Episode #49

Shopping guides, finding secrets, and more poisons!

Hi there, and welcome to The Next - my take on health, wellness, and company building.

In the last few years I’ve founded 3 health brands (Kettle & Fire, Perfect Keto, Surely non-alc wine). I’m now working on TrueMed, which allows health and wellness brands to accept HSA/FSA funds. Previously, I worked in tech and had no experience in CPG, DTC, or any other 3-letter industries.

If you missed past episodes, I recommend checking out Episode 42 on finding work you love and why I’m worried about environmental toxins. Otherwise, let’s dive in! 

🆕 What’s new

Each year, I struggle with holiday gifting. Try as I might, people just don’t get all that excited at the prospect of unwrapping a box of bone broth on Christmas morning. 

This year, I wanted to share some of my favorite things in the health and wellness world with all of you. See below for some of the best things I’ve bought this year, and enjoy the holidays! 

Health stuff

1. When I moved to Austin, the first thing I did was buy an Almost Heaven sauna. It’s been my favorite purchase ever, and I now have friends over for coffee-sauna-plunge several times a week. The sauna is awesome, made in the US, and honestly was pretty fun to put together (aka watch my friends put together). Though if you have $49k lying around, please instead buy this sauna and invite me to your house. 

   1. That said, a friend who recently got into the sauna game said barrel saunas are less than ideal and to go with a square version where your feet can be level with the heater, ie the “Trumpkin method” (thanks Gunnar!) 🤷

2. In almost everything when it comes to health, I’m a proponent of the most natural thing. Drinking a genetically modified probiotic that breaks down alcohol to prevent hangovers is definitely not natural. But my goodness, Zbiotics work so well that I can’t not recommend them. I’ve used them several times this year when I knew I’d be drinking and even bought 400 for my wedding. 

3. Back to more natural things, something I’ve been reading quite a bit about is oral health and our mouth’s microbiome. And the more I read about it, the more convinced I am that the “kill every bacteria in sight” approach of Listerine and other mouthwashes ain’t great for what’s going on in your mouth. Enter Riven, the first mouthwash I’ve seen that actually has probiotics and does stuff that’s good for your mouth and its billions of bacteria. 

4. Many of you know I’ve been very worried about the millions of microplastics, endocrine-disrupting chemicals, PFAS, and other toxins slowly creeping into every aspect of our food and water supply. To that end, earlier this year I took the leap and installed a whole-home water filtration system from Radiant Life at my house. Yes it was expensive, but as I read about how microplastics are found in 83% of our drinking water (1) I feel like the investment is a no-brainer. Before installing the Radiant Life system, I had Mountain Valley delivered to my house every month. 

   1. PS - I know these guys are expensive, so if you want to get 10% off you can use coupon code JUSTIN. 

5. Along with a water filter, I highly recommend grabbing an air filter. I have a Jaspr at my house (and 2 at my office) and am a huge fan. Especially if you live in a city, having an air filter at your home (and likely, your office) will lower your exposure to airborne pollutants, and will even help you get sick less often. I’m convinced that colds and such in schools are in large part due to poor air filtration and circulation, so this will help. 

Food stuff

1. I love Snow Days. These little paleo pizza bites are delicious, have super clean ingredients, and are the perfect little snack. They’re also wildly expensive, which is why they’re dangerous to have around the house (not that it stops me). 

2. Zero Acre is doing some cool stuff. These guys are working to replace toxic seed oils from the American diet, and are doing so with a cooking oil that’s got a smooth, buttery taste and near-zero environmental footprint. I personally prefer to cook with tallow and other animal fats, but think Zero Acre is making huge strides in fighting the seed oil fight. 

3. There are also a bunch of incredible food products from farmers and ranchers following regenerative methods. I recommend trying:

   1. Philosopher Foods and their incredible nut butters. 

   2. For baby food, it doesn’t get better than Serenity Kids. Definitely also check out their A2 baby formula, by far the best option in a literal sea of toxic sludge. Silver medal goes to White Leaf Provisions, who are also great. 

   3. Force of Nature and/or White Oak Pastures for meats, both phenomenal. 

   4. Heirloom coffee roasters and their regenerative coffee, my go to. 

   5. Cocojune and their coconut yogurt is straight-up delicious. 

   6. Lastly, I’d be remiss if I didn’t recommend grabbing some of Kettle & Fire’s regenerative bone broth, either online or at your local Whole Foods, Sprouts or Kroger outlet. 

4. As I’ve read more about how disgusting the fish industry is (a topic for another time), I’ve become far more conscious of where I source my fish. After a lot of searching, I found Seatopia and now buy all my fish from them, already tested for metals and plastic contamination. It’s the best fish I’ve ever had not from a high-end sushi restaurant, and I can’t recommend it enough. 

