Abby Quillen

Freelance Content Marketing Writer and Editor

Health

Dandelions are Superfoods

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Every spring people stock up on Round Up and Weed-B-Gon to prepare themselves for battle against one of my favorite flowers – the humble dandelion. If you’re not as big a fan as I am of these yellow-headed “weeds”, which grow in lawns and sunny open spaces throughout the world, I know of a great way to get rid of them. Eat them.

Every part of the dandelion is edible – leaves, roots, and flowers. And they are nutritional powerhouses. They’re rich in beta-carotene, fiber, potassium, iron, calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, B vitamins, and protein.

Over the years, dandelions have been used as cures for countless conditions including:

  • kidney stones
  • acne
  • high blood pressure
  • obesity
  • diarrhea
  • high cholesterol
  • anemia
  • cancer
  • diabetes
  • stomach pain
  • hepatitis

“There is probably no existing condition that would not benefit from regularly consuming dandelions,” Joyce A Wardwell writes in The Herbal Home Remedy Book.

She also says that dandelion is “one herb to allow yourself the full range of freedom to explore,” because it has “no known cautionary drug interactions, cumulative toxic effects, or contraindications for use.”

So why not harvest the dandelions in your yard? And I’m sure your neighbors wouldn’t mind if you uprooted some of theirs too. Just avoid harvesting near streets or from lawns where herbicides or fertilizers are used.

Dandelion has a few doppelgangers, but it’s easy to distinguish it. Look for a single thick stem filled with milky sap and smooth leaves shaped like jagged teeth.

The leaves

Dandelion leaves have more beta-carotene than carrots and more iron and calcium than spinach. The best time to harvest them is early spring, before the flowers appear, because that’s when they’re the least bitter.

How can you eat dandelion leaves?

  • Toss them in salads
  • Steam them
  • Saute them with garlic, onions, and olive oil
  • Infuse them with boiling water to make a tea
  • Dry them to use for tea

If dandelion leaves taste too bitter for you to enjoy, here are four surefire ways to mask the taste:

  1. Add something sweet, salty, or sour.
  2. Combine them with less bitter greens.
  3. Cook them in oil.
  4. Boil them for three to five minutes.

Don’t let the bitterness of dandelion leaves scare you away. Phytonutrients have a bitter, sour, or astringent taste, so bitter plants are often highly nutritious. Bitterness also stimulates the liver to produce bile, which aids digestion and nutrient availability. Moreover, bitter foods modulate hunger and help curb sugar cravings.

The flowers

Dandelion flowers are a rich source of the nutrient lecithin. The best time to harvest them is mid-spring, when they’re usually the most abundant. If you cut off the green base, the flowers aren’t bitter.

How can you eat dandelion flowers?

The roots

Dandelion roots are full of vitamins and minerals. They are also in rich in a substance called inulin, which may help diabetics to regulate blood sugar. Dandelion roots are often used to treat liver disorders. They’re also a safe natural diuretic, because they’re rich in potassium. The best time to harvest dandelion roots is early spring and late fall.

How can you eat dandelion roots?

  • Boil them for 20 minutes to make a tea
  • Chop, dry, and roast them to make a tasty coffee substitute.
  • Add them to soup stock or miso
  • Steam them with other vegetables

As most gardeners know, dandelions are virile (some say pernicious) plants. Why not treat them as allies, rather than enemies, this spring?

[clickToTweet tweet=”Dandelions are superfoods. Put the pesticides away and eat them. #health #herbs” quote=”Dandelions are superfoods. Put the pesticides away and eat them.” theme=”style1″]

If you liked this post, check out more of my popular articles about herbs:

Weeds are flowers too, once you get to know them. A.A. Milne #dandelions #wildfoods #foraging

[Editor’s Note: This is an updated and revised version of a post originally published on March 4, 2010]

Do you eat dandelions? Do you have a favorite dandelion recipe?

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The Healing Power of Oak Trees

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Fifteen years ago, my husband and I stood under a massive, gnarled limb of an oak tree and said our vows to each other.

Oak trees are considered sacred by many cultures, but we didn’t know that then. Nor did we know they were traditionally used for spiritual and civic gatherings (like weddings) to offer strength and protection.

So we were fortunate fate brought us together beneath that majestic oak tree.

