Chef James Berry Reveals the Surprising Truth About Cooking Organ Meat with Dr. Whitfield

I so happy to be able to get you on the show.

Yeah, yeah, sure. I really respect what you're doing and I appreciate your money.

So I. I have James Barry today with me, and we are actually remote, which is great. We're in Florida, but we were able to get together and chat. So it's appreciate. I appreciate having the brother on to talk about his company pluck. And I've been a fan of the work and started watching your show because you've been talking to farmers, and we're very interested in nutrition in our practice. So I'm so happy to be able to get you on the show.

Yeah, yeah, it's mutual. I really respect what you're doing and appreciate being on here.

So. I grew up, and this is not comical, but I think a lot of Americans probably, if they listen to this, they'll understand what we're talking about. I honestly thought my mom was not a very good cook. When I would eat dinner, I didn't want to eat dinner. Like, the food, I just didn't like it. And now, in retrospect, like, if you go back to, like, going to the grocery store with your mom, which I did on, like, Saturday or Sunday mornings, we were. My father was retired military, so we go to the base.

Where were you living at the time?

Las Vegas.

Okay, interesting.

So the commissary is what I grew up going to, because that was the place where we got our food. And now I was socialized that way. I didn't go to, like, a Kroger or a Safeway or in. In Texas, it's Heb or. There was no Whole Foods or anything. I mean, so we would go get this food and go home.

And were you frozen vegetables? Like, what, What?

A lot of canned vegetables? Yeah. Yeah. And then a lot of meat.

Yeah.

And the only thing I really desired eating was canned corn. Not creamed corn, just sweet.

They put stuff in it.

But I salted it. I salted everything really heavily.

Okay.

And I just thought, man, my mom is just a bad cook. This food is terrible. And then fast forward now, you know, obviously, I'm 55 now, and we live.

We're around the same. I'm 50. So we're in the same generation.

Yeah. And. And now we live in Austin, Texas, and we go. Honestly, it's just in the past, like, a couple years, you know, my wife has always been good about trying to get organic things. But like, now, every Saturday, it's like our date to go to the farmer's market, and we buy almost all of Our poultry, definitely, all of our fish comes from wild caught Alaska, This. This vendor, and then we have different farms we get, you know, meat from in Texas. But it's such a difference, is what I mean, in the quality of the food.

Do you feel like the. The quality, like, are you doing much to that food? Like, because some people are very bland. Like, they don't like sauces, they don't like seasonings. They grew up with very kind of standard American diet. Is that kind of what you're saying? Or was it that the quality of the food your mom was using because it was canned or frozen or whatever?

I think it was the quality of the meat.

Okay.

For one. Because, you know, those would have been at the basis, the cheapest meat you could get.

And you guys were on a budget.

Oh, yeah, yeah, of course. Yeah. It was like, you know, my mom was, like, navigating, you know that when you were growing up, and it was the 70s. And I still remember, like, the gas crisis when I was growing up.

Yeah, I remember that, too.

It was a huge deal.

We couldn't go to Disney World because no gas. Because of the gas. We had come to Florida, and the day that we could go to Disney World just happened to be the day where that area wasn't allowed to go get gas. And so we missed Disney World. I know it's so rare. Like, people. Later generations don't understand that, but you had to. You had to. If you missed a TV show, there was no recording, you know, back.

No TiVo.

Yeah. So, like.

But you don't know what TiVo is anymore either.

But there is. It's interesting. You're sort of preaching to the choir a little bit, because I knew that dinner was ready because the smoke detector went off. Like. Like, to this day, my mom's like, how did you become a chef?

Yeah.

So I don't think I grew up eating very good food either. But I think what was interesting is my dad owned a grocery store.

Okay.

And I. I didn't. I was younger. My. My older brother kind of pointed out later on, he's like, you know why we had so much meat? Right? I said, no. And he said, well, because dad had taken a chance at his little corner grocery store, and he had an actual meat section, like, where they were butchering meat and everything. It was like. It was like, almost like artisanal before that existed. But no one appreciated it, I think, the way we would now. And it didn't do very well. So we were always getting meat because he needed to get rid of it.

It wouldn't sell. Oh. Nowadays, my brother said. At least nowadays.

