In the modern world, with more ways to communicate than ever, thanks to technology, you might think that feelings of connection between people should be at an all-time high. But even though we have the ability to reach people at any time with tools like email, social media, and text messaging, many people feel deeply unsatisfied with the quality of social connection in their lives.

Worldwide, people are reporting feeling lonelier than ever. A 2023 Meta-Gallup survey taken across 142 countries found 24% of people ages 15 and older reported feeling lonely. And in the US, the Surgeon General’s office even put out a special report, “Our Epidemic of Loneliness and Isolation,” to address this dire issue and make it a national health priority.

According to the US Surgeon General report, a lack of social connection can increase disease incidence, making us more susceptible to cardiovascular disease, type 2 diabetes, infectious diseases, and depression and anxiety, as well as impacting mortality rates.

But why do we as a society feel so alone, and what can we do about it?

In a quest to find the answers, we turned to Dr. Janina Scarlet, a San Diego, CA-based clinical psychologist who wrote the recently released book Unseen, Unheard, Undervalued: Managing Loneliness, Loss of Connection and Not Fitting In. After her own struggles and experience with loneliness, Dr. Scarlet sought to share what she had learned about loneliness and how to navigate this uncomfortable emotion.

We sat down with her to examine the impact of loneliness on our lives, how you can feel more connected, and the ways in which you can help others feel less lonely, too.

Defining Loneliness and its Universality

FRN: Thank you for being with us. Loneliness is such an isolating emotion, which makes it hard to know if we’re truly alone or not. Can you tell us, is loneliness normal, and does it affect everyone equally?

Loneliness does not mean being physically alone in space. It means feeling emotionally disconnected from other people. And it is something that everyone who is capable of feeling emotions is able to feel.

Dr. Janina Scarlet, Clinical Psychologist and Author

Dr. Janina Scarlet: Loneliness is absolutely normal. I just think most of us don’t talk about it or might not know what it is. Loneliness is a universal emotion, much like joy and sadness and fear. Loneliness does not mean being physically alone in space. It means feeling emotionally disconnected from other people. And it is something that everyone who is capable of feeling emotions is able to feel.

FRN: What are some of the causes of loneliness? You mentioned a little bit about emotional disconnection from people, and maybe physical, too; but what else beyond that?

Dr. Janina Scarlet: Grief, trauma, bullying, being made to feel like the “other.” So, any discrimination, racism, sexism, xenophobia, homophobia, all of those can greatly increase our feelings of loneliness — when we feel like we don’t belong, when we feel like we are the other, or when we are made to feel like we are the “other” by society, or when we’re invalidated about how we’re feeling.

For example, when we’re going through chronic illness other people might tell us to “get over it.” So, in many of those situations, people are likely to feel misunderstood by others and, therefore, lonely and emotionally disconnected.

FRN: Why do you think that older adults are particularly at risk for loneliness?

Dr. Janina Scarlet: I think for many older adults, if they’re, for example, not able to express what they’re going through, when they’ve maybe lost loved ones to either death or illness or distance, or maybe they don’t feel like they have a safe place to express what they’re going through, even if they’re around other people — even if they’re living with other people — they’re more likely to feel lonely.

The Interplay of Loneliness and Health

FRN: Do you think experiencing chronic pain or illness plays into it as well?

Dr. Janina Scarlet: Absolutely. People who are going through chronic illness are a lot more likely to feel lonely. And especially when folks have been taught to “suck it up,” they’re more likely to pretend to be okay, whereas inside, they might be really struggling.

And it’s when they meet other people who might be going through it, too, that their masks are more likely to come down. And they’re more likely to find that sense of belonging.

In 2020, before the pandemic started, the United States Surgeon General was estimating that the rate of loneliness in the United States was about 25%. The current loneliness estimates in the United States are now at about 50%.

And in places like the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and, I believe, Australia, where loneliness has been studied in emergency rooms, it was estimated that about one in every four to five emergency room visits had to do with loneliness.

FRN: That’s so sad. Well, going along the lines of health, then, why is it that human connection is so important to good health, not just mental health, but even disease prevention?

Dr. Janina Scarlet: Absolutely. We as humans are wired for connection, not only psychologically but also physiologically.

When we’re around other people, especially people that we like, people we trust, our bodies produce this very special hormone called oxytocin. And oxytocin is something that makes us feel better, not only emotionally but also physically. It strengthens our immune health, and it strengthens our cardiovascular health as well.

Individuals who have a steady supply of oxytocin, if you will, through meaningful social connections, are actually less likely to even develop things like the common cold because their immune system is stronger.

FRN: That’s really incredible. It also makes me think about — what is it — broken heart syndrome, too. So is that the same idea?

Dr. Janina Scarlet: Absolutely. So, broken heart syndrome is a physiological phenomenon where somebody dies, usually from a heart attack, within a year of a painful loss, such as the loss of a spouse or a child. However, we find that when individuals who are bereaved have a significant support system where they feel truly seen and supported and safe to express their pain, the risk of broken heart syndrome is significantly reduced.

Food and Loneliness

FRN: Yeah. I feel like most people don’t really think about the impact that their emotions really can have on their health in the short term, but in the long term, too.

Besides health — I don’t know if you can speak on this — but what role does food and connecting over food have in preventing loneliness?

Dr. Janina Scarlet: I think many cultures worldwide connect over different activities, whether it’s food or making food. For some, it’s cleaning together. For some, after disasters, it’s people getting together and helping to rebuild.

So, I think when people have some tradition or purpose that brings them together, that sense of belonging increases, and that oxytocin development really spikes, making us healthier.

So, of course, we know that ideally, we want to eat healthy; we want to exercise. But it seems that a sense of belonging is just as important as a healthy diet and exercise. So, if we can bond over activities like walking together or eating together, I imagine that we can be even healthier.

A sense of belonging is just as important as a healthy diet and exercise.

Dr. Janina Scarlet, Clinical Psychologist and Author

FRN: Yeah, totally. What if people around you aren’t necessarily eating the same diet as you or the same types of foods? Do you have any tips for navigating that situation to still connect with people?

Dr. Janina Scarlet: I don’t think it matters what people are eating so long as everyone is welcoming. I think that when people have dietary restrictions or they, for whatever reason, might need to have a different eating plan, the most important thing is that everyone is accepting of whatever that person needs to eat.

So, for example, I have certain food allergies, and when I go somewhere where people are eating things that I’m not able to have, it doesn’t bother me so long as folks are inclusive. For example, when I went to my in-laws’ Thanksgiving dinner, they were very kind in terms of asking me what foods I was able to have and made me a separate dish within my allergy restrictions. And that made me feel included, even though there were certain things they were eating that I wasn’t and vice versa.

So I don’t think it’s about eating the same food. I think it’s about folks respecting each other’s differences that really matters.

Dr. Scarlet’s Experience with Loneliness

FRN: I agree. If you are comfortable, could you share how you’ve experienced loneliness in your own life and what helps you connect with others?

Dr. Janina Scarlet: Yeah, absolutely. So, I grew up in the former Soviet Union. And the mentality was that if you’re feeling lonely, you’re simply not being grateful. So, the assumption was that you just have to remember all these wonderful people that are in your life — for example, your mom or your dad or whoever, or your cat — and that should magically make you feel better. Only, when I received this advice from my family members and teachers, I felt even more alone because I felt even more misunderstood about my experience.

So for me, fictional characters helped me feel more seen. You see, my family and I lived through the Chernobyl nuclear disaster in 1986, but not before being exposed to radiation. When I came to the United States, I experienced painful bullying, with many children in school asking me if I was “radioactive” or “glow-in-the-dark.”

But seeing how fictional characters dealt with loneliness in terms of people who have been discriminated against, let’s say the X-Men [Editor’s Note: A group of fictional comic book characters who are mutants with superhuman abilities], allowed me to see a stronger representation of my feelings than I was able to meet in real life. And because I was able to find even fictional characters to connect with, I felt less lonely.

When I became a psychologist, I started using fictional metaphors or fictional characters to invite folks to find someone who shares their experience. When they were able to resonate with a fictional character, they were often able to feel less lonely and more understood. And if they were able to, for example, join a support group where there were other folks who had similar experiences, they were able to feel less lonely in that regard as well.

So for me, it was finding someone, even a fictional character, who shared my experience that really helped me to manage loneliness. So that’s something I try to do even to this day.

And then my other strategy has been journaling, to become my own witness to my experience, and that’s something I encourage folks to do on a regular basis as well.

Giving Ourselves What We Need

FRN: That was actually what I was going to ask you next. What are some strategies or techniques that someone could use to help validate their own feelings and experiences?

Dr. Janina Scarlet: One exercise I really like to invite folks to do is an exercise I developed that’s called journaling in two parts. So, in this exercise, we split the page in half by drawing a line down the middle. And on the left-hand side, we write about how we feel — for example, that we feel misunderstood or invalidated by other people. And on the right-hand side, we write a compassionate response as if we’re talking to a friend.

So if we wrote a bullet point on the left-hand side about our struggles, on the right-hand side, we write a point-by-point response. Or if we wrote it as more of a narrative, on the right-hand side we write a narrative compassionate response. And a lot of folks report feeling significantly less lonely after practicing this exercise.

FRN: What do you think it is about that exercise that resonates with people?

Dr. Janina Scarlet: I think it’s about bearing witness to our experience so that we know what we’re going through, and then providing that compassionate wisdom that we really seek in others. Sometimes, we might fail to get this kind of support from other people because of their lack of skills in offering support. But we know what we need to hear, so through practicing journaling in two parts, we’re able to give ourselves exactly what we need.

And then, once we are able to do that, we might even be able to advocate for ourselves. We might say to, for example, our partner or our friend, “Hey, could you maybe use this statement with me? Could you, for example, tell me, ‘Hey, I see you when you’re in pain, or I hear you.’”

And I think that once we are able to advocate for what we want, we’re more likely to get our needs met and feel significantly less lonely with folks who are willing to meet our needs in that way.

Resiliency and Loneliness

FRN: That’s great. Can you explain the concept of resiliency and building resiliency and how that might relate to loneliness as well?

Dr. Janina Scarlet: So, resilience has to do with getting back up after we feel down. It has to do with the willingness to do something difficult, to come out of something that we’re struggling with. It doesn’t mean not feeling bad. It doesn’t mean that things won’t get us knocked down. Instead, it means getting up and standing up for what we believe in.

And for many folks, I think a lot of times when we get knocked down, let’s say through something painful such as a friendship breakup, we might be really heartbroken about it. So many folks wait to feel better before they start making other friends. But that could take a long time.

So, what I often recommend instead is starting to take action even before we feel ready, because emotions follow actions, not the other way around. When we start taking action, even if it’s outside of our comfort zone, even before we feel fully ready, then we start feeling better faster. It doesn’t mean ignoring our feelings, it means finding that balance between taking action and maybe not pushing ourselves beyond our limits. It means starting to honor what’s really important to us before we feel fully healed, if that makes sense.

FRN: Do you think that resiliency also plays into the health side of loneliness, too, and how that impacts your health? The more resilient you are, the better your body is able to navigate that?

Dr. Janina Scarlet: I do. Many people think resilience is a personality trait, and I don’t. I think resilience is a choice. And what it means is that, again, we might take action because of what’s important to us, even when we still feel unheard, even when we still feel heartbroken.

And I think that the more of these actions we take to start forming meaningful connections — to maybe go to a therapy support group or a grief support group or something like it — the more likely we are to feel more supported, more understood, and over time, perhaps less lonely.

And I want to be very clear. Loneliness doesn’t mean we’re doing something wrong. Loneliness means our needs are not being met. And if we can take a moment to figure out what needs need to be met, then we can better advocate for those needs.

Helping Others Feel Less Lonely

FRN: So going off of that, then, how can we help other people feel less lonely?

Dr. Janina Scarlet: I think one of the best things we can do is to check in with curiosity in terms of, “Hey, would it be okay for me to check in with you? How are you really feeling today if you’re open to talking about it? And what are some ways I can meet your needs?”

I often talk about love languages, not only in terms of romantic couples but also in terms of friendship love languages. I often recommend that people talk to their friends: “Hey, when you’re feeling down, what are some ways that you would like to be supported? And what are some ways that you would like for me to show up for you? And here are some ways that I would like to be supported, and I would like for you to show up for me.”

I think when we’re checking on our friends, asking them for specific guidance is important.

If our friends are, for example, grieving or really overwhelmed, giving them a couple of choices can be really helpful. For example, if I have a friend who is grieving, and I know they’re feeling lonely and overwhelmed, I might ask them, “Hey, what would be the most supportive thing I can do for you right now? Would you like me to come over, or would you like some space right now?” So, I give them a couple of options, and I also let them know, “You don’t have to respond if you don’t want to.”

So in doing that, I’m allowing my friend to not respond at all. I’m letting them off the hook there, and I’m giving them a couple of choices. So they can say, “Yes, please come over,” or, “Can we schedule a call?” or, “You know what, I need a few days of space.” And I find that many people really appreciate choices.

Resources to Help You Feel Less Lonely

FRN: Yes, totally agree. Do you have any resources related to loneliness that you could share?

Dr. Janina Scarlet: Absolutely. I put a lot of them into my book, Unseen, Unheard, and Undervalued. I do think Dr. Vivek Murthy, who’s the current US Surgeon General, his book Together is a really good book that talks about the research behind loneliness.

I do recommend that folks consider either working with a therapist or maybe a support group for whatever they’re going through at that moment. For example, a holiday support group, or for many individuals who, say, had parents with addiction, ACA (Adult Children of Alcoholics) is a free support group that’s available worldwide, even on Zoom, phone, and in-person that a lot of folks don’t know about. So there are many support groups for just about anything that folks are going through that are either low-cost or free that people might be able to attend even from their homes.

FRN: What about if someone has chronic loneliness — a chronic feeling of just being alone?

Dr. Janina Scarlet: It might be helpful in that regard to consider looking into either therapy or, again, either like a local support group or even starting one. Some folks might not realize that they can start their own support group. And you don’t have to be a therapist — so long as you’re not charging or pretending to be a therapist — to just start a loneliness support group. I’ve actually had clients who did that.

I had a student who started a support group in her high school where students would meet once a week for an hour and just talk about their feelings and talk about loneliness and talk about what they were going through.

Other folks might think about what are some ways that they can help other people who are also feeling lonely. This is called post-traumatic growth, when we’re able to make meaning out of what we’re going through and support other people.

So, for example, if I’m feeling really lonely and really disenchanted with something, I’ll send 12 of my friends a message like, “Hey, I love you. I appreciate you. I’m thinking of you. I hope you have a wonderful day.” I never expect a reply. But to me, sending a loving, caring message to other people allows me to feel a stronger sense of belonging.

And then, if I do hear back, that’s lovely, but that’s never the expectation.

I also often encourage people to either volunteer or support other people in those moments when they’re feeling especially alone.

What to Do When Connection Is not Reciprocated

FRN: That’s great advice. Because sometimes I feel like in order to feel connected, we have to connect. And I think some people struggle with that because maybe they always feel like they’re the ones reaching out. But at the same time, I think that’s just what we have to do sometimes.

Going off of that, what do you do if it’s not reciprocated?

Dr. Janina Scarlet: Well, again, when I’m sending out those messages of love, I don’t expect anything in return. But if our needs are chronically not being met… For example, if we have a friend that maybe we reach out to, and we ask for support, and that friend is frequently not reciprocating and not giving us the support that we’re looking for, then we might have a conversation with that friend. Like, “Hey, I’ve noticed maybe we haven’t fully been aligning. Here are my needs. What are your needs? How can we make this friendship work?” And if that friend is not willing to have that conversation or isn’t validating, or is defensive, then we might need to rethink and reevaluate our friendship.

I often say that there are friends we have that are friends of convenience, friends that we’ve had for a long time because we’ve met them in school or at work. And then there are real friends. And real friends are ones that will be willing to have the hard conversations. They might not always be skillful, but for the most part, they’re going to be willing to have conversations and make the friendship work. Whereas friends of convenience are ones that we’ve just known for a while, but they might not be real friends.

So after a while, we might need to think about, do we need to think about these friends as more of acquaintances and change our expectations of them, and maybe invest in some new friendships? So if our needs are chronically not being met, we do need to reevaluate what those needs are and communicate them. And if nothing’s changed, then we need to change something.

Unseen, Unheard, Undervalued

FRN: Okay, great. I’d love for you to talk a little bit about your book and what it’s all about.

Dr. Janina Scarlet: My book, Unseen, Unheard, Undervalued, is about the different aspects of loneliness. As I mentioned, loneliness does not have anything to do with being physically alone. It’s about that emotional disconnection.

And I break it down into those three categories: feeling unseen, for example, ignored by other people; feeling unheard, so invalidated, for example, by other people or gaslit; and feeling undervalued or devalued by other people. So that’s where we’re made to feel like the “other.” So those are the three subtypes.

So the first part of the book breaks loneliness down into those three subcomponents and gives lots of examples and case studies of those three subtypes of loneliness and also research studies to support some of these findings.

And then the second half of the book talks about how we can first practice seeing, hearing, and valuing ourselves, how we can practice self-compassion, for example. And then how we can advocate for ourselves in friendships. For example, by talking about love languages, or our needs, whether it’s with our friends, with our partners, or with our coworkers. And also how we can set boundaries if somebody is not meeting our needs, or if somebody isn’t validating us. And then also how we can continue cultivating the friendships or relationships that do work, such as, for example, by sending out the “just because” text messages.

So, research studies that came out last year (in 2022) have actually found that when we send out the “just because” text — “Hey, I was thinking about you. I hope your day is going well” — people who send those greatly underestimate how significant those messages are to the recipients. The recipients who get those texts report being significantly more moved by those messages than people who send them have anticipated.

I provide some examples of messages that folks can send out and different gratitude practices that folks can do, such as sending a letter of gratitude to somebody who influenced them or supported them. And then imagining what maybe somebody else might say to them if they received a letter of gratitude.

The intentionality of the book is, first and foremost, to validate folks who have been through some of these painful experiences. And second of all, to provide folks with some skills that they’re able to use to support themselves, to advocate for themselves, and then also to deepen significant relationships that they already have.

FRN: Thank you. I’m really excited to read it.

Dr. Janina Scarlet: Thanks. I’m really excited, too. It’s probably one of the most personal books I’ve written. So it definitely has a bit of my autobiographical stuff and also a lot of case studies from a lot of different folks who very courageously contributed their stories to this book.

