Pursuit of Wellness - The Truth About Raw Milk & Red Meat: Are They Vital for Health?

Episode Date: September 23, 2024

Ep. #135 Welcome back to another episode of Pursuit of Wellness. Today, Brett and Harry of The Meat Mafia join me to share their personal health journeys, shedding light on their experiences with autoimmune diseases and the challenges they faced along the way. They dive into the benefits and downsides of various diets, including the carnivore and animal-based diets, and how these have impacted their lives. They share their tips for sourcing quality meats, healthy snack recommendations, the importance of whole foods, and navigating the complexities of modern health culture. Brett and Harry discuss how healing involves more than just diet—it’s about understanding your body, managing stress, and making informed choices. Plus, they explore unique health topics like the role of organ meats, the truth behind regenerative agriculture, and finding balance between health and indulgence. Leave Me a Message - click here! For Mari’s Instagram click here! For Pursuit of Wellness Podcast’s Instagram click here! For Mari’s Newsletter click here! For Brett on X click here! For Harry on X click here! For The Meat Mafia Podcast click here! For Meat Mafia on Instagram click here! For POW Brand Promo Codes click here! Sponsored By:  Today my listeners receive 20% OFF any AquaTru purifier! Just go to AquaTru.com/POW - that’s AquaTru.com/POW and automatically receive 20% off any Aqua Tru water purifier.  That’s 20% OFF any AquaTru water purifier when you go to AquaTru.com/POW So, if you want to take the next step in improving your health, go to lumen.me/POW to get 15% off your Lumen. That is lumen.me/POW for 15% off your purchase. Because you’re a listener, Blissy is offering 60-nights risk-free PLUS an additional 30% off when you shop at Blissy.com/POWPOD. That’s Blissy.com/POWPOD and use code POWPOD to get an additional 30% off! Your skin and hair will thank you! Show Links: Ep. #30 - Paul Saladino Pt. 1: Why Women Should Eat More Meat, Plant Toxicity, Failures of Western Medicine, Oatmeal is BS, Moldy Coffee, Raw Dairy, & more Ep. #31 - Paul Saladino Pt. 2 - Why Cholesterol is a Myth, Fruit Over Vegetables, Ghee & Tallow, Seed Oils, Animal-Based living, Anti-Aging Hacks Ep. #82 - Paul Saladino Pt. 3 - Optimizing Fertility, Cholesterol Truths, Creatine for Women & Weight Loss Ep. #38 - The Shocking Truth About The Chicken You're Eating, Grocery Label Lies, Pesticides & Soil Health, Recovering from Lyme Disease, How to Start Your Own Farm, And Raising Chickens with Farmer Paul Greive of PastureBird Ep. #3 - Liver King Gets Vulnerable: Steroid Use, Mental Health, Psychedelics & Healing From Trauma White Oaks Pasture PastureBird Topics Discussed 00:00:00 - Introduction  00:02:45 - Brett’s health journey  00:10:35 - Meeting the criteria for Ulcerative Colitis 00:11:46 -Identifying with your diagnosis 00:15:58 - Harry’s health journey 00:21:03 - Animal based diets 00:21:48 - Autoimmune Diseases and Stress 00:23:11 - Negative effects of the Carnivore Diet 00:24:25 - Healing journal and bodily intuition 00:26:01 - Blood work and animal based diets 00:27:48 - Where Brett and Harry source their meat 00:31:39 - White Oaks Pasture and regenerative agriculture 00:34:17 - PastureBird chicken and modern chicken  0036:30 - Food standards in Europe 00:37:43 - Ozempic and the issues with American health culture 00:39:15 - “Pay Now or Pay Later” and investing in yourself 00:40:57 - The importance of whole foods and sharing personal stories 00:42:02 - Organ Meat and Liver King 00:47:36 - On the go snack recommendations  00:50:10 - Caffeine monitoring 00:54:05 - Finding the balance with health and indulgence 00:55:23- Thoughts on raw dairy 00:58:02 - Understanding A2 01:01:05 - The origin of “Meat Mafia”

It was just really a powerful, almost like a spiritual experience being able to talk to people who really just create food and are living off the land. Like their wisdom is so, so different. I feel like we're losing a lot of those people. So being able to speak to them was really powerful. This is the Pursuit of Wellness podcast, and I'm your host, Mari Llewellyn. What is up, guys? Welcome back to the show. Today we are talking about meat. That is right,

we are doing an episode all about raw milk and red meat. And I'm very excited to welcome our guests today, Brett and Harry of the Meat Mafia podcast. They both have their own personal health journeys, autoimmune diseases and challenges they faced along the way. And they basically talked to us about how they found the carnivore diet and the benefits they've seen from red meat and raw dairy. And I thought it was a really interesting episode. These boys are so knowledgeable when it comes to this topic. They love talking about regenerative farming, where to source the meat from, what meat they eat. It was just such an interesting conversation and I really love talking about regenerative farming, where to source the meat from, what meat they eat. It was

just such an interesting conversation. And I really love talking about nutrition. And I think you guys are going to find this really interesting. There is, I would say, kind of a lot of controversy around red meat, raw dairy, a lot of varying opinions. And it was really interesting to hear from people who have found it to be very healing and have also done a lot of their own research. I know the boys have their own podcast and have sat down with a lot of different ranchers and people involved in the industry. So today we're going to talk about animal-based diets, autoimmune diseases and stress, some of the negative effects of the carnivore diet, blood work and animal-based diets, to source your meat from regenerative agriculture food standards in europe the importance of whole foods organ meat on-the-go snack recommendations

finding balance with health and indulgence and their thoughts on raw dairy and a2 dairy so this is a really fun episode brett and harry were amazing so make sure you go listen to their podcast as well i was a guest on their show and we dove really deep into my journey. So without further ado, let's hop into this episode. I hope you guys enjoy. Welcome back to the show today. I am joined by the co-host of the Meet Mafia podcast, Brett and Harry. Welcome to the show. Thank you so much for having us. We're so excited to be here. Appreciate it. I feel like we're going to cover a lot of my favorite topics. Meat, gut health, glyphosate, raw dairy, and more. But I really want to just start...

Did you hear that sigh of happiness? That was so embarrassing. I was like, raw dairy, yes. No, but like it hypes me up. I love talking about this stuff. I really want to start by hearing about your individual health journeys. How did you get into this field? What got you interested in nutrition? Give us the full rundown, each of you. Yeah, I would say that the cool thing, so Harry and I have been friends for probably close to eight years, I would say. We met playing

college baseball up at a small Division III school in Boston called Babson College. And so we both kind of have these individualized health journeys that converge together, which led to us doing the Meet Mafia podcast, which has been such a blessing and best and most challenging experience of our lives, which I'm sure we'll get into. But for me, my health journey started more so because I was playing baseball and was a high level athlete. I had this identity of I'm an athlete, therefore what I'm doing is healthy. And I didn't really backtrack and look at the actual inputs that led to me ultimately getting

sick. So in college, right, it's crazy. A school like Babson, you pay, it's private school, good business school, you pay $80,000 a year. Most of the students, myself including, are binge drinking, not sleeping well, eating like absolute garbage, processed foods 24 seven, couldn't cook anything. Also, I was really stressed out instead of like just loving the game and being competitive for baseball

and just enjoying being a part of that experience. I was putting so much pressure on myself to the point where I was literally getting sick before I was playing. And then going into my senior year of college, I realized, okay, I need to get a corporate job. So I got an internship in New York City. I'm from New Jersey originally, so I stayed at home with my parents. And the train, you know, the commute, it's a bear.

