At Real Men Eat Plants, we’re dedicated to exploring plant-based living, debunking myths, and showing how a whole-food, plant-based diet can transform lives.
In our latest podcast episode, Bryan sat down with Paul Chatlin, founder of the Plant-Based Nutrition Support Group (PBNSG) and Co-Founder of the Sage Circle Alliance (SCA), for an in-depth discussion on the benefits of a plant-based lifestyle and its impact on health, animals, and the planet.
Paul’s journey into plant-based nutrition began with a life-threatening heart condition that nearly required bypass surgery. With a blocked artery, Paul was given a choice—undergo surgery or change his diet drastically. He chose the latter, adopting a whole-food, plant-based diet and ultimately founding PBNSG to support others in similar health crises.
Improved Health Through Plant-Based Eating
One of the key takeaways from the episode is the incredible impact a plant-based diet can have on personal health. Paul’s own experience is a testament to the power of plants in reversing heart disease, losing weight, and avoiding surgery. As Paul said,
“Just give it 60 days. You’ll be amazed at the transformation—lower cholesterol, more energy, and a lighter body.”
The challenge is simple but powerful: try a whole food, plant-based diet for 60 days and experience the benefits firsthand.
If you’re dealing with chronic health issues like heart disease or high cholesterol, adopting a plant-based diet could offer a path to healing. Paul’s advice?
“Get a blood test before you start and again after 60 days. You’ll see the difference, both on paper and in how you feel.”
A Holistic Approach to Nutrition
The conversation also touched on how Paul’s approach to plant-based eating goes beyond personal health to consider the welfare of animals and the environment. The environmental footprint of animal agriculture is vast—ranging from water usage to deforestation—and shifting to plant-based foods can play a crucial role in reducing these impacts.
When discussing the broader vegan movement, Paul emphasized,
“We’re not just eating for ourselves. Every plant-based meal you choose has a ripple effect, supporting sustainability and animal welfare.”
Encouraging Men to Make the Switch
One of the challenges discussed in the episode was the need for more men to embrace plant-based living. The stereotype that "real men eat meat" is one Paul and Bryan are actively challenging. They discussed how many plant-based organizations are led by women, while men are still underrepresented.
“We need more men in this movement,” Paul stated. “Plant-based diets are not only for women—they’re for anyone who wants to live healthier and feel better.”
The health benefits alone should encourage men to consider the switch, with improvements in physical performance, recovery time, and overall vitality.
Takeaways from the Episode:
60-Day Challenge: Test the benefits of a plant-based diet with measurable results by comparing your bloodwork before and after.
Health Benefits: Weight loss, improved heart health, and more energy are just a few benefits of going plant-based.
Sustainability Impact: A plant-based diet reduces water consumption, deforestation, and greenhouse gas emissions from animal agriculture.
Animal Welfare: Compassion extends to animals—choosing plants over meat can alleviate the suffering caused by factory farming.
Plant-Based Nutrition Support Group: Find resources, community, and support through PBNSG if you’re curious about transitioning to plant-based eating.
As Paul reminds us, "It’s not just about living longer—it’s about living better."
Keywords for SEO: Plant-based diet, vegan, health benefits of plant-based eating, PBNSG, Paul Chatlin, Real Men Eat Plants podcast, vegan health, environmental sustainability, animal welfare, whole food plant-based diet, plant-based support group, vegan transformation, men and veganism.
For more insights, tune in to the full episode and join the plant-based movement at Real Men Eat Plants.
Subscribe to the Real Men Eat Plants podcast on YouTube or your favorite streaming platform today and stay connected with our ongoing exploration of the complex plant-based business world.
LISTEN TO OUR OTHER PODCASTS
Episode’s Transcript
Please understand that a transcription service provided the transcript below. It undoubtedly contains errors that invariably take place in voice transcriptions.
Bryan Dennstedt: So hello everybody and welcome to Real Men Eat Plants. It's a live special edition featuring Paul Chatlin. Paul is one of the founders of the Plant -Based Nutrition Support Group and is also a co -founder of the Sage Circle Alliance. And today we've got a special little episode for you. What we're going to do is we're going to unpack about 10 different little topics for five minutes each. And we're going to uncover fascinating insights and I hope a few little known facts about both Paul and me. And we hope to offer up our listeners a blend of education and entertainment. And don't forget, the best way you can support our podcast is to click that like button and subscribe and put a comment in there because we want more followers and listeners to help spread our plant based message and bring more real men eating plants to the table. So with that, Paul, welcome to our live edition special.
Thanks for being here. Hey, thank you. It's a beautiful day. I get to be with my brother. Bryan and hopefully, you know, we'll learn something, have some fun.
Bryan Dennstedt: Absolutely. And I really appreciate you invited me into your house. You've been a standing host here and we're in your beautiful backyard and it is the perfect weather here.
You know, it's amazing. Michigan has blessed us this year with a beautiful spring and summer. We are reminded with the humid life every once in a while, but today and last yesterday and tomorrow, it is absolutely gorgeous here.
Bryan Dennstedt: I love it. Well, I've got, are you excited about today's episode? We've got a bunch of unique and different topics that I think you and I have been talking about for the past three or four months, honestly, every time we've synced up. And these are some different, unique topics that we don't normally talk about because I've pulled out topics, not just on plant based stuff, not just on vegan stuff. Although I want to get your thoughts on a couple of those, but I pulled in some topics about our planet, which we both care about so deeply and even the animals a little bit. So I hope we can unpack those together.
This is right up my alley. Five minutes on 10 subjects. is one of my sweet spots.
Bryan Dennstedt: Perfect. So I'm going to hit the magic timer and we're going to chat through the first topic here as we go. And let's see how it goes on that front. So the first topic is I'm just curious. I don't want to I don't want to set it up too much for you. And I hope you haven't read my little cheat sheet here too much. But What do you think the most traded commodity on the planet is?
Boy, that's a... Out of the gates with a tough one.
Bryan Dennstedt: I was shocked.
Wheat.
Bryan Dennstedt: Water.
I was going to say water.
Bryan Dennstedt: Water is the first. is the second most traded commodity?
Wow, this is making me feel like an idiot. Wheat.
Bryan Dennstedt: You'd think it would be food, right? You'd think food would be in the top. It is sand.
Maybe wood is the next one, right?
Bryan Dennstedt: No, it's sand. I don't know what the third is because the second one is what got me stumped.
Sand? Wow.
Bryan Dennstedt: And stuck. I mean, the crucial role of sand in everything that we do. So it is the most used resource after water. And sand is essential from everything from construction to electronics. You have to understand sand is in concrete, it's in glass, it's in silicone chips in our computers. Like we use sand for pretty much everything. Our smartphones, everything relies on sand in our modern day world. So how do you see that tying into sustainability efforts and our plant based world? I know it was shocking for me and I only listened to this little topic maybe a week ago. I'm, you know. What's your initial reaction and what's your thoughts on the sand I can't really talk about.
Sand blows me away. mean, know, sand's everywhere. But I'm shocked it was the second highest commodity traded.
