The Skinny Confidential Him & Her Podcast - Does A Vegan Lifestyle Make Sense? With Jenné Claiborne AKA Sweet Potato Soul

Episode Date: February 7, 2020

#246: On this episode we sit down with Jenné Claiborne. Jenné is a vegan chef, health coach, cooking instructor, author and the creator of the wildly popular blog and brand Sweet Potato Soul. On tod...ay's episode we are learning all about the vegan lifestyle. Why would someone choose to go vegan? What are the benefits? What are the challenges? Today we deep dive into all of it and Jenné is the perfect person to break it all down.  To connect with Jenné Claiborne click HERE To connect with Lauryn Evarts click HERE To connect with Michael Bosstick click HERE Read More on The Skinny Confidential HERE For Detailed Show Notes visit TSCPODCAST.COM To Call the Him & Her Hotline call: 1-833-SKINNYS (754-6697) This episode is brought to you by GLOSSIER What matters to you most when it comes to skincare? Quality of ingredients? Effectiveness? Glossier believes beauty starts with skin first, makeup second. Glossier's Milky Jelly Cleanser is the perfect way to start your skincare routine. Plus, all new customers will get 10% off their first order on Glossier.com/podcast/skinny This episode is brought to you by FOUR SIGMATIC We have been drinking this company's mushroom-infused elixirs and coffees for over a year now. When we need a break from coffee but still need that extra morning jolt and focus the Mushroom Coffee with Lion's Mane and Chaga is the way to go. Lauryn also drinks the Mushroom Matcha which is a green tea designed as a coffee alternative for those of you who want to cut back on caffeine without losing focus and cognitive boosts. This stuff doesn't actually taste like mushrooms, it's delicious. All of these blends have a ton of nutrients and amino acids to give you balanced energy without the jitters. To try FOUR SIGMATIC products go to foursigmatic.com/skinny and use promo code SKINNY for 15% off all products. Produced by Dear Media 

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Starting point is 00:00:00 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.
Starting point is 00:00:20 Him and her. Aha! You want to rebel. Like, my mom will never let me eat candy. I'm at my friend's house. I'm going to have it right now. But for me, growing up, never eating red meat and pork, I never, never, never, ever was tempted.
Starting point is 00:00:37 Because my parents, the way they talked about it, they made it like a point of pride that we didn't eat those foods. And they explained it to me, why we didn't eat those foods. And they explained it to me why we didn't eat those foods. And I understood. And so anytime I was in that circumstance where there's only pepperoni pizza and nothing, no, just regular plain cheese pizza, I would just wouldn't eat any pizza. I was totally fine with that because I knew that that wasn't for me. Hello, hello, hello. Welcome back to the Skinny Confidential, him and her show. That clip was from our guest of the show today, Janae Claiborne. We are getting into vegan diets today.
Starting point is 00:01:09 We love a plot twist. I mean, recently we talked to Anya, the owner of Belcampo, and we talked all about the truth about red meat. So today we're going the opposite direction. Like I said, we're going vegan. We love, love, love to talk about all different kinds of perspectives. For those of you who are new to the show, I am Lauren Everts Bostic, the creator of The Skinny Confidential,
Starting point is 00:01:29 and across from me is my husband who's looking hot in that red hat. Yes, I'm always, well, you know, I would like to think that I'm always looking hot. And the red hat probably helps. But, you know, maybe I'm just having a better day than us. Guys, my name is Michael Bostic. I'm a serial entrepreneur and brand builder, most recently the CEO of the Dear Media Podcast Network. And like Lauren said, today we have a show. We have not touched on this subject, I don't think, too often, probably because Lauren and I are not vegans.
Starting point is 00:01:55 But we always think that it's interesting to bring on different walks of life, to offer different perspectives. On one side, like Lauren said, we had Anya on the show, which was one of our favorite episodes, talking all about sustainable eating, red meat, and a carnivorous diet. And now we're obviously talking to Janae all about a vegan lifestyle and vegan diet. We really try to maintain a non-judgmental space here and let people come on, tell their stories, talk about what their perspectives are on the world and how they live, and really leave it up to the audience, you,
Starting point is 00:02:22 to decide what works for you. Really, like Lauren saysah says, you know, take what you like, leave what you don't. That's really our take. You know, we're not pushing one lifestyle or another. We just like to learn on the show. It's fun to present all these different stories and all these different journeys and all these different opinions on the platform, because what's fun is we don't tell you what to think. You get to decide.
Starting point is 00:02:43 So you get to go out and you get to sort of curate what content you're going to continue to consume. So like I said, presenting different perspectives in life's important. You know, I always think I'm right. But I in the reason that is, I always think I am right for me. That doesn't mean that my perspective or my thoughts or my opinions are right for anyone that's listening for any other people in my life. I just believe the way that I'm living is right for me. And if there's anything this show can right for anyone that's listening, for any other people in my life. I just believe the way that I'm living is right for me. And if there's anything this show can do for anyone, it's empower them to live right for themselves.
Starting point is 00:03:10 And I think that's the best way to be right. We're wrong in plenty of other walks of life, plenty of things. But when it comes to the way we like to live, what works for us, what makes us feel good, what makes us feel empowered, it's living right for yourself. And so listen to these episodes, take what you leave, leave what you don't. With that, let's welcome Janae Claiborne to the show. Janae is a New York City-based vegan personal chef, cooking instructor, and blogger behind the brand Sweet Potato Soul. She's got an amazing brand, amazing channels, YouTube, social, blog, she's got it all. Guys, with that,
Starting point is 00:03:39 Janae, welcome to the show. This is the Skinny Confidential, him and her. For everyone who doesn't know you, give us your spiel, little intro. So I'm Janae Claiborne. I'm a vegan chef, blogger, author, YouTuber. I like to say that I'm an all-around vegan expert. I've been vegan now since 2011. Not looking back. Not looking back, no looking back. No.
Starting point is 00:04:08 Okay, so why did you decide to go vegan in the first place? Because I was working at a vegan restaurant. I was vegetarian, floating between that and pescatarian at the time. And I was working at this restaurant for a year. So within that year, I was meeting all these other people who are vegan. Of course, I was eating amazing vegan food. I was learning about the lifestyle people who are vegan. Of course, I was eating amazing vegan food. I was learning about the lifestyle. I had met vegans before, but it's very special circumstances. So I had never considered ever even becoming vegan before I worked at this restaurant. So it's just like a real, you know, great introduction for someone.
Starting point is 00:04:41 Was it like a one night stand with veganism where you just pulled the bandaid off? Or did you go in with just the tip and kind of go slow? The tip. The tip. Okay, just the tip. Yeah, because I wasn't I didn't want to become vegan. I was like, I can't give up. I was living in New York at the time. I can't give up pizza and I can't give up yogurt. I can't give up these certain foods. So I didn't even want to become vegan. I just thought I'm going to eat mostly vegan. I'll be like 99% vegan, but then I still have my other foods that aren't vegan and that's fine, right? So after a while, I started feeling guilty though, every time I ate pizza or yogurt, those are like basically
Starting point is 00:05:16 the last two things that I gave up. And I started feeling really guilty and I didn't fully know why because I didn't really, anytime anyone wanted to talk to me about like animal welfare, I would just put my fingers in my ear and walk away. And like, I can't hear this. I don't want to talk about it. But when I started feeling guilty, then I decided, OK, you know what? I'm going to educate myself and whatever I find, then I'll, you know, base my decision off of that.
