I couldn’t help myself, I just had share the winning entry on Ecospot with you.  Here it is “Sky is Falling” .  For more great “think” spots, go to Ecospot.  Do something to help the planet and people today.

just right for digging a hole.  Yup, it’s time to dig a hole before the ground gets too frozen.  Now, why do I want you to dig a hole?  For your Christmas tree of course, that is if you celebrate Christmas and are planning on buying a live tree to replant.

Christmas reminders are everywhere and some people are beginning to think about a tree.  Should you buy a live tree, a cut tree, or a plastic tree (otherwise known as artificial)? Well, the choice is really yours but truthfully live and cut trees are probably the most sustainable.  They will never end up in a land fill and they won’t off-gas in your home.  Live trees can be planted to continue growing.  Cut trees are sustainable because tree farmers will replant another tree when one is cut down.

You can find out more information on live Christmas trees here.  They give you excellent tips for caring for you tree.  However, I do want to relate a little story to help you prepare if you want to have a live tree.

I have a friend who loved the idea of planting her Christmas tree once she was done with it inside.  So she purchase a nice sized tree that was in a container.  Her first obstacle was getting the tree home.  Unlike a cut tree that can go on your car roof, or a plastic tree that comes in a box, you have to be careful with your container tree.  You must not break off the leader (top) of the tree or it will grow funny.  Also, the tree will be very heavy due to the soil around it’s roots. 

With help at the tree farm, my friend got her tree in her car and got it home.  At home though there was no one to help her unload this heavy tree.  So she finally enlisted the help of neighbors and got the tree into her living room. 

She enjoyed the tree and after Christmas took off the decorations and proceeded to prepare to take her tree outside.  The tree seemed to be heavier and she realized that since she had watered the tree while it was indoors, it was heavier than when she brought it in.  She did not want to enlist the help of the several neighbors to get the tree out of the house.  So, she began dragging the tree to the door.  It was so heavy she could only move it a bit at a time.  It took a month to get the tree to the door and then she couldn’t lift it over the threshold.  In the end the tree died, but was still so heavy she just had to let it sit in her foyer until the soil was dry.  Of course by this time the needles fell off too.

I tell you this story not to discourage you from buying a live tree, but to prepare you.  Have a system planned for getting the tree in and later out of your house.  And have your hole ready for the tree.  If you have pre-dug your hole, fill it with leaves and cover it with a tarp so it won’t fill with snow or be so frozen that the tree won’t fit.  Also, you will need soil to go around the root ball of the tree.  Either have bags of soil somewhere where they won’t freeze, or store the soil removed from the hole in a place where it won’t freeze.

If you have the room, you could have some beautiful trees to remind you of the special time you’ve spent with your family.  You also have the satisfaction of knowing that you are helping the environment by keeping the tree alive.  But if you don’t have room, you don’t need to feel guilty about buying a cut tree. Look for a grower that uses organic practices.   This is a sustainable option and one that can also benefit wildlife.  Here’s how to re-use your cut tree as a winter bird feeding station.

Now if we’d just get some snow……  

That’s exactly what I wanted to find out.  When I wrote my blog on trans fats, entitled “The Evilest Loophole,” a kind person commented and told us all to look out for monoglycerides and diglycerides, saying that they were very similar to trans fat and could be considered the NEXT trans fat.  I thought, hmm … I ought to look into this.

It turns out that just like trans fat (hydrogenated vegetable oils), mono- and diglycerides are everywhere!  They’re found in many food products – but especially in bakery products like breads and bagels and pastries.  Just look at the ingredient list on a bakery product and I can nearly guarantee that you’ll see mono- or diglycerides present in the list.

So what are mono- and diglycerides?

Well, almost all fat comes in the form of triglycerides, a term I’m sure you’ve heard of if you’ve been to the doctor recently – doctors like to check “triglyceride levels.”  If you take a batch of triglycerides, which have three (thus the “tri-”) fatty acids attached to a glycerol molecule, and mix them with the right chemicals, some of those fatty acid chains will dissociate from their glycerol molecule, resulting in mono- and diglycerides.  A monoglyceride has one fatty acid attached to a glycerol molecule while a diglyceride has two fatty acids attached to a glycerol molecule.  Simple enough.  But trans fats are simple enough, too, right?  And they’re terrible for us!  So what about mono- and diglycerides?

It’s really hard to say, actually.  I didn’t come across any conclusive research that says either way.  But I did find out what mono- and diglycerides ARE, and I’ll tell you and then let you decide if they sound natural and healthy or not.

Mono- and diglycerides are emulsifying agents – they are both hydrophilic (attracting water) and hydrophobic (repelling water), so they are soluble in both water AND fat, which makes them unique – but not necessarily natural.  They are used to keep oils from separating out of products and used to increase shelf life – the same reasons that trans fats are used in most products.  Just think of traditional peanut butter – it is smooth and creamy right out of the jar because the trans fat in it prevents the oil from separating out.  In fact, you’ll find mono- and diglycerides in many varieties of peanut butter in addition to bakery products – and you’ll even find them in most margarines, another product where trans fat runs rampant.

