Does winter tend to get you down? For many it is more than a little cabin fever. Seasonal Affective Disorder (SAD) is a very real problem. Luckily, there is a treatment that is all natural and makes a lot of scents–literally.

Have you ever thought seasonal depression and light therapy was a made up ailment? Not so much. SAD is a form of clinical depression that affects many people each year, mostly those living in the Midwest where winters tend to run long. Symptoms include anxiety, depression, lethargy, mood changes, food cravings, and sleep disruption.

Reduced light exposure is thought to be the main cause of SAD. Natural light affects everything from how we feel to our appetite and sleep habits. Those longer, darker days of winter can lead to chemical imbalance in the brain, resulting in SAD.

Light therapy is the traditional treatment for SAD and antidepressants are often prescribed. Other remedies are taking advantage of sunlight when you can, getting outside, and making sure to exercise regularly.

Before you go pitching a “for sale” sign in your front yard and heading permanently to warmer climates, get this: Research has found that scents may play a role in seasonal depression. Studies show that those who suffer from SAD have a more acute sense of smell than those who are not as negatively affected. Furthermore, natural plant oils may stimulate parts of the brain that control hormonal, immune, and emotional functions.

If what we smell affects our moods and other functions, aromatherapy must be the answer, right? Many people who deal with an annual bout of SAD have seen benefits from using essential oil aromatherapy. Certain oils are uplifting and energizing, while others are calming and help to induce a peaceful night’s sleep.

Ways to use essential oils for aromatherapy are through steam inhalation, massage, mists, and bath. When using essential oils it is important to remember that these oils are very potent and should not be applied directly to skin. If using on the skin combine a few drops with a tablespoon of carrier oil (like sweet almond or jojoba) prior to application.

Wondering which essential oils are best for you? Citrus and mint oils are best for reviving and energizing a lagging spirit. Try sweet orange, grapefruit, bergamot, rosemary, or peppermint. Need help getting to sleep? Lavender and chamomile should do the trick.

If you aren’t so much the DIY type, there are essential oil blends that you can purchase to use right away. Here are some of the best:

Aromatherapy for Energy and Refreshment:

Skinnyskinny Bergamot and Coriander Aromatherapeutic Organic Room Spray

“Bergamot is an excellent choice to use because it is great for helping to alleviate symptoms of depression. On its own, it is an uplifting citrus scent that can cut through the heavy, sometimes suffocating scents at this time of year (like cinnamon, clove, pine, and all those baked goods). Coriander is a fantastic complement to Bergamot and helps to instill some confidence and motivation, which is extremely important when seasonal affective disorder is making you feel down in the dumps.” ~ Clara of Skinnyskinny

Amala Aroma Apothecary Refresh Peppermint Room & Linen Mist

Lotus Wei Radiant Energy Energy Mist

Ila Concentrated Room Spray for an Essence of Joy

Aromatherapy for Relaxation and Sleep:

Amala Aroma Apothecary Relax Lavender Room & Linen Mist

Tata Harper Aromatic Bed Time Treatment

Lotus Wei Inner Peace Balancing Serum

*Disclaimer: Help support EcoSalon! Our site is dedicated to helping people live a conscious lifestyle. We’ve provided some affiliate links above in case you wish to purchase any of these products.

Related on EcoSalon:

Going Beyond Big Pharma: Anxiety and Depression Treatment with Psychedelic Mushrooms

Dealing With Depression as a Celebrity: #NowWhat

Climate Change is Making You Depressed (But Not for Obvious Reasons)

Image of woman using aromatherapy via Shutterstock

The post Seasonal Affective Disorder Got You Down? A Remedy That Makes Scents appeared first on EcoSalon.

It’s time to think about what you’re not eating. 

Your mother wasn’t kidding when she told you to finish your meal. It’s not that if you don’t finish your broccoli you won’t get dessert. If you don’t finish your broccoli you’re contributing to the huge problem of food waste.

In a culture where food is readily accesible to many of us, we’re busy throwing it away. In fact, according to a new report released by the Natural Resources Defense Council, 40% of our food supply goes to waste every year, accounting for $165 billion. That is at the same time as hunger and poverty are on the rise, with one in seven American households dealing with food insecurity, as well as significant issues of drought and skyrocketing food prices.

Although grocery stores and other food sellers lose as much as $15 billion annually in unsold fruits and vegetables, the majority of food waste occurs in restaurants and household kitchens. Why? One of the factors is size; we’re serving ourselves more than we can eat. Today, portion sizes are two to eight times larger than the government’s standard serving sizes. We’re throwing out about 20 pounds of food per person every single month.

A few facts about food waste:

• The average American family of four ends up throwing away an equivalent of up to $2,275 annually in food.
• Food waste is the single largest component of solid waste in U.S. landfills.
• Just a 15 percent reduction in losses in the U.S. food supply would save enough food to feed 25 million Americans annually.
• There has been a 50 percent jump in U.S. food waste since the 1970s.

How do we fix the problem?

We need a change in infrastructure. The NRDC recommends policy changes to deal with the issue of food waste, including action from federal and state governments to set targets for reducing food waste as well as implementing programs that help address the problem.

