Kristin van Ogtrop's Blog, page 352
April 8, 2011
Make Sustainable Eating Choices On the Go with Seafood Watch
When it comes to eating sustainably, choosing the right seafood can be tricky. There are several types of fish that are more sustainable when caught wild, while others have a smaller impact on the environment when farmed. Remember which is which isn't always easy. Luckily the Monterey Bay Aquarium saves you the trouble of keeping track with their Seafood Watch program.
There are two ways to keep track of which fish you should be ordering or buying. First, you can download the pocket guide for your region which lists the recommended fish, ones that are an okay options and the ones that should be avoided due to major environmental problems.
If you have a smartphone, you can take advantage of their app, available for both the iPhone and Android platforms. The app has a wealth of information. In addition to the the basic lists of what to eat and what to avoid. The app includes a sushi guide and the ability to search by a specific fish and find out why it's a good option or one to skip. Get more information about the app by visiting Seafood Watch.
Do you pay attention to whether you're buying farmed or wild-caught fish?
Related:
The Facts About Mercury in Fish
April 7, 2011
Do You Pay Kids for Good Grades?
I recently wrote a column on things you should never tell your children about money. During the research, I asked parents to email me their strategies for raising money-smart kids. One parent wrote: "We told the kids from kindergarten on that their job was school. Parents get reviews and bonuses for a job well done - kids get report cards and pay for grades."
But a plethora of studies show that big financial rewards, such as mega-bonuses, don't improve performance. Consider a study conducted by Duke University psychology professor Dan Ariely and several colleagues. They had participants perform six different tasks that required creativity, concentration, memory and problem-solving skills. They varied the amount of financial bonuses participants could receive if they performed well, and measured the effects that different incentive levels had on performance.
The researchers wanted to offer a meaningful reward, so they conducted the experiment in India, where the average person's monthly spending is $11. Participants were offered the opportunity to earn a small bonus, equal to one day of their regular pay; a medium bonus equal to two weeks' pay; or a huge bonus equal to five months' pay. In each case, the better participants performed, the more money they stood to make. (They knew going in exactly what amount was at stake.)
Result: Those who stood to earn the most money performed the worst. Relative to people in the small or medium bonus categories, those offered a huge bonus achieved "good" or "very good" scores less than one-third of the time. As Ariely writes, "The experience was so stressful to those in the very-large-bonus condition that they choked under the pressure."
Researchers performed an alternate version of the experiment, giving the participants the money upfront and telling them they could keep some or all of it depending on how they performed. It didn't work very well: The first participant, who was given the equivalent of about five months' salary, performed poorly – and then ran away with the money. The researcher in charge didn't have the heart to chase him.
I don't give my kids money for good grades, but we do celebrate, sometimes with material rewards. Last spring, when one of my daughters brought home a stellar report card, we bought a few things for her room that she had her eye on – an updated comforter for her bed and a new desk and chair. (We had been using a folding table and chair and needed to upgrade her workspace anyway; she picked the desk she wanted from a catalog.) But most of the time, they get praise and a hug for a good report. (Fortunately, all three are doing well, so it's not like one kid gets the booty and the others are left out. In the past we have also focused on improvement from semester to semester.)
California psychotherapist Kate Levinson, author of the new book Emotional Currency: A Woman's Guide to Building a Healthy Relationship with Money, says she doesn't like the idea of paying kids for grades. "You want learning to be associated most strongly with curiosity, the pleasure of learning itself, and wanting to do things with a sense of competency in the world," she explains. "Money is really good for some things but it's not great at motivating us to want to learn and to be engaged with our lives."
Levinson suggests it's better to tie great academic performance to some kind of experience. For example, younger kids could get to pick a fun weekend activity like flying new kites, visiting a favorite museum or seeing a play.
"So much in our world is tied to money -- it's suffocating for us as adults and for kids," Levinson says. "They are advertised to all the time. Our culture gives them enough associations that somehow having money makes someone a better person. Part of our role as parents is to help them have a sense of themselves and a sense of well-being in the world that is not tied to money."
Do you pay for grades? Why or why not?
Energy Saving Tip: Insulate Your Outlets
It's amazing how all those little energy leaks add up. For example, if you have an older home and there are gaps around your electrical outlets, your heating or air conditioning is likely escaping making your utility bills just a little bit more expensive each month. The good news, is that those leaks are easy to fix.
