Vanessa: 0:10

Welcome to wellness Smith. We are really excited today to be talking a little bit about sustainability and the environment. This has been really important to us all along, just because wellness is so much more than just the foods we're eating or how. Moving our body or doing our self care. It's more about the collective. And that includes how we treat the earth too, and how we procure our food. So we're really, really excited to have a Lily on today. So Lily is currently studying to become a registered dietician, specializing in inflammation and autoimmunity. And she also holds a bachelor's in natural resources from the Rubinstein school at is UVM. Is that Is that the university of Vermont.

Lily: 0:56

It is

Vanessa: 0:57

so when she started down the RD path, it became instantly obvious that there was no escaping environmentalism because we are nature when she's not crying over her chemistry, homework, you can find her teaching, yoga or hiking in the woods. We've all cried over that chemistry, homework. Welcome Lily.

Lily: 1:16

I feel like it's a prerequisite to the field.

Vanessa: 1:20

Oh, my gosh. I always see that meme that's like, it's a text message or like some kind of message to someone. And it's like recommendations for books. That'll make you cry. And it's always that chemistry book.

Lily: 1:34

I literally posted that the other day. I was like, this resonated so hard.

Vanessa: 1:39

my gosh. Yeah. I, I want to forget. I ended up liking chemistry, but a lot of

Lily: 1:45

Oh, you're one of those.

Vanessa: 1:48

a lot of tears were shed in the beginning though. So Lily let's just go ahead and jump into it. So Lilly does these really fun posts on her Instagram environmental tax and Tuesdays. And I wanted to just jump right in and talk about one of her latest ones, which is about wildfires. So can you talk to us about wildfires, how that affects us the earth and what we're doing to control?

Lily: 2:17

Yeah, absolutely. This is such a scary one. I think the scariest part is just the obvious trend of the increase. Child fires coinciding with the increase in temperature. This is exactly what scientists have been predicting and we're seeing it play out in real time. There's a few things that goes into the prevalence of wildfires and why they've really taken off over the past couple of decades. The first one obviously is just the, the hot temperature. So when you have an area that's being exposed to excess heat, that's when you're going to be faced with a dryer land. Why is the earth warming? There's a few different reasons why, but a huge part of it is because of greenhouse gas emissions. So the gases are getting trapped in the atmosphere and creating a greenhouse effect that's contributing to these warmer temperatures. Another reason though, is that we are, using a lot of water. So. The water cycle. As we know, there's water that exists and reservoirs that water gets evaporated into the air and then it gets condensed into raindrops. And then obviously our rainstorms happen and then the cycle continues. When you extract a lot of water from the water cycle, which is what is happening at an unfounded pace there's just going to be less water in that cycle. So we're having, you know, periods of really long drought and that combined with heat is going to create the perfect storm for wildfire. So a lot of these wildfires, unfortunately, our human cause like totally by accident. So you might have a campfire that goes crazy. You know, in these really dry areas, it could be something as simple as a car that's, you know, left running for a bit too long and that alone can cause a spark that leads to a wildfire. It could be something like a flicked cigarette. So all of these things, you know, if we weren't facing. Larger scale climate change. Maybe these things wouldn't be so such a problem, but because we are faced with these extreme temperatures and widespread drought, that is when you could have a situation where wildfires are starting to be really prevalent. Another issue is that we have a lot of areas where we're bringing in some invasive species. So you have a lot of areas where the grasses, for example, are not the grasses that would be naturally growing in that area. So they tend to catch fire really quickly and act kind of like fuel. Another thing is that we're just clear, we're clear cropping and we're also building you know, we're living in an industrial society where. Much of urban areas are covered in concrete. So that's another part of it. Where now you have a situation where instead of the sun being absorbed into dirt, you're just kind of having that sun B be bounced back. And so nothing is able to cool down by being absorbed into the earth. So that's also contributing to the heat and which is contributing to these wildfires. It's definitely not just one thing. It's a storm of things that kind of all mix us together. And it's a really big problem. Obviously smoke itself is All smoke has carbon monoxide in it, which is super lethal to humans. Like we all have hopefully have carbon monoxide alarms in our homes. It's really good at displacing oxygen, which can again be like totally lethal for people. But the other really scary part is that, especially as you know, the textile industry grows, a lot of things are being made with plasticizers. Once you start having fires in cities, All of those items are going to be burning as well. And that's when you start to have more and more really toxic gases being released in the smoke. So, Yeah. it's becoming a really scary, I mean, it's been a scary issue for a long time, but it is unfortunately getting worse and worse.

