The Bossticks - Courtney Swan On The Scary Truth About America's Food System, Toxic Ingredients Hiding In Your Pantry, & How To Protect Your Health

Episode Date: July 7, 2025

#863: Join us as we sit down with Courtney Swan – passionate food activist & host of Realfoodology, a health & wellness podcast. Courtney is on a mission to fix America's broken food system & is known for breaking down myths around nutrition, food policy, sustainability, & clean eating. In this episode, Courtney gets real about what major food corporations don't want you to know, exposes the truth about harmful food additives, unpacks the ingredients making America sick, & advocates for a more transparent, sustainable future for the health of the next generation.   To Watch the Show click HERE   For Detailed Show Notes visit TSCPODCAST.COM   To connect with Courtney Swan click HERE   To connect with Lauryn Bosstick click HERE   To connect with Michael Bosstick click HERE   Read More on The Skinny Confidential HERE   Head to our ShopMy page HERE and LTK page HERE to find all of the products mentioned in each episode.   Get your burning questions featured on the show! Leave the Him & Her Show a voicemail at [phone].   This episode is sponsored by The Skinny Confidential For a better choice and peace of mind in your home, shop The Skinny Confidential Non-Toxic Toilet Paper at https://shopskinnyconfidential.com/products/toilet-paper.   This episode is sponsored by ARMRA Go to http://tryarmra.com/SKINNY or enter SKINNY to get 15% off your first order.   This episode is sponsored by Hiya Health Go to http://hiyahealth.com/SKINNY to receive 50% off your first order.   This episode is sponsored by Addyi Learn more at http://addyi.com.   This episode is sponsored by Jenni Kayne Find your forever pieces at Jenni Kayne and get 15% off with promo code SKINNY15 at https://www.jennikayne.com/SKINNY15.   This episode is sponsored by CORT Furniture  Build your own furniture rental package today at cort.com, that's http://cort.com/podcast.   This episode is sponsored by Ritual  Get 25% off your first month at http://ritual.com/SKINNY.   Produced by Dear Media

The following podcast is a Dear Media production. She's a lifestyle blogger extraordinaire. Fantastic. And he's a serial entrepreneur. A very smart cookie. And now Lauren Everts and Michael Bostic are bringing you along for the ride. Get ready for some major realness. Welcome to the skinny confidential, him and her.

Hello everybody. Welcome back to the skinny confidential, him and her show. What if we told you that the food you've been eating your whole life, foods labeled as health, Maybe the exact thing causing your bloating, fatigue, brain fog, skinny issues, so much more. Today's guest, Courtney Swan, isn't just a nutritionist. She's a modern-day whistleblower on the food industry, from hidden toxins and everyday groceries to the truth behind food labeling. She's here to help you and us take back your power one bite at a time. With that, Courtney Swan, welcome with the Skinny Confidential, him and her show.

This is the Skinny Confidential, him and her. So I've been trying to get this message out for almost 14 years now. And I am blown away by the resistance that we're getting right now. I'm getting so many comments from people saying, oh, this is just another MAGA influence. They're calling me MAGA. And I mean, look, I'll be very transparent. I actually voted for Obama both terms. I am here for MAHA. And I love the momentum that it's getting right now. And anywhere that we can get this on a platform and out to Americans and how we can actually address our broken food system is what I'm going to stand for. And that's what Maha really stands for. This is bipartisan. This affects all of us. Talk to us about the red food die band. Is that how you say it? Red 40. What is it? Okay. So it's actually all synthetic food dyes. So last week, I was actually on stage sitting behind Marty McCarrie, who's the new commissioner of the FDA and Robert F. Kennedy Jr. when they announced that they are, so, okay, so there's a lot of nuance here because everybody's saying it's not technically a ban. But what they said is that they want to phase food dyes out by 2026.

Right now they have an agreement with the food companies. PepsiCo has already agreed to remove these synthetic food dyes from our food system. That is huge. Now, everybody's pushing back saying, well, it's not actually a ban. And the FDA is not going to actually be able to enforce it. So they have the ability to enforce it. And they said, Marty McCarrie, the head of the FDA, said that they will enforce it if they have to. But right now, they're asking the companies to take the easy way out.

And what's also happening right now is we just watched Washington, or I'm sorry, not Washington, West Virginia just banned synthetic food dyes. There's also 25 other states that are banning them right now currently. So if these food companies don't comply on their own right now, they're going to be forced to anyways because they're going to have to reformulate for all of these states that are already doing it. So essentially, the FDA is just saying, we can do this the easy way or we can do this a hard way. So if you guys want to agree to do it right now, we're going to do it. Otherwise, the FDA is going to come in and command them to actually. actually remove them. I would imagine now with the press that, you know, when I say press, just like basically the mass information that is coming out now around dies, that the food companies would be

incentivized to get rid of them regardless of any, you know, bands because people are now starting to talk about how terrible these things are. There's so many people like yourself and others that are bringing awareness. If I'm a food company and I'm an executive there, the writing's kind of on the wall, right? So many people are going to bring out other alternatives without these ingredients. And if you're like the one big company that's still doing it when they're getting this kind of negative press and information? It's like it doesn't seem so smart long term to keep it in the first place. Exactly. And the FDA is starting to recognize how harmful these synthetic dyes are for us. They're a byproduct of petroleum. In places like the UK, they already recognize that they cause behavioral

issues in children and they're also, they have concerning links to cancer. So it's crazy that we've let them stay in our food for this long. And now the FDA is no longer suppressing the truth around that. And they're allowing the public to actually have access to the truth. And like you said, these companies are, I mean, they would be stupid to not do that. And a lot of these CEOs, they have children. They're concerned about this too. They're learning about it and they want to do better. Why is the FDA just starting to recognize this? This is mind-blowing to me. I take my kids on Sunday to a birthday party. They act different. You recognize it like it's, it's like the writings on the wall. I don't understand why it takes them this long to acknowledge

something that's a serious issue. That's the million-dollar question. And this is what started all this, because Vonie Hari the Food Babe about 10 years ago started raising awareness around this. Amazing. She was showing Americans, look, in places like the UK and in Canada, they're using vegetable juices to dye their cereals. And she was basically raising the alarm for people

because we never realized that before then. And what's crazy is that last fall, Bernie actually had a hearing with the former, what was he, the commissioner of the FDA, I believe. And you can actually look this up online. He admits to Bernie in, court, he says, look, we don't have all the manpower to do this. We need more resources. We need more money. And they are admittedly, they admitted that they're about 10 years behind the science and all of this. So why? I don't know. I believe that there's a lot of corruption. There's a lot of lobbying happening in

