice for many families. 28% of moms chose cloth because they follow the theory of instinctive or natural parenting, 23% of moms were motivated by green causes, and 4% are searching the healthiest option. Another 4% said that all four applied to them.

So going beyond cloth diapers….what kind of natural mom are you? Are You Frugal, Instinctive, Health-Nutty, or Green?

Like this Post? Help Me Spread the News:

This week I have been observing the children my six year old son goes to school with. Even at this young age it seems they are “hooked” on every electronic device known to man. I cannot believe the number of elementary school age children that have cell phones, mp3 players, blackberries, and portable video games systems. Now my own son is asking for a cell phone because so many of his kindergarten friends have them. I am a techy geek myself and I carry my iPod almost everywhere. But I would like to think that I am balanced in this area and my kids and I both get more than our fair share of outside time and we find ways to spend time together that do not include any electronic devices. The whole family loves to play board games so we are likely to skip evening television and play Hungry Hippos or Spongebob Monopoly. My husband and I like to play games together too when the kids are otherwise occupied. We especially like RISK and Gin Rummy.

We have no video games in the house for the kids to play. Instead we have legos, Lincoln Logs, watercolors and oil paints, drawing boards…all things that encourage creative play. Then we also have outdoor activities and playtoys….a wooden playset with slide and swings, bug collection and observation kits, bubbles blowing tools, sidewalk chalk, sports equipment, and a children’s garden. Sometimes I create a buried treasure map for them so they can scour the backyard looking for the hidden booty. They have a million things to do besides zone out in front of a video game or television. I am working hard to make sure that they…unlike many of their school peers…do not develop nature deficit disorder.

The importance of this is evident in the book “Last Child in the Woods - Saving Our Children from Nature Deficit Disorder” by Richard Louv. The book explores the increasing divide between the young and the natural world, and the environmental, social, psychological, and spiritual implications. It also shows us how important that connection is for child and adult health. It shows how the absence of nature in the lives of today’s wired generation can be linked to some of the most disturbing childhood trends: obesity, attention disorders, and depression.

In the introduction Louv tells us about how his son asked why he had so much more fun when he was a child. At first Louv was confused and then discovered that his childhood tales of tree houses, wandering in the woods, horseback riding, crawdad fishing, etc. made his son envious. I can relate to this. I often felt that way in my younger days after hearing some of my mother’s childhood stories. The “fun” in childhood seems to be disappearing at an alarming rate. Back when my mom grew up there was summer camp that involved sleeping in cabin with other kids, swimming in a lake, and telling stories by the camp fire. I looked at a camp directory in my area last week and saw a weight loss camp, an Asian languages camp, and an ethnic sensitivity camp.

Though I must admit that I felt pretty good about my children’s relationship with the natural world as I read this book. I read most of it while swinging on a hammock as my oldest son scoured the land for bugs and my daughter collected wildflowers. Even as I wrote this post I had to take a break when my son popped his head in from outside to ask if I would go for a walk. How could I say no?

But it certainly got my wheels turning about ways in which I can encourage this type of natural play in their lives even more. This was especially so when I read some of the opinions of James Sallis the program director for Active Living Research Program at the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation. He said that the best predictor of preschool children’s physical activity is simply being outdoors. But when asked about how unstructured natural play figures into the study he said that they do not investigate such things. Why? No one will finance a study like that? Again….why?

Sallis explains, “Because it is free, there is no major economic interest involved. Who’s going to fund the research? If kids are out there riding their bikes, or walking, they’re not burning fossil fuel, they’re nobody’s captive audience, they’re not making money for anybody…follow the money.” Ouch! I had ever thought of it this way.

This book has certainly changed the way I think about our children’s connection with the natural world and why that connection is so important. Every parent needs to read this book.

Technorati Tags: children, kids, nature, play, toys, obsetity, depression

Like this Post? Help Me Spread the News:

Recently I had the great pleasure of receiving a package of Earth Choice cleaning products from OdoBan. Thanks Tamara for sending me these!

The Earth Choice product line is the first and only complete line of environmentally preferable household cleaners created in partnership with the Evironmental Protection Agency (EPA). This group of products debuted in January of this year and it includes products for cleaning glass, showers, grease, toilets, carpets, and toilet bowls. The OdoBan company wanted to create a group of cleaners that were effective yet better environmentally then any other cleaners on the market. They are low VOC, Alkylphenol-free, Phthalate-free cleaning formulas.

So do they actually work? Well, my husband and I had the opportunity to use them quite a bit this past week as we moved out of our house (yes, don’t ask…we are moving again….more on that later). Anyway…the All Purpose Cleaner worked VERY well. We used it in the kitchen, in the bathroom, on the floors, countertops, laundry room, etc. I was very pleased with its performance and the smell was pleasing too and not over powering in the least like most conventional cleaning products.

