757 How the Food Industry Is Feeding You Lies with Vani Hari

STAND UP FOR WHAT YOU BELIEVE IN. It’s much easier to eat whatever you’re craving without thinking much about it. It takes energy and intention to figure out what’s actually in our food. But making the effort to understand the ingredients we put in our body will help us take our life to the next level. So why is it so hard? The food industry is doing everything they can to keep chemicals in their food in order to increase shelf-life and keep you wanting more. Unless you’re making the effort to eat well, you’ll be convinced by their marketing lies. On today’s episode of The School of Greatness, I talk with an amazing woman who has bravely taken the giants of the food industry: Vani Hari. Vani Hari aka “The Food Babe” is a New York Times best-selling author, blogger, and activist. She investigates what is really in our food, how is it grown and what chemicals are used in its production. Companies such as Chick-fil-A and Kraft have changed their ingredients based on her campaigns. Vani says that we need to know all the ingredients in our food, we need to know if they’re nutritious, and we need to know where they come from. So get ready to learn about the lies the food industry tells us on Episode 757. Some Questions I Ask: Why does the food industry need so many chemicals? (24:00) How do you know what’s real and what’s fake? (26:30) Is all organic food good? (37:00) What are the standards for ingredients in your company? (42:00) In This Episode You Will Learn: How Vani’s efforts helped change the ingredients used by big companies (12:00) How Vani dealt with attacks on her character (16:00) The dangers of “Astroturf Campaigns” that try to prevent change (18:00) Why the “coconut oil is bad” headline was a lie (20:00) About the Three Question Detox (30:00) About the “48-hour Toxin Takedown” (36:00) Get more from Lewis! Get my New York Times Bestselling book, Make Money Easy! Get The Greatness Mindset audiobook on SpotifyText Lewis AIYouTubeInstagramWebsiteTiktokFacebookX

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

• 0:00Lewis Howes?

  This is episode number 757 with New York Times bestselling author, Vani Hari. Welcome to the School of Greatness. My name is Lewis Howes, a former pro athlete turned lifestyle entrepreneur. And each week, we bring you an inspiring person or message to help you discover how to unlock your inner greatness. Thanks for spending some time with me today. Now let the class begin.

• 0:32Lewis Howes?

  Winston Churchill said, courage is what it takes to stand up and speak. And courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen. Today, we have Vani Hari on, who is a revolutionary food activist, New York Times bestselling author, and was named one of the most influential people on the internet by Time Magazine in 2015. She started the Food Babe blog in 2011, and now is a founder of Truvani, a startup offering real food without added chemicals, and products without toxins, and labels without lies. And in this interview, we talk about how Vani deals with the negative backlash of creating these massive global food campaigns.

• 1:14Lewis Howes?

  Also, how to determine what's real and what's fake when credible sources post false facts about your food. This is something that's really scary, guys, especially in America, because there's a lot of credible sources out there that share false facts about your food that could be really harming you and your family and your friends. We also cover how to know if your food is truly organic, because sometimes when it says organic, it's not, and that's scary also. And then the three simple questions to ask yourself when you want to eat better. We cover a lot of these different strategies and tools and reveal a lot about the food industry you probably didn't know. So get ready to have

• 1:55Lewis Howes?

  your mind blown in this interview. Make sure to share with your friends, lewishouse.com/757, and tag myself, @lewishouse, and Vani over on Instagram as well.

• 2:12Lewis Howes?

  Welcome everyone to the School of Greatness Podcast. We have my good friend, Vani Hari, in the house.

• 2:16Vani Hari?

  Good to see you.

• 2:17Lewis Howes?

  I'm excited you're here. You were back on three or four years ago, I think, right? For your last book.

• 2:23Vani Hari?

  Four years ago.

• 2:24Lewis Howes?

  Four years ago? No way. Was that long?

• 2:26Vani Hari?

  Yes.

• 2:27Lewis Howes?

  Wow, okay.

• 2:28Vani Hari?

  Yeah.

• 2:28Lewis Howes?

  A lot's happened since then. You had a New York Times bestseller. You had a baby. You've got a two-year-old baby now.

• 2:35Vani Hari?

  That's right.

• 2:35Lewis Howes?

  You launched a new business called Truvani, which is doing incredible. And you've got a new book out called Feeding You Lies, which I think is the most brilliant book title ever. How to Unravel the Food Industry's Playbook and Reclaim Your Health. This thing is out right now. And you uncover all the lies about food, right?

• 2:54Vani Hari?

  That's right.

• 2:55Lewis Howes?

  All the lies that the food industry tries to feed us and tell us, which is actually healthy for us, but when it's actually really bad.

• 3:02Vani Hari?

  That's right. My mission has always been about educating the public about the chemicals in the American food supply. In my first book, The Food Babe Way, was all about the chemicals. How do we get the chemicals out of our diet? And this book actually takes it a step further and goes behind the scenes and shows you exactly the playbook that the food industry uses to continue selling us these chemicals, to continue to confuse us about what's truly healthy so that we continue to buy their products.

• 3:32Lewis Howes?

  Really? So it's like false marketing?

• 3:34Vani Hari?

  Absolutely.

• 3:35Lewis Howes?

  The packaging, it's the marketing, the language, the words they use.

• 3:38Vani Hari?

  The things you read on social media, the things you see in the media.

• 3:42Lewis Howes?

  They'll have a fit, like, healthy-looking woman or man on their packaging just to say, "This is how you're gonna look, even though it's not good for you," whatever it may be, right?

• 3:51Vani Hari?

  That's right.

• 3:52Lewis Howes?

  It's all marketing?

• 3:54Vani Hari?

  A lot of it is, yeah.

• 3:55Lewis Howes?

  Even if they have the ingredients that show that there's all these chemicals and bad stuff in it? They're saying other things on the front.

• 4:03Vani Hari?

  That's right.

• 4:04Lewis Howes?

  Face, it looks nice, but on the back, it's like all dirty.

• 4:07Vani Hari?

  Yeah, a perfect example of this is Diet Coke, right?

• 4:09Lewis Howes?

  Oh, yeah.

• 4:10Vani Hari?

  Diet Coke, diet, right, is part of the name, right? It makes you think that you're gonna stay lean and trim and that you can get away with eating zero calories and still enjoying this buzz from this caffeine and the sweetness from this drink. But what's really happening behind the scenes in your body is you're consuming artificial sweeteners that trick your brain into thinking that, hey, I'm receiving some nourishment because this thing is sweet and it tastes like something that has calories and nutrition. But in actuality, you're not getting any of those calories. So your body's like, wait a minute. I still need some nourishment. I still need nutrition. And so your body continuously craves additional food. And so you end up eating more than you would otherwise do.

• 4:52Vani Hari?

  And so you end up in this yo-yo cycle of dieting and never being able to break free.

