The Chris Voss Show - The Chris Voss Show Podcast – Greg Sunvold, Founder of SunGlacial Biotics for Dog Health

Episode Date: May 22, 2023

Greg Sunvold, Founder of SunGlacial Biotics for Dog Health Sunglacialbiotics.com ABOUT DR. GREG Dr. Greg has always had an interest in the health of animals. Growing up on a cattle farm in rural Minnesota, caring for animals has always come as second nature to him. Through watching the animals on the family farm, he noted many similarities and differences in their natural behaviors. He noticed that pets and farm animals alike benefitted from a highly nutritious diet that consisted of essential nutrients. He also noticed that the optimal type of diet varied based on not only species but also the life stage and challenges that the animal faced. Inspired by his upbringing on the family farm, Dr. Greg attended Kansas State University where he began his Master’s research in the field of ruminant nutrition. Inspired by the cattle’s unique ability to convert grass (indigestible to humans) into a highly nutritious food product that humans could digest, Dr. Greg began his studies as a Ph.D. student at the University of Illinois. During his Ph.D. program, he researched the use of fermentable fibers in the diets of both cats and dogs. This research sparked his interest in the area that was later to be called the microbiome, an area that he specializes in today. Good gut health is foundational to nearly every life stage and condition an animal may experience. Due to their significant impact on gut health, microbiome technologies underpin the design of all products made by his company, SunGlacial Biotics.

You wanted the best. You've got the best podcast, the hottest podcast in the world. The Chris Voss Show, the preeminent podcast with guests so smart you may experience serious brain bleed. The CEOs, authors, thought leaders, visionaries, and motivators. Get ready, get ready, strap yourself in. Keep your hands, arms, and legs inside the vehicle at all times because you're about to go on a monster education roller coaster with your brain. Now, here's your host, Chris Voss. Hi, folks. It's Voss here from thechrisvossshow.com, thechrisvossshow.com. Welcome to the big show, my family and friends. We certainly appreciate you guys being here. As always, the Chris Fosh

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Today we're going to be talking about my favorite thing, dogs. I have two Siberian Huskies and had four of them in my lifetime, and other dogs when I was in my youth. And I love dogs, because have you seen people lately? No, I'm just kidding. The more I get to know people, the more I love dogs, which is all the more important that they're healthy and live their best life. Plus, they're with us for a very short time. Unfortunately, your family might be around longer. We know those family members, don't we? Anyway, the jokes aside, we have an amazing gentleman on the show.

Gregory D. Sunfold is on this show. He's a PhD and founder, innovator, scientist, director, and scientific advisor and owner and microbiome, we'll find out what that's about, of his pet company. And he sent us some samples here. The pet company is Sunglacial Biotics. And we'll be talking about his amazing stuff. With over 25 years of pet food industry experience and over 200 scientific publications, Dr. Greg Sundvold provides expert pet nutrition advice to improve and create many diverse pet products marketed globally. Having actively practiced in the field of microbiome throughout his entire career, he leverages his deep technical knowledge to actively identify ways to apply innovations

arising from this area into the pet food industry. In his current corporate role at Cool Springs International, he's responsible for implementing nutritional innovations in hundreds of pet food products. He founded Microbiome Health LLC, a company focused on applying innovative microbiome technologies into pet supplements in order to improve the health of these wonderful companions. Welcome to the show, Dr. Gregory. How are you? I'm good. I'm good. Thanks for having me on your show, Chris. And thanks for coming.

We got a full kit of your products on the Chris Voss Show. Here we'll display some here on the thing if you're watching on the video. So give us a.com so people can find you guys on the interwebs. Those products are at sunglacial.com. Sunglacial.com, Chris. There you go uh so uh tell us uh give us a 30 000 foot overview of the company and what you guys do sure yeah so you know this is this has been a long time in the coming uh as far as where it's come from uh but in essence we market uh pet supplements specifically for dogs right now.

