Meat: To Eat or Not to Eat? with Angela Mavridis

Hey JJ Here. Every year around this time, I get the urge to make my home feel a little extra special. A space that feels just like the holidays. And Wayfair is my go to for that. Think cozy textures, twinkly decor, warm lighting, and all those little touches that make you want to curl up with a good book and a blanket. You'll usually find my books stacked on a great little end table I got from Wayfair, proof that function and style give can coexist. Now, whether you're adding last minute hosting essentials, picking out gifts for loved ones, or refreshing your decor for the season, Wayfair makes it easy with beautiful finds, great prices and fast delivery. And when the holidays wind down, Wayfair has everything you need to tuck it all neatly away. Smart storage solutions for every room from the kitchen to the closet. Plus, with free shipping for any order over $35, don't that's fast delivery and a total peace of mind. It's the perfect mix of joy and order, bringing the holiday spirit in, then storing it all with ease. If you're ready to make your home feel as good as it looks, get organized, refreshed and ready for the holidays. For way less head to Wayfair.com right now to shop all things home. Wayfair Every style Every home that's W A Y F A I R.com hey, it's JJ here. You know, I've been talking about environmental toxins forever, and laundry detergent is a sneaky one. A lot of them contain harsh chemicals like dyes, preservatives, and even UV brighteners. Those brighteners don't actually clean anything, they just coat fabric so your eyes think things look whiter or brighter. That's more chemicals I don't want on my family sheets or skin. And if you've got sensitive skin or allergies around the house, this can be a big problem. That's what got my attention about Earth Breeze. It looks like a dryer sheet, but it's actually laundry detergent. You toss one in the washer and that's it. No pouring, no mess, and no heavy plastic jug. Their packaging is lightweight cardboard, which helps reduce plastic waste. And if you choose the fragrance free option, it's gentle, hypoallergenic, non irritating and non sensitizing. I really like how simple it is and how fresh and clean everything comes out without those unnecessary chemicals. Right now you can try Earth Breeze for up to 40% off with free gifts@earthbreeze.com virgin that's earthbreeze.com virgin for up to 40% off plus free gifts on your first order.

Ray Ban Meta glasses come with open ear audio so you can listen to your favorite music without blocking out the world around you. Hey Meta, play Gorgeous. Here's Gorgeous by Doja Cat. You can also ask Meta AI questions. Hey Meta, when's Doja Cat's next concert? Doja Cat is playing at the Los Angeles Theater next Tuesday. Sweet Ray Ban Meta Glasses available at Ray Ban stores and other authorized retailers.

Welcome to the JJ Virgin Lifestyle show with celebrity nutrition expert, fitness hall of famer and four time New York Times best selling author, JJ Virgin. JJ is a warrior mom whose knowledge and expertise have helped change hundreds of thousands of lives with over 3.5 million podcast downloads and appearances on Dr. Phil, Dr. Oz, the Today Show, Rachael Ray, Larry King, Love Whoa, whoa, whoa.

