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| I know we've touched on this here and there, mainly in regards to diet. I'm taking a Sustainable Design course in school right now, and our last assignment was to pick a product we use frequently and find out the ingredients and determine any benefits/concerns of the ingredients and decide whether to continue using it. It was pretty frightening what some of the people came up with. One girl of 25 came up with a non-harmful product.
Anyway, most of it is information we kind of know in the back of our heads but don't think about - or we'd never make it through a day!! My question, though, is how many of you use ONLY organic and natural products with NO animal testing, NO synthetic chemicals, etc? How many of you are very active in supporting your local economy as opposed to chains? Did you practice this lifestyle before yoga? After?
The more yoga I've practiced, the more I've started to actively move towards these ideas rather than just believe in them in an abstract sense. Especially now, with this class, I will be quite the little label-reading yogini and make as many responsible choices as possible. |
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| I'm a herbalist/naturopath and I'm lucky enough to work in a store that sells only oreganic/chemical free skincare and haircare products, so they're all I use.
I'd say I eat at least 70% organic food, and only eat organic animal products (both meat and dairy)
I've been interested in nutrition for longer than I've been involved in yoga, so I'd say this was all a pre-yoga thing!
The course sounds great. by the way! |
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| a very good question!
i try to shop for organic food as much as possible, but limited availability and the expense means that i cant always manage it. i am trying to educate my husband and my japanese friends as much as i can.
i try to shop in the mom & pop shops and buy things that are locally grown/produced. it requires a lot of effort - asking questions, getting to know shop owners and reading a lot of books to educate myself. it also takes me a lot more time to shop - rice comes from the komeya-san (rice merchant), bread from the panya-san (bread merchant), etc...most sauces and condiments i purchase from an on-line organic foods co-op, veg comes from local markets, and sometimes i purchase them on the street!
we dont eat any prepared foods, so if i do hit the supermarket (it is a small one), i do a ring around the outside of the shop and stay out of the aisles.
the most difficult aspect is definitely the cost. i think that is what deters most people from switching over to organic.
the role that yoga has played in all of this - just being aware of what i am putting in my body.
of course i want my diet to be more sattvic - however, my love of spices makes it rajasic!!! but i am working on it!
i have to admit one place that i still need to work on - cosmetics, sundries, cleaning supplies...... |
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| When I go to the market its so difficult for me to identify the right stuff. Now I’m used to 1 place where they have different counters for Organic vegis and fruits.. My question is how do we know whether it’s really organic, unless we have some sort of trust with the vender? Is there a way you can identify that?
Normally I hate canned food and I never buy those no matter what the brand is. And I always make it a point to make my own fruit juices without buying them from the market. You can do that and see the difference.
I have enough garden spaces and I can grow few trees for fruits such as papaya and pineapple.(very easy to grow and no need to care )Once I had 2 big watermelon fruit from my garden and I was sooo happy. But Green lizards ate 1 fruit  before I plucked them. I didn’t plant that Watermelon creeper., I don’t know from where it came. May be some seeds I have thrown some time back.
But I don’t think this is possible for people living in flats and big cities. But it’s so nice to eat fruits and veggies from your own garden at least once in a while.
Eastern sun , About cosmetics .. Make your own skin care products. If you get a Thai Sap book or Ayurveda for beauty book., You can do it .
But makeups.. I don’t know.. I dont see any natural lipstics
Edited by Thushara 2005-02-02 6:37 AM
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| It is a great class - alternates between fascinating and terrifying, but there is also a lot of hopeful new products to work with.
Given the time and space I would like to grow most of my own veggies. But as you said, it's difficult in a city apartment. People keep giving me little indoor herb garden kits forgetting that my cat would eat them all! I've been lucky enough to find a tiny produce shop that is half organic and half conventional. The prices for their organic products are within a dollar at most of the conventional, so it's well worth it. They don't always have the same produce in both, so sometimes I have to buy conventional.
As for your question about how we know foods are organic, here in the US we actually have the government labelling them...But (and this is a big but) their guidelines are not particularly stringent. My teacher said that the California guidelines are more demanding than the federal requirements. Go figure, crazy California hippies. 
As for the beauty products, man, that's some frightening stuff. My teacher recommended the following substitutions: use organic (this is key) peanut oil as eye makeup remover (most high-priced removers actually contain this anyway!), use olive oil as a moisturizer (odorless, soaks right in, but only use it on your face at night), and just mash up an avocado and rub it in a bit, put your hands in plastic gloves overnight and your hands will be soft for a week! Easy stuff! |
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Expert Yogi
Posts: 8442
    
| I've heard that in some states, just growing something in dirt qualifies as "organic"  But the growers and consumers are improving on that slowly. It is SO difficult! I like some organic stuff but hate that it is transported so far at such an ecological cost. Non-organic local may be a better bet for the earth than organic from halfway across the world. As I've mentioned before, BC has a wonderful fruit growing area but people still buy organic Ceres juice from South Africa. Kinda crazy.
