#27 - ASK JORGE: Discover how my Dad overcame his cancer with guest co-hosts @navitaszach and @megadelmanrn.

Hi, I'm Jorge Cruise, number one New York Times bestselling author and celebrity trainer, and I want to welcome you to the all-new Jorge Cruise Podcast. Every week I'll bring you the shortcuts to work better, reduce pain, improve memory, and even sleep better. It's not just about intermittent fasting or getting a flat belly. My mission is to give you simple ways that will empower you to live as you choose. Welcome to the Jorge Cruise Podcast.

Well, welcome back to the podcast, guys. I'm so excited to be back here on this Monday. It's the 27th of April, and boy, as we continue this quarantine and the pandemic, you know, I am just so thrilled that we have a guest, or two guests, on the show today to continue our conversation about super immunity, because right now my mantra for myself, my family, my, my clients, whether they're celebrity or online, it's to just bolster immunity. And, you know, sometimes it takes a pandemic to get us to behave better. And I have given up a few things that I'm so happy and proud of myself that I never thought I would, that were acid-forming in my body. I've talked about it on Instagram and Facebook if you haven't seen it. I'm on a tea fast right now. I'm giving up coffee and haven't had wine in 2 weeks. So it's kind of crazy. I never thought I could say that. But, you know, not that you need to do that, guys. But on today's show, we're going to talk about a product that and a superfood that I was introduced to when I was 17 years old by my mom, Gloria. She passed over 20 years ago, and it was due to the fact that my dad Mel at the time had prostate cancer, and he did not take what the doctors told him way, way back then as death sentence for one year lightly, and he went into the deep sea, if you will, and deep end of the health world and was very much an innovator in that sense, and discovered a place in San Diego, California, in Lemon Grove, California, called the Optimal Health Institute. And when I was 18 years old, I went with him there after he had been there the first time. And he's like, "Son, you gotta discover this wheatgrass." And he was having it night and day. And he gave me some, and I was like, "Whoa, this stuff is strong." But then I attended lectures and learned about what its properties were and how it's a superfood with chlorophyll, has zero calories for us watching our weight, so it doesn't break a fast. You can start your morning with this. And I'm so excited to say that I'm adding this to my morning routine as well now during the pandemic, and I don't think I'm ever going to stop. So super excited that on the other side here of the line here, I've got Meg and her husband Zach, and they're the duo of Navitas. And what an incredible team you guys are. And I want to thank you guys for all your time last week. And I know you guys started this company with the maca products and what a great, what a great insight on how this started. But I wanted to ask you, Zach or Meg, you know, first, welcome to the show. Welcome back, guys. How have you been through this pandemic? You guys holding up, I'm sure. Yeah. Yeah.

Thanks, Jorge. Thanks for having us on the show again. We're excited to be back. And yes, we're hanging in there with our family and Yeah, it's not been— it's been a crazy few weeks.

I don't know, Meg.

Hi, Jorge. Glad to be here with you again.

So happy you're here, Meg.

Yeah, we're blessed. I mean, you know, we're trying to find the silver lining here, you know, and, you know, and, and there is a silver lining.

And, you know, as we prepare, whether it's short-term or long-term, and, you know, I always hope for the best but expect the worst. And, you know, I'm, I'm just wanting to get well. And so for me, wheatgrass is something I used to get fresh when I could, and you know, I don't go to the store unless I need to. So let's start with this guy's wheatgrass. It's this green product, for those of you at home that have heard of it or seen it. A lot of celebrities I work with know about it. Brooke Burke in Malibu uses it. Cindy Crawford, I know, uses it. A lot of high-end celebrities. Lady Gaga, I've seen her use it at a place we have in Malibu called SunLife Organic, which is kind of like a healthier Jamba Juice. But the thing is, it's typically very strong and difficult to get, because you got to get it fresh, and then you add water, or it comes with water, you can dilute it so it's not as strong. But I've been aware of it for now 30 years almost, if not more, and since my dad's, since his death sentence, guys. So share with us, maybe Meg, maybe you go first from a medical background, because you have that background and understand the body at the level that I wish I did. But in the sense of alkalinity, that I do know is very important to keep your body healthy, and acid, That's why I've given up the coffee and the wine for now. If I do it, I add minerals to alkalinize, like magnesium, potassium. Wheatgrass, it has chlorophyll in its center. Maybe we start with chlorophyll and how you guys, or how your perspective on it, Megan, why it's so beneficial to the immune system and how easy it is now. Obviously, people are thinking, "Well, it's like fresh and frozen." This is dried and it's a powder. But take it away and tell us a little bit about how this wheatgrass works and then why this powdered version with zero calories, which I love, is as effective and convenient right now during this pandemic.

