Per FTC guidelines, please assume links on this newsletter may be affiliate links that benefit us, though if so, the price is not marked up. Thank you for supporting our mission.

And in 2020, as I saw that trillions of dollars in stimulus money was being printed, as bailout, I got very interested in Bitcoin.

If you’d like to know more about why, I’m going to share what’s going on with Bitcoin lately, in this blog post, but for over 5 years, I’ve been teaching Weds night (8 PM ET) classes, and we have a fun community called Bitcoin Insiders.

Bitcoin is what our last Federal Reserve Chairman called “digital gold” (and our new one, Warsh, is also a fan)--and unlike gold, it quickly and easily and inexpensively crosses borders. And cannot be “mined” past 21 million coins.

Which solves the problem of the fact that you EARN dollars, while our central banks print MORE dollars, and dump trillions more of them into the global economy, making yours buy you less, year after year.

Almost no one is earning enough to make up for the loss in purchasing power, of the dollar. And actually it’s even worse, for fiat currencies in other countries–the yuan, the ruble, the peso, the yen.

Join us in Weds night classes, which put some structure on your intent to finally get learning about Bitcoin. We’ll email you each week with the topic.

In fact, get a free third month here, and get another $50 off using the coupon code ROBYN.

So why is Bitcoin on my mind right now? Well, the downside is, and why billions of people aren’t yet invested–only tens of millions–is that it’s volatile. And Bitcoin had one of its infamous crashes in Oct, 2025. And there’s no COMPANY issuing Bitcoin (it therefore isn’t a “Ponzi,” if you’ve heard that–I make $0 if you buy Bitcoin, by the way), so there’s not a marketing department out advertising it.

So word hasn’t spread to the whole Earth yet. But “Game Theory” has all our biggest financial institutions piling in, the last 2.5 years–it’s crazy and exciting and I love teaching the updates every week!

But despite no marketing team and no company around a board room table–it’s a trillion-dollar asset, with many millions of investors, including countries, and public companies. It went from a fraction of a penny, to $81,000, in 17 years.

Why, and how? I love answering these questions.

So, it became an amazing time to buy, last October, with a 52% crash – and then guess what. It started soaring in August, and went up 25% in less than 2 weeks! To over $81,000. Which in my opinion is still a great place to start buying. (This is not financial advice, and I am not a financial advisor. I’m an educator.)

Believe it or not, every new asset is volatile in the first 20 years. Public-company oil shares. Amazon. Microsoft. Tesla. They’ve all had violent swings up to 50%, even 70-80%. But Bitcoin takes a lot of heat for that.

This last crash was 52% below its all-time high, not 75% or even 85% like some others. The cyclical nature of Bitcoin is getting more predictable. We love teaching about this in Bitcoin Insiders, if you crave community of likeminded people, and people who want to preserve their wealth and earning power, beyond “The Great Reset.”

The Great Reset you’ve heard so much about? It isn’t going to be a big announcement in the media. It is VERY actively happening. I review the incredible, unprecedented things going on, in class every week, because 95% of Americans are blissfully sleeping through it all!

That said, a lot of people want in on the exciting possibilities of Bitcoin, and if all they know is “number go up,” 20% of Americans own at least a little Bitcoin.

After a long, dead “summer” in Bitcoin’s price, its rally has me and everyone else in Bitcoin excited, for the upcoming “bull run.” (“Bulls” are optimistic–”bears” hibernate for the winter, and we’ve been in a long “bear season.”)

I don’t talk to you like you’re getting a masters degree in Finance. My favorite people to teach are BEGINNERS. But I also like keeping you up to speed, on what’s going on in the economy, and geopolitically, just enough so that you know how this applies to YOU.

I can’t do anything about us dropping bombs on other countries, and being $40 TRILLION in debt. What I CAN do is (a) get my affairs in order, to own assets poised to shoot up, especially when economies decline; and (b) teach you about it, if you’re willing.

If all you do is get a Coinbase account, and set it up (so easy) to buy $50 of Bitcoin every paycheck, I consider your reading this to be an exciting win. But nobody “stacks” Bitcoin and holds it through “bear markets,” unless they understand it.

I’ve spent thousands of hours understanding it, and love giving you the Cliffs Notes. I do the classes because I know you’re busy doing what YOU do–so I’m just taking this on myself. How do people who are health nuts but didn’t get a Finance degree and maybe aren’t savvy about investing–learn about the most “sound money” available to human beings?

I’m a GenX woman, only a few years from the Boomer generation, and there just aren’t many women my age in Bitcoin. And almost no one out there educating about it, to people like me.

I love the men who come too, but I sure love getting women in my class. (Most of the Bitcoin communities are 30-something “bro” culture! Which is good; I certainly want my sons in Bitcoin, and they are!)

The money is broken. Our governments print it, so that it loses value, and we have prices soaring. Most people don’t even know why prices are soaring. I will make you crystal clear on exactly how that happens.

We literally can’t do anything about it. Voting doesn’t do it. Both political parties spend money with reckless abandon, on different things that they fight about. And both look the other way while the Big Finance guys kick the can down the road, to deal with an even bigger problem later.

I can’t do anything about that, but I can put myself and my kids in an asset that protects them against the government debasement of fiat currencies (like the US and Canadian dollar).

If you miss class, that’s okay, it’s recorded for you in your membership portal, to listen to anytime. By the time you read this, I may have done a Gold Versus Bitcoin class you should check out!

Also, I’m about to interview a woman who explains Social Security to upcoming retirees. I’m only 59, but I learned so much from listening to her, for an hour. So I’m excited to bring this content to you.

If you’re in your 50’s, it’s a great time to start considering whether you draw on Social Security at 62, or 70, or what. We’ll get into what the benefits and drawbacks are. And, you’ve heard “Social Security goes bankrupt in 2032”--let’s review what that really means.

Join us here, and get a third month free. And use my friends and family discount of another $50 off, with coupon code ROBYN.

Thank you for subscribing to my blog! I hope you find value here. I usually write about health freedom (such as freedom from the drugs and surgery model, with great diet and lifestyle interventions). But since 2020, I also love teaching you about financial freedom. I am not a financial advisor, and this blog post should not be considered financial advice. I make no commissions on Bitcoin, although links in my blog often benefit my business, and we appreciate your support!

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I’m sharing a photo of the junk that came out of my blood. 

Toxopheresis is a new technology that Swiss Mountain Clinic has invested in, since last year, an upgrade from the INUSpheresis they have used since 2020.

It returns 100% of your blood back to the body.

Per FTC guidelines, please assume links on this newsletter may be affiliate links that benefit us, though if so, the price is not marked up. Thank you for supporting our mission.

This was my conversation with German Dr. Petra and the Tunisian nurse in blue, Madhi, as we looked at this bag of what came out of my blood:

Dr Petra: The good news is: I see no heavy metals or The Sludge.

Me: What is the sludge?

Petra: It’s particulate.

Me: But what’s in the particulate?

Madhi: It’s sediment!

Me: But what’s in the sediment?

We do have some language barriers, at the clinic, which can be fun, if you let it be. A “Who’s On First” routine!

I did eventually find out The Sludge is stuff like microplastics, metals, physical garbage in the blood.

The orange color is inflammatory proteins that are screened out–including spike. There’s pesticide and petrochemical solvent in mine, for sure. Dr. Petra poked and pushed at the bag, to show me that telltale petrochemical sheen.

I don’t eat a perfect diet, so if your thought is, “How could SHE have garbage in her blood?!”--I have a social life, and travel, and “cheat” from my clean diet, too.

I do eat a clean diet compared to 99%, so you’re probably thinking, like I am: it must be nearly everyone who has proof of toxic exposures coming out of their blood.

But, Dr. Petra told me that of over 4,000 people whose blood they’ve filtered, no more than 10, all women, have had a clear bag, basically zero output.

Amazing! A tiny fraction of 1% of us seem to not have a bunch of metals and plastics and Roundup and solvents in them.

I asked why, and Petra and Madhi riffed, on various theories why someone could have such low toxic exposures–or stellar ability to detoxify, within their own body.

We head to the clinic next year, arriving August 29, 2027, for two weeks. I’m inviting all our previous retreat attendees, to come back for a reunion trip!

But newbies also welcome!

Here’s the link to check out next year’s trip. Secure your spot, as I think this will sell out.

Hope to see you in the Alps next Aug. 29! Definitely come for 2 weeks, if at all possible.

If we sell out, I may add a 3rd week. So if you want to come, but a week after this trip is better for you, let us know!

Thanks for subscribing to my Substack blog! We especially appreciate those of you who contribute $10/mo, if my work impacts your life positively. We know everyone cannot pay, and we do just an honor system/request. But we so appreciate those who contribute to our work, as I’ll work for free but I do have staff helping. Some of our links compensate GreenSmoothieGirl.

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Since I started GreenSmoothieGirl 20 years ago, I still like to ask you a few simple Q’s about the basics.

Sometimes we make health too complicated. We chase the expensive thing and skip the cheap things that really move the needle.

Are you eating a cup of beans a day? There are so many choices. Do you love chickpeas? Lentils? Black beans? Those are popular, and they all count.

I think many people consider them food for people who can’t afford meat.

But truly, adding this to your diet will change your digestion. I believe most of our gut issues would go away if Americans hadn’t forgotten all about legumes!

Per FTC guidelines, please assume links on this newsletter may be affiliate links that benefit us, though if so, the price is not marked up. Thank you for supporting our mission.

Your body needs raw materials. Vitamins, minerals, antioxidants, fiber, enzymes, phytonutrients, and thousands of compounds in plants work together in ways we’re still discovering.

Leafy greens happen to deliver an astonishing amount of nutrition for very few calories. Kale, spinach, chard, collards, romaine, arugula, turnip greens—these humble foods are some of the most nutrient-dense things you can put in your body.

And yet, how many people go through an entire day without eating even ONE serving of leafy greens?

And I want to add the humble class of BEANS. Are you eating 1 cup per day? You can boil up a potful, cool them, and put 1 cup portions in baggies to freeze.

Then, from one effort, you have weeks’ worth and can add them to soup, salad, or broil them with seasonings for a crunchy snack.

I think this is one reason people can eat plenty of calories and still be profoundly undernourished. We’ve become very good at feeding ourselves, but not necessarily at nourishing ourselves. A diet can contain 2,000 calories and still leave the body searching for nutrients it needs to do thousands of jobs every minute of every day.

There’s some fascinating research on greens, too. Researchers have associated regular leafy-green consumption with cardiovascular benefits, and one study following older adults found that people eating roughly a serving of leafy greens every day had a slower rate of cognitive decline. That gets my attention. I don’t just want to live a long time—I want my brain working, my body moving, and my energy intact while I’m here.

But you know what I love most about greens? Also beans? You don’t have to wait 20 years to appreciate their benefits

When people start dramatically increasing the amount of plant food in their diet, they often tell me they notice changes in things like digestion, energy, cravings, and how they generally feel.

That’s one of the reasons I’ve said for years that the green smoothie is probably the single best “fast food” I know.

In about 10 minutes, you can get several servings of greens and fruit into your body before most people have figured out what they’re having for breakfast.

(By the way, you can sprout small raw beans or seeds, and throw the sprouts in the green smoothie blender! Both incredible food classes, in one meal.)

And please don’t think eating more greens or beans means forcing yourself through enormous bowls of plain kale every day!

There are so many ways to do it. Throw spinach or chard into soups just before serving. Use romaine or collard leaves as wraps. Add greens to pesto, hummus, or guacamole. Make kale chips. Build a huge colorful salad and add fruit, beans, nuts, seeds, sprouts, and a dressing you actually love.

Or, of course, **blend them.**

That has been my favorite health shortcut for years because it solves the biggest problem with healthy eating: consistency. The “perfect” diet you follow occasionally isn’t nearly as valuable as a very good habit you can actually sustain.

I wrote an article sharing 23 reasons to eat more leafy greens, including some of the research on greens, seven of my favorites and what makes each one special, creative ways to get more of them into your diet, and one of my favorite tricks for finding nutritious greens you may literally be walking past every day.

**Read it here: 23 Reasons to Eat More Leafy Greens →** https://greensmoothiegirl.com/leafy-greens-benefits/

If your diet has gotten off track lately, don’t make the mistake of thinking you have to overhaul your entire life on Monday morning.

It’s on my mind too, as I just got home from a 9-day cruise, and I didn’t eat like I do at home.

Start with something simple. A quart of green smoothie, and a cup of beans. You can do that, right? Canned, if you’re not up for cooking some in a pressure cooker.

Then do it again tomorrow.

Small habits, repeated thousands of times, are what build health.

Thanks for subscribing to my Substack blog! We especially appreciate those of you who contribute $10/mo, if my work impacts your life positively. We know everyone cannot pay, and we do just an honor system/request. But we so appreciate those who contribute to our work, as I’ll work for free but I do have staff helping. Some of our links compensate GreenSmoothieGirl.

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Vitamin C is the supplement nearly everyone has taken.

We keep it in our cabinets for sniffles; we believe it to be immune “boosting’; popping a pill makes us feel better about travel, stress, or when we feel we’re “coming down with something.”

It’s the safe one. The harmless one. The one we give to our children without thinking twice.

But what if the Vitamin C you’ve been taking… isn’t actually Vitamin C? What if it’s a chemical impersonation, manufactured in factories — not found in nature? And that calling it Vitamin C is like calling chaff “wheat.”

To watch or listen to this blog post instead, click here.

The Shocking Truth About “Ascorbic Acid”

Look at your Vitamin C label. What does it say?

Ascorbic Acid.

But ascorbic acid is not Vitamin C. It is the outer shell of the Vitamin C molecule group — a protective antioxidant layer.

True Vitamin C — as it exists in whole foods — is a complex containing:

• Bioflavonoids

• Rutin

• J-factors

• P-factors

• Enzymes

• Trace minerals

Your body is designed to use the whole complex, not one isolated chemical fragment.

Ascorbic acid is to real Vitamin C what a plastic orange peel is to a whole orange. Looks familiar — but empty.

You can go fact-check this for yourself, and learn that ascorbic acid is molecularly a small part of a matrix of nutrients called “Vitamin C” (with some traces of petrochemical solvent) and whatever that capsule is made of–

–but, in that $0.20 pill, you’re not getting a “megadose” like you’d get juicing 6 oranges! (Which would cost you $5.)

Where Does Supplement “Vitamin C” Come From?

Over 90% of the world’s ascorbic acid comes from…byproducts of GMO corn processed in Chinese and Indian chemical facilities.

Not citrus. Not food. Not nature. The production steps include:

Corn starch → glucose
Glucose fermented with genetically-modified bacteria
Chemical oxidation
Treatment with acetone or isopropyl alcohol
Bleaching, filtering, drying
Final crystallization into a white powder

By the time it’s bottled, there is no resemblance to any nutrient your body recognizes as food.

Why Doesn’t It Work the Same?