Vanessa: 6:38

Yeah, that's so interesting. All of, you know, the multifaceted aspect. I think that a lot of people just think of, you know, the campfire or the cigarette butt that starts a fire. Not all of the other things contributing to, you know, the bigger fires that are raging for longer and hotter. And just generally more destructive. I remember last year, so Emily is not with us today, but she lives in Portland and, You know, the fire is in around the Portland area last year were super bad. And I would be talking to her every day and she'd be looking at the air quality and she'd be calling me like, oh my gosh. Right? Your quality is so bad. I can't even go outside. And I was like about to like buy her a plane ticket home. I was like, get out of there.

Lily: 7:30

So. scary. It really is.

Vanessa: 7:33

And I hadn't even thought of the invasive grasses either. That's really interesting.

Lily: 7:40

Yeah, I actually, so when I was doing the post the other day, I was reading up on the EPA statement about that. And I was like, oh, cause I also hadn't thought of that before. So that was really interesting, but it's on the EPA website, if you want to read more about it.

Vanessa: 7:56

Yeah, that's cool. I'm sure. Just, you know, like landscaping businesses and homeowners are looking at grasses that they just think little or look really pretty. And aren't necessarily understanding the implications that that can have.

Lily: 8:12

Yeah, I think, yeah. I mean, I would say that's probably it, it's not, it's definitely not the largest part of the issue, but it, it all contributes for sure.

Vanessa: 8:23

Yeah. Every little bit.

Lily: 8:24

Every little bit. Yeah.

Vanessa: 8:26

So we, you talked about water too, and there being less water. So, can we talk a little bit about water awareness and water in our foods and water that we're using on crops and everything like that?

Lily: 8:41

Yeah, definitely. So this is the one that really keeps me up at night. It really does. It's so alarming. Once You start to really peak under that. And this is the one. So actually before I decided to become an RD, I was working in a newsroom for a year and it was just so shocking to me, like how much we didn't cover any of these stories. And so as a result, I think the public just really has no idea, but just for, for context, like there was a study recently done and. By 2050, the projection is that more than half of water basins will be unable to meet their demand. So that's just so that's

Vanessa: 9:26

26.

Lily: 9:28

2050.

Vanessa: 9:29

Oh, my that's not very far

Lily: 9:31

No. And that's also, so that's not even taking into account like big flood events that can lead to contamination. Like this is explicitly talking about water usage. And so I think, Yeah. that's a really scary. The really scary thing is that I don't, I think the average American doesn't even know water is a non-renewable resource because it's one of those funky resources where people think it is renewable because it is cyclical. So I think, oh, water cycle, like it'll always be replenished, but you need, if you're extracting water from a part of the cycle, then it's no longer going to be available to be in the cycle. So, yeah. I think that's the really crazy part. And then just connecting it to food. And this, I think is just it's a good thing to know about when you're, when you're picking your food. Like, if you are interested in starting to become more environmentally conscious and some people, I think that there's definitely a trend of saying, oh, sustainable eating means being a vegetarian. And I think that not everybody totally understands why, you know, and the why, the why part. And by the way, I'm not a vegetarian. At least two of my meals in a day are going to be a vegetarian or vegan. Another thing is like people get very freaked out about the idea of giving up meat, but just changing two meals a day and keeping one of your meals a day meat forward. But just to give like context, drawing it back to the water, so to produce one pound of beef, you need 1,847 gallons of water. So quite a bit. And then comparing that to tofu. For example, you only need 302 gallons of water. And again, I think it's also so beef, like that's a very large animal, like cattle is a very large animal. And so it's very intuitive to think that if you're eating a smaller animal, that it would require a lot less water. So for example, producing one pound of chicken only requires 518 gallons of water. So a lot, a lot less. Another interesting thing about cattle is methane is actually one of the top greenhouse gases. They've come out to say in the, in the past few years and cows produced methods. So that's another reason why I think if you are trying to be a little more sustainable, like if you, if you are going to be eating meat, maybe you consider sticking to more chicken based meals and slowly scaling back on the cattle. Cause I got, I just, I don't think that we can continue. I mean, we can't continue using this much water forever. Like it's going to bottom out. It's not even an F.

