Well with Arielle Lorre - 245: How Essential Amino Acids Support Optimal Health and Body Composition, Beauty Benefits & more with Kion's Angelo Keely

Episode Date: May 3, 2023

Angelo Keely is the co-founder and CEO of Kion, an active lifestyle, supplement and functional food company dedicated to helping people fully experience a fun and active life by providing pure, energy-enhancing solutions. He joins the show to discuss how a near death experience during a bad LSD trip changed the trajectory of his life, how he healed trauma and how being immersed in nutrition, functional fitness, yoga, meditation and supplementation his whole life led to the creation of Kion. He also breaks down the importance of amino acids in our bodies, how they work, what happens when we don’t get enough protein and aminos, how essential amino acids help to increase our metabolism, stimulate new muscle, build collagen, best sources of protein, how much protein we should be getting and much more.       To save 20% on monthly deliveries and 10% on one-time purchases, go to www.getkion.com/blonde.     This episode may contain paid endorsements and advertisements for products and services. Individuals on the show may have a direct, or indirect financial interest in products, or services referred to in this episode.     Produced by Dear Media.  See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

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Go to your rise-adviseur or sunnycars. The following podcast is a dear media production. Welcome to the Blonde Files podcast. I'm your host, Ariel Lori, and I'm here to talk all things wellness. From how to achieve optimal health and well-being to the best beauty tips and everything in between, no topic is off limits. I know there's so much information out there, so I'm bringing on expert guests and sharing my

own experiences to help you sift through all the wellness stuff without the BS. Enjoy the show. Hi, everybody. Welcome to the show. Welcome to an amazing episode. If I do say so much. myself. I just listened back to this to make notes for my producer. And I was like, wow, we got into so much in this episode. I am talking to Angelo Keeley. He's the founder of Kian. So I think first I'll tell you about Angelo, and then I will tell you about Kian. So Angelo has a really interesting backstory. So he was raised in a natural health and fitness, focus. family in Austin, Texas. His parents were in the supplement and health food business. And when he was 16, he had a bad LSD trip and he was stabbed and nearly beaten to death. And that changed the

trajectory of his life. And we talk a lot about that incident and kind of what happened after. He also had another traumatic experience when he was involved in a bus accident in the Himalayas. We talk about that too. I talk about my trauma. We talk about healing modalities that he used, including nutrition, therapy, functional fitness, yoga, meditation, supplementation, all of these things that he's really passionate about and been involved in for over 20 years now. And we talk about how all of these experiences kind of led him to where he is today, which is, like I said, the founder. of Kian. So Kian makes premium clean, heavily research-backed supplements and foods. They focus a lot on essential amino acids. And I've never done an episode around amino acids until today. And it was so

fascinating. So they were one of the most important supplements that Angelo's mom gave to him as a small child. And he talks about how even as a young kid, like he felt the impact of taking these amino acids instantly. And so he shares so much with us in this episode from exactly what are essential amino acids, why they are so important and why supplementing with them is important, even if you do eat a diet that's rich in protein. He talks about how kionominoes can help you to lose fat, get toned, feel great. Kianaminos are basically three times as a fat. as protein because essential amino acids are the active components of protein that stimulate new muscle and they are immediately bioavailable. So we talk about that, how essential amino acids

help to increase your metabolism, how you can build lean muscle, which also increases your metabolism. We talk about their benefits for skin and for collagen. Of course, that was something that I was interested in hearing. We talk about how much protein we should all be getting and what happens if you aren't getting enough amino acids and protein and just how they work in your body. So it's really, really interesting. And I have to say that since we recorded, I've been taking the key on aminos. And I also feel it almost instantly, like just so much more energy, but it's not like a crazy energy. I just feel energized and clear. And I can't wait to keep taking them. And they also have plant-based aminos. So if you are vegan, you can take those. They have a

sleep product that I'm really excited to try. They also have really clean protein bars. So definitely go check all of those out. Oh, I also love the protein powder. I forgot to mention that was the first product from Keon that I had ever tried. And then after speaking to Angelo and recording this episode, I was like, I need to get these ASAP. And yeah, like I said, amazing. difference. You guys are going to absolutely love them, especially once you hear all of the science. So you guys can go to get ki-on.com slash blonde, and you can get 20% off on monthly deliveries, and you can get 10% off on a one-time purchase. So again, that is www.gitkeon, get-k-I-O-N.com slash blonde. It's also in the show notes. So if you just scroll down, you can tap it easily.

and you'll get 20% off on monthly deliveries and 10% off on one-time purchases. So with that, please enjoy Angelo Keely. Welcome, Angelo. Thanks for having me, Ariel. I'm laughing because you said you would come up to the mic and you are a man of your word. You just... I stuck to it, yeah. I'm really excited to talk to you.

For the listeners, Angela and I got a chance to talk a few weeks ago a little bit prior to the interview. and we share kind of similar pasts in some ways. And I thought it would be really interesting to talk about that a little bit. You have a really interesting backstory, like your childhood and some of the things that you went through. And I think it's relevant really to what you're doing today. So why don't we just start by you telling people a little bit about that? Absolutely. Yeah, I definitely noticed in hearing your story and just starting to connect like the similarities and how that could,

probably help with creating even more connection and more interesting conversation today. So I was born to pretty hippie parents. I think it's the simplest way of saying it. They were in the natural food and the health food business. And like I was born at home. I didn't have a birth certificate so I was, so I went to first grade. Never, you know, like didn't get vaccinated, but like back in the day like hippie style reason why. And yeah, just was raised on like supplements and natural foods. So my parents were really, really thoughtful and pretty much, I don't know, obsess is the right word, but like that's what we were focused on in terms of trying to live the good life. It was really about what we put in our bodies and about fitness and exercise, et cetera.

