Good Day Google+ - Come on Get Healthy!

Hey everyone, I'm Chef Dennis and welcome to another edition of Good Day Google+. It's a beautiful, sunny, not humid day in Orlando and I am knowing exactly why we moved here because it is paradise this time of year. No humidity, I'm not baking outside, the lizards are everywhere, it's a wonderful thing. I'm happy to be here today and last week was Come On Get Happy. This is Come On, Get Healthy. When you think about it, really, healthy is happy, at least for me. I keep working towards that end. We've got some wonderful guests today. We're having a mini ShiftCon reunion. Actually, we're missing one person, and hopefully she'll be showing up in a little while, Andrea Fabry. We'll talk to her if she does show up. Right now, let me go through my guest list and introduce everyone to you and to my left. I'm gonna start there. I don't know what's on your screen, but on my screen I have Mag Hunezoita. How you doing, Mag?

I'm great. Finally. I've been sick. I've been sick for the last couple of days, so I feel good. And considering this is a health show, it's like, yay! I have to be on it.

We gotta talk about what's good for us. And you know, at ShiftCon, I really drank the Kool-Aid. Of course, it was a non-GMO organic— it really wasn't Kool-Aid, it was a fruit beverage. But, uh, so I want to spread the word even more now and do what I can to help people realize that. So I'm happy you're here today, and we'll get to talk to you a little bit more in a bit. And then I have next to Maggie, I have Joanna Liberty. And Joanna was one of the reasons that ShiftCon went off so smoothly.

I'm glad it looked like that from your side.

Well, you know, if something did go wrong, the only people that know what went wrong are the people that organized it, because for us it looked like it was just amazing.

Yeah, we didn't really have any big problems, so that was good. Made it easier to make it look really good for you guys.

Oh, it did. And the swag, oh my God! There was so much swag, that was unbelievable.

Yeah, there's swag and there's like ShiftCon swag.

5 bags, like not a little bit, just stuffed to the max.

I think I've got like a 2-year supply of organic laundry detergent and body soap.

It's awesome.

You know, I didn't bring everything back because it would have cost me so much shipping on the airplane these days, but I went out and bought my Ecos laundry detergent today so we can start using that. Yeah, so, but I was real happy. I'm still using the Dr. Bonner's soaps, and I'm having fun with other things, you know. It's like, so I'm having a good time. So thank you for everything you did. And Leah's still in England having a good old time.

Yes, she's over visiting with dairy farmers who make organic cheddar cheese.

I was hoping she was over there beating on Jamie Oliver, but that's alright.

I can't speak to that one. I don't know.

Never mind. And I noticed behind you we have a ghost and a pig. I like that.

Yes, I always have my pig with me, but I try and dress her up a little bit. And it's a girl pig even though she's blue.

I put a picture up on one of my posts. In Philadelphia, one of the places that was really fun to go to was a place called the Reading Terminal, and it's just a huge indoor market with fresh fruit, vegetables, flowers, all kinds of eateries, everything under the sun. But in the center of the restaurants, they have this big bronze pig. Sure, it's kind of cool. So, alright, and next to Joanna, we have Paco from Farm Box LA, and I'm so happy you could join us today. And you got a great thing going there, and I want to talk to you more about that. So how are things with you?

It's great. I'm in LA right now. We're actually in San Francisco and LA, but it's nice to get some sun down here in Southern California.

Never rains in Southern California. I remember that song.

It's been a long time.

It rains in Orlando mostly, but in the summer anyway. Right now we're in our nice dry spell, so we'll take it. I'm glad you could make it. It was really nice talking to you at ShiftCon and learning more about your business. In what you do. We'll talk more about that in a little bit. Thank you, everyone, for joining us. As usual, if you have questions or comments, just load them up in the comments section underneath the video, and we will do our best to get to them. We have a lot of people in the house here. I want to say hi to Christopher Vogelman. Drink the non-GMO Kool-Aid.

That's it.

Don S. is here. I don't think I remember seeing Don before, so Don, thanks for joining us.— and he was saying hi to somebody else. And let's see who else we have here. Jamal, Jamal's here, thank you for joining us. Elena Bellamonte's here. Carmen Mandic, I'm always happy to see you here. And William Rock is in the house. William, thanks so much for stopping by. Oh, now, I'm gonna call you Manny because I can't pronounce your name, but thank you for coming by. Yeah, that's a good one. So we'll say hi. So thanks everyone for being here and for showing up, and we're glad that you're here to join us with Good Day Google+. And right now we're just going to start turning over, and I'm going to start on the other end. I'm going to start with Chaka. And Chaka, why don't you tell us a little bit about your business, what you do, services you provide, and some of the reasons that people would be interested in it.

Sure.

We are like an online farmer's market and local grocery store. So we partner with the local farmers to bring produce from the farm to people's homes. Everything's picked to order. So when you place an order for like a bunch of carrots, the farmer goes out, picks your carrots, and it should be on your doorstep within 2 days. So it happens all pretty fast. And then for all of our grocery goods, we work with local small businesses to try to help support them. And just to help the consumer so that at home you don't have to go to the grocery store, you don't have to travel to the farmer's market, you can just get everything delivered.

So do you have a full range of like grocery supplies then that you do pick up?

We do, from cleaning products to broccoli to dog food, we carry a really wide range of products. So you can get almost the whole shebang. Minus your Cheerios. We carry quite a bit. And then it comes in these really cute little baskets on your doorstep. So it's like Christmas every Sunday.

Wow.

So do they get a new basket or do you recycle those?

Or how does that work?

We try to do everything eco, so the baskets are reusable. Our produce bags, we use mesh instead of plastic. And so every week you just exchange it with your driver.

