"We all want love, we all want connection, we all want security, we all want abundance, we all want water, food, power, shelter. We all want peace for ourselves and our families."
Darin Olien
EFR 413: The Global Truths of Wellness, Fatal Conveniences, and the Mindset to Overcome Suffering with Darin Olien
Darin Olien is an accomplished entreprneur, best-selling author, and world-renowned superfood hunter. In his latest work with Zac Efron on the hit Netflix show Down to Earth, Darin traveled the world in search of the healthiest and most natural sources of energy, nutrition, and wellness that humans could possible ask for. In the process he realized that many global forces for good and governments were missing the mark for countless groups of people for such basics as clean water and reliable energy. In this episode Darin shares his unwavering passion for how we can live a 'superlife' through what we eat but also how to improve the quality of life no matter where we are on the globe, plus what he calls 'fatal conveniences' - when we allow conveniences to persist that are actually draining our wellness (and our freedom).
Follow Darin on Instagram @darinolien
Follow Chase on Instagram @chase_chewning
In the New York Times bestselling book “Superlife,” Darin Olien provides us with an entirely new way of thinking about health and wellbeing by identifying what he calls the life forces: Quality Nutrition, Hydration, Detoxification, Oxygenation, and Alkalization. Olien demonstrates in great detail how to maintain these processes, thereby allowing our bodies to do the rest. He tells us how we can maintain healthy weight, prevent even the most serious of diseases, and feel great. He explains that all of this is possible without any of the restrictive or gimmicky diet plans that never work in the long term.
Olien has traveled the world, exploring the health properties of foods that have sustained indigenous cultures for centuries. Putting his research into practice, he has created a unique and proven formula for maximizing our bodies’ potential. He also includes a “How-to-eat” user’s guide with a shopping list, advice on “what to throw away,” a guide to creating a healthy, balanced diet plan, and advice on how to use supplements effectively.
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Episode resources:
More about Darin:
Darin Olien is co-host with Zac Efron on the widely popular Netflix docu-series called “Down to Earth with Zac Efron” and host of the #1 Health & Wellness podcast The Darin Olien Show.
Darin is also a highly recognized exotic superfoods hunter, supplement formulator, and author of the New York Times bestseller book, “SuperLife: The five fixes that will keep you healthy, fit and eternally awesome.”
Darin worked with fitness-company Beachbody to formulate one of the top super food shakes in the USA a whole-food supplement called, “Shakeology”, as well as the plant based, “Ultimate Reset 21-day” detoxification program.
Darin is one of the founders of Barukas™, new super nut from the Savannah “Cerrado” of Brazil. Through sustainable business practices the company is committed to supporting this important biome by planting 20 million Baruzeita trees.
He also launched in early 2020 a health APP 121 Tribe created to help people learn about whole food plant based eating, recipes, easy to follow education, habit tracking and exercise.
An advisor to P5 Energy a cutting edge “green” technology incubator with a primary focus on zero- pollution power systems.
Partner in GREENPATH™, dedicated to real solutions for a new world with cutting edge nano technology for hand and surface sanitation.
Darin is also the Director of Strategic Alliances and the Global Health Ambassador for APPICS, a revolutionary new social media platform monetizing passion and content through cryptocurrency and block chain. As well as an advisor to Footprint™ which is eliminating single-use plastics with plant-based compostable products that don’t harm you or the planet.
Darin holds a Bachelor of Arts in Exercise Physiology/Nutrition and a Masters in Psychology.
Interview transcript:
Darin: Well, or people want you to get over it and be better. Yes. Do does this world, especially the United States, let's make a general statement. Understand grief. No. So dealing with real grief and feelings and cultivating the learning, I think we largely fail as a society. Just look around, we're still fighting each other. We're fighting each other. We're not learning anything. We're just more divisive. You're saying this, you're doing that. It's just, it's a bunch of crap. And so, so on the one hand, I think the insensitivity of people just want you to get through it quick, or we don't want to sit with pain. We don't want to sit with the reality of what our world is doing, what we're doing to animals, what we're doing to the environment, what we're doing to each other, what we're doing as political divisiveness. Uh, we, we don't want to, we just want to be right.
Darin: And in that being right, we, we divorce ourselves from connection. We divorce ourselves from the opportunity. We divorce ourselves from the actual compassion, empathy, and love that is there. I believe underneath it, all that we'd largely exponentially are more connected at the base needs of all of us. We all want love. We all want connection. We all want security. We all want abundance. We all want water, food, power, shelter. We all want peace for ourselves and our families. We all want the same thing, but yet the world just teaches us not that the world. So as I'm going through this, I'm seeing the seduction of victimization. So I think that the world it's so weird, so used to the seduction and I saw it, you know, I saw the seduction of be a victim, and now it's subtle. It's very subtle because for now it's been two years since I lost my house and people that, Oh my God, I'm so sorry. And, and although that's coming from a place of kindness, the world actually teaches us. I believe to stay in that vibration. Oh my God, the house, Oh my God. I lost everything. Oh my God. Uh, I love, I love to stay in the world or to stay in the laws.
Darin: When in truth, it's all an inner game. It's all an inner of the truth. Who am I? What am I, where am I going? What is my view? And what do I hope to accomplish? Because my view is it's not happening to me as it's just randomly occurring. It happened for me in ways that I may not be able to unpack maybe some right away, but maybe I'm not until you're able to unpack all of the blessings that happened to me, losing everything I own for the another, for the next 10 20 for the rest of my life, 20 years, 30 years, whatever. But I teach her for sure. Yeah. But I do know that there has been infinite gifts as the result of the tremendous loss that I, that I occurred. So that being said, isn't, isn't a lot of life. We can't escape pain.
