Bring your lunch to work is a great way to make sure you're avoiding the diet pitfalls of a food court or restaurant. But what if you reached into the fridge to grab your healthy, delicious lunch only to find that some office lothario has poached it? I've had this done to me, and let me tell you, it is annoying and frustrating, particularly when you've put together something particularly tasty.

Protect your goodies with the Anti-Theft lunch bag designed by New Yorker Sherwood Forlee. The bags come with moldy spots already on them, so whoever grabs your nosh will (hopefully!) be too grossed out by the 'mold' to eat it. Clever, huh?

(via Slashfood)

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When is the last time you pulled something out of the cabinet like a loaf of bread and noticed there was a little moldy spot on one corner? What did you do, throw it out? Or just cut off the mold and eat the rest? I think more of us are guilty of option 2 than would like to admit it, but (shock of shocks) it's not a good idea.

According to the USDA, by the time you see mold on the outside of food it's already deeply worked it's way into the inside, i.e. the visible mold is just the tip of the iceberg.

Via Book of Joe

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I was in the checkout line at Target the other day and spotted a steam mop on the conveyor belt behind my stuff. I asked the woman behind me about it. She was trying it for the first time. At $40, she figured she couldn't lose. Well, anything but $40. But anyway, it piqued my curiosity. Turns out, it's the hot new trend in cleaning supplies.

A recent Washington Post article on the subject offers a pretty nice overview of the method. As for effectiveness and the potential to provide relief for allergy sufferers, steam cleaners seem promising. They are not a "magic wand," but myriad types of steam cleaners can apparently clean things from floors to outdoor grills pretty well. And because hot steam is touted for its ability to kill dust mites, mold and other allergens, they appeal to allergy sufferers.

Another lure is that the method offers a healthier alternative to chemical cleaners and is therefore kinder to the environment, especially waste water. But as with many eco-friendly efforts, there's an "inevitable weighing of pros and cons." Steam cleaners require electricity to use and energy for production and transport and will eventually add to solid waste in landfills.

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Mold can be truly sickening, especially if you have a respiratory illness like Asthma. A healthy home is essential to a healthy lifestyle, so courtesy of Everyday Health, here are some ways to keep mold out of your home:

• Make sure to dry hard surfaces thoroughly after cleaning them
• If absorbent materials have mold (think carpets and fabrics), you should replace them
• Fix leaky plumbing
• Keep drip pans in the air conditioner, fridge and dehumidifier clean
• Use the exhaust fans in your bathroom and kitchen when showering, cooking or using the dishwasher
• Vent your dryer outside

How do you keep your home mold-free?

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Despite the fact that I'm not allergic to cats, one of the best things I ever did for my allergies was ban my pets from the bedroom. That, combined with a hypoallergenic cover on my mattress, made the difference between waking up with asthma symptoms every morning, and breathing easy.

It's not easy to allergy-proof your environment. It takes time, patience, and sometimes some sacrifice (in this case, the sacrifice was on my cat's part, lucky for me). But taking steps to reduce your exposure to allergens can significantly improve your symptoms without increasing your medication. WebMD has an excellent list of ways to allergy-proof your home and car, as well as ways to reduce your exposure to common allergens while traveling, eating out, or while your child is at school. If you have allergies, take a minute to see if there's more you can be doing to reduce your symptoms.

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It's though that there are a number of causes that can lead to depression, and here's another one: Studies are showing that there is a very strong link between depression and damp, moldy homes. Researchers from Brown University had initially set out to prove the opposite -- that depression is a result of other factors -- but they were forced to concede that the home plays a big role. Mold can be responsible for a number of physical ailments as well, and it's thought that this plays a role in depression -- if people feel chronically ill, they will be depressed about their health.

This doesn't bode well for people who live in damp climates -- could possibly explain why England is thought of as such a depressing, dreary place?

