30 healthy habits most people ignore

This blog post is largely opinionated and based on my personal experience. I’m not suggesting science is wrong—people are. I’m not challenging your own habits. I’m not even judging anyone. I’m also not a doctor nor have I ever studied nutrition or medicine in any way shape or form, other than experimenting with my own body, that is.

Look at these as an experiment if you will, not advices.

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If you’re looking to change your life for the better, the least you can do is consider some approaches you haven’t done before. If you’re feeling bad about your health it’s most likely due to some practice, habit or advice you have been given—ignoring any genetic issue you could have been born with, those are rare.

TL;DR

One could say there are 5 pillars of a healthy lifestyle: nutrition, sleep, mental health, exercise and toxins.

So an extremely short version of this post could be something like: eat well, get enough rest, drown your own demons, keep active and run like hell from any toxic substance.
There you go—if that’s all you wanted and you know what to do, have a nice day!

If otherwise you’re willing to get to know me a bit better and read through my own experience, keep reading. I’m sure you’ll find something that could challenge your own beliefs!

1. Drink mostly water

This is probably one of the advices all of us hear from time to time. But after experimenting with it, I do have a different take than what’s usually heard.

But instead of suggesting one should drink a specific volume of water per day, like 2 liters, I found that drinking enough, is just fine. I don’t benefit from drinking a lot of water per day, sometimes closer to 3 liters, actually. Instead what I do is restricting my beverages to mostly water.

I completely stopped drinking sodas. Everything I drink now is still or sparkling water. I may add a bit of lemon juice to either of those. I may brew some tea. But it’s water 99% of the time.

No alcohol whatsoever—no benefits in drinking alcohol.

2. Eat less often

Our DNA is mostly the same as our ancestors. And by ancestors I mean the hunters and gatherers from millions of years ago. As you can imagine, there were no supermarkets available at every corner for them to shop and have a quick snack. There were no agricultural activities by then either. So people mostly ate when they stumbled upon something interesting—fruits, berries or animals. Food storage was also not a thing by then.

Do we really need to eat breakfast, morning snack, lunch, afternoon snack, dinner, late night snack and whatever else one can fit in between these? I personally don’t think so, especially if we eat properly.

Lately, I’ve been eating just twice a day—breakfast and late lunch.

Having breakfast around 08:30 means that I can go until around 16:30 without eating again. I have lunch by this time. And then I don’t eat anything throughout the day.
I’m not starving! I don’t feel like I’m restricting my body from food at all. I just listen to my body and only eat whenever I feel hungry.

Try it for yourself! You’ll be surprised!

3. Eat more meat

I know… In an era of proliferation of veganism, suggesting anyone to eat more meat sounds like a sin. It’s fine if you don’t agree. But the truth is that meat is a very steady source of energy for our bodies.

Besides being rich in vitamins, it also has plenty of protein which we need to generate muscle mass—vital for our bodies—and also has a good amount of fat which will provide that fullness feeling.

A cookie pack can be around 250 grams. If you’re like my past self, you eat the whole thing and wonder what else could you eat next.

Now try eating a 250 gram steak and see if you would consider more food right afterwards. Most people won’t.

4. Adopt a low carb high fat diet

Inline with the previous point, one could say that carbs are the culprit of a sick society. Think bread, rice, potatoes, pasta, and anything else that’s made out of flour. Even vegetables and fruits are largely carbs. But there’s arguably more nutritional benefit from eating those than their processed counterparts.

If you’re skeptical, which is perfectly normal considering our society, watch the Fat Fiction movie. It’s the best kind of information you could get in an easy digestible way on this subject.

It’s all about energy!
Our bodies are like a fire, in the sense that they both consume a lot of energy just to maintain their alive state.

Carbs are like kindling—they’re great to start a fire but burn out quickly.
Protein is like small logs—ideal to boost that initial combustion for a longer period of time.
Fat is like a big log—it burns slowly and steady, for hours.

If our diet is mostly based on carbs, as most doctors suggest, you will feel tired and hungry all the time—that’s your body asking for extra fuel. Give it fat!

I once did an unintentional experiment where I ate a bunch of strawberries in the early afternoon. But I added a full 200 ml bottle of whipped cream (sugar free). I couldn’t eat anything else for the rest of the day—I was full!

