Taking on the Food Industry One Giant at a Time with Vani Hari, “The Food Babe”
The food supply chain in American is broken.
Our grocery store shelves, freezers, and refrigerators are filled with many items that vaguely resemble real food at best. While these provide low cost and tasty options, the vast majority of Americans reach for these products without giving their health a second thought. Package labels have a long list of artificial ingredients, dyes, preservatives, flavorings, and other toxic ingredients. And that’s just in grocery stores. You likely already know just how atrocious and detrimental to our health fast food and the bulk of restaurant food is without us going into the finer details. It’s high time we realized that our food is making us sick and slowly killing us, and our guest this week is on a mission to do just that.
Meet The Food Babe:
Vani Hari, aka The Food Babe, is on a mission to shift the mindset of American eaters, demand transparency and change from major food corporations, and educate as many people as possible the difference a whole food, clean diet can make. Vani understands and has experienced first hand just how powerful this shift can be. After making the decision to stop eating “dead foods,” she came off nine prescriptions, experienced weight loss, and is now more motivated than ever to help people experience the same change. She’s taken on some of the biggest names in the food industry like Chick-Fil-A, Chipotle, Starbucks, Kraft, and General Mills, to help American’s get the food they deserve. We talk about how how Vani got her start, some exciting new things happening with her company, and the not so sneaky ways toxins are put in our foods. She also develops some of her own dietary supplements and some of the cleanest protein powders we’ve ever seen. Look for TruVani products in select retailers nationwide.
Interested in trying truvani products? The Holistic Navigator has an exclusive promo code right now for truvani protein powders! Use promo code VA>EUO to get 25% off Truvani Proteins for a limited time only.
Some Points We Discuss:
The majority of foods on grocery store shelves are dead foods (10:20)
What inspired The Food Babe to start Truvani? (14:30)
How do “natural flavors” and MSG impact our health? (22:37)
How do artificial food dyes impact our health? (27:45)
How are food companies swaying the public that their food is good for us when it’s actually toxic? (29:00)
Some Key Takeaways From This Episode:
Natural flavors may as well be considered artificial flavors in the way they are created. (16:07)
Food companies continue to use MSG because it creates an addictive food quality (24:00)
We have to take control of our health and not buy into what these massive food corporations are telling us is healthy. (27:00)
Products + Resources:
Get Social with The Food Babe:
Instagram @thefoodbabe
Facebook @thefoodbabe
Website: foodbabe.com
CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL SHOW TRANSCRIPT
Brian Strickland: Hey listeners, and welcome back to The Holistic Navigator Podcast where we believe in the body's ability to heal itself if it's given the proper nutrients and care. My name is Brian Strickland. I'm the producer of the show and here with me in the studio as always is your host Ed Jones and we have something truly special lined up for you on today's episode. We have the privilege of speaking with Vani Hari, otherwise known as The Food Babe. [00:01:01] Now if you're not familiar, you're with Vani, it's high time that you should. She's on a mission to change the way our country eats and is advocating for change from some of the giants in the food industry. Like Chick-fil-A, Chipotle, General Mills, Starbucks and a lot more. Vani is an author, speaker, and developer of a line of some of the cleanest supplements and dietary products you can find including Truvani protein, some of the best whole food protein we've seen to date. Well, that's it for me. Let's go ahead and jump into this episode here is your host, Mr. Ed Jones.
Ed Jones: Thank you Brian. And again, this is The Holistic Navigator. And you know, I say this often I've done about beyond almost 90 episodes now of The Holistic Navigator and I love it. I've enjoyed so many of the interviews and of course some of these are individual myself just to help educate the people who are really needing this information. And today is one of the most spectacular interviews [00:02:01] that I have looked more forward to probably more than any one in the past two and a half years. Most of us have heard of this person. Maybe not by her name but the title that she's known more by is Food Babe. And it is a lady who has made a massive impact on this country. And when I say that I think you'll get the gist of this before I even say anything more. She has forced billion dollar companies to change for the better as far as their food production, their ingredients, their choices, I mean companies like Kraft, and Chick-fil-A, Subway, General Mills, Panera. So many companies are having to bend because she has a following of millions of people. In fact in 2014. She had 54 million views and so I want to welcome the Food Babe, Vani Hari. Welcome to The Holistic Navigator.
