Deep Dive
Shownotes Transcript
Hello, ladies and gentlemen. It's the Honest Drink Podcast. We're back at it with a new episode. Now, we had a great time talking with our guest today. His name is Victor Kuo. He's a certified sports nutrition coach and founder of FitFresh. Now, what FitFresh is, it's a fitness nutrition plan and meal prep company here in Shanghai. Now, we all know meal prep companies are extremely popular now. What they do is they deliver meals to you.
So wherever you are, whether you're at home, at work, at the office, at the gym, wherever you are, when you need to eat your meals, they deliver to you. What Victor also does is he tailors and customizes the nutrition plan to your specific needs. So whether you're just a person that's looking to shed a few pounds or you're a professional athlete looking for peak performance, he personally tailors nutrition plan and meal plan to your specific needs.
Also on the show today, we were able to cut through all the BS with Victor and get to the meat of the issues and questions that we wanted to ask him. And he helped clarify a lot of things on nutrition. As we all know,
online, on YouTube, there's a whole universe full of information in regards to fitness and nutrition. And a lot of it, a lot of it is fucking bullshit. A lot of it is misinformation. A lot of it is people who don't know what they're talking about or are just trying to sell you something. So we were able to clarify and debunk a lot of things with Victor here.
and we got to just up our own nutrition game and nutrition knowledge. Also, he was able to give us a glimpse behind the curtains of the food industry and the fitness industry at large. So we got to learn a lot about the food process, what goes on behind the scenes and the real agendas of a lot of these big food conglomerates. Also, his wife was on the show. She was sitting on the couch. We didn't have a mic set up for her, but she has a huge part to do with the success of Fit Fresh.
And so it was great to talk to both of them. We killed the whiskey bottle and we had a great time. And more importantly, we learned a lot about nutrition. So guys, please welcome Victor Kuo.
Victor!
Welcome. How's it going, guys? Thanks for coming, bro. Thanks for having me. You've been busy, man, right? Yeah, I've been trying to find some time to hang out with you guys, and this is perfect. Grab a drink together. Yeah, we've been doing a few episodes, and even from the beginning, you were one of the guests that we were trying to get on for, or thinking about getting on for a very long time. Awesome. Yeah, when we were thinking, at first, we didn't have the concept of having guests on, but then we're like, you know what?
let's add more than just us three talking. Guests can add a whole new dynamic and expertise and knowledge and legitimacy. And you were one of the first people we thought about because, you know, we met during like kind of the golden gloves thing. Yeah. And the whole boxing training thing, which later went on to knock someone out. And by the way, so congratulations on that. Thank you. Thank you. That was, yeah. I
I don't really talk about it that much. Because actually, when I go back and watch the fight, I'm like, man, I really sucked. I got really lucky. That was your first time, though. Yeah, that was my first time. But wait, what do you mean you got really lucky? Like, you completely knocked that guy out cold. Like, that was a legitimate lockdown. That wasn't luck. Well, all right. Well, the guy was not prepared. And I was just, like, taking wild, like, game-maker swings. He was scary. He was just, like...
you know, they're coming down from like my hips, you know, like, so it's like a terrible technical boxing match to watch, but it was, uh, how many rounds was it? You knocked him out in the first round. It was the second round. So you just got, he just tried to scare him. He's like, fuck the form. Well, no, so, uh, it was like the, that was my strategy from the beginning, right? Like, uh, the guy was taller. Um,
And so I was like, you know, I may not win on points, but I'm going to make him feel the shots and get into his head. Yeah, he was taller, but he wasn't, like, built like you. Like, you're obviously a lot more built than he was. Yeah, and plus, you know, I know nutrition, so, you know,
I know how to play the weight game. My weigh-in, I weighed in probably like 82. I probably fought the next day at 85. You ballooned back up, right? I know how to play with a nutrition. He was probably looking at you getting into the ring like, what the fuck? This isn't the same guy I weighed in with. That's hilarious. But speaking of weight and nutrition...
Today, how do you pronounce this again? Akintoshan? Akintoshan. Akintoshan. I thought this was like a Danish of German. This is a Scottish whiskey. Single malt, 12 years old. Thank you, Eric, for getting this. Thank you. That's good. On the back, it says, this is Scotland's only remaining stillery to insist on triple distillation. Really?
So whatever that means. I beg to differ. I challenge that. We're all like, ooh, ah, like, I don't know what that means. They're doing quadruple. That's not enough. All right. Let's rock it. How often, uh, you're not drinking that often these days, are you, Victor? Um, all right, all right. Well, she says every day. Really? You know, like, I'll have, like, a beer or four, like, uh,
Every other day, maybe. Something like that. Like one beer? One to four. It varies depending on the mood. I try to limit it at four max on a working. So beer is your drink of choice, not like liquor? No, that's not. I like whiskey, but it's easy for me to have one, two, three, and then I'm like, ooh, I'm feeling pretty fucking good.
pretty fucking good. And then the night just disappears. Oh, I definitely know that feeling. We all know that. Cheers, guys. Cheers, guys. Welcome, Victor. Thanks, thanks, thanks. Welcome. We have a guest on the couch. I like it. I like it. So we kind of, every episode, we kind of give like a little short review of how we feel about the whiskey. Yeah. Because we're trying to like raise our own taste for whiskey. Right, right, right.
I like it. It's a little bit smoky, but still very smooth. It's sweet. Yeah, yeah. Best I've ever had. You like it? Best you ever had. It's the best you ever had. Because others are like too strong, I don't know.
Yeah, it's nice. It's light. This one's light. This one's a good one to chill with. It has a slight, like, that smoky, like a slight. So slight. Yeah, it's just enough for you to notice it, but not enough to really kind of overpower the drink. Because you don't like the smoky stuff. I don't like the peaty stuff. It's a little sweet, right? Yeah. Toffee flavor? But it's like, yeah, it's a little caramel. Yeah. It's a little caramel. That's the toffee. That's the toffee. It's good.
How do you say this again? Akintoshin? Akintoshin! Akintoshin! Akintoshin! So you guys usually finish the bottle every... Well, not quite. You can see the remnants. Oh, so you save them. These represent, each bottle up here on the shelf represents one episode. So obviously some we haven't finished, but some we have finished. Most have finished. We have gotten very sloppy here.
here. It gets pretty sloppy. I'm excited, guys. Because you can imagine, the whole bottle, like, within an hour. Especially when the cameras are off, it gets even sloppier. That is true. Like, if there was a camera rolling after we stop, I think it would be even more entertaining than the actual podcast. It probably would. You might as well just leave it on.
I'm not going to say who, but there have been times where after the podcast, certain people in the room would pass out underneath the table. There have been guests that have passed out. Oh, really? On the floor here. We have literally... On the floor. We have seen some stuff already. It's pretty intense. This is a... I think you guys should keep the cameras rolling and like...
Yeah, right? It's like we don't have to post it if we don't want it, but if we do... Someday, I think it might help build your followership. Yeah. Or some gold. That's a good idea, actually. It's a good idea. It is called the honest drink after all. We don't want to get too sloppy. One more time. Cheers. We don't want to get David Hasselhoff. Like burger. Like there's cheeseburgers all over the ground.
Well, speaking of like burgers and fast food, Victor, you're the first guest on here that we've had with any kind of legitimate credibility for us to talk to about like nutrition and fitness. So kind of what's your principle on nutrition, first of all? Principle. I mean, it's not sexy, but eat a balanced diet. Like, I mean, it's, you know, these days everybody's talking about keto diet.
Paleo. Low carb, paleo. And we're axing off like entire food groups where you say like you don't eat this. There's a whole host of nutrients in all these different foods. So a balanced, you know,
All natural diet. You know, everybody says eat whole foods, eat whole foods. Basically, if it once like walked, swam, or flew on this planet, or it grew from the earth, then that's the stuff you want to eat, basically. Okay. Natural. And obviously unprocessed, right? Unprocessed. Right, right. So, I mean, like, you know, all the stuff they make in the labs or factories, you know, it's...
