Label Fables - What You Need to Know About Food Labels

Okay, we already have one person. That's excellent. All right, so we're live with this webinar, and this is going to be a good webinar. This is going to be better than you think it's going to be. It's, um, it's definitely a subject that, you know, a lot of people don't know a lot about. And when they find out about it, they're quite shocked. So this is going to be a lot more interesting than you think. So I'm going to get into firstly what, you know, what food is and what ultra-processed food is and why we need to be careful of it and what to look for on the labels. So welcome to Label Fables. Okay, cool. So food, the definition of food is that which is consumed to sustain life, provide energy, and promote the growth and repair of tissues. So it's a simple definition. So that which is consumed To sustain life, provide energy, and promote the growth and repair of tissues. So the growth and repair of tissues and sustain life. So if you look at the word, it means to continue on. So all right, if you're not, if life is not being sustained, and you don't have energy. And your ability to repair and grow muscle and bone is not as good as it should be. There may be something wrong with your food. All right, so then that's that's the definition of food. Let's have a look at the definition of ultra. So beyond what is ordinary, excessively or extremely. So extremely. Then we're going to get into the word processed food. So processed is having been subjected— this is with regards— this is a definition which is applicable to food. So having been subjected to high heat, which is bad, pressure, which also becomes high heat, and chemicals to extract or remove components. All right, so we have food that has, has been excessively subjected to high heat, pressure, and chemicals to extract or remove components. That doesn't sound too healthy to me, and that is actually what's going on on, on this planet at the moment is that we have a lot of foods that are apparently, you know, healthy and passed as being generally safe to consume by the FDA or by other health organizations. And they're not. You know, obviously, big food is just like any other, any other big or big entity that has a lot of money and has a lot of clout and can get their way by throwing money at something. So just keep that in mind as we go through this. All right. So I'm sure we're all on the same page on that anyway. Otherwise, you wouldn't be listening to me. Okey dokey. So then let's have a look at. Some of the labels that, um, you know, that, that you need to be looking for and what you need to look at on those labels. So when I get into it here, it's on a, on a label, are really what you should be looking at. The, the ingredients are like out there, you know what they are. It's like, okay, so we're going to be drinking orange juice, you know, it's like, what's the, what's the ingredients? Orange, orange pulp, orange juice, you know, blah blah sugar. The other ingredients are the things that they add to process it. Okay, so what you need to look at is the order of those ingredients and other ingredients. So they always put the largest content first. So let's say it's orange juice. If If oranges are not the first ingredient in orange juice, then that's already a red flag. So if it's something like you know high fructose corn syrup, you know that's the first ingredient. That means that's that's the highest property in that in that product. So um so they listed from highest quantity to the lowest quantity. The first three ingredients. Are especially important, so as they constitute the largest portion of the product. So you've got to make sure that those are, you know, the good healthy ones. The other thing that you've got to look at is, you know, how long is that list of ingredients? So if it's like longer than 3 lines, it's an ultra-processed food. And red flags that you've got that you can look at in that is You know, if the top ingredients contain like refined grains, sugars, hydrogenated oils, which is like sunflower oil, canola oil, vegetable oil, there's all sorts of names for that, then the product is most likely unhealthy. One of the major things on any kind of product, and especially health products, is the front label claims. So the front label of food packaging, it often includes claims like keto-friendly, low-carb, no added sugar is a good one. I often get people going, but this has no added sugar. Yes, it's got no added sugar, it's got no added sugar, and this is misleading because it has a ton of sugar in it. It's got no added sugar though. So this is like, these are marketing tactics. These claims are often intended to make products appear healthy, and they're actually not. And, you know, or these health claims on the front label increase the likelihood of a product being chosen, even if it contains unhealthy ingredients. It's interesting, it's like a psychology thing, you know, it's like they mess with your mind. So it's the healthy alternative, start your day the healthy way, you know, and these little claims on the front of the packaging, a little red emblem at the bottom of the, you know, on the side, it says some healthy little thing, and people go, oh, wow, and they take it off the shelf and they put it in their cart, you know, so, you know, I mean, examples of this kind of food is like whole grain Cocoa Puffs, Whole grain may imply it has some kind of health benefits, but if you look closer at the ingredients, it will reveal that it has high levels of sugar. So, all right, let's have a look at understanding serving sizes. So this is also another thing. This is another lie that they that they spin out there