5. There are few products I’m as excited about as Terrashroom. The more I read, the more I become interested in helping people to grow food at home. Terrashroom is the easiest (and coolest) at-home mushroom grow product I’ve ever seen, and I’m so excited for them to start shipping in the next 1-2 months. 

6. Lastly, if you’re into home cooking, my friend Myles has an amazing guide to choosing the best cookware and cooking knives.

Lifestyle stuff

1. As I’ve mentioned a few times, I’ve become increasingly concerned about environmental contaminants, toxins, and the like. Reading articles about how polyester - which is found in basically every pair of underwear out there - impacts sperm count doesn’t make me any less worried. So when it comes to non-toxic clothing brands, there are a few I like. I buy pretty much all my underwear from either Patagonia (the softest) or Pact (where I get all my socks). I’ve also started buying some clothing from Paka, which uses alpaca wool and some cool materials science to make a product that’s both clean and super functional. I’ve also been loving the sheets and towels I got from Coyuchi if you’re on a similar non-toxic kick. 

2. For detergents and other household products, it’s hard to go wrong with Puracy. Though, as great as they are, when it comes to soaps I can’t recommend anyone more than Dr. Bronners. Not only do they make great products, but the company’s stewards (very wealthy 4th and 5th generation Bronners) locked themselves in a cage to protest cannabis/hemp laws. Mad respect. 

   1. Oh, and don’t forget my favorite deodorant ever - Primally Pure. It’s still the only natural deodorant I’ve ever found that works for me, and I’ve been using it religiously for almost a decade now. 

3. If you’re into breathwork, I can’t recommend the Othership breathwork app enough. And if you’re in Toronto, check out Othership’s physical space for a life-changing experience. They’ll also be in NYC soon enough 👀.

4. Speaking of life-changing, many of you know I’m a big proponent of psychedelic therapy. Mindbloom and their psychedelic therapy programs are legal, life-changing, and might be just the thing you or a loved one needs to make some important changes in 2024. Short of working 1-1 with a well-reviewed practitioner (which is expensive, and hard to find), Mindbloom is what I recommend to almost everyone who wants to get started with psychedelic therapy. 

5. Jambys are the most incredibly comfortable clothes I’ve ever worn. For PJs or a hoodie to wear around the house, they’re the best, though do violate my polyester guideline 😨. 

6. As I’ve gotten more into cooking the last few years, nothing has helped me quite as much as learning how to use my Traeger. I absolutely love it. For the more adventurous of you, a PK Grill is even better (assuming you know how to cook with charcoal). 

7. I am a sucker for all things regenerative. So when Koio came out with a regenerative line, well, they had me almost instantly. They look good and feel good, though I did have one of my cooler friends say they were basic. So maybe I’m just behind. 

8. Lastly, one of my favorite experiences in recent years was my 6-day bike trip in August of 2022. If you’re interested in doing a guided bike trip, I cannot recommend Western Spirit (our outfitter) enough. The guides were awesome, the routes are incredible, and it made my first bike trip a complete joy. And far less intimidating than planning and packing for my first multi-day bike trip. 

That’s all I got for this holiday guide! Enjoy the holiday season, enjoy the month, and I’ll see you next month with an overview of my annual review process. 

Disclaimer: for the first (and only) time this year, I may be an investor in, or get paid to recommend, some of the above products. The $14 I expect to make from these referrals should help offset some of my holiday bills, and bring my effective hourly rate from this newsletter to close to 20 cents. Exciting!! 

💪 Health stuff

I’ve spent years going deep on the food system. And yet, having gone deeper on this topic than many around me, I still get the occasional WTF when I read about something we’re doing in the food system that harms people for little benefit. 

Let’s talk about citric acid! 

Citric acid is one of the most common food additives found on modern ingredient lists and is most present in citrus fruits (lemons, oranges, limes, etc). Surely, I thought, this was a simple citrus fruit extract that’s then used as a preservative in many supplements and beverages. Surely. 

Wrong! Today, the citric acid you find in thousands of household products is made from a mutant strain of Aspergillus niger, aka black mold. To get this little mold to make citric acid, one simply feeds sugars (derived from GMO corn) to black mold, which then ferments and forms manufactured citric acid.

Black mold is the worst. Exposure to Aspergillus niger is known to cause inflammation in the respiratory, gastrointestinal, neurological and musculoskeletal systems. Unfortunately, there’s a strong chance that black mold fragments end up in end products containing citric acid. Even with high-heat processing to kill it, research has shown Aspergillus niger can still elicit an inflammatory response and may contribute to multiple other conditions (asthma, fibromyalgia, etc). 

