Mariah Gladstone’s childhood laid the perfect foundations for the work she does these days, breathing new life into Indigenous Peoples’ food traditions through her online cooking show Indigikitchen. With her approach to sustainable diets, making use of pulses and other ancestral foods, Mariah became a Champion for the World Food Forum, a youth-led initiative launched by FAO and a global network of partners, to empower young people to transform agrifood systems for a better food future.  

On the Blackfeet Reservation where Mariah was raised, in the wind-whipped ruggedness of the northwestern state of Montana, her dad and grandpa carved out a vegetable garden for her: “I was raised with a lot of fresh foods that came from the earth, and I had an understanding of seeds growing into food. That’s something that I feel really privileged to have grown up with.” 

Meanwhile her mom gave her free a rein in the kitchen. “When I was very young, I started coming up with recipes in my head. My mom let me experiment with them. Even from when I was five or six years old, she’d make me document my entire recipe. I continued to do that.” 

Mariah quickly began to realise as she was growing up that not everyone in the community around her was so fortunate. Her heritage is a mix of Blackfeet and Cherokee, two of the largest Indigenous Nations in the United States. From a health perspective alone, medical researchers and Indigenous advocacy groups say Native American populations suffer some of the highest rates of type 2 diabetes on the continent. 

Pulses and ancestral foods for food sovereignty 

Attending a conference on food sovereignty helped raise Mariah’s awareness, as did her degree in Environmental Engineering from Columbia University and a Master’s from the State University of New York. “There has been really intentional work to disconnect native people from our traditional food systems,” professes Mariah.  Being deprived of most of their buffalo herds and the ensuing mass starvation among her father’s Blackfeet people back in the 1880’s remains a vivid, collective memory in her isolated community. 

The consequences have continued to play out as “a lot of people’s parents, grandparents or great grandparents grew up on rations or other forms of subsidized foods. A lot of folks, if I mention beans, think of squishy green beans that come in a can.”  

For Mariah, on the other hand, the foods of her Indigenous ancestors are rich in creative possibilities. “One of my favourite ways of eating white beans actually has been to overcook them until they’re really soft and blend them with maple sugar and some eggs and actually create a coffee cake out of them. A really healthy delicious protein-rich coffee cake, but you have no idea it’s made of beans.”  

Reaching out with her cooking videos through social media platforms to her fellow-millennials comes instinctively to Mariah. She keeps her videos short for easy viewing on cell phones or in case of poor internet connectivity.  

She’s also found that on social media platforms, “it is not just youth that are present, it is their parents and their grandparents … I see people tagging their family members, and saying, ‘Grandma, can we make this this weekend?’”  

There’s plenty of interactivity too, as people send her back recipes which they’ve tried and modified. “Not only am I seeing young people really excited about it, but they’re getting their family members and other people involved, creating not just delicious meals, but also restoring knowledge on an intergenerational level.” 

Celebrating the Three Sisters

Indigenous Peoples in large parts of North America traditionally intercropped corn, squash and beans, known as the “Three Sisters”. We learned about it through the book Braiding Sweetgrass. As well as enhancing soil health with the nitrogen-fixing bacteria in their roots, crops such as beans are “important to the well-functioning of our ecosystems, not just our nutritional health, but also the ways in which we act as caretakers for the land around us.” 

But how much recognition is there among the wider public of the wisdom of Indigenous Peoples’ food systems? In Montana, a movement started in the 1980’s and 1990’s whereby a network of farms replaced chemical-fertilized grain crops with organic lentils. Pulse crops are known to be important for soil health and biodiversity. “I think that it’s a great example of non-Indigenous Peoples recognizing the importance of caretaking the land as farmers.” 

At best, though, it’s a mixed picture. It can be “interesting to see science catching up to traditional knowledge and see peer-reviewed studies demonstrating things we have already known. On the one hand it’s cool to have validation from a peer reviewed study, but also annoying because until you have validation from a peer-reviewed study it is not taken seriously.”  

Indigenous Peoples’ traditional knowledge is methodologically sound and informed by systematic observations, experiences, trials and practice. Therefore, it is a good source of expertise to inform food policies that require an in-depth understanding of local ecosystems, biodiversity and cultures. 

For Indigenous Youth, the overarching concern, says Mariah, is ensuring the land can continue to generate food in the future. “I think that today’s young people obviously want to ensure that our communities are fed, but we’re really looking to ensure that sustainability is incorporated at every level,” she says. 