The oak tree is sometimes called the king of trees. About 400 species of oaks, including coniferous and deciduous species, grow in the northern hemisphere. There are 60 varieties of oaks native to the United States, and some live for up to a thousand years.

If you haven’t gotten to know an oak tree, it’s time you did. It may sound silly to get to know a tree, but remember, trees absorb and store our rainwater. They compost the ground to build healthy soil, which is essential to all life. They give us the oxygen we breathe. They’re the best allies we’ll ever have.

Humans and Oaks Helped Each Other

Sometimes my kids and I play a game called “Did a person make it or did nature?” My kids usually knew even when they were very young. A person made our Legos. Nature made bears. A person made Dad’s eyeglasses. Nature made our brains.

If I asked my kids who made the beautiful sprawling oak savanna near our house, they’d probably say it was nature. But the answer is more complicated than that. Native American people worked with nature to create Oregon’s oak savannas.

Oaks don’t grow well in the shade and can’t survive when Douglas Firs and Western Red Cedars crowd out the light. But they’re fire-resistant. So the Kalapuya and Chelis tribes set low-intensity fires to keep the conifers from growing in certain areas. The fires kept the Oregon White Oak and California Black Oak healthy and encouraged the growth of wildflowers, such as camas lilies, which Native tribes used for food.

In modern times, we’re rediscovering this ancient land management system. We’d also do well to learn from ancient food customs, starting with the humble but mighty acorn.

The Healing Power of Oak Trees #plantmedicine #heirloomfood

Acorns are an Heirloom Food

Acorns aren’t just for squirrels. They’ve been a staple food for people in North America, Asia, the Middle-East, North Africa, and Europe for thousands of years. The Roman philosopher Pliny the Elder said the sacred oak was the “tree which first produced food for mortal man.”

All acorns are edible, and they’re high in calories, fat, magnesium, calcium, phosphorus, and antioxidants. But unlike squirrels, you can’t enjoy acorns just off the tree. They’re bitter when eaten raw, and they require low-tech processing to make them palatable for humans.

Here’s how to turn acorns into a nutritious flour. Gather whole acorns from the ground and bake them at 250 degrees for a half hour to kill any bug larvae. Shell them using a nutcracker (or a high-quality nut sheller, if you plan to shell large quantities). To leach the bitterness from them, boil them for five to 10 minutes, pour off the murky water, and repeat the process five or six times until the acorns are palatable. Dehydrate the acorns on a tray in a sunny location or in a food dehydrator. Finally, grind the acorns into flour.

Does this process sound difficult? Remember, flours made from tillage crops, such as wheat and corn, also require a fair amount of processing. But acorns offer a major advantage. You don’t need to clear the land of trees and wildlife or use pesticides and herbicides to grow oak trees.

Agriculture is one of the leading causes of biodiversity loss. Farming is what threatens three quarters of the world’s endangered species. If we could take advantage of a nutritious staple food crop without agriculture, it would be a boon for threatened ecosystems.

Lincoln Smith, a gardener in Massachusetts, is experimenting with using acorns as food at Forested, his 10-acre research garden. On one occasion, Smith gleaned 1,000 pounds of acorns from the trees on his busy street in four days. He makes bread by mixing acorn flour one to one with wheat flour.

Acorn bread has a nutty taste and appealing hearty flavor, according to reporter Caroline Selle, who wrote about Smith for Civil Eats. Smith also makes baked chocolate and molasses acorn cookies, which are “sweet, rich, nutty, and good,” according to Selle.

Despite its potential merits, acorn flour isn’t readily available commercially. You can import it from Korea, where it’s commonly eaten, or pay a premium price from a small-scale producer. Otherwise, you’ll need to copy the squirrels and harvest and process your own.

Oak Medicine

Oak bark is an astringent, and it can be used to heal bleeding gums, sore throats, scrapes, or rashes. To make a decoction of it, cut a small branch off any oak tree. Soak it in water to clean it. Use a knife to remove the outer-most bark and discard it. Then shave off a tablespoon of the white inner bark and boil it in four cups of water for 20 minutes or more. Use it as a gargle, rinse, or compress.

Native Americans also used oak chewing sticks to clean their teeth. Unlike nylon toothbrush bristles, oak twigs are naturally antibacterial and antiseptic. In a study, nearly all (99.9 percent) of bacteria spread on various wooden cutting boards, including oak, were undetectable within three minutes.

