Should You Eat Organic Food?

Organic food are crops generally grown without synthetic pesticides, artificial fertilizers, irradiation, or biotechnology. Animals on organic farms eat organically grown feed and aren’t confined 100% of the time.

Organic foods can have higher nutritional value than conventional food because in the absence of pesticides and fertilizers, plants boost their production of the phytochemicals that strengthen their resistance to bugs and weeds.

Organic farming reduces pollutants in groundwater and creates richer soil that aids plant growth while reducing erosion, according to the Organic Trade Association. Organic farming used 50% less energy than conventional farming methods in one 15-year study. In some cities, pesticides in tap water have been measured at unsafe levels for weeks at a time, according to an analysis by the Environmental Working Group.

Although organic food is more expensive than regular food it’s recommended to by local and organic foods. To find a farmer’s market in your area you can go to localharvest.org. Look for the USDA seal when shopping for packaged foods.

The things that you put into your body are so important for your physical and mental health. When you eat well you will feel well also.

All About Meditation

Daily life now a days can be very hectic and cause a lot of anxiety. Meditation at first can be weird to do but there are many benefits to meditating.

Practicing meditation helps you to quiet your mind, slow your breath and find peace. It can be beneficial physically, mentally and emotionally.

Some physical benefits of meditating are:

• Clears your mind for better quality sleep.
• Stimulates your parasympathetic nervous system, or the branch of your peripheral nervous system that helps your body return to a calm, relaxed state after the threat of danger, or even daily stress, has passed. When this branch is activated, your body can naturally rejuvenate, repair, and rebuild itself.
• Improves athletic performance by refining your ability to focus on a goal or situation (another term for meditation used in this way is visualization).
• Slows your respiration for longer, deeper breaths.
• Boosts your immune system by slowing the production of the stress hormone cortisol.

Some mental and emotional benefits are:

• Reduces anxiety and depression by enabling your body to balance its own neurochemical system.
• Allows you to make better decisions and improve critical thinking.
• Improves communication with yourself. When you better understand your thought processes, you have more control over what you think.
• Breaks unhealthy habits by helping you detach emotions associated with an action from the action itself.
• Helps you stay in the present moment. When you let go of the past and the future, you live 100 percent in the now, which affects all aspects of your life and relationships.

There are many guided meditation apps or videos online that can help you meditate if you are confused or are not sure how to do it. Also practicing everyday will make you better at it, more relaxed and able to meditate for longer.

Information from humankinetics.com

Bienvenue – or welcome!

Hello avid blog lovers or just people of the Earth! My name is Marissa Battaglia and I am a junior journalism major at SUNY Fredonia. I also have minors in French and English. For this blog I will be posting articles about how to be healthy. Whether it’s physical, mental or emotional, I’ve got it covered! I will post twice a week (or more) mainly on Tuesday’s and Thursday’s.

I have been in sports my whole life so I know a lot of information about keeping fit but also having a busy schedule. Some current athletic activities I do now are field hockey and Zumba! I also do some other exercises in my room for strength and cardio. Yoga is also a great activity I do occasionally because it’s not too much on the body. Eating healthy is another great thing to keep up with so I will also touch base on that and also mental health such as stress relievers and how to keep a positive mindset.

I am so excited to start this blog and keep up with it! Please let me know if you have any article ideas or if there are things you would like me to talk about. My email is marissa_battaglia02@yahoo.com. Thank you so much for reading this first post and I hope you continue reading!