Change Your Brain Every Day - How E-Fish Is Making Waves In The Fishing Business with Founder Jeff Tedmori

Episode Date: June 29, 2021

Dr Daniel and Tana Amen talk with Jeff Tedmori about how his company E-Fish thoroughly researches fishing sources and seasons to deliver the highest quality fresh fish directly to customer's front door.

Welcome to the Brain Warriors Way podcast. I'm Dr. Daniel Amen. And I'm Tana Amen. In our podcast, we provide you with the tools you need to become a warrior for the health of your brain and body. The Brain Warriors Way podcast is brought to you by Amen Clinics, where we have been transforming lives for 30 years using tools like brain spec imaging to personalize treatment to your brain. For more information, visit amenclinics.com.

The Brain Warriors Way podcast is also brought to you by BrainMD, where we produce the highest quality nutraceuticals to support the health of your brain and body. To learn more, go to brainmd.com. Welcome back. We are here with Jeffrey Ted Mori, who is our nephew. And I'm just really enjoying this talk about why he's so passionate about starting this business fishing. We love fish. It's good for the brain. And he loves fishing and the ocean and fishermen. And this is really cool. I love this because Jeffrey is a really smart kid. I mean, we always knew he was a really smart kid, went to MIT. So that's not an easy feat. And then when he decided to open a fishing business, I think we were all like, oh, I mean, for me, I knew instantly. I'm like, I know Jeffrey's going to do something different with it. I didn't think, oh, why is he doing this?

I thought, oh, what is he going to do that's different? Because that's just Jeffrey. Well, and why we wanted him on the Brain Warriors Way podcast. There's a very clear correlation between people who have grilled or baked fish every week and the level of gray matter in their brain. So one of our friends, Cyrus Raji, published a study. This is really important, right? The food you eat directly impacts the health or illness of your brain, which means how you think, your overall level of success,

your ability to connect and relate. And one thing I like is this. I mean, obviously, eFish sort of speaks for itself. During quarantine, when we couldn't get food, I was like, okay, I can. I mean, we had to order stuff, right? But it was easy. I just ordered fish online. So e-fish.com. Tell us about eFish and all of the Brain Warrior listeners.

Yeah. So eFish is a seafood marketplace connecting at-home discerning cooks to independent seafood wholesalers. So we have a vast network of fishermen spread throughout the entire country. So they're in Maine, Massachusetts, Florida, up and down the California coastline. And they ship to any customer in the lower 48 states. So whether you're in Wisconsin or Ohio, New York or California, you can have access to fresh, wild American sources of seafood. But the biggest difference for us is not just the unique items that we sell, but more about the process for how all of this ordering takes place, right? We don't have a warehouse full of frozen fish that's waiting to

be sold. Actually, in a lot of cases, the fish is still swimming at the time our customers place the order, right? We then have these relationships with the fishermen where they go fish, catch the product. And once they land, it gets put into a package with ice cold gel packs and shipped overnight to our customers. So they're receiving this fresh, most of the time, never frozen seafood item that has only been out of water for less than 48 hours, which is just an unparalleled quality. And you can get unique items that you wouldn't find elsewhere, whether it's fresh anchovies and mackerel, or if it's live spot prawns.

Of course, we do have staples like halibut or California halibut, California king salmon when it's in season. But what's important is that we're trying to educate customers to learn when certain items are in season. Very similar to produce at a farmer's market.

We're trying to get customers a bit better educated as far as what's in season and what's not. And is all of this fish wild or is some of it farmed? Yeah, so that's a really common question. And the answer really is it depends. Here's the caveat, right? So there's always this trade-off between wild and farm-raised. And not in all cases

is a farm-raised product considered bad. Comes to shellfish, it's a really good thing for people and for the environment that they're in, right? So oyster farms are, you know, have a really strong reputation because they're constantly filtering water that they're within. And so the estuaries and the areas that people grow oysters, they actually give back to the environment that they're in, right? Compared to some other farms, whether it's a fin fish farm in, you know, uh, somewhere other than the U S where, you know, it's highly concentrated and then there can be a lot of added chemicals into the mix and disease and things like

that, which are not good. Um, but when it comes to shellfish, we strongly recommend people consuming farm raised shellfish, whether it's oysters mussels clams all of that is great as a bivalve um and but most of the the fin fish that we sell are going to be wild caught um we do have one fin fish that that we sell that is a farm-raised product and that's actually farmed uh here in california's a mountain last and trout. And really we're, we're really picky when it comes to the farms we choose to work with, right? We go to the farm, we visit them. We see what the operation looks like, because we want to make sure that there's

no issues with social welfare. These fish are getting treated properly. Being fed organic feedstock, not stuff that's not good for the body. But for the most part, we launched with really trying to support these wild harvesters of seafood. I'm a fan of the app, seafoodwatch.org. And it tells you, it's from the Monterey Bay Aquarium and tells you, you know know basically eat this don't

eat that and actually list a number of farm-raised fish and then as I looked into it it's like well you have to go deeper and one of the questions just like you just mentioned is what do they feed the fish because whatever an animal eats well you get to eat it too right so you're consuming it as well um and also wild depending on where it is there parts of the ocean that are actually not very healthy. And that's what I learned. I used to think it was only wild fish. And then I realized, oh, sometimes wild is not as healthy. Some of these farms are actually now, they're saying because they're now learning how to raise the fish and feed the fish

and they're actually starting to become healthy and sustainable. And I was like, oh, interesting. So seafoodwatch.org is good for that too. Yeah. And the way that I tend to think about it is I typically go wild first when I have a product that's truly in season, right? So when I think of buying fish, it's very similar to buying fresh produce, right? Are you going to buy a the frozen corn versus fresh corn? Well, it depends on if corns in season or not, right?

