 Welcome to the Dr. Gundry Podcast. Okay, it's trivia time and everybody loves these trivia questions. Okay, which superfood boasts more potassium than a banana and more antioxidants than blueberries or a Sahi? I'll give you a hint. It's been hailed as the king of medicinal fungi. I'm talking about chaga, one of the most nutritionally dense immune-supporting foods in the world. And in just a moment, my guests and I are going to reveal how you can reap the benefits of this incredibly powerful, increasingly popular superfood. I'm joined by Brandon Mizrahi, the CEO and founder of Renewed, the stripped-down beverage company and makers of the delicious chaga chino. Like so many others, Brandon struggled for years with troublesome health issues and little-to-no answers. And if you watch my podcast, that's a familiar story. It wasn't until he turned to this ancient fungi that he began living his best, healthiest life and discovered his passion for helping others do the same. On this episode, Brandon and I are going to explain what chaga can do for your health and why the chaga chino should become your new go-to drink. Brandon, it's so great to have you on the show. Welcome. Amazing to be here. So, I want to start off by expanding on your journey to health. For so long, you dealt with chronic low-energy brain fog, hormone imbalances, IBS, and asthma. When did all this start in your life? Yeah, great question. I can remember going back to third grade when I first was, you know, killed over in fetal position from stomach pain. I wasn't able to go to school and just screaming in pain. And my parents were concerned, obviously. They had no idea what to do. So they called, you know, our local doctor and then referred us to a specialist. And they started to do tests on me. Next thing I know, there's a tube going down my throat. I'm drinking this blue stuff that I didn't even know what it was. And, you know, they didn't find any disease or anything. So, you know, they didn't really know how to treat it. And the Western medicine pretty much just calls anything IBS, irritable bowel syndrome, when they don't know what to give a label to. So they just said, oh, he has IBS. But again, I was like screaming in pain from this. And I was sick all the time from a young age starting around that time. And I was missing all the big events in school from kids birthday parties or it could have been a playoff basketball game or a, you know, fun holiday. So I was just had an overactive immune system and these gut problems from the time I was five or six years old. And you probably like many other people not only went to one doctor, but probably many. And did they offer you any solutions? As I got older, they gave me some prescription pills to deal with it. And that's correct that we saw a host of doctors and specialists. And, you know, we, we ended up eventually going to some alternative holistic practitioners as well. And my mom, you know, I was a child at the time. So my mom was really helping me on this journey. And they, when they eventually prescribed me some, some pharmaceuticals and that had a whole host of problems that it created that triggered asthma and me, you know, triggered hormone imbalances. My bone density was so low by the time I was 17 or 18. I was 18 years old that the doctor was, he said, you can, you can break your bones just walking. So I obviously got off of those pills and, you know, really turned to holistic medicine, alternative medicine to heal myself. And I had been on a journey to heal myself in many other ways throughout the years, whether that was diet related, food related, herb related, you know, and it was just always a journey to heal myself. And how did you, did you stumble upon the shaga mushroom or, you know, it's been used for centuries, particularly in, in eastern and Chinese medicine. What, how did it crop up on your radar? Correct. Great question. Yeah. I was experimenting with many other adaptogens, herbs, diets. I did, did it all. I mean, from, you know, the blood type diet to the keto diet to low glycemic, to flexitariate, you know, all these LA health crisis. They talk about juice cleanses, green juices. Also, you know, Prolon, this company, really, really nice five day fast where they give you the nutrients. Dr. Vulture Longo out of USC has a great fasting program, you know, intermittent fasting, you name it. And I was also experimenting with herbs, tinctures and adaptogens and different superfoods and food combining as well. Because that's a big thing. You can be eating a lot of, you know, carbohydrates and fats together. And that may not digest well. Also, you know, there are certain foods that lead to inflammation in your body, even though they might be healthy foods. So, you know, just trying to find the right balance was, and then, but in terms of your question, where I discovered Chaga from, actually listening to a TED Talk in 2013. It was Paul Stamets. He had a TED Talk that said. I know Paul. Oh, amazing. So I was blown away by the TED Talk. Six ways mushrooms can heal or change the world. And then I just did a deep dive of research on it. And like I said, I was already, you know, taking Makka from Peru, Ashwagandha from India, Heeshawu from Japan, all of these sort of adapted, adaptogen superfoods. I like to think about adaptogens as sort of the cream of the crop of superfoods with indigenous use. And a lot of science behind them as well. There's a lot of research papers on all of those adaptogens that I just mentioned. And there's a ton on Chaga. I mean, hundreds of research papers. You can go on PubMed and see them. I mean, there's institutes like