Ep #16 - The Hidden Consumer: Uncovering the Power of Health-Conscious Buyers w/ Amy graves

Full Episode Transcript

This is the full recorded conversation from The Human Protocol Podcast, published by The Human Protocol Group. © 2026 The Human Protocol Group. Please link to and attribute the original episode when referencing this conversation.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (00:01.836)
We are outsourcing our health to corporations that care more about margins than nourishment. In the age of AI, food might be the last frontier of personal urgency. Welcome to The Human Protocol, the podcast about staying human while building the future with AI. I am your host, Mykel Salomon. Today, we're not talking about tech. We're talking about survival and the food system that are quietly shaping our bodies, our minds.

and our future. While we debate ethics in AI and automation, is a more immediate threat to our well-being, which is what we eat. Corn derivatives, ultra-processed foods, hidden additives, and a system designed to profit from ignorance. As we shape a tech-powered future, we must ask, what's fueling the humans building that future?

Today I'm joined by Amy Graves, a passionate advocate for food transparency and power of informed consumers. Amy has been speaking to audiences since 2009. Her topics cover main areas of business, marketing, and health. She's also a keynote speaker who covers embracing the obstacle to move forward in life and business. She uses her personal experiences of dealing with paralysis

Disability and Impostor Syndrome with low self-esteem. Hey Amy, welcome to The Human Protocol.

Amy Graves (01:35.016)
Hi Michael, thank you so much for asking me to be here. I'm excited for this today.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (01:39.598)
Of course, we are the ones that appreciate you for taking the time and having these very important conversation that we are about to have today. And to kick things off and to get to know Amy a little bit more personal, I want to ask a question that I ask every guest on the show, which is when we remove everything the internet knows about Amy, who is Amy at her core?

Amy Graves (02:04.645)
Well, my friends call me Giggles, so I guess that says a lot right there. At my core, I'm just someone who's very stubborn. I like to keep moving forward. I like to find ways to exist, and I don't let things really hold me back long. There's always going to be an obstacle. What can we do to overcome that? So I'm always looking for, and sometimes all we can do is advocate. That's all we can do.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (02:08.162)
Giggles!

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (02:27.48)
Mmm.

Amy Graves (02:32.875)
So it's understanding what the balance has to be at end of the day.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (02:36.482)
Yeah, absolutely, absolutely. And even if that's all we can do sometimes, that's still a very powerful thing to do, right? As human beings, I think that's really our responsibility. And it's important for me and our audience to understand really what inspired this mission to uncover what's really on our foot.

Amy Graves (02:45.145)
Yep, just get the word.

Amy Graves (03:02.676)
The mission started because of my own experiences and I went into, I was switching neurologists and we did an MRI to rule out a certain diagnosis. They ruled out the diagnosis, but they found a lump in my sinus cavity. So I got sent to an ENT. The ENT came out of surgery. It was supposed to be a 45 minute surgery, was three hours surgery. Turned out my entire sinus and cavity was impacted with

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (03:27.48)
Goodness.

Amy Graves (03:31.683)
an infection and what the lump they found in the MRI was a lump of infection. And that literally started the journey. The ENT said the only people that have infections the way I did is because of food allergies. Mine was extremely severe based on the impaction of the infection. And he said, you've got to figure this out now. Like, and at to that point.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (03:55.555)
Hmm.

Amy Graves (03:56.589)
I already knew there was food issues. I'd gone through food testing. Nothing was coming up positive. Like we weren't finding really what the cause was, but this really kicked it into overdrive where it was like, can't depend on the medical community. I've got to do this on my own. And I started just figuring it out. And we went from there. And that, and what I discovered in that journey was that I am a super sensitive, a parts per billion sensitive to corn and corn derivatives.

which means in order for me to keep myself safe, I had to go to the extent of understanding how in the United States we make ingredients. Most people don't go to that level, but what I discovered just blew my mind away. What they legally can put in our food and what it's doing to us and what that means for a nutritional level. And then all those ingredients are used in everything we use from medications to supplements to cleaning products. So.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (04:33.486)
Hmm.

Yeah.

Amy Graves (04:53.731)
It's all the same. It's all the same.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (04:56.354)
Yeah, it's scary and it's a wake up call most probably what you went through, But for us today will probably be at the end of this conversation and the things that we're gonna find out from this conversation, which I wanna start with corn and the focus on corn and why is such a critical and hidden ingredient that it is in our food system.

Amy Graves (05:03.609)
Yeah.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (05:23.052)
What can you tell us about your research and everything that you have investigated and found out about corn?

Amy Graves (05:30.521)
Yeah, well, corn is subsidized, right? There was, in my lifetime, we went from having wheat subsidized to having corn subsidized. And once corn became subsidized, we actually saw a change in how we regulate that and we allowed corporate farmers to come in, right? So corn is everywhere, it's cheap to grow. And now that corporations are involved, it's all about, let's make the highest profit possible at the lowest possible.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (05:59.138)
Hmm. Hmm, hmm.

Amy Graves (06:00.037)
cost, which the cost isn't just now financial, the cost is actually human life because corn and everything is literally being linked to research that's showing that it's linked to kidney failure, it's linked to heart disease, chronic pain, chronic conditions, inflammation. So corn in itself, you think it's this great vegetable. think, you know, Thanksgiving. We think about, you know, the goal that people are searching for was actually corn, but not realizing it.

And at the end of the day, we've so overused corn and make it to make all of our ingredients that now it's actually a detriment to our health.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (06:38.688)
It is crazy when you look and when I listen to you, right, about all this. It's really corn is the sugar of our times, right, that we really don't talk about. We talk about sugar a lot, but really corn is in every single thing. It's in our bread, in our soda, right? Even from what I heard and have research on, even in our toothpaste. I mean, right?

Amy Graves (07:04.473)
Yes. Yeah. So here's what's fun. You know, all those hidden sugars that are in our food that everyone talks about, guess how those hidden sugars are made? They're made with corn. It's all moldy corn sugar. That's all it is. It's just different ways of creating a corn of sugar. So it's got like 30 different names for corn sugar, but it's all corn sugar and they're all hidden because they don't use the word sugar in their name.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (07:21.867)
of using the-

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (07:32.608)
And all that is really running through our body, basically.