Yeah, I mean, I think when we're looking, you know, sort of how to get by during this crazy period, it's best to kind of look what you can stock your pantry with that's sort of shelf stable. And that's obviously all of our products. The wheatgrass in particular is considered a living food. It has amazing antioxidant, antibacterial, and anti-inflammatory properties. It's an amazing source of vitamins and minerals and obviously chlorophyll. It's 50% chlorophyll. And our wheatgrass is actually a wheatgrass juice powder. So it's, it's directly dried from the juice and not the actual whole wheatgrass itself, which takes away all that, you know, fiber, which we can't really digest anyway.

Exactly.

But it really is an alkalizing product. And as, as you know, the acid-base balance in the body is critical to sort of having all of our organ systems and all of our metabolism function properly. And so it really just supports that at every level in the body to help, to help us really kind of get the most out of our nutrition. And sort of in effect detoxifies as a result.

And I think right now so many people, I mean, I was reading about how, and it's kind of funny, but a lot of people, whether they're everyday people or celebrities, but they're all at home, obviously in quarantine, and it's become either, you know, if you look at the glass half empty, it feels like they're in jail, and if you look at it half full, it's like they're at a spa, you know, forever. And I feel like, you know, it's hard to get this darn wheatgrass. My dad, just to tell the story for a second, used to get these, I want to say like 2x2 deliveries of 2 feet by 2 feet of this wheatgrass, literally growing with the young blades and all that. And he would cut it and put it in kind of a grinder, kind of like a meat grinder, and would get the juice. And boy, we knew when that came every week and he'd have enough for the whole week, because he was committed, you know, he was in his mid-50s and the doctors told him they had 1 year and so we would drink it with him. He would wake me up in the morning, I remember being like 19 and home in the summer from college at UCSD and he'd make me 6 ounces of wheatgrass, not diluted, just straight up and I was like, oh my God, Dad, please.

It was strong. That's pretty bold.

Oh, he was bold, but he, you know, he went in all the way and so I know with this, it's great because you can put as much as you want. Typically, what do you guys recommend, Zach, like half a teaspoon, right?

Yeah, I think, yeah, it's about a quarter teaspoon or half a gram will give you the equivalent to a traditional wheatgrass shot. Okay.

Yeah.

I remember back in the old school health food store days and co-ops that you see around the country still before Whole Foods and Sprouts blew up, you would go to these health food stores and they would have the wheatgrass growing in the juice and smoothie bars. Back in the early '90s, and we would find ourselves in these, uh, these great retailers and, uh, have these juice shots. So I think the most important thing when you're looking for a wheatgrass product is to make sure it is a juiced powder, ideally freeze-dried. So they take the juice powder and they freeze dry it.

So, um, and is that how you guys do it? Tell us the process because I'm fascinated with this because I'm adding it to my morning routine. And you know, I fast all day, but this doesn't break the fast. So, I mean, tell us how you guys converted.

Yeah, and it's super easy to incorporate, to just reconstitute it with, you know, an ounce or two of water or how strong you want the flavor. The nutrients are in the powder, so you could make it, you know, 1 or 2 ounces or 4 or 6 ounces just with a half a gram or a quarter teaspoon. It's a little bit goes a long way in the concentrated form that it is. And as Megan said, it is shelf stable, but there are other products on the market that sell wheatgrass and it can be where they take the grass and they mill it up and often they even just pull the grass out of the ground and mill up the root balls. And that's just not the same product. Yeah. As what we're doing and not what you're looking for from a wheatgrass product. It has to be juiced. No, we're not— as humans, you're not designed to consume grasses other than the juices that come from them.

No, and I know that's important. A lot of people think, oh, can I just get wheatgrass and put it on there? And the thing is, it takes so much grass to— I remember my dad, I mean, as much as he got this 2x2 foot thing every week, he'd get 2 of them, uh, it wouldn't last that long because he would— it takes a lot of grass. I mean, there's a lot of product in these tiny, uh, satchels. I mean, how— what's the equivalent of what's in a satchel? Because you guys sell it in a I mean, I have it here in my kitchen and it lasts forever.

Yeah, it's 1 ounce that we sell and that is basically the equivalent of, I think, like 60 servings or something that is in there.