(Via Cranky Fitness)

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Asthma is a condition that affects hundreds of thousands of people out there. And though the symptoms are largely the same, the disease varies from patient to patient, each one having different triggers for attacks. This helpful video from Everyday Health helps explain asthma and its triggers, which can include:

• Exposure to cigarette smoke
  
• Allergens, particularly seasonal one
• Dust
• Plants, grass and other vegetation
• Mold
• Cardiovascular exercise
• Pets and animals
• Cold air

When you're suffering from asthma, it's important to talk to your doctor about your condition -- although the triggers might not be obvious to you, your doctor can usually determine what your triggers are through tests or even just dialogue.

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Here's an important hygiene issue that many of us don't think about too often: our pillows. If you've had the same pillow for over two years, who knows what could be lurking on it. Mold, mites and a plethora of germs can all be lurking where you rest your head at night -- yuck!

Experts recommend that you buy new pillows every 2 years, but if that's not possibly, pillow protectors can help keep out the bad stuff. And according to Fitsugar, you can 'clean' your pillows every few weeks by putting them in the dryer on high heat for 20-minutes or so.

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In the healthy living community, sugar is on an equal plane with ... well, Satan. It's considered pure evil -- completely lacking in nutritional value and made up of nothing but empty calories. It's been associated with a slew of health problems, from obesity to diabetes. But sometimes we forget that our body is fueled by sugar, and if we watch how much we eat, it's not always bad for us. Here are some good things about sugar:

• A teaspoon of sugar only has 15 calories. That's not bad if you don't overdo it.
• Sugar is converted to glucose, which fuels your brain
• Sugar makes otherwise bland things tasty enough to eat. Like? Grapefruit
• Sugar help heal wounds by drying them
• Sugar stops mold and yeast growth

So I guess sugar itself isn't evil -- but sugar in the hands of inactive people with not enough willpower to refuse the extra-large slice of chocolate cake is. Use with caution, folks, and you can have your sugar and eat it too.

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By now, you're probably feasting away on fourth of July goodies and not too concerned about food safety, but I thought I'd post these fourth of July food safety tips anyway because, hey, food safety is an important issue 365 days of the year. Plus you don't want to spend the fifth of July hugging the toilet. Here are the top 5 food safety tips for July 4th and the rest of the summer:

1. Properly store food in the fridge for approrpriate periods of time
2. Keep raw meat at the bottom of the fridge. Just in case they leak, you don't want them leaking all over your veggies.
3. Wash hands and surfaces constantly
4. Don't leave food out for more than 2 hours
5. If there's mold or fungus on something, don't just cut it off. Get rid of the item.

How do you protect yourself from food-borne illnesses?

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Here are some healthy home cooling tips that help you use less energy and save money on your utility bill this summer while trying to cool your house during the hottest months of the year.

1. Dry air feels cooler than moist air. Moist air raises humidity factors. So by running a dehumidifier in the house it not only will cut down on mold but it will make it feel cooler.

2. On very hot days, you can save energy by closing the fresh air intake on your unit. Cooling fresh, warm outside air requires more electricity than re-cooling the air that is already circulating in your home.

3. On hot summer days, the temperature in your attic can range from 100 to 150 degrees. Improving the ventilation or increasing the insulation in your attic will lower the temperature of the entire house and make your air conditioner's job a lot easier. Also installing an attic fan that is controlled by a thermostat to exhaust the hot air out of your attic will improve the comfort of your home.

4. You can save on cooling costs by avoiding cooling rooms that are not occupied. Keep the doors shut to those rooms and close off the vents.

5. We all like to come home to a nice cool house after a long days work but why run the air conditioner all day. Special automatic timers for air conditioners are available that will turn the unit on before you arrive home.

6. Regular maintenance will insure that your air conditioner operates efficiently throughout the summer. Changing the filters once a month keeps it flowing and cooling better. You can also check your owner's guide to find out how to safely clean the condenser coils and fins on the outside of the unit.

