Can Whole Foods Improve Gut Health and Mood After 40?

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Autumn: These guys were marketers, William Procter and James Gamble, and they saw a huge marketing opportunity. They absolutely convinced the American public that this was a cleaner Crisco. But if you've seen what's happened to our health since 1900, as these vegetable oils have supplanted animal fats, it's not a good thing.

And so there's this convergence of all of these different narratives that aren't necessarily rooted in true science and reality that have created this mainstream perception that meat is destroying our health. We know, though, that for dietary fat, dietary cholesterol and even dietary saturated fat, the evidence against them has basically crumbled. So what we used to believe was wrong with animal fats, we're now realizing maybe not so much.

Nikkiey: Hey, everybody. Welcome back to The WarriorBabe Show. Or if you are listening for the first time, welcome to the show. Today we have a very special guest with us, Autumn, who is the co-founder of Paleovalley, a company renowned for its dedication to providing high-quality, nutrient-dense food products. She has a background in holistic nutrition and a certification as an eating psychology coach.

She's passionate about empowering individuals to achieve optimal health through better nutrition and lifestyle choices. Together with her husband, Chas, she started Paleovalley to offer convenient, healthy snacks that align with the paleo lifestyle. Their products, which are behind me, you guys, are so freaking good. They include grass-fed beef sticks, superfood bars and various types of supplements, all crafted with organic, whole food ingredients. And we love just those words right there.

We're thrilled to have Autumn on the show today to share her journey, her insights into holistic health and tips for maintaining a nutritious diet. So, Autumn, thank you so much for being here. And everybody listening, please join me in welcoming Autumn to the show.

Autumn: Thank you, Nikkiey. Such a pleasure to be here. We love what you're doing and are really excited about this podcast. So thank you for having me.

Nikkiey: Of course. We're excited too. So let's kick it off. I'm very curious. This is the first time I'm meeting you, so I'm selfish in that I want to know more about you and why you became so passionate about health and fitness. Where did it all start?

Autumn: It all started when I didn't feel well. For much of my younger years, from when I was about 10, I had digestive issues that doctors labeled as irritable bowel syndrome because they didn't really know what was going on. I was just bloated and I had intermittent pain. It was so bad that one time I asked my mom to take me to the emergency room because I was sure there was something seriously wrong with me.

And they told me, take some Beano. You've got inadequate or kind of disorganized digestion, which doesn't really mean anything. So I didn't know what to do. We continued on that path and I started to believe life was going to be like that. When I got into my teens, I started to develop mental health issues that I now know are potentially related, at least in some ways, to what was going on in my gut. They did traditional talk therapy and psychiatry and antidepressants, and nothing really seemed to help.

I think I became more and more hopeless, and then got into substance abuse and was a real pill in high school, so much so that my parents actually kicked me out of the house before I graduated. Fortunately, I still loved learning and dance and wanted to become a professional dancer. So I made my way to Los Angeles, I finished college, and while I was dancing I met my husband, Chas. When he got close enough to me, he said, you are suffering. You're putting on a good show, but you are definitely not thriving. How do we get you there?

So we went to doctors in Los Angeles who offered very few solutions. But online in 2007, he found some people who were using diet to treat digestive issues, which at that time was very novel and surprising and didn't seem like it could possibly be effective to me. But when I eliminated a lot of the foods that were problematic for me and stuck to a whole food dietary template, my digestive issues were gone in 30 days. I was so blown away that I shared it with hundreds of my friends on an online forum.

So many of them saw positive impacts that I thought, we're really on to something here. I was working as a celebrity fitness trainer, and I'd always been fit, but I wasn't always well. So even though I loved Tracy Anderson and I had so many amazing opportunities, I decided to quit that job and go back to school. I got my master's, and literally this morning I am submitting my dissertation. I will finally have my doctorate in holistic nutrition. It's been a 10-year learning process.

The reason we got into physical products is because I went on a world tour with Jennifer Lopez in 2012, right after I realized how important dietary change was for me. I couldn't find the foods to maintain the state of health I had achieved while on the road. We were in a different country every day sometimes. So when I got back to the United States, my husband and I decided, we don't have prior experience in food manufacturing, but we really want to figure out how to make this kind of lifestyle accessible for people, with clean options readily available for them to take on the road or do whatever they want.

So Paleovalley was founded because I discovered the healing power of whole food, and I wanted to hold on to it and share it with anyone and everyone who wanted to live that lifestyle.

Nikkiey: Wow, that's so inspiring. Thank you for sharing that story. And you said that you were fit, but not well. I'm sure so many people can resonate with that, because in the fitness industry there are so many things you could follow and go down the rabbit hole of, trying to be on trends or quick fixes. But to get to the well aspect, that's inspiring. It's a lifestyle at that point.

