Conscious Living, Zissu Style: Organic Food, All-Natural Cleaning, and Bare Feet

Thursday, June 24th, 2010 | Eating green, Green @ Home, Green Goods & Reviews, Green Home Economics, Green How To's, Green Interviews & Guest Posts, Improve Health, Raising Green Babies, Raising Green Kids | Sarah Finnie Robinson | 2 Comments

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We’re huge fans of Alexandra Zissu and fascinated to be having a conversation with her about conscious green living. Zissu lives in New York City with her family. She is a writer, editor, speaker, a self-described green-proofer and the author of The Conscious Kitchen (2010) and The Complete Organic Pregnancy (2006). She’s expecting “twins” in 2011: two books are due out – one with Jeffrey Hollender, who is the co-founder of Seventh Generation; and the other with her grass-fed and organic butcher. Her “Ask an Organic Mom” column is featured on TheDailyGreen.com.

I go around to talk about The Conscious Kitchen, and sometimes a total newbie will say, ‘I can’t do this, it’s too much.’ My advice is, take a few first steps.

To begin, learn a little bit. That’s what my book is for. It’s small, to fit in your purse, to take with you when you shop. Conscious means being aware.

Then, open your cabinets. What’s in there? Where’s it from? Peru? Argentina? What are the ingredients? Read labels! I find them fascinating. I love going into supermarkets to read labels. I can’t believe some of this stuff is actually food.

Next, look in your fridge to see what you have in there. After all, you brought that there! Would you prefer to have something else? You know, it’s not so easy to switch out your couches and mattresses, but it is really pretty easy to change your food. Make a list of what you want to have in your kitchen. Find out where you can go to get it easily. Obviously we don’t want to make fifteen different shopping trips, we’re all busy. But chances are you have a good market near you. You can decide to change Today! I find food is very empowering. [For Zissu’s current thinking on choosing meat, see her recent post at www.dinneralovestory.com]

From there, as long as you’re in the kitchen, why not look under the kitchen sink?! I mean, really! You can drastically improve your exposure, to toxins, instantly, by using safe and healthy products for cleaning your house. Why not? The green products cost exactly the same, they work just as well! Seventh Generation is great, they even have a disinfectant now. There are many other brands to choose from – or you can make your own! Then your kids can help you clean! My four year-old daughter just loves to clean the glass table top.

On indoor air pollution:

It’s hard to be up in arms about something that’s invisible. The oil spill is so visual, and that’s one reason people are so angry about it. But there are things spilling and gushing out in our houses, too! I know that’s a terrifying thought. It’s a huge, huge problem. But again, nobody put those products there except you! It’s amazing — we are willing to spend our hard-earned dollars on these harmful products, we bring them into our homes, and then they pollute us — and our families. I think it’s a no-brainer: simply replace those products.

Other easy things to do – this one is free. I love things that are free. Take off your shoes! It’s the personal-hygiene equivalent of washing your hands. Simply remove your shoes when you come in the house. If you live in the country, you could be carrying in pesticides and dirt; if you live in the city, you could be bringing pesticides and dirt, and also things like car-exhaust residue. I just read that Brooklyn, New York, has the second-highest pesticide content outdoors of all American cities — second only to LA. It’s because of all the treatment to get rid of roaches and rats. So just do it, it’s free: Take off your shoes.