• 4:58Lewis Howes?

  How many chemicals are in a Diet Coke, you know? Or how many ingredients? Is it a lot, or is it?

• 5:02Vani Hari?

  It's not a ton of ingredients, but the ingredients are awful.

• 5:05Lewis Howes?

  They're bad, yeah, I got you, yeah.

• 5:06Vani Hari?

  I mean, one of the ingredients is caramel coloring, right? I mean, caramel coloring is not the kind of that you would make, like when you burn sugar. Um, but it's made in a laboratory. You know, there's been studies that show that, you know, animal studies have shown that it's linked to cancer.

• 5:20Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 5:21Vani Hari?

  You know, this is a caramel coloring. You definitely do not want to be consuming on a regular basis in a drink.

• 5:25Lewis Howes?

  Have you been seeing the commercials for Diet Coke?

• 5:28Vani Hari?

  No.

• 5:29Lewis Howes?

  There's some, there's these amazing commercials I was watching a couple of months ago. That was like this kind of chill-looking girl. I think I saw two of them. One was a guy and a girl. And it was like this like cool, casual girl who's like, life's short, have a Diet Coke. Like, have one because you can. It wasn't like this, they were kind of almost saying like, this is bad for you. Life's short, just enjoy some Diet Coke. Like, have fun, like do this, do that.

• 5:55Vani Hari?

  I mean, they're losing the battle right now. I mean, in terms of...

• 5:57Lewis Howes?

  They're not trying to say this is good for you anymore.

• 5:59Vani Hari?

  Yeah, well, they've gotten away with a lot of different things. And there's, there's many different stories that I share within the book that show how the Coke industry, the soda industry, whether it's Coca-Cola or Pepsi, they have... Tried to change our perspective about health and diet in this country. They've said, you know what? It's not about sugar or carbohydrates, which our food is mainly made up of. It's actually about fat. You should eliminate fat in your diet. Or, hey, why don't you exercise more? And there's been evidence where, you know, not only have they colluded with the CDC and other government officials, they've colluded with professors at some of the highest degree universities in our country to try to persuade the public

• 6:42Vani Hari?

  that we have a problem with the fact that we don't exercise enough when really we're consuming too much sugar and too many empty calories, which is their products.

• 6:51Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 6:51Vani Hari?

  So.

• 6:52Lewis Howes?

  So how many of these companies are actually living by this kind of feeding you lies mentality?

• 6:58Vani Hari?

  That's a good question. You know, the majority of companies that are, you know, the legacy big food companies, the Kellogg's, the General Mills, the Campbell's, the Coca Colas, the Pepsis, the Mondelez, the Kraft Heinz, those are the ones that have really gotten away with, and I don't want to say murder, but they really have. Because what has happened is that they're using the same playbook as the tobacco industry when it comes to determining what people crave, what makes them addicted to food, and what makes them continuously buy them. The majority of chemicals that have been invented in the last 50 years or so have been invented for one reason, to improve the bottom line of the food industry, not to improve our health, not for our nutrition,

• 7:43Vani Hari?

  not to make us healthier, not to help us achieve our health goals or to avoid disease. They've only been there to improve the bottom line of the food industry. So you just think about that. So when you look at an ingredient list and you see all these different chemicals in there, they are not serving a purpose for your nutrition or your body or to make you feel really great. They're just serving the interests of the food industry. And this example, it can be shown in a really unethical way when you look at our food versus other food in other countries. So for example, McDonald's french fries. Here in the United States, they are made with a slew of different chemicals. One of the chemicals is dimethyl polysiloxane. It's the same ingredient in silly putty.

• 8:27Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 8:27Vani Hari?

  It's also an ingredient that is preserved with formaldehyde and an ingredient that the FDA has not truly even studied or approved to be in our food system, right?

• 8:37Lewis Howes?

  How can it be in McDonald's if it's not FDA approved?

• 8:39Vani Hari?

  Well, it's a gross, it's generally regarded as safe, but the ingredient itself is actually deemed safe by the food industry themselves, not the FDA. So there's this underlying assumption that our ingredients are being managed and tested and safety tested by the government, right? But the FDA doesn't have any of the mechanisms to do that. So they rely on the food industry themselves to say, "Hey, this stuff's OK." Now, in Europe, they have different standards. They say, "You need to prove this stuff's safe before you put it in your food." So in Europe, when you look at McDonald's french fries, they use three basic ingredients.

• 9:15Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 9:16Vani Hari?

  Potatoes, oil, and dextrose, which is just sugar. And then you can add the salt after you fry it. So you can actually determine how much salt you have on McDonald's french fries in Europe. But here in the United States, totally different scenario. And I think one of the most unethical behaviors is when big food manufacturers, especially American food manufacturers, start to change their products overseas to meet regulations and not change them here. So a great example of it is the-

• 9:43Lewis Howes?

  So American food companies change stuff overseas because they have to.

• 9:48Vani Hari?

  Right.

• 9:48Lewis Howes?

  Here, they'll cut corners to save money.

• 9:51Vani Hari?

  Yeah. And a great example of this was the Kraft petition that I started to remove artificial food dyes from mac and cheese. In Europe, if you use yellow five and yellow six in a product or any of these artificial food dyes, you have to put a warning label that says, "May cause adverse effects on activity and attention in children." Now, this warning label is mandatory by the government-

• 10:13Lewis Howes?

  If you use these ingredients.

• 10:14Vani Hari?

  Right. But here in the United States, you can get away with using them. So instead of putting the warning label on Kraft mac and cheese in Europe- Kraft said, "You know what? We're gonna change the ingredients. We're gonna put beta carotene and paprika. That's what we're gonna use over there. But we're not gonna change them here in the United States." So they know that their product could cause a hyperactivity in children, but they choose not to change it

• 10:36Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 10:37Vani Hari?

  because our government allows them to get away with it. And I feel like that's the most unethical food practice ever. Because as a company, as someone who is serving food to you, as two people, you have, I think, an ethical obligation to say, "You know what? I should serve it the least harmful as possible to people. I shouldn't know this information about different regulations and just ignore it for different populations because I can get away with it and make more money."

• 11:02Lewis Howes?

  Wow. Crazy. Now, how many... You did a campaign against Kraft a while ago, right?

• 11:07Vani Hari?

  That's right. It received over 300,000 signatures.

• 11:10Lewis Howes?

  No way.

• 11:10Vani Hari?

  Kraft changed... Yeah, Kraft has now removed artificial food dyes from their mac and cheese as well as...

• 11:14Lewis Howes?

  They did?

• 11:15Vani Hari?

  Yeah.

• 11:15Lewis Howes?

  So they moved the yellow five or whatever?

• 11:16Vani Hari?

  Yeah, it's gone.

• 11:17Lewis Howes?

  Oh, really?

• 11:17Vani Hari?

  Yeah. It's gone.

