App Review: Greening Your Family

Greening Your Family Home Screen

Do you find that when you go to the grocery store you can’t remember which fruits and veggies are on the Dirty Dozen or the Clean Fifteen?  Do you look at the sunscreen shelves and try it remember if it was oxybenzone or avobenzone that is bad for you and should be avoided?  (you should avoid oxybenzone). Then you go to pick up shampoo and you can’t remember which brands are safe versus which have phthalates and sodium lauryl sulfate.   Frankly, you don’t care why when you’re out shopping, you just want to buy the items that are best for you framily.

You could carry a book around with you (not!) or if you have an iPhone you could look things up on the web or reference a couple of different apps.  There is a new solution! Download the app Greening Your Family.   This app is full of all the little facts you want to remember as you go up and down the aisles shopping.  It has sections on food, personal care and cleaning.  It answers all the questions listed above and includes information on organic brands available nationally, plastics and reading labels.  The topics are laid out simply and items are easy to find.  I found the app completely intuitive to use.

Today while shopping I used it to remember which fruits I really only wanted to buy organic (today it was apples and strawberries) but it assuaged my guilt on wanting to buy conventional watermelon & tomatoes because those are on the Clean Fifteen list.  I used it in the dairy section when looking at butters and cheese.

This is a great reference tool for mom’s that want to be green but are not a walking encyclopedia.  Spending $0.99 to make shopping healthy for your family is well worth it.

Lindsey Carmichael, the author, became interested in environmental health when her own son was diagnosed with asthma.  She is the author of the book, Greening Your Family (available on Amazon) and this app enables you to bring the knowledge of the book shopping, without the bulk!


Greening Your Family iphone App makes a great gift! (Perhaps for that favorite mom? In fact, this would be a very green gift, that would not increase her carbon footprint.)

Here’s how you gift an iPhone app:
How To Gift An App via iTunes:

1. Paste this link into your browser: http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/greening-your-family-premium/id517639924?mt=8
2. Click the ‘View in iTunes’ button once viewing the app on the iTunes preview page
3. When viewing the app in iTunes, click on the downward pointing arrow to the right of the ‘Download’ button
4. A small box with five options will appear (see screen shot below). Select the top option, ‘Gift This App’ and follow the instructions.   

How to Gift An App from your Apple Device (iPod Touch, iPhone, iPad):

1. Launch the App Store App and search for Greening Your Family Premium; select it by tapping the title
2. Scroll to the bottom of the screen containing the app description and screen shots
3. Click the ‘Gift This App’ button and follow the instructions

Let me know what you think of the app!

Happy Greening,
Alicia

I received a complimentary copy of this app to review directly from Lindsey.  However, all opinions are completely my own.