Darin: We can't escape confrontation. We can't escape. Fear, resentment, shame, anger. But how long do we want to hold on to it? Are we willing to look underneath it? Are we willing to take ownership of our experience of what is there for me to look into the mirror and to be a better person as a result. So if I look through the lens of everything in my life, everything is happening for me, everything good, bad, whatever you want to define, it's happening for me. So if I look at it through that, there's no accidents. There's no accident in the universe. There's no, there's none of that. That it's the symphony of balance within this mystery that we can't possibly get our heads around. But I look at life because that, for me, that takes me out of the victimization, puts me into this, understanding this unity that I am absolutely without a doubt, connected to everything and everyone. And every cell in my body is connected to every cell, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera. So, so for me, that's the seat that I sit in when every thing gets hard or when everything is not hard, it's like, listen, it is this, it's an up and down. It's a turnaround. It's a twisting, it's turning. What are you going to do? What are you going to do with two 12, 2020? Are you literally just going to complain about all these things and people
Chase: And wait for January one, 2021 to hit. And all of a sudden, all our problems are solved. He doesn't work that way, you know,
Darin: And it's not, yeah, there is no vaccination. That's going to take this away. There is no, uh, official government or otherwise it's going to magically have all the correct answers, none of it. But I do know that there's a lot of things that we can do. There's a lot of things that we can choose choosing how to take care of ourselves. If these people aren't going to have the, the, the conscious conversation and the rational, common sense, conversation of sleep well, eat well, drink, good water, eat plants, celebrate your family and community. Get good sleep exercise that you largely will be the strongest person ever to deal with everything in life meditate, do breathing exercises, do all, get outside, get under the sun, turn on your vitamin D turn on your connection with the entire planet. If we're not going to, if, if the mainstream is not going to talk about that, then they're doing something else that does not align with truth.
Darin: There is another agenda. Yeah. So it's like without getting into that conspiracy, that I'm probably will never know that we, you and I speaking right now and the people listening, you know, that what I just said is common sense where we can do connect, connect, like this, be open with each other, smile, take your fricking mask off at home and smile with your kids and your family. And you know what, and I'm going to say it, the fact that any government are California and sanity telling us who we can't hang out with during Thanksgiving, and the fact that you could jump in your car and it's killing exponentially more people than anything else COVID or otherwise that they can take. Uh, you know, they can take that agenda of telling me who I can hang out with them the holidays and go fly a freaking kite with,
Chase: You know, so it's
Darin: Like, you know, that, that I did not, that is not the freedom of this country, you know, so informed decision. So I'm not going to go off on COVID and all of that stuff, my point to all of that is don't give your power away command and demand your power, your strength take care of yourself because you will have infinitely exponentially, more power, more sovereignty, more serenity, more community, more joy, more power to make choices, and then resonating and collaborating with people like that. That is how our country was developed. And if things don't align with that, then we need to take our country back, whatever that means, whatever that means. So, you know, again, person in the mirror. So anyway, I don't know why I'm going off on all that, but yeah,
Chase: I love it, man. Uh, if there ever was a more powerful introduction into the show, uh, I think that was it welcome officially to ever forward radio I'm on here with Darren Olien and, um, truly man, uh, before I could even get into my spiel of, uh, of our story here. I mean, that completely embodied it, um, that, uh, that is the ever forward mentality. That is that everything that happens around me is for me. Uh, and we have to step up, it's a choice. I love how you're talking about that. It is a choice to, to view it like that. And it's not an easy one. It, it, with that comes all of the work, all of the responsibility for, for self empowerment, self-education and fulfillment. Um, but then also, you know, to become the teacher for those around us, because if we can maintain dominion over our world and then spread that and resonate, like you were saying out to the people in loved ones around us, I mean, that is the world that I want to live in, that I choose to live in. And the one that I am building and sure the one you are building as well, man. So welcome. Welcome to Ever Forward brother.
Darin: Well, I love, I love that. What a great, what a great, uh, title of your podcast. Thank you. That is, that is, it is ever forward. It is ever forward leading, but it's also not like you said, you hinted at and mentioned that this is not it's. I use this term all the time and my podcast to a fatal convenience. The convenience is to not turn and own your pain, your shame, your anger, your resentment, and your fear. It's so easy to project that out at the world and to find all of the reasons to support your pain, your anger, your resentment, your fear, and projected all over. Somebody vomit all over somebody. When in fact most of it, you already have inside of you and so much vitriol, so much anger that's coming out. You know, there's a, there's a great, there's a native American that said to me, maybe 15 years ago, he said that when you squeeze an orange juice, what's in the orange comes out.
Darin: So, so when you squeeze an orange, orange juice comes out. When you get stressed and life squeezes you, what you already have in you, it's coming out. Wow. Now it's up to you. What do you want to do? Do you want to run around being upset and angry that your world is destroyed? If this guy becomes president or this guy, did you gonna let that suppress and depress you when in fact maybe this worlds, maybe 98% of this crap going on in our lives is affecting us directly and to certainly have so, uh, no, so, but, but at the end of the day, when I'm in my home, when I'm living my life, largely 99% of my life, I'm, I'm not thinking,
Chase: Thank you for saying that. Thank you for saying that. I mean, not to discredit any other way that any other person is affected by the higher ups. And, you know, I know how that goes. Uh, that reminds me a lot of my time in the military. Um, but really here we are now in our homes, more than ever in our world, having to create a life out of our home, out of our home unit, it does not directly affect us to the level that I think we allow it to. And I may get some hate on that, but I mean, truly like we are home, we have dominion over our home and what else is going on that is choosing for us. It really, I think we're just allowing that kind of excuse to just go on and on and on.
