This Spring, instead of artificial dyes, decorate with nature's own colors using simple ingredients from your kitchen.
Here's how:
1 Boil eggs, cool and refrigerate until ready to dye.
2 Add 4 cups chopped fresh or frozen fruit or veggies (or 1-3 TB spice) to 4 cups water and 2 TB vinegar.
3 Bring to a boil, then simmer 15-30 minutes. Strain and cool to just warm.
4 Soak eggs 5-10 minutes in your dye (the longer, the darker), then dry on a paper towel.
5 Store dyed eggs in the fridge if you plan to eat them.
Pink/Red
cranberries (or cranberry
There are no longer enough child safety seats to accommodate the increasing number of obese American children, researchers report.
Reversing the trend of childhood obesity could take years, they say, so the quicker solution is better-designed safety seats.
"The childhood obesity trend is on the rise and has been for decades," said lead researcher Lara Trifiletti, an assistant professor of pediatrics at the Ohio State University and the Center for Injury Research and Policy, part of the Columbus Children's Research Institute at Columbus Children's Hospital.
"It's going
Read moreWASHINGTON - Some leading public-health experts want education officials to ban certain soft drinks from public schools until they're proved safe and free of the cancer-causing chemical benzene. "It is irresponsible to provide to schoolchildren products that are unhealthy and may contain a carcinogen," they said in a letter sent last week to state education officials.
Benzene is a common industrial chemical that the Environmental Protection Agency classifies as a human carcinogen. Long-term exposure can cause leukemia and other blood cancers, according to the Centers for Read more
Top Republican so-called leaders and House Speaker Dennis Hastert (R-IL) children to Big Pharma for a paltry $4 bucks a pop. That's the additional cost to produce a safe vaccine, a vaccine minus the mercury-based preservative thimerosal. Mercury is a deadly neurotoxin that has long been known to cause serious learning disabilities, autism, and death.
According to the California Public Schools Autism Prevalence Report for the School Years 1992-2003, the increase in autism prevalence is systemic across the entire United States "and should be an urgent public health concern- The
Read moreFOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
FEBRUARY 28, 2006
9:08 AM
CONTACT: Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER)
Chas Offutt (202) 265-7337
EPA Okays Chemical Testing On Fetal Tissue
Mysterious Language Change Buried within Final Human Subject Testing Rule WASHINGTON - February 28 - Without any public notice, the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency has rewritten its proposed rule on human experiments to authorize chemical testing on fetal tissue, according to Public Employees for Environmental Responsibility (PEER). The change will allow
Dear Umbra,
I am pregnant and wondering if you know of any websites or resources for setting up a nursery -- for green furniture, bedding, and mattresses. We're painting the nursery with low-VOC paint and looking for low-VOC carpeting, and we gratefully accept used toys and clothes from friends and family.
Janine Olsen
Pine Brook, N.J.
Dearest Janine,
Happy to advise, based on a bit of research I've done for you in particular, but also what I've learned over the years about furniture and room finishes, as they are known.
As you know
Read moreSoon "hospital food" may no longer mean the worst American factory-farmed cuisine has to offer. A handful of hospitals around the country are starting to put hormone-free meats, rBGH-free milk, and organic veggies on their menus. For years, the best advice of health-care professionals hasn't been reflected in the typical hospital menu. But now, hospitals "are increasingly seeing food as a treatment issue and not necessarily as a cost center," according to Scott Exo, director of a group working with hospitals to green up their menus. Patients at the Good Shepherd Medical Center in rural
Read moreIt's one thing to ban the sale of soda, candy and potato chips in school lunch lines.
But what happens when a local school district tries to outlaw selling -- or even giving away -- popular high-fat, sugar-rich foods 24 hours a day, seven days a week, on all campuses?
Santa Clara Unified School District trustees are about to find out.
They are considering a policy that would bar birthday cupcakes in class, fatty hot dogs at sporting events and PTA bake sales. Candy and cookie-dough fundraisers would be verboten. And for those who get thirsty, think water, juice and low
Read moreParents strive to protect kids from everyday chemical hazards There may be no more powerful force for social change in the world than worried parents. And they're turning their attention to lead in lunchboxes, bisphenol A in plastic, and other eco-nasties in their children's daily lives, switching to greener-seeming products -- like cloth totes and wax-paper wrappers for school lunches -- and sharing information. Breeders' buying power can transform the market: green goods retailer Seventh Generation has seen double-digit growth in sales for the past five years, which the company
Read moreAnother Senator making news today is Iowa Democrat Tom Harkin .
As a general proposition, Senator Harkin is probably considered to be an advocate for U.S. farmers, particularly Midwestern producers.
However, in an interesting twist, Sen. Harkin has taken on the important issue of obesity, a subject that has often been leveraged by groups and organizations who are seeking major reforms to U.S. farm policy.
Noting that the current farm bill structure does not provide the same subsidization mechanisms for fruits and vegetables, foods that are highly recommended in the U.S
Read more