• 11:18Lewis Howes?

  So 300,000 names, they removed one or two ingredients or...

• 11:23Vani Hari?

  Yeah, they actually... They rechanged it. And it was really funny because they... The way they launched it, you know, of course, they wouldn't give the activists credit or, you know, the people out there that were demanding this. All the parents that wrote in and wrote letters. Instead, they said, "Oh, this is like new and improved. And you've always did the same mac and cheese you've always loved." You know? And so they really just made it...

• 11:44Lewis Howes?

  They weren't like, "We heard your voices."

• 11:46Vani Hari?

  Yeah, yeah. It wasn't like, you know, the customers wanted this.

• 11:49Lewis Howes?

  Right, right. You did this with Subway as well. I remember you doing a campaign

• 11:52Vani Hari?

  That's right.

• 11:52Lewis Howes?

  and like a video about how it had like a yoga mat ingredient in there or something like...

• 11:56Vani Hari?

  That's right. So that's another example of an ingredient. It was called azodicarbonamide. We dubbed it the yoga mat chemical.

• 12:03Lewis Howes?

  I don't even know what that means. What is it? Like, what are these chemicals, you know?

• 12:06Vani Hari?

  Yeah. It's a chemical that's used as a dough conditioner. So, you know, when you look at a piece of bread that's been manufactured and you see all those little itty-bitty holes and they're like in this perfect realm. But if you bake a bread at home or something has a big hole in the middle and if you get really good bread from a restaurant that they bake there, it's like all... You know, it's not uniform. Well, azodicarbonamide makes it really uniform. So when you're a fast food giant and you want your bread to all be the same and made exactly the same so people know what they're getting when they get there, you know, it does cheapen the process in terms of it makes it faster to produce as well. That's what they were using. And this ingredient was not only banned in Europe and other places around the world.

• 12:47Vani Hari?

  You would get fined like several hundred thousand dollars in Singapore if you use this chemical because of the interactions it had with not only it being up in the air and you can inhale it, but also when it's broken down, it turns into a carcinogen. And so knowing that Subway was using this chemical here in the United States and not elsewhere across the globe, because Subway was the largest, not no longer the largest fast food chain because of this campaign.

• 13:14Lewis Howes?

  They were the largest.

• 13:15Vani Hari?

  They were the largest, yeah.

• 13:16Lewis Howes?

  Bigger than McDonald's or bigger than...

• 13:18Vani Hari?

  They were. They had more stores than McDonald's.

• 13:19Lewis Howes?

  No way, really?

• 13:20Vani Hari?

  At that point, yeah.

• 13:21Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 13:21Vani Hari?

  They did, yeah. Four years ago, they did. They had more stores than McDonald's. They were worldwide, but they were choosing again to service these cheaper, more alarming chemicals here in the United States. And so these campaigns weren't about taking out this chemical or that chemical and suddenly having these products be super healthy. It was about showcasing what is in your food, making people become aware of it. And not only have people become aware of it, there's this amazing trend happening in the marketplace where people are wanting organic and natural foods now. And it's a continuous marketplace that continues to grow because people are becoming aware about what these chemicals are and they don't want to consume them.

• 14:01Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 14:02Vani Hari?

  And it's just a beautiful thing. So we're in this amazing food movement. And then through this change and being a catalyst for this change and being a voice for this change, you know, I received enormous pushback from several experts and, you know, quote unquote, "experts." Didn't know that they were hired experts at the time. I had my hunches that they were hired by the food and chemical industry. And I received a ton of backlash online for these campaigns and it came out of nowhere. And at the time, I really didn't know how to handle it. And the only way that I... Knew what to do was just to like, sit here and like not listen to it. So like I, I canceled Google Alerts. Wow. Because not only- So much negativity.

• 14:46Vani Hari?

  There was so much negativity. And I realized that my mission shouldn't be driven upon what people say about me, whether it's positive or negative. So when something would be happen positive in the press, I'd ask my mother and my team not to send it to me. And I'd ask also anything negative, don't send it to me. Because really, my mission should come from within, right? It's really, the reason why I'm doing this is not so that I can be popular or be featured in some mainstream magazine. It was so that I can get this message out. I want to talk about the chemicals. I want to talk about the food industry. I want to talk about what's, how people's lives can change and not feel like a zombie anymore, like I used to feel in my early twenties when I was eating all of this processed food.

• 15:29Vani Hari?

  And so, so as a result of me being an activist and me getting into this kind of spotlight environment. I mean, right after the book came out, you know, after I was on this podcast, my world just like blew up. Really? You know, Time Magazine reached out. We're like, you know, we're naming you one of the most influential people on the internet. And I was just like, what? Like, what? Like next to Barack Obama? Like, no, you're, you're crazy. Jimmy Fallon, like, you're crazy, right? You're crazy. And I was getting these kind of accolades, right? But I also, at the same time, was being pressured and pushed by this agenda, this media agenda to paint me as pseudoscientific or someone who doesn't understand chemicals or someone who just is being a fear monger,

• 16:14Vani Hari?

  trying to make people afraid of these chemicals in this processed food. And they wanted to paint me as this. And so I found myself in this kind of like media frenzy of all these people wanting to interview me, but for the wrong reasons. And so I started to just take a look at what was driving some of these interviews. Who, who were the people behind these requests? And then who are the, the antagonists in the story that they were interviewing? And-

• 16:43Vani Hari?

  It became very, very clear that there was a campaign that was being funded by the food and chemical industry, driven by several different PR firms, to attack me as a messenger of change and to do whatever they could do to get me to stop.

• 17:02Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 17:03Vani Hari?

  And not only did they want to do whatever they could do to get me to stop, but they also wanted to confuse the public so that when anybody would listen to something I would say, they would try to question it and say, "Well, maybe she's just being a little outlandish about this."

• 17:17Lewis Howes?

  I remember seeing this, like on Twitter, there was tons of responses to everything you put out and people just spamming everyone and all that stuff.

• 17:22Vani Hari?

  Right, and that was actually an astroturf campaign, and actually, this is a tactic that's not only used to take down activists, but it's used to take down ideas in the public. So when the food industry wants you to believe a certain thing, or the chemical industry, or a big conglomerate, or any type of industry, they will hire not only astroturfers, like, you know, groups of online trolls, really.

• 17:46Lewis Howes?

  Just to try to get you to shut up.

• 17:47Vani Hari?

  Just to try to get people to shut up, or to make people who are trying to change the status quo feel stupid about it. So they'll do whatever they can to try to get you to stop sharing the truth. And so not only will they bully you online, but they'll go into comment sections of mainstream media articles and try to fight with people in there and try to showcase fake comments to take the side of the food industry, to take the side of the corporations. And not only are there these online troll groups, but they're really being driven by these front groups that are, they look like third-party independent groups, right? They have these long fancy names, these councils.

