Speaker 1 (00:00):
Welcome to the Dr. Gundry podcast, the weekly podcast where Dr. G gives you the tools you need to boost your health and live your healthiest life.
Steven Gundry (00:14):
Welcome to the Dr. Gundry podcast. Okay, it’s trivia time and everybody loves these trivia questions. Okay, which superfood boasts more potassium than a banana and more antioxidants than blueberries or acai? I’ll give you a hint. It’s been hailed as the king of medicinal fungi. I’m talking about chaga, one of the most nutritionally dense immune-supporting foods in the world. And in just a moment, my guest and I are going to reveal how you can reap the benefits of this incredibly powerful, increasingly popular superfood.
I’m joined by Brandon Mizrahie, the CEO and founder of Renude, the stripped-down beverage company and makers of the delicious Chagaccino. Like so many others, Brandon struggled for years with troublesome health issues and little to no answers.
And if you watch my podcast, that’s a familiar story. It wasn’t until he turned to this ancient fungi that he began living his best, healthiest life and discovered his passion for helping others do the same. On this episode, Brandon and I are going to explain what chaga can do for your health and why the Chagaccino should become your new go-to drink. So, don’t go away. We’ll be right back.
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Brandon, it’s so great to have you on the show. Welcome.
Brandon Mizrahie (04:29):
Amazing to be here.
Steven Gundry (04:30):
So, I want to I want to start off by expanding on your journey to health. For so long, you dealt with chronic low energy, brain fog, hormone imbalances, IBS and asthma. When did all this start in your life?
Brandon Mizrahie (04:47):
Yeah, great question. I can remember going back to third grade when I first was keeled over in fetal position from stomach pain. I wasn’t able to go to school and just screaming in pain. And my parents were concerned, obviously. They had no idea what to do. So, they called our local doctor and then referred us to a specialist. And they started to do tests on me. Next thing I know, there’s a tube going down my throat, I’m drinking this blue stuff that I didn’t even know what it was.
And they didn’t find any disease or anything. So, they didn’t really know how to treat it. And the western medicine pretty much just calls anything IBS, irritable bowel syndrome, when they don’t know what to give a label to. So, they just said, “Oh, he has IBS.” But again, I was like, screaming in pain from this. And I was sick all the time from a young age starting around that time. And I was missing all the big events in school from kids’ birthday parties or could have been a playoff basketball game or a fun holiday. So, I had an overactive immune system and these gut problems from the time I was five or six years old.
Steven Gundry (06:10):
And you probably like many other people not only went to one doctor, but probably many. And did they offer you any solutions?
Brandon Mizrahie (06:22):
As I got older, they gave me some prescription pills to deal with it. And that’s correct that we saw a host of doctors and specialists and we ended up eventually going to some alternative holistic practitioners as well. And my mom, as a child at the time, so my mom was really helping me on this journey. And they eventually prescribed me some pharmaceuticals and that had a whole host of problems that it created. It triggered asthma in me, triggered hormone imbalances. My bone density was so low by the time I was 17 or 18 years old, that the doctor, he said, “You can break your bones just walking.”
So, I obviously got off of those pills. And really turned to holistic medicine, alternative medicine to heal myself. And I had been on a journey to heal myself in many other ways throughout the years, whether that was diet-related, food-related, herb-related and it was just always a journey to heal myself.
Steven Gundry (07:36):
And did you stumble upon the chaga mushroom or? It’s been used for centuries, particularly in eastern and Chinese medicine? How did it crop up on your radar?
Brandon Mizrahie (07:56):
Correct. Great question. Yeah, I was experimenting with many other adaptogens, herbs, diets. I did it all. I mean, from the blood type diet to the keto diet to low glycemic to flexitarian, all these LA health crazes. They talk about juice cleanses, green juices. Also, [inaudible 00:08:18], this company, really, really nice five day fast where they give you the nutrients, Dr. Valter Longo out of USC has a great fasting program, intermittent fasting, you name it.
And I was also experimenting with herbs, tinctures, and adaptogens, and different superfoods and food combining as well. Because that’s a big thing. You can be eating a lot of carbohydrates and fats together. And that may not digest well. Also, there are certain foods that lead to inflammation in your body, even though they might be healthy food. So, just trying to find the right balance. But in terms of your question, I discovered chaga from actually listening to a TED Talk in 2013. It was Paul Stamets. He had a TED Talk that said-
Steven Gundry (09:13):
Oh, yeah, I know Paul.
Brandon Mizrahie (09:14):
Oh, amazing. So, I was blown away by the TED Talk, six ways mushrooms can heal or change the world. And then, I just did a deep dive of research on it. And like I said, I was already taking maca from Peru, ashwagandha from India, he shou wu from Japan, all of these sort of adaptogen superfoods. I like to think about adaptogens as sort of the cream of the crop of superfoods with indigenous use and a lot of science behind them as well.