Darin: Yeah. And listen, you know, there is, of course I agree with you. And, and, and, and there's very real is millions of jobs that have been destroyed. You know, there's a part of me that wants, that wants to, if anyone is listening to this and knows of an organization, a small business organization, that's, that's potentially filing class action lawsuits against, um, governors, uh, uh, um, and higher ups that are making these choices, uh, and destroying people's lives over the small number of people, uh, that are being, uh, adversely affected by, uh, this pandemic over, they're not talking about the suicide rates. They're not talking about the, the exponential lives of our children that have been just absolutely destroyed. Um, and so there's a, there's a massive amount of information that they're not talking about. And that, that, that is being affected. And, you know, the, the low class middle-class all of us class or being new in class are being impacted.
Darin: So I want to, so if anyone's listening, I want to support anything where it makes sense that, uh, those people that have lost everything that, that they give another chance to reopen and let informed Americans make their own choices, protect those people that are compromised a hundred percent, but then the rest of us that have a 99.9, 8%, um, dominion over, uh, this suppose, you know, this virus and Corona and all of that, then let us make our own choices. Just like you make our own choices of eating, whatever we want. And, you know, we have, uh, only 2.5% of Americans are actually deemed as healthy. So we're letting that happen. Uh, we're letting people die, uh, by the truckload every day in cars and accidents,
Chase: We are letting chronic illness and disease just run rampant in the world. And, uh, that's been something that I really want to dive into. I know you could speak volumes on this. Um, I, before doing this, I worked in a clinical environment. I have been a clinical health coach for years, and I would hand in hand with people's primary care providers, walk them out of the doctor's office and into my room to go over, working out, to go over physical activity, to go over nutrition, to go over relationship health, to go over stress and not to knock anything significant that they worked on with their doctors. So much of that work is necessary for acute care. Um, but the feedback that we would get when they would just address making small little healthy changes in their day, by addressing a past trauma in their life, by addressing, uh, a superior at their job that was just suppressing them and adding immense stress, that they would then take home to their families. Those lifestyle, healthy habit changes were the ones that I over years saw build up the greatest healthy snowball for them, but then also would melt away so many things like obesity, disease, uh, indigestion, chronic illness, headaches, fatigue, energy levels, like where does it all begin? Darren, if you could boil it all down, like where does it begin for somebody to truly just to take ownership of their health and really their life?
Darin: Well, I think you, you, you hit it on the head and that, that ownership is first, uh, understanding that you're making the choice and choice is deciding that you're going to make a change is the single greatest choice. Now it, isn't no longer rocket science. Now, listen, if you have a underlying condition, then you need to address that. And that always should be done with your healthcare provider. Um, but th th the foundational things, which is what I put in put, put in my book super life is, and the reason I wrote it that way is because people 7% of all Americans, nearly 10%. So, uh, 30 million people are not even drinking an ounce of water a day. So consider that water never arms reach. There you go. Exactly.
Chase: I'm on my second one already, and it's only 11:30 AM.
Darin: Perfect. So, so imagine that the core of every chronic disease is dehydration, and then you add on top of it, people are drinking poor quality water that can't even effectively get into the cellular membrane. Um, and then on the add on top of it, water quality, uh, is it's convenient to turn on the tap, but it's inconvenient to have pesticides, herbicides, PCBs, pharmaceuticals, uh, VOC, volatile, organic compounds, reacting to, uh, every many different types of chemicals in the, in the water, uh, heavy metals, uh, uh, pencils,
Speaker 5: Things that we maybe don't even know about yet, you know, that are at such a minute level that we haven't even tested. You know, what is the efficacy against us?
Darin: Exactly. So, um, Erin Brockovich, you know, big, big advocate for water and not, and let's not wait until, you know, the waters so bad that it's literally killing people, but slowly, if we don't clean our water and rebuild it back again, then, then largely we're just getting this, you know, thinking weed, drinking water. When in fact it's kind of a toxic soup over time, it's really detrimental. It's not allowing for pure hydration. So hydration is key. Number one, uh, reverse osmosis, add a pinch of Himalayan crystal salt, which gives the electrolytes the size molecules that you need for, for osmosis in, in, in and out of the cell. So super easy. Um, and then, you know, you know, again, plants, plants, plants eat more variety of plants, uh, salads, um, you know, try different colors and add that to your diet. Realizing that every color is basically a different polyphenol, different antioxidant, diff different vitamin and mineral content support your local farmers more than ever support people that are growing food next to you, uh, that you know, where these farms are from, uh, support the farmers that are also transitioning into organic agriculture, permaculture, biodynamic, uh, you'll, you'll pay for local food as well as not transported food that was picked too early and is micro micro nutrients.
Darin: So certainly add in all your plants, add in the diversity. I would say, if you, if you're not cutting out meat, dairy, fish, and eggs, which are largely a whole nother toxic side of it, um, most of that, where it's coming from, uh, just lower that consumption and increase your plant intake, increase your water intake, make sure you're getting eight hours of sleep a night, get a mask, turn out all the lights, put a mask on, uh,
Speaker 5: Apart for sure sleep is King.
