Everyday Products That Are Making You Sick, Fatal Conveniences, Living Plant Based, Invisible Toxins and Ways to Detox Your Life w/ Darin Olien
01:17:25 Share

The following podcast is a Dear Media production. Mari has grown her to fitness and nutrition brand. Co-founder of Bloom Nutrition. Forbes 30 under 30 list. A successful entrepreneur. Someone who has lost 90 pounds. Today's guest is Mari Llewellyn. Mari Llewellyn. My friend Mari. Welcome to the pursuit of wellness.

Hi guys, welcome back to the show. Today we are talking to Darren O'Lean. He's a superfood hunter, co-host of the Emmy award-winning Netflix docuseries Down to Earth with Zac Efron, New York Times bestselling author of Fatal Conveniences and Superlife, original creator of Shakeology and the founder of Baruca's Nuts.

We are talking today all things toxins and where they might be lurking. Everywhere from deodorant to t-shirts to detergent to dental floss, furniture and more. There are things we're using in our daily lives that are having a massive impact on our health, our hormones, our fertility. Darren gives us tangible tips today on how we can remove toxins from our lives along with product recommendations and more.

Today we are discussing everyday products, toxic chemicals and health, small steps towards health and wellness, chemicals and human fertility impact, the consequences of environmental detriment, product safety concerns, fragrances, RFK's legacy and Darren's thoughts on RFK's thoughts,

The carnivore diet versus the plant-based diet in Darren's opinion. I really hope you guys enjoyed today's episode. Reminder, hit that subscribe button. We post new episodes every Monday and occasionally a bonus Thursday episode. So I don't want you guys to miss that. Make sure you leave a review. That's how I keep improving the show. With that said, let's hop into this conversation with Darren.

Today on the show, we have Darren O'Lean. Darren, you just wrote a book called Fatal Conveniences, which I think is a beautiful way to summarize the problem that more and more of us are starting to become aware of today.

So much of what we use day to day is affecting our endocrine systems and making us sick. So I'm excited to dive in because I think this is such an important conversation to have. But firstly, I'd love to talk about how you personally became so passionate about this topic. Yeah, it came 30 years ago when my father started suffering from, you know, I was in university studying physiology, nutrition, kinesiology, and

And then just randomly, my dad reached out and said, hey, if you're coming home. And this was building like there's something going on with him. And he said, hey, I can't be around any perfumes or colognes or even carpets or T-shirts. I'm like, what? And so that was the first kind of weird moment because I thought it was in his head.

And then he was a college professor. So he went into research and he went into like before the internet. So he was highlighting everything and making VHS tapes, trying to educate his family circle first. But also at university, he was needing to educate his colleagues. And basically what was going on is he was finally doing

diagnosed with multiple chemical sensitivity. So any, essentially any off gassing of anything from a perfume to a cologne, to a shampoo, to deodorant, to even a heavy dyed shirt, he couldn't, it would fog him out and it would send him down this path of depression and he couldn't think. And this is a highly intellectual guy who, uh,

Couldn't function. And so starting to grok that over the years, I then realized, oh, this is a real condition. And then being around him, I would have to use the products that he found so that I could detox myself and not smell. Right. And and then quickly realizing that I didn't even know I was being affected by it. But I started feeling better.

You know, it's like anything and like even when people aren't drinking your greens, when they drink your greens, then they go, wow, I feel better. But you didn't know you weren't feeling good, right? So that's the weird thing about health. We get used to a certain way or a certain feeling.

So that's how it hit me. So in the back of my mind, it sent my dad down this path of having a really hard time being in the world at all because he couldn't educate the populace. Yeah. And so he was forced to retire. He was depressed. He picked up alcohol and ultimately ended up passing away of alcohol. And so...

Cut to finishing university and all along the way, serendipity of people telling me about weird stuff from electromagnetic fields and researchers I'd met meet in obscure kind of situations. So this path of fatal conveniences...

has been kind of playing in my life for a long time. Obviously, health, you know, working out and taking and consuming good nutrient-dense foods, you know, is important. But then I'm staring at our modern-day world just continuing to invent, you know, this industrialized soup that's not being tested and not seeing long-term effect or not understanding the long-term effect of

And obviously I saw the result that that had on my dad. So, so I was staring at, I have to talk about this because it's, it's, it's only getting worse and it's showing up in our air and our water and our food and our clothing. And, you know, as you're seeing like biohacking and people wanting to optimize their lives, if they don't deal with the invisible of these products and even, you know, the

electromagnetic fields and whatever they're trying to optimize, they're actually being undercut by that very thing they're trying to optimize by not aware, but not being aware of certain things that they're being exposed to. So yeah, and we're dealing with the fragility of the world. If we're buying things that are children or pets unknowingly, it's just a weird thing

It's a weird world to come to the realization that we can create a bunch of products, the industry can fling them out on the populace without safety data, without long-term data. And this delusion that the three and four letter agencies are

have our best interest is just radically a bad idea to think that they do because it's you know thousands of studies at this point looking at it going wow they know that too and they know that too and why is that still in a product so that's you know what led me to needing to to write this

Did you know you can tell the difference between a laboratory-grown diamond versus a natural diamond? Laboratory-grown diamonds are mass-produced in factories in just a few weeks and are easily detected due to their distinct patterns. On the other hand, natural diamonds are over a billion years old and support the livelihoods of over 10 million people worldwide.

The positive impact of natural diamonds is widespread. Around 80% of the value of every rough diamond remains in local communities and supports infrastructure, healthcare, education, and environmental protection. So next time you're thinking of celebrating a special moment in your life, remember that your natural diamond also protects vulnerable wildlife species and brings prosperity to many less fortunate communities around the world. For more information, visit naturaldiamonds.com.

I don't know about you guys, but I'm really savoring the final days of summer. We're still making some trips to the beach and enjoying the sun, but I'm really beginning to think about my fall skincare routine because sun and air conditioning and all those things can really take a toll. And that's where I found Osea's Undaria Exfoliate and Glow Duo. It is the perfect

thing to rehab, sun soak skin and prep for fall. The dynamic duo features Osea's best-selling product infused with nourishing seaweed and designed to elevate your summer body care. I absolutely love the body polish because I feel like it really gets off those remaining dead skin cells. And also for me, I spray tan a lot and it gets off all the remaining spray tan. And then the body oil really seals in the hydration and makes me glow all day long. Plus I have super sensitive skin and I love the fact...

that it uses clean, vegan, cruelty-free ingredients.

