Happy Wednesday my friend,

From frogs with see-through bellies to the vast ice fields of Patagonia, this week’s journey spans the strange and the sublime. We’ll meet the glass frog, whose body can literally hide its own blood, trek across one of Earth’s last great frozen frontiers, and explore how nature is reshaping our understanding of health.

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🐿️ CREATURE FEATURE 🐿️

The Glass Frog

Found from Costa Rica to the Andes, glass frogs are famous for their translucent bellies that can reveal a beating heart (see it here). To enhance their see-through trick while resting, they can sequester red blood cells inside the liver, boosting overall transparency.

Because they depend on clean, flowing streams and intact forests, glass frogs are vulnerable to habitat loss and pollution. An overview of their status and threats is on the IFAW species page. Like other amphibians, they’ve also been hit by the chytrid fungus Bd, which has devastated Central American frog populations.

🌎 INTO THE…🌎

Into the Patagonia Ice Fields

Stretching for hundreds of kilometers across the Andes of southern Chile and Argentina, the Patagonian Ice Fields are the largest expanse of ice in the Southern Hemisphere outside Antarctica. Divided into the Northern and Southern Patagonian Ice Fields, this “frozen spine” creates a dramatic landscape of towering glaciers, jagged peaks, and deep-blue lakes, forming the heart of famous parks like Torres del Paine and Los Glaciares.

Fed by immense snowfall and powerful winds, the ice fields are constantly in flux –melting and reshaping the region as changing ecosystems accelerate their loss (great video on this subject). Meltwater from these dynamic glaciers feeds rivers and lakes, supports unique ecosystems, and even plays a role in global sea level rise. Despite their harsh environment, the ice fields are a haven for rare wildlife and a magnet for adventurous trekkers seeking one of the world’s last wild frontiers.

Ozempic? Think again.

You’ve probably heard the buzz about semaglutide injections (Ozempic®, Wegovy®). They mimic GLP-1, a hormone your body makes to signal fullness, slow digestion, and steady blood sugar. The results can be dramatic, but so can the drawbacks: high cost, weekly needles, travel hassles, nausea, and weight regain once you stop, etc.

I wanted a way to work with my body’s natural GLP-1… so I started taking GLP-1 Up from Ora, a plant-based supplement using four patented fruit extracts, each at the exact dose used in human studies:

• Eriomin® Lemon – ↑ GLP-1 by 17%, improved glucose and inflammation

• Reducose® Mulberry – ↓ post-meal glucose and insulin spikes

• Morosil® Blood Orange – reduced waist & visceral fat in 12 weeks

• Feiolix® Feijoa – improved blood sugar, lipids & gut health

Capsules, not needles. No stimulants or synthetics. Third-party tested with results posted online.

👉 [Explore GLP-1 Up here] – I personally take it daily with lunch.
👉 ECL Readers can get 25% off your first bottle

👉 Start supporting your body’s natural GLP-1 today

🍎 NUTRITION 101 🍎

BETA-GLUCANS:

Found in: Oats, barley, mushrooms (shiitake, maitake, reishi), seaweed

• A type of soluble fiber that boosts immune function, balances cholesterol, and improves gut health.

• Found in both grains and medicinal mushrooms, giving it crossover appeal for multiple wellness niches.

• Supports the gut-immune axis, making it a core player in holistic health.

🔎 EARTH CONSCIOUS DEEP DIVE 🔍

(Preview, full article for ECL Members)

How Dams Are Starving Our Ecosystems

For more than a century, dams have been celebrated as feats of engineering. Monuments to human ingenuity that store water, generate electricity, and control flooding. Yet beneath their smooth reservoirs lies a quieter story of ecological starvation. By blocking the flow of rivers, dams cut off the lifelines that sustain entire webs of life. Sediment, nutrients, and fish migrations are all essential to healthy ecosystems, but are trapped, leaving the waters downstream impoverished and biodiversity in decline.

This isn’t just a story about fish. It’s about forests that depend on salmon carcasses for fertilizer, birds whose nesting cycles follow seasonal floods, and coastal wetlands that need a steady supply of river-borne sediment to fend off erosion. When we disrupt the flow, the hunger ripples outward through the entire system.

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...and a healthier planet:

• • Improve health awareness: Deep Dive articles & recipe videos
• • Protect ecosystems: expert video tutorials with leaders around the world
• • Prioritize mental health: custom meditations for relieved stress
• • Camaraderie: likeminded community (app coming soon!)
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• • Portion goes to support independent films, local food projects, and planting trees