Amy Graves (07:35.695)
Yeah, yeah. Well, and you think about especially like Latin American cultures and Native American culture here in the US, moldy corn is a delicacy because it's so sweet. I'm sure there's a level where it's not, but if you look up moldy corn, you will find it a delicacy. You will find people eating it is because it's so sweet. It's so decadent. If you take

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (07:50.83)
you

Amy Graves (08:04.901)
one can of soda that is literally a can of liquid moldy corn sugar. That's all it is. Every ingredient is made from corn moldy corn. So if you have a mold allergy beware you might be sneezing after that.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (08:12.002)
Wow.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (08:19.256)
So the sweetness comes from the corn as well, right? Not only from the sugar.

Amy Graves (08:22.361)
Yeah. Yup.

Mm-mm. Nope, it's, yeah, it's the way the corn molds, it turns itself into a sugar if you want to think about it that way. And that's what makes it super sweet.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (08:36.886)
And you think part of why it has been so widely embraced is because really the cost to produce it and the many benefits that they find on its use, right?

Amy Graves (08:43.141)
Yeah.

Amy Graves (08:48.555)
Right, it's very versatile. If you think about gluten-free foods, you take out the wheat, you put in the corn. Corn and wheat you can swap. So on any given package, if there's some ingredients that can be made with wheat or corn, you have to assume both because whatever's cheaper when they need to replace that ingredient is what they're going to buy. So might be made with wheat, might be made with corn. There are some things you just don't know. So you have to be cautious.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (08:51.608)
Right.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (08:58.051)
Mm.

Amy Graves (09:18.883)
Yeah, it's very versatile. And the reality is it's because corporations can make so much money with it, like billions of dollars in this industry, they have no need to really think about beyond how much money they're putting in their pocket.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (09:35.01)
Why would they worry about mine? At the end of the day...

Amy Graves (09:36.537)
But right, they're not going to get penalized for killing us. mean, sorry, that's a bit extreme, but

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (09:41.006)
What?

Yeah, why worry about something that is not giving them any headache? You know, financially or any other way.

Amy Graves (09:50.425)
Yeah, and that's exactly it.

Amy Graves (09:55.311)
Yep, yep, which is why I want to educate the consumer on this is because if more people know how our ingredients are being made, the more we can hit their pocketbook. And now they'll have to start making changes.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (10:07.296)
It makes me think if you have any factual data on it, of course, if not, that's fine. But how much of our processed food is really made out of corn or has corn as an ingredient? I'm wondering if there's any study out there that you have come across.

Amy Graves (10:22.041)
Yet it hasn't been researched. so when I wrote my book, that was one of the first questions I asked. And almost all the questions I wanted asked have not been answered by science to this point. I had to look for other factors. there's research that came out in November of 2022, 2023 that listed six key ingredients that they researched. Those six key ingredients were all made from corn. But they didn't list that because I don't think most

people understand how corn is used to make all of our ingredients. In the world of science, it's chemically accurate, so they just give it a pass. But you can't.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (11:02.318)
So it's not only seeing the corn on the label, there are other ingredients that may have corn on it.

Amy Graves (11:05.989)
yeah. Yep. Yeah. And the best way for me to explain that and to go back to that original question is from what I can tell based on my own sensitivity level, 99 to 100 % of all of our food that's processed is made from some form of corn. And I can say that because I can't buy food in a grocery store.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (11:29.196)
Not even any of these that are.

Amy Graves (11:33.249)
not even produce because produce is

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (11:34.422)
or organic or anything like that.

Amy Graves (11:37.271)
Organic, USDA organic produce that's in your grocery store is not true organic food and it's coated with pesticides or that are made from corn. When it's in the grocery store, they're going to be sprayed with more preservatives made from corn. So there literally is nothing in a grocery store I can buy safely.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (11:47.84)
This

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (11:55.886)
So the organic label is a lie in front of our faces.

Amy Graves (12:00.931)
It's not it. It depends on your definition of organic.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (12:08.334)
If we let that to be definitions from people to people, companies to company, everyone will have its own set of rules and definitions, right?

Amy Graves (12:08.931)
That is how and now you have just opened up the box.

Amy Graves (12:20.069)
Yep. Now in organic, at least in the US, we have the USDA regulates the word organic and you have to be USDA certified to be organic in a grocery store. So if something says organic, but it doesn't have the USDA mark, it's not actually certified organic.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (12:39.554)
And if it has.

Amy Graves (12:41.539)
And if it has your it's or it's USDA organic, not it's not Amy organic, like Amy's definition of organic goes like USDA organic. I'm like, puts it puts product on a shelf.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (12:46.594)
Yeah

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (12:54.944)
And it's the lack of trust that we have in the food industry and system overall. I mean, what are we going to trust? And I've had this conversation with some of my friends, I buy anything, everything organic. it's better quality. It should be, but how much do we trust these labels? How much do we trust the process, the infrastructure behind it to be, to trust that, right?

Amy Graves (13:00.493)
Yep. Yep.

Amy Graves (13:14.212)
And that's the problem.

Amy Graves (13:22.213)
Well, and it varies from city to city to state to state on top of it. So we moved to California because I can't buy food in the grocery store, but I do buy from the California certified organic farmers markets. There's only about 15 in Southern California, but the difference is, is they are true organic. And I know that because I've had to go through the guidelines and the contracts that farmers have to go through to get that California certification.

And the certification for California versus USDA, no comparison. It is so much more extreme on the, everyone complains about how regulated California is. I'm happy because it means I have food. Like California is as close to the true definition of organic as you can get. I mean, there's still food farmers I can't buy from because of the way they harvest. But overall, I can eat a majority of the food at that farmer's market.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (13:55.106)
Hmm.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (14:16.792)
so you don't buy anything from the regular supermarkets today.

