My concern was that their packaging noted only, “natural flavoring” a vague term at best, and at worst one that green folks are leery of (or should be). The company responded back in record time with this…

“Yogavive’s Apple Chips are made using only natural ingredients. Our Caramel, Peach and Strawberry varieties are what is called, “WONF” – with other natural flavors. These flavors are derived from wholly natural sources and are not chemically synthesized. For example, these natural flavors are made from fruit juices derived from real peaches and real strawberries, or sugar, for the Caramel variety.

These natural flavors are used only to enhance the product’s flavor, and not much different than your favorite fruit juice company mixing water with your fruit juice. Our natural flavors contain natural fruit extracts (WONF), water and minimal amounts of necessary food-grade ethyl alcohol, used as a base.

According to our French flavor supplier, “Flavor obtained through a simple mix of natural flavoring substances, and then natural extracts on alcoholic support, in accordance with EEC 88/388.”

In simpler terms, our flavors do NOT contain synthesized chemicals, only naturally derived components. Essentially, our Peach variety contains peach extracts and the Strawberry variety has strawberry… and so on.”

Also in update news the company just seriously revamped their website making it much easier to find a retailer which was another concern of mine. They even have online retailers posted. Nice.

I’m still not thrilled about the packaging, but I’m popping these up a point since the company got back to me – that almost NEVER happens. If you missed my first review of this healthy snack you can read it now – Yogachips by Yogavive.

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PRODUCT: Yogachips by Yogavive – Organic 100% apple chips in 5 different varieties including Original, Apple Cinnamon, Caramel, Peach and Strawberry. Yogachips are made using a two part drying process where the apples are oven baked and then popped to a light airy chip-like snack.

INGREDIENTS:

• Apple: Organic Fuji apples.
• Apple Cinnamon: Organic Fuji apples, organic cinnamon.
• Caramel: Organic Fuji apples, caramel flavor.
• Peach: Organic Fuji apples, peach flavor.
• Strawberry: Organic Fuji apples, natural strawberry flavor.

COST: $1.29 for a .35oz bag 

ECO-PERKS:

• Certified Vegan, Kosher, Halal and Gluten-Free
• Certified organic by both USDA and EcoCert

PROS:

• The eco-aspects above are pros.
• All my taste testers, both adults and kids loved the taste and crunch of these apple chips. Even my extremely picky son Cedar, who was apprehensive and a HUGE real apple fan, ate them up. Everyone liked all the flavors, with basic apple and caramel apple as the two winning favorites.
• Much healthier than chips when you want a crunch.
• More portable than real apples to a point.
• Had more crunch than other dried fruits we’ve tried in the past.
• Tasted very fresh and the flavored ones were not TOO flavored.

CONS:

• I have no idea what they mean by “flavor” the company says there are no added preservatives or chemicals but when the package says something like “peach flavor”, that’s very vague. Not to mention that the strawberry package says, “natural strawberry flavor” while the caramel and peach simply say, “peach flavor” and “caramel flavor”. So, is the strawberry natural but not the others? UPDATE: (SEE WHAT YOGAVIVE TOLD ME ABOUT THE FLAVORING ISSUE)
• The bags are tiny. All my adult testers said it was barely a snack and that they’d have to eat a few of the smaller bags to feel like they got an entire snack – and all my adult testers were healthy active folks. My kid testers seemed more satisfied, but not by much, with the exception of Cedar (the I don’t eat much kid). The company supposedly offer larger sizes but I haven’t seen any online or in stores.
• Not a large availability – currently available in maybe 21 states in very few select stores. I only found two online retailers – Dr Soda Company and The Vegan Store. Neither of the online stores carry the larger sized bag. NOTE: Yogavive is rumored to have an online shop going up soon.
• Real apples are a good source of fiber and contain vitamin A, C, and iron. The Yogachips have fiber but lack vitamins. Although real apples also have a calorie count of about 80, you’d pack in a more nutritious and filling snack if you just ate an organic apple.

