Lab To Table

Ingredients like “natural flavorings & colorings” and “rosemary extract” sound benign…until you dig deeper and find out how these terms misrepresent the ingredients that are actually in our food. Today, nutritionist Cyndi O’Meara of Changing Habits, and author of Lab to Table, peels back food labels, revealing the dark underbelly of the food industry: how our health is being sacrificed for profit.

Cyndi defines terms and explains how we’re in a new age of biotechnology that allows chemists to genetically modify micro-organisms (not just crops) and insert them into our food. And then said micro-organisms are labeled with familiar names like “citric acid.”

Cyndi discusses questionable ingredients in synthetic meats and foods labeled “natural.” And she also offers suggestions for how to avoid becoming lab rats in this grand experiment. The first step is to take our health into our own hands. This includes buying local food, from trusted farmers, and getting back into the kitchen, making meals out of single-ingredient foods.

Visit Cyndi’s website: changinghabits.com.au

Become a member of the Weston A. Price Foundation here.

Check out our sponsor: Ancestral Supplements

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Episode Transcript

Within the below transcript the bolded text is Hilda Labrada Gore and the regular text is Cyndi O’Meara.

Our guest is Cyndi O’Meara. Cyndi is an inspirational and influential nutritionist who is changing the dietary and lifestyle habits of countless people worldwide. Cyndi is the Founder of Changing Habits and its nutrition academy, which offers a plethora of programs and products to educate and improve health and vitality.

She is also the Director of the 2017 documentary, What’s with Wheat? and the author of Lab to Table. In this episode, we talk about food labels and how you can’t always take the ingredient list at face value. For example, rosemary extract sounds benign, and so do the terms natural flavorings and natural colorings. Cyndi peels back the curtain, revealing what these ingredients are and how they impact our health negatively. She also reveals the priorities of food manufacturers and much more.

The conversation includes a discussion on how our own methane production could be affecting the climate, not just that of cows, the ingredients in synthetic meets, and so much more. Cyndi sounds the alarm to empower us, to take back our health into our own hands, rather than continuing to be unwitting guinea pigs, part of a grand experiment with our health.

Before we get into it, we want to invite you to become members of the Weston A. Price Foundation. We are a nonprofit supported by members committed to education, research, and activism. If you appreciate what we do and enjoy our projects like this show, join hands with us. Membership is only $40 a year, about the cost of an average monthly gym membership. You will help support this important work. Go to the WestonAPrice.org website, and click on the Become a Member link on our homepage. Thank you so much in advance.

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Visit Cyndi’s website: ChangingHabits.com.au

Become a member of the Weston A. Price Foundation here.

Check out our sponsor: Ancestral Supplements

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Welcome to the show, Cyndi.

Thanks, Hilda.

You have a book called Lab to Table. I’ve heard of farm-to-table before, but not Lab to Table. What are you talking about?

It is a subheading. It is to stop being a lab rat and start making better choices for your table. What’s happening at the moment is that we are lab rats. There’s no science behind the combination of food additives that we’re seeing in our food supply. There’s no safety. They call it grass, generally regarded as safe, but in actual fact, they only test one food ingredient at a time on mice or rats. We are part of some huge experiments.

I look at the health of everybody. Not just our children but our adult population is getting worse and worse. I was drinking coffee, and somebody was saying, “My granddaughter’s been diagnosed with autism. My grandson doesn’t speak. He’s five.” I’m thinking, “What is happening?” One other person says, “I’ve been told I have no estrogen or progesterone. I’m wondering why I’m tired.” This is an adult. It’s across the board. My belief is that it is how our food is grown, what they’re putting into our food, and what they’re convincing us to eat.

Some people would say, “Cyndi, you are way off base. It’s probably other environmental toxins that are causing these issues, not our food.” What would you say to them?

The first thing to do is go into your pantry and read the ingredients. Rather than the nutritional label, which tells you the carbohydrates, fats, and protein, why don’t you go and look at the ingredients and decide whether you think they’re food? There are only about five chemical companies in the flavor industry that are masters of trickery. They have become brilliant at making food look like food, taste like food, smell like food, but not be food.