Amy Graves (14:21.381)
No, no, I have there's a few things that I buy like at Sprouts because I can buy a somewhat safe organic flower on bleach is the big key there, but it does have to say organic on it. Regular flowers or always the latest. There's another type of processing I can't handle either. And then there's one cracker and it is probably the driest, grossest cracker you will ever eat.

but it's just a delivery system for my one safe cheese.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (14:52.706)
you

Amy Graves (14:56.118)
That's all it is, so you know.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (14:58.854)
How is that working? Of course, we know the pros. It's probably that you trust the process, you trust the quality, right? Your health has seen your body is absorbing that and not causing you problems. What about on the economic side of trying to be as organic as possible? It's a lot more expensive than regular, right?

Amy Graves (15:25.093)
Yeah, I will say what I find fascinating though is with grocery stores, your prices are always fluctuating, right? You never know from one to the other. My prices are fairly stable. I mean, even in the last decade of me having to eat this way, my gas, my grocery bill hasn't changed as much as the regular consumer. So, but it's still, I mean, it's...

not cheap to eat the way I do. I mean, I'm supporting a local farmer, right? Like in Minnesota, we had a CSA. with a CSA, you're crop sharing, you're buying an allocation of whatever they produce was kind of cheaper than what I'm doing today, but they can buy it a much bigger scale out here as well. Much larger quantities can be grown. And it's year round.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (15:55.063)
Right.

Amy Graves (16:19.725)
which makes a difference. The other thing is it depends on what you're trying to eat and where you live. So avocados are pretty common out here. I can get a California grown avocado at my local farmers market. If I lived in Minnesota, I'm paying five to six times more for that one avocado because they have to import it. you've got to, the costs come down to are you eating things in season? Are you eating things local?

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (16:38.146)
Hmm. Right. All right.

Amy Graves (16:48.185)
You know, my local diet is not as expensive as my local diet in Minnesota because I can grow. There's more out here that can just grow. Yes. And it brings some across. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely. It's so yet. Yeah. So the economic side, the other factor that most people don't think about though is the side for the farmer.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (16:54.094)
Hmm. Interesting. Right. There are more options. Yeah.

especially for you. Yeah.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (17:08.043)
interesting.

Amy Graves (17:16.491)
In order to grow and be like certified organic, that cost is expensive because you've got the cost of going through all the certifications. You have the cost of the transition from being pesticide fertilizer into organic where you no longer use those and that you're going to lose business in between. you're just because you stop using it year one doesn't mean your soil is clean. Does it mean your biome is back? So there's a lot of work that has to go into repairing the soil.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (17:45.634)
Right. Right. Right. Can only imagine. Yeah. No. What is good for your body, what is good for your health, right? Of course, the process behind it, it's also more expensive. So that's where the premium usually comes in. But you you usually get what you pay for, right? That's, and that's where our choices come into play. What are we?

Amy Graves (17:47.193)
So costs are everywhere. Yeah.

Amy Graves (17:57.123)
Mm-hmm.

Amy Graves (18:10.341)
You do. You know it.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (18:15.478)
What is our choice? What is it that we value?

Amy Graves (18:18.639)
Yep. Well, and the flip side is, you know, there's a lot to be said about, the cost upfront, but what about the cost down the line? I have all these allergies. have so many chronic conditions. And yet at the same time, I haven't been to the doctor in like four years. And in the last decade, I've only been maybe a handful of times because the reality is, is I'm not getting sick. My food doesn't make me sick, which means even though I'm spending, yes,

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (18:25.483)
Mm-hmm.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (18:35.8)
There you go.

Amy Graves (18:47.429)
premium dollar for my food today, I don't have the medical costs associated with it either. So.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (18:53.878)
And that's something, Amy, extremely important that we usually don't discuss a lot. We focus on the short gains and the price right now, and we never think about what is meeting long term, you know, what is it that is going to provide the benefits that it's going to bring to me, what you are just talking about.

Amy Graves (19:10.981)
Yep. Well, and if you even look at like the one of the big things that came out of the book was kidney failure rates between the age group of 30 to 40. And it's literally the population equivalent to the population of the state of New York is in kidney failure. It's because of all those hidden sugars in our food.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (19:27.566)
Wow.

Amy Graves (19:33.027)
So you saved a buck, you bought a soda, an energy drink, something sugary instead of buying water or just bringing your own water from home if it was feasible. And now you have to deal with the current medical expenses of dialysis, the medications, potential and all the stuff that that could lead to down the road because you chose a soda or energy drink over something like just regular water and fruit juices are not better.

They have just as much hidden sugar. I'm just gonna tell ya, just drink water. Juice your own.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (20:04.654)
It's funny that you mentioned that I was watching a podcast yesterday from Steven where he has some five of the most prominent doctors in the country. They're all women and they were just talking. One of the topic was this topic, the juicing, which is for a lot of people, I'm juicing, I'm healthier. Well, that's really not the case. There are fibers on it that you're not getting because the juice, you know, is removing them from it.

a lot of things and it has sugar as you're saying as well.

Amy Graves (20:37.263)
Yeah, it's the sugars. And in my case, it's not just the juice itself, it's the container. Those containers leach the products that they're made from. almost all cardboard containers have a corn-based wax. I can't drink the juices because of the cardboard wax, because it's corn-based. even your glass, which

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (20:47.63)
Mmm.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (20:58.184)
What is the best quality? be glass? Glass, right?

Amy Graves (21:04.386)
I that's just, that's a whole nother set of issues for, for manufacturing, for our carbon footprint, for recycling. Like I get it. get it. Plastics are no better. Like just plastics and cardboard and all that is just, your food is leaching and getting sucking in whatever container it's in. So whatever you put around your food is just contaminating your food as much as the food itself.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (21:11.298)
Yeah. Yeah.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (21:17.048)
Thank

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (21:34.018)
There so many things to think about, not only the food, the quality, container. For some people, it may be a lot to worry about. But I don't think there is any other way that you really can worry about your health and the benefits of eating healthier and knowing what you're eating that really pay attention to all this.