All it takes to plug those energy leaks are these foam insulation gaskets:
To install them, simply remove the outlet cover and slip the foam over the plugs, then reattach the plate. (If you've been planning to upgrade your outlet covers, add insulating them to the project.) The foam gaskets are incredibly cheap, you can order a pack of 10 for just $5, or check your local hardware store and avoid paying shipping.
Have you taken this step to save energy in your home?
Related:
The Best Compact Fluorescent Bulbs
Henrietta Lacks, Part 2: Death
Hello again, Bookies:
Thank you for all of your insightful comments on last week's post. I especially enjoyed the discussion about the doctors' attitudes regarding their research. While some people thought Gey was taking advantage of the indigent population, many other posters had no qualms with his decision to take a tissue sample from Henrietta without her knowledge. I think that debate is a great way to springboard into this week's reading assignment, which focuses in part on the ethics of human experimentation.
Chester Southam, the chief of virology at Sloan-Kettering Institute for Cancer Research, wanted to test if contact with the cancerous HeLa cells could actually cause cancer in humans. For his study, Southam injected roughly one dozen cancer patients with HeLa, never informing them that the injection contained live cancer cells. Southam then watched as cancerous nodules formed around the injection site. He removed some but not all of the nodules, with the aim of discovering if the body would eventually fight off the cancerous nodules or if the cancer would spread. As a result of these tests, Henrietta's cancer metastasized in one test subject's lymphatic system. I could never condone the injection of cancer cells into another person without their consent, and Southam's decision to leave some of his test subjects' cancerous nodules intact seemed nothing short of cold-blooded. He must have known that he was endangering the health of his patients, yet he persevered with his experimentation. Over the next few years, Southam continued to inject HeLa cells into hundreds of hospital patients in the name of research. If questioned, Southam claimed that he was testing the patients for cancer. Skloot explains: "And he believed he was: Since people with cancer seemed to reject the cells more slowly than healthy people did, Southam thought that by timing the rejection rate, he might be able to find undiagnosed cases of cancer." What did you think of Southam's decision to inject HeLa into unsuspecting patients? Does it matter to you that he thought the injection could diagnose cancer?
Southam tried to continue his research at the Jewish Chronic Disease Hospital, but three staff doctors refused to inject HeLa cells into patients without their knowledge. These doctors resigned, and, by sending their resignation letters to the press, started a firestorm of controversy. When the case eventually went before the Board of Regents, I was shocked by how many doctors came to Southam's defense. According to many doctors, Southam's behavior was considered ethical. Did you expect a different reaction from the scientific community? Thankfully, the Board of Regents and the National Institutes of Health deemed Southam's actions inappropriate, and the NIH declared that it would not fund any research that used human test subjects unless the study had an independent review board.
While these ethical debates raged in the medical world, the Lacks family was learning how to survive without Henrietta. After her death, Henrietta's cousin Galen and his wife, Ethel, moved in with Day, ostensibly to help raise the children while Lawrence, the eldest, was in the military. Ethel's treatment of Henrietta's children was nothing short of deplorable. In addition to working them from morning to night with little food, Ethel would beat the three children, especially Joe, for even the tiniest infractions. In 1959, eight years after Henrietta's death, the three youngest children moved in with Lawrence and his girlfriend, Bobbette, to escape the abuse.
Yet for Deborah, Ethel's violent outbursts could not compare with the molestation that she suffered from Galen. Galen started abusing Deborah when she was as young as 10. In addition to luring her into isolated situations, Galen would molest Deborah in the back seat of the car while Day drove. I can't shake the image of Galen, furious that Deborah had refused to get into the car, screaming obscenities at her and punching her in the face, all in the presence of Day. Deborah never revealed Galen's actions to anyone, partly because she was afraid that she would get in trouble and partly to protect Galen. Despite the assaults, Deborah felt closer to Galen than she did to her own father.
As I read about Deborah's youth, one thought that I could not escape was: Where was Day? Before Henrietta's death, we don't get to hear much about Day's role as a father. Aside from the anecdote about picnicking under Henrietta's hospital window, I can't recall a single story in which Day interacts directly with his children. We do know that he never visited Elsie, as Henrietta did every week. In this section, his absence speaks volumes. His children were raised with a "seen but not heard" mentality and were terrified to act out of turn and upset the adults. Ethel took no pains to hide the beatings she doled out to Day's children, but Day never objected. Even when the children move out and the extent of the physical abuse comes to light, Skloot describes Bobbette's rage but never mentions Day. In fact, Day has no noticeable reaction to his children's new living arrangements whatsoever. Day is presented as neither an abusive nor a paternal figure—he is working two jobs and does not seem to be a major presence in his children's lives. What did you think of Day throughout this section? Did you expect more of him?
