Some lesser-known benefits of safely sitting in the sun.

I’m walking on sunshine, and don’t it feel good? Or so say the lyrics of peppy 1980s ditty by Katrina and the Waves. Turns out, awesome 80s pop music got it right. I live in sunny Southern California, but I spend much of my time in a writing cave populated by social media clicks and a chipped coffee mug I sometimes bang against the window pane at the outside world. When this happens, I just step outside to soak up the sun.

Why am I doing this? It turns out that that sunlight can have some great health benefits. So here’s ten lesser-known reasons to make sure you get some safe time in the sun.

Sunshine puts us in a better mood.
When you step outside and suddenly feel like smiling, odds are that the sun is smiling down on you. David Strohmetz is a psychologist at Monmouth University. As he told Psychology Today, “nice days put us in a good mood, which engenders helping and generosity. When we’re in a good mood, we want to maintain that mood.” This even makes us better tippers.

Sunshine helps you heal.
A 2007 study found that not getting enough direct sunlight could increase our chances of cancer by at least 70%. However, sitting in too much sun without protection can cause skin cancer. Happy mediums for all!

Sunshine influences the stock market for the better.
The stock market is three times as likely to go up if the city of the exchange is having a sunny day. No word on if traders have figured out a way to beam sunlight onto the floors of the New York Stock Exchange.

Sunshine helps you smoke less.
Psychology Today points out that on cloudy days, we “compensate artificially.” This means that those who smoke, drink, and do whatever else makes them feel “good,” really lay it on thick. Note to self: stop doing rain dances.

We eat less chocolate on sunny days.
Chocolate makes us happy, so we need less of it when the sun is shining. Because we’re already happy! But is this really a benefit? Only if you’re watching your weight.

If you are applying to college, you have a better chance of getting in with lesser grades on a sunny day.
Uri Simonsohn is the behavioral economist at the University of California at San Diego who conducted a study of the science of sun. As he told Psychology Today, “Applicants who are strong academically are more likely to be admitted on cloudy days, whereas candidates who are strong socially are more likely to be admitted on sunny ones. Cloudy days call to mind thoughts of staying inside to read or study.” No word on what snowy days say about academics.

Sunshine can influence your cholesterol.
Our bodies make Vitamin D from sunlight, which is necessary for a whole host of important health issues. Your body converts a type of cholesterol into Vitamin D.

Sunshine helps you sleep better.
If you get a lot of natural light during the day, your circadian rhythms will align. Natural light also increases melatonin which increases sleep. So good night, sweet sun.

Sunshine makes you play more.
In the sun, you feel better and want to get active. Consequently, you have more of an urge to frolic under the sun like wood nymphs in a Shakespearean comedy.

Sunshine can help clear up acne, eczema, psoriasis, athlete’s foot and more.
Some experts urge that getting moderate amounts of sun can help clear up skin disorders. And even still, sun may improve your digestion and metabolism.

*And as always, don’t overdo it, keep your sunblock handy, and talk to a medical professional before treating major ailments with sunshine.

Images: wanko,  johncohen, 33498942@N04, XLordashX, Cara Photography

ColumnTaking a Swedish approach to appreciating our everyday food routines.

I’ve been traveling for a few weeks, and in doing so have failed to keep up with the latest and greatest in food news that seems to inundate the blogosphere on a daily basis. But a girl needs a break every now and then, and so the computer has been off, and the brain partially so as well. Fortunately, we all need sustenance, and although I haven’t been keeping up to date on what’s new in food, I have been eating a lot of it.

This is relaxing eating. Summer enjoyment. Sitting down with friends and family and enjoying everything from basic open faced sandwiches to fancier fried chantrelles. Not fretting over what to throw in the stir fry for dinner because I’m exhausted after work. No, this is food for the sake of food.

Sometimes I will ask for a recipe and jot it down in my red Moleskine, sometimes I just sit and enjoy, not thinking about what went into making what I am eating, and sometimes I get riled up and launch into a diatribe on the failings of the American and global food system – trust me, it’s part of the dinner table charm.

I’ve also been scouring every daily newspaper that sits next to my cup of tea and skim through the food section where there’s always a new recipe. Really they just make me want to throw dinner parties. And then in the evening I feel a pang of jealousy as I watch trailers for the new television series by one of my favorite Swedish food personalities, Tina, thinking to myself, “I want a cooking show too.”

What I’ve come to realize is that even taking a break, I still can’t get away from food. None of us can. No matter where we are or who we’re with, we have to eat. You may be a freak about it as I am – every meal I eat I make a mental list of how easy it would be to make at home and how I could even tweak it – but when it comes down to it, food culture permeates all of our everyday lives.

Unfortunately, we often don’t take the time to enjoy it.

I read an article during one of my famed tea and morning newspaper sessions about the author of the new cookbook Mat Under Bar Himel (Food Under an Open Sky). Beyond the poetic name that seems to sing summer and vacation ( it’s on the shopping list for before I head home), the author Michael Krantz points out that eating outside is a way to better appreciate our food and our friends. “When you eat outside you’re forced to talk to each other in a different way. When you’re inside, there are a lot of other distractions,” he said to Dagens Nyheter.

Combine that idea with the fact that we know that eating is better for us when we’re in positive social settings, and it’s no wonder that summer fare tastes and feels so wonderful.

I won’t even attempt to make any arguments about how Swedes are more conscious about what they eat than Americans – they are also facing a staggering obesity epidemic, fast food burger chains are on the rise, and a trip to the grocery store tells you there are plenty of refrigerators stocked with prepared foods ready to be thrown into the microwave.

