Look, going green doesn’t mean giving up what you love. Your organic fruits and vegetables can be even tastier, your house can be cleaner than ever and you can still have your cupcakes and eat them too! Next week I will give away an organic “sweet” treat each weekday to show you just how fun going green can be. And we all like to have fun.

Monday: One dozen sweet organic cupcakes to start your week off right!

Tuesday: Fabulous organic bouquet of flowers to brighten up the week - VOC free air freshener.

Wednesday: Mouthwatering organic pears from Harry and David. Delicious!

Thursday: A Shaklee Get Clean Kit and signed copy of  my book, Green Goes with Everything. After all I do use these cleaners!

Friday: Fair Trade Friday to kick off the weekend with a chocolate bar collection (don’t forget to share).

This sweet giveaway spree begins October 17, 2011 and ends October 21, 2011. Maximum number of entries possible is four per person for the entire week. Each entry is assigned a number and randomly drawn using random.org for each prize.

Required Entry:

Take the body burden quiz and leave a comment on Twitter with your score. Yes, you need to have a Twitter account!

Additional but optional entries:

1.  Follow @sloanbarnett on Twitter and let me know you’re doing so by sending me a tweet!

2.  Tweet the following:

@SloanBarnett is giving away something “sweet “each day this week http://ow.ly/6Z08w  PLS RT

3. Like Green Goes With Everything on Facebook and leave a comment tagging me on your page telling your friends or simply say hello on the Facebook wall!

Each day we will randomly pick one lucky winner and announce this winner on Twitter but if you aren’t following @SloanBarnett I won’t be able to direct message you if you win!

Official Rules: There is no purchase necessary to enter but you must have a Twitter account, be a U.S. Resident and 18 years of age or older.  Maximum number of entries possible per person  for the week is four based on mandatory entries and optional entries. Winners will be selected using random.org and notified within 48 hours and have 7 days to reply or a new winner will be chosen.  Should a  person randomly be selected twice a new winner will be drawn, one prize per person. Prizes will be ordered and mailed to the announced winners within one week of sweepstakes ending. Void Where Prohibited by Law.

Please see disclaimer, privacy and legal links at the bottom of this page for further information.

Image Credit: Harry and David, Divine Cupcake, Organic Bouquet and the Shaklee Corporation

Remember what your mom always told you? Scrub your hands before dinner, right? She certainly didn’t say, “Make sure you slather on plenty of antibacterial gel.” Well, she had it right, because washing with plain soap and water is just as effective as using antibacterial soaps and sanitizers.

I know, I know. It’s almost impossible to turn around without bumping into anti-bacterial hand soaps, hand sanitizer gels, wipes, deodorants and toothpastes these days. The problem is that the most common ingredient in these products is Triclosan. Triclosan is an antimicrobial pesticide which has been shown to cause hormone disruption, allergies, asthma and eczema. If this weren’t troubling enough, it breaks down rapidly in warm chlorinated water — that’s right, precisely what you use when washing your hands — to form toxic chemicals, including chloroform. Just this year, the Physicians for Social Responsibility called on the EPA to ban Triclosan, stating that there are safer alternatives that are equally effective.

Read more about staying healthy the safe way over at the Huffington Post.

Would you believe me if I told you even your unborn child has toxins flowing through her blood? It’s scary, but true. More than 200 toxic chemicals were identified in the umbilical cord blood of unborn babies in a groundbreaking study by the Environmental Working Group.

Most Americans, including children, have dozens of pesticides and other toxic compounds in their bodies, many of them linked to health threats. A source of many of these toxins? Common, every day, run of the mill consumer products. There’s no polite way of saying this: Your body is a landfill for a mind-boggling array of toxic chemicals. So is mine. So is your child’s.

Read more from my guest post over at the Huffington Post on what your Body Burden is and I promise you’ll be shocked!

Think your home is safe? Think again! More than 80,000 chemicals can be found in the products we eat, spray in the air and use everyday in our homes. How many of these chemicals have been tested for their toxic effects? The answer is shocking: only a fraction.

It turns out that the pollution inside our homes is worse than outside. Your home may smell clean and feel safe when it’s actually filled with toxins from cleaners, paint, tap water, furniture and more.

Wondering where these hidden hazards are coming from? The truth is that you’re most likely carrying many of them home in your shopping bag. Your family is unknowingly exposed to toxic chemicals every day because there is virtually no regulation of chemicals used in most consumer products in the U.S. — even those meant for children.

So how are you supposed to protect your family? Stick with me for the next 30 days to learn how these chemicals affect your body and how you can avoid them in easy ways that aren’t going to cost you money or convenience.

Read more about the top 10 toxic chemicals that could be making you sick over at the Huffington Post where I’m guest posting for the month of October on ways you can increase your Healthy Home IQ.

