I'll admit… I hesitated to write this one. 

Because who doesn’t love candles? The flicker of the flame, the cozy vibe, the inviting scent of sea and sand or fresh linen — it’s pure ambience in a jar.

But here’s the thing: I also care a lot about clean air. 

And unfortunately, the same candles we burn to create a comforting atmosphere are often not doing our air quality (or our health) any favors.

So what’s Actually in Most Candles?

Many popular candles - especially the mass-produced ones - are made from paraffin wax, a petroleum byproduct. 

When burned, paraffin releases potentially harmful chemicals like benzene and toluene — both known carcinogens. 

Add synthetic fragrance and dyes to the mix, and you’ve got a pretty toxic combo drifting through your home.

I've been diving into some truly fascinating science lately, and I can't stop thinking about what it means for our health. 

And I'm not really a "sciencey" person.  

But I'm hoping that you'll find this as compelling as I do.  

The science I will share offers proof positive that all those foundational principles, our daily habits, that I'm always writing about here … are absolutely essential to healthy aging. 

And yes, it takes effort — to change, to start, to find the time. 

But if you’ve been waiting for that spark — a dose of insight that helps you see things differently, that makes you more aware of what’s possible with small, intentional lifestyle shifts…

…then maybe, just maybe, this is exactly the nudge you’ve been needing to move forward.

What I'm writing about here is the foundation of the Younger You program by Dr. Kara Fitzgerald - and it’s giving me a whole new way to talk about why your daily choices matter so much.

You know eating well, moving regularly, getting quality sleep, managing stress, and minimizing toxins are important. We all know that.

But here’s the question that gets me fired up:

👉 Do you realize just how those habits shape your health, your longevity, and even your gene expression?

This is where things get really interesting.

When we hear the phrase energy balance, the technical definition usually comes to mind: the balance between energy intake (what we eat) and energy expenditure (what we burn).

It’s a scale — and tipping too far in either direction can impact everything from metabolism to mood.

After years of navigating work, motherhood, and life in general, I’ve learned that energy balance, simply being and feeling balanced, is about so much more than the technical scientific equation cited above.

It’s about how we show up in life. How we protect and replenish our energy — physically, emotionally, socially, and spiritually — so we can thrive instead of just push through.

Here are a few ways I think about balance in real life:

What would you think if you left your doctor’s office with this type of prescription?:  

• Eat one cup of blueberries per week

• Eat 2-3 cups of tomato sauce per week

• Eat a handful of walnuts every day

And that’s just for starters.  Dr. William Li, a leading cancer scientist and physician, who also serves on the faculty at Harvard Medical School, has taken the notion of “food is medicine” to a whole new level.  

His book Eat to Beat Disease looks at the different types of foods that can make a difference in staving off cancer - and to which level those foods need to be consumed in order to have an impact.  It is pretty compelling.

While this may sound a bit extreme, when you get right down to it -  

Every morsel of food has the ability to prevent disease … or create disease.  It has the ability to amp up, or amp down, bad genes.