As we prepare to move (hard to even type those words, denial is real), I am trying to take the opportunity to upgrade household items to ecofriendly alternatives. For example, we need a new mattress. I have strong feelings on many topics but mattresses aren’t one of them. When I traveled with a friend, a couple summers ago, she said I slept like a corpse. “I have never seen anyone get in bed, fall asleep immediately (thank you natural calm, dream tonic etc) and never move. My husband, on the other hand, is constantly using tennis balls and foam rollers and pillows under his knees. Years of hockey has left him with back pain and so he chose our current mattress, little did I know he’s been trying to kill me.

I can tell you about virtually every food additive and ingredient. Can you explain why I never went down the rabbit hole of mattresses? I could blame Marc, as I did earlier, but it’s likely because we haven’t been in the mattress market OR that I didn’t really want to know. It doesn’t even take the rabbit hole, five minutes on google will basically prove that memory foam is akin to nicotine. Well that’s fucking great.

So, rather than trust the internet kooks. I took my question to Facebook. It’s one of my favorite places to crowdsource. Some brands that came up were Pangea, Avocado and Omni. One friend told me about someone with a doctorate in epidemiology, who does product research. My friend’s brother cut to the chase, “most mattresses are toxic as shit and fail from a sustainability perspective. As far as I know, the only ones who pass the eco test (and still feel luxe) are Avocado and Saatva.” But my favorite response came from a friend who I think of as A+ in health, owns a natural foods company, birthed her kids at home etc. She said, “I ended up finding a bed that fixed years of back pain in a week (post baby back trauma I couldn’t walk or lift etc), and it was such a miracle that I put the chemicals in the “la la la” box. The la, la, la box, I loved that. Don’t we all, even the most earnestly health conscious, have some places where we have to bend the rules? Isn’t it nice to discuss these examples? We are on vacation. I have my paraben free, pricey sunscreen but my husband (seems he likes chemicals in places other than our mattress) had a bottle of Coppertone in his golf bag. He sat down next to me and that fragrance (yes, I know fragrance is code for poison) overtook me. And I proceeded to douse myself in it, la la la.

Where are the places you say la la la to healthy advice? Any thoughts on mattresses?