RECOMMENDED PRODUCTS – BY MINNA WOOD
Recommended Products for Supporting Optimum Health
The brands and products below are some of my own favourites. I only recommend products that I’ve tried myself, learned about the benefits and the brand ethics and fallen in love with them.
I’ve been given discount codes by some of these brands to share with you, so check them out below and click the links to start shopping and enjoy the discounts (where applicable).
(In full transparency, some of the links are affiliate links and if you choose to buy through them, I will receive a small commission. The brands and products I share on this page are all ones that I love myself and are aligned with my values, hence I’m very glad to spread the word about them.)
Sensate Vagus Nerve Stimulator
Sensate Vagus Nerve Stimulator is a vibrating “pebble” that you place on your chest while listening to a meditation track from the simple app that comes with it. It’s designed to stimulate the vagus nerve and the rest-and-digest mode of our nervous system and calm the fight-or-flight stress response.
Daily stimulation of the vagus nerve may increase heart rate variability (HRV, a maker of health), calming the nervous system and reducing stress levels and hormones, improving the digestive function and motility, helping with mental health and anxiety, supporting optimal heart and immune health and improving sleep…
So if you, like me, struggle to take time off from your busy day to relax or meditate, this device is a great incentive to do it. You can choose from 10, 20 or 30 minute long meditations from the app.
Get £20 off the retail price when you purchase via this link and use code METAWELL at checkout.
WellEasy Healthy Online Shop
WellEasy Healthy Online Shop is on a mission to make healthy living easy and affordable for everyone. Stock your cupboards with healthy, sustainable and ethical brands and products with WellEasy! This online shop uses a membership model (£4/month) to give you discounts of up to 35% off retail price (you’ll recoup your membership cost in no time but they do offer a free 30 day trial that you can cancel at any time.).
Citizens of Soil Extra Virgin Olive Oil
Citizens Of Soil award-winning, extra virgin olive oils from regenerative farms—delivered straight through your letterbox! Supporting your health and supporting the planet. This is by far my favourite olive oil. It’s sourced ethically from farms that grow their olives in harmony with nature, and produced through purely mechanical processes. It’s high in antioxidant polyphenols that protect this green elixir even when used in cooking. But don’t just use it in cooking, drizzle over salads and other meals and have a green EVOO shot daily for its amazing health benefits. The flavour is second to none!
Use code MINNAWOOD10 at the checkout to get 10% off on selected collections.
Abel & Cole Organic Food
Abel & Cole Organic Food has delivered my weekly organic vegetables and other food items for almost two decades now. As an ethical B Corp, they are on a mission to make shopping sustainably simple, putting people and our planet first every step of the way.
Get 50% off your first four Fruit & Veg boxes with this link.
Organised Beef Protein
Organised is world’s first all-in-one, 100% grass-fed beef protein powder, enriched with collagen, colostrum and beef organs, made with the highest quality ingredients from nature. A full-spectrum source of bioavailable protein, delivering all nine essential amino acids required for muscle protein synthesis and cellular repair. As this contains some honey and is quite sweet, I like it in desserts and treats and use it in my pre-workout hot chocolate to fuel my body for the workout.
Bon Charge
Bon Charge manufactures a range of therapy devices, from red light therapy lamps, masks and toothbrushes, to infrared sauna blankets, PEMF mats, blue light blocking glasses and cold therapy products.
Hot and cold therapy, as well as red light/near infrared light therapy have been studied for their many health benefits. I’m personally a lover of saunas and red light therapy, and I also recommend these to my clients who have issues with inflammation (e.g. thyroid autoimmunity), pain, high toxic load, stress and sleep, to name a few.
Use discount code ‘MINNA15’ at the checkout to get 15% off the retail price.
Red Light Rising Therapy Lights
Red Light Rising Therapy Lights manufactures a range of red light therapy devices designed to speed healing and improve health of the whole body. There is evidence for its benefit for the skin, hair, eyes, deep tissues, bones, joints, muscles, organs, glands, the brain, blood and joints.