It seems that trans fat and mono- and diglycerides go hand-in-hand – in fact, I used to see a particular brand of whole wheat lavash (tortilla-like bread) that used to have partially hydrogenated oil in it but now has mono- and diglycerides instead.  Are food manufacturers taking out the trans fat and adding mono- and diglycerides to replace the trans fat?  The compounds seem to work in the same way – they keep oils from separating out and they extend shelf life and help products taste more “smooth.”  I really can’t help but think that trans fat and mono- and diglycerides are related – and thus equally dangerous.

You know what, though?  There just isn’t enough research out there to tip the scales either way at this point.  So even though I have become very wary of any product that contains mono- or diglycerides, I’m going to leave it up to you, loyal readers.  You have the information now – you make the decision.  Are mono- and diglycerides part of a healthy diet?  Are they okay for human consumption?  Are they the sneaky, underhanded cousins of trans fat?

I have my own suspicions.  And like I said, I’m very wary now.  What do you all think?  What have you heard about mono- and diglycerides?  Please comment! 

Deception seems to be the name of the game in the food industry these days.  Their favorite board room question must be “How can we get our food (which by nature decomposes over time) to last longer or at least look like it is lasting longer so we can make more profit?”

I was helping my children find shoes, bookbags, and all the stuff needed to get them out the door and headed towards school, when a Good Morning America segment caught my attention.  It was a hearing on meat and a woman was holding a package of nice red meat in her hand.  The problem?  The meat was actually 2 years old but it still looked like it was fresh.  How was this possible?

It seems as though the food industry once again, has decided it is OK to decieve consumers by treating meat with CO gas in order to preserve its nice fresh color.  They do something similar (called Modified Atmosphere Packaging) with packaged salad, potato chips, and other foods too so they will last longer or look better as the food sits on the shelf.  But, ugh, the food could be rotten and you wouldn’t know until you opened the package. 

Of course, you are supposed to read the tiny little dates on the package that tell you when it expires.  If you’re like me though, I forget my reading glasses and can never see the printing on these packages.  Or maybe your a mom toting around a few kids who are pulling you in ten directions.  Do you remember to check dates every time?

In USA Today we read that Hormel, a big pusher and user of this technique, has had few complaints.  Well guess why?  Consumers probably don’t have time to look up a manufacturer’s address to send a complaint and did you ever try to return something in a grocery store? 

Food packaging provides a necessary service in our big store, big industry world.  However, I would just like the truth written on my packages so I can make my own decisions.  I don’t want to buy gassed meat (and I don’t, I purchase from a local source that doesn’t use this practice).  I also want to know if my packaged product was treated with something. 

For those very reasons I am buying more and more local and organic products.  What do you think, where do we draw the line here with the food industries need for profit and our need for truth? 

I’m being buried in a sea of catalogs!  I love the holidays, but really!  I think I’ve received at least 4 catalogs a day since the end of October.  OK, let’s do math, that is 32, yes siree, 32 catalogs in 9 days.  Yikes, I will have to take one carload of just catalogs to the recycling center by Christmas if this keeps up. 

Catalogs not only take up space but they do something else.  They encourage my family to buy things.  I know that is the point of the catalogs, but when we are trying to reduce our consumption, it makes things harder.  For most of us, out of sight, out of mind works very well.  And I certainly don’t need more stuff to manage in our household. 

This piece of advice might be too late for this season, but it is worth taking advantage of the service if you, too, are being buried in a sea of paper.  On Mom Go Green, you’ll find this great site for registering to reduce your catalog load.  While we’re at it, you can also reduce your junk mail load by going here to the New American Dream site.  Then all those credit card offers to help you pay off your Christmas debt from the catalogs will stop clogging your mail box.

So, after shoveling the catalogs out of my house, I’m going outside to enjoy the rest of fall while it is here. 

My daughters love the “Sound of Music”.  When they were little they ran around the house singing the various songs including “My Favorite Things”.  They didn’t know the words, except for the part that says “these are a few of my favorite things”.  Instead, they made up their own lyrics with their favorite things.  I think it went “Ponies, and chocolate, and Mollie, and Barbie….”  Anyway, I wanted to share a few of my favorite things.

The first thing isn’t actually a thing, but a program through TerraPass.  TerraPass is a company that allows you to help fund three kinds of eco friendly energy projects that will offset the emissions from your travel.  The program I am excited about is actually a partnership between TerraPass and RIPmobile.  This program allows you to recycle your PDA or mobile phone for a gift certificate to use with TerraPass.  Check out how to do this here.

Another favorite thing of mine is this card from Three Leaf Cards on climate change.  A card from Tree Greetings is also a nice idea since a tree is planted for every greeting you send.  I like the idea of cards that “do” something as opposed to cards that use up trees and energy and get thrown in the trash a week later.

Since I hate buying water in plastic bottles, I love my Sigg bottles.  We have them in many colors.  They also make great gifts and I plan to buy these for a new baby in our neighborhood.  She will also be wearing my favorite onesie with this great message.

Of course counted among my favorites are my family and almost anything to do with being outside.

So those a just a few of my favorite things, what are your favorite things?