Good Day Google+ - Shifting your way of Thinking!

Hey everybody.

Hey there, I'm Chef Dennis Littley and welcome to Good Day Google+. I feel like I should start with a magic trick. No, only kidding. All right, Leah got me in that mood. Whenever she's on, I get in that mood. It's going to be a happy, happy show today. It's also going to be a show about telling you about shifting your way of thinking because let me tell you something. I went to ShiftCon at the beginning of October, and I didn't just drink the non-GMO, sugar-free, natural Kool-Aid. I guzzled it. It was so many WTF moments and aha moments that I'm like, "Have I been living under a rock?" Luckily, Lee was there to lift the rock off of me with all those other wonderful people. 3 weeks gluten-free, baby, and I'm feeling good. I'm changing my way of thinking, I'm changing my life, and damn, I might live to be 90, who knows. Anyway, let me introduce my guests and we will get started. And as always, if you have questions for them, put them in the comment bar and we will do our best to get to them. So next to me, well, next on the far end, I have Leah from Momovation and ShiftCon, and she is my new hero for all she does to inform us and inspire us. So how you doing today?

Chef, you're so nice. I just adore you, and I had so much fun getting to, like, hug you and poke your belly in person. I mean, that just made me so happy. And I wanted to really thank everyone for, you know, watching the show and being present with us. I mean, this topic that we're tackling today is just so incredibly important, and we really, really rely on you, the participants, you, the audience, to really suck it in and talk about it more, because at the end of the day, that's, that's what moves moves the needle is all of us together.

Absolutely. It takes a village— actually takes more than a village now. We're up to like a city.

So a metropolitan city.

Forget the village. Anyway, then I have Lori Alper here from Groovy Green Living. And Lori, it's such a pleasure to have you on for the first time.

I am so honored to be here and so honored to be here with both of you. It's so exciting. Leah, I I'm so happy to be here with you and Dennis. I had the pleasure of meeting you also at ShiftCon. It's been really wonderful. I've learned so much from both of you and it's just wonderful.

I also wanted to add in real quick, Chef, that having Lori on stage here with me is amazing because she's one of my go-to people that I go to when I need information about things. She is just like a— she's also an attorney. That means her brain— or an ex-attorney, recovering attorney. Her brain is like this, full of information. She's just She's just a wealth of knowledge. It's awesome to have her around.

Thank you, Leah.

We're going to have a great show then and get some information out. It's going to be kind of an organic conversation. I'm going to let you ladies take it wherever you want to go. We want to give our viewers just some information to help them make some decisions. I think one of the best things I liked about ShiftCon was I went there kind of a little bit afraid. I had no idea it was going to change my life. I really didn't. I didn't go there intending that to happen. I went there a little bit afraid of telling people what I did eat sometimes, what I did use sometimes. No one was critical. No one burned a cross on my lawn. I always get that mental image of that. It was like, "That's okay. Use what you have. When you're done with it, make some good decisions and get some better stuff if it works for you." It was just a really healthy attitude towards everything. That makes it much It's easier to make the change when you don't feel pressure.

I think that's something that's so incredibly unique about our tight-knit community is we are all so accepting of one another and we're all on our own journey. I always say there are different shades of green. Everybody kind of comes at this from a different place, a different point of view, and there's just a lot of acceptance for where everybody is on their journey. It's something that's really incredible.

There's also that understanding that, you know, you weren't here like what, however many years ago. I mean, everybody started somewhere different and everyone can remember what they were like or what they were thinking back then. And so that's where that gentleness of spirit comes from. I mean, you typically don't find a lot of super judgmental people when it comes to like, you know, talking to an ordinary person because when we're in our communities, we're the only one in our communities. You know, we might be surrounded by some really other cool green people, but then the vast majority of us are surrounded in communities where everyone else is normal. I don't want to say normal, but they have their blinders on. They don't understand what's going on. They haven't been educated yet. We are used to having to talk to everyday people all the time. When we see people like you, Chef, it's the same thing. I have people at my son's grade school that I talk to. I have the principal that I'm working on. Everybody's at a different place. Some people are more accepting of different messages. Messages than others. I think at the end of the day, what's really happening— and we're talking about a shift in consciousness. It's really, really, really a real shift. It's not just a fad. It's a shift. If you look at how it's happening worldwide, the organic market worldwide is growing leaps and bounds. That's not because it's a fad. That's because people are truly, truly looking into ingredients. They're looking into how things are produced. They're looking at disease rates skyrocketing. Moms are really, really concerned with this because I mean, if you just look in the United States alone, we have such an incredible increase in disease rates just for children. I mean, just in the last 20 years or so, we have a 400% increase in food allergies. I mean, oh my gosh. When I was a kid, I knew one person who was allergic to strawberries. That was it. Today, you look in a classroom, it's like— is it 1 in 13, I believe, or it's like 1 in something, children that are Yeah, 1 in 13 in a classroom have an allergy, and a lot of times it's anaphylactic, which means if that kid eats that or inhales it, they're going to need an EpiPen. They're going to be at the hospital, the emergency room. It's very serious. We also have a 300% increase in asthma. Asthma. There's a— I think it was Robin O'Brien was talking about there's 296% increase in hospitalization admittance. These are these children that can't breathe that are admitted in the ER by a doctor. That's huge. We also have a 400% increase in ADHD. ADHD. And then if we're talking about autism, oh my God, 1500% increase in the last 20 years. So what's happening is especially people are noticing this and they're like, "What is going on here?" And so they're starting to look at different things that they normally would never look at, you know, like your food for instance. And you know, you look at the 90+ ingredients that are in the McDonald's Big Mac for instance, you know what I'm saying? No, no, no, that's not the 90. The 90+ ingredients that are in the new healthy egg delight that they have for breakfast. I look at those things and I'm like, "Do you need 90+ ingredients in this? I mean, really?" We're starting to think about these things differently. I think that's what's really happening. It's an awareness. It's an educational shift. It's very much like women's suffrage. You know what I mean? We got the right to vote. It happened gradually over time. That's what's happening right now.

Well, thank God you did, because the women have made the change possible in this country and world. Without that— well, alright, so this is my one question then to either of you. It's like, alright, we see this. It was difficult for me to see the right things to make the change. You know, I was always like, yeah, I know it's a good thing, yeah, I know I should be doing it, yeah, I know. But there was just a moment when everything changed for me And when you're talking about living among the masses and not being overly judgmental and not preaching it all the time, how do you deliver that message in a way that's palatable and that's more acceptable to the people you're giving it to?

