Whole Foods Isn't Enough: How Microplastics Infected Our Lives (What to Do About It) | Daniel Powers

Hey friends, do you ever feel like you're doing all the right things and yet you still don't feel healthy? The truth is we're facing a level of environmental toxins our ancestors never had to deal with. From microplastics in our water to chemicals in everyday products, our bodies need support in a modern world that just doesn't always make wellness easy. I'm joined by Dan Powers. He's the founder of Utsi Naturals. Dan is a husband, father of 5, and a passionate voice for natural health and clean living. In this conversation, we explore what toxic burden really means, how it affects the body, and realistic ways to reduce exposure, and most importantly, strengthen resilience without fear, stress, or perfectionism. If you want practical, empowering steps to protect your health and your families in today's world, you're gonna love this episode. This is Everyday Ancestral. I'm your host, James Barry. Please enjoy. Dan Powers. You know, I'm always talking about real food, nose to tail, getting organ meats in your diet, and really just in general, like living as ancestrally as possible, but in this modern world. But why we're having you as a guest today is because the modern world brings with it a lot of toxins and a lot of things that were, didn't even exist ancestrally, like Microplastics. And so the reality is, is we need new tools. We need to be thinking about things that are kind of outside the ancestral conversation. Now, hopefully we're going to still cover some ancestral things that people can do to support this modern world. But I think we have to be honest with the fact that there are things that are very foreign to what our biology, how our biology was originally designed.

I think one of the, one of the things there is I've always been a whole foods kind of guy, like take, taking that approach of just eat right, you know, get exercise, get good sleep, and that handles everything for you. That's like 99.9% there. And it's been a realization the last couple years as I've dug into all these toxins that we are exposed to on a daily basis and realizing that whole foods alone will not cut it. Sometimes we need to bring in some special tools to help us out. And so super excited to be on the podcast here today and talk with you, James.

Yeah. So what got you, like, what's motivated specifically your passion and your deep dive into microplastics? It is definitely trending. Like, if anything, I think you're ahead of the curve because you've been obviously focusing on it for a while, but I feel like for, like, particularly when I think of like food and salt, for example, like 5 years ago, all you're hearing about is lead, which we're still on the tail end of. But now it's like, well, what about microplastics? Because you could focus on one thing, but then there's another thing that is present. And so what got you on the path of microplastics?

Yeah. So my journey essentially started when, you know, I'd seen kind of the scary articles come out over the years, you know, microplastics are in water bottles and different things. And I kind of wrote it off like, okay, you know, there's going to be some exposure. Didn't really think too much about it. But then about 14 months ago, I read a study in the New England Journal of Medicine, and it showed that microplastics were in the blood and that they were impacting heart health and leading to cardiovascular issues. And once I read that seminal study, I was like, Shoot, like we've got to do something about this because this is going to become more and more prevalent. Microplastics, you know, plastic containers, plastic food in our food supply and water supply is going to become more and more of a thing. And so I actually reached out to a couple of the smartest researchers, scientists that I knew, and I was like, hey, what can we do to fix this? And they were all like, we have no clue, like no clue how any of this works. And so that essentially started me on a journey of, okay, I need to research microplastics. I need to figure out what these things are, how they get in our food system, and then how they interact in our bodies. And so that's been kind of my journey over the last 14 months and all that's led to building a product, Microplastics Daily Detox. But really there's been such a learning process along the way. It's wild. So these microplastics, essentially these are small particles of plastic that we consume. The research says it's 5 millimeters or smaller. So that's about the size of a sesame seed or smaller. And what these things do are they're present everywhere. They've found microplastics on the top of Mount Everest and in Marianas Trench. So literally the top of the world and the bottom of the world, there's microplastics there. It's wild. And so the exposure for us living in cities, in communities, eating, you know, regular food or water that's available to us, we're getting exposed. And so the creation of these plastics started as something to, you know, make it easier to ship products, to have packaging, right, for food. So while that's a huge technological advancement in being able to have safe food that's protected through the shipping process and on shelf, the issue is though, is those microplastics, those, well, I should say plastics break down into microplastics. And so really a lot of this started showing up in the 1950s and 1960s. So this is a new thing. Like it's, they've only been around for 60 years.