And yet, there’s a consciousness about food that hangs in the air, not what it is or where it comes from, but that it’s important to eat, three times a day, every day, and that sometimes, it’s worth investing a little time in making something good. Even those who don’t like to cook peruse cookbooks to put together respectable dinner parties. Food has a certain level of importance and deserves our attention. Which is why the Swedish refrigerator and pantry tends to be stocked with the essentials: hardtack, dense bread, yogurt, meat, cheese, butter, vegetables and most likely a bowl of fruit on the kitchen counter or table. Basic but essential.

And when it comes to eating that essential food, time is valued. Breakfast, even as small as coffee and a macka (open faced sandwich), is a must, lunch breaks are lunch breaks, to be had in the break room instead of in front of the computer, and on weekends, dinners often get a little glorified, if nothing else, to celebrate the days off.

There is nothing extraordinary or trendy about this approach to food, on the contrary, it’s very simple. This is what makes it so that food and the enjoyment of food plays an integral role in everyday life, instead of being a mere after thought. Which means there’s thought put into which sandwiches you make to take on your afternoon outing, and an insistence on finding a good spot to sit down with your coffee thermos and enjoy the sun. The time to eat, even when you’re not eating anything fancy, is not to be taken lightly.

So forget complex recipes, forget the latest gluten-free baked goods, just take some time to eat good, simple food with friends, maybe even throw in a bottle of wine for good measure, and give honor to the sustenance that your body needs.

Because if we all have to eat, every single day, why not make it an enjoyable routine?

Editor’s note: This is the latest installment of Anna Brones’s weekly column at EcoSalon, Foodie Underground, discovering what’s new and different in the underground food movement, from supper clubs to mini markets to the culinary avant garde.

Images: Anna Brones

ColumnPublicly and privately, politicians are straining credibility.

Years ago, I began to hear a steady stream of rumors about cell phones causing brain cancer. I took these warnings quickly to heart, since I have always been an early adopter when it comes to irrational panic. But my fears were dispelled by a number of medical studies showing that the radiation emitted by cell phones was not a health hazard. These studies were backed up by the Federal Communications Committee and the Environmental Protection Agency, both of which assured consumers that cell phone usage was safe. Now it seems that the World Health Organization has reconsidered its earlier, benign stance on cellphones, and is warning consumers that they may be carcinogenic after all.

Is it just me, or is it hard to trust the people who are supposed to be looking out for our health and well-being?

My distrust of government safety pronouncements is deeply ingrained and dates back to the 1960′s, when the Federal Civil Defense Administration tried to convince me that my best chance of surviving a nuclear attack came from hiding under the wooden desk in my classroom – despite the fact that visual evidence led me to doubt that this small and rickety desk could save me from the firestorm and thermal radiation created by an atomic mushroom cloud.

Since that time, countless other lies and misinformation have been fed to a trusting public:

• The food pyramid, as introduced in 1992, instructed Americans to base their diets on a grain-based foundation of white bread and pasta, until nutritional science proved that advice to be wildly incorrect. The new guidelines have literally toppled the pyramid, which now rests sheepishly on its side and comes with a lithe stick figure scampering up the edge of the fallen pyramid – an activity that, ironically, would be almost impossible for the many Americans who became morbidly obese on the FDA’s previous carb-heavy guidelines.
• In the days and weeks after 9/11, Mayor Rudolph Guiliani, the EPA and OSHA all gave New Yorkers a big, happy thumbs-up, telling them that the unfiltered air downtown was safe to breathe, and that there were no significant health risks to occupants and workers in the affected area. Subsequently, study after study has shown that countless residents and responders who worked on Ground Zero have suffered long term respiratory scarring and illness.
• The Federal Aviation Administration continues to let parents think it’s safe to hold babies under two on their laps during air travel, despite the fact that safety experts agree that unrestrained babies are likely to fly around the cabin like projectile missiles in the event of a crash or even turbulence.
• The USDA has given its approval to injecting ground beef with ammonia, in the hopes that this highly toxic chemical would kill the e. coli and salmonella often found in cheaply-produced meat products. Despite initially telling consumers the beef was safe to eat, the agency now seems to be edging away from this policy, since the dangerous bacteria can still be found in the treated meat. Interestingly, the USDA does not seem particularly concerned about the fact that this beef – which is often sold to school lunch programs – still contains significant amounts of ammonia, which is not generally thought to be one of the healthier or tastier food additives.

I am, naturally, angered and offended that the agencies and officials of my government  find it so easy to be less than entirely honest with me. And yet, I really have no cause to complain – not compared to Maria Shriver and the late Elizabeth Edwards, whose politician husbands never quite got around to telling them that they had fathered children with other women. Government officials may occasionally mislead me, but my outrage pales when compared to that of Huma Abedin, whose husband, Congressman Anthony Weiner, neglected to tell her that he was using his Blackberry to photograph his happy place, and then tweeting those pictures to a wide assortment of coeds.

For politicians, at least, it seems that cancer isn’t the biggest risk that their cell phones may pose.

Susan Goldberg is a slightly lapsed treehugger. Although known to overuse paper products, she has the best of intentions – and a really small SUV. Catch her column, The Goldberg Variations, each week here at EcoSalon.

Image: California Literary Review

ColumnWhere celebrity goes conscious.

When she stepped out with Sean Penn for a breezy walk on a Hollywood trail, Scarlett Johansson committed several unspeakable acts. First, she had forgone her Spanx under her workout wear, second, she was wearing leggings, best friends to the muffin top, and third, she had likely just (prepare yourself) eaten.

