Your Protein Bars Might Be Destroying Your Health | Veronika Larisova | Ep. 139

Intro and Veronica's Background 0:00

My diet growing up in Eastern Europe was very heavily meat based. The nutritionist dietitians they were saying like 6 to 700 grams of vegetables a day and I did that. I stopped having menstrual cycle, I developed osteopenia and i constantly had some injuries. You know they always tell you make your plate as colorful as possible. Eat the rainbow. Today we have Veronica Larisova. Get ready for an incredible conversation with Veronica Larisova, elite performance coach, nutrition expert and co-founder of Chief Nutrition.

Crest Bar. Everyone knows Cres Bar, but it's got so much artificial sweetener and it has got a whole bunch of emulsifiers like sodium carcinate and xanthan gum, which is proven to damage your guidelines. This is scary because this is the stuff that we're exposed to and we are looking at the ingredients and this stuff is really not healthy for you. I think there's a solution. There is a Solution. Some things are controversial because things in nutrition change very quickly and sometimes you can learn very outdated information.

What are some of the things that you've seen change drastically when it comes to nutrition throughout the years that have been involved? First of all the food beer. Welcome to another episode of a Healthy Point of View podcast. I'm your host, Sam Sahara. And as usual, we're bringing experts from all over the world to talk about health, wellness, beauty, and mindset. Today's guest, she's a nutritionist with an expertise in exercise physiology. She comes all the way from Australia with a very powerful natural product, bringing it allover the word here to the US, the chief product.

Guys, we're gonna get into some details about what she's doing and how she is helping change the trajectory of people's health. Today we have Veronica Larisova. Hey, all right. Veronica. All right, welcome to Healthy Point of View podcast. Thanks for having me and well done with the name. Not many people get it straight away. You know, I got a little, the Latino comes, kicks in. I don't know if it's going to work or if might not. It worked really well. Awesome. You people butcher my name all the time.

Like I go by Sam, but my full name is Samael. But it looks like Samuel, so they always call me Samuel. So I try to have as much respect on somebody's name as possible by pronouncing it the right way. So, Veronica, you're here with your product. But before we get into any of that, because you have an expertise in nutrition, exercise physiology, but I want people to get to know who Veronica is first, right? So what I always do on every podcast, I tell people I wanna learn about you. I'm wanna go way back from when you were a kid, five years old, and I wanted to understand your upbringing that got you to where you are at today.

Yeah. Okay, so I was born in the Czech Republic when it was a communist country. So I have very different upbringing to most people I know. We had no freedom of speech, no, freedom to travel. It was very strict and yeah, we just lived very sheltered life. We had a military training from the age of six when we used to run around with fake grenades and guns and were shooting at targets, practicing for war at school with the gas masks on as well. So it was definitely interesting upbringing. I'm grateful that I experienced it because it's very different and it makes me appreciate my life now and makes be grateful for the freedom of travel, for even the free of having my own business.

In communism you weren't allowed to own your own businesses because everything was owned by a government. So even just having my own business, being able to be here in the United States, and being to live in Australia, which is where I was not born. So I feel like having that type of upbringing gave me a lot of gratitude later in life. And I'm more content than a load of my friends that grew up in a free society, in wealthy families. They feel a little bit of discontent because they don't have what everyone else has.

Communist Childhood and Moving Abroad 4:20

But I am just happy with what I have because it's already a whole lot comparing to what Growing up. Absolutely. Wow. That is definitely different than what most people in other parts of the world, how they grow up, right? You know, I've never got to experience something where I'm in the military from six years old and training. So I can only imagine how that was. You when you decided to leave your home country, what was it that you were really looking for when it came to going to another country?

First, I was looking for adventure and the travel because we couldn't travel anywhere else. We could go limitedly to other communist countries, but we wouldn't go, let's say, to the United States. And when we were kids, they're teaching us that everything that's in the U.S. is evil and everything bad comes from the US. Which, kind of, when you're a teenager, you think it's not true and they are just lying to you. So, as soon as I'm 18, and I really wanted to go to United State, But I was at the university until I 21, so as soon as I'm 21 I came to Florida and I worked on the cruise ships as a waitress for two years because I wanted to experience the United States and travel around here.

to the cruise ships where everybody goes to parties. Yeah, it was the easiest thing to do. It was just like I didn't. I grew up in a very small town in the communist country. My horizon was very smaller. Like, I don't know what the options are. And I met a guy who was working on a cruise ship and he's like, oh, you can get to U.S. working in cruise. Which cruise line was it? It was Carnival Cruise Line. It's really funny now because I'm staying at my friend's house and I see the cruise ship terminal out of the window and i'm like, Jesus, I came back full circle.

25 years ago. Oh, wow. Yeah. You know, it's interesting because you have such a strong health and wellness background. And, you know, I love going on cruises, but, uh, You know now, now some of the cruisers are a little bit different where they focus on, doing like a health and wellness retreat. But if you go back 20 years, people go on those cruise ships to kind of like pig out. Yeah. Eat and party. There was a lot of partying and I did used to party when I was younger, But also every ship had a gym and sauna and all that.

And no one was using it. So I'm there on my own training, like it was actually pretty cool. That is pretty So, you have a background in nutrition, as a nutritionist. I want to talk about your educational background. What led you to actually go into exercise physiology and also nutrition? And where did you get this training? So I grew up with a really healthy father. He was a fitness fanatic. First he was boxer, then he's a bodybuilder and he taught me a lot about healthy eating. We never ate unhealthily at home, we used to do lots of exercise and outdoor stuff.

