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Ben Greenfield Life

The Nitty-Gritty Underground World of Supplement Ingredients, Sports Nutrition Frankenfuels, Illegally Laced Compounds & More.

Ben Greenfield Life

Ben Greenfield

Education, Fitness, Self-improvement, Health & Fitness

4.65.2K Ratings

🗓️ 11 July 2015

⏱️ 59 minutes

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

My guest in today's podcast, Shawn Wells, MPH, RD, CISSN, has probably forgotten more about supplements than most people will ever know. His brain contains an extremely unique blend of time spent in the science trenches and a formal education in the fields of performance nutrition and supplementation.

Shawn attended UNC-Chapel Hill, earning a Master’s degree in Nutrition and minor in Exercise Science. His education also includes credentials of Registered Dietitian, Certified Sport Nutritionist (CISSN), and board member of the ISSN. His role as CEO of Zone Halo Research, a consulting group for supplement formulations, and CSO of Biotrust, along with extensive experience in formulating supplements for big companies (likely some of the ones you’ve tried in the past few years) distinguish him as an expert in sports nutrition and supplementation. If you’re into supplements, you will love this interview with Shawn Wells.

We discuss: -How Shawn went from being a practicing Chief Clinical Dietitian to being in the thick of the supplement industry, and some of the most helpful books he read along the way... -The most important factors that differentiate a high-quality supplement manufacturer from a low-quality one... -The deceptive practice of "fairy-dusting" and why many, many supplement manufacturers do it... -How to know if taking different supplements together (e.g. stacking) can be dangerous, or on the flipside, more efficacious than taking one at a time... -Why a supplement can rapidly degrade as soon as you put it into your refrigerator or pantry... -Why everything from solubility to flavor additives can make or break the absorption and efficacy of supplements like whey protein... -Why you could be getting 600mg of caffeine (6 cups of coffee!) in an average "energy" supplement that says it only has 100mg... -The surprising development that Shawn things is the next big thing in the world of supplements and nutrition... -And much more!

Resources we discuss during this episode: -Book "Optimum Sports Nutrition by Dr. Michael Colgan" -Book "The Four Agreements" -The Examine Research Digest -Behind The Scenes Of How A Supplement Is Made -My podcast interview with the folks at LabDoor "The Crazy, True & Scary Facts About The Supplements Industry" -BioTrust

Do you have questions, comments or feedback about how to know supplement ingredients or anything else Shawn and I discuss? Leave your thoughts at BenGreenfieldFitness.com.

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0

Hey, it's Ben Greenfield.

0:02.4

Before we jump into this show, which covers the nitty gritty underground world of the

0:06.6

supplement industry, I want to tell you a quick story.

0:11.5

July 4th just happened.

0:13.5

My mom came over for July 4th and she stayed overnight at my house.

0:18.4

The next day, she woke up and she wanted to know what kind of mattress she had just

0:24.1

slept on because she had such a great, comfortable night of sleep.

0:29.0

No joke, I'm not making this up.

0:31.4

And I told her what I am about to tell you that she slept on a Casper mattress.

0:38.1

So it's a new hybrid mattress.

0:40.4

It combines latex foam, a premium latex foam with memory foam.

0:46.9

So they describe themselves as an obsessively engineered mattress at a shockingly fair price.

0:52.8

It's got good sink, it's got good bounce, something to do with and I don't know exactly

0:58.2

how it works, combining the latex foam and the memory foam together.

1:02.8

So the other cool thing is they've got a risk-free trial, they've got a risk-free return

1:07.1

policy.

1:08.1

You can try sleeping on it for 100 days, free delivery, painless returns.

1:12.9

They're made in America.

1:14.8

So anyways, most mattresses like this cost over 1,500 bucks, but you can get a Casper for

1:22.1

about $500, I believe it is, for a twin size.

1:26.2

About to 9.54 king size, I know that sounds expensive, but that's actually a lot less expensive

1:31.2

than what you'd get from a mattress of this quality and of this make and of this comfort.

...

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