"5 Ways The Carnivore Diet Works!" - Burn Fat, Kill Disease & Prevent Decline | James Barry

A lot of people, James, are on YouTube, Google, looking for ways to eat healthy and burn fat and feel good. There's a lot of misinformation out there. I think if we could just go back to our ancestral roots and see what our ancestors ate, we could kind of get an idea of what actually, truly is healthy for us. And we're just so far disconnected from what real food actually is. You're an expert in this space and I want to ask you the first question off the bat. How important is it to eat a carnivore diet, lifestyle, an ancestral based lifestyle, James?

I mean, ways. It's, it's how we got here. You know, Dr. Bill Schindler, he's a food archaeologist, professor of archaeology. He will talk about how originally we were foragers. Took a lot of energy to get calories. You know, you had to forage for a long time to get enough to sustain you. Eventually we became scavengers. We did get some meat protein then, but it was after the predators have eaten and then we got a tool and we became the predators and something changed. And it was also right around the time when we got fire. But we got three things at that point that we never had gotten, which was the fat, the blood and the organs. So if you look at it from that perspective, if you believe in that evolutionary history that he's sharing, then we wouldn't be able to talk if we hadn't gotten organs and those ancestral foods into our diets.

Those foods, high quality, heavy in nutrients, help the development of our brains, helped us function, helped us hunt and kill and stay alive. You're saying if we didn't have that, we probably would have become extinct?

Well, or we just wouldn't be able to have this conversation. We wouldn't be able to think because it is, it's those calories that really enlarged our brain and gave us. We lost things. You know, we, we got a smaller digestive tract. There's, there's things that changed internally around how we process food. But we got a brain that enabled us to talk, that enables us to conceive of all these miraculous things that we now coexist with. But ultimately, and this is Another quote from Dr. Bill Schindler, ultimately there is something we have to think about, which is we are the only species in the world that looks to someone else to tell us what to eat. Now, that always flattens me when I say it, but if you think about it, there's like 9 million species.

So.

So that when we talk about, oh, we're removed from our food sources, we're removed from our innate knowledge of what we need to eat. Nine million species removed, you know what I'm saying? Like, like we're the only one. And, and ultimately that's really the message I'm trying to support is that we have an, a biological evolution, an evolutionary biology that has been, they're been, been co created for our survival basically. And it has information in it. The process of the biology of like you have to use it to get the information of like what does my body need and how much of it doesn't need how much or how little. Right. So when I'm trying to support let's say like an ancestral diet or a carnivore diet or we could say even animal based. I mean those are all three words that kind of. Or labels that are kind of thrown around a lot around this meat based D and ultimately what I'm trying to impart to people is that you have to do a few simple things now. They're simple in form, but they're harder to do in our modern world. So basically what you have to do is you have to eat real food. You have to. Because historically flavor meant nutrition. So our biology is designed to know that if something has flavor, that means you'll get sustenance from it and then it's okay for you to eat. Well, the issue is we now have ultra processed foods where the flavors are not connected to the calories at all. You might have extreme flavor and zero calories.

Right.

And there is actually metabolic. There was a, a psychiatrist from Yale that did a study that showed actually when the flavor and the calorie count are out of alignment, so not kind of equally or on the same level that your body actually does not know how to metabolically process it. So that's yet another example of how our body has a communication pathway and when you mess with it the way.

We are.

It doesn't know what to do. So then it, instead of, you know, burning those calories, it puts them in your fat. You know, you basically start getting more weight and, and I think there was even enough. I was, I'm kind of going off of it. If anyone has seen food inc. 2 because I watched that on the airplane.

I haven't seen it. Okay, tell me.

Well, this is kind of embarrassing actually. So when Food Inc. Came out, it was a huge deal. Like huge. Have you heard of fooding too?

No, I didn't. I have not.

I have not either. Why is that? Like to me it's, I'M not saying it's being suppressed. I'm saying like this is the dire kind of state of our, of our entertainment business now. Because now you have only these tent pole movies coming out in theaters. Everything else is just going to streamers. And if it doesn't come to the streamer you currently have, you don't hear about it. And this is an important documentary, right? Anytime there's a documentary that's talking about our food systems and the things that are, are really the kind of unjustified powers that are happening within the food industry where there's people that are getting taken advantage of or there's ingredients in our food that are questionable. These are things we need to know. Because really when you think about it, what distinguishes anyone within any industry, it's what you know. You only know what you know, right? So the more knowledge you gain, hopefully the better you do. But most people in, particularly in the US they are operating off of what they know. And it's clearly standard American diet. We see that, right? Because we are not a hungry nation. We are getting plenty of food. What we're getting is the wrong foods and we're paying the price for it.

We are. Obviously it's not working. With 88 to 93% of Americans being metabolically unhealthy, it's not working. There's a big movement for a plant based diet, a vegan diet. We have celebrities and a lot of people get their information from celebrities and they have huge influence over us. And they see celebrities like Kevin Hart and others who are promoting a plant based diet, which is not what we're designed to eat. What we're talking about here is an animal based, a carnivore diet. Part of that problem with the plant based movement is these processed plant based foods, right? These plant based patties that have a whole bunch of seed oils which are everywhere in our food supply. So we're disconnected. And you said that quote about human beings are always looking for. We're the only species looking at other people for what to eat. There's another quote that I wrote about in my other book. Human beings are the only species smart enough to create their own food and dumb enough to actually eat it. So going back to the roots, whole food. And look, if you don't want to do a carnivore diet, then at least eat whole food vegetables. But what I've seen, and I want to hear your thoughts here. When I started to get into a carnivore diet, a whole more of a plant, excuse me, a Meat based diet. My health went from like really good to amazing. I started to feel incredible. I was satiated, I started to lose more weight, inflammation went down. Why are, what are some of the benefits that come from a ancestral whole food, animal based diet?

I mean the, the nutrients are extremely bioavailable. Right. So and then they're also, it's extremely nutrient dense. So those two mixed together is kind of like winning at the stock market or something. It's like, it's like you're getting the most bang for your buck because you're, you're basically potentially only eating certain amounts, certain amount of ounces of meat. But you're getting enough calories, enough nutrition and it's nutrition that's easily assimilated into your body. The biggest gains I see from people doing, let's say carnivore, particularly strict carnivore, is simplicity.