The biggest eco-bad issue by far for me is the packaging. I would buy these once in a while if I could get them in bulk – which I’m sure would make them lose some of their crispy quality, but all those little bags makes for a lot of trash. We tossed our bags into the recycling, but I’m not even sure if you can recycle the bags. The packaging has zero info about recycling and there’s nothing at the website either. I would also consider getting these in a MUCH larger bag.

OVERALL:

Four out of five happy little trees. UPDATE: This product originally scored a three, but I bumped them up a tree due to the company addressing some of my first concerns. Very few companies respond so fast to consumer questions, so this is excellent.

Below is my original scoring comments, but updated to represent their new score.

I almost gave these less than four trees because of the packaging and the fact that it’s silly to not simply eat an organic apple vs. these dried chips. However I’m giving them a four because my boyfriend’s daughter ate them. My own son was raised vegetarian and eats piles of fruits and veggies every day by choice – this is not the snack for him.

However, my boyfriend’s kids were not raised on as many veggies and fruits, and I can’t even remember seeing these kids ever eat a whole serving of fruit or vegetables. THIS is who this snack is for. These kids love chips and candy and Yogachips would be a much healthier alternative. PLUS his daughter actually ate and liked these. If you’ve got a kid who doesn’t like fruits or veggies, you should of course try to get them on board with healthier eating, but in the meantime, serving snacks like this is a good start.

So overall – I’m frowning on the packaging but they do taste great and are much healthier than many other snack choices, so I’ll suggest these for families trying to make a healthier change in their eating habits.

Visit Yogavive to learn more.

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PRODUCT: Santa Cruz Organic Fruit Sauces- we got four flavors to review – apple blackberry, apple cinnamon, apple apricot, and apple raspberry. 

BASICS: These fruit sauces all start with a base of certified USDA organic apples. The base is then mixed with yummy additions like pureed organic fruits – blackberries, cherries, strawberries and apricots, plus other additions like cinnamon and spices.

INGREDIENTS: Obviously vary depending on flavor, but all contain organic fruits, organic juice concentrate, and nothing you can’t pronounce. Full disclosure at their website too. Each 4oz serving offers 100% of your daily value of vitamin C. Fruit sauces are sugar free, fake color free, and there’s no pesticides.

PACKAGING: Comes in 23oz glass jars or snack pack sizes of 6 4oz cups.

COST: I found the glass jars for $2.72 online and the snack packs for $2.84 online, although I’ve seen both packaging types at my local store on sale for $2.50. I wouldn’t purchase snack packs but for the glass jars I can tell you that Santa Cruz Organic sauces are an average price when compared to other organic applesauce brands.

REVIEWERS: Cedar my eight year old, me, my best friend, another adult friend, and my best friend’s two-year-old daughter.

Company eco-perks:

Santa Cruz Organic has so many eco-perks that it’d take a while to list them all here, along with a review, so I decided to post their perks before hand. Read about all of Santa Cruz Organic’s eco-perks.

WHAT WE THOUGHT:

Taste: We all had different favorites but across the board the flavors were a HUGE hit except for with one person; Cedar, our most picky reviewer. He didn’t like any of the flavors except Apple Apricot but he LOVED it so much that he actually got mad when he heard I gave two away to other people to try. Cedar is slow to warm to new foods though so I was surprised he even liked the one.

My favorite was the Apple Blackberry which in my opinion was the perfect mix of apple with a touch of blackberry – not too sweet but perfect! I did think the Apple Raspberry was a little too sweet, but everyone else liked it. My best friend’s daughter really liked the Apple Cinnamon flavor, which I felt was a nice balance of apple and spice (I normally hate cinnamon applesauce because the spice overpowers) this sauce was well balanced. Everyone minus Cedar felt that they’d buy any of the flavors. I should note that whatever the flavor, all had an amazingly apple taste underneath – like fresh picked apples and all flavors were tasty both warm and cold.

Texture: The texture was nice and saucy – not too thick or chunky and not too much like baby food puree, although babies could eat this. It was smooth and juicy but not so juicy that it slid around making a watery mess. My friend noted that this is exactly how applesauce texture should be.