I remember he had. He had this saw and he would be like, you know, cutting. Cutting every. The chicken carcasses. And I would just watch it. And I never. I never valued it.

Yeah.

Like, I. I think we forget, like, people don't. If you don't know what, you don't know. Right. And. And we were way. Even in our infancy, even in our standard American diet, we were more connected to our food than people are now. Because back in the day, there was no plastic wrap around your food. It wasn't already pieced up. Like, you had to. You either bought the whole chicken or you went to the butcher and they cut it right there for you.

Yeah.

Yeah.

I remember a lot of that changing while I was growing up.

Yeah.

And things becoming processed. More and more processed. And microwaves. Oh, my God.

Microwaves came out. Absolutely.

All the stuff. Frozen burritos. What are you eating today? Whatever was in the frozen section. You come home and nuke it and. Yeah. Nowadays, you know, our. Like, we were talking yesterday in our group session. I have a son living in Spain, and obviously he has access to really high quality, you know, very.

And very seasonal. Like, very local. Yes. Spain is really good about it.

He would go to these tournaments, and every year for a couple years, they were outside of San Sebastian. And I was just like, everything was great.

Yeah.

Like, all the food was great. A lot of fish, right? Oh, yeah. Yeah. I would just go to the little down to the beach to whatever place and just have whatever they were. Whatever the special was, that's what I would have. Octopus or whatever, you know, fish of the day. It was always great.

Something that people don't think about is the freshness and that availability of that local food.

Yeah.

Whether it's produce or fish or animal, that actually makes a difference. Like, more and more they're reporting, like, if you once. Let's say broccoli is. Is hold. Is pulled right, it loses nutritional value quickly. So let's say you buy it at the grocery store. Depending on how fresh it is at the grocery store, it could already be devoid of nutrition at that point. Then you get it home, you don't eat it for three days, it's truly gone. Like, there's nothing there. It's just fiber at that point.

I mean, that's in a stark contrast in our country, where a lot of things are obviously preserved. But in China, I remember one of the major things during the pandemic was the access of fresh fruit and Vegetables, because they eat things, they want them all fresh all the time, where our society is definitely gone awry. And when I talked about the farmers markets and access to those fruit, it's a really complicated equation in. I mean, I'm in Texas. I'm in. You know, you can get all the meat you want. I mean. Yes, but to go. To go to the farmer's market and find some fruit. Good luck with that.

Yeah, well, that's how it feels in the east coast as well. I remember. I mean, growing up in California. I grew up in California, and California is so spoiled, man.

Yeah.

So spoiled. You get produce, fruits, vegetables that. I mean, year round, you know, there is some seasonality, but it's not like other parts of the world. And then I would. And then I went to culinary school in New York and I would go to the markets and I'm like, there's really like, where's your berries? Where's your this, where's your that? And if they had them, you looked, where did it come from? It was California. So it was like, okay, this is. There's something wrong here. Like. Like, at that time, I got really into following the seasons. And I think to a degree, even what I'm trying to impart to my kids now is that we really should be conscious of, like, what is actually in season where you live. There is. Now, I don't. I'm not an expert. I'm not an expert at this, but there is even a thought of if you're in, let's say, winter. Let's say I'm in Massachusetts. So if. If I'm in winter in Massachusetts and I eat a banana that's from Ecuador, the light of that, that the energy and light for that vegetable or fruit is different than the seasonality I'm in. And there's this guy, his name's Rowdy, who studies these kind of things, and he was talking about it. I never thought about it that way. But when we eat out of season, not only are we potentially getting a false sense of nutrition, because if we're getting a banana from Ecuador, they're pulling it before it's actually ripened, first of all. And if it gets you. Yeah. To get it to us, if it's not allowed to ripen, that means it's not going to be as nutritious because it gets its nutrition from. From ripening on the vine or the tree or wherever it's coming from. So then they're sending it to you. It's out of your season. So there is an aspect just like when winter comes, how we want to kind of cave. Right. There's a natural rhythm, kind of an ancestral rhythm in our bodies. And when we eat out of season, the question that I have is like, well, am I serving or not serving that ancestral kind of rhythm? And I don't have an answer to that. Necessary. But I do notice that I'm trying to educate my family towards not eating berries unless it's summer, for example.

Yeah.