Washington. A lot of these food companies, I mean, there's 10 food companies that own the entirety of our food system. They have a lot of money and power. On that note, what are things that the FDA has allowed companies to use in terms of ingredients in this country that are banned in other countries, like maybe the big ones that people aren't aware of. Yeah, so the food dyes would be number one. So we're phasing those out. I would say, BHT is another one that I'm really concerned about. This is a preservative that you see in,

you often see it like cheese it's, for example. Oh, I love cheeseettes. You're going to ruin cheese for me? I love cheese hits. Get Simple Mills. Simple Mills has a cheese. It's not the same. I know.

I wish it was the same, Courtney. It's not the same. I know. It doesn't have all the chemicals learned. Exactly. Go ahead. Ruin Cheez-It's for me. Yeah.

So I would say, in general, there's just a lot of food additives. So BHT is one I'm really concerned about because it has concerning links to colon cancer. And other countries are recognizing this. So if you look at the EU versus the United States, the EU bans four or sorry, they allow 400 additives. In the United States, we are allowing around 4,000 to 10,000 different additives in our food, depending on like what you classify as additives. But that's insane. 400 to 4,000 to 10,000 additives. That's a big difference. It's a huge difference.

What has been the most surprising thing to you personally over the last 14 years where it like just rocked you? You couldn't believe it behind the scenes. So there's a couple of them. I would say the biggest wake-up moment for me was that just because it's on the shelf does not mean that it's safe and regulated. The FDA, like I said earlier, admitted that they do not have the manpower to be regulating all this. And the big food companies are regulating themselves right now. we have the foxes guarding the hen house in order to add a new additive into our food system here. And then the FDA just stamps a generally recognized as safe stamp on it.

All they have to do is provide their own research and say, hey, we did research and we found that this is safe. And the FDA goes, okay, we generally recognize this as safe. Whereas you look at places like in the EU, for example, they have a cautionary approach where they say, you know what, we're going to exercise caution with this. We're going to study it more. We're going to make sure that it's actually okay before we put it in our food system. Whereas with here in the FDA, they say, well, this is generally recognized as safe, so we'll throw it in and then we'll pull it out later. And so that to me was, I think, the most shocking because I had always thought, well, if it's on the shelf, then it has to be safe, right, and vetted for. But, you know, our food system right now is largely driven for profit.

It's not driven with health in mind. Yeah, we had Bobby Parrish on the show yesterday. Oh, he's amazing. Yeah, he's a friend of mine. But he was talking about all the labeling. And we were getting into issues like, you know, organic and non-GMO and, you know, what was like the American Heart Association and all these things that most consumers, if they don't go down the rabbit hole, as many of us have done, would just assume that it's safe and healthy. And there's a board of doctors that have said, hey, this is good for you. And I think when you start to really unpeel what some of these labels mean and, you know, what they stand for, it's scary because people are led to believe in many cases that these with these stamps of approval from these organizations mean that it's healthy.

for you in many cases is just not. No, it usually means that company paid for that stamp. And then, yeah, there's so much corruption with like the American Heart Association. I mean, they're stamping that on Cheerios. So how do people know which labels to trust and are there labels that you can trust? That's a really great question. I mean, for me, the one that I trust the most, but I still have concerns about is the USDA organic. You want it to be 100% USDA organic. Now that system also has it has its flaws and I would love to see it more regulated. I would say that one is the really, well, there's a couple actually. There's a non-GMO project for the most part, I think is pretty good to know that your food's not genetically modified. Oh, there's a new stamp coming out. I don't

know the exact name, but there's a regenerative agriculture stamp that I'm starting to see on foods. And then there's also another one glyphosate residue free, which I always look for because glyphosate is something that I'm super concerned about. Okay, I tried to go down this rabbit hole yesterday with Bobby and he was like, Lauren, you got to put a pin in it. Oh, we'll go there. Yeah. No, he was like, he was like, you guys both were like, you're in your tin hat. Not a lot. This is what I started to think. I started to think, okay, if there's almond flour and all of these things that is being replaced in all these healthy foods, what's being sprayed on the almond flower or the almonds? And he was like, okay, like you might have. No, but she was saying like, take simple mills, for example, just pick on that

brand for it's a big brand now. Yeah. You can do that. They're not small anymore. You would look and they it have the proper labels, but then she's like, yeah, but then what about the crops that that almond came from? And like, can you trust it still? Or it's going down the rabbit hole with me. So talk to us about that. But at some point, you know, like, can you just eat nothing? I know. And this is the thing. And I do want to address this at some point, because that's part of my message of I think so many people hear my message and then they just throw their hands up in there in the air and they go, oh, okay, well, I just, there's nothing to eat anymore. It's absolutely not true. But it's important that people know this, because the more that we know this, the more that we can create change. Because we're driving the

trends. Consumers are driving the trends. And the more that we demand better, the more that our food system will be forced to do better. So the thing about glyphosate and the reason why I'm so concerned about it is because this is a herbicide that's widely used in American agriculture. And it is pretty much to be expected that if your food is not organic, that it has probably been sprayed by glyphosate. It is an herbicide. It has been recognized by the International Agency for Research on cancer, the I-A-R-C, that it is a probable human carcinogen. It has a really insidious past. It's a similar chemical compound to something that they were using in World War II with Nazis. It was actually a similar compound that they were using in gas chambers and also for nerve agents.

