Realfoodology - What are Amino Acids + The Best Sources of Protein | Angelo Keely of KION

Episode Date: January 25, 2023

130: **REALFOODOLOGY PODCAST IS NOW ON YOUTUBE!** On this weeks episode, we talk all about protein and amino acids.  Obviously protein is no new thing, but it seems to be the talk of the town in the health world right now.  Joining me to speak about protein and amino acids, I bring on the founder of Kion (premium, clean, research-backed supplements and foods), Angelo Keely. Check Out Kion: Click here for 10% off with code REALFOODOLOGY Topics Covered: Amino Acids The role of protein in the body Essential amino acids Vs non essential amino acids Bioavailability of plant based protein vs animal based protein  Best sources of protein How often can you take amino acids  Fasting  Branch chain amino acids  Aging and building muscle  Collagen  Heavy metal testing Natural Flavors Sponsored By: BiOptimizers: Magnesium Breakthrough www.magbreakthrough.com/realfoodology Code 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: **REALFOODOLOGY PODCAST IS NOW ON YOUTUBE!** Courtney's Instagram: @realfoodology www.realfoodology.com My Immune Supplement by 2x4 Air Dr Air Purifier AquaTru Water Filter EWG Tap Water Database Further Listening: Smarter Not Harder with Dave Asprey

On today's episode of The Real Foodology Podcast. Fundamental building blocks of proteins are amino acids. And there's 20 main amino acids that create the majority of the proteins in our body. And when these proteins in our body naturally break down, we lose some of those amino acids. And they're naturally excreted through our urine as urea. So we have to get those back. And if we don't get those back, literally, our organs can't function. Hi, friends. Welcome back to another episode of The Real Foodology Podcast. I'm your host,

Courtney Swan. And today we are talking all about protein. Protein seems to be kind of a new hot topic in the health world. And obviously, protein is no new thing. But all of a sudden, everyone is saying that they want to get more protein in. It's a topic of discussion on a lot of podcasts, a lot of Instagram reels and stories. And I've just seen so many people in the health world talking about how they are trying to get in more protein. And you know what? I'm also on the same train right now. There's been a lot of research coming out and a lot of discussion about the importance of having lean muscle mass. This is something, again, that we've known for a long time, but for some reason it's at the forefront of the conversation right now. We dive into this in the episode and why we think that so many people are on it right now. And I was so excited to make this episode because I wanted this just to be a comprehensive 101 on protein for you guys. What amino acids are, why protein is so important in the diet, what it does for satiety and cravings, why is lean muscle mass so incredibly important

for our metabolism and also for aging. We dive a lot into the bioavailability of proteins in specific foods. And we talk about plant-based proteins versus animal-based proteins, which are more bioavailable, meaning what is more easily absorbed and digested by the body. We talk about food combining as far as getting all of your essential and non-essential amino acids. We went over everything. I'm so excited for you guys to listen to this episode because it was such a blast for us to record. Today's guest is Angelo Keely. He is the founder of Keon. Keon makes the clean grass-fed whey protein isolate that I drink pretty much almost every single day. They also make an aminos powder that is great. We talk extensively about this

in the episodes if you guys want to learn more about it. They have a ton of different supplements. They have an omega fish oil. They have a sleep supplement, which is really great. I've been taking that every night for bed. So really, really great products, super clean. He talks a little bit about them in the episode as well. So you guys will learn more about Keon. And as always, before we get into the episode, you guys know the drill. If you have not left a rating or review yet, if you could just take a moment to do that, it really, really helps this podcast a lot. And it takes about two seconds. And I just really appreciate your support. So thank you guys so much for listening. Hey guys, producer Drake here.

Keon gave us a nice little code after recording this episode. So if you want to try Keon, you can get 10% off at getkeon.com slash realfoodology. That's getkeon.com slash realfoodology. We really don't talk enough about the importance of liver health. And I think a lot of us don't think enough about all of the things that we are being exposed to on a day-to-day basis. Pesticides that show up in our food and water, not to mention chlorine and farm runoff and pharmaceuticals in our water. Additives in our food, lotions that we put on our body on a day-to-day basis, makeup, any sort of cleaning products that you're using in your home. There is so much stuff in this modern world that we are being exposed to on a day-to-day basis. And our

bodies have to filter that out and get it out. And our liver plays a huge role in that. This is why it is so important that we do things to protect our liver and make sure that it is functioning at optimal levels. So I take something every single day to protect my liver, and that is called Liver Reset from Organifi. It has tryptophan in there. It also has organic dandelion extract, organic milk thistle, and of course, artichoke leaf. All of these help to support the detoxification

pathways of the liver and they also just work really hard to protect the liver itself. You know, another little hot take that I will tell you as well, when I was struggling really hard with acne, something that helped me finally eradicate it once and for all was starting to take things that supported my liver and one of them was all of these properties that are in this liver reset. If you would like to get liver reset, make sure you go to Organifi.com slash realfoodology. You're going to save 20%. That is O-R-G-A-N-I-F-I.com slash realfoodology. Or you can also just use the code realfoodology at Organifi.com. 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 Dynick, 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 flavor, 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.

Angelo, I'm so excited to have you on today. We were just talking before we recorded that we both grew up in Texas, which I love, and we have similar backgrounds as far as health goes. Can you actually tell people a little bit about your background and what you do with Keon? Yeah, absolutely. So not just Texas, but like central Texas, which I feel like is its own little world. That's such a great point. It's a great place to be from. There's a sweet upbringing. Well, I was born at home by hippie parents in a little town outside of Austin, like 45 minutes from Austin, kind of in between, I guess, maybe where you're from. And they had a natural health food store, a natural health food restaurant. And I was- What was it called, by the way? Because I'm wondering if I knew it. Well, they actually, so it was kind of before I was born and it was,

they had it when I was born. The restaurant was called Emerald Valley Foods and the restaurant was called Cafe Marie. But they basically opened it because the landscape at that time and natural health and food in the Austin area became very competitive. There were like a lot of stores. So my parents actually moved to Austin to be part of a bigger health food store operation and, um, restaurant. So they left, they left that when I was like one, anyway, they kind of got out of that business. Um, they stayed entrepreneurs and small business people, but I was raised on a, on a pescatarian diet. Um, They were both really into fitness and yeah, really into supplements and vitamins. So I think we'll get later into my story. I learned a lot about protein nutrition,

about amino acid nutrition, about how to thoughtfully build a diet if you're going to make really distinct choices. You know, like my family said they didn't want to eat meat. And so if you're not going to eat meat, you have to be really thoughtful about which kind of plants you're going to combine and how you can be healthy. So yeah, they were, I was raised on, yeah, just a lot of vitamins, supplements, thoughtful food stuff. And I guess, you know, one way like talking about it is when you're raised in an environment, you're always not so conscious about what the beliefs are that you're being given. You're just kind of going along with it. Now, naturally, all my friends' parents weren't like that. So I knew how weird we were,

but I just kind of took it all for granted. And then I think really in high school, you know, I did athletics, but in high school, I started to get into more trouble. I had some kind of near death experiences. and coming out of that, suddenly health became like my journey and my path and me trying to find out how I could be healthiest. What should I be eating? What should, how should I be exercising? What's really going to serve me and not just where all these things my parents taught me and told me about. So I really did a deep dive at about 16, 17, 18, 19. And you just became really committed to it. And so that's really led me through my whole health journey since then. And I went through a lot of different avenues of business. I think entrepreneurship is really in my blood for my families or the environment.

