 If you haven't heard by now, you need to hear. So what is glyphosate? Well, glyphosate is the active ingredient in Roundup, made by Monsanto, now owned by Bayer. Now Roundup was originally developed to be sprayed on crops to kill the weeds without killing the crop itself. And as you know the story, Monsanto genetically engineered soybeans and then corn and then oats and various other products to be resistant to the killing action of glyphosate. But you could spray it on the weeds in the field and the weeds would die. Of course, now plants are pretty smart and weeds have become resistant to the action of glyphosate. So we now have superweeds that actually have to have more glyphosate poured on them. So glyphosate works by interfering with the plants, simplistically energy producing pathway, which is called the chikamate pathway. Now what you don't know probably is that glyphosate was patented as an antibiotic. Yes, because bacteria use the chikamate pathway to reproduce as well. Now the good news, at least according to the nice folks at Monsanto, when they talked to the FDA, was that humans don't use the chikamate pathway. And so glyphosate was perfectly safe for humans to ingest. Glyphosate now is known to independently cause leaky gut without any other reason. We now know that glyphosate preferentially kills friendly bacteria, leaving bad bacteria alive. In fact, what's really scary is that glyphosate kills off the tryptophan pathway bacteria that take tryptophan, turn it into serotonin, the feel good hormone. So one of the things that's been implicated in our epidemic of anxiety and depression is the fact that glyphosate, which has now been around for 50 years, is destroying the very bacteria that make feel good hormones. Now that's not all. In one paper that I show in my book, glyphosate interferes with mitochondrial function. Now why would that be? Because quite frankly, mitochondria are ancient engulfed bacteria. So it's actually no surprise that glyphosate would interfere with mitochondrial function. And just remember, mitochondria are what makes energy for us, ATP. Just how bad is glyphosate? Well, the IARC working group classified glyphosate as probably carcinogenic to humans. The World Health Organization classifies it as carcinogenic to humans. In 2019, researchers at the University of Washington that concluded that glyphosate use increases the risk of non-Hodgkin's lymphoma by 41%. And as you probably have heard in the news, there have now been a number of successful multi-million, even billion dollar lawsuits filed and adjudicated against Monsanto and Bayer for cancer that roundup caused. So juries have now decided that it's true that there is a direct cancer link. So everybody used to think that roundup was only used on GMO crops and that if it said non-GMO on the front, you were safe. Well, not so fast. It turns out that modern agriculture wants to have a field ready to harvest when their multi-million dollar harvesting machines are available at that field. And they can't depend on weather to ripen the crops or to have the crop ready. So what they do commercially is they spray the field with roundup a couple of weeks before they plan to harvest. The entire plant dies. Again, these are non-GMO plants. These are regular plants and they desiccate. They dry up. It's a whole lot easier to harvest dead plants than living plants. You lose all the water. So now almost all of our conventional grain products, wheat, corn, soybeans, just to name a few, oats, are sprayed with roundup for the purpose of drying the crop and making it easier to harvest. Now, I can assure you that they don't go around afterwards and wash all the glyphosate off the crops. That would be stupid. So most of our crops now, conventionally, are sprayed with glyphosate. So just because it says non-GMO means absolutely nothing about the presence of glyphosate. Oh, and by the way, because the FDA has declared that glyphosate is safe, you don't have to put it on the label that you used it because what the heck? It doesn't matter. Right now, it's sprayed on 70% of all of our agricultural crops. 90% of our corn and 90% of our soy is sprayed with glyphosate. Now, is it so prevalent that it's a problem? Well, more than 80% of Americans in one study looking at urine samples, including 87% of children had large amounts of glyphosate in their urine, which means that we are a wash in glyphosate, but it gets worse. Now, you are what you eat, but even more so, you are what the thing you're eating it. So now we take this glyphosate sprayed corn, this glyphosate sprayed soybeans, this glyphosate oats wheat, and we feed it to our animals. Now, our animals then have glyphosate in their tissues. So when we eat our conventionally raised animals, our chicken, our pork, our beef, that are fed these grain products to fatten them up, they've got glyphosate in them as well. And insult injury, put your hamburger on a bun that was made out of glyphosate sprayed wheat, and I guarantee you it was, you've got a double glyphosate load. But wait, there's more. You can't be safe with a plant-based burger, like the new exciting, I won't mention their names, but these are made with soy, and they have detectable levels of glyphosate in them. So do you want a little glyphosate with your plant-based burger? Uh-uh. All right, so where do we really want to be aware of glyphosate? So number one is oatmeal and oats. Yes, even organic, even