Amy Graves (21:56.173)
Yeah. And what I tell people is unless you're like me and had a food allergy, there's really no point to jump off the deep end and just like switch. A is expensive. It's a diet then and you'll never stick to it. So really think of one food you're okay giving up. What's a healthy alternative you'd be willing to eat in its place and just go 30 days with that one change. How does it make you feel? What changes did you see in your body?

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (22:07.981)
Yeah.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (22:23.48)
Hmm.

Amy Graves (22:25.933)
your attitude, the smallest changes. But it's not just the changes you're making. It's being aware of how the food made you feel. And I don't mean that in a woo woo sense. mean, literally, our food is triggering anxiety attacks. It's triggering depression. It's triggering so many other things that we're dealing with that we don't realize. If you eat something and you have a negative reaction to it, you could literally be done eating and just think

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (22:26.284)
Most changes, right?

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (22:38.349)
Right.

Amy Graves (22:56.067)
the world is ending. That is a noted allergic response to food is mental health in the food you're eating. So I tell people make one change, make it simple, but then track how you feel literally. Did you feel okay afterward? Did your body feel bloated? Did you feel this? Did you feel that?

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (23:04.238)
Wow.

Amy Graves (23:19.831)
Because that's how you're more likely to maintain your changes when you realize you feel better because you made one change. OK, so on what's the next change?

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (23:29.016)
And we are humans. are not humans. If we go all in for the most part, it won't last longer. We'll have to just try it as small, you know, baby step, as you're saying. Try one, give it a try, then move to the next one, and then we will be able to sustain it long-term. Because if we go all in once, we don't know what we don't know. People are going to say, okay,

Amy Graves (23:39.429)
Mm-mm.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (23:56.224)
I'm not going to be able to buy anything. Everything has corn. Everything has sugar. What do you want me to eat? Because it can be a lot.

Amy Graves (24:00.185)
You

Yeah, yeah, I don't want to give up my coffee. my gosh. Yeah, no, I can tell you. Going through this, there were three things I refused to give up in the beginning. Wine, chocolate and coffee and tea. Do you know how hard it was to find any of those that were safe? no, I forgot. Okay. Yeah, it was ridiculous to find anything like that that was safe.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (24:07.628)
What happened?

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (24:26.498)
But did you end up giving up on wine?

Amy Graves (24:31.019)
No. Did I give up on any of them? No, I found stuff.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (24:36.184)
So you're still getting sugar from the wines and the grapes.

Amy Graves (24:40.271)
So and that's what I had to learn is especially American wine, they use a lot of basic table sugars, which are made with cornstarch. So your basic sugar, your basic salts in your house are all mixed with cornstarch. Five to 10 % of what you buy is actual cornstarch. They don't have to list it on the label because you're not technically eating it.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (25:04.27)
Yeah.

Amy Graves (25:07.397)
Yeah, so no, had to when I buy wine, I have to buy from a venture that I've talked to. I have to know what ingredients they put in. I'm looking for cane sugar specifically. Some ventures do that. Sometimes you can go within the wine. If you buy something that's certified vegan, you're going to get more less corn actually in it and there's going to be better processing, better ingredients. So that helps or just

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (25:31.022)
you

Amy Graves (25:35.843)
buy like French wine, which not champagne, French champagne is too Americanized in their processing. But like if you buy from certain regions of France, they're so organic, the American processing is offensive to them. And those are the people you want to buy your wine from. But again, I'm importing, I have to import wine, I have to import chocolate, I have to import coffee, well, we do anyways, but I'm at a higher level than most people and I have to import my teas. Everything has a third party that I have to go through.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (25:54.232)
Yeah. Yeah.

Amy Graves (26:04.909)
I can't just go to the store.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (26:07.247)
It's hard to be Amy. It's hard to be Amy.

Amy Graves (26:12.089)
But you know what, at least you can use my knowledge. You're like, I'm going to stick with my two buck Chuck or five buck Chuck. Now at Trader Joe's you go right on ahead. Just know there's lots of sugar. So where can we cut other sugar out of your diet?

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (26:24.802)
Yeah. And this is why I'm loving this conversation because we know we have a problem with the food industry and the food system in our country. Part of it is if it's not being displayed in the label and you're still consuming, that to me is crazy. But again, if lobbies are spending millions of dollars to maintain and keep the government away from regulating this industry more, why they're going to put something in the label if they don't have to, right?

Amy Graves (26:32.547)
Yeah. yeah.

Amy Graves (26:44.761)
billions.

Amy Graves (26:53.061)
Exactly. Exactly. they're not going to. There are, I look for some of the, even B Corps don't get it right, but B Corps are so much closer to being, they regulate themselves and they go that extra mile if it's a B Corp certified company versus a regular food company. So there's little things you can look for, but there's so much, and that's the problem with the food industry and marketing is it's.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (26:53.912)
So it's.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (27:09.794)
Mm-hmm.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (27:19.832)
Yeah.

Amy Graves (27:20.471)
It's a sleight of hand! look, this is so shiny and pretty, but don't watch what I'm doing over here!

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (27:25.303)
Mm-hmm.

Don't, don't. It's wild because we, as a country with all the resources that we have, we spend less on food as a percentage of our income than really most of any of the developed nations. And at the same time, we also have the highest rates of obesity, diabetes, and metabolic disease among all the developed nations.

did has to be a wake up call, but still it's not. And there is a lot of people that refuse to pay attention to these or they just don't care.

Amy Graves (28:10.053)
I think, this gets into a much bigger economic discussion, is we don't pay people what they need to survive in this country. We are always judging what job you have and if you should be given enough money to be able to live.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (28:20.578)
That's not soft. You're bringing a good point. That's true.

Amy Graves (28:26.005)
And when you can't work one job to put a roof over your head and put food on your table, you have to cut cross. And food is the easy one because we don't have the time to cook. We don't have the time to do what we need to do to make sure we're taking care of ourselves, which leads us to convenience. And at the end of the day, it's convenience that is what the end killer is.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (28:48.908)
Yeah, absolutely. Especially with families, sometimes they don't even have time to cook, to be honest.

