Nutrition Expert On The Truth Behind Air Fryers, Nespresso Pods, Tea Bags, Rotisserie Chicken, and Ingredient Labels At Grocery Stores with Courtney Swan of Realfoodology
01:23:15 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 pursuit of wellness and oh my gosh, do I have an episode for you today. I already know you guys are going to love this one. You guys love the truth bomb drops. So we are delivering today. I'm talking to a good friend of mine, Courtney Swan, aka Real Foodology. Courtney is an integrative nutritionist. She's a real food activist on a mission to change America's broken food system. She's a

Corny has built a social media following where she posts daily aiming to educate on the dirty practices of the food industry. She is known for going to grocery stores and reading labels and basically exposing the truth about what's actually in the things we're buying. She'll go to a Costco or a Whole Foods store

and discuss various products like baby food, healthy looking products that maybe have green wash labels, etc. She teaches us how to make the best choices at stores or even at junk food places, believe it or not. She'll visit a Jack in the Box or a McDonald's and talk about the way to place the best order possible for your body and ways to do it in an affordable manner.

She also talks about how to order at restaurants in order to avoid seed oils and other toxic ingredients. What I like about Courtney is that she isn't afraid to tell the truth.

Sometimes having strong opinions and telling the truth about food can be really controversial, especially online. But her goal is to help us all know what we're putting in our bodies. At the end of the day, knowledge is power and so many labels and foods are misleading to the point where we don't even know what we're consuming. So I appreciate the fact that Courtney is taking one for the team and really putting the information out there and doing the research herself.

Here are some of the things we're going to talk about today. Courtney's social media challenges in exposing the food industry. What is the biggest lack of understanding Americans have when it comes to nutrition? If it's on the shelf, is it safe? And how to be your own advocate. Ingredients that are banned in Europe, but still legal in the United States. Why are certain things legal in the US, whereas they aren't anywhere else?

the impact of processed foods on health, non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, is eating organic food at home more expensive or less than eating fast food regularly, how glyphosate affects our food and health,

Seed oils and why we should avoid them. Strategies for healthier restaurant orders and how to do it in a non-awkward way. I know I struggle so much with that because I don't want to be difficult or upset anyone, but there's a way to go about it that works. Why it's okay to be high maintenance and ask questions. The importance of regenerative farming. Issues with greenwashing on food labels and harmful baby formula ingredients.

misconceptions about food trends raw dairy is it okay to consume how to best read ingredient labels save your sugar intake for when it counts and where it's hidden making healthier food options more accessible and more affordable we talk about cookware and the certain materials we want to look for and avoid in cookware pfas and forever chemicals air fryers and tea bags this one blew my mind

Nespresso and Keurig pods. How to detoxify from everyday toxins. The Costco rotisserie chicken. This was a big conspiracy theory and we talk about it today. Plastic lined coffee cups and takeout boxes. That was a big one.

Are there actually any good fast food options? And now that we know all of this, what can we do? We do talk about the solution. Courtney gives us great tips and tricks of how we can go about our daily lives and avoid certain toxins. I think this is super important to discuss. At the end of the day, it's everyone's choice what they choose to consume and what they do. But it's better to have the knowledge than not.

With that said, I really hope you guys enjoy today's episode. Please don't forget to subscribe or follow whether you're listening on Spotify, Apple, leave a review. It helps me grow the show and happy holidays. Without further ado, let's hop right in. Courtney, welcome to the Pursuit of Wellness. Thank you. I have been dying to get you on the show, not just because I love you as a friend, but

Guys, Courtney is a savage when it comes to sharing the truth about what's on our shelves at the grocery store, what we're putting in our bodies. And firstly, I'd love to applaud you for how dedicated you are to this mission. Truly, whenever I see your content online, I feel like I'm learning something. You add so much educational value to a space that isn't always super educational.

And I know it isn't easy because when you share the truth, you obviously get backlash from other people, possibly even companies. So I know it can be difficult. So I want to say thank you so much for what you do. Thank you. That means a lot. Thank you. So let's start by how you first became interested in health and nutrition.

Yeah, so it actually stems back to childhood, although at the time I was super resistant to it. So growing up, my mom was really into health. I lived in that household where we had all the off-brand natural cereals and all this stuff that none of my friends had. And I'd go over to my friends' houses and raid their pantries because I'd be like, oh my God, you have Dunkaroos and all the really junky classic American foods.

And at the time, I didn't realize how lucky I was because at the time I was looking at all my friends being like, my friend's having Burger King every night for dinner. Like, why can't I have that? My mom is so funny now because she loves to remind me of this. Like, she loves just like in like kind of like a cute, like snarky way where she's like, aren't you glad that I didn't let you have McDonald's and Burger King every night? I'm like, I am now. But at the time it was hard, you know, because when you're growing up and you're different, you don't really like see the value in it. So

So I go to college and I had like a full 180 where I went from my mom cooking every meal from scratch, basically, like barely eating any fast food to having Taco Bell fourth meals, like a

By the way, like I look back on that time and I'm like, literally, who is that person? You know, I have the same feeling. I feel like a completely split in my identity when I look back on the way I used to treat my body. Yes, it's so crazy. And I needed to go through that period to really see the stark difference because I grew up feeling really well, really healthy, having all these meals from scratch.

And then going to college and being like, oh my God, I now have acne. I'm bloated. I gained like 20 pounds. I feel lethargic. I feel sick. I feel fatigued.

and I didn't initially make the connection. I was just kind of like, oh, this is just, you know, like how life is. This is what happens when you grow up. But my mom, in a very like sneaky, smart way, because she knows my personality very well that you can't like push a lot of things on me. I kind of have to come to them on my own. She started sending me all these books in the mail just randomly. She'd just send me this book. I will never forget. There was one that really, really, really sparked my interest in nutrition. It's called You Are What You Eat.

And it was a really simple book that basically just connected what we were putting in our bodies with how you feel, how you look,

And I had never really thought about it like that. So it really turned a light bulb on for me. And, you know, over the years, it just it was a slow burn. Like she just would. This was before the Internet was really huge. So she wouldn't even email me stuff like she would literally clip out newspaper articles and mail them to me to my dorm. That's so cute. And so like parent vibes. I know it's so cute. It's so cute. But it felt like just enough where I wasn't like aggressively, you know, being like told like this what I need to do. So I...

during college, I really struggled to figure out what I wanted to do. I feel like many college kids, like I was a junior and my advisor at the time was like, you just got to pick major, like just pick something. I ended up picking communication, which actually really served me well now in what I'm doing, which is amazing. My last class I took my senior year was a nutrition class. And I remember calling my dad being like, oh my God, I found it. And he was like, no, we're done with school. Like you're done.

And so but what was cool about that is that it sparked this really deep, intense passion for nutrition. So I just started doing all of my own research. I started finding all of the, you know, Mark Hyman, Michael Pollan, Dr. Josh Axe. I found all these people like 15 years ago. I was reading all their books and I was just like immersing myself in all this. And around the same time, I had started working in music.

And I had done this because I, from a young age, thought I really wanted to work in music. I was obsessed with it. I thought I wanted to work in the music industry. And I did. I ended up doing it for like 10 years. Halfway through that, I ended up leaving and going back to school to get my master's in nutrition because I was like, I love this too much. I want to be able to do this.

I ended up getting pulled back into music for a little bit because that career is very notorious for like people never getting out of it. Because, I mean, it's fun. You know, it's a great it's a great job. But I was able to do nutrition while I was doing music. And then I left actually right before everything happened in 2020, which the timing was wild.

I know we are all transitioning our wardrobes at the moment. I am looking for really nice cold weather pieces right now because I'm going to New York and that's where Vionic comes in. The transition from summer to fall is here. The crisp, cool air in the mornings, cozy sweaters to stay warm and the switch out from your comfier summer sandals to chunky loafers you've been waiting to wear. Vionic has curated the

I absolutely love the slipper style mules from Vionic. They are so comfy and chic. They're so good.

but you can wear them in the house, out of the house, to the grocery store, whatever it may be. Jeans, leggings, so easy to style. Vionics exclusive VioMotion technology is what sets them apart. They began by revolutionizing medical orthotics and today they continue to use our science to engineer shoes that leave you feeling energized and confident all day. I am on my feet all day long. I'm very, very active. So my foot health and shoes are very important to me. I want to make sure I'm taking care of my body while looking cute at the same time.

They even offer a 30-day guarantee, wear them, love them, or return for a full refund within 30 days. Use code PAL15 at checkout for 15% off your entire order at www.vionicshoes.com when you log into your account. One-time use only. Vionic Shoes, wearable well-being for your feet.

Eating clean around the holidays can be even more challenging. I know it's really hard to make time to cook every single meal when you have so much going on. And that's where Green Chef comes into play. You guys have heard me talk about HelloFresh and Green Chef. HelloFresh actually owns Green Chef. So now there's just even more variety to choose from.