Bryan Dennstedt: You'd think sand is everywhere, but there's different qualities of sand, right? Like I need a certain kind of sand for my chips. I need a certain kind of sand for the beach. I need a certain kind of sand for concrete. And so there's actually a black market for sand. Certain countries were buying so much sand that actually were expanding their borders by dumping sand into the ocean and creating more land. And so those countries have been blacklisted. They're not allowed to import sand.
That is wild.
Bryan Dennstedt: Well, there's a whole black market of shipping sand secretly to certain places that want it desperately. And I don't know, it just boggles my mind.
And mine too. mean, I really I don't think I would have guessed if you gave me 10 choices or 20 choices.
Bryan Dennstedt: Me neither.
I used, my fallback is, know, when you're not sure of something, you just repeat the wrong answer every time. So at least it becomes a little bit comical. But sand it, never would have guessed. Now, water, kind of get, you know, and yet, mean,
Bryan Dennstedt: fresh drinking water, right?
you know, here in Michigan, you know, we've got the Great Lakes and it's, you know, freshwater lakes. So I've always thought, oh, this is the place to be because what concerns me is the world's water consumption. and the quality of the water. And it's not getting better. That's the thing. And you know how lately we've been reading this piece on all the plastics in the water. That's real. That is real. About a year or so ago, I saw this big barge that we were dumping all our waste. It might have been in the Philippines. And they decided one day, they don't want to store it anymore. And they just put it on the barge, put it in the ocean. Bye. See ya. So where did it go? It went to the ocean. So that is a real, real concern. And you know, it leaches into like the micro side of, you know, people's bodies. You could see when they do a blood test, they see plastic in their blood. That's crazy. Yeah, it is. So something needs to be addressed.
Bryan Dennstedt: We are just not aware of all the little intricacies that we're all involved in. mean, just when you really start to think about how sand is in our windows, in our cars, in our cell phones. You know, even I don't even know. I was going to try and look this up before we started this podcast. Like how much is a bag of that fine play sand that we would get for the kids to just play with in the backyard? mean, it's got to be 15 or 20 bucks for a bag of sand at Home Depot. Right. Yeah.
And, know, as a, as a very amateur golfer, I get a kick out of because the in the sand traps. when you go to a golf place and they have that fine sand, you're This is a nice sand trap, but most of them now are you know have kind of dirt and something less than just sand and it's There's a reason why most public courses never have sand. Yeah, you know so I understand why
so I do think there's I don't know I haven't even looked that up either But like there's got to be some stocks related to sand that are just going to continue to go up because sand Basically a limited resource that we're shipping all around the globe.
Bryan Dennstedt: Yeah, I wonder where the United States fits in You know with other countries in the you importing or maybe exporting but definitely importing sand
Yeah for sure. I know when I was living in Florida, and that's all the time we have for that topic So that's how it goes time flies All right our next topic. We're gonna switch gears try and stay on target here The next topic is Paul
gender dynamics in our plant -based organizations or just in general, but there's a good majority of plant -based organizations that are just made up of older women rather than older men, which I think is amazing because unfortunately the world is run by older men. So I'm so excited to see that the women have are smarter than us and have gotten to the plant -based world quicker than us, stubborn old men, but like a good majority of women
are running these plant -based organizations. just a quick conversation starter, studies are suggesting that women are generally more empathetic towards animals and more health conscious, explains their greater involvement in our vegan movement. But what do you think are some of the societal factors that contribute to this? And what can we do to bring some of us more older men like you and me to the fold?
Bryan Dennstedt: Well, I think that you hit it right when you said, know, women are smarter than men. Number one, that's it. And I say that, not because I'm some fool or something, but I know that when it comes to my own personal health, if something's hurting, I give it time. And then when I've given it time, I give it more time. And then when I've given it time, times time, I give it even more time. I just wait and wait and And it's like when I'm just totally miserable every day for like a week, then I break down. And women, they'll go to the doctor pretty quick, number one. Number two As somebody who's been whole food plant -based no oil for 12 years. I still don't like cooking You know without you know, making a general stroke on you know men or women But I think more women enjoy the cooking process and the cooking part. For me, you know, I I don't like it enough where I just make it I dummy down my meals I just have salad and oatmeal and you know, then something else for dinner some beans Because I just don't want to spend hours cooking even though if I did it would taste better than beans. So I think those are a couple of the reasons. I think also there is a compassion part to the equation. be it they're more compassionate toward their children, they're worried about the planet in relation to the children. And I also think with the animals. I I think that they're more compassionate. So I think it's a combination of A, they start with being smarter. Number two, they probably enjoy cooking and they have more compassion.
Bryan Dennstedt: What and well, what do you think is that see I agree with everything you just said so I don't think there's much I can add to that I do probably love cooking more than you probably so I don't mind cooking but You know, how do we encourage? How do we encourage these stubborn stuck -in -the -mud men to join our movement? You know, get on this the real many plants podcast I want more men to come into this fold and help us.
Yeah. Hey men out there. Here it is You know, most men are competitive most men like a challenge. So I say to most men, hey, you could do anything for 60 days, anything if you had to. So I always tell people, just give it a try. Like if you don't feel really good, and I'm talking to maybe 16 over, and I'm in that group, and you know how you wake up one day and you go, wow, this is sore, I didn't do anything. Could be the way you slept. It could be you just twisted something wrong, whatever the reason. I'm saying that you could try anything for 60 days. My challenge to every man out there is to go get a blood test. You know, boohoo, you got to take some blood. Get a lipid panel done so you know what your starting point is. And then go whole food plant -based for 60 days. Trust me, you could go on the internet. You could type in whole food plant -based and then fill it in. You want something with a Mexican. You could have 1 ,000 recipes. If you want to do it with beans, there's hundreds and hundreds of recipes. Whatever you enjoy, you'll have choices to make. So then you're on board, 60 days, go get another lipid panel, again, boo hoo, you got to give blood, and in 60 days, you'll probably have lost 10 to 20 pounds, I know it sounds crazy, but I did it and it works. And then all of a sudden, you know what, you'll feel better, and along that path, your taste buds will change. So a person like me who, 12 years ago, did not like beans, peas, and broccoli, well I can't say I love them, but I do not hate them any longer, and they're so good for me. So I would just say, know, if you like, you know, the old water bucket challenge, I'm gonna take a freezing cold water bucket and put it over my head. Well, do something that is shocking. Maybe it might be a little shocking, but try a plant -based challenge. Go 60 days, see how you feel.
Bryan Dennstedt: You and I were talking about this and I don't want, I want to get this in before we run out of time on this topic is change. The older we get, the more we don't want to do new things. The more we don't, we want to stay in our comfort zone. Get out of your comfort zone and go try something new. Live a little bit, like experiment and fail a few times like we used to when we were kids.
Yeah, I say, you know, try, try again. And listen, if every day you're dealing with something that ails you, you don't want that to be a permanent situation for you. That's it.
Bryan Dennstedt: Well done. We nailed that time. All right. Awesome. I think our next topic up is the trees. So Paul, how many trees do you think we cut down every single day to make toilet paper?