Your body requires cofactors to use Vitamin C properly. Food provides them automatically. Isolated ascorbic acid does not.

So when you take synthetic Vitamin C:

• Your body must pull minerals from bones and tissues to process it

• It creates acidity and oxidative stress

• It can deplete collagen, worsen inflammation, and stress the kidneys

Yes — the supplement we’ve been told “helps the immune system” can, over time, do the opposite.

The main argument people will make when I talk to them about this is: “Well I took it, and I got well after being sick!” I totally believe you. I also believe your immune system would have helped you get well, anyway.

(And probably has, many other times in your life that you didn’t take those pills.)

Remember, Day 1 of statistics in grad school you must learn: correlation is not causation.

Another way to put it is: just because A happened at the same time as B, doesn’t mean A caused B.

Why You May Feel Better When You Take It

This is the trick. You might feel something.

Ascorbic acid is a weak acid, and at high doses, it stimulates the adrenal glands.
I’ve never felt anything taking it, but let’s say you feel:

• Alert

• Energetic

• Clear-headed

But that’s not healing — it’s a stress response. Like caffeine. (Did caffeine create energy? Or did it steal tomorrow’s energy for today?)

When the effect wears off, your body is more depleted than before.

The Marketing Is Brilliant

The supplement industry has sold us the idea that if something exists in food, then a factory-made chemical version is “the same thing.”

Ask an AI program how the industry gets away with this. Pawning off a molecule on us, pretending it’s the nutrient that’s in food. You’ll get lots of word salad that boils down to this:

Because of lots of history, and because nobody’s stopped them.

But the body doesn’t work on chemical theory — it works on biology.

There is a reason nature packages nutrients in food: The cofactors are the medicine. The relationships between components are what make nutrients usable.

The more we isolate, the more we interfere. And the less valuable the compound.

So What Should You Do Instead?

I’ll just tell you what me and mine are doing. I won’t buy or take isolated ascorbic acid.

I don’t fall for “liposomal” Vitamin C (it’s the same chemical, mixed with fat for branding). Or IV “Vitamin C”--which is half synthetic ascorbic acid, and half sodium ascorbate so it doesn’t burn your veins.

Don’t assume “buffered” forms are safer. They’re just less acidic.

They still all start with the same highly processed byproduct of GMO corn chemical base.

Instead, choose whole-food Vitamin C sources:

• Camu camu

• Amla berry

• Rose hips

• Kakadu plum

• Acerola cherry

• Pine needle tea

• Fresh greens and citrus–FOOD!

Your body recognizes these. It uses them. Your body heals with them.

The Takeaway

The supplement industry wants you to believe Vitamin C is simple. One ingredient. One pill. One promise.

But nature does not operate in one-ingredient solutions.

And your body does not want:

• A chemical

• An isolate

• A stimulant

It wants wholeness. And wholeness comes from food, not factories.

Thanks for subscribing to my Substack blog! We especially appreciate those of you who contribute $10/mo, if my work impacts your life positively. We know everyone cannot pay, and we do just an honor system/request. But we so appreciate those who contribute to our work, as I’ll work for free but I do have staff helping. Some of our links compensate GreenSmoothieGirl.

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For years, Vitamin D has been sold as the ultimate “must-have” nutrient.

“Everyone’s deficient,” they say. “You can’t get enough from the sun.”

And yet, here’s a fact that would never fit on a bottle label:

Vitamin D3—the form in most supplements—is literally the same chemical used as rat poison by some brands.

That’s not an exaggeration. The “active ingredient” in many rodenticides is cholecalciferol—the identical compound found in your capsules and drops.

When rodents eat it, it causes calcium to flood into their blood, calcifying organs and leading to death within a week.

To watch or listen to this blog post instead, click here.

In humans, high or prolonged doses can trigger the same biological chain reaction: calcium leaches from your bones into your bloodstream, creating kidney stones, heart irregularities, and soft-tissue calcification..

The industry’s favorite “vitamin” is, biologically speaking, a steroidal hormone—a drug, not a nutrient—and especially at high levels, it’s toxic.

Most of your functional medicine doctors are so unaware of this, that if you complain of being unwell after your initial dose–the next step is, incredibly, to increase your dose!

A Manufactured Deficiency

So why are nearly all of us told we’re deficient?

Because the testing itself is engineered to make you look deficient.

Labs measure your blood for 25D, a storage form of Vitamin D, not the 125D form that your body actually uses.

That’s like measuring flour in the canister on the counter, instead of much more flour in the pantry, and bread on the table—and calling you starving.

By redefining “normal” Vitamin D levels, the industry created a self-perpetuating market: over 80% of Americans are told they’re “low,” guaranteeing billions in annual supplement sales.

Augmenting the fiction, low 25,D levels do actually correspond to poorer health, and high 25,D levels do correspond to good health.

Leading many to assume that one causes the other.

(By the way, many people who take cholecalciferol pills–falsely called “Vitamin D” whether they’re from lab-grown algae or the sheep’s wool industry–find that the 25,D level goes down, not up, after taking those pills for a while!)

The one and only time I personally fell below “optimal” range in the 25,D lab test, the last 25 years, is the one and only year I let a practitioner talk me into taking those cholecalciferol pills.

(Thus began my research quest. That on top of being skeptical about how a pressed white daily pill could do what sun exposure creates in the human body.)

From Sheep’s Wool to Your Capsule

Here’s where things get even less “natural.”

Most Vitamin D3 is made from lanolin, the greasy wax secreted by sheep to waterproof their wool.

That lanolin is chemically transformed through ultraviolet irradiation and at least ten separate industrial processes, using solvents and stabilizers along the way.

By the time it becomes a white powder ready to press into pills, nothing about it resembles sunlight.

Less than 1% of Vitamin D3 comes from lab-grown algae. The rest is sheep grease—regardless of source material: processed, bleached, and marketed as wellness.

The Profit Pipeline

Guess who makes most of the world’s Vitamin D3?

Pharmaceutical companies.

The same corporations selling drugs for osteoporosis, autoimmune disease, and heart problems are also selling the “vitamin” that can cause calcium imbalances, inflammation, and calcification over time..

It’s a perfect closed loop:

Tell people they’re deficient. Sell them pills that cause symptoms. Sell drugs to treat those symptoms.

The business model isn’t about health—it’s about dependency.

The False Promise of “It Couldn’t Hurt”

When you question your practitioner, you’ll often hear:

“Well, it couldn’t hurt.”

That’s what my hormone practitioner told me, the one and only time she successfully sold me cholecalciferol. Right after telling me my 25,D lab result was “optimal.” But it can hurt—and it does.

That’s because synthetic D3 doesn’t act like sunlight. It accumulates in fat tissue, stays for months, and disrupts mineral balance.

The result? Fatigue, nausea, kidney stress, even bone pain—exactly the opposite of what we’re told.

You may not remember this, but D3 was brought to us in the 1980’s, put in our milk to strengthen our bones.

When a massive meta-study (reviewing 3,930 studies) proved that taking this synthetic “nutrient” did absolutely nothing for our bones, they just changed the sales pitch. Saying it’s good for immune function.

The Sunshine You Can Trust

Your body already knows how to make Vitamin D.

Expose your skin to real sunlight, and it produces cholecalciferol naturally, converting it into usable hormones at the perfect pace.

You don’t overdose on sunshine because your body regulates it.

My mother is 82, totally sun-phobic her whole life, and somehow her 25,D lab tests are just fine.

Sometimes 25-year old athletes test with very low 25,D lab tests. If the test means anything, it should make those who are low wonder what dysbiosis is going on in the body.

But a capsule bypasses that wisdom—and puts a lab-made hormone directly into your bloodstream.

The truth is, most people aren’t deficient in Vitamin D. It’s one of the deficiency stories that ISN’T true–we document which are, and which aren’t true, in Take Daily.

We’re deficient in time outdoors, real food, and trust in our bodies.

How to Tell You’ve Been Duped

Check your labels. If it says “cholecalciferol,” that’s synthetic D3—the same chemical used in rodenticide. (Due to the bad press, some rat poisons now use warfarin–a human blood-thinning drug, which will also kill rodents.)

Question the test. Ask your doctor which form was measured—25D or 125D. (If you’re worried you’re in the 1 in 200 who are actually deficient, you need both tests, AND a practitioner who knows how to evaluate both. There aren’t many.)

Rethink the “deficiency” narrative. Low numbers on a flawed test don’t mean disease.

Get your sunlight naturally. Ten minutes of sun a few times a week is probably plenty.

Listen to your intuition. If your supplement doesn’t make sense, it probably isn’t right for you. If it says cholecalciferol on the bottle, everything you’ve just read applies!

The Takeaway

Vitamin D is not a vitamin—it’s a pharma product, and a story.

A story the supplement industry tells to keep you buying, fearing, and trusting bottles over biology.

It’s time to end the myth of “sunshine in a pill.”

The real medicine is still free, available, and radiant in the sky every day.

Thanks for subscribing to my Substack blog! We especially appreciate those of you who contribute $10/mo, if my work impacts your life positively. We know everyone cannot pay, and we do just an honor system/request. But we so appreciate those who contribute to our work, as I’ll work for free but I do have staff helping. Some of our links compensate GreenSmoothieGirl.

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I have found that new mothers are totally open-minded about vaccines, before they start giving them. After they’ve given their baby a few of these products, most moms aren’t listening anymore–not wanting to potentially learn their child’s issues may track to the childhood vaccine schedule.

Pediatrician Dr. Robert Mendelsohn’s book, How to Raise a Healthy Child in Spite of Your Pediatrician, changed my life and my parenting in many ways beyond the vaccine issues, 30 years ago.

Dr. Neustadter’s book, and Neil Z Miller’s–opened my eyes, and in the end, freed me. From the idea that my children’s health was protected by needles and syringes.

Parents my age did as we were told, only to find our children getting very ill repeatedly; having ADD and ADHD; having asthma, eczema, and allergies (a common cluster of autoimmune issues following vaccines); having peanut and other food reactions; and having regressed into the autism spectrum rapidly following administration of vaccines. Not to mention that Japan in the 1990’s had no SIDS death–and also didn’t vaccinate babies under the age of 2.

Per FTC guidelines, please assume links on this newsletter may be affiliate links that benefit us, though if so, the price is not marked up. Thank you for supporting our mission.

Inform Yourself … Because Your Doctor Won’t Tell You The Risks

It is scientifically untenable to give a baby with an immature immune system injections for 3, 6, or even 9 diseases at once. Especially when you realize that THERE IS NO INFORMED CONSENT in a pediatrician’s office.

The CDC publishes Vaccine Information Statements (VISs), which are legally required to be handed out prior to every dose of certain vaccines, but this is rarely, if ever, done.

It’s likely that if you ask your doctor for the VIS that they won’t have it available for you to review. But if you did, you would be shocked to see the dozens of neurological, autoimmune and other disorders known to be linked to that vaccine.

Source: Immunize.org

You don’t have to rely on your doctor, though. You can download them here in a single document: Facts About VISs (click “Current VISs”).

Doctors administer multiple vaccines at once only because “well-baby visits” are when they have access to their patients. I did not go to these “visits” with my youngest two children. I knew that my babies were well, and I knew the “well-baby visits” are to inject them with several products the pediatrics office is compensated for (and also penalized for, by insurance companies, if well over 80% of their practice does not receive these products).

None of this is medical advice; I am simply sharing what my experience was, and what I learned, to make different decisions.

Pediatricians Are Rewarded–and Punished–for V Compliance

With my first two babies, I did not yet know that any pediatrician who does not follow the “CDC vaccine schedule” faces battles with insurers and medical licensing boards, and some even lose their licenses.

The same thing happens to doctors who realize that the escalating vaccine schedule now also corresponds to at least 54% of our children being chronically ill … (could this correlation imply some level of causation? Some of them seem to believe so, and the Henry Ford study, which has been suppressed in the medical journals, shows that every single childhood illness is exponentially higher, among vaccinated children. And sometimes does not exist, among the unvaccinated.)

I got that 54% chronically ill number from 2017 data, and it has likely only gone up, since then. A pregnant friend of mine was given a CDC vaccine schedule for her daughter in late 2021 that included 100 VACCINES!

In my generation, only 6% of Americans had chronic illnesses — when we had only 10% of the current vaccine schedule.

Still, most pediatricians just choose to keep their heads down and do as they’re told. After all, three vaccines is three billable charges. Several pediatricians have confirmed for me, including Paul Thomas, MD of Oregon, that 85% of their revenue goes to overhead. So pediatricians do not make as much money as you may believe–and they rather need the revenue from vaccines. Plus, vaccinated babies and children get sick at far higher rates than the unvaccinated.

My pediatrician friend Larry Palevsky, MD, in New York, has not given a vaccine in 20 years, and his practice requires taking 400% to 500% more patients, since his patients get sick far less.

Parents do not realize, until it’s too late, that more than half of our children became chronically ill since the Big Pharma product makers (every single company is a felon) were released from all legal liability in 1986 by the National Vaccine Injury & Compensation Act (NVICA).

Since then, the industry has increased more than tenfold the number of products required of children in order to attend public school, while also becoming the wealthiest and most powerful industry in history.

In some states, the CDC vaccine schedule is required whether or not the child attends public schools. And many states have lost some or all of their exemptions, due to the ferociously pro-vaxx legislators such as California senators Dr. Richard Pan and Scott Wiener.

Even if your child was injured by her first MMR or DTaP vaccine, these legislators do not want her to obtain an exemption for the next series.

Additionally, well over 250 vaccines are in stage III clinical trials, including the COVID-19 vaccines, with the 220M now-vaxxed Americans serving as trial subjects, given no informed consent whatsoever. (The page of adverse events in the box was “intentionally left blank.”)

The Pfizer trial lasted 4 to 6 months, and then the placebo control group was destroyed (aka “unblinded”) by sending them all to get the vaccine, therefore eliminating any chance that we could ever ascertain the long-term effects.

84% of the pregnant women in the COVID-19 trial who weren’t dropped lost their babies. (Mysteriously, with no explanation given, the trial says they “lost” most of the pregnant women in the data.)

I Damaged Two of My Four Children Before I Knew

I wish I’d known what I wrote above, and what’s in those 7 interviews I did, before I severely damaged my oldest child, who was in and out of hospitals, until I radically changed his diet and detoxified him.

The first two sets of vaccines also caused the same severe reactions in my second child, before I began researching WHY, since both my babies were 8 ½-lb perfectly healthy breastfed babies until their first series of vaccines.

I raised the youngest two to adulthood without a single vaccine, and stopped vaccinating the oldest two, which required me to get exemptions at the Utah Health Dept. every time they changed schools. Sadly, I suspect that despite my telling the hospital staff I did not want the Hep B vaccine in the hospital (administered in her first day of life)--I think they did it anyway. With my 3rd child especially, who had the classic Hep B vaccine adverse events, after coming home.

The state required me to remove them from the school, if there were ever an outbreak of these “infectious diseases,” but in all the schools my four children attended, there was never an outbreak.