There’s a lot of research papers on all of those adaptogens that I just mentioned. And there’s a ton on chaga, I mean, hundreds of research papers. You can go on PubMed and see them. I mean, there’s institute like Sloan Kettering, Johns Hopkins, the most respected medical journals and establishment have research papers on chaga that are peer reviewed. And so, I want to do a deep dive on those papers and just started to read them. And there’s a lot of words in there that you can’t understand. But there’s a lot of words that you can and just educating myself and it’s been a journey, like I said.
Steven Gundry (10:25):
So, let me stop you there. You’ve mentioned adaptogens multiple times. And for our viewers and listeners, they may have heard this word, maybe not. Tell us about what the heck an adaptogen is.
Brandon Mizrahie (10:44):
So, the easy way to think about an adaptogen is something that helps your body physically and mentally adapt to stress. So, there’s about 10 to 15 adaptogens in the world. And I like to think about them as the cream of the crop of superfoods. There’s, as I mentioned earlier, ashwagandha out of India, maca out of Peru, chaga, which grows in its wild forage. So, I like to think even of chaga as the king of adaptogens, not just the king of the fungi kingdom, but they all have indigenous use.
In the case of chaga, the first reported or first discovered us is actually were on Ötzi, the Iceman, which is the most well-preserved caveman dated 5000 BC. There’s a museum in the Italian Swiss Alps border dedicated to at the Iceman. And he was found frozen. And I think they dated his body to around 60 or 65 years old at that time, which is an incredible, long time to live. And they found birch polypores around his neck and some chaga mushroom as well. So, it just shows you our ancestors were using this stuff. So, I don’t really look at these things as something new. It’s more of a rediscovery.
Steven Gundry (12:05):
And so, where do you find chaga? Are you walking on the ground say, “Oh, look, there’s a chaga,” or?
Brandon Mizrahie (12:14):
Yeah, great question. There’s 3.3 million species in the Fungi Kingdom. So, most people think about mushrooms as something that grows on the ground or something you put on your pizza. And some of them are poisonous, some people are scared of them. But people love mushrooms on their pizza. Some people are afraid of mushrooms or have allergies. What’s so unique about the medicinal mushrooms, and when I say medicinal, it doesn’t mean it’s not going to get you high. It’s not a psychedelic trip.
But what it means is that they have a lot of nutrient dense properties. So, chaga specifically is a medicinal mushroom that grows on trees. And not just any tree, it grows on birch trees. And not just any birch tree, it grows on about one in five to 10,000 birch trees and only in freezing climates like Alaska, Siberia, the Changbai mountains in China, just really northern climates, Canada as well, British Columbia. So, you have to go out there and nature and wild forage it, kind of like truffles. But again, truffles are amazing for taste, but we’re talking about nutrient dense health benefits here.
And chaga is arguably the most nutrient dense, whatever you want to call it. We talked about adaptogens, superfoods, fungi. There’s so many different names or classifications for it, but it is one of the most nutrient dense, if not the most on the planet. And I can get into a little bit about why, whenever you would like.
Steven Gundry (13:48):
Well, this is probably a good way to talk about that. Because you’re not going to go out and chop a chog off a birch tree and dig a nice hunk of it and eat it. And you’re not going to slice it on your pizza, obviously. So, tell us how this came about? How do people learn what chaga did? How did people use it traditionally? And take us into some of the research on it.
Brandon Mizrahie (14:24):
Yeah. So, there’s a ton of history around it. And research, like I said, dates 5000 BC when we first discovered humans using this compound. And like I said, he was Ötzi, the Iceman living to 60 plus years old in that time is an incredible thing. And he didn’t even die from natural causes. He died from an arrow wound from a rival tribe. So, who knows how long he would have lived. These are very potent, unbelievably healthy substances. And chaga mushroom in particular has a historical use in Eastern Europe, in Asia. Also, in Finland, they would use it during the war as a substitute for coffee, their soldiers would use it.
So, the Cantii people would use it as well. So, indigenous tribes all the way up to being popular and about the 19th and 20th century, being rediscovered by a civilization and used by various groups of people, like I said, in Eastern Europe and Asia. And now it’s just making its way to the United States, where people are rediscovering this and getting interested and chaga and other medicinal mushrooms. And I’m really happy about it. I think they’re amazing things.
The Fungi Kingdom actually is closer DNA match to humans than the plant kingdom. So, we are closer match to these fungi than plants actually. And that doesn’t mean we can’t have great health benefits from kale and carrots and all these other amazing plants. It just, we are a closer match to the fungi kingdom. There’s more than 56 medicines using chaga. So, I was actually in Copenhagen before the pandemic just on vacation. We were on a trip to Europe with my wife and our baby.
