Latest / Everyday Ancestral with James Barry / Whole Foods Isn't Enough: How Microplastics Infected Our Lives (What to Do About It) | Daniel Powers

Transcript

Whole Foods Isn't Enough: How Microplastics Infected Our Lives (What to Do About It) | Daniel Powers · Everyday Ancestral with James Barry

0:00
Hey friends, do you ever feel like you're doing all the right things and yet you still don't feel healthy?
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The truth is, we're facing a level of environmental toxins our ancestors never had to deal with.
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From microplastics in our water to chemicals in everyday products.
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Our bodies need support in a modern world that just doesn't always make wellness easy.
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I'm joined by Dan Powers, he's the founder of Utsi Naturals.
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Dan is a husband, father of five, and a passionate voice for natural health and clean living.
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In this conversation, we explore what toxic burden really means, how it affects the body,
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and realistic ways to reduce exposure and, most importantly, strengthen resilience without
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fear, stress, or perfectionism.
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If you want practical, empowering steps to protect your health and your families in today's
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world, you're going to love this episode.
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This is Everyday Ancestral.
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I'm your host, James Berry.
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Please enjoy Dan Powers.
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You know, I'm always talking about real
1:00
food, nose to tail, getting organ meats in your diet, and really just in general, like living
1:07
as ancestrally as possible, but in this modern world.
1:11
But why we're having you as a guest today
1:14
is because the modern world brings with it a lot of toxins and a lot of things that didn't even
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exist ancestrally, like microplastics.
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And so the reality is, is we need new tools.
1:30
We need to be
1:30
thinking about things that are kind of outside the ancestral conversation.
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Now, hopefully,
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we're going to still cover some ancestral things that people can do to support this modern world.
1:43
But I think we have to be honest with the fact that there are things that are very foreign
1:48
to what our biology or how our biology was originally designed.
1:53
I think one of the things there is I've always been a whole foods kind of guy,
1:58
like taking that approach of just eat right, you know, get exercise, get good sleep,
2:04
and that handles everything for you.
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That's like 99.9% there.
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And it's been a realization
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in the last couple of years as I've dug into all these toxins that we are exposed to on a daily
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basis and realizing that whole foods alone will not cut it.
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Sometimes we need to bring in some
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special tools to help us out.
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And so super excited to be on the podcast here today and talk with you,
2:30
James.
2:31
Yeah.
2:32
So what got you, like what's motivated specifically your passion and your
2:37
your deep dive into microplastics.
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It is definitely trending.
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Like I, if anything,
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I think you're, you're ahead of the curve because you've been obviously focusing on it for a while,
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but, but I feel like for like, particularly when I think of like food and salt, for example, like
2:56
five years ago, all you're hearing about is lead, which we're still on the tail end of,
3:01
but now it's like, well, what about microplastics?
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Cause you could focus on one thing,
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but then there's another thing that is present.
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And so what got you on the path of microplastics?
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Yeah.
3:13
So my journey essentially started when, you know, I'd seen kind of the scary articles
3:19
come out over the years, you know, microplastics are in water bottles and different things.
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And I
3:24
kind of wrote it off like, okay, you know, there's going to be some exposure.
3:27
Didn't
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really think too much about it.
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But then about 14 months ago, I read a study in the New England
3:34
Journal of Medicine, and it showed that microplastics were in the blood and that they
3:39
were impacting heart health and leading to cardiovascular issues.
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And once I read that
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seminal study, I was like, shoot, we've got to do something about this because this is going to
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become more and more prevalent.
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Microplastics, plastic containers, plastic in our food supply
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and water supply is going to become more and more of a thing.
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And so I actually reached out to a
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couple of the smartest researchers, scientists that I knew.
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And I was like, hey, what can we do
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to fix this?
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And they were all like, we have no clue, like no clue how any of this works.
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And so
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that essentially started me on a journey of, okay, I need to research microplastics.
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I need
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to figure out what these things are, how they get in our food system, and then how they interact in
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our bodies.
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And so that's been kind of my journey over the last 14 months.
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And all that's led to,
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you know, building a product, Microplastics Daily Detox.
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But really, there's been such a
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learning process along the way.
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And it's wild.
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So these microplastics, essentially, these are
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small particles of plastic that we consume.
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The research says it's five millimeters or smaller.
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So that's about the size of a sesame seed or smaller.
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And what these things do are they're
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present everywhere.
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They've found microplastics on the top of Mount Everest and in Mirianas Trench.
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So literally the top of the world and the bottom of the world, there's microplastics there.
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It's wild.
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And so the exposure for us living in cities, in communities, eating, you know, regular food or or water that's available to us, we're getting exposed.
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And so the creation of these plastics started as something to, you know, make it easier to ship products, to to have packaging right for food.
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So while that's a huge technological advancement in being able to have safe food that's protected
5:50
through the shipping process and on shelf, the issue is, though, is those microplastics,
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well, I should say plastics break down into microplastics.
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And so really a lot of this
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started showing up in the 1950s and 1960s.
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So this is a new thing.
6:07
They've only been around
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for 60 years.
