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Hello, everyone. This is Matt Feret, author of Prepare for Medicare and Prepare for Social Security: Insiders Guidebooks, and online course training series. Welcome to another episode of The Matt Feret Show where I interview insiders and experts to help light a path to successful living in midlife, retirement and beyond.

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Do you know what you're putting into your body? I mean, really know. We've all heard buying organic is good for us, eat your fruits and veggies, an apple a day. We're constantly blasted with all sorts of food and diet advice, including the use of supplements, and vitamins.

(01:02):

But there's more to it than that. What you're ingesting is important, but what we don't often hear is the chemical makeup, age, processing, and transportation of food, and those vitamins that severely impact the quality of what you're putting into your body, even if it's organic. Frank Davis says there's a big difference between nutrition, vitamins and minerals consumed in a whole food form, and synthetic forms, which are everywhere. Frank is the CEO of Optivida Health, which uses cutting-edge technology and specific sourcing to provide natural wellness supplements that turn fresh fruits and vegetables into powder with minimal loss of nutrients, colors, or flavor. Frank has been in the health and wellness industry for over 30 years, and after years of health issues, began his personal journey, determined to find a way to ensure that the foods he ingested to heal weren't compromised in any way.

(01:59):

It's no secret our food is grown in nutrient-deficient soils treated with herbicides, pesticides, and fungicides, and then transported thousands of miles over weeks of time, before arriving in our grocery stores. Over time, temperature, and distance, the nutritional value of all foods degrade. On this episode of The Matt Feret Show, we touch on the state of US nutrition, agricultural practices, food as medicine, the supplements industry, and how the difference between commonly found synthetic vitamins and minerals in our foods, and multivitamins are so very different than those found in whole foods. One more thing. Frank was also nice enough to offer a discount to The Matt Feret Show listeners. Type in Feret15 at checkout to get 15% off. Thanks, Frank! Enjoy!

Frank, welcome to the show!

Frank Davis (02:50):

Well, thank you Matt. I'm excited to be here. Excited to talk to you about it.

Matt Feret (02:56):

Tell everybody what you do, how long you've been doing it, and how you help people.

Frank Davis (03:01):

Well, I'm in the health and nutrition business, the wellness business. It's a passion of mine. It's something that I got into primarily, because of health issues I was dealing with throughout my life. I felt if it could help me, based on the immune-compromised health that I had, it could help anybody. I was convinced that if it could help me, it could literally help anybody, because I literally grew up from childhood on with every childhood disease and all, just a myriad of them, growing up. Candidly, I'm healthier at 77 than I was at 47, so I'm convinced it can help anybody.

Matt Feret (03:52):

It sounds like there's a story there. What's the backstory there? Go.

Frank Davis (03:56):

Yeah, there is a story. I'm sure, I'm not unique in this, that a lot of people get into a profession, because they are researching for answers to their own solution, or solutions to their own problems, and that's really what I did. As the story, as I mentioned, I literally struggled with virtually every childhood disease known to man, and I had measles, and mumps, and chicken pox, and you name it, I had pneumonia. I ended up getting pneumonia twice. I had hepatitis twice, I had mononucleosis twice. In my early forties, I came down with chronic fatigue syndrome. For a type A personality like myself, it was literally a sentence worse than death, because I couldn't even go on a walk with my wife. When we went to our condo down the southern part of state, I had to make a bed in the back of the suburban, and lay down the entire way. I'm what I call a wannabe athlete. I love sports, and I love to participate, but I had this cycle of just dealing with sickness, getting better, trying to just keep going.

(05:12):

Anyway, when I had that chronic fatigue, it was a catalyst of driving forces that I have got to find a solution. I cannot live my life like this, and I happen to live in an area that it would be the capital of network marketing. Everybody had a solution. I was willing to try it all. I drank some black stuff, and I would try anything and everything that was out there. I went to the doctors and doctor, I was prescribed an antidepressant. I said, "I'm not depressed. I'm discouraged." But anyway, like I said, I was willing to try, and I was just researching and studying. A friend of mine who was a professor at the university told me about a symposium that was being held in a neighboring city here, and I went to it, and the theme of this or the title of this symposium was called Foods as a Medicine. It was put on by a number of universities across the country, and all extremely well-qualified PhDs in the respective areas of focus.

(06:38):

They introduced this theme by saying there has been more research in the last five years than the prior 200 years linking every known illness, every known disease, including cancers, et cetera, to some form of dietary deficiencies, that it was lifestyle, it was diet, it was what we're putting in our body that was really either facilitating or causing the problem, but also potentially the cure.