You Are Not Alone in Your Experience

FRN: Is there anything else that you want to say about loneliness specifically or anything related to it?

Dr. Janina Scarlet: I think the main thing I just want to add is, for anyone who’s feeling lonely, who’s feeling invalidated or unseen, who’s feeling disconnected, please know that you’re not alone in this experience. And if you’re feeling that way right now, chances are at least four or five other people you know personally are going through this right now, but they might not think to tell you.

So, if we go about our day with the assumption that most people around us are going through the same level of loneliness as we are, I imagine we might be more willing to connect with people. And maybe we might reduce how much we’re masking. And maybe through doing that and through having conversations about loneliness, we can eradicate the stigma about this universal experience once and for all.

FRN: That was so good.

Dr. Janina Scarlet: Thank you so much for interviewing me.

—–

Dr. Janina Scarlet is a Licensed Clinical Psychologist, author, and a TEDx speaker. A Ukrainian-born refugee, she survived Chernobyl radiation and persecution. She immigrated to the United States at the age of 12 with her family and later, inspired by the X-Men, developed Superhero Therapy to help patients with anxiety, depression, and PTSD.

Dr. Scarlet is the recipient of the Eleanor Roosevelt Human Rights Award by the United Nations Association for her work on Superhero Therapy. Her work has been featured on Yahoo, BBC, NPR, Sunday Times, The New York Times, Forbes, and many other outlets. She regularly consults on books and television shows, including HBO’s The Young Justice.

Dr. Scarlet is the Lead Trauma Specialist at the Trauma and PTSD Healing Center. She’s authored twelve books, including Superhero Therapy, Harry Potter Therapy, Dark Agents, Super-Women, It Shouldn’t Be This Way, and her latest, Unseen, Unheard, Undervalued.

Tell us in the comments:

• Do you ever feel lonely?
• What strategies have you used to combat loneliness and feel more connected?
• How do you help others feel less lonely?

Featured Image: iStock.com/Ponomariova_Maria

Read Next:

• Do Your Food Choices Leave You Feeling Lonely?
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The post Navigating Loneliness in the Age of Connection: An Interview with Dr. Janina Scarlet appeared first on Food Revolution Network.

Have you noticed a lot of CBD talk in recent years? Or that you can suddenly find it almost everywhere? Well, that’s because, in 2018, the Farm Bill legalized the regulated production of hemp in the United States. When this bill was signed into law, it granted hemp manufacturers the right to mass-produce, sell, and transport hemp and hemp products — and for you to be able to possess and use it.

There was, however, one catch.

Hemp is the same plant species as marijuana, which contains the psychoactive cannabinoid known as delta-9-tetrahydrocannabinol (THC). And so, if hemp producers want to be within the legality of the Farm Bill, their products need to contain less than 0.3% THC.

This bill has had major implications for the natural health world. See, while THC produces the “high” associated with marijuana, there are loads of other cannabinoids within hemp that have been shown to be highly beneficial for human health without causing any psychoactive effects.

The 2018 Farm Bill — along with other more recent legislation — has opened up a whole new area of research into these cannabinoids. Previously, it was difficult to study beneficial cannabinoids due to the restrictions on hemp. So studies were few and far between. But now, scientists are finding out what some had suspected about certain cannabinoids all along — they appear to have extraordinary benefits for human health.

While there are numerous beneficial cannabinoids, in this blog, I want to talk specifically about one that has the most scientific research behind it: cannabidiol (CBD).

Not sure what CBD is — or why you should care about it? Well, keep reading! I’ll go over how CBD interacts with your body to support good health, its legality, types of CBD, and the best ways to take it.

CBD and the Endocannabinoid System (ECS)

Most people don’t realize that their bodies actually create cannabinoids on their own, contributing to a system within the body made up of molecules and receptors. Discovered only in 1988, researchers call this system the endocannabinoid system, or ECS for short.

With cannabinoids, along with their receptors, the ECS helps maintain a certain balance — or homeostasis — within the body, regulating functions related to pain, memory, appetite, and sleep, among others.

When a disruption in ECS homeostasis occurs, it’s known as an endocannabinoid deficiency. This is a situation where the body does not have enough naturally-made cannabinoids to attach to cannabinoid receptors. A deficiency in cannabinoids can throw the body out of balance and cause mismanagement of the ECS’s important functions.

However, a nonpsychoactive compound found within the hemp plant, CBD, can interact with the cannabinoid receptors within your body in astonishing ways. If you’re low in cannabinoids, think of CBD as supplementing these important compounds — enabling your body to find balance once again.

Plus, not only is CBD considered a multipurpose cannabinoid that can interact with many different receptors, it may increase the lifespan and amount of your body’s endocannabinoids, allowing your body to use more of what it’s already naturally producing.

By helping the ECS and supporting various other mechanisms throughout the body, (which you’ll learn about below), CBD may contribute to some remarkable health benefits.

So, without further ado, let’s learn about how this potent natural compound might be able to support your health!

1. CBD Sleep Benefits

If you have sleep issues, or if you just occasionally find yourself having a difficult time falling and staying asleep, consider adding CBD to your nightly regimen. There’s scientific research to back up the use of CBD as a support for relaxing and getting quality sleep.

When we’re stressed, our bodies produce a hormone called cortisol. Dubbed “the stress hormone,” cortisol can negatively impact sleeping patterns. But according to research, CBD could help regulate cortisol levels, helping us to relax.

In fact, a large case series from 2019 found that CBD use improved sleep in participants by nearly 67% after just one month.

And a 2023 systematic review of 34 studies showed that CBD alone (or in tandem with certain forms of THC) might improve symptoms of insomnia.

2. CBD and Joint Health

CBD has also been shown to help ease achy joints and promote a healthy inflammatory response. This is particularly important if you have a condition that causes discomfort within your joints.

For one thing, CBD has been shown to potentially increase the levels of anandamide in our bodies — a neurotransmitter associated with reducing pain perception and improving mood. And a 2021 study found that while CBD isolate oil didn’t reduce the volume of pain, it did make pain less bothersome.

And CBD doesn’t just make things feel better — it can also make them get better by helping manage the body’s response to inflammation. Research shows that CBD may reduce the levels of pro-inflammatory cells in the body while increasing the levels and effectiveness of crucial immune cells.

CBD has also been found to target the areas of the joints suffering from chronic inflammation in people with rheumatoid arthritis, potentially providing relief from uncomfortable symptoms.

And if all of that wasn’t enough, CBD might also help strengthen joint tissue. An analysis of CBD joint studies concluded that there is sufficient evidence that CBD may be able to both reduce cartilage degradation and facilitate cartilage repair.

3. CBD Brain Benefits

Cannabinoid receptors are dispersed throughout many brain regions and are responsible for regulating numerous aspects of activity within your brain.

As such, ongoing research is showing that CBD may have neuroprotective properties, specifically against cognitive decline and certain conditions and disorders of the brain.

One of the main factors in cognitive decline has to do with oxidative stress and inflammation. These states cause damage to neurons, inhibiting proper brain function. But CBD has been shown to offer potentially protective effects in the brain by reducing these factors.

A review from 2021 showed that CBD might be able to both repair and replace neurons, supporting cognition and brain health.

4. CBD and Mental Health

One of the causes of anxiety and depression is certain chemical reactions in the brain. It turns out that CBD may be able to reduce these symptoms by regulating chemicals in the brain.

For example, CBD has been shown to potentially help increase levels of what’s been dubbed the “bliss molecule” — a neurotransmitter called anandamide.

Researchers believe that a deficiency in endocannabinoids such as anandamide can lead to depression, migraines, and other conditions of the brain and nervous system. They also theorize that endocannabinoids like anandamide might offer protection against conditions like anxiety and depression.

It’s also thought that anandamide could help better regulate the body’s stress response.

And there’s another neurotransmitter CBD can influence — serotonin, a chemical that controls mood and makes you feel happy. Low levels of serotonin are linked to depression, anxiety, and mania associated with bipolar disorder. Though CBD isn’t thought to necessarily increase serotonin levels, it appears to change how your body uses the serotonin it does have, activating it and allowing it to better bind to serotonin receptors.

5. CBD and PMS

Chances are that you either know someone who gets menstrual cramps or you get them yourself. These types of cramps are quite common, with approximately 75% of menstruating people experiencing cramps during their periods.

Because of its natural ability to potentially alleviate discomfort and help manage the body’s inflammatory response, CBD is becoming increasingly popular to help relieve menstrual cramps.

A recent review of studies found CBD could be helpful in providing relief for many of the symptoms involved with PMS. Additionally, some researchers theorize that the main cause of menstrual pain — along with many other PMS symptoms — has to do with inflammation. CBD’s ability to affect the body’s inflammatory response is well documented. As such, it may help provide PMS relief by managing inflammation.

6. CBD and Hair Growth

While research is limited in this area, there are some interesting findings that show CBD intake might be able to contribute to increased hair growth.

Once again, it comes back to the ECS. Certain cannabinoid receptors have been found to be key players in hair follicle growth. As such, CBD may be able to help regulate the health of hair follicles.

Additionally, it may help regulate hormones which are often involved in hair loss conditions.

More research is needed, but it stands to reason that CBD might be helpful.

Is CBD Actually Legal?

Okay, so now you may be thinking, these benefits sound great — but I’m still worried about the legality of CBD.

Maybe a coworker told you that CBD isn’t legal everywhere, or you read somewhere that the lines are a bit blurry when it comes to what’s allowed and what isn’t. After all, you don’t want to get in trouble with the law, even if the health results from CBD are promising.

So, is CBD fully legal in the United States — or whatever country you live in?

Well, the fact of the matter is that it depends on where you live. In the US, as in many other countries around the world, there are both federal and state regulations on CBD use, as well as all other forms of the plant that CBD is extracted from — and they don’t always agree with one another. So it’s important to familiarize yourself with local as well as national laws concerning CBD.

Why is the issue of CBD legality complicated? It comes down to both how CBD is grown and extracted.

THC Levels and CBD Legality

CBD comes from a plant species called Cannabis sativa. Plants in this family include cannabis and hemp, which most people consider “sister plants.” The main difference between the two is that cannabis contains more THC — the cannabinoid responsible for the “high” feeling people get from marijuana — and hemp contains more CBD. Even so, some legislators worry that even hemp-derived CBD contains the illegal compound THC. This is why the 2018 Farm Bill clarified that hemp is only legal to produce if it contains less than 0.3% THC.

Essentially, CBD is legal in every state in the US, as well as Washington, DC. But many states have conditions.

While there are a number of states that have zero restrictions on CBD, just as many have certain conditions that need to be met if you want to purchase and use CBD. The main stipulation is that the THC level within the hemp plant the CBD was derived from needs to be at a certain percentage. Following the federal guideline, most are set at 0.03%. But some states allow zero traces of THC whatsoever.

Other states allow up to 0.05% THC, but you’ll need a medical license. And some don’t care about the percentage as long as the CBD is derived from hemp. Other states, like Mississippi, are a bit stricter and require you not just to have a medical license but to obtain CBD only from the University of Mississippi.

So, as you can see, it’s hard to say just yes or no to the question of whether CBD is legal within the United States. And other countries have their own rules and regulations, too.

CBD Types

So if you are able to obtain CBD legally, how do you know what kind to take?

There are many different methods that companies use to isolate and extract CBD and a range of ingredients they choose to add or leave in their products. In addition, there are also different blends that leave or take out flavonoids and cannabinoids. Some even completely isolate CBD on its own.

There are three main kinds of CBD products: CBD isolate, full-spectrum CBD, and broad-spectrum CBD.

CBD Isolate

CBD isolate is just that — pure CBD by itself without any other cannabinoids in the mix. Some people prefer it because it lacks any THC whatsoever. However, isolating CBD from all other cannabinoids requires the most lab processing of the three categories.

Isolate has similar health benefits to full- and broad-spectrum CBD, but lacks the so-called “entourage effect” that occurs with the presence of multiple endocannabinoids and related compounds.

Full-Spectrum CBD

Full-spectrum blends tend to increase in positive effects as the dosage is increased. However, while full-spectrum CBD must contain less than 0.3% THC, it may include trace amounts of THC, the active cannabinoid in marijuana products. Even though the amount of THC found in full-spectrum blends is generally too low to create a “high,” it does have the potential to show up as a positive on drug tests.

For some people, this is a deal-breaker. As we’ve seen, not all states allow CBD with THC above a certain level, or they require a medical card. And some people are also extremely sensitive to THC’s effects and don’t find it to be a positive experience even in tiny amounts.

Broad-Spectrum CBD

Finally, we come to broad-spectrum CBD blends. Broad-spectrum CBD means that all or some of the cannabinoids in the plant are extracted for the blend, minus THC.

My favorite broad-spectrum CBD products are processed in a way that retains all of the cannabinoids’ active properties. And there are quite a few cannabinoids besides CBD and THC (none of which are psychoactive, of course).

Another great thing about broad-spectrum CBD is it is less costly on average than full-spectrum products because the THC is left out. And it’s less heavily processed than CBD isolate.

What Type of CBD Is Best?

Ultimately, it depends on the person. Everyone’s bodies interact with CBD products differently. You may want to try out a few and choose the product that works best for you.

Are There Any Downsides to CBD?

As of the date of this article’s publication, the FDA “has not approved a marketing application for cannabis for the treatment of any disease or condition.” But a few cannabis-derived drugs have been approved.

However, since CBD (as with many supplements) is not regulated by the FDA in anything like the manner that pharmaceuticals are regulated, you may want to research the company and its production methods before purchasing. Some companies cut corners and use treatment and extraction processes that damage the purity and quality of their products, rendering them less effective than they could be — or worse, completely ineffective!

They could also contain unwanted contaminants such as pesticides, bacteria, and heavy metals. According to a report published by the CBD resource site Leafreport, 25% of the 136 brands they looked at did not conduct purity testing for their CBD products.

CBD can also potentially interact with certain medications, including anticonvulsants, sedative drugs, herbal supplements, and narcotics. Side effects can also sometimes occur, especially in high doses, and may include diarrhea, fatigue, vomiting, and drowsiness. I recommend consulting a medical professional before beginning a regular CBD regimen.

How Much CBD Should You Take?

While up to 1,500mg per day of CBD is seen as the tolerable upper limit for consumption, recommended amounts are usually much less.

Various factors may influence dosage amount, including body weight, the condition being treated, type of CBD, and sensitivity. When starting CBD, you’ll likely want to begin with a low dosage, which you can gradually increase as necessary. It may take some time and experimentation to find the right amount, as well as the right type of CBD product for you.

In the book CBD: A Patient’s Guide to Medicinal Cannabis by Leonard Leinow and Juliana Birnbaum, they break CBD dosage down into three categories: micro, standard, and macro.

• Microdose: 0.5mg–20mg of CBD per day
• Standard dose: 10mg–100mg of CBD per day
• Macrodose: between 50mg–800mg of CBD per day

Determining your dosage will also depend on the method you choose to take CBD, so let’s take a look at the types of CBD products that are available.

How to Take CBD

Now that we’ve covered the ins and outs of CBD, including its potential health benefits, you may be wondering how to take it.

There are many different CBD products, and the way in which they’re taken can affect the benefits you get, how quickly it works, and more. Determining what’s best for you may take a bit of experimentation. But as you’ll see, some are more reliable than others if you’re looking to get the maximum benefits out of your CBD usage.

CBD Edibles

CBD through edibles is a fun and easy way to consume the compound. You can do this through gummies, sweets, and even mints. Some food and beverage companies also make CBD-infused products.

Though easy to consume, there are some downsides. Some gummies may be made with gelatin, which could come from factory-farmed animals, and food and beverage products may also include natural and artificial flavorings and sweeteners.

Eating CBD also subjects the compound to something called the “first pass effect.” During this process, CBD is broken down by the liver and digestive tract. As a result, it can take several hours for the CBD to take effect, and you’ll likely only absorb 20–30% of it.

CBD Topicals

CBD topicals are meant to be applied directly to the skin. These can include lotions, creams, balms, ointments, and transdermal patches. This can be a great option for treating skin conditions or inflammation over specific areas of the body.

One study done on rats found that topical CBD greatly reduced joint swelling in the applied area, giving promise to those with arthritis.

However, skin can be hard for these compounds to penetrate. If you do go this route, it’s probably best to use a generous amount of a topical product that has a high concentration of CBD.

Vaping or Smoking CBD

You can smoke CBD in a joint, much like marijuana, use a vaporizer that has CBD oil in a cartridge, or inhale CBD concentrates using a vape pen.

With this method, the CBD hits your bloodstream much faster, and you will likely feel the effects rather quickly. Even then, only about 34–56% of the CBD will be absorbed.

However, taking CBD in this way, as with other smoke products, can also potentially expose you to harmful carcinogens. And research is still underway on the lasting effects of vaping. Based on a growing body of concern about the health effects of smoking and vaping, it seems that it may well be best to avoid this method.

CBD Tincture Oil

This is one of the simplest ways to take CBD. With CBD tinctures or sprays, you drop or squirt the CBD oil into your mouth and swallow. Like other herbal products delivered in this manner, you’ll want to hold the CBD beneath your tongue for a few moments, as the CBD can penetrate the thin tissue if allowed to linger.

CBD oil is a great way to get pure, high-quality CBD in a way that doesn’t have any risks like smoking or vaping.

However, because of its poor solubility, CBD taken this way isn’t absorbed very well, with some reports showing only a 13–19% absorption rate.

Liposomal CBD

Liposomes are membranous, fluid-filled sacs that can help in the delivery of cellular products. They occur naturally in the body, but may also be created synthetically. They’ve been shown to be extremely effective in delivering everything from vitamins to pharmaceuticals safely throughout the body.

Liposomal CBD facilitates survival in the acidic environment of the stomach and absorbs through the intestinal wall.

One study compared liposomal CBD with non-liposomal CBD. They gave the first group of participants standard, orally-administered non-liposomal CBD oil and the second group orally-administered liposomal CBD oil.

After one hour, the non-liposomal group only had 6 out of 15 participants showing CBD in the blood, while the entire liposomal group showed CBD in their blood.

On top of that, CBD levels were significantly higher in the liposomal group. The highest concentration of CBD detected at one hour was 5.9 ng/mL in the liposomal CBD group compared to a mere 1.3 ng/mL in the non-liposomal group. That’s nearly five times as much!