with regards to getting you to buy a product where they've found a loophole in the law. So nutrition labels provide information based on a standard serving size, but these serving sizes are often way smaller. Than what a person would typically eat. You know, like a basic packet of chips, for instance, potato chips. The serving size on it would often be like, you know, 3 or 4 chips. And so it's deceptive. You know, the manufacturers use small serving sizes to downplay the calories, the sugar, the fat content per serving. For instance, one serving might be listed as like half a can of soda, you know, but you don't see it though, it doesn't say half a can of soda, it says serving size like 100 milliliters or 50 milliliters and it contains 3 grams of sugar, but the whole can is 300 milliliters. So you've got— you're getting 9 grams of sugar in that soda, which is supposedly a low-sugar soda, you know. Or a serving size might be a quarter of a chocolate bar, you know, or a single cookie. That, that's a serving, you know. Like, don't eat the whole packet of cookies. And I don't know who does that, eats a whole packet of cookies. I know none of us Have you ever eaten a whole packet of cookies? You know, so, so a serving size, a single, a single cookie has say five grams of sugar in it. You're sitting there, you're going, and you're dipping them in your tea or your coffee, and you're just chucking them down. And before you know it, you've had like twelve of these things, and they each contain five grams of sugar. So, you know, many people mistakenly consume the entire packet, mistakenly. Consume the entire packet, thinking they've consumed a single serving, when in reality they may have consumed 12 servings. So that's— you've got to look at the serving size on the packaging and then calculating your true intake. So if you consume multiple servings, remember to multiply the calories, the sugar, the fats by the number Of servings that you that you actually ate, you know. So so that's extremely important when you're when you're looking at when you're buying products off the shelf. So if you're buying something in a box or in a packet, it is already a red flag that it's that it's on a shelf to the center of the grocery store because they never put the health products in the center of the grocery store. Go and look at your grocery store. It's the same here in South Africa. All of the products are all of the health products around the edges where people never go. All of those processed products are in the middle and center. So if it's in the center of the grocery store, in a box or a packet, it's probably ultra processed food, and it's there's lies all over the labels, and you've got to be able to read those those lies. There's also there's certain laws which say that you don't have to indicate sugar in the product if, um, if the serve— if the, if the amount or the volume of sugar in it is less than, like, I don't know, half a gram or something. So they go, you know, one serving size is this and it's less than half a gram, but also— but the serving size that they're putting on the package is no one ever is ever going to eat that. You know, they would eat way more than that, which would bring it up to three or four grams of sugar. You know, so you've got to look at those kinds of things as well. No added sugar. Don't get fooled by that. And I'm going to get into like the keto and low carb type products and how they fool people. You know, with those like keto bars, low carb bars, you know, all of these things. To be quite honest with you, I look at the ingredients in. 95% of these kinds of products. And I'm like, either these people don't know what keto is and low carb is, or they're outright liars, you know. So, you know, you've got to really be able to navigate that. I'm putting a bunch of advice letters on the description of this video, which you can download. And one of them is what I'm just talking about now, which is the Guide to Reading Food Labels. And then there's another one which I'm not really going to get much into because it's quite long, is the Ultra-Processed Foods. That's a really good one though. Everybody should read that. That's a really good one. All right, now let's get into some of the ingredients that we should look out for. So, you know, if you, if you look on the back of your box, you have your ingredients, other ingredients, and then you have nutritional facts. And that the nutritional facts are often where the lies are exposed. So it's like, you'll find that Sugar is not mentioned in the ingredients or other ingredients, but yet, if you look in the nutritional facts, it shows like three grams of sugar, you know, in the nutritional facts. And you're like, where does that sugar come from? That's interesting, you know. So so you the nutritional facts are are always something you've got to look at, and the carbohydrates as well. The carbohydrate content. Against the fiber content in the food and all of these kinds of things. You've got to look at that. So it's not just the ingredients you've got to look at, it's another little block that's called nutritional facts. Those are quite telling, and those often, if you look at the two, it doesn't make any sense because sugars are not mentioned in the ingredients or other ingredients, but yet there's sugar in the nutritional facts. Like, okay, where do those sugars come from? So they've hidden it in the ingredients with their clever little serving size thing, but they have to show it in the nutritional facts. Keep that in mind, that's a very devious little ploy. And like I was saying earlier about the way they set out the supermarket or the grocery store, you've got to watch