We also used the Shower Control and it was also very effective at removing soap scum and grime. When I was all done I couldn’t really smell anything but it certainly did have an air of freshness and maybe a faint lemony scent.

Overall both products were effective and next time you swing by Home Depot you might to pick up a few of the Earth Choice products. The planet thanks you.

Like this Post? Help Me Spread the News:

Today I read a provocative article in Vanity Fair. It is called A Convenient Untruth by Michael Schnayerson. It is essentially an expose on policy analyst, sound bite artist, and oil industry mouthpiece Myron Ebell. You may not immediately know who Ebell is but no doubt you have heard his global warming skepticism as Ebell is the to whom the media, the oil industry, and even our government turn to when they need the obligatory opposing view on climate change.

And see here so many people think that anti global warming science was actually coming from scientists right? Schnayerson will open more than a few eyes with this wonderful article.

He points out that global warming skeptics are becoming harder to find these days when even companies like Texaco and three major automakers in Detroit have like glaciers melted away from the fight. But there are, unfortunately, some holdouts that make it their life’s work to skim the scores of scientific studies coming out every day, aiming for miniscule inconsistencies or a way to work in a seemingly valid counter argument. Then they have the audacity to act offended when you happen to inquire if they take money from the oil industry.who would certainly profit from their opinion. Well, as the article goes on to show�nearly ALL of them take money from Exxon Mobile.

Ebell claims that he, unlike most of his skeptic counterparts, is NOT a lobbyist for the energy industry. He is also NOT a scientist! It appears that he is merely an opinionated man who likes to comment on public policy. He works for CEI, a think tank, where journalists the world over go to get juicy tidbits for their anti global warming articles and stories. These articles then appear before the public and what is essentially the opinion of a fifty year old father with NO scientific background or training is given equal weight with genuine scientific findings.

So Gore is right well he is right about a lot of things… but in this instance he is right about the fact that almost no true scientists doubt that a climate crisis is looming. But Ebell and his associates (partners in crime) sustain the impression that a scientific debate is still raging.

What would be his motive you might ask? Well the more studies published that confirm global warming the more demand there is for Ebell and his quotable opinions. What a racket he has going on! With seeds of doubt now implanted within the unsuspecting public politicians and oil companies go on about their business.

Ebell admits that CEI takes a considerable amount of money from Exxon Mobile but he claims that is irrelevant. CEI’s employees comment on whatever issues they would like from mileage standards to endangered species acts trying to affect public policy and seeking donations from grateful industries. Incredible!

No doubt CEI is a bight shining star for Exxon Mobile. According to this Vanity Fair article, Exxon Mobile has spent millions funding these types of studies at think tank institutes. Pretty good considering a middle aged man with no scientific background probably concocted the findings in several global warming studies that appeared in the media of late all while he brushed his teeth one morning.

These think tank groups have no standing in mainstream climate science. They crank out statement and policy papers that supposedly disprove global warming with great regularity. But do they publish their findings in peer reviewed scientific journals? No.

Instead they seek the media to publish their unsubstantiated reports and papers and with this bit of credibility seemingly added to their stance, politicians swoop them up to deride global warming as a hoax and make sure they get disseminated on the Internet like viral advertising.

The Vanity Fair article names a few of the fringe scientists who publish global warming studies through these think tank institutes and how much money they were paid by big oil interests. It is shocking to say the least. There goes scientific integrity right out the window. The article also has several pages of arguments made by Ebell against the concept of global warming. Each argument is refuted by reputable scientists. In response, Ebell criticizes these scientists by saying they know nothing about climate science because their scientific training is based upon oceanography, geology, or physics for example and not climate science. Never mind the fact that their own field of study led them all to the much greater issue of global warming.

It is very ironic though that Ebell should take that stance and bash scientists for working outside their degreed fields when Ebell is not a scientist at all! He studied political theory and got a degree in philosophy. It is shocking that this reckless man is allowed to affect public policy. I found a blog dedicated to following his movements and it refers to him as an intellectual terrorist I would have to agree.

I always knew that the studies refuting global warming were suspect but I did not know the depth of this deception. Kudos to Vanity Fair and Shnayerson for this whistle blowing expose.

The most important lesson to be learned form all of this though is that global warming IS a problem and the information disseminated by the skeptics is all suspect and should be avoided like the plague. Their interest in global warming is political and monetary. They have no interest in doing what is best for humanity or for the planet. Don’t let their dirty politics sway you away from an important issue. We are in the midst of a climate crisis and we must act now.

Technorati Tags: global warming, climate crisis, Myron Ebell, CEI, Vanity Fair, politics

Like this Post? Help Me Spread the News: