Realfoodology - The Corrupt Food System | Food Babe Vani Hari

Episode Date: August 2, 2023

157: On this very special episode, I interview one of my biggest inspirations, Vani Hari aka Food Babe. We delved into a frank discussion about the harsh realities of the food industry. From the manipulation of nutritional information to the use of artificial ingredients and environmental toxins, Vani shared her experiences of tackling these issues head-on. She succeeded in pressuring major food corporations to remove harmful ingredients, despite facing backlash from industry giants. We also explored the importance of understanding the content of our food and how to navigate the intricate world of nutrition. Vani provided practical advice on batch cooking and meal preparation, her personal health non-negotiables, and gave us a sneak peek into her upcoming book, Food Babe Family. Topics Discussed: 0:09:07 - Reclaiming Health 0:16:49 - Corruption in the Food Industry 0:27:18 - Misinformation and Manipulation in Nutrition 0:37:57 - Artificial Food Dyes and Unethical Businesses 0:48:37 - The Challenges of Finding Healthy Food 0:58:05 - Batch Cooking and Time-Saving Kitchen Gadgets 1:02:36 - Online Haters and Personal Health Books Mentioned: Pre-Order her NEW BOOK: Food Babe Family Conscious Eating Feeding You Lies Food Babe Kitchen Check Out Vani: https://foodbabe.com Pre-Order her NEW BOOK: Food Babe Family Instagram Sponsored By: BiOptimizers: www.magbreakthrough.com/realfoodology REALFOODOLOGY gets you 10% off any Order LMNT Get 8 FREE packs with any order at drinkLMNT.com/realfoodology Organifi www.organifi.com/realfoodology Code REALFOODOLOGY gets you 20% Off Check Out Courtney: Courtney's Instagram: @realfoodology www.realfoodology.com My Immune Supplement by 2x4 Air Dr Air Purifier AquaTru Water Filter EWG Tap Water Database

On today's episode of The Real Foodology Podcast. It was like, okay, how do I feel alive, right? And it was like, real whole foods that come from the earth. And I just started incorporating that and started eating just those. And that's when everything changed. Went off nine prescription drugs, stopped having to diet, never had to worry about my skin anymore. Just totally changing the way I look and feel to the point where the people around me, my friends and family were like, "'Whoa, you look totally different.

"'We want a piece of what you're doing.'" Hi friends, welcome back to another episode of the Real Foodology podcast. Today's episode is a very, very special one. And that is because today's guest is one of my biggest inspirations in starting Real Foodology in 2011, which is really wild. So you guys will hear the story in the beginning of this episode and how impactful Vani Hari was on my own personal journey in really

discovering my life's purpose and what I wanted to do. So I am so incredibly grateful to all the work that Vani Hari has put in the last, it's been 12 years now. That's really wild. And this is a long time coming for her coming on the podcast. And I'm so excited. We talk about her story and how she got into the work that she's doing today and how she got really sick eating a standard American diet. We talk about her story and how she got into the work that she's doing today and how she got really sick eating a standard American diet. We talk about how companies reformulate their foods to be sold in other countries because a lot of the ingredients that we use here in the United States are banned in other countries. natural flavors how Monsanto came after her really aggressively the USDA and FDA regulations and how they're not regulating as extensively as you might think and so much more I really loved this episode and I think you guys are gonna really enjoy this one as always if you guys could take a moment to

leave rating and review it really means a lot to me. It's really beneficial to the show and it helps to get this show into more ears. So I really appreciate your support. And if you guys want to tag me on Instagram, post something in your stories, tag at real foodology. I always see them and I just am so grateful for the support. So thank you guys so much. I hope you love the episode. Do you struggle with sleep like I do? Well, let me tell you about Bioptimizers because their products changed the sleep game for me. And I can actually tell you from personal anecdotal experience after reading my aura ring for the last year and just seeing the improvement in my REM sleep and my deep sleep that it really does work. I also had

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That's B-I-O-P-T-I-M-I-Z-E-R-S dot com slash realfoodology, and you are going to save 10%. Modern living is so hard on our bodies. We get exposed to so many things on a daily basis, whether it's pollution in the air or our tap water that has pharmaceutical drugs and pesticides and fluoride, chlorine, heavy metals. There's pesticides in our food. There's BPA also in our food, in the plastic containers that's holding our food. I mean, the list goes on, right? And I don't say this to scare you because I mean, there's only so much that we can do. But one of the things that I

think is really important that we do is we protect our liver. We take things that not only protect our liver, but also support the detoxification pathways of the liver. One of the ways that I do this is I take liver reset from Organifi. It has trypfala in there. It also has dandelion extract and milk thistle and artichoke. These are all things that are known to protect the liver. And we want to make sure that we're protecting and taking care of our liver because all of these toxins are being filtered out through our liver. And this also helps with the removal of excess toxins and helps to support the detoxification pathways of the liver. So I'm a huge fan of all Organifi products. Everything is organic. Also glyphosate residue free, which

we know is huge. If you guys want to save on liver reset or any of the products that they have on the Organifi website, make sure that you go to Organifi.com slash realfoodology and you are going to save 20%. I'm so excited about this episode, Vani. This is such a special episode for me because you are one of the biggest inspirations for me when I first started out. I mean, I don't know. I think I might've told you this story when I met you. I love that you posted that photo the other day from like, how long ago was that? It was like eight years ago. Eight years ago. I cannot, I cannot even believe that. Well, and it's so interesting. I might've told you this, but I'm going to tell you again. And also so the listeners can hear this. So I found your website food babe in 2011. And I was just going back to school for nutrition.

And I was also just starting to learn about the corruption of the food industry. And I found your blog and I was so inspired. And I remember I recently heard you say this on a podcast that you had initially come up with a different name. And it was so funny. I was laughing so hard at this because I had come up with a different name for my blog

that was something very similar. It was like Eat for Life or Eat for Health or something mine was. And I heard yours and I was laughing so hard at this because I had come up with a different name for my blog. That was something very similar. It was like eat for life or eat for health or something. Mine was, and I heard yours and I was like, that is so funny because I had made up like a similar, really stupid name and then sat on it for like a week. And similarly, my boyfriend was like, this is so lame. Like you got to do something else. And then I came up with real foodology, but when I had started my blog, you finding food, babe, and all the information that you were sharing at the time really inspired me to start mine. So I don't think that Real Foodology would be here in the capacity that it is had I not found Food Babe back then. So thank you so much. And this is so special for me. Well, Courtney, that really just made my day

because I'm just telling you, if I were to think about my biggest successes when it comes to my career, my life, it's always the people who became more aware or more inspired to take on this work, either in themselves and removing processed foods from their own diet and getting healthier or doing something like you in such a big way, which is starting a blog, starting a podcast. And it's the coolest thing. So thank you for that. Cause that really just made my day. So it's awesome. I'm so glad. Yeah. Well, I mean, you really, you were one of the first people, like I said, that were really starting to talk about this back then. And you just lit a fire under my ass in a way that I had never, I had been inspired about nutrition at the time. But when you started writing about all this stuff and I was,

you know, really getting into it, I was like, this is what I want to do. Like it just lit a fire under my ass and I'm so inspired. So thank you for all the work you've been doing. I mean, it's incredible. And, you know, as I was prepping for this podcast, I was thinking about just, you know, it being 2023. I don't know, as I was prepping for this podcast, I was thinking about just, you know, it being 2023. I don't know, what year did you start Food Babe? 2011. Oh my God. Yeah.