So you and Chas then started Paleovalley. You started to share that story, but was the why rooted in all of the things you were experiencing yourself along your journey? And then how did you do it with no background? That's so inspiring. I'm sure there are some entrepreneurs listening to this thinking, how do I just get started on something like that?

Autumn: Well, I'll tell you. First, when we were in Paris on tour, Chas said he was going to come over because I was struggling, like I said, to find high-quality options. I was eating pistachios and apples. He said, I'm going to bring you some clean beef sticks. And he did. He brought me a suitcase full. When I started eating them, I realized I was still having a lot of digestive issues. And these were grass-fed beef sticks, so what's the deal? As a fitness trainer, I wanted a really high-quality source of protein. It's very important for my mental health, my physical performance, all of the things.

So we looked into what ingredients could potentially be causing that, and we found one called encapsulated citric acid, which is actually the industry standard. It's the way they preserve almost every beef stick on the market. It's basically derived from genetically modified corn and hydrogenated oil. They take these beads and coat them, put them into the meat and then melt it, which drops the pH. When we talked to the manufacturer, I said, this is interesting.

And he said, yeah, you don't have to label it, though, so it's no big deal. It'll just say citric acid, and people will think it's from lemons or limes. I said, well, I'm not interested in deceiving people, and if this is potentially harmful for me or causing digestive issues, I want to remove it. How do we do that? And they said, basically you can't. Using it is far more lucrative, meaning the process of not using it takes about four times as long. But because I had used a paleo template, I thought, what did our ancestors do with meat?

They weren't using encapsulated citric acid forever. They were fermenting it. So we got on the phone and probably called 200 different manufacturers, most of whom turned us down. But one person was willing to take a chance and said, okay, ferment your beef sticks. So we started with a beef stick, and all we wanted to do was ferment it. That was the differentiating factor. We came up with an ad where I told the story about what encapsulated citric acid was and why we created our product, and it really resonated with people.

So we had one ad that really helped propel us into the marketplace. Then, as we moved along our journey, I got pregnant and had very low energy levels. How could I improve them? Well, eating organs. I'm not someone who likes organ meats. I was taking liver and freezing it into balls and trying to throw it in my mouth every morning, and it was painful. But I realized when I ate liver, I felt profoundly different, especially throughout my pregnancy.

So we freeze-dried liver. We were maybe the first or second organ complex on the market, about 10 years ago. They're just now having a heyday, but before that, freeze-dried organ meats were a really novel thing. So that was our second product. As I've learned more and more about the ingredients and foods you can add into the diet that most people aren't consuming, like organ meats, fish roe, spirulina and bone broth, we've asked, how do we create options that are not only easily accessible but also delicious?

That's all we've done. What do we need? What do we want to feed our child? What are our friends saying they want? Luckily, we've been doing this a while, so we have a very loyal following and an email list that tells us what they like and what they don't. We've expanded, and we've been really lucky. I think at the end of the day, the core reason we've been successful so far is that we never sacrifice the integrity of our products.

There are much easier, much more lucrative ways to make our products. As you see with most companies, as they scale they make those compromises and start increasing the margins on their products. But we're never going to do it, because I'm going to eat the product. I'm that person who reacts to anything. My body just feels different. That hasn't always felt like a gift, but when I apply it to this, it is a gift.

And it's literally a family company. It's not just me and my husband. It's my sister, my brother-in-law, my other brother-in-law. It's a family business and we're really passionate about it.

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Wow, that's so cool. That's a very inspiring story. This is the beef stick she's talking about, you guys. It's absolutely delicious. I have tried so many beef sticks in the space, and I have to say, not only do I love this, but I've had many beef sticks in this house and my dog will not leave me alone when I have this one. So I have to share.

And that's so interesting about the liver. I actually got chills when you were talking about that. I see it all around now, and I'm like, I don't want to have to do that.

Autumn: No, but it's profound. I remember the first time I forced myself to eat liver. My husband often tried to hide it in a meal, which is almost impossible. But I felt this vitality. It literally made me do a happy dance. Especially for people with iron-related issues, the synergy of the nutrients in liver, and the fact that it has higher natural levels of B12 and vitamin A, makes it profoundly invigorating. It has an anti-fatigue factor, which I'm sure you understand, because athletes have been using it for a very long time because of that anti-fatigue factor.

Nikkiey: Incredible. I also love that you said you're going to eat this stuff. You walk the talk. I think that's so important when you're in the fitness space. At WarriorBabe, I'm not going out and eating whatever I want. I have a routine. I follow my workouts, I eat right, and then I preach it and walk it. And you do the same thing. You're going to eat your products, which I think is an amazing quality.

