From McNuggets to Mystery Ingredients: What's Really in Your Food w/ Itay Shechter

0:00Welcome to the Just Ingredients podcast. I'm Cara Lynn, and here we dive deep into the journey of healing and wellness. If you're ready to learn, feel empowered, and take charge of your health, you're in the right place. Welcome back to the show, everyone. Today, I am super excited for our guest. He is known on Instagram as GFBeef, or you may know him as the guy in the hazmat suit, because that's how my kids know you. His reels on Instagram are so fun. We'll tell you more about those reels in just a minute. But it's Itai. And so thank you, Itai, for being here and for traveling here. Of course.

0:39I told you this at Expo West when I first met you that you are like the person I wanted to meet because I just love what you're doing on those Instagram reels. For those, if you haven't followed him, he takes a product like chewing gum was one that you did and you broke it down to every single ingredient. We started with a tire, a car tire. That's right. You started with tire. Remind me why you started with the tire. The gum base, when you see gum base on the label, it's actually full of synthetic rubber, polyisobutylene rubber. And it's the same compound that you have in your car tire. Okay, that's right.

1:15We could technically make a gum from the same material. Okay, so you guys, that's what he does is he finds all the ingredients and then shows you how unhealthy some of these processed foods are. And so I'm excited to talk to you today. And listeners, we actually are going to make a reel today also, which I'm super excited about. It's going to be a fun one. It's going to be so fun. But before we get started with our podcast, why don't you just tell my listeners maybe how you got started with making these crazy videos? First of all, the reason why I started making content was my own health journey.

1:46Like I had a lot of issues with eczema and rosacea and sleep issues and skin issues. And when I try to resolve it the conventional way, going to doctors, talking with them, I would just, you know, in Canada, it's not great, but you would wait so long to see a doctor and then they would look at you for five seconds. Oh, take some steroid cream and antibiotics and call it a day. That didn't feel right to me. So I want to know, is there something in my power to do? And the more I dug into, OK, let's see what I can control, what I can eat. And I wasn't eating all of these ultra processed foods that I'm making necessarily.

2:20I was eating what's considered healthy, but still it wasn't enough for me. And the more I dug into Whole Foods and prioritizing them, I just starting to see the improvement, taking it from there. I start spread the message to my close friends and family. I start to see they improve. And eventually I was like, I need to make some content around that. So were you eating like a really bad diet or just average American diet or in your case, a Canadian diet? I would say something that is considered healthy, but it's not necessarily. Like I would eat a lot of these granola bars. I would eat them every day because it's healthy, right?

2:58Okay. I would eat a lot of bread and pastas and all of these derivatives. I would eat, you know, I would say a fair amount of fruits and vegetables, but don't necessarily prioritize organic where it matters. So I wouldn't even think about food this way. I would just think, is it taste good? Yes or not. I know that I need to avoid mega ultra processed stuff like the fast food. Everyone knows fast food is not good for you. So I wouldn't really eat that maybe more than once or twice a year. But when I started on my health journey, it was a certain time. And I don't even know how to pinpoint that point in time where I realized, OK, some ultra processed ingredients, all of them, actually.

3:38Let's avoid them. See what happens. Let's see what happens if we focus just on whole foods, real foods. Oh, I love that. Because I think a lot of people think like, oh, yeah, I don't eat the junk. Like I don't eat the Oreos or the Captain Crunch or, you know, a ton of ice cream. But they might be having what they think is healthy every day. And it could just even be like their salad dressings or their crackers or, I mean, like you said, granola bars. There was a lot of good marketing out there. There is. We've been to Expo West. Yeah. Everything is trying to be healthy. The reality is a lot of them are not really.

4:11Yeah, that is true. There were really good products at Expo West and a lot of products that you're like, oh my gosh, how are you even allowed in this? But they all claim to be the better for you version, which is not necessarily the case. I know. So true. Okay, so I want to talk about these reels with you, if that's okay, your content that you make. And I'm fascinated because you usually always have a gas tank in your content. And usually the gas tank is for artificial flavors, correct? For a lot of things. But yeah, artificial flavors is a good representation because a lot of them are starting with something completely artificial.