Wow. Yeah, 2011. Like you're an OG. Like you're just, you're like, you're original. Like you're, you've been along for the ride for 12 years. It's been great. Yeah. Wow.

Well, what's crazy about it is I was thinking about just, you know, how everyone is really talking about this on like a big scale now. And you are one of the trendsetters, like really putting this information out 12 years ago. And so, I mean, that's incredible. Just seeing the cascade effect of that online and it's cool. It's really cool to be part of, but we have so much work to do. Oh my God. We have so much work to do. So let's

so much work to do. I've so many stories to share with you. Like I'm just things that happened to me recently that I'm just like, come on, we're still here. What is going on? Okay. Well, so I want to dive into that. Before we do that, I think your personal story is really powerful for people to hear and how you got really sick and then you were able to heal your body. So can you tell people how you got started in all of this? Yeah, absolutely. So I grew up with two immigrant Indian parents and they had an arranged marriage in India. My dad had been living in America for quite a while and he went back to have his arranged marriage to my mom. My mom had never

left India in her life and literally goes away for the weekend, gets married, and then gets whisked away to the United States all within a week to live for the rest of her life. Like never even went back to like clean up her room or get her stuff or anything. She had just no idea she was going to get married. And I don't know back then, like you can bribe people to get like a passport really fast. Like, and even in all my parents' passports says West Pakistan, which is like, they're from India. So I don't even know why it says that. Like they just, it was easier to get it that way or something. So they got here. And the first thing my dad introduced my mom to was a McDonald's hamburger. And he said, hey, if we're going to live in America, we're going to eat like Americans. This is what we're

going to eat. And my mom quickly realized that this American way of life was not suiting with her body. So she just continued to make the Indian food that she knew how. But my dad, who was a professor, would go to school, university, and eat all the fast food when he was there. And he raised me and my brother on that fast food because everyone around us, we were like the only Indian kids on the block, they were eating things out like American food, the Betty Crocker, the hamburger helper, the Salisbury steak dinners that you put in the microwave, the mozzarella sticks, you know, they were eating all that, the chicken fingers, all of that stuff. And so to me, Indian food

looks so weird and different. And my brother, who was older than me, like shunned it too. So when you're like a younger sibling, you just kind of like do everything that your older sibling does. And I know that now because I have two babies. And so his bad habits became my bad habits. And so I just, I ate so much fast food as a young child. And my parents didn't really know any better because they just thought this is cheap. This is fast. It's available. They'll give you a free breakfast if you color this on Father's Day. I don't know if you remember that. McDonald's, you would color something on Father's Day and Mother's Day and they'd give you a free pancake breakfast. Oh, I don't know. I wasn't really allowed to eat McDonald's growing up very often.

That's amazing. I was allowed to eat it whenever I wanted. One of my aunts worked there too. I mean, it was just the first job she came when she came from India. So I grew up on this processed food lifestyle. And it wasn't until my early 20s where I was in college and just getting this awesome job right out of college, working for a big six consulting firm. Again, being in the situation where I'm outsourcing my food to them because I want to fit in. I want to work like they're working. They're catering in all of the big spreads of food, the barbecue and the Italian dinners and all of that so that we can just work through it and build to the client. And I got so sick at that job that I ended up with appendicitis in the hospital,

sick as a dog, so horribly sick from that appendicitis and that surgery that it took me weeks and weeks to recover. Normally it takes people like a week to recover, you know, a little bit longer, but it took me forever. It felt like, and I was in my early twenties and I just said to myself, this is not how I want to feel. I really want to feel different. I'm going to take back control of my health. I'm not going to let any job or boss get in my way. And so the first thing I did was started bringing my lunch to work, started working out in the morning or at lunch, started just saying, I'm not going to feel this way. This is the things I'm going to do. And I made so many awful decisions, like very bad decisions. I got into like

following my cube mate because she was in the Weight Watchers and she would go over to the boss's desk and there'd be this big tub of red vines. And she's like, oh, red vines are only one point. And you know, it was like this calorie counting, point counting situation. And I found myself still in this spiral of not feeling the way I wanted to feel. And it wasn't until I got this book, Conscious Eating, that really opened my eyes to what was happening in the American food supply. And this concept of everything in the grocery store shelves that's on in a package or on a shelf is dead. And I was like, that's exactly how I felt for most of my life was dead. Right. And it just, it was like, okay, how do I

feel alive? Right. And it was like real food, real whole foods that come from the earth. And I just started incorporating that into my body and started eating just those. And that's when everything changed. Went off nine prescription drugs, stopped having to diet, never had to worry about my skin anymore. I mean, I grew up with the worst eczema. I mean, it was all over my face and every crease of my body on three topical steroids just to control it. And just totally changing the way I look and feel to the point where the people around me, my friends and family were like, whoa, what are you doing? You've changed. You look totally

different. We want a piece of what you're doing. And then I started to just learn about like, hey, okay, I've been eating this, you know, McDonald's or this Chick-fil-A and what's actually in it. And why did I think this was healthier for me than, you know, the typical fast food, right? And I would find just the most horrific information about this food that I was eating. It was like hundreds of these chemicals that like aren't real food and were like chemical names I couldn't pronounce or even understand. And so I set on a journey to learn every single food chemical that has been put in our food supply and just became an expert at that just because I wanted

to know it. And I was so curious about it. And when I was telling people around me, all the things that I was avoiding and not eating, they were just like, what? What are you talking about? They're like, wait, you're not eating runts anymore and starbursts? You used to love those. Why aren't you eating those anymore? And I'm like, they have artificial food dyes. No, they're not part of the diet anymore. Once I learned what was actually in these chemicals and why they were created, it was a really easy decision to just say no. It was just, once I understood that, it was like, okay, these things are man-made in a laboratory for no nutritional purpose of the American body, or not the American body, human bodies. And they have no reason being in our food, but what is the purpose of them? Oh, it's to make the food industry more money, right? To make

processed food that's dead, to make it look real, taste real, feel real. And to me, I didn't want to be duped anymore by the food industry. And I just wanted to be like, you know, F you, I'm not giving my body up to this experiment. And I'm going to, you know, decide to only eat like stuff from the earth. And, and making that decision was just the best thing ever. So. Knowing your story and hearing all about all the different medications you were on, the eczema, everything that you dealt with and just seeing you in person. I remember when I saw you, when we met like eight years ago, I remember my first thought was she's literally glowing. Like your skin looks amazing and And you really are a testament to eating

a whole real food diet. And you can, you're, you can see the difference in like, I know you've posted photos about, you know, what you looked like before and after and saying that like your family members were like, did you get work done? Like, what are you doing differently? You're like, all I'm doing is eating what we're supposed to be eating, you know? And I will say it's been so interesting on this journey of trying to wake people up of what is going on with our food industry and how one seeing how so many people don't care, also seeing so many people don't make the connection with what we're putting in our bodies and what is physically manifesting, you know, outwardly and inwardly as well.