Vani Hari: Thank you so [00:03:01] much for having me.
Ed Jones: And you know, you and I are very similar on many different aspects of one thing is that you believe that food can be your medicine for one. The second is I think and I think I've read this at your mission, which is exactly mine is to empower individuals to take back control of their health. On my Holistic Navigator on probably half of the episodes, I will generally end with this statement, “I separate the world into two classes of people. Learners and non Learners.” And I have said this before if you can't embrace learning about the conversation of food, and health, and holistic means you're going to probably lose in life. You're going to lose your health. You're not going to regain it because if you think that conventional wisdom or conventional knowledge is going to serve you well, it's not there for us people. And we need heroes like [00:04:01] Vani to help us to learn but also to put kind of pressure on the system because the system is made for profit and is not made for our health. So I'm rambling already Vani. I'm sorry because this is about you. So tell us a little bit more about yourself.
Vani Hari: Sure, you know, I grew up with two Indian immigrant parents and you know, my dad was about 27 years old when he was going to school in Indiana and he came to United States with nothing and when he was summoned back by his mother to get married to my mother which she had an arranged marriage. He brought back my mother to the United States on their honeymoon and she actually never ever went back home. And when she got married that weekend that she met him. I mean literally it wasn't even like a weekend. It was I think she met him on a Tuesday and she was married by like a Saturday or something. It was really ridiculous. And the back then you could get like a passport really fast. I don't know how you even do that now but back then you were able to just pay the right people [00:05:01] and you get your passport and immigration was a lot different back then. And so anyways, my mom comes here to the United States and the first thing my dad introduced her to is a McDonald's hamburger and says, you know, we're going to be Americans now and we're going to eat like Americans. And if you know anything about the Indian culture, the cow is sacred; it's not something that was even eaten at all in her family. She never had beef before in her life and and so that's how I was raised, to try to fit in very early on. You know, my parents for like the first some of the first Indians in Charlotte, North Carolina where I now live that I've lived here for 41 years and you know back then we were the only Indian family on the block and to fit in we really wanted to eat like Americans. Even though my mom eventually went back to her Indian roots and her Indian homemade cooking she because we were allowed to eat whatever [00:06:01] we wanted and the food was cheap, we ate a lot of fast food. And you know, her food looks so different than what all the other kids were eating at school and on the block and my neighbors etc. And so I gravitated towards that food. And of course once you get hooked to processed food, it's hard to go back to natural, real food without some kind of reason, or intervention, or health crisis. And so back then we didn't have you know, Google we didn't have the information that we have now about nutrition and my parents were, you know, very focused on their careers because they came here with nothing. They're both teachers and they're just trying to make ends meet. They weren't really concerned about the nutritional aspects of our food and as a result I had a lot of health issues as a child. So, you know everything from eczema, to asthma, to always be on some antibiotic [00:07:01] or steroid to control my allergies for the season and always felt somewhat like a zombie walking around, not wanting to go to school in the morning not being able to focus, just not not the level of clarity and energy that I have now. So when I think back to my childhood and I think about how I felt in my body, I never felt comfortable, never felt comfortable. And it wasn't until my late 20s that I finally hit rock bottom and I woke up and it was you know, after I started a very prestigious job out of college where they gave us an expense account and you are allowed to eat whatever you wanted and take the clients out to really fancy steak houses, and have five course meals, and all the catering that would come into the office so that we could bill more hours to the client. You know, I again outsourced my food To this corporation [00:08:01] because I wanted to do well at my job and found myself, very sick, overweight, depressed and suddenly coming down with appendicitis, which at the time they say appendicitis can happen to anybody. You know, this is something you never know. We got to take it out. You know, I had an emergency appendectomy and it took me weeks and weeks to recover. My body was so inflamed and just so sick and you know was in my early 20s and all I want to do is go out with my friends, and go Christmas shopping because it was around the Christmas season, and see you know, my family and everybody that you know came into town to visit for the holidays, but I was stuck in a bed. And I just said to myself like this isn't how I want to feel. And so I started to