The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka - 193. Jen Smiley: How to Read Food Labels to Avoid the Hidden Toxic Ingredients in Your Food!

Episode Date: August 19, 2025

What if the solution to your chronic fatigue, stubborn weight gain, and persistent inflammation is hiding in plain sight on every food label you ignore? In this conversation with food label expert Jen Smiley, we expose the deceptive marketing tactics that keep you sick while revealing the simple food swaps that can transform your health in weeks, not years. Join the Ultimate Human VIP community for Gary Brecka's proven wellness protocols!: https://bit.ly/4ai0Xwg Listen to Jen Smiley on all your favorite platforms! YouTube: http://bit.ly/4lA26U9 Spotify: http://bit.ly/41G2k4Q Apple Podcasts: http://bit.ly/4mhVGKh Get Jen Smiley’s “Food Scanner App” here: https://apple.co/4g1HV0l  Connect with Jen Smiley Website: https://jensmiley.com/ Blog: http://bit.ly/4mobQC6 YouTube: http://bit.ly/4lA26U9 Instagram: http://bit.ly/45ULaTy Facebook: http://bit.ly/45PV2xX TikTok: http://bit.ly/4oMIf75 LinkedIn: http://bit.ly/4oKjvfK Thank you to our partners H2TABS: “ULTIMATE10” FOR 10% OFF: https://bit.ly/4hMNdgg BODYHEALTH: “ULTIMATE20” FOR 20% OFF: http://bit.ly/4e5IjsV BAJA GOLD: "ULTIMATE10" FOR 10% OFF: https://bit.ly/3WSBqUa EIGHT SLEEP: SAVE $350 ON THE POD 4 ULTRA WITH CODE “GARY”: https://bit.ly/3WkLd6E PEPTUAL: “TUH10” FOR 10% OFF: https://bit.ly/4mKxgcn COLD LIFE: THE ULTIMATE HUMAN PLUNGE: https://bit.ly/4eULUKp WHOOP: JOIN AND GET 1 FREE MONTH!: https://bit.ly/3VQ0nzW MASA CHIPS: 20% OFF FIRST ORDER: https://bit.ly/40LVY4y VANDY: “ULTIMATE20” FOR 20% OFF: https://bit.ly/49Qr7WE A-GAME: “ULTIMATE15” FOR 15% OFF: http://bit.ly/4kek1ij CARAWAY: “ULTIMATE” FOR 10% OFF: https://bit.ly/3Q1VmkC HEALF: 10% OFF YOUR ORDER: https://bit.ly/41HJg6S BIOPTIMIZERS: “ULTIMATE” FOR 15% OFF: https://bit.ly/4inFfd7 RHO NUTRITION: “ULTIMATE15” FOR 15% OFF: https://bit.ly/44fFza0 GOPUFF: GET YOUR FAVORITE SNACK!: https://bit.ly/4obIFDC GENETIC TEST: ⁠https://bit.ly/3Yg1Uk9 Connect with Gary Brecka Instagram: https://bit.ly/3RPpnFs TikTok: https://bit.ly/4coJ8fo YouTube: https://bit.ly/3RPQYX8 X: https://bit.ly/3Opc8tf Facebook: https://bit.ly/464VA1H Website: https://bit.ly/4eLDbdU Merch: https://bit.ly/4aBpOM1 Newsletter: https://bit.ly/47ejrws Ask Gary: https://bit.ly/3PEAJuG Timestamps 00:00 ​Intro 0:28 Why food labels matter 1:27 Jen's personal health journey 4:50 How food companies manipulate nutrition labels 10:20 The hidden inflammatory ingredients 11:22 Exposing the intentional food addiction industry 16:01 Make America Local Again movement 18:36 Why kids don't need lectures, they need clean food 20:55 Simple family meal swaps that actually work 24:07 Hidden dangers in bread, non-dairy milk, & protein bars 26:28 Di-potassium phosphate & other toxic stabilizers to avoid 30:28 Deceptive "healthy" labeling on gluten-free & vegan products 31:47 The 1994 nutrition label designed to hide ingredients 33:05 How to eat clean when dining out 41:54 Local farmers have 200-300x more nutrition density 44:27 $14 billion food advertising targets kids with cartoon manipulation 50:43 Clean sweetener alternatives 56:56 How to actually find & support local farmers in your area 58:58 What does it mean to you to be an Ultimate Human? The Ultimate Human with Gary Brecka Podcast is for general informational purposes only and does not constitute the practice of medicine, nursing or other professional health care services, including the giving of medical advice, and no doctor/patient relationship is formed. The use of information on this podcast or materials linked from this podcast is at the user’s own risk. The Content of this podcast is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Users should not disregard or delay in obtaining medical advice for any medical condition they may have and should seek the assistance of their health care professionals for any such conditions. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

When you go to the grocery, what you're seeing on a label, it's 98% marketing. It's their billboard. They're trying to tell you what's not inside. The ingredient list is from top to bottom. It's tiny. Then I started realizing I can't even pronounce these ingredients. Even if you don't understand how to read a label. I'm going to read the ingredients in this.

See if I could find these ingredients in the store and build this on my own. If you don't recognize an ingredient, neither does your body. These preservatives and these additives that have made the food look better, taste better, extended shelf life, and ultimately it's leading to inflammation. It's being engineered chemically to stimulate our dopamine and to avoid satiety. So our kids love it. Yeah, I tell parents that kids don't need a lecture of how to eat clean. They just need tasty food.

That's all they need. I also think that kids are tough because it's not about the goals that you have for them. It's about the habits you can get them to adopt. Kids will never listen to what you say, but they never fail to repeat what you do. So it has to start with the parent. As a mom, I'm sure your first concern is your kids. Kids particularly are the target of a lot of convenience packaging. It's a marketing ploy.

So where does a mom start? I almost want to cry when I think of this, but I feel like the lost art in most people's lives is the art. Hey guys, welcome back to the Ultimate Human podcast. I'm your host, human biologist, Gary Brecker, where we go down the road of everything anti-aging, biohacking, longevity, and everything in between. And as you can tell from the smile on my face, because the whole team was cracking up before I started this intro, we have a very special guest on the podcast today, and she is going to make you smile.

Her name is Jen Smiley. And what a journey you've had and what an impact you've made, Jen. And welcome to the podcast. Thanks for having me for everyone listening that follows, Gary. You're probably operating at a pretty high level already, right? These people are doing cold plunges before sunrise. They're drinking hydrogen water like a champagne. I love that.

Yes. So they are on their way already to the ultimate human. But maybe they don't know about food labels. Maybe food is this missing piece that can help their biohacking work better, number one. Number two, let's be real. They have a family member or they have a friend that is eating frozen pieces still or they're thinking diet sodas and granola bars or health foods. This is going to be that secret weapon they can send to those people and say,

hey, look, if you start making these just simple food swaps, there's no overwhelming science that we're going to discuss. And there is no intimidating protocols. This is just simple food swaps that can help them feel good, quick, get fast. My audience likes the intimidating prod calls. They like the pain. They like the pain. No, but this is when someone feels the effects of just swapping out these foods, not changing

their habits, they're going to feel the effects quick. And then you got somebody that is their first step to on their way to be in an ultimate human. I love it. You know, you had a really interesting journey of your own. And there is a bit of a common theme that runs through a lot of my podcast. And I talk about it all the time. I feel like a lot of the most impactful people that the most purpose driven, the most impactful,

the most passionate are ones that solve the problem in their own life. Yeah. And in solving that problem and creating that solution, they became this massive force in the industry, which you become, you know, yours is around food. But your journey with food wasn't always a pleasant one. I mean, I know that you had a lot of symptoms at one time that you were grappling. coupling with, bloating and weight gain. What a retention. I wrote a lot of them down from looking at some of your other podcast skin issues, a stubborn weight gain. And you really look

to food as a solution. And you solve this problem for yourself. Now you're solving it for millions of other people. And I love your practical approach. I love the scanner that you've got. We're going to link that in the show notes. We actually scan some things in the house here, which was Clean and not clean. Yeah, clean and not clean. So talk a little bit about your journey, you know, to becoming, you know, the Jen Smiley wake up and read the labels founder. Yeah. So it started off. I'm a newlywed. I'm in my mid-20s. I'm getting diagnosed with asthma. I'm like sitting in the doctor's office looking around going, wait, I'm 25. Why am I getting these tests done? Why is everybody else in this room young? Like, what is happening? This can't be the way. What are they?

do. They prescribe you inhalers. My husband's dealing with acid reflux on a prescription as well, but I have to credit it to him. He is like the ultimate human. He's the biohacker in the family. He's always been into this stuff. And he is a marathon runner and he wanted his time to get better. So he starts reading blogs. And he's like, Jen, can you start cooking, you know, can you try vegetarian? Can you try gluten free? So I start trying all these things thinking he's crazy. And we feel a little different. Like one day we ate, I think it was cassava pasta. And we woke up and we were like, wow, we can like button our jeans without belly hanging over. Right. Our stomach felt flat for the first time ever. So that made me wake up and I call it wake up because I was on this wake up

mission where I'd wake up every day and I'd go to the grocery just to figure out how can I find foods made with simple ingredients. Okay. And I did work out. I would go to my local gym and I used to be the girl in the back of the workout class, reaching for their inhaler, my sports bra is only hanging on by one hook. I have one pair of stretchy pants in my closet that fits. I'm constantly put on makeup in the morning to, you know, cover all these blemishes. But again, I'm 20-something. Well, it dawns on me. I was reading like premier protein drink, right, after my workout. And you can read, it has, you know, like 30 grams of protein, zero grams of sugar, all these selling tactics. It's telling you. We talked about that in.

kitchen beforehand, how, like, they've woken up to the fact that most people will look at that section of the label. Oh, yeah. It's a billboard. So if they can kind of get it to look, okay, proteins, fats, carbohydrates, if they can get no added sugar or one or two grams of added sugar. And, you know, so if that section looks good, people don't jump over to the ingredient list. You got to think about this. You know what sells better is 99% fat free. What if that same product said 1% fat, what would you be drawn to get, right? You get the 99% free. So I'm reading it and then there's a longer walk home from my workout and I flip it over and I think, oh my gosh, the ingredient list is from top to bottom. It's tiny. You need like a magnifying glass to see what the heck it is.

Then I started realizing I can't even pronounce these ingredients. Literally. So my heart drops down to the floor. I feel like gray clouds come over me. I run home and I immediately open up my pantry and my refrigerator. And I discover di-potassium phosphate is in my creamers. I discover that all these same ingredients are in my salad dressins. They're in my condiments. They're in my bread. They're in everything. So I'm like, wait a moment. This is, this is not supposed to be. So once we start swapping things out, my dad, he got diagnosed in prostate cancer six years ago. Heard the story. And yes. And he came to me, him and my mom, he's getting ready to have robotic surgery. at Johns Hopkins, and they're like,

G, and dad has three months to get in shape, and the family used to call us freaks. They were like, oh, they got their freak food, right? But we have energy after all the holiday parties and everybody else is taking a nap on the couch. And so I just, I was like, Dad, I know this works for me. I don't really know what it's going to do for you. So I head out to the grocery and I have eight bags.

I'm like, here's your biscuits, here's your marinar sauce, here's your pasta, here's your bread, here's your turkey meat. And when you run out of this, just take a picture. go back to the grocery and grab those things. And you're prepping him for prostate surgery a couple of weeks. Yes, you want to get your inflammation down so that you have better results, less side effects, right? It's better overall.

And so in three months, he was going, get his labs done every two weeks. They take a test and they monitor your PSA level, which is your prostate cancer number. And at a time when he's getting no treatment, it should either be growing, right? Or it should be staying the same. Gary, every two weeks, he'd send me a screenshot from Lab Corp, and it was actually shrinking. That's so awesome. Yes. And he's his PSA is dropping, his prostate specific engine.

And when that happened, he calls me and he's like, Jen, I, maybe I shouldn't get it. I'm like, whoa, whoa, whoa, I'm not a doctor. I'm just a mom. I'm just grocery shopping, right? We're getting your inflammation down. We're getting you primed up, ready to go, have a successful surgery. He has no side effects. He got out beautifully.

But when that happened, I thought, maybe I have a message that could help. more people. This isn't just for me. Right. So then I got on my Instagram six years ago with 200 followers and brought them through the grocery. Here's my turkey sandwich. Here's my ice cream. And within two weeks, her name is Carrie. She walks up to me before work out class with a blank check and said, take me grocery shopping. And the rest is history. So within like three months I had, I think over 100 private clients just word of mouth because they're sleeping better. Their inflammation's going down. Their workouts are getting better. Right? And so I was going into kitchens, cleaning pantries out, grocery shopping with them.

That developed into group coaching, selling an online course, and now I have a nap. That's where we are. That is so awesome. I mean, you know, and the inspiration from that, you know, stem from your own struggle. And then watching, you know, you address this issue in your father. You know, as he said, and I couldn't agree with you more. I mean, having had thousands of come through a, I mean, I'm not a physician. I'm not licensed practice medicine. I'm a human biologist.

But in our clinical practice, we had, you know, physicians that would look at these labs. And you would see these inflammatory markers that when you get on WebMD and you, or you Google, they lead to really sinister things like liver failure or cancer. And PSA was one of those that as it spiked people, immediately gravitated towards prostate cancer. And what I've learned is that these rapid spikes are generally not indicative of cancer. They're indicative of something called prostate or,

you know, infection in the prostate, or inflammation in the prostate. And it's one of those really sensitive organs to a lot of these things that are in pro-inflammatory compounds that are in our foods. You know, Courtney was here yesterday, and I love what you were saying about the labels in in the store because one of the things she said was even if you don't understand how to read a label, if you say to yourself, okay, I'm going to read the ingredients in this and see if I could find these ingredients in the store and build this on my own. Smart. And it's like, well, monosodium glutamate.

Well, what are you going to find out? What tile is that on? We get, you know, polysorbate 80. Right. Where's the polysorbate 80 visit next to this year? So, you know, you came home and there are all these non-interpretable words. It's interpretable? Did I just make that up?

You might have. It sounds good enough. Let's call it. If it's not, we're going to like Wikipedia and start it up. Interpretable. Interpretable. Okay, that's it. Feel free guys to use that at your leisure.

Yeah. But I thought it was a really, you know, interesting way to, instead of having to understand what all of these chemicals and additives and preservatives and thickeny agents are, just read it and think if you'd know where to get it in the store. And I thought, wow, that's a really interesting way to look at it. If you don't recognize an ingredient, neither does your body. And I did that a long time ago, right when I came out. But this is the issue, what I tell people when you read a label, okay?