Okay, well mesh is a lot better than plastic. Plastic is just—

Yeah, so we'll take them back and then wash them and reuse them.

Great, and I know you're not, you can't say who, but from what our talk was, you have some pretty cool clients on that list.

We do, it's LA, so it's pretty fun when you look at our customer list. I'll have to get permission from some people to be able to mention them.

Absolutely, and I know one in particular I would love to have on the show. If you could ever convince him.

Yeah, we actually, I'd love to arrange that. You know what I'd love to do, Chef, is cooking shows with you.

Oh, cool.

I think it would be really fun to get some of our customers, get the organic food, and you, and just do a show.

That would be great.

And I think just sticking with the whole healthy theme today, you know, and I don't know if people really necessarily realize this, but when you're eating, I mean, it's great to eat organic, But I mean, the nutritional value in produce really starts to decrease quickly from the time it's picked. So if you can get organic and get local, it's actually going to be healthier for you than just getting organic that was picked like 2 months ago in Chile or something.

So—

Does things really stay out there that— I mean, I know root vegetables, but does other produce really sit on the shelves for that long?

Well, apples, oranges, like pears, things like that will keep, can store up to a couple months. But even like the produce in your grocery store on average travels 1,500 miles and several days, so even that bunch of carrots could be one week old by the time you're getting it at the store and it's already lost like half of its nutritional value.

Is that, is that, that's really true? That much that fast?

Yeah, it loses that much after the first week. I mean, different vegetables lose different amounts, but you could just use that as a good average.

How much does it go on as time goes on? I buy carrots, and I'll buy a 2-pound bag of organics, and it takes me a little while to use them all, so I might as well just eat the cardboard then.

Right, because you're just getting roughage.

Oh, well, that's something good to know, and that's not something I really knew, so I have to keep a closer eye on that. Boy, I learn so much. Knowledge is power, but knowledge can be overwhelming sometimes.

No kidding. I have a question for you. So what— okay, so you mentioned before the show— I don't know if this is something you can tell me now, but do you know when you're coming to San Diego? And if you're coming to Coronado, because you have to understand, Sometimes you just don't get stuff in Coronado. Yeah, and I have to go out to the mainland, it's like, ugh.

Yeah, I am hoping, you know, I would say summer, so we're still a ways, we're still a little ways away from being able to do San Diego, but it's so close because we're already in Orange County.

Yeah.

One more step, it's like one more hour.

Come on, just get over here. Okay, cool, good to know. But oh, so I wrote my ShiftCon post. It was published today. This long post. It's just like so many pictures of Sony guys. But I was mentioning in it, because my family owns a ranch in Mexico. And you know, where, what are we having for dinner? And you see a little chicken. You know, it's like, look, here we go. Let's have a chicken fajita, kind of thing. Yeah, I still remember my grandfather giving me like a a basket and saying, "Okay, whatever you want to eat, put it in the basket." So we'd go out into the fields and we'd pick stuff and put them into these little baskets. But then the taste, I can't get over the taste because I could taste an apple that was ripe from the tree and it was so good.

Totally different. I can't even eat produce at the grocery store. Well, and for you to be able to do that as a kid, because I was talking to a woman yesterday who just got her first farm box And she said she pulled out the carrots and her kids didn't, had never, like they had never seen carrot tops. Oh wow. And there was dirt on them and they didn't even, like her kids didn't even know carrots came out of the ground. So I think it's really cool if you can, if people can share these things with their kids at a young age. Also they can learn about it. And it's exciting too if you get it, if you get them young and you're at the farmer's market, they're involved and they're going to be more likely to try it as well.

So I have a story for you guys. My son, okay, he's 7, and he has other little friends and they were over at the house. And these kids are picky, brother and sister, they're just picky little kids. And I know their mom, and don't get me wrong, she's got a lot of kids, so I know she's busy, but she, you know, she cooks a lot of very fast food that's not necessarily the healthiest option out there. Anyway, so I said, hey, you guys want some carrots? And they kind of looked at me and said, no carrots. And I said to my son, would you like some? And he said, yes, please. So he's eating his carrots. And these little kids saw him eating, so they tasted this carrot. And of course, it's an organic carrot with the little tops and everything. And he likes it. I think he thinks it's cute, Bugs Bunny, whatever. Anyway, these little kids were like, oh my god, this is such a good carrot. This is so good. It's sweet. So they come to this house asking for carrots, like, "Can we have your carrots?" And their mom is like, "Wait, why? How did you—" I'm like, "Well, they're organic carrots, you know, organic." So he's good. Yeah, okay, end of story.

Good story, you know, and it's true. A lot of people don't realize what flavors things are supposed to have. I think one of the first things I started eating organic was chicken because chicken no longer tasted like chicken. It was like, I'm eating it one day and I'm going, "What the hell is this?" When chicken doesn't taste like chicken, we have a problem. That's the one thing that should. I started buying free-range at that point and free-range and cage-free eggs. The first thing I noticed about the egg was that It sat up when you opened it. It didn't just, "Voom," go splat all over. I'm looking at the color, and I'm saying, "Look at this egg." My wife's going, "Yeah, what?" She hadn't cracked that many eggs in her life, so she wouldn't know. What do you do when you're married to a chef?

Exactly.

She married me. Her father had always told her— she didn't get out much, and she said, "You'd either marry—" I had to qualify the statement. He said, "You'd either marry a chef or the mailman." I'm going, "What?" The mailman, why? Because I don't get that much. So yeah, she did get lucky in that respect, and I got very lucky with her too. Married way above my pay grade, so that's good. But seeing these things, organic milk, the first time I drank organic milk, it was like I was drinking cream. It was so thick and so rich. And I buy 4%. I'm shameless. I don't—

Life's short. It's okay.