4:50And a lot of that is derived from petroleum. So essentially, yes, you can start with petroleum and end up with something that's artificial flavor. So what are they mixing with the petroleum? First of all, it's proprietary. So we don't really know. We can only know like the big ones, like vanillin, like the artificial vanilla flavor. We kind of know the process where you take something like guayacol, which again is a petroleum byproduct. Then you oxygenate it, you mix it with a bunch of chemical reaction, and you end up with pure vanillin, which is essentially artificial vanilla flavor, which is cheaper substantially than a vanilla bean pound for pound, maybe 100 times cheaper, if not more.

5:31So the financial incentive is there. We can take those cheap petroleum byproducts and make them into flavoring, into preservatives, into a bunch of stuff that's going to help us as a business, like at scale, if I'm thinking, to cut costs and maybe even extend shelf life. Yeah, it's a huge financial gain for the company because they are so cheap. But I'm curious, do you have a chemistry background or how did you learn all of this? I mean, it's all out there. It's nothing few hours of research. You can all find it. I don't even come up with this stuff. I look what these companies are doing. I look at the ingredient list, which is public.

6:09You can look up the ingredient list. Then you can look up how these are made. What is the process? What is the general process? And take it from there. The same with the gum. We discussed about the gum and the gum base. A lot of people don't realize that it's purely synthetic rubber. And it's actually a really bad source of microplastic, chewing gum. Oh, interesting. So that kind of ticked me because gum, you don't even think about it. And, you know, a lot of times people think, okay, I don't even swallow it. I just chew on it. What could happen? Well, you can chew on a bunch of microplastics.

6:42Might be worth visualizing it to people and showing them a tire in the kitchen in order for them to internalize the message and get them to say, okay, maybe I shouldn't eat regular gum. I know. My employees actually were showing each other that video yesterday at work because some people were like, who is he? You know, and so they were showing them and they all afterwards were like, oh, my gosh, are you going to chew gum anymore? Are you going to chew gum? They're like, we can't believe all that stuff's in there. And so it is a good visual of how some of these products are made. So, OK, I want to ask you, though, talking about processing things.

7:19A lot of times in your video, you show hexane. Yes. Are you using that because it's a processing agent? It's a good solvent, which basically that's the main usage of hexane. They use it as a solvent. So for essentially when you are making seed oils, in order to extract a bit more oil, if you mix it with petroleum solvents like hexane, you can get more oil to come out. And they should clean it, right? But you can find residue in seed oils, considered in safe amounts. Obviously, all of this is regulated. But you do have some trace amount of hexane in your average seed oil. Which is so interesting because it's a processing agent.

7:55They don't have to list it on the label. So it doesn't say like canola oil and then comma hexane. It just is canola oil. That and the glyphosate and some things don't even make it to the label. Yeah, a lot of things don't make it to the label. With hexane though, isn't there a better way that we can do this? Well, there is cold pressing, which is what we did for thousands of years. And it's not going to get you as much oil, but it's going to be more obviously cleaner, more evolutionary consistent, I would say, and won't have any petroleum derivative floating around, even in tiny, small amounts.

8:28Yeah. So it's cheaper again for the companies. You yield more with hexane, right? So think about if, and I don't know the exact number off the top of my head, but think about that. If you yield 20 % more oil with hexane than without, then you can sell it for more. So when you make your videos, are you only using hexane when you're using seed oils? Not necessarily. You can also use it for other stuff. You can use it to isolate the proteins, for example, soy proteins. There are a lot of use cases for hexanes. The main ones would be, I would say, fat extractions, protein extraction, and you can also use it for things like soy lecithin, sunflower lecithin, and stuff like that.

9:10That's right. I do see you using it when you make soy lecithin. You have your soybeans in there and then pour in some hexane. So our soy lecithin is in almost every packaged food, I feel like. And so that's what they're using is hexane? There isn't really a soy lecithin that's not ultra processed. That's a clearly ultra processed product that didn't exist. We brought it into existence. So yeah, most likely they use hexane. Organic one would not use hexane. They may use other methods, but It's an ultra-processed ingredient at the end of the day. Okay, let's talk about glyphosate, because I do see you out with, like, you're spraying something, pretending it's glyphosate.

