Culture Apothecary with Alex Clark - How Big Food Tricks Moms: Former General Mills Insider Speaks Out | Lovebird Cereal's Parker Brook

Episode Date: August 25, 2026

He helped sell America's biggest cereal brands, then had a daughter and couldn't bring himself to feed her any of it.Today's guest is Parker Brook, founder of Lovebird Foods and a former insider at General Mills. He argues the food he was putting on family tables was engineered for profit, not health — and that most "healthy" labels are marketing, not nutrition. We talk about what really happens inside Big Food, the biggest scams hiding on labels, why the good brands keep selling out, and how parents can outsmart the grocery store.Thank you to our sponsors!SAVA: Use code "ALEXCLARK" for 15% offCROWDHEALTH: Use code “CULTURE” to get your first three months for only $99/monthLOVEBIRD: Use code 'ALEX20' for 20% off your purchasePUORI: Use code "ALEX" for 32% off Puori Creatine+ when you start a subscriptionWILD PASTURES: Get an exclusive discount on your next orderVOTE ONLINE: Check your voter registration todayOur Guest:Parker BrookParker's Links:Lovebird InstagramLovebird FaceBookLovebird XLovebird WebsiteStore LocaterFOLLOW ALEX:Instagram |⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ @realalexclark⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Instagram |⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠@cultureapothecary⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠X |⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ @yoalexrapz⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠YouTube |⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ @RealAlexClark⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Apple Podcast |⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ Culture Apothecary with Alex Clark⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Subscribe to ‘Culture Apothecary’ on ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Apple Podcasts⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠ and ⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠Spotify⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠⁠. New episodes drop 6pm PST/ 9pm EST every Monday and Thursday.DISCLAIMER: This content is for informational purposes only and is not medical advice. Always talk to a qualified healthcare professional for any health-related questions or decisions.

You used to work for Big Food with General Mills. Everybody's just hyper-focused on growth. They do that with cheap ingredients, engineered to be addictive, heavy marketing, often geared towards moms. There's an actual strategy by Big Food to drive what is called Mom Nag. And so they will advertise on channels that are viewed by kids to make sure that when they go down the aisle, they're going to see the Blues Clues fruit snacks and nag their mom about it

because they saw it on YouTube. And that's all of their strategy is to essentially make moms, harder and make their kids nag them in the grocery store for certain items. The cereal aisle looks like it offers endless choices. But does it? Today's guest says that's one of the biggest illusions in modern food. He used to help sell America's biggest cereal brands from the inside at General Mills. And then he became a father, realized the food that he was helping put on family's tables,

wasn't the food he wanted for his own kid, and walked away to build something different. Joining me today is Parker Brooke, my friend and founder of Lovebird Foods. We're talking about what really happens inside big food, how products are engineered for profit instead of health, the biggest scams hiding on food labels, why healthy brands keep selling out and how parents can actually outsmart the grocery store. Watch on Culture Apothecary via Spotify or Real Alex Clark on YouTube. Please welcome Parker Brook, the founder of Lovebird cereal, to give us all the behind the scenes of big food on Culture Apothecary. You used to work for big food with General Mills. What did you do there? I was in marketing.

So I worked on brands like Cheerios, Nature Valley, Totino's Pizza Rolls, which is barely food, and Yoplay and a bunch of other brands. And so sort of the mini CEO of those brands run it inside and out and kind of got to experience all that. People think of all yogurt as like a healthy breakfast food option is Yoplay yogurt. something that you would feed your kids? Absolutely not. It's filled with sugar and it's actually pasteurized so it kills a lot of the good bacteria in the product of probiotics. So it's more or less just eating sugar. I used to live off of Apple Jackson, Reese's Puff cereal as a kid. What do you think that did to me? You're still standing. The body is resilient. I think we all did. I mean, the 90s and around that time was a wild time to be alive. I mean, high fructose corn syrup,

every amount of sugar you could ever imagine. And so I think the body's resilient, though, right? I think we know that. And once you clean up your diet, you can achieve better health again. Okay, this is kind of crazy to start the interview with, but is it true that, and I know you were with General Mills, but is it true that Kellogg's really started cereal is some kind of like bizarre way to curb masturbation or something? Is, like, am I making this up? I've heard this somewhere. That's true. So there were two brothers, John and Will Kellogg, in Battle Creek, Michigan, which we both have been. And they created a kind of health institute, which was the leading health institute in the country with thousands of celebrity and presidents that attended it as patients. And they invented the cornflake. And it was supposed to help with digestion. Then they got into a huge fight because John wanted it to be healthy with no added sugar. And Will wanted to make a bunch of money and add sugar to it. And effectively, they'd which is now the $9 billion cereal category with sugared cereal. But what does it have to do with getting kids to stop masturbating?

They believe that a healthy diet would curb those desires. And so they thought that eating meat would create carnal desires. Interesting. Okay. So then they wanted everybody to eat this like vegetarian type food. Yeah, yeah. And sugar cereal and stuff. Okay, that's crazy.

I knew I was like, I know I heard this somewhere again. Really weird place to start. but I was just morbidly curious. Well, that's a odd story. Yeah. Okay, so walk me into a product meeting at General Mills, like the nutrition team, the marketing team, finance, who has the most power in meetings there? So if you actually take a step back and look at the incentives of these companies, their whole goal is to grow what, you know, a company could call share of stomach, right? How can we get more people to eat our product?

And they either do that through buy rates, so increasing how many times people go to the store and buy it, and also penetration, so getting new people into the brand. And so marketing kind of drives the bus, right? Everybody is kind of treated as a number. And I believe when you remove the humanity out of food, like food is such an emotional exchange, right? If you're cooking for somebody or cooking for yourself, it's one of the greatest forms of self-care, right? But when you adapt that into an industrial corporate setting, you treat everybody as a number. And so everybody's just hyper-focused on growth, right?

And so they do that with cheap ingredients engineered to be addictive and then also heavy marketing, right? And so often geared towards moms. And so it's all about the number. How do we grow share? How do we grow people eating our product? There's really never a conversation around, is this healthy? Should we be doing this? It's sort of that Jurassic Park quote of like they spent so much time wondering if we could, never wondered if we should.

And there's a lot of that that actually catches up. So regulations are typically pretty slow. But within a food company, it's all about, hey, what, you know, mermaid character can we put on a couple of yogurt to get kids to buy it, right? How can we put more sugar into it to hit a bliss point, which is a combination of salt, sugar, and fat? What's a bliss point for your food? Yeah. So the two most common tactics and food, what I would call engineering, are achieving a bliss point, which is the perfect balance of salt, sugar and fat to get you to eat it and not stop eating it. So think of like a Pringles. Once you pop, you can't stop, which is an insane slogan to begin with. Like, like drug dealer came up with that. I don't even know how that's legal. And then the vanishing caloric density, which they've engineered these foods to dissolve so quickly in your mouth that your body can't process it as calories. That's why you'll sit down and open a bag of cheese balls and eat the entire thing. Wait, they think of how it can dissolve faster so that your body will keep meeting more?

Yeah. That's why when you eat it. eat real food, your body takes a longer time to digest it because they can register it and your stomach actually has kind of sensors on the inside that measures how wide it can stretch and kind of cue to your brain if you're full or not. These engineered ultra-processed foods with ultra-process ingredients are designed to bypass that. And so you can essentially sit down and eat an entire sleeve of Oreos and not feel full. There's a lot of calculation that goes into that and a lot of those principles are derived from big tobacco when they used to own a lot of these food companies because they were

having trouble with their cigarettes for obvious reasons. But that still took, I think, like 50-plus years to link cigarettes to lung cancer. And then they put those tactics into food and made them as addictive as possible. In fact, one of the recent FDA commissioners, Robert Caliph, actually on record in a Senate hearing, said that ultra-processed foods are probably addictive and leverage the same pathways as opiates. And so they know this. We know this. They have not done anything about it. There was actually a secret meeting in 1999 between the top 11 food executives at the time about obesity and how ultra-processed foods was causing obesity. And it was one executive, I believe his name was Harvey Mud from Kraft Foods, who essentially was a whistleblower.