Well, I always say it's really important to sort of take bite-sized pieces of this, because if you take it all at once, it's too overwhelming and none of us can do that. So you have to make very simple small changes in your life. And another thing that I always tell people is do what works for you. What works for me may not work for you, and it's really important to find what works for you and your family so that you're not doing something that is going to be very challenging and that you're not going to ultimately end up sticking with. And, and those two things I think really kind of can make this whole platform very palatable for people. What else, Leah?

What else do you have to add to that? When you're going to eat an elephant, you can only take one bite at a time, right? Because it is a big elephant. At the end of the day, there's so much that has changed in our environment over the past 20, 40, 50 years that you really just have to look at it piece by piece and start small and start in places that are doable. It's kind of like, you know, Your brain is only able to change so much before the cognitive dissonance is so bad that you go back to normal again, right? So what you really need to do— and this is true of anything. If you have a big project or any kind of challenge that's presented to you, you don't take that big huge elephant and ram it all in your mouth at the same time. That's just crazy talk, right? You got to take it a bit at a time. You take one little thing and you grab that thing and you say, make that change for 2 weeks to a month. Right, just that one little thing, by the time that period is over with, it's going to be like normal to you. And then you're ready for the next thing and the next thing and the next thing. And that's why at the end of the day, it doesn't matter where you are because we're all gradually starting to get better. And even Lori and I have things that we're still working on. And I think everyone in this movement will, will say that because there is not a single perfect person in the world. And there's not a single— I only know one person in the world, that's Beth Terry, that doesn't use any plastic.

You know what I mean?

But even her, she has a little She has plenty of confessions on her site.

Yeah, exactly. And that's exactly the idea. It's like, you know, don't hold any of us up to this, you know, model. But, you know, learn from us and you can learn from our mistakes. And usually, the things that I love to talk about the most are the things where I've fallen flat on my face and had to learn from it because that's what really stuck in my mind. And to me, that makes— that's how my leadership is. You know, I'm sharing with you my challenges. And where I fell on my face and how I got myself back up and these were the things that I learned that in my family really worked and that we are working on and we were successful with. And then Lori's, her story will be completely different because her family is different and she lives in a different city in a different state. You know, she has different resources. You know, so I think at the end of the day, what's really effective is as a community, we get together and we talk about these things and then the person who's most like you, you will gravitate to and you will get what their tricks are, and you're like, yeah, I got it. And then someone who will gravitate to me that's a lot like me, and you know, it's just magical when it happens like that.

There is nobody like you, Leah.

And what's pretty incredible also is, you know, people reach out to me all the time and ask me very kind of personal questions about how I'm handling something or maybe how I'm choosing a specific pot or cleaning product. And you know, I love sharing that information, and I love seeing what other people are doing, and it's just It's just kind of a very collaborative effort, and we all work really well together, and that's key.

Well, the one thing I'm finding is the more I change, the more I begin thinking about other changes, and I have to calm myself down sometimes because I'm going, alright, let's get this— like you said, let's get this done first before I start going crazy because then I'll just— my head will be spinning. I'll be a whirling dervish just going. I have to stop myself and back off, but it makes me— it's really made me think more, which I guess is a good thing.

It's a bad thing.

It's an awareness. Having that awareness is what causes us to make change. So it's amazing. It's an amazing thing.

I mean, I've read more labels in the past couple of weeks than I think I have in my lifetime, and I look at some of them and go, Oh my god, really? Things you wouldn't believe. That's a good thing. I think maybe starting, like you said, in small bite-sized pieces. I'm happy I started with gluten— well, before I did Gluten Free Leah, it got me to change all my chemicals in the house. I'm finding that some of them really weren't the best choices anyway. How do you know? At ShiftCon, it was a little easier, but I'm a regular person. I'm going out, and I'm buying this brand name that looks like it's good. And I don't want to say it because I don't want to disparage them. But, you know, people are saying, well, maybe you should be using this instead. How do we know which is really the best choice for, like, household cleaners if I'm not making it myself? And I know that might be—

that's a— that's such a great question. You know, there are a lot of really phenomenal resources out there. And I say that they're resources because I don't think they're the end-all be-all. You can use them as a starting point. But then I think Over time you're going to educate yourself. You're going to learn about which ingredients are acceptable, which aren't as toxic, and you know, when you read a label it's going to be more meaningful to you. So for example, the Environmental Working Group site Skin Deep is a really fabulous resource, and I go there many times. I'll be standing in an aisle at the store and I'll look up an ingredient in something I'm about to buy, or look up an actual brand, and it will give me an evaluation of that brand, and sometimes I'll decide to actually still buy it because of the information that's provided, even though it's giving me a bad rating. So I think, you know, it's just sort of familiarizing yourself with the tools that are out there and then making good choices. That's what it's all about.

And then I also think it's really helpful, I mean, because you're talking about cleaning products, so I always wanted to know the why. What is the point? Why am I going to spend more money on this product as opposed to this product, or why am I going to make this? And I needed to learn that when it comes to your environment, It's all about what you're breathing in, what you're putting on your skin, and what you're eating. And when it comes to these products that we're using to clean, it's your air quality inside your home. Now why is that important? That's really important because the air in your home can be anywhere from 7 to 20 times more toxic than outside. Is that right?

Yeah.

And so think about that for a second. We hear all the time in the news about clean air and yadda yadda and going outside and how the air is polluted, imagine what it's like inside your home. Just stop for a second and say, "Okay, so you're bringing all kinds of stuff into your house with your shoes, on the bottom of the shoes. You're using all these chemicals inside your home to clean, to fragrance things, to do all kinds of different things, and then the air is not moving. It's stagnant. It's still. It's not like outside your house where there is natural wind. There's nothing happening." So the first thing that I had to learn was literally how to clean out the air in my house. I didn't even think about it. Like open up a window once a day. Yes, even if it's snowing. These are some simple things that you can start to do. Before you even start to do that, think about the air quality in your home because your children are breathing that, your husband's breathing that, your wife's breathing it, the people that are coming into your home. If you just open up the air, that's one of the biggest battles, is just getting that air to circulate. Then when it comes to those cleaning products, women that are using them, if you can You can smell them and they're nasty, Lori. Talk a little bit about maybe the scent. Do you know what I'm saying?

Yeah. I mean, I think we all know. I mean, I'm just thinking the classic example is walking into a nail salon when you get that overwhelming smell of just chemicals. That happens also. Think of the cleaning products you're using. Sometimes when you smell them, when you breathe them, they actually tickle sort of the inside of your nose. That's not good. You don't want that to be happening. Also, I want to add, Leah said a really great thing about opening your windows. A really— another very simple way to clean out the air in your home is to add houseplants. They actually will clean the air in your home. So just, you know, add a couple plants to your house. It's so simple.

