Darin Olien: A Superfood Hunter On Peak Nutrition & Next Level Hydration

What's it like to traipse the far outreaches of the globe in search of the the world’s greatest edible food sources for optimal health? Meet the Indiana Jones of Superfoods. One of the most popular guests of 2015, this week my friend Darin Olien (@superlifeliving) returns to the podcast to delve deep on the next level nutrition insights he's gleaned from his extraordinary adventure-based experiences as a widely recognized exotic superfoods hunter, wellness advocate, supplement formulator & environmental activist. Over the last twenty plus years, Darin has explored every imaginable port of call across the developing world questing for better, more natural pathways to ultimate wellness. Communing with thousands of rural farmers, growers and manufacturers in remote communities across Peru, Bhutan, the Amazon, the Himalayas, the South Pacific, Latin America and Asia, Darin now shepherds exotic, high-quality, fair-trade superfoods and indigenous herbal commodities to market. Perhaps best known for his work with fitness company Beachbody, Darin was instrumental in the development and ongoing formulation of the wildly successful whole-food supplement, Shakeology. He chronicles his experience and expertise in Superlife: The 5 Simple Fixes That Will Make You Healthy, Fit & Eternally Awesome* (just released in paperback), as well as on his website Superlife.com, where he demystifies health, fitness, nutrition, and longevity into simple daily actions designed to promote life-long wellness. Plant-based, ripped, and bearing more than a passing resemblance to his workout buddy Laird Hamilton, what is most intriguing to me about Darin isn't just that he is a respected authority on the healing potential of food. And it isn't just that he has been instrumental in introducing these so called superfoods to western consumers. What is most interesting is his commitment to do it right. A deep rooted responsibility to fairly, sustainably and transparently support the long-term interests of indigenous grower communities against the industrialized threat posed by the well-funded, politically powerful agricultural interests responsible for decimating the planet's precious rainforests at an unfathomable rate. An inspiration to me personally, this is a guy who walks his talk. From the foods he consumes to the lifestyle habits he practices, Darin is the thriving embodiment of what it means to truly own and take responsibility for your health, your life and the planet we collectively enjoy. But what exactly is a superfood? Are these foods truly “super” or is it all just exaggerated marketing hype? Our first conversation tracked Darin’s life story. Packed with takeaways, today's exchange deep dives into the efficacy of exotic fruits, herbs, adaptogens and mushrooms. Parsing fact from hyperbole, it's a conversation about the most important superfoods you should be incorporating into your daily routine and why. It's a mind-blowing discourse on the importance of water quality and next-level hydration. It's an exploration of Darin’s pre-workout routine and nutrition essentials. Enjoy! Rich Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

Speaker names marked ? are inferred from speaking time and the show’s known hosts — they are not voice-verified.

• 0:00Rich Roll?

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• 0:44Rich Roll?

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• 1:05Darin Olien?

  What's the number one thing? People, you have to take responsibility for yourself and your life and your health, period. Regardless of what we're even talking about. You can't just throw it to some doctor, and you can't just kind of divorce yourself in listening to advice. You have to be educated. This is your body. This is it. This is your vehicle. This is your deal. If you don't think that that's an important thing, to have something that's out here, and open your mouth, and let it inside your body, and if you're not looking at that as

• 1:46Darin Olien?

  something really important, then, I don't know, that that's a big frickin' deal, and that's a big disconnect. Because that's what it's all about, man. In order to make any lasting change, and just for me being here and you being where you're at, we didn't just turn on a light switch and we were eating this way. It was a slow Slow burn. It was a slow education and it's not sexy to market it because everyone wants the quick fix. And I get it. I can put a concoction together that will light your ass up and make you freaking climb a mountain. But what I'm really interested

• 2:27Darin Olien?

  in is inspiring people to go, listen, what you're doing, the choice you're making today for your breakfast, or your meal, or your every little choice. I want to inspire millions of people to be excited that today, I'm sitting in my chair of my past choices and I'm proud of it.

• 2:51Rich Roll?

  That's superfood hunter Darren Olien, and this is the Rich Roll Podcast.

• 3:08Rich Roll?

  The Rich Roll Podcast. Hey everybody. What's going on? How are you? What is happening? You guys doing okay? Everything all right? Good to hear it. My name is Rich Roll. I'm your host. Welcome to my podcast, the show where I get intimate and go long form with some of the world's most intriguing thought leaders and positive change makers all across the globe. I really appreciate you guys tuning in today. Thank you so much. I love the fact that you have subscribed to the show on iTunes and share it with your friends and on social media. And mad love to everybody who has supported my work through Patreon and by making a habit of always using the Amazon banner ad at richroll.com for all your Amazon purchases. Really appreciate that. Okay. So today marks the return of my good buddy Darren Olien to

• 3:53Rich Roll?

  the podcast. Longtime listeners may remember our first conversation. That was RRP 153.

• 4:00Rich Roll?

  Definitely one of the most popular episodes of 2015, for sure. So if you missed that one, I highly suggest you go back, you give it a listen, check it out. It's really fantastic. But for those of you who are new to the show, who is Darren O'Leary? Well, Darren is basically the Indiana Jones of superfoods. He is one of the world's most knowledgeable, most experienced, most well-traveled, and widely recognized experts when it comes to exotic superfood hunting and supplement formulation, and essentially optimal wellness and lifestyle design. So Darren is perhaps best known as the formulator behind Beach Bodies wildly successful

• 4:41Rich Roll?

  whole food Shakeology product line, but he's also a passionate environmentalist. He's a guy who has traipsed the most remote regions of the globe to discover, to source, to formulate, and to research the world's greatest and most underutilized food sources to promote optimal health, all while also sustainably supporting the indigenous communities that harvest and produce them. He chronicles his experience in his book. It's called Superlife: The Five Forces That Will Make You Healthy, Fit, and Eternally Awesome. It is a must-read primer. I highly suggest you pick it up. And it also just came out in paperback. You can also find copious information on his website, superlife.com. There,

• 5:26Rich Roll?

  he demystifies health, fitness, nutrition, and longevity into simple daily actions, simple rules of healthy eating and living to foster lifelong wellness. Basically, Darren's just super awesome. And I've got a few more things I want to say about him and this conversation before the deep dive. But first,

• 5:55Rich Roll?

  You know, so I think what's really cool and unique about Darren isn't just his incredible knowledge on both the basics and finer points of nutrition, the potency and purpose and effectiveness of certain foods and herbs and adaptogens and mushrooms and hydration. I mean, wait till you hear our unbelievable discussion about water. It's gonna, it's really gonna blow your mind and leave you rethinking everything you thought you knew about optimal hydration. But most of all, it's that Darren walks his talk. I thought I was a freak about my food, but Darren is really next level. He is a living embodiment of everything he preaches. And not only is he incredibly ripped, a sort of plant-based

• 6:35Rich Roll?

  version of his workout buddy Laird Hamilton, and a guy he bears more than a passing resemblance to. Darren's attention to detail when it comes to the foods he enjoys and the lifestyle habits he practices really demonstrate the power of what it means to truly own and take responsibility for your health and your life. He's an inspiration to me personally. He's a guy I have learned so much from over the last year, both on the food front and on the training front. He's put me through the paces more than a few times at his legendary Functional Strength Beach Workout. And I think after listening to this conversation, you'll definitely be inspired to take more control, to exercise more autonomy, to really

• 7:20Rich Roll?

  reprioritize your food and lifestyle choices. Said it before, I'll say it again. This is a guy who is definitely doing what he was meant to do. And also in so doing, creating a really important body of work that is making the world a better place. So in our first conversation, RRP 153, we really kind of tracked Darren's life story and background pretty comprehensively. So we're not going to repeat that here. This second conversation is really focused on parsing fat from hyperbole in this exploration of the efficacy of certain superfoods, including the most important ones you should be incorporating into your

• 8:00Rich Roll?

  daily routine. We also talk about the power of consumer choice to direct positive change. We dive deep into this mind-blowing discourse on water and next level hydration. We explore Darren's morning and pre-workout routine, but ultimately...

• 8:18Rich Roll?

  This is a conversation about big picture fundamentals. What is required to adopt healthier, long-term habits with staying power when it comes to nutrition and lifestyle and overall wellness? I absolutely love this guy. I love this conversation and I think you guys will too.

• 8:39Rich Roll?

  All right, man, you ready to rock?

• 8:40Darin Olien?

  Let's rock.

• 8:41Rich Roll?

  Let's do it. Super good to, uh, it's super good on a super nice day to talk about super life and super foods.

• 8:49Darin Olien?

  Hey.

• 8:50Rich Roll?

  Thanks for coming back on the show, man.

• 8:51Darin Olien?

  Absolutely. Thanks for.

• 8:53Rich Roll?

  This is gonna be good. Uh, since, since we first spoke, we spent a bunch of time together, so we know each other quite a bit better than we did the first time that we sat down. So I'm looking forward to digging into it with you.

• 9:03Darin Olien?

  Let's get into it.

• 9:05Rich Roll?

  So just to set the stage a little bit, we are encamped in your, uh, reclusive, uh, former, what is this, a hunting, uh, lodge turned into ranch down deep in the mountains of Malibu, hidden where no one can find you.

• 9:21Darin Olien?

  Exactly. Just like I, underneath 400-year-old oak trees and surrounded by woods.

• 9:29Rich Roll?

  It's a beautiful spot and, and historic and amazing driving in here, coming down this crazy, long, uh, driveway that, I mean, you are really remote back here.

• 9:40Darin Olien?

  I mean, it just, as soon as I got here, man, I put my hand on the ground and I was kind of shocked that Malibu had this, like 50 acres, no one around, like what? How is that still possible?

• 9:55Rich Roll?

  You would never know that this was here.

• 9:57Darin Olien?

  No.

• 9:57Rich Roll?

  And there's a beautiful kind of full circle irony in the fact that it used to be a hunting lodge and now it's occupied by a super food, a vegan, super food hunter.

• 10:07Darin Olien?

  I know, it's a hunter.

• 10:08Rich Roll?

  You know, there's a universal joke in there somewhere, I think.

• 10:11Darin Olien?

  Right. Well, we've had to, let's just say we've had to do some smudging and clean it out in here and just kinda, you know, I really felt as, I don't wanna go too far esoteric, but, you know, we all have feelings and as soon as I came here, I had a very deep feeling. That that I was to steward this land.

• 10:34Rich Roll?

  Mm hmm.

• 10:34Darin Olien?

  And so then you have, then you have to go through the muggle side of it and banks and finances and lawyers and scrutinies and inspectors and all of that stuff. But but it's it's kind of like it was it was kind of an interesting thing because as everything in life, when you're clear about what you want, then my why was bigger than all of the financial stuff and all of the hard negotiation and all of that stuff. And it's it's now through all that and it's a gift to be here. I mean, there's no better place I think I could be.

• 11:14Rich Roll?

  Yeah, I mean, I can't imagine anyone else living here. And, you know, we've talked about this before.

• 11:21Rich Roll?

  You know, beyond the why, it was like this, knowing that this is where you were supposed to be, and then the battle ensued, you know, you were just full on, you know, in warrior mode to make it happen.

• 11:32Darin Olien?

  Well, I said to myself, there's no, there's not going to be a human mistake on my part of of not getting this land. So I will show up in whatever capacity I need to, to do whatever I need to do, you know, to respond to all of those things that people ask of you and the banks and the lawyers and the all of that stuff. And if it's beyond that, that I'm not supposed to have it, then so be it.

• 12:02Rich Roll?

  Right.

• 12:03Darin Olien?

  I am.

• 12:04Rich Roll?

  It's not going to be as a result of anything that you screwed up.

• 12:07Darin Olien?

  I'm turning on my inner Viking for sure on this one.

• 12:11Rich Roll?

  Well, I think that's a pretty good lesson for life, right? When you commit to something or you have a dream or you have a goal, to make sure that your side of the street is as pristine as possible.

• 12:21Darin Olien?

  I'm going to work.

• 12:22Rich Roll?

  And then you can lay your head, you know, on the pillow at night, knowing that you did what what you could and releasing the rest to, you know, fate or the universe.

• 12:30Darin Olien?

  Exactly. Well, that's the thing, and I think people get confused is like, you know, you got to work. And if you're clear, you know, just because you want to be a millionaire or or, you know, be a celebrity even for the sake of being celebrity, in any capacity, you got to do some work. And of course, having talent is helpful. But but that's the, you know, being a. Midwestern kid from Minnesota, you know, throwing hay bales and picking beans and all that stuff. I'm not afraid of working, so.

• 13:05Rich Roll?

  Right. And you were just telling me before, uh, before we went live that, uh, you saw a bobcat in the backyard.

• 13:11Darin Olien?

  Yeah. Oh, my God.

• 13:13Rich Roll?

  That's no joke.

• 13:14Darin Olien?

  No joke. No, like a big, big bobcat, like not, not a kitty.

• 13:19Rich Roll?

  Right.

• 13:20Darin Olien?

  Um, so we're

• 13:20Rich Roll?

  In plain daylight?

• 13:21Darin Olien?

  Plain, just strolling.

• 13:23Rich Roll?

  Wow.

• 13:24Darin Olien?

  Right in front of us, basically. So we're, we're in the wild here. We have owls the size of mid-sized dogs and, and red-tailed hawks and snakes and, and, uh, I've seen, this is my third bobcat I've seen.

• 13:39Rich Roll?

  Wow. And so what's the long-term plan for the land? Like, are you gonna develop it? Are you gonna like build your own commune here? What's gonna, what's the, what's the vision?

• 13:48Darin Olien?

