Nebraska Medicine & University of Nebraska Medical Center

Are organic foods safer or more nutritious? Short answer: Organic foods aren’t clearly more nutritious or much safer—but they do have some benefits. ✅ Safety: Organic foods usually have lower pesticide residues, since synthetic pesticides are restricted. That said, both organic and conventional foods meet safety standards, and proper...

Some foods I’d love to preserve and enjoy later in the year include: Tomatoes: Canned as diced tomatoes, sauces, or salsas for soups and meals all winter long. Peppers: Pickled or roasted and canned to add flavor and a little heat to dishes. Cucumbers (dill only): Classic dill pickles are a must—they’re great as snacks or alongside...

We’ve made it to the final day—nice work, everyone! Over the past few weeks, you’ve shown up, tried new habits, and made small changes that really do add up. That effort matters, and it’s been great to see our campus take this on together. If you haven’t logged today’s action yet, there’s still time to sneak one more in and finish strong. And...

♻️ Recycle Right in Nebraska (NE) Avoid Wishcycling & Keep Recycling Working Wishcycling = putting something in the recycling bin hoping it’s recyclable. Good intentions, but it can contaminate loads, damage equipment, and send more materials to the landfill. ✅ What DOES Go in Recycling (most NE programs) Paper &...

Think paper bags are always better than plastic? Not necessarily. Some life-cycle analyses have found that a paper bag may need to be reused multiple times, often more than four, to have a lower overall environmental impact than a single plastic bag.

Carbon offsets are booming, but many schemes are poorly monitored, overpromised, or even fraudulent. The idea that you can simply pay to erase your carbon footprint is a tempting eco‑myth. In many cases, offsetting does not deliver real, additional emissions reductions—it often shifts responsibility elsewhere or relies on credits that overstate...

Eating more plants is one of the biggest ways you can help the planet. Research from the University of Oxford shows that moving toward a plant‑based diet can cut greenhouse gas emissions by up to 73 percent. That said, simply swapping meat for highly processed soy or pea‑protein burgers—often wrapped in layers of plastic and shipped from across...

Organic cotton is often promoted as a greener alternative to conventional cotton, but the reality is more complex. Although it avoids certain harmful pesticides, organic cotton farming can require significantly more water—sometimes two to three times as much. Large-scale production may still contribute to soil depletion and can threaten local...

It may seem controversial, but in some cases it is actually better to leave fluorescent lights on rather than turning them off multiple times throughout the day. A fluorescent light’s lifespan is largely determined by how many times it is switched on, and a significant portion of its energy use occurs during startup. As a result, if you plan to...

When it comes to cutlery, we should follow the same rules when ordering Asian takeout as we do with western food: avoid disposable items at any cost! Disposable chopsticks are responsible for tearing down 3.8 million trees in China alone. The solution to this is very simple: if you usually buy lots of Asian takeout, keep a set of reusable...