CBD Is a Promising Substance for Your Health

As you can see, CBD has a number of useful applications for your health, especially if you’re somebody already struggling with an issue like insomnia or joint pain, or are worried about cognitive decline.

Because there are different types, methods of consumption, and dosages, you may have to experiment a bit in finding what’s right for you. And it may be wise to work with a health care provider to avoid side effects and any potential medication interactions.

I don’t know about you, but with the increasing availability of CBD and research on its potential uses, I’m excited to see how it continues to help people with a variety of medical conditions.

Even though more research is clearly needed before we know all the pros, cons, and long-term effects of the different forms of CBD, many people are concluding that they’ve seen enough to want to give CBD a try and see how it works in their bodies.

Tell us in the comments:

• Have you heard of CBD or tried it yourself?
• Have you seen results with specific CBD products?
• What other questions do you have about CBD consumption?

Featured Image: iStock.com/ArtistGNDphotography

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The post Is CBD Good For You? CBD Health Benefits, Varieties, & Best Practices appeared first on Food Revolution Network.

But then there are topics like this. “Inconvenient truths” that I’d prefer didn’t exist. So here it is: Dark chocolate, one of the most beloved foods by health enthusiasts and gourmands alike, has a serious heavy metal problem.

You may, like many other people, have a special place in your heart for chocolate, in general, and dark chocolate, in particular. It’s a delightful treat. It can lift your mood. It’s rich in antioxidants and other powerful phytochemicals linked to good health. It’s like the Dolly Parton of food — the one good thing that almost everyone can agree on.

However, recent studies have unveiled a disconcerting truth: Certain dark chocolate products contain worrisome levels of two hazardous heavy metals — lead and cadmium. These metals can cause a variety of health complications in people of all ages.

And in case you were thinking, “Well, that’s too bad, but I buy only the finest quality and highest cacao, organic dark chocolates,” I’m sorry to burst your bubble. Some of the most contaminated chocolates are popular organic varieties. And the higher the cacao content, the more cadmium and lead they are likely to contain.

In this article, I’ll take an unflinching look at the latest research on heavy metals in chocolate. You’ll see why heavy metals are dangerous to your health — and find out how they get into chocolate in the first place. You’ll also see that not all chocolate brands are equally problematic. (I’ll name names and point you to original research so you can make informed choices.) And we’ll look at some of the experimental strategies agronomists and other scientists are using to reduce the amount of heavy metals in the world’s beloved chocolate supply.

The Research on Heavy Metals in Chocolate

Given all the positive press about the health benefits of dark chocolate, the news that many dark chocolate bars contain traces of heavy metals may come as a surprise. But research about this goes back a long time.

In 2005, researchers discovered that while Nigerian cocoa beans in their shells contained virtually no lead, by the time they were turned into finished cocoa products (i.e., chocolate bars and cocoa powder), they had some of the highest lead levels of any food.

And tests published by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) in 2018, As You Sow in 2022, and Consumer Reports in 2023 confirmed that there are concerning amounts of lead and cadmium across many of the world’s best-known brands.

Since there’s no threshold for lead and cadmium safety mandated by the US government, the researchers relied on California’s standards for how much is too much. The California maximum allowable dose levels (MADLs) are, per day, no more than 0.5 mcg (short for “microgram”) for lead and 4.1 mcg for cadmium. (Researchers who have figured out how to get their keyboards to produce non-Latin characters often refer to a mcg as a µg.)

Consumer Reports Data on Lead and Cadmium in Chocolate

Consumer Reports, the nonprofit known for its consumer ratings magazine that can help you purchase a car or a toaster, used its testing lab to measure cadmium and lead levels in some of the most recognized chocolate brands in the US. The brands tested include Trader Joe’s, Lily’s, Lindt, and Dove. Many other brands were also tested, including organic, fair trade, and Rainforest Alliance Certified chocolate, such as Equal Exchange, Beyond Good, and Alter Eco.

The Consumer Reports lab found that out of the 28 dark chocolate bars, eight had more than 100% of the MADL of cadmium in a single ounce. Ten had more than 100% of the daily allowable dose of lead per ounce. And five contained more than 100% of both cadmium and lead.

Chocolate bars with relatively safe amounts of heavy metals included:

• Mast Organic Dark Chocolate 80% Cacao
• Taza Organic Deliciously Dark Chocolate 70% Cacao
• Ghirardelli Intense Dark Chocolate 86% Cacao
• Ghirardelli Intense Dark Chocolate Twilight Delight 72% Cacao
• Valrhona Abinao Dark Chocolate 85% Cacao

As You Sow Data on Heavy Metals in Chocolate

As You Sow is an organization dedicated to helping shareholders in large public companies hold those companies accountable for aligning their environmental, social, and financial policies with their stated values. Between 2014 and 2017, the organization tested many chocolate bars, both dark and milk chocolate, for cadmium and lead.

As You Sow’s methodology differed slightly from the one used by Consumer Reports. Instead of reporting how much of the daily safe limit (California’s MADL) of the heavy metals was in a single ounce, they calculated the percentage based on the serving size suggested on the label of each product.

They also tested very recognizable brands like Hershey’s, Godiva, Endangered Species, and others, in a comprehensive study that looked at 469 different chocolate bars.

Out of those 469 chocolate bars tested, 285 had cadmium or lead above the maximum allowable dose per serving. Specifically, 191 had more than 100% of the allowable dose of cadmium, 285 had more than 100% of the allowable dose of lead, and 171 had more than 100% of the allowable dose of both cadmium and lead.

The safest chocolate options, according to As You Sow, were:

• Endangered Species Natural Dark Chocolate 72% Cocoa — (neither lead nor cadmium was detected)
• Ojio Organic Cacao Nibs Ethically Sourced: Peru — (no lead detected, 0.2 mcg of cadmium)
• 365 Everyday Value Organic Dark Chocolate Coconut 56% Cacao — (0.5 mcg lead, no cadmium detected)
• Chocolove Chilies & Cherries in Dark Chocolate 55% Cocoa — (0.2 mcg lead, 0.1 mcg cadmium)
• Snickers Bar (no lead detected, 0.6 mcg cadmium)

Why Heavy Metals are Dangerous

At this point, you may be wondering if heavy metals in chocolate are a big deal. After all, not all metals are dangerous. Your body actually needs small amounts of minerals like zinc, copper, chromium, iron, and manganese in order to function properly.

And the amounts are so small. I mean, how much even is half a microgram? I looked it up, and a microgram is one-millionth of a gram. Do you know what weighs a gram? A raisin. So then half a microgram of lead — one two-millionth of a raisin’s worth — really doesn’t seem like much. But should you be concerned?

In a word, yes. First, even essential metals can be harmful in excess. And heavy metals aren’t safe for human consumption, let alone necessary, even in tiny quantities. Lead and cadmium are two of the heavy metals most commonly associated with human poisoning, the other two being mercury and arsenic.

These metals can get into our bodies in a number of ways: through industrial exposure, polluted air or water, medications, poorly made food containers, and exposure to lead-based paints. And in the case of cadmium and lead, via contaminated food.

Cadmium Health Effects

Cadmium (whose elemental abbreviation is Cd, although it has nothing to do with disks of music or with bank accounts) can be found in household waste, industrial discharges, and — here’s where it affects chocolate — soil.

The International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) classifies cadmium as a Group 1 carcinogen, meaning that it’s known to cause cancer in humans.

When you ingest cadmium in solid form, your body goes to work to rid itself of the toxin. First, your liver metabolizes it and then sends it to your kidneys for filtering, and then it gets forwarded to your bladder for excretion via urine. Problems occur when the amount of cadmium exceeds your kidneys’ ability to detoxify it, which can lead to kidney disease.

When cadmium is inhaled, it can cause lung cancer and emphysema.

Lead Health Effects

Lead (elemental abbreviation Pb, from the Latin “plumbum”, which actually IS related to “plumber,” on account of the fact that the early plumbers used lead pipes) can be found in our soil, drinking water (via contact with old plumbing pipes), paint in US homes built before 1978, and occupational exposure.

The IARC puts inorganic lead compounds in Group 2A, meaning they are a “probable human carcinogen.” But there are many disorders related to lead exposure that aren’t cancer.

In adults, acute symptoms of lead poisoning include gastrointestinal issues, musculoskeletal pain, fatigue, and neuropsychiatric symptoms such as irritability, fatigue, and anxiety. In some cases, lead exposure can mimic the effects of PTSD even in the absence of a traumatic event.

And as harmful as it is to adults, lead exposure in children is even worse. There’s no safe amount for children in whom exposure may cause deficits in cognitive development, behavioral problems, hearing loss, and acute encephalopathy (an umbrella term for any damage to the brain).

In children, lead exposure can also affect the kidneys and gastrointestinal system, and can even lead to anemia by interfering with vitamin D metabolism and hemoglobin synthesis.

How Do Heavy Metals Get in Chocolate?

When I first heard about this issue, I wanted to know: “Who’s putting toxic heavy metals into my dark chocolate? And how can we stop them?”

Unfortunately, it’s not a simple problem to solve. Lead and cadmium both occur naturally in the earth’s crust, and cadmium, in particular, exists in soil. Humans have made things much worse, however, through activities like mining, manufacturing, transportation, and agriculture. Modern-day levels of these metals have not only been increasing in soil but also in water and air.

As cacao trees grow, they absorb soil nutrients through their roots. And they also absorb cadmium, which accumulates in the tree as it grows. Not all cacao-producing regions are equal in soil cadmium, which explains why some of the chocolates had very little cadmium while others were much higher.

Lead, on the other hand, hardly gets into the tree’s tissues at all. Researchers have found almost no lead in the interior of cacao beans while they’re still on the tree. Instead, the lead accumulated on the outer shell.

What’s more, lead levels were low soon after beans were picked and removed from pods, but increased as beans dried in the sun for days, as lead-contaminated dust and dirt settled on the beans. During fermentation, the sticky pulp from the bean can also attract particles of lead from the environment, which are transferred to the nibs during sorting and processing and end up in the final chocolate product.

Where’s all this lead coming from? Researchers tested high-lead beans from Nigeria and discovered that the lead isotopes implicated fumes and particulates from leaded gasoline. Subsequent investigation found that the harvested beans were typically dried next to the road, to make transport easier and more efficient.

Efforts to Reduce Heavy Metal Content in Chocolate

As you were reading the previous section, some ideas may have already begun occurring to you about how to decrease cadmium and lead levels in chocolate. And agronomists and industrial engineers have also come up with some recommendations for chocolate companies to adopt.

To reduce lead contamination, manufacturers are advised to minimize soil contact with cacao beans during drying, as well as to dry them far away from roads (especially in regions where leaded gasoline is still used) and other lead-rich environments. Food scientists are also developing methods of removing some of the lead as part of the cleaning process at factories.

Cadmium is a harder problem since it originates in the soil. Chocolate companies can make a dent by conducting soil surveys to measure cadmium in various soils, and can then choose to source more beans from regions with lower levels of this element.

In some cases, cadmium-heavy soil can be treated, or even removed to make room for cleaner soil.

And since cadmium accumulates as trees age, cacao farmers are urged to replace older cacao trees with younger ones.

What Can You Do as a Chocolate Consumer?

If you’re a fan of dark chocolate, does this mean you have to wave goodbye to one of your favorite treats? Not necessarily. There are several steps you can take to minimize your exposure without abstaining.

First, it may help to balance your chocolate consumption with a varied and nutritious diet. That involves eating a lot of health-promoting foods and keeping chocolate consumption low. (After all, the chocolate bar wasn’t invented until 1847 — before that, for most people, cocoa was a condiment rather than a food in its own right.)

If you’re eating dark chocolate for its cardiovascular and mental health benefits, you’ll be pleased to know that research shows you can still reap those benefits with as little as one-third of an ounce per day. At that level, many of the offending bars no longer tip your lead and cadmium consumption over the MADL threshold.

Opting for the dark chocolate brands that contain lower levels of heavy metals, as identified by Consumer Reports and As You Sow, can also help you protect your health. And some experts recommend choosing chocolates with a lower percentage of cacao. Dark chocolate tends to be higher in heavy metals, probably because of its higher cacao content. Be aware, though, that this strategy may have the side effect of increasing the amount of sugar and fat you consume from the bar, and depending on the brand, may mean that you’re also consuming dairy.

Finally, you may want to restrict children’s consumption of chocolate, given their heightened vulnerability to heavy metals, and the long-term damage those elements can do.

You can find out more about the health benefits of chocolate and how to avoid choosing brands that rely on child slavery in our article: The Truth About Chocolate: How to Choose Healthy and Ethically Produced Cacao Products.

The Bottom Line About Lead and Cadmium in Chocolate

Recent studies reveal dangerous levels of lead and cadmium in many dark chocolate brands. These metals can present significant health risks, including potential heavy metal poisoning and severe organ damage. Cadmium contamination comes mainly from the soil in which cacao trees grow, while lead particles accumulate during drying and fermentation in lead-contaminated environments.

But while the chocolate industry grapples with this problem by altering its harvesting and manufacturing processes, there are things you can do to reduce your exposure to heavy metals in chocolate. These strategies include maintaining a diverse diet in which dark chocolate plays a small part, choosing chocolate brands with lower heavy metal levels, and limiting children’s chocolate consumption.

By staying informed and making conscious choices, you can still savor the goodness of dark chocolate from time to time, while safeguarding your — and your family’s — well-being. Together, with industry advancements and individual efforts, we can ensure a healthier and happier chocolate experience for all.

Tell us in the comments:

• Do you eat dark chocolate on a regular basis? If so, is it for your health, pleasure, or both?

• Did you see your favorite chocolate brands and bars on either of the lists?

• What steps will you take to limit your exposure to heavy metals in dark chocolate?

Featured Image: iStock.com/fcafotodigital

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• How to Reduce Your Exposure to Harmful Heavy Metals and Detoxify Your Body

The post Heavy Metals in Chocolate: The Lead and Cadmium Concern appeared first on Food Revolution Network.

Of course, the odds that a vegetarian or vegan will be eating the same foods as everyone else aren’t great. No wonder Vedentam laughed at the irony. As a vegetarian, he’s not exactly poised to maximize trust and cooperation by sharing the same food with his colleagues and friends. And for vegans and other plant-based eaters, it can be even more of a challenge.

Sharing Food with Others: The Good and Bad

As Alice Julier observes in her book, Eating Together: Food, Friendship, and Inequality, sharing food is often a crucial component of all kinds of gatherings, from political campaigns to union drives to religious events. Whether conscious of it or not, these organizations are creating feelings of connection and solidarity through the sharing of meals.

But when you don’t eat the same as other people do, these situations can prove isolating rather than uniting. And even more so if your dietary preferences are outed and people hesitate to invite you either out of a sense of guilt or exclusion since “there’s nothing you can eat.”

In situations where camaraderie and cohesion have already been established, differences in food choices are usually more navigable. Your friends and family love you, and while they may not understand your choice to avoid or limit certain foods, they probably aren’t going to stop loving you because of it.

Our closest friends and family may know about our distinctive food choices, and they may have even accepted them and adapted to them on our behalf. Perhaps they have gone so far as to join us in eating some of the same foods, or maybe they are always sure to provide food options that work for us when we join them in a meal.

But our business contacts, colleagues, and new acquaintances don’t know how we eat unless and until we tell them. And it can feel fraught to do so, especially if our diet is radically different from the standard American diet (SAD) or the animal product-laden foods that are the norm in many countries and cultures around the world.

Navigating Food Choices and Feelings

Years ago, when I ate the SAD diet, meal invitations were easy to say yes to and easy to show up for. In fact, I often felt some excitement knowing that I’d get to try a new dish and enjoy the connection and bonding that results when people come together to share food. But that was when I ate like most other people.

Of course, sharing my food choices is a risky endeavor because others can feel like I’m looking down on them for not doing what I do. I can’t tell you how often people say to me that just because they eat animals doesn’t mean they don’t love animals.

What I’ve come to see is that while I’m feeling self-conscious, and sometimes even lonely in my food choices, those around me are often experiencing guilt and even shame for theirs. The truth is that many people don’t feel great about the food they eat or how much of it they choose to consume. In fact, according to a 2019 survey, nearly a third of all food Americans eat makes them feel guilty.

Realizing how many people feel self-conscious about their food choices gives me more compassion and understanding in regard to why they might not always be fully supportive of mine. In the moment, they very likely have a subconscious desire for me to eat the same foods as them, so they won’t feel so bad about what they’re eating. They may feel that if I join them in eating those foods, they will be better able to enjoy those foods.

Now that I eat differently, a simple invitation to eat together can send me into a nervous tailspin, as I try to figure out how I’m going to navigate this ancient ritual of “breaking bread” together. Especially because some people can be downright hostile about plant-based eaters.

The Reality of the “Lonely Vegan”

While writing this, I hopped over to my Facebook page and was horrified to see a recent post from a colleague, quoting Anthony Bourdain: “Vegetarians, and their Hezbollah-like splinter-faction, the vegans, are a persistent irritant to any chef worth a damn. To me, life without veal stock, pork fat, sausage, organ meat, demi-glace, or even stinky cheese is a life not worth living. Vegetarians are the enemy of everything good and decent in the human spirit, an affront to all I stand for, the pure enjoyment of food.”

To my horror, a hateful volley of comments ensued as the omnivores applauded Bourdain and attacked a lone vegan with the audacity to join the conversation. This post came from someone I know and have networked with. I literally felt sick to my stomach with shock and grief. But it was also a teaching moment because it helped me see that those feelings of loneliness and isolation don’t occur in a vacuum.

And by the way, that obnoxious quote from Bourdain appears in his book, Kitchen Confidential, where it is immediately followed by this sentence: “But as a professional, the post punk concept of vegetarianism as a dietary alternative was always an interesting one to me.”

Bourdain was a chef and television personality who was known for his unfiltered and provocative opinions. But he acknowledged the importance of vegetarian and vegan diets and respected those who chose to follow them. In some of his interviews and writings, he said that he understood the ethical and environmental reasons behind vegetarianism and recognized that vegetarian dishes could be creative and delicious.

But it can be lonely being a vegan or a vegetarian. Research has linked loneliness to dietary restrictions of any kind, whether due to food allergies, religious prohibitions, weight reduction, vegetarianism, veganism, or anything else. Even children with food allergies can experience isolation due to their food restrictions. About one-third of all children with food allergies experience bullying just because they don’t eat the same foods as other kids.