Yeah.

And we cannot undermine that because how many times do you go to the grocery store and you just sit there? Maybe it's just me, I hope I'm not alone on this. But like where you just sit there and you just look at everything and you, and you kind of go numb because you're in decision fatigue. How many times have you not prepared your food and then you've ended a long hard work day and you're just sitting there not sure what to eat and so you just start grabbing whatever you, you have in your kitchen and if it's not real food, you're probably grabbing processed foods. Most people are doing that.

Yes.

They're binge eating, they're snacking regularly, they're not actually eating just real foods. And it is, it's, it's something like to think about and even I am a culprit of this is like, I think we get locked into this kind of diatribe or this dogma of like, well what, what is my diet? Right. So some people, and you know this with keto. Right. So you go to the grocery store now, a lot of products say keto on it.

Yeah.

Does that mean they're healthy for you.

Most of the time? No.

Right. It doesn't at all. Same thing with gluten free. Same thing with plant based. Same thing. Even now we're going to start seeing with carnivore. I guarantee it.

Yeah, I agree.

Going to start seeing stuff and it's going to be like this is a carnivore something or other, whatever it is. And it's just we, we, we, we have to be careful about that, that I think we have to Almost have, have, have it less be about which diet are we following and more about what are the ingredients. And I really do focus on like I want to eat foods that are ingredients versus that have ingredients. Really, really key. But so, so when we're, let me backtrack a second. So when we're talking about kind of in my judgment, the optimal diet. So I started out saying we want to eat real food, whole foods. We also want to eat flavors that are ancestral. So we want. And when I say flavors of the ancestral, it's like, well, what's an ancestral flavor? Well, it's not an artificial flavor and it's not a natural artificial flavor. Right. Because anything that has an additive flavor to it is processed. It's really ultra process if they have to add a flavor to it. And so we're looking for food for flavors that are found in nature as much as possible. Now here's the third piece that, and this is where I really believe this is what's going to help us kind of get back to our own ancestral knowledge of what we need. Now. It's not going to be perfect because we are constantly being bombarded. Marketing wise, we're being manipulated with the ultra processed foods, the flavors, everything. There's so much modern manipulation that I don't believe we're ever gonna get back to zero. And I don't think we should try. I think what we should do is try to do the best we can in this given moment. And this is the secret in my judgment in doing it, is you have to eat mindfully. And notice two words there, eat and mindfully. So I don't want people just swallowing pills. We bypass that communication pathway that's evolved. The biological evolution of our communication pathway with our body and our brain and our gut is contingent that we have to eat the food. And it starts with our senses. It starts with the chewing the taste buds in our mouth. That process is communicating to your body. A, is the food I'm eating, does it have nutrition? And B, then it's how much of this do I need? But if you don't eat it, it's delayed response. And I'm not saying you're not going to still get something if you swallow. You will. If you're working with a practitioner and they say, you know, your, your markers come back and you're like, hey, you're anemic, you're this, you're that. And they're like trying to get you to supplements. Yeah, listen, listen to your practitioner for sure. As long as you're getting tested and it's kind of being measured. I think that's fine. But most people are not doing that. They're just taking the most trending supplement on the market. They don't know how much they need. They don't know why they're taking it. Just because Joe Schmo recommended it and what's happening. And I'll use salt as an example. When I put salt on your tongue, your body will communicate whether you want more or less of that. And most people can identify. If I give you salt once, you're like, oh, this tastes good. If I give it to you twice, we're starting to push a little bit. The third time, the salt literally starts to taste different. That's your body working to communicate. Hey, you're getting overloaded with salt. Let's pull back. Right? The salt tastes different. It's discouraging you from taking another bite of salt. But if we swallow a salt tablet.

We don't get that same response at all.

And what's beautiful. And I really, when I say beautiful, it's. The body is so miraculous. We see this same communication pathway happening with our physical body, with our grip. When you are trying to lift something that is heavier than your body can lift, you lose your grip.

That's right.

That is your body communicating to you. Don't lift this, you know, but it's, it's ultimately the our. This is what's so beautiful. And we have to remember this. Our bodies are designed to live, to thrive. Our bodies are designed to endure. So that's why we can live in these, these horrible metabolic states. Eating all this ultra processed food for so long, so so many people can coexist for 40, 60, maybe 70, maybe that's pushing it. But definitely at least almost 50 to 60 years. Still eating like crap.

Yeah, it's crazy. It just, it blows me away how resilient the human body is with how much damage we do to it. What about protein shakes and smoothies? What are your thoughts on that?

Yeah, see I, I'm so mixed on it. And I know everyone, everyone is, is, is on the. They're all about get as much protein as you can in your diet. And I'm not saying that's wrong, but what, how are you getting it in your diet? It's like, is it, it's bars, it's smoothies, it's, it's sometimes cottage cheese. Like people are just downing tons of cottage cheese. This is like, I just, when I think about how we ate ancestrally, okay, this is what goes through my mind, I don't think if we were a tribe of like, say, 21. Let's say keto camp is, Is the original ancestral tribe.

I like that.

All right, so Keto camp is here, and there's 21 of us in this tribe. We're not all getting rib eyes that night. This is true, right? We're all. We're not all getting liver either. There's. There's one liver in the animal that, that five of five to eight of our hunters went out and hunted that for weeks. Keep in mind. So here we are, keto camp, 21 people, part of this camp. We send out about six to eight people to go hunting for maybe even 10.

Right.

