Christian Healthy Lifestyle 

Age gracefully | Live abundantly | Thoroughly equipped for every good work

by David Sandstrom 

October 5, 2022

Stop drinking toxic energy shots when you need a boost. Ethan Hirshberg is taking the energy drink market by storm with good-for-you products. Listen to Ethan talk about sourcing quality ingredients and producing energy and immune products that taste great, work, and are actually good for you.

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Show Notes

1.

Today's Guests...

  • Natural Products expert and business owner Ethan Hirshberg
2.

Topics Discussed...w / Time Stamps

  • 15:50 Sourcing high-quality caffeine
  • 19:06 What is Guayusa?
  • 23:28 Lions Mane and Cordyceps mushrooms
  • 26:57 God has provided a bounty of natural ingredients
  • 28:47 Apple Cider Vinegar
  • 32:27 Become in tune with your body
  • 41:36 Be careful about what you buy
4.

Transcript... 


Scroll through the text below to read the full transcript.

Ethan Hirshberg 0:00
The biggest raw material cost of our energy shots is the caffeine source. And because we buy this super high quality green tea, organic green tea and guayusa extract from Ecuador, and we could tomorrow, start buying a caffeine powder and cut like a significant amount of cost and improve our margins overnight. But like that's one where we're just unwilling to make that sacrifice. And I can see why why companies do it, because it makes sense on the bottom line. But if you're not if you don't draw the line somewhere, you'll compromise yourself into a commodity product overnight.

David Sandstrom 0:42
Welcome to the Natural Health Matters podcast where it's all about maximizing your health potential, so that you can look and feel your best at any age. I'm your host, David Sandstrom, Naturopathic Doctor and Biblical Health Coach, and this is episode number 97.

David Sandstrom 1:02
Today we have in the show, Ethan Hirshberg, Ethan is the founder of Ethan's Ethan and his team, create clean, organic, whole food supplements. That work tastes great, and are actually good for you. Ethan, Welcome to Natural Health Matters.

Ethan Hirshberg 1:18
Perfect into; nailed it.

David Sandstrom 1:21
Alright, well, that's what I learned about you. It's a pleasure to meet you, Ethan. And I want you to know, I've been a fan of your products for a long time. And I want everybody wants the natural nation to know that I don't just have Ethan on because I'm curious. I have Ethan on today, because I really believe in what he's doing. And excuse me just a second here, I need to take one of these. I'll take one of these before every interview. So if you're listening on audio only, I'm taking my energy shot right now. So give me just a second.

Ethan Hirshberg 1:50
I'll drink mine too.

David Sandstrom 1:55
That was good. I love them. I've been using for quite a while tears. And they are fantastic. Fantastic stuff. And so Ethan, I know that you kind of have a legacy in the wellness industry. Your parents are owners of a health and wellness business. And can you tell us a little bit about your, your background and your history?

Ethan Hirshberg 2:15
Sure, yeah. So um, like you mentioned, and I know, we just talked about it, and you've read a little bit about it. But this, this company, which I launched four years ago, was really kind of a combination of I would say both both my parents work, life's work. You know, my dad really coming from the organic food side of it, and my mom coming from the health and wellness as it relates to cancer, and really just disease in general. And so, like I said, we launched this this brand around four years ago with the idea that we could actually make supplements that are good for you. I know that sounds like it shouldn't be an obvious one. But after growing up around the industry and seeing kind of how things were done and what was out there, I realized that that was not an obvious one at all, particularly tying organic food into supplements. Because you know why? Why do people take supplements, right? It's, it's using food, essentially, and converting it into medicine. And the truth is really what's out there. And crowding the supplement aisles right now is really not serving that function. So

David Sandstrom 3:33
Right? Well, you know, I'm not in the supplement industry, but I sure do believe in supplementation and use them as supplements. Food should always be a primary source of nutrition. But supplements are important, and I supplement every day. But I look for quality. And one of the things I've learned about the supplement industry is that there are ignorant manufacturers out there. But there are also unscrupulous people out there that want to simply produce junk at the lowest cost, they can convince you that you need it, and then charge you as much as they can. So we got to be careful about what how we choose our supplements and where we get them from. So talk a little bit about sourcing quality for your products.