As she aged, Deborah's relationships with men continued to be troubled. At 16, Deborah got pregnant with her neighbor Alfred "Cheetah" Carter's child. She later married Cheetah, but her husband's drug abuse made him violent and she eventually left him. I respected Deborah immensely for her decision to leave her husband. Despite the adversities she was faced with, she grew to be an independent, strong-willed woman who was prepared to fight for her life and the lives of her children. What is your impression of Deborah? I find myself drawn to her. I can't wait to hear more about Deborah in Part 3, when Skloot will reconnect with her. I am also eager to see how Day and Deborah interact now, knowing how strained their relationship once was.
Let's finish the book for next Thursday's discussion. Please leave your reactions to Part 2 in the comment section—I'm very interested to hear your feedback. Thanks for reading! Until next week…
—Erin
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Are Handwritten Thank You Notes Becoming Obsolete?
Part of me can't believe I even have the gall to ask that question. My grandmother would be turning over in her grave if she read blogs. But the other night, at a restaurant where I was sitting at a big round table with six other women—a mix of old friends and new acquaintances—the topic of thank you notes came up.
OK, it was actually me who brought up the subject.
Me: Do you still write thank yous?
Six other women (simultaneously): Of course!
My friends are so polite. But what does "polite" mean these days? A phone call has become an interruption. An ungrammatical text message is a perfectly acceptable way to invite someone to coffee on the spur of the moment ("u free? if so, meet in 15 min"). And the mail is full of paper that used to be trees.
So maybe it has become wasteful—or, dare I say, impolite?—to cut down another forest so we can mail anachronistic paper thank you notes.
At the restaurant the other night, the conversation continued.
Me: What about paper notes? With stamps? Do you mail them?
This time, everybody had a different answer. Here are some:
Sue: Yes! Absolutely!
Deana: Depends. If someone does something particularly nice, or thoughtful, then yes, you have to send a paper note.
Joan: Hit or miss. If I don't write a thank you every time, I will do something else, later, that's just as nice.
Lisa: Email can be OK, depending on what you are thanking people for.
Sheri: I write thank you notes all the time. On paper. It's etiquette. You have to follow etiquette.
Which made me wonder: what exactly is "etiquette?" The dictionary defines it as "conventional requirements as to social behavior." Many decades ago, self-proclaimed "experts"—including wives of wealthy Victorian-era lawyers and turn-of-the century divorcees like Emily Post—realized they could make nice livings by writing books of rules for the rest of us to buy. Some of their advice parroted the conventional wisdom of their time; in other cases, they made up rules based on their whims or the norms of their upper-crust social class.
These days, we're more likely to follow our own consciences than someone else's arbitrary rules. The main requirement for polite behavior in the 21st century seems to be: Avoid behaving in a way that makes others feel bad. Modern manners are a moving target, as the way we communicate with people changes....So, what does that mean for the future of thank you notes?
Maybe it's OK to text: "thx, had great time w/ u." If not, why not?
(image courtesy of Realsimple.com)
Three common traits of people who have uncluttered and organized homes
There are three major differences between someone who perpetually has an uncluttered and organized home and someone who doesn't.
The first difference is that the person with the perpetually organized home has small routines she follows every day to keep the house orderly. When she walks in the door with the mail, she has a routine she follows to immediately process the mail. When she is done with dinner, she has a routine to clean the kitchen. When she gets ready for bed at night, she has a routine to put her dirty clothes in a hamper. There are weekly laundry routines and dusting routines and she always hangs her coat up and stores her keys in the same place. These routines aren't given much thought, they're just a part of her behavior.
The second difference is the person with the perpetually organized home has an emotional detachment to most physical possessions. This isn't to say she is devoid of sentimentality -- she cherishes her photo albums full of family memories and the quilt her grandmother made her -- but she doesn't form sentimental bonds with catalogs or kitchen appliances or most utilitarian objects. She appreciates and uses stuff when it works and meets her needs, but she is willing to part with things when they cease to be useful or she no longer appreciates the item.
The third difference is the person with the perpetually organized home has a sense of optimism and responsibility about the future. She will meet with a financial advisor to make sure she is putting away an appropriate amount of money for her retirement, but she won't save a cupboard full of margarine tubs just in case she might one day have a need for them. She is prepared for the future, but not afraid of it.