for that as well. So if your health products are sitting in the center of the grocery store, 9 out of 10, it's not a health product, it's an unhealth product. All right, so different types of ingredients that we need to look out for, and I'm not going to go into all of it because you're going to get this if you can download this document. But it's interesting to see what's put into these products and what they do and how it's like All seems to be okay. Like the FDA recognizes these as generally safe, so it's it's it's generally safe. They call it grass. Generally recommended as safe. G R A S. And you know, I don't know about you, but I'm I don't have a lot of. Faith in, in those kinds of organizations which regulate our food and our drugs. You know, it just doesn't make any sense to me. And usually the CEOs of these organizations come from, like, a big agri organization, you know, where they, where they spray your crops with all this deadly stuff. And, or a pharmaceutical company, you know, like, It's like just doesn't make any sense. It's like a conflict of interest for me. All right, cool. So there's a few major culprits when it comes to bad ingredients, and one of them is sulfites. So sulfites are used to keep prepared foods like cold meats, ham, that kind of thing. If you ever saw how they process ham, No, it's horrible. It really is. It doesn't look like it goes through that much processing, but it is very bad. It goes through ultra-high heat, ultra-high pressure, ultra-high ingredients. It's like just insane. So, um, so anyway, sulfites, they cause breathing problems, you know, like that's, that's been known to cause breathing problems. I know this because I grew up Kind of asthmatic. I used to have the sports-induced. Well, I thought it was sports-induced asthma, but it was actually you know ingredient-induced asthma. You know, I was very sensitive to all sorts of things like you know sodium benzoate and all these preservatives that they put in food. All right. So the other thing, let's have a look here. So potassium bromate, they put it in bread. to make its volume better. And also, and then the big, one of the big culprits is monosodium glutamate, MSG. So, it's a flavor enhancer. It actually is known to paralyze your taste buds open so that you get more flavor in. So, you can imagine what it's doing to your insides, paralyzing your taste buds open. And so, it's linked to nerve damage, heart problems, seizures. But yet, they still put it in food, and it's generally recommended as safe by the FDA. So there you go. Refined vegetable oil, I'm not even going to go into that. Soybean, safflower, canola, peanut oil, they're all high in omega-6, and that just causes health problems. Sodium benzoate, which was the one that used to mess me up, it's a carcinogen. It causes damage to your DNA. That's probably why I have a tail. And then let's have a look at some sweetness. So saccharin. So people, if you go and Google or look for what a saccharin is, it talks about different kinds of sugars, but it's actually a carcinogen found to cause bladder cancer. So that's what saccharins are. So if you see saccharin on the ingredients, Leave it alone. Aspartame, I think we all know that aspartame shouldn't be in there. High fructose corn syrup. So high fructose corn syrup is contained in a lot of like energy gels, and it's like it's made from genetically modified corn, and it causes— it literally causes obesity, diabetes, heart problems, arthritis. And insulin resistance. So insulin resistance is like a lower version of diabetes type 2. Sucralose, you find that in Splenda. It's horrible stuff. It causes inflammation of the liver and your kidneys and shrinkage of your thymus gland, which has so many functions in the body. You just don't want it. Agave nectar. So people are always asking me about agave nectar. That's a natural It's not. It's a horrible thing. It's derived from a cactus, and it contains high levels of fructose. Fructose is the worst kind of sugar that you can have. I don't care what anybody says. Fructose is the worst kind of sugar that you can have. It literally messes your liver up because your liver is the only thing in your body that can process it, and it doesn't do a good, very good job of it. It literally just turns it straight into liver fat. So if you're eating a lot of fruit, you can expect, and it can even cause like an alcoholic type of. Bleached starch. Yeah, well, I mean, that is in a lot of dairy products, so it makes your milk very white and your creams and your cheese very white and so on. And then there's a whole lot of colorants, you know, Yellow No. 5 and Raw Bixen and all of these things, but you can read about that on that advice letter. I think you pretty much get the idea of that. Here's one I want to get into. This is something that a lot of people know about, but I don't think they know the extent of the damage that this particular thing does. It's the worst thing that you could probably put in food. It's called maltodextrin. Maltodextrin is like a highly processed carbohydrate often added to various food supplements. And even vitamin supplements, you know. So, so like if you're— you think you're getting some, some nice vitamin C, and you look in it, it's got maltodextrin in it, and it says it's got zero sugar because maltodextrin is not actually classified as a sugar. But I'm going to get into what a lie that is shortly. So, so it's a highly processed And while it seems harmless, so maltodextrin has significant implications for health, especially regarding blood sugar levels and metabolic health. So, you know, the glycemic index, it ranks foods on a scale of 1 to 100. Like, pure glucose is like scoring 