Green Chef is the number one meal kit for eating clean. They take the work out of eating clean this holiday season with nutritionist approved recipes featuring fresh ingredients with nothing artificial. Choose from recipes featuring lean proteins like turkey and sockeye salmon, barramundi, tilapia, scallop, shrimp, certified organic whole fruits, veggies, and eggs. Plenty of whole grain options as well. They have 80 plus weekly options that change every week featuring delicious nutritionist improved recipes

recipes. They have tons of different preferences from quick and easy to protein-packed, calorie-smart, Mediterranean, keto, gluten-free, and plant-based. Greg and I tend to lean towards the protein-packed meals. Eating clean should never be boring, especially during the holidays. Feel your best and satisfy your cravings with adventurous eats made nutritious.

They have so many fun flavors to choose from. They have recipes that feature certified organic fruits and veggies, sustainably sourced seafood, unique farm fresh ingredients like tart cherries, truffle zest and rainbow carrots. I personally love...

buttery lemon garlic shrimp so freaking good and the sriracha tamari beef bowls also are amazing so comforting and yummy this time of year go to greenchef.com slash 60 pow and use code 60 pow to get 60 off plus 20 off your next two months so when did you start sharing your knowledge on social media so

So let's see. It would have been, so it was around the time that I started getting my master's in nutrition. At the time, my account was just Courtney Swan. And I remember a girlfriend at one point being like, you should change this to your brand. Because I had started a blog on the side. So I was going to school. I was working at Whole Foods.

And I just was so passionate about what I was learning because a lot of what I was learning too, outside of what I was learning in school, a lot of what I was learning in these books that I was reading, I felt like it was not common knowledge that people didn't really know. And even in my nutrition classes, they weren't even talking about this, you know? And we can go into that if you want as far as like the funding for the education and some of those courses and stuff, you know? And so I felt like this was information that people really needed to know that was really affecting them

And I was so excited about it that I just was like, you know, writing all these blogs, blah, blah, blah. And then I came up with the name Real Foodology because I was like, I need to have a name for a blog. And then from there, I remember a girlfriend of mine was like, you should change your Instagram name to Real Foodology. So it was probably around like 2011. And at that point, I was posting recipes. It looked so different than it was now. It was mostly like recipes, like tips and tricks on like, you know, exercise and stuff like that. 2011? Oh, wow. So that's a long time. I know. It's crazy. Did you get...

any backlash back then? Or are people genuinely curious? Do you feel like it's evolved at all to now? Social media has changed so much. It's crazy. And I'm sure you probably have a similar experience maybe. Back then, it was a really fun, exciting time because people were...

really excited about the information I was sharing and they were like soaking it up like a sponge and no one was really questioning or like, which I don't necessarily think is a bad thing. I always encourage people to question everything. So I think that's a really good skill to have. But it's still, there was this different energy of people being really curious. Whereas now there's almost this energy of everyone feels like,

Like they're being so duped on every level that they don't trust anything anyone is saying, which in a way I get, you know, but it's also like, it's tough navigating that now versus back then because it was, it felt back then more fun because people are like, oh my God, this is so fascinating. And of course, like I got people, you know, fighting back being like,

oh, this is BS or I'm going to keep doing what I'm doing. But the funny thing is a lot of those people that initially gave me that feedback were either people that I knew or like friends of friends. And a lot of them came back to me later being like, whoa, you were right. I'm, you know, dealing with X, Y, and Z. Can you help me? So it was a really different landscape back then. Yeah. I had the same experience even sharing my weight loss story. I had a lot of excitement around it and a lot of curiosity. And you know, it's funny. I think people now

are still so curious. Like I think a majority of people are really curious. I feel like it's the loud minority that get triggered by this information or maybe they're in the position where they're not ready to hear it. Yeah. So they feel attacked in some way. Yeah. I think also too back then social media was so new that people weren't used to having the ability to like anonymously say whatever's on their mind. Whereas now I think it's become

just part of society where people know they can say the most heinous things and get away with it, essentially, you know, because they're hiding behind a keyboard. It's like an anger outlet. For sure. There's obviously so much to cover here with you. I want to start with what do you think is the biggest lack of understanding Americans have when it comes to nutrition? Oh, God, I'm like, where do I start?

Okay, so this, I have a couple things I want to say to this. I think first and foremost, and this is less about nutrition and more just about our food landscape in general, I think people have a general misconception that if it's on the shelf, it's safe and vetted for. I think people don't understand how little regulation we actually have in this country.

versus other countries. I mean, basically every country in Europe has a list of ingredients that they have banned. The U.S., I don't remember the exact number, but we have barely banned anything in this country. So we basically have like a free-for-all, and these companies are allowed to, they essentially, in order to be able to put something in their product, if this is maybe like a newer ingredient that hasn't been introduced, all they have to do is their own company provides free

to the FDA or the USDA that it's safe instead of it being like a third party. And so that's a really, I think that's the biggest thing that we struggle with is that people don't really understand how vigilant we have to be about the foods that we're putting in our body and the foods that we're buying.

You have to be your own advocate. Yes. That's a huge thing I've learned. And even being on the other side of it and having my own business, we go through the extra steps like the third party testing and everything like that. It's so expensive. And I don't know how other companies would ever be able to do it from the start. Do you know what I mean? Oh, yeah. Like I can see why so many people skip steps because it is so difficult. Yeah. Yeah.

And that's a really important thing for people to understand too. I don't think all this is nefarious. I think a lot of it, it comes down to how hard it is. We have made it so hard in our country for companies to produce healthy foods. Like that's another thing that I think a lot of people don't talk about. Like I talk a lot about, yeah, there's this corruption where we have lobbying, for example, and we have –

these big marketing budgets, and these companies are essentially able to get away with whatever they want. But also too, because of like subsidies and certain funding and everything, we've made it so hard for companies to actually do it right because we've made a lot of these ingredients really cheap and really accessible because of like certain subsidies that we're paying. And also we've just made it commonplace and cheaper for companies. So the companies that are really wanting to do better for our health are

I applaud them more than ever just because it's so, we've made it so hard to make healthy food in this country. We just have. You mentioned ingredients that are banned in Europe and the UK, but not here. What are some of those major ingredients that we should look out for? Yeah, okay. So one of the big ones in the UK is that they banned dyes. So things like red 40, yellow 5, they've banned these in the UK. And if like, let's say that one of those like,

like a candy from the US. I actually saw a video about this really recently. A British woman was...

talking about how candies imported from the United States have a warning label on them because they have these dyes in there. And the reason why they banned them in the UK is because they found there was a direct link with hyperactivity in children, so like learning disabilities. And then we wonder what's happening with our kids in schools. We're feeding them all these food dyes. And there also is, in some studies, a link to cancer, possibly. I just know a lot of our foods... Okay, so for example, something that a lot of people may not know

I know Kraft has since changed this, but back in the day, and you may know this just because you grew up in London, right? Yep, I grew up in the UK. Okay, so Kraft macaroni and cheese used to formulate their mac and cheese differently here in the United States than they did in the UK. In the UK, they were coloring their mac, or they still do, they color their mac and cheese like paprika, turmeric, real food colors. In the United States, they were using these dyes. Now, there was a woman, Vani Hari, the food babe, who...

She like blew it up on the internet, created this whole petition. And now like I was actually at the grocery store very recently because I was going to try to do a video on this. And I was like, oh, they actually changed it. No. Yeah. So that just shows the impact that people like you and Food Babe are having. That's crazy. Well, because I try to remind people of this all the time.

We have the power. We have the power. These companies will change their ingredients. They will change what they are giving to us when we demand better. So if we're putting our money into these companies that are doing right by us, that are creating these healthy ingredients, other companies are paying attention and they're changing. You know, it's just that we have to be really loud.

You posted a video recently going into an American food store in London, which I've been in those before, and it is astounding. And I know the feedback on that video was like, "Wow." Tell us what you saw in that store and basically what represented American food culture. I was horrified, I have to be honest, because as an American, like, I'm in London, I'm like, "Oh, you know, I love this." I'm walking down the street and I see American food store and I'm like, "Oh, this is gonna be good."

But I didn't even expect the, I don't know, the reaction that I had. I walk in and it was basically, the way I describe it, it was being confronted with one, what other countries think about us and how we eat.

And two, just it was all in one small area, all of the foods that are causing all of the issues that we are dealing with in this country right now. And it made me really upset because, like I said earlier, that was a room full of food-like products. These are not even foods. They have no nutrition value. They're dead.