7. Keep the doors going outside shut to keep cool air in.

8. Keep shades or blinds closed on the side of the house where the sun is shining in.

If you're getting busy around this time of year with Spring Cleaning around your home, it might not be a bad idea to keep your eyes peeled for some needed repairs and basic home maintenance. Although some repairs are merely for appearance, or maybe resale value, others can be much more serious and impact more than you might think -- namely the health of you and your family.

Covering the obvious problems water leaks can cause to flickering lights indicating increased risk of fire and skyrocketing fuel bills signaling furnace problems, this basic rundown of symptoms and causes (and what to do about them) could be a lifesaver, literally.

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Allergy season is coming into full bloom with spring. Medicines help treat allergy symptoms once they strike, but here are a few hints that can help you prevent symptoms altogether. It is time for that good spring cleaning for your home and your nasal passages that should be put into your everyday routine.

The fresh air is great in the spring tempting us to open our windows and let that cross breeze flow through the house. But if you or your spouse or child are an allergy sufferer you should keep those windows closed and use air conditioning if you're allergic to pollen. Don't use fans since they can stir up dust. Filter the air. There are many brands of air filtration systems that you can put in individual rooms to help filter allergens out of the air. One helpful hint is to cover your air conditioning vents with cheesecloth to filter pollen and use high efficiency particulate air filters. Clean air filters or replace them frequently, once or twice a month. This not only cuts down on allergies but also the electric bill. Clean your home air ducts at least once a year. Keep the humidity in your house below 50 percent to prevent mold growth by using dehumidifiers and especially in the basement where mold is more likely to collect. Be sure to clean your dehumidifiers and filtration systems once a week also. Wash your bedding every week in hot water and vacuum twice a week. If you have indoor pets you should vacuum 4 times a week to cut down on animal dander and also bathe your pets often. Most important is don't allow smoking in your home.

Now that we have cleaned up your home, here is one helpful hint to clean up your nasal passages. Nettie Pots are great for cleaning out the sinus areas. A Nettie Pot is a small ceramic, long spouted, teapot where you put a simple salt and warm water solution and poor into your nose with your head tilted to one side. This flushes out all kinds of stuff. Be sure to do both nostrils.

Did you know asthma is the most common chronic disease in school-aged children? Well if you've got kids, this news should bring a new sense of importance to your "spring cleaning".

Finnish researchers now say that one cause of permanent asthma in children is damp, moldy homes. While not all doctors are completely convinced, researchers in this study say it proves that dampness in the home doesn't just aggravate asthma and trigger new attacks - it actually is a factor in causing permanent chronic asthma in children. In fact, they estimate that one in five cases of chronic childhood asthma may be caused by living in damp or moldy homes.

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Inhaling chlorine or bleach is harmful to the lungs and heart and has been linked to certain cancers also. So why do most people use it to clean around the house in their kitchens, bathrooms and play areas for their children? It is marketed as the main component in almost all bathroom mildew and mold cleaning products. Cleaning away bacteria and mold does not have to be harmful to your body. Vinegar is not just for salads and soups. It kills bacteria, germs, and mold and is natural. Keep a clean spray bottle filled with straight 5 percent vinegar in your kitchen near your cutting board, and in your bathroom, and use them for cleaning. If you have mold problems, the main mold killer is to prevent moisture from becoming the breeding ground for mold. When you clean the surface of an area in your home, if you use baking soda, it will prevent any mold and mildew from growing. This is because the PH factor in the baking soda is not conducive to mold growth and mold, especially black mold will not grow when it is present. Vinegar is another natural mold killer that you can use. Baking soda and vinegar are also less expensive than all the marketed cleaning supplies. Vinegar is a great window cleaner also. The smell of vinegar dissipates within a few hours.

If you have mold allergies there are some natural and less harmful ways to kill mold. Using a hepa filter or an ozone generator are two combined methods that give you optimum mold fighting abilities and keep you from breathing harmful fumes. You can check out your local hardware stores for ozone generators designed specifically for killing mold.

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