Ben Leber: Living Intentionally and Making Healthy Choices

In this episode of Regenerative Renegades, former NFL linebacker and Minnesota Viking Ben Leber shares a great message of being intentional about our lives through daily practices – everything from scheduling our daily lives, family life, nutrition and environment. Ben took a holistic dive into his health and wellness as a professional athlete and his story helps us understand ways that we can apply his learnings and unique experiences to our own lives and health journeys. His approach proves why Ben excels in all aspects of life through a football career leading into the NFL, leading TV and media personality and all-around good guy.

Transcript

SPEAKER_01 0:00

Well, hello, everyone. Today, we're very honored to have with us Ben Lieber. Ben is a very active guy, very busy ex-NFLer. I'll go through his bio a little bit, and then we'll dive right in. Welcome, Ben. Good to have you here today.

SPEAKER_00 0:31

Yeah, Matt. It's good to see you. Thanks for having me on. Congratulations on the podcast. I know they take some work on the front end to get going, but I'm glad you guys are up and running.

SPEAKER_01 0:43

Yeah. Thanks for being a part of it. I really appreciate it. So Ben Lieber is a retired 10-year NFL linebacker, played for the San Diego Chargers for three years. Or four years. Four years, yep. Four years. Minnesota Vikings for another four or five. Five, yep. Yep. And the St. Louis Rams. He currently works in the Minneapolis-St. Paul media market as a radio and television personality. For radio, he works exclusively for the number one sports radio in the nation, FM 100.3 KFAN, our home sports radio station here. in Minneapolis. He appears on multiple radio shows every week, and he is the radio sideline reporter for all the Minnesota Vikings football games. Skol! On television, he's the co-host for Twin Cities Live, a lifestyle program on the ABC affiliate. Twin Cities Live is the number one afternoon program in the Twin Cities. He also appears on the Vikings Entertainment Network and Fox 9 as a team analyst. Oh, so by the way, you're on today with the number one grass-fed beef brand, so all you do is play with number one.

SPEAKER_00 1:56

I guess so. It feels good to be part of a winning team.

SPEAKER_01 2:01

Yeah, I bet it is. And you know, when I was thinking about you with our little bit of interactions, I thought, you epitomize, if you want something done, ask a busy person. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 2:15

I guess. I mean, it is true. As I've gotten older in this life, I've realized about myself that I get way more done, I'm way more productive, the more scheduled I am. You would think that those off days that we kind of take for ourselves are like, I'm just going to clear the calendar. I'm not going to do anything today. I deserve a me day. Those are my least productive days because I don't do well with just having idle time. I can easily distract myself with a lot of just needless, senseless stuff. So yeah, I think the more scheduled I am, the busier I am, I tend to check off a lot more off my list.

SPEAKER_01 3:01

Yeah. Well, I've heard some of that from about you talking about yourself over the radio and I can totally relate. I

SPEAKER_00 3:07

don't know if it's just the way I'm built or it's the conditioning from the football world where everything is so scheduled, but I just like having a directive and I like having sort of a checklist to do every day. And I'm not saying, look, it's It's not necessarily the home stuff. My wife and all of our wives can give us a whole list of things to do all the time. That's not necessarily what I'm talking about. But it's nice to know that, all right, I have a directive for the day as far as work goes, and this is what I need to get accomplished. And I just feel better that way. And it's funny because I had some time off last week, and... I was just going through some stuff and I was getting a bunch of emails done, a bunch of just like administrative stuff done. And I get into work that afternoon and I was talking to my co-host. I'm like, she's like, oh, how was your morning? I'm like, man, I was so productive. I got so much stuff done, but I still don't feel like I got anything done. You know, it's like all just the things that needed to get done. It was kind of mindless and busy work, but I didn't have that sense of accomplishment. So, yeah, I like to have the nice productive list every day.

SPEAKER_01 4:24

Well, you know, we talk about, I'm always fascinated with hearing the stories, like on the NFL draft, for example. The best part about the draft to me is hearing the backstories of the people that are getting drafted and and where they came from and what they needed to overcome, because there's always things to overcome, right? To get to any level of any industry or any vocation, there's a lot to overcome to achieve whatever the highest level is. And so I'm really curious to hear your story, where you started, how you started in football, how you balanced life with football, We've already scratched the surface a little bit on the mindset of Ben Lieber, and I'm sure this is the way you've always been wired. So if you could take us back to that journey and share, you know, the successes, but also the failures and the setbacks, so we could learn a little bit more about you.

