Well with Arielle Lorre - 485: The Wellness Advice We Actually Need: Protein, Creatine, Supplements & What’s in Our Food with Oliver Amdrup

Episode Date: October 5, 2026

Oliver Amdrup is the co-founder and CEO of Puori and a wellness expert who has spent more than 15 years studying nutrition, supplementation, ingredient quality and what our bodies actually need to function optimally. His perspective is refreshingly different in an industry that has become increasingly complicated: start with the fundamentals, understand what you can get from food, and be extremely discerning about everything else you put into your body.In this episode, we cut through some of the biggest misconceptions in wellness and talk about the differences between health culture in the U.S. and Europe, what’s actually true about the American food supply, and why consumer trust has eroded. Oliver breaks down how to realistically hit your protein needs, complete amino acids, creatine, omega-3s and vitamin D; which deficiencies are actually common; when electrolytes are useful versus unnecessary; and what we should be getting from food before reaching for a supplement. We also get into the side of the supplement industry most consumers never see—including third-party testing, contaminants, and some of the shocking things Oliver discovered when he began testing finished products.Use code WELL at Puori.com/WELL to get 32% off your first Puori Grass-fed Whey Protein order when you start a subscription.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.

The following podcast is a dear media production. This is Well, a podcast about wellness in all its forms. I'm Ariel Laurie, and each week I'm sharing unfiltered conversations with people shaping how we feel, live, and look. Come for the substance, stay for the honesty, and leave with the tools to be well, inside and out. You may have seen recently that I was in Copenhagen, so I was there in the beginning of the month, and if you were wondering what I was doing there, I was actually there to record,

today's episode. So I'm so excited that it's finally out. I had the great honor of traveling all the way there to talk to my guest today, Oliver Amdrup. He's the co-founder and CEO of Puri. They have been a long-time podcast sponsor and longtime obsession of mine. But I actually think of Oliver much more broadly as a true wellness expert. He has spent decades in this space and he's held some really unique positions. So I really appreciate his vantage point and his experience that he brings to this conversation. And what I really love is that he's not trying to make wellness more complicated. He's actually trying to separate what our bodies genuinely need from what we have all been marketed. And in this episode, we talk about everything from the differences between wellness culture and even diet culture in Europe and the U.S. to what's

really going on with our food supply. We talk how to actually get enough protein and complete amino acids and even creatine, vitamin D, omega-3s, all of those things from food and when it's time to supplement. We talk electrolytes. I actually just had my Peory electrolytes before we recorded this because I was working out. And something that I love about their electrolytes are that they're sweetened with glycine, not artificial sweeteners. So they are my current favorite. And we also talk about which supplements people are genuinely deficient in. Then we get into something I knew very little about, which is actually what can be hiding

in the supplements that we take, why third-party testing matters so much and what Oliver discovered when he started testing finished products. It's really, really fascinating. And this is one of those episodes that will hopefully make wellness not only feel simpler, but also make you a much smarter consumer because we all deserve to know what we are putting in our bodies right now. And because they have been a longtime sponsor of the show, they were kind enough to share another discount for Peoria. So you can use my code well at P-U-O-R-I-com slash W-E-L-L. And you can get 32% off Peoria's grass-fed way protein when you start a subscription. Plus, you'll get a free shaker worth $30. So again, that's peory.com slash well. The code is well at checkout. And please enjoy my

episode with Oliver Amdra. Welcome. Welcome to you as well. Thank you. I know. I was thinking about that right before I said it. Usually I'm in my studio. Now I'm in your at least part of the world. Yeah, exactly. You're part of the world. And I was telling you before we started recording, it's, I mean, I've only been here 24 hours, but amazing. To Copenhagen. Thank you. Thank you. And I was reading last night, too, that it's largely considered one of the safest places. Places, yeah. Yes. Safe, beautiful. I've gotten beautiful weather. The food has been incredible so far, the people, everything. It's a good little pocket and it's you're coming at the best time. I would say or at least summer like this early

autumn season, it's still great here because when you come back, if you come back in wintertime, you'd see a slight different day in as well. But more on that. Yeah. Well, we were talking a little bit before about things that we wanted to delve into today and something that I'm personally so curious about that I think my audience would really love to hear as well are kind of the differences is between wellness here versus wellness in, say, the United States. And you have experience with both. But before we get into that, I want to do a quick round of kind of wellness, like, BS or truth.

This is opinion only, right? So we'll do like a worth it or BS, cold plunge. Worth it. And even more so if you can do it outdoor, like in nature. And that's a big thing here, yeah? It's a big thing here. Especially, yeah, because we have so much water around all the cities and the water is clean enough. So even though we're, you know, let's say more miserable doing the winter because we can't get out as much, you'll see so many people going for ocean swim in the mornings, even pitch black outside.

They will go in the winter. In the winter. Okay. Wow. Well, we're going to circle back on that. Kind of the other side of that same coin as sauna. I think it's worth it for sure. And I think the science shows that it's worth it as well.

I prefer the cold plunge in nature because I think it's part the cold contrast, but also the nature experience. And you should do it with people that you like as well, especially if it's cold winter. So it becomes more than just going into an ice cold top. Yeah. We'll get to this. But I feel like that is a huge difference between here and other regions and the U.S. I just feel like we are so disconnected from nature.

We're so disconnected from community. And anytime I travel outside of the U.S., I really notice the stark difference. There is just not an emphasis on it anymore. It's like so, we're just so obsessed with hustle culture. And anyway, I'll go off on a tangent. I'll totally agree with you on that. Yeah. Well, we'll bookmark that one.

10,000 steps. I think the most important, if I had to say BS on something, I would probably say it here. But I think the most important part about that is the. potential reminder of moving, of not being too sedentary. Because I think if it's 10,000 steps or like just moving around your house in different way, we just don't want to be sitting still for too long. Yeah. Yeah.

And I'm actually curious about that because being in a city like Copenhagen, obviously, there's a lot of walking, there's a lot of bike riding. But again, like a lot of places outside of the U.S., walking is just part of people's day. Sure. They're not necessarily tracking. No. Exactly. Pedometer.

No. But again, people are different. and there's somebody get like a little bit, okay, I haven't moved too much today. You get the reminder and you want to go. So I think for that purpose, but I think I prefer, let's say, the hourly reminder on an app saying don't be sedentary for too long. Don't sit on your office desk for too long. Like move a little bit. Yeah.