  All the above. Yeah. I have a, you know, I have a, the only way to deal with as much as I want to do here is I just have to go, well, it's a 25-year plan, right? So, you know, I have, I may or may not have gotten some exotic seeds from around the world and, uh, so, so I'm definitely gonna be

• 14:07Rich Roll?

  Did you declare those in customs?

• 14:10Darin Olien?

  For sure I did. Um, um, so, you know, I'm gonna practice with that, some greenhouses, some exotic plant growing. I have a meringue, uh, tree growing. Um, it's cold down here. We're in a little valley. Um, there's some, um, um, medicinal mushrooms growing around in the area. Um, so yeah, there's, there's some potential here. Um, so I'm gonna try to grow almost anything and just see how it goes. But, but yeah, and there's little huts and yurts and things like that we'll place around here.

• 14:44Rich Roll?

  Right, right, right.

• 14:44Darin Olien?

  Yeah.

• 14:45Rich Roll?

  It's pretty cool, man.

• 14:46Darin Olien?

  And the cool thing is, we're not gonna get too far into this subject, but I have a, um, Very, very interesting, smart buddy of mine I've known for 15 years who has dedicated his life to alternative energies even before there was a thing. And his life was actually based on the Blood Diamond movie. So he wasn't selling blood diamonds, but his story was sold from the standpoint of he was doing healthy gold and diamond excavation in Africa and then got caught behind the civil unrest. So he survived, he got stabbed and shot and all of his friends got killed.

• 15:28Darin Olien?

  He took that experience and also has an understanding and education and history and science and then he spent the rest of his life to this point educating himself on alternative energies. So we're going to do some stuff here in the land to utilize gravity-fed systems to use as alternative sources for creation and generation of energy.

• 15:56Rich Roll?

  That's pretty cool. Yeah, you showed me a prototype battery thing, I think, you know, I don't know if that's public.

• 16:04Darin Olien?

  It's not public.

• 16:05Rich Roll?

  Yeah, the vision is huge and the, you know, the idea that you can go off-grid and then have, you know, use this, you know, be a steward of this land to harvest these superfoods, you know, be a steward of these plants and use it as a, you know, a base point to educate people, you know, would be really amazing.

• 16:26Darin Olien?

  For sure.

• 16:27Rich Roll?

  So that's pretty cool, man.

• 16:28Darin Olien?

  Absolutely.

• 16:29Rich Roll?

  And you just, you just got back from Indiana, right? You're doing public, when you get up in front of, I mean, I saw on Instagram, that was a big crowd.

• 16:36Darin Olien?

  It was a big crowd.

• 16:37Rich Roll?

  What's the, what's the, do you have a locked-in keynote that you deliver or like, how do you manage your public speaking? Like, what is the, what's the pitch or, you know, what is the angle that you're delivering?

• 16:48Darin Olien?

  Yeah, it depends on the population. You know, if it's a population that knows me already, then I can kind of step into the side. This was a crowd of people that know Beachbody and some of the Shakeology.

• 17:04Darin Olien?

  People, so the formula that I create.

• 17:07Rich Roll?

  It's a passionate crowd of people.

• 17:08Darin Olien?

  Yeah, so I could step into, kind of get down in the weeds a little bit. So, you know, this particular talk, I talked about things that I haven't really had the space for. And so I talked about the journey of a superfood. You know, you start with, maybe I'm superfood hunting. I discover, I find. And then, then what happens? How does a, how does a superfood end up in a bag? Right? Successfully, because there's a lot of ways unsuccessfully that that can show up and you're, you're, you're just consuming a powder that has a great marketing story to it, but, but is it really the quality? Is it really?

• 17:50Darin Olien?

  What, what it's supposed to be? So, you know, having spent 15 years, you know, superfood hunting and traveling, the last thing I want is a food that has some fantastic properties to, to grow it, to process it, to dry it, and to preserve it incorrectly. So now it just becomes kind of a, a, a, a poor stepchild of itself. And it doesn't deliver on kind of this ancient and, and long track record of, of health properties. So, so that's really where I was able to kind of bring people in, in, in a way, and got some good feedback

• 18:35Darin Olien?

  and sense like, oh, okay, we really get it. Like, this is a lot, not, not, not all companies do that, right? So, so to, to take people through, you know, you find something, you test something, you observe something, you talk to the, the, the farmers and the collectors and

• 18:55Darin Olien?

  you, you, you observe their situation, you test their situation, you help them where they need it from a fair trade point of view, from a sustainability point of view. You, for me, I educate. So, this latest trip to Brazil was a full-on superfood mission. And so we were able to got, kind of, get this massive education in the savanna of Brazil, which is, which is an incredible story of, of kind of a.

• 19:28Darin Olien?

  A cousin of the Amazon, a completely different ecosystem, but largely most of the plant lives underground. So the carbon devastation that happens with that is arguably greater than the Amazon devastation because the Amazon and the rainfall, most of the plant is above ground. So, so anyway, it was, it was whether, whether all of those facts are hundred percent true, we're not sure, but what does reign true is we met some experts that are making that argument that, that, that with, again, kind of coming

• 20:12Darin Olien?

  back to the superfood hunting and the journey of a food, once you understand, hey, the impact that a plant or a superfood can have, and not only the health benefits and stuff, but you actually then can, can with, with your effort and with your money as a consumer, you're voting with what companies you want to survive. I mean, really, whether we want to acknowledge that or not, you're, every time you're buying something, you're, you're, you're, you're giving that company money, saying, yes, okay, I'm going to buy your product. And for me, I'm dedicated to making sure that there's a win-win all the way,

• 20:53Darin Olien?

  that the environment's going to be better for it, that the, the, the farmers and the collectors and growers are, are going to benefit and their lives are going to change and improve. And most important, not most importantly, but equally, that that product or that, in this case, that food or supplement is going to survive the growing, harvesting, processing, drying, or whatever preparation it needs to, and then traveling to the United States or wherever it's being sold. And then final packaging. So now is that fingerprint what it's supposed to be? Is that active compound what it's supposed to be?

• 21:32Rich Roll?

  Is it still active? Yeah, I mean, in everything you just said, there's a million threads that I could pull and we could go down the rabbit hole on each and every one of them. And I want to sort of unpack this methodically. I want to talk about your recent Brazil trip and kind of what you experienced and learned in that. But maybe, you know, in prefatory to that, we could talk a little bit about, you know, what you were talking about with respect to the integrity of superfoods, right? So right now, you know, superfoods are a thing. People are interested in them. There's a lot of, you know, excitement around certain foods and certain compounds and the positive health impacts that they can have. And as a consumer, you go to the, you know, whether you're going to the fancy,

• 22:17Rich Roll?

  super fancy natural food market, or you're going to the GNC, whatever it is, wherever you, you know, purchase these products or even online, it's very difficult for a consumer to know or to tell, you know, the difference between a product that has integrity and something that's crap, right? So, you know, pick moringa, for example. Like you were telling me the other day, like, well, most of the moringa that's on the market, it's actually not really active because of the way that they process it. Blah, blah, blah. And you can explain that, you know, more in depth. But, but it's not, you know, it's not actually doing what it's purporting to do because of that, that chain of manufacturing and processing and packaging that goes into it.

• 23:02Darin Olien?

  Yeah.

• 23:02Rich Roll?

  So how can you, as a consumer, you know, make more discerning purchases about what's good and what isn't?

• 23:10Darin Olien?

  Yeah, man. I mean, I don't know if I have a direct answer, you know? And it is a challenging thing. I mean, you know, I hope that. I mean, I hope that companies are leaning more in that direction because you can't turn a product over on a package or a label and fully know that. Obviously, you can, you can stay away from kind of the, the ingredients in there that are suspect and additives and this whole laundry list of stuff. So A, you can do that, but it doesn't really tell you

• 23:51Darin Olien?

  the real story because you can, you can grab almost any, like, Rich, if you want to go and start your own supplement company, you can go to, I can give you a handful of manufacturers. And all you have to do is say, hey, I want moringa in it. I want camu camu. I want chaga. I want yerba mate. I want, I want all these things and I want to make it a great stimulation. It's whole food. It's great. Sounds good, right? But then that manufacturer is like, well, does he have, do they have experience in the field? Very, very few do. Very few.

• 24:29Rich Roll?

  And they have their go-to vendors that are going to be the cheapest, right? Yeah. And so they're going to package it as leanly as possible. And who knows where any of that stuff comes from and what went into it and, and whether it's actually being packaged in the ratios and proportions that the formulator is dictating.

• 24:47Darin Olien?

  Exactly. And so that's, that's where it really goes sideways because they're passing.

• 24:52Rich Roll?

  There's no regulation.

• 24:53Darin Olien?

  No. They're, they're, well, they're, they're, it's the basic, it's the minimal. So they're doing basic, at this point, they're doing basic heavy metal, which is great. They're doing microbiological testing to make sure, sure it doesn't have E. coli.

• 25:06Rich Roll?

  You say they.

• 25:07Darin Olien?

  Well, the, the, the commodity guys, they have to at least show that they have tested some of their basic things. So they, so it doesn't have E. coli, salmonella, listera, all these things. And then, so that microbiological load. And then it's got to at least have on that piece of paper that, hey, this is moringa. But that says nothing about the thousands of compounds that are in there. It says nothing about the 36 active antioxidants that are there when, when the plant is fresh. It says nothing about the concentration of vitamins and minerals and all the other phytonutrients and antioxidants.

• 25:52Darin Olien?

  So, so it's all of that, that, that is largely lost when you A, don't know the plant. You don't know how to grow it properly. You don't know how to harvest properly. You don't know at the speed at which it needs to be processed. I'm more pointing towards what moringa needs. And, and largely you get this next to dead, pale, yellow, brown.

• 26:22Darin Olien?

  In this case, moringa, right? So, so, um, you know, we, we get the Dr. Oz effect these days. It used to be Oprah effect, but now we have this Dr. Oz effect where a few years ago, maybe three years ago, or even more at this point, Dr. Oz mentioned moringa. And I was actually, I was, I was upset because I knew, having seen moringa in six or seven continents, from Indonesia, India, uh, all throughout Southeast Asia, Africa, all these places, I've seen it. I've seen the potential of it, but I haven't seen the good processing of it.

• 27:03Darin Olien?

  So when I knew that Dr. Oz mentioned that, I knew that the market was gonna flood with moringa and, and easy to grow. Here's the trick, easy to grow moringa, I can grow it here.

• 27:16Rich Roll?

  And we should say just foundationally, you know, maybe define, you know, moringa and its properties. I mean, it's kind of the ultimate super fruit, right? It kind of, it fires on all cylinders. It's kind of like, if you were gonna pick one, you know, sort of food, it's pretty awesome.

• 27:30Darin Olien?

  Yeah, it's, it's, it's pretty much the top of my list in terms of its, uh, wide spectrum deliverable. With its 35 antioxidants, so what are antioxidants? Well, they're disease fighting, free radical scavengers that we need constantly. And then, and then with that, uh, it's got huge amounts of vitamins and minerals. So comparable to, a lot of these superfoods can kind of lean on one very powerful compound. When in fact, Moringa is leaning on and has handfuls of very, very, I mean, super high vitamin C, vitamin E, vitamin A, like, and high mineral content.

• 28:14Darin Olien?

  So, I mean, they call it the vitamin tree, for God's sakes, right? So, so there's all of these benefits, but here's the marketing slant. So, everyone kind of markets the fresh product. But if you haven't understood how to deliver that, now, as someone who really cares and really knows and really supports people getting nutrient-dense food, that I know that that isn't. And so, I make it my mission to improve those situations. And for example, Moringa, easy to grow. As soon as you cut that leaf, why do you think the quality goes down so much?

• 28:59Darin Olien?

  Well, the antioxidants are there supporting the plant, right? And as soon as you cut it, now it's getting denatured and it's getting oxidized. And if you don't wash that and dry that within a short window of time, meaning having that processing facility at the field, your quality is hitting the toilet. So, so that's, that's one of those things where I'm like, I see it and I see the industry behind the scenes in the commodity world that people are struggling with finding a clean source.

• 29:33Rich Roll?

  Yeah, and you know, it's analogous to, you know, the sort of mainstream food industry, whether it's animal agriculture or otherwise. There is a certain lack of transparency and accountability for how our food is, you know, grown and processed and made and shipped and packaged and all of that, right? We just, we just buy it and we go, oh, well, it must be good because it's here on the shelf. And we have no awareness and no ability to, to, you know, get into the information of what went into that. And that seems to be like a giant regulatory oversight. And I think as, you know, this is something I say on the podcast all the time, but like, Young people demand transparency on a level that I think our generation doesn't.

• 30:17Rich Roll?

  And you're seeing more and more companies understanding that and becoming more transparent. And those are companies that are succeeding by virtue of that sort of corporate decision. But there's, there's a lot of, you know, places out, you know, a lot of industries out there that could benefit from this. And the supplement industry is like a, a black eye on the whole thing, right?

• 30:39Darin Olien?

  Absolutely. Yeah, it's, it's surprising. The more you kind of pull the, pull the string, the more you kind of see this issue. And, and again, it becomes this money thing instead of, you know, my heart's in this. It's always has been. And, and, and, and for me, when you, when you see the, the benefit that it has, not only with the growers and the farmers and stuff and their lives changing. And then I know that it's going to benefit this consumer. How could I go against my own kind of humanness and just do it to make money? Like, or do it to, you know, sell these things? So.

• 31:23Rich Roll?

  Is there any kind of consumer watchdog website or agency out there that says, here's the, here are the, the companies to avoid? Here are the better ones. Like, that's a public service that I feel like, you know, a lot of people could benefit from.

• 31:36Darin Olien?

