Why you may want to reconsider the birth control pill

We pride ourselves on working around client's schedules, food preferences and obstacles. After all, our business cards say "nutrition troubleshooters" and our tag line is "you don't have to changes your lifestyle to fit our food plans." So, for the most part we stay mum or mum-ish when it comes to medication. We're by no means anti conventional medicine or medication where warranted. I always say if (knocking wood) I'm in a car crash, I don't want to be brought to my acupuncturist. However, there are times when we can't hold our tongues nor do we want to. We have serious concerns about the birth control pill (and all synthetic hormones frankly). And so, we discussed them in our newsletter today. I seriously hope you're signed up for our infrequent emails. If you aren't you can sign up here. But, for now, here is the link to today's "The Pill Can Make You Ill." Please give it a read and pass it along to your friends, daughters, coworkers etc.
Do you take the Pill? Is this news to you? Any questions for us?

Foodtrainers’ Favorites from the Bulletproof Conference

We’ve been busy. Yesterday, we launched our pretty, newonline shop. Unexpectedly, our curated products have become popular and so we needed to give them a spiffed-up home. There were no major tech issues and orders surpassed our predictions, phew.

And, over the weekend, Carolyn and I attended the Bulletproof Conference. We pride ourselves on being seekers or guinea pigs, if you’re a Bulletproofer it’s called biohacking. When we walked into the conference we felt as though we had found our people (“tribe” is so annoying but maybe it applies). If anything, these people made us look unaccomplished in our experimentation. There was some weird shit.

Clients and commenters were curious about some of the things we posted so I thought I’d do a round-up of top 10 things we learned or heard about:

Bulletproof coffee- this isn’t new to us but we were treated to Bulletproof coffee throughout the conference. The first morning’s coffee kept us focused and full for many hours despite a red eye the night before. If you haven’t tried it, Bulletproof coffee is coffee plus oil (MCTs or coconut oil) + grass-fed butter blended with collagen optional. We add cinnamon to ours as well.

 IV nutrition- Yes, this is controversial, yes you must be SUPER careful about who gives you needles and yes our client, an ER MD, doesn’t agree with me on this one but I’m a fan. It’s an efficient way to get a large dose of nutrients for immunity, energy and cognition. The speakers at Bulletproof got IV’s before their talks,

Dig Deeper-Mastin Kipp (one of the speakers) provided a good reminder that all of this biohacking is just busy work if we aren’t getting to the root of our pain, stressors etc. I emailed my therapist stat. 

The healthiest wine-I’m usually a mezcal/tequila girl, So, I’m not a big wine drinker but I am a drink-only-the-best-er. Dry Farm Wines was an exhibitor at Bulletproof and I just signed up for their healthy wine delivery. Low/no sulfites, organic and the “cleanest” wines I’ve found.

And from the sleep doc, red wine (not dry farm wines but the sulfitey kind) is worse for your sleep than white. If you’re on the fence about prioritizing sleep, Dr Mercola called it the #1 thing we can do for your health.

Cell phones are scary. I know he’s beloved but I didn’t enjoy Mercola’s talk simply because it terrified me. He focused on radiation from cell phones and Wi-Fi. There just aren’t many legit solutions. I mean, I told my kids not to put phones in their pockets/touching their bodies and they told me where to go (“so everyone in the world is going to get cancer then Mom”). One way to combat the damage to our cells from radiation is taking magnesium, a lot of magnesium One form I like is this. I have no suggestions for mitigating the damage of teenagers.

Molecular Hydrogen is something to keep an eye out for. I’m talking to one of the companies today, more on that soon but I think it’s going to be big.

Esther Perel. I really believe relationships and sex are the next frontier when it comes to our wellness. Check out Esther’s amazing podcast on audible or her books. I took copious notes at her talk but one thing that resonated was that people, entrepreneurs especially, often give their passion, love and energy to their work and then save “the crumbs” for their partners. I was guilty of this, when I opened, Foodtrainers. Marc has his own business too. I’m happy to report we give each other large crumbs, maybe bites, at this point.

It’s invigorating to learn new things. I seriously get a high from hearing about new ideas, technology and the such. Whatever you’re interested in, seek out information, preferably in person versus on the computer. “Gathering” is good for your health.