And people think because they're on the shelf and they're being manufactured that these are safe. They're giving them to their kids. They're, you know, yeah, they're like putting it on their family dinner table thinking that they're doing right for their kids. And this is what makes me so mad.

is that people think they're doing good and they're not because they're being duped by these large marketing companies, these large corporations. So when I walked in, I was really upset because I was also like, this is what people think of Americans. And this is what they think, like, this is what we eat all the time. And I mean, they're not wrong to a certain extent. People are definitely waking up. And I did get some pushback.

on that video where people are like, oh my God, I never eat that as an American. I'm embarrassed by this. But then there were people writing being like, oh, I saw all my favorites in there, you know, like my local, you know, like my weekly grocery haul or whatever. And I was just like, it's, yeah.

and I think there's a lot of nostalgia that comes with it like I I think maybe sometimes people's emotional reaction is just coming from like oh my mum fed me that when I was young like oh Cheerios that's such a nostalgic item for me and I'd imagine that that's where Americans emotions are coming from but it is pretty astounding to see the items in those stores why do you think America is

is like why are we in this position whereas europe and the uk are not like where did this all start a lot of it started with really good intention a lot of it started because during the war we wanted to be able to create really cheap accessible you know like affordable foods for families it was also too during the time where like women were going back to the workforce and so we were wanting to create these really quick easy meals that mom could you know go to work all day and then come home and put a family or a meal on the table for the family

So it started out with really good intention, but now that we're seeing the effect that it's having on our bodies, it's really hard to now turn course just because there's so much money in these large corporations and they're not wanting to change or give up their money. So I would say, yeah, it started with that. Wanting these really quick, convenient foods, we did not really – we did not understand the effect that it was going to have. I also think, too, that this is really important to note.

In places like the UK, they have free healthcare. So when their society is really sick, they pay the bill for that. In the United States, it's privatized. So we can essentially have a free-for-all with our health, you know, where everyone's just getting sick and it's on the individual to then take care of that. This hurts my heart. I know, me too. It's crazy. And it also...

just makes me think I feel so blessed and lucky to live here in Los Angeles and have exposure to people like you and other experts who teach me about these things. And I think of people maybe who don't have the same accessibility, which is why it's so important to continue the mission that you're on to keep educating everyone and letting them know, hey, just because it's on the shelf doesn't mean it's safe. Yes. What kind of an impact are these ingredients having on us as women, children,

What's happening? Oh, my God. I'm like, just look at, you know, our society right now. We have rates of cardiovascular disease, diabetes, obesity. We're seeing non-alcoholic fatty liver disease in children. And this is something that before, I think it's like before maybe the 70s or the 60s,

One, we were barely seeing non-alcoholic fatty liver disease at all because before that time, fatty liver disease was considered to be something that only affected alcoholics because of the alcohol and the effect it had on the liver. Now, we are seeing something called non-alcoholic fatty liver disease, meaning that it's not alcoholics and it's often more in children than anyone else. And what's happening is their bodies are being so overburdened with sugar that their livers can no longer handle it.

So we're seeing skyrocketing incidences of diseases across the board. And what is so heartbreaking about all of this is 9 out of 10 of the leading causes of death in this country are preventable with lifestyle and diet. 9 out of 10 of them could be prevented simply by changing diet and lifestyle. Lifestyle meaning better sleep, exercise, your social life.

And so when you look at that and you look at all these leading causes of disease and you think this could have been prevented just simply by what we're eating and what we're putting in our bodies, it's absolutely heartbreaking. And, you know, you're saying about like the accessibility piece. This is a lot of what I like to remind my audience is that

If you can afford the better, higher quality foods, not only do that for yourself and your family because it's so incredibly important for your own health, but think about it. You are also helping those lower income families get access to this food because again, the more that we spend money on this and the more we drive these trends, the more accessible it's going to become for everyone. Because right now there's a massive accessibility issue in this country, affordability too. I will say though, it is...

I want to be sensitive to this, so I'll give a little bit of nuance to all of it. But with the accessibility and the affordability aspect of it, people have been told that buying these processed foods in boxes or going through the fast food drive-thru is cheaper. It's actually really not that much cheaper. My podcast producer, Drake, and I on my podcast, we did a series called Organic for Everyone. And what we did is we were remaking really popular fast food items and

And then with all organic ingredients and then also buying the counterparts and comparing the prices for a couple of them. Like we did like cheesy gordita crunch. We did the quarter pounder with cheese from McDonald's. And I remember there were a couple of them when Drake and I were doing this and we were like, there's no way that this is going to be cheaper.

Every single time, it was cheaper to go to the grocery store. And we were going to like Ralph's, Vons. We weren't going to like Whole Foods or Air One. We were going to like really accessible like Walmart, Target. We were buying everything organic, making these things from scratch. We made cheesy gritty to crunches from scratch. It was cheaper to buy all of that organic and make it at home than it was to go through the drive-thru. Wow.

Wow. And probably tasted a lot better too. Oh my God. It was so, it was honestly so much better because it was fresher. I think a lot of people too, because we've been so conditioned to eat all these things out of packages. Once you taste what it really tastes like to have real food, you never want to go back. Like I eat that stuff from, or I don't know, but if occasionally I'll try like something out of a package, I'm like,

this tastes gross to me. Like it tastes fake. It doesn't taste real. And once you change your palate and you see the difference, you really, you don't, you never want to go back.

So I don't know about you guys, but I have definitely gotten into my Christmas shopping. There's so much to do. And I love gift giving because it can really add up. And that's why this holiday season I'm shopping Quince. Quince is my go to place for luxury essentials at affordable prices for everyone on my list. And

including me. I don't know about you guys, every time I start holiday shopping, I end up buying things for myself, which is fine. And that's why I like shopping at Quince because they have so many amazing high quality items with prices within reach. Like their 100% Mongolian cashmere sweaters from $50, washable silk tops and dresses, cotton sweaters and comfy pants. The best part, all Quince items are priced 50 to 80% less than similar brands. That's why I'm giving the gift of Quince's

buttery soft cashmere to my nearest and dearest this year. By partnering directly with top factories, Quince cuts out the cost of the middleman and passes the savings on to us. And Quince only works with factories that use safe, ethical, and responsible manufacturing practices and premium fabrics and finishes, which we love. Specifically, I love their Mongolian cashmere crewneck sweater. It has such a classy vibe to it and you can really wear it with absolutely anything.

Get affordable luxury for everyone on your list with Quince. Go to quince.com slash pow for free shipping on your order and 365-day returns. That's Q-U-I-N-C-E dot com slash pow, P-O-W, to get free shipping and 365-day returns. quince.com slash pow.

Holiday baking season is upon us. And guys, my husband Greg has been having so many requests lately. He was sick. And whenever he's sick, he becomes a giant baby and requests me to bake for him. And that's where I have my Stella Eats. These are grain-free baking mixes made with eight or less real ingredients like almonds, coconuts, dates,

They have mixes like carrot cake, banana bread and coffee cake that are also gluten-free, paleo-friendly and naturally sweetened with coconut and date sugars.

I love this because I feel like I can partake in all the fun baking, but still feel like I'm hitting my health goals and staying with my values. Also, I made these for Greg and he truly like couldn't tell the difference. As a man, they can be a little bit more particular and he absolutely loved it. He loves the banana bread specifically. The taste and texture are just like traditional or conventional treats.

It was also started by three women. We love a female founded company who were frustrated with diet culture and how healthy eating is made all about how you look and not how you feel or how the food tastes. You guys know I'm all about how good you feel after intaking whole healthy ingredients, but healthy eating can be fun too.

And they are on a mission to change the way wellness brands speak to consumers, which I absolutely love. I have had such a journey with healthy food over my transformation and finding brands like this has really, really helped.

visit stelleats.com and use code POW, P-O-W, at checkout for 20% off your first purchase. That's S-T-E-L-L-A-R-E-A-T-S.com. Use code POW for 20% off your first order. Stella Eats is also available at Whole Foods stores nationwide.

That's so valid. And I appreciate you breaking down that wall because I think you're right. I think there is this perception that fast food is cheaper. And I do think that there's a way to live a healthier, more sustainable lifestyle if you just go to the right places and have the knowledge that you need. I also saw you went to fast food...

different fast food chains and tried to order as healthy as you could. Like you went to Jack in the Box, right? Is that what it's called? Jack in the Box? And you ordered like a patty thing? Yeah. I mean, that's the sad reality. I did that. I got a little pushback because people were like, why are you promoting going to fast food? And I was like, no, the whole point is to show you that the only thing on the menu that's healthy that doesn't have a list of like 50 ingredients is literally the meat patty. And you weren't even sure what it was cooked in because really they were using

butter flavored canola oil. Exactly. Which, why does that exist? That's crazy. Because it's cheap. I know. It's so frustrating. I'm like, use the butter. But that's the problem. And this is what I was telling people earlier, is that we have made it so incredibly hard for companies to actually do it right. It is cheaper for Jack in the Box to do a butter flavored canola oil, which is crazy because there's so many more ingredients in it than just butter. It's cheaper for them to do it that way. Why is canola oil so cheap? I

I think it's most likely because of subsidies. I don't know exactly the route of canola oil, but I would believe it's because of subsidies. So during that time frame in the war when we were trying to make foods more convenient and cheaper, what happened is we started paying farmers subsidies to grow certain foods, and those foods are corn, wheat, and soy. Now, as far as canola oil, we might be paying subsidies on canola. I don't know, so don't quote me on that.