And yeah, it's just crazy to me. So I want to dive into, you said you had all these stories to tell, and I want to talk about this is, I know you and I are so aligned in this, is all the corruption in the food industry, because this is what I'm the most passionate about. I know you are too. And I think this is what people really, really need to hear because the more people understand that just because something's on the shelf doesn't necessarily mean that it's safe and okay for you. The more that they really, really need to hear. Because the more people understand that just because something's on the shelf doesn't necessarily mean that it's safe and okay for you. The more that they really, really wrap their brains around that and the fact that the USDA and the FDA are in bed

with all these major food corporations, I think we really just need to hammer that in for people because the more they understand that, the more they're starting to wrap their brains around like, okay, we need to be more conscious about what we're eating. So let's say, first of all, what would you say are some of like the dirtiest secrets that you've found in like the corruption

in the food industry that you found? Well, I think some of the biggest ones have been along the lines of the nutritional information that we get through the media. So everything that we are given or programmed to read when it comes to like any major news outlet, any major news that you see about nutrition science or food, a lot of times that's being manipulated behind the scenes in terms of it's being placed by the food industry themselves, or it's being manipulated in the way that we're supposed to perceive that information.

So for example, in my book, Feeding You Lies, my second book that I wrote, I talk about all of the things that happened to me as an activist and how my eyes became wide open to just the corruption of what's involved in taking someone down like myself. So at the time, just to give your listeners a snapshot of what was happening at the time in the food babe land. I had just come out with my new book. It hit the New York Times bestseller list. Kraft had just removed artificial food dyes from their mac and cheese after a petition we started that had over 380,000 signatures. Subway decided to remove azodicarbonamide from their bread, which was like a yoga mat rubber mat chemical

that they use here in the united states and not elsewhere across the world you actually get fine four and fifty thousand dollars if you use it in singapore um as a result of that campaign the environmental working group took it a step further and and we worked together to get um as a dicharbonamide completely eliminated from almost every bread manufacturer in America. Then Anheuser-Busch and Miller Coors decided to release the ingredients in beer for the first time in history. Starbucks removed caramel coloring level four from their pumpkin spice lattes and started to release their ingredients for the first time in history. Chipotle decided to go GMO free from a petition that was started from a campaign that I let people know what was really happening at Chipotle. When they are saying food with Integra, they wouldn't even tell us what was in Chipotle, which was crazy at the time.

So all this stuff is happening. And by the way, it's making front page news that this activist, Food Babe, is starting these petitions. She's got this army of people that are sharing this information. And the food industry was scared out of their minds. And then on top of that, Time Magazine decided to make me one of the most influential people on the Internet next to like Kim Kardashian and Barack Obama and Jimmy Fallon. And I was just like, whoa, like this is too much emphasis on me. Like it was a lot to handle for me. It was actually the darkest. You would think after all those accolades and all of those things that happened, it would have been the most exciting time of my career, but it actually was the darkest time because at the same time I was getting hit by every single media outlet trying to do a hit piece on me. And the same cast of characters always showed up to report on me, to tell me I'm full of shit, that I don't know what I'm talking about. Oh, she's not a scientist. Oh, she's not

a nutritionist. And they would just try to make it look like I didn't know what I was talking about, that I was overreacting about these chemicals in our food that I was discovering and getting these huge food manufacturers to remove, by the way, because it wasn't just me that found them problematic. It was all of these nonprofit groups that were doing the science behind them. And it was tons of scientists and data that showed that these ingredients are harmful. And they don't, I mean, shoot, they're banned in other countries for a reason, right? And so it wasn't like I was making up this stuff, but they wanted to create doubt in the public eye that I was, you know, out of my mind. And so, you know,

one of the first pieces that came out after my book came out was in the New York Times. And this New York Times reporter, I could tell was just not on my side from the day one that she sat down with me. You know, we were at ABC Kitchen in New York, which I know you've been to. And it's one of the most beautiful, most just magical restaurants. And it was like when I was sitting down with her giving the interview, it's like she sucked the air out of the room. And it was awful. But I just knew leaving that, I was like, it's not going to be that great of a piece. And actually, I have it framed on my wall, because it was such a monumental part of my career. But in that piece, she interviewed three different people. And these are the same

cast of characters that were showing up in, you know, NPR articles in the Atlantic, all sorts of things that were being written about me at the time. And the three people that she wrote about, one of them was getting paid by Barry Monsanto after I group and was getting money directly from them, which was incredible to see all of the emails back and forth. Another quote-unquote independent professor. And then another guy, Dr. Fergus Clydesdale, can't forget his name. He was working on the board of Sensient Technologies, the company that makes caramel color level four. That's considered a carcinogen to the International Agency for Research on Cancer. But did they put any of these

conflicts of interest in the New York Times article? No, they did not. And so when that kind of stuff was going down, I started to question everything that I was reading online, in the media, in news sources, any kind of news that pops up. You know, whenever these fast food companies come up with some new bullshit menu item, that's like, you know, the Dorito taco at Taco Bell or whatever. It's like it gets all of this press. Well, why doesn't a single reporter ever do the press of what's actually in the Dorito taco, right? Or whatever concoction they're developing at the moment.

And it's never that. It's always the buzz about it is because it's a pay-for-play system where these fast food conglomerates and big food companies pay for this information to be, you know, to be disseminated out to us. And so in my book, Feeding You Lies, I go through all of that. And I go through all the playbook that the food industry uses to make us think that, you know, what we're eating, what we're doing is completely fine. And there's been so many instances, like, for example, you know, you'll see like headlines, you know, candy helps

kids lose weight. And you'll find out that there's a study that was paid by, you know, the Candy Manufacturers Association, you know, the Skittles and the Mars of the world. And they're making it seem like that candy's not so bad so that the next time a mom's at the checkout station and their little child wants to buy some Skittles, they know that it's bad for them, but they're like, oh, it's not that bad because I read that study, right? It was a headline that I read. So it's just creating that doubt, that little seedling of doubt or that seedling of, oh, it's not so bad so that I can just continue to feed my kids this garbage. And that's what all of this information does. The same thing happened recently within the last couple of years. It was like coconut oil is not healthy and it's never been.