And they don't fast to go hunting because they are, they are heightening their. Their hunting skills. And when you, when you fast, as anyone who's fasted knows, your. Your senses get heightened. So they do find something to hunt, and it takes them nearly a week to kill it. But once they kill it, what do they do? They replenish their stores by eating either the heart or the liver right there raw. So guess how many hearts there are in that animal. 1. Guess how many livers there's one. So they're already coming back without either heart or liver. So this idea, like, but we should be eating this much liver every week. It's like, what? Ancestrally, that makes zero sense. We should be eating only ribeyes. Ancestrally, that makes zero sense. What we should be focusing on is eating the whole animal. And we have a major issue in the US not only are we afraid of eating most of the animal, because if it's unfamiliar, we're kind of icked out by it, or we don't know how to cook it, we don't know how to source it. But even more importantly, when we talk about planetary health with animals, a lot of times they're saying, oh, the carbon footprint of animals is horrible for the planet. Right? Well, first of all, they're talking about conventional ranching farming. First of all, that's a really important distinction. Secondly, when we are bringing an animal to slaughter, and I've been to many slaughterhouses, they're only using about 50% of that animal. In what industry have you ever heard where you do something, you do 100% of something? So we're 100% killing an animal, and then you only use 50% of that resource.

They're just using the muscle meat.

Muscle meat and some bone. That's about it. And I was at a Wyoming slaughterhouse, and they, they they admitted they're like, yeah, we literally throw it out.

Wow.

They throw it out. Now they are working on slaughterhouses, and there are some, but there aren't many that utilize 100 of the animal. They're working on it. And I was talking to the owner of the Wyoming slaughterhouse, and they said their. Their next slaughterhouse is. They're gonna build it with that intention. But it just goes to show you that when we talk about good for the planet, it's kind of greenwashing. I mean, like, first of all, the needle doesn't really move if corporations don't take. Take a lead. They're. They're where the majority of our issues are happening, first of all, whether it's conventional farming or ranching to manufacturing of any. Any chemical or anything like that. Right. But secondly, if you're killing an animal and you're only using 50% of it when. And we're just throwing out the rest, that's incredibly inhumane and incredibly inefficient and incredibly bad for the planet. Yeah, it's just like when Covid happened and we all heard about this. If you didn't. It was even in fooding, too, where because the supply chain got interrupted, food.

Was just gone to waste.

Gone to waste. They killed animals, they euthanized animals because they couldn't process them. And then they took crops from fields and they just basically crushed them and let them go back into the earth.

Wow.

And yet people couldn't get food in the stores. So there was this illusion of, like, there's not enough food. No, no, there was plenty of food. And the supply chain was so temperamental that any kind of fracture to it disrupted it completely. I mean, that's. That's the world we're living in. So that, to me is, like, more important than anything.

How did you. At what point of your career did you get into this ancestral way of living? I know your background as a chef. I've had you on the podcast. But for those who didn't hear that earlier episode, how did you get into this way of living?

Yeah, I mean, for me, food has been an interesting journey, I would say. And I don't actually talk about this much because it didn't really define my childhood or anything like that. But I would say that in my early 20s, I realized I had an eating disorder, but it wasn't like I wasn't eating food, and it wasn't obvious, and it definitely was never something that men talked about. It was always. And honestly, even back then, not a women, not a Lot of women talked about it. I think they were more prominent in exhibiting it. But mine was that I would go for a very long time of not eating, and then I would just binge.

So you would starve and then gorge yourself?

Yeah. And I wasn't necessarily gorging myself on horrible food, but it was just like I was kind of a workaholic and I was. And I was starving myself and. And it really came to a head when I started to realize it. So once again, goes back to we only know what we know. I didn't label it that I didn't know I had this issue. But then when it became I became aware of it, I tried to change it. And it was really temperamental at the time. Like, it was really, you know, anytime I think we change, make any change in our lives, it's. It's. You're going uphill, you're going against, you know, against the waves on it at first, until you start to kind of get a hold of it, you know, mentally and physically. But that definitely put me down the path of how. How do I get healthy food into my diet and how do I support others in eating healthy food? And that even kind of took another turn when I was actually, I would say before the eating disorder. Before that, I had a kidney stone, and the kidney stone got me then being aware of like, oh, the food I eat affects my body. I didn't know that either. Most people still don't know that, correct?

Yes, they don't.

Huge important thing to know that what we put in our. Like most people, they get sick, they go to the doctor. I say you go to your nutritionist or your functional nutritionist. That's who I say you go talk to.

Yeah, I know. You're right. Yes. Symptoms are not bad. They're showing you that you did something that took your body out of homeostasis. You ate crappy food, a crappy environment. Whatever it is, those symptoms, if you go to the doctor, they'll suppress it or mask it. The nutritionist, a good one, will figure out the cause. Okay, you ate this. That's what caused it. Don't eat it again.

Exactly. And you're going to be looking at the things you do most often, which is eat, sleep, you know, stress, environment, you know, instead of just, like you said, masking. Masking the issue. So I actually. I lost my place.

Yeah. Well, you. You were starting off by saying you had an eating disorder.

Oh, yeah.

Even before that, you started to get kidney stones. So you're kind of piecing the puzzle together that what you ate affected your body.

Thank you. Yeah. Gosh. I so don't normally talk about this, but so, yeah, that started getting me on that pathway towards really focusing on health. And how do I get, how do I support people and get a healthy food that then segued into, well, what are most people eating? We're eating. We're eating foods that are.

Food like substances.

Yeah, we're that. But we're also eating comfort foods.

Yeah.

So we're eating like. So if you want to support someone, if they're healthy, you have to meet them where they are.

Absolutely.

And so my whole awareness became, okay, well then I have to make comfort foods healthier. So that was kind of what got me down the path. And, and I, then I started to learn when I went to culinary school. I learned about ancestral diets. I learned about Weston A. Price, which anyone that wants to go down the. The rabbit hole of ancestral eating or traditional eating should learn about Weston A. Price. And I won't even go into it here. You just look at them, look them up. It's all over. But, but basically I learned about that, but I still didn't incorporate it. I still didn't really know how to do it because I didn't grow up eating organ meats. I didn't grow up eating the whole animal. We very much were like a pork chop, whole chicken and London broil family. Like that was all we really ate. You know, when we ate the meat, we always ate the same cuts every time. So I, I basically held on to that knowledge for a long time. And it was having kids, that's what. Then I was like, okay, I gotta, I gotta do something here because it's not now about just me. Like, so a. I want to support my kids in feeling, getting the healthiest, most nutrient dense foods in their diets. But I also want to support myself and being as in my kid's life as long as I can. So it ultimately was being a father and, and then also helping my kids. And then it was like, well, identifying what are the most nutrient dense foods on the planet. And anyone can do the search. You know, they compare it against meat, they compare it against whatever the trending vegetable. Kale. Kale, exactly. And it changes every few years. But blueberries, salmon, you can do any search and you'll see comparison. And the only one that checks off every nutritional box is liver. And that's the one they always look to is, is liver. Which is why when we think about organ meat, we're always diving right into liver. But I want to get everyone towards whole animal. I just, I want us to eat as much of that animal as possible.

