How To Biohack Your Morning Routine, The Surprising Compounds That Destroy Stem Cells, The Tastiest Nut Butter On The Face Of The Planet & Much More!

On this episode of the Ben Greenfield Fitness Podcast.

And if you don't have enough information for the broad perspective, then you just align and adapt to the benefits that you want to believe is the truth and that releasing is coming from at least the one thing that we know is the AFA is the blue green algae. But the problem is, and here's the warning, so they're seeing no value producing stripping this land. And what we saw was number one.

Tear jerking, health, performance, nutrition, longevity, ancestral living, biohacking and much more. My name is Ben Greenfield. Welcome to the show. Well, this show is a fun one. I got my super food hunter friend Darren Olan back on the show and we're going to talk nuts. Since I interviewed him, by the way, you'll hear us talking about how to make your own cheesecake out of nut butter and how to make your own chocolate, cinnamon, vanilla stevia or monk fruit flavored nut butter. I've been putting all of my recipes on my Instagram channel from what I've been creating from the nuts that we talk about in today's show. So if you go to instagram.com BenGreenfieldFitness and scroll through my feed, I've got my cheesecake recipe up there. I've got my nut butter recipe up there. Towards the end of the show, he also tells me about the fruit that the nut comes out of and he sent me some of those he outlines in the show. And as you'll find out, that fruit is just next level. All right, you guys, when I first met my guest on today's podcast, it was actually inside a steaming hot sauna at my friend Laird Hamilton's and Gabby Reese's underwater pool workout. The famous Malibu underwater pool workout. I think it was on a Saturday morning and this dude was in there just like launching knowledge bombs right and left on these advanced stem cell boosting tactics and superfood molecules and chemistry. And it turns out that his, his job, and this is pretty sexy, is he gets to just travel around the world finding amazing superfoods and then formulate them into supplements, package them into palatable ingredients that the rest of us can enjoy. And he actually goes by the moniker the Indiana Jones of superfoods. As if that weren't badass enough, joined me for a podcast like two years ago. If you guys did not hear that one, I'm going to link to it in today's show notes. So today's shownotes are going to be at BenGreenfieldFitness.com SuperfoodHunter BenGreenfieldFitness.com superfoodhunter Now, in that original podcast episode, we covered a ton of stuff, this guy's entire backstory. And so even though we won't go through his whole sexy story on this show, I'll give you a chance to get to know him a little bit. And he, he's been up to a lot since we last chatted, including finding some pretty cool new ingredients and in particular one that I have a bag full of up in my pantry right now that I really have some questions about today. So we're gonna jam on that. And his name is Darren Olian. Darren Olian. He wrote a book called Super Life, which is amazing that you guys should read. And I'm gonna link to that in the show notes as well. And he's also the nutritional director for totimed. And totimed is actually studying up on how stem cells can be utilized, but in particular, non embryonic stem cells known as totipotent or pluripotent stem cells for a bunch of different medical conditions and diseases. He's got his fingers in a lot of other pots when it comes to delivering superfoods to the universe. And what I really like about him is his entire company is run through really good sustainable business practices that support the biome. So this, he's not running around in the Amazon with a chainsaw. He's actually help the environment while at the same time harvesting some pretty amazing ingredients from it. So, Darren, welcome back to the show, man.

Hey, thanks, Ben. It's been a journey since we talked last, but totally stoked to catch up with you and nerd out a little bit.

Word, dude. We're actually talking on a Saturday morning, which is normally, I think when Laird and Gabby would be doing their underwater pool workout. But did you go up there today or are they kind of on shutdown with the whole coronavirus thing?

Yeah, a little bit of shutdown. We. We ended up a bunch of the crew members just went to the beach and did a bunch of plyometrics and sprints and TRX and body weight stuff. So we got it in.

I dig it. I'm gonna be headed to the forest after this. I've got a park about a mile from my house. It's got an 18 hole Frisbee golf course that kind of goes up and down through the mountains. And I throw down a weekend workout sometimes where I drop and do 30 burpees on each concrete pad before I throw, run, play the, play the hole, drop for burpees, and play the next hole. It's kind of a fun little, little outdoor routine that keeps me out of the gym where all the, all the viral particles are living apparently.

Exactly, exactly. Nice little social distance right there.

Exactly. Yeah. So before we delve into some of these cool superfood adventures that you've been up to lately, I think it would be really interesting to hear a little bit more about your own personal self care routine and some of the rituals, the ha. The things that you've been up to lately that, that you think might fly under the radar that, that you find are just like non negotiables for you.

You know, these things evolve over time and you know, you adapt to the circumstances too. So there's certainly, you know, something I've been doing lately, which is just a great practice, especially in any sort of flu activity, is that once I wake up I, you know, I drink my hydrogenated water.

So, so by, by the way, and I might interrupt you and rabbit hole a little bit as we go through when you're drinking hydrogen rich water, which I also do every morning. Big, big mason glass jar of vitamin C, baking soda, hydrogen rich water and some minerals. Are using tablets or do you have one of these hydrogen water generating machines?

Yeah, I've been on demand hydrogen machine. It's a company that I've really tried to help get in the world but they still haven't really gotten them in the world. So I just have this kind of personalized on demand hydrogen machine that I'd love to share to the world but sometimes these guys, these crazy inventors don't, don't have a good understanding of business. So. Yeah, I hit that. Got my Himalayan salt in there. So it's nice and alkalinized. I actually use this flask called Flaska, which I met. It's actually program structuring science programmed information into the actual crystalline glass. And I, I, I found it at the water conference that Dr. Gerald Pollock did in Bulgaria last year. And I attended the top water scientists on the planet. And I saw this, this guy who had this amazing science based flask that programmed frequencies into the crystal. So I put it in that water, I let it sit, sit for a few minutes. It programs and structures the water.