Malibu is worth it and Carolyn is the best. Our conference was in Pasadena, we took an Uber to Malibu (about an hour, female drivers both ways, go Cali). We sat at the bar at Nobu, looking out at the ocean, eating, drinking and catching up. Esther Perel said work partnerships were marriages. You need to think about them. Well we thought about it, over margaritas, and our “marriage” is solid.

If you have any questions about this list, comment below. Or, have you tried anything I mentioned?

Donut in my hand

Girls Gone Vegan (Nola) a "worth it" donut if ever there was one

I keep a notebook, next to my computer, during nutrition sessions. Sometimes I’ll write down a product a client wants me to research or a restaurant they suggest. Most of the time, I write down pearls such as “I looked down and there was a donut in my hand.”  My client added “my friend said she's experienced this too, please tell me why this happens.”

I explained the following to her. It doesn’t just “happen” in that no spell comes over us and places junk food in our hands. But it’s a symptom of what hasn’t happened. Things end up in your hands when you stroll into the kitchen with no idea what you’ll walk out with. Or, when you’re tired at work and something is sitting out. Things end up in your hands because your food was unplanned or because you didn’t specifically have a plan for the bread basket, business meeting or the food calling you as you walk home from a date.

Try these two things:

•  Every morning mentally walk through what you will have for each meal. Or, take it one step further and write or type this out.
• As you’re doing your walkthrough, try troubleshooting. Analyze the obstacles. For example, I’m going to walk into the office and there will be bagels, I’m not going to even pause in front of the platter. I’ll have my breakfast instead. Chances are the challenging situations are reoccurring. You want to avoid deliberation when you are tired or stressed.

To whatever degree you can, ban the unplanned. If things end up in your hands, you should enjoy them.

Did Rx bar sleep with Harvey Weinstein for $600 million?

On Friday, news of Harvey Weinstein’s “habits” was everywhere. There was another big news story that you may have missed. In my food centric world it was maj. Rx bar, a nutrition bar company, was bought for $600 million dollars by Kellogg’s. That’s a really big number and I tried to be excited for a company we’ve supported since its infancy. But there’s a problem.Rx bars are notable because they slap a short ingredient list on the front of the package. And they get bonus points for humor by listing “No B.S”. What you see is what you get, we’re honest and genuine.

Facebook commenters alerted me to a  letter RX bar sent to customers (but not their wholesalers). The gist was that even though they sold (out, oops)  you will never know anything was different. Kellogg's likes them just the way they are. But we do know. And I’m not sure it feels honest and genuine to be “in bed” with or married to a company built on B.S. (Pop tarts, Eggo, Froot Loops). Strangely, I couldn't cut and paste the "smart label" for Pop Tart's but here are the ingredients:

ENRICHED FLOUR

SUGAR

CORN SYRUP

SOYBEAN AND PALM OIL (WITH TBHQ FOR FRESHNESS)

HIGH FRUCTOSE CORN SYRUP

DEXTROSE

FRUCTOSE

SWEETENED CONDENSED MILK

MODIFIED CORN STARCH

SALT

BROWN SUGAR SYRUP

LEAVENING 

MONO AND DIGLYCERIDES

SODIUM STEAROYL LACTYLATE

GELATIN

DATEM

SOY LECITHIN

YELLOW 6 LAKE

BLUE 2 LAKE

NATURAL AND ARTIFICIAL FLAVORS

YELLOW 5 LAKE

RED 40 LAKE

COLOR ADDED

NIACINAMIDE

REDUCED IRON

VITAMIN A PLAMITATE

VITAMIN B6

VITAMIN B2

Some of my colleagues support this union. After all, this will give RX bars reach and exposure. Just tell me how this is different from an actress saying, OK I’ll jump in the sack (I think he prefers showers, ick) with Harvey because it’s good for my career, for my brand. No, everyone thinks that’s wrong. Sure, it’s a little different, using power to coerce women is different than a corporate merger but not entirely different. As a commenter said on my Instagram post "you can't shtup the devil and claim purity."

Carolyn and I have each had lucrative opportunities with brands we don’t necessarily endorse. Each time, we have lengthy discussions and, at times, try to see if we could make a positive change with our messaging. But we wholeheartedly believe in quality and, for that reason, work with a handful of smaller companies at a time. We turn the majority of tempting offers down. And, for that reason Foodtrainers isn’t worth 600 million dollars (yet). 

What do you think? Is this how natural brands boost themselves? Or, is integrity allowed?