Fasting. That's an interesting one as well. Personally, I played a lot with it back and forth and I've played with personal training clients in the past and on fasting as well. and we've done fasting challenges at our office at the team. So we're doing a lot of this stuff. I think for something, it's really interesting. I don't think it's for everybody, and I think it needs to be cycled a little bit.

So I think it's worth it. Morning sunlight. Oh, worth it, especially again if you get outside, right? Yeah. So I will think that. How are you getting your morning sunlight here if it's cloudy? So I think you're still getting the light if it's cloudy, but obviously morning sunlight in the wintertime here is not sunlight.

morning darkness. Because if you got to go up and go to work at nine or, you know, have your kids out, it will be dark until 8 o'clock, right? So you're not getting that morning light. We're trying to add light inside as well in the morning, a different type of light to get the looks number up, basically. But then I would go out later in the day. I still believe even as morning darkness, if I can take my coffee outside in the morning, go for walking the garden, just like be outside for even if it's just two minutes in doing controlled breathing, I think it's totally worth it. Kind of to that point. What about vitamin D and vitamin D testing? Oh, vitamin D testing totally worth it.

Yeah. And I'm like, you know, most people wouldn't think that, you know, let's say you're creating food supplements and you have that, but I was ongoing deficient, even though I was taking vitamin D. So I found out that I had a really hard time metabolizing it basically and getting into my body through a genetic test later on. So I think that test gave me something to really play with and gave me the opportunity to actually change my own. And I think my own dosage.

And I think what we see in general in food supplements and so on when it's something where you can actually get an accurate measurement, being able to know your own position is the future. So I think it's totally worth it. Do you think that everybody should get a blood test to see where they are and then supplement based on that? For the ones where we see that there's the most relevant data. For some blood test, if you get the wrong omega-3 fatty acid, it will vary a lot from the day. Again, the same even with magnesium testing or other types of testing. It can vary so much based on what you've been eating.

So you won't really see the intracellular level of things. But with vitamin D, which is very accurate, I think that's something where you should definitely. I think the future will be more measured and will be measured in different ways that we don't really think about right now. Speaking of measurement, are continuous glucose monitors something here or not really? Yeah. In some communities, I think, you know, for some people it might be really interesting to see what they all spike on of different foods and they will see that. I don't think it's where I would put my eggs first. Yeah.

What about GLPs? Has that? That's a big thing. Yeah, a lot of it's made here. But it's not something it's doctor driven, right? So, yeah, I think that's a topic of, you know, somewhat controversy here as well. Yeah, yeah. Okay, well, you've been in the wellness space in one way or another for, what, like 25-ish years now, not to age you. I know, thank you. You look very young. And, you know, like we were saying before, you've been in the U.S., you've been here.

You were very enmeshed in, like, the CrossFit world for a long time, right? A long time, yeah. So why don't you tell everybody we can rewind a little bit, just a little bit about your. background and what drew you to this through your own personal story? For sure. So I think like a big part, I was, you know, I was, I was always into health and wellness and seeing people thrive. I was a personal trainer while I was studying. I was like 20 years old and, you know, it was always part of how I grew up moving in different ways and, you know, trying to be healthy. And I have a story of my mom and my sister when I was raised with basically, you know, like my mom was trying to grow home crops. And

Today, my sister grow all kind of her crops in a local. It's not in a, it's not on a farm. It's like really in a garden in a city, basically, but really trying to incorporate this into early days of living a healthy life. So that drove me in from a bodybuilding kind of passion or a training passion. It took me into CrossFit one day. And CrossFit, it was like what I felt was interesting about CrossFit versus the other fitness concepts at the time.

And this is back in, I kind of watch out what I say, but I think 2006, right? So it's a long time ago, 2005 maybe even. And what I really, what really resonated with me back then was CrossFit was trying to explain fitness based on, like fitness not just being the fastest one in a like a triathlon or like they were trying to base it on general physical preparedness of measuring different things that you could do. And the person who could lift heavy, run far, jump, move weird, like be flexible, would be the most fit person. So I thought, okay, they were really applying physics to how they were creating workouts and, you know, measuring in power. So my math brain was really, okay, this is actually really interesting. So I went into that area, like into that world, got totally swallowed by it and ended up being the regional director of CrossFit in Europe. And when we started out, it was like a small, like we're doing a workout in Manchester when we finished or like, you know, Euro sport transmission, you know, thousands of athletes and spectators for.

fitness festival is crazy. So it was a fun journey for sure. But it's for me and then diving into like the building of purity, it was like it was more about I was not the top athlete. I was not built like the best crossfit. I was like too tall, too skinny for much of that stuff. But for me, I really love the performance side of it, but also love being able to do it over time.

So the longevity component became, you know, really important for me. And that's kind of what, opened my door into nutrition deficiencies and, you know, how the food industry was built and how that everybody was telling us at the time when we were researching fish oil, omega-3 products. Like, make sure that if you buy something like that and take it on every day, it got to be clean, right? Because there's pollution in the oceans.

And it was like, okay, that makes sense. That must be a data point. And make sure that it has omega-3 fatty acids in it. So it's like, okay, Dar, like it seems like you can just go to the store and that would be every single product. And then we started investigating. And none of the brands that we found while he's sharing these data points. So everybody agreed on the exact same data points.

That was the quality measures and everything. But nobody had those data points. But we felt there was such an eye opener in the industry that there must be a brand out there that want to share this data. And that's how we got started. And that was 2009? That was 2009. Yeah.

And it took like in the beginning, you know, we called it the pretty baby theory because we were like walking, standing there with our products on the lab report. courts and, you know, most people really didn't get it. Yeah. They didn't, first of all, it was too early. People didn't see it as an issue. They thought everything you buy in a store is great. You know, fast forward to where we are today.