And is it, is it like a. Because some of these bottles, it's a disc at the bottom and then others what they is, they line the, either the inside of the water bottle or the bottom of the water bottle with minerals. Do you know what they're using?

Yeah. So this, this is actually programmed into the Making of the glass. Oh cool. So, and you can actually see the imprint of it and it's again, it's Flaska with an A. I don't know if these guys, I think they ship to the US but very cool. And listen, you can do all kinds of structuring stuff. Very simple. You can shake your water and, and make it a little more active and oxygenated a little bit. You can put it in a nice glass with love on the side and there's a lot of ways to help influence it from its deadened quality from coming out of the faucets or the filter systems.

Yeah. With probably the, the simplest being and al something like a, like a water structuring device or actually imprinting the water with energy which I know for some people listening in, they might be head scratching or submitting this podcast immediately to quackwatch.org but there's actually some, some interesting research behind the ability of water to actually carry frequencies or carry information. And you know, you, you can just put salt in it and put it out in the sunlight to get some of that effect. But you can also use some of these, these water restructuring bottles which I'm actually a fan of. With the one caveat and the one warning we have to people who may not realize this. Anything that's been programmed, whether it's a, like a disk you'd put on a bracelet or on your body to carry information or whether it's a water bottle or anything like that, you actually have to keep it away from non native EMF like your WI fi router or anything like that because it just, it F's up the entire signal.

Yeah, for sure. I mean we do know. And listen, if anyone wants to check out Gerald, Gerald Paulus work or the water conference information, they have plenty of information on that. I mean we could talk for a week on water, Ben. I mean it's a blank hard drive that's influenced by all the energies on the planet. So it doesn't have a point of view. So if you put it next to your router, it will take on those frequencies. If you put it out in the sun, it will take on those frequencies. I also love blue bottles. The glass blue bottles. So putting that out in the light and the frequency of the blue cobalt and the sunlight coming through, it's a great other bottle that I have around. So there's a lot to there. But we're just, we're just at the water part of my routine. But, but, but it's funny when you and I start Talking. You don't realize. I don't realize sometimes all these things I've already programmed so I don't think about them. Right. So they're just, they're things that I have in my habitual repertoire. Ready? So really then I move to a salt or a saline flush, certainly through flu season, or you think you're getting something, it's just great to do through the winter months. And sometimes I'll add a little angstrom. Colloidal or silver in there? Colloidal, silver or something like that. And I'll flush my nasal with a nice salt soleil. And so I'm always, you know, flushing that.

What are you using to flush with? Are you using like a neti pot or just sucking it into your nasal cavity?

It's a bottle that you can actually get a little more pressure and instead of just, you know, kind of the slow roll of a neti pot, which is, that's the theory, it's a little more pressure. You just put it, plug it right up to your, your nose. That plugs up the one and you, you push it and it flushes out a little more, goes far further into the nasal cavity and is very, very effective. And even if you have a sinus issue and you're plugged up, it's a great thing to do to create warm liquid, a soleil to get up there and get some, whatever the infection or disturbance you have.

Yeah, it's great for like, like biofilm, mold, mycotoxin, et cetera. I actually, I have kind of a similar approach as you, but a mask nebulizer. I've actually got it right here on my desk when I'm talking to you. It's a mask you put on, you drop a few drops of. Actually I have right next to it right now the sovereign silver, colloidal silver. And then I also use the glutastat stuff, which is glutathione and N acetylcysteine that I get from Dr. John Lawrence down in Florida. And of course right now during the coronavirus, I've been hitting it every day because the respiratory tract doesn't actually have its own built in antioxidant system. So I've just been nebulizing this stuff straight into my respiratory tract. But even for just general immunity on a daily basis. Yeah, nebulizing or neti pots or some kind of way to kind of huff some of these compounds is a pretty cool strategy.

Totally. And I love the nebulizer too. I'm sitting with one with the Colloidal silver in it. And it's such a great moist way to bring in silver. Silver. Such a powerful immune destroyer of bacteria and virus and great just to have around. You can actually forget, you know, it's very cheap, a couple batteries, you can just turn it on, have it, have it next to you.

Making me thirsty. I'm taking a dropper four right now, dude.

Just, just, just, just cause exactly. So, so that's a great little routine. And then I'll usually just go into. I'll make some sort of adaptogenic herb elixir. You know I'll use, I mean I think this morning used Schisandra chaga, Ashwagandha astragalus, cacao. You know cacao is such a great one that people don't realize. Such a good phenylethylamine booster to the serotonin feel good molecules. I use 100 cacao from Peru. I love that.

That's funny. That's exactly. Actually since the coronavirus hit, I switched from coffee to the. I think it's Peruvian. The, my cacao organic cacao nibs and shells and I just make a giant pot of that. I had a bunch of Sri Lankan cinnamon and cayenne and then I pour that over about four packets of the four sigmatic chaga. So it's just chaga and cacao up the wazoo and it's. I don't actually put. I don't actually do an enema with it, I drink it. But yeah, I mean those kind of elixirs are amazing in the morning, especially if you're kind of like doing the intermittent fasting thing but want some good nutrients and a good pick me up in your system. It's a cool strategy. So you're using. What'd you say again?