So from the earliest age, I was exposed to things like amino acids, which will get in today. It's actually one of the first supplements. I remember my mom giving to me. And I remember her telling me like, Angie, can, you know, can you feel it? and I could. You know, and I think it's one of those things. What did you feel? I felt energy, maybe is the simplest way of saying it.

But I think it's not like an energy, like a caffeine energy. It's like a clarity. It's like a mental focus. It's a more refined, you know, kind of clean, soothing energy versus like a high burning, you know, stimulant type vibe. And yeah, so I think I was just kind of raised in that environment. My parents were entrepreneurs. They got out of that business.

but I was raised very much within a culture of like health, fitness, business. And when I was in middle school, but then really in high school, coming from a family where I think it was very natural to be bold and to do everything your own way and to not really learn your lesson through anyone else's lessons, unfortunately. I started to experiment with drugs. I started to party a lot. I was always highly motivated by social environments. But I just started to get into a lot of trouble. And when I was 16 was my first. first time, but I took way too much LSD, and I had a psychotic break. And I got into a situation where I provoked a fight with people who were, I've never been in a fight otherwise. I provoked a fight with people who were much more hardcore and serious than I was about that kind of thing. Unintentionally, I was looking for help. And they beat me really badly. They stabbed me twice in the

back, and they stabbed me in the knee. So my pettelot tendon was severed. My huge scars in my back. they had to do emergency abdominal surgery in my, all down my abdomen. And I was unconscious for days and in a hospital. And coming out of that, I like to call it kind of the moment where I claimed my health. You know, it was definitely a rock bottom. And from that point forward, it wasn't just like what my parents had told me about what was healthier, what I should believe, or what I should do. I was like, whoa, you know, I'm 16 and I, like, I could have just died. And I was still very emotionally traumatized from it. And so through engaging in psychotherapy and acupuncture and I got really into yoga and running and cold therapy and heat therapy and nutrition and like anything I could find.

And luckily I was in an environment like Austin, Texas. That's where I was born and raised. And so it just, yeah, it really, you know, I claimed my life at that moment and it wasn't a pure smooth path after that. I went through a lot of bumps. But I really claimed my life. And I think that pursuing whatever I was pursuing that got me into that deep hole and going through that trauma and overcoming it and trying to incorporate into who I am as a person going forward is a lot about who I am today and why I chose to be in health and why I'm doing what I'm doing. And yeah, I mean, I have other stories that brought me along to where I am now, but I think that's part of the connection that we connected on. Absolutely. I can relate to that so much. You know, I talk about it

all the time here on the podcast, but I always thought that my drug addiction, my alcoholism, the traumas that I endured throughout that period of time were the worst things that could happen to me, could happen to a person. I really had this victim mentality about it for a long time until I got sober. And then I realized, no, this is my greatest asset, you know, like it really, or the addiction and then the subsequent recovery, that's my greatest asset. You know, I'm so grateful for all of that, but I'm curious if you feel like your experimentation was at all kind of a rebellion against the lifestyle that your family was trying to instill in you. I hear like the essence of your question being, how did my upbringing and my family and that environment in whom my

parents were impact the decisions I made later in my life? I think it's definitely tied together. I think that it's probably not that clear cut. Like there's more variables involved. And I think the ones that seem more likely to me to have a really big impact, it's complicated. I think my parents gave me a very loving and safe environment in many ways. I think that they allowed me to feel safe to be different and be unique because they were different and unique. Your family sounds a bit more like mainstream. The mind like mine was a bit more like.

We were very mainstream. Bone retriever, white picket fans, all those. Yeah. We were like, you know, entrepreneur health nut people in the 80s. So it was like they were more French and more alternative. And with that, but they raised me in an environment that was more traditional mainstream, like where I went to school. Like the school district where I went, the schools I went to the kids I was with were probably more like your family in that way. And yet they helped me to feel really safe in who I was and like I could express myself, be myself.

That said, they were of a more entrepreneurial type where they're, I don't want to like psychoanalysis. my parents, but they're more on the self-absorbed side, right? Like, doing their own thing, exploring their dreams and their visions and trying to make all this stuff happen, then, like, super focused on me, you know? So I think from a very early age, I had to just figure out things for myself. You had a wide net. Yeah, I had a very wide net, and it was kind of like, make it, you know, figure it out for yourself, make it yourself. You better, and even like at the dinner table, like, you had to be able to, like, defend your arguments and think for yourself. Like it was very little coddling or protecting in that way. And so I think that environment

set it to where I was just like, I constantly felt like I was responsible for myself. I had to figure out my own thing, et cetera. But but I was programmed with like a very more manic entrepreneurial spirit. I'm not like the like safe eldest child kind of doing what's right thing. I'm like, all right, I'll figure out by myself. So I think, yeah, that took me to trying experiences, taking drugs, exploring, experimenting, doing things that maybe could have been different. And if I relate this now, because I was telling you before we started, I find myself being more focused and able to do things in a more coordinated, organized way than I did years before. I think largely because I have children. And I think in raising my children, what I hope to do with them is to show them their

failures sooner and help them be comfortable with those failures earlier so that they can take more like iterative steps to learning big life lessons versus like mega doses of LSD and getting stabbed. It's like how can we you know like explore the you know the the limits of our existence in maybe like smaller steps you know and not like yeah these explosive things and I think my parents I don't think my parents necessarily help me do that and I but I love them and they did they did the best they could. So that'd be more my take on it. Yeah. Okay. How did they react to that experience that you had? I mean, how did you respond and how did they respond? I was just very scared, I think. You know, I think adults, you know, I mean, there's like this whole thing now with like 40-year-olds going on plant medicine

journeys and like, you know, conquer ego deaths, blah, blah, blah, whatever that whole thing is. Like, I was just a kid. Yeah. You know, I was a kid. And so I think what I went through and what I saw was It was terrifying. It was so frightening and so terrifying. I'm getting goosebumps now that I was just in that state. I think my parents probably similarly were like pretty scared and I think didn't know what to do and tried to step in in ways to create more structure for me. But it's interesting.