Darin: You can't, you can't make that up. You can't coffee yourself out of a bad nights. We try, right. We try, we try all the time. And so when your number one incident of dehydration is fatigue. So imagine that I'm tired, but I'm jittery because of the coffee. So my adrenals are shot, and then I try to go to sleep, but I can't really go to sleep. Cause a acidification is hard, creating it hard in order for my body to switch over from the melatonin to really then allow myself to sleep. And then we wake up again, we don't drink the water. We reach for the coffee. We haven't slept so good. And the cycle continues and continues and continues. So you're way behind not to mention, I think the stat is one night of bad sleep or one to two hours less sleep a night cuts your immune system down by 30%. Yeah.
Chase: Not to mention most people. When you wake up in a poor night's sleep, like you're saying, you actually wake up. If you took your labs, you would be considered pre-diabetic most, most of the times, exactly. That's the power of sleep people.
Darin: That's the power of sleep. And that, that kind of research when they start pulling those bits of information together is so astonishing. And then the, also the microbiome is so reactively, different and stressed when, when you don't get a good night's sleep. So therefore the body's ability to break down a simulate and transform your food to be able to be used, uh, by your body, which your microbiome is intimately connected to. We have to have it in order for the proper metabolism. So all of those things are so connected. So that is a stressful situation that you can remedy. Um, and then, like I said, diversification of food, I would also then nose breathe. Uh, I just had my podcast with Patrick McKeown. I think it, I think it just came out today, uh, or whenever this is, it's going to be out whenever this is aired.
Darin: But, um, so Noah's breathing takes down. The stress puts you into parasympathetic nervous system. So, uh, optimal performance rather than a stressful response, try to shut your mouth while you sleep. Some people even have used tape. I've heard of that. Yeah. Yeah. So if you don't have a compromised sleeping apnea, obviously do not tape your mouth shut if you're compromised, sleeping, but it can very much even a light athletic tape where you can actually, uh, breathe through it a little bit, helps train your system to receive more oxygen through the nitric oxide induction through the nasal passages. And, and then not to mention you'll receive more oxygen and more oxygen saturating, and your body is intimately connected to no disease, bacteria, virus can survive.
Chase: No one's ever going to knock adding more oxygenation to your circulatory system. It's exactly. Yeah. You can't go wrong. It reminds me, uh, are you familiar
Chase: With James ness doors breath, the book, powerful, powerful
Darin: Edible stuff. And so it's, it's beautiful that we've taken, uh, what the yoga practices been trying to tell us for a long time, but now we've really started to understand and implement breathing in a whole other way. It went from kind of this esoteric explanation to this very grounded, physiological stress, less situation, and, uh, optimal performance. And that's not for an athlete. That's for someone, uh, sleeping well, drinking well breathing well, you're now eating well. Now you're talking about basically improving your performance by, by exponential amounts just by those things alone. And therefore getting out in the sun, getting back into circadian rhythm, viewing some light without, um, glasses on in the morning, allowing for that circadian rhythm to, to support your rhythm. While you go to sleep your melatonin production, like these are all
Chase: Easy, easy, easy ways for sure
Darin: That are going to then boost your immune system and naturally keep you strong. And of course, exercising and moving. Uh, there was, uh, um, Dr. Hagerman just had this article that his colleagues put out and, uh, there's some incredible serotonin dopamine effect in the brain just by moving forward. So literally taking a walk or doing anything that, that is like even
Chase: Propulsion, just
Darin: Moving forward in any kind of way. That actually turns on brain mechanisms, neurogenesis, uh, optimizing immune system response.
Chase: Hey, that bodes well for my brand. That's for sure ever forward baby
Darin: Connected to research. That's supporting brain performance, uh, healing performance and, and, you know, that's, that's, that's a no, no, no pun intended, but that's a no brainer that moving. Even if you're having a bad mood, if you're fighting with your spouse, if you have enough awareness to go, you know what, I I'm getting really upset. Let me just go walk around the block, come back, take a breath in my head. And you're literally changing your brains chemistry and your brainwaves. And you will have a greater instead of convergence, right, converging down on a issue or a problem or a person you'll be able to expand and have a greater view and a greater ability to step out of the fight or flight response. And then not further support the anger, fear, resentment that you're about to just pour gasoline on. So, you know, we all come from those arguments. We've all had them. We've all made mistakes. We've all said things that we didn't want to say, and it only further, uh, creates bad situations worse. So these are things that are going to help your body, but they're also going to help your brain and your relationships. And you mentioned that as well. I mean, it's so key.
Chase: Well, I say it all the time where the mind goes, the body will follow and, you know, even vice versa, if we honor and respect the external self, eventually I believe in my experience, we will have, you know, eventually kind of get to that internal reflection point and we'll begin to address things, same thing inward versus out. You know, if we address internally what's going on and try to help that self, then it is only natural that it will trickle out and manifest into external physiological change
Darin: A hundred percent. And you know, and I, you know, I love, I love the faith of that too, when you just like, Hey, not only am I benefiting right now of filling myself up full of love and support and just acknowledging this amazing connection and even asking those questions, who am I, you know, like every day, who am I, and just sitting with the answer, not allowing your doesn't cap to come from your mind, you don't have to go, Hey, Oh, and the answer that I'm Darren, I, or you really just Darren, or are you this kind of being that's how,
Chase: Who am I today? And that we get, we get to kind of have some, some malleability with that. I think, you know, who we are, I'll even say should kind of change day to day, because look at what everything you were just talking about when we're incorporating all of these things, uh, health, wellness, sunlight, water movement, like it is changing us at the molecular level. Um, and we do things, you know, for a positive influence, we get a positive result hopefully. And just so just think about all the things that we're not doing and or that we are doing that we believe that we have a negative connotation, imagine that negative influence it's having. Um, it's so kind of esoteric in a way, but also it's so fundamental, I think, um, and this, I think is just the fundamental, simple truth that if we can all get to imagine what the change we can create in our own lives, in the world and on that kind of global scale, Darin, I'm really curious when you were traveling the world when you were, you know, going through this TV show and when you were connecting with people and countries and superfoods and just, you know, biohacking and all of these incredible things that people of the earth and the earth have to offer.