  Yeah, I think there's not just one. I mean, there, there's some cool things. And for example, there's, I just talked to pollinators.org. So it's bee friendly and other insect friendly pollination situations. So, so for, I mean, you know, if our bees are gone, we're gone. Every, every third bite that you're eating of your food was needed, an insect needed to pollinate that food. So, so if our pollination goes away, we're, we're screwed.

• 32:12Darin Olien?

  And then you have water conservancy situations where you can, for example, the baru nut, which we'll get into in the savanna, is a water conservative super nut. As opposed to almond, which, you know, of course I love.

• 32:29Rich Roll?

  But they take up a lot of water.

• 32:30Darin Olien?

  A ton of water. In California, we don't have a lot of water. So. And then you have, of course, fair trade organizations and you have organic organizations. So you have, you have organizations trying to create some sense of

• 32:49Darin Olien?

  regulation that's, that's supporting kind of all of these extensions of what happens with unsustainable practices, right? So if you're unsustainable, then you need to lean on insecticides and pesticides and herbicides and larvicides and all of that stuff. And then you're all of a sudden, now that's called conventional farming, which is completely unsustainable. And that's a whole, obviously, topic. But then you have things like, you know, almonds actually are very unsustainable. So, so you have things like, okay, well, and then other, you know, types of farming is unsustainable for bees. So, so, so there's a lot of organizations, Rich, that are, that are here

• 33:33Darin Olien?

  to help support, and I think, you know, listen, there's no downside. So if you align yourself with some of this stuff as a company, then you can use that as, as a way of, of marketing your support of it, too. Another situation, actually, this was in China last year, where we were following up Shizandra. And Shizandra is probably one of the greatest adaptogenic herbs in the world. It's, it's kind of like such a balancing, kind of the five senses and the five flavors. It's a very interesting herb. And when we're looking at the wild harvesting side of it,

• 34:16Darin Olien?

  it just so happens that we were the only people that were able to come into the World Wildlife Federation's panda-protected friendly zone. So all of a sudden now, this Shizandra is supporting the, the panda-protected area. And it's all done very consciously. So there is a way to do this for some of our most precious foods and plants. And it kind of reminds me of too, like, people say, well, kind of a random thought, but, you know, what is a superfood even? Like, you know, it's like, you can kind of, there isn't really a definition. But this is what I say.

• 35:02Darin Olien?

  Kind of all well created or whole types of food can be considered a superfood, but it's really per calorie, per bite. It has more nutrients that it's giving you per something else.

• 35:17Rich Roll?

  Right, like the most nutrient dense of all foods.

• 35:20Darin Olien?

  Yeah, exactly. So it's like, okay, if I'm gonna eat this chia seed, alright, I'm gonna have a spoonful or a bite of chia seed, or if I'm gonna eat this donut. The donut's not a superfood. It has, it has macro nutrition, very little micronutrition, and then also a bunch of toxins too. So that's kind of where it is. So again, I, I dedicate my life to, to making sure that the food that has been here for a very long time and has epidemiological use, sometimes thousands and thousands and thousands of years. So do, do with it the best that we can in order to preserve that which it has been

• 36:05Darin Olien?

  used by humans for a very long time so that we can thrive. Cause ultimately, that's what it's about. Like, I just want, for me personally, my angle of health and, and the exposure I've had to it in this industry, I just want more people to be consuming nutrient dense plants, nutrient dense plants, so that they don't have to drag around this, this chemistry set of a body and suffer. That's at the end of the day, I don't want people to suffer. I don't wanna suffer.

• 36:46Rich Roll?

  The weird tragic thing is, I mean, beyond just buying produce at the grocery store, like, it's, it's become more, rather than easier, it's become more challenging to, you know, remove yourself from the processed foods and the chemically induced foods. And more difficult to get foods that are actually what they advertise themselves to be in the purest state, right? Like, it requires a little consciousness and a little intention and perhaps a little bit more effort and a little bit more money, you know? It should be the opposite. As we evolve as a culture and as a society, it seems like those should be the things that are, you know. Sort of upfront and center.

• 37:30Darin Olien?

  Absolutely.

• 37:31Rich Roll?

  As opposed to things that we have to hunt for. You know what I mean?

• 37:34Darin Olien?

  Yeah, exactly.

• 37:35Rich Roll?

  And maybe on that, you know, on that note, speaking of superfood hunting, we can, we could talk about your recent trip to Brazil and, and, you know, and I think that brings up the sustainability issue that we were talking about a minute ago as well.

• 37:48Darin Olien?

  Yeah. Yeah. So a company, a Brazilian company also has a, um, offices here now in LA called Labra. They reached out kind of randomly, um, and kind of got my attention like, hey, have you, were thinking about importing some, some interesting foods in the Sahadu? And I was like, what the hell is the Sahadu? Like, oh, it's the savanna.

• 38:15Rich Roll?

  Yeah. You're like adventure gene, just like perks off.

• 38:17Darin Olien?

  Yeah.

• 38:18Rich Roll?

  Who sounds adventurous?

• 38:19Darin Olien?

  I'm like, holy cow. It's been a while since I've, it's been two days since I've been on my last adventure. No, not really. But so I said, okay, well, why don't you send me some of it? Let me look at it. Let me read some research on it. And, and then, uh, the guys were here. Like two Brazilian guys were here. So they came over and we talked in length and, and there was a, you know, can you help us kind of thing? So I, you know, I was intrigued enough at that point to know what the product was and the, and the, and the nut was called Baru, B A R U.

• 39:00Darin Olien?

  And it was, and, and a lot of these things, you know, Rich, you know, that, you know, when we, and I say we in the health world, um, and maybe on the fringe of the health world, I, I've tried some crazy tasting stuff, right? And it is definitely not going to translate to the mass population. It's just not.

• 39:22Rich Roll?

  Right. What's the craziest thing that you've tested or eaten?

• 39:27Darin Olien?

  The craziest?

• 39:28Rich Roll?

  Or maybe the worst tasting?

• 39:30Darin Olien?

  Well, well, this is twofold. I mean, of course, durian.

• 39:36Rich Roll?

  Yeah.

• 39:36Darin Olien?

  Is up there.

• 39:37Rich Roll?

  But people that love durian, love it.

• 39:39Darin Olien?

  I love it. I, I, I lose my mind over durian.

• 39:43Rich Roll?

  Yeah, I've never, I've never seen more passion around a food in my life than people that are into durian.

• 39:49Darin Olien?

  Yeah. And then, yeah, and that, that, and jackfruit will come in as a close second for me losing my mind. As soon as I, you know, jackfruit, the biggest fruit in the world.

• 40:03Rich Roll?

  But that's not, that doesn't have a funky.

• 40:05Darin Olien?

  No, that definitely doesn't. But I, just in terms of losing my mind, I lose my mind. I mean, going back to shizandra, shizandra is sweet, sour, salty, bitter, pungent. All at the same time. Cause you, you, you eat it and you're experiencing all of those tastes, which is kind of a magic tonic from, from the traditional Chinese medicine. So it's a balancing herb. Right? So adaptogens. So your hormonal balance, all that stuff. But the first time you taste it, it's kind of, whoa, like you, you kind of on the tip, it's sweet. And then it's kind of punching you with this salty, bitter, pungent kind of thing. But you know,

• 40:48Darin Olien?

  people with me, I never partake in some of that stuff, but you know.

• 40:52Rich Roll?

  Yeah, these are, these are foods that are never going to break through in, you know.

• 40:56Darin Olien?

  But they're used in a different way. For example, they're, they're not, it's not like you're going to cut a, you know, sit down, eat a porridge of shizandra berries. It's just not, you know, but you do.

• 41:06Rich Roll?

  Were you the one who was telling me like in certain parts of, I think it was you, in certain parts of Asia, like in the airports, they tell you like you're not allowed to bring durian on the plane.

• 41:15Darin Olien?

  Oh, yeah, yeah, no public.

• 41:16Rich Roll?

  It was Doug Evans was telling me, he brought durian on the, he brought durian on an airplane and he almost got like thrown out, thrown off the airplane.

• 41:24Darin Olien?

  Yeah, because, because for all the listeners out there, durian smells like a really bad toilet and rotten eggs. Right? So it's, it's so intense that it will take over a room. It will take over a hotel. So no public, you can't bring durian in a public building.

• 41:43Rich Roll?

  Right.

• 41:45Rich Roll?

  But the Baru Nut, we're on the other end of the spectrum, right? I mean, so that was all a way of saying, look, a lot of this stuff is, you know, most people aren't going to go in for it.

• 41:54Darin Olien?

  Right.

• 41:54Rich Roll?

  But, but here's a nut that actually has the potential to be something that the mainstream could enjoy.

• 42:02Darin Olien?

  So it's kind of like a taste, a flavor between a peanut and an almond. And it's kind of, the shape is very kind of cool and sexy. And, um, and so that got my interest because that could be the barrier to entry, right? A barrier to entry to the market. And there wasn't there because they taste fantastic.

• 42:24Rich Roll?

  So you let me taste some of these and I think I had some of the Baru Nut butter.

• 42:28Darin Olien?

  Yeah.

• 42:29Rich Roll?

  It was insane.

• 42:30Darin Olien?

  Insane.

• 42:30Rich Roll?

  It's so good.

• 42:31Darin Olien?

  And I'd never heard of this before. I know, no one has. It's new to, to America and that's what we're trying to do here. And, um, so again, so this Baru, so I said, well, like before we kind of enter into some sort of agreement to, to see if I can help you. I mean, I, the best thing to do is show up, man. So buy your tickets and let's go. Let's, so I could see the product chain development. I could see the farmers. What's the limitations? What's, what's the hang up? Where are the bottlenecks? What's gonna, what do we need money for in order to improve the quality? Or, because listen, when you're in, I mean, Brazil's not a third world country,

• 43:13Darin Olien?

  but when you're in a situation or a town or a village that has never done any of this stuff, you, you have to have a quality standard in order to bring it to America, period. So I was going with that. And, and so there are many, many adventures along the way. And some of that was learning about the Sahadu as it relates to the Amazon. And, and, and we saw a lot of, uh, clear cut devastation, uh, in Brazil.

• 43:43Rich Roll?

  So what does that look like when you see, you know, this, this rainforest? Being cleared for, I presume for grazing and feed, you know, livestock feed.

• 43:55Darin Olien?

  That's was a pretty much 100% of what I saw was those two reasons. 100% centered centered around cattle, not human consumptive foods.

• 44:05Rich Roll?

  We hear, you know, we hear in America, it's like, we know, you know, I don't know. One, it's like, it's like a full football field of rainforest gets cleared every second for this purpose, but it's sort of a statistic. It's an academic, you know, idea, but to be able to be boots on the ground and witness that, like, what is that like?

• 44:25Darin Olien?

  When you're driving thousands of kilometers, right? And you're seeing this where you were that is still left, but now most of your travel is just nothing but a few trees. And so now, you know, 10 to 20%, you see like these farmers. So there's a mandate now, but it's, it's so underwhelming that they have to keep some of these endemic plants up in their field. So Beru is one of them. Beru, Babasu, which is a fantastic oil that we're going to get into at some point. That's comparable to, to coconut oil, but also also has disease fighting compounds

• 45:08Darin Olien?

  like lauric acids and stuff like that. So it's kind of, it's, you're so sad. I was so sad and at the same time rejoicing when you're finding some of the, what was left over. And, and so, so, yeah, we, we saw a lot of that and then, you know, went into the wild and, and saw, saw it all in, in, in nature. And, and then, and then you're meeting the villagers and the farmers and how they collected. And so, so Beru itself is a very beautiful tree.

• 45:45Darin Olien?

  Um, and every nine months, similar to birthing humans, every nine months that produces these, these seeds and these seeds, well, it's fruit really, and this, it's got this sweet outer fruit. It's maybe, I don't know, what is it? Very, very, very small, uh, say it's bigger than an apricot seed, probably four times as big as an apricot seed. And, and so it has this sweet on the outside and almost impossible to crack open. So, so indigenously, you have to, the, a lot of the farmers created some sort of lever and tried to break these open. I mean, it's very, very hard. And every one of those is just

• 46:28Darin Olien?

  one seed. So it's one baru nut. So there's a high amount of labor that it costs. So part of the mission was developing these hydraulic, uh, machines and supplying them in certain strategic regions cooperatively so they could all bring their supply there. And then pneumatically, it was cracking these things open. So that was part of the thing. And, and again, this is changing an economy and this is changing, uh, uh, uh, the Sahada, the Savannah that's getting annihilated and we don't even know it. I didn't even know

• 47:04Darin Olien?

  it. So, so this is again, this is now this brew is, is, um, an endemic endangered plant that we absolutely can create a value there that is largely would be, you know, lost eventually.

• 47:24Rich Roll?

  Right. So you are not only, um, sort of supporting these indigenous communities, you are preserving this, um, this plant that is on the, you know, precipice of extinction. And you're sort of taking a stand and combating the, you know, gestalt of animal agriculture that is basically ravaging this part of the world. Right? So it kind of functions on all those levels. And then beyond that, it's super nutritious. Right? Like what is the nutrition profile of this thing? It's crazy.

• 47:57Darin Olien?

  Oh my God, it's crazy. So, you know, of course, from a plant protein, it's one of the highest plant, uh, uh, nut. It's one of the highest proteins of any nut. Um, it doesn't have a huge amount of oil. So in fact, you can, You can eat a lot of it and get a lot of nutrient density. It's got a lot of powerful antioxidants, copper, magnesium, a bunch of minerals. And, and so we're, we, as soon as we got back, we've been doing a bunch of tests on it and finding out more and more stuff. And we're also investigating some secrets around that. I'm not even going to reveal it, but because no one's kind of looked at certain aspects

• 48:41Darin Olien?

  of it, but we're looking at other parts of the shell and other things where it could be sustainable, kind of burning materials, building materials for the locals, stuff like that. But nutrient wise, it's, it's one of the most nutrient packed nuts we've ever seen.