When you read a label, always go to the bottom first. And why I say that is because the other ingredients, that's where you're going to find the preservatives. That's where you're going to find the additives. that's really, like, you got your big oils, flour sweeteners that every label's made up of. But it's these preservatives and these additives that have made the food look better, made the food taste better, made it extended shelf life. And ultimately, it's leading to inflammation. You know, and we talked about this before the podcast on our, as I do with a lot of my podcast guests, we have a podcast before the podcast.

So right, pre-podcast. And, you know, what is fascinating, you know, you've come to the same conclusion that I have and so many and my other guests have is the intentionality of this in the chemical and the food industry is you can no longer say that there's not a sinister motive behind it or sinister intention behind it because when you're designing foods to be addictive to ding the dopamine receptor or you're designing foods to purposely circumvent the release of GOP1, which is our satiety hormone. or when you're making foods hyper palpable, palatable, right, so that, you know, people are becoming addicted to their favorite foods. It's not just that they like them. They're becoming

addicted to them. Yeah. I would love to go down the label road with you a little bit because it sounds like fearmongering, but I think the truth is you're just trying to help people get around the system. Yeah. Right? And so it's not that you don't have to be afraid. It's It's not that, I'm sorry, it's not that you should be afraid. It's just that you need to be educated, right? Aware. You need to be aware of this problem that's happening. If you want protein to build lean muscle, but without the caloric impact or need to cut, you need perfect amino.

It's pure essential amino acids, the building blocks of proteins in a precise form and ratio that allows for near 100% utilization in building lean muscle and no caloric impact. So we build protein six times as much as way, but without the exercise. body fat we normally get during bulking. This is the new era of protein supplementation and it's real. If you want to build lean muscle without having to cut, you need perfect amino. Now let's get back to the Ultimate Human podcast. So I want to talk about like GMO and organic food labeling because I've heard you talk about how organic food labeling and genetically modified labels may not be what you think and there may be a little something sinister going on behind the curtain there.

Sneaky, sneaky. So first thing I tell people is when you go to the grocery, what you're seeing on a label, it's 98% marketing. It's their billboard. They're trying to tell you what's not inside. They're like sugar-free, it's dairy-free, zero grams of sugar. Would you shop the grocery aisles differently if you saw, you know, 40 plus ingredients and you can't even recognize them?

Like take away all the brands, take away all the colors, cartoons, sports figures. is like, what's actually going to drive your decision now on what to get, right? Another thing is these labels, I like to say they're like a dating app profile. They are no substance. They're all charm. Ah, I like that. Okay. Yeah.

But let's talk about non-GMO, okay? You show the profile and then you show up for the date and you're like, that's not what I saw on the label. Yes, yeah, yeah, exactly. Yes. So, yeah, I guess that would be like maybe help lower your cholesterol on. oatmeal, something like that. But let's talk about non-GMO. This is sneaky. And what I mean by that is you go and you look for salt. Okay. And if you're looking for salt and let's say you find a $3 salt and it's just like, hey, here's salt. And then you see the same exact salt for $4 and

it says non-GMO. What are you going to do? You're going to get the non-GMO. For sure. I'm here to let you know that salt doesn't have DNA to genetically modify. There's no such thing as GMO salt. It's a mineral, right? Yes, they're doing that to orange juice. There's no GMO right now, but the orange juice says non-GMO. So it's a way for you to think it's healthier, number one, and it's a way for you to pay a little bit more money. And it's why you see it everywhere. You want to make sure you're not buying GMO if you're getting like corn, soy, canola, and cotton, right? Or I think there's papaya, there's also beet sugar. There is no wheat. Did you say wheat? Wheat, toy.

There's no wheat GMO. Oh, there's no GMO wheat? No. Wow, I thought there's GMO wheat. There's no GMO wheat. However, Monsanto controls most of the GMO crops. And I'm sure they're trying to figure out how to do a GMO wheat. So when you go buy your bread, there's no GMO bread.

Does that make sense? Yes. There's no GMO wheat. But there could be, I mean, a lot of them contain soybean oil or they contain corn oil or something like that. Then you got to worry about the GMO label. So you got to know when to look for that. Another thing, organic. So there's been studies that show, and I'm here to let you guys know that I'm just a mom.

I'm just someone that's reading the labels and has helped thousands of people. I do get quite bored reading studies to tell you the truth. But anybody, anybody listen, can go Google, you know, what does dipotassium phosphate do to me? Or what crops are GMO and what does organic mean? Organic means they don't use any synthetic fertilizers. or pesticides, but they could still use some other kind, or you could have organic farm next to non-organic farm, and they're spraying something that gets over there, right?

Yeah. Which is why we need to bring up Mala, make America local again. Make America local again. You know, we talked about this too. I love that idea. And there is an app, and I'm going to find it, and I'm going to link it in the show notes, that helps you find local farmers markets and local produce

and maybe even local farms in your area. We have one here called South Florida Ranches, which is great amazing yeah um and they have honeies and maple syrups and cheeses and you know raw cheese and raw dairy healing healing foods great great foods and you know when i travel i travel a lot and i can i try to be as conscious as i can uh but you know you can feel it uh you know when when you travel it's just like we were talking about going to italy you know you eat a bowl pasta and a basket of bread here you blow up like a tick you eat a bowl of pasta with some olive oil and some bread and some balsamic vinaigret and maybe even some parmesan cheese in

Italy. You feel amazing. You go right to sleep. You wake up. You're deflated. Yeah. Feel real good. Yeah. It's like actual food. And, you know, our whole ecosystem in our, in our biology works on this lock and key mechanism. It works on, you know, recognizing ingredients, processing them through the cell and then eliminating the waste. And, you know, when you have chemicals, that it is preservatives, nitrates, you know, things that our body doesn't recognize. Right. You know, it also doesn't know how to eliminate. Yeah.

You know, to eliminate the waste. So as a mom, I'm sure your first concern is your kids, like most moms, probably all moms. And I think this is where things get really tough because I think kids particularly and mothers and fathers, children, particularly, are the target of a lot of convenience packaging. You know, we're going to make it super easy. You're already busy enough. So we're just going to, we're going to cut these into dinosaurs. So you get a T-Rex and you get a brontosaurus, right? And we're going to cut them into dinosaurs. We're going to already bread it. We're going to package it. We're going to wrap it in plastic for you. And all you got to do is microwave it.

And so I think, you know, the combination of most of the unhealthy, healthy foods being more convenient. And then also, you know, it's just something that Max Lugavere brought to my attention was that you don't see health claims on really organic foods. Like if you shop the perimeter of the grocery store, there's not like a label on an avocado. I say this all the time. Healthy fats and heart healthy, but there is on a Wesson Oil bottle. Why don't we have cartoons on the bananas or why don't we have sports figures?

Like, I eat this before a game. Right. It just doesn't exist. It doesn't exist. It's sad. It's a marketing employee. So where does, first of all, they can start with your app. But I mean, where does a mom start once, or a father? Well, yeah, I tell parents that kids don't need a lecture of how to eat clean. They just need tasty food. That's all they need.

