Monica Ruffo, Founder of Well Told Health

My life was going along just fine when I was diagnosed with a very aggressive form of breast cancer that stopped me in my tracks. This made me start to question everything about my lifestyle, especially what I was putting in and on my body. At that point, I had already been interested in wellness from a food perspective, but I started looking at other aspects and discovered that I couldn’t actually read the labels of the supplements I had at home. So one of the first things I did was go to the pharmacy and ask the pharmacist if she could tell me which of the products on their shelves were completely natural and void of synthetics and fillers. She didn’t really know and started looking at all the products and reading the labels with me, and after a few minutes, she told me that she had no idea what these products were made from, which I thought was insane. I still think that’s crazy that someone with a medical background couldn’t read the labels of supplements. This started me on a journey, and I soon discovered that less than 30% of ingredients in supplements are in fact natural, and the word natural isn’t even a regulated word. I figured I wasn’t the only one out there looking for completely natural products, so I created this company for myself and to offer products I wish had been around when I was undergoing cancer treatment.

 

I think any ingredients you can’t read, you should be avoiding. In the same way we now want clean labeling for our food, and to be able to read the ingredients, the same should be true for the ingredients on our supplement packages. I also think we should be wary of synthetic ingredients. Just because a vitamin in its natural form is good for your body, doesn’t mean the synthetic version is as good. One example I often refer to is beta carotene (found in carrots, cantaloupe, and a number of other plants), which we know has cancer-fighting properties. People thought we’ll make a synthetic version to sell, but it turns out it can actually promote cancer in its synthetic form, working on the body in the complete opposite way it would when it’s found in a fruit and vegetable. This isn’t to say that this is necessarily always the case, but often there isn’t enough research on synthetic ingredients, and the assumption and leap of faith that’s made that if it works well in nature on the body then it will work well in synthetic form, is not necessarily true. So as consumers we really have to be vigilant and be sure that the supplements we’re taking are doing what they’re supposed to be doing. And the safest way to do that is to take them in natural whole food form.

 

My most sacred part of the day is the morning. I have to wake up slowly and take the time to think through my day and play it out. I do a lot of imaging in the morning even before I get out of bed -- not just for the day but about life in general and how I want it to turn out. I also try to work out in the morning when I can. I typically do a Peloton class, even if it’s a short one. That’s the advantage of Peloton, even if you don’t really have enough time, you can do a 20-minute class, which is better than nothing and makes you feel a lot better. We also adopted two rescue kittens in October. They come into my room in the morning, and just spending a few minutes with them really grounds me before I go off and start my day.

 

Changing the world and people who change the world to make it a better place for everybody, that’s what gets me out of bed every day. We tend to think of that as world leaders, but I think the people who are changing the world in very grassroots ways, those people inspire me.