What's NOT in Mother Nature's Cup of Tea: The Dangers of Artificial Sweeteners (Aspartame, Splenda & Truvia) and Natural, Healthy Alternatives

The breathtakingly beautiful handcrafted teapot featured above is a one-of-a-kind creation from fellow guild member Adrien Art.

Scientific research has shown that artificial sweeteners like Aspartame, Splenda, and Truvia are very hazardous to our health. Aspartame, the common zero calorie synthetic sweetner, in diet sodas, sports drinks, flavored waters & teas, nearly ALL chewing gum (and I am not just talking about the "diet" ones), children's drinks, etc...is discovered to be a dangerous neurotoxin; and scientific evidence suggests that it may lead to neurological disorders like Parkinson's and Multiple Sclerosis. With my mother and twin sister both having Multiple Sclerosis (MS), I am very cautious about this synthetic ingredient. Although, my sister (who has MS yet is in very healthy shape right now) and I avoid Aspartame completely; our mother at the youthful age of 48, however, is completely paralyzed from the neck down and is living in a nursing home where she has been living for 12 years because of the debilitating effects Multiple Sclerosis has had on her body. Now, what is the one thing that our mother has been consuming daily for all of this time? Aspartame; in her diet soda and in the form of "Sweeten Low" in her iced tea...everyday. Now, I am not saying that Aspartame caused her disease, I just have a sense of concerned intuition about the safety of this ingredient. My mother strongly opposes leaving Aspartame out of her diet because she "loves it" and refuses to believe that it could be harmful to her body. I personally think that she is physically addicted to Aspartame.

There is a very informative documentary that I think everyone should watch called "Sweet Misery: A Poisoned World" that talks about the effects of Aspartame by doctors, scientists, and victims of this very common additive in our food supply. I strongly advise that everyone sit down and watch this film and show it to your friends and family. Here is a link to the full film:

Sweet Misery: A Poisoned World


Now, I know that many people believe that Splenda is a healthy sugar substitute; however it is over-processed and thus transformed into a chlorocarbon, with a molecular structure closely resembling chlorine-based DDT, the banned pesticide. Please look at this article on the Women to Women Website and these short video clips by Dr. Mercola about the dangers of Splenda:

"Sugar Substitutes and the Potential Danger of Splenda" by Marcelle Pick, OB/GYN NP

"Scientific Basis for Splenda Toxicity" by Dr. Mercola

"Is Splenda Really As Safe As They Say It Is" by Dr. Mercola

Unfortunately "Truvia" is now being advertised as a "healthy and natural" alternative to sugar; however, like Splenda, it too is overly-processed and has posed concern to scientists and doctors about it's safety. Please check out these links about the health concerns of "Truvia"...and please do your own research:

"Truvia: New Low Calorie Sweetener (Toxin)"

"Truvia Side Effects"

"Queen Bee Honey" by the Etsy Shop Queen Bee Honey!!!

You may now be asking..."What is the answer to the sugar substitute madness?!" Well, there are several NATURAL and HEALTHY choices out there for you to try. First of all, local, all-natural honey is a great and very medicinal sugar alternative (I even use honey in baking); pure maple syrup and molasses are also natural, healthy choices.

"Antique Run Away Spoons" by fellow Etsy Recyclers Guild Team Leader Andrea of Storybook Artifact.

Stevia products that you can find at your local health food stores are extracts from the Stevia plant and are very healthy for you. These places shouldn't carry Truvia I assure you...I know because I work at Akins Natural Foods Market and we don't carry it. Also, something that my husband Joe and I love to use is the actual Stevia leaf; we make our own herbal tea blends and add just a few pinches of Stevia leaf to our herbal tea blend (our favorite right now is Sassafras, Sarsaparilla, Licorice, Peppermint, Star Anise, Stevia leaf, and a hint of Cinnamon...mmm, divine)! You can find Stevia Leaf in this charming herb shop on Etsy it is called Mistical Acscents; here is their link to their Stevia Leaf listing:

"Stevia ORGANIC Natural Sweetener"Now, there is also another healthy and natural sugar substitute that I am very curious about...coconut sugar! Please check out this fascinating article about Coconut Sugar from Natural News:

"Coconut Sugar: Enjoy the New Star Among Low Glycemic Sweeteners"

My husband, Joe and I actually buy this delicious and surprisingly NUTRITIOUS (naturally contains trace minerals) Coconut Sugar by Natural News!!!