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Would you know what were some of the first uses of plastics at that time?
6:15
Yeah.
6:15
So I've read a couple of books talking about this.
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And one of the original inventions,
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this was prior to packaging, but they were looking for a way to create pool table balls
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that didn't break down because they used to be made of, I believe, ivory.
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And so they needed
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some sort of harder plastic, something that wouldn't break down.
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And so that was some of the
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initial impetus behind it.
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And then as they started to build these different polymers and then like,
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oh, hey, we can stretch it and we can do this and that.
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We can add plasticizers to soften it.
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So you see like BPA start to enter the system.
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And so what started out is, you know, is a good
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idea.
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Hey, let's make things a little bit more convenient.
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Take into an extreme, we see more and
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more microplastics.
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And so the levels have doubled over the last 10 or so years, and it's going to
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continue to double in our environment every 10 to 15 years for the foreseeable future.
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So it's
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pretty wild.
7:16
Yeah, it's incredible how prevalent it is.
7:19
I mean, I've seen a video of where you
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realize like the Coke can is being disintegrated, that it's actually lined in plastic.
7:27
I mean,
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You tell me, what are some ways people are getting exposed to plastic and they may not even be aware of, like the non-obvious ways?
7:39
Yeah.
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So there are a crazy amount of ways that we're exposed to microplastics.
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So there's kind of the common ones, right, would be plastic bottles.
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It'd be takeout containers.
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You know, you take your food in the takeout container.
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Plastic wrap, right?
7:57
Yeah.
7:57
Yeah.
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saran wrap, or especially when you have plastic that gets heated.
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So there's kind of a lot of
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these common ways.
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It's also typically found in water.
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So if your water is not being filtered,
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or if you're on like city tap water, basically microplastics, for instance, in your clothing,
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so like polyester clothing, a lot of clothes have a 5-10% stretch blend added.
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When you wash that,
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that will break down the clothes for the agitation, and those microplastics get in the water,
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and then those go into the water table.
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And then that becomes later on part of our drinking water.
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So there's kind of these more common ways.
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But one thing I want to mention is
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there are seven little known exposure points
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that we're getting.
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And one of the big ones is actually called tire dust.
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Have you ever heard of that?
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No, not really, no.
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So this is the dust that comes from tires on the road?
8:53
Yeah, so if you think about it,
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You have to replace your tires every two years or every year, whatever it is.
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That tire, that rubber, that plastic, right?
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It starts like big and chunky and then it wears down over time.
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Where do you think all that plastic is going?
9:10
It's getting volatilized into the air, right?
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So that becomes part of what we breathe on a daily basis.
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So if we live next to-
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I think that right there is like a revelation.
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I don't think I even usually equate, oh, rubber is a form of plastic.
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yeah i don't need to think like that yeah so you have all these different compounds and they all
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have kind of their own little particular things so whether it's the plastic itself or some of
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the compounds in it like plasticizers so plasticizers a common one for that is bpa most
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people have heard of bpa they add that to plastics to make it more flexible so that you can uh you
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know, basically put plastic cups into different shapes and different things like that.
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But you
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have microplastics, which are basically the hard plastic, and then you have plasticizers, which are
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usually included with the microplastics.
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Plasticizers basically work in the body to disrupt
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hormones.
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So they're endocrine disruptors.
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So they're basically these chemical structures.
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And what that can do is they can mimic hormones in your body, like estrogen.
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And what that can do
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is it can lead to your body thinking it has more estrogen or less estrogen than it thinks it really
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has.
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So it can impact your hormone levels.
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So you've got plasticizers and microplastics,
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each of these having different effects that are negative on the body.
10:34
Right.
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So it's potentially contributing to, you know, young girls having their periods
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younger and younger, right?
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If it's disrupting your hormones.
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So you had said there were like
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seven, you know, kind of known, little known exposure points.
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You mentioned one was the tire
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dust.
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Please continue.
10:58
Yeah.
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So here's seven little known microplastic exposure points.
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A big one is dishwasher pods.
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So if you ever take those little plastic pods, pop in your dishwasher,
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it's like, where did that plastic go that was, you know, wrapping your solution?
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that's getting blasted all over your dishes.
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Another one is your toothbrush.
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Think of those
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bristles that break down over time.
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Where does that go?
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It goes in your mouth.
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You swallow that,
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you eat that.
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Not great.
11:26
You know, another big one that they just found out was IV bags.
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A lot
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of people are getting vitamin IVs.
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Well, that comes in plastic bags.
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Those have microplastics
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going straight into your bloodstream.
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Not great.
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You know, a couple other things too I'll mention
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are tea bags.
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People have seen probably studies on that, but tea bags are nasty.
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Again, you have
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a plastic material with hot water heat plus plastic is really, really bad.
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And then another
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big one is salt.
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A lot of the salt that we get contains microplastics.
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And if you think about it,
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especially even like I like Celtic salt or some of these different things, but you have stuff coming
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from seawater.
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Seawater has microplastics in it.
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So there's actually some pretty cool brands out
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there doing good work in having microplastic free salt.
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So that's another exposure point that we
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have that we don't even think about.