And then all you have to do— there's actually some plants if you look up NASA. NASA has this whole list of these plants that they use products specifically for in space that are really, really, really efficient at cleaning up. I think aloe vera is one of them and a bunch of different ones. But I mean, that is a really simple way. And if they do it up in space, that is pretty incredible, huh?

Yeah.

And so that, I mean, that's the why for the cleaning products. The cleaning products, the why is you're going to get it on your skin, you're going to breathe it in. And if we know it's toxic, if we know it's not good for you, let's minimize that impact that it's going to have on your breathing, and minimize the impact it's going to have on your health. That's number one in— or not number one, but that's one of the portions, you know what I mean? Breathing. Breathing. You want your air to be pure. You want it to be healthy. You know what I'm saying? That's really important.

Go ahead. I was just going to say I have a question about the cleaning before we get too far. A lot of people— I mean, we're talking about natural cleaners, we're talking about things that— is bleach a natural cleaner?

You're gonna take that one, Lori.

No, I definitely try to stay far away from bleach. And there are definitely, you know, there are people that will disagree with me, but I think bleach is extremely toxic, and I would not, I would not use it. There are lots of alternatives out there. Vinegar is fabulous for, you know, just adding it to your laundry. And let me, let me just say, I am not a DIYer. At all. I very rarely make my own cleaning solutions, but vinegar is a really great thing to just have around, and if you want to brighten up laundry, you know, throw it in there, and if you don't like the smell, you can add some essential oil. So that's a really simple one that I don't even put under the DIY category, but yeah, that's a great question. I would stay far away from bleach.

Thank you.

I'm doing a lot more of purchasing products than I am making products, but at the end of the day, she's saying vinegar is so simple. I mean, so simple, like I use it for pest control. You know what I mean? Killing ants and doing this and doing that. Vinegar works amazing for, I mean, a lot of things. And it's like once you realize the amount of money that you can save by just using simple things like vinegar as opposed to what you buy at the store, it's just mind-boggling because a lot of times we're spending money on things that we don't need. And the marketing is telling us that we need this product. We need this product. And of course it is because they want to sell it to us. But at the end of the day, a lot of the stuff we don't need. We really don't need. Right.

We're talking about white vinegar too, right?

Yes.

White vinegar. Yeah.

Yeah, and there's a comment there. It's actually an interesting comment, and I think that this person is not alone. People love their Clorox wipes, and I know that that goes for, you know, schools. It goes for daycare centers. You know, they love their Clorox wipes, and the great news is there are lots of alternatives out there that work. They really work well. I use them all the time. You don't have to make them yourself. They're for sale. You can purchase them and they'll do the same job and they don't smell as toxic and they're antibacterial and they'll get rid of all the germs that we want to get rid of and they'll keep your little ones safe.

I'm on the bandwagon, Lori, where I feel like we need a little bit more bacteria in our lives. You know what I'm saying? We're in this culture where everything is so sanitized. We're reaping these health benefits from not allowing good bacteria into our lives. There's good bacteria in dirt. There's good bacteria in our homes. There's good bacteria all over the place. Because we're sanitizing ourselves to the extent, we're losing out on our body's own defense mechanisms to be able to fight disease, to be able to fight a lot of these things. I think there's also— think about it. Do you need to sanitize this? Does it really need to be sanitized? Can you wipe it down with water? That's another thing. I stopped that thinking of having to sanitize everything that my kids touch. Because at the end of the day, I mean, shoot, I was playing in dirt when I was a kid, rolling around in the mud, doing all this stuff. And I think in a sense, we're creating this crazy culture of clean. You know what I mean? And I have to preface this. I'm not a crazy cleaner, and there are people I know that love cleaning. They're OCD. They love cleaning. They wash their hands. I'm not one of those people. I'm more of an embrace the dirt. I'm an embrace the dirt person.

That comes along with having, having a lot of boys in the house.

Yep. Yeah, it does.

That should be our new motto. Embrace the dirt.

Yeah, that would be the anti-AGEAC slogan. Stronger than dirt. Embrace the dirt.

Embrace it. I love it.

There's a nice comment from Kate Bauer. She says she uses hydrogen peroxide and vinegar for cleaning and disinfecting kitchen and bathroom.

That's great.

That's great. Those are just really simple things, and they're not expensive. Hydrogen peroxide, you can even use for taking blood out of clothes. You can use it for all kinds of things.

Is there— like, there's a list of the Dirty Dozen and the Clean Fifteen. Is there a list of safe chemicals, anything like that?

Ooh, that's a good question. Safe chemicals. I think they're doing a lot of things with Green Chemistry. And Lori, can you talk a little bit about that?

Yeah, well, if you look— I'm just going to back up a little bit. If you head to Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families, there's— you know, they have a lot of great resources. A lot of the nonprofits that work on this sort of stuff, they have a whole database of information. Moms Clean Air Force, Safer Chemicals, Healthy Families, Healthy Child, Healthy World. They're all fabulous. Resources, and you can really look up a chemical that you're concerned about. You can look up bleach and find out, you know, the pros and cons, and, you know, that's a really great way to look into the stuff that you're using at home and determine whether or not it's safe for you and your family.

So— and then, you know, that's just— we're just talking about air quality. We haven't even touched food or personal care products because remember when I said your environmental stuff is what you're breathing in, what you're putting on your skin, and what you're eating., and that's how you're getting those exposure rates. And so there's a part 2. Lauri, do you want to do a part 2?

A part 2? I missed it. On what?

Personal care. What you're putting on your skin.

Oh, yeah. Well, we all know our skin is our largest organ, so we have to really be careful about what we place on our skin. I think a lot of time we are hyperfocused on what we're eating, what we're ingesting, but the stuff that we place on our bodies is really just as important, if not more important. So again, bite-sized pieces. What I always say is as you run out of things, try to maybe do a little legwork, a little research, and find safer alternatives, you know, for your personal care products. So whether it's shampoo or conditioner, again, so many great resources out there, so many ways to find out information. You know, you want to find things things that are nontoxic, that are safe for you and your family. Again, I mentioned before Environmental Working Group's Skin Deep for personal care products. That's really a great starting point. You know, you just literally plug in the product and it will give you a rating for the product and you can determine whether or not you want to purchase it. And there are a lot of safe products out there, and again, they're constantly changing. So, you know, sometimes I'll go and I'll buy something. I'll buy this great bottle of shampoo. I'm so psyched. It's clean, it's safe, my family is using it, and the next time I go back to check, there's a red flag and it's not as safe. So I have to make changes constantly to the products that I'm using, and I think that's something, you know, really important to note, that don't— just because you find this fabulous product, don't assume that it will always be safe. There could be changes in research, in information, and you want to constantly be up on that and make sure you're using things that are safe.