You can really elevate your shower essentials with the Undaria Cleansing Body Polish. It provides an easy one-step exfoliating, cleansing and moisturizing shower essential. And the Undaria Algae Body Oil seals in hydration after the shower, moisturizes and makes you glow all day long. It's rich yet not greasy. You can save and glow with the Undaria Exfoliate and Glow Duo. It's the perfect way to try Osea's best-selling products at an incredible value.

And I love the fact that it's a quality product from a trusted skincare brand. Everything they make is clean, vegan, cruelty-free, and climate-neutral certified, so you never have to choose between your values and your best skin. Prep your skin for fall with clean, vegan skincare from Osea. And right now, we have a special discount just for our listeners. Get 10% off your first order site-wide with code POW at oseamalibu.com.

head to OSEAMalibu.com and use code POW, P-O-W for 10% off.

Here at the Bloom office, we have so many different snacks to choose from, but the one I always go for and a majority of the office always goes for are Chomps. If you're running low on fuel, this is the perfect high protein snack with zero sugar. It really makes snacking simple. Their tasty meat sticks are packed with mouthwatering flavor and only the best ingredients. I have had many health experts on the show and all of them talk about how important protein is

and I find it really challenging to find good snacks that have a high amount of protein. Chomps meat sticks have the protein your body needs with over nine grams per stick without any unhealthy additive and zero sugar. They're low carb, keto friendly, allergy friendly, and don't contain any fillers. Chomps are simply made with natural ingredients you can feel good about.

Plus, you guys know I'm big on this. Chomps only sources from farmers who raise their animals humanely and farm responsibly. So we're looking out for the environment and our animal friends. They come in nine flavors, so there's something for everyone. Or you can grab a variety pack and satisfy the whole family's taste buds. Right now, Chomps is offering our listeners 20% off your first order and free shipping when you go to Chomps

dot com slash pow. Go to chomps dot com slash pow for 20% off your first order and free shipping. That's chomps dot com slash pow. Don't forget to use our link so they know we sent you. I think there is very much an out of sight, out of mind attitude. And I think a lot of people are

don't want to dig into the problem because it's easier not to. And I think people like you are so needed to get conversations like this out there so everyone can become more aware. I'm so sorry to hear about your dad. Very interesting to hear that that exists. And I think even on a milder scale, even I'm someone who can't be around a fragrant candle because I get an immediate migraine.

And now knowing a little bit of what I know, I kind of view it as like a blessing because I kind of know what's going on. And clearly I'm not reacting well to it for a reason. I pulled a quote from you that I absolutely love. You said, do you believe life is happening for you or to you? I believe that life is happening for you because you are the builder. Every decision you make every day paves the way towards the next level of personal growth.

Can you explain what you meant by that? Yeah, I mean, you know, that's where it's an easy shift in a certain – you could write a whole fatal convenience on the outlook of life, right? So the outlook of life is anything can happen to any of us at any moment, life, death, challenge, and it will, right? Yeah.

And depending on how you look at it, we'll create the next steps for you. So you either can take on a victim kind of idea or you can say, hey, this is...

this is a potential to learn and to grow and expand and to, to have another opportunity. And, and I think then you create a receivership of that opportunity, right? So I could look at this, even this book and even the start of it as my dad was a victim of all of this stuff and everything else. And then I could stay in that and just be kind of angry this whole time. Or I could transmute that and say, Hey, I don't want other people.

The bottom line is I don't want him to suffer, but he was suffering. I don't want other people to suffer. So essentially, yeah, it's a challenging book to face, right? So facing things, I think, is the great liberator. You know, there's many people and...

bliss, you know, for the, for them, if just the ignorance, fine. And that's a choice. And we all have that at moments. You just don't want to deal with something now. And I totally get that. But, you know, I think the, the opportunity that I've had in my life is if I'm willing to be honest with myself and turn into things rather than turn away from them,

Even though sometimes it takes a big deep breath, you're like, oh man, you know, it's like even in partnership with someone like, you know, you need to have that conversation because if you don't have that conversation, resentment, anger is going to build up and things, things happen and things are going to go sideways. And then you're going to lose the actual opportunity of what was actually there until unless you turn into something.

So my whole thing of this book is it may feel intense, right? But the opportunities to turn into it so we can liberate ourselves and actually not be that victim to actually have a choice of possibility that we didn't know existed.

was there until we actually looked at it. And before we enter this conversation, I want to say for everyone listening, we are going to talk about solutions and things you can do to improve your health and little things you can do every day just to avoid these fatal conveniences. So let's hop into fatal convenience. How would you define a fatal convenience?

Yeah, I can define it differently every day, but it's really the things you're doing every day.

you may feel you don't think about but that may actually have a harmful effect and one shining example is a cell phone right so you're like we're all using it every day but how we're using it is determining a level of stress in the body and that shows up in many different ways we can talk about that later another fatal convenience is aluminum salts in deodorant so it's the it's turning into the

everyday scenario we all find ourselves in in the modern world and then unpacking it a little bit and then asking a few questions within it. Because if we don't, there could be more of the fatal side of it over time. And again, I don't want to be even fatalistic with all of this stuff. What I mean by that is, as you know, think...

Things added up over time will help you or hurt you, which is why a healthy lifestyle and exercise every day. If you exercise today and you don't for a month, you don't really get the benefits of that one day. You have to add things up. And so our modern world of these fatal conveniences have a lot of stuff.

That are 60 to 80,000 chemicals that are created that largely haven't been tested effectively on our biology, nor virtually any of them as they interact with one another. So these fatal conveniences need to be

And we need to look back and turn into these things. And then, like you said, there's a lot of solutions and some are the easiest that you can possibly do, but it's just a matter of

breaking that habit. It's that smell of a laundry soap that your parent used and you're like, oh, that's what it means to be clean. Those are the types of things that we need to start questioning because are those in fact the same formula as before? They're probably not and they're probably more harmful than helpful. Yeah. Speaking of the laundry detergent, do you feel like

ingredients have gotten worse over time. And I'm also curious if you feel like America is the epicenter of this issue. Do you see as many fatal conveniences in Europe, let's say, or elsewhere? Yes and yes. Right. So yes, they have gotten worse. And yes, the epicenter, unfortunately, the U.S. has horrible regulations compared to the E.U.,

I was even looking at, I was doing a deeper dive on appeal. Have you heard of appeal? The invisible barrier that they're putting on fruits and avocados. No. Yeah. So it was a funded, the helpful people at the Bill and Melinda Gates Foundation, all these people, they funded this thing to help preserve fruits and vegetables.