That is how rare these diseases are. On the other hand, polio is actually still active today — not eradicated, but rebranded with a dozen different names (Guillain-Barré and various diagnoses with “myelitis” in the name) — caused by the oral polio vaccine and adverse events to other vaccines.

Here Are the Interviews — Pass Them On!

I cannot MAKE anyone read the books I did, which helped me let go of the idea that 78 pharmaceutical injections would keep my babies “safe.” But even if a new parent isn’t a big reader, maybe they could listen to some quick podcast interviews at 1.5x speed while they nurse a baby, drive, or make dinner?

I recorded these 7 interviews with doctors, scientists, lawyers, and researchers, which may convince a young parent to do some extra research.

Please save this Substack post in your phone, and share it with young parents and expecting parents. It could save them a lot of misery and regret.

1. Robert F. Kennedy Jr, Esq., the greatest champion alive for medical freedom and a walking encyclopedia of the history of felony frauds in the vaccine industry:
   
   https://greensmoothiegirl.com/your-high-vibration-life/episodes/vaccine-safety-interview-robert-f-kennedy-jr/

2. Dr. Paul Thomas, a pediatrician who proved his less-vaxxed patients were radically healthier. And for proving that with his co-authors in a medical journal paper, he recently lost his medical license:
   
   https://greensmoothiegirl.com/your-high-vibration-life/episodes/dr-paul-thomas-pediatrician-interview/

3. Dr. Sherri Tenpenny, an osteopathic physician who compiled a database of 18,000 studies on vaccine injury and death, which were mostly unpublished or hidden and/or their authors’ careers attacked:
   
   https://greensmoothiegirl.com/your-high-vibration-life/episodes/fraud-vaccine-industry-interview-dr-sherri-tenpenny/

4. Neil Z. Miller, a medical research journalist whose book Miller’s Review of Critical Vaccine Studies proved to me (1) that smallpox and polio disappeared in non-immunizing countries FASTER (thanks to indoor plumbing, sanitation, and nutrition improvements) and (2) that Japan, which did not vaccinate children under the age of 2, had virtually no SIDS, among many other truths parents are not taught in the pediatrician’s office:
   
   https://greensmoothiegirl.com/your-high-vibration-life/episodes/vaccine-injury-kids/

5. Dr. Randall Neustaedter, an oriental medicine doctor whose book The Vaccine Guide: Risks and Benefits for Children and Adults objectively reviews each injectable product one at a time for safety and efficacy data:
   
   https://greensmoothiegirl.com/your-high-vibration-life/episodes/dr-neustadter-interview-vaccine-risks-benefits/

6. Dr. Carrie Madej, a longtime vaccine critic with a fascinating story, please listen to what she says about the tetanus vaccine. (Which is the one vaccine I didn’t find caused deaths. Nor was there any substantial risk for children.)
   
   https://greensmoothiegirl.com/your-high-vibration-life/episodes/dr-carrie-madej-interview-virus-truth/

7. Stephanie Seneff PhD is an MIT scientist, still actively working at the university at the age of 78, and shifted from engineering into researching heavy metals, glyphosate, and vaccines. I have interviewed her separately on glyphosate, but this one is on vaccines.
   

   https://greensmoothiegirl.com/your-high-vibration-life/episodes/glyphosate-roundup-concerns-interview-stephanie-seneff/

A final note: I’ve been buying these cards for $2, to give to pregnant women and young mothers, wherever I go. And I also go to sections like infant medicines or vitamins, and toys, and leave a card propped up, for a shopping mother.

I hope you’ll buy some, and educate other mothers. Starting a conversation with a stranger, about a controversial topic, might feel awkward. But anyone can hand her this info-packed, amazing card.

If my work has benefited your life, consider becoming a subscriber to this Substack channel. Thank you for your support. And, please assume that some of the links I may share, compensate my small business.

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Magnesium for sleep
Calcium for bones
Zinc for immunity
Iron for energy

We’ve been trained to believe that minerals in pill form are essential — that taking them is simply “nutritional insurance.”

To watch or listen to this blog post instead, click here.

But here’s something the supplement industry doesn’t tell you: Most mineral supplements come not from plants — but from rocks.

Limestone. Chalk. Crushed oyster shells. The stuff roads are paved with.

Your body cannot digest rocks. You know where your vegetables and fruits are supposed to get minerals?

From decaying plant material–if you’re a gardener, you might call it compost. Actually decaying animal waste, or manure, becomes good food for a garden, too, full of minerals from the plant foods the animal ate!

You may have heard me be really critical of a lot of supplements. But minerals are one of the few TRUE deficiency stories.

And I do take a mineral supplement. You don’t have to pretend, or hope, that getting your mineral deficiencies addressed will make a difference for you.

My experience and hundreds of others’ I’ve heard from for many years? You can’t even miss what getting enough minerals does for you.

“But Minerals Come From the Earth!”

Yes — minerals originate in the earth. But we were never meant to consume minerals in their raw elemental forms.

In nature, minerals become usable to humans through plants.

Plants draw minerals from soil → convert them into organic, ionic, living forms → and weave them into a nutritional matrix your cells instantly understand.

The human body is not built to extract nutrition from rock.
We are not earthworms.
We are not granite grinders.
We are not shell-crushers.

We were built to get minerals from food.

What’s Actually in Your Mineral Supplement

Flip your mineral bottle around.

You’ll likely see ingredients like:

• Calcium carbonate

• Magnesium oxide

• Zinc sulfate

• Iron ferrous fumarate

• Potassium chloride

You may have seen these before and just ignored them, not knowing what they are. These are inorganic mineral salts. Industrial powders.

Often sourced from quarries, mining operations, and industrial waste streams — then bleached and milled into pill form.

They are allowed to be labeled as “natural” because they technically occur in nature.

Snake venom occurs in nature too, but we don’t put it in smoothies, or on our children’s plates. Side note: there’s a certain former chiropractor out there saying snake venom is in a lot of drugs.

What is actually in a lot of drugs is chemical mimicry of the venoms that snakes and toads and lizards use to paralyze their prey. Nobody’s milking lizards of their venom. Trying to copy the toxic molecules in it makes sense, since Ozempic paralyzes your gut, making you not want to eat.

Now we have ND’s and chiropractors (luckily just one or two, not most of them–most of them will warn you about these drugs) saying to use Ozempic and other GLP-1 agonist drugs for all kinds of things. I know I’m digressing here–but just because a drug paralyzes something in your body, maybe something causing you pain, for instance–doesn’t mean the side effects aren’t dreadful and not worth it. With Ozempic, for instance: muscle wasting, psychosis, loss of gastrointestinal function and control, rapid aging–at this point you probably all know what I’m talking about when I say “that Ozempic look.”

The Problem with Minerals in Rock/Chalks/Shells: Bioavailability

When you swallow inorganic mineral salts, one of two things happens:

1. You don’t absorb them at all → they pass through → and you excrete them, or

2. You absorb too much → they crystalize → and you store them in soft tissues

Neither outcome leads to health. Neither causes just “expensive urine.” It’s worse than that.

Unabsorbed minerals cause:

• Constipation

• Gas and bloating

• Gut irritation

Absorbed inorganic minerals can accumulate and contribute to:

• Kidney stones

• Gallstones

• Osteoarthritis

• Arterial calcification (calcium in arteries = heart disease risk)

Your body does use minerals — and needs them desperately, for every transaction that takes place in the human body.

But it can only use organic, ionic forms — the forms found in plants, not rocks.

Calcium Supplements: The Most Dangerous Example

Calcium carbonate — the most common supplement form — is mined from limestone.

What does your body do with limestone?
It can’t use it to build bones.
Bones require a living matrix of minerals + collagen + enzymes.

So where does the limestone go?

Into arteries.
Into joints.
Into kidneys.
Anywhere except your bones.

This is why people taking the most calcium supplements have the highest rates of arterial calcification.

Yes — calcium supplements increase heart disease risk.

But the industry still recommends them — especially to women.

Because fear is profitable. Women fear the health consequences of not getting the nutrients they need. A powerful industry has done this to you.

And because honestly, your doctor or practitioner probably hasn’t bothered to do the research about this.

Seriously, my book Take Daily would be a great gift for your practitioner. Or just for fun.

So How Do We Actually Get Usable Minerals?

We return to the original delivery system of life: Plants.

Plants are nature’s mineral synthesizers.

They take raw earth minerals and convert them into ionic, bioavailable nutrients bound to organic molecules that human cells can absorb with almost zero energy cost.

This is why:

• A handful of spinach can contain more usable magnesium than a 500 mg pill

• A kale salad can build bone better than dairy

• Celery juice can correct sodium-potassium imbalance better than electrolyte powders

Your body isn’t looking for a dose. How many milligrams of a synthetic powder is pretty irrelevant to your body.

It’s looking for a form it recognizes. And what’s even better about decayed plants or the decayed plants in manure, that farmers have known to use for millennia, to replenish soils? It’s that this form of minerals also is fermented, with all the benefits we talked about in my blog post (and podcast episode) about Vitamin B12!

So What Should You Do Instead of Mineral Supplements?

Choose food-based and plant-based mineral sources, such as:

• Green leafy vegetables

• Sea vegetables (kelp, dulse)

• Mineral-rich herbs (nettle, horsetail, moringa)

• Sprouts and microgreens

• Vegetable broths

• Living spring water (the original electrolyte drink)

And — this is key — improve absorption by improving gut ecology. If your gut cannot absorb minerals, no pill can fix that.

Mineral deficiency is often a gut issue, not an intake issue.

Though our Ultimate Minerals is the “whole food” of supplements, and the one supplement I’d keep if I had to spend the rest of my days on a desert island. All the minerals and trace minerals, and no chemistry involved, just the fulvic and humic acids from ancient plant deposits. BEFORE they become rock.

The Takeaway

Most mineral supplements are:

• Non-living

• Non-bioavailable

• Non-absorbable

• And often biologically stressful

Your body is not a mineral warehouse. It is a living system, designed to interact with living minerals found in living food.

When you feed the body minerals in the form it recognizes — your energy changes, your skin changes, your sleep changes, your mood changes, your bones change, and your cells wake back up because you’ve stopped trying to nourish the body with stone. And started nourishing it with life.

Want the Research, Sourcing Charts & Full Breakdown?

This post is adapted from Chapter Nine of Take Daily: How Supplements Hijack Your Health.

Thanks for subscribing to my Substack blog! We especially appreciate those of you who contribute $10/mo, if my work impacts your life positively. We know everyone cannot pay, and we do just an honor system/request. But we so appreciate those who contribute to our work, as I’ll work for free but I do have staff helping. Some of our links compensate GreenSmoothieGirl.

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For almost four decades, fish oil has been sold as one of the most essential supplements for health.

Doctors recommend it. Functional medicine clinics sell it. Influencers rave about it.

To watch or listen to this blog post instead, click here.

All because of one story that started in the 1970s:

Researchers observed that Inuit populations eating a high-fish diet had low heart disease.

And just like that, the wellness industry ran with the assumption that eating fish = fish oil pills = heart health. (Do you see the problems with this? I don’t think you need a PhD to see how problematic that assumption is.)

The logic was flawed from the beginning.

The Inuit weren’t taking two-year old capsules made with rancidity-covering flavorings, and solvents — they were eating fresh marine foods, living outdoors, and consuming whole nutrients in their natural form.

No one bothered to ask: Does a processed fish oil capsule behave the same way in the human body?

We now know the answer is no.

The Science Has Caught Up — And It Isn’t Pretty

In 2018, a massive Cochrane Review — one of the most respected forms of scientific analysis — looked at data from thousands of participants.

The conclusion? Fish oil supplements do not reduce heart disease. Not heart attacks. Not strokes. Not mortality.

Billions of dollars in sales — and zero demonstrated benefit. Let that sink in.

“But Aren’t Omega-3s Good for You?”

Yes — from whole foods. (Which don’t have to be fish.)

Not from industrial oils left sitting in capsules for up to two years before you swallow them.

Here’s where the problem begins:

Fish oil pills are typically made from the leftover byproducts of fish processing — heads, organs, skin, and fats that couldn’t be sold as food.

These scraps are squeezed for oil.

By the time the oil reaches your supplement bottle, it has almost always oxidized — meaning it is rancid.

Not just smelly-rancid. Carcinogenic-rancid.

And you cannot smell rancidity in capsules — because manufacturers add stuff to mask the odor.

Would You Do This to Your Dinner?

If you took a raw salmon filet out of your freezer…Placed it on the counter…Left it there for two years… Would you eat it?

Because that is effectively what’s happening when you take fish oil. The delicate fatty acids degrade. They oxidize. And rancid oils generate compounds that damage cells and DNA — the opposite of “anti-inflammatory.”

And Then There Are the Toxins…

Even “high-quality” fish oil carries:

• PCBs (forever chemicals linked to cancer)

• Dioxins (linked to immune dysfunction)

• Microplastics

• Mercury and heavy metals

• Rancid lipid peroxides

These contaminants accumulate in fatty tissues — including your brain. So while the bottle says “supports cognitive health,” the reality may be the opposite.

The Marketing Pivot

Once the heart health narrative fell apart, supplement brands pivoted to:

“Fish oil supports brain health, mood, and inflammation!”

But again, no strong evidence exists.

The research simply doesn’t support the sweeping promises being made.

Meanwhile, the fish oil market hit $3.08 billion in sales in 2023 — and is still growing.

If there’s one thing the supplement world is good at, it’s selling a story. (Labs and deficiency narratives are very helpful.)

So What Should You Do Instead?

If you’re eating a typical modern diet, the issue isn’t that you’re low in omega-3s. It’s that you’re drowning in inflammatory seed oils:

• Canola

• Soy

• Corn

• Safflower

• Sunflower

These oils flood the body with omega-6.

So instead of adding fish oil to counterbalance it, the answer is to remove the seed oils causing the imbalance.

Your body doesn’t need a capsule. It needs the removal of the irritant.

And if you choose to eat omega-3 rich foods, choose real, whole sources (the top four are not my favorites, for the toxicity that comes with them, but they’re popular):

• Wild salmon

• Sardines

• Anchovies

• Pasture-raised eggs

• Chia

• Flax

• Hemp

Whole food = built-in antioxidants + enzymes + natural ratios. No capsule can replicate that.

The Bottom Line

Fish oil was never the hero. It was a marketing success story, built on:

• A half-understood observation

• Weak science

• Industrial waste oil

• Clever branding

• A public desperate for a quick fix

Real health doesn’t come in a gel capsule. It comes from removing what harms the body and feeding it what it recognizes as food.

Your body already knows the way back to balance. It always has.

Thanks for subscribing to my Substack blog! We especially appreciate those of you who contribute $10/mo, if my work impacts your life positively. We know everyone cannot pay, and we do just an honor system/request. But we so appreciate those who contribute to our work, as I’ll work for free but I do have staff helping. Some of our links compensate GreenSmoothieGirl.