That’s significant because toothbrushes harbor huge amounts of germs. Ten million bacteria, including fecal germs, live on the average toothbrush. Seventy percent of people’s toothbrushes are heavily contaminated with potentially pathogenic bacteria and viruses, such as Staphylococcus aureus, E. coli, Pseudomonas, and herpes simplex virus, according to a study.

Plus, unlike plastic toothbrushes, chewing sticks don’t pollute the environment by lingering in landfills for five hundred to a thousand years.

It’s easy to make an oak chewing stick. Remove a small twig from an oak tree, peel the bark off one end, and leave it in a glass of water overnight to soften it. The next day, chew on it until bristles form and use it to scrub your teeth as you would with a toothbrush, no toothpaste needed. Use the same chewing stick several times by breaking the bristles off and starting over again.

If you think this ancient technology sounds primitive (or even disgusting), consider the conclusion of a randomized clinical trial comparing chewing sticks to toothbrushes, which was published in the North American Journal of Medical Sciences in July 2014: “Chewing stick was found to be equally effective as toothbrush in terms of gingival status. On the other hand, chewing stick had shown even better results in terms of reduction in plaque scores than in subjects using toothbrush.”

Trees exhale for us so that we can inhale them to stay alive. Can we ever forget that_ #quote #trees

Oaks Need Us

Now here’s the bad news. Oak ecosystems around the world are declining. Oaks once covered 50 percent of the Willamette Valley where I live, but their numbers have been reduced by 97 percent. Oaks are also disappearing from Minnesota and other states. A quarter of the oak trees in the U.S. are threatened.

Why are our oaks in decline? European settlers’ fear of fire helped transform sunny oak savannas into shady woodlands. Habitat destruction, pests and diseases, agriculture, and development are also culprits. But these are symptoms of the real problem. Now that we let the acorns rot on the ground and get our medicines from pharmaceutical companies, we’ve forgotten the value of oak trees.

Do trees matter? What do they do for us? Diana Beresford-Kroeger eloquently answers that question in her book The Global Forest.

Trees breathe, communicate, reproduce, filter pollution from the air, provide habitat for wildlife, flora and fauna, provide aesthetic value and beauty on the planet, absorb CO2 (greenhouse gas) and release life-sustaining oxygen (50% comes from trees and 50% comes from ocean plankton), provide shelter and provide a variety of food, such as fruit and nuts, as well as medicines. Trees connect elements of nature and we are connected to trees – we are one. Trees provide wind and erosion control, soil stability, assist in controlling the movement of water and in purifying groundwater. Trees provide branches for children’s swings, tree houses or for children to climb.”

Beresford-Kroeger goes on for several more pages about the virtues of trees. And even then, she can’t do them justice. They are — in a word — our lifeblood.

We need oaks and they need us. Enjoy their shade and beauty. Eat their food, and use their medicine. Fall in love with an oak tree. That’s how we’ll save them.

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I Gave Up Podcasts for Two Weeks. Here’s What Happened.

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What’s not to love about podcasts? They’re educational, entertaining, and free. I’ve been a fan since I downloaded my first one on my iPod Nano back in 2008.

I’ve listened to countless hours of Radiolab, This American Life, Invisibilia, Serial, and S-Town. I’d recognize Jad Abumrad’s voice in a crowded room.

I’ve also listened to amateur podcasts about arcane topics. I may admit to streaming them if I remembered the titles.

I’ve discovered interesting books and authors through podcasts. I’ve stumbled on topics to write about and people to interview. Podcasts helped me stay entertained during long nights pacing with crying babies and harried days at home with two little boys.

So why would I take a break from podcasts? In December, I was assigned to write an article with the title: “Is it Bad to Listen to Podcasts All Day?”

My immediate answer was, “No way! That’s my dream life!”

But then I dug into the research and reflected on my podcast habit.

My total listening added up to about one to two hours a day, or 7 to 14 hours a week. That put me in the super listener category, according to Edison Research. I usually listened when I was doing something else, like getting ready in the morning, cooking, walking, or driving.

I thought of my listening habit as a good thing. I love learning new things.

But as I revisited the research on multitasking, I wondered if trying to listen to podcasts while I hustled through life was causing me mental stress and fatigue and was actually dumbing me down. (Multitasking does that.)