And we were walking by and I noticed in the pharmacy, right in the window display, there’s a chaga tincture. That’s the first thing they’re promoting there. So, that’s not something that we see here in the US. You might have to walk in to Whole Foods and go down the aisle and find these little tinctures here. But over there, that’s the first thing they’re promoting in their pharmacy.
Steven Gundry (16:44):
And that’s a good point. Medicinal mushrooms are getting a lot of interest right now, definitely in the United States. You’re right, that traditional cultures around the world have known about these benefits, but we’re a little slow to catch on. And there’s a lot of mushroom products out there. What took you towards chaga to kind of make your life’s work instead of reishi mushroom, for instance?
Brandon Mizrahie (17:17):
Yeah, that’s a great question. All the medicinal mushrooms are great. They have similar health benefits. Some might be better in certain areas. What drew me to chaga was the fact that it’s wild forage and just the story of it. It’s growing, like I said, on a birch tree in a wild forest. And it’s getting its health benefits from that tree. So, you can’t cultivate it like [inaudible 00:17:43] or rice or these crops on a farm. And it has to be found in the wild. And that’s where the magic is. That birch tree is one of the healthiest things on the planet. It might live for hundreds, if not thousands of years.
So, how do you get the health benefits from that birch tree into your body? What are you going to do? Chop it down and then boil it in water? I mean, it’s just not reasonable. So, what the chaga mushroom is doing is it will grow on that birch tree where it’s sort of like a Band-Aid. So, let’s just say that tree got struck by lightning or attacked by insects and it sort of has an open wound, if you will. It’ll grow on that wound to protect the tree and it makes this handshake deal.
Nature’s amazing. So, it’ll make this handshake deal and say, “I’m going to protect you as a Band-Aid. But in exchange, I’m going to start extracting your nutrients.” So, it will [inaudible 00:18:40] the tree because out the chaga growing on it and protecting it, the tree will die from infection. But it does so it has a symbiotic relationship with the tree, but over time, it does kill the tree because it extracts all of those nutrients.
Now, I mean I have a piece of chaga here. So, by the time it’s about five years old, 5 to 10 years old, it’s been growing at about an inch per year on that tree predigesting those nutrients from the birch tree. And by the time it’s about 5 to 10 years old in the size of about a beehive, it is arguably the most nutrient dense superfood on the planet. Now, how do we get the nutrients out of the chaga? We can’t just eat it like you said. You can’t just put it on our pizza. It’s almost like a piece of wood. It’s hard like a piece of wood.
So, we grind it up like coffee or you can chop it up into small pieces. And then, you steep it like a tea. But normal steeps on tea would be three to five minutes. To get that medicinal steep and to get all those nutrients out, we steep it for anywhere from 6 to 48 hours. So, it’s a very long steep. And then our process to get it into people in our product is we’ll freeze dry it into a powder, so we can then get it into people’s hands in a very simple way where they can add it to their coffees or their teas or their drinks or their smoothies, et cetera.
But that’s how I was originally making it. I was steeping it like a tea. And traditionally, they would do it over a campfire or that type of thing to extract it. And it is so potent that you can dry it after you steep it and stick it in the freezer, so it doesn’t grow mold and all that, and then resteep it up to six times or seven times. And then until you see it loses that color and taste. So, it is just loaded with nutrients and health benefits at that point.
Steven Gundry (20:32):
Now, mushrooms have traditionally been known as supporting the immune system. Can you talk about where the research is? How, in fact, do mushrooms help support an immune system?
Brandon Mizrahie (20:46):
Yeah, great question. The immune system is getting a lot of attention right now, because I think, I mean, as we know, because of the pandemic and COVID and the relationship between the immune system and the severity of that virus. But obviously, there’s been viruses and bacterias around for the beginning of time. So, having a healthy immune system is just, should be-
Steven Gundry (21:13):
A good idea.
Brandon Mizrahie (21:14):
… something that we all strive towards. A good idea, yeah, exactly. Just like having a healthy diet or working out. And that doesn’t mean we can’t ever have something bad or some sugar or sweets, but just overall having good, healthy diet and a healthy immune system should just be a prerequisite. So, in terms of mushrooms and mushrooms like chaga, we’re talking about the highest antioxidants ever measured on the planet.
So, it’s like, as you mentioned in the intro, three pounds worth of blueberries per serving, and that’s for about a gram of chaga, which is in every Chagaccino, and that’s the effective dose. You’re welcome to add more. There’s no toxic dosage. So, like someone who has a serious disease or virus, there’s a lot of research on cancer and we don’t make disease claims. But the research is out there on it. And people are welcome to see that research. They could take 50 grams, for example, 50 times the amount that we’re recommending.