Schisandra chaga, Ashwagandha astragalus. Usually some engine, such a powerful rhodiola, such a great one right now it's very good for the brain again if we can, you know, deal with all of these, you know, without going down the rabbit hole on all of these. But they're just. There's such a systemic way to deal with the added stress of the body and keep and modulate the immune system, the endocrine system, the hormonal system. And then I'll usually just dash a little bit of lohan Gao or people from a common name called monk fruit, which is a great traditional Chinese medicine actually. Super sweet, super super sweet. And it's great at this point people can. It's widely available so people can do that. Doesn't affect the blood sugar.

Great alternative to stevia. Better than Stev, in my opinion.

Yeah, stevia. Stevia can get gnarly if you don't have the right source of it through its processing challenges. So then, you know, then I'll sit on an infrared pad. I'll just go into my, my meditation and my meditations just kind of shift depending on, you know, the place I want to go or what I'm working on or whatever. But just silence the mind and, and get into that zone and then I'll usually come out of that and do a stream of consciousness writing and then that will move me naturally into my to do list of. For me, I really have to get clear on, especially now more than ever, what am I doing? Where is my focus, what am I creating, what am I contributing to and how am I going to get there? And if I literally start my day, that's my greatest elixir ever to keep. Especially now with all the distractions to align with the passion, to align with the contribution and to align with how I'm going to perform. Living in today's world in a sense of a day to day.

Yeah, it's enormously important. I mean, for me, that's Sunday night that I sit down and kind of do that for the entire week, week and then just review it each morning. But to, to backpedal just very quickly, your stream of consciousness writing after you meditate. I'm just curious logistically, how long are you spending writing?

You know, it could be something that just blurts out. It could be 10 minutes, it could be 30, you know, just depending on clarity or lack of clarity or kind of a being a vessel for what needs to come through or not, you know, or, or it just shifts from like literally two minutes of gratitude and then it goes right into like, oh, I'm so passionate about what I need to do next. That's already aligned. So then it can shift, but it's. I don't really get hardwired on the exact time, but I have to acknowledge all those steps, like that's my anchor, you know, and if I'm off, I'm just not mentally or physically or spiritually in a good place. So this is just my, my normal protocol. And I, you know, I, I am a 8, 8pm to 4am sleeper. So, you know, I'm up at 4 and, and that, that to me is like, like for me that the thing that actually wakes me up is the excitement for the morning because that space I don't go anywhere. I don't talk to anyone for at least three hours.

Well, I can tell you I cannot wait. This sounds rude. I cannot wait till my kids are 17, 18 and move out or take care of themselves at night because our biggest family time goes from 7:30 to 9:30 at night. And I love the 4:00am, the 5:00am But I just can't get the kids their quality time at night, get them to bed, and then get to bed myself in time to do it. So I imagine from the time I'm about to probably 42 would be about when they're, when they're done and out on for the rest of my life. I'll probably be on about the same time frame as you, the 8:00pm to 4:00am Because I just, I love to crush the morning, but just can't right now without needing to nap from like, you know, noon to 2 if I do that.

Yeah, exactly. Yeah. So then after that, it's usually now I'm ready to roll. So I'll meet the boys and do some sort of functional, crazy, hold the breath kind of workout. And that's, you know, that's always, you know, you and I have bumped shoulders doing some of that crazy, so we don't have to get into all that. But, but that's the morning. I mean, that's, that sets me up every day and I wouldn't trade it for anything.

I love it. Cool. Well, that, that's just a, that's just a taste of, of what this guy is like. For everybody listening in, quick question before I ask you about some newer things you've been discovering lately. In particular, the one I have up in my pantry right now, that's a recent find of yours. This whole idea with totimed, because that was originally, I think the very first conversation that I had about you was totipotent stem cells. And we actually discussed them in the last podcast. We actually talked about coffee berry extract as being one pretty easy to find berry that helps to support the mobilization of the totipotent cells. But in terms of this totimed, which I think is todimedgroupinternational.com and I'll link to that in the show notes. What exactly are you doing with these non embryonic stem cells?

Yeah, so I mean, that project has slowed a bit because it was based on Department of Health contract. So we were, you know, who knows what's going to happen now? But we were deemed to work with about 20 to 40,000 veterans to help healing of all different sorts. So Dr. Henry Young was the founder of what's called the totipotent stem cell. And by definition, the totipotent is the grandfather can create, and I think you even mentioned it in the book because it's the only one that can turn itself into any tissue or any organ, even the zygote, even the most primitive of all cells. And what Dr. Young discovered was it was a different looking cell than what anyone else had. And everyone thought it didn't really exist. And so what we found was there's definitely lifestyle things that you can do to turn on your natural ability for these particular stem cells to proliferate and also release themselves into the vasculature. So there's a couple things you can do, and then there's also some plant compounds that will support those structures. And then the whole of the research that he's doing is he can isolate them. And we're way beyond. This isn't mesochymal, this is above pluripotent. But really he also deals with pluripotent, which does most of everything except can proliferate zygote and the beginning of those cell differentiations. So Dr. Young's research really got it to a point where he could take the blood and only person on the planet that could find the totipotent circulating already in the blood of any individual. And then he could make millions, billions and even trillions and put them back into the body of the same person that he got it from. And the body would turn into a bioreactor of healing that would be phenomenal. So it would, it would literally joints, knee replacements, hip replacements. That is a day that is gone. It literally regenerates within, can regenerate a knee within six to nine months. We're talking cartilage and things like that. So essentially ends of. You know, these are bold statements, but certainly we're seeing evidence of ending of heart disease just by turning on. So there's several things, and you have to realize that, you know, as you know, everything comes down to lifestyle. So you've either created a scenario where you're cutting off, shutting off your body's ability to turn on these stem cells. And that's largely lifestyle, 99% of it. And then, and then also then turning to other things that you can do in your lifestyle to turn on those stem cells. Some things I'll give you.