Plus, some of the podcasts I was listening to were about how to live a more mindful life. And multitasking is, ahem, the opposite of mindfulness.

So I decided to do an experiment. I gave up podcasts for two weeks and replaced them with silence. Just me and my wandering mind. What happened next amazed me.

I felt relieved.

The first time I stepped out the door for a walk without glancing at my podcast feed felt like a vacation. Then I had the same sensation when I got in my car.

I wasn’t expecting to feel relief, because I thought of podcasts as something I enjoyed. But, like most people, I’m bombarded with choices and decisions constantly, which is draining. Not having to scan through feeds and find a podcast was refreshing.

Plus, it felt great to turn off the chattering in my ear (even if in this case, the chattering was entertaining me with well-crafted stories and occasional profound insights).

I live with two chatty little boys, who enjoy listening to Taylor Swift songs at high volumes. Our house is noisy when we’re all home. When I’m home alone, I read, research, and write a lot, so my mind is a busy place.

Quiet sounded so good.

Of course, this shouldn’t have surprised me. I’ve experienced enough quiet in my life to know it’s restorative.

Silence is regarded as holy in most religions. Spiritual people of all traditions herald the importance of quiet contemplation. Mother Theresa equated silence with prayer.

And scientists have discovered the power of silence accidentally when they used it as a control in research. In one study, researchers discovered that a two-minute silent pause in a piece of music was more beneficial for the body and nervous system than relaxing music.

In another study, two hours of silence a day caused mice to grow new functioning neurons in the hippocampus region of their brains. Imke Kirste, the lead researcher, theorizes that if the same results are found in humans, someday silence may be used to treat conditions like dementia and depression

But sometimes you have to immerse yourself in quiet to remember how healing it is.

Everything got easier.

When I turned off the podcasts when I was doing housework, the residual backlog of dishes and laundry at our house disappeared. I zipped through making dinner, even complex recipes. And I felt calmer and more engaged when I was with my kids. (I didn’t usually listen to podcasts when I was hanging out with my family, but I often felt in a hurry to get back to the chores so I could listen to one.)

Writing also felt easier. I attribute this to having more free time to think. The brain goes into its default mode when it’s not concentrating, where it wanders and self reflects. This state is just as essential to learning as concentration. In my well-intentioned attempts to learn more, I may have been shortchanging myself of going into this just-as-important brain state

You may think that listening to a podcast while doing something else isn’t really multitasking in the way that driving and talking on the phone is. But listening to a podcast is actually hard work for the brain. The brain is five times more active when listening to a story than when listening to a list of facts. Add sound effects, multiple characters’ voices, and a relatively fast pace, and the brain is busy.

When people were hooked up to MRI machines while they listened to Moth Radio Hour for a study, “Widely dispersed sensory, emotional and memory networks were humming, across both hemispheres of the brain,” according to Benedict Carey of the New York Times.

In hindsight, it’s funny that I thought I could listen to a complex story at the same time as I was making a new-to-me recipe or navigating an unfamiliar route in my car.

But that’s the strange thing about multitasking. We think we can do it, even though the brain can’t focus on two things at once.

Research suggests we lose 40 percent of our productivity and are four times slower at learning new things when we multitask.

I certainly felt 40 percent more productive when I stopped. But this seems to be a lesson I must learn repeatedly. I hope I finally got it this time.

Real life was more interesting.

What could be the downside of listening to a steady stream of well-crafted narratives and conversations designed to make you feel a deep sense of awe? Real life and real conversations can feel a little ho-hum. There are relatively few earth-shattering revelations, profound insights, and moments of realization in everyday chitchat.

Worse, listening to podcasts can give you the illusion you’re already socializing, which makes real socializing feel less essential. Pamela Druckerman, a self-confessed recovering podcast addict, writes in the Atlantic: “Podcasts gave me the illusion of having a vibrant social life. I was constantly “meeting” new people. My favorite hosts started to seem like friends: I could detect small shifts in their moods, and tell when they were flirting with guests.”

I hadn’t thought much about these downsides of listening to podcasts until I gave them up. Within a couple days, I felt more eager to run into people and chat. And when I was conversing with people, I felt more refreshed and engaged.

Plus, when I went for walks without a podcast, even around my neighborhood, I was blown away by all of the beauty: murmurations of starlings, fog twisting through the hills, delicate patterns etched across iced-over puddles. Had I really been missing all this before? Oh right, my brain was busy listening.