12:21
You know, another big one too, I mentioned it earlier,
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but it's polyester clothing, right?
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So those, I'm an athletic guy.
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I like to have a little
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stretch in my pants or my shirt, you know, so I can move around a little bit more freely.
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But over time, the microplastics in that clothing can break down and become part of the water that you consume later on.
12:45
When you're washing your cotton clothes with those polyester and it's heating up in the dryer, are you technically exposing your cotton to microplastic as well?
12:57
Are the particles kind of, in a sense, infecting everything?
13:03
You know, I had not even thought about that, James, but probably, yeah, there's going to be cross-contamination, which is wild.
13:11
Okay, wait, I got to go back to one of the points you made because this is actually a hot topic for my wife and I because she made a comment about those dishwasher pods.
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And she was like, I don't want you to buy those ones in plastic anymore.
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I want the ones without.
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And I was like, that's not plastic.
13:30
It can't be plastic.
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I said, cause it's disintegrating, but you're saying it is.
13:34
Cause I thought it was like some kind of food, um, you know, cause they can make kind of,
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uh, food based, um, wraps sometimes that disintegrate.
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I know that they have like candy wrappers that are sometimes like that you stick in
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your mouth and it just disintegrates.
13:49
But are you saying there's, there is plastic in some of those?
13:52
Yeah, for sure.
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It depends on the brand.
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I'm sure there's some natural brands out there that do a good job with this, but if you're
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buying kind of the big brand, big name brand, probably not great.
14:02
Oh, man.
14:03
You know, and I talk about capsules a lot, you know, and how, yes, they're supposed to be mostly made of gelatin and all that stuff.
14:11
But I have to wonder, too, if those really cheaper brands, you know, that are selling supplements, like how an integrity that is, like, is it possible even the capsules people are swallowing their supplements and that they might even have microplastics in it?
14:27
That's a great point.
14:28
That's probably true.
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And especially if you get into brands that use it more of a branding play of like, hey, here's the hot pink colored capsule, right?
14:38
They want it to look cool, which is great.
14:41
But if you're not using natural vegetable dyes and cellulose or bovine gelatin, who knows what's in there?
14:48
Yeah.
14:49
Oh, man.
14:50
It's just such a toxic soup we live in, you know?
14:52
How do they show up in people's
14:54
health?
14:54
Because I think we're all getting attuned to the word.
14:59
Oh, there's microplastics, as you
15:01
said, in our salt, in these products, in our lives, in this modern living.
15:06
But how does it show up
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health-wise?
15:09
Yeah.
15:10
So, you know, one thing I want to mention, too, is just the exposure, right?
15:15
So
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there's all these kind of, we talked about kind of some niche exposure points, but that are
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probably prevalent for most folks.
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But some of the research shows that we're consuming up to a
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credit card sized amount of microplastics every week.
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Every week.
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Every week.
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So not, you know,
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so that's not amazing.
15:36
And then another aspect too, is they've found that we have a plastic
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spoon, a plastic spoon sized amount of microplastics in our brains.
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So that was one of the pieces of
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research that came out recently.
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So think of a plastic spoon, there's that amount of plastic
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in your brain right now.
15:56
And here's the thing too, is they did studies where they did an assay of
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folks in 2016 and then in 2024.
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So about an eight year span.
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And they found that the microplastics
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in the brain in 2016, it was a certain level and it had essentially doubled over an eight year
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period.
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So it's pretty wild, but there's more exposure points than ever.
16:21
And then there's
16:23
potentially some stuff in our health system that's impacting our blood brain barrier as well.
16:27
So something to really keep an eye on.
16:30
And this is starting to impact human health.
16:34
um so as we consume microplastics um there there's a couple of different ways that they work in our
16:40
body but first they go into our guts and um so as you have these uh tiny particles um this
16:48
essentially creates it's small to us but from a microbial standpoint it's massive and it's a bunch
16:53
of surface area and so this surface area you can have nasty microbes and bugs that will cling to
17:00
that and hide in that.
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So you have bad bacteria that can live in there.
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And so that can impact
17:05
your gut health and feeling well, being able to digest cleanly.
17:09
So that's kind of one of the
17:11
major impacts that we've seen, especially if you have a leaky gut or something of that nature.
17:16
These particles can start to get through into your active bloodstream.
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So that's majorly
17:21
problematic.
17:22
And especially, you know, as you start to see that working up into the brain,
17:26
like we talked about where the body tends to lay down a lot of this into tissue.
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So it's thought too that having those microplastics in the brain, first off, it can't be
17:38
good in general.
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We can just say that.
17:41
But secondary is going to impact brain function,
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right?
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Kind of foggy brain, not being as clear.
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Your memory, all those different aspects can be
17:51
impacted by having these microplastics in our brains.
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So that's some of the big areas.
17:57
And you
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can kind of really think about microplastics as a Trojan horse carrying in all these other things
18:04
into your body that they cling to those microplastic particles.
18:08
So the other big thing is,
18:11
you know, a lot of the research has not shown direct, like one for one direct impacts of
18:17
microplastics on health.