They ignored it and kept making this junk food. And here we are today. Who ultimately decides what goes into ultra-processed food, the ingredients? The food companies. Typically, it's a combination of a marketing person and an R&D person, but marketing is kind of driving the bus. What's R&D? Research and development. So those are people that are doing the formulations to achieve a bliss point, to achieve

the vanishing caloric density that we talked about. And so they work in harmony, and then they'll test it with consumers, right? And so, you know, there's always a joke that there's a linear relationship between the amount of sugar and the amount of liking on a product. There is a point in which there could be too much sugar. But, you know, typically the more sugar you add to something, the more well-liked it would be. And that's pretty common knowledge. Well, look at Dunkin' Donuts. Look at Dunkin' Donuts.

Look at Crumble Cookie just came out with a new drink, right? Is it an energy drink or something? But they just came out with something and it's like 12 cans of Coke. basically is what it is with sugar. Yeah. How are consumer tests run? There'll be focus groups, right? Like, tell me how you feel about this.

And I remember sitting, I had an aha moment sitting in one of these focus groups. And one of the consumers there was struggle. It was a weight. We were looking into weight loss, right? Which is a whole other topic we can get into as well. But we're in the weight loss. And she's like, I just can't lose weight. I drink.

I think she said like 24 Diet Coke's a day. And so, like, I think one of the biggest misconceptions in food, which big food companies use to kind of shift the blame to us, the consumer, is that everything in moderation. And I think I've heard you talk about this, that's 80, 20 rules, a myth. It is. And I think with big food companies, they can get away with saying everything in moderation, because it kind of sounds okay, right?

Who would disagree with that? Do you think this quote, everything in moderation is actually propaganda that was started by big food, just like Big Pharma started, that depression is a chemical imbalance in the brain, which is fake? Yeah. I mean, I think it's very likely. I would not be surprised. It sounds like a very PR talking point of like, hey, don't blame us. Like, we just make the stuff. We don't tell you to eat it. But when you actually look at like we talked about how they make the food that an FDA commissioner said it was addictive or probably addictive. And also they make it ultra cheap compared to other things in the grocery store. So it's almost there on a pedestal for everybody to grab and over consume. And everything in moderation is a myth. Because back to that story about the focus group. is that there's such a thing called a heavy user in the big food world, right? Those are people that typically about 20% of people who buy a brand account for 80% of the sales.

So those people are eating a ton of that product. And that's that person like the Diet Coke drinker. And there's a well-documented story about one who is drinking 12 cans of Diet Coke a day. And those are the people they make all the money off of. So they know that there are a large amount of people that are consuming a large amount of these products. but they don't do anything because that's how they make their money. So I don't understand this woman who was like, I can't lose weight but drinking 12 Diet Coke a day, she just thought Diet Coke meant it can't make her gain weight, like, has the word diet?

I think a lot of advertising, right? Like they'll have very attractive people drink Diet Coke. They'll have slim people drink Diet Coke. It has the word diet in it, right? And I think a lot of even the WHO, the World Health Organization, has come out and publicly stated that artificial sweeteners do not help. with weight loss, either does natural non-caloric sweeteners like stevia or monk fruit. And so I think it's sort of this advertising that's already been so entrenched in our culture

that even if stats like that come out, people don't really think of it that way. You know, my favorite slogan for Diet Coke is people call them fridge cigarettes, which is like probably the best description of what that is. And people are, you know, smoking or drinking a pack a day of Diet Coke fridge cigarettes. And so that whole everything in moderation is a scam, especially when it comes to ultra-processed foods, because they're engineered to get you to overeat. And they're at such a cheap price point that it's hard to say no. Let's talk about aspartame. What is your opinion on that ingredient?

Because there's lots of controversy. There's lots of contradicting studies. It is bad. It isn't bad. What do you think? Everything in moderation. Now, I just shouldn't be in food. there's really no benefit to it.

I think if I look at any ingredient, I'm like, who created it and for what reason? And that ingredient was essentially created to remove sugar, which I guess is a good thing, depending on the type of sugar, but if it's refined, it's definitely a good thing. And then let's add this new synthetic artificial chemical into our product to mimic sugar.

And then the WHO has come out and said that it actually triggers cravings because your body doesn't really know quite what to do with it. You taste something sweet. and you want kind of that sugar sensation in the body to kind of complete the loop. And so aspartame is just something I wouldn't put into my body. It's not something that I think should be in food. And I think it can lead to a lot of overeating or overconsumption. Let's talk about addictive food versus non-addictive food.

And let's use ice cream as an example. So is a company like ice cream for bears ice cream going to be the same type of addictive as Ben and Jerry's? It's a really good question. I mean, I think if you look at the ingredients, ice cream for bears is very clean. And there's a bunch of other brands out there as well. And then Ben and Jerry's, it's kind of an interesting story started by two brothers, right? Wanting to save the world, world peace. And then they sell to Unilever, right? And they essentially swap in all these bad ingredients. And then the big food scientists kind of come in and engineer it to be more palatable, easier to eat or easier to eat more of. So I would say that like, I think one of the big misconception is like, oh, like, I can't eat ice cream because it's bad. It's like, no, you can eat ice cream if the ingredients are good. I can't eat cereal because it's bad. No, you can eat cereal if the ingredients are good, right? And there's no refined sugar and ice cream for bears. They're just using honey, I believe, to sweet. Yeah, they're using honey. Some of their flavors do have natural flavors, which you should look out for, but in general, they're pretty clean. Why is natural

flavor something to look out for? This one is an interesting one. I think you would ask most people, like, are natural flavor is healthy? And they'd be like, yeah, they're natural. What are you talking about? They say, like, with natural flavors on the front of the box. But if you actually dig into it, they can contain up to 100 different chemicals, a lot of processing aids. And really a natural flavor, the amount of natural source that's in that flavor is usually

less than like 5%. The rest of it is our processing chemicals to essentially convert, you know, that piece of tree bark or whatever the natural origin source is into a, essence or a flavor. And so I think it's a troublesome path to walk. I think there's a lot of products out there that use it are kind of wellness products. And I think for me, it's a sort of a, I'd say kind of a yellow flag. I would like to see the other ingredients in the product. And I think something that nobody really talks about because they talk about natural flavors as a flavor, right? But it's actually designed also as a flavor masker. And so like things with high protein will often

have a natural flavor in it because it will mask that off note from that pea protein or whatever's in that product. So your body really doesn't know it's eating something very earthy. And so when that's an issue is that those products could have ingredients that go rancid, especially like a seed oil or really any type of oil that can oxidize quickly. And so that flavor mask will mask that rancidity. So you could be eating rancid food and not even know it because the natural flavor is masking that in your body. Our bodies are intelligently designed to detect things like rancidity. And so, like, you eat something rancid, what are you going to do? Like, immediately spit it out, right?

But if there's a natural flavor in there, you'll have no idea that this product is stale or rancid. Speaking of rancidity, what do you know about avocado oil? Yeah, that's a whole rabbit hole, too. I think all of these oils, like, whether it's olive oil, avocado oil, typically are good. I think the problem is they get adulterated, right? Like we were looking into adding avocado oil into one of our products. And the price difference was anywhere from, if I remember correctly, like $8 a pound to like $2 a pound. And I was like, how could the one ingredient have such a wide range of cost from the same supplier?

And they sort of looked at me and were like, don't ask, right? Because it's being cut with something. It's not pure avocado oil. So you have to look for 100% on the ingredient statement to make sure what you. you're getting is what you're actually paying for. What surprised you the most when you were working on the inside in Big Food? I would say just the lack of care for the end, you know, what we call consumers. And I really hate that word because it also kind of disassociates with like who's actually eating it, but people, right? Like I was saying before, like food is such an emotional act, right? I would like in,

if you went over to like Big Foods house for dinner, right, it's probably not going to be a great dinner. They're going to invite you over. They're going to cut the spaghetti noodles in half. They're going to water down the pasta sauce, add a bunch of weird ingredients, and essentially rush you out of there and make you overeat, right? It's not going to be a pleasant experience. And I think with me and Lovebird, like I take that so seriously. Like every time someone emails me because I run our entire customer service line and I see you do. I see the founder. Yeah, the good, the bad and the ugly. Most people are great. But every time I get a complaint, it like hurts because it's like, hey, this is something I'm making with love. This is something I serve my daughter. This is something

that I want to be a positive experience for people. And that lack of care just doesn't exist in Big Food. It's all a numbers game. And I think when you reduce people to numbers, you start making really bad decisions because you don't wonder and you don't operate in the best interest of those people. I need everyone to say a prayer for cheer mom Linda.

