193. Jen Smiley: How to Read Food Labels to Avoid the Hidden Toxic Ingredients in Your Food!

20:10Gary Brecka:We're going to package it. We're going to wrap it in plastic for you. And all you got to do is microwave it. And so I think, you know, the combination of most of the unhealthy foods being more convenient. And then also, you know, it's which is something that Max Lugavere brought to my attention was that you don't see health claims on, on really organic foods. Like if you shop the perimeter of the grocery store, there's not like a label on an avocado. I say this all the time. Yeah. Healthy fats and heart healthy, but there is on a Wesson oil bottle. Why don't we have cartoons on the bananas or why don't we have sports figures?

20:46Like I eat this before a game. Right. It just doesn't exist.

20:50Gary Brecka:It doesn't exist. It's sad. So it's a marketing with your app. But I mean, where does a mom start once or a father? Yeah. I tell parents that kids don't need a lecture of how to eat clean. They just need tasty food. That's all they need. And I also tell parents that kids will never listen to what you say, but they never fail to repeat what you do. So it has to start with the parents. Now you can't, you know, just completely take everything away. I actually have a funny story because this could happen for parents with kids or it could also happen to people with spouses that may not get on board so i had this one client her name was micheline and her husband who's like 65 years old and he is just adamant on i'm not eating this new ketchup you're bringing in and i'm not touching that non-dairy milk right and so he went to work one day and she got creative and she emptied out his welch's jelly she emptied out his Heinz ketchup yes his iodized salt all these things and filled it with the clean swaps and he had no idea that it was different however on Saturday morning he's like waking up with energy went in the vacuum the carpet she's like wow this really works but so for kids I think you got to find tasty food waffles right there's a brand called belly it's cassava it's collagen peptides it's got coconut sugar no preservatives this is going to help your kid not need a snack before lunchtime, number one, and they are going to feel better.

22:22It's going to fill them up. They're not going to have that crash. Um, some other things that work really, really well for kids is like, how do you swap out what they're currently eating? So chips, right? Get them some clean chips. It doesn't have to be like, you have to do it all right now. Can you do one swap a week? And when you do it, I tell them it's got to start with you. So maybe you make the waffles or you make the tacos and get the chips and then the dip and say, Hey kids, do you want to have a bite? And if they like it, put it on the list and go get that at the grocery. Again, you can do four swaps a month.

22:55What is that? 48 swaps in a year, something like that. Did I do that math right? Okay. Yeah.

23:05Number check.

23:06Gary Brecka:Um, I, first of all, I love that. And I also think that, you know, kids are tough because, um, you know, it's, it's not about the goals that you have for them. It's about the habits you can get them to adopt. Yes. And access to it is if, if they have access to it, they're always gravitate towards the stuff that's not good, but you're right. You can take masa chips, for example, um, which are non GMO and, and they're amazing, uh, beef tallow. and you could make ground grass-fed beef and you could slice a couple of avocados and put some onions on there and then some raw cheese. Right. And you've got an unbelievable nacho and I promise you couldn't tell the difference between the two.

23:50I tell people like, okay, if you are making tacos for dinner, well now get the grass-fed and finished beef, get a clean seasoning. You don't want silicon dioxide in your seasonings. Check your spices. This is an anti-cakeing agent and it's not necessary. Otherwise, if you get a spice without that weird ingredient, you just have to maybe stick your fork in there and break it up. That's naturally how feed space to act. And so here you are, you're giving them a better quality meat, you're giving them better spices, but maybe you continue to give them the same tortillas and you get the clean tortillas.

24:19And it's like, it's not taking more time at this point. You're cooking the same meal. We're all eating together as a family and they have a little bit better, you know, they have better meat and better spice. So it's a better meal. This is how you slowly build it into their days.

24:33Gary Brecka:And do you cook with your kids? Do you like get them involved in that? How old are your kids? So they are 11 and 13, two boys. Okay. And for a while they were just like, mom, we hate, this is not normal. They're probably not excited about your career path. I mean, when all the kids are drinking. We get Hershey's at my friend's house. I mean. Oh yeah. Mom, my friend brought me to the gas station. They go in, they're like, I've never been to the gas station for food, but they're drinking Gatorades at sporting events and, and parties. And that's when I make sure, like, if you go there, let them drink it.

25:05Don't make a big deal out of it, but they know at home, like we don't have that. And then they also start to notice, I feel bad when I drink that as they get older. So, um, my son now he's 13 when his friends come over, you're like, Ms. Jen, I love all the food you cook. Please do this. Yeah. So the tides are turning.

25:21Gary Brecka:Um, I want to talk about some of the, things that we should watch out for, like in breads, non-dairy milk. I think there are a lot of these trends that catch on. And sadly for the consumer, you know, it'll be a, and I'm not beating up vegans or vegetarians, but there'll be a like non-meat trend. And the onus of this is if it's not meat, it's healthy, right? So just because it's not an animal product, it's suddenly healthy. And then you read like the ingredients on like a non burger or some of these things. And you're like, this is plastic. But so what are some of the tricks to look out for in breads, non-dairy items?