And I also tell parents that kids will never listen to what you say, but they never fail to repeat what you do. So it has to start with the parents. Now, you can't, you know, just completely. take everything away. I actually have a funny story because this could happen for parents with kids or it could also happen to people with spouses that may not get on board. So I had this one client, her name was Michelin, and her husband, who's like 65 years old, and he is just adamant on, I'm not eating this new ketchup you're bringing in and I'm not

touching that non-dairy milk, right? And so he went to work. He went to work one day and she got creative and she emptied out his Welch's jelly she emptied out his Heinz ketchup yes his iodized salt all these things and filled it with the clean swaps and he had no idea that it was different however on Saturday morning

he's like waking up with energy he went in the vacuum the carpet she's like wow this really works but so for kids I think you got to find tasty food waffles right there's a brand called belly it's cassava it's collagen peptides It's got coconut sugar, no preservatives.

This is going to help your kid not need a snack before lunchtime, number one. And they are going to feel better. It's going to fill them up. They're not going to have that crash. Some other things that work really, really well for kids is like, how do you swap out what they're currently eating? So chips, right? Get them some clean chips.

It doesn't have to be like, you have to do it all right now. Can you do one swap a week? And when you do it, I tell them, it's got to start with you. So maybe you make the waffles or you make. or you make the tacos and get the chips and then the dip and say, hey, kids, do you want to have a bite? And if they like it, put it on the list and go get that at the grocery again. You can do four swaps a month.

What is that? 48 swaps in a year? Something like that. Did I do that math right? Okay, get. 12 times four is 48. There you go. Okay.

Number check. First of all, I love that. And I also think that, you know, kids are tough because, you know, it's not about the goals that you have for them. It's about the habits you can get them to adopt. Yes. And access to it is, if they have access to it, they're always gravitate towards the stuff that's not good.

But you're right. You can take masa, for example, which are non-GMO and grass-fed beef tallow. And you could make, you know, ground grass-fed beef and you could slice a couple of avocados. You can put some onions on there and then some, you know, raw. cheese. Right. And you're doing the same thing. You've got an unbelievable nacho. And I promise you couldn't tell the difference between the two. I tell people like, okay, if you are making tacos for dinner, we'll now get the grass fed and finished beef, get a clean seasoning. You don't want silicon dioxide in your seasonings. Check your spices. This is an anti-cake-in agent and it's not

necessary. Otherwise, if you get a spice without that weird ingredient, you just have to maybe stick your fork in there and break it up. That's naturally how feed space to act. And so here you are, you're giving them a better quality meat, you're giving them better spices, but maybe you continue to give them the same tortillas and you get the clean tortillas. And it's like, it's not taking more time at this point. You're cooking the same meal. We're all eating together as a family and they have a little bit better. You know, they have better meat and better spice. So it's a better meal. And this is how you slowly build it into their days. And do you cook with your kids? Do you like get them involved in that? How old are your kids. So they are 11 and 13, two boys. Okay. And for a while, they were just like, mom, we hate,

this is not normal. They're probably not excited about your career path. I mean, when all the kids are drinking. We get Hershey's at my friend's house. I mean. Oh, yeah. Mom, my friend brought me to the gas station. They go in, they're like, I've never been to the gas station for food, but they're drinking gatorades at sporting events and parties. And that's when I make sure, like, if you go there, let them drink it. Don't make a big deal out of it. But, they know at home, like, we don't have that. And then they also start to notice, I feel bad when I drink that as they get older. So my son now, he's 13, when his friends come over, you're like, Ms. Jen, I love all the food you cook. Please do this. Really? That's awesome. So the

ties are turning. I want to talk about some of the things that we should watch out for, like in breads, non-dairy milk. I think there are a lot of these trends that catch on. and sadly for the consumer, you know, it'll be a, and I'm not beating up vegans or vegetarians, but it'll be a like non-meat trend. And the onus of this is if it's not meat, it's healthy. Right? So just because it's not an animal product, it's suddenly healthy. And then you read like the ingredients on like a non-burger or some of these things and you're like, this is plastic. But so what are some of the tricks to look out for in? breads, non-dairy items, because, man, you can go to, you can go to Starbucks right now,

and there are like 15 alternatives. Non-dairy milks, yeah. To not dairy milk. I encourage people to be like, hey, can I see your milk? I'm always like, can I see what's inside of the milk and I look? Okay. Carragian and all those stuff. Yes.

So a couple things about this. First of all, let's start with bread. Yeah, we'll go with bread. There's something called potassium breadmate, which makes it rise. It's actually banned in Europe in other countries. It's been shown, you can Google this yourself, that it can increase your risk of cancer. And so potassium bromide, I've read that it's like, I think it's in, I think it's in Hormel sandwiches, it's in your fast food restaurants, it's in some breads, which, by the way,

there's only, there's a few bread companies that control all the breads. So whether you think you're eating, you know, sourly, you're eating aura wheat and nature's it's a lot of the same, the same people doing different things. So that's that. As far as your non-dairy milk goes, there's something called di-potassium phosphate. I know Nutpods has it. I know Oatley has it. And I want to tell people that like, hey, if America is doing it, you're going to feel like

America, right? America feels. America is sick. They're bloated. They're tired. They are having health issues. And this is what they're doing. This is normalized.

And the reason you are, like, if you see a brand seven times, you have recognition towards it, right? why do you see Oatley on N-CAPs? Why, when you go to the dairy-free section, which, by the way, maybe your nutritionist or your dietitian or your doctor said, go dairy-free, you go to dairy-free and you look around and you think, wait a minute,

there's like a million dairy-frees. What am I going to get? You're going to get the one in the center at eye-level, the one that has seven columns, three rows. These companies pay money to be at eye-level and to have more skew numbers. You have to actually look at the very top of the very bottom for something like three trees

that has two ingredients or a milk that has three ingredients, right? But they don't have the funds to get all these skew numbers. But these non-dairy milks contain something called diputasium phosphate, which is a stabilizer. And it makes the milk kind of stay together as opposed to separating. So kind of like when people use coffee-made creamer, it's nice and creamy, looks beautiful. But if you put some almond milk in there with no additives, it kind of separates. There's a solution for that, though.

Either you can get a frother and froth it and put it on there, and it's not going to separate or just drink it with iced coffee. Okay. So di-potassium phosphate. And what about protein bars, sauces? You know, when I started getting wise to seed oils, I was absolutely dumbfound by the number of ingredients, nearly everything that's canned. It's hard to find a salad dressing in a food store that's not seed oil-based.

And even if you take the position, which I would disagree with, but even if you take the position that, hey, these are probably unsaturated fats. They're not bad for you. There's some evidence that they're heart healthy. It's the volume. Or just try it. I don't you just try it? Just try if you're consuming it all the time and you think you feel so great.

Okay, great. Just try to go without it. Oh, go without it. But without it, you'll see such a difference in such a short amount of time. But as far as protein bars go, I think a lot of people are turning to these protein bars for like real sustainable protein when really they should be, you know, you take it in a pinch because maybe you have to wait too long to get to your next meal. You need to get your protein from real sources.

