If there’s one thing I know for sure, it’s that spending time in nature always brings me joy and makes me feel healthier. 🌲 

One of my FAVORITE ways to be in nature is by visiting regenerative farms wherever I am in the world. I’ve written extensively about regenerative agriculture in my newsletter and Good Energy, and the core idea is simple: when it comes to agriculture, we can either fight against natural cycles (which is unsustainable and toxic) or support and nurture those cycles (which enhances both human and planetary health). Seems like a no-brainer, yet 99% of American farmland is not organic or regenerative, and instead uses destructive conventional practices that attempt to outsmart complex ecosystems and are ultimately more expensive for everyone (farmers, government, consumers). 

If you’ve read Good Energy, you know that I am obsessed with fiber. So much so that it is one of the 5 elements of Good Energy meals! In the wake of the LA fires, and in light of the fact that February is Heart Health month, I think it's important to revisit fiber as a critical tool for supporting comprehensive health, and especially detoxification.

I receive countless emails from parents and teachers dismayed by the state of school food today. Reforming childhood nutrition has been a passion of mine for years because it’s unconscionable that, in the wealthiest country in the world, corporate interests are consistently prioritized over children’s health. Sadly, that’s the reality.

In today’s newsletter, I will cover how arthritis is not just a structural issue but a biological issue tied to metabolic health (which we can improve!), expanding our thinking about surgery for some musculoskeletal issue, dietary changes and supplements that can help joints, and how the mind-body connection impacts joint pain!

The medical journal The Lancet has published that “around 45% of cases of dementia are potentially preventable by addressing 14 modifiable risk factors at different stages during the life course.”  In this report, these risk factors included smoking, air pollution, hearing loss, diabetes, high blood pressure, social isolation, and physical inactivity.

I thought I’d share with you the things I grabbed from the house in the seconds we had before fleeing. Reflecting on these instinctual choices, they feel like a clear indication of what matters—and what doesn’t—in my life. While standing in the middle of my living room during that brief, quiet moment before fleeing, my mind was scattered and blank, with no sense of strategy or plan—only primal instincts. So, while I did NOT think to grab my wallet, passport, birth certificate, toothbrush, or clothes (🤦‍♀️), I did grab items that feel irreplaceable to me. Despite forgetting nearly all the logistical necessities, I feel peaceful with these choices.

And since I know many of you are here for health and wellness information, just know that this is ALL connected to health. Because inner peace is the biochemical state where biological healing can take place. As I’ve talked about on podcasts and in my book, inflammation is biochemical fear. Peace is equanimity with our circumstances, and is the antidote to fear. Peace in our hearts and minds - which is cultivated through practices like meditation, breathwork, nature, gratitude, and prayer - contributes to peace in our cells, because it’s all connected, and our thoughts translate into biologic reality through our hormones and neurons, which can be messengers of safety and repair or danger and war. We want safety and repair.

By normalizing disconnection and speed in every aspect of food preparation: growing food, sourcing food, preparing food, serving food, and eating food, we’ve transferred our attention to “more important” activities—like endless scheduled tasks, scrolling, and work. And we’re paying for it: as a society, we’re sicker, heavier, more depressed, and more infertile than ever. Kids are sick. Life expectancy is going down. Something isn’t working. And I think in part, losing our connection with food—the very substance that makes up our cells and rebuilds our bodies every day—has caused us to lose connection with ourselves.

We are not separate from the Earth; We are Her. Her illness is our illness. Every second, trillions of atoms in our bodies exchange with the environment around us through things like breath, sweat, tears, oil, dead skin cells, saliva, urine, blood, pheromones, nails, milk, bacteria, viruses, and more. Energetically, we give off heat, electromagnetic signals, sound, and more. Hundreds of billions of our cells die and are reborn daily, and the new atoms in our bodies come from the 2-3 pounds of food and the 10,000+ liters of air we consume daily—constantly 3D-printing ourselves in a cycle of transformation and rebirth. This is the reality of our swirling lives: 98% of our atoms are replaced every year, and nearly all parts of our body were once a star.

In the weekly spiritual lecture at Self-Realization fellowship (SRF) that my fiancé and I go to, I heard a message from the monk that REALLY landed with me and I want to share it with you. He said (and I’m paraphrasing here…), that if we are constantly praying for our own will power to be aligned with God’s will, and then have the courage to act on that, we will feel peace, calm, and joy. 

This email is a bit of a curveball, as you might hear “death industrial complex” and think I’m going to be ranting writing about how the healthcare system is incentivized for Americans to be sick. While that’s true, it is not the focus of today’s newsletter. Instead, I want to talk about something deeply meaningful to me based on my experience of my mom’s death nearly 4 years ago: funerals and burials. 

Anxiety and depression are rampant in America right now, with around a third of the population reporting an anxiety disorder and over 20% of adults having a major depressive episode in their lifetime. On top of this, chronic fatigue and brain fog are on the rise, and are linked to inflammation in the brain (a process called neuroinflammation).