It means that the food is cheap. It’s not grown in a field where the soil has been cared for, and the microbes in the soil are thriving. These are all grown in chemical laboratories. I’ve looked at food and thought, “Where’s the real food?” They’ll put natural on the food labeling. It says, “All natural.” I’ll flip it over, read the ingredients, and go, “Out of 50 ingredients, 15 ingredients, or whatever amount of ingredients in there, there is 1 whole food in there.”

The rest has been manipulated, whether it’s an isolate, a hydrolyze, or a concentrate in the proteins. The sugars could be multi-dextrose or dextrose. It could be an artificial sweeter. There’s no, “Let’s just have meat. Let’s just have a carbohydrate or real food. Let’s have a real fat instead of an interesterified fat or hydrogenated fat.” This is what I discuss in the book Lab to Table. It’s all coming from the lab and going directly to your table without realizing it.

I was with a friend. She knows I’m particular about food. She put a pâté on the table. Usually, I’m pretty particular about it, but I thought I’ll just taste it because I can taste if there’s a flavor in there or something like that. I tasted it and thought, “This is good. This tastes natural and real.” I said to her, “Would you mind if I read the ingredients? I’m interested in the company that’s making this.” I flipped it over. I thought, “They are even getting better than I ever believed at trickery,” because not even I could taste the subtle difference between that real food and what these guys had done. They had put a flavor in. There were colors and thicknesses. There was everything but the real thing.

How did we get to this place? Aren’t the companies responding to consumer demand? How is it that we’re asking for these things, or are we?

There are people that follow you. They know and are out there seeking the real thing. They know what they’re looking for. You think of the millions of people that live in the US and Australia. There are 23 million. There’s only a small percentage that is demanding this. Although I must admit in the few decades I’ve been a nutritionist, I am seeing more and more people looking at it. They’re not so naive to this. It is the people that are asleep. They’re not taking notice. They believe a drug will fix their problem, surgery, radiation, or even chemotherapy. They believe that this is what’s going to fix the problem.

WT 229 | Modified Foods — Modified Foods: Rather than check the nutritional information, which tells you the carbohydrates, the fats, and the protein, look at the ingredients and decide whether you think that these are food.

In the end, all it does is mask the symptom rather than address the real issue. They’re not awake to what is happening. They believed surely the government wouldn’t allow food to be put in the grocery store that was going to kill us, poison us, or make us sick. We can go all the way to the EPA and the CDC. I’m looking at the corruption that’s happening in there. I follow Robert Kennedy, an incredible environmental lawyer who is not letting these people get away with things. There’s corruption that’s happening in there, especially when we look at the chemicals that are being used in our food supply.

Who believed that we could put masks and safety suits on, spray our food just before harvest, and think that we could have a salad or some bread made with that food and it is okay for our system? If you are not aware, not listening, and are looking at the propaganda in the marketing, then you’re going to think it’s okay because they’re masters of trickery. You don’t know that what’s in that food is a bunch of chemicals.

Let’s get specific for the person who is starting to wake up or interested in which chemicals and additives are the worst for us.

Most of the chemicals that are being put out there, we need to be wary of, not all but most. They’re renaming what would have been BHA and BHT. In Australia, we have a numbering system. In England, they have a numbering system which is 320 and 321, but you would see the whole name BHA and BHT. It’s a chemical antioxidant, and they’re renaming that rosemary extract. Someone will look at it, and they’ll go, “It’s rosemary extract.” In actual fact, it has nothing to do with the rosemary once the chemical has been pulled out of it.

It’s an antioxidant that’s found in the rosemary plant. It’s not only the leaf but also the stem. They pull out 1 or 2 of these chemicals and call it rosemary extract. They have to add excipients to stabilize it. Depending on whether it’s going to be a powder or a liquid, they’re going to have to add different things to that. Whether it goes for sweet or savory, they’re going to have to add different things for that. We need to be careful about the renaming of our food additives.

BHA and BHT have been known to cause cancer in rats, and that’s by itself. That’s not when you start to see celery powder. Celery powder may have nanotechnology. You need to be careful of that. There’s no research out there about the size particle and what that’s doing. We’ve got everything from natural flavors to natural colors. There’s nothing natural about a natural flavor or a natural color. There’s no terminology, guidelines, or standards for the word natural.