So, I got it from home. And then when I was 23 and I working on the cruise ships, I decided that I really want to work with sports teams in a capacity of strength and conditioning coach. And at around that time, Czech Republic joined the European Union. So I thought, if I study in English language, then I can work anywhere because I already had one university degree from the Czech republic but I couldn't communicate in English in my profession because I've learned everything in Czech. So I was thinking if I go and study sport and exercise science in an English-speaking country, then I can work anywhere in Europe.

I was going to study and then come back to Europe, but I never left. And then after the sport and exercise science degree, I went back the university when I started this business and I studied nutrition postgraduate. Now, a lot of the things that you studied through your formal education, are those most of things you've applied to your own personal life, to clients and also with your product? Yes, a lot of it I applied. I think the exercise physiology degree was very good. It was a very straightforward.

The nutrition degree, you know, some things are controversial because things in nutrition change very quickly. And sometimes you can learn very outdated information. However, I was lucky with my degree. you know, as outdated, it was, quite good. But I think when it comes to nutrition, for most stuff I learn is just by doing my own research and like PubMed and different science journals, learning from different doctors, dietitians and just network within the industry. What are some of the things that you've seen change drastically when it comes to nutrition throughout the years that And I feel like everything in Australia for most part, especially when it comes to health and fitness, follows the United States, but it takes time.

So I'm just waiting for Australia to come with the reverse pyramid as well. The magic question is, did you already know that the food pyramid was upside down before they decided to change it? 100%, like it didn't make sense to eat all these grains and refined sugars and seed oils. It was terrible, but you couldn't say anything because at university they would teach you that that's the correct way because that is the government regulation. Are you familiar with the she's a big fitness and health influencer, Jillian Michaels?

Yes. Did you see the debate that she did called Body Positivity Movement Debate on the it was a podcast show called Surrounded? No, I didn't see the debate. It'd be good for you to watch it.

Education in Exercise Physiology and Nutrition 10:20

You know, they had about 20 body positive movement individuals that got the chance to sit in front of her. And the whole purpose of the. The debate was, um, people are saying that, uh, living in a fat body is okay and healthy, but she did a heck of a job breaking it down, letting them know it's not healthy. But one of the interesting things because we're talking about nutrition and there was a few nutritionists that were pro the body positive movement. And one the things that they were bringing up with their clients is that people can be healthy and fat.

What's your input on that? I don't think you can be healthy and obese. I think it can a little bit chubby and be health, because I especially when it comes to women, if you have a six pack and you see all your veins, that's not necessarily healthy for a woman. So I thing in today's society when everyone strives to have six packs and look extremely muscular, I don't think that is the healthiest way to go for a woman, for example. So I think the girls that are perceived as a little bit chubby, they're probably healthier than the ones that completely ripped.

But on the other hand, when someone is severely overweight, it's definitely not healthy because it strain on your joints. It comes with different hormonal issues. Yeah, it's just being severely overweight or obese is definitely not healthy. No matter how okay you are with it mentally, It's physically not health. Right, right. I agree with that. And interesting enough, you know, I actually watched this yesterday. Um, put it on the TV yesterday and I typically utilize the terminology obese and all of the body positive individuals of movement.

They were offended by the word obese, and they wanted to be called fat. Yeah. Which I learned it the opposite way that people prefer to have the medical terminology. So, but you know, there's always a lot of controversial things and there is always going to be one side of the table that's not happy regardless as much as you're doing the best thing to make people healthy. There's always going to be someone going against the grain. So now you had some of your own health complications that you talk about, you know, even knowing so much about health and nutrition and following these plans step by step.

I want to talk. About that, because I think it's important to bring up that even people that are taking care of their health can still have complications. 100%. It is super interesting. So I was in my thirties when I went to university to study nutrition and my diet growing up in Eastern Europe was very heavily meat based. Like I would eat lots of meat every day, lots red meat, eggs and really minimal amount of vegetables and some berries. And when I was at the university talking to all the doctors we spoke to and the nutritionist dietitians, they all were saying that I'm not eating enough vegetables and I am eating too much red meat and i need to eat lots of vegetables, like they were say like 6-700 grams of vegetable a day and just little amounts of white meat, and red only like twice a week and only 150 grams per serving.

And so I gave them the benefit of the doubt and I did that and... I have to point out that all the vegetables and fruits I ate were organic. And I didn't use any seed oils, I don't need any ultra-processed foods, so it was like the picture perfect healthy diet. I stopped having menstrual cycle. I developed osteopenia and I constantly had some injuries, which everyone said it's because I'm doing ultra marathon running and i'm too old. So every time I went to the doctor and we like reviewed with different doctors, my diet, they're like, no, your diet is great.

Don't change it. There's other things. And they kept giving me different medications and like finding different ways to help me, but nothing really worked. Wow. And then in Australia, probably again, after it happened in the US, we started having the carnivore movement in Australian, everyone was talking about carnival diet. And I love meat, but I also like experimenting, like everything I do, I like to experiment on myself and do a lot of testing. So I said to the guys at work, okay, I will go on a carnivore diet for five weeks.

I'll do DEXA scan before I do all my bloods and I would do full gut microbiome mapping. And then I'd do it again after the carnival diet. So did this carnivo diet, for 5 weeks, my Bloods were great. My gut health has improved. And I've gained 1.5 kilo of muscle in five weeks, which is a lot for my body weight, because I only weigh 50 kilos. So I had really great results. I felt great. With all those veggies that I was eating, I often experienced stomach pain. And when I wasn't a carnivore, that had no stomach.