Yeah. I don't drink that much of it, but when I do have it, I want— although I am going to start trying some of the other coconut milks and things. The food tastes like it was— I'm old enough to remember what the food's supposed to taste like, so that was the big thing. The added benefit to me was that it was better for me. The real benefit was that it tasted like food. I think a lot of people, if they start that way and see that they taste, and then they'll start understanding why why it's good for them too, it's like, "Oh my God, and it's good for me." That's even more special.

My favorite part is the egg color. My parents have a small hobby farm, and so they have chickens that are just free range. We let them out in the morning, and they go back to their coop, and we close the door at night. They have orange yolks. You just can't get that anywhere. It's like a lot of the European eggs.

I know when I was over there— They were orange, and I'm going, why the hell are they so bright and deep?

I watched a TED Talk the other day about how they can get the livers of birds to be the right yellow color for the foie gras without force-feeding them. That's awesome, because just what they feed them makes a difference.

The force-feeding— and I was appalled, and I would not ever eat it again after I heard about that— was that they feed them so much so their livers expand and actually almost become unhealthy to make it. That's just not—

There's a lot of ways without doing that.

Yeah, if you've got to have it. I used to like it, but I won't touch it. Same thing with veal. As a chef in the old days, we did a lot of veal. Then the more I learned about it, the more I said, "This is just not—" It's not that it's a baby animal, it's the fact of how it's treated so much. A lot has changed over the years. It's funny, I had a boss, she wanted veal and I refused to make it for her. She's like, "What?" I said, "Oh my God, are you crazy?" So when you're a good chef, you could do that. Well, Joanna, since we have you, let's keep talking to you then. And why don't you tell us a little bit more about, you know, besides the ShiftCon thing, what you're doing. What you like to do. You have a lot of interests.

Yeah, I kind of do a little bit of everything, I guess. So yeah, I'm a social media consultant, so I have a few different clients, and Leah is like my best and first client that I go to if I have time to do more stuff. But my favorite part of it is actually the data science. I love to analyze data and collect information and crunch little numbers with my computer. That's the part that I like. I mean, I love meeting people and everything too, but I know we talked about this a little bit at ShiftCon. I'm like I'm good after a little bit of time with people. I need some alone time. But yeah, I really like the science behind it, behind everything that we're doing with social media. There's so many cool things that we can look at and study and just how people are, how people interact. That's my favorite part.

What are some of the things you look at when you're looking at these studies?

Well, okay, well, like First and foremost, if you're working for a client, the most important thing is what their return is on the investment. So I mean, you have to be able to show what they're getting back. What would it be worth in comparison to, just say, like buying an ad? So you have all these bloggers who are posting pictures on Instagram. So what is the value of that? How does that translate to a value for a brand? Well, if you compare the images to— some of them may be photo quality. A lot of bloggers are getting really, really good at, especially the food bloggers, at taking pictures. So if you have a photo quality ad, what is the brand then saving because they don't have to have a photo shoot, because they have the permission to use these images. So it's that kind of advertising that we look at those numbers first of all, but I like to see how people are relating and interacting to each other. It's not just about putting an ad out there or a picture out there. You have to actually engage with people and engage with your readers. And that interaction is what I like to watch and see how that changes over time, what people do to increase it or improve it. You know, even just looking at one specific word, how does that change their— you know, if they use one specific word or wording, how does that change how they're readers react to it. That's just behind-the-scenes stuff, is more me.

No, well, you know, that's important information because as bloggers, no matter what kind of blog we have, we need to know how we're going to reach the people we're trying to reach.

Yeah, my best friends, Jenae and Rebecca, keep telling me that I need to actually teach people how to do it instead of just looking at it. I haven't gotten there yet. I'll be your first client, Joanna. They told me I need to do it soon.

Well, you'll have no shortage of clients lining up for you. Do you do any heat mapping? Have you done that with blogs at all? I do some.

That's not one of the things that I normally do because I'm normally looking at a large-scale number of people rather than just one specific thing and where on that site it is. But I can do that. I mean, there's a lot of things that I can do. Tools that I can use. So I just play with them from time to time and see what's cool. I have done that before and it makes pretty pictures.

It's pretty interesting to see where people do spend their time.

Yeah, and it's usually not what you think when you plan it.

Never is. You know, it's just like when I would send a picture somewhere, the one that I thought was great never got anything. The one that I thought was the worst one I had taken was always what they choose. I did read something that said when you're writing a blog post, that any parts— it was at a conference I was at, and the guy said to take out anything that you think is really the best part of it, to take it out.

Yes, if you like it, then it is not acceptable. I frequently run into that. Like, if I finish a report and I really like it, then it's not quite right yet.

He had related a story about in his younger years, he had been sent to— he was a travel writer blogger, and he had been sent to write about this new company. And it was actually something I knew about as soon as he mentioned the name. It had been Spencer Gifts, and they were— I lived in the Atlantic City area a long time, and that's where their headquarters were. But he said there was this exploding golf ball, and he said he kept toying with it. He didn't know whether to include it or not to include it, and he did. And he gave it to his boss to read. His boss loved it. I didn't know if I should include the exploding golf ball. He said he, at that point, he got real serious, he leaned across the desk to him and says, "You always include the exploding golf ball." He meant it metaphorically. Anything that really grabs you like that is a very integral part of the story, and if you're that torn between it, it definitely should go in, because it's the parts that you really love and think are great that don't belong there. Always include this floating golf ball. Oh my God. Well, so that's good to know, and we're working hard on ShiftCon 2015 already.

Oh yeah, well, I still haven't finished wrapping up '14, but we are moving forward and getting ready for '15 now. That's cool. We will have information on that ready in the next coming weeks. It was early November. Of course, you know where it is now.