Yeah, I was gonna say give us a few little teasers about either lifestyle or nutrition tactics that you guys have found.

Well, number one is alcohol, we absolutely know, destroys Totipotent stem cells. So this is from Dr. Young's research.

Number two, are we, are we talking. Because I know we'll get some pushback and then we can come back to number two, are we talking like in vivo exposure of cultured cells to ethanol, which is what a lot of these studies look at, or are we talking about. Because that, that always makes me scratch my head when you look at some of the blue a, you know, and having like a good one to two drinks of like a nice organic or bitter rich cocktail, you know, on a daily basis, are you saying that that would pretty severely interrupt the formation or the activity of totipotent stem cells?

This is endogenous. So his, one of his many patents that he has and only has is he can tag those totipotents and see where they go and monitor what's happening. And so in his research, and part of our research was to finish the next wave of substantiation, but in his study of them in the last 35 years, it was alcohol for sure. Destroys stem cells, totipotence, and anything over 100 milligrams a day of caffeine disrupt and destroy totipotent stem cells.

Wait, how many milligrams of caffeine did you say?

100 milligrams.

So, wow, more than a, more than a cup of coffee now? You know, one, one part of me thinks of the whole hormetic deal where, you know, we know that there's a hormetic effect of alcohol, you know, plant based compounds, herbs, bitters, caffeine, et cetera. And I'm just wondering when you look at the, the potential life extending hormetic benefits of these compounds versus any damage to todipotency, you know, where you would actually draw the line and also just.

Life enjoyment 100%, dude. Some of my same questions too, because, you know, listen, if you just follow those guidelines, you back off on some of the, you know, stop drinking alcohol. There's no, really not a great benefit for it. Yeah, you can look at any, dude, you can look at any research and find, well, you know, it's got antioxidants, it's, it helps open up the bronchial passages, whatever it is, you can find anything. But you have to look at it from the broad perspective. And if you don't have enough information for the broad perspective, then you just align and adapt to the benefits that you want to believe is the truth. So this is just new information that's coming in from a guy that studied this his entire Life. Life. So but at the same time, you know, we know that the active compounds in matcha Green Chi, the ECGCs and all of this stuff, we know that that turns on also totipotence, pluripotence, mesochymal. So we do know that. But at a certain point, if you're taking in too much of the caffeine, I don't know, like these are, these are questions. We don't know yet. But. And then the other two things that people can do right now today is a cup and this is from his research. A cup of blueberries every day for 30 days will turn your totipotent stem cells on by six to 10 times. It will allow your body to proliferate. That means make more of them.

That is one component of my anti aging smoothie that actually some of the ingredients were inspired by you including the coffee berry powder that's in, that is really, really good dense organic blueberry powder. I actually have a whole Amazon shopping list that I send my team to. It's just BenGreenfieldFitness.com AntiagingSmoothie and it's got cacao nibs, it's got blueberry powder, it's got coffee berry fruit, it's got strawberry powder. And yeah, for me it's just super easy for me to drop the blueberry powder straight into my smoothie.

Yeah, yeah. And if you've kind of worked out the math of the equivalency of, of a cup of blueberries, then you're, then you're at least on the same trajectory. And now at the same time be aware of the things that might thwart some of that proliferation. That being said, you know, eating well and taking care of yourself and creating good stressors and all of that stuff for sure we are going to find benefits on that front, but we just don't know enough on is jumping in the, you know, ice bath sauna, is that affecting totipotence? Well, who the hell knows? I'm sure it is, but I couldn't even, you know, guess at this point. And then the other thing that people can, I mean this is a slippery one. And then, and then we can move on from this because this is just such a huge topic. But the blue green algae AFAs in particular allow for the release of that which was proliferated. So there's three cycles, three categories, three phases of totipotence. One is the proliferation, making more of them the body, the bioreaction that it's having inside endogenously in the body. Number Two is the release of them so the body from the vasculature, releasing them into the circulation. So they're. So they're now available for the body to use. And that releasing is coming from. At least the one thing that we know is the AFA is the blue green algae. But the problem is, and here's the warning, it's a big warning, a very big warning. There's a lot of mycotoxins, there's a lot of heavy metals in the particular form of AFAs that actually do this because most of it's coming from Klamath Lake. I've talked to researchers, there is ways to chelate it, but no one's doing it at scale.

So are you saying the blue green algae that most manufacturers are putting into their supplement that's coming from Klamath Lake is not going to have those effects?

It will have those effects, but you're going to be receiving neurotoxin potential on top of it. So, you know, this is, you know, God, thank God I don't sell this stuff at this particular moment because. Because my number one thing was until we had to kind of stop the work and I'm not doing anything with them at the moment because there's a lot of work that needs to be done to, to clean up that side of it. So. So I wouldn't at this point suggest people go out and that's the problem. And this speaks to some of the bigger topics we can talk about as it relates to the other superfoods I found because it's supply chain. It's where we all need to be more conscious of because everyone can market you anything and you'll run into some major, major problems almost in every freaking category of supplementation unless you got your. Your ass to the facilities around the world where they're manufacturing.

Have you looked at marine phytoplankton at all as an alternative?

Oh my God, I have. Absolutely one of them. I think it's at the core of all green matter on the planet. It's one of the best. And, and yeah, I've known. British Columbia, dear friends of mine.