I'm getting texts from my mom. I told you so, she tells me. And I'm like, mom, do you even know who's behind this study? Come on. Wasn't it like the canola? I feel like it was someone that produces canola oil that was funding those studies, right? Yeah. I think I read that. But yeah. Yeah, exactly. So it was, you know, and then the people on the board who were at the American Heart Association were directly involved with, you know, getting funding from the canola industry. So it was just, it was complete bullshit study that came out that was just trying to demonize the popularity of coconut oil and how so many people are starting to use it because it's a healthier oil to cook with. And so all of this information that we're being fed, we have to look five levels deeper and to see if it's actually true.

And that is one of the things when you ask about like the dirtiest secrets is that you can't take what you're learning about nutrition for face value. the only people that have made nutrition science hard and confusing and difficult to understand are actually the food scientists that have created these chemicals. Nutrition is easy. You eat as close to the earth as possible, whole grains, vegetables, fruits, nuts, seeds, meats, cheeses, and you're going to be good to go. Like there's little to no tweaking from that point of view. I mean, yes, individually, you may need more of one category than another based on your own genetics. But if you eat as close to nature as possible, that's the answer. Did you guys know that over 70% of sodium in the US diet is consumed from packaged and processed foods? When you adopt a whole foods diet, you're eliminating or hopefully eliminating these

processed foods and therefore sodium from your diet. Now, the solution is not to reintroduce processed foods in your diet, but by not replacing that sodium, you can actually negatively impact your health and performance. If you guys listened to my episode, The Salt Fix with Dr. James Dinnick, we learned that sodium is actually a really imperative mineral for the body. Sodium helps maintain fluid balance. It's an electrolyte, so it helps keep us hydrated. It also aids in nerve impulses. It regulates blood flow and blood pressure. It's incredibly important. And if you're eating a whole real food diet, chances are you're probably not getting enough sodium. Also, this is probably going to be a

shock to hear, but if you are just drinking water without adding minerals back into your water, you're not actually hydrating. My personal favorite way to stay hydrated throughout the day is through drinking element every day. That's L M N T. It's a delicious tasting electrolyte drink mix that has everything you need and nothing you don't. So that means lots of salt. There's no sugar in there. It's formulated to help anyone with their electrolyte needs and is perfectly suited for people following keto, low carb and paleo diets. It has a science backed electrolyte ratio, a thousand milligrams of sodium, 200 milligrams of potassium and 60 milligrams of magnesium. I drink one of these every single morning. They have a ton of amazing, super delicious flavors.

I know a lot of us listening are avoiding natural flavors, so they also have an unflavored one, which is my personal favorite. I love to put it with lemon. But if you want the flavored ones, they have a great variety of different flavors, and they have given me an awesome offer to share with you guys. So you guys can claim a free element sample pack when you make a purchase through the link. The link is drinkelement.com slash realfoodology. And in the element sample pack, you're going to get one packet of every flavor so that you can try all of them and see which one is your favorite. I hope you guys enjoy it as much as I do. Again, it's drinkelement.com slash realfoodology. That's drinkelement.com slash realfoodology. You know what's really interesting, Vani, is that we're actually seeing that happen right now. I've been posting about this a ton because

the World Health Organization is setting, they're setting up to call aspartame a carcinogen. And oh my God, all of the articles coming out right now, I've had people write me telling me that they have scientists, quote unquote scientists, that they're paying on the Good Morning America show. All these people, all these articles, I saw the New York Times, The Economist, they're all writing articles being like,

oh, aspartame is fine. You have to drink so many bottles of Diet Coke a day. And I'm reading all this being like, this is 1000% funded by Coca-Cola. It is being funded by the industries that right now are freaking out going, oh my God, we have aspartame in all of our best-selling products. And so they're trying to confuse the public. And so now I can't tell you how many people are like, oh, Diet Coke is fine. I saw on the Good Morning America show that it's like not a big deal. You have to drink so many bottles of it. And I'm like, oh my God. I mean, here are the facts, right? Here are the facts about aspartame. Number one, it's not real

food. It's an artificial ingredient. It was actually created in the discovery of these pharmaceuticals that were in development. The guy like licked his finger and was like, oh, this is sweet. And somehow the FDA greenlit it and now it's in thousands of our products. And it's one of the most alarming ingredients. It's something that should have never been in our food. Not to mention that it completely tricks the body into thinking you're actually getting nutrition from a food because of the sweetness, but instead it hijacks your brain. And so then you end up wanting to have more later and that you crave more later. So it just continues on this hamster wheel of obesity and diabetes and heart disease. And it's not the answer, right?

And even if it is linked to cancer or not cancer, let's just look at the face value of that ingredient, right? And it's in those thousands of products. And so those food manufacturers are going to be pissed when they have to remove it because of the, hopefully the alarm that the World Health Organization is raising. But it's, yeah, it's crazy. And they're going to do whatever they can to hold on to it, for sure. Yeah. And what's so infuriating about that to me is that I've known since like the 80s, because my mom started telling me really early on, she was like, avoid this ingredient. There's a lot of speculation that it leads to cancer and all this stuff. And so we've had a lot of people sounding the alarm on this for a long time, but thanks to large funding and these huge corporations that want to use it, they greenlit it anyways. And so, you know, this is so infuriating to me because these companies

create this confusion around their products for a reason, because they're not ultimately worried about the health of the population. They're worried about making the cheapest, most effective foods that will sit on the shelf for months on end, make them the most amount of money. And they're not worried about the health of the people. And so many people are getting duped by this. And I just want to shake everyone and be like, wake up. This is not real. They're confusing you for a reason. Yeah. And, and, you know, after having children, Courtney, let me just tell you the things that I have witnessed and seen. It's just, it's so horrendous. Let me just, let me just give you an example. So I've got this new book coming out by the way,

in October and it's Food Babe Family. And it's an intimate look into my family and how we eat and how I've raised my children. And it has like a hundred new recipes. It's, it's, it's going to be fantastic. I'm really excited about it coming out, but I'm a little nervous because I share some stories in there about things that have happened, you know, at my daughter's school and in some other, you know, personal details.