Chase: Was it more of, for you like a confirmation of yes. The things that I have found, things that I'm working on for, you know, myself to be true, because look, what else is going on in the world, or were you just kind of like in all of what else is out there that you have not even tapped into?
Darin: I think it's a combination of both, for sure. I mean, you know, it was certainly fueled by a curiosity of course, and the curiosity for me didn't end at, okay, I've read enough research papers on, on, on my Google search. Um, it came by way of realizing that that's not the end all be all of anything, just because we can find out information about information, about information, about information, and it doesn't mean that it's accurate or true. It doesn't mean that that stops there. And so for me, I, I, my curiosity was, I mean, really at the core of superfood hunting and that kind of thing was about, I mean, the, all of the world when you're sitting on a mountain top at 17,000 feet, or if you're sitting in the jungle, uh, having ants bite you, or, you know, stranded on the Amazon river, um, and having to rely on a, on a, on a group of people to, to stay the night that you've never met before.
Darin: It, it was that human connection. That was first when you go off to these places, because largely you're in a very, very foreign situation. You have to immediately trust the people that are bringing you into those areas. And then it was about, okay, I am curious about these foods and nuts and how are they living? How are they using these plants and nerves and all these things. And then I'll always for the last 20 years in the periphery, I'm like, wow, they're on the one hand, I'm learning so much about old ways of doing things. And on the other hand, they're suffering, they don't have clean water. They need to provide for their family because largely we're, we're, there's very few cultures in the world that completely live off the land anymore. So, so we have to rely on this, uh, modernization on the one hand. So how do they do that? Very difficult. Um, so I'd look at like, how can I improve their lives if I do a trade with them and they can, they can do that. And at the same time I was started, gut start, get, start started to get into water, born issues that, you know, 9,000 kids a day are dying of waterborne diseases that are fecal infused bad water situations, where they're filling up Jerry cans and then bringing back to their family and playing Russian roulette. Every time they drink water. So
Chase: More or less should be air quote here, easy
Speaker 6: Fix, right. Just clean water.
Darin: And in fact it really is, which is why it's, which is why I've struggled with that going, okay, so you have number one, people dying 97.5% of the people dying of degenerative diseases in America at least have degenerative diseases. Um, you have 9,000 kids dying of waterborne diseases. Most of which the whole communities are suffering from, from clean water. You have all these nations around the world that largely are absolutely failing at basic needs of the people. So I kind of was like, I'm not an anti-government person at all, but I'm kinda like you guys
Speaker 6: Suck at your job. You guys, you guys are,
Darin: And almost just have me throw a dart at the globe and there's gonna be people suffering that don't have food. Don't have water, go to Malaysia and go hang out with people who are living in our plastic. And tell me that that is something that's, uh, anyone should be living in, of course not. So, uh, I just believe that it's a power of us and our communities and our resonance of our own groups. I mean, you're film the military, get a band to get a band of brothers and sisters together. They can do some, right.
Speaker 6: Small team on a mission. You'd be amazed. The change that can ripple out. Yeah.
Darin: Yeah. So if you take instead of destruction or protection, you do it out of the desire to actually change, create safety for, for animals around the world. They're being tortured and butchered and, and inhumanely used protect our oceans from plastic and all of this stuff, protect our people, get our people, shelter, get our kids clean water. So you name it. Uh, every country I've been in, um, your government's failing. And so all of these NGOs that pop up. Yeah, great, cool. But it, it comes by way of small bands of people getting together and actually doing things. Um, uh, you know, just in the news, uh, uh, world animal news just released a share, came on board. It was called the loneliest elephant and the world was, uh, by itself in a cage forever. And they finally got this, this, uh, elephant free, uh, brought it back to Pakistan where it had this beautiful place to live the rest of its life.
Darin: You know, it's like, so, you know, look a chair. Did she use her influence, put her own cash in, uh, and did that, why don't we keep doing that? We can, and we have great organizations doing stuff like that. So, so I care about the environment and people and animals. So it's like everywhere you look, you're seeing the destruction of choices and the destruction of power, uh, thwarted in the wrong direction. So, so my world right now is moving from soup. I will always be connected to superfoods. I will always find superfoods. I will always connect, uh, and, and be involved with all of that stuff. But I'm moving and expanding my world into all of these things I've seen for so long on the ground into actionable things that we can do differently. It's so much, we started to do it on, on, down to earth as well.