Sloan Kettering, John Hopkins, the most respected medical journals and establishments have research papers on Chaga that are peer reviewed. And so I went into a deep dive on those papers and just started to read them. And, you know, there's a lot of words in there that you can't understand. But there's a lot of words that you can and just educating myself. And, you know, it's been a journey, like I said. So let me stop you there. You've mentioned adaptogens multiple times. And for our viewers and listeners, they may have heard this word, maybe not. Tell us about what the heck an adaptogen is. So the easy way to think about an adaptogen is something that helps your body physically and mentally adapt to stress. So there's about 10 to 15 adaptogens in the world. And I like to think about them as the cream of the crop of superfoods. There's, as I mentioned earlier, Ashwagandha out of India, Maka out of Peru, Chaga, which grows in its wild forage. So I like to think even of Chaga as, like, the king of adaptogens, not just the king of the fungi kingdom, but they all have indigenous use. You know, in the case of Chaga, the first reported or first discovered use is actually around Utsi the Ice Man, which is the most well-preserved caveman dated 5,000 BC. There's a museum in the Italian Swiss Alps border, like dedicated to Utsi the Ice Man, and he was found frozen. And I think they dated his body to around 60 or 65 years old at that time, which is an incredible long time to live. And they found birch polypores around his neck and some Chaga mushroom as well. So it just shows you are ancestors were using this stuff. So I don't really look at these things as something new. It's more of a rediscovery. So where do you find Chaga? Are you walking on the ground and say, oh, look, there's a Chaga? Yeah, great question. There's 3.3 million species in the fungi kingdom. So most people will think about mushrooms as something that grows on the ground or something you put on your pizza. And some of them are poisonous. Some people are scared of them. But people love mushrooms on their pizza. Some people are afraid of mushrooms or have allergies. What's so unique about the medicinal mushrooms, and when I say medicinal, it doesn't mean it's not going to get you high. It's not going to. It's on a psychedelic trip. But what it means is that they have a lot of nutrient dense properties. So Chaga specifically is a medicinal mushroom that grows on trees and not just any tree. It grows on birch trees and not just any birch tree. It grows on about 1 in 5 to 10,000 birch trees and only in freezing climates like Alaska, Siberia, the Chiang Bai Mountains in China. Just really northern climates. Canada as well, British Columbia. So you have to go out there in nature and wild forage it. Kind of like truffles. But again, truffles are amazing for taste. But we're talking about nutrient dense health benefits here. And Chaga is arguably the most nutrient dense whatever you want to call it. We talked about adaptogens, superfoods, fungi. There's so many different names or classifications for it. But it is one of the most nutrient dense, if not the most, on the planet. And I can get into a little bit about why whenever you would like. Well, you know, this is probably a good way to talk about that because you're not going to go out and chop a chaga off a birch tree and take a nice hunk of it and eat it. And you're not going to slice it on your pizza, obviously. So tell us how this came about. How did people learn what Chaga did? How did people use it traditionally? And take us into some of the research on it. Yeah, so there's a ton of history around it and research. Like I said, dates 5,000 B.C. when we first discovered humans using this compound. And like I said, Utsidai's been living 60-plus years old in that time is an incredible thing. And he didn't even die from natural causes. He died from an arrow wound from a rival tribe. So who knows how long he would have lived. These are very potent, unbelievably healthy substances. And Chaga Mushroom in particular has a historical use in Eastern Europe, in Asia. Also, in Finland, they would use it during the war as a substitute for coffee. Their soldiers would use it. So the Conti people would use it as well. So indigenous tribes all the way up to being popular in about the 19th and 20th century being rediscovered by civilization and used by various groups of people, like I said, in Eastern Europe and Asia. And now it's just making its way to the United States where people are rediscovering this and getting interested in Chaga and other medicinal mushrooms. And I'm really happy about it. I think they're amazing things. The fungi kingdom actually is closer DNA match to humans than the plant kingdom. So we are closer match to these fungi than plants actually. And that doesn't mean we can't have great health benefits from kale and carrots and all these other amazing plants. It's just we are closer match to the fungi kingdom. There's more than 56 medicines using Chaga. So I was actually in Copenhagen before the pandemic. Just on vacation we were on a trip to Europe with my wife and our baby. And I was we were walking by and I noticed in the pharmacy right in the window display there's a Chaga tincture there as there's the first thing they're promoting there. So that's not something that we see here in the U.S. You may have to walk into Whole Foods and go down the aisle and find these little tinctures here. But over there that's the first thing they're promoting in their pharmacy. You know and you bring up that's a good point. Medicinal mushrooms are getting a lot of interest