Would you know what were some of the first uses of plastics at that time?

Yeah. So I've read a couple books talking about this, and one of the original inventions— this was prior to packaging, but they were looking for a way to create pool table balls that didn't break down because they used to be made of, I believe, ivory. And so they needed some sort of harder plastic, something that wouldn't break down. And so that was some of the initial impetus behind it. And then as they started to build these different polymers and then like, oh, hey, we can stretch it and we can do this and that, we can add plasticizers to soften it. So you see like BPAs start to enter the system. And so what started out as, you know, as a good idea, hey, let's make things a little bit more convenient, taken to an extreme, we see more and more microplastics. And so the levels have doubled over the last 10 or so years, and it's going to continue to double in our environment. Every 10 to 15 years for the foreseeable future. So it's pretty wild.

Yeah, it's incredible how prevalent it is. I mean, I've seen that video of where you realize like the Coke can is being disintegrated, that it's actually lined in plastic. I mean, you tell me, what are like, what are some ways people are getting exposed to plastic and they're, they may not even be aware of like the, the, the non-obvious ways?

Yeah. So there are a crazy amount of ways that we're exposed to microplastics. So there's kind of the common ones, right? Would be plastic bottles. It'd be takeout containers. You know, you take your food in the takeout container.

Plastic wrap, right?

Yeah. Yeah. Saran Wrap. Or especially when you have plastic that gets heated. So there's kind of a lot of these common ways. It's also typically found in water. So if your water's not being filtered or if you're on like city tap water, Basically microplastics, for instance, in your clothing. So like polyester clothing, a lot of clothes have a 5-10% stretch blend added. When you wash that, that will break down the clothes through the agitation and those microplastics get in the water and then those go into the water table and then that becomes later on part of our drinking water. So there's kind of these more common ways But one thing I'd want to mention is there are 7 little-known exposure points that we're getting. And, you know, one of the big ones is actually called tire dust. Have you ever heard of that?

I, you know, not really, no. So this is the dust that comes from tires on the road? Yeah.

So if you think about it, you have to replace your tires every 2 years or every year, whatever it is, that tire, that rubber, that plastic, Right. It starts like big and chunky and then it wears down over time. Where do you think all that plastic is going? It's getting volatilized into the air. Right. So that becomes part of what we breathe on a daily basis.

So if we live next to that, right. I think that right there is like a revelation. So I don't think I even usually equate, oh, rubber is a form of plastic.

Yeah.

I don't think like that.

Yeah. So you have all these different compounds and they all have kind of their own little particular things. So whether it's the plastic itself or some of the compounds in it, like plasticizers. So plasticizers, a common one for that is BPA. Most people have heard of BPA. They add that to plastics to make it more flexible so that you can, you know, basically put plastic cups into different shapes and different things like that. But you have microplastics, which are basically the hard plastic, and then you have plasticizers, which are usually included with the microplastics. Plasticizers basically work in the body to disrupt hormones. So, they're endocrine disruptors. So, they're basically these chemical structures. And what that can do is they can mimic hormones in your body like estrogen. And what that can do is it can lead to your body thinking it has more estrogen or less estrogen than it thinks it really has. So, it can impact your hormone levels. So, you've got plasticizers, And microplastics, each of these having different effects that are negative on the body.

Right. So it's potentially contributing to, you know, young girls having their periods younger and younger, right?

Yeah.

If it's disrupting your hormones. So you had said there were like 7, you know, kind of known, little-known exposure points. You named, you mentioned one was the tire Tire dust. Please continue.

Yeah, so here's 7 little-known microplastic exposure points. A big one is dishwasher pods. So if you ever take those little plastic pods, pop in your dishwasher, it's like, where did that plastic go that was, you know, wrapping your solution? That's getting blasted all over your dishes. Another one is your toothbrush. Think of those bristles that break down over time. Where does that go? It goes in your mouth. You swallow that, you eat that. Not great. Another big one that they just found out was IV bags. A lot of people are getting vitamin IVs. Well, that comes in plastic bags. Those have microplastics going straight into your bloodstream. Not great. A couple other things too I'll mention are tea bags. People have seen probably studies on that, but tea bags are nasty. Again, you have a plastic material with hot water heat, plus plastic is really, really bad. And then another big one is salt. A lot of the salt that we get contains microplastics. And if you think about it, especially even like, I like Celtic salt or some of these different things, but you have stuff coming from seawater, seawater has microplastics in it. So, there's actually some pretty cool brands out there doing good work in having microplastic-free salt. So that's another exposure point that we have that we don't even think about. You know, another big one too, I mentioned it earlier, but it's polyester clothing, right? So those, I'm an athletic guy. I like to have a little stretch in my pants or my shirt, you know, so I can move around a little bit more freely. But over time, the microplastics in that clothing can break down and become part of the water that you consume later on.