Matt Feret (07:06):

Yeah. I'm sorry to interrupt you and pause. But I'm going to go back to, and we're going to come right back to it. But what is chronic fatigue syndrome? You said you were lying down in the back of a suburban, and you couldn't play sports. But how did that happen, or what was the cause, and what is chronic fatigue syndrome, and how do you get rid of it? I mean, I know you were going to tell us about, when I interrupted you. But what is chronic fatigue syndrome? First of all, what is that?

Frank Davis (07:33):

I don't think they really have a definition in terms of it's a specific virus. They call it the Epstein-Barr virus, or something that is a viral infection that causes you to just basically, you have no energy, no strength, no... I had mononucleosis. In college, when I was taking finals, all I wanted to do was sleep, but at least I could function, I could move around, et cetera. But this chronic fatigue was just kind of, you're operating at, I would say, about 20% of your energy, stamina. You just have nothing, no reserve to pull from. I don't think they can pinpoint and tell you exactly what it is, but they know it's some form of a much like an Epstein virus that brings it about.

Matt Feret (08:32):

How long did you have these symptoms?

Frank Davis (08:35):

I was struggling with this for about nine months, before I basically found a solution.

Matt Feret (08:43):

Did you go to doctors and they went, "We don't know what it is"? Are you just tired, or sleep more? I mean, what was that? Yeah.

Frank Davis (08:49):

Yeah. I mean, that's what they called it, chronic fatigue syndrome. You could ask them, well, what is that, just like you did.

Matt Feret (08:56):

Right.

Frank Davis (08:59):

hey really couldn't tell you other than that, "It's the symptoms you're describing. This is what we call it, and we don't know exactly what causes it, what it is." But most of them will refer to Epstein virus, Epstein-Barr virus.

Matt Feret (09:15):

And then their solutions for you then were take a pill, or shrug your shoulders, and say-

Frank Davis (09:21):

Yeah, they really... "Get rest." That's all I wanted to do anyway, but there really wasn't a "solution." It wasn't a pill of antibiotic, or whatever to cure it.

Matt Feret (09:38):

You went on this mission in this journey, and that's where I'll go right back to where you left off, where you went to a symposium and you did, I'm going to mess this up, nutritionist food, or food is-

Frank Davis (09:50):

It was called Foods as a Medicine.

Matt Feret (09:53):

There you go. I knew I was going to mess it up. Foods as a Medicine.

Frank Davis (09:58):

As I said, they introduced it by saying that they're linking, with all their studies, every known disease, every known illness to some form of dietary deficiencies. Each consecutive presenter had a very well-documented presentation, research in terms of what were in foods that either prevented or cured diseases, the phytonutrients, the polyphenols, the vitamins, the minerals, and how they work synergistically, and how the body uses them, et cetera, and certain compounds that are anti-cancer compounds in foods, certain that are anti-inflammatory, all of these things that are in there, and these presentations resonated. It makes sense to me. I remember there was a particular presenter from Champaign, Illinois that, a lady that gave an incredible presentation, well-documented, well-researched. At the end of it, I raised my hand and I said, "I buy into what you're saying a 100%."

(11:15):

I said, "I have a question though. I was raised on a farm." I said, "I happen to know that things are different today than they were 50 years ago, in terms of modern farming techniques, the length of time from harvest to the table." I said, "Isn't there a wide variance of nutrient value in foods, depending on where it's grown, how long it's been in transport, whether they're using chemicals, and herbicides, fungicides, pesticides on it, and whether you cook it or not?" She said, "Oh, absolutely."

Matt Feret (11:57):

Right.

Frank Davis (11:58):

I said, "So how do you know you're getting all these nutrients you just described is what the body needs to either prevent or cure disease?" I said, "It sounds like it's in a guessing game." Long story short, it triggered my mind. I said, "I know, I..." One, I'm not disciplined enough to try and eat all of these foods. Secondly, I don't want to go to the store and say, "Okay, where was this grown? I live in a cold climate. It's now spinach. Well, where in the heck did this... How long has it been in transport?" I've done my own research. I can tell you that if you harvest spinach, within 24 hours, you lose 90% of the vitamin C. Within a week, you'll lose 50% of the other nutrients. The only thing that would really stay intact, if it's there in the first place, is the minerals. I didn't want to play a guessing game and say, "I'm just eating this stuff. It's supposed to be good for you, but does this carrot really have any vitamin A left in it? How long has it been in transport?"