And I was just reading an article where the EU and the Great Britain were like, they read this and they're like, okay, well, there's remnants of trans fats in this invisible coating that, yes, gives greater shelf life. And there's questions to even get into around that. Why are we sending food when we create a lot of food security in a lot of other ways, right? And I have a lot of good ideas around that. But

So this appeal is monoglycerides and diglycerides and a bunch of other chemicals. And it somehow got through the FDA regulations. And so the EU and Great Britain said, no, no, no, it's no longer organic. So we can't have it on organic vegetables and fruits and things like that. So they just flat out said no, because it's no longer organic.

But here in the U.S., it's just being pushed through. So that's an example, a very immediate example. So again, no long-term studies on this particular invention. And the EU and Great Britain put a block on it because they haven't proved that it's safe. But here in the U.S., they'd rather experiment than prove something to be safe.

So this is something. So just to conclude that as a solution, anyone sees a little sticker that says appeal, A-P-E-E-L, just avoid it. My personal opinion, it's there to create ability for a fruit or vegetable to stay on the shelf longer. I understand that a lot of these things have the appeal, right? The convenient side of things, but that's why we need to look at

And look at this stuff. My point of view is as a US citizen, we need to push back and say, hey, you haven't proven this is safe. Why don't you do that first? Yeah. And that's the alarming flip of the entire script that most of us don't realize the delusional nature that we feel. And everyone's going to be listening to this right now. You know that on some level, you're going someone,

Has my back. Someone has tested this for safety or they wouldn't sell it to my dog. They wouldn't sell it to my children. They wouldn't put my children at risk, et cetera, et cetera. So.

But I'm here to say, yes, of course, these agencies have great people doing great things and they're testing things. I'm not saying they're innately corrupt, but there is this wielding power of profits that seem to govern more than the health and safety. And that's where the frustrating part.

side of this is that that they're pushing these things out and Caring more about those bottom lines then then us as the populace Seems like the process is completely backwards like they try it first See how many complaints happen see how many people get sick and then install the regulation and that's the exact formula

All over the place. The exact formula is here in the US, we will throw it out there and only until there's an overwhelming pushback will we then do something about it. Now, tell me how that can be a good thing for us. Of course it isn't.

right? It's the same. This is the same mentality, by the way, we're talking before we started on my property, which burned down in 2018. It's the same formula that the Edison company used. They knew there was a problem. They decided not to fix it. High winds came up. It blew down a derelict power pole and started the fire, but they knew it was already bad, but they have a

how they repair things is they wait until it completely destroys, even though they knew it was wrong and broken.

So this is the thing. We throw these things out there and then how are we as consumers and as people, how are we supposed to know unless some actionable, you know, the cosmetics for safe or the, what is it? The EWG, Environmental Working Group or some organization that it starts to fill the void of people

agencies that aren't doing what we expect them to do, right? So all these other systems pop up because the void is that things aren't

you know, don't have the proper safety standards in place. And when we say shelf stable, all that's really doing is increasing the profits of the company making the produce, right? Yeah. I mean, you can argue like, again, you're saying, okay, I understand. Like if you can provide safety again,

And like less spoilage of food, more in the hands and the mouths of people. Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. That's amazing, right? Let's waste less. But when you're playing with chemistry and you haven't proven it's safe and then it's interacting, you can't very carefully, you can't wash it off. It does not come off.

So like it's different than glyphosate or astrazine or a pesticide or herbicide. It does interact inside the fruits and vegetables. You can wash some of it off because they spray so much upon ripening, but this stuff doesn't wash off. So now you're dealing with this chemistry that is now interacting with your food.

So, yeah, they haven't proven it's safe. That's the problem. But they market all the good stuff. We're saving less. We're less spoilage. More, you know, more good food to you because it hasn't spoiled, etc. It's longer lasting. And there is some data to show that that's the case. But again.

That's the convenience. But if you haven't proven it as safe, then it's still, listen, I have no trust, virtually none in these organizations because I've stared at research over and over and over going, that's a likely, that's a probable carcinogen and you still allow it in these products. And there's no long-term data on what it's doing to the body.

Not appeal. Wow. Not at all. They're just flinging it out at us. So before we go into all of the other fatal conveniences, I want to break it down very simply because I think that's the key to helping people actually understand what's happening. I know there are a lot of terms that

with these toxins. There's the PFAs, the PFOs, the PTFEs, the list goes on. And I want to make sure we also talk solutions so people have a tangible idea of what they can do. So I was thinking we could break this down by rooms in the house. I would love to start with the bathroom. Oh, that's a good one. I feel like we can talk about deodorant, shampoo, feminine care. Cosmetic. Let's get into it. That's a good one. And on average...

The number fluctuates, obviously, depending on the person. But women are exposed to about 127 created chemicals every day. And from your deodorants to your shampoos to your conditioners, you're getting hit with phthalates and parabens. And there's a lot of classes of these chemicals that are in all of this stuff. Like fragrances, I created like almost a subchapter on just fragrance alone.

So if they're not, all of these things have their own smells, right? And so this is where a bunch of loopholes also in the industry happen. If something smell your shampoo and your conditioner and your body wash, they all have a different smell. And there could be hundreds of chemicals that they do not have to disclose.

And of those, most are flow agents, emulsifiers, parabens, things like that. And I'll just say, because obviously it's a rabbit hole, and those are directly connected to endocrine disrupting and accumulating in the body. There's an overall body burden that starts to happen over time. Now, does your body get rid of some of them? Yeah. Yeah.

But the problem is we just keep exposing ourselves, right? We just keep putting on the deodorant. We keep putting on the lotion. We keep shampooing. And so this stuff your body never really lets go of. So you go into the shower.