Ethan Hirshberg 4:12
Yeah, well, I mean, it's funny because even the word supplement like we, I stayed away from it for a while. It's almost like a dirty little word source, where people are like sub supplements. But But really, if you think about what a supplement is for, yes, I'm completely with you like organic, healthy whole foods. plant based diet, at least for me, personally, is the key to a full nutrition for your body and for yourself. But what is a supplement? It's basically a distillation or it's like it's a condensation of essential nutrients that your body needs that you might not be able to get or for making it more convenient for you to get. And so with that in mind, where we come from is thinking about how do we create supplements that are Ace, an extracted essentially from Whole Foods, which again, I know it sounds obvious, but a lot of what you're having, and even something like caffeine, like that could just be a chemical compound created in the lab. So where we started from, from product development standpoint was how do we get nutrients from whole foods into these formats that people really have proven that they want, they want Energy Shots, they want immunity mixes, you know, think five hour emergency, they've proven that they want these things, but but they don't really they, you know, we don't really know what we're getting when we buy these things. So like when you buy an emergency, what are you really getting? Well, you're getting a sorbic acid in a in a bag, you know, with maybe some sugar or artificial flavors, right and, and as I dug deeper and deeper with my co founder, Sebastian, who really is kind of the brains behind a lot of these products, we found that in most cases, the vitamins that you're getting are, are not bioavailable, or the caffeine you're getting is is not being ingested by your body in a in a favorable or beneficial way. And so we kind of went back to the drawing board with a lot of these things and said, Well, what if you got vitamin C, from a naturally occurring source, right? Or what if you got your caffeine from a naturally occurring organic source green tea or something like that, where it's like, now you don't have to, you don't have to go farm green tea and extract it and create it yourself. Like we'll do that for you. But we're giving you the organic and plant based version of what you've been looking for.

David Sandstrom 6:40
Yeah, so your product, again, I've been a fan of your products for quite a while for pretty much since you started and you kind of took on the the energy drink market by storm with the shots, you know, and before you before you started making the Energy Shots, you know, everybody knew about five hour energy right there in every convenience store gas station you walk into, I've never drank one of those because what's in that bottle is toxic. And I'm not going to put that kind of stuffing my body in your products came along and say, you know, I'm gonna, I'm gonna try this out. And I did and you know, and I would start using them when I was a long day flying. I've been an airline pilot for 35 years. And and once in a while you want a little extra edge, you know, maybe you're doing a simulator check and a great time for an energy shot. Or maybe you're doing a podcast interview. And it doesn't matter if you want a little extra boost. These products are fantastic. And it's not just the energy shots that you do. It's other things as well, you've got the detox, you've got the immune. And you know, I've never been a real big fan of coffee. So I've become a huge fan of your your energy shots because they give me lasting energy without the jitters. And no crash, you know, and I know, it sounds like an infomercial here. But but it's all true. These products are just incredible at the effectiveness and the efficacy and also the quality. I just can't say enough good things about Lisa, thank you for doing what you do.

Ethan Hirshberg 8:05
Yeah, well, that was that was quite a pitch, I can record that and use it as our advertising. But no, I think, um, I appreciate you saying we've taken energy industry by storm. It's a huge, huge industry, right? And we're just barely nibbling at the edge here. But I think like you're, you're in sort of the you and probably a lot of your listeners are in the kind of like, top percentages of people who are actually paying attention to the health aspect. So you like you're your backup label, person. Right? Right. And so when you see five hour, you flip it around, you say, Oh my God, I don't want that, that or that. But most people, they just see the front, and they just see five hours of energy. And like you said, we all are looking for and we all need it. And so when it says that it's like, you know, that's what I need. And it's available for me, and I'll take it. And so we're trying to kind of meet both groups of people, the people like you are frankly, like the easiest sell, because all they have to do is flip our bottle around. I mean, occasionally I'll get a nutritionist or someone who really has a science, science background in nutrition. And they'll say, like, Oh, my God, the the, you use methyl cobalamin as your b-12 form instead of cyano cobalamin. And like, you know, that's why I'm going to drink this,

David Sandstrom 9:21
which is the bioavailable form.

Ethan Hirshberg 9:24
Exactly. I wish everybody knew to look for that. But of course, yes, it's way too high an expectation so well, what we do is actually like the product sort of functions as its own education because what's nice about using the better form is that people notice purely from the effect so just touching on your, your second point, like they'll take ours and they'll notice that they're having this really clean kind of even like bright energy boost and then they don't get the headache or the or the jitters and so they may not even know why or care Right. But it makes it easy for us because what we've found is when we just get the highest quality ingredients, it produces a superior effect. So like, we don't even necessarily need all our customers to know why it's better or care. But if they feel it working better for them, they're going to come back no matter what, even if they don't care about it being healthier. So we really tried to kind of hit on both aspects of that.