100 and the highest possible value. Maltodextrin, Ranks 105. It's like higher than the highest that you can rank, but it's not a sugar. So this is put in, um, it's put in keto bars, protein shakes, um, it's put in, you know, low-carb foods, and it's putting vitamins, and they even deceptively put it in like sugar alcohols like stevia and don't show you that because they don't have to name the drying agent that was used to dry out stevia because the stevia comes from a leaf, so it's wet and it's soggy, and so they've got to dry it out somehow. So normally what they do, they freeze dry it, but when it gets very cheaply made, because maltodextrin is super cheap, they just spray it with maltodextrin, and then it dries out, and then they give it to you as stevia, and you think, well, I'm on a nice diet here and I should be losing weight, but I'm actually putting on weight. I don't understand where that's coming from. And it's your stevia. It's the drying of the stevia. Yeah, so though it's not labeled as a sugar, maltodextrin behaves like sugar when consumed. Manufacturers often use it To sweeten products without listing sugar on it, on the nutritional panel. So as a result, the consumer may unknowingly ingest more sugar than they realize. Like for example, like low-fat diet snacks. You know, they shouldn't be on a low-fat diet anyway. That's just stupid. That'll literally wreck your thyroid gland. Make you insulin resistant. They put it in protein powders, they put it in sugar-free sweeteners, like I said before, Splenda, that spikes your blood glucose, it's very high on the glycemic index, and it's a rapid increase in blood sugar as well, it goes like this, bang, and your insulin just kicks in, and that's When you have too much of it, it can actually cause diabetes. So people think that they are eating— I actually saw diabetic-friendly cookies the other day in a supermarket, and it had maltodextrin in it. I was like, huh? That's like the opposite of diabetes-friendly cookies. So, don't ever— so always look for maltodextrin. It's the worst thing. So it causes your insulin resistance, diabetes type 2. and all those things. It also interferes with your nutrient absorption. So it contributes to vitamin deficiencies and mineral deficiencies and all sorts of nutritional deficiencies. It has empty calories. So you're putting these calories in your body which are making you fat, but these calories can't be used. It's like such a lie. All right, so if you're looking for maltodextrin in your product, I would stay away from all protein bars, all protein powders, meal replacement shakes, infant formulas. Like, can you believe it? They put it in infant formulas and it just ruins children and it ruins their immune system. It's like you shouldn't be using infant formulas. Make your own infant formula if you're going to be— if that's, you know, canned fruits. And sauces, salad dressings are full of maltodextrin, you know, so you've got to look out for all of those things. And then they put maltodextrin in beer to make it sweeter, and it doesn't increase the alcohol content, but it gives the beer body. And it makes it sweeter, and it makes it taste nice. It's like num num num, you know, and in actual fact, it's messing with your health. And it also uses a use it as a filler in foods to give it more volume and texture. And yeah, so so you need to just be very careful when looking at keto-friendly products and and low-carb products and health products in general because they usually lies on those labels. Make your own food. That's the simple way of doing it. The food industry just loves maltodextrin. It just loves it because it's inexpensive, it has sugar-like properties, but it doesn't alert consumers to its sugar-like properties. You know, it's a little bit like covert and insidious the way it gets into your diet, and it can enhance flavors without needing to be listed as a sugar. So, yeah, I would definitely steer clear of it. So what can we have? You know, like, okay, so all the things we can't have. So, you know, if you're looking for a sweetener, I would go with— there's 2 sweeteners that I would go with because they're usually pretty clean, and erythritol is one of them. It's keto-friendly. It has zero calories, zero on the glycemic index, so it has no significant impact on insulin levels because insulin is what makes you fat, remember? And it makes you sick if you have too much of it. It's derived from fermented cornstarch, so that sounds like it's bad, but when stuff— when something's fermented, it changes them. It changes it. It's a natural way of processing something. It's not the chemical process of something. So it makes it more digestible, and it's not an unhealthy thing when something is fermented. In actual fact, you know, I'm very anti-soy, but fermented soybeans are actually quite good for you, you know. So fermentation is a good way of making something edible and healthy. So it's also known for its mild sweetness, and it also doesn't mess your stomach up too much like a lot of these sugar alcohols do. And a lot of these sugar alcohols, they get into your digestive system, and then they start going like, they start churning up your digestive system. And you get gas, and you can get diarrhea, and all sorts of things from them. But erythritol has a very mild effect on that. And the next one is xylitol. So, this is, xylitol's okay. The problem with xylitol is, It's either made from the bark of a birch tree, which is the organic version, then you get them that are made from corn cobs. So if you're getting the one that's made from corn cobs, it's probably GMO, and it's probably sprayed down with maltodextrin, and you should probably