SPEAKER_00 5:28

Well, yeah, it's a long story, so buckle up. You know, it's funny. I'll start with the basics. sort of the draft, you know, that was an interesting time because there's so much that you prepare for and you spend weeks and months and months and months trying to train just for these specific drills. And it really kind of messes with your head. And all this kind of like, maybe from a global standpoint, just kind of like, talk to you guys and let you guys know just like where my mindset was with all of football. I got to play with so many great teammates, and I would see these guys when I was a freshman, sophomore in college, and I'm just trying to find myself in college and figure out who I was as a person and as a football player and all this other stuff, kind of like every 18, 19-year-old, 20-year-old does. And I look around at all these guys and I'm like, man, so many of my teammates came from these harsh situations. They didn't have a dad, maybe their dad was incarcerated or maybe their parents are in jail and maybe they don't know them or they had a major car accident. All of these really, really big life moments. You've got a family member that was killed that was super close to you. All these things, and I hear all these guys talk about, this is the big life hurdle that I had to overcome. It might've been multiple life hurdles. And then they really found football as the sanctuary. They really found football as a kind of a way out. Maybe it's a bad neighborhood, a bad family dynamic, a bad situation. Football for them was that guiding light of like, this is gonna keep me on a straight and narrow. It's gonna keep me... distracted enough to where I don't have to think about all those challenges in life. And in a weird way, I kind of felt like, not jealous, but I'm like, I don't have that. I came from a great family. I didn't use football as a distraction. I wasn't using football as a way out. That wasn't like the motivating factor for me. And I look at these players, I'm like, man, all of these guys sort of play with this edge. You know, they have this edginess about them because they're a little bit more hardened than I am and all this stuff. And I was kind of envious of the fact that, like, their life experience kind of gave them this edge, this football edge that everybody's looking for. Yeah. I really sort of strung like, man, I don't know what, I don't know if I have a life struggle, you know, like I was very fortunate to grow up in a, in a, you know, two parent home. And, and, uh, my, both my parents worked extremely hard and I saw all of that. And it's kind of a weird psychological deal because, um, still need to picture

SPEAKER_01 8:33

that family though. Give us the father knows best, um, description of that family. Your dad, it sounds like school administration, uh,

SPEAKER_00 8:42

Yeah, so my dad, always in education, he was kind of like the quintessential story of got his teaching degree, he was a teacher back at the same school in Council Bluffs, Iowa, where he graduated from at St. Albert High School, and then worked his way up. Worked his way up from teacher, coach, coach track and football, and then then worked his way into administration. And then we moved to Albia, Iowa because he was the high school principal. We were there for a number of years. And then he thought there was just going to be a better opportunity for him and for the family to move. And so he took another principal job in Vermilion, South Dakota. We moved there. And then all through my high school career, he was in the hallways every day. I saw my dad every day at school as the high school principal. It was great. It was great. I mean, a lot of people were like, oh, man, you know, I hate to have my dad at school all the time. You know, I was I mean, shocker. I didn't get in trouble that much. You know, you're

SPEAKER_01 9:48

a good guy, right?

SPEAKER_00 9:52

Well, you know, I'm I'm I'm fortunate that I had two older brothers that really paved the way in everything that I did. Was that all your

SPEAKER_01 9:59

siblings? Two older brothers? I

SPEAKER_00 10:01

have two older brothers and a younger sister. Both my older brothers were fantastic athletes and great guys. They always got good grades. I just had to follow along. I was just one of the ducklings in a row.

SPEAKER_01 10:16

What grade were you in when you fell in love with football?

SPEAKER_00 10:24

I've got to be honest, Matt. I didn't fall in love with football probably until my end of my sophomore year of college. Oh,

SPEAKER_01 10:35

wow. So you got that far. Yeah. It's kind of natural talent and... Yeah, I just... I mean, I'm not saying you weren't dedicated, but, you know, you're kind of moving

SPEAKER_00 10:45

along. Yeah, I really... I just really... I enjoyed... When I was in high school, I enjoyed the game, but I think because in a small town in South Dakota... It's like you play the game of football, you get done, win, lose, or draw at the end of the season, and then you move right into basketball season or wrestling. And then after that, you go right into track, and then we have Legion summer baseball. And so it was always just play the sport, have fun with it, we work hard at it. I was dedicated when I was there and very committed. You know, I would... try to stay after and do other things. And I really liked the gym and I would lift weights and stuff. And then once it was over though, I'd go right into basketball and I would never think about football again until the next, the next fall. So, um, I don't know if I really had a chance to really like, it wasn't for me, like my passion, passion. And then when I got to college, I actually really, really questioned whether or not, because it's so hard and the life adjustment is, is so drastic.

UNKNOWN 11:49

Um,

SPEAKER_00 11:50

And shocking. Trying to manage your time and you're getting your ass kicked every day in practice. You're getting belittled by the coaches. You feel like you're just like minuscule this tall and your confidence is shot. And I mean, so I went from... Just ho-hum. I like playing football in high school. This is kind of cool. I'm getting attention. That's neat. I'm getting this scholarship to Kansas State. And then my freshman year, I almost quit football because I hated it so much. And then once I started to grasp the game, and then I saw the upperclassmen getting drafted and getting looked at as far as the NFL. And I was like, I'm not that far behind these guys, I don't think. Maybe this is an opportunity. So it really wasn't until I saw... maybe the bigger picture, that's when I sort of dedicated my life to, I want to go down that road. I want to see if I can do this.

SPEAKER_01 12:43

I'll segue into hope about the future and talking about nutrition. I know you've taken the time to visit our farm and learn about regenerative ag, and you're very good at researching and educating yourself. So I'd like to hear about how, what your relationship has been with food and nutrition and, as you went through this whole journey that you described, and maybe even how you look at it for your children now, and where you see hope there. But first starting, just how you navigated that through those stages of life.