These guys are like food scientists. They study evolution. They study human nature. And so they make stuff where you just can't possibly stop eating it. Well, let's say like chips, like Doritos, for example. It's fucking delicious. Once you open the bag, you can't stop. Yeah, you can't. There's no half bags. No matter how big the bag is, it's a single serving bag. The reason is their scientists...
I spend so much money on figuring out what you find irresistible. So there's like MSG. They even have like a pressure test on how much pressure it takes to crunch the chip. Really? Yeah. So like a mouth. Yeah. Mouth feel. So yeah. So, and then there's, and then the secret to making you like, uh, turning off a body is like, uh,
It's called, I think it's called like palates, something like your palate will get desensitized to a food if you eat too much. But then they find that if you eat sugar, salt and fat together, it shuts off your body's mechanism to say, hey, I've had enough.
Yeah, so sugar, salt, and fat together. You will eat until... Your body will never tell you to stop. What if it's natural stuff, like hongsao rou? Because that's salty sugar. No, but the salt, sugar, and fat is not natural. The fat part, or the meat itself in hongsao rou, which is basically bacon, right? Wuha rou. That part, if you eat just...
The bacon part, like natural bacon, you will get pretty fucking stuffed at a reasonable, I guess, uh, uh,
portion but once you add sugar lots of that like soy sweet soy sauce the braised sauce yeah like it just cuts through yeah it turns out your your body's mechanism off to say hey i've had enough just keep eating it's fast so you don't like so you feel full a lot later right exactly you'll feel a lot a lot because you you know you you see a couple pieces and you're like i'm just gonna have two
You're always like, I'm going to have two. And then you're like, I'll have three, four, five. And then you have like 10 or 12. And then afterwards, you're like, damn, I overate. Yeah, hongsao rou is one of those things that you just... So for the listeners who don't know what hongsao rou is, it's basically pork belly, braised pork belly. Very famous dish, staple dish of China and Chinese cuisine. But Victor, are you saying that in the food labs, they're tweaking that recipe?
Like that ratio of... Yes. So they've studied human evolutionary needs to the point where they know this combination turns it off. And so how do they get you to buy like five fucking Costco-sized bags of chips? They know they need to turn that off. Otherwise, you eat it, you get full on half a bag. You're not going to eat the rest, right?
So they're constantly figuring out new ways to make this food, what they say, hyper-palatable. So it just tastes so good. It activates the reward systems in your brain. And so you just, like, people feel guilty that they do this. Oh, I ate a whole bag of chips. Something wrong with me? But no, it's impossible for you to actually...
You have to have some kind of superhuman willpower to be able to resist it. Big food, man. Big food, big pharma, huh? Yeah, and it's not really their fault, right? I mean, everybody wants money, right? It's a business, right? So, I mean, the way to counteract this is, like, it's all about, like, making an advanced decision. Like, you say, like, fuck, I'll buy a snack-sized, you know, the one-person snack-sized pack of
once per week. And then otherwise, you can't store that garbage in your house. Otherwise, you're going to eat it. If it's in your house, you're going to eat it. It's like availability. Yeah, 100%. You have to plan in advance. You reduce the availability. It's like if you go out,
to a bar, you're going to drink. Yes. If you don't go out, you can make that decision easier because you're more rational. Yeah, like how many times have you been like, I'm going to not, like I'm being sober, you know, like you go to a bar, hang out with your friends, like how long does that last? It's impossible. Navy SEALs couldn't even do that. Yeah, yeah. It doesn't work. Like for me, it's like, you know, I have this podcast called
on a weekly basis. And I go in and I'm like, I'm going to have one drink, but it never really happens. I'm surrounded by people. Eric is always the one that's saying like, yo, okay, so guys, I'm just, I'm just going to have like one glass. Yeah, I'm not going to drink this podcast. Then you look at the bottles. They were all passed out on the floor. So actually, I'm curious about one thing because what you're saying right now is, is information that's been coming out
especially recently, um, but more so in the States and in the West. But what about China? Like, I'm just curious because like, you know, everyone always says like, oh, Chinese people in general, obesity level is a bit lower than let's say our counterpart in America. But I mean, you still have chips here. You still have, you know, processed foods here and stuff like that. Uh, that's a good point. But actually, um,
Obesity is growing, obviously, in China faster than anywhere else in the world. I would not be shocked. And it's just because it's a new... All this stuff is new stuff to them. Like super cheap bags of super awesome tasting chips, McDonald's, KFC, all this stuff. It is relatively new, isn't it? Like a decade or two, right? At the most. So...
uh diabetes China is gonna have the biggest diabetes population in the world within the next like two to three years I think I might be we may have to check that so it's gonna be like an epidemic but oh yeah it's a huge and plus with all these fast foods popping up yeah yeah and uh it's cheap uh
So, you know, this is the same problem in America, right? People want to blame the corporations. You make this super awesome tasting food so cheap. What's a person's motivation to stay healthy? It costs so much. It's so hard to do. Like, I could eat like three times the food and it tastes better.
uh, you know, for, it just doesn't make sense to most people. Right. But health is like a long-term thing. Like you don't see the immediate effect right away. So in China, it's, it's growing to be a giant, giant problem, uh, especially in the cities. Um, actually it's, it's interesting to know, like, uh, I just went, uh, unfortunately, uh, my wife's, um,
Grandma passed away recently. And we went to... I hate to... I shouldn't have brought that up. But anyways, we went to, like, Nong Ming, China. Like, farming. Like, total, complete farms town. The whole town has one family name. Okay, wow. And, you know, they still got the posts up where they're doing, like, the government Guangdongs.
广播, once in the morning, like once in the morning, it's like blah blah blah, and then once at like noon or at lunchtime. 浙江省 So in reality, the Chinese diet is fantastically healthy. You know, if you live off the land,
It's natural food, right? Again, it's natural food. They eat rice, which is... People have some... Bad rep. Bad rep, right? It has a very unfair bad rep. People are obsessed with blaming rice on...
Because it gets labeled a carb and then it gets lumped into the whole white bread and pasta. Absolutely. But in modern, it's all about balance, right? So, yeah, it doesn't make sense to say rice is the thing that's causing it. The real reason is there's all
All these very cheap, hyperpalatable foods available to everybody anywhere you go. And they taste better than natural foods.
It just tastes better than natural foods. I don't think any of you will disagree. Is this happening with Chinese companies? If you go and eat the instant noodles, because that shit is addictive. That's like MSG too. Chinese people love it. Are Chinese companies also getting into this game?
Of course, of course. I mean, like, they may not yet be as sophisticated in this attack on our taste buds, but it's not going to take more than another year or so. Well, I think, exactly. I don't think they're as sophisticated yet, but they will be. But even without that sophistication, they have MSG. They just throw in MSG. And MSG is basically that formula of, like, kind of making it addictive.
Well, interestingly enough, yeah, so, you know, like, Doritos has MSG. All of those things, yeah. Doritos has MSG? Yeah, Doritos have MSG in it. Motherfuckers. Like, you know, well, there's a thing, right? Like, all that stuff, like...
MSG, actually, interestingly enough, MSG is not as harmful as people have been making it seem in America. Well, okay, so, exactly. What is MSG? Because, like, back in the States, you go to Chinese restaurants and there's a sign on the window saying, no MSG. Right? It's like, come on, you can order here, there's no MSG. Like, what is it? Okay, MSG, monosodium glutamate. It's, uh, alright, it is a processed form of, uh,
how do you say, 调料, basically, right? Condiment. Condiment, or flavor. You can buy jars of it, right? Yeah, you can just buy jars of this powder. What is it made of? It's, it is a chemical. Uh,
Uh, so, uh, it's a salt compound with, you know, certain like carbon, you know, like chemically speaking, it'll just be like missing like one or two links or the structure is just a little bit different, but it's what they, it is the, it is what they call the umami flavor. Uh,
They're talking about adding a new flavor to the flavor profile. It's called umami, which is savoriness. It's not the same as salty. It's that taste you get when you bite into a really juicy piece of meat. Yeah.
It's like a holy trinity of flavors that come in together. So that essentially is that one flavor alone, umami. And when you pair that with salt or sugar, it makes it even more savory. So why do they pair portobello mushrooms? Portobello mushrooms have natural umami flavor or it's an umami enhancer.