It's on the beach, isn't it? Yeah, Manhattan Beach at the Marriott. Okay, that's great. I don't think I knew the hotel, but I knew it had moved to the beach area, which was a beautiful area. That was the one place I actually did get to see other than the hotel.

I think I saw it out of the airplane.

Well, we went down there the first day. She wanted to stay a day after, and I said, I will be so tired, I won't want to do anything. Let's go a day early. And with MeetBe, I was sick right before I went. It wasn't necessarily a good thing either, but we did go down to Manhattan Beach and walked around and had lunch out there, and it was just beautiful. So that was a great idea to move it there. Hopefully a bigger, bigger place too. It's a lot bigger, and we have tons—

we have even more room for sponsors, and I can't remember how many, but there will be some— it's a big, big room. Lots more in the expo. And you know, we personally go through each one of the sponsors that we work with to make sure that they meet the requirements that we have. And it's just going to be so much fun. We're excited.

Does this mean bigger swag bags, Joanna? What's that? Does this mean bigger swag bags?

Oh my goodness. I don't think we have the arms to carry more. No, actually it probably will be, but you know, we did the swap room this year and we'll definitely have that again. So like People who are flying out may not want to take all of the liquids.

It was rough. It was a lot, you know, but it was a great selection. And that was, to me, was the perfect type of conference because, you know, when I first started going to conferences, they had the vendors there, they had all these people talking to, and you could try things. And then as time goes on, you see some So little of it. I got to tell you, the swag that I've been getting at most of the conferences is pretty lame. Every now and then you get a good piece of something, but there it was like, whoo, it was incredible.

I hope you get that apple in your swag bag.

That was from Farmbox. It's kind of hard to put a tag on that one.

There could be more food in it next year because I was looking for stuff to eat.

Yeah, snack.

Because the food in the hotel— I think we paid $2.50 for a little 4-ounce thing of pretzels. So think on those terms. So Mackie, let's talk to you a little bit. And what do you have going on? I know you said you're going up to Orange County.

I'm going to Orange County because it's my birthday! Yeah, wait, where's the— where's the— Where's your cake? No, my birthday's on Monday. But— so total shift of gears, right? So I'm driving from San Diego. I'm driving an hour north, and my family's driving down an hour south. So we're going to Orange County to celebrate. And I have my son. I have my brothers, my mom. We're having dinner. It could be dinner. But we're spending a little time together in San Clemente. And it's a beautiful little town. That's a cute little beach town with this little walk area, shops. But yeah, so that's Monday— or that's today, sorry. That's today. And then this weekend— what am I doing this weekend? I can't remember. Oh, but Monday. Monday I have a very important guest. Coming on Monday to visit me for my birthday. So I'm over the moon excited about this. And of course I have my birthday wine, which I was about— so I've been sick, so I didn't go to the grocery store to go and buy my birthday wine. And every year I have— I just kind of splurge on myself. Barolo '98, which was fabulous. And that's à la Oprah. Fabulous. And I love how the hat's just following me everywhere I go. And anyway, so I just didn't get a chance to run out to the store and make my purchase because I've been on death's bed. No, but I'm OK now. I'm OK now. I've got my tea. Flash. I have— yes, I have Google+. So I'm good. I'm good now. And hopefully by my birthday I'll be like 100%. So anyways, all right.

Are you allowed to say who your special visitor on Monday is? No. OK. I won't.

I won't. Next week.

No, I'm not going to tell you guys.

It's not Santa, is it? No, it's not Santa.

It's a secret. Yeah. It's Ronald McDonald. Oh! I had to. ShiftCon, you know.

I am so glad I did not show up at ShiftCon with that bucket of chicken to walk around. They would have been a pink one, and I would have felt so stupid after hearing that pinkwashing.

Yeah, I don't know what my birthday wine will be this year. I haven't really thought it through yet, but it's going to be something good. It has to be something good, and that's the thing. It's like, okay, what would I choose? I should have this chosen months ago. My son has his Christmas gifts, birthday party, birthday gifts. His birthday's in June. He has a list. He's like, Mommy, this is what we're doing, and this is what we're doing, and this is what you're giving me. It's like, OK, can you make me that list closer to your birthday, please? But anyway, OK, that is moi.

That is Maggie. Yippee! So only one wine for your birthday, though?

Yeah, but only $98 is a $200 bottle of wine. Oh, and only one bottle? Yeah. I'm also going to Napa. I'm going to Napa with Christopher Volkmann, who's in the stream here. We're going up to Napa in— 12? Christopher, help me. I want to say it's the 12th that we're going up— or 11th. To the 19th, but we're going up there for a while. Excuse me. But yeah, so I— so yeah, we're going up to Napa. I'm excited about that. Very, very excited. I'm a wine— not just a food blogger, but a wine blogger.

Hopefully we'll see some shows that you do when you're up there.

Yes, you're going to see 2 shows, maybe 3, maybe 20. I don't know. Yeah.

Well, you can wine and dine us from Napa. I mean, I've never been And Lisa wants to go very badly to either there or Sonoma.

But Chef, I've never been there. I'm the wine blogger and I've never been to Napa. So that's more of my birthday trip. In fact, I was supposed to go to Napa next week. I think it was next week where I was supposed to go. And that was going to be my birthday trip, but it kept getting postponed, getting postponed. So, but yeah, go!

Maggie, are you going to go to Sonoma too?

Oh yeah, no, I'm going to Sonoma first for 3 days, and then we're going down to, or across the mountains there to Napa after. So it's Sonoma-Napa.

I just learned that there are quite a few hot springs in the area up there to keep an eye out, although careful, because apparently they're very, some of them are our nudist hot springs.

Hello.

But I hear there's a lot of that going on up there.

That would be a lot of Christopher Volkmann to see right there.