(13:06):

Well, like I said, I live in a cold climate. If I eat spinach, I can tell you, it either comes from California, Chile, or Mexico.

Matt Feret (13:14):

Right.

Frank Davis (13:16):

If it's losing all this stuff in a week, there is no way in heck I'm eating that within a week after that has been harvested. It's just impossible. Anyway, that is the kind of... Well, what to finish the story, in my search, I said, "I have got to find it." I asked the lady, I said, "Would it not make sense if you could find this, these nutrients from foods in a concentrated form? You could test it, and you would know that it had all of these nutrients that you say are these compounds, the phytonutrients, the polyphenols, the vitamins, the minerals, all of this stuff. You could measure it, and you knew it was there, and then it wouldn't be a guessing game." Her answer and it is primarily, because this was to a college of dieticians, she said, "Well, I'm a firm believer in whole food nutrition." Anyway, that is what put me on the path, I am going to find that. I ended up connecting with a registered dietician who had her master's degree in clinical nutrition.

(14:21):

I found a technology that could reduce any fruit, any vegetable, any food to a powder form with zero loss of any nutrients, color, flavor. We could test it in a third-party lab. It was there. It became the foundation of what I did, and with this registered dietician, created what I call my flagship product, Complete Essentials. Anyway, getting on this product with her help, this registered dietician who had developed a forerunner of this, I was out of my chronic fatigue in less than a month. I went for the following 12 years without as much as a cold, never happened in my life. I mean, I used to joke, if somebody drove by and their window was down, they had a cold, I would catch it. I was that immune-compromised. To go in my forties to my fifties, and sixties, and not ever catch a cold, or have a flu was... That's why I said, I knew if it could work for me, it could work for anybody, and that's why, I became so passionate about it.

Matt Feret (15:36):

You went to all this symposium and you went, "Aha." Did you first start trying to eat all these natural foods and you couldn't find them, or did you move immediately into, "I can't find all this stuff. The shelf life is... 72 degrees and three weeks in transit, so it's half dead when it gets here." Did you go right to like, I think I can do this in a pill, or did you have some interim steps in there?

Frank Davis (15:58):

Well, I would say a combination.

Matt Feret (16:01):

Okay.

Frank Davis (16:02):

I mean, I tried to gravitate to do it. I was trying to eat organic, but I was trying to get it in farmers' market. I was trying to get it as fresh as I could get it, and then if I didn't, I would get flash frozen, which generally speaking is even better than fresh, because when they harvest it, they usually flash freeze it immediately, and it would lock it in. But it still is not the ideal. The optimal is, if you were growing this produce in your backyard, or growing organically, and then you were able to harvest it and consume it within six hours. Because within six hours after you harvest, the oxidation process begins, where you start slowly degrading the nutrient value of the food. The longer it's in transport, the longer it is before you eat it, the less nutrient value you're getting out of it.

(17:03):

The interesting thing on this technology, it creates a flat particular substance, a flat particulate that we had tested in shelf life, and accelerated shelf life testing at 16 and a half years, with zero loss of any nutrients, color, flavor. I used to package, I would... An example is, I would contract with a fifth-generation organic farmer out of Willamette Valley, Oregon. He treats his soil like people should treat their kids. It was mulching, rotating. It was his baby, and so very nutrient rich. He grew this kale, when he harvested it, we had it in our drying facility in the Dallas, Oregon, the same day, and in a powder form that day. I took that powdered kale, and we took off-the-shelf organic kale from a grocery store and submitted them to testing, to see the nutrient value. There was as much as eight times the nutrient value in my powdered kale than out of the store shelf kale. Why? Because of the nutrient value, the richness of the soil where has grown. The fact that it hadn't been in transport for days, and weeks, and months, hadn't been subjected to any of these other things.

(18:49):

This technology, to be able to do it, it wasn't a heat, it was a infrared drying technology that is a spectrum just off visible light, that just targets the water molecule. That became the foundation of what I did. With this registered dietician, we literally put together a product that has all these organic, non-genetically modified fruits, vegetables. There's over a 100 ingredients in there. We use a proprietary extraction process, once we even dry it, to even get it more concentrated, and then we submit it to a third -lab to validate that all those nutrients are there, 100% of the vitamin A, B, C, D, E, probiotics, digestive enzymes, essential fatty acids, everything from whole foods in a whole food form. The only thing you're missing is the water, the sugar, and so you're getting all those nutrients the way they're designed. That's my insurance policy. I've been taking it every day for the last 25, 30 years.