This show is about you, not about me. I want to help you find practical, real world ways to dial in your health and mindset so you can finally lose that weight and feel strong and energized. Stop settling for less than your personal best. It's time to find out how to look and feel better than ever. And I'll be right here with you the whole way. Hey, welcome to today's podcast. So the big question, oh my gosh, to eat meat or not to eat meat? That's what we'll be talking about today. And honestly, you get a bunch of us in a room like you get, I don't know, 20, 30, 40 doctors and nutritionists in a room and we'll agree on, well, now we don't even agree on vegetables anymore. It's like always a big debate, Paleo, keto, vegan, blah blah, blah, pegan. And so we're going to be talking today about should you eat meat? If so, what should you be eating? And it's important if you are making that decision to eat animal protein to understand all the different terminology and how to kind of cut through the marketing hype and eat the right stuff for you. And I have the perfect person to help me with this today, and it is Angela Mavridis. Now here's the funny part. So Angela founded Tribali Foods. She grew up in Greece. Like, she grew up on the like uber best, supposedly best diet on the planet, the Mediterranean diet. Grew up eating this way and, you know, always felt great and then moved to the States and said I should be a vegan and got like 30, 35 years as a vegetarian going through all of this stuff, trying to feel good and became a holistic nutritionist and kind of came back full circle and ended up launching a meat company, which you're going to hear all about. But more importantly, you're going to learn about the very important terminology that you should know when going to the grocery store. So we're going to cut through that. Unpack that today. I want to remind you that we have awesome show notes and always great gifts from our guests. And you can get that today. Jjvirgin.com forward/tribali. Let me spell that. T, R I B A L I. Tribali. Now, before I dive into another one of my favorites, I have my favorite review of the week from. It's from Susan Jane in Columbia, South Carolina, but her Little iTunes name is Ron Goat. I'm sure there's a story behind that. Susan Jane, inspiring and trustworthy. Five stars. I've been listening to JJ's podcast since the beginning and can honestly state that I've never missed one. Wow, then you're hearing your name now up in lights. In fact, I usually listen to each episode two to three times before I file it away for future reference. JJ's upbeat, sincere, and smart. Underline that I underlined it. She didn't. Smart delivery makes for the perfect host. Jj, I am grateful for the changes you've inspired me to explore and make in my own personal health journey. Keep on keeping on, girlfriend. Your show is the best, and so are you. Susan Jane, Columbia, South Carolina. All right, let's see if I can get this name right.

Angela.

Wait for it. Wait for it. Mavridis, welcome to the show. Yay. And then the company named Tribali. Did I do it?

Absolutely I did it.

All right. I was. I've been practicing. I've been practicing. We are going to unpack something super cool today because I know it's confusing food world out there with like, should you be, you know, eat meat? Should you be a vegan if you're eating meat? What kind of meat? Like, all this crazy stuff. And I like to give you actionable steps and just cut through the confusion so I have the perfect guest to do that with me. Angela, what I'd love to do. I'm so happy, happy you're here. First off. Welcome, welcome.

Thank you. Thanks for having me.

Yay. And what I'd love to do is kind of share your crazy journey because, I mean, I think, you know, it's like every. Every girl when we were. Sounds like we're around the same age. Growing up, everyone became a vegetarian and a vegan for a period of time. But, boy, you really took it to heart for quite a long time. So let's, like, go through your journey and how you got to hear the CEO and founder of a meat company.

I know, you know, I kind of. I coined my journey as from Paleo to confusion and then back again, because I grew up in a Greek household where meat was center plate. And, you know, I spent most summers in Greece, too, where grandma cooked foods from the land and the sea. Literally, like, we would catch fish that day, or the fishermen would, and we would cook it. So everything was fresh ingredients, everything was real foods, Everything was a little bit more ancestral way of eating. And so. And I thrived eating that way. But meanwhile, back in the States, here I bought into the craze back at that time in the 80s of Fat Free. This saturated fat's gonna kill you. Animal meat is bad for you. Have, you know, low cholesterol foods. And so I embarked as what I thought the best healthy diet at the time was a vegetarian, slash, at times vegan. You know, I took it to extreme, and then I backed off a little bit, and then I was. I kind of morphed a little bit into more pescatarian because I did incorporate. Incorporate some fish later on. But that stayed pretty consistent for 35 years, JJ and I got to tell you, it served me for a while. I'm not going to lie. I mean, I enjoyed it. I liked it. I thought I thrived. My body was thriving. But, you know, with the switch of hormones, with the switch of your microbiome, with the switch of your different needs at different ages and times in your life, it didn't work anymore. And I, you know, what I call sort of the hard drive crash. It just wasn't working. And that was four years ago when I decided. And I always feel like when something's not working, look at your plate first and foremost, right?

That's the fastest way to change how you feel is absolutely change your fork.

That's why I went back to the fork. I went back to the plate, and I'm like, what have I been doing that's not serving me well? And luckily, I'm not so dogmatic. Even though I stayed that way for 35 years, I got to a point where the vegan and vegetarian diet was taking a toll on my hormones. I had lots of vitamin deficiencies. I had, you know, some. Some things that I really had to take care of. So that's why I incorporated a little bit of meat. And again, you know, we're talking sort of that goldilocks effect. I don't need 16 ounce rib eyes every day, but just that 4 to 6 ounces and rotating different animal meats back into my diet. And I never look back. I'm like, well, you were.