Merilybeth: Then for me, it's always about the why. Why do I care that my shampoo and conditioner is paraben-free, phthalate-free? Why do I care? It's costing me more money. It's an aggravation. I got to switch, yada, yada, yada. Why, why, why? The why is whatever you're putting on your skin is going into your skin and then into your bloodstream. The why is there are all of these chemicals that we we don't really know if they're safe when they're combined together with each other. For instance, the average man uses about 6 personal care products a day. The average woman uses about 12 personal care products a day. You say 24, you know, 30 days a month for 365 days a year. Now that's for men 6+, for women 12+. What we don't know is we don't know what happens when this from your shampoo and conditioner combined with this from your lotion and this from this. All together in your body, what's going on? Nobody knows the answer to that question. And that's what's really— that's what really I'm really interested in is the synergistic effects of how these— we don't know very much about these chemicals. We know that they're not good for us. A lot of them we know they're not good for us like parabens and phthalates and stuff like that. But why, why, why to me is more synergistic. So if I'm thinking about first step steps for me to think about in my personal care realm. I will just like at a very top level just try to switch my soap that I'm using. You know what I'm saying? So that's something like the body wash, the shampoos, the conditioners. You know, and I'm going to try to maybe switch over my makeup. I'm not going to do it right away. I'm going to do it like, you know, gradually a little bit like as I'm using it up then I go get makeup that decision. But I would be avoiding anything that has the word fragrance in the ingredient list. And that's how I started. Because fragrance to me, right there, you can have how many different chemicals? It's like over 200 chemicals or something like that, that the word fragrance can be. Tell me, Miss Attorney.

Oh, I don't know the exact number, but it's a big number. Yeah. Yeah.

And the word fragrance is where they hide the phthalates. And the phthalates— is what they're finding more out, more and more and more out about phthalates and how they're really, really, really bad mofos. Can you talk a little bit about phthalates, Laurie?

Yeah. Phthalates are an interesting little— the problem with all of this is, the bigger problem is that it's all pretty much unregulated. These retailers, these distributors, these creators can pretty much put stuff on the shelves, and we don't know what the heck's in it. It could be, you know, who knows what. Fragrance is a very loose term, and it could include so many different things. Phthalates are generally something that's used to kind of soften plastics and make them malleable so that we can shape them into different things, but they are used in personal care products. They're used in vinyl shower curtains. They're used in nail polish. They're used in a lot of different things, and they're a pretty horrible, horrible thing that can make us sick over time. The compilation of these ingredients over time, it's just adding up in our body, and it's just all not good. We want to avoid that. The interesting thing, Leah, is it's not on the label. The question then is, and the question I get all the time is, "Well, how do we know if it's in there? How do we know? How do we purchase something?" not knowing since these things are not on the label. You just have to learn the lingo. If it says PVC, if it says BPA, if it says all of these things, you just want to run, and you want to run far away because these are not things that you want anywhere near your body. Especially, I'm jumping to food for a minute, but one of my passions is trying to get plastic away from food. You know what? I'm not 100% on it because who can go to the market and buy buy produce that's not wrapped in plastic. I mean, I laugh every time I buy one of those long European cucumbers that's organic, but it's wrapped in literally Saran Wrap, and I think, this is just crazy. My food is touching plastic, and I feel really strongly that we should move away from any type of food coming in contact with plastic because of the chemicals that are potentially leaching into the food that we're eating. I didn't mean to jump to food, but it just Just when we're talking about phthalates.

Dr. Pompa: There's the other thing. With those plasticizers, what they're finding, and this is what's going to make women go, "Whoop," is a lot of times they're classified obesogens. Now, what's an obesogen? That's a chemical that literally messes with the fat cell development in your body. It's a chemical, and they're hormone agitators. What's the word I'm looking for?

Endocrine disruptor.

Yeah, endocrine disruptor. Okay. And so what they're doing is they're taking the fat cell and they're saying, "Hey, Mr. Fat Cell, I think you need to grow bigger," and they're making the fat cells grow bigger. "Hey, Mr. Fat Cell, I think you need to quadruple in size," and it turns it into 4 fat cells as opposed to 1 fat cell. Or it goes in your body and says, "Hey, Mr. Liver Cell, I think you're going to be a fat cell," and turns it into a fat cell. Okay? So there's all of these chemicals in our environment that even though they're not even in food, we're not eating it. Can contribute to weight gain based on our fat cells and also based on our hormones that are in our brain telling our body, "I'm full." And that's really scary because these things tend to be synthetic chemicals, you know, just like phthalates, just like high fructose corn syrup. It's a lot of these things that we're coming into contact, eating, putting on our skin day by day that could be contributing to your waistline. A lot of women are like, like, whoa, when I say that. You know what I mean? Because it's like literally, you know, it's making— I'm not saying it's probably going to give you cancer, but I'm saying it's going to make you fat, okay? So if anything, let's turn our vanity on for a second and just stay away from it because, you know, it could make your waistline bigger, right?

Well, I now have an excuse, okay.

Good. So they— I mean, I know there's this professor, his name's, okay, Bruce Blumberg. Dennis Littley, I think, and I just spoke with him. He's at the University of Irvine, and he was the professor that discovered obesogens. And he discovered it with rats. And it was just like these rats got— I believe he did— the first study he did was like high fructose corn syrup and BPA. You know, and he gave these rats this and then had a control group that didn't get it, got something else. And what he noticed was the rats were getting fat. And these rats, the ones that they used, were very, very similar to the genetic makeup of humans, so he can extrapolate Ergo, it's very possible that your high fructose corn syrup, your BPA that is touching things in your body or you're putting on your skin are actually contributing to your waistline. It's really interesting where we live in a society where we have these companies that are creating these products and are saying, "Don't eat too much. It's all about calories." At the end of the day, the science— what the science is showing us is it might not just be about calories. It might be more. There might be something else going on other than you just needing to get off your butt and exercise. You know what I'm saying? I'm not saying don't do that. You have to do that, right? That's also part of those things to— you want to keep your health, your heart rate up. You want to be able to do those things that make you very, very, very strong and healthy and help you live forever. But there's also these other things that you could be looking at that can greatly increase your chances of living to be 85, 90 years old. Hey, I want to get that old.