SPEAKER_00 13:21

Yeah, I think with a lot of people, when they try to deep dive into something and they really become educated in something usually there's a there's some sort of catalyst personal catalyst that happens that really kind of forces them into it and for me um it was two things uh getting drafted by san diego was a major life shift when it came to how i look at nutrition you know southern california which i I didn't know anything about Southern California. Every myth that I had about Southern California when I lived in the Midwest was broken when I moved there because the people are, they actually are hardworking. There are a lot of things that I value there. But the other thing is, they're so far ahead of us from the Midwest as far as nutrition goes. I mean, all the way back in the early 2000s, I didn't even know what kale was. You know, like I didn't know. We don't have a lot

SPEAKER_01 14:16

of green all winter in Iowa to get, you know.

SPEAKER_00 14:20

I know. It really was just a meat and potatoes, you know, lifestyle when I was growing up. And it was just kind of like eat whatever you want. And calories are just calories. And that's, you know, we all know that's not the case anymore. So when I got to San Diego, I saw these guys just like really eating healthy and doing this and that. And I'm like, I was just kind of like curious and excited. Like, why are you eating that? What is that? And they would educate me just here and there. So just through osmosis and just through just general curiosity, just, okay, this is a whole new thing that I didn't know about. And then about four or five years later, Throughout my whole life, I'd always had these random, spontaneous, giant hives that would pop up. There'd be times when my lips would swell, and my mom has a little of the same thing, so I just thought, we always just thought it was genetic, and I would take an antihistamine and maybe an ibuprofen or something, and then it would calm down several hours later, but I never knew when they were gonna pop up. I just never, and I never correlated it to anything especially nutrition wise. Cause we just didn't, we weren't knowledgeable like that. And then, so, you know, when I actually, when I came to Minnesota, I had probably six months of that. Maybe I think it was 2006, right? When I got here, that football season was the worst outbreak of hives I've ever had. I get them all the time. I had really, really bad eczema on my hands, which then I just, I chalked it up to like, okay, I'm in my sweaty football gloves all day long. It's gonna be winter time. I haven't spent a winter like this in years. And so maybe it's my hands are just cracked and all this other stuff because of that. And so I was always justifying like, why I was having these reactions. And it got to a point where I go to practice one day, I woke up with a whole bunch of hives, I woke up with part of my jaw swollen, my lip was swollen again, and the swelling around my jaw was moving down into my neck. And I'm sitting in meetings and I can't really talk to my neighbor. And my voice is starting to get affected by the inflammation. So I go to the trainers, and they're like, hey, man, we don't know what's going on, but let's just give you an EpiPen. So the EpiPen me. Everything sort of calmed down for a little bit after that. And I just sort of had it. I'm like, I've got to get this figured out. I went to a bunch of doctors here in town. Your livelihood's at risk now. Yeah. And I'm like, this is getting really out of hand. And now it's like, man... the next big outbreak could be, you know, something that maybe I'm not in an area to get an EpiPen. So I got mad. I had no answers. Nobody could give me an answer. Um, I, I did the allergy tests where they, you know, the skin prick you and all this stuff and nothing really came up as conclusive. I go down to the Mayo clinic, they do the same thing. Their allergist was like, Hey man, um, It's your body's kind of reacting to a bunch of different things Why don't you just keep taking your antihistamines if that's working then just do that on a daily basis and I mean to be honest with you my response because out of the frustration when I walked out was a major double middle finger F you and I was like this can't be what modern medicine is doing to me so I I found through somebody else and just doing my research, I found a functional medicine doctor and I said, I'm going to try this route. And we went the functional medicine way and found out that I was highly, highly sensitive to wheat and some other food products. And it was as simple as eliminating wheat from my diet that changed everything. So since... The gluten. So since 2007, I've been gluten-free. So long story short, that was the reason getting no answers from the Western medicine approach and finding a more holistic way to look at my body really opened my eyes to what we put in our body makes a huge difference. And I started reading books. I started... researching things and it was just slow but consistent and it was kind of like my off-season passion you know i would just consume all of these nutrition books and functional medicine approaches and holistic approaches and whatever and i found out that man you know food really is the medicine that we need and a lot of times it's avoiding certain things is what we need and um I've started reading more about nutrient-dense foods, and then that kind of led into how we grow our food, how we raise our animals, the herbicides, the pesticides, the soil, all this other stuff, and have thankfully found regenerative agriculture as what I think is the true path forward. And it's funny because it's not new. It's like it's what we were doing before conventional farming. So it's a huge, huge benefit to have people like you guys in our state, to have the voice, the products, the influence. Yeah, that's kind of been my journey. And I'm so happy and proud that we're friends and that I get to use you guys' products and feed my family.