So it was like two hours there, two hours back. So almost four hours commuting every single day. But you're in New York City, the energy, the skyscrapers, first job. I was so pumped up about that. And I started noticing that those train rides were becoming more and more uncomfortable because I was literally having to go to the bathroom on the train. For a young dude in their 20s, it's like really uncomfortable to talk about. And so I don't know if I was young or I thought I was invincible, stupid, embarrassed about what was going on. I just didn't say anything.

But as the summer was going on, the symptoms were getting worse and worse. And so by the end of that three-month experience, I was going to the bathroom like literally 30 times a day, sometimes 15 times at night, straight blood in my stool, lost 20 pounds. The last day of my internship, I actually got rushed to the emergency room,

got a colonoscopy, and then got diagnosed with ulcerative colitis, which is an incurable autoimmune disease where essentially your body has built up so much inflammation, it metastasizes on your colon. So you just get these bloody ulcers. That's why there's blood in your stool because your colon is literally just filled with inflammation. So you can't digest anything. It's kind of like the sister disease of Crohn's where colitis is inflammation in your colon, Crohn's is inflammation in your small intestine. And so the doctor that I went to was a great guy.

And I think I have a soft spot for him just because he did have great bedside manner, but he told me that diet and lifestyle didn't really have anything to do with it. I probably had some genetic predisposition to getting sick. And immediately I got on oral steroids. I got on a bunch of prednisone, this oral medication called Lealda, and then a biologic drug called Remicade, which I was supposed to get a blood infusion every six to eight weeks. And the infusion was $60,000 per infusion. And I did that for about five years. So you- Six zero? Six zero. So think about that, 60 grand every eight weeks for five years. Like think about my

cost on the medical system. And no one's talking to me about diet and lifestyle changes at all. And so I was still so unaware of like your inputs determine your outputs in regards to health that my immediate thought process was, okay, I'm on the medication. When can I go back to drinking and eating McDonald's? That was literally my mindset, which is so crazy, but that's how young and just immature I was. And I didn't have that epiphany moment. And then things started to change because I graduated from college. I really just, I felt like so much of Brett was locked up inside of who I was, where I wasn't a great student. I thought I could have been a good student. Wasn't a good baseball player. Just wasn't living my life up to my potential that I wanted to set for myself. And so I started doing

endurance races, you know, marathons, half marathons, triathlons, started to lose weight, felt good doing that. Started to cook more of my meals. And I noticed that when I would cook my meals, I definitely felt better for sure. But the kicker for me was in 2019, I listened, I somehow got sent Sean Baker, Dr. Sean Baker's podcast on Joe Rogan from 2017, who's the, you know, he's the godfather of the carnivore diet. And so on this podcast, he's saying that meat is wrongly demonized. It's incredibly bioavailable. It's incredibly nutrient dense. And he had seen patients that had Crohn's, UC, IBD, all these, all these different autoimmune diseases that were following this diet and

curing themselves of something that was incurable. And so that was kind of my light bulb moment of, hey, maybe there's a world where you don't have to be on these $60,000 infusions. Maybe the inputs that I put into my body matter. And then there was this thought process of belief. And I know that that's something you've talked about during your transformation story. It's like before we talk about diet, blueprint, all this stuff, I needed to have that mental belief of, hey, I think I can really heal, which is an act of faith,

which is so important. And no one's talking to people about this stuff. So I did that diet. I went to the Whole Foods on the Upper East Side because I was living in Manhattan. A lot of steak, chicken thighs, eggs, cheese, water, sparkling water, and then coffee. So I wasn't pure carnivore because I was drinking coffee. And lo and behold, I start doing the diet. A couple of days, I feel better. Like this burning sensation that I had in my stomach, that sensation is going away.

My skin is clearing up. I'm losing weight. I have energy to pop out of bed at 4 a.m. and go to the gym. I never really struggled with anxiety and depressions, but just like that clarity of thought, which I'm sure you experienced too. It was like, I just felt like I was thinking like a different person. And then once you start to take autonomy over those foods that you're eating and you start to feel those benefits, then you just want to go all in. So I did that for literally two years straight, continued to get healthier and healthier. And then like a lot of things, those drugs that I was taking,

they were treating one thing, but they cause this whole other host of side effects. So the drugs were actually causing me to break out in cystic acne. So where I would sweat. So like under my beard line, my chest, my back, et cetera. I went from dermatologist to dermatologist. No one was linking it to the drugs that I was taking.

I just had this intuitive sense of that's what it was. And so I pushed my doctor to get me off of those drugs. The steroids? The infusions that I was getting. Got it. So I didn't have side effects for like the first four years. And then year five, I just started getting these pretty nasty skin side effects. And he said, okay, well, I know you take good care of yourself, but I just want to, let's do a colonoscopy and see if you're actually, see where your inflammatory markers are at before I make a decision. And so do the colonoscopy. And not only did I have any, I had zero inflammation and zero micro inflammation as well. And so again, doctor didn't tell me this, but that's my definition of being medically cured.

This was 2021. And then since then I've been completely drug-free, like genuinely feel like I'm in the best health of my entire life. And that was part of my kind of like catalyst to wanting to start the show with Harry was everything that the doctors told me not to do. I almost ran towards some of those things. And that's ultimately what cured me. And I think if I didn't do that, I would probably still be on that medical merry-go-round. So again, I know it's a lot of detail, but I just want the listener to understand you can be at the lowest of the low, which is like crapping blood 20 times a day. And you can end up fully reversing that stuff, being drug-free and living this amazing, like badass life that we're all entitled to live. So incredible. And I appreciate you sharing detail because I think

it's needed. It reminds me a lot of my journey in a way. It's like this rock bottom moment, whether it's mental, whether it's physical, and diet and lifestyle can really pull you out of that. So would you say, do you even meet the criteria for UC now? I would pretty much guarantee that if I got my blood work drawn today, I wouldn't have any of those inflammatory markers. Like there's not urgency to go to the bathroom. There's no blood in my stool. Yeah. Any of those symptoms, I don't meet the criteria. And I'm sure it's probably similar for you where I kind of, I'm almost forced to stick to this blueprint because if I deviate,

the symptoms come back. So that's why it's, I'm always tentative to say, am I cured or not? Because I feel like if I stick to this blueprint, I am cured. And if I keep going off the path, I probably will be back where I was in 2016. So it almost forces me to be healthy. So I think in a lot of ways, people would view that as a curse. I really view that as a blessing. I love that. And I relate in so many ways. I was fully diagnosed with borderline personality disorder. Now I don't meet the criteria. And when I read about it online, it said, this is for life. And I fully expected to have BPD for the rest of my life,

self-harm for the rest of my life. Now I don't even meet the criteria. It's insane. It can be a complete curse too, just taking that diagnosis in and labeling it as you know that's who you are now i think for like both of you the fact that you don't identify with it anymore it's huge when you hear a diagnosis or read one there's almost this sense of relief of like oh that's what's wrong with me but then you start to identify with it and you're like that's who i am like i am someone with bpd and it kind of leads you into, I don't know,

having a victim mentality or acting like that's who you are. Definitely. And it took me going through medication and so many different tactics to finally realize, like, it was just hard work that had to get me out of it and changing what I was eating, what I was doing, the way I was eating, what I was doing, the way I was living. So I've been sleeping with a Blissy pillowcase for a couple of months now, and I have seen such a benefit to my hair and skin.