The other day I was happy to see a local soap making company has branched out from their basic dishwashing soap, which honestly isn't that great for really greasy stuff, and now makes some nicely scented non-harmful dish detergents. The chemical smell of some of the big commercial detergents just turns my stomach! Anyway, the one I really like the smell of (pink grapefruit - yummy!) is "anti-bacterial" and I just don't want that extra chemical in my life. Last I heard, soap WAS antibacterial - that's why we use it. So it is a dilemma. |
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| {{ducking and cowering from the mention of the anti-bacterial soap issue}}
Seriously, my teacher went on a 20 minute tirade about anti-bacterial soap and all its evils.
The whole organic issue is kind of messy. Apparently the little numbers on the stickers are supposed to tell you where it was grown - but who really looks at those and remembers them? I don't really have time to make myself a little chart to go through it all every time I go to the store. |
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Extreme Veteran
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Location: New Jersey | I've been trying to gradually rid my house of products that have been tested on animals using a list I found online of companies that use animal testing. As far as make up and stuff like that, I order of the internet mostly. I've been using this one brand of Shampoo and Conditioner for awhile because it says not tested on animals on the bottle. I find out later, however, that the parent company of this brand uses animal tesing on other brands! It's so hard to know for sure what company owns what brands and who tests and who doesn't. I would like to switch to organic cleaning products because I've heard that the most used brands are really bad for your health, but I have to find somewhere to get them conveniently!
I would say that my desire to use natural products that don't test on animals began in high school, before yoga, at the same time I decided I wanted to go vegetarian. I've finally successfully eliminated meat from my diet, and most dairy.
I do have one question: I've heard that all over the counter medicines like aspirin, or Tylenol etc are tested on animals. Is this true? Is there no where you can get medicinal products that aren't tested on animals? |
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| I agree on avoiding products tested on animals, but that can pose a huge pain in the butt depending on how far you take it. For example, a soap I have at home says "finished product not tested on animals". Ok, great, but everything in it was tested individually? and then you have, well, if something was tested on animals 25 years ago and this particular company is merely using that research, is that just as bad? Not as bad since they didn't do it themselves or pay for it? Where is that line? |
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Extreme Veteran
Posts: 517
Location: New Jersey | I know what you mean about it being a pain in the butt! As I was going over this list of companies that use animal testing, just about every product in my house was on that list, or the brand was owned by a company on the list! As far as personal care for me (hair, make-up, etc) I've managed to eliminate products tested on animals. I started buying my soap from a woman who makes it herself, and I buy make up and other stuff from Burt's Bees, so I hope I'm safe with that!
Samantha |
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| To make it short, I buy what I like and what I can afford. I personally, especially in cosmetic products, don't care too much about the ingredients and stuff. Of course we also buy from the Body Shop, but only if we find something that doesn't smell too bad. And how can we know if they're not lying to us. No experiments on animals? Yah, sure ...
Prefering local over imports and small shops over chains is sometimes difficult, especially in a supposedly 3rd world country like SA. Local products are often of only mediocre quality and more expensive than imported stuff. Our greengrocers for example is also a chain, they sell a bit cheaper than the big supermarkets but the products are very often already rotting away in the shelves. That's because SA farmers save their best qualities for export to Europe and the home-market has to live with the not-so-good stuff. Just today you could have seen me crying in front of the sorry little muddy sticks they tried to sell me as bananas 
BTW, the price of a bottle of mineral water from a local spring in the mountain just 'round the corner is almost double from that of a nice mineral water, imported from Italy and shipped across the half planet.
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| I'm slowly making the transition into becoming more environmentally "aware" if you will. I find myself going out of my way to find natural products more and more, but I still shop at the huge chain supermarkets. I'm making more things in the kitchen from scratch in order to bypass certain stuff, and I order my gardening products from Gardens Alive, who are eco-friendly. I also put more effort into recycling and reusing. I'm far from perfect though ~ I have a long way to go.
I'm not sure if Yoga has inspired me or if this is just the natural process of motherhood. 
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| Probably a combination of yoga AND motherhood! For a lot of people it's the direct responsibility of taking care of someone else that gets the ball rolling. Drives home the importance.
Affordability is definitely an issue...When I looked at Whole Foods and realized that most of the eco-friendly cleaning products cost within a dollar or two of the regulars I kicked myself for not having checked sooner. I had jsut always assumed it was more. I started with toothpaste, deodorant, and dish soap. The dish soap didn't even dry out my hands after a sink full o' dishes! Next week is laundry detergent, general cleaner, and maybe one or two more items. I would love to make all my own everything, but just don't have time with school....
The timing of the class just happens to coincide with the sudden development of a home yoga pracitce, and I think that's definitely made the difference for me... |
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| i am hoping to start using products from this company soon as they are finally coming to japan:
http://onegrp.com/default.aspx?SessionID=258838709
i have had several recommendations about their products.
i also buy stuff from a company called neals yard - convent gardens, u.k.
but pricey stuff!
i like the idea of making my own facials and such, however, some things (like sunscreen) i cannot, and a hat just isnt enough.
one tip for the ladies: to see if your lipstick contains LEAD - put some on the back of your hand, then rub a gold ring across it, if you see black where the lipstick was, it contains lead.
(most of the colourstay/long lasting brands do!)
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Yoga and LIfestyle