9:52And so, yeah, let's just maybe talk about it. Why do you hate glyphosate? You know, I think none of us were born to ingest or consume glyphosate on a biological level, but also on a philosophical level. We're talking about an agricultural giant company that is essentially forcing this on the population without our consent. Now, they can say that's fine. It's safe in small amount. Here are the studies that may not be funded. But I think it's our right not to at least make the decision if we want something like this floating around our body. And logically, for me, it doesn't make sense, right? For me, a synthetic herbicide that's meant to kill shouldn't be even in very small, tiny, safe amounts on our food.

10:38So I just like to show how crazy that is that we don't even think about it here in America as a society. It's like it's not on the label. We don't even discuss it on the day to day. Maybe we do because we are actually in here talking about ingredients and those things. But the average person have no idea or don't care. And if I can get one person to flip from not caring into caring, for me, that's a win. Oh, I love that. Yeah, that's the problem is a lot of people don't care. Sometimes my 20-year-old employees think they're invincible, and so they don't care. And I'm like, oh, we've got to keep educating.

11:14So I love that you educate in a fun way. The glyphosate, though, what is crazy to me is it's in Roundup, in the weed killer Roundup. And so parents are like, oh, kids, be careful. Like, I'll spray the weeds. You don't touch it. but yet we're feeding them cereal that's got the same ingredient in it. So that's crazy. And I love that you show that in your reels. Okay, so it's not just the ingredients that's the problem. It sounds like we've got the ingredients as a problem. We've got the processing that's a problem, like the hexane. And then we've also got the farming that's a problem. And so the average consumer, I think, sometimes is like, oh, I forget it.

11:55It's too frustrating. It's too overwhelming. What do you say to that? I say this is probably the most important thing we can control. What we put in our body, it's going to make us feel better, operate better on every single level, be happier at the end of the day. I truly believe this. Maximize the potential of our children, maximize their ability. So I think if there is one thing worth investing on is what we consume on a daily basis. I would put it in the top priority, and it's not necessarily a financial decision. I mean, yes, some of the things are going to cost you more, but you're going to cut on so many crap that you can kind of make up for it.

12:36And it's not a pure financial decision. It's a decision about comfort. If we want to go path of least resistant, live as comfortably as possible, at least what they, you know, made us believe comfort is, then, yeah, probably we're going to ingest a lot of these plastics, pesticides, artificial ingredients and have a cocktail of them running around our bloodstream, our gut. Who knows what happens? All of them are supposedly safe in small amounts. We don't really know. Well, and they say safe in small amounts, but then I'm like, we're not talking about the cumulative effect. Cumulative and also interaction in between them.

13:13Who knows? We don't know. That's the, I think the most empowering moment is to know that we don't know. Yeah, that you can take control of your own health by feeding your body the things that We should be feeding it. Yeah. And so, yeah, you're so right that it's not as hard as people think. Everybody says, like, it's so overwhelming. And I'm like, no, it really isn't. It's just eat whole foods, eat organic when you can, or especially on the fruits and veggies that are sprayed a lot, and minimize the packaged food. That's all it takes. And it is a transition. I can relate to that. You don't have to do it overnight necessarily, but with that in mind as a concept, I think it makes things easier.

13:53Yeah, it doesn't have to be done overnight. No. Okay, so I want to talk about your reels still. Let's talk about natural flavors, because a lot of times I don't see you dealing with natural flavors sometimes, but a lot of times it's more artificial because you're showing the Oreos, the chewing gum, I mean, more ultra processed foods. So do you deal with natural flavors? Yeah. And what do you usually use? So again, it depends. The only difference I would say, and why even natural flavors existed, maybe it came to life from a good business perspective to protect the IP, for example. I'll give a famous example, the Coca-Cola recipe.