On that note, I was taking a blood pressure medication because I had had an episode last year, and they decided that I was going to die if I didn't take it. Of course, when the doctor tells you that, thank you. Let me have it now. It started to cause more problems. I've had this eczema problem, psoriasis, which was one of the reasons I went gluten-free. I started doing acupuncture and cupping. The doctor was getting so frustrated because she couldn't clear it up and says, "You're taking a blood pressure medication?" I said, "Yes." She goes— she said, "Well, I can't tell you to stop it, but these are the reasons. I can treat you. I can treat you for that. We can get this down, but it's your decision to make." I talked to my doctor, and I said, "I'm going to go off of it for a while." Then after I was off of it, she said, "Another thing is you can't lose weight. You're having a real hard time." I said, "Yeah." She goes, "Well, the medication, they don't tell you." makes it difficult for you to lose weight, almost impossible among all these other things.

I know. Some of the antidepressants and the diabetic medication are also classified obesogens. If you look up obesogen and you look at the Wikipedia of obesogen, there is a list of all of the pharmaceutical drugs as well that are causing weight gain.

Then you've got to take another pill because you're taking that pill.

It's a vicious cycle, for sure. Yeah.

I'm seeing a naturopathic physician next week too.

How did you like the acupuncture and cupping? Have you done it before?

I've done acupuncture before. I had never done cupping before.

Did you love it?

I really did like it, but it left some— oh my God, the marks at first were so deep purple. I know one of them was visible, and I didn't tell this person. Lisa said, "Did you tell me you had cupping?" I said, "No." They have a real good respect for you.

My favorite is after I have cupping, I go to the gym and I'm wearing, you know, a tank top and I just have like these bruises all over me and I can tell people are staring but they don't want to say anything.

You can only imagine what they're thinking, right?

I look like I've been attacked by an octopus or something, you know. But yeah, that was new for me, but I do like it. You know, they She just sticks them almost anywhere, so it's pretty cool. Yeah, it's a matter of natural— you know, I've always been a proponent of natural healing and opposed to medicine, and I don't like to take drugs if I don't have to. Although Florida did just miss their medical marijuana bill.

I know, I was like, really, Florida?

I don't know, that didn't surprise me about Florida. Am I wrong?

No, you're right, you're right. But they changed They changed their initiative process to go from 50% to 60%. Ironically, there was only 58% of the vote voted for that. So that was funny right there. That's irony. It was cool. I mean, I think medical marijuana, I think, is just a matter of time. It's like with anything else. It's the shifting of consciousness. It's how we're thinking about things differently. I'm not opposed to it, definitely not. We have it here in California. A little bit about my story with the medical marijuana, if we're just going to do a side note. My father died of mesothelioma, which is asbestos cancer that you get from asbestos exposure. In the end of his life, in California it was not legal yet, and I went out and got my dad pot butter and snuck it to him and didn't even tell him because he would never have done it. He went from laying down and moaning all day to sitting up and being there and being present in a conversation and being able to hang out with us. That happened very quickly. For people to say that it doesn't work, it's not a real medicine, you have never been in a situation with someone who's needed it.

Dr. Pompa: Right, right. That was the big initiative. One of the big attorneys in the area, John Morgan, was pushing for it because his brother was suffering so much from pain. The sad thing with this was whether you were in favor or not was how it swung the vote were some casinos pumped a ton of money into the negative aspect of it to defeat it.

Of course.

That made no sense to me. They had no business doing anything in this state. Let's talk while we're on that. Hemp. We see hemp in a lot of things. That's a good natural product. I know it's not the same as marijuana, same family, less stuff stuff. What are the benefits of some of these? I'm looking now, and I see— and believe me, I've been buying them. They're sitting in my cupboard getting ready to go as I've gotten rid of all the evil white flours and stuff. I've got different chia seeds and all other seeds, and I'm going to make some granola and do some things. What are the benefits of these products?

Dr. Pompa: A lot of what we're talking about is omega-3 fatty acids. Omega-3s are something— there's omega-3s, there's omega-6s, Omega-6s and omega-9s, you really, really want a lot of omega-3s. Those are in chia seeds, hemp seeds, salmon, those types of things, avocados. The reason— people are like, "Wait a minute. Omega-3 fatty acids, that's fat." No. Your brain actually loves that fat. Your brain works better. Your memory increases. All these amazing things will happen to you when you just start getting a consistent flow of omega-3 fatty acids in your brain. They've actually done a lot of anthropological studies. On cultures that get more omega-3 fatty acids in salmon and fish and stuff like that. What they found is their ability to create commerce, things that they are able to do. Just look at England. Look at England and how they took over the world. They compare it to more inland type of cultures where they're not doing as much. Their brains are thinking in a different way. What I would really say is you really want those omega-3s because in the standard American diet, which is what we eat eat every day in packaged foods, because most of us— 85% of the foods that people are eating is packaged, or has been packaged at one point in time and processed. It pulls those things out of your food, so we're not getting a consistent source of omega-3 fatty acids. People are finding— the scientists are finding when people have Alzheimer's, when people have all these things that are degenerative of your brain, that's one of the things that they are lacking. They're lacking a lot of other things, but that's one of the components that they're also lacking. It's a very natural part of our food supply that we've missed out on. These new products like chia seeds and avocado oil and hemp and all that stuff is a great way to be able to supplement it and get it in. If you don't even do that, just go and get some Nordic Naturals omega-3s. By the way, they're a client, so I have to preface that before I say it. Pop those suckers. Do something to get those omega-3s in your body. I give it to my kids every single morning. The other thing that I've noticed with my kids, and I can't say this about everybody, It makes my children calmer when I give them omega-3s. That's all about sanity for me.

That's probably the selling point for most people.

I was going to say, they're going to fly off the shelves right now. A really easy way to add them to your diet if you can't tolerate taking pills or don't want to supplement is to add them to a smoothie. My kids make smoothies all the time. You just take a tablespoon and pop it in. Grind it up, and you don't even know it's in there. It's just a fabulous way to add extra everything to your diet. Very simple, very simple.

We did have a couple questions here before we get too far. Jamal is saying, he says he actually used a vinaigrette to clean a glass surface, but I was about to suffocate with the smell. Jamal, wrong vinegar. He wants to know how to use vinegar and cleaning, like what would be the appropriate amount?