Autumn: It's funny, because at first it was a struggle. We had our cheat weekends, but soon you really start to notice, oh, I don't feel as good. I don't think as well, and I'm not as kind or patient a parent when I don't feel my best. So it's self-perpetuating. Once you experience life in a very different way, I don't even want to go back. My son had a birthday party this weekend, and I'll have three bites of cake and be like, okay, I feel good.

Nikkiey: Awesome. You just touched on some of the things you experience when you're eating better. So what is the impact of high-quality ingredients on health and wellness? How can eating the right things make people better?

Autumn: Well, our body is literally built from the food we're consuming, including our brain. So everything is going to function better. Your energy production is going to be more efficient. You're going to bounce out of bed instead of having to peel yourself out of bed. Then there are your muscles, your tendons, your ligaments, your joints. I've noticed so many people who used to have pain and weren't able to move very well, like my husband, add something like collagen and high-quality protein, and they can move better.

You can think better. Our brain is 60% fat, and what we're consuming goes directly into creating our brain. The protein we consume, and the amino acids specifically, are the basis of our neurotransmitters. So the way our brain communicates, the way our brain is built, the way our body is built, all comes directly from the foods we choose to put into our body.

You can also get more granular, which I did, with stabilizing your blood sugar. That profoundly impacts your mood, your energy levels, your performance, your sleep quality and your risk for disease. Then there's making sure you have all the nutrients. Many of us are nutrient deficient. People have said up to 90% of us are deficient in at least one nutrient. And then, are we eating things that are creating inflammation in the body, creating more work for our body or hampering our immune function?

So what we're eating is talking directly to our cells and literally creating the health, or lack thereof, within our entire body.

Nikkiey: And you mentioned at the beginning that what you were experiencing personally were gut issues, and then that translated to the mental side. That's like our second brain down there, the gut.

Autumn: They actually call it that. It has its own entire nervous system. It is our second brain, and it's connected by the vagus nerve. They used to think messages primarily went from the brain to the gut, but now we know just as many, if not more, messages go directly from the gut to the brain. Our gut is also where our serotonin is created, and some of our dopamine. And it houses 80% of our immune system. When that immune system is out of whack, or we're eating foods that create inflammation, that immune activation and inflammation can go to the brain and negatively impact brain function. So this is a two-way street of communication all the time.

I sincerely believe that if I had understood this connection and been able to address my gut issues as a youngster, my parents would have had a much easier time with me.

Nikkiey: When you shared your story, I totally resonated with it, so hardcore.

Autumn: And I also think it's really frustrating, because I see so many kids suffering today, my son's generation, and people not even looking at diet. Schools skip over all of these foundational things, diet, sleep, screen time, and go right into more traditional therapies, which definitely have their place. But one of my main missions is to help people understand there's a lot you can do before we get there that may be all you need to do. Not always, but in my case it definitely was.

Nikkiey: Can you share a little about how you source and find the best ingredients? Whenever I'm going to try something new, the ingredients are the first thing I look at. If it's a laundry list of ingredients, I'm not going to put that into my body. If I can't even pronounce half of the things on the ingredient list, we shouldn't be consuming it. So how do you source and choose the best ingredients, and what's your approach to creating healthy snacks?

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Autumn: That's such a good question. Basically, we want to be the company that always prioritizes health over profit, and like I said, it's a very hard thing to do. A lot of these stabilizers and other random ingredients end up there because they make the machine flow better or allow things to mix better. I get that some people really value that. But for us, we want it to be as minimal as possible, with only ingredients that not only won't hurt you but are going to add something.

That's one of the things we've really focused on. As a fitness trainer I used to live on protein or carbohydrate bars. Everything started to be gluten-free, grain-free, soy-free, all the free things. But what was actually in there? Maybe some almonds and some eggs. We wanted spirulina and blueberries and kiwi and collagen protein. We wanted to add the foods that are going to bring vibrant health. So we started there.

You'll also often see companies with one or two main organic ingredients, and if you look at the label, most of the others are not. We will always use organic ingredients if they're commercially available, because sometimes they're not. The ones that aren't organic will be tested for pesticides. If organic isn't available, the second-best thing is testing to make sure the things you don't want aren't in there.

Animal products are one of our other primary focuses, because we see a lot of people not paying attention to where their meat and animal products come from, and there are dramatic differences. I'm actually doing my dissertation on that very thing. There are a lot of differences between conventionally raised beef and grass-fed beef. Even within grass-fed beef, there are differences between beef raised in a monoculture and beef raised on diverse pastures with rotational grazing. A lot of people also source grass-fed beef from outside the country. For us, it's really important to prioritize American-raised, regeneratively raised grass-fed beef. We also use pastured chicken and pastured poultry, and all of our collagen comes from 100% grass-fed and finished beef.