And it's going to be fun to see what people think about them. But also like, I love the fact that the first half is all a guidebook on how to raise healthy eaters. And it's, again, what I do. And it's not right or wrong, but it's just what I do. And if you've witnessed online, I'm sure the mom shaming that can happen when it comes to feeding your kids. And so I wrote it in a real non-confrontational way that allows anyone to pick up the habits that I do as a family. And it's not to make anyone feel bad if they do something different. But one of the things that

I did with my daughter that I think is so important is I never had any of this information when I was little. My parents didn't know any better. They didn't know anything about nutrition. They taught me zero about that. School probably taught me about zero too. So I had to learn all this information for myself. And I just think that we have just the biggest responsibility right now to teach the next generation, to teach our children the truth about what's happening in the food supply. And a lot of people think like, you shouldn't call a food bad. You shouldn't call a food good. Oh my God. They're so focused on that and the eating disorder side of it. And I'm not trying to sound insensitive to that, but I'm like, you're only gonna create another type of eating disorder

by not being honest with them about the truth about real foods. Right, and I just think this, like it's the fact, right? That these foods, especially targeted towards children, have so many different chemicals that are bad for their brains. And so when Harley was like 10 months old,

she was on a business trip with me to New York City. And I remember she was on the ground playing with like snicker packages and M&Ms and all of that because they put it all on the bottom level. It was one of those little airport shops where they sell magazines. And I was buying some water, doing something and just passing the time, waiting for my flight. And she's playing with all that stuff. And I just remember even at that young of an age, at 10 months old, I told her the truth about what she was playing with. I said, oh, look at this. Look at the ingredients in this package. And I just started like reading them out to her, even though I knew she was not going to like understand fully what I'm telling her. But at that young age, I just continued to

do it anytime we encountered food that I don't typically buy or put in the house. And so she is now six years old. And she's in a school where they the parents and they said to me, they said, hey, we're going to have ice cream day and we just want to let you know, you know, whatever. So I immediately respond like two nanoseconds. I was just like, I would love to provide all the ice cream for that day. Just let me know what to do i would love to be involved thank you bonnie right well i get a response back in a few more minutes and they're like no problem you know oh thank you for your offer we have it covered and i was just like oh should i push and ask what's covered like what they're doing like should i try to find out like and i just i kind of was just like you know what i'm gonna let it go it'll be, I kind of was just like, you know what? I'm going to let it go.

It'll be fine. She's going to have ice cream day. You know, of course my wheels are spinning. I'm wondering what they're going to do. And I'm like, it's going to be fine, Bonnie. You're going to be fine. So fast forward to ice cream day. And I dropped Harley off at school and I asked the headmaster, I'm like, so, oh, what did y'all get for ice cream day? And she goes, oh, we have, it's better than just ice cream day. We have an ice cream truck coming to the playground. And I was like, oh, I was like, no. I was like, oh gosh, just like a typical ice cream truck. I'm like, oh. So I just was like, you know a part of me wanted to go like go spy and see what happens and like what she chooses and like what she picks and just get a like a glimpse of what

was all you know at the ice cream truck but I pretty much know what's there right it's gonna it's gonna be your typical nutty buddies bomb pops you know all of that kind of stuff right you know all those otter pops full of artificial food dyes. It's going to be all the crap. And so she gets home from school that day. And it was so exciting for me because she was excited to tell me. She said, Bonnie, you know, not Bonnie. She said, Mom. She doesn't call me Bonnie. She says, Mom, Mom, you'll never guess. I had ice cream today at school. And I'm like, oh really? She goes, yes. And an ice cream truck came. I go, oh, well, what did you get? She goes, well, I think I made the best decision. And I said, oh really? What did you get? She goes,

I got an ice cream sandwich. And I said, really? She goes, but mom, it was twice the size of the ones you get. It was this big. It was this long. And I was like, oh, it's not like the little organic ones that I get that are actually like perfectly portioned. It's like double the size. She's like, yes. And I go, was it good? She goes, yes, it was so good. And she goes, you know, I'm just, I thought it was like just vanilla and chocolate. So there was going to be no artificial dyes. And I noticed there was some other stuff on the menu that definitely had artificial dyes. I think I made a really good decision. And I was like, Harley, that is amazing that you even thought about it. This, this is incredible. I'm just, I'm proud of you for thinking it, thinking about it. And I'm

glad you enjoyed the ice cream. She's like, oh yes, it was so good, mom. And I'm like, okay. So my stupid ass, I go and I Google what's in a typical ice cream sandwich. I can't even believe it, Courtney. That ice cream sandwich that my daughter thought she was making a good decision by avoiding artificial food dyes. What does it have? Artificial food dyes in it. Caramel coloring level four to make the wafer.

Titanium dioxide to make it more white inside. I mean, absolutely insane, right? So even this... Of course, I didn't have the heart to tell her the truth later on. Eventually, if we come across another ice cream truck and that ice cream sandwich, I will tell her like, hey, I think this has da-da-da-da-da-da in it. You should know. But I didn't have the heart to tell her because I was so proud of her like problem solving skills and like the fact that she even cared to even think about a better option. But to know that it still had artificial food dyes, I mean, that's where we're at,

right? Like even stuff that you think you're making a better decision, it still has the crap in it. It still has the crap. And actually, and I wanted to talk about this, about the artificial dyes and natural flavors, because I know when you first started talking about natural flavors, it was really easy to avoid them for me because I was shopping at Whole Foods and Sprouts and Natural Grocer, like all the, you know, healthier places to shop. But more recently, I have to admit that I have natural flavors fatigue because it's in everything like even the like quote-unquote healthy products now where I'm like oh this is organic I love this brand and then I'm like why are they putting natural flavors in the organic stuff and then the same with the artificial food dyes can we talk about that well actually okay

first of all I want to say the artificial food dyes one is a really important point because I think a lot of people don't understand this. They're banned in other countries, like in European countries, and there are companies that reformulate their products. This is another thing that I learned from you that really infuriated me. They reformulate their products to make them healthier and take out all the stuff that's banned in these other countries, and then they sell us the crap here in America. So can we talk about how companies do that? And then I want to dive into natural flavors and why we need to avoid them. Yeah, absolutely. So I want to pick on

one company in particular when it comes to this, and this is Kellogg's. So Kellogg's back in 2015 decided to remove artificial food dyes from all of their cereals. And I was a little bit behind that campaign. I started a petition for them to get BHT out and artificial food dyes from all of their cereals. And I was a little bit behind that campaign. I started a petition for them to get BHT out and artificial food dyes. They made the announcement that they're going to remove all the artificial food dyes. And they got all the press for it. All of the different news articles came out, said they're going to remove artificial food dyes. It's going to be within three years. I still called bullshit on it because I said, hey, Kellogg's, you're making Froot Loops overseas in Europe without artificial food dyes right now. Why can't you just switch to that recipe? It's not like you have to reinvent the wheel. You don't

have to come up with new technology to remove these artificial food dyes. You can just do it, right? But they didn't do it. And in 2018, rolled around three years later, and they still didn business practice, I believe, because they already know how to make their cereals better for you overseas. And they already are avoiding the artificial food dyes because of health reasons. Because in Europe, it says may cause adverse effects on activity and attention in children if you decide to use an artificial food dye in Europe. And instead of putting that warning on their label, they remove it and they sell their products perfectly fine in Europe for European children. But for their own American citizens, we get the toxic stuff. And to me, that's a very unethical business decision. And so companies like Kellogg's do it. McDonald's does it. Their French fries in Britain are like three ingredients.

Here we have all sorts of chemicals in our French fries, including dimethylpolysiloxane, which is one of the main ingredients in silly putty. That's according to the FDA. It can be preserved with formaldehyde. So this is something also that ingredient, by the way, people don't know this, but it's in fountain diet Coke. So if you're getting a... I always...