Vanessa: 12:28

Great.

Lily: 12:29

So, yeah, I think that's the biggest thing. But the other really cool thing about some of these crops that don't require a lot of water is not only do they. If the intuitively you can think like, oh, if they don't require a lot of water, that must also mean that they're a drought. So, not only is it a good idea to be relying on some of these cracks just for, for the sake of cutting down on water, but it's also future-proofing right, because if you can have a crop that doesn't need a lot of water, then now you have an idea of what we might be eating in the future. So some of it somewhere examples. So I mentioned tofu. So that would be from soybeans. But also another, a few more examples are Amarin keenwah okra mustard greens, and then some examples of fruits you could do Mingo, jackfruit, and surprisingly pomegranate is also very job tolerant.

Vanessa: 13:32

Hm, that's surprising with, you know, just the nature of,

Lily: 13:37

How'd you see it?

Vanessa: 13:38

green for juicy. Yeah.

Lily: 13:40

Well, that's the interesting, I mean, think of a cactus, Right. It's got so much moisture on the inside. But yeah, I think it's just like being aware, being aware of some of these crops that are not going to require a lot of water, a for preserving water, but B for also having an idea of like what we can eat in the future when, when there is not a lot of water left, which as I mentioned is I think going to come a lot sooner than people realize.

Vanessa: 14:06

Yeah. And I think that's such a good point, too, that you mentioned, you know, you don't necessarily have to be all or nothing. I think so. People are like either they just, everyone has this need to label themselves. As I eat me, I'm a vegetarian, I'm a vegan and it doesn't always have to be that black and white. For some people, you know, the idea of being a full vegetarian or vegan is really kind of intimidating or doesn't necessarily fit in with their life very well. And it doesn't have to be that extreme necessarily. And you can take baby steps to, you know, if you do want to work towards being vegetarian or vegan you don't have to do it all in one.

Lily: 14:54

Absolutely. And as you know, I'm in the audio immunity space and so I, I was a vegetarian and I actually had to stop being a vegetarian for health reasons. So I think it's also important to realize that, like, not everybody can tolerate a large amount of legumes

Vanessa: 15:11

Uh, huh.

Lily: 15:12

and seeds, so Yeah. it's just like, It's trying to work with what we have and just be cognizant and, and even, I mean, even if people ate two plant meals a day, like that alone could cut down emissions drastically.

Vanessa: 15:30

Yeah. Yeah. It's amazing. The little things, how, you know, if we work together as a collective, it can make such drastic impact.

Lily: 15:40

Absolutely. Absolutely.

Vanessa: 15:43

for folks wondering other tips, like, you know, maybe how they can grow food at home. If someone's thinking, oh, I live in an apartment or I have a small house with not a big yard. Is it possible for them to grow food at home and kind of have a farm to table situation?

Lily: 16:03

Oh, my gosh. Absolutely. Yes. So. So, yeah, I've hopped around quite a lot since, since my first degree before deciding to go back to school to be an RD. But one of my jobs, I worked at this awesome farm called little wild things, farm and it's I seriously recommend checking it out. It's a microgreen farm. It's a hundred percent indoors. And they basically stack trees and use lights, but they do use soil and they export like thousands and thousands of pounds of food a week. It's so awesome. But I think that was the first time I realized like the full potential of what can be done in an urban space. So anyway, so my boyfriend and I recently moved to a small urban apartment. And before that we lived in a row house. We had an awesome garden in our backyard, but now it was a lot harder. So we ended up doing something called the crack key method. For those listening, I definitely recommend looking this up. It's spelled K R a T K Y.

Vanessa: 17:10

I'm really excited to hear about this. I've never heard.