And is your shower filtered? Most people will probably say no, right? And could that just be an attachable shower head? Yeah. I have one of those. Like a Jolie, I think it's called. Yeah. Okay. Yeah. So you can get a lot. You can do a whole home filter, which is more expensive, but is worth it from my perspective. Or a, you know, $50 shower filter. So now your skin, because what goes on your skin goes in.

Right. So the water is a whole nother conversation of exposure. PFAS, petroleum, pesticides, herbicides, pharmaceuticals, BPAs, BPHs, forever chemicals. You know, it's so yeah, we need to. And then when you heat up the water and your pores open,

So that's just the, that's stepping into the shower, right? So simple solution. You buy a water, a shower filter and now you don't have to think about it. You still take a shower, right? And you've protected yourself and your children and everything else. And then, and then the shampoos and the conditioners and the... What do you use for shampoo and conditioner? Uh,

You know, I'm a simple, simple. I want to hear it. I have like brawners, right? So I use brawners. They have a, now they have, I never knew they had a bar of soap, which is always great to have a bar of soap. But then, but then hell I'll use sometimes hair and stuff. I'll use just like vinegar and diluted. And then like once a month I'll treat it in, in aloe.

and avocado oil and stuff like that. But I, but I also rent, I wash less and rinse more, right? So I don't strip the sebum and the natural oils as much. So if people do multiple feel they need to multiple shower, just don't sud yourself. Maybe, you know, the, the areas and the private parts that sweat more or whatever, but there's no need to over, over

dry your skin by the shampoo and stuff like that. And so, yeah, I keep it pretty simple from that perspective. But I have a lot of cool brands that I didn't know existed until I got into the book.

So I know Thanksgiving is around the corner and how does it sound to have a free Thanksgiving? This year iBotter is here to give you cash back and help make sure your Thanksgiving table is complete because who wants turkey without the gravy? Starting November 1st for the fourth year in a row, iBotter is giving 100% cash back on your Thanksgiving feast.

Just add the offers in the app to redeem for everything you need to make your Thanksgiving feast complete. All you have to do is shop at your favorite retailers and upload your receipt. iBotter gives you cash back on hundreds of grocery items from produce to personal care to pantry goods so you can make sure you're beating inflation no matter what you're purchasing. Other apps give you points that don't amount to much. With iBotter, you can get real cash back and with that, you can cash out to your bank account, PayPal or gift cards.

I think this is perfect for the holiday season when we're all buying gifts or table items or whatever it may be. We're all looking for ways to get more cash back and iBotter is the perfect solution. You can also earn cash back on hundreds of online brands and retailers too when you start with iBotter, including Lowe's,

Macy's, Sephora, Best Buy and more. This is going to be really helpful around the holiday season as well when we're all looking for gifts. Download the Ibotta app now and use code POW to get 100% cash back on your Thanksgiving dinner starting November 1st. Just go to the App Store or Google Play Store and download the free Ibotta app and use code POW, P-O-W. That's I-B-O-T-T-A in the Google Play or App Store and use code POW, P-O-W.

So you guys know my dogs are my whole world. I have Lulu, who's eight years old. I rescued her back when I lived in Philadelphia. And now I have a new puppy, Arnold. And I am extremely health conscious. And to me, the food they eat is really important. And I've been using Farmer's Dog for years. And I am such a big fan. Everyone who knows me knows that. And I'm going to show you a little bit of my dog.

I think the results of switching your dog's food from kibble to fresh food can really seem like magic. It really increases energy. They absolutely love their food. But the farmer's dog isn't using any secret ingredients, just science. The farmer's dog makes and delivers a fresh, healthy dog food. It's developed by vets, nutritionally balanced and made from real healthy ingredients to human food safety standards.

I love the fact that it's pre-portioned. It arrives in their little bags. One says Lulu, one says Arnold. I know exactly how much to feed them and I can literally see the ingredients in the food. And I've really seen such amazing benefits in both dogs. Lulu has so much energy considering she's eight years old. She's a shiny coat. It's soft and her poops look amazing. I can tell Arnold is already off to a great start.

He has so much energy, he's full of life and he clearly loves his food. I've noticed healthier coat and skin, better breath, better digestion, better poops. All around, I feel so good giving my dogs the farmer's dog. I want to be eating the best food I can and I want the exact same for my dogs. I want them to be around and living the best life they can.

Get 50% off your first box of fresh, healthy dog food at thefarmersdog.com slash wellness, plus you get free shipping. Just go to thefarmersdog.com slash wellness. Go to thefarmersdog.com slash wellness to get 50% off your first box, plus free shipping. I'd love to hear about those because I think that's a big thing.

Problem is people say, okay, I want to make a difference, but I'm not sure how. I think specifically deodorant is a big issue for people. I also think sunscreen and lotion. Thoughts on that? Yeah. I mean, there's some surprisingly great DIYs for deodorants, right? As simple as, try this out, people, organic lemon.

An organic lemon, you can use sodium bicarbonate, you can use arrowroot, you can take your great essential oil, lavender, rose, and be beneficial to your microflora. Because again, a lot of these things have disruptive qualities to them. So you're not only, we're desperately not wanting to smell anything.

But at the same time, that desperation, I mean, microbeads that are there to gum up your sweat glands and aluminum salts that are directly connected to Alzheimer's, dementia and heavy metal toxicity. Like it's when you see what we've been doing, it's just absolutely insane to me. It's like a Twilight Zone episode. So that's part of the...

It's a red pill moment when people go, oh, you know, I don't... I remember a comment the other day, one kid was talking about like, ah, these health freaks, right? I get a lot of that too. Yeah, yeah. And that's fine. That dude or that person, do whatever your life, man. Like, I don't need to convince you. You want to live your life, do your thing. You're free to do that, right? This is...

This is another type of person. This is a person that goes, yeah, you know what? That makes sense. You know what? I don't want that in my body. I don't want to set myself up for pain and suffering. Why would I now knowingly put heavy metals under my armpit, you know, and women and breast cancer and the lymphatic and lymphatic drainage and

Like the great thing about most of these DIYs and the solutions, they actually are life enhancing solutions. So that's where it's like, just look at that deodorant switch. So now you now are naturally detoxing because you're not toxifying yourself once a day, twice a day, multiple times a day, just so you don't sweat.