18:19
A lot of the research so far has actually been environmental research.
18:23
So they're showing how microplastics impact, you know, algae or the cuttlefish of Southeast Asia
18:31
or something like that.
18:32
And they're just now looking at the impacts on human health, which
18:36
in my opinion is just wild.
18:38
Like, I think we should start with human health and protecting
18:41
human health and then, you know, everything else can kind of come secondary to that.
18:46
Um, but yeah, we're seeing impact on gut health, on brain health.
18:50
I mentioned previously heart health, uh, where it's, uh, in the blood and impacting, uh,
18:55
our ability to, um, have a healthy heart.
18:59
Um, and then, you know, really, this is something that, uh, is my own personal opinion.
19:04
Uh, but I think microplastics are causing low grade inflammation all throughout the
19:09
body.
19:10
And so if you think of your body as being a battery, right?
19:14
You want it to be at 100%.
19:18
But with the microplastics that's being embedded in your tissue all throughout your body,
19:23
you just create all these little micro pockets of inflammation because it's a foreign object
19:28
being laid down in your tissue.
19:30
And so you're creating all this inflammation, which is requiring an immune response.
19:35
And so what that's doing is that's draining your battery and your energy on that daily
19:40
basis.
19:40
So instead of being 100%, you might be 90, 80%, maybe 60.
19:46
So that's kind of some of the initial ideas out there for how these microplastics are impacting our health.
19:55
oh man i i have to think too that it could be affecting it because we talked about how it's
20:02
affecting hormones like a sperm count you know testosterone for men you know people getting
20:08
pregnant you know i have to assume that it's also affecting that yeah that's a great point um and
20:15
that there's been two primary places that your body has affinities for um embedding microplastics
20:21
and tissue.
20:21
So the first is the brain that we talked about.
20:24
The second is in the male reproductive
20:26
system in the testicles.
20:28
And so, yes, it's thought that that's impacting our ability to, you know,
20:34
have high quality sperm and for pregnancy, all those different aspects are being impacted by
20:40
microplastics.
20:42
But as you're mentioning, it's like there hasn't really been a lot of studies
20:49
on human health around this.
20:50
So at this point, we've done a lot of identifying,
20:52
okay, this is in our environment.
20:56
It's showing up not only in the environment,
20:58
but also in our bodies.
21:00
I know it's been shown to be found in breast milk as well.
21:03
So it's showing up all over the place.
21:07
Now, what was the study on the,
21:08
you said the scuttlefish or the cuttle?
21:12
What kind of fish was it?
21:13
Well, there's environmental research
21:16
on all sorts of like, you know, water organisms.
21:22
And so there's been kind of this workup
21:23
through the chain.
21:26
But so we see some impacts on how, you know,
21:29
the food chain works.
21:32
But it's, you know, the real thing
21:34
that we need to look at is human health.
21:37
And, you know, one of the crazy things is
21:40
you can't even do a control study on microplastics
21:43
because there's nobody that is free of microplastics.
21:46
So even if you wanted to run like a baseline control group, it doesn't even exist, which is kind of crazy when you think about it.
21:54
Yeah, that's super scary.
22:00
Okay, so we got a segue then into, okay, we're identifying that they exist, clearly.
22:07
We know that they're affecting human health.
22:11
we're still trying to figure out how intensely it's affecting human health
22:16
but we know it's there we know it's present we know it must be
22:20
so if the science isn't fully there yet to identify all the p's and q's can what should
22:28
we be identifying like what what can we be doing uh in this modern society to to to support either
22:35
detoxification or elimination of these microplastics in our bodies?
22:41
Yeah.
22:41
So there's a ton of lifestyle
22:43
factors that we can implement to help protect ourselves against microplastics and reduce our
22:48
exposure.
22:50
So, you know, some of the most important things are thinking about the liquids that we
22:55
consume, the water or different drinks, making sure that those are filtered and free of microplastics.
23:02
So filters will filter out the microplastics, even those nano size kind of things?
23:09
Yeah, especially like a reverse osmosis system is a really good barrier.
23:14
And then a good chunk of the other filters, like I think of like a Berkey system, those are pretty darn effective.
23:22
So I use a Berkey at my house.
23:25
And then we're so yeah, so there's kind of different ways to look at it there.
23:29
but making sure that you have access to quality filtered water is huge for eliminating your
23:34
exposure.
23:35
Some other areas to look at is how you store food.
23:38
So you want to make sure you're not
23:39
storing food in plastic containers and then taking that plastic container and heating it up.
23:45
So if
23:45
you take that, you know, that container, you know, it's got last night's chicken piccata in it,
23:50
throw it in the microwave, warm it up in that plastic, that plastic will leach into the food.
23:56
So you want to make sure that you're storing foods in glass and just being mindful of how you're heating those foods up.
24:07
You know, another exposure point people don't think about is takeout food.
24:10
A lot of times takeout food gets put in those plastic containers.
24:13
It's like steaming soup or whatever it is.
24:16
You take it home, you know, it's sitting for 10, 15 minutes.
24:20
Not great.
24:20
That's a microplastic soup is what you're eating there.
