Sunday, March 11, 2012

My going green story...

I feel like this is my "coming out" as a greener me story - maybe we need a name for it when people "come out" as green. Any ideas??


Regardless - here's my story:  A year ago if somebody had told me they ate only (or mostly) organic, I would have thought they were snobby hippies who were wasting money on a bunch of propaganda food. So what changed my opinion? Last year I ran into a client of mine at a party - she told me how she spent her day taking her 4th grade daughter to the doctor because just had her first period. (sorry for the TMI!) The point was though, her very young daughter's body had already matured very early. My first question to her was asking if her daughter felt strange being first in her class. To my complete surprise over half her daughters female classmates already had their first periods too! (getting real for a second, mine came along in my junior year of high school, which I realize is a little later, regardless though these girls were VERY young in my book to have this happen already) I asked my client what her doctor said and she told me his theory was: milk. MILK?! WHAT?! How could the delicious cold amazingly yummy with oreo's drink I'd loved my whole life cause a girls period to come earlier than it was supposed to. The answer: injected hormones. 
Of course the first thing I did when I came home from the party was get to the googling. 
Basically I found drinking organic milk has the following perks: (in order of importance to me!)
  • no artificial hormones (especially no rBGH*)
  • Organic cattle must spend the majority of their lives grazing in open pastures (USDA regulations)
  • Organic milk has about a 2 month shelf life (seriously!)
*rBGH is an additive in regular milk that has been linked to causing breast cancer, colon cancer, and prostate cancer in humans. This is so detrimental it has been banned in Canada, Japan, New Zealand, Australia, and the entire European Union. (completely grossed out that it's still in the US? = yes)

Here is a great article about this: http://greenliving.about.com/od/greenshopping/a/Organic-Milk.htm

I literally have not drank non-organic milk since. 

Green challenge: try organic milk - I don't think it tastes any different but I honestly did start feeling healthier right away (maybe it was mental, but mental health is important too!) OR even if you don't really care about hormones or happy cows think of the $$ savings with your milk never going bad!

If you try it - make sure you stop back and let us know what you thought!

See! Look how happy cow's can be...let's get more of those!




2 comments:

  1. Welcome to the world of organics, Katie and family! We have been drinking Organic milk since I became pregnant with Eleanor. It is better for many different reasons. We are about 80% organic in our household including products like organic and grass fed beef, free range chickens (from a farm about 10 miles from here), local organic fruits and vegetables, and much more. You should look into a CSA program, there are literally dozens in Iowa. We are the mecca of fresh, organic, local produce. After you're finished switching to organics, you need to throw out your microwave and eliminate all plastic!!!! Thats probably another blog....ha.

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  2. Yes - microwaves have been on my list for a while now. I'm also 100% positive I have never used a microwave that I didn't feel guilty about since I've met you Tiff, so I think we're halfway there!

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