All beef is grass-fed at the beginning of its life, because cows start their lives on grass. It's the finishing diet that really matters. And the grass-fed regulation went away as of 2016, so the label doesn't really tell you what the animal's eating. So we go beyond just being able to label it grass-fed. We want to actually ensure our animals are grass-fed and finished, and that our chickens and pigs are roaming on pastures as they're supposed to. They're never confined. They have a healthy, happy life, and people are taking care of them.

So we just don't cut corners on our ingredients, not only because we're eating them but because we prioritize the health of the planet too. We don't want to use pesticides. We don't want to give our animals hormones. We don't want to feed them a grain diet, because not only can it create changes in the final product, but the use of pesticides, herbicides and insecticides in growing the corn and soy for animal feed is very environmentally destructive. We were flabbergasted to hear that the dwindling levels of topsoil caused by our conventional agricultural practices might lead to a day when our son, or his generation, can't even grow his own food. That terrified us.

So it's human health centric and planetary health centric, because we're eating these products and we're really dedicated to future generations being able to nourish themselves. We just don't cut corners. That's our thing.

Nikkiey: Thank you for sourcing quality, amazing ingredients, and for going into that story. That's why I love podcasting and meeting the people behind the brand who do the great work of sourcing the good things we put into our bodies. Like I said, guys, I've tried many of these products, and even hearing the way you share this, this is something I will be putting into my body. I encourage everybody to check out Paleovalley. The links are in the description below this podcast. I'm being very genuine that this is some good quality stuff.

It goes back to what you said about how you source it. I think that's so freaking important, especially the finished aspect, grass-fed and grass-finished. I think this is becoming more known in the space. People were all grass-fed this, grass-fed that. Everybody's looking at grass-fed. But the way you explained it, sure, all the animals start out eating grass, but what about what they eat for the duration of their lives?

Autumn: It's important. And when it comes to animal products, organic animals can still be fed grain and can still be somewhat confined. They only have to be on pasture for 120 days, and they can be fed corn and soy that is organic. Obviously they're not given antibiotics, and pesticides aren't on their feed, and that's a good start. But grass-fed, 100% grass-fed and regeneratively raised are all terms that lack definition, and I would love to encourage people to be mindful of them, because it changes the fatty acid profile.

We're publishing a paper on this very soon. The differences can be really dramatic and exciting, because grass-fed and finished beef can be a great source of omega-3 fatty acids, which most people think come primarily from fish. Up to 90,000 Americans die every year because of omega-3 fatty acid deficiency. So there is value in beef beyond what we normally think of, especially when it's raised in ways that are compliant with agroecological principles.

Nikkiey: Please dive in. What are the benefits? Why should everybody eat meat?

Autumn: Oh, meat. I don't know if you know, but we're doing a docuseries called Rethink Meat.

Nikkiey: No.

Autumn: We're just finishing episode six. When we started Wild Pastures, our other company, which is a meat delivery service sourcing only from American regenerative farmers, whenever people unsubscribed we asked why. So many people told me, we're going vegan for the planet. I thought, oh no. I'm living in this bubble where I understand this, but there are still so many people who think animals are inherently destructive to the environment. I don't know if you've ever heard of Allan Savory?

Nikkiey: No.

Autumn: Okay, everybody, you need to go watch his YouTube video. He was a rangeland ecologist who grew up in Africa and loved animals and the environment. The mainstream view in his community was what you hear today: animals are killing the environment. He believed that, and with the input of other scientists, he decided to kill 40,000 elephants because he believed it would improve the environment.

And guess what? It did not. The land deteriorated and got worse. What he realized after studying the work of André Voisin in France is that it's not the animals. It's the management of those animals. It's humans. Are you putting them in a feedlot? Are you taking them off pasture? Are you letting them graze continuously, which just means you're not moving them? Animals will graze the same thing over and over if they're not moved, whereas animals in the wild would be moving. They'd go to a plot of land, consume it, defecate and move on because of predators.

So he created a system called holistic management, which mimics these predator-prey cycles and this movement of animals in a way that absolutely rehabilitates environments rather than disturbing and deteriorating them. So animals raised in ecologically compliant and beneficial ways are absolutely critical for the environment, but also for human health.

The really interesting thing I learned during this docuseries is that the reason we believe meat is bad is not necessarily rooted in science. Meat is essential. We've been consuming it for millions of years. Some people believe it's responsible for the development of our brains. There are certain nutrients, zinc, iron, vitamin B12, that we just can't get without animal products. And a lot of when we started to believe meat was bad was rooted in religion.

Have you heard this story?

Nikkiey: No.

Autumn: It's fascinating, and we go through this history. I'm not going to go too in depth, but it involves the Seventh-day Adventist church. There's a doctor named Gary Fettke, an orthopedic surgeon in Australia, who was amputating limbs of his diabetic patients. Through his own experimentation he noticed that a low-carb diet was helpful for his health, and he started telling his diabetic patients, maybe you should reduce the amount of sugar you're consuming.