God forbid I ask if that's being sprayed on my kid's food, Michael. I'm not saying you shouldn't ask it. Yeah, it's beyond. So go ahead. So, okay, so Monsanto is the creator of glyphosate. Monsanto was bought in 2018. by Bayer, the big pharmaceutical company, and now they're also an agrochemical company because they bought Monsanto. And what was happening after the war is they brought these chemicals over and they started spraying them on the farmland. And they told these farmers, it's totally safe and fine to use. But what was happening is that it was killing everything on the farm. So what they did is Monsanto created genetically modified seeds in order to withstand the glyphosate. So when they plant these seeds now,

they can grow the food and then it kills everything else. off and they can spray everything with glyphosate and the plants will still grow. So my concern is why are we eating these toxic chemicals that we know are creating that are causing cancer? We know at this point that it causes cancer. There's actually a ton of litigation right now. So Bayer, this is what's so insidious about the company that's creating glyphosate. So currently right now, they're going state by state and they are asking for immunity from the states so that if you or I got cancer, we would not be allowed to sue them if we got cancer. Because what's been happening is they have been getting sued like crazy. They have paid out over $2 billion to farmers that

have gotten cancer from using glyphosate. And they've proved it time and time and time again. And they're going, we don't want to be sued out of business. But instead of recognizing that what they're doing is causing cancer, they're just doubling down. What do you do in your own home? Like, I think it starts in your home. It does. With your own fruits and vegetables, are you washing them with baking soda? Is there something that we need to know about this spray, that it's on something we don't know about. What are you doing? So I buy organic whenever possible. And I know that that's not accessible for everybody. So I also want to give a tip for that too. If you are not able to afford all organic, you can look up the environmental working group. They have the dirty dozen and the clean 15. And they release these

every year. And essentially, it's a list of the dirty dozen. So it's 12 foods that are for sure the most highly sprayed with pesticides. And they test them every year. And they say like, and their berries are always on the top because they're spraying those really heavily and they don't have a skin that you can like peel off. So I would say always buy your berries, things like that organic. And then things like avocado bananas, for example, would be considered on the Clean 15 and they usually have lower levels of pesticide. By law in this country, USDA organic is not allowed to be sprayed with glyphosate. So I do not bring personally anything in my home that's not organic, period, end of story. Now, there's a lot of people that push back and they say, well, organic is still using other pesticides and

herbicides and glyphosate is showing up in organic food. That is true. And this is why we need it to be addressed on a federal level because it's showing up in our rainwater. It's showing up in our drinking water. It's showing up in organic food. But for me personally, I do organic food. Also, soaking your berries and everything else, your produce in baking soda is a great way to get pesticide residue off. You can also get, I mean, if you have the money for it, like, I have friends that have an ozone water machine. And apparently that gets it off too. They'll like soak their berries and that. But that's what I do personally. Oh, and also, too, another thing that I really focus on detoxing as well. I know you guys are really big on the sauna. I try to sauna a couple times a week. I'm taking something called

body biopsy. It's phosphatylcholine, and it helps your body's cells just clean itself of everything, like heavy metals, glyphosate, all the toxins that we're being exposed to. And that's what I do personally. And then I just... That's a good tip. I got to look at the ozone water machine, but it is as easy as cleaning your stuff with baking soda. I've been on this kiwi kick because of you. Like, I've just been eating so many kiwis. And the other day we got the kiwis in the house and they look like kiwis. They're like brown. And then we put them in the baking soda and clean them. And they're, they almost turn like white. Oh. And that just shows you how much shit is like they don't, it's not white. You make the skin? Yeah. It turns like, it's not white. White's the wrong color.

It's like a light brown. It's not the color that you see in the grocery store. I'm going to watch this process that you're doing because I need to make sure you're not messing up my kis. He should be so excited that I'm cleaning all of our fruits and vegetables with baking soda. I don't know. I got to watch what you're doing. I'm telling you. Go take a kiwi, you guys, and put it in baking soda and it doesn't turn white.

It just turns like a lighter brown. Yeah, but you know what? Your dad did this thing. Luckily, our kids don't listen to the podcast yet because they're too little. He did this thing on our walkways and our, you know, in our house to show like reindeer hoof prints. Oh, that's cute. And it's cute.

For Christmas. Braddy was very cute. But now there's these big like yellow baking powder spots on the water. Because it's a cleaner. And I can't get it off. In a natural way. And so I'm wondering if that's what you're doing to our Kiwis. And also Brad, where are we going to get that off my walkway?

You know what I mean? Because like it was cute. It doesn't look great. I'm like, now it's kind of like fucked up. Like we're getting a summer here. It's not Christmas on more. What do you feel needs to be exposed about factory farming. Oh my gosh. Okay, well, first of all, in the factory farming setting,

those animals are sick. I mean, they're not living a life that they're meant to live. And also, to me, it's absolutely horrible. This is actually, this was my gateway into all of this. I went, I actually went vegetarian when I was first learning about all this maybe 18 years ago. And I since now eat meat, but I was horrified when I was learning about all the practices. So they're in very confined spaces. Many of them are gated. Like, like, you know, right next to each other, and they're just, they can't move. They're being fed genetically modified grains. They're getting antibiotics and hormones. They're on medicine prophylactically, meaning preventatively, because they live in such gross environment that they get sick. And so