Starting point is 00:05:41 Will I become vegan or am I just going to stay the way I am? Started reading more about how animals are treated in the, you know, farming and just like in factory farms, especially. And then I decided to become vegan. I got so like swept up into that. And so ultimately I became vegan for the animals. And when did you start to become so passionate about it that you wanted to share it with other people through your blog and your instagram crazy like almost right away within a couple weeks so i wasn't interested in becoming vegan for health is it like that cliche where it's like how do you know if someone's vegan they'll tell you yeah oh man back then i was like proselytizing everybody my poor family i'm so so glad that i'm beyond that stage though How does your family react?
Starting point is 00:06:26 Were they big meat eaters? No, not at all Me, I grew up eating We called it semi-vegetarian We ate chicken and fish And like turkey So like poultry and fish And so I was already kind of weird
Starting point is 00:06:39 You know, growing up Because I would go to parties And friends homes And such things like that And I would not eat any red meat or pork And I was like what is that all about you're so weird you're a vegetarian so I was already used to it and my family already ate that way anyway and funny my dad was actually raised vegan in the 70s what yeah where was your dad from he's from DC that's even weirder right on the east coast that he's yeah it was really weird it's
Starting point is 00:07:06 because they were in they his mom was involved in some sort of like religious group and veganism is part of it yes actually so my dad has a brother and his brother is a little older he's still in this religious group and part of like if you are really involved in this group and really committed then you'll move to Israel. And he moved to Israel when he was super young and he has like 14 children. I can't remember exactly. My uncle living in Israel. You know, I've only met him three, four times in my life and I haven't met all his children yet.
Starting point is 00:07:37 But he has a lot of kids. They were always vegan. A lot of them are still vegan today, except for the ones who moved here to the United States. So I had a background. I knew what vegan was because my dad, you know, would tell me about it. And he still, when I was growing up, he'd make a lot of vegan food. He'd make tofu and like tofu cheese and all sorts of stuff, use nutritional yeast. And I didn't like any of it. I thought that the only reason someone would become vegan would be because they're in this religious group. I never ever considered, I had no idea that people were vegan for any other reason until I moved to New York
Starting point is 00:08:10 City because I didn't even know any vegans outside of my family until then. Before we get into that hot topic, let me tell you about Glossier. Well, wait, I'm sure you guys have heard of Glossier. I mean, it's all over looking all pink and delicious. It's fresh. It's youthful. It represents everything dewy. And they're very much into tapping into their community, which I love. They're like a community driven beauty brand, if you will. So they made glowy dewy skin cool. And basically, I feel like that's up every skinny confidential listeners alley. So here's the deal for me lately. I gave birth and now all of a sudden my skin is super sensitive. Products that never were irritating my skin are now irritating it, which is wild.
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Starting point is 00:09:57 will get 10 off their first order on glossier.com slash podcast slash skinny again that's glossier spelled g l o s s i e r dot com slash podcast slash skinny certain exclusions apply all right let's get back to the show wait okay so now i got i got there's a lot to unpack here with you because we got to go back so where like let's go way way back childhood where did you grow up where you from i'm from atlanta georgia okay born and raised and so what was the childhood like was it you know was it it's great it was great great childhood wonderful okay so just everything's fine everything and your dad is and your crazy uncle is he is he still in the picture is he crazy or is he not no i i didn't even know him okay at all i you know the first time i can remember meeting him
Starting point is 00:10:39 is 16 children's a lot of children i said 14 but he might be she might have 10 okay i added two because i just can't add two well still that's a lot of children what if i came to you and i was like i want to have 14 children oh no we were talking off mic earlier and you came in and you're scaring me like you're like i'm slapped oh my god we're gonna get into that can you imagine 14 no i can imagine two wow so so when did you realize that you wanted to make this your career well okay so to backtrack just a little when i became vegan so i had moved to new york to become an actress i went to school for acting i got a bfa in that i went to boston university moved to new york to pursue this career and in maybe within the first year i realized it's not what I wanted to do because I didn't
Starting point is 00:11:25 like auditioning. It wasn't nearly as fun as it was in school, but I didn't know what I would do because I literally went to school for this. I felt like so unqualified to do anything else in life but be an actor. So I was like searching. I was working in this restaurant. I was so confused about what I was going to do with my life. And then at the same time, you know, started feeling guilty, decided to become vegan.
Starting point is 00:11:47 And within a couple of weeks of becoming vegan, I realized, oh, my God, I know what I want to do with my life. I want to do vegan food. And basically, I thought I want to help other people become vegan because even though I had just become vegan, I still felt like I knew a lot about it because I'd worked at the restaurant. And also, I still felt like I knew a lot about it because I'd worked at the restaurant. And also I loved cooking. And I just, I just felt like I can cook for people and I can help them. And I decided to start a private chef company rather than continue working in a restaurant or
Starting point is 00:12:16 start a restaurant because I figured, well, first I want to work for myself and I don't want it to be as stressful as working in a restaurant, you know, and private chefs can make a lot of money, especially in New York City. And I was at the time I was working in the Upper West Side. So how do you start finding clients? That was tricky. I thought it was gonna be easy because I worked at this restaurant. I'm like, all these rich people who eat here are gonna hire me didn't work that way. So I started putting up flyers anywhere I thought my ideal client would be. So fancy nail salons, hair salons, yoga studios. And in the end, I think it took me like five, six months to finally get my first client. And she found one of my flyers at a nail salon.
Starting point is 00:13:00 And let me guess, you cooked for her and it was amazing. And then she recommended you. Yeah, that's how it works. It's such a momentum effect. I know. After all those months. It's so smart to go put up flyers. I remember when I first started my blog, I would put business cards everywhere I went. Really?
Starting point is 00:13:15 I still do it sometimes. Do you? It's like 10 years later and I'll still throw a business card. You should do that. Yeah. It's like, why not? Yeah. Especially now.
Starting point is 00:13:21 What else did you used to do? We used to sneak into the Barnes and Noble and we'd find the book that you wrote and we'd put it in the front, right? Yes. know what else we used to do? We used to sneak into the Barnes & Noble and we'd find the book that you wrote and we'd put it in the front, right? Yes. Me and her grandma used to do that. Me and her grandma used to sneak into the Barnes & Noble and put it right in the bestseller front part. I do that with my book, actually.
Starting point is 00:13:32 Yeah, that's the move. No shame. It takes a little bit of groundwork, right? Yeah, exactly. I didn't know you did that with my grandma. Listen, me and your grandma would go on runs where we'd go, we'd find the book and we'd move over James Patterson.