Tabloids and bloggers sprung into action as if the Holy Trinity (Brad, Angelina, and random child) had appeared ascending from the heavens over the Hollywood sign. Hands were wrung. Was Scarlett pregnant? Was Sean the father? And then, the truth. Scarlett’s rep informed People Magazine, “She’s outside running and it’s simply the placement of her shirt that is misleading.” Next, “She was followed and photographed for over 20 minutes and I’m sure there are other photos in the series that show and prove that she is not pregnant.” And finally, “She’s been training for The Avengers for over four months and is in the best shape of her life.” And as People Magazine concluded, “So there!”

(Yes, People Magazine, you aren’t the crazy tabloids, shaming celebrities for carrying more than lean muscle. You merely ask us to rate celebrities’ wardrobes, endlessly pitting Beyonce versus Julianne, Salma versus Kylie, and so on. It’s not the same thing.)

When and where will the madness stop? Society ravenously consumes celebrity, as it seems ingrained in our brains to judge each other and ourselves harshly. As Mikhail Lyubansky, Ph.D. recently pointed out in Psychology Today, “Beauty may be in the eye of the beholder, but the eyes see what culture socializes.” Our cultural zeitgeist calls for thin to be the standard for beauty, so we attack anyone who deviates. And perhaps we do so most viciously with those who are expected to conform to the highest standard of beauty. These people are supposed to be our beauty role models. The ones we think we’re supposed to look up to. How dare they deviate from the norm? Because if these actresses and celebrities can’t be our pretty picture reflections, where does that leave us?

It leaves us with one cumulative messed-up cultural body image. Here are the ten rules celebrities must follow to maintain a tabloid-approved body. (Warning: Deviation may cause pregnancy rumors, nasty blog headlines, and uncontrolled consumption of reactionary doughnuts.)

Your hairstyles are meant for our judgment.
Think your new bangs are delightful? Again, People Magazine offers a chance for their readers to set you straight.

If you gain more than 25 pounds, be sure to constantly remind everyone you’re losing it.
This is also known as the “It’s okay if I’m fat as long as I’m trying to lose the weight” deal.

If you gain less than 25 pounds, be sure to “embrace your curves” and then lose the weight in an exclusive magazine deal.
Jennifer Love Hewitt was famously photographed in 2008 carrying more than her usual weight. As the media descended on her, she wrote “To all girls with butts, boobs, hips and a waist, put on a bikini – put it on and stay strong.” Right on, J Love! Or not. Soon Hewitt was posed on the cover of Us Magazine displaying a newly-toned body sans 18 pounds. Stay strong, but lose that weight.

Be identifiable only by your body parts.
As per this gallery provided by Us Magazine, you don’t need a face or personality to be recognizable – just a great pair of gams! Perfectly moisturized and toned, naturally.

If you’re going to wear clothes, make sure you wear them better than anyone else on the planet in any imaginable random combination.
Thanks People Magazine, for showing us that a jean jacket donned by a swimming pool and a jean jacket on the red carpet are interchangeable. Surely every starlet piecing together her wardrobe should feel ready to know she “wore it better.”

If you are pregnant, be prepared to simultaneously deliver a baby and your baby weight.
Celebrities are allowed to gain weight during pregnancy, but they must shed it immediately due to healthy eating and breast-feeding. And yes, this can happen naturally for some. It can also happen for others through plastic surgery, drugs, crash diets, insane workouts and every magazine’s friend Photoshop.

Pretend not to Botox. Then admit it in an exclusive to People Magazine.
Three words: The Nicole Kidman.

Your children are our style icons.
Shiloh Jolie-Pitt is five years old. Suri Cruise is five years old. (Does your head hurt yet?)

If you are healthy, you are curvy.
See: Kate Winslet, Queen Latifah, Jennifer Lawrence, Christina Hendricks, and Jessica Simpson.

If you want to be one of Us Magazine’s “Hot Bodies 2011,” make sure it means you are slim.
Glowing green smoothies, vegetable juice, and 1,100 to 1,350 calories per day should do the trick.

And to all this, we collectively say – enough. Is enough. Is enough. What is it going to take for us to stop obsessing over celebrity bodies, and in turn, our own? Can we band together and all agree to never discuss our size, weight, and eating habits ever again? Perhaps journalists can come together with a collective agreement to only ask celebrities about their careers, their causes, or their opinions on subjects that don’t have to do with stepping on a scale or a spin bike.

We are the consumers of celebrity culture. So the power lies with us to stop the madness. We can push back.

Or, we could just tweet this.

Ecosalon supports healthy body images in Hollywood. RT if you do too. @usweekly @peoplemag

Now if you’ll excuse me, a cupcake and beer await.

This is the latest installment in Katherine Butler’s column, Shade Grown Hollywood, where celebrity becomes conscious. “Shade grown” refers literally to shade grown coffee, a farming method that “incorporates principles of natural ecology to promote natural ecological relationships.” Shade Grown is our sustainable twist on Hollywood.

Nutrition fads draw attention, but the real harm is in common, processed foods.

Food myths abound, but whether or not you try to cure a hangover with food from the greasy spoon or lose a few pounds with a maple syrup fast, you’re probably not doing a significant amount of damage to your body in the long term. There, is however, a whole lot that we don’t know about our standard diet that is causing a problem. Studies show most Americans know very little about what they’re eating, and in a society seduced by labels like “low fat,” “sugar free,” and “reduced sodium,” we are very trusting. How many of us really take the time to know what we’re eating? We’re not all chemists and nutritionists, but there are laymen’s terms when understanding food that we should focus on.