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Today, at your request!--we are reviewing one of the strangest trends to emerge from the wellness industry in the last decade. Ketones!

To listen or watch rather than read, click here.

We need to talk about the Keto Diet. But not the bacon-and-eggs version your uncle used to lose fifteen pounds in 2018. I’m not even going to get deep into what you’ve been hearing me say for 10 years, which is that just not eating processed sugar and wheat products will cause weight loss—and you don’t have to eat meat and fat and skip all carbohydrates to lose weight.

I’m talking about the completely bizarre “Keto 2.0.” The version where people stopped eating actual food and started drinking distinct, chemical solvents to “hack” their biology. You can see how industry keeps coming up with new products to sell you—there’s always that temptation.

We are talking about exogenous ketones—specifically, the trend of drinking “Ketone IQ” and other brands made of synthetic esters.

If you have ever wondered why health influencers are suddenly chugging liquid that tastes like nail polish remover and telling you it’s good for your brain, this episode is for you.

We are going to look at the petrochemical origins of these supplements, the absolute void of evidence that this leads to weight loss, and the potential long-term risks of fueling your body with industrial byproducts.

Let’s dive in.

Swallowing the Marketing Hype

First, let’s set the stage. The original ketogenic diet was a metabolic state achieved by restriction. You stopped eating carbohydrates, you depleted your glycogen, and your liver—in a desperate act of survival—began converting your own body fat into ketone bodies (specifically beta-hydroxybutyrate or BHB) to keep your brain alive.

It was an elegant, biological backup generator.

But the supplement industry hates “restriction” because you can’t bottle it and sell it for $5 a serving. So, they invented a loophole: Exogenous Ketones.

The marketing pitch is seductive. They claim you can eat your pizza and drink your ketones too. They promise “metabolic freedom,” “instant flow states,” and fat loss without the discipline. Companies like who made exogenous ketones have built empires built on the idea that having ketones in your blood is the benefit.

But this is a logical fallacy. It’s like spraying sweat on your forehead and claiming you just ran a marathon. The presence of the byproduct does not mean you did the work. And when you look at what specifically you are drinking, the story gets much darker.

Synthesizing the “Miracle” Molecule

This is where we need to put on our chemistry goggles. When your liver makes ketones, it does so using fatty acids found in nature. When a factory makes ketones, it’s a different story.

Many exogenous ketones on the market, particularly the cheaper ketone salts and certain solvent-based esters, are synthesized industrially. We have to look at the primary ingredient in products like Ketone IQ: R-1,3-Butanediol.

What is 1,3-Butanediol?

In the industrial world, 1,3-Butanediol is a solvent. It is a chemical agent used to thin out paints, it is found in cosmetics to keep them moist, and it is used as a carrier for flavors in food processing.

While it can be fermented, the vast majority of the world’s supply of butanediol is derived from petrochemicals—specifically from acetaldehyde (which comes from ethylene) or propylene.

You are effectively drinking a chemical cousin of the fuel you put in your lawnmower.

Now, the industry will argue that the molecule is “nature identical.” But there is a profound difference between a ketone body your liver gently produces from olive oil and a chemical solvent synthesized in a vat that forces your body into a state of “synthetic ketosis.”

Why does this matter? Because your body treats it like a toxin. When you ingest 1,3-Butanediol, your liver has to work overtime to process this alcohol-like compound and convert it into usable energy. You aren’t burning fat; you are detoxifying a solvent.

Stomach-Turning Taste Profiles

If the chemistry doesn’t scare you, the sensory experience might.

Evolution has given us taste buds for a reason—they are our first line of defense against ingesting poisons. Sweet means energy, bitter can mean toxicity, and sour can mean spoilage.

So, what does Ketone IQ taste like?

If you scour the reviews—and I mean the honest ones, not the influencer-sponsored ads—you see a pattern. Users describe the taste as “battery acid,” “gasoline,” “pure rubbing alcohol,” or “dreadful chemical waste.”

One user wrote: “It tastes like I siphoned gas out of a 1998 Honda Civic with my mouth.”

Another said: “I gagged for ten minutes. It burns the throat like cheap vodka mixed with cough syrup.”

When your body has a visceral, gag-reflex reaction to a “nutritional” product, you should listen. That is your biological hardware telling you, “This does not belong down here in your stomach.” Real food—even healthy, bitter food like kale or dark chocolate—does not taste like an industrial accident.

The brand who makes Ketone IQ recently reformulated it to make it more palatable, but you can only mask a solvent so much. If you have to bury a health product under layers of artificial sweeteners and masking agents just to keep it down, is it really “optimizing” your health?

Skirting the Scientific Evidence

Let’s move to the claims. The biggest selling point for these drinks is weight loss and obesity management. The logic goes: Ketones naturally produced in the body when fasting burn fat; therefore, drinking synthetic lab-made ketones burns fat.

This is scientifically backwards.

When you drink exogenous ketones, you are introducing a new fuel source into your body. 1,3-Butanediol contains calories. It is an energy source. When your cells detect this flood of “free energy” entering the bloodstream, do you know what they do?

They stop burning your body fat.

Why would your body go through the arduous, calorie-expensive process of breaking down your love handles when you just poured liquid energy down your throat?

A study published in the Journal of Physiology showed that while exogenous ketones do lower blood glucose, they also inhibit lipolysis—that is the breakdown of fat tissue. By drinking ketones, you are literally hitting the “pause” button on your own fat burning.

As for the cognitive benefits? The science is shaky at best. Most studies showing improved cognition are done on people who are already in a calorie deficit or have cognitive impairment. For a healthy person eating a standard diet, pouring ketones on top of a carbohydrate-rich lunch creates a “metabolic traffic jam.” Your body now has high glucose and high ketones. This is not a natural state. In nature, high ketones and high sugar never exist together—unless you are an untreated diabetic in ketoacidosis.

Plus, these products have a lot of synthetic caffeine added, so you might feel energy, but it’s not natural energy, and it doesn’t last.

Recreating a diabetic emergency state in your blood is not a “biohack.” It’s metabolic confusion.

Suffering the Long-Term Consequences

Finally, we have to ask: What happens when you drink petrochemical-derived solvents every day for a year? Or five years?

The honest answer is: We don’t know. And that should terrify you. You’re the guinea pig. We’ll know in 10 years, but it will be from studying—you, the user drinking solvents.

We have thousands of years of data on what happens when humans eat meat, vegetables, and fruit. We have zero long-term data on the daily consumption of isolated R-1,3-Butanediol in high doses.

However, here is what we do suspect based on early signals:

1. GI Distress: The most common side effect is “disaster pants.” The osmotic load of these chemicals draws water into the intestines, leading to severe cramping, nausea, and diarrhea. This effectively prevents nutrient absorption from the actual food you’re eating.

2. Liver Strain: Your liver is the filter for everything you ingest. Forcing it to process a synthetic diol daily adds a detoxification load similar to chronic alcohol consumption. While it doesn’t intoxicate you like ethanol, it stresses the enzymatic pathways of the liver.

3. Insulin Resistance: There is a theoretical risk that by constantly flooding the blood with energy substrates (ketones) while also eating carbs, you are keeping your cells constantly “full” of energy. This “energy toxicity” is the root cause of insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes. You aren’t fixing the obesity crisis; you might be fueling the fire.

I was really glad one of you asked me to do this topic, because I’d been meaning to. It’s one of the most shocking things I’ve seen in my 30 years studying health and wellness—it makes me wonder if it matters to people whether the food they eat is food at all. As two-thirds of us are overweight and sometimes that trumps every other health consideration.

The wellness industry is excellent at selling us shortcuts. They took the Keto Diet—a difficult, discipline-heavy medical intervention—and tried to turn it into a $5 shot you can buy at the gas station. And it doesn’t even work.

Because biology doesn’t cheat. Health is not found in a bottle of synthesized petrochemicals that tastes like gasoline. It is found in whole foods, movement, and letting your liver do the job it was designed to do, without the interference of industrial solvents.

If you want ketones, earn them. Skip the bagel, take a walk, and let your body do the work. Save the solvents for the paint aisle.

Thanks for subscribing to my Substack blog! We especially appreciate those of you who contribute $10/mo, if my work impacts your life positively. We know everyone cannot pay, and we do just an honor system/request. But we so appreciate those who contribute to our work, as I’ll work for free but I do have staff helping. Some of our links compensate GreenSmoothieGirl.

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Why do I do this? Because I want to make sure you aren’t losing your money to the latest fads. Instead, I want you to be armed with the best information possible so you know what is actually worth your hard-earned dollars.

To watch or listen to this blog post instead, click here.

Before we dive in, I have a quick favor: Tell me in the comments what city and state you are reading from! It helps me get to know our community of smart, health-conscious people and figure out how I can best serve you.

The Psychology of “Good News About Bad Habits”

Today, we are talking about a psychological trick called “Marketing the Forbidden.” This is a clever strategy used by the food and diet industries to tell you that something traditionally viewed as unhealthy is actually fabulous for you.

It’s a very seductive message. Let’s be honest: we all love hearing “good news about our bad habits.” If someone tells you that the bacon or processed butter you already love is secretly a “superfood,” you’re much more likely to buy their book or product.

Let’s break down the five main ways you are being marketed to right now. These are all designed to make you feel like you’ve discovered a “secret” health truth that the rest of the world is missing.

1. The “Ancestral” Halo

The first trick is the “Ancestral Halo.” Marketers take a product—like rendered beef fat—and wrap it in the language of our “primal” ancestors. They suggest that because humans ate something 10,000 years ago, it must be the cure for modern disease.

They use fancy words like “tallow,” “suet,” and “lard” to make a byproduct of the cattle industry sound like an ancient miracle. It feels “raw” and “real,” which bypasses your logic and hits your emotions. We’re all tired of processed sugars, so they feed us a different kind of processed, rendered throwaway product and pretend it’s better.

2. The “Enemy of My Enemy” Strategy

This is a classic diversion tactic. Marketers point to a legitimate “villain,” like chemically processed seed oils, and use that as evidence that the exact opposite must be healthy.

Their logic goes like this: “Because soybean oil is bad, then saturated animal fat must be good.” This is a logical fallacy. It keeps you from looking at the middle ground or the actual evidence. Just because one thing is harmful doesn’t mean the opposite is a health food.

3. The “Plant Toxins” Scare

To get you to buy more expensive animal products, some influencers are now branding vegetables as “toxic.” They claim things like lectins, oxalates, or phytates are “plant poisons” designed to kill insects, so they must be killing you, too.

This usually comes from two groups:

• Meat-diet marketers looking to sell a specific lifestyle.

• Podcasters looking for a “hot take” to get views.

Telling people that fruits and vegetables are bad gives them “permission” to stop eating fiber and phytonutrients—the very things that actually prevent disease.

4. The “Slightly Better” Shortcut

The food industry loves to sell you “paper” health. They take a junk food, like a potato chip, fry it in tallow, and market it as a health food.

It’s a shortcut that allows you to feel like you’re making a healthy choice without actually changing your lifestyle.

5. The 15-Year Rebrand

Every 10 to 15 years, the industry recycles the same high-fat, low-carb narrative under a new name. What was Atkins in the 90s became Paleo, then Keto, and is now “Carnivore.” They change the label so they can sell a new set of books and products to the same audience that already tried the old version. Labels like “Whole 30 Approved” or “Keto Approved” come and go. These products are usually highly preserved and have a low cost to make, which is why they are marketed so heavily.

What Actually “Moves the Needle”

While fads change every decade, there is a core group of foods linked by thousands of studies to long life and high energy. These aren’t “sexy” or “new,” but they work:

• Greens and Vegetables: The foundation of cellular health.

• Fruits and Berries: Nature’s highest source of antioxidants.

• Legumes and Grains: The fiber your gut needs to thrive.

• Nuts and Seeds: Healthy fats and medicinal properties.

Stop the Diet Roller Coaster

If you are ready to stop wasting money on fads and join a community that values research over marketing, I have two resources for you:

1. 12 Steps to Whole Foods: This is my “anti-diet” program. I developed these 12 high-impact changes to help my own family move from being sick to being high achievers. It includes over 200 recipes to help you opt out of the “Standard American Diet.”

2. GreenSmoothieGirl Detox: This is the work I am most proud of. My husband and I do the shorter version twice a year. If you think detoxing is just taking a bunch of pills, let me show you a better way. We love to hold your hand through the whole process.

Click here to learn more about the 12 Steps to Whole Foods and our 26-Day Detox.

Thanks for subscribing to my Substack blog post! We especially appreciate those of you who contribute $10/mo, if my work impacts your life positively. We know everyone cannot pay, and we do just an honor system/request, but we so appreciate those who contribute to our work, as I’ll work for free, but I do have staff helping. Some links in my content monetize for this small business.

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To watch or listen to this blog post instead, click here.

If you’ve been scrolling through social media lately, you’ve likely seen the warnings: stay away from spinach, ditch the strawberries, and be terrified of almonds. But today, I want to cut through the noise. As someone who has eaten over a pound of greens daily for more than 30 years, I’m here to tell you that the oxalate craze is a “tempest in a teapot”—an overblown narrative that is actually taking people in the wrong direction.

1. A 20-Year-Old Narrative Reborn

While oxalates feel like a “new” discovery, this narrative is actually decades old. It’s been resurrected and amplified by the social media echo chamber. It’s a classic example of how a fringe theory can go viral without robust scientific backing.

The truth? Data suggests that a tiny fraction of the population—likely less than 1%—is genuinely reactive to oxalates. Furthermore, the quality of evidence supporting widespread oxalate sensitivity is remarkably poor. We are looking at anecdotal reports and small, uncontrolled studies rather than the gold standard of large-scale clinical trials. For the vast majority of us, fearing oxalates is simply misdirected energy.

2. The “Anti-Nutrient” Myth

We often hear compounds like oxalates, phytates, and goitrogens labeled as “anti-nutrients.” This term is used to disparage the healthiest foods on the planet.

Decades ago, I read a massive 600-page book detailing the evidence that these so-called “anti-nutrients” actually play beneficial roles in the body. These compounds often serve as a plant’s natural defense system, and while they can interact with nutrient absorption, our bodies are incredibly adaptable.

The benefits of these whole foods—packed with hundreds of micronutrients and essential fiber—far outweigh any theoretical downside. An acidic internal environment, usually caused by a diet heavy in animal products and ultra-processed foods, is a much bigger threat to your health than the oxalates in a bowl of strawberries.

3. Kidney and Gallbladder Stones: What’s Really Happening?

It’s true that oxalate crystals are often found in kidney stones. But correlation does not equal causation. When we look at who typically suffers from stones, we see a pattern of obesity, high consumption of processed meats and sugary sodas, and underlying liver or gallbladder dysfunction. These conditions create a “backed up” system where bile becomes thick and sludgy.

Crystalline structures form in acidic conditions. Plant foods, on the other hand, promote an alkaline environment where bile flows easily. The idea that oxalates alone cause these stones is a massive oversimplification.