Who could have missed the cow with the dollar bills hanging out of his mouth on the cover of the business section last weekend? Cute? Yes. But the message was a serious downer. It turns out the economy is making us all second-guess every purchase we make—including what we eat. Nielsen Company, a market research firm, reported that organic food sales rose only 4 percent in the four week period ending October 4^th, compared to 20 percent a year in recent years. What’s keeping shoppers from purchasing organic food? Cost. No question. And who can blame them? But let’s understand why and what we can do about it. Organic food usually will cost at least 50 percent more than conventionally grown food and sometimes much more than that. There are several reasons, some of them pretty surprising.

First, organic food is more expensive to produce. Without cheap fertilizers and pesticides, farmers have to do a lot more manual labor, and people are much more expensive than petrochemicals. Additionally, organic farming operations aren’t big enough to achieve economies of scale.

Secondly, demand has outstripped supply—there simply are not enough people growing and producing organic ingredients. And if you recall from your economics class, when supply is greater than demand, prices are higher.

And finally, there is the cost of farm subsidies. Every year the U.S. government pays many conventional farmers—including many giant mid-western agricultural corporations—billions of dollars in subsidies. One effect of these subsidies is that the price of many products in your supermarket, especially meat, is lower than it would be without these subsidies. So when you look at the cost of, say, a pot roast, you’ll need to add in the tax dollars you paid April 15 to get a clue about the real price of that piece of conventionally raised meat.

But I won’t let you give up on the health of your family. You do not need to give up on organic—just curtail your organic spending and focus on the area where you get the biggest bang for your buck. Stick with these strategies and you will soon see your organic dollar stretching farther while you keep your family healthier.

- Buy Smart: The Environmental Working Group found that you can reduce your pesticide intake by 90 percent if you ate only organic versions of the following produce: peaches, apples, sweet bell peppers, celery, nectarines, strawberries, cherries, pears, imported grapes, spinach, lettuce, and potatoes.

- Shop Around: Pricing for organic foods is sometimes…well, let’s just call it whimsical. So may different retail outlets are selling organic products these days that there are bargains available if you just take the time to look for them.

- Buy Local: Many supermarkets feature locally grown vegetables, fruits, and meat in season and there are more and more farmers’ markets every year. Foods in season tend to be cheaper, because they’re abundant then (it’s that supply and demand thing again).

- Join a Co-op: In many cities, there are full-service natural foods supermarkets that also function as co-ops. That means when you join you get an automatic discount on everything you buy (sometimes on specific days of the week).

- Grow Your Own: Is there a corner in your yard, or some section of your apartment balcony, that gets sun most of the day? Well, farm it! Seriously, you’d be amazed at how much you can grow in a tiny space. In a box roughly two feet square, you can grow enough mixed salad greens to keep you going for months!

A few years ago, USA Today exposed the alarmingly unhealthy air quality near many of our country’s schools. Of the 95 locations in 30 states tested by scientists at Johns Hopkins University and the University of Maryland, at least seven, the article concluded, exhibited “pollution at levels that could make people sick or significantly increase their risk of cancer if they were exposed to the chemicals for long periods.” It also rightly reminded us, “Even small amounts of toxic chemicals can do irreparable harm to children, who breathe more air per pound than adults do, and whose bodies process chemicals differently.”

If you think your child is safe because his or her classroom is not located near a steel plant like the one in Midland, Pennsylvania, that showed some of the most threatening results, consider this: Some of the nation’s affluent suburbs tested positive for benzene, a toxic chemical often found in automobile exhaust. In other words, no area is safe from air pollution.

All of this information is enough to make any protective parent want to go out and buy oxygen masks. After all, there’s not much we can do to protect our children from the air at school or anywhere else for that matter, right? Wrong.

We should all be asking our educators an important question: Where are the concerns for indoor air pollution, which schools can actually control?

As I mention in my book Green Goes with Everything, due to items we innocently introduce into our homes, and, incidentally our schools (think paint, cleaning products, desks, and carpets), the air inside is two to five times worse than outside, according to the EPA. And we spend nearly 90 percent of our time indoors! So, while our kids are sitting at their desks attempting to get an education, they are breathing in toxins released not by a steel factory but by things that might be sprayed on their desks or hung in front of the windows.

We should demand that our schools make the necessary–and surprisingly easy–changes to ensure that all children, and let’s not forget the teachers, breathe easier.

Awhile back the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention launched a startling study announcing that the number of children with food allergies has increased 18% in the last decade. In 2007, 3 million children had food allergies with about 9,500 of these cases resulting in hospitalization. And this increase is not because there is greater awareness–doctors actually believe that the increase is “real” which means that there must be something about the way we live that is causing this increase.

But what really stopped me in my tracks was that children with food allergies are two to four times as likely to have related conditions such as asthma or other allergies. And guess whose very own children have nut allergies AND asthma….