And it took me overseas. I lived overseas for several years. I moved back to the States. I moved to the Colorado area. I ran another company for a few years. And then I really wanted to do something on my own. And I think just naturally, I came back to my roots, which was functional foods and supplements that are really essential functional foods and supplements, things that aren't like some new hot idea that someone just made up, but like really what, what's the stuff that we all really need that could make us healthier in today's environment. And, you know, that's what brought me to creating Keon and to my current life. I love that. And I love how you just said that, that, um, you wanted to create products that are really based on foundational health that have longevity. And I mean, I mean, longevity in the sense of like the, the actual product itself, right? Because we all are going to have a need for amino acids and for protein for our entire life. And that's really what I want to dive into today with you. I'm so excited to do an episode on

protein because I actually haven't done a full episode on protein yet. And one of my goals this year going into 2023 was to start consuming more protein. And I've seen that there's been kind of this trend that everyone's been talking about it lately. They're really focusing on more higher quality, more bioavailable protein. And yeah, it's just a lot of conversation happening about it right now. So can we start with the basics? Why are amino acids so important? And for people that don't even really understand what amino acids are, can you talk about those and essential amino acids, non-essential amino acids? Absolutely. And I think the point you brought up too about culturally suddenly like protein is this really interesting thing again. You know, I think it's because in many cases, so much of the conversation around

fat or carbs is around, I think a short-term view of body composition. It's about people trying to lose weight. And so it's like, what's the trick I'm going to do to get there? And sometimes there are reasons that are maybe more based off longevity and how I can be healthier for a longer period of time. But a lot of it is this kind of, it's all about energy balance. How many calories do I consume today? Or now it's not about calories. Now it's about what type of calorie, how it's working. Yeah. And, you know, what's so interesting about protein, so to segue into protein, is that while protein can be used as an energy source for your body in the way that carbohydrates and fat are actually converted into ATP, which is our internal energy that we utilize to power

our cells and our muscles. Protein's primary role is to help us rebuild the protein in our body. So our bodies are made up largely of protein. Over half of our body is watered, but of the part that's solid mass, over half of that is made up of proteins. And that's the normal things you think of, your muscles, obviously, but that's your liver, your heart, your kidneys. What many people don't realize is even your neurotransmitters are amino acids. They're fundamentally proteins, enzymes in your body. So we're just packed full of these proteins throughout our whole body. And they're really the fundamental piece of what makes us a living organism. If you look at all these living organisms,

they're made up of these proteins. One of the core aspects of protein, though, in the body is that it's in a constant state of being broken down and then rebuilding itself. And that's because the combinations of certain amino acids and the half-life of these proteins is only so long. Also, sometimes other parts of your body maybe need to rebuild a different protein. So they exchange the amino acids and they break down and they rebuild and they share with each other. That said, every single time that these proteins in our body are broken down, we lose some of them. We can't get them back. And this is maybe the introduction to amino acids. So when we say broken down, what are these proteins broken

down into? Well, the fundamental building blocks of proteins are amino acids. And there's 20 main amino acids that create the majority of the proteins in our body. And when these proteins in our body naturally break down, some of those, we lose some of those amino acids and they're naturally excreted through our urine as urea. So we have to get those back. And if we don't get those back, this is not about like losing or gaining weight or anything around energy. It's like literally our organs can't function. Like our brains don't work. Not because they don't have the energy, but it's the stuff that actually makes up our heart, makes up our liver. And so the need to consume protein is so important because you have to help

rebuild those proteins in your body. Now, the proteins in your body, we can talk about whole body protein synthesis, which is like all the different proteins in your body, and then there's muscle protein synthesis. And the reason why muscles are so unique and distinct and amazing for us is not just that they help us be strong, they help us lift heavy things, They help us run longer distances. They help us as we age to have better posture. But really because our muscles are the reservoir of amino acids for the rest of our body. So you can imagine if I don't eat enough protein for a few days, my heart is not just going to like not worry about rebuilding itself. It has to rebuild those proteins. So where does it get the amino acids that it needs to do that from my muscle? So if I restrict the amount of

protein that I eat, restrict the amount of amino acids that I eat that are what serve the natural building of muscle in my body, then I can start to have all kinds of other issues in my life because it's literally the reservoir of them for my body. So from a big picture, then you understand how, you know, what proteins are, how amino acids are, what create them within the body. They make up all these different organs, the role the muscle plays in it. So then now, are you still with me? Am I doing well? Yeah. No, this is great. Yeah, this is fascinating. So now, what about these different types of amino acids? You said, what about essential versus non-essential? What are these things? So there's two different major classifications of

amino acids. And again, well, not again, but we're simplifying things because we're talking about very complex things. But there's two main different types of amino acids and one are essential and the other group is non-essential. And there's one fundamental reason for that. The essential amino acids, we really have to eat in our diet. The non-essential, we don't absolutely have to eat in our diet because our body is able to convert the essential amino acids into non-essential amino acids. And thus you can understand that it doesn't mean that you want to force your body to do that and that you don't need to eat any non-essential amino acids in your diet, but it's good to eat proteins that are very high in the essential amino acids because those are the ones that your body most needs and needs more of. The second thing that's really unique about these essential amino acids and that many

people don't realize is that not only are they the amino acids that kickstart the muscle protein synthesis, kickstart this process of rebuilding the proteins in your body, they're actually the only ones that are absolutely necessary for that. So when we've done crossover studies where we analyze giving someone only the nine essential amino acids, only the 11 non-essential, or a combination of the both, it's clear that the essential amino acids on their own create all of the benefit. They create all of the muscle protein synthesis. They create just as much as the combination of the essential and the non-essential. Now in nature, you never find only the essential amino acids, right? Like in whole foods, you're going to find both of them, but you start to see like, wow, when I'm evaluating protein sources, I really

want to make sure that I'm getting the essential and in higher doses of them because that's the stuff that my body is actually using to rebuild the proteins. Now, as the proteins are built in our body, we use the non-essential, but actually many of them we don't use and we end up converting. We end up converting into sugar to be used via gluconeogenesis. We convert it to be used as an energy source and we pee it out via urea. So while the non-essential amino acids are good, they're simply not as crucial to actually helping us rebuild our muscles and all the other proteins in our body.