5. Ditch the seed oils

Although we need fat, there are bad fats we need to avoid. Common cooking oils are usually extremely processed. Think sunflower oil, canola oil, sesame oil, grapeseed oil, safflower oil, etc. Before these reach a translucent bottle, they go through a bunch of steps to make it last longer, smell less, remove the natural color, etc.

If you knew these oils go through a bleaching process—the one that removes the color pigments—would you still eat it? Would you look at them any differently?
Because these are promoted as being healthy, and good for the heart.

I don’t know about you, but I doubt my body likes bleached foods.
These oils are not only extremely unhealthy, they’re also the source of other symptoms like the “munchies”, inflammation and weight gain.

Between Jan 2023 and Jan 2025 I lost around 20 kg mostly because I stopped eating seed oils.

The real issue with seed oils is that they’re present in pretty much all the food we can buy at a supermarket. Almost anything that comes in a package has some kind of seed oil in it. Sometimes under different names such as mono and diglycerides of fatty acids also known as E471.

Once you decide you don’t want these in your food anymore, the majority of the time you spend at a supermarket, you’re going to be reading labels.

6. Ditch highly processed foods

As if the previous point wasn’t enough to make you stop eating processed foods, most of them also come with added sugars.

Think about it, good fat is tasty—butter, coconut oil, animal fat. What happens to a food whose good fat has been replaced with highly processed oils? It has lost its flavor! So what do they do to make you want to eat them? Add sugar to it! Now it’s tasty again. And supposedly healthy because they have no saturated fats in it.

Mind you that sugar is also highly processed, especially the mostly common white granulated one. There are other kinds of sugar though.

• Fruit has plenty of fructose, that’s natural.
• Honey is also mostly fructose and glucose—bees gather them from the flowers.
• Even milk and derivatives have lactose.

Notice a pattern? The …ose ending.

Look at the labels of the foods you have at home. If you find anything like this, you’re eating more sugar than you think.

7. Take your vitamins

This is a big one for me. Most people don’t feel any differently whether they take their vitamins or not. But I was able to get off my medicines with 1 vitamin alone—more on that later.

A quick list of vitamins we should take is: Vitamin A, B, C, D, E and K and also Magnesium, which is technically not a vitamin. All of these help with a powerful immune system, crucial for a healthy human, strong bones and a healthy cardiovascular system.

Magnesium is a powerful mineral. It has plenty of benefits for our bodies but I take it for 2 main reasons:

1. It’s an excellent chelator—it helps clean our body from offenders;
2. It helps control sugar levels;

Heavy metals and toxins we’re exposed to during the day accumulate in our bodies. Magnesium binds to these, making it easier for our bodies to clean them out. Hey, remember I’m not a doctor, this is obviously highly simplified.

Lastly, a note on vitamin C!
There’s no better way to put it other than what Dr. Robert Cathart, Dr. Linus Pauling and Dr. Thomas Levy (in his Primal Panacea book) have done.

My personal doctor was telling me, a few years ago, I would be hooked to anti-histamines for the rest of my life. Because without them, I would have constant migraines during spring. Along with sneezing, itchy eyes, runny nose and most importantly wheezing—that’s when some parts of our lungs contract in such a way that air can’t go through—during the night. As you can imagine, waking up in the middle of the night having trouble breathing is no walk in the park.

The medicines did help, don’t get me wrong! But the list of undesired side effects is long. And I really didn’t want to spend the rest of my life taking something that could be causing more harm than good, in the long run.

So I decided to investigate myself and found the work of the doctors pointed above. I was so curious with the bowel tolerance protocol that Dr. Rob C. suggested I had to try it for myself.
I have been taking ascorbic acid ever since that day. Every day. No more serious symptoms. And when I do, I take another dose of it and they’re gone within minutes.

The side effect of too much vitamin C? Instant diarrhea. That’s it. You clean yourself up and go on with your day.

Vitamin C is crucial for our immune system. It needs it like we need oxygen to function properly. Yes, we can find it in plenty of foods like orange, lemon and kiwi.
The official suggested dosage for adult men is around 90 mg.
An orange has around 70 mg.