You kind of went full circle, like, to be raised, like, on one of the healthiest diets out there.

Right? Paleo, whatever you want to call it. Yep.

Wow. All right, so now that you've got here trial and error and. And kind of tuned into it, I think the most important thing is it. Which is like, connect the dots for yourself. There is no one diet forever that will be the best for you. It all can change. And there's no one diet that's the best for everybody. But there are some common things that we know. I think if you put all of us in a room, we'd all agree that we tend to do better with more vegetables. Right. You know, we shouldn't be eating processed food and fast food. I mean, there's some basic stuff here. But what do you do personally about all of the different messages? Like, how do you. How do you handle. Let's take the latest one that keeps popping up, and I'm like, oh, my gosh, would this just go away? Because every time it pops up, everyone freaks out. And I get things all over my social media and I'm like, coconut oil. Coconut oil is not the devil. It's not the devil. It's our friend. It's okay. They're like, I'm gonna have a heart attack now because you told me to drink coconut milk.

And I'm like, I mean, you know what. What was the latest one? It's poison. You have to obviously. I mean, there are mixed messages. You know, one day egg yolks are bad for you, the next day the damn yolks. Right? I mean, cholesterol is. Is of no longer a nutrient of concern. And so many years doctors were like, low cholesterol, low. So there are mixed messages, and meat is one of them. And I'm glad we're going to address that. But I think the most important thing to do, and I encourage everyone to go on an N equals one experiment. I mean, try the food. See how it makes you feel, see how it makes you thrive, see what effects it has on your body, because I might tell you that go ahead and eat egg yolks. And as a matter of fact, that's a good one, because I happen to be highly sensitive to egg yolks, even though I know they're a good source of animal protein. And so many Great benefits in the yolk. They bother me. Unless they're cooked hard boiled, I can't eat them. Softwood. So it's, this is me though. I think everyone should have that. What works for you, your digestion, your microbiome, your age, your everything. There's so many things to consider and you do have to experiment with yourself. I mean, the biggest journey someone can go on is their health journey. And they have to start from a young age. You know, I have three little kids.

What more important journey is there?

Yeah, right. Nobody can tell you how to eat. I mean, like you said, there are the sort of basics 101 guys, we're not going going to tell you to eat more processed, sugary, you know, high carb foods. But if you're embarking on a low glycemic, nutrient dense plate and you're, you're sourcing all your fruits and vegetables and healthy proteins from that kind of plate, then, then that's, you know, I even encourage my kids at this stage, like, how does that plate of food that you're about to eat, how does it make you feel after? And I could tell you, you know, they're either slumped on the couch going, oh, I have a stomachache, I don't want to move, or they're up and about running right after a meal. So I mean, it affects you.

It's so important for them to get that. And now like, I love hearing that I, I might have. This might be considered bad mom, but I remember letting my kids at like, first of all, they were on an Easter egg hunt and I just let my son Bryce eat all the Easter eggs he wanted to. He promptly threw up and he never really ate any of that stuff ever again. And I was like, okay, we win, right? And same with Halloween. It's like I let to Grant eat Halloween candy goes, you know, this makes me feel sick and hungry. I'm like, all right, like, let's get into that feeling. It's like. And they're just get disinterested because they really pay attention to how they feel.

And you and I know chemically what it does in your body. Why do you feel hungry an hour later? What does that do to your blood sugar? And why do you feel sick? The kids might not know, but they do know a feeling.

Yeah, they definitely do. Well, let's unpack this because this, I am like, this is a topic we really haven't talked about. And it is so confusing out there. You know, someone said to me the other day, yeah, I had some, you Know, they were having some, I think like grass fed salmon. I go, I don't think you are actually, you know, it's like, so there's grass fed, there's wild, I'm having wild pork. I'm like, huh, you know, so there's grass fed, wild, pastured, there's grass finished, there's organic.

Yeah, there's so much.