We'll probably branch out into cats later on, but for now we're into dogs and, you know, it's not the only thing we do, but it's one thing. And it's really my way of, you know, arguably trying to lead the industry into more and more health oriented products. It's not just about fun and delight to me. It's about really serious science and putting that science into real-world products that consumers like yourself and myself can use in our own pets, Chris. There you go.

You know, we hear about a lot of the products you have on the site deal with different issues, whether they're aging or you know digestive performance you know i i take a lot of things of fiber and different things for digestive performance and and uh you know i try and focus on different things in my body probiotics is one of the things uh i take things for joint care and uh bone health calcium and stuff and And it seems like a lot of that's really important. And you guys provide that in a way that can be administered to dogs through their food.

You've got different categories like boarding compilations, things for transition, stress, behavior, stiffness and soreness, separation issues. That's a big thing with Huskies. Age, joint support, digestion, mobility, anxiety, traveling and calming. You've got all these different, what would you call these? Mixtures or compilations that can help dogs?

Yeah, well, those are, you just listed a bunch of indications. Why would I, you know, feed, you know, a certain product to my pet? And we've distilled those down into currently four products. We will continue to expand that lineup. Because every pet is different. Every pet has maybe some different issues you have to deal with. And so we try to address these different issues. The ones that we have currently are some of the biggest, most common issues, or in the case of mood is something really near and dear to my heart. I think, you know, there's a lot of unmet needs in the consumer realm regarding anxiety and separation, you know, just the general attitude of the pet isn't right. So that product itself is specifically

for those animals that are undergoing some sort of stress in their world that, you know, just you want to do something more for them. Definitely. I mean, I've had dogs tear through. I've had Siberians tear through doors. I've had them dig under gates. I've had them get very, very upset. So especially like fireworks, thunder and lightning storms. We recently had a thunder and lightning storm come in.

So the four main products, I think we have them all here. There's one for seniors. There's one for mobility. So probably joint care, things of that nature. One for mood, as we talked about. And then one for digestive performance, which is probably important because if you've ever had a dog eat some crap and put it back up on your floor, it's not fun. Well, let me tell you something, you know, in 2017, I was kind of like thinking about my career. I'd been, you know, past the mid-milestone of my career, if you will, and thought, you know, before I go too

much more senile or get to the point where people just can't work with me, I need to focus on something. And the microbiome was it. And the microbiome is transformative, in my opinion. It has to do with the gut. It has to do with going on in the gut. The microbiome is just a description of the environment of the gut, Chris. And there are different, I call them tools, but basically ingredients that we can add. These are naturally derived ingredients, no scary pharmaceutical stuff, but they're natural ingredients that you or I would even be willing to put on our mouths because they're human grade.

And those ingredients we use in those products as well because we believe that we can transform the microbiome, the gut. I like to say that good health starts in the gut, Chris. And if you don't have the gut right, even if you have a joint issue in yourself or your pet, you're limiting your ability to address that if you don't get the gut right. And so all of these products have pre-, pro-, and post-biotics. They're full of biotics, and they're all customized depending on what the certain issue is,

whether it's mood or digestive or senior or what have you. There you go. So what is the microbiome? What is that? Yeah, so it's this environment in the gut. When we talk about the microbiome of the gut, it's what's going on inside the gut, in the tube, if you will, that intestinal tube, your digestive system,

and on the tube or inside that tube, on the lining of that tube. And whether we like it or not, it just is. We're going to have literally trillions of bacteria in our digestive systems, and our dogs do as well. And it's just part of nature. It's what we call a symbiotic relationship. They're there to help us.

But when they get off or when some bad guys get involved or maybe we don't eat right or feed our pets right, then there's something called dysbiosis or an upset-edness that happens in that environment. And so again, we're trying to address this with ingredients that are known scientifically to do this. But it's a shame that there's not more of this being done in the pet industry, Chris, because, you know, I think we're driven a lot by marketing. We all are. We're influenced by messages and a lot of money is spent to do that. I'm a scientist. That's all I am. I'm just a scientist. I'm not a marketer. And so I said, let's form a line of products that I'm going to put the good stuff inside those products that really can help your pet.