Linda has listened to the same two-minute EDM remix of Beyonce approximately 4,000 times this season. Boots and cats and boots and cats. She can now identify a cheer routine from 100 yards away just by the opening air horn. She's driven to competitions in three states. She owns 17 bedazzled jackets that she never wanted. She's emotionally invested in 13-year-old sticking a landing.

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these health people is you don't go cold turkey overnight. You start with familiar things. You don't take away the burger. You just make it at home with better ingredients. You don't totally eliminate chicken nuggets. You just upgrade them. And the easiest swap of all, breakfast cereal. No cooking, no fight. Just swap it. Because most serious. Cereals are a disaster. Even the healthy ones. I'm saying that in quotes. Even the healthy ones sometimes can have refined sugar, synthetic pesticides. You've got the typical conventional cereals. They have weird dyes, stuff made in a lab so that big food could make money while your kid is basically eating a science experiment. Lovebird is different. Lovebird was started when my friend, Parker, who's a dad,

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What was like one of the products that you saw General Mills come out with? And then they basically were like, this was a massive fail. We got to end this. Like, this isn't working out. Yeah, I mean, originally it was Cheerios Protein. So they launched that. They've relaunched it recently. I was going to say, but now we're in a protein surge.

Like, everything is protein. Yeah, yeah. But before people weren't ready for it. Yeah, it was like ancient grain, ancient grain Cheerios and Cheerio's protein. And they just flopped, right? because the taste wasn't good. And that consumer, that person, like, wanted something that tasted good. And they pulled the plug pretty quickly on it.

But, I mean, also the one of the dirty secrets do is most innovation from these big food companies fail. I think it's like a 80 to 90 percent failure rate on new items because they're just not good at it because they look at everything as a number. It's like, oh, protein's on trend. Let's do Cheerio's protein again. But they don't really understand why people want protein, right? Like the source that they want, the quality.

source, the other ingredients that are in there as well. And like when I launched a protein cereal, I was like kind of fed up with all these people kind of protein washing things. What's a real protein cereal versus fake or like not good? Yeah. I mean, I think you look at all the other ingredients in it, right? Like big food will use the cheapest source of protein, which is typically soy, right? Soy or pee. And so for me, it's like I want to use the most like bioavailable, you know, one PDCAST, which is how they measure the protein absorption in the body, which is way protein. It's one of the best proteins you can consume. And it's really beneficial to the body. So definitely wanted to use that, made sure it was grass-fed, and then use all organic ingredients

and no refined sugar. So it's really nourishing the body. It's not just capitalizing on a trend, right? I think we've seen these trends evolve way back when 100 calorie packs, right? Nobody was eating one 100-calorie pack. I think I remember as a kid eating like five of those in one sitting, right? Because they're designed not to fill you up. They took out the sugar. They took out the calories and they put a bunch of stuff in there that never makes you feel full. Then you had things like Atkins diet that became keto. Now keto's dead and now it's protein. And so these big food companies just hop from trend to trend using all of the same support ingredients, but just changing out one ingredient so they can now put protein and big font on the front of the box. So it's that kind of short-sided thinking and trend hopping that is just inauthent. in my eyes. Yeah, and I understand why a lot of people are like, I need to up my protein intake. I would say the majority of Americans probably do need to do that, especially if you're on a weight loss journey.

I think, you know, adding more protein when you're on a weight loss journey can be helpful. But it also, it really does matter where you're getting your protein. Like, even before getting it from cereal or whatever, like the first place should be, you know, chicken breast or steak or eggs or fish, you know, you should be looking at. for those sources first and then yeah you can add in fun things later if they're coming from like a really good source like what you're doing but you know i think people just think like i'm just going to increase my protein and all i'm going to do is eat chloe carashy and popcorn you know what i'm saying yeah and i and i think like that's the you're still not helping the problem yeah and that's

kind of the big food loop right like big food created the lack of protein problem because they created a bunch of if you look at the american diet right the over 50% of our diet is either refined grain, refined sugar, or seed oils. And why do you think that is? That's because 62% of our diet for adults and almost 70% of our diet for kids is ultra-processed food. So our caloric kind of gas tank, if you think of it in that way, is filled up with all these junk ingredients. So we don't have room to eat the good stuff. I mean, I don't think our grandparents had a problem getting enough protein. I mean, protein powder for them was a steak, right? Red light therapy was getting out into the sun. Electrolites was a fresh glass of milk, right? Like, we've lost touch with the food

that nature has given us to nourish our bodies and we've essentially outsourced it to big food. And big food's like, great, come on over to our house. We have the cheapest ingredients that have no nutritional density and will make you overeat. I mean, I think I was looking the other day, like calorie consumption since 1970, which was the explosion of like packaged food has gone up 25%. So we are eating more calories, but we're getting less nutrition because it's filled with all of this junk food. And so what does that do to the body? It's chronic inflammation. I mean, you see the out. Everybody's like, oh, where's the human double blind controlled study to show that, you know, steak is good for you? It's like, I don't need a study for that. I think we've been

in the largest uncontrolled human experiment in history in the past 60 years or so, maybe a little bit less with junk food, right? And like, does anybody think we're healthier on average? Absolutely not. Chronic disease is up. Six and ten adults now have a chronic disease and even more worrisome. Four and ten kids now have a chronic disease. And that's going to be generational with epigenetics. Like, you're just setting the bar more and more unhealthy for every preceding generation. And so I think, you know, my own journey waking up, understanding that I think a lot of people, and kudos to you to helping people discover, that and wake up to the truth is that this food is slowly killing us. And I think it's unlike

cigarettes where it's like, okay, lung cancer didn't exist really before cigarettes. Then a doctor is like, well, now there's lung cancer. What changed? And there's a clear kind of smoking gun between lung cancer and cigarettes. With packaged food, it's so muddy. It's hard to pinpoint, okay, we now have obesity. We now have metabolic disorders. We now have rising rates in ADHD, in anxiety and depression, like everything across the board is up. And it's really hard to link that directly to package food. But I believe that we have low grade chronic inflammation. And part of my own journey, I was very sick. And I cut out junk food, went on an elimination diet and like got better within a short amount of time, right? It's still a work and progress. But I think a lot of people

are walking around with that like post Thanksgiving day fog and they don't really even realize it. And I think packaged food, junk food, and really these ultra-processed ingredients are mostly to blame. Let's talk about things that you see and you think, okay, that's a healthier option and then the reality. So, for example, we brought up Chloe Kardashian. I'll just say really quick. Her popcorn, if I have to choose between that and, I don't know, some other type of brands popcorn, hers is probably still going to be better because, yes, it is seed oil-free. Sure, she's throwing something in there so you get protein. However, I would be cautious because it's not organic.

and you're shoveling in a corn product, which is saturated with glyphosate. So just keep that in mind because it's not organic. But then another thing that I think of is when I was growing up, I loved and thought I was making a healthier choice eating multi-grained Cheerios. I still, because it was engineered, when I think of it, I can taste it. I loved multi-grained Cheerios and then multi-grained goldfish. A lot of parents think, well, I'll opt for the multi-grained goldfish crackers. That's going to be better than the original.

But what's the truth? It still behaves in your body as a refined grain or a refined carb, right? I think, you know, whole grains can be great. So let's state that first and foremost. I think you've had Sue Becker on your podcast who talks about how to mill it and get the most nutrient density out of it. And it can have a lot of healing effects for people. But I think when you refine it and process it, it converts it into a refined starch and a refined grain and it behaves in your body just like sugar. You know, maybe it's slightly better than pure, you know, bleached flower. enriched flour, but not really how your body actually processes it. And then the whole foods or the whole grain council is actually owned by industry. So that's like the little wheat, the yellow wheat logo you see on some of these products. Like it's owned by the companies that are making the products. And there's like, you know, X amount of whole grain they have to have in each product. But there's no regulation in the amount of sugar you can have in it. And then that feeds into these heart healthy claims that you'll see on Cheerios.

which is absolutely a scam. Like, it is nothing heart-healthy about that product. They're essentially arguing that, hey, you're consuming less saturated fat than you otherwise would be, and therefore it's heart-healthy, and it has to be like 51% whole grains. But then you look at the other ingredients that are passengers on the ingredient label, and it's huge amounts of refined grain, refined sugar, all things that grow the bad LDL in your heart that actually cause heart disease, right? And there are plenty of doctors. who disagree that, you know, saturated fat is driving heart disease or that it's bad for you, too.