I would agree. Eggs, wild caught seafood, grass finished beef, all these other real foods, right? But if you're in a pinch, what do you do? First of all, there's brands like Cliff Bar and go macro and they can take. something called brown rice syrup. Sounds really healthy, right? But brown rice syrup has a glycemic index of 98, which is like almost the highest you can get. Wow. That's actually higher than table sugar. Yes. So what's happening is when you're when you get this quick high, okay, this quick. That's higher than extras, I think. This quick, this quick, this quick, this quick

dose of, are you going running? Probably not, right? Are you going workout? Probably not. People are eating it at their desk or they're eating it on a road trip, something like that. What happens is you crash real quick. The higher you go, the lower the crash. When the crash is low, what do you need? You need more food to bring it up. You need coffee, right? That's why there's coffee on every freaking corner. We're all so fatigued. That's like number one thing. People are fatigued. And it's because their blood sugar is all out of whack with these ingredients. So when you go look for the protein, go look for bearded brothers is a really great band. Bearded brothers. Bearded brothers. It's just real ingredients, but it's not going to have a source of

protein, like from way or from something like that, but it's at least going to get you till you can get real protein. And then I know you have a protein bar, which I love is great. Scans is clean, by the way, Gary. It does. Yes. Yes. The ultimate human bar made it through.

Yes. We were super intentional about that with body health. That's the way bars should be. So, and I think a lot of, again, going back to this trend of vegan, vegetarian, non-meat or dairy-free, you know, gluten-free and vegan, those are largely recognized as healthy, right? Because you're gluten-free, you're dairy-free, you know, no animal products, vegan. Those just, they're like those alerts that grab you and say, what's inside is healthy,

and they're probably hoping that you don't look much further than. They're for sure. Well, it's vegan. It's gluten-free. Can we talk a little bit about how some of that labeling can be mislabeling and like what might be hiding in. Yeah. Well, it's saying it's free. It's like, hey, we don't have dairy and we don't have sugar and we don't have animal products.

But like, what do you have? That's not there. And do you know, you're speaking of the ingredients being so small? Did you know that the nutrition facts label was created in 1994? Okay. And it's really big, right? The ingredients are tiny and it's really big. So it's a way to kind of disguise what's happening.

Like, they want you to read everything except for those ingredients. Right. And it's really, really wrong. Let me tell you about something that's been a total game changer for my sleep and my stress levels. Buy optimizers magnesium breakthrough. Here's the thing most people don't know. Regular magnesium supplements only give you one or two forms, but your body actually needs seven different forms to function properly.

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during the day, head to bioptimizers.com and use the code Ultimate to save on magnesium breakthrough. Trust me, your body will thank you. Now, let's get back to the Ultimate Human podcast. So what are some of the ways that like gluten-free... Yeah, there's gluten-free Oreos. Good point. Did you know that?

Yeah. My job. No, I'm kidding. Probably non-GMO, vegan gluten-free Oreos. How many other labels could we get on there? Low and fat. Oh. Yeah, bioengineered.

Yeah, yeah. Oh, wait. What about natural? And simply, there's simply Cheetos. Come on. I love that, you know. We were actually talking about, I pulled one sinister label out that I bought at the store for this purpose.

We were looking at it before we got on the podcast and was very intelligent. What did it say? Exotic. Enriched exotics. I was like, well, that's a new one. Well, that would bring you to where you want to go. Yeah, I'm like, that sounds amazing. And it had pictures of coconuts.

on it, you know, all broken open and looking really fresh. And then had the word gourmet, which means nothing. Like a chef did it. Yeah, yeah, exactly like a chef did it. And I won't say the brand, but it had gourmet on there and had pictures of coconuts. And then it said, you know, these exotics. And then it said all natural. And I'm like, what's all natural? That's another one that's just like a... There's no real definition for all natural for simply. There's no clear definition. Yeah. And then we spun it around, had 45 grams of added sugar. And then, of course, then there comes the high-cruptus corn syrup and the food dies and everything else. And, you know, I really do think the average consumer nowadays just doesn't stand a chance. And I don't think

that even Maha or Mala, Make America Local again, is about interrupting people's freedom of choice. Absolutely. It's not like, hey, don't smoke, don't drink, don't eat McDonald's. Um, don't eat donuts once in a while. It's just about giving you an informed choice, like giving you a shot. Giving you an option. At getting through the grocery store. So for sure. Let's talk a little bit about eating out because I have a very intense travel schedule and I'm extraordinarily conscious of what I eat on the road. But I also feel bad for a lot of consumers. And I'm not just talking about consumers that are on a budget.

I mean, even, you know, when you have means, you know, I go into some of these airport lounges, for example, you know, I'm a member of Delta and United and American Airlines. Yeah. And I walk past, sometimes I just go hungry. Same. It's best to fast. But not everybody can. They feel bad.

They feel like they're going to pass out if they don't get food. Right. I mean, and that's also their, their incessant reliance on blood sugar. Right. They're insulin resistant. But let's talk about just going into a restaurant and ordering in a restaurant and, you know, basic parameters for how I can navigate, you know, the menu on a restaurant. Yes.

Okay. Got some tips. Okay, good. If you're going to look for a restaurant on like Yelp or Uber Eats, I always say just search organic food, number one. Or maybe you could do like paleo. That'll get your search narrow, right? Then go look at their menu.

Does their menu say things like vegan? or gluten-free or soy-free, then that means they're a little bit more conscious. But let's say that's not real life, Jen. It doesn't exist many places. We're going to a regular restaurant. I did this last night at a restaurant. I said, hey, can you let me know what kind of oils you guys use, you all use back there? And so she comes out and she's like, okay, we have olive oil with a blend of canola oil.

And I said, oh, well, I'm allergic to canola oil, but I really want to eat here. Do you mind cooking my food in butter? And it doesn't matter. Their butter is not going to be grass-fed. It's not going to be perfect, but it's going to be better than those oils. That's great. So that's number one, right? And you get a lot of resistance on that or most of the time they're like, okay,

chef's, just cool with that. No problem. Or they have certain things where they'll just char grill where there is no oil. And I'll ask that, do you have anything not maridated in oil? And they'll let you know about that. What if the chef knows there's no such thing as a true canola oil allergy? You just, she still go with it. Well, I say, well, you know, most of the time, I'm like, wait, wait.

Like, I am deathly allergic to canola oil. Like, I will die in your restaurant. Okay. So I will say, hey, I have a big event tomorrow, and I just want to feel good and look good. Okay. And they're a little bit more understandable. But or you just say, hey, you don't even have to do the allergy thing. Like, can you let me know what kind of?

No, I love the allergy thing. Or just walk in and be like, do you guys mind cooking this in butter instead of oil? You'll even need, assume the worst. Assume the oil's not good. No, lest I die. That's a great one. It's not a couple of real, it's good, a nice little threat. Yeah, yeah.

Yeah. So before what can you do? You can take some digestive enzymes. You can also do charcoal pill. I do it all the time. Make sure you don't take your charcoal pill four hours before or after medications. But like if I go out to eat or I'm at a wedding or a bit or something, try to make the best of the decisions, right? Can you stay away from the gluten?