Yeah, that's fascinating. And I think it's really important for people to understand this. And as you were talking about this, I was thinking about, I think one of the main reasons that people are so on protein right now is that there's this huge push for going plant-based and vegan. And my issue with this is that there's a little bit of a misconception when it comes to protein bioavailability and plant foods versus animal proteins. And that's something that I would love for people to really, really understand. I remember when I was in school and at the time I was vegetarian and I was learning about food combining. And I knew that quinoa was a plant-based protein that had all essential amino acids, or you could do something like put rice and beans together. That's like a classic vegan thing where they know they can get all the essential amino acids. But why is that not comparable when you

look at animal proteins versus plant-based proteins as far as bioavailability goes? And also you have to eat way more of them to even get a substantial amount that's comparable. Well, so there's two main ways of understanding and classifying a protein in terms of how much it's going to support the creation of new proteins in your body. Number one is going to be how digestible it is. So like when I eat this, can I actually get the amino acids that are within it in a usable way within my body? And unfortunately, across the board, plant proteins are simply not as digestible as animal proteins and i just want to note vegetarian like dairy-based products eggs these are highly digestible proteins now if you have a dairy allergy it's different but they're highly digestible so

there's great vegetarian options yeah um like whey uh like different types of cheeses, eggs, milk. These are excellent sources of highly digestible protein. Now, after that, then the question is, well, which amino acids are actually in those proteins? And this is the point you made around a complete protein like quinoa or trying to combine beans and rice, is that on top of this issue of how digestible they are, animal proteins, and this includes, again, vegetarian proteins like eggs,

milk, cheeses, they have very good composition of essential amino acids. They're high in the most important ones, and they include all nine of the essential amino acids, which I didn't state before. But ideally, you would consume all nine essential amino acids at the same time in a certain set of ideal proportions that your body would most like in order to resynthesize the proteins in the body. And thus, it's not only how digestible it is, like can your body break it down or is it covered in a bunch of other substances that make it more challenging for your body break it down or is it covered in a bunch of other Substances that make it more challenging for your body to break down

but then on top of that when you actually get some amino acids, what's the composition of them and Animal proteins just have a much much much better Set of essential amino acids to support your body. So if you choose to be strictly plant-based You do I would you have to work a lot harder. It's not like, oh, you look, yeah, like beans has as much proteins. Yeah, but those beans are low in very specific essential amino acids. And when you consume them, it's not like eating a piece of chicken. It's not like eating two eggs. It's deficient in these key amino acids. They're not the same thing.

You really have to think more about combining foods to be healthy. And I think you're right. I think that is part of a lot of the protein discussion. And I see like arguing online between all these different people. Yeah. I just saw, I think it was Vox just released something where they're trying to say that research suggests that plant-based proteins are better for you than animal-based proteins. And they're talking about fake meats, Impossible Burgers. And I don't even want to go down that path because I've talked about that a lot on this podcast. I mean, unless you have anything you want to say to that. But with everything that I do with Real Foodology, I just want people to be informed correctly.

That's all I care about. I just care about informed consent. I'm not here to say like, don't go vegetarian, don't go vegan, don't do this, don't do that. I'm just like, here are the straight facts. And once you know that, then you can make an informed decision for what's best for you in your life and your body.

Because I just want everyone to thrive, but we can't thrive without being completely informed on all the facts and being able to make a decision. I agree with that. I think there's different good choices one could make. And depending on your context, your stage of life, the means that you have, there's different ways to try to be healthy. And the more that we can share with people information about the way that our bodies function biochemically, hopefully people can make more and more informed decisions and live healthier, happier lives. Yeah. And, you know, I listened to you on a podcast recently and you made a really good point that I wanted to bring up that I also think people

need to understand is that, and we kind of touched on this a little bit, but you were talking about how if someone decided to be vegetarian or vegan, I think it's more vegan because at least a vegetarian, you can do like eggs and dairy, like you said, you have to be really active to offset the amount of calories that you have to eat in order to get the amount of protein that you need versus, you know, when you're thinking about eating chicken, red meat, fish, whatever it is, it's going to be a way lower caloric intake and higher amount of amino acids. And again, it's not all about the calories. I talk all about, you know, how it's more about the quality of the food. But if you are someone that's not super active and you want to maintain a certain weight,

it's going to be a lot harder for you. It's just a fact. I think this is part of that same conversation on giving people more information. Oftentimes, people want to boil it down to one truth. It's only this thing. And there's actually a few different things. There's many things happening in the body all at the same time. Calories are real. Calories are a real thing.

Now, you could eat a really low-calorie diet and lose weight, but the diet that you're eating lacks micronutrients, lacks important macronutrients like protein. And in that way, you could lose muscle, you could get sick, you could have all these other issues that come up, but you could like lose weight. Similarly, you could eat really clean, awesome whole foods. But if you eat a lot of them, if you eat a highly caloric diet and you move less than you burn the calories to burn off that diet you're going to gain weight and depending on how much of it is fat and carbs versus how much is the protein will depend on how much you gain fat

versus how much you gain muscle and so directly addressing the plant issue i think think is, is this, this is something that gets ignored in that conversation. And that is relative to the amount of protein that is in the actual food source, you get much less protein, digestible protein from plant sources per calorie than you do from animal products. And that's because those plant-based products have a lot of carbohydrates in them typically. Like they're just, they're packed. I mean, I like, I like black beans. I think they're, they're pretty healthy food for me. And I know like, wow, they're actually like pretty, they're pretty caloric compared to eating chicken or, um, other types of food sources that, uh, that have better, you know, good protein sources. So if you want to be plant-based, again, I think, honestly,

if you're a really intense endurance athlete and you're running 50 miles a week, you can eat a lot of plant-based protein because you're just burning thousands of calories a day. If you're not, it's going to be that much harder. You need to be that much more thoughtful. Again, I think that's what I come back to with the plant-based diet is that it can work for people. You need to be more thoughtful. It's not as straightforward. You need to watch your caloric intake more. You need to make sure you really combine the plant sources better. You need to make sure you're moving enough to support the amount of caloric intake. I think it's similar though, people who choose to be keto, not the same, but if you choose to be keto, it's like, you're going to be consuming a lot of calories in like, you just can't just eat a handful of almonds and assume like a thousand calories does nothing to your body.

So, you know, it's like, there's just, you know, there's, there's more than one thing true at the same time that you need to pay attention to. Absolutely. And at the end of the day, you got, there's more than one thing true at the same time that you need to pay attention to. Absolutely. And at the end of the day, you got to figure out what works best for you. But yeah, I just, I always like to bring this up in conversation because there's such a push right now to go plant-based. And when you, when I heard you say that on another podcast, I've thought about it before, but I don't know. It's just the way that you said it really made me think. It just has me concerned about this push towards more plant-based.

And then we also look at our raising rates of obesity and everyone's trying to figure out how to be healthier. And so I just really wanted to bring this back into the conversation because I think it's important for people to hear. So what are the most bioavailable proteins as far as foods go? It's lean meats. I mean, naturally, I think red meats also have very highly digestible protein and it's got great amino acid profiles. It's got lots of other minerals. It tends to be fattier, so it's going to have higher caloric content. But red meats, poultry, eggs, dairy, it's kind of the standard cast of, I think, just wholesome if you were eating animal-based products. It's no secret that I'm actually a huge fan of supplementation.