So after the five weeks I was like, okay, I probably don't want to eat jasmine and salt for the rest of my life. So I introduced only the things that I actually like like a little bit of avocado, a bit blueberries, but not 600 grams of vegetables a day. and I kept going and within a year I reversed the osteopenia. I was also taking a lot of collagen, I have to point that out because I've learned that collagen supplementation helps to improve bone density even in post-menopausal women. So I'm eating lots of collagen, probably 80% meat-based diet and, within the year, my bones were not brittle anymore, and reversed my menstrual cycle at the age when Women usually have perimenopause or menopausal and now I have regular menstrual cycle.

Body Weight, Health, and the Carnivore Experiment 16:20

So that was really interesting because I was listening to all the experts that are actual doctors, not some influencers from Instagram and their advice actually made me sick. Wow. That's interesting. And that shows that everyone's a bit different, right? And this is the benefit of focusing on precision medicine, where it has to be something specific to your body type, your data, et cetera. Now, when you were doing all of this testing, did you do any food sensitivity testing? No, I didn't. It's besides the celiac, because I knew I'm celiac, but I don't have any food insensitivities.

I think I was just having too much fiber from the vegetables. And probably because i grew up on a heavily meat-based diet, i'm not really used to it and i never got used it. and I also have to point out I've been slim my whole life and pretty much my entire life about the same weight. And when I had all these issues, lots of the doctors told me that I need to gain weight because I don't weigh enough. And with the carnivore diet, I recovered everything without gaining any weight and I'm still the same weight.

I am older now, 46, and having a regular cycle and healthy bones. You can have a baby now. Yeah, I'm not going to have one, but I could if I wanted to. Not at 46. No, this is amazing. You know, you being able to figure out what was going on with your health and that just shows you some of the things that we're being taught, even though it's considered healthy, eating all the different vegetables, the And they always tell you, hey, make your plate as colorful as possible. Yeah. Eat the rainbow. So that's not necessarily positive for everybody.

Now, when you started actually going deep into this hole with your own personal health, at what point in time did you really realize that conventional health advice wasn't really aligned to what your body really needed? Well, I realized that because first of all, i never liked the conventional advice to start with. Like I never, despite what everyone said, never had the six servings of grains a day. I've never did that. Even before I found out I was celiac. So I didn't listen to all the advice. I listened to the veggies and to reducing the amount of meat, but I never really liked that.

And I always thought it was weird. Luckily enough, because of my work and the community that I have in Australia, I've been speaking to a lot of doctors that are doctors of nutrition, sports doctors. And a lot of them had a lots of doubts about the nutrition advice that was being given in Australia at the time with the grains and vegetable oils and the margarine and things like that. So I always was a part of this, not always, but ever since I moved to Sydney, I was part these conversations through all the different people I know.

But yeah, everyone is just lucky, right? Yeah, yeah. I just was lucky to be surrounded by good people. Now, interested enough, I've met a lot of people here in the U.S. from Australia that are heavily involved in health. Right. There's actually quite a few people, even part of the Mahat movement that aren't from. Australia, your friend of mine, Leanna Warner Gray, from Australian. the founder of PreNuvo that does the full body MRI scans from Australia, Andy Liu from Australian. So a lot of people here in the US from australia that are very in tune to health and wellness.

Is this something that's very common in Australia? People taking care of their health? It's common in a certain parts of Australia. I think Australia is very similar to America when it comes to the percentage of people that live with obesity and chronic disease. The numbers are very in percentage and they're little pockets where people are healthy and very health conscious like In the US, you've got LA and you have Miami. And in Australia, we have Bondi Beach, and usually the people come from those healthy areas.

That's where I need to go when I go to Australia. So yeah, it seems like everyone in Australian is healthy and everyone is a blonde haired surfer with six pack, but the reality is that our numbers when it comes to chronic disease and obesity and overweight are very similar to the United States. Yeah, and I don't think people here in the US probably noticed that. Even myself, I'm guilty. I've been thinking that it's very healthy over there because everybody I meet here from Australia is very health.

Yeah. But you know what? It's easy to be healthy in Australia. Our food is of very good quality. There's access to good produce, the best meat in there is access to it, but it's more expensive than the junk food, which is the same as in America, right? Like McDonald's is cheap, ultra processed foods are cheap and eating organic grass, fat grass finished red meat, organic vegetables, it is more inexpensive and a lot of people just choose to not spend the money on the food and they rather spend money in clothes and cars and drinking and going out, then that's what happens.

And your health is so important. It's one of those things that you really should make a priority. Now, you know, I know you're big into not just nutrition, but overall biohacking as well. So I want to talk about some of the things you do for yourself when it comes to bio hacking. Yeah. So I was just thinking about it. It's actually funny that some of the things that I've been doing ever since I as a child are now considered biohacking. We used to go to sauna and ice bath with school. From when you start school at the age of six, you started primary school and we would do sauna ice, but it's completely normal in Eastern Europe.

Everyone goes to Sona, everyone goes ice. But it is a part of life. So that's been part of my life, my entire life. And in Sydney, I have ice baths on my balcony and I do it every single day at 4.30am and i love it. So even when I travel, i try to do icebath as much as i can. Obviously can't do every day because i have to go to gym or like a biohacking place. How many minutes do you do on the icebat? Uh, it depends how, when I'm doing it, how cold it is and what I am doing for, like, let's say when wake up in the morning, I use a little bit colder ice bath and I do like three to five minutes.