• 18:28Lewis Howes?

  Associations.

• 18:29Vani Hari?

  Yeah. They have these long fancy names, but really, they're just, they're really there, being funded by Coke and Monsanto and all of these other giant food and chemical companies that are trying to drive the agenda. And one perfect example of this that happened recently is, I'm sure you saw it, headlines everywhere, "Coconut oil isn't healthy." It was on the front of the USA Today.

• 18:53Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 18:54Vani Hari?

  It was everywhere. And as a person who's been studying health and nutrition now for over 10 years... I was like, whoa, whoa, whoa.

• 19:02Lewis Howes?

  How's it not healthy?

• 19:03Vani Hari?

  Yeah, and it was every, I mean, I'm not talking, it was just in USA Today. I mean, it was on everything. And it was because the American Heart Association was the one delivering the message. And people believe this association. Little do they know that the AHA seal used to be on Trix and other cereals that were terrible for your health. But they've had their seal, their seal, you know, you can buy their seal, basically, and put it, I mean, it was on Subway, it was on a lot of different fast food chains. But not only that, is, you know, people see this American Heart Association and they just automatically believe it. They don't even know that a lot of it's being driven by the food and chemical industry and that their experts are being paid secretly behind the scenes from the corn and the canola industry.

• 19:48Lewis Howes?

  Crazy.

• 19:49Vani Hari?

  So, the corn and canola industry is driving this message that coconut oil is unhealthy because they see coconut oil sales take over their sales. Because people are becoming aware of, wait, how is corn oil produced? How's canola oil produced? Oh, it's produced with hexane and a very carcinogenic gas and, oh, it's inflammatory causing in my system. It is an abundance of omega-6 fatty acids and no wonder I need omega-3 in my life and why my body's so out of whack and why I'm experiencing depression and Alzheimer's and all these other diseases because of this reason, right? So, you see that, you look something, you know, you see a headline and you just automatically believe it. I mean, it was so believable that my mom is texting me and she's like, Mom, she's like, Bonnie, I told you so. I didn't like coconut oil anyways.

• 20:33Vani Hari?

  Like, she's always been like, she just likes good old fashioned butter, which is good. But I've always told her, like, if you fry something, fry it in some coconut oil versus, like, canola oil or corn oil or soy oil. And she's like, look, it's, it's all over the paper. And she's even believing it. And meanwhile, if you don't look behind the headline, you don't look into who's driving this message and the experts who are being paid to promote this agenda. You are going to suffer as an individual because you're not going to believe this information. You're going to make these choices about your health and what you're feeding your family. And you're setting them up for failure. And so this is what Feeding You Lies is about. Exposing these tactics, exposing this playbook, so that you, as a consumer,

• 21:17Vani Hari?

  you become a health investigator yourself. You can see beyond a headline now, after reading this book. You can see, when you see slews of comments believing one thing that just, you know, your intuition is like saying, "No, I don't know about this." You can kind of dig deeper and say, "Whoa, is this an AstroTurf campaign?" And I give you tactics on how to handle that if that happens to you. You know, if you're leaving a comment and people are bullying you about a certain belief or view. And not only that, but there are specific lies in there that affect us every single day at the grocery store. When you see a label that says gluten-free and you're on a gluten-free diet, doesn't mean that that product is safe. It doesn't.

• 21:58Lewis Howes?

  It might be gluten-free, but it might be filled with all these other chemicals.

• 22:00Vani Hari?

  That's right. I mean, the food industry loves a good diet, right? They love anything that they can use to market processed food in a different way that is fashionable and trendy. And the trendy thing right now is gluten-free, right? Actually, the next one is keto, right? And you even see like Slim Fast getting into keto products. And their products are garbage. It's absolute garbage for your body. I mean, they're full of synthetic chemicals, vitamins and minerals, different artificial sweeteners that make your metabolism just completely like shut down because it starts to like create leaky gut. And, you know, you have all of these chemicals that really shouldn't be part of your diet

• 22:44Vani Hari?

  when it's really as simple as the three-question detox that I talk about in the book.

• 22:48Lewis Howes?

  Why doesn't the food industry just have organic foods?

• 22:53Lewis Howes?

  Why do they need so many chemicals? Is it just because it makes it cheaper?

• 22:56Vani Hari?

  Yeah.

• 22:57Lewis Howes?

  And they can make more money and that's the only reason?

• 22:58Vani Hari?

  Yeah. I mean, it makes-

• 23:00Lewis Howes?

  Maybe taste, maybe more sugar or something.

• 23:02Vani Hari?

  Well, I mean, it's really about shelf life. Like, how long can we keep it on the shelf? Right? And then, how addictive can we make it? So that people keep buying it.

• 23:12Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 23:13Vani Hari?

  And the most addictive ingredient right now in our food supply is flavors, added flavors. Because these flavors are not found in nature. They, even if they say-

• 23:23Lewis Howes?

  It's a quick hit, yeah.

• 23:23Vani Hari?

  Yeah, even if they say "natural flavor", it's not a flavor that is found in nature. Because when you eat the best blueberry you've ever found in nature, it's coupled with fiber and micronutrition and vitamins and minerals and everything for you to have that amazing taste together that sends a signal to your body that it's satiated, it feels great, you're getting nutrition from this, you're not gonna like overeat it, you're gonna eat a few and you're gonna feel really great. Now, if you eat chips that are laden with these flavors, or yeast extract, or some of these other tactics that the food industry uses, you're gonna eat more and more of those foods.

• 24:03Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 24:03Vani Hari?

  And those foods are processed dead garbage that is used to- they're literally using garbage to sell to us so that we just keep eating it. And it's really not providing nutrition to the body, and so-

• 24:17Lewis Howes?

  That's why you need more of it, because there's no nutrition.

• 24:18Vani Hari?

  Yep.

• 24:19Lewis Howes?

  It's so addictive, you just want more to fill yourself up, right?

• 24:21Vani Hari?

  That, and then you're getting that brain hit from that chemical.

• 24:25Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 24:25Vani Hari?

  That's like, "Oh, this tastes so good." Because it wouldn't, you know, without these flavors, that food wouldn't taste good.

• 24:31Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 24:31Vani Hari?

  It just wouldn't. You'd be kind of like, "Ah, it's not that great."

• 24:35Lewis Howes?

  Whatever.

• 24:35Vani Hari?

  Yeah.

• 24:36Lewis Howes?

  Synthetic, but it tastes good.

• 24:37Vani Hari?

  Yeah.

• 24:37Lewis Howes?

  Unfortunately.

• 24:38Vani Hari?