stay away from it. Xylitol is low on the glycemic index, but it's not zero. It has definitely got fewer calories than sugar, and it has reduced the effect on blood glucose, you know, but excessive consumption can cause a problem. So it's not a bad one to use, you can use xylitol if you have to, it's quite sweet. I personally don't like the taste of xylitol, but I do like monk fruit. So monk fruit is also like similar to erythritol where it has zero calories, zero on the On the glycemic index, keeps your insulin levels low. So it's a proper like diabetic-friendly type of sweetener. So for those looking looking to avoid the blood sugar strikes spikes, I would go for for monk fruit. We use monk fruit in our house mostly. We also use erythritol, but you know you can combine the two for texture, you know, and it offers a smooth. kind of taste, and it's a staple diet in keto-friendly desserts, and they're totally fine. Alright, stevia is the one, you know, I use stevia in a lot of our supplements, and it's not bad at all. The problem is the fillers that they use with stevia. If you don't get— I get a pharmaceutical grade when I make our supplements, so it doesn't have any of that in it. But people, these manufacturers put maltodextrin, they put dextrose in there, you know, and these things just— why don't you just eat sugar? You know, it's probably healthier for you than having stevia with maltodextrin and, you know, and the other stuff, dextrose in it. And then, you know, again, just quickly, maltitol, not good. It has fewer calories than sugar, but it's fairly high on the glycemic index, and it does cause blood sugar spikes. So, you know, it's commonly found in low-sugar chocolates or candies or baked goods, but maltitol is not a good sweetener to go for. Neither is agave, because it's high in fructose and can be a serious burden on the liver, and it'll interfere with your ketosis. You just won't get into or stay in ketosis. So it's commonly found in health food products and natural— as a natural sweetener. So, all right, you do need to, you know, not consume too much of these sugar alcohols because it can cause problems with the gut, cause bloating, diarrhea. You know, you don't want all of that going on. Okay, and then, so, so either— are some questions that I wanted to answer that we got before the, before the webinar, and these are— let me just get them. All right, so So is it more important to invest in low-carb diet, or is it more important to invest in a low-carb diet or organic? Both. Like, you should be doing low-carb and organic low-carb. You know, that's the problem with diets out there, is they, they're like, you know, we're trying to get you to lose weight. You shouldn't be looking at losing weight. You will lose weight if you get healthy. So, you know, you need to be making sure that your low-carb diet is organic. You know, you should be eating your vegetables on a low-carb diet. You should be eating organic meat and grass-fed meat on a low-carb diet or on a keto diet. Don't just go low carb. It's like that's that's not going to help you. And then given the large number of nutrients that the body needs, one should one try to take all supplements possible every day, or is eating healthy organic vegetables and grass-fed meats enough? No, it's not enough. It's definitely better than anything else, but. You know, it all depends on, especially with the vegetables. So you go, oh, what is organic grass-fed hydroponic vegetables? And that means hydroponic, they've got no goodness in them, they've got no minerals in them. They're just basically green vegetables that look cool and they're nice and clean. But they, you know, they, and they're organic, but they have no goodness in them. So it's the soil that they're grown in. So obviously, that's why we try to steer clear of anything near Monsanto or Panar or one of these farms, because these guys spray their rubbish all over their crops and it goes into the fields next door and it messes— it just takes all the nutrients out of the soil and you can't grow anything organic there. So you should be eating, you know, your healthy organic food as well as your supplements. And the other thing, as well is this. If you're not eating your healthy organic vegetables and your grass-fed meats, you may as well throw all your supplements down the toilet anyway because you're not going to be absorbing them. It's— your cells just aren't going to be doing it. So people are like spending thousands on supplements every month and getting absolutely no benefit from it. And I'm sure you've experienced that in the past. Where you've spent a lot of money on supplements and you're like, is this really working or is it just a placebo effect or what's really going on here? You have to get your body so healthy that your cells are sensitive enough to insulin to pull in that goodness. So here's an interesting question about boba. So, you know, Bovine, let me just get to my little advice later on it. You know, so there's mixed feelings about bovine. Some say it doesn't get absorbed by the animal and doesn't come out in the milk. But it's like literally, if you're getting like raw milk, from a grass-fed cow, you should be fine because, um, you know, Bovar is basically put into the feed, you know, and it's, and it's also, again, it's, it's, it's, you know, the FDA and the EFSA in Europe and the FSA in the UK, and, you know, all of these guys have, have approved it. But, you know, you've got to, you've got to look at where the farmer, you know, where the farmer uses this. If the farmer is, is giving his cows this bovia, then you need to have a look at that. You know, if he's— if you look at a, like, an organic