PLAYgreen

The Eat Well Guide

We know its important to stay healthy no matter where you are, be it on a business trip or in your own home town. When you're away for the weekend, you can take your workout outdoors and hit a local trail or gym, but what about finding healthy food choices? Now, you can plan ahead and find wholesome, fresh and sustainable food before you leave town.

The Eat Well Guide is a handy online database of small-scale farms, restaurants, and other green food outlets throughout the U.S. Enter in your zip code and voilà, a long list of options in your area or wherever you may be headed. The site also has Water-Conscious ratings, so you can find out which neighborhood restaurants are saying no to bottled water.

To find local or nationwide options for local, sustainable and organic food, check out the Eat Well Guide.

Refueling post workout with the "food of the future"

After working out, it's important to refuel your body, preferably within an hour after a workout. This period is when the muscles absorb the most nutrients and when glycogen, an energy reserve in your muscles, is replaced most efficiently. The actual composition of the post-workout meal is a matter of some debate; for optimal glycogen replacement, most people recommend carbohydrates, but a certain amount of protein is needed for muscle repair and growth.

Sources of carbohydrates include wheat, rice and potatoes, but with the cost of wheat and rice bursting through the roof, all eyes are turning to the humble spud as a nutritious staple that could cheaply feed a world increasingly ravaged by hunger.

The potato has plenty going for it, the land and water use efficiency is superior, it matures in as little as 50 days, and can yield between two and four times more food per hectare than wheat or rice. A great source of complex carbohydrates, potatoes only have 5 percent of the fat content of wheat—that is, if you don't smother yours in butter. Potatoes also have one-fourth of the calories of bread, and when boiled, have more protein and corn and nearly twice the calcium. Plus, they contain vitamin C, iron, potassium, and zinc.

As we move toward a reality where there simply isn't enough food to feed the world, many prominent voices—including the United Nations, which declared 2008 the "Year of the Potato"—are saying that the potato is part of the solution.

Find out more here.

A drink thats good for you and the environment

As a Rec Sports member, we know you treat your body well by working out. How about a drink that treats you and the environment well? What drink is that you ask? It's yerba mate. Not only is it good for you, but the organic- and fair-trade-certified yerba mate is being sold in a sustainable fashion as well.

Yerba Mate is known for energizing your body, stimulating mental alertness, aiding in weightloss,
accelerating the healing process, relieving stress and fortifying your immune system.

In addition to all of its health benefits, companies now sell organic and fair-trade-certified versions.

Here our a few places that offer this delightfully eco- and fitness- friendly beverage:

EcoTeas
Guayaki
Grounds for Change

Source: Treehugger, viewed March 20, 2008

Coming soon, to a Bear's Lair near you!

When you get hungry before class, after a workout or just while studying on campus it's good to know where to grab a bite to eat. Now, one of your options is going green. The ASUC Senate passed a bill Wednesday night which will provide for the Bear's Lair restaurants to undergo green-certification within three years.

The bill will bring student group Bay-Area Environmentally Aware Consulting Network and Bear's Lair restaurants together to make the necessary changes for certification. The pub already strives to meet green standards. Its policies include recycling all glass, using only fluorescent lights and abstaining from electric heating.

Haitham Alloun, owner of The Coffee Spot, said that his businesses are also already doing their best to comply with green standards and would welcome certification.

For more information, check out the Daily Cal.

An Eco-friendly & Healthy Valentine's treat

As someone who loves to eat healthy and work out, I know that chocolate may be the last thing you'd think of as a healthy treat, but surprisingly eating chocolate in moderation does have its benefits. Not only does chocolate today come in many organic and fair trade varieties, but studies show that it can help your heart and cholesterol.

The Chattanooga Times Free Press reminds us that chocolate might be a calorie-dense food (a small snack-size candy bar is typically in the 40 to 100 calorie range), but the fat found in chocolate is stearic acid. The paper cites a study from the American Journal of Clinical Nutrition in 1997 that found stearic acid could increase levels of HDL (the "good" cholesterol) and people who eat milk chocolate had lower than expected levels of LDL (the "bad" cholesterol). In addition, University of California-Davis researchers established that chocolate contains high amounts of phenolic compounds, which are antioxidants and so may help reduce the risk of heart disease.

If you want to surprise your Valentine with a treat that's good for them and good for the planet, check out a few of the yummy chocolate treats that are eco-friendly too!

Endangered Species
Dagoba Organic Chocolate

Source: The Daily Green, February 12, 2008

What is Fair Trade?

You may have seen the term "fair trade" advertised on some products or by merchants and businesses. What does the certification mean, what's the relation to the environment and how is it related to you?

Many workers around the world are treated and paid very poorly. Approximately 20% of the world's population exists on under a dollar a day; and around double that have incomes of under $2 a day. You might often wonder how some products you buy can be so cheap - underpaid workers toiling in sweatshops contributes to our "bargains", as do the environmentally destructive processes used to create some of the products we consume. That bargain may come at a very high price to our fellow man and the environment.

Feeling motivated to support Fair Trade? Take action with these 12 Steps.

Source: Green Living Tips, April 19, 2007

Do you “Buy Local” to improve your community?

As Berkeley community members, there are so many ways to improve the city you live in. Check out what the Downtown Berkeley Association has found.

Did you know that by shifting just 10 percent of your purchases to locally owned businesses and cultural organizations, you can start a cycle that creates more jobs in Berkeley, lightens the city's environmental impact, expands your own shopping and entertainment options, builds a stronger community, and helps keep our city a national innovator?

By supporting their successors -- today's locally owned businesses and cultural organizations that offer us something just a bit different -- we can help nurture Berkeley's trendsetting businesses of tomorrow. We can keep the revolution turning for ourselves, and for friends and family in places less likely to incubate the offbeat.

To support today's locally owned business, check out the Buy Local Shopping Guide and start buying locally today!

Source: Downtown Berkeley Association, December 6, 2007

4 Ways to Reuse a Plastic Bag

We know that when your running errands or buying groceries you'll end up accumulating a few plastic bags. That's okay because we've found a few ways for you to reuse and reduce your plastic bags.

1. Reuse a plastic bag by using it to store your gym shoes on the way to a work out or afterwards for your dirty gym clothes!

2. Reuse the produce bag you got last night at the store for this weeks lunch! It's the perfect size to carry a sandwich for lunch at work or school!

3. BYO grocery bags. Make a habit of remembering your bags by hanging them on the doorknob as soon as they're emptied, then store them in your purse or car.

4. Take a tote. Reusable bags aren't just good for groceries. You can use canvas or other totes for clothes and holiday shopping, too.

Source: Boston Globe, November 18, 2007

Eco-friendly Coffee

We know our Rec Sports members have to balance between fitness and academics. Sometimes a visit to the nearby coffee shop is in order. Interested in staying eco-friendly while getting your next caffiene boost, check out these opportunities!

Tully’s Coffee
Tully's Coffee is now serving Fair Trade Certified, Organic Espresso as a standard in all of their barista beverages.
They also realized that cups are the #1 source of waste in their stores and saw this as a real opportunity to make a difference. In the pursuit of greenness, they have introduced a fully compostable cup. Tully’s new Green Cup uses a bio-plastic, corn-based lining making our cup completely renewable and BPI certified compostable.

Green Mountain Coffee Roasters
Green Mountain Coffee Roasters has had great success with its organic brands.

Starbucks
Starbucks, which teamed up with Conservation International in 1998 to help bring eco-friendly coffee to market, has also found that its eco-friendly varieties have sold well and hopes to offer more for sale this summer.

Source: Grist, viewed January 29, 2008