  Yeah, and they're using, I mean, they're using the exact same science that they used with the tobacco industry to make cigarettes addictive. They're using those same scientists to make food addictive too. So, we have to be aware of this, right? If we're a living nation where we're undeniably sick, we have skyrocketing disease rates here. We have a problem. And we have to pay attention. And thank goodness for social media. And thank goodness for- Activists and people out there, you know, I love the people who follow me online because not only do they care about their own health, they're willing to like spread this message and that's how we've gotten the food industry to change. I mean, without them spreading

• 25:19Vani Hari?

  this message and sharing these campaigns and sharing this information in this book and sharing what's happening in the food supply, these changes wouldn't be happening in terms of people asking for higher quality food.

• 25:33Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 25:37Lewis Howes?

  I want to take a moment from this interview and share with you guys about my Inner Circle program. Now imagine what would happen if you had every resource you could need all in one place to help you grow your business, to help you generate more leads, more traffic, more sales, and automate the growth so you can make a bigger impact in the world. What if this place existed and all you needed to do was sign up and commit? This is what's possible when you join the monthly membership program, our Inner Circle. Every month, I bring you the top guest experts from every industry and host a live two-hour training. We have a massive Facebook community with over 3,000-plus impact-driven members, all holding each other accountable and learning together as a community. So many of my students

• 26:22Lewis Howes?

  have grown tremendously. Their following, in their sales, in their audience, in their traffic. They've launched books. They've become TEDx speakers. They've constantly scaled their business, their growth, and their impact. And that's what this is all about. And if you're interested in growing your business and getting the best training in the world every single month and online coaching from me, then go to innercircle.louis howes.com and commit yourself to living a greater life in business today. Again, go to innercircle.louis howes.com and sign up today. And now, let's get back to the episode with Bonnie.

• 27:06Lewis Howes?

  The challenge is, the fake news, you know, with USA Today and those other credible news sites posting these things, how do you know what's real and what's fake? When the more credible sites are getting caught up on these headlines also?

• 27:19Vani Hari?

  Yeah, I mean, it's really sad because I think a lot of journalists are, were unaware of what was happening. You know, a really great example is I was interviewed to be in The Atlantic, and they did a profile piece on me. And Dr. James Hamblin, who I love his writings, and he's a really fantastic writer for them. He's a doctor, went to Harvard. And one of the antagonists in the story is he interviewed a professor from University of Florida. And when he was asking me for direct comment about this professor, I said, "Listen, I'm pretty sure he is working with Monsanto and the chemical corporations, and you need to look into this." And, you know, he asked him, plant, fork, blank,

• 28:03Vani Hari?

  you know, "Are you working with the chemical corporations in Monsanto?" And he denied it. And then, you know, six months later, on the front of The New York Times is revealed that this guy is taking money from Monsanto through the Freedom of Information Request Act. And this is stuff that wasn't disclosed. And these were experts interviewed that were people who were trying to say that my message is too outlandish, that I don't, you know, there's no scientific backing behind anything that I'm saying. And the worst part about it is they tried to attack me as an individual versus attacking the actual ideas that I was bringing about. Because every single campaign, there was scientific evidence

• 28:46Vani Hari?

  and nonprofit organizations who have scientists that work for them backing up what I said, whether it was NRDC, the Consumers Union, the Environmental Working Group, or the Center for Science and Public Interest. Every single one of those... Agreed with the removal of these chemicals that I was proposing, or the transparency that I was asking of companies like Starbucks. One of my big campaigns was on Starbucks and actually-

• 29:11Lewis Howes?

  Pumpkin.

• 29:12Vani Hari?

  Yeah, pumpkin spice latte.

• 29:13Lewis Howes?

  We went to Starbucks together down the street.

• 29:15Vani Hari?

  Yeah, we asked them like-

• 29:16Lewis Howes?

  You were like, "Show me the bottle." You were looking at all the ingredients. I'm filming it for you.

• 29:20Vani Hari?

  Yeah, yeah, and I loved it. We were like on a little hunt. It was great. And not only did Starbucks respond to that campaign and remove caramel coloring from the pumpkin spice latte, they finally disclosed the ingredients in all of their drinks for the first time in history as a result, because that was, the basis for that campaign was the fact that people were buying all of these drinks at Starbucks, left and right, and they had no idea what was in it. And for years and years and years, Starbucks got away with just not disclosing what was in it. And the worst thing about it is not only did they have the same kind of ingredients like that are in Diet Coke, but they were getting away with being like this high living, you know, more premier coffee establishment,

• 30:04Vani Hari?

  but they were using the same ingredients as Dunkin' Donuts and others once you found out what was actually in them.

• 30:09Lewis Howes?

  Both addictive, yeah.

• 30:10Vani Hari?

  Yeah.

• 30:11Lewis Howes?

  They're very addictive. It tastes so good. That's why I don't drink them anymore. It's just too good to be true, you know, it's too much sugar. Now, what are the questions? You said there's three questions we should be asking ourselves to detox?

• 30:21Vani Hari?

  Yeah, so this is a challenge that I propose for anyone that really wants to change the way they eat. Don't worry about going on a new diet. Don't worry about the latest health trends. Do these three simple things. Just ask yourself these three simple things and see where it leads you after a week. And so the first thing I want you to ask you, so there's a plate of food in front of you where you go, you're determining what to eat. The first thing I want you to ask yourself is, what are the ingredients? And if you can identify all the ingredients in what you're eating and you know why they're there, and maybe you identify some things that aren't supposed to be there or things that you don't know what they are, well, then I don't want you to eat those things until you know and you figure it out. And it's as simple as a Google search,

• 31:05Vani Hari?

  or coming to foodbabe.com and looking at our additive glossary and determining if this is something that I want to put in my body. Okay, what are the ingredients? Then I want you to take a chance and say, "All right, here are the ingredients that I'm eating. Are these ingredients nutritious? Are these going to actually serve a beneficial part of my daily life? Are they going to actually help me feel great? Give me energy? Give me vitamins and minerals? Help me avoid disease? Are there ingredients in here that are really going to serve my body? Are they nutritious? Now, one of these ingredients may be like sugar, right? You might have identified, "Okay, I know what sugar is. What are the ingredients? I know what sugar is." But now you're like, "Is sugar nutritious?"

• 31:50Vani Hari?

  Well, we all know the answer to that, right? It's really, there's no nutrition in sugar, right?

• 31:54Lewis Howes?

  Just tastes good, yeah.

• 31:55Vani Hari?

  It just tastes good, right? It's addictive. It's more addictive than cocaine. It causes your immune system to break down. It causes liver disease. I mean, there's so many different things. Diabetes, heart disease. So you've got to make a choice then. Are these ingredients nutritious? If you just ask yourself that, you may eat a little less of that sugar. I think you will. And then the third question that I want you to ask is where do these ingredients come from? And you may still look at that sugar component and be like, "Well, where does this sugar come from? Wait a minute, this is white refined sugar that I'm eating in this donut, or whatever, or whatever you're eating. I'm not saying you're eating a donut. And you might be like, "Well, how did it get white, first of all? Because sugarcane out there is like green and brown and like, how did it get white?