According to a report by U.S. News Health, 76 percent of 1,000 Americans polled, agreed with the statement: “Wine can be good for your heart.” Partly true, it turns out that only 30 percent of those polled actually knew what the American Heart Association (AHA) recommends as a daily limit for consumption. Think you know how many? It’s two glasses per day for men and one glass per day for women. Exceed that, saysthe AHA, and you’re at increased risk for a handful of serious health issues like heart disease, cancer, and obesity.

That same report found that we know very little about the sodium in our food choices. 46 percent of those polled said that table salt is the primary source of sodium in American diets, when in fact, processed foods like canned foods and condiments make up almost 75 percent of sodium consumption in the U.S.

This brings me back to a recent Michael Pollan lecture I attended. We’re stuck in a vicious cycle of focusing on all of the various “health” labels, and yet we have totally forgotten about what foods are really good for us. In our quest for finding quick fixes to our health problems, we have totally lost touch with epicurean reality.

Forget the organic, gluten-free vegetarian fusion dishes; when it comes to our national food culture, we have to get back to basics, and with that, an understanding of what we’re putting into our bodies.

Some common misunderstandings:

Fat free means calorie free

As a society, we’re way too focused on fats, and anything that screams “fat free” is probably compensating with ample amounts of sugar, an ingredient that as of late, is much discussed as a food toxin.

If you’re not eating meat, you’re not getting enough iron

You don’t need a portion meat a day or even a month to keep up your iron levels, and in fact, most Americans are getting too much iron. Green vegetables, beans and lentils will supply plenty of iron for your body, and are less absorbent when you’re already at your iron intake maximum.

Fats and oils are bad

We don’t need to be dousing our plates in olive oil and butter, but if you’re swapping natural fats for synthetic replacements in the hopes of canceling out the negative effects, you’ve gone a step too far. Our understanding of fat’s role in health and weight has evolved since the 90s fat phobia that gripped the country and left us collectively fatter and sicker. Monosaturated and polyunsaturated fats are vital, according to the Mayo Clinic. Even butter can be healthy in reasonable amounts. Opt for what’s minimally-processed over what’s “free,” and trust what Mother Nature provides.

While we each have to find the balance of nutrients that works for our own bodies, that should be built on a foundation of unprocessed, unbleached, unrefined whole foods. Heidi Swanson of 101 Cookbooks seems to have a good grip on that idea. Her Super Natural Cooking cookbook is a frequently skimmed-through publication in my own kitchen.

Over the last several decades we’ve made it acceptable to eat unhealthy food, to the extent that simply seeking out fresh produce from the farmers’ market makes one a foodie. When did it become snobby to choose broccoli over a microwaveable pasta dish with processed alfredo sauce?

We obsess over crash diets and cleanses, miracle nutrients and superfoods, and argue about the risks and benefits of them all. But it’s not fad diets that hurt us so much as the diet.

Editor’s note: Our Foodie Underground column will resume next week, including a special announcement. Stay tuned!

Images: stevendepolo

Hold the sprinkles? The American love affair with brightly colored foods may be risky business.

What’s wrong with the natural color of a pickled pepper? That’s what I’ve been wondering for at least a year, ever since I decided to avoid artificial food coloring whenever possible and found that jarred Greek peppers only come in FD&C Yellow #5. Willing to accept that perhaps my obsession with natural foods had careened straight past “eccentric hippie” into the territory of undiagnosed mental illness, I’ll be picking my own peck of pickled peppers this year. There’s good reason to do so: artificial food coloring is linked to a multitude of side effects.

They’re linked to allergies, cancer and other heath problems in children and adults.

In the U.S., there are seven FDA-approved, mostly petroleum-derived food dyes currently in use: Blue 1, Blue 2, Green 3, Red 40, Red 3, Yellow 5 and Yellow 6. The three most widely-used colors – Red 40, Yellow 5 and Yellow 6 – contain known carcinogens, and the FDA has admitted that Red 3 is a carcinogen as well.

According to the Center for Science in the Public Interest, studies have found that Blue 2, which is made of coal tar, causes brain cancer in male rats, while Red 3 gave lab rats thyroid tumors. Yellow 5 can not only cause allergy-like hypersensitivity reactions, but can also be contaminated with cancer-causing substances. Yellow 6 has been implicated in tumors of the adrenal gland and kidney.

They’re in almost all processed foods – and even some fresh whole foods.

It’s not just the neon cereals, candies, sprinkles and juices that have been enhanced with artificial dyes. Bagels, waffles, tomato juice, crackers, salad dressing, cheese, yogurt and those pickled peppers are among the many packaged foods that contain food coloring. In fact, the blueberries in Aunt Jemima Blueberry Waffles are just bits of food coloring.

Fruit growers are allowed to dip oranges in a carcinogenic red food dye to make them more appealing. That dye is no longer allowed as an additive in foods, but the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) considers its use for peel enhancement acceptable.

Food dyes are used to exploit our natural instincts linking color to freshness, and to entice kids to eat junk.

The food industry uses dyes to manipulate us into believing that the food we’re eating is healthier than it is. We’re drawn to the brightest red apples, the most verdant salad greens and the darkest purple berries because we’re biologically wired to recognize foods that are brimming with nutrients. Conventional produce grown in nutrient-starved soil may be lacking in the color department.