26:06Gary Brecka:Because, man, you can go to Starbucks right now. And there are like 15 alternatives. Non-dairy milks. Yeah. To non-dairy milks. I encourage people to be like, hey, can I see your milk? I'm always like, can I see what's inside of the milk? And I look. Okay. Carrageen. Oh, my gosh. Yes. So a couple of things about this. First of all, let's start with bread. There's something called potassium brimate, which makes it rise. It's actually banned in Europe and other countries. It's been shown, you can Google this yourself, that it can increase your risk of cancer. Potassium brimate. I've read that it's like, I think it's in Hormel sandwiches.

26:43It's in your fast food restaurants. It's in some breads, which by the way, there's a few bread companies that control all the bread. So whether you think you're eating, you know, sourly or eating aura wheat and nature's, it's, it's a lot of the same, the same people doing different things. So that's that. As far as your non-dairy milk goes, there's something called dipotassium phosphate. I know nut pods has it. I know Oatly has it. And I want to tell people that like, Hey, if America's doing it, you're going to feel like America, right?

27:12Gary Brecka:America is sick. They're bloated. They're tired. They are having health issues. And this is what they're doing. This is normalized. And the reason you are like, if you see a brand seven times, you have recognition towards it, right? Why do you see Oatly on end caps? Why when you go to the dairy-free section, which by the way, maybe your nutritionist or your dietician or your doctor said, go dairy-free. You go to dairy-free and you look around and you think, wait a minute, there's like a million dairy-frees. What am I going to get? You're going to get the one in the center at eye level, the one that has seven columns, three rows, these companies pay money to be at eye level and to have more SKU numbers.

27:53You have to actually look at the very top of the very bottom for something like three trees that has two ingredients or a monk that has three ingredients, right? But they don't have the funds to get all these SKU numbers. But these non-dairy milks contain something called dipotassium phosphate, which is a stabilizer. and it makes the milk kind of stay together as opposed to separating. So kind of like when people use coffee made creamer, it's nice and creamy, looks beautiful. But if you put some almond milk in there with no additives, it kind of separates. There's a solution for that though. Either you can get a frother and froth it and put it on there and it's not gonna separate or just drink it with iced coffee.

28:34Gary Brecka:Okay, so dipotassium phosphate. And what about protein bars? sauces. You know, when I started getting wise to seed oils, I was absolutely dumbfounded by the number of ingredients, nearly everything that's canned. It's hard to find a salad dressing in a food store that's not seed oil based. And even if you take the position, which I would disagree with, but even if you take the position that, hey, these are probably unsaturated fats, they're not bad for you. There's some evidence that they're, they're heart healthy. It's the volume. Or just try it. I'm going to just try it. Just try if you're, if you're consuming it all the time and you think you feel so great.

29:19Okay, great. Just try it. Try to go without it. Oh,

29:22Gary Brecka:go without it. Go without it. You'll see such a difference in such a short amount of time. But as far as protein bars go, um, I think a lot of people are turning to these protein bars for like real sustainable protein when really they should be, you know, you take it in a pinch because Maybe you have to wait too long to get to your next meal. You need to get your protein from real sources. Eggs, wild-caught seafood, grass-finished beef, all these other real foods, right? But if you're in a pinch, what do you do? First of all, there's brands like Clif Bar and Go Macro, and they contain something called brown rice syrup.

29:55Sounds really healthy, right? But brown rice syrup has a glycemic index of 98, which is like almost the highest you can get.

30:03Gary Brecka:Wow, that's actually higher than table sugar. Yes. So what's happening is when you get this quick high, okay, this quick - That's higher than extras, I think. This quick dose of, are you going running? Probably not, right? Are you going workout? Probably not. People are eating it at their desk or they're eating it on a road trip, something like that. What happens is you crash real quick. The higher you go, the lower the crash. When the crash is low, what do you need? You need more food to bring it up. You need coffee, right? That's why there's coffee on every freaking corner. We're all so fatigued.

30:36That's like number one thing. People are fatigued. And it's because their blood sugar is all out of whack with these ingredients. So when you go look for the protein, go look for Bearded Brothers is a really great band.

30:45Gary Brecka:Bearded Brothers. Bearded Brothers. It's just real ingredients. But it's not going to have a source of protein like from whey or from something like that. But it's at least going to get you until you can get real protein. And then I know you have a protein bar, which I love. It's great. Scans is clean, by the way, Gary. It does. Yes. Yes. The ultimate human bar made it through. Yes. We were super intentional about that with body health. I think it's great. That's the way bars should be. So, and I think a lot of, again, going back to this trend of vegan, vegetarian, non-meat or dairy-free, you know, gluten-free and vegan, those are largely recognized as healthy.

31:29Yeah. Right?

31:30Gary Brecka:Because you're gluten-free, you're dairy-free. you know, no animal products, uh, vegan, those just, they're, they're like those alerts that, that, that grab you and say, this is what's inside is healthy. And, and they're probably hoping that you don't look much further than there for sure. Well, it's vegan. Oh, it's gluten free. Um, can we talk a little bit about how some of that labeling can be mislabeling and like what might be hiding in? Yeah. Well, it's saying it's free. It's like, Hey, we don't, we don't have dairy and we don't have sugar and we don't have animal products, but like, what do you have?