Starting point is 00:13:44 Get out of the way. Get the fuck out of here, bestseller.seller yes no yours is the bestseller now that's what you gotta do i think james patterson probably did that too and that's how he got to where he is today okay so what i see sometimes with people that become vegan is that they do do it because they think it's healthier yeah but i also see a lot of people become vegan and they just start to eat a ton of carbs. Yeah. And they end up gaining weight and it's actually not as healthy because they're just eating crap, basically. Yeah. Can you kind of speak like what your vibe is? Yeah. Okay. There's different types of vegans, maybe, you know, I think of vegans as especially like nowadays, because there's so many animal food meat alternatives out there. There's even more types of vegan. When I first became vegan, sure, we had like junk food, but we didn't have nearly as much as we do today. But generally, I think most of us were like closer to like whole food plant based, you know, we eat a lot of vegetables and fruit and cooked at home
Starting point is 00:14:41 a lot because there weren't so many vegan restaurants around and not as much junk food yet. Also, there were like a lot of people doing raw at that time. That's early 2011. But otherwise, that was basically it as far as I knew. Nowadays, you have, of course, the raw foodists. You have like the high fat, low carb vegans. You have the whole food plant based vegans. You have the really extreme whole food plant based where you don't even eat oil. You don't even eat like nothing processed, just whole, like literally whole foods, right? I'm more in the, like maybe like the 90, 10, mostly whole food plant-based. And then 10% of the time or so I'll just eat, you know, junkier foods. I'll eat out of restaurants. I eat processed foods, things like that, but in moderation. And then there are vegans, of course, who are just like fully, I don't like vegetables. I only want to eat the processed foods. They're super easy and convenient. Why not indulge in
Starting point is 00:15:34 these things? And I don't care about my health because that's the thing. People are becoming vegan for so many different reasons, some for health, some for the animals and some for the environment, right? So depending on why you become vegan, I think that also some for the animals, and some for the environment, right? So depending on why you become vegan, I think that also informs, you know, what type of eating you choose to do. So let's unpack it a little bit for those, for the uneducated like myself, right? I would consider myself in that group. What is at the core? I mean, because a lot of people know what veganism is and what vegans are, but at the core, what are the, I don't want to say restrictions, but what's the general practice? What can you do? What can you not do to be considered vegan?
Starting point is 00:16:08 Wait, hold up. Who here likes coffee? Specifically, mushroom coffee. If you're sitting there wondering, what? Mushroom coffee? I don't know about that. I don't know how that's going to taste. Guys, it tastes exactly like regular coffee, except you don't have to worry about the jitters, the coffee come downs, any of the bad stuff that comes on. It doesn't sound too good to be true. That's because it kind of is. I'm all about not doing too much coffee right now. And just in general, I want to back off, especially after this pregnancy. So Four Sigmatic is like the perfect way to do that. Four Sigmatic has been a partner of ours for a long time now. Their founder, Taro,
Starting point is 00:16:41 has been on this show multiple times, three times, I believe now. And that's just because we find him so interesting. And in addition to that, we find his company even more interesting. Sorry, Taro. So what are the benefits of Four Sigmatic Mushroom Coffee? First, adaptogenics. They contain two mushrooms, lion's mane and chaga, which helps you think and gives you a powerhouse of antioxidants, no sugar. They don't cause the jitters. They give you mental boosts and it tastes delicious, not like mushrooms at all. So here's the deets. You can carry these in your handbag. They come in little tiny packets. They're ready to drink with hot water and they enhance with your choice of nut milk. So if you want to
Starting point is 00:17:13 do like an unsweetened almond milk and a little cinnamon, it's delicious. If I want to wind down though, I have to say this, Michael, because this is my favorite. I always reach for the mushroom cacao. There's a spicy one and it's like a warm hug from grandma. So you can get the coffee for the morning to boost your productivity with the chaga and lion's mane. And then at night you can wind down with the amazing, delicious, spicy cacao that tastes like hot chocolate. All of their products are extremely affordable and they have something for everybody.
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Starting point is 00:17:59 Guys, they've kept this code for us for a long time. They never change the offer. If you love the product like we do, you can continue to go back and take advantage of that 15% off. Again, that's fourstigmatic.com slash skinny. All right, let's get back into the show. Generally, that means you don't need any animal products. That's like the dietary vegan definition. No eating any animal products. There's a little, it's, you know, honey is a gray area. Some vegans
Starting point is 00:18:23 do and some vegans don't. I don't. But when I first became vegan, I still did eat honey. I was especially into just like local raw honey. And what's the reason for some not eating honey? Just because it's exploitative of bees. Yeah. And so bees do get killed when you're taking the honey from them, right? And also the honey that they produce, they don't produce it just like, it's not just
Starting point is 00:18:43 a byproduct. They actually make it for food for themselves, especially during, for the winter. So it's exploitative. That's why some people wouldn't eat it. So yeah, that's why I don't eat it also. There's a guy here in LA that runs around and finds beehives. Our friend Khalil was just on here, the guy that has Sun Life Organics. I don't know if you've ever tried it.
Starting point is 00:18:58 You gotta try it. You gotta try it if you haven't. But he said there's a guy here in LA that runs around and saves bees and saves their honey and like takes them to a safe place for bees. Wow. That's wonderful. We got to find out who that is. Taylor, pull that up.
Starting point is 00:19:08 That is so cool. Yeah, please. That would be great. I actually think that if I, I always say if I had the space, but actually, to be honest, I do have the space right now. I would keep bees. I don't do it. Keep bees while you're waking up every two hours for teething.
Starting point is 00:19:20 Not now. Yeah, not now. Not now. Not now. I can hardly keep myself alive right now. Yeah, yeah. Just, I feel like you already got
Starting point is 00:19:28 too much going on. Way too much. You can't open a beef farm maybe one day. One day. When she's like 10 and she's like, I don't care about
Starting point is 00:19:35 being with you anymore, Mom. I have my own friends. She can manage the farm. One of my favorite stories, like I'm a big heavy metal fan. This is a tangent. The lead singer of Metallica,
Starting point is 00:19:43 he is now, like he obviously still has his band and he goes around and does these crazy heavy metal like concerts but then in his spare time he has this ranch and he's a beekeeper really that's so cool i'd be a good beekeeper yeah i like to be one with the bees okay back to the back to explaining maybe if i get the suit i'll become the keeper you're gonna go down crazy oh yeah. Just explain, like, just give us all the. Sorry, the rules restrictions. Oh, right, right, right. I forgot. I forgot. I went on a tangent.
Starting point is 00:20:11 Oh yeah. We were talking about these. So, okay. So that's like the food, right? However, for me, I don't think of veganism as just a diet. I think of it as a whole lifestyle. So I don't wear any animal products either. Meaning, you know, no leather, no wool. Also, you know, when I first became vegan, I still did own a lot of wool and leather. And so I didn't just, you know, throw those things away or donate them. I continued to wear them. And then when I would buy new things, I wouldn't buy wool and I wouldn't buy leather or silk. And so now, you know, it's been almost nine years being vegan. I don't think I have anything left at all. What's the hard part when you're first transitioning?