You may read natural flavoring and think, “It’s natural. I can have that. That’s fine.” You might read natural color, but natural color has propylene glycol, polysorbate 80, and all these chemicals. If you saw them on your ingredient list, you would go, “I’m not touching that.” Propylene glycol is part of antifreeze, and polysorbate 80 has been shown to cause health issues in mice. It’s an absolute minefield.

That’s why I’m into exactly what Natasha Campbell-McBride says. We need to get back into the kitchen to feed, nourish our families, and heal this nation, whether it be Australia, the US, the UK, Europe, South Africa, or wherever we are, even in Samoa at the moment. We need to buy single ingredients. We need to have a fridge full of beautiful fruits, vegetables, meats, cheeses, dairies, and things like that, and then in our pantry, our nuts, seeds, and grains.

We need to get back into that kitchen and feed our family with single-ingredient foods that we can combine together to make stunning foods which are what Nourishing Traditions are all about, what I’m all about, and what I’ve always been all about. I don’t trust packaged foods at all. I don’t go to a grocery store anymore. I have my food on my farm. What food I don’t produce on my farm, I have delivered to my house by one of the farmers locally. I purchase my nuts and seeds from places where they’re not in packaging, but I have to go with my glass jar and get them.

It takes a little bit more effort, but my family enjoys unbelievable health. We do not have the maladies. We don’t take medications. My kids are grown, and they’ve never had an antibiotic. I’m old, and I’ve never had an antibiotic. They’ve had no medications. This is the life that you can live. You can have as much energy as you want. It’s the health we dream of by looking at your food supply and lifestyle.

I love it because you’re taking your health into your own hands. You’re investing in your family’s health. You make an effort to grow and raise food or get it from a local farmer. That’s the problem also with the industry. It’s not necessarily that everyone is out to trick or manipulate us, but they are looking to cut corners because they don’t have our health in mind.

It is cutting corners. I’m working with a huge company here in Australia. They’ve sold to the Japanese for one point something billion. The Japanese have a 100-year plan, not a 2-year plan. I’ve been talking to them about their ingredients. I said to them, “If you change 2 ingredients a year, in 10 years, you will completely change the health of the Australian people.”

We need to be wary of not all but most of the chemicals being put out there.

These are foods that they do premixes for bakeries and the big grocery stores. I’m talking to them about glyphosate on the wheat. They’re talking to the farmers. What people are starting to do is revolutionary. I do remember when I first started to speak to them. I told them the ingredients. I changed the ingredients of one of the foods that they sent me. His first thing to me was, “We have to make a profit, Cyndi.”

They do have the best interests, but they also have to make a profit for themselves and their shareholders. They don’t know. These are the big wigs of these companies. When I start talking to them about it, they’ve got families. They understand this, but they don’t know any better. They’re there to make profits. Once you tell them, they can’t unknow this. I’m hoping that in years, I will see an incredible change in this company.

I’m hoping so, too, because you’re right. Changing a couple of ingredients for the sake of profit could change everyone’s health for the worse.

It changes what the farmer has to do on their farm. The farmers are scared. They have used Roundup and glyphosate for a couple of decades. They think it’s the only way, but they didn’t have it a couple of decades ago. There is another way. With regenerative farming, holistic farming, permaculture, biological farming, and all these new, beautiful things that are happening out there, I hope to see a shift. We will start to see a shift. We need our animals. The vegan movement scares me because I need animals to fertilize my land. I can’t do it without my cows, chickens, and pigs. I have to have them.

Can you explain what the animals do for your land?

We put the cattle in these things called cells. They’re wired in electric fencing. They’re left in their cell only for a day. They eat the grass. They poo and wee. We move them to a nicer grass, and they’re ready to move. They know when they’re being moved. We move them to the next grass. A couple of days later, we put the chickens in behind them. The chickens spread their poo and pick out all the parasites. We’ll put the pigs in, and they will root up any weeds if needed and fill the land. The pigs are amazing. We do this cycle on our land. We have a drought here in Australia.