32:05That's not there. And do you know, you're speaking of the ingredients being so small. Did you know that the nutrition facts label was created in 1994? Okay. And it's really big, right? The ingredients are tiny and it's really big. So it's a way to kind of disguise what's happening. Like they want you to read everything except for those ingredients. Right. And it's, It's really, really wrong.

32:30Gary Brecka:Let me tell you about something that's been a total game changer for my sleep and my stress levels. Buy Optimizers Magnesium Breakthrough. Here's the thing most people don't know. Regular magnesium supplements only give you one or two forms, but your body actually needs seven different forms to function properly. That's why you might be taking magnesium and still feel tired or stressed or having trouble sleeping. Magnesium Breakthrough is the only supplement that combines all seven bioavailable forms in just a single capsule. Within just a few days, I noticed I was falling asleep faster, staying asleep longer, and waking up actually more refreshed.

33:03Gary Brecka:Plus, my post-workout muscle recovery has been incredible. If you're ready to finally get the deep, restorative sleep you deserve and feel more relaxed during the day, head to Bioptimizers.com and use the code ULTIMATE to save on magnesium breakthrough. Trust me, your body will thank you. Now let's get back to the Ultimate Human podcast. So what are some of the ways that, like, gluten-free ingredients go? Yeah, there's gluten-free Oreos. good did you know that yeah my job no i'm probably non-gmo vegan gluten-free oreos how many other labels could we get on there uh low in fat right oh um yeah uh bioengineered yeah yeah what about natural and simply they're simply cheetos come on i love that yo we we were talking about um we i pulled one sinister label out that i bought at the store for this purpose we were looking at it and uh before we got on the podcast and it was very intelligent what did it say um exotic oh enriched exotics i was like well that's a new one well that'll bring you where you want to go it sounds like that sounds amazing and it had pictures of coconuts on it you know all broken open and looking really fresh.

34:21Gary Brecka:And then it had the word gourmet, which means nothing. Like a chef did it. Yeah, yeah, exactly. Like a chef did it. And I won't say the brand, but it had gourmet on there and had pictures of coconuts. And then it said, you know, these exotics. And then it said all natural. And I'm like, what's all natural? That's another one that's just like a natural. There's no real definition for all natural for simply, there's no clear definition. Yeah. And then we spun it around, had 45 grams of added sugar. And then of course, then you, there comes the high fructose corn syrup and the food dyes and everything else.

34:57Gary Brecka:And, you know, I, I really do think the average consumer nowadays just doesn't stand a chance. And I don't think that even Maha or Mala make America local again is about interrupting people's freedom of choice. It's not like, Hey, don't smoke, don't drink, don't eat McDonald's. Um, Don't eat donuts once in a while. It's just about giving you an informed choice, like giving you a shot. Giving you an option. At getting through the grocery store. For sure. Let's talk a little bit about eating out because I have a very intense travel schedule and I'm extraordinarily conscious of what I eat on the road.

35:36Gary Brecka:But I also feel bad for a lot of consumers. And I'm not just talking about consumers that are on a budget. I mean, even, you know, when you have means, you know, I go into some of these airport lounges, for example, you know, I'm a member of Delta and United and American Airlines. Yeah. And I walk past, sometimes I just go hungry. Same, it's best to pass, but not everybody can. They feel bad. They feel like they're going to pass out if they don't get food. Right. I mean, and that's also their incessant reliance on blood sugar. They're insulin resistant. But let's talk about just going into a restaurant and ordering in a restaurant and, you know, basic parameters for how I can navigate, you know, the menu on a restaurant.

36:27Yes. Okay. Got some tips.

36:29Gary Brecka:Okay, good. If you're going to look for a restaurant on like Yelp or Uber Eats, I always say just search organic food, number one, or maybe you could do like paleo. That'll, that'll get your search narrow, right? Then go look at their menu. Does their menu say things like vegan or gluten-free or soy-free? Then that means they're a little bit more conscious, but let's say that's not real life, Jen. It doesn't exist many places. We're going to a regular restaurant. I did this last night at a restaurant. I said, Hey, can you let me know what kind of oils you guys use, you all use back there? And so she comes out and she's like, okay, we have olive oil with a blend of canola oil.

37:04And I said, oh, well, I'm allergic to canola oil, but I really want to eat here. Do you mind cooking my food in butter? And it doesn't matter. Their butter is not going to be grass-fed. It's not going to be perfect, but it's going to be better than those oils.