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additional 30% off when you shop at blissy.com slash powpod. That is B-L-I-S-S-Y.com slash powpod, P-O-W-P-O-D, and use code POWPOD to get an additional 30% off. Your skin and hair will thank you. While on my fitness journey, I wish I had had a tool like Lumen. It is the world's first handheld metabolic coach. It's a device that measures your metabolism through your breath. And on the app, it lets you know if you're burning fat, carbs, and gives you a tailored guidance to improve your nutrition, workout, sleep, and even stress management. I think this is such a helpful tool while on your journey. I think a lot of people struggle with figuring out how much to be eating in a deficit, maintenance, or a surplus,

and this would be a fantastic way of doing so. All you have to do is breathe into your lumen first thing in the morning, and you'll know what's going on with your metabolism, whether you're burning mostly fat or carbs. Then lumen gives you a personalized nutrition plan for the day based on your measurements. I know I personally really thrive on healthy fats and that's what I did throughout my fitness journey, but it took me a while to figure that out and I feel like this would have helped so much. You can also breathe into it before and after workouts and meals so you know exactly what's going on with your body in real time. Your metabolism is your body's engine. It's how your body turns the food you eat into the fuel to keep you going so it's really important to measure this with each breath it can also track

your cycle as well as the onset of menopause and adjust your recommendations to keep your metabolism healthy through hormonal shifts so if you want to take the next step in improving your health go to lumen.me slash pow to get 15 off your lumen that is l-u-m-E-N.me slash pow for 15% off your purchase. Thank you, Lumen, for sponsoring this episode. Harry, what about you? Yeah, so mine is a little bit more of like the common man story. So I did have some health events early on in my life that I think drew me closer to like really understanding real health. So I had some very serious like ear infections as a kid that I had to take some serious antibiotics. And the only reason I mentioned that is I think that those antibiotics ultimately led to me having

to take other things down the road. So when I was in seventh grade started or seventh and eighth grade started getting like acne and just seeing like it was getting worse and worse and then quickly realizing that like this wasn't going away through like anything I was putting on my face or like just most of the things that dermatologists were telling me to do. It just like was never really steering me towards that lifestyle. So I get to high school and just continues to be a problem. And at that point, like I was very much like focused on playing sports and being in school. And so, you know, having to deal with like something that's just like constantly on your face. I know you have a similar story with skin issues. And it's like, it definitely is humbling. I feel like anyone who knows who's been through it is like just a

different type of person. But for me, I ended up getting on Accutane because of it. And so I think that for me, that like really introduced me to just the, I mean, those drugs are insane. Like just experiencing like nosebleeds for no reason, really, really dry and flaky skin. You have to get blood work done every month to make sure like everything's okay. Your kidneys are still working. And so just like looking back on that time period of my life, like I think about what I was eating at the time and I was training so hard. I was trying to become a college baseball player, was super dialed into performance

early on. But my diet was just like at lunch, I was eating chips, cookies, chocolate milk that was highly processed and just like high in sugar. So I was basically eating all the things that would promote a really distressed gut and bad skin. And so I really just started to continue to go down the performance route. And I had taken the drugs to help me get through that phase. And then when I got to college, I just really tapped into just like eating better. So I started a paleo diet. And I was like the kind of like the odd kid on the baseball team who was like nerding out on just like switching up diet and lifestyle.

And it really helped. Like I just noticed that, you know, in the gym, I was like on a totally different level and just being able to push myself harder, had better energy. And I was just paying attention to the right thing. So that like it flipped a switch for me where I saw people who weren't doing that and just like the comparison. And even myself, like when I wasn't doing those things, it was just a totally different person. So I had that experience, which was really powerful. And then just got into the working world. So five years of just kind of sitting at a cube, I was working a finance job and just kind of let my habits slip where, you know, I was still going to the gym and I would go and get a light

workout in. And then I started realizing like how much processed foods I was actually eating. So I was just getting the Oreos, getting the chips. They're just like sitting out at the lunch counter and like quickly just saw like this, like once like athletic, vibrant spirit and body just like slowly start to, you know, go away. And I was like, you know, I'm like 26 and this isn't like a crazy story or anything, but it's like a lot of people go through that, you know?

I'm sure so many people are listening, relating to this right now, especially the corporate environment. I feel like it's so easy to eat bad in a corporate office. I think it's a lot of stress eating too. I know at least for myself, it was like almost eating out of boredom or just lack of fulfillment. And so I just found myself kind of losing it a little bit. And then COVID hit and I got some time back on the front end with no commute. So I had like an hour back to myself and really just like took that to be a moment in time where I was going to like create some real change. I ended up dropping like 25 pounds, getting in great shape, doing like really simple things.

Like I was just sleeping a little bit more, going on really long walks, doing pushups and pull-ups, cooking all my meals. And like within a month and a half, I was like, I saw a lot of my friends take steps backwards. And I felt like I had just leapt to a whole new level. And that was when, for me, I really like reengaged with what I was doing in college when things were working really well. And I just was like, you know what? I'm pretty done with this job that I'm working now. It's served me really well for the first few years of my career.

But I really feel like this calling to get involved with this health and wellness space, especially with what's going on with COVID. Like people weren't even talking about lifestyle interventions. And I think Brett and I were just both really inspired during that time period to push ourselves more. Like we signed up for an Ironman during that period. We were training a bunch. Both of us just really used that time that, you know,

the world was kind of under distress and people were given a little bit more time back if you were working a remote job. Like you could then just like, you know, spend a little bit more time on ourselves. So for me, that like changed everything. I started exploring a carnivore diet, animal-based, and yeah, the rest is history.

So you were full animal-based at one point. Yeah. Are you both still fully animal-based? Yeah, 100%. And you as well? What I will say is that I've actually been, I've been changing my stance a little bit where I've been starting to experiment

with more fruits and vegetables and things like that. And I actually feel really good. So my mission is almost changing where carnivore has been an amazing tool. And I think feel really good. So my mission is almost changing where carnivore has been an amazing tool. And I think there are certain people that are so sick where they do need to be on that diet for a very long period of time. But I've just been really focused on single ingredient real foods that are like protein dominant, trying to get 190 grams of animal protein per pound of body weight that I have. And I feel amazing. And I'm just trying

to put less pressure on myself. And the more that I do that, the better that I feel. Yeah, how much of, you know, autoimmune disorders and feeling good do you think is stress related? Because sometimes I feel like I've gotten so obsessed with my diet and so obsessed with my routine that I almost am counterproductive because I end up stressing out more about details than if I were just to be

relaxed and, you know, do the best that I can. Yeah. I think there is a incredibly strong correlation between stress and autoimmunity. And what I'll tell you in full transparency too, it wasn't like I just went carnivore and I've never had any issues since. There have been probably two, there have been two periods over the last three years where I would call them mini flare-ups where I never got close to as bad as I was in 2016, but I definitely could feel that inflammation. And the only difference was stress, lack of sleep and travel. And then every other period that I've gotten sick, it's always been, there's always an element of stress. So I think there's a thousand percent correlation between those two things for sure. Yeah. For me, it's my skin. Like anytime I deviate from my diet or my routine or I'm traveling or I'm drinking more, whatever it may be, for me, it shows in my skin.