Lily: 17:13

it's so cool. It's so, so cool. So this guy developed this method. As a way of helping out in food deserts. Cause I think it has a ton of potential there. And I think what's so cool about it is that it's a very low maintenance. So when you set it up, the whole idea is that you literally don't do anything. Like you just, you set it up and you, and you leave it and you can just pick it. And. And yeah, it's just great for people who are living busy lifestyles, but still like want access to fresh food and don't have a ton of space to grow it. So it was just perfect. It does have its limitations, I would say. So it's especially good for growing leafy greens. It's not as good as growing things like tomatoes. But that. being said, I mean, even if like we had a Bazell plant and we couldn't even keep up with the amount of Bazell, like, you could make a full salad every single day and it would still be too much like,

Vanessa: 18:09

Oh, wow.

Lily: 18:11

we threw a ton because we literally couldn't eat it as fast as it was growing.

Vanessa: 18:15

Wow. That's amazing.

Lily: 18:17

amazing. Yeah. So the way it works you just basically get a big crate from home Depot, like a big plastic crate and. If you have the drill, that's helpful. You can drill like two inch holes in the lid. If you don't have a drill, you can also use like a styrofoam tray type thing and just cut holes in it.

Vanessa: 18:42

Hm.

Lily: 18:43

But then you'll need a bunch of netted pots. If you don't know what that is, I just recommend looking it up. I didn't know what it was either before I started looking into this. But it's kinda what it sounds like. They're just these little pots that are, have like slits in them and then you need a substrate for the roots to grab onto. So I recommend getting a clay balls. If you literally look on Amazon, go to clay ball substrate, you'll find it.

Vanessa: 19:12

Okay.

Lily: 19:14

So what's so cool about it too, is the water creates its own ecosystem of bacteria. So you really don't need to add anything to the water. Like you just literally let it sit. And that is enough for the plant to grow. Quite amazing. There's a lot going on in the water. That being said just because of the nature of our tap water, it's important to test the pH. So I recommend getting a pH reader. So again, something you can find really easily on Amazon. You just get a little test tube, you take a water sample, add the pH solution and shake it up. And then it'll tell you what the pH of the water is. And then if you see the water and then you need acid and based solution. So there's a kit that comes with all three of those things in it. So the pH reader, the acid solution and the base solution But Yeah. if the pH is too acidic, you add some basic solution. If the pH is too basic, you add some acidic solution, get it just right. And then that's literally it. So it's, it's so simple. So once you, like, the hardest part is the setup. But yeah, so we didn't have a ton of luck growing, like right in the netted pots. We had to propagate it first. So we to get the roots forming. So you can either do this in, like they sell them at home Depot, you could get like a mini little greenhouse thing, or you can just get like Bazell from the farmer's market, look up how to propagate it and then just put it in a glass of water, let the roots form and then transfer it into the larger tank. But Yeah, it's like, it's pretty awesome.

Vanessa: 20:59

Yeah, that's really cool. And it sounds like, you know, it's not, there's all kinds of, I know kids. By online to grow, you know, vegetables or herbs and they tend to be kind of expensive. And I mean, this sounds like you could do it at a pretty low

Lily: 21:17

could do this for well under a hundred dollars. One thing I forgot to mention is, so we tried it without a light at first and we didn't. Very good results. And then we actually got like a $20 light and we also didn't get great results. So we ended up getting a light in the $80 range and that's when we had like more basal than we could handle. So, I would recommend, like, I think it's worth a one-time investment again, all of the other materials you're probably only going to get to. 50 bucks or so with all of that included, like it's very inexpensive. So all in it'll probably be like anywhere from like a hundred dollars, like 110, 120. But yeah, it's definitely going to be cheaper than most of what you find online.

Vanessa: 22:07

Yeah, that's really awesome. That's something we wanted to talk about too, is that I think a lot of times people, you know, think of like the eco-friendly movement and they see, you know, like the reusable bags or like reusable plastic bags or glass Tupperware, and they're looking at stuff like, oh, like it's starting to get really expensive. Do you have any tips for people? How they can still you know, practice a pretty eco-friendly lifestyle without breaking the bank.

Lily: 22:41

Yeah. I mean, I think that's the whole, it's the whole joke, Right. It's like if you're actually being eco-friendly than you're buying less.

Vanessa: 22:48

Right. But there's like this huge, marketing push, which we all know, you know, marketing people who are in marketing. I mean, they're doing a great job. But they're constantly making people feel like they need to buy a bunch of new stuff.