What if you could actually give yourself the lemon with a rose hydrosol, right? So now you smell like a freaking rose. It's subtle energies to help uplift and drop your parasympathetic response, right? Or up-level your parasympathetic response and help you deal with stress. That's where these things really get

exciting because it's not just, I'm not trying to be a pain in the ass to tell you don't use that deodorant. What I'm really trying to do is going, hey, when you follow what is life affirming, it has effect that goes way beyond what we could possibly understand. And so when you take those little steps and you change the lotion and you change the deodorant and you don't slather yourself with

oxybenzones and benzoins and all of these carcinogenic compounds when you're afraid to get cancer from the damn sun when you're putting on things that have been known to cause cancer it's like unbelievably ridiculous right but again you're staring at this stuff when you go hey what if i

Naturally, if I'm going to go outside, what if I like take a break on the fear, put on coconut oil and naturally has an SPF ranging from three to seven, right? You use common sense. You don't burn yourself ever, right?

Right. And you use some common sense with all that stuff and you realize, oh, wow, it makes sense. Like we're going into flu season. Maybe I'll get as much sun as possible to activate my vitamin D and to, and to also feel good and get sun. And so that's the, that's the underneath this whole thing of this book. It's just to kind of wake, wake up the sleeping,

That we have all become accustomed to, right? And I think there are so many mysterious issues happening with people's health nowadays. There's hormone issues popping up, acne, periods lost, crazy things happening. And...

to me, it's a little bit of an epidemic. Like almost everyone that I talk to my age is struggling in some way with their hormones, fertility, whatever it may be. And to me, that's highly, highly concerning. And I think you said it so well before, there's this conception that someone's looking out for us. And if there's anything someone could take from this conversation, it's that

The only person who can look out for you the most is you. And doing research and learning and just treating your body with care is so powerful. Even if you just change a couple of things in your day, I think it can have such a great impact.

I'm not perfect. I love this stuff. I love learning, but it's difficult. And I think taking one step in the right direction each day is going to get you further than you'd imagine. 100%. I think integration is a subtle superpower, right? When you learn and apply and you integrate, right? It creates a snowball, right? And then instead of getting that migraine, right, that you referenced earlier,

you don't get the migraine and then you garner actually more energy. And so now you have more energy to be awake and to be alive with instead of a victim of the system. Right. And so again,

The people can choose what they want, but like this is a precious kind of thing, right? And so let's have fun. Let's be connected. Let's kick some ass, right? And that can be having as much joy as possible and being as abundant as possible and feeling like a kid again. And so these things need to be questioned and it is easy to...

pretend we're overwhelmed, but I think it is very, very important. I say to people, as soon as they say they're overwhelmed, I go, first off, that's a lie because you cannot be overwhelmed if you're here right now in this moment, it's impossible. You're in your head. Your monkey mind is coming up with a million scenarios. And at the same time, I just say, pick up the book, pick up anything and

Like I say, don't read the book, just flip it open, read a page. You're going to learn something. And then either on that page or go to the back and just find a new company that's doing great. And then you get to take your hard earned money

Vote with that. Give your money to that company that has the means to create a healthy product and then give them that. Give them that support. And now you use that and that's it. Just start there. Right. And then that is powerful. Just like anyone referencing exercise before. Like don't make it a big deal. Get up tomorrow. OK, you don't have a trainer. You don't know what to do. Go for a walk.

Right. Take a, you know, go on YouTube, do a breathing exercise, like, you know, do a yoga class on YouTube, whatever it is. Baby steps. Yeah, exactly. Before we move on from the bathroom, I, there's a brand that I think I've seen you mention Bite Toothpaste. They sponsor the show. Oh. They're great. Also Branch Basics. Yeah.

Yeah. A great cleaning brand. So guys, Bite Toothpaste, Branch Basics, another two great brands. Yeah. Two things on Bite. Clean ingredients that are not harmful. And then I love companies that look at their supply chain and their product chain. Right. So refillable, not plastic. There's, what is it, 500 million products

tubes of toothpaste are used every year and that's all plastic. And now just let me give you another little hint. Plastic interacting with things that you're putting in your mouth, you're now taking in plasticizers, more endocrine disruptors. It's a really bad idea. But again, did you think about that? Most people are going, I never thought about that, right?

And that's what we all are being exposed to. So Bite has this, I mean, I still have the same glass container. Yeah, and it's super cute. Yeah. And it's just like, now I'm addicted to the little pop and the Bite down because I just like the kind of the process of it. Yeah. And I'm traveling tomorrow and I'm like, how many days? I need like five days.

Six tablets, like so easy to travel with. Yeah, it's a great travel product. In terms of plastic, how much plastic are we consuming? Oh my God, too much. I think the latest report was around 200,000 grams of plastic. Yeah, 200,000 grams of plastic every year. And so you're not only getting plastic, you're getting all of the chemicals that it

was created to make the plastic because plastic is what? Petroleum.

It's really good at its job. Can mold it into anything. So when you look at how are we being exposed to this stuff, anytime food, beverages, water is interacting with our food, that's where we're getting microplastics. And with those microplastics, you have other barriers, right? You have the PFAS and the PFOAs, and that's heat resistant and slippery and really highly functional stuff.

that, you know, take away, you know, cartons that look at them next time. They're not just cardboard. If you look at them, you see this slippery film. Those are plastics, plasticizers and PFAS. So your food doesn't not stick. With heat added to, it's just leaking out. Yeah. So it just, again, you know, that's why tea is so great.

A teabag without heat, without hot water, you don't chelate the compounds out. Same with these chemicals. So, you know, when you're, God forbid people are using styrofoam cups anymore, but like pouring hot tea or coffee, if you're in a plane and they're pulling out styrofoam cups, you might as well just take a shot of petroleum.

Like that's how crazy it is to use that stuff. Just say no. Just say no. And to your point that you mentioned before, so many people are getting exposed to this stuff. And I interviewed her for the book, Dr. Shanna Swan. She's got a great book called Countdown. And she gets very deep into the understanding that our endocrine systems are being just thrashed. And with that...

guys, sperm, viability, motility, strength is being wiped out. And women with menstruation cycles, too early, too late, painful, endometriosis, no one can get pregnant. We're sprinting towards our own demise. That's why without having these conversations,

We look at the fabric of us moving forward as a population and it's affecting that, the basic root of, because the whole idea of us as humans is we just want to move the race forward. If something chases you, you're going to run. You want life to move forward.