channel energy that I learned, you know skills that I had learned in high school. I was a debater and I was number one in state three years in a row and [00:09:02] recruited a college to be in debate and back then, okay, we still didn't have Google right? So you had to go to the library and look through microfiche, and check out these big law journals, and photocopy all of this material for your debate round so that you would you know have the evidence in the debate round of show the judge that you know what you're talking about. You have something to back up your facts. Well, one of my topics was healthcare and I remember using all that information to win these debate rounds and you had to learn the affirmative and negative of that of that statement that was part of that policy debate. And so you learned every side of the argument right, but I was using those arguments to win debate rounds, but I never really applied it to my own health and I just had this aha moment that wow the HealthCare system so screwed up like we really need to be advocates for ourselves. We can't expect other people to make our food choices. And so what I did was I went to the library and checked out this book. [00:10:03] It was Gabriel Cousen’s Conscious Eating and it was one of the most pivotal changes in my perspective that book gave me because there's this concept that the majority of foods on grocery store shelves is dead food. And that's how I felt for most of my life. Dead like a zombie. And so once I realized that the food that I was eating that were made up 90% of my diet were dead food. I started to do the reverse sort of make 90% of my diet whole real food. And not only did I go off nine prescription drugs, but my body changed and my weight came off. I was at a point in my life that I never had to diet at any more or worry about anything in terms of my health and my friends and my family saw this dramatic transformation and they wanted to know well, what are [00:11:03] you doing? Because this is like a totally foreign concept back when I was doing it because we didn't have a Whole Foods at the time. We had like two little natural food stores and only the hippies went there and no one really, you know, you didn't really know about them. Certainly none of my friends went there and or my group of people so I had to really venture out and try to find new things to eat, and new things to buy. And you know, I remember grab it, you know going to the first grocery store and seeing all these brands that I've never heard of before and I'm Where are the Kellogg's? Where's General Mills? Like where's the Coca-Cola? Like, where's the PepsiCo? None of that was there and it was just like an aha moment. The first thing I said to everyone is like you have to change where you shop. You cannot shop at a box grocery store anymore. Now things are different where you can get a lot of organic things at big retailers now, but back then you really just needed to completely change where you shop and then that would make a dramatic difference in your health. [00:12:04] Ed Jones: You know, that's a great point because you know, I'm certainly much older than you and I remember first off not having a place to shop but I love the fact that how you spoke and I actually have never pondered this. In my teenage years, I was really a zombie. I did very poor in school and could not remember fatigued most of the time. I mean here I am 63 and I feel better than I did at 16, and I did have an aha moment also about nutrition and food similar to you where you use the word you woke up or people need to wake up and it is almost like a religious turning in your life of some sort. You know, we've been brought under the Umbrella of being convinced by these massively well put together commercials that the foods are going to be healthy for us, when in fact you have proven so often and I love your Facebook. I love your Instagram and love everything you write about to show [00:13:04] you've kind of pulled the veil back and you're really letting people see the truth that one, what you're being looking at on the outside of a box really doesn't mean much we have to dig deeper. You are that person who's got the big shovel and you're digging deeper. But you also have a platform of power where you're putting influence on these corporations that they better step up to the plate somewhat. If not, they're going to pay some price for that. And I know I do a radio show also and I actually spoke last two weeks ago on that show Vital Health Radio about the difference between the product sold, I think in Australia compared to here and I read off about six different products. I mean everything from you know, the Cheerios, to the different foods for children, and what a difference even the ingredient list from that country to this is. And you are one of those brave individuals who is literally fearless as far as educating the truth about foods and I just give you so many thumbs up about that. And I also [00:14:04] want to make sure that I mentioned one of my favorite proteins of my entire life is Truvani, which you actually developed. And it's a food based protein that I'm not a huge fan of most of the food based proteins. But this one is spectacular. Truvani is amazing. I never get gas from it. I love the taste of it. So I got to put that plug in before I get any further down the road, Vani.