24:24
So trying to reduce some of that exposure as well.
24:28
And then, you know, there's also some other kind of more natural approaches as well.
24:34
So I think I mentioned earlier, but a lot of the clothing we wear has microplastics in it.
24:40
You know, opting for 100% cotton is great.
24:44
Trying to just reduce your exposure there.
24:46
And especially like the sheets that you sleep on at night.
24:50
You know, that's if you're getting eight hours at night, if you're blessed to get eight hours a night, you want to make sure that you're sleeping on organic cotton to just, again, reduce those exposure points just so you can protect your body.
25:06
I think that's a really good point.
25:07
Like if something is, think about the things that we do the most often, right?
25:12
Sleep in our bed, eat, shower, bathe, that if we can really almost start with those points of like, how can we remove as much of the items that might and or do have plastic in them from those lifestyle, you know, those everyday choices that we're doing or making just to live.
25:37
I think is a really good place to start.
25:40
You know, one thing that I'm also aware of,
25:44
it's a really tough one if you're eating out
25:46
because most restaurants,
25:48
now, first of all,
25:50
at home,
25:52
I cannot stress this enough.
25:54
No one should be using a plastic cutting board.
25:57
Yeah.
25:58
Sadly, at restaurants,
26:00
that is usually what they are using.
26:03
It's how it's sold.
26:05
I didn't even think about that.
26:06
And when you're at a restaurant,
26:07
Yeah, it's literally, it's part of the restaurant culture.
26:10
They have like a red one for meat, a white one.
26:13
They have different colors that they use depending on what they're cutting.
26:17
So if it's produce line, you have to use the green one.
26:20
If it's meat line, you have to use the red one.
26:23
If it's, you know, other things, it's the white one.
26:26
And so they are color coded and they're all plastic.
26:29
And anytime you're cutting a plastic board, you're absolutely shaving some of that plastic off.
26:35
You're cutting through it.
26:37
And then you're also creating little ridges in that plastic board where bacteria can grow.
26:41
So not only are there a microplastic storm, they're also a bed for bacteria growth.
26:52
That's wild.
26:53
Yeah, you know, and folks might be thinking like, okay, do I need to just become a monk and go live in a monastery, you know, made out of stone and, you know, whatever, have like a well with my own water in it.
27:05
But there are ways that you can actually support your body.
27:07
And, you know, there's some really awesome natural detox processes.
27:12
You know, I believe God made our bodies with this ability to detox, you know, toxins that we come into contact with.
27:20
It's a good point.
27:22
This is a miraculous body.
27:24
And while we weren't created when plastic existed, our body hopefully is designed to deal with even modern stressors, things that it wasn't originally prepared for, but that it's miraculous.
27:38
It's capable of doing these things.
27:40
So to your point, what are some things we can be doing to ensure that we are naturally detoxifying?
27:48
Yeah.
27:49
So one of the cool things is general healthy living lifestyle type of stuff helps out with this.
27:56
Right.
27:56
So you want to make sure that you're eating real food.
27:58
Right.
27:59
You know, I'd say ancestral foods, organs and getting good sleep, having good sleep hygiene, like all the basics.
28:07
You're getting purified, clean water.
28:10
So those are kind of like baselines.
28:12
Right.
28:12
That we should all aspire to have.
28:15
Um, but then on top of that, if you want to get a little fancy, there's some natural ways to support your detox pathways.
28:21
So a big one is exercising, right?
28:24
So you're sweating, that's getting stuff out of your body.
28:28
So I would recommend, you know, getting getting exercise on a daily basis, or, you know, four to five times a week, can have some cardio, that's great for sweating, lifting some weights, it's all good.
28:39
Another great way is to make sure that you are getting your body heated up.
28:45
So sauna is a really awesome option there as well.
28:49
Brian Johnson at Blueprint, the guy that's trying to live forever, he just showed that
28:55
he did some pretty extensive sauna protocols and he showed that his body was able to eliminate
29:00
microplastics at this really good clip by doing regular sauna.
29:04
So sauna is awesome.
29:05
If you have access to sauna, great.
29:07
But another user-friendly way of doing that is just getting in a hot tub, like a bathtub of water with hot water and just sitting in there or taking a hot shower.
29:18
If you can kind of get that hot steamy effect, you can get really a lot of the same benefits without investing in a whole sauna setup.
29:25
Yeah, we have to remember our detoxification pathways are sweating, pooping, peeing, right?
29:32
Those are our three main detoxification pathways.
29:35
Yep.
29:36
And so ultimately, yeah, so you're identifying that you want to make sure you're exercising.
29:43
You want to make sure that you're maybe doing some kind of heat, like infrared or steam sauna to help move that sweat.
29:53
But then you can also sit in hot water as well.
29:56
So those are all going to be really good resources for everyone.
30:03
and we want to make sure that we're also doing the other two things like that you're peeing
30:07
regularly right that you're you're also pooping regularly so so if you're not eliminating those
30:13
two ways regularly then um then we want to also get support there so i want to touch base because
30:23
you have a really interesting story in that you've been, you're like fourth generation in,
30:30
in really in this supplement business, right?