A dietitian there reported him to the board, and he suffered four years of litigation and became the first medical doctor ever silenced from talking about nutrition, which is crazy, because all he said was cut out sugar. His wife, Belinda Fettke, watched him go through all of this. He was presenting valid scientific research. Today even the American Diabetes Association notes that low-carb diets can be helpful.

He presented this science until he was blue in the face, and she did a deep dive into where this belief came from and what was driving it. She found the Seventh-day Adventists were playing a huge role in our perception of meat. Their prophetess, Ellen G. White, believed she had a vision from God and decided meat was a sinful food. She believed it led children to masturbate and led to sinful desires.

John Harvey Kellogg was a student of Ellen G. White, and he created Kellogg's to give kids an alternative so they wouldn't have these lustful desires. The Seventh-day Adventists are very influential in dietary policy and on our dietary guidelines committees. One of them founded the American Dietetic Association, and they have hundreds of hospitals throughout the world. So that is one factor driving our belief.

The other is Crisco, and the fact that we created these alternative fats with the advent of hydrogenation, without any scientific substantiation of their benefits. These guys were marketers, William Procter and James Gamble, and they saw a huge marketing opportunity. They absolutely convinced the American public that Crisco, which was originally 50% trans fat, mind you, was a cleaner and more healthful alternative to animal fats. But if you've seen what's happened to our health since 1900, as these vegetable oils have supplanted animal fats, it's not a good thing.

Then of course we have the plant-based market. We have animal rights activists and environmental activists who don't yet understand that there are ways to raise animals that are not only not harmful but very beneficial. So there's this convergence of different narratives that aren't necessarily rooted in true science and reality that have created the mainstream perception that meat is destroying our health. We could go into the research around Ancel Keys too. But we know that for dietary fat, dietary cholesterol and even dietary saturated fat, the evidence against them has basically crumbled.

So what we used to believe was wrong with animal fats, we're now realizing maybe not so much. Meat contains highly bioavailable nutrients we can't get anywhere else. Also, when people consume less dietary protein, their appetite might be enhanced, so they might need to eat more. There's something called the protein leverage hypothesis, which states that we're eating for amino acids. So removing meat and relying on a more plant-based diet might actually prompt people to eat more in certain circumstances.

So there are many reasons meat's important. I did do an episode on veganism, and I don't want to tell people what to eat. The only time I get concerned is for kids and for pregnancy. My son went to school and there was a girl who said there's a club and you can't be in it if you eat meat. But there are very well-documented irreversible changes in kids due to B12 deficiency, if the mother is B12 deficient or if they are deficient in B12, iron and long-chain omega-3s.

So animal products are really, really important. They've sustained us for millions of years, and they're absolutely not driving the increased risk of disease we're seeing today. There are a lot of other factors at play. I hope people will stop fearing meat, especially meat that is raised in ecologically responsible ways.

Nikkiey: Wow, thank you so much for sharing that perspective. And it's rooted in science. I want people to have valid reasons for thinking the way they're thinking. Where is it actually coming from? Is it coming from stories they've heard over the years that aren't rooted in science, or is it coming from what you're saying, which is science? And I love that you said you're not telling anybody what to eat. Everybody has a preference. But when it comes to the science of our bodies, pregnancy and kids as they're growing, I think those are very logical reasons to be rooted in the science for overall health. Science, baby. Freaking love science. Thank you for sharing that perspective.

Autumn: You're so welcome. You hear so many loud voices that are passionate, but not always accurate.

Nikkiey: Okay, I want to go back and pick your brain on the omega-3 statement you made. We switched to meat, but I really want to go back to omega-3s as well. Can you share what you're writing about?

Autumn: Oh my goodness, yes. I'm so fascinated by this topic. Omega-3 fatty acids are interesting because Harvard researchers suggested up to 90,000 Americans die every year because of this deficiency, and yet we're not really told to consume omega-3 fatty acids specifically. We're told to eat polyunsaturated fatty acids, but that's omega-6s and omega-3s. With the advent of seed oils, we're consuming a lot more fatty acids of the omega-6 type, and the balance between omega-6 and omega-3 is really important.

We used to eat one to one, one omega-3 for every omega-6, and now we're consuming way more omega-6s. These fats have very different roles in our body. Omega-6 fatty acids get into our cell membranes and in general create a more inflammatory response that lasts longer. Whereas if you have a higher proportion of omega-3s in your cell membranes, it's a smaller, more damped inflammatory response and a resolution of inflammation.