SPEAKER_01 20:07

Well, thank you for doing that and for sharing that story. similar situations in our family that, you know, required us looking past conventional medicine. And we went on the same journey, basically, you know, where conventional Western medicine was not finding solutions to a couple of issues in our family, one of our sons and unable to find any kind, just the same thing, just complete kind of, well, we don't know. We don't know. And no other solutions offered, no other paths offered. You find them on your own. But I can't, what I really want to ask is, has professional sports, I won't even pull out the NFL, but this professional sports, it amazes me now when you're sitting where you are and we are, where we're at in this understanding, you know, to go to the trainer or any medical staff and they give you an EpiPen, has there been any progress on that front? You ended up at Mayo. It just seems like they're lagging behind. And I say that because you got how many millions you're spending on the player salaries and the facilities and the investment that happens is huge. It's a huge thing. But it seems as though there's maybe a lag there from what conventional to what we're talking about. And I don't understand that, but maybe I'm wrong.

SPEAKER_00 21:41

You know, it is getting better. You know, when I was telling that story back in 2006, it has progressed so much since then. You know, I do sympathize with our, you know, our training staffs and every place that I've been, our medical staffs, they're phenomenal. But they have to work in more of a triage situation. You know, it's like we have to get these players, you ready to play and recovered around the clock, ready to go the next day. Because our practices are just as important as the games. And so missing practice is a big deal too. And so on a constant basis, they're like, what can we do today to let you practice and get you ready for Sunday? And so they're not necessarily thinking about taking the longer road approach on how to fix things. They just need to fix you now. But that is changing. I mean, a lot of these guys, part of it is the players themselves are much more educated. There's a lot more people like me that became educated at even a younger age and they're already on a nutrition plan. They already know, they've taken food sensitivity tests and all this other things. They're getting their hormones checked. They're getting all this stuff. They're taking more of a holistic approach to their own health and wellness. And then they're communicating that to the actual team and the team doctors. So there's a little bit more synergy. I wouldn't say that every team has adopted the philosophy and they have their own practitioners on the team, but you can take what you're doing outside of the game, bring that to the team doctors and say, hey, let's come up with a plan. Let's bring my food panel to the dietician and nutritionist. And then we'll come up with a plan of what I can eat while I'm actually at the facility when they give you the free breakfast and lunch. And they can individualize and customize a lot of the plans. I mean, it's the same thing in strength and conditioning. You have something going on. You talk to the strength and conditioning. It's no longer just paint with a broad brush. You're like, hey, linebackers, tight ends, fullbacks, you guys are all the same type of guys. You guys go do your own workout. This is the workout for you. Now it's like, okay, Ben Lieber, you've got this deficiency in your hamstrings. We need you to do this extra exercise, these extra stretches. And then when we do our conditioning stuff, we need you to have X, Y, and Z. So it's much more customized, kind of top to bottom.

SPEAKER_01 24:13

Well, and I want to... urge those that are listening that you can run a parallel path to what Ben just described. You know, now it is functional medicine, homeopathic, holistic, natural, unconventional, whatever you want to call it. Those doctors are out there, those professionals, those advisors are out there to access, and you can open up this whole world with seeking out someone that you would trust do some research and then, and then running those panels and learning about your body and learning about other options that you can take to care for your body. So it doesn't have to be the professional athlete. You can now, because of technology, you can now access this yourself for you and your family and have a much more targeted regimented approach to your health.

SPEAKER_00 25:05

Yeah, no, I, I completely agree. And I think, um, you know, we're starting to see that more and more and, um, whether it's because it's the political landscape or whatnot, but I think just the idea that we can take health into our own hands is it's empowering for everybody. And I think then we're starting to see a little bit more of this stuff trickle out where you can take control of your health. And yes, thank goodness we have doctors and, and, um, the drug companies to kind of help us guide us to get to that point. You know, some people need to take some of these drugs just to kind of get over the hump, but then at the same time, you can still be taking control of your life of like, okay, I need to eat, be eating less sugar, less carbohydrates, this or that. And then that can actually, I'll wean myself off of the drugs and then I can take control of my life from there on out. I mean, to say five years ago, that you can reverse type two diabetes, people would think that you're crazy and that you're a crackpot. And like, nope, it's genetic, it's this, it's this, and this. And now it's pretty much mainstream that we know that you can reverse type two diabetes, which is a huge, which is a huge strain on our medical system and healthcare system. You can change that and reverse it yourself, and there's thousands and thousands of stories where people are doing this exact thing where, The unfortunate part is it might take you six months to a year versus, oh, I just wake up every morning and I take this pill and I just feel better. You know, that's what people want. But you give yourself one year, you can get off all the drugs and you can become a happier, healthier person.

