Project Drawdown

A friend recently made me aware of a website for a group called Project Drawdown. It’s interesting…it’s addressing the concerns of those who want to do something to fight global warming but maybe aren’t sure where to start. On a larger scale though, it’s identifying all the things we can be doing to reach that drawdown point…where greenhouse gas emissions start decreasing for a change.

In their own words, “Project Drawdown is the first effort to measure and project the collective impact of a broad range of solutions if implemented at scale. Rather than focusing on a single solution or sector of solutions, Project Drawdown has done the math on what humanity is capable of achieving with the broad range of tools already in use around the globe.”

Politicians would be wise to draw from this knowledge base to draft their own proposals for fighting climate change, if they wish to attract the interest of voters who care about this issue. The breadth of ideas here is inspiring.

September 2, 2019

EverlyWell – hack your heath

I’m not happy if I don’t feel like my body is operating at peak efficiency…yet sometimes it’s hard to figure out why things seem off. If you have the time and patience, scheduling a trip to the doctor is always the best option. For a quick peek into the systems of your body, there are at-home tests you can do to test an amazing number of things. The company I’ve been trying out is EverlyWell, and they offer a really large variety of tests, depending on what conditions you’re trying to debug:

Food sensitivity test
Food sensitivity+
Postmenopause test
Women’s fertility test
Perimenopause test
Metabolism test
Metabolism+
Thyroid test
Testosterone test
Breast Milk DHA test
DHA+
Men’s health test
Women’s health test
Vitamin D and Inflammation test
Vitamin D test
Cholesterol and lipids test
Heavy metals test
Sleep and stress test
HbA1c test
STD test
Ovarian reserve test

You get the idea! These tests aren’t covered by most insurance companies, but depending on what you want to test and why, that may be the case anyway (or if you’re on a high deductible plan, it’s all out of pocket anyway, and you can at least use an HSA or FSA to pay for these). It’s cheap, quick, and easy…well sort of easy…some tests DO require some drops of blood so you need to be able to handle that! Just remember…whatever your results, don’t play internet doctor and go crazy over this…but DO use the results to determine if you need to schedule an appointment with a doctor to investigate further!

Get 10% off if you use this link.

March 10, 2018

Bulletproof coffee

I’m such a coffee geek, I’m surprised I don’t write about coffee here more! I’ve maintained a separate blog called Coffeeopolis where I used to direct that attention…but in the interest of simplifying life I’ll be favoring this one instead. Today’s coffee fascination is with a new coffee drink called Bulletproof coffee. When I first read about this, I wasn’t sure what to make of it, and I quickly moved on to other, more pressing matters (like, you know, work!). It seems to be popping up more and more though.

So, what is Bulletproof coffee? It’s designed by Bulletproof Exec, one piece of the puzzle to upgrading ‘your performance in every aspect of life.’ Noble ambitions. Why mess with coffee though? This coffee drink is part of a larger diet that gets pretty complicated…so click that link if you want to know more, but for now, just know that it’s designed to be more of a breakfast replacement. So, how do you make it? You start with one cup of coffee, brewed with 2 1/2 heaping teaspoons of low-toxin coffee (I hear that any wet-process coffee meets this criteria, though you can of course buy special Bulletproof Coffee Beans…). Add 1-2 tablespoons of a medium-chain triglyceride oil, 1-2 tablespoons of unsalted grass-fed butter, and mix it all in a blender for 20 seconds (you can buy a starter kit of ingredients for $50). Click here for a printable instruction card.

So what’s it like? I wish I could tell you. Or not. I haven’t decided if this is something I want to try…I love coffee…and this sounds…weird. What’s gotten me thinking more about it, though, is this article at Fast Company. The author drank Bulletproof Coffee every morning for two weeks, trying it as a true breakfast substitute. The results were interesting and the article is worth checking out. Or check out the video below for instructions for how to make Bulletproof Coffee yourself.

August 25, 2014

10 health tests guys should be getting

I came across a neat article at Care2 called “10 Health Tests Every Father Should Get.” (most of those tests would apply to women, too!). It’s a nice little reminder that I need to start going to a doctor more regularly for checkups! I’ve become more focused on monitoring my health with an activity tracker and wifi scale…these will be further data points to keep track of.

The 10 tests they recommend are (read the link above for details):

Blood Pressure
Diabetes
Cholesterol
Colorectal Cancer
Prostate Cancer
Vaccines
Audiogram
Eye Exam
Lipid Profile
Electrocardiogram

Which has me wondering about Apple’s forthcoming Health App. In iOS8 (due this fall), they’ll be offering a way to track all sorts of health metrics, and share that information with your doctor. It has the potential to be a great place to keep track of results from the tests mentioned above…I can’t wait to try it!

June 12, 2014

Do you realize you’re consuming Roundup?

High levels of glyphosate (the weed-killing chemical in Roundup) have been found to be present in genetically engineered soy beans (all tested samples were grown in Iowa). It’s not terribly surprising, for one of the main reasons crops like soy are genetically engineered in the first place is to be resistant to Roundup, so that they may be sprayed with that to control weeds. The chemicals get on the food, the food ends up on your plate…simple as that. It’s not something you can just wash off either, as glyphosate is absorbed by the plant, it’s inside your food.

The study (here’s a link to the source) found levels of Roundup to be 9mg per kilogram, which is double what Monsanto themselves deemed ‘extreme’ way back in 1999 (link). The level deemed ‘safe’ by governments is 20mg/kg in the US…but the interesting thing is that it used to be 0.1mg/kg until it was raised in 1999. Europe did the same, raising the ‘safe’ limit from 0.1 to 20mg/kg in 199. Brazil raised their ‘safe’ level from 0.2mg/kg to 10mg/kg in 2004 (but only for soybeans!). There is justifiably concern that the ‘safe’ levels were not raised based on scientific evidence, but rather for business reasons.

The study looked at a total of 31 soy samples, some were GM (qty 10), some were conventional soybeans (qty 10), and others were organic soybeans (qty 10). Without exception, all GM samples showed high levels of glyphosate, and none was detected in the non-GM samples.

So why is this a big deal? Well it’s not a chemical that has been scientifically shown to be safe…and quite the opposite, there are concerns that there may be a link between glysphosate and digestive issues, obesity, autism, Alzheimer’s, depression, Parkinson’s disease, liver disease, and cancer. Note that none of that is proven, just that there does appear to be some biological disruption caused by glyphosate, and that sort of biological disruption may explain the above. There’s a bunch of health-related information at this link or this one.

This trend of shipping untested product like this and making us all human guinea pigs is really disturbing. The reality is that if there IS any link here ever proven, it will be impossible to hold anyone accountable. Hence no incentive for people to do real, scientific testing beforehand.

It probably goes without saying, but…I recommend buying organic food whenever you can!

You can read more about this here.

(original source)

April 30, 2014