And by us doing all of these modern day products from the ease of this shampoo that smells a certain way or the lotion a certain way, it is literally affecting you and your endocrine system. And it mimics, it disrupts, it thwarts, and then that has long-term effect, especially when you keep doing it every day.

So we go back to solutions. There's a lot of great things. You can still have all of the benefits of a lotion or of a smell, but just do it, shift a second and develop a new habit towards products that are going to be life affirming and life giving to you. And then just go have the best life ever and not be a victim to corporations and products that frankly just don't give a shit about you.

Facts. Very well said. Let's move on to the kitchen. I feel like this is a really big one. You mentioned PFAs, plastic. I want to talk about, okay, let's start with pans we should be cooking in because this is a big discussion in my household. My husband has officially switched to only stainless steel pans. He will not use anything else. Good for him. Is that the best route? Yeah. Okay. Because the other ones have, what is a PFA?

PFAs are a weird chemistry of fluorine gas, right? So it's a type of, it's a gas from fluoride and it's poly or pre-fluoral alkali substance. It's really good at its job. So originally it's like, what a great idea. You create a pan, you put this coating on it. It's heat resistant, nothing sticks to it. So you can throw anything on it.

Your eggs slip off. You don't have that annoying thing of they stick everywhere. So again, we created an idea. We solved a problem. We didn't have any long-term studies done. We come to find out that, oh, this is a forever chemical. What does that mean? That means it's foreverly here. Yeah.

Right. So it binds in your body. It accumulates in the environment. 50% of Americans now are being exposed from this PFAS.

From their water. Is it from the water process? Of course not. It's from the result of us using this in a variety of different ways. Hell, it's in leather, right? So the seats that you're sitting on, unfortunately, probably have a bunch of PFAS, wrinkle-free shirts or dresses, wicking ability of stain resistant or waterproofing, fire retardant.

Right. This stuff can go everywhere. Imagine like go, you know, put out the fire and they're using all of this stuff. So where is all of that eventually go since it's a forever chemical and it doesn't break down? It eventually goes into the soil, goes in the water table and then the municipalities. Guess what?

They don't have the sophistication to deal with not only PFAS, but the glyphosates and the pesticides and the herbicides and the pharmaceuticals that were once flushed down the toilet or peed out in the toilet are now back into the water. So we're reinfecting ourselves with this damn stuff that we have been creating. So 50% of that population are being exposed with this stuff

What was a fluorine gas and these PFASs and now it's in our drinking water. So solution, drinking water, filter it, right? Distillation, which is very cheap to do. It evaporates and it doesn't allow those chemicals or reverse osmosis. So RO, you can create that change right away. These things are vulnerable, especially when you're opening up your mouth with beverages, alcohol,

Whether it's a plastic water bottle, you're directly exposing your internal self to that. Or a tap water, properly filter your water. Of course, add electrolytes, fulvic minerals, good unrefined salts. Add that back to your water, of course, too. So really easy. And then get a glass bottle. Yeah, the plastic water bottle is a big one because I think...

People don't really think about that. And I actually did a lot of lab tests recently that showed that I had BPA in my system.

Hence having a bunch of hormonal issues as well. And it really just made my brain go, wow, I'm drinking out of water bottles too frequently. And even takeaway, I mean, switching Tupperware for glass instead. I think that's an easy switch. Yeah. Well, good for you because with the testing, you take the invisible and

And you make it visible as it's impacting your life. And guaranteed. And you're already on the health train, right? You're already taking care of yourself. So that's where this other side of it. You can take the good supplements. You can eat the good food. But if you're not dealing with the exposure, you're undermining health.

Your entire endocrine system, which is the master commands of your body. Right. And so, so, I mean, if, if we could do that as a mass population, just like that, right. I know.

You're drinking this and within 20 minutes, you now have BPAs, BPHs, PFAS, phthalates in your blood. Is that a good idea? Which I think testing, I talk a lot about testing on my show and I know it isn't accessible for everyone, which bothers me. I think, I mean, the only way I got all the tests done that I did was because I have a naturopath.

And I'm in the position to do that now. Back in the day, I wasn't. And I didn't know what was going on with my system. So now I'm able to have the answers I've been looking for for years. But there's so many people listening who don't have that access. And it really grinds my gears because I think a lot of this issue is the accessibility of everything. Yeah. And that's the thing. Like, I hope that even having this conversation and people getting educated,

is enough of a common sense to start making these changes, right? So if you or any one of us drink out of that water bottle, we all will have these chemicals in our body. That's the point, right? So limit that exposure right now, right? So anyone listening, you may not have your own natural path. You may not have the funds to do it. Go out and buy a glass bottle, right?

Go out and buy a water filter system for a couple hundred bucks. You never have to then buy any more, at least in your most of your life, right? In your day to day, because you're creating your own clean water. And that doesn't take a lot. And you will save money, not only on the immediate, but you will save pain and suffering. If we as humans could just think a little beyond that,

the front of our nose, right? We all fall victim to that, right? It's very hard, especially the younger generation, right? I'm just going to do whatever I want. And people even to this day, I just want to eat whatever I want. Again, that's fine. But that definitely, just because you say that, doesn't mean it doesn't have the consequences. So that, to your point, if I were the Surgeon General,

All of this stuff would be tested. You know, Robert Kennedy's starting to talk about it. He's on the train. But no one's able to hear him talk about it. Yeah. I mean, you know, I hope more and more are. But, you know, to have someone talk about it. And listen, he's been fighting the EPA for 30 years. He's cleaning up rivers, the river keepers. Like he was...

Because all of these fatal convenience, here's the thing, the biggest light bulb for me, you talk about individual exposure, but how these things were created are detrimental for the environment as well. When you can see when there's one, I forget the river in China, you can see from a satellite when it's dyeing the blue jeans, the river turns blue. Wow. And it's no longer a natural indigo that used to be the blue jean.

It is a dangerous chemical that is now neutering a river you can see from the satellite. So the very fabric, pun intended, the very fabric of like how a blue gene is created is affecting you because of the chemical exposure on your skin.