That would be quite the Google Hangout.

That would. Just like you're doing now, you won't see anything. That's all. Just make sure that local bird's strategically placed. Yeah, right there. Just the head. Just the hat.

Alright, just the hat. Well, it is your birthday and it would be your birthday suit, so that would be appropriate.

Yeah, yeah. Well, look who joined us, Andrea.

Let's say hi. I don't know, can you hear me?

We can hear you fine.

How you doing? Good, thank you. Enjoying the discussion.

Oh, I'm so glad you got on. I'm sorry you had something to do. Yeah, yeah. But that's the beauty of Google and that just happens. Exactly. So since we have you, we've gone through the rest of the panel, why don't you tell us a little bit about yourself and what you do?

Well, I'm a mother of 9 children ranging in age from 29 down to 13 and became a blogger due to a health crisis that occurred in 2008 and it was simply to fill in family and friends what was happening with our crisis because all 11 of us were severely affected from an exposure in our home. I came upon writing and blogging inadvertently. As we were going through this journey, and I learned that not only was our environment going to need to change, but our whole lifestyle, our entire lifestyle would need to change, I started to blog more and more about that and some of the rewards of veering away from processed food, embracing a real food diet, taking chemicals out of our home and out of personal care products. The journey has just escalated from there, and I am a very big advocate for natural living.

What was one of the first things you did to change your lifestyle?

The first thing was just shopping organic, and that was a big shock for me. We were, with 9 kids, busy, in the car a lot. Drive-throughs were a regular part of our lifestyle. I knew nothing about cooking. I maybe had frozen vegetables on hand in a If that was the case, it was French fries. That's where I came from. Just changing and looking at labels and shopping organic products was very new, and so I started with food. What was one of the biggest helps you had when you— Just starting to eat real food, real produce. It sounds so simple, but profound for a family like ours was just stopping— spending more time in the produce aisle and learning all that there was to do to work with real food. It escalated from there. Then I became very, very interested in meat and dairy in this country and the way that animals are treated in the confined feeding operations. The more I studied that, the more convinced I was that what we put into our bodies, particularly pertaining to dairy and meat, really matters. I had some wonderful advice about shopping organic and pastured meats from a doctor saying how vital that was. It didn't take long for me to get on that path.

I just was at a conference about 3 or 4 weeks ago, and the guy that wrote the book about tomatoes was there. I can't remember his name, but he's writing one on pork He showed us some slides of how pigs are treated, and it just made me sick. Exactly.

We just don't know. We've lost a connection with where our food comes from, and it's understandable. I don't fault myself. That's the culture I was raised in very much. The drive-through really disconnects you from the origin of that meat, and that food, and that bacon. My 16-year-old daughter recently, on her own, just watched a documentary on meats and the way animals are treated, particularly pork, actually pigs. It took her days to recover from just connecting that up.

It just is so sad.

They don't get to move. They don't get to be clean. I'm thinking about it. I hate to even talk about it, but if anybody Google it, and you will see some things that will just blow your mind. Yes. Yes. And they're such happy— and you know, it's funny, you don't think of— people say they have pigs as pets. Well, they're as smart as dogs, and they're as happy as dogs.

They just look different.

Yes, exactly. And we— when we moved to Arizona, that was part of our journey. And I remember visiting a farm for the first time ever in my life. The way that their pigs had, you know, the room that they had and the pasturing and how contented they were, from what I had learned by documentary, not by experience, it was vastly different and very clear to me that this has to affect us. There's a very critical connection between our food and our animals and us.

Absolutely. Mia Voss is in the house, and she had done an interview with Temple Graydon when she was in Denver a few months back. I remember the movie that was made about her and the effect she had on beef and the slaughterhouses and how they were treated. It's amazing. I think sometimes we're eating products that are crazy.

Yes. That can't be good. No, it can't be. It can't be good. There is such a connection between what we put in our mouths. One of the biggest ways we control our health is by these choices. We do have choice in our country. I'm so grateful for Farmbox and so many other— seriously, that make food available to us. That is healthy and not crazy.

Right, we just did a post last week actually, so I drive between LA and San Francisco twice a month and this last trip I pulled over, there's an area on the 5 where the feedlots are, where one of the nation's largest feedlots is, and I snapped a photo. We actually call it, the locals call it Cowshwitz. It is is a huge feedlot with thousands of cows. There's not— I have it on my phone, but I don't know how to put it up for you guys. But there's not a blade of grass in sight. Oh. Yeah, it's sad. When you drive past it, you really see where your food is coming from and see how important it is to eat grass-fed or pasture-raised beef.

Since we were a fast food family, we were used to paying very little relatively. I fed our large family pretty well from a big box store. We were hesitant to invest. The price is different. If you're going to get pastured meat, you're going to pay more. The ironic thing is our medical bills were 1/4 of what they were. You pay now, you pay later, you pay differently. It's completely evened out. In fact, I know we're saving money because we value what we put into our bodies.

Have all of your children really embraced this philosophy? They have.

I have one 18-year-old son now who's wanting to test the water a little bit. He's seeing his body kind of talk to him. He's 18. It's completely up to them. I don't make our life about food. Pretty much everybody else regularly comes to me at some point and say, "I am so glad for this, that I know what I know now about food." I'm sure my son will find his way back only because your body teaches you.

Absolutely. We have a question here from Raindell. Let me put it up. He goes, "What did you notice about how your body felt after you started eating organically?" real food?

For me, less inflamed, less inflammation, and calmer. It was as if— you think about even the way wheat is produced and some of the hybridization. It's foreign. What we are putting in our foreign bodies, and what we learned from a toxic exposure is our body was constantly being assaulted. Then when we added organic, real food, we took away the environmental piece, and then took away the foreign foods. It's as if— just less inflammation. Calmer is the best word I can use.