So when you're, when you're washing your cotton clothes with those polyester and it's heating up in the dryer, are you technically exposing your cotton to microplastic as well? Like, are they, are the particles kind of, in a sense, infecting everything?

You know, I had not even thought about that, James, but probably, yeah, there's, there's going to be cross-contamination. Uh, which is wild.

Okay, wait, I gotta, I gotta go back to one of the points you made because this is actually a hot topic for my wife and I, because she made a comment about those dishwasher pods and she was like, I don't want you to buy those ones in plastic anymore. Um, I want the ones without, and I was like, that's not plastic. It can't be plastic. I said, because it's disintegrating, but you're saying it is because I thought it was like some kind of food. Um, you know, 'cause they can make kind of, uh, food-based, um, wraps sometimes that disintegrate. I know that they have like candy wrappers that are sometimes like that you stick in your mouth and it just disintegrates. But are you saying there's, there is plastic in some of those?

Yeah, for sure. It depends on the brand. I'm sure there's some natural brands out there that do a good job with this, but if you're buying kind of the big brand, big name brand, probably not great.

Oh man. You know, and I, I, I talk about capsules a lot, you know, and how, yes, they're supposed to be mostly made of gelatin and all that stuff, but I have to wonder too if, if those really cheaper brands, you know, that are selling supplements, like how an integrity that is. Like, is it possible even the capsules people are swallowing their supplements in that they might even have microplastics in it?

That's a great point. That's probably true. And especially, um, Especially if you get into brands that use it more of a branding play of like, hey, here's the hot pink colored capsule, right? They want it to look cool, which is great. But if you're not using natural vegetable dyes and cellulose or bovine gelatin, who knows what's in there?

Yeah. Oh man. It's just such a toxic soup we live in, you know? How do they show up in people's health? Because I think we're all, we're getting, we're all getting tuned attuned to the word, like, oh, there's microplastics, as you said, in our salt and this and these products in our lives, in this modern living. But how does it show up health-wise?

Yeah. So, you know, one thing I want to mention too is just the exposure, right? So, there's all these kind of— we talked about kind of some niche exposure points, but that are probably prevalent for most folks. But some of the research shows that we're consuming up to a credit card-sized amount of microplastics every week.

Every week.