SPEAKER_01 26:47

That's true. And you gain so many more benefits through that slower approach. It's just, it's kind of like agriculture. You know, there's all the benefits that go into regenerative agriculture, but That it does take time. It's just like our health. It's the health of our soil. But it does take intentionality. And this, you know, this podcast is regenerative renegades, regenerative renegades. And you do have to be. I want to. Encourage people because you do have to be somewhat of a renegade to get outside of the conventional and start to look at this yourself. And you do have to push a little here and there. You do have to research. You do have to get outside the boundaries some to be able to adopt this type of nutrition and health plan. But it's so worth it. It's so worth it to take that step and trust yourself and be your own advocate. you know, so that you can start on that path. And you hit it right on the nail on the head with that long-term approach. I mean, it's the same with agriculture. There's a very, very clear parallel between conventional medicine and conventional agriculture. You know, I won't get into all the reasons why that exists or whatever it does for many, many reasons. But thankfully, today, there's alternatives. And you can You can marry them together however you want or sync them up or synergize them, whatever you call it. But the options are there. I guess that's the message I want to send. The options are there. I've been through it myself. I've had cancer twice and that opened my eyes to... oh, what am I doing that's causing this? What have I been exposed to environmentally? What am I diet? What am I lifestyle? Do I need to change? And, man, you know, 20 years later, I feel better than I did then. Yeah. It's just amazing, the energy level and the ability to focus and just have a– great productive day and feel good, that's priceless.

SPEAKER_00 29:03

I know. I'm fortunate that I grew up basically in two farming communities, both in Iowa and South Dakota, and not so much around it now here in the Twin Cities metro, but having that upbringing, and you can speak to this directly, knowing what we know now and looking back, the amount of chemicals that are on a conventional farm that young kids are around every day, every day, whether they're playing in and around it, whether their parents are spraying that day and it's a windy day. The water, I mean, it is crazy the amount of poison that we allowed our children to continue to play around is scary. And it's no secret why A lot of these kids have asthma. They've got skin issues. They've got autoimmune issues that they can't detect and can't figure out. I'm like, well, look at the farming practices and look at their homes and where they are. And thankfully, you know, regen agriculture eliminates all that.

SPEAKER_01 30:13

Well, and, you know, the way we care for our lawns is a direct parallel to our conventional agriculture with still a lot of chemicals. I started an organic lawn care company in the late 80s when I was in college. And I did some research that led me to that. And I had some health issues that led me to starting that because I basically was drenched in chemicals that are the same chemicals we put on fields, we put on lawns, basically. And back then, we let our kids and animals roll around in it after the lawn was treated. And we do the same on our land. But specifically in Iowa, I found a study then that was done that showed the highest per capita rate of cancer was in Iowa. No. Yes. That was back then. That was a study that was done. And of course, nobody heard about that. You really had to dig to find it. I had to be on the microfiche in the library in the days that I was in the library, you know. But I found it and I was like, okay, there's something here. And started researching the chemical companies and getting answers. And, you know, I'll share the quick story. I I was working for a lawn care company, worked my way through college, had a background in landscaping. They go, Hey, this is great. I've arrived. Now I can drive a truck around, spray lawns. This is easy work. It's not breaking my back, like lifting sod balls and all kinds of crazy back work. And so I got this job and like the third day I'm out 20 lawns a day. Okay. I got to get 20 lawns a day. I'm very competitive. So I'm going to exceed that of course. And it's a hot muggy day in Minnesota and, I get through about 10 lawns or so. In the town I grew up in, and I went to high school, and I went to college, I got lost. I couldn't find my way back to the warehouse or to the next lawn at that point. I had to sit down on the curb and try to clear my mind because I was lost. I had no idea where to go. And, you know, I was a young, healthy adult. I loved working out, and I was in great shape. And so... I look around. I go back. I finally figure out how to get back. I'm like, dude, I don't know what happened, but I completely couldn't think. He goes, oh, don't worry about it. The owner of the company is like, I don't worry about it. Drink some water. You'll be fine. As he's stirring up the chemicals in the tank with his hand, he goes, this was fine. I go, can I have one of those cans? I want to call the company and ask some questions. So I did. I said, okay, I'm applying this chemical that you sell. What should I be wearing? I said, well, first of all, you should have a face covering for your air. So you're filtering the air and then you should have rubber gloves up past your elbows. You should have a rubber bib on and you should have rubber boots up to your knees. I had a polo shirt and shorts and tennis shoes. Oh

SPEAKER_02 33:06

my God.

SPEAKER_01 33:07

So I bring that back to the owner and I said, this is what the chemical company told me. And he said, well, we can't do that. No one will ever buy this from us. And I said, well, And I'm dead broke. I'm a college kid. My best job I ever had. And I said, oh, okay. I'm going to have to quit and find another job. Good for you. I value my health and I can't do this. So that's sort of the organic lawn. I did a bunch of research on organic lawn care the last year I was in college. And it was a lot of fun because I'm running ads that say, is your lawn chemically dependent? I'm like... Come over to us because we're not. We're just going to put some natural fertilizer. And if there's a little diversity in your lawn, let it be. Don't worry about the dandelions. They're good for pollinators. And we were doing soil testing to customize our fertilizer to their lawn. And it was so much fun. But here is this college kid with maybe 50 lawns total that I'm taking care of. I got death threats on my answering machine for bad-mouthing chemicals.

