Katerina Schneider Talks Inspo, Science and How to Get Glowing
Written By: Charlotte Farrell
Q&A With Ritual Founder Katerina Schneider:
Q: What inspired you to start Ritual?
Katerina Schneider: I was pregnant and cared more than ever what I was putting in and on my body. I was clearing out everything with questionable ingredients in my house from deodorants to toothpaste to cleaning supplies. When I took a hard look at my multivitamin, I realized it contained the same potentially harmful ingredients I was avoiding in the rest of my house. The only difference was I was ingesting this every single day. More over, I quickly learned that the entire $36 billion industry was simply a black box and that most companies in the space weren’t really caring about the types of ingredients that were going into their products. For instance, over 1/3 of women have a gene variation that can impact how the body utilizes the synthetic form of folate (folic acid). And yet, almost all prenatals out there contain folic acid instead of the methylated form the body can readily use. I knew I had no choice but to take on the industry and build a science and research-backed company for skeptics by skeptics.
Q: What is a nutritional habit that women have that may not be as healthy for them as they might think?
KS: Experimenting with different unproven and untested herbs and botanicals. It’s quite easy these days to find things like turmeric, spirulina, ashwagandha, lions mane etc. in your local market. But it’s not so easy to find out how these products are tested and where they are coming from and what safe dosages may be. Herbs can be incredibly powerful and it’s important to make sure you are taking what’s safe and essential for your body.
Q: What kind of impact do you hope Ritual will have long-term?
KS: Ritual’s Essential For Women was not created as a quick fix. We spent years just researching diets and trying to understand what women were missing. It turned out it wasn’t the typical 20-40 ingredients in a multivitamin, but nine essential nutrients. The benefits you ‘feel’—happier mood, maintained energy—are just bonuses when it comes to improving foundational health. While many people feel a difference within one to two weeks, some don’t notice anything at all and that’s okay. It’s what’s happening inside your body that counts, and the timeline for better health is pretty cool. The water-soluble nutrients (Fe, Mg, folate, B12, boron) start working right away to support your heart, nerves and more. Fat-soluble nutrients take longer—except for D3, which helps your brain the next day if you have low levels. All in all, it takes three to four months for your whole body to reach a healthy new equilibrium. By the time EFW reaches neurons—the cells in your brain that signal mood—it’s already helping many other cells in your body (heart, immune, bone, and more!).
Q: What is the core mission of Ritual, aside from the nutritional aspect?
KS: The mission of our company is inspire healthy habits so that women can feel their best every single day. We like to think of ourselves as a habit company, not a vitamin company. It’s what you do every day that counts in the long run. That’s what we are focused on and everything from our physical product to our digital products that help women create habits.
You can subscribe to Ritual to get your vitamins every month to stay on track. And with the knowledge that it takes 21 days of performing a task to turn it into a habit, let’s get to poppin’!
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Charlotte is a fan of all things beauty, health, food, wellness, travel and a touch of nerdy fandom. She graduated with honors from the University of California, San Diego in Communications and English Literature and enjoys writing, looking at puppies on Instagram and drinking all the tea.