So if we sell a lot, great. If we help a few animals, that's really the goal. That's to improve dog health. There you go. And, I mean, we've had doctors on the show that have written books about this. The gut health is, like, so imperative. In fact, there's some that have found that gut health can, if it's not healthy, can lead to brain swelling and different issues with the body. Like, you know, everything kind of revolves around our ability to digest right.

I know that, well, I don't know this. You probably know this better than I would. But my understanding is that, you know, if you take some penicillin for some sort of infection or something like that it can kill the biomes in your gut i think alcohol is bad for your gut and can kill the biomes and so you you need to make sure those things are replaced i mean as a human being uh you know i know that's a surprise to someone in my audience uh as a human being i I take probiotics. And I think a lot of people do now. You drink maybe some milk or some yogurt or kefir. Kefir is a really big thing.

But our dogs, they're the same way. They have guts. They need to make sure they're clean there. And they've got all the stuff they need to break down stuff. And they certainly eat bones and crap. And my dogs are out there eating grass and chewing on sticks. And I often wonder what's in the side of those bellies there. But I've had some of my dogs eat foil.

So I've seen that movie come out the other side. And so, you know, there's all sorts of stuff that goes on. And so you've developed these and made them so that you basically put, what is it, a few teaspoons or scoops that come provided with it depend upon the weight of the dog. And so that just, you can, I guess, sprinkle that over the food and they'll take and get into it. It's very simple. It's just a powder. The powder is relatively attractive to the dog. The dog has just a curious nose. It's just very, very interested in, oh, that's something new.

Even if it doesn't smell good to us, that dog, he's like, I want to try this. And so we've had very good success with people giving us feedback of, yeah, they readily like to eat this stuff. Or in some cases, they won't eat their food anymore without this stuff on it, whatever. But, you know, it's just a powder. And like you said, we provide a simple scoop. Look at the, if you know roughly the body weight of your animal, you can figure out how many scoops to feed it. So it's all tailored, customized as much as possible for your pet. Because again, your pet is unique. And we try to do that as much as we can with these products. And that's why we have multiple products, not just

one product. We have multiple products and we'll have more, even more than that to address issues as time goes on. And it's all about trying to transform that microbiome into a healthier microbiome as the underpinning of whatever the condition is that we address. So in the case of moods,, if you will, within the body. Definitely. And, and the senior products and probably I would imagine the mobility products have like different things to help with joint care. Absolutely. Yeah. So again, we are not ignoring the gut. We get the gut right.

So there are pre, pro, and postbiotics in that one. We also have digestive enzymes for a senior, specifically proteases, to help them break down the proteins to help with their muscle mass. Something called sarcopenia or muscle loss with aging that occurs. And so we want to accentuate that. So there's proteases involved. There are certainly, you know, joint actives in there, like eggshell membrane, which is a highly active joint product ingredient that is, frankly, under-recognized. Another one that's more recognized, perhaps, by your listeners is glucosamine.

We also have that in that product. But seniors also, you know, just like us, have experienced a lifetime of aging. And so cells in our body, in our dogs, in the dog's body, are also under assault. And so we put in extra level of antioxidants into that product because that pulls out some of the, what's called the scary things the free radicals that are going around a damaging dna and that's the that's the the predicating moment in in in terms of developing a tumor or cancer um wow and so we want to you know trap those free radicals sooner um so they don't you know uh the pet doesn't meet its uh

