Sugar · Eco-Chick

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Bummer! Soda Causes Cancer (Ready to Finally Give Up the Cola Now?)

Drinking soda is often sexualized and sexified, like in this image. But it’s one of the worst substances you can consume on a regular basis. Image via Mark Sebastian on Flickr.

Most of us know that soda is a not-great treat, one that most nutritionists advise us against. But how many women do you know with an admitted “Diet Coke addiction”? Well, it may be way worse than just an attachment to a bubbly beverage.

According to the trustworthy Rodale.com, it looks like unbeknownst to most of us (soda company honchos insist that it’s totally fine to consume it, of course), soda – especially colas like Coke and Pepsi – contain a cancer causing element.

High levels of a carcinogen known as 4-methylimidazole, or 4-MI, are created when certain forms of ammonia are used to create the caramel food dye used in some of the most popular soda brands on the planet. Although CSPI is lobbying the Food and Drug Administration to change label requirements, for now, it’s perfectly legal for soda to harbor hidden carcinogens without any disclosure on the label.
The Food and Drug Administration says the chemical is still safe despite the fact that CSPI projects common levels of 4-MI found in Coke and Pepsi cause 15,000 cancers a year. Part of the problem? Chemicals are introduced into the food system before being adequately tested for long-term effects in humans. “It’s hard to know how serious a problem food dyes might pose to health because the science is so difficult to do,” says Marion Nestle, PhD, professor of nutrition, food studies, and public health at New York University.

Want more reasons to stay away from the carbonated stuff? It has negative health effects whether you’re over- or underweight, or whether you drink diet soda or the sugary stuff. According to The Stir’s piece entitled “Drinking Soda is Now Just as Bad for You as Smoking” (haha!), “Researchers at the University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center have found that drinking two or more sugary drinks a day dramatically raises women’s risk for diabetes and high cholesterol. And while women who regularly quaff sugary beverages, like soda, are also much more likely to become obese, even skinny female soda drinkers had a higher risk for heart disease and diabetes.”

Diet soda is just as bad for your health, just in different ways. While it too has been linked to an “…increased risk for stroke and heart disease,” even more disturbing is how artificial sweeteners in soda affect the body in strange ways. According to Rodale’s excellent piece, “9 Disturbing Side Effects of Soda”:

“Researchers from the University of Texas Health Science Center monitored 475 adults for 10 years, and found that those who drank diet soda had a 70 percent increase in waist circumference over the 10-year study, compared with those who didn’t drink any soda. Those who drank more than two diet sodas per day saw a 500 percent waist expansion! A separate study the same researchers conducted on mice suggested that it was the aspartame, which raised blood glucose levels, that caused the weight gain; when your liver encounters too much glucose, the excess is converted to body fat.”

I enjoy a good root beer – with vanilla ice cream – about once year, and in the summer I love a gin and tonic, but that’s about it for my soda consumption. I usually opt for tapwater with lemon or herbal tea at restaurants. At home I drink Emergen-C in my water, make tea (cold chamomile and green teas) and fresh-squeezed juice.

What do you drink instead of soda?

aspartame, cola, diabetes, health, heart disease, mountain dew, Rodale, soda, sugar, The Stir, women

Ani Phyo’s Healthfully Decadent Raw Coconut Kream Recipe

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by Starre Vartan · 02/02/11

Dessert has always been my favorite part of any meal (though I do love apps!) and while I’ve managed to tame my sweet tooth in the last few years, I’ve by no means eliminated it. (By tame I mean I can get my sweet-happys from maple syrup, honey, and desserts made with fruit and less sugar.) Frankly, I’d rather carry around an extra five pounds than skip desserts, in all their toothsome glory. But I try to concoct or uncover desserts that are healthy as well as tasty. Just because it’s dessert doesn’t mean that it has to be a nutrition wasteland!

So stumbling upon Ani Phyo’s wonderful raw dessert cookbook (with 85 recipes!) was a coup. As you may already know, raw foods retain all sorts of wonderful enzymes, vitamins and minerals, plus are less ‘predigested’ (I know it’s a bit gross, but that’s basically what cooking is; partial digestion of food before you eat it). That means your body has to work a bit harder to digest, which makes you feel full longer and is actually really good for your gut. All of which means you get more nutrition and eat less when you go raw. While I’m not a raw foodist by any means, I’m going on my 19th year of vegetarianism and love the way whole foods that are minimally processed taste and make me feel. And the more I’ve read about the benefits of raw, the more I try to incorporate it into my diet.
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art, book, car, chocolate, Coconut Oil, cookbook, cooking, dessert, desserts, eating, epa, farm, filter, Food, fruit, health, healthy, Milk, natural, New York, ny, oil, raw, raw food, recipe, recipes, soda, sugar, Tea, vegan, vegetarian, vitamins, waste, water, Winter

Top 5 Fave Natural Beauty Products for Winter

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by Stephanie Rogers · 01/23/09

fave-winter-products

During the winter, I use more products than at any other time of year out of pure necessity. In order to avoid dry, scaly skin and lips, I do a lot of scrubbing and moisturizing. This winter, I became even more of a purist (or what some may call a control freak) than ever in terms of the ingredients of the products I’m using – I wanted them all to be super simple, healthy and natural. These 5 products didn’t just live up to my expectations, they were so great I just had to spread the word about them.

