Pollution, city living, and mindful consumer choices

Unhealthy for you, bad for the planet

Exhaust fumes from cars and transportation systems. Chemicals and pollutants from factory outputs. Urban surfaces littered with grime and debris. We don’t have to accept this way of living!  

If you’ve long suspected that polluted urban environments are not only dirty but that they cause mayhem to your entire system at a cellular level, you are right. Toxins can affect your body, your mood, your skin, and more — causing premature aging and general distress.  

Almeda’s key pollution-fighting ingredients include algae and key vitamins and minerals that support your body to fight against these effects. Our unique blends of essential nutrients and rich antioxidants are designed to heal your cells, nourish you, and protect you. 

But the story of how Almeda protects us from pollution goes much deeper than that.  It’s a story of all-natural ingredients sourced in a careful, selective way to support your health and the environment as a whole. Our products are organic, GMO-free, gluten-free, and vegan for a reason.

Mindful consumption is part of the Almeda lifestyle

Having lived in several urban environments, including Detroit and Seattle, Almeda’s Corinne Petras has always felt it was important for her to become part of the solution when it comes to healthy living and the environment. She has long sought out local, organic non-GMO ingredients as often as possible. 

However, while Corinne has always been a careful shopper, living in Singapore for the past year has limited her options for local food.   

“As consumers, we need to become more mindful about what we consume. Here in Singapore, which is an island one-fourth the size of Hawaii, everything is imported. We can’t shop local—everything has a footprint,” Corinne says. 

Buying locally means you're creating less of a carbon footprint as fewer modes of air or land transportation are required, bringing carbon emissions down. This reduces fuel consumption and air pollution. Also not required for local goods: Major shipping and packing facilities or refrigeration.

Living with restricted options for food strengthens Corinne’s resolve to do better when she can. Now more than ever, she stresses that living the Almeda lifestyle represents making conscious choices. For her, that means learning about food quality and feeding her body nutritional supplements when fresh, local food is scarce.

“You have to read labels and become familiar with what is in your food. It's part of the reason Almeda exists,” says Corinne.  

Almeda’s Encarna, for example, is ripe with antioxidants. Antioxidants remove toxins from your body, help reduce inflammation, and protect against the signs of stress on the skin—fine lines and wrinkles, dark eye circles, age spots, and surface veins.

Corinne takes Encarna as a daily liquid multivitamin to mitigate free radicals associated with pollution and viruses. She enjoys taking a heavy-duty antioxidant derived from actual food.  

Meal supplements rich in adaptogens and superfoods also help put her mind at ease. Taking these is one way to do her best under the circumstances. 

She says, “When faced with a whole food shortage, it’s best not to rely on candy, packaged chips and crackers. If possible, take some superfoods and recharge and support your body that way. Almeda products are derived from actual, real food. They also provide you with a good amount of protein to keep your body running.”

Sourcing matters:  Almeda cares about you, your skin, and the environment

You can rest assured that Almeda is a savvy shopper when it comes to sourcing. No palm oil is used. Ingredients are vegan, gmo-free, organic. They all come from the US so harvesting processes and food quality can be overseen and ensured to be healthy, holistic, and sustainable. 

When Corinne moved to Singapore, she was sad to see tarballs in the ocean—byproducts of a shoreline dotted with oil tankers. Oil in the water washes onto the beach, making it unsafe to swim and limiting wildlife. 

She has also witnessed palm deforestation firsthand, and seen the harmful effects on air quality of fields being burnt to create space for new palm plants. Singapore recently announced it is working to become the world's first country to only use sustainable palm oil, but we have other options.

Avoiding Palm Oil

Corinne says, “We need to choose products that are responsibly sourced and don't contain things that seem harmless, but really harm the environment.” 

She gives the example of palm oil. This unhealthy but inexpensive and versatile ingredient goes into a lot of prepackaged foods— including, as examples, margarine, chocolate, cookies, pizza dough, and packaged bread.

Palm oil is one of the most widely used vegetable oils (it currently makes up about 35% of the world’s vegetable oil), but it unfortunately is riddled with problems. 

Some ethical concerns associated with palm oil are that it:  

• drives deforestation of biodiverse forests.
• destroys the habitat of endangered species (like the Orangutan, pygmy elephant and Sumatran rhino). 
• contributes to climate change by depleting carbon-rich peat soils, foisting greenhouse gases into the atmosphere.
• raises worker exploitation and child labour concerns. 

However even healthy whole foods, or foods packaged in a natural-looking way, may contain palm oil. Because of this, she recommends consumers check labels rigorously. 

In particular, Corrine says we should be mindful of all nut butters. She recommends, "It’s better to buy the kind you need to stir, that has oil at the top. Ideally, you want to buy the kind that is freshly ground at the store.”

Reading the labels

Corinne says, “While it really is an overwhelming thing typically, Almeda is very transparent. You can see on the label — it has hundreds of ingredients, all good stuff working together to support your body.”

Almeda features all-organic, GMO-free, gluten-free and vegan ingredients, sourced in the United States.

“Not everyone needs to be 100% vegan to benefit from the Almeda lifestyle,” she says, “but we can still enjoy what we’re eating, knowing that it doesn’t require animal proteins.”

 

Corrine has worked for Almeda for three years. She said, “What drew me to Almeda was Stacy’s understanding of how the body works… and how body, mind, and spirit are all connected. She has a passion for helping people. Not in a forceful way, but in a holistic way, centered on a person's specific needs. She has such a vision of what things should be, can be.”

Corrine’s experiences with pollution remind her that the bottom line is this: “Be thoughtful in the quality of supplements into your body. Not all supplements are created equal.”

Taking good quality supplements really does support you from the inside out. Combining supplements with a healthy, whole-food diet will provide you all the vitamins, minerals, and major sources of energy that you need to support both your interior and exterior.

Be thoughtful also that supplement ingredients are sourced responsibly to support the overall health of the planet. Consumer goods influence our environment greatly. 

All of us living the Almeda lifestyle want to live in a world that is healthy, vibrant, and free of pollutants. 

And this can be a choice we make.