Obviously, there are people with disorganized homes who have similar attributes. However, the attributes are slightly different in some way. For example, the daily routines might be to throw a coat over the back of the couch instead of hang it up in the closet or to leave dirty dishes on the counter instead of load them into the dishwasher. There are routines, but they're not routines that help the house to be more orderly.
When I decided I wanted to become an unclutterer, these were the three largest changes I had to make to my life. I had to implement daily routines that helped keep my home uncluttered and organized -- and, I won't lie, putting these habits into daily use took a lot of practice. I had to train myself to look at an object and not attach a disproportionate amount of sentimentality to it. I was constantly reminding myself that the plate my mom gave me was not my mom, it was just a plate, and getting rid of it didn't mean I was getting rid of my mom. Finally, I had to learn to put faith in the future that it would be as good or better than my past. I needed to make responsible choices about preparing for the future, not irrational ones. Surprisingly, this was easier for me to do than implement daily uncluttering and organizing routines.
April 6, 2011
Have You Ever Tried a Detox Diet or Cleanse?
I recently met a lovely woman named Noelle, the voice behind the blog GreenLemonade.com. Her blog is focused on wellness—cleansing your body and your life—but without resorting to extreme dieting, fasting, kooky rituals, or bizarre beauty products. Noelle started GreenLemonde.com after trying a liquid-only detox for several days and hating it. "I missed chewing," she told me. So she started sharing easy tips and tricks for living a cleaner, feel-better life that women could incorporate into their everyday routines.
I've toyed with the idea of doing some kind of intense detox (remember the Master Cleanse and the BluePrint Cleanse?), but honestly, I just can't see myself blocking out several days of my life to drink water with maple syrup and cayenne pepper. I mean, my job is all about food. Heck, my life revolves around food. Plus, I'm not convinced that a drastic detox is necessary or even beneficial.
As I was talking to Noelle, I couldn't help but notice her beautiful skin, great hair, and amazing glow (granted, she was also eight months pregnant, so that may have had something to do with it). But I wanted to get that glow! So I tried one of Noelle's recipes the other night; it's a "pizza" made from brown rice tortillas (which I've never tried before) topped with fresh veggies, a touch of tomato sauce, and a few shavings of Parmesan cheese. It's light yet surprisingly satisfying, because you really load up the tortilla with vegetables. The sauce and cheese give it just enough flavor to make it interesting. But the real winner was the brown rice tortilla. Once toasted, it becomes crisp and nutty, like a delicious cracker—perfect if you're a fan of super thin-crust pizza (which I am). On Noelle's site this recipe is called Gluten-Free, Low-Calorie Detox Pizza, but I prefer to call it something else.
Guilt-Free Veggie Pizza
Adapted from GreenLemonade.com
Serves 1
1 brown rice tortilla, cut in half (try the Food For Life brand; I found it at Whole Foods)
1 tablespoon olive oil
1 clove garlic, minced
1 small yellow squash, sliced in thin rounds
½ bunch asparagus, cut into 1-inch pieces
1/4 cup tomato sauce
A few large shards of Parmesan
Sea salt and pepper, to taste
1. Toast the tortilla halves in your oven or in a toaster.
2. Meanwhile, heat the oil in a large pan over medium heat. Add the garlic and sauté for a minute. Add the vegetables and sauté until tender and golden. Add the tomato sauce to the vegetables until warmed through.
3. Top the toasted tortilla halves with the vegetable mixture, dividing evenly. Top with a few large shards of Parmesan, season with salt and pepper, and serve.
The pizza makes a lovely lunch or light dinner, and I'm sure if I ate like this all the time (instead of the pulled pork platter and baked beans I had the other night), I would look and feel great, too. The brown rice tortillas will be fun to play around with—I'm envisioning all kinds of toppings and even breaking them up into crackers for hummus and tzatziki.
Have you ever tried a detox diet? Did it work for you?
Which Fruits and Vegetables Should You be Buying Organic?
Organic foods can make your grocery bill skyrocket quickly, so it's not always feasible to buy the organic version of everything on your list. When it comes to produce, there are 12 items that you should opt for organic when possible as they have high levels of pesticides that can be absorbed.
Here's the list of the so-called "Dirty Dozen" fruits and veggies that your should buy organic to cut down on pesticides:
1. Celery
2. Peaches
3. Strawberries
4. Apples
5. Blueberries
6. Nectarines
7. Bell Peppers
8. Spinach
9. Kale
10. Cherries
11. Potatoes
12. Grapes
Were you surprised by any of the foods on this list? When do you buy organic? Let us know in the comments.