Darin: We were able to go to these places, that Jaguar rescue that was in Costa Rica, saving these beautiful monkeys from being electrocuted from unprotected line, you know, uh, human power lines and stuff like that. And so, you know, there's so many things that we're doing horribly and I don't stay on that. It's like, let's just get together with groups of people that know what to do and how to do it. And let's make some changes. That's where I'm moving. And so going all the way back to take care of yourself and your health and your relationships, and then be altruistic. Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. Without a doubt that being in service outside, beyond yourself is therapeutic to your heart, to your cholesterol, to your brain. We know that we can measure
Chase: In ways that I don't think we ever will,
Darin: You know, exactly. But at the end of the day, I feel good when I am in doing that, I just did a tree planting for, uh, um, uh, one tree.org. And we're planting endemic trees throughout California. And just literally with my own hands, putting new saplings in the ground and to be able to do that is so incredible to do it. And then knowing you're connected to this goal of hundreds, of thousands of change of trees that are changing and helping the ecosystem. And then let's just keep doing that and doing that. And those are infinitely different things like that, that you can get involved with, um, human trafficking, uh, plastic free ocean, you name it,
Chase: Throw a dart on the globe and, you know, pick a cause. Um, yeah. All necessary. Yeah. Well, Darren, you mentioned earlier, uh, to kind of, you know, shift gears a little bit, uh, I want to address something that, you know, I have learned so much from you about, uh, and that, you know, from book and all of the work that you're putting out now, I would say it's kind of like the foundation and that's super foods and so much, so, I mean, you've even got your own product out shutout, you know, Baruch has a, I haven't tried them yet, but, uh, I mean, I know anything you put your name behind is going to be powerful, immensely powerful for us. Um, what does that term superfoods, what does it really mean? What does it not mean? And you know, what are some examples of things that people can like tap into, go out and get today here now that is going to add value and vitality to their life?
Darin: You know, I, I will define superfoods a little differently because I think, I think you can make a choice of romaine lettuce to romaine lettuce is next to each other. One was sent to you from who knows where you don't know where it's from. Another one was, uh, grown in biodynamic, rich regenerative ag agriculture from, you know, your farmer down the street, five miles away. One could argue that that is super food, right? It's super connected to everything that supports the economy, the people, the local communities, and the better way of growing food, as opposed to monocropping and, or chemicalized growing food conventionally. So I will expand superfood from that perspective. I think our lens needs to change my lens
Chase: To change.
Darin: Exactly. So, you know, so, but, but that being said, think of it also as the food you're taking in every bite you're consuming, how much nutrients and benefit are you getting from each bite, as opposed to something that is not grown very correctly. It may have also toxic compounds and that's detrimental to your health. So not only you can look at us organic and biodynamic and all of these locally sourced foods, et cetera, and that is free of toxic compounds, compounds, and pesticides. And it's also highly contributive from a polyphenol antioxidant, micronutrient rich. So is there sometimes a little cost difference? Yes, but you're not taking in disease causing cancer, causing pesticides that they've been experimenting on us for the last 75 years, which is insane to me, glyphosate, Roundup, ready, all of that stuff, which we already know the beautiful work by Dr. Zach Bush ripping apart. I digestive system
Chase: Recently.
Darin: Incredible. Yeah. So, so, so my superfood definition at the same time, there could be a beautiful Apple. And then I could say, you know, a incredible durian or jackfruit that is, you know, unders or, or Kaimuki bamboo like everyone on the show, right? So Camou Khumbu is like under so much stress in the Amazon it's being flooded by the Amazon. Uh, and, and within that environment, and then markets 16,000 feet, uh, she Zandra, uh, stressed in the sovereign areas of, of the mountains of China
Speaker 7: Earning their existence every day, they have to earn their existence.
Darin: Yeah. So their, their environment is stressing them. And they've adapted to those stressors with compounds that are not only protecting them to continue to grow. It just so happens that these beautiful plants and fungal kingdom mushrooms and mycelium, that it just so happens that we consume them. And we benefit largely from all of those compounds, um, to help us thrive. So you've got, you've got herbs, you've got super herbs, you've got super mushrooms, you've got super foods. So it's really taking on this idea that everything you put in your mouth and I get food needs to taste good. And I, and I celebrate food like crazy. Like when, when food is fresh and alive, it is exploding with flavor and I'm not afraid of carbohydrates. I'm not afraid of fruits zero, not at all. And the great work by, uh, uh, the guys. Um, uh, what's the name?
Darin: Uh, I forget, I'll have to remember the book, but there's so much that we're missing out with this phobia food that we need to get back to our common sense, get back to the harvesting, the celebration of whole healthy foods that are so delicious and so abundant, but we've been manipulated through sugar, salt, and fat. And that is an interesting thing because that the sugar, salt and fat has manipulated our senses, which then, um, the evolutionary aspect of leaning forward. It is always a score when you find food that is nutrient dense in our, in our limbic system. So if I don't have to expend too much energy to find caloric density, that's a win from an evolutionary standpoint, survival exactly. At its deepest level, because the body doesn't want to expend more energy than what it, what it can find and use or else we would die.
Darin: Right. So, so now sugar, fat salt is added fat for sure. Refined everything else. When you have, we can just go down the street and find all this caloric density that's processed without, you know, the proper fibers and whole food. Then it just goes right to that limbic system. That's a score. I'm just going to keep eating that. And that's the problem with overeating. It bypasses all the food manufacturers know this, so we, and then our microbes change. And so now that micro biological system changes, which largely is, is it gets thrown off and changes our entire assimilative function as well as our immune system
Chase: Rewrites our operating system. Absolutely.
Darin: Yup. And so, and so now if we go back and go, listen, I've been manipulated through food science and through, you know, the, the largely these few corporations that are running most of these processed foods, I've been manipulated through that, just realize that that is true. And then go back to whole foods, go on the outside of the grocery store, get the whole healthy food, true
Chase: External lab people.
Darin: Exactly. And then you will start rewriting and then those cravings will also start going away and you'll start craving the beautiful bounty that is already here, eat, eat, eat a fresh organic date. And tell me that, that, that the universe and God already did create the most beautiful candy in the world anyway.
