Healthy Living

Cook with Nancy's Organic Kitchen and learn how to to turn everyday recipes into tasty and healthier new ones.

By Bethany Colson, Managing Editor of LuxEco Living and Beauty Expert In 2006, James and Nancy Chuda completed their labor of love: their Green Home under the "H" of the iconic Hollywood sign. Drawing from the couple's environmental activism and Jame's prolific career as a nationally board-certified architect specializing in the creation of non-toxic living and working environments, the Green Home is a culmination of many years of the Chuda's dedication to learning, living and advocating for a natural, environmentally-safe and sustainable lifestyle. However, going green didn't mean that their classic good taste would be sacrificed; their modern design would meet green architecture.

By Megan Boyle, Editorial Director, Healthy Child Healthy World Reproduced with the permission of the Environmental Working Group www.healthychild.org. Are you pregnant or thinking of becoming pregnant?...

Introduction by Nancy Chuda founder and Editor-in-Chief LuxEcoLiving and co-founder of Healthy Child Healthy World In 2000, many children's health advocates applauded Congress's decision to...

By: Molly Rovero, LuxEco Editorial Assistant Nancy, LuxEco founder and garden guru recommended that I try the Topsy Turvy. Excited about the success of her flourishing tomato plants at The Green Home Under the H she showed me pictures of them on her Blackberry one day while we were chatting. This eco-friendly planter would be perfect for my busy schedule she said, no weeding necessary! Aside from the initial planting, all that Topsy Turvy requires is watering once daily.

By Nancy and James Chuda founders of LuxEcoLiving and Healthy Child Healthy World Why Your Health Matters Most Walk don't run while searching Google for the...

By Nancy Chuda founder and Editor-in Chief of LuxEcoLiving and co-founder of Healthy Child Healthy World Santa Ynez California Photo credits James Chuda for LuxEcoLiving Ugg! It's...

By Lorri Ballance Laird, LuxEco Advocate Three summers ago, I suddenly found myself exhausted and depressed.  I slept for four to five hours a day...

By Nancy Chuda, co-founder of LuxEco Living.com and Healthy Child Healthy World Here in Nancy's Organic Kitchen at The Green Green Home Under The H, I am challenged daily by the special dietary needs of my LuxEcoLiving and Healthy Child/Healthy World friends and colleagues. There are so many variables when it comes to defining your plat du jour. At LuxEco, health is the main objective, so I’ve decided to help you figure out where you should look among the various choices within the food chain.

by Linsley Oaks, LuxEco Editorial Assistant Green is in and it is here to stay.  Eco-friendly products have blossomed on the fashion scene and are...

By James and Nancy Chuda founders of LuxEcoLiving and Healthy Child Healthy World Santa Barbara California Earl Warren Showgrounds   "The most dangerous 8 seconds in sports."...

By Megan Boyle, Editorial Director, Healthy Child Healthy World Reproduced with the permission of the Environmental Working Group www.healthychild.org. As parents, we do the best we can...

By Nancy Chuda founder and Editor-in-Chief of LuxEcoLiving and co-founder of Healthy Child Healthy World I've been fascinated by the long lasting power of orchids....

By Nancy Chuda founder and Editor-in-Chief of LuxEcoLiving and co-founder of Healthy Child Health World Getting older. It's not easy. Nora always found a way to...

By: Leslie Harris, Interior Designer, Leslie Harris Interior Design and LuxEco Advocate In October 2009, the U.S. Department of Energy sponsored what has turned out to be a biannual competition called Solar Decathlon on the National Mall in Washington, D.C. 20 teams from colleges and universities from the U.S., Canada, Germany and Spain were selected and asked to design, build and operate an energy efficient house powered exclusively by the sun. The winning team produced a house that best blended affordability, ease of living, attractiveness, comfortable and healthy indoor environmental conditions, enough energy to run all household appliances and hot water as well as producing more energy than it consumes. Workshops were provided about the current state of green design technologies, jobs and the future of the smart grid.

By Nancy Chuda founder and Editor-in-Chief of LuxEcoLiving and and co-founder of Healthy Child Healthy World The Citizen Hotel in Sacramento is a dog friendly,...

A very special recipe from Nancy's Organic Kitchen by Nancy Chuda, Founder of LuxEco Living Ingredients: 1/2 packet (1 teaspoon) unflavored gelatin powder 1 1/2 tablespoons cold water 1...

By Megan Boyle, Editorial Director, Healthy Child Healthy World, and Dawn Undurraga, Nutritionist, Environmental Working Group Reproduced with the permission of the Environmental Working Group www.healthychild.org. Your kids rush home...

By: Leslie Harris, Interior Designer, Leslie Harris Interior Design and LuxEco Advocate. I know there is a lot of talk about the value of buying goods that are grown or made locally but for me there are reasons that far outweigh the use of fuels that travel such long distances to get to our shores and that is helping out our fellow human. Artecnica, a Los Angeles based design and manufacturing company, is committed to considering issues of environmental sustainability and responsible manufacturing. Design w/Conscience is a program, begun in 2002, that works with artisan communities in developing countries to produce unique handcrafted objects that reflect indigenous skills to be in accordance with humanitarian and environmentally sensitive principles.