And there's like a whole army of influences just trying to educate on how much crap there is in the stores, right? Like, and how crazy the food chain is. But back then, it was like, really, if it was sold, it was probably like, it's a health product. Yeah. Why would it be an issue? There's a lot of trust. There was a lot of trust. And that kind of has been eroded over time due to these consumers,

and whatnot. But so today, there's way more of an interest from the consumer to actually search for these type of products. I think that that's one of the good things about social media, for all the downsides. And it can be kind of weaponized, you know, depending on how people use it, or fear-mongry. But at the same time, we're so much more informed now than we were before. It is so much harder to hide. And I think what like these studies from whether it was Clean Naval Project or Consumer

reports, whatever, like they took a snapshot of a category and they shared it. And I think that gets, like on social media, that goes while when people see that their organic brand that they're buying in a high-end store at a really expensive cost, suddenly has maybe three times the amount of lead that you're actually allowed to have in a serving size of something in California. So I was like, wow, is that really happening? So I agree. There's a lot of good and there's, you know, you've got to have some guardrails on social media as well. Yeah, for sure. I've heard you say that, supplements are just that. They're supplemental, right, to the foundational things that we should be doing in our lifestyle. So let's kind of start there. What are the foundational things that you incorporate into your life, that maybe your wife incorporates that you want your kids to incorporate and all of that. We can't outperform, you know, a crappy diet. So diet is a key component. You need recovery and sleep and all that stuff and then balance. So those are things that I would incorporate. It's the basics. And I think if you go on any kind of, you know, like real health, wellness, podcast, you know, those are this, nobody will argue that you should

never strength train or don't get real food, whole foods, right? Like, these are things that we can see there's just benefit from. Or, you know, eight hours sleep, doesn't matter. Don't sleep. You don't need to sleep. You know, nobody's saying that. So I think those are still the foundation that you need to tackle before. And again, even if we touch on diet and supplements, you know, if you're going to unnamed, you know, fast food restaurants and you're not getting really high quality food and you're just picking the wrong stuff in the grocery market for your breakfast and all this stuff. You know, you can't just slap on a vitamin D and a magnesium and then believe that you're good to go. You might do a little patching, but you're not fixing the issue here, right? So you need to

focus on, you know, getting at least 80% or maybe 90% of your food from quality foods. You know, the meat and fish and vegetables and nuts and seeds and berries and that stuff, real foods and then supplement can play a really important add on to it. And again, some supplements, and now I'm almost eating my own words here a little bit, but some supplements is almost like it is more needed because they are extremely hard to get from the diet. And now we're sitting in Denmark where sunlight will be a scarce resource very soon, right? So D-vitamin, it's so hard to get enough from salmon, from eggs, from organ meats, from mushrooms and so on, to actually be thriving over the winter here.

We did survive here, remember, but we want to be thriving. And I think that's where supplements has an opportunity to really do big benefits for people because we should be thriving in winter here too. We should have a light panel. We should have all these different things that will make us going so we can, you know, stay here and live here and don't all like flock towards like better warmer climates. Even though I love that myself. I'm going to say.

And I'm doing that. Yeah, exactly. So, but I think supplements such as, you know, vitamin D and creatin are really high on those lists, I'll say. Yeah, I want to talk about those. But I did want to ask you, it seems like there is maybe a generalization. Maybe it's true that people feel better here because of the food quality. I know that for whatever reason, when I am in the U.S., and I'm sure that some of it is stress, I associate the place that I live with work and my schedule is crazy there and there's stress.

I eat as clean as possible 80% of the time. I still go out to restaurants and all of that and live my life. I'm not militant about anything. And I still come here and it's like I can eat anything and I feel amazing. And of course the stress is part of it. Of course I'm walking more when I'm traveling all of that. But have you noticed that having had both experiences? Yeah.

But as I also say about you as you can get you can get the best in the world, the most elite, the most phenomenal like you just mentioned like everyone or something like that. Yeah. You have a phenomenal store right. And you get the worst. Yeah. So like the over here, I would say the average is probably better. So but it's really hard. I'm like missing all these big like in whole foods and other stores.

When we're here, it's actually hard to find. these curated shops, basically, where you can get all these things. But at the same time, if I go into a general store, the quality of the food is in general better. So I think we are more in this mediocre phase here where most of it is good. Talking about how people feel again when we travel as well in Europe, I think a lot of that, even though if you go to places in Italy and France and here and you have bread, if you have bread here from one of the many, like I would call them, you know, it's like Michelang

style bakeries, it's such a thing here now. Oh, yeah. Have you had some good bread yet? I, well, I ate a lot of bread this morning. Okay. Yesterday I went on more of a macha crawl to some different places. But you can do those things for sure in Copenhagen. Yeah.

Like this is also where like the Nordic cuisine really pioneered like the Michelang hop of all these crazy like the nomad and all these places. Right. So we have a lot of that stuff. But that also have spilled over, I would say, into this amazing newer, I would say, newer trend in the food. here of these smaller restaurants and bakeries that are really trying to go back to like, they want to find the perfect, you know, if they're using wheat. They will find like the old wheat from, you know, a local farm somewhere. And they're so passionate about it. Then they want to ferment it for a long time. So like the sourdough here is just, it's incredible. You got to have

sourdough here from like one of, I'll, I'll give you a few places to go because. I was going to say, I had some this morning at Sanders, which was good. Which was good. But I'll get you, you can get better sourdough than that. And it's so, that's where I also feel a different. If you go out and eat like a really high quality sourdoh, and I'm gluten intolerant. So if I eat that from a, you know, I'll not feel perfect here, but I won't be wrecked.

Yeah. But if I eat something like a poor quality wheat style that I'm just like, let's say I take some toast bread at a hotel I'm traveling in the US, I'll feel very different. Yeah. So I feel the difference in, you know, the impact of the gluten here. So, and how that feel on my body. The smaller local spots are still trying to do that, like get local foods and use local

crops, do that. There's been a big push in that direction too, but I also see that in US. Yeah. So again, it depends a little bit on where we go because I feel like when we're in US as a family as well, we're healthy. And we have a lot of opportunities to be healthy. It's costly, but it's also costly here. Yeah.

And unfortunately, you know, and this is a fun deal thing yesterday. We did go with the family to like an apple picking and pair picking spot. And it was just like the way that this place has transformed, it used to be a non-organic place. Now it's been waiting to be certified organic. But after it's been certified organic, there's, you know, there were so many people walking around apple picking with their kids and so on.