About seven, eight months after that, I moved out and I emancipated myself. So I was like, you. I'm just going to figure this out on my own kind of thing. And so I think it was, it was probably fraught with fear, confusion, people like trying to figure out what to do. How can we create structure and control on this? And I was like, yeah, I got it. And I figured it out. Yeah, I was going to say, what was the most helpful thing? I'm sure you tried a lot of modalities. You mentioned therapy and different, well, hot and cold therapy, psychotherapy. What were some of the most beneficial things for you in recovering from that experience. And then did you use those down the

line? Because I know you experienced another major trauma with the bus accident, right? I don't know how long after that was. Five years later. So were you better prepared to handle and process trauma? Do you feel at that point? Or? I think I was definitely better. There's an interesting kind of intuitive response I had that I'll share in a second. In terms of what modalities supported me most. I don't know that there's one. I think it's it's it's the collection of different modalities that together support a person and being healthy and happy. And one really big one is I think just relationship. I had a a girlfriend at that time who's still a close friend of mine and actually my wife's now who through I think being in relationship

with someone and like having to be accountable and like my mind being kind of crazy and feeling scared, but like having to show up for other people and figure out what I feel and communicate and listen and have empathy is very grounding. It's kind of oftentimes frustrating in life, trying to compromise with all these other people and being a relationship, but in a way, it grounds a person. So I think that grounded me. I think that definitely talk therapy helped a lot. I don't, you know, I don't know all the science behind why it works, but it's something I've continue to invest in. I've done a lot of talk therapy in my life. I think that having sensations and feelings and dreams, like all these things that don't really make sense and kind of straightforward

language, trying to use my mind to talk about them in some normal way, like tell you what I'm feeling, what I'm thinking, what this weird dream was makes it feel more normalized and can be really calming for me. So I think that helped a lot. I think that exercise was a huge thing. I started like running hardcore and doing yoga and lifting weights and that really helped me be in my body. And I think nutrition, you know, I got much more interested and focused on, you know, eating whole food. I mean, I was raised eating whole foods, but it was like, yeah, really looking at, am I getting enough protein? Am I getting enough vegetables and fruits? Am I getting enough? I don't think I was thinking whole grains at that time, but, you know, just like healthy real foods.

And it really is those basics, like good relationship, good exercise, good food, you know, and I think acupuncture helped a lot. My nervous system was tweaked. I just came from acupuncture. I'm very calm right now, everybody. Yeah. It's pretty, acupuncture is really powerful. I think that really helped me. Mm-hmm.

Can you talk about the bus incident? Yeah, so the bus accident. So I guess that turning point in my life, I became like a seeker in a new way. And I became very interested in world cultures and like spiritual traditions, et cetera. And so I got really into yoga. And I went to India for a summer when I was 21. I volunteered into orphanage for like a month. And then I went to the north through this advanced yoga training at this ashram.

And when I was there, I met this guy. He invited me to go to visit him in his village. He was a really sweet, cool dude. It kind of became like my buddy there. And on the bus trip there, in the foothills in the Himalayas, my bus and another bus collided. And the other bus, basically, it's like one of those terrible moments when two buses are going around a corner at the same time. And the other bus fell off a cliff. And it fell hundreds of meters.

And there's no emergency services there. There's no, I mean, there are emergency services there. But it's not like here. Maybe even a remote place in America, right? And so it was one of the few able-bodied people. I went down. And so I spent basically that whole day trying to rescue the people, 26 people died, five survived, just trying to spend, I believe those are the numbers, the final numbers of who survived.

I'd love to go back now and know, you know, like, where are those? I would love to know where those people are and hopefully they're thriving. But they, yeah, I spent the day trying to rescue people, bring, you know, climb down, bring people up from this cliff. And when I was done after the whole day, I hitchhiked back to the Autrum and I like, I went and I lay down on my bed and I just started shaking. And when I was shaking, I was like, am I like making this up? You know, am I like, why am I shaking?

Like, I just feel uncomfortable, et cetera. And then, you know, years later, I learned when I actually worked in the behavioral health and treatment industry that natural trauma response in animals is to shake afterwards. And I was like, wow. So clearly, I didn't, it's not like I learned through all those practices before that I knew I should shake after this trauma experience. But clearly I was in enough touch with myself and had done enough personal work or whatever. Like I had a relationship with my body at that point to where I did the natural thing that an animal should do when they go through a trauma response to help release that trauma and to not incorporate it as much, you know, into their future.

I don't, I don't think I fully did that because I think it did. Yeah. It was pretty traumatic. And I had like a few years kind of sorting through that. And the way I talk about it now is I think it's interesting. That moment, I kind of stopped my big personal self-improvement journey for a few years. And I began like a success journey. I was like, I want to be good at business and good at all these things.

And I think it was because I probably was like hurting and harmed and traumatized by that experience. And my new, my new thing was like, oh, I'm just going to like. Deflect. deflect. Deflect. Yeah. I don't want to do any more therapy stuff. I don't want to do any more of this stuff.

I don't want to like try to be like healthy and sane. I want to just like maybe try to win in the world now. Mm-hmm. So. I think that's understandable. I'm sorry that you went through that. I had a big trauma years prior to getting sober. I found my friend murdered.