37:16Gary Brecka:That's great. So that's number one, right? And you get a lot of resistance on that or most of the time they're like, okay, chef's cool with that. Or they have certain things where they'll just char grill where there is no oil. And I'll ask that, do you have anything not marinated in oil? And they'll let you know about that. what if the chef knows there's no such thing as a true canola oil allergy or you just she still go with it well i say well you know you know most of the time i'm like wait wait like i am definitely allergic to canola oil like i will die in your restaurant okay so i will say hey i have a big event tomorrow and i just want to feel good and look good right and they're a little bit more understandable but or you just say hey you don't even have to do the allergy thing like can you let me know what kind of i love the or just or just walk in and be like can do you guys mind cooking this in butter instead of oil you'll even need assume the worst assume the oil's not good no lest i die that's a great one it's a couple real yeah it's a nice little threat yeah yeah hey so yeah yeah so before what can you do you can take some digestive enzymes you can also do charcoal pill i do it all the time make sure you don't take your charcoal pill four hours before or after medications, but like if I go out to eat or I'm at a wedding or event or something, try to make the best of the decisions, right?

38:31Can you stay away from the gluten? Can you stay away from the dairy? Start looking at a menu as like a pantry. Look at their size. Do they have broccoli? Do they have sweet potato? Do they have regular potatoes? Do they have all these things? Get those if your dish comes with pasta, right? Or something like that. And then as far as your salads go, I always tell my clients to, they make these little extra virgin olive oil packets. They look like they come in like little ketchup packets. You can grab that on Amazon, put that in your purse. And then for your dressing, put that on your salad. And then you can ask them, you know, do you have some type of vinegar?

39:05If they don't, just squeeze lemon. Another tip, if you go to sushi, can you get a cucumber wrapped? Can you get it rice paper wrapped? And then instead of doing the soy sauce, do you have a trick for that? Because I do. This is going to change your life. I love it. You get, you get.

39:22Gary Brecka:This is awesome. I want to get notes out. I'll probably watch this podcast when it's done. You get wasabi and you ask them, they have to bring you like three rounds of lemon slices. Yeah. But you squeeze your lemons in the wasabi and mix it up. No. Game changer for your sushi. Come on. Wow. It really is. That's awesome. Even my kids are into it. Wasabi is like a little intense, but you take a lot of little lemon juice. A lot of lemon with a little bit of wasabi. And probably a little goes a long way, right? Yes, it's your soy sauce swap. So I always tell people, you don't have to eliminate foods or food groups.

39:53You have to swap it out for something cleaner and anti-inflammatory. So you can eat the foods you love and feel good.

40:00Gary Brecka:So, you know, I've been tremendously supportive of the Maha movement. And I think all of us love it. I think everyone in our industry loves it. I mean, again, back to the chance for us to potentially affect public policy is really exciting, right? I mean, but this is definitely not going to happen. I mean, there are thousands and thousands of ingredients in foods and in our food supply. Sometimes it's not even listed on the label. Like they don't list glyphosate on the label. Also in a label, if it's less than 2 % of total weight, it doesn't even go in. There's like limestone in your cereal and they don't even tell you.

40:39Gary Brecka:Yeah. And so, you know, I've often heard people say, and I talk a lot, you know, that the dosage determines the poison. But the truth is most of us are not taking a dose in a single serving that is enough to cause harm in that serving. And, but over time, you know, especially with regard to forever chemicals or things that the body methylates and gets rid of very, very slowly, there's an accumulation over time. So just drawing your awareness to it is one thing. But what do you think is the most promising outcome that you see underway with the Maha movement? And where do you, if in a perfect world, where should that start?

41:23Yeah.

41:24Gary Brecka:Okay. Love it. I'm going to unpack this one. Okay, good. Okay. First of all, you're funny. You're actually really funny. My husband's funnier. Is he? maybe that's where i get it so a couple things about this okay the maha movement is great right everybody's like well we're getting red dyes out first of all it's not gonna happen i think to like 2028 which is scary right um i actually was in the icu unit of mayo hospital oncology icu i have a friend that was was there uh unfortunately in in scottsdale arizona and I actually looked at the jello and it was red dye number three and I was like yeah this just got banned yeah um and he had a seagrass soda and he had pureed applesauce uh my wife posted about it and people lit up about it because you know you're sick to their credit they saved his life he was he was septic but um and I was like there's just no nutrition in this but anyway it's not supportive that's okay um so the maha movement is great I have to say like I'm pretty sure big media has been controlling the narrative for so long with sponsors.

42:34Like I've hired PR firms and I get interviewed by Oprah daily and town and country and all these magazines. And they immediately hear that. I say, you can't drink Oatly or you shouldn't be buying this particular ketchup. And they're like, we can't put you on. Right. So I think that this whole turning tide of where people are getting their media and they're getting it from people like you who are doing really good things in this grassroots way. And it's making people start to talk. And they're like, hey, something that we've had blinders on for so long, these food labels, they've been disguising what's really inside.

43:13So people are waking up. They're having wake up moments. And I feel like once you see what's going on with the food, you can't unsee it. You can't forget about it. So I think that's great. But I think the best place for the Maha to really get started and really get attraction is to make America local again. Look up your farmer's market, get to know your farmer, they're around you. Otherwise there are farmers out there who are doing shipping and they're going to be higher quality. They're going to help a lot of deficiencies that are coming from a lot of our conventional food that we're being fed.