It was just an amazing experience. Like for kids also to see where a fool comes from to pick an apple from a tree and just like like, you know, rub it off and then eat it straight from the, it's just amazing. Yeah. So, yeah, I think food quality in smaller societies is easier to go local farm and using what you have around you versus shipping stuff around. But I think it can live.

You can live healthy both places. Yeah. Are seed oils part of the discussion here or not really? Not as much. Okay. But I think the real discussion is, in my opinion, maybe not as much seed oils as well, but more processed foods. Mm-hmm.

You know, I think because you'll find all the processed food here too. But the key, in my opinion, is to get away from a lot of these processed foods or from these, everything that's marketed towards kids that are snacks and so on. It's like, it's like really processed crappy food that is like super crunchy and tasty and something, but not, there's no real nutrient density in it. So, you know, get back to a real apple and, you know, and chicken and like an egg from a chicken that on the local farm and it's like food is just incredible. Yeah.

Okay. My last question about nutrition and cultural differences. Is diet culture a thing here that's rampant or not so much? Because again, we have these beliefs that I think people are starting to overcome largely because of social media and just being more aware. But, you know, like carbs are bad and things like cheese are bad. Whereas you travel and, you know, even if you're in like Italy or something, they're eating pasta as a first course and bread and, you know, there's a cheese course here. And I had amazing whipped butter this morning. I have to say it was like the best thing ever.

But those are things that are kind of deemed, like, quote unquote, bad. And people really try to avoid to their detriment, I think, because you probably know, like, once you're restricting something, you're just going to want it more that's going to lead to other cravings and whatnot. So what is the difference there? I don't think it's as, you know, like, it's not as much out there as we see it in the U.S. again. I do think it's coming more and more and more. And we're seeing more and more diet cultures in Denmark as well and in northern Europe. But because again, we do copy US and a lot of different for good or for, you know, worse, right?

So I think from the dieting side, there is a part where I kind of like the idea of the learnings around what's actually in the food macros and so on, where when I'm looking at, and this goes even back when I was a personal trainer, if you had someone coming in and you want to start to make some changes that was meaningful and lasting over time, most people are really poorly educated on nutrition. They have no idea what is a carb and what is a protein and what's a fat sauce. Even as basic as what it sounds, you know, like is this potato, what is that actually? Is it a like fat protein?

Like what is the main macros in the food? So I think some of it is actually some education. And that's something that I would have loved to see like in the school system earlier on that people were educated on the basics of nutrition. Just having like the base because then you can make very different educated choices. And for some believe, I would say when you go on a diet, you'll at least start to pay attention to that a little bit. But again, in diet, I came from Greek of being like way of life. And so it shouldn't be something you're doing for 30 days and then have quick fix apps or something like that.

It should be something that you're, you know, small implements changes that you can implement into your daily routine. But again, there's a lot of stuff on social media here. I'm not the one being exposed most to it probably. I have gone that route and I've been on. the weirdest diets myself when I was like a younger trainer and wanted to like gain muscle mass and doing different things from the pie diet to the milk diet to like what's the pie diet there was something we almost you know build ourselves here but it was like we had to have like after dinner we had a group of friends that were working out together this is really like the study

years right so it's early days but we had to have a pie afterwards for dessert so we were buying like strawberry pies and different things afterwards because we were trying to gain weight so very That was like me in Santorpe. I was on the pie diet. You're on the pie diet. Yeah. I still love to go back on it sometimes, but it's not the best force. That's so funny. Oh my gosh. Okay, well, let's talk a little bit about supplementation. Say that somebody has the basics down. I feel like my audience, you know, largely women, but we do have some male listeners as well. Shout out. But say that somebody has those fundamentals down. They're sleeping. They are doing some kind of movement. they are eating a pretty well-balanced, nutritious diet.

Where does supplementation come in? I know that protein is a big one because that is something that it seems like people really struggle to hit their protein goals. I love that you mentioned protein because I would actually put that over on food for a second. So it's more of a food hack. So let's come back to the supplements. So I see trying to hit your protein goal. And whether that is whatever we are being. you know, seeing as the goals right now, whether it's 1.6 gram protein per kilo body weight or all the way to above 2.2,

pending a little bit on whether you're like following Dr. Ronda Patrick or Dr. Gabriel Lyon or any of these out there. I think for my wife as well, she was probably aimed at like maybe close to to 1.8 grams of protein. If you look at that from a perception of being a 135 pound, and I did pounds, right, even here in Denmark, which really, So I appreciate that. That's, let's say, 130 grams, under 25 grams of protein. When you start measuring that out, it's quite a lot. Very hard. It is actually really hard.

And you've got to consider everything that you're putting on your plate so that you can, because there's protein cells and plants as well. So it's not just if you just measure out, you know, let's say a plate of your chicken and so on. It requires quite a lot, right? But for that purpose, I think I see protein supplement as a, a protein food, basically. So we are enriching it. And I'll tell you my wife's hack,

and you're starting to see this on social media, but it's so simple. So she'll do a bowl of Greek yogurt, like high quality Greek yogurt. Sometimes she'd like it full fat. Sometimes she don't like it full fat. So she'll mix that little bit. I'll try to convince her that's okay

to get some full fat there as well, some good fats. But she'll add a scoop of protein in it, which is 21 grams in itself, but into that little bowl of maybe, say there's 10 grams of protein from the Greek yogurt, she's on 31 grams right there. She might put some homemade nut butters or some nuts and seeds on top. Maybe she gets to 35, maybe even 37 grams of protein in, you know, a snack that doesn't have to be bigger than this.