So there's a lot of like... There's nuance. And I think it's on both sides, right? Like, I think, you know, one thing that people were demonizing on the wellness side was like, breakfast is not the most important meal of the day. Everybody should be fasting every hour of every day. And it's like, well, maybe for certain people, but it needs to be unique to your needs. And breakfast actually can be the most important meal of your day. You know, I like the saying, like, you know, eat breakfast like a king.

lunch like a prince and then dinner like you know a pauper or like a peasant right and so barbara o'neill's talks about that yeah just giving your body time to digest and it makes sense to load your energy at the beginning of the day and then use it as you go off through your day and so i just think that on both sides people kind of pull things i think it just eat real food know what you're putting into your body rise and fall with the sun when you sleep and get up you know move your body it doesn't have to be something crazy like a hit workout. It could just be walking as one of the most beneficial things for your body. And I think what's underweighted in all of that when people are chasing all of these health optimization goals is community and family, right? I think that is the longest indicator

of longevity is the quality of your relationships. There was a Harvard study that ran across a generation and followed the lives of people. And those that were most healthy and lived the longest had the highest amount of quality relationships over any other variable, whether it was sleep score, whether or not you had an eight sleep mattress, whether or not your water was, you know, reverse osmosis filtered. All of those things are important. But I think having that perspective and humility and quality bonds with other humans is what's most important. Did General Mills ever say no to using a healthier ingredient because it would have hurt margins? Yeah, I mean, all the time. I mean, I think when I went through my health journey, well, working at a big food company,

which was like a total trip, I felt like I was on the Truman show. You know, I'd go into meetings like, why can't we use this ingredient? They're like, ran the math. They're like, well, we would lose X amount of dollars. And I was like, well, it's like a whole food ingredient and is better for people. And it just kind of gets shut down, right? So, you know, I would say across the board at any company, it's sort of that mentality. And I think big food, like the thing that cracks me up, like people rail on big food.

food, me included. But like at least they're transparently bad, right? They list every bad ingredient on the side panel. They're very honest about that. They probably have the best labeling across any, you know, size food company out there. And then there's like these small food companies that do wild things with labels. They'll take like tapioca starch and label it as cassava. You know, they'll romanticize ingredients. They'll say like, oh, we use dates. Therefore, it's not an added sugar. So they'll list zero added sugar or one gram of added sugar, but technically date syrup isn't added sugar. You can kind of debate that fact. But it just, I find it comical that a lot of these like quote unquote healthy brands, you know, rail on big food,

but then do worse things on the label. You know, and my products or some of them are made at facilities with these other brands. And I see everything. Like I see their true ingredient label. And it's a little disheartening that you'll have brands that pretend be healthy but are actually pretty fake. Is there anything that happened while you were at General Mills that still makes you angry when you think about it? I think the meeting, and this was kind of right after I became a father, and there was a meeting, I came back from my paternity leave, and that was a whole trip within itself, and I'm sure

we'll talk about it later. But we're sitting in this meeting, it's like, what equity character can we put on this cup of yogurt to sell more of it? And it was like, you know, burmades versus, you know, unicorns. corn's or something. I'm kind of making that up. But just like the, the like stepping outside of it for however long my paternity leave was and then going back into it was like such a whiplash effect because it opened your eyes to the types of decisions that were being made with like zero care. It's like, oh, well, should little girls like I just became a, a girl dad, should little girls be

eating this product? Like probably not. Like, why are we trying to get them to eat more of it with a mermaid? Yeah, so at some point you had a massive aha moment and you were like, I'm out. I'm not going to be complicit in what's happening here working for one of the biggest big food brands in the country. And I'm going to start something else that is basically going right up against them. So what was that moment for you? What happened? I was working at General Mills. I was sick. The kind of low-grade inflammation ultimately became psoriatic arthritis and autoimmune disorder. And I just had constant brain fog, low-end, energy. I'd get home from work and just like lay in my bed and crash out. And I couldn't really figure out what it was. And a girl I was dating at the time that has since become my wife was like, we should try whole 30. And we did whole 30, which is essentially an elimination diet and removed all the junk food. And I felt great. And from that moment, I was like, oh, I realized the power of food is medicine. I was listening and reading a lot of Dr. Mark Hyman, which is one of the legends in the space, and really got indoctrinated into food as medicine. And then going into work every day. And then going into work

every day, you know, was trying to change it from within, but it was very clear that they were going to protect the billion-dollar brands, the cheap ingredients that help make them more money for shareholders. It's certainly a profit over-health model that they have, and it just wasn't aligned. Like, I believe you are at your best as a human when your values align with your work, and at General Mills, my values no longer aligned, and I couldn't do a good job there anymore because I couldn't, in good faith, like, try to sell more Totino's pizza rolls. you know, do a 120 count bag for the heavy users to eat a bunch more of when there's actually no real cheese in the product at all. It's like some plasticizer in there instead.

Ew. Yeah, really gross. And so there was this detachment from that. And so I felt that like low burn of like, hey, there's not alignment. And then when my daughter was born, it like shook up everything. Like I felt a calling. Like it was supernatural. I remember being in the hospital room like holding her. like fit into my hands just like a little pebble or something. And I was like this little angel that's just like quietly breathing. And I was like, I created this thing or my wife did all the work, but like I'm a part of it, like a co-star at least. And like I created this thing. And I'm like, I can't look at this little angel and like sell this types of products. So I came back and essentially quit very shortly after

sort of had a Jerry McGuire moment. Like, you know, who's coming with me? grab the goldfish. Yeah. Was your wife really like, what the heck are you? I'm sure you must have been making a lot of money and you just up and quit. And was she like, what the heck are you thinking? Or was she like on board from the get-go? To her credit, like, she's very supportive. And that's how I knew I picked like the right woman for sure. Or maybe she picked me. I don't really know how that all worked. But no, she was very supportive. I think she's always been supportive of like go chase your passion. And she could tell I was very passionate about that. But at that time, it's truly Jerry McGuire. I didn't really know what I was going to do. Right.

I just knew I felt a calling to go do something to help kids health, right? Like I couldn't just sit there and sell cereal boxes with cartoon characters on them anymore. So I left and then I started doing research and found out that, you know, the number one breakfast for kids is cereal. It's a huge category. It's filled with junk, ultra-processed grain, ultra-processed sugar, seed oils, and a bunch of other preservatives and additives that you find at the end of the ingredient statement. and I knew I could make it better. And the idea was simple. It's like take out all the bad stuff, essentially give your cereal a detox,

remove the refined grain, the refined sugar, the refined seed oils, and replace it with whole food nutrition. So whole food cassava root, whole food buckwheat, which has prebiotic fiber and is a complete protein, and then sweeten it naturally with organic honey and a little bit of organic coconut sugar. So no refined sugar. And I remember on that journey feeling fire. up, wind at my back, and I go, how do I even make this thing? So I did some experimenting in my kitchen, get covered in cassava flour. My wife's like, you have no clue what you're doing.