So, despite the heartwarming reality that plant-based options have enjoyed a dramatic recent surge in popularity, plant-based eaters can still navigate feelings of loneliness and isolation. There are often threads expressing that sense of isolation on Reddit and Facebook groups with the words “lonely vegan” in the title.

So what can whole foods, plant-based eaters do?

Leading by Example

In general, I prefer to live by example. And hopefully, my health and vitality will speak for themselves.

As I age, it seems that my diet and lifestyle are enabling me to avoid many of the chronic health conditions that impact my friends and colleagues — even those who are ten to twenty years younger than I. It’s sad for me to witness their decline when I know that changing their diet would make a huge difference in their health, quality of life, and longevity.

But I also know that they know, or will soon learn, that I eat very differently than they do. I would rather allow them to come to me to ask how I am achieving my good health and emotional well-being than to preach at them and risk adding to their suffering by creating even more feelings of shame.

Even when people do seem genuinely curious to learn, sadly, the truth is not always greeted with enthusiasm. I’m thinking of one family member who wanted to know the details of my diet, so she could also enjoy the same good health. But when I shared my food choices with her, she quickly realized she was not ready to give up some of her favorite foods. And sadly, she continued to get sicker and sicker.

I also know that allowing those I love the dignity of their own choices is important, both to preserve our connection and to respect their decisions about their bodies — just as I wish for them to respect mine.

Eating with Others Is Beneficial to Your Health

What’s most important to remember is that there are advantages to eating together even if you don’t consume the same foods.

It’s well-established that social bonding is an important part of a healthy lifestyle. As research from The Big Lunch and University of Oxford’s Professor of Psychology, Robin Dunbar, illustrates, social eating boosts happiness, feelings of well-being, and one’s overall satisfaction with life. In fact, research has shown that having a good social support network is every bit as impactful as giving up a 15-cigarette-a-day smoking habit. And interpersonal social networks may be more crucial to physical health than exercising, or losing weight if you are obese.

The bottom line is: Our health depends upon social connection with others.

Not only that, but time with friends also feels good! Social bonding releases feel-good hormones like oxytocin, dopamine, and serotonin. In turn, those hormones have many beneficial effects on our health.

Get Out There and Spend Time with Others

What we eat really matters, but so does our lifestyle. And it’s important that we spend time with other people, even if they don’t eat like we do. You may prefer to socialize while doing non-food activities, as I do. But I think the advantages of eating together are powerful enough that it makes sense to also find ways to bond with others through social eating, even when we eat differently.

Some people are meeting online to share a meal through social media, Meetups, and even online forums. You can also meet like-minded eaters at health food stores, CSAs, farmers markets, and the like, where there may already be clubs or events centered around plant-based eating.

But some of my favorite social events don’t even include food. I love to go on hikes with people, paddle boarding, or take a walk with my dogs. If I must attend a food-centered event, I prefer potlucks.

Potlucks take the focus off what I specifically eat and allow me to bring a dish that meets my needs but that others can enjoy, too. The fact that I am not eating a lot of the other foods provided doesn’t stand out as much in a crowd — that is, unless one person is particularly attached to my trying the meat-based dish they brought with them. When that happens, the uncomfortable feelings return while I look for a gracious way to either change the topic or share why I avoid animal products.

But when I eat with people who don’t share my food choices, I find it’s far more enjoyable if I can explore what I have in common with them besides food. And it can also sometimes be an opportunity to share my favorite vegan dishes with people who may be convinced that I only eat salads (not that there is anything wrong with salads — I love them!).

You’re Never Truly Alone

It may feel isolating at times to follow a dietary path that deviates from the norm. And it can be tempting to either avoid certain social gatherings or to eat food that you know isn’t right for you. But it’s important to remember that you can share meals with people whose food is different from yours, without compromising on your dietary goals.

Embracing a whole foods, plant-based lifestyle may set you apart, but it also supports your emotional, mental, and physical well-being — while serving as an example of what is possible for those you care about. Keeping your heart open to positive social interactions and enriching experiences with both strangers and loved ones also supports your long-term health. And if you remember that most people feel some discomfort around their food choices, you can lead the way towards less judgment, shame, and isolation for all of us, regardless of what we eat.

Tell us in the comments:

• Have you ever felt lonely or isolated after changing your diet?

• What ways have you found to navigate eating with others who don’t eat like you?

• How do you connect with other plant-based eaters?

Featured Image: iStock.com/Kiwis

Read Next:

• Three Loving Ways to Stick to Your Diet at Social Gatherings

The post Do Your Food Choices Leave You Feeling Lonely? appeared first on Food Revolution Network.

It can’t be totally random, though, because the prevalence of eczema is rising around the world, afflicting about 10% of children and young adults, and 2–5% of all people.

And while there are many treatments for eczema, including hygiene practices, identifying and avoiding personal triggers, and even corticosteroids, they don’t always work. And even if medicated creams work at first, sometimes people can develop tolerances to them with prolonged use, and more and more supplementary treatments may be required.

People in remission from eczema may dread their next relapse, and feel powerless to prevent their flare-ups. And as with most conditions that resist conventional medical intervention, people who suffer from long-term eczema may turn to alternative treatments, lifestyles, and diets.

But some evidence suggests that eczema may go hand in hand with food allergies. Food allergies are also on the rise, and researchers are paying special attention to the barrier function of the skin as it relates to allergic conditions. Might consuming certain foods increase the likelihood of both food allergies and atopic dermatitis? And might some foods protect against or reduce symptoms?

A man in Hong Kong allegedly cleared up his eczema on a largely plant-based diet. A woman’s severe eczema almost completely disappeared after she adopted a whole foods, plant-based approach. And another woman who had swollen eyes and flaking skin for 20 years saw her symptoms go away after four days of plant-based eating.

Are these isolated, idiosyncratic cases, or examples of the placebo effect? Or is it possible that a plant-based diet may really be helpful in the treatment of eczema, at least in some cases? After all, a quick search on Amazon reveals dozens of books on eczema diets, cleanses, detoxes, and other approaches — all of which claim success where mainstream medicine cannot.

In this article, we’ll explore the evidence for the claims that a plant-based diet, along with other lifestyle choices, can help relieve eczema suffering. First, though, let’s find out more about the disease — and what triggers it.

Understanding Eczema

As we’ve seen, eczema is also called atopic dermatitis. A quick peek at the etymology of the two words gives us insight into the disease. Dermatitis is inflammation of the skin, which can result in itching, flaking, swelling, oozing, and crusting. And atopic comes from the Greek words a and topos, which together mean “out of place” — i.e., unusual or strange.

In essence, eczema is a chronic condition that causes the skin to become itchy, dry, cracked, and inflamed. So basically, if your skin were a party, eczema would be that awkward guest who not only refuses to leave but also insists on playing the Macarena on repeat. It’s out of place and it definitely makes its presence felt!

In infants and young children, who are most likely to suffer from eczema, the areas typically affected include the face, the outside of the elbows, and the knees. In older children and adults, eczema generally appears on the hands and feet, the arms, and the back of the knees. We don’t know why the condition often migrates from one part of the body to another.

Another eczema mystery is what causes the disease. (The one thing we know for certain, and it’s good news, is that the condition isn’t contagious.) It can run in families, suggesting either genetic or environmental factors, and it often develops alongside other conditions, including asthma and hay fever.

Eczema so frequently occurs in tandem with allergies that there’s reason to suspect an immune system link. Just as allergic reactions appear to be the result of overactive and confused immune responses, eczema, too, may be the skin’s overreaction to harmless stimuli.

While there are some autoimmune conditions that affect the skin — including rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, and dermatitis herpetiformis — eczema is not caused by the body attacking itself. Still, research shows that people with eczema are at higher risk of a number of autoimmune conditions, including alopecia, celiac disease, Crohn’s disease, rheumatoid arthritis, lupus, and ulcerative colitis.

What Triggers Eczema?

One of the most troubling aspects of eczema is the seeming unpredictability of the course of the condition. There are periods when the skin is clear and free of symptoms, called remissions, and times when it flares up.

It’s not entirely random, though. Certain things can trigger flares in susceptible people, including stress, environmental exposures, and food.

Stress and Eczema

We know now that stress is a lot more than a state of mind. Acute and chronic stress can cause big physiological changes throughout the body, including some that can trigger or exacerbate eczema. New understandings of the “brain-skin connection” point to the release of stress hormones, especially in large quantities or over an extended period of time, as sometimes fueling eczema symptoms.

As you can imagine (or may even know from personal experience), living with eczema is stressful in its own right, leading to a potentially vicious cycle in which stress triggers eczema, making it harder to sleep or relax, which in turn exacerbates the stress, and so on.

Research has shown that the skin immediately picks up on stress. What might be less obvious is that it’s also a target of stress responses.

As the largest organ of the body, the skin is one of the key sentries keeping track of the outside world for signs of threat. Specifically, the skin is an important barrier for immune functions, maintaining homeostasis between the external environment and internal tissues. When it’s working properly, the skin lets in the good stuff and keeps out the bad. With eczema, stress can weaken this homeostasis, increasing inflammation and immune function dysregulation.

Personal Care Products and Eczema

Exposure to certain chemicals and toxins in the environment may also trigger eczema in some people — which could partly explain why prevalence is on the rise.

It can be challenging for an individual to figure out what they’re sensitive to. And it may take time, focus, and an action plan to eliminate various exposures to see if doing so leads to any relief.

Some of the most commonly implicated exposures include personal care products, such as shampoos, conditioners, moisturizers, and other products that come into contact with the skin. Products that contain fragrances may increase itching, and those with sodium lauryl sulfate may irritate the skin of people prone to eczema.

Another category of eczema triggers includes fabrics. In particular, wool and some synthetic fibers appear to cause irritation and trigger symptoms in some people.

Environment and Eczema

There are also environmental factors that tend to be much harder to avoid. The weather itself can be an eczema trigger; specifically, cold and dry air, or very humid air, can lead to flares in susceptible folks.

Indoor air quality also plays a role, as house dust mites, mold, and pollen are all potential triggers. And if you have a furry friend living with you, that furry friend’s fur may not be much of a friend if you’re prone to dermatitis.

Indoor air can also be compromised by gas stoves, furniture off-gassing, construction materials, paints, and anything else that releases volatile organic compounds (VOCs).

The category of exposure that you may have the least control over is outdoor air pollutants. Chemicals from car exhaust, power plants, cigarette smoke, and even wildfires can all impair your skin’s ability to make healthy oils, leaving skin more easily irritated.

Food and Eczema

As we’ve seen, there’s a correlation between eczema and food allergies. Researchers estimate that up to 30% of children with eczema also have a food allergy — the most common ones being milk, egg, soy, peanut, tree nuts, wheat, fish and shellfish, and/or sesame.

Roughly the same percentage of adult eczema sufferers will also develop a food allergy in their lives, and experience symptoms such as hives, itching, difficulty breathing, or intestinal distress immediately after eating a specific type of food.

Interestingly, a distinct type of atopic dermatitis seems to have a direct link to food allergies right from the start. Children with this condition tend to show skin irregularities all over, not just in areas with active lesions.

However, in a broader sense, allergy specialists often view atopic dermatitis as an initial stage in the sequence known as the “atopic march.” This term describes a common pattern in some children, where atopic dermatitis evolves into food allergies and may even further develop into respiratory allergies or allergic asthma.

[Find out more about food allergies and what you can do about them.]

Can a Plant-Based Diet Help with Eczema?

Unlike medical specialties like cardiology and endocrinology, dermatology hasn’t yet acknowledged the potential health benefits of a plant-based diet. A 2022 review article noted that dermatologists typically advise against plant-based diets.

To be fair, there aren’t many studies that look specifically at the relationship between plant-based diets and eczema. We’ve seen a few anecdotal reports, which should not be dismissed just because they aren’t randomized controlled clinical trials. However, we do have some evidence suggesting that plant-based diets may help with eczema.

• A 2018 study asked 169 atopic dermatitis patients what changes they were making in their diets to treat their eczema, and whether their symptoms were improving. The greatest benefits were reported in those who added vegetables, especially organic ones, to their diets.
• A case study published in 2020 shared the story of a four-year-old patient with severe, persistent eczema. Ten days after the little girl was placed on a dairy-free elimination diet, her symptoms had improved by 76%. By the end of four months, she was in remission from eczema symptoms.
• Another study from back in 2001 took 20 eczema patients and put them on a strict plant-based diet. After just two months, they showed reduced markers of inflammation and immune response and a dramatic reduction in symptoms.
• And a 2021 Greek study on adolescents found that the more fruit, vegetables, and legumes they ate per week, the less they suffered from all atopic diseases, including eczema, allergic rhinitis (inflammation of the nasal cavities, and not a fear of rhinoceroses), and asthma.
• Interestingly, eating a plant-based diet during pregnancy may also lower the odds of an infant having eczema in their first year of life, according to a 2020 study.

There’s clearly much more research on eczema and plant-based diets that’s necessary. But we do know that plant-based diets contain many foods and compounds that are helpful for skin health, the immune system, and combating inflammation. They also generally eliminate some common food triggers and allergens, such as dairy, eggs, and shellfish. And whole food, plant-based diets also cut out processed foods, which are pro-inflammatory.

Food and Nutrients That May Help with Eczema

In general, diets rich in anti-inflammatory and antioxidant-rich foods may decrease inflammation and improve antioxidant status, thus positively affecting skin health. And probiotic and prebiotic foods, including fermented foods and those high in fiber, can also support a healthy gut microbiome and a balanced immune system — which may help improve eczema symptoms. These are just some of the nutrients and foods that help eczema go away.

Fermented Foods and Eczema

Fermented foods such as sauerkraut, kimchi, tempeh, and plant-based yogurt are not only high in antioxidants, they also deliver lactic acid-producing bacteria (LABs). The LABs support the “good” populations of gut bacteria and also improve local and systemic immunity.

Researchers surveyed 9,763 Korean adults in 2012–13 and found that those consuming large amounts of fermented foods (defined as eating fermented foods an impressive 92+ times per month!) had less atopic dermatitis than those who weren’t as committed to those foods.

For more on fermented foods, read our article: Fermented Foods: What are they, and how can they boost your health?

Fiber and Eczema

If you think of your gut as a party for probiotics, then dietary fiber is their all-you-can-eat buffet. Fermented foods, high in probiotics, are essentially the life of the party — but they can’t sustain themselves without a steady supply of dietary fiber — their version of party food.

In 2021, a group of Korean party planners — I mean, researchers — found that the more fiber-filled buffet options people had (i.e., the more dietary fiber they consumed), the less they had to worry about uninvited guests like eczema, asthma, and allergic rhinitis.

Fast-forward to 2022: A team of international researchers discovered the magic trick that happens when gut bacteria hit the fiber buffet hard. The short-chain fatty acids they produce can boost the bouncer at the door (the strength of the outer skin barrier), reducing the chances of allergens and related diseases crashing the party early.

Fiber-rich foods include all the usual suspects: legumes, whole grains, nuts, seeds, fruits, and veggies. Essentially, everything you’d find at a whole food, plant-based diet party — which sounds like a bash your gut would definitely want to RSVP to!

For more on why fiber is good for you, the best kinds, and the best sources, see our article, here.

Omega-3 and Eczema

In the modern industrialized diet, there’s a huge imbalance between the intake of omega-6 and omega-3 fatty acids, with the former being consumed in much larger quantities than the latter.

Research shows that excess omega-6 is a risk factor for eczema, while omega-3 appears to inhibit an over-the-top immune response, such as cytokine production that can trigger inflammation of the skin.

A 2021 overview article in the International Journal of Molecular Sciences suggests that balancing the omega-6 GLA with omega-3 fatty acids may inhibit inflammatory responses, with positive effects on skin conditions such as eczema, psoriasis, and acne.

High omega-3 foods include flaxseeds, chia seeds, hemp seeds, walnuts, and certain forms of algae. And many vegan omega-3 supplements, like this one by Complement, are produced from algal oil.

For more on why omega-3s are important — and what the best sources are for your health — see our article here.

Vitamin D and Eczema

Vitamin D may also play an important role in easing or suppressing eczema symptoms. A 2016 meta-analysis found four randomized controlled trials that, taken together, suggest that vitamin D supplementation could safely reduce eczema symptom severity.

A 2019 meta-analysis found lower vitamin D levels in eczema patients than in healthy controls. And it highlighted three interventions in which vitamin D supplementation reduced eczema severity.

However, a 2023 meta-analysis argued that vitamin D didn’t improve eczema across the board, and that it appeared to make a positive difference in adults but not in children.

The confusion may arise from the question of whether the relationship between vitamin D levels and atopic dermatitis is causal, and if so, in which direction. That is, does low vitamin D increase the risk of eczema, or does having eczema decrease vitamin D levels, perhaps by compromising the ability of the skin to synthesize the vitamin from sunlight — or perhaps because eczema sufferers are less likely to expose their skin to the sun?

If you aren’t getting sufficient vitamin D via sun exposure, there are some foods that can deliver the nutrient, including fortified plant-based milk and orange juice, and UV-exposed mushrooms. There are also supplemental forms of vitamin D, like this highly bioavailable liposomal version from our friends at Purality Health.

For more on vitamin D, including how much you need and how to get enough, see our article, here.

Vitamin E and Eczema

Vitamin E is a powerful antioxidant and has been shown to reduce inflammatory compounds in patients with atopic conditions, including eczema.

A 2015 randomized trial gave participants either 400 IU of oral vitamin E or a placebo for four months. And the researchers found that the vitamin significantly reduced itching and the extent of skin lesions.

A 2020 review of the full medical literature on the relationship between vitamin E and eczema concluded that supplementation “has great potential as an adjunctive treatment for AD (Atopic Dermatitis) owing to its antioxidant and anti-inflammatory bioactivities.”

While 400 IU is considered a safe dose, there are risks of getting too much vitamin E from supplements. You may not need to supplement if you focus on foods naturally high in vitamin E. These include nuts, seeds, avocado, mango, bell pepper, and leafy greens.

For more on vitamin E, including why it’s important and the best sources, see our article, here.

Eczema-Friendly Recipes

If you (or anyone you love) suffer from eczema and are inspired to see if a healthy diet can help, these eczema-friendly recipes are sure to make it a tasty transition.