Color: Because of the added fruits these sauces had some color to them. I think that’s kind of fun for most kids (maybe not Cedar).

My weird applesauce story: When I was pregnant with Cedar I was sick and to avoid early labor I had to take this terrible medication stirred into applesauce for most of my pregnancy. Because of that I pretty much HATE applesauce. I don’t eat it at all. Long story short I fully expected to not like these sauces. I thought trying them would be torture. But it wasn’t. I would actually buy the blackberry sauce and eat it; not all the time mind you, but it was actually good. That’s the strongest way I know to recommend this.

OVERALL SCORE:

Five out of five happy little trees. Now, because we all loved the flavor, and because I actually ate the stuff, I’m giving it five stars. However, if you buy the snack packs you’ll lose some eco-friendly aspects because while the little cups are recyclable (good) and the cardboard holder is both recycled and recyclable, it’d be better to buy the jar and put some sauce into an eco-safe food container for packed lunches. If not, that’s a lot of little plastic cups laying around.

Still, just looking at the sauce alone we loved the organic aspects, the flavor, and the companies green ethics, so we’d all absolutely recommend this to others and it’s a perfect take along for healthy school lunches.

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Santa Cruz Organic Fruit Juices

The 411:

• Unpasteurized juice is not normally considered safe for kids because of their developing immune systems.
• You should not serve unpasteurized juice to your baby or child unless it’s juice you make at home; i.e. you blend up some apples in the morning.
• Unpasteurized juice has been associated with food borne disease caused by E. coli – which is more dangerous for kids than adults; although not great for adults either.
• Cloudy organic juice DOES NOT equal unpasteurized juice.
• You can buy unpasteurized organic juice if you want but in actuality it’s harder to find. Most of the organic cloudy juice you see at the store is pasteurized and safe for your child. It will say on the bottle “Pasteurized”.

I’m not sure where this whole scare about cloudy juice comes from, but so long as you get pasteurized juice you’re not only safe, but healthier. A recent study by polish scientists found that cloudy apple juice has nearly double the level of antioxidants as clear juice. This rocks because antioxidants help protect against heart disease and cancer. The juice manufacturing clarification process, while it does lead to clearer juice also leads to fewer antioxidants according to the Journal of the Science of Food and Agriculture.

The final say – Cloudy juice is safe. It’s unpasteurized juice you need to watch out for. Some kids won’t drink cloudy juice, but it’s only, from what I’ve seen, because they’re not used to it. Most kids are raised on clear, non-organic, sugar added juices. They see this sort of juice at daycare, on TV, and in most folks’ fridges. However, if you give your kids organic cloudy juice from the start, they won’t even notice that it’s not clear, and if you’re going to serve juice why not serve the healthiest juice you can?

Do you serve cloudy juice? Why or why not?

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Basics: Kid-friendly juice boxes for lunches or on-the-go. Available in four flavors apple, mixed berry, tropical and banana.

Ingredients: 50% USDA certified organic juice and 50% water. The water addition is meant to reduce sugar content. reducing the amount of sugar in each serving without compromising taste. Contains filtered water, organic juice concentrate, and organic natural flavor. Each box of juice is about 30-35 calories. There’s nothing funky in these juices like fake colors or preservatives, and ingredients for each flavor are listed in full at the website.

Cost: Comparable to other organic juice boxes (at my local grocery store at least) – you can also print out a coupon right now that’s good through September.

Reviewers: I got samples of apple and mixed berry and my taste testers included – my own son Cedar (eight years old), my best friend and her daughter Bella (two years), me (you don’t want to know how old).

What we thought:

Taste: my son loved the berry juice taste best but said apple was ok too. Oddly his comment was, “The berry juice tastes a million times more like apple than the apple juice and I LOVE it.” Take that as you will. Cedar was the only one who sided with berry on taste though. Bella, Bella’s mama, and me all liked apple best. I though the berry juice was a little odd, but not terrible, and Bella and her mama liked the berry fine but just enjoyed the apple more.