I take around 15 g a day—that’s 15,000 mg. If I would eat oranges to get this amount of vitamin C I would need to eat more than 200 oranges per day. Imagine the amount of fructose I would be having along. It’s just not practical.

8. Get to bed early

In my 20s, I would go to bed way past midnight. Sometimes really stretching the line of tiredness, for some stupid reason. This means that I would get out of bed sometimes past midday. My circadian rhythm was completely off. I didn’t have any fixed schedules and my bed time and wake time was constantly changing.

Our bodies need routines. It’s no wonder that our bodies produce their own melatonin—a natural substance that helps regulate our sleep—when we’re deprived from light sources. So instead of turning on all the lights at home and expose yourself to screens and blue lights—which drastically reduces the production of melatonin—allow yourself to be in a low-light or total darkness environment.

You will inevitably end up being sleepy soon after the sun has set. It’s amazing how our bodies are adapted to our environment. That is, if we let it do its thing.

9. Ventilate the rooms

The air we breathe, especially during our sleep, is extremely important for a good, restful and restoring sleep.

I tend to sleep better when the temperature is below 20ºC and the humidity level is around 50%. When it comes to CO2 levels, it’s one of those invisible aspects of the air that can affect how well you rest at night. A value below 700 ppm (parts per million) is ideal for me.
Of course these values are not the same for everyone, but being aware of them may help you understand why you didn’t have such a restoring sleep.

Even during the day, my body clearly warns me when the temperature is above 25ºC. And it’s not uncommon for productivity levels to drop drastically and even cause head aches when I’m exposed to CO2 levels above 1500 ppm for a long period of time. That’s why I usually open the windows in the office while working.

Ventilating is the best way to clear CO2 levels—assuming the air outside is clean—30 min is usually enough.

10. Dress up in the morning

For a long period of time in my life—longer than I care to admit—I would wear my pajamas for the whole day. So much so that on some days I wouldn’t even need to put them on by night time, because I haven’t took it off in the first place.

This practice was silently hindering my mental health—I can see this now from a distance.

I wouldn’t want to dress just to get groceries. Or just to go to the garage. Or just to get the mail. You know, I wouldn’t dress “just because”. It was never a good enough reason to do it. Which meant I would spend days and weeks at home. And I love being at home, don’t get me wrong. But we do need to look at unfamiliar faces from time to time. We need to walk outside, in the sun.

Dressing up in the morning signals to my body that I’m ready for the day, whatever it may bring.

11. Family comes first

There was a time in my life where I looked at my family as “friends I didn’t pick”. And that’s true, in a way. These are people that you see and talk to on a regular basis that you may or may not feel a strong connection with because you didn’t pick them in the first place. You ended up having these family members.

While that is true, it doesn’t reduce the importance they may have in your life.

Just like friends, when you need help to move the sofa around it’s not the grocery store guy you’re going for, is it? You’re most likely going to ask a family member. And this is a practical example. Most often, family is there to help with guidance more than moving sofas around. Pivot!—If you know, you know.

This also means that you need to take care of them. Our jobs are important for us, there’s no doubt about that. But we usually change jobs frequently during our lives. The same doesn’t happen for family members. When we loose one, it’s gone for good. So take good care of them, because they’re most likely going away sooner than you expect.

12. Ignore issues you can’t solve

It’s not unusual for us to spend a humongous amount of time thinking or even discussing issues that we or someone else close has. It’s also not unusual for us to become a little bit too much involved in them, to the point where our temper may shift.

If you think about it, why would you allow yourself to become angry at a construction site just because they do all sorts of loud noises all day long? Yes, it’s annoying! But there’s just nothing you can do about them. Focus on what you can do. Put headphones on, close the windows, go to a different room…
Nothing you can do will prevent them from carrying on with their jobs. Might as well laugh about it.

An issue with no solution is a solved issue.

As my dad used to say.

13. Spend time by yourself

When was the last time you really spent time by yourself? I mean, alone—wherever it may be—and not looking at a screen. Most people can’t remember it—because they don’t do it.

Back when I joined Doist, I was living with my parents. As much as I love them, having constant knocks on the door to ask random questions was not necessarily what I imagined working from home would be like. So I moved out, alone. The amount of stuff we can do when we’re truly alone is surprising. I had a full time job, a house to take care of and a bunch of hobbies. But I still had time to sit down and meditate, if you will.

