Monday, April 26, 2010
Doing right by this beautiful, embattled planet we call home won't be a chore if you remember why you're doing it. Rinsing out gunky yogurt containers for recycling, carting old banana peels and mushy coffee grounds to the compost pile and turning off the tap while you brush your teeth can be a little inconvenient, but they sure make us feel better.
Even better: When you do this, sometimes Mother Nature loves you right back with an extra, unexpected health benefit, a boost for your emotional well-being or a moment of deep pleasure. Check out these four easy ways to be an environmental activist this spring - and score some instant health gratification:
1. SAY "NO THANKS" TO PAPER RECEIPTS. Punching the "no" button at self-serve gas pumps and ATM machines cuts down on wallet clutter and might save a sapling or two. One group estimates that if everyone passed up those ATM slips, we'd conserve 2 billion feet of paper, enough to circle the Earth 15 times. But it's worth much more to your health!
What's in it for you: New research from the Warner Babcock Institute for Green Chemistry in Wilmington, Mass., suggests that the carbonless copy paper and thermal-imaging paper used for most receipts these days is dusted with a thin film of bisphenol-A. BPA is the estrogen-mimicking chemical linked recently to diabetes, heart disease and birth defects - the one that prompted the reformulation of the plastics in baby bottles and water bottles last year.
Skip the receipts, and you'll keep it off your hands and out of your body. If you don't wash your hands after getting a receipt, and then you touch food, you'll absorb much more BPA than you would if you came in contact with it any other way. If you're breast-feeding, or even handling the food for little ones in a restaurant, the kids will get beaucoup badness.
2. GO RED-MEAT FREE. The environmental costs of raising livestock are huge: One estimate suggests that producing just 2 pounds of beef creates more greenhouse-gas emissions and other pollutants than driving your car for three hours and leaving the lights on at home. The calculation doesn't even include the cost of transporting the beef to your local supermarket and to your house.
What's in it for you: Lower risk for heart disease, diabetes, colon cancer. Studies link all three of these major agers - and let's face it, big killers - to regular consumption of red meat. Switch to fish, skinless chicken or turkey, or go vegetarian with something like a spicy bean chili, and you'll have better sex and fewer wrinkles, too.
3. GET OUTSIDE MORE. Boost your connection to Mother Nature by visiting her more. You'll feel more inspired to protect the Earth. While more families are choosing inexpensive fun such as hiking, biking and camping - which is great - there's room for more.
Plenty of kids are spending less and less time outdoors for daily fun, and more and more time indoors watching TV or playing video games.
What's in it for you: Getting up close and personal with the great outdoors lowers blood pressure and boosts mood. Kids who get outdoors regularly are less stressed and are at lower risk for obesity, and even have less asthma. In one study, kids with attention-deficit hyperactivity disorder had better focus and longer attention spans after playing outdoors.
4. START AN ORGANIC GARDEN. Skip the killer-chemical sprays and fertilizers. Going natural in your yard and garden keeps your local groundwater cleaner and makes your yard a haven for birds and insects. These include important native bees that, new research shows, play an important role in getting crops like tomatoes, watermelon and squash pollinated (sometimes, they work harder than the honeybees trucked in to do the pollinating!).
What's in it for you: You get gorgeous flowers, great-tasting veggies - and a toned body. Studies show that gardeners get at least 30 minutes of exercise per day, report Kansas State University researchers, and with all the digging, raking and weeding, you might just work a wider range of muscles than the latest aerobics class.
The You Docs - Mehmet Oz and Mike Roizen - are authors of "You: On a Diet." "The Dr. Oz Show" airs at 11 a.m. and 8 p.m. weekdays on Channel 7.2. To submit questions, go to www.RealAge.com.