Size: WAY too small for a kid over three. My son can slurp one down in about three seconds. That’s not terrible because kids should drink more water, not more juice anyhow. But when you compare the packaging with the amount of juice the packaging seems excessive. I think the box is a good size for toddlers, maybe as a nice playgroup drink.

Eco-aspects:

The juices are organic so that’s obviously green, but R.W. Knudsen in general is not a totally organic company, which is not so green as it could be. Right now about half of their products are made with 95% or greater certified organic ingredients – not bad, but some companies are 100% organic.

The company is dedicated to minimizing their total environmental footprint through significant investments in energy efficiency at their facilities and by using clean renewable energy sources on site; so far the company has invested millions of dollars in energy efficiency and renewable energy sources which is cool.

In 2006 the company achieved a remarkable 96% recycling rate for production, meaning only 4% of stuff from their production facility is disposed via landfill. Not too shabby. You can recycle these aseptic juice boxes too. Check Earth 911 for details on where to recycle juice boxes.

HAPPY TREE SCORE:

Two and a half happy trees out of five. While I like the fact that these are organic and they scored high for good taste, I can’t justify the packaging involved for such a small amount of juice. Plus, in this small amount of juice, the nutritional benefits are almost non-existent.If you’re looking for a more nutritious juice box, I’d suggest trying the 100% juice boxes (in organic apple or pear) from Knudsen over the sippers, because they provide more vitamins.

As a reusable bottle advocate, I’d suggest you pack your child a reusable, safe, BPA-free bottle filled with water or organic juice before I’d recommend these juice boxes.

Who might benefit from these: In a pinch, if you need a fast toss in drink for a younger child’s lunch or a quick drink to take to a play group, I’d say these are far better and healthier than non-organic, full of preservative juice boxes. Just make sure your child understands that the box must be recycled.

What do you think? Do you ever pack juice boxes off with your child or do you stick to reusable bottles?

Post from: Tree Hugging Family

Over the years organic versus conventional rules have changed over and over. Hence the new list. However, over the years some foods have come up time and time again in studies that note these foods are better in organic form than conventional form – i.e. more pesticides and other toxins have been found in these items than in other items.

When your money allows it, here are the best foods to spend your organic dollars on.

Veggies & Fruits — in any form (canned, jarred, fresh, frozen, dehydrated, etc.)

• First of all the big baddies – the newest dirty dozen which are the produce products with the largest concentrated amounts of pesticides, and consists of…

1. Peaches (worst)
2. Apples
3. Sweet Bell Peppers
4. Celery
5. Nectarines
6. Strawberries
7. Cherries
8. Kale
9. Lettuce
10. Imported Grapes
11. Carrots
12. Pears

Other items in this category to consider buying organic at all times include…

• Edamame (soy beans) + soy milk + soy formula + tofu
• Potatoes — all colors and varieties (including frozen like tator tots).
• Spinach
• Lemons, oranges, and limes or other citrus when used for zest

Dairy products + eggs:

Dairy products and eggs time and time again have been shown to contain large amounts of growth hormones and organic versions have been proven to be far more beneficial to your health. Butter, milk, cheese, ice cream, and other dairy products plus eggs should be top organic priorities on your shopping list.

Meat and poultry:

Meat, pork, and poultry advice has stayed pretty much the same for the last few years. There are pesticides found in meats and poultry but most studies agree that the big dangers in meats are hormones, antibiotics and additives. Organic meat is worth the cost to avoid these drugs and additives in your body but organic meat is also one of the more costly organics – a good choice is to eat less meat overall and buy organic when you do.

Any and all baby food: Learn why babies and young children should eat mostly organic foods.

Grains: Grains don’t often make the list when it comes to best foods to purchase organic. Fewer pesticides are found in grain items than other foods. Buy when and if you can afford it because health is not the only reason to support organic farming but it’s more important to buy other food items first.

My take – I always buy dairy, eggs, and most produce in organic form. I buy any other foods in organic after this. The perfect goal would be to buy all organic, but second best is to purchase the worst conventional offenders first (as shown above).

Which foods do you always buy organic?

