World Health Day – Our Top 10 Tips for Sustainable Wellness

1. Switch to a more plant focused diet.

This is a huge one for both the health of our planet and our personal health. Whilst we would never tell anyone to completely change their diets without consulting a medical professional, all of us could eat a lot more plants and plant protein to help cut back on the emissions and large carbon footprints associated with meat and dairy. Our recent podcast episode with Anna Jones of We Are Food is a great place to start if you are looking for a bit of motivation and a guiding hand!

2. Pay attention to soil.

So much of our health starts with nutrients found there and the earth’s soil has become extraordinarily depleted as we have conducted so much industrial scale agriculture with pesticides. We cannot grow healthy food without healthy soil, and we are finding connections to the health of the soil that food is grown in and the health of our guts, with a lot of bacteria in each needed for health overlapping.  FLVC is our newest line that incorporates the health of the soil into their simple tonic and powder supplements. Fulvic acid is an organic compound found naturally in the earth’s soil that is created as millions of microbes decompose plant matter, and this is so great for your microbiome. A bioavailable mineral essential for your overall health. Proudly sourced from Canadian soils, extracted with clean technology.

3. Turn screens off an hour before bed. Set a calming mood.

We are all guilty of this – constantly scrolling through our phones even as we are in bed and our bodies should be starting to relax for sleep. But the blue light and stimulation we get from our phones and computers can really affect our ability to fall asleep. We suggest leaving your phone outside of your bedroom and investing in an alarm clock to wake you up. Also buy (from your local independent bookstore!) some lovely books to read before bed. We also are loving RAIN CBD to help calm the nervous system. Their candle and body balm are the perfect way to relax and set a calming mood.

4. Get moving for at least 30 minutes a day.

This can be as simple as a nice walk after work or a gentle yoga class, but movement is so incredibly important. We like to use Seela activewear for our work outs as they don’t have any hidden plastics or chemicals in their items, using only an incredibly innovative. All Seela activewear is made using castor bean fiber, Ricinus Communis. Wildly grown and sustainably sourced, this fabric creates a perfect synthesis of performance and environmental awareness. The fabric is certified by DIN CERTCO and OEKO-TEX STD 100 CLASS I systems; and it is biodegradable. This is a stunning line of activewear that has no nasties!

5. Focus on gut health.

Our new line AYNI is great for this, we are particularly loving Smooth at the moment. AYNI is a sustainable wellness line founded by siblings Juan and Eugenia, who spent their childhood in Buenos Aires in the care of their grandfather Carlos, a naturopathic M.D. and pioneer in the supplement industry, who conveyed to them his passion for all things wellness and holistic medicine. Designed to support gut health, improve digestion, boost the immune system and enhance beauty from the inside-out. The hero ingredient, the maqui berry from Patagonia, has the highest antioxidant value of any superfood on Earth. It helps to fight inflammation in the gut and feeds good bacteria in the colon, improving digestion and nutrient absorption.

6. Eat as locally as possible.

We are huge fans of eating locally for the smaller carbon footprint, but it can also really benefit your health as food has more nutrients in it the sooner it’s eaten after being cut or dug from the ground. To get the full benefits of the vegetables and fruits you eat try to go as close to the food source as possible. Our best tips for this is trying to find your local farmer’s market as they tend to harvest that very morning, or even try growing some of your own vegetables. Herbs and potted tomatoes are very easy to start with no matter where you may live! 

7. Avoid plastics as much as you can, this includes drinking out of plastic bottles and plastic packaging.

An investigation, co-ordinated by Orb Media in 2017, found that most of the 259 bottles of water tested were contaminated with microplastics. They have been reported in tap water, beer and many other foods. And now people will be surprised that almost all bottled water appears to be contaminated too (University of East Anglia). There was also a recent study we read in The Guardian that for the first time a study found that in a majority of people miscroplastics had shown up in their bloodstream (swipe right to see a few points on this!).

“Microplastic pollution has been detected in human blood for the first time, with scientists finding the tiny particles in almost 80% of the people tested.

The discovery shows the particles can travel around the body and may lodge in organs. The impact on health is as yet unknown. But researchers are concerned as microplastics cause damage to human cells in the laboratory and air pollution particles are already known to enter the body and cause millions of early deaths a year.Giving up plastic will help you and the environment from exposing even more of this. Let’s ditch plastic together and below are two of our favourite zero waste lines from Namsu and Well Kept!

8. Choose a clean supplement to give you an extra boost of vitamins and minerals.

Sanbera is our new favourite line for easy, daily tablets with a huge kick of goodness. One of the most transformative things we can do for ourselves is create rituals, day and night, focused on our health and wellbeing.With clean, premium, and powerful ingredients, this dietary supplement seamlessly meets the body’s nutritional requirements during the day with a super-effective alliance of antioxidants, twelve essential vitamins, and six vital minerals to strengthen immunity and boost energy levels. At Sanbera, they have worked tirelessly to bring modern science into those moments: A daily and nightly dose of wellbeing designed to improve your habits, create healthy rituals and deliver tangible results for your body and mind.

9. Choose organic in as many capacities as you can.

According to the Soil Association, if all of Europe’s agricultural land followed organic principles, farming-related emissions could drop by 40-50% by 2050 and with plenty of healthy food to feed a growing population. Organic farms also do not use any chemical pesticides or fertilizers, and rely on natural alternatives, therefore they don’t emit those emissions either. Since soils store more carbon than our atmosphere and all the world’s plants combined, maintaining healthy soils is one of our best ways to fight climate change. That is why organic farming is so important, because the practice is based on nourishing the soil, which in turn helps the soil build carbon! Avoiding pesticides is hugely important for our health, and fighting climate change is hugle important for the health of the earth!

10. Finally, devote time to purposeful activities and engagements.

We have always found Dan Buetner who has written and researched extensively the Blue Zones – areas on earth where people live the longest and healthiest lives. Some of his key findings are fascinating in terms of what they eat (mostly plants), what they drink (coffee and wine are in there – yay!) and that they are all physically active for the entirety of their lives. But one less obvious thing he found is that they all have a sense of purpose throughout their entire time on earth – whether that be found if family, community endeavors or simply maintaining their garden. As he says: 

“Purpose is the convergence of values, passions, what you like to do, what you’re good at. Then the important part, in my opinion, is there’s no purpose unless there’s an outlet for it. The best outlet I think is your job because you do it every day, but 69% or so of Americans don’t find purpose at work. So then it’s got to be your family, or volunteering, or a hobby. But it’s got to be putting those passions and expertise and gifts to work. Once you identify that, man, it’s just like supercharging your engine. People with a strong sense of purpose [are] more likely to take their medicines, they’re more likely to be physically active, their mind is more likely to be engaged, they’re more likely to eat the right food, to make the effort to connect socially. It’s just so fundamental. I like to say that if you could put purpose in a capsule, it would be a blockbuster drug, because we know people with a strong sense of purpose retrospectively live about eight years longer than people with no sense of purpose.” – Dan Buetner