Blog Posts by FourGreenSteps.com

Image courtesy of Creative Commons.Written by Kaley Hall, Four Green Steps.com


'I thought I was a Vegan until I found out gelatin isn't Vegan. How do you know for sure that things are Vegan? Are there secretly ingredients I should look out for?'

Answer: Mistakes are bound to happen but you can't blame yourself for them or think you're any less of a vegan. Many processed foods and even beauty products contain animal products with ambiguous names. A go-to list that I always refer to is HappyCow's Animal Ingredient List A-Z. If I ever don't know what an ingredient is, it always helps to look it up.

I always encourage vegans to cook their own food as much as possible to see for themselves what ingredients are used. It's not always easy to be vegan in a world dominated by animal product industries but it's up to you to pay attention to what goes inside your body. And don't sweat the small stuff, anything you do towards a vegan lifestyle will be thanked by animals and Mother Nature even if errors happen.

This Read More »from Ask a Vegan: 'How Can You Be Sure it's Vegan?'

Image courtesy of Creative Commons.Written by Lauren Sigler, Four Green Steps.com


The school year is coming to an end and summer is quickly approaching (Yay!). Many children love the idea of spending their summer at either a day camp or residential camp with all of their friends. However, there is a vast selection of summer camps to choose from. How do you know which one will suit the needs of your child? In addition to looking at the facilities and activities offered, why not choose a camp whose goal is to teach their campers about the environment? The following summer camps top our list of the "greenest summer camps" (in no particular order)...

Growing Greener Day Camps

Villanova, Philadelphia, USA

• This day camp is for children between the ages of 4-9. Growing Greener Day Camps allows children to gain an in depth understanding of where their food comes from. Not only do they learn how to grow fruits and vegetables, but they get to prepare snacks using the food they make. In addition to activities focused on

Read More »from The Greenest Summer Camps

Image courtesy of Creative Commons.Written by Melanie Kozlan, Four Green Steps.com


Planet Green recently wrote a feature on the Top 10 Worst Foods, declaring diet soft drink as the number one worst food of all time- and with good reason. They attribute diet soda to be the worst of their list since it has all of the same problems as regular soda, but with the added health risks associated with aspartame. The list of health issues associated with aspartame is not a short one:

• anxiety attacks;
• binge-eating and sugar cravings;
• birth defects;
• blindness;
• brain tumors;
• chest pain;
• depression;
• dizziness;
• epilepsy;
• fatigue;
• headaches and migraines;
• hearing loss;
• heart palpitations;
• hyperactivity;
• insomnia;
• joint pain;
• learning disabilities;
• PMS;
• muscle cramps;

Not to mention the affects that can be similar to the following diseases:

• Alzheimer's disease,
• chronic fatigue syndrome,
• epilepsy,
• Epstein-Barr virus,

Read More »from Diet Soda: Worst Food of All Time?

Image courtesy of Creative Commons.Written by Kaley Hall, Four Green Steps.com


'I am currently a vegetarian and would love to go vegan except for one issue- cheese! How do you give up cheese and are there vegan alternatives that are equally delicious?'

Answer: There are wonderful alternatives out there. Daiya cheese is my personal favorite because it melts just like real cheese and tastes amazing. You can also try making your own cheese out of cashews, almonds or tofu. There are a number of reasons why you should definitely go all the way and stop eating dairy. Dairy cows are abused with milking machines while alive and are killed when they stop providing as much milk.

If you don't eat meat because of the killing of animals then dairy doesn't make much sense easier. Dairy cows constantly have to give birth and most of the time their children taken away from them and turned into veal making the meat and dairy industries completely intertwined. Dairy cows are fed hormones to make them produce more milk which creates Read More »from Ask a Vegan: 'Life Without Cheese?'

Image courtesy of Creative Commons.Written by Kaley Hall, Four Green Steps.com

What did Albert Einstein, Plato, Aristotle, Socrates, Confucius, Isaac Newton and Thomas Edison all have in common? Not just that were scientific and philosophical geniuses but they were also all vegetarians! Is there a connection between a vegetarian diet and intelligence? Many seem to think so.

PETA claims that: "Studies have shown that vegetarian kids grow taller and have higher IQs than their classmates, and they are at a reduced risk for heart disease, obesity, diabetes, and other diseases in the long run."

One study in particular published in the British Medical Journal measured people's IQ at the age of 10 and then followed up at the age of 30. Data showed that adult vegetarians had a childhood IQ of around five points higher than the average adult meat-eater.

Those who were adult vegetarians were also more likely to have degrees and high-powered jobs. Some researchers say that a fruit and vegetable heavy diet

Read More »from National Vegetarian Week: Are Vegetarians Smarter? Or are Smarter People Vegetarians?

http://media.zenfs.com/en-US/blogs/partner/2539937014_f55ecebf38.jpgWritten by Dunia Abbas, Four Green Steps.com


For the longest time, fresh, local, and organic have been some of the many themes behind farmer's markets. They provide fruits, vegetables, fish and eggs as well as many hand-made items such as brooms, herb and spices, bath and body care products, organic teas, etc… But there is more to farmer's markets than that, so why exactly is hitting the farmer's market so good for you?

1.It's local and personal; farmers usually grow what's in season locally, you might even know who you are buying from personally, as they are usually locals from your area or you've already built a relationship with them through your visits to the farmer's market.

2.It's fresh; you can taste the difference between berries locally bought and ones at a supermarket in North America that came from Chile. You will also find that most of the restaurants in your area are committed to sourcing their ingredients from your farmer's market, because it ensures that the

Read More »from 10 Reasons to Hit Your Farmer’s Market

Image credit: Creative Commons.

Written by Melanie Kozlan, Four Green Steps.com

Vegan diets tend to be viewed negatively or as a great mystery. This is generally for one of two reasons:

1. They willingly don't eat cheese and

2. Too many people temporarily go on fad 'Vegan' diets consisting of gummy bears and french fries.

The first may be hard to believe, but the second is annoying in a multitude of ways. Obviously candy and junk food is not a sustainable diet or have much to offer in regards to nutrition. Worse: Candy is not Vegan unless it is specifically Vegan candy! Sugar (unless beet, or specified) is often processed using animal bone char, whereas gelatin is made of collagen derived from boiled animal bones. This means gummy bears aren't even Vegetarian, let alone Vegan. Even Kosher gelatin is only made from fish instead of cows or pigs. (Also be sure to avoid these surprisingly non-vegan ingredients: albumin, lactic acid and whey).

Going Vegan has many fabulous benefits but can seem

Read More »from What do Vegans Eat? An A-Z Survival Guide

Written by Melanie Kozlan, Four Green Steps.com

There seems to be an ongoing debate to whether petroleum based products such as Vaseline should be considered a health concern, especially considering the FDA's infamous loose regulations for the cosmetics industry. The bottom-line seems to be that it is not a major health concern as long as it is only used externally. Unfortunately, this discounts breathing it in and our skins natural ability to absorb what we lather it with. Since petroleum jelly is obviously derived from petroleum many prefer to rely on all natural alternatives for extreme moisturizing and considering how easy and inexpensive it is to make, why take your chances with anything else? Here is a simple recipe for making your own 'Un-petroleum jelly' (Not interested in DIY? Buy actual Un-Petroleum Jelly and other natural products in our Green marketplace!

What you'll need:2268587409_45b9f80b0e

• Beeswax (Check with your local community for the best deals, usually its incredibly cheap to buy

Read More »from I Can't Believe it's Not Vaseline: How & Why to Make your Own Petroleum Jelly Alternative