SPEAKER_00 34:22

No. I

SPEAKER_01 34:24

did. I couldn't believe it more than once. So I got their attention, and they didn't like it. And I thought, ooh, I scratch a nerve. And I tucked that away and went off and did my career in marketing and then ended up back in regenerative agriculture. But I tell that story. for the listeners to know that stuff is real yeah and cutting it out of your diet and your environment um is so worth it

SPEAKER_00 34:55

yeah i mean being being aware is such a huge thing i mean the fact that the fact that you had enough curiosity now it took you know it took a moment where you were disoriented to like really figure this out but A lot of people don't do that. A lot of people will have these spells or this and that, and they'll just go about their day and they'll say, ah, it's, it's fine. It's just a little phase, a little this and that. And they have no idea that what, what they're around on a daily basis could be killing them.

SPEAKER_01 35:28

Yes. Yep. And if, and it's, that's also long-term, you know, you don't, you don't have that moment. And then the next day you're in Mayo with cancer, you know, So many years later of the accumulation that it takes before your body reacts, you just don't know. Yeah. You know, so you can take steps to just minimize as much as you can. And, you know, we have as much, I always hit this because most people aren't farmers and very small percentage are, but we have like, what is it? 55 million acres in lawns with one species of grass in that lawn. And the, chemicals that control that. You know, I'd love to see, I mean, I always got in trouble from my neighbors when I lived in the suburbs because my lawn was a mess, you know, species and I'd have to sneak home after dark or I'd have to get the glare of the neighbors. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Drug dealer leaving, living next door. That's got this messy native species lawn. He's freaking nuts, man. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 36:35

Well, we, the funny thing is we have, we have a house that's not far from us that they have a sign in the yard that says like, you know, we practice natural lawn care or whatever. And yeah, they have the, the thing that I don't mind that they're doing it. It's just, you can probably still keep it somewhat kept and like, you know, but they have taken the approach of just letting the wild grasses get as tall as they want. And I'm like, well, I, I applaud you for doing that, but it does look like it's a bit, it's an abandoned home.

SPEAKER_01 37:11

Yeah. We have to redefine what a beautiful lawn looks like. Change our mindset. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 37:16

Yeah. No, we have, um, we've certainly gone the same way we've, I, I use an organic lawn care company now. Um, and it is, you know, part of it is, you know, my, my experience and exposure to you guys and then, uh, the whole world. And I'm like, wow, same sort of thing. I'm like, I don't live on a farm. you know, I, but I do have a very small farm in my front yard that I'd have to take care of, you know, some, some grass and some soil. So, um,

SPEAKER_01 37:43

you're stewarding land, you are stewarding land. Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 37:47

And for our animals, you know, there are times where when we were using conventional stuff, I mean, obviously every time they come out and fertilize, they put the little sign out and say, you know, for the next 24 hours, don't let your animals come out here. But, um, you know, Now we don't really have to do that, you know? So that's that little, those little signs are probably enough to say that they're putting poison on your lawn. And even if you, you're not thinking about from your kid's standpoint, running around barefoot, you know, just your dogs, you know, going out and using the restroom, coming back in, they're tracking all that stuff back into your house. And that's, that's chemicals everywhere.

SPEAKER_01 38:21

And the same is true of parks and golf courses and any manicured, landscape that you find you know it's great to ask the question of of your school your school yeah playground how are you treating that you know because i don't know i don't know the percentages but it's a high percentage that are still treating conventionally with all of our kids running around on it and then going back you know playing whatever and then going back inside if they're lucky enough to have recess i guess yeah right exactly if that hasn't been cut So, all right, Ben. Well, is there anything else? You know, I guess I was thinking about on this athlete perspective, you know, you were saying triage, short-term and all that. I was thinking about, you know, there's some really easy changes that could happen in food that would decrease inflammation. You know, like your gluten experience, a decrease in inflammation would be more nutrient-dense, help recovery? Are they past, okay, you need protein, protein, protein. Are they past to the type of protein, the level of protein that is more nutrient-dense? Are they getting there? What's the status on that?

SPEAKER_00 39:46

I'd like to say that they're getting there. But again, it's certainly not mandated by the NFL to, It's just sort of a team by team basis. And some teams are really good about having the right type of dietitian and nutritionist and chefs and cooks and stuff like that. and they have sort of these wellness, a lot of the strength or a lot of the, the training, the head trainers are kind of more of the, you know, sports performance, wellnessy, you know, there's a lot of slashes to their titles these days. And so I'd like to think that they are getting more educated. Um, you know, when I, I sit down and talk to some players, um, a few times a year, and we have these long-form conversations. And because of my own natural curiosity, I will ask kind of similar questions that you're asking me. And most of them, aside from maybe some of the linemen, offense and defense linemen, where they just– a lot of these guys just need to pack on calories because a lot of them aren't naturally over 300 pounds. You know, they're– they have to fight and kind of like really, really work at keeping their weight up during the season. So they, they probably don't care as much, but a lot of the skill position guys, they, they really do. They were much more knowledgeable and they're much more dedicated. Some of these guys have personal chefs at home that have nutrition plans for them laid out. So yes, I think that the, the understanding of nutrient density is, And not all calories are just the same calorie, that they can be metabolized in different ways for different people. And for some, you know, the one story I love to tell, and it's really kind of stuck with me, is as I was going through the same journey, I was talking to, I won't mention his real name, but he's a Hall of Fame wide receiver. And he was telling me how he was blown away by his approach to nutrition. He's always been very conscious of it. And one off season, he was just eating just chicken and rice and kind of doing, you know, the quote unquote, like the men's health like thing to do. Right.