All of the organs, the kidneys, the liver, the pancreas. As much as the animal. Of the animal as possible.

Exactly. Testicles over as much of that. Because I truly believe there's this idea of like, supports, like, so the part of the animal you're eating is the part that will support you.

Yeah.

So look at what's happening. Most of our ancestors did eat brain, for example. And now maybe if they grew up in the city, they may not have, but I guarantee if they grew up on a farm, they were eating brain with eggs, guaranteed. And then dementia and Alzheimer's is now at an all time high.

Yes.

Okay. So I'm not saying eating brain is going to solve that, but I do have to wonder. We don't eat it as much anymore. Obviously there's stuff in our environment that's contributing to this, but if we did eat it again, would it help to offset it? And that's ultimately, I think the goal here is like we live in a toxic soup. That probably is not going to change that much. Unless, unless we have new leaders, you know, new people calling the corporations to task.

Yeah. Which might happen. Could like there's some, finally some movement. First time in my life I've seen it.

Absolutely. But for the most part it's been same all same old. Right. And so if that doesn't change, then we have to accept we're in a toxic soup. So the conversation should be more about resiliency. So how do I support, how do I support my modern life and be resilient? And that then takes us back to carnivore or eating animal products is because I find that I am most resilient when I eat those. However, I do have to focus on quality. I have to focus on how it's prepared. We were talking, so. So I'll share. Like one of the best diets I've ever done. Hands.

Oh, yeah. This is, this is wild. Wait till you hear it. Go ahead.

Now I've done. I should preface this. I have done a lot of diets because as a chef I, I had to, I had to basically make sure that I understood not only the diet but also how to cook it. Because I had to cook for all these celebrities. Right, Celebrities, Exactly. So I, I had to really know every diet very well. Like I did the master cleanse too many times to talk about and it killed my digestion every time. So don't recommend that. But one of them that I did was called Raw Primal because the Raw, Raw Primal movement was getting pretty. There was this guy named Oginous in Venice Beach. He had a raw co op. But it's when you had to, it was a membership co op back in the day. And they used to get like AK47 SWAT teams used to come in and, and take down the co op.

Wow.

Because it's illegal to have all the, it's federally illegal to have the raw milk and certain products there. And they used to supply all that stuff. And it was in a, as I mentioned, it was, it was a membership. So it was not something just someone off the street could do. And yet they would come in with these machine guns and take it down pretty much every few years.

Was this like in the 80s, 90s.

This is in the late 90s, early 2000. Wow. Not that far, far ago. He's since passed, but he, he was very much promoting this. And that's when we started doing it. And so the Raw Primal did for 30 days. It is basically raw meat, raw honey, basically you need anything.

Raw, Raw milk, raw honey, raw meat, fish.

Raw meat.

Wow.

You just don't cook anything. Now you could technically do ceviche, which is a lightly cooked, you know, in like lemon juice. Yeah, lemon juice stuff that's technically still a raw product because everything in it is raw going into it. Right.

What about raw poultry?

Well, you could. And I know there are people that do it, but I personally would never do that.

Me neither.

The poultry industry is disgusting.

One of the dirtiest it is industries.

And that one in the pork industry.

Pork, yeah.

Horribly dirty. And unless you're growing that chicken.

Yeah. You don't know.

Yeah, you just don't know. And, and even then, if you're, if you're growing it and you don't know how to grow chickens, not just stay away from raw poultry. You know, just because you, you do it yourself doesn't mean it's right. You got to know what you're doing. And that's kudos out there to all the ranchers that are doing it right. Because they do know what they're doing for sure.

Minerals. Minerals, Minerals. You hear a lot of people out there speaking about the benefits of taking minerals. And it is important because in this day and age, our crops, our fruits and our vegetables, they are depleted of minerals. So you've heard of the keto flu. You heard of symptoms doing keto and fasting? People just don't feel good sometimes. This is the number one reason why so my go to for replenishing my electrolytes and my minerals for enhancing my immune system for gut support for detoxification is bean minerals. It has fulvic and humic compounds and these have over 70 trace minerals and really important electrolytes to replenish your body with. Check out Beam Minerals over@BeamMinerals.com use the coupon code Azadi my last name at checkout to get a nice discount. That is a Z a D I at checkout over@beam minerals.com but, but basically.

They were all primal. So we would got bison at the time because this was 13 years ago and it was really hard to find safe meat in the grocery stores even. So we were getting this specially ordered, truly like pasture raised, 100% grass fed bison meat. And we would take it and we would add like raw butter to it and because pretty lean meat. And then we'd make these little meatballs and we just ate those. And that's mostly what we ate. We did, we did some fish as well. But I gotta say Ben, I felt, I felt amazing on it. Like it was the best diet I've ever done.

Wow.

Poops were perfect. Like so when we talk about what is a perfect poop. A perfect poop is you don't have to wipe.

Yes.

It literally like comes out smoothly. You're not, you're not struggling and it's not discolored, it's not light, it's just a nice dark color and it just comes out and you don't have to watch.

Yeah.

There's no wiping. Complete, complete, done. And so poops were perfect. Energy was fantastic. I felt so energized. I ate less. Because when we cook things, when we heat things up, we are denaturing them. So we are losing some, some nutrients and digestibility. So eating it raw was, it was just all accessible and easier to digest. I didn't have to eat as much. I was very, at the time, I was very meat hungry, eating a lot of meat, which I also learned I had a parasite at the time which if anyone's listening, like parasites are very common. Many people have them and don't realize it. But if you are, that is a sign if you're fine that you're incredibly meat hungry all the time. It can't, kind of can't get satiated. You might want to get tested.

Yeah.