Incorporating at least one of these recipes a week just might do wonders for the overall health of your immune system, microbiome, and skin.

Each recipe features foods packed with fiber and powerful, anti-inflammatory nutrients that could improve eczema symptoms. They’re also free of many of the most irritating food allergens, such as dairy, eggs, and shellfish.

1. Apple Walnut Oatmeal Bake

This comforting dish is full of healthful, anti-inflammatory ingredients to help soothe your skin during an eczema flare. Rich in calming and fiber-rich oats, omega-3-packed chia and walnuts, and vitamin D-fortified plant-based milk (if you use fortified plant milk), you could call this a breakfast made for healthy skin!

2. Kelp Salad with Baked Tempeh and Kimchi Miso Dressing

Kelp Salad with Baked Tempeh and Kimchi Miso Dressing brings together highly nutritious fermented foods, including tempeh and kimchi, which support a healthy microbiome. Helping supply your gut with the good bacteria it needs may reduce incidences of eczema flares.

This flavorful salad also has omega-3 fatty acids from the hemp seeds, calcium from the tahini, iodine from the kelp, iron from the beets, and zinc from the pumpkin seeds. You’ll cover lots of your nutritional bases with this one plant-powered salad!

3. Creamy Mushroom Soup with Chickpeas and Kale

Creamy Mushroom Soup with Chickpeas and Kale is a super cozy bowl of nourishing plants that provides comfort in more ways than one. In addition to the soup’s mouthwatering umami flavors from mushrooms, chickpeas, kale, and cashews, it packs a nutrient-dense punch! It’s a potent source of vitamin E, vitamin D (depending on the amount of sun exposure your mushrooms get), fiber, and protein, just to name a few. This soup is a delicious way to nourish your skin barrier and gut microbiome.

Reach for Plants to Support Your Skin from the Inside Out!

While scientific evidence supporting dietary interventions for eczema is still limited, the link between diet and overall skin health is strong enough that you may want to prioritize a healthy, plant-based diet as a first-line treatment strategy. A diet rich in nutrient-dense fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, nuts, and seeds holds promise in providing essential nutrients, reducing inflammation, and supporting skin barrier function.

Prioritizing skin-supporting nutrients, such as omega-3 fatty acids, fiber, probiotics, and vitamins E and D, could play a vital role in managing eczema.

The benefits of plant-based eating also come from what the diet eliminates. Avoiding potential allergens or trigger foods and pro-inflammatories, such as dairy and processed foods, could help in many cases.

Reducing stress and exposure to environmental toxins can also play a meaningful role in reducing eczema symptoms. In severe cases, consulting a health care professional may be necessary, to develop an individualized approach tailored to specific needs and preferences.

Tell us in the comments:

• Do you have eczema? If so, do you know what triggers it for you?

• Have any diet and lifestyle strategies reduced flares and lessened symptoms?

• Have you tried eliminating certain foods and increasing others?

Featured Image: iStock.com/nensuria

Read Next:

• 10 Foods for Healthy, Radiant, Younger-Looking Skin
• What Can You Eat for Clearer Skin? The Best (and Worst) Foods for Acne

The post Eczema and Diet: Can Going Plant-Based Help Your Skin? appeared first on Food Revolution Network.

When you think of a farm, do you picture idyllic, peaceful places with lush fields, happy and frolicking animals, and abundant and delicious produce? In your mind’s eye, do you see hardworking farmers and their families sitting down to hearty meals after a day of satisfying labor?

Once upon a time in the US, this vision would have been largely accurate and quite commonplace. In the 1800s, roughly 90% of the US population lived on farms. Outside of city centers, agriculture was the main livelihood, with the average farmer producing enough food to feed up to five people.

And while there’s still a lot of farmland in the US, the number of small farm owners has dwindled drastically. Today, less than 1% of the US population lives on a farm, and the number of farms is decreasing.

The most endangered type of farm is the small family farm, defined by the US Department of Agriculture (USDA) as a place that produces and sells at least $1,000 of agricultural products per year and has a gross income of $350,000 or less.

In the US, small farms accounted for less than one-fourth of food production in 2020, down from nearly half in the 1990s. And the agricultural landscape continues to change, fueled by technology and increased industrialization, resulting in larger and larger farms. These farms are also increasingly owned by those who don’t live in the communities: often faceless multinational corporations whose primary metric of success is profit, rather than the well-being of the community or those who labor on their farms.

It’s becoming harder than ever for many small family farmers to make it. They face unprecedented and relentless challenges that threaten their income, reduce their outputs, constrain their resources, and damage their mental health.

But what does the decline of small family farms mean for the US agricultural system? Are they still important to the food system or the health and vitality of rural communities? And what are some farmers doing to meet these challenges?

Why Small US Farms Matter

While they’re struggling, small family farms have by no means completely disappeared. Eighty-nine percent of US farms fall into the “small family farm” category — and for good reason, as you’ll see.

Small Farms Keep Food, Money, and People Local

Farming is still primarily a family business. Having family members who can work the land, or pitch in when needed, is an effective way to keep labor costs low. That means small farms can theoretically be more financially efficient than larger “factory-sized” farms and can provide an entry point into the profession for beginning farmers — especially those from under-resourced communities.

Small farms and farmers also tend to keep more of the money they earn in their rural communities, compared to giant multinational farms. This supports economic growth and job creation in communities and improves the standard of living — which in turn makes people want to live there and become a part of, or continue to be a part of, those communities.

Family farms that are rooted in local communities are more likely to feed their neighbors, rather than having their produce end up in big-box stores far away. This contributes to local food security, as these communities don’t have to rely on long supply chains (many of which continue to face challenges).

Many small family farms also participate in community-supported agriculture (CSAs), which allows them to share both the rewards and ever-present risks of farming with their neighbors. CSAs can enable the farms to receive more stable income, and the community gets very fresh, often organic, produce either delivered right to their homes or at a designated drop-off point.

If you’re interested in learning more about community-supported agriculture, our article on CSAs explains more about them, including how to find and join one in your area.

Small Farms Employ Healthier and More Sustainable Crop Systems

Another way small farms contribute to the resilience of the food system is through increased diversity of crops, often produced through more sustainable methods. Smaller farms are much more likely to employ regenerative farming techniques than large industrial agriculture, which helps produce healthy soil for long-term fertility, as well as tastier and more nutrient-dense crops.

As a result, small family farms look and act more like the classic depictions of farms from storybooks than larger farm operations do — and are much healthier to be around as a result. Industrial agriculture typically creates environmental disaster zones through monocropping, with pesticides blown onto other farms as well as into residential areas, and fertilizer runoff threatening local waterways.

So there are some very good reasons to preserve and invest in family farms.

Why Are Family Farms Disappearing?

There are many threats to the viability of small family farms, including regulatory and structural disadvantages that penalize small-scale agriculture, financial constraints, lack of support and infrastructure, climate change, and competition from giant factory farms.

The Economics of Small Farms

Smaller farms are becoming increasingly fragile economically. Most small family farms have an operating profit margin of less than 10%, which creates a high financial risk whenever anything unexpected happens. There just isn’t enough of a buffer to handle a bad yield, weather event, pest damage, or reduced market demand.

With such small and precarious profits, many farming families have to rely on non-farm income, such as family members taking on outside jobs, to continue farming. As Sandi Kronick, founder and CEO of Happy Dirt — an organization that supports organic farmers — told FRN in an interview, we’re asking farmers to “donate their lives and their livelihoods” to feeding the rest of us, without being taken care of in return.

And while small family farms saw their financial risk increase over the past 10 years, large and corporate-owned farms saw their risk lessen, thanks to government payments and assistance programs that seem to increasingly favor large-scale family farms and nonfamily (corporate) farms.

In fact, it’s misleading to talk about profits at all in many cases. Operators of small family farms often reported losses from farming. In 2020, the average farm income for two types of family farms was in the red. The average net income for off-farm occupation farms (where the farm operator also holds a job outside of the farm) was –$2,427, and for low-sales farms, the figure was –$1,637. Yup, those are minus signs, meaning the typical farmer in these situations was paying out of pocket for the privilege of growing food for the rest of us.

Many small family farms are struggling under crippling debt, and failed payments and farm bankruptcies are rising. To make things worse, the prices paid to farmers for commodity crops (agricultural crops grown in large quantities for sale in the global market, such as corn, soy, cotton, and wheat) and subsidies are falling because of increased supply due to technology and globalization.

Because US farm policy no longer establishes a “floor” below which prices cannot fall, the prices farmers receive for most commodity crops have been below the cost of production almost every year since 1981.

Climate Change and Small Farms

Now imagine trying to deal with these economic hurdles while the very air and soil around you are changing, often in drastic ways. Temperatures are rising, precipitation patterns are shifting, and in many communities, drought conditions happen more frequently and last longer than in recorded memory. That’s the knock-on effect of climate change, which is requiring farmers to work harder and spend more to produce the same yields as they would under “normal” or historical weather conditions.

Even with their best efforts, some farmers are seeing crops struggling to grow at all under these intense and unfamiliar conditions.

The American Farm Bureau Federation surveyed 652 farmers and ranchers in drought-stricken regions of the US in September 2022. That survey suggests 2022 yields were down by as much as one-third compared with 2021. And drought isn’t the only extreme climate impact. In other parts of the country, the climate crisis means some crops that require dry conditions are getting too much rain and failing to thrive, or rotting in the ground.

Crop Insurance Challenges

The US government created the Federal Crop Insurance Program (FCIP) to help protect farmers against financial losses due to adverse growing and market conditions. You might think that this would help protect farmers from the very kinds of crop losses that we’ve been seeing. Unfortunately, as of 2020, fewer than 10% of small farms were able or choosing to take advantage of crop insurance.

Farmers who didn’t avail themselves of this insurance typically gave three reasons. First, the premiums were too high — often unaffordable. Second, the process was overly complex, with arcane regulations and excessive paperwork. That might be okay for a giant corporate farm with a dedicated office staff, but proved too onerous for most small family operations.

Third, the insurance program structure was created to protect large commodity farming — think mega-field after mega-field of soy and corn — rather than a small and diversified crop of fruits and vegetables. The numbers tell the story: According to a report by the US government’s Foreign Agriculture Service, “more than 90% of planted acres for corn, soybeans, and cotton and more than 85% of wheat planted acres were insured through the FCIP.”

In essence, the crop insurance system as it currently stands actually incentivizes farmers to grow the very crops that are more likely to struggle due to climate change and does nothing to encourage farmers to experiment with new varieties and different growing practices to mitigate that risk. And it gives more protection and a competitive advantage to the large-scale mega-farms at the expense of smaller farmers. This means that many small farms are going unprotected and disproportionately suffering the effects of climate change.

Family Farms vs Factory Farms

Probably the biggest contributing factor to the decline in family farms and many of the struggles they face is the rise of factory farms and CAFOs (concentrated animal feeding operations). While family farms make up the majority of individual farms in the US, the lion’s share of agricultural yield comes from monocultures and large factory farms.

Aside from their size, which allows them to save money by buying in bulk and negotiating favorable prices from their vendors, monoculture factory farms have an unfair economic advantage legislated by the US government: access to subsidies and payouts.

And the CAFOs are such large and powerful consumers of farm crops that they drive many farmers’ decisions about what to grow. Some small farmers end up with no choice but to produce corn and/or other commodities to fill the voracious appetite of livestock operations — just to stay in business. What doesn’t end up in the bellies of factory-farmed animals is often sold to corporations to convert into biofuels like ethanol, or sold to junk food companies to be used as ingredients in the ultra-processed foods that today make up 62% of the American diet.

Large factory farms and CAFOs also hog (apologies to hogs; maybe the verb to keep something to oneself should be “to human”) water supplies, often leaving precious little clean water for small family farms.

Some farmers are also trapped by the seed and agrochemical market, especially if they have gone down the path of growing bioengineered commodity crops. Over time, they need to buy and apply larger quantities of weed killer as unwanted plants mutate into herbicide-resistant “superweeds.” And because monocrop farmers have invested so heavily in machinery and infrastructure for growing and harvesting, they can’t easily exercise free choice and move to another crop or growing model.

All this adds up to huge advantages for the largest industrial farms which often have the worst environmental impact. And in the “winner-take-all” industry that farming has become, big farms can then grow even bigger by buying up competitors’ land and squeezing more family farmers out of business.

Farmer Mental Health and Other Problems

The issues covered above are not the only ones faced by small family farmers. Many Black farmers and other farmers of color face racism, discrimination, and inequality, in addition to financial challenges and land loss.

As Sandi Kronick of Happy Dirt told FRN, perhaps the biggest problem faced by small family farmers — especially those from traditionally marginalized communities — is simple exhaustion.

In her words: “When you’re constantly struggling, because every day you’re putting out this fire or that fire, and then every few months there’s some larger disaster that you’re dealing with, eventually you’re going to wake up and say, ‘Why am I doing this? What goal am I chasing?’ And so that kind of accumulated physical, emotional, environmental, and social depletion creates a cumulative effect. Farming is one of the most dangerous careers, and farmer suicide is a very real thing.”

One of the challenges faced by small farmers is how to avoid losing a farm that may have been in the family for generations. And it’s hard; young people who grow up in farming families may have little reason to covet the farming lifestyle, especially after watching their elders increasingly struggle to stay afloat. They often migrate to more urban areas, leaving the old folks to keep farming.

This urban migration represents a global crisis: the average age of farmers keeps rising. And with not enough young people to take over, the very notion of a family farm becomes endangered. That said, there is something of a resurgence of interest in farming among youth, especially those who are more ecologically minded and want to overhaul the agricultural system to favor organic, regenerative models and practices.

Resources for Learning About the Challenges Facing Small Family Farms

If you’re interested in a deep dive into the struggles facing American family farms, here are four books to check out:

• Farm (and Other F Words): The Rise and Fall of the Small Family Farm, by Sarah K Mock
• Bet the Farm: The Dollars and Sense of Growing Food in America, by Beth Hoffman
• Perilous Bounty: The Looming Collapse of American Farming and How We Can Prevent It, by Tom Philpott
• Farming While Black: Soul Fire Farm’s Practical Guide to Liberation on the Land, by Leah Penniman

In the next article in this series, we’ll look at a small family farm that’s finding a way to succeed — by enlisting community members and organizations as partners and allies.

Tell us in the comments:

• What surprised you about the challenges that small family farms face in today’s world?

• Do you get any of your food from a local family farm? Do you know any farmers?

• Are there family farms in your region that you could support with your business, through a farm stand, farmers market, or visiting the farm?

Featured image: iStock.com/kali9

Read Next:

• An Overlooked Public Health Crisis Among Black Farmers
• Monocropping: A Disastrous Agricultural System

The post Why Small Family Farms are Disappearing — and What it Means for Our World appeared first on Food Revolution Network.

An exhaustive Google search confirmed what I had long suspected: There are no popular songs about livers or kidneys. Celine Dion never penned the immortal lyric, “My gallbladder will go on.” The Bee Gees and Al Green chose not to wonder, “How can you mend a broken appendix?” And Neil Young didn’t lament about his search for a spleen of gold.

When it comes to love songs, it’s the heart, the whole heart, and nothing but the heart. (I said love, not lust.)

So why is that? What’s the link between the bright red emoji and the complicated four-chambered organ in the middle of your chest? Why have millennia of poets and musicians from around the globe associated that little blood pump with intense feelings of connection and desire?

Could there be actual scientific truth, and cardiovascular significance, to the metaphors?

From Physical to Emotional Hearts

This viewpoint of the heart as a purely physical organ has determined the shape of modern cardiology. Medical professionals measure heart health via blood pressure, cholesterol and triglycerides, and heart rhythm via EKGs. And when there are problems, they’re described and treated in material terms via medications and physical interventions like surgeries.

I’m not saying there’s no merit to this approach. On the contrary, modern cardiac medicine saves lives on a daily basis. Improvements in cardiac care, including new drugs and innovations in heart implant technology, have lowered the mortality rate from heart disease in the industrialized world — saving millions of lives.

At the same time, modern science is rediscovering what many traditional cultures have known since time immemorial: that the heart is much more than a physical pump. While we know that lifestyle, especially diet, has a major impact on the physical aspects of heart health, there’s another factor related to heart health that’s not talked about as often as it deserves to be: your emotions.

However, in 2004, researchers conducted the first large-scale trial looking at emotions and the heart. The INTERHEART study enrolled over 25,000 participants in 52 countries and clearly identified several emotional stressors as key risk factors for heart disease. And continuing research is filling in the picture, as well as creating protocols for healing “broken hearts” on both the emotional and physical levels.

In this article, we’re going to look at the emotional side of the heart, how your feelings (both pleasant and unpleasant) can impact your heart, and how to take care of your emotional heart.

Can Your Heart Think or Feel?

For a long time, Western science assumed that the brain was the only part of the body that “thinks.” All the other organs and systems were, in this view, mindless automata just carrying out instructions from the brain. This theory was turned on its head by the discovery that the gut also has something of a “brain,” in the form of what’s known as the enteric nervous system.

And more recently, researchers are coming to recognize another kind of “brain” within the heart as well — a discovery that helped spawn the field of neurocardiology.

Wait a second, though. What does it mean to say there’s a “brain” in the gut or the heart? Are we literally talking about a cauliflower-shaped lump of gray squishy stuff in there?

No, “brain” here is a metaphor, referring to particular functions: the ability to sense the environment, make decisions based on that information, and communicate those decisions throughout the body. And by those criteria, the heart does indeed have a brain, which trades information back and forth with the head brain.

The Heart’s “Little Brain”

Renowned cardiologist and FRN’s Healthy Heart Course partner, Dr. Mimi Guarneri, calls it the body’s “little brain,” since it has, in her words, “its own intelligence, emotions, nervous system, and decision-making power.”

We now know that the heart includes the hardware to run all this brain-like software. In fact, the heart has its own nervous system, called the intrinsic cardiac nervous system (ICNS). The ICNS can manufacture and secrete hormones and operates similarly to the brain’s nervous system via an intricate network of nerve clusters, neurotransmitters, proteins, and other cells.

All this circuitry enables the heart to act independently of the brain. The heart can feel and sense your internal world (and aspects of the external world) directly and can learn, store memories, and make decisions. And what the heart feels turns out to have a direct impact on how well it functions and how long it lasts.