Okay. I don't know what the amount is, but what you can also do is dilute it a little bit with water. I have essential oils that I use all the time, like lemon and peppermint and stuff like that, that I will put into my concoctions so that I don't feel like I'm suffocating because I totally agree with him. Getting vinegar, especially the apple cider vinegar, if you take a whiff of that Oh my goodness, I want to—

but I think the key point here is do not ever use vinaigrette to clean. That would really not be good.

Vinaigrette for your salad.

Keep the vinaigrette on the salad. Yep, vinegar for the countertops. Okay, we're good.

Alexandra had asked where she could get those Better Wipes, the choice of a better wipes because she's a convenience junkie. So Lori, did you have a brand or specific wipes that you do use that are safe? Not the Clorox ones. Did we lose Lori?

She's there.

She's kind of—

well, I mean, there's a bunch of clients that I use. I don't know if they're like the Clorox type, but I know Babyganics makes them. I think BioClean makes them. I think Earth Friendly Products makes some. We've got There's so many different choices that you can do. What I'm finding is that I go to— yeah, I have to go to a health food store and look at what they have. And then I have to extrapolate from that and then use your database of what you want. But I think at the end of the day, if you find a brand that you can trust, I like doing that. I like purchasing from trusted brands first. And it makes it so much easier for me because I am not the total expert. Expert in personal care products and cleaning products. That's more Lori. And so a lot of what I'm doing is finding a brand that I know that's absolutely awesome and just purchase from what they have. And then at the end of the day, there are so many apps and there's so many things out there that can help us with. But I think if we're— baby wipes are also pretty good. You can use those baby wipes because that's what I'm using in my house a lot. And there's no bleach or disinfectant or anything in them. But I'm using the baby wipes from Babyganics or Seventh Generation or one of those things to do that that wiping up that I think is what she's talking about.

Okay. That sounds— now, is a health food store— I would not have thought to go to a health food store for cleaning products.

Yeah, I know. Well, the health food stores are going to have a lot of natural products there. They're going to have natural everything. So what you're going to find, if you have a Lassen's or a Whole Foods or a— there's all kinds of different ones on the East Coast. But go in there and just see what they have because they're going to have a lot of supplements. They're going to have a lot food products and they're going to have a lot of personal care products, shampoos, conditioners, lotions, all kinds of different brands that you've never seen before. You're going to look at them like, I've never seen that brand before. What's happening is you're seeing a lot of small, organic, natural companies. At the end of the day, what's happened in commerce is that all of the companies have been bought up by 5 to 10 different companies. Even though you think in the grocery store that you have all of these choices, you really don't. It's coming from 6 to 10 sources, and that's what's really happening. It's not really choice. When you're going to these natural food stores, you literally are looking at hundreds and hundreds and hundreds and hundreds of different companies. Not all of them have merged and stuff like that. The other thing to note is These natural companies spend that money that for, you know, like an Aunt Jemima would go to marketing, and instead of spending it on marketing, they're spending it on the quality of their ingredients. And they're paying more for the ingredients because their ingredients are more natural. They're not going to harm you. They're free of carcinogens. And that's what they're giving you. So that's what I like to do first is go into those natural food stores. And I don't necessarily buy everything because sometimes they can be really expensive. But I figure out what it is that I like. And sometimes I have to experiment. It's like I've gone through so many shampoos and conditioners trying to find the best one. It's not even funny. And that was my big sore spot, was the shampoos and conditioners. But I finally found a couple that I did like. But it was like experimenting and being open with it. And I have such long hair, so that's a big deal for me. And then, but going there really helped. And then there's other things that are starting to pop up. There's this new company called Thrive Market and they just, I think they just started up like yesterday. So Google them, Thrive Market. And what Thrive Market is, is you purchase a membership. It's not that bad. I think it's like $29 or $40 a year and then they give you access to all of these natural products at a discount. So you can go in and find, oh my gosh, shampoo, conditioner, da-da-da-da-da, and all these food products that would cost an arm and a leg at Whole Foods that you can now get online and have delivered to yourself. At a discount. There's so many things. As the organic market is growing, as the natural food market is growing, we're really trying to hug everybody in the movement. That means even people that are on a budget. It's so important to be able to offer healthy products to everybody, healthy food to everybody. That's what a lot of these companies have been focused on doing. How do we get our product to them in a way that they can afford it? That's another one. The other thing on Almost every single organic and natural product has a coupon and it's available online. And if you don't see it online, tweet at them, Facebook them, and they will be more than happy to send it to you. And that's what I found. And so I have about 85 clients in that realm, and almost every single one of them offers an online discount code or some kind of— they'll email you something or they'll send you something in the mail if you want to try to their product out. They'll send you several if you want.

That's good to know because I'm switching over. I do all the shopping, so Lisa is at my whim of whatever I buy. We just got dryer balls in the mail, and she's looking at them going, "I put all 6 of these in there?" I'm going, "Yeah, put all 6 of them in there." "Are you sure? Can I just use them once?" I said, "No, it says 1,500 uses." So, but I mean, the turning point for me was when I was using the sheets and I thought they were sandpaper in the washer area because I found out, I said, who's using sandpaper? She goes, no, those are the dryer sheets you bought me. So then I went to the dryer balls. But I mean, I bring— it's like, what do we have to clean with? And that's it.

So I think that's a really good point. You are not necessarily going to fall in love with the first thing you switch to, so be open to trying something and then maybe it doesn't work out and try something else. Thankfully we live in a culture where there is not just one of everything and there are lots of great brands out there. And again, what I like might not be what you like. I may really like the Sandpaper while you like the Dryer Balls, so you just never know.

I did find out that tweeting, "I've got Dryer Balls," was not appropriate.

Inappropriate though. I would retweet that for you. I don't think you could get in trouble for anything you say, Chef. I mean, it would be very little that I think that you could really get in trouble for.

Did you actually tweet that? Because I'm going to go find it.

I just thought of it now. I was going to go tweet it real quick.

A little experiment, see what happens. Let's talk a little bit about food before we go because I know we've got 10 minutes left. Let's do it. I really wanted to impress on people that the Dirty Dozen was something that you really want to look up. Those are the top 12 fruits and vegetables that are sprayed with the most pesticides and are using the most synthetic chemicals. They're the ones that I would consider the most dangerous. Dangerous. If you're on a budget, you can just avoid those. The second thing I would really look at is your milk and your meat because that's a really, really, really dirty source of everything that we're getting. If you're going to put your money or your thought into anything, look at those two areas, your milk and your meat and the dirty dozen would be my recommendation.

