Books |
Super Natural Home
Beth Greer
By
Published: Jan 01, 2009
Category:
Self Help
Super Natural Home: Improve Your Health, Home, and Planet — One Room at a Time
Beth Greer
The experts are not on our side. How can they be? They supplement their income at universities by “consulting” for drug and food companies. And, somehow, they fail to find the poison in the product.
Beth Greer is an amateur. She and her husband owned The Learning Annex; she was the President. And one of her roles was to identify spiritual and business gurus who might be good lecturers at the Annex.
So it was a bit of an irony that, at 49, she developed a shoulder pain that, a few doctors down the line, led to a diagnosis of breast cancer. It wasn’t that. But there was still the question of what to do about the tumor in her chest.
As it happened, Greer was scheduled — this was a Type A woman to the max, so “scheduled” is exactly the right word — to spend a week with a friend at the Optimum Health Institute in San Diego. There she cleansed, fasted, exercised. She left with an understanding that her illness was very likely the result of a toxic environment. She changed her life. Six months later, without surgery, the tumor was gone. Two months later, she decided to move on from The Learning Annex and help others find the path to non-toxic living.
Super Natural Home is not a science text; it’s informed, but not footnoted. It starts with a questionnaire; she talks directly to the reader. If you have been reading and living Green for some time, this is a refresher course. If you are freshly concerned and willing to consider big lifestyle changes, this book is a great start.
Some things I learned:
Aspartane — the core of the fake sweetener you may use in your coffee — contains methanol, which your body turns into formaldehyde. (And you thought the worst thing about it was that it stimulated craving for carbs!)
Flame retardants on your couch may accumulate in your breast milk and affect your kids’ brain functions.
Non-organic potatoes — even after being washed — had among the highest pesticide counts of 43 fruits and vegetables in a 2006 USDA test.
Genetically engineered food is ubiquitous — think 60% of processed foods. If you’re buying a food product made from corn, soy or canola, odds are good you’re about to consume something that most European supermarkets won’t sell.
As much as 30% of the bottled water sold in the United States starts as tap water.
Antibacterial soaps end up as sludge that gets spread on farm fields. And then what cleaned you contaminates waterways.
And there’s — oh, much more. But Greer has not come to terrify you; she’s an activist who can tell you how to change. In food. In the household products you buy. And, if you do nothing else, the furniture, carpet and wallpaper in your childrens’ rooms.
The way of life you have after you’ve naturalized your home? Organic, but not unattractive. Demanding, but not so you obsess. Maybe a bit more expensive in the short run, maybe a lot cheaper in the long run. But that’s if you believe a mother who’s a holistic health advocate over a highly credentialed academic.
To buy “Super Natural Home” from Amazon.com, click here.
