health - Our Green Health

How to Sleep Better and Faster when you’re Aging

06/01/202224/03/2021 by Hannie Mommers

For years I browsed the internet and read books about how to sleep better and faster. Although I am still not the gold medal winner of sleepers, my sleep did improve. And now that I am aging I am more and more convinced it is very important to sleep deep and long enough.

One of the fears of a lot of aging people is to get dementia. It sure is one of my fears. My father, grandmother and an aunt had Alzheimer’s.

One of the reasons people can get it is through sleep deprivation. My father has been in shift work for years. Of course, nobody knows if this was the cause why he got the disease. Yet, it is mentioned in the list of risk factors.

Eating a Rainbow of Food Will do a Lot of Good

14/10/202117/03/2021 by Hannie Mommers

Eating a rainbow of food is healthy. To always eat the same food is not good. Every day, we try to balance the composition of the colors of what we eat.

This may sound a little bit strange, but we do this because different fruits and vegetables have different qualities. Mixing the colors helps you to optimize the balance of all the different nutrients, vitamins, and minerals you need.

Each nutrient in fruits and vegetables has its significant impact on our health. This is even more significant when we encounter minor health problems. Get as much color variety in your diet as you can. Eating a rainbow of food will do a lot of good.

Healthy Food Dishes with Blue and Purple Fruits and Vegetables

14/10/202115/03/2021 by Hannie Mommers

Healthy food dishes are amazing to prepare and often much easier than you would expect. The trick is to use the right ingredients. Blue and purple fruits and vegetables are such healthy ingredients. Tom and I always use organic fruits and vegetables which are delicious.

The next step is to know what the specific health benefits are of the food we use in our dishes. Most fruits and vegetables are the healthiest when eaten raw. Steam cooked is also a healthy way to prepare food. We always use as little oil and water as possible. And the oil is always organic and plant-based.

Food with a Conscience is More than just Healthy Food

06/01/202210/03/2021 by Tom van Oosterhout

Food with a conscience is something most of us want more and more. We visit the supermarket and try to think beyond what we want on our plate. Yes, we want healthy food, but we also want to know where the food comes from.

However, the more we have to buy, the more difficult it is to keep track of our good conscience. And if both parents have a busy and demanding job, there is little time and energy left to be mindful of what we buy and eat.

That’s why I’ve made up some rules of thumb for ‘food with a conscience’.

3 Healthy Breakfast Recipes, although Not for Everybody

14/02/202225/02/2021 by Hannie Mommers

For 40+ years I had breakfast with only fruits and a little fruit juice. You might think that is boring, but as the seasons change, the fruit choice changes as well. Because we only eat twice a day since 2019, I wanted to change my breakfast to eat varied enough.

Searching “Healthy breakfast recipes” didn’t at first offer me the kind of breakfasts I was looking for. But determination always pays off as you know, so now I have added 2 breakfasts to the one I had. And I am still looking for variations.

Why is it so hard for me to decide on other breakfasts? Well, as I have described earlier I was raised on bread and sweets. Maybe, if I try really hard, I could eat an American or English breakfast, but at the moment the thought alone gives me the creeps. As I am sure that Anglo Saxons will shiver at the thought of eating just bread. Or fruits. 🙂

Healthy Lifestyle: What are the Lifetime Benefits of Organic Food

28/01/202208/02/2021 by Tom van Oosterhout

The benefits of organic food are numerous. We buy and eat organic food, because it’s better for our environment, for biodiversity, for our food supply, for our health, and for farmers as well. How to explain all these advantages?

For us, to buy organic food is a way to contribute to a better world. With this in mind, we have no problem with the extra price we pay for organic food. It’s an investment that pays off immediately.

Organic food is in fact cheap because we hardly spend money on doctors or medication. We also enjoy investing in the devotion and enthusiasm of the organic farmers and shopkeepers we know. We admire their craftsmanship and their courage for going against the conventional farmers and food industry.

What is the Best Food for Energy? My 21 Favourites!

23/01/202225/01/2021 by Hannie Mommers

Food with a load of calories, sugar, and fat cost a lot of energy to digest. If you often feel tired, it might be a good idea to adjust your diet. Find out what the best food for energy is for you. There will surely be a couple of foods on the list that you like and to which your body responds well.

When we go shopping or walk into town, the temptation of fast food and quick snacks are lurking for us. We are wired for sweet and salt, because for our ancestors these flavours were scarce, yet provided a lot of calories and nutrients. Our environment changed drastically, but our taste didn’t keep pace with that change.

Fast food has a lot of refined sugars and empty calories. If ‘yummy’ is our only criterion to choose food, we won’t feel that ‘yummy’ ourselves over time.

Why do you have a Soap Allergy? What are Promising Solutions?

10/01/202211/01/2021 by Hannie Mommers

From the 70s my parents went on holiday in Spain and brought Maja soap back home with them. The scent of that soap still reminds me of my sunburnt mother who blissfully unwrapped her soap.

The scent was too flowery for me, but what I liked was the paper packaging. I don’t have a soap allergy, but I want sustainable products, including their packaging. Nowadays there is hardly any soap available in Spain that is wrapped in paper. Even in the Eco store, the Marseille soap is wrapped in plastic.