4. My 30-Year Experiment with Greens

I don’t just talk the talk; I walk the walk. For 30 years, greens have been the crux of my diet. I’ve seen:

• Gallbladder Success: I’ve coached students who were told they needed surgery, only to save their gallbladders by switching to a 26-day plant-based detox.

• Thyroid Recovery: A close friend avoided radiating her thyroid for hyperthyroidism by focusing on the very whole foods the “oxalate alarmists” tell you to avoid.

These foods provide the “Sponge” (soluble fiber) and the “Broom” (insoluble fiber) that our bodies desperately need. The Standard American Diet is tragically deficient in fiber, and oxalates happen to be found in the very foods Americans eat the least!

5. The Source of the Fear

Much of the current panic can be traced back to a few vocal individuals who have universalized their personal health struggles. While their journey is their own, it is scientifically irresponsible to take one person’s unique reactivity—often caused by rare genetic conditions or severe gut dysbiosis—and tell the entire world to stop eating spinach.

For most people, “reactivity” isn’t a plant problem; it’s a gut and liver dysbiosis problem that can be corrected through lifestyle changes.

The Bottom Line

Stop worrying about the “anti-nutrients” in your kale. The real culprits of our health crisis are ultra-processed foods and an over-reliance on animal products. Don’t let a trendy bogeyman distract you from the vibrant health that comes from a plant-rich life.

Take the Next Step in Your Health Journey

If you’re ready to cut through the confusion and get back to basics, I’d love to have you in my Health Coaching Course. We don’t just talk about food; we look at the whole picture.

Special Offer for My Readers:

• Get a FREE third month of access when you sign up for two months.

• Access five deep-dive courses on: Biological Dentistry, Natural Hormone Treatment, Lowering EMFs, Breast Imaging, and more.

• Join me for a Live Monthly Q&A Class.

• Extra $50 Off: Use coupon code COACH at checkout.

[Click here to join the community and start your journey!]

Thanks for subscribing to my Substack blog post! We especially appreciate those of you who contribute $10/mo, if my work impacts your life positively. We know everyone cannot pay, and we do just an honor system/request, but we so appreciate those who contribute to our work, as I’ll work for free, but I do have staff helping. Some links in my content monetize for this small business.

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B12 deficiency — we hear about it everywhere:

• Low energy?

• Brain fog?

• Mood off?

• Fatigue?

“Must be B12,” right? Order a test, get the result, walk out with supplements or injections.

But here’s the part of the story we never hear: The test used to diagnose B12 deficiency does not actually measure whether your body can use the B12.

To watch or listen to this blog post instead, click here.

It only measures whether B12 is present in the blood — not whether it’s functioning in your cells where it matters.

So the deficiency narrative is built on a faulty biomarker, and the industry knows it. That’s how you sell B12 to tens of millions of perfectly healthy people.

What B12 Actually Is — And Isn’t

Vitamin B12 isn’t one compound — it’s a complex, just like Vitamin C. In food, B12 exists in a coordinated network of enzymes, trace minerals, and co-factors.

But in supplements? You get a single chemical mimic.

The two most common forms are:

• Cyanocobalamin

• Methylcobalamin

Both are created using industrial fermentation — often using sewage sludge bacteria, then chemically processed, stabilized, and isolated.

Cyanocobalamin isn’t just synthetic. It includes cyanide in its molecular structure. Yes — that cyanide. Your liver has to separate the cyanide molecule to convert the compound to something usable.

Does the industry mention this? Of course not.

Where Real B12 Comes From

Here’s the part most people have forgotten:

B12 is produced by bacteria, not animals. So when people say, “You have to eat meat to get B12”— that was never the real story.

Animals don’t make B12 — they get it from soil bacteria and from microbial activity in their digestive tracts.

We were meant to get B12 from:

• Soil microbes on unwashed garden foods

• Fermented, cultured, and aged foods

• A diverse gut microbiome

But modern life sterilized our environment:

• Hyper-sanitized produce

• Antibiotics in medicine and the food supply

• Chlorinated drinking water

• Antibacterial everything

We didn’t become deficient in B12 because nature failed us. We became “deficient” because we removed the microbial world we evolved with.

So Are You Really Deficient — Or Just Disconnected?

The real question is not: “Am I low in B12?”

The real question is: “Why can’t I access or produce the B12 my body is designed to generate?”

If your gut microbiome is damaged — through antibiotics, soda, alcohol, stress, processed foods — you can swallow all the B12 in the world and still feel tired.

Because the pill does not restore the system. It only plugs a leak.

The Supplement Industry’s Favorite Trick

Here’s the playbook:

1. Lower the “healthy” lab range so more people appear deficient

2. Promote symptoms that everyone has sometimes (tired, foggy, stressed)

3. Sell the synthetic molecule as the solution

4. When the fatigue returns, tell people they need higher doses or injections

This is how you turn a basic microbial imbalance into a recurring revenue model.

What Actually Restores B12 Function

To reclaim B12, you don’t need more bottles. You need to restore your microbial ecology:

• Eat fermented foods daily (sauerkraut, kimchi, miso, kefir)

• Grow or buy produce from healthy soil

• Stop sterilizing everything

• Heal your gut lining

• Reduce processed and acidic foods

• Increase fiber from whole vegetables

And stop assuming your body is broken. It’s not broken. It’s waiting.

If You Are Truly Low…

There are cases of legitimate deficiency — especially after:

• Antibiotic use

• Alcohol overuse

• Bariatric surgery

• Ulcer drugs

• Vegan diets without fermented foods

But even then — the answer is not a lifetime of synthetic shots.

The answer is: Rebuild the microbiome that makes B12 in the first place.

The Bottom Line

You are not tired because you are missing a pill. You are tired because your body has been separated from the living microbial systems it is designed to thrive with.

Vitamin B12 deficiency is not a flaw of nature. It is a consequence of modern life.

When you restore microbial diversity, the deficiency corrects itself — naturally, sustainably, intelligently.

Your body always knew how to do this. It just needs the world it evolved in.

Want to See the Research and Lab Charts?

This post is adapted from Chapter Eight of Take Daily: How Supplements Hijack Your Health — where we break down both the science and the marketing playbook behind the B12 obsession.

Thanks for subscribing to my Substack blog! We especially appreciate those of you who contribute $10/mo, if my work impacts your life positively. We know everyone cannot pay, and we do just an honor system/request. But we so appreciate those who contribute to our work, as I’ll work for free but I do have staff helping. Some of our links compensate GreenSmoothieGirl.

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But today, I want to turn the lens toward a different billion-dollar giant—one that wears a yoga outfit and carries a glass of green juice in its ads, and targets the health-conscious consumer with relentless precision.

To watch or listen to this blog post instead, click here.

I’m talking about the Wellness Industrial Complex.

You might not hear that term, like you do the “Military Industrial Complex,” or the “Pharmaceutical Industrial Complex,” but it functions the same way. My observation is that many women believe, “If it’s pharma, it’s bad, and if it’s an alternative, it’s good.”

It may not be that simple.

It’s a massive web of marketing verticals, social media influencers, alternative practitioners, and endless product lines, designed to drain your bank account without necessarily moving the needle on your health.

We’ve traded pharmaceutical pills for what we may believe are “natural” powders and gadgets that are, in many cases, just as predatory. Your kitchen counters are cluttered with bottles, and your nightstand is overflowing with tech you’ve been told you need to survive a toxic world.

More, more, more ads fill your social media feed, offering you yet another “hack” toward better health. If you’re like me, you hit a point where you ask yourself if all the money you’ve spent is even helping your health.

So many of us use devices, or take pills, thinking, “I may not feel better, but for all I know, if I weren’t taking these, I’d feel worse!”

It’s time to develop the critical thinking skills to sift through the noise. I’m going to run through what, in my opinion, are the 6 biggest “health” scams currently being sold as wellness essentials.

1. Collagen Supplements: The “Expensive Jello” Trap

Collagen is the darling of Instagram. Whether it’s powders, creamers, or gummies, people are dropping $50 a tub for the promise of youthful skin and strong joints.

The Reality: Your body cannot absorb collagen whole. When you swallow that powder, your digestive system breaks it down into individual amino acids, just like it would a piece of chicken or a bowl of lentils. Your body doesn’t “know” to send those specific amino acids to your forehead wrinkles; it sends them wherever the metabolic priority is—like your liver or your toenails.

The Data: Most “gold standard” studies showing collagen works are funded by the companies selling it. Independent research confirms that if you eat adequate protein (which you can get entirely from plants, because your body assembles proteins from their amino acids)--your body already has the tools to build its own collagen. You aren’t buying “young skin”; you’re buying overpriced, incomplete protein. Usually with a side helping of byproducts of industrial chemicals used in the manufacturing–and sweeteners, texturizers, and flavorings.

2. Cheap Red-Light Devices: The LED Illusion

I’ll be the first to admit: I fell for this one. I briefly promoted red-light masks and hats until I dug deeper into the clinical evidence. Real therapeutic red light (photobiomodulation) is a legitimate science, but the “scam” is in the delivery.

The Reality: Most consumer-grade devices are essentially Christmas lights in a fancy plastic shell. To penetrate the dermis and create a biological change, you need specific wavelengths (usually 660nm and 850nm) and high irradiance (power).

In my own 30-day experiment with a high-powered device, the only thing it did was “pop out” pre-malignant spots on my face that had been dormant. While some people enjoy the “ritual” of the light (the placebo effect is a powerful thing), most home gadgets are statistically insignificant compared to clinical-grade panels.

3. Blue-Light Blockers: A Solution Looking for a Problem

“Protect your eyes from the digital screen!” is a powerful narrative for anyone who works at a computer.

The Reality: According to a massive Cochrane Systematic Review of 17 randomized controlled trials, there is no significant evidence that blue-light-filtering lenses reduce eye strain or improve sleep quality.

Digital eye strain isn’t caused by blue light; it’s caused by the fact that we blink 60% less when staring at a monitor. You don’t need $150 glasses; you need the 20-20-20 rule: every 20 minutes, look at something 20 feet away for 20 seconds. It’s free, and it actually works.

4. Ascorbic Acid: The Vitamin C Imposter

If your Vitamin C supplement list begins and ends with “Ascorbic Acid,” you don’t have Vitamin C. You have the chemical envelope of it.

The Reality: In nature, Vitamin C is a complex of factors—rutin, bioflavonoids, and various enzymes. Ascorbic acid is just the antioxidant shell. Most commercial ascorbic acid is synthetic, derived from GMO corn sugar and processed with volatile acids and petrochemical solvents.

While it can prevent scurvy, it doesn’t provide the full-spectrum biological activity of whole-food Vitamin C found in acerola cherries, rose hips, or—better yet—fresh fruits and vegetables.

5. Cholecalciferol: The “D” Hormone Danger

We call it Vitamin D, but it’s actually a secosteroid hormone. The “Vitamin D3” you buy at the store is often a byproduct of sheep’s wool grease treated with UV radiation.

The Reality: Taking high-dose D3 in isolation can be risky. It can signal your body to pull calcium out of your bones and deposit it into your soft tissues—like your heart and kidneys (calcification).

The wellness industry sells D3 like candy, but without its natural co-factors (like K2 and Magnesium found in whole foods), you might be doing more harm than good. Furthermore, the standard 25,D lab test most doctors use is a poor indicator of your actual hormone status unless paired with a 125,D test.

6. The Carnivore Diet: The Ultimate Elimination Deficit

The “Carnivore Diet” is the ultimate anti-health trend. People often feel better initially because they’ve cut out processed sugar and seed oils—this is the “Elimination Effect.”

The Reality: You aren’t “eating like your ancestors”; you’re walking into a nutritional minefield. Long-term risks include a decimated gut microbiome due to zero fiber and increased oxidative stress from a lack of phytonutrients. We are seeing LDL levels skyrocket in this community. It is a state of chronic inflammation masquerading as a “hack.”

Reclaiming Your Health (and Your Wallet)

The common thread here? Simple, cheap solutions don’t sell $35 billion in supplements. The wellness industry wants you to believe you can “buy” your way out of poor lifestyle choices with a powder or a gadget.

The truth is much less profitable for them: leaning on whole, plant-based foods, real sunlight, movement, quality sleep, and avoiding toxins is where the body actually repairs itself.

Be skeptical, stay grounded, and remember that your health is built in the kitchen and the sunshine, not in a marketing funnel.

Ready to stop the guesswork and start a real reset? If you want to move the needle without the hype, I invite you to join our Supported Detox.

In my nearly two decades sharing my research, and writing 17 books, this program we’ve helped 20,000 people do–is the most important thing I’ve ever done, and the biggest needle-mover for your health and mine. Detoxing saved me, and dug me out of a hole I was in, in the 4 years I spent mostly in bed, from age 28 to 32.

It’s the most high-impact, focused action you can take for your health in less than a month. [Click here to learn more and use code COACH for a special discount.]

Thanks for subscribing to my Substack blog post! We especially appreciate those of you who contribute $10/mo, if my work impacts your life positively. We know everyone cannot pay, and we do just an honor system/request, but we so appreciate those who contribute to our work, as I’ll work for free, but I do have staff helping. Some links in my content monetize for this small business.

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Protein shakes, pre-workouts, recovery powders, “clean” bars — fitness culture loves them.

The marketing is enhanced performance, strength, and beauty from within.

But what if your “health” supplement was actually loaded with lead, arsenic, mercury, cadmium, pesticides, glutamates which are neurotoxic like the infamous MSG is–and forever chemicals?

In Take Daily, the book exposes how the $30+ billion fitness supplement industry became one of the most profitable — and least regulated — corners of the health market.

To watch or listen to this blog post instead, click here.

From Dairy Waste to “Protein Powder”

Think about how when you were a kid, you’d never heard of protein powder or protein bars, and now many people consider them staples.

In fact, many believe they’re BETTER than real food, because you’ve been convinced by industry that protein is a better macronutrient than carbohydrates and fats, even though virtually every food has all three.

It all started with a problem: the waste from the dairy industry.

The dairy industry once discarded a useless byproduct called whey — the liquid left after making cheese.

In a flash of marketing genius, no doubt a board-room decision trying to get more profit out of their processes, they dried it, packaged it, and told the consumer it was “protein.” Which is the one positive thing you could say about it. But then again, most things are protein.

But if you hype protein as the “best” of the three macronutrients, then isn’t a bag of “protein” a great idea? Sure, protein builds muscle mass, but there’s protein in every food, and the human body can use only a relatively small amount at a time. About the amount that is found in the average meal, in fact.

When the dairy industry figured out a marketing angle to package and sell a waste product, an industrial waste stream became a “superfood.”

Today’s protein industry includes whey, pea, soy, various animal products, and “vegan blends.” But the truth is:

• Most are highly processed, stripped of nutrients, the leftover parts of a plant after the desirable part is packaged for consumers.

• Many contain contaminants from cheap sourcing, many of them in China where environmental controls are few.