But the actual creation of it is detrimental. So it's detrimental to you as nature and detrimental to nature herself. Which makes sense. Of course. So you would go against nature and you will have the laundry list of, which is why the hilarious nature of us, the only two, two,

two countries on the planet that allow pharmaceutical ads. You see the consequences. That is in our face. When you go against nature, you will have a litany of consequences. So this is where we got to ring the bell of our common sense again. It is not us, a victim of our government, victim of big companies,

victim of corporations. No, no, no, no. Not for a second. Because what we have, we have the human spirit and we have the numbers. We always have and we always will. So the more conversations we have, your listeners are a little more aware than they were before this conversation. And they're probably already on it depending, you know, it's

Being as though you've already been doing this type of renegade health pursuit, I assume your listeners are already tuned in. But the more they share and the more they keep going and the more they become aware of like, oh, yeah, I wasn't aware of that. I wasn't aware of that. Now we get the billions of people to go, hey, man, no way. Because these companies do change when we push back.

All this, all the time. They have to. They don't if we won't. 100%. And I think what I love about podcasting is it is free access to experts like you, like many of the other doctors I've had on the show. It's free information. And you can pass that down to your kids. You can tell your friends. You can tell your family. Hopefully they listen. This is me throughout my whole office. A lot of the girls here have...

fragrant candles and I'm constantly telling them to get rid of them. It's, you know, it's tough to sell that to people. You mentioned RFK before. Yeah. He's kind of known for being a censored

A lot of his messages don't get out there. Why do you think that's happening? Well, he's telling the truth about a lot of stuff. And, you know, I couldn't possibly understand. But I go back in this history. No one was knowing what he was doing when he was cleaning up the Hudson River, for example, as the shining example of absolute, utter industrial pollution. Yeah.

Dead river. Now one of the cleanest. And he brought back like thousands of species of fish. Right. And they were all being neutered as a result of the chemicals and all of those things. So, you know, those kinds of things. I've gotten to meet him a few times and that ability to stand in the truth without anyone looking.

with him just doing it because it was right and you know his legacy of of his father and of jfk you know listen to their listen to their speeches man like that is that is that's the heart of i think humanity like we all want we don't want

Our sovereignty taken away. We want to be free and to live our lives. Get out of my business. Get out of my, like, I want, at the core of me, I wish I didn't have to write something like this. I bet you at the core of him, he wished the Hudson River and many other rivers and the vaccines and whatever else were proven safe.

That's all we're asking for. Like prove this shit is safe. Like it's not anti anything. Just prove your ass. Prove this stuff is safe. So I really respect that. And, um,

You know, politics are weird. I don't get involved with it, but I go back to common sense. I go, I'm from a small town. I go back to, does it make sense to pollute yourself and your lake next, next to yourself? No, it doesn't. Does it, does it make, does it make sense to slather yourself with a probable or known carcinogen? Doesn't make sense.

Right? Yeah. It's worth listening to his Joe Rogan interview for anyone listening. I listened to the whole thing. I was pretty mind blown. I want anyone to debate him, but no one will. No one will. Like, come on. People won't even have him. They won't interview him because of what might happen. He goes to my gym actually. Oh, he does? Yeah. Nice guy. Yeah, he's solid, man. Yeah, when you've...

When you've forged your own steel going through and being committed to what he's been committed to,

You know the difference. In my tiny way, when I went out in the middle of nowhere to find a herb or whatever, you can't take that experience away. I can't sit across from someone from a Google search and say that they know what's really going on. It's different. I know what's going on because I was there. It's similar to people like him when they've been...

been going after the truth for so long. So yeah, it's a, it's a, it's a interesting time and, and, uh, you know, I'm excited because when you do stupid shit and you see it playing out and you see career politicians and you're like,

You see the other side where people aren't stupid. You know, they like, okay, you're going to try to control us more. Guess what? There's a lot of other solutions and power that for us to take back, grow your own food, create your own energy, build a community, the tenants to what actually make life great.

So you mentioned that you've traveled the world pretty much. And I want to, you know, take a pivot here. You traveled the world with Zac Efron. How did that come about? Yeah, yeah. And what was that like? Yeah, I mean, you know, that was from a podcast I was on, Rich Roll's podcast. No way. So Rich had a mutual friend of his who was an Olympic swimmer, Connor Dwyer.

And Zach had reached out to Connor going, hey, I want to get a hold of Darren. So Rich was like, I haven't even met Zach, but Connor's telling me Zach wants to get a hold of you. And I was like, every so often a celebrity will reach out and they want like some elixir that will make them be great or whatever. So I didn't think much of it. I said, if he wants to reach out, that's fine.

Months later, he texted me and he goes, Hey man, this is Zac Efron and I really loved what you said on the podcast and I'd love to connect. So anyway, we had a lunch in LA and just connected and developed a friendship. And then serendipitously, I had written a show idea down.

longevity, getting into water, uh, with adventure, seeing community, a little super food hunting with some friends of mine, blah, blah. And, and just on the side, Zach, what else are you doing? It wasn't a pitch. It was just like, I want to kind of do this. Uh, and, and Zach was like, wait a minute, going out and, and showing this and doing this and sharing that message. Like, I was like, yeah, of course.

And then we left. And then hours later, he had called me back and said, hey, I've got this show at Netflix, but it's not this idea, clearly. But I have a deal. But I just talked to my team. And I think we can change the whole show to this idea you're talking about. The rest is history.

I mean, it was a very cool show. I really enjoyed it. I loved the food aspect to it, the travel. You guys have great chemistry. Yeah. Do you feel like it enhanced your knowledge about... I can imagine it made America look worse in terms of the toxins we're exposed to here versus in other countries. Yeah, yeah. No, I mean, you know, I think at the core, it is...

exposing and showing great people doing great things and a solution-based idea both for health of you and health of the environment and we struck a chord and and you know and it was uh it was great and uh you know and and now i'm developing some new stuff with some new people and

And for me, when you see the platform and you see the power of it, you just want to kind of, it's like creatively, I just want to dive in more and show more of the things that I've gotten lucky to get exposed to and some crazy cool stuff. So that's my focus in the next year for sure. Awesome. You brought me some nuts. I'm really excited to try. Baruchas, yeah. Baruchas. Yeah. How did you discover those?

So like 2014, I was in the Amazon and a Brazilian in the Brazilian Amazon, a Brazilian. I reached out saying, hey, do you know of this this nut out of the Sahara, the Savannah of Brazil? And I didn't. And he sent me some and he sent me the tests.