But that's the other thing too is I don't think people understand the real cost of food because we're not actually paying for the real cost of food because we're offsetting it with our own tax dollars, by the way, guys. So we're still paying for it with these subsidies that we're paying farmers to grow these things like corn, wheat, and soy. And that's why when you look at the back of a packaged food, it'll say contains corn, wheat, and soy on everything. It's in everything because it's cheap.

Is it true that when you intake a seed oil like canola, it's in the body for three years plus? So I've read it's two years. But yeah, I've heard two years, I've heard three years. So according to a study, which I'll get you the link for if you want to put in the show notes, they found that it lasts up in the body for up to two years. Because if you think about fats or, you know, fats in the body, they're not like sweat out or, you know, excreted so easily.

And so there is concern that the impact of something like canola oil or sunflower oil or safflower oil, et cetera, soybean oil is a really big one too, that they stick in the body for a long time. I feel like that's...

for me the thing I try to avoid the most because I have that stat in my head and I'm like it's not worth having it in my system for that long like for example I hate to throw them under the bus but Sweetgreen just announced that they switched which is great we love that we applaud that for sure but I can't believe they were using seed oils prior I know

Like people are ordering salads thinking they're doing the right thing and their protein is being cooked in seed oils. That's crazy. I know. I know. And that's the problem. You know, going back to the question you asked me earlier where people get health wrong a lot. This really upsets me because, again, I really I don't like to place this blame on the individual because I think we're being duped in so many different ways. And you have to literally be like an investigator now to know the truth.

But people are eating salads thinking that they're doing something really healthy for their bodies. But if it's not organic, it's doused in glyphosate and a ton of other pesticides. So then you're upping your risk for autoimmune disease, endocrine disrupting, cancer. And then if it's cooked in these seed oils or like a lot, the majority, I would say 99% of salad dressings have either canola oil or soybean oil in it.

And so then we're dousing these pesticide laden greens or whatever with this really inflammatory oil. And then we're thinking that we're doing really healthy. So what kind of an impact is...

our seed oils and glyphosate and all of those things having on our bodies. Okay, so let's talk about glyphosate. This is something that I am so passionate about. Again, it goes back to something that I think a lot of people don't know. People are really starting to wake up now. Glyphosate is also known as Roundup. Probably a lot of people listening, either they have it in their garage or their parents have it in their garage because a lot of people use it in their lawns.

Although I believe that it's being, I think it's becoming illegal to now like sell it. But what's interesting is they're still allowing it to be sprayed on our food. So it is the most widely used herbicide on our food system right now. They use it after, or sorry, right before they harvest wheat to dry it out.

Well, okay, this is important to note. This is why it's so incredibly important to eat organic because in organic food, they are not allowed to use glyphosate. So that's like the number one. Thank you for clearing that up. Yes. I didn't know that. So I get a lot of pushback when I talk about organic because people say, well, oh, they can still use pesticides.

Yes. No one is saying, well, maybe some people are, but I am not saying that they can't use any pesticides. But the importance about organic is that there is a list of very specific pesticides that they're allowed to use. And the majority of the synthetic really concerning pesticides that everyone is really concerned about right now for causing cancer, endocrine disrupting, et cetera, those ones are banned in organic food.

So that's why I am such a huge proponent for organic food because otherwise, I'm sorry to say this, but you're buying food that has been poisoned. You just are, you know? I would encourage everyone listening to go back and watch this documentary. It's called Kiss the Ground on Netflix. And they go into the really depressing and honestly heartbreaking backstory of how we ended up with these pesticides in our food system in the first place. But essentially, they were using them... Oh, this is so dark. And every time I say it, I'm like, oh...

they were using these pesticides in the gas chambers in nazi germany and then they decided to use them in the united states and all like honestly they're using them in other countries too but the united states is one of the biggest buyers of them they're now spraying it on our food

And the reason behind this is because they want to kill off all the bugs, you know, the pests, whatever. What we didn't realize when we started doing that is that by killing off all these bugs, we are disrupting the soil, which is the actual life giving of our food and our bodies as well.

Our food is only as healthy as our soil is. And when we're killing off that entire ecosystem, we didn't realize that by killing off all these what we call pests, they actually have a role in this whole ecosystem. You know, nature is brilliant. Nature didn't get anything wrong. Nature has all these things in place in order to grow the food. And it's

so beautiful and kiss the ground describes this so much better than i ever could but it's why i'm such a huge proponent for regenerative farming because it goes back to nature and how nature intended us to grow food and allows for all of these things that we didn't even know that we were killing off that were like part of the ecosystem that actually like help feed the soil and what's happening right now is because we're we're spraying our soil like crazy we're also tilling it yeah we're ruining the top soil so we're essentially making it to where if we don't turn this around

we won't have soil left to plant in, which means we won't be able to grow food anymore. So that's like a huge issue. But not to mention, we're growing now these plants in essentially dead soil where they should be getting all their nutrients. And now as a result, our food has like less than, I don't know the exact percentage, so don't quote me on this, but probably like 50% less nutrients than we had before because it's not getting all the nutrients from the soil that it once did.

Another cool thing about regenerative farming is, you know, we're very concerned about climate change right now. Well, the solution, it goes back to regenerative farming because carbon in the atmosphere is trapped in the atmosphere right now because we're not allowing the soil to bring it back down into the soil for food. Carbon is actually food for the soil, meaning it's food also for the plants.

So if we can nurture that soil and we get healthier plants, what does that do for us? It creates healthier food for us. Have you seen Biggest Little Farm? Yes. I'm not going to lie. Did you cry? I literally cried. I actually, I texted my boyfriend because I watched it on a flight and

And I was so aggressively crying. I texted my boyfriend and I was like, I have to stop because I think everyone is like, what is this? What is wrong with this girl? Thank you. Because I watched it alone. Blue light glasses on. I was like, okay, like, let's go. Sobbing. Oh my God.

Oh my God. Crying, laughing, gasping. Like, first of all, it was, it was a piece of art. Like the cinematography in that movie. I feel like it's a less sciencey version. I haven't seen Kiss the Ground, but now I'm going to. It's so good. Biggest Little Farm was so inspiring. And just for anyone listening who hasn't seen it, please go watch it. It,

it shows how you can farm in this regenerative way without using pesticides and really using nature. Like they used the ducks on the farm to kill off snails that were killing the plants. I think the ducks ate like 9,000 snails in a season.

Like crazy. No, it's crazy. Barn owls for the mice. Exactly. A whole ecosystem that made sense. Exactly. And then you're not putting in all these inputs that are, you asked me, what are these pesticides have the effect that it's having on our body? Well, first and foremost, we know that the glyphosate acts like an antibiotic.

So we're consuming antibiotics all the time. And let me tell you guys, thank God we have antibiotics when we need them, right? Thank God. But we are overusing them so much now that the bacteria is now becoming resistant. So when we actually really, really need them, they're not working as well as they used to. And then on top of that, if you're constantly killing off all the good bacteria in your gut, you're going to have massive gut problems. And then we look at this trend on Instagram and TikTok of like hot girls have IBS, hot

It's because we're all consuming this antibiotic in our food every day and we're disrupting our gut. So there's gut issues. Also, it's known to be an endocrine disruptor, which I've mentioned a couple times. What does that mean? Our endocrine system is what it's our entire hormonal makeup. It's what runs and makes our hormones, which are imperative for our health.

Hormonal issues look like cystic acne, infertility, thyroid issues, autoimmune disorders. And we're dealing with all of these issues across the board. And then also with gut issues too and we're not getting as much nutrients from our food. We're dealing with obesity because people are overfed but undernourished.

So, I mean, there's so many problems happening with these pesticides right now. I don't know about you, but I feel like every time I'm with fellow female friends my age, you know, late 20s, early 30s, we want to have kids. Why do we all have acne still? Why is everyone having gut problems? Like, to me, it's such an epidemic and it's so apparent that

with the amount of people I sit with, even me, like I was living a pretty, pretty healthy lifestyle and still had acne, gut issues, candida. And it took working with Emily and really uncovering these things for me to be like, wow, I need to be even more careful and be even more of my own advocate, whether it's, you know,

drinking coffee out of plastic or just being more aware of like the materials I'm using in my day. Even my liver enzymes were elevated, I think because of all the heavy metals I was intaking and microplastics. So such a good point. In terms of soil,

I'm hoping, and I feel like Greg and I have been noticing, a little bit of a shift towards regenerative farming. I feel like a lot of people, especially in our industry, are ordering their meat from white oak pastures or trying to support farmers markets, Ranch Direct, another great place. Do you think that we are on an upwards trend of people caring about this? I do. I...

