The recent article by NPR, Flattening The 'Mummy Tummy' With 1 Exercise, 10 Minutes A Day, starts off with a sensational, grabbing title. A click bait title that we wouldn't expect from a trusted news source like NPR. But it certainly got your attention, especially if you recently had a baby and now are feeling a little weak around the core. And since this is NPR this should be safer than something random you pull off the internet, right? Well, yes and no.
With addiction, deep fractures are drawn between our mind and our body, our needs and our habits, our emotions and our actions, and in the relationships that we have to ourselves and to others. Yoga, on the other hand, is connection.
It's a great time to pay attention to how stress is affecting you. Common stressors include work, family, money, children, illness and more. Stress can impact both your body and your mind causing symptoms such as muscular pain, irritability, fatigue, and headaches. Here's how we can help...
According to CDC data, 32% of women delivering a baby did so via C-section in 2015. Some of these are elective (planned) & others unplanned or emergent. If you are one of the 32%, what can you expect following a C-section?
Do you feel like your insurance coverage gets more confusing each year? That’s probably because it does! It seems like each year there is another rule or exception to your plan but the cost keeps going up. Here at Jade, we are often asked, “how much will this cost?” The answer isn’t as easy at it seems.
With a rich agricultural history like Maine’s, it shouldn’t be a surprise that lots of our own farms are leading the way when it comes to re-integrating sustainable farming techniques and moving away from the harmful model of modern agribusinesses.
Weston’s Farm and Markets is a Maine-based farm that has been sustainable since 1799! Their practices are a reflection of how stewardship for the earth naturally translates to healthier bodies and better quality of life for the people who live off it. Weston serves as a retailer for Peppermint Fields, a farm that specializes in raising premium all-natural angus beef.
Their practices include:
Get Real Maine is a terrific resource for finding other Farms in Maine that follow Weston Market’s model of responsible farming. You can search by county or city, or even find the best livestock that’s nearest your zip code. You can search for a variety of livestock and fowl, including chickens, beef, hogs, goats fish/seafood. You can check the ‘certified organic’ box before you search to make sure you turn up the healthiest and freshest food options.
Eating out? Why not try one of Jade Integrated Health’s favorite restaurants, El Rayo Taqueria. They use local produce whenever possible and order over 200 pounds of sustainably raised pollock a week to make their famous fish tacos. You can check out their menu, including lots of helpful nutritional information, on their website.
Have any suggestions on delicious, sustainable, healthy food? We want to hear from you! Share your best tips on our Facebook page or Tweet us with your fresh food ideas.
What are some of the effects that factory farming techniques can have on our health? The website Factory Farm map has a terrific break down of some of the ways we’re hurt by agribusiness every day. It also has some great tools to help you easily visualize areas in Maine where practices are the worst.
With a corporate, profit-driven model for raising livestock, you can expect the consequences to be negative for both the environment and our bodies.
- With a focus on mass production of livestock, farms are creating an unmanageable amount of waste that goes untreated. Noxious manure can sit in large lagoons for long periods of time before being spread back onto fields as fertilizer. Some of it seeps its way into our water systems.
- Grazing is also a big issue. With so many animals to feed, green areas are rapidly consumed. Without a focus on keeping land fertile and full of nutrients, good soil can become useless and farming land becomes barren.
- Living conditions for animals aren’t just inhumane, they also breed disease. It’s hard to imagine that some of the animals we consume hardly ever see the light of day. With so many animals in close contact, disease is more easily spread through livestock. Remember the swine flu pandemic?
- Our treatment of animals is also creating resistance to antibiotics in ourselves. Through our exposure to antibiotics in the livestock we consume, we’re killing off weaker bacteria and allowing superbugs to thrive and reproduce.
Doing Our Part
If you or your employers are equally enthusiastic and want to be in touch with other like minded businesses, we suggest visiting Maine Businesses for Sustainability. They provide Maine businesses an opportunity to learn about sustainability, network with other businesses, and find innovative ways to grow. We hope you'll join us as we move Maine forward on the path towards sustainable economic development!