Wow. OK, well, I'm not going to know the answer. I'd say wheat. Wheat is my answer. But you know, tens of thousands, I am certain. I certainly am well aware of what they did in the Amazon. I'm certainly well aware of the impact it has. But you know, I read something the other day and it said like we have There were like 11 billion trees X amount of years ago and today there's like two two billion Like we have really reduced the amount of trees we have and you know It's like I wish that there was a law that said you cut a big tree down you plant ten trees
Bryan Dennstedt: Yeah, depending on the size of the tree you cut down you have to plant X new ones. Yeah, I agree I think it's it's closer to 27 ,000 trees per day. Okay cut down just to make toilet paper not to mention housing materials and paper towels and Kleenex and other things that we use the paper for that that's just that's 10 million trees per year just for toilet paper.
it one ply or two ply?
Bryan Dennstedt: That's a good question. I'm guessing at least us cushy people like our two or three ply on that front. what's your thoughts on how we can start to shift conservation efforts? I remember growing my mom having more dish towels and dish rags and stuff like that. And I just know as I grew up, we switched from those that we would throw in the washing machine or wash by hand to the disposable everything, the disposable napkins, the disposable plates, the paper towels. You know, obviously we need toilet paper to that's probably the good one. Or maybe we should all do it like the Europeans and get a bidet. But What are some of the ideas that you have to reduce paper consumption and how do you see society changing?
Well, I mentioned it. Like, you know, I believe in if you're to take a tree down, you add X amount based on the size of the tree. And if we just did that, then we would, know, over a period of, you know, 100 years, we might even be ahead of the game a little bit. So I think that that is vital. The other thing is, is what you just said. You know, we are a very disposable world. And everything that is quick gets thrown in, and when it gets thrown in, goes in the landfills. You look around, got landfills everywhere. What's the big deal about washing a dish? I do it every day. So I'm not, you don't see a whole lot of napkins in my house. don't mind doing a little bit of wash once in a while. So I just believe that if you just do a tree replacement, and then you just go back to the old days, I know it's weird to say you want to go back, but. Going back would help save a lot of trees.
Bryan Dennstedt: One of my favorite, favorite TED Talks, and you can Google this or we'll put it in the show notes, is the TED Talk about the guy who washes his hands and shows you, like, you can dry your hands with the one paper towel. You don't need to be that guy in the restroom that's pulling out 30 paper towels just to dry your hands for two seconds and throwing them out. Like, wash your hands, shake them 12 times, grab one towel. And dry them as best you can.
let's all do this right now.
Bryan Dennstedt: Yeah, And that's it. One paper towel.
Sometimes you go in there and there's no paper towel and you've already washed your hands. What do do? You walk out and you do this. R
Bryan Dennstedt: Right. And they'll be dry in 30 seconds or less if you just let them air dry.
I guess just being aware. You know what saying? Just being aware. mean, hey, guys, next time you go to the bathroom, you wash your hands, don't use a paper towel. Just do this. it. Try it and see if it works for you. Because every time you you do something that's good for this world and, you know, reduce the, you know, the takeaway of, you know, paper and plans and all this stuff, then you're doing something good for not just you, but your sons and daughters and grandkids. We have to look beyond it.
Bryan Dennstedt: And I think you were right on your statistic. You mentioned earlier, I think what I was reading is what used to be 11 trillion trees, it's trillions, not billions. That makes more sense. And we're down to three or four trillion trees.
A billion trillion. There's not a huge difference. But think about it. mean, whether it was billions or trillions, it makes more sense. But think about it. 11 trillion trees and now we got three. That's a lot of trillion.
Bryan Dennstedt: That's right.
It really is.
Bryan Dennstedt: And we were talking just yesterday about how it's funny for the non plant based vegan people to say, well, I'm not going to take a straw because I want to save the fish. And yet they're ordering fish.and the fish is coming on their plate. So anyway, don't get us started on that topic. Awesome sauce.
Well, our we've got 10 seconds left, so I'll read the quick fact for us. One single recycled edition of the New York Times newspaper could save seventy five thousand trees. So just, you know, read the newspaper online as well.All right. Our next topic is the rise of vegan athletes. So you're more of a sports guy than me for sure. What are some notable examples of vegan athletes who have excelled in their sports?
Bryan Dennstedt: Well, know, I mean, you know, without getting into the politics or what they believe in or their opinions, I always got a kick out of was a joke. Nokevich. Sure. Yeah, because You know, he was at a point where he was equal to Rafael Nadal and he was equal to Federer. And he needed to get an edge. And what he did is he went plant -based. Now, to what extent, I do not know. But you could just see in his body, he thinned out, you know, and the big thing was the word recovery. Tom Brady, greatest quarterback ever. You know, he went more plant -based. Why? For recovery. You started to hear a lot more up to the, like, the game -changers of all these athletes doing plant -based for their recovery. you know, I can't relate it to, you know, the professional athletes, because I'm not one of them. It's unrelatable how great they must be. But what I can tell you is, you know, me personally is, you know, being whole food plant based, my recovery, I could literally work out. And what I call working out for me, it could be lifting weights in the morning, going for a long bike ride in the afternoon or a walk, you know, walking a golf course instead of being in a cart. And the fact is, the next day, I don't have any ill effects at 66 years old. You know the next day I could do it again and I could do it again. The recovery is the greatest thing that I enjoy by being a whole food plant -based.
Bryan Dennstedt: And I guess I am the triathlon kind of guy. I like to run and bicycle and I'm not the best at swimming but I like to swim. you know Scott Jurek in his book is what resonated with me. I mean he set the record for the fastest known time on the Appalachian Trail proving that that plant -based diet can support those extreme physical feats. I mean, to your point, that recovery time is key. And my other favorite one to point out is Venus Williams, know, tennis player, right? Had this autoimmune disease and switched to a vegan diet. And she obviously helped manage and control her immune disease, autoimmune disease, but she has seen significant improvements her tennis game and she has been at the top of the tennis charts forever, feels like. So how do you, I guess, how do you kind of look at the nutritional challenges of like, where do I get my protein? And the downsides of like, you can't be the best of the best on a vegan diet.
Yeah, I want to say that, know, when the protein thing is always laughable because you could get just as much, if not more protein in broccoli. Okay.
Bryan Dennstedt: Yeah.
So the point is, you know, just eat a lot of broccoli, get all the protein you need. to me, you know, I just feel as if if you're going to be a high level athlete, we're just talking about, know, again, be a high level athlete or just regular Joe like me and you, Bryan. The fact is, I have not had a sickness in years. I can't remember last time I had a virus or a flu. I didn't get COVID. I was lucky. beyond that, I haven't had the common cold years and years and years and I think it's because you know my gut biome is just I'm ready to pounce on anything that's bad inside me and again the big thing for me is always I you know I love to go bike riding and I go bike riding with my wife well when I'm done you know I you know again my age you know if I ride 20 miles with her most people would say oh I'm done well I'm not done I get to do it again so I get to do what I love doing with the person I love doing it with I could do five, six times a week. So to me, that's, it's always a balance. It's like, okay, yes, I gotta give up my dairy. I gotta give up my meat, but what do I get?
Bryan Dennstedt: You get the quality of life. mean, that's incredible. I did not know many other 66 year olds that can go biking 20 miles.