It's actually incredibly powerful to see it as that. So we will use protein powder as ways to really add that in, also with the kids. So we're doing that in the morning. You know, you can't get around. Breakfast. It's hard to get kids to eat. like salmon or steak or eggs every morning before they go to school and you got to raise them out. Right. It's really hard, even though it would be amazing sometimes. Anyway, so like an oats meal or,

you know, overnight oats or anything like that. But if we had a scoop of protein, now I have a scoop of collagen in there as well, suddenly I can get like a little oat size and then put some nuts and berries on top. And it's like the nutrition balance of adding that much protein to it with an amino acid profile that's really strong for all the different things that you want. We'll dive into amino acids, a little bit later on just the building blocks of protein. But I think it's such a powerful food add-on tool that I would want to have in my cabinet, less a supplement, especially when you're taking high-quality protein powder, which might be only one ingredient, like the actual, you know, concentrate of way that come from cheese making that are just used

from a high-quality grass-fit cow, a pasturate cow. Like, it's really a food, in my opinion. So for that, we are using it for various ways. We also use. it for shakes because it's sometimes you can blend a lot of stuff in and you can get to a really good protein density out of like a small shake. So even for my wife, if she wants to have, she doesn't feel like getting to 35 grams of protein in the morning from eggs because it's maybe six to seven grams in an egg. It's a boatload of eggs, right? So like for some people, that's that's not really feasible. And you want like a protein rich meal in the morning. You don't want just have one egg and like a bun with cheese. It's like if you look at the macros there, you need more to stimulate muscle

protein synthesis or whatever you're trying to do, basically. But more protein will also make you more saturated over there. So adding like a protein shake where you can, we can blend in, like again, I would also mix the collagen in. So collagen is not a perfect protein as such for the building blocks of muscle, but it's great like from a perspective of getting glycine and amino acids that are great for skin, joints and bone, basically on bones, but ligaments. So you're building that in with the way you're suddenly in a shake. You can have like a small shake. You can have 40 grams of protein.

And then you have your egg and your fruit and whatever you have. And you like have a great start today. So I think for us, it's really seeing it as a food sauce. And when you calculate it backwards that even from the financial perspective or economically perspective, then the protein part of it looks expensive on the back. But when you take it down to the amount of quality. proteins you're getting in a serving, it's actually really feasible to add into, like, you know, it's a half a scoop into a kit to give them 10 gram of quality protein with the other

stuff that they're getting. And it tastes good. So it's like, it's like, I think win, win, win here, right? Yeah. Even though like the raw prices of quality way is just skyrocketing. Yeah. So people are seeing this product go to, you know, because it's become very popular. Yeah. And it comes from cheese production. And we're not making that much more cheese. So like, there's a demand. here, unfortunately, which is great. Anyway, that's a different story. So I think protein is for us, it's something we look at it. I look at it in my night journal at night. So I'm like, what am I trying to hit? And I'll just go back. Okay, I had breakfast. I had this. And I'll, and even sometimes

if I didn't hit my protein goal during the day, I would have a snack at night and I would add, you know, Greek yogurt protein in it. I would add the collagen there too. And I'm like a 40 grand protein snack. And it's delicious. Oh, I used to do that too. Yeah. Yeah. So it's such a, I think for that is convenient. And it's quick. I've never heard somebody categorize protein as a protein supplement as a food source, but you're very right. And it really is a struggle.

And you said that you've been listening to some past episodes. I can't remember who my guest was, who I was talking to, who I remember saying it's very hard to overeat protein. And it's hard to overeat when you're hitting those protein numbers because the satiety component of it. And I can't remember who. I love all my guests, but I remember this guest pushed back and said, no, that's not true. You can totally overeat. And I was like, oh, uh-huh. I disagree with that, actually.

I think it's harder. But, yeah, I think it's harder. I mean, I'm sure you can depending on like the form. But for sure. And I think again, I can make a protein shake with 100 grams protein. Exactly. And I can actually like drink it quickly and get it down. And that will be too much.

Yeah. Like, it will probably be overeating. But so I think it's doable. But I think for us, like, if you look at the things that are easy to eat, whether it's in your breakfast, if it's not, you know, eggs and so on. Like, it is hard to get to amount of protein in that sitting without being it like almost like a, like a more like a big meal sort of thing. So I think for that, whether it's like when you're in Copenhagen and you go out and you get your BMO, is it called like bun with cheese and which is great. But I think then you often get

one egg on the side for breakfast. And you know, it's not enough. Or my breakfast. I'll tell you. Okay. I had probably the best granola I've ever had. which normally I don't. Well, sometimes I'll sprinkle it on my yogurt bowl in the morning or my oat bowl or something. But I had granola. Fruit. I always do protein. But at home, I struggle with the dairy there.

So I usually do coconut yogurt. And then I mix in my protein with that. So I'm still getting it, but I'm not getting the amount that I have here when I'm actually having dairy. I had granola berries. I had two eggs. I had some kind of bread. I had that whipped butter. But again, it's like the two eggs.

Yeah, it's 14 grams maybe. Yeah. And it's very difficult when you're, unless you're making a massive omelet or something. For sure. It is hot. But I also try to tell people like make sure you also count like the nuts and the seeds because there is actually some protein. There's definitely the quality difference in protein based on that composition of amino acid

that's underneath. That's where like the animal plant sources are just often richer in what we call the essential amino acids. So proteins are basically building blocks. So that's a very simple way of explaining proteins. And they're built up of these 20 different amino acids. Nine of them are essential, which mean your body, you need them from food. You can't create them yourself.

And the animal-based proteins are just higher in the essential amino acids. So that's why they're often considered, like, you know, more powerful. You get more bang for the buck. That's also why weight protein is pretty powerful too because it goes down the same. But there's also plants that are, you know, have all the essential. amino acids, oftentimes you just need to eat a lot of them. Like if you look at some of the like kinoa and so on, it is, there's protein in it. And you should count that. And I, and that's what I'm also trying to get to. So if I'm looking at a dinner, I don't just need

to count protein from a, you know, fish or steak. I can count if I'm having kinoa and I'm having, you know, salad with nuts and seeds and different things. And there's protein there too. So it's definitely part of it. Yeah, just again, back to that being aware. If you had a little bit of food education, it's much easier to understand a plate and see the composition of it. And I get it is goddamn hard when you don't have that knowledge because what is amino acids actually? Is the difference between the amino acids in rice and in beans and in peas? And it is.

There is difference. And rice and beans actually go well together because then you get the complete profile out of it. But if you take them separately, they're not. That's why like a Mexican dish with rice and beans together, you'll actually get all of the amino acids. You need a lot of them still because the total amount per serving is lower. So you probably will intake more calories in total when you're doing that, but you can get there. I was just going to say, I mean, if you're concerned about body composition or calories or

things like that, it can be a little bit trickier if somebody is plant-based, right, because the protein sources tend to be either higher fat content like the nuts or higher carb content. For sure. So it's something to be cognizant. Yeah. It is a lot. And it's hard. There's also, if you're taking all that in, there's a lot of fiber and so on. It's actually hard to eat that much food too. Yeah. I could never. No.