I'm very hopeful about it because there's so many documentaries coming out. So many more people are learning about it. I grew up in Texas around a ton of ranchers and farmers, and even my parents are telling me that their friends are starting to talk about it, like their friends that own ranches and farms. So I definitely think the word is getting out. I also think that what we're dealing with right now with the agriculture industry is

And just the deep-rooted corruption and all of that, it is like a Goliath situation that we have to deal with. But it's once again why I really like to drive home the importance of where you put your money. Because the more that we put our money into these farmers, into these companies that are actually doing right by our health, that are actually doing these sustainable farming practices...

the more that there's going to be a demand for it and the more other farmers are going to start paying attention, being like, wow, one, like how is your farm thriving right now without all these pesticides? And how are you making so much money? Because that's the other thing, too, is a lot of these farmers that are doing conventionally, that are farming conventionally,

A lot of them are in debt. They're having to take loans out from the government just to survive. So they're not necessarily all doing super well. I don't want to speak for all of them. There was a recent documentary that just came out. And what was it called? Common Ground. I highly recommend everyone watch that because it really goes into the deep intricacies of all of the really deep rooted corruption that we are up against.

And I don't share all this to like scare people, but it's just, I think it's really important that we know how deep rooted it is because I think that's how, the more we educate about this, this is how we change it. Yeah, 100%. And we'll link all of this in the show notes, guys, if you want to go watch. I want to ask you about ordering at restaurants. So you and I both love going out to eat. We love food, but we don't want to get those seed oils in our food. And I've personally been, I hate seed.

standing up for myself at restaurants or asking too many questions and being annoying. But I'm at the point where I say, hey, what is this steak cooked in? Are you using butter or canola oil? And I try to request butter when I can, even better beef tallow. What do you do? How do you go about that? Yeah, so I do similarly. And I will tell you again, like I've hammered this in so many times, the more that people go to restaurants and they start asking these questions, the more these restaurants are going to be like, oh, OK, we've had, you know, so many customers come in asking about this.

So it does create a bit of a demand for these restaurants. I will say restaurants are really tricky because they barely make money as is.

And I actually just read, I read an interview recently in an email that I got about this very thing where actually the seed oil scout was talking to a restaurant owner and he was talking about how he would love to switch to pure olive oil, but it went from his costs being, I don't even, I don't know exactly what it was. I think it was like from being, you know, maybe like 30K a year to like 150K a year. Like it was like a massive jump for him to go pure olive oil.

So again, I'm not giving these restaurants, you know, I don't want to like pity them, but just so that people know where they're coming from. So what I do when I'm ordering at a restaurant is I first of all ask what it's cooked in. Although I will tell you before I go to a restaurant, a lot of times I feel so grateful that I live in LA and we have a lot of restaurants where they say off the bat, we cook an avocado oil or we cook an olive oil. And I have a lot of friends that are really health conscious. So we often go to those type of restaurants.

If we don't, I either say like, I would love for this to be cooked in butter or like you said, beef tallow or even olive oil. Now there is a concern that olive oil is being cut with a seed oil and oftentimes it is. And so what I tell people is look, like we do the best we can. We also can't, you know, be holed up in our houses all day and never eat out, you know, because I went through a period of time when I was learning all this and I was like, oh my God, everything's poison. I can't eat out. And so I was like literally eating my meals like sad and alone in my apartment before I would meet up with friends.

and then watch them eat while I had a drink with them. And I had this epiphany moment where I was like,

this is not good for me mentally, you know? And that's part of my message too, is that we have to do the best we can and where can we control it the best, the groceries that we're bringing into our home. So cook as many meals at home as you can. But when you're invited out with friends and let's say it's a restaurant that's cooking in canola oil or whatever, maybe try to avoid something, you know, try to order something that's not cooked in that. Don't get anything fried. Ask if you can have just olive oil on the side instead of the salad dressing. Like there's definitely things you can do, but then just

You know, you just have to be like, OK, I'm doing the best I can and my body is resilient and I would rather enjoy this time with my friends than not. I think that's huge. And that was a question I had for you is how with all this knowledge, do you go out in the world and feel OK? Do you have sort of like an 80-20 rule and how do you make sure that you're living your life at the same time? Because I feel like stress is a huge factor as well.

Yeah, stress is a huge factor. And I think I had to go through that time period where I was really, really strict to see the impact that it had on me mentally and see that while maybe I was being perfect with my diet, it was really affecting me mentally and mental health is so incredibly important.

because it can really affect everything else. So for me, I really like to remind people of this because I think people sometimes because of all the information that I have and everything I'm sharing online, people almost hold me on this like pedestal of perfection where like if they see me eating out or they see me getting my nails done or something and they're like, oh my God, that's so toxic. How could you expose your body to that? And I'm like,

whole prerogative with this page and for my own life is not perfection. One, it's about consistency and consistency looks like me eating organic as much as possible, eating at home as much as possible, doing all the things, using the non-toxic beauty, using the non-toxic skincare, whatever it is, so that my body is resilient, so that I can

live in the real world and not be like a bubble girl. You know what I mean? So there is this element of just informed consent and knowing what you're getting into. Because the thing for me, my biggest, biggest part of my message is that I don't like feeling like people are being duped.

I want people to have informed consent so they know exactly what they're getting into. They know exactly the risks that they're taking so that then they can decide what risks are worth it for them and what risks are not. And that's what I'm doing in my own life. I am deciding what risks are worth it to me. And you, the listener, are the only one that can determine what risks are important to you and which are not, you know? So like,

For me, I try to eat organic as much as possible because the risk of being exposed to glyphosate is not worth it to me. Everyone has to pick their own. Mic drop. Incredible. I love that answer so much. So you mentioned eating at home. Let's talk about grocery stores. You talk a lot about greenwashing on labels. What does that mean? Okay, so this goes back to people being duped. And I think this is, I love talking about this. So greenwashing is when a company depicts that their product is really healthy and

On the front. So people need to know that the front of the package is nothing more than a billboard. It is not going to tell you the health. They can put anything they want on there. The only term that is regulated on the front of that package is if it says USDA organic, that is federally regulated. But otherwise, a company can say they're natural, they're, you know, plant based or whatever it is, and there's no certification behind it.

So the front of the package will often depict, you know, green pastures of hens, you know, grazing or cows grazing or whatever it is. Or a farmer. Literally. It's often green because we depict green as like nature and healthy. And then you turn it around and you're like, okay, this has canola oil and like isolated, you know, soy protein, like all these fake ingredients. So it's just really important that

To never let the front of the package doopie. You always got to read the ingredients on the back. Yeah. One example I think of is baby formula. I've heard a lot of talk about that. Yes. What's the tea with baby formula? What's happening? Okay. So every time I talk about this, I get so much hate online. Really? Oh my God. Oh, I'm shocked. I thought they'd want to know. Yeah, you would think. But I think what's happening is...

And look, I want to be really sensitive when I talk about this subject because I know it's a really sensitive matter. But I think what happens is moms think that they're doing the best for their children. And then when they find out maybe they fed their baby this formula and they find out that it could be harming or not beneficial or good for the baby, they get really angry and they get mad at the messenger. So the problem with baby formula is...

It is so highly regulated that companies pretty much have to put in seed oils in there. A lot of these companies are also putting high fructose corn syrup in.

Because breast milk, when you look at it naturally, it has certain things occurring in it already. Like, for example, it's really high in sugar. So baby formulas are really high in sugar, as they should be, like breast milk is. But breast milk is made up of something very different than high fructose corn syrup and soybean oil. And I actually, I did a podcast episode about this, so I feel like I won't be able to speak to it as well as this company can. But I had Serenity Kids on my podcast earlier.

I love those founders. They are creating baby products that are the healthiest and the best ones I've found on the market. And what they came up against when they were making their formula is that there's so many regulations around formula that in order to make their formula as healthy as possible with coconut oil and to be almost mimicking breast milk and with good healthy sugars, I think it has like olive oil or maybe coconut oil in there.

They could not say they could not call it formula for under one or else they would have to jump through all these hoops, pay like tens of thousands of dollars to the FDA simply because of the regulations.

So, but coming back to this, unfortunately, the reality of the situation is that all of, I have not found a single baby formula on the shelf that's healthy. I have not found a single one, not one. It's terrible. Even like the healthier ones from like the UK, like a lot of people have been buying them from the UK. They still have like sunflower oil in them or safflower or rapeseed oil, which is also another word for canola oil.