Well, I'm one of them and I love it. mean, sometimes I have to say, hey, babe, let's slow it down a little bit. Let's enjoy the scenery or, hey, gotta readjust my bike. My seat a little bit, know, she's just tearing me up. But you know, you know, don't I'm right behind her and look at the Guess what I get to look at my wife. I'm she's she leads I get to look at her. right. Not a bad day.
Bryan Dennstedt: That's right So are there any other examples of the vegan athletes? I guess like to me like you've mentioned in Game changers like many of the Tennessee Titans gone vegan and seen those performance increases.
We see it with MMA fighters.
Bryan Dennstedt: Yeah, the MMA a lot of MMA fighters, but you're seeing it across the entire spectrum.
You know, we're you know, people are at that level are trying to eat healthier to recover quicker and it's across all sports.
Bryan Dennstedt: Absolutely. Awesome topic there. So our next topic is the marine mammals and the plastic pollution. So the metrics are really in that, I think the statistic I was looking at was 78 % of marine mammals are at risk of accidental deaths, such as getting caught in the fishing nets. I mean, the mammals have to be towards the top of the surface to get air and they're getting caught in the fishing nets. Know Plastic bags, other plastic garbage, all end up in the ocean. And I think the estimates are saying over a million sea animals every single year are impacted in a big way. So what do you think we can do to fight this plastic pollution war? And then talk to me about your thoughts of it on the marine life.
Well, I'll do it on reverse, so that's OK. You know, I had a chance to spend some time in Alaska. And part of the joy was going whale watching. And when you start looking at the statistics of the whales that are still around and the impact with all the killings that are done, you know, they put restrictions on it, but there are countries out there, they don't listen to those restrictions. And my biggest concern is that, you know, we can do what we want here in America, but we have to also, you know, what, police every other country to make sure they're not abusing. You know, on the other hand, populations are growing. How do you feed these people? So there's a lot to, you know, that's a difficult one. really is.
Bryan Dennstedt: Because you feed them with more plants, Paul.
Well, you do, but then you got to get them to try the plants. know, got to encourage them. And, know, just on a side note, it's like you, know, with hundreds of thousands of recipe choices, you could find your good 10 and repeat, repeat, repeat, repeat. And then maybe along the way, you'll realize
Food just sustains you to do the things you enjoy. Growing up, was simply loving food all the time. My whole day was, do you have for breakfast? What do have for lunch? What do have for dinner? And we centered our lives around food. Well now, I center around the activities around food. But as far as marine mammals, I don't know what that solution is. I just know that the stories and the movies you see were animals and turtles All types of animals are getting killed with a variety of nettings and stuff like that. I don't know who's going to police it. That's a good question that I really don't think I have an answer for. Because we have, 350 million people here. Where there's another 2 billion plus, how do you manage something that's six times bigger than what you are? Great.
Bryan Dennstedt: And I, it's the policing thing too. And it's just the realization that obviously millions and millions, I don't know, maybe it's trillions or billions, whatever it is, there's so much plastic getting into the ocean every single day. And then the ocean churns that plastic around and grinds it down just like sand and turns the plastic into these small little tiny micro pieces that just get sucked up into the smallest tiniest fish and work their way up the food chain. And so almost every single thing we're pulling out of the ocean and eating has a significantly higher plastic content than we've seen in history. I you just have to understand that you're eating plastic every time you have a piece of salmon.
Right. It is interesting. You know, one thing I used to spend a lot of time explaining is, and we'll do a correlation to the marine life. So on the land life of animals, is, you know, people wanted to get a higher yield. So to get a higher yield, we'll start with corn. What they do is they put bad stuff into the ground. So instead of getting a corn stalk with six ears, they get one with 12. but they had to put some kind of chemical to grow that corn twice the size. So then they take that and it's already got some bad stuff in it. and they feed it to animals. But see, the animals today are twice the size of what they were. So to make them twice the size, they shoot them with steroids or shoot them with other things to grow them quicker, faster. Can barely walk. then they feed them the same stuff, that corn that they put bad stuff in the ground to make it bigger. Then they take the corn that gets eaten by the animal and they take that animal and dice it and splice it up and they give it to human beings to eat. The beautiful thing is the human body doesn't synthesize it like that day, that week, that month. But over a 20, 30 year period, it's no wonder why our health levels are the way they are. So it's a real bad situation. And the only way to solve this are eating plants.
Bryan Dennstedt: I agree. Eat more plants, people. Okay, our next topic up is Styrofoam. Did you know, Paul, Americans throw away 25 trillion, trillion with a T Styrofoam cups every single year. That's just America. And Styrofoam is not biodegradable. So it goes along with some napkins and paper and sand and everything else under the sun that we've been talking about a little bit. But how do you see us tackling the styrofoam problem and switching to reusable options? it wasn't a thing growing up. Used. We use glass cups, right? We broke a few.
you know Listen, it's you know, unfortunately, it's good. It would take like a government decision Banning something right you can't tell Dart container that we're gonna ban your Styrofoam cups. Mm -hmm boy and put them out of business on the flip You you know, maybe you go to the styrofoam companies saying hey listen in five years We're gonna reduce and in ten years it's banned. Mm -hmm and give them the opportunity to come create something different. I'm just saying when you talk about trillions of things in just in America and it's not biodegradable, I mean when are we gonna stop and say okay this is not good for the planet and when are you real men gonna look at it and say I got kids and I got grandkids and I want a planet to be there for them. You know, so to me it would be like, hey, if they put a hard stop on it and said no more use in 10 years, guess what would happen? We'd figure it out. We always figure things out. But sometimes we to be told to do it.
Bryan Dennstedt: And you read these big, huge business books like Atomic Habits or 1 % Greater. And we've been discussing a few ideas that we have and ways that we can collaborate of how we just make ourselves a little bit better every day. And I just sort of say, I go back and I push people like, There are small little things that you can do every single day and you can teach your friends and family to do it is to, you know, obviously skip the straw. Obviously, like, you know, when you go to Chipotle, the frustrating thing at almost every place that you go is do you want they should ask the question, do you want a bag? Because I don't because literally I'm gonna put it in the bag I'm gonna walk to my car and I'm gonna take it out of the bag and I'm gonna eat it Yeah, and what I mean is why do you need you
know the grocery stores have been doing it? You know then some of them are now charging you for their they should through the roof for the bags
Im force me to bring my own bag right
Bryan Dennstedt: you know it's it's funny It's like you know sometimes you have to do things for the greater good mm -hmm You may not want to it may not be as convenient, but there's a big picture here
Yeah, and you know like when I go grocery shopping I got four grocery bags that Bigger than the grocery bags I have at home. I've got a nice little handle with it. I bring it with me and you know like Something as simple as that and I do something different like I eat a lot of kale So I bring another bag just to put the kale in so I'm not using six plastic bags for the kale so if everyone just did One more thing and then the whole world did it We'd be healthier.
Bryan Dennstedt: Yeah. mean, everybody knows you can take your reusable cup to your coffee store and they should give you 25 cents off your cup of coffee when you bring your cup. I know Starbucks does it and I'm sure many other coffee shops across the planet do that. So think of those little ways everybody can can help redo. I mean, this is styrofoam, styrofoam, styrofoam. Yeah, I mean, but the principle applies to to everything that we can to figure out a more reusable sustainable economy and I feel like that reusable economy only came up within the past hundred years. A hundred years ago everything we tried to reuse it a million times till it broke, till we wore it down. Right.