43:46And there's actually one guy, his name's Farmer Lee Jones. He's out in Ohio. Farmer Lee Jones. Oh, he's great. He's a big, jolly guy. Wears the bow tie red bow tie all the things but he um he does like regenerative crops vegetables but he gets his stuff third-party testing has like 200 to 300 times more nutrition in the vegetables and

44:09Gary Brecka:greens and when it shows up at your house does he do the micro greens amazing i'm pretty sure he does because i've been down the rabbit hole of micro greens oh you gotta look them up and the density of those it's called the chef's garden because he used to he supplies the greens and the vegetables for like the Ritz, St. Regis, Four Seasons, but he just started doing it to consumers. I just found him on the internet and he has all the finest chefs around the world coming to him. I was like, wow, this is a gym. And he grows produce and meats. Not meats, just produce. Just produce, wow. Yes, but that's your produce guy.

44:41It's like, there's these things you need to start talking and get to know your farmers. You're gonna get more nutrition. It's not gonna have the pesticides and it's just gonna be so much better for you.

44:50Gary Brecka:By the way, all of these, I'm going to link into the show notes, guys. My media team's paying attention. So if there were tips and tricks in here that you liked, I'll make sure that I, or we make a reference to her app or something like that. I'll make sure that I put it into the show notes. So, you know, back to the labeling, I mean, for the average consumer, what are some of the biggest that you see deceptive marketing practices? You know, we did a funny exercise on Super Bowl with my family and we all watched the Superbowl together. And we were watching the Superbowl ads. I mean, first of all, there's not a single ad for a single healthy food.

45:27Gary Brecka:There was not a single whole food on any of the ads. And I watched, like you said, celebrities, athletes, A-listers, cartoons, jingles, choruses. One had a, one had a biblical choir singing like their jingle. I was like, this is unbelievable. Like you were literally in church, you know? Then they were, singing to you about their snack food. And I think a lot of this gets ingrained into our culture. Like - It's normalized. Like food says a little bit about who you are. Like Nike, just do it. You know, I wear Nikes. And I don't have any issue with Nike, but like fashion says a little bit of who we are.

46:12Gary Brecka:You know, I carry a Louis Vuitton versus I carry a Russian Dior. You know, it says a little bit about who you are. It seemed to me like a lot of these ads were designed to sensationalize these foods. Like if you're going to a party, expect to see this. These are the best. These are the tastiest. These, you know, and so it's coming from so many angles. It's being engineered chemically to stimulate our dopamine and to avoid satiety. They're being engineered to be hyperpalpable. So our kids love it. they're being engineered to actually change. And I've had a lot of physicians, even scientists on here that have talked about how the actual palate of someone that eats a highly processed diet, it actually changes.

47:03You enjoy and respond to the chemicals and you switch to a whole food diet

47:09Gary Brecka:and meat doesn't taste like food. Spinach doesn't taste like spinach. So what are some of the biggest, more deceptive practices in your opinion that consumer needs to be aware of. I heard you mention that advertising. I read today that like$14 billion is spent on food advertising and 80 % of it is to targeted audiences, like kids, things like that. I have a good story. This guy named Parker, he does Lovebird cereal. Have you heard of him? I have. I think I have Lovebird. yeah i do love birds great so love he was on my podcast many years ago but he used to work for big food and he was in the marketing department he remembers he was struggling with autoimmune and so was his kid and he's like one day i went to work and this guy rushes into this boardroom and he's like you guys i got a great idea i know how we're gonna sell more units we're gonna slap a mermaid on it and he's like wait what is going on i can't be a part of this you know because he had a little baby and he didn't want to see that so he's doing something different it's like a peel the little girls.

48:14Gary Brecka:Yes. Yeah. Yes. Or he said one time they were taste testing pizza rolls in the guys or girls, whoever's in charge of this says, you guys, we cut 30 % of our cost by not using real cheese. We got a flavor that tastes like cheese. And he's like, what are we doing? Why are we not using cheese? You guys mind blown. So he's going against the grain. All of his ingredients are listed on the front. It's all organic glyphosate free. The whole it's like top of the line um food but deceptive marketing like we said i mean they got simply you got natural you got non-gmo you got gluten-free you got organic and these are like for example um danen light and fit yogurt it's light and fit and it says zero grams of sugar there's so many ladies out there yes oh my god that's so like you know that's so mean because who doesn't want to be light and fit who doesn't women i want to be light and fit heck yes don't want to i eat good and i don't want to be more light and fit, you know?

49:10I need to drink more hydrogen water.

49:12Gary Brecka:Yeah, you do. So with that being said, though, it has sucralose in it. There's a popular energy drink out there. Sucralose in it. Sucralose is a sugar that is reacted with chlorine, okay? And there's studies out there that show, in animal studies, that it increases your risk for leukemia and blood cancers. And it's like, why are we not eating just yogurt? Like shouldn't yogurt be just some grass fed milk and then some probiotics, which there's another guy. His name's Coconut Colt Noah. He's really great. Have you heard of them? Coconut Colt? Yes. Okay, cool. He's great. So he went around to a bunch of yogurt companies to figure out like how do they bottle it?