Can you stay away from the dairy? Start looking at a menu as like a pantry. Look at their size. Do they have broccoli? They have sweet potato. Do they have regular potatoes? potatoes. So they have all these things. Get those if your dish comes with pasta, right? Or something like that. And then as far as your salads go, I always tell my clients to they make these little

extra virgin olive oil packets. They look like they come in like little ketchup packets. You can grab that on Amazon, put that in your purse. And then for your dressing, put that on your salad. And then you can ask them, you know, do you have some type of vinegar? If they don't just squeeze lemon. Another tip, if you go to sushi, can you get a cucumber? Can you get a cucumber? Can you get it rice paper wrapped? And then instead of doing the soy sauce, do you have a trick for that? Because I do. It's going to change your life. I love it. You get, you get. Awesome. I want to get notes out. I'll probably watch this podcast when it's done. You get wasabi and you, you ask them, they have to bring you like three rounds of lemon slices. Yeah. But you squeeze your lemons in the

wasabi and mix it up. No. Game changer for your sushi. Wow. It really is. That's awesome. Even my kids are into it. little intense. What are you saying? You take a lot of little lemon juice. A lot of lemon with a little bit of wasabi mix. And you probably a little goes a long way, right? It's your soy sauce swap. So I always tell people you don't have to eliminate foods or food groups. You have to swap it out for something cleaner and anti-inflammatory. So you can eat the foods you love and feel good. So, you know, I've been tremendously supportive of the Maha movement. And I think all of us love it. I think everyone and in our industry loves it.

I mean, again, back to the chance for us to potentially affect public policy is really exciting, right? I mean, but this is definitely not going to happen over. I mean, there are thousands and thousands of ingredients in foods and in our food supply. Sometimes it's not even listed on the label. Like they don't list glyphosate on the label. Also in a label, if it's less than 2% of total weight, it doesn't even go in. There's like limestone in your cereal, and they don't even tell you. you. Yeah. And so, you know, I've, I've often heard people say, and I talk about this a lot,

you know, that the dosage determines the poison, but the truth is most of us are not taking a dose in a single serving that is enough to cause harm in that serving. And, but over time, you know, especially with regard to forever chemicals or things that the body methylates and gets rid of very, very slowly, there's an accumulation over time. So just drawing your awareness to it as one thing. But what do you think is the most promising outcome that you see underway with the Maha movement? And, you know, where do you, in a perfect world, where should that start? Yeah. Love it.

I'm going to unpack this one. Okay, good. Okay. First of all. You're funny. Oh, thank you. You're actually really funny. My husband's funnier.

Is he? Yeah. Maybe that's where I get it from. It is. So, Couple things about this. Okay. The Maha movement is great, right? Everybody's like, well, we're getting red dyes out. First of all, it's not going to happen, I think, to like 2028, which is scary. Right. I actually was in the ICU unit of Mayo Hospital. Oncology ICU. I have a friend

that was there, unfortunately, in Scottsdale, Arizona. And I actually looked at the jello and it was red dye number three. And I was saying, this just got banned. And he had a Seagram soda and he had puried applesauce. My wife posted about it and people lit up about it because, you know, to their credit, they saved his life. He was, he was septic. But, and I was like, there's just no nutrition in this. But anyway, it's not supportive. That's okay. So the maha movement is great. I have to say, like, I'm pretty sure big media has been controlling the narrative for so long with sponsors. like I've hired PR firms and I get interviewed by Oprah Daly and town and country and all these magazines and they immediately hear that I say you can't drink Oatley or you shouldn't be

buying this particular ketchup and they're like, erk, we can't put you on, right? So I think that this whole turning tide of where people are getting their media and they're getting it from people like you who are doing really good things in this grassroots way and it's making people start to talk. And they're like, hey, something that we've had blinders on for so long, these food labels, they've been disguising what's really inside. So people are waking up. They're having wake up moments.

And I feel like once you see what's going on with the food, you can't unsee it. You just, you can't forget about it. So I think that's great. But I think the best place for the maha to really get started and really get attraction is to make America local again. Look up your farmer's market, get to know your farmer, they're around you. Otherwise, there are farmers out there who are doing shipping, and they're going to be higher quality. They're going to help a lot of deficiencies that are coming from a lot of our conventional food that we're being fed. And there's actually one guy.

His name's Farmer Lee Jones. He's out in Ohio. Farmer Lee Jones. Oh, he's great. He's a big jolly guy. Where's the bow tie, red bow tie, all the things. but he does like regenerative crops vegetables, but he gets his stuff third-party testing

and has like 200 to 300 times more nutrition in the vegetables and greens. And when it shows up at your house. Really? Does he do the microgreens? Amazing. I'm pretty sure he does. Because I've been down the rabbit hole of microgreens lately and the density of those.

It's called the chef's garden because he supplies the greens and the vegetables for like the Ritz, St. Regis, four seasons. but he just started doing it to consumers. I just found him on the internet and he has all the finest chefs around the world coming to him. I was like, wow, this is a gym. And he grows produce and meats.

Yes, not meats, just produce. Just produce. Wow. Yes, but that's your produce guy. It's like there's these things. You need to start talking and get to know your farmers. You're going to get more nutrition. It's not going to have the pesticides.

And it's just going to be so much better for you. By the way, all of these I'm going to link into the show notes, guys, my media team's paying attention. So if there were tips and tricks in here that you liked, I'll make sure that I, or we make a reference to her app or something like that, I'll make sure that I put it into the show notes. So, you know, back to the labeling. I mean, for the average consumer, what are some of the biggest that you see deceptive marketing practices?

You know, we did a funny exercise on Super Bowl with my family and we all watched the Super Bowl together. And we were watching the Super Bowl ads. I mean, first of all, there's not a single ad for a single healthy food. There was not a single whole food on any of the ads. And I watched, like you said, celebrities, athletes, A-listers, cartoons, jingles, choruses. One had a, one had a biblical choir singing like the jingle. I was like, this is unbelievable. Like you were literally in church, you know.

Yeah. Then they were singing to you about their snack food. And I think a lot of this gets ingrained into our culture. Like food says a little bit about who you are. Like Nike, just do it. You know, I wear Nike. And I don't have any machine with Nike. But like fashion says a little bit of who we are. You know, I carry Louvitan versus I carry a Russian Dior. You know, it says a little bit about who you are. It seemed to me like a lot of these ads were designed to sensationalize these foods. Like, if you're going to a party, expect to see this. These are the best. These are the tastiest. These, you know, and so it's coming from so many angles. It's being engineered chemically to stimulate our dopamine and to avoid satiety. They're being engineered to be

hyper palpable. So our kids love it. They're being engineered to actually change. And I've had a lot of physicians, even scientists on here that have talked about how the actual palette of someone that eats, it's a highly processed diet, it actually changes. You know, you enjoy and respond to the chemicals. And you switch to a whole food diet and it, you know, meat doesn't taste like food. Sp spinach doesn't taste like spinach. So what are some of the biggest, more deceptive practices in your opinion that consumer needs to be aware of? I heard you mention that advertising, I read today that like $14 billion is spent on food advertising. 80% of it is to targeted audiences like kids, things like that. I have a good story. This guy named Parker, he does Lovebird cereal. Have you heard of

him? I have. I think I have Love Bird. Yeah. I do. Love birds. Great. So love, he was on my podcast many years ago. But he used to work for big food. And he was in the marketing department. He remembers he was struggling with autoimmune. And so was his kid. And he's like, one day I went to work. And this guy rushes into this boardroom. And he's like, you guys, I got a great idea. I know how we're going to sell more units. We're going to slap a mermaid on it. And he's like, wait, what is going on? I can't be a part of this, you know, because he had a little baby. And he didn't want to see that. So he's doing something different. It's like appealed the little girls. Yes. Yes. Or he said one time they were taste testing pizza rolls in the guys or girls, whoever's in charge of this, says, you guys, we cut 30% of our cost by not using real cheese. We got a flavor that tastes like cheese. And he's like, what are we doing? Why are we not using cheese? You guys, mind blend. So he's going against the grain. All of his ingredients are listed on the front. It's all organic. Glyphosate-free. It's like top of the line food. But deceptive marketing, like we said, I mean, they got simple. You got natural, you got non-GMO, you got gluten-free, you got organic. And these are, like, for example, Dana and Light and Fit yogurt. It's Light and fit. And it says zero grams of sugar. There's so many ladies out there.