The post Indigikitchen shows the young and indigenous their food roots appeared first on Green Prophet.

So, all this worrying about the burgeoning population was for nought? We don’t need to be concerned that we are rapidly reaching a population of 7 billion and by the end of the century, we are likely to hit the 10 billion mark? Well, not exactly. Yes, Nature published a handy guide to increasing agricultural yields (hat tip to Nona Willis Aroniwitz from GOOD for breaking it down), but no, it won’t be easy. Feeding 10 billion people can be done, except it will require political will, cooperation, and even a bit of Jobsian self-discipline and self-sacrifice. Step on in for the most succinct five solutions to ending hunger we have ever seen.

Every nation on earth is concerned about feeding their people, but in the Middle East, we have especially good reasons to start thinking quickly. Already, in densely and economically challenged countries like Egypt – despite the rise in organic farms and the slow food movement – food is becoming scarce. And all the wealth in the world hasn’t brought the Gulf countries sufficient fertile land to achieve food independence.

This situation is leading to “land grabs” – where wealthier countries like the United Arab Emirates and Saudi Arabia are buying up huge swaths of land from poorer countries in Africa and Asia.

• As it turns out, Solutions for a Cultivated Planet recommends that we focus more agricultural attention on Africa, Latin America and Eastern Europe into order to increase agricultural yields. But we would like to add that if we do so, it should occur in a manner much more egalitarian than current resource extraction. In other words, it has to benefit the locals too!
• Farming in tropical lands is a waste of time. Although rich in biodiversity, the tropics aren’t great for growing nutritious food for a lot of people. Leave the forests to the task of sponging up our carbon emissions!
• This seems like a no-brainer since farmers and suppliers are locked into a never-ending cycle of doing just this, but it is suggested that the use of water, fertilizer, and chemicals needs to be improved. We are becoming especially adept at excellent irrigation methods in parts of the Middle East, although other countries remain woefully inefficient.
• We need to stop eating so much meat! This will send some carnivores into paroxyms of panic, but cultivating meat – particularly in wealthier countries – usurps an incredible amount of land and feed. Cattle are getting fat, but the people in Somalia are starving. Tell that to your kids at the dinner table.
• And finally, food waste must end. This isn’t only a problem during Ramadan or other holidays. It turns out that one third of all the food we produce in the world either rots, gets tossed out, or becomes fodder for pesky pests.

The 21 authors who contributed to this study make it sound so simple, but so far human beings have not proved especially talented at ensuring that everyone has enough to eat. Still, we have to believe we’ll get it right eventually!

:: GOOD, Nature

More on the Challenges Associated with Population Growth in the Middle East:

A Profile of Iraq’s Environmental Woes

The GINK Manifesto: Childless, Proud, and Loud

Fish Farming Isn’t so Evil After All

image via USAID on Flickr

The post Actually, We Can Feed 10 Billion People. Here’s How appeared first on Green Prophet.

Agriculture is the economic foundation of Seferihisar. The region is famous around Turkey for its juicy satsumas and mandarin oranges, while olives and vineyards also comprise a significant portion of the local economy. But in the last decade, the government has passed a series of legislation favoring the homogeneous agriculture practiced by large-scale corporations and discouraging the local agriculture that has traditionally sustained communities such as Seferihisar. Since becoming a “slow city” several years ago, however, farmers in Seferihisar are finding ways to keep their traditional ways of agriculture alive.

Government pressure to homogenize crops

Like many small-scale farmers in Turkey, Seferihisar’s farmers took a hit in 2006 when Turkish Parliament passed Law No. 5553.

Patterned on European Union seed laws, Law 5553 forced all commercial farmers to only use seeds that had been tested, registered, and certified by the state. The state, in turn, pledged to only certify seeds of sufficiently “high quality”, defining quality seeds as those with the highest productivity and least diversity of products. But the seeds used in traditional agriculture are constantly changing and exhibiting variant characteristics from harvest to harvest. In fact, that variance is how most small-scale farmers define the quality of a seed.

Law 5553 did, however, allow farmers to continue using non-certified seeds for their own purposes and trading any seeds they wished with other farmers, so long as the products from the seeds were never sold. This leaves an opportunity for the rebirth of a truly traditional agricultural system in the region, one based on bartering and local diversity.

