How to Clean Fresh Produce

You may find that the more you research about the contamination of produce from pesticides, herbicides, bacteria and other dangerous substances, the more afraid you become! But don’t despair – you have many options to clean your fresh produce and make them safer to eat.

Here are some tip:

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Stop a Sunburn From Peeling and Itching… Naturally

A sunburn can be a nasty experience. A bad one can give you chills and a fever, not to mention terrible pain. A mild sunburn can still result in blistering, itching and peeling.

If you’ve accidentally stayed out in the sun too long, there are some things you can do that can help reduce itching and peeling. Most of these treatments are inexpensive and all of them are natural – you may even have some of them in your kitchen cabinets or pantry.

First, be careful with that burned skin – don’t use soap, washcloths, or do any scrubbing in the shower. Wash your hair upside-down under the bath faucet to avoid shampoo running over your sunburn. And when you get out of the shower or bath, pat your skin dry with a soft towel – don’t rub.

* Tea

Tea, green or black, has skin-soothing properties and has been known to stop relieve sunburn itch and prevent peeling. Black tea seems to work the best, or you could use a combination of green and black. Brew a quart or so of strong tea, pour it into a lukewarm bath, and soak.

* Baking Soda Bath

Baking soda can be very helpful in treating sunburn. Mix a cupful of baking soda into a lukewarm bath and let it soak your burned skin. Gently rinse the baking soda off with lukewarm water when you get out of the tub – baking soda residue can be itchy.

* Apple Cider Vinegar Bath

Smelly but effective, apple cider vinegar can work wonders for sunburned skin. You can soak in a lukewarm bath to which a cup or so of apple cider vinegar has been added. Or, you can mix vinegar and water into a spray bottle (1 part vinegar to 3 parts water) and spritz it onto your skin. Let your vinegar-treated skin air dry.

* Natural Oils: Coconut, Almond, Olive

When you get out of your bath, natural oils are a good choice for replacing your skin’s lost moisture. Pure coconut oil is solid at room temperature, but melts quickly in the hands and on the skin. Almond oil is said to be the closest to natural skin oil – sweet almond oil is considered the best. Olive oil is an ancient remedy against sun-dried skin, and is used extensively to moisten skin in the desert regions of the Middle East.

* Aloe Vera

Pure Aloe vera gel can be obtained directly from an Aloe plant. Simply slit a thick Aloe leaf lengthwise down the middle and scoop out the gel. You can use a knife to scrape the inside of the leaf in order to get all the gel out. Many stores sell Aloe vera gel, but make sure it’s pure gel – Aloe vera juice or lotions and skin products containing Aloe are not the same. Apply this ancient burn remedy liberally to sunburned skin that is clean and dry.

It’s World Breastfeeding Week – What’s The Emergency?

A mother breastfeeds in Ethiopia

This whole first week of August is World Breastfeeding Week. This year’s theme is “Breastfeeding – A Vital Emergency Response: Are You Ready?”

The theme reminds me of a family who was stranded in their car in the snow for over 9 days. They were a family of 3: Dad, Mom and an infant. I can’t remember exactly how old, but about 7-9 months old.

Anyway, that whole time, the Mom breastfed her baby and drank melted snow herself. As can be expected, the baby survived with nothing worse than a nappy rash (or maybe not even that, I’m not sure. Please post a comment and correct me if I’m wrong).

Had that baby been formula fed, she would have gotten terribly dehydrated. Her Mom would have had no choice but to give her plain water the whole time. Had that baby been formula-fed, this story would have had a more tragic ending (her Dad went on foot to try and find help but ended up lost and died).

This story is magnified in emergency situations of larger proportions: earthquakes, floods, tsunamis, famine….

As with any emergency, the key is to be prepared. This is why the World Breastfeeding Week’s Theme includes the question, “Are you ready?” “You” refers not only to mothers and their families. It also refers to:

- communities, to give appropriate support to breastfeeding mothers so they can continue to breastfeed should an emergency strike

- rescue workers, so they can reunite babies with their mothers and the breastfeeding relationship can resume

- emergency response groups, so they can meet the needs of babies and young children without accepting donations of infant formula and other breastmilk substitutes

- counselors, so they can help traumatized mothers cope with the situation and not adversely affect their breastfeeding

- breastfeeding mothers, so they can help babies who have lost their mothers – whether temporarily or permanently – by sharing their breastmilk

But there’s another side to this story.

The absence of breastfeeding very often leads to an emergency. It may not be an emergency that affects the whole community, but it certainly affects the child who is being deprived of breastfeeding, and the child’s family – both of whom live with the consequences of not breastfeeding.

These consequences include:

- getting sick more often and to a worse degree, than their breastfed peers

- being more likely to develop allergies

- losing IQ points

- having an increased likelihood of developing diseases such as cancers, diabetes, etc., in their adult life

In these two ways, breastfeeding truly is an emergency response.

If you’d like to find out more about World Breastfeeding Week and how you can help, visit www.worldbreastfeedingweek.org

What are you doing to support breastfeeding? Please share by posting a comment below.

PS: If you’re on Twitter and would like to help promote World Breastfeeding Week, you can do so by adding a Twibbon on your avatar. It’s super easy. Just go to http://twibbon.com/join/World-Breastfeeding-Week for the step-by-step instructions.

photo credit: babasteve