SPEAKER_01 42:01

Yeah.

SPEAKER_00 42:01

Yeah. The standard. Hey, let's eat clean and let's like really limit the fats and, you know, let's go high protein and all this other stuff. And so he was doing all that and he felt terrible. He's like, I don't know what I'm doing wrong. I'm doing all the right things. I'm eating brown rice and broccoli and complex carbohydrates and high lean proteins. And come to find out after doing a food sensitivity test, a blood test, that he was actually really reactive to chicken. And he's like, what? I didn't even know that that could be a possibility. And so he changed his diet, basically doing the same thing, but replaced chicken with turkey. And he's like... I didn't realize how much better I could feel. And he's like, my, he lost, he lost a few pounds instantly. He said that he, and he's already a lean guy. I think he leaned up by a percent and a half to 2% body fat. And he's like, I could step off the practice field and my ankles didn't hurt. And he was like, my recovery for the next day was unlike anything he's ever experienced. And that was just, by the knowledge of finding out that even, even though you thought you're doing the right thing for his body, it wasn't the right thing. And all he was doing was inviting more and more inflammation and his body was internally fighting with itself all the time. And, um, he made a simple change and it made it all, all the difference.

SPEAKER_01 43:30

Well, that's one. I'm glad you brought that up. Cause that's one. Okay. We're a beef company. Big disclaimer there. Beef is what we sell and all that. But one of the biggest misnomers in our industry, historical healthy diet is chicken. Because chicken raised conventionally with conventional grains and then fried in seed oils is actually one of the worst things that you can eat. So you're not getting the animal fat that we need. And because of the diet, they're higher in omega-6s, their omega-6, omega-3 ratio is higher. And then you throw seed oils on it, whether you're frying in a pan or deep frying or whatever, chances are it's prepared in seed oils, which again is way out of balance with your omega-6, omega-3s. So it ends up that that is one of the worst things ever. that you can eat. Now, I feel like lightning's going to strike me. But I've researched it enough to say it pretty confidently. Now, you can change that with the type of chicken and, you know, are they pastured and frying in tallow versus seed oils? There's ways to change it and you can still gain nutritional benefits. But chicken's just not that nutrient dense either. You know, they're fast growing, short lives. They don't have a big opportunity to pack in a lot of nutrition into that meat. So So yeah, you get some protein, but the rest of the vitamins and minerals are somewhat suspect on chicken. And, you know, I just see everywhere that people think that that's just the best thing in the world to eat.

SPEAKER_00 45:07

No, I'm glad that you kind of highlighted that too, because, you know, recently a lot of people are kind of going after the store-bought rotisserie chickens and, you know, Costco's getting hammered for their rotisserie. they knowingly accept the fact that they're losing money on their rotisserie chickens because it brings people to the store and they strategically place it in the back of the store, all this other stuff. But then you look at the actual quality of the chicken, not only is it steaming in the plastic, which is a whole other situation, but also these young chickens are pumped full of steroids, antibiotics, all this other stuff. And so to your point, is it really a clean meat at the end of the day? It might be sustenance, but is it really nutrient dense and really what you need? And if you go, you know, more of a region approach and pasture raised approach to the chicken, yes, you're, you're eliminating all those, all those, you know, injectables that they give them and the terrible feed, you know, and a lot of people don't even realize that chickens are carnivores, you know, and, and, And when they say, oh, this chicken is on a vegetarian diet, it's like, well, it's really not what they're supposed to be

SPEAKER_01 46:22

eating. That brings up the story of my youth because we used to have chickens running around in our farmyard. We'd have a couple hundred at a time, always outside, always on their own. We fed them grain, but they barely ate any grain because they were eating so many bugs and, believe it or not, frogs because we had frogs everywhere. Almost their entire diet was chasing frogs down and eating them. They didn't even want the grain. They had all this other available to them, this other diet. And of course, now things have changed so much that, A, frogs aren't readily available when you have chickens outside. And what's the stats on the amount of insects that we've lost? Billions and so many species just completely gone.

UNKNOWN 47:08

Yeah.

SPEAKER_01 47:09

You know, my anecdotal story on that is I worked at the truck stop down the road when I was a kid, and man, in the summertime, people come in at night with their headlights on. It was full service back then. Remember that, those days? We'd have to scrub and scrub and scrub to get those resins of those bugs off the windshields. They'd be covered. Well, I can drive my truck all summer and clean it twice a To get the bugs off? I mean, the amount of bugs, it's alarming. But that's what birds eat, and that's what chickens eat. So birds are in trouble, pollinators are in trouble, dogs are in trouble, and we're killing them. So, you know, it's really sad that we can't raise them the way we used to and have that nutrient density.

SPEAKER_00 47:56

Yeah. Well, the nice thing is for what you guys do too, it's like you just let the grass grow and you got these four-legged animals coming around just mowing them down. It's like the perfect food for them.