• 32:39Vani Hari?

  Well, they're bleaching it, right? Where did this ingredient come from? Or maybe it's a piece of meat that you're eating. It's a piece of beef and you realize, okay, what are the ingredients? It's a piece of beef. Are these nutritious? Yeah, beef has a lot of nutrition. But now you're asking yourself, "Where does this come from? Is it coming from a feedlot in a, in a factory farm? Where the animal's being pumped full of growth hormone or antibiotics to make it fatter and to grow faster than it should? And eat GMO corn and soy?"

• 33:10Vani Hari?

  Eating things that it's not supposed to be eating. You know, one of the stories I tell in here is that old Skittles is being fed to cattle. And it's completely true.

• 33:18Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 33:18Vani Hari?

  Yeah, old candy is fed to animals in this country to feed, fatten them up.

• 33:25Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 33:25Vani Hari?

  I'm not saying every single farm does that, but I'm saying that there are some.

• 33:29Lewis Howes?

  Wow.

• 33:29Vani Hari?

  And so you really need to know where your meat comes from. And if you're, you know, you are what your food eats too.

• 33:35Lewis Howes?

  Mmm.

• 33:36Vani Hari?

  So find out where your meat is coming from. Find out where your food is coming from, how it's produced before you eat it. And if you ask yourself those three simple questions every single time you eat, you will not only learn so much about how you're eating and what you're eating, you'll start to really question your own diet into, I think, I hope, into a way that provides you the avenue to research and learn more about what you want to eat in this world.

• 34:03Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 34:04Vani Hari?

  And I think that is the ultimate key to feeling great is to know what you're eating.

• 34:09Lewis Howes?

  That's it.

• 34:10Vani Hari?

  Yeah.

• 34:10Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, I'm very picky with what I eat and I eat like the same three places every, every week. You know, it's just like salad, veggies and like a little bit of meat. I try to take the Mark Hyman approach where it's like mostly vegetables and some fruits, seeds, nuts and some meat.

• 34:26Vani Hari?

  Yeah.

• 34:26Lewis Howes?

  You know, every now and then.

• 34:27Vani Hari?

  Yeah.

• 34:28Lewis Howes?

  I think if you just live by those simple principles and you make sure you know where it's coming from and that there's not adding chemicals on there, then you're going to do pretty well.

• 34:35Vani Hari?

  Yeah, I mean, that's how I feed my daughter. That's exactly how I feed my daughter is I give her.

• 34:39Lewis Howes?

  Lots of vegetables.

• 34:40Vani Hari?

  Yeah, I start with vegetables and then we go with like a little bit of meat, maybe some like seeds and nuts and then fruit, you know, that's it.

• 34:49Lewis Howes?

  Although I realized that I was eating so many almonds and having so much almond milk, almond butter, snacking on almonds all day that I was starting to get like a little eczema breakouts.

• 34:58Vani Hari?

  Oh, really?

• 34:59Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 35:00Vani Hari?

  From almonds?

• 35:01Lewis Howes?

  I think it was from almonds because I was eating so much of it. I was having like two smoothies a day with almond milk, eating almonds, almond butter on apples and bananas, just like all almond all the time.

• 35:12Vani Hari?

  Yeah.

• 35:13Lewis Howes?

  Because I heard peanuts were bad for you, right? So I was like, okay, let me do this almond thing for a while. And now that I've cut back on that, he's like, just have some other nuts. Have like coconut butter for a while, like just pull back on that. I haven't had any of those breakouts.

• 35:25Vani Hari?

  Oh, that's really good.

• 35:26Lewis Howes?

  And he's like, it's probably a nut, you know, overdose.

• 35:29Vani Hari?

  Yeah.

• 35:30Lewis Howes?

  And so some of these things that are healthy. You've got to be aware that they might also affect you in some ways if you overdose on them.

• 35:36Vani Hari?

  Yeah, and that's one of the reasons why, like, you'll never see me prescribe a certain diet, right?

• 35:41Lewis Howes?

  Everyone's different.

• 35:42Vani Hari?

  Everybody's different, but the principles of the three-question detox reign true no matter who you are.

• 35:48Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, and what's the 48-hour toxic takedown?

• 35:52Vani Hari?

  Yeah, so the toxin takedown is all about, in 48 hours, you know, you read this book, you're like, "Oh crap, my pantry's full of this stuff. I need to figure this out," or "I need to change."

• 36:04Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 36:04Vani Hari?

  "I've been buying the wrong things. I've been feeding into these lies," right? "And I need to do something about it, and I need something drastic." So that's the 48-hour toxin takedown at the end of the book. And I just, I break it down for you. In 48 hours, here's what you're gonna eat, here's what you're gonna do, here's how you're gonna clean out your pantry, here's what you're gonna need to watch out for, and then that will just, boom, get you set up so that then you can start the three-question detox from scratch and say, "All right, here's how I'm gonna live my life from now on when I decide what I'm gonna eat."

• 36:37Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, and what about organic food? Is all organic food good? Or are some of these organic companies now using the organic name, but also having other ingredients on the back end that are not, you know, that are chemicals as well?

• 36:50Vani Hari?

  Yeah, so-

• 36:51Lewis Howes?

  Can you get away with that if you say organic? Does it have to be fully organic?

• 36:54Vani Hari?

  Yeah, there's different levels of organic, right? It's, yeah, so there's 100% organic, which you'll see the USDA certified seal on as well.

• 37:03Lewis Howes?

  That's something that you can trust, right?

• 37:05Vani Hari?

  Yeah.

• 37:05Lewis Howes?

  100% organic-

• 37:06Vani Hari?

  Right.

• 37:07Lewis Howes?

  It should be okay.

• 37:07Vani Hari?

  Yes, and then to use the USDA certified organic seal, only 95% of your ingredients have to be organic, and so the other 5% can be other non-organic approved items on the list. So there's a, there's a long list of approved non-organic items that are allowed in organic food. One of those ingredients, by the way, is carrageenan, which is being questioned right now, and they're, they're proposing to take that, you know, to take that off that list, which is great, because that's one of the ingredients that you'll find in the nut milks that actually can disrupt the gut and-

• 37:42Lewis Howes?

  Right.

• 37:42Vani Hari?

  -affect your metabolism, and it's also linked to cancer, too. So the other piece is, that could be 70% organic. So to use the word "organic," you can only have to use 70% organic ingredients. So the other 30% can be anything under the sun. So that's the one that I'm most concerned about is when you see organic on the label with no USDA seal, you really got to turn it over and look at the ingredients and make sure all the ingredients are good. Now, this got me, I fall victim to this all the time because I see the word organic sometimes and I'll just grab and go sometimes. And even me, who I'm the best label reader in the world, right? Like know everything. I feel like I know a lot about labels.