right now particularly in the United States. You're right the traditional cultures around the world have known about these benefits but we're a little slow to catch on. And there's a lot of mushroom products out there. What took you towards Chaga to kind of make it your life's work instead of Reshi mushroom for instance? Yeah that's a great question. All the medicinal mushrooms are great they'll have similar health benefits some might be better in certain areas. What drew me to Chaga was the fact that it's wild forage and just the story of it it's growing like I said on a birch tree in a wild forest and it's getting its health benefits from that tree so you can't cultivate it like coffee or rice or these crops on a farm. It has to be found in the wild and that's where the magic is. That birch tree is one of the healthiest things on the planet. It might live for hundreds if not thousands of years. So how do you get the health benefits from that birch tree into your body? What are you going to do? Chop it down and then boil it in water? I mean it's just not reasonable. So what the Chaga mushroom is doing is it will grow on that birch tree where it's sort of like a band-aid so let's just say that tree got struck by lightning or attacked by insects and it sort of has an open wound if you will. It'll grow on that wound to protect the tree and it makes this handshake deal. Nature's amazing. So it'll make this handshake deal and say I'm going to protect you as a band-aid but in exchange I'm going to start extracting your nutrients. So it will extend the life of the tree because without the Chaga growing on it and protecting it the tree will die from infection but it does... So it has a symbiotic relationship with the tree but over time it does kill the tree because it extracts all of those nutrients. Now I mean I have a piece of Chaga here so by the time it's about five years old five to ten years old it's been growing at about an inch per year on that tree it's predigesting those nutrients from the birch tree and by the time it's about five to ten years old in the size of about a beehive it is arguably the most nutrient dense superfood on the planet. Now how do we get the nutrients out of the Chaga? We can't just eat it like you said we can't just put it on our pizza it's almost like a piece of wood it's hard like a piece of wood so we grind it up like coffee small pieces and then you steep it like a tea but normal steeps on tea would be three to five minutes to get that medicinal steep and to get all those nutrients out we steep it for anywhere from six to 48 hours so it's a very long steep and then our process to get it into people in our product is we'll freeze dry it into a powder so we can then get it into people's hands in a very simple way where they can add it to their teas or their drinks or their smoothies etc but that's how I was originally making it I was steeping it like a tea and traditionally they would do it over a campfire or that type of thing to extract it and it is so potent that you can dry it after you steep it and stick it in the freezer so it doesn't grow mold and all that and then re-steep it up to six times or seven times until you see it loses that color so it is just loaded with nutrients and health benefits at that point now mushrooms have traditionally been known as supporting the immune system can you talk about where the research is how in fact do mushrooms help support an immune system yeah great question the immune system is getting a lot of attention right now because I think as we know because of the pandemic COVID and the relationship between the immune system people with the severity of that virus but obviously there has been viruses and bacterias around for the beginning of time so having a healthy immune system is just should be a good idea a good idea just like having a healthy diet or working out and that doesn't mean we can't ever have something bad or some sugar or sweets but just overall having a good healthy diet and a healthy immune system should just be a prerequisite so in terms of mushrooms and mushrooms like chaga we're talking about the highest antioxidance ever measured on the planet so it's like as you mentioned in the intro three pounds worth of blueberries per serving and that's for about a gram of chaga which is in every chaga genome and that's the effective dose you're welcome to have more there's no toxic dosage so like someone who has a serious disease or virus there's a lot of research on cancer and again we don't make disease claims but the research is out there on it and people are welcome to see that research they could take 50 grams for example 50 times the amount that we're recommending so what makes it so special number one is the most antioxidants ever measured Pomegranates blueberries are a distant second third and fourth we're talking about like I said 10 times more than acai 33 pounds of blueberries antioxidants it also has beneficial cytokines which are special protein that regulate the immune system so chaga will stimulate blood cells which are essential for fighting off these harmful bacteria and viruses that we were talking about so as a result the question helps fight colds and serious illnesses and flus you know I was getting sick a lot I had an overactive immune system you know modulator as well to help work with your own immune system and hit the brakes on it from time to time because not every bacteria and virus that comes into your body whether you're at the gym or in the steam room or having a conversation with somebody that had a bacteria that comes into your space sometimes those aren't really that