Fulfilling its role as the country’s only slow city, Seferihisar held a Seed Festival in February 2011 that brought together seed producers from all around the region. More than one hundred seed species were traded, and farmers’ cooperatives and organizations from various locales set up stands to display their products. Most importantly, farmers from various regions were able to communicate and establish relationships, ensuring future collaborations like this will continue.

The tasty side of slow food

Another project Seferihisar has taken on since becoming a slow city was a seven-day youth exchange called “Cook Your Future”. Thirty-six participants from Italy, Denmark, and Romania came to Seferihisar, also in February 2011, to study, practice, and eat the results of slow food agriculture.

At its root, the Slow Food movement is an effort to make humans less alienated from the food they consume, and to ensure that food is as healthy as it can be — both for our bodies and for our communities. The 36 young people who came to Seferihisar for “Cook Your Future” seem to understand that principle better than their governments, at least according to their mission statement:

Fast food chains which increasingly capture us, young people, have become threatening for Europe’s future. We aim at breaking the chains growing day by day and promoting healty and slow food. We intend to remind people of cultural cuisine to be forgotten and spread it to a wider audience in cooperation with our partners.

Cittaslow is spreading throughout the world, and Slow Food projects are taking off in places far from the movement’s origins, such as Egypt and Beirut. Perhaps slow cities will one day become the norm and not the exception — even in countries where, these days, the government seems determined to expunge local farmers in favor of corporations.

:: Cittaslow Seferihisar

Read more about the slow food movement in the Middle East:

Egypt To Get 3% Of Africa’s Thousand Slow Food Gardens

Stress Is Making Us Fat: New Study. Time To Start Eating Slow Food?

Slow Food Movement Is Active In Beirut

Image via Cittaslow Seferihisar

The post Turkey’s First “Slow City” Promotes Local Agriculture, Slow Food Movement appeared first on Green Prophet.

Detoxing your lifestyle of non-green habits doesn’t have to be as dramatic as drug rehab. It can be simple and is a great way to start the new year.

Rosh Hashana, or the Jewish New Year, is only a few days away and as a time of reflection many of us may be thinking of ways that we want to change our lifestyles for the coming year.  If the words “detox” or “rehab” call to mind dramatic associations rehab clinics from the movies, you’re going too far.  Invent your own mellow and green version of rehab – one that leads you to a gentler, kinder way of treating yourself, your resources, and the environment.

Not sure where to start?  Here are some suggestions:

Try to cure yourself of any addictions. Addictions can come in many forms, from little things like craving an extra pinch of salt to needing that cup of coffee in the morning to needing a cigarette.  Whatever the addiction, chances are it’s hurting you and wasting resources (which is bad for both you and Mother Earth).  Instead of being dependent on whatever it is you’re addicted to, try to transform it into something you can savor occasionally – you are sure to enjoy it more.

Try to avoid waste. Waste can come in many forms, from wasting the leftover food on your plate to just using up more than you need to in general.  Again, if you are consuming more than you need to, it’s bad for you, your wallet, and the planet.  Instead of viewing this challenge as an attempt to deprive yourself, look at it as a question to ask what you really need.

Get healthy and stop putting junk in your body. This is a universal new year’s resolution, and for good reason.  Many of us get caught up in the fast pace of our lives and forget to treat our bodies with respect.  Make a conscious attempt to avoid chemically treated or highly processed foods this year (both of which are not only bad for you but terrible for the environment) and focus on eating foods that are natural, local, and as close to their original state as possible.

Integrate low carbon emission and heart-healthy forms of transportation into your routine. Many adults have a hard time working exercise into their schedules, and everyone likes saving a little money.  An easy way to do this is by integrating cardiovascular and low carbon emission forms of transportation into your routine, such as walking or cycling.  Even walking/biking to work or the grocery store once or twice a week would make a difference.

Image via: Dragan Todorovic

Read more about detoxing and simplifying your life::
Detox your life: Take the ‘Buy-Nothing-Ramadan’ Challenge
Detox – Not a Diet, A Way of Life (4 Tips)

The post Rehabilitate and Detox Your Lifestyle in Time for the New Year appeared first on Green Prophet.

Few people would say that they lead stress-free lives. It starts with the pressure to fit in at school, then you need to wear the right clothes, pass your exams, get into a good university, pay off your student loans, meet your mortgage payments – and before you know it, you’re worrying about college funds for the kids.