They also know that kids, who are attracted by bright colors from an early age, are far more likely to pick Fruity Pebbles over beige, naturally-colored and -flavored cereals.

Dyes are linked to hyperactivity in children.

After meeting on March 30th and 31st this year to mull warning labels on foods that contain artificial colors, the FDA decided there’s not enough evidence linking them to hyperactivity in kids (by a margin of 8 to 6). “If we put a label that long on every chemical and ingredient that hasn’t been adequately studied . . . you wouldn’t see the package anymore,” argued Tim Jones, Tennessee’s deputy state epidemiologist and a member of the FDA panel.

But two recent studies sponsored by the British government, which looked not just at children who have already been diagnosed with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD), but at a wide sample of children in the general population, found that kids given foods that contain artificial dyes do indeed show a measurable increase in hyperactivity.

Dyes are discouraged in Britain, and require a warning label in most of the European Union.

The British Food Standards Agency advises parents to avoid artificially colored foods, while the European Food Safety Agency warns consumers right on the package that artificial colors may have adverse health effects. In fact, the EU is mulling an all-out ban.

Kraft, Coca-Cola and Walmart have already removed artificial dyes from the products they distribute overseas, but not in America. For example, while Nutri-Grain bars sold in American contain Red 40, Yellow 6 and Blue 1, those sold in the UK contain beetroot red, annato and paprika instead.

Natural dyes aren’t totally off the hook, either.

A natural red dye that is listed on labels as cochineal, carmine or carminic acid has a bit of a squick factor simply because it’s made from bugs. It takes 70,000 cochineal insects to make just a pound of this red dye, which is used in everything from strawberry milkshakes to cosmetics. The substance can cause severe allergic reactions, as can natural dyes annatto and saffron. (It’s worth noting that even the most natural substance can produce allergic reactions in very small percentages of the population, so that’s not necessary a reason to avoid them entirely.)

Safe, natural alternatives exist.

Colorful food is undoubtedly fun. We don’t have to give up pretty colors in foods in order to avoid potential health effects. In fact, many natural sources of food coloring have properties that have the opposite effects on our bodies – like turmeric, a vivid yellow herb that helps protect against cancer. Try matcha green tea powder for green, beet juice or any number of berries for beautiful reds and purples, cocoa powder for brown and red cabbage for blue.

Image: Pink Sherbet Photography

What you should know about collaborative hands moving mountains  – one volunteer, festival and tweet at a time.

As Japan’s global relief missions move quickly to aid the mind boggling earthquake and tsunami recovery, school students throughout the U.S. are holding bake sales to swap lopsided muffins and chewy brownies for the feeling of being part of the giant cog of good will.

In many respects, this is how the little guns that run lesser known nonprofits make a dent, using what fuel and funding they have to reach out and stir passions. In essence, it’s about changing the world via one dougnut, app or Tweet at a time.

Here are some of the little engines that could make a significant dent in aiding women, children and the planet at large.

1. Halting the Recruitment of Underage Killers

Coalition to Stop the Use of Child Soldiers

If war is hell for adults, you can imagine its toll on children. That’s what we’re up against in Uganda, Lebanon, Bosnia and elsewhere, where kids are forced under extreme duress to shoot weapons, plant mines or explosives and live under horrendous conditions without adequate food or healthcare. Despite global condemnation, hundreds of thousands of children have battled and died in world conflicts, and as many young girls have been subjected to rape and sexual enslavement. Desertion is often punishable by death.

Mission: Headquartered in London, its goal is to promote international and regional legal standards halting the military recruitment or engagement of any young person under 18 in hostilities. Through advocacy, research and monitoring, the coalition pushes for enforcement of the standard by all armed groups, governmental and non-governmental, and humanitarian organizations.

2. Power to the People

Ms. Foundation for Women

What has Ms. and Gloria Steinem done for you lately? While this foundation was started in 1972 at the height of the feminist movement, it has expanded by leaps over 35 years, growing seed funding from $87,000 in start-up grants to an endowment of $24 million. If money talks, then this effort is screaming about ending discrimination and inequity once and for all by giving women the collective power – and funds – to ignite change for generations to come.

Mission: Imbuing women with wisdom and tools to solve on their own problems of poverty, violence, discrimination and other forms of injustice; delivering strategic support to over 150 trailblazing organizations that are advancing women’s solutions for change at decision-making tables across the country.

3. Sew and Dress for Green Success

Clothing Matters

Founded by Martha Swain, who runs sustainability workshops to further her mission from a shop in Grand Rapids, Mich. which she opened with $400 to sell both apparel and ideas to a global community. The nonprofit connects companies and customers working to shift what we wear – from plastic materials cranked out in sweat shops to natural fibers of the highest quality and sustainability – amounting to one of the world’s best examples of socially and environmentally responsible manufacturing.

Mission: Work with domestic and overseas partners whose policies and practices exceed Fair Labor Organization standards. Commit to supporting practices that conserve natural resources, reduce pollution and promote social justice.

4. Food for Thoughtful Consumption

Food and Water Watch

Not so puny with 12 offices in the U.S., but not a household name either, this nonprofit cares about food, water and fish being safe, accessible and sustainably produced – in addition to monitoring abuses of farm workers such as the so-called “serfs or Arkansas” flocking to the poultry industry. The goal is to keep clean and affordable water flowing to homes, protect the quality of oceans and force governments to protect and educate their citizens.

Mission: Encourage a world where all people have access to affordable, healthy and wholesome food and clean water to meet basic needs – a world in which leaders take responsibility to manage essential resources sustainably.