That's good to know. I have just started— I've been having all kinds of skin issues since I moved down here. We've tried— the doctors prescribe everything under the sun. My wife said, "Why don't you try gluten-free?" I said, "Actually, I've been thinking about that. It's just I was afraid because I didn't know if I could ever eat again. It'll be a week. This is the 7th day of it, and we did find some amazing products that I really can't tell a difference. I actually already feel a little better. I don't think it's psychological, but I feel more alert. Aha.

Well, you know, this I don't know if you're familiar with the book Grain Brain. He kind of walks through— he's a neurologist. I'm not sure exactly what his medical degree is in. David Perlmutter. He would very much validate what you just said, how quickly the brain kind of is freed up by taking away that protein. It's very hard to digest, and so when something is hard to digest, it's hard on our brain. I think you're onto something, and that's probably your instinct and your wife's is like, "Let's try this.

What do you have to lose?" Of course, she said, "You can make my regular stuff and make your—" I said, "No." No. Here it is again. It's not working. Luckily, like I said, I found Barilla makes an incredible pasta that is gluten-free. For us, pasta was a big part. I cook with a lot of it. That was going to be a deal breaker. That's the worst of it. I think we're through. Wow. It's really looking at more labels now, too. I was talking to someone yesterday, and she says, "Oh, well, I shop at Publix down here." Really, there's not a lot of options. It's really a very nice store, but under everything that could be gluten-free, they have a little blue circle underneath the product with their emblem. There's no guesswork. I mean, the stuff spread out, you just look and it tells you. That's cool.

We live in an incredible world of opportunity when it comes to food choice, and I'm so grateful.

Now, you're talking about pasteurized meats. What would be some of the options?

What should we look for? Okay. Pastured, just again, comparing the confined feeding where there's not a blade of grass You want to ask and inquire, and there are a lot of online sources. If you don't live near a farmer who offers grass-fed beef, feel free to ask, "What do you do if your animal gets sick?" and "How much outdoor time do the— particularly chickens— get?" Sometimes they'll say organic because of what they're fed, but they're not getting outdoor time. You want to ask like you would be for your child if you're putting them in daycare. How much are they going to be outside? What are they going to eat? This is how critical it is to know what they are eating will affect your body, particularly the use of antibiotics because that stays in their bodies and therefore is in the meat. Hormone drugs that they have— are you giving any kind of growth hormones to speed this up? Most of what is given is for a profit, and it's not as profitable to give an animal a lot of pasture, but in the long run it profits us all with better health. But simply just those questions of, you know, medical treatment, outdoor time, and feed. Are they getting corn and soy, which for the most part is genetically modified in our country? And you will find farmers who take this seriously, they want to tell you about what they do. They're so proud, and the conversations you'll engage in, you'll never be the same.

And one interesting thing, just with the talking about pasture-raised, is a lot of egg farmers or egg businesses will use free-range on the label, and free-range doesn't necessarily mean pasture-raised. Free-range means the chicken needs to have access to the outdoors, but with the large chicken farms, what they end up doing is they just put a little door. Yes. A little tiny door so that they have access should they choose to go outside. But pasture-raised, while it's more expensive, if it's within your budget, it definitely is worth looking for pasture-raised on the label.

Yes, it's very much worth your investment and your time. And it gets to be like— I see it as a treasure hunt, finding good food, and the reward of finding a farmer who says they're outside pretty much all day, and I I don't give them— I give them what they're designed to have. It's just like, "Ah!" Then you pay more, but you feel better. You look at the egg yolks between a confined chicken and a pastured chicken, and the yolks are so much more orange, aren't they? Just so rich. You can just see the difference. Dr.

Pompa: Yeah, and I don't see that all the time. We were talking about that before with eggs. They look better. The other ones, the organic and all that, they definitely stand up and look better. The yolk's brighter. To get that deep orange hue, it's just— I don't always see those, so I have to look. Is there any source or place to look for the area? Are there things that can guide us to help us find these things?

That's a great question. I did, because of our experience, found an organization called Moms Aware, and I know that On our site we list about 20 sources, both online and local, and they're not coming to my mind now because there's quite a few. What I want to say is there's good news. You have neighbors who are on this path. There are so many of us throughout the country and so many farmers who have a passion for this. So the specific sites are coming to my mind, but you could look at What Moms Wear and Food Sources. Because I talk about the treasure hunt there, and they're there. What comes to mind is US Wellness Meats. They connect with farmers from around the country to make this type of meat and eggs and produce available. Look for an organic buying club in your community. You can do a search of your city or your town and organic buying club and see what comes up. They're out there. That's what I can tell you. There are wonderful food sources in our country.

There's a website called, I believe it's CSAware, where you can search for CSAs, local ranchers, egg delivery businesses like that, which is a great source. And there are several companies similar to Farmbox that are popping up all all over the country. They are. So good to see. If you Google organic produce delivery, I guarantee in most, at least larger cities, you should be able to find a similar company to Farmbox. So we do all the legwork for you. So you can go on to their site and shop for these products without feeling— it can be overwhelming if you decide to take this on and you're going to make those lifestyle choices. You walk into a grocery store, you might not find anything that you want to buy. So that process can be overwhelming. There are a lot of companies out there that are doing the work for you.

I'm glad you mentioned the overwhelming part, and I really can speak to that because as you sort of begin to engage this idea that the food matters this much, it is extremely overwhelming. I was, and I want to assure anyone who's watching this that one small change means a lot. Don't take it all on. Start with one thing and make a different purchase and see what that feels like. It's very rewarding. It took us at least, I'd say, 3 years to totally change our diet. I had 9 kids. I wasn't going to just— they had already lost enough. When I explained and I would get charts and I would explain my research, this is why we're doing it, they came on board. It took years.