Vani Hari: Well, thank you so much, you know one of the reasons why I started Truvani is because you know, I was taking a tumeric supplement that I loved and it was amazing and all of a sudden I look at the ingredients and ingredients changed. And I said what in the world's going on, why are they adding these synthetic ingredients, new synthetic fillers into my turmeric supplement? And I did a little research and I found out that my turmeric brand had been bought by one of the largest chemical [00:15:04] companies in the world Procter & Gamble and I couldn't believe it. And I was like, oh my goodness right under my nose. My little organic supplement company that I loved had really high quality supplements is now bought out by this company and they went and they made you know economies of scale to make more money and added synthetic ingredients. And that made me so mad and it really inspired me to create Truvani. After you know after taking on some of the biggest giants in the food industry and realizing that I can continue to be an activist. But in order to really change the world I'm going to have to create the products that people use and do the right thing. And and so I started Truvani and the first actually product we came out with was a tumeric supplement, but the second one that I really wanted to create was this protein powder that you mentioned because every single protein powder that I looked at had natural [00:16:04] flavors had guar gum, had xantham gum, had maltodextrin, had all sorts of different additives. A lot of the natural ones. A lot of the organic ones were artificially not artificially flavored but naturally flavored and the natural flavor is much as well mean the same thing is as artificial the way it's produced and the way it's created in a laboratory to create that kind of addictive quality of a product. And you know the goal of Truvani was not to make an addictive protein it was to really nourish people's bodies and that's always been the goal. And so, you know when we set out to create this and do it by a pea protein, we had a big issue because we had to go through 52 different suppliers and had so many different tests that showed that there was a huge level of contamination in the pea protein supply. So we were able to find one with the lowest amount of heavy [00:17:04] metals like, you know, lowest teeniest amount of glyphosate even that, you know, you could find on the on the scale so that you know ours would pass with flying cover colors in terms of the European Standard or Prop 65 or any of these standards that they have today. And so, you know knowing what I know about protein powder, I will not touch anybody else's protein powder. Won’t even go close like if I'm out and about I'm at, you know, Whole Foods or some Smoothie Bar and they're like, hey, would you like to add protein to your smoothie? I'm like no. l’ll add some almond butter, some almonds, whatever but I'm not going to add somebody else's protein powder because I know how its produced and I know those additives especially the gums and things that they add completely disrupt the internal gut flora of your body. And that's just not something that I want to do on a daily basis, especially, you know, my husband who drinks protein powder almost every day, you know and my daughter who [00:18:04] might have the occasional sip, you know, it's really important to me to have the cleanest level of product and the least amount of ingredients that are necessary to create a product. You know, our protein vanilla has five ingredients and our protein chocolate has six. And we have two new flavors actually coming out and we're not using natural flavors to create those flavors. But if you look at every single other protein powder out there, they're using natural flavors to create different flavors and those natural flavors are creating a laboratory. They are meant to hijack your brain. They're meant to create the best one millionth part of a taste to get you to continue to crave that product and that's not what I'm interested in. I'm interested in breaking actually that control the food industry has on you, the supplement industry has on you,and that's what we're doing at Truvani. So thank you for mentioning that because it's a you know, it's something that I'm very passionate about [00:19:04] and so happy I created, you know. One of the other things that I've been working on as well as a cookbook, and I've been working on it for over five years. Yeah five years and it's finally coming out in October and I'm so excited. It's called Food Babe Kitchen, if anybody's listening you can go to foodbabekitchen.com and pre-order it now and you also will get everything in my pantry list all the brands everything and a list of that as a pre-order bonus, but Food Babe Kitchen is something that is such a personal endeavor. Yeah, because it literally takes someone soup to nuts in their kitchen. Everything from the pans they're using, to how they're warming their food, to how to store food, to all the things you need to have in your pantry to have a food babe level kitchen.
Ed Jones: I love that.
