Kate Bratskeir's Empties
"If I’m sharing honestly here, I adore my morning oats because they keep me regular. Like, guaranteed."
🌀 Welcome to Empties! 🌀 This is a new series where we go deep on three healthy and healthy-ish things cool people are using to the last metaphorical drop. These can be legit, science-backed healthful or simply health-adjacent, as long as they don’t impact their wellbeing in a negative, unhealthy, or toxic way.
Today, we’ve got Kate Bratskeir, a writer covering food, consumerism, sustainability, and garbage. She wrote the book “A Pocket Guide to Sustainable Food Shopping” and also writes one of my favorite newsletters, Good Little Garbage Girl.
She’s written about the Stanley Cup frenzy, the problem with compostable coffee cups, whether Dry January is a capitalist scam, and how she threw a zero-waste 1st birthday party for her twins (pictured above).
Kate just interviewed someone who quit their corporate job to focus on composting with worm poop, which will be in an upcoming newsletter. I’m stoked. “I’m just psyched to keep telling stories of people who are experimenting with living outside the blueprints we’ve been promised would lead to ‘success.’” Something I’ve been thinking a lot about lately myself!!
Kate thinks it’s 😎 cool 😎 that there’s so much good when it comes to taking care of yourself and figuring out what makes you feel “well".” For her, one of those things is running. “But it’s a slippery slope that can go from feeling good to feeling like you’ve got to do everything to the point where you lose out on being present.”
Which brings us to what Kate feels is 👿 insidious 👿 about wellness: Feeling like you’re not doing enough. “It’s no secret that wellness has been given the late-stage capitalism treatment, which is designed to make us feel guilty and confuse our wants for needs. It’s critical to remember that not every Instagram ad you see for skincare will make you feel younger and happier, but it’s really tough! I have to remind myself to snap out of it often before I succumb and add to cart.”
Let’s take a look at three of Kate’s favorite items she uses to the last drop, which, as you’d expect, stem from a person living a life mindful of waste and wellness scams!
Dropps hand soap + detergent
💞 Healthy or healthy-ish?
I’d like to use the word “healthier” here. In the midst of covering the plastic crisis, I was looking for a detergent that didn’t use those big, clunky jugs. Dropps seems genuinely invested in its environmental impact, and would readily admit there’s room for improvement. One of my newsletters focused on how to clean more greenly, and Dropps was heavily featured.
⏰ At what point in the day do you use this?
Fourteen-month-old twins will increase your laundering and dishwashing to a degree I have yet to calculate. I’m most obsessed with the hand soap pods because you can plop them into your old plastic dispensers that companies had intended for you to throw away. It feels like a victory.
TLDR: I use Dropps throughout the day, every day.
🤔 Let’s get introspective for a moment. Why do you think, deep down, this serves you? Or is it not that deep?
I want to do better for the planet, and collecting plastic containers to toss out makes me feel a mix of dread, guilt and anxiety, so something to reduce that serves me well. I know there’s also a virtuousness attached to these products for me; I can sit on a slightly higher horse because I made a purchase that isn’t as taxing on the planet as the average person’s pick. There’s always more a person can do — making your own detergents and cleaners isn’t impossible — but I’m not willing to do that right now, and these products make me feel like I’m doing enough in the cleaning realm at this point in my life.
☎️ You have the product designers on the phone. They said they can grant you one wish: You get to make one change or adjustment to the product to make it even more indispensable. What is your wish?
I’d wish for a more powerful scent in the laundry pods. I love when you can smell someone’s clean laundry scent on their clothes when they enter a room (but I’m guessing the staying power comes from chemicals?).
⏳ Is this something you can see yourself still using in 10 years, or will it have run its course/be obsolete?
Yes, I do think I’ll be using this (or something like it). Having these products automatically shipped to my apartment right before I run out means there’s one less thing to think about, and that is huge for me right now.
👽 Aliens from another planet just arrived on Earth. They’ve never heard of this product. How would you describe it to them in just one sentence:
Use these squishy squares to clean your dirty things without creating excessive plastic waste.
💬 In one word, describe how this product makes you feel:
Smug.
You can shop on the Dropps site using Kate’s referral code and get 30% off
Rolled Oats
💞 Healthy or healthy-ish?
Healthy! No sugar, a nice amount of fiber and protein, not especially taxing on the environment. It’s important to get the rolled oats, not the quick oats. The latter gets too soggy, IMHO.
⏰ At what point in the day do you use this?