Starting point is 00:20:48 Like what is the stuff that you're like, oh, that's hard to give up? For food or for clothes? Just everything. What was something you caught yourself like, oh, whoa, I didn't realize this would be difficult. For me, the hardest thing was not the food at all, but it was just like fashion. Shoes, especially like on trend, nice shoes. That's still hard for me. Because listen, i can relate so
Starting point is 00:21:07 tough it's so tough and because also another thing is so as a vegan over the years i also i started obviously humans are animals as well i started expanding what it means to be compassionate for animals and including humans into that too right i want? I have compassion for not just non-human animals, but humans as well and exploited people all over the world. So I started, I stopped actually shopping for fast fashion. In fast fashion, you can get a lot of great looking on-trend technically vegan shoes and accessories. If you shop at like Forever 21, I don't know if they're,
Starting point is 00:21:44 are they even still around anymore? They're having hard times. Yeah. Hard times. They're having more than hard times, but yeah. Yeah, right? Bankruptcy. H&M and such.
Starting point is 00:21:51 And Zara. But I actually stopped shopping fast fashion too, and that made it even more difficult. But now I buy things used on Poshmark, so it makes it a little easier. What is one thing that you miss that's not vegan? Is there any food that you miss or is there nothing that you miss? Do you not crave it? Hmm. It sounds like there's nothing.
Starting point is 00:22:10 You have to think about it. I know. Not a lot. No, there isn't. Because there was. When I first became vegan, I didn't know how to prepare all my favorite foods vegan yet. Got it. That was so long ago.
Starting point is 00:22:20 And now that is like that's been a big part of my career. And what I've been doing is making my favorite foods vegan give us a cheese recipe that someone can whip up at home because cheese would be hard for me it depends on what you want to do with the cheese like if you wanted like a spreadable cheese like a cultured type of cheese i don't eat cashews so which means i can't have hardly any of the ones that you buy at the grocery store. So I make mine with sunflower seeds. Sunflower seeds, nutritional yeast, a little bit of lemon.
Starting point is 00:22:48 You could age it or you don't have to age it. And it's very easy. You whip it up in the food processor. It's delicious. That sounds good. Yeah, thank you. See, if I had someone like you around. Oh God.
Starting point is 00:22:57 That could cook really, really great and healthy meals. Like, I think the problem is a lot of people don't have your cooking skills, right? And they try to go vegan and then it's like, they feel like they're eating cardboard, right? I think so. But I also think that they don't have the, now this is what I'm trying to do. I'm trying to help people understand that, sure, cooking skills are incredibly valuable. And I think we should all have them, at least the basics, you know, you should know how to cut an onion and such. But more importantly, you should know what's available to you. So if you don't have any cooking skills, technically, you shouldn't be
Starting point is 00:23:30 able to cook anything, right? But if you're able to cook chicken and fish and just turn on an oven, then you can still eat vegan and still cook vegan. There's so many things like, for example, mushrooms. Mushrooms are so overlooked as a nutritious, filling, easily accessible food. And that is something that you don't need to season it a lot. You don't have to do very much to it. You can saute it. You can broil it. You can roast it.
Starting point is 00:23:57 You could bake it. You could do anything with mushrooms. But people don't realize that that's a food that they could whip up as easily as they might do like a piece of chicken. You can make mushrooms taste like steak. Exactly. I know I've had mushrooms that taste just like steak. What do you do for butter though if you want to put butter on the mushrooms? Do vegan butter. Vegan butter. Yeah. And is it good? Yeah. There's a whole bunch of different ones on the market now. I'm like I said, I'm allergic to cashews, so I cannot speak from experience, but I hear that the very best one is miyoko's okay yeah we need to talk about brands because i do look at oh is this vegan is this vegetarian what is this when i'm buying stuff and a lot of the vegan brands
Starting point is 00:24:34 have soy and i'm not a fan of soy okay so what brands would you recommend that are soy free or that are just really nutritional that you find that you keep gravitating towards you should try miyoko's especially for the cheese and the butters and such, because they're all cashew-based. And then like most vegan cheeses, most of the higher-end ones, the aged cheeses and such, and the really good ones are cashew-based also, or nut-based in general. So they don't usually have any soy in them even if you wanted to buy like earth balance that's like the og vegan butter they also have a soy free one so you could buy that one too meat what about meat like like fake meat fake meat yes i mean beyond meat even that one is soy free that one's pea
Starting point is 00:25:17 protein so that's a good one okay i'm gonna look at beyond meat because whenever i go to look at the patty section i feel like there's so much soy in it. And I have a theory on soy that I've told Michael. Oh, yeah? Can I hear it? I just think too much soy is happening in our foods. Yeah. And it's causing too much estrogen in men.
Starting point is 00:25:36 Uh-oh. I don't remember what soy. What's too much estrogen in men leads to what? It's making them little bitches sometimes. Oh, too much soy. This is my own theory that like when Michael whines or he bitches at me,
Starting point is 00:25:49 I'm like, you're eating too much soy. Checking my package, my ingredients. I don't like a lot of soy in my diet regardless. I just don't see the benefit for me. But in terms of like
Starting point is 00:25:59 as a new protein source, when you think, and I know there was a great documentary that just came out that I want to see and like Arnold and all these bodybuilders. Yes, bodybuilders. This is the golden time of
Starting point is 00:26:07 veganism. This is the, you are in the middle of like the golden age of vegans. So when people are saying, okay, I don't get protein. What's your response? Because I'm sure you have an answer for that. Yeah, you are. Most of us are getting too much protein, especially Americans. So it's like, so here's the thing, just like with soy, most Americans, not vegans, but most Americans- Too much of everything. Yeah, we're getting too much of everything. If you're worried about soy, don't eat a standard American diet, period. Don't worry about being vegan. Just don't eat a standard American diet because soy, especially processed soy, not whole food soy that's good for you, but the processed
Starting point is 00:26:41 kind is in all the junk food, like every single thing. It's a filler. It's, you know, any sort of protein that they've added. It's going to be a soy protein isolate. It's just, you know, just don't eat standard American. Don't eat junk food. And then when it comes to protein, if you're eating a standard American diet, you are eating way too much protein. However, when you switch over to a vegan diet, the only thing that I would say about protein, well, first of all, you don't have to worry about getting enough as long as you eat enough food. So everything has protein in it. But I think the issue with people when they first become vegan is they often don't eat enough food, period. Or maybe they're eating just too much
Starting point is 00:27:21 processed, but most of that processed food, especially now, like we're talking about the patties and such, has plenty of protein added because people are protein crazy. So you don't have to worry about protein with that, but just eat plenty of food. I tell people that if you go vegan and you feel sluggish and you feel tired and you feel hungry, that means you're just not eating enough food. You might be starving yourself because I don't think people understand that vegan food like the whole foods and such the healthiest stuff has far fewer calories so sure you might be used to going to chopped and getting do they have chopped in LA okay chopped and getting a salad with like a romaine salad with a bunch of chicken and I don't know what else animal products people put on their salads but if you take that out all you have left is the lettuce. That is not enough food.
Starting point is 00:28:06 So you need to replace that with legumes, for example. I love lentils. I was eating lentils when you walked in. Oh, my God. Lentils are the best. That was on brand for you. Yes, it is. OK, good.