they try to keep them from getting sick proactively. And they're just not living a life that they're meant to. I mean, cows are meant to be grazing on grass. There's also, we can go into regenerative farming, which is something that I'm really, really passionate about. But you need cows as part of this whole system that is great for the environment. It's also great for our health as well. And then it's also great for the animals too. So regenerative farming is practice where we're working with nature instead of against nature. What we're doing right now is conventional farming. We're spraying the land with pesticides and herbicides. We're tilling the land. So you see those machines where they pull up the top soil. That is damaging the ecosystem of the soil. And I've heard people say this before experts that

are in this field. They say that we as humans are only as healthy as our soil is. In this conventional practice, we're spraying everything with glyphosate. We're destroying the ecosystem of the soil. So all the bugs, the worms, everything that lives in that ecosystem that's feeding our plants. Well, now what's happening as a result, we're seeing all these reports saying that our fruits, our vegetables, they're lower in vitamins and minerals. So everybody's having to take supplements now. It's because we've ruined the ability for these plants to get food. And then everything, what is everybody else complaining about right now? Carbon. It's excess carbon. in the atmosphere. When we leave nature to do her thing naturally, it pulls carbon out of the

atmosphere in this whole regenerative movement. And it's a process called carbon sequestration. That carbon is food for the plants. So then the plants are thriving. They have more vitamins and minerals and nutrients for us. And the cows also play a role in all of this with their grazing. And when they're moving through and grazing, it helps with like the planting of all this variety of different, you know, seeds and grasses and produce. I'm incredibly passionate about this because And we're getting back to the way that nature designed all of this and how we were supposed to be eating. And it produces healthier food for us. It's better for the planet because it's pulling the carbon out naturally.

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That's ADD-D-Y.com. What scares me about some of this stuff, too, as it relates to factory farming and in many cases, like, not taking care of these animals. And even some cases, like, I would argue, like, poisoning the animals to a degree. Yeah. What happens then is you'll have people follow diets that are primarily eating those kind of animals. Yes. And then later as they get sick or something happens, studies are done to say, oh, well, meat must be bad for you. You know, like if I go and eat poor qualities of food that have not been raised the right way, like, I'm not going to feel great.

I'm going to get sick, especially over time. If you go the other route and you have, you know, grass-fed, grass-finished animals that we have evolved to eat over thousands and thousands of years, like you're probably going to feel pretty good. Yes. Yes. You eat what your food eats. And somehow along the way we lost that concept. And you're eating a sick animal if you're eating a factory farmed animal. I also think you're eating the energy of what you're eating.

I agree too. And if something's been tortured and miserable and screaming and crying and all that cortisol that's going in the food. Or just fed terrible ingredients. It's, I mean, it's just something to think about. We had like a very, I'm not going to say who it was. People could probably deduce who it was, but a very well-respected doctor slash scientists on the podcast. and he was citing all these studies about not eating meat. But like what I wanted to point, like a lot of the studies I wanted to ask him like,

well, what sources of meat were they studying? But I'm listening. And then after I started to think, well, where are you sourcing all of that material from? And I think, you know, his job is he's a scientist that reads these reports and studies these patients, many of these patients who have eaten in the way that we eat here in America. Yeah. And I'm like, well, of course some of the data is going to point to. sickness and being unhealthy if you're eating poor sources of food or meat and then you're studying

the sickest people, you know what I mean? Yes. And oftentimes with those studies, they're not taking into account. Are they a smoker? Are they exercising? What else are they eating? So there's other things that they don't even take an account for a lot of these studies. And actually, there was a study that just came out.

I believe it was last year or the year before. This is crazy. So if you go into the study and see what they were feeding them, they were feeding them. they were feeding them hamburgers with the bun on. They were feeding them lasagna with the pasta. And then they were telling everybody that that's bread meat. And then they were blaming it on the red meat, not on the other factors that were in there, like the bread and the pasta.

What drives me nuts in these studies is like I kind of want to see both. I want to see people that have chosen to live one way and follow the typical American diet. And then people like yourself that have chosen to live this way is I think it would paint very different pictures. That would be very beneficial for people like the FDA and our government to be aware of. Did you even get approached by RFK in the administration? And I think it's important for you to like sort of tell the story of the last 14 years because you didn't just like wake up there. So how did that even transpire when you look back at the momentum of all the events?

Yeah, it's so wild. I told you this right before we were filming that I actually was kind of going over this yesterday with my godmother who's been alongside me for the last 20 years like watching me do all of this. So I caught on to all this pretty early on because my mom. mom. My mom started, my mom was making everything from scratch. We were eating organic and buying organic before it was even like really a thing. Like it was wild. I'm a kid of the 80s and so it was unheard of that my mom was doing this because all my friends were eating, you know, processed packaged foods. So anyway, so then I go to college and I have a totally different experience where I go from eating all my meals cooked, you know, from scratch to eating in the dining hall that's probably

Cisco food, right? Like Cisco catering and eating fourth bell or fourth meals at Taco Bell was just so awful. look back at that. Meanwhile, I was starting to learn about everything. I said earlier that factory farming was my way in, and then I just started peeling back all these layers and going, oh my gosh, this is happening with our food industry and how are they allowing all of this? And I got so passionate about it that I decided to go back to school. So my undergrad was in communications, and then I went back to get my master's of science in nutrition. And actually, I went to Texas State for a little bit because I wanted to be a registered dietitian. But ultimately, I pulled myself out of the program because I was seeing that the registered dietitian program was being funded

by companies like Coca-Cola and General Mills. And I was floored because I was also learning about all the corruption at the same time. And so I decided to go an integrative route. Meanwhile, while I was doing this, I created a blog 14 years ago, and I called it Real Foodology, because while I was studying nutrition, and I was on this track for registered dietitian, I was learning all this stuff. And then on the other end, I had found Mark Hyman, Michael Paulin. I had found Vonie Hary, the food babe. So I'm learning all this stuff in the books that I'm reading. And then I'm in these classes and they're telling me the exact opposite of what I'm learning in the book. And then I'm learning about the corruption. And so I felt like I needed an outlet to share because I felt like what I was learning largely from people

like Mark Hyman that people didn't know that this was happening. So I'd created this blog and then it morphed into my Instagram. And then in 2020, I created a podcast. And so my, and I, I mean, it's in my name. created real foodology, the study of real food, 14 years ago because I was, I just started to wake up and realize we're not eating real food anymore. We need to get back to eating real food. So how does that then lend the administration reaching out to you? How does that happen? Yes. Okay. So Vani Hari and I became friends throughout the years because I was so passionate about this. And initially when I went and got my master's of science, I thought I was, I was just going have clients one-on-one. And then when I started really learning about the food industry,