“My two oldest children are both allergic to nuts. So are a rapidly growing number of kids. I never knew anyone with a peanut allergy when I was growing up. And yet, for children under five, the rate of peanut allergies doubled between 1997 and 2002. And the median age at which the first reaction to a nut allergy occurs is getting younger; the most recent research says it’s appearing at fourteen months. Despite many studies, no one knows why this is happening. Here’s what I know. My third child, who was raised in a non-toxic home, eating only organic formula and food, recently tested allergy free. Look, I can’t be certain that our new lifestyle is the reason this baby is allergy free, but it sure does make you think.”

So the real mystery here is why? There are many theories out there about why food allergies are on the rise in children. “Food allergies can be genetic; however, I believe that the increased prevalence of genetically-modified food may have significantly contributed to the growing rate of food allergies in children,” says Dr. Alan Greene, a pediatrician at Stanford University and author of Raising Baby Green. “It is possible that the addition of genes in our food can cause new
allergens to emerge, causing allergic reactions in susceptible individuals, especially children. Exposures to other chemicals could also be contributing, as well as not getting enough of certain
healthy foods. In fact, mounting evidence suggests a mother’s habits while pregnant can affect whether or not her children will develop allergies.”

A growing number of experts agree with these existing theories. But until we figure it out, what is there to do? Not much except to feed your children the cleanest nutrition possible, keep your child away from the culprits, and never leave home without your EpiPen.

Earlier this week I posted an open letter to President-elect and Mrs. Obama offering to help truly “green” the White House–not just an audit of energy and water efficiency but also a focus on optimum First Family health. Now I’d like you to join me in crafting a comprehensive plan on how to do it. 



It was your thoughtful responses and recommendations that gave me the idea to make this a joint effort. I love iconlady’s idea of setting aside some Pennsylvania Avenue lawn for organic gardens, having Malia and Sasha help raise fresh organic fruits and vegetables, and leveraging the media coverage to inspire schools and neighborhoods to do the same. And how about pcuvie’s idea of creating some vegetarian State Dinners and evaluating the current use of solar power? That’s a good one too. You all reminded me that through our ideas and actions we are always stronger together than we are alone, and that the best way for me to be of service to the First Family, and our country, is to represent all of us as a unified voice for greener, cleaner living.

So, consider this our greening petition or call to action. Add your ideas here on how to optimize the health of the First Family, and consequently set the stage for healthier living across the country. Maybe you have some great ideas you’ve tried at home or perhaps some suggestions you’ve read about but didn’t get around to implementing. Think old, big, white house built in the late 1700s, and reconstructed in the 1800s and a large staff ready and willing to make all necessary changes, setting the perfect example for the World. I will include your recommendations in the proposal I plan to present to the White House.

I hope you are as excited about this as I am. I know that together we can make a big difference.

Sincerely,
Sloan Barnett

Dear President-elect and Mrs. Obama:

I know that the greening of the White House is at the top of your agenda and that you plan to meet in the near future with the chief usher to evaluate its efficiency. But today “green” has a new broader definition that extends beyond maximizing a household’s energy and water performance–it’s about the health of our families. As you move into your new residence, this is your chance to create the safest environment for you and your family and to set an example for the rest of the country to do the same.

In your acceptance speech you called for a new spirit of patriotism and responsibility, where, as you so eloquently put it, “each of us resolves to pitch in and work harder and look after not only ourselves but each other.” Like most Americans,

I took those words to heart. So, as you enter the White House I’m stepping forward to look after you and your family the best way I know how: by offering to help you to truly green the White House.

Why look to me for green guidance, you ask? Because I wrote the book on it. I’m the author of the New York Times bestseller Green Goes with Everything: Simpler Steps to a Healthier Life and Cleaner Planet. I’m also, like you, a parent of a child with asthma, and have done years of research to make certain that my home is the safest, greenest, cleanest place possible for my child.

So, while you address other more imminently critical issues of “green”–as in the Wall Street and auto industry bailouts–I would like to help you by taking a close look at all the consumer products, food and furnishings that will be moving into the White House. I can, at a minimum, ensure that your household cleaning products don’t contain toxins that could exacerbate–or perhaps even be a cause of–Malia’s asthma, and, at a maximum, make sure that your new hypoallergenic puppy isn’t rolling around on carpets that are off-gassing petrochemicals. And of course we could have a peek in the bathroom because even if you don’t have time to evaluate the ingredients in your shampoo, I’m sure the last thing you want to do before negotiating peace in the Middle East is wash your hair with synthetic chemicals. That’s no way to stay on top of your game.

I know that you have more than enough daunting tasks ahead of you right now. But greening you home is much easier than it sounds, and the best time to turn over a new green leaf is when you move into a residence. So, consider me at your service. Give me a call and I’ll drop over anytime for a free greening consultation. If you don’t have the time right now, just point your chief usher to this blog for the next two weeks where I will be offering guidelines to clean–and green–up Washington, and America, from the White House on up. All this, without putting a dent in your budget or sacrificing performance and convenience. After all, as evidenced by your very exciting win, change starts at home.

Sincerely, Sloan Barnett