• 49:01Rich Roll?

  Right. So the trick is, is to create a vertically integrated sort of supply chain that is sustainably supporting these communities and harvesting this land in a way that is simultaneously preserving it and introducing this nutritious food product to the West.

• 49:20Darin Olien?

  There's no downside. There's no downside. So you get it, you get it out here to someone, you know, again, buying it by voting, right? They're voting with their dollars and they're, they're now getting a super nutrient nut. And that is then going all the way back to supporting the people and supporting the land that, that is, is in dire straits right now.

• 49:44Rich Roll?

  That's beautiful. Can it be, it can't be grown here?

• 49:50Darin Olien?

  You know, the funny thing is, it may or may not grow here, but it literally only grows one place in the world. You know, it grows in the Sahara, it grows in the Savannah, it doesn't grow anywhere else. You know, I may put some in my greenhouse maybe and just see, you know, get to know the plant more and then, and take that information as a research and take that information to, to potentially help with harvesting and stuff like that. That's what I want to, again, we kind of go back. It's what I want to, that's what I use my land for, you know, to, to better understand some of these plants to then. Have them benefit.

• 50:29Rich Roll?

  Right. Well, that's exciting, man. So how far along in this process are you?

• 50:32Darin Olien?

  Very. We're, we're getting our um, new website done and we have a new shipment coming in right now. I think it's maybe even in today. Um, so we'll be supplying, be able to get some stuff on Amazon. So, um, that's, that's happening and we're going to slowly grow it. So my big plan for Moringa, Baru, Baba Sue, all of these things is I have a list of superfoods that need to be out in the world. Uh, my big plan is to create this, uh, superfood conservancy and that is, uh, using real video showing where things are coming from and using social platforms, social campaigns.

• 51:14Darin Olien?

  Whether it's, I don't know, uh, you know, by the time this airs, I probably won't have it up yet, but, but, um, that's the idea so that the transparency of where this stuff is coming from and also learning about it. Um, meeting the people that, that you can at least have a lot more assurance that this supply is, is the best.

• 51:37Rich Roll?

  Yeah.

• 51:38Darin Olien?

  It's for real. And, and, and now, okay, I'm getting what this is supposed to be for me and my body and for health and healing, but also now am influencing and, and helping these people. And that to me is, you know, that's the biggest.

• 51:55Rich Roll?

  Right.

• 51:56Darin Olien?

  That's the biggest.

• 51:56Rich Roll?

  Yeah, that's beautiful. That's a beautiful, beautiful mission, man.

• 51:59Darin Olien?

  Yeah.

• 52:00Rich Roll?

  That's exciting stuff. So, you know, when we talk about superfoods, I mean, one of the things that comes up is, and, and this comes up in the context of kind of getting more into wellness, whether you're plant-based or not. Um, the idea of incorporating a lot of these high density, high nutrition density foods and, you know, onto your plate. Uh, people will say, well, you know, I'd love to eat the way that you do, but I just, I can't afford it. Right? So maybe we could talk a few minutes about, um, separating, uh,

• 52:32Rich Roll?

  Fact from fiction, hype from reality when it comes to these superfoods. Like if you are going to, you know, invest some of your hard earned dollars into some of these, you know, health enhancing foods, what are the ones that you should be looking at? How can we do it affordably? What are the ones that, you know, probably aren't worth it? And, you know, how do we, you know, I'm just imagining somebody who's listening to this saying, you know, like, all right, I'm in like, so tell me exactly what I should get and what I, what I don't need.

• 53:01Darin Olien?

  Right. Yeah, it's a big conversation. Obviously I could handle that conversation one on one better than massive.

• 53:08Rich Roll?

  Yeah.

• 53:09Darin Olien?

  Uh, population of, of, cause it depends on the needs, right? And it depends on the wallet like as well, you know, because listen, these, these foods do travel a long way and there's a lot of work that it takes in order for them to have those nutrients. And that's a beautiful thing because they have been used in that way for a long time. And now we get to experience them. So, you know, there's probably a few ones that are pretty, I mean, every day you have things like new reports coming out with turmeric, for example. Turmeric is widely accessible and you couldn't come to me with any straight face and say you couldn't afford turmeric.

• 53:50Rich Roll?

  Yeah, it's affordable, buying the root, not the powder. Go to, you know, find, find the root.

• 53:55Darin Olien?

  If you can.

• 53:56Rich Roll?

  It looks like ginger, except it's orange.

• 53:58Darin Olien?

  It's in the ginger family. If you can find the root, great. And if you can, or a nice organic powder with the right kind of recipe to activate it, fantastic. So, you know, you can make a paste out of it. You could, I have some on my website. I have many little recipes for turmeric. But here's the thing, there's, there's so many, you can, can, you can use turmeric from a digestive, from immune system. You can use it for anti-inflammatory. You can also use it for enhancing your brain. So now the tumorones and even the curcumin, that these are active compounds in the turmeric

• 54:40Darin Olien?

  that are, are showing brain activity, meaning more specifically neurogenerative action. So, so now you're really starting, this is, it gets me excited because once you start looking at the compounds of these things, now you're like, oh, that's. That's where it's all happening with no downside, with no side benefits. So, so the turmeric on a daily basis is one of those that you can take every day without having any kind of backlash. When I say that is sometimes if you eat almonds every day without preparing them correctly, you can have a backlash of phytic acids and enzyme inhibitors that does your gut

• 55:25Darin Olien?

  bad, right? So, but turmeric is a very easy one to incorporate. You can make turmeric lattes, you can make turmeric paste and just-

• 55:35Rich Roll?

  Put it in your tea.

• 55:36Darin Olien?

  Put it in your tea. You can-

• 55:38Rich Roll?

  Smoothie.

• 55:39Darin Olien?

  And if you have, you know, more aggressive things, like I have a lot of pain, I have a lot of inflammation, so now you, you can go and get supplements that are curcumin standardized, more aggressive towards those types of behaviors and, and situations. And, but that being said, you also, that's an isolation. So you're also not getting the, the, the hundreds of compounds that are also in the turmeric itself. So curcumin's not a replacement for the full root, but it's, it has actions that can support specific things based on an individual.

• 56:20Rich Roll?

  Yeah, my, my question that always comes up is when, once you isolate out the active component of these foods and put it in a capsule, you know, how, how effective is that really? Like, you know, if you extract the beta carotene out of a, a fruit and put that in supplement form, I mean, I'm sure it has some benefit, but it's not the same as when you're ingesting it in the matrix of fiber and all the other phytonutrients and micronutrients that comprise that whole food.

• 56:50Darin Olien?

  Hundred percent. And, and we don't even know the degree at which it's helping, because there's a natural synergy, period, to, to a full, a full food matrix. So, so yes, that's true. And- Yeah, I mean, from an industry standard, when you're talking extracts, now, now, not having, let's, let's kind of push the quality to aside. Whatever the whole food, let's say, for example, the turmeric shows up, and then they use that. So let's say, just leaving that aside, the standardization of extracts are pretty solid, right? So if they, they have to standardize to certain levels.

• 57:35Darin Olien?

  So for the most part, you can get fairly good action with a standardized supplement. But you can't always trust even on, you know, you have consumer labs.com or dot org. I mean, they do a watchdog of supplements and they'll grab like, hey, this week, we're going to test Kirkman supplements and they'll, they'll do it. And it says it's supposed to be standardized to this, this amount. And they fail, some pass, some fail. So again, it's trusted consumers. And I think from a societal point of view and a social point of view,

• 58:19Darin Olien?

  you want to start asking experts, you know, you want to ask experts, you want to ask practitioners, you want to start narrowing in on those kind of supplements that are at least been used by people that you respect and, and, and kind of that kind of thing. So, so again, it's a, it's a, it's how you're applying it. From a turmeric point of view, as a longevity plant, as a one that's combating, like, listen, health is created every choice and every day and every meal. And, and so from, from that point of view, when you grab things like chaga and turmeric and chia seeds and meringa, and these things are can be consumed

• 59:01Darin Olien?

  and several others can be consumed on a daily basis, that is now.

• 59:07Darin Olien?

  Supplying your body with these phytonutrients that it needs, it desperately needs. And I really make a strong argument of why we need superfoods in our, in our diet every day. Because we are, A, you know, the, the Congress in 1992 did soil testing and we, we, every continent in the first world is, is deprived of minerals and we've known that for a very long time. So A, we, we're not getting the nutrient density, number one. And, and, and number two, the other, other side of is, is just, you know, environmental toxin annihilation.

• 59:49Darin Olien?

  We're just getting the crap beat out of us. And because of that, we have stress. And because of that stress, the more stress you have, the more, uh, micronutrient needs you have, the more vitamins and minerals you have. So if you're already coming from a place of not getting enough micronutrients and vitamins and minerals from food that is, then less than ideal soil. And then you add on top of it are, are weird world that we're in with environmental toxins that a hundred thousand new environmental toxins are emitted in our atmosphere every year. And of that, not even 10% of them are being tested.

• 1:00:34Darin Olien?

  We're in an experiment and we're getting stressed on such a level that we don't even know. But that's a slow stress. So we also have to combat that with these nutrient dense powerhouses.

• 1:00:48Rich Roll?

  Right. I mean, it's, it's strange times. You know, we're, we're simultaneously, you know, fat and starving. You know, we're, we're sick, we're bombarding ourselves with, with stress and these environmental toxins. And, and then we're wondering why, you know, the rates of chronic lifestyle illness are through the roof. You know, so we're gorging ourselves on poor nutrient density, you know, high caloric value foods that are making. Sick and meanwhile starving because we're not getting the healthy nutrients in compacted form in part due to the food choices that we're making and in part due to the soil depletion.

• 1:01:29Rich Roll?

  It's it's fucking disastrous actually and and it's it's sad that we have to reach into the you know the the sort of edges of the planet into these communities to try to find food that's healthy.

• 1:01:43Darin Olien?

  Pretty much. We we're the worst. Our soils are the worst of all the continents. So you know that that's that's where we're at and and.

• 1:01:52Rich Roll?

  And so the the message to the consumer to the listener is it's it's more incumbent upon you than ever to be more conscious about these choices that you're making.

• 1:02:01Darin Olien?

  Exactly.

• 1:02:02Rich Roll?

  Right?

• 1:02:02Darin Olien?

  Well, what what's the number one thing? People, you have to take responsibility for yourself and your life and your health, period. Regardless of what we're even talking about. You can't you can't just throw it to some doctor and you can't just kind of divorce yourself in listening to advice. You have to be educated. This is your body. This is it. This is your vehicle. This is your deal. If you don't think that that's an important thing to to have something that's out here and open your mouth and let it inside your

• 1:02:43Darin Olien?

  body and if you're not looking at that as something really important, then I don't know that that's a that's a big frickin deal and that's a big disconnect because that's what it's all about, man. It's out here in space and we need to bring it inside. So we open our mouth and the fact that we're just thinking these twinkies and this fast food and and all this stuff is is oh, we're fine. No, I mean, come on, it's.

• 1:03:17Rich Roll?

  Yeah, every action has a, has a reaction. And in the same way that every, you know, decision that you make and behavior that you engage in either moves you in a positive direction or a negative direction, it is the same with every food that you put in your mouth. It's either making you healthier or sicker. And the idea that it's static, or that it doesn't matter, or, you know, whatever you put in, it's all the same, because your body breaks it down in calories or calories is nonsense.

• 1:03:44Darin Olien?

  It's nonsense. And, and that's where I'm like, you know, even before I was full on into this stuff, and, and I, I never, never made sense to me to skimp on food, right? Pay, pay the money, pay it. Because here's the thing, it's, you're gonna pay for it.

• 1:04:00Rich Roll?

  You're paying for it eventually, no matter what.

• 1:04:03Darin Olien?

  The debt collector's coming. And, you know, luckily, I got into this early because of challenges in my own life, and, and, and I formed that app. I have a great, I've got a fantastic addictive personality that luckily I turned and went this direction, and now I'm obsessed. But not obsessed in the, that's all I think about. I'm obsessed to the point where I want my body to function so that I can live. So that if you and I want to go to the beach and pull a log, or jump in the ocean, or run up a mountain, I can do it. Without kind of dreading the last half of my life, and, and barely kind of doing the

• 1:04:48Darin Olien?

  things, and barely playing with my kids, and like, that's, no, I'm not interested in that.

• 1:04:54Rich Roll?

  I'm super particular about my food, obviously. But you're next level. Like, your kitchen is insane. Like, you're a freak. You know, I mean, the way that you have meticulously organized, you have this, yeah, you're opening up this cabinet that's behind you, that looks like, you know, is a pantry or a walk-in closet, and it's, it's literally organized like, you know, like an author's bookshelf or something like that. And in your kitchen, you've got a million mason jars that are all filled with, you know, who knows what coming from. From where and you know, you've got it all dialed in and you're very particular about it. But there's, there's something really beautiful about that. I mean, right now, we're sitting here. We're drinking this incredible tea that you made. That is, what's in here? Chaga.

• 1:05:37Darin Olien?

  Chaga and yerba mate and some coconut cream.

• 1:05:42Rich Roll?

  Right.

• 1:05:42Darin Olien?

  Very simple.

• 1:05:43Rich Roll?

  And you let me taste that. It was like a coconut probiotic yogurt, like non dairy coconut. It was the best tasting thing I've ever had. It's incredible.

