I was sitting here thinking, “My god, all these people are boycotting these things? I’m not boycotting anything.” And then I saw your comment and realized that I boycott things without really thinking about it as an active boycott. Vegetarian since 2013 myself, vegan for just about a month.

It took me years to finally get a bidet. Now I’m a bidet enthusiast! The only bad thing about having a bidet is using a toilet without one.

This is my experience also. Dentists are basically out to sell you stuff.

I feel you on that. As a Buddhist I’m also curious. 😀

I take the Buddhist view that what we call the self is a misconception or misunderstanding. While you do exist, there isn’t a soul or some permanent entity that takes residence and jumps around before or after death.

Thus, you can ask questions like these and get a million different answers because the question is not valid. It’s what the Buddha would call proliferation, or basically hot air. There isn’t an answer, why ask the question?

Don’t mistake this for a cynical view, though. A good Buddhist is very happy because even though the idea of a self is false, freeing yourself from all of these self-based concepts and desires leads to great peace. The obsession with self and self-based craving is what leads to any kind of unhappiness.

Mindfulness meditation, not the catchy popular kind your work teaches but the actual Buddhist mindfulness. It’s whole purpose is to be able to see the arising and passing away of thoughts/feelings without getting involved.

Chiropractic medicine

Recent WHO recommendations say that artificial sweeteners are not useful for weight loss, but used in moderation they are not terribly unsafe as far as current studies indicate. All the stuff saying artificial sweeteners are super scary and bad is just that, scare tactics. Or it takes a gigantic amount to be bad for you, but if you replace that amount of artificial sweetener with sugar then the sugar is just as bad or worse. Better just to avoid both.

I try to avoid single studies or articles about anything, but rather look to larger recommendations from WHO or other agencies that are less likely to be influenced by $$$. Looking at a single article or study is basically meaningless. Unless you’re Joe Rogan and you’re paid to sell everyone a meat eater diet or Dr. Oz with whatever his garbage of the month is.