And I had zero coping mechanisms to deal with that. And it just drove me further into my addiction. But I remember thinking like, how do you first receive? responders live their lives. Like, how can you deal with that kind of thing day in, day out? I mean, it takes a really special kind of person. So if anybody is listening who's like in a first responder, medical profession, whatever it is, like my hat's off to you because, I mean, that changed the trajectory of my life. And for me, like I said, it just drove me deeper into my addiction for you. It sounds like it kind of you distracted yourself in another way. But it is amazing, like, that your body had

the innate instinct to shake it off like an animal does. So that's pretty incredible. And, you know, that experience that you went through prior to that was probably a gift in some ways because, like you said, you were in touch with yourself enough to like be able to process that in probably a more healthy way than you would have before, I would imagine. Yeah. First of all, I am so sorry that you experienced. that that is so sad. Thank you. Yeah. That really hit me. I'm so sorry. Thank you. Yeah. God, that really hit me. I'm so hard. I can't imagine that. It's crazy that, you know, I'll say, like, the way that our bodies hold onto trauma, like, it happened in 2011. I got sober in 2014. I had to go testify against the guy when I was about 90 days sober. When I was in rehab, it just so

happened that, like, I had to fly out there. It was crazy because I got subpoenaed so many times prior to getting sober where I never would have been sober enough to get on a plane, let alone go testify against somebody. And then it just so happened that when I was finally in treatment, it was going to trial. But I remember leaving there and feeling closure, which I think was a little naive of my part because I felt like, okay, like he's in jail. And I, maybe it was some amount of closure. I think it was a little bit for sure. But years later, it started kind of manifesting physically, I think. and I went to therapy and I did trauma therapy and brain spotting. And I remember like sitting there with my therapist the first time that we were doing the brain spotting where I was talking about it.

And she was walking me through, you know, walking in the apartment and opening the bedroom door and seeing it and describing everything. And like I still get activated when I talk about it now, but not as much as I was then. And I would follow this pointer with my eyes and she held me in one spot. And it was like my whole body went numb. I was drenched and sweat, like, just crazy. And she held me there. And she just let it move through me. And then I started shaking, same thing.

And we would do that over and over and over again. And it's like squeezing a lemon. That's kind of the analogy that they make where, you know, finally you got to a point where I could talk to her and walk her through it. And maybe get like to a two, but not like off the charts like I was before. So you had like finally metabolized it. digested it, whatever the right metaphor is. But I will say like sometimes, sometimes I can deal with it better than other times. Sometimes I think about it or talk about it and it's like, I'm back there,

you know, like I think, I don't know, I don't think that it ever goes away. I think we just kind of learn how to rearrange it in our brains a little bit. So. Which relating to your question, which I don't think I answered because I was so reacting to what you shared is like, was it? a gift, it's hard to see those things as a gift. Yeah. If you have to work so much to, if it's first time, something's so sad and traumatic in the first place, then you have to do all this work to try to even just be okay with your life if you remember it or think about it. And yet, it does connect you to some like essence of yourself and a deeper part of yourself and puts everything else in perspective that like it is somehow.

a gift in some weird paradoxical way? I remember I remember thinking when I got stabbed in that whole experience it was like if life is an absolute value scale we're typically only seeking like all these good things like you know I just want to get better better better but actually when you have this severely traumatic experience it broadens up like your whole lens and then how much more the good seems good it really you're like wow and you don't take it for granted as much which I think Yeah, someone could have all this good and just be taking it for granted. And so you don't even know how beautiful it is. Yeah.

Yeah. And I think we all have periods where everything is really good. And we probably do take it for granted. And then it's punctuated, you know, with things kind of falling apart. Or you have a diagnosis or you go through a breakup or whatever it is, which when you're going through it is absolutely terrible. But then usually in hindsight, you can look at something and see how. you know, I got you to the next phase and you maybe do develop more of an appreciation for that good. I mean, yeah, it's like so cliche, but what's that saying?

Like, you can't enjoy the sweet without the sour or something like that. Yeah, yeah. So, okay, so you got really into or more into health and nutrition and exercise and then into business. And then how did you get to where you are today with Keon? I feel like I always want to have some answer where it's like, I envisioned it in this perfect way. But I think more like life and maybe even a segue from what you just said, like one thing happens to you and then it opens up a new path and then another door. And then you just kind of keep going through them. You know, I think after that whole experience, my little business trip took me to where it's like, I want to be, I want to do international business.

So I moved overseas. I lived in France for a few years and I developed a career there. And then through that, because I had been in India and I was doing work with Apple, they had work in India. So I moved to India and I had, and I worked there. And I was just like really pursuing all of that. And yet it was kind of bringing me back to India and it was bringing back to yoga and to health and like these things I really cared about. And all while I had a wonderful fiance who really was like ready to get married and have babies. And I basically had a breakthrough actually like on a meditation retreat that was just like, yo, I need. to focus on Carrie, who's now my wife, and make that the number one thing, and then everything else will fall into place. So I literally went on this retreat, that became clear. I quit my job. I moved from Bangalore to Boulder, which is where she wanted to be. We moved, straight up, moved to Boulder, and immediately got married and immediately started having kids. And, you know, I found myself in a career where I was working actually, and I was running a behavioral health

company, which worked with people who young adults who were kind of like who I was when I was 16, 17, 18. And it was an awesome experience. It allowed me to really integrate a lot of the stuff I cared about. They had integrative psychiatry and therapy and like all and nutrition and all the stuff. And after a few years of that, it became clear like I wanted to do something different. I wanted to do something new. And I don't know how to describe it other than it's weird. I don't think I realized at the moment. Like I came back so hardcore to my roots. Like, literally to the supplement my mom would give me when I was three. Full circle.

