Posts by Helen

Is there such a thing as a healthy tan?  When my husband returned to work recently after a few days away climbing Ben Nevis, he was greeted with a wave of compliments - “You look so well”, “That tan really suits you”, “What a healthy glow you have”. He couldn’t help but marvel that exposing his skin to the sun without protection thus increasing his chances of suffering from skin cancer actually gave the impression to others that he looked more healthy.

We just can’t help it, can we? We know all the statistics; we hear all the horror stories. And yet we worship the sun; we crave a tan. There is a tanning salon in every row of shops; gyms that promote health and fitness also boast a couple of sunbeds.

The first hint of the sun appearing from behind the clouds, we are out, baring all and soaking up the rays. We slap the sun cream on the kids and trust the chemical concoction to shield our little treasures from all harm. And do we care what the cream contains; if it has been tested on animals; what effect it has when it is washed away into the rivers and oceans? Probably less about those issues than how long the cream guarantees it is safe to stay out in the midday sun, if we’re honest.

Of course, we could resist the pressure from society to bare as much flesh as possible from May to September regardless of the temperature and state of the weather. We could dress for protection and not as a fashion statement. People who live in the Mediterranean climate do tend to cover up more than us Brits. They stay indoors in the heat of the day. After all, it is only “mad dogs and Englishmen” who “go out in the midday sun.”. Maybe we should look more to challenging and amending our habits than finding ways of accommodating and preserving them. Maybe we should respect the sun and its effects rather than worshipping it full-on. Or maybe we really are running the risk of heading towards the kind of society predicted by Ben Elton in “Blind Faith” where climate change has increased the temperature all year round and everyone regardless of their size and shape has the right to wear the skimpiest of outfits on all occasions - “So much flesh. So much sweating near-naked flesh. Huge women in the tiniest of crop tops and panties, combinations that were basically little more than bikinis…Men in short shorts and trainers, in vests, or bare to the waist. It was often the largest bellies that were the most exposed, thrust forward like great battering rams, proud bellies, bellies of size, topped off with pendulous, quivering, hairy man breasts.” (p23)
Sound familiar? Reminiscent of the beach on a Bank Holiday Monday?

Maybe covering up and staying indoors does not feel like an attractive option. You can’t face even entertaining the notion. The good news for sun worshippers is that a huge choice of ethical sun protection is available.

Green People offer a range of natural and organic skin care products, including a variety of sun care products. These contain a veritable cornucopia of natural ingredients - aloe vera, edelweiss, purple cone flower, green tea and beeswax, providing natural protection from UVA and UVB radiation…. with avocado, olive and carrot seed oils rich in antioxidants to protect against cell damage. Green People sun tan lotions are guaranteed to be free from alcohol, artificial perfumes, petrochemicals, parabens and all other unnecessary synthetic ingredients - so the only potentially unsafe factor in the equation is the sun itself. Their range also includes sun lotion for children, sun lotion with tan accelerant and self tan lotion - all organic, all with the same natural credentials.

You could also check out Lavera’s sun care range. I plan to.

Living in the North East of England and with a holiday planned in the Lake District, sun care is not high on my list of priorities. I am no expert on protection from the sun. I don’t need to be. But for many of my friends, I know it is a cause for concern.. A friend who has suffered from skin cancer herself is now perturbed to hear the latest reports that too much sun tan lotion can damage the skin’s natural defences and be harmful in the long term. Maybe more natural sun protection offers a safer option. Have any of you tried and tested these products? Sharing your comments about them could really help others in their ethical choices. I look forward to hearing from you.

What to offer my children to drink has always been a source of anxiety for me. And I’m not even talking alcohol here; that’s a subject for another day.

I remember when my first son was tiny. I was determined to do everything right and be the best mum in the world. I used to give him fennel juice to drink because that was what the Health Visitor told me to do. My baby boy would spit it out and scream the house down. He so often screamed the house down over so many different things that I soon gave up on being the best mum in the world. (I can still remember my reply when the Doctor asked if I was depressed - “Anyone would be depressed if they lived with this baby!”). I switched to heavily diluted sugar free squash and haven’t looked back since.

Actually, that’s not true. When my youngest daughter had her first trip to the dentist, I was told she must be drinking too much juice and that was why her teeth were eroding into sharp points (and I thought she was just related to a terrier). We tried hard to break her addiction for a while. She made herself ill by not drinking enough when water was all that was on offer. We relented a little and hoped for the best for her adult teeth.

Anyway, the reason for all these confessions of a rubbish mum is to show the dilemma that I have lived with for many long years. Just what is it OK to offer your kids to drink? How hard is it to just offer water when there are so many more tasty and colourful options out there to choose from? I have had friends who have thought they were doing the right thing by only giving their children pure fruit juice only for their kids’ teeth to be rotted away by the high acid content. Some people believe diet drinks are full of too many chemicals; others believe that the chemicals are preferable to the high sugar load of normal fizzy drinks. Some avoid caffeine; others avoid aspartame. What a minefield!