I feel like we all have something. Like some people feel it in their gut. They feel it in their skin, fatigue. My husband, he gets like these kind of fatigue symptoms. He's mostly animal based um and really really enjoys it and sees benefits from it do you guys feel like there's any downside to living carnivore for a long period of time i think it's just a i think as you said like it's restrictive in some ways like I think it's a really great foundation

I think the downside would only be like you're kind of just like Changing your your life in a massive way and maybe it's just like lifestyle obstructive where you aren't able to like go enjoy certain things I think both Brett and myself just believe that When you're operating from a point of stress with like how you're setting up your meals and your workouts and lifestyle, like it's not, that's not a healthy place to be like really trying to like breathe life into the things that you're doing. So when you're like actually operating from that, like stressed out state, like, oh, I only need to eat meat. I think that's, can be very negative. negative. So I think Brett and myself both think

that it's like a very powerful tool. And I think from just like a perspective of, yeah, there's other foods out there that can add value to your diet overall as well. Yeah. And I guess it's essentially an elimination diet. It is. Yeah. You're taking out a majority of inflammatory foods. And then from there, let's say you eat carnivore for two months and you want to try adding a couple things in. You could try one thing at a time to see what's flaring up the UC or flaring up your skin. Definitely. Yeah, something that I did that I learned from Dane Johnson who had – he might have had both UC and Crohn's way worse than I did. He was on death's door, completely healed himself

holistically. He's a great gut health resource. He got me to start keeping almost a healing journal. So I would write down every day, I would write down the amount of sleep that I was getting, the time of my meals, my energy levels on a scale of one to four after I would eat. And then I would record my bowel movements too, just because like when you're healing, you just have to be all in on that. And then as I was progressing and getting healthier and healthier, I remember having this feeling of like, how many people are sticking to like the carnivore and animal-based tribe just to fit within that tribe? But if you're taking intuition over your body and you're maybe have this craving for vegetables or certain fruits or something like that, and you feel good and your

blood work is continuing to improve, why, what's wrong with adding those things back in your diet? I think that's the way I've changed the most is like focusing on, am I healing? Do I feel good? Does my blood work support that? Versus like, hey, I'm carnivore, I'm animal based, or I'm Mediterranean diet, whatever that is. We love to just put these things into tribes. And it's tough for the average person because you can scroll Instagram and literally get 10 different reels all conflicting each other, which is so tough. Yeah. No, it's so confusing. There's so much information and people just want to feel like they can identify with a group. Saying you're animal-based sounds kind of tough. So it's like, you know, it's tough and it's cool. I'm curious with blood work. I was mostly animal based for a while

when my skin was really really bad and it helped me a ton I've noticed that I've gotten different feedback on blood work so I've had people tell me my blood work is perfect it's optimal it's amazing and then I had I feel bad saying his name but I'll just say it anyway Simon Hill on my show

you guys have heard of him? yeah okay and he looked at it and he was like, oh, you're, what was it? HCL? LDL? Your LDL is way too high. Like you're eating way too much saturated fat. What is your guys' take on that? Like who do you trust to show your blood work to? I'm sure Paul Saladino probably said this on your show, but my fortunate, but I've probably eaten close to two pounds of red meat every day for the last five years. My LDL has never been out of whack, unfortunately, but I do know people that have a high LDL and they're really just focusing on

their HDL being high and their triglycerides being really low. And it seems like that's more so the key metric versus like over-indexing on the LDL. And then they're also starting to do Dave, this guy, Dave Feldman and Nick Norwitz. Nick went to medical school at Harvard. He has Crohn's as well. He's got this whole thing called the lean mass hyper-responder theory where there's certain people like the leaner you get, the more weight that you're losing and the more red meat you're eating, your LDL might actually skyrocket, but he's still indexing on the HDL to triglyceride ratio too. Okay. Yeah. I know that everyone has a different opinion on this. I feel great when I eat a lot of meat. I feel like Paul was super happy with my blood work, but obviously people in this industry just have such different opinions.

Sometimes it can be difficult to, you know, nail down the right way to go about it. Yes. I'm curious where you guys like to source your meat and food in general from. Like I know sourcing is a really important piece of the puzzle. How do you guys find good meat? Yeah, I love this question. I started sourcing from local food when I was doing all that stuff during COVID cooking and just realized that there was some connection there that I was missing,

just learning how this food was raised. So a big part of our show has been connecting with local ranchers. So we'll order our beef in bulk from our buddy Jake Steaks in Missouri. So he'll come down and just load us up with a chest freezer full of meat. No way. Grass fed, grass finished. It's incredible. There's also a local farm here in, they're actually in Lubbock, Texas called Holy Cow Beef. They're incredible. Grass fed, grass finished. One of the first people to provide grass finished beef to Whole Foods. Wow. And so they are incredible. We get beef from them. So I think really the name of the game is just finding people you can ask questions to. Like it is more of a process. Like it's so much more convenient to just go to Whole Foods and buy the steak off the shelf. But I think there's like a layer of

trust and resiliency over time that gets built up where like if you want certain things or like if you're really interested in like going a lot deeper and like cooking some more unique parts of the animal, like they'll be able to provide that for you. Like I think it's like become hard to come by or liver has become hard to come by. Yeah. But like they'll get it for you or like if you want to make bone marrow or bone broth, like they can pull bones aside for you. So there's just a benefit, I think, in having those relationships with some of these farmers and local is best. There's just

such a benefit being able to know the people who are making your food. If you're like me, you're always looking for ways to drink more water. So I don't even have to think about it. Water is so important to stay hydrated and healthy. 60% of our bodies are made up of water but if you're like me you probably don't trust your tap water. It's the last thing we want to have to worry about but according to extensive research by the Environmental Working Group three out of four homes in America have harmful contaminants in its tap water. So it's super important to keep your water pure and healthy and that's why I use AquaTrue. AquaTrue uses a four-stage reverse osmosis purification process.

Their countertop purifiers work with no installation or plumbing. It removes 15 times more contaminants than ordinary pitcher filters and are specifically designed to combat chemicals like PFAs in your water supply. PFAs are found in almost 45% of US tap water. Greg and I have the under the sink option for the AquaTrue so we can just get water from the tap and it is amazing. I love knowing that him and I are getting safe water as well as the dogs, which are also so important to me. In the Bloom office, we have the countertop purifier, which is

so amazing. It's so easy. And I know the girls are getting good, healthy water. Long-term exposure to PFAs can lead to adverse health effects like cancer, endocrine system disruption, liver toxicity, which is why I'm so glad that AquaTrue removes PFAs. And I don't even have to think about it. I can truly taste the difference compared to my old water filter and I know the dogs are getting the best water possible. It got delivered straight to my home and was so easy to set up and it also makes my coffee taste so much better. AquaTrue comes with a 30-day money-back guarantee and even makes a great gift.