Matt Feret (20:03):

Wow. You saw there was a need out there. I'll go business on you for a little bit. When you were starting this process, not only was it fixing your health, but you saw a business opportunity to fix the health of others. It's a really big industry, the nutritional supplements, and you'd mentioned a couple of times, third-party validation and third-party testing. It seems to me, from a consumer standpoint, looking into the business side of it, is it the wild west out there? How should people understand your product, and the rigorous testing, and methodology as a bottle of pills, comparing it to a bottle of pills they could pick up at a big box, or a neighborhood pharmacy, or something else online? How am I supposed to... How do I know what I've got is potent? How do I know what I've got is real? How do I even begin here? There's not a lot of regulation or guidance out there, is there?

Frank Davis (21:00):

No, you're right on. Okay. Here's my philosophy. I've already described the modern state of our agricultural system. Everything is driven by money, so it is speed to market, so today, you don't see... There's abusive use to pesticides, herbicides, fungicides like Roundup that leaves us the mineral, inhibits the mineral uptake by the plants in the soil. You don't have the mulching, and the rotating of crops, there are just all sorts of things. The time from harvest to consumption. There's something that you could even Google or Wikipedia that's called birthday apples. Oh, what the heck is that? It's what happens in this country. They harvest apples, and then they treat them with a chemical called methylcyclopropylene, and then they wax it, and put it in cold storage, and comes out a year later. That's why they call it a birthday apple. Well, the only nutrient value left in that apple, still looks good, but is sugar and fiber. There is virtually nothing left in that.

(22:21):

But that is indicative what goes on in this country, in particular, but worldwide, is it's not about preserving, and the nutrient integrity of the plant. It is about speed to market, it's about money, it's about... That's the industry. SO what do we do? Everybody turns to supplementation. They think, okay, I might not be getting all those things, but I'll take some pills and I'll cover the gamut. I'll get this. I'll only need one of these a day, and only that. I look at the supplement industry, in a similar fact, I think it's even worse than the state of our farming, and agriculture industry. It's primarily controlled by the pharmaceutical industry. There's two forms of vitamins. Most of them that you see in fortified foods, like I don't care if it's kids' cereals, whether it's in breads, it's juices, and pastas, and I'll challenge, they'll tell you, all your readers just go into your pantry and look. Look at the box of cereal. I'm going to use some names. Let's say it's Cocoa Krispies.

Matt Feret (23:44):

Yeah. I like Cocoa Krispies. I mean, my mom wouldn't ever let me have them, but I like them.

Frank Davis (23:49):

Yeah. Well, I'm just saying, if you look at the label, it'll always be fortified. I don't care what it is. Total Cereal, that's one that has everything in there. Okay? But then take the vitamin you're taking, look at the label. I'm just going to use the pill, the most common one you'll always see is vitamin C. But in parentheses behind it, it will say ascorbic acid or some form of ascorbate. Well, let me just say that all vitamins in nature are a compound, they're complex. They are not a single chemical isolate produced in a laboratory, but that's what the pharmaceutical industry does. They're able to create a mere image of the molecular structure of this. And then through their relationships, and the government, they're able to call it a vitamin. But I'm going to give you a couple of examples.

(24:54):

Ascorbic acid is not vitamin C. Ascorbic acid in nature is the outer protective shell of the compound, complex vitamin C. That includes bioflavonoids, Rutine, J factor, K factor, vitamin T, P, and some other cofactors that enable that to work as a compound, and do the job. The ones you'll almost always see in fortified foods are B6 and B12. Again, look in parentheses. Almost without exception, the B6 will say pyridoxine hydrochloride. Well, what the heck is that? What food is that?

Matt Feret (25:40):

Right.

Frank Davis (25:40):

Well, it's actually petroleum ester blended with hydrochloric acid, and processed with formaldehyde. Then you go B12.

Matt Feret (25:49):

Wait, you just said formaldehyde, and gasoline?

Frank Davis (25:57):

Yeah. Yeah, I said petroleum ester-

Matt Feret (25:58):

In the same sentence as a vitamin, right?

Frank Davis (25:59):

Hydrochloric acid.

Matt Feret (26:00):

Right.

Frank Davis (26:01):

I would say, when we look at that, understand it, well, how does a dead oxy carcinogenic chemical benefit a live organism like the body? How are we calling that a vitamin? Don't ask me, but that's what it is, I can tell you without question. You go look at vitamin B12. I would say, well, almost without exception, when you're talking the Cocoa Krispies, when you're talking what's in your breads, what's in your pastas, what's in, it will say cyanocobalamin. Well, any idea what cyano is, heard of that?