I realized that I wanted to make more of an impact on the political side and just more, I just wanted food reform. And Vani Hari, the food babe, had popped up maybe around the same time. And I just started putting myself in front of her. And we eventually became friends over the years and started working together in the sense that she came on my podcast. And last fall, oh, I had also had Callie Means on, which have you guys had him on yet? Yeah, we love Kelly. Okay. You guys have like similar energy, huh?

Oh, yeah. Like you're on the same mission, it feels like. Yes. So Callie Means, I met him a couple years ago. We got connected through a mutual friend. He came on my podcast and we were immediately like, yes, we're a united front in this. So last fall, Bobby Kennedy put on a nutrition roundtable with Senator Ron Johnson. And they asked me to come speak to it.

So it was me, speak at it. It was me, Bobby Kennedy, Gillian Michaels, who's amazing, by the way. Love her. Michael, or sorry, Jordan Peterson, who else was that, Max Lugavir, Vonnihari, Alex Clark, all these amazing thought leaders. Was it Michaela? Yes, Michaela Peterson. So when you were there and you're at this roundtable with all these incredible people, what was your point of view? So I talked all about glyphosate, because that is the thing that I'm the most passionate about. And we had all kind of, we didn't have a group chat before that. And we were all kind of deciding like what people were going to talk about. And I was like, I claim glyphosate to Montanto, because this is something that I am so passionate about. I want to be honest. soapbox for this. So my speech was all about glyphosate and anybody listening can go look that up on YouTube. The whole thing is it's like eight minutes. It's on YouTube. When that went out to the public,

yeah. What kind of reaction did you get personally and professionally? So actually that one was met with a lot of people really loved it actually. And I was surprised because I'm, I've been in this world long enough to, I get a lot of heat. I get a lot of lot of heat. There's a lot of pushback. I don't know. There's something really sensitive about food. I think it's when you go after people's food. My cheese, it's. Exactly. I was just talking about this yesterday.

If you go after people's food, it's some cases like worse than going after their children. No, it is. People go nuts about their food. They go nuts. Look, and I'm going to name it. It's an addiction. People are addicted to ultra-processed foods and they don't even realize it. And they don't want their addiction to be taken away from them.

That's really the reality. I mean, I get it. I can see like if someone was going to take my margarita when I'm pregnant or when I'm not pregnant, someone's going to pull that. When I'm not pregnant, they're going to take my margarita away from me. After I just had the baby, like, I want my margarita. I get it. I get it.

A flaming hot Cheetos, it's hard. I know. I think with a lot of this stuff, though, like, yes, addiction, but too, like, again, in this country, like, we have sometimes a challenge with personal accountability. Yes. And if you start to face reality that, hey, like, I'm actively poisoning myself in many cases with poor food choices. For my children. Yeah, then it's like it hits a real nerve. And a lot of people then take it a step further and say like, well, it's not affordable,

but the same people are out on Friday nights at the bar slamming 18 drinks, which is also super expect. I don't know. I have sympathy on one hand for that line of reasoning. And then on the other hand, I don't. Because it's like the situation is what the situation is. Let's make this really digestible for the audience. What are things that you avoid ingredients like the pledge? on labels? So I would say first and foremost, I avoid ultra-processed foods like the plague. So let's

define what an ultra-processed food is. These are food products that have a really long laundry list of ingredients. And many of these ingredients are chemicals, additives, fillers, things that you would not recognize as being real food. Like if you're a great-grandmother saw Cheez-It's or Twinkie, she probably wouldn't know what that was. If she, like, was, you know, transplanted to 2025, that would be an ultra-processed food. So I would say, to be honest, that's really it. Like, this is what I try to get people to understand is that there's a lot of pushback of people saying, oh, well, you're just going to create an eating disorder or what is left to eat. There is so much to eat. I just eat real food. I don't even really follow a diet. I have to be gluten-free because

I'm allergic to wheat. But other than that, there is nothing off the table if it is a whole real food. And if it's a packaged food, this is a really simple hack for people in the grocery store. When you're reading that ingredient label, if you recognize all the food, those ingredients on the ingredient label as a real food ingredient. And you could buy all those ingredients at home if you wanted to make this product at home. That would be something that would be considered real food. Simple Mills is a perfect example of this. They use things like rosemary to preserve it. And then they have like almond flour and it's just all real food ingredients. So if I know it's glyphylaseate-gly. Yeah, glyphosate-free. They have organic crackers and those are the

ones that I buy. Okay. Good to know. To make sure that they're not sprayed. Good to know. So they organic crackers. I think those are the ones that we get. They're blue and yellow, the box. I think those are the ones that aren't. Oh, great. I just bought 20 boxes for my kids' school. I swear to God. I had him bring like a knapsack with the ones that are organic. Okay. A nap sack. Hey kids, there's the box of glyphosates. I know. But we should look into, because a lot of these companies now are starting to either put it on their website or they're stamping on the box that they're glyphosate free. And I wouldn't be shocked if Simple Mills was one of them. but it is like it's good practice to think in general if something is not organic that it is to be assumed unless if they tell you somewhere that it is sprayed with glyphosate.