demise earlier than needed because of cancer or what have you there you go uh you know, uh, the pet doesn't meet its demise earlier than needed because of cancer or what have you. There you go. Uh, you know, I, I've, I've seen that a lot, uh, with, with cancer. I had a, uh, dogmy hospice care with anal sac cancer for, uh, a year and a half. Um, it was interesting, uh, and it was, it was more than interesting, but I'm just going to frame it as interesting for now, uh, cause I don't want to break down crying in the show. Um, but, uh, it was interesting than interesting, but I'm just going to frame it as interesting for now. Uh, cause I don't want to break down crying in the show. Um, but, uh, it was interesting. Um, what eventually got her was, uh, her arthritis and hip dysplasia. Um, uh, we, she probably would have survived the cancer much longer, but you know, the,

the hip dysplasia is a big thing for older dogs, uh, their hips, their joints, you know, start to hurt. Um, you know, start to hurt. Um, you know, they're walking around all fours all day long. You know, my dogs love it when I come up and I'll, I'll rub like their joints or their knees or something, you know, and they're walking around all fours, man. And there's, there's a lot of joints going on and they're always running around crazy doing stuff and, you know, uh, and so joint care, body care, you know, the, the stuff you feed them. I, you know,

I feed my dogs better. What I think is better dog food that I possibly can. I spend a lot of money to it. Some people don't. I mean, the worst thing I think most people can do if I can do a PSA is buy store branded stuff that you buy it, you know, your grocery store, uh, it's usually better to go to like PetSmart and Petco. And even then there's, there's better places you can go or order to get good food. A lot of people don't make that investment. So supplements like yours can kind of add to maybe a better, a better experience for, uh, maybe what they're not getting in some of the lower branded food that people don't want to pay more for. That's exactly right. You know, and again, it goes back to being tailored and customized for your pet. You mentioned very specific issues that your pet had, like, you know, the joint issue. So the mobility product that we have contains not only this super joint ingredient called

eggshell membrane, but it also contains glucosamine, chondroitin, and MSM. And underpinning that, as with the other products, are these prebiotics, probiotics, and postbiotics to help get the gut right. Why do I care about that when it's a joint issue? Well, because if the gut's not right, you can actually get bad stuff moving into the bloodstream. And those bad things, whether probiotics or other toxins, get in the bloodstream. And they settle into the weakest areas of the body, in this case, an inflamed joint. And so we want to get the gut right as well as put on these other actives directly for the joint health, Chris. There you go.

And you sell versions for puppies adults and seniors you have broken down people can go to your website and they can see how that works um the uh i noticed you have a subscription model or you can just buy the pack excuse me you can just buy the packs bless you uh yeah it's either way. Certainly, you know, it's convenient for a person just to sign up and just let it go on auto ship and then they they get the products. But if you need to get an extra product here and there or you want to try something, you know, it's like you think, well, you know, who cares about the packaging? They're not eating the packaging. Well, the reality is that packaging is really important because we've got live probiotics in there. We've got digestive enzymes. These are very, very exquisitely sensitive ingredients. And if we don't package it correctly, then those things won't survive and they won't be active. You're just

basically paying for nothing if I don't do that. So we've set it up to have good packaging. And the starter kit actually comes with a jar, a black jar that's kind of convenient. You can leave it on your counter. It's got a sealed lid so you can pour out the pouch into that jar, make it a little easier to scoop out every day when you're giving it to your pets. So that comes along with the starter kit that you get free as part of that subscription model. Now you've been a 30-year career scientist for pet food. How did this get started? You grew up on a family farm? I did, yep. Grew up in Minnesota,

west central Minnesota. We had raised cattle and sheep as well as born in soybeans. I looked at the cow and I thought, Chris, it's amazing that she can eat this grass that, you know, I can suck on it or chew it in my mouth, but it really doesn't do anything for me, but she can turn it into something really palatable and very nutritious too. I might add, you know, beef has been demonized in a lot of ways, but it's actually a very, very healthy source of nutrition. And, and so then I thought, well, I'm going to study this further as part of my college experience and went up from my bachelor's degree onto a master's degree in ruminant nutrition, feeding cattle, and then ultimately into a Ph.D. in nutritional science where I studied, get this, it's a little bit unique, you know, in the world. There's not a lot of folks out there, but I actually have a Ph.D. with dog and cat nutrition. That was the subject of my thesis research.

