5SR - January 30, 2024

Hitha on mental health, microdosing movement, and the profit of Girl Scout cookies

Author

Hitha Palepu
January 30, 2024

Today’s curator is the founder of #5SmartReads, Hitha Palepu. She’s a consummate multihyphenate - CEO of Rhoshan Pharmaceuticals, author of WE’RE SPEAKING: The Life Lessons of Kamala Harris and How to Pack: Travel Smart for Any Trip, and professional speaker. Hitha is an unabashed fan of Taco Bell, Philadelphia sports teams & F1, romance novels, and is a mediocre crafter. She lives in NYC with her husband and two sons.

If you’ve been reading #5SmartReads for a while, you’re familiar with my regular rants about our extremely profitable disease management system in the United States.

Here’s example 3980492385943048 of that.

We - well, the public sector and private enterprise - do not adequately invest in the comprehensive, proven solutions to help those in need when the need is not profitable enough. Philanthropy is an unsustainable solution, and public health is woefully underfunded at all levels.

Every sector points the finger to another sector for why this is, which keeps us trapped in this never ending blame cycle that leaves us sicker, weaker and more hopeless.

It’s heartbreaking. And infuriating.

Microdosing movement is a far more attractive option than waking up at 5 am to get in my workout before jury duty (which I did yesterday, and which also left me feeling annoyingly chipper and energized).

These recommendations are simple, free, and easily implementable in your day. I particularly love this advice:

“Try swapping out your 40-ounce Stanley tumbler for a smaller water bottle that requires more refills — which means more visits to the kitchen. “When you tie it into your routines,” Diaz says, “that’s when it helps become more sustainable and becomes part of a habit you don’t have to rely on, like a reminder to do it.”

Your body gives the best signals for when you should move. Don’t ignore stiffness or lethargy or mistakenly consider muscle tightness a sign to continue resting — take it as a cue to move, Diaz says.”

Germany strikes a brave new deal on immigration (The Economist)
gifted link via my subscription

Immigration news has been depressingly bleak recently, with the bipartisan deal likely dead on arrival in the House. But across the Atlantic, there’s a bit of hope in Germany.

The accelerated path for citizenship in Germany will help address the long backlog by reducing some of their requirements (a shorter residency requirement, automatic citizenship for children born in Germany to a parent who has lived in the country for 5 years, allowance of dual citizenship).

The opponents of this bill view it as a threat to their electoral chances, with an expected 2 million Germans added to the voter rolls in the coming years. Sound familiar?

This read is for my husband, who posed the annual “What’s the margin on these cookies? Where does the profit go?” Girl Scout cookie questions when we were enjoying the last of the s’more cookies on Sunday night.

I’m very happy to report that the net profit on these cookies ranges from 65-75% from each box, and these profits remain within the local Girl Scouts council to support these troops’ education programs, community projects, travel, and other activities.

My only regret from this year’s cookie season? That I didn’t buy more.

Speaking of food regrets, let’s talk about how the majority of our food is produced.

I think many of us have an overly romanticized notion of how our food is grown, farmed, and harvested. The reality is quite the opposite.

Rather than depressing you with the current reality, let’s talk about the more hopeful future.

“The study proposes a shift of subsidies and tax incentives away from destructive large-scale monocultures that rely on fertilisers, pesticides and forest clearance. Instead, financial incentives should be directed towards smallholders who could turn farms into carbon sinks with more space for wildlife.

A change of diet is another key element, along with investment in technologies to enhance efficiency and cut emissions.

With less food insecurity, the report says, undernutrition could be eradicated by 2050, with 174 million fewer premature deaths, and 400 million farm workers able to earn a sufficient income. The proposed transition would help to limit global heating to 1.5C above pre-industrial levels and halve nitrogen run-offs from agriculture.”

We have the solutions. We just have to be willing to invest in them and build a better future, rather than be resigned with our depressing present.

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