But then if I did a big run and like let say, uh, run for two hours and then I want to reduce the inflammation. I'd do warmer ice, but I stayed there for 10 minutes, so it. All right. So, you know, I follow your content on social media, and you've spoken about it a few times already. You're big into running. Yes. And you do these ultra marathons. So what's the difference between a marathon and an ultra marathon? So it's very simple. Ultra marathon is anything that's longer than a marathon. There's like a big range.

It can be, oh I don't know in miles, because we counted metric system and I'm very confused about always. But it like 50 kilometers, it can do 80, 100, 170, they're all different ones. A typical marathon, what is it, 26 miles? Yeah. 26. So that's 42.2 K. OK. Wow. Now, have you heard of this? I would assume it's an ultra marathon where they do it in a desert. It's a dessert. Ultramarathon. There's so many desert marathons. This one in Sahara, one petrodesert. They said it was the most dangerous marathon in the world.

Really? Yes. I think the Most Dangerous Marathon is here in America. The Badwater one, in Death Valley. Yeah because that's very hot like you're running a heat and that that is the toughest one and it's really hard to qualify for it as well. So when are you going to sign up for that? I'm actually not going do this crazy long races anymore because you know like I am all about longevity and anti-aging. Now Iam 46 and to run 250 kilometers it is so taxing on your body especially when it comes to oxidative stress.

Absolutely. And aging, so now I still love running, but I'm not going to do any of those crazy runs anymore. You can do that in your 20s and 30s, But I think in 40s it's very silly to because it really increases aging. So I'll stick to like marathon distance and about that and half marathon, I can confidently say I don't want to any crazy ultra, especially not bad water and heat and everything. It's like, it is very pro-aging. Yeah, I am. I'm happy you said that because, you know, pushing 40 now, 39 years old.

And I tell everyone, it's like every single exercise or every movement I do is a controlled movement because I have not taken the risk to actually get injured, like CrossFit and stuff. You should do that in my 20s. There's no way you'll catch me doing that. Yeah. And ironically, you know, just a few weeks ago, I forgot that I was almost 40 years old and I Was at a conference and i got on one of these mechanical bolts And I pulled my my right groin and it was just like that just reminded me like i'm not in my 20s I have to everything I do has to be well thought out.

Biohacking, Running, and Longevity 25:40

Yeah So I'm happy you've said that so listeners and viewers can understand, hey, remember how old you are? We're talking about longevity and health span. So taking care of your health is really important. Exactly. But also don't let it stop you. Don't be like, oh, I can't do anything. It's all about dose and response, first of all. And secondly, just want to point out that running is very beneficial for anti-aging if you do it the right way, because running increases mitochondrial density. and improves mitochondrial function.

But there's a very big difference between going and running 5 or 10K and between doing 250K in a death valley. So it's all about those in response. I just don't want to send across the message that, oh, now I'm old, I can't do anything. No, you can still do things, but just in the smarter way. And just keep in mind that extreme stuff can cause premature aging. Absolutely. Any other type of exercising you do besides the running? I do lots of weights training because obviously I want to preserve my muscle mass, I wanna prevent any injuries and I have been injured for a while now so I've been doing lots strength training.

I also love outdoors activities like Australia is a very outdoorsy place. So I did a lot of kayaking, swimming, stand up paddling, just all outdoor stuff. That's pretty cool. Playing games, tennis, that's like my next thing that I wanted to learn to play properly. There's always something. Biking? Any biking? Mountain biking or anything? You know what? I did a triathlon for my 40th birthday because I wanted to do one and I actually really dislike being on a race bike. It's just not my thing. The posture, the hunched over, it hurts my hands, hurts back.

I really wish I loved cycling because it's such a... And in Australia, in Sydney, people go on big rides in groups and it's a lot of fun. And I gave it a good crack and I tried for a year and never got to like it. I did the triathlon because I didn't like giving up. But I never warmed up to it, I just don't really like. Have you ever done any Ironman? No, no Ironman. I just did like a small triathlon and that was in Avon, like no, I don't want to sit on the bike for any longer than a smaller triathlons.

What's the coolest marathon or event that you've done? The best event I've ever done was the Ultra Trail Mont Blanc in France, in French Alps. And that's such an amazing event. It's pretty. There's people from everywhere around the world. It's very well organized. And then when you run through the checkpoints, the food at the checkpoint, it's like in a restaurant. They had like bonberts, soup, cheeses and chocolates. Like it was like everything. Muffins like anyone. That was crazy. I just, that was very cool event.

You have stuff to look forward to when you accomplish the race. So you develop this product here. I want to go into this project because there's a reason why you decided to develop the Chief product. Yeah. Okay, so I became an Australian citizen in 2015 and I wanted to do something very Australian for it. And there is a trail in Papua New Guinea called Kokoda Trail, which is like people go and do it as a memorial or trail to pay respects to the Australian New Zealand soldiers. Anyway, So I went to do that and you're in jungle for 10 days and we have to bring all your own food.

There's like no access to anything. You drink water from rivers, you only can eat your food, there's no electricity, nothing, like you just left your on resources. And I didn't know what to brings because I don't eat any ultra processed foods, makes me sick, always has and I just don' like it. So, I, didn' know, what should I bring that's non-perishable and it's not full of synthetic additives and sugar. So I ended up bringing lots of dried meat, like this air dried steak, and some dried berries and nuts.