Some of us already have an inkling that stress is a factor in many of the metabolic and emotional disorders we see today. Stress wears us down and hangs heavy on the shoulders of our immune system. It’s no wonder that the rates of diabetes, anxiety disorders, depression and heart disease are at an all time high. And now for the first time, an Israeli team has located a gene in the brain that appears to be triggered by high levels of stress, and causes a series of negative physiological reactions.

In the recent study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, the researchers from the Weizmann Institute in Rehovot have identified a gene in the brain that when activated causes two very distinct reactions to stress – anxiety and changes in metabolism. A protein released by the gene called Urocortin-3 (Ucn3) appears to be involved in a cascade of events related to stress and to elicit both anxiety-related behavior and type II diabetes in animal models.

Study supervisor Dr. Alon Chen, a neuro-endocrinologist at the Weizmann Institute’s Department of Neurobiology, says: “We showed that the actions of a single gene in just one part of the brain can have profound effects on the metabolism of the whole body.” And this gene may be influencing our choice of snacks, contributing to our cravings for food that is fatty, poor in nutrition and especially sweet. In essence, stress may be turning us fat.

Turning off the ‘stress switch’

“Stress is definitely influencing every system in the body,” says Chen, who recently worked in San Diego for four years on stress research before returning to Israel. He tells ISRAEL21c: “It’s not just causing anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder but is influencing metabolic syndromes such as obesity. It’s complex.

“In the lab, stressed animals eat less. But in humans some eat more or less when stressed. What’s key here is that food preference is changing,” he explains.

The Israeli researchers have discovered that there’s a ‘stress switch’ that seems to lead to diabetes and obesity.

The Israeli researchers created their own method for changing the activity of the gene in the brain, causing it to release varied amounts of Ucn3. They discovered that increased levels of Ucn3 caused anxiety and changes in metabolism.

With increased levels of Ucn3, the bodies of the mice used more sugar and less fatty acids and metabolic rates increased, showing the first stages of type 2 diabetes. The pancreas produced more insulin and the muscles measured a delayed sensitivity to insulin.

A better stress meter and monitor

Several genes and proteins are involved and coordinated when we’re feeling stressed, Chen continues. The Ucn3 protein that he and his team identified is produced in the brain, which controls the pancreas, muscles, and liver among a symphony of biological processes, and appears to be involved in a cascade of events related to stress.

The Ucn3 appears to be the tie that binds these systems – we have Ucn3 receptors all over our bodies, including in our hearts and muscles.

According to Chen: “This system is not only in the brain, but it is also working in the periphery. Showing up in the heart and muscles responsible for insulin sensitivity, it helps us cope properly with stress.”

Until now the lines drawn between stress, appetite and anxiety were pointed out, but never fully explained. This new research may be the important missing link that can help drug developers create drugs targeting stress that could have multiple side-benefits, like preventing diabetes, promoting heart health and keeping our weight down.

Helpful if you meet a lion

This complexity of the Ucn3 system, with its receptors all over our bodies, probably helps to keep us healthy in normal situations. It’s when our lives run amuck and we are constantly stressed out that nature takes its toll.

“Stress is good when you need to cope with an event, like when you meet a lion. Your metabolism is changing; you consume more sugars, and more glucose goes to the muscles to help you escape the lion,” Chen says.

But it needs to be a fine-tuned response, and an appropriate one. There are no lions running around Wall Street, at least not the furry variety our ancestors met in the jungle. Says Chen: “The stress response needs to be a tightly regulated system. The genes need to kick in at the right time. If any are not working properly it can lead to psychiatric and metabolic disorders.”

At the very least this protein studied in Israel could be used as a biomarker to tell doctors when stress levels, often a subjective measure, are shooting up too high. Then we’d know that it’s time for a vacation.

(This article was first published on ISRAEL21c – www.israel21c.org)

Visit http://mentalhealthtreatment.net/stress/  for more resources on stress management and help.

The post Stress Is Making Us Fat: New Study. Time to Start Eating Slow Food? appeared first on Green Prophet.

Delicious and important.  And the movement is hitting the Middle East.