Every week. So not, you know, so that's not amazing. And then another aspect too is they've found that we have a plastic spoon, a plastic spoon-sized amount of microplastics in our brains. So that was one of the pieces of research that came out recently. So think of a, you know, a plastic spoon, there's that amount of plastic in your brain right now. And here's the thing too, is they did studies where they did an assay of folks in 2016 and then in 2024. So, about an 8-year span. And they found that the microplastics in the brain in 2016, it was a certain level and it had essentially doubled over an 8-year period. So, it's pretty wild, but there's more exposure points than ever. And then there's potentially some stuff in our health system that's impacting our blood-brain barrier as well. So something to really keep an eye on. And, you know, this is starting to impact human health. So as we consume microplastics, there's a couple of different ways that they work in our body, but first they go into our guts. And so as you have these tiny particles, This essentially creates— it's small to us, but from a microbial standpoint, it's massive and it's a bunch of surface area. And so this surface area, you can have nasty microbes and bugs that will cling to that and hide in that. So you have bad bacteria that can live in there. And so that can impact your gut health and feeling well, being able to digest cleanly. So that's kind of one of the major impacts that we've seen, especially if you have a leaky gut or something of that nature. These particles can start to get through into your active bloodstream. So that's majorly problematic. And especially, you know, as you start to see that working up into the brain, like we talked about where the body tends to lay down a lot of this into tissue. So it's thought too that having those microplastics in the brain, first off, it can't be good in general. We can just say that. But secondary is going to impact brain function, right? Kind of foggy brain, not being as clear, your memory, all those different aspects can be impacted by having these microplastics in our brains. So that's some of the big areas. And you can kind of really think about microplastics as a Trojan horse carrying in all these other things into your body that they cling to those microplastic particles. So the other big thing is, you know, a lot of the research has not shown direct, like one-for-one direct impacts of microplastics on health. A lot of the research so far has actually been environmental research. So they're showing how microplastics impact, you know, algae or the cuttlefish of Southeast Asia or something like that. And they're just now looking at the impacts on human health. Which in my opinion is just wild. Like, I think we should start with human health and protecting human health, and then, you know, everything else can kind of come secondary to that. But yeah, we're seeing impact on gut health, on brain health. I mentioned previously heart health, where it's in the blood and impacting our ability to have a healthy heart. And then, you know, really this is something That is my own personal opinion, but I think microplastics are causing low-grade inflammation all throughout the body. And so, if you think of your body as being a battery, right, you want it to be at 100%. But with the microplastics that's being embedded in your tissue all throughout your body, you're just creating all these little micro pockets of inflammation because it's a foreign object being laid down in your tissue. And so, you're creating all this inflammation, which is requiring an immune response. And so, what that's doing is that's draining your battery and your energy on that daily basis. So, instead of being 100%, you might be 90%, 80%, maybe 60%. So, that's kind of some of the initial ideas out there for how these microplastics are impacting our health.

Oh, man. I have to think too that it could be affecting it because we talked about how it's affecting hormones, like sperm count, you know, testosterone for men, you know, people getting pregnant, you know, I have to assume that it's also affecting that.

Yeah, that's a great point. And that there's been 2 primary places that your body has affinities for embedding microplastics in tissue. So the first is the brain that we talked about. The second is in the male reproductive system, in the testicles. And so yes, it's thought that that's impacting our ability to have high-quality sperm and for pregnancy. All those different aspects are being impacted by microplastics.

But as you're mentioning, it's like there hasn't really been a lot of studies on human health around this. So at this point, We've done a lot of identifying, okay, this is in our environment. This is, this is where it's showing up, not in, not only in the environment, but also in our bodies. I know it's been shown to be found in breast milk as well. Like, so it's showing up all over the place. The study now, what was the study on the, you said the, the, the scuttlefish or the cuttlefish? What kind of fish was it?

Well, there'll be those, there's environmental research on all sorts of like, you know, water organisms. And so there's been kind of this workup through the chain. But so we see some impacts on how the food chain works, but it's the real thing that we need to look at is human health. And one of the crazy things is you can't even do a control study on microplastics because there's nobody that is free of microplastics. So even if you wanted to run like a baseline control group, it doesn't even exist, which is kind of crazy when you think about it.

Yeah, that's, that's super scary. Okay. So we, we got, we got to segue then into, okay, we're identifying that they exist clearly. We know that they're affecting human health. We're still trying to figure out how intensely it's affecting human health. But we know it's there. We know it's present. We know it must be. So if the science isn't fully there yet to identify all the P's and Q's, can, what should we be identifying? Like what, what can we be doing in this modern society to, to, to, to support either detoxification or elimination of these microplastics in our bodies? Yeah.

So there's a ton of lifestyle factors that we can implement to help protect ourselves against microplastics. and reduce our exposure. So, you know, some of the most important things are thinking about the liquids that we consume, the water or different drinks, making sure that those are filtered and free of microplastics.

So, filters will filter out the microplastics, even those nano-sized kind of things?