Starting point is 00:28:17 So on brand. But lentils, whole grains like farro and quinoa and frica and all those things. I love tempeh. You know, we're talking about soy. My favorite form of soy is tempeh because it's very hearty and incredibly high in fiber and protein and you can do so much with it. So you can just bulk up your salads. If you ever go on my blog and look at any of the salad recipes, my salads are not side salads. I don't eat side salads. I don't eat side salads. I have like these gigantic salads that I eat out of mixing bowls because you need to eat so much more volume of food when you're eating vegan. And that's totally okay. If you like to
Starting point is 00:28:53 eat, then you should become vegan because you eat so much good food. But another thing I just wanted to say about the protein thing, people should not be worrying about not having enough protein in the United States, unless you're literally starving yourself, you're very, very, very unlikely to have a protein deficiency. But I think people need to focus way, way more on fiber. We don't get nearly enough fiber in this country. And the number one killers are all lifestyle related. So there's heart disease, cancer, and I can't remember the third. It's like maybe stroke or something. Let's say just the first two heart disease and cancer you know studies show that if you eat more fiber you have a lower risk of heart disease and certain types of cancer especially colorectal cancer and that's something that you know a lot of people have and and clearly we're not eating enough fiber so so what are the
Starting point is 00:29:40 best sources of fiber we've talked about this on the show for a few times yeah but having you on like lentils a good good one, right? Lentils are great. Any whole food. People just don't know where to get a good source. And we were sold on the dreams like, hey, like the cereal has enough fiber. Yes, that's the thing. Yeah.
Starting point is 00:29:53 Don't worry about it. If it comes from a box like that's like a secondary source. The primary sources of fiber should just be fruits, vegetables, whole grains and legumes, nuts and seeds. That's it. Just eat that. I am a big fan of fiber i try before i got pregnant i tried to do it at every single meal good i also take a lot of inulin which
Starting point is 00:30:11 is an artichoke root fiber that's that's fun in my coffee it's a prebiotic yeah yeah that's that's another way to get fiber you know it's interesting when you say that vegans sometimes they will switch to being vegetarian to vegan and then they don't eat enough. One of my girlfriends who I absolutely adore, Jordan from The Balanced Blonde, I think she developed, and I hope I'm saying this right, orthorexia through a transition to veganism. Worrying so much about what I'm eating.
Starting point is 00:30:39 Yes, and I think now she's vegan, and she's had a completely different experience. But I do see people switching to veganism and sort of I don't want to say using it as a way, but it does sometimes develop into an eating disorder. Totally. So I don't think that's an issue with veganism. I think it's just, you know, some people are just more likely to get an eating disorder. And if they decide to become vegan, you know, and they're so worried about what am I eating and how much of it am I eating, then it can be a trigger for, you know, some other maybe underlying issue. Maybe they had something before in the past, or maybe this is just a trigger for this to come out for the first time. So yeah, I don't think it's a problem with veganism though, because I think that is a rare situation. I have heard it before. Melissa Wood Health is
Starting point is 00:31:23 another amazing vegan to follow. She does a lot of good recipes like you you guys i feel like have the same energy i think i heard her on your podcast yeah she's amazing yeah she gave me the tip to mix pasta with a bunch of arugula and kale instead of adding meat yes and i love it because you get so much volume exactly i know i love to bulk up pasta with, you know, things like that. I also have been eating. Now, I know this is technically processed, but I've been trying to switch at least occasionally. I'll have just the chickpea pasta or the legume pasta, red lentil, whatever, instead of the regular wheat pasta so that I can get more fiber. And, you know, I'm not worried about protein.
Starting point is 00:32:03 So for me, it's really about eating more fiber. And then I will bulk that up with more raw vegetables, you know, just like baby kale and such that I add at the end and let it wilt. Because you want the two types of fiber. You want soluble and insoluble fiber because it does different things right in your body. So that's a good tip from Melissa.
Starting point is 00:32:21 I snuck the lentil pasta to Michael the other day and he said, this tastes a little bit different. But he did eat it all. Yeah? I don't know what I mean. I'm just like, she made it. I'm eating it. It was good.
Starting point is 00:32:29 It was the- If I ate it all, it's because it was good. The tolerant brand. Is that a good one? The tolerant brand. Yes, that one's a good one. And it was the red lentil pasta, and there's one ingredient in it. I know.
Starting point is 00:32:38 Like, how can you get better? Isn't that great? Yeah. I love all of that. Yeah, I think that's amazing. They're not my favorite, you know, legume pastas. I do it just because I know it's better for me. The texture is a little strange.
Starting point is 00:32:48 It's a little strange. What are some tips and tricks for someone that maybe doesn't want to go full vegan, but wants to just add more vegetables into their diet? Yeah, that's a great place to start. Like, even if you, I think that's just a great- That's how I'll get you in. Yeah. And then over time.
Starting point is 00:33:05 Then you start to see it. Just a little tricks, though, that you can do great- That's how I'll get you in. Yeah. And then over time. Then you start to see that. Just a little tricks though that you can do. Yeah, for your kids or for your husband. So one thing you can do is, for me, I'll say I was very picky when I was growing up and I didn't eat a lot of vegetables. The biggest thing that worked for me, and I did this for myself, was just to learn new ways of preparing vegetables. So many of us just eat vegetables in one way.
Starting point is 00:33:24 Like, for example, when I was growing up, the only way I ever had Brussels sprouts were boiled. And that's just, oh my God, I cannot eat that at all. I never could eat that. So you learn how to shred them and turn them into a salad and massage it with a really good dressing. Or you learn how to roast them, of course, or make a gratin out of them. There's so many different things. But if you want to sneak vegetables to people, then a good way of doing it is I like to make little like burger patties. Sweet potato burgers are really good. Everybody pretty much loves sweet potato though. But so that's, you don't really have to sneak that. But sweet potato burgers are my favorite. Black bean burgers. Black bean burgers. You could put spinach in there and
Starting point is 00:34:02 kale and such. I love beet burgers as well. A lot of people don't like beets, but the beet burgers, I've made them for many, many, many people who don't like beets and they love them. Yep. I bet your cooking is like amazing. Yeah. So I share the recipes, though, so anybody can do it like me. I'm actually getting hungry for a beet burger. Me too.
Starting point is 00:34:19 I bet a sweet potato burger is so good. So good. My pregnancy craving is sweet potatoes with pomegranate seeds all over it and ghee and cinnamon. Yeah. And if we could make that into a burger, that sounds so good. Totally good. Totally.
Starting point is 00:34:33 Have you ever used pomegranate molasses? No, what's that? Oh, it's the best. The best. You have to message me that. Oh, I do. It's just, you know, boiled down pomegranate juice. And they do add a little bit of sugar, but it's a thick, rich molasses. And I drizzle it over my salads and I make salad
Starting point is 00:34:49 dressings with it. And I make this really great, it's a red pepper sauce. It's called muhammara. It's Middle Eastern thing. And you have to use pomegranate molasses in there. It's tangy and just so good. So good. Does your partner just like love it? He loves it. Does he only eat vegan too? Yeah. Okay. So I have a question.