But because once I started to eradicate the parasites, I, I didn't need as much. And then when I went raw primal, I really didn't need as much so it was fantastic. Now, inevitably, the question becomes, well, why aren't you still on it if it was so good? Right. Which is a really good question. Because if it's not sustainable, we probably shouldn't be doing it unless it's for a very specific outcome. Because I do believe detoxing or something. I do believe in that. But if your outcome is, hey, I just want to be optimally healthy, then you want to find something that's sustainable for sure. Well, I stopped because we just had our baby. So at the time, it was really easy to do it because we didn't have to feed her. We only did it for 30 days. And going out would be difficult. Socializing would be difficult, and we chose to be a part of modern life.

Yeah.

Now, that's not to say there's. I know people out there. Max Kane, I'll give him props. He, he. He runs a website called Farm Match, which will match you up with your local farmer.

Cool.

And support food. It's farm match dot com. It's a great resource, but check it out. But I, I say say hi to Max around this or give him props because he is still eating this way, and he's been eating this way since I met him, and that's over 15 years ago. So.

Wow.

Yeah.

He's.

He's making it work and he's got kids. He's a father, like, so it's possible.

Yeah.

I just didn't have that.

Yeah. And, and nor, you know, we don't have to go to that extent. Right. Unless you want to do, like a little bit of a detox or a reset. But the overall goal here of this conversation is to just eat more meat. Eat whole food. I like what you said earlier. How did you word it? I'm not, not looking for foods with ingredients. I'm looking for foods that are ingredients. Is that what you said?

Absolutely. Yep.

I love that because when you go to the grocery store and let's say it's an avocado, you're looking at, that's the ingredient. There's no ingredient list because it's right in front of you. But if you go to the middle aisle and look at the cereals, there are 30, 40, 50 ingredients, and most of them you cannot pronounce. So simple rule of thumb, if you're just getting started here, shop the perimeter, eat foods that are. That are the ingredient. Now, as you go on and evolve, maybe you could go into ketosis. Maybe you could do a carnivore diet. I do believe eating mostly meat you're going to get a lot of benefits. You know, no matter who you are, you're going to notice a lot of benefits. You're going to lose weight, you're going to lower inflammation, you're going to fix your gut. Getting these plant toxins out of the diet are so important, but it depends on where you're at. You said something earlier, you meet the person where they're at. Right. So for those watching and listening, if you're already doing Carnivore, then maybe it's time to mix up the cuts, add in some organ meats, take it to the next level.

And that is important. I mean, now I'm not, I'm not the de facto resource for Carnivore. There's definitely people out there. But I will say from my experience with it, I did get constipated and I was not eating enough organ meats. And I think, I think that the nutrients you get from organ meats do help to offset it. Now there's some people that don't believe that. There's some that believe that you can just get enough from the muscle.

Like Sean Baker is a friend. Yeah, yeah. And he's all about muscle meat and he's doing pretty well.

He is. And some people would say that he's a unicorn as well. Like the things that work for him may not work for everyone else.

I mean, I tend to agree with that.

Right. He's kind of a, a beautiful freak in nature.

Yeah.

I don't mean that in a critical, I mean.

Respect. Respect.

Yeah, respect. So I think though, point being that even if you go like the simplicity of going animal based, you, you don't have to worry about what you're going to eat. You already know what you're going to eat.

It's going to be me. So simple, right?

If, if you're starting from scratch, I think just start with some ground meat, focus on, focus on, you know, find the percentage that works for you. The best way is to actually grind your own meat and control how much fat you put in it. That's taking it to a new step. But ultimately what I would be doing is focusing on, you know, supporting some kind of local farm that's pasture raising that you can go and even see the cows. That's, that's 100 grass fed.

Grass finished.

Grass finished, exactly. And, and I would start with even like a 15 fat or, or 10. 15. Some people go to 20. But just find the one that works for you and just start there. I do a lot of people add Butter to it sometimes. So if you do go really lean, I would probably think about that because. Because getting that extra fat in will help to, to satiate you. Yeah, it really does. And obviously if you're striving to be in keto, you're going to want help with ketones. Yeah, exactly, you're going to want that. But getting some organ meats in, you don't have to. You can either buy it with the organ meats in it. You can, technically, there's lots of tips you can do. Like you can buy the organ, let's say the kidney or the liver or even the heart. And when you buy it's frozen, just grate it right into the ground meat. You don't have to do a lot of little. Goes a long way and start there. And, and ideally, if you want to make it affordable is get like a quarter cow or a half cow and then you're going to get parts of that animal that you're not used to. But it's not as overwhelming as people might think because you just use the Internet to find, how do I make this? You know what, I have this shank. How do I make that? You know, whatever. It is so easy. And you'll get a thousand recipes that show you how to do that. Just follow that, try them out. But don't let the fact that you're unfamiliar with it stop you from just going down this path because as you mentioned, you will feel better. It's, it's amazing how things start to clear up and it happens really fast, really fast. The body's miraculous. We used to do this sugar control detox. That was a two week program. I mean, basically they find you can reset your body in about 14 days. Right. And we used to go in through the palate. So we would pull out anything that was a carb, like a simple carb. We would pull out anything that was sweet. We would only allow for like blueberries, blackberries, raspberries. And then we did some resistant starches, but it was mostly meat and fat. And in two weeks, people lost, not only lost weight, improved chronic symptoms. And I mean, the best story came from this guy who had gone to his doctor. His doctor said, you're on the verge of type 2 diabetes. We're going to give you, we're going to give you some drugs to help with that. And he said, hey, before we do this, can I, can I just go try something else? And he came, he did this program for two weeks, went back, his doctor measured everything and he was no longer on the verge of type 2 diabetes.

Awesome. And.

And his doctor said, how did you do that? And he said, well, I changed my diet. And he said, no, that wouldn't work. And he said. And he basically said he's going to look for a new doctor.

Oh, wow.

Yeah. So that's what we're up against.

We are. It's so awful. And it's not the doctor's fault. It's his training. It's the system. It's a broken system.

Totally.