Today, my listeners receive 20% off any AquaTrue purifier. Just go to aquTru.com slash pow. That's A-Q-U-A-T-R-U.com forward slash P-O-W and automatically receive 20% off any AquaTru water purifier. That's 20% off any AquaTru water purifier when you go to AquaTru.com slash pow. Have you guys tried White Oak Pastures? Yes, we actually had Will Harris on the podcast. We did it at White Oak around Christmas time of last year. It was probably one of the most special podcast experiences we've ever had. Oh my God, can you connect me with him? Oh, 100%. I would die. You and Greg should go out to White Oak. I'm the biggest fan. Because when he's on that property,

driving around in his Jeep, like that's been in his family for five generations. He is so at home and you'll have such a better interview with him too. Oh my gosh, how cool. And it's in Georgia, right? It's in Bluffton, Georgia. Okay.

So the town is about 150 people. He employs like 120 people. And grocery stores, it's like the rural South. So there really aren't grocery stores aren't really a thing. So you talk about someone that's making an impact. He's legitimately feeding the local community where all these towns in the area are coming to White Oak to source their products. Like it's an, and it's honestly what he focuses. One of the things he says about regenerative agriculture is that it shouldn't be scalable, but it should be replicatable. So his whole message is like, we should have the young

ranchers around the country that are doing what I'm doing in their local towns and their local communities. And that's ultimately how you fix the food system. Oh, that's so cool. I love that. Did you guys make content of it? Not as much as we should have. Yeah, we actually we went on like this incredible road trip. Yeah. From like right before Christmas, we stopped at a farm called Counterculture Farms in East Texas, then went up to White Oak. Then we stopped at Polyface Farms in Virginia, which is Joel Salatin's farm, which he's like same as well. Just fighting the good fight, like doing everything right on their farms and really putting the message out there around regenerative ag. So just this amazing tour of like these farms and really getting to see a different part of the country and the people who are on the front lines, putting really high quality food out there. It was just really interesting. This was a year after

COVID too, getting their experience on what they experienced during some of those like food shortages that people were going through. Like when people would show up to the grocery store and it was difficult to get food. You know, they had lines and lines of customers who had been, you know, showing up to them when things were getting tough. So yeah, it was just really a powerful, almost like a spiritual experience being able to talk to people who really just create food and are living off the land. Like their wisdom is so, so different. I feel like we're losing a lot of those people. So being able to speak to them was really powerful. Yeah. And giving them a platform. You know, I feel like a lot of those people are

just grinding day in, day out. So to go speak with them is really special. Yeah. Have you spoken to Paul? I think his last name is Grieve from Posture Bird. We've been communicating with him, but we've never had him on. You had a great podcast with him, didn't you? Yes, he's awesome. Oh my gosh, he blew my mind. He's younger, right? He has a wife and like four kids, but like he is younger, I guess, in the industry. Yeah, the girls loved him. Like everyone was freaking out over Farmer Paul. We were all calling him Farmer Paul, but I ran into him again at Expo West. And he's crushing. He, I think he replicated a European method of farming

where the chicken coop or, you know, where he keeps the chickens is mobile. So they're never on the same, like, section of land for too long. And they keep moving. Really, really interesting stuff. Yeah, he's truly doing God's work work because, you know, it's funny when you go to the grocery store, if you're trying to go to the grocery store and get really good quality meat,

customers are starting to demand grass-finished and regenerative, which is great. So you can go to Whole Foods, right? You can get Force of Nature. We know those guys. We trust them. There are other brands too. Chicken, besides pasture bird, there's almost no way to actually verify whether it's corn and soy-free chicken. Yes. And we really, at scale, we just eat these industrial Franken-birds where I think the size of a chicken today is 350% fatter than it was in the 50s. So we're designing them to get as fat as possible, as quickly as possible. And then we're slaughtering these birds super, super young. And then you're kind of inheriting those nutrients as well, which is really interesting to think about. Oh my gosh, it's insane. And he was explaining to me,

you can say pasture raised, but really it just means they have like a tiny access to the pasture, but it's like not really pasture raised. And they like to stay together. And they say pasture raised in the middle of the winter, the chickens't going outside you know what i mean yes so it's all all packaging yeah and washing it's really tough too because like if you go to some of these farms it's like they're doing kind of like what's standard in the industry but it's also shocking some of the conditions that some of the animals are living in yeah and it's become normal i think i mean especially in America, I think farming practices and, you know,

I don't know 100%, but I think farming practices in Europe have far more standards they have to meet. Definitely. Yeah, there's just higher standards around food in general. Like they really don't support the use of chemical fertilizer

in the same way that we do. So they're much more reliant on natural practices to raise food. And I think that most of their food is like relatively unadulter. There's not as much GMOs, even grain. Like people always talk about, hey, I went to Europe and had pasta and bread, and I'm like celiac or gluten-free, but I could eat it over there and I felt fine. It's because the grain is totally different. It's going through a different process than what it goes through in the U.S. So it's just, yeah, I think it's interesting that we don't follow suit because Europeans are healthless.

They're healthy effortlessly, like without having to try. They just can eat their traditional cultural diets and they're good. And I think like try. They just, you know, can eat their traditional cultural diets and they're good. And I think like some of the American, you know, health culture has moved over that way and started to affect that. But for the most part, like if you're eating like a European diet, Mediterranean diet, you're going to be healthy. 100%. And it feels like, especially now with the, with Ozempic, it's kind of like the perfect example of America doing everything backwards. It's like, let's medicate, let's add pills, let's add supplements, let's add X, Y, and Z. And then we'll talk about the food. And when you go to Europe,

like I have family in Switzerland, my dad's married to a Swiss woman and they live in Geneva. When I go and I talk about, you know, these conversations that I have and health, and they're just like, seems a little extra. Like, why do you, you know, why do you go to these extremes? And it's, we kind of have to in America because to live a healthy lifestyle here, you have to be very intentional.