So, what makes it so special, number one, is the most antioxidants ever measured acai, pomegranates, blueberries are a distant second, third and fourth. We’re talking about like I said, 10 times more than acai, 33 pounds of blueberries antioxidants. It also has beneficial cytokines, which are special protein that regulate the immune system. So, chaga will stimulate blood cells, which are essential for fighting off these harmful bacterias and viruses that we were talking about.
So, as a result, the mushroom helps fight colds and serious illnesses and flus. I was getting sick a lot. I had an overactive immune system. [inaudible 00:22:57] immunomodulator as well to help work with your own immune system and hit the brakes on it from time to time. Because not every bacteria and virus that comes into your body, whether you’re at the gym or in the steam room, or having a conversation with somebody that had a virus or bacteria that comes into your space, sometimes those aren’t really that harmful.
And they’re like a little spark that would go out and own. But our body’s response to those sparks sometimes is to send the firing squads on them or call the fire department and fever response, is in bed for a week and sometimes it’s just not necessary. If it’s a spark that will go out on its own, we don’t need to get sick. We don’t need to have these fevers. We don’t need to have to suffer and be in bed and be taken out of commission.
So, chaga had really helped me hit the brakes on my immune system when needed to not have those responses. So, I’ve taken four years since I’ve started taking this every day four or five times a year, I’d be in bed for six or seven days.
Now, it doesn’t need to hit the gas pedal on your immune system. It’s an immunomodulator as I mentioned, so it will do that. It’s not always going to hit the brakes and say, “Hey, maybe this spark can turn into a forest fire.” And as it grows, the chaga will work with your immune system. There’s so many other health benefits and beneficial properties in there. But we could get into that around other a little later as well.
Steven Gundry (24:24):
So, you say that chaga is the highest melanin rich food on the planet. And I’m glad that you’ve talked about that. Why is melanin so important? Most people maybe have heard of melanin as the pigment in our skin that gives us a suntan or gives us a naturally darker skin color. What’s so cool about melanin?
Brandon Mizrahie (24:55):
As you mentioned, that’s exactly right. Melanin gives you the pigment in your skin, your hair and your eyes. But what a lot of people might not know about melanin is that it protects you from harmful UV rays. It’s sort of like a built-in SPF, if you will. So, when you go out onto the sun, the melanin can absorb those UV rays before they reach the healthy cells. So, chaga being loaded with highest amounts of melanin on the planet.
And the reason for that is because the outer layer, which they call the sclerotia layer, which is sort of the protective layer, it’s almost like this armor that the chaga grows to survive in those freezing climates in Alaska, let’s say, it could be negative 50 degrees Fahrenheit. And then in the summer, the sunlight come out. So, it needs to be able to survive extreme climate. And it grows this outer layer that’s very black and crusty looking. And it is just the treasure trove of melanin.
So, as you mentioned in terms of melanin, it is unbelievable for your skin, your hair, your eye color, your radiance, your glow. There’s studies that show as your melanin decreases, your hair starts to gray. And some people like you and Steve Martin, there’s silver [inaudible 00:26:18]. So, you guys might not mind my wife secretly wants my hair to turn gray. She’s waiting for that time.
Steven Gundry (26:29):
Hurry up.
Brandon Mizrahie (26:30):
It was amazing for … Yeah, exactly.
Steven Gundry (26:34):
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Brandon Mizrahie (32:57):
But yeah, melanin is amazing for a sort of a beauty nutrient for your hair, skin, eyes, overall glow and radiance.
Steven Gundry (33:07):
All right, I want to shift gears. So, you went from steeping your own chaga at home to launching Renude. And number one, great name, how’d you come up with Renude?
Brandon Mizrahie (33:28):
Yes. So, Renude is really stripping down plastic beverages back to their nude bare natural state and then renewing them for the masses, not just the health and wellness community, the masses and affordable and delicious elixirs. And I want to highlight because we really wanted to have people have an enjoyable experience first when they taste our product versus something like a shot of wheatgrass or a green juice.
And there’s a place for those products. I mean, look, I just [inaudible 00:34:05] green juice and I enjoy. But if you would give a green juice to my dad, he would spit it out. So, we wanted to have delicious flavors for the masses really.
Steven Gundry (34:17):
And so, Renude makes Chagaccino, clever. And so, where did the idea of Chagaccino come from?
Brandon Mizrahie (34:34):
Great question. So, I did not approach chaga as a business. I was just using it to heal myself. And what I noticed was after I was steeping in at home as a medicinal tea, I was getting creative with it. I started putting it in my refrigerator, making an iced tea. I would add lemons to it. Make a chaga palmer. I would add some monk fruit to it to sweeten it. And I started making these other concoctions with home brewed kombucha and mixing that with the chaga. I was playing with it for recipes with adding it to my coffee.