I look at our neighbor’s land to our land. The difference is incredible. Our land still has grass. We’re still able to feed our cattle, but they’ve had to get their cattle off the land because there’s nothing left. It’s almost a desert on the other side of the fence. Ours is looking pretty dry because we’ve had nothing. The dams are going down, but we’ve still got eighteen cattle on our acreage. We are pretty happy because there are not many cattle around at the moment because of this. Our chickens are happy, too. We’ve done this cycle for five years we’ve had the land. Now in crisis, we’re seeing and reaping the benefits of how we do this.

If we didn’t have those animals, the land wouldn’t be regenerated. The soil wouldn’t be fertilized by the manure and the wee of the animals. We need all of that. It’s all part of the cycle of life. The push to avoid meat altogether for the sake of the animals is not good for any of us or the land.

It’s not good for our health, number one. It’s not good for the land and the climate. Everyone’s talking about the 1.3 billion cattle-producing methane, but they forget that there are 8 million humans that also produce some amounts of methane, especially if they have fructose malabsorption. More and more people have fructose malabsorption because we’re not eating the right foods, and our microbiome is being decimated. Therefore, we don’t have the microbiome that uses fructose to produce our aromatic amino acids, which are all part of the importance of our neurological systems and our brain.

We are seeing issues with depression and anxiety. They’re increasing. I’ve never seen this before, kids and adults with anxiety. We see this cycle of life being disrupted. We have to go back to our anthropological and evolutionary ways. In a modern way, we can do this. We don’t have to go back to being hunter-gatherers or agriculturalists. What we have to do is think of how we can mimic this in a modern way. It’s happening. You speak to people at the Nourishing Traditions Conference. This is what’s happening, and it’s happening in Australia as well. I’m happy to see that. What upsets me is the fake meats that we are seeing. That’s what scares me.

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Cyndi explains how genetically modified organisms are being used as ingredients for synthetic meats. It sounds like something out of a science fiction novel to me. She also discussed how there are no long-term studies on a combination of chemicals in these pseudo-meats.

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There’s this thing called biotechnology or synthetic biology. Everyone’s concerned about the genetic modification of our food supply, such as corn, soya, and sugar cane. There are quite a few things that are genetically modified. I don’t think a lot of people realize there’s this new biotechnology in synthetic biology, which is the genetic modification of microorganisms. They could be yeast, mold, or bacteria. They’re genetically modifying them with plant species, a gene from a plant, a gene from another animal, or a gene from something that allows these microorganisms to produce mass food additives.

One of those food additives is citric acid. Once upon a time, citric acid came from the citrus fruit, but now it’s coming from a genetically modified mold. In the fake meat movement, they’re producing a thing called soy leghemoglobin. They’ve realized that there’s this nodule on the root of a soya plant that has a heme group in it. They’ve taken the gene out of the soy plant that produces this nodule with the heme ion in this nodule, and they’ve implanted it into bacteria.

Bacteria now produce this soya leghemoglobin. They’re saying, “We don’t have to use soya plants and use the root of the soya plant. We have bacteria that we’ve genetically modified in order to produce this soya leghemoglobin.” This has the ability to bleed the meat. As a result, fake meat has this bleeding notion. It also helps with flavor, so they can add flavor enhancers and modulators. All these gases are produced that if they selectively choose them, they produce bison taste or smell. It produces chicken or turkey. It’s all very manipulated.

The only studies that have been done on this go for 29 days. There are no long-term studies. The study is only done on that one chemical. They’re not done on all the other chemicals in the fake meat. The best thing is to flip over your pack of fake meat and have a read of the ingredients. It doesn’t matter who’s producing it. It may not have leghemoglobin.

It may have other things in there as well because they’re masters of this. This synthetic biology and biotechnology are increasing. They make Vitamin C like that. They make citric acid and xanthan gum. More and more of our additives are being produced as a result of this biotechnology and synthetic biology. I have to keep looking up the patents. Whenever I look up a patent, I find they’re doing it via synthetic biology and biotechnology.

Because they have been used for such a short time and haven’t done a lot of studies, essentially, we’re also lab rats ourselves. We’re going to ingest this or are ingesting it unwittingly. It may be very detrimental to our health because we don’t know how our bodies are going to react to it.