Wow.

So like I said, a little goes a long way. So 56 servings in one of our pouches. And when you buy the pouch, it feels like there's nothing in there because it's only 1 ounce in there. Yeah, it's so concentrated and so packed with nutrients that, as I said, a little goes a long way.

I love that.

And I love that you can also— because on your website— and I love— no, go ahead.

One thing I would say is it's American grown, which is always nice. For a lot of the superfoods that we sell come from around the world, and this is one of the few that we bring from here in the United States, and we're excited about that.

No, I love that. I mean, we got to support America and, you know, this, this has grown here. Has that been affected with the pandemic or are they still able to grow it or should people stockpile a little bit?

I hate to ask.

I mean, I might as well though, because I sure need some.

No, we don't really feel really into the hoarding. There's plenty to go around.

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It's grown in greenhouses in the Northeast, and there's been, You know, not wide, you know, especially with the plant-based foods. We haven't really seen an interruption, huge interruptions in the supply chain, thankfully.

Well, and I want to take a second to tell everyone listening that, you know, when I go to the store once a week, or usually, you know, sometimes twice, but I usually hit Whole Foods or Trader Joe's and go to Costco. I do a little rounds of all of them. But when I go to Whole Foods, I mean, I'm always surprised the vitamin CL is packed. I mean, Packed, I should say, it's empty, it's off the shelves. And then I see stuff like your camu and I see the wheatgrass. People, like this is, I think this is so important that people realize that these products, because they're in food form, are so much more bioavailable. And maybe Meg, you could talk about this because much as I've seen wheatgrass capsules and pills and chlorophyll and all that, but this is truly from the juice And it's literally as if it were juiced right there, but the effectiveness of this is comparable to the real deal. And I think that's so important because it's not just vitamin C you want to bulk up on and not just capsules and pills. If you can get it in food form, because I love— last week we talked about camu as well briefly, and we're going to do a whole thing on it really soon as well. But, you know, with immunity at stake, how can people— how can we motivate people to try this, Meg? What would you tell them right now from your heart about how wheatgrass is rare, because it really, for me, you know, I've been embracing it for, I mean, I can't say 30 years for too many other products, but this one since I was a late teenager, 17, 18, and I remember the power of this. And my dad was a living testament. I mean, I talked about him and his success in every one of my books, and I've written over 30 of them. But give them a little bit from your perspective as someone who understands the body and how this is different than just taking vitamin C or some pill, right?

Yeah, you know, eating whole foods as close to their natural state as possible is the way to go as far as being able to maximize all of the nutritional benefits of those products. And you kind of nailed it on the head. It's about this sort of bioavailability. It's about the body's ability to recognize it as such and absorb it and use it for its, you know, physiological function. And frankly, you know, the— a lot of the supplements and, you know, a lot of products out there, they have other ingredients in them that are kind of additive ingredients that either enhance or they don't— they negate the effect of absorb— absorbability of those nutrients, or they're just filler. And so the body works to break those down. So I'm thinking about isolates and things like that. Yeah. Often found in foods. If you're looking at a label and you can't figure out what that word means, it's probably not gonna be good for you. So ultimately, yeah, the whole foods approach is really kind of the best way to maximize the nutritional benefit of the products. And I think ultimately, it's so easy to use these things. You can put wheatgrass, you can do the traditional shot, like your dad did. And if you, you know, or you can put it into salad dressings. It's a great additive for any smoothie. We make guacamole, like a green guacamole.

I was going to say, I'm obsessed with the one fruit I am eating these days, you know, because most fruits are high in sugar, but the guacamole or the avocado. And you guys have on your website this incredible green, extra green guacamole. Can you tell them about that? Because I want to share that on the podcast. And you guys will have that on the link here as well, but tell them about the ingredients, 'cause it looks amazing, and yet it becomes like a super guac, right?

Yeah, I mean, basically it just amps up your guacamole to a new level, and, you know, makes it just more nutritionally benefit. Obviously, guacamole is pretty darn good for you regardless.

Yup.

But, you know, whenever you add in wheatgrass, you just change the nutritional profile of that food to be able to, you know, pack more punch.

Yup.

And our, you know, we had a great chef who helped us design a lot of these recipes. This one happens to be fantastic. And, um, but we also have done like a green hummus where we use wheatgrass, um, as, you know, just to enhance that as well. So there's a lot of ways you can just add it in that are surprisingly tasty, um, and they just bring a whole lot of nutritional value to whatever you're eating.