As for water, the options there are endless too. Is tap water really filled with unwanted unknown chemicals? Is bottled water an extravagance both financially and environmentally? Is flavoured water any good for you at all? What about fizzy water? What about filtered?

We have recently acquired a terracotta water cooler and filter. The water is filtered and purified through a ceramic filter. The terracotta container keeps the water 10 to 15 degrees lower than the external temperature. There is no plumbing or electrical supply required. The only problem is that the water has an acquired taste, which most of the family have yet to acquire. The little tap is a novelty that entices the younger members of the family to help themselves, fortunately with as yet no disastrous consequences (one day, the tap will be left on, I’m sure of it). On top of that, it looks cool and draws the attention of visitors to the house - great publicity for a great product. So water is being introduced as the new wonder drink to my very sceptical family. (it looks like nothing, tastes like nothing - how can the effect be anything other than nothing?)

Other drinks are good on occasions. Ubuntu cola uses fair trade sugar from Malawi, a country with a special place in our hearts. Fruit Passion goes down well (too well). Other organic squashes and fruit juices have been tried with varying responses.

Maybe I should just be brutal (cruel to be kind) and offer nothing but water for a few weeks, until the habit has been broken. Unfortunately, I am just seen as the mum who wants to spoil everyone’s fun. Cool water only becomes cool when the teacher keeps suggesting it to the class. Fizzy drinks are only seen for what they are when the dentist armed with drill tells my son that they are causing the holes in his teeth. Water only becomes the drink of choice when my husband and I become good role models.

Please share your suggestions with me as to how to encourage healthy drinking in my family. My children might listen to you.

In all my comments over previous weeks about the potentially harmful household products that we pour down our drains, I have studiously avoided discussing the similar effects of hygiene and beauty products. Why is that? Is it because the bubbles, fragrance and silky texture enhance my bathing pleasure? Is it because my children exercise more control over my choices in this area? Or is it because we get through so much shower gel and shampoo that the price becomes all-important?

Certainly, my supermarket’s shelves bear witness to the fact that people can be more easily persuaded to buy environmentally friendly washing liquid than shampoo. As far as I can see, there are no organic beauty products on offer. And yet it stands to reason that harmful ingredients in household products are also present in beauty products - what disappears down the plughole in the bath has the same harmful effects on the natural world as what disappears out of the sink in the kitchen. Time to try organic, naturally fragranced shower gels and shampoos without harmful chemical additives, I feel (especially as my body is entering a heightened allergy phase for some reason).

But how about the make-up and all the creams and potions that promise so much? For some people, to be separated from their face cream would be a matter of life and death. I remember a friend telling me

Read the rest of Ethical Beauty… Secret or Dilemma? »

I have been a regular consumer for many years. I have faced the supermarket weekly for well over twenty years. I have bought all the food and household products for seven people for over five years. I have been swayed by some ad campaigns and special offers. I have seen through others. I thought I had seen it all.

But what I saw last week in the supermarket in-store magazine topped it all. The news that 17-24 May was officially National Watercress Week filled me with horror, ridicule and despair. Not that I have anything particularly against watercress - but why have a week formally designated to it?

Flicking through the magazine, I was also made aware of other such ‘Weeks’. Did you know that 10-16 May was British Sandwich Week and National Breastfeeding Awareness Week? Sorry if you are disappointed that those have passed you by. The bad news is you also missed National Bread Week from the 4-10 May, so you may now have to wait a while for another bread-related week. The 18-22 May is also Walk to School Week and National Allergy Week. I guess for some, those two may be related.

Why do we do it? To raise awareness? As an advertising opportunity? To promote healthy living? As a chance for real fans to celebrate? Will National Watercress Week really have made some quantifiable difference?

Who comes up with these ’Weeks’ anyway? How do they become official? Can anyone have a go? I would like to propose 23-30 May as National Muesli Week and this is my pitch.

We all know the importance of eating a healthy breakfast. It’s a great start to the day, activating your brain and giving you the energy to give your best until lunch. And what better than muesli, the healthiest of all healthy breakfasts? Muesli was developed for just that reason. In around 1900, a Swiss physician saw muesli as a great way to boost the health of patients in his hospital. It became popular in western countries in the 1960s as people became increasingly interested in healthy eating and recognised the combination of beneficial ingredients found in a bowl of muesli. Fresh fruit, oats, nuts…..ingredients high in fibre and omega-3 fatty acids, with a low glycaemic index, shown to reduce high cholesterol and the risk of cancer…all served up with either fresh or soya milk. Perfect.