• 1:05:54Darin Olien?

  Ridiculous.

• 1:05:55Rich Roll?

  Yeah.

• 1:05:55Darin Olien?

  You know, I love doing that. I love, you know, grabbing buddies who eat better.

• 1:06:01Rich Roll?

  Yeah, here, try this, try.

• 1:06:02Darin Olien?

  Yeah. And I, I show them, blows their mind. Like I make a, a kind of my, my vegan pizza. And I love a heavy carnivore that comes over and I'll, I'll give it to them. And, and I just had this ex NFL guy who's like six, six, still, I mean, he retired in the nineties, but he's six, six, two eighty. And he ate it and he goes, best pizza I've ever had. Period. I love it.

• 1:06:30Rich Roll?

  What's on, what's on it?

• 1:06:32Darin Olien?

  Uh, well, there's, uh, it's, uh, I use Ezekiel because I'm not even making, I'm not even going to attempt making the crust. Especially with people around. Um, so I have this Ezekiel sprouted, uh, thin crust. And then I have pesto, beautiful, fresh pesto, olive oil. And then, um, it changes, but then I'll have a series of layers of vegetables. Sometimes I'll even, uh, throw a layer of beans down and then, and then, but the key is it's phases. You have to toast first. You have to toast the thing because it won't handle the amount of vegetables I'm going to put on it or the layers to it.

• 1:07:16Rich Roll?

  Yeah. Cause you can't overcook those vegetables or it'll get soggy and gross.

• 1:07:20Darin Olien?

  No. So then, so there's layers and then at the end, it's kind of these very careful laid out in patterns almost of spinach. Um, and then that's put in and then at the end, I'll put these big fat heirloom tomatoes, spread some garden vegetable spices on it and, and then now.

• 1:07:43Darin Olien?

  At the very end, when it's done and it's cut, I'll put a dollop. Oh, of course, I use, I use nutritional yeast as kind of that cheesy, but at the end, I'll put this light little film of the coconut yogurt and it gives you that little cheesy.

• 1:07:59Rich Roll?

  Wow.

• 1:07:59Darin Olien?

  Yeah, it's pretty ridiculous.

• 1:08:01Rich Roll?

  That's nice, man.

• 1:08:02Darin Olien?

  Yeah.

• 1:08:10Rich Roll?

  All right. So we talked about turmeric, but if you had to make like, if somebody's listening to this and they're like, okay, I'm in, like, just tell me like the five or the 10 superfoods that are sort of the most bang for my buck, or what I should really like focus on or invest in and how do I use these things?

• 1:08:28Darin Olien?

  Yeah. So, well, aside from plugging the formula that I made in that way, I mean, I mean, Shakeology was made because I had the opportunity to spend two years formulate it in an alchemical way. So that's 70 superfoods. So if you want to get really lazy, you can just pick that up and get a bunch.

• 1:08:47Rich Roll?

  Darren's already made those decisions for you.

• 1:08:49Darin Olien?

  Yeah, exactly. And there's tons of adaptogens and stuff. So that being said, there's many ways to go with this thing, but turmeric is, is, is, that's in the first aid kit of food for sure. Moringa is now, that has an asterisk by it because I, for me, I've seen some boutique moringa companies have okay quality, but nowhere near the volume that's gonna make an impact. So.

• 1:09:14Rich Roll?

  Is there, is there a particular brand that you could recommend if people, that could people could buy online?

• 1:09:19Darin Olien?

  Yeah, the company I've been helping out with that actually connected to the product is called MOR Moringa, but this, the product, product chain is M O R, moringa. The product chain is suffering too, which is why we're trying to help out. And there's some other ones and, but I'm not gonna, I'm not gonna out anybody right now because there's ones I've tested and they're just horrible. And there's some of the bigger ones. But more to come on that. So, you know, if people want to connect, then just stay connected because there's more to come on moringa. And chaga, king of all mushrooms.

• 1:09:57Rich Roll?

  Right, so maybe we can just put a pin in mushrooms for a minute because mushrooms are definitely having a moment right now.

• 1:10:02Darin Olien?

  Yeah.

• 1:10:03Rich Roll?

  You know what I mean?

• 1:10:03Darin Olien?

  They are.

• 1:10:04Rich Roll?

  And probably due in no small part to our friend Taro and what he's done with Four Sigmatic. He's really blown up that company. And he's done a great job of introducing these mushrooms to a mainstream audience by putting them in formulas that are palatable to, you know, the average American.

• 1:10:21Darin Olien?

  And he's done it well. I mean, it was one of the people I got out here to come on the compound and, you know, we kind of measured each other on, on, you know, because obviously my head's fully, my body's fully engaged in harvesting and understanding. And then we, I was like, boom, instantly this guy's doing it right. Uh, so I really, I really loved what, what those guys are up to. So that yes, they do make uh, a nice formula. Uh, Chaga is dual extracted. Dual extraction of Chaga is very important. I mean, I've, before I even knew of that company, I was doing, um, uh, water extraction for sixty eight hours. Making a huge pot and it would last me a couple of weeks.

• 1:11:05Rich Roll?

  We're gonna talk about water. So we'll leave that aside for a minute. But uh, what is dual extraction?

• 1:11:10Darin Olien?

  So dual extraction, so water extraction is allowing for the water extracted constituents to come out. I mean, we know water extraction is tea, right? It's tea. You're boiling water and certain constituents are able to, to come out. When you dual extract, the other side of it is pure triple, quadruple distilled, clean alcohol is now pulling out a whole other layer of constituents. So you're really getting from a dual extraction point of view, you're really getting as much embodiment of the healthy compounds of Chaga.

• 1:11:49Darin Olien?

  So that's a very important side of it because, so now, instead of me buying the quadruple distilled alcohol and doing a whole other thing, I'm just like, well, I know the company. I know Taro. I, I know what they're doing. They're wild collecting. They're doing it right. So now I just buy

• 1:12:08Rich Roll?

  Right.

• 1:12:09Darin Olien?

  The Four Sigmatic.

• 1:12:10Rich Roll?

  Now, what is it about Chaga? Like sometimes I see all these mushrooms, I was like, well, what's the difference between chaga and reishi and what do these things do and like, what am I supposed to drink when? And all of that.

• 1:12:20Darin Olien?

  I know. I mean, the chaga is, is kind of the diamond of the forest. It's the king of mushrooms. And, and you could kind of call reishi is, is the, the, the queen of the mushrooms. So that's kind of a way to start the conversation and that, and that, and, and chaga has got all of these, and let's just make it very simple. It's one of, if not the greatest antioxidants you can possibly consume by one food. Right? So, so that thing alone is fighting free radicals. It's, it's allowing for the, let's use the word, it's, it's helping the telomeres. It's,

• 1:13:01Darin Olien?

  it's doing some anti-aging butylene acids. It's proving, showing, fighting strongly against a lot of cancers. Um, there's a lot going on with chaga. So, so, a- and, and that being said, you know, that you, you look at, which I love looking at, and then also visiting, um, where chaga comes from. You have everyone from the emperor in China, you have the Russians, you have the Vikings, you have all these major, major, um, classes of people drinking it for, for a very long time. So chaga is kind of one of those things where, again, you can,

• 1:13:42Darin Olien?

  you can, uh, drink it on a, on a daily basis. You, there's a whole other side of it too, with, with, with the melanins, uh, the melanins and the interaction that it has with the skin and the vitamin D production. I think there's a lot of correlations that are happening between, um, uh, uh, having a lot of melanin to therefore make your body's ability to utilize vitamin D a lot better. So that's, there's a whole other side of that. And if that-

• 1:14:11Rich Roll?

  That's interesting, because so many people are vitamin D deficient.

• 1:14:14Darin Olien?

  Exactly. So then, once you have that mechanism in place, your, your, your benefits of the vitamin D side. Now, that's not going to make up- For not getting vitamin D, but you're

• 1:14:28Rich Roll?

  But if your body's having a problem metabolizing it, like I'm always like, well, is it because they're not taking in enough vitamin D? Or is their body not able to absorb it, you know?

• 1:14:38Darin Olien?

  Exactly.

• 1:14:38Rich Roll?

  They're two different things.

• 1:14:39Darin Olien?

  Exactly. And I would also argue because of the melanin side of it and kind of from the inside out and helping the skin. You're also now, you know, and this is my, this is me, this is, this is, I haven't seen research yet, but this is me kind of putting two and two together. And that therefore making a healthy skin and lowering cancer rates and stuff like that. Because also you can start making that argument of not even getting into the poisons that people are putting on their skin. But also the, the lack of vitamin D is, is very much correlated. There, your lack of sun exposure, your lack of vitamin D production and your cancer rates

• 1:15:19Darin Olien?

  without a doubt go up and that's proven science. So, so there's a, there's a lot going on. So that's chaga and chaga is one that you don't have to stop drinking. There's no, there's no buildup. So you can, you can do it on it.

• 1:15:33Rich Roll?

  You don't have to cycle it.

• 1:15:34Darin Olien?

  Exactly.

• 1:15:36Darin Olien?

  And then, yeah, so sticking with mushrooms, reishi is a, and, and, and they're very much adaptogenic as well. All these, most of these.

• 1:15:46Rich Roll?

  And I think we talked about this last time, but maybe explain to people what an adaptogen is.

• 1:15:51Darin Olien?

  Yeah. So, so adaptogens are usually a plant that's in a situation where it's being stressed in some way. And that stress is developing compounds for its survival. And it just so happens, funny that, that when you consume those, that they become biologically usable for us. So adaptogens are different than like a molecule of like caffeine. If you take in caffeine, it's a stimulant, you're being stimulated. When you take in compounds in things like rhododola and reishi and, and shizandra and maca and tulsi and all of these things, there's lists and lists of, of great.

• 1:16:34Darin Olien?

  Adaptogens that it's essentially to make the conversation easy. It's essentially a modulator. So if you're, say you're, you have autoimmune disorder. There's, there's a lot of arguments that many of these adaptogens will help kind of dampen the, the, the immune system kind of going off its rails. If you need a boost, you know, one of the first things I will do is, is lean on the adaptogens when I'm feeling a little off or I'm feeling stressed in some way. Or I may be coming down with a cold even. So, so again, if you need something, it will help you mitigate that. And then, then, you know, kind of going back to the stress side of things.

• 1:17:19Darin Olien?

  If you're stressed in any way, that, that adaptogen is going to help modulate that hormonal system and kind of get you back into, when you need to, get you back into parasympathetic and nervous system and not let you kind of burn yourself out. And that can look in many different ways. It can help calm down and regulate the adrenal glands. That can help calm down and regulate the thyroid. That can calm down and regulate the pituitary and pineal and all of that stuff. So, so adaptogens, I think are probably, if you were to say a class of, of,

• 1:18:01Darin Olien?

  of tonics and herbs that the adaptogens are, from my point of view, one of the most important set of herbs that we can possibly consume on a daily basis, on a, on a somewhat regular basis because of all of those things that we talked about before. That, that, hey, you've got stress of just, you know, I'm a, I'm a dad. I have kids, I have a job, I don't have enough money. But then that, that's the kind of the normal stress. And like we talked about, now we have toxins that we don't even see. We have elements in our water we don't even know. We have perfumes that we're taking in that we don't even understand. Like there's a lot of.

• 1:18:42Rich Roll?

  And we're under hydrated and, you know, lacking sleep.

• 1:18:46Darin Olien?

  Yeah.

• 1:18:46Rich Roll?

  You know, all of these things, right? And so the, the adaptogens really are kind of like this weird. Ayurvedic artificial intelligence that reads your body and says, this is what you need and then attends to that need to bring your systems more into balance.

• 1:19:03Darin Olien?

  It's a great way to put it. Yeah. It's and so I I'm consuming, you know, adaptogens every day in some form or fashion, some help in other situations. So again, some of those are rhodiola and shisandra and which are two of my most favorite and maca, of course, I have a long history with and and and Tulsi and of course, the mushrooms fall into that category as well.

• 1:19:32Rich Roll?

  Let's talk a little bit about like sort of parsing that between kind of daily superfoods for just boosting overall wellness and then kind of more performance enhancing, you know, pre-workout, during workout, post-workout rituals.

• 1:19:52Darin Olien?

  Yeah. Which one do you want me to talk about first?

• 1:19:54Rich Roll?

  Well, we kind of, we kind of covered overall wellness, right? Like, well, we, I don't know if we finished the list, but we hit turmeric and the mushrooms.

• 1:20:02Darin Olien?

  They keep people busy.

• 1:20:04Rich Roll?

  Pick up the book, right? You've got lots. I mean, we're only going to be able to scratch the surface on this, you know, of course. So and and we should note that the paperback is out. The cover's way better, by the way.

• 1:20:16Darin Olien?

  That's cool.

• 1:20:16Rich Roll?

  Yeah, it's really cool. So, you know, if any of this interests you guys at all, like Darren's done an amazing job of laying all this stuff out.

• 1:20:25Darin Olien?

  And then the websites, websites getting into a lot of, yeah.

• 1:20:30Rich Roll?

  Cool. But all right. So pre-workout, like what's and we could just use you as the case study, right? Like, you know, you're super fit, you're jacked, you're working out hard. You're how old now?

• 1:20:42Darin Olien?

  Forty, forty, forty six.

• 1:20:45Rich Roll?

  You gotta think about that.

• 1:20:46Darin Olien?

  Like, what year? What?

• 1:20:48Rich Roll?

  Yeah.

• 1:20:51Rich Roll?