A lot of them have soybean oil, which is really, really terrifying because a study came out a couple years ago saying that soybean oil has an effect on oxytocin. It lowers oxytocin levels. Oxytocin is our love hormone. What? Yeah, and they're putting it in baby formula. No. That's so sad.

I know. It's really sad. And so there's a lot of things that women can do. I've done two episodes about this that go way more in depth than we could ever go into like just in this hour. So I encourage people to go listen to them because these women give other options because I also want to be sensitive to the fact that I know like not everyone can breastfeed and

There's a lot of nuance around that, but there's a lot of suggestions that people give, like for example, breast milk banks or things that you can do as far as like education around breastfeeding because a lot of it is women are not given any sort of tools. They're essentially just like sent home to

from the hospital and then given no sort of education or no tools around it. And that's not on the woman. That's on the system that's failed us. Yeah, that seems like such a hole in the market because I know a lot of women struggle with breastfeeding. You'd think that there would be more healthy options. I would hate to put those things in my body. I'm definitely not putting those in my baby's body. Sam, Sam.

And I empathize with women. A lot of people fight back saying, well, this is all lower income people can afford. And I totally empathize with that. I'm just simply here the messenger being like, when you just point blank, look at the ingredients on the back, they are absolutely atrocious. I'm sorry. They just are. It's the reality of the situation. And our kids deserve better. And lower income families that can't afford anything else also deserve better. Yeah. And it's giving the child a bad start at the end of the day. Yes. So how do you recommend we read

uh ingredient labels at grocery stores like what should we look for like where should we go on the label warning signs red flags etc this is like one of my favorite things to talk about because i think we've made it so difficult and it really doesn't have to be that hard but it is it's kind of it's confusing until you kind of dive into it so i would say first and foremost above anything else before you even look at like the calories or anything else

look at the ingredients because that number one is going to tell you the quality of the food. Now, generally speaking, not always, but generally speaking, if a label is longer than like five to seven ingredients, the high probability of it being unhealthy is it's pretty high. So that would I say I would say number one, but you can still go through and read them. My number one trick is and this is like so fail proof is

If you look at those ingredients and you could technically buy all of those ingredients in the store. So let's say like my, one of my favorite examples is Simple Mills. A lot of their like cake mixes and crackers and whatever. I know their crackers have sunflower oil inside.

I don't even want to go into that because, you know, it's a seed oil. But generally speaking, if you look at an ingredient label and you could buy all of those ingredients at the store, then you can put that package in your cart because it's considered to be a real food item. Where we get into problems is when you're looking at an ingredient label and you're like,

okay, one, what is BHT and where would someone buy BHT? Like I'm not buying this in the grocery store. So if I wanted to make this at home, I wouldn't be able to. So I think that's number one. Also another fail-proof thing is asking yourself, would my grandmother recognize this as something that's edible? If not, then put it back on the shelf. You know, like simple things like obviously bread, crackers or whatever. But if it's like some...

blue colored Twinkie. Like your grandma's going to be like, I've never seen this before. Like, what is this made out of? So I think those are pretty fail-proof. And then you want to look at the sugars. We have so much freaking sugar in everything now from our nut butters to our nut milks, to our tomato sauces, to our salad dressings. There is sugar in so much now that we really need to be careful about where we're getting our sugar from.

I'm not saying don't ever have sugar. But for me, like my own personal rules, I want to save my sugar for where it counts. I want to have a freaking cookie. I don't want to be like giving up all my sugar in salad dressing, you know, where it's not going to matter anyways. You're not even going to taste the difference. So I really tell people, look at the sugar. It is important the type of sugar that it is. But more importantly, at the end of the day, coconut sugar is still sugar. Corn syrup is still sugar. It's still going to have an effect on your blood glucose.

I want to talk about some of your most viral topics. And this leads nicely into non-dairy milk options, which to me is a really big issue. I think I look around my friends, the office and things that people are using daily. Oat milk, Chobani creamer, things of that nature. What are your thoughts on oat milk and creamers and all that? Yeah.

Oat milk makes me so mad. From day one, I remember actually when I was on tour with Tove, everyone started talking about oat milk. Everyone was like, oh my God, it's so sustainable. It's better for the environment. It's healthy for us. It's made from oats. I remember day one, I was like, y'all, no, what? Why are we drinking starch? It's essentially we're drinking starches. Like we're drinking like starch juice is what it is.

And you look at how many people are dealing with blood glucose like all over the place all day. It's already dysregulated because of our food and our livers are sluggish.

So that's number one. You're starting out your morning with just a carbohydrate drink, essentially. And I'm not vilifying carbohydrates, but you want to eat them. You don't want to drink all that, you know? Yes, huge rule for me. I mean, going to Starbucks, you look at the frappuccinos. It's like, that's two meals in a drink. Yes, and you're not getting the fiber. At least if you're eating oatmeal, you're getting the fiber, and the fiber is going to slow down that sugar into your bloodstream and not cause this extreme spike and then this extreme crash. Mm-hmm.

And you think about what is everyone doing first thing in the morning with their coffee, putting oat milk in there. Every day. It is crazy. So that's number one. So it's skyrocketing blood glucose levels unnecessarily. Not to mention, we talked about glyphosate earlier. Oats are one of the most highly sprayed crops in this country with glyphosate. So you're essentially, if it's not organic, you're getting glyphosate starch juice. So you're getting a load of pesticides. That's a really cute brand name. Yeah.

Oatly glyphosate starch juice. It reminds me of like if you've seen that trend of like people recreating like processed junk food and making it look like cute and pretty and like healthy. It's like...

Or just like if companies were honest about what it is, it's like glyphosate starch juice would be on the front of that. Yeah. So there's the glyphosate and then not to mention too, like Oatly, some of these other really big name brands, they have rapeseed oil, which is canola oil in there. So you're also getting a side of inflammatory oil. And guess what most people are doing with their coffee? They're heating it up to put in their coffee. What happens when we heat those oils like canola oil? They oxidate, which creates more inflammation and more stress on the body. Ugh.

Yeah. Dang. And I get a lot of questions. People will say, okay, well, what if I make my oat milk at home? Yes, it is significantly better if it's just oats and water, if it's organic, so you're not getting the glyphosate. But I would still argue it's a nightmare for your blood sugar. Yeah. And I feel like it doesn't taste that much better than an almond milk or even a dairy milk. I love coconut milk so much. Okay. So yeah, I'm on the coconut.

I get the house-made one from Erewhon. So freaking good. Guys, where did coconut milk go? I felt like it got kicked out because of oat milk. I know. And I honestly think it tastes better. It does. And they stopped serving it at coffee shops now. I know. Because it's not cool. I know. I feel like oat milk came out of nowhere because...

Oatly came out of nowhere and just did a massive marketing scheme, no? Oh, well, that's the thing. So that's what a lot of people I think aren't fully aware of is that a lot of these trends in nutrition and where we get duped into thinking things are healthy, it's because they have massive marketing budgets behind them. It's less about the health of the people and more about the profit for the company.

Yeah. What about Chobani creamer? Because everyone's obsessed with that. Oh, man. Like the pumpkin one. Oh, okay. So I don't remember the exact ingredients on these, but I remember doing a video about this a while back and so many people were mad at me. You know it's good when people are mad. People get so upset with me. I'm like, I'm sorry. I'm just the messenger here.

I don't remember the exact ingredients, but it's, you know, it's really highly processed. And again, when you take that rule and you apply it that I said earlier, could you buy all these ingredients in the store? No, you couldn't. And I think there's an inflammatory oil in there. There's some like gums, I think, and just there's all this unnecessary added stuff, you know, and that's part of the problem is that we...

If someone was just consuming Chobani creamer in the morning and then they were having these like amazing like farm-to-table organic meals all day, I wouldn't be so worried. The problem is is that we're getting these gums, these thickeners, these emulsifiers, these preservatives, dyes like canola oils, dyes.

In everything right now, everything. It's in our creamer, it's in our soup, it's in our salad dressings, it's in the sauces that we put on our meat. So it's just being so infiltrated that I'm more worried about the excessive overload and burden on our body than I am about just the one individual thing. Such a good point. How do you feel about the raw dairy movement?

So I have – I think there's nuance there. I'm a big fan because I come from a very natural-minded standpoint where – oh, this is actually another rule that I remember for navigating the grocery store. I always tell people, look at the foods that have stood the test of time. What are the foods that we've been eating forever as humans on this planet?

meat, eggs, dairy. We've vilified all these foods now saying that they're the ones that are causing the disease, but the disease has only been skyrocketing in the last like 50 years since we've introduced all these other foods that we were never eating before. So we have to be able to make those connections, right? And so I apply that to dairy where I'm like, what have we been consuming forever? Dairy.

The reason why we started pasteurizing it and homogenizing it was because we were producing it at such a large scale that you have to because there's so much bacteria and there's all these concerns when you're producing at such a large scale like that and shipping and, you know, and then they have to worry about lawsuits and everything else.

