Rachel cooks up a healthy breakfast for Esther of Yogatic.com

Ingedients:
Fresh Organic Eggs
Spelt Bread
Yeast Extract
Tahini
Alfalfa Sprouts
Avocado

Little Comfort Nappies: 20% off the Full Pack
Bulk Buys – 10% discount if you buy 3 packs of Nature Care Disposable Nappies, natural Baby Wipes, any dried organic baby foods, Nanny Goat Formula or Hipp Organic Formula. Buy 10 pouches of Ella’s Kitchen Baby Food and get one free.
Nappachino Day – Wednesday 28th April @ 10.30 in Organico café – if you are interested in low-impact parenting and possibly switching to re-usable nappies come along for a talk, demos and free coffee!

Organico News March 2010:

Fairtrade Fortnight (22nd Feb – 8th March). Organico is running a Mad Hatter’s Fairtrade Competition – calling all creative kids! Create an Easter Hat and the 4 best entries will win a Fairtrade Easter Egg and will be displayed in Organico’s window. Closing date 26th March. Organico is also participating in the Monthly Draw (prize €100) which is being run by the Bantry Fairtrade Committee to encourage swapping to Fairtrade products.
Free WiFi in Organico Café – for March 2010 we are offering free WiFi in our Café every day outside of lunchtime (so not between 12.30 – 2.30). Bring your own laptop, avail of our tempting coffee and snack menu and browse for free!
Friday 5th of March (11.30 – 3.30) Majella O’Neill, Naturalife Product Specialist will be offering free 20 minute consultations on natural health.
A Gift to yourself for Mother’s Day – Mary Berkery of Dr Hauschka Skin Care is coming to Organico Cafe on the Thursday 11th of March to give a free evening talk on natural skin-care (7.30pm start). Refreshments and samples available.
PharmaNord CLA Booster – we are now stocking this popular weight-loss product. 

I’ve recently had my first baby, so this month I am going to focus on all things baby-related! Everyone wants a healthy, happy baby. A calm relaxed parent is one important key to having a happy baby and I’ve found that by informing myself on all kinds of approaches to parenting I’ve been able to make my own way. When it comes to baby health, naturally I’m a fan of using natural products. By reducing the chemicals and additives that your baby is exposed to in your home, on your baby’s skin, in their food, and in your food you are giving your baby a great start to life.

Organico Baby Club

As well as being amazing, having a new baby in the house can be confusing, expensive and traumatic! I have decided to launch a Baby Club at Organico to try to help reduce the confusion and cost of new parenthood. The Organico Baby Club will give members access to useful information, new parent get-togethers, and lots of discounts on nappies, food, formula, wipes and other essentials at Organico. Membership is free, just call in and sign up. The Baby Club Goodie bag contains a great article on healthy weaning by Jessica Mason (Jess works in Organico kitchen and is a fantastic cook!).
 
Real Nappies
Real Nappy Week (26th of April-2nd May) is celebrated all over the UK and Ireland by parents who want to reduce their impact on the environment, save themselves some money and use the best nappies for their babies. We have been researching Real Nappies and have finally found the best ones – made by an Irish company from bamboo, Little Comfort Nappies are lovely and soft, come in just one size that adapts to fit all age babies, and are very neat fitting. Real Nappies are a million miles better in terms of usability and design than they were 20 years ago. Forget pins – most now close with velcro or poppers. The best ones are shaped like a disposable, highly absorbent and very easy to use. Over time you really save money – especially if you have 2 or more children and use the same nappies. But the initial cost can be off-putting – so as part of Organico Baby Club support we are offering Club Members a 20% discount on Little Comfort nappies.

fairtrade ireland

Fair Trade Draw
In Bantry the Fairtrade committee is running a Monthly Draw throughout 2010 to encourage the Big Swap. Participating shops will retain your reciepts for fair trade products and they will be entered in the draw. The COmmittee will award €100 to the lucky winner.