Thanks to our modern farming practices and the way that we're spraying our food so heavily with pesticides and herbicides, we're destroying the soil health. And as a result, our produce is not as vitamin and mineral rich as it once was. So we got to fill in the gaps with really good high quality supplements. This is why I am a huge fan of BiOptimizers. They're also backed by really big names that you will probably recognize like Dave Asprey, also Ben Greenfield. And they have my favorite magnesium supplement, which is called Magnesium Breakthrough. It has all seven forms of critical magnesium to help you feel calm, sleep better, and also improve virtually every function in your body.

They also have a really good digestive enzyme that I'm a huge fan of. Digestive enzymes help to break down food, improve digestion function, and also help with nutrient absorption. They have a great prebiotic and probiotic in one. It's called P3OM if you want to check that out. Also stay tuned to the very end of this because I'm giving you guys a little bit of a discount code so that you can save some money if you're interested in any of these products. I'm really into balancing blood sugar. So they have a supplement called Blood Sugar Breakthrough, which helps to balance blood sugar levels and improve carbohydrate uptake into muscles rather than in fat cells. So if this is something that you're struggling with, getting your blood sugar balanced, this might be a great option for you. As always, with all

of these products, I think everything they have on their website is really great. These are a couple of them that I really love. They also have a parasite guardian, which helps with digestive enzymes. It helps eliminate parasites, fungal infections, and bad bacteria. So if that's something that you're worried about, I would highly recommend checking that out. They have a sleep powder, which is called Sleep Breakthrough. It really helps with optimizing your deep sleep and REM sleep. If you want to check out any of the BiOptimizers products, go to bioptimizers.com slash realfoodology, use code realfoodology, and you're going to save 10%. That's B-I-O-P-T-I-M-I-Z-E-R-S.com slash realfoodology. So I know Kion has a great amino acid powder,

and then you also have a protein powder that I just had this morning in a shake. So where do, can you take amino acids every single day, just in like a supplement form like that? Absolutely. So I guess just to break apart, you know, the difference between a protein powder and an amino acid supplement. So protein powder, like the Keyon Clean Protein, which is a whey protein isolate, basically that is taking one part of the main protein that exists as part of milk and purifying it. And when you go through the isolate process, you purify it even further, not through any type of heat, but basically through pressure. It's almost like a sift. And you remove the additional carbs. And so you're really left with just the core proteins

that are part of milk. It's an awesome, it's an awesome, really truly food-based supplement to be able to add to all kinds of things. I literally can just like, I put it in my kids, like shakes every morning. You can make like,, uh, protein pancakes out of it and stuff. There's, there's ways of finding ways to interject a bit more protein into your diet, um, into natural foods just by using it in that way. And the reason why whey protein isolate is such an awesome protein powder is because it has way basically of any food has the best profile. It's the most highly digestible and it has the best profile of any food. And thus, it's awesome for that reason. It's almost 45% essential amino acids and very low calorically. I think the scoop, it's like 90 calories for 20

grams of protein. Like you just can't, you can't beat that because there's not, it's like 90 calories for 20 grams of protein. Like you just can't, you can't beat that because there's not, there's not carbs, there's not fat. So it's awesome. So what about amino acid supplements? So there's a lot of different ones out there. So I can really only speak to, I think what I would endorse if someone wants to consider taking one, which would be an essential amino acid supplement that includes all nine essential amino acids

and in proportions that mimic very closely to what like a whey protein isolate would be with slight adjustments to leucine, isoleucine. I won't nerd out on it too much, but you can make it even more perfect where the body likes it even more. And basically the benefits of that are that it's only the essential amino acids. It doesn't include any of the non-essential amino acids. So when you take away protein isolate, it's an awesome whole food protein to take. You are not going to use all of those non-essential amino acids. And there's going to be caloric impact of all the additional amino acids.

And when you take the free form only essential amino acids, you get all the benefit of the protein synthesis without the additional extra. So not only does it... The way that basically plays out is that purely on the basis of the essential amino acid content, five grams of essential amino acids are twice the impact of whey protein isolate or the most high quality protein. Wow. You can basically take half as much for that pure reason. On top of that, as we age, or if we have any type of injury, or if we're doing some type of intense exercise, our need for the essential amino acids and our ability to digest them and integrate them and utilize them for protein synthesis becomes even greater. And that same five grams of essential

amino acids becomes three, four, sometimes five times as impactful as five grams of a whey protein isolate. So it's a much more impactful way to get those core essential amino acids. So you can absolutely take them every day. I think the way in which they make sense are as a supplement. You know, if you're having a hard time hitting your daily protein requirements, if you're training hard like before after exercise, there's a whole range of studies specifically around athletic performance. Basically, if you're over 40 and every decade after that, it becomes more and There's a whole range of studies specifically around athletic performance. Basically, if you're over 40 and every decade after that, it becomes more and more helpful because you have that much more of a hard time digesting protein and stimulating new

protein synthesis. So it becomes harder as you age to maintain your muscle. If you're trying to lose weight in a healthy way, like you're not, and you really want to maintain the muscle, because if you try to lose weight and you don't maintain your muscle, you're going in the wrong direction. You're going to end up like wasting away. And then when you go back and you start eating, you just gain fat. It doesn't work.

Like you need muscle to maintain a healthy metabolism. So, again, they're great for that. So I think they have very specific use cases. So is there a world in which you would take both the amino acids and the whey protein or is it like one or the other? Like in the same day? You can absolutely take them the same day. What I would consider them are tools and options for a healthy lifestyle. So quite simply, I mean, in the same day, can I eat chicken and can I have some dairy? And can I eat a high protein plant-based product? Like, yeah. Can I add some whey protein powder in the morning to a shake? Yeah. Can I take essential

amino acids maybe before I work out? Because they're going to give me lots of energy during my workout and also support muscle. Great cases for that. I think anyone who likes to fast, I mean, this is maybe the biggest issue. I think one of the biggest things I'd like to promote people to do is if you really like fasting, restricting food consumption, only certain periods of the day, you get basically all the benefit of the digestion and you get the core benefits if you would still just take essential amino acids. It doesn't feel like you ate something. It's very light, basically requires no digestion, but then you're not

taxing your muscles. You're not telling your muscles to break down because every, whenever you consume protein or amino acids, you kickstart a process of muscle protein synthesis. And that lasts for about three hours. And then when you don't, you're in net protein loss. Your body literally is losing the total proteins in the body. And so when you go for extended periods, you're going to be losing these proteins in the body. And if every single day you tax your body with that, you're naturally kind of working against your core goals of just maintaining healthy protein synthesis. And you tax your brain also in terms of like your brain's need for these proteins and amino acids. So that's one way that I know lots of people who like to fast, like they take amino acids in the morning and then maybe they have a

shake later and then they have a really healthy lunch. And then, you know, they try to consume protein or amino acids every few hours. That doesn't throw you off your fast? Because I thought you can't have protein when you're fasting because it turns to sugar or it can if you have too much. Well, so this is a very complex topic. But fundamentally, one of the things that will happen is if you've deprived yourself of sugar, then yes, your body will want to start to use the protein and convert it into sugar because like it's literally starving. Starved for it. Yeah.