So I would say with raw dairy, I think if you're getting it from a really good farmer and a good clean place that you know has really clean practices, I think it can be incredibly health giving and really good for you. Because also the thing about milk is that we can't digest it anymore because we've taken out all the good enzymes by pasteurizing it. We kill off all the enzymes that helped our bodies digest in the first place.

So a lot of times what will happen is someone who has issues with dairy will go and they'll switch to raw dairy and they're like, oh my God, I can actually eat this. Like I can digest it. I don't get bloated. I don't get acne anymore. It's because we're preserving those, again, what nature provided naturally for us to digest it. We're preserving those in there so that your body can actually assimilate it versus like what we've done with milk now. We've killed off all of the good enzymes. We've basically just rendered it

become something that's not super healthy for us. I will say though that there are some people that still just struggle with dairy in general, even the ones that have the raw dairy and they're like, "I'm still having these effects." So

We're so bio-individual that I encourage people to just test things out on your own and see what works best for you because what works for me, what works for you is not necessarily going to work for someone else. So they really have to figure that out on their own. And I just cannot emphasize this enough. Just make sure you're getting it from a good, clean place because since they're not pasteurizing it, there is a concern for like foodborne illness, but it shouldn't be a concern if someone is actually doing it the right way. Yep. Tell us about nonstick pans. Oh my God.

So this is something I'm really grateful for because my mom was on this in 2002.

When I was in college, my mom came out to visit me one time and she was like, get these Teflon pans out of here now. Made me trash them, bought me a whole new set of stainless steel. And this was in 2002, which is crazy when I look back on this. I feel like I've dropped so many documentaries for people to watch, but there's a document or no, this wasn't a documentary actually. It was a Mark Ruffalo's in it. So it was an actual film, but they did this about the background on Teflon. Teflon, if people don't know, is the nonstick coating that was being put on these pans.

I believe that Teflon has now been banned, but they're still using these other coatings on here. And the problem is you think about these pans. So you're putting your food on there every day. So you're exposing your food to these toxic chemicals that are then being heated up. And then you're eating them, especially if people are scraping them. The pans, once they have the scrapes in there and you see the lines or whatever from using bad utensils...

They did a study that there's like hundreds of thousands of microplastics that come out of that and it goes into your food. I actually remember in college, like cooking eggs in one that like had a bunch of scratches and it had all these like black, it would have like black specks in there. Oh no. We were literally eating. Yeah.

The freaking liner. I mean, I did too. I felt like we all thought it was better because you could just clean it easily. I'm sure that's why it was created, right? Exactly. For an easy, clean solution. And now we're in this horrible position where we're finding something called PFASs in our environment. We're finding it in our water. It's in our clothes because they use it for like waterproof shielding on, you know, everything. And that's what they also use to make it nonstick on pans. Yeah.

There are some companies that are doing better. I know one is Our Place. And I know I get a lot of pushback when I share about Our Place. So I will just tell people, do your own research. Do whatever you feel most comfortable with. There's a woman called Momovation. She has an amazing blog where she does all of this third-party testing that she pays for on her own. None of the brands are affiliated or associated with it whatsoever. She just does this on her own time and then she…

publishes the results. And she said our place was safe and okay. So I trust her in that. But the majority speaking, if you're buying nonstick pans, well, one, toss them out immediately. If you're looking for a nonstick pan, look for companies like that that are saying, we don't have PFASs, we don't have POFSs.

or PFOAS, I believe is what they're called. So there's all these chemicals that are essentially being called forever chemicals, and they're called forever chemicals because they don't break down in the environment. So they're in the environment indefinitely. They're being linked to infertility. They're being linked to cancer. They're being linked to all these different disorders.

I was feeling really good about myself because I only use stainless steel. And then I realized that my fricking air fryer has nonstick coating in it and I was using it every day. And you know what? It felt weird. Like every time I press the button, there was this weird chemical smell and I was like, this doesn't feel right. So air fryers are not good either. You have to get a really good one. So again, our place came out with an air fryer.

I don't want to tell people I know 100% it's safe. From my understanding, I think our place is safe. There's also one, if you search on Amazon, you search glass air fryer, it's like 60 or 70 bucks. So it's super affordable and it's all glass. Yeah, the problem is, is that a lot of them are using this nonstick device

coating and even if your food's not touching that coating that plastic smell you were talking about we're inhaling it in our lungs ah oh my gosh I was doing my sausages in there every day oh I know sad I'm gonna get the glass one yes that sounds good

tea bags. Oh yeah, this is another one. So there was a study came out recently that in a single tea bag, it can be releasing hundreds of thousands of microplastics because what we think in those little mesh bags is just mesh. That mesh is actually made out of plastic.

Now, I will say there are some companies that are making these tea bags without plastic. So you just have to do a little bit of research. I don't remember all the names off the top of my head. So I just encourage people to go look. There's a bunch of different tea brands that are on it and they're making healthier for you tea bags. But otherwise, I would say just buy the loose tea, put it in a little metal stainless steel ball and do that. Okay. I need to switch that because I'm a tea person. Yeah. Yeah.

I think my bags might be safe, but I'm gonna look into it. I feel like Tee Pigs maybe is safe. - It might be. I also know. - And then also, Peak Tea is crystals. - I love, I love Peak Tea. - Okay, that's a good suggestion then. - Yeah, because there's no, you don't even have to put a strainer in or anything. You just put the powder and add water. It's so nice. - Yeah, I like Peak a lot. - Yeah, and it's organic. They do third-party testing for toxins. They're like really on it. - Okay, cool. How about Nespresso pods and coffee makers? - Oh man, yeah.

I got a lot of heat for this one too. I'm sure you did. People love their coffee. I get it, guys. I love my coffee too. I'm so addicted.

So the problem with the Nespresso pods and the Keurig pods, first of all, I think it's really important to note the founder of Keurig actually made a statement that he regrets making them, which is really heartbreaking. What? Yeah, because they don't break down in the environment. So the amount of them that are ending up in landfills and just creating more trash is like astronomical. It's really scary.

Not to mention, so one of the biggest problems with plastic, and this is why we should be worried about the tea bags, is what happens when you heat up plastic or let's say you're heating up plastic in the microwave or you're putting hot water in like a plastic tea mug or whatever. There are chemicals in plastic. One, I think everyone knows now, which is BPA. But there's also a lot of other chemicals that we don't even know about, like the common public doesn't know about, like BPS.

That are leaching into the plastic. Now, they can already leach out anyways, but when exposed to heat, it becomes significantly worse. So it's why I say never heat up anything in the microwave that's in plastic like Tupperware because it's actually leaking those chemicals into your food. Or the classic, like I love to bring up this example. How many people have drank a plastic water bottle from the back of their car that's been sitting there all day in the heat and it literally tastes like plastic? It's because the plastic has leached into it.

Or when people order coffee and you watch them pour the hot coffee and then add ice. I'm like, okay, I'm going to die today. That's good. I know. I mean, I still do it though. Like I occasionally get my coffee in plastic and I, you know. I do too. I do too. Look, we're not perfect and we're doing the best we can. And, you know, sometimes you just, you expose yourself to it. But it's why it's so important that we do the little things that add up every day so that we can mitigate those exposures. And one thing I think is really important for people to know is that

As we're being exposed to all this stuff, we can only control so much of it. So it's not healthy to go into this place of stress and being like, oh my God, I have to live in a bubble now. Just do things that support your body's natural detoxification. So for example, sweating. I love sitting in a sauna. If someone listening doesn't have access to a sauna, you don't need a sauna. You can literally buy Epsom salts for pretty cheap. Put them in a really hot bath. Get it hot enough where you're not like burning your tits off, but like...

But when you're sweating, you know. Don't burn your tits off, guys. That's good merch for you. I like that. Burn your tits off. Drake would love that. Yeah. Let's make that happen, Drake. So like enough where your body is sweating. Also, another one is just exercise. Move your body, you know, because then you're getting your lymph flowing. Lymphatic brushing is really good too. So you get a dry brush and you dry brush before your shower. So there's things that we can do in order to help our body get some of this out when we're being exposed to it.

Happy holidays. This is the holiday giveaway, guys. It's here. And it's with my favorite skincare brand, Incredible Ingredients Clear Stem Skincare. It's a revolutionary skincare brand that's anti-aging and anti-acne with zero known hormone disruptors. If you've ever dealt with breakouts, you know a lot of acne products are dry and damaging to the skin. And this one is not. So, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so, so,

So excited to be giving away ClearStem in this giveaway. You guys can use the code word GLOW, G-L-O-W, and follow the instructions in today's Instagram holiday power post on the Pursuit of Wellness podcast page for your chance to win the ClearStem Clear Skin Kit. All you need to do is DM the code word to the power page, read the rules on the holiday post. Good luck. Happy holidays.