You do. It's similar to what you're talking about. It's way more convenient to order something on DoorDash or even go into the grocery store to buy your food. But I think what we found with our health journey is like the more energy we invest, the more energy we get back. So it's like, you know, go to eatwild.com,

pop in your zip code, find meat, raw milk, eggs in your area. Maybe you have to drive 15, 20 minutes, but then you actually get to know that rancher on a first name basis. It's like true God food, single ingredient foods. And if all you did was just eat those single ingredient foods grown by that rancher on a first name basis. It's like true God food, single ingredient foods. And if all you did was just eat those single ingredient foods grown by that rancher, your body just knows how to metabolize it. It's almost like Harry was saying in Europe,

if you're just eating single ingredient foods, you're almost forced to be healthy. So it's simple, it's not convenient, it's going to require more energy, but the person you're going to transform into is so incredible. And you're the perfect example of that, of like, there's no dopamine when you're trying to lose 90 pounds. You just have to invest that energy and look at everything you've done on the other end of that too. Like, it's just incredibly inspiring. Thank you. I always say pay now or pay later. When people, when I get feedback like, oh, it's expensive to eat healthy or it's expensive to do blood work or whatever, I get it. And I am coming from a privileged standpoint and I do acknowledge that. But I feel like the best thing you could invest in is good food and your health. Like I really can't think of

anything better. Yeah. Yeah. I also I feel like we have this way of over-sciencing nutrition and food diet. Like Simon Hill, the comment that he made to you about LDL, I think it's actually really too far in the weeds. If you just focus on what Brett was just talking about, eating single ingredient real foods across a spectrum of what could be raised on a farm, and those animals are healthy, if you check those boxes, you probably don't even need to go get blood work. You're good. So I think there's just this almost psychosis that we've kind of like lulled ourselves into that we need like scientific data for every single little thing that we're kind of like lulled ourselves into that we need like

scientific data for every single little thing that we're putting in our body or whatever it is. But if it's grown from the earth and grown in the right way, like you're going to be healthy. The downstream effects of just eating foods that are God foods, like can completely change your life. And then you don't have to worry about, all right, like, is my LDL a little bit too high? Maybe at some point you do, but like, yeah, I really do think that you can simplify these things. And I think that message is so much more powerful to people who are overwhelmed, which is the majority of people coming from social media, seeing all this different information, different lifestyles. At the end of the day, if the one message we can get out there is focus on

whole foods, isn't that more powerful than studying blood work? I sometimes think, you know, no shade to those people, but you're just overwhelming the audience. Like majority of people don't even know what you're talking about. A hundred percent. You know, and I think telling personal stories and sharing this like easy to understand information is so much more powerful. I think what you just said, Mari, gives me hope in the context of sharing more stories through social media. Like you think about all the people that probably that first transformation post that you put impacted or even me sharing like before

and after with ulcerative colitis because Western medicine isn't taught to share stories, right? We just label that as anecdote where for me, I was literally going on Reddit and I was finding these people throughout the last like 15 years that had Crohn's, colitis, et cetera, that were following this diet, even though it was popular and they were claiming that they were healing. And I'm like, well, I'm on these drugs and I don't feel great, but these people are doing something unconventional. Isn't the goal to heal? My doctor's not telling me this, but if this is going to get me the results that I want, I should probably lean into this. And that's the power of story. Like, I don't think I would be here if it wasn't for podcasting, social media, Reddit, all these amazing platforms that exist.

And that's what gives us hope. Yeah. The personal stories. I think that's what people resonate with and that's what gets them on their journey. So it makes it so worthwhile. You mentioned liver. Yeah. Are you guys fans of organ meat? For sure. I think it's something to include almost in like a micro dose way, like just a little bit can go a long way. The like vitamin B matrix in liver is incredible. You don't need a ton of it, but if you get like an ounce a week or even, you know, a little bit less than that, like you're still doing your body a huge benefit. I think there ounce a week or even, you know, a little bit less than that, like you're still doing your body a huge benefit. I think there's a lot of foods like bone marrow is one that I,

that comes to mind for me. It's so rich. Like you can, I don't, have you had bone marrow? Yes. It's so good. You don't need much. You just need like a little bit and it satiates you. There's so much fat, so many nutrients in there. So I think with all of those foods, it's like a little bit goes a long way. Yeah. You know, liver King like a little bit goes a long way. You know, Liver King had me eat it raw. No way. How was that?

He was my like first guest on my show. Are you serious? And it was right after his steroid scandal. And he wanted to come clear the air on my show. And I was like, oh my fucking God. Like I have never even had a guest on my show. He came to where I was recording in LA, full headdress, barefoot, no shirt,

liver queen with him in hand. Squad of 10 people comes in with the chef, Chef Lionel, and they had a board for me to eat on the show. Raw liver, raw testicle, raw bone marrow. What else? Was that it? I ate a bunch of stuff. And the raw bone marrow was the worst because it was waxy. Do you know what I mean? I've had it. Yeah.

There's not really any taste, but the texture is really off. The texture is really off. But yeah, regardless, that was like one of the craziest interviews I've ever done. How did Liver King smell? I think because i was so focused on what was going on i didn't really notice but afterwards i was told everyone in the office lit candles and were spraying things because he was like apparently very pungent yeah wow and liver queen did ask me if i wear deodorant and i was like no not really and she was like i'm sorry if i smell like they were like aware of it yeah how funny like it's like maybe there's like there's you can be have somewhat normalcy in I was like, no, not really. And she was like, I'm sorry if I smell. Like they were like aware of it. Yeah. How funny.

Like it's like maybe there's like, there's you can be, have somewhat normalcy and hygiene and eat the right foods and kind of blend both of those things together. Yeah. Like I just think we need like just a little bit more stability because there's so many great parts of his message.

Yeah. But it's like, it's okay to wear deodorant. There's some really healthy, great brands out there. Right? Like just a balance. But you know what? I find if I'm ripped, love that Bloom Energy drink, Pop.

Thank you for that. Cheers. Cheers. Sorry to cut you off. Cheers. It's so good. And guys, look, balance. We're having a little caffeine right now.

Definitely. I think when I eat really clean and I'm like on my grind, I don't smell. 100%. Do you feel that way? Yes. Like I only get BO when I've been

drinking alcohol or eating bad. Definitely. If I'm stressed, I smell too. That's also something I've noticed. Yeah. The cortisol. Remember Reagan? Stress sting. I love that. Yeah. And then for me too, I find I really, I actually do like eating liver raw. My trick has always been chopping up into smaller pieces, a little bit of olive oil, balsamic vinegar, and then the Maldon or Maldon, however you pronounce it, the smoked sea salt. You throw some of that on there. So good. Or you can even just take those liver cubes, chop them up, freeze them. And then our protein powder Noble, which is a nocetel protein powder. We do a little micro dose of organs in there too. So there's a lot of like unique ways to get it in, but I don't overly fixate it. I feel like there, I go through periods where I eat more and then certain periods where I

don't, but I feel good either way. Yeah. I froze it for a while and would swallow it like a pill. And I, I don't know. I don't know. It was a lot for me because I just feel like my routine is so stacked that I'm like, can I really keep up with this? Greg eats organ meat every day. Nice. Yeah. Raw. Just liver? No, he eats a few things. He gets the blends.

Oh, cool. Like caveman blend or whatever. Yeah. He likes that. He doesn't do raw. He just cooks it. Yeah. I will say we went to, have you been to Rome Ranch in Fredericksburg? It's Taylor and Katie Collins, who they started Epic Bar and then Force of Nature as well. So they bought this ranch and it's a regenerative ranch. There's like a pack of incredible bison out there. And you can pay to go to the event where they will fully process a bison where they'll shoot it. It's honestly an amazing experience. And if you've never hunted before anything like that, I never hunted before. It was probably the closest I'd actually gotten to death and understanding processing. But they butcher up the liver and the heart and like the freshness of bison liver and

heart. It actually tasted so good. Like zero gaminess at all. There's like no flavor. It is a totally different experience. Oh my gosh. Yeah. Okay. If you're down for it, it's an incredible experience. Taylor would be an awesome guest for you, by the way. Yeah. Okay. If you're down for it, it's an incredible experience. Taylor would be an awesome guest for you, by the way. He's literally like our hero. He's incredible. Yeah. The way he speaks to food, it's spiritual. Like he speaks with such a reverence for the process of raising the animal, killing the animal, eating the food and getting that nourishment. He connects all the dots in a way that I've never heard anyone speak to it

other than Will Harris and Joel Stalton who are also just total legends. I feel like anyone in that industry, like that's what you want. You want someone who really respects it and understands it. And we should have a connection with where our food's coming from.

