22 Products That Promote Health and Wellness

Birdwatching can be beneficial for your mental health (it’s science!). I’ve picked it up in the last year, and it’s certainly also boosted my physical activity, especially while traveling—when once I might have slept in, now I’m much more likely to get up at 7 a.m. for a long walk to look for birds. The Vortex Diamondbacks are the first pair of binoculars I bought myself once I got serious about this hobby, in part because they’re such a great value, and also because of the unbeatable unconditional lifetime warranty.

CR’s former (now retired) food editor Trisha Calvo loves keeping a bottle of this vinegar in her kitchen—and gifting bottles to family and friends. Says Trisha: “This versatile vinegar is great on salads but also on roasted carrots or beets, in a marinade for chicken or fish, or as a mixer for cocktails. A blend of tangerine purée and white wine vinegar, it’s bright, sweet, and citrusy, and has just enough tang to enhance the flavors of the ingredients in your dish. Even better: Unlike other fruit vinegars I’ve seen, it has no added sugars.”

When it comes to mental wellness, one of my favorite things to recommend is playing a good board game. Hear me out: It’s a ready-made excuse to gather with both longtime friends and new ones (it’s a great way to skip past awkward small talk), and it forces you to stop your doomscrolling. Hues and Cues is a great option for board game enthusiasts and neophytes alike, involving guessing colors from a wide palette of options from a player’s one- and two-word clues. It takes just a few minutes to learn, and I can guarantee that hilarity will ensue.

Trying to cut back on coffee? Our team leader, Lauren Friedman, swears by this bold blend of Irish black tea and says it offers a pick-me-up close to that of coffee. It brews quickly, too, and is strong enough that you’ll probably want to add at least a dash of milk.

Our former food editor, Trisha Calvo, loves this brand of fruit preserves. They’re made with no added sugars, and Trisha says you don’t miss it: “The sweet flavor of the fruit comes out rather than just tasting sugar.” The preserves are great on toast, swirled into yogurt, on a cheeseboard, or as the J in a PB&J. The trio set, with blueberry, peach, and strawberry flavors, makes a perfect gift.

These days, I never pass up an opportunity to evangelize about heirloom beans. During the first year of the pandemic, my partner expressed a desire to learn how to use beans better in cooking. I’d grown up eating my mom’s ham and bean soup, but I didn’t know much beyond that, and my research led me to Rancho Gordo, a purveyor of heirloom beans. I ordered him a gift set that included a book on heirloom beans and recipes for each variety, and from then on, we were hooked. You can absolutely tell that these are superior to grocery store beans, both in taste and texture. If the idea of cooking beans from scratch makes you balk, the Rancho Gordo method demystifies the process, turning boiling beans into a positively meditative practice. I’ve found that these beans cook a lot faster than grocery store dry beans, too. (There’s no need to soak them beforehand, either!) The bean guide included in this gift set has plenty of tips and tricks, plus lots of unfussy recipes that let the beans shine.

This unassuming mask proved to be a Top Pick in our evaluation of sleep masks. It blocks light effectively for a variety of head shapes, feels comfortable on the face, and is easy to adjust.

Mushrooms are packed with health benefits. And growing them with this North Spore mushroom kit requires just a spritz of water. In our evaluation, it took eight days for them to start growing and two additional days before the blue oyster mushrooms were ready to harvest. Our taste testers deemed the resulting fungi to be juicy.

Our evaluators found this tabletop garden device to be especially easy to set up and take care of, a plus for folks without the greenest of thumbs. Its capacity is small, just three plants at a time. But even that can make a good introduction for anyone looking to get started growing their own leafy greens at home.

Treat yourself to something sweet to avoid being tempted by overpriced plane snacks. As our testing has revealed, dark chocolate can be contaminated with heavy metals. This Taza bar is one of the safer choices.

The Lifepro Mover is a sturdy vibration plate that’s wide enough to accommodate a variety of exercise moves, making it our Top Pick. It offers three types of vibration plates: a starter plate, which we tested; all-in-one vibration plates that cost more and boast more functions; and mini vibration plates. The brand claims its vibrations are “whisper quiet,” but we didn’t find that any vibration plates we tested were particularly noisy. The higher the speed you set, the more of a “buzzing” sound they make.

This one is simple to use, has the second widest platform of all the plates we tested, and was the second heaviest (26 pounds) and the second most stable on the ground.

The Alo Yoga mat dries quickly and has an excellent grip on the floor and on hands and feet. It has a middling amount of cushioning. This one is 74x26 inches, and is 4½ inches in diameter when it’s rolled up.