Matt Feret (26:39):

It calls to mind a word cyanide. Ii is. It's cyanide.

Frank Davis (26:46):

Again, does that sound like something that you want to give your body to give you something to do with health?

Matt Feret (26:54):

No.

Frank Davis (26:55):

Okay. My whole point is, the supplement industry, and by and large, is the pharmaceutical industry, and whether it's put in a capsule, whether it's sprayed on cereal, whether it's put in a liquid like Vitamin Water, or Diet Coke Plus, it's all the same stuff, produced in the same laboratories. My bias, and I have those university studies show, if you take vitamin B or if you take vitamin C in the form of ascorbic acid, it creates genotoxins that mutate the DNA. It contributes to atherosclerosis. If you take vitamin E in the form of d-alpha-tocopherol versus how it comes in nature, which has four tocopherols, and four tocophenols, it actually inhibits the free radical activity of the gamma tocopherol, so you're not getting the benefit. It's actually detrimental. That's the study and the bias that I have.

(28:01):

That's one phase of the supplement industry. The other one is the whole food. You'll have those that say, we only use whole food, and I can think of a couple that do a lot of advertising, a network marketing company does a lot of advertising, and they will say, "There are 16 fruits in this particular two capsules, and there's 18 vegetables in these two capsules." Well, I go online. I mean, that's what I'm into, and I dig deep. I try to pull back the curtain, and find out what's behind it. They talk about a proprietary drying process, but in their video, they say, "We freeze dry these. There is nothing we do to it. We mill it to a fine powder, and we put them in these capsules."

(28:56):

Well, I did a little experiment. I took one medium-sized freeze-dried strawberry, which they would have. I milled it down to a fine powder. I filled eight capsules, large capsules with one medium-sized strawberry, one medium-sized strawberry has approximately 6% RDA of vitamin C, and that's what it's known for. Well, what does 1/16th of a strawberry do? Well, what does 1/16th divided by four, because this is in two capsules, I put one small one in eight capsules? If you look at it, what they have is, they have an ingredient panel, but they have no nutritional panel. There's no listing of any vitamin, mineral, antioxidant. The one they do, like another, this network marketing company that promotes the same thing, "Well, here's these fruits, and vegetables. They're harvested in this great condition, and we do this, and you're getting all these fruits and vegetables." But there is nothing on the nutritional panel.

(30:04):

What they do is, they put the synthetics in there, to be able to make a claim. They'll put the ascorbic acid, they'll put the pyridoxine hydrochloride, they'll put the d-alpha-tocopherol, and then they'll list. But when you look in the label, and you'll find that besides the fruits and vegetables, they've stuck in those little synthetic chemicals produced in the laboratory, so they could make some kind of a nutritional claim. Those are the two parts of the supplement industry. My bias is, it's all about story, and margin. It's not about what really is going to do the body good. When I hired this registered dietician, my first mandate to her was then... What she had done originally, I said, "Can this be improved upon?" She said, "Absolutely." I said, "Throw away the checkbook. This is not about margin. This is about my health. It's about your health. It's about my family." As you mentioned, I did not do this as a business. But because of the results I got, I said it became a mission, no margin, no mission. But if margin is your mission, you'll compromise.

Matt Feret (31:27):

Well said. You touched on a lot of points in there that I want to revisit.

Frank Davis (31:33):

Right.

Matt Feret (31:34):

The state of the US food industry, you talked about the farming techniques of individuals, and small family farms versus the larger types of farms, and the stuff that shows up in our grocery store, and even perhaps not the Whole Foods store, but whole food stores, plural in general. But it's what we're stuck with, right, as US consumers, unless we're growing our own vegetables in our garden? But even then, it's a lot more convenient to pick up a 2.99 loaf of peppered farm bread than it is to bake your own. I would say 99.9% of Americans, post-COVID, are buying bread again, they're not making it. You're stuck with what you got, in order to live, and eat, and feed your family, and feed yourself out there. Is that food, in your opinion, hurting us, and can your type of product counterbalance that, or is it going to hurt us, and you need to have a broader range, or a broader palette of vitamins, and minerals, and antioxidants that you're not getting through this type of food structure we've got in the US?

Frank Davis (32:55):

I would say, I'm quite selective of what I eat, you know? The less processed food you can eat, the better. The more you can eat raw, the more you can eat organic, the more you can grow it yourself, the better you're going to be. I'm 100% convinced, you give your body the right nutrients, it will work miracles. I use the analogy I said, most of us are operating on four cylinders, because we're giving our body four-cylinder fuel. We have no idea, we were created with eight. We're so used to operating at less than our capacity.