A lot of people, you know, study human nutrition, or they study, you know, you know, livestock, or whatever, but I actually did it with pet nutrition. And I'm just so happy because it set me up for a career of really studying, you know, pet. And so that's all I've done, Chris, is I'm a, I'm a pet nutritionist from day one in my career. And throughout, I've never deviated from always trying to, you know, improve myself and improve, you know, pets' health. And that, my friend, is the ultimate goal of what I'm here to do is to improve dog and cat health. That's it. I mean, I believe the rest of it will flow. I've been very blessed in my career and I will continue to be blessed, I think, if I just keep focused on that

central mission, because you said it best. I mean, you're like, I don't want to get into that because I might have some tears coming. You know what? These guys are it, right? For many of us, it's just, there's so much emotion that goes involved that we're invested in our pets, sometimes even more so than maybe some of the humans around us, you know? And so I just want to make sure that people have access to ways that they can really better their pets, their pets' health. And, you know, it's hard to think about, but you have to remember that they're with us a much shorter time. I don't know what the average pet life is, but I think it's roughly maybe 10 years.

I've been lucky. Mine have lived up to 16. The 14 and 16, and I'm running with my second set of dogs. But, you know, a lot of the stuff that you talk about and that's in the ingredients here is stuff that I take for me, you know?

And if it's good enough for me it should be good enough for my dog the only challenge is like like here's one of my chondroitin pills it's a it's quite large and if you've ever had to give dogs pills uh it's not the most funnest thing in the world and they don't like it and so what's nice is it's it's a great powder and i've been using it i've been sprinkling over their dog food and they're husky so we just kind of let them graze and throw some dog food on or throw some, the dog food sits out all the time and the thing and they just come by. But usually when they when I sprinkle it on they go over and they'll clean it all up

so they seem to really enjoy it. Cool, good. And I'm so glad you've got that experience. We've had a lot of people say the same thing, you know, and even put it on a plate by itself and they'll scarf it up just because they're interested in the smell and whatever. So, yeah. Yeah. It makes it nice and palatable because I've had to give my, there's nothing worse than trying to shove one of these down your dog's throats for medication or something for a surgery or things. They just, they just do not like the experience.

You know, I've tried, you know, coating it in peanut butter, wrapping in bacon, or, you know, getting those pill things that you,

you put the pill in the little doggy treat. And they always, they're always like, yeah, we, we figure out what you're doing. They'll eat the treat and spit out the, it was like,

you know, they'll lick the peanut butter off the, off the pill and the spit the pill out. It it's just infamous what my dogs have done to get around taking pills but uh yeah and i'm the same way i i hate taking pills but yeah just being able to sprinkle it on uh we put on the dog food so far they seem to really like it and uh i've got two of them so i got to figure out how to make sure they each get a thing. Because I think whichever one I sprinkle it on, the one goes and licks all the sprinkles off. So I may need to make two bowls or something. I'll have to figure it out.

But the one's older. I think the one's like eight going on nine, and the other one's five. So the five-year-old's still got that spryness about her. And the older one's, you know, you can tell she's slowing down. She's starting to wear a little bit she's slowing down she started wearing a little bit her moods she's a little bit more moody uh which you know if i was what is it eight times seven fifty six wait that's how old i am uh next year uh i understand now why she's kind of moody and ornery uh but it's good that they have these mixtures and they seem to like it enjoy it and

it's easy to apply it seems like there's a lot of great stuff in it um that uh you know i just recognize because of some of the stuff i eat there's yeast culture in here i think i saw some uh some different like green sort of stuff that's good for green uh health biotics and stuff like that but just good bacteria that's uh that can help them um eat better, digest better, and probably live better when it comes to vitamins and things of that nature. That's our whole goal.