Vani Hari: I spill it all [00:20:04] and then that's the first half of the book and then it has a over a hundred recipes all photographed for you and includes all these amazing photos with me and my family and and all the things we’re eating on a daily basis in the recipes that were making.
Brian Strickland: All right, you guys we're going to press pause on the interview for just a moment for a word from our sponsors today Straight Hemp. Committed to giving everyone access to the best that nature has to offer Straight Hemp uses single strain hemp and biodynamic organic farming practices to provide you with clean CBD oil that's contaminant-free. Their unique extraction process uses live plants to capture the true essence of the whole plant and provides terpene rich consistent results that maximizes the Entourage effect of CBD. Every batch is third-party tested for potency, terpene content, and contaminant and you have the ability to plug in the lot number on your product to view the lab reports yourself, which is pretty dang cool. They make [00:21:04] a variety of products including full spectrum CBD oil, balms, soft gels, and vape oils, which you can view for yourself at straighthemp.com.
Ed Jones: I'm so freaking excited too because you know the and you said so much in the past few minutes that I could talk endlessly about one is you know, the word natural flavors. I mean 99% of all people who see that are going to gravitate to that word. But we again have to be in that conversation of truth and you are such an excellent rebel to present the truth in a very tactful way. That the word national flavors is really disgusting many times because it gives manufacturers the opening to do a lot of bad stuff. But yet they can market it like they're doing the right thing and I want to mention real quickly, you know, we're sponsored by nutritionw.com. And [00:22:04] we really that company vets everything as far as the highest level of purity, kind of like you did with Truvani and you're exactly right. The Proctor & Gamble thing was one of hundreds of disasters when big-box massive, corporate buy nutritional companies. They always do what Proctor & Gamble did. Cut cut cut it's all about profits. It's all about the next quarter and it is despicable when it comes to what they're doing to our foods. I do want to ask you very clearly I just have this super pet peeve about MSG because it can also fall under the category of natural flavors or yeast extracts and I go to this chain outfit. I do have to eat out more than I should. I’m a single guy, and I don't like to cook, and I work all the time. So I go to Carrabba's and I've picked up a pattern that if I ate two of their foods there one is a caesar salad or one is if they have anything on their fish that is of liquid origin, my pulse rate goes up 30 beats [00:23:04] a minute for 5 hours. Well, we know what that was. It was most likely MSG. Is there any way that that's going to get better in the future? Because I don't see it changing. These restaurants are still like they will they told me flatly. Oh, we never use MSG. Well, the problem is they don't have it on the label MSG. They have an under natural flavors, probably. Is that correct?
Vani Hari: Right. Yeah, so free glutamic acid, which is the same thing that's in MSG which MSG is just free glutamic acid plus sodium right? So if you break those down and you just add glutamic acid to natural flavors and then add salt to the product pretty much creates this almost the exact same effect in the body. And the effect in the body is can be shown in rat studies. If you Google right now rats and MSG, you will see what happens to humans as well. They get fat. It's obese. I mean these rats or become obese. That's actually what they feed [00:24:04] to rats. In rat studies where they're studying obesity. They feed MSG to them. And the reason why MSG works when you add it to food is it creates that irresistible flavor so that you keep eating more than you should and you don't feel satiated. So it's the reason why you can't stop eating for example, Doritos or you know, specific type of you know, cheese cracker or something like that. It's the reason why a lot of foods are addictive and the reason why fast foods like McDonald's, and Wendy's, and Burger King, etc continue to use MSG.