(33:44):

I'm 77. I compete now in racquetball, basketball, biking. I've done in the world senior games for the last 26 years. I went down to Florida, when I was 70 years old, and played in the national senior basketball Championships. I'm playing against a team that were all former pro players, NBA, ABA, Puerto Rican, European, et cetera. I end up the MVP of the tournament. Well, why? Because I can move like a 30-year-old. These guys can play half court, but I could go up and down like the ever ready bunny. I am just using that example to say, I have the stamina, the energy at my age that is different than... That's equal to what people are used to when they're in their 30s, and 40s. You put the right nutrients, it literally stops and reverses, to a certain degree, the aging process. I was biking last year, and went through a fairly technical course, got in the parking lot, and couldn't get my clips out, and I just tipped over.

Matt Feret (35:13):

Oh, I've done that.

Frank Davis (35:14):

Yeah.

Matt Feret (35:15):

That's the most embarrassing thing, isn't it?

Frank Davis (35:17):

It's always, when you're stopped.

Matt Feret (35:20):

Your bike ends up on top of you, and it's like you're a beetle upside down on your shell.

Frank Davis (35:26):

Yeah.

Matt Feret (35:26):

I got you.

Frank Davis (35:27):

I ended up having torn rotator cuff.

Matt Feret (35:32):

Oh.

Frank Davis (35:32):

I go in, I end up researching, get a top doctor in the state who only does shoulders. He's a researcher. He's a professor at the university, teaching it. But when he knew my age, and what my... He asked me if I'd be a research subject for him. I said, "Sure." Because they want to track what I do, and the healing process, et cetera, as part of that, they took my entire blood profile, everything from all the way to my testosterone level. A week after I did this, I ended up getting a call I didn't recognize on the phone, but it was this doctor, which is very unusual. Usually, it's a staff member or whatever. But he said, we got your test results. He said, I do have a concern. I thought, well, what? He said, "You're obviously taking a testosterone supplement." I said, "No, never have. Don't plan on it. Why do you say that?"

(36:32):

He goes, "Hmm, I'll get back to you." Anyway, next thing I know, he lines me up with the head of their urology department. They do some further testing, because they figured that this is abnormal. So then I have a Zoom call with the head of the urology department, and another urologist. They had a split screen, but then one guy came on first and he said, and this is my whole point, he said, "Well, you obviously have a great gene pool." I said, "Why do you say that?" He said, "You do realize you have the testosterone level of a 19-year-old, right?" I said, "No, I didn't." And then anyway, the other urologist came on, made the same comment about my gene pool. I go into the surgery, the anesthesiologist makes a comment about my gene pool, and then the surgeon makes a comment about my genetics.

(37:27):

I didn't say this to anybody, but I will tell the audience here, nobody would want my gene pool. My mother and my father, both were dead in their early 70s, one of lung cancer, the other of heart disease. My brother is a year older than I am, has got cancer, and struggling with dementia. My sister died of cancer. I was the sick one of the family. I had all the illnesses, I had all the diseases, I had the allergies. My father, my grandfather on both sides were bald, my brother is bald. My mom had genetic eye problems that was passed on to the kids. I have 20-20 vision. I have a full head of hair. I attribute this to what I put in my body, and what it's done for me. It's not genetics, I can tell you that. A long story, but anyway, I've got-

Matt Feret (38:36):

No, no, no. That's amazing. I'm interested in, you talked about this at the very beginning of the show, and I do want to ask this again though. You gave the example of the kale, and the way you introduced, and the way you figured out your methodology and way of doing it was superior, from a nutrition standpoint. But you also mentioned, you get a whole bunch of different stuff in your... By the way, tell everybody the name of your company, and I'll link to links on the website, and everything too. Don't forget to say that.

Frank Davis (39:11):

Sure.

Matt Feret (39:12):

But you've got a lot of different things in your nutrition pills. Are those all similarly, locally sourced? I can just imagine 500 people running across the Western United States, going to independent farms, and then rushing back as fast as they can. How does this actually work, in a tactical sense? How do you get all that stuff that fresh, without that degradation over time and transportation?