Vintage Body Spa Ginger Cardamom Cream Body Bar – This ultra-moisturizing body butter smells absolutely heavenly and it was the only thing that has managed to keep the soles of my feet soft and smooth. Cocoa butter, shea butter, mango butter, jojoba oil, and sweet almond oil lightly scented with clove, cardamom, ginger, cinnamon, orange and mint.

Mountain Rose Herbs Restorative Skin Oil – For the rest of my body, especially my hands, elbows and legs, this moisturizing and healing skin oil has kept dryness and that unpleasant itchy, tight feeling at bay. Organic calendula oil, rosehip seed oil, vitamin E and a blend of essential oils including Neroli and Helichrysium.

Aubrey Organics Blue Green Algae Rescue Conditioning Mask – Finally, a vegan protein treatment for hair that really works. Aubrey Organics combines blue-green algae and red algae extract with coconut, shea butter, aloe, and lavender water in a deep hair treatment that keeps my hair glossy and healthy looking despite harsh winds and drying indoor heat.

Josie Maran Lipstick in Rumi Joon – This might just be the ultimate flattering nude lipstick shade for practically every skin tone. It’s also ultra-moisturizing, long lasting and free of toxic ingredients, petrochemicals, parabens and artificial fragrances. The tube is recyclable, too.

DIY Brown Sugar Body Scrub – This exfoliating and moisturizing body scrub is so decadent yet incredibly easy to make with stuff you’ve probably already got in your pantry. I scoop about 4 tablespoons of coconut oil into a microwaveable container, nuke it just until it softens and mix in ¼ cup of brown sugar, 1 tablespoon of honey and ½ teaspoon of vanilla extract. You could literally eat it (and I can attest that it tastes fantastic) and the brown sugar helps to gently buff away scaly skin.

bath, Beauty, beauty products, Calendula, car, Coconut Oil, cosmetics, DIY, Eco-Chick, essential oils, Hair, health, Josie Maran, Lavender, Moisturizer, mom, Natural Beauty, nude, oil, oils, Organic, rum, skin, spa, sugar, Tea, vegan, vintage, water

Truvia? Coming soon to supermarkets everywhere.

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by Melissa Goldberg · 05/27/08

Today our food is over-processed and contains artificial ingredients and sweeteners. Reading the ingredients labels on most foods in the supermarkets makes me feel illiterate, Dimonowhat? Polyglycolichuh?

Years ago everything contained sugar. Then saccharin (Sweet’N Low) came into vogue as a “dietetic” alternative to plain cane or beet sugar–remember TaB? Then, when that was found to cause cancer the big switch was to aspartame, (NutraSweet or Equal). In 1999 sucralose was introduced to the market and the Splenda symbol appeared on every processed, low calorie food on the market–my husband, until recently used Splenda in his coffee everyday.

So when I heard that Cargill, the company that in March, CondeNast Portfolio listed as one of “The Toxic Ten” (one of the worst corporate polluters in America) and Coca Cola, who has basically put America on an intravenous (IV) line of high fructose corn syrup, were coming out with a new sweetener, you can bet I was a little skeptical. Like we need another zero-calorie, chemical, no-value sweetener on the market.

Well, this new sweetener is called Truvia. Truvia is made of rebiana, a sweetener derived from the leaves of stevia plant. Native to South and Central America, stevia is grown for its sweet leaves. The stevia extract turns out to be more than 300 times sweeter than sugar. Stevia leaves are harvested and dried, and are steeped in fresh water in a process similar to that of making tea. According to Cargill and Coke, Truvia is a natural sweetener. However, what the companies fail to explain is how the steeped leaves then get to the consumer in a bag looking like a table sweetener. It must be processed in some way, no? So I am not sure how natural Truvia really is.

Cargill and Coke are currently waiting FDA approval to sell stevia as a sweetener. It is currently only allowed to be used as a supplement in the U.S. — supplements are not regulated by the FDA, and as such are not widely accepted by the public. Stevia has been used in Japan for over 100 years.

Wanting to know more about Truvia, I jumped on the opportunity to listened in on a “webinar,” (web conference call), with Coke and Cargill last week.

Organic, sugar, sweetener, zero calorie

Beards Are The New Hotness!

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by Starre Vartan · 01/09/08

Letterman and Conan are wearing their ‘strike beards’ to show their solidarity with the writers on their shows.

I’ve been seeing it everywhere in New York City; guys with beards now that the cold weather is here. And I’m loving it! It’s sexy, and just a little bit fuzzy too. When I put together a meeting of green bloggers a few weeks back, ALL of the guys had beards, and none of them are hippies, though they are all creative, dynamic men.

Why am I talking about beard trends on an eco-blog? Because not shaving every day is definitely low-impact:

-Less hot water used in the shower or at the sink

-Less or no need for razors or shaving cream (which often comes in those huge unrecyclable containers)

-Hair on your face keeps you just a bit warmer outside- and in. Turning the thermostat down just 1 degree can save you 5% on your heating bill!

Boys with Beards! My friends (L-to-R) Dan Shapely and Brian Howard, editors at The Daily Green, and Muhammed Saleem, top green Digger, and
Me with my friend Ari, who hasn’t worn a beard in years, and is now a convert!

That’s (L to R) Joe Hollis, Botanist, Herbalist, Mentor and Master of Teas, Curtiss Martin, blogger at Scribemedia, and Shea Gunther, blogger and eco-entrepreneur sporting the facial fuzz.