I've started getting comments on my podcasts of, you know, reviews and people saying this is just another MAGA podcast, which I mean, I laugh at that because I've been doing this for five years and I've been doing it, well, I've been doing the podcast for five years. My message has been the same for 14 years. There wasn't even MAGA 14 years ago. So for them to say that my message is MAGA is really funny, I think this. The issue is, is that we're so tribal and divided in this country that whoever is talking about it, the other side is going to be against it. So if this had happened under Biden, I think all the Republicans and the MAGA or whatever would not have been on board because they would have said it's quackery and whatever they would make up about it. I truly, truly mean this that I just consider myself to be very much in the middle because there's things that I agree with on both sides. And at this point, I don't want to be wrapped up in this tribalism.

I want to be free and true to what I believe and true to my morals. And I don't want to be beholden to one party. So, and I feel like this is how we all should be. Because if people could actually open their eyes and see what's happening right now, I mean, this is something that I have been shouting off the rooftops for almost 20 years. You know, like I started real foodology 14 years ago, but for 20 years before I even started it, I was telling all my friends and my family, like, this has nothing to do with Trump, with MAGA, with being Republican or being liberal.

This is about Americans. This is seriously harming us. I mean, 74% of Americans are obese or overweight, and 50% of them are, or 50% of the children are overweight or obese. I need to know Courtney's Tegano Zempec and GLP ones, because you deal with health on a day-to-day basis. I want to know what your opinion is. Okay, so I actually live in the middle of this.

I don't believe that it's a, let me be very clear. I'm all about preventative medicine, and I think we need to address the root causes. I'm all about root cause and prevention medicine. I also recognize that we are in a severe health crisis right now. And I think some people are at the point where there is nothing else that will be able to help them. If somebody is seriously morbidly obese, this could be a make or break. It's either, you know, go on the drug and lose weight and get a hold of it or possibly die of a heart attack or diabetes, you know?

So I think for those crisis moments, I think that it can be. be a great tool. And then we also need to be teaching them about diet and lifestyle. What I don't like is I think that it is being used as a quick fix for a lot of people that just want to drop five or 10 pounds. And they're not being educated on the fact that what they really need to be doing is addressing their diet and lifestyle. So are you exercising? Are you eating whole real foods? And that needs to be a part of the larger conversation. And I worry that OZMPIC is just going to become another, you know, quick fix pill for people. I think you're right. I think it's so situational. Yeah. What are your personal daily grocery go-to's brands from a really micro level?

Okay. So I love meat sticks. I always have those in my pantry. Or Paul Saladino has a company called lineage. And they have these air-dried steak, this air-dried steak that is so good. I think Code Skinny works, you guys. I love those. The organs. It grows your hair. Yes, it's amazing. Okay, go ahead. I love Paleo Valley meat sticks. Yes. I'm trying to think of like other brands that are in my pantry right now. I love Simple Mills. I love the organic crackers. Siette is another great brand. I'm trying to think of smaller brands that maybe people don't know.

Oh, if you eat cereal, and especially if your kiddos love cereal, I love Lovebird and seven Sundays. Lovebird is glyphosate residue free. And then seven Sundays, I believe, is glyphosate free as well. So those are good cereals for kiddos. What are some of my other favorite brands? It's tough because a lot of the stuff I buy is, you know, fruits, vegetables, meat. Oh, I can give you a meat brand. Actually, they're out of Austin.

Well, they're out of Fredericksburg. nature. We love them. They've been on the show. Oh, they have. Taylor's amazing. The ancestral blend. Yes. Yes. Yes. I love that because then you're eating organ meats and you don't even realize it. Yes. It doesn't even taste like it, right? I know. It's great. And are there any brands that you go to for eggs for certain reasons? Yeah. Well, so there's, I always forget the name of the brand because I mean, everybody, everybody's kind of on vital farms right now and about them feeding them corn and soy. And so I've been trying to not buy them. They were my go-to for years, to be honest. I think they switched, huh? Yeah. I think that they were doing that. We get our eggs.

We got a farmer's market, yeah? Yeah. So recently I've been getting them from a local farmer, because we're in Denver right now. And it's funny because the egg crisis, I actually thought that it was just kind of overblown and hype. We actually have not been able to find eggs at our grocery store for like three months. Well, the reason that you can't find eggs at your grocery store is because Michael's dad has a little bit of a problem that I'm going to expose on the podcast. Michael's dad, I'm going to expose him. Michael's dad. I'm going to expose him. Michael's dad was caught in the grocery store. I caught him.

He caught, Michael caught him. Opening all the cartons of the eggs and picking the biggest eggs for sure GMOs, right? He doesn't know. He thinks bigger is better. He's picking the biggest eggs out of each carton and switching out all the eggs. Because when he brings the eggs home to Michael's house, I'm like, Gary, how the fuck did you get such big eggs? He is huge GMO eggs. eggs. Like, I'm talking like three yolks per egg because he stole all the other eggs from everyone.

Somebody's getting real small eggs. Those are the good eggs, though. You want the small eggs, right, Courtney? Yeah, but you know what, to be honest, I don't know the true, like, I don't know what's actually happening there, so maybe not. Okay. But my assumption would be if they're that big, that probably they're being overfed like corn and soy, but I don't know for sure. I'm not going to claim to be an expert. I'm going to get all these comments from people, like egg farmers that. There was something called, oh my God, you probably know this term better than me. There's, okay, you know how we all know these older people that like they just eat like shit.