This blog article was contributed by Etsy Recyclers Guild Team Captain Jessica of Eco-Friendly Freckles.

The Etsy Recycler's Guild Upcycles Paper!

Did you know that: Recycling 1 short ton (0.91 t) of paper saves 17 mature trees, 7 thousand US gallons (26 m3) of water, 3 cubic yards (2.3 m3) of landfill space, 2 barrels of oil (84 US gal or 320 l), and 4,100 kilowatt-hours (15 GJ) of electricity?! This is enough energy to power the average American home for six months! (Resources: "Wastes – Resource Conservation - Common Wastes & Materials - Paper Recycling"- US EPA)

The Etsy Recyclers Guild is upcycling recycled and vintage paper and transforming it into some beautiful treasures! Please check out the treasury I created below featuring exclusively recycled paper creations all from members the Etsy Recyclers Guild; the treasury is titled "Orange Cats Love Recycled Paper".My darling sister, Andrea of Storybook Artifact, created a picture tutorial just for the Etsy Recyclers Guild instructing how to make upcycled paper confetti gift/package stuffing "curlicues". Andrea puts these upcycled decorative curlicues in all of her Etsy shop order packages...I bet her customers feel like it is their birthday when they open their packages!

How to Make Upcycled Paper Confetti Package "Curlicues":

1. Collect some magazine pages with brightly colored pages (on both sides of the page if possible). These usually consist of advertisements; however, it is okay to have a little bit of text as long as the other side has lots of color. Recycled clippings of gift wrapping paper is a wonderful choice since they have brightly colored designs and are sometimes shiny or glittery. Furthermore, it is perfectly fine to make different sizes of curlicues (short, long, thin, wide), so you can create them with ease while watching your favorite television show!2. Take the sheet of recycled paper in one hand and the your scissors in the other (sharp scissors work best) and cut off a strip of paper.3. Now take the strip (if it is uneven and not completely straight that is okay) and with the sharp end of the scissors, pull the paper from end to end with a sliding motion to create a curlicue. As shown below.Thank you Andrea of Storybook Artifact for sharing this picture tutorial with us! I encourage everyone to check out the vintage items in her shop...Remember buying vintage is recycling and reusing items from the past! I just love this vintage little leather library collection titled Victorian Literature Collection...It's made of vintage paper!
This post was contributed by Jessica of Eco-Friendly Freckles

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Book Review: "Eco Craft: Recycle Recraft Restyle" by Susan Wasinger

Oh my goodness, I checked this book out from my local library and I can't put it down! I am amazed with the creativity and brilliant upcycling ideas expressed in this book! Can you imagine recycling the plastic binders that hold soda pop cans together and making a beautiful wood framed room divider with them? Or recycling a plastic milk jug and making a stunningly modern light? This book is full of fun, stylish, and gorgeous upcycled creations. I can't wait to make the papier-mâché bowls featured in this book.

Here is a lovely lamp shade featured in "Eco Craft" made from a plastic grocery bag!

...And here is a romantically rustic chandelier with elegant extravagance made from recycled baby food jars! Etsy Recycler's Guild members and other stylish recyclers will be drooling over the pages of this awesome book. I have only mentioned a few of the incredible creations featured in "Eco Craft" which has high quality photos and great instructions.