In short, as Dr. Guarneri puts it, your heart is a “mental, emotional, and spiritual organ with many complex connections that go well beyond pumping blood.”

How Pleasant Feelings Impact the Heart

In healing traditions throughout the world, the heart is seen as the emotional center of the body. In Indian Ayurvedic texts as well as Greek and Roman literature, the emotion most closely associated with the heart is love. In Traditional Chinese Medicine, it’s joy.

Many people report feeling the sensations of love, caring, and joy emanating from the heart or chest area. And it’s not just cultural mythology; the heart actually is a sensory organ, capable of feelings. In fact, one of the hormones that the heart manufactures is oxytocin, the so-called “cuddle” or “love” hormone that activates when we feel close to another person, a companion animal, or something greater than ourselves.

Pleasant emotions make you feel good, which is reason enough to want to feel them on a regular basis. But here’s another reason: they also provide protection for your heart.

Loving Touch

Love is a potent cardioprotective emotion. Hugging and other forms of loving touch can lower blood pressure and heart rate. Oxytocin triggers vasodilation or the widening of the arteries. When that happens, more blood can flow through the arteries, lowering blood pressure and reducing the risk of heart attacks and strokes.

Laughter and Heart Health

Laughter also puts a smile on your heart as well as your face. The act of laughing releases chemicals called beta-endorphins, part of that feel-good family of endorphins. These beta-endorphins coax receptors on the vascular endothelium to release nitric oxide, a molecule that protects the cardiovascular system in many ways. When you laugh on a regular basis, you’re at lower risk of heart attack and stroke than your more dour counterparts. And laughter reduces stiffness and damage to blood vessels as you age.

Gratitude and Heart Health

Gratitude also helps your heart function at its healthiest. In Dr. Guarneri’s words:

“An attitude of gratitude is not just a mental tool, it can also be good for your physical health — especially your heart… Research has shown that individuals who practice gratitude are healthier, exercise more, have fewer physical ailments, and feel better overall. Clinical trials have proven that ritual gratitude can even lower your blood pressure and increase your immune function — having dramatic, and lasting effects on your health.”

Gratitude can begin to heal your heart even after significant damage. A 2016 study looked at the benefits of keeping a gratitude journal for older patients (average age was mid-60s) with Stage B heart failure. The participants who journaled regularly for eight weeks saw their inflammatory biomarkers go down significantly compared to non-journaling controls. While journaling, their heart rate variability (HRV) improved as well.

And in other studies, regular expressions of gratitude and optimism have been correlated with both lower heart rate and blood pressure.

How Unpleasant Feelings Impact the Heart

While agreeable emotions like love, gratitude, and hopefulness can protect the heart, unpleasant emotions can have the opposite effect. Four well-studied (and for most of us, very familiar) “negative” emotions include depression, grief, stress, and anger. Let’s take a look at each of these now — and then we’ll look at what can help you (and your heart) feel better.

Depression and Heart Disease

Someone with depression now is at increased risk of heart disease in the future. (And the relationship goes in both directions, as many cardiac patients develop depression in response to their diagnosis.)

In Dr. Guarneri’s words:

“While about one in twenty American adults experience major depression in a given year, that number jumps to about one in three for people who have survived a heart attack. And, the risk of having a heart attack is four times greater in people with heart disease who also suffer from depression when compared to those who are not depressed.”

The American Heart Association reported in a 2015 scientific statement that even teens with depressive disorder were at greater subsequent risk for heart disease. While the exact mechanisms aren’t yet known, one promising theory links depression to heart disease via lower HRV. That’s because, the theory goes, depression disturbs the balance between the sympathetic and parasympathetic nervous systems.

That could explain why coexisting anxiety can also increase cardiac risk; anxiety represents a constant drain on the autonomic nervous system, which can further depress HRV.

Grief’s Impact on the Heart

When people say they have a “broken heart,” they aren’t just speaking in metaphor. It turns out the phrase has a sound physiological basis. Grief — an intense emotional response to loss — can damage the heart and leave it vulnerable to acute and chronic injury.

Takotsubo cardiomyopathy, also called broken heart syndrome, can cause heart attacks without the presence of an arterial blockage. The disease gets its name from the shape the affected heart takes, which resembles Japanese ceramic vases used as pots to catch octopi (“tako tsubo”).

A person who has recently lost a spouse is at a significantly elevated risk of developing and dying from heart disease. While part of this may be due to changes in lifestyle (eating poorly or not getting out as much, for example), there are also direct biochemical pathways.

Bereavement can lead to elevated catecholamines, which are stress hormones, and higher blood pressure. Both of these are effects of great sympathetic nervous system activity.

But it’s not just the loss of a spouse that can trigger such heartrending grief. Those who lose a parent or a child also face an increased risk of a cardiac event.

Stress and the Heart

Psychosocial stress (a fancy way of saying that there’s a gap between the demands of your life and your capacity to meet those demands) may be as bad for your heart as an unhealthy diet or even smoking, according to recent research.

And while eating poorly or smoking may be within an individual’s control, the “social” in psychosocial indicates that external stressors may be difficult or impossible to avoid or mitigate. Things like job stress, racism, poverty, and chronic stress conditions like PTSD are all associated with a higher risk of hypertension.

While stress can damage the cardiovascular system at any age, it’s most strongly associated with early onset (prior to age 50) cardiovascular disease (CVD). Think of an engine that’s constantly revving too fast and too hot. The sustained sympathetic nervous system activity characterized by chronic stress has been shown to do a number on the cardiovascular system. Mechanisms of damage include arrhythmias, platelet aggregation, acute coronary syndromes, and heart failure.

Anger and Heart Health

If depression is about shutting down, then anger is about lashing out. Those prone to angry outbursts have been found to be at greater risk of CVD, stroke, and heart failure.

In Dr. Guarneri’s words:

“Emerging research on how anger can affect your body is quite disturbing: being angry can increase your risk of a heart attack by as much as 230%! Stress and anger can trigger more than 1,400 chemical reactions in your body. These oftentimes lead to measurable physical changes in your cardiovascular system.”

Anger doesn’t occur in a vacuum but rather in an existing environment, and it may be the case that the more stressful that environment, the more corrosive the effects of an individual’s anger on their heart health. One study found a positive association between anger expression and the risk of CVD among urban residents but not rural residents. Researchers hypothesized that the more stressful city atmosphere enhanced the association between anger and CVD.

Another study found anger may contribute to the development of specific cardiovascular diseases and CVD mortality, especially heart failure in men and in those with diabetes.

How to Take Care of Your Emotional Heart

Just as depression, grief, stress, and anger can have a negative impact on your heart health, it turns out that cultivating positive and pleasant emotions can protect and even heal your heart.

Experience Love

Social connection and love are powerful antidotes to loneliness, which, as we’ve seen, can lead to the development of CVD. Spending time with loved ones, even over the phone or via video call, can stimulate the production of oxytocin and other pro-social and heart-friendly neurotransmitters.

Socializing at any age provides long-term health benefits to your heart. A fascinating 2018 study found that teen boys whose parents reported them spending more time with friends grew — 20 years later! — into men with lower blood pressure and healthier body mass index — both of which are predictors of heart health.

An action step here is to work on increasing the expression and experience of love in your life. The more quality time you spend with friends and loved ones, the greater your production of oxytocin.

Cultivate Inner Peace

Inner peace is an antidote to rampant and overwhelming stress, and can also moderate your angry responses. Activities like yoga, prayer, meditation, and other spiritual or contemplative practices have all been shown to improve biomarkers of cardiovascular risk.

Mindfulness helps you practice nonjudgmental awareness of your feelings and surroundings, which gives you the space to choose your response rather than just reacting with emotions and expressions that can compound your stress.

And tai chi, a gentle martial art based on principles of Traditional Chinese Medicine, has been shown to help suppress inflammation and lift depression.

Relaxing lifestyle activities can all improve your parasympathetic tone, strengthening your ability to maintain a healthy blood pressure and heart rate in the face of life’s inevitable stressors.

Cultivate Positivity

When it comes to heart health, thinking positively can become a self-fulfilling prophecy. A 2019 meta-analysis of studies of almost 230,000 people found that those who were more optimistic had a lower risk of CVD.

Positive well-being, which refers to having positive feelings and a sense of optimism, is also associated with less mental stress and more resilience. Making an effort to experience positive emotions daily can counteract the influence of negative emotions on systolic blood pressure.

I’m not suggesting that you try to banish all unpleasant emotions or aggressively recite positive affirmations every time you feel sad or angry or afraid. These so-called “negative” emotions can serve a valuable purpose. Grief when confronted with loss is totally natural, and not something that I’d recommend you try to bypass or “get over” just to lower your blood pressure.

Instead, I’m talking about seeking balance. The world that most of us live in doesn’t actively afford us multiple daily opportunities to relax, slow down enough to appreciate our lives, or connect with friends, neighbors, and loved ones. That means we need to be deliberate and proactive about making sure we build these heart-healthy — and life-affirming — practices into our days.

Curious about gratitude? Discover the neuroscience of gratitude, and specific practices that have been proven to improve health as well as happiness.

What You Feel Impacts Your Heart

The heart is not just a physical organ. It’s also an emotional one with its own nervous system. What you feel can have a direct impact on the health of your heart. When you cultivate more love, peace, and gratitude, things don’t just feel better. They also support your health, which makes them get better, too.

Tell us in the comments:

• Have you ever experienced the effects of emotions — pleasant or unpleasant — on your health?
• What are your favorite strategies and practices for cultivating positive emotions?
• What’s one thing you could build into your day that would afford you greater joy and resilience?

Featured image: iStock.com/fizkes

Read Next: 

• Good Food = Good Mood: The Nutrition and Mental Health Connection
• The 4 Scientifically Proven Pillars of Heart Health

The post The Emotional Heart: How What You Feel Impacts Heart Health appeared first on Food Revolution Network.

Which reminds me: How do you get into the mush-room?  Ring the porta-bella!

When it comes to mushroom talk, it could be wise to clarify. Because there’s another thing someone could be talking about: medicinal mushrooms.

Medicinal mushrooms have important health benefits and exhibit a broad spectrum of benefits and uses, including (long list coming here) anti-allergenic, antibacterial, antifungal, anti-inflammatory, antioxidative, antiviral, cytotoxic, immunomodulating, antidepressive, antihyperlipidemic, antidiabetic — takes breath — digestive, hepatoprotective, neuroprotective, nephroprotective, osteoprotective, and hypotensive properties. (Phew!)

Medicinal mushrooms are also loaded with some of nature’s finest compounds (warning: another long list coming your way), including polysaccharides, proteins, fatty acids, alkaloids, terpenoids, tocopherols, phenolics, antioxidants, flavonoids, lectins, enzymes, and more.

(That’s a lot of benefits. And you get them whether or not you even know what all those words mean.)

But there’s more. Mushrooms are also incredibly gentle on the planet. They require very little energy and water to grow, and their growing medium is compostable. As well, their growth footprint is tiny. Over a million mushrooms can be produced annually in a one-acre space. Quite simply, they’re one of the most sustainably grown foods in the human diet.

Unfortunately, not many people are aware that medicinal mushrooms even exist, never mind the powerful health benefits that they can offer. There are over 50,000 species of mushrooms — and those are just the ones that have been studied and written about! So, you can understand why it may be a bit difficult to keep track of them.

This is why I’ve chosen five of the most beneficial medicinal mushrooms out there, so that you can learn more about them, along with how they could benefit your health if you choose to give them a try.

So, What Are 5 of the Best Medicinal Mushrooms?

As mentioned above, there are countless species of mushrooms out there, and medical mushroom species are no exception. It was a bit of a challenge to narrow down the list to just five, but I’ve selected the mushrooms included here because they are well-studied and may specifically help with mental clarity, longevity, and immunity.

So, keep reading to learn about five of the most powerful medicinal mushrooms out there, along with how they can benefit your health.

1. Turkey Tail Mushrooms

Turkey tail mushrooms are multicolored fungi that can grow on both standing and fallen trees. They grow in several parts of the world, including the United States.

Turkey tail are typically disc-shaped and — as you may have guessed — often resemble a turkey’s tail.

Also known by the names Trametes versicolor or Coriolus versicolor, these mushrooms have been used for centuries as a health supplement for a wide range of ailments and preventative measures.

One of the most prominent and well-known benefits of turkey tail is its immune-boosting properties, along with its ability to help ward off certain chronic diseases.

This is largely due to compounds found within turkey tail called polysaccharopeptide (PSP) and polysaccharide-K (PSK) that may inhibit the growth of cancer cells, potentially leading to increased chances of beating the disease. This is why some researchers are now suggesting it may be wise to take turkey tail when undergoing chemotherapy and other conventional cancer treatments to complement these therapies.

PSP also stimulates the immune system, allowing for a more robust immune response to pathogens.

In addition to this, the PSP in turkey tail can benefit gut health by feeding and promoting the growth of beneficial bacteria.

Turkey tail’s compounds may also help prevent weight gain and obesity.

All in all, turkey tail mushrooms may be able to help stave off disease by boosting the immune response and inhibiting the proliferation of cancer cells.

2. Stout Camphor Fungus

That’s not the most appealing of names, I know, but this unique mushroom, Antrodia camphorata, has been widely used in traditional Chinese medicine to treat liver problems, food and drug intoxication, abdominal pain, hypertension, and itchy skin, so I’ll give it a pass.

Like most mushrooms, its benefits are thanks to a rich diversity of bioactive compounds. Stout camphor fungus contains over 78 compounds, many of which have anti-inflammatory, antioxidant, and detoxifying effects.

As such, research has found it to support the immune system, bolster liver health, and protect the health of the brain.

What does a fast mushroom car say?

“Shroom! Shroom!”

3. Reishi Mushroom

The reishi mushroom — also known as Ganoderma lucidum or lingzhi — likes to grow in hot and humid locations throughout Asia. It’s been a staple in Eastern medicine for more than 2,000 years.

Reishi mushrooms deliver a rare collection of bioactive compounds that appear to provide important benefits to human health. One of the most well-known of these benefits is the ability to support the immune system. Research tells us that reishi mushrooms can boost the number of white blood cells (alone and when combined with other medicinal mushrooms), enhance their efficiency, and increase their activity — which can help the immune system to fight disease-causing cells.

Reishi mushrooms may also have benefits when used in conjunction with other forms of cancer treatment. A meta-analysis conducted by a team of researchers from Australia, Argentina, and China concluded that patients who were given reishi extract in their anticancer regimen were 1.27 times more likely to respond to chemotherapy or radiotherapy than those without it.

And other studies have suggested that supplementing with this mushroom could improve symptoms of depression, as well as boost energy levels.

Additionally, other research has found that reishi mushrooms may promote healthy cholesterol levels and act as a powerful antioxidant.

4. King Trumpet

King trumpet mushroom, often referred to as Pleurotus eryngii, is a large form of the popular oyster mushroom that is native to Europe and Asia.

All oyster mushrooms boast an impressive nutrient profile, containing high amounts of riboflavin, niacin, pantothenic acid, phosphorus, potassium, and protein.

Research has shown that oyster mushrooms of all kinds may help to bring down chronic inflammation, and potentially reduce the risk of inflammation-related disease and colon cancer.

King trumpet mushrooms may also lower the levels of LDL (“bad”) cholesterol, thereby helping to protect the heart.

King trumpet has also been shown to protect against the growth of disease-causing cells thanks to the wide range of beneficial compounds it contains.

5. Maitake Mushroom

Although maitake mushrooms grow in many parts of the world — including the United States — they’ve historically been most popular in Japan and China, where they’ve been used for thousands of years to support health, vitality, and longevity.

And it turns out that there’s some solid science to back up the benefits of the maitake.

Research has shown that maitake mushrooms could be useful in helping to prevent or even treat cancer.

Other studies have found that maitake can also support the health of the heart by lowering cholesterol and stabilizing blood pressure, all while promoting healthier blood sugar levels.

Maitake mushrooms are also known as adaptogens. This means they could help the body respond to mental and physical stress, regulating bodily systems to help return to and maintain homeostasis.

Mushrooms for Longevity and Well-Being

Medicinal mushrooms have been used in traditional medicine for thousands of years, and now modern science is finding that a few of them, in particular, could make a real contribution to helping us be healthy, strong, and happy.

So the next time someone asks you if you like mushrooms, you might want to tell them what you’ve learned today about medicinal mushrooms!

Or you could share this rather poor excuse for a joke:

A mushroom walks into a bar and orders a drink. The bartender looks at the mushroom, points to a sign, and says, “We don’t serve mushrooms here.” The mushroom just looks at the bartender and says, “Oh come on, bartender! I’m a fun guy!”

Tell us in the comments:

• Which of these 5 mushrooms is your favorite?
• What other medicinal mushrooms do you enjoy?
• What’s your favorite way to consume edible mushrooms?

Featured Image: iStock.com/petesphotography

Read Next:

• How Mushrooms Can Help with Depression, Anxiety, and Your Overall Mental Health
• What Are the Real Superfoods? The Answers May Surprise You!

The post Nature’s 5 Most Powerful Medicinal Mushrooms (And How They Support Your Health) appeared first on Food Revolution Network.

Subsequent advances in nanotechnology have some futurists predicting the end of death sometime in this century. And just in case that doesn’t work out, many technologists are cheering efforts to build computers sophisticated enough to accommodate human consciousness. Someday soon, they insist, we’ll all just be uploaded to the cloud when our bodies fail, and either experience the universe as an immersive simulation or get transferred to some other organic body for the next phase of life.

That’s all very interesting, and maybe I’d want to live in a world where such things are possible (or even commonplace) — I’d have to think about it. But for right now, I’m not after literal immortality. I just want a long and healthy life, surrounded by loved ones, doing work that matters to me.

Cracking the Longevity Code

The good news is that we humans have already cracked that code. Many times over. In far-flung parts of the planet, a number of societies have arisen that have created a quality of life conducive to vital and vigorous longevity. My dad, John Robbins, wrote about four such places in his 2007 book, Healthy at 100. And additional research over the intervening 15 years has reinforced what he learned and found more communities where an unusual proportion of citizens are still vibrant and active past their hundredth birthdays.

A National Geographic team, including author Dan Buettner, has studied five of these places, which they dubbed “Blue Zones.” Not only did they quantify and verify the longevity claims, but they also conducted sophisticated statistical analyses to identify common factors that contributed to those long and healthy lives.