I was talking to somebody about this and they said it's called like generational something where. Maybe resiliency or it's essentially like each generation that goes on gets weaker and weaker because of the way that we feed ourselves. So for example, like, My dad who's older and comes from, you know, born in the 40s, he was raised and grew up in a time when like a lot of these chemical ingredients did not exist. And he, you know, ate in a different source. Then we are born and we are the byproduct of like the second, the first generation of getting exposed this. But then our kids are born and they've been bombarded and they carry our genes forward. Well, because think about it.

They're already getting it in the womb before they've even, you know, come out yet versus like, you know, when Donald Trump was a kid, they didn't have all this stuff in the food. system, you know, like a lot of this has largely been introduced and changed in the last about 50 years. Our genes don't change that fast. We're seeing now the effects of what we've been doing to our food system. A cashmere sweater. Everyone needs one. I like it in Heather Gray. I like black. I like ivory. And where I get my cashmere is the best. It's Jenny Kane. Who actually told me about Jenny Kane was Dorit from Housewives of Beverly Hills. She loves their pieces. And she has a really nice eye for fashion. She has a lot of tachmerey. taste. And so I started perusing the brand. I bought one of their cashmere sweaters and I could not

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Oh, spinach. But honestly, arugula is my favorite. Okay. And are you saying that because you think that kale is sprayed with, like, what's the reason that you're saying that? Well, so I don't claim to be an expert on this. Paul Saladino is way more of an expert on this.

But the oxalates, I'm concerned about kale. And when I was consuming a lot of kale, I actually had a big issue with my thyroid. So I do not touch kale anymore. I don't mess with kale either. Yeah. And I don't like it. It doesn't taste good. No, it doesn't.

I like arugula. What's one food you will never touch? I would say ultra-processed foods, but I don't consider those food. What's something like niche? Raspberries. You don't know about raspberries. You just learned about that yesterday. Get out.

Are you trying to audition for the round table? Tell us about raspberries. Actually, yeah, because I want to know. You don't even know why you're saying. Don't trust him. He's not. He's saying that. He's saying that.

He's saying. He's saying that because the bulletproof guy just came on and said that. Dave Asprey? Yeah. Do you say something about raspberries? Yeah. Oh, don't fucking know. But Michael doesn't know.

You got to get the specifics before you do. I actually don't even know. Put it on the rabbit hole of raspberries. Okay, Courtney, one food you'll never touch again. I don't know, actually. Should it be a real food or could be anything? Ultra process food. Whatever.

I would say Pop-Tarts maybe. Okay. Pop-Tarts are, but I need to think of something more niche. Let me noodle on that one. I'll get back to you. What's the wildest thing you've uncovered researching food policies? You gave us some. Wildest thing that I've uncovered.

I'm trying to think of what I haven't shared about yet. I mean, I feel like I already shared this. The wildest thing to me is that we're not actually really regulating our food like people think that we are. That's a good one. Because I think people think just because it's FDA approved. Yeah. What's the most overrated health food trend right now? Oh, the most overrated health food trend.

What are some of the trends right now? Carnivore. Actually, I like carnivore, actually. I mean, would you say vegetarian is still a trend? Because I think that's incredibly overrated. But I don't know if it's really a trend anymore. Not in my circles. It certainly isn't.

Yeah, you could say that's a trend. Yeah. I think, unfortunately, the vegan vegetarian movement is losing some steam. It sure is. And for good reason. Yeah. Listen, I think if people want to eat vegan vegetarian, go for it. But if you don't feel good eating that, you should look at that.

I'm just saying the trend is losing steam. If you call it a trend. What's the weirdest thing in your fridge right now? Sourcrow. Okay. Favorite late night snack. Strauss, ice cream, the vanilla with huge chocolate chips on top. Oh my God, that sounds so good.

It's so good. Maybe I'll switch out my glyphosic, whatever caca cereal that I'm eating every night. You're being frosted fucking miniweeds. Those are not good for you. They're not good for you. The brand. They're mother's best. Okay.

That's a better brand. See? And they're probably... Don't lie. We were in Miami in a hotel and a dude. showed up with a box of frost and miniweets. That was once because they didn't have Mother's Best. He was standing there with a bag of Frost of Miniweds.

I was like, what's going? He peripherals me in the middle of the night when I'm eating I'm in bed, and I'm like, don't look at me. He's like, give me the side eye. I will tell on you, I will tell on you to the world, boy. I don't care. If you could get everyone in America to stop buying one product, what would it be? I mean, look, I want to go broad here, ultra-processed foods.

Stop buying fake foods and start eating and buying real whole foods. What makes an ultra-processed food you're saying? is when you turn over the ingredients and there's a hundred things listed with all these things you can't pronounce. Yeah, and let's go deeper than just that you can't pronounce, because some people can't pronounce, like, you know, easy words. So it's, you're getting called out. All the time. So it's, it's when the food no longer resembles food. So there's all these ingredients in there, like B.HT, mono and diglycerides is actually another really big one. So the food industry required the food companies to remove trans fats years ago, hydrogenated oils, and they replaced these trans fats with mono and

diglycerides. Sodium phosphates. There's just all these additives and fillers and preservatives that are not food and that we shouldn't be eating that. Natural flavors even. Natural flavors is another one. Artificial flavors. The food dies is another one. What's your take on oat milk? Oh, God. I can, I mean, can I go on for this? Okay. So oat milk is glyphosate starch juice is really what it is. It raises your blood sugar. You're getting rid of all of the fiber, which is the only really good thing that oats are, that provide for you nutrients because the fiber helps to slow down the blood sugar spike. And if you're just drinking this starch juice and you don't have any fiber to slow down that spike in your glucose, it's going to cause a glucose spike. Also, most oats are sprayed with glyphosate.

And then on top of that, most of the oat milks have seed oils in them. So they either have canola oil, rape seed oil, which is the same thing as canola oil. And it's very high in omega-6s and it's incredibly inflammatory. I love oatmeal, but I get the G-free oats. I'm not going to try to pronounce that word anymore. I get glyphosate. Glyphosate-free. Just cut whenever I say that word wrong.