• 38:25Lewis Howes?

  You've studied those for years.

• 38:26Vani Hari?

  Yeah, right? Got me, you know? So you really have to pay attention to that. The other thing that happens too is that big companies like to buy up a lot of smaller organic companies. And when they buy these organic companies, they change the ingredients a lot of times. This is actually one of the reasons why I started my own food company, Truvani, because of this reason. I was tired of it happening and it happened with my own turmeric supplement that I was taking.

• 38:52Lewis Howes?

  Wow. So you were taking a supplement, another company bought it and then changed the ingredients?

• 38:57Vani Hari?

  Yep.

• 38:58Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 38:59Vani Hari?

  Yep. So I said, no longer, this is, I'm going to make it my mission to make sure that I create my own products that I truly believe in. And that's what I did with Truvani. And it's been an amazing ride. It's, we have five products now. It's so fun to see everything come to life. We have literally the, I feel like the cleanest vegan protein powder on the market. I mean, it has five ingredients. It's just incredible.

• 39:23Lewis Howes?

  It's five ingredients.

• 39:24Vani Hari?

  Five ingredients.

• 39:25Lewis Howes?

  It's funny because Derek Halpern is a good friend of mine as well, who's working with you on Truvani. He was saying to me one day, he was like, it's almost, he was like, it's almost so hard to create a product because Vani is so particular on what is allowed in. We can only allow like a certain amount of ingredients that you can't find some of the stuff you need to make these products. So it's the top of the line, it's some of the best quality. And we could put out so many other things quicker, but we're not allowed to because of the standard that Vani has. So it's, you have this high standard, trustworthy products. It's amazing. Our friend, um... Mark Sisson just sold his company Primal Kitchen to, I think, Heinz, is that right?

• 40:07Vani Hari?

  That's right.

• 40:07Lewis Howes?

  For a couple hundred million dollars. And I think that was one of his concerns, like, are they gonna try to take the ingredients and change them? And he told everyone, I think, in a press release that they aren't and that he's gonna be on the team for a long time. And I think that's a concern that a lot of people have is these companies that we love, these foods that we love, get bought up and then we don't know what's gonna happen to them.

• 40:29Vani Hari?

  Right, and it all depends on who's in charge of the ingredients, right? If Mark stays in charge of the ingredients, I have really good faith that that's gonna stay clean, because I love Mark, I love what he's doing. His ketchup is amazing. It's the only ketchup I let my daughter eat.

• 40:41Lewis Howes?

  Really?

• 40:41Vani Hari?

  So, yeah, I mean, it's no sugar in it, it's incredible.

• 40:45Lewis Howes?

  For Heinz, it's probably like all sugar, right?

• 40:47Vani Hari?

  Yeah, it's all sugar. It'd be great to see Primal Kitchen in every burger bar across America, like, everyone dipping their french fries in that, it'd be incredible.

• 40:54Lewis Howes?

  It'd be amazing.

• 40:55Vani Hari?

  Be great. But, yeah, I'm really, I'm really stoked about that, because I would love to have better ketchup available, because I love ketchup. It is so good. So, yeah, I mean...

• 41:05Lewis Howes?

  You guys are on a mission now to build Giovanni and have a stand... What's the standard for ingredients for you guys?

• 41:11Vani Hari?

  So, it's gotta be things that we don't use any unnecessary additives, that's one.

• 41:18Lewis Howes?

  What's that mean? What's an unnecessary additive?

• 41:20Vani Hari?

  So, a lot of companies will use additives so that their product has a certain appearance, or the product flows better in a machine because it's being mass-produced, or...

• 41:32Lewis Howes?

  Mixes better.

• 41:33Vani Hari?

  Right, or is used for a shelf extender so that they can keep it on the shelf longer and so they make more money. That's been one of the battles, going back and forth with different manufacturers, is like, hey, we're not gonna use these preservatives. No, sorry, we're not gonna use vegetable glycerin, even though it's kind of an okay ingredient, it's not something I would cook with in my kitchen, right? We're not gonna be using that. We're not gonna be using natural flavors that are there to trick the person into believing that real vanilla is in their protein powder, right? No, we're just gonna use real vanilla bean. Yeah, it costs a lot of money to have organic vanilla bean powder in our product, but I want people to have the real thing. I want people to eat real food.

• 42:15Vani Hari?

  So, our mission is real food without added chemicals, products without toxins, labels without lies.

• 42:22Vani Hari?

  And that's what it's all about. And you know, what's, what's interesting is, you know, when bigger companies do buy up smaller companies, a lot of these products do change. But one of the biggest trends that's happening right now is the non-GMO label. You see non-GMO products everywhere, right? You see the butterfly label or another non-GMO signal. And this was as a result of a campaign to get the federal government to label our products, whether they were genetically engineered or not. And what's really sad to say is that people see this label and they say, hey, it's non-GMO, it's safe to eat.

• 42:57Lewis Howes?

  Yeah.

• 42:58Vani Hari?

  But what they don't realize is that, yes, it doesn't have food that's made from seeds that are created to withstand heavy doses of, heavy doses of these chemicals like Roundup. But it also still has Roundup or other pesticides because there are a ton of conventional crops that still use Roundup and these other synthetic pesticides. So one of the reasons why I wanted GMOs labeled was not so much the genetically in modified seed that was being patented. I wasn't really so concerned about that seed. I was concerned by the fact that it was created to withstand those heavy doses of chemicals, right? I didn't want the chemical load in my body. I didn't want the constant exposure of glyphosate,

• 43:43Vani Hari?

  which is the main ingredient in Roundup, in my body, like, because, you know, it's linked to cancer, right? So I am kind of saddened at the fact that there's this huge industry of non-GMO foods, but people don't recognize that it also needs to be organic in order to safeguard yourself from these synthetic pesticides.

• 44:04Lewis Howes?

  So you should be looking for organic and non-GMO together.

• 44:06Vani Hari?

  Yeah.

• 44:07Lewis Howes?

  And then you know it's safe.

• 44:08Vani Hari?

  Right, yep, that's, yeah. And this is the information that, you know, I detail out in this book. You know, I had to go through some serious lawyer reviews.

• 44:18Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, you told me about this.

• 44:19Vani Hari?

  To get this information out. And, you know, you will see everything footnoted and noted to the end of day.

• 44:25Lewis Howes?

  It's amazing. Everything you guys need is in this book. Make sure you guys check it out. Feeding You Lies: How to Unravel the Food Industry's Playbook and Reclaim Your Health. Got a couple of questions final for you. I don't think I asked you this last time. It's called the three truths.

• 44:38Vani Hari?

  Okay.

• 44:39Lewis Howes?