Emily, my naturopath, told me, I call her my naturopath. She's not my naturopath. She's my integrative medicine doctor or nutrition doctor, whatever. She's my angel. She said that they've seen heavy metals coming out of people's sweat in the sauna before. So that made me really motivated to get in there more. Yes, yes. How about, oh, the rotisserie chicken at Costco. That was, I think, a really good one because even me, I mentally think, oh, a rotisserie chicken's an easy, healthy option. Yeah.

And you pointed out a few issues with the one at Costco. This is another one that I got so much heat for. But man, I did not realize people like don't touch people's Costco chicken. I mean, it looks good. That, I mean, Costco, you know, the baked goods section. Oh my God, I know. The muffin tops. Oh, they're insane. The croissants and like, wow. If I ever was just going to have a fuck it day. Oh yeah. I would take myself to the baked goods section of Costco immediately. And maybe I'd grab a chicken too. Haha.

Anyway, tell us what's wrong with the rotisserie chicken. That's amazing. I'm with you on that. So I totally agree. We'll make that happen one day. Yes. We'll just have like a fuck it day and we'll go to Costco and we'll get the hot dogs. Drake should film it. For sure. And we can tell everyone how we feel afterwards. We really should document that because that's the issue. You know, like really pay attention to how you feel after you eat those certain foods because you won't want to do it anymore. Yeah.

So the Costco chicken, there's a couple of issues. First of all, they're under these heat lamps and they're sitting in plastic the whole time. I mean, I picked one up, honestly, like from holding it for a couple minutes, I almost burned my hand because it was so hot and I was like filming with it being like, oh, it's like, this is really hot.

That means that that plastic is being heated to a point where all the chemicals that are in that plastic, even if, okay, I had so many people fighting me in the comments saying, oh, but this is a food safe plastic. This is BPA free. So many companies will say it's food safe. It's BPA free. I'm sorry, guys, but the components of plastic still have chemicals. The chemical makeup of plastic is the problem. It has all these different chemicals. Some of them that we have not even probably named yet or even know about.

and those are all having an effect on our body. They're leaching into the food whenever they're getting heated up. So you have this chicken, right?

that's now like essentially soaking up all of these endocrine disruptors. I haven't gone into why we should care about the plastic. The problem is, is I had a woman on my podcast, Dr. Shanna Swan. She was also on Joe Rogan's podcast. She's dedicated her life to studying this. There's something called phthalates that's in plastic that we are now seeing have a detrimental effect on our bodies. They're lowering sperm count. They're causing boys in the womb to have smaller dicks.

which is crazy. So it's also having an effect like in utero. It's also having an effect on our endocrine systems, meaning that more women are seeing infertility at higher rates. It's really affecting us in so many ways, not to mention there's cancer connections with it too. So this is why we should be really concerned about it.

So the heating under plastic. The other thing is just look at that ingredient label for that chicken. It's not just chicken. Exactly. There's a bunch of, I think there's like some emulsifiers in there. I don't even remember the exact ingredients because I remember reading it being like,

why is this in here? So if we want rotisserie chicken, it should be in a paper bag. Yes. Ideally. I think Air One does it in a bag. I think it does. I think they do too. I'm not sure about the liner, which is the only thing I'm concerned about. It's kind of foil-ish, isn't it? I think so. I'm worried it might be plastic. But again, I don't want anyone to like quote me on this. I don't know for sure about the Air One ones. I'm not saying they're bad. But you want to be careful too of things that maybe look like they're not plastic. A perfect example is the Starbucks cup.

So I watched this video and I didn't even think about this. This woman was talking about how if paper was just paper, like think about paper straws, it's going to disintegrate in liquid. So how does Starbucks have these paper cups that don't disintegrate in liquid? They're plastic lined.

And then you're putting the hot coffee in there and then you're leaking all those endocrine disruptors like the phthalates into your coffee. So we have to be careful about the plastic lined stuff. That's like the takeout box at Whole Foods too. Yes. Sneaky, sneaky. Very sneaky. Okay, let's do one more. What would you say are the best fast food healthy options? Like where would you go if you had to?

That's a great question. I will, okay, I'm going to be really honest here and say that I, even if I was really in like a bad place, I still wouldn't eat fast food. I just wouldn't. I've gotten to this place in my life where it's not worth it to me to feel like crap. I also, I view fast food as I view Play-Doh. It's not food. Like it doesn't, maybe some kids are going to eat Play-Doh, but like I don't consider it to be food.

And that's just, that's been my thinking. I haven't eaten it in like 15 or 20 years and it's because the ingredients. Now, I'm sure people are going, okay, but what do you do on like road trips or what do you do when you're traveling? I travel with my food and I know it sounds crazy, but like I will get like a goop kitchen salad before a flight or I will go to Air One and I will get a salad or I will make my own and I'll pack it in like a little hydro flask. As long as it's not liquid, they let you go through security with it. Even like a little, as long as it's under the like three point,

eight ounces or whatever it is for TSA, if it's a little thing of salad dressing, they'll let it go through. Yeah. I have been doing this since I was little because my mom started doing this. And I have never once been denied food except for one time because it was like really liquidy oatmeal. And they were like, ma'am, this is a liquid. I was like, no.

But otherwise, I've never had an issue with it. So for me, I personally would rather take the extra steps to prepare. And so for road trips, I pack a cooler. My boyfriend and I went on like an eight-hour road trip, and I literally made us a breakfast to eat on the road. I made us sandwiches. I packed snacks. So you can plan ahead and avoid it if you want to. Now, saying all that, this is what I do.

If you are still like, F it, sometimes I want to go to fast food. That is fine. Like that's your personal choice. I would say something like McDonald's maybe where we know that it's just like as far as their beef patties go, they're 100% beef. I did a video on this actually and the two things that I would have gotten were the scrambled eggs and the beef patties.

And I mean, go keto, you know, have like a lettuce wrapped beef patty and have them add like pickles and ketchup and tomato. You could also just have a day where you're like, F it. I'm going for the burger. I'm going for the fries, you know, like that's, you know, personal decision. Yeah. Packing the food on the flight, I think is such a good tip. And guys, it's like really fun because you have a whole ass meal. Everyone's eating like their little plain food and you, I had a steak my last flight, like an entire steak. And

And like the brownie that we love, like you could have a feast on the plane. I love it. Everyone's jealous. It is true. Yeah. Honestly, I love it. Like I would so much rather eat that than be stuck with like shitty airplanes. Same. I get excited actually about it. Me too. I get really excited about it. So we covered a lot. If someone could take one thing away from this conversation and implement one thing in their life today, what would you hope that they do?

Okay, I'm going to leave with two if that's okay. First and foremost, whenever I talk about all this stuff, I really like to remind people that you have a lot of power in this because I think people can get really scared, maybe complacent, just think like, F it, everything's poisoning us, like might as well just give up.

I would really encourage you to not take that stance because it's not only going to harm you, but it's not reality. You know, there's a lot of things that we can do. And I use this to empower me, like knowing all this information, it empowers me. And it's all about how

you spin it in your mind, you can either become a victim of the reality of the situation that we're dealing with right now in this country, or you can go, okay, I'm so empowered by all of this. Now I know and I have a choice and I can do better. And then I would also say, don't allow yourself to be shamed by this. All of us start at different points and we're learning and we're doing the best we can on this planet. I think sometimes what happens is people will start to learn and unravel all of this and feel a

and maybe regret about past choices that they've made. We've all made choices that we're not super stoked about. We've all had unhealthy meals. We've all not known better until we knew better. So I just really like to reiterate that there's nothing shameful about starting at page one and unraveling all of this. Be really kind to yourself and know that you were doing the best you could at the time with the info that you had. And now that you know better, you do better and use that to empower you. Yes, I love that 100%.

Courtney, now it's time for the question we ask every guest. I started this podcast because I believe everyone's pursuit of wellness looks different. What does wellness mean to you? Ooh, wellness to me means being the best version of myself and showing up the best that I can.

Because when I am really taking care of myself, taking my vitamins, making sure I move my body, nourishing my friendships, eating really good healthy food, eating clean water, like all of that, everything I do, going to bed at a certain hour, keeping promises to myself that I've made to myself, I show up as a better human. And so to me, that really is wellness. It's

ultimately the pursuit of taking care of myself. Yeah. And you really embody that truly. Where can people find you and your podcast online? Yes, I'm Real Foodology across the board. My podcast is Real Foodology on all the major platforms. And I'm really active on Instagram. I have a TikTok as well. And all of it's Real Foodology. Crushing. Thanks, Courtney. That was amazing.

The content of this show is for educational and informational purposes only. It is not a substitute for individual medical and mental health advice and does not constitute a provider patient relationship. As always, talk to your doctor or health team. 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.