Tag Archives: Grocery Store


Getting to Know a Farmer is Good for Your Health

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As a dental practice management consultant, I have learned from talking to dentists about the benefits of a healthy, all-natural diet in order to prevent tooth and gum disease, and to minimize visits to the doctor’s office. If you are interested in making changes to your diet to improve your health, you might want to contemplate the benefits of eating all-natural, organic foods.

 

A variety of locations offer organic food and produce, giving you options and the opportunity to comparison shop for the best prices. Organic food can be found in grocery stores, natural and organic food stores, by using online retailers and at your local farmers market. Health benefits aside, when you buy organic produce at a farmers’ market or at a grocery store, you are buying directly from the source, which provides assistance to smaller-scale farmers who might have gone out of business had they not made the switch to organic farming.

 

One reason many farmers have switched to organic farming is because people have educated themselves about the health and environmental dangers pesticides and chemicals present when sprayed on the produce that they eventually purchase and consume. This concern has led to a soaring demand for organic products. In the beginning, farmers making the transition to organic production do take a large risk as well as a hit to their financial books, but when you buy their organic products, they receive the full profit. In a sense, you are helping them helping you to better health and a cleaner environment. Everybody wins.

 

Like many dentists of the past who were initially uncomfortable with dental advertising, but have discovered the benefits of doing so today, farmers have become comfortable about marketing their organic products by placing ads in local newspapers and setting up their own websites to alert returning and potential customers of the time and location where they will be offering their produce for sale. In addition to farmers’ markets, many farmers set up stands on the side of the road, and other farmers invite customers to visit their farms directly to purchase fresh organic fruits and vegetables. With such simple access, it’s worth a visit to a farmers’ market or a short drive to a farm to support your local organic farmers and get healthy fare in return. By switching to an organic diet, which even dentists include in their dental marketing ideas, you are choosing a healthier body, improved mental awareness and, generally, a happier life. 

 

 

 

What Do You Do With All Of Your One Use Plastic Bags

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It is time for BYOB! Yes, bring your own shopping bag!  As we continue our path through a busy 2010, it’s outrageous to think about the amount of purchasing we historically carry out here in America and world-wide. Whether it’s numerous visits to the grocery store as we keep our kitchen’s stocked for magnificent meals and tasty goodies or those sometimes dreaded (yet skillful) “6 bags on each arm” walks through the neighborhood shopping mall, it all adds up to a whole lot of unnecessary garbage.  Probably the most blatant examples of this waste is disposable grocery bags.

An estimated 100 billion plastic shopping bags are used each year within the USA, according to the Wall-Street Journal.  Most plastic bags wind up in landfills and the rest time and again end up in rivers, ponds, lakes, streams or in the ocean, where animals can swallow or become entangled in them.  Considering the number of shopping bags that are consumed and wasted each year, the time is now to spread the word in regards to the positive benefits of eco reusable shopping bags.  After all, the majority of us desire to give back to our families, friends and communities as often as possible.

Creating a BYOB strategy in our individual shopping habits is a simple way to do exactly that.  If we could elevate awareness presently, the positive outcome for our environment is immeasurable for 2010 and well into the future.  Several cities have already made gradual but significant advancement in endorsing the usage of eco friendly shopping bags   in recent years.  Encouraging consumers with plastic and paper bag bans, discounts at the register for reusable bag usage and tax motivations are a few to speak of.

Right here in America, the San Jose City Council recently passed among the nation’s strictest bans on plastic and paper shopping bags.   This is a gigantic victory for the Bay Area, that has 1 million plastic bags per year accumulating in and along the San Francisco Bay.  San Jose becomes the newest bay area town to endorse some sort of ban on disposable shopping bags; others include San Francisco and Palo Alto. Tracy Seipel of the San Jose Mercury News reported that it was in fact ONE man who really jump-started the ban, a further remarkable example of the power of one person.  Here’s a an excerpt:

“While visiting his sister-in-law in Taipei, (Kansen) Chu (elected to San Jose city council in 2007) went grocery shopping and was surprised to get charged for plastic grocery bags. The next day, he brought his own cloth bags back to the store.  “I guess the question,” said Chu, “was, ‘Why not San Jose?’ ” He began a conversation with the city’s environmental services staff, which later moved to council committee discussions.

Save the Bay’s 4th yearly report on the most garbage-strewn places in the state further demonstrates the need for BYOB.  The 50-year-old environmental advocacy group focused on 10 particular bay-area sites where approximately 15,000 plastic bags were retrieved in one day last year in their report.   Here’s an passage of an article in the San Francisco Chronicle by Kelly Zito.

According to (Save the Bay’s) research, Californians use about 19 billion plastic bags each year, 3.8 million in the Bay Area. The average use time for the bags – made using about 12 million barrels of oil each year in the United States – is about 12 minutes. In addition to the hundreds of years it can take for a plastic bag to decompose in a landfill, the bags also force downtime when fed into traditional recycling equipment. Typically, the bags get wound into conveyor belts or gears and must be cut out by hand.

Ten US metropolitan areas have banned plastic bags thus far, five throughout the past year. Even Mexico City enacted a ban on plastic shopping bags, which went into effect in August.  The city of 20 million now faces the realities of effective enforcement, which is not easy when the Mexico City Chamber of Commerce estimates there’s 35,000 vendors in Mexico City’s downtown vicinity alone.