Slow Food Beirut is becoming more active, encouraging a clean and fair food system.  It’s website offers a variety of ways to get involved with the movement, including: becoming a member, starting a convivium (a branch of the movement), proposing a presidium (a small project to support artisan producers), nominating a product to the Lebanon Ark of Taste, hosting an event at your farm/land, creating a recipe with an Ark food, and hosting a tasting for students.

Slow Food Beirut also supports Lebanese Earth Markets (Souk el Ard), part of the international network of farmers’ markets.  These markets encourage the direct sale of local foods from farmer to eater.

Future projects of Slow Food Beirut include teaching about the Slow Food Movement in various local schools.

To keep up to date with Slow Food Beirut’s events, check out their blog.

Read more about the slow food movement::

Lebanese Farmer’s Market Makes Food Not War

Na Laga’at Brings Slow Food Farmer’s Market to Jaffa

Carlo Petrini’s Slow Food, A Review

The post Slow Food Movement is Active in Beirut appeared first on Green Prophet.

The name of the course is What Are We Nourished By? and will be held at Kibbutz Revadim in south-central Israel.

The course will not be taught by a single lecturer, and will rather be taught by a variety of people with different perspectives on food – ranging from chefs, to environmentalists, to farmers, to devout vegetarians.  All of the lecturers are participating in the course on a volunteer basis.  Each class will present a new issue and be lead by a different lecturer.

Check out the course syllabus:

The Politics of Food, Ami Atinger (Heschel Center) – 9.2.09

The Ecological Footprint of the Food Industry, Eran Ben Yamini (CEO of the Green Movement) – 9.9.09

Green Wash – The Green Scam, Limor Aloof (Chairman of Ecological Thinking) – 9.16.09

Who Bought Uncle Moshe’s Farm? The Industrialized Livestock Farm, Yossi Wolfson (Director of the Vegetarian Community Center in Jerusalem) – 9.23.09

Waste = Food, Yair Engel (CEO of Sustainable) – 9.30.09

Closing the Loop of Food and Waste, Yariv Spektor (Environmental Consultant, Biodegradable Substances Expert) – 10.7.09

Marketing and Advertising – How are We Sold To? Rohan Shnir (Former advertiser) – 10.14.09

The International Food Market and the Slow Food Movement, Ayal Bloch (Institute for Sustainability Education at David Yalin College) – 10.21.09

Democracy in a Plate, Avi Dabush (Environment and Community Project Director at Shatil) – 10.28.09

Fair Trade, Avi Levy (CEO of Green Movement), 11.4.09

Organic Farming, Panel of Farmers: Alik Felman (Community Organic Farm) and Gadi Moses (Organic Farming Counselor at the Agriculture Department) – 11.11.09

Cooking in the Spirit of Anthroposophy, Yotka Hershtein (Chef at Harduf Restaurant) – 11.18.09

For more information on the course contact Adi Dori (adi-dori@hotmail.com) or Lilach Yefet (yefet71@gmail.com)

Read more about the intersection of food and politics in the Middle East::

Bustan Qaraaqa: Permaculture and Empowerment for Palestinians in the West Bank

Israel’s Organic Eggs: On the Political Edge?

Israeli and Palestinian Slow Food Chefs Design Recipe for Peace

The post Israel's Social Economic Academy to Lead Food Politics Course this Fall appeared first on Green Prophet.

Are you an organic food addict? Or do you insist on eating food that grown locally, but pesticide-ridden, to spare food miles (or to serve an ideology?)

As food production is a major source of greenhouse gas pollution (Read: Global Warming), eating locally, and consuming less meat is one way we can do our part.

Following a worldwide trend, where people are opening up their fridge to show people what’s in their fridge (and on their palette) today I will expose myself and show you what’s in mine. It feels a bit like opening my underwear drawer to strangers, but here goes:

CONTENTS (Door on right): Bio eggs, butter, organic strawberry jam, milk, mustard, sundried tomatoes, pomegranate concentrate, goat’s milk yogurt, V8, tehina, capers, guava juice, orange juice, batteries (not for eating!), coconut juice, goat’s yogurt, and the old Canadian maple syrup (thanks Mom!).

SOURCE: There are a number of imported items here like the V8 from North America and the juice from Egypt. The jam is from the United States. Phoeey on me, but it looked so good. And the pomegranate concentrate, I think is from Turkey, while syrup is from Canada. All the milk products are produced locally and bought at Eden Teva market or local non-organic shops. Milk costs about $1.50 a liter in Israel (non-organic), the organic yogurt about $3 a bottle.