The leghemoglobin bothers me because we are beginning to understand our storage for iron. That is our ferritin and how if it’s too little or too much, especially if too much, it can cause heart failure. I haven’t seen the studies. I don’t have the science to back this comment up, but I’m using, “Will this amount of soya leghemoglobin be stored in the body in a different way? Will it become a problem? Will we start to see heart failure in our young and middle-aged?” I don’t know. I think about it and go, “We don’t have the long-term studies to prove this. I’m not going to be the one that’s going to be one of their studies.”

I’m going to stick to my real foods, my whole foods, my real meat, my ethically grown meat, and my meat from my farm. I do fall in love with my cows. You can’t help it. I was with them all day. I was weeding. We manually weed. We had a couple of weeds that were a little bit out of control. My son said to me, “Mama, we need a weeding party.” I’m two inches from the cows weeding, and they don’t care. They’re the most beautiful cows. They’re not skittish. They trust us. They live an amazing life with us. We can’t keep them all, but some we do keep. We breed with them.

There is no terminology, guidelines, or standards for the word “natural.”

We have a beautiful girl named Alice. As my son says, “I can’t get rid of Alice, mama.” This is a part of our life. I have to go, “How can I save the animals in the woods if I can’t save the humans on the planet?” We have to start helping our humans make better choices for themselves. That’s through nourishing themselves. Evolutionary-wise, we have never been vegans. There is never a culture that has ever been a vegan. We have vegetarian, and that was the Hindu culture. They lived on the equator, but outside the equator, there has never been a vegan nation.

Dr. Price traveled the world, looking for a nation or a culture that was primarily plant-based. He couldn’t find them because there are certain nutrients that we can get exclusively from animal products. You’ve been talking about this shift back to real food. You have a nutrition academy. You’ve worked with people one-on-one. Can you tell us a story of someone who made that shift back to real food and what happened to their health?

When I first started this, you would see people go from the SAD diet, which is the standard American diet or the standard Australian diet. You’d see them ship from that to the real food diet. Let’s get out of breakfast cereals, pre-made bread, and things like that. Let’s go back to real food. I would see that shift, and you would see miracles happen.

I remember a farmer coming to me. He was in his 70s. He had a numb leg and was feeling tired. He and his wife were not doing well. I remember as a young, 25-year-old telling him what to do. The respect I have for farmers, especially a farmer that’s been doing it for so long, was great. He sat with me with his arms folded. He didn’t say a word while I said this is what he needed to do. As he left, I thought, “He’s not going to change.” I can see he’s not going to change.

He rang me a week later and said, “Miss Lovett,” because that was my maiden name. “I want to speak to you. I need to come and see you.” I said, “I’ve got a free time at such and such.” He comes in and says, “I want to tell you a story. I am the best pear farmer where I live. Years ago, my pears were terrible. I was using the chemicals. I was doing all of this stuff. I decided I was going to change back to my old ways, back to the way I used to farm where I mulched, pruned, and did everything right.”

He said, “I am the best pear farmer in the district. What an idiot I’ve been. I did it to my farm and forgot to do it to myself. I’m going to do what you’ve told me to do. This time I’m going to listen.” I put him back to real foods. He rang me a few weeks later and said, “My numb legs are gone. I feel amazing. My wife feels amazing. We’ve decided to let the farm to the kids. We’re going traveling.” He and his wife went off traveling.

This was in my early days. If I see someone on the sad diet and put them on a real food diet, I don’t always see that result. We have gotten so bad in our health that we’re not seeing that six-week turnaround. Some people, yes. Some people, no, because some people are allergic, food-sensitive, or have bad guts. We’ve got to put them on extreme diets like GAPS, the ketogenic diet, or something that isn’t the real food diet we used to be able to do.

I started The Nutrition Academy because people were asking me, “We want to know what you know, Cyndi. Teach us what you know.” I started the academy to teach people, but now we want to create businesses from it. I’m old now. I’m not going to be able to continue to travel the way I travel. I don’t want to do that anymore. I love my farm. I love my beach. I love everywhere where I live, and I want to stay home more.

I thought, “This is a good way in Australia to get the message out.” I have people from Korea, England, China, and America that have also started to do this course. It’s bringing people back to their roots. I have two overarching principles. The first is the principle of anthropology because I did Anthropology at university. That’s what got me interested in nutrition. I talk about cultures, traditions, and how we ate, survived, adapted, and things like that. That’s the core of the teachings.