Eating more winter squashes during the winter.

Berries in a bag. Y' all should not be eating those things anyway. They're terrible.

Yeah, Yeah. A lot of it is hydroponic as well, and a lot of it's questionable of how clean it is. I mean, it's. It's.

Yeah, that was my point. Like, for all of the folks who listen to my show, you know, I tell you to put things through the environmental working group and pay attention to the dirty dozen, because that's a good. The number of patients I see that have high. High levels of glyphosates, which is an herbicide used on those crops. Is it. I mean, routinely, I see people with elevated levels of that in their system. And that's one of the reasons, because.

Are you test for glyphosate?

Yeah.

Oh, that's brilliant.

Yeah. We look at all the environmental toxins and, you know, from the basic ones that people probably who listen to the show have heard me talk about are phthalates. So don't drink out of plastic. We're using. This is a stainless bottle I'm drinking out of. And they're huge endocrine disruptors. So for your kids. My kids, males, females, those are things that are. Can affect their. Their hormones. Things like, you know, you grew up in California, I grew up in Nevada. We had really bad groundwater, so I had high levels of arsenic in my system growing up. So you can get heavy metals. You can get, you know, cadmium from batteries, or you can get mercury from your fillings or eating farmed fish. So don't eat farmed fish. Try to get wild caught fish, always. Those are kind of the, you know, some of the top things. And then, you know, because my clients are predominantly female, parabens are in all sorts of female products. Cosmetics, lotions, potions. Those create tons of hormone problems. So in addition to paying very close attention to what you put in your mouth, pay very close attention to what you put on your skin. So anything going in the body, anything going in your performance machine, which is your body, is incredibly important.

Do you ever find out of all the people you're testing, anyone that doesn't have glyphosate, I feel like it's permeated.

Really?

You have?

Yeah.

Oh, that's impressive.

Yeah. I mean some people from a detox capability genetically in their livers, they can handle more load. But if you have somebody who grew up in the Central valley of California who as a kid ran under the crop duster. Yeah. There's no chance that, no chance they don't have a superior load that their body can't manage.

I always use glyphosate as an example. So. So you mentioned pluck. So that's, that's an organ based season. That's the product that I'm trying to support people in eating organs as easily, as deliciously as possible. When. And the inevitable question we get all the time is, is it enough? Like, am I really getting enough in the season? And the way I explain it is I'm always like, well, it's micro dosing frequently, which is cumulative effect. And in America we tend to think, you know, in particular Texas, go big or go home. Right. So.

And plexus. Yes. Yeah.

So I'm always. My point is like, actually the body, a lot of times when we're taking a lot of supplements, we're peeing them out because we don't actually absorb it all. So when you do micro dosing, you actually, it's more likely that you will absorb it, particularly when it's from a natural resource. But I use glyphosate as the example of it can work for the positive, but it also works for the negative. Because when glyphosate came out in the late 50s, they were sold to America's like, it's just micro amounts. It won't affect your health. And of course now it's everywhere. It's in breast milk, it's in our water, it's in our air, it's in our salt. We can't get rid of it. So I'm blown away that you're finding people that it's not causing havoc in our system, but I have to imagine it's probably in most people.

Yeah. The levels we. Well, I have a very skewed population that I see people with chronic inflammation of which they have a breast implant. So many of them have problems with absorption of nutrients. So the way I work around that is I do not overburden someone's system with more tablets or capsules. From a supplement standpoint, we try to keep things as simple as liquid liposomal formulations or A few different powders more easily absorbed because they all are experiencing loads of probably gut inflammation from the things we're discussing digesting. So not. Not necessarily like you said, just, you don't know what you don't know. So if you're. You're making these choices. So for everybody listening, you know, some simple things I ask people to do or cut out some basic things. Gluten and dairy. If you don't know what those things are, you have to look them up.

Either elimination diet.

Yeah. On your Google machine or your chat GPT. And what do you do?

Dairy, soy and wheat. Are those your top three?