Yeah, like full circle. You know, it just became clear that like starting the supplement company, which is what I do now, co-founder and CEO of Keyon's supplement company. And it just became clear. Like, this is the path. This is the step. And I'm passionate about it. I love it.

It's an opportunity to, it's like kind of my time too to like build something really that I can be really in alignment with. You know, I think in all the other things have been part of it, I've been like kind of in alignment with. And this one, it's like, I can do it the right way. I can build it where it's like the right culture, the right people, the right products, the right marketing. And nothing's perfect in terms of right, but what I think is right, what I think is good,

like doing my best without compromise. And that was in 2017, and I've just been cracking at it since then. And I feel more proud than ever and more excited than ever. And it has become that. It's, you know, I just feel like we make products that I could not be more proud of. I could, you know, it's like there's not, I wouldn't always ways to improve them and to make changes and modify these things. But it's like I am making, we are making the best products we can make.

We are doing, I think the best branding, marketing, design work we can do, the whole creative element of it. We have the best culture. We treat people the best we can. We have super high touch customer service. It's just like awesome. I love it. So that's how I got to where I am.

Okay, so let's get into like the nitty gritty with all of this. Where should we start with protein? I think, you know, I think a good question is what are amino acids? Okay. And then we say, what are amino acids? Then immediately it becomes what, you know, it relates to protein. Okay. So amino acids are the building blocks of protein.

To put that in context, most people are familiar with protein, either like from their science class, you know, like proteins in nature, etc. Or like the macronutrient. So let's just think about it as the macronutrient. You've got carbohydrates, you've got fat, you've got protein, and you actually have alcohol, too, which does not squarely fit into the other three categories. And the primary role of sugar and fats is to basically burn them as energy. You consume sugar and fats to turn into fuel to burn. That's not the primary role of protein.

And the reason for that is because of what protein inherently is and how it functions. So our bodies are over 50% water, right? It's, I think, 58% for women, like 60% for men. Of the part that's not water, that's solid mass, over 50% is proteins. And proteins are this core building block of our bodies that make up our vital organs, so our heart, our kidneys, our liver, et cetera, that make up our skin, our muscles naturally. But there even are things like when we talk about enzymes, those are proteins, the neurotransmitters in our brain that are our emotions to some degree, dopamine, serotonin, etc. Those are proteins or the derivatives of proteins, they're amino acids. So they're like everywhere in our body. And the reason, primary

reason why we thus need to eat proteins outside of our body to help with the proteins in our body, is because the way that proteins work is that they're in a constant state of breaking down and then resynthesizing. And what happens is the current proteins in our body and all these different, you know, organs I just described, they break down. You dispose of the composite amino acids. So every single protein is just made up of a bunch of a series of amino acids that are linked together. They're like the little bricks that make up the protein. And how many amino acids are there? There are like 300 in nature, but there's 20 primary amino acids that actually go into building like the proteins in our body. There's more than

that. Like there's things like creatine is actually an amino acid, but it's not a dietary amino acid. So when we think about what's our muscle made out of, it's made out of these 20 amino acids. Okay. So all these proteins in our body, our organs, etc., they're in a constant state of breaking down and then resynthesizing. And when they break down,

they dispose of the amino acids that can't be reused. They've been used too many times before. There's not a use for them, et cetera. And you must get new amino acids to help rebuild those proteins because you have to have a heart. You have to have a liver.

You have to have kidneys, et cetera. So the primary role of proteins that we eat is we eat the proteins. They get broken down in our digestive system into those 20 amino acids. And then those 20 amino acids go into our blood and they get reutilized to rebuild the proteins throughout our body that are all the different things that I described. So that's kind of the big overview of amino acids. Now, if you have too many, you know, too much protein at once that your body can't utilize it to build a muscle, it will convert it to sugar and it'll be used just like carbs get used. Not just like carbs, but I don't want to oversimplify too much. I'm trying to give the general picture though. But the primary role is not

to be burned as energy. It's to help rebuild all these proteins in your body. So go ahead. Yeah, should I keep going? Yeah. Okay. So you ask like what are the 20, you know, what are the amino acids? There's 20. So in those, there's two groups of them, though. There's more than this, but the two main groups are essential amino acids and non-essential amino acids. And the fundamental difference between those is that the essential amino acids are ones that your body cannot make. The non-essential amino acids, your body can make them from the other nine. They can actually, like, synthesize them out of the other amino acids. They can break them down and make the other ones. The other primary role of those nine essential amino acids is that they are fundamentally the active component of protein,

Meaning that they're the part of the protein. You eat the protein, it breaks down into the amino acids. The nine essential ones basically say, hey, let's synthesize new proteins, and they lead that process. They're the chemical messengers in a way that actually build all the new proteins. They utilize some of the non-essential amino acids, but not all of them. And the ones don't get used, get, they basically get converted into urea, you pee them out, and into sugars that you utilize as energy.