49:54How do they process all these things? And he figured out that the yogurts say billions of probiotics, when in fact, most of these probiotics are actually dead because they apply high heat after they put the probiotics in there. And it's like, this is fake food. It's not even working for you.

50:12Gary Brecka:Most food dyes are antimicrobial. And so if the trace amounts of probiotics that are in there are absolutely killed by the dyes. You know, the dyes are, you know, bacteria are, I mean, you know, probiotics are bacteria. And an antimicrobial kills the bacteria. Listen, there's what I share on this podcast. And then there's what I share with my inner circle. If you've been following me for a while, you know how I hold nothing back here. But my VIP community, that's where the real magic happens. Picture this. You're struggling with energy crashes, brain fog, or just feeling like you're not operating at your peak.

50:51Gary Brecka:And you don't know where to get real answers. But here's what really sets this apart. You're not just getting my insights. When I have incredible guests on the podcast, VIP members get to submit questions for a private podcast segment. So that world-renowned expert we just interviewed, you get exclusive access to their knowledge tailored to your specific situation. This section is under the private podcast section in the Ultimate Human Community. And speaking of exclusive, you're getting my personal protocols, the exact tools I use for water fasting, gut optimization, and morning routines that have taken me decades to perfect.

51:23Gary Brecka:This isn't theory. This is what works in the real world. The community launches challenges throughout the year where you get direct access to me and my network of experts. It's like having a personal health advisory board for less than$100 a month. Your health is your wealth and this investment pays dividends for life. Join the VIP community at theultimatehuman.com forward slash VIP and step into your ultimate potential. Now let's get back to the Ultimate Human podcast. This is why you need to start talking to people though because most people, they see a yogurt, they don't understand the processing, right?

51:55You see your oils. You don't know what kind of solvents are being used. Your stevia, you don't realize that there's petroleum-based solvents being used to extract that. And it's coming out, it's messing up your gut. And when your gut microbiome gets messed up, it leads to inflammation. And then you got a whole host of chronic issues happening.

52:13Gary Brecka:I talk about this all the time, how one thing causes everything. Usually people don't have multiple things going wrong. They have one major thing going wrong. It's kind of like the dominoes that causes everything. So let's go down the artificial sweetener route for a moment. Because I think, you know, advertising kind of falls into two camps. Yes. One is glorifying natural sugars, right? So cane sugar is saying, hey, this actually, they actually put forward on the label, this is cane sugar. Yeah. And that's why you should eat this. Yeah. And others are sugar-free, no sugar added. Yeah. Um, because, you know, they're playing with, you know, both sides of the coin.

52:52Gary Brecka:People that like, okay, I want it to be organic. Okay. If it's cane sugar, it's natural. So I'm going to grab this one. Um, but, or I'm trying to avoid sugar and eat low carb. And so I'm going to add the sugar free or no sugar added. There are different levels to the artificial. I know my opinion is, but the different levels to this artificial sugar pyramid, everyone call it. Yeah. Um, what are some of the no fly zones? Like what are some of the sugar substitutes to absolutely avoid? Absolutely avoid. So I would say dextrose is number one, which by the way, can be found in your Costco chicken.

53:25We can go down that rabbit hole because I made a post once.

53:28Gary Brecka:Dextrose is glucose, right? I mean. Dextrose is made from corn. Okay. Which is a highly GMO crop. Okay. Okay. So you want to make sure that you're avoiding that. Another one is acylthame potassium. It's sold as like A-C-A-K, something like that. Yeah. Acylthame. Um, you've got it. I tell anybody or I tell people if it ends with OSE, avoid it. So dextrose, sucralose, sucrose is one, um, the asylphane potassium. Those are like the ones you're going to see the most of, but I actually have this guy, Dr. Michael Gorin. He studied the effects of sugar, mostly on kids for 20 years. I'm like, thank you for sitting in a lab for 20 years and studying this because I don't have the patience for that.

54:10But he said there's over 60 names for artificial sweeteners. So another one's brown rice syrup. It sounds really healthy, but it's not. And so these are ways to like spot on a label, just put it back. Right.

54:22Gary Brecka:So aspartame, sucralose, asylphane, potassium, dextrous, brown rice syrup. Yeah. Um, and because I think a lot of the, I remember sweet and low, uh, which was, you still see everywhere. Um, these are just chemical sweeteners. So now on the, on the better side, because you know, there's, there's no harm in, in having a little bit of a sweet tooth, right. Or wanting something that tastes sweet. So where do you gravitate on some of the, you know, like low glycemic sweet substitutes? Yeah. So I love unrefined, right. So it's going to have more vitamins and nutrients and minerals in it. So I love, I use maple syrup for my kids' waffles.

55:06I also love coconut sugar. It's unrefined. It's a great one-on-one swap. I use a lot of maple syrup too.