Like I think a majority of people going to the grocery store would have no clue where it even begins. So just going to experience that is so educational and like, just gives you a better understanding. Question from my husband. Greg specifically called me before this and said, please ask the guys, what are some good on the go packaged items you'd recommend for animal based diets? He said, I quote, I can't just throw a steak in my backpack. So he needs ideas. But you can. So yeah, we've gotten the pleasure to work with and have a

lot of incredible brands on our show. So we've spoken with a lot of these founders who are doing things the right way. They source from these amazing farms. The ingredients are really simple. So my favorite, one of my favorites is the carnivore bar. It's a pemmican bar, which is an ancient Native American tradition of drying this meat and then embalming it with tallow and salt. That's it. And so it, for some people, is like a little bit too meaty, but they also have like a honey barbecue. And I just, I absolutely love that product because you want, it has a shelf life of like 25 years. So you could buy them in bulk and just like throw them in your backpack whenever you're on the run and they're a

perfect snack. And yeah, there's a few others. Carnivore snacks. Have you seen carnivore snacks? I don't know. Oh my gosh. It's literally a steak in a bag. Oh. It's like they have this dehydration process. Oh, we've had those. They have ribeye ones, right? Yes. Yes.

And they're just like just with sea salt and then just dehydrated for dinner to eat. You're right. That is a steak in a backpack. Yes. That's so good. And then there's this newer brand that we started working with called Farmer Bill's. It's Bill Tongue. So like South African beef jerky.

And there's like this moisture and juiciness to it that regular beef jerky doesn't have. It's one of the best snacks I've ever had. The Farmer Bill's meat stick is like literally almost it's better than steak. It's insane. Okay. We're going to send Greg a care package. We're going to load that man up. Please do.

Another one too. Sorry to… Go ahead. You really got us going here. Man Bar, this new brand. Buffalo. So it's buffalo and beef. So buffalo meat and then cow beef. And it's like this incredible blend. Tastes incredible. Great spices. It's so good. It's a little bit fattier, but it's great. I like fattier. That's good for me. Okay. Love it. Have you guys had Maui Nui venison? I have. Their beef sticks are crazy, but I've never had their bone broth. I heard their bone broth has like 25 grams of protein

in it or something ridiculous. Yeah. It's a really cool brand. And I started working with them like at the beginning of the show and Greg was using my code. I mean, he was going through the boxes like crazy. He's insane. They were like, how do you need more already? And I was like, you got to see my husband. Um, what is it? Okay. We touched on caffeine. What is your guys's take on caffeine? Like how do you monitor that or do you monitor it at all? Do you want to start? You guys like, no. So that, that's probably my biggest vice, to be honest with you. I probably drink like four to five cups of coffee a day. Those were things. Yes.

And so when I was healing, I did notice that even though I was drinking coffee, if I got above two cups of coffee, I was just drinking cold brew at the time. I've heard certain people have said that that sits better on the stomach. I did notice that if I would go above two, that's when I would start to get negative ramifications from that. So with the healing journal, I would cut that off. And what I'm noticing right now, I've tried to give up caffeine before. I didn't really notice any positive benefits to it. I just enjoy being caffeinated and it doesn't make me buzz out too, too hard. But if it ever did start to show

negative effects, I would peel back on that too. So it seems like everyone's very different. It sounds like you're hyper responsive to coffee, right? So you don't, or at least in 2022, you were. The thing is, I love it so much. The ritual. Yeah. Harry's got a pretty cool perspective on it as well. Yeah, it's just changed over time.

I definitely have been a heavy coffee drinker for the last like several years. And then recently I've just kind of like gotten cold turkey on coffee. Yeah. And just was realizing that I was kind of like borrowing from tomorrow with how much coffee I was consuming and really like not getting as much rest as I was trying, like, as I was hoping, you know, we've got a lot of stuff going on. Coffee is a great way to get a little bit of

extra energy. But I noticed like my sleep was just, I wasn't tracking my sleep other than just like counting the hours I was getting. And I was just waking up tired. And that feeling of like waking up, not rejuvenated from your sleep is, is like not a good feeling for me. I don't think it's a good sign. So I just pulled back hard the last few months, went cold turkey. And honestly, like the first few weeks, or yeah, first few weeks was brutal, but then you get used to it and i've noticed just better better energy more consistent energy throughout the day when i get tired i sleep so i don't know it's a little bit like more robotic i feel like like most people are just like used to just like slamming a few cups of coffee and just like yeah doing their thing but um i do

really enjoy um you know like a coffee every now and. Like I'll do like a cup of coffee a week. I like a more like ritual, like Sunday morning coffee, which feels great. I'm looking forward to it. Yeah. So I think there's something special to just like pulling back because I definitely am the type of person who will like just go all in and just like abuse drinking coffee. Totally.

I have like, you know, eight cups or, you know, however many. Oh my God, Ari. Yeah, too much. He's a big man. He's 240. Tranquilizing a horse. Quality of beans is huge too, right? Yes. Like really making that intention to buy that organic mold-free certified coffee. I definitely notice a positive benefit of my gut health when I'm drinking like good quality espresso versus if you're like opting to go to Starbucks or something like that. Totally. That's a big thing I focus on. I mean, I did have a Swedish Hill coffee this morning, but outside of that, I really try to make it at home and I'll use beans from our favorite coffee shop on Long Island that I know is clean.

I've tried Dave Asprey's, what's it called? Danger Coffee. Oh, Danger Coffee. Yeah, that one's certified mold-free. That was a big thing that I shifted during my acne journey because I found that I had ocrotoxin A in my blood work. And I think it was from store-bought coffees. And also when you get store-bought coffee, they're like pouring hot coffee into plastic. Yes. Which is also really concerning. And using tap water probably too, right? It's like the trif into plastic. Yes. Which is also really concerning.

And using tap water probably too, right? It's like the trifecta. Totally. And at home you can use filtered water, you can use your beans. So I personally maybe am a little having too much caffeine, but I also think when you live

such a healthy lifestyle, it's like, you know, you got to balance it out and focus on the right things, you know? Totally. Would you let yourself indulge in a little chocolate croissant at Swedish Hill? Okay, so I've had like half of one there and it was really good. Like I was impressed.