  Yeah, super duper fit, you know, no problem pulling up that log, you know, up the hill when we were on the beach the other day, which I could not do. So, you know, shining example of health. So when you get up in the morning and you're looking at your morning workout, you're going to go down to the beach and hammer, you know, what's, you know, what's going into the body first thing?

• 1:21:11Darin Olien?

  Well, water. I mean, they're, they're, you know, which is, you know, the, the irony is that the, the book publisher was like, what, you know, how do you want to talk about superfoods in your book? I'm like, I, I, I don't. I mean, I am, but the main things are foundational stuff because I don't want to misrepresent where they, they are placed. So it's water. So I get myself hydrated because a few percent low in the proper amount of water and my energy is going to be horrible. My recovery is going to be horrible. I won't be able to sleep as well. My detoxification potential of, of moving through and not only filling

• 1:21:56Darin Olien?

  and, and fueling myself and delivering nutrients, but also getting rid of the waste from exercise will be bad. So the non sexy first thing I do is I drink a lot of water.

• 1:22:09Rich Roll?

  Uh huh. And, and where do you get your water? Like, there's a lot, you know, coming out about the water that we're drinking, what's wrong with it? And, you know, people are going out and testing these consumer brands of water that we're buying in plastic bottles and realizing like, hey, man, this stuff might not be so good. So how do we know that the water we're drinking is the water that we should be drinking? And what do people not realize about water that you could help educate them about?

• 1:22:36Darin Olien?

  Oh my gosh, this is a big topic. So big.

• 1:22:39Rich Roll?

  You know, we could do a whole podcast on this.

• 1:22:40Darin Olien?

  We could do a whole podcast on water.

• 1:22:41Rich Roll?

  Maybe hit some of the, you know, hot button.

• 1:22:43Darin Olien?

  So, so let's dispel maybe some myths a little bit or some marketing truths with some lies attached to it. So, so water, of course, if you can find a spring that is uncontaminated and is chelating and vortating its way down a stream and clean and you can do that, yeah, that's, that's the water you want to drink. So I just want to be clear. But 99.9999% of the people on the planet don't even have access to that anymore. So, so now you have to look at water from a perspective of like, okay,

• 1:23:27Darin Olien?

  what's in it that I need and what's in it that I don't want? And unfortunately, most of the water coming out of our tap is filled full of, you know, now it's very well documented, the prescription drugs, the micron doses of prescription drugs that have been put down toilets and stuff and that's been done for, you know, decades and decades. Now that's a part of our water. And now you also have chlorides and fluorines and formaldehydes and all of this stuff. So now what we have to do is we have to deconstruct water so that we can reconstruct in the best way that we can in order to mimic nature.

• 1:24:12Darin Olien?

  So that we can receive the water. And when I say receive water, receive it on a cellular level. If, if my cells don't receive the water, if they don't recognize or have the electrolytes or have the energy that it's needed to receive it, then, then it's, No bueno. It's not gonna work. And, and so I, you know, people was like, I drink a lot of water. I drink a lot of water, but very few of it's effective. And, and at the same time, your body has to kind of use a lot of energy to kind of, um, A, deal with the toxic load and also to energize the water and construct it in a way that it can receive it. So there's a lot going on that. So, so the conversation is,

• 1:24:57Darin Olien?

  everyone talks about pH, right? So a slightly alkaline water. Yes, there's a truth to that, but it's only an aspect of, of water. It's not everything. You can have a, a good pH water, um, 7.365 and above. If you go too far, your body's then gonna have to do, deal with too much alkalinity. So. If you have, I could influence, I could grab some water out of the tap right now, Rich, and throw sodium bicarbonate in. We can test it because I have a little mechanism that we can test that water and it's going to be an eight pointer. Of course you do. Of course you have that. I have a whole bunch right there. There's about four different things that I can test.

• 1:25:40Darin Olien?

  So I can test the pH and I can influence that water and I can go, Rich, this is a 9.0 water and I'm going to sell it to you. Right? Right. Super alkaline. This will solve your alkalinity problem. This will solve all your problems, right? But that's not telling you everything. So I have another testing device that shows TDS, total dissolved solids. That is the junk that you can't see, but this little testing unit shows you, right? It's giving you an indicator. So now it's showing 200, 500, 1,000 parts per million of stuff.

• 1:26:21Darin Olien?

  It doesn't tell you what that stuff is. It's just there's stuff in your water. There's stuff in your water that you probably don't want to consume. So again, we're talking on a cellular level. So if you're just taking in tap water and that's fine, then you're just dumping garbage in your cells. So essentially around your cells. But so then you have this other thing called oxygen reduction potential. And this is a big conversation, but that's essentially oxygen reduction potential is the water literally is going to be in a position where it's either going to give you more free radicals

• 1:27:03Darin Olien?

  or it's going to have a very good oxygen reduction potential and it's going to essentially be

• 1:27:12Darin Olien?

  Reducing the load of antioxidants in your body. So if you don't, if you've just influenced pH and you haven't even tested the TDS and you haven't even tested the ORP, you could be harming yourself and not even know it. So, all that being said, that's a rabbit hole that, you know, and now you have the, the, the fourth phase of water with a great book called Dr. Gerald Pollak wrote. So there's this other phase of water that, that I'm not even going to approach. Uh, we can, we can do it on some other time.

• 1:27:47Rich Roll?

  Is that like structured water?

• 1:27:48Darin Olien?

  Exactly. So it's a, it's a phenomenon that they found that literally exists upon what's called an exclusion zone. So if I pour water in this cup and if I look under a microscope, there's this, a few, a few levels of, of, of molecule space that they see that is essentially

• 1:28:15Darin Olien?

  structured, energized, clear water. And then all of this, the few structures over, the few molecules over, now it's all regular. But it, it is, it has created this exclusion zone. So it's kind of like it operates as a kind of a gel. So then that goes back into how is this insect running across water? How, how is this water performing aspects that we can't explain? So all of these doctors that actually look at H2O, once they start looking at the physics

• 1:28:52Darin Olien?

  of it, it defines all logic of what they know H2O to be. So Dr. Gerald Pollak wrote this great book, The Fourth Phase of Water, and he gets way into the The science of that.

• 1:29:07Rich Roll?

  That's super, that's, that's like fascinating.

• 1:29:09Darin Olien?

  That's, that's other worldly stuff.

• 1:29:11Rich Roll?

  Well, if you want to go even one like esoteric step further, have you, do you know, uh, Mizuro Emoto?

• 1:29:19Darin Olien?

  Of course.

• 1:29:20Rich Roll?

  Yeah.

• 1:29:20Darin Olien?

  So that's the whole other.

• 1:29:21Rich Roll?

  Right.

• 1:29:22Darin Olien?

  Exactly.

• 1:29:22Rich Roll?

  So let's explain for people that aren't listening. I mean, this will get, this go, this ventures into some pretty new age territory, but he is this Japanese dude who did studies exposing water and water crystals to various types of stimuli, either like loud music or symphonic music or, um.

• 1:29:43Darin Olien?

  Or words.

• 1:29:44Rich Roll?

  Or words or spoken words, written words. And he kind of tested it at the ends of the spectrum, like positive versus negative, like love versus hate, like anger versus compassion, you know, sort of thematically in that way. And then took these, um, sort of, uh, microscopic photographs of these water crystals and how they respond to the, yeah, frozen water crystals and how they respond to the stimuli.

• 1:30:11Darin Olien?

  And the.

• 1:30:11Rich Roll?

  It's pretty fascinating stuff.

• 1:30:13Darin Olien?

  Yeah. And what you see is, is the harmony around positive words. It's a good versus evil as a word that's placed on the, on the, on the, on the cup of the water, right? So there you have a cup here that says good and you have a cup here that says evil. And then you freeze the molecule and the good molecule is a perfect geometry, a beautiful kind of snowflake looking, um, structure. And then you look on this evil and it's all emorphed and twisted and not unified.

• 1:30:48Rich Roll?

  Asymmetrical.

• 1:30:49Darin Olien?

  Exactly. So then you're like, okay, whoa, whoa. And you kind of dive into that and you're like, oh, wow, we're, we're mostly water. So if, if, if in fact, that is true, that by my words and the things that I think, um, I'm influencing the greatest kind of element in my body.

• 1:31:09Rich Roll?

  Right. The people that you're around, the environment that you expose yourself to.

• 1:31:13Darin Olien?

  Exactly.

• 1:31:13Rich Roll?

  All of these things.

• 1:31:14Darin Olien?

  Exactly. So, so, so a lot of that research is starting to go to, and there's a lot of Russian gnarly Russian researchers that started to, from scientifically started to take that and kind of go further. And they're kind of like to describe it as a list, like water doesn't really have a point of view. It's it's a blank hard drive. So if you wanna, if you wanna, you know, save, uh, you know, a journal entry of all your emotional stuff on your hard drive, and then you wanna save a business graph on your hard drive. Hard drive doesn't have a point of view, what you save on it, but it's there.

• 1:31:54Darin Olien?

  It's there. So the idea is that the the the water receives these messages. And it receives them on such a deep level. Um, that it has imprinting in the water. It has a signature that's left in the water.

• 1:32:10Rich Roll?

  Um, it's like coating on coating on the hard drive.

• 1:32:14Darin Olien?

  Exactly. So so so now. Now. That was first, and then you start talking about this scientific guy Gerald Pollak. And then he's going, it's not three phases of water. It's not vapor, it's not. It's not liquid. It's not. Ice. There's a fourth phase. There's this gel like stuff that operates completely different than anything else we've seen. And so the point to all of that is water is, dare I say, celestial, it's it's quantum, it's operating more like quantum physics.

• 1:32:58Darin Olien?

  Um, but also very much a part of our reality, right? Um, so so.

• 1:33:04Rich Roll?

  You know, it's you know, it's awesome is that this whole like thing emanated out of me just asking you what you put in your body before you go work out.

• 1:33:15Rich Roll?

  You know? And and we're like down the rabbit hole.

• 1:33:18Darin Olien?

  And what did I say first? Water, water, water.

• 1:33:21Rich Roll?

  Yeah.

• 1:33:21Darin Olien?

  Exactly. So so so for me at the house. I have so for everyone, the so so make it really simple. The thing that I do is.

• 1:33:31Rich Roll?

  Hold on a second.

• 1:33:32Darin Olien?

  Okay.

• 1:33:32Rich Roll?

  So so if you are gonna drink water, then what is the water that you're like, look, most people, they're not gonna, they're not gonna go invest in all this equipment, like what what, where do I get the good water?

• 1:33:42Darin Olien?

  Right.

• 1:33:42Rich Roll?

  How do I know the water I'm drinking is good, or or what is the water that I should be purchasing?

• 1:33:47Darin Olien?

  Well, mo- most of the water that you're probably purchasing is not good. Let's just be straight up.

• 1:33:51Rich Roll?

  So what do you do?

• 1:33:52Darin Olien?

  So. Let's not talk about what I do.

• 1:33:57Rich Roll?

  It's non-replicable?

• 1:33:59Darin Olien?

  No, it's just, it's just, it's just a level-

• 1:34:01Rich Roll?

  It's so extreme.

• 1:34:02Darin Olien?

  It's a level of responsibility that I've taken it to. Cause I have my, one of my good buddies, Dr. Dick Willert, is, is one of the top water scientists on the planet, in, in, especially in the United States. So he personally put in my, my water device.

• 1:34:19Rich Roll?

  Alright, so succinctly walk me through your system though, and then we can talk about what other people can do.

• 1:34:24Darin Olien?

  Okay, so, so this is what everyone can do, and it's my system. The, one of the first things that hap, that's happening, is there's normal charcoal filters that are taking out heavy metals, fluorides, chlorians, fluorides, all of that stuff. The very solid, basic, it's kind of like the first filter system that's taking out the macro junk, right? So that's happening.

• 1:34:48Rich Roll?

  So that gets you what, like 70% there?

• 1:34:52Darin Olien?

  Yeah, maybe, yeah. At least from one perspective.

• 1:34:56Rich Roll?

  From, yeah, maybe not for you, but for-

• 1:34:58Darin Olien?

  Right.

• 1:34:59Rich Roll?

  Alright.

• 1:34:59Darin Olien?

  Yeah, so that's getting, that's getting, no, from a, from a junk perspective, it's doing a really good job. This doesn't mean that Brita filter is working, a Brita filter is hardly doing anything. So, so you're having it forced through those filters, and then essentially it's going through a reverse osmosis. So you have a membrane, very small, micron size, .01 micron, I believe, even .02, that, that the water's being forced through this very, very small hole membrane, doesn't allow anything else to go through. So you're, you're virtually stripping that water of everything.

• 1:35:44Darin Olien?

  Now, the others-

• 1:35:46Rich Roll?

  Is that distillation? Or is it distillation different?

• 1:35:49Darin Olien?

  It's close, because you're gonna have a TDS, total dissolved solid, that's very similar to distillation. So the things that people can do is get distilled water, or RO water, okay? So reverse osmosis water. Mine's reverse osmosis. So now that you have the stripped water, you have an, you have a kind of a 7.0 pH neutral water. So what is it lacking? It's lacking some energy.

• 1:36:18Rich Roll?

  Well, and the minerals and the electrolytes.

• 1:36:20Darin Olien?