But personal responsibility is just as important. Know what you’re buying, plan your meals ahead and buy what you need, not what you think you need.

In other words, start eating consciously. And finish your broccoli.

Image: jbloom

The post Food Waste: The Average American Throws Out Every Other Piece of Food appeared first on EcoSalon.

VideoAmericans eat an average of three burgers a week. What is that habit costing us?

On average, Americans eat three times more meat than people in other countries. Not only that, but we also eat an average of three hamburgers per week. Yes, you read that correctly. Three hamburgers a week.

What is that eating habit costing society? The Center for Investigative Reporting put together a video to answer that question. Watch it and you’ll never look at a hamburger the same.

A few key numbers:

• It takes 1800 gallons of water to make a single pound of grain-fed beef.
• Because cows release methane gas when they digest food, they produce more greenhouse gas than 22 million cars per year.
• Slaughterhouses create about 30 million pounds of contaminants a year.
• One burger can contain the DNA of more than a thousand cows.
• If all Americans ate no meat or cheese one day a week, it would have the same climate change prevention effect as taking 7.6 million cars off the road for one year.

The post Video: The Hidden Costs of Hamburgers appeared first on EcoSalon.

An exclusive EcoSalon playlist for those moments when you want to enjoy being sad.

To know happiness, we also must know sadness. This is the yin yang rule of emotions. And sometimes, it feels good to be sad. To wallow, ponder and eventually move forward to a better state of being. We made a playlist for just those moments.

Check out the music videos below, or instead of clicking play every time one music video ends and you need to start the next one, go even further ahead and listen to all of them nonstop on our When it Feels Good to Be Sad playlist on 8tracks.

8. Pet Sounds – Beach Boys

The post 10 Songs for When It Feels Good to Be Sad appeared first on EcoSalon.

America is the king of King Size, the cream of the crops, the place where portions are out of all proportion. When it comes to food, the United States is one of the most influential countries in the world. But what will happen if the rest of the world adopts American food habits? In short: it can’t. Here are nine incredible facts about the incredibly unsustainable diet we call the Standard American Diet.

Meat

Meat production is environmentally problematic. The emissions are worse than your car. The ethical issues are worse than those in any Ed Norton film.

Oh, the resources. Meat is so packed with protein and fats that a stomachful is much more than you need. And there’s the fact that making meat requires vast amounts of food and cleared land. Problems abound – but so does the demand for meat, despite it being patently clear that we need to eat less of it.

According to the New York Times, the world’s total meat supply in 2007 was 284 million tons. Since Americans eat an average of 8 ounces of meat every day – or over 180 pounds a year – this means that if the entire population of the world switched to American meat-eating habits, it would require around 550 million tons a year. Put another way – we’d need two planet Earths to produce enough meat to feed everyone.

Sheer Calories

Asking the calorie needs of the average human being is a little like asking how long a piece of string is – but as a broad, shot-in-the-dark figure that neglects to account for fitness, exercise, metabolism and a host of other factors, the average human male needs around 2,500 calories and the average woman about 2,000. That’s what we need to function. Any extra gets stored away by our bodies for a rainy day.

Americans are not efficient eaters. The calories consumed per day by the average American in 2008 was 3,750 (in a population of 303 million), according to the World Resources Institute. Compare this with the 2,500-calorie average in India (population – 1,147 million). Put thus, the food consumed by Americans could feed 39% of India’s population – even though America contains a quarter of the people.

Right now, world hunger is a pressing issue. Some people aren’t even getting the minimum they need to survive. So the question of what would happen if everyone ate the same calories as Americans…is meaningless.

Salt

Sodium chloride, how we love you. We equate you with wisdom and experience (“seasoned”) and honesty (“salt of the earth”), and we sprinkle you over every meal. Yet you’re one of our unhealthiest obsessions.

While the likes of the American Heart Association recommend a daily intake of no more than 2,300 milligrams of sodium (or around a teaspoonful), the average American consumes double that amount (maybe even higher). For many the result is high blood pressure or hypertension – and sufferers of this life-threatening condition need to cut back further to around 1,500mg. Yet salt continues to sneak past, thanks to its widespread use in processed foods (our bodies need salt and we’re hardwired to enjoy the taste of it – a fact outrageously exploited by snack-food manufacturers).

In 2006, world salt production was an estimated 240 million tons. Of this, around 17% goes towards making edible salt. If the entire world switched to eating 12g of salt a day, that would be around 30 million tons of salt, or just 12.5% of total world production levels. There’s the worry – it could happen. (The reason is that world salt production is higher than ever – in fact it appears to have tripled since 1960’s estimated 85 million tonnes).

The long term health consequences of 12g a day for everyone would be catastrophic. Imagine a world population that routinely suffered from asthma, blood pressure at a stroke-inducing level, ulcers, dehydration, renal failure and an elevated risk of obesity…and those are just the effects medical science feels unanimously confident about.

Images: nexus icon / The Busy Brain / laurenatclemson / kevindooley

The post What If the Whole World Ate Like Americans? appeared first on EcoSalon.