Organic self-experiment
Fabulous Fermented Foods: Take Your Health to the Next Level
Most people know that a daily probiotic or the occasional yogurt is a good idea, but do they know why? And do they know the wealth of options that are out there when it comes to getting their daily dose of healthy bacteria? Here are some rock-solid reasons to add fabulous fermented foods to your…
Read MoreBody Dissatisfaction: Do You Have It? Novel Interruptions to the Pattern
There’s something terribly wrong with this statistic: 80% of women are unhappy with their body. I believe female body dissatisfaction is at epidemic levels, and it’s a top driver of food addiction and its sidekicks: eating disorders, diabetes, metabolic syndrome, chronic stress, hormone misfires, accelerated aging, and obesity. Body image is how you perceive…
Read MoreHow to Rock the Hay-bale: My First Fashion Show for Fibershed A.K.A. The 150-Mile Wardrobe
Recently, I walked my first runway. No, it wasn’t New York Fashion Week. It was a straw-bale runway in rural Point Reyes Station, CA. Does that challenge your idea of fashion? Make you rethink glamour? That’s the point. That’s why eco-visionary and author Rebecca Burgess asked friends in the fledgling eco-fashion realm to design some foxy togs…
Read MoreConverted
Was getting a little veggie henna applied to my lashes today on Fourth Street in Berkeley when I stumbled upon a new eco boutique in the ‘hood: CONVERT. WOW. Waltzed in and explained my organic experiment: one year – 100% organic in what I wear and schmear. No blank stare. Instead: efficient march through store, all arms…
Read MoreOrganic Right Up Next to Your Skin: Undies
Perhaps the most important layer in my organic experiment is my undies. Right up next to your privateness, you want no endocrine disruptors or heavy metals. Surprisingly, I found this to be one of the harder items to procure before January 1, 2011 when my experiment begins. Here in Berkeley, there’s a foxy brand called Pact. Check…
Read MoreOrganically Jeaned: Change Up the Paradigm
Learned today that the European Union has rigid boundaries on the type of cotton they import – no toxic dyes, no cheap cotton laced with DDT, as several cottons from China and India were recently demonstrated to contain. The EU regularly tests their imported textiles carefully; we in the US do not. One of the worst…
Read MoreReCAP of 2010: Dr. Sara Puts It Out There
Ok, friends: It’s D-2 for the start of my organic experiment. As I look back on the crazy-assed testing I’ve done to measure my toxic load this month, and look to Saturday 1.1.11 as the start of my experiment, I’m systematizing some of the delicious gems I’ve uncovered in the past year of prep. Here…
Read MoreNotes on an Organic Life, Week 2
I’m 2 weeks into my organic experiment of wearing, eating and schmearing only organic. Frankly it’s been difficult: cold, my options are rather limited and it’s been expensive. Yet I love it. Let’s start with cold. I bought organic wool yarn from a sweet sheep farm in Petaluma last October. I thought I’d pop out…
Read MoreSake Bombs or Kale? Vacation Review
At the risk of sounding insufferable, I have to share some thoughts on two side-by-side vacations. Let me preface our discussion with two disclosures: I have adrenal dysregulation and two young kids. While I’m in adrenal “recovery,” as many of you know who are on this path with me — recovery takes a long,…
Read MoreBeginnings of the Ends: Telomere Storytime
I’ve been talking up telomeres a lot lately, which are emerging as the key biomarker of biological aging. Think you look younger than your chronological age? Here’s your marker. Telomeres are a lot like the plastic tips on the ends of shoelaces – in this case, telomeres keep DNA on the ends of chromosomes from…
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