SPEAKER_01 48:11

Yeah. And we just keep them, well, just this morning I was dealing with, you know, we had unusually warm weather here, which leads to mud. And the common theme is just to keep them moving. Even in the winter, we just keep them moving. They don't wreck anything then, but they're fertilizing. And they're helping things to grow during the growing season. And you just mimic nature and everything just works. The soil comes back to life. The pollinators come back. The birds come back. It takes a while. It's not a quick fix. But, you know, five, ten years, you can make a huge difference. Nature is very resilient and she'll recover easily. if you just give her the right atmosphere and the right environment. And it's just a beautiful thing to watch.

SPEAKER_00 48:51

Yeah. I think the, one of the coolest, um, sort of benefits to what you guys, you side benefits to what you guys do and everybody else around the country. And, and I've, you know, we talked about it when we visited your farm, but the biodiversity that's on your farm versus neighboring farms are conventional. It's now, this is going to sound, I'm going to over-exaggerate, but just painting the picture for everybody listening is, um, you can really build sort of this Garden of Eden where you have this idea where it's every species, every native species of animal is gonna live there and they're gonna live there sort of in harmony. And you can sort of build that on your own plot of land and people are like, well, how is that so? And it's like, well, when you don't kill everything off from the microbes all the way up with all the pesticides and all this other stuff, then all of a sudden, you know, the worms come back and then, well, what do the worms get eaten by? Well, they get eaten by, birds and then the birds come back and they they start to start nesting all stuff and all of a sudden now there's predators that want to eat those birds and it's like now you look around you like you've got your your livestock that you're raising but then there's a fox and there's a coyote and there's deer and there's these birds and these pheasants and quail and all this other stuff that you have on your property that nobody else has and you know watching these documentaries about these these regen farms down in the south and georgia and all this other stuff i mean they're getting the the quail to come back in huge numbers and all the neighbors are like, we love to hunt quail. We haven't hunted quail in 15 years because we can't find them. Nature is going to find a way where they're wanted and they have the infrastructure to survive.

SPEAKER_01 50:42

It's very true. Even the plants, the native plants come out and start sprouting and growing when you aren't trying to kill everything and grow a monoculture crop and kill everything else. So we get these diverse grasslands coming back from the seeds in the seed bank. And then we've learned in our own nutrient density study that we're a part of that's super fascinating. And it's cutting edge data coming out of that. But just the real top headline is we found, the researchers, the scientists, found a correlation between the diversity of the grassland and the nutrient density of the meat. So that's how they were designed to eat. So we narrow it down to a very narrow ration instead of a diverse grassland for a ruminant. Well, now all of a sudden your omega-6s drop. You've got a 2 to 1 ratio instead of a 7 to 13 to 15 to 20 to 1 ratio of a 6 to 3. And plus all the other vitamins and minerals and the phytochemicals that are in the plants actually get passed through the meat and actually can be detected in humans. So you're getting that salad, in essence, by eating a steak, which I love. But it's amazing. There's going to be so much coming out about this that the diet of the animal, you are what your food eats, that it really ends up expressing itself. So there's a lot of benefit to that. to allowing nature to just flourish. I love, I love the garden of Eden. I'm going to use that. That's what it feels like.

SPEAKER_00 52:35

Well, yeah, that sounds like way more spiritual than I wanted to, but I was just trying to paint this picture of like, man, you could have this, like, you know, what we all kind of envision of this, this, you know, this beautiful place where are these, the, the humans and the birds and everything kind of live in harmony. And although they kind of like are predatory and they feed off each other, but still, you know, you get the, you get the point,

SPEAKER_01 52:56

you know? Yes, I totally do. And the spiritual reference is okay with me too. Yeah. Um, so, you know, thank you for taking the time. Do you, I really appreciate you joining us. I, I really do. I know you're busy and taking the time to do this is, is just great of you. Do you have, um, one hopeful message that you'd like to leave our listeners with within this whole regenerative realm?

SPEAKER_00 53:25

You know, I would say just kind of going back to my story and then the story that you've shared about your health journey. And, you know, maybe this isn't just specific to regenerative agriculture, but, you know, don't be afraid to take control of your life. and don't be afraid to take control of your health. And if things aren't making sense, and if you are being frustrated by hitting roadblocks wherever you look, keep looking and do your own research. And I know that term has been villainized lately, the last couple of years, but if people weren't doing their own research and being their own personal renegades, then we wouldn't have made this progress that we've made where I think we've made a ton of progress with health and wellness and understanding our bodies and understanding what we do to the land and how it affects us directly. So I would say just don't be afraid. Be bold when it comes to taking control of your life. I

SPEAKER_01 54:28

love that. I love that. That was actually a message I received this morning. Just be bold in going forth. Don't be sheeple. Be bold. chart your own path. It's okay. You can do it. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. No problem.

SPEAKER_00 54:47

Uh, thanks for having me. Congrats again on the pod. And, uh, I look forward to hearing other ones.

SPEAKER_01 54:52

Yeah. Great. Sounds good. Have a good day. All right. You too. See ya.

UNKNOWN 54:59

Bye.