The only way to make it more perfect would be to buy Fair Trade or organic muesli. Then the benefit would not only be yours, but also the environment, and the growers and the producers of the ingredients. I’m a fan of Traidcraft muesli, especially now they have released an Apricot and Cranberry variety. I like to be able to read the information about the farmers on the back of the box. I like to know that what is improving the quality of my life is improving the quality of life for others as well. I like to be able to offer my family a choice of varieties to suit all tastes and with brands like Traidcraft, Rude Health and Alara; we’re spoilt for choice!

So are you with me on this? Will you join me in making 23-30 May National Muesli Week? Let me know your thoughts.

Happy munching!

My husband is not a typical man. Although, like many of us, he is inexplicably drawn to watch Top Gear on a regular basis, his choice of car has never had anything to do with status, speed, fashion statement or comfort (or to do with the consequences of my lack of spatial awareness, as far as I know). In fact, our recent car history has been pretty bizarre by normal people’s standards.

Let’s start with our most ’normal’ choice. Family needs family car; let’s buy a

Read the rest of Our Green Motoring Dilema »

Like all couples, we have our differences. We argue about the kids, money, whose turn it is to load the dishwasher, all the usual stuff. But sometimes the argument focuses on something a little less ordinary and today, we invite you to eavesdrop on our issue of the moment and join our great debate.

Is it better to buy supermarket own label fair trade goods or to support fairtrade pioneer brands like Cafedirect and Divine.

My argument for supermarket own label fair trade goods:-

Since my husband rarely visits a supermarket (daggers drawn early on!) and I frequent the same supermarket at the same time on the same day every week, I feel I am in more of a position to comment on what actually appears on and disappears off the supermarket shelves from a consumer perspective.

In our early days as fair trade supporters, we could never have envisaged being able to buy fair trade products in a local supermarket, let alone the advent of own label fair trade goods. I therefore feel the need to support any steps in the right direction taken by the supermarket chains. I take pride in buying own label fairly traded coffee, chocolate spread, honey, fresh fruit and veg, and the latest new addition to their range, banana cake and chocolate cake.

As I have discovered with the own label organic products, these items are launched with a great deal of hype but removed very quietly and without comment. If the consumers do not buy them, then the lines will be withdrawn. Simple as that. Surely the ethical consumer needs to buy these products to ensure their place on the shelves.

Read the rest of Supermarket own label fair trade V Fairtrade pioneers »

optical brighteners, no thanks

Read a book this morning with my little girl about a boy who put a red coat in the washing machine and turned all his Dad’s washing red. The coat had shrunk, which was a good thing, as it had been bought from a charity shop and was initially far too big. What astounded me was the reaction of Mum and Dad. No shouting. No reprimands. No tantrum from Dad about having to wear a pink shirt, pink boxers and pink socks to work. Just smiles all round that the coat was now the right size. Bizarre.

It set me thinking about the lengths people go to to keep whites white, colours bright and now even blacks black. New and improved laundry products promise us much. But at what cost?

Most conventional detergents contain an optical brightener, a chemical which reflects light, making your clothes look brighter than they really are. Magic. But let’s be clear, they do not increase the cleanness or the hygiene of your wash.

However, optical brighteners are only effective if they remain on the fabric after washing.
They make an irreversible chemical bond with the skin and skin rashes blamed on perfumes and dyes can actually be caused by this ingredient of illusion. Who knows what affect they are having on the rest of us? Time will possibly tell.

Moreover, optical brighteners contain chemicals that can be toxic to fish and other animal and plant life. Both Bio-d and Ecover’s laundry products contain no optical brighteners. They cause on average ten times less damage to the natural world than conventional products. They are readily biodegradable, with minimum impact on aquatic life.

As if that wasn’t enough, we can experience the positive benefits of unperfumed plant based ingredients with no harmful chemical residues. Maybe it’s time to rethink what we mean by clean. Do we want clothes that appear cleaner? It’s all an illusion. Or do we want our clothes cleaned with the minimum harmful impact to our own skin and the natural world around us? Your choice.

One clear word of advice though: when your child brings that particular reading book home from school, use it as an opportunity to explain the need for sorting washing before you too end up with a new pink wardrobe.

Image via Flickr

The first thing I did this morning when the kids went out of the door after two weeks off school was to go down the garden and sit by the pond for ten minutes. The sun was shining and the pond was teeming with life….snails, tadpoles and a million other unidentified wriggly things. This observation of nature at work so close to home brought a smile to my face, calmed my anxieties, and restored my soul.

It led me to reflect that the highlight of my youngest children’s Easter holidays was going up to the lake with my son and his girlfriend and her three dogs. Not because they hadn’t done anything more conventionally exciting, but because they too respond positively to fresh air and interaction with animals.

