Brands I Trust For Healthy Living

When I learn about a thing, I like to go deep. Friends often ask me for recommendations, confident “I have a spreadsheet for that.” Over the years, my research has taken me from engineering topics to mindfulness, and now the two are merging in health.

My coaching practice was born of these lists — the prior name, Mindful Optimizations, was a place to house notes turned Google Docs turned blog posts I used to send out on topics from “how to get a job” to “how to get a raise.” In this phase of life, it feels relevant to share this ever evolving collection of brands I trust as I navigate all the health things. I now read all the fine print, request manufacturer COAs, read the studies, etc. and hope this information may be helpful for you 🙏🏻.

Food

All these are organic; gluten free (I don’t believe there’s anything inherently wrong with gluten…it’s more that we’ve over eaten/farmed it leading to challenges for many); care about the planet; test for the standard yeast, mold, salmonella, etc.; and are Prop 65 compliant (extremely low levels of heavy metals — be careful with greenwashing since seemingly trustworthy brands like Bob's Red Mill, don't follow the law).

• Bread

  • Pacha

• Grains & Legumes

  • Anthony’s

  • Edison Grainery (the owner Lyndsy is amazing 🍁)

  • Lundberg (CA soil has some of the lowest arsenic levels, otherwise fairly prevalant in brown rice)

  • Nuts.com (they have all kinds of other stuff…check for the GF label)

  • Shiloh Farms

  • TruRoots

• Mushrooms

  • Highvibe (Austin brand!)

• Nuts (buy them raw + roast yourself under 390° F (that goes for all fats) to avoid carcinogenic 3-MCPDs)

  • GoodSam

  • Now

  • Wilderness Poets

• Seaweed

  • Maine Coast Triple Blend Flakes (.5 tsp. daily + avoiding iodized salt, other seaweed, and processed foods yields just the right amount of iodine for the thyroid)

• Powders & Seeds — great source of Omega 3 fatty acids

  • BulkSupplements

  • Go Raw Sunflower & Pumpkin Seeds

  • HerbaZest Sacha Inchi Seeds (great for Omega 3s, low-temperature roasted)

  • Manitoba Harvest Hemp Hearts (their testing goes above + beyond even my standards 🍁)

  • Microingredients

  • Navitas

  • Spectrum Essentials Flax Seeds

  • Sunfood

  • Terrasoul

• Spices

  • Smith & Truslow

  • Spicely

• Tea

  • Republic of Tea

Supplements

• Fullscript

  • Pure Encapsulations

  • Solaray

  • Thorne

Dog

• Balance.it

Cookware

Drinkware

• Hydroflask (newer ones — if you have one from < 2013, there’s lead in the bottom sealing dot that’s fine if uncompromised tho you can request a free replacement)

Pots & Pans

• Cuisinart stainless

• Solidteknics (you get what you pay for!)

Utensils

• Cutlery Collection

• EcoSall

• Oliviko (you can ask the owner Riadh to drill holes in the handles to hang them 🍁)

Body

Sortable/filterable Google Sheet table of products

• Avalon Organics

• Badger (women-owned, B-corp)

• Booda Organics (this stuff is epic, family-owned)

• Rocky Mountain Oils essential oils

Cleaning

• Airnex Sponges

• Aspen Clean (EWG approved)

• Benefect Disinfectant (you can literally drink this stuff that kills 99.99% of all the things 🍁)

• Betterway Paper Products

• Dr. Bronner’s Soap

• SwedeDishcloths (ring it out with soap at night + hang to practically eliminate paper towel usage!)

• The Earthling Co. Dish Brushes (be sure to rinse after use vs. leave soap residue on them)

Filters

• Blueair Air Purifier

• Coway Air Purifier

• Hydroviv Under Sink Water Filter

Bedding

Organic, undyed or GOTS-approved, ethical, etc.

• Avocado

Clothing

Organic, undyed or GOTS-approved, ethical, etc. (check the elastic type)

• Industry of all Nations

• Jivanas

• Rawganique (undyed, lightweight things have organic cotton threading)

Wearables

• Apollo Neuro

• Embr Wave

Miscellaneous

• Zero Waste Store

Health Testing

• Function Health (huge discount to test lots of biomarkers 2x/yr., managed in a nice online platform)

Health Information

• Consumer Lab

• Dr. Christianson (TLDR get 50-150 mcg. of iodine daily for a healthy thyroid…bla bla bla I’m not a doctor, and this isn’t medical advice, or something like that)

• Nutrition Facts (TLDR eat whole food plant based, summary)

Health

• Yi Guan - Austin Acupuncture and Chinese Herbal Medicine (Dan Perez is great — also an M.D.)