So, yeah, all gluten. I have them. Eliminate dairy, because dairy in this country is terrible. And then, you know, in terms of, you know, then looking at triggers, we actually do a blood test and look at about 250 foods for an IgE response. Because rather than put everybody on an elimination diet, which can be very difficult for some, especially with children, families, it's structurally hard to do that. Give them some real information so they can go like, okay, this is on my phone. I can't really have that. So that they're not just wiping everything out of the cupboard, so to speak, or the pantry, but they're making choices. This is about making slightly more educated, intentional decisions about what you're putting into your system, and it will change. Drinking filtered water, having better quality air. I'm in Austin. The quality of the air is amazingly poor. Tons of cedar, tons of oak, tons of mycotoxins. We have a really high mold level all the time there.

Really?

Yeah.

You wouldn't think that in such a.

Dry area, but Central Texas is not as dry as you would think. We're. We're not far from. I mean, we're about 90 minutes, really, from Houston. So from the Houstons, the Gulf perspective, you know, they have the worst brunt on the coastline there with their, you know, natural disaster problems and flooding. But we similarly, we get, like, their outer bands and we get a lot of the humidity, and it. It doesn't ever really get super cold like in Massachusetts. And that prevents the. The trees from getting whacked and all the, you know, the. The cycle, if you know, you will, of the pollen being taken out of the air.

Interesting.

So it's just constantly. They're constantly. The trees are dumping pollen all the time.

So. Slight change of subject, but I'm curious about your answer this. So there feels like. So. So when I started pluck, that was about. We're in our fourth year, but I came up with the idea of putting, you know, the organ meats in the seasoning. So, you know, we use the freeze dried powdered organ meats we put in the season organic seasonings. And that was about five, five and a half years ago. And we were definitely like ahead of the curve. But now I'm talking to ranchers and they're like, oh no, we're selling out of organ meats now. Finally, like, so there seems to be more of an awareness of like, hey, I'm not getting the nutrients I need from my regular diet. And then I'm also hearing about more and more people removing their breast implants. And I have to think that there's a connection of awareness of like, you know, these things that what, what we've done and like what got us here may not get us there kind of concept. You know what I'm saying?

Yeah.

Do you think they're connected, like the awareness around our health?

Yeah.

But eating food wise and then also thinking about what's going on in our body and removing the synthetic or the.

Yeah, yeah. I mean I routinely now, you know, we grew up in the 70s and 80s and it was quite, it was far more acceptable to do things and, and breast implants during the 70s, 80s and 90s was much more common.

Yeah.

And then you think it was because.

There was more of a focus on outward appearance or shock and value or.

Yeah, I've interviewed people that I've taken care of and the, the explanations are interesting. So if you had somebody in Europe, what did we export to Europe to give them a view of our society? Something called Baywatch.

Yeah, yeah.

And so I had people figured out, people tell me specifically they got breast implants because of the appearance of Pamela Anderson on Baywatch, which I'd kind of forgot about. And this was, I was like, whoa. And then you'll have, I think during the 70s, 80s, even in the 90s, you know, this peer group situation. So moms who had gotten implants were then now raising daughters. And it became socially acceptable because they saw it in the peer group. And other moms had those. I've had patients tell me that specifically, like, oh, all these other moms had.

Yeah, you're modeling what's acceptable.

Yeah.

That's interesting. I never thought of it.

So that was a, you know, like an imprinting thing, like the ducks follow mom.

Right.

I was like, okay. And then others had a lot of trauma around not developing breasts early in life and being bullied or ridiculed because of that.

Or they. The. The opposite. Which is you develop early and then you're ashamed because you're such big. You're so big breasted.

People then they don't.

They get a reduction.

Yeah, yeah. They go the opposite direction and they're like, I need a reduction. So that's juvenile breast hypertrophy, which is the opposite problem. Of course, they're trying to hide all that versus look like they have.

Yeah. It's fascinating though, don't you think?

Yeah. The socialization of. And marketing to women about, you know, products that we mentioned about cosmetics. Terrible and just awful because parabens affects phytoestrogen, they affect estrogen receptors and create problems hormonally for, you know, females. The, the. Just the different stories people have told me about and why it led them to get, you know, a breast augmentation. And this is a good transition because I had people come to me and they say, oh, Dr. Whitfield, you know, I'm using organ meats and I'm using products like plug. I want to be as natural now as possible. But I have these breast implants and I've had them for interesting, 10, 20, 30 years sometimes do they cancel each other out? So then it's this tremendous amount of, you know, if it's guilt or just unrest that they have about having a synthetic or a prosthetic device in them, providing a unnatural appearance change.