Amy Graves (28:55.501)
Nope, nope. Yeah, one of the like I'm putting together a cookbook sampler for when I that should be out the week of Thanksgiving. And one of the things is how do you make a basic meal that you can just like throw everything in a pot, throw it in the stove and then walk away. And that's some of the things I bring because of my chronic pain and my chronic issues that I've got. It was really easy for me to work those things in. But that's a common question. Moms are always like, I've got to run.

This football practice basketball, there's cheerleader camp, there's this, there's that, there's chess club. Like I get it, you're busy. How do we still feed? And it really, just, again, it goes back to those simple steps. What's the one meal, what if it's just one meal a week? You're like, nope, this is the one meal I can square away time from and make sure they get at least one meal a week that isn't a convenience food. So it's simple steps. Don't go big.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (29:28.27)
Yeah.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (29:47.31)
Simple step that make the difference. Absolutely. And Amy, you know, in all this conversation with AI and this transformational period that humanity is living, where do we go from here? Is AI going to continue to amplify everything that is bad about our food system and industry or...

Amy Graves (29:51.727)
Yeah.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (30:16.65)
It really will depend on how we're going to use it moving forward.

Amy Graves (30:21.837)
I think it's going to depend on how we use it right now because it's the marketing industry that's really training the AI and how to do marketing principles. It's not doing us any good. It's just going to make the process so much more worse from, you know, using terms that aren't regulated, like clean and healthy or sugar-free. I mean, sugar-free items aren't actually sugar-free. Did you know that? So.

I think right now AI is just leading us down a road where it's just going to make us less trustful of marketing altogether.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (31:04.974)
So it's going to help those companies and industry to continue to set us for failure instead of success because they're going to continue to find easier way to not provide accurate information that we should be worrying about. That's how you see it, right?

Amy Graves (31:23.427)
Yep. Yep, I do. don't. And it all goes back to if we take a look at AI, it's being trained by humans and it's being trained by humans that aren't perfect and they're using their own knowledge base. They're not understanding. if people don't understand across the board how ingredients are made, food chemists who are in charge of making the ingredients that go into our food do not understand how ingredients are made. How can you then appropriately change

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (31:30.541)
Right.

Amy Graves (31:53.029)
train AI to do proper marketing for you if AI isn't being trained to look at a specific item.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (32:00.44)
Right, because AI needs to be trained first, one, in data and also by human beings. And even that equation, the human being doesn't know what is it going to be training the model on if the data is in there, as you're saying, right?

Amy Graves (32:03.642)
Yes.

Amy Graves (32:07.309)
And if the data's not there.

Amy Graves (32:12.899)
Yeah. Yep. Yep. So it has its place. Maybe it's just like coming up with like a marketing strategy outline and then someone else has to go in there and, you know, tighten it up so that we're being more transparent in marketing. But AI can't do that for us. And I don't see a future where it can at the pace we're heading down the road with all of our lab created ingredients.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (32:38.102)
Is there any hope to get trust back into the system that we are? And let's start about what we see on the labels. What is working? What's not working from your point of view?

Amy Graves (32:53.921)
I, I don't think anything's working anymore. I, but then I, like, if you have a scale of trust to don't trust, I'm so far negative and not trusting. I don't think any of it is. the nutrition labels aren't doing what they're supposed to. Like they were so important and so imperative when they were implemented, what the eighties or the nineties, they just aren't doing what we need them to do today.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (33:01.454)
You're so far because of your own personal journey, right?

Amy Graves (33:22.319)
People don't understand that the ingredients that are on that label are a direct reflection of why you're consuming so many calories with no nutrition. That connection is just not being made. So if people don't understand that, the nutrition label is not doing you any good. We have false marketing. anyone can put clean on their product and it's not clean. I literally saw a cosmetic product that claimed to be a clean line.

one product had 12 pages of ingredients. In my book, that's not clean. Like that's that would be me, but...

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (33:58.894)
12 pages.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (34:04.855)
Wow.

Amy Graves (34:05.882)
Marketing is all about being glitzy, getting attention, and it's not really about being transparent. So I don't see anything in marketing as a positive right now. Except me. I'm the positive.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (34:22.36)
So who's the hidden consumer?

Amy Graves (34:25.463)
There are multiple groups of hidden consumers. In the book, I broke it down, I think, into five or six groups. One group is the people who have government recognized allergies. U.S. has nine recognized allergies. Those people with those nine recognized allergies are their own group. We track data on them. We know what's in food. We have to do some labeling, but that labeling, again, isn't accurate. Dairy.

dairy and lactose intolerance people have a huge issue with hidden dairy and lactose now in foods because it's not being reported where it's at. The second group are group like me where we have allergies or food sensitivities, but no government recognizes them. So we have to know where our food sensitivity is hiding within food. Corn is a big one. How many people do we know with have are sensitive to tomatoes or garlic or bell peppers?

Those are things that aren't going to be on a label, so you have to do your own research. Other groups are actually people with disabilities because guess what? We need access, right? Whether it be access into a physical location, access to websites to see what information you're promoting or to do any digging into what does your product actually do, we don't have access. And then there's your health categories. And the health categories are really people who...

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (35:30.99)
Right.

Amy Graves (35:48.271)
have like kidney failure, they have diabetic, they are chronic pain related, things like that, that they have to focus on what food they do put into their body, but they don't have that full connection of what ingredients are increasing their symptoms.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (36:04.878)
So if the ingredients are hidden, so is the responsibility, right? Because if it's not showing up, no one is responsible because we don't know. So it's just a lot of power. It's a lot of money. And sometimes it makes me think it really the lobbies have even more power in Washington than the voters have because at the end of the day, it's really what's regulating.

Amy Graves (36:13.465)
Yeah. Yeah.

Amy Graves (36:28.868)
Yeah.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (36:34.68)
how we do things, the nutrition labels, how we articulate things, what we communicate, what they are required to communicate or not. It's just wild.