Yeah, especially like a reverse osmosis system is a really good barrier. And then a good chunk of the other filters, like I think of like a Berkey system, those are pretty darn effective. So I use a Berkey at my house. And then we're— so yeah, so there's kind of different ways to look at it there, but making sure that you have access to quality filtered water is huge for eliminating your exposure. Some other areas to look at is how you store food. So you wanna make sure you're not storing food in plastic containers. And then taking that plastic container and heating it up. So, if you take that container, it's got last night's chicken piccata in it, throw it in the microwave, warm it up in that plastic, that plastic will leach into the food. So, you want to make sure that you're storing foods in glass and just being mindful of how you're heating those foods up. Another exposure point people don't think about is takeout food. A lot of times takeout food gets put in those plastic containers. It's like steaming soup or whatever it is. You take it home, it's sitting for 10, 15 minutes. Not great. That's a microplastic soup is what you're eating there. So, trying to reduce some of that exposure as well. And then, there's also some other kind of more natural approaches as well. So, I think I mentioned earlier, but a lot of the clothing we wear has microplastics in it. You know, opting for 100% cotton is great, trying to just reduce your exposure there. And especially like the sheets that you sleep on at night, you know, that's if you're getting 8 hours at night, if you're blessed to get 8 hours a night, you want to make sure that you're sleeping on organic cotton To just, again, reduce those exposure points just so you can protect your body.

I think that's a really good point. Like if it, if something is, think, think about the things that we do the most often, right? Sleep in our bed, eat, shower, bathe, that if we can really almost start with those points of like, how can we remove as much of the items that might and/or do have plastic in them from those lifestyle, you know, those everyday choices that we're doing or making just to live, I think is a really good place to start. You know, one thing that I'm also aware of, it's a really tough one if you're eating out, because most restaurants now, first of all, at home, I cannot stress this enough. No one should be using a plastic cutting board.

Yeah.

Sadly, at restaurants, that is usually what they are using is a plastic. It's how it's sold. And it, and when you're at a restaurant, yeah, it's literally, it's part of the restaurant culture. They have like a red one for meat, a white one. They have different colors that they use depending on what they're cutting. So if it's produce line, you have to use the green one. If it's meat line, you have to use the red one. If it's, you know, other things, it's the white one. And so they're color-coded and they're all plastic. And anytime you're cutting a plastic board, you are absolutely shaving some of that plastic off. You're cutting through it, and then you're also creating little ridges in that plastic board where bacteria can grow. So not only are there a microplastic storm, they're also a bacterial— a bed for bacteria growth.

That's wild. Yeah. And folks might be thinking like, okay, do I need to just become a monk and go live in a monastery made out of stone and whatever, have like a well with my own water in it? But there are ways that you can naturally support your body and there's some really awesome natural detox processes. You know, I believe God made our bodies with this ability to detox, you know, toxins that we come into contact with.

It's a good point because we have— this is a miraculous body. And while we weren't created when plastic existed, our body hopefully is designed to deal with even modern stressors, things that it wasn't originally prepared for, but that it's miraculous. It's capable of doing these things. So, To your point, what are some, what are some things we can be doing to ensure that we are naturally detoxifying?

Yeah. So, one of the cool things is general healthy living lifestyle type of stuff helps out with this, right? So, you want to make sure that you're eating real food, right? You know, I'd say ancestral foods, organs, and getting good sleep, having good sleep hygiene, like all the basics, you're getting Purified clean water. So those are kind of like baselines, right, that we should all aspire to have. But then on top of that, if you want to get a little fancy, there's some natural ways to support your detox pathways. So a big one is exercising, right? So you're sweating, that's getting stuff out of your body. So I would recommend, you know, getting exercise on a daily basis or, you know, 4 to 5 times a week. You can have some cardio. That's great for sweating, lifting some weights. It's all good. Another great way is to make sure that you are getting your body heated up. So sauna is a really awesome option there as well. Bryan Johnson at Blueprint, the guy that's trying to live forever, he just showed that he did some pretty extensive sauna protocols and he showed that his body was able to eliminate microplastics at this really good clip. by doing regular sauna. So, sauna is awesome. If you have access to sauna, great. But another user-friendly way of doing that is just getting in a hot tub, like a bathtub of water with hot water and just sitting in there or taking a hot shower. If you can kind of get that hot steamy effect, you can get really a lot of the same benefits without investing in a whole sauna setup.

Yeah. We have to remember, Art, so a detox Detoxification pathways are sweating, pooping, peeing, right? Those are our 3 main detoxification pathways.

Yep.