55:11Gary Brecka:I get it from South Florida Ranches. Yep. So maple syrup. There's dates, date syrup in your coffee. So good. It's called like date lady, something like that. Really? Yes. Okay. So good. Date syrup, date sugar, date sugar, date lady, maple sugar. And then for low glycemic, I love non-GMO monk fruit. Okay. I like the non-GMO monk fruit too. I think that's in your bar, right? Yeah. Yeah. I use the non-GMO monk fruit in my bar. And I also, when I do some of the swaps and I'm going to put a link to your manual and swaps. The interesting thing about if you can try to eat home more often, I found is it can often be less expensive to eat organic and less expensive to eat whole foods once you learn how to navigate this.

55:54Gary Brecka:And people think it's like overwhelming and it's this lifelong education. But once you understand the food labeling and you have your favorite products in the grocery store, you can just keep going back and buying this over and over again. So maybe it's a little bit of a curve in the beginning, but it's not like it's, it's overwhelming and onerous forever. Yeah. I got, I want to bring this, this people are going to love this. Cause did you know that Costco sells 2 million chickens a week? 2 million chickens a week? 2 million chickens. Are those the rotisserie ones? It is like the magnet that gets people in there.

56:29It's a low price.

56:29Gary Brecka:Yeah. Chicken should be what? Chicken. Right? Yes. I was waiting for that, Gary. thought it was a trick question but not a trick question it should be chicken chicken maybe salt maybe herbs and if you go to whole foods and you get this you get chicken it's just chicken and salt okay costco's chicken has carragegan in it it has dextrose and it has sodium phosphate which is an additive that's been shown to induce aging and it's like why why is this first of all what is this chicken eating you are what your chicken eats you are what your cow eats a lot of them are injected though too yes um and then i got a video once of them putting this just blazing chicken steam and smoke coming off in this plastic bag i'm like no but but anyway what i want to tell people is like there is a food swap it's not going to take you more time so instead of getting the the chicken with all the additives in it you get just chicken and salt and guess what when you have your chicken salad your chicken wrap or your chicken sandwich whatever you're going to stay fuller longer you're not going to need that you're not going to need that energy drink you're not going to need a second cup of coffee.

57:33You're not going to need a snack. You can actually like wait till dinner and stay fuller longer. So that is really how you save money. You take less medication when you aren't having all these ailments and these pains and you're taking less time off of work. Now you're high performing because you feel good and maybe you get a promotion. Maybe your relationships get better. Like the list goes on.

57:54Gary Brecka:Yeah. I mean, you know, inflammation truly is the root of all evil. And I don't really believe that people are fully aware of this low-grade inflammatory complex that happens in the body, brain fog, weight gain, water retention, poor focus and concentration, low waking energy, even hormonal disruption. A lot of this is directly related to the chemical additives and ingredients, but it's also related to this downstream inflammatory cascade that is just basically bringing ailments from your future and drawing them closer. You know, we are borrowing from our future. And I think that we talked a little bit about this too.

58:39You know, when you're young enough,

58:42Gary Brecka:I mean, you can't be killed by a bullet, right? So, because your metabolism works well, your methylation works well, your immune system's not overwhelmed. These inflammatory cascades in many cases have not brought you to the brink of disaster. But as we move through life and most of our friends are in their thirties because we're in our thirties. Most of our friends are in their forties or most of them are in their fifties or most of them are in their sixties. You move through life at the same stage and it's like, well, all my buddies are on high blood pressure medication and we're all taking methotrexate for joint pain.

59:16Gary Brecka:And four of the five of us have arthritis and we all wear readers. And so, and we're all bald. And, you know, it's like - It becomes acceptable. It's normalized. It's normalized. And what we've normalized. Sickness. Is the sickness. Yeah. And, you know, I hate to say this, and I hope people in my high school are not watching this. So I went to high school in Southern Maryland. I'm going to be really cautious about what I'm saying. And some of you guys are still my buddies. I'm not talking to you. But I went to my high school reunion. Scary. I thought it was in the room. was some aliens. Um, cause I remember, I'm not going to, I'm not going to say his name, but you know who you are.

1:00:03Gary Brecka:Um, this, this kid that was like two farms away from me, he beat me up in eighth grade and I still remember it. And I came face to face with him at our like 25 year reunion. I was like, man, we should run this back. You know, like I guess on his death that. But the, that area that I came from was very much like, you know, middle America. I grew up, grew up on a farm in Southern Maryland and, um, you know, we just didn't eat well. And, and I see the consequences of, of that. And, but it was so normalized again, because everybody was in that same group. Um, and I think we need to normalize like movement and sunlight and, and hormetic stress and reading food labels and normalize real food again.

1:00:52Gary Brecka:Normalize real food again. Yeah. Um, are there any tips that people can garner to maybe eat more local food? I mean, when we say eat local, how do you eat local? If you go to, I mean, I have a grocery store that's local, but I don't know where they're getting that stuff. Right. So how do I do it? That's a good question. We're here to solve that problem. Okay, good. Um, so, so what I tell people is just type in, into google farmer's market near me go talk to your farmer a lot of times they can deliver this stuff to your door otherwise if you're going to look for you know meats or eggs or something like that at the grocery you gotta you gotta actually like read you gotta look on the label and see where it's coming from um odds are it's not going to be local here in america at most of our grocery stores which by the way in the 1990s there were 7 000 approximately 7 000 food items on the shelves And today, at the average supermarket, 56 ,000 food items.