And I end up mixing it together as a trail mix. It was amazing, but at one stage it broke and went all over my back and all that. So when I came back, I spoke to a friend and I was saying, there is nothing like that, a snack that's made from meat and it's just made of real food and doesn't have any additives. Like, it would be amazing to have a meat bar. And so we decided to make our first product and it was a meat bar that was 11 years ago now. And then all the other products evolved from that.

That's interesting. So a meat bar. Is this what, dehydrated meat? It's air dried beef. It same like this, but it's a air-dried beef that's like squished together with some currants and some amaranth. We originally used almonds, then we took the nuts out because a lot of people have not allergies and couldn't have it. Just pretty much organic grass-fed, grass finished beef, some currents, tiny bit of amarant for the binder together the currents and just fresh herbs and spices. We don't have them in the U.S.

yet, but we will soon. Soon, right? They're very hard to make. So I'm a little extra lucky because I have em here. You don' have dem here, you have collagen bars. We only got the collagen bar. Collagen bars and then you got this which is like air dried steak chopped up with fresh herbs and spices and collagen protein powder. Not yet. Those are the ones we're gonna wait for. I do got a few treats here though, so I am excited to try those. You know, you've had the opportunity to go to a lot of our health food stores here, Whole Foods, Air1.

I want to talk about it because you walk into these stores and a lotta people walk in to these store and it's almost like a free-for-all. It's at Wholefoods, I can just buy anything here and I'm healthy, right? What is the problem? Well, the problem is that people just trust it. Those brands like Whole Foods and Arowan are very good in building trust and brand. And now people, just walk into Arowans and as you said, they think I can have anything here because everything is healthy, but it's not the case.

There is a lot of healthy stuff in those stores, but there's also unhealthy stuff and you have to be really careful. And what is on the front of the packaging? That's just advertising. It's like a real estate. You actually have become a pack flipper and flip the packet and look at the ingredients and decide whether it is really healthy or not. I know that's what most people struggle with. So I want you to give me a few examples. I put my glasses on so I can read out the ingredients to wear the glasses.

OK, so the example I think we have in the U.S. that everyone or most people love beef jerky here. Yeah. So I grabbed this beef Jerky. I didn't grab it in Whole Foods. They just grab in a random store. And then when I look at the packaging, this product has 20 not sorry, 17 grams of sugar per packet, which is about 21 percent of the product. And then it's good. Also a whole bunch of additives that like don't really have to be there because it just meat. So it got brown sugar, soy sauce. It's got some flavors, which that's very vague term.

Flavors are usually synthetic crab. They hide stuff in it. pineapple powder and contains soy and wheat so that's absolutely unnecessary it is very high in sugar it's like having a candy while we have this product that only meat and salt the meat is grass-fed and grass finished and the ingredients are literally grass fed beef apple cider vinegar and salty wow you know but when you look at it and price is the same The price is the same price. The same. Yeah. That was 9.50 in a store and that's how much we sell it for.

So the price was the Same. And this is also jerky is very tough because it's dehydrated and the dehydrating damages some of the nutrients like B12 so you don't get the full nutrition profile. Yep. And that one's just full of preservatives. Which preservative are made to make things last longer, but it's not made for your body to last. No, it is not. It's toxic. What else we got? OK, what else do we get? So then I grabbed and this is actually OK. Let's start with this one. So this is probably the worst ever.

And when you look at it, it's a protein bar has got 20 grams of protein. In today's climate, when everyone talks about eat more protein, you need more in your diet, especially for women in menopause and perimenopausal for maintaining their muscle mass, everyone talk about protein so this seems like it is really healthy. What does it say here? Gatorade protein bars naturally flavored with other natural flavors. protein to help muscles rebuild. So that seems quite healthy. And then you have a look at it.

and there's literally no real food is just made from synthetic ingredients. Oh my god, like there is nothing real. There's some really bad ones like these TBHQ. It says to preserve freshness. So this specific ingredient showed in animal studies that it impacts your immune system. It impacts cell signaling and increases antioxidative stress in your body. And this is number two on the list, which means it's like very high content of this in that product. And then it's got like a whole bunch of sugar and added sugars which are hiding underneath different names.

But then when you look at the macros, it got 28 grams of sugars per bar, which is like Mars bar has got 31. so this is like it's worse than eating a chocolate

Creating Chief Nutrition Products 35:40

bar because if you eat proper chocolate bars you don't have all the additives in it all, the chemicals and all. The low quality soy and whey protein and corn starch there's like so it just like concoction of industrial industrially manufactured synthetic So let me ask you this, if someone decides to implement that bar, that Gatorade bar into their diet, two to three times a day, every single day. What can they potentially expect to happen to their health? So they're 100% have some damage to the gut lining or the guard barrier function.

They will definitely have change in their gut microbiome. They will be bloated and probably fart a lot from all the stuff that's in it that ferments in the stomach. And also they'll put on weight because this is like, it's not just, its high in calories, but it is very high sugar and all of the other additives that increase your blood glucose level and your insulin and actually prevent fat burning. So yeah, this person would have problems losing weight. They would've got health issues. Damage guard lining.

So, I mean, this is really bad for your metabolic health. Yeah, so bad. There's nothing good about it. This by Nova would be would So then I grabbed another one that is popular everywhere. And that was very popular. Everyone knows Chris bar. This would also be classified as ultra processed food by Nova. It's very tricky because on the front, which is the advertising area, it says 21 grams of protein, four grams net carbs, one gram of sugar high in fiber. Okay. Well, it doesn't have the sugar, but it's got so much artificial sweetener and especially sucralose, which is proven to alter your gut microbiome.