Yeah. But if you're starved for it, then also what happens is it happens regardless, I guess what I'm saying. If you starve yourself, your body starts breaking down your existing muscle. Like literally, it's not, your body doesn't just suddenly not, like how does your body keep going? It needs ATP from somewhere. And if you starve yourself, you literally increase the amount of existing muscle that you break help replenish the existing proteins in your body while minimizing an intense blood sugar spike, while minimizing the impacts of eating like you typically would get. That said too, there's really interesting research. I can send you several papers on this, on how the consumption of essential amino acids mimics and is actually better at mitochondrial biogenesis

than restricted eating and fasting. That's interesting. Well, I thought the argument for fasting was that it pulls from fat stores, not from muscle. And that's how you get rid of excess body fat is by fasting because it's pulling from the fat in order to create ketones to then create ATP. So there's been many studies on this, actually, like direct comparisons of time-restricted eating versus just pure caloric restriction, and there's no difference.

It's purely from caloric restriction. Oh, okay, so you can do either or. Yeah, if the goal specifically is to lose fat, then the way to lose fat is through basically a deficit, right? You're consuming less energy than you expend every single day combined with an increased dietary intake of protein and amino acids. Because if you don't increase the dietary protein amino acids, not only are you burning fat, but you're also burning muscle. And muscle only requires about a 750 calorie deficit to burn, whereas fat is about 3,500 per pound of fat. So even some of these diets where you start, that's the danger of not consuming

protein amino acids. You starve yourself, you actually burn all this muscle. And then you're left with the fat. You burn this muscle and this fat, but then you go back to like the bad, you go back to like your bad, you go back to like your bad behavior, you know, less, less thoughtful behaviors. And you suddenly put back on weight, but it's much harder to put back on the muscle. To put back on the muscle, you have to be thoughtful about your daily protein and amino acid intake. You need to do some type of exercise to stimulate the muscle protein synthesis. So no, in terms of if your goal with fasting is fat loss, then the primary way that you're getting that fat loss is from caloric restriction, which I would just say, I think

fasting is a great way to do caloric restriction if that's part of your goal. Like if you can just skip a meal, like boom, you just saved a few hundred calories. The only thing is, if you could also take some amino acids during that time period, you're going to be protecting your muscle tissue during that while still minimizing your daily caloric intake. That said, there's other reasons why people fast. People fast for more like cellular health reasons. Exactly. Yeah. Longevity, brain health. Like I fast a couple hours before dinner or after dinner before bed because it's supposed to help with the neuroplasticity of the brain and it helps your

brain categorize all your memories from the day. And it's just supposed to be really good for your brain health. So that's why I do it. And then I usually don't eat a couple hours in the morning just because I'm usually not hungry until a little bit later. But yeah, I'm by no means needing to lose fat. So that's definitely not what I do but I just wanted to clarify that or maybe at some time this is fascinating I haven't had a conversation like this on the podcast yet so I'm really into this right now

what's the difference between BCAAs and the Keon aminos the branch chain amino acids is that the same thing or is it different? Great question. So branched chain amino acids are three of the essential amino acids. They're leucine, isoleucine, and valine. And the reason why they're so popular and they've become, you're going to see them in stores and see them all over the place is because about 30, 40 years ago, when we started studying them, started studying amino

acids in greater detail, specifically around dietary, nutritional guidelines and sports performance, what we uncovered was that those three amino acids, particularly the leader of the pack, leucine, is what kickstarts muscle protein synthesis. It's the thing that actually kickstarts the process. And the degree to which you're lacking the other two branch chain amino acids, it can't fulfill basically the muscle protein synthesis. But upon further study, and there was a great meta-analysis by kind of the world leaders on amino acid research, Robert Wolff, Arnie Ferrando, a list of others that came out in 2017 that did a comprehensive analysis of all the studies on amino acids. The thing is, it's in the same way that you can't fulfill protein synthesis with only leucine,

you also can't do it with just the other two, with just those three. It kickstarts a process, and in some ways it can prohibit muscle breakdown during some forms of exercise. We can talk about that, but it's its own kind of rabbit hole. But if you do not consume all nine at the same time, ideally in these right proportions, you do not stimulate more muscle protein synthesis. And the studies are very conclusive that BCAAs basically just don't do anything on their own. Interesting. Now, now it gets a little more complex.

Now, if I took BCAAs and I added them to like a bunch of like plant proteins that I was eating, or I added them to something else in my diet, they could potentially enhance the other foods I was eating. But again, it kind of gets to this point of like, you got to know what you're doing. Like with plant-based diets, like you need to be really thoughtful about which foods you're combining, how and where. And so maybe there's a place for BCAAs with very thoughtful people who are like, I'm really committed to only being plant-based and I'm going to combine it with this set of BCAAs at this time. But it's on their own, they're a waste of your money. They're not anabolic,

meaning they do not help create new protein on their own. That's fascinating. Also, can you mention the study, you'd also mentioned this on the podcast I listened to, where people were put on bedrest and they were fed amino acids and what happened? That was fascinating. Yeah, this is a great one. And there's a few different studies, but there's one that's kind of like the lead from this. This was sponsored by NASA. And it's really interesting because I think typically in people's mind,

their thought is the only way that you can maintain muscle and the primary way of doing it is through resistance exercise. So this is what was being questioned. They were trying to figure out you're sending astronauts to space. They're obviously not going to have the pressure, the weight that we would have with gravity. And thus there's concern around them wasting away. So is there anything we can do nutritionally in order to help them maintain their muscle mass?

So they did these studies where they had people be in complete bedrest for 28 days, literally like, you know, bedpans. You're lying in your bed. Man. Supplemented with, and this is also a great case for how much you can actually use dietary amino acids, supplemented with 15 grams of essential amino acids in a very similar formula to what Keon Aminos is. It's too bad they weren't using Keon. We didn't exist yet. Yeah, sponsor NASA. But it's one of the cool things of kind of, I think how we've, you know,

developed our company is we're not trying to have some secret proprietary blend. We just like, look at what all the research says. What's, what is, who, what did NASA people use? You know, what they use when they were working with aging adults, what they use with athletes, like what is, what's, what is who, what the NASA people use, you know, what they use when they're working with aging adults, what they use with athletes, like what is what's been determined, use that formula or the best combination of those formulas, publish it and make it open. And so you can see exactly what we use and you can compare it to what they use in the NASA study. It's very similar.

Anyway, um, 15 grams of that six times a day. And this goes back to that idea of you ideal, like this way, bodybuilders think that's why they're eating little bits of chicken breast, right? Like every three hours waking themselves up in the middle of the night. Yeah. If you consume amino acids every three hours, you kind of optimize your amount of lean muscle. So they would feed them 15 grams six times a day. And after 28 days, they actually had an increase in lean muscle mass. Now they had a loss of muscle strength. So clearly the resistance training is really important to actually train the muscles, but they didn't lose muscle mass over the period.