Yep. And I'm looking at all the recipes under the wheatgrass area on your site, and I have to I mean, my eyes are going to this delicious maca— what is it? Inchi shake? The maca inchi? Am I saying it right?

Oh yeah, it's probably with the sacha inchi plant.

There it is, yes, because I've read about that. That's a fatty acid, right guys?

Yes.

Tell us about that, because what a way to break the fast, guys. I mean, as much as we're all eating at home all the time, you know, I'm— as much as I love a salad and, you know, a little protein It's sometimes nice to have a delicious, delicious shake. Tell them about how that one's made, guys, if you don't mind. Yeah.

I mean, when you include the Sacha Inchi in there, you're getting some protein and you're getting some fatty acids. But yeah, I don't have the recipe in front of me right now.

Oh, no, no, but it has maca. I'm looking at it, maca and then lucuma. Powder. Tell us about those.

Is another Indian. So a lot of our products, um, you know, over the years have come from Peru, which is a place I like to call that has the mother lode of superfoods, uh, plant-based superfoods.

I love that.

So lucuma is an interesting fruit, uh, that grows at about the mid-level of the Andes, uh, and it's more used as a a natural sweetener and flavor. It's a really popular ice cream flavor, as an example, in Peru. Um, it's got some nutritional benefit, but it's added for flavor more than anything. Whereas Sacha Inchi has, you know, a lot of protein in it, fatty acids. So it's something that you can find in the market. We don't actually sell the Sacha Inchi, but you can see we, we, we create recipes that incorporate lots of different plant-based foods. Even ones where we don't always sell. So maca, as we talked about on our last podcast, was our flagship product where we started. Very, very healthy, unique nutritional benefits from healthy root vegetable that grows up in the Andes. So you'll often find maca in a lot of our recipes and as a core ingredient in a lot of our value-added products that we sell as well.

I mean, since you, you and I spoke last week, I mean, I've been using it more and I can just tell you the energy in my cooking concentration. I mean, I really get why you guys made it all start with that, but I, I'm excited. These recipes are amazing. And as we wrap up, guys, I want to make sure people can find this stuff. Remind them it's available everywhere— Amazon, uh, Whole Foods, your website. Would you guys mind sharing your website and your social again? Zach, I know you did last week, but let's make sure that they have all access. And I want you guys to try this and really embrace the wheatgrass though, guys. I mean, I can tell you, for someone who's been in the health business I'm 49 and I've been in this since college, so ever since I graduated in my early 20s and all the great people I've met from the Oprahs to the Tony Robbins to Dr. Mark Hyman to Dr. Mehmet Oz, I can tell you wheatgrass has never ever been something anyone has said not to do. I mean, they always say it's hard to get or this and that, but I have never heard anything negative about it. The power of it during this pandemic will give you that advantage. So would you guys mind sharing where they, your website and your social and we'll wrap up and I'm excited to talk to you guys next week too. It's gonna be great.

Absolutely. Yeah, so you can always find us at www.navitasorganics.com and that's N-A-V-I-T-A-S organics.com. We're @NavitasOrganics on IG, Twitter, and Facebook. And Zach and I— Zach, you can reach Zach on IG @NavitasZach, and me @MegAdelmanRN. But I just wanted to end by saying, you know, wheatgrass is a very energizing food as well. So from that chlorophyll benefit, you can really, you know, between the maca and this and wheatgrass. They're both very energizing, so we all need a little bit of that right now.

Oh, there's no question. We need the edge and, uh, and, and bolstering our immunity with an energy base and doing it in a way that doesn't break your fast. For everyone following, uh, you know, the Flat Belly Method, is, is a dream come true for me and for everyone out there. So let's, uh, let's embrace some wheatgrass, guys. Check it out online, guys. I'll talk to you next week. I'm super excited. Take good care and, uh, Let's all remember that, you know, our health is so important. And I think the pandemic is reminding us all, right, a big push or a great little tap on the shoulder that we got to take care of this. And the great thing is with simple products that you guys have, I think we can make it more convenient and hopefully make it a part of our new routine moving forward and even beyond the pandemic. Because for me, we didn't even talk about this, but I know it's something that can help and and kind of slow down aging, and it's just a tool that wheatgrass and all these superfoods that can really benefit us to have quality of life. So cheers to that, right guys?

Cheers, Jorge.

Agreed.

Cheers, Jorge.

All right guys, talk soon. We'll see you next week. Take care, guys. Bye-bye.

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