Use discount code ‘METAWELL’ at the checkout to get 10% off the retail price.
FIRZone Saunas
Coming from Finland, I grew up with a weekly sauna and am well aware of the health benefits of having regular saunas. Here in the UK, I’ve been using a portable and collapsible far-infrared sauna by FIRZone for over a decade now. Not just great for relaxation but also for many therapeutic effects. Saunas may support a healthy cardiovascular system, can be energising for the body, may help with pain, and sweating is part of our detoxification system. Studies show that hyperthermia (heat) stimulates the synthesis of the body’s own master antioxidant and detoxification molecule glutathione. Hence, regular saunas can be a good way of supporting the health of the whole body.
Use this link and coupon code MW25 at checkout for a £25 off FIRZone Oxy and Tourmaline Pro saunas.
Block Blue Light
Exposure to blue light in the evening can suppress melatonin, your sleep onset hormone and a potent antioxidant. Minimise your night-time exposure to blue light by using night-time lamps and bulbs or wearing orange-tinted glasses to improve your sleep, energy levels, blood sugar balance and mood. I always dim lights and screens after sunset, use blue light blocking glasses when working on any screens or watching telly. I’ve been using Block clip-ons on my computer glasses for some time now, as well as a pair of orange-tinted TV glasses and wouldn’t be without them!
Use this link to go to the Block Blue Light store for a 10% discount on your purchases.
myco:soul Performance Coffee
myco:soul mushroom coffee is made with organically grown, fairtrade Honduran Arabica from an all-female co-op and blended in Somerset UK. The coffee is mixed with lion’s mane, chaga and cordyceps mushrooms that have been tested to contain a minimum of 45% beta-glucans. Beta glucans are soluble dietary fibres, or polysaccharides, shown to modulate the gut microbiome and immune system, promote the production of short chain fatty acids such as butyrate, reduce inflammation, help manage blood sugar levels and lower cholesterol. And not just that but these mushrooms are also nootropics and adaptogens boosting cognitive performance and calming down the nervous system.
A cleaner healthier coffee that actually can help you stay feeling calm and have your good night sleep, while boosting your brain power and focus.
Use this link to get 25% off your performance coffee order (MINNA).
London Nootropics
London Nootropics (as seen on Dragons Den) make adaptogenic coffee blends with coffee, medicinal mushrooms and adaptogenic herbs. Nootoropics means brain-boosters: they are known to enhance cognitive performance & improve brain health. They work in many ways to produce a wide range of benefits across memory, focus, motivation, verbal fluency and more.
Exhale Coffee
Exhale Coffee was founded by Kirsty and Alex who studied the science of coffee to create the healthiest coffee in the market. It’s full of antioxidants and polyphenols and free of nasties like mould, mycotoxins and pesticides due to the unique process that locks in more of coffee’s natural, healthy compounds and involves 9 different tests at independent labs. Exhale Coffee are passionate about ethical and traceable sourcing, organic farming practices and using sustainable compostable packaging.
Use code MINNAWOOD at checkout to get £10 off your first bag in a fully flexible, no commitment subscription (discount code valid for UK delivery addresses only).
Motion Nutrition
Motion Nutrition Classic 50:50 Collagen is one of my favourite collagen powders. A great support for skin and hair health, joints and muscles, as well as gut health (collagen supports a healthy gut lining). The Motion Nutrition Classic 50:50 collagen combines sustainable marine collagen with grass-fed bovine peptides in a glorious 50:50 ratio. Comes with a storage tin with an eco-refill pouch inside. It has hardly any flavour so I love using it mixed in hot drinks – green tea, herbal tea or coffee. It also makes lovely smooth cold drinks with a whipped consistency.
Fat Cow Skincare
This British skincare brand makes organic non-toxic moisturisers with nourishing tallow from grass-fed cows, with only few other ingredients. Tallow fat is rich in bioavailable nutrients that are powerful at healing and nourishing your skin. I always aim to find skincare products with the most nourishing ingredients and a short ingredients list. I’ve been using Fat Cow face cream, lip balm and deodorant and can highly recommend these products, particularly for those with sensitive and/or dry skin.