small-scale farm, You— they don't use it, you know. So if you're in a supermarket once again and you're in the section where it's got all the milk, you know, you, you probably shouldn't be buying from there, you know. So you can expect it in that kind of milk. You're not going to get around that even if it's not on the label, because remember, you know, there's no law saying that they have to put what they feed these animals on the, on the label. So, you know, but there is a law saying you can't say that you're feeding an animal something if you're not feeding it that, you know, like you can't say these are grass-fed animals and they're not. You know, there was a big thing with Kerrygold butter and they were saying that the animals are not grass-fed, which they were. But, you know, there's just some suppressive agency that tried to stop them from helping people and getting them healthy. All right, and then next thing: Why is glyphosate considered so bad, and how can one avoid it? Glyphosate means it's a it's a it's a GMO product. So you look for the GM you look for the GMO in it. So if it's not organic, it's GMO, and glyphosate is considered so bad because it's. It kills all life, you know, and over years of consuming it, if you're not going organic or grass-fed, you are consuming, you know, probably a few pounds of it through a lifetime, which will— it's a carcinogen. No, it's known as a carcinogen. You know, Monsanto, who make it, have been sued many times for people who've gotten cancer, and there's some Some of the cases have been won. So, and the reason why it's also so bad is it mimics estrogen. So it messes with your ovaries, it messes with a male's testes, messes with your adrenal glands, and that's just like a little bit of it. So yeah, don't eat anything that's GMO because it's generally got glyphosate in it. And then I had a question of what on earth is TBHQ? Recently found on many South African peanut butters and peanuts. So basically don't have anything that has TBHQ in it. It's terrible stuff. I'll quickly open up my thing. It's found in cheeses. And it's also found in peanut butter, like you're right. So it's also approved for use in food but limited to 0.02% of the total fat content. So if you're having low fat, you can expect high amounts of TBHQ. It's a synthetic antioxidant that is used as a preservative in peanut butter and it extends the life And prevents fats from going rancid in the peanut butter. So basically, you know, organic peanut butter, like any organic vegetables, they go off very quickly because they don't have all the junk in them. If your vegetables are lasting like 2 weeks in your fridge, you should start questioning their source. So stay away from anything that has TBHQ in. Also look at your— you shouldn't be eating peanut butter anyway. Peanut butter is a legume. It is the most highly sprayed crop. So, you know, although, unless you're getting organic peanut butter, which is hard to find and also very expensive when you do find it, try and stay away from peanut butter. It is also quite high in carbohydrates and low in fiber. So if you're eating too much peanut butter, it will spike your blood glucose. In actual fact, we recommend it when people really have like glucose dips on our program. Then we just say, have half a tablespoon of peanut butter and it brings blood glucose back up. But so yeah, we all love peanut butter. There's no one that doesn't. But you know, the peanut butter that you're going to get out there will generally have this in it. And it's, you know, it can cause like dizziness and like hyperactivity in children. I mean, children generally eat it. Can cause nausea, you know, and even Cancer, you know, extremely high levels can cause cancer, and it has allergic reactions in some people. So yeah, and it can also be called something called preservative E319 is also another thing that the TBHQ is called. So you can watch out for preservative E319 that will That will be their little clever way of fooling you into eating their peanut butter. And then modified maize starch— where in South Africa do you find cream cheese with no modified maize starch? At your small little farm stores or health stores. Like where I live, just up the coast is a place called Belito, which is a little town. And we— I drive there, and it's about, it's about, I don't know, 30 miles from here. And we go there every Friday to this little health store, and we get the— and we get our fresh produce there. We get our kale and our lemons and all of our stuff there. And one of them, one of the things we get there is our cheese, because it has none of this other stuff in it. So modified maize starch is terrible stuff. You know, if you see it on the label, just put the thing back on the shelf. And then rennet, also on cheese labels. So the difference between animal rennet and synthetic— let me just open up my Advice letter on this, and I'll tell you what the difference is. So, you know, animal rennet is extracted from the stomach of a of a of a young animal. So it's like calves and lambs and goats. You know, it has it's the enzyme chymosin is naturally found in their stomach lining, and it helps them digest. So it breaks down kappa casein, which is the milk protein, and it causes milk to solidify into curds. And it also makes it, you know, firm texture and enhances the aging process in cheese. That's why it's in cheese. So that's, you know, so again, you've got to buy your cheese not from You know, mainstream chain stores. You've got to go to your small farmers markets. Question the owners at these shops like, "What's in this cheese? What is the farm like? What is the farmer's viewpoint on health? What is the farmer's