Light and fit. Oh, my God. That's so, like, you know, that's so mean. Because who doesn't want to be light and fit? Who doesn't? Because of women. I want to be light and fit. Heck, I don't want to.

I eat good and I still want to be more light and fit, you know? I need to drink more hydrogen water. Yeah, you do. Um, so with that being said, though, it has sucralose in it. There's a popular energy, energy drink out there. Soucralose in it. Soucralose is a sugar that is reacted with chlorine, okay? And there's studies out there that show in animal studies that it increase your risk for

leukemia and blood cancers. And it's like, why are we, why are we not eating just yogurt? Like shouldn't yogurt be just some grass fed milk and then some, some probiotics, which there's another guy. His name's Coconut Colt, Noah. He's really great. Have you heard of them? Coconut Colt?

Yes. Okay, cool. He's great. So he went around to a bunch of yogurt companies to figure out, like, how do they bottle it, how do they process, all these things? And he figured out that the yogurt say billions of probiotics, when in fact, most of these probiotics are actually dead because they apply high heat after they put the probiotics in there. And it's like, this is fake food.

It's not even working for you. Most food dyes are antimicrobial. And so if the trace amounts of probiotics that are in there are absolutely killed by the, by the dyes. You know, bacteria are, I mean, you know, probiotics are bacteria. And an antimicrobial kills the bacteria. Listen, there's what I share on this podcast and then there's what I share with my inner circle. If you've been following me for a while, you know how I hold nothing back here. but my VIP community, that's where the real magic happens.

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They don't understand the processing, right? You see your oils. You don't know what kind of solvents are being used, your stevia. You don't realize that there's petroleum-based solvents being used to extract that. And it's coming out and it's messing up your gut. and when your gut microbiome gets messed up, it leads to inflammation, and then you got a whole host of chronic issues happening. I talk about this all the time. How one thing causes everything. Usually people don't have multiple things going wrong. They have one major thing going wrong. It's

kind of like the dominoes. It causes everything. So let's go down the artificial sweetener route for a moment. Because I think, you know, advertising kind of falls into two camps. Yes. One is glorifying natural sugars, right? So cane sugar. as saying, hey, this actually, they actually put forward on the label. This is cane sugar. Yeah. And that's why you should eat this. Yeah.

And others are sugar-free, no-sugar added. Yeah. Because, you know, they're playing with, you know, both sides of the coin. People that are like, okay, I want it to be organic. Okay, if it's cane sugar, it's natural. So I'm going to grab this one. Or I'm trying to avoid sugar and eat low-carb. And so I'm going to add the sugar-free or no-sugar added.

There are different levels to the artificial. I know my opinion is, but different levels to this artificial sugar pyramid, everyone called. What are some of the no-fly zones? Like, what are some of the sugar substitutes to absolutely avoid? Absolutely avoid. So I would say dextrose is number one, which, by the way, can be found in your Costco chicken. We can go down that rabbit hole because I made a post once. My dextrose is glucose, right?

Dextrose is made from corn. Okay. Which is a highly GMO crop. Okay. So you want to make sure that you're avoiding that. Another one is asylphame potassium. Sold as like ACA-K, something like that. Yeah.

Ascle team. You've got it. I tell anybody or I tell people if it ends with OSE, avoid it. So dextrose sucrose. Socrose is one. The asylphame potassium. Those are like the ones you're going to see the most of. But I actually have this guy, Dr. Michael Goren, he studied the effects of

sugar, mostly on kids for 20 years. I'm like, thank you for sitting in a lab for 20 years and studying this because I don't have the patience for that. But he said there's over 60 names for artificial sweeteners. So another one's brown rice syrup. It sounds really healthy. Yeah. But it's not. And so these are ways to like spot on a label, just put it back, right? So aspirin, aspartame, sucralose. Asulfame potassium, dextrous, brown rice syrup. Yeah. And because I think a lot of I remember sweet and low, you still see everywhere. These are just chemical sweeteners.

So now on the better side, because, you know, there's no harm in having a little bit of a sweet tooth, right? Or wanting something that tastes sweet. So where do you gravitate on some of the, you know, like low glycemic sweet substitutes? Yeah. So I love unrefined, right? So it's going to have more vitamins and nutrients and minerals in it. So I love, I use maple syrup for my kids' waffles. I also love coconut sugar.

It's a great one-on-one swap. I use a lot of maple syrup, too. I get it from South Florida ranches. Yep. So maple syrup. There's dates, date syrup in your coffee. So good. It's called a date lady, something like that.

Really? Yes. Okay. So good. Date syrup. Date sugar. Date sugar. Date lady.

Maple sugar. And then for low glycemic, I love non-GMO monk fruit. Okay. I like the non-GMO monk fruit too. I think that's in your bar, right? Yeah. Yeah, I use the non-GMO Lung fruit in my bar. And I also, when I do some of the swaps,

and I'm going to put a link to your manual on swaps, the interesting thing about if you can try to eat home more often, I've found, is it can often be less expensive to eat organic and less expensive to eat whole foods once you learn how to navigate this. And people think it's like overwhelming and it's this lifelong education. but once you understand the food labeling and you have your favorite products in the grocery store, you can just keep going back and buying this over and over again.

So maybe it's a little bit of a curve in the beginning. But it's not like it's overwhelming and onerous forever. Yeah, I want to bring this, this, people are going to love this. Because did you know that Costco sells two million chickens a week? Two million chickens a week? Two million chickens. Are those the rotisserie ones? It is like the magnet that gets people in there.

It's a low price. Yeah. Chicken should be what? Chicken. Yes. I was waiting for that, Gary. I thought it was a trick question. This is not a trick question.

Yes, it should be chicken. Chicken, maybe salt, maybe herbs. I know if you go to Whole Foods and you get chicken, it's just chicken and salt. Right. Costco's chicken has Karagigan in it. It has dextrose and it has sodium phosphase, which is an additive that's been shown to induce aging. And it's like, why is this, first of all, What is this chicken eating?

You are what your chicken eats. You are with your cow eats. A lot of them are injected, though, too. Yes. And then I got a video once of them putting this just blazing chicken, steam and smoke coming off in this plastic bag. I'm like, no. But anyway, what I want to tell people is like there is a food swap. It's not going to take you more time.

So instead of getting the chicken with all the additives in it, you get just chicken and salt. And guess what? When you have your chicken salad, your chicken wrap or your chicken sandwich, whatever, you're going to stay full or longer. You're not going to need that energy drink. You're not going to need a second cup of coffee. You're not going to need a snack. You can actually wait until dinner and stay full or longer.

So that is really how you save money. You take less medication when you aren't having all these ailments and these pains and you're taking less time off of work. Now you're high performing because you feel good and maybe you get a promotion. Maybe your relationships get better. Right. The list goes on. Yeah.

I mean, you know, inflammation truly is the root of all. evil and I don't really believe that people are fully aware of this low grade inflammatory complex that happens in the body, brain fog, waking, water retention, you know, poor focus and concentration, low waking energy, even hormonal disruption. You know, a lot of this is directly related to the chemical additives and ingredients, but it's also related to this downstream inflammatory cascade that is just basically bringing ailments. from your future and drawing them into closer. You know, we are borrowing from our future.