[image via stock.xchng]

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Here’s the yummy scoop…

• 2 (16-ounce) cartons vanilla low fat organic yogurt
• 2 ½ cups Driscoll’s Organic Blackberries
• ½ cup light-colored corn syrup
• ¼ cup organic sugar
• ½ cup coarsely chopped semisweet organic chocolate (3 ounces)

In a blender container or food processor bowl, combine half of the yogurt, ½ cup of the berries, half of the corn syrup and half of the sugar. Cover and blend or process until almost smooth. Pour mixture into ice cream freezer container. Repeat. Freeze mixture in an electric ice cream freezer according to manufacturer’s directions. Remove dasher from freezer. Add remaining 1½ cups berries and the chopped chocolate; stir to distribute. Ripen*.

*Note: To ripen frozen yogurt or ice cream, after stirring in berries and chocolate, cover top of freezer can with waxed paper or foil. Plug hole in lid and replace lid. Pack outer freezer bucket with enough ice and rock salt to cover top of freezer can, using about 4 cups ice and 1 cup salt. Ripen about 4 hours.

Nutritional Information Per ½ Cup Serving: 175 calories, 3g total fat (2g saturated fat), 5mg cholesterol, 70mg sodium, 32g carbohydrate, 3g dietary fiber, 4g protein.

Thanks to Driscoll’s Berries for the recipie and delicious images.

Post from: Tree Hugging Family

The piece point out that relaxation of the federal organic food standards, and an explosion of consumer demand for organics, have helped push the organics market into a $23 billion-a-year business. That makes the organic market the fastest growing segment of the food industry.

However, according to the post a USDA program manager was lobbied by the formula makers after they’d been banned from carrying the federal organic label and she decided to overrule her staff. The Post states, “That decision and others by a handful of USDA employees, along with an advisory board’s approval of a growing list of non-organic ingredients, have helped numerous companies win a coveted green-and-white “USDA Organic” seal on an array of products… and thus consumers are not always getting what they expect: foods without pesticides and other chemicals, produced in a way that is gentle to the environment.”

Additional current problems with the labeling program (among others) include:

• From the start the organic labeling rules stated that 5 percent of a USDA-certified organic product can consist of non-organic substances, but the substances must be approved by the National Organic Standards Board. The list of non-organic substances has grown from 77 to a whopping 245 substances since it was created in 2002. The list of non-organics in organics is not only growing, but no shrinking either. As list substances are approved it makes it less valuable for companies to take the time to find an organic alternative.
• The original labeling law makers wanted to see a annual pesticide testing implemented but as of yet, none has been.
• The National Organic Program has repeatedly opted not to issue standards regarding how organic food must be grown, treated or produced, which is of course an issue that many consumers and organic advocates feel should be addressed.

Hopefully reports like this will encourage government and individuals to stand up for better organic labeling laws, but until then the best thing you can do is research a company before you buy their products. Get to know the basics of organic labeling laws, buy the least processed organics you can (hint, see if you know all the ingredients on the label) and see these handy tips for buying organics.

[image via stock.xchng]

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PRODUCT: Mama-To-Be Tea Sampler, comes with a mix of 16 tea bags – Morning Wellness Tea, Heartburn Tea, Third Trimester Tea, and Peaceful Mama Tea.

USE: To help treat common aches and pains of pregnancy plus help you relax.

INGREDIENTS: Various ingredients (all organic) in each tea type. See the following for a full run-down of all ingredients…

• Morning Wellness Tea
• Heartburn Tea
• Third Trimester Tea
• Peaceful Mama Tea

COST: $5.97 per box (16 tea bags)

ECO-PERKS: Earth Mama Angel Baby has plenty of eco-perks as a company, but their teas have some cool additional green attributes, such as; all of Earth Mama Angel Baby teas are USDA Certified 100% Organic & Certified Kosher and natural. Teas come in stringless and tagless bags to cut down on resources. AND the tea bags are biodegradable. Tea over wrap is compostable and the 100% recycled and recyclable tea cartons are produced using wind energy. Nice.