And that just shows you how, like the kind of impact that nutrition can have. One other note I should make is they did include some sugar in that, some carbohydrates, which helps stimulate the insulin response and helps promote even more of that, particularly in a case where you're just lying still. Like there's no stimulus like resistance training or exercise. So the sugar, the carbohydrates naturally help to promote it. I'm actually shocked by that because I would think that you would need less carbohydrates since you're not exerting a lot because you're not even walking around.

So you don't need the glucose to create ATP to exert a lot of energy. But I guess your body needs it in order to function. Well, yeah, and it's actually really, the reason why they would include the carbohydrate is because of it stimulating the insulin response. And insulin is this actually very key factor in promoting muscle growth.

Let's talk about that. Oh man, I feel like that's its own deep dive podcast of its own. Well, I'll bring you back. But maybe you can give us like a skim of it or? That's a deep one. All I would say is like, don't hate on it. And I can send you some more information on it

and like articles and follow up. But that's, yeah, it's like everything. You know what I mean? Yeah. Like this kind of crazy insulin response from eating way too much sugar all the time and it messing up your blood sugar, like that's real. It's not... Leading to diabetes. Yeah. That doesn't mean though that insulin is this absolutely terrible thing and there's no positive thing that it does in the body. You know, it's like there's more to it. Oh, absolutely, we need it. There's a balance.

Yeah, there's a balance of these different aspects of the roles of activities in our body. Yeah, I mean, it goes back to one of my favorite sayings about life. Everything in moderation, including moderation. So it's the same with like insulin. It's like, we can't make it like good or bad. It's like, we need it.

We don't need too much. We also don't need too little. It's like the Goldilocks of insulin. We need just the right amount. And we don't want to be causing it to spike all the time because then you're going to have an issue. But also you need it in order to perform the normal functions that we need in order to create energy, to create ATP.

And maybe here a more practical application about why they did it there and maybe you don't need it in your day around training is in that case there was no stimulant there was not a stimulus like resistance training to tell the muscles to do this thing yeah whereas like if i am even just going on a walk if i'm going on a run if i'm doing push-ups if i'm going to the gym i'm communicating to my muscles like hey like i want like, hey, I want to break these down and rebuild them. And when you're doing that, you actually don't necessarily need the carbohydrates then. And the primary role of the carbohydrates in and around training for people that are not on bed

rest for 28 days is that they can potentially, you know, amplify the muscle protein synthesis, but they also will move more water into the cells and they'll make you, they'll increase your lean, they'll increase your muscle mass without necessarily making you stronger. So they'll make you bulkier. So if your goal is to like, not get jacked, but you're just trying to like be healthy, you know, like I'm going to take aminos and go to yoga and I'd like to get the most out of this yoga class and develop a toned body through that, just taking amino acids and not consuming any sugar with them would be more ideal. It'll support, it'll support just the muscles

performing better, just them being rebuilt ideally ideally, and not making them bigger. Whereas like, if you're like a gym bro, and you want to get jacked, you actually would probably want to consume sugar in and around training because it would help make your muscle, it would push more fluid into the muscles and make you more jacked. Okay, that's interesting. Well, so you know, it goes back to depending on what your goal is, and what you want, you know, and we're all different in that. So we've talked a lot about muscle, but we haven't really made it understood of why is muscle and having lean muscle in the body so important? What are the benefits of it, especially as we age?

So I think as we age, what many people don't realize until they start aging is that, I hinted at it earlier, but it's harder to maintain muscle and harder to build muscle. That's for two main reasons. One is you can't digest things as well. You simply aren't able to break down the proteins as well. And you're less sensitive. This whole thing we've talked about muscle protein synthesis, you're less sensitive to that process getting stimulated. And so you need higher amounts of protein, you need more resistance training. And it's like just at the time when like you're probably having less energy, right? You have less motivation and it's the time where you need to be even more dedicated to it. So the first thing I'd say is similar to like saving,

which is, it's unfortunate to bring up because I feel it's the most boring thing to compare it to, but like kind of preparing for the future. You know, maybe if you're not going to invest in like, you know, saving for your future and saving for your fifties and your sixties and your seventies, you can do the same thing for your body by investing in lean muscle. And this doesn't mean getting jacked. It just means like not focusing so much on trying to be like thin or not trying to focus so much on other types of aesthetics, but really just thinking like, hey, the more that I have lean tone muscle and I remain and stay active, it's going to help me as I age. Now, why is it going to help me as I age? The one

most obvious thing is that truly what happens is when you get older, you're more likely to experience some type of chronic illness, to have an injury, to have things happen like fall down. And when you get injured and when you get hurt, you naturally are not probably going to want to eat as much. It's harder to get in protein and amino acid intake. You're not exercising. So your muscles start wasting away. On top of that, when you have some type of injury, your body typically goes through a certain type of stress response where you become even more anabolically resistant. So similar to when you're aging and it's like your body just doesn't want to build muscle, your body just doesn't, it like doesn't use the amino acids in a functional way to help rebuild the muscle.

So it's this, um, it basically everything's moving towards like kind of falling apart and like not being strong. And then when you're that much weaker, then you can start to have all types of other issues where the other parts of your body need these amino acids, need proteins, and you're weak. You're not able to stay active. The longer that you stay active, the longer, the longer you keep walking, doing some type of resistance training, going to yoga classes, whatever your thing is, swimming, the longer that you will live. The outcomes are pretty clearly related to that. The other kind of major issues around this is that

amino acids, I've said they regulate all these other functions in your body. Like they literally are where your mood come from. Like your mood comes from neurotransmitters and those neurotransmitters are amino acids or the derivatives of amino acids. So your whole mood and experience is largely based off of your ability to digest, metabolize and create the right amino acids for your brain. And again, if you're lacking muscle, if you're lacking function, if you're lacking all these things you're going to have,

you're going to struggle with that more. But it's also muscle, and this kind of goes down a whole nother tangent again, but it also is one of the core aspects that helps regulate your blood sugar. Muscle actually helps regulate the blood sugar in the body. And so the more that you have and the more healthier that you are,

the easier you are to regulate blood sugar in the body. And so the more that you have and the more healthier that you are, the easier you are to regulate blood sugar and thus have better metabolic health as you age. And thus there's impacts on your heart health, on really how obese you potentially become. So it's all these different components that kind of connect to each other that fundamentally are based around your body's ability to perform all of its regular daily functions and to stay active and to be, have money in the bank for the times when you get injured, when you get hurt, when something else occurs that you didn't plan for. Yeah. And, you know and this is really important. I think this is a really important part of the conversation

for people to understand is that especially once you start getting into your 40s, it just goes all downhill from there. It just becomes harder and harder. I don't want to sound negative. I'm actually very excited about going into my 40s. But as far as we look at from an aging standpoint and a longevity standpoint and the health of our body, and, uh, it is incredibly important that we start really

focusing on this now because it only gets harder and harder to build muscle, to consume it, um, or to consume proteins. And so we need to start working on that now, because like you said, if you just, you have a routine and you maintain that, it's going to be a lot easier to maintain it. It's way harder to start from square one and then try to build all that when you're in your 40s. It's way harder to get in shape and to stay in shape

if you're not there. The older you get, it becomes harder and harder basically every year. Yeah, and I was going to say, if anyone's listening and they haven't started on this journey yet and they're past 40s or whatever, I don't want to discourage you because you can always start today.