And it also increases your cravings and increases the blood glucose levels, even though it is a non-nutritive sweeteners. It's good like a protein blend, blend of probably like milk protein isolate and whey protein isolate. It's got the polydextrose which is prebiotic fiber but it's not the same as having fiber from vegetables. Uh it has good seed oils, glycerin which which are used to keep the bar soft but also increases your blood glucose levels so again it is low carb but still might spike your glucose.

And it's got a whole bunch of emulsifiers like sodium carcinate and sentin gum, which is proven to damage your gut lining. I mean, this sounds almost similar to the stuff my construction guy uses to build construction. Yeah, yeah, it sounds like poison. Yes, so this would also be classified as astral process fruit. So then I went to Whole Foods. We don't have Aero on in Miami, So I go to whole foods and got this bar. Think protein bar, yeah? It's from Whole foods, it's gluten free, low GI, zero sugar.

And then you look at the packaging and it's not much better than the other two. It's sweetened with malitol, which is sugar alcohol, and that ferments in your stomach and causes bloating, potting, diarrhea. And it also alters your gut microbiome. Not if you have one bar, but if eat it every day. It also has good emulsifiers such as sodium carcinate, which again impacts your gut lining if you have that every day. Yeah, and protein isolate which is stripped of all nutrients and is just, you know, has the protein and nothing else.

Glycerine, again, that can spike your blood sugar levels. So even that from Whole Foods is not great. This is scary because this is the stuff that we're exposed to, right? Our children are exposed this stuff. And I mean, yes, you guys have to listen to what we are talking about here because is extremely important. These are products that see at Wholefoods, these are the products we see in the regular grocery stores, and these products at the convenience stores. I mean, we're talking about Gatorade, a huge company.

I believe they're owned by Coca-Cola. You're talkin' about that beef jerky that you see it everywhere. And you think it's, oh, well, it just, It's meat, right? This is part of the carnivore diet. The Quest Bar is the one that gets me the most, because the Quest bar, especially in the bodybuilding world, has become a very popular supplement. We're looking at the ingredients, and this stuff is really not healthy for you. But I think there's a solution. There is a solution. So I just have to tell you something.

I'm a nutritionist and in an ideal world, I would love everyone to go to the local farmers markets and buy their organic veggies and cook all their meals. But this is not going to happen. And we live in a very big snacking culture in the United States, as well as in Australia. So I thought, instead of trying to convince everyone to start cooking all the time, we can give them a healthier option. I showed you the healthier options for the jerky, and then we also have healthier for bar. This would definitely not be classified as an ultra processed bar, because what it pretty much is, it's a nut butter.

It's nut-butter made from cashew nuts. and then it's got some added hazelnuts for this one. It's a hazel nut brownie. Instead of flavoring it, it is flavored with raw cacao. So for the chocolatey flavor we give it the raw cocoa and for sweetness it has pure monk fruit with nothing added in it. Just pure air dried monkfruit and a tiny bit of maple syrup. So this whole bar has got two grams of sugar in a bar. And the sugar comes from the tiny bit of maple syrup and from cashew nuts. They have some sugar.

It's got also some MCT oil and some fiber and that's it. But there's literally nothing bad in the bar and you feel it like you can eat it and how many ingredients total? How many? Not many. This one has got only three ingredients, the meat, vinegar and salt. And this one, I can read it out, everything. So the first thing in Australia, and I think the same in the United States, The first ingredient listed is what the product contains the most of. Right. The last ingredient is the least represented ingredient.

Yes. Let's keep that in mind. So the first one is not cashews and hazelnuts, grass-fed bovine collagen peptides. This bar has 11 grams of collagen in a bar, which no other collagen bar in the world has. Most of them have one and a half to five grams. And if you are taking collagen specifically for your ligaments and tendons to make them stronger or to heal from injury, you need at least 10 grams So we have the correct dose with 11 grams of collagen. So this is the second one. Then we a little bit of tapioca starch instead of using fillers and emulsifiers.

We have raw organic cocoa, organic maple syrup, MCT oil powder. Kamu kamu powder. Kamukamu is a fruit that's very high in vitamin C, and you need vitamin c for the collagen synthesis. So instead of using ascorbic acid, we have the kamukamo, then we had Himalayan salt, vanilla bean powder, which again is just vanilla being ground, there's nothing synthetic, monk fruit powder and that is it. Wow, that sounds amazing. That is what we need at our stores. Now, I love talking about it, but talking it only goes so far with me.

I think I need to try. You need try it. Try this one. It's actually our best selling product in Australia. Let's try! Here goes the real test, guys. Here it goes. All right. Take a look at it! No sugar, alcohol, but a lot of these other companies, they fill it up with the sugar. Yeah. The sugar alcohols are like zero sugar but they are really bad for your gut. All healthy stuff. Grass fed collagen here. Wow. It's Australian grass-fed collagen. That's another thing. We use the animal from nose to tail in Australia.

So we use meat for the air-dried steak and for bars. And then we used animal hides for collagen All right, so one thing I like to do on the podcast is not just get my opinion, but I'd like get everybody. OK, I love that. So gentlemen, let's let us all try this together and see what it's all about. And then I need honest feedback, honest, feedback. There's nothing but honesty over here. Ricardo, go ahead and rip that off there. Don't be shy. You go. All right. What does it taste like? You want some?