I wouldn't. And I love the fish in there, yeah. Yes. I want to talk about how many supplements the average person needs. So before I came here, you were so gracious. You gave me this amazing travel pack, which is so needed with the essentials. And they happen to be the things that I take. And I was telling you that I take supplements based on my blood work, magnesium,

omega's. Vitamin D. vitamin D. What was the other one? Zinc. Are those things that most people tend to benefit from that we are deficient in?

I think let's say what we're seeing in most of, like let's start by vitamin D. There's definitely a difference in summer and winter and where you're living on that because the best vitamin D is from sunlight. But even you look at the studies

out of like Australia or the very sunny areas, they're not getting enough vitamin D because they're using much sunscreen or they're covered in the meantime. You need to be outside with your body to actually get the vitamin D. It's not enough just sitting on a cafe

and getting some sunlight in your face. It's great for your mood. So that's where a supplement can just bring a real big benefit and bang for the buck, basically. So vitamin D, I would say, omega-3, if you don't eat fatty fish, you can totally get enough omega-3 in your diet

if you actually eat, like my mother will do all winter eat, for lunch because it's just a thing, right? So she's totally getting enough from that. Or if you're, you know, prioritizing fatty fish like sardines and anchores and salmon and so on in your diet on a regular basis. But it has to be pretty regular. And we also got to be honest.

Most people are not eating fatty fish or sardines for breakfast four times a week. Exactly. So I was going to say any amount that you need to eat. It's quite a lot. Yeah. And again, like, again, you would be up maybe to get to a total when you also count in, let's say, grass-fed beef where there's more omega-3 in it versus, you know, conventional beef. But if you want to get to like the 8% blood index of like red cell blood index of

omega-3 fatty acid, which is what a lot of these longevity scientists are looking at, that seems to be like the optimal stage. Most people are probably around 4 or 5%. So much lower on that, you know, a supplement as a capsule, where it is three simple pills to get you 2,000 milligram if you take three of our pills, for example, 2,000 milligrams of EPA, DHA. It's really a powerful, you know,

you need to eat quite a lot of food to serve that. So from that perspective, it's very high in the hierarchy. So vitamin D would be on top, I would say, creotin is another one. And that one actually is, as we talked about before. It's interesting because that is almost impossible to get enough from food. Or enough.

Again, here's the difference of, are we thriving? Are we surviving? Yeah, but we've never been used to getting this much creatine in our diet because we didn't. That's true. But what we're seeing is, like, if we can get like that creatin level up in our body, there's a lot of other benefits, not just muscle and training, which used to be, you know, the key where it's such a widely study compound. Because it, like, it really had benefits in the short burst of explosive training. You could clearly see an impact on muscle, which then, you know, if you're training more, you're building more muscle. It's like a plus plus thing here, right?

But also on the brain health, on sleep deprivation, on a lot of different things. Menopause? Menopause. Yeah. On concussion, on like, and so on. So I think from that perspective, it is a staple. And it's like you're not going to get there. Your body can create some, but it's never going to get to the five grams that I probably say

the benchmarks in most studies in the U.S. a day. What is a food source of creatine? It will be a herring. Oh, back to our hair. Herring is great. The theme is I need to start eating herring. Yeah, but it's still, like, you need to eat a lot of herring. Yeah.

Too much herring. Yeah. So I would not rate. Beef is also, like classic, like red meat is a good, not chicken the same way. So you need to go probably to the red meat. But again, it's like you need to eat like, let's say a kilo to get. And you're not eating that. So it's, it is one of the things where the, like, the little spoon of powder that you can take in glass of water,

in a shot. Like, it's, it's so little, it's so convenient, and it's, it's just cost effective and powerful. Mm-hmm. We were talking before about Dr. Ronda Patrick's conclusion on a study about omegas, correct? And how, in her opinion, omega deficiency or poor omega ratio is akin or worse than smoking. Is that due to the anti-inflammatory properties of omegas? Yeah. I think it might be a multitude.

Without knowing the data, I won't tell you what's the difference because I don't. But I think it's just incredible to see that something we all generally know that smoking is not good for us. Like it will take life years off our life, right? But that the association here was so clear that you saw people that had a higher omega-3 index and were smokers, were actually doing better than the non-smokers with low mega-3 index. That's like such a... That's crazy. Yeah, a big thing.

And that's also why if you told healthy people that difference, you know, it makes sense to to add a quality omega to your regimen of the few supplements. And again, you can get this tested as well so you can see your blood index and you can see omega-3 index in your blood. But most people don't do that. I think we get to a future where we'll have that data in way more of it and easier, accessible. But at the moment, I would still say it's a pretty decent way if you're not having fish,

I would add that in. Do you feel like magnesium has become overused in the wellness space? Or do you think it's kind of necessary? I think it's really, I think people, and actually what we've seen as well, and this is anecdotal data, but I think it's one of the products that we get most customer feedback from where they really feel a difference. So it's something they feel immediately. They feel it like less like restless legs or they sleep better or they feel that they're more, you know, present and so on, like more. Like, I'm more rested probably, but that's something we see anecdotally.

I think magnesium is easier to get from your diet if you wanted to. By adding, you know, greens and nuts and so on into your diet, you can get there in dark chocolate or whatnot. But I think for many people, they're still not getting enough. And when we look at, and don't get me into that as well, but when we look at depletion of, like the general status of conventionally grown plants, you would tend to see magnesium on a decrease. So the amount of magnesium, let's say, in a vegetable might have decreased significantly over the last 50 years versus what it used to. Did our need for that decrease this much? Probably not.

Probably it actually may be increased due to the stress factors and so on of modern life. So that's one side. And yeah, and I would say finally, obviously people are maybe not eating as many greens and things that they should. Yeah. But I would, again, prioritize getting food. Especially in the U.S. where we have the parasites going around now. Horror stories to... Samanella and Ecoli, all kinds of things.

Yeah, it's tricky. It is tricky. I want to touch on the electrolytes piece as well because I feel like, at least in the U.S., like the wellness world likes to kind of latch on to things as a panacea. You know, I'm biased. I'm creating these products as well.