Hypocritical almost. Right? Yeah.

Right. So I get told. I'm sure as you do. You know, people say I lead this extremely clean life or holistic lifestyle. I'm like, okay, but obviously that's not really the case.

But I, I guess I kind of look at. I think there's contradiction constantly. I think I even sometimes caution people from being too hyper aware of all the dangers of the air and the water and the food systems. Because what we're seeing. So yes, people are maybe getting a little bit more aware of being more natural, eating better. Right. But we're also with that is also rising anxiety.

Right.

And overwhelm.

Yeah.

And so it's almost like you're damned if you do, you're damned if you don't. Or okay, we might be solving one thing, but then something else is actually going extreme. And, and I, So I find that just like I see sleep is the most important thing because for me it makes like you, I could say like, oh, eating well, exercising, stress levels, sleep. Those would be the four pillars. But the reality is that if I don't get good sleep, all the other three suffer.

It's like if James has listened to my show because it's the number one thing.

It's the number one thing.

Right.

Well, the same though, you could say about. If you're in the category of food and health stress. If you're stressed out, but you're eating the most amazing food, you may not be digesting it or absorbing it properly.

Right. Because that's too much autonomic stimuli.

Exactly. So you have to like, there is a level of like. And then also.

There.

I mean, there's times where we think we're doing it all perfectly. Like I'm buying the organic produce locally at the farmer's market. I'm cooking it properly. It's fermented or it's steamed or it's raw, whatever. It's like I'm trying to do everything possible. And then you learn the person that was selling it to you actually was next to a farm that was spraying glyphosate. And it got into their, you know, like there's, there's pieces we cannot control. Their life is Jurassic Park.

I'm glad you said that because magically, as you know, everything about five years ago became organic overnight. What? It's not right? Just like you said, the overspraying of crops. Like, if this parcel is organic and this one is not, do you think that's even possible? To not cross contam, like, that's of course a nonsensical thing, but it's duping everybody at the stores.

And they're also not as diligently checking as people think. Like, when you get certifications, you pay. You're paying for that certification. So when I was starting my business, I was looking at this kitchen to work out of, just to start making pluck. And it was a gluten free kitchen because ours is a gluten free product. And the guy flat out told me, I'm like, so you have a gluten free certification? He said, yeah. I said, so tell me about that. And he's like, oh, yeah. Well, when the guy comes to inspect us once a year, he doesn't actually even go in our facility. He just comes to the front desk, I sign the paper, he leaves. I'm like, that's interesting. So you're. So it's really a sham. He's like, yeah, can be. And I'm like, oh, that's interesting. So they're just taking your money because they do charge an arm and a leg for these certifications.

Of course they do.

But they're not, not all of them, but many of them aren't. Actually doing the due diligence annually or quarterly or whatever. So there is an illusion going on. There's an illusion that the government's got our back, food wise. There's an illusion that everything we're eating that's we're told fits the categories is healthy.

Right.

It's just not true. So that's why I'm like, let's, let's take a step back and maybe what the focus should be is what is the state I'm in while I'm eating anything? Because there is. Okay, placebo effect is a real thing. Right. So if placebo effect is real, then that means technically I could eat something that's non organic. And as long as I'm in a state of like this food is going to nourish me and I'm focusing on that relaxed state and that energetic belief that all I'm going to get from this food is goodness and nourishment and not toxins and this or that or fear, then it possibly will give me what I believe it's going to give me. Because that's.

Yeah, we put a lot of emphasis in our programming on, you know, mindset, which is, you know.

Really what I'm talking about. Yeah, right.

And if, if someone's in a heightened or overstimulated state, we call it, you know, the sympathetic nervous system is overstimulated, which I see, you know, pretty routinely. I see a lot of people are anxious, a lot of people have problems with their emotions. And the gut brain axis is, is a real, you know, issue. So if you have problems in the digestion of your, your food to get the nutrients you need to then make all of the things work in the body. Putting more emphasis on, you know, not just preparation of the food and everything, but preparation of having the food. I think.

Yeah.

Like you're in the state talking.

Yeah.