harmful and they're like a little spark that would go out on its own but our body's response to those sparks sometimes is to send the firing squads on them or call the fire department and fever response is in bed for a week sometimes it's just not necessary if it's a spark that will go out on its own we don't need to get sick we don't need to have these fevers we don't need to have to suffer and be in bed and be taken out of commission so Chaga had really helped me hit the brakes on my immune system when needed to not have those responses so I have taken four years since I started taking this every day four or five times a year I'd be in bed for six or seven days now if it does need to hit the gas pedal on your immune system it's an immuno modulator as I mentioned so it will do that it's not always going to hit the brakes and say hey maybe this spark can turn into a forest fire as it grows the Chaga will work with your immune system there's so many other health benefits and beneficial properties in there but we can get at that around a little later as well so you say that Chaga is the highest melanin rich food on the planet and I'm glad that you've talked about that why is melanin so important most people maybe have heard of melanin as the pigment in our skin that gives us a sun tan or it gives us a naturally darker skin color what's so cool about melanin as you mentioned that's exactly right melanin gives you the pigment in your skin your hair and your eyes but what a lot of people might not know about melanin is that it protects you from harmful UV rays it's sort of like a built in SPF if you will so when you go out to the sun the melanin can absorb those UV rays before they reach the healthy cells so Chaga being loaded with highest amounts of melanin on the planet and the reason for that is because the outer layer which they call the sclerotia layer which is sort of the protective layer this armor that the Chaga grows to survive in those freezing climates in Alaska let's say it could be negative 50 degrees Fahrenheit and then in the summer the sun might come out so it needs to be able to survive in extreme climate and it grows this outer layer that's very black and crusty looking and it is just the treasure trove of melanin so as you mentioned in terms of melanin it is unbelievable for your skin your hair your eye color, your radiance your glow there are studies that show as your melanin decreases your hair starts to turn gray you know some people like you and Steve Martin they're silver foxes so you guys might not mind my wife secretly wants my hair to turn gray and she's like waiting for that time but it is amazing for yeah exactly but yeah melanin is amazing for sort of a beauty nutrient for your hair skin, eyes, overall glow and radiance alright I want to shift gears so you went from seeping your own Chaga at home to launching Renewed and number one great name how'd you come up with Renewed yeah so you know Renewed is really stripping down plastic beverages back to their nude bare natural state and then renewing them for the masses not just the health and wellness community the masses in affordable and delicious elixirs and I want to highlight because we really wanted to have people have an enjoyable experience first when they taste our product versus something like a shot of wheatgrass or a green juice and you know there's a place for those products for I mean look I just have green juice and I enjoy it but if you would give a wheat a green juice to my dad he would spit it out you know so we wanted to have delicious flavors for the masses really so Renewed makes Chaga Chino clever and so where'd the idea of Chaga Chino come from great question so I did not approach Chaga as a business I was just using it to heal myself and what I had noticed was after I was steeping it at home with the additional tea I was getting creative with it I started putting it in my refrigerator making an iced tea I would add lemons to it make a Chaga Palmer I would add some monk fruit to it to sweeten it and I started making these other concoctions with home brewed kombucha and mixing that with the Chaga I was playing with different recipes with adding it to my coffee so they kept I would sample it for them and the next thing I know they're drinking all of my Chaga concoctions and I'm like I can't even hang on to these medicinal teas that I'm making so at some point I said you know what I gotta get out there this has helped me so much in my life I don't have asthma anymore the inflammation of my guts gone I'm not getting sick anymore my brain fog is gone my hormones have returned to normal this has helped me more than anything I've tried before and people love it I ended up just going to the local farmers market here in Los Angeles on Melrose Place we're really lucky to have these amazing farmers markets down the street so I had the different drinks that I was making and I just had some information about each of them and week after week people were gravitating towards the Chaga Chino over the others and I had that little square card reader sometimes it was 5 to 1 over the other drinks sometimes it was 7 to 1 sometimes it was 10 to 1 over the other drinks so I was like wow ok this is how people wanted this delicious latte vehicle the Chaga and so I'll meet them where they're at I'll put it in this delicious latte and then the next step was where are people drinking coffee where are they having these lattes at the coffee shops so we approached the Indians Coffee Shop in Los Angeles at the time and they still are Alfred Coffee Shop right there in Melrose Place where you might write into you're