And so I started working with some quote unquote food scientists. And one of them is like, you got to go to a flavor house. I was like, why do I need a flavor house? I only want to use honey. They're like, just go and talk to them. And I was like, okay, I want to like sweet my cereal with only honey. They laughed me out of the room. They're like, that's never going to work. It's going to cost too much money. It's not going to maintain the integrity of the product. Like, you need one of our natural flavors to give that honey flavor and you need refined sugar because it's cheap. And I was like, that's not what I want to do. So I think for anybody, when you're creating something so personal and emotional, like people are going to tell you no. And it's so

important you push past that because I could have just folded then and be like, oh, these people who are experts are telling me that this is a joke. But I felt this deep belief and I felt this calling to kind of push past that and ultimately launch Lovebird, you know, as a, you know, solo entrepreneur launched it online like during the pandemic and was sort of what I call like a new product or brand trust fall. I was like, I don't even know if people care about this stuff. And I was floored by the reaction of people, the community of people that were craving for something like this and at least a food brand that represents their values. And it's so important, like I said before, to have those shared values. Because when there's alignment like that, that's

where magic happens. That's where good things happen. And, For me, it's like how do I break this profit over health business model and create profit with purpose? So it's both using these clean ingredients, but we also donate 20% of our profit to childhood cancer. And so I wanted to make sure if there's something I'm going to dedicate my life to, it would be something fulfilling and something that makes a difference. For the longest time, I thought creatine was only for the crazy gym rats. But the more I dug into the research, the more I realize that people are taking creatine for reasons that have nothing to do with getting bigger muscles. Yeah, creatine is one of the most studied supplements for strength, power, and recovery. But what's really fascinating is this

growing research looking into its potential role in cognitive function, mental performance, and even mood support. That is what got my attention. And the reason I chose Peory-Creatine Plus, is spelled P-U-O-R-I, is because it's not just creatine. So each serving of P-O-E-R-E-R-E-L-E-R-E-Las combines five grams of creatine monohydrate with $400. milligrams of Tori. Now, both ingredients are known for their role in energy support during high intensity exercise. And emerging research suggests that they may also support cognitive performance and mental clarity. But I loved Peory's transparency the most. I'm really, really picky about supplements. And Peory is the only brand of creatine that I have found with the clean label project

transparency certificate. So every single batch of Peory creatine is independently tested for more than 200 contaminants and they publish the results online. You can literally scan the QR code on the bag and you can see the test results for your specific batch. So that is the kind of transparency that I wish every single supplement company had. Go to peory.com, p-u-o-r-I-com slash Alex and use code Alex to get 32% off your first Pearycotine Plus order when you start a subscription. You're going to save more than $23. That's puery.com slash Alex. Use code Alex at checkout for 32% off your subscription. I saw someone. I saw someone online say they couldn't afford to take their kids to the movies. Okay? Not Disney World, not Europe. The movies. And I thought, man, that is where so many families are right now. You're skipping little joys,

saying no to pizza night, putting back groceries at checkout, while every month, hundreds or sometimes thousands of dollars disappear into a health insurance premium that you're praying you never have to use. We've been told that that's normal. I don't think it is. That's why I want you to know about crowd health. It's not health insurance. It is an alternative to health insurance where members contribute you each month to help one another with major medical bills instead of paying massive premiums into a system that often denies your claim anyway. For everyday health care, paying cash is actually far less expensive than people expect. And when something truly big happens, like cancer or a car accident or a broken bone, the crowd is there to help. You also get a dedicated care advocate. Help

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Use code culture to get started for $99 for your first three months. That's join crowdhealth.com code culture. Crowdhealth is not insurance. I constantly hear people saying organic as a scam. What is the strongest argument against that? Yeah, I hear that all the time in the wellness space and out of the wellness space. And I could not disagree more. When it comes to packaged food, there is no label that means more than an USDA organic seal.

It automatically means that there's no synthetic pesticides used like glyphosate. You should probably still look for a glyphosate-free label as well. But it means there's no synthetic pesticides, no synthetic fertilizers, no sewage sludge that they're used in farming. Wait, wait, wait. If your food is not organic, there could be sewage. So they'll use sewage sludge as a fertilizer, so it's super cheap. It's usually around farms closer to urban areas, but it's a rich source of microplastics, heavy metals, and also pesticides. A rich source of microplastics.

I mean, let's just dive right in. Wow. Okay, that is a strong argument against it. You brought your A game on that because I've never heard that. Yeah, so they essentially organic ensures that there's no synthetic fertilizers, no sewage sludge like we talked about, no artificial food dyes, and no artificial preservatives. So for me, like, as a parent now with two kids, like I have very little mental bandwidth anymore. So even when I go to the grocery store, I'll make mistakes because I'll be like, oh, that package looks good. I'm going to buy it.

I don't know. I take it home and I'm like, oh, I got fooled again, right? Like I'm like, they got me. Yeah, they got me. Like they're getting better. It's harder out there. It's never been harder as a parent. Like, your grandma didn't have to worry about what she bought at the grocery store, but we have a whole host of things to worry about now. And I bought something that wasn't organic and it had all of these things in it.

So I think it's just easy for parents when they shop, especially in packaged food, to look for the organic seal. And for sure, still read the label, right? Just because it's organic doesn't mean it has the best ingredients, right? It could have organic, you know, potato starch or organic, whatever processed starch. in it. So still read your labels, but it is a good shortcut to at least ensure that there's not all of those weird ingredients in the processing of your food item. And also one important thing that I didn't realize until I started my food company was that the organic certification essentially validates the ingredients that are used in the product, right? So I mentioned before that some

fake healthy brands will mislabel ingredients intentionally, like tapioca starch will be labeled as cassava. but if you're organic certified, they review your ingredient statement and make sure it's accurate. So you can't do any of the romanticizing that happens on ingredient labels. So for me, it's like I know exactly what's in it. And then I can be the judge based on the ingredients if it's something I bring into my home. Why is Magic Spoon cereal not actually a healthier alternative? Yeah, Magic Spoon. I mean, they're high in protein, low in sugar.

They've built on the keto movement. But they still use all these fake sweeteners, right? so they use alulose, which essentially just triggers cravings in your body anyways. And so I think if you look at the ingredients and also some bioengineered or GMO ingredients as well, and they use natural flavors too. And so that could mask any of those off notes that you might otherwise taste. As we talked about rancidity, the natural flavors will mask that rancidity. So you could be eating rancid products and not know it.

I would say a good amount of protein, not for me. I think the ingredients, if you were to read them, you'd kind of understand why they're not the best option. Why are moms the biggest target of ultra-processed food companies? Oh, I'm glad we're sitting down. The tale is oldest time. So here's a story. Do you know how soap operas were originally invented? So soap operas were invented by Procter & Gamble to sell soap.

And so since the beginning, like moms were targeted by marketing. Literal entertainment was created for moms. to watch so they could sell them household products, right? And you look at, you know, GIF has this famous campaign that's called choosy moms choose Jif. So choosy moms choose seed oils, essentially, because that's what they use in their product. And then the one that probably enrages me the most is the Cheerios first finger food. Have you heard about this one? No.

I mean, you probably will once you enter that life stage at some point. So Cheerios are marketed as a good first finger food for babies or toddlers so they can use. they're like pincher grip, right? And they market it as such. But then there is a study that came out or published recently about a World War II sugar rationing study. And essentially, if you feed your kid more than 15 grams of sugar, added sugar per day for the first 1,000 days of life, including in the womb.

So as moms who are pregnant, eating a lot of sugar, you raise the risk of diabetes and hypertension in your unborn child. And so you have Cheerios here essentially promoting. the first finger food for babies or toddlers that has added sugar and also is a refined grain that acts as a sugar in the body. And so you're essentially grooving a future customer at probably the most young and vulnerable age possible. Wow. Which is just awful, right? And it's again, they don't think the second order consequence of like, hey, I just want to sell more cereal. I don't really care how. And I think that is where new moms, you know, being a dad with my wife and seeing

her become a mom, like it's such a upside down experience and you don't know what to do, what to trust. You got this little angel you want to protect and give the best thing to. Then you have billions of dollars of advertising telling you you should feed your kid Cheerios. So moms historically have been targeted because they're the gatekeeper to the household. Almost all mom marketing is a big strategy for every CPG company. And I think this will be validating for some moms. There's an actual strategy by big food to drive what is called kid ask or mom nag. And so they will advertise on channels that are viewed by kids to make sure that when they go down the aisle,

they're going to see the blues clues fruit snacks and nag their mom about it because they saw it on TV or they saw it on YouTube, whatever kids are watching these days. And that's all of their strategy is to essentially make moms life harder and make their kids nag them in the grocery store for certain items. And so there's just some of these tactics that once you're aware of them, you can manage around it. But I think most people aren't. And it's pretty easy just to be, you know, after a long, tired day, be like, all right, just put the fruit snacks in the cart. Who cares? Let's go. So there's conscious strategies to target moms. How do you feel about brands like Poppy or Siette or Primal Kitchen selling to big food?

