Why earthy's Mission is: To Empower People to Take Ownership of Their

Let's be transparent here. People are struggling with a variety of health issues. Only 12% of Americans are metabolically healthy(1) and the CDC reports that 6 out of 10 people have a chronic disease(2). With numbers like that, the issue is a personal one. We all have someone close to us, or are personally dealing with some sort of health issue. The thing is, health is not a binary state- it's constantly evolving and often factors outside our control play a role. Regardless of how we ended up here, we are all at different places along our health journeys and there's only one person steering the ship. That's you.

*CDC chronic diseases infographic (3)

None of this is medical advice. The intention of this blog is to explain why earthy's mission statement is:

To empower people to take ownership of their health.

Navigating the realm of health, nutrition and fitness information can be confusing. There's a reason why it takes four years to become a registered dietician. What works for one person may not work for another, and many factors influence human health. While doctors can be helpful, on average, U.S. medical schools offer only 19.6 hours of nutrition education across four years(4). That means you can listen to a few podcasts and soon enough you'll know more about nutrition than the average doctor (that's a joke, but not by much).

Empowering people to take ownership of their health is our mission for 3 main reasons:

1. The food system is broken

There's plenty of blame to go around. In February 1980, "USDA and HHS collaboratively issued Nutrition and Your Health: Dietary Guidelines for Americans, which described seven principles for a healthful diet to help healthy people in making daily food choices…The focus of the 1980 Dietary Guidelines (5) was to offer ideas for incorporating a variety of foods in the diet to provide essential nutrients while maintaining recommended body weight." How did that work out? Spoiler alert, it's been an absolute disaster.

Obesity Rate US Since Dietary Restrictions Regulation

*graphs of chronic disease and prevalence of obesity since 1976-1980.

During this time, highly processed food became the lion's share of the American diet. As a youngster I remember learning about the Food Pyramid (below), which places bread, cereal, rice and pasta at the foundation. It sounds ridiculous now, but kids don't know any better. They're being fed low quality food and even lower quality information. While unwinding decades of misleading or even outright incorrect dietary advice will take time, we intend to be a driver for this change in the years to come. For now, earthy is disrupting the supplement industry with traceability, 100% organic ingredients, and honest labeling, but we have our eyes set on a bigger vision for a more transparent food industry.

Food Pyramid Dietary Guidelines

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2. Convoluted dietary and health advice

To make matters worse, social media companies and internet search engines (including YouTube) censor information (that sometimes later turns out to be correct) if it doesn't fit the current narrative. Whether the ongoing battle over health/diet related information is malicious or not is up to you to decide; regardless of intent, the end result is people feeling isolated, eating poisonous food and drinking diabetes in a can.

So there you have it. Good luck. You're on your own. Go get em', tiger. That's the message that people who are striving to improve their health receive when they open their browser or social media platform of choice. People are in a tough spot trying to figure out what "healthy" or "clean" food is. In a world where transparency is the norm, these folks have more ability to improve their health and navigate the convoluted waters of health, fitness and diet.

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3. You are the best advocate for yourself

Nobody will advocate for your health more than you. We know this inherently, yet somehow the food industrial complex has overtaken our sense-making when it comes to what we put in our bodies. Your body is your mind and soul's vehicle to experience life, and when it breaks down or gets a flat tire, everything comes to a screeching halt. Whether you are in good health today or not is irrelevant. Just like a vehicle, the body requires constant maintenance to improve its longevity.

Is this problem too big to be solved?

Absolutely not. Every mighty oak starts as an acorn- the movement to regain sovereignty over our health is just sprouting and people are waking up to this issue. In theory, it would be wonderful if corruption was weeded out of the food industry and companies "did the right thing," but unfortunately that's not the world we live in. We can't rely on government regulations or a single purpose-driven CEO to save us. Each and every one of us is part of the solution.

Not to be hyperbolic- rather, looking at the data it's apparent the US is already in a health crisis. Taking ownership of our collective health requires decentralized strategy. So let's just go back to our roots. Through movement, proper nutrition, connection with earth and other people, incredible healing is possible. Taking ownership of your health means getting back in the driver's seat of your most precious vehicle, your body.

Brooks and Kyle Putting Van Sticker Mission Statement Before the West Coast Tour

I hope this helps explain why our mission is to empower people to take ownership of their health. Now go outside!

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