When I did drink Coca-Cola back in the day, really young, I always thought a fountain drink was so much better than the bottle drink. Well, it's probably because of the fucking silly putty. I don't even know. Like, wow, this silly putty really adds an extra oomph to it. I don't know, but it's just so ridiculous. So we're in this situation where we have these companies, these American companies selling us the toxic versions

of their products to us here in the United States. And elsewhere, they're selling better versions. And to me, that's got to stop. If there is a company or a product that you know that they create a better version overseas, you have to stop buying that company here and demand better because that's just got to stop. It's been one of the things that has been on my radar for a really long time. I haven't figured out how to remedy it. Kellogg's doesn't seem to care at all. I was at the grocery store literally yesterday and I was picking up cereals because I was filming something

and they all had BHT, artificial dyes, all the Kellogg's cereals still have them. It's just infuriating. It's so incredibly unethical that they do this. They ban these ingredients in other countries because in other countries, they have this mentality of like, okay, we're not gonna put it in our food

until we've deemed that it's safe. But in America, it's the exact opposite. We just have a free for all. And then later, if we find out it's bad, then maybe they'll take it out. But even like we're seeing right now, like aspartame, you're just seeing all the companies like fight super hard and try to confuse people and say, no, no, no, no, it's fine. It's fine. It's just crazy. It's very frustrating. So natural flavors. And I'm with you with this one because I was really mad yesterday. I bought these dried shishito peppers

and I was like, I just bought them. So I was like, oh, this is great. Dried shishito peppers. These are going to be great. I'm used to the brand. It's supposed to be good. And then I get them home and I turn over the package.

It's natural flavor, right? I'm like, why are you adding natural flavors to my peppers, my dried peppers? Come on. I just want a decent snack in a package sometimes, right? But you cannot find it. You can't find it. And the thing that I have, again, with natural flavors is I go back to that hijacking of your body. It's literally hijacking your taste buds. It's putting a chemicalized flavor that was created in a laboratory to create the best one millionth part of a taste

into your body. And so that when you eat that processed food, you can't stop. You want more and you want more and you don't want to stop. And that's, for me, that's a problem because like I don't want to ever be on someone else's hamster wheel, like just consuming stuff because I'm being tricked. Yeah. Same. Well, I just want

to be eating real food. I want to be eating foods that are actually nourishing to my body and are not going to create disease or inflammation, you know? And that's the problem with natural flavors is that, you know, what I have found, there are some companies that are really transparent about their natural flavors and they're organic and all this stuff. And I'm okay with that. The problem is, is that it's such a blanket term that we don't know what's actually in it. And a lot of these companies are not forthcoming about what they're actually using, which is concerning. Yeah, because it can be thousands of chemicals under that name, natural flavor. People don't realize that it could be thousands of chemicals. Okay, so can we talk a little bit about the FDA, the USDA, the revolving door,

just the corruption and everything that's happening? I've heard you say this before that I believe it was the FDA that admitted one time that they can't even keep track of all of the different ingredients that are going into our food supply. Yeah, that's right. I mean, they admitted that the amount of food additives that are approved for use, that they don't even have regulatory oversight of them. The food companies themselves are the ones that usually green light them or approve them or submit them for approval. And because the FDA

doesn't look at every single one, that they just get greenlit and they get put into our food supply. So right now we have over 10,000 food chemicals in our food supply that are allowed for use. Thankfully, there are certain ways to avoid a lot of these chemicals. Number one, if you buy organic USDA certified organic food, you automatically eliminate thousands of those chemicals, which is great. A lot of the harmful ones. I would say if you still buy organic processed foods, you're still going to find natural flavors. You're going to find carrageenan still allowed, I think, in organic food. I think so. And canola. They were trying to remove it from being approved, but I don't think it worked. I think

they overrid it. And then what else? What are some of the other bad things in organic food? So you still, you'll find yeast extract, which for me, yeast extract is like one of those flavor enhancers that again, create that irresistibility of a food. And for me, I just don't want to be tricked. I don't want to be able to eat more than I should. And it's got free glutamic acid, so it mimics MSG in the body. Canola oil. I find that all the time.

Yeah, canola, sunflower, safflower, corn, soy. You'll find all of those oils in organic food. But they'll be organic, which is great, which means they're not typically sprayed with Roundup, right? Or genetically engineered. So that's good, but it's still not the best oil for your body, right? Yeah. What are you eating these days, Courtney? What am I eating? Yeah. What are you eating? So I tend to lean a little bit more on like a low carbohydrate diet, but I always preface this and say like, carbohydrates are not bad. I don't vilify them. It's just generally speaking, I've tested like

every diet in the book. I feel like I've done keto, I've done vegan, I've done paleo, I've done all of it. And ultimately what I landed on where I had the most energy was I really prioritize mostly whole real food carbohydrate sources. So like sweet potatoes, potatoes, white rice, stuff like that. Organic gluten-free sourdough bread. I love it with butter in the morning.

So like I'm not vilifying carbohydrates, but I really focus on getting good high quality protein in the form of animal sources, like organic pasture-raised eggs, organic grass fed beef, sometimes pasteurized chicken. I don't eat as much chicken these days. I try to eat more beef and eggs. And then obviously, all the vegetables across the board. I tell people this all the time. As long as it's a real food source, plant, animal, dairy, whatever it is, it is on the table for me. Like I'll eat any of it except for I can't have gluten. Cause I was diagnosed with a gluten

allergy like 12 or 13 years ago now, but yeah, that's my, my main source. And then, you know, I'm, I'm human. I also tell people this all the time. Like I still buy packaged foods, like organic packaged foods. I'm just very careful about the ones that I buy. Yeah. Like the ones that just are made with whole real food ingredients. But, you know, I will say the biggest thing right now that I'm struggling with is the natural flavors. Cause like you had mentioned, there are these brands that I've been buying for years and trusting. And then all of a sudden, one day I'll look at the ingredient label and I'm like, they used to not have natural flavors. What the fuck? It makes me so mad. And it just makes it so hard. I really sympathize because I'm sure you probably have a similar experience having this platform.