You know it's it's funny this has been so fascinating for me because not only did I learn about the sand, but today I've learned about I didn't know that we did so much using of styrofoam. I knew it wasn't biodegradable. I knew that. But I had No clue. They don't talk about that. They talk about the plastic issue that we have mm -hmm grocery stores are talking about not you know you doing paper bags So that's kind of common, but why haven't we heard more about styrofoam?
Bryan Dennstedt:I do think the world's phasing out styrofoam. probably not quick enough You know but the styrofoam were spoiled We're keeping the styrofoam around because it keeps the drink cooler than the paper cups
Yeah, right. Again, this is all news to me. I wish I had some facts and facts to share. Yeah, but it's just I'm mind blown by it because I didn't realize it was that bad.
Bryan Dennstedt:Yep, it is bad. So do your part everybody figure out a way.
Just a little bit.
Bryan Dennstedt: All right, our next topic up is, you know, getting back to the oceans really, Paul. It is the Great Pacific Garbage Patch. It is a twisting, turning vortex of trash waste, and it is twice the size of continental America and contains about a hundred million tons of garbage. in it. So how do you see the great Pacific garbage patch affecting marine life ecosystems and eventually human health?
Yeah, I how could it not? Right? I mean, how can it's not just going to evaporate. You know, so I mean, what is going to happen to it? You know, I you see it on TV. You know what? What I find interesting is they don't talk about this enough. You know, you know, it should be like a PBS special or something. We should know more. think there's just so many people out of
Right, who aren't aware of this. You know, and I just wish that somebody had the cojones to just say, okay, here's our three biggest issues that are facing you, your kids, and your kids' kids. And if they would just talk about it, like I said, a public broadcasting service message, and say, hey, have you done your part? And put that on three, four times a day for 10 seconds. You know, that type of education would make a world of difference. But I did know about the Pacific Garbage Patch, but again, I did not know it was
size. Like you know so so that's a real real real problem.
Bryan Dennstedt: It is.
And today you've showed me that there's a lot of problems that I didn't know were as big a problems as they are.
Bryan Dennstedt: I mean I it's out of sight out of mind but I feel like there's whole industries like when the world fully gets on board with the fact that we have got to start taking care of this planet there is no possible way we can make it to any other planet that even might have enough oxygen for us anytime soon right. It's thousands of I was I was listening to something like all of all of Human written history is only about 50 generations old Humans have been on this planet for 30 ,000 generations 30 ,000 generations humans have been here doing what we're doing. Only the past 50 have been documented on some sort of written form. And we have decimated this planet in those 50 generations, probably more so in the past two or three generations the most. But I guess my view on the garbage patch goes back to this like new industries are going to rise out of this. I would love like cruise ships are horrible and awful environmental disasters in a big way. But like, could you get on a cruise ship? and go to the Great Pacific Garbage Patch and know that like half that cruise ship could hold a bunch of garbage and you'd work for a couple days, fill up that cruise ship, have a blast with your friends, help change that part of the garbage patch a little bit and come back. Like, I don't know, there's gotta be a whole industry. I almost am fascinated enough to see it. I wanna go and see it and witness it for myself, because I just can't fathom it compared to what you see the pictures of it.
I mean, could you imagine, you're in a boat. and you're coming upon the Pacific garbage patch. Right. And that's all you see.
Bryan Dennstedt:the end of it. You can't see the end of it. can't see it. And all it is is garbage.
Yeah. Garbage. Everything under the sun. It's crazy.
Bryan Dennstedt:It's absolutely crazy. And it's probably, I just imagine it being so jam packed and stuff that the animals can't really come up for air. It's got to be rampant with bacteria and crap.
you know what I get? I don't get any kick out of this, but I live Michigan and if you take one of the expressways down they have you know these these dumps and what you know ten years ago the dump was like a block long and maybe a block high or something and you know now ten fifteen years later it's six blocks long and six blocks high right and you know it's one thing you could sit there and say well they could build something on top of it they could do like we just light it on fire we'll get rid of it quick and I'm not sure if that was what we want but we do not it's like like they buy land to make these dumps and the dumps keep getting bigger. And it's like, what are we going to do with all this stuff? And again, this is because, you know, we have so many people. The concern I have is, and I'll end it with this, is that if we don't get China and India on board, who between the two have two points, some three billion, you know, people, then it's, it may not ever work. You know, and their argument I've read is that, we went through the industrial age, let them go through it. But if they go through it with five, six times more people, this may be the end of it. again, I keep imploring people, just do your part. Just you be you. Be responsible for your actions and try and be as clean as you can. Yeah, I agree.
Bryan Dennstedt: I see my neighbors putting out twice as much garbage as me. So do better people on that front. Well, we are rapid fire through these topics pretty quickly here, Paul. The next one, I wanted to take a different spin because you and I get invited to be on other We're on podcasts ourselves that we're putting together all about whole food plant -based vegan food that kind of thing. So we know all about the health implications of what we're doing with regards to eating healthy eating wise fuel for our body nutrition for our body, but I want to talk about veganism and the environmental impact. So what do you see as some of the key advantages of your on the environment by you just eating more kale?
Well, it's for me, I've got a my mother -in -law, she grows kale. And first of all, it's amazing if you grow it yourself and she grows it, the taste improvement between you growing it from your at your house, and then buying it at the store. It's like a world of difference of taste. The other thing is I get such a kick out of it because she grows it, we strip it together, it's a, you know, I get it Six bags of kale good for a couple weeks. And by the time I'm done with two weeks of kale, it's ready to be harvested again. We can just keep on rolling that out all the time. So she gets what she thinks is some of the best seeds. She puts it in the best soil that is untreated. And then she lets Mother Nature and the sun just make it beautiful and waters it. And the taste is, it's sweet. I mean, it's actually sweet tasting. So I'm there to help her do whatever she wants because I happen to love her kale. So to me, what I get a kick out of is that you could something and then it could keep growing that something under the right conditions at the right place.
Bryan Dennstedt: Yeah, I mean I think if they said if everybody just had a small little garden in their backyard, nobody would, we'd just be all be able to trade vegetables and we wouldn't really need to buy anything at the grocery store from a fresh vegetable perspective. But the fact I was reading was something like around 73 % of your carbon footprint can be by going to a vegan diet. You're gonna reduce the animal agriculture, and that's one of the key things that you're doing by not eating the animals and all the supply chain logistics of just not eating the animals to have to, like you said, bring the corn to the animals, bring the animals to the slaughter, slaughter to the warehouse, all that kind of stuff, at least with the vegetables we're buying at the store. Most vegetables are sourced locally and then just the big things, avocados and the strawberries and things like that are coming from across the country, but I agree with you Thousand percent on the kale. have a hydroponic garden at home and I've got at least six or seven kale plants growing in it and And there's just nothing like walking by my my garden and inside my house So that even reduces the bugs and I just pick off a leaf of kale every time I walk by it and pop it in my mouth It's just phenomenal and delicious.