And so ultimately, yeah, so you're identifying that you, you want to make sure you're exercising. You want to make sure that you're maybe doing some kind of heat, heat like infrared or steam sauna to help move that sweat. But then you can also sit in hot water as well. So those are all going to be really good resources for everyone. Um, and we want to make sure that we're also doing the other 2 things, like that you're peeing regularly, right? That you're, you're also pooping regularly. So, so if you're not eliminating those 2 ways regularly, then, um, then we want to also get support there. So. I wanna touch base cuz you have a really interesting story in that you've been, you're like 4th generation in, in really in this supplement business, right? Yep. In, in a business that is focused on helping people with their health, but specifically kind of acknowledging that we can't get it all from our food. And you're, you have a brand that you're managing now. I, I know your father started out.

Yeah.

supporting more the health practitioners with those, those practitioner-grade level supplements. But you have a product line now called Utsi, right?

I do.

Yep. Is that right?

You said it right.

Yeah, I know. I had this whole discussion with you of like, how do we say that correctly? But Utsi is a consumer-facing line where you have supplements, you have collagen, But you also recently came out with a line to support, uh, microplastic detoxification. Can you just share a little bit about just, just the kind of like quality of sourcing that you guys have around you? Like, what is, what is the criteria for you guys to carry something in your, your product line?

Yeah.

Yeah.

So, yeah, so my family's been in the supplement industry for a long period of time. And so, that's always been a passion of mine. And so, when I first was learning about microplastics, I was like, what are some natural ways that we can support the body? Because, you know, are we just kind of left to our own devices? Do we just have to like be in a sauna 24/7 or something? You know, like what are ways that we can help our bodies? And so, It started a 14-month journey of reading all of the literature that I could get my hands on and talking with experts all around the world and just trying to figure out what are the natural ingredients that could support microplastics detoxification. We know that our bodies can eliminate microplastics. They find microplastics in stool, in sweat. So we know our body's eliminating them. So it was a process of how can we find that pathway that the body's using? And then support that pathway so it works, you know, really efficiently. So, it essentially started an entire survey of what are the ingredients, what are the herbs, what are the pathways? And so, I talked with a bunch of just brilliant folks, researchers at colleges or all around the world, really, of, you know, what are the ingredients to look at? And so, one of the big materials to utilize is called sulforaphane, and it's a phytochemical that's typically found in cruciferous vegetables. Now, a lot of people typically get that from broccoli sprouts or broccoli seed, which is great. And so, we kind of went down that pathway talking with suppliers and through the kind of discovery process, we found that there is a new material that's even better than broccoli sprouts for sulforaphane. And that's actually called black kale. So, there's this black kale that's grown in central Italy. And it has the highest amount of sulforaphane of any natural plant that's been surveyed. And so, we're able to talk with the supplier, look at their research, and be one of the first to market to be able to offer that type of material in our product. So, our product is Microplastics Daily Detox. And so, we use that black kale material as kind of our keystone ingredient. And what it does is it helps upregulate the NRF2 pathway, which is the primary detox pathway for microplastics. So, that's been a really cool process of kind of, you know, trying to tackle this problem of what are these natural ways to support the body? Because again, healthy living and whole foods don't always cut it when we have these modern problems. And, you know, sometimes modern problems require a modern solution.

Yeah, it's, it's, you know, it's kind of the crux of everything, you know, and I'm, I'm While I love using Mother Nature's to her, to her optimal best, you know, in terms of tapping into organ meats and eating nose to tail, or just utilizing what nature has provided as much as possible. But we, we have to take ownership of the fact that we are living in a toxic modern world and, and we've gone down certain paths that are, that are really Resulting in us living in this toxic soup. And so to your point, like sometimes you just, you, you need more than what you're gonna get from nature. And so it sounds like from your, from your research that even just eating lots of cruciferous vegetables is not gonna do it, right? 'Cause these are concentrated isolates that you're, that you're pulling from.