Absolutely. There's always things that you can do. But if you're younger and you haven't started thinking about this, I think it's incredibly important to. I mean, for the longest time, I was just a cardio junkie. I mean, all I did was like soul cycle and running and just, you know, all this cardio was never focused on building muscle. And it wasn't until last year when I started listening to a lot of these experts that I really look up to that they're really talking about the importance of muscle growth and protein and just how we need more muscle in our body. And we need to be more focused on this, especially as we age and why it's so important.

It's been an awesome trend from this last year. And I really love that there's leaders like Dr. Gabriel Lyons, who's representing for women, like how important this is too. Because I think it's men and women that get the message of like cardio. But I think there's almost more stigma with women. And it's like, you know, it can really improve the rest of your life. Investing a little bit and just maintaining muscle tone. Yeah, I totally agree.

Was there anything that we didn't discuss about protein that you think is really important for people to understand? Two things come up. One is on a product side, I think collagen has become very popular in collagen powders. And collagen can be an amazing supplement to quickly just explain to people what it is and then they can make informed decisions about how to use it. It is not a complete protein. It doesn't have all the essential amino acids in correct proportions to be a complete protein.

And thus, you don't really want to count it as like your daily protein intake, unless you're combining it with other proteins. That said, what it is high in is proline, hydroxyproline, glycine, these other non-essential amino acids that are good for skin, hair, nails, joints, things like that. And it makes sense that they would be good for that because that's what they are in other

animals. It's like if you're taking collagen from an animal and then you're consuming it, be like, oh, it must work for me. But that's not always the case. It's not always that like you take something from a plant or an animal and exactly what it is there, it's going to become that in your own body. But there's pretty good studies that show that it really can help with hair, skin, those types of things. But it's not a complete protein. It will not support protein synthesis in this whole conversation we've talked about today. And I just want to make people aware of that. So if you choose to take it, know what you're taking it for and don't count it towards the other stuff. I'm so glad you brought this up.

So I put collagen in my coffee every morning and you look and it says it's like, depending on what brand you have, it's like between 10 and like 20 grams of protein, but it's not, okay, that makes sense. So it's not bioavailable. So you would just count it as like, you're getting more essential amino acids essentially, right? Or the non-essential ones. You're getting, yeah, you're getting more essential amino acids essentially, right? Or the non-essential ones? You're getting, you're getting, yeah, you're getting a really high dose of these non-essential amino acids that are specifically useful for the skin, the hair, the nails. I think you're in like joints, you know, I mean, those are all great things. Like if you, I mean, there's, it can be a great product for that. But you'll notice if they're, it's tricky too, because there's different FDA requirements and labeling. You may see a protein amount,

but if you look at the percentage of like how much it accounts for your daily needs, it typically, it should say 0% because they can count the protein, but they can't count the percentage of what it equals because it's not the protein, but they can't count the percentage of what it equals because it's not a complete protein. It doesn't count as an actual part of the protein you should eat each day. And this is the thing, it's hard. It's kind of, there's so much information out there and this is the perfect reason why we should just have more discussions, educate people, help people know what's going on so they can make their own informed decision. With the key on amino acids, is this something that you could put in your morning coffee or is

it something that you shouldn't put in hot drinks or is that a thing? You can put it in hot drinks. I probably wouldn't, but simply based off taste. Certain types of amino acids have different flavor profiles. And interestingly, many of the flavors that we experience in foods, umami, bitterness, different types of like these core sour that we experience in foods actually come from the amino acids. They're the things that actually have the flavor in our foods. And so when you make an amino acid supplement, it is definitely a challenge to flavor it in a way that like tastes good.

Particularly like our company, we're really committed to using natural flavors, to not using artificial sweeteners, things like that. And so it takes a lot of work. I think we've come up with awesome flavors, mango, watermelon, berry, lime that are, it's natural flavors, no artificial sweeteners. And it's very drinkable, but it's more like, yeah, I mean, it's more like a, it's like juicy type flavors. Yeah, like you'd put it in your water and stuff. You put it in your water to make water taste better, help you hydrate and support, you know. I know I said that. And then right afterwards, I was like, wait, it's all fruit flavors.

Duh. For some reason, I was thinking you had a plain one too. So anyways, because I was thinking collagen, coffee, whatever. But let's talk a little bit about that actually because I think this is a really important part of your story. So you coming from that background of really knowing the importance of healthy food and clean ingredients, can you talk a little bit about your process with Keon and your commitment to using clean and real ingredients?

It really does just come from who I am as a person and who all the people that choose to work here are as people. My personal story is I was raised in a family where we didn't eat anything artificial. We really tried to eat as much whole foods as possible. We chose to use vitamins and supplements to support us, to be a supplement, to provide like the extra when maybe we couldn't get it all done with food, or we thought we could have that much more vibrant of a life through using it. So that's really, that's the commitment that I was, you know, raised within to my own diet and to thinking about how people can be healthy. And we built the company around. And so it's really just about ensuring that all the people that we hire and that become part of this team have that same commitment

and that it extends just all the way through supply chain. It's choosing that protein powder. I'm like, I'm really proud of the Amino, I mean all of our products. I'm super proud of all the products. And on the flavor side, like you can tell when you take Keon Amino, it's like, wow, this actually tastes like pretty good. And like, really, it's like all natural. It's like, well, because if you had amino acids, you know, like they can be not always the most delicious and like they're pretty delicious. With protein, there's so many different proteins out there, different flavors. Like literally, it is the nicest, best protein you can possibly

get. Like we tried tens and tens of them, look through all the quality specs in the most neurotic way that you possibly could working with the flavor systems and trying to develop a flavor that was good. You know, it was just commitment to getting really organic, natural flavors that were the highest quality, met the highest specs. We're just like, that's what we're doing. We're making the best products that like I take every single day. I give to my kids every single day. I'm proud to share with my hippie parents, you know, like that. I love that.