Starting point is 00:35:10 As a mom, you just had a new baby. Yeah. How do you make the decision of what the baby's going to eat? Oh, we're getting some controversial territory here. No, I want to know. I want to know if it was like automatic. Because to me, if you're pregnant and you're vegan and you're eating vegan the whole pregnancy i can see why you would want your baby to eat vegan because that's what
Starting point is 00:35:30 your baby's used to yeah she was built off of that so for her you know first of all well she just started eating foods at eight months she's 10 and a half months right now she was a little slow to eating i i started introducing them to at seven months and she was like, I'm not interested. She would like play with them on the little tray, but she wouldn't eat or swallow anything. But then around, I think exactly the day she turned eight months, she started eating things. So it is still pretty new that we're like actually feeding her solids. She's been 100% breastfed up until that point. So now I do, you know, going forward, I mean, I'm totally going to raise her vegan. I think a lot of people are concerned though, just like with adults, how are the babies
Starting point is 00:36:13 going to get enough nutrition from a vegan diet, right? How are they getting enough protein? Are they getting enough minerals and vitamins and such? And the truth of the matter is that if you're eating a diverse array of foods and a whole and balanced diet, then the baby's going to get enough. My daughter, she eats peas and beans and lentils and things like that already and lots of vegetables. Vegetables are high in protein and obviously they're like the most nutrient-dense foods that anybody can eat. Obviously sweet potatoes and such. I'm not concerned at all about her health at all. She's thriving and she's growing really well. She's pretty big for her age. She just
Starting point is 00:36:52 seems amazing with great energy and all that stuff hitting all her milestones. The only concern, it's not even a concern. The only thing I wonder about is like when she goes to school and she has friends and she's, you you know outside of the home she's at a sleepover or whatever well it is a concern because yeah you got you know like if kids are and listen i'm not i don't ever put my parenting hat on or like i honestly could care less about how anyone's doing their parent because i'm never going to take advice from the way i'm going to parent but it is something like just by human nature if people get restricted and they get around yeah you want to try it yeah you're like oh like i remember like if there's like oh my friend's house has a big candy door yeah oh yeah
Starting point is 00:37:28 then you're just diving in but especially if you've like really been restricted like yeah you want to rebel like my mom will never let me eat candy i'm gonna i'm at my friend's house i'm gonna have it right now but like for me growing up never eating red meat and pork i never i never never ever was tempted i Because my parents, the way they talked about it, they made it like a point of pride that we didn't eat those foods. And they explained it to me why we didn't eat those foods. And I understood. And so anytime I was in that circumstance where there's only pepperoni pizza and nothing, no just regular plain cheese pizza, I just wouldn't eat any pizza. I was totally fine with that because i knew that that wasn't for me now that also might have something to do with my
Starting point is 00:38:08 personality i don't know i want to do that with my daughter with drugs oh yeah no i want to i want to explain to her really openly about what each drug does that's what my parents did too why why i didn't like it or why michael didn't like it i swear to god this in my life i've never done like a recreational drug outside of life i've never done like a recreational drug outside of like i've you know i smoked a little weed once in a while and it's not for me but i've never done any drugs right my dad you've done mushrooms that's no but i don't consider that the same thing okay i don't consider i don't consider psilocybin he hasn't done like cocaine yeah no i'm not one of those guys but you know my dad grew up in a time you know he's 75
Starting point is 00:38:43 now so he grew up in a time when that was prominent he just spent a lot of time with his kids saying like hey this is what it is this is what the effect like this is like what works and not works i was never curious right when i got around and had a bunch of people doing it it's not like i felt like i was missing out like okay cool if you want to do it like go ahead but i just i wasn't drawn to it and i think if you're educated and you have those conversations with your parents in any field any regard anything dating sex food whatever exactly You're not doing that. It's one of those things, like you said,
Starting point is 00:39:08 you're telling the kid, no, you can't do this. And you're not explaining why. And you don't tell them why. Right. It's like with my grandmother. She always says that with her parents, they never, ever talked about sex, pretending like it didn't exist.
Starting point is 00:39:18 And she got pregnant. She got married at 16 and pregnant. And she said she didn't even understand what was happening to her body she didn't even because they nobody ever talked to her about it so if only now everything she's fine everything worked out fine i wouldn't be here right otherwise but if only you talk to your children and explain and are really honest with them i think it really makes a difference yeah even like i remember being a little kid like sitting at the dinner table like like maybe five, six years old, like, okay, like if you want to take a small sip of this wine and I take it, I'm like, oh, this is gross. I don't want it at the
Starting point is 00:39:50 time. Right. It's like just having it be normalized and have a conversation and see that it's a social thing and it's not, you're not going crazy. And you know, I think it's so important. Like, you know, I think one thing that's interesting about our generation is that a lot of these, like the biggest thing for me is having conversation. I think that's how you either put a stop to something or start or a start to something you get in a dangerous place in society when people are unwilling to talk about things exactly right so true so how do you stick just the tip in if you want to just start to yeah the veganism tip okay well first of all acknowledge that the tip is already in because i'm sure everybody eats some vegan food.
Starting point is 00:40:26 If you just pick up an apple and eat it, technically you're eating vegan, right? You're not eating animal products. That's true. So acknowledge that and acknowledge that it's not that much of a jump. It's not that strange. You don't have to rework your whole life to even just like start. So beyond that, then I would say different people come from different places though. So I would say, you know, just for example, you are pretty healthy though you eat, you know, animal products, but you are interested in eating more vegan. You're not like fully
Starting point is 00:40:55 standard American diet. You already are like, you know, don't eat at McDonald's and such. Then I would say, look at your diet right now and see where you could eat more vegetables. And if you already feel like you're eating plenty of vegetables, then maybe see where you can turn one of those meals into a fully vegan meal. So, for example, if you're eating, there's so many things you can just turn vegan. So, do you guys have an example of like a favorite non-vegan food? Michael's favorite non-vegan food is burger which you already gave us a really good yeah you can modification yeah you also love steak steak would be hard for him
Starting point is 00:41:31 to give up i think yeah how often do you eat it not that often no not that often once a week no maybe like like a steak maybe like once every two weeks okay i mean if you want it has to be a really like grass-fed good steak yeah and it has to you know like a bell camper we just talked about i know that's right but it's not i'm not just like eating random steaks well that's good i mean if you wanted to give up the steak right and you wanted you just go down to once a month right instead of twice a month what about eggs oh eggs are a good one too that's a good question because so many people rely on them for breakfast yeah and you love them why do you love them i love them because they are taste really good on toast especially when
Starting point is 00:42:10 you're pregnant and i feel like i get a lot of vitamins and minerals from them but they're also filling and satisfying yeah and i like the way they taste and i don't know i've just always loved an egg for protein but i guess I need to stop focusing on protein and start focusing more on fiber. Yeah, yeah, or just like nutrient density. What is a substitution for egg? The thing is, there's not, honestly, there's not a one-for-one substitution
Starting point is 00:42:36 unless you're going for, nowadays, a very processed substitution, because there are vegan eggs now that you can scramble and look just like the real thing and smell like it and everything. That sounds strange to me right because yeah but we're not talking about that right yeah we want to do like the real food yeah we want real because that sounds weird to me like why do a fake egg you might you know might as well just do the real one exactly exactly those foods i i don't know are they for vegans are they for not i don't know
Starting point is 00:43:00 who they're for they're not for me but when it comes to like for me for breakfast and i'm gonna eat something on toast i hate to say lent, but I really do love lentils. I like stewed lentils. I make them in my instant pot with a bunch of different herbs and spices. And I put them on salads. I put them on toast with like tahini. I was telling you about muhammara sauce. That's really good with that. Just like having lentils with something else that's very flavorful. Also, though, for breakfast and for toast, I really love avocado. And of course, avocado toast. Who doesn't like that?