Amy Graves (36:42.541)
It, it, that's what makes us so different from other countries too though. Like when I was, I was in the Alsatian region of France this past summer and they could literally make things a little bit more easier to understand on labels. Like there was still a lot of things I couldn't eat. Like it's just, it is what it is. Cause American ingredients are all over the world, but they really put a focus on their organics.

they put a focus on you know shopping locally which made a big difference when you when you eat out in a country like that right like I could eat regionally I was fine Michelin star restaurants that were more french cuisine focused like statewide I had reactions to because their dependency on corn ingredients like cornstarch corn flour their chocolates were had americanized ingredients and like you are literally in Europe

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (37:16.238)
Mm-hmm.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (37:25.774)
Bye.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (37:32.814)
Mm.

Amy Graves (37:37.069)
You do not need fake American chocolate. Why? So yeah, it's. But I mean, and then we hear about it too everywhere about like, I have a lot of friends who are celiacs. They can go to Italy and eat pasta like there's no tomorrow and they come home crying because they can't have pasta anymore. yeah.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (37:40.77)
Thanks

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (37:45.986)
We're coming to Europe, we don't want the Americans.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (37:59.081)
yeah.

I eat pasta here one night and I feel like bloated like, my God, I don't want pasta for a week. You know, when we go there, we eat, we eat, we eat, and we are just feeling wonderful. And with energy, it's like here, sometimes the food just buck us down. It's just crazy.

Amy Graves (38:16.313)
Yeah.

Amy Graves (38:22.275)
It does. It does. It does. Yeah. And it's like, I've been trying different noodles because I lost my manufacture for noodles, aren't sending to like sprouts anymore. So like I lost noodles. And I went to the Asian market thinking it would be so much better. No, so much worse. Asian markets, American grocery stores, same thing. Just avoid. I literally, my stomach could not digest the noodles I had bought and rice noodles. Just.

Simple rice noodles in my body could not digest them.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (38:55.788)
Yeah, it's like...

Amy Graves (38:55.813)
You probably do not want to hear that.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (39:02.304)
No, and it makes me think, know, tech, AI, all this new technology, they will be as powerful as the humans, as us behind it building those. But if we are eating junk food, imagine that's what's running in our bodies and what are we building them for then?

Amy Graves (39:02.437)
you

Amy Graves (39:11.469)
Yeah. Yeah.

Amy Graves (39:22.659)
Right. Well, and so many, I mean, if you think about all the videos that are AI created online, people fall for it all the time. So all that means is that when it comes to AI generated marketing, people are going to fall for it every time. So we have to, we have to have the information going in and know how to look beyond the glitz and the glam and the marketing. What do you look at on a package?

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (39:31.085)
Yeah.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (39:38.124)
That's probably what is going to happen. It's like.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (39:49.494)
and try to amplify it, right? Because there will continue to be probably a lot more noise, good information, like the type of advocacy that you do, get it out there, will continue to get more and more complicated to go and navigate through the noise. Because AI will continue to amplify that. It's a...

Amy Graves (39:52.293)
Yeah.

Amy Graves (40:07.29)
Yep.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (40:13.802)
A lot of AI generated content that you don't know if it's true or not. For the most part, people are believing everything they see. But when it comes to the substance, like this type of conversation, it's hard to get these voices like yours and topics like these amplifying away that more people, you know, stop to pay attention to it.

Amy Graves (40:20.549)
Yeah.

Amy Graves (40:33.605)
Absolutely.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (40:36.076)
And we're talking about health. you know, what else will we need people to talk about? I mean, sometimes I keep thinking about with people that I bring to the show is like, there is a lot of good information that people should be consuming more, but they are not. Do we need to get smarter on finding new ways, new platforms?

Amy Graves (40:37.871)
N-ha!

Amy Graves (40:43.801)
I don't know.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (41:03.342)
to put the information there so people consume.

Amy Graves (41:07.107)
Yeah. And yeah, and isn't that like why marketing is what it does? Because how do you get people to pay attention? And that's the, you know, and unfortunately for most people, if you're not already concerned about it, it's not on your radar. Or unless you're experiencing a health thing and a doctor said, hey, it might be food related, you're not going to really look into it.

That's one of the things with my book that I found surprising is it's only been out for just over a month, six weeks, I think. But the amount of people that have said they've gone to their doctor now because they've had they didn't realize that having, you know, consistent colds or consistent sinus infections for, you know, like five, 20 years, they didn't realize it was a big deal because they're just used to it. Right. And the doctors are now telling you and the doctors are now saying, hey, that might be food related.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (41:31.672)
Yeah.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (41:49.454)
Sometimes we just don't go or we don't check things out.

Amy Graves (42:00.611)
And they're going to the allergist now and...

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (42:02.252)
That's mind blowing. Mind blowing.

Amy Graves (42:05.079)
It's like, it's so, I'm super happy that people are able to at least use the book to go back to their doctor and say, hey, could this be why? Because the doctor's on their phone.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (42:15.968)
I never thought about it, but this may be why we should check on this.

Amy Graves (42:22.129)
Yep, but you have to bring it up. I mean, even in my case, no doctor told me it was born. I had to do the research. I had to bring in my documentation to an allergist and the allergist had to confirm it.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (42:35.788)
Yeah.

Amy Graves (42:35.831)
There is no testing. So yeah, you've got to do your own work. And unless you're in a point where you have to, why would you?

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (42:39.618)
we have to do.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (42:43.554)
We have to do our own work. We have to pay attention to the small signals. It's not about, I'm feeling like this, but just put it on the side note. Check it out. Test it. Try to see if you find why you're feeling this way, right? And not just leaving it to tomorrow or the other day. it's nothing. Because that's when things, that's when we don't know what we don't know. So we are where we are, Amy, right? Really. How and where do we go from here?

Amy Graves (42:48.474)
Yeah.

Amy Graves (42:53.165)
Yeah. Yeah.

Amy Graves (43:02.725)
Go back.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (43:13.622)
What are our options? What we can do, right? We have, as you say, a lot of misinformation out there. We are fighting against a system process and industry that really care more about the profits than our health. What are those steps that we can do? What we can do to try to live a better life, a healthier one, as far as

being more conscious on the food that we eat.