So you put that with a burger. Like Shake Shack has their mushroom burger or whatever, right? And they didn't just decide that Americans love mushrooms and put that shit on a burger, right? It just enhances the flavor of... I do love mushroom burgers. Yeah, it's delicious. Especially with Swiss cheese. So they're hacking our palates. Yeah, yeah, yeah. I mean, yeah, it's...
Well, cooking is a science, right? Like, how do you figure out if something tastes good? If you can figure out what everybody thinks tastes good, then you can make a dish that is much... It's easier to sell to more people, right? But corporations are not...
gonna be thinking about, okay, I want natural stuff. Like if you're a chef, right? Like chefs have been trying to figure out like what tastes good for, you know, hundreds of years. But I think they have some sort of, you know, values or whatever in terms of how they choose the products. But corporations, like they don't give a fuck. But yeah, they used to want a bigger scale and they have a lot more different resources available to them. And obviously their consumers are different. But like the whole thing boils down to it's a chemistry lab.
Even the smallest kitchen, when I'm cooking at home, it's chemistry. Those are chemical reactions happening on the pan. 100%. It is time, temperature, all these variables. That's how you cook. A lot of chefs make it an experiential thing. They have better knife skills, better...
you know, pan flipping skills, which I have, I have none of that shit, by the way. I'm the worst. I got none of those skills. All I can look at is the science, you know? So, I mean, but yeah. So for the corporations, another thing they think about was shelf life, right? Like, how do I make my food last a long time? So all these chemicals, all this stuff is, you know, and you talk about cancer, you know,
all these new diseases that we don't understand yet. Like, a lot of them we're finding out slowly that it's just every day we're introduced to new foods, new stuff that we don't understand, right? New containers for our food that we've never seen before. So that's another thing that people talk about now is the packaging. Plastic. And how does that affect the food in time? So that's a huge problem for China right now that's...
Most people don't understand and even I will order, you know, a lemma. Like, I'll order delivery and it comes in every time it comes in a plastic and they say food safe, but do you think China has the food safe plastic container industry? Nobody cares about that shit. The public doesn't care. Why would the government care, right?
And so you're getting these like piping hot soups. Oh.
in this flimsy plastic. And it comes, sometimes the plastic is like melting. It's like melting. It's like half melted. Yeah, it's like the shape is all wrong by the time it gets to your hands. Is paper any better? I ordered from Blue Frog yesterday and everything came in paper. Yeah, so paper is a hundred, I can't say a hundred percent, but it's by far, by far way better. So what happens with plastic packaging is...
it leaks chemicals when they say like BPAs, right? You're always looking for BPA-free plastic. But what happens is it leaks these estrogen-like chemicals into your food. And so, you know, as males especially, it's a big concern. Like if we eat a lot of this plastic-containing chemicals,
our estrogen, testosterone balance starts to get out of whack. Really? Yeah. That's scary. That's really scary. Well, just think about it this way. You're basically eating plastic chemicals, right? Like when you're ordering that stuff. I feel like, I mean, correct me if I'm wrong or if you guys do this as well. Like when I'm ordering a limo,
I literally choose restaurants that I know are a little bit more expensive, almost, sometimes. Right, right. Thinking that maybe they will put more effort into the packaging. Packaging, the sourcing. Because I've noticed, especially this past year, some of the pricier restaurants that serve Chinese food, let's say. Not necessarily Western food.
They come in like well thought out packaging where I feel like it's a little bit safer. They literally write shit. They put a sticker on it and be like, this is safe. This is good. Like they're, they're putting awareness to it. But if you go to like those ghetto, like small restaurants that like slow ratings and like target, don't you gain? Right. Whoa. Then, then yeah, they give you the, the shit. They don't have the margins to think about buying the more, the better packaging. So yeah. And packaging, uh,
I pay for paper boxes, right? And it's ridiculously expensive. Like a plastic box for me may cost like... Yeah, like two cents, right? And then my paper box costs straight up like 1 or 1.2. Wow. Right? So I'm paying like 6, 7, 8 times the amount for each meal. And, you know, it's... I mean, for me...
I find it unethical to... If I wouldn't eat out of my own restaurant, then I wouldn't want to serve it to a community of people, right? It doesn't make sense. Well, so, like, getting back to, like, how, like...
Okay, so FitFresh is your company, right? Right, right. And for people who don't know, FitFresh is a nutrition plan and meal delivery service. And you guys tailor kind of meal plans to, depending on the individual, depending on whether they're trying to lose weight or build muscle, whatever their nutritional goals are, right? Right, right. But you're also just like a restaurant as well, right? Yeah, yeah. We also have like a brick-and-mortar restaurant over by Zongshan Park.
And you guys are on all the meal deliveries. You guys are on Sherpa's. We are on Sherpa's, LMAO, Maitland as well. So when it comes to your own business and stuff like that, you mentioned, you know, you decided on an ethical basis to pay more for better packaging just because you adopt the method of if I'm not going to eat from, if I'm not going to choose to eat from my own stuff, then how can I expect my customers to? Right. How does that translate into the food itself?
and how you design the menu. Yeah, so, you know, like I said, my nutritional philosophy is balance, whole foods, whole natural foods, right? And so, you know, because I understand, I study a lot of nutrition stuff. So in terms of going and planning the menu,
I know my food is not the best tasting food out there. It's pretty good, though. I think it's pretty good. In terms of health food meal services, you're up there. You're up there. You're bang bang chicken, bro.
I'm glad you like it, man. That's probably the one thing. The kimchi fried rice. The kimchi rice, bro. That is so good. That is some good shit, bro. I appreciate it. Appreciate the common words, guys. But, you know, like, the key for me is, like, I plan out a week of food for somebody. So it's not just about counting calories, protein, which is the new obsession in the health food industry right now. It's just counting calories.
Calories, like macronutrients. Macro protein. Yeah, so macros. But for me, this is what I started to optimize for myself, and I hope to do it for everybody else as well, which is like, you know, we're talking about fiber. And then the next step higher is like phytonutrients, which are basically special plant nutrients that, you know, help us fight disease and stuff.
So, like, you know, different colored vegetables have different nutrients to help us stave off different cancers, diseases, and stuff like that. So, over the course of the week, I want everybody to be eating vegetables.
vegetables and stuff from different colors of vegetables and all this. So I want to cover your fitness. Everybody wants the aesthetic, right? Like that's usually the most popular goal in terms of fitness. So I got to get the calories, the macronutrients right. But then I also want to make sure that
It's a healthy way to do it. You don't want to, like, I know, like... It's not just for weight loss. It's health. It's not just for aesthetics. Like, you know, bodybuilders will eat broccoli, chicken breast, and rice for eternity. And they look fucking awesome, right? But that's no way to live. But it's not just no way to live. I can live that way. Their nutritional profiles, if they went and did some blood work, they would be deficient in a lot of vitamins and minerals. Which, you know, people think...
I'll just take a multivitamin or something like that. But you can't absorb. You basically absorb jack shit out of a multivitamin. There's a lot of research that supports this now. The plants just have some very strange structure and exact balance of different nutrients that support the absorption of their other nutrients and
Where you just absorb it like almost a thousand times better from the real whole food than you would from a multivitamin. So you're saying a lot of nutrients are important because they act like stepping stones to other important nutrients that you need to absorb. 100%, yeah. Wow.
So if I was to ask you, for the average Joe Schmoes out there who don't know as much about nutrition as you do and who are not as technical with the details, if you were to just say, if you had to boil it down, because not everyone has access to nutrition,
all the different types of groceries and supplies and nutrients and vitamins and blah, blah, blah that maybe we would get in the States with like whole foods or something like that, right? So here it's a little bit more limited. So if you were to boil it down, like let's say your top three vegetables, if you can only eat three vegetables. That you can get at Thaisatong. That's very tough. Like the corner Thaisatong. Like, yeah, if you could only eat three vegetables for the rest of your life, which three vegetables would you choose?