I guess a correction, the website's called Local Harvest. Sorry.

If you guys can leave those links in the comments section later, that'd be great. That way people can go back and see them. Great, yes. Christopher Vogelman had a question here, and he said about omega-3 eggs that are produced by chickens eating flaxseed. Is that anything, or— It's great.

What they eat what you eat will affect your brain. Absolutely. Flaxseed is just wonderful for you. It's wonderful for chickens. Again, you talk to a farmer and say, "Do you give them flax?" They're going to be excited to tell you yes, because that does change the chemistry of the egg, which helps your brain chemistry. Very good.

I'm certainly glad you made it on, Andrea. Thank you. It's a lot to think about here. It is overwhelming. One of the things about ShiftCon that I think impressed me the most was the way people's attitude, just like you said, don't try and do it all at once. If you have something bad, finish it, then the next time buy something good. I went there thinking, oh my God, they're going to be burning crosses on my lawn. Nobody reacted that way. Everybody was really, well, you know, it's a decision you have to make. It's your decision.

It's not our fault. This is the culture we live in. I didn't know anything else. I was raised in the '60s and '70s when all the boxed foods were coming in. I was raised on alphabets. How am I supposed to know this and then have to change as a mother or just as an individual? I definitely don't feel that across the board. I feel like, hey, good for you that you're willing to think about it, and I would encourage anyone Just that step of thinking about it is huge, and don't shut that down. Just let yourself entertain the thought, "Hmm, is there a different way?" I have a question for you which would be helpful for moms out there.

If they were to pick one area to start, whether it be the dairy or the meats or the vegetables, do you have one area that you recommend that they begin with?

What do you feel is the most important?

Above and beyond, I'd say meat and meat and dairy, animals. Some people watching are like, "Well, I'm already vegan, so that's—" Okay, so then organic produce. Honestly, raising kids and what I understand about brain health, for me, animal products are part of our diet and what I feel they need. For me. That was advice I got from a medical doctor who knew how sick we were. He said, "Focus on the meat." I am so glad I did because that's a hurdle to spend more, but the peace of heart as a mom that if you really do study how, like you said, these animals are raised and so forth and what goes into them, it's pretty scary. That was the best feeling as a mom, and I would start there.

That's a good place to start. I think it's important, like you said, just because that is so much of what's going into our body, and that protein is such an important part of our body uses to replenish itself from. I had a question for you, and I'm trying to remember what it was. Oh, as for protein, I know in America, we were on this protein kick of it's covering the plate and the vegetables were secondary. Have you cut back the amount of protein that you eat? Yes.

Again, there is no one-size-fits-all nutritionally. I think that's what makes this so difficult and so overwhelming, particularly as you search the internet. There are just hard and fast rules of how much protein in every Body literally is unique, and you find what works for you. What I did find out is that we used processed, boxed fast food as a reason to avoid vegetables. Our vegetable was French fries, potatoes, which are very starchy and a lot of work to digest. Simply shopping for real food, number one, taking an interest in produce and discovering how beautiful this food is. And how good it feels to eat it, I noticed that naturally we shifted. It wasn't like, "Oh, I should have this many vegetables per meal." It wasn't anything like that for my journey and the journey as a mom. It was, "Hey, look at all these vegetables!" They are very satisfying. So much you can do with just adding a little bit of meat. Dennis Littley, what naturally happens, I think, is that you're spending less on It evens out, I guess. You're having more vegetables. Even if you can't afford to do organic and you increase that, you're going to naturally balance out, I think.

When we cut back on the amount of protein, it's not going to seem as expensive because the price per person isn't as radical as it was when we were eating a 24-ounce porterhouse that is just too much meat for one person. To consume.

Yes, exactly.

Here's a question from Jeremy Murphy, and he says, "Do y'all have any suggestions on how to avoid GMOs in food for family meals? I'm lactose intolerant, so dairy is already out for me, but food isn't labeled very well as to whether it contains GMOs or not." Anyone want to get that?

Well, Dennis, if you can buy organic, if they can What do you mean by organic? Organic is not GMO. That's the easy way to not have to think about it. You can ensure if it says certified organic on the label, it's not GMO.

That's one way to tell. Organic is automatically not GMO.

Another thought is to look for corn and soy. As I mentioned, most of those crops are genetically modified. That's going to be hard when you're shopping for boxed processed food. I would encourage just experimenting with changing your mindset that whatever I see in a box, I can probably make it. That was an extremely new thought for me. This is why I love Chef Dennis Littley. People are showing me that I can work with food. I remember making my first energy bar, but guess what? It worked, A, and I knew exactly what's in it because it was real seeds and real nuts and some fruit that I knew where I'd gotten it and some spices and flavorings. I did that myself. I didn't have to wonder.

I think that's the best thing. As we're walking last night, we went to Downtown Disney I'm always one of these people that I never looked at a wrapper. I just stuff things in my mouth and didn't care. We went into a candy store, and Lisa got this chocolate-dipped pineapple that she likes, and that was fine. I'm looking, and I ask. I'm looking. "Oh, there's fudge. I could have a little piece of fudge." I'm going, "Is it gluten-free?" "No." "Do you have anything that's gluten-free?" "No." Wow.

Yeah.

Then I turned over one of those Rice Krispie treats. The ingredient list was like a book. Oh my God, this is Disney. These are little kids who are eating these. I know. Very hard. That's when I start seeing things like that. That's what really starts to make me wonder where we took this wrong path as a people and country.