Living by yourself is one thing. But I do believe everyone should experience traveling alone at some point in their lives. I did that shortly after moving out of my parent’s. I went to Azores for 1 week, all by myself. I was all by myself in an island I didn’t know, with no one familiar around me—a scary thought for some.

You decide where you go to. You decide what you do. You decide where and what you eat. You decide what time is good to go back. You decide what time you’re going to bed. But most importantly, you allow yourself time to just sit down and appreciate the environment.

Azores is a good place to do this—can recommend!

Don’t be afraid of yourself. Learn how your mind works, and teach it what you don’t want. You can’t control all the stuff that your mind will bring up: “I need to buy cheese”, “what should I eat for dinner?”, “I wonder what John is up to”, “where’s my phone?”, “does the cat have water?”, “did I turn off the TV?”, etc.

But you can decide which one you focus on. The others, just ignore them. Your mind will get used to it. And you will be able to be more focused and aware of your surroundings.

14. Keep active

There’s a YouTube channel called Smarter Every Day—which I don’t watch as often nowadays. That’s not your usual fitness channel. In fact, that’s more of a science channel than a fitness one. But there’s one video where Destin talks about astronaut pee.

Wait, I promise this is not weird!

It’s amazing that someone thought about collecting astronaut pee in the first place. But if you think about it, recreating these sample would cost millions of whatever currency you use.

Now, from a science perspective, it allows us to examine what’s in that pee, and adapt the way astronauts live in space. For instance, did you know that when astronauts don’t exercise in space—remember it’s a zero-gravity environment—they literally pee out bone mass? That’s right! Their bones disintegrate and get pushed out of their bodies through pee!

This causes all kinds of issues, namely osteoporosis—an issue familiar to the elderly.

When we don’t exercise, both our muscle mass and bone mass will disappear. We need both of them for a healthy life! You don’t need to run a marathon or lift a bison on your back. Just going for a walk on a daily basis will do wonders. That’s way better than lying on your bed for half the day.

The Japanese, known for their longevity, have a daily routine on the radio that promotes calisthenics exercises—using your own body as weight—for a healthier lifestyle. Coincidence? I don’t think so.

15. Lift weights

Besides moving your body in ways you don’t usually do, lifting weights will allow your body to build more muscle mass—crucial for a healthy life. As we get older, it’s going to get harder and harder to build muscle. Our bodies will have more relevant issues to take care of than building muscle mass. The best way to promote a healthier life when we get older is building muscle mass while we’re young. Maintaining a certain amount of muscle mass is way easier than forcing our bodies to build more muscle.

And no, by lifting weights you’re not going to became Arnold Schwarzenegger.
Women are usually more worried about this. Your bodies are different, they don’t build muscle as easily as men’s. Even if you ate the same and did the exact same exercises with the exact same weights. Contrary to popular belief, we’re all different.

Your legs need strength to support your whole body weight.
The core supporter of your upper body are the abs and lumbar.
Your arms need strength to lift things up.

But you don’t need a super extensive workout. Just focus on using light weights and doing plenty of repetitions, up to a failure point. This will prevent injuries while still allowing your body to build strength. For instance, instead of lifting 40 kg in an overhead press and doing 5 reps, try lowering the weight to a more manageable weight and doing it until you literally can’t lift the bar anymore.

16. Get proper footwear

Nowadays, most of the shoes we see our friends and family with are shoes that constraint the toes, have inclined surfaces and a thick sole that doesn’t bend.
This means your feet won’t get enough room and moving freedom.

It’s like putting a small helmet on your head. I’m sure you won’t like it. You just don’t feel it in your feet because you have been using bad footwear your whole life.
You know when you feel like you can’t take it anymore and just need to take your shoes out? That’s a clear sign you’re doing something wrong, and it’s usually the shoes.

Proper footwear—barefoot shoes—are shoes that allow your feet to move freely. They allow your feet to feel the environment—some people don’t like to feel what’s under their feet, but it’s an important aspect of healthy feet. They also allow your feet to bend downwards and upwards as you may need while you walk. And they provide a leveled surface for your feet to sit on.