guaranteed to see a Kardashian but you might also run into Larry David Linton's been there or Justin Bieber all these celebrities different athletes LeBron James so we launched it there and next thing we know Queneth Paltrow is posting about it Courtney Kardashian is posting about it all these big celebrities are posting about this mushroom coffee and on Instagram and Facebook on social media so we then launched it in all of Alfred's cafes and now it's offered in over 800 coffee shops around the country and during Covid we launched the single serve packets for people to enjoy at home and add it to their coffee and that can be we don't put coffee in the product so it's meant to be a supplement or a way to supercharge your coffee both the taste and the health benefit so many people probably say a drink made from mushrooms doesn't sound very appetizing let's just put it that way so first of all what's in Chaga Chino besides Chaga and what does it taste like? yeah I mean we always do a demo or a sampling there's always a qualifier people will chase it and say oh wow that actually tastes good oh my gosh there's always pleasantly surprised so it does not taste like the mushrooms on your pizza again this is coming from the birch tree and it's more like a piece of wood than the traditional mushroom that we think about so it pulls its flavors from the birch tree and look they make birch syrup which is similar to maple syrup so it has a very nice flavor profile to it some people get vanilla some people get caramel some people get different notes out of the Chaga but in terms of the ingredients that we're adding to the Chaga Chino we went after the taste profile of a mocha latte or really a frappuccino which is the number one selling coffee drink on the planet by far you know Starbucks created this delicious drink you know but it's loaded with a lot of bad ingredients you know 46 to 56 grams of sugar that's like 23 packets of sugar and I mean the average person would probably open two or three packets at the most to put in their coffee at home but yet when they go there they're willing to let somebody open 23 packets of sugar and you know not just that there's mono glycerides I mean we could go on and on about the ingredients and other products but I'll just speak to what the Chaga Chino is so we wanted to give it this delicious mocha latte flavor so it's got raw cacao from Peru as the mocha flavor and again as opposed to cocoa which is a processed heated version of that the raw cacao is just ground up and it's got a shelf life of two years we don't need to add binders fillers emulsifiers preservatives to it we wanted to also add a little bit of cinnamon to it to give it a nice little note and we're using Salon Cinnamon Chaga we're also using a monk fruit sweetener which the monk fruit is sourced from Japan and we I spent over six months to try and find one that doesn't have this weird aftertaste it tastes just like sugar actually the barista's in the cafe it's the number one question they get asked you promise there's no sugar you swear there's no sugar in it and that's one of the reasons why it's keto friendly it's also vegan and it adds zero calories to your coffee so it's diabetic friendly you know so that's basically what's in the chagachino it's a blend of the chaga the raw cacao the Salon Cinnamon and the monk fruit and then when you add it to your coffee it upgrades it and supercharges the latte it tastes like a mocha latte or frappuccino wow alright so there's a lot of other mushroom drinks out there what's the difference between a chagachino and the other guys great question I mean you wouldn't think mushroom coffees would be a crowded space but you're right it is and there's a lot of companies doing it a lot of great companies doing it I would say what separates us is the taste we are delicious first so even if you're not interested in the health benefits if you try a chagachino you're going to be blown away by how good it tastes and the fact that it's healthy is secondary there's other brands that are adding mushrooms and coffee but they're just maybe putting a little bit of folger coffee crystals with the mushroom and then it's up to you to make it taste good you know and a lot of people don't have time or they know how to do that I mean like I said sourcing these ingredients is not easy like we import like tons of raw cacao from Peru we import tons of monk fruit sweetener from Japan we're importing saline cinnamon from Sri Lanka Madagascar vanilla like all these ingredients and we're also getting the blend right for people so they don't have to think about it they can just tear open a packet pour it into their coffee do what they do get to work or whatever they love to do so that's the big difference is we're really focused on the taste one of the other big differences we meet people at the coffee shops you know there's not many drinks at the coffee shop where you can supercharge your coffee or upgrade it now you can go into a coffee shop and for an extra dollar or two upgrade your coffee and make your latte a chagachino and like I said there's over 800 shops currently serving it and we're adding 50 to 100 shops every month similar to the way Impossible Burger did it with their plant based burger they met people at the burger joints first introduced it there selling it to people directly so the second question everybody kind of associates with mushrooms is they confuse medicinal mushrooms with magic mushrooms so this isn't going to make me feel funny is it no definitely not there's no psychoactive components to it it is not magic mushroom there's no silo or anything like