Lily: 23:05

No, absolutely not. I would say. The actual eco movement is the exact opposite where you're trying to buy less. And I think that's also like the beautiful thing about the crack key is if you're growing your own vegetables, that's one less thing that you're buying and not only are you. And I think it's also so interesting with that too, is not only are you not buying, but you're actually like, it's one of the healthiest things you can do because you're eating it Right, off the vine.

Vanessa: 23:36

right.

Lily: 23:37

And you're, you're avoiding pesticide use, which is an awesome thing about hydroponics. They're all indoors. So, pesticides, I mean, that's another thing that definitely is contributing to climate change on so many different levels through like eutrophication in the water. So, I mean, I don't know how deep you want to get,

Vanessa: 23:57

Yeah, that's something that we can just take a quick minute to talk about pesticides. It's something that drives me crazy too, because you know, there's always the, I guess argument between organic and conventional and a lot of people will tell you, and I know, you know, organic farming. Natural pesticides. But there's always this argument, like there's no difference. And I I'm always sitting here, like, it goes so much further than just, you know, you eating it, like think of the migrant worker in the field that is working with you know, these like really toxic chemicals that they're spraying. And that's having huge. Huge health implications for them.

Lily: 24:45

There is no protection for farmers.

Vanessa: 24:47

yeah, it's, it's horrible. And I could, I could talk for hours about how irritated I get with people being like, there's no difference. Don't worry about it. It's fine.

Lily: 24:59

Yeah, I totally agree. I also think like, unfortunately, organic food currently is more expensive, but I also think that if you can afford it, You should get it because it makes it cheaper for everyone. Like think of how expensive natural deodorant used to be. And now it's the exact same price as a conventional deodorant with parabens and all.

Vanessa: 25:26

Yeah, that's a really, really great point. Yeah. I mean, at the end of the day, you know, I'm a dietician, Lily is going to be a dietician. We want you to eat vegetables. So at the end of the day, it's whatever you can get. We want you to eat fruits and veggies. But absolutely if you have the buying power. To buy organic or buy from your local farmer when you can please do that

Lily: 25:51

But yeah, I think it's also like, that's just a really cool thing about growing your own food as well. Is you can kind of say, you know, I'm not just gonna buy the stuff. That's not great for me because that's what I can afford. You can say I'm going to put the best stuff into my body because now I'm the one making.

Vanessa: 26:09

right.

Lily: 26:10

You know, and you can kind of like take some of that ownership back. Another thing, getting back to the point of like, you know, some of these crops that don't require a lot of water, like not only is that going to be preserving water, but that's also, future-proofing like, I think the same is true. Growing your own vegetables, like with all of these disasters, I think food prices, food prices are bound to go up. You know, now we're looking at mass drought or mass flooding, both of which is going to really stress out the farm system. Another thing is like the average farmer is over 57 currently in America. So I think that's another thing like we're, we are facing a farmer shortage on top of that. So I definitely think. At some point, there could be a food collapse. And so, also the bees, like don't even get me started with the bees.

Vanessa: 27:02

Yeah. Oh my God.

Lily: 27:05

So I think you know, not only is growing your own food, contributing to the sustainable movement, but it's also future-proofing. From some of these climate events and ensuring that you have some of these skills to continue putting good food in your body, even if something terrible were to happen to the food system.

Vanessa: 27:25

Yeah. And what a good feeling too, to be able to, you know, pick something that you've grown or, you know, take a salad over to your friend's house that you grew yourself. I feel like there's just so much more pride in that.

Lily: 27:40

And it tastes so good,

Vanessa: 27:41

Yeah,

Lily: 27:42

so good.

Vanessa: 27:44

so good. So thank you so much, Lily, for, sharing all of your expertise with us. If people want to learn more about auto immunity or tune in for your environmental toxin Tuesdays, where is the best spot to find.

Lily: 28:01

Yeah. Thank you so much for having me. If you're interested, they didn't finding me. Uh, you can find me at handle, eat like Lily, Lily, spelled L I L Y. Feel free to send me a message. I would love to hear from you.

Vanessa: 28:15

Thanks so much, Lily.

Lily: 28:17

Thanks so much. This was so much fun, Vanessa. I really appreciate you guys having me on here.