Dr. Pompa: I just want to add to that, Leah. For the dirty dozen, it's really important to check that annually because the list does change and it is updated and pesticide ratios do change, so, you know, while strawberries might be at the top of the list, which strawberries are always on the list and apples, but they might move around a little bit and there might be something that's a little bit more toxic. So if you, you know, again, like Leah said, if you're trying to, you know, budget, those are the foods you want to really focus on buying organic rather than the conventional type.

A lot of times it's really simple because most of the time you're eating the skin in something. For instance, avocados and pineapples, you're not eating the skin, so it's not going to be at the top. We're talking about apples because we're eating the skin of the apples, grapes, peaches are always pretty nasty. It just blows your mind. Potatoes, actually potatoes, and if you think about how many potatoes we're eating all the time, French fries, and potato chips, and all that stuff. It's not about— again, it's not about that one thing killing you. It's about all the synergistic effects of everything in a pool of muck that we're swimming in. The point that what you really need to remember is everybody's body is going to be different. Everyone has a bucket full of toxins that they can handle. Some people have bigger buckets than others. At the end of the day, you just don't know You don't know what your bucket, how big your bucket is, or your kids, or your husband. We just don't know. So if we can take little parts of our environment and just bring these things down, at the end of the day, like, amazing, it's going to be amazing what you can do in 5 years' time. You know what I'm saying? By making these little, little switches here and there and just getting used to this. And also, what I'd also like to say that by By purchasing these natural products, it's actually a very patriotic thing for you to do. If you really care about the health of our community, of our country, then you really want the organic in the national markets to grow, to give access to everybody, to be able to have everybody be able to afford this. It has to grow for that to happen. It's all about distribution. The more organics we purchase, the more distribution they're going to have, the more they can get into Walmart and things like that. At the end of the day, people that really need are going to be able to get it. So it's a really patriotic thing that you're doing as well.

I also want to add a caveat to that. You really need to be careful about the labels, meaning not all the labels are regulated. All natural is completely unregulated. That's a term that you really want to try to avoid. It means pretty much absolutely nothing on the food. So, you know, look for actual certifications. Look for organic when you can. All natural, I would try to shy away from it or really read the labels carefully, but spend some time getting to know your labels, getting to know what you're putting into your body. And I want to go back again to the plastic thing with food since we're actually on food now. Do your best to try to avoid plastic and food contamination, and one thing I want to really stress is do not put your plastic plastics in the dishwasher because heat causes the plastics to break down, the toxins in the plastic, the chemicals in the plastics to break down, and those plastics will then— those chemicals will then actually leach into your food. So it's really important if you can, use a little elbow grease, wash any plastics you have in your kitchen by hand and try not to subject them to the heat of your dishwasher.

Good advice. Now, I have a question about food, because I know in the United States we do not seem to care as much about as other countries in the world about how we label things and the fact that we have to label things. Now, I'm shopping, and I'm looking for produce, and sometimes I see it's coming from Canada. Is stuff coming from Canada safer than coming from the United States because they have better regulations?

Here's the interesting thing about that. Only 1% 1% of the agricultural farmland in the United States is organic. 1%. Yet our demand is so great that we have to import from Romania, from China, from Mexico, and from Canada to feed the demand in the United States. I am not going to say that I don't trust what they're doing in Romania because Romania, they've been farming organically for thousands of years, you know what I'm saying? A lot of these countries have. In Mexico, I'm not going to say, but I'm going to say I would love We want to see organics in our country grow, and the only way that is going to happen is through the Farm Bill. What they need to start doing is our government officials need to start supporting organic farmers because right now they're not supported. They're taxed, they're fined, they have to pay more. Their costs of doing their job are so much greater than the average farmer. That's the reason why we haven't grown more than 1%. Literally what it is is for a farmer to go from conventional to organic, they have to let the soil rest for 3 years, and they have to farm organically, and they can't get paid for that. They're not getting the organic certification, so they're not getting that premium. What I'm really hoping that our government does in the next farm bill is put some subsidies towards getting farmers from conventional to organic and the in-between part where they're going to lose their shirts, absolutely., but can we give them a cushion? Because everybody else gets a cushion, especially the big biotech companies and the factory farms. Can we give these little guys a cushion? I think that's only going to happen with the more awareness that we create. That's happening slowly over time. It's just a matter of us all being aware of it. I don't want to disparage other countries. I wouldn't do that. I lived in China. The Chinese are— they They're about doing things wise as opposed to doing things by the rules. Do you know what I'm saying? They don't see cutting corners as being bad versus good. They see it as just being smarter. If it's going to take me less time, hello. Sometimes that's not always good in factories when we're talking about safety, but that's just the way they are. I don't want to disparage stuff, but I would much rather have us buying from American Absolutely.

I understand. I was just wondering if sometimes the products were safer if there is a choice, you know, because I do see Canadian produce in the market.

I think that's really hard to know. I mean, I don't know the rules and regulations in other countries, so I wouldn't necessarily say that it's safer, and I'm not sure that I would rely on that. That's a good question. I also want to say, though, also a caveat to what Leah was saying, you know, heading to the farmers market is really an interesting thing because a lot of times Sometimes you're standing face-to-face with these farmers and you say to them, are you organic? They'll say, you know what, we are organic but we're not certified because we can't afford to be certified. It's that food to earth, that connection that we have with our food. Finding a farmer, being able to ask him or her face-to-face, where does your food come from? They can say to you, look, it is organic, I don't have that label but I can I can assure you that we don't use anything. Well, that for me is enough, and I'll buy their food even though they don't have the organic certification. So it's, I think, you know, as a culture we need to really support those farmers and really be there for them and maybe head to the farmers market and buy our food that way and be able to ask the questions. It's so key.

And the other thing is if you can't get to a farmers market every week because some people are just like, oh my God, it's during soccer practice or this or that or whatever, there's companies that will crowdsource, will source all of these farms for you and deliver a box to your house. I mean, we had one called Farm Box LA that was with ShiftCon. There's another one called Lucy's Organics that's out here. And if you Google that, you will find one in your area. And there's either a pickup place or they'll deliver it straight to your door, and you've got local, fresh, organic food. Food, and it's easier than going to the supermarket. It's amazing what people will come up with to support the movement. There's a lot of stuff that's becoming more convenient as well.

It's all about convenience.

Oh, God, yeah. It's got to be convenient.

It's got to be.