Do I think citric-acid-from-black-mold is going to kill us all? No, clearly not. But when I read about this, it hammered home a point I’ve long been thinking about: our food system today is so utterly, wildly far from the one our ancestors experienced. 

Most decaf is toxic, citric acid is made from black mold, 90% of Americans have glyphosate in their urine, 80% are overweight or obese, and life expectancy is going down for the first time in generations. For 60 years, the players in our food system have traded consumer health for healthier profits at every turn. It’s time for a change. 

With every new whackamole health thing to watch out for (citric acid! Decaf coffee! Polyester underwear!), I become more convinced we just need a fresh start. We need to move away from the centralized, industrialized food system that’s poisoning almost every American. And move towards healthier local communities and local food systems. 

I’m thinking a lot more about ways to nudge the world towards a decentralized food system… if any of you have thoughts or ideas, I am all ears! 

🤑 Biz stuff

I recently started reading a book on water, and some of the unexplained phenomena associated with water. Things like this water bridge, the author claims, can’t be explained by our current understanding of water (though some disagree). These claims of “structured water” and its improved properties have been made as far back as the 1860s, and have spurred the creation of companies like UpTerra, who has done studies around their structured water product and how it improves crop yields. 

I haven’t finished the book, but the author claims that water - water, the most abundant, common substance in the world - has mysteries we don’t yet understand. If we don’t fully understand water, what are the odds that we understand almost anything? If we don’t understand water, well, it stands to reason that other secrets abound. 

You can look at almost any undesirable outcome in the world - humans getting chronically sick at record levels, pollution, infertility, trauma, rising rates of depression - and assume that our most popular models of the world are broken, that there are secrets to discover. 

In many of our largest industries, our models of how the world works are worse than broken. In our food system, for example, the largest players in the food system are actively incentivized to keep things broken, and fund research where the goal is confuse. Water has mysterious properties that with some work we can uncover: Big Food spends money to keep secrets about what’s actually healthy. 

This is depressing in one sense, and exciting in another. As an entrepreneur, if you can figure out a true, accurate model of the world in any number of fields, there is money to be made and companies to be built. 

Take depression. Dr. Chris Palmer has written often about the relationship between depression and mental health. Much talk therapy is relatively ineffective: could you build a more effective therapy intervention that focuses foremost on physical health? I suspect so. 

There are specific ideas (like metabolic psychiatry) that may be secrets. Then there are entire philosophies that - if true - would generate hundreds of ideas and opportunities. Today, our culture mainly understands things through the scientific method, through experimentation. If it turns out that (as Seeing Like a State would argue) wisdom in traditions, in religions, are better ways to understand what’s happening in the world, well there are secrets to uncover. 

😌 Dope stuff on the internet

Some of my favorite things since the last newsletter (note: I don’t get paid to recommend anything here):

• 📰  Article - If you’re at all interested in brands, meaning, religion, movements, or culture, Toby’s Life after Lifestyle is a must-read. I recently had the privilege of catching up with Toby in NYC and chatting about the many similarities between health and religious movements. 
  

• 📚 Book rec - I recently discovered Ivan Illich (and his book Medical Nemesis) and wow. This guy’s thinking informs almost everything I think about health and wellness. I’ll be doing a deep dive on Illich and his thinking as it applies to the healthcare system in a future episode. But for now, one of the things that really resonated with me is his point about how a medical diagnosis (ie ADHD, anxiety) removes agency from a given individual. Illness becomes identity, as I touched on in Episode 35.
  

• ⌚ Cool product - I get a ton of spam emails. Previously, I was a HUGE fan of Gated, an app that blocked any email addresses that I hadn’t interacted with (or whitelisted) in the past. This saved me from removing 40-50 spam emails from my inbox each day.
  Unfortunately for me, Gated recently shut down. And because I and some co-workers loved the product so much, we are taking the code they open-sourced and rebuilding the product.
  If any of you want to sign up as beta customers (or chip in as some people on the Kettle & Fire team help build this), let me know! I’m excited to bring this product back. 
  

• 🎵 Music - This Fred Again.. Set is just phenomenal. Not quite his legendary Boiler Room status, but phenomenal nonetheless.
  

• 🔥Hot take - Lab-grown meat is not going to work (more on why) and all of the cultured meat startups are going to fail in this space. Big Food is wildly excited about lab-grown meat because it will allow them to patent (and thus charge higher margin) proteins that today are relative commodities.
  

• 🙋‍♂️ Ask - If you at all enjoy this monthly newsletter, please share it with a friend (or two). It’d mean a lot as I do literally nothing to grow this. 

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Enjoy the holidays gang! I’ll see you all in the new year. Thanks for another year of following my thoughts here. 

• Justin