By: Leslie Harris, Interior Designer, Leslie Harris Interior Design and LuxEco Advocate I believe that every home should be a sanctuary and that upon entering it one should immediately feel physically and emotionally protected. What I first noticed upon entering Jim and Nancy Chudas Green Home to select a room to design for an upcoming feature in Los Angeles Magazine was that it had all of those qualities even in the construction phase.

People spend an average of 8 hours 21 minutes sleeping a day – but spend an average of 8 hours 41 minutes on media...

When it comes to the holidays I am always looking for an excuse to make something different.

By Nancy and James Chuda, founders of LuxEcoLiving and Healthy Child Healthy World Dr. Bojana Jankovic, Celebrating 23 years at the fabulous Montage Hotel in Beverly...

By Lacey Szczepanik, LuxEco Living Editorial Assistant I have two beautiful pet babies; Diggs, my proud, empathetic and cautious boxer, and Mo, my silly, sleepy Staffordshire terrier. I take my role as their guardian very seriously. When my pet Diggs was two years old, he was diagnosed with mast cell tumors, a form of cancer prevalent among boxers. I was devastated. I went through all the stages of grief. Denial; “Excuse me Mrs. Veterinarian, my dog has a small ‘bump’ on his side. Bump. Not lump. Lumps are scary. This is simply a ‘bump’.” Anger... directed more at God than anyone in particular. I lost Diggs’ brother much too early in life and found it cruel to be faced with another premature goodbye. Bargaining. Depression; full on who-needs-food and why-would-I-get-out-of-my-pajamas-or-leave-the-house-when-I-could-sit here-and-stare-at-my-beautiful-dog kind of depression. And finally Acceptance, and by acceptance I mean he’s alive today and he’ll be alive tomorrow SO THERE. Maybe the anger and denial are still sprinkled on top of the acceptance. A shocking 20-25% of our furry four legged pets end up dying prematurely due to Cancer. (Perdue University Department of Veterinarian).

Get rid of hazardous substances in your home and clean house with these great green cleaning products. By Brooke Rewa, Lux Eco Editorial Assistant Household cleaning products are full of hazardous substances that put our loved ones at risk. A clean house can be especially dangerous to children and pets. Toxic chemicals from conventional household products can be found on your floors, counters, carpets and transferred directly into the mouth of your pet or child. Many everyday cleaning products contain petroleum based pesticides and denatured ethanol, a type of ethanol that has one or more substances added to it making it poisonous. While we know little about the long-term health affects and environmental damage these hazardous substances can cause, it is safe to say the outcome cannot be good.

When Jim and I took our vows on October 6th 1984 we had a beautiful wedding. The ceremony and reception were held at the Hotel Bel Air in Los Angeles California.

By Nancy and James Chuda founders of LuxEcoLiving and Healthy Child Healthy World There are reasons why you should care and support the California Rangeland...

By: Leslie Harris, Interior Designer, Leslie Harris Interior Design and LuxEco Advocate Lori Dennis’ desire to be part of the solution to waste and pollution in the interior design and construction fields led her to write “Green Interior Design” which came out last month. Along with beautiful images of her work, it is a manual of resources for anyone wishing to create green interiors.

By Nancy Chuda founder of Healthy Child Healthy World and Editor in Chief of LuxEcoLiving           The Hamptons, Long Island New York, Los Angeles and Santa...

Cancer Patient’s Best Friend By SULEIKA JAOUAD reposted from The New York Times Blog  Suleika Jaouad writes about her experiences as a young adult with cancer. When...

For 20 years, Lauren Vidal remains true to the uniqueness of its creations and gives the contemporary woman her own image, focusing on overlays creating purely light styles punctuated by unstructured volumes.

Action For Healthy Kids Remember the watershed moment when you first learned about the dangers of pesticides in your food or the toxic chemicals in...

By Alanna Brown, LuxEco Editorial Assistant Sophie Uliano is the guru of all things green that coincide with feeling and looking gorgeous. An advocate of eco-friendly living without the sacrifice of beauty and glamour, she is the New York Times best-selling author of “Gorgeously Green: 8 Simple Steps to an Earth-Friendly Life,” “The Gorgeously Green Diet,” and “Do It Gorgeously: How to Make Less Toxic, Less Expensive, and More Beautiful Products.” Her breadth of knowledge is tremendous, ranging from non-toxic skin care, to gardening, to eco-friendly home restoration.

By Nancy and James Chuda founders of LuxEcoLiving and Healthy Child Healthy World Luxury for Less. The most beautiful authentic jewelry, custom designed, one...

By Alanna Brown, LuxEco Editorial Assistant According to the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette article entitled “Fragrance Chemicals and the Scent of Suspicion,” the fragrance industry has been keeping vital chemical information from the public. The article says two recent reports, one by the EWG and one by Women’s Voices for the Earth, have caused a stir amongst researchers, environmental groups, consumers, and industry legislation. These reports reveal that on the label of any given personal care product, bottle of perfume, or cleaning agent the word “fragrance” is loaded with unknown meaning. Manufacturers have used this one word, a nondescript listing among the other ingredients, as a catch-all to legally mask the dozen-or-more chemicals not actually listed.