So yeah, that's good I mean it you know, we have a long ways to go with with that a long long ways to go so Yeah, I mean I guess that's how I did on my end is just is what I just said is we have got to find ways to you know not destroy this planet
Bryan Dennstedt: and It goes back to that the even bigger topic of water, know Like the most the the quantity of water that it takes to bring one pound of beef to market versus one pound of kale they both weigh the same one kale probably takes up more space. But you know farming responsible for the largest percentage of greenhouse gas emissions and if you shift to a vegan or plant -based diet You'll help reduce deforestation. You'll help conserve water your I mean the environmental impact is
well the other thing too is so if One thing I didn't mention on you know the effect that people eating the animals is that? Have you ever seen like a truck full of and fill it in cows pigs, whatever it is? Those animals look pretty stressed. not only are eating an animal that's filled with bad stuff, but when they slaughter them, they're at the highest point of their stress. So the quality I would think of their meat is not gonna be as good as if they were grass fed or something like that or out in an open area. again, this factory farming stuff is just for fish, for chickens, for beef. It's not healthy. They do it because they need to, to feed humans, but there has to be a better way. The better way is plants.
Bryan Dennstedt: Well said, so thank you Paul for enlightening us on that topic to a degree. So everybody go plant based, give it a try like we said.
Yeah, try the 60 day challenge. Let me know. In fact, yeah, I would love to know and you could email me paul at pbnsg .org paul at pbnsg .org if you want to take the 60 day challenge. Because if you do, then what
Bryan Dennstedt: I'll do is I'll feature you on the website. even easier for everybody out there. Okay, go to real many plants and try 30 day challenge.
Oh okay well if you're a real man you go 60 alright. Okay real man.
Bryan Dennstedt: Alright our next topic up is is getting back into some of the stuff that's maybe at the heart of it for us a little bit and that is innovation because I'm not expecting every single person on the planet to be as strict. mean, you are even more strict than me with the whole food, plant -based, no oil, some of those kinds of things. I'm in that vegan camp, no dairy and no animal products and that kind of a thing. But I probably do eat a few pieces I eat a few pieces of vegan junk food now and then, you know what I mean? But what do you see as some of the future innovations in this plant -based space that are exciting and intriguing you and you think are gonna help convert more more people to helping us save the planet first and foremost, let alone their health and the animals?
Well, you know when I started 12 years ago, they were a handful of cookbooks. That was it. So let's say a cookbook may have 70 recipes in it. So there was maybe 350, 400 recipes to choose from. Well, to me, because there are more people going vegan, more people are becoming vegetarian, more people are definitely becoming more plant -based, what you have is all these new chefs who love to play with spices and come up with new ways to make things taste great. It really is something. make certain fruits and vegetables and you know it tastes like beef or chicken you know there's ways to do it like you know like you could use a spice called poultry seasoning I think it is and it's just you know you put it on a tofu and the tofu absorbs that taste and then you cook it you know and it tastes kind of chickeny you know you look at nutritional yeast done the right way it tastes
Bryan Dennstedt: The nooch.
Right, exactly. you're not having to give up that much. But the thing I find amazing is just how many great chefs and how many great options there are for you to choose from. And you know, you could just go on the Internet, copy the recipe. You wait for a day that's too hot, too rainy, too snowy, and you could batch cook this stuff. That's the other thing too is that, you know, the one thing about the plant based thing is other than like noodles or rice or those type of foods, you could freeze all this stuff for a very long time. So if you make it, you like it, make it 10 times.
Bryan Dennstedt: And you took me to, and I'm sorry I forget the name of it, Amber with, is it Cacowtree?
Yeah, Amber Pappore, she is an absolute amazing chef here in Michigan.
Bryan Dennstedt: And I had General Toe's lettuce wraps, like such a unique flavor and I don't was just delicious. I was dreaming of them last night. They were so good.
you could, you know, know, the cool thing about that is, that like you, okay, so I got some buddies who love their meat, right? And they brag about how much they love the meat. And I say to them, all right, next time you get that filet, I don't want them to don't put anything on it. Just eat it as it is. Why would we do that? We need to have it marinated or we need to have a tenderize or we need to put this on it And I go at least when I eat my whole food plant -based stuff I could taste the pepper I could taste you know the any fruit I could taste it for what it's supposed to taste like mm -hmm and to me That's kind of a great taste.
Bryan Dennstedt: Well, I just see so many things happening in the plant innovation space. So get out there, support these companies, buy them, try them. If you love them, buy them again. I mean, there's so many plant based seafood alternatives coming out to stop the fish. There's the algae based shrimp options. There's Impossible Foods has got that that heme something in it that helps it taste a little bit more like meat. just see so many different ways that we can support industry and help make this change permanent and take over 50 % or more of the grocery store.
Right and what's interesting is you know we shop the perimeter that's the way it works but I started getting a little bit into the mushrooms not psychedelic by the way but it's amazing how like a lobster mushroom if you made the right way it really tastes lobster -esque you know so is it the lobster meat you like or is that the taste of lobster and you can get that with certain plant -based foods not you know like with the lobster mushroom. So I'm saying that experiment, try, you'll be shocked that if you find these things, what you get out of the whole thing is great health.
Bryan Dennstedt: Well said. So get out there, everybody. Try some of these new, innovative things. think our friend Geoff Palmer has an amazing new protein mix thing out there. There's just so many new innovations that we're seeing in this space. So I hope you get to check them out. All right, our next topic up is just a core one for us really. Let's talk about the health benefits of a plant -based diet. Just to recap it for people, what do you see are the top health benefits people can experience from switching to plant -based diets,
Well, I've got a list. we start with number one is when you go plant -based.
you're gonna lose weight. And if you look around, the world's gotten a lot bigger. And there's a reason why you don't see 80 year olds that are morbidly obese. They're generally not around. And if they are, they're carrying all these, there's always exceptions, of course.
Bryan Dennstedt: They're at home, they don't get out of the
Right, because then their knees, all their bones, their body, everything aches because their body at that age is not meant to support all that weight. So number one is you lose weight. Number two is, and I mentioned this earlier, you you eat clean, you live a clean life, you feel good every day. So not only can you work out, and it doesn't matter, you know, as somebody who's getting older, walk 15 minutes every day. That could be your workout. Work out, do a 30 minute weight lifting, and then go for a 30 minute walk and make that part of your life forever more. know, but you could repeat, repeat, repeat the workouts if you're eating cleanly. So to me, you know for me personally it was I went home. Okay, so I was scheduled for either a heart transplant or a bypass and I was very lucky to have somebody who said would you be willing to make a lifestyle change? Didn't really know what the lifestyle change meant but you wouldn't need to have bypass surgery. And it decimated my family when I was a kid, where all my uncles and my dad passed away. My dad was the one who lived another 15 years, but I saw how miserable and how much pain he was in when he had the bypass. But they all needed bypass in their 50s. And at 54, I was scheduled for bypass when they found out I did need a new heart. But here I am almost 12 years later, I have not needed or had bypass surgery. I still have a blocked artery, but everything else has not gotten worse and it's gotten a little better. You're not gonna eat plant -based and pretend like you're a one -year -old again with your arteries, but I've not had, I've bypassed bypass. Yeah, and that's to me, the major benefits of whole food plant -based is that you just, You keep your health, know, man, we were not supposed to live past 50. Like you know what saying? We have figured a way to live in our 70s, our 80s, and our 90s. 100,
Bryan Dennstedt: I'm shooting for 100, Paul.