It's an inevitable life cycle of most health brands. And I think it's a good thing in one regard. It's a good thing because Big Food knows that they are not winning anymore. If you were to look at the stock prices of the major big food companies, they're all down 50 to 80 percent. They're all in the red. So what are they going to do to grow? They need to acquire health brands, right? And so I think that's a good signal. I think the issue is having been on the other side of working in a big food company is once these new brands come into the fold, you know, maybe they leave them alone for a year. But after a year, it's like, well, we need more growth out of this thing. So if they're not really growing revenue, they want to grow profit. And what's the easiest way to grow profit? swap out lower

quality ingredients. And so I think it's something to be mindful of. I think Primal Kitchen has done a good job and also Hugh Choclet has done a good job of holding to their ingredient integrity. But that can only last for so long because you're up against giant billion dollar brands in these companies. And if they're not going to be growing, then they're going to get deprioritized. And I've seen that firsthand with Cascadian Farm, which is owned by General Mills. Oh, that is a, that's a really big, like, greenwashed, not healthy brand that you think is healthy, just based on the packaging alone. Yeah. And so they've been owned by General Mills for probably over 20 years. Kashi is owned by Kellogg's. Oddly enough, when Kashi was purchased by Kellogg's, Kellogg's added GMOs to their products to help drive down

cost. There was a huge backlash, but it just shows you what they want to do with the brand. They weren't there in the inception. And I think as a founder, there's such an emotional connection to your brand because you created it. It's like a child. And I think it's essentially like handing off your child to like some new teacher that doesn't care about anything but progress. And it's just this really weird experience, I would imagine. So good for the founders. I'm happy for them. That's what they wanted. With Lovebird, I've taken a different tact. We're still 100% family owned. I was talking to Vance earlier, and he's like,

how many people work at Love Bird? And I was like, two. And I'm one of them. Two? Yeah, there's two full time. How are you doing that? No, genuinely, like, I need some inside baseball here because you're in, like, I mean, most every major retailer.

I mean, you're in Whole Foods. I've seen you multiple places. You're in tons of, like, small, like, clean food markets and stores all over the country. What other retailers are you in? Are you in Costco? We do have some rotations at Costco here and there. I mean, it's dedication to the mission, right? And so I think...

Are you constantly traveling and having meetings and stuff? Yeah, there's a lot of travel. I still have great time at home with my family. I've been able to create something that works for me. But I think it's more out of necessity because I've seen brands, like the first time, like, I get a kick out of people who are like, oh, like, you know, before Siette was purchased, it's like, oh, this family company sold to Pepsi. It's like, it's a $300 million company when they sold. and they had raised almost probably $100 million. So the first time you take a check from private equity or venture capital,

you're essentially on the sell-to-big-food roller coaster. And my mission is to avoid that at all costs, right? And so the way I need to do that is to be 100% family-owned. And the way I afford things like expanding the business is I wear a lot of hats, right? I've run our customer service line. I run our social account. And I've made those decisions to work harder. to maintain the integrity of what we do because the second you take an investor check, the second

the questions start coming to you of like, hey, how can we make more money? How can we grow? We need to grow 50 percent so we can raise more money than sell the big food. You know angel investors or investors? No, no investors. Everything was your money. My money. So the funny story there is, so when I left Journal Mills, I cashed out all my stock, which was a good thing because it's decreased like 50%. And that was kind of our fault. Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. But we'll clap it up for that. So I took all the stock from General Mills

and put it into starting Lovebird. So I guess in a way, General Mills has some investor into Lovebird. But yeah, it's a different path. I'm not going to say it's the best path, but it's the path I've taken. And it's because I have a different goal where I want to build a hundred-year-old brand that I can hand to my daughter at some point, not a brand that I want to get everywhere at once and then sell to like Kellogg's. Well, did you see it was? the grandchild of Reese's peanut butter cups was like, can we go back to the original ingredients? You know, peanut butter and chocolate? They're like trying to get rid of all this weird stuff in there.

Who would have thought? Yeah. It's like, what? How did we get here? So what is an ingredient that's really everywhere right now? It's very common. We see it in a lot of ultra-processed food that everybody's eating that in 10, 15 years, we are really going to regret and be like, what were we thinking?

I think it's a combination of refined grain and refined. find sugar. And I think people sort of already know that, but they don't really understand the impact of it. And so that's why love birds grain free. And so I just would caution people when they look at packaged food, always read the first two ingredients because that's the majority of what you're eating. So ingredients are organized in terms of percent weight of the product. So the first ingredient is pretty much what you're eating. And then I'd look at the last like three ingredients because that's where some sneaky stuff hides, right? Whether it's a artificial preservative or artificial sweetener or natural flavor. Those are ingredients that there's not as much of it in the product,

but that's where they kind of add the weird stuff. And so I would just say refined grain and refined sugar. Like look at your ingredient labels, read them. If your first ingredient is one of those, then you should probably put it back. One ingredient that I think of is like monodyglycerides. I heard that they can hide trans fats within that. Have you heard that at all? Yeah. I mean, I think there's trace amounts of trans fat. And the trans fat store, is pretty wild if you want to listen to that. Storytime part two. I love this.

I'm going to record these for my daughter. Be like, all right, bedtime stories, the history of trans fat. Oh my gosh, you know what love for you should do? Parker, you should do a limited edition children's book, the ABCs of big food. And every, it's like, you know, B, BHA. Like, you should just go through and like do all the bad ingredients and what they are.

D, don't trust big food. Yeah. Yeah, I like that. Raising independent children is key, though. Critical thinkers. So the history of trans fat, so it took 60 years to ban it officially. And there was a lipid researcher at the University of Illinois. His name was Fred Comerow.

And he had flagged it early because he was dissecting hearts and finding trans fats in hearts. And so he flagged it. It was a 60-year battle, fought industry. Industry said, no, it's fine. It's fine. It's fine. And ultimately at the age of 98, he sued the FDA. Whoa.

And effectively won. and they banned trans fats. Holy crap. Wait, this guy's my hero. What's his name? Fred Comaro. Okay, we love Fred. We need like a poster of him back there.

Yeah, he's since past RIP Fred, but he lived to the age of 102, and his diet was whole milk and eggs. Let's go. And so he was one of the pioneers fighting against trans fats. You can really track the history of fat with McDonald's French fries. So McDonald's used to have beef tallow. Then they went to trans fat. That got banned. Now they're using seed oils.

And now you can see places. is like steak and shake, go back to beef tallow. And so that's kind of the history of fat. And it's all judged by like what's legal or not. They're going to use the cheapest alternative that is the easiest to use and makes them the most money. And so Fred really fought against that and battled industry and took them 60 years. And that's why I always tell people like, hey, the government will take care of it. It's like, no, they'll do it 60 years late. That's like almost over half of your lifetime if you're lucky, right? It's multiple generations, you know, that were affected by trans fats. People who have lost parents, people who have lost loved ones that didn't have to die from heart disease, but were mainlining trans fats. And so now you see the same thing with like seed oils, which I think he gave a warning, which was interesting. And this is, you know, when he was like in his 90s. So before seed oil, you know, anti seed oil became all the rage. He effectively gave a warning against seed oils or Pufa P-U-FAs like a seed oil because they oxidize so quickly. And so.

So that's what he was seen in his research. And I think that's the issue when you're frying foods with them, when we talked about them in packaged food, that they can oxidize pretty quickly because that item sits on the shelf for, you know, six to 12 to maybe 24 months. And then you combine that with a natural flavor that then masks that rancidity note. So you don't know you're eating something rancid. And so he gave that warning. And essentially trans fats were replaced with seed oils, which we were talking earlier. If you look at the origin of ingredient, that's sort of how I gauge its intent. Transfat was an artificial fat that was developed for industrial use.

They were like, oh, my God, we can cut it and make it look like butter. Let's like use it in food. And then seed oils or seed oils as well were engine lubricant. And then they understood that they could use it in food as well. And so just like the same thing with different names is the game that these food companies play. But you know what? They'll never put into their product. real food, because there's no money in that for them, because they've built their margins

around these fake ingredients that are hyper addictive and hyper palatable and cause people to overeat and they need cheap ingredients. Can I ask you something? Wibbledin, Wibbledin, Wibbledin, no, not that. Do you actually know if your voter registration is up to date? Not I think so. Not probably. I mean, do you know that your voter registration is up to date?