I felt happier.

I felt notably calmer. I slept better. I felt more present and engaged with my family. I noticed fewer moments of stress or anxiety.

Plus, at times, I had a feeling of spacious expansion that I haven’t felt since I was a kid. One day I was bringing books up to my son’s room. It was raining, and I laid down on his bed and listened for awhile before I returned to my chores. Another day, I sat down and read poetry, which I haven’t done for years.

My time was mine again. I could just focus on what I was doing. Or just be.

Of course, changing any habit can be hard, and giving up podcasts was no exception. I felt symptoms that felt like withdrawal (similar to when I quit drinking coffee awhile ago). I especially felt antsy when I was cooking, which is strange because cooking requires a lot of focus (and some inherent multitasking). Fortunately, preparing food in the quiet got a little easier as time went on.

Going Forward

Of course, podcasts are fun and interesting, and I miss some of them. Will I listen going forward? How much? To what?

I’m not sure yet. But I know I’ll be more mindful about what I trade my quiet for. Plus, I’m swearing off multitasking (again). Lesson learned (again).

Will taking a break from podcasts (or social media, radio, or television) change your outlook as much as it did mine? There’s no way to know except to try. If you do (or if you have in the past), leave me a comment. I’d love to hear about it!

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6 Reasons to Skip Packaged Salad and Eat Fresh Greens Instead

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Rip open a bag, toss some greens in a bowl, pour on some dressing, and voila, instant salad. No washing, chopping, or spinning. What’s not to love about packaged salad greens? Seventy percent of American families buy them. And packaged greens may even encourage salad-phobic Americans to eat healthier.

Unfortunately, packaged salad greens come with some downsides and even some health risks. Keep reading to learn why you may want to spend a few extra minutes washing, chopping, and assembling your salads from fresh (unpackaged) greens.

  1. Salad with a side of foodborne illness?

Any food you consume raw comes with a greater risk of foodborne disease. Leafy green salads are one of the top sources of infections. They account for 20 percent of outbreaks in the U.S, according to the Center for Disease Control and Prevention and 30 percent of outbreaks in Europe, according to the European Food Safety Authority. Packaged greens and salad mixes are especially susceptible to pathogen contamination because they’re handled more and sit on the shelf longer than fresh greens.

When the leaves of packaged salad greens are  torn or chopped before they’re packaged, they leak juices, which increase the risk of Salmonella growth by 2400 times. Moreover, packaged greens may be contaminated with e. coli bacteria if they come into contact with animal feces or contaminated water or if workers don’t wash their hands well at the farm or in the factory. A Consumer Reports study found unacceptable levels of bacteria in 39 percent of the packaged greens they tested, including those produced by major brands such as Earthbound Farm Organic, Dole, and Fresh Express. Some of the biggest outbreaks of foodborne disease in the recent past have been linked to bagged salad greens, including an E. coli outbreak traced to packaged romaine lettuce that killed five people and sickened 197 people in 35 different states this spring (2018).

To minimize your risk of acquiring a foodborne disease from salad greens:

  • Buy fresh leafy greens that have not been chopped, torn, or crushed and have been handled as little as possible.
  • Remove the outer layer of lettuce leaves and discard them
  • Keep salad greens refrigerated.
  • Wash salad greens (even packaged ones) before eating them by running each leaf under running water.
  • Don’t let greens sit in the fridge for more than a week.
  • Don’t eat greens if they look or smell off in any way.

  1. The packaged salad industry harms wildlife

When you eat a salad, you may feel good about consuming a meal that doesn’t hurt animals. Unfortunately, that’s probably not the case if your packaged greens were grown in Central California (and there’s a good chance they were). The region is called America’s salad bowl because more than 75 percent of America’s salad greens are grown there. Large farms in the Salinas Valley process as many as 10 million pounds of salad greens per week.

In 2006, a massive E. coli outbreak was traced to bagged spinach grown in the Salinas Valley. Because, E. Coli is spread from animal feces, all animals were seen as a threat – frogs, mice, deer, hawks, owls, and birds. Farmers responded to the outbreak by eradicating wildlife habitat from their farms. They clear cut trees, grass, and hedgerows; filled in ponds; and erected fences to keep wildlife from crossing streams and entering farms. More than 90 percent of wetlands, floodplains, and riparian habitat in the Central Valley have been decimated.