Yeah. And I think a lot of these titles are used very, in a great marketing way just to distract us from what the thing really is. It's like, well, when isn't salmon organic? Because I don't really know any non organic. Like, you know, isn't all salmon? Like, otherwise it'd be like a piece of plastic. Like what is it?

It's naturally organic. And there's no, there's no body, you know, governmental body to certify a salmon as organic. So that's a whole nother. But basically, I mean, I want to preface all this by saying you do the best you can with what you have, right? So even now that I am eating meat back into my diet, I definitely try and my product is that of course, try to source the highest quality. But again, we're not going to be so dogmatic that God forbid if you don't have the highest quality at all times for every meal, eating nothing.

Right?

No, I mean, I don't want to make it so that people feel like, oh well, it's a little elitist.

I have heard people say, so I don't know what to eat now because you've told me not to eat anything, so I'm just gonna have bars.

I was like, that's not the point. Bars are almost worse.

But no, the part is not my bars, missy.

No, of course not. But we want to eat as whole and as real as we can. So we want to look at these sources of anim animal proteins as the meat. So you want to start with meat as organic. That's sort of your basic, that's your first line of defense. It should be organic. And then we're going to look at grass fed and finished. And the differentiation between those two words is when you see on a label something that is grass fed, that all animals start their lives on grass. So if it's not 100% grass fed or the words grass fed and finished, it means that it didn't end its life on grass. And that's if you're trying to source the best nutrient profile, the healthiest animal in what it ate, you want to look for Those words either 100% grass fed or grass fed and finished. And again, meat is an evil. It's how we raise it, it's how it's prepared and it's what it's eaten. So you want to look at, you know, how the animal lived its life. And finishing its life on grass means that it is free of the antioxidants, I mean the antibiotics, the trace pesticides, the hormones. It has a better good profile of saturated fats. It's a great source of PUFAs and CLA's, conjugated linoleic acid. It's significantly better in its ratio of omega 3 fatty acids to omega 6. It's much higher in amounts of other vitamins and minerals like Zinc and its B12 profile. So all these are just giving you a better bang for your buck. If we move to chicken, the highest quality again is pasture raised. But that can be hard to source and especially to mass produce. That's a little bit, don't you find?

That's the hardest one. It's so much easier to find beef and to find pork than it is to find chicken.

Right, Very true. But hopefully we'll get there. I've sourced some, some people that can help me produce it, but I'm not there yet. So the next, you know, the next level down would be your free range chicken. And that is, you know, giving them access to the outdoors. And they do have, they're out outside, but it's not pasture raised where they live the whole, their whole life. Kind of like the, the meat out on grass. And then for seafood, you are looking for wild caught as opposed to farm raised. I mean, you really do want to try and stay away from farm raised.

There's some people that have said with farm raised because, you know, it's, it's not only looking for wild but then also looking for, you know, does it have mercury? What's the size of the fish? But there are, there are some arguments out there on sustainably raised farm raised fish. The challenge I see with that is you have no idea really how that was done. So unless you're visited this thing to see what they're actually feeding them, what, what kind of, if they're kept in close quarters, everything else you don't know. So yeah, that's where I think wild. But you also want to go beyond just wild and look at, you know, that's where I think Environmental work group still has that link on mercury. We'll find it and put it in the show notes about like, all right, what about mercury levels in these fishies?

Too, Right, right. And it's not, I mean, if you're again looking for nutrient density, it's better to say to the smaller sized fish. So sometimes if you're thinking, is this a fish that has a lot of mercury? The larger fish, like your tunas, you know, have more, more mercury than sort of a sardine or an anchovy or the smaller little guys.

Yeah. Gosh, in my next life, I will love sardines.

Oh, you don't like them yet, huh?