One of the things that I do. And admittedly, I don't like the taste of Oregon meat, but when I go to Argentinian restaurants, which I typically do here in Miami, easy to find them, or Brazilian steakhouses, I look for like chicken hearts and sweet breads. You know, the pancreas, the thymus. Either one. I think they're. They're both categorized as sweet breads. But when I'm home, I'm getting grass fed, grass finished meats. And I'm using pluck. All right. So I'm using your company, James, to get the organ meats, and I'm seasoning. Like for example, before you came here to my studio, I played basketball with a buddy in my front yard here, my front driveway. And I was hungry and I had a steak that I made and I seasoned it with. Well, actually this one right here, the spicy mild. So for me, I'm using your blends to get in the extra organ meats. And Alina, who's a health coach on my team, she has two children and her kids, she's trying to get her kids to eat more organ meats. And they love eggs with the seasonings from pluck. Right. So I'd love for you to share more about pluck, why you created it, and how this is a good option for people trying to get more organ meat.

Yeah. Thank you for asking. So pluck is my solution for the three main hurdles with eating organ meats. And really this came about, as I mentioned, being a father. So I love hearing that parents are using it with their kids because that's exactly why I created it. But basically, pluck has liver, heart, kidney, spleen, and pancreas. So it has five organs. Currently, we're hoping to add lungs, and eventually we're going to even have a brain product.

That's.

We're not going to add brain to the main products just because I don't want some people make it.

A little freaked out.

Yeah.

And I don't want you a separate product.

Exactly. I don't want people to feel limited and, and if they are freaked out by it, but if they do want it, I want them to have the option. And basically what we did was we solved the three hurdles. One was the ick taste. So we combined it with organic spices and herbs. We made it taste good. Second hurdle is people don't know how to cook it. Simple, you just use it like salt and pepper. You just season your food. You can literally season anything. If you for some reason had gotten a pizza, you could have put that on, you know, you could have put pluck on the pizza and it would have just brightened the flavor and make it healthier, made it a little bit healthier, Right, exactly. So that's the goal and we solve that hurdle. And then the third is sourcing. A lot of people don't know where to source. I mean, it's really hard to find pancreas, you know that. Good luck finding that in a store, for example. It's hard sometimes even find kidney. It's definitely hard to find spleen as well. So we're solving that for you. We source from 100% grass fed grass finished New Zealand cows. Same resource, same same quality that you find in the supplements. But going back to that kind of taste, the taste exactly that we pointed out earlier is I'm trying to support you in eating it. I. Because inevitably people will say, well, how much should I use? Well, I don't know. I mean, you're, you might be tall, you might need more, you might be small, you might need less. The beauty is when you eat it, your body will tell you that the organ meat will start to change. So, so you might think organ meat tastes icky, let's say, right? But then you eat pluck and you're like, oh, actually I do like it. But then if you're using pluck and you're using a lot of it and you just start to feel like, I just don't want it today. That's probably your body saying, you're good, like, don't do it today. The beautiful thing is, I really do believe we need to invest in the signs that are constantly happening from our body. Anyone that does muscle testing knows exactly what I'm talking about. Your body is always giving you feedback on everything that you're looking at that you're touching. That's in your kind of sphere, right? And this is kind of a fun example. But if you go to the grocery store and you're standing in the aisle and you go to reach for something and your hand can't grab it, like it Falls out of your hand. That's probably a sign your body doesn't want it. That's one another might be you go to grab it and you start belching or you start farting something, something physically happens. That is your body communicating. It doesn't want it. We're just not listening.

That's interesting. I haven't thought of it that way, but you're right. The body's always communicating with us, always.

And like I said, anyone that understands a muscle testing knows exactly what I'm talking about. When you muscle test certain products, you literally don't. You lose strength if your body does not want to receive them. It happens all the time. And we just need to get back to listening to the 1. There's one kind of being, I'm just going to say being for, for whatever reason, but there's one, there's one being that will never lie to you, that's always by your side and that is a truth sayer. And it's your body. It will not lie to you. If it doesn't work. It will tell you. You just gotta listen. And like, you know, I think about my, myself as a kid. I grew up in a family where farting all the time was regular. So I thought that this was normal. Belching all the time, undoing your belt, you know, your button and your belt after a holiday meal or even most meals was normal. So I thought that was normal. I didn't know I didn't have a contrast. And once you learn, you start to realize, oh, those were signs. Those are all signs that what we were doing is not working. And I think it's really fascinating because a lot of times, and I'm a little diverging here, but I think, I think it all applies is, you know, a lot of times we historically go like, oh well, the parent got this illness and so did the child. They got the same illness, so it must be in their DNA. And I, we, you know, I've grown up hearing that my whole life. My mom still says that to this day. And I'm like, you think it's the DNA or do you think it's that we're all still repeating the same cycle of eating where you're basically being taught what to eat from your parents because that's what they ate. And then you're still eating that way and you're not changing it so you're still getting the same signs, the same outcomes that they got and that's the same result.

Yeah, I agree. It's the body's check Engine light. These are all messages.

All messages.

Which is amazing that we even have this system. The brainwashing is that we should hate symptoms and hate these diagnosis. A diagnosis, but they're actually beneficial and gifts from the innate intelligence. They're the body's way of communicating to us that you're eating something that's not in line with your body's health. I'm going to show you a symptom to get you on track. It could be farting, it could be burping, it could be acid reflux, it could be high blood pressure, whatever it is. But so many people don't view it that way. So I love that watery eyes.

You look at a screen.

Yeah.

That's your body saying, enough, enough. It's true, right?

Yeah.

I mean, we have to start acknowledging these signs if we want to get back to what does my body need? What does my body want or not want? And I will say to bring it back to pluck. Actually, that's one of the beautiful gifts that we see all the time is we hear customers that are parents who bought it for their, to use for their kids where they tell us like, oh, my kid loves eating their food now even more so because of this seasoning. Or when we run out, my kid starts having a tantrum. And I'm like, I don't think it's just that it's good. Like that's the body reacting and the kids know, they know what they need.

That's interesting.

I think it's the body saying, I, I want these organ meats. I need these organs. And I, I got to share this because this, I just, I just got this feedback and I'm, I'm. I always sit in, in just awe because I, I didn't, you know, I'm learning too, you know, I mean, like, I just knew I wanted to solve getting organ meats into my, my diet and my family's diet, but I didn't know the bounty that was going to come from having this resource that I've now co created is that a parent just reached out to me. So she, this was her, I think her second or third kid. And she had hemorrhaging. She had major issues with her first two kids. And the, the thing she did differently for this one is she started using.