• Even “organic” powders can contain cyanide, glutamate, and forever chemicals. (Even if monosodium glutamate or MSG isn’t added, protein isolates have a lot of natural glutamate with similar reactions in the body.)

The Clean Label Project (2018) tested 134 top-selling U.S. protein powders.
Every single brand contained measurable heavy metals. Some even exceeded EPA safety limits.

The “Pre-Workout” Problem

Pre-workout supplements are often marketed as clean energy or muscle fuel. In fact, I’ve found that people think before they exercise, they think they have to eat something specific, and then they have to eat something specific after their workout, too. Personally, I’ve never eaten before OR after a workout.

But their ingredient lists read like chemistry experiments:

• Artificial sweeteners

• Caffeine mega doses

• Synthetic amino acids

• Coloring agents

• Nitric oxide boosters

The result?

Spiked heart rates, elevated blood pressure, hypothalamus and adrenal fatigue, and long-term cardiovascular strain.

The only pre-workout anything I’ve ever taken is a glass of water. And the nitric oxide in some of these products can double-dose men who may take other supplements or “the blue pill,” and that overdosing has caused heart attacks.

Your body doesn’t need synthetic stimulation or special materials before or after. It needs rest, hydration, and clean fuel. Industry has made the simple–very complex!

The Creatine Controversy

Creatine — another gym staple — is often promoted as safe and effective.
And it can increase muscle mass more quickly than just traditional weight lifting.

But what’s rarely discussed:

Creatine is synthesized using industrial chemicals, including precursors found in pesticides. Trace contaminants have been detected even in top brands.

That doesn’t mean creatine is evil — but manufacturing standards are broken.

When there’s no pre-market testing, you are the guinea pig.

Why “Organic” Doesn’t Mean Safe

Labels like “organic,” “natural,” and “plant-based” sound reassuring — but they don’t guarantee purity. (I have more confidence in certified organic. It’s not perfect, but it’s what we’ve got.)

Many plant-based powders are grown in contaminated soils or processed in facilities using industrial solvents.

Even GRAS (Generally Recognized as Safe) mean very little:

Individual companies often decide whether to adopt safety standards at all. An ingredient is safe because the food manufacturer says it’s safe! Environmental Working Group (EWG) estimates over 1,000 chemicals are in our food, in fact, that weren’t even declared as safe to the FDA.

If your bag of greens protein came with a warning label saying “contains lead and cyanide,” would you still drink it? Now many companies choose to put the California Prop 65 label on their product, because over 40 California law firms buy products from all over the U.S., test them for over 900 contaminants, and inform the company they’re over the threshold, in one of those 900 contaminants, via a lawsuit.

I’ve learned this the hard way, on a product where every single ingredient in my product was certified organic. So don’t think that Prop 65 labels mean a product is high in lead. It’s companies protecting themselves from the predatory practices of the State of California. The state gets their cut, and the law firm gets theirs, as they have sued literally thousands of companies all over the U.S.

But–that doesn’t mean that lead in our food isn’t a real problem.

How the Industry Keeps You Hooked

The fitness supplement world runs on insecurity and illusion:

• “More protein = more strength.”

• “Pre-workout = energy to work out hard.”

• “Powder = health.”

But it’s just another version of the same fiction: that your body is broken and needs a product to fix it. That regular food isn’t right–you need just the protein part.

When you step back, the logic falls apart. You don’t need lab-created powder to build muscle — you need real food and consistent training.

I personally developed protein products many years ago not because I think everyone should be obsessed with protein. But rather, because everyone already was, and so I wanted to make a very clean, much less processed version.

What Real Strength Looks Like

Real strength doesn’t come from a tub or a bag. It comes from the kind of whole foods and daily movement your body recognizes as natural.

Fuel yourself with:

• Sprouted grains and legumes

• Dark leafy greens

• Seeds and nuts

• Whole fruits

• Mineral-rich water

• Quality sleep

They may not have a label of “protein.” But these don’t just “fuel your workout.” They fuel your life.

The Takeaway

The fitness supplement industry has built a perfect illusion — shiny labels, sculpted bodies, and false science. But beneath it all is a toxic mix of contamination, manipulation, and clever marketing.

The truth is simple:

Your body is not built on powders where you aren’t even sure what-all the ingredients are. Some of the ingredients were made with chemicals that remain in the product but aren’t on the ingredient list. Health is built from plants, sunlight, movement, and rest.

Trade the blender bottle for real food. You might be wondering why GreenSmoothieGirl makes protein powders.

But by the time I formulated our protein, it was considered a staple by most of America. So I figured if people are going to spend billions of dollars on it, I’d make one less processed, cleaner, and I’d add some superfoods in there, for better nutrition.

This post is adapted from Chapter Ten of Take Daily: How Supplements Hijack Your Health by Robyn Openshaw and Mike Fairclough — exposing the hidden risks behind fitness products that promise “health” but deliver toxins.

Thanks for subscribing to my Substack blog! We especially appreciate those of you who contribute $10/mo, if my work impacts your life positively. We know everyone cannot pay, and we do just an honor system/request. But we so appreciate those who contribute to our work, as I’ll work for free but I do have staff helping. Some of our links compensate GreenSmoothieGirl.

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When anxiety gets really tough, we often look for help. Maybe it’s a doctor who gives you a prescription like Xanax, or maybe it’s a “natural” supplement you find at the health food store. Today, we’re going to talk about one of those supplements: GABA.

Many ads say it’s like the “brakes for your brain.” People trying to stop using medications like Xanax are often told GABA supplements can help them calm down. But does it actually work? Or is it just another expensive bottle of chemicals hiding behind a healthy-sounding name? Let’s peel back the marketing and see what the science really says.

To watch or listen to this blog post instead, click here.

What is GABA, Really?

First, let’s understand what we’re talking about. Your brain has tiny messengers called neurotransmitters. Think of them like little chemical texts that tell your brain what to do.

• Glutamate is like the “gas pedal” – it gets your brain excited and active.

• GABA (which stands for Gamma-Aminobutyric Acid) is like the “brakes” – it tells your nervous system to chill out.

When your brain makes its own GABA, it helps you relax, lowers your heart rate, and calms those racing thoughts.

But here’s the BIG secret: There’s a huge difference between the GABA your brain makes and the GABA powder you buy in a bottle.

The companies selling these supplements want you to think they’re the same. They’re not! One is a natural signal created inside your body’s cells; the other is a product made in a factory.

The Truth About How GABA Supplements Are Made

If you imagine GABA supplements are just “ground-up plants,” you might be surprised. Most GABA sold today isn’t “natural” in the way an apple or a carrot is natural. It’s made in a lab using either industrial fermentation (like brewing beer, but for chemicals) or chemical synthesis (creating it from other chemicals).

The “Natural-Sounding” Fermentation Way

Most GABA that claims to be “natural” is made using a type of bacteria called Lactobacillus hilgardii. This is the same kind of bacteria used to make kimchi, which sounds pretty natural, right? But to turn it into a concentrated powder, manufacturers use:

• Nutrient Soups: Often made from things like soy or dairy leftovers.

• Solvents: Special liquids (chemicals) used to pull the GABA out of the bacteria “sludge.”

• Acids: Used to get the mix just right.

The Purely Chemical Way

Then there’s the totally chemical version. This involves starting with chemicals like phthalimide (which is used in plastics and dyes) and mixing it with other strong chemicals and solvents.

Think about it: Your body is designed to make its own GABA from a basic building block called Glutamine. When we try to force it by swallowing a lab-made version, we’re ignoring the fact that our body didn’t ask for a chemical import; it asked for healthy ingredients to make its own.

The “Blood-Brain Barrier” Problem

Now, for the million-dollar question: If you swallow a GABA supplement, does it actually get into your brain where it needs to do its job?

Imagine your brain is a super-exclusive club with a very tough bouncer at the door. That bouncer is called the Blood-Brain Barrier. Its job is to keep bad stuff and “uninvited” chemicals out of your sensitive brain.

The Science: Most studies show that the GABA molecule from supplements is usually too big and shaped incorrectly to get past that bouncer and into your brain.

A big review in 2015 published in Frontiers in Psychology looked at many different studies. Their conclusion? While some people feel better (this is called the placebo effect – meaning your belief makes you feel better), there’s very little proof that GABA supplements actually get into the human brain in any real amount.

If it can’t get into the brain, it can’t press the “brakes” on your anxiety.

The Benzo Connection (The Tapering Trap)

This part is really important. Many people try GABA because they want to stop taking medications like Benzodiazepines (like Xanax or Ativan).

When you take a benzo, it doesn’t just give you GABA; it forces the GABA “doorways” in your brain to stay open. Over time, your brain says, “Whoa, too much GABA signal!” and it actually starts to close down its own doorways to protect itself. This is called tolerance.

So, people will increase their dose. Or, take a “rescue dose” in the middle of the night, when they wake up, wired. I know this, because I did it once. I didn’t want to ever take a benzo, but after a 12-day period where I didn’t sleep at all, I got some, in desperation.

Then, although it’s not addictive, it’s habit forming, because you have a fear of not sleeping, the next night. And then the next.

When you stop taking the drug, you’re left with:

1. No drug.

2. Brain “doorways” that are damaged or have shrunk.

3. Your own natural GABA production has taken a vacation.

The Marketing Lie: “Just take a GABA supplement to fill the gap!” The Truth: If the GABA supplement can’t get past your brain’s bouncer, it’s not going to fix those damaged doorways.

For many people (including me), taking GABA did nothing for anxiety or sleep. It’s like trying to put gas in a car with a locked gas cap. It won’t get in. And it’s at least a little bit toxic.

Some people feel valerian root or kava, which are at least natural herbs, helps them. I haven’t ever noticed any calming or sleepy effect. And L-Theanine is another lab-made synthetic product that isn’t what your body makes on its own.

Why Do Some People Say GABA Works?

Your own natural GABA production does work. And if the molecularly similar product doesn’t cross the blood-brain barrier, why do some people swear by GABA supplements? First of all, I’ve never met anyone who does. But just in case someone says it’s useful, I have two main theories:

1. The Gut-Brain Link: You actually have GABA “doorways” in your gut. Sometimes, calming your “second brain” in your stomach can send a small signal that slightly relaxes your main brain.

2. The Placebo Effect: When we’re desperate for help and spend money on something, we really want it to work. Our minds are incredibly powerful, and sometimes just believing something will help can make us feel better. Lots of studies on placebos show that 60 to 65 percent of people say the placebo helped them. That’s really interesting, considering the number should be 0!

But if you have chronic, lifelong anxiety, a “maybe it helps a little” isn’t good enough. You deserve something better than a lab-made chemical that might not even reach its target.

Stop Buying the Hype, Start Healing

We’ve been told that for every “bad” feeling, there’s a “good” pill or supplement. But true healing from anxiety usually doesn’t come from a lab-made chemical. It comes from:

• Healing your gut: So your body can make its own natural brain messengers.

• Lowering inflammation: This helps keep your blood-brain barrier strong.

• Getting enough key nutrients like Magnesium and Vitamin B6, which help your brain do its job naturally.

Stop falling for the supplement industry’s “quick fixes.” Your anxiety is real, your struggles are real, and the solution needs to be real, too.

What’s Next? Clearing the metabolites of the benzo drug happened fast for me, as I was doing the GreenSmoothieGirl Detox at the time. The two just accidentally coincided–getting rid of the second “rescue” dose in the middle of the night, and beginning a taper–and the symptoms I was told to expect for 10 days happened only for 1 day.

In fact, I didn’t have a full-blown panic attack I’d read about, shaking, or actual seizures–just extreme, heightened anxiety for a full day. Better 1 day than 10! And, I’m glad it’s over, and I’m never going back to that drug–not worth it, for what came afterward. And what I learned its effects are over time.

Also, as I quit the second “rescue dose,” as the benzo drug became less and less effective, and tapered down the first dose, I doubled up on my Ultimate Minerals dose. It’s the magnesium I was going for, which is calming and well documented to help you go to sleep–and I no longer will take the magnesium pills, now that I know they’re ground-up rocks, chalk, or shells.

I know Ultimate Minerals is the “whole food” of supplements, no chemistry involved, and it’s got all the macro minerals and all the trace minerals to complement the magnesium, from the same place the vegetable plant tries to get it–ancient plant deposits in the soil.

Thanks for subscribing to my Substack blog! We especially appreciate those of you who contribute $10/mo, if my work impacts your life positively. We know everyone cannot pay, and we do just an honor system/request. But we so appreciate those who contribute to our work, as I’ll work for free but I do have staff helping. Some links may compensate this small business, if they’re one of our products or an affiliate relationship.

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To watch or listen to this blog post instead, click here.

People are obsessed with it. They’re peeing on strips, eating sticks of butter, drinking petroleum-based “ketone” drinks, and talking about “macros” as if nutrition is just a math problem of protein, fat, and carbs.

But I’m going to be honest with you—I think ketosis is largely a national obsession created by marketers. It is a fad that is far less important and less interesting than another phenomenon that happens when we fast, or give our bodies very little to eat for a period of time.

While everyone is distracted by burning fat for fuel, they’re missing out on a process that is infinitely more powerful and vital for your long-term health. Even if it’s harder for marketers to make money on it, you need to know about it. That process is called autophagy.

The Myth of the Three-Meal Day

Before we dive into what autophagy is, we have to debunk a huge myth. Most of us grew up being told that “breakfast is the most important meal of the day” and that we need three “square meals” to stay healthy.

The truth? That’s a total modern convenience that sold a lot of breakfast cereal. For 99% of human history, we didn’t have refrigerators, Uber Eats, or even grocery stores. Our ancestors were lucky to get two meals a day.

In fact, most humans on Earth right now are lucky to get two meals a day. Interestingly, poorer populations—unless their water has been polluted by industrial countries—have a fraction of the rates of cancer and other “diseases of affluence” that Americans do. We think we’re going hungry if we don’t eat at least three times every day. It’s actually funny when people call not eating between dinner and breakfast “intermittent fasting.” That used to just be called “sleeping!” Or “the time between dinner and breakfast.”

Our bodies aren’t designed to be constantly digesting. When our system is always “on,” it never gets a break to do the deep cleaning it desperately needs.

What is Autophagy? (The Body’s Recycling Plant)

So, what happens when we finally stop eating for a bit? That’s when autophagy kicks in.

The word “autophagy” comes from the Greek words auto (self) and phagy (eating). It literally means “self-eating.” Now, that sounds a little scary, but it’s actually the most brilliant “housekeeping” system ever designed.

Think of your body like a high-end restaurant. If the kitchen is cooking 24/7, the chefs never have time to scrub the floors or deep-clean the ovens. Eventually, the kitchen gets greasy and dangerous. Autophagy is the “night crew” that comes in when the kitchen (your metabolism) finally shuts down. It identifies old, broken, and “aberrant” cells and clears them out.