Chase: Amazing. Well, so well said, man. And, uh, one other thing I want to definitely dive into here, as we begin to kind of wrap up, you definitely began to talk about it in the beginning. And, um, it's one of my favorite chunks of your world and particularly in your podcast, the fatal conveniences, um, what a mind blowing concept, something that is so duh, uh, but also kind of scary. I mean, the things that you go over in that segment, I think like if we just took those two words, fatal conveniences and the listener or the viewer, we just took those two words in that concept and applied them to today. You life here today. Can you dive deeper into that for us please? What does that term really mean? And how can we use this lens of a fatal convenience to, to empower our lives, to empower our healthy habits, to empower our questioning? Just everything really. I love this concept.
Darin: Yeah. Perfect. Yeah. You know, it's funny because I really, I realized that what was something that was going on and two very powerful ways in my life, my father, before he passed away, passed away 17 years ago, but about five to six, seven years of his life before he passed away, by the way. Uh, so he passed away in 2004. My father passed in 2005. Yeah. Oh yeah. Wow. Sorry.
Chase: Likewise, uh, um, terminal illness, uh, one of those just freak freak things. Absolutely. But it was, you know, not to go too off on a tangent, but was the biggest catalyst in my life for questioning everything for my own health and my wellness. And just in the beginning it was fear. Like I don't ever want to end up like that, but also now empowering because we, we get to learn this human body, right? Yeah.
Darin: Oh a hundred percent, dude. I mean, if, if there's anything that doesn't spark the legacy more than that, like seriously, because that now how I take that information and expand the legacy and like, I can't do the same thing, look at the results or whatever that is, whatever those messages are, but I'm certainly going to live full on ever forward.
Chase: That was his phrase entirely like talk about legacy. Yeah. It was his mantra. He instilled in us, my whole family growing up for years and to his dying breath, you know, nothing was a problem. There's a gift and it's somewhere in here and, uh, yeah, ever Ford is my entire being is legacy everything for sure.
Darin: Dude, I'm honored, honored to hear that celebrate. I celebrate him. That's why we're here
Chase: Today to celebrate this
Darin: Amazing. Um, I love that. I feel, I feel that powerfully and I think, and I think, uh, yeah, I mean my father, uh, you know, that his death was the catalyst for me to get to get rolling. And um, I forgot what the question was, fatal conveniences, you know? Yeah. So, so, but, but going back to my dad, so when my dad, my dad was, uh, uh, ag and agricultural professor at the university of Minnesota, he then tenured and retired driving his motorcycle through the hallways of the university. He just wanted to do it. And he just wanted to rip his Harlem. Yeah. He had that little part of, and then he tried, he tried to be so good and like, be the professor, be the smart guy, be all, but yet he had this a little tweak. That's awesome. Which, which is funny because very much I found out later as we kind of got to know each other as adults, I'm like, Oh, I see that in like, we're very similar.
Darin: Um, and so my dad, after he retired, then he went back, uh, became a counselor at the university of Minnesota. And in that process kind of, as he got into that, he realized that he was getting foggy. His brain was fogging out and he couldn't think, and you'd go into these daises. And what he realized was way before anyone else he researching and realizing that he had what's. Now people don't even know still called a chemical sensitivity disorder. So chemicals in the environment, if there were colognes on someone deodorants, uh, laundry detergent, uh, carpets that were new paints, fire retardants on, um, sofas, you name it, all of that stuff, tweaked him out, couldn't even think. So he had to end up writing these letters and educating people who was around him, Hey, please, don't wear this. Here's an alternative, please don't wear that. Here's an alternative. That's really where I started seeing fatal conveniences. So my father was trying to educate and listen, I'm thinking, that's weird that it is this in your head. And
Chase: You can't be asking everybody to change their life in their colognes in their sense. And like the carpets right on the surface, that's, that's crazy. Right.
Darin: Right. And then you come to realize the reality is the reality that 99% of this stuff is never tested. And that the data is actually showing and proving that these are disruptive compounds or going electric compounds that we are ingesting. And we're also in, like transdermally being exposed to that are absolutely hormone disrupting cancer causing toxic compounds that it was only, then it was just this tiny bit. And not everyone else because my dad, he was an alcoholic and sober for 30 years, but his liver and he lost his thyroid because he was an engineer, uh, on creating a atomic bomb. Radiation. Yeah. Yeah. So, so my dad was at one of the chief engineers in the atomic bomb creations. Uh, and which I didn't know until later, but I did know that he had his thyroid was shot and his liver was shot from the alcoholism.
Darin: And so he, his immune system was just compromised. Any exposure to the stuff with throw him over the edge. So long story short, that is in the back of my mind, I'm now smelling stuff. And I'm now like, I'm, that's invasive to me because I can start picking up on how that is not good for me to ingest and to smell. And so to this day, if someone wears any perfume, I don't care if it's the best in the world, essential oils, all that stuff. Fantastic. Anything chemicalized it just, it gives me a headache. Wow. So, so this, so when I'm looking at the world 20 years ago, with this amazing researcher, Dr. Mohsen, who are managed that I studied with 20 years ago, he was telling me about the fatal conveniences of a cell phone. And he's like, this is changing the RNA DNA signaling, creating tumors.
Darin: And I'm looking at him going, yeah. But why would they have these? I don't understand. It's this kind of frequency, it's this kind of Hertz frequency, it's this kind of vibration, it's this kind of blah, blah, blah. And I was just like, wow. And so of course, do I have a shield device on here? Yes. Do I turn it off when it's on my body? Yes. So all of these things, so most of my life I'm being exposed to this information. So I had to finally go, okay, I got my own podcast and I'm seeing this stuff for the last 20 years. Like everywhere. I look, these chemicalized companies from detergents to deodorants, to, you know, uh, toxic compounds that, that, uh, they put in women's underwear, uh, contributing to breast cancer, uh, heavy metals in our underarm deodorant, getting into our lymphatic system. Uh, obviously the cell phone and the radiation, the EMF
Chase: Think about everything at home. I battle everybody with on this all the time. Oh, it smells so clean in here. I say, clean doesn't have a smell. That is a fatal convenience. The smell of something clean. No, no, no, no. We have been completely misguided on that
Darin: A hundred percent. Yeah. I mean every, and that's the aha. We've gotten so used to this stuff and to the smell I did, I did a fatal convenience and tweet people out on new car smell.