Exactly. Yeah. So, getting it through diet, something like sulforaphane is very difficult, but it's not just that phytochemical, there's other aspects. So, we built out an entire formula where we always try and look at what are the key areas to support, and then we'll have kind of a multifaceted approach. So, we love the black kale, but we also look at other things like liver health and supporting liver function so that, you know, the primary filter of the body. So we have milk thistle, which is really an old-school herb for supporting liver function. I have an herbal medicine background, so I love kind of old-school herbs. So milk thistle is kind of a classic for supporting healthy liver function. And then really, we talked about this, but the oxidative stress and the inflammation that's out of balance, that's one of the huge impacts of microplastics. And so, We have some really fascinating materials that we are using, and one's called hobbamine, which comes from Mongolian buckwheat, which is pretty wild. So, they discovered this molecule called tuhoba in Mongolian buckwheat, and it essentially is a super antioxidant that helps to neutralize basically fat cells that are becoming oxidized. And so, It helps to, you know, support balanced inflammation throughout the body. This is like a brand new cutting-edge herbal ingredient that, that we've got in this product. And then we've got some other interesting herbs as well, including green tea extract, which has a phytochemical called EGCG, which is epigallocatechin— epigallocatechin catechin. I forget. It's like the longest word in the world. But we call it EGCG, which is a really awesome phytochemical in green tea. And then, the last piece we too have as well is shilajit, which is—

Oh, sure.

That's— A ton of research on shilajit as well. And, that's essentially super rich in fulvic and humic acids. And, these are kind of the primary shuttling agents throughout the body and has kind of this energizing detoxifying effect on the body. So, it kind of energizes the entire process of that microplastics detoxification.

Yeah, shilajit is really starting to make waves. Some people are even trying to say it's more nutritious than even organ meat, such. I haven't done any of that research yet, but I was like, what? How could you say that? But, it's definitely, it's a very Kind of more and more popular product. I think, you know, what's really important about what you're identifying, and it's something important for, it's something I think about a lot and I, I, but it's important for me to say to everyone, cuz I, I know everyone is sometimes hearing me talk about how we need to move away from swallowing, you know, our supplements and really eating our food. But there is a time and a place for these support systems. And you didn't mention anything that's weird or like truly laboratory made. I know some of these isolates are being made in the laboratory, but they're being made from real food products. And, and nothing you mentioned is not natural. Everything you mentioned is all natural. So I think that's really important.

Yeah.

When we think about this, but I have to say, like, I know that this product you guys created, you're being, you know, you're kind of pinpointing that it's for microplastics, but, but it's really just, it's for elimination, right? It's for detoxification. Like, so you don't necessarily need to be taking this to eliminate microplastics. Like if you need detoxification support, this is a good product for you, right?

Yeah, that's a great point. It is, it is more of a, it does have kind of a, a broader spectrum approach. And we're looking specifically for microplastics because that's where kind of the research led. But, you know, when you benefit one thing in the body, you tend to benefit the whole as well. So, that's kind of the way we look at it. And yeah, there's no like weird, you know, ingredients or coffee enemas that you have to go through or crazy stuff, you know. And, you know, I think this is something to look at as an addition, you know. So, for instance, A lot of folks who travel internationally, that's a time when you're super exposed to microplastics. I had a friend that went to Southeast Asia and she was, you know, everything you drink is out of plastic water bottles and all the food's in plastic. And she's like, her gut health, it took her months to kind of get that back online. And she was like, I wish I had your product then to help me out because You know, there's these super exposure events that we get. And so, you know, frequent travelers are kind of people that should really be thinking about this, 'cause everything in the airport is in plastic, or just kind of an occasional tune-up, giving it a, you know, 1, 2-month try once a year. But we did also build it in a way that you can use it on a daily basis. So, kind of our thesis is we're exposed daily, and so let's help our body detox daily. But it's also something too that you could just take for a month or 2 and just give your body some extra clearance so it can kind of catch up and then work on doing its own processing itself.

Well, I'm so grateful that you came on the show to share this because I, I, look, I'm not, I, in no way do I want people to think like, oh, we're just trying to push a detoxification capsule, but I think that The bigger picture that we're trying to identify here is that, look, we live in a modern society that is basically a toxic soup. We can follow the pillars, you know, as you mentioned earlier, we can follow eating nutritious food. We can try to keep our stress down. We can have movement in our lives and we can strive for really great sleep. And still sometimes that is not enough. And so looking for, you know, high-quality supplements that have real, you know, natural ingredients in them can be game-changing. And let's face it, not all companies are in integrity. And, and I'm just so happy to share you with everyone because everything, every interaction I've had with you and your brother is just full of integrity. And I really do believe that you guys are, you really, you have the best interests of people in mind. Like you really are trying to help people heal and to be healthy. Anything you'd like to share before we sign off that you just want people to be aware of or to think about post this episode?