These “sterile” agricultural practices have a detrimental impact on wildlife and contribute to the biodiversity crisis and mass extinctions. Moreover, they may be counterproductive. Wetlands help reduce pesticide runoff and bacteria contamination of crops. Studies indicate farmers can reduce E. coli contamination on a farm by as much as 99 percent by restoring wetlands and waterways.

To support farmers who protect wildlife habitat:

  • Choose organic, which minimizes the use of pesticides and herbicides, which impact wildlife.
  • Look for foods with the eco-labels Certified Wildlife Friendly or Food Alliance Certified, which ensure farms protect wildlife habitat and biodiversity.
  • Shop at your local farmers’ market and talk to farmers about their farming practices.
  1. Packaging greens requires a lot of water

Have you seen the triple-wash guarantee on salad packaging labels? Repeated washing is necessary to make commercial salad greens clean and safe. No one wants to find dirt or a frog in a bagged salad mix, and, as mentioned, the risk of foodborne disease is high in foods eaten raw.

But washing operations use a lot of water. “The bagged, triple-washed variety is enormously water costly,” Gidon Eshel, a professor at Bard College’s Center for Environmental Policy told Mother Jones Magazine. You can see a video of  one part of the washing process here to understand how much water is used to clean salad mix. Farmers in Central California are incentivized to plant more greens than they can sell, which wastes even more water (not to mention that they throw excess product in the landfill, packaging and all).

Water waste may not be an issue in some parts of the country. But California doesn’t have excess fresh water to spare. Between 2012 and 2016, California experienced the worst drought in its history. Most of the water in the state is used by farmers. Since 1922, California has relied on a 242-mile aqueduct system from the Colorado River to supply drinking water to residents of Southern California.

To support agriculture that conserves water:

  1. Plastic or plastic?

When you buy packaged salad, you have two choices of packaging: crinkly plastic bags or plastic clamshell boxes. Both are a disaster for the environment, especially now that many municipalities worldwide have halted plastics recycling. If you must buy packaged salad, the most eco-friendly option is clamshell boxes made of recycled materials.

To reduce the plastic waste from your salads:

  • Grow your own greens.
  • If you buy greens at a grocery store or farmer’s market, use reusable grocery and produce bags.
  • Reuse any plastic produce bags you take.
  1. Greens with a side of chemical sanitizers?

Commercial cleaning machines handle mass quantities of greens and can’t manually clean them as well as you do at home under the faucet. Thus, they use chemical disinfectants, usually diluted chlorine. Some European Union countries, including the Netherlands, Denmark, and Belgium, have banned the use of chlorine for washing fresh-cut produce because it can create harmful disinfectant by-products in the water.

To minimize your chance of ingesting chemical sanitizer residue:

  1. Where have all the nutrients gone?

Packaged salad greens are sometimes two weeks old when you eat them and have gone through a lot of processing in the field and factory. Unfortunately, they lose a lot of nutrients in the process. Research suggests they may lose half of their folate, up to 80 percent of their vitamin C, and 46 percent of their carotinoids.

To eat the freshest, most nutritious food possible:

  • Grow your own vegetables or buy from a local farm

Conclusion

Don’t be afraid to enjoy a packaged salad mix occasionally. They may be more risky than many foods, but they’re unlikely to hurt you, statistically speaking. Moreover, any greens are better than not eating greens.

However, if you want to eat the freshest and most nutritious food possible (and who doesn’t?), skip packaged greens and opt for making salads out of fresh greens. You’ll ingest more nutrients, and you’ll support agriculture that’s better for wildlife and the environment. As Micheal Pollen writes, “How you and your family choose to spend your food money represents one of the most powerful votes you have.”

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Make Your Own Reusable Food Wrap

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Want to downsize your plastic use, but not sure where to begin? Plastic wrap (also called cling wrap, clingfilm, or plastic film depending where you live) is a great place to start. Keep reading to learn why and how to say goodbye to plastic wrap by making a simple, eco-friendly alternative.

Plastic Wrap May Contain Endocrine-Disrupting Chemicals

Plastic wrap is a cheap, easy, and convenient single-use plastic, and millions of Americans use it regularly. Have you noticed plastic wrap isn’t as clingy as it used to be? That’s not your imagination. More than a decade ago, manufacturers switched from using polyvinyl chloride (PVC) to low density polyethylene (LDPE) for household plastic wrap products because it’s considered safer.