So essential amino acids are super, very. important, in many ways more important than these non-essential amino acids because your body can't make them. So you have to eat enough every day. And they're the thing that actually contribute the most to the new protein synthesis in your body. What is the sweet spot? Because I know that there are a lot of different opinions on how much should you eat a gram of protein per pound. We can get into different protein sources as well for vegans and vegetarians and non-vegans and all of that. But is there a sweet spot that you recommend to people. Obviously, it varies depending. I would assume on so many different factors, gender, height, weight, lifestyle, all of that. Yes. So it really

depends. I think it depends on all of those things and it depends on what your goals are. So I think one thing that I am not or don't endorse is a super overly simplistic answer to what people should do. that said there are some pretty clear guidelines that are based on research and science over like and it's not new it's like 50 years of studying this stuff so at the most fundamental level if you look at the recommended daily allowance of 0.4 grams of protein per pound of body weight that is the minimum it's really not a recommend it's not like a recommended it's really like a minimum daily allowance I think that's a more fair way of describing it based off what the science says in order to maintain function of your organization. for example. And what happens if somebody doesn't meet that? I mean, there are all kinds of diets that we see now. I mean, there are people who just eat raw food and fruits. And I remember back when I was like just starting on Instagram, there was a woman who was famous for only eating bananas. I mean, like, what happens to your body and to your organs and to your tissue and everything if you're not meeting like the bare minimum requirement of protein intake? Every human body is different. And when they

studied like the Northern Ireland protesters who were on a like fasting for their their political ambitions. They, uh, they found that when people were actually starting to die, it was because of deprivation of the amino acids of the protein. So you actually will start to have organ failure and you'll die if you don't get enough. Okay. Because you just think about it like, but I'm saying that's an extreme. Yeah. That's not going to happen. Yeah, like if you don't get your point for. Yeah. But yeah, like if you don't eat them like you, you will run out of amino acids to rebuild the proteins in your body. That said, there's adaptations. People can, you know, survive in different situations for different extent amount of times. There's so much variation.

Right. The more interesting thing maybe for your listeners is that the primary role of muscle is not only to help you move things, right? Or maybe one could argue whether it's the primary, the secondary role. One of the main roles of muscles to help you move, to help you move objects, to help you move yourself, et cetera. It literally is what supplies you with power to do things, the strength to do things. That said, it's also the reservoir of amino acids for all your other organs because our body is okay with sacrificing our biceps to ensure that our heart keeps beating. So if you deprive yourself of protein, you deprive yourself of amino acids to a degree where you're not getting enough to meet your core needs for organ function, for neurotransmitters,

etc. Your body will start breaking down your muscle tissue to convert it into the component amino acids, put that into the blood and then serve the other parts of your body to utilize those amino acids. So in a more short term, less, maybe you're hyperbolic you're going to die. You will lose muscle mass. So if you deprive yourself of protein, you will ultimately, and deprive yourself of amino acids, you ultimately will lose muscle mass, which I think not to jump, too many different directions, but I think this is probably one of the biggest risks of yo-yo dieting is that people will deprive themselves of total caloric intake, including protein and amino acid intake. And when they do that, not only do you shed, there is, there's a simple

function of like energy in, energy out and how much you expend. But if you deprive yourself of these calories, you will lose fat. That said, for basically 35, approximately 3,500 calories, and chloric intake will make you lose a pound of fat, 750 can make you lose a pound of muscle. And when you deprive yourself of calories and deprive yourself of protein, you will lose both fat and you will lose muscle. And then when you go oftentimes back to the less than ideal behaviors that got you into a situation where you were overweight, you don't easily put back on the muscle because you have to eat sufficient protein amino acids. You ideally need to do some type of physical activity. And so what happens is people over time get less and less lean, have less and less

lean muscle and their bodies get softer and softer. And one of the main reasons why that's such a big issue too is that muscle is one of the most important parts of your body to regulate metabolism. And when you have more lean muscle, it gives you a higher metabolism. It helps you maintain activity levels, et cetera. So it's kind of like if you're trying to stay fit, lean, a key aspect of that is maintaining good lean muscle. And so you definitely, you don't want to deprive yourself of too many amino acids. It will go against one's body composition goals in that way. I remember years ago, I don't know how popular it is now, but like supplementing with branched chain amino acids, like BCA's. That was huge. Like when I started my Instagram account, it was a fitness account.

I was trying to get in shape. Everybody was doing BBG. I don't know if you know what that was. So it was like online. It was called bikini body guide. And everybody was taking BCAs. And what is the validity of that? And how is that different from the other amino acids? Like the Keon amino acids, for example. They're quite different.

But they are also the same in some ways. Before I get to that, I want to name something about, I want to complete your question about how much protein is the right amount. So what I would say is someone who wants to maintain an active lifestyle for as long as they can in their life, and they want to stay trim and lean, but generally toned, one gram of protein per pound of body weight is a great guidance. That's like an ideal guidance.

What I would say is you want to make sure that protein, though, is a complete protein and a high-quality protein. Not all protein is equal. And so ideally that would be a protein that has all nine essential. essential amino acids in relatively robust amounts. So for example, if you're on a plant-based diet, many plants may say they have protein in it, but they don't include all the amino acids at sufficient amounts, particularly the essential amino acids.

So it doesn't really count as the protein that you think it is, or you need to combine the grams of protein together. So I think the simplest way of saying it is one gram of protein that ideally is either, it could be vegetarian. It could be animal eggs, meat, eggs, dairy, etc., or equivalent of that combined of different types of plant proteins per day. So yeah, that's kind of like the high level guidance. So BCAs, what are they and how do they relate to EAAs? Well, I would just say that. So, for example, Keonaminos, my company, makes essential amino acids. It includes all nine of those essential amino acids. Now, the reason why we would make this product and the science that's underpinning this

and how it relates to what the comments I made about the other protein was that when you eat a gram of whole food protein, and when they do studies on this, and it may not be good for everyone, like some people may have a reaction to weigh or something, but weigh or egg protein is very high quality protein. Less than half of it is essential amino acids, though. So one gram of that type of protein compared to one gram of essential amino acids in an ideal formulation like Keonamino's. The essential amino acids are twice the impact of muscle protein synthesis. So you can take half the amount to get the same amount, or you can take the same amount