And I take it, but I will tell people, like, if they wanted the cheapest solution, they should take, like, in the morning, wake up, like a quality salt. in water, you know, maybe a squeeze of lemon in there. And like, that will be a great starting point as a great hydration for the day. If you are, and I think for what I saw is, was like the potassium intake, but also, you know, getting more trace minerals like the mangane, like the different trace minerals that you can get

as well from food. If you add that in, you can get a more well-rounded electrolyte. And I think that is interesting. And I do take it and it tastes good too. And it is convenient. And we got to be, you know, talking. about what we started out discussing Europe versus US, especially like convenience is a major factor, especially in the US. Convenience is a big thing. And people love, I always say this,

and I think that this is true for a lot of people, myself included sometimes, I think people would rather take something than make a lifestyle change or modification. It's easier to supplement with something than to change a habit or something or do something where there's any friction, right? Sure. It is. And that's not a knock because I can totally fall into that trap as well. Me too.

But I think sometimes the positive is if you can be almost habit stacking this together. So maybe like taking that electric flight also make you go outside in the morning and, you know, drink it and get a little fresh air and do two breathing exercises before you go. Then I think that's one of the most powerful. things actually of, you know, things you can do. And that's where I think sometimes even what we see as well is like people that are starting on supplements even before they made the diet change, they might actually start making diet changes the other way around.

So it can has a positive effect or it will keep them accountable on their workout because now I bought this product because I was like going to the gym more and now I have it standing on my shelf, but I'm eating it, but I'm not going to the gym. So it might actually be a kind reminder. So if it can help people in a positive way, it's definitely not where they should start, right? Like it's back to the basics every single time. But sometimes these habit stacking can actually help you creating better habits, right? So, yeah. I want to talk about third party testing. Sure. Because that's something that not a lot of brands do, right? No. And it's very expensive.

It's a, there's layers of third party testing to it for sure. Okay. So let's get into that. Yeah, I think when we look at, let's say, the protein category. And I think protein is, is very relevant because you're taking a larger dose. So like for many capsule products, it's such a small dose, right? Like you have, you know, in a capsule there's like not even a gram, right? But if you're taking a protein powder, you're taking 21 grams of something or it's maybe 30 or 40 grams. So it's a decent dose. When you look at the recent studies that has been created by Clean Naval project, by consumer reports, where they basically take testing, you know, a very large percentage of what is accessible to Americans in these studies. And they're testing.

testing them for heavy metal content, for example. They tend to find, like, the Clean Label project study, which tested 83% of U.S. protein powders. So it's like a very representative study. 47% of them were above Proposition 65 on the dosage they put on, like one dosage of the powder, daily limit. So daily limit. So you're taking a product where there's heavy metals above the Proposition 65

dose in one single dose. And you're getting other stuff too. And Parasyssin 65 does take that into consideration. So to be fair. But anyway, so it is a strict standard. Anyway, when you're buying something like a protein powder and you're really adding something healthy to a diet, you shouldn't have an unhealthy byproduct. I think everybody could agree on that.

It's not like this is the salmon or the fish or the experience you got when you were dining out somewhere. So this is really the food. I think we have in, obviously, it's clear that we have some kind of an industry-wide issue that there tend to be products that accumulate heavy metals into it. And when you concentrate that into a protein powder, the consumers will get that. That's what the data is shown. So third-party testing, what does that mean?

For many, I think many brands are unfortunately now slapping third-party testing on their packaging, where it's like a test from a lab that they did and so on. In my opinion, it's not really third-party testing. What Clean Naval Project has been doing and what we tried to pioneer with the Clean-Nable project, it is really radical consumer-true. transparency. So like there's a QR code on every single label of our products. If you scan that QR code, you'll be taken to Clean Label Projects website. You can choose the exact batch of that fissurel, protein, collagen, whatever it is you have in hand. And you can see the data points of that

batch. So that will be like heavy metal content or was a pesticide residue in this way. Antibiotics, anything that I didn't want like in this product. And you'll be able to see that in the actual batch. That is like the deepest layer of transparency that the Clean Naval project have. Unfortunately, it's still the only brand out of the hundreds of supplement brands that has that certification. The rest of them is still much better because they've chosen to get certified and certification in general, like with organic certifications and whatnot, they test maybe it's like 3% or 4%. They will test randomly a year on the product. But I think what we've seen is, and we are testing nerds, that's definitely what we've been doing for the last

many years. We've tested so many products in labs that we have an idea of where is contaminants coming from, which are more stable than others, what's happening over time. So for us, that layer, even with our knowledge and what we've seen, we've had, I think I wrote a newsletter on this a few months back, but we've seen probably three products so far this year in our end, popular products. I like not, not, yeah, this, where we've had significant out of stock issues because we can't source the same raw ingredients again. Because when we source it and test in our lab, we find it could be heavy metal. It could be something like it. It could be something from the packaging we suddenly see in the product. So because we do this testing on every batch,

we catch that. It's not something. And we are, I say we put like father, like every manufacturer and farmer and producer we work with know that we're putting that data on. So they know they can't hide. So they probably give us, my guess is the best crops, the best stuff. But even with that knowledge that we have three issues on, you know, 12 different products this year as being the one that really are market leader in testing. I think there's an industry issue still. So one thing is the components of the stuff you do not want, the side products of heavy metals, the pesticides and all that stuff. The other thing is the stuff you're buying. Does it label, actually, is the label being met? Do you have omega-3 fatty acids in your fish oil that you're buying?

Does it have EBA DHA? So some of these things is what we've been doing. testing for and what we think is the future of consumer food safety because it's a data point. I remember learning maybe a year or two ago a little bit more about the supplement industry and learning that what they say is in the supplement is not necessarily what's in the supplement. It's just kind of like the Wild West, right? It's crazy. I think we've, that's given so, there's certain rules that let's say you put 1,000 milligram of something into your product. There's certain rules of how much more you can have in and how much less you can have. For example, in a multivitamin, you can see a lot of these percentages.