So, I noticed that when my friends and family were coming up, I would sample it for them. And next thing I know, they’re drinking all of my chaga concoctions. And I’m like, I can’t even hang on to these medicinal teas that I’m making. So, at some point I said, you know what, I got to go out there. This has helped me so much in my life. I don’t have asthma anymore. The inflammation on my gut is gone, not getting sick anymore. My brain fog is gone. My hormones have returned to normal.
This has helped me more than anything that I’ve ever tried before and people love it. I ended up just going to the local farmers market here in Los Angeles on Melrose Place. There’s one in Malibu. We’re really lucky to have these amazing farmers markets down the street. So, I had the different drinks that I was making. And I had some information about each of them. And week after week, people were gravitating towards the Chagaccino or the others.
And I had that little square card reader and it showed me the data and sometimes it was five to one over the other drink. Sometimes it was seven to one. Sometimes it was 10 to one over the other drink. So, I was like, wow, okay, this is how people want [inaudible 00:36:19], this delicious latte vehicle, the chaga. And so, I’ll meet them where they’re at. I’ll put it in this delicious latte. And then the next step was, where are people drinking coffee? Where are they having these lattes? At the coffee shops.
So, we approached the trendiest coffee shop in Los Angeles at the time and they still are, Alfred coffee shop right down Melrose Place, where you might run into … You’re guaranteed to see a Kardashian. But you might also run into Larry [inaudible 00:36:51] there or Justin Bieber, all these celebrities, different athletes, LeBron James. So, we launched it there. And next thing we know, Gwyneth Paltrow is posting about it. Kourtney Kardashian is posting about it. All these big celebrities are posting about this very weird strange mushroom coffee, and on Instagram, on Facebook on social media.
So, we then launched it in all of Alfred’s cafes, and now, it’s offered in over 800 coffee shops around the country. And during COVID, we launched the single-serve packets for people to enjoy at home and add it to their coffee. And we don’t put coffee in the product. So, it’s meant to be a supplement or a way to supercharge your coffee in both the taste and the health benefit.
Steven Gundry (37:36):
Wow. So, many people probably say a drink made from mushrooms doesn’t sound very appetizing. Let’s just put it that way. So, first of all, what’s in Chagaccino besides chaga and what does it taste like?
Brandon Mizrahie (37:59):
Yeah, I mean, whenever we do a demo or a sampling, there’s always a qualifier. People will taste it and say, “Oh, wow, that actually tastes good. Oh, my gosh.” They’re always pleasantly surprised. So, it does not taste like the mushrooms on your pizza. Again, this is coming from the birch tree and it’s more like a piece of wood than the traditional mushroom that we think about. So, it pulls its flavors from the birch tree. And look, they make birch syrup, which is similar to maple syrup, so it has a very nice flavor profile to it. Some people get vanilla, some people get caramel, some people get different notes out of the chaga.
But in terms of the ingredients that we’re adding to the Chagaccino, we went after the taste profile of a mocha latte or really a Frappuccino, which is the number one selling coffee drink on the planet by far. Starbucks created this delicious drink. But it’s loaded with a lot of bad ingredients, 46 to 56 grams of sugar, that’s like 23 packets of sugar. And I mean the average person would probably open two or three packets at the most to put in their coffee at home. But yet when they go there, they’re willing to let somebody open 23 packets of sugar. And not just that, there’s monodiglycerides. I mean we could go on and on about the ingredients in other products, but I’ll just speak to what the Chagaccino is.
So, we wanted to give it this delicious mocha latte flavor, so it’s got raw cacao from Peru as the mocha flavor. And again, as opposed to cocoa, which is a processed heated version of that, the raw cacao is just ground up and it’s got a shelf life of two years. We don’t need to add binders, fillers, emulsifiers, preservatives to it. We wanted to also add a little bit of cinnamon to it to give it a nice little note.
And we’re using Ceylon cinnamon, which is sourced from Sri Lanka. We’re also using a monk fruit sweetener, which the monk fruit is sourced from Japan. And I spent over six months to try and find one that doesn’t have this weird aftertaste that tastes just like sugar. Actually the baristas in the café, it’s the number one question they get asked. “You promise there’s no sugar. You swear there’s no sugar in it.”
And that’s one of the reasons why it’s keto friendly. It’s also vegan. And it adds zero calories to your coffee. So, it’s diabetic friendly. So, that’s basically what’s in the Chagaccino. It’s a blend of the chaga, the raw cacao, the Ceylon cinnamon, and the monk fruit. And then when you add it to your coffee, it upgrades it and supercharges the latte and tastes like a mocha latte or Frappuccino.