But I did find this tuna from my buddy over at Vital Choice, this thing called Ventruska, which is like ridiculously high in omega 3s and teeny weeny little tunas. I was traveling a bunch and I was being a little lazy person. So I was traveling with like a septic packed tuna rather than a septic packed wild sal. And next thing you know, boom. And I was like, I know better. So that's the challenge with this stuff is it sounds a little overwhelming, but actually it's easier than you think. And it can make a huge impact. I know you've done your share to make a huge impact. I mean, what, what made you decide? Because this is a big, like having your own food business. And I've, I started out as a caterer. I actually paid my way through, paid, paid my way into college, saved up for college catering and catered all through college and then catered again like 15 years ago and then went, never again. But you went into a food business? Oh my gosh.

Well, you know, a little background. My family owns restaurants in and around the Pasadena area. So I've grown up sort of in the food service business, not in the food manufacturing, but after, after incorporating different kind of animal proteins back into my diet. And you know how we talk to people about eating the rainbow of vegetables? I sort of eat the rainbow animal protein. I mean, I do a little salmon and lamb and venison, I mean, whenever I can find it, and turkey and poultry and I mean just an array of all sorts of different kinds of animals back in. And you know, when I was doing that, I wanted to look for high quality, which was what I was concerned with, and also how the animal was treated and what it's, it's the practices of the farm, what it's doing to our environment. So I took all these into consideration and I sourced from these farmers that I actually personally went and vetted. I wanted to make sure, are you treating the animals humanely? You know, what impact does this have on the environment? What kind of quality of food are you feeding these animals, you know, where, what pastures? Let me see the pastures. Let me see that. They're out there. As a matter of fact, the first time I went, we couldn't even find a cow. They're like, they're so far into the pastures we have to get on a tractor and go find them. And you know, having visited a CAFO feeding operation which is, is a confined animal feeding operation, it's night and day. I mean I left the feedlot like horrified. Like, how are these animals being treated? Why are we eating these? And they're factory farms. So part of me does believe it's not the cow, it's the how. It's what we're doing to these animals.

What a phrase.

I mean, so going down that path, I decided to make these wonderful little patties that. Because my dad's restaurants are hamburger restaurants. So we've always kind of been burger people. But I eat them a little bit more paleo style so sort of the bunless burger. And I know there's more of me out there that eat them this way and they're, you know, I just embarked into making them and feeling like if I'm eating this way and I know some more people care about being a conscious carnivore from all these, you know, reasons. I just mentioned that I'm going to see if I can make this affordable and attainable to all sorts of, you know, I did my first presentation to hold big mission. Yeah, no, it's been a journey. But you know, if I'm eating like this, I kind of say I want to change people's plate one bite at a time. And it does. It all starts with food. Everything starts with food. So if I can make my little dent and help, you know, even the handful of people my product will touch, that's a difference and that makes me feel good.

So for everybody listening, I know you're going to give and you'll be able to grab this in the show notes for going to your website at Trebali Foods. You'll be able to get 15% off and we'll put that at jjvirgin.com forward/tribali which is T R I B A L I tripali but where else can they find your products? What, you know, what and what are they like? Give us some of the yummy different ones because I know I've got some in my freezer and they're yummy sounding ones.

Yeah, I mean I would almost go as far to say as as meat can be the new superfood you know, if you incorporate these high quality animal meats back into your diet, they can be the new superfood. I flavored them so that they can stand alone on your plate and you don't have to put them in a bun and make a burger. Although you can if you like. So we have Mediterranean beef, which has notes of the Mediterranean where I grew up. We've got umami beef that's got some shiitake mushrooms, a little seaweed, some red boat fish sauce. Surprisingly, we've got a chipotle chicken that's got a little poblano salsa and a little kick to it. And then a couple sliders that just came out for the holiday season too. A pork and sage slider, which people are using as, you know, little breakfast sausage, if you will, and a chicken and apple. And they're very flavorful. I mean, they're just easy. You cook them straight from frozen. You don't have, you know, I'm a mom of three. I just wanted quick, convenient, delicious, effortless, like no brainer. And these are good for you too. And I could trust them.