that it's safe to consume for people of any age and it's not going to I have it every day and I work every day and I'm not no the short answer is no it's not magic mushrooms it's similar to the mushrooms that after you eat a portobello mushroom or shiitake mushroom it gives you but I will say it does give some buzz like almost like caffeine would but there's no caffeine in the chaga itself people are welcome to have it with decaf coffee as well if they don't consume caffeine or at night or whatever if people wanted to have a nice treat they could consume it with decaf coffee and the chaga mushroom will give you an energy boost on the mitochondria level so it's non-stimulant 25% energy and endurance boosts actually there's a lot of like in the Olympics they didn't know how the Russians and different in the Chinese running team was doing so well it's allowed it's not like you're doping when you take it it's an allowed substance to take in the Olympics and they admitted later on the Russian Olympic coach that this is what they were using to get the edge it's a 25% endurance boost so you don't get that crash and it works really well with coffees to take away the jitters to take away the crash and it prolongs that buzz that you get from coffee without dropping you down like a roller coaster so it works really well if you do drink coffee like I do I mean I have a coffee every morning sometimes in the afternoon I'm not one of these anti-coffee people I love coffee I think it's amazing I personally add it to my coffee but people are welcome to add it to decaf if that's what they prefer could they add it to hot water or tea by the way yeah a lot of people love matcha and different teas are all grey you're welcome to add it to that you could just add it to a plant-based milk or if you drink regular milk you're welcome to add it to regular milk it'll taste like an upgraded hot chocolate or iced cocoa type of drink I didn't mention this it can be consumed iced or hot my preferred way to consume it is iced with a little oat milk but I'll have it hot as well it's delicious both ways it's very versatile there's no coffee inside of the chagochino we just recommend coffee as the vehicle people add it to because that's the most delicious taste but it tastes amazing with teas, plant-based milk anything so and you got you literally got your start in coffee shops bringing this into coffee shops correct we had noticed that the cafes all had the same drinks a lot of them are espresso based but I guess the new innovation was cold brew or the newer innovation was cold brew and there really wasn't anything on the menu that I saw matcha is a healthy drink and I was happy to see that a lot of places serve matcha but in terms of the coffee it was just a lot of the same stuff, cappuccinos espresso different lattes which are espresso based drinks americano another espresso based drink where you're adding water instead of milk macchiato a lot of these drinks whether it's cappuccino, macchiato lattes they're just variations of milk two shots of espresso and how much milk am I putting in so there wasn't really any drinks on their menu so it was out to me as being an upgraded version of the coffee or super charging it so we really wanted to meet people at the coffee shops to introduce this drink and give them an option to still have this delicious mocha latte but super charge it in nutrients and health benefits as well so and where do you I know you mentioned birch trees where is your chaga sourced where are they so our wild foragers that we work with are in both British Columbia and Siberia we have two different suppliers that we work with and we're very careful about this and very sensitive to this topic because this is a wild forged food and sustainably harvesting it means leaving about 25% on the tree so again it can still protect the tree from infection and it can regrow and be re harvested in about 3 to 4 years so they will actually GPS the tree once they find it and come back to it and re harvest it so that's considered sustainably harvesting it and we source ours from British Columbia and Siberia yeah alright so what's next for renewed great question yes so renewed isn't even though about the chagachino chagachino chagachino all the time renewed is really you know stripped down beverage company we are stripping down drinks to their new natural state and with the chagachino as our first drink we took the flavor profile of a frappuccino or a mocha latte which is the most popular drink in coffee now what's the most popular drink in soda a cola so our next project is working on a super cola cleaning it up again going ingredient by ingredient so you don't really have to compromise on flavor now there's a lot of drinks out there whether it's a kombucha drink that's cola flavored or there's a probiotic drink a coconut probiotic drink that's or apple cider vinegar drink that's called flavor but again we're not we're not going after cola flavored we're going after close your eyes and have one of the leading cola brands whether that's coke or Pepsi and then have ours and you will not only not only think ours is better but a lot better in taste I mean because we're using real ingredients you know again like when cola was invented by Dr. Pemberton was meant to be an elixir he was a pharmacist and you know yes we all know there the thing there was cocaine in it or you know maybe there was in the way beginning but you know now they replaced that with some caffeine but you know it was an elixir he was using a blend of essential oils pulled from fruit peels from lime peels lemon peels different essential oil blends