5. Wind in Our Sails, Lower Utility Bills

American Wind Energy Association

They’re not just blowing hot air when it comes to this clearinghouse for communicating facts and ideas about alternative energy. The AWEA considers itself the hub of the wind energy industry with 2,500 members looking to promote, build and buy wind power technology around the world. Working with Congress, industry leaders and small businesses, the goal is to further U.S. leadership in the production of small wind turbines (100 kilowatts and less), generating power that reduces energy bills while protecting the environment.

Mission:Focusing on our economy, environment and energy security, AWEA seeks to power a cleaner America by promoting wind power growth through advocacy, communication and education.

6. Walk the Line

Rails to Trails Conservancy

Included in a read as one of the best 100 nonprofits to work for, this Washington, D.C.-based body promotes the development of thousands of miles of beneficial trails where old defunct rail lines once meandered through the national landscape. In doing so, it seeks to create a nationwide network of trails to connect corridors and build healthier places for healthier humans.

Mission: Attracting 150,000 members since its start in 1986, it looks to 9,000 miles of potential rail trails waiting to be built to span communities, regions, states and the entire country.

7. Stir a Cure

The Cancer Project

As we struggle to find holistic approaches to combating the disease that reaches one million more people each year, the project advances prevention and survival through nutrition education and research. Taking this new direction in the battle, the project provides classes, books, video programs, fact sheets and other educational materials on prevention and the value of health diet changes. Its hands-on nutrition classes are gaining increased popularity and helping survivors and families adapt to diets that have proven results.

Mission: Make cancer prevention a top priority and improve survival after a diagnosis by providing comprehensive information about the role of dietary factors in keeping people healthy.

8. Pleasure Principle

Clitoraid

If we have come a long way, then how does Female Genital Mutilation (FGM) affects some 130 million women in the world today? This horrific practice in Africa, Asia and the Middle East carries lifelong psychological and physical effects – and truly is a barbaric way to keep women down.   Clitoraid aims to correct the wrong through surgery while completing a $200,000 Pleasure Hospital in Burkina Faso, West Africa, offering free medical services for physical restoration and rehab for FGM victims.

Mission: Training and education for clitoral repair surgery for victims and empowering them to reach their first orgasms as a way of celebrating sexual freedom and pleasure for all women in the world. Promoting campaigns against female excision and sharing pleasure, hope, kindness and femininity.

9. Compassionate Nesting

Housing Works

The double whammy of AIDS and homelessness is too much for a civilized society to take. Housing Works is made up of a healing community of people living with and affected by HIV/AIDS with advocacy offices in NYC, Albany, Washington D.C. Mississippi, Haiti and Puerto Rico. Through grassroots efforts it fights for funding and legislation to ensure people with HIV/AIDS have homes, healthcare and other life-sustaining services, and legal protections from discrimination.

Mission: To end the dual crisis of homelessness and AIDS through relentless advocacy, provision of lifesaving services and entrepreneurial businesses that sustain its efforts.

10. The Race to Somewhere Happy

Project Appleseed

Its website poses the poignant question: Why wait for Superman? When it comes to improving our dismal public school offerings, parents are now taking the initiative, spurred on by disturbing documentaries like Race to Nowhere, which bashes the daily grind with a refocus on the thriving child who is educated for the current age and allowed an elusive childhood in the process.

Mission: For parents, grandparents, schools, faculty or any other caring adult to pledge to help our community’s children achieve a truly independent future by reforming public schools, including district evaluations, fitness and nutrition, funding, green schools and technology and six slices of parent involvement and engagement.

Tell us about a nonprofit that deserves to be heard: tips@ecosalon.com.

Images:  Pink Sherbet Photography, Warchild; Saltysoul; Food & Water Watch; AWEA; The Cancer Project; Housing Works; Project Appleseed; Clitoraid; Black Sexual Politics

When love for live music crosses the ticket line to addiction.

Skipped out on rent to blow extra cash at Coachella? Scheduled a pregnancy around a Phish concert? How about letting mom’s birthday cake candles melt just to spend an extra hour with Dave?

Find me a harmless hobby or a gentle habit and I’ll show you someone who’s developed a full-blown addiction. We humans are good at getting hooked, but why? Addiction has its roots in a neurotransmitter called dopamine. This chemical plays an integral role in the pleasure we derive from sex, food and yes, rock ‘n roll. The first time you hear a song you like, one or more elements in the music causes an increase in the level of dopamine in your brain. This might lead you to download the tune and listen to it over and over again for days (admit it, you’ve done this). But after hearing it many times, the pleasure subsides because you no longer have the cues to make the dopamine to kick in as powerfully. In other words, it gets old.

This is why live music takes on greater importance for music lovers. Even the most manufactured pop stars perform their songs a little bit differently with each gig, and musicians who are known for improvisation manage to keep their fans not only interested but coming to shows repeatedly.

The ‘high’ occurs not only when you feel, taste or hear something that you thoroughly enjoy but also with its anticipation. With bands like Phish, Dave Matthews and of course, the Dead, the set list always changes and predicting which songs are going to be performed is part of the ride. As one song ends the thrilling deduction process begins again for the next song. If you’re right and it’s a song that you really love, dopamine, that wonder drug, kicks right back in again.

Concerts have a communal spirit that can help ‘feed’ the addiction. I remember watching the Dead and feeling a sense of connection with the strangers around me as we danced to “Sugar Magnolia.” (And it’s not just a substance-induced euphoria.)

Live music can provide a transcendental and very personal experience. Phish follower, Jon Bates, says, “It’s like a religion for me. It really gets deep inside you.”