And I was like, holy shit, this nut is the most nutrient-dense nut I've ever seen in my life. It tastes amazing. So the American palate would accept it right away. And it supports the savanna and it supports the people. And it's a wild food.

So through a long, long process, we're only now getting to a point where we have got it all sorted out to be able to really bring it in the world. So it checks all those boxes for me. A great product, nutrient density delivered to people, tastes really good. And it's supporting a biome that's being kind of threatened and supporting those people. So yeah, it's kind of like that, you know, that chapter of the superfood

I get to express it through Barucas. So it's super exciting. Incredible. And am I correct in saying you're plant-based? Yeah. Okay. We've had a few carnivores on this show. Yeah. You may have seen Paul Saladino, Liver King. I'd love to hear your take on meat consumption and why you live the lifestyle that you do. Oh my God. We have how many hours we have left? You have five minutes left. It's kind of like a...

Well, I can be very clear on, so understanding my background, right? I have a nutrition and physiology background. And then I spent nearly 20 years finding the most nutrient dense foods in the world. So if you start adding that up, so I was like, and then I went back and I started looking at the physiology of the body's

When autophagy happens and senescence happens, the body really doesn't want to get rid of amino acids. It will upcycle many of the amino acids. So the body is really good at that. So I'm just, all these things started adding up. So then I was like, wait a minute, I can find nutrients directly from the greatest plants in the world, from all over the place. And so I started questioning myself 17 or so years ago. And I was like, I don't think I need nutrients.

And the digestive process to break down flesh of another being is really intense on the body. So I just started questioning everything. And I was a straight up athlete from Minnesota, farmers, like straight up, right? So I was like, plus finding all the foods and all the nutrients directly in the food. I just...

I don't need to kill anything. And I can always find the micronutrients, the macronutrients, any missing element, I can find it directly in food and plants. So I just said...

very clearly. It was like, eliminate the middleman and go directly to the source. So if I need omega-3s, I can eat phytoplankton. I can eat raw spirulina and get B12 from that too. Like there's always a way. And of course, we talked earlier about integration. You know, when you get to integrate something that means a lot, I don't want to kill anything.

Now, if the world was ending and I was dying and I had to kill something to survive, I'm going to go to that level, of course, but I don't have to. And so for me to integrate not killing and celebrating the nutrient density that I've found unbelievable in 20 years, the nutrient capacity, the life-giving nature of plants, I

I just, I did it and never looked back. We talk a lot about sourcing on this show. I just had a farmer on, a regenerative farmer. And I always say-

Where you buy your meat is so important. My husband and I love ordering from ranches like white oak pastures, places that are actually keeping their animals the way they should be raised. I know plants are also affected by that. A lot of them are kept in ways that they shouldn't be. They're sprayed with pesticides and things like that. How do you...

source your food and make sure it's the cleanest it can be? Well, I think anyone, all of us, if you have land to grow it, right? So grow as much as you can. I'm grateful I found my piece of property and I've started the growing process. I've got plans for food forests that are continuing to expand. I think for people, you can also grow one of the most easiest nutrient dense food in the world is you can sprout.

You know, broccoli sprouts, you can sprout and you can have a full salad in five to seven days for 25 cents. Right. So, and I can get into how you can do that, but it's very simple. Soak the seeds and drain the seeds, wash them three times, invert them, let the water drain out and you'll have a sprouting salad. So, uh,

uh, you know, make sure you get in touch with your local farmers and know where your food's from and cooperatives and farmers, farming groups. And again, if you can grow food, do that. And so get closer to the food, get closer to the food is always best. And I think that was the start of this country. And I think we need to go back to it. I think the regenerative

capacity that we have I think the power of regeneration is only if we give it a chance because it's infinitely powerful right the the ability for plants to thrive the ability for a seed to pop through a piece of concrete tells you how powerful life is right so if we allow that to happen we get out of

this monocropping kind of horrible conditions of animals. It's utterly ridiculous. Because unfortunately, with the meatonomics of the whole thing, we've subsidized really, really poor diseased pesticide, herbicide growth factors in most of the meat that's being subsidized by our government, which is ridiculous.

So if we went back to higher quality, prices would go up.

You wouldn't consume as much meat, which I think is a really good idea. And then you would have higher quality. So we know that these regenerative practices work. We know that if we just eliminate the pesticides and herbicides, because the yields have been plummeting ever since we started this stuff. So anyway, a lot to share on that stuff. But I think the movement of regeneration is huge.

And again, that's following nature without the side effects. We divorce that and we have these side effects that we then have to deal with on a mass population. So we need to also eliminate the...

food deserts in the middle of our cities. There's about 6,000, I think. So people don't even know what real food is. We need to subsidize the right food and get food in the hands of, and also something that can revolutionize and create food security. We've got 47 million acres of lawn.

Right. And we have parks and we have schools and we have churches. We have things that have lawn. Let's grow food, at least half of that. And we would eliminate most of the food that we would need to get from any other country. I love that. What is a final message or piece of advice you'd like to leave for the audience? Final drum roll. These things can feel overwhelming and life can feel overwhelming. But and I get that.

But what is our choice? You either face it and get to create your life or you don't face it. And then you become a product or a byproduct of a system that is already moving and maybe not in a direction that you truly want. So take the reins of your life.

decide what you want, decide why you're here and keep asking that question every day.

That will be the lightning rod of your life. And you keep going back to that and you keep listening to your heart, to your spirit, to your soul, and let that be your guide because that is the common sense guide. And you have access to the infinite. You have access to your subconscious. You have access to everything that anyone else has access to. Eliminate the fog.

of what other people are doing or not doing and listen more to yourself. Fantastic. Thank you so much. Where can people find you, the podcast, the book, all the things? Well, I'm in Malibu. Hopefully no one's going to find me there. Online, online. Yeah, darrenoleen.com, Darren O'Lean Social, and maybe some other shows coming out soon.

Thank you for listening to today's episode. Go comment on my last Instagram at Mari Llewellyn with the guest you want to see next. I'll be picking one person from the comments to send our bloom greens to. Make sure you hit follow so you never miss my weekly episodes. If you enjoyed the conversation, be sure to share and leave a review. See you next week.

Please note that this episode may contain paid endorsements and advertisements for products and services. Individuals on the show may have a direct or indirect financial interest in products or services referred to in this episode.