Bob Redmill have glyphosate in their oats. A recent study of 35 oat products in the United States found glyphosate, including some very dangerous levels in every one of the oat products tested, including many of our kid's cereals, including granola and granola bars. And I did say yes, even organic. Here's the problem. Glyphosate is usually sprayed from machines or even from helicopters or planes. You may have an organic field of oats, but your neighbor on one side or all sides doesn't grow organically. He sprays his crops and the glyphosate drifts over to your crop. In fact, that's what happens to our organic oats. It's so prevalent in the use of oats that just because it's organic and it wasn't used on that field doesn't mean it didn't drift in from the other field. And that's why we find it in all of these products. Now, it's present in all grains. It's present because it's been sprayed on almost all grains. Interestingly, a great number of California wines have glyphosate in them. Why? Because it's used as a weed killer between the vines to top down weeds. And of course, that spray gets up on the grapes. And again, they're not washed off before they're made into wine. Is there any way to stop this? Well, quite frankly, California wineries and other wineries are catching up with the rest of the world. There's been a huge movement in Europe to ban glyphosate, to have organic or even beyond organic biodynamic vineyards. And you're much safer looking for organic on the label or biodynamic on the label or when in doubt. And I'm a Californian, I praise California wines every now and then. Look for something from France or Italy. And in general, you'll find a lot more organic labels or biodynamic labels. Stay away from breakfast foods. Cheerios, granola bars. Unfortunately, believe it or not, cherries, 60% of the crops are sprayed with glyphosate. It's in apple and cherry juices. It's also been found in fresh corn. It's been found in asparagus, figs, grapefruit, hazelnuts, olives, oranges, peaches. Why? Because the weeds around these crops are controlled with glyphosate, round them. And it's getting into all of our produce. It's everywhere. Well, you look at that, listen, you go, well, jeez, there is absolutely nothing safe to eat. Maybe so, but at the very least, when you get your produce at home, wash it. Wash it in the sink. Does vinegar help? Maybe, maybe not. I don't know of a study that says vinegar removes glyphosate, but it's certainly not gonna remove the glyphosate from your Cheerios. So with your fruit, with your vegetables, even your lettuces, make sure you rinse them. With lettuces, get yourself a salad spinner. I have two salad spinners, and they're great fun to work out your frustrations. Eat organic or grass-fed or pastured whenever possible. Go to your farmer's market. Get to know your farmers. Ask them what they do with their crops. Ask them how they feed their animals. I remember one time visiting a farmer's market in Phoenix, where I was lecturing a few years ago, and there was a pastured poultry. And I said, what do you feed your chickens? And they looked at me and said, we don't give them anything. They work for us. They go out in the fields and eat bugs. And I said, oh, perfect answer. Thanks so much. All right, glyphosate is here. It's in us. Are there any things you can do? Well, first of all, don't use it. First of all, don't use it in your yard. Don't use it on your sidewalks. Don't use it on the cracks. Don't let it near your kids. We have many parents who have actually organized with school boards to prevent spraying glyphosate on school grounds. It's something you can do to protect your kids. But if you then send them to school with a granola oat bar and feed them a healthy bowl of oatmeal, you're defeating the purpose. Try to buy organic. Believe it or not, Walmart is now the biggest producer seller of organic food in the United States. And probably Costco is right behind. These are coming. There are numerous organic and biodefinite wineries in the United States now. Lastly, are there any other things you can do? Well, you'll see on the internet, and I've talked about this before, there are a couple of compounds. One's called humic acid and one's called folvic minerals that some studies suggest protect the lining of the gut from glyphosate. And studies are interesting. I certainly believe that these studies may be useful. Here's a helpful hint. Glyphosate is an isomer of the amino acid glycine. And what happens is that glyphosate fits into glycine spots in DNA. And one of the big fears and one of the big cancer fears of glyphosate is that because it changes DNA by substituting for glycine, that might be the reason it causes cancer or is associated with cancer. What can you do? You can over-consume glycine. Now, that's really easy to do. Glycine is available as a powder. It has a slight sweet taste. Or you can take it as capsules. And as a matter of fact, I take 3 grams of glycine every day as part of my regimen. By the way, glycine is one of the important amino acids that makes up collagen. So rather than taking your collagen powder, just get some glycine in your diet and prevent glyphosate from substituting for glycine. Thanks so much for watching. But don't go anywhere. This next one is sure to surprise you. A daily walk can help kickstart energy production, improve metabolism, slash the risk of diabetes, and help boost mental clarity.