I’m not telling you anything new. We all know that animals do us good. Even the toughest among us will go soft over a baby kitten. Jonathan Ross seems to have a particular soft spot for photos of baby animals on his late night Friday show - his pride over his namesake, the rescued baby badger, was obvious.

“You should stroke the cat more”.
This was my husband’s answer to my irritability over the weekend.
Probably true. Stroking the cat does calm me.
Unfortunately, I was way past calming at that point!

Many of us would consider ourselves to be animal lovers and would agonise over an injured bird, swerve for a pheasant and stop the cat massacring a mouse.

But what about the things that we do that are directly harmful to the animals in the world around us?

If we could see the damaging effects of phosphates, which are used to soften hard water, would we change our dishwasher tablets? Phosphates contribute to eutrophication in rivers, the excessive growth and subsequent decay of primary plant life due to overcrowding. The resulting lack of oxygen affects all that lives in the rivers and consequently, all the birds and mammals that feed on what lives in the rivers. Would you rather stick to your preferred dishwasher tablets or enjoy spotting wildlife on riverside walks for years to come?

If we could see the effect of surfactants on a frog’s skin, would we change our washing up liquid? Surfactants lower the surface tension of a liquid and are found in most cleaning products. Once they arrive in the rivers, they destroy the protective coating on a frog’s skin. Would you rather keep buying the same washing up liquid or feel that you are contributing to the protection of frogs in their natural environment?

If we really understood the effect of the petrochemicals in our cleaning agents on aquatic life, would we change our multi-surface cleaner? Petrochemicals are undeniably harmful to the life in our oceans. Moreover, they do not biodegrade and are sourced from unsustainable resources. Would you rather continue using your usual multi-surface cleaner or enjoy scuba diving amongst shoals of fish for many years to come?

If we knew that pleasant artificial fragrances remained potent even when washed back into the rivers and that this fragrance can confuse butterflies and other insects, would we change our bathroom cleaner? This confusion has been shown to interfere with the life cycle of these creatures and has been linked to the increased scarcity of butterflies. Would you like to remain loyal to your bathroom cleaner or be able to count how many different butterflies you can see in the garden on a summer’s day?

Ecover does not use phosphates in any of its products.
Ecover ensures its surfactants biodegrade before reaching the natural environment.
Ecover uses plant-based ingredients which biodegrade completely and leave minimal traces in the natural environment, as well as being wholly sustainable.
Ecover uses only natural plant-based fragrances in their products.

Visit the Ecover website and prepare to have your eyes opened.

We consider ourselves to be a nation of animal lovers and yet we turn a blind eye to the effects of the products we choose to use. What we don’t know won’t harm us. But it will harm wildlife. It will harm aquatic life. It will harm the environment. And ultimately, it will harm our quality of life, as the natural living environment is changed by what we pour down our drains.

I rest my case.

Time to stroke the cat.

Cat image via Flickr

Two years ago, I yearned for a pond in my back garden. I really believed it would make my life complete. My ever hopeful husband dutifully obliged, dug a hole as a labour of love and created a natural looking pond. Natural enough to nurture our first batch of frog spawn to adulthood no less. Although I also did my share - my maternal instinct kicked in and there I was, freezing an ice cube tray full of lettuce to nourish my new babies.

I even had aspirations for a solar powered water feature. Having been runner-up in a local short story competition with prize money to spend, a fountain seemed a suitable momento. It never happened. Then, since the sun did not shine at all last summer, the pond did not get visited and a solar powered fountain seemed pointless. However, hope springs eternal. Another short story has been entered into the competition; the sun has been shining and the fountain has been bought and installed.

But I can’t help wondering if it is tempting fate. Can I really expect any sun to shine in my garden this year?

Read the rest of Life with a Solar Powered Fountain »

I was thinking of enrolling my two youngest children on a Drama course in the Easter holidays until I checked the dates on the calendar - the course took place on Easter Saturday and Easter Sunday. There must be some mistake. I checked again. No, definitely those days. Would people really send their kids on a course on those days? Don’t they have better things to do as a family on Easter Sunday? Has it really become just like any other day?
It reminded me of last football season when I wrongly assumed there would be no game for my son’s team on Easter Sunday morning. I was made to feel a fool, but was I really the fool? Do we really believe that just buying all that is on offer will make for a proper celebration?

Easter, like all our annual festivals, has become a great marketing opportunity - Easter bonnets, bunnies, gifts and of course, chocolate eggs. Not that any of this is in itself  wrong, but it focuses our attention on what we buy and away from the actual significance of the event.

Whether as individuals we share in the Christian celebration of the Easter weekend or not, we can all participate in celebrating new life -

Read the rest of Celebrating Life At Easter »