In Organico we stock a large range of FairTrade food, including teas, coffees, honeys, chocolate, biscuits, as well as cleaning clothes, wines and more. Call in to check out our display of Fair Trade products during FairTrade fortnight, and try our Fairtrade tasters all week long!

LET THE BIG SWAP BEGIN
22 February-8 March 2010
Visit fairtrade.ie to get inspired.

Organico is expanding further into the natural baby market. Unsurprising, given my recent arrival! We already stock Nanny formula, Nature Care nappies, Hipp organic formula, Ella’s Kitchen organic (delicious) pouches, Holle dried baby food and a selection of Hipp baby finger foods as well as miscellaneous items. Soon though we will have Little Comfort Cloth nappies and a range of bulk buy offers that will be extended to our Baby Club members. I’m thinking at the moment of giving 10% off if someone buys 4 packs of nappies, 4 packs of wipes, that kind of thing. Hopefully, we will eventually roll these offers out online also!

Keep checking here for updates!

Hannah

Celebrate National Rude Health Week 2010 – Come and join us in learning more about naturally good health at Organico.

Enjoy a range of free talks, instore advice and consultations:

Monday 15^th Feb Brid Walsh (Solgar) – Free Consultations on Bone Health and Healthy Skin 1 – 4 pm

Monday 15^th Feb Clare Roche Free Talk @ 1 pm ‘’Tapping into emotional health with EFT’’ followed by free 20 min consultations

Tues 16^th   Christine Meadows Nutritionist 11-1pm for free 20 minute consultations

Wednesday 17^th  Jackie Kilbride Medical Herbalist Free 20 minute Consultations 11-1 pm

Thursday 18^th  James Hegarty Homeopath – Free Talk on Family Health and treating acute situations with Homeopathy 11am

Friday 19^th  Gabrielle McCauley (A.Vogel) Free Digestive health advice from 10.30 am -3.30 pm

Saturday 20^th  Liz Ewing – Free Sessions on Stress Management (Lifewise tutor) 2.30 – 4.30pm

All week: Free samples, tastings, information, discounts and special offers in Organico!

Note: Places are very limited – register to avoid disappointment

1. Remember your mother’s advice – chew your food!
2. Leave time between meals for digestion.
3. Drink more water.

How well do you chew your food? Do you sit down to eat? Do you give yourself enough time to digest before rushing on with your daily tasks? If you don’t chew your food properly you won’t digest it. Chewing starts everything. It is how we break down our food and how we prepare our digestive system to receive the food and produce the enzymes necessary to further digest it. When we chew properly, we mix our food with saliva, which (in the case of carbohydrates especially) starts the whole digestive process. If this process fails, you get partially digested foodstuffs fermenting and blowing you up like a balloon, causing gripping pain, inflammation, and in the long term, serious illnesses. What’s more, if your food isn’t broken down and absorbed effectively, you won’t get the nutrients you need from it, so you’ll become malnourished despite eating plenty of food, and you will crave more and more. So sorting out your digestion can reduce those troublesome cravings as well as removing stomach pains and abdominal cramps!

Leave plenty of time between meals so that each lot of food we eat can be digested properly before the next lot arrives. Imagine mixing partially digested food with un-digested food – how does the body know what to do? Either some stays in one part of the digestive system for too long or some moves on before it is ready – either way it causes problems. So try to leave at least 4 hours between meals.

Drink more water. You have heard this a million times, but don’t underestimate it. Dehydration causes huge problems in our bodies – joint pain, heart problems, and back pain, as well as digestive pain. We all need to drink between 1.5-2.5 liters per 24 hours to be healthy.

You will also feel better if you avoid coffee, alcohol, sugar and tobacco particularly if you are constipated, as they upset the gastric secretions and deaden the response of the bowel when used long term.