Amy Graves (43:45.005)
Yeah, I would say for the first thing is if you're looking to make a change today, think about everything you eat for a snack and take one thing and just take it out and replace it with something else. Find like even if all you do is it doesn't even be organic, but buy an apple, buy a banana, buy something else instead of like a prepackaged food for a snack. Instead of going for chips, maybe go for a carrot. Like I know it doesn't sound as appealing.

I've got homemade granola that I use instead. But find a different option, just one small step. If you really need those prepackaged foods, flip it over. If the font is so small to get all the ingredients in there, maybe put it back on the shelf.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (44:29.994)
Or now I'm thinking on this conversation, we all use in-shot GPT, for example, take a picture, upload it and say, what are the ingredients, hidden ingredients that we have here? You know what I mean? Technology can help us on that side as well.

Amy Graves (44:42.02)
Yep.

I will say, chat GPT and the AI I've used and I use like duck AI as well.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (44:52.94)
No?

Amy Graves (44:53.611)
They don't because how how an ingredient is made is not widely known and it's not that thought process that went into the training. So they're not going to pull up those hidden ingredients. That's it's not known. Yeah.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (45:06.956)
because it's not known, it's not material data that they have access to. But could it help for some, even if not for a lot, for example? Could you see any use case that it could help us?

Amy Graves (45:13.295)
Yep. Yep. Which like even for me.

Amy Graves (45:25.413)
As more of my information gets out, sure. If you're going to use ChatGPT and you're not to be really specific in your prompt, you're going to say, how does it go? It's what is the chemical chain that goes into making this ingredient? Because that's how you find where the corn has been added to the actual DNA of

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (45:48.302)
Mm-hmm.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (45:52.494)
Mmm.

Amy Graves (45:55.977)
ingredient. that's so I had literally I was looking at patents for how people made certain ingredients to point out where the corn was. And that's how I found the hidden corn is by reading patents.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (45:56.631)
Right.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (46:08.202)
Because it can be worse than it is today, Amy. Regular human beings, we are going, we're seeing the label and sometimes not even reading it. This is to your point, it's useless, right? It has failed us because if we are not, it is there to put attention to something for us. And if we're not paying attention to it, we need to redesign the whole thing. I mean...

Amy Graves (46:11.257)
Yeah.

Amy Graves (46:21.123)
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah.

Amy Graves (46:32.453)
Yeah, yeah, yeah.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (46:34.55)
And how can we make it better than Nutrition Label?

Amy Graves (46:36.933)
You know what, what we have to do as a population is make the choice not to buy certain foods anymore. We, as a group, we have to pull out our buying power and say, I'm not going to eat that anymore. can, you want me to throw some companies under the table here?

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (46:52.834)
What are those examples of foods not to buy anymore? This is what we aim for.

Amy Graves (47:05.125)
I would say if you're someone who drinks coffee, I would stop buying it in a grocery store because it's blends, it's not fully coffee. There's going to be added things to it. I literally buy from importers.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (47:09.448)
I drink coffee everyday. Black coffee.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (47:24.332)
But you mean the the ground beans as well?

Amy Graves (47:28.215)
Yeah, don't buy, I avoid ground beans at all costs. So maybe if you can go to a light roasted whole bean and grind at home, you're going to cut out some of that extra.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (47:40.482)
That's what I do. I grind it at home. Yeah.

Amy Graves (47:42.189)
Ingredients. Yeah. My grinder is a stainless steel grinder because the plastic grinders would contaminate my beans. So what are you grinding into your beans with a plastic grinder?

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (47:55.414)
Yeah, I'm there.

Amy Graves (47:59.46)
your coffee pot is going to be made out of plastic.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (48:00.947)
Give me something, Amy. What is it that I need to do? I love coffee. I don't think I'm going to be able to dump the coffee. So those baby steps for the coffee lovers. What is it that we need to do?

Amy Graves (48:13.231)
So what I do for my coffee routine, because I wouldn't give it up either, I have an all stainless steel tea kettle. And then I pour it into an all stainless steel with stainless steel filter French press, or I use Chemex. And it's a glass container with a slow drip. And it's one of those unbleached coffee filters. So it looks like recycled paper. You can remove all the plastic. Everything comes out of it that way.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (48:33.206)
Hmm

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (48:37.729)
interesting.

Amy Graves (48:41.987)
buying beans look for whole bean look for at least in the grocery store you should be okay with organic you're probably going to be in the bulk section though filling up

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (48:53.72)
I don't know, I don't trust organic anymore after talking to you today.

Amy Graves (49:00.089)
I don't blame you. don't, I mean, I gotta be so careful. I get it.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (49:01.006)
Don't send me to organic. Don't send me to organic. It's sending you.

Amy Graves (49:09.305)
Find it, but I think the reality is we have to get away from the mainstream manufacturers, right? They're gonna be the ones that are going to be pesticiding and fertilizing the fields wherever whatever country they're in they're making the farmers and then there's a whole other side of Coffee growing that I let I prefer to buy from family farmers So I'm gonna spend more because I want to take care of people but yeah coffee

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (49:35.244)
And you know, back to the conversation, it's like, it really, if we want to change, it start with us. And it's really putting our dollars at play, which is you put the money on the product that you trust and those companies that are more ethical sourcing of food and so forth. But so it start with us. If we really want to change something, it's right. It's really because while we wait for policy, it's up to us.

you know, for the human revolution to start changing little by little what we wanted. It's really how I see it as far as that. you know, if you are a parent, I think this type of conversation is extremely important because if our kids are spending a long time on social media, we rather have also this conversation about health, nutrition, and things that are going to be beneficial for them. All right. So.

Amy Graves (50:06.201)
do it or so.

Yep. Yep.

Amy Graves (50:32.76)
Yeah, yeah. It's in all aspects of their lives, like how do we take care of the kids so that they have longer lives than we do?

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (50:34.391)
in a way.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (50:40.258)
Yeah. Absolutely. Yes, Amy. Absolutely. So quick questions as we approach the final segment of our conversation. what and I think we covered that we already gave some insights on how what are the steps, baby steps that you need to take into just to bring more awareness, food awareness to your table. Right. And the things that you can start trying as you become more aware.

of what you eat and what you ingest. But what would be your advice or what do you see, what do you want to see as far as policymaker regarding what are the things that you would like policymakers and governments really to focus on regarding safety on the food that we eat?