Broccoli, 100%. That's a super vegetable. Everybody knows. So what's that term? I think that word's super vegetable or super food. It's going around so often, but what does that really mean? Everything's a super food. Yeah, well, super food is a marketing term. A lot of people don't know. Super foods...
are just, it's just a marketing term. So you're saying it's a myth? It's not a myth. Well, it's not to say that their marketing is false, right? These foods are very nutrient dense and they do contain the nutrients that they say they do.
But these industries, like, for example, the kale industry or the blueberry industry, like, they found, like, these things are fantastic and are on my top list. But some foods don't really get the credit they deserve because the industry didn't band together and say, hey, look at how awesome this product is, right? So, for example, like cow's milk.
Right? When we were growing up, everybody thought this was the bee's knees for nutrition, right? Calcium. Yeah, yeah. Like, everybody is like, you must drink cow's milk to grow up healthy and strong. Growing up in the U.S., I think, in the 90s, like,
Even in China, too. They still feel that way. I just drink milk today. And slowly, there's a lot of research that's saying actually people with regular cow milk drinking habits are even more prone to bone-related degeneration. It's not every study, right? So research is funny because
And when we take a look at nutritional research, they are looking at one very specific result. But the problem is there's a million variables that we're not looking at. In any given scientific study, you can only say, I'm watching these variables and
looking at the result, right? And so that's why nutritional studies are so limited in what they can tell us as a whole. Because, alright, these three, maybe I lock these three variables down, but there may be another 200 to 300 variables we're not looking at that could easily, totally flip the study around to the other result.
So nutrition, nutritional science is so controversial. It's so controversial and so hard to
And that's why you have so many so-called experts with 100% opposite views. Oh, fucking keto is right. No, you're stupid. Like, you need carbs. So just recently, like, a research came out that said their finding was people with low-carb diets...
are more prone to heart disease and have a lower life expectancy. That was their finding, right? And the way the media reported it, obviously, nutrition media is fucking garbage, by the way. But they say, oh, suddenly they start to say, oh, if you eat low carb, you're going to be unhealthy and die earlier. Which is, what they're not paying attention to is like,
And then, you know, this makes a hate-filled conversation, right? Like, this is social media nowadays. If it's like, everybody loves to argue. Yeah. But then what they're not looking at is it's not so much eating low-carb foods.
This is my personal opinion. I'm sure a lot of experts will agree. It's not eating low-carb that causes the problem. It's competition? No, it's that a lot of people who do eat low-carb start cutting out vegetables, cutting out fruits. You're cutting out entire groups of very important nutrient-dense foods for you. So yeah, if I said I ate low-carb,
And I ate, like, some fruit and vegetables as my only carbs for the day. And then I, you know, the rest of the time I'm eating some lean meats. And another thing about the low-carb population, they think, like, oh, I can eat fucking bacon all day. You know? I can just eat. Because I'm not eating carbs. I can eat more of this. Yeah. So it's more of an execution problem. It's an execution problem. So...
And that goes to say, it's like, there's nothing wrong with keto or these things by itself. It's all about execution. And so that's one of the reasons I believe, like, nutritional science, we keep looking for new answers. But the truth is, like, I think the answer is there already. But people are looking for an easier way. Yeah, they're looking for a shortcut. They're looking for an easier way.
And so and so like the problem is what I believe in my approach when I work with people now is it's not about the science. I don't need to teach you more science because science, like I said, nutritional science, we actually if we look at just these variables, we're the science tells us this and that at the same time.
So in the end, it's about behavior, psychology. How can we help people that change their psychology about food in order to help them make better decisions? That's the tough part. So if I say, all right, let's pretend we can all agree that natural, whole foods, balanced diet is the right way, which experts today still argue about this more.
But if we were to agree that this was the right way to do it, the next question is, how do we get people to do it? And so for me, I think, well, you know, until some really impressive, like, body of research, we're talking about, like, probably like 30 to 40 years worth of hundreds and hundreds of studies of research. Undeniable, indisputable, right? Like, indisputable research. And we're not just talking about, no research is indisputable.
So there has to be a body of research that's finding towards a similar thing. And then when only after one study ends, you're like, what's the problem of this research? What did I not cover? And then you say, okay, I'm going to do a new study to test whether that missing variable is affecting this, right? And so it
It will be decades and decades because each study takes like five to ten years, right? So I'm going to be dead by the time like any real conclusive new thing
Theory comes out and says oh this is the new way to eat if it ever does at all if it ever does at all and you know and even like even to that point even keto or These low carb high fat diets. They've been around for centuries. It's not new name different It's just a new name. So it's new trends like old trends coming back and cycling bicycle That's the fitness industry today
And everything you, I bet you, like the low-fat, high-carb diet is going to come back in another five to ten years. It's just how the fitness and health industry has cycled. Because, you know, the old people walk into a way of thinking. And, you know, and the kids are like, fuck you, old people. Right? And then they're like, you know, people are always looking for a new way of thinking. Yeah.
That they think will suddenly... But this is also for business, right? Because it basically revitalizes a certain... Yeah, it revitalizes a new theory. And you can sell on that. And you can sell on it. And so the balanced diet has never been sexy.
You know, being moderate, even like, let's say politics in America right now. Being middle of the road. Being moderate sucks. Like nobody, you're stupid, right? Pick a side, bro. Yeah, pick a side, bro. So, I mean, like it just, it's not a sexy, it's not easy to sell. But, and, you know, most people don't want to do it because it's hard. So, this is fascinating because I think it dispels a lot of, it busts a lot of myths.
Right? It busts a lot of myths because you have all these layers of marketing and new things and people are trying to find these fads. And like you made a great comment. You said it's, you know, people want an easier way. But there's no easy way. I mean, we know that there's no easy way for anything. What do you eat? And, you know, because like I think the proof is in the pudding, right? It's like, what do you eat? Like, how do you live your life? Because it sounds like, I mean, you clearly know a lot about this. So what has that taught you in terms of how you do it?
Yeah, so, I mean, obviously for me, it's, like I said, so I need easy. Everybody wants easy. And so I only eat when my kitchen, it comes out of my kitchen. No, you're easy because you have a cooked wife. Yeah, okay, so this is a big caveat, right? Like, Fit Fresh would be dead, would be dead without my wife who is...
Well, always a great cook to begin with. And that's one of the reasons I'm married. Otherwise, I'd still be single and having a lot of fun. But no. So she's a great chef. And a lot of our first recipes came from her hard work. And then she determines the flavor profile. And then I...
ruin it by making sure the nutrition is where I want it to be. So you guys are partners in FitFresh? Yes, yes, absolutely. And for the listeners who don't know because they're listening on audio, his wife is actually sitting right here in the studio with us right on the couch.
So cheers. Cheers to that. I didn't know that. That's awesome. Well, I love your food. Thank you. We need you guys to engineer a very good tasting but healthy Hong Sao Rou. We will take a shot at this. Now, the thing is, like, the reason we don't usually make mock delicious stuff is because everybody automatically is like, this shit is not as good as the real thing.
Because the bar is already so high. Like, how do you... Have you done any research on, you know, what's happening in the States with the fake burger? Like, have you tried it? I have not tried it, but I heard many great things. Yeah, so have I. What is that meat called? Incredible? Impossible. People are saying it tastes delicious. Yeah, I'm dying to try that. I would love to try it. It's not in China either, right? So it's like... And it also costs like three to four times the normal burger. I'm sure, I'm sure. Right?
Now, the reason it's so popular is there's, you know, actually, you know, I read a lot of this industry news. The reason that it's doing so well, it's not driven by vegans. The popularity of this burger is not driven by vegans. It's driven by meat lovers who believe they are doing a service that
To our ecosystem. Yeah, they want to lessen the cattle. To our environment. They believe that because the meat industry is very harmful to our planet, which it is. Yeah.
They believe they're doing the earth a service by eating this burger. So it's the meat eaters that are driving sales for this burger. Makes sense. But they're saying because it's the methane, these cattle ranches, these huge sprawling cattle ranches, the amount of methane each one is releasing into the air is ridiculous. Like I was in California. I was driving up towards Simona Valley one time. And on that highway, you drive through some cattle ranches. Mm-hmm.