Steven Gundry (40:38):
Wow. All right, so there’s a lot of other mushroom drinks out there. What’s the difference between a Chagaccino and the other guys?
Brandon Mizrahie (40:51):
Yeah, okay. All right. Great question. I mean, you wouldn’t think mushroom coffees would be a crowded space, but you’re right it is and there’s a lot of companies doing it, a lot of great companies doing it. I would say what separates us is the taste. We are delicious first. So, even if you’re not interested in the health benefits, if you try a Chagaccino, you’re going to be blown away by how good it tastes. And the fact that it’s healthy is secondary.
There’s other brands that are adding mushrooms in coffee, but they’re just maybe putting a little bit of Folger coffee crystals with the mushroom and then it’s up to you to make it taste good. And a lot of people don’t have time or they know how to do that. I mean, like I said, sourcing these ingredients is not easy.
We import like tons of raw cacao from Peru, import tons of monk fruit sweetener from Japan. We’re importing Ceylon cinnamon from Sri Lanka, Madagascar vanilla, all these ingredients. And we’re also getting the blend right for people so they don’t have to think about it. They can just tear open a packet, pour it into their coffee, do what they do, get to work or whatever they love to do.
So, that’s the big difference is we’re really focused on the taste. One of the other big difference is we meet people at the coffee shops. There’s not many drinks at the coffee shop where you can supercharge your coffee or upgrade it.
Now, you can go into a coffee shop and for an extra dollar or two, upgrade your coffee and make your latte Chagaccino. And like I said, there’s over 800 shops currently serving. And we’re adding 50 to 100 shops every month. Similar to the way Impossible Burger did it with their plant-based burger. They met people at burger joints first, introduced it there and then started selling it to people directly.
Steven Gundry (42:45):
So, the next the second question that everybody kind of associates with mushrooms is they confuse medicinal mushrooms with magic mushrooms. So, this isn’t going to make me feel funny, is it?
Brandon Mizrahie (43:05):
No, definitely not. There’s no psychoactive components to it. It is not magic mushroom. There’s no psilocybin or anything like that. It’s safe to consume for people of any age. And I have it every day and I work every day and no, the sort of answer is no, it’s not magic mushrooms. It’s similar to the mushrooms that after you eat a portobello mushroom or shiitake mushroom, it gives you … But I will say, it does give some people a nice buzz, like almost like caffeine would.
But there’s no caffeine in the chaga itself. And people are welcome to have it with decaf coffee as well if they don’t consume caffeine, or at night or whatever. If people wanted to have a nice treat, they could consume it with decaf coffee. And the chaga mushroom will give you an energy boost on the mitochondrial level. So, it’s nonstimulant, but they’ve measured up to 25% energy and endurance boosts.
Actually, there’s a lot of like in the Olympics, they didn’t know how the Russians aa the Chinese running team was doing so well. It’s allowed. It’s not like you’re doping when you take it. It’s an allowed substance to take in the Olympics. And they admitted later on that a Russian Olympic coach that this is what they were using to get the edge. It’s a 25% endurance boost, nonstimulant, so you don’t get that crash.
And it works really well with coffees synergistically to take away the jitters to take away the crash and it prolongs that buzz that you get from coffee without kind of dropping you down like a roller coaster. So, works really well if you do drink coffee like I do. I mean I have a coffee every morning. Sometimes in the afternoon. I’m not one of these anti-coffee people. I love coffee. I think it’s amazing. So, I personally add it to my coffee but people are welcome to add it to decaf if that’s what they prefer.
Steven Gundry (45:07):
Well, they add it to hot water or tea by the way.
Brandon Mizrahie (45:11):
Yeah. A lot of people love matcha and different teas, Earl Grey, you’re welcome to add it to that. You could just add it to a plant-based milk or if you drink regular milk, you’re welcome to add it to regular milk. It’ll taste like an upgraded hot chocolate or iced cocoa type of drink. Again, I didn’t mention this, it can be consumed iced or hot. My preferred way to consume it is iced with little oat milk. But I’ll have it hot as well and it’s delicious both ways. It’s very versatile. There’s no coffee inside of the Chagaccino. We just recommend coffee as the vehicle people add it to, because that’s the most delicious taste. But it tastes amazing with teas, plant-based milk, anything.
Steven Gundry (46:00):
And you literally got your start in coffee shops, right? I mean, bringing this into coffee shops.