The old plastic wrap made with PVC contained compounds called pthalates. When food was covered by plastic wrap for long periods or microwaved in it, pthalates leeched into food. That’s a problem because pthalates are endocrine disrupting chemicals that are linked with genital abnormalities in fetuses and neurodevelopmental problems in children. Moreover, in animal studies, they’ve been linked with early onset of puberty, low testosterone levels and sperm counts in males, and other hormonal and reproductive problems.

Breathing a sigh of relief that plastic wrap is no longer made out of PVC? Not so fast. Preliminary studies suggest LDPE may also leach a number of chemicals. More studies are needed. Moreover, the plastic wrap used in your grocery store deli and meat section isn’t the same plastic wrap you buy for home use. It’s called “food service film,” and it’s still made out of PVC. You’ll notice it’s clingier than the home product, which is a sign it contains a plasticizer.

While pthalates have been removed, some plastic wraps may contain a endocrine-disrupting chemical called diethylhexyl adipate (DEHA). DEHA is known to leech into foods, especially high-fat foods such as cheese and meats. DEHA has not been tested for its effects on humans, and it’s been linked to liver tumors in rats.

Plastic Wrap is Polluting the Oceans

When it comes to plastic wrap, the health of all ecosystems are at stake because single-use plastics are contributing to a what the Director for Ocean at UN Environment has deemed “a planetary crisis.”

About half of the 350 million tons of plastic produced globally every year are single-use plastics. Single-use plastics are:

  • Designed to be used once
  • Non-renewable
  • Non-recyclable
  • Non-biodegradable
  • Made of potentially toxic materials

When single-use plastics sit in landfills, they leak toxic chemicals into the groundwater. Worse, 32 percent of plastic packaging never makes it to a landfill or recycling plant. Instead, it flows into the oceans, where it causes devastating effects to ocean life.

We’ve gotten used to the convenience of single-use plastic, but in most cases, there are effective alternatives. For instance, you can say goodbye to plastic wrap forever by making reusable food wrap. Bonus: the process is simple and requires only a few supplies.

How to Make Your Reusable Food Wrap

Let’s get started!

Gather these supplies:

  • 100% cotton cloth
  • Pinking sheers (scissors that cut a zigzag edge to prevent fabric from fraying)
  • Beeswax beads (buy at a local craft store or online)
  • Baking sheet
  • Parchment paper
  • Kitchen tongs
  • Clothes hanger

Follow these simple steps:

  1. Wash, dry, and iron the fabric.
  2. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees Fahrenheit.
  3. Use the pinking sheers to cut the fabric into a few different sizes of squares and rectangles. Make sure each piece fits on the baking sheet.
  4. Line the baking sheet with parchment paper.
  5. Place a piece of fabric on the center of the baking sheet and sprinkle it evenly with beeswax beads.

  1. Bake in the oven until the beeswax is melted, usually about five minutes.
  2. Inspect the fabric. If any parts aren’t coated with wax, add more beads to that section and bake for a few more minutes.
  3. Remove the fabric from the oven using tongs.
  4. Hang the fabric on a clothes hanger for several minutes until the wax is dry.
  5. If any melted wax pooled on the baking sheet, place another piece of fabric on it to absorb it, and start the process again.
  6. Repeat until you’ve coated all of the fabric pieces in beeswax.

Congratulations!

You’ve made a durable, reusable alternative to plastic wrap. It should be stiff put bendable. Use it to cover bowls or containers, to wrap cheese in, or fold it up to use as a snack pouch. Wash it with gentle soap and cool water when needed. It should last several months. And at that point, you can repeat the process to re-wax it if desired. Celebrate! You’re keeping the questionable chemicals in plastic wrap away from your food and out of the waste stream.

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10 Nonconformists Who Could Change the Way You Think About Life

By

Do you love having your mind blown?

Me too.

I learned the word iconoclast in college, and I loved the word instantly. It describes a person who attacks cherished beliefs and institutions.

I was familiar with the concept. My dad wrote a column for a major newspaper for 26 years in which he delighted in attacking cherished beliefs and institutions. He received hate mail regularly, got a few death threats, and was sued by a local politician for libel. The lawsuit was thrown out in three courts. None of it seemed to bother my dad much. He said it was part of the job.