Dopamine’s role in our affinity for music can border on the extreme. The general medical consensus is that as long as it does not negatively impact your life, being obsessed with seeing live music is a harmless habit. Besides, is planning a pregnancy around a tour all that different from trying to conceive in February so you end up with a little Scorpio?

Image: Carlo Cravero

ColumnWhen health issues get in the way of a Type A.

In case you were wondering, I spent last week in bed. Let it be noted that this isn’t about going green in style, but rather, this is about your editor going bedridden in style. Abject, miserable style.

The bed rest is owing to what my doctor calls an “isolated spastic event” and I call hell. (He is so diplomatic.) A sudden and severe back spasm well before the AARP years is insulting enough, but try not even having a good reason for it. There is no exotic escapade involving clowns or swings that I’ll take to the grave, no tragicomedy about the ladder and the nosy neighbor’s roof with which to regale dinner party guests into the next decade, not even a “We’ll laugh about it someday” sigh owing to the thing with the omelet and the Pergo. Nothing offends quite like acquiring a spasm for simply getting out of bed in the morning. I like to think I hold myself to high standards, health maladies included, so you can imagine the disappointment.

Also, a week in bed isn’t as decadent as it sounds. It isn’t even a good value. You would think you could find a lot to do while lying flat on your back, but you would be wrong. For one thing, sleep really begins to lose its luster when you realize you can have all you want of it. For another, you still have to get up to pee. Dispatches from the pillowtop soon go ignored as your friends lose interest in your boring injury. There is no competing with Lou, who sprained her neck while blowing out her forty birthday candles, the bitch, or Tom, who sustained sixteen paintball welts dashing across the shooting range and still found the strength to rescue yet another “orphaned” bunny. “Don’t you think it’s a little odd that this is the third baby bunny he’s rescued during paintball?” you ask, quickly adding, “And my back is like, level 6 right now, but could be up to 6.5 pretty soon if I don’t take another pain pill. It’s called Flexeril but the generic is…Hello? Katie? Hello?”

Despite the lack of support from both my lumbar and my friends, I was determined to keep calm and carry on for the green internets. With my faithful feline companion, Roo, beside me, I propped up my head on pillows and perched my laptop on my belly. I wouldn’t call this exactly ergonomic, nor the drugs exactly organic, but then beggars can’t be choosers. That’s why, when my hands would go numb from incline typing or I’d find myself slurring my emails in yet another prescribed cyclobenzaprine-and-ibuprofen bender, I took to long, so very long, episodes of gazing out my bay window at the San Franciscans walking by. It is thus my great hope that my pain can be your gain. Welcome to EcoSalon: Semi-conscious culture and fashion.

The first thing you will notice is that San Franciscans are inconsistently helpful. They are happy to inform you that the world is melting and how much they pay in rent or how many badges they’ve earned on Foursquare, unless of course they are anti-geolocation because they’re suffering from app fatigue. But when it comes to the weather, you’re on your own, cupcake. San Francisco weather is fickle; in the course of a day the city will rain, fog itself, sun itself, and rain again. But looking outside at the variously-clothed city passersby (mostly-clothed if you live in the Castro) to determine what you should wear in the event you ever walk again will only leave you more confused than before you took the pain pill.

Case in point, Monday, 8:30 a.m.: Sun peeking out, tall man in t-shirt and shorts and Tevas. If, like Lazarus, I depart my cave, I shall leave the coat inside it. Nevermind, that very fashionable woman is wearing a hideous puffer and looks upset. Clearly it must be freezing. The tall man is a masochist, or perhaps he is in the throes of euphoria from his Blue Bottle cappuccino. Then again he may be rebelling against his mother who always admonished him to take a coat, and he’s probably on his way to discuss it with his therapist right now. And this slight girl, how is she not shivering? In her tank top and American Apparel jeggings through which I can see her wedgie, or is it a thong, dammm thess Flehzexerelle druhgz, and yet her friend is wearing a Prairie Underground jacket from Clary Sage Organics with an awning of a hood. That thing could support an avalanche. Scratch the weather assistance, then. It’s fine. It’s not like I was going to walk anywhere, anyway. Stupid hills.

By Tuesday the ennui is unbearable. How’s the back, my writers ask, hopeful that they can stop hearing about it once and for all. How many more New Yorkers have I not managed to read? Back to staring through the looking glass. There are the compact, blond Pacific Heights wives in needlessly fattening mom jeans and diamond rings perpetually sliding around their spindly fingers, directing their imported nannies to direct their becurled offspring to direct their shizapoos and cavalieradors and chihuahauxers.

But wait! There’s more! Pay dirt: a couple right out of a Long Island summer catalog, he in khakis and a pink polo, she also in khakis and a pink polo. Then they turn and take pictures of my house, of me peering sideways out the window from the place where the magic happens, meaning the Icy Hot self application, one bedhead of the human variety and one furry head of the cat variety. Tourists. So much for that. I note Roo’s apathy in my journal. I am meticulous, or something.

Wednesday. I’m contemplating changing my email signature to: “Apologies for all of this, I’m on muscle relaxants and painkillers.” At least I think it’s Wednesday. I complain to a friend about my inefficient plight. “Find the Zen,” she says. “Isn’t that what it’s all about, consciousness and reflection? Maybe you got this because your body wants you to slow down and just be and you were ignoring it.” I draw a measured breath. “If you tell me to ‘have a heart’ for my back spasm, I swear to you I will hang up this phone.”