CONTENTS: (from top to bottom, left to right) organic lentil sprouts, organic goat’s cheese, chessick fruit, soft regular white cheese 5%, organic red cabbage part of a weekly CSA veggie box delivery (choose from a list of CSAs here if you live in Israel); more cheese including a Rockfort goat’s cheese, Syrian dates, spicy lettuces, cabbage, parsley, green onions, carrots, leaks, tomatoes, radishes, cucumbers, and spinach.

SOURCE: Vegetables come from an organic farm, which delivers a box of whatever’s in season, once a week. Some of the cheese is from Eden Teva market, a health food store in Bnei Brak; some cheese is from Arab supermarket on the corner nearby my house.

Reducing food miles is important to me from an environmental perspective. I try to eat locally produced food, and things which are in season.

CONTENTS: It being Passover in Israel means that a lot of the bread products you might see here other times of the year have been cleaned out, eaten or burned, as per Jewish custom. Moving on, there is some sort of white fish, hamburger organic and regular, rice (stored in freezer to keep the bugs out), and a strange kind of sheep tail fat (bottom right) for making a Bukharian food known as Osh Pollo.

It is wrapped like that because someone (on their request) was supposed to “smuggle” it to the US where no such sheep tail fat can be found. It stays frozen in the meantime. (As a once a week meat-eater, Osh Pollo is very yummy and highly recommended.)

SOURCE: The frozen products come from Eden Teva Market, a health food store, a regular grocery store, and the sheep tail fat, a local market. Normally you won’t find so much meat in the freezer, as I tend to buy it when I want it. I have no idea how much meat costs per kilo, because I buy it so rarely. The organic hamburger, enough to feed 4, cost about $25 for the box, times 2 what you see above.

Want to know more about fridge voyeurism? Read this past Green Prophet post on a fridge in Jerusalem.

The post Fridge Voyeurism in Tel Aviv appeared first on Green Prophet.

So what are the essentials, and what aren’t? A lactation specialist offers you this guide to making breastfeeding truly green. Products you don’t buy, won’t have to be manufactured, packaged, transported, cleaned, or disposed:

1. No Formula. Parents are often advised to keep formula on hand “just in case.” But they are more likely to offer formula to a newborn when they have it in the house, which is why formula companies give out free samples. The first time baby won’t settle down, usually in the middle of the night, parents worry (understandably) that he is hungry and offer him a bottle.

But babies cry for many reasons, and parents need to know the signs that the baby is getting enough milk. Giving a bottle in the early weeks exposes the baby to infection and can interfere with the baby’s natural immune system.

If a supplement is truly needed, the first choice is the mother’s own milk.  And once babies are eating a variety of nutritious solid foods, formula (made from cow’s milk) doesn’t offer anything extra. It’s expensive, highly processed and overly sweet.

2. No Bottles. The cultural association of babies with bottles is deeply ingrained. In some cultures, dolls come with a breast tied on a string (but children who grow up with breastfed siblings simply put the doll to their chest). Babies can drink from a cup from about six months of age.

Mothers who plan to be separated from a young baby will want the convenience of bottles, although a cup or spoon will do in a pinch. Water bottles are not necessary for breastfed babies on even the hottest days. Instead, nurse baby a little more often and check that urine is clear and plentiful.

3. Avoid nipple creams. The breast’s surface is  perfectly suited for baby, and need be washed only with water. Lanolin creams only soothe and don’t cure pain caused by a bad latch, and some creams can cause an allergic reaction.

Pain should always be evaluated because a bad latch can lead to poor milk transfer and low weight gain. Medicinal creams, when prescribed to treat specific conditions like thrush or eczema, should be applied after feedings and do not need to be washed off.

4. Disposable breast pads. It’s better to use reusable cotton pads for the early weeks and months when breasts may leak.  A folded handkerchief who can later wash works too. If you have extra masks on hand from coronavirus, or COVID-19 that are unused, then stuff them with extra padding, use, wash, repeat.

5. No need for pumps. Unfortunately, pumps have made it onto the list of necessary baby items. Some babies whose mothers return to work after six months  may do fine with solid foods and a cup at the babysitter, nursing the rest of the time.

(Mothers who pump at work usually continue until age nine to twelve months.) For short outings hand expression is free and works as well as or better than a pump, with a little practice.

