Lara Adler - Environmental Health Education

After 14+ years of teaching environmental health (over a dozen courses, and over 5000 students all around the world), I’ve decided to close the educational arm of my business at the end of this year. Not because I’m leaving environmental health (I’m not) but because the landscape has changed soooo much, and I’m feeling called to apply my knowledge in different ways.

And of course, the online “toxins” space has turned into a circus—loud influencers who distort the evidence for clicks, accounts that have fear-based messaging, and those who are vehemently dismissive altogether—and it’s drowning out the science and nuance that actually matter here.

I’m just not interested in being part of that ecosystem, so I’m shifting the format.

Until Dec 31st, all of my practitioner courses are available at reduced archive pricing before they permanently retire.

What does that mean for this IG account? Not much to be honest. I went from posting every single day for years, to barely posting at all the year. As I said in a previous post, “the vibes are not just it.”

So I’ll still be around and occasionally posting here, but starting in January, I’ll be more active on Substack, where I get into more of the nuance and rant a little more freely (😂 I love me good rant!). For those of you who still want environmental health education, but are exhausted by the extreme views and nitpicking every dang thing, come join me over there.

And I’ll still be doing consulting, speaking, guest teaching, and podcasting!

I’ve updated the link in my bio: you’ll find a link to my Substack and a link to check out my courses. ❤️

Given that these moves will kill more people than removing red dye will help, I think we can say that MAHA has very narrow definition of what health actually is.

Hey! You might have noticed that I haven’t been posting that much over here… I went from posting every single day, to less than a dozen posts all year.

Behind the scenes, I’m still working hard: a full rewrite of my course, that, when all is said and done, will likely clock in at around 20 hours. It’s a biggie.

I’m also in grad school, so that’s fun, but also time consuming.

I’ve got some other projects in the works, I including something that my IG followers have been asking me for for years. Will spill more on that later.

In the meantime, come follow me on Substack, where I’m able to write more long-form content!

You’ll find the link in my bio… if you follow me over there, come say hi!

This BRAND NEW version of my Talking Toxins course was created in response to the increased attention the topic of environmental chemical exposure is getting, including where it’s getting it wrong. ⁠
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Blowing things out of proportion and using sensationalized, fear-based clickbait content has really exploded on social media, and all it does is create anxiety and distort what the science actually says. ⁠
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And wholesale dismissal of the idea of “toxic chemicals” and “endocrine disruptors” (often used in scare quotes to imply they’re not real) ignores a massive volume of evidence showing otherwise. ⁠
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The loudest voices in this conversation are often the least helpful and the least accurate. ⁠
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Learning how to navigate this conversation with nuance and grace, and by leaning on the peer-reviewed evidence, will help you to have more powerful, engaging, and helpful conversations with the clients or patients you serve. ⁠
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Module 1 of Talking Toxins (there are six modules in total) was released earlier this week - get just 1 module, or get the full course. ⁠
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Head to the link in my bio (top link) to check out this course, or go to www.laraadler.com/talkingtoxins

Sure, let’s take out artificial food dyes - there are reasons why doing this is good, but let’s not delude ourselves into thinking this is a major advancement toward lowering chronic disease in this country. ⁠
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It’s really hard to swallow this as something that will benefit our health when right now, this administration is on a deregulatory rampage that will increase: ⁠
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❌ Air pollution: directly linked to asthma, obesity, cardiovascular disease, autism, and more⁠
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❌ Heavy metal exposure: directly linked to autism, ADHD, neurodegenerative conditions, obesity, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, infertility, cancers, and more⁠
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❌ PFAS chemicals: directly linked to high cholesterol, cancer, liver damage, decreased vaccine response, decreased fertility, and low birth weight, and associated with NAFLD, obesity, T2 diabetes, autism, ADHD, and more⁠
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They’re also gutting funding for essential scientific research, including the landmark Women’s Health Initiative (WHI), which has been studying women’s health for 30 years - that happened this week. ⁠
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A committee tasked with recommending to HHS which genetic conditions to include on a universal screening panel for newborns and kids was closed this month, after 15 years of service. ⁠

There’s so much more just like this happening every day.
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If we really and truly want to improve the health of the US population, we need to address the bigger systemic issues that lead to chronic disease - keep swiping to see a list of some of the changes we REALLY should be focusing on. ⁠
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⁠Wellness professionals and influencers of all types should be talking about THESE issues, not applauding an eyedropper full of water trying to put out a whole ass house on fire.

It’s wild to see people celebrate HHS’s performative actions on things like seed oils in fast food while staying silent on these larger environmental actions that will absolutely, without question, have an enormous impact on public health.

This might just be part of the shock-and-awe strategy currently being employed, but given trump’s track record on environmental regulations, I wouldn’t be surprised if he reverses course on removing lead pipes across the US. ⁠
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In the context of chronic disease and “making America healthy again,” removing lead pipes and lowering lead exposure on a population-wide level would do magnitudes MORE for public health than removing a single food dye or swapping seed oils for beef tallow. ⁠
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A 2018 paper in the Lancet found that 400,000 deaths in the US each year are attributable to lead exposure. ⁠
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https://doi.org/10.1016/s2468-2667(18)30025-2

a number of people have reached out asking my thoughts on the findings that Pique’s matcha tea has “dangerous” amounts of lead. ⁠
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Here’s the newsletter that I sent out earlier today on this topic. ⁠
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I think citizen science is HUGELY important and is something I generally support and advocate for. However, like all science, context matters immensely. ⁠
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My approach to environmental chemicals is to avoid the avoidable. Meaning do your best with the full knowledge that you cannot avoid all exposure. ⁠
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Is matcha tea an essential food? No. ⁠
Does it have documented health benefits? Yes. ⁠
Do you have to drink matcha tea? No. ⁠
Can it still be considered health-promoting even if it has low levels of lead? Yes! ⁠
Are there components within matcha tea that can offset damage from heavy metals? YES. ⁠
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If you don’t feel comfortable, as an adult (ie, not an infant or toddler) to consume matcha tea, then don’t. ⁠
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If you enjoy matcha and the health benefits it affords, feel free to keep drinking it. I will. ⁠
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Note: I am an affiliate for Pique tea - I’ve been drinking matcha daily for close to 20 years, long before Pique existed. And I’ve been sharing about the benefits of matcha long before I knew of Pique. I drink their tea because they have more comprehensive testing than most other matcha tea brands. ⁠
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It IS possible to educate and inform without stoking fear, panic, and anxiety.