So I eat a bowl of oats in some form every single morning. I have been doing it for years and I genuinely look forward to it when I wake up. Lately my recipe is ½ cup of oats zapped in the microwave with water, chia seeds and a pinch of salt. Then I’ll throw some frozen blueberries on top (also healthy, I’d say) and drizzle some creamy peanut butter in (I always search for the kind where the only ingredient is “peanuts.” A lot of peanut butters contain palm oil and added sugar). Then, I’ll pour a bit of non-dairy milk on top to cool it down and make it a little more liquidy, add some cinnamon, a squeeze of honey or agave and maybe some sunflower seeds or chopped almonds for crunch.
I’ve been using oats for a lot of other recipes, too — especially for my kids. I make these mini blueberry muffins with bananas, Greek yogurt, eggs and oat flour, which you can make by simply blending your oats. My babies devour them every morning (and sign for “more” while shouting “MOH”). The muffins freeze really well so I make a big batch every couple of weeks so I never have to say there’s “no moh.”
🤔 Let’s get introspective for a moment. Why do you think, deep down, this serves you? Or is it not that deep?
If I’m sharing honestly here, I adore my morning oats because they keep me regular. Like, guaranteed. Beyond that, oats are versatile, so when I’m sick of eating them one way I can enjoy them another. They’re also very inexpensive as far as breakfast goes.
☎️ You have the product designers on the phone. They said they can grant you one wish: You get to make one change or adjustment to the product to make it even more indispensable. What is your wish?
I think oats have been perfected at this point (though there’s some glyphosate drama that’s too nerdy to go into).
I do wish my local grocery store had a bulk section so I could refill a container at every purchase rather than buy a new cardboard tub each time. In this case, I would encourage the product designers and oat behemoths to support refilleries and put some dollars toward plastic-free coalitions.
⏳ Is this something you can see yourself still using in 10 years, or will it have run its course/be obsolete?
I don’t want to live in a world where oats are obsolete. Unless I get sick of them.
👽 Aliens from another planet just arrived on Earth. They’ve never heard of this product. How would you describe it to them in just one sentence:
Greetings, this is a plant you can eat.
💬 In one word, describe how rolled oats make you feel:
Regulated.
You can shop the rolled oats on Stop & Shop.
Nutrafol hair growth supplements
💞 Healthy or healthy-ish?
Healthy-ish? I didn’t fully investigate the science behind this product, but had heard promising things from some friends and, more relentlessly, social media ads.
When you subscribe to Nutrafol, you receive a thick frosted jar to store the capsules in. Then, every month, the company sends a 30-day supply in a small pouch to reduce plastic. It’s not a perfect system, but it’s an improvement to the classic disposable pill bottle that really lights a fire of rage within me :).
⏰ At what point in the day do you use this?
I take four capsules every morning along with my other daily meds.
🤔 Let’s get introspective for a moment. Why do you think, deep down, this serves you? Or is it not that deep?
I’ve never had thick hair as an adult, but I noticed a lot of extra thinning postpartum, which happens to a lot of people after giving birth. I was loving my healthy hair while pregnant (one of the few physical plusses associated with pregnancy is thick hair!), and I was feeling particularly hideous after having the twins. I started the postpartum supplements about 5 months after giving birth — these are safe for breastfeeding folks, according to the company. I’m switching to the standard vegan supplements this month now that I’m no longer breastfeeding.
Deep down, my thinning hair has always been a source of insecurity for me. I do think the supplements have slowly improved the density on top of my head, so I’ll take it. The product also serves me because of the form it comes in — I’ve never been able to stick to a serum/cream/spray regimen. I just can’t commit. It’s much easier for me to take a capsule every morning since it's a habit already built into my routine.
☎️ You have the product designers on the phone. They said they can grant you one wish: You get to make one change or adjustment to this product to make it even more indispensable. What is your wish?
My wish is to be able to take one or two capsules rather than four. It is a mouthful!
⏳ Is this something you can see yourself still using in 10 years, or will it have run its course/be obsolete?
I could see myself using this until something better/easier/cheaper comes along, which I think is very likely in the ever-expanding world of hair health.
👽 Aliens from another planet just arrived on Earth. They’ve never heard of this product. How would you describe it to them in just one sentence:
Take this pill for a better harvest atop your head.
💬 In one word, describe how these supplements make you feel:
Can I use two? Skeptically optimistic.
You can shop the hair growth nutraceutical on the Nutrafol site
Thank you for reading the latest Empties feature. This is a reader-supported newsletter and I appreciate you!
Follow Un/well on Instagram 📲
Want to be featured in an Empties issue of Un/well? Send me a note! 💌 melsunwell@substack.com
Header and illustrations by Olivia Fu