One day during a lab class, we created cranberry juice. It looked, smelled, and tasted just like cranberry juice, except there was not a single cranberry in sight when we made it. In fact there was no concentrate or any derivative product that could have been extracted from a cranberry. It was a carefully formulated cocktail of chemicals that was ready to bottle and sell as cranberry juice. This was both stunning and terrifying to me. It made me rethink all the ingredient labels of any packaged foods I would from that day consume. It also was not long before my journey of eating mainly healthy, whole foods would also include experimenting with whole food beauty treatments based exclusively on avocados, eggs and rich natural oils. When I was a child I struggled with a serious health challenge. Through God’s grace and my mother’s love and dedication, I am well and thriving today. I always struggled with growing a full head of healthy hair. This was especially challenging given that all my siblings have naturally thick and healthy hair, I couldn’t understand why mine was always so thin and slow to grow. I strongly believe now that my illness growing up was a contributing factor to this experience.