I haven't heard yet from anybody who says, could you write some recipes that will make me have to be in the kitchen longer? I have yet to ever see that. But I think the big takeaway is you hear all of this stuff about we should be eating more plants. And I agree, I think we should be eating more plants than we are. Like 5 to 10 servings of vegetables, vegetables a day, non starchy. They argue that we shouldn't be eating any animal protein. And they keep, you know, the big takeaway here is there's a massive difference between a factory farmed animal and, you know, grass finished or wild or pastured animals. And so you've got to look at these things differently because when they're looking at that and it's, it's not, you're comparing apples to oranges when you do that. And, and it's just incorrect. So we've got to look at these things correctly and then also figure what works best for you with your goals and your outcomes and stage of life. But I love that you've kind of put your money where your mouth was and done a very actionable thing and made super easy for people to incorporate delicious, clean animal protein into their diet. Yeah.

And when it comes to what you're putting in your body, I really think quality over quantity. Right. And we all live fast paced lives. I mean, we'd love to cook some fresh breakfast, lunch and dinner, but we don't right. There's times where we've got to grab something and I'm not against packaged foods, obviously, but what I want to encourage everyone to be a discerning and conscious consumer. Turn that package around. And what I say, even to my three kids, if you can't pronounce it, you can't identify it and you can't source it, it's not going on mommy's package and it shouldn't go in your mouth. I mean, really, it should be. You should be able to understand what's on that ingredient label. And that's important. That's where as a conscious consumer you can make a difference is by refusing to purchase products with the chemicals and the additives.

Vote with your wallet. It's the best way that you can do. There's two important things. Vote with your wallet and if your kids will eat it, then you know you have a winner.

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Because you know, we did one, I remember doing a live stream and I cooked that up, some recipes of some of my cookies made with almond flour and, and stevia and, and one of my girlfriends brought her like 4 year old on the set to try them live. And I'm thinking, well, this could end badly. And the little girl's like, I want more. I'm like, oh, but that is, that is the ultimate test. So I just love that. I want to remind everybody that you are giving 15 off on the website. So go to jjvirgin.com forward/tribali and that is T T R I B A L I Tribali. Tribali. All right. Yes. Cool. Thank you so much, Angela. I super appreciate you being with us today.

Absolutely. Thank you for having me.

Sure. Now, after the break, I'll be answering a listener's question. So stay with me.

If you want to lose weight and even faster. Here's the two word extra fiber. JJ Virgin's extra fiber fights hunger, it's detoxifying and it's the secret to a healthy gut. JJ's extra fiber is grain free, paleo safe and doesn't contain any harmful irritants or allergenic proteins. So you can happily and more safely move toward your weight loss goals. Visit jjvirgin.comproducts to give your body the well rounded consumption of fiber it needs to help balance blood sugar, support healthy digestion and stay fuller longer. Visit jjvirgin.com products and get your fiber.

