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By Robyn O'Brien, Founder of Allergy Kids Foundation and LuxEco Advocate Now, I’m not sure where you stand on this whole food thing. But if you’re anything like me, you probably don’t want someone telling you what to eat. So when friends first started trying to educate me about terms like organic, local, natural and grass fed, I have to admit, I tuned out (and probably rolled my eyes). Because the reality is that food is never just food. Food is comfort. Food is family. It is security. It is politics. And it is loaded.

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

By Nancy Chuda founder and Editor in Chief of LuxEcoLiving and co-founder of Healthy Child Healthy World Melbourne Australia We may not be winning the war...

By Mary Elizabeth Williams-Villano, LuxEco Editorial Assistant and author of the Resplendent Repurposing series Even wonder what really goes on behind the scenes at your local thrift store? About how your donations are used -- are they really helping people? How the charity decides what to charge? What happens to the stuff that doesn't sell? And just how Green an operation is it, anyhow? I got an inside peek into the operation of what is perhaps the best-stocked, best-run chain of thrift stores in the greater Los Angeles area when I spoke with executives of the National Council of Jewish Women, Los Angeles at the Fairfax Avenue headquarters.

By Nancy Chuda founder and Editor-in-Chief of LuxEcoLiving and co-founder of Healthy Child Healthy World California leads the nation in having  preserved one of the...

She's not a purist. She's a magician. Kit Kemp is one of the most talented designers in the world today.Step into any of her Firmdale properties in the UK or fly "over the pond" and land in the heart of Soho New York at the stellar Crosby and you are in for a life changing experience that takes luxury living and staycations to new heights.

A book review by Nancy Chuda, Co-founder of LuxEcoLiving and Healthy Child Healthy World of Luka And The Fire of Life, Salman Rushdie, Random House Jim and I were treated to a magical evening: time spent listening to Salman Rushdie in person at the Japanese American Cultural and Community Center, in Little Tokyo in downtown Los Angeles. Sir Ahmed Salman Rushdie or Urdu sael main rvdi/ is a British Indian novelist and essayist. He achieved notability with his second novel, Midnight Children (1981), which won the Booker Prize in 1981. Most of his fiction is set on the Indian subcontinent and his style is classified as magical realism mixed with historical fiction. One theme that has captivated readers is the connections he weaves between Eastern and Western worlds.

By: Leslie Harris, Interior Designer, Leslie Harris Interior Design and LuxEco Advocate As I wind down for the year I find myself thinking about a book called The Home Within Us and how much that says about my design philosophy. Everything I approach as a designer lies first and foremost in the feeling of comfort, well being, creating a place of safety and sanctuary. Problem solving, space planning, furniture and color selection comes later but it is driven by these things.

By Nancy Chuda founder and Editor in Chief of LuxEcoLiving and co-founder of Healthy Child Healthy World How walking can add years to your life What...

Last month James Cameron was invited to the National Resources Defense Council (NRDC) fundraiser at FOX studios to discuss the meaning, the message and...

By James and Nancy Chuda founders of LuxEcoLiving and Healthy Child Healthy World What a dream! We spent our Midnight in Paris and every waking...

By Nancy Chuda, Co-Founder of LuxEcoLiving.com and Healthy Child Healthy World. Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke predicted that America's worst recession in decades would likely...

By Jason Wachob, Founder of MindBodyGreen.com and LuxEco Advocate Many foodies don't equate the word vegan with delicious, as a lot of recipes don't translate well without butter, eggs, and other animal products. But not when we're talking cupcakes... One of the most popular stories at the NY Times focuses on vegan chef, Chloe Coscarelli, whose vegan cupcakes beat out traditional cupcakes on the Food Network show, "Cupcake Wars."

By Bethany Colson, Managing Editor of LuxEcoLiving.com America today is seeing more people being isolated into a world of junk food and unhealthy foods. The U.S is rapidly turning into an unhealthy America with something called a "food desert". What's a food desert? According to Secretary of Agriculture Tom Vilsack, a food desert is a “place where there is not easy access, affordable access, reasonable access to fresh fruits and vegetables — to a grocery store.” It could be an inner city or a rural town but what they both have in common, besides the low income economy, is their lack of access to fresh produce and to healthy food alternatives. Instead, convenience stores and fast foods with their highly processed foods, packed with refined sugars, trans fats and preservatives are ubiquitous and commonplace. As a result, families are left with few options to serving nutritious foods and their children suffer the consequences. With new generations being fed these types of foods, it is only a matter of time before this growing unhealthy America can see any change whatsoever.

Olio & Limone is now my favorite Italian restaurant in the world.... and what a pleasure not to experience the burden of airplane pasta and worse, long lines for US Customs.... when all you have to do is find West Victoria Street in Santa Barbara and indulge.

Meridith Baer is a storyteller. For the past 15 years, Meridith has designed interiors by imagining who might live in them and telling their...

How do you take the fame and publicity of a recent Oscar win and parlay that momentum for a good cause? Well, how about...

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.