And we had our windows down a little bit, unfortunately. Yeah, yeah, yeah. And the intensity...
Like I shit you not, the intensity of the smell. And it didn't just hurt your nose, it hurt your eyes too when you drive through. It's like a chemical. So once we smelled it, we rolled up the windows immediately when we turned off the fan. Too late, bro. But it lingered literally for miles and miles and miles. That's sort of how I feel sometimes when it's next to you. No, but like you're cruising at a high speed on a highway and for miles, literally like half an hour of driving non-stop, it's still there.
And when you roll that, it's still there. That's how huge these are. I have no doubt if you had the windows up and you were on circulating, like, you would still smell it. Like, I have no doubt.
But I mean like, so yeah, I agree that the meat industry is very harmful to our planet, but I also don't think humans should cut out meat altogether. For the optimal human health, like meat is important. But I have also heard, I mean, you can debunk it if you want, but like, I also heard that humans, I mean, obviously we grew up learning that we are omnivores, right? But like,
More towards herbivore as opposed to carnivore. Okay, so I I will not debunk that because I think you should eat more Plant foods then you should eat meat. Okay, so if you were to eat more plant food at every meal than you ate meat and everything was like You know about like in the natural food, right? You would be insanely fucking healthy like you would stop eating
You wouldn't need to count calories. You wouldn't need to do any of that. You just eat like a ton of vegetables, an appropriate portion of meat at every meal.
You'd probably be full at every meal at the right number of calories to be basically fucking ripped. You'd probably be ripped. You would be ripped. Healthy, energetic. Yeah, every meal you ate just vegetables and meat. And so, you know, you can eat grains too. Like, but if that was the only thing you ate, no sugar, like, you know, like...
You would be insanely in shape. And in the, like, camera lens version, you know? Like, the fitness industry we see today, like, everybody views it through a camera lens, right? So they think, like, six-pack abs.
and all this stuff. That's fitness, right? That's fitness. And so then people get down on themselves and stuff. But like, yeah, if you ate like that every meal, you wouldn't look like that, actually. Without even working out. Like, that's just not like... I mean, well, maybe, I mean, like, obviously, you're not going to be like fucking jacked, right? Yeah. But you would be in a very good... Is that what you do? You look pretty...
Well, I work out pretty hard too. He rolls up and he's like, no, no, no. He looks different than us. But, you know, like, yeah, so this is my personal policy. It's like 80% of the time I do eat like that. It's more veggies than anything else, some protein, you know, some carbs in the form of either whole grains or,
yams, pumpkin, stuff like that. So a lot of plant foods, sufficient protein, and then, you know, I'll add some not, like, totally natural stuff for flavor. I mean, I'm not aiming for perfect. I'm aiming for healthy, you know. Nobody wants to be, because perfect is a very...
It's suffering. In this day and age, you have this super available, all this super available, awesome tasting shit. To eat 100% natural is suffering. It's suffering. So I'll add a touch of MSG, a little bit of...
You'll live a little. Flavor it, right? You'll live a little. But that's like maybe like 5% of the count. I like to think in terms of percentage of effort, right? So 5% of this stuff will be unhealthy stuff. And like maybe 95% is the stuff you should be eating. So what if I did all healthy stuff and I just put sriracha on everything? Sriracha is not that bad. Unless like you can handle like half a bottle of sriracha. Yeah.
Like, it's not that bad. And they do add a little bit of sugar. They do add a little bit of sugar in there. But unless you're, like, drowning your food in sriracha. Is there fructose syrup in sriracha or no? I'll have to check. I'll have to check. Well, you'll be surprised. They don't use fructose syrup as much here as they do in America because corn is a government-subsidized industry in America. Which is... That's the only reason...
high fructose corn syrup exists because we had way too much fucking corn in America that we didn't even know what to do with. How to put it to use. So much fucking corn there. Yeah, there's so much corn. That's why they're trying to figure out biofuels with corn. It's just like the industry got heavily subsidized by that. And so it should not exist on the scale today as it does. Hey, I have a question.
This is actually something that I've had discussions with friends about. I think we've had a discussion once about it. It's like, you know, I go through my ups and downs of being healthy. And one thing that I get...
stuck on is back when I was living in the States, I mean, it was easy to eat healthy, you know, because there's a lot of great supermarkets that had organic food and, you know, and it was easy for me to get the foods that I wanted and make it and cook it, all that stuff. But then here, I feel like it's a lot more difficult for me to make the foods that I like to, you know, eat back when I was in America and stuff like that. I just feel it's a lot more limiting.
And that's why I was yelling before. I was like, what can you do at Taisho-san? If we're just going to go to the local Chinese vegetable market and stuff like that, what are some easy tips or things that maybe the listeners that live in China can sort of adopt? Like quick daily recipes. Quick daily recipes or not necessarily recipes, but let's say ingredients that we can focus on. Or maybe like we were saying sriracha, if that was a healthy alternative for flavoring.
Going back to my question, like a Tyson's song, top three vegetables at Tyson's. Hey, this is, man, it's really tough. It's really tough. Bok choy? Bok choy is fantastic as well. But it's different than American spinach. It is, it is. But equally, if not more, like bok choy and almost every green leafy vegetable is almost on par with kale.
That's how strong the marketing issue is. So kale is really good though? Kale is good. Maybe a tad bit better. Wow. Because you've mentioned kale a few times already. But that's not something you can... So kale is like, for you, it's up there. It's like broccoli, kale. No, no. So kale, it is up there. But the cost-benefit ratio is far, far off.
Kale will cost you probably like 10 times spinach. But the nutritional difference is probably like...
you know, like maybe like two to five percent. Well do you even find kale at the Chinese markets? The only place you can buy kale is like the Western market. It is marketing. The kale marketing machine is fantastic. If it's two to five percent, then it's more about how much you eat of it than what you're eating. But I love a crispy cold kale salad though. I love it. It's delicious. Oh yeah. I love bacon cheeseburger too.
But yeah, so going back to going back. So people these days, they tell me like, I can't find kale in China. Like it's so expensive. I'm like, why are you trying to do that? Eat the locally available superfoods, which there's unlimited. Because like we talked about, superfood is a marketing term. So spinach, it's easily available here. I think everybody should eat a ton of spinach, right?
And like I said, nutritionally speaking, it's not far off from kale. Except kale costs like three to four, I don't know, actually. No, it's a lot more. Maybe like 10 times more expensive here. If you can even find it, right? So the thing is you find the underappreciated relative of kale.
whatever the thing is that hasn't been blown up because there's a commercial incentive behind those. Yes. Right? But like, so kale, there's a commercial incentive. There's companies that do that, but there's always going to be other vegetables that are not as popular because they're not, you know. And some of them are, you know, like, and some of those, like China has a lot of like,
very weed-like, but they're like shitty grasses. I mean, I'm not down talking, but it's just stuff that doesn't sell that well. Maybe because of its appearance or flavor, it's...
But they're all super, super nutritious. And, you know, maybe we could go talk to one of these industries and be like, yo, let's turn your food into a fucking superfood and make a shitload of money. Yeah. But that brings me to a question because you just made me think of
is that, okay, let's say when you're in the States, and I use Whole Foods as an example because they're known to be like the more expensive, high-end kind of grocery market in the States. And you walk into a supermarket there. When you look at the vegetables, you look at the fruits, you look at the meats, you
Everything is laid out so beautifully, so cosmetically beautiful, right? Everything looks perfect. The apples are big and red, you know. Everything looks clean. They tell you where they come from. The reason is they throw out the shitty-looking vegetables. But they also genetically modify a lot of the fruits and vegetables, right? Well, yeah, same thing here. So that was my question is because when you walk into a local Chinese market here, you don't get that same feeling. Everything looks perfect.
a little bit dirtier, a little bit messier. The vegetables and fruits are not perfect looking. Get the dirt on it. Yeah, there's some bruising. It's not perfect. It's natural, right? It's like how you would see it on the dirt, like in a farm, right? So which makes me feel like it goes through less processing, less genetic modifying. But is that true or not?