Twenty years ago, Ian with activation products.

No, it was what they calling it back. I don't even know if they're in existence. Called umac. Tiffany Harrisma, her father was dying of cancer and he was working first one of the first phytoplanktons on the planet like, like these guys were doing it. And more phytoplankton was being readmitted into the ocean than. Than what they actually brought into to make more of them. So they were doing it really well again. I don't even know if they're in existence anymore. But I love phytoplankton. I love it, love it, love it.

Yeah, I've been using Ian Clark stuff, the activation products, droppers of marine phytoplankton and it's amazing, especially when I travel and need to just add that to the morning glass of water when I don't have everything else on hand.

I would love to, yes, shoot me that information. I'd love to dig into that. I'd love to know who's doing what with that.

Yeah, I'll send you a link to his stuff and I'll put it in the show notes too. Everything we talk about, you guys, I'll put it BenGreenfieldFitness.com SuperfoodHunter so that all being said, Darren, in our last podcast we talked about the nitty gritty specifics of these famed pool workouts. We talked about your entire backstory and how you became a superfood hunter. Which is why for those of you listening in, we're not getting into all that today because it's already out there. It's in our previous podcast, which I'll link to, we talked about the first two superfoods that you discovered in the Amazon, which was the Sacha inchi, that protein source with the really, really high omega 3s 6s. And as far as a plant based protein source, one of the best ones out there, I still think we talked about the coffee berry fruit extract and a little bit more about these totipotent stem cells. And we talked about moringa too, your so called vitamin pill plant. And then at the very end of that podcast you briefly mentioned something new that you were just starting to research, something that I got a few bags of last week that I have been absolutely punishing on top of my salads right now and that is this baruca nut. So fill me in on the baruca and how you found out about this thing.

Yeah, the dipteryx, a lot of oxygen, which is this beautiful, beautiful nut from the Bato zeta tree in the Sahara of Brazil. The savannah, the second largest savanna on the planet. So you know how my career has worked is usually I'm looking over here at something else and of course the gold, you know, I find not looking for it. So the same thing happened with the barucas is that I was actually in the eastern side of Brazil. A Brazilian saw that I was there. They reached out to Me, they said, hey, do you know of this, this nut from the Baruzeda tree? Almond chiquitania, it's castanha, it's given all these names. And I was like, oh, my God, I have no idea what that is. And what's the sahadu? Right. So he sent me a bunch of research. Of course, I started gobbling that up, and there was a lot of very interesting aspects to what is considered a nut, technically speaking. But we'll just keep calling it a nut, technically speaking, it's a seed. But so he sent me the research. It got my attention. And I can unpack that a little bit. Yeah. And so I looked at it and I was like, wait a minute. Flavonoids, tannins, anthocyanins, high antioxidants. What's going on? This thing has, if I'm reading this, going, oh, my God, this thing's gonna be another superfood that tastes like shit. And then I gotta figure out how to formulate with it so that people can and be exposed and have access to this beautiful. What seems to be beautiful food. And then it had all this protein, all the amino acids, super high in fiber, kind of destroyed other nuts and fiber and antioxidants and complete protein. And so I was like, wow. And so he sent me a sample and I tasted it and I'm like, how is this possible?

It tastes like peanut butter.

I know, it's crazy. So it literally was an epiphany because I don't normally taste something that's so high in nutrients and antioxidants and flavonoids and polyphenols and all of this stuff, and it tastes good. How is that possible? So it tastes like something that you're almost familiar with because it's got that peanutty kind of flavor. So I tasted it and I was like, oh, this is crazy. But then my first questions. Ben was, okay, I know that 90% of what I've always wanted to bring out in the world has not been brought out in the world yet because there's huge supply chain problems and infrastructure and resources and timing and access to and all of this stuff is very difficult. So I jumped on a plane, I met those guys out there, we traveled around and we realized that, of course, being on the ground, you learn more than any anywhere else being in front of the people. And then seeing the Saharu. And the Saharu is a very interesting place. It's. No one knows about it. Essentially, it's 200 million hectares, acres of land in Brazil. That's 500 million acres. That is in Brazil.

And is this like acres of rainforest or is it like a plain or what exactly is it?

Yeah, so it's a savannah. So this savannah is. So if you look at it, people have a visual of the Amazon where you have this very biodiverse but very in your face vegetation, right? So that's got canopies, it's got, it's got all of the vegetation and medicinal plants and fruits and everything else kind of there, whereas the Sahara was kind of this, in some places, deserty feeling. And the biomass is comparable to that of the Amazon, but you just can't see it, it's below ground. So, yes, you're getting trees and cactus and 4400 active, powerful plants in this savanna, but it's largely just a different landscape. So that's a bit of a setup for. It's also easier to clear. So this savanna is being destroyed faster than any land mass on the planet as of today.

And it's being destroyed primarily for the trees.