to get twice the impact. And it has a much lower load naturally. Like, you know, like you can have a five gram scoop of this and it's watermelon, all natural flavors, but like watermelon flavor, it's light, it's delicious. It helps you hit those higher amino acid requirements. I wouldn't recommend it to get the recommended minimum daily allowance, but when you're trying to get to that gram, let's see you weigh 100 pounds. I know that's, that's very low, but let's say you weigh 100 pounds, and you're trying to get 100 grams of protein, and it's hard to get that 100 grams of protein. If you took five grams of the key on essential

amino acids, it's worth at least 10 grams equivalent of a protein. So it can help you get to those higher limits in an easier, more sustainable way as a supplement. Right. That said, you must have all nine. The BCAAs are three of the nine essential amino acids. And early science 40 years ago showed and proved that those three branch chain amino acids, which are three of the nine, have a very big role in protein synthesis. They're basically, I don't know the best metaphor, but they kickstart the process and they get it going.

If you don't have the other six, though, the process does not continue. So many a meta-analyses have shown and proven that BCAAs on their own have no impact on muscle protein synthesis. If you combine them with different forms of protein and do kind of all these complicated things, you can get them to have results, but they don't. They're basically a waste of your money if taken on their own. You must have all nine. So if you're going to think about supplementing with amino acids to help have more, you know, know, robust health function, you do not want to waste your time on BCAAs. You want to make sure you get a complete profile of essential amino acids. So you mentioned when we started recording that you felt

like a kind of clarity and energy, but not the stimulant kind of energy. What are some other effects of incorporating the essential amino acids into your diet and supplementing? Yeah, well, naturally, as the impact like basically everything in your body, but it's like it's your organs, it's your, it's your metabolism, et cetera. I mean, I think the most immediate things that one will notice is an impact on mood and on more sustainable energy. The reason for that is because it's not, again, it's not a stimulant that's going to change your,

that's going to like make you feel sped up. But similar to if you have a good hearty, if you were hungry and you're kind of cranky and crabby because you haven't eaten in a while, and then you get some type of good healthy protein and some vegetables in your body, you suddenly like, ah, like you feel better. You can think a little better, assuming you don't overeat. That is because part of that is that the proteins are broken down to these essential amino acids, those essential amino acids, then go into your blood, and they supply the precursors

to your neurotransmitters for your brain. So when you don't eat, it's not just like low blood sugar levels that are making you cranky. You're taxing your body's ability to regulate the production of neurotransmitters that literally create and regulate your emotions. So I think, you know, a good natural energy, more balanced mood is a big thing you initially feel. In terms of the long-term effects about like, you know, what else can these essential amino acids do for you? If it depends on what your goals are, if your goals are more body composition focused, it is the most efficient, effective way to consume amino acids, which induce, there's basically diet-induced thermogenesis.

It's going to raise your metabolism literally when you take them. So it's going to make you burn more calories. It's going to help you create and maintain more lean muscle and not like big bulky lean muscle, but just lean muscle. That's then going to continue to help you to burn calories, regardless of whether you're taking them or not. Because simply if you have more muscle, you have a higher resting metabolic rate. So it's kind of a, it's very obvious kind of slam dunk for that. If you're looking at athletic performance, when you exercise, the reason why you get tired, not just from, you know, burning calories and the sugars that you have in your body, but also it's because you experience muscular fatigue.

Because when you're exercising, you oxidize a lot more amino acids in your blood, and then you break down amino acids in your muscle tissue to help supply that with your blood. When you load up with amino acids before and during exercise, it helps to prevent that muscle breakdown. So many people use essential amino acids to have more energy motivation in their workout and to be able to work out longer and do more. On top of that, when you consume amino acids, essential amino acids versus even a way protein has three times the impact of muscle protein synthesis.

You don't have to like know what all these things mean, but it has three times the fact of muscle protein synthesis as way protein before exercise. If you're doing like resistance training to help build and maintain lean muscle. So it also will help you get more from your workout. Give you motivation, energy to get working out, prevent the fatigue that happens when you work out, and it will help you get more results from the workout. And last is that when you prevent the muscle breakdown, that's what actually makes you feel sore. People think, oh, you got to like tear the muscle fibers and that's what it hurts. And then it means I did something like, well, like you don't have to be in pain to get the results from exercise.

And so when you take amino acids before, during, or after, and in the case of recovery, it can be any one of those, it will help prevent the muscle protein breakdown and enhance more muscle building, muscle maintenance in a way. And so you won't get as sore. and it will really improve your recovery times. So if you're just trying to maintain an active lifestyle, you're trying to get more, you want to get motivation and energy when you exercise, you want to get more from the exercise,

and then you want to not feel sore and have shorter recovery times. It's awesome for that. And maybe not as relevant for, I'm like, it's starting to get there more for me. I don't know about if you're thinking about this yet, but as we age. That's what I've been thinking about this whole time.

Yeah, well. That's going to be my next question. Yeah, this one's pretty interesting. So, and many people don't start to realize this until they hit. I'm 39, so I'm like, thinking like, oh, my God, I'm about to be 40. And like, this is when it really happens. There's something called sarcopenia. And it's the loss of muscle mass as you age.

And the reason for that is because as you age, you have a harder time breaking down protein into the amino acids. And you're less sensitive to how those amino acids then stimulate protein synthesis in your body. So you have a harder time basically getting the results out of it. You also tend to get less results even from the exercise itself. Free form amino acids for that reason, if you take essential amino acids like Keonaminos, they can have as you age two times, three times, getting older,

let's say you're like 75 times the impact of whole food protein, a muscle protein synthesis, because your body doesn't have to break it down. It immediately enters your gut, immediately enters your blood and immediately stimulates this muscle protein synthesis. So it helps you overcome the effect. the effects of aging on your ability to digest protein and to maintain lean muscle. And the reason why that's so important is not just like looking good as you age.