he was using cinnamons like I mean sorry spices and botanicals like cassia and neroli and lavender and just over the years it's just you know probably through corporate greed they substituted this ingredient for that ingredient high fructose corn syrup phosphoric acid and the diacola it's aspartame which we know is terrible for you and is problematic for diseases like cancer and others if you consume too much of it and you know what really blows my mind about it it's like I'll see the smartest people in the world like Bill Gates and Warren Buffett and I'll see a diacola right next to their desk and you know I think to myself wow you know these people are the smartest people in the world but they're doing some dumb things too you know so yeah that's our next project is that we're also working on you know bottling it getting it into ready the taguccino into ready to drink format we're expanding it into different locations right now it's pretty much all over Los Angeles coffee shops New York coffee shops coffee shops but we're moving into Seattle we're moving into other regions and yeah that's what we're working on right now well Brandon it's been a great pleasure to learn about all this so where can listeners find out more about you and where can they get their hands on a cup taguccino sorry yeah so they can go to drinkrenew.com it's D-R-I-N-K-R-E-N U-D-E dot com nude like naked drinkrenew dot com or if they're on social media and they're like Instagram or Facebook where our handle is drinkrenewed D-R-I-N-K-R-E-N U-D-E and it's also available on Amazon as well they're welcome to purchase there it's on Prime so shipping on Amazon you know we always have some great deals on our website as well 10% off and different recipe ideas and different ways that you can use it and more information about the product there as well and I think you've got a special offer for our listeners we do we do for your listeners we're offering our biggest discount believe it's 15% off which is the most we normally do is 10 and they just need to use the coupon code DrGundry I believe I'll bet you that's the coupon code that's gonna be it if that wasn't it we're gonna make it that so DrGundry use that coupon code and you will get our biggest discount today again this is a wild forage food they call it the diamond over the forest for a reason in Japan because you literally have to go out there and find it like a diamond if you look at truffles and those kind of wild forage foods they can be hundreds of dollars a pound each packet only comes to $2.99 we've really tried to keep it affordable for an average person to purchase this and with that discount you just can't beat it you can't miss well thanks a lot and everybody next time when you're watching the DrGundry podcast sip on a chagachino and we'll get together alright thanks a lot Brian thanks DrGundry great talking to you alright and good luck with this thank you okay it's now time for the audience question and review of the week this week our audience question and review both came from Karsten T on YouTube he says thank you for another video DrGundry my mom and I already have benefited hugely from your recommendations my mom's babbed hit has disappeared and despite being 75 she is bursting with energy and my god health was taking me out of life for hours on end now it is almost fully normal well you know Karsten that's wonderful here why I do this but Karsten also says I'm wondering is it the temperature that destroys most lectins temperature or pressure or indeed just pressure well it turns out that most of the studies show that it's actually the pressure and temperature that breaks down lectins believe it or not I learned this years ago in surgery where we have autoclaves to sterilize instruments and the autoclave uses both pressure and temperature because neither one is as effective as both combined yes heat does reduce lectins there's no question about it but to really destroy lectins to make them non-dangerous it's the combination of the heat and pressure the beauty is the modern pressure cooker Instant Pot is the most famous one is really so easy to use and as you know I have an entire book the plant paradox family cookbook really devoted to pressure cook meals and the great news is the companies are recognizing this and there's now two companies that I'm aware of Eden and Jovial that pressure cook their beans and in fact Jovial goes one step further they actually soak their beans first and then pressure cook them so it's getting easier and easier to get the foods you love that in the meantime will love you back but if you can't get these pre-prepared foods break out the Instant Pot just so easy to use and if you don't know how to use it plenty of YouTube videos out there or grab a copy of my book and we'll walk you through the steps great question and thank you again for writing in I can't tell you the number of people in my patient population that we've canceled hip and knee surgery with a change in diet it's not miraculous it's actually what's supposed to happen thanks for letting people know that it works because you know this is why I do this, this is why we do this show to bring you important information so thanks for writing in and please send us a comment on Apple TV on Apple podcasts wherever you get your podcasts iTunes, give us a ring and hopefully we'll read your because I'm Dr. Gundry and I'm always looking out for you we'll see you next week before you go I just wanted to remind you that you can find the show on iTunes Google Play, Stitcher or wherever you get your podcasts because I'm Dr. Gundry and I'm always looking out for you