  So imagine it's your last day on earth, as many years away as you want it to be. But you have to pick a day, it's your last day. You've done everything you want to do. You've accomplished everything. You've taken down every food company that tries to poison people. You've raised your family. You've done it all. And you get to leave three lessons behind for the world. Three truths that the world will remember you by. But you've got to take all of your other information with you. So they don't have access to your work or your books anymore. But they have these three truths. What would you say are yours?

• 45:13Vani Hari?

  Eat from the earth.

• 45:18Vani Hari?

  Find out why you are here.

• 45:23Vani Hari?

  And go do it.

• 45:30Vani Hari?

  Be present.

• 45:32Lewis Howes?

  It's a good lesson lately, right?

• 45:33Vani Hari?

  Yeah.

• 45:34Lewis Howes?

  Yeah. Being a mom, what does that tell you about being present?

• 45:37Vani Hari?

  Wow. I mean, it's everything. It is absolutely everything. There's nothing more important to my daughter and to her well-being than for me to be present with her.

• 45:46Lewis Howes?

  That's powerful. How long I've known you now, Bonnie?

• 45:49Vani Hari?

  Six years.

• 45:50Lewis Howes?

  Six years?

• 45:50Vani Hari?

  I think so.

• 45:51Lewis Howes?

  Is it really?

• 45:51Vani Hari?

  Yeah, I think it's six years.

• 45:52Lewis Howes?

  Do you remember when we met originally?

• 45:54Vani Hari?

  I think it was at, uh...

• 45:57Lewis Howes?

  Where was it?

• 45:58Vani Hari?

  Was it at, um, uh, Gracias Madre?

• 46:02Lewis Howes?

  Was it here? Six years ago?

• 46:04Vani Hari?

  Yeah.

• 46:04Lewis Howes?

  Was it?

• 46:05Vani Hari?

  Yeah.

• 46:06Lewis Howes?

  No.

• 46:06Vani Hari?

  Yeah.

• 46:07Lewis Howes?

  Really? Did we... Who did we meet with? Do you remember?

• 46:09Vani Hari?

  We were with...

• 46:10Lewis Howes?

  No, we met, we met, me and you met at, oh, man, I can't remember.

• 46:13Vani Hari?

  With Ryan and Samantha.

• 46:14Lewis Howes?

  Was that right?

• 46:15Vani Hari?

  Yes.

• 46:17Lewis Howes?

  I thought we met at like, uh, down at like some hotel lobby, like... Maybe that was another time. I can't remember, but six years ago, huh? Crazy.

• 46:25Vani Hari?

  Five and a half, six years ago, I think.

• 46:28Lewis Howes?

  I'd been in L.A. I'd just moved in L.A.

• 46:29Vani Hari?

  You just moved here.

• 46:30Lewis Howes?

  Yes, yeah, six years ago.

• 46:32Vani Hari?

  Yeah, and we walked up and down Sunset and went to Starbucks.

• 46:35Lewis Howes?

  Was that the first time we hung out?

• 46:36Vani Hari?

  I think so.

• 46:37Lewis Howes?

  Wow, gosh, okay.

• 46:38Vani Hari?

  Maybe we had talked on the phone before that.

• 46:40Lewis Howes?

  Yeah. I can't remember.

• 46:41Vani Hari?

  I just remember us, like, we were best buds.

• 46:45Lewis Howes?

  We were, it was great, it was great. And we were, and I was, you took me on an investigation hunt and all these things. It's been a pleasure getting to know you over the last five, six, four years, how long it's been. And I want to acknowledge you, Bonnie, for constantly showing up and doing this work because I know what it's like to get attacked and get like people trying to take you down. It's not fun. And the fact that you continue to show up and create work like this and spend years of time researching and studying and applying facts and data to back your information, it's really challenging to do. And you're helping a lot of parents, you're helping a lot of kids and human beings who might be suffering from misinformation. So I acknowledge you for all the work you continue to do.

• 47:27Lewis Howes?

  And that you are a great mom in the process of living your dreams. So I acknowledge you for all of it. Final question for you, where people can find you on, at foodbabe.com, thefoodbabe.com?

• 47:38Vani Hari?

  Yeah, just foodbabe.com.

• 47:39Lewis Howes?

  Foodbabe.com, is it at thefoodbabe on Instagram? Foodbabe on Facebook. And Feeding Your Lies, go pick up the book right now. It's on Amazon and bookstores everywhere you want to get it. Final question for you is what's your definition of greatness?

• 47:55Vani Hari?

  I would love to go back to my original interview with you and see what I said.

• 48:00Lewis Howes?

  I can't remember.

• 48:00Vani Hari?

  Gosh, I don't know. I wonder if it's changed?

• 48:04Lewis Howes?

  Yeah, it probably has.

• 48:05Vani Hari?

  Okay.

• 48:06Lewis Howes?

  Now that you're a mom.

• 48:07Vani Hari?

  Right, it has definitely changed. Live, live every day like it's your last. Yeah. I mean, really, the definition of greatness is like living every day like it's your last. Because you'll have no regrets and you will love and be present and do what you need to do. And you'll, I think, live with the most integrity.

• 48:29Lewis Howes?

  Thank you, Bonnie, hi.

• 48:30Vani Hari?

  Cool, thank you.

• 48:31Lewis Howes?

  Appreciate it.

• 48:36Lewis Howes?

  There you have it my friends, I hope you enjoyed this interview. Vani Hari, the food babe. If you did, make sure to tag me @lewishouse and tag Vani Hari as well. Let her know what you thought about this over on Instagram and share this with your friends. LewisHowes.com/757. We also just hit 400,000 subscribers over on YouTube. So, thank you to all our subscribers over there. If you haven't subscribed yet to the YouTube channel, this is where we release all of our videos every single week and other things that aren't on the podcast. Inspirational videos, motivational videos and resources. Go to youtube.com/LewisHowes, subscribe today or you can go to the show notes right here.

• 49:16Lewis Howes?

  LewisHowes.com/757 and you'll see the video with me and Vani and you can subscribe right there. Let's get it up to 500,000 soon. I appreciate all your support. Big thank you again to Vani for coming on. For me, food has become an integral part of my life. As I continue to get older, my body changes and evolves. And I need to make sure that I'm optimizing my health to the best of my ability. And that's why we need to know what's in our food and what we are intaking in our body. Because what we intake, we output with our energy. So, make sure that you guys consume this information, share it with a friend who you think it might be helpful. Share it with a mom who's got kids, who cares about their kids' health and their family health. We want to get this out there in a big way.

• 49:57Lewis Howes?

  Again, as Winston Churchill said, courage is what it takes to stand up and speak. Courage is also what it takes to sit down and listen. If you see something wrong in the world, make sure you stand up and speak out about it. Make sure you use your life to impact other people around you who might be struggling with something, whether it's their food or something else. This is your opportunity to make an impact. I love you all so very much and as always, you know what time it is. It's time to go out there and do something great.