It's being destroyed for the freaking agro, unsustainable meat production and soy and corn for the meat production. So they're seeing no value and they're just factory producing, stripping this land. And so what we saw was, number one, tear jerking 100%. So thousands of kilometers were traveling through these areas. We're meeting the villagers, we're seeing the baro zeda tree. We're seeing, of course, areas where it's thriving. And then you're seeing these, this incredible destruction in your face going, holy shit, no one knows about this. And it's got a very poor PR agency. Because we are aware of the Amazon and it's being destroyed, but we're not aware of a landmass that's intimately connected to the stability of not only Amazon, but also the planet. But comparable the amount of biomass and CO2 sequestering is, some people say, as comparable to the Amazon. But it's largely just that biomass that's rooted. And so the Bato Zeta tree is a very, very special tree because it develops this very deep tap root. It's a fibrocasia tree, it's called, it's kind of a bush tree kind of thing. But you look at it and a normal person would say, yeah, that's a tree. And so it develops this very deep taproot. Because in the savannah you go through, you know, seven, eight, nine months without rain, without anything. So the butt rosetta tree taps the aquifer below and it also is a Nitrogen fixer. So it's pulling the bounty of nitrogen out of the air. It's helping to convert, convert that in the soil and the micro, microbiome in the soil and then gifting it not only to itself but, but its neighboring plants. So it's a very, very special tree to the health of the savanna. And so this nut develops every nine months, every year, once a year. And so all of the stress that it's under. So there's a theme here that I'm sure many of your listeners are aware of. When plants are under stress, they develop some incredible compounds that we get to synergize with and utilize and act as our medicines, which is a beautiful thing. It develops this incredible fruit. So we call it like this. The whole bulb of this thing is fruit. It's got a thin fruit layer, it's got a very hard shell and it's got one nut inside. So this is developing. You can't pick it early, you can't go out and like, let's say the, the market blows up. You can't go out and just grab it. It has to fall. So it's a wild food and I know your listeners are going to love this shit because it's very, very, very rare in a day, in a day like we have today to be able to scale and eat the truly wild food.

Now, do you get concerned at all based on, on what you've described as far as the antioxidant content? Because I know this is one of the first things many of my listeners are going to think of, especially kind of the paleo carnivore crowd. Are any plant defense mechanisms that this thing, if so rare and hardy, would have developed that may actually wind up creating excessive. I mean, we talked about hormesis, but then you can go beyond hormesis and actually cause gut damage or autoimmune issues. Have you looked into that at all with the bruca nut?

100%. Great, great question. So absolutely, it has defended itself extremely well. So, you know, the phytic acids, the dihydro, hydrogen phosphates, the protease and inhibitors, all of these things, oxalates, lectins. So on its own, if you grab it after it's fallen and eat it, you can't eat it raw. It's so loaded with defense mechanisms it's impossible to eat. You put it in your mouth and you'd be like, you spit it out. It's so it won't allow you to eat it. But indigenously the thing. And we've looked into sprouting We've looked into all this stuff. The only. And so indigenously, again, the only way you can really learn this is being there. After hundreds of interviews from chiefs to elders to scientists to universities, to guys have done their PhD, all in Brazil, you come to realize we follow nature. Better yet, we follow how the indigenous people used to eat this. So what they did was they would take it after it has fallen, they would put it around a fire in the morning, it would lightly toast the nut inside, it would deactivate all of these inhibitors, and it would also start to release all of these bioactive minerals and compounds. And so of course you're like, okay, but it only matters if it's tested. Right. So, yes, you know, for me, you know this by now, that of course you look at the research, but you got to do this yourself. And so. And even, you know, so we tested it from everything we've looked at. Hard to get some of these tests done from every way we've looked at no lectins, no oxalates, no phytic acids, no protease inhibitors. And it's one of those things where we can't make this claim.

Yeah. When you say protease inhibitors, by the way, for people wondering, that would be primarily trypsine, the serine protease that you'd normally find. That would normally. If you're going to inhibit that, it would decrease the amount of protein that you would actually be able to get from the nutrition gut. And induce some amount of nutrient malabsorption and toxicity.

Exactly. And interfere with. Essentially what you need is that protein digestion. Right. Yeah.

That trypsin is what cleaves the peptide chain.

Exactly. So that's one of the beautiful things. And so in this instance, then we went back to. Oh, because my first question, when I was maybe not my first. One of my first was asking all these guys that we have worked with down there who've worked with it for 10, 15 years, like, have you tried sprouting? Have you tried a. Yes, yes, yes, yes, yes. Doesn't work. It doesn't. It doesn't. It release all of these inhibitors, but roasting does. And so then again, we tested it. All of the testing of our. Of our antioxidants, of our minerals, of our compounds are all after roasting. And a little trick that everyone and your listeners should be aware of is sometimes people will use and pass around nutritional information that is not in the state to which the supplement or food is actually being consumed. And people were doing this actually with moringa all the time. So they were sending out all this information about how powerful moringa was, but they were doing it from a fresh state, and no one knew that. But until you actually tested most of the swag on the market, you realize, like, those numbers aren't even close, you know, so you have to realize that you have to be aware that any company that you're supporting or that you're showing information, those are the company's tested results, right? So all of these things came by way of us backing up and following our own. Our own testing. And so what we found was, number one, we have all this protein available, right? So you're talking 20% protein availability with all the amino acids. You're talking 20 to 25% total fiber in a nut, which is, you know, as, you know, fiber is so extremely important. Right. And then the antioxidants. And so just to give without boring people with the 21,000 Orac score that it, that it came back as. As the nut, it's 350% more antioxidants than a. Than a bloody almond, for God's sakes.

That story, by the way, about roasting and about seeing how the locals treat it reminds me of cassava, which is another one that gets, you know, kind of thrown under the bus a lot because of its cyanogen, which is highly toxic. But if you look at how indigenous tribes would actually prepare it, they crush it, they sun dry the cassava roots, and we have cassava root flower wraps up in our refrigerator right now that I'm totally comfortable that my kids are probably literally upstairs right now making sandwiches with those. But that removes pretty much all the cyanogens and, you know, even like soaking, sun drying, soaking, fermenting, roasting, that removes close to the same amount. And you cannot simply take a plant from nature, point out its nutrient inhibitors or its toxicity, and then say, therefore, it should not be eaten. It's the same logic as saying you shouldn't jump on the back of a giant elk and sink your teeth into its back hide. It's like, of course you shouldn't. You should. You should ethically, you know, harvest it, shoot it, and then prepare it properly via field dressing and the right cooking methods to ensure that you actually survive when you eat it. And the same can be said of plants.