Starting point is 00:43:30 And mushrooms, too. So I do the mushrooms just by like I cook them in the skillet and a cast iron skillet and put a lid on top of them like a very heavy lid. And that weight of the lid will help them get really meaty and really juicy. And like I literally only season them with salt that is it put that on like avocado toast to bulk it up obviously do lentils too what kind of toast we need specific brands i buy my bread at arowan okay the juice to sourdough that's my favorite every single health professional has recommended this bread to me since i've been
Starting point is 00:44:04 pregnant oh really and i think you need to go get it for me go get it listen i'm down let's go get it lauren is post mating the air ones which is oh yeah we're about to go we're about to driving into the floor because in addition to the price of air one which is insane postmates extra charge i know what about instacart i Instacart. Yeah, because they have like a membership. But the Gusta bread, everyone keeps telling me about. So good. What's so good?
Starting point is 00:44:30 It's vegan, obviously. Yeah, I mean, it's just regular sourdough. It's just really good. But I've heard it's amazing. It is. This has been a recommendation from someone. You should do it. I'm sold.
Starting point is 00:44:37 When I was pregnant and like where you are right now, like in ninth, what is the ninth month? I actually stocked up. I got, I think three loaves and I cut them each in half and I wrapped them in aluminum and stuck them in the freezer so that I could, you know, I was planning to not leave the house for 40 days. I didn't want to do that, but all these voices in my head telling me I should do that. And I figured how am I going to get my bread from juice? I didn't use Instacart back so i stocked up i'm gonna get that oh by the way though where do you guys live west hollywood okay so no there's i went to i don't know where they're based but i was at the
Starting point is 00:45:14 sunday santa monica market two sundays ago and i got an amazing sourdough bread i think they're i gotta stop you here because i know my wife and I'm gonna be traveling now. She's gonna be like... No, I think that I say no more. The brand of sourdough you're talking about is at the Monday Market. Oh, really? It's like a raw fermented sourdough. It's not raw. Oh, maybe it's just fermented.
Starting point is 00:45:38 Well, it is a fermented sourdough. Okay. And I think it's like Cadoro. I think the brand is called like Cadoro or something. I love sourdough. I remember on the package it said the bakery was in Inglewood. okay and i think it's like codoro i think the brand is called like codoro or something i think i remember they on their on the package it said the bakery was in englewood oh i love pregnancy cravings are real she has me chasing down trucks and going all over yeah they're real oh my god you're such a good husband yeah let me ask you this sometimes i'm just kidding so you're a public
Starting point is 00:46:01 person i can say that we're public people you're public people yeah. We're public people. We're public people, yeah. Yeah, we're public. So you have your beautiful baby girl and she's on public and you're raising her vegan. Are people giving you flack? I mean, I'm sure that you deal with a lot of crazy messages. No, I don't. You don't?
Starting point is 00:46:16 No, who's writing any crazy messages? I mean, honestly, I'm a little behind on the DMs. But no, really, no. So I don't share her photo. The most I've shared is like yesterday i shared a photo and she's looking down and you can see like kind of her profile but that's the most i've shared for her face and i don't like going forward i don't know if i will at all and you're smart i think people overdo it i think so too and the thing is you know how people people i'll go to the grocery
Starting point is 00:46:44 store and people will come up to me and hug me and like, be like, oh my God, I know you. Like you're my friend. And I'm, you know, I love that I'm very friendly person and I'll hug them back. And that's, I love it. However, I don't want, I don't want them to have that same familiarity with my daughter who has no idea what the internet is or social media is. I literally just had this conversation yesterday because someone asked me and I said, listen, if it's what you've signed up for, great. idea what the internet is or social media is conversation actually because i'm gonna ask you and i said listen if it's what you've signed up for great right like it's fine like it's great yes but i would be i think i'd be really weirded out if people were trying to touch my kid yeah this is my thing and this is like kind of going off on a tangent but there's a couple brands that
Starting point is 00:47:19 i'm working with baby brands that when my our daughter's coming and they want to send me the stuff that i really want yep and they want instagram story or instagram trade which is totally like fine it's a beautiful piece of furniture or something i totally like i'm down for that especially when i picked it out and i can recommend it to my audience 100 yep but here's the problem i'm having you're gonna have to her in the photos they say okay well we will give you this but we need photos with the baby in it editorial photos that i would send to them so they can go use it in their ads listen so my thing was like no and our thing so michael and i talked this morning and i just said you know i'm not gonna promise
Starting point is 00:48:01 my unborn baby that i haven't even seen myself to these companies and i honestly think it's like if i just snap like a car seat or something and the baby's not in it i think it's good enough it's good enough good enough because i'm not gonna promise i don't know how i'm gonna feel the whole thing is like listen if there's something you really want like go like listen we're in a position luckily fortunately we can go and buy it like not have to that's right the kid out right i think that's a lot to ask too i think i think that these companies if i have happened to snap a picture of our daughter in it that i want to share great but i don't think it should be like you the baby has to be right exactly especially if they want to
Starting point is 00:48:40 take it and they want to have i don't know if they're gonna i guess you'll always own it but if they're gonna have usage rights to it, no way. Yeah, so we decided we're just going to buy our own stuff. Good. Like no problem instead of just pimping the baby out. Exactly. I don't feel good about that. The other thing about the baby, like worrying about numbers and
Starting point is 00:49:06 worrying about the content you put out, how well something does. It always does better in my situation when my daughter's in it, even if it's just the back of her head. Oh, yeah, it's an easy, it's an easy light. It's an easy. So I don't want, you know, like, that's sort of the pimping the baby out. It's addicting. I think it is. I don't want to do that either. I'm not going down that road. Does that feature where they've been talking about removing likes have you noticed well i don't i haven't i know they're gonna do it yeah i actually think it's gonna boost creativity and up the content for everybody because people are gonna stop worrying about the vanity no they are and i'll tell you why i'll tell you why you're wrong still see it no
Starting point is 00:49:39 no i'll make your bet okay you'll start seeing better content creators come out because they're not going to be worried about doing the easy things right like listen i'm not knocking anybody but like maybe like the butt pic or it's like the kid in the picture or like you were kissing your boyfriend all the stuff that like we know all works and triggers people like i think you're going to start to see more meaningful content because people are going to stop worrying about hey i have to post this type of content in order to get people to engage right because it's going to remove that like at least i hope that's what it does i'm going to tell you why that's not going to happen people are addicted to the comments i'm telling you you're look you're looking at the wrong thing
Starting point is 00:50:11 and everyone keeps this likes conversation i'm like people are not looking at likes they're looking at the comments and i'm telling you when you i can imagine you're a new mom you're fucking tired you just got back from the hospital and you need to post something on your Instagram to keep your feed going. You take a picture of your baby, and then you get 2,000 comments, and then you're like, oh my god, I see it. Oh my gosh. So I'm telling you right now, it's not the likes, it's the comments, and people are not going to get more creative. You're wrong about that. Well, I hope they do. I hope they do too. But aren't you going to be able to still see your own likes? I guess the point I'm trying to make is that, and listen, now it's like a roundabout way of saying this,
Starting point is 00:50:47 whether I'm right or Lauren's right or whatever. I'm always right. I'm hoping that's true. I'm hoping that people start, because I think what you said is insightful here. It's like if you post the kid or you post you kissing your boyfriend or you post a sexy photo, whatever, guy or girl,
Starting point is 00:51:00 that does the best. It gets the most vanity. But I'm hoping that people start to think about more meaningful content, especially a content creator like yourself and Lauren who've been in the space, because that does the best. It gets the most vanity, but I'm hoping that people start to think about more meaningful content, especially content creator like yourself and Lauren, who've been in the space, because that's how you evolve. That's how you evolve the conversation. Like we're still living in this window of time where, you know, these types of mediums have existed for a very, very short period of time. And when I, when I talk to young people and content creators, especially sitting in the seat at your meeting, I'm like, listen,
Starting point is 00:51:21 I'm not so interested in what you do over the next year or two years. Like, what does your brand look like 5, 10, 15, 20 years down the line? Because it happened with the traditional celebrity. You can think all these people that have been popular 70s, 80s, 90s, 99% of them are gone off. They don't have a brand anymore. Exactly. You have to think about like, you know, if this is your personal brand, which a lot of people are navigating, you have to think about how do I stretch that for 10, 20, 30, or your life? Or else you're in trouble. Yeah, that's scary. I would be stupid not to ask you this question. And I didn't get to ask you in the beginning.