Frank Davis (39:41):

Well, yeah, I mean, we do vet out every single source. There is over 100 different ingredients in what I call Complete Essentials. It's named Complete Essentials, because it was designed to give your body all the nutrients it needs to function the way it was designed to function, to have optimal immune health, and support all the other bodily functions. Everything we do is depending upon, I mean, our cells, nourishing ourselves on a cellular level with nutrients versus processed foods like Twinkies. We're the most overfed, undernourished country in the world, and it just makes such a difference. What we do is literally vet out where every nutrient comes, and then as I said, we third party test it. When I put on the label, there's 100% RDA of all these vitamins from a phytonutrient complex of all these fruits, and vegetables, herbs, spices, grains, nuts, seeds, whatever. We validate it, it's not... We take away that guessing game and it's all from whole foods. The interesting thing is, in a whole food form, they don't even know what's all in that.

(41:24):

Let's say they identified lycopene in a tomato as a potent anti-inflammatory, especially for men struggling with potentially prostate cancer, or prostate health. What does the pharmaceutical... They try to isolate that lycopene out of the tomato, and put it in a capsule, and now they market that, because it has good research. What they find is, it has virtually no effect as a single isolate. They don't even know what's in that tomato that makes the lycopene work the way it's supposed to work. There's all sorts of co-factors. They work synergistically together, and that's how all vitamins, and all nutrients in foods function. They're designed as they work in synergy with each other. In order to get vitamin D without magnesium, and without probiotics, you're getting very little absorption, or utilization of it. They all need what's in the food form as it comes, to actually benefit from it. And then, I guess, that's the primary thing. We vet out where everything has grown, and then how it's processed, so that when we put it together, and then test it, we know what we've got, and it's all from whole foods.

Matt Feret (42:58):

Awesome. One last question before... I hope you tell everybody, where we can find you on the internet, or in the world.

Frank Davis (43:11):

Sure.

Matt Feret (43:11):

If I'm a consumer listening to this, looking at my multivitamin, and sitting on my shelf, that I pop every morning, and I poke around the internet just like everybody, and you get a study that says, yeah, they don't do anything, or they don't dissolve, or they're not good. And then you get another study that says, yeah, it's better than nothing, it's probably better than not doing anything at all. Where do I go with this? As I've said, and you mentioned as well, there's a $trillion plus industry out there around supplements. How do I, after listening to you for 40, 45 minutes this way... There's a lot more to this than just picking something off a shelf, or going to a random place online, and ordering supplements. How do I go about finding not only, obviously, your products and understanding your methodology, but how do I go read this stuff, or what should I read first before I read this, to make the decision.

Frank Davis (44:03):

Well, I would say, first of all, whatever supplement you take, if you can't pronounce it, don't take it. If it's not from a food, don't assume it's going to do the body good. It's a form of a chemical produced in a laboratory, and like any drug that you would take, there is also a downside to it. When you take it in a whole food form, I'll give you a couple of examples. Well, I already did that with the vitamin E. If you're taking it in a synthetic form, a chemical isolate, then it actually inhibits the free radical activity of what would be in a whole food form to do it in vitamin E. What you suggested, yeah, there are studies out there. There were studies they had to stop, like with vitamin A. With pregnant women, they had to stop it, because they had an abnormal amount of miscarriages.

(45:05):

Well, all the studies that you will see, and that is because they're studying these synthetic chemicals. They are not vitamins. They are industry's attempt to replicate something in a cheap form. I'm going to give you an example. I have mentioned before, ascorbic acid is the go-to form for vitamin C. Almost all ascorbic acid today comes from China. It used to come from laboratories in the US, but it's cheaper there. I can buy ascorbic acid for $4 a kilo.

(45:45):

My vitamin C comes from pure organic acerola cherry that, by nature, is 25% whole food vitamin C. Now, to get 100% vitamin C, then I'd have to four times that. I pay 116 a kilo for it. If I put those on a shelf... You asked me if I put that on a shelf with a vitamin C from... People look at it and say, "Okay, vitamin C. Vitamin C, one is 9.95, the other's 29.95." They don't differentiate what it is. That's why I don't really put my product on shelf, because you can't explain why it is what it is. That's why, I do things like I'm doing, to explain people the difference between a synthetic chemical isolate produced in a laboratory with a name vitamin C versus something from whole foods that does the body good versus potentially creating atherosclerosis, or creating genotoxins that mutate the DNA, or other side effects.

(47:03):

It's all cumulative. People my age have been taking this stuff, and they think they're healthy. But your body, after so long of you giving it very little nutrients, starts to shut down. That's why, in the last 10 years of people's lives, they're taking so many drugs, whether it be heart medication, or blood pressure medication, or who knows whatever. I literally haven't taken as much as an aspirin in 15 years. I believe, given your body, because I don't need it. There's nothing that, my blood profile, my triglycerides 46, my cholesterol 160, all of the markers, that would be the telltale. That's why they keep telling me my genetics are obviously good. But anyway, I don't know if I answered your question, Matt.