In this article, we’ll look at the Blue Zones research, and highlight things you can do to improve the quality and, possibly, length of your life. And as some of the factors are social rather than individual, when you make some of these changes, you may also increase the odds of the people around you gaining years of healthy and fulfilling lives, as well.

The “Fight” Against Aging

Most of us fear getting old and stress out about the prospect. In an industrialized society in which things change incredibly quickly, being old is no longer seen as a qualification for wisdom and value. Instead, the idea that aging renders people irrelevant and out of touch has taken hold.

And in a society that sometimes seems to worship youth, many of us bemoan the physical limitations that accompany aging. We peer into a bleak future of deteriorating health, increasing pain, and physical and cognitive limitations. We may anticipate boredom, loneliness, or even neglect by a world infatuated with the new.

And despite the fact that all of us — the fortunate ones, anyway — will age, there’s a strong societal stigma against it. There’s a reason so many products are touted as “anti-aging” — our society is seriously frightened of aging, so much so that we consider it a disease rather than a normal and natural stage of life, which, like all other stages of life, has its own challenges and difficulties, and also its own gifts and blessings.

Your View on Aging Matters

When you visualize an old person, what words come to mind that describe that person? A rather typical list for someone in our society might include words like: “Senile. Slow. Sick. Grumpy. Irritable. Stubborn.” Words or phrases like that are characteristic of how our society often views the elderly.

But it might surprise you to learn that in some other cultures it’s a very different story. Becca Levy is a Professor of Epidemiology at Yale School of Public Health, and a Professor of Psychology at Yale University. She writes that when she asked people in China to describe an old person, the most common response was “wisdom.” In contrast, when she asked people in the US to describe an old person, the first image that came to many was “memory loss.”

It’s important to look at our prejudices about aging, because the fear of aging can become self-fulfilling. Evidence tells us that simply believing that aging is bad can be damaging to your health. As we age, this bias takes a toll on our self-esteem, our dignity, and also our health.

Adding Life to Your Years

Up until very recently, modern society has been steadily extending people’s lives for over a century. Advanced medical technologies may keep people alive longer today, but they rarely add quality of life to those years. The result is we’re living longer — with an increased lifespan — but our “healthspan,” the number of healthy years we get to experience, is actually decreasing.

There’s reason to think our current medical paradigm may be reaching the limits of its effectiveness. In the US, life expectancy has actually been decreasing over the past several years. This is partly due to COVID-19, and partly due to the opioid crisis, but it’s also because those losses haven’t been offset by gains brought about by new technologies.

While longevity and computer consciousness researchers look to an uncharted future for the “cure” for aging and even death, I find value in looking at societies where healthy aging is the norm. These are cultures where people fully expect to remain strong and healthy well into their 80s and 90s, and where it’s common to find people who are literally healthy at 100 (which is why my dad titled his book, Healthy at 100). So let’s explore them, looking for lessons for our society.

Spoiler alert: We’re going to see that longevity in these cultures isn’t linked to self-denial and abstinence, but rather to pleasure, social connection, meaningful work, and delicious, healthy, life-giving food and drink.

What Is a Blue Zone?

In 2004, Dan Buettner joined a National Geographic expedition to uncover the secrets of human longevity. They wanted to know not just where people lived the longest, but what the healthiest lifestyles were that contributed to their longevity and vitality.

The concept of a “blue zone” — and the name — grew out of demographic work by researchers Gianni Pes and Michel Poulain. They drew blue circles on maps to highlight regions of extreme longevity and referred to the areas inside the circles as Blue Zones.

Building on that demographic work, Buettner and his team identified five major Blue Zones. Using epidemiological data, statistics, birth certificates, and other research, the team verified the unusual distribution of ages that showed how common it was to live for 100 years or more. They found that someone living in a Blue Zone is 10 times more likely to reach 100 than a person living in the United States as a whole.

Places With the Most Centenarians (and the Characteristics that Contribute to Longevity)

Buettner and his collaborators have been studying Blue Zones for almost 20 years now, and have amassed a treasure trove of data. Not just about how long people live, but about what factors contribute to their extended healthy lives. Now let’s take a look at each of these five Blue Zones, and explore some of the qualities and commonalities among the people who live there that distinguish them from people in industrialized and postindustrial societies.

Ikaria, Greece

Ikaria is an island where, according to legend, people “forget to die.” And that’s just a slight exaggeration — one in three Ikarians make it to their 90s. Their rates of chronic disease are low, and dementia is almost unheard of. So how do they do it?

Let’s start with diet. Most Ikarians keep a garden, which provides not just exercise and exposure to the outdoors, but local and organic plant-based calories. Their diet is mostly plant-based, with a Mediterranean pattern that’s roughly 37% greens and other vegetables. They also eat lots of whole grains, beans, and potatoes. And they drink teas brewed from domesticated and wild local herbs, including rosemary, oregano, and sage.

Their Greek Orthodox practice sanctions many fast days per year, which means they’re practicing constant caloric restriction (one of the few interventions that consistently increases lifespan in animals).

Ikaria is a mountainous island, which necessitates plenty of vigorous movement just to get around from one place to another. No need for spin classes or aerobics — just going about daily life on Ikaria keeps residents fit.

That said, residents of Ikaria aren’t going full-out all the time. They enjoy their rest periods, including a daily midafternoon break. They don’t rush around trying not to be late for appointments. Instead, they embrace a more relaxed pace of life. Sometimes they stay up well past midnight playing dominoes and fostering social connections, and sleep in til later the morning.

Loma Linda, California

The 24,000-person town of Loma Linda, California is the only Blue Zone located in the US. Despite living mostly typical American lives, with cars, shopping centers, and stressful jobs, the people here live a full decade longer than other Americans. They also have a lower average body mass index, which correlates with all kinds of positive health outcomes.

Their distinguishing feature is their religion. The vast majority of Loma Linda residents belong to the Seventh-day Adventist church, a Christian denomination that puts a heavy emphasis on healthy living. Adventists typically avoid alcohol and caffeine — and don’t smoke. Beyond these no-nos, many adherents follow a vegetarian or vegan diet, based on a verse in chapter one of Genesis: “Behold, I have given you every herb bearing seed, which is upon the face of all the Earth, and every tree, in the which is the fruit of a tree yielding seed; to you, it shall be for meat.”

Many Adventists interpret this verse to describe a primarily fruit- and vegetable-based diet as the ideal human way of eating. Many who do eat meat do so in small quantities, as a side dish rather than the main course.

For a snack, some Adventists prefer nuts, which is a good idea healthwise. Studies show that Adventists who eat nuts at least five times a week have cut their risk of heart disease in half, and live about two years longer, compared to Adventists who aren’t so into nuts. They typically enjoy a light, early dinner, which is another dietary pattern associated with good health.

Along with clean eating, Adventists prioritize regular, gentle exercise, such as long walks. They observe a weekly Sabbath, a day in which they rest from earthly pursuits and focus instead on family, God, camaraderie, and nature. They often volunteer for meaningful causes, which provides a strong sense of purpose.

The Alzheimer’s rates among the Adventist population in Loma Linda are also among the lowest in the world. This is particularly striking because there are neighborhoods just on the outskirts of Loma Linda where people don’t follow the diet and lifestyle practices of the Adventists, and as a result, have vastly higher rates of dementia.

Sardinia, Italy

A cluster of several villages on the Italian island of Sardinia demonstrates the potent synergy of nature and nurture to promote health. Most of the inhabitants have an otherwise rare genetic marker, called M26, that’s linked to exceptional longevity. And they also enjoy a health-promoting lifestyle that takes full advantage of their genetic potential, with nearly 10 times more centenarians per capita than in the US. Unusually, a large percentage of Sardinian men make it to 100.

Again, we see a primarily plant-based diet in action, with whole grains providing about half of all calories. Meat and added sugar, which are so prevalent in industrialized societies, are rare treats rather than staples. Mostly, they eat homegrown and homemade foods, in what many Americans would consider a minimalist diet. But they also enjoy a traditional red wine called Cannonau, which they source from a native grape.

Because they are a shepherding culture, Sardinians walk a lot as a natural part of their work and daily routine. Family is important in Sardinia, and the culture there celebrates elders, involving them and valuing their experience and wisdom.

Okinawa, Japan

When researching Healthy at 100, my dad stumbled upon an amazing statistic about the Japanese island of Okinawa — despite being home to just 0.0002% of the world’s population, they boast 15% of the world’s supercentenarians (people over 110). The island also has the world’s longest-lived women.

They also have very low rates of cancer, heart disease, dementia, osteoporosis, and other chronic health conditions.

Traditional Okinawans eat — you guessed it — a primarily plant-based diet, consisting mostly of purple Okinawan sweet potatoes, rice, whole soy products, and other veggies. And they don’t stuff themselves with all this goodness. Following the dictum “hara hachi bu,” they stop eating when they’re about 80% full.

Almost all Okinawan centenarians grow — or once grew — a garden, often including medicinal plants. In addition to the benefits of the food and herbs grown there, gardening has them spending time outside each day, which helps them maintain optimal vitamin D levels year-round.

Traditional Okinawans maintain a powerful social network called a “moai.” Unlike digital social networks, the moai is a collection of close friends and family who interact with each other on a regular basis, in person, for the good of all. It’s both a social and economic safety net, and reduces stress and loneliness, two of the most insidious drivers of ill health.

Additionally, Okinawans are motivated by a strong sense of purpose in life, which the Japanese call “ikigai.”

Nicoya, Costa Rica

Most inhabitants of the Nicoya peninsula in Costa Rica live to at least 90. As they age, they maintain their social networks, and tend to stay under the family roof, living with their children and/or grandchildren, and remaining active and useful. Many of these centenarians attribute their longevity to having a “plan de vida,” or strong sense of purpose in their lives.

As with the other Blue Zones, Nicoyans eat healthy, plant-based diets, in their case based on the traditional Mesoamerican “three sisters” — squash, corn, and beans. They eat many fruits and vegetables that they grow themselves, and go light on the meat. They also eat small dinners.

And they enjoy physical labor, typically performed outdoors, as their main form of exercise.

How to Live to 100

So what can you learn from these varied Blue Zone communities if you want a long and healthy life? Should you move to an island, live in the mountains, and take up gardening? Maybe drink herbal teas and eat purple sweet potatoes?

The thing is, there are a million variables at play here, and it’s easy to get hung up on isolated details out of context. After all, that’s how our media tends to report on health — this particular food cures cancer, here’s the perfect 7-minute workout, and so on.

But the Blue Zones are challenging to researchers because they aren’t controlled experiments with one or two variables. Rather, they’re dynamic environments that contribute in a holistic way to people’s life experiences and health outcomes. So we need to zoom out from the specifics, as important as they can be, and also identify some of the broad patterns that play out in each of the regions under study.

And remember that there are no guarantees — it’s always possible to be hit by the proverbial bus (unless you live on an island that has no buses, I guess) or develop disease despite your best efforts. But while we may not all be privileged to live to 100, we can certainly take away insights from Blue Zones lifestyles that, if we implement them, will help us live far healthier lives than is the norm in our society. So let’s look at the things the Blue Zones have in common. What should you do if you want to live more like the people in these societies do?

Exercise and Longevity: Move Naturally

In other words, build movement into your routines of daily life. “Workouts” and “exercise” are great, but also seek to move on a regular basis as part of your way of life. I sometimes think we’ve become physically the laziest and most sedentary people in history. Our ancestors would never have survived if they were a tenth as inactive as many of us are today. In contrast, in each of the Blue Zones, the way people live — gardening, farming, shepherding, walking up and down mountains — both necessitates and produces a high level of physical fitness.

If you want to live longer, become and remain physically active. You’ll sleep better, you’ll feel better and be less prone to depression, and your health will improve in countless ways. And exercise can also help prevent prediabetes from developing into type 2 diabetes.

Find Your Purpose

The Okinawans and Nicoyans, in particular, exhibit a strong sense of purpose, a “why” they wake up every morning. This sense of being needed is easier to come by in the Blue Zones, where the communities integrate elders and value their contributions.

Having a purpose, whether it’s to support family, take care of the land, do the bidding of God, or some other reason, keeps people going when others might give up on living. According to Blue Zones research, knowing your purpose and living in accord with it can contribute up to seven years of extra life expectancy.

If you live in a society that doesn’t value and integrate elders, you’ll need to find and act on your own purpose. Look for volunteer opportunities and other opportunities to be of service to others. If you serve on the board of a charity or social welfare organization, see if you can include older people in setting and carrying out your mission.

Downshift and Manage Stress

Stress is a natural and inevitable part of life. What’s unnatural is never taking time to unplug from it, or engaging in practices to recover and reset. We know that excess and chronic stress can seriously damage your health by laying the groundwork for persistent inflammation that’s linked to chronic disease.

Blue Zone cultures build stress management into daily routines.

First, they tend to produce less stress because they aren’t “on the clock” all the time, experiencing “time scarcity” and always rushing around.

Second, social interactions themselves can reduce stress by triggering social engagement that can replace the neurological “fight or flight” response.

Third, they take frequent breaks for reflection or pause. Okinawans take a few moments each day to bring to mind their honored ancestors: Adventists pray, Ikarians nap, and Sardinians enjoy happy hour. They also use some homegrown herbs — in foods, drinks, or as medicines — to help to relieve stress.

What can you add to your day to ease the stresses of life?

Follow the 80% Rule

The Okinawan practice of eating only until 80% full is a great example of moderation in eating. This one rule could be the difference between gaining weight or maintaining a slim and healthy physique.

Not everyone in every Blue Zone follows this practice specifically, but all Blue Zone cultures emphasize moderating food intake in some way. For example, the smallest meal is usually eaten in the late afternoon or early evening, after which people fast until breakfast (now I hear it — “break fast”).

Fasting is also a part of Blue Zone lifestyles. There are many different types, including single-day, multiday, partial, and intermittent. In addition to aligning with deeply held spiritual beliefs, fasting has a number of health benefits.

And there’s a clear link between overeating and stress, often acting in a disempowering vicious loop that creates digestive problems and obesity. Noticing fullness and stopping at the first sensations of satiety is one powerful way to break the cycle.

Eat Mostly Plants

People in the Blue Zones and other long-lived areas follow a primarily plant-based diet. Staples of Blue Zone diets include vegetables, fruit, whole grains, legumes, and nuts and seeds.

As a lot of research has shown by now, plant-based diets are among the healthiest ways of eating, and can help prevent and stop the development of chronic disease.

Most of the Blue Zone diets aren’t entirely vegan, with the exception of a subset of Seventh-day Adventists in Loma Linda. But while they include some meat and dairy, animal foods typically make up a small proportion of their diets, are locally sourced, come from animals that graze in pastures rather than live in feedlots and factory farms, and are often reserved for special occasions like holidays and life cycle celebrations.

For example, traditional Okinawans source about 5% of their diet from meat and dairy, while these foods comprise over 30% of the diet of the average American. Also, Blue Zone residents typically grow or raise the majority of their food, and they rarely if ever consume the ultra-processed foods that make up almost two-thirds of the food eaten in the modern Western diet.

Plus, their diets are low in calories compared to others, with an average of about 1,900 per day — far less than the 3,600 calories that the average American puts away on a daily basis.

Drink Alcohol in Moderation (or not at all)

People in Blue Zones — except Loma Linda Adventists who don’t drink at all — drink alcohol in moderation. This looks like 1–2 glasses per day, always with friends, and as part of meals. While alcohol in moderation may relieve stress and lubricate social interactions, there are other ways to achieve the same effects without drinking, if you so choose.

I say this because there’s a lot of evidence that alcohol consumption is a net negative for health, and has been shown to increase your risk for several chronic physical conditions, as well as mental illness, and even death.

So if you live in a Blue Zone where you have a daily glass of locally produced wine as part of a leisurely and social dinner, that’s one thing. But please don’t take up drinking to live longer if it means downing a few beers in the evening while watching TV. This is a case where context really matters.

A Sense of Belonging

Just about all the centenarians interviewed as part of the original Blue Zones research belonged to a faith-based community. And while it’s impossible to disentangle belief in a benevolent deity from simply belonging to a community of like-minded people, we do know that “a sense of belonging is a significant predictor of mental health and well-being in later life.”

In older adults, specifically, research shows that a low sense of belonging is associated with depression, suicidal ideation, and hopelessness.

If being part of organized religion isn’t your thing, don’t despair — belonging can take many forms. You can connect with family and friends, participate in a group hobby like ballroom dancing, or even combine belonging with your sense of purpose by joining an advocacy group or charity that puts you in contact with others.

If you live in a society that’s fragmented, with little social connection, then you have to do some of that community building yourself. Start forming support networks, weave together neighbors and friends, and make sure to include elders now, so that you will be included when you reach that stage of life.

You can belong to the more-than-human world as well. Connecting with companion animals, or even feeling that you have a place in nature can also provide a sense of belonging.

Put Loved Ones First

Those who successfully reach 100 in Blue Zones almost invariably prioritize their families above all else. Often aging parents and grandparents live nearby or in the homes of younger family members. In modern society that may seem like a burden, but in the Blue Zones it isn’t; one of the reasons for this is that rates of Alzheimer’s and other dementias in these societies are only the tiniest fraction of what we currently experience in our society.

In terms of belonging, family often tops the list. ​​Family connections can provide a sense of meaning and purpose, social connection, and tangible resources such as home care, feeding, and cleaning. Being connected and taken care of enhances well-being.

Hang Out With the Right Tribe

People in Blue Zones enjoy longer and more vigorous lives than most because they’re embedded in systems and structures that promote healthy lifestyles. Just being part of a real-life social network improves health outcomes. A review of 150 studies including over 300,000 participants found that people with strong social ties are 50% more likely to survive over any given time period, compared to those lacking those ties.

Blue Zone cultures, by emphasizing the community and honoring and including elders in community life, provide social circles — like the Okinawan moais — that support healthy behaviors. Research shows that behaviors and qualities that most of us think of as personal and individual — including smoking, obesity, happiness, and even loneliness — are contagious.

I hope you’ll start weaving these Blue Zones strategies into “recipes” for your long, healthy, and joyful life. There are plenty of challenges to living in healthy, nature-based, and socially connected ways in modern societies. But the more each of us strives to build and belong to a nurturing and inclusive community, the more accessible such a lifestyle becomes for everyone else.