30:35
In a business that is focused on helping people
30:38
with their health, but specifically kind of acknowledging that we can't get it all from our
30:42
food.
30:43
And you're, you have a brand that you're managing now.
30:48
I know your father started out
30:51
supporting more the health practitioners with those practitioner grade level supplements.
30:58
But you have a product line now called Utsi, right?
31:02
I do.
31:03
Yep.
31:03
Is that right?
31:04
You said it right.
31:05
Yay.
31:06
I know I had this whole discussion with you.
31:07
I'm like, how do we say that correctly?
31:09
But Utsi
31:10
is a consumer facing line where you have supplements, you have collagen,
31:17
but you also recently came out with a line to support microplastic detoxification.
31:27
Can you just share a little bit about just the kind of like quality of sourcing that you guys
31:34
have around you?
31:35
Like what is the criteria for you guys to carry something in your product line?
31:42
Yeah.
31:42
So, yeah.
31:43
So my family's been in the supplement industry for a long period of time.
31:47
And so that's always been a passion of mine.
31:51
And so when I first was learning about microplastics,
31:55
I was like, what are some natural ways that we can support the body?
31:58
Because,
31:59
you know, are we just kind of left to our own devices?
32:01
Do we just have to like be in a sauna
32:02
24-7 or something?
32:04
You know, like what are ways that we can help our bodies?
32:07
And so
32:09
it started a 14-month journey of reading all of the literature that I could get my hands on
32:13
and talking with experts all around the world and just trying to figure out what are the natural
32:18
ingredients that could support microplastics detoxification.
32:23
We know that our bodies can
32:25
eliminate microplastics.
32:26
They find microplastics in stool, in sweat.
32:29
So we know our body's
32:30
eliminating them.
32:31
So it was a process of how can we find that pathway that the body's using
32:36
and then support that pathway so it works, you know, really efficiently.
32:41
So it essentially started an entire survey of what are the ingredients, what are the herbs,
32:46
what are the pathways?
32:47
And so I talked with a bunch of just brilliant folks, researchers at
32:52
colleges or all around the world, really, of, you know, what are the ingredients to look at?
32:58
And so one of the big materials to utilize is called sulforaphane.
33:04
And it's a phytochemical
33:06
that's typically found in cruciferous vegetables.
33:09
Now, a lot of people typically get that from broccoli sprouts
33:14
or broccoli seed, which is great.
33:17
And so we kind of went down that pathway talking with suppliers.
33:21
And through the kind of discovery process,
33:23
we found that there is a new material that's even better
33:27
than broccoli sprouts for sulforaphane,
33:30
and that's actually called black kale.
33:32
So there's this black kale that's grown in central Italy,
33:35
and it has the highest amount of sulforaphane of any natural plant that's been surveyed.
33:41
And so we're able to talk with the supplier, look at their research,
33:46
and be one of the first to market to be able to offer that type of material in our product.
33:51
So our product is microplastics daily detox.
33:55
And so we use that black kale material as kind of our keystone ingredient.
34:00
And what it does is it helps upregulate the NRF2 pathway,
34:04
which is the primary detox pathway for microplastics and plasticizers.
34:09
So that's
34:11
been a really cool process of kind of, you know, trying to tackle this problem of what are these
34:16
natural ways to support the body?
34:18
Because again, healthy living and whole foods don't always cut
34:22
it when we have these modern problems.
34:25
And, you know, sometimes modern problems require a modern
34:28
solution.
34:30
Yeah, it's, it's, you know, it's kind of the crux of everything, you know, and I'm,
34:35
while I love using mother nature's to her, to her optimal best, you know, in terms of
34:44
tapping into organ meats and eating nose to tail, or just utilizing what nature has provided as
34:49
much as possible.
34:49
But we, we have to take ownership of the fact that we are living in a
34:54
toxic modern world.
34:56
And we've gone down certain paths that are really
35:02
resulting in us living in this toxic soup.
35:06
And so to your point, sometimes you need more
35:10
than what you're going to get from nature.
35:15
And so it sounds like from your research that
35:19
even just eating lots of cruciferous vegetables is not going to do it, right?
35:23
Because these are
35:23
concentrated isolates that you're pulling from.
35:27
Exactly.
35:28
Yeah.
35:28
So getting it through diet,
35:31
something like sulforaphane is very difficult.
35:34
But it's not just that phytochemical.
35:37
There's
35:37
other aspects.
35:38
So we built out an entire formula where we always try and look at what are the key
35:41
areas to support, and then we'll have kind of a multifaceted approach.
35:45
So we love the black kale,
35:47
but we also look at other things like liver health and supporting liver function.
35:52
So that,
35:52
you know, the primary filter of the body.
35:54
So we have milk thistle, which is really an old school
35:58
herb for supporting liver function.
36:00
I have an herbal medicine background.
36:04
So I love,
36:05
you know, kind of old school herbs.
36:07
So milk thistle is kind of a classic for supporting
36:10
healthy liver function.
36:11
And then really, we talked about this, but the oxidative stress and the,
36:16
you know, the inflammation that's out of balance, that's one of the huge impacts of microplastics.