Pluck during her pregnancy.

During her pregnancy and after. So, so pre and postnatal. And she said she didn't have any hemorrhage, she had no issues.

Wow.

For the first time, for. Out of. This is her third one. So out of those other two first time. And she's, she's getting so much milk coming in that it makes sense. It's just, she's, she's in awe. She's like. She was just, she shared this with us and she was just like, I, I am so ecstatic. And I want to tell everyone it does work because, because inevitably we get the question of like, well, but is it enough? You know, this very American, like, go big or go home. And I'm like, you know, if you think about it, what in the human existence really does work as an extreme? Can you name one thing that we truly are better at when it's, when it's in an extreme? Whether it's relationship wise, whether it's career wise, whether it's food wise? I can't think of one thing where extremity is better than just small doses. I really can't.

I can't either.

I'm sure there is, but I just, for human experience, like, I just think that we actually are able to take things in better and more sustainably when they are in small doses. Think about the things that are our daily habits. And really, if you think about what moves the health needle, it is the daily habits. It's the things that you do daily.

That compound over time.

Exactly. But what does it take to do something daily? Yeah, it can't be an extreme burnout.

For example, somebody who wants to be more active. It would be so much better if they were active. 10 minutes a day versus an hour and a half once a week.

Exactly.

There's so many more benefits doing it every day, even if it's shorter, but being consistent versus one day being really good, and the rest of the week you're not good.

And I hear this all the time, like, oh, yeah, I eat, I eat Liverpool. I eat it, you know, once every three months.

Yeah.

Like, great. So for the three to five days after you ate it. That's awesome.

Yeah. Right.

But this is, this is, I mean, like, so I'm like, for anyone that's worried about, is it enough? Well, this woman, that's all she did.

Yeah.

And she just. What she does is she uses it in every meal, which is what I recommend. It's microdosing frequently. So it's all about how all often you do it. Cumulative effect.

Yeah, it makes sense. I use it on my. All my meats when I cook it, and eggs as well. So the three we have here, we have the spicy mild, which is the one I used to season my steak. Today we have the pure the pure is just organ meat. There's no seasoning. So if you're doing salt, nothing. So if you're doing like a really strict carnivore, you would go with the pure.

Now, something that actually, I learned about this at a conference, some strict carnivores were coming up, and they were telling me what they do is they add some smoked salt to it because a lot of strict carnivores still do salt.

Yeah.

And so they'll add smoked salt to the pure. And they said it's delicious.

That's a good idea.

Yeah.

Yeah. And then we have the zesty garlic. You have some new products coming out. And by the way, you could check these out. We'll put a link down below. And James gave you all a 20% off coupon code, which is keto camp, K, E, T, O, K, A M, P camp with the K at checkout. You get 20% off. If you decide to get your pluck and deliver it to get it delivered to your house, we'll put a link in the coupon code down below. Anything else you want to share about pluck before I ask you the next question?

You know, just. Just that I. I think that if you're someone who looks at the seasonings and you're like, ah, I can't do something. And they just know that the pure exists for you and for our pets.

Right.

Oh, and pets as well. It works for dogs. And I have a cat we dubbed the organ cat because she will look at her bowl and she'll look back at me and say, I want, you know, meow, as though there's no food in there. I'm like, there is food. And she keeps meowing at me. And then all I do is sprinkle a little pier on there and she'll go for town. So she acts like there's no food until I sprinkle organs on it. But. But I'll just say, though, that the pure, if you have your own favorite seasoning, make your own pluck. Just take the pure and. And add that to it and. And make it work for you. The key. And if you're doing supplement, if you're taking the capsules, great. I'm like, I want to be clear. Like, I am promoting whole animal health. Like, if you're. I'll, you know, if you. If you're someone who's like, I. I don't want to do the seasonings, but I want to. I want to cook them. Then go to our website, eatpluck.com. we've got recipes up there. We show you how to make most organ meats. There's another salt called Awfully Good Cooking by Janine Farzen. She does everything, every type of organ meat out there or every part of the animal. So there's resources like, I just want you to eat these foods because what's happening is we're nutrient deficient, but we're not calorie deficient. And then what we're doing is we're only utilizing, as we said, 50% of the animal. When we slaughter all the really nutritional parts of the animal, we're throwing out and then where are we? What are we doing? Well, we're nutrient deficient. We're having chronic illness stuff come up. And so then we turn around and we put it all towards the medical system or towards supplement cells. It's like. But we had it in the 50% we threw out. Just go back to the animal and you don't have to do the other stuff.

Yeah, well said. A couple things here, James, and I love that you created this product, by the way. Thank you for helping to solve this issue with getting in organ meat into our diets. I want to take a quick break from the video you're watching to share something with you that has made a big difference with my health and the thousands and thousands of students that I teach all across the world. Now, this is a unique device that has been shown to help with skin health, sore muscles, wrinkles, psoriasis, eczema, scoliosis, migraines, sleep issues, arthritis, acne, scar tissue, wound healing, relaxation, and also boost testosterone levels. It's red light therapy. Turn it on and as you can see, I just leave it there on my desk as I work. 10, 20 minutes per day will suffice. Then head over to boncharge.com keto camp and use the coupon code keto camp to get 15% off your red light device. So whether it's these bon charge blue light blocking glasses, their sauna blanket, or any of their awesome products, use that coupon code Keto Camp at checkout. We'll drop a link down below. Go check them out. They are awesome. And let's get back to today's video. I have a new book coming out next year. I was telling you about it offline. It's called Metabolic Freedom. It's all about the metabolism, right? We're designed to be able to be metabolically free where we could use whatever energy source is available, substrate is available for energy, use it for energy production, burn fat, feel good. Most people cannot do that. They're metabolically handcuffed, metabolically inflexible. They're relying on sugar, glucose, over and over and over, unfortunately. So the book talks about how to restore metabolism, what's disrupting the metabolism? So I want to ask you this question. It's kind of rapid fire, but what are the three, your top three favorite ways to achieve metabolic freedom?