Starting point is 00:51:53 What are the beauty changes that you've seen from going vegan, if any? Like, has your skin gotten more glowy? Has your hair gotten thicker? I want to hear about that. Okay. It's been a long time since I became vegan. Two things. I had acne, but I also had terrible digestion. Like so bad that I got to the point where I just thought like I'm broken. I can't do anything because I've gone to different doctors, been to different medications and yada, yada, yada. When I became vegan, all that went away and my skin cleared up. Obviously there was a connection, right? As far as my hair, I don't even remember what my hair was like when I first became vegan. The biggest thing though was the
Starting point is 00:52:29 skin. The skin and energy, really. I was just going to say, what about energy? Totally. Because the digestion is like, your stomach is everything, right? Yeah. If you don't have good digestion, you don't have good anything. You'd have a bad mood, you have bad skin, you have bad energy, you just sluggish, just like dorks. Taylor, have a bad mood. You have bad skin. You have bad energy. You're just sluggish. Taylor, how's your digestion? That guy back there. Oh, really? What are you eating back there, Taylor?
Starting point is 00:52:51 He eats like Hawaiian jalapeno chips for lunch with dipped in cream cheese or something. Oh, wow. If his stomach likes it then, you know, his stomach likes it. I don't know if it's his stomach. He clogged my toilet the other night, so. Oh, okay.
Starting point is 00:53:03 Maybe not. His stomach has been, not you know that's been the test we're gonna have to get him on the vegan diet he might need to go vegan i'll say um he was raised vegetarian really where what is one recipe on your blog that you would recommend to our audience that you think that they would really like if they're looking to dip their toe into veganism okay try the lentil meatballs oh that sounds good i want those today lentil meatballs yes okay and then a book a podcast a resource that you would recommend to someone besides your blog obviously sweet potato soul that's looking to know more about veganism and maybe it's a netflix
Starting point is 00:53:38 documentary i don't know oh that's a good one yeah i would say i'm trying to think the two really powerful ones recently were cal conspiracypiracy and What the Health. And they're made by the same people. So either of those two on Netflix also. Okay, I'm going to watch Cowspiracy. I've only watched What the Health. Oh, yeah. Watch Cowspiracy.
Starting point is 00:53:55 That's the first one. I'll be whipping you up some fucking lentil meatballs with a side of sweet potato burger, which sounds so good. Is that on your site? Mm-hmm. Little pomegranate molasses. In your cookbook. Yeah, all that's in my cookbook.
Starting point is 00:54:07 You know Crossroads down here? Oh, yeah. Amazing. I went there the first time. Do you like it? I knew she was going to say that. Do you like it that much? She's a chef, Michael.
Starting point is 00:54:14 But imagine if you never, I went in and didn't know. I'm coming over to your house. And I was eating, I went to meet my friend and he was giving me the chicken and waffles in there and I had no idea.
Starting point is 00:54:25 You're blown away? No, I didn't even know that I was that it wasn't chicken. Did you like it though? I did. Yeah, that's great. I bet if we came to your kitchen that we would be blown away too. You would. I'm just going to bet.
Starting point is 00:54:34 The thing, the funny thing, though, is people have a much higher standard for vegan food than they do for non-vegan food. I can see that. And especially like at restaurants. What can I just ask you one more thing? What's a really good baked good recipe in your book? Like something like a cake or a cookie or something like that. That's what I'm craving right now.
Starting point is 00:54:50 Okay. The tahini cookies. They're insane. Okay. So good. Okay. If I weren't sleep deprived, I probably could have gotten my life together to make some today.
Starting point is 00:54:59 Oh my God. I'm going to blame your baby. Blame the baby. Let me tell you something. You've been pretty sharp on the mic for being so sleep deprived. Thank you. Yeah. I don i don't anyway you were great where can people find your book and your instagram and your blog they can find me it's sweet potato soul everything is called sweet potato soul so just google sweet potato soul the book is available everywhere
Starting point is 00:55:19 obviously anywhere books are sold amazon is easiest probably and. And yeah, go to sweetpotatoesoul.com or sweetpotatoesoul on YouTube or Instagram. Maybe we can do a giveaway with one of your books. Yes. Okay, we'll talk. Done. All right. Thank you so much for coming on. One more time, your Instagram handle at sweetpotatoesoul. That's right. All right. Thank you. Thank you. Appreciate it. Thank you guys. Before you go, we just got the cutest heart TSC pop sockets. Everyone in the office is rocking them and we're going to give away a couple. All you have to do is tell us your favorite part of this episode on my latest Instagram at the skinny confidential.
Starting point is 00:55:54 And as always, make sure you've rated and reviewed the show. Thank you guys so much for listening and we'll see you next week. This episode was brought to you by Four Sigmatic. Guys, did you know mushrooms can prevent and treat many diseases and boost overall health? They are known to be super healing. You know I'm obsessed with their mushroom hot cacao mix. I like to wind down with this at night. It's so good and it feels so satisfying and it's full of benefits, which we love. Perfect with pregnancy too. Anyways, Four Sigmatic is offering all TSC him and her listeners 15% off. All you have to do is go to foursigmatic.com
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