Bans on plastic bags aren’t really the only valuable means to cut back destructive waste caused by disposable bags.  PlasTaxes, which tax customers at the register for using plastic bags while shopping, were being primarily launched by the Irish.  John Roach of National Geographic reported in 2008 on the worldwide momentum that’s been building from the time when Ireland instilled a PlasTax in 2003.  The Irish confirmed they could decrease plastic bag utilization by 90% or more.   Momentum is growing the world over, particularly in America.  From Washington, DC to Edmonds, WA to North Pole, AK, communities and governments are spurring an international trend to reduce the harmful environmental effects of disposable shopping bags.  In the great state of Hawaii, the governing body is at this time considering a bill to ban single-use plastic bags (SUP), or to ascertain a minimal fee to utilize SUP bags.

Even chief retail stores like Target and CVS are taking action by enacting special discounts at the register for customers who choose to BYOB or just carry-out their stuff without a bag.  For those naysayers, it’s opportune to discount recent momentum in reducing disposable bag waste.  But to some, the wide-spread adoption of eco-friendly green bags is inevitable.  Have a look at the way smoking is becoming taboo in America.  Indoor smoking bans have caught on like wild-fire.  In the same way, who is to say the use of disposable bags won’t turn out to be taboo at some point within the (hopefully near) future?  The use of eco-friendly recycled grocery bags is certainly picking up steam.  Our individual decisions to carry our recycled shopping bags can go a whole lot farther than we imagine.  That’s what BYOB is all about.

Needless to say, plastic and paper bags ought to be recycled and it’s important to remember most large retailers including Albertsons and Wal-Mart will recycle plastic bags for you (just have to bring them your accumulated stash).  That being said, a BYOB shopping strategy can make your life a great deal less difficult because there isn’t a need to accumulate that cupboard filled with plastic bags or figure out what and when to handle it.  Keeping a couple of eco bags in your car or backpack is a good way to ensure you have them when needed. So give back this year by remembering to BYOB!   Whether it be at a convenience store, the shopping mall, or while grocery shopping, we could make a difference for the environment and help raise consciousness one transaction at a time.  In the battle to eliminate disposable shopping bag waste, 2010 is our moment.

Four Tips for Big Grocery Savings

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Yes, you can eat healthier  while slashing your food costs.  And you don’t have to be a brain surgeon , college professor, or super  consumer  to do it.  All you have to do is follow a little advice.  

 1.  Smart grocery shopping begins  with a  thoughtfully  prepared shopping list.  Impulse buying must be avoided .  Make certain your list is complete so you’ll not  have  to shop again soon because each  time you return to the grocery store you  subject yourself to  the risk of  purchasing  items you don’t really need.  Anticipation and self-discipline are essential .  And,  avoid shopping  while you are hungry. Avoid  junk food…it’s  unhealthy   and frequently costly.

 2.   Coupons can mean big savings, especially if you  make use of  both newspaper coupons and  website coupons.  There  terrific coupon   ites on the Internet:  identify them and return to them every week.  Buy only what you only what youu require .  Do not let coupons tempt you to buy items you don’t need.

 3.  Consider generic store brands.  Compare the ingredients and quantities to the brand name products you normally buy.  If there’s not a big difference, take a chance .  The worst possible result is that you’ll realize that your usual brand  is worth the higher price  and you can return to it in the future.  But it’s far more likely you will  like the  house generic brand  and continue to pocket the savings .

4.   Buy only in season, reasonably priced, fresh produce    When you notice the price of strawberries and blueberries  going up, it’s  likely  because they are being shipped in from warmer climates.  When that happens  you should opt for  fruit that’s been flash frozen.  That way you’ll get nutritious food  without over- paying for fresh produce. Foods like carrots, onions, and potatoes   are available  in quantity  at great savings.

You’ll find yourself looking forward to hearing your total when you  go to the register  to see how much you have saved.  But you may have other opportunities to save after you have chosen  your groceries .  Be sure the prices are rung up  correctly  on your sales items, and be sure  your coupons have not stuck together.

Whether you are a single, young professional , a college student, or a mother or father shopping for a family, a bit of  thought and discipline can result in big savings and healthier eating.

What You Perhaps Do Not Know About Heirloom Vegetables

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An heirloom plant is one that has been in cultivation for at the bare minimum a century, but may also refer to much more recent non-hybrid varieties formulated from heirloom stock. The term is applicable to vegetables, natural herbs, flowers, and many fruits. Most types of produce offered commercially are heirlooms, but much more commonly what is offered in the grocery store or in seed catalogs are hybrids which are challenging for the home gardener to grow. Heirlooms are not any more tough to grow than hybrids, and in most situations are less complicated to grow due to the fact of their adaptation to a certain area’s climate. There are literally thousands of types of apples, potatoes, squash, you title. Many of those types can’t stand up to the rigors of commercialization, or they have some quality that helps make them unmarketable. In heirloom varieties, you can find different flavors and exciting physical features.  

If a certain seed was passed down for 100 years, there is a beneficial explanation for that. Heirloom vegetation are time-tested and started before the use of chemicals and fertilizers. Not like state of the art genetically modified types bred to tolerate large quantities of chemicals, these humble old types were bred to be far more resilient. Likewise, heirlooms only exist by virtue of their capacity to develop seed products. With heirlooms, you hypothetically would only have to invest in seeds once and can save your own indefinitely after that. Most many fruits and veggies developed commercially nowadays are essentially genetically identical. Due to this management , if one is susceptible to some new disease or pest, they all are. Heirlooms, by the genetic diversity, guarantee that there will be genetic stock to adapt to altering conditions or sudden diseases. The home gardener by deciding on to grow heirlooms, is assistinga secure  future of that unique crop. Heirlooms crops additionally protect history as they link us with the past like you are developing a small bit of history in your garden as these seeds were handed down through the generations.