Chase: I just saw that one. Yeah. I haven't listened to it yet. Yeah. I was like, Ooh, there's going to be good. This is gonna be good because we all love that. Right. Yeah.
Darin: We all have this association to it. And same like what does tide laundry smell like? We have this association, my mom did it in the seventies. It definitely what didn't have any testing whatsoever, but we have this association to clean, but we have to reorient ourselves just like you said, with what clean is and how to get clean. Yeah. And so everywhere I look, there's a fatal convenience. Every everything from do I have blue light glasses on. Yeah. Cause a fatal convenience of this overstimulated blue from these computer screens are hurting my own circadian rhythm, hurting my melatonin and the overstimulation of blue light. So it's like, that's a fatal convenience staring at screens, sitting in the stupid chair too much, right. With closed off, uh, concentrated. So as muscles pulling in our lower back with our shoulders, rolling forward head position, push forward, neck pain, back pain. So much
Chase: Sacrificing our health for conveniences. I just truly from start the day, like the more and more you talk, I'm just like, wow. Like it's, it's even more ingrained everywhere then than we were
Darin: A hundred percent. So my, my dream that I've started here is just to wake people back up, gain the power. It's not to be overwhelmed by this stuff, but just make small choices because it literally is just replacing habits. Like some of this stuff we've advanced so well into creating clean products, right? We have clean deodorants. We have this incredible company. Caldera Lab is one of the most beautiful face serums, right?
Chase: We are both partners with them! I saw, I saw your ad pop up the other day. Absolutely. I have been using for a year.
Darin: Incredible dude, 27 active botanicals, incredibly clean tested, no animal cruelty. I'm like, dude, if I was going to formulate a product, that's what I would do. And so it's, it's we have to, as a society, support these companies and, and, and not, we've got to evolve and then de-evolve our conglomerates that we've spent so much money towards and, and push these companies towards making changes. Now are some of them doing it? Yes. But we need more pressure. Some of these big companies I've been finding out and learning absolutely want to get back into the game and change these things. So I don't want to make every big company evil because there are some good people in those companies pushing in the right direction.
Chase: No, they rely on our feedback. They rely on our, our, our dollar purchase power. You know, we are voting with our dollars, so let's let them know people.
Darin: Yeah. So if they don't change, then they're out, don't spend your hard earned money, uh, towards companies that, that we're now revealing and sharing with you don't care. Uh, largely there is conscious choices of, of putting toxic compounds in. They know it. Uh, so there is, it's not about evil per se. It's about, uh, money first and don't fix it if people don't know about it. And so part of the, part of the love here that I want to share is I saw my father suffer daily with this exposure. And this is happening. Whether you are feeling the effect or not, your body is swimming in this toxic soup. And I just want companies to do better. And I want people to ultimately not have to suffer from this stuff.
Chase: Well, Darren, um, I feel like I could talk to you for hours, man. So, so much truth and value here, but I cannot think of a better way to kind of round out here. The question I ask everybody at the end, um, is this, how do you live a life ever forward? What does that mean to you? And it's even more pertinent here because of how you just ended that statement of watching your father suffer. I went through the same thing, 18 months with this terminal illness. Um, and it was in that duration of time where I thought everything was ending. I was losing all of this and I did. We lost him, but we, I gained so much. I gained everything that I'm doing here today. I gained this new perspective and appreciation for the human potential in the human body and what we can do internally and externally. And I told you before, that was his phrase ever forward, ever forward, EVER FORWARD. And so that's the only reason I'm here today, doing what I do and connecting with people like yourself, that in my opinion are doing the same, but I would love to know them. And what does that mean to you? How do you live a life ever forward?
Darin: I'm going to go back to, there's nothing, actually the irony of going back, I'm not going back and going forward, I'm going in and moving forward. Always for me, the only thing that fuels the truth for me is, is deeply being quiet when I'm deeply quiet, the voice, the connection, the essence of the truth of who I am and what I am and what this beautiful universe and planet is. That is what I'm in service to the truth of myself. The light in myself that is connected to everything in all things that moves me forward. I do everything I can to not be directed by anything else. And I, and I practice that on a daily basis. So if it is not of the light, if it is not contributing to the planet and the people and the animals to make everything better without a lose, and that's a win-win win, I will move ever forward in that direction because I can't, and won't, uh, be excited to do anything else for profit, for money for this or that. Um, it's the, it's the, it's an inside game. And so the more I listen to myself, the more I connect to the infiniteness of myself, uh, the more that fuels me ever forward.
Chase: It's an inside game. I love that, man. I love that. Um, it's been an honor. It's been a pleasure. Thank you so much for your time. And, uh, I cannot wait to see what else you got coming out, uh, in the world, through your books and your podcast and your content and just, you know, everything you're doing, man, it's, it's, it's needed and appreciated. So thank you.
Darin: Thanks, Chase. This has been such a pleasure and I'm glad you brought up your dad and I resonate and I'm grateful for the, for the work that you're doing and what you're putting out. So I appreciate you. Thank you, brother. Thank you.