Omega-3s are essential for the health of our brain, our cardiovascular system and our immune system. If you haven't read the book Omega Balance by Dr. Anthony Hulbert, I really hope you do. He's a zoologist, and he talks about this balance. A lot of scientists studying this balance are really saying two things: yes, watch your intake of omega-6s, but more importantly, focus on omega-3 fatty acids.

Why beef is important is that there are plant forms of omega-3 fatty acids. Alpha-linolenic acid is the plant-based form, and you'll find it in greens. But the conversion to the longer-chain forms like EPA, DHA and even DPA is limited. Rates below 15% are converted. We need those fats for the health of our immune system, our brain with DHA, and our eyes. Very important. There was a paper out of the UK, because we don't really have a recommendation here for how many omega-3s you should have, but they do there. And grass-fed beef can be considered a good source of omega-3 fatty acids.

Many of us are just not eating the amounts of fish that would be helpful for our health. And omega-3 fatty acid supplementation has limitations. Some trials show benefits and some don't. We know food-based sources are always the best. We also have studies showing that when you eat grass-fed beef compared with conventional beef, the levels of omega-3s in your blood rise significantly. That's really important, because some people argue that the absolute amounts of omega-3s in beef aren't that high.

But it's not always about the amount. It's about how well your body uses it, and it seems your body is able to use the omega-3s in beef really well. So omega-3 fatty acids are something I've really focused on and gotten really nerdy about. I've even started testing my omega-3 index. We don't have to go into that, but suffice it to say, I really hope people start incorporating more food-based omega-3s into their diet. Research has looked at pain, allergies and autoimmunity, and there are even proposed mechanisms by which omega-3s reduce appetite and could help you lose weight, and mental health too.

There's some really cool research from Joseph Hibbeln, who used to work at the NIH. He's done a lot of research on omega-3 fatty acids and mental health, hostility, aggressiveness and ADHD, and the results are really impressive when you increase the amount certain populations are consuming. So I can't say enough good things.

I'm absolutely obsessed with it, and grass-fed beef can be a good source if you don't like fish and you don't want to take fish oil supplements, especially when it's grass-fed and grass-finished. Our paper also found something really interesting: the omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acid ratio was even better when there was a diversity of plants in the animal's diet. So it's not just one type of grass. Diverse pastures and longer grazing durations seem to make an even more profound impact.

Nikkiey: Omega-3s, it's fascinating. I'm on this omega-3 train right now. Totally side note, but I just started giving my dog more omega-3s because his skin was dry and flaky and he was having allergies. I just started popping in more of that, and it's better.

Autumn: Wow. We actually have a fish roe supplement, and we give it to our dog every single day because she had hip pain. We also give our dog turmeric and the organs. She walks better and doesn't have pain like she used to.

Nikkiey: That's a good future product for Paleovalley, dog stuff.

Autumn: We've definitely thought about it. Whole animal utilization is really important to us, so you can use things for dog food, especially when the animals are raised really well, that human consumers might not be as into. I think we'll eventually move in that direction.

Nikkiey: So cool. My dog already eats it daily.

Autumn: Ours too.

Nikkiey: Okay, I want to circle to the whey protein, because it's so delicious. I don't have the vanilla flavor with me right now because I ran out. I consumed the whole bag because it's that delicious. Mixed with a banana or anything you want to put in it, it's yummy post-workout. But let's jump on the colostrum. It's a big craze in the space right now. What is it, and why is it in the protein powder?

Autumn: I love that question. Colostrum is the mother's first milk. It's called liquid gold because it's basically responsible for the maturation of the infant's immune system. It's full of immunoglobulins like IgG, IgM and IgA that create this new resistance. It passes immunity from the mama to the baby for the exposures the mama has had.

It also has growth factors like insulin-like growth factor 1, which helps heal the skin. It contains a wealth of proteins, like colostrinin and others, that have well-demonstrated benefits. Lactoferrin is another one. It's an antimicrobial, antiviral, antifungal substance. So colostrum can help improve your body's ability to heal and improve the response of your immune system. There's even evidence it improves performance and protein synthesis.

So colostrum is a wealth of immune-supportive factors and other nutrients that can supercharge your immune system and your overall health. Whey also contains a lot of those, but the problem is that a lot of whey isn't processed in a way that maintains the integrity and biological activity of the many compounds it contains. One really cool part of colostrum's history is that it was actually what people used before the advent of antibiotics.

There was a trial in Italy, I believe in the early 2000s, that looked at older individuals who consumed colostrum or had a flu vaccination. They found the people who had colostrum fared better and had a reduced incidence of flu, even compared with those who had a vaccination. I'm not saying don't get a vaccination. I'm just saying colostrum is very powerful and has been recognized historically for that ability.

Now it's having a resurgence. We put it in the protein powder because whey protein is already immune supportive, and there are compounds we could talk about there too. But we thought, what if we gave everybody a shot of colostrum at the same time, in their daily protein shake, and helped rehabilitate their immune system and gut function? What could potentially happen? We were really excited about making it easy, delicious and part of your daily routine.