36:22
And so we have some really fascinating materials that we are using.
36:26
And one's called Hobamine, which comes from Mongolian buckwheat, which is pretty wild.
36:33
So they discovered this molecule called tuhoba in Mongolian buckwheat.
36:39
And it essentially is a super antioxidant that helps to neutralize basically fat cells
36:47
that are becoming oxidized.
36:49
And so it helps to, you know, support balanced inflammation throughout the body.
36:53
This is like a brand new cutting edge herbal ingredient that we've got in this product.
37:01
And then we've got some other interesting herbs as well, including green tea extract,
37:06
which has a phytochemical called EGCG, which is epigallocatechin, epigallocatechin, I forget.
37:17
It's like the longest word in the world, but we call it EGCG, which is a really awesome phytochemical in green tea.
37:25
And then the last piece we have as well is shilajit, which is a ton of research on shilajit as well.
37:32
And that's essentially super rich in fulvic and humic acids.
37:37
And these are kind of the primary shuttling agents throughout the body and has kind of this energizing detoxifying effect on the body.
37:46
So it kind of energizes the entire process of that microplastics detoxification.
37:52
Yeshila-G is really starting to make waves.
37:57
Some people are even trying to say it's more nutritious than even organ meats.
38:01
I haven't done any of that research yet, but I was like, how could you say that?
38:07
But it's definitely, it's a very kind of more and more popular product.
38:15
I think, you know, what's really important about what you're identifying, and it's something important for, it's something I think about a lot, but it's important for me to say to everyone, because I know everyone is sometimes hearing me talk about how we need to move away from swallowing, you know, our supplements and really eating our food.
38:37
but there is a time and a place for these support systems.
38:42
And you didn't mention anything that's weird
38:45
or like truly laboratory made.
38:47
I know some of these isolates are being made
38:49
in the laboratory,
38:50
but they're being made from real food products.
38:55
And nothing you mentioned is not natural.
38:58
Everything you mentioned is all natural.
39:00
So I think that's really important
39:02
when we think about this.
39:03
But I have to say,
39:06
I know that this product you guys created, you're kind of pinpointing that it's for microplastics,
39:11
but it's really just, it's for elimination, right?
39:15
It's for detoxification.
39:17
So you don't
39:18
necessarily need to be taking this to eliminate microplastics.
39:22
If you need detoxification support,
39:24
this is a good product for you, right?
39:27
Yeah, that's a great point.
39:28
It does have
39:30
kind of a broader spectrum approach.
39:32
Um, and we're, we're, we're looking specifically for
39:35
microplastics cause that's where kind of the research led, but you know, when you benefit
39:39
one thing in the body, you tend to benefit the whole as well.
39:43
So that's kind of the way we look
39:44
at it.
39:45
And yeah, there's no like weird, you know, ingredients or coffee enemas that you have to go
39:49
through or crazy stuff.
39:51
Uh, you know, and you know, I think this is something to look at as,
39:55
an addition.
39:57
So for instance, a lot of folks who travel internationally, that's a time when you're
40:04
super exposed to microplastics.
40:06
I had a friend that went to Southeast Asia and she was, everything
40:12
you drink is out of plastic water bottles and all the foods in plastic.
40:15
And she's like, her gut
40:17
health, it took her months to kind of get that back online.
40:21
And she was like, I wish I had your
40:22
product then to help me out because, you know, there's these super exposure events that we get.
40:28
And so, you know, frequent travelers are kind of people that should really be thinking about this
40:32
because everything in the airport is in plastic or just kind of an occasional tune up, giving it a,
40:39
you know, one, two month try once a year.
40:42
But we did also build it in a way that you can use it on
40:44
a daily basis.
40:45
So kind of our thesis is we're exposed daily.
40:48
And so let's help our body detox
40:50
daily.
40:52
But it's also something too, that you could just take for a month or two and just give
40:56
your body some extra clearance so it can kind of catch up and then work on doing this own processing
41:01
itself.
41:03
Well, I'm so grateful that you came on the show to share this because I, I look, I'm not,
41:10
I in no way do I want people to think like, oh, we're just trying to push a detoxification capsule.
41:17
But I think that the bigger picture that we're trying to identify here is that, look, we live in a modern society that is basically a toxic soup.
41:27
We can follow the pillars, you know, as you mentioned earlier.
41:30
We can follow eating nutritious food.
41:33
We can try to keep our stress down.
41:35
We can have movement in our lives and we can strive for really great sleep.
41:40
And still sometimes that is not enough.
41:43
And so looking for, you know, high quality supplements that have real, you know, natural ingredients in them can be game changing.
41:54
And let's face it, not all companies are in integrity.
42:01
And I'm just so happy to share you with everyone because everything, every interaction I've had with you and your brother is just full of integrity.
42:10
And I really do believe that you guys are, you really, you have the best interests of people in mind.
42:20
Like you really are trying to help people heal and to be healthy.