It's tough when you go to like a bakery coffee shop and you know everything's quality and they're making it in-house and they're controlling the grain. It's like, I want to live life a little bit and get a chocolate croissant. And that's the balance that we're talking about, that normalcy of like you have your routine, your plan, your single ingredient foods. And then you can also go out and enjoy life. And you've built up this incredible resistance and resilience. And I think that's really what health is about is resilience of like, I'm not doing all these things just to be like really neurotic and in this biohacking

routine where I never go out and eat or I go back to New York and I never have a slice of pizza. It's like we built health. So I think you can enjoy some of those moments too and just get back on track afterwards. You can bounce back 100%. And also I always think about in terms of toxins, like being around fragrances or air fresheners or cleaning chemicals,

creating a sanctuary in your house where you're not around those things so that when you are in an Uber that has an air freshener, which by the way, is my worst nightmare. I'm like, every time I get an Uber with an air freshener, I'm like, please, though. But it's so that we can get through those moments and feel good afterwards. And we're not just constantly surrounded by toxins. So I 100% agree with you on that. Before we wrap up, I have to ask your guys' opinion on dairy, raw dairy specifically. Do you guys partake in raw milk, raw cheese?

Okay. Yeah, big time. Honestly, like core part of my diet. I basically, yeah, for the most part, when I'm going about my week, I just try to like overly simplify. So I'll do ground beef and raw milk for the most part in my diet. And I love raw milk. Amazing enzymes. I think there's so many amazing gut benefits from drinking raw dairy. It really still has

healthy bacteria. So it replenishes the gut microbiome. And then just from like a electrolyte and hydration standpoint and the ability to actually have almost like a meal and like a calorie dense meal, caloric and nutritious meal in a very short period of time. I don't think you can beat raw dairy. Yeah. So like I'll go like most of my day just like on raw milk and then I'll have dinner. So I'm a huge raw dairy drinker.

Yes. Huge proponent. Love that. Barry did a raw milk fast where he drank a gallon of milk a day for seven days and that's all he consumed. And he was literally buzzing with energy. Stop.

Yes. It was awesome. So I had read this book, The Untold Story of Milk, which is... Incredible book. It's unbelievable. You're kind of the face of raw milk.

No, he's the plug. Look, I sighed at the beginning of the show when you said raw milk. Yeah, you were like, ah. Yeah. No, but it really, I think that there's a story around milk that people don't really understand. I think dairy has gotten bastardized, like in a lot of cases with how the food production has happened. Like dairies today are good at the turn of like the 1900s, that was when kids were dying from consuming dairy, which was mostly at that time raw. And they were dying because it was

swill milk from these like basically toxic animals that were, they were not healthy themselves. They were all living like head to toe next to each other behind these old brewery, these like whiskey distilleries and being fed garbage, things that they weren't supposed to be eating. And the milk that they would actually end up shipping out was they would put plaster of Paris in it, chalk, all these things to make it white, to make it not smell, but still consumable for people. And they would pasteurize that product. But ultimately, like what ended up happening was milk changed. And we've just like totally gone down the path of pasteurization and haven't really revisited just standards around dairy and improving those standards so we can have raw milk. And I

truly believe that raw milk is far superior to pasteurized dairy. Question, what is, am I saying A2 or A3? Which one is it? A2. What does A2 mean? It's just the genetics of the cow. So A2 is supposed to be more of like the milk that ancestors from Europe would have drank. And it sits better in the gut for most people. Love that.

Yeah. The way that I understand it is I think A2, i think goat's milk is naturally a2 and i think jersey and guernsey cows are naturally a2 as well and it's more of these like industrial holsteins that are like the big black and white spotted cows that have that a1 gene or whatever the technical terminology is as well i've been told so for anyone listening who's also sensitive to dairy because in the past i cut it out completely because of my skin, but I've like been dabbling in it now that I feel like I've been healing. A2 and goat dairy is kind of the first place to start

because it's a little bit easier on the gut, I guess. Yeah. Okay. Yeah, I dabble as well too. I dabble. Meaning like you can't go full. So I've noticed with my stomach, maybe it's ulcerative colitis related. If I drink too much raw milk, I will just feel some

discomfort. But I actually will, what I like to do is I'll do some raw cream in my morning coffee, or even like as a post-workout shake, our protein powder, some raw cream, water, ice, frozen fruit. And because the lactose content is a little bit lower, that tends to sit really well in my stomach as well. Greg does the same thing because he's lactose intolerant. But he, you know. He can have the cream? Yeah.

Cool. Yeah, he likes the cream. Creams it up. But it's interesting. Like raw dairy used to be prescribed by some of these like naturopathic doctors as a cure to a lot of chronic diseases. Like they would just put people on raw dairy for like the, the, the like raw dairy fast to cure certain chronic diseases back in the

day. Um, just cause it has everything that you need to heal. Um, like you can sustain yourself. Yeah. It just gives your body that stability to heal itself, which I feel like a lot of people kind of like, uh, yeah, we don't, we I feel like a lot of people kind of like, yeah, we don't really think about the body of just like having that capacity to heal. But I think like fasting kind of does the same thing. It's like when you fast, you're through the process of autophagy and your body just starts to like cleanse itself. So I think it's just like an interesting little experiment. I mean, I've never heard of a milk fast before, but now I'm kind of intrigued. Pretty cool.

Give it a shot. Guys, thank you so much for coming on the show. I would love for you to tell everyone where they can find the podcast, the products, your Instagram pages. Yeah, so Meat Mafia podcast, Apple, Spotify, all major podcast platforms. We actually do most of our content on Twitter and X, which is pretty unique. That's actually how we started was writing a lot of these informational Twitter threads, just about what we were learning in the food system. It's almost like an investigative journalist type approach. So that raw milk story, that was a big thread that we wrote. So I am at meat mafia, Brett on X, Harry is at meat mafia,

Harry. Um, and then our protein, our beef protein powder is noble origins, noble origins.com. So I would say those are probably the best places to reach us. Wait, can you explain the name Meat Mafia before you go? It's a good story. So I told you, we came down here. We ran an Ironman together, October 2021. He was living on my floor. Oh. I slept so good on the floor, by the way.

Sleeping on the ground. My REM score was incredible. Cool down there, you know. And that was like when we had the idea to start writing. We were just trying to do something together, have a creative outlet, started writing online about the food system. We had gotten some advice to create anonymous accounts. And so we created some anonymous accounts on Twitter. They were mafia characters. So we just had, he was Mr. Stilazzo. I was Clemenza. And it was just like, almost a joke. Like we were

just like, let's just run with this anonymous thing. And it started picking up traction. So he started just like calling it the meat mafia. And we were talking about, you know, carnivore diet, animal based diet, regenerative ag. So it was appropriate. I love it, guys. Great. Congrats on all the success. And thank you so much for coming on. Thank you. Thank you so much. Woohoo! Thanks for joining us on the Pursuit of Wellness podcast. To support this show, please rate and review and share with your loved ones. If you want to be reminded of new episodes, click the subscribe button on your preferred podcast or video player.

You can sign up for my newsletter to receive my favorites at marilowelland.com. It will be linked in the show notes. This is a Wellness Lab production produced by Drake Peterson, Fiona Attucks, and Kelly Kyle. This show is edited by Mike Fry and our video is recorded by Luis Vargas. You can also watch the full video of each episode on our YouTube channel at Mari Fitness. Love you, Power Girls and Power Boys. See you next time. The content of this show is for educational and informational purposes only. It is not a substitute for individual medical and mental health advice

and does not constitute a provider patient relationship. As always, talk to your doctor or health team.