Eco-Tips for '08 Part II

Hi, readers! This is a continuation of last month's article series on New Year's resolutions for improving your life by adopting an eco-friendly mindset. With the same commitment to positive change we usually reserve for our personal problems, we can reduce our impact on the world by learning how to effectively reduce, reuse, and recycle.

This month's category covers effective tips for improving your body through better nutrition:

Body Improvement

By purchasing and eating only organic foods, you can contribute greatly to the reduction of waste by diminishing the industrial costs, packaging, labor, and other resources needed to create processed foods.

Make raw vegetables, fruits, grains, legumes, and nuts the core of your diet. You can lose weight by avoiding fatty meats, desserts, and processed foods. Your impact on the world's food supply will lessen. Individually, this may mean little, but if millions of people adopted these practices, the impact would be quite significant. Plus, a slim physique requires less energy (in the form of calories) to function in everyday tasks.
The millions of animals existing solely for consumption are a significant drain on the environment because they must be fed, housed, transported, processed, transported again (to stores), sold, transported again (to your home), and prepared so you can eat them for very little nutritional gain versus the energy expended to create these "meals." Just in fuel alone, eating animal protein with every meal costs us far more economically and environmentally than it delivers in terms of nutrition. Actually, your body can attain a far better degree of health by not eating meat and focusing on unprocessed (raw) veggies and fruits as snacks and as the bulk component of your meals.
Avoid unhealthful, prepackaged foods and beverages such as frozen dinners, to-go meals, and especially colas to reduce labor and material costs. You will also feel better once you kick the "fast food" habit. Did you know more water is used to manufacture a single can of cola than you would receive by drinking its contents?
Use organic skin care items, such as soap and cosmetics, instead of their synthetic counterparts to reduce chemical pollution as a byproduct of their manufacture.

By helping the environment with these eco-tips, you can also help yourself because of the reduced burden on your living space, health, emotions (due to guilt), and pocketbook. Start with cleaning up your personal environments (your work and living spaces), selling or recycling 1 unwanted item each week, and continue implementing new tips gradually until you've incorporated all of them into your lifestyle and that of your family. Research your own eco-tips and share them with everyone you know.

Also, take the time to teach your kids how to recycle and consider every factor critically before making a purchase. If we all make the effort, we can preserve the practical value of our ecosystem and enjoy its beauty as well for many years to come!

Next month, we're going to tell you how to reduce waste and conserve precious natural resources as the conclusion of this 3-part series of Eco-Tips!