So trying to get into more of a parasympathetic state is what we promote because that's the recovery or the healing or the, the rest and digest phase that you want to be in. So when I have patients eat, brought up sleep, which is, it's my number one thing when someone's not either listen to or adopted practices in our sharp method, it all kind of goes back to this. So if someone after surgery has kind of fallen off because surgery is a big spike in inflammation and cortisol production.

And stress, it's a huge challenge.

But we try to get people in parasympathetics, to your point, right away, after surgery. So we do all These things where they, they come to my office after surgery the following day and get in the hyperbaric chamber. So we try to improve oxygenation. We have these wonderful lymphatic devices from New Zealand that help get you into more of a parasympathetic state. So they warm the trunk and then they do the lymphatic massage on your arms and your legs and your torso, not the chest where we've done the surgery. And we have nanov to increase protein folding and red light therapy. So we have all these things that are just really geared to get you into. What you're describing is a. Like you want to be in a calmer state, a more parasympathetic state. And I constantly have people like, you know, asking me which wearables and everything. And everybody sort of like the Oura ring, apple watches. And I've basically, you know, demoed all these devices. I will tell you the thing that measures your heart rate variability, which is really your strongest indicator of recovery. So when you wake up in the morning and look at one of your 19 wearables you may have, it's going to give you an average of what your heart rate variability is. There is a. I think it's 80 bucks, a Polar H10 or an H7 for that matter. Heart rate monitor, It's a chest strap. So they're the most accurate because you can put them right over your heart and.

But are they the most invasive, though?

No, that's non invasive.

But. Well, I just mean compare to a ring, you know, I mean, or a watch.

I wear it for two minutes. Oh, you do?

Oh, oh. All day. Okay, got it.

So I just put it on in the morning and I practice something called resonance breathing. So basically it's belly breathing and it's meant to help improve your hrv, which is, you know, for people listening, heart rate variability, VO2 max. These things are not easy to just change and you have to be consistent with them. And much of what James has said about getting yourself in the proper state, if you can get control of your breathing, not breath work, but control of your breathing, like breathing in through nose to count of four and out three, mouth for a count of six, those things for a few minutes and up to 20 minutes twice a day, which I don't need any DMs telling me that you don't have time to do that because I'm aware. But the point is those are times where, like James is alluding to, you can get control of that system and make it or calm down the tone in the, in the system.

One way that I recommend, because when we're going to eat, one way I recommend people start practicing is just simply, you don't have to be religious, but just simply, you're about to eat, take a second, take a breath, say a prayer, gratitude, and just be in the chair. Because a lot of times we're like, I gotta eat. We're just, we're not present, we're not being mindful as we do this. And it's that simple moment.

Yeah, yeah, Works.

It really does.

James never saw me train as a surgical resident where I had to eat standing up in line. So there are, there are many years of my life where that was three minutes. I would get criticized, you know, by my, my wife. God, would you just slow down? I'm like, what do you mean? Yeah, because it's not, you know, after so many years, like, of not having any time to do anything now, I, at times now. And if you come to Austin, we'll go have, you know, a ribeye at Daidui, which is one of my favorite places. We'll go to the well or something and then, yeah, you can relax and just. I don't really get in a rush there. I just, it's easy to hang out and take my time. But oh yeah, I'm guilty of eating too fast.

I think most people are. And there's really simple things. Like I said, take a moment, prayer, gratitude, just a breath before you eat and then the other one is simply put your fork or your spoon down in between bites. It really, I know it seems so simple, but it works. It works. Take a bite, put it down and chew. Finish chewing before you grab the next. Like you cannot grab that utensil until you've swallowed that bite. And it will get you to just eat more slower.

So I think that's probably the biggest TechCare I'm. And I'm going to end the show on that with James. But like summarize those again of just how we can take better advantage of taking time to eat. Let's repeat those practices because those are huge takeaways.

Yeah. I would encapsulate if I were to create a food pyramid, this will encapsulate, I would say the top of the pyramid is eat foods that have flavors found in nature. So not natural flavors, but not injected flavors, but flavors that are found in nature, real food. Middle of the pyramid is eat nutrient dense foods. So these are not fortified foods. These are not ultra processed foods because those are stripped. Eating real foods that have Nutrients. Very bottom of the pyramid is what we're talking about. Mindful eating. Just eat mindfully. And you can't eat mindfully if you're rushing or if you're like, if you don't know what's in the food.