Ed Jones: Wow, of course, and it's also very inexpensive. So the companies can create a society of addicted, drug-addicted people and also not spend much to get them addicted and still portray themselves as a caring corporation. So, you know, we need people who are brave enough to again step [00:25:04] out of the box. I know I was looking just to go sideways one quick second. Your recipes were phenomenal. I was looking on Facebook right before I came in here to the Food Babe’s almond butter brownies. And I mean everything you do is just so spectacular. I do want to mention that my daughter who works with me. I've been doing this for again for 42 years, but she has a Facebook post called Earth Conscious Mama. She's a mother of my grandson one year and one month old and so far he's been fed as good a diet as I've ever witnessed in 42 years. And I did a big post on it because I said this is a child who has amazing ability to focus. He's not scattered. He's not upset emotionally. He's just a happiest kid on Earth because he's not already drug addicted to sugar and other chemicals. And she had never thought of that and she's said the other day maybe that is why that he's so calm and focused because he's not thinking of the [00:26:04] next food that he needs to crave and obviously I'm sure you would agree with that. But what we're doing to our children and I wrote on my little post I said, you know what we do to children the first four to five years is going to make them pay a price for the remaining 70 of their life. And here's the one chance we have to truly gives a person a lifelong gift. So on her Facebook post Earth Conscious Mama I want to that's a private post. But all you got to do is sign up to read her amazing things about toxins in the environment, on skincare, the food's kind of like you but on a little bit different angle. So there's nothing we can do about this MSG is there because there's no like I wish that I had an eyedropper of a that I could put on that food that it would turn a color that would alert me of that. But that's just not happening is it?
Vani Hari: It's really not, you know, I want to give you before we have to go here because I know we're [00:27:04] getting towards the end and I just want to make sure I mention this because this is just a great example of why number one. We really need to pay attention and take back control of our health. But number two why we can't trust corporations with the products that they create. And that is Kellogg's. Kellogg's cereal is a company that for decades have you know sugar-filled, synthetically vitamin filled products to our children saying that they would need this in the morning to feel satisfied, and healthy, and all of the misleading marketing messages that they've had in the past. And you know in 2015 they actually made a commitment to remove artificial food dyes from their cereals and artificial food dyes are very problematic. Number one, especially in a pandemic that we're experiencing now, they affect the immune system so you don't want to be consuming any chemicals that affect your immune system in a negative way. [00:28:04] Number two. They affect a child's ability to learn. You know, they affect the hyperactivity of a child. Actually in Europe they require a warning label on any product that has artificial food dyes. It says “may cause adverse effects on activity and attention in children”. And number three, they also cause skin issues, allergies, eczema, etc. So, you know, all three of those reasons combined it’s definitely not something you should have in a cereal that's targeted towards children. So they made an amazing commitment in 2015 to remove artificial food dyes and they said they would do this within two or three years. They said by 2018 they will do this. Well today it is said you know it. We're in 2020 right five years later. They are already, okay, making these same cereals overseas without artificial food dyes because they want to avoid that warning label I just talked about. And instead of doing what they said they're going to do, they have continued [00:29:04] to sell Fruit Loops, etc with artificial food dyes here in the United States and then now are creating even more new products with artificial food dyes. Like they came out with a baby shark serial last year to target even smaller kids, toddlers. They came out with a unicorn cereal, they came out with an Easter Peeps cereal. And the list goes on and on and these are new products that they created with artificial food dyes when they made the commitment back in 2015 to remove them. So not only are they liars. I mean boldface liars, but they're unethical and hypocritical. And then, you know, just last month they created a new, a month a half ago now, they created a new series of waffles. Now this is the same company that makes Eggos. So they you know Eggos has been losing market share because there's other contenders in the in [00:30:04] the waffle space now that are much healthier and they said you know what we got to we got to win back our base. So what do they do? They created unicorn, and mermaid, and birthday cake waffles again made with the most horrendous ingredients also with artificial food dyes targeting children. And this is one of the things that just drives me crazy. And the reason I found out about this luckily someone what team member at Truvani actually alerted me to it. But then when I Googled it, I couldn't believe the media reports on this. The media is reporting left and right about these new waffles and I'm like, this is not journalism. This is PR, right and why is it a single reporter asking the fundamental question, which is what are the ingredients in this waffle? Not a single reporter asked a question or even reported about why these are being created during a pandemic right targeting children [00:31:04] including artificial food dyes that are you know detrimental to the immune system in a plan is in a time where we need to be supporting our immune system. So, you know, I got fed up. I wrote about this a lot of people shared it. And good friend Dusty Itzler who happens to be the husband of Sara Blakely who is a billionaire owner of Spanx the undergarment company. He also is a very successful entrepreneur, has done lots of amazing things including written some amazing books, etc. New York Times bestsellers, and he has the money to just do this and he you know, he offered the CEO of Kellogg's $100,000 for a 15-minute Instagram live interview. And he would donate the money to any children's charity of the CEOs choice. And not a single reporter has picked up the story, not one reporter. [00:32:04] I contacted probably over 20 food reporters that I know I wrote an email about this that went out to 400,000 people. I went and also posted about this on the blog. He posted about this and not a single reporter has reported on the story, but they'll report on the fact that Kellogg's has these new waffles. And this is the fundamental problem with the way we're getting food and health information in this country. We are actually being told PR by these food companies instead of what we actually need to know about these foods.