I mean, and that's one of the beauties of the powder form. You know, you can buy these chews, Chris, you know, and whatnot, but I decided early on I wanted to work with powders, and the reason is that all of the actives are in there. I mean, with, with the chew, you have to create a matrix, hold, you know, whatever actives and make a pow, blah, blah, blah. I bypass, bypass all that and just put all, all the investment, if you will, from our end, from a cost point of view, it goes into actives, you know, and something that I think is going to help that animal perform better in whatever the case might be. And so, you know, you're getting nothing but

the good stuff for your pet. And that's my goal is just to keep it simple and yet address the pet from the myriad of needs. You don't have to worry about trying to figure out, you know, do I need to have glucosamine or this or that? Look, I've had 30 years of experience in this industry. I have a PhD. This is all I've done. I wanted to really, you know, use this knowledge in a way that can help pets' health. And so, I'm hopefully taking care of a lot of this for you by doing the research, understanding what's available, selecting not only which ingredients, but also suppliers. The supply source of these different ingredients is important as well. And so I'm very choosy about who I work with. I want to look for ethical suppliers, people that I would trust, you know, because it's not just my pet that gets this, it's your pet, it's other people's pet too chris and um

you know what we put into that product is really really important to me i hold it very to very high standards so there you go well thank you very much the dogs seem to enjoy it and that's uh that makes me happy too and just knowing that i'm investing in their health you know there's nothing worse than when uh you know you lose a dog and you think god if if maybe if i would have done this better maybe if i would have maybe fed them better food you know cancer is like such an ugly thing and happens to so many animals uh there's other parts of the thing they break down um you know we we've actually saved a lot of animals uh with some of the advice that i learned from my dog putting them on raw diets

and and making sure that they're getting good high quality uh food and uh and we've actually saved some dogs an extended life i mean my my husky had anal sac cancer they gave her three days and said you know go home come back in three days and we'll call the ball uh she lived for a year and a half because we switched her to a raw, high fat, low sugar diet. And, uh, if you understand cancer, it, it, it worked. Um, and I've had a lot of, uh, friends that have come to me and said, you know, uh, my dog's going through this or there's kidney failure or some sort of other issues. I'm like, what are you feeding it? And they're like, like you know feeding it like supermarket crap um dog food and uh it really does make a difference i mean they're just like us what they eat makes a difference in their lives absolutely yeah yeah you did right when with

the cancer issue there when you're minimizing carbohydrates and sugars that's absolutely the right strategy for that animal and there's just so much other stuff that goes on with those, those creatures, just like ourselves. So the more we can tailor what the product is for the animal, customize it, make sure it works and feed it to the right degree and so on, the better off your pet will be.

There you go. Well, thank you very much, Dr. Sundvold for coming on the show. We really appreciate it. My pleasure. So good to be with you, Chris.

Yep. Lots of fun. And make your dog healthier, man. Because, I mean, dogs are like the one thing that give you unconditional love in this life. And they're just such, they're just, I call them little fur balls of love. Because, you know, mine are husky,

so they're giant fur balls and fur is everywhere. But they just want love and attention and spend some time with you, cuddle up with you. I mean, it's really all they want. Maybe some good treats every now and then, but throw the ball. But, you know, they're just wonderful balls of love. Take care of them and enjoy.

Give us a.com so people can find you on the interwebs and order the products. Yeah, it's sunglacial.com, sunglacial.com. There you go. Thanks for tuning in, folks. We certainly appreciate you guys coming by. Go to goodreads.com, Fortress Griswold, youtube.com, Fortress Griswold,

linkedin.com, Fortress Griswold, and TikTok and all those crazy places on the internet. Thanks for tuning in. Be good to each other. Stay safe, and we'll see you guys next time. Bye-bye.