Right after World War II when we introduced chemicals into the basic food supply through pesticides, and then the production of food, and the profitability of it. Back in the early 1900s, we spent a certain amount on food, but less on healthcare. It's completely switched, what we're spending on healthcare and what we're spending on food. That's why in our homes, and is to make that switch ourselves. You'll be spending less on healthcare. I really believe that for anybody who— I'm not saying cures. We have a son with Type 1 diabetes. Diabetes that occurred right as this all happened in our home. Autoimmune is a serious one. All we knew to treat it was you count the carbs. It was all laid out on the package, so it was almost easy. Turning to real food and beginning to create our own energy bars presented a unique challenge, but what I've learned is his body does so much better on just real food. It's as if his blood sugar is more balanced. He's using far less insulin. But if we were to go to Disney World with my son, who's now 14, we couldn't buy any of that. What we would do is bring our energy bars and bring our snacks and so forth, which is not always convenient and easy.

I get that. I think that's what they rely on, is the fact that we're paying Again, all right, we're there. I don't mind paying 2 or 3 times what I would normally pay for something, but at least don't have it be so full of chemicals. I think this is what is appalling me, or have it be so difficult to go through the ingredients list to try and find what's in there that you can't have. I think anywhere children are involved, this is really even more critical and something we really need to work on as a people. It's one thing to feed adults that can know better something, but children are just grabbing. They're sold through marketing ploys. They're sold through packaging. They're sold— they're children.

I'm going to jump in here because I've mentioned this before with Little Red, My Little Red. You teach him. He's the one who will come up to me and say, "This isn't organic," or, "Where's the organic symbol?" This was at 5. He was showing me. He's like, "This is the organic symbol. This is okay for me to drink." I love that. I love that about him. We teach them. Oh, and of course, they're kids, so if they're at a grocery store or at a restaurant or something, "This isn't good for me to eat. I can't eat this, Mr. Waiter," or whatever. It gets back to them. "Hey, this little kid, he just told me this isn't organic." Wow, that would be a hoot.

If that happened in my restaurant, I would have been, "What?" Had I only known then what I know now. At least I know now, so that's the good thing. Well, you know, this has been a great discussion. I've learned a lot. I think we have such a nice group of people on today, and it's a really good show. Thanks everyone for coming here, but let's just down. Let's just go down. And Andrea, people are looking for you. Where can they find you?

My blog is called It Takes Time, and that is for a reason, because these changes do take time. We changed our lifestyle over a period of years. So I— that's my heart, and that's my blog. And then I also have the website and the nonprofit organization called Moms Aware.

Very good. And if you would like to leave any of those links for people so they can check them out. That would be much appreciated. Are you doing any other shows? Do you have anything coming up that you're doing?

I'm just always learning. I'm very, very active in the field of pesticides and children in schools and in our food supply. I don't know where that— I have a big passion for that.

I'd like to see that change.

We could use that as another show because that is a topic we really didn't touch on too much. That's something we need to explore a little more. Gary Hershberger was just on Mia's show before this, and they were talking somewhat about the pesticides and the fact that EPA approved Agent Orange. Yes. Just blows my mind. That's for another show. All right. Jaco, so glad you could join us. You have a partner, and I don't think we talked about her. Do you want to mention her name?

Yeah, Risha Jalal is my business partner. She unfortunately was not able to make it in today, but hopefully we can do another chat where we can bring her in.

Absolutely, and you shared a lot of great things about it, and that stuff with vegetables just really freaked me out, so I'm going to have to really start looking on when they were picked or try and find the freshest. And again, going to farmers markets, I guess, is the best choice, and not laying in my winter supply of root vegetables at one time either, so good to know that.

It also keeps the money in your local economy, which is good.

Yeah, oh absolutely, that's the most important thing. Eat local, carbon footprint down, and just does good for your own economy. Good advice. And Joanna, thanks so much for being here, and I know you've been kind of quiet, but I know you were behind the scenes, so I figured you were alright with that.

Well, thanks for having me. I just have two little things. If you're already eating organic and you want to take it up another step, look for biodynamic. Look into what biodynamic is because it's the next step. If you're just starting, make sure you pay attention to your skincare products because a lot of chemicals go through your skin to your bloodstream. That would be my thing. Then you can find me. My website is justjoanna.com. I'm also Way2GoMom on Twitter and Instagram and stuff.

Great. And I provide a lot of information. That is something new. But again, you can't go after everything at one time, right? Like when Leah started me, we started with chemicals. Yes, I was very proud that I eliminated— you know, my wife, of course, is looking at him going, what is this? And the funniest thing I always tell everybody is the dryer sheet that I started using because I found what I thought was sandpaper on the floor in the laundry room and said, "What is this?" He says, "It's the dryer sheet you bought me. Thank you very much." But I did learn also that some of the products I were using, although I thought they were a good move and they were from what I was using, weren't the best choices still too. You can definitely step it up. There's a matter of education. So it's baby steps as we go and just get that final thing. So thank you. Thank you so much for being on. And Maggie, my little birthday girl here, so it's so nice to— yeah, we got your birthday thing on, and I hope you have a really happy birthday and get a nice wine to enjoy and have fun with your special visitor who we're not allowed to talk about.

I'm really excited. Thank you. Thank you, everyone, for all the birthday wishes.

Stay haidabouleh when you guys show up on Monday. We won't say anything. Wait, what's that now? Say hi to Brad Pitt when he does show up on Monday.

He's married. That's not him.

See, I'm working on going through the list.

We got it. No, but yeah, Monday, my birthday. Very excited about that. So, of course I've got the trip going up to Napa, so there's going to be a lot of stuff in the next month, month and a half happening. Check out my blog, check out all my social networks in mommaggieskitchen.com. It's down here somewhere. Um, and yay, happy birthday to me!

Well, thank you all for joining us. Thank you. Have a great day, have a wonderful weekend, and be healthy.