Ed Jones: You have created a night of poor sleep for me if I think about this anymore after I go to bed because it infuriates me to a level everything from that concept, of course to the Google censorship, to the fact that no one's talking about D’s relationship to this pandemic all week. If we raise our vitamin D level will have 80% [00:33:04] less severe cases. All of it is PR crap, and I know that I love and I we have to end it here. I know but Upton Sinclair in the 1920s, I think it was he was trying to reveal the despicable nature of the meat industry and the beef industry and he said something I thought was just so wise. He said it is difficult to get a man, of course back then they would write the word man. It's difficult to get a man to understand something when his salary depends upon his not understanding it. Well, it was very true because who would want to face the truth if you're going to potentially lose your job. Today it's much worse than that because it's almost like there's an addiction or there's a religious concept of science where you know, you can find enough science in some PubMed to say that these artificial ingredients are totally safe. They're not hurting anyone, but that's not wisdom, and we know you know and the fact that you know personal experience [00:34:04] as you and me and millions have had of feeling the fog, feeling the fatigue, feeling the illness, looking at foods differently, embracing a new paradigm and protocol of eating, and sleeping, and addressing the things that you know, really creates health. Once you experience it you know the truth. Dou don't need to be having someone with credential papers on the wall to tell you anything. Because most of these people are pretty damn unhealthy themselves who are preaching the gospel of all these chemicals are perfectly safe, have been tested by the government, and it's all you know legal. Well, that's all bull crap as you say too. So I just can't give you enough accolades for being brave and we are people like you and I are going to have to brag or really the saviors of this conversation because we have a lot of forces that oppose us and just like you said with the Kellogg's and the fact that I know that there's people who've come after you and [00:35:04] it puts you down terribly unfairly. I don't mind people disagreeing but when somebody calls you names like I read that they did. It's just a way to try to destroy you rather than have an active conversation and really create something of value.
Vani Hari: I mean, you know, I just want to make a point on that. You know, I think what's so important for people to realize is when you're impacting with the information that you're sharing as an activist, if you're impacting millions and millions of dollars, some cases probably billions of dollars at some of these food corporations, you know. For example, you know, I got through a petition and through the help of the Food Babe Army and we got azodicarbonamide, a chemical that's already banned all over the world that's still used in the U.S. foods. It was in about every single bread you would find at the supermarket along with Subway bread and other fast food chains. It was in I believe it was in Chick-fil-A, it was in Wendy's. I mean it was everywhere. [00:36:05] We literally got that chemical eradicated from the food industry just by doing a campaign and you can only imagine the amount of money that chemical corporation was making selling that chemical right? And so when you do that kind of work, you know, initially, I thought I was you know, I felt naive right when I was initially doing this work. So I thought if I just tell the truth do the right thing and make people healthier by removing these chemicals from their food everything's going to work out. But I didn't really understand the impact that I was making because I wasn't thinking about the economic impact at these large food corporations and why they've been allowed to do what they've done for so long to our food and why they're allowed to approve their own additives and the FDA doesn't even oversee them. So once I realized the impact of what I was doing it was kind of too late because I'd already been so viciously attacked in the media and [00:37:05] you know, that's what my second book was actually all about. It's called Feeding You Lies and I discovered through the Freedom of Information Request Act where I got hidden emails and hidden messages that were sent back and forth from quote-unquote experts that would try to discredit me in the media. Their messages to and from huge food corporations and chemical corporations and front groups that these food and chemical corporations were funding behind the scenes. And it just goes to show you that every single actually every single person that did attack me in the mainstream media had a tie back to the chemical industry. And so your quote that you just mentioned from Upton Sinclair is so nicely warranted in this case because that's exactly what happened to me. And if anybody wants to hear about all the background of those attacks [00:38:05] and everything Feeding You Lies is a great read because I go deaf into all the different stories was actually the hardest book that I've ever written and and you know is probably one of the most eye-opening ones that you'll ever read in terms of food.