This book is called "Eco-Craft: Recycle Recraft Restyle" by Susan Wasinger

This post was contributed by Jessica of Eco-Friendly Freckles

See all posts created by Jessica under the tag *Eco Friendly Freckles Column!
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Loving Mother Earthships

What better way to show our love for Mother Earth than to create a beautiful nature dwelling that uses recycled materials and natural supplies from the earth?! These amazing structures are called "earthships". Many earthships are designed to catch and use water from the local environment, normally harvested from rain, snow and condensation; they are also designed to collect and store their own energy from a variety of sources (solar panels, wind turbines, etc.). You can be completely off-the-grid in an earthship...and when combined with a garden and farm, you can be quite self-sufficent too!

I think earthships are stunningly gorgeous! The earth-rammed walls (made of either compacted "earth": dirt, sand, and sometimes cement; or with a collection of recycled old tires packed with earth) create a warm and inviting space; the floors are also typically made of rammed earth which supports holding in the thermal heat collected from the passive solar. Windows are placed on sun-facing walls which admit lighting and heating ("passive solar"). These large passive solar windows are also generally used to provide lighting for an indoor greenhouse. Earthships are often horseshoe-shaped to maximize natural light and solar-gain during winter months.

I love how earthships utilize so many natural and recycled materials! To live in a home sculpted with your own hands with stucco and earth, and a home created by so many things that would otherwise be packing a landfill would feel incredibly empowering, rewarding, and benevolent.

Not only are so many of the walls created with old recycled tires, plastic bottles, and aluminum soda pop cans, but many of them are embellished with lovely illuminating windows made of glass bottles (some colored) creating a kaleidoscope of colors with an almost art deco design. Isn't it amazing how beautiful a home can be with using recycled supplies?! My husband, Joe, and I would love to build an earthship of our own someday...along with having a garden/farming homestead!

To find out more about Earthships, please check out the link below:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Earthship

This post was contributed by Jessica of Eco-Friendly Freckles

See all posts created by Jessica under the tag *Eco Friendly Freckles Column!
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Reuse and Recycle Your Packaging Materials

Embrace you eco-friendly heart and reuse your packaging materials in your Etsy business. Did you know that paper products are the largest component of municipal solid waste, making up more than 40 percent of the composition of landfills?! Save your cardboard, popcorn, bubble wrap, paper, and brown paper bags by reusing them when shipping out your Etsy sold items!You can get crafty and creative by embellishing your recycled materials with printed tape and elegant wax seals like my sister, Andrea of Storybook Artifact, did (package pictured below); she reused a cardboard box and attached information about her Etsy shop printed on recycled paper. I like to embellish my packaged items with descriptive tags and paste recycled inspirational Yogi Tea tag messages on them. You can also incorporate some fun, unique recycled items into your packages like old maps, sheet music, buttons, used stamps, bottle caps, etc.If you don't want to do the work, yet want to support the cause, please consider purchasing these embellished upcycled packaging materials from Etsy Recycler's Guild members for your next sold shop items!"6 acorn gift tags autumn colored ties" by 42 Things Upcycled Goodies.
"12 Upcycled Handmade Envelopes - Eco-Friendly Set Made from Wallpaper" by Harvest Moon by Hand.
"Shoe Advertising Pendant 4 Necklace - Embellishment, Package Tag or use in Mixed Media" by Retro Chalet.
"30 Upcycled Blank Business Cards from Bingo Cards" by Paper Picker.
"Vintage Map Gift Tag Set" by The Weeping Willows.
This post was contributed by Jessica of Eco-Friendly Freckles

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The Healing Benefits of Sunshine

The breathtakingly beautiful image above is an original sculpture made of recycled stoneware clay titled "Arising" and is created by Etsy Recycler's Guild member Adrien Art.

Our radiant sun provides wonderful healing benefits that we need throughout the year, even in this chilly month of February. I love the warm and comforting feeling of the sun's rays on my resting eyelids...it is so peaceful and soothing. Research shows that the sun's vitamin D is well absorbed through the face and eyes.

Below I have listed some of the amazing, healing properties of the sun.