Nikkiey: Love it. And it's delicious. I love it so much, the vanilla.

Autumn: It tastes like ice cream. That's one of my favorite things we've ever created, the vanilla whey, for sure.

Nikkiey: Guys, that's what I was telling Autumn right before we hopped on to record. The vanilla protein powder tastes like a dessert. It's hard to find good-quality protein powder that tastes good. Some are very bland, and some you have to hold your nose and down it. This is not like that.

Autumn: And it's especially hard without artificial sweeteners. Sometimes powders taste good, but there's sucralose or aspartame, and those things don't work for me and lead to gut stuff. We just use organic monk fruit, coconut milk powder and organic flavoring.

Nikkiey: And natural ingredients. Five ingredients on this. I love that, Autumn. Five ingredients, not a list.

Autumn: The fewer, the better. That's always our motto. Simple.

Nikkiey: Amazing. So you're a huge advocate for mental health. This is the last question I want to ask you. What are three things you wish people knew about the link between diet and mental health?

Autumn: Oh, I love this. These three things are the stages I went through to rehabilitate my mental health in a dietary way. The first was removing inflammatory foods. We now know that for at least a subset of those who are depressed, and this might not be true for everyone, depression is rooted in inflammation. When you create inflammation, you can create depression. They used to think it was because you were sick, but we're seeing that when you shut off that inflammation, people can become less depressed or potentially feel better. So every single thing you put into your body, if it's full of inflammatory ingredients, could potentially be creating inflammation.

But different foods are inflammatory for different people. Mine was garlic, which is very strange, since it's considered very healthful and is great for other people. It took identifying gluten and garlic as two of my inflammatory triggers before my mental health started getting better and before my skin started getting better. So processed foods, sugary foods and seed oils, for sure. But sometimes it's foods you might not suspect that your body just isn't loving.

So identifying your sources of inflammation, whether dietary or environmental, is really important. The second was stabilizing blood sugar. I don't know if you've ever been on a blood sugar roller coaster or recognized it as such. If you're consuming a lot of carbohydrates, your energy goes up for a while and then you crash. A lot of people think this is normal. They do it throughout the day. They need a nap. They get hangry. But there's a link: people who have these blood sugar swings, even diabetics, have higher rates of depression. When you stabilize blood sugar, you can feel your mood improve.

When I switched to a paleo diet, I was still eating a ton of dried mango, things that weren't keeping my blood sugar stable. So I eventually wore a glucometer and got very in touch with what put my blood sugar out of whack, because again, that's different for everyone.

They did a really cool study in Israel where they put blood sugar monitors on a lot of different people. For some people, bananas caused a blood sugar rise, and some people could eat cookies better than bananas, with less of a blood sugar response. So become acquainted with and notice your response to different foods. Always prioritize protein. That's the core of all my meals and snacks. They're pretty much always protein-centric.

If I don't want to eat a beef stick, or tuna, or herring, which I've really gotten into lately, then I'm not really that hungry, so I'll skip the snack. That can be the simple step you take. You don't need to eliminate carbohydrates. I also noticed after testing that I could eat far more carbohydrates than I thought, as long as I paired them with protein. That was really cool.

The last thing is that there's really well-documented evidence that nutrient deficiencies lead to mental health issues. There was an analysis in 2018 of the most mental health supportive foods, and they categorized them in different ways. There were leafy greens and really colorful vegetables, so those are very important. But among animal foods, it was kidney, heart, liver, all these organ meats, and fish. Grass-fed beef has also been found to be a very mood-protective food. Dr. Felice Jacka did some research where she expected beef would be associated with more depression and anxiety, and she actually found the opposite, which was really interesting to her.

Iron is really important for the health of the brain. I've noticed focus issues and lethargy in people. Vitamin B12: there are some crazy stories about mental health issues with B12 deficiency, paranoia and a whole range of things. DHA, obviously, that really important long-chain omega-3 fatty acid. They've actually seen supplemental EPA, which is the long-chain fatty acid that comes before DHA, reverse depression. I believe that study was with EPA.

We've talked about omega-3s, but a lot of people are really deficient in omega-3 fatty acids. So if we can identify and avoid inflammatory foods as often as possible, whatever those are for us, stabilize our blood sugar, and make sure we're not only avoiding problematic foods but also adding in nutrient-dense foods, organ meats, high-quality fish, collagen, all the things we've lost touch with as a culture, then I think we create a nice foundation for our brain and body to have everything they need to really feel good. Because, as we were saying, our physical and mental health are the same. We often like to put them in silos, but it comes from the same thing.

