I want to tell you a story that starts when I was about eight years old. I had eczema from the time I was a baby (dry, reactive skin that responded to the world with redness and itching that was my constant, unremarkable background noise). My mom, who was always ahead of her time in her instincts about health, discovered a tiny organic shop near us called a Reformhaus (the German word for a natural health food store).

I had special candy from there. Soy yogurt. Foods made differently from the supermarket versions: grown differently, sweetened differently, processed differently. I was eight years old. I didn't understand what organic meant in any technical sense. But I learned something that has never left me: some foods made my body react. Others didn't. The foods from the Reformhaus reliably fell into the second category.

At eight years old, I understood in my own skin that food was directly influencing how my body felt. That understanding has shaped every decision I've made about food and supplements since.

Twenty-Five Years of Eczema, and How It Finally Ended

For twenty-five years I had eczema. At its worst (and this is genuinely difficult to write about, but I think it's important to share because it explains why organic matters so deeply to me), I couldn't take a shower without crying on the floor afterward. My skin was so dry and cracked, particularly on my forearms, that water felt like fire. I had tried every cream, every medication, every elimination diet that had been suggested.

I healed it completely at age 25. Not through any medication or cream. Through approximately two years of completely transforming my lifestyle: whole food plant-based eating, medicinal plants, emotional healing work, reducing my total toxic load. Removing the inputs that were driving the inflammation. Adding the inputs that supported the body's ability to regulate itself.

The eczema healed. Completely. And it has not returned. Organic eating was a central part of that process, not because I was following an ideology, but because reducing pesticide exposure was one of the meaningful changes I made, and my body responded.

Do Pesticide Residues Actually Matter? The Science

There's a common reassurance given in discussions about pesticide residues: 'The levels are well below regulatory safety thresholds.' This is technically true. But the regulatory thresholds deserve scrutiny.

First: many pesticide safety thresholds are set based on individual compound testing. The actual exposure in conventional produce is typically to multiple pesticide residues simultaneously. The average commercially farmed strawberry has been found to contain residues of more than 20 different pesticides. Research on combined, low-dose exposure to mixtures of pesticides, called the 'cocktail effect,' shows that combinations of compounds can produce effects that don't appear in single-compound testing.

Second: systemic pesticides are not washed off by rinsing. Systemic pesticides are absorbed into the plant's vascular system during growth. They travel through the plant and cannot be removed by washing, peeling, or cooking. You cannot rinse a systemic pesticide off a strawberry.

Third: the developing bodies of children are significantly more vulnerable to pesticide exposure than adults. Neurological development, hormonal systems, and immune programming are all active during childhood and disproportionately affected by endocrine-disrupting compounds, a class that includes several commonly used agricultural pesticides.

The Dirty Dozen (Where to Prioritise)

The Environmental Working Group (EWG) publishes an annual Dirty Dozen list (the 12 conventional fruits and vegetables with the highest pesticide residue loads). If budget or access constraints mean you can't buy everything organic, starting here captures the most significant part of the risk reduction:

• • Strawberries

• • Spinach

• • Kale, collard greens, and mustard greens

• • Peaches

• • Pears

• • Apples

• • Grapes

• • Bell and hot peppers

• • Cherries

• • Blueberries

• • Green beans

• • Broccoli

→ Full Dirty Dozen list (ewg.org)

How to Wash Your Produce

Apple cider vinegar wash: fill a bowl with cold water, add 2–3 tablespoons of ACV. Soak fruit and vegetables for 10–15 minutes, then rinse thoroughly under cold running water. Research has found this more effective at removing surface pesticide residues and bacteria than water alone.

Plain water scrubbing: for produce you're not soaking, cold running water with gentle scrubbing and a produce brush removes surface residues. Better than nothing, completely free.

Every ingredient in our entire product range is 100% organic. This is non-negotiable for us. Not as a marketing claim, but as a direct expression of why we built this company. The products I made for Michael during his chemotherapy recovery used organic ingredients. They always will.

If organic produce feels cost-prohibitive, the most financially efficient approach is: prioritise the Dirty Dozen organic, buy the Clean Fifteen (avocados, sweet corn, pineapple, onions, papaya, frozen peas, asparagus, honeydew melon, kiwi, cabbage, mushrooms, mangoes, watermelon, sweet potatoes, and carrots) conventionally, and always buy your organic superfoods, herbs, and spices in organic form, because these are consumed in concentrated quantities and quality matters even more. That three-tier approach captures most of the pesticide risk reduction at considerably lower cost than buying everything organic.

→ Related: Bloating Is Not Just Something You Have to Live With

→ Related: I Looked at Old Photos and Didn't Recognize My Face

Eat Plants. Feel Alive.

Xo Kristel & Michael

*These statements have not been evaluated by the FDA. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.