It's because muscle as you age is like the top indicator for how much you'll be able to maintain activity levels. Right. Stay healthy, stay exercising. It also is very highly correlated to risk of cancer, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, all of these different things. So I really like to encourage people like building and maintaining muscles in your 20s, 30s, and especially your 40s is like a, it's like your human savings account. Yeah, protective. Yeah. To ensure that like in your 50s, 60s, 70s, like you're having fun. You're able to stay vibrant and hopefully avoid disease where you can. So. I care a lot about skin. Does it, I would imagine that I would have an effect on skin as well. Has a great impact on skin. Oh, thanks. Yeah. Yeah, it does.

And I think an interesting comparison here would be to collagen. I think many people take collagen. So collagen is a great example of a supplement that I think is an excellent choice for skin, hair, nails, but it is not a complete protein. So when you consume collagen, do not think that you're hitting that one gram of protein per pound of body weight unless you're consuming a lot of other complementary proteins that will help you get there. I feel like so many people put it in their coffee or their matcha or something. They're like, oh, I got my 20 grams of protein. Yeah. Myself included.

It's very low. It's very low in certain amino acids. What it's super high in is these non-essential amino acids, hydroxyproline, proline, glycine, that are the amino acids that are directly used for joints, for collagen in our bodies, basically. Glycine is good for your gut, too, right? Yeah, glycine is really good for your gut. It can also be good for its cooling. It can be good for sleep, et cetera.

So collagen can be a great supplement, and it's highly focused on that one use case. That's basically why you should take it if you're going to take it. On the other hand, the essential amino acids, if you're consuming a healthy amount of protein and you're supplementing with essential amino acids, your body will actually naturally produce those additional non-essential amino acids to supply your body with sufficient amounts of them to maintain healthy skin, hair, nails, etc. Mm-hmm. Interesting. Okay, we're running out of time, but something that I did want to ask you about is you also have protein bars. And I know that so many people, myself included, just grab a bar, go, you think, oh, okay, 20 grams of protein. What should people look for? Because I know that, like, so many of those bars are loaded with, you know, not only synthetic ingredients and low-quality proteins. Obviously, yours are probably the best in the market. But what should people look for when they're looking for, like, a protein snack on the go or a protein bar or something like that.

I think it's really important. Well, I'm just going to share this through the lens of what I think is important. Okay. So what I think is important is eat the best whole foods when I can. Mm-hmm. And if there are good reasons to supplement, supplement. Okay. So when I think about eating a protein bar, I think of it as more like food, right?

And as food, I want to see real ingredients in it. So if you look at the back of the label and you're like, I don't know what the heck that thing is, then it's a red flag to me because it means it's some type of highly processed thing, probably that a lot of chemicals were used to produce, et cetera. And I'm like, quest bars. I used to microwave quest bar. I'll say it. You don't have to say it.

I won't come in any other bars. Yeah. But it's like, you know, if I'm going to eat a bar, it's like I want to eat something that's as close to real food as possible. And the ways that they achieve protein, higher protein amounts, and ideally are through something that's as natural as possible. So we use grass-fed way protein isolate. And some people in the past may have had experience with like way, like a dairy allergy. When it's an isolate, they remove virtually all of the lactose. So, you know, people that I tend to be somewhat dairy intolerant and I can do as much grass-fed way protein isolate, particularly from Keon that I want and I'm fine. Jelotin, the grass-fed

gelatin also, which is collagen. They're basically, they're very similar type product, which Many people don't realize collagen is like a hydrolyzed form of this of gelatin. And then I think looking for natural sweeteners, you know, I think, again, if it's a food product, honey of all the things you could choose is a great sweetener. That's why we chose to use honey. You can use it. It's natural. It's high quality, et cetera. So I think that's really the most important thing.

It's like, it's full of like, just be able to read the label. And I'm proud. And again, that's, I mean, this is my perspective. This is my frame. I want to be able to look at food products and know what all those things are and not be like, what is that? You know, another interesting thing is with something like a supplement, I think natural flavors and ours, the ones we use are organic suitable, basically, so they're, so the highest level

of creating a natural flavor. It makes sense because like trying to take that supplement otherwise, it's going to like taste kind of funky. With a food bar, you can like use real things. You can use chocolate. You can use, I don't want to, we're going to come out with new flavors soon. I don't want to, I don't want to say too much what they are. Like, you can, we actually use real fruits. And by doing that, you get these awesome flavors. And so,

yeah, whenever I'm trying to eat food, I try to eat stuff that's like, you know, probably doesn't have flavoring in it. It's just, it's good stuff. Yeah. Amazing. Well, we could keep going, but we're out of time. So thank you so much for coming on and sharing all of that with us. Tell everybody where they can find Kian. I think the easiest place is on the web. So get kion.com. That's G-E-T-K-I-O-N.com. And we're on Instagram, K-I-O-N, K-I-O-N, K-N, K-O-N. And we'll link it all in show notes as well. Awesome. So thank you so much for coming and sharing your story and everything. Thank you, Ariel. Thank you. I hope you enjoyed that episode. And if you liked it, and if you like the show in general,

please take a second to rate, review, and subscribe. It goes a long way, and it's actually the best way to support the show. Also, if you want to see more about each episode, you can head over to The Blonde Files podcast on Instagram. You can go to Arialori.com, and I'm always posting about each episode over on my personal page at Ariel Lorry. Please note that this episode may contain paid endorsements and advertisements for products and services. Individuals on the show may have a direct or indirect financial interest in products or services referred to in this episode.