Because most people are walking around with no freaking clue. And voter registration is one of those things that people assume. is just handled and then they show up and find out the government has them listed as deceased, living in another county, or apparently still registered at an apartment where they once paid $2,300 a month to hear their neighbor practice the trumpet. Yeah, a lot can mess up your voter registration. You moved. You changed your name. You haven't voted in a while. You made one typo three years ago. And now you're in this bureaucratic hostage situation. Millions of people either aren't registered at all or they have no idea if they are. Like one in four people are basically

just freelancing their democracy. So here's the easiest thing you can do today. Just go to real alexclerc.com slash vote. That's it. Real Alexclark.com slash vote. Takes 30 seconds on your phone. You can check your registration status updated if you need to. And then you don't have to pretend like, well, I'm pretty sure I'm registered to vote when November comes around. Go to real Alexclark.com slash vote and make sure you're actually good to go. It is so easy to check. I'm incredibly particular about where I buy meat. In fact, I'm probably more obsessive about sourcing meat than almost anything else in my kitchen. Because if I'm spending money on high quality food, I don't just want to know what animal it came from.

I want to know how it was raised, what it ate, whether it spent its life on pasture, and whether I'm supporting the kind of farming that I actually want more of in the world, and also getting the most for such expensive meat, right? Meat isn't cheap. So if I'm going to be spending a lot of money, I want to make sure that I'm getting all of the nutrients that I want to get for me and my family, That's why I love wild pastures. Their beef is 100% grass-fed and grass-finished, certified by the American Grass Fed Association, by the way, and raised right here in the United States, these cattle spend their lives rotationally grazing on pasture,

not standing in feedlots eating grain. Their pork is truly pasture raised, which is much harder to find than people realize. These wild pasture pigs spend their lives outdoors rooting and foraging and moving naturally instead of being confined indoors. They're raised without antibiotics, hormones, or steroids, and, are supplemented with non-GMO foods like pumpkins, apples, and turnips. We love a pig with a turnip. And their chicken is regenerative certified and genuinely pasture-raised, not just free range, which is like the biggest fraud of all.

That can mean a tiny door to a concrete yard. These chickens with wild pastures spend their days outdoors on fresh pasture eating bugs and foraging the way chickens are supposed to. Everything at wild pastures is sourced from American family farms. Everything is non-GMO. everything is raised using regenerative farming practices that helps restore soil instead of depleting it. What really impressed me is that wild pastures makes this level of quality very affordable. Typically, 25 to 40% less than what you'd expect to pay for premium regenerative meat because they cut out the middleman.

Guys, this is the cleanest, best meat and the least expensive that you can find shipped right to you. Honestly, once you've tasted truly pasture raised meat from wild pastures, you're not going to want to ever go back. Go to wildpastures.com slash Alex, use code Alex to get 20% off for life. Free shipping for life. And then a bonus $15 off. They're setting us up, guys. That's wildpastures.com slash Alex. Because when it comes to feeding your family, sourcing matters.

What would have to happen for companies like yours to actually defeat big food? People like yourself. It's power of the people. I think there's a lot of good things going on at a, at high levels, but I just look at it and I think it will ultimately be incomplete unless people are the ones advocating for it. I mean, I think back to the story, you know, as we were talking about ingredients, different ingredients, but same thing. You know, DDT was something that was widely used in agriculture. After 10 years, it was banned, and it was banned because people rallied to defeat

DDT. There was a book, Silent Spring by Rachel Carson, that really flagged the harms of it. Birds were dying. They couldn't understand why. They traced. it back to this insecticide, and essentially 20 million people marched on Earth Day to essentially send a message that led to the creation of the EPA by then-President Nixon so he could win his election. But that's how this whole politics thing works. But it took 20 million people of river and Ohio burning an oil up and down the coast of California for the EPA to be formed. Crazy to think that the EPA was formed on the premise of getting rid of D.E. and an environmental toxin that was gravely harming people.

And our very EPA defends pesticides like glyphosate and paraquat and dicamba. It's just crazy. Well, here's the dirty secret. And it's happening in tech right now, too, where AI companies want to be regulated by the government. Do you know why? It's called regulatory capture. So they want to be regulated and they want to be in the room when those.

regulations are written so they can write them to benefit their own company. And the same thing happens in food, right? Like who are the biggest donors to some of these groups, right? If you look at it, it's food companies, it's agriculture companies. They effectively can institutionalize a government agency, affect regulatory capture, and promote their own special interests through the government. So it essentially becomes a marketing arm for them. There are good things that they do, for sure, but in essence that's what you're kind of pointing out with things like glyphosate, which, you know, DDT, you know, was a industrial chemical. Glyphosate was a pipe cleaner before it was used on agriculture and they found out that they could

use it to kill weeds down to the root and now widely spread. And, you know, going back to the everything in moderation is a scam, it's like companies hide behind that. It's like, oh, glyphosate's fine in moderation. Or what is the exact legal wording they use? If it's used as intended, it's okay. I think the issue is that 75% of our crop land is covered in glyphosate. And the most easy solve for glyphosate is removing it as a desiccant. So they essentially spray crops that have been harvested with glyphosate to help them dry quicker and help their profit, right?

There's really no reason for that. That's just greed. Yeah, pre-harvest desiccation. Yeah, the desiccation. And so I was actually looking into this, and this is crazy. So the pre-harvest desiccation is responsible for like 2 to 5% of overall glyphosate usage, but it's responsible for 50% of what's detected in our food. Yeah, if we could rally and get your representatives, get legislators to say just in America, we're not banning glyphosate because we're probably never going to be able to do that. But if we start pushing for ban pre-harvest desiccation, that eliminates so much glyphosate exposure that we are getting in our country.

crops and in our food. So that would be a huge next step and something to fight for. 100%. And I think it goes back to voting with your dollar, right? I think organic, when you buy organic, you're essentially voting against glyphosate, right? So if everybody started buying organic, the glyphosate industry would collapse. Yep. And so I think that's where the power is. And I think people, whether it's a personal change or professional change, they always view like the mountain top and it's like, it's so tall. How am I ever going to get there? Well, it starts with a step, right? It starts with a vote. It starts with a swap every day.

And then you compound that over time. That's how you get massive change. What will people never find in Lovebird cereal? Cartoon characters. We will always stay true to our ingredient promise. So that's no refined grain, no refined sugars, no refined seed oils, no glyphosate, no GMOs. Like for me, as I was saying earlier, lovebird is like, like an emotional extension of me.

Like, when you eat a bowl of lovebird, like, I'm envisioning these people in my house. Like, I want to make sure they're taken care of. It's something I feed my daughter every day. Like, that's my North Star. I put every ingredient on the front of the box. So if I were to use some weird ingredient, it's like, oh, it's, you know, cassava, buckweed and, uh, industrial engine lubricant. Like, it's just not going to happen.

And I think like with third party testing, like I've spun out in rabbit holes. I'm sure many people listen. to this have spun out in rabbit holes on whatever, you know, third-party testing advocates promoting this or that. But I take that super seriously. Like, we are the cleanest cereal by far. We publish all of our COAs on our website, which no other serial brand does. What's a COA? A certificate of analysis, essentially from the third-party lab, what the test result actually was. So it's like the actual source material. It's not some company telling you like, hey, trust me, it's okay. Or this is proprietary information. They like to say that. Yeah, there's a

cartoon captain on the front of our box. Like, trust me. And so I just take it super seriously in third-party testing. Like, there's a brand that recently came under fire for having glyphosate in it that's kind of a healthier brand out there. And their excuse was essentially like, hey, we test, I think, 24

of our 28 products. And this one slipped through the cracks. And it's like, that's like putting seatbelts on 24 out of your 28 kids. Yeah. It's just kind of unacceptable. And a glyphosate test is like $300 to test. So like any big company should be able to afford it. And I'll make an offer to any company that can't afford

a glyphosate test. I will pay for your glyphosate testing if you're listening because it's that important. So I just think there's a higher standard that I hold Lovebird to. What should parents do if their kids attend school, private or public or whatever, and they're serving conventional cereal with artificial dyes and preservatives and refined sugar? That's tough. I mean, my daughter came home one day. And she's like, Daddy, can you get the cereal with the toucan on it? And I'm like, what? Not in this house. Where this is a love bird house. This isn't a two can Sam birdhouse. And that was like really frustrating. But I think that's the reality. And I think for for me, it's so hard to police all of that stuff. I try to, my wife and I try to provide like healthy

lunches. We pack our own lunches. We tell our kids like, hey, those just aren't for us. Like, we're not putting that into our body. You know, those are things that might be fun for some people, but they're just not for us. Like we want to build food that we put in our bodies, essentially building our muscles, building our bodies, it's helping us grow. So kind of bringing them in on it.