Barefoot shoes are comfortable to wear all day long.
They provide better posture, more balance, promote feet strength and enhanced sensory feedback. And I have also found that I trip less on stuff since I’m using these.

17. Walk barefoot

Having proper footwear is important. But it’s also nice to walk barefoot, especially in the summer. It’s the ultimate level of feet freedom. Do it outside too. Feel the heat of the surface. Feel the different textures. Notice how some surfaces have more cushioning than others.

Besides providing freedom to your feet, it also allows you to ground your feet. Meaning, connecting your body with the Earth’s natural electric charge. There are numerous potential benefits on this, such as reducing inflammation, improving sleep, increasing energy levels, improving blood circulation, etc. It’s a good way to connect with the land you’re in. Just don’t do it over a bed of nails as it may bring some very much expected discomfort.

18. Breathe deeper

Our breathing rhythm can be fast and shallow or slow and deep. When we’re anxious, nervous or stressed we’re usually breathing fast. There’s barely any oxygen reaching our lungs. If you do it yourself now, you’ll notice that your chest barely moves. This practice will increase our stress levels. It works both ways too—we breathe faster when we’re stressed just like when we breathe faster, we get stressed.

We should be breathing with our lungs. When we do it properly, it’s not our nose that injects air into our lungs, but rather our lungs that expand, forcing air in through the nose. Breathing more air at a time will inevitably make us breathe slower, which in turn will make us calmer and lower the blood pressure.

Breathing is a subconscious activity, we do it without even thinking about it. For this reason, we may need to reteach our bodies how to do it properly while consciously doing it so that our bodies do it naturally for us later on.

For me specifically, it became obvious that breathing deeper—through the nose, I should add—helps with bronchodilation and has anti-inflammatory effects—thanks to nitric oxide. I noticed that if I forced my body to breathe through the nose more often, my wheezing issue at night would be much better. Remember that wheezing happens when the bronchi contract. So anything that prevents this from happening, especially if natural, is very much welcome!

19. Get sunlight exposure

While we do burn under the sun, we can, and should still get sunlight exposure. It helps with bone structure and development, especially for newborns, the ones we tend to protect more from the sun, and dramatically benefits our mood. We all know that it helps our bodies produce vitamin D, but we also get sunburned. So how should we manage it?

No, the answer isn’t sunscreen, more on that below.
During winter, when we don’t get nearly as much sun exposure as we need, our skin will get lighter and more sensitive to sun light. Makes sense! We have less sun available, so our skin becomes more sensitive to account for it. But this sensitivity takes time to change. When spring comes and we rush outside to play, we can get much more sunlight exposure than we used to in the previous months. The parts of our bodies that get the least sunlight during winter—think chest, back and legs—can easily sunburn during the high UV times.

To prevent this, we need to gradually expose our bodies to sunlight. Start at the end of the day, like 1 or 2 hours before sunset. Stay exposed for 30 minutes at a time during 1 or 2 weeks. Then increase it to 45 minutes. Then 1 hour. And you will eventually notice your skin color starts to change. That’s your body adapting again to a new change in sunlight availability. You should never get burned if you do it gradually. Makes no sense to get 4 hours of exposure out of nowhere. Do it gradually.

20. Ditch the sunscreen

While one would think that sunscreen would protect us from sunburns, and it actually might, we should also consider what we’re really putting on our skin. Sunscreens are full of toxic chemicals, commonly linked to higher rates of skin cancer development. So you’re preventing your skin from getting sunburned and potentially increasing the risk of developing skin cancer. Is it worth it? Your call!

There are natural sunscreens too, based on zinc. That’s way better.
But I personally only use coconut oil on my skin. I use it before a longer sun exposure as well as after, if need be. I won’t say I never got sunburned, because I occasionally do. But it’s so superficial that it’s gone the next day.

Sun is essential for development—older books even document a whole protocol for exposing newborns to the sun. If we wouldn’t be stuck inside our buildings during the whole winter and occasionally get outside for exposure, we would naturally get sun exposure very gradually, as we need it. But our jobs and lifestyle demand otherwise.

21. Skip the sunglasses

Wearing sunglasses was made cool, likely by the fashion industry. But the truth is that it’s a sign of hypersensitivity to light. As if that wasn’t enough, our eyes need to be exposed to the wide spectrum of sunlight so that they know which time of the day it is.