Exactly, exactly. And, you know, and one of our funny kind of moments was, you know, this became, you know, Dr. Gundry's favorite nut, too.

Well, that's saying something. If Stephen Gundry will eat this nut.

Yeah. And we, you know, we Did a great podcast and talked all about it and it's his go to. And, and so, you know, he did his own research and tests on it. So, so we were like, hey, that's a cool moment when the doctor of oxalates comes on and says, that's my nut. It's pretty cool. So, you know, for us, from a nutrient standpoint, it just almost in every category, kind of blows most nuts away.

What about the skin? It's got like a, like an outer skin layer. Can you eat the skin?

Absolutely. A lot of antioxidants in that skin and so and additional fiber as well. So that's one thing. That's a great question. People always have. And do I take this off? Do I leave it on? But I'm just like, you know, it's a great, it's a great kind of popcorny kind of addition to the peanutty side. Plus you're getting more antioxidants. And then, you know, so from that perspective and from a micronutrient perspective, we just saw that huge. Potassium, calcium, magnesium, sulfur, copper, manganese, zinc. You know, it's just one of those things that if you look at, you know, the poor peanut and the poor almond, how it's been, you know, and some of many of the other ones, you can't compare it to a wild food. You can't compare it to the stressors and the strain and the nutrient value that these, these things go under. So, so that, that was, you know, and then I vitamin, vitamin E as well. So, so for us, from a nutrient standpoint, this, this hit many, you know, as a, as a, you know, someone who cares about this stuff and has hunted a bunch of plants around the world. There's many boxes that this has checked, Ben. And for me, every spoke of the wheel, of the superfood wheel is important. And those spokes are, it blows away every, every nut and almost any category. So from nutrient standpoint, we're superior. From, from a taste perspective, we believe it's the most nutrient dense nut and deliciously tasting nut which you can add in, you know, soups and salads and, and the butters I'm playing with right now, I'm playing with some formulations that just. The butters just.

Oh yeah, I made pesto with it with I harvest wild nettle and then I used rosemary thyme. I did half barucanut and half walnut, extra virgin olive oil, some salt, some pepper and that was amazing. And then the other thing, just because I love to blend nuts up, was I tried your nut Butter recipe and. And put it in the food processor for about five minutes, and then added a bunch of coconut oil. Right. About a quarter cup of coconut oil. And then some vanilla and cinnamon and. Oh, my gosh. It's like fricking cocaine. It's amazing.

Yeah, it's pretty crazy. So I'll add another bomb for you. So not only the nut, the fruit layer on the outside, I looked at, but when we harvested and found some of the fresh ones that had fallen, we were in Brazil. One of our partners reached out of a storage bin and pulled one out that was five years old. And I looked at the outside of this thing. So we're talking fruit layer. The nut hadn't been cracked open yet. And I'm looking at the fruit layer. I saw no difference. I'm like, how is a fruit layer. It hasn't broken down in five years. How is that possible? So I'm like, well, there has to be.

Sounds like a Big Mac.

Exactly. But this is the nature's chemistry. So then I took out a knife, and in the bumpy car ride going back to our hotel from the Sahara, I shaved off the fruit layer, put it in a bag, brought it back to the States, had it tested. And of course, the antioxidants exploded. There's stability from the antioxidants. The fiber was through the roof. And here's a very interesting thing we tested, because in the back of my mind, I'm like, let's expand the fiber test. So I tested for fructooligulosaccharide FOS prebiotic. Very strong, beautiful, powerful prebiotic. Sure enough, off the chart. So now this thing that tastes when we dry, it tastes like a crunchier graham cracker with low sugar prebiotics, high antioxidants, micronutrients. You can add it, which we did. We added it with the nut. And now we've got this. This synergy, the symphony of this perfect trail mix that has this light sweetness with more antioxidants, more micronutrients, and this kind of delicious combination. So again, nature just blows my mind when you're able to see what it has and then get to consume it. So now we've created this trail mix where we have the fruit with the nut. And we're also reaching out to some functional food companies and buyers to feel, figure out where we can kind of distribute more of this functional food that we have a lot of.

That's amazing. You can distribute it to my house right now. Yeah, I'll punish the hell out of that. That Sounds amazing. So it's got the actual. Actual fruit and the nut?

Yes.

Oh, my gosh, dude, I gotta try it. So. And is that for sale on your website as well?

Absolutely.

I'm gonna link to that in the show notes. I think you guys also have. For those of you who don't want to make your own nut butter like I do, you guys have the barucan nut butter on your website too, right?

Yes. And I'm also. We combine that because you have to add. Add a little more fat to it to make a good butter. So we added a wild cashew from the Sahara. But I'm also working. I've made some ridiculous formulas with the Baruch is nuts, the fruit crunch and then coconut oil and monk fruit. And it. Gosh, blows your freaking mind.

Okay, I'm writing this down so you use. Because I could do this with the trail mix, so. Right. I could do the trail mix, which already has the fruit and the nuts. And then what else did you put in there?

Coconut oil.

Coconut oil.

Just. Just be. You know, just. Just blend it up first before you add the coconut oil.

Yeah, that's what I did when I did it with just the nuts.