Matt Feret (48:07):

No, you did. No, you did. Tell everyone how to find you on the internet or elsewhere.

Frank Davis (48:12):

Well, the name of my company is Optivida Health. O-P-T-I-V-I-D-A, basically stands for optimal health. It's www.optividahealth.com. I do have a-

Matt Feret (48:31):

Yeah. If I'm starting fresh, where do I start? What product should I buy, if I'm looking for total health? Yeah. Where do I start? How do I start this process?

Frank Davis (48:40):

Well, obviously, my bias, and it's what I do, is I will not go a day without my Complete Essentials. It is what I call the insurance policy. I'm giving my body all the nutrients it needs to function the way it was designed to function. You still have to eat, you still need calories, you still need protein, carbohydrates, and fats. But from a phytonutrient, vitamin, mineral, antioxidant, probiotic, digestive enzymes, essential fatty acid, it's all there, and it's in a whole food form. It tastes good, it's in a powdered form. I put it in a smoothie every morning. I have some frozen organic berries, half a banana, water, put that in there with some, I produce a protein powder, plant-based protein powder, and I put it in, and that's my morning meal.

(49:30):

It's very filling, because it nourishes you on a cellular level, and you have energy, and you have stamina. Number one feedback I get from people is, I feel energized. But you'll also find you don't get sick, especially during the cold and flu season. That would be the number one thing, I would say, I would recommend to anybody. Anybody, I mean, I give this stuff out more to friends and family, and those that are struggling than anything, because there's nothing that brings me more satisfaction than seeing people respond, to being able to feel better, and function better, and it changes their life.

Matt Feret (50:23):

I've got to imagine that's very, very rewarding. That's good work out there. What questions did I not ask about this topic that I should have?

Frank Davis (50:34):

Well, I think you pretty well covered it. I mean, my two biases are, no matter how hard you try today, it's almost impossible to get the nutrients in our body that it needs to function the way it was designed to function, because of where it was grown, how long it's been in transport, the foods, the high percentage of processed foods, and cooked foods that we eat, and so how do we cover that? That's why, I developed what I did, because I knew I couldn't do it, and I am not growing at all, and I'm in a cold climate, and I don't have a greenhouse, and I'm not... That's why, I created this product, and worked with this registered dietician to do it.

(51:24):

That would be the one. The other is, be very selective what you do put in your body, in terms of supplements, because most of them don't do the body good. They're created in laboratories, and you potentially OD on them. I mentioned B6 as pyridoxine hydrochloride, I don't know. One time on Wikipedia, I found a clip that said, if you take it in the form of this pyridoxine hydrochloride, you take too much of it, it will attack the nervous system. And then the paragraph below, in whole food form, your body knows how to deal with it, and you'll never have to worry about it. Well, think about it. When you go get your cereals, and your breads, and your juices, and it's in everything, then you take your supplement, and then the number one supplement on GNC, if you look at the label, it is 5,600 and something percent RDA of vitamin B6, and you're adding that to everything.

(52:33):

You're OD'ing on this toxic chemical, and you just keep putting it in. One of the things you'll notice, when you are taking vitamin, especially the B complex, in a synthetic form, you'll turn your urine yellow, bright yellow. In a whole food form, never. What it's doing, your body's trying to get rid of it, it's trying to get out of the system. But if you take the same amount in a whole food form, your body knows how to use it, or to store it. Anyway, I think I went on beyond what you were asking me. But those are the questions, whole food, and supplementation, I think you've pretty well asked, and I've rambled on about both of them.

Matt Feret (53:29):

No, and I'm glad you did. This is news, and individual takes from an expert that's just not out there as much as it needs to be. Frank, thank you so much for taking the time today to talk to me, and everybody else about this. This has been really enlightening. Thank you.

Frank Davis (53:45):

You bet. I appreciate it. I am passionate about it, if you can't tell.

Matt Feret (53:50):

I can. Thanks, Frank.

Frank Davis (53:53):

You bet. Thank you.

Matt Feret (53:54):

Frank, thank you. Don't forget the discount code just for The Matt Feret Show listeners, enter Feret15. That's F (as in Frank), E-R-E-T, the number 15. It'll get you 15% off. If you liked this episode, please follow, like, subscribe, and rate the show. Make sure to hit The Matt Feret Show website for all the links in show notes. Until next time, to your wealth, wisdom, and wellness, I'm Matt Feret, and thanks for tuning in.

(54:25):

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(55:14):

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