TIPS FOR RESPONSIBLE CONSUMPTION AND LIVING

Environmental awareness is not reflected in knowing that the car is a bad choice of transport, but by reducing car usage and including the bicycle as an alternative mode of transport, as well as buses and walking.

The friend of nature is not only one who has a speech defending the natural environment, but one who is revisiting his personal life every day, and adjusting wherever possible, the ideal life that he will constantly be sculpting.

We have selected some tips of responsible consumption from the Kairos Institute:

• Breathe deeply – the truth is that blood needs oxygen. Deep breathing increases clarity of mind and gives better physical health.  Do this calmly for a few minutes each day.  Inhale pure fresh air and as deep as possible.

• Avoid drugs – Take medicines only when actually needed. Prefer the Homeopathy approach or Naturopathic Practice.  Laboratory induced consumption of medicines is not only unnecessary, but harmful.

• Eat less meat – Meat comes with hormones, preservatives, and toxins that make it unhealthy.

• Avoid car use – The car in particular, causes environmental pollution and deprives your body of needed exercise. Use it only when necessary.

• Hiking – is a way to ensure daily physical exercise the body needs to maintain health. Try to walk through quieter streets or parks. For short distances, walking is better than driving.

• Cycling – Lessens traffic in cities, does not pollute, and is good for your health.

• When driving, avoid high speeds – Drive slower – you save money and pollute less. High speeds are not only dangerous for you and others, but affect the whole environment. Driving at 112 km per hour – for example – you spend 25% more fuel than traveling at 88 km per hour.

• x-rays only when necessary – Avoid X-rays whenever possible. Even small doses of radiation must be avoided to maintain better health.

• Swap coffee for herbal teas – Avoid coffee and black tea. Excessive intake of coffee can cause behavioral problems, cardiac abnormalities, bladder cancer and cholesterol. Caffeine produces insomnia and nervous excitement. Barley coffee can be an alternative. But herbal teas have different medicinal properties.

• Stop smoking completely – Respect your own lungs and those of others.  To grow tobacco, native forests are cut and pesticides released to the soil – the environmental impact is too great.

• Prefer foods with fiber – According to the World Health Organisation, 80% of cancer cases occur for environmental reasons, including smoking and poor diet.  Grain foods and fibers prevent health problems. Avoid artificial or refined food.

• Drinking less milk, eating fewer eggs - Several chemicals are released into milk every day. Cows are receiving almost constant doses of antibiotics and hormones harmful to their health and ours. Many hens today are kept in captivity, unable to move, receiving high doses of hormones to produce more eggs.

• Save and recycle paper – When possible, buy recycled paper, or at least not bleached with chlorine, a product extremely harmful to the environment.

• Avoid very hot or very cold foods - It is best to avoid extremes of temperature in food intake.

• Wash vegetables – Whole leaf vegetables should be thoroughly washed to remove all remnants of pesticides.  Leave to soak in a basin of water with a little vinegar or lemon juice is also good.  This helps kill bacteria and parasites. Throw away the outer leaves where  more pollutants accumulate.

• Vegetables without poison – Many pesticides are used to grow tomatoes, lettuce and even onions. In some cases, where enforcement is lacking, excess material can be considerable. In addition to washing, peel cucumbers and tomatoes and discard the outer layer of onions. Whenever possible, buy products from a farmer who does not use poisons.

• Use homemade insecticides – No chemical insecticide is harmless. If you think you need to use it, read the label and follow the instructions carefully.  But there are some workarounds.  For ants, put a few drops of lemon juice in the nest entrance and leave the skin there. Ants can also be eliminated with the use of coffee powder, talcum powder, pepper and ash. For cockroaches, mix baking soda with sugar and place in bottle caps, in places frequented by them (in the refrigerator, stove, into drains and landfills). The sugar attracts them and the baking soda kills them. The biggest problem with pets is fleas. Wash your pet with warm water and soap.  Then apply an effective homemade remedy to keep fleas at bay: two tablespoons of rosemary boiled in a liter of water.

• Look at the labels on food purchased – Check the expiration date of the product and instructions for its use.

• Use glass bottles – Avoid plastic bottles out of respect for the environment.

• Avoid all canned – If you drink soft drinks or beer, do not accept those that come in cans for the same reason as above.  Avoid canned foods and preserves.

• Avoid styrofoam – Used to pack ice cream and many other foods. Styrofoam is carcinogenic if it is in contact with food, and contains CFCs which destroy the ozone layer in the upper layers of the atmosphere.

• Avoid margarine – It is produced with various vegetable oils and animal fats mixed.  To look like butter,  antioxidants, flavorings, dyes, emulsifiers, thickeners, acidulants and preservatives are added to margarine – all chemical additives harmful to health.

• Avoid microwave ovens – The microwave oven can develop toxic amino acids in foods such as cheese, milk, meat and fish. It does not give the food a uniform temperature, able to kill any bacteria.

• Saving water – Water is a scarce natural resource. Do not leave the tap running all the time while brushing your teeth. Don’t spend half an hour under the shower. Take action immediately if there is a leak in your home or building.

• Avoid sodas – Many of them contain caffeine, which causes a dependence. In addition, other additives and properties of these drinks make them highly destructive and harmful to teeth. Try and drink natural juices.

• Turn off the television – Used in excess, television disrupts family life and destroys the intellectual, cultural and social lives of people. But used sparingly, it can be a positive factor in your life.

• Do not use aluminum cookware – Try to gradually replace aluminum cookware. Prefer enameled pots, iron or glass. The aluminum pot comes apart when cooking acidic foods.  There are several diseases associated with excessive aluminum in the human body.

• Prefer natural soaps – Soaps with perfumes cause artificial damage to the skin and the environment.  Do not be fooled by strong perfumes. Not a good sign.

• Sweating naturally – Do not overdo it with deodorants. Sweat is important to remove natural toxins. Deodorants are based on aluminum chloride, ammonia and FORMAD, which block the pores of the skin and are harmful to health.

• Put your hands to the ground – If you have a piece of land on your property, plant a garden. Even in an apartment, certain foods can be grown in pots.  Plant lettuce, cabbage, chayote, tomato, spinach, carrots. At mealtimes, you can be sure your food is free of poisons.

• Abandoning refined foods - Bleach and artificial substances that may release dioxin are used in its manufacture, and fiber and all natural ingrediants are lost in the manufacturing process.

• Do not overdo it with the computer - Computers emit low levels of radiation that can cause headaches and other symptoms in people who use them for many hours.  Take a break every hour worked.

• Buy the necessary - We live in a world of false needs, artificially created. Get out of the vicious circle of consumption by consumption.

• Avoid the use of plastics – If you go shopping, take a bag from home.

• On the beach, avoid excess sun – Between 10:00 and 15:30. Rates of skin cancer are worrying.

• Educate and protect children from unsafe food – Educate your children (and their friends) on the problems of excess sweets and candies, soft drinks, burgers, hot dogs and other pitfalls of the so-called modern world. These foods often contain dyes, preservatives and other harmful additives.  The satisfaction that they give only lasts a few seconds, but there are long-term consequences on health.

Now add those items that are important to you, but not on this list, and set some personal goals for the near future.

• The Kairos Institute, in partnership with the French institution Artisians du Monde, produced the “Handbook for Understanding Teaching Intervene-For an education for responsible drinking and Trade Fair”, which is responsible consumption and its relation to the trade fair, ethical and solidarity.

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