By Nancy Chuda founder and Editor-in-Chief of LuxEcoLiving and co-founder of Healthy Child Healthy World I lost a very close friend. She was and remains...

Leader in the organic produce business and in sustainable farming practices, Myra Goodman inspires us with eco-tips and organic recipes with her new book The Earthbound Cook. organic produce sustainable farm earthbound cooking By Sahar Ghaffari, LuxEco Editorial Assistant Sustainable farming business woman, Myra Goodman is a popular cookbook author and co-founder of the organic Earthbound Farm, which she started in 1984 with her husband Drew. Her passion for organic foods has catapulted Earthbound Farm into the country's largest grower of organic produce. Myra and Drew's organic and sustainability initiatives have garnered them numerous awards and honors including Global Green USA’s Corporate Environmental Leadership Award and the Organic Trade Association’s Organic Leadership Award. As the author of two successful cookbooks, Food to Live By, and now The Earthbound Cook, Myra is spreading the message that fresh organic foods and produce are not only healthy and delicious, but vital to the sustainability of the environment.

By Alanna Brown, LuxEco Editorial Assistant What says Fourth of July better than friends, fireworks, and good food? For a traditional celebration, not one of those three can be sacrificed. However, you can make healthier food choices without sacrificing flavor. Believe it or not, there are healthy alternatives to the yearly cheeseburgers and hotdogs dripping with grease, and that fattening potato salad. CBS News has shared with us some great recipes that will leave you and your friends satisfied and guilt-free to enjoy the fireworks.

By Alanna Brown, LuxEco Editorial Assistant At the March 2010 CeBIT, the world’s leading tradeshow in the digital industry, Global eSustainability Initiative (GESI) announced an important new member. Research in Motion, which makes Blackberry, will be joining the organization. That’s right, Blackberry is changing its color…to Green. The widely popular smart-phone maker has come under recent scrutiny for its practices, or lack thereof, regarding sustainability. One Greenpeace report stated, “the Blackberry Pearl, which lost a lot of points in the life cycle criteria and for poor energy efficiency, and did not even meet the Energy Star standard.”

Imagine trekking on foot through the rhododendron forests of the Sherpa homeland of Nepal's Khumbu Valley that lies below the ice-capped Mount Everest where...

By Kerin Van Hoosear, LuxEco Editorial Assistant and author of Seasonal Cooking with Kerin Did you know that most kids’ meals in restaurants have twice as many calories as the meal you’d serve them at home? Not only are the majority of these meals laden with saturated fat and salt, but some even reach a whopping 1,000 calories! Such a meal is high in calories for an adult, and for a child that’s just ridiculous.

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 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...

How to navigate high fructose corn syrup and sugar substitutes to avoid harmful artificial sweeteners in favor of plant based alternatives. By: Molly Cimikoski, Editorial Assistant What if products that contain high fructose corn syrup or artificial sweeteners, which are marketed to assist in living a healthier lifestyle, are actually the ones making us sick? As of 2007, American consumers were spending 21 billion dollars 21 billion dollars annually on diet, or low calorie, drinks. From the outsider perspective, this still seems like progress compared to the alternative statistic, with 64% of Americans qualifying as overweight or obese. But what if you found out that the sugar alternatives that many diet products promote are not only ineffective as weight loss methods, but are also dangerous to your health?

By Nancy Chuda founder and Editor in Chief of LuxEcoLiving and co-founder of Healthy Child Healthy World Santa Ynez Valley Maverick Saloon Tales From...

By Nancy and James Chuda founders of LuxEcoLiving and co-founders of Healthy Child Healthy World    The Point was spectacular in ever sense of the word....

By Nancy and James Chuda founders of LuxEcoLiving and Healthy Child Healthy World LuxEcoLiving "The hair cut that I'm most proud of, to tell the truth,...

On April 21, 2010, the oil rig Deepwater Horizon had a dire malfunction. Both its manual and emergency blowout preventers failed to deploy when the worst-case scenario became a reality. An oil rig blowout has the potential to occur when some combination of mud, oil, natural gas, and water erupt from the well, surge up the drill pipe, and ignite at the surface, exploding into an inferno.

By Nancy Chuda  Founder and Editor in Chief and of LuxEcoLiving and co-founder of Healthy Child Healthy World How many of you have seen...

By Dow-Yung Kou, LuxEco Editorial Assistant If you are looking to explore your eco-friendly sense of style, look no further than La Bomba Vintage clothing in Long Beach, CA! La Bomba is a vintage store located on an urbanizing block that meshes a little bit of new with a lotta bit of vintage. The up and coming area is full of vintage inspired salon’s, restaurants, and clothing stores, but hands down, the jewel of this block goes to a little shop by the name of La Bomba.

By Nancy Chuda founder and Editor in Chief of LuxEcoLiving and co-founder of Healthy Child Healthy World LuxEcoLiving Hotel Le Meurice Paris the Salvador Dali...

By Zhenya Gershman artist, art historian, educator and contributing author to LuxEcoLiving I “met” my parents not long after they first fell in love.  I...