Related:
10 Organic Foods That Are Worth the Money
New Uses for Compostable Items
The May Book Poll Is Up and Running
Hi, Bookies:
We're going to reach back into the past for our choices this month, which come courtesy of Amy Feezor, the copy director of Real Simple's marketing department and our May book-discussion leader. Vote for your favorite of the choices below by 11:59 p.m. ET on Wednesday, April 20.
Then We Came to the End, by Joshua Ferris
This impressive and amusing first novel, set in a Chicago advertising agency facing layoffs, deals with the jockeying personalities and swirling emotions familiar to anyone who has worked in an office (or watched The Office).
Brideshead Revisited, by Evelyn Waugh
Waugh's classic novel of upper-class life in Britain between the wars tackles issues of wealth, religion, and love, in all of their complexities.
The God of Small Things, by Arundhati Roy
The funeral of a young girl opens The God of Small Things, which delves into the politics both of the family it depicts and of India in the late 1960s, told in language and cadence that verge on poetry.
The Prime of Miss Jean Brodie, by Muriel Spark
At an Edinburgh, Scotland, school for girls, devoted teacher Jean Brodie urges her students to defy convention and deviate from the paths delineated for 1930s women—outspoken behavior for which one of her pupils will betray her.
What Should We Read in May?customer surveys
Can't Decide? Bring A Mood Board To The Store!
I mentioned this idea recently on my blog and the comments section came alive -- so many people loved the idea of a mobile mood board and few had given it much thought before... This surprised me honestly, I assumed that most people carry things like this when they are out and about but perhaps not. I do it because I have a hard time remembering tints and tones of color and so for me this is easy, saves me time (no return purchases!) and I always match the colors correctly this way. Here is an example of a mood board to go:
Above is one that is currently in my bag at all times because it contains a view of the fabrics and colors that I need to have on me for a styling project that I'm working on at the moment for a gorgeous London department store called Liberty. I taped on my swatches because my stapler ran out of staples, but stapling them is my preference since they stay on better. I find that it is very hard to look at a color in your home and then go try to match it up in-store without swatches on you. Even if it's not the exact fabric on your sofa, you can match a ribbon to that fabric and use the ribbon as your swatch. The point is to keep swatches of things on you and group them on little pages in a spiral bound notebook to create mood boards. When you are finished, you can tear them out and put them in plastic sleeves and organize them in a ring binder so that you can refer to them in the future if you need to. My goal is to keep it simple whenever possible and a mini mood board keeps things simple for me.
A mood board on the go can include:
1. Paint swatches
2. Ribbons that match the paint in your home if you don't have a paint chip.
3. Fabric swatches (or again, ribbons that match the fabrics). If you have a pattern on your fabric and no swatch, photograph it and print it out and put that in your notebook and use ribbons to match the colors exactly in the fabric and fasten them near the photo so you have the exact colors as photos can be deceiving.
4. Floor sketches - you may want to draw quick floor plan or if it's a table setting, draw how you imagine it looking.
5. Measurements - measure how large the diameter of the drum shade over the dining table needs to be, for example or how large the rug for your kitchen has to be. I measure the area to determine the maximum size that would work in the space so that when I'm out and find a rug within those measurements I know it would work okay -- otherwise I don't buy it.
6. Notes - Identify what you need first and foremost and get those things on your list and then you can shop for the less urgent items later. I find getting the most important things done first frees your mind of potential anxiety so that your creativity can come to the surface.
7. A tape measure. Not ON your board of course, but in your bag. Always, always have a tape measure with you. I use the retractable kind. This helps you to avoid "guesstimating" only to end up with things that won't work or worse, not enough and then you return to the store and the rest of that great Belgium linen you found, for example, is gone!
I find that no matter where you go, whenever you show that you are serious and open your little notebook, sales people will usually respond quite favorably and even be a bit more attentive to you. I took mine out on Saturday in a fabric store and the sales lady got excited and said how clever I was to do this and her customers are never this organized. As a result, she pulled everything that I needed in record time which saved me the work of looking around for each item alone. Nothing makes a sales person happier than when you need a specific color and show them a ribbon in the exact color that you need for your walls, for example... This is so easier for them to match the color and makes their job (and yours) completely stress-free. Shouldn't decorating be fun?
Do you think you may want to try a mood board to go on your next interior project?
(images: holly becker)