  And the electrolytes, and, and because you have 70- Million cells, right, in your body. Then, then you're

• 1:36:35Darin Olien?

  you're needing, just like a battery, you need the electrolytes for electrical conduction to happen. Your body is electrical. So every cell, so you need the angstrom size electrolytes. So now that you have this distilled or RO water, you need the, the elements, right? You need those electrolytes. So the easy thing I do, and I tell people is that the, the 250 million year old plus

• 1:37:06Darin Olien?

  used to be seawater, Himalayan crystal salt has got 84 trace minerals in the exact cellular molecular size that's required. So a pinch in your, your liter of water, a half a teaspoon per gallon kind of thing

• 1:37:28Darin Olien?

  is pretty much the, the ratio that you need in order for that water to become active. It may even influence the pH just a little bit more. That is the, that is the easiest way to start consuming a positive pH water, a water that's filled full of the necessary electrolytes and a water that doesn't have the damaging toxins in it.

• 1:37:59Rich Roll?

  Right.

• 1:37:59Darin Olien?

  So that is number one. That's, and, and very important, don't drink the water of straight RO or distilled. Don't be drinking that water because over time that water is neutral and it requires a balance. It will pull the minerals out of your body in order to balance itself, in order then to be hydrated. So you don't want to do that.

• 1:38:22Rich Roll?

  All right. So that's the home setup. But what about, let's say you're traveling, you're stuck in an airport, your flight's delayed. You want to get some water, you don't have any left with you. And, you know, you go to the shop or whatever and you're looking in the thing and you got Evian, you got Smart Water, you got Dasani, you got, you know, whatever, you know what I mean? Fiji?

• 1:38:41Darin Olien?

  Yeah.

• 1:38:41Rich Roll?

  Which one do you pick? Do you not pick any? Do you use the water fountain? Like, what do you, you know, what are you going to do?

• 1:38:48Darin Olien?

  I wouldn't gamble on the water fountain, but.

• 1:38:52Darin Olien?

  So I choose, because I've tested it, Smart Water.

• 1:38:57Rich Roll?

  Really?

• 1:38:58Darin Olien?

  Yeah, some of the best testing water. Fiji's okay.

• 1:39:04Darin Olien?

  You know, if, if it's a mystery water, I've never seen the brand and there's a Fiji, I'll choose Fiji. If there's Smart Water or Fiji together. Avion's actually tested pretty well as well.

• 1:39:15Darin Olien?

  But I usually, for me, if I'm jumping on a plane, it's over two hours. I'm, I'm pretty much two to three liters of water that I've just purchased. And so I even have a traveling vortator. I pour water through.

• 1:39:33Rich Roll?

  A vort- a vortator?

• 1:39:35Darin Olien?

  Yeah.

• 1:39:37Rich Roll?

  That's okay.

• 1:39:37Darin Olien?

  That's right.

• 1:39:38Rich Roll?

  What is that?

• 1:39:38Darin Olien?

  We need a vortator. Um, so a vortator is essentially starting to mimic the, as water goes down a river. It, water molecules don't move in a straight line. They vortate, they, they twist, they turn, all, all of reality is structured through vortation and vortexes. So when water vortexes, it energizes itself. So that energy is necessary for biological absorption. So, so again, I take the water, I run it through the little vortator.

• 1:40:18Rich Roll?

  What does it look like? What, what is it?

• 1:40:20Darin Olien?

  Uh, it's, I got, I mean, it's, uh.

• 1:40:25Rich Roll?

  You can show me afterwards, but is it like a big device?

• 1:40:27Darin Olien?

  No, it's just, it's about, it's about this big and, and it's got a little spout in the bottom. And I put it over the thing and then I just pour.

• 1:40:35Rich Roll?

  Pour it through.

• 1:40:36Darin Olien?

  Pour it through.

• 1:40:36Rich Roll?

  Okay.

• 1:40:37Darin Olien?

  And it, and it spins essentially.

• 1:40:39Rich Roll?

  You could buy these things, you could like get this on Amazon or?

• 1:40:42Darin Olien?

  Yeah, I bet you could on Amazon.

• 1:40:43Rich Roll?

  Yeah.

• 1:40:44Darin Olien?

  There's even people that have. DIYed it and did it your own. So they've used marbles and stuff. So, so the one I have has, has elements, little elemental balls in it that, that are, you know, there's got a charge to it. But as long as you're rotating the water and moving it, you're, you're re energizing it. Again, you have to understand that once that water's sitting in that plastic bottle, it's kind of dead. It's lost the energy. So you want to energize it again. That's, that's next level. That's next level. But, but, but also you start feeling it when you get a sensitivity to that kind of water. The other, the other side is, yeah, you don't want to rely on bottled

• 1:41:29Darin Olien?

  water because of the phytoestrogens that are, that are gonna wreak some havoc in your body. So is it, I'm not stoked that I'm drinking water out of a bottle or out of a plastic bottle. But, but you know, if I'm on the airport, I'd rather, I'd rather be somewhat hydrated than dehydrated and deal with the ramifications of, of, of, of that. So, yeah. All right. So pre-workout, we go through the water routine, get hydrated. What else? So for me, I will, you know, I get up around, you know, around four AM every day. So it'd be water and then I'll do a variety of different tonics. It could be as simple

• 1:42:13Darin Olien?

  as having a yerba mate tea. It could be, it could be a lot more aggressive. Definitely mushrooms, definitely guarana. I love, I love the right kind of caffeine. I like, and I love using it for pre-workout. And mushrooms, like even Rishi has got some ATP.

• 1:42:40Darin Olien?

  Influence, right? So getting my mitochondria all fired up.

• 1:42:45Rich Roll?

  Corticeps.

• 1:42:46Darin Olien?

  Corticeps is a fantastic one. And then there's some other ones.

• 1:42:55Darin Olien?

  Like beets have been shown to have a lot of great nitrogen effect and helping the oxygen levels. And of course, the super secret stuff that I even gave you is not on the market, but it's from a plant compound. And that stuff is something I've been playing with.

• 1:43:18Darin Olien?

  And that's kind of like, it's fun when you start playing with this stuff and you've been working out with your buddies and you know that you've taken some, some, some extra stuff.

• 1:43:27Rich Roll?

  Plant boost.

• 1:43:28Darin Olien?

  Yeah, little plant boost. And like, I love actually with some tonics, I love using cacao, not only for the phenylethylamine and the neurotransmitter side, but the the the theobromines and those kind of caffeine like substances. I'm a big 100% Peruvian cacao guy.

• 1:43:50Darin Olien?

  So those, those are kind of the way and I, and I will add some coconut milk to some of those tonics and start and go right to my workout from there.

• 1:43:58Rich Roll?

  Right. So but you're keeping it pretty light, like liquids, tonics, elixirs, things like that.

• 1:44:03Darin Olien?

  I do. And I like kind of going empty to not, you know, combat with trying to digest something. And then, you know, after that, I don't, at this point, I don't rush to think I need to fill my glucose levels and protein levels up. I don't like, I don't freak out if I can't get that.

• 1:44:27Rich Roll?

  That 30 minute window thing.

• 1:44:28Darin Olien?

  I mean, yeah, there's some truth to that. But I also, I also like challenging my body and kind of starving it sometimes.

• 1:44:35Rich Roll?

  I've been playing around with that a little bit more lately.

• 1:44:37Darin Olien?

  Yeah, it's cool. It's cool to feel the differences, right? Because you get a different barometer of your body. Because routines are really good for health and they're also, it's also nice to throw. Throw a wrench in it.

• 1:44:53Rich Roll?

  Well, it also, it's a feedback loop too. You know, we're programmed to think, you know, somewhere along the line, somebody decided that we're supposed to eat three meals a day. I don't know what that's really based on.

• 1:45:04Darin Olien?

  Yeah.

• 1:45:05Rich Roll?

  And that, you know, we're cautioned against going to work out unless we're, we have a backpack full of gels and all kinds of, you know, green and purple liquids that we're putting into our bodies every 15 to 20 minutes or we're going to keel over. And it's, it's nonsense. So to kind of say, you know what, I'm going to play around today. I'm not going to eat until dinner and I'm going to see how I do. Maybe it'll go well, maybe it won't, but it'll be information, you know? And I could take that information and, you know, put that into a data bank and learn from it and figure out like what works best for me. And I have noticed that, you know, I really don't eat before I go work out in the morning. I don't like it and I perform better when I don't. And then I've experimented with making sure that I replenish right after.

• 1:45:49Rich Roll?

  And sometimes I've gone all the way until dinner before eating to see what will happen there.

• 1:45:54Darin Olien?

  Yeah.

• 1:45:54Rich Roll?

  And, and sometimes I feel great, but then the next day I don't feel as good. And I'm like, okay, that's information, you know?

• 1:46:00Darin Olien?

  Yeah.

• 1:46:00Rich Roll?

  But it's, it's taking responsibility for that and using your body as, as a, as your own laboratory instead of saying, well, Darren, tell me what you do and I'm going to do that.

• 1:46:11Darin Olien?

  Right.

• 1:46:11Rich Roll?

  You know, you have to own it for yourself a little bit, I think.

• 1:46:13Darin Olien?

  Exactly. And that's kind of the, like the wild thing. There's some foundational things that people can grab, grab from what you and I are both doing, but at the same time, you, that's a, that's, that's the point that I like to empower people with as well, because I only got here because I've been experimenting for, since I've been 16, basically. And, and so, and that will change. So if you ask me next year, I'm probably going to say a few things that are quite different. So.

• 1:46:43Rich Roll?

  Well, maybe that's a good place to ask you, you know, what have, what has changed maybe in the last time since we spoke? Or what have you learned that you didn't know even in the last couple of years with respect to, you know, fitness, nutrition, your daily habits?

• 1:46:58Darin Olien?

  You know, the kind of, this is probably gonna poke some bears here, but you know, listen, I, I, I am an anti fad guy. I, you know, even like, we've joked, it's like, yeah, we're both vegans, but, but, you know, and I was saying earlier, like, when I talk to people, I'm like, I'm a vegan, but you don't have to be, because I just don't wanna, like, that whole, I'm right, you're wrong, intensity is just, I'm just not interested in it. So, so, learning and seeing, like, from the paleo world, to the ketogenic world, to even activities that I don't necessarily like

• 1:47:43Darin Olien?

  to align myself up with other vegans, I'm just like, you know, it's been interesting. So, I'm kind of, I'm more of, this year, I'm more of like, you know what, I want some solid information that I would like to share with people in a balanced way, because I, I'm, I know, here's the weird thing, you and I got connected because we are integrated. That's kind of with Compton and Ram and all that stuff, and like, and Compton will always say, Darren, you practice what your preacher's, not a lot of people like you, and da, da, da, which is such a strange thing to me.

• 1:48:25Darin Olien?

  Like, it, it kind of didn't even land, doesn't even land. But the more I see colleagues, and not everybody, but they do some things and not others, and I'm just kind of like, so, so my, this year is kind of like, you know what, I have a lot of information that I want to get out, and, and I, I'm not interested in fads. I, I just, I just don't like, I'm actually anti fad, because the reality is that Um, in order to make any lasting change, and just for me being here and you being where you're at, we didn't just turn on a light switch and we were eating this way. It was a slow burn. It was a slow education and it's not sexy to market it.

• 1:49:09Darin Olien?

  Because everyone wants the quick fix and I get it. I can put a concoction together that will light your ass up and make you freaking climb a mountain. But what I'm really interested in is inspiring people to go, listen, what you're doing, the choice you're making today for your breakfast or your meal or your every little choice. I want to inspire millions of people to be excited that today, I'm sitting in my chair of my past choices and I'm proud of it. And I want to, to, I want people to be stoked that, hey, you know what?

• 1:49:51Darin Olien?

  You're choosing today and maybe tomorrow you don't have everything you want and maybe you still have aches and pains and everything, but I promise you, if you decide to do this every day, that a year is gonna blink by and your life is gonna be sustainably different. And you're not gonna be yanked around by weird marketing and weird fads and yo-yoed around and be more shamed than you possibly can imagine. I hate that shit. I just, I, I, I, I just, I don't like it. It's not real. It never works. So, I know it's not sexy.

• 1:50:34Darin Olien?

  I know it's hard to market because people want, but yes, of course you have wins along the way and you feel better and all that stuff, but. But that's what I'm kind of most interested in, you know.

• 1:50:48Rich Roll?

  Yeah, I think, you know, as we get older, you kind of see these things come and go, you know, and you start to get attuned to the, you know, the kind of wave of fads and how they work and how marketing works. And the truth is, like, people love it when they get good news about their bad habits.

• 1:51:10Darin Olien?

  For sure.

• 1:51:11Rich Roll?

  And as beautiful as the information age is, you know, when you can go online and find some study that justifies whatever bad habit you love to engage in, this is not good for us, right? And so for you and I to be sitting in this place and be fortunate enough to have platforms to talk about health and nutrition and fitness and the like, there's a certain responsibility that comes with that. But also, an understanding that some of the things that we talk about are, they're not catchy, logline-type things. We're talking about lifestyle transformation. And, you know, it's truth talk. It's like, hey, man, it's hard. You know that stuff you like to do?

• 1:51:55Rich Roll?

  Can't do it anymore. It doesn't serve you. So you gotta let it go.

• 1:51:58Darin Olien?

  Yeah.

• 1:51:59Rich Roll?

  You know, I'm not gonna cosign your bullshit and tell you that you can keep doing it so that you can feel better about that, only to wake up, you know, a year, two years later, and realize that you're no further along the path in your evolution than you were, you know, when we first had that conversation.

• 1:52:16Darin Olien?

  Exactly.

• 1:52:16Rich Roll?

  So how do you take these ideas and not only, you know, live them to walk your talk and exude them in your daily existence, but share them in a way that can get people excited without, you know, having to resort to marketing techniques or, you know, whatever it is that gets people excited, you know, on Instagram?

• 1:52:43Darin Olien?

  Exactly. Yeah, I mean, it's, you know, I've been looking a lot of stuff, a lot of research and books into habits and habit forming and. You know, it's very basic stuff. Like if you have a bad habit, make sure to replace it with something pretty close and pretty similar.

