After graduating from college, I moved to New York City in order to work in finance. The high-pressure job led to fast living, too many late nights and some self-destructive behavior.
Realizing that I needed to live differently, I committed to making some serious changes.
– I quit drinking alcohol in 1999 and never relapsed once.
– I quit smoking cigarettes in 2000 and never relapsed once.
– I quit nearly 11 years of antidepressants in 2001 and never relapsed once.
As health became a priority, I started to educate myself about the conventional food that I was eating. It shocked me that nearly everything was tainted with toxic pesticides, insecticides, growth hormones or artificial preservatives.
I wanted to treat my body with the most nutritious and “clean” food possible, so I switched to organic. Not only did it give me more energy, but it helped to change my relationship with food. I started to view food as medicine.
Here is some insight into my eating habits:
- I eat as close to 100% organic as I can but sometimes it is simply not available. I eat organic for health reasons AND because supporting organic restaurants, juice bars, supermarkets and food product companies is very, very important to me. These are companies that do business the right way, and I vote with my dollars every single day.
- I eat both cooked and raw (plant-based, not sushi) food.
- I always travel with food.
- I drink as much fresh green juice as possible.
Professionally, I have done many different things. My career started out as an investment banker in the Latin American Group on Wall Street. After that job, I worked in biotechnology, software and real estate. Through my work, I have been able to travel to Argentina, Bolivia, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Ecuador, Mexico and Venezuela. It was in these countries that I had the chance to eat fruits, vegetables and grains in their most pure, natural state. The superior taste was immediately noticeable.
In terms of my education, I received my BA from Brown University and my MBA from the Columbia University Graduate School of Business.
For my work in the organic industry, I have been called an “organic sensation” by The New York Times and was named “one of the nation’s leading organic food experts” by Shape Magazine, and my appearance on the Fox News Channel was called “the most hard-hitting GMO report ever aired by the mainstream media.”
I am the Founder/Publisher of Organic Insider, a newsletter for the organic industry, which has been called “a must-read” and “required reading” by industry CEOs. Additionally, I run the Organic Food Industry Group on LinkedIn (please feel free to join) and consult with organic food CEOs from around the world.