42:24
um anything you'd like to share before we sign off that you just want people to be aware of or
42:31
to think about uh post this this episode yeah well appreciate the kind words james and yeah i think
42:39
you know the biggest impacts that we can have are things that were going into our body so i think
42:44
really think hard about your water supply and making sure you have access to to filtered water
42:50
whether it's reverse osmosis, Berkey, some of these other cool products that are coming on the market.
42:56
That's something that we can impact and change.
42:59
And then the other thing is when we're thinking about food and food storage,
43:03
making sure we're reducing that exposure to plastic containers, heating in plastic containers.
43:09
Get some glass containers.
43:11
Get a Stanley for your water or your daily coffee at Starbucks.
43:16
you know, taking a metal aluminum drink container there.
43:22
And so those are kind of two key things.
43:24
And then, hey, if you need some extra support,
43:26
you can check out our product, Microplastics Daily Detox.
43:29
And, you know, we're excited to have this available for folks.
43:32
And, you know, our goal is just to help people live better
43:35
and have healthier lives and thrive in this modern toxic world.
43:39
I also want to just share one thing is that
43:43
I want to make sure everyone knows someone we're,
43:45
because we did talk about water filters, with reverse osmosis, with Berkey's, that it is
43:54
important to then add minerals to the water because reverse osmosis removes the minerals.
44:01
It almost, in a sense, purifies it too much in a good way.
44:04
Like in this toxic world,
44:06
we need to purify it a lot, but we also want to make sure to remineralize it.
44:10
So, you know,
44:10
You want to choose either a good mineral support or salt that you can then add back into the water.
44:18
And sometimes there's like, I know we use a filter system that has mineral rocks at the bottom of it that then helps to remineralize.
44:24
So there's lots of different systems out there, but just make sure that to your point, yes, filtered water, but then also think about then what is it getting replenished with?
44:35
Yeah, that's a great point.
44:36
And yeah, and you know, organ meats are also fantastic for that.
44:40
Yeah.
44:40
Yeah.
44:42
Let your filtered water, you know, seep with organ meats, you know, at the bottom.
44:48
You can just use like a beef liver, hook it up right there.
44:50
Yeah, hook it up, an IV.
44:53
Except be careful because the IV might be putting microplastics in you.
44:59
No, really, Dan, thank you so much for coming on.
45:01
And so how can people find this product and how can they find you?
45:08
Sure, of course.
45:09
So our brand is Utsi Naturals.
45:11
Our website is just utsi.com, U-T-Z-Y.
45:15
And then, yeah, so you can go there.
45:18
We've got our microplastics daily detox product
45:20
available on the site.
45:21
And then you can follow us on social media,
45:24
just Utsi Naturals.
45:25
And I'm starting to put out social media.
45:27
It is my most hated thing in the world,
45:29
but I think it's Utsi Dan, at Utsi Dan,
45:32
and starting to just try and educate folks
45:34
of everything I've learned over my life.
45:36
And I spend a lot of time on health and research.
45:39
And so just trying to share some of that along the way.
45:42
Dan, you also have a special gift for everyone, correct?
45:45
Yes.
45:45
Yeah.
45:45
So we set up a special discount for James in particular and all the friends.
45:52
And it's EA20 to save 20% off.
45:55
We'd love you to just check out the product and we'd love to get your feedback.
45:59
Thank you so much.
46:00
We're going to put that in the show notes.
46:02
Yeah.
46:02
And I think that's really key is that this is all new science.
46:06
this is a new product, like the more you can give feedback to them on like, how do you feel from it?
46:13
And I think I really do stress that I don't, like while we're coming at it from the kind of
46:19
microplastic angle, I really do believe we can all get support around our elimination pathways.
46:26
And this sounds like a fantastic product.
46:28
I have tried it.
46:31
I haven't, I think my elimination
46:34
pathways are already working pretty well because of my, you know, my lifestyle choices and what I
46:39
choose to eat.
46:40
So it's hard for me to say like how much it affected me, but I loved hearing
46:44
what's in it because I know everything you mentioned, it's really quality.
46:51
I know that.
46:51
And so that makes me very encouraged.
46:54
Yeah, that's awesome.
46:55
Yeah.
46:55
And you know,
46:56
part of the deal is the research is evolving.
46:59
A lot of the human clinicals are still in process
47:01
on this.
47:02
And so we're taking an iterative approach as science comes out, we will, you know, make
47:08
updates along the way.
47:09
And so again, we're just trying to build out a product to help people.
47:12
We
47:12
know exposure happens daily.
47:13
So let's support it daily.
47:15
Thank you again for joining us.
47:16
Please
47:16
spread the word, leave a comment, anything you can do to just kind of help us know how this show is
47:23
affecting you.
47:24
Be well.
47:25
Thank you so much for joining me on Everyday Ancestral.
47:30
If you enjoyed
47:30
this episode, hit subscribe so you don't miss the next one.
47:34
You can find the show notes, links,
47:36
and resources mentioned at eatpluck.com.
47:39
That's E-A-T-P-L-U-C-K dot com.
47:45
And hey, if you know
47:46
someone who'd get something out of this, share it with them too.
47:50
Stay curious, live well, and keep
47:54
it ancestral.