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| Adopting an Organic Lifestyle |

When most people think of organic products, many think of organic food and perhaps some beauty products made with natural ingredients. While organic products can often be slightly more expensive than mass produced ones; the personal and environmental benefits both in terms of health from consuming more natural and additive free products, together with supporting smaller scale and more environmentally friendly production methods, are leading to increasing popularity with consumers.

Organic Food
It has been scientifically proven that eating organically is healthier than eating conventional crops. Organic food has a higher level of nutrients and vitamins, and this of course can be a benefit to the consumer. In 1993 the European Community Regulation became effective - this ensures all food/products which are sold as organic have to be produced by registered and inspected suppliers who adhere to strict rules and guidelines.

There are however some ways in which we as consumers can source organic products locally. There has been an increase in health food supermarlets across the country recently, where you can buy good value produce grown within your local area direct from the supplier. All produce will have been grown, reared or produced by the stallholder and availability will vary according to the season guaranteeing freshness. As a purchaser you can be confident of the quality of the goods you are purchasing, and producers can get valuable feedback from their consumers.

Recycling
Recycling our rubbish is one simple way we can all contribute to the safety of our environment. Many local authorities have recently introduced recycling schemes, where householders can separate recyclable goods from other waste. Rubbish that can be recycled in this way includes newspapers and magazines, plastic cartons, cardboard packaging and tins. We can also still take advantage of local glass, clothing and paper banks at many supermarket car parks. However there is still a lot of organic waste, which accounts for the biggest percentage of our household rubbish, such as fruit and vegetable peelings, tea bags and coffee grounds which can easily be disposed of in a home compost bin, therefore producing top quality compost for your garden at no cost.

Organic Cleaning Products
Many of us may not think that the cleaning products we use in our homes could be dangerous, some chemicals can cause minor skin or eye irritations, but at worse the build up of some of these chemicals can be carcinogenic. With so many new products arriving on the market, there could be many hidden dangers which may not become apparent until years to come. We could therefore be unwittingly exposing our families to chemicals which may cause health problems some time in the future.

Organic Personal Care
Many chemicals which are in regular beauty products may actually do more harm than good - some of the harsh ingredients may even be toxic. Rather than helping your skin and hair, these chemicals can break down the skins’ cellular structure, accelerating the ageing process and causing problems such as eczema, acne, skin discoloration, lines and wrinkles. Chemicals in many hair products can damage hair follicles causing slowing of hair growth, even hair loss. The skin is our largest organ, and absorption of dangerous chemicals can cause untold problems both now and in the future. Chemicals can pass through the skin thus reaching the bloodstream, it is therefore important that we consider the risks involved when choosing our personal care products.

This is certainly an area that we should all be concerned about, and as such great care should be taken when selecting personal care products for ourselves and our families.

Babies and Children
It is often after the arrival of a baby that parents start thinking of leading a more organic lifestyle - initially this may involve something simple such as selecting a washing powder for more sensitive skins, but what else can we use to protect our new child. Nappy waste throughout the UK accounts for 4% of household waste, approximately 1 million tonnes per year - in the UK they discard 9 million soiled nappies every day. As you can see that is a lot of space using up landfill sites, especially considering that a disposable nappy takes from 200-500 years to decompose in a landfill site. We must also consider the implication on the environment during the manufacturing process of disposable nappies, 1 cup of crude oil is used in the production of 1 disposable nappy; crude oil is a non renewable source. In addition to these factors, it is also worth considering the health implications to your child when using disposable nappies as opposed to cotton ones. Super absorbent disposable nappies may keep your baby drier, but should still be changed as regularly as a cotton nappy. Nappy rash is actually caused by exposure to germs not moisture.

New mothers are under increasing pressure to breastfeed their new born, as opposed to using formula milk products. We are all told ‘breast is best’ giving our babies all the necessary antibodies and protection needed in those vital early stages of our child’s’ lives, it is also claimed that breastfeeding has health benefits for the mother, offering protection from pre-menopausal and ovarian cancer. A majority of mothers find breast feeding a rewarding and enriching experience and do not encounter any problems, unfortunately for some women this is not the case, some find it difficult, some too exhausting and others simply don’t want to. However, it is believed that even if you can breastfeed for the first few days of your baby’s’ life, this alone can pass on all your antibodies to protect your infant. If however you do not want to breastfeed, there is an alternative to standard infant formula available on the market. Organic baby formula is now available; some are suitable for diabetics or those requiring a wheat, gluten or yeast free diet.

Organic Clothing
One area of leading an organic lifestyle which could easily be overlooked could be the clothes we wear. You may wonder how clothing could be organic. The difference is in the materials used. Organic clothes can be manufactured from cotton, hemp, recycled polyester fleece, organically dyed wool, linen and other environmentally sound produce. Cotton is one of the most intensely farmed crops in the world, using chemicals and pollutants in both the growing of crops, and the bleaching and treating during the manufacturing process. Hemp is a very rapid growing crop which replaces more nutrients into the soil than it uses when growing; this material is renowned for its strength and hard wearing properties. A new development is PET fleece, this is manufactured from recycled plastic drinks bottles, bottles are melted down to liquid form, and then spun into fine strands which are then used to weave into a thermal fleece fabric. This material also takes less energy to wash and dry than other fabrics. The type of dye used to treat clothing must also be considered, many organic dyes and hues can be used not only minimizing damage to the environment, but being kinder to our skin. It is also worth considering the type of bed linen and towels we use, www.greenfibres.com has a wide range of clothing and home accessories, they even offer a wedding list service.

Organic Design
Leading an organic lifestyle can even extend to the type of house we live in, the building itself, the furniture we use, the way we garden, heat our homes, even the way we flush our toilets.

Some houses are now being built in using sustainable materials, in the traditional way, this can involve using straw, car tyres, sustainable and recycled timber, even compressed paper blocks. Using locally sourced materials is always preferable reducing transport also. The way we heat our homes is also important, there are simple steps we can all take to reduce the amount of energy we can use for this purpose from insulation and double glazing to lagging water pipes- even having thicker curtains can make a difference.

Hot water can be produced using solar panels on the roof, however the cost of the installation can be expensive and it can take a few years for a panel to ‘pay for itself’. Solar bulbs will save money when lighting your home, and there are many energy saving steps we can take around the home, from simply remembering to turn off lights, shut doors, defrost the freezer regularly, use the tumble drier less, to name but a few. One maybe less appealing option is a composting toilet which flushes like a normal toilet, but all solid waste ends up in a tank to be eaten by worms. The tank also needs pumping every 6 months.

And finally there is the way we garden to be considered, from making our own compost as discussed earlier, to storing rain water in a water butt, to companion planting to cut down use of pesticides.

Article reference by Pages4.women.com.