Brandon Mizrahie (46:08):
Correct. We had noticed that the cafes all had the same drinks. A lot of them are espresso based. But I guess the new innovation was cold brew or the newer innovation was cold brew. And there really wasn’t anything on the menu that I saw. I mean, matcha is a healthy drink. And I was happy to see that a lot of places serve matcha. But in terms of the coffee, it was just a lot of the same stuff, cappuccinos, espresso, different lattes, which are espresso-based drinks, Americano, another espresso-based drink where you’re adding water instead of milk, macchiatos.
I mean, a lot of these drinks, whether it’s cappuccino, macchiato, lattes, they’re just variations of milk, two shots of espresso and how much milk am I putting in. So, there wasn’t really any drinks on their menu that stood out to me as being an upgraded version of the coffee or supercharging. And so, we really wanted to meet people at the coffee shops to introduce this drink and give them an option to still have this delicious mocha latte, but supercharge it in nutrients and health benefits as well.
Steven Gundry (47:10):
And I know you mentioned birch trees, where is your chaga sourced? Which birch trees? Where are they?
Brandon Mizrahie (47:22):
Oh yeah. So, our wild foragers that we work with are in both British Columbia and Siberia. We have two different suppliers that we work with. And we’re very careful about this very sensitive to this topic because this is a wild foraged food and sustainably harvesting it means leaving about 25% on the tree. So, again, it can still protect the tree from infection and it can regrow and be re harvested in about three to four years. So, they will actually GPS the tree once they find it and come back to it and reharvest it. So, that’s considered sustainably harvesting it and we source ours from British Columbia and Siberia.
Steven Gundry (48:11):
Yeah. All right. So, what’s next for Renude?
Brandon Mizrahie (48:16):
Great question. Yeah, so Renude, even though that we’re talking about the Chagaccino, Chagaccino, Chagaccino, all the time, Renude is really a stripped down beverage company. We are stripping down drinks to their new natural state and with the Chagaccino as our first drink, we took the flavor profile of a Frappuccino or a mocha latte, which is the most popular drink in coffee. Now, what’s the most popular drink in soda? A cola.
So, our next project is working on a super cola, cleaning it up again, going ingredient by ingredient. So, you don’t really have to compromise on flavor. Now, there’s a lot of drinks out there whether it’s a kombucha drink that’s cola flavored or there’s a probiotic drink, a coconut probiotic drink or apple cider vinegar drink that’s cola flavor. But again, we’re not going after cola flavored. We’re going after, close your eyes and have one of the leading cola brands whether that’s Coke or Pepsi, and then have ours and you will not only think ours is better, but a lot better than taste.
I mean, because we’re using real ingredients. Again, when cola was invented by Dr. Pemberton, it was meant to be an elixir. He was a pharmacist. And yes, we all know the thing there was cocaine in it or maybe there wasn’t in the beginning. But now, they’ve replaced that with some caffeine. But it was an elixir. He was using a blend of essential oils pulled from fruit peels from lime peels, lemon peels, different essential oil blends. He was using cinnamons, I mean sorry, spices and botanicals like acacia, neroli and lavender.
And just over the years, it’s just probably through corporate greed, they substituted this ingredient for that ingredient, high fructose corn syrup, phosphoric acid and the dipole that’s aspartame, which we know is terrible for you and is problematic for diseases like cancer and others if you consume too much of it.
And you know what really blows my mind about it, it’s like, see the smartest people in the world like Bill Gates and Warren Buffett, and I’ll see a diet cola right next to their desk. And I think to myself, wow, these people are the smartest people in the world, but they’re doing some dumb things, too. So, yeah, that’s our next project is that.
We’re also working on bottling it, getting it, the Chagaccino into a ready to drink format. We’re expanding it into different locations. Right now, it’s pretty much all over Los Angeles coffee shops, New York coffee shops, Miami coffee shops. But we’re moving into Seattle. We’re moving into other regions. And yeah, that’s what we’re working on right now.
Steven Gundry (51:19):
Well, Brandon, it’s been a great pleasure to learn about all this. So, where can listeners find out more about you? And where can they get their hands on a Chagaccino, sorry.
Brandon Mizrahie (51:33):
Yeah, so they can go to drinkrenude.com. It’s D-R-I-N-K-R-E-N-U-D-E dot com, Nude like naked, drinkrenude.com. Or if they’re on social media and they’re like Instagram or Facebook, where our handle is DrinkRenude, D-R-I-N-K-R-E-N-U-D-E. And it’s also available on Amazon as well. They’re welcome to purchase there. It’s on Prime. So, two-day free shipping on Amazon. We always have some great deals on our website as well, 10% off and different recipe ideas and different ways that you can use it and more information about the product there as well.
Steven Gundry (52:16):
And I think you’ve got a special offer for our listeners.
Brandon Mizrahie (52:20):
We do, we do. For your listeners, we’re offering our biggest discount. I believe it’s 15% off, which the most we normally do is 10. And they just need to use the coupon code, Dr. Gundry, I believe.