Benefits of Sunlight:
• It increases the circulation of the blood.
• It stimulates the production of more red blood cells, increasing the oxygen content of the blood, and thus increasing muscular endurance.
• It increases liver function and stimulates the liver to produce a drug-metabolizing enzyme. This increases one's ability to withstand pollutants in the environment.
• It stabilizes blood sugar levels.
• It lowers cholesterol and triglycerides in the blood. Sunlight may decrease cholesterol by more than 30%.
• The ultraviolet rays are antiseptic, a short morning sunbath (before 9am) several times a day will kill germs and promote wound healing. Even reflected light from windows can destroy bacteria in the dust on window sills and floors.
• The heat of the sun is useful in the treatment of neuralgia, neuritis, arthritis and other pain.
• It increases gamma globulin - a protein that helps the body fight infection.
• It is a good treatment for jaundice in the newborn baby.
• It increases muscle tone, persons who exercise in the sunlight build muscle faster than those who exercise indoors.
• It increases body metabolism.
• Sunlight has been shown to increase to relieve depression and to improve sleep.
• Resting heart rate, blood pressure, and respiration rates are all decreased after a sunbath.

The illuminating image above is an Upcycled Wooden Box Sunshine Night Light created by Etsy Recycler's Guild member Cher's Passion.

Also did you know that…SUN EXPOSURE REDUCES THE RISK OF MULTIPLE SCLEROSIS; a disease that has paralyzed my mother and has harmed my sister (although my sister is a strong fighter and will overcome any challenges). ;-)

Our kitty cat, Nozomi, loves the sunshine too! Even though she is an indoor cat, she still gets an adequate amount of vitamin D through our windows. As long as your windows don't have a super UV protection, it is possible to soak up the sun's Vitamin D and even get a little tan through your window! You can actually soak up all of the healing properties our precious sun has to offer through the windows in your home. A little indoor sunbathing might just be the cure for your winter blues...our pets and house plants sure love it!

This post was contributed by Jessica of Eco-Friendly Freckles

See all posts created by Jessica under the tag *Eco Friendly Freckles Column!
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The Delightful Joys of Living with Miniature Horses

Hello my name is Jessica, this is my first article on this fantastic Etsy Recycler's Guild blog! Today, I would love to share with you all the delightful joys of living with miniature horses! Above is a picture of me with one of my favorite little horses; I named her Daisy, yet now she is known as "Dolly" and lives a happy life with new owners and her playful pal horse "Sugar Bear".

I adore miniature horses! As a young girl, I was very intimidated by tall, large horses and I was afraid they would try to eat me if I got too close. I know this was absurd, but as a little one I had my fears. Growing up, my twin sister, Andrea, and I would walk across our backyard and stand next to the fence by our neighbors land; we would stand there gazing at the big horses. We thought they were beautiful but were still afraid to reach out and touch one. As I grew older, my fears faded but I never really got over my apprehension; horses were a mystery to me.
Later in life, I met and fell in love with my husband, Joe, he is a miniature horse caretaker and he does a fantastic job! When I first visited Joe on the miniature horse ranch, I immediately was intrigued by the adorable little horses and all of my anxiety of horses vanished as if it was never there. Now when I see larger horses, I pet and greet them and they are so kind in return, and I wonder why I was ever frightened.

Joe and I had one of the sweet little horses in our wedding, which took place on the ranch; "Barbie" was our wedding horse with all of her bows and bells. Here is a picture of her with one of our ring-bearers, Nahuel.Miniature horses make loving pets and are great around children. Miniature horses also make amazingly good seeing-eye, guide animals for the blind. I am enchanted by these furry, lovable animals; it is so peaceful to see them grazing and playing in the pasture. Here is a picture of me trying to pet the new baby...her name is "Gypsy". Here is a picture of Gypsy sleeping in the sun with her furry friend Dakota...their warm coats are so soft!
This post was contributed by Jessica of Eco-Friendly Freckles

See all posts created by Jessica under the tag *Eco Friendly Freckles Column!

Visit her shop, or her blog