Well you are, I'm not, but that's okay. But what I do know is that if we're gonna live in our 60s, 70s, and 80s, let's try to live without pain and suffering. And the only way to do that, I know, is eating whole food plant -based.
Bryan Dennstedt:But you are you have create, you know, through that journey you just talked about, you are taking us through and created the plant based nutrition support group. talk to us about some of the success stories you've seen through that thing. And, you know, how important it is to not only eat plant based, but you have to surround yourself with friends and and people that get it and want to support you in that journey. And what does PBNSG and success stories look like?
Well there's been a lot, You know, there's, you know, not a month goes by where I get a little message saying thank you for, you know, educating me on the benefits of nutrition before pills and procedures. They're not being taught at medical schools. They're not being taught from their doctors. You know, they're just saying, hey, try this pill if this doesn't work, try something else. But for me, I think the biggest takeaway that, or one of the biggest takeaways of plant -based nutrition support group is Just letting people know about it. We deal with adults, okay? So I try to treat adults as adults. They have to make their own life choices without judgment. If this is the path they want to go, be a whole food plant -based, then we're going to support them. And they need support because the world, even today, is not set up for that type of radical lifestyle change, even if it is right. But to me, what I like about it is that anybody who touches the plant -based nutrition support group, they away and they know about it. So whether they actually make the lifestyle change, they're an adult, it's up to them. But what's kind of cool is I hear stories of them saying, well, I tried all these things, then I went plant based and made me feel good. Then I want to tell everybody about it. And that was the sole reason why I started the Plant Based Nutrition Support Group was I never thought it would be just the food that made me sick, just the food. you know, spreading that word of, you know, what the food can do to help you get healed is one of the main things about the plant -based nutrition support group.
Bryan Dennstedt: I love it. Perfect timing there. I think our next topic is...is unique and different because I was thinking of veganism in our pop culture today, right? And how is it being portrayed in both the media and just in our culture? And I guess I look at it from like two different lenses because like you and I can go up to almost any plant -based person and say, what do you think about the Esselstyns or Michael Greger? And instantly, if they're plant -based, they know who those They know what their ideals are. know the kind of thing because we've all learned from these these great people in in the vegan Culture that that are there helping push this journey forward But there's also like the flip side of it if I was to say to my brother You know who's Michael Greger? He would have no clue, but he is the first one anytime. There's a vegan comedy joke or a skit on on one of the late shows that there's a clip of it on the internet It's always portrayed as us vegans as a negative connotation or boring or dry or whatever. And I mean, I guess I can't sit here and say that that's true because I think you and I are dynamic, amazing people and we're so much more than just our vegan.
We're fun to be with.
Bryan Dennstedt:Yeah. But but like it's it's just this strong negative connotation in the media with the comedians and just, you know, general. consensus on what vegan means when you're not vegan. So I don't know, what's your thoughts on the pop culture pieces of
Well, mean, you I don't know. You you there's probably some analogies to like when people are talking about cigarette smoking and quitting that it took, you know, 58, 70 years, 80 years to make the change. how long has this science been out? Well, it's been out since the late seventies. So, you know, I mean, it's going to take another, maybe this is going to take a hundred years to make a difference. Right. You know, what I do know is that that when I look at the celebrities like Joaquin Phoenix or Billie Eilish, I know that they're vegan or plant based and they talk. But then it goes silent again. Like what we need to get is somebody who doesn't stop talking about this stuff because you know if you get somebody like a Taylor Swift.
Bryan Dennstedt:We get Taylor Swift, come on Taylor, go vegan.
give me a call, alright? But I'm just saying like if you could get a handful of people who live a vegan lifestyle, and they do, but they talk about every day, then there's a chance for a bigger change because, know, I just think that, you know, like we got to take care of our future and our future are, like I said, these these younger, you know, pop culture people because they're influencers. Yeah. And we've got to get more influencers who agree about the concerns about the planet or the animal compassion. And certainly their their parents health that could be improved greatly. They need to talk about it and then not stop talking about it.
Bryan Dennstedt:And it's interesting because like I'm curious what your thoughts are. How do we leverage pop culture to promote more veganism? I don't want to be famous. I do not want to be a vegan celebrity in any way, or form. I think you're more known in this space than than me. think nobody knows who Bryan Dennstedt is. And I kind of I'm glad I don't to be recognized.
They do know
Bryan Dennstedt:I don't want to be with Paul. I know. I know. But at the same time, I do feel like for everybody that's watching and listening to this, like you have got to be a voice. You have got to not be embarrassed to speak up around your friends and family and not be bringing that food in and eating off in the corner at the family picnics and stuff. Like stand up, be more vocal, help change this culture one little person at a time. Or if you want, come on the podcast with me and let's talk about it together and figure out some ways to bring more positive vegan into the culture in some way shape or form but how do you see us helping promote it in a more positive light and more on a national scale?
again you know don't be afraid to speak out you know like everyone knows right from wrong okay everyone's brought up and you know that's you you learn what is the right thing to do what the wrong thing to do is and you know I think that's what you do you go back to your roots of right and wrong
If it's right to protect the animals or the planet or live a healthier life, then anything else, it doesn't matter. You should do what's right. And at the end, there is a long game. If all I cared about was making money and I just wanted to get rich, well then I would spend all my time trying to get rich. But I think that what's important, especially as people my age and as we get older, we worry about the future. care of the future by doing what's
Bryan Dennstedt:Absolutely. We got two more real quick here, Paul. I know this is a one. This next topic is challenges in the vegan movement. And I know this is why you have worked with Meryl to create the Sage Circle Alliance. But what do you see? You know, set the stage for us on what you see are some of the biggest challenges the vegan movement faces today.
All right. So I'm going to explain to people that you know I do know about the plant -based food human side of veganism or plant -based I am NOT I love animals, but I don't know much about that section that sector I I worry about this planet. I'm always fearful that it's going to take something for people to wake up. I hope not either, but I'm saying that, know, just explaining about all the pollutants and all the things we're doing to it, you know, some people will say, well, we're just in a cycle. Are we in a cycle or are we really destroying it? You I don't know. You get it from both sides and it's tough to choose what side is the right side. I don't even really know.
Bryan Dennstedt:I think that's where we're heading into this election year and everything else and the misinformation and resistance to change that the world in general, just not in veganism, is highlighting this strong need for continued advocacy and education in both our schools and every place we go.