I do it on purpose, actually. Probably not. Well, so it's a different market. So in America, people would not buy the ugly-looking fruit because they think there's something wrong. But here, like, if I can pay less for that ugly-looking fruit, fuck yeah, man. Tastes the same. The third one, Chinese thing is fresh. Yeah, yeah.
Yeah. And you know, they take the brilliant eyes. Yeah. Cause like, I don't want this. It's their marketing. Yeah. They're like, they set up their thing and they throw a bunch of dirt on top. Chinese people are like slamming it on the ground. They're more clever than anyone. Cause yeah, it looks like it just came from here. That's real farm to table right there. That's true farm to table. We need to be in the, we need to be the company that makes the dirt. Yeah.
Insta-dirt. Insta-dirt. Oh, you're out. Okay, so going back again, so you're saying spinach, right, is one thing. Spinach. All right, all right. So, man, so the thing is I really like to promote a variety of colors. So if you had to make me choose, I would choose five for the rest of my life. But, all right, let's go with three for now. No, do five. Do five, okay. Three is arbitrary. So for me...
I'm like a drummer here, I own the cymbals. He's trying to talk like a... It gives us a rhythm, you know. Okay. But, alright, so... Oh man, it's still very hard, but... Alright. I'm on her mouth right now. It's tough because there's flavor profile and then...
You want a nutrition... Man, this is... The best combo. You guys are giving me a really good... What do you use most to fit fresh? The top five. Okay, okay. Cauliflower. Broccoli. Broccoli is the top. Shungu. Shungu. Shungu shiitake mushroom. Yeah, but I heard there's not a lot of nutritional value in mushroom. No, there's so, so, so, so much. I'm asking. That's what I'm saying. Mushrooms. Mushrooms. All fungus. All fungus.
They even are very... Yeah, Howie. I did not know that. He's been cutting out whole food groups. I know. Stay away from my food. Even for, like, as a vegetable, like, all fungus-related...
That whole family is very nutritious. - Really? - Yeah, they're fantastic. - What about needle mushrooms? I love needle mushrooms. - Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Very good, very good. - Jinzen gu. - Jinzen gu. - I'm a huge fan as well. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - They're not as nutritionally awesome as shiitake, but still very good. - The name's not as good either.
But do you even get shiitake at the caishicang? Yeah, yeah, yeah. Xiang gu, xiang gu. Just xiang gu, right? Yeah. They're so available. They're cheap here. Broccoli. Super cheap. Xiang gu. Okay, broccoli and xiang gu. Alright. Tomatoes. Tomatoes. Well, yeah, that's definitely prevalent. Tomatoes should also be a superfood.
That's so unfortunate because I hate tomatoes. And you hate broccoli. I hate all vegetables, but I can at least eat broccoli. If you gave me a tomato and I would just eat it, I would throw up. Tomatoes are delicious. I can eat tomato sauce, but that's totally different than a tomato. What?
番茄炒蛋。 番茄炒蛋我就不能吃。 I can't eat scrambled eggs and tomato because I would have to pick out the eggs from the tomato. What? And even the tomato ruins the taste of the eggs. That's okay though. So my advice to you is this. My advice to you is this.
You need something from the red color vegetable group. Red pepper counts? Red pepper. I love red pepper. So, let's talk about the five colors that I'm talking about. Green. You gotta have something green. Black. You gotta have something... Well, so it's hard to classify everything. I wouldn't call it black, but let's call it white.
What do you mean? Black and white are opposite? What the hell is that? Let's not call it black, but let's call it white. What? You fuckers. Cut open a shiitake mushroom. What color is the flesh? The flesh is white, right? So it still fits in that family.
So, all right. So, like, green. This is, like, broccoli, spinach, all leafy greens. All greens are good. Right. All greens are good. And then from the white family, you got, like, mushrooms, white onions, garlic. Super good. Everything's got to be with garlic. Like, apples. You know, so you want...
Plant food, the goal would be to get a plant food of every color, every day. Wow, that's crazy. And how you define, it's interesting because I think it's important to clarify that how you define color is not by its outward appearance.
It's by the inside flesh of the thing. So you have to cut it open. Not necessarily, but yes. Like an apple. Apple is red on the outside, but it's classified as white because the meat of the apple is white. And so, and no, well then, so like you would be getting some amount of the red family nutrients from the skin.
So the color of a vegetable tells us a lot about the nutrients it contains. So like just the red, the skin is red. So it contains some of the red family nutrients.
So that's why it's important to get a variety and you want to hit all these colors. So like we talked about green. We all know what's green. White. Let's go in a different order. Because in general, there are certain groups we get enough of as a whole population and some that we don't. So green, everybody typically knows we've got to eat more green stuff, right? Yeah.
Let's talk about like red, you know, so tomatoes.
Like red bell peppers, red dragon fruit. I thought dragon fruit was white on it. There's two types, right? There's two types. Oh, the purple. There's the red one. Red one. Like cherries. You know, we're talking about fruits and vegetables, right? Cherries. Strawberries. Strawberries. Raspberries. Am I wrong to think this then are...
Because when people talk about antioxidants, right? So does color have anything to do with that? Yes, yes. Can you associate red with antioxidants? Yes. So antioxidants, there's so many different kinds. And the reason I'm telling you about colors is colors tell you a lot about which types of antioxidants are in your food. So like everybody says blueberries has tons of antioxidants. But has antioxidants of this type.
And then a strawberry or like a tomato has different kinds of antioxidants. It's not like it doesn't have them, you know. So that's the key. It's all about, you know, you may have heard eat the rainbow, eat the rainbow. Nobody is ever really able to explain why you should do it. So eat more Skittles, that's what you're saying. I wish that was true.
Green, white, red. What about orange? Orange, right? Like oranges, carrots. You've heard passion fruit. It has some beta-carotene. It's good. Everybody knows it as an eye health nutrient, but it has tons of benefits for your brain. It's just all across the board. We were talking about green, white, red, orange, and purple or blue.
What's purple? Eggplant? Blueberry? Historically speaking, let me talk about the U.S. population. Purple grapes. In terms of our U.S. population, the two colors we get most
the least of is purple and white. Purple and white. So white like garlic, because I mean, you're not going to eat like, you know, in America, we don't eat like 10 cloves of garlic. I feel like, like they put tons of garlic in everything. There's apples, you only eat, you only, nobody puts like a whole clove of garlic in one dish. Like we do. That's you though. Right, right. But in America, that's like too strong. It's not good for a business lunch. Your mouth smells like, right? So, so white is more, white and purple. White,
Purple, the absolute least. It's hard. There's not that many purple and blue foods. And in reality, in color psychology, it turns off your appetite. It's not visually appealing? Yeah. Have you ever seen a food brand that has a blue logo that's really popular? Pepsi.
Pepsi, but they're blue. He got you, Enrique. But the thing is, the blue Pepsi failed, right? Kellogg's, Frosted Flakes. The food can is fucking blue. But the food, right? They tried to release a blue Pepsi, right? Bluefin tuna. Isn't that a blue can? So when the food is actually blue...
It turns off appetite centers. Because it's like a bruise. It's not a natural looking color for food for most people. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Right? So, all right. So let's talk about the available options. Like we talk about purple grapes, blueberries, eggplants. Wine. Okay. So interestingly enough, like, yeah, wine can provide those same benefits. So is it true a glass of wine a day is a healthy thing?
Yes. Yes, I do believe. But there's a recent thing. Helps blood circulation. But I didn't know if that was, you know, fact or fiction. So, all right. Then we're talking about so many variables again, right? The product of the plant nutrients and the plant stuff in this wine is great. Is getting alcohol in your body every day, like, super awesome for you?
Probably not that... I mean, there's no statistically researched benefit. You know what I mean? But there are things... There's even things in beer that... There are plant compounds in beer that are...
are very good for your body. So, you know, beer industry people will be like, yo, there's like, there's all this great stuff in beer. If you drink a beer a day, it's good for you. It's like the same theory of like, you can take broccoli and then you drench it in butter and fry it. Yeah, yeah, yeah. It's broccoli, but you're fucking it up. So, yeah, I mean like, well, you're not, you're still getting the broccoli nutrients. Yeah. Right? But you're just adding. But you're adding other stuff you shouldn't be eating. Right.