While most fathers may worry if their kids break rules, my dad worried if his daughters followed them too readily. My straight-A report cards caused him some stress.

He was proud of me, but he was a tireless advocate for people thinking for themselves, and he didn’t detect a high priority for that in the school system.

In the end, my dad’s values wore off on me because I’m nearly constantly seeking a state of cognitive dissonance. That’s the mental discomfort experienced when a person simultaneously holds two or more contradictory beliefs, ideas, or values.

Caution: New Ideas May Shake Your Worldview

Just as fish don’t realize they’re swimming in water because they’re immersed in it, we can lose sight of the peculiarities and injustices in the culture and systems we’re immersed in.

That’s why it’s important to pay attention to outside-the-box thinkers, especially during polarizing times. Here are a few original thinkers who have challenged and shaped my thinking over the past decades.

  1. Susun Weed

Who she is: An herbalist, author, and women’s health advocate

Why her work may shift your worldview: She articulates an empowering approach to health that she calls the Wise Woman Tradition, which focuses on nourishment, simple and easily accessible remedies, and honoring nature’s cycles. She’s critical of many popular alternative medical treatments, including essential oils, elimination diets, and cleanses.

A good introduction to her work: This article

  1. Katy Bowman

Who she is: A biomechanist and author

Why her work may shift your worldview: She explains how sedentary our society is and how it affects our bodies, our worldview, our nutrient levels, and most of our modern scientific research. She offers an antidote with an extensive library of exercise programs, books, interviews, and educational materials.

A good introduction to her work: This video

  1. Dr. Christiane Northrup

Who she is: A OBGYN, author, and women’s health advocate

Why her work may shift your worldview: She’s been a female pioneer in the male-dominated world of women’s health care for decades. She articulates an empowering view of health care that emphasizes the wisdom of women’s bodies and natural cycles and rhythms. She’s critical of many standard preventative medical tests and writes about normal and healthy but taboo female experiences, such as menstruation and menopause.

A good introduction to her work: This blog post

  1. Satish Kumar

Who he is: A philosopher, magazine editor, and university co-founder

Why his work may shift your worldview: He articulates a worldview that emphasizes slowing down, using your hands to make beautiful things, growing food, and syncing with natural cycles.

A good introduction to his work: This interview

  1. Charles Eisenstein

Who he is: An author and speaker who describes himself as a degrowth activist

Why his work may shift your worldview: He writes about the problems with our current cultural narrative and the need to develop a new story that reflects the “more beautiful world our hearts know is possible.” He’s real and vulnerable and displays an expansive knowledge of diverse subjects.

A good introduction to his work: This video

  1. Dr. Kelly Brogan

Who she is: A psychiatrist, author, and activist

Why her work may shift your worldview: She has an empowering view of mental health care and believes people have the power to heal even the most complicated of mental health conditions. She’s moved into alternative care but continues to write case studies for mainstream medical journals.

A good introduction to her work: This interview

  1. Diana Beresford Kroeger

Who she is: An author, medical biochemist, and botanist

Why her work may shift your worldview: She invites people to form a new relationship with nature by merging scientific knowledge with ancient spiritual wisdom.

A good introduction to her work: This interview

  1. Robin Wall Kimmerer

Who she is: A plant ecologist, author, and professor

Why her work may shift your worldview: As a member of the Potawatomi nation, she merges scientific knowledge with indigenous wisdom to offer innovative solutions to ecological problems. She moves beyond a conservation approach and embraces humans’ important role in healthy ecosystems.

A good introduction to her work: This interview

  1. Jeremy Narby

Who he is: An anthropologist and author

Why his work may shift your worldview: He went to the Peruvian Andes to study the Ashaninca Indians as an anthropologist with a doctorate from Stanford. What he experienced there profoundly changed his worldview, and it may shake yours too.

A good introduction his work: This interview

  1. Alfie Kohn

Who he is: An author and speaker

Why his work may shift your worldview: He’s critical of mainstream education’s fixation with competition, punishment, rewards, testing, and homework. He champions parenting and teaching without using rewards or punishments.

A good introduction to his work: This article

Which Noncomformists Have Shattered or Shaped Your Thinking?

I’d love to hear about it in the comments!

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[Photo credit: Powderruns]