Steven Gundry (52:38):
I’ll bet you that’s the coupon code.
Brandon Mizrahie (52:40):
That’s going to be it. If that wasn’t it, we’re going to make it that, so Dr. Gundry, use that coupon code, and you will get our biggest discount today. I mean, again, this is a wild forage food. They call it the diamond over the forest for a reason in Japan because you literally have to go out there and find it like a diamond. I mean, if you look at truffles and those kind of wild forage foods, they can be hundreds of dollars a pound.
I mean, each packet only comes to $2.99. I mean, so we’ve really tried to keep it affordable for the average person to purchase this. And with that discount, yeah, I mean, you just can’t beat it.
Steven Gundry (53:20):
You can’t miss. All right.
Brandon Mizrahie (53:22):
You can’t miss.
Steven Gundry (53:24):
All right. Well, thanks a lot. And everybody, next time when you’re watching the Dr. Gundry podcast, sip on a Chagaccino, and we’ll get together. All right. Thanks a lot, Brandon.
Brandon Mizrahie (53:37):
Thanks, Dr. Gundry. Great talking to you.
Steven Gundry (53:39):
All right. And good luck with this.
Brandon Mizrahie (53:42):
Thank you.
Steven Gundry (53:43):
Okay, it’s now time for the audience question and review of the week. This week, our audience question and review both came from Carson T. on YouTube. She says, “I’m wondering, is it the temperature that destroys most lectins. Temperature or pressure or indeed just pressure?”
Well, it turns out that most of the studies show that it’s actually the pressure and temperature that breaks down lectins. Believe it or not, I learned this years ago in surgery where we have autoclaves to sterilize instruments. And the autoclave uses both pressure and temperature, because neither one is as effective as both combined. Yes, heat does reduce lectins, there’s no question about it. But to really destroy lectins to make them nondangerous, it’s the combination of the heat and pressure.
And the beauty is the modern pressure cooker, Instant Pot is the most famous one, is really so easy to use. And as you know, I have an entire book, the Plant Paradox Family Cookbook really devoted to pressure cook meals. And the great news is that companies are recognizing this. And there’s now two companies that I’m aware of, Eden and Jovial that pressure cook their beans. And in fact, Jovial goes one step further. They actually soak their beans first and then pressure cooked them.
So, it’s getting easier and easier to get the foods you love that in the meantime will love you back. But if you can’t get these pre-prepared foods, break out the Instant Pot. They’re just so easy to use. And if you don’t know how to use it, plenty of YouTube videos out there or grab a copy of my book and we’ll walk you through the steps.
Great question. Thank you again for writing in. And I can’t tell you the number of people in my patient population that we’ve cancelled hip and knee surgery with a change in diet. It’s not miraculous. It’s actually what’s supposed to happen. So, thanks for letting people know that it works because this is why I do this. This is why we do the show to bring you important information. But Carson also says…
Kimberly Synder (56:27):
Welcome to the Feel Good podcast with Kimberly Snyder. My goal is to help you develop a holistic lifestyle based on our four cornerstone philosophy, food, body, emotional well-being and spiritual growth. This holistic approach will help you feel good, which I define as being connected to your most authentic highest self. And this is the place from which your energy, confidence creativity, true power and true beauty will start to explode.
Every week we provide you with interviews from top experts in their field or a solo cast from yours truly to support you in living your most beautiful, healthy and joyful life. I’m your host Kimberly Snyder, Founder of Solluna, New York Times bestselling author and holistic wellness, nutrition and meditation teacher. Let’s get started.
Speaker 5 (57:20):
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Steven Gundry (57:56):
“Thank you for another video Dr. Gundry. My mom and I already have benefited hugely from your recommendations. My mom’s bad hip has disappeared. And despite being 75, she is bursting with energy. And my gut health was taking me out of life for hours on end. Now, it is almost for fully normal.” Well, Carson, that’s wonderful to hear. That’s exactly why I do this. So, thanks for writing in and please, send us a comment on Apple TV, on Apple Podcasts, wherever you get your podcasts, iTunes. Give us a ring and hopefully, we’ll read yours, because I’m Dr. Gundry. And I’m always looking out for you. We’ll see you next week.
On the Dr. Gundry podcast, we provide a venue for discussion and the views expressed by my guests do not necessarily reflect my own. Thanks for joining me on this episode of the Dr. Gundry podcast. Before you go, I just wanted to remind you that you can find the show on iTunes, Google Play, Stitcher or wherever you get your podcasts. And if you want to watch each episode of the Dr. Gundry podcast, you could always find me on YouTube at youtube.com/DrGundry because I’m Dr. Gundry and I’m always looking out for you.