I did find— you talked about sourcing milk and meats. The one thing, what I think is one One of the biggest sins that's committed is this cage-free egg thing that they're selling us. That means there's a little door on the henhouse so they can go in and out if they want to. They're taken out for 5 minutes and brought back in. There's so much disparity in how things are labeled that way when you think you're doing a good thing, as opposed to what I was told recently was pastured. Pastured. Pastured is the word that you're looking for with meats or with eggs and milk. Organic Valley is what I buy, and it says pastured on it.

Yeah.

Yeah. Chickens are interesting. Eating more chicken is more likely to give you cancer. We're talking conventional chicken. Eating more conventional chicken is more likely to give you cancer. Eating more conventional meat is more likely to give you heart disease. There's all these things that we have to think about. Because these animals are given so many— I mean, they're given chemicals. If you think about something as simple as antibiotics, right? We take antibiotics when we're sick and we have something that the doctor needs to get rid of, but we don't preemptively get antibiotics before we get sick because that would be crazy. That would destroy our system. Animals are preemptively given antibiotics before they get sick because they're in conditions that typically make them sick. That's what the farmers will do. They'll preemptively give them antibiotics When I heard that 85% of the antibiotics produced in the United States were given to animals, not to humans— we're only given 15%— that blew my mind. 85% of the antibiotics in the United States, produced in the United States, is given to animals. It's huge business. This is business we're talking about, multi-billion-dollar industry, feeding animals antibiotics that not only prevent them from getting sick, but also make them fatter. I mean, they have antibiotics that just produce growth that makes them get fatter. They have antibiotics that make them get thinner. That's Ractopine. That's given to pigs because in America, we don't want fat pigs. We want lean pigs. You know what I'm saying? It's just really bizarre. There's all these chemicals that are given to the animals in addition in their feed. I mean, they're finding— I mean, not strychnine. What was it? Arsenic that they found in their feed or something like that coming from China, and the chickens were—

I mean, it's just amazing.

It's amazing what is happening. I just recently, I came back from London. And what I went there is I went with a client, and I went to all of these farms, these dairy farms, and got to see organic dairy farmers in England. It was like the coolest thing ever. And I learned a lot about what the treatment of the animal and how that is directly correlated with how the meat tastes, how tender it is, or how firm it is. You know what I'm saying? And like all these different things. And for instance, with chicken— now we know with ourselves, if we are stressed out to the max, we die early, right? And there's all of these hormones and chemicals that are surging— normal hormones and chemicals that are surging through our body telling us, "Get the hell out of here." And having that perpetual feeling of flight and scaredness makes you get sick in your life. And that is a natural way stress kills us, right? Imagine what's happening if you're eating a stressed animal. You know what I mean? It's like people aren't thinking about— yeah, it's natural, but at the same time, it's like, I don't know, if I was a cannibal, I'd want the, I don't know, Rastafarian before I'd ever choose, like, you know, someone who lives in the United States. I want the one that's like kicked back, you know, never worried about anything. You know, that's the one I would want.

I don't know what I want to eat, okay?

Try the leg, it's good.

Welcome to Jamaica, man. Have a nice day. Yeah, that's where I would eat. I'd eat with Jamaicans.

These animals are crazy by the time they kill them. It's not even stressed out. They're just crazy because of how they live, their living conditions. I saw a documentary on pigs, and I could not believe I can't believe that's what we do to these animals that are as smart as dogs.

Yeah, pigs are highly intelligent. I talked to someone who was an old pig farmer, and he said to me, he's like, "Pig farmers are— pigs are smart, so they get out of the pen, and they're hard to wrangle." When they're organic pig farmers, you have to outsmart those things to keep control of them because you're not putting them in these little tiny things. One of the reasons why they put them in these little conditions is because they're so smart. They escape. They do all these crazy things. But we've got to treat the animals with respect. We just need to. We can't be— it's not just the humane issue, because I think some people care about the humane issue. But if you want to think about it in terms of you're actually— then you're eating that, and there's consequences to that. Think about it like that if you don't want to think about the humanity. But things have just got to change.

Yeah. It's pretty awful the way it is right now. It really is.— and the fact that we're then ingesting all of this, all these antibiotics, the 85% that's going into the animals, then humans are ingesting them. So yeah, it's a pretty awful situation.

Steven is worried that we've drifted and now we're on cannibalism. It's not the Walking Dead here, although—

I was thinking the Walking Dead.

I am notorious for the sight Well, thank you, ladies.

We've come to the hour. It has been an incredible amount of information here, and I hope people take it in. And again, like we're telling you, little bites, little steps, you know, don't eat the whole elephant. Although now I'm thinking Leah says elephant is delicious.

Okay, Jamaicans are delicious.

Yeah, anyway, Jamaicans and elephants, I've learned a lot. But little steps, you don't have to change everything in one day, and I think that's what really got me motivated to make some changes. And you know, at my age, if I can change, anybody can. It's a good thing to do. So ladies, you know, you were great. I'm going to let you leave us with one last word or one last comment for everyone. On how they can improve their lives. Lori, would you like to say one last thing for us?

Sure.

Well, I think what I've learned in doing all of this is, you know, together we can all make a difference. Whether the government— if the government's not changing regulation, if the government's not, you know, doing what we're asking for, we can still do something about it. Our dollars matter. When you go to the store, you are voting with your dollars, and keep that in mind every time you make a purchase. Purchase. You're supporting a company by paying for something. And that's really, really important, especially in this movement and if we want to make this place safe for all of us. So those are my parting words.

Good. And Leah?

I absolutely agree with Lori. Making a purchase at a store is absolute direct democracy. We don't typically— I mean, we don't technically have democracy in this country as representative democracy, but when you make a purchase at that store, that is direct democracy. You are telling that company, I want this as opposed to their The companies will always go where the money is. Always go where the money is. So if we tell them through our purchases that we don't want something, they change. And that happens very, very quickly. That can happen within a year, 2 years, 3 years. Boom! It happens just like that because they will follow the money. But I wanted to say that for me when I started, the one thing that was really, really helpful for me is I just started reading ingredients and Googling them. It's as simple as that. Go in your cabinet. Grab some cans, grab some boxes, look at what you're reading, and if you don't recognize it, Google it. I mean, because it's out there, and you can learn a lot. I needed to take responsibility for my own life, so I have to see the information. I can't be told. I'm one of those people. I have to discover it myself. If you're like me, and you need to do that, just start. Just start. Use your products and start that way.

I think a good tip for me on that point is, as a chef, If you can't pronounce it and you have no idea what it is, it shouldn't be in the food.

Okay?

Perfect.

Good rule of thumb.

Good rule of thumb. So thank you all for joining us. As always, ladies, thank you so much for helping. Have a great weekend and have a good day on Google+.