And I think that we talked a little bit about this too. You know, when you're young enough, I mean, you can't be killed by a bullet. Right. So because your metabolism works well. Your methylation works well. Your immune system's not overwhelmed. These inflammatory cascades in many cases have not brought you to the brink of disaster. But as we move through life and,

most of our friends are in their 30s because we're in 30s. Most of our friends are in their 40s or most of them are in their 50s or most of them are in their 60s. You move through life at the same stage and it's like, well, all my buddies are on high blood pressure medication and we're all taking methotrexate for joint pain and four of the five of us have arthritis and we all wear readers. And so, and we're all bald. And, you know, it's like, and so it becomes acceptable, it's normalized.

It's normalized. It's normalized. And what we've normalized. Sickness. It's a sickness. Yeah. And, you know, I hate to say this and I hope people in my high school are not watching this. So I went to high school in Southern Maryland.

I'm going to be really cautious about what I'm saying. And some of you guys are still my buddies. I'm not talking to you. But I went to my high school reunion. Scary. I thought it was in the room. him with some aliens. Because I remember, I'm not going to say his name, but you know who you are.

This kid that was like two farms away from me, he beat me up in eighth grade. And I still remember it. And I came face to face with him at our like 25 year reunion. I was like, man, we should run this back. You know, like I was on his deathbed. But that area that I came from was very much like, you know, middle. Little America. I grew up on a farm in Southern Maryland. And, you know, we just didn't eat well. And I see the consequences of that. But it was so normalized, again, because everybody was in that same

group. And I think we need to normalize, like, movement and sunlight and hormetic stress and reading food labels. Yeah. Normalize real food again. Normalize real food again. Yeah. Are there any tips that people can garner to maybe eat more local food? I mean, when we say eat local, how do you eat local if you go to? I mean, I have a grocery store that's local, but I don't know where they're getting that stuff. Right. So how do I do it? That's a good question. We're here to solve that problem. Okay, good. So what I tell people is just type in into Google, farmer's market near me. Go talk to your farmer. A lot of times they can deliver this stuff to your door. Otherwise, if you're going to look for, you know, meats or eggs or something like that at the grocery, you got to, you got to actually like read, you got to look on the label and see where it's coming from. Um, odds are it's not going to be local here in America at most of our grocery stores, which by the way, in the 1990s, there were 7,000, approximately 7,000 food items on the shelves. And today, there's at the average supermarket, 56,000.

There's 56,000. Yes. So you know they're not inventing new foods. Right? Like, is there a new broccoli or a new Brussels sprout? It's insane. Yeah. No, that's, that's, yeah. But you got to, you got to get local.

And I mean, I know you're going to ask me how to be the ultimate human or what it means. Oh, it's coming. Yeah. That's the last question. I want to save it. See, you read you watched ahead. This is what people need to do in order to, um, to feel better. And when you feel better, you'll look better.

When you look better, everything's going to. going to be better. What was it? Skidian fit. What was the? Light and fit. Light and fit. You'll be light and fit.

Yes. But like the natural way, not through eating preservatives. Right. What's got you really excited right now about your mission, your purpose? I mean, you know, we both share humility and a gratitude for the people that come to us and thank us for, you know, our message. And there's nothing better than meeting somebody. You were just talking about it in my class.

wife's closet um while we were walking around the house yeah uh but you know just how amazing it is to um meet people in in public and they go oh my god jen you changed my life yeah it's and so what's got you really excited yeah um about your your future yeah what's got me so excited is that like i'm sitting here talking to you about this because when i started this helping people six years ago it was it was like no one was talking about it i didn't see it all over over social media and now I'm seeing it. So it's like this idea is becoming alive and we're seeing, you know, these bigger brands are buying out these smaller ethical brands.

Like for example, Pepsi just bought CETA and while CETA isn't, you know, meat or fish or vegetables or fruit, which is the ultimate way to be. Right. We're eating mostly processed foods. But these foods are getting less preservatives and less poisonous. And so we're seeing more of those pop up on the shelves and people are talking about it more. So I think that's really exciting. And then another thing is like, I was pulling my hair out trying to help so many people in the beginning. Like I had groups

of 60 women, five groups. I'm meeting them. They're texting me on my phone. And I'm up all hours of the night. My husband's taking care of the kids full time. And like I'm, my health is almost going down because I'm helping so many people, right? I'm not cooking. But when I develop those groups, somebody told me, Jen, make an online course, make an online course. And I did that. again, helps so many people, but nobody wants to read an online course. Nobody has time to do an online course. They want easy, accessible. And so we've created this app called Read the Labels app.

And I'm so excited that this can actually be me in people's back pocket, showing them eat these foods. It's going to lower your inflammation. You're going to feel a difference immediately. And so giving that accessibility to so many people has really got me, like, fired up about this. Amazing. That's so awesome, Jen. Well, my VIP community knew you were coming on board.

So we're actually going to go into a private room in a minute with my VIP community because they have a lot of questions for you. They love you. They've got a lot of questions for you. If you're interested in becoming an ultimate human VIP, just go over to the ultimatehuman.com forward slash VIP. Sign up to be one of my VIP guests. This is where I pour myself into this community. You get to have private podcasts with guests like Jen. And we do live Q&As.

I put my course in there as well for my VIP community. But and for the rest of us, I always end my podcast by asking my guest the same question. You knew it was coming. What makes me an ultimate human? What does it mean to you? What does it mean to me? Okay. So I-

You know it makes you an ultimate human. You're like saving lives with food labeling, you know? Okay. So, Gary, I almost want to cry when I think of this, but I feel like the lost art in most people's lives and homes is the art of cooking. Just cooking a meal, right? And so cooking a meal every night for my children and my husband, I feel like, means ultimate human.

And when we sit down every night, we say highs and lows. What was your, we tell the kids, what was your school best? Daughter, Madison, loves that. School best and personal best. And it's a great way to just, you have to check in. We're sitting around. And of course, my kids, they have to set the table. They clean up the dishes.

Probably that only happens once a week. But we're hopeful. But I feel like I'm doing this little bit for my unit. And so if people listening can do this little bit for their unit, it'll do, it'll just tenfold for you. That is amazing. So, Jen, for my audience, that wants to find you, how do they find you on social media? So I'm all over at Wake Up and Read the Labels on Instagram, YouTube, podcast. Also, I send a weekly recipe, an anti-inflammatory recipe, and all the sweets.

Yes, there are sweet sweets or sweet swaps. Sweet swaps. Yes, you could go to. Light and fit. Yeah. We're going to write one about that. Yes, every week I send the recipe, so you can go to the label letter.com. And I just kind of talk about swaps in there as well.

Also, we have an app where you can scan an item and see instantly if it's clean or not clean. and it'll even dive into the ingredients why they would be inflammatory. So you go to your app store or in Google Android to search, read the labels. Read the labels. Amazing. And you can use the code, Gary. I have a code? Yeah, you do.

I want to say, is it 10% off for people? Yeah, there you go. They'll save 10%. Just by knowing me. Gary's your guy. Jen Smiley, thank you so much for coming on the ultimate human podcast, but definitely going to follow your journey. And until next time, guys.

That's just signs.