Right.

So that is. Those three things together, they will change people's lives. I mean, and it's. And it's. It's both simple in explanation, but it is challenging to do, like you said, because sometimes your lifestyle, you're so acclimated to a certain lifestyle that you don't realize that you are doing these things that you're rushing or that you're not really digesting your food. Like, one thing I would take note of, and this might sound gross to some people, but hopefully not, is take a look at your poop. Like, when you go to the bathroom, look at it. Are there pieces of food in it? Like, that's a sign that you're not. Potentially, you're either eating food that doesn't digest well or you are not digesting that food well. And. Or is it huge? Like, that's also a sign that you're really. That you're either eating too much of something or that you're not absorbing all the food. So it's really fascinating. And there's. And getting. Just. If we. In this. In this episode, if we just focus on. Get into that mindful state, that's the one thing that you do. You might start to see differences in what comes out of your body.

I think that's a good take, Cam, because I spend a great deal of time touching a lot of aspects of. As we've discussed, everybody's, you know, the quality of consumption. And he's trying to tell you, like, take a break.

Yeah. Focus on the quality of what's going on in you as you eat it. And then also, it then extends, like. So start at the table. We're talking about. You know, take a breath, say a prayer, whatever. Great gratitude. Before you eat, put your fork or spoon down in between bites. But then it extends to the next level, which is only bring food into your kitchen that serves the desired outcome you want. So if you want to be healthy, don't be bringing those chips and the ice creams and all the cookies in. Make it hard. I'm not saying don't eat that stuff. I'm saying make it hard to get those, because those don't contain the desired outcome you want.

Yeah, Always. Always value.

Be mindful of what you then bring into your kitchen, and then be mindful of how you prepare your food and da, da. And then you can extend it out, but just start at your table, right? And even at the table, we can even say, be mindful of the company you keep, because if you're eating with someone that stresses you out, that's not going to help you. So, you know, I mean, but start small because the whole goal is to create lasting change, lifestyle change. And when we try to do everything all at once, it's just, it's not sustainable. Just take one thing at a time. And I would offer, if you're not doing it, just take that breath. Take that breath. The prayer, the gratitude before you eat. It is life changing.

I like those as take home. So now I started watching James's podcast and I've used his product, Pluck. But I'm going to have him talk to you a little bit about his show and then where to follow him. And then we'll. We'll be back for our next episode.

Thank you. Well, thanks for amplifying the message, but. So it's called Everyday Ancestral is the podcast you. And what we're doing is we're focusing on the best of the past. And the best doesn't have to necessarily be Paleolithic. It could be just like, hey, when I was a kid, when we were kids, not watching, you know, a screen 24 hours a day, this helped me, you know, I mean, like, carrying the best from the past because we're losing some of these. We're losing storytelling, for example. We're losing these things that are really nurturing and they are truly best practices. But going back to how we started this, you only know what you know. And so these newer generations, if they don't know these things from the past, then they're not going to have that contrast. They're not going to know to do them. So that's what the podcast is about. And we're talking to ranchers, the, the newest one that just came out and talking to this cheese maker, and she's talking about, you know, modern dairy versus your pasteurized dairy versus raw. And it's really cool stuff. I. I really enjoy just talking to people and learning about who and what they are and why they do what they do. And pluck is. So I'm a chef of 20 years, and pluck is my way. I'm a father as well. Pluck is my way of getting Mother Nature's multivitamin in my kids and myself, because I want to have. I want to thrive to watch them grow old. And so as a father. I think that we all work hard enough as parents and I don't want to make our lives harder in the kitchen. And I've talked to some. There's three main hurdles with organs. People think they're gross, they don't know how to cook them and they don't know how to source them. So I of sort solve that. Pluck is as easy as salting your food. It's a seasoning that has liver, heart, kidney, spleen, panies in it. It's got Redmond real salt and it's got organic spices, herb. It makes your food taste better and then it increases the nutritional value.

Where can they get pluck at?

Go to my website, eatpluck.com you can go to Amazon as well and and then you can follow us on socialsatpluck. And then I'm personally at Chef James Barry.

Awesome, man. Thanks for coming on the show.

Thank you so much.

Sam.