Yeah, well, appreciate the kind words, James. And Yeah, I think, you know, the biggest impacts that we can have are things that we're going into our body. So, I think really think hard about your water supply and making sure you have access to filtered water, whether it's reverse osmosis, Berkey, some of these other cool, you know, products that are coming on the market. That's something that we can impact and change. And then, the other thing is when we're thinking about food and food storage, making sure we're reducing that exposure to plastic containers, heating in plastic containers, get some glass containers, get a Stanley for your water or your daily coffee at Starbucks, taking a metal aluminum drink container there. And so, those are kind of 2 key things. And then, hey, if you need some extra support, you can check out our product, Microplastics Daily Detox. And we're excited to have this available for folks. And You know, our goal is just to help people live better and have healthier lives and thrive in this modern toxic world.

I also want to just share one thing is that I want to make sure everyone knows. So when we're— because we did talk about water filters with reverse, with reverse osmosis, with Berkeys, that it is important to then add minerals to the water because reverse osmosis removes the minerals. It, it almost in a sense purifies it too much in a good way. Like in this toxic world, we need to purify it a lot, but we also wanna make sure to remineralize it. So, you know, you wanna choose either a, a good mineral support or salt that you can then add back into the water. And sometimes there's like, I know we use a filter system that has mineral rocks at the bottom of it too. That's then helps to remineralize.

Nice.

There's lots of different systems out there, but just make sure that to your point, yes, filtered water, but then also think about then what is it re— getting replenished with?

Yep. That's a great point. And yeah, and you know, organ meats are also fantastic for that.

Yeah. Yeah. Let your, yeah, let your filtered water, you know, um, uh, seep with organ meats, you know, at the bottom.

No, you can just use like a beef liver, hook it up right there. Let it—

yeah, hook it up. An IV. Except be careful because the IV might be putting microplastics in you. Yeah. No, really, Dan, thank you so much for coming on. And, and so how can people find this product and how can they find you?

Sure, of course. So our brand is Utzy Naturals. Our website is just utzy.com, U-T-Z-Y. And then, yeah, so you can go there. We've got our Microplastics Daily Detox product available on the site. And then you can follow us on social media, just @UtziNaturals. And I'm starting to put out social media. It is my most hated thing in the world, but I think it's @UtziDan, @UtziDan, and starting to just try and educate folks of everything I've learned over my life. And I spend a lot of time on health and research. And so, just trying to share some of that along the way.

Dan, and you also have a special gift for everyone, correct?

Yes. Yeah. So, we set up a special discount for James In particular and all, all the friends. And it's EA20 to save 20% off. We'd love you to just check out the product and we'd love to get your feedback.

Thank you so much. We're gonna put that in the show notes. Yeah. And I think that's really key is that this is all, this is all new science. This is a, this is a new product. Like the more, the more they can, you can give feedback to them on like, how do you feel from it? And I think I really do stress that I don't, I like, I, while we're coming at it from the kind of microplastic angle, I really do believe we can all get support around our elimination pathways. And this sounds like a fantastic product. I have tried it. I, I haven't, I think my elimination pathways are already working pretty well because of my, you know, my lifestyle choices and, and what I choose to eat. So it's hard for me to say like, how much it affected me, but I loved hearing what's in it because I know everything you mentioned, it, it, it's really quality. I know that. And so that makes me very encouraged.

Yeah, that's awesome. Yeah. And, you know, part of the deal is the research is evolving. A lot of the, the human clinicals are still in process on this. And so we're taking an iterative approach as, as science comes out, we will You know, make updates along the way. And so again, we're just trying to build out a product to help people. We know exposure happens daily, so let's support it daily.

Thank you again for joining us. Please spread the word, leave a comment, any, anything you can do to just kind of help us know how this show is affecting you. Be well. Thank you so much for joining me on Everyday Ancestral. If you enjoyed this episode, hit subscribe so You don't miss the next one. You can find the show notes, links, and resources mentioned at eatpluck.com. That's E-A-T-P-L-U-C-K dot com. And hey, if you know someone who'd get something out of this, share it with them too. Stay curious, live well, and keep it ancestral.