And it's a very small amount of compound, which is actually really hard to make. But there's a room because there will be a gap. So they'll be tested. Unfortunately, if you can imagine how, like a rule like that, it's very rarely brands are being tested. If you think of the amount of products that are out there. And I, to be honest, I don't think we need this. So sometimes I've seen the supplement industry felt like, especially the protein industry, oh, we're being, you know, they're being pretty hard on us because you're taking it, you know,

and showing brand names and they're above certain levels of Prop 65 standards of lead, for example, in a product. And they're being really hard on us because if you test other products, you'll see apples might have and sweet potatoes and, you know, the cacao beans and, you know, all the different things that you'll see, you'll find that there too. And I think, yes, that's definitely the case that there are more scrutinization probably right now. There's more tension. It's also a newly built industry

with a lot of interest, right, and a lot of hype. So sure, there will be some, but the goal is not to just, you know, point at one. The goal is to get these standards overall better. So you and I can go into a stall and buy an apple or a piece of Simon and not be worried about the data point. So we need to, I think,

one thing is that the protein industry is under, I think it's fair that there is this, attention to it, but I would love to see other areas of food where there's a high risk of contamination to be scrutinized a little bit, like potatoes or oats or rice or something like that. So we get some consumer studies out there too because I think at the end of the day, the brand's not doing this too. You know, it's just not something that you're necessarily testing for. Even though you said third-party tested, you don't really have this data point on your batch level. So, oh, I can talk for hours about this, as you can hear.

This is something we definitely spend so much time on. But the whole purpose is by adding the QR code on every single packaging, people are not scanning it every single time. But hopefully we create the trust. And if you're scanning, no trust us that we are scanning it every single time because we're not releasing it to public before that QR code is up, before the testing has been done, not by us, by a third part. Because sometimes the lab reports we get from manufacturing does not show the exact same data point

that we get when we thinned it to a third-party lab like Clean Naval Project. So food safety, in my opinion, we need to tackle the highest groups, the highest risks, food groups of contamination, get some big category studies going. And then I know that the industry will try to clean up itself. I think that, I think it's amazing. And it shows a lot of confidence in what you're doing and your product that you're not doing it to be the only brand. You're doing it to try and help raise the bar.

and set precedent within the industry, right? And it just speaks to, again, you have the confidence that you have. Because if other brands do it, you're not the only one, but that's okay because you let the charge, right? And somebody got to do that. Yeah. And we're seeing this in baby food. We're seeing this in so many different categories. There's new brands out there that really are trying to make better products.

Yeah. And I think, again, with data and knowledge. And we shouldn't be like maybe focusing or be too worried about content. of X in these type of products if we see there's no issue of that contaminant in that type of product. So again, for us, we got to test for everything. We're testing wider than we should. Most protein powders should test for heavy metals. They do not necessarily need to test for all the different pesticides or antibiotics and so on out there.

That's because we want to be tip of the spear and kind of showing this dataset and having that data set for others to use. But again, if we can clean up an industry, it's like taking the big issues and tackle them first. What was the most shocking thing when you first started testing that was revealed through that testing? That's a really big and good question, actually. I have not, I think that we couldn't trust the manufacturers that we were working with.

I think we've seen several manufacturers that we don't work with anymore, which like when we were sitting and you meet them and you talk about the product you want to create and you're setting up and, you know, you get the PowerPoint presentation. and we do all of this. And when we get out and formulate it, oh, you can't do that. It's impossible. And we're like,

what? We just talked about, no, no, we won't lab data on everything. It's like, oh, that's not possible. Don't do that. And we're like, wow, like some of these findings I didn't really expect, but, you know, maybe I was naive.

But I think when we have seen things that are ending up in foods and so on, I'm worried about other categories as well. I'm worried about the other stuff that I take in sometimes. as well because just of what we've seen in these tests. And I don't know how much I can share or validate. We'll just have to use our imagination. But again, it's like you're way above certain standards of what you would find safe for human consumption.

Amazing. Well. Unfortunately, our food chain is polluted and maximized for profit versus for function or purity. And you would say that here as well? Here as well. I think, and again in the U.S. as well, I think we're seeing a trend to the other side of these like micro farms and microwave regenerative farming. We're seeing, you know, small farmers that really just care about what they're doing.

Yeah. And I love to see that more of that. That's also like I was there, a final, like a comment at least on certifications. You might go to your local farmers market and you have like beautiful quality, you know, to say, oranges, you're in Los Angeles where oranges can grow. They can't grow here. And you can be fine buying that from a local farm, knowing the farmer saying, hey, we've never sprayed this area with like pesticides and so on. But they're not certified organic. Because maybe that farm is a little family farm. They're not big enough to, you know, do it. Maybe they only sold their fruit for smaller,

you know, farmer markets and so on. And it does make sense to be certified. So I think just, I always buy organic when I can. But I, if I know the fact that the local, farmer has, you know, done everything and that this little area has been treated the right way for generations, I'm not to worry about, you know, not buying that because it's not organic. And sometimes when you build big brands and you need to go out and, you know, you need to convey messages that are easy and simple understanding, people understand organic. Organic is probably better. But, you know, we at the best, I would say, example I can find out of how crazy that can be as well

is that we were like going into, you know, some retail stores with our official product. And, you know, the buyers were saying, oh, can we got to have organic on the label. And so no, no, it's wild caught fish, right? So it's not organic. Yeah. But organic is like, it's much better if we have organic on.

So just because the consumer has this perception that we need to change sometimes and that, you know, taking it back to if we can get to these local smaller places and get food from like, I think it's great. But you gotta know them as well. Yeah. Yeah. Amazing. Well, tell everybody where they can find you.

So they will find, they will find Puri mostly on, you know, Pure Life on Instagram and Puri on Pure.com as, as you know as well. And in show notes. And in show notes, yeah. But yeah, they'll find more bottles there. And again, it's been a long journey. But the journey is, I think, first now really starting to become more meaningful for people because we're starting to see there's an issue.

And, you know, that's the, that's the, that's the, beginning point for us. We're excited that we will see more brands following through. There's so many more brands just being certified now by the Clean Naval project, which we think is exciting. We hope that more brands will be transparency certified or transparency award as well, so they will share that data. And I think the future is, you know, making these better decisions based on data and not like fearmongering. Yeah. Well, you've been spearheading it, so it's amazing. It's a long journey. It's fun. It's still fun and we're still having fun. Good. And learning. Well, thank you so much.

Thank you. Thank you for coming to Copenhagen. Thank you for having me. Yeah, it's just really nice. I know. I'm glad it worked out. Thanks again. Thank you.

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