The food factor in Blue Zone longevity may be the easiest for you to adopt, as it requires the least coordination with others. And once you’ve dialed in a healthy, plant-based diet, look for ways to join with others — parties, potlucks, gatherings, cooking demos — to bring the rest of the Blue Zone magic to life in your life.

Here are some delicious Blue Zone-inspired recipes to get you started.

Blue Zone Recipes

Gather your community to share in the joy and power of nourishing plant food, taking healthy inspiration from these tasty whole-food recipes. Using common ingredients consumed in the Blue Zones, these recipes — incorporated into your daily routine — can help you live energized like a healthy centenarian!

1. Homemade Granola with Yogurt and Berries

Pile this yummy, nutty granola on top of your favorite plant-based yogurt (we highly recommend giving our recipe a try — just sayin’!) along with antioxidant-rich blueberries for an early (or late) morning breakfast that couldn’t be simpler or more delicious. Plus, this longevity recipe is an easy way to help you reach the Blue Zone recommendation of two handfuls of nuts a day!

2. Three-Seed Fermented Buckwheat Bread

Adding fermented foods to your diet may help you unlock one of the secrets to longevity. We think that our friends in the Blue Zones would enjoy our contribution to the effort — Three-Seed Fermented Buckwheat Bread — thanks to its deliciously moist texture with crunchy seeds and a slightly sour taste from the fermentation process. Be sure to keep an eye on the fermentation time and bring your patience — the end result is absolutely worth it! Enjoy the health-boosting benefits of this yummy bread with your favorite fruit-based spread, with nut or seed butter, or alongside a hearty plant-based soup.

3. Energizing White Bean and Kale Soup

Energizing White Bean and Kale Soup might be the quintessential Blue Zone meal with its bounty of hearty beans, nourishing veggies, and comforting herbs and spices. This soup has so much wholesome goodness, and the nutrition you need to thrive in every decade of life. There is plenty of calcium from the kale, lycopene and vitamin C from the tomatoes, plant-based iron from the beans, and so many more life-enhancing nutrients that this soup will certainly add a bit of Blue Zone magic to your life!

4. Savory Chickpeas and Spinach

Beans are a dietary staple in all five of the Blue Zones, with an average serving of at least a half cup per day! Savory Chickpeas and Spinach is a bright, zingy, and perfectly spiced bean-based side that makes getting your daily dose easy and delicious. It’s also super versatile — swap the chickpeas and spinach for your favorite beans and veggies of choice to make a new combination you’ll always be excited to try.

5. Southwest Stuffed Sweet Potatoes

Gather the family to share and embrace the power of plant-proven nutrition with these longevity-loving Southwest Stuffed Sweet Potatoes. When it comes to nourishing your body, sweet potatoes are a plant-based MVP. With the addition of a protein-packed and phytonutrient-rich black bean and sweet corn medley, delightfully creamy avocado, and flavorful herbs and spices, it’s no wonder this recipe fits the Blue Zone recipe criteria.

Longevity Is Possible!

Although aging is often something that people in industrialized nations dread, due to its association with loneliness and chronic health problems, it doesn’t have to be this way. While aging is an inevitable part of life, and there are things you can do to slow the process, obsessing over stopping aging or finding some miraculous Fountain of Youth can actually stoke fears and increase dread of what’s to come.

Instead, look for things to do that can make your later years vibrant and enjoyable. By looking to the centenarians of the world in places like the Blue Zones, you can take inspiration on how to live so that you may dance your way to your “wisdom years,” whether they extend to 100 and beyond or not.

Tell us in the comments:

• What’s your favorite Blue Zone, based on the descriptions here? Which one fits your interests and temperament most closely?
• What can you do to increase your daily dose of movement in nature?
• Which of the Blue Zones strategies are already embedded in your life?

Feature Image: iStock.com/cometary

Read Next:

• What is Miso? Introducing a Longevity Food of the Blue Zones

The post The Blue Zones: Longevity Secrets from Centenarians appeared first on Food Revolution Network.

When you go to the grocery store and see a bag of cashews going for around $15 a pound or more, you might also resent the high price. But when you learn how cashews are processed, so you can eat them for a snack or turn them into creamy plant-based sauces and dips, you’ll have a new appreciation for how much they cost.

Many plant-based eaters depend upon cashews for raising their culinary game. From cashew butter to cashew milk to cashew cheese and yogurt, to Indian, Southeast Asian, and African dishes enhanced by crunchy and creamy cashew pieces, this drupe has enabled dairy-free cooks to mimic much of the richness of cow’s milk without harming animals or degrading the environment.

And they’re not only versatile and delicious — as unofficial members of the nut family — cashews also pack a nutritional punch.

But cashews have a somber side, too, as we’ve learned by paying attention to their production and where they come from — and the ethical issues that surround their journey from tree to table. In this article, we’re going to look at the pros and cons of cashews, from their health benefits and culinary uses to ethical and sustainability concerns.

Where Do Cashews Come From?

As you might expect, cashews come from the cashew tree, a tropical plant that originated in Brazil and has been cultivated in many other tropical regions of the globe. Vietnam and India are considered the top producers of cashews, but that’s a misleading designation. Poorer countries like Ivory Coast, Burundi, and Benin are among the largest exporters of cashews. But they are not considered producers because what they export has to undergo extensive processing before it reaches edible form.

It turns out that cashews aren’t really nuts. Rather, they’re drupe seeds, like almonds — and plum and peach pits. To further muddle things up, these nuts-that-aren’t-really-nuts grow at the bottom of a fruit called a “cashew apple,” which isn’t really a fruit, but what’s known as a “false fruit” because it doesn’t form from the ovary of the plant.

The cashew apple is also edible but rarely exported since it has a short shelf life and doesn’t travel well. Within its countries of origin, the cashew apple is often juiced or dried, cooked into curries, fermented into vinegar, or used to make preserves, chutneys, and jams. In the Indian state of Goa, it’s fermented and distilled to make a seriously alcoholic drink known as feni. And it has many medicinal uses as well.

At the base of the cashew apple grows a kidney-bean-shaped hard shell with a single seed inside. That seed is the cashew “nut,” but don’t even think about picking it, cracking it open, and eating it like you would a walnut or pecan. As I said, that nut needs to be processed almost beyond recognition.

Now that we’re staring directly at the weirdness of this plant, guess what it’s related to botanically. If you said “poison ivy,” you’d be right. And as we’ll see a little later, that fact is why cashews represent huge occupational challenges for the workers who process them for our benefit.

Cashew Nutrition Facts

Cashews are a good source of plant-based protein. They’re also pretty high in fat, providing a mix of saturated and unsaturated fats. And like other plant-based sources of fat, cashews reduce your risk of premature death when you substitute them for animal-based fats.

Cashews are about the micronutrients as much as the macros. They’re a good source of vitamin K and B vitamins, as well as important minerals like iron, magnesium, phosphorus, zinc, copper, and manganese. They’re also a decent source of the elusive mineral selenium. And in a victory for those of us who prefer roasted nuts (and drupes!) to raw ones, it appears that roasting cashews actually increases their antioxidant power.

Cashews also contain so-called “antinutrients” like lectins, phytates, and oxalates, which, despite what some wellness influencers claim, are not a problem for most people. If you want to maximize mineral absorption, you can neutralize the effect of these compounds by soaking your cashews for a few hours, or eating them with allium vegetables (such as onions and garlic) or foods containing vitamin C.

If you’re looking to lose weight, keep in mind that the high-fat content of cashews, coupled with their very low water content, means they are high in calories. In fact, an ounce of cashews delivers a whopping 155 calories, which comes out to almost 2,500 calories per pound. And given that they’re often roasted and salted to make them even more delicious, they’re pretty darn easy to overeat.

Health Benefits of Cashews

What do we know about how eating cashews can support your health?

Cashews and Heart Health

For starters, cashews appear to promote cardiovascular health. A 2017 study of American adults with high LDL (“bad”) cholesterol found that when they ate more cashews, their LDL levels dropped while their HDL (“good”) cholesterol remained constant.

In an Iranian study of type 2 diabetics published in 2019, one group was asked to consume 10% of their calories from cashews. The control group ate the same number of calories, but without the cashews. The cashew group didn’t gain weight but did see their cholesterol shift to a much more favorable ratio of “good” to “bad” cholesterol.

A meta-analysis of five other modest studies on cashews and cardiac health published that same year found that cashew consumption was correlated with lower triglyceride levels and lower systolic and diastolic blood pressure.

Cashews and Bone Health

The nutrients in cashews, and particularly the minerals magnesium and copper, appear to support bone and joint health, too. Male rats with chemically-induced osteoarthritis (ugh — our view on the use of animals in medical research is here) who were fed cashew nuts demonstrated fewer and less severe “pain-like behaviors” and had improved pain-related biomarkers.

Are Cashews Good for Your Brain?

Also thanks to their tryptophan content, cashews may protect the brain and nervous system from the effects of aging — specifically, they may slow cognitive decline.

Cashews and Depression

Cashews may also help enhance your mood, and not just because they’re so darn yummy. They’re one of the richest sources of the amino acid tryptophan, a precursor to the neurotransmitter serotonin — one of the body’s endogenous antidepressants. The magnesium in cashews also fights depression and anxiety through its positive effects on the nervous system. It’s also crucial for maintaining stable blood sugar levels (which are also relevant to your mood).

What About Cashew Allergies?

Tree nuts represent one of the seven major allergenic food categories. Despite not being true tree nuts, cashews can still be potent allergens, causing severe reactions in susceptible people that can persist long-term, compared with some other food allergies. Both children and adults can be affected.

While the prevalence of cashew allergy appears to be increasing, it’s still relatively uncommon. A 2021 study of over 500 children with food allergies found that just over 3% of them showed sensitivity to cashews. The percentage among the general population is likely far lower.

With a couple of exceptions, cashews are good for the people eating them. But what about their effects on the planet and agricultural workers?

Are Cashews Sustainable?

Cashews perform surprisingly well in most measures of sustainability. In terms of water use, they’re just a little less thirsty than almonds, which are among the crops requiring the most hydration. But unlike almonds grown in the US, cashews are mostly harvested from trees in their natural environment, the tropics. So they receive their water allotment from rain (also known as “green water”) rather than the underground aquifers that supply the almond trees in drought-prone California.

True, that means the cashews consumed in the US are imports, which adds to their carbon footprint. But this is offset somewhat by the trees’ ability to sequester carbon in their biomass and in the soil.

Dairy substitutes made from cashews, such as milk, yogurt, spreads, and cheeses, are far more environmentally friendly than their dairy counterparts, especially when you consider greenhouse gas emissions.

Adding to the cashew advantage, the by-products of cashew processing have many other uses. The shell oil (which, confusingly, isn’t an oil, but rather a mixture of cardol and anacardic acid) appears in over 200 different patents. It’s an ingredient in things that must resist friction, heat, and acids, such as brake linings and clutch plates for the automotive industry, and also helps make glue and lightweight carbon-composite products such as rockets and high-end kayaks.

Cashew wood is also remarkably insect-resistant and favored for packing crates and bookcases. And the gum of the cashew tree works as an insect-repellent glue in bookbinding.

Should You Buy Organic Cashews?

Another plus for the planet is that a lot of cashew farming in Vietnam, Thailand, and India (major suppliers of the US market) occurs on “small, often wild or naturalized plantations” that don’t use any fertilizers or pesticides.

This doesn’t mean that the cashews you buy are guaranteed to be organic, though. There is a trend to apply pesticides even to naturally pest-resistant cashews, as they’ve been shown to slightly increase yield. The good news is that cashew nuts naturally have two protective coverings — the outer shell and the inner “testa” layer — shielding them from the direct application of pesticides. FDA testing did not find pesticide residue in most of the cashews it sampled. And so, you don’t have to buy organic cashews to avoid pesticides — although buying organic is generally better for people and the planet.

Overall, cashews are relatively sustainable, especially in comparison to meat and dairy.

Cashew Ethics

But while cashews can be nutritious and environmentally sustainable, the cashew industry is unfortunately notable for its track record of harming workers. To understand the scope and severity of the problem, let’s first look at what has to happen for cashews to get from a tree to your mouth.

Cashew Processing

First, it’s extremely labor intensive to harvest the nuts. Each cashew apple has one nut, which workers must harvest by hand. (One of the reasons they’re so expensive compared to many other nuts.)

The main issue, however, is that the cashews are toxic to the touch before and during processing. The shell that surrounds each cashew nut contains the toxic oil urushiol, which is the active ingredient in poison ivy. When urushiol touches human skin, it causes rashes, itching, blistering, and swelling.

As if that isn’t bad enough, the shell is also a source of phenolic resin, which contains formaldehyde and anacardic acid, which is also a powerful skin irritant.

Cashew nut consumers don’t have to worry about any of these compounds because they’re removed during processing. Once the shells are peeled, dried, and subjected to heat, there are no more toxins.

Harmful Effects on Cashew Workers

Unfortunately, the workers doing the cutting, peeling, drying, and heating of cashew processing experience all these side effects during their long daily shifts. Since they’re paid when they meet production quotas, rather than an hourly wage, they have to rush just to make the equivalent of $2–3 per day. And rushing while hand-cutting or peeling the fragile drupes leads to nasty skin burns.

Gloves would help but are not common for three reasons. First, the factories that employ the cashew processors (who are nearly all women) force them to pay for their own gloves. Second, the thin gloves that workers can afford often break, rendering them useless. And third, the women say that gloves make the work harder, slow them down, and keep them from earning what they need to feed their families.

Here’s an 8-minute heartbreaking video that shows why cashews are so expensive. And it illustrates the effects of cashew processing on a group of women in Sri Lanka. Trigger Warning: it shows disturbing images of the skin damage the women experience due to constant exposure to the corrosive oils and acids in the cashew shells.

Other Cashew Industry Labor Issues

As you can imagine, the only people who take such jobs are those with few other options. In fact, a Human Rights Watch (HRW) report from 2011 revealed that Vietnamese cashew processing facilities were forced-labor camps for those convicted of being drug addicts. TIME magazine reported that prisoners who resisted were “beaten with truncheons, given electric shocks, locked in isolation, deprived of food and water, and obliged to work even longer hours…”

And very few workers are covered by health insurance, even when such coverage is mandatory by the government.

In response to all this, there are now global campaigns working to end the horrific practices of the “blood cashew” industry.

Fair-Trade Cashews

Not all cashew plantations and processing plants engage in the heinous — and profitable — practices described above. If you want to enjoy cashews and cashew products without contributing to the mistreatment of workers, you can.

One fair-trade cashew brand that I like is Beyond the Nut — and you can receive 10% off your first order from them with the code FOODREV10. Another fair-trade cashew brand you might want to check out is Uprise Foods, which you can purchase on Amazon here. These companies work with facilities that provide a fair wage, provide castor oil for workers to coat their skin to prevent weeping sores (while keeping their hands nimble enough to do the work), and give back to the local communities to help lift them out of poverty.

How to Store Cashews

Once you’ve bought fair-trade cashews, make sure you store them properly so you can enjoy them. It’s best to keep them in an airtight container — glass jars and silicone bags work nicely. If you have a large quantity that you aren’t going to use up quickly, store them in your refrigerator or freezer, where they can last for up to six months.

If you keep cashews in your pantry, make sure to protect them from light and heat; that way, you can enjoy them for up to three months.

Like other nuts (and drupes!), cashews can go bad if stored for too long in unfavorable conditions. Cashews will go rancid when exposed to light, air, and heat for too long. You’ll know if your cashews are ready for the compost if they have a harsh and bitter taste or an odor that reminds you of old paint or nail polish remover.

How to Use Cashews

You can, of course, snack on cashews all by themselves. You can also add them to recipes or use them as toppings for both sweet and savory dishes.

Here are some typical uses for cashews:

• On their own or on a charcuterie board as a snack; raw or roasted with herbs, spices, or even lemon juice
• Mixed into trail mix, granola, or energy balls
• Cashew butter
• Made into another sauce or condiment like cashew sour cream or a cashew spread
• Cashew cheese
• Used as a topping for stir-fry and other Asian dishes
• As a topping for plant-based yogurt or oatmeal
• Made into cashew milk or yogurt

Cashew Recipes

Homemade yogurt is an economical, nutritious, and delicious base in a range of recipes. Cashew cheese in an already-tasty, feeds-a-crowd veggie casserole, ups the “everyone will love this” quotient, just about ensuring that not a bite will go to waste. And, seasoned and roasted cashews become that special something that will delight your taste buds — a few will go a long way, either as a snack or in elevating your favorite dishes (plus, they store well!).

1. Easy Homemade Cashew Yogurt

This super simple, five-ingredient, plant-based yogurt will get you excited to be in the kitchen! Because cashews have a decent amount of plant-based fat, they create that creamy mouthfeel of traditional yogurt. Easy Homemade Cashew Yogurt is certainly worth the wait while healthy bacteria do their job making it nice and tangy. Check out the Chef’s Notes for all the ways you can use this creamy treat.

2. Broccoli Potato Casserole with Cashew Cheese

Cashews are a magical plant-based ingredient that easily blends into a silky and creamy dairy-free cheese or sauce to enhance just about any recipe. In Broccoli Potato Casserole with Cashew Cheese — a comforting, creamy, and mouthwatering meal — they are truly a game changer! This wholesomely cheesy casserole is an ideal plant-based dish for the entire family!

3. Chili-Spiced Roasted Cashews

Their slightly sweet yet neutral flavor makes cashews a perfect vehicle for the creative use of your favorite flavors, herbs, and spices (and roasting them makes them even more deliciously nutty!). Here, fresh lime, fragrant chili powder, and robust tones of garlic make way for a slightly sweet and savory snack — for any time a crunchy craving hits. What’s more, you can add them to your favorite savory plant-based dishes for an extra kick of flavor and crunch!

Enjoy Cashews Responsibly

The cashew is a delicious “nut” that can be enjoyed as is, and also makes a versatile substitute for dairy. It’s healthy and nutritious, though some people need to avoid it because of allergies. And because cashew processing plants have a track record of mistreating and underpaying their employees, I recommend choosing only fair-trade certified cashews, even if they cost a bit more than regular brands.

Tell us in the comments:

• What’s your favorite nut (or drupe)?
• Have you used cashews to replace dairy products? If so, how did it work?
• What cashew recipe will you try?

Feature Image: iStock.com/Altayb

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