Just put it to what she says. No, leave it in. Leave it in. No. I get those free oats. Is that still, is that fine if they're free of that? Yes. Okay, so you're into oatmeal as long as it's free of that.

Yeah, I'm kind of middle the road with oatmeal. Personally, I don't eat them every day because they do have those anti-nutrients that we call them. We're essentially like plants, their only defense mechanism against being eaten is they have these anti-nutrients that are really bad for us and they cause inflammation. And this is something that Paul Salino again talks about a lot. But I am not of the camp of like you can't eat all these real whole foods. I'm very much of the camp of if it's a real whole food that I think it's good for you and safe to eat. I just personally don't like to eat oatmeal every day. But it's a really great source of fiber. And if you like it and it makes you feel good.

And if you add things like I would add some protein and a good fat in there just to help mitigate some of the blood glucose spikes. Good to know. Yeah. What's a guilty pleasure that you'll never give up? Are you tequila? Oh, yeah, I love tequila. Okay. I'm going to come.

People are going to come for me. Yeah, I would love mezcal too. Okay. Because the wellness world is just on this like hate against alcohol right now. You know what? The way to mitigate it, this is. is my opinion is to just be yourself. Exactly. No matter what you do, people are going to come for you. So in my opinion, it's so much easier to be yourself. What I say about those people. Mezcal in one hand

and unprocessed food and the other. Like you can have both. I love having those people that, you know, talk like that, you know, have that perspective on the podcast, a great podcast, but I'm never going like to go hang out with you socially. It's like super boring. It's like it's not happening. And I'm just be honest about, like, come on the show. We can talk about how bad it is for you. And then I'm going to go with my other friends. How many people at the round table are having a moscow? Oh, like all of us.

Like, we all had wine at dinner. Actually, I shouldn't say all of us. I'm trying to think of the people, but there were people there that were having wine or a cocktail with us. I think, let me speak to this actually for a second. So this is the way I approach it. Obviously, binge drinking terrible for you. We shouldn't be drinking every single night. But there's something about being able to go out and have a nice meal with your friends and connect

socially over a drink or two. If you're having five drinks, maybe eight drinks in a night, probably something you should look at. For me, tops I'll have three. And that's like a crazy night for me. I love to have like two drinks, call it a night. I don't feel like shit the next day. And then I'm actually able to let loose and connect with my friends. And I think we have forgotten that there is value in that. And also we've been drinking alcohol since the dawn of time. It's like one of the first things that we created, I feel like with fermented grapes. Yeah. Could you imagine being out and you're like trying to have a cocktail and wind down? I was like, let me talk to you about the food label and the glyphism.

I'm like, oh my God, dude, give it a rest. We already did the podcast, man. Like, give me a tequila shot. Yeah, like, up to time, we already did that part, you know? Yes. Yeah. Got to enjoy yourself a little bit. Exactly.

Courtney, what supplements do you like? What do you go for? Okay, so I'm taking a lot right now. PC, I think, is my number one from body bio because I'm super concerned. I actually just got my glyphosate levels tested and they were really high. And we're trying to figure out why. When I was in L.A., they were fine. I moved to Colorado for this guy.

And something happened. It's all the husband's fault. Beyonce. Exactly. Soon to be husband. So PC from Body Bio helps your body detox all these heavy metals and glyphosate and I just love it. And it's something I take every single day. I'm also taking glutathione.

It's the body's master antioxidant. It's also great for detoxing. I have the MTHFR gene. So I take a methylated B complex every day, which has really helped me a lot with energy and cognitive function. Right now I'm on pure. Everybody's been attacking me about that because Nestle bought them. I guess a couple years ago, but I'm like, it's a great product and they don't have any fillers in it.

So I personally like that. What else am I taking right now? I love Just Thrive probiotics. I think that's a great probiotic brand. And calcium deglucrate, oh, this is one that I don't think a lot of people know about. So calcium deglucrate binds estrogen and helps your body flush out excess estrogen. So I take that every day just to kind of maintain normal hormonal balance. Is it kind of like dim or no? I don't know if I would say that it's like dim, but maybe has like a similar reaction. I just know that it binds to exosestrogens and pushes them out through the liver. Before you go, what is a book, a podcast that you consume that you think has really helped you with your job and what you do and learning more about the food industry?

Okay, so this is a really old book. It's probably about 18 to 20 years old, but it was written by Michael Pollan and it's called In Defense of Food. and that was the book that lit the fire under my ass that started all of this. And I loved it. And I would go back and read it again. It really just helped me. It talks about factory farming. It talks about how we got here with the industrialization of our food. And it just really laid out the land and helped me understand what was really going on with our food system. And, I mean, it was 18 years ago, but still I would consider to be relevant now. Courtney, I'm sorry my father-in-law is stealing your eggs. he's going to be devastated when he hears that you called him out on this.

Where can everyone find you? Tell us where we can listen to your podcast, consume your content, all the things. Yeah, so I have a podcast. It's called the Real Foodology Podcast on all major podcast platforms. I have a website, just realfoodology.com. You can actually go there and get a free grocery guide if you plug in your email. So if there's anything that I said today about navigating the grocery store that you're like, what did she say about X, Y, and Z? you can pull that up on your phone while you're in the grocery store,

and it's just a layout of what kind of eggs I look for, what I look for in my meat, et cetera. And then lastly, I'm pretty active on Instagram. I also have a TikTok. I'm not really as active on TikTok, and I don't know what's happening with them right now, but Instagram would be the best place to find me at Real Foodology. Thank you for coming on the show.

Next time you come on, we'll kick Michael off. Get a word in. No, no, no. I am a vital part of this operation. Okay, all right. Courtney, thank you. Thank you so much.