Amy Graves (51:39.949)
And that's interesting because I always started this knowing that I didn't want to change regulation. just wanted people to have more education and power to make it on their own. Cause I don't think regulation works. I think it just drives us down a whole nother, a whole nother path. But if we're going to regulate something, let's regulate more of the economy to make sure people can afford with one job to buy the food they need to survive. So we're not dependent on the really cheap stuff. That's a convenience.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (51:53.845)
Interesting.

Amy Graves (52:08.707)
sending us to the hospital. If we're going to make any real change, it has to come with how do we pay people and are we giving them the money they need to survive.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (52:18.158)
So you think instead of the government regulating and advocating for us, more power to us based on what we earn and the money that we get from our jobs to be able to make safer and better decisions as to what we consume, right?

Amy Graves (52:29.221)
Thank

Amy Graves (52:33.613)
Yep. Yep. Let's stop lining the pockets of billionaires and line the pocket of the American worker who actually is doing the job.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (52:42.604)
There you go. I can't agree more.

Amy Graves (52:43.941)
Yep, that's my thought process.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (52:52.372)
I can't agree more with that. You have a point right there. And Amy, what do you want these tech companies, how do you see the tech industry potentially helping more us consumer in the future via tools, awareness? What are the things that you would like to see there, for example?

Amy Graves (53:14.507)
One of the big tools that's been talked about for the last five years that I really want to see are the tech companies are coming together with allergy communities to form databases of ingredients. I would love it to go a step further and actually for every ingredient that's in the database have an actual list of the ingredients that went in to make that ingredient. That way people like me who are super sensitive would be able to depend on that database just as much as someone who's a celiac or has a gluten intolerance.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (53:41.134)
Mmm.

Amy Graves (53:43.577)
There's a huge area for tech to still come in and help out on this. And if we can get those databases started, now those databases can be connected to restaurants and to menus and people can go in and go, well, I can't eat this, this or this. Look and say, the chef can now tell you what's in a product and you can actually look it up in the database if you're allergens in it. How much easier and how much safer?

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (54:04.086)
And there's nothing like that exists today. Not a product.

Amy Graves (54:08.229)
No. There's people that have put things together, but they're not in depth or a quality that's going to help a majority of people. And they're focused on really specific types of food items versus the ingredients themselves.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (54:24.822)
And the use case would be a database where restaurants menus can connect to maybe grocery stores, food overall, and people can go there, research and see if it's safe to eat or not based on the ingredients that it's gonna be present on there.

Amy Graves (54:33.541)
Mm-hmm.

Amy Graves (54:40.973)
Yep. Yep. Yep. So like a simple ingredient like dextrose is moldy corn sugar. So the dextrose ingredient would be labeled as corn because it is. But if you don't know that, that would be a surprise.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (54:56.046)
Yeah.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (55:00.62)
Like the majority of the people. Right?

Amy Graves (55:03.363)
Yep, or citric acid. It's black molding corn. Would you want to know that?

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (55:09.166)
No. You're not mad.

Amy Graves (55:15.683)
Yay, Black Mold!

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (55:16.768)
It's so much that we don't know. And the more we know, the more that we don't know. It sounds like an ocean of information out there that for us, the end consumer, I feel sometimes that we are at a loss because we don't know what we don't know at the end of the day.

Amy Graves (55:20.193)
No.

Amy Graves (55:30.681)
It is.

Amy Graves (55:40.249)
Exactly.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (55:41.73)
But tools like these or database or systems, for example, as what you were recommending, I see that that could benefit a lot of people on having more access to that type of information. Should I eat these or not? Yes, maybe, yes. It can make it easier. So if there is any tech.

Amy Graves (55:59.119)
Yeah.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (56:03.042)
Titan out there listening to us you may have something that if you want to invest some time and you know some money on it can benefit us in a way Good good good Amy Last but not least What would be your piece of advice to a young Amy but seeing her today? Right a young version of yourself today

Amy Graves (56:12.421)
Yep.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (56:31.82)
While you navigate, while we are navigating into this new future with AI and everything around it, what would you tell Amy?

Amy Graves (56:42.327)
I would tell her to keep going and keep being stubborn.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (56:46.818)
There's no other way. You want change, you have to be a stubborn and you have to keep pushing.

Amy Graves (56:48.933)
I just...

Amy Graves (56:53.103)
Yeah, yeah, you have to just keep getting out there. Just keep finding your path. I was never a normal child anyways, so, know, this is...

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (56:59.438)
But what is normal, Amy? What is normal? It's the definition of normal has been updated or upgraded. Who knows? Who knows anymore?

Amy Graves (57:04.037)
I think normal met you

Amy Graves (57:12.493)
Normal was I didn't fit in with anybody and I just carved my own path. That's what I'm doing today. It's normal now.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (57:17.038)
Yeah, yeah, that's it. I agree. I agree. But that's funny. I appreciate you sharing that with us. And yes, and thank you, Amy, for also reminding us that food isn't just nutrition. It is a mirror of our systems, our values, and our future. That's how we see it. And in this new future with AI, right, the human vitality still matters. And it depends a lot.

on the ingredients that we put in our body. Really what we eat today, it's really gonna shape the world that we build tomorrow. So I do appreciate you a lot for taking the time. This has been an amazing conversation and I really, really appreciate it, Amy.

Amy Graves (58:03.279)
Thank you so much for letting me be here. You are amazing. I had so much fun with this. So thank you for letting me share my message.

THE HUMAN PROTOCOL PODCAST (58:06.638)
It is my pleasure and it will continue to be my pleasure anyway that I can continue to amplify and be a vehicle for this type of conversation. This is what we're here for as we try to keep us humans at the center of this. So for those of you watching from home, thank you. If this conversation resonated with you, make sure that you share with your friends, your family, and your loved ones. This is the Human Protocol.

every episode every Wednesday. So we talk soon. Thank you all. Bye bye.