I have people reaching out to me all the time, sharing stories with me about their struggles. And it's so infuriating because people want to do the best for their health. And people are really struggling right now. They're struggling with their weight. They're struggling with hormonal issues. They're struggling with fatigue. They're struggling with feeding their children, also struggling with budgets. And it's just, it makes me so mad because the whole reason I do this is because I genuinely care about, you know, our fellow humans and I want to see people thrive. And we've made it so incredibly hard to do it in this country. And like I said, I was at the grocery store yesterday and I was looking at some of my favorite brands. I was just

in like a Ralph's or something. It was just like a conventional grocery store here in LA. And I was looking at all of my favorite brands of cereal. So I was in a cereal aisle and there's this one brand of cereal that I love called Lovebird. They're glyphosate free, really super clean, like real food ingredients. And, you know, it was 10.99 on the shelf. And then I'm looking next to it. There's, you know, the Kellogg's, the Corn Flakes and, you know, the Fruity Pebbles and the Fruit Loops. And they're all like 2.99. And I was like, you know, people that don't have this kind of money, they don't stand a chance against this right now, you know? And it's, it's heartbreaking. It is. It definitely is. And

it just reminds me of like, what you're saying reminds me of like why I started Truvani because I couldn't find a protein powder without the gargum. I couldn't find a protein powder without stevia. I couldn't find a protein powder without natural flavors. Right. And, and the protein powder I was taking at one point got recalled because it had rat droppings. I mean, I just had the worst luck with protein powders, or it just made me feel bloated and disgusting, right? And so when I created Truvani, I just said, we're never going to have any of these ingredients. We're going to have the least amount of ingredients possible in order to make a functional product. And I wish like all companies were like that, you know, lovebird that you mentioned that

are able to make food without the unnecessary ingredients. But I can tell you just from my experience of starting True Bonnie, you know, we're five years old now, wait, six, almost six years old now. And the product development to get to where we are, like even with our bars, in order to get them with ingredients that you would find in your own kitchen. I can't tell you how many times food manufacturers would tell me tapioca starch is like such a better thing to put in here because it takes, you know, it takes the sugar grams off. So you don't have to put the sugar grams in and da, da, da, da, da. And I'm like, no, that's like a trick of the food industry

so that you still get the starch in there, your blood sugar still increases, although you're fooling the consumer because you have zero grams of sugar in your product. And so like different tricks like that were always presented to me along the way. And it's just been, you know, I've had to have these knock down, drag out bottle battles to, to keep the integrity of our products. And a lot of it, you know, comes down to cash, right? It takes more, it costs more

money to produce the food that we're producing. That's, you know, with less chemicals and because it has more real food in it, right? Well, and part of that too that people need to understand is that we don't actually know the true cost of our food because of the subsidies. And the only reason the majority of these companies are able to create these products, put them on the shelves and sell them for $2.99 is because we're paying with our tax dollars farmers to grow these specific crops to make them cheaper. That's also what's so infuriating about this. Yeah, no, absolutely.

And you know, it's crazy. You know, my daughter goes to this cooking class last week and it was this amazing cooking class. They're making everything from scratch. They're making sushi and they're making pasta from scratch. And they're, I mean, they're doing everything, right? And they sent out a note like before the class starts. And they're like, hey, we just want to let you know there's going to be a snack.

And we're going to provide a snack. And I'm like, okay, cool. It's got to be something good. They're probably going to like chop an apple or something because they're working on their knife skills or whatever. No, it's freaking goldfish, right? They give every kid in the class a pack of goldfish. Like you're in a cooking class learning to cook and you're going to in the class a pack of goldfish like you're in a cooking class

learning to cook and you're going to give my child a pack of goldfish right so crazy and so it's like this we have to like undo this this idea of what is a snack what's not a snack what's food like what's acceptable right and I And I think, I mean, we all have to like push the envelope, right? So of course I'm going to send a letter about the goldfish because I think it's absolutely ridiculous. You're in a cooking class. You should just cook your snack, right? Just make your snack. Yeah. Well, and also like that's a learning lesson for the people putting together that class because hopefully their response is, oh my God, we didn't even think about that. You know, it's a learning lesson for them people putting together that class because hopefully their response is, oh my God, we didn't even think about that. It's a learning lesson for them, hopefully.

So, okay. I always like to end these on a good note for people and give them some tips and tricks. One of the questions that I get often from people is, I have two kids. I'm so busy. I run my business. How do you have time to cook and get together all these meals for your kids and feed them real food? What would be some of your tips and just advice to people that are struggling, kids or no kids, that are like, I'm so busy, how do I find the time to do all of this and eat real food?

So what I would recommend to people is preparing your own food at home in advance is one of the biggest things that you can do for your body and you'll get the most benefit from. And the way to do that is to come up with like a couple of breakfasts, a couple of lunches and a couple of dinners that your family loves, that you love, that you can make in advance and you can prep in advance. So those times when you're super busy or you don't feel like cooking, you have stuff available,

whether you freeze it and put it in the freezer and you just pull it out, or you have it available in the refrigerator because you made a big batch on Sunday. And so I'll just give one example of things that I make on a daily basis that are such huge time-savers. So I got this awesome

stainless steel crock pot that is like my prized possession in my kitchen. And I also have another gadget that I love, which is just a small miniature oven. It's Rebel. It has an air fryer in it. It's awesome. And it's stainless steel. It's so great, but it warms up so fast. So like, for example, I don't use a microwave. So whenever I have to reheat food, I don't want to like warm up my huge oven. It takes forever. It's a gas oven. It takes, you know, it takes like 30 minutes. If I just warm up my small oven, which fits a whole, you know, pan, a sheet pan in there and everything, right? I can, I can just warm things up really quickly within 10 minutes. I can make a lot of food in there too. Right now, I've got a sweet potato going

for an hour at 400. It's going to be delicious and caramelized for dinner tonight when I eat, when I break into it and put a big slab of grass-fed butter in it, right? There's all these things that you can do and have gadgets to like kind of help you. And so anyways, this crock pot that I have, I love making steel cut oats, but I tell you, I do not want to make them in the morning when my kids are like hungry and they're bothering me and like whatever. And it takes 25 minutes of like stirring it, half of it ends up getting burnt on the pot. It's just a mess, right? So I've figured out to make steel cut oats, you have to make them the night before and it takes 30 seconds. And you literally just pour them into the slow cooker with however many cups of water,

however much you have. I always do like half a cup to two and a half cups of water. And that's enough for me and my two kids. My husband usually eats something different. And we top that steel cut oats with almond butter or fresh ground flax seed or whatever fruits. We love pomegranate seeds and oatmeal. And that's like the first course for my kids until I can cook them something proper or have them have something else. A lot of times we love these little chicken sausages from Balinski's. They love to eat. I'll make them pancakes recipes out of Food Babe Kitchen with almond flour and like sweet potatoes. And I'll make all kinds of stuff, but I will make a bunch, freeze them, and then I'll warm them up, you know, in the morning and stuff like that.

Because I'm not making something every single day. I just don't have time for that. The same goes for like lunches and for dinners. I will batch cook lunches. Like today, I batch cooked a lunch. I ground, I use ground organic turkey, lusini, organic tomato sauce. So yummy. It doesn't have any added sugar. It's a good one. Out of all the ones I've tasted, I think that one's the best. And then, so I'm not even making my own tomato sauce, right? But I'm using that store-bought option. And then I'm using tolerant lentil rotini pasta, and I'm making a huge batch of that. My

kids had that for lunch and I always steam a vegetable with that. And so we steamed broccoli today and I put some grass-fed butter with it and a little sea salt. It's perfect. They had an awesome lunch and I have that leftover for the next two days. I don't have to worry about lunch. So I just batch cook and make things that my family loves in a lot of it so that it's available, it's ready in the fridge. And then because I have the ability to work from home, that's a huge advantage because, and I think a lot of people are working from home these days, but if you are working from home, use the time in between meetings wisely, like throw that sweet potato in the oven, right?

