An Encyclopedia for Green Living

If you're looking for just one book to help you learn how to live a greener, more sustainable and environmentally responsible life, write this title on your shopping list: "Green Living: The E Magazine Handbook for Living Lightly on the Earth" (2005, Plume).

Encyclopedic in both depth and breadth -- covering everything from healthy eating and natural health care to eco-friendly investing and smart energy choices -- "Green Living" (compiled by the editors of E/The Environmental Magazine) offers a wealth of information and useful tips throughout its 320 pages, including:

Sticker secrets. Those little stickers on fruits and vegetables can reveal some useful information if you know the code. If the first number in the code, called the PLU code, is a 9, the item is organic. Stickers that begin with a 4 denote conventionally grown produce, while an 8 at the beginning indicates a genetically modified fruit or vegetable.

Shopping on the edge. When you go to the grocery store, you'll make the healthiest choices by sticking to the outer edges -- where the produce, dairy (choose low- or no-fat) and meats (go easy here too) are located -- and avoiding the interior aisles, which is where all the processed and junk foods lurk. "Green Living" cites the example of one single mom who was diagnosed with congestive heart failure and given seven years to live; by staying on the perimeter of grocery stores and sticking to, as she put it, "what comes off a tree or off the ground," she's outlasted her dire prognosis and feels healthier than ever.

'Bunnies in the bathroom.' Many conventional cosmetics are made with animal products, though you might not know it from the labels. If you want to avoid animal-based ingredients, steer clear of products made with carmine (a red dye extracted from the bodies of the cochineal beetle), glycerin (derived from animal fat; instead, seek out labels that specify "vegetable glycerin"), keratin (protein from such animal parts as horns, feathers and hooves) and stearic acid (taken from animal fat, not only from farm animal but from shelter-euthanized strays as well).