Juice Please Mama? Hold the Arsenic.

I know it's a point of contention among many mothers of toddlers and preschoolers, but I do allow my children to drink juice. Usually I mix it about 3 parts water to 1 part juice and I use organic cranberry apple juice (100% juice) most of the time. I was concerned when both Dr. Oz and Consumer Reports independently confirmed that they found high levels of arsenic in apple and grape juice. Since arsenic levels aren't regulated in juice like they are in bottled water (insert brain explosion here), apparently no one was aware of this until just this fall.

Initially, our friends at the FDA were defensive and called Dr. Oz irresponsible, but since the Consumer Reports confirmation of the findings that much of the arsenic was inorganic (from pesticides rather than just naturally occurring in the earth) they seem to have taken a different tone.

Ever since this story broke, I've been kind of... ignoring it. The brand of juice I buy (Trader Joe's organic) wasn't listed on their tests. So I was just sort of thinking that since I buy organic, this whole thing wouldn't really... affect us. Ignorance is bliss right? Unfortunately, the organic brands tested were as bad as the regular ones. I keep thinking of the loved ones (one child, one adult) who are either fighting cancer now or are in remission and I think, maybe I should take the time to let the juice producer know that I am concerned. If not me, then who? I wrote this little message to the fine folks at Trader Joe's:

I am a big fan of Trader Joe's and I appreciate corporate policies like no GMOs in your foods. I am a regular purchaser of the organic cranberry apple juice and was very concerned after the recent reports about arsenic levels in apple and grape juice. I drink this juice all of the time and give it to my twin 2 year olds as well. I'd like to know the country you source the juice from (cranberry, apple, and aronia) and also what internal procedures you are putting in place to avoid high arsenic levels in your juice products. I hope to hear that you are taking steps to avoid arsenic contamination in your juice products and that you will lead the industry to a better way.

What brands of juice do you all purchase? Do you plan to change your buying habits based on these reports? I think that sadly I will have to stop buying my favorite beverage unless we get news back that things are changing. 

Holiday Backslide

As the holidays arrive, a lot of my food standards tend to relax a bit. I don't worry so much about organic and local. I even relax about words like "hydrogenated" and "high fructose corn syrup" and those ingredient lists that are eight miles long. I let a few more BPA cans into my world. It's so easy, isn't it? Just to go back to what (seemingly) everyone else is doing? I need to constantly read and learn about health and environmental issues in order to keep my resolve firm.

So now that a super fun Thanksgiving holiday is coming to a close, I thought I'd do a little reminder of why we choose to eat healthy, organic, local foods whenever possible. Here's some helpful links to keep your resolve firm too:

Top 10 Reasons to Eat Organic

Why Buy Local?

Who's Afraid of GMO's?

How to Eat Your Vegetables Without Trying

I'm so proud of my kids for loving fruit and sometimes even turning down desserts because they are full of healthy food. I feel like we are on the right track with teaching them to eat real food. These life food lessons only work if we are consistent with them though. So from now until Christmas and beyond, I'll be back to focusing on organic and local foods. Simple ingredient lists that are short with words that I can read. Maybe instead of allowing our family habits to be influenced negatively this holiday season, we could influence others in a positive way. Let's make that part of our Christmas traditions, shall we?

Tapped Out

I just had the opportunity to finally watch the documentary film "Tapped". I've been meaning to watch it for some time, but hadn't had the opportunity until this week. If you, like me, have somehow managed to miss this one so far, check it out soon! You can even watch it instantly on Netflix. Some of the issues I was aware of, but a lot of the information was brand new to me. For instance, I knew that buying bottled water in plastic bottles was expensive and wasteful, but I always figured if I recycle the bottle it wasn't "so" bad. I couldn't have been more wrong. Here are some other fun facts about "harmless" bottled water:

• Plastic leaches chemicals into the water. Not every single time, but often enough that I don't want to let my kids drink it. Oh and it's worse if you let the bottles get hot in your car. Guess who's been letting the kids drink out of her plastic water bottles all week (on vacation, in the heat, at the beach)? That would be me. /sigh/

• Drinking bottled water puts a strain on other people's water supplies. Sometimes, people in rural areas are affected. Sometimes urban. In drought conditions, bottling companies will still pump thousands of gallons of water out of the ground. Often, the local community is not compensated for this loss of resource. Having grown up in a rural area, I imagined how I would feel if our well ran dry because of a big corporation sucking up all of the ground water. I'd be pretty ticked. If I wouldn't like it, I don't think I should be contributing to it happening to others. 

• Disposable, one-use, plastic bottles are incredibly wasteful. Particularly for something that comes right out of the tap for much less money. The amount of resources and energy used to create the bottles, transport them, and hopefully recycle them is insane. I want my kids and eventually my grandkids to have clean water. Therefore, I need to preserve our resources now. I need to set a good example. This includes setting an example of preservation rather than waste. 

• Bottled water quality is not better than tap. If you are lucky, it will be equal to tap water, in that it will actually be (purified) tap water (think Aquafina and Dasani). If you are not lucky, it is not regulated as stringently (or sometimes at all) as tap water. This mean that we are paying a premium for a substandard product. 

• Nestle might actually be an evil corporation. As if Nestle's activities in the formula market weren't disturbing enough, they are also finding a way to harm communities here in the United States by removing local ground water (even during severe droughts) to sell elsewhere.

The thing is, this is something that each of us has the power to change. It's simple. Just stop buying and drinking bottled water. Drink the water out of your tap. If you need it to go, take it in a reuseable bottle (make sure your reuseable bottle is BPA free!). If you don't like the taste of your tap water, try attaching a water filter to the faucet. I've found that those make a world of difference in the taste of our tap water at home.

Would you be willing to give up bottled water to make a positive change for the earth and your family's health?