1:01:48There's 56 ,000?

1:01:49Gary Brecka:Yes. Which is crazy. So you know they're not inventing new foods, right? Like, is there a new broccoli or a new Brussels sprout? Yeah. No, that's absolutely incredible. But you got to get local. And I mean, I know you're going to ask me how to be the ultimate human or what it means to be the ultimate human. Oh, it's coming. Yeah. That's the last question. I want to save it. See, you watched ahead. This is what people need to do in order to feel better. And when you feel better, you'll look better. When you look better, everything's going to be better. What was it? Skitty and fit? What was the?

1:02:25Light and fit.

1:02:26Gary Brecka:Light and fit. You'll be light and fit. Yes. But like the natural way, not through eating preservatives. Right. Jen, what's got you really excited right now about your mission, your purpose? I mean, you know, we, we, we both share, um, uh, humility and a gratitude for the people that come to us and thank us for, you know, our message. And there's nothing better than meeting somebody. You were just talking about it, uh, in my wife's closet, um, while we were walking around the house, uh, but you know, just how amazing it is to, um, meet people in, in public and they go, Oh my God, Jen, you changed my life.

1:03:04Gary Brecka:Um, and so what's got you really excited? about your future. Yeah. What's got me so excited is that like, I'm sitting here talking to you about this because when I started this helping people six years ago, it was like, no one was talking about it. I didn't see it all over social media and now I'm seeing it. This idea is becoming alive and we're seeing these bigger brands are buying out these smaller ethical brands. Like for example, Pepsi just bought Siete and while Siete isn't, you know, meat or fish or vegetables or fruit, which is the ultimate way to be, we're eating mostly processed foods, but these foods are getting less preservatives and less poisonous.

1:03:49And so we're seeing more of those pop up on the shelves and people are talking about it more. So I think that's really exciting. And then another thing is like, I was pulling my hair out trying to help so many people in the beginning. Like I had groups of 60 women, five groups. I'm meeting them. They're texting me on my phone and I'm up all hours of the night. My husband's taking care of the kids full time. And like, I'm, my health is almost going down because I'm helping so many people, right? I'm not cooking. But when I developed those groups, somebody told me, Jen, make an online course, make an online course.

1:04:22And I did that. And that again, helps so many people, but nobody wants to read an online course. Nobody has time to do an online course. They want easy, accessible. And so we've created this app called read the labels app. And I'm so excited that this can actually be me in people's back pocket, showing them eat these foods. It's going to lower your inflammation. You're going to feel a difference immediately. And so giving that accessibility to so many people has really got me like fired up about this.

1:04:50Gary Brecka:Amazing. That's so awesome, Jen. Um, well, my, my VIP community knew you were coming on board. So we're, we're, We're actually going to go into a private room in a minute with my VIP community because they have a lot of questions for you. They love you. They've got a lot of questions for you. If you're interested in becoming an ultimate human VIP, just go over to the ultimate human.com forward slash VIP, sign up to be one of my VIP guests. This is where I pour myself into this community. You get to have private podcasts with guests like Jen. And we do live Q and A's there. I put my course in there as well for my VIP community.

1:05:23Gary Brecka:um but uh and for the rest of us i always end my podcast by asking my guests the same question you knew it was coming what makes me an ultimate human what does it mean to you what does it mean to me okay so i know it makes you an ultimate human you're like saving lives with food labeling you know okay so gary i almost want to cry when i think of this but i feel like the lost art in most people's lives and homes is the art of cooking. Just cooking a meal, right? And so cooking a meal every night for my children and my husband, I feel like means ultimate human. And when we sit down every night, we say highs and lows.

1:06:09What was your, we tell the kids, what was your school best? School best and personal best. And it's a great way to just, You have to check in. We're sitting around. And of course, my kids, they have to set the table. They clean up the dishes. Probably that only happens once a week, but we're hopeful. But I feel like I'm doing this little bit for my unit. And so if people listening can do this little bit for their unit, it'll do it'll just tenfold for you.

1:06:38Gary Brecka:That is amazing. So Jen, for my audience that wants to find you, how do they find you on social media? So I'm all over at wake up and read the labels on Instagram, YouTube, podcast. Also, I send a weekly recipe, an anti-inflammatory recipe and all the sweets. Sweets. Yes, there are sweet sweets or sweet swaps. Sweet swaps. Yes. You could go to. Light and fit. Yeah. We're going to write one about that. We are. Yes. Every week I send a recipe. So you can go to the label letter dot com. And I just kind of talk about swaps in there as well. also we have an app where you can scan an item and see instantly if it's clean or not clean and it'll even dive into the ingredients why they're why they would be in inflammatory so you go to your app store or google android just search read the labels read the labels amazing you can use the code gary i have a code yeah you do i want to say is it it's 10 off for people yeah there you go they'll save 10 just by knowing me That is amazing.

1:07:40Gary Brecka:Jen Smiley, thank you so much for coming on the Ultimate Human Podcast. We're definitely going to follow your journey. And until next time, guys, that's just science.