14:32I don't think Coca-Cola is good, don't get me wrong, but think about the original recipe. They wanted to protect it, so there is the natural flavor label that enables them to basically not disclose what's in it. But with the current regulation, The reality is companies can hide whatever they don't want on the label there and call it all. It's our proprietary natural flavor. It's IP protected. You can't see what goes on in there. So if a company, for example, want to use maltodextrin that's genetically modified and derived from corn, but they know on the label it's not the most sexy thing to put on the label.

15:06Maybe we can add some natural flavors and maybe the maltodextrin can be the carrier for the flavor and we don't even say it. And now we have everything there. It looks healthy. The reality is we don't know what's in it. It's not necessarily a sinister ingredient in reality, but it's a huge loophole. And you're gambling. You have no idea what you're consuming if you're eating natural flavors. That's why I hate the word natural flavors. Why I hate it is because you don't know what's in it. It could be 3000 different chemicals. And it doesn't have to be natural. I mean, it can start with something natural.

15:40That's the thing. It has to start from a natural source, but they can bring excite back to it. They can add the propylene glycol, the melted excite, so they can still use petroleum-derived ingredients in natural flavors as long as the starting point was something natural. Which is crazy. So in reality, they should all just be called artificial flavors, I think. I mean, I'm sure that some companies are just protecting their IP and use only natural ingredients, but we don't know. And they're probably the minority, right? I know. So, yeah. Well, I know just from different health companies that claim they're healthy.

16:15They use natural flavors. And when I go dig into it, I realize that their natural flavors have GMO corn, like you said, because almost every maltodextrin out there is GMO corn. Or they've got polysorbate, like 80 in them. Which is insane. Yeah. Yeah, but they're the healthy companies. And they're like, well, we just don't have to list it on our ingredient list. It's a tiny, tiny amount, and nobody will know. Yeah, so they are hijacking the Lupo, essentially. It's a Lupo. That's what it is. And what's crazy to me is natural flavors, they can hide anything. But then when we use fruit powders, we tell what the carrier is so that people know.

16:53So we use tapioca starch as our carrier. But all those flavors have carriers, but yet natural flavors, they just hide it all. Yeah, and it's a great strategy if you want to look healthier. And it's even sound healthy, right? Natural flavor, I mean, well. Yeah, it's a marketing scheme. Yeah. Well, and my food scientist was telling me that most natural flavors, chemical structure-wise, are identical to our artificial flavors. Very interesting. But not surprising. Yeah, it's a crazy world out there. That's for sure with our food. Let's take a quick break to hear from our show sponsor. This podcast is sponsored by Active Skin Repair, a skin health brand that helps your skin heal using natural, non-toxic, medical-grade ingredients.

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18:57The processing aids. The ones that you can't see. The imetopolisaloxane in the frying world in McDonald's, which is essentially silicone. Oh, wait, back up. Tell me about this one. I must have missed that. Oh, yeah, okay. Tell me what this is and what they're doing. So fast food companies, whatever oil they're using, they would use something that's called dimethopolysiloxane a lot of the times. Not all of them, but the majority are using it. And it's essentially an anti-foaming agent. And it makes it so, you know, when they're using the fryer, it doesn't overflow. It doesn't bubble too much. But it is essentially silicon.

19:33Interesting. So there is silicon floating around, again, in tiny, safe amounts. Safe amounts. Whoever said it was safe, I don't know. I mean, they tested it, safe amounts, yes. And again, I think the distinction between optimal and safe is massive. No one needs dimetal polysiloxane. Yep. Yeah, grandma didn't cook french fries with dimetal polysiloxane. That's crazy. Well, talking about processing agents and anti-foaming, you know how clear protein in cans is becoming really popular? Clear protein foams like crazy. And so they have to throw an anti-foaming agent in there. And most people use vegetable oils for it.