Dr. Valter Longo, author of The Longevity Diet, uses a great metaphor: Think of the body like a train that burns wood for fuel. If your train is going to run out of wood, what would you do? You might chop up an old, broken wooden seat in the cabin to keep the train moving to the station. The body does the same thing—it goes after broken parts when it doesn’t have constant food coming in.

What are “Aberrant” Cells?

“Aberrant” means cells that have gone rogue or stopped working right. This includes:

• Misfolded proteins: “Clumps” in your brain and body that can lead to disease.

• Damaged mitochondria: The “power plants” of your cells. When they’re broken, you feel exhausted.

• Malignant/Pre-cancerous cells: Cells starting to grow in ways they shouldn’t.

• Viruses and bacteria: Autophagy can actually “eat” and recycle invading germs.

Instead of letting this cellular “trash” pile up and cause inflammation, autophagy breaks these parts down into raw materials to build new, healthy cells.

The Science of Rejuvenation

Dr. Longo’s research shows that we can “program” our cells through what he calls a Fasting-Mimicking Diet (FMD). His findings are a game-changer:

1. Stem Cell Activation: Once a fast is broken (the refeeding phase), the body triggers a surge in stem cells to rebuild your systems with brand-new cells. The best stem cells are the ones your own body makes for you!

2. Biological Age Reduction: A 2024 study showed that just 3 cycles of a 5-day modified fast could reduce a person’s biological age by an average of 2.5 years.

3. Cancer Protection: In his 2025 book Fasting Cancer, Longo explains that healthy cells go into a “shielded” mode during a fast, while “greedy” cancer cells become more vulnerable because they can’t stop trying to grow.

Two Ways to Get There: The Hard Way and the Easier Way

If you want to trigger this deep-cleaning process, you have two main options:

1. The “Hard Way”: Water Fasting

This means going without food for 24, 48, or even 72 hours. I’ve fasted for up to 12 days before, and let’s be real: it’s miserable. It’s hard to work or take care of kids when you’re starving and lightheaded.

2. The “Smart Way”: The GreenSmoothieGirl Detox

This is why I’m so passionate about what we do. Dr. Longo found that if people ate clean, plant-based whole foods, they could eat 600 to 800 calories a day and still get the benefits of fasting.

When you follow the GreenSmoothieGirl Detox, we use specific, nutrient-dense foods that keep your energy up while keeping your insulin low. We are essentially “tricking” the body into autophagy. You get the cellular benefits—the anti-aging, the brain clarity, the disease prevention—without the misery of total starvation.

Why This Matters More Than Ketosis

Ketosis is just about what fuel you’re burning. It’s like changing the type of gas in your car. It’s fine, but it doesn’t fix a broken engine. Autophagy is about fixing the engine.

It’s about making sure you aren’t carrying around toxic “junk” that makes you feel old and sick. We need to get back to our roots—not by starving, but by giving our bodies the “downward” time they evolved to have.

If you have a minute, let me highlight four more researchers whose contribution to studying the health effect of fasting and autophagy are pretty interesting:

1. Dr. Yoshinori Ohsumi: The “Father of Autophagy”

If Dr. Longo is the “architect” of fasting diets, Dr. Ohsumi is the man who discovered the “machinery” inside the cell. He won the 2016 Nobel Prize for his work.

• The Discovery: Using baker’s yeast, he identified the specific genes (ATG genes) that control how cells recycle their own components.

• The Key Insight: He proved that autophagy isn’t just a “garbage disposal” but a sophisticated recycling plant. When the cell is stressed (by fasting), it breaks down old proteins into amino acids to build new, essential structures.

• Podcast Takeaway: Without Ohsumi’s work, we wouldn’t have the scientific proof that fasting actually “cleans” our cells at a molecular level.

2. Dr. Satchin Panda: The “Circadian Master”

Dr. Panda, a professor at the Salk Institute, moved the conversation from what we eat to when we eat. He coined the term Time-Restricted Eating (TRE).

• The Discovery: He found that nearly every organ in the body has its own “clock.” When we eat late at night, we “clash” with these clocks, leading to metabolic “jet lag.”

• The Key Insight: His research showed that mice (and humans) who eat within an 8–10 hour window are significantly leaner and have better liver health than those who eat the same number of calories spread throughout the day.

• Podcast Takeaway: Autophagy isn’t just about length of time; it’s about alignment. Fasting overnight for 12–16 hours supports the natural circadian rhythm of cellular repair.

3. Dr. Mark Mattson: The “Brain Health Pioneer”

A former Chief of the Laboratory of Neurosciences at the National Institute on Aging, Dr. Mattson is the leading voice on how fasting protects the nervous system.

• The Discovery: He pioneered research into how fasting triggers BDNF (Brain-Derived Neurotrophic Factor)—essentially “Miracle-Gro” for the brain.

• The Key Insight: Mattson explains that fasting is a “metabolic challenge” that makes neurons stronger. Just as lifting weights tears and rebuilds muscle, intermittent fasting (like the 5:2 method) stresses neurons in a way that protects them from Alzheimer’s and Parkinson’s.

• Podcast Takeaway: Fasting isn’t just for weight loss or “cleaning” cells; it’s a cognitive enhancer that builds “brain resilience.”

4. And One More Great “Fasting” Practitioner: Dr. Jason Fung

• While more of a clinical practitioner than a laboratory researcher, Dr. Jason Fung is vital for the metabolic/insulin angle. His work in The Obesity Code popularized the idea that fasting is the most effective tool for reversing Type 2 Diabetes by lowering insulin levels and allowing the body to access stored fat.

These various researchers built on each other’s work. Autophagy is the unsung hero that may hold many keys to rebooting our health, longevity, and prevention of many diseases.

I hope this was useful for you, and that you give autophagy more of the brain space that ketosis has been getting!

Thanks for subscribing to my Substack blog! We especially appreciate those of you who contribute $10/mo, if my work impacts your life positively. We know everyone cannot pay, and we do just an honor system/request. But we so appreciate those who contribute to our work, as I’ll work for free but I do have staff helping. Some of our links compensate GreenSmoothieGirl.

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It’s called Cold Water Immersion (CWI), or simply “cold plunging.” Some fans claim it’s a miracle cure for anxiety, weight loss, and chronic pain. Skeptics, on the other hand, think it’s just a “masochist fad” for people who like to suffer for “likes.”

Today, we’re going to peel back the layers. We’ll look at the cold, hard science, the pros and cons, and my own personal (and very DIY) experience with the ice.

To watch or listen to this blog post instead, click here.

My DIY Setup: The “Freezer” Method

When you look into cold plunging, the first thing you’ll notice is the price tag. You can go online right now and buy a high-tech cold plunge tub for $5,000 or even $10,000. These fancy tubs have built-in chillers, high-end filtration systems, and smartphone apps.

But I didn’t do that.

I have a 14-cubic-foot chest freezer in my garage. My partner John and I sealed the seams with waterproof caulk, filled it with well water, and that’s our tub.

I got the idea from my neighbor, who is a firefighter. He told me the guys at his station all got an old freezer for free, caulked it, and set it up at the firehouse. They jump in after their shifts to recover from the intense heat and physical stress of the job. If it’s good enough for our first responders, I figured it was good enough for me!

Why the “Freezer” Works for Us:

• No Chemicals: Most expensive commercial plunges require chlorine or bromine to keep the water from growing algae. I don’t want my skin—my body’s largest organ—absorbing those chemicals while my pores are reacting to the water.

• Fresh Well Water: We don’t need fancy filters. When the water starts to look or feel “funky,” we just pump it out and refill it with clean well water.

• The “Ice Ring” Factor: We have to be careful with the plug! Sometimes we leave the freezer plugged in for a day or two by accident. When I open the lid, there’s a thick ring of ice around the edges. That is a “hold your breath and pray” kind of plunge! Other times, we just plug it in overnight, which gets it to a “perfectly cold” level—very cold, but not terrifying.

⚠️ A Note on Safety: I am not suggesting you go out and caulk a freezer. Water and electricity are a dangerous mix. We are extremely careful to always unplug the freezer before anyone gets near the water. Please, do your own research and stay safe!

The “High” vs. The Routine

When I first started plunging, I was going through an incredibly stressful phase of my life. My nervous system felt like it was constantly on high alert.

The first few times I got into that ice-cold water, I felt something I hadn’t felt in years: Absolute euphoria. For two or three hours after getting out, I felt like I was floating. My brain felt like it had been “hard-reset,” and the world seemed brighter and calmer.

Now, I plunge several times a week, and in the heat of the summer, I do it daily. I still feel amazing afterward—there is a definite boost in my mood and energy—but I’ll be honest: the “honeymoon phase” wears off. My body has adapted. I don’t get that three-hour “legal high” anymore, but I still get a solid “reset.”

I’ve also learned that more is not better. John and I found that if we try to do a second plunge in the same day, we don’t get the same effect. It’s like the brain’s chemical “reward” system needs a full 24 hours to reset before it can give you that boost again.

The Science: Why Dunk in Ice?

Why does putting your body in 45°F water do anything at all? It sounds like torture, but there are biological reasons your body responds this way.

1. The Dopamine Spike

Research has shown that immersion in cold water can increase blood dopamine levels by 250%. Dopamine is our “motivation” chemical. Unlike the spike you get from sugar or caffeine—which comes with a “crash”—the cold-water dopamine spike is steady and can last for hours.

2. Hormesis: “Good Stress”

Hormesis is the idea that a little bit of stress makes you stronger. Just like lifting weights “stresses” your muscles so they grow back stronger, cold water “stresses” your system so your immune system and cells become more resilient.

3. The “Vagus Nerve” Reset

The cold water stimulates the vagus nerve, which is the “highway” of your parasympathetic nervous system. This tells your body to move from “Fight or Flight” (stress) into “Rest and Digest” (calm).

The “Cautions”: When Cold is a Bad Idea

While the benefits are great, there are some “Stop and Think” moments you should consider. Evidence suggests cold plunging isn’t for everyone, every time.

• The “Muscle Killer”: If you are a bodybuilder trying to get as big as possible, do not cold plunge right after your weightlifting session. Studies show that the inflammation you feel after lifting is actually what signals your muscles to grow. If you “chill” it away too soon, you might cancel out your hard work. Wait at least 4 to 6 hours.

• The Cold Shock: When you hit ice water, your heart rate and blood pressure skyrocket instantly. If you have an underlying heart condition, this could be dangerous. Always check with a doctor if you aren’t sure.

• Diminishing Returns: Your body is a master of adaptation. If you do the exact same plunge every single day, your body stops viewing it as a “challenge.” To keep the health benefits, you have to keep the body guessing by changing the time or the temperature.

Final Verdict: Is it Worth It?

So, is cold plunging just a fad? The “trend” of posting it on Instagram might fade, but the biological benefits of cold exposure are backed by solid evidence.

The Evidence-Based Summary:

• It’s great for: People struggling with low mood, people looking to build mental toughness, and athletes looking to recover from cardio or hiking.

• It’s not great for: People looking for maximum muscle growth or those with heart sensitivities.

You don’t need a $10,000 tub or even a caulked freezer in your garage to start. You can start tomorrow morning by turning your shower to “cold” for the last 60 seconds of your routine. It will be uncomfortable, your breath will catch, and you will want to turn it off—but that’s exactly the point. When you step out and feel that rush of energy, you’ll understand why so many of us are “chilling out.”

Thanks for subscribing to my Substack blog! We especially appreciate those of you who contribute $10/mo, if my work impacts your life positively. We know everyone cannot pay, and we do just an honor system/request. But we so appreciate those who contribute to our work, as I’ll work for free but I do have staff helping. Some of our links compensate GreenSmoothieGirl.

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I said, “Frank! I’ve missed you—what is going on here?”

He told me he’d just gotten out of 5 days in the hospital, with a mysterious E Coli blood infection, and that was a port, in his arm. And he was here to watch, tonight, not play.

He said, “I have great insurance, but it won’t pay for a medical professional to deliver the antibiotic cocktail I need. So I have to administer my own IV, twice a day. It’s about 20 steps, including sterilizing some stuff—it’s practically a fulltime job.”

Frank continued, “They told me that even if I were 92 years old, they wouldn’t cover me going to a medical facility for this. I’m on my own.”

I’ve heard some of the horror stories, of insurance companies getting really aggressive with denials. Especially with AI finding the excuses to deny—and bots delivering the news, many times in a row, and no way to reach a real, live person.

The implacable bot can outlast all your requests to be re-considered. No more “may I please talk to your manager?” And still, Frank’s story was truly shocking to me.

I have discovered something I can’t keep to myself. It’s all about health freedom—but it’s also financially freeing.

I discovered the health-sharing model (the “love thy neighbor,” pass-the-hat concept)—but formalized, using technology, but also real people, to talk to you, rather than a bot.

And to make sure your doctor gets paid, within two weeks, and I’m talking about ANY doctor you choose—not an “in-network” doctor.

And it’s a nonprofit company, so they’re motivated to ACTUALLY help you with your healthcare needs. If they have any “profit,” they have to give it back, to members! (And one year, they did give money back to members.)

I’ve actually been in two previous health sharing companies, but this one is saving me almost 50%, versus the last one--plus, it’ll pay for chiropractic, physical therapy, talk therapy if you’re dealing with a relationship issue or trauma, and 24-7 free telemedicine.

Being able to pick your own doctor is a big deal—versus being forced to the McDonalds of doctors—some doctor working for a company your insurance company owns, with negotiated lower rates.

If you’re like millions of Americans, when the ACA provisions expired in January of this year, your health insurance premiums went up. WAY up. Check, to see what you’re paying. Then look at my link, here, and find out in 30 seconds how much you could save.

Plus, many of you have told me that you love my job, and want my job, because I’ve had the great privilege of teaching people about real health, for almost 20 years.

I’ve had GreenSmoothieGirl followers ask me if they can buy a plane ticket and “pick my brain” while I fly somewhere.

If you want to work with me, this is how, and I think you’re going to LOVE it. Exactly nobody is heartbroken about breaking up with their health insurance.

I’m so passionate about this, being able to give people better healthcare options, letting them pick their own doctor—and saving a lot of money, too.

I know families paying $2,000/month just on their premium. There’s a better way. It’s profoundly moral, the act of each of us contributing, to the care of others—and being able to draw on that compassion, ourselves, if we are in need.

But it also gives us more freedom—with our health, and with the money we work so hard for.

Join me in Impact Health Sharing, and I’ll give you the digital version of my Detox, and a membership in our Facebook group, for free. Or, a membership in our Bitcoin Insiders classes every Weds night.

Sign up here, to watch my pre-recorded class now, if you have time. And if not, you can come to my Thursday Noon ET live class.

And sign up at that link, for a 30-minute call with me, for after you’ve watched the pre-recorded or live class.

I’ll talk to you soon—bring your questions, and join me to earn an income doing this with me. Or if have plenty of income, and just want to save money:

Break yourself free of overpaying for your health care, as a member of Impact. Check out here, how much you can save, using health sharing.