As the day progresses, the sunlight goes from something like 2000K at sunrise, to something like 6000K in the middle of the day, back to something like 2000K at sunset. In other words, the sunlight changes between a blueish light in the middle of the day and a warm orange at sunrise and sunset.

Our bodies produce melatonin when in dark environments, as mentioned above. Basically signalling that it’s time for bed. Melatonin helps us fall asleep. If you ever took sleep pills, chances are they contained melatonin. But if you wear sunglasses all day, it’s always “dark”. So I believe you can guess what that signals to your body.

Besides, I myself was one of those people that couldn’t get outside on a sunny day without sunglasses or I would end up with a headache for the rest of the day. Then I gradually stopped wearing them. At some point, I noticed I didn’t need them anymore. It’s totally possible to adapt to new scenarios.

22. Use natural clothing materials

Not only are synthetic fibers such as polyester more stinky it also produces static while it’s rubbing against your skin. And you know where that static becomes problematic? When it’s close to men genitals.

Unfortunately, polyester boxers or trunks are fairly common. So much so that it’s actually quite hard to find 100% cotton ones. Sometimes one can find something like 95% cotton with 5% elastane, and that’s fine. But the best would be 100% cotton. Cotton will also feel easier on your skin.

It’s true that sports people usually prefer synthetic clothing. But you would be surprised just how much more comfortable cotton clothing can be, if you’re used to polyester. Underwear, pyjamas, t-shirts… just about anything that’s in direct contact with your skin should be natural. A polyester rain jacket is fine. Polyester socks, not so much.

23. Use warm lights at home

Because of what I just said regarding sunglasses, my LED lights at home range from 2700K inside to 4000K outside. Long story short, there was a misunderstanding between me and the light guy and he installed 4000K lights throughout the whole house. He then accepted to replace the ones inside for 3000K, as I have initially asked for, but leave the ones outside as they were. So that’s why.

Back when we didn’t have LED lights at home—yes, I’m from that time—it wouldn’t be that easy to tweak the light temperature. But interestingly enough, if you look it up you will find out that most lights were warm, not cold. Actually, before electricity, people used candles at home. Guess what kelvin candle light is? Below 2000K—very much orange.

But nowadays that’s not really the case. We can easily pick from blueish to orange lights without changing much besides an actual bulb. The benefits of not being exposed to blue lights all the time are huge. Try it for yourself.

24. Get a natural toothpaste

Commercial toothpaste, just like many other “health” products are full of chemicals and toxins. One of them is fluoride, a known neurotoxin. It’s meant to help you with teeth abrasion and keeping your enamel layer in good health. In reality it affects your brain, hormones and vitamin stores in such a way that even if it was doing something great, I don’t think the gamble would be worth it.

Besides, toothpaste is one of those things so easy to do at home that you shouldn’t even consider buying a tube of plastic full of chemicals to spread in your teeth every single day. Mix coconut oil with baking soda. That’s it. No other ingredients needed. You may add some drops of essential oils for flavour if you really want to, but that’s not mandatory.

There are, however, natural toothpaste options available online. Just avoid ingredients you don’t know what they are and prefer glass containers.

25. Stop the medication

Don’t take this lightly—pun intended.
If you have any specific condition that actually requires you to take medications on a recurring basis, by all means, keep doing it as your doctor suggested.

I was supposed to keep taking antihistamines for the rest of my life, according to my doctor. For those of you who never looked into the side effects of commercially available antihistamines, it includes stuff like dizziness, blurred vision, constipation, confusion, cognitive impairment, faster heartbeat, increased appetite, etc. Do these sound symptoms to take lightly to you? It didn’t to me.

Just like antihistamines, pharmaceutical drugs are full of chemicals. Nobody can guarantee what will happen to you when you take them. We’re all different, and react differently to substances. Hence the need for a large testing group for new drugs—the more people you get onboard, the smaller the chance of finding something new down the road. But the chance is there. It might just be you. It’s pure gambling!