But... Yeah, it's interesting. You brought up the school part. I'll get back to the SCA in a minute. You know, I used to think that like there's a piece of unfairness about underserved children, for example, that they didn't get all the benefits that other children may get, whether it's you deserve, not deserve, no child deserves it, number one. And then I read something the other day that said, you know, as a child, you're told what to eat. So your parent comes home and they say, hey, this is what we're having for dinner. Eat it. Then I found out that people who have more money or wealthier children, their health is even equal, if not worse. than the underserved children because they have more choices of bad food to feed their kids. So to me, that's something that just, was part of the reason why we started the Sage Circle Alliance was to address the child nutrition part. And that's gonna fall underneath our 501C3 nonprofit side. But we're gonna go directly into child nutrition and let's educate the children along with their parents on eating better. It is not a case of affordability because meat might cost just as much as probably some fruits, maybe more. It does, it has to cost more. Yeah, and then the other idea was always that you've got people at the very top, like the world that we live in, who all are making a good living. They're paying their bills, putting money away. But then there's, you we'll call it like the middle class. The middle class of the vegan movement could be, you if you've got the top 10 or 20 people, the next 100, we'll call it the vegan middle class.
Bryan Dennstedt:That's you and me.
That's certainly me and you, but you know, and they are just struggling. Okay, they are just struggling to get by. They're getting by, but they're just struggling with the hope it's going to get better tomorrow or the next day. The whole idea of the Sage Circle Alliance was to create a union. We're calling it an alliance of that next tier. And instead of people spending money on resources or spending money on trying to find certain people to speak at events or you need a health coach, everything is going to be housed underneath the Sage Circle Alliance. So if you need a lifestyle doctor, you come see us. If you need a nutritionist, you come see us. If you need to get a plant -based coach or a health coach, come see us. If you need somebody who markets strictly to vegans, you come see us. develop an entire website, you come see us. So it is a way that we share our resources amongst ourselves and outside. And our goal is to keep adding more people. And you know, we've got close to 50 people in less than about a month and a half. And our goal is to have hundreds and hundreds by the end of the year. And they're, you know, the old, tell somebody about it, they tell 10 people and it goes on and on. So that was the whole idea is that we needed to find a landing place. for the vegan middle middle class.
Bryan Dennstedt:And I guess the way I look at it is we have got to support each other. there's we get to vote every time we spend one dollar out of our wallet. So go and spend that dollar in the best possible way you possibly can every chance you get. And if that means supporting people as part of the Sage Circle Alliance or wherever you can, but make plant based choices with your money or choices with every dollar you spend every chance you can.
Well I support you Bryan.
Bryan Dennstedt: Yeah. Alright. We appreciate that. Our last topic is kind of looking towards the future really. So what is the future of plant -based living Paul? What do you envision for the future and and hope for the vegan movement?
Just you know what you know the world's driven by money.
Bryan Dennstedt: Mm -hmm.
So I hope that there's more money coming into those sectors, be it for a way to reduce our destroying of the oceans, the way we feed our people with, and how we go about feeding people with animals. So to me, I also believe awareness. Where do we start? Well, think that we start, a good start would be let's start teaching nutrition at every medical school. I mean, we're just talking about a couple hours. Like right now they get like four hours. If we just doubled it. Just think of the amount of learning they do. Plus, wouldn't it be nice if you go to a doctor and he, by law, has to ask, so tell me what are you eating? So if he did that and he found out, I'm eating all fried food, well, here's, I'm gonna give you a script. And the script would say, join PBNSG. Or the script would say, eat fruits and vegetables, and here's two movies to look at. And just think, he wouldn't have to prescribe you the pills. And it just can't always be, when it comes to human health, It can't be just always a money grab where you know the pharmaceuticals are in the pockets of this and the doctors you know get kickbacks from the Pharmaceuticals they're not teaching it at school. How about this one? So I went to the hospital and I'm part of a lipoprotein little a phase three study and every time I walk in that hospital I go by the cafeteria and I look at it and I'm thinking to myself Well, this is self -serving. mean, it's like all this food that got you to the hospital in the first place are being sold in the cafeteria.
Bryan Dennstedt: Pepsi, Coke, potato chips. They're all there.
They're all there. And then I had a procedure done about a year and a half ago. And I said to him, I want something plant -based. It was like, I'm going to give you potatoes with a lot of butter on it. I'm going to give you lean turkey. There wasn't one thing I could eat as a heart patient. So why would they serve it to me? so we've got to be able to go at it on multiple fronts, medical schools, hospitals. We need to go at it with our children. So again, you I don't think we could do it just one person at a time because time may run out. We need to go at it in a bunch of different directions. And as I mentioned earlier, we have to do what's right. What's right.
Bryan Dennstedt: Yeah. I mean, I see the plant based market growing significantly in coming years. I see more and more companies investing in research and development for innovation and unique products. And I say, I just go back to we have got to be more responsible in every way, shape or form that we can to make sure that we're spending our dollars wisely. If that means, you know, I think there's a chain of vegan grocery stores that are trying to debut across America. If that means they cost twice as much as Whole Foods, for those of us that can afford it, we need to go and support that grocery store. Because I would love to walk in. You know how we go, we go to a vegan restaurant now and then and you're like, wow, there are 40 different things on the menu and I can pick any one of them and order it instead of just trying to figure it out from the side dishes. Like I can't even, I just want to take a trip to this first vegan grocery store just to walk in and say I can pick up any single thing in this store and put it in my cart and check out and know that it's vegan like gosh can you imagine that kind of a world and it's coming like I can see it on the horizon
well they're touching on it you know like you're like you know you know back a bunch of years ago we had like 26 plant -based restaurants and we call them that some had one item some had ten items you know so like you said The key is supporting those types of situations and it'd be great I mean, let's face it a vegan grocery store half of it would be produce right, you know, but it is interesting
Bryan Dennstedt: Some unique different kinds of potatoes maybe a wide variety of mushrooms like we go in and we can see two types of mushrooms at our grocery store
Forks over knives for example, not that I'm promoting anybody but they've got three or four frozen food items Now, you know, they of course they have to add some additives to But the point is. They're touching a lot of these things that are outside of just produce. So I just encourage people that you have to support these people if they're going to stay around and grow.
Bryan Dennstedt: Amen, for sure. I want to say thank you, Paul, for coming on this little five minute experiment road trip. What did you think? How did you like sort of buzzing through a variety of topics here for the past hour?
Well, I learned about about sand. Mind blowing. It really was. I know and I say freely I'm good in some areas I'm average and most and I'm pretty piss poor when it comes to understanding Some of the other subjects so the whole styrofoam kind of blew me away So I guess next time if I'm invited I'm gonna learn a few more things about how we get rid of styrofoam and its effect that has on people but I think that you know, these little five -minute vignettes are We're fun, you know like you don't have to have everything set up. It's okay to feel uncomfortable a little bit I was a little uncomfortable because I didn't know what was gonna be next. but you know what we dance we play we smile and we laugh
Bryan Dennstedt: Well, we appreciate you supporting the Real Men Eat Plants podcast.
Always
Bryan Dennstedt: Check out Plant -based nutrition support group. That's PBNSG .org And you can also check out the sage circle alliance dot org. Those are great ways to get in touch with Paul and all the great work that he's doing in our community. And we want more men to come to the real man eat plants podcast community. We even have our own real many plants support group as part of PBNSG. So I hope to see you guys there and let's go out there and see what we can do to change the world and help us save this planet in a big way. Thanks for watching.
Thank you.
Bryan Dennstedt: Real Men Eat Plants, I have my plant base on fire shirt, Real Men Eat Plants podcast. Thank you everybody.
Comments