• 1:52:59Rich Roll?

  Oh, come on, Darren. It can't be just that, right? Take me beyond the velvet rope. Like, what's the latest science saying about this? You know?

• 1:53:07Darin Olien?

  And, and, and, you know, we, we combating one of the most addictive things in our brain too with bad habits, and that's dopamine. Just doing something consistently produces dopamine. And, and even this bad, I mean, you, you, so the, let's talk about the coffee ritual, for example. Okay, throw a bunch of butter in your coffee, uh, don't work out, um, and you're gonna be a fat burning machine. What the hell does that even mean? Like, it's, it's literally, there's no, there's no, it, it comes down to calorie restriction anyway. So, so, but, but without going off topic, the, the, the ritual of making your

• 1:53:51Darin Olien?

  coffee and, and, and kind of getting into the collective, every, all these other people are doing it, that's a hit. Aside from the caffeine, aside from all this stuff, you are performing a ritual that you're getting something from in your brain, in the neurology. So you have that massive thing. So let's say-

• 1:54:16Rich Roll?

  But even like, not to interrupt you, but to even take that one step further, there's also a very tribal sense of, of becoming, you know, belonging to a group, right? That goes into that. And we all wanna align ourselves with a team, right? And so there's a team aspect to that that gets, that, that plays into all of this.

• 1:54:36Darin Olien?

  Absolutely.

• 1:54:37Rich Roll?

  And it's, it's human nature.

• 1:54:39Darin Olien?

  For sure, for sure. And, and so that's, you know, and again, you, you're running around with this kind of glazed eye, like, you know, you know, not to beat it up, but, you know, you know, butter in my coffee kinda thing. And, and hey, a bunch of coffee is antioxidants and all this stuff. Well, what if I were to tell you, researcher, I, I, I researched one of the best researchers on the planet that's been studying stem cells longer than almost any living person, um, who's got patents on stuff that haven't even come out in the market that will blow your mind and go into science fiction really fast.

• 1:55:20Darin Olien?

  And the number one thing is caffeine from coffee annihilates immortal stem cells, annihilates them, kills them. So

• 1:55:30Rich Roll?

  I've never heard that. That's interesting.

• 1:55:31Darin Olien?

  Yeah, cuz it's not, it's not out there, but he's observing it. He's seeing it. So cuz, cuz we came together to look at compounds that excite and turn on these inside your body stem cells that over time go down. So, so my, my point to that is you can find, like you were saying, you can find this truth if you so want it. You can justify all of this stuff, but if you don't step back and see the bigger picture and willing to look at that bigger picture, then you'll be taking something that you think was whole tribe of mine are great and we're fat

• 1:56:11Darin Olien?

  burning machines, but, but at the same time, it's, it's sticking you in the end. And of course, now that's a ritual. So you're doing it every day. So every day I'm doing something that's annihilating my stem cells. At the same time, I'm, I'm convinced that it's the best thing I'm doing. That's the problem with industry. That's the problem with pseudo scientific kind of marketing slants and, and, uh, you know, it's, it's a tricky thing. We all find, I've, I've sent out articles. I haven't done enough background research cuz I had a point of view and I thought it was correct and I put out stuff and I got annihilated on social media for it. We've all done it, right?

• 1:56:56Darin Olien?

  So I get it and no one's perfect, but, but you know,

• 1:57:01Rich Roll?

  I think the core of what you're saying really is that when you do, you know, decide to bear that mantle and take responsibility for your own health, that puts you in a position to no longer be necessarily reactive to these fads as they arise and just latch on to whatever the latest thing is and ping pong around, right? Because then you become your own sort of, uh, you know, regulation device to make a conscious, non-reactive decision.

• 1:57:30Rich Roll?

  As to what serves you and what doesn't. And the only way that you can really make those decisions, you know, in your best interest and as consciously as possible is to do your own research and to use yourself as your own personal lab.

• 1:57:44Darin Olien?

  Exactly. Well, it reminds me of what you're saying too, is if I'm someone that's honoring myself and following a day-to-day plan of how to, what do I really know how to take care of myself?

• 1:57:59Darin Olien?

  I'm not really worried about that person when a fad comes down the road because they're kind of solid and they're gaining strength inside themselves and physically and stuff. What I'm concerned about is when people are not taking care of themselves well and they have suffered and they've put on the weight and they have chronic disease and they're, they're in pain and all that stuff. And then this information comes out, they're desperate. So then they grab onto it and then they're yanked around and then there's a bunch of other consequences to it, not to mention making someone feel like crap about themselves. So, you know, it's a tricky thing.

• 1:58:38Rich Roll?

  Yeah. So, so let's presume that you're speaking to that very same person, that person who is, you know, overweight, who has struggled, who has ping ponged around and is looking for a way out. Like, what are the primary principles? Like, what is the information that you want to impart to that person?

• 1:58:56Darin Olien?

  That's, that's exactly what I wanted to write the book about. That's what I wrote. So I was like, listen dude, get yourself some water, get hydrated, because that, the number one side effect of that is fatigue. You're just gonna feel bad. And if you have a buildup of toxins and you're dehydrated, no one's gonna do well. Try one, one meal where you're just eating plant-based food. Try a salad, make a big ass salad, throw a bunch of great nuts and seeds and stuff on there and enjoy that. Don't worry about anything else, right? Water and a meal and call it good for now. I'm not gonna say, do this and then the next meal and you do this and then the next meal and then

• 1:59:39Darin Olien?

  try this superfood and all that stuff. You know what? No. Drink, how about drinking a liter of water? That's the only thing, drink a liter of water in the morning before you grab your coffee. And then pick one meal that you're going to replace with a fresh, organic, huge, wonderful, vibrant salad. And then you know what? Stay with that for three weeks or a month. Because I guarantee you, this always happens. When you fill your body up of micronutrients, you literally start to feel better. That's a win. And then you reach for more. Just like you and I were talking. We started that way. You started that way.

• 2:00:24Darin Olien?

  I started that way. And we continue to go in that way. Now, we try to impart that stuff. So for us, not to kind of get that that's how everyone's going to do it. So that's what I would tell people. I could sit there and they could listen to this podcast and try to implement all this stuff. But the truth is, don't. Just implement a little bit. Grab some water, eat really well, start there. And then in February, because you've actually gone slow, you're starting to develop a really important habit. And you're starting to get a win. And then in February, maybe grab another meal. Or implement, hey, I do have a little pain. Implement turmeric. And now you just have that little thing and start on that.

• 2:01:09Darin Olien?

  You know what? A blink goes by, a year goes by, and now all of a sudden, you've implemented things that are like brushing your teeth. And your whole life is different. And you're not yanked around by some weird fad. You're doing some basic, solid information that, that is timeless. Any fad, any guy selling whatever, if he's going to come to me and say, well, no, I don't think water's a good thing. Don't drink water. No, he's not going to say that. So

• 2:01:41Rich Roll?

  The dehydration diet?

• 2:01:42Darin Olien?

  Yeah, exactly. So for me, I just wanted to kind of cut through all of that stuff.

• 2:01:49Rich Roll?

  Yeah, I mean, what's beautiful about that is, is that

• 2:01:54Rich Roll?

  It's completely doable because you're not overreaching, you're not over asking. You're saying, master one little thing, like just focus on this. Don't make a big deal about it. Do it until it becomes rote. And then that is a lifestyle adaptation that has a shot. It's not a guarantee, but it's got a shot of sticking around for a while.

• 2:02:14Darin Olien?

  Absolutely.

• 2:02:15Rich Roll?

  And if you can perpetuate that over the long term, that's gigantic. Now take on, now do one other little thing.

• 2:02:22Darin Olien?

  Yep.

• 2:02:23Rich Roll?

  You know what? Don't buy milk at the grocery store. Buy almond milk or coconut milk or whatever.

• 2:02:28Darin Olien?

  Exactly.

• 2:02:28Rich Roll?

  Get used to that for a while until you don't think about it anymore.

• 2:02:32Darin Olien?

  And see what that feels like.

• 2:02:33Rich Roll?

  And then do another thing. And then as your body starts to feel better, then you want more of that. And it becomes a self perpetuating machine. And before you know it, it's true. You blink and you're like, oh my God, a year went by. Look how different my life is. I just did a couple of little things. It's like that, that, you know, that like trite adage, like if you're doing a moonshot and you're like one, you know, one hundredth of a degree off, like you hit Mars instead or whatever. You know what I mean? So it's just those little things mastered over time.

• 2:03:03Darin Olien?

  Big time.

• 2:03:04Rich Roll?

  That move mountains.

• 2:03:05Darin Olien?

  Absolutely.

• 2:03:07Rich Roll?

  I love it, man.

• 2:03:08Darin Olien?

  Yeah, it's the way to go.

• 2:03:09Rich Roll?

  I, I think that's a good place to wrap it up for today.

• 2:03:12Darin Olien?

  That's a good, that's a good one.

• 2:03:13Rich Roll?

  But you're welcome to come back. We could do this monthly.

• 2:03:16Darin Olien?

  Yeah.

• 2:03:17Rich Roll?

  For me, you know, because we could go deep on a whole bunch of stuff. But that was beautiful. Thanks a lot, man.

• 2:03:21Darin Olien?

  Thanks, man. I really appreciate it.

• 2:03:23Rich Roll?

  Any, any parting words?

• 2:03:26Darin Olien?

  Yeah, I would say, you know, whenever this is coming out, it's going to come out in the beginning of this year. And, and you know, people just, you know, back off on all of this monster stuff and just take it slow. Just like we were talking about, just grab some things that you know you can do that are sustainable. And, uh,

• 2:03:42Rich Roll?

  And be gentle on yourself too.

• 2:03:44Darin Olien?

  Be gentle because that shame and all of that stuff and that sadness and that, all those things, you know, have an avenue for that because we're only where we're at because of. Where we're at and, and, and, and we're an integrated human being mentally, emotionally, physically, spiritually. So when you move the needle, everything comes with. So be gentle on yourself and, and you know, connect with us. You know, we're here, you're here, I'm here to supply information so that we can help people move that needle. And that's, I've committed my life to doing that.

• 2:04:22Rich Roll?

  Yeah, it's a beautiful journey, man. So thanks so much, brother.

• 2:04:25Darin Olien?

  Thanks, man. Appreciate it.

• 2:04:27Rich Roll?

  So the, the paperback is now out. Uh, Super Life, I wrote down the, the subtitle because I always forget, five forces that will make you healthy, fit and eternally awesome.

• 2:04:38Darin Olien?

  Yeah. So they changed it.

• 2:04:39Rich Roll?

  Oh, they did?

• 2:04:40Darin Olien?

  So now they changed the five fixes.

• 2:04:43Rich Roll?

  Oh, the five fixes instead of forces?

• 2:04:45Darin Olien?

  Yeah. So they changed it.

• 2:04:46Rich Roll?

  What's up with that?

• 2:04:47Darin Olien?

  It's the same, it's the same damn thing, but they thought it made, so they put a broccoli heart on it and then, then on the cover and then made the five fixes that will make you healthy, fit and eternally awesome.

• 2:04:58Rich Roll?

  Yeah, cool, man. So obviously we, as I said earlier, we only touched the surface on all this superfood stuff. I mean, it's, you can go on forever about all these things. But, um, you know, you talk about all these things quite, uh, in detail in the book and you break it down into the, the five fixes are basically quality nutrition, hydration, detoxification, oxygenation and alkalization, right?

• 2:05:22Darin Olien?

  Yeah.

• 2:05:23Rich Roll?

  All worthy of your time and attention. So yeah, pick up the book. And if you want to connect with, uh, Darren, you can go to superlife.com or at superlifeliving on Instagram and any other places.

• 2:05:37Darin Olien?

  Yeah, that's, that gets us everywhere, I think.

• 2:05:40Rich Roll?

  When you're, are you speaking anywhere? Are you doing any more crazy hunts or what's going on?

• 2:05:45Darin Olien?

  Yeah, I got some stuff coming out. The thing that I'm excited about is, is watch for the superfood conservancy. I mean, that's where the transparency of superfoods. So, so we haven't had that up yet, but that's coming. Um, the stem cell stuff, we'll save that for next time. Um, but yeah, so super life, you'll be able to find everything. Sign up for the, for the information and the newsletters and all that stuff. We have some cool programs coming out.

• 2:06:08Rich Roll?

  Excellent, man. Thanks, dude.

• 2:06:10Darin Olien?

  Thanks for coming here.

• 2:06:11Rich Roll?

  Peace. Lance, let's get some more chaga.

• 2:06:14Darin Olien?

  Chaga.

• 2:06:27Rich Roll?

  I love it. That was so packed with unbelievable information that you guys can take away and incorporate into your life. I hope it inspired you. I hope it educated you. And I hope you leave this conversation with a bit of a more robust toolbox to take back into your life and put into practice. Don't forget to check out Darren's book, Superlife, now out in paperback, as well as all the resources on his website, superlife.com. And while you're at it, please make a habit or a choice to go visit the show notes on the episode page for this episode. I've got tons of links, books, resources, all kinds of stuff to take your edification beyond the earbuds. Thank you so much again for sharing the show with your friends and on social media. If you haven't done so already,

• 2:07:12Rich Roll?

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• 2:07:55Rich Roll?

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• 2:08:40Rich Roll?

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• 2:09:21Rich Roll?

  Sean Patterson for all of his beautiful graphics. Chris Swan for additional production assistance and help compiling the show notes. And theme music by Analemma. Thanks for the love, you guys. See you back here soon. Make it a great week. Peace. Plants.