THE GREEN ZONE BLOG by LINDA MASON HUNTER
All about taking care of yourself, your family, and the planet, "The Green Zone" offers short, basic tips to incorporate into your daily life to make Earth a cleaner, more sustainable place.
In the Zone
"The Green Zone" airs four times daily at approximately. 2:50 a.m., 6:50 a.m., 4:50 p.m. and 9:50 p.m. central time. Listen every day for a new tip you can put to good use.
Just a little bit…
December, 2024
It’s just a little bit of chlorine in your water.
It’s just a little bit of heavy metals in your food.
It’s just a little bit of fragrance in your cologne.
It’s just a little bit of benzene in your sunscreen.
It’s just a little bit of aluminum in your deodorant.
It’s just a little bit of PFOAs in your nonstick pans.
It’s just a little bit of phthalates in your plastic storage bags.
It’s just a little bit of methanol in your surface cleaner.
It’s just a little bit of artificial coloring in your toothpaste.
It’s just a little bit of ammonia in your sugar-free sweetener.
It’s just a little bit of propylene glycol in your skincare products.
It’s just a little bit of sodium lauryl sulfate in your shampoo.
It’s just a little bit of glyphosate in your breakfast cereal.
It’s just a little bit of “forever chemicals” in your plastic bottles.
It’s just a little bit of fluoride in your drinking water.
It’s just a little bit of parabens in your moisturizer.
Hmmmm. Let me ask you this: When does “just a little bit” become too much for the body to handle?
Study finds strong evidence linking cell phone radiation to cancer
June, 2025
A World Health Organization-backed study determined with a high level of certainty that there are links between cell phone radiation and two types of cancer in laboratory animals— malignant nerve tumors in the heart and gliomas (a type of brain cancer). This is a significant development because, as Dr. Devra Davis, founder of the Environmental Health Trust, points out, “Every agent that causes cancer in humans will produce it in laboratory animals when adequately tested.”
Results of the study prompted this swift response from the International Commission on the Biological Effects of Electromagnetic Fields: “Given this high level of certainty, government policymakers worldwide should immediately move to revise their radiation exposure limits to protect public health and the environment.”
In the meantime, it’s wise to take simple precautions to reduce exposure.
· Keep the phone away from your head and body.
· Avoid carrying your cell phone on your body at all times.
· Avoid using your cell phone when the signal is weak or inside metal vehicles and elevators.
· Use airplane mode and turn antennas off when not in use.
· Children should only use cell phones for emergencies.
· Do not charge a cell phone or sleep with it near your bed.
· Use a corded landline at home.
· Minimize talk time on your cell phone.
· Connect your cell phone to the internet without radiation by using an ethernet cord.
Sources: “WHO-funded study finds RF-EMF exposure increases incidence of cancer,” Environmental Health Trust, May 19, 2025; https://ehtrust.org/who-funded-study-finds-rf-emf-exposure-increases-incidence-of-cancer/
https://ehtrust.org/10-things-you-can-do-to-reduce-the-cancer-risk-from-cell-phones/
Why I’m cooking with olive oil
By Linda Mason Hunter
June, 2025
Seed oils have been much in the news lately, ever since Robert F. Kennedy, Jr., the current Secretary of U.S. Health and Human Services, described them as “poison.” We’re talking about cooking oils that come from vegetable seeds, like corn, canola, cottonseed, sunflower, safflower, and grapeseed. Many wellness influencers and restaurant chains say they are transitioning away from seed oils in favor of animal fats, chiefly beef tallow and butter.
Wait, what? Are nutritionists now saying animal fat is good for you? I thought it was associated with high cholesterol, heart disease, and cancer. How can plant-based seed oils be worse?
Some studies link seed oils with body-wide inflammation, which accelerates all kinds of disease. At the end of the day, good health is all about reducing inflammation.
However, much of the concern centers on the fact that, due to their high linoleic acid content, seed oils have an over-abundance of omega-6 fatty acids, whereas a balanced ratio of omega-3 and omega-6 is best for health. There’s already an imbalance in the typical Western diet due to widely available seed oils used in fried fast foods and ultraprocessed foods, which comprise roughly 10% of the U.S. food supply.
So, should you cut out seed oil altogether? The answer depends on what you replace it with. Animal fats, like beef tallow and butter, are high in saturated fat which is bad for cardiovascular health. Best to switch to olive oil or avocado oil which contain omega-3 fatty acids, thus lowering the risk of cardiovascular disease and dementia. Extra virgin olive oil has an added bonus: It’s minimally processed, thus retaining beneficial nutrients that get stripped away in the production of most other oils.
After reviewing the pros and cons, I’ve decided extra-virgin olive oil is the healthier choice. That is what I am doing, while also avoiding ultra-processed foods altogether.
Sources: “Replacing butter for some plant oils could significantly lower risk of mortality, new study finds,” by Julianna Bragg, CNN; March 6, 2025. https://www.aol.com/switching-butter-plant-based-oils-210052905.html
“Robert F. Kennedy Jr. says beef tallow is healthier than seed oils. Is he right?” by Kristen Rogers, CNN; March 26, 2025. https://www.cnn.com/2025/03/25/health/beef-tallow-healthy-seed-oils-rfk-wellness
Seed oils, “The Checkup with Dr. Wen,” by Leona S. Wen, https://s2.washingtonpost.com/camprw/?trackId=5e80b256ae7e8a594862ffaa&s=8264ecd315a3609b52471a1&utm_campaign=wp_checkup&utm_medium=email&utm_source=newsletter&linknum=5&linktot=74
We Are All Connected
February, 2025
Since childhood I’ve been a student of indigenous spiritual philosophy, especially their view of the Earth and all its inhabitants. I find this statement by Floyd Red Crow Westerman especially inspiring today.
By Floyd Red Crow
Floyd Red Crow Westerman
We were told that we would see America come and go. In a sense, America is dying from within because it forgot the instructions on how to live on earth. It’s the Hopi belief, it’s our belief, that if you are not spiritually connected to the earth and understand the spiritual reality of how to live on earth, it’s likely that you will not make it.
Everything is spiritual. Everything has a spirit.
Everything was brought here by the Creator, the one Creator.
Some people call him God. Some people call him Buddha.
Some people call him Allah. Some people call him other names. We call him Tunkaschila...Grandfather.
We are here on earth only a few winters. Then we go to the spirit world. The spirit world is more real than most of us believe.
The spirit world is everything. Over 95% of our body is water.
To stay healthy, you’ve got to drink good water. Water is sacred. The air is sacred. Our DNA is made out of the same DNA as the tree. The tree breathes what we exhale. We need what the tree exhales. So we have a common destiny with the tree.
We are all from the earth, and when the earth, water, and atmosphere are corrupted, it will create its own reaction. Our Mother is reacting.
The Hopi prophecy says that storms and floods will become greater. To me, it’s not a negative thing to know that there will be great changes. It’s not negative. it’s evolution. When you look at it as evolution, it’s time.
Nothing stays the same. You should learn how to plant something. That is the first connection.
You should treat everything as spirit and realize that we are one family. It’s never something like the end. It’s like life.
There is no end to life.
We are all connected; we all belong.
-- Floyd Red Crow Westerman (1936 – 2007), Sisseton Dakota musician, political activist, and actor.