And that like our entire company, like this whole company, like we take these products every single day and we give them to our families and we are committed to being as clean and legit as it possibly can be. And so that includes all the standard stuff, which people sometimes make a big deal of it, like third-party testing. We get third-party testing on everything, on the raw ingredients, on finished product. We do a whole extra round. We go beyond what all the other people are saying in the market. But it really starts with being willing to invest in the right ingredients and really good partners to begin with. And then when you do your testing, you're just ensuring that it was made the way that it was. But it's all the upfront investment in supply

chain. Yes. And this is incredibly important. And you are preaching to the choir here with my audience because we all very much care about ingredients. We want our food to be clean and real food-based. So it's refreshing to hear that. Do you guys test for heavy metals in your protein powders? Because I know that's a big concern. Yeah, we do. Yeah, and this is, I think, a really interesting topic

specifically around protein powders. And it And, you know, this is, I think, a really interesting topic specifically around protein powders. And it comes back to the plant protein issue, which people oftentimes don't realize is that anytime you grow something in the ground and it's a plant product, it naturally absorbs the things that are in the ground. And so when you're taking, you know, like if you just eat a head of lettuce, right, it's going to have some heavy metals in it, some degree of it. But if you take like 50 heads of lettuce and you condense them all down to only certain component parts, which is what happens with rice protein isolate, that's what happens with brown rice protein, pea protein, you end up with a lot of heavy metals. And so I think if you're, if you are concerned about that, a whey protein

isolate is definitely a much safer, healthier option, even if you don't choose a Keon clean protein, which is rigorously tested for that stuff and neurotically managed to be the cleanest thing we can make. Just generally, if you pick a whey protein isolate, you're going to be much safer than choosing a plant protein if that's a concern for you. Yeah. And Keon tastes really good. Like I said, I made a smoothie with it earlier. I'm a big fan. It tastes really good. Can I ask you one more thing about, so you were talking about natural flavors and this is a really big conversation right now online. In fact, I even got a message yesterday when I posted about your protein, someone said, are you worried about their natural flavors? And I said, no, because I trust that they use clean ingredients. But can you maybe talk to people a little bit about that too?

Yeah, that's a great question. And honestly, I think your answer really goes to the heart of it. When you talk about natural flavors, and this is the primary concern that many people have, or the bad rap that natural flavors get are oh that's just some kind of fda you know declaration some rule that covers everything and people can put all kinds of stuff in there and it could be you know you could have the grossest most synthetic things involved in that. You can still call it natural flavors. And the thing is that it's not that bad. Like there is a clear difference between our, I'm saying in terms of what the definition of natural flavors is.

Like it does have restraints in terms of it being derived from natural products and the types of things like essences and tinctures and the ways in which they get to the flavor profile. Like it is different than what an artificial flavor is. That said, within that scope of natural flavor, there are a lot of decisions that a brand can make. A brand can choose to say, hey, I want non-GMO.

Hey, I want it to be all plant-based. Hey, I want it to be as close to the natural source as possible. And those are decisions that we make and that we choose to make because again, it's something like I'm taking every day, I'm giving to my kids and I was, there's values that I have. And if you strictly look at the label, it is hard to tell sometimes, you know, like is this company is doing this and this company is also labeling this, like, are they the same thing? Are they kind of different? And they can be different. What that means can be different.

Yeah, that's why I always encourage people, if there's a product that they really like, just to reach out to the company and ask, inquire about the natural flavors. Because like you just said, there is a world in which a company is just protecting their proprietary blend and they went out of their way to request natural extracts and organic and non-GMO versus if you just look at, I don't know, let's say like Welch's fruit snacks or something and they say natural flavors, I would not trust that with a 10-foot pole because they're not thinking about that and they're probably using natural flavors that would be pretty much considered artificial flavors, you know?

So it's all about being more conscious about the brands that you're supporting. And then, like I said, if there's a brand that you're curious about, reach out to them, just email them and see if they get back to you. I think it's a great solution. And we do, we have people reach out and we are able to share more information about the types of plant materials that we use to be able to get to those natural flavors. Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah. Okay. So before we go, well, I have one question that I ask all of my guests before we go, but you had said earlier that there were two things that you wanted to bring up and I think, did you go over both of them? Oh no. no. One was the lifestyle thing. And I think I just always like to conclude it because I know on these podcasts, we deep dive into all these really specific aspects. And I feel like sometimes

people can come away from it being like, oh my God, am I doing it right? Or now I have to start eating every three hours and I thought I wasn't supposed to. And they feel kind of overwhelmed by it. And I think, I just want to encourage people to just like take one more step, you know, like absorb the information of this podcast, think about it, critique it if you want, you know, consider what it means for you. And are there just like little ways that you can make a slight adjustment to be a little bit healthier each day? And are there ways also maybe in which there's something that you heard or you learned today that resonate with you intuitively? Like you were, you had an intuition around something that you thought was right. And then you listened to some podcasts or read some article and they're like, no, don't do that. And then

in hearing this conversation today, you're like, actually, that makes more sense to me. And that would work for me better. Like, just like trust your intuition, trust the path and like just take one more step and don't, there's no like perfect destination for us all to get to. Just be a little bit healthier. I'm so glad that you said that. I talk about this a lot too. I think what's missing in the nutrition world often, I mean, you hear some people talking about it, but everyone is so about like the science, listen to the experts and all this stuff, and yes, we absolutely need to.

But we also forget that we are primal beings that are built with a certain level of innate wisdom too. So you gotta, there needs to be this balance of merging your innate intuition wisdom also with the science. But it really is important to listen to your body at the end of the day, you know, and listen to that innate wisdom because our bodies tell us often what we need to, you know, and so just be mindful of that. I think that's really

smart. Yeah. Okay. So my question for you that I ask everyone is what are your personal health non-negotiables? So no matter how crazy your day is, these are things that you prioritize in order to maintain your health. Walking. Walking is, I typically walk like an hour every morning and that kind of sets my whole day. If I don't get it in, then I find other ways to get it in. But I'm doing like 15 to 20,000 steps a day. It's like my regulator. It's the thing that helps me kind of find, I think both find my breath, be moving, integrate the left and right sides of my brain hemispheres, like just helps me kind of find my, it's my meditation. It's become my meditation. It's not a non-negotiable, but if I'm really real, like I do take a lot of key on aminos.

That's awesome. I mean, I really, I really like amino acids and protein and I think about it, you know, I think about that and vegetables, you know, I'm really thinking about, Hey, am I getting, you know, good micronutrients and I'm getting protein and amino acids and I use key on aminos a lot for that. Um, and I would say that. And I would say probably the last thing is just like sincere connection with the people in my life. So I'm married to a wonderful woman. I have a nine-year-old son, a seven-year-old daughter, and just like connecting with them, like being with them. And then the same thing at work. I chose to build a company where we're hybrid, like we're in the office three days a week because I want to be with people and see people and be seen and honor them. And I think that that experience of being in relationship is very important for my health.

I love all of those. Those were great. Well, for everyone listening, where can they find you on socials and also where can they find Kion? I really just encourage everyone to check out Kion. I poured everything that I have into that and we're on all the social media channels at Kion, K-I-O-N. Our website is getkion.com, G-E-T-K-I-O-N.com. And yeah, that's... Amazing. Go there. Yeah. And I think we have a code coming. So stay tuned, guys. I'll throw it in the intro because I got to get the details on that.

But thank you so much for coming on. This was a fascinating interview, Angelo. I really enjoyed this. Thank you. Thank you. It was an honor. Thanks for your time. 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. I am a nutritionist, but I am not your nutritionist. As always, talk to your doctor or your health team first. Looking to build a more robust foundation in your health and well-being? From the producer of the Real Foodology podcast comes one of the most popular alternative health shows on Apple Podcasts, The Dr. Tina Show. Dr. Tina Moore is a naturopathic physician and chiropractor, traditionally and alternatively trained in science and medicine. The show features exclusive interviews with experts such as Shawn Stevenson, Mike Mutzel, Mark Groves, and even solo episodes covering metabolic health,

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