Small amounts. Start small. I'm all. I'm all about baby steps, small tweaks. Yep. And I really do think about it from the perspective of how would you change an animal's diet if you have a dog? They have delicate systems as well. They're shorter than ours, so they. If you feed them the wrong thing, you immediately get a response.

I saw that when I transitioned him to raw, I did it too fast, so I had to do 90, 10, 90, 10, 80, 20, so on and so forth.

So treat. Do this like one thing that we could do for ourselves. I think we would all treat each other better, and then most of all, we would be better towards ourself because we're all very hard on ourselves. Right. Is to look at a child or look at that pet that you so adorely. You know, you adore and love and you. And you would do anything for. And remember that that's you as well. That you were. That you were that baby, you were that. That being that came into this world and needed support and needed love to get where you're at in just like you're giving to your pets or to your partners or to the people in your life now give that back to yourself. Small, small amounts at a time, gradually do things. And I would. And then I also. So this is going to sound a little funny, but I also believe that we get too comfortable. So I love, like doing ice. Ice baths. I love doing therapies that really kind of shock the system a little bit. Now, keep in mind there's still. They're still shocking the system in bursts. I'm not doing an ice bath for an hour. I'm doing it for three to six minutes, you know, maybe 10, you know, when, when it's. If I build up to that. But, you know, I mean, it's like I'm still going gradual with these shocks, but I do believe we need to get out of comfort zones. And one of the biggest issues I have in the health food industry, and I think this would be the third, is that we're waiting to make changes until something drastic happens. And that disappoints me and scares me because people won't budge from their comfort zones around food and lifestyle until either they get sick or someone they love gets sick. And that's too late. Yeah, it's too late.

Yeah. Like the gentleman with the prediabetes, he had to face a diagnosis, possibly getting on meds to make the change. So much better to be proactive instead of reactive. I always quote Einstein. He said, intellectuals solve problems, geniuses prevent them. So we want to prevent the issue from ever happening.

And something I say a lot these days is because this helps me, is it's not about one day, it's about day one.

Yeah, exactly. 100%. Last question, James, before I ask you the last question, we'll put your website down below with the coupon code. Anywhere else you want the audience to go to follow you.

Oh, yeah. Well, check us out on socials. Instagram X, Facebook, all those Eat Pluck. And then I'm Chef James Barry. We're putting lots of really great content out and, and you'll see a lot of new surprises coming.

I love it.

Definitely. Check it out.

So at Eat Pluck at Chef James Barry with an A, B, A, R, R. Yes. Thank you. I love gratitude. It's my favorite practice part of my day. I love teaching about the benefits of gratitude. I call it vitamin G because it's kind of like a vitamin. When you take it, you get all these amazing benefits. So I always ask my guests, at least the last year or so, I've been asking all of my guests to close the conversation. What do you have gratitude vitamin G for today, James?

Oh, wow. I mean, yeah, I, I live in gratitude. I. I'm just so grateful all the time. My father just passed away about a month ago and there's nothing more vulnerable than, you know, someone you love or, or someone near close to you passing away because it just reminds you of how we could all go at any moment. So I really do live in gratitude daily. I'm feeling particularly grateful for my kids and my wife right now. And I normally would, I would say that those are normally my go to, but I'm really genuinely feeling grateful for them. To just share. I mean, this is very personal. I don't, I don't normally share this kind of stuff, but I just, this is part of the gratitude. My daughter got hurt a little bit yet. Well, we've been having a series of kind of unfortunate events happen this year. Just a lot like whether it's death of my father, my wife's uncle died. My, my wife, we had a melanoma cancer scare on Her. But it's. She's clear now. Then we also. She. She's on crutches right now and recovering from a severe, like, knee injury.

Your wife?

Yeah. And so. And then my daughters have had some stuff, and just right before I left, no joke, just yesterday, my. My daughter was jumping on. Jumping on a trampoline outside. And then we had to run out because she was screaming that she was hurt. And where I immediately go is anger. I just get really angry. And I was really reflecting on this because I was like, oh, my dad used to do this too. And I remember the feeling as a boy when something scary would happen and he would be angry and feeling like, what did I do wrong? You know, but feeling the anger, and now that I'm there, I'm like, oh, I'm not. I'm not. I'm angry because I'm scared. Like, I'm in these moments where someone I love gets hurt and I'm genuinely scared. I'm scared that I don't. I don't know how we'll get out of this. I don't know what to do next. That I'm discovering things in the moment. And. And instead of me just being in the fear of it, I. I get angry. Angry that it happened, angry that my kids didn't listen to me when I said, you can't have the big kids jumping on the trampoline with the little kids. Things like that, like, whatever. Whatever goes on in my head to justify. I'm going to be angry instead of just being in my sadness. And I feel incredibly grateful because I wouldn't be able to talk about this right now had my family not helped me process that. They really mirrored back to me. My wife very much mirrored back to me, like, this happens. It's okay. Like, she was really reflecting back to me like that, even though I was feeling scared that it was going to be okay. And so that was really good. And my daughter, you know, something I was of course reminded of with her is just her resilience and. And that it's okay. Like, she can get hurt, but she can also heal. And my older daughter, when. When I. When it first happened, she, like, looked at me and said, why are you angry? You know, so she was mirroring back to me, like. Like, I just have these. There. There are three beautiful mirrors in my life reflecting back to me what I can, you know, the best parts of myself. And they're reminding me of. To help get me out of ruts. They help me get out of mindsets that are that are potentially keeping me from source and from being grateful, you know. So I just feel like I chose my wife very wisely and we were blessed with two beautiful girls who are are teaching me as much as maybe I am them but they are definitely teaching me to be not only a better man but a better human.

What a blessing. That's beautiful James. Thank you for sharing that. That's a great answer, great deep answer and it's beautiful that you have that awareness that you when you get scared, you get angry and just to appreciate those mirrors in your life, your wife and your two children is very special and beautiful. If you enjoyed that chat, be sure to watch this next video with Dr. Philip Bovadi, a world renowned heart surgeon. All about heart disease Heart disease remains.

The number one killer by a pretty wide margin. It was sugar is causing heart disease or it was dietary cholesterol and saturated fat is causing heart disease.