Yup. And then. And then if you want to crank up that sweetness with no caloric issues or sugar, just add a little lohan gao or monk fruit to it. Be careful not to blow it out because you don't need very much at all. And then a little dash of Himalayan crystal salt, which Himalayan crystal salt. Salt and sugar have an interesting. Just a little bit can. It can draw out some of the sugar. Not physically, but just from a organoleptic point of view on your. When you're eating it. So just a dash of Himalayan salt. That's a wicked combination, dude.

All right, well, I think people are probably pretty sold on this bruca nut. And I can tell you guys right now it is at the top of the totem pole. It's even beat out macadamia nuts for me, which says a lot because I'm a fiend for macadamia nuts. This stuff, like Darren mentioned, is a little bit difficult to source, but they're managing to do it sustainably. I know that you guys are leaving a percentage of the fruits out in the wild to feed the local wildlife. I know that you're providing shade to sequester carbon and fix nitrogen and create oxygen for that savannah that was getting so beat up that you talk about. And. And you're implementing all fair trade practices in the harvesting, which is amazing.

Exactly. And the one big thing that we're doing is for every £5 that we sell, we created nurseries and we're planting a tree. For every five pounds, we plant a tree in the wild and give it back to the indigenous people. So our goal is to plant 20 million trees.

That's amazing. My boys and I were just down in, in Kona and we planted a bunch of the, the koa trees and we were on a hike down there. We went on a hike with a local and brought some mini koa trees with us and put those at the base of the volcano down there. And yeah, planting trees is, you know, it. Not, not only shopping at companies that are doing it like you guys are, but also, you know, yesterday at the time we're talking was National Plant a Seed Day and we also did that. And it's one of the best things human beings can do is to plant seeds. And it is so incredibly simple and always shocks me how few people actually put back into the earth nutrients. So totally good on you, man. I love it.

Dr. Yeah, well, I, you know, we're really dedicated to this conscious consumerism. We don't do it because it's novel. We do it because it's, it's what we should do. And so it just checks all these boxes for us, you know, to. One of the greatest joys of my life is still delivering food to people that are Noah's nutrient dense so that people can thrive. And number two, I know that the indigenous people are being paid fairly, so they're thriving. Number three, the consumer itself is winning because they get to enjoy these things. And then number four, the environment is going to be better than before we got there. And we need to move the needle. All of us in all companies, in all ways, and all your. And your listeners, your listeners are ass kickers. You want to have people like your listeners who care about what's going in their body, the care that it's being taken care of fairly with the indigenous people and also doing something with our company that's bettering the environment by planting trees. And that to me, we don't need to, to get every customer on the planet. We just need those great customers like your listeners that care about where their money goes and cares to support companies that, that really care about this stuff.

Well, I dig it, man. And I know that you're generously giving Everybody listening in 15 off on their baruca nuts or the baruca trail mix or their baruca nut butter, and that's all. If you guys go to verucas,.combet and use promo code BEN that gets you 15% off. Or if you just want to surf through the show notes for everything we talked about from my previous podcast with Darren to his book Super Life to the water bottles, to other podcasts I've done that are related to this, to some of the things that we're putting into our morning tonics and on and on. All of that's going to be@BenGreenfieldFitness.com SuperfoodHunter I got one last question for you Darren because your morning was so intriguing. What's one thing you're going to do tonight that's a non negotiable for you to get a stellar night of sleep?

Oh, I always walk my dog out on the land when the sun's going down and turn around right before it goes beyond the mountains. I sungaze locking in my circadian rhythm and starting to drip my melatonin so I fall asleep like a baby for sure.

Red light at night for circadian rhythm enhancement. It's under emphasized but it's absolutely amazing and it goes beyond just switching your phone into red light mode, actually getting out into the full spectrum of sunlight. There was actually a study called the influence of red light exposure at night on circadian rhythm and I'll link to it in the show notes. And you actually do get better sleep if you can see the sunset somehow at night or I suppose biohack it with one of these infrared light producing devices. But either way it's not just the absence of blue light, it's the presence of red light that helps you sleep. So that's a great tip. And again everything we talk about I'll put over@BenGreenfieldFitness.com Superfood Hunter and Darren, as usual, it's incredible to talk to you.

You're.

You're wealth of knowledge, man.

Dude, I love it.

You're very inspiring too. I, I would love to be just as, as curious and active and information packed as you are as, as I progress on my own journey. So keep doing what you're doing, man.

Dude, thank you. Well, you're doing pretty good yourself brother, so it's always a pleasure. I feel like we could talk forever. So it's, it's fun to bat the ball back and forth with you.

I love it.

Word.

All right folks, well until next time, I'm Ben Greenfield along with Darren Olian of the Baruca Nuts, the famous amazingly addictive Baruca Nuts signing out from BenGreenfieldFitness.com and remember you can go to Barucas.com Ben and use promo code Ben get 15% off. Thanks for listening Darren. I'll talk to you later man.

Thanks brother.

Well, thanks for listening to today's show. You can grab all the show notes, the resources, pretty much everything that I mentioned over@BenGreenfieldFitness.com along with plenty of other goodies from me including the highly helpful Ben Recommends page which is a list of pretty much everything that I've ever recommended for hormones, sleep digestion, fat loss, performance and plenty more. Please also know that all the links, all the promo codes that I mentioned during this and every episode help to make this podcast happen and to generate income that enables me to keep bringing you this content every single week. So when you listen in, be sure to use the links in the show notes. Use the promo codes that I generate because because that helps to float this thing and keep it coming to you each and every week.