20:11And so we use MCT oil and put it on our label. But no one puts that they're using vegetable oil on their clear protein can. I mean, it probably costs 10 times more to use MCT oil. It does. And it took us a long time to get to that point. Because we first tried like avocado oil and it didn't work well. It didn't help bring down the foam enough. We tried olive oil. That didn't work enough. And so finally, and then we tried actual coconut oil and it was MCT oil that helped it the most. Very cool. Yeah, so it's crazy that no one knows on a clear protein can that there's probably some vegetable oil in there.

20:47As an anti-foaming. Yeah. Any other ingredients that have just completely shocked you? So, yeah, I mean, the processing aids, I mean, there is the pesticide which we already discussed. And not just glyphosate, by the way. One other thing I would say, it might not necessarily be an ingredient, but in the chocolate video that I made, how do you make the candy? I realized that a lot of this is starting with child labor in Africa. Oh, yeah. So there are a lot of surprising things when you're getting to, okay, let's see how they make chocolate. Wait, what? A lot of this is processed from West Africa where there is still child labor.

21:24There are kind of a gray area there. No one really is disclosing or not disclosing. So very concerning things are happening in the industry overall. Yeah, a lot of stuff that isn't regulated, for sure. Do you ever make a reel and get hate for it? People saying like, you're fear-mongering. All the time. And what do you say to those people? I mean, I think these comments are super minority now because, I don't know, I think in the way that I'm doing it, you can see it's not coming from a place of fear, if anything, irony or something. So I don't fear any of the ingredients, but people will always find what to say and to do whatever they need to cope with reality.

22:08So it's just easy to label this as, oh, it's just fear mongering or grifter or whatever. It's okay. Do you think it's people who don't want to get on a health journey that are claiming it's fear mongering? I think it's people who still want to do what they are doing without any consequences. And that's fine. I mean, if whatever they're doing is working for them, okay, I just want to show the reality of ultra-processing and people can make out their own decisions. Because I have a lot of moms who follow me and a lot of moms that listen to the show. So do you think it makes the mom scared or overwhelmed of like, oh my gosh, I can't buy anything packaged for my kids?

22:46It has this reaction if it's the initial shock, but it also sparks curiosity, I think. And that's the most important part. Because at the end of the day, for me, if I'm doing a video about Oreos and a mom would decide, maybe it's not the best idea to get Oreos. Even once per month, we can find a better option. So for me, that's a win. I mean, some people can call it fear-mongering. I call it having fun and showing how Oreos are made. I love it. Well, I know, because I get told I'm fear-mongering all the time. And I'm like, no, I'm trying to educate you so that you have the power to make whatever choice you want.

23:21Exactly. Because if you're not educated, how do you make a good choice? I don't see you forcing anyone to do anything. No, exactly. Exactly. Okay, so I'm curious, knowing all these ingredients and the chemistry behind them and things, do you ever buy packaged foods? Are you really concerned now when you look at labels? I don't buy anything we do for processed ingredients. I would buy packaged foods like in the way that there are a lot of great options now that are coming to market with the same philosophies of using whole foods, using natural ingredients, removing everything that, you know, came from a lab and might not even be proven wrong.

24:00But, you know, it's not aligned with the philosophy of real whole foods. So, yeah, if there is a package good at Whole Foods or Sprouts or wherever that is generally made with real food ingredients, I'm definitely open to buying this. I'm not against it. So maybe we should tell our listeners, because there's a difference between ultra processed foods and processed foods. So maybe tell them the difference. The difference is easy for me. If it's something that you can pronounce and you know, it's probably processed. Cheese is processed, right? I don't think cheeses harm anyone. But ultra process is when you start seeing all of these polysorbate ATs, all of these, you know, benzoettes and preservatives and artificial coloring that none of us were really designed to handle.

24:51They could be considered safe. They might as well be safe, but I don't care. I don't need them. Talking about preservatives, we didn't even talk about those. Have you figured out how all of the preservatives are made? I can kind of hint that we're going to make a preservative today in our movie. So that's going to be an insight to making one that's purely petroleum-derived preservative, benzoic acid. So that would be an interesting one because it starts with toluene, which is, again, a solvent, a petroleum-derived solvent, the same stuff you get at your paint thinner at Home Depot, essentially.