Some working mothers even prefer hand-expression, but it does require privacy.

Good quality pumps don’t have to be purchased new. They can be borrowed from places like Yad Sarah (an organization in Israel that distributes medical equipment) or rented from a lactation consultant. See what’s local to you.

Other types of pumps are difficult to sterilize and may not last through two babies. Try bringing baby along– in Israel, babies are welcomed almost everywhere and a lucky few moms have even managed to bring baby to work.

6. No vitamins and drops. Concoctions for increasing milk are overrated–the way to ensure enough is to nurse often and effectively. Analysis of the milk of mothers from different cultures, diets and socioeconomic levels has shown little difference in quality or quantity. Unless you are in some places where environmental toxins in breastmilk are high like in Tunisia.

A mother’s diet, unless extremely deficient over several years, has almost no effect on her milk. Mothers, like everyone else, should care for themselves by eating well and setting the stage for healthy eating as children grow.

Regarding drops for babies, the American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) recommends:

In the first 6 months, water, juice, and other foods are generally unnecessary for breastfed infants. Vitamin D and iron may need to be given before 6 months of age in selected groups of infants (vitamin D for infants whose mothers are vitamin D-deficient or those infants not exposed to adequate sunlight; iron for those who have low iron stores or anemia).

7. No Powdered cereals, teething biscuits, and jarred baby foods. “Baby” foods became popular with the advent of artificial feeding, when solids were introduced before babies were developmentally ready.

But after six months of exclusive breastfeeding, as recommended by the AAP and Israel’s health ministry, babies can eat soft table foods mashed with a fork and graduate to finger foods shortly afterward.

8. No need for special nursing clothes and bras. Wear a loose t-shirt that you can pull up — the baby covers your torso. Try a button down shirt on top of a tank top, or slash holes in a t-shirt and wear a loose shirt on top. You can experiment with regular and sports bras (or none–bras don’t prevent sagging, which is caused by pregnancy), but one that is too restrictive can lead to plugged ducts and infections.

9. No need for contraceptives and feminine hygiene products. Some people believe that you can’t get pregnant while nursing, while others insist it doesn’t make a difference. The truth lies somewhere in between. Mothers can learn which factors delay the return of periods, and when and when not to rely on breastfeeding for birth control.

10. No need for breastfeeding pillows. They’re hard to transport, and it’s usually more effective for the mother to support the baby’s weight herself. In the beginning a regular pillow can support her arms and raise the baby to the height of the breast.

The one item I do recommend purchasing, second-hand if possible, is a good quality sling or baby carrier. Mothers get used to carrying babies’ weight as they grow and it’s great exercise. Carriers keep babies calm and eliminate the need for shlepping a bulky stroller to the mall (not that you need anything) or beach.

Consider carefully before buying–your baby needs your loving arms more than any accessory.

For more on breastfeeding:
Breastfeeding and Judaism: Why Moses’ Mother Didn’t Put Bottles into the Ark of Bulrushes
Why Baby’s First Gift Shouldn’t Be Formula From the Hospital
10 Common Misconceptions about Breastfeeding Your Baby

The post 10 breastfeeding products you do not need to buy appeared first on Green Prophet.

The market will feature not only a variety of fresh produce sold directly from the farmers themselves, but also independently produced food items such as cheeses, tahina, halva, and more.

Within the framework of the farmer’s market, a tasting menu of dishes from some of Tel Aviv’s finest restaurants – Katit, El Babud, Carmela Banachala, Eucalyptos, Azora, and others – will be offered as well.

So why are farmer’s markets more “green” than your average supermarket?  Farmer’s markets bring together some great local produce, meaning your food has traveled less miles to get to you than, say, that avocado in the supermarket that may have been imported from South America.  At farmer’s markets, the farmers also sell the produce themselves which cuts out all of the transportation and packaging involved with using a middle-man, such as a supermarket.  As a bonus, you get to meet the people responsible for growing the food that nourishes you.

Farmer’s Market, Friday December 26th, 9am-4pm, Jaffa Port

Read more about farming in Israel:: Community Supported Agriculture: Organic, Local, and Tasty!, WWOOFing It: Organic Farm Volunteer Opportunities in Israel, and Tasty but Elitist? Tel Aviv’s Slow Food Farmer’s Market

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