Use this link and coupon code MINNA15 at checkout for 15% off your order.
Tropic Skincare
Fusing wild tropical botanicals with cutting-edge science, without the use of artificial preservatives, hormone disruptors or any harmful synthetic chemicals such as ALS, formaldehyde, mineral oil, petroleum, microbeads, nanoparticles, parabens, oxybenzone (reef-damaging sunscreen), phthalates, SLS, talc, triclosan, unsustainable palm oil or derivatives.
The vegan, cruelty-free, natural and nourishing skincare and make-up products are freshly made daily in small batches at their Surrey HQ. I’m a big fan of their serums, SPF moisturisers, self-tanning and sun creams as well as their make-up.
I’ve been using Tropic skincare and makeup for years now and love their beautiful natural products. I also love their ethics in regards to cruelty-free, recyclable and returnable products, the carbon-neurtal, waste-free approach, and the strive for protecting the planet and wildlife.
Tropic offer a ’30-Day Happiness Guarantee’ so if you don’t like a product, you can return it for a refund or exchange within 30 days of purchase.
Salcura Natural Skin Therapy
Salcura skin products are designed for dry and sensitive skin and for those suffering from eczema and psoriasis. They contain natural and plant-based ingredients and are free from parabens, paraffin, synthetic fragrance, microplastics and nanoparticles.
Salcura Bioskin Zeoderma soothes, protects and moisturises dry to severely dry skin and I love using it as a hand and foot cream. You can also find the Bioskin Dermaspray always in my bathroom cupboard that has an instantly cooling and refreshing feel on my mature dry skin. The fine liquid of the spray sinks deep into the skin, feeding it all the nutrients needed to become stronger and healthier.
Megi Wellness
Megi Wellness is a cutting-edge haircare brand powered by clinically tested, patented ingredients designed to combat hair thinning, shedding, and loss at the root cause. Their products contain multiple plant growth factors that have been developed through stem cell technology, to help nurture hair follicles, encourage hair growth and limit hair loss.
Megi Wellness has a range of haircare products that includes a shampoo, conditioner and serum as well as a hair supplement. All products are made in the UK and use mostly naturally derived ingredients that are suitable for all hair types and may help with hair loss and loss of volume. The products are free from toxic synthetic ingredients such as SLS, SLES, parabens, silicones, PEG’s, ethanolamine compounds (DEA, MEA, TEA), GMOs and artificial colour. An advanced, fortifying haircare line for hair that is thinning, losing volume and density.
Use code MINNA20 for individual Megi Wellness products to get 20% off.
Hatton Handmade Soap
Natural soap and shampoo bars lovingly hand-crafted with 100% natural oils and botanicals. I’ve been using Emily’s rosemary and tea tree shampoo for some time now and love it. It produces a good amount lather without the nasty toxic chemicals in conventional shampoos. And no plastic in sight so they are also environmentally friendly. I follow the shampooing with a rinse of diluted apple cider vinegar that balances the pH of my hair (we live in a very hard water area) and my hair feels much softer now.
Arctic Power Berries
What superfoods, if any, are worthy of this title? In my mind, no one food is ever ‘super’ because nutrition is all about the context. However, to me berries have special superpowers that can help protect us from the harmful ageing effects of our modern lives. It’s the various antioxidant and gut-feeding polyphenols in berries that are their superpowers. To make my daily intake of berries easier, I use Arctic Power Berries berry powders – wild berries from the Finnish Arctic, dried and ground for your convenience so you can enjoy them throughout the year. They are delicious, potent and really versatile. 1 tsp = a handful of fresh, wild berries! I use these powders in breakfast bowls, treats, smoothies, drinks…Just sprinkle a teaspoon of the powder on your favourite foods and discover some amazing new flavours. Read more on the health benefits of berries here.