viewpoint on hormones?" You know, so that's that's how you would how you would look at it. So so then if you want to look at the non-animalian, you you'd have it's derived from like fungi or bacteria. And it's fermented to produce like a trypsin-like enzyme, but it's not a trypsin enzyme. And it's very affordable, and it makes the cheese get a slightly bitter taste. So when you get these big blocks of cheese from your chain store, it will have the artificial version in it. And, you know, they use it a lot, this, the artificial version. They use it a lot in vegan products. It's terrible stuff. I would stay away from anything that's processed like that. So just stick to the natural stuff. Go to your farmers markets, go to your farm stalls, go to your farms, and find out. I know there's a lot of homework to do when you want to be healthy in the beginning, but once that homework's done, it's like this beginning spadework to dig that hole. And then it's done. Then you've got your people, you know, and you know where to buy this and you know where to get that. And you're no longer like driving around in circles, going from shop to shop, having arguments with the store owners about what's healthy and what's not, you know. So yeah, that's what I would do as far as that. I hope that answers your question. And then the last question here is, if one has gut issues like bloating, Bloating and indigestion. Is there any point taking a horde of supplements like vitamins and minerals, or is it better to fix the gut first, like gallbladder formula, probiotics, and digestive enzymes until the gut is handled? So yeah, you know, it depends what the gut issue is. You know, if you're getting bloating and indigestion, what are you getting it from? Are you getting it from vegetables, so you're getting it from other fibrous food. You know, it's doubtful that you would be getting it from meat or fat, but you can be getting some kind of indigestion from meat or fat. Like you say, if the gallbladder is blocked up with sludgy bile or gallstones, and that may have blocked what they call the common bile duct, so now you don't have the enzymes from the pancreas going into the small intestine and breaking down the fats, and that can cause all sorts of digestive issues. So, to answer the question, you know you've always got to make sure that you've got your vitamins and your minerals going in. Definitely minerals. You can get a lot of vitamins from the food, but not enough. I mean, not in today's age. You you're not going to get what you need from your vegetables completely. But there are things that you can take, like for instance vitamin C. You would get. You'd get that from sauerkraut. If you eat a lot of— if you eat sauerkraut every day, like a tablespoon or 2 with your meal, and that's loaded with naturally occurring bioavailable vitamin C complex, not just ascorbic acid extract. And so you can do that. You can get your vitamin Bs from your nutritional yeast. Get a nice unfortified nutritional yeast. And, you know, you can, if you're taking your dark leafy greens, you'll get your minerals from there. But you may need to, from time to time, take a supplement. You know, you might feel that you're deficient in certain things. But definitely, if you are deficient in your fat-soluble nutrients, then you're probably sitting with a gallbladder problem. And I would definitely, TUDCA or purified bile salts, Definitely a way to go. Probiotics, you got to be careful with probiotics. You know, you there there. You know, there's a lot of talk about it and that you must take it and that and that. No doubt. But I can tell you something: if you're having bloating, butane HCl is one of the best things you can take for bloating. So grab some butane HCl. Take that. That should handle the bloating. You'll get a lot of. You, so so here's how it works. When you're eating, when you've eaten a bad diet for a long time and now you want to eat healthy, your gut bacteria and your gut biome has evolved into something else, and it's not doing the job of breaking down the new healthy food that you're eating. And then suddenly it's like. I hate this diet. It makes me feel terrible, and blah blah blah blah blah. And it's actually not the diet; it's your previous diet that is causing this. So again, sauerkraut, because it's fermented, which means it's kind of already digested, goes in there. It's very mild on the stomach, very mild on the intestines, and it's very mild on the gut biome. So the gut biome that's meant to digest fiber starts to flourish when you're eating sauerkraut. So it grows like it's like back to what it should be, like evolves into this force to be reckoned with in your stomach. And that stops bloating because bloating is usually caused by a lack of ability to digest fiber. So the fiber goes through and it just irritates everything and it turns into gas and makes you feel like you've eaten a basketball or something. So, you know, Sauerkraut, man. You know, I recommend sauerkraut anyway. I eat sauerkraut every single day. And then, you know, if you really need the probiotics, if there's really something going on there, yeah, absolutely. You know, I'm not saying there's anything wrong with taking probiotics. You should have the correct probiotics in you. But, you know, there's ways of nurturing that. But if your stomach is really badly off, Try some probiotics. You also don't want to have too much of the good bacteria. You don't have too much of it. If you have too much of it, it's like having too little of it. It causes this imbalance. The gut will grow the amount. That's why it's better to do it by eating food that nurtures it so that the gut makes enough of it for what it