Ed Jones: Wow. I just again have to give all my accolades to you for your bravery because you're one thing and I know I'm living my life not just for today, but I do feel a value of legacy and you've already created a wonderfully historic legacy of changing lives. And I think you know as people evolve in any field, but especially in the field that we are in which is education of nutrition and foods. I don't take it lightly. Because I've seen enough people now over 42 years that there are you know, there are many people who are breathing and walking today. I know for a fact who would not be if they had gone down the same path of following conventional medical advice and [00:39:05] not looking deeply into this food story. So your legacy it will last forever. I'm sure. I know Upton I don't have it in front of me, but I know Upton Sinclair also, I think said that he's not afraid of your menacing as far as a going after the people who are coming after him. I'm not afraid of it at this point and you certainly don't seem to be and and good for you because it does take bravery to stand up to the strong currents that do go against us. I truly don't know how, of course I kind of know and I don't I don't know for sure, how people sleep at night who are the true originators of these foods that are damaging people, especially children. When we look at the level of disease in children. The fact that the obesity, the ADD, the autism, all of that together, we're doing something wrong people. It's not I don't care how much PubMed you read. You're not getting the answers in that kind of literature as to why we [00:40:05] are destroying the health of this country. The Food Babe has far more answers than any of these supposed credential professional experts in my opinion. So I just thank you so much Vani for being here. With me on The Holistic Navigator. And again, I love your Truvani protein. It is going to be a mainstay in my life. I am a big person who preaches the fact that we can't eat a perfect if you're, you know having to eat out like I am but you know what you can do you can drink perfect. You can find the kind of products like you make at Truvani hat is the non GMO, is the organic, is the no chemical nature. You can throw that together as a meal as I have for four years, which I use a protein like Truvani, but I'll need more calories. So what do I do? I may put MCT oil or coconut oil in it. I put some greens powder from totally organic sources and then I'll put some giber from hemp. Those are my magic supplements so that I…
Vani Hari: [00:41:05] You're going to love our new products. You’re really gonna love them.
Ed Jones: Yay. Well I'm looking forward to that. Well, I'll leave it with that and again Vani, thank you and all the best to you. aAd you know, we're in this together, so If there's anything I can ever do I'm certainly here in your camp and please I hope maybe in six months or a year or maybe after your book really gets launched we can do another podcast simply on your book and you can give people some some really good bullet points from that.
Vani Hari: Yeah, absolutely. Thank you so much. I really appreciate you having me today and really nice meeting you.
Ed Jones: All right, same here. And since you're not too far away, perhaps some day in the future we will actually meet in person when the world gets back to normal calm. Which will happen. It is going to happen. It can't keep going at this pace. But thank you all the best to you and all your crowds, and we'll be sharing this with a lot of people and I hope you can share some of ours too. So take care of yourself, and this is Ed with [00:42:05] The Holistic Navigator and look forward again to each and every episode. As long as I'm breathing, people, I'm going to be talking just like The Food Babe does. So all the best to everyone and thank you for spending your time with me.
Vani Hari: Thank you. Bye.
Brian Strickland: The information on this podcast in the topics discussed have not been evaluated by the FDA or any one of the medical profession and is not aimed to replace any advice you may receive from your medical practitioner. The Holistic Navigator assumes no responsibility or liability whatsoever on behalf of any purchaser or listener of these materials. The Holistic Navigator is not a doctor or doesn't claim to be please consult your physician before beginning any health regimen.