Yeah, I have some I love this is my favorite actually. I'm hungry. It's nice and soft. Really good. Melts right in your mouth. Does it remind you of anything? It does but I can't put my mind to it. Yeah. I don't know what it reminds me of, but it does remind me. What do you think? Oh, that's it. Thank you. People say it's reminds them of Nutella. Oh, Nutella. Yeah, I don't eat that much nutella, but I could see that. Good. Not Ricardo. I didn't see you licking your fingers. Does that mean it's not finger licked it?

Well, not for this. How about the others? Do you need to try this? It's the best. This one is just meat and salt. The other ones have some fresh herbs and spices. But this one, it is personally my most favorite product of them all. Just ate the whole bag in the car when I was driving here. Let's see here Maybe we should have done it the other way around. Have a steak and cake instead of a cake and steak. This is for the can of whore. Oh, man. That's good. I feel like that. Yeah, love it. There's another one.

You know what? I brought another on that was has been very popular here in America. It's with lemon and pepper, lemon, pepper. Yeah. And this one has good rosemary and garlic, but the lemon pepper it's in one of those bags that that's been the most popular. Good. And the lemon bar, try the Lemon bar as well. He likes it so much he's eating more. You have to give me your favorites and I'll send you a whole bunch. I brought one of everything so you can like try and then whatever are your favorite I will send a lot of stuff.

This is good. See this is the stuff that I need to make sure I have at my house. That's so good, I like I even use it in cooking I'm like scrambled into eggs or chuck in the soup. I can't wait to try the actual meat bars. Yeah, we actually can import them into the US. We make this from Australian meat, but in the United States, because you can input meat in here that's uncooked. It needs to be frozen or cooked, and this one is air-dried, so it's considered unfrozen, uncooked, So we can actually import the meatbars.

You have to make them here, And we haven't found anyone yet to made them for us.

Reading Labels and Ultra-Processed Foods 47:40

Now, when I go to a steakhouse, They always have on the menu like Australian Wagyu beef. So how do they bring that from Australia? Frozen. Frozen? Yeah. I see. We bring the meat here frozen and then we make it here from the Australian meat. You can freeze the meet before you make this, but if you froze those packs, that wouldn't taste the same afterwards. It would be different. What can we expect to start having some of this stuff here? So it's here now. It's online. We have a warehouse in LA, so it comes pretty quickly.

You can buy it on our website or on Amazon. And I think for now we'll just be in online or some like little stores and little like unique locations and gyms. we are not going to any big supermarkets or anything like that yet. That's amazing. Having a clean product is always extremely important. And, you know, we talked about a lot of the chemicals that go in there. But I want to get your input on what some of these toxins, right, part of ultra processed foods, what can really happen to the body, especially when you start hearing about these endocrine disruptors.

Yeah. Well, first of all, ultra processed foods are very high in calories and very low in micronutrients. Like they usually don't have a lot of vitamins and minerals. They're just empty calories. So when you eat those foods, not only that they don' make you feel full, they don't provide the satiety like let's say like steak does. They give you cravings because they're full of sugar and they do not give enough nutrients to be healthy. So if your diet is mainly made from ultra processed foods, you can end up having this syndrome.

It's not like official, but it's called hidden starvation. So you have surplus of calories. You might be putting on weight because you eat so much calories, but you're stuffed with the essential micronutrients that your body needs to function optimally. And from that, you will end up having hormonal issues. you can start having bad skin, bad hair, messed up hormones, metabolic issues, And that's from not having enough nutrients, but then also you're not, having nutrients but you are having lots of toxins and.

We live in a very toxic world. We are surrounded with polluted air. Our water is not clean. Everything we touch has good chemicals in it. People at home use chemical cleaning products, hair care, skin care. And that's got an accumulative effect. Genetically, our liver is pretty supposed to deal with all these toxins. Like we have liver to filter all the toxins out of our body. But if you start eating lots of ultra processed foods, if using all chemicals, skin care, hair care you breathing polluted air, you stressing a lot, your drinking alcohol, the liver can't keep up.

And then the toxin start accumulating in your body and you can develop lots different issues like autoimmune disorders and things like that. Hormonal issues. The most common is low testosterone in men. from endocrine disruptors in perfumes, household cleaning products, skin care and hair care. And that's something that we're seeing a lot, even in the younger age men, where their hormone levels are just very unregulated at this point. So, all right, so we talked about the product. We talked some of the issues that people can be having.

And you know, I noticed that you're very big into your own wellness data to really understand how things work. I see you have an Apple Watch. You have a Hora Ring. Yeah, Apple watch. So what was your readiness score today? My readiness score was quite good. I actually, surprisingly, ever since I got here, I've been really taking care of myself and my readiness is great. My sleep has been great, but I did a lot of things to get there from before I left from Australia and throughout the whole trip.

Because as you know, jet lag can really mess up your resilience to stress and resilience, to illness. It can mess your readiness core. so i've kept all my scores in like 80s 90s the whole time that's amazing for traveling too you know so that that especially with the time shift and everything else i have my own ring i don't wear it on the finger that you're supposed to wear down but it works you now i use it as a wedding band Um, so, you know, I, appreciate you doing that and talking about that, sometimes I know I could tell you me personally, struggle with my readiness score as much as I work hard.