So that's where it's so confusing for people, right? Like, oh, broccoli's supposed to be healthy. And then you got, like, fucking cream of broccoli soup, right? And they're like, yeah, I'm getting something healthy. And they're like, it is, the stuff you're getting from the broccoli is healthy. Everything else in that cup is not. Not all that cream and butter that's in there, yeah. Mm.
That's marketing, too. Yeah, yeah. I mean, so, and yeah, so anybody who puts like, we have broccoli in this. It's actually butter. Yeah. Broccoli flavored butter. With a hint of broccoli. Like, we ground up some broccoli in this butter. Like, you can eat it by the stick now.
So we have the five colors, green, white, red, orange, and then purple, blue. Yeah. All right. We have three veggies so far, two of which Justin can't eat. So we need to come up with some more. Okay. So like we said, find an alternative, right? Find another alternative. Like red bell pepper to substitute for tomato. Yeah, yeah. So ideally find, I would encourage everybody to find one vegetable in each color group of their favorite, you know, like their favorite vegetable.
of that color group and eat it every fucking day that's crazy though I never thought about yeah what about yellow is yellow oh yeah yellow would kind of yellow and orange have a certain overlap yeah squash pumpkin squash yellow squash
Yeah, very good. Yellow bell peppers. That's such a great tip. Find one vegetable in each color group that you actually like. Yeah, I've never thought about it in terms of color before. That makes it easier. I heard it from my nutritionist, but not in such a kind of a way. Right, yeah. So it's like everybody's, you've heard it before, eat the rainbow. But like how, I mean, then it goes, like everybody knows it already, but how do we make it practical for people? Pick one of your, in every color that you like and just eat it every day. What about, right?
So I think when we're talking about vegetables, I mean, it's good to think about this way. But vegetables, that's like the easy play, right? Because everyone knows you need to eat more vegetables. You need to eat more food. So I think the hot topic is carbs, right? So there are obviously different types of carbs, right? There are quote unquote good carbs and bad carbs, I guess, for usually. I think that's how people kind of classify them.
So what's your stance on carbs? What are the carbs that you, because obviously you do believe you should eat carbs because you believe you should eat a balanced diet. Right. So what are the good carbs you feel you should be eating and which are the ones you should definitely be avoiding? Well, the easiest way to say it is natural or unnatural. Like potato is okay. Yeah. So actually people have somehow vilified the potato diet.
Right? It's so healthy, right? In reality... Not mashed potatoes. Well, no. But they vilify it because you're mixing butter and cream with mashed potatoes. Who eats a fucking potato by itself?
Like, when's the last time you heard of anybody eating a potato as a potato? Only psychopaths. Yeah, only psychopaths, right? Or sociopaths. So it's like you're eating it smothered in butter, cheese, all this stuff, or you're eating it deep fried as a french fry or hash browns. Nobody eats a fucking real potato anymore, right? Yeah.
But in actuality, the potato would still be good. In actuality, so yeah, if you ate a combination of potato, meat, like a potato and some meat and some vegetables, yeah, you would get full at the right time and you would not have to count calories.
But just eat the potato. Like, don't mix. Like, maybe put a little bit of salt and pepper in it. Yeah, yeah. Put some salt and pepper. You can add a little bit of healthy cooking oil, maybe. Like, olive oil. Some, like, grass-fed butter or something like that. Obviously, anytime you're dealing with fats, you don't want to fucking load it on. It tastes great, but... So, it's not the food.
that is necessarily the deciding factor. It's the way that it's being prepared. So like potato versus like French fries. You know what I'm saying? It's like the actual food itself is not as neutral. It's like how much you eat of it and then how you make it. Yeah. And then like, well, so let's say, I mean, the people, there's recent, some of people's argument about why the potato is so bad for you.
Oh, like it boosts your insulin level so much more than like they found it to boost your insulin as much as like sugar or stuff like that. But what people don't understand is like that's not the one variable making you fat, you know, like so again, everybody wants to science the shit out of everything.
But that's not the answer, right? Because usually within the research, there's a lot of correlation. Let's say before when you were saying people who eat less carbs or eat no carbs and they say they have a certain kind of result.
Well, usually there's a lot of correlation that's not shown in research about their lifestyle. Exactly. Like the people who choose to eat less carbs, like what they tend to gravitate towards lifestyle-wise could have a huge effect on the results that doesn't show up in the research. And that's why some people who do it are like, oh, keto doesn't work. I'm like, well, yeah. Well, the reason keto doesn't work is you're still eating like fucking 5,000 calories a day, right? Like it's not going to work.
For fat loss, right? But if you go towards high nutrient dense natural foods, yeah, keto will help you lose fat. So it sounds like, and I mean it makes sense, is that there's no magic bullet, right? It's a combination of factors and you have to take a holistic approach. 100%. 100%. What about cheese? What's your stance on cheese? I love cheese. I love cheese too. Yeah, we all love cheese. And I eat cheese like almost every other day.
So, you don't want the processed American cheese, which is made out of like processed oil.
Like the American slices. American slices. They're delicious. I don't like them. How about the little ones in the triangles and they serve in a little circle? Yeah, so... I love that. The Chinese, like... Yeah, it's so good. One of those little snack bites. Yeah, snack bites. It's hard for me to... Yeah, it's hard for me to say. So the cheeses, natural cheese, at least in America, the natural designation on the cheese requires some kind of different processing. So they can't put, like...
processed oils in there. But any type of fermented cheese is actually pretty healthy for you. And she, so natural cheese, like they're not putting any hydrogenated oils for, and they have a goat cheese. Goat cheese is good. And so, um, now there's a caveat to that, right? Uh, it's, uh, we say avocado is healthy, right? Which is a healthy fat. It's a healthy fat. But, uh,
Fat is a high-calorie, it's a calorie-dense food. So for every gram of fat, you're getting nine calories. Every gram of protein or carbs, you're only getting four calories. So more than double. So you have to eat less. So fat, from our visual and behavioral stomach space perspective,
you can get double, like if you were to eat only fat, you would get double the calories, right? So it's easy to, easy to overeat. To lose yourself. Yeah. It's easy to get more, an abundance of calories. But that's, they say that's the same with fats in forms of oil, right? Like olive oil. Yeah, yeah, yeah. A lot of people think olive oil, that's pretty healthy, but olive oil in terms of caloric count is so super high. So that's the thing, that's the thing. Healthy,
That's the thing. Everybody wants to hear healthy and then, okay, I can eat as much of this stuff as I want. And for everybody, they think everything is an on and off switch, black or white. Nothing. As you all know, in this planet, there is no black and white. But that's just easier for... Except for mushrooms.
Yeah. Shiitake mushrooms. The enoki is only white. The shiitake is black and white. No, but that's true though, right? Everyone wants to see it in a binary form because it's easier to process that way. It's just not that easy. I have a question that might shift gears a little bit. Who are the people that subscribe to your...
Fit fresh stuff like what kind of people okay, so I mean my it's like my early adopters, right, so the Majority of my customers fit into two to three categories one is the hard or semi hardcore like Hobbyist athlete let's talk about like CrossFitters You know they care about what they eat. They want to boost their performance and
Or, you know, just like combat sports, you know, like boxing gym and stuff. They want to go compete on an amateur or fun level. Like, they want to improve their performance. The second one is the, let's say, obese. Or, you know, like, they have just built up years and years, maybe decades of bad habits. They...
They're confused by all of the nutrition information out there. They've tried a bunch of things. They don't know how to make it work. And so that one, you know, that one for me is the easiest, right? Like I don't have to explain too much. You just give them the one-on-one. I give them the consultation and they see like the results I've developed over time with these types of clients. And it always works. It always works. So for these people...
And, okay, I'm sorry. I won't say always, but there's a... Sometimes they just can't handle sticking to the program. So, and so that's, you know, they're not used to... Maybe it's like too much at once, but... It's just self-control. Yeah. It gives them the best chance because sometimes it could be mental. Right. But you give them the best chance to feel. So, like, yeah, they may find the food not to their taste. Then, you know, I mean...
