Ep. 330: What Happens When Employers Prioritize Real Food Over Quick Fixes
PLANTSTRONG Podcast
Rip Esselstyn
4.8 • 2.3K Ratings
🗓️ 4 December 2025
⏱️ 58 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
What happens when a company decides to put real food at the center of employee wellness? In this powerful episode, Rip sits down with the team at Central Garden & Pet, a 7,000-employee organization that has taken a radically forward-thinking approach to improving the health of its people. Their partnership with PLANTSTRONG by Metabite has produced clinical-level outcomes — without drugs, deprivation, or pressure to “go vegan.”
Rip is joined by Dawn Hutchins, Central’s Director of Plant-Based Nutrition, who shares how the program was born, what she learned from a year of research and focus groups, and why this isn’t a “check-the-box” wellness initiative. She breaks down how the program works — from smart devices and at-home blood testing to weekly coaching, short video lessons, cooking demos, AI support, and a thriving alumni community.
You’ll also hear from two inspiring graduates, Vicky and Dan, who reveal what motivated them to join, the fears they had going in, and the surprising shifts they experienced as they added more plants to their plates. Their stories underscore a simple truth: when people feel supported, connected, and empowered with real tools, transformation follows.
If you’re a business leader, HR professional, or anyone curious about the future of Food as Medicine, this episode offers a clear and inspiring blueprint for what’s possible when nutrition becomes the foundation of workplace wellness.
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | I'm Ray Besselston, and you're listening to the Plan Strong podcast. |
| 0:05.7 | What happens when a company decides to truly transform the health of its people? |
| 0:12.3 | In this episode, I'm going to share how Central Garden and Pet, a mid-sized company of about |
| 0:18.5 | 7,000 employees partnered with Plan Strong by Metabyte to deliver |
| 0:23.8 | jaw-dropping, drug-free results, plus the inspiring stories of two employees who lived it |
| 0:31.4 | right after these words from Plan Strong. |
| 0:35.1 | Before we delve into this conversation, I want to take a sec and share something |
| 0:41.3 | game-changing that we have been working on, and it's called the Plan Strong by Metabyte program. |
| 0:48.6 | If you love the Plan Strong podcast, you know that food can be our greatest medicine. But now we are taking that truth |
| 0:58.1 | directly to the workplace with a 12-week intensive therapeutic lifestyle change program |
| 1:06.1 | powered by real plant-strong foods and guided by expert coaching. |
| 1:12.1 | This program is already helping people target heart disease, |
| 1:17.8 | obesity, type 2 diabetes, pre-diabetes, and even mental health |
| 1:22.4 | by utilizing the power of real food made from whole plants delivered in a structure that actually |
| 1:31.0 | sticks. And here's where you come in. If this sounds like something that your company, your |
| 1:37.5 | HR team, or your executive team should know about, share this episode with the decision |
| 1:43.8 | makers where you work. You never know |
| 1:47.0 | whose life that you could change just by passing it forward. And if you want to learn more or |
| 1:52.9 | explore bringing Plansstrong by Metabyte to your workplace, visit liveplansstrong.com and then |
| 2:00.5 | click on corporate wellness. You'll find everything that you |
| 2:04.7 | need to get the conversation started. Let's help more people experience the healing power |
| 2:11.6 | of real food and community one workplace at a time. Today I'm spotlighting a company that is rewriting the |
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