Welcome back. This is the time where I answer a listener's question and I go and search around on my Instagram and Facebook and I grab what's most appropriate to the podcast. So if you have not been hanging out with me on Instagram or Facebook, it's JJ Virgin on Instagram, it's JJ Virgin official on Facebook. And you can also go jump over to my YouTube channel and feel free to leave comments. DM us, because me and the team, because it takes a village out there. Plus, sometimes with my travels, I'm like, off the grid, and then I can't respond, and I hate that. So I have all of us in there answering questions, but also looking for those perfect questions for the podcast. And I always like to address things that that fit in with what we're talking about. And this is one that I see come up pop up a lot. I think it's a big source of confusion. And so when I saw it, I'm like, aha, there it is. It's from Maria. She says, so how much protein should I be eating? Well, it depends. Oh, don't you hate that answer? I'm like, I don't know. It depends. No. So here's a couple things. First of all, it's how much do you need? Which is going to vary, And I'm going to give you that. But also, how much are you digesting? The most important thing is that you also need to make sure that you're digesting your protein. And this is super important. Now, one of the things that you can do here is I recommend that everybody does a little test, a little enzyme test. So I have a product called Metabolic Digestive Balance. It's named that rather than digestive enzymes, which would be the obvious name, but we named it Metabolic Digestive Balance because it does something different. Most digestive enzymes out there digest protein, fat, and carbs. But what I discovered was that people are pretty good at digesting their carbohydrates. In fact, too good. And actually, when you use digestive enzymes that break down carbohydrates, what it can do is, is make you digest them faster and create a bigger blood sugar spike. I don't know about you, that's not the response I'm looking for. So what I did instead was create a product that helps with protein digestion but does not help with carbohydrate digestion. In fact, it actually slows it down by blocking some of the amylase enzyme so that you aren't going to absorb all the calories that you are eating and add to that a little boost from green coffee bean extract. So that's what I put together, hence the name Metabolic Digestive Enzyme. I actually Wanted to call it triple threat, but I got overruled. But that's what I want you to think of. It's kind of like this triple threat for your metabolism. But the most important thing is you want to make sure you're digesting your protein. If you're struggling with rosacea, if you get bloated after you eat, this could be a sign of low stomach acid. Happens as we age. Sorry to bring up that word because I know on this show we're all aging, but 30, 35 is when you start to see a decrease in hydrochloric acid. And also if you're under any stress, this is one of the first things to go as you start to lower hydrochloric acid, which is why oftentimes under stress, you'll start to get heartburn. And it's because your acid's too low. That food's then sitting around your stomach, not going anywhere and causing the acid to wash back up and cause a little heartburn. So I always say do a trial, see how you feel. It's very. You'll know right away. Take two before your meal of the metabolic digestive balance. If your heartburn goes away and you don't use this if you have have had. Had ulcers. But for most of us, that's not the issue. If you don't feel bloated, guess what? You win. So first thing, make sure you're actually breaking down the protein you're eating. So don't drink a load of water when you're eating. Don't, like, slam your food down and, you know, forget to chew. Right. We're not snakes. Okay, next part. How much should you eat? Well, here's some things that can shift your protein requirements. Are you healing? Like when my son was hit and had 13 fractures. 13 fractures and a severe traumatic brain injury, he's going to need more protein because he's doing a lot of healing. If you are. I'm going in for surgery in a couple months. I know that I am planning to have a lot of my bone broth shakes with collagen and branch chain amino acids to help me heal. So when you're healing, you're going to want to go on the higher end of protein needs than normal. But I also. If you're working on what's called autophagy, where you're eating up the bad cells in your body by doing intermittent fasting. Intermittent fasting plus lower protein levels can help you do that. So this is not a fixed thing. It's something that you might vary. So what I look at is your total lean mass. This is why I like people to look not just at their weight, but what their weight's made up of. You can do this with a Tanita body fat scale. So let's say that you find out that you, you weigh and I'm just going to make my math easy. I know this is ridiculous. You're not weighing 100 pounds. Let's say you weigh 100 pounds and you've got 20% body fat. So 100 pounds at 20% body fat would mean that you've got 80 pounds of fat free mass there or lean mass. What I tell people is you want to get in somewhere in the range of 1/2 to 1 gram of protein per pound of lean body mass. If you're, if you're super active, if you're working on putting on muscle mass, if you are a super athletic, if you're recovering from a surgery or a trauma or under a lot of stress, you're more catabolic, go to the high end. So most likely most of Us need about 0.75 grams per pound of fat free mass. But that gives you the range and then you want to make sure you're picking clean protein, clean lean animal protein, which we talked about today. And again I want to remind you jjvirgin.com Tribali T R I B A L I and you will get that super awesome freebie 15% off from my new buddy Angela. Alrighty. Make it a great week.

Bye bye.

That's all for this episode of the JJ Virgin Lifestyle show, which marks another step towards a healthier body and mind. Don't forget to rate, review and subscribe to the show and we'll talk to you next week. Toyota Thon is on, so stop by your local Toyota dealer and test drive a spacious grand Highlander or Ready for anything RAV4 with great financing and lease options available to qualified customers. Visit buyatoyota.com for more Toyoga let's go places.

The holidays mean more travel, more shopping, more time online and more personal info and more places that could expose you more to identity theft. But Lifelock monitors millions of data points per second. If your identity is stolen, our US based restoration specialists will fix it, guaranteed or your money back. Don't face drained accounts, fraudulent loans or financial losses alone. Get more holiday fun and less holiday worry with Lifelock. Save up to 40% your first year. Visit lifelock.com podcast terms apply.