26. Ignore experts

Absolutely nobody knows your body better than you. If you take the time to listen to it, that is. Don’t take suggestions from “experts” as the only way to solve whatever it is you’re going through. Yes, they will have an extensive knowledge base from their own experience. They may have dealt with similar patients in the past. But the truth is that most people are willing to take just about any kind of drug to get rid of a headache.

Do your own research. Listen to your gut feeling.
Think about the most natural way you have at your disposal to fix the issue. A new drug might help short term. But are the long term effects worth it?

Think about it: you’re always trusting someone.
The pharmacy guy told you it’s “safe to take”. So you trust him.
Your doctor told you “no issue”. So you trust her.
The president told you “it’s the most effective way”. So you trust him.

You would have to go through a lot of testing otherwise. But being aware that you always have to trust somebody is great to have in the back of your mind.

27. Skip the shampoo

I started this one as an experiment. I wanted to see what I would feel like if I didn’t use shampoo. Notice that I’m not saying I wasn’t washing my head. I still do, but I just use water.

Shampoo, just like toothpaste, is full of chemicals. Chemicals that go directly onto your head and have a very short way to get into your brain. Besides, the main concern people have when I talk about this is greasy hair. So here’s what I experienced.

The first few weeks my hair continued to produce the same amount of grease it was used to. Since I wasn’t cleaning it off as heavily with chemicals, it was obviously noticeable in my hair. Then my body stopped producing so much. As if it got used to the new amount it would need to produce to keep the top of my head protected. The grease is there for a reason. Your hair doesn’t need to smell like fruit. But if you really want to, you can add a bit of coconut oil to it. Yes, more “grease”. The best kind of product you can put onto your hair.

28. Fire Chef Mike

If you’re heating your food in a microwave on a recurring basis, know that it does produce radiation. So much so that some astronomers looking for extra terrestrial signals got tricked by their own microwave for years. So the radiation is there and is very much real.

It’s not for me to say whether this poses a health risk. But just the fact that it produces radiation next to my food is enough for me to not want to keep using it.
Besides, an actual oven or any other conventional way to cook food makes food much more enjoyable. Is it meat? Air fryer. Is it rice? A small pot with a bit of water. Is it pasta? Same thing. Is it bread? Air fryer, or even a toaster. An air fryer is just a small oven, mind you. Food is tasty and it’s radiation-free.

29. Replace the non-stick

Any kind of cookware that has some kind of non-stick coating is eventually going to bite you in the ass. That means, the coating is going to get peeled over time, you are going to eat it along with your food, and that is going to harm your health in ways no one really knows.

There have been plenty of non-stick flavours over the years. The most recent one is “ceramic coating”. Even IKEA has been replacing their Teflon based cookware with this new kind. Allegedly because it’s safer to use. It’s still a coating! It’s only considered safer now because no one has found what it might actually do to our bodies.

The best non-stick you can have is heat based.
It’s called the Leidenfrost effect. It occurs when a liquid, or moisty food, contacts a surface significantly hotter than its boiling point, producing a thin vapor layer that prevents the liquid or the food from getting in direct contact with the pan.
When a pan is hot, you can sprinkle some water on top of it and it will immediately turn to vapor. But when it’s “Leidenfrost-hot”, the water droplets will look like small water balls on the pan. That’s when you cook stuff like steak.

30. Pick food containers wisely

Chances are you’ve been storing your food in plastic containers, or even aluminium ones. While it may be practical to do so, you are disregarding health concerns when it comes to placing potentially acidic foods in plastic or aluminium containers. Plastics will have a tendency to break down over time, releasing microplastic particles into your food. Same for aluminium, acidic foods will break down the surface making your food contain a substance that was never supposed to get in contact with food in the first place.

For instance, canned food comes in aluminium containers. But the inside is lined with some kind of plastic layer so that the food doesn’t get in contact with the aluminium. And as a rule of thumb, if the container is dented in some way, the food is compromised.

The safest container material is glass. Yes, it is heavy and yes it does break. But that’s the price we pay for a safe container, I guess. You may also use stainless steel ones. Way stronger than aluminium, more versatile, lighter and not nearly as sensitive as glass. But you need to make sure you’re not being sold aluminium as stainless steel—grab a magnet, it will help you. How do they work?

I would choose in this order: glass, steel, wood, plastic and if none of these is available, aluminium. But perhaps line it with plastic wrap.