At this point, I'm trying to reach as many people as possible. Like, if I could, you know, and I wish I had the time these days to spend one-on-one time with them and...
which I'm starting to build this program out as well, but like one-on-one coaching. Like a lot of it is years of mental, emotional damage, you know? Like I have to, like they have some such negativity about like, I ate this thing. Like, fuck, I'm such a failure. There's something wrong with me. And no, like sometimes they just need that one-on-one encouragement. Like, no, I mean like,
That's not – there's nothing wrong with doing that. You just need to realize, all right, enjoy that as much as you can. Like love that fuck up that you made. Love it like – Own it. Yeah, own it. This is – you deserve it too. There's a negativity. We're all very emotional about food, right? Like we're all very emotional about food. Sometimes it makes us feel good. Sometimes it makes us feel bad. Oh, yeah.
But yeah, so people need, what people need is the psychological support, not the science. We talk about it. Because it's the habit. It's like eating one burger is not bad, but if you eat 10,000 burgers, then it's not the food. It's your decision. And some people, and so some people eat one burger and they're like, I fucked up. Fuck it.
I'm off the wagon. And then they just destroy themselves. They don't have the mental fortitude. It's not mental fortitude. It's just a cycle. Throughout their lives, they think it's a binary success or failure. And
It's dangerous. And it's dangerous. Some people face that every day, right? Like, let's say athletes, right? It is a binary success or failure. Yeah, for them. You win or lose, right? But then the true champions, like let's talk about boxing, right? The true champions, they lose, but they will persist and they will come back and get that belt back, right? So we need to get out of that binary situation.
mentality. It's a very, health and fitness is a lifelong process. - Yeah. - Right? - Yeah, yeah, yeah. - It's not one stand-up battle. - It's not an end goal. - It's not, yeah. - There's no end goal. - It's not one singular battle. It's an ongoing journey that never ends. And you keep battling. - All we can do is continually try to improve, right?
Well, talking about these habits, I mean, there is a whole other aspect of what you do, right? So we've been talking about nutrition. So very quickly...
I just, you know, I want to get your thoughts on the exercise portion of it because that's a huge part of what you do, right? And Fit Fresh, obviously, you collaborate with a lot of other gyms, right? Whether they're commercial gyms or boxing gyms or, you know, combat gyms, these kind of things. So you work with, as you said, a lot of athletes and fitness junkies and things like that. And obviously, you exercise yourself a lot. So what's your kind of principle on exercise?
Okay. So I have a lot of theories about what's optimal for this or that. But it's not my place to tell anybody because it's not my expertise. So I'm not going to tell people stuff I don't know about that well. But I have a lot of opinions. So I train myself a certain way.
Well, that's what we want to know about. I'm very strongly opinionated about it. But in the end, the most important thing for me, again, it goes back to psychology and behavior, is you've got to enjoy your activity.
If you hate going to the gym and you put yourself in the gym every day, you're going to fail. You're going to quit. Right? So if you enjoy playing basketball three times a week with your boys, then go play basketball. That might be the better way to. Right? So the most important thing is consistent and regular activity. It has nothing to do with the optimal workout or.
Because there's no such thing, right? Because everyone's fitness goals are different. Yes, yes. The workout regimen for a boxer versus a basketball player are going to be completely two different things. 100%. But for our health, you just have to have consistent, regular physical activity. We're built for that. Right. We need it. We need it. And it is the biggest magic pill that everybody's ignoring. It is the chronic disease...
You know how most people die? They die from falling. When they're old, they die from falling. And do you know why they fall? Because their body is weak.
So, the most likely way for you to die is being weak. Is it true? Yeah. The most likely way for you to die... I'm worried about Howie then. You're going to be falling all over the place. You're going to be falling all over the place. Yeah, so don't get drunk. Don't get too drunk when you're old. Like, maybe, like, stay seated if you're going to get really fucked up. I mean...
They've been saying one of the biggest epidemics that's happening to civilization right now is sitting. Sitting, yes. Sedentary lifestyle. Sedentary lifestyle. So, yeah. Because we are increasingly immobile.
We're figuring out how machines can do all the labor for us. It's only going to get worse. It's only going to get worse. And then our industry creates a bunch of non-jobs to be jobs. We created systems so humans can serve this system.
Busy work. Busy work. Which, yeah, they can increase a corporation's efficiency by 1% to 2%. Yeah, certainly. Maybe even 5%. But how are we really serving humanity? We're serving capitalism, right? Yeah. Right. So it's fine. I mean, like, I can't fight. I'm not the soldier who's going to... Sid Fresh is not going to fight capitalism. I'm not going to... Yeah, yeah, yeah. So I'm not...
That should be your slogan. I'm not the soldier. Join Mintfresh. Fight capitalism together. It's like a beret. Stars in the back. Broccoli in hand. That's so funny. We're going to beat them with broccoli sticks, man. It's going to be like a whole new political movement.
So, yeah, I'm not the soldier that's going to take down capitalism, you know, but but, you know, like it is your own responsibility to take care of your body. Right. Yeah. So you can blame your job. You can you can blame the chairs. You can blame society for making super awesome tasting food.
Like, but you also have the power to choose. All right. When I, when I get off of work, I'm going to do some exercises to fix my posture. I'm going to, you know, I'm going to choose to not eat McDonald's every fucking day. Maybe it costs a little more. It's a choice, right? Yeah.
The individual is more empowered than a lot of them think they are, right? Yeah. So, you know, that's the... And a lot of media and people, they want to blame. Yeah. Blame is the easiest way to do nothing. Yeah. Right? When you blame somebody else, you've given up. Right? You give all
You take that responsibility off of yourself. Yeah, it's easy. Everybody wants to do it. Yeah, so even, let's say, as a manager, like, yeah, oh, man, this guy fucked my shit up. Like, no, you didn't figure out how to make him do it right. Right? So it's always, like, there's always a way for you to take more responsibility. And it may be tiring. It's exhausting. But...
Yeah, unless you, all right, so there's one of two decisions, right? Take responsibility, all right? Take responsibility and do the hard thing.
Or fucking overthrow the fucking system, which is even harder, right? Break down society and rebuild it the way you want it. Or just do the tough shit. Fight human nature. Do the tough shit or do the... Do the hard shit or be God. Yeah, right? Right. So, I mean, you can do one of two things, right? Take responsibility or do some fucking...
Life-changing shit. Well, I think that's a really good thing to kind of end the listeners with in terms of kind of like the lesson, right? It's like whether we're talking about nutrition or fitness or whether it's psychological, emotional, or physical hurdles in your way, you have to feel empowered to do it and you have to own that responsibility, own your mistakes. And like you say,
Fitness or weight loss is not a singular battle that we're going to fight and win or lose in a night. It's a lifetime of work. It's a lifetime of habits. And that's kind of the approach you have to take. So don't get too down on yourself when you fuck up.
but don't get too high on yourself when you're good too because you have to remain consistent, right? And find the things that work for you. There's no one best way, whether it's exercise or whether it's nutrition plan. - So individual. - Yeah, there's no one best way that everyone must follow and it's gonna work for everyone, but find what works for you. Find an exercise that you love to do, something that you love to do that keeps you active and do it. Find food groups in each color that you like or you can tolerate at least
and stick with those things and empower yourself with those tools do so don't blame others yeah take control thanks thank you Victor dude thank you thanks so much for having me this was a super awesome time man
This was fucking awesome, and I think we've all learned a lot from you. Yeah, thanks a lot. And anytime you ever want to come back on, just let us know, man. Dude, I'm happy to come hang out and have drinks with you guys. Cool. And this fucking whiskey was fucking pretty good. We finished the bottle, basically. Yeah, just keep it rolling. Yeah, we'll keep it rolling. We're going to finish this bottle in the next five minutes. We can cut it here, but we can just enjoy the alcohol. I want some Fit Fresh. Fit Fresh!
Fear Fresh, fight capitalism. We're out.