WHAT I THINK:

I’m not a big tea drinker. I’m sort of a coffee addict actually. BUT I tried out a couple of their teas, and it went just fine (nope, the lack of caffeine didn’t kill me). Here’s a quick run-down of the teas…

Morning Wellness Tea: Blended with stomach settling ginger root and spearmint, a safe hint of peppermint, and soothing chamomile and lemon balm plus a twist of orange peel for flavor. Made to cut down on all those queasy stomach issues you may have early on in your pregnancy. Not having morning sickness currently, I didn’t test this one out.

Heartburn Tea: I also don’t currently suffer from heartburn, but the mix of marshmallow root, lemon balm, chamomile, spearmint, and astringent red raspberry leaf sounded pretty good so I gave it a whirl. I liked it actually. Because this was one, mint, and two tea (not a fan of either) this was a surprise. The mint wasn’t overpowering as some mint teas are, and the flavor was strong after a 10 minute brew. If you do have heartburn, this mix of herbs is sure to help chill your body out.

Third Trimester Tea: I didn’t sample this one yet, but the mix of red raspberry leaf (an all-around great pregnancy herb), iron-rich stinging nettle, calming chamomile and rosehips (both full of vitamins and bioflavonoids), and calcium filled oat straw, is a great way to prep your overly tired third trimester body.

Peaceful Mama Tea: This tea has a cool mix of lemon balm, calcium rich oat straw, calming chamomile, and a whiff of red raspberry leaf and orange peel and was my favorite of the bunch. This is a tension relieving, relaxing tea that both mamas and dads can use to chill. I loved the flavor and did feel all nice and relaxed after sipping it.

OVERALL SCORE:

Five out of five happy little trees! Not being a tea drinker I was happily surprised that this tea pleased my coffee lovin’ pallet so well. The flavors were strong but relaxing, and mamas-to-be should have all organic healthy teas like this as part of their diet plan. The above mixed with the fact that EMAB is a great green company rates them a perfect score in my opinion. BTW I also tested their Monthly Comfort Tea – postpartum tea and really like that as well. Read the review.

Read more about Earth Mama Angel Baby:

• About the company – eco-perks and more.
• Green Product Review: I Love My Mama Gift Set
• Green Product Review: Angel Baby Kit

ENTER the Earth Mama Angel Baby Giveaway!

Post from: Tree Hugging Family

First of all, containers aside, milk is one of the foods that should be on your ONLY buy organic list. Organic milk (and all dairy products made with organic milk) won’t contain antibiotics, pesticides, or synthetic hormones, among other junk you don’t need in your body. Of course some folks think that organic milk doesn’t win out over conventional; that’s a choice you need to make on your own. However, no matter the milk you buy, the packaging does matter.

Glass or biodegradable packaging is best: Sadly, these are the least likely types of milk packaging you’ll see at stores. However, if your store sells milk in glass, it’s a good option (if you recycle). One UK company is making biodegradable milk cartons now (with cardboard and corn starch) and hopefully more companies will follow suit.

Plastic Jugs: Plastic milk jugs aren’t the best option, mainly because while they can be recycled, very few families are doing so religiously. Plastics overall, according to the EPA are seriously under recycled. Bad news considering that all you have to do is toss the jug into your bin.

Waxed paper milk cartons: Because of the mixed quality of these cartons it might seem like you can’t recycle them but you can. The catch is that you have to live in an area that has milk carton recycling. It’s not a universal practice. Check and see if you can recycle them in your community. If so, go for it, but if not, avoid buying them.

Shape matters: The shape of milk container you buy does matter. Shape can affect shipping costs, amount of gas used, and recycling rates. To learn about one remade milk jug, and the benefits (plus a few handling cons) read this New York Times piece; Solution, or Mess? A Milk Jug for a Green Earth.

The final deal: Mainly there is no perfect milk container (minus the cow) that’s universally used. If everyone made and purchased biodegradable containers it’d be one thing, but that’s not a reality. What the sustainable milk carton comes down to for most of us, is what you do with it once it’s empty; which of course means you need to recycle it.

To learn more about organic milk choices read the Dairy Scorecard.

[image via stock.xchng]

Post from: Tree Hugging Family