I think it's true when you also, it's easier to get your kids to eat food that you cook with them too because they feel a sense of ownership with it. But they're hard conversations without a doubt. And I think that moment sparked me to essentially create an offer for K through 12 schools that I would price match any K through 12 cereal options. So like essentially price match cinnamon toast crunch, price match fruit loops

with Lovebird that just cost more money because I was tired of seeing this stuff in schools. And when I was talking to a lot of these food service directors, like, they're in a tough spot. They don't have a ton of money for school breakfast or school lunch. And if you look at the history of school lunches in the United States, like we actually used to have scratch kitchens. Like we actually used to serve real food that was made at school. And then there was a huge budget cut sometime in the 80s and essentially removed like multi-billion dollars of funding from schools. And so then big food stepped then being like, hey, we can help with that and essentially

turn schools into heat and serve food dispensaries. And so all the food that's served is kind of heated and then serve to the kids. There's no scratch cooking in schools. There are some that are great that are out there. and there's a bunch of organizations really working hard on this. But they've lost the infrastructure. So even if they were to go back, they'd have to pay for all of the equipment to actually convert the kitchens back to scratch cooking.

So I don't know. There's some recent viral thing that came out on school, food, and Japan. And they've made it a national priority and have a food nutritionist at every school that's designing their meal plan for their kids. All the options are cooked from scratch. their childhood obesity is under 4%. Our childhood obesity is above 20%. Oh my word. And you can kind of do the math as to why. Okay, don't you take a massive financial loss if you are price matching when you've got a total organic cereal that has all these, you know, really high-end ingredients. And then you're saying to some elementary school like, hey, I'll price match your

fruit loops and let's just get Lovebird in the school. Yeah. I don't care. Wow. That's why we exist. That's we give back to help families battling cancer. We, I just view like business, like, yes, I want to make a profit because that's how I grow, right? But it's sort of like, what am I going to do with that opportunity? And it's like to sell out to some other big company just seems pretty like empty to me. It's how can I really affect change and raise conversations? That's if you see the Lovebird Instagram content, like it's very little about the brand. It's all about education and help trying to spread awareness so parents and people can make better decisions for themselves. Because I generally believe when there is informed consent, people make the right choice.

Yeah. I just think when it gets muddied with big food advertising or subsidies that make really refined ingredients super cheap and accessible to families and create food deserts, like the game is rigged and I'm trying to be a part to, trying to serve my part in breaking that wheel and just redefining what a good outcome could be for a food brand. Like, I think it's just been romanticized. It's like, oh, I want to build this company and sell. And you can thank Shark Tank for that, right?

Like, there are other ways to build sustainable businesses that drive sustainable change. So logistically, if there's a parent listening who's like, okay, wow, well, I'd love to, I'd love to take this on, you know, with my kids high school or middle school or whatever and switch out the cereal. Who do they contact? How do they do it? I mean, apparently they're contacting you because you give two people at your company. Yeah, yeah. Parker at Lovebirdfoods.com. That's my personal email or hello at Lovebirdfoods.com, which is the customer service email that I still run. to cats out of the bag.

But yeah, just contact me and we'll make it work. I think the challenges we've ran into is this whole grain requirement. And so, you know, we're working on an initiative where we're just going to like give cereal for free to help just raise awareness for parents. And I think one of the heartbreaking things talking to these food service directors, like, yes, they have very little money. So they're really happy that we're able to provide a better option at no added cost to them. But they're also conflicted because there's really two companies for cereal specifically that service these schools and they're Kellogg's and General Mills. And what they do, you know, based on the regulations, they have to sell a lower sugar product in these schools. So the child's introduced to the brand, likes the brand, and then the school directors are conflicted because they know it's lower sugar.

And then they go to the grocery store and it's like, hey, mom, I want cocoa puffs. And it's the full sugar version. And so they're essentially like, you know, drug dealers, right? First one's free and then go to the grocery store to get the full sugar version. And so there's a lot of great people at these schools. They want change. I'm just trying to help them in whatever small way I can. And there's a lot of other great organizations that are out there doing a lot of great work as well.

But yeah, it's going to take a lot to make that change. Well, I know there have been women in my audience who have done the serial swap with you. So I've gotten messages about that, which is super cool. So he really will do it. What are the different products that Lovebird makes? Yeah, so we started with our organic cereal, which are, you know, healthier kind of Cheerios, right? So no refined grain, no refined sugar. Cinnamon is my favorite.

Cinnamon is awesome. Honey is my favorite. And then cocoa, a little late night snack. But they're made with real food, right? Prebiotic fiber, no inflammatory ingredients. And they also just taste good. I think there's this, like, myth out there that, like, healthy food needs the taste bad. No, it literally is phenomenal.

Yeah. It's so good. And so we start. started with that. And then, you know, we talked about protein being such a big trend and a lot of people kind of protein washing things. So we wanted to create a protein cereal that was made with the most bioavailable source of protein, which is way protein and milk protein. And then only sweetened with organic coconut sugar. So no refined sugar. So it's still taste good, but has higher protein. Then we also just launched a protein granola. When I was looking at granola, a lot of

it, like, it's just weird. I remember being in focus groups and they're like, granola is healthy. What do you mean? And then you look at the ingredients. It's just full of sugar and it's full of carbs. And there's really very little protein. I love your protein granola. Yeah. Love it.

I think that's probably my favorite love bird product. But I just get that. I put it on my vanilla Alexander Farms yogurt. And that's like my absolute favorite thing. That's a great combination. Yeah. But just really simple. It's six ingredients, glyphosate-free oats, high protein, very clean, only sweetened with

maple syrup. And so with Lovebird, like I was saying earlier, I, every time you buy a box of Lovebird or buy a bag of Lovebird granola, like I treat that as if you're over at my house and I want to make sure the product's perfect, it's healthy, and it tastes good. And that's my ultimate standard. And what is the website? Lovebird Foods.com. Okay. And they can use code Alex 20. They'll get 20% off their order. Now, if you find Lovebird cereal in your store, you're not going to get my special discount. So you should go online so that you can get the discount. But what is the social media? Eat Lovebird. Okay, yeah, eat Lovebird.

And then if you could offer one remedy to heal a sick culture, it could be physically, emotionally, or spiritually, what would that remedy be? Slow down and eat real food. I think we're moving too fast. Our food is ultra-processed. Our entertainment is ultra-processed. Our social media is ultra-processed. And if people could just slow down, take a breath, take your shoes off, walk out into the ground. feel the sunshine on your face,

nourish your body with real food, and focus on your community and your family because that's what's most important. I think we'd all be a lot better off. I love having you. I've told you the audience, I don't know if the audience knows, but you are Vance's favorite cereal brand.

And every other day, basically, he's walking in my apartment to make dinner, and sure enough, like, I have a run to the grocery store to get ingredients for that night. And then there happens to be a box of the store,

love for cereal in there. I'm like, Vance, there's literally like six boxes in the cabinet right now. He's like, I know, but I just need to get more. I just need to get more. He's, he is so obsessed, and you are the, his favorite brand that, you know, it comes on the show that I talk about on the show. So we love you in our house, and we're super thankful for everything that you're doing. Thanks for coming on Culture Apothecary. And thank you for having me, and thank you for all the work you do. I think it's been amazing to watch your evolution. I remember sitting down at dinner in Battle Creek with you and to see how far you've come even in that short amount of time, banning artificial food dyes, which is massive, all the work you've done on glyphosate, seeing you speak in Washington, D.C.

I think it's just a testament to the power of the people. And anybody listening or watching to this, it's like you can make a difference. I've seen you make a difference. And together, if we're all rowing in the same direction, we will save our food future. Thanks, Parker. What belief about food? Have you never questioned? simply because, well, that's just like a mantra I've heard my whole life. New episodes come out every Monday and Thursday at 6 p.m. Pacific, 9 p.m. Eastern, wherever you get your podcast. Don't forget, pause right now. Leave a five-star review on Apple or Spotify if it's been a while or you never have. It really, really helps the show out. It just takes two seconds to do.

This content is for informational purposes only and is not intended to be taken as medical advice. Always consult with a qualified health care professional regarding any questions or decisions related to your health or medical care. I'm Alex Clark, and this is Culture Apothecary. Thank you.