needs for its purpose and not more. So, it's like insulin. Insulin is absolutely necessary in the body, but if you have too much of it, it's bad for you. Digestive enzymes, again, with a gallbladder problem, it often turns into a pancreas problem as well. So, you're not getting the enzymes from the pancreas, and that would cause problems with digesting fat because what the gallbladder does is it secretes bile every time you eat the protein or especially fat. It squeezes, there's a hormone that touches it and it squeezes, and it squeezes the bile out and it goes down this little pipe and into the small intestine. But there's another little pipe that comes from the pancreas and it joins up with that pipe just before the small intestine, and that little piece that goes into the small intestine is called the common bile duct. And that means that the enzymes and the bile go in together. So, the bile can block up that common bile duct, which means the enzymes are not getting through either. So, here's how it works. If you have enough bile, it breaks down that fat into small enough particles for you to be able to utilize it as a nutrient and for it to be absorbed through your intestinal walls. But sometimes it needs to be broken down even more, and that's what these digestive enzymes do, these lipase-type enzymes. They break it down into even smaller particles so that they can go through the walls of the intestine. I mean, one of the things that really help with this, especially if you're struggling with a gallbladder problem and you're in the process of fixing it, but it's not fixed because it can take some time, is take MCT oil. MCT oil bypasses the whole system of breaking it down and everything. And it's in, so it's medium-chain triglycerides, which means those particles are exactly the right size to fit through those intestinal walls. And it has massive, you can watch my video on it on YouTube. It has massive health benefits, MCT oil. It does all sorts of things besides just give you energy. It has like, it can handle your cholesterol levels. It's great stuff. I use it every single day. I have a bottle like right here next to my desk. which I just glug on every so often when I feel like it. So, you know, also just make sure you take it in, like you don't have too much of it right in the beginning because that can, that can cause a problem. All right. So I have a question here. How do we know if the stevia or erythritol contains maltodextrin? Any brand you can recommend? It's hard, but don't get a cheap-ass version of the stevia. Spend the money and get the good stuff. I mean, in South Africa, we supply stevia, and it's a good, very strong, very pure version of stevia. You know, so it's it's very expensive though, but you don't use a lot of it, so it actually doesn't work out that expensive. Brands, you know, a lot of it comes from China, and if it does, probably got the maltodextrin and other stuff in it. It's hard for me to say what brands. You know, I I don't I I I I. I haven't really looked at what brands are good and what brands are bad as far as stevia goes, because it's very hard for me to commit myself to say, this doesn't have maltodextrin in it. That's how devious this whole thing is. It's like, we don't know whether it's got maltodextrin in it. Probably that thing, that question is a good question, because it's probably the most devious thing the food industry does, is slip it into a product so that you'll never know, because it's not actually part of the ingredients. This was a drying agent which they used further down the processing trail, you know, so they don't really tell you about it, kind of. So yeah, it's a difficult one that. Anyway, okay, I hope you got something out of this. All the advice letters are downloadable on the description of this video. And, you know, let me know, send me a Message. Let me know what you'd like to hear about next. We'll do another webinar next week. I'll put an ad out and you can all watch. And I hope you got something out of this webinar. It is a very important part of obviously trying to be healthy is making sure you know what goes into you. So rule of thumb, if it's in a package, you probably shouldn't be eating it, although it's hard to avoid sometimes. I get that. But try to avoid it, you know. Try to stay away from all those packaged foods and everything. Try to go like I always say, farm to fork. In actual fact, there's a shop down the road from us called Farm to Fork, and that's the best way to do it. You know, farm to fork, from the farm to your fork. You know, it's the shortest path is usually the best path. You know, when I sometimes when I ride my bike around the farming areas. I often stop and speak to the farmers about their crops and what they grow, and how I can you know how can I get from them if they if it's an organic thing. So that's what I do. So that's kind of what you should do, and that's what I say. It will take a bit of homework to get your products that you want, but I've been doing this for 14 years, and we have our suppliers. We know where to get our stuff. But it's taken a lot of work to find it, and my wife is very good at it. I'm also very good at it, and we all are always looking for the good stuff, and we know where to get it now. So in the US, we have a page called USA Best Body Health Coach, a Facebook page. You should join that page. It's for people who've done our program, and it helps them find good food in the US. And in South Africa, you know, I, I can help to a degree depending on where you live. All right. Well, thank you very much for joining me with this. And I hope you all got something out of it. And I'll see you in the next video. Bye.