Have it ready as a side so that you're not thinking of everything you have to create for, for dinner that evening, you know, have a bunch of sweet potatoes cooking so that you can just warm them up later on, you know? So that's the key is to like freeze stuff and make things ahead of time. And a lot of these tips are in my new book, Food Babe Family, that's coming out in October. You know, I remember you were, again,

like one of the first people that really helped me with a lot of these tips and tricks as far as like planning ahead. Also with traveling, I was traveling a lot. And I mean, I still do. And you have so many amazing tips and tricks. I feel like I'm sure they're probably still all up on your blog, but I learned so much of that from you like, you know, years ago. So I encourage people to go check that out. And also Vani, I just want to say, I really commend you for sticking true, like sticking to this and continuing to put yourself out there and continuing to put

all this information out there because I know I know personally now I've I've witnessed like how hard it is I've thought about you so many times where you know I'll have these massive accounts come after me and what people don't understand is that not only when someone goes after you like online for example their like entire army of people come after you. And I can't tell you how many times I've just been infiltrated by these nasty DMs and comments, all these just really hateful things. And it's so hard to be on the receiving end of that when you're sitting over here going, I just want to help you. I'm just here to help people. And I know that you've experienced it on such a massive level that I can't even imagine. There was something I wanted to bring up today,

but I just want to bring it up to encourage people to go look it up. But I remember years and years ago, you had mentioned Monsanto at the very beginning. And I remember there was a time where there were emails revealed about like all the different tactics they were using against you as far as like commenting on forums and all this different stuff. And I think you wrote about it. Yeah, they had a program that was leave no comment left behind.

So anytime anybody would say something negative about a GMO, they would have a troll farm ready to respond. That's so crazy. And I just think it's important again for people to know that this is happening behind the scenes. And yeah, so I just,

I wanted to commend you for continuing to do this work because I know it's really hard and I know the mental strain that it puts on a person when you're just trying to help and you have all these people just, you know, really attacking you. So thank you for continuing to do this work. It is so incredibly important, Bonnie, and it's so impactful. Well, thank you, Courtney. And I really do appreciate you acknowledging that. And I, gosh, you're on the front lines now too. And so it's definitely hard. And the biggest advice I can give to you and to everyone out there that's

in this work and wanting to share this information, because I feel like this information is somewhat controversial sometimes because of the forces that want the status quo to stay the same are so large. You know, the biggest thing that I can say is that our work is so much more important than ourselves. So we just are taking one for the team, really, right? And to always focus on the willing, like focus on the people who really do want to hear this message and try to ignore the people that don't. And, you know And recently there was someone who tried to come after me with some TikTok or something and my team sent it to me.

And I just kind of laughed because this entire page was like defending every chemical in the food supply. And so I posted a little message on, I don't know if you saw it on Instagram of like how I deal with haters and how I deal with people that come after me. And I just play them the song by Big Sean. And if you don't know that song, you'll look it up, but that's what I do. I love it. I love it. Well, like you said, we just have to focus on our purpose,

which is so much greater than us. And it's incredibly important. So, okay. I want to ask you a personal question that I ask all of my guests before we go. What are your personal health non-negotiables? These are things that either you do daily, weekly, maybe both that are the most important to you and maintaining your health. Yeah. So number one, I do my lemon water in the morning. Always. My husband does it for me now, which is so sweet because I'm, yeah, because I, like, he knows I'm busy with the kids and I'm breastfeeding still and like, you know, whatever. So he has it ready for me. This is so cool. So I have that first thing in the morning. And then

once I feel hydrated, I tell you, I just feel so much better. And then I do some form of movement every single day, whether it's riding the bikes with the kids or like doing a proper workout. I have to have some kind of form of movement every day for my anxiety and my stress and mental clarity. You know, I love all the other aesthetic reasons of why working out is good for you. But for me, it's anti-anxiety medicine. So I have to do that. And then what's another thing? You know, lately I've been really addicted to my Truvani shakes that I've been having. Like I just put as many vegetables as I can in a blender and I throw in protein plus greens and our collagen, marine collagen. And I just, I drinking that like once a day, I just, I don't know. I just feel better. I feel like I'm

getting a lot of vegetables in, in one meal. It's, it's fast. It's easy. It's like my fast food when I'm like have a lot of meetings and things are going on. So that's kind of been my thing lately. So, but things change, you know, like I always have my little habits that change. So. Yeah. I love that. I actually just got your matcha protein that I'm so excited to try. I think I'm going to make it literally when I get off this call. Oh, awesome. I can't wait to hear it. Yeah. Yeah. I'm excited to try it. Well, please let everyone know, you know, details about your book when it comes out, where they can find it and then just where they can find you. Yeah. So food, big family hits shelves everywhere in October. You can pre-order it now.

If you go over to food, babe.com, you can get all the information there. You can also visit truebonnie.com and check out all the protein powders we've created and bars and we have other supplements and beauty products as well. So yeah. Awesome. Bonnie, thank you so much for coming on. This was really special and so informative. It's awesome. I'm just excited to be able to sit down with you and chat and catch up. And I just, I hope we get to see each other live soon. So me too. I would love that. Thank you so much. Thank you so much for listening to this week's episode of the real foodology podcast. If you liked the episode, please leave a review in your podcast app to let me know. This is a resonant media production produced by Drake

Peterson and edited by Mike Fry. The theme song is called Heaven by the amazing singer Georgie. Georgie is spelled with a J. For more amazing podcasts produced by my team, go to resonantmediagroup.com. I love you guys so much. See you next week. 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 doesn't constitute a provider-patient relationship. Thank you. From the producer of the Real Foodology podcast comes the all-new health and nutrition podcast, Digest This, hosted by Bethany Ugarte.

You may know Bethany as the face of the popular Instagram page, Lil Sipper, or you may have even read her book. Now you can find her wherever you get your podcasts. On Digest This, Bethany examines topics such as gut health, nutrition, the food industry, and highlights specific ingredients that can be beneficial or harmful to your gut health.

She also explores non-toxic options in beauty, home, and cooking essentials. If it has to do with your health, Digest This is talking about it. Each episode features an interview with health experts, doctors, and wellness advocates, and delivers you information that is, well, easy to digest.

Bethany also delivers a weekly segment every episode called Bite of Knowledge, where she highlights an ingredient commonly used in food, skin care, household cleaning, you name it, and gives you the lowdown on the benefits or dangers that ingredient might have in your everyday life. From Botox, potassium, olive oil, and magnesium, all the way to those ingredients you can barely pronounce on the back of your cereal boxes, Bethany has you covered. There's a reason why it debuted at number two

on Apple Podcast Nutrition Charts. Check out Digest This on your favorite podcast app. New episodes every Monday and Wednesday. Produced by Drake Peterson and Resonant Media.