corns in season, then fresh corn that you're gonna throw on the barbecue that hasn't been husked is going to be delicious and sweet and great. But when it's not in season, that frozen products going to be really good. Right? So it's hard to compare sometimes, but you have to prioritize each of these. Right. So when our listeners go into the store, what are the things they should be thinking about? I mean, we really want them to be thinking fish. Actually, this would be a good phrase for Jeff, fish first. We often say brain first, right?

Because that's our business. But when it comes to brain health, and you think of all the different types of protein people can consume, fish first would be a good way to think about it because fish is loaded with omega-3 fatty acids compared to lamb or turkey, chicken or beef. And that makes up a significant percentage of the nerve cell membranes in your brain. And we found, it's crazy, Jeff, that we did a study looking at the level of omega-3 fatty acids in your blood on 50 consecutive patients, Damon, clinics who were not taking fish oil. 49 of them had suboptimal levels. put out a study saying that 97% of the population is low in omega-3 fatty acids. And omega-3 fatty acids, when it's low, you have a higher incidence of depression, a higher incidence of dementia.

You have more inflammation in your body. You're more likely to have an autoimmune disorder. I mean, it's just associated with your heart and your eyes and your skin and your hair, that's not my problem, I inherited it. But so if we go with this idea of fish first, how should people shop for fish? Yeah, and I love that fish first idea. And one thing that you made me just think about as well, I was reading the USDA dietary guidelines report where they also said that 90% of Americans

don't eat the recommended amount of seafood. And so hearing you say that 97% are low in, in those fatty acids, it feels like a really direct, a really direct tie there. But as far as what to look for when you're shopping for seafood, first and foremost, I like to just ask questions, right? And you quickly learn whether the person, whether it's behind the counter, if it's a fish market, if it's your local fishmonger, if it's a grocery store, getting answers and how they respond to

those answers is a really easy way to know whether that company you're buying from actually cares about a lot of these questions, right? Whether they're digging into it on the sourcing side or not. And so where I typically start is first and foremost, a USA caught and processed product is really going to alleviate a lot of issues regarding overfishing within the area because the USA is the most highly regulated fishery in the world. So that's going to alleviate a lot of environmental issues that you may have, as well as social issues, right? Because we have labor

laws here in the US that are extremely stringent that these fishermen have to abide by. So first and foremost, USA cod. The next thing is, is of course, whether or not it's wild or not, if it's farm raised, you want to figure out where it's where that farm is, right? You want to dig in a little bit deeper. And I know that's a lot of work. And so if you can find somebody that you trust to make those decisions, to find the right, to source from the right farms for you, then that's the easiest thing to do, but ask questions.

And ultimately when it comes to taste, I like to think that a fresh product is gonna be, is gonna, a fresh in-season product is gonna outperform a frozen one. But there's a lot of really amazing freezing technology, where they really are able to freeze at, you know, at a really deep level of freshness. But if you can work with somebody who gets your product super fast, then you know, I typically go with that fresh product. So you made me think of Chilean sea bass and Scottish salmon and Norwegian anchovies. And are, are those marketing ploys or are they actually from those areas?

No, I mean, in a lot of cases they are right. So Chilean sea bass is a great example of that. It sounds exotic. It tastes great. Um, but there are areas of the world that are, that are better known for responsible fishing than others. And it takes a bit of digging to figure out where those areas are. Right. We sell, uh, products out of, out of Scotland that come from the Scottish Fishermen's Union. It's a small co-op of fishermen who operate out of Scotland and they're catching scallops, small haddock, squid, cuttlefish, all these amazing products. But we know that we trust them because we've been there. We've seen the size of their vessels. We see the gear types that they use. And we don't expect the average customer or the average consumer of seafood to do that digging. That's a lot of research. And it's not as simple as looking at the, you know, seeing Chilean sea bass and saying, is Chile good or bad? It's really not that simple, right? You have to dig a little bit deeper into it. Awesome. When we come back, I want you to tell us some of the stories you've heard,

because businesses really grow on stories of how your work is impacting people's lives. People could learn about your company at e-fish.com. I love that you have that URL. That's a great URL. Stay with us. If you're enjoying the Brain Warriors Way podcast, please don't forget to subscribe so you'll always know when there's a new episode. And while you're at it,

feel free to give us a review or five-star rating as that helps others find the podcast. If you're interested in coming to Amen Clinics, use the code PODCAST10 to get a 10% discount on a full evaluation at amenclinics.com. For more information, give us a call at 855-978-1363.