Nikkiey: Amen to all of those. Love them. I said that was my last question, but I actually have another one. As we wrap up the podcast today, what are some of your personal favorite snacks from Paleovalley?

Autumn: Oh, that's so good. My absolute favorite, and something I have every single day, is the chocolate bone broth. I put it in water.

Nikkiey: What did you say? I'm going to have to get that.

Autumn: Oh, you have to try it. I am obsessed, and so are so many people. I was such a fan of Dr. Drew, and I met him recently, and he cannot stop talking about our chocolate bone broth. You can put it in water, in milk, in almond milk or in a smoothie. People make brownies out of it because it is so darn delicious.

And we all know collagen supports the health of our hair, skin and nails. It actually improves glutathione production. The glycine is calming and helps your sleep. So many good things, so that one I have every single day. Another is our chocolate superfood bars. I just love them. They're my dessert. I chop them into little pieces and put them in the freezer, and whenever I need a diversion from work or just a moment of joy, I have a little bit.

And my last snack, oh gosh. I'm also obsessed with venison sticks right now because the venison is just incredible. They sold out. They're back in stock now, but we had no idea what the response would be. They are absolutely delicious. And the last one, which I don't talk about as much, is superfood golden milk. Turmeric is one of the most well-studied anti-inflammatory substances. It has so many benefits for the gut and the brain, and people even put it on their skin.

It's amazing, but you don't want to eat turmeric every day. It gets old. So we combined turmeric, ginger and cinnamon, put it in coconut milk powder and added functional mushrooms. It's a delicious drink for the morning, in or in place of your coffee, or at night as an after-dinner drink. It's absolutely delicious and one of my favorites. If you haven't tried it, I'll send it to you, because it's one of our more under-the-radar products. But it's really gaining in popularity because it's absolutely wonderful.

Nikkiey: Amazing. I'm definitely going to add the ones you noted to the list of what I want to try next.

Autumn: Oh, and I forgot, we have a coffee too. That's what I'm drinking right now. It has the mushrooms, of course, and something called NeuroFactor. Most coffee just uses the bean, but we use the whole coffee fruit, because the coffee fruit has a lot of polyphenols, which are among the main compounds in coffee responsible for its benefits. It's been shown to improve BDNF, or brain fertilizer, production pretty significantly.

I noticed a pretty dramatic change. Of course it's organic, we roast it using solar power and all the things, and it's really delicious too. And low acid. I'm always surprised at the feedback people give, like, this is the only coffee I can drink that doesn't upset my stomach. So coffee too.

Nikkiey: Coffee. My listeners know this, but I gave up coffee three or four weeks ago.

Autumn: Oh my gosh. You know what, I only do decaf. Did you do it for the caffeine?

Nikkiey: I did it for the caffeine. I'm giving it a try and seeing how it goes. I tapered down because I was consuming so much, and for the last 10 days I've been completely caffeine free.

Autumn: I've been caffeine free since I had my son, and he's nine. I love it. That was another one of the things really impacting my mood. I'm already so energetic and I run a little hot, so it was pushing me. It was like stealing my energy from tomorrow. Then I'd wake up grumpy and do too much, and I was stuck in this cycle. I'll never go back. Sometimes I'm like, let's just try it, and it takes me out of sync with my body's natural rhythms. It impacts my sleep and most definitely my mood. So keep me posted. I hope you like it, because I love life over here. I just do the decaf.

Nikkiey: I resonate so hard with everything you just said, and I'm loving it so far. Initially the hump was a little rough, but I'm past it now, and I feel so much more calm. My head's clear. I have clear thoughts. And like you said, I'm already very energetic, so it's been nice.

Well, Autumn, thank you so much for being here today and for sharing all of your insights. It's been insanely valuable, everything you dove into, the perspectives, the insight. Listeners, definitely go check out the Paleovalley items linked in the description below. We have a special offer for you guys too. Autumn, where can everyone find you and hang out with you on social? We'll put it in the link below.

Autumn: Oh, this is so fun. Online, you can hang out with me at paleovalley.com and wildpastures.com. If you have questions or concerns, people email me all the time at autumn@paleovalley.com, and I will respond. If you're local to the Denver-Boulder area, we have a restaurant, wildpasturesburger.com, and you can come there. It's awesome. We only cook the fries in tallow. Everything is sourced from American regenerative farms. We don't have any refined sugar in the place, even though a child recently wrote us a letter saying, please just add a little sugar, why no sugar? Because his parents loved to eat there so much.

But the food is delicious. The sauces are all made in-house, and we have milkshakes made from organic milk, sweetened with monk fruit, that are absolutely delicious. So you can find us there too.

Nikkiey: Nice. Autumn, thanks for being here. Appreciate you.

Autumn: Thanks, Nikkiey. It was a pleasure. So much fun.

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