Thanks for subscribing to my Substack blog! We especially appreciate those of you who contribute $10/mo, if my work impacts your life positively. We know everyone cannot pay, and we do just an honor system/request. But we so appreciate those who contribute to our work, as I’ll work for free but I do have staff helping. Some of our links compensate GreenSmoothieGirl.

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Keeping it felt…wasteful. I’ve spent $100K’s on health insurance and have never maxed my deductible. So basically, I’ve been subsidizing others’ healthcare.

(And I feel blessed to have not had to use it. But, I sure would have liked to pay less!)

Well, what if you could save up to 50% versus your health insurance premiums? I have friends who are paying $2,000 a month, just for premiums, for insurance coverage for their family. I’ve had house payments lower than that!

And that’s just the premiums, not total out-of-pocket for healthcare.

Also, I have several friends who had great insurance—but got denied, over and over again, trying to make valid claims.

Now, bots on the company’s app, and artificial intelligence, stand between you and your health insurance, assisting them in more easily Denying, Deflecting, and Defending.

(The strategy of many health insurance companies that became infamous in the New York City shooting of a $20M/year health insurance executive. You pay, and pay—and then sometimes run into a brick wall, trying to get what you paid for, when you have a medical crisis.)

The kinds of practitioners I wanted to work with weren’t covered by my insurance. What if there’s an alternative, that will save you a lot of money, you can pick your own doctor (really, anyone you want, there’s no “network”)—

--and you can use physical therapy, chiropractic, a free 3 sessions of psychotherapy for any new issue, and free 24-7 telemedicine?

I have this amazing health sharing program, and I’m saving almost 50% versus what I was paying before—in another health sharing company.

(I’m saving 75% what I’d be paying, for health insurance!)

This new one is a nonprofit—which means they WANT to cover your medical issue, because they’re not allowed to make a profit. So any excess money they have at the end of the year, is required by law to be given back to us, the members!

What a great business model, where the patient’s needs don’t come into conflict with the company’s need to maximize profit!

BUT…what about coverage for catastrophe?

I know medical bills are the #1 reason for bankruptcy, I’ve heard the horror stories--so I didn’t want to roll the dice, and hope we never needed coverage for a serious emergency.

But the Obamacare subsidies, Affordable Care Act (ACA), just expired in January. And the average American’s health insurance premium went up 114%!

Because health insurance really didn’t work for me, years ago I found healthcare bill sharing—the Amish perfected the “love thy neighbor” model of covering each other’s healthcare expenses.

Since then innovative minds found a way to make it scalable, transparent, and a path to human flourishing.

I love that it’s nonprofit, because the need for health insurance companies to profit is in direct conflict with your and my need for affordable healthcare.

Here is the brilliance of healthcare bill sharing.

1. My friend Christian, for instance, pays $571 a month and his entire family of eight is covered—including chiropractic, telehealth, teletherapy, and discounts on vision and dental.

2. The coverage is better. We still have access to anything the medical world could offer—due to the company’s core values, it won’t cover trans “services,” abortions, chemical birth control, or vaccines.

3. We can call in and talk to a real person at customer support without the maddening maze of automation.

4. Doctors love Impact Health because the hospital and insurance companies aren’t looking over the doctor’s shoulder, plus…the bills are paid quickly. (After a car accident I was in two years ago, my chiropractor is STILL waiting to get paid! You may become your doctor’s favorite patient, due to how fast she gets paid.)

5. We can refer our friends and earn a monthly commission from their membership, and referring just a few friends covers our monthly cost—essentially, FREE coverage.

I’m so passionate about this, I’m making it my fulltime focus. Want to work with me? You could refer a few friends, but you could also make a serious living, if you like the idea of working with GreenSmoothieGirl, and bringing people health freedom, as a part-time or full-time job.

Join me here, for my Thursday Noon ET live classes on this, or watch the pre-recorded class right away. And sign up for a 30-minute call with me.

Click here, and you’ll get a quote in 30 seconds, to see if you can save some money, doing health sharing instead of health insurance?

If you have a question, you can also submit your info on that link, and a real person from Impact will reach out to you.

I wish we had known about bill sharing sooner. I would have exited the health insurance world long before we did.

Now YOU know about it too, and you can join me outside the matrix.

I’ve been all about medical freedom for 19 years, and especially since 2020. Here’s to one more way to break free!

Click here to learn more, watching a pre-recorded class I already taught—or joining me on Thursday at Noon ET. And sign up for a 30-min phone call with me, for after you watch the class.

Thanks for subscribing to my Substack blog! We especially appreciate those of you who contribute $10/mo, if my work impacts your life positively. We know everyone cannot pay, and we do just an honor system/request. But we so appreciate those who contribute to our work, as I’ll work for free but I do have staff helping. Some of our links compensate GreenSmoothieGirl.

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But here’s something I’ve been thinking about: If the way we talk about health and food makes people feel bad or ashamed, especially kids, then are we really helping?

To watch or listen to this blog post instead, click here.

Shame doesn’t usually make us healthier. Instead, it can make us hide things, rebel, or feel alone.

So, if you’re excited because changing your diet or trying a detox helped you feel amazing, how can you share that with people you care about without making them feel bad?

Today, I want to share what I’ve learned. It’s not just from my own life, but also from reading what experts like therapists and doctors say about why our good intentions about health often go wrong.

I want to show you a way to talk about getting healthier that’s honest and helpful, without pretending nutrition doesn’t matter. There’s a way to share our health journeys that is supportive and encouraging, not bossy or judgmental.

My Story: Learning the Hard Way

About 30 years ago, when I was 28 and a new mom, I started eating whole foods. I was so excited!

• I lost weight without going on a strict diet or feeling hungry.

• I had more energy.

• My digestion improved.

• My mood got better.

• My son, who had been sick, got well.

I even got rid of 21 chronic illnesses and stopped taking five prescription drugs! I’m 59 now, and I still don’t have those health problems. No more eczema, bad eyesight, allergies, or even those mini-strokes that I later realized were from unhealthy processed foods.

I was thrilled and wanted to share what I learned. Many people noticed how different I looked in just six months and asked what I’d done.

But one family member, my children’s grandma, reacted very negatively. If I tried to explain why I was feeding my kids differently, for example, after I’d asked her not to give them junk food and then found her giving my son chocolate cake... she would act really strangely.

She’d ask questions like, “Why would you deny your children cookies and cake? This is normal kid food, and it’s mean to stop them!”

Then, if she didn’t criticize me, she would literally pretend to fall asleep just seconds into my answer!

I was a young mom and honestly confused. I wasn’t talking about her or telling her what to eat. I wasn’t criticizing anyone. But I soon realized something important:

She felt personally shamed by my health journey, even though I never meant to shame her. She had struggled with her weight her whole life, even when most people were thin.

Seeing me lose weight, change my habits, and feed my family differently, and hearing me talk about all my new energy, made her feel bad. I felt like she liked me when I was heavier, and then turned against me when I was thin.

My excitement felt like judgment to her. My explanations felt like accusations. My answers felt like I thought I was better than her, even though that wasn’t how I felt at all.

This experience taught me something no health book ever could.

The Hard Truth

People don’t just hear what we say about food; they hear what it means about them. Messages about health are often filtered through their own past, their feelings, and their struggles.

So, instead of asking, “How do I get people to eat better?” We might need to ask, “How do I talk about health in a way that doesn’t make people feel bad and shut down?”

Here are 7 tips I’ve learned from experts and my own life, including my past work as a therapist:

1. Talk About How Food Works, Not If It’s “Good” or “Bad”

Think about your kids. A friend of mine realized he had grown up in a family that made fun of people’s weight. Even though he talked about fitness to his two kids, who were overweight, he didn’t realize they felt ashamed. After reading a book about this, he asked them, and they both said yes.

When he changed how he talked, both kids started being more active and eating healthier, and now they are both a healthy weight!

One big change is to stop using “moral” words about food.

Don’t say:

• “Good food / bad food”

• “Being good today”

• “Cheating”

• “I shouldn’t eat this”

Instead, say things like:

• “This detox helps my energy.”

• “This change in my diet has really improved my digestion.”

• “I notice my mood is better when I stopped eating [processed food].”

• “When I eat processed meat, it doesn’t feel good in my stomach, and then I don’t sleep well.”

2. My Best Tips for Talking to Kids

Tip 1: Talk in the Car

I used to talk to my kids in the car. They can’t escape! When you’re driving them somewhere for 10 or 20 minutes, it’s a great time. This works for tricky topics like sex or health, where kids might try to run away from the conversation if you bring it up in the kitchen or on the couch.

For example, my youngest son didn’t have a father figure, so I had to teach him things a dad would. I might chat for 10 minutes about how his life is going to warm him up. Then, keeping it short, I’d say something like, “I like the girls you date, and I hope you always make sure they go home from the date even happier and just as safe as when they left, because they are someone’s precious child.”

Another tricky talk I had was explaining that “no means no,” even if someone’s face or body language says no, not just their words. Because girls can sometimes feel stuck or too scared to say no.

Who do you think will have these important conversations with your kids if you don’t

It’s the same with their diet. If schools teach nutrition, they often focus on macros (grams of protein, fats, and carbs). This isn’t really what matters most for a healthy life.

It’s our job as parents to teach our kids about real, whole, life-giving foods and what ultra-processed foods are. Schools probably won’t do it for us. If we don’t, no one will teach our children these important ideas.

Tip 2: Keep it Short

My second tip is to keep your talks short. Aim for under a minute if you can. Kids, especially between 13 and 21, tend to tune out or get annoyed after that. They might even roll their eyes or walk away!

When we talk about food as biology (how it affects our bodies) instead of character (if someone is “good” or “bad”), people feel safer listening.

Tip 3: Make it Personalized to What They Care About

My third tip is to make any talk about food and health relevant to your child. Don’t use “you” language that sounds like you’re pointing a finger. Instead, say something like, “I learned lately that drinking soda takes oxygen from your red blood cells, which can make you slower when you’re running. I bet the fastest soccer players in your league don’t drink soda. What do you think?”

After I said something like this, my child actually stopped drinking soda. You know kids get unhealthy foods elsewhere, even if you don’t keep them in your home.

Tip 4: Start with a Compliment

My fourth tip is pure magic: Start what you say with, “You probably already know this, but...” Then, add whatever you wanted to tell them.

Your child will listen with an open mind because they’ll immediately think, “Did I know that?” If they did, they’ll tell you! If they didn’t, they’ll still think you complimented them by assuming they are smart.

3. Separate Health from Body Size

This is tough because we’ve often been taught that weight equals health. But it’s not always true. A big study showed that “skinny fat”—where thin-looking people have fat around their organs—can be riskier than having typical body fat that we see as “fat.” Many thin people just have fat streaks in their organs because they don’t move enough.

Here’s the truth:

• You can eat healthier without talking about people’s bodies.

• You can be a healthy role model without judging someone’s worth.

• Especially with kids, constantly watching their bodies creates anxiety, not wellness.

I learned to say things like: “Health is about how your body works and how you feel—not how you look or the number on the scale.” That one sentence changes everything.

I also had a family member who always criticized her own body and called herself “fat” in front of her daughters. This is common, but I wonder if our daughters feel ashamed or too self-conscious if their mothers change clothes five times and ask, “Do these pants make me look fat?”

Kids notice these things. I decided early on not to change clothes more than once or criticize my own body in front of my children. Of course, I had to retrain my own brain because I grew up in the 80s when being “fat” was shamed. I had to learn not to look in every mirror and think I looked “all wrong.”

I know that in 10 years, I’ll look back at myself now and think, “Wow, I looked good! I wish I could look like that again!”

4. Share Your Story, Not Rules

This was the biggest lesson from my early years. I gained and then lost over 50 pounds when my first two children were little. They wouldn’t remember that, but later, when I was trying different detox methods and eventually spent 2.5 years creating my own GreenSmoothieGirl Detox, I hoped my kids would join me. (And both my daughters have, and both my sons do some parts of what I taught them growing up.)

To encourage them, I didn’t pressure them. I just talked about how amazing I felt, and I was very specific. I didn’t talk about how much weight I’d lost—they could see that.

I don’t remember exactly what I said that made my children’s grandma react so negatively, but it felt like she took it personally.

When I shared what changed for me, people leaned in and listened.

Using “I” language really matters.

Instead of:

• “People need to stop feeding their kids this junk.”

Try things like this:

• “What surprised me was how my son’s hyperactivity changed when I stopped feeding him processed food.”

• “My joints stopped hurting by the fourth day of doing the GreenSmoothieGirl Detox.”

Stories make people curious. Rules and judgment make people resistant.

5. Teach Skills, Not Control

This is super valuable, especially for teenagers.

Skills make people feel strong and capable. Control, or even a tiny hint of judgment, makes them feel ashamed.

Skills look like:

• Cooking together.

• Reading food labels together.

• Talking about how food affects sleep, skin, focus, anxiety, or sports performance—whatever matters to them personally.

• Asking their opinion, like, “What do you think about that?” and truly listening.

Not:

• Watching everything they eat.

• Restricting foods.

• Counting their bites or scolding them for getting second helpings.

When people feel capable and trust you, they become curious. When they feel watched, they rebel.

6. Ask Permission Before Giving Advice

This comes straight from therapists, and it works.

Before you share something, ask:

• “Can I tell you something I learned?”

• “Are you open to hearing what helped me?”

If they say no, you drop it. Unwanted advice almost always sounds like judgment, no matter how kind you mean to be.

7. Model Self-Respect, Not Self-Criticism

This one surprised me. The experts who talk about body shaming point out that kids learn more from how we talk about ourselves than how we talk about them.

Saying:

• “I’m so bad for eating this.”

Teaches:

• “My food choices decide if I’m a good person or not.”

Instead, I learned to say:

• “I enjoyed that—and now I’m listening to what my body needs.”

That’s powerful! Your kids watch what you do more than what you say. As a parent of four grown-up kids (ages 25 to 32), I can tell you that they remember 20% of what I said and 80% of what I did.

We Don’t Have to Be Silent

Let me be clear:

• We don’t have to pretend nutrition doesn’t matter.

• We don’t have to ignore serious health issues.

• And we don’t have to stop caring just because someone might feel uncomfortable.

But if a lot of our children are overweight, and shame has been part of the conversation for decades, then maybe shame isn’t as helpful as we thought.

Maybe we were shamed and turned out okay, but what if there’s an even better way.

There is a way to talk about health that:

• Honors how our bodies work.

• Respects people’s choices.

• Builds confidence instead of fear.

• Encourages curiosity instead of rebellion.

I learned this the hard way—through family stress, misunderstandings, and years of trying different things. Plus, my education and experience as a psychotherapist helped too!

If this conversation helps even one parent, grandparent, or friend talk with more clarity and kindness—if it helps one child be loved, educated, and encouraged toward better health—then it’s a conversation worth having.

Check out my Detox–it’s my greatest gift to the world, in my nearly 20 years of writing 17 books, all my life’s work–this is the most game-changing and important work.

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