How often do I take the time to explore thoughts and feelings in a meditative, uninterrupted, conscious way? Not often enough for my back’s preference, evidently, which is why it would be great to get over this spasm so I can actually put that on my to-do list. In honesty, I suppose my friend is right: how very un-eco to assume restful breaks don’t fit into the fabric of a sustainably lived life. Whatever.

Thursday. Pretty sure I have bed sores. What is the purpose of this sentence, universe? And by sentence I mean being sentenced to bed rest, not the words preceding the question mark, although that would be both admirably meta and naively humble. I call my mother. I text my kid brother about my dating life. He indulges me and then asks if I have life insurance. I ask my father to send me a juicer. I don’t know why.

Friday. I’ve emailed the office so many days in a row about my continuing vertebrate drama, I only have to type the letter “w” and the subject line autofills “working from home again; back still bad; call if you need me”.

I am weary of the grown men parading past my window like bipedal crabs in their hipster skinny jeans with bottoms so saggy it looks as if they are wearing ill-fitting diapers. I want to throw eggs at them but broadcast my sentiment on Facebook instead. Plus, my back hurts too much. I decide today is the day I will sort and clear and assign stories and delegate tasks from my fresh folder of 497 bookmarks for February; I get to 11 and fall asleep. I wake at 6:42, pleased that I’m up earlier than usual, and realize after a full half hour has gone by – which involves frying up eggs for breakfast – that it’s the evening. Also, I am frying up goat cheese, not eggs.

On the weekend, I give myself mini-projects to do, hobbling around my apartment rearranging the orchid twenty times, reading fascinating entries about SEO and HTML5. I decide to take up meditation and lucid dreaming. I decide to forget about them. I Skype with our writer Mike Sowden in York, who tells me about his new kidney ailment and I tell him about my new back ailment. We quietly feel relieved that the other is worse off. Another writer is concerned that the spasm is lasting so long; I phone a physician friend for his thoughts. He promises to check in on me in another week. Another week! Listen to me, back, and listen good: it’s been fun being in the sack with you, lazing about like a slug, but I am better. Hear me? I am better!

I go to sleep and wake up Monday morning feeling much better. Pain scale: 3. Zen of the spasm: Check in on me in a week.

This is the latest installment in your editor’s column, The Insider’s Guide to Life, exploring topics such as media, culture, sex, politics, and style. Cheers and spellcheck!

Image: Madeline Louise

Is fish oil really beneficial, safe and environmentally friendly?

Depending upon whom you ask, fish oil is both wonder supplement and health menace. It protects against heart disease, but it can contain mercury. It’s linked to lower risk of breast cancer and diabetes, but it can be contaminated with PCBs. Fish oil is fraught with contradiction, and we haven’t even had dessert yet.

As the number one, most-purchased health supplement even over multivitamins, fish oil flies off shelves around the world for that greasy substance procured from the flesh of cold-water fish like sardines, anchovies and herring. Hailed as the best natural source of omega-3 fatty acids DHA and EPA, these vital substances are necessary supplements our bodies can’t synthesize on their own.

These long-chain essential fatty acids work wonders on our health. We’ve known for years that fish oil promotes heart health, but recent studies seem to crown it king of all health tonics – it may lower the risk of developing breast cancer or diabetes, protect against blindness and even aid in the treatment of mental disorders. Beyond that, it’s considered to be possibly effective for high blood pressure, rheumatoid arthritis, menstrual pain, kidney problems and a host of other health issues.

But for every study touting the miraculous effects of fish oil, there’s another warning of hidden dangers in the form of toxic contaminants. The presence of mercury in seafood is a well-known concern, and a lawsuit filed in 2010 against eight popular fish oil supplement manufacturers alleges unsafe levels of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs), which are carcinogenic.

Then there’s the sustainability issue: we can’t ignore the fact that fish populations are plummeting around the world due to overfishing and environmental contamination. Are we contributing to this problem when we buy fish oil?

Google all of these issues and it’s easy to see that straight answers aren’t easy to come by.  But among all the studies, recommendations, glowing reviews and dire warnings, a few things seem clear:

Worldwide medical bodies agree that benefits outweigh the risks. They key is moderation; most people don’t need more than 500 milligrams per day. Warnings about mercury content in fish are aimed at high-risk groups like pregnant women, young children and the elderly. Plus, mercury is more often found in large, predatory fish – not the small fish used to produce fish oil.

Some brands of fish oil are healthier and more sustainable than others. The Environmental Defense Fund has a handy color-coded guide to fish oil supplements indicating which brands conform to the strictest standards for safe levels of contaminants. Look for supplements made from 100% wild fish, which contain fewer contaminants than those made with farmed fish. You can check the sustainability of particular fisheries at fishsource.org and the WWF.

Eating whole fish may be more effective than taking fish oil supplements. Most dietitians recommend getting vitamins, minerals and essential fatty acids from nutritious whole foods – including fish. One study comparing absorption of omega-3′s in fish oil versus whole fish over six weeks found that levels of DHA were nine times higher in those who ate the fish. The Environmental Defense Fund has a chart listing fish that are both high in omega-3 fatty acids, low in environmental contaminants and easy on the environment.

Plant-based sources of omega-3′s are available, but may be less effective. Flax seed, walnuts, spinach and other ‘green’ sources of omega-3′s contain short-chain fatty acids, which must undergo a relatively inefficient conversion process in our bodies. Marine-based omega-3′s are more potent, but some people – especially vegetarians – may prefer the veggie source nonetheless.

Image: vintagedept