Foods that will help regulate digestion include:
Short grain brown rice, cooked with lots of water (and chewed well!)
Figs, raw or cooked
Dates, raw or cooked
Carrot juice
Prune juice

Molkosan – a healthy daily drink
If you feel you need additional help with your digestion, I recommend a whey powder called Molkosan Vitality. It helps to create a positive environment in which friendly gut bacteria (probiotics) can grow and thrive. Unfriendly bacteria don’t like these conditions and as they decline in numbers you will notice many beneficial developments:

Digestive symptoms such as constipation and bloating improve and your energy levels and general feeling of well-being may increase
Due to the steadily increasing digestive ability, your metabolism picks up, which can help with weight loss if this is an issue
Thrush, athlete’s foot and fungal nail infestations will get better as unfriendly bacteria are kept at bay
Arthritic symptoms may ease as tissue acidity is reduced

Rude Health Week: 15th to the 20th of February is national Rude Health Week, when Health Stores across the country will be promoting good health. We have Gabrielle McAuley back in Organico on Febuary 19th for free health consultations (10.30 – 3.30). She will be focussing on Digestive Health (but can also answer other questions). Just call in and ask to speak with her.

Organico is open from 9.30 – 6 Monday to Saturday, and Organico Café from 10-4.30 Monday to Saturday. Contact us on 51391 or look up www.organico.ie for recipes & health advice.

From all the team at Organico

Surprisingly, our skin is the largest organ in our body. Somehow, because it is external we seem to think of it as impermeable. In fact, nothing could be further from the truth: it is estimated that the skin absorbs 60% of everything in the atmosphere, so we are very vulnerable to the numerous chemicals all around us. We can, however, control what we actually put onto our skin. When choosing skin care and cosmetic products a good rule of thumb is to ask “what is actually in this? Would I eat it?!’’ When you think about the number of products we use every day – shampoo, conditioner, soap, showergel, deodorant, cleanser, moisturiser, makeup, body lotion, perfume – it would be nice to know they were completely safe. Unfortunately, large cosmetics companies put ‘natural’ and even ‘organic’ on the front of their labels hoping we won’t notice all the chemicals on the back!

When we choose a range of skin care products for Organico we know that skincare is about more than just the surface and we take the health implications very seriously. Brands such as Dr Hauschka, Weleda, Trilogy and Burt’s Bees are the mainstay of our beauty products and although they each have different approaches to their formulation, they are all focused on safe and healthy beauty.

As well as healthy ingredients, truly natural products have a fantastically therapeutic effect on our skin. These companies combine the best of nature and science in preparations that are simple and fuss-free, beautiful to use and incredibly effective. For example, New Zealand comapnyTrilogy make multi-award winning skin creams using organic rosehip oil, which helps to build cell-membranes and to repair, hydrate and strengthen the skin. Trilogy Rosehip Oil is recommended for scars, dry skin, aging skin, and sun damaged skin – but I use it daily on my skin which is pretty ‘normal’ (I’m trying to keep it that way!). They also make Everything Balm, which can be used by everybody for everything! Face, lips, elbows…even babies’ bottoms, so it’s great for travel. Products like these might not taste nice but they are so pure they are actually edible!

I would need to write a book to describe all the gorgeous lotions and potions we have in Organico. Instead I have asked our suppliers for samples and information and we have put together a number of free Beauty Bags (first come first served!) that you can come and collect from the shop and try them yourselves!

Organico News & Offers:
• Don’t forget our delicious handmade Christmas Cakes and Mince Pies – you can come in and taste both in the Café before you order (we also offer mince pies frozen so they can be cooked off at home at your convenience).
• We also have lots of Christmas goodies instore such as Booja Booja organic handmade chocolates, organic wines, Ports and Sparkling Cavas, chestnuts, Turkish Delight… all of which can be made into magnificent hampersfor fantastic tasty gifts!
• Weleda Shampoos and Conditioners are on offer 2 for the price of 1;
• Red, Orange and Green Organic Alpro Soyamilks are now €1.27 (RSP €1.86) or €14.99 for a case;
• 8th of December:10% off wines and Organic Wine Tasting with Mary Pawle
• Free Beauty Bags available from December 1st in Organico
Organico Shop will be open until 4pm on Christmas Eve and will re-open on Tuesday the 29th of December.

And finally – we would like to wish everyone a happy tasty Christmas and a healthy New Year!