The other principle is the principle and philosophy of vitalism. We look at the human body as a whole, not as a part. We look at where they live on this planet, their relationships, their connection, and the environment that they live in. We also look at food in that way as well. We don’t look at butter for 50% saturated fat. Not that saturated fat is bad in any way. I’ve never believed that because it’s an ancient fat. Many people looked at fat for its saturated fat content and forgot the other 50%. What’s in that? There are omega 3s, butyric acid, factor X, and all of these incredible fats in butter that help us heal.

Those are the two principles of The Nutrition Academy. It brings people back to it. When they see something from the University of Sydney that they’re advertising at the moment that is high carbohydrate, low-fat diet, moderate or even low protein, diet is the secret to longevity and health. They know that they can look at that and go, “What’s happening with that research? Where’s the data? How does that work?”

There are cultures out there that have a high carbohydrate diet. Look at the Danny and Lanny of Papua New Guinea. They live near the equator, and 90% of their diet was plant-based, but 10% was wild pig and insects. They still had that protein there. They can question these things and look at the quality of food. The Nutrition Academy is there to help people who want to not only help themselves but help their families understand what’s happening in our lives and on this planet.

If they want to help their community become part of the ripple effect that will create this tsunami of change and help our future generations, find health again and not be in the situation that we’re in now. I don’t know what’s happening in the US, but in Australia, between 38 %and 40% of our children under the age of 17 have 1 or more chronic diseases. Whereas in the 1960s in Australia, it was 2%. That’s a dramatic difference between the 1960s, and here we are.

It’s huge. We’re in the same place where 1 in 2 children has some chronic illness. It’s very alarming. I feel encouraged because there are people like you out there and your academy. Every individual that attends and every person that reads this is a person who is making a shift in their own life and going to improve the health of those around them. There will be that ripple effect.

Whether we can start a business or feed our children, we are a part of turning the tide around, and I’m so thankful. Cyndi, you’ve already nourished, informed, and educated us in a great way on this conversation. I’m thankful. I want to ask you one last question. If the reader could do one thing to improve their health, what would you recommend that they do?

It’s not going to be food. It’s going to have a morning routine that gets you jumping out of bed and looking at that sunrise, getting outside, putting your feet on the ground, and creating a morning routine that makes you feel alive. You’re able to come back into the kitchen to feed and nourish your family to heal this nation. For me, it’s about that morning routine of watching the sunrise and that sunshine.

We know its ability to change the biochemistry of our body. A lot of people aren’t doing this. That would be my beginning, and then coming home into the kitchen and making sure that that breakfast is a brilliant breakfast of whole foods. Get rid of the breakfast cereals, modified milk, and white sugar. There are so many recipes out there for alternative breakfast.

It’s a lovely nourishing morning routine that starts with that sunrise, something that makes you jump out of bed in the morning and makes you feel alive. I love it so much. I live that with you. When we were together there, I got to experience that morning swim with you, which was phenomenal. We can apply that wherever we live. Thank you, Cyndi. Thank you for your time, and keep up the amazing work.

Thank you, Hilda.

About Cyndi O’Meara

Cyndi is about educating. Her greatest love is to teach, both in the public arena and within the large corporate food companies, to enable everyone to make better choices so they too can enjoy greater health throughout their lives. Her unique, surprisingly simple yet extensively researched but down-to-earth approach, challenges and encourages others to eliminate unhealthy habits and has inspired thousands to make smarter choices about the food they choose to put into their body.

Cyndi confronts her audiences, whether within the public or corporate sectors, she has the courage to call out deception and misinformation and believes in arming people with the tools and resources to reach their goals.

By educating people on food choices, how to read food labels, why diets don’t work, and how drugs can affect your total well-being and vitality, Cyndi empowers them to make long lasting changes with simple and achievable steps on how to create healthier habits.

Cyndi has been included in the Australian Financial Review and Westpac 100 Women of Influence Awards for 2016, 2016 Australian Organic Retailer of the Year Finalist and within Queensland, Australia received the Sunshine Coast Sustainable Business Woman of the Year 2016 and Finalist for the Sunshine Coast Business Awards.

Changing Habits has been recognised by the Australian Organic Annual Awards 2019 as a finalist for Best Organic Influencer.