You know? I travel with red light mat. I didn't have my brain tap and I do my Vegas nerve reset with a pulsetto. So I have all my different tools, but I always tell people you can't improve what you don't measure. Very important to measure and hold yourself accountable for it. So what I want you to do now, this next question, I wanted this question for you answer it from the heart. So take time to answer, take a few minutes. And what want to you do is let the world know what the true problem in our world is when it comes to nutrition, when is comes health, and let us know the what true solution is for that.

I think the true problem is that everyone wants a quick fix. Everyone wants everything easy and everyone want everything. Like you want to party, you wanted to eat whatever you, want you to do whatever and be healthy at the same time and that doesn't work. So I think people need to make the changes where they can easily make them. And it's your food, your water, you're exercise your sleep and taking care of your mental health and everything else. Like you, can't change the air you breathe. You can change a lot of things, but if you start with little changes, where you can make.

I, think that will make a big difference to your physical health, and your, mental and those around you as well. Amazing. So right now there's a big movement happening here in the U.S. called the Maha Movement, Make America Healthy Again. What are your thoughts about this big move of what's happening? I think it's great because when we started this business and I was talking to people about seed oils and additives, people just thought I'm some crazy Eastern European and no one in Australia, they're like, what are you talking about?

No one cares. But now as a result of the Maha movement, even though it to make America healthy again, Instagram is full of it and everyone in Australia watches it as well. And now people know what seed oils are. Now people asking questions. Like I was at the LA Marathon Expo and people were taking the product and actually looking and they're like, oh, it doesn't have seed oil. It doesn' have this, doesn''t have that. People now actually know about it. I know it's because of the Maha movement and how much it spread in social media.

and brought it into people's attention. So I think it's great. And it trickles to Australia and everywhere else. That's amazing. It's powerful to hear that it is not just making an impact here throughout our nation, but also an impacted globally in other countries. The next thing I want to do, I'm going to have a little bit of fun here. I have one of my favorite podcasters, Steven Barlet, the diary of a CEO. He came out with these conversation cards, so I'm going to have you grab that. You'll open that up.

Pick two cards. Random, random two parts. They'll read whatever's on the card and answer it. OK. Two cards like this, I need to buy this. I've heard about it and never tried it, OK? But can I put my glasses? Okay, what has been the most happiest moment of your life, brought you most joy and why? I think actually the happiest moment in my life was that ultra marathon, I told you about the ultra-marathon, the Mont Blanc,

MAHA, Mindset, and Closing Advice 56:00

because you need to qualify for it and it's very special to get in. And the atmosphere is so amazing that when I started running at the start line, started crying so much out of happiness. I was sobbing that the people running next to me were actually asking me if I'm okay because they thought I injured or something. I'm like, no, I am fine. I was crying here. So that was probably one of the most happiest moments in my life. That was like a lot of endorphins and happiness and sense of accomplishment and community and just everything together.

Amazing. And the second one, how will you control your own grade? I'm not a very greedy person, to be honest. As I said, because I grew up in such a modest upbringing, I always bring myself back to where I come from. In Australia, a living very affluent area and I work still as an exercise physiologist and a lot of my clients are very wealthy and then they talk about their multi-million dollar mansions and things like that. I sometimes catch myself thinking, I want this and I won't that, but then I bring myself back and am like, do I actually want these or do they want it?

And I just feel like I need to want because they wanted and actually I don't. So I didn't think I'm very greedy person. I, really appreciate what I already have because I've already fulfilled all my childhood dreams ages ago because my child who dreams were so. Basic like I wanted to live on the beach because there's no beach in the Czech Republic. I live in a beach I want it to have my own car and drive it because my mom never had driver's license and she still doesn't have it and She's obviously never heard her own card and I have mine current I drive It I Wanted to be on an airplane because neither of my parents have never traveled on a plane so traveled in airplane so you know like i've already accomplished everything ages ago and now everything that I Have on top of it is a bonus That's amazing.

That a beautiful, beautiful thing. And that's honest. Like people that know me will know that. I'm pretty happy with what I have. And I consciously try to stop myself from wanting more. It's nice to get something more, but it's not like I am really greedy for cars and handbags and stuff. You're content. That's amazing. Amazing. So Veronica, as we wrap up here, if there's someone listening to the podcast that really resonates with today's message, what is that last thing you're going to be The last thing, just the thing that I start with, use your brain and when you come to the store, don't think about this, the front of the packaging that's advertising, become a pack flipper.

That's my message. Become a back flippers, flip it around, have a look and decide for yourself, do I wanna eat this or not? I love it, I Love it. And if people wanna find you or find your company, where can they find it? The Instagram is chief.nutrition and the website is us.wearchief.com. All right. And we'll include all those links down below. So, Veronica, it was a pleasure having you on a Healthy Point of View podcast. Thank you. Thanks for having me. Amazing. Guys, you heard Veronica what she said.

Become a pack flipper, right? I'm gonna break that down for you. If you don't know what becoming a packed flippers is, it means that you grab whatever you have at the grocery store and flip it and read the ingredients. That's a must, right? Because what happens is a lot of these big food companies, they're hiding things in there. Hiding things that are going to be poisonous, that're going be bad for your health, and that will cause disease to develop, Right? Take the packet and flip it. Make sure it has the minimal amount of ingredients.

Ingredients that you can understand, you pronounce, And that makes sense, read it, understand it Grab your phone, research it Very important, right? There's products out there like what she has with the chief product that make it easy for you to understand, that are healthy for your. So become a pack flipper. If you know anyone or someone who's close to you who might benefit from today's message, make sure you share this podcast. Make sure to comment, subscribe, do all that fun stuff, and we'll see you for the next one.