David Sandstrom 10:27
Yeah, you know, it's some people don't care about the what they're putting in their bodies, but other manufacturers don't care what they're putting in the bottle. I saw an interview one time thinking about this is a guy who worked for many years for Ocean Spray that make the cranberry juice. No, it's up there. And I think it's up in eastern Massachusetts, where they had these cranberry bogs. And this was back in I don't know, it 60s or 70s. And he was in charge of product development. And he said, you know, we can substitute high fructose corn syrup. For a lot of this cranberry juice that we're putting in here, we can make this 98% high fructose corn syrup, 2% cranberry juice, and it tastes almost the same. And it's going to be way cheaper. And that's what they went with. And they in a guy asked him in the interview, did you ever stop to consider the health implications of what you were doing with those ingredients? It's like, no, none of us thought about that. It was just far more profitable. And you know, that's the way big corporations operate thereafter, the bottom line, and they really don't the our health is not on their radar, for the most part. So you got it, you got to find, you know, a company like yours, like yours, where you not only have the knowledge, but the resources to put something like this together. And you can feel good about using it on a regular basis. I have

Ethan Hirshberg 11:45
to say, so that's a perfect example. And you see it across literally every single part of food beverage supplements. And I think the key question for a company of any size is to determine where you draw the line and where you're no longer willing to compromise because I have to say, after doing this for a few years, like, I no longer think unnecessarily of big companies or companies who make compromises as just evil, like it's not evil people scheming to make you less healthy. But as you said, they have deliverables like somebody has a boss who has a boss who has a boss, and eventually that might be a shareholder, you know, just public markets or anything like that. And it's like, your job is to make as much profit, or grow as much as you possibly can. And so it's sort of like, the system that creates this and not necessarily like bad people scheming behind the scenes. But what does happen is you just make compromise after compromise after compromise, until finally you have a product that is no longer delivering what people are hoping it's going to deliver. And I think for us, like, I'll admit, I mean, like we sacrifice margin, as you might imagine, on the hope that people are going to say, realize, like, Okay, we'll pay a little bit more for this product. But that's a gamble. Right? And so, like, I've made some compromises since we started being something like, like, when I first started that thought all our juices had to be NFC, not from concentrate juices. And like that was all we put in all our products. And then, you know, we're just getting killed on freight, or whatever it is, cost in general. And so then I had our nutritionist do some research and found that concentrated juices maybe aren't the worst thing. And so we we kind of like made that calculated decision to save money on using organic juice concentrates instead of not from concentrate. Right. Right. Right. And that's a super minor one. But it's like, that was one that I had to figure out. Am I willing to compromise on this one? Now, you know, we did our research and found that it was basically you know, the same thing with the water taken out. And so we felt okay with that, but I've been transparent about that. But then when it comes to things like, you know, the biggest raw material cost of our energy shots is the caffeine source. And because we buy this super high quality green tea, organic green tea and guayusa extract from Ecuador, and we could tomorrow, start buying a caffeine powder and cut like a significant amount of cost and improve our margins overnight. But like that's one we're we're just unwilling to make that sacrifice. Yeah. And so. So I totally like, I mean, again, I can see what why companies do it, because it makes sense on the bottom line, but if you're not if you don't draw the line somewhere, you'll compromise yourself. up into a commodity products overnight?

David Sandstrom 15:03
Well, you know, it's a delicate balance, right? It's kind of like walking a tightrope, you know, if you put too much into a product and price yourself out of the market, you're not gonna, you're not gonna get any anybody to buy it. At same time, you've got to put quality in there, so that you'll have repeat customers. So there is a balancing act that goes on. It's not it's not easy, and I commend you for for what you guys are doing because your products are not overpriced. You know, and when you when you compare your what what you charge for an entry shot or an immune shot to a local Starbucks. You're cheaper.

Ethan Hirshberg 15:36
You know, and, yeah, and, and so to, to go back. So that's obviously a crucial part because to only talk about the health piece of it ignores the business aspect to it, and you have to talk about both because otherwise, if you're out of business, then you can't make good products. Nobody benefits, right?

David Sandstrom 15:53
Nobody wins everybody loses with that one.

Ethan Hirshberg 15:56
Yeah, exactly. And so one, one thing about energy shots is an actually energy drinks, like their price pretty high already. And so I look at a lot of kind of natural or better for you parallels to existing products, and you just feel like there's no way they can price themselves anywhere close. And one thing that was nice for us is we actually can have a sustainable business, just charging a little bit more. Because the the price on existing energy shots and energy drinks is so falsely inflated. I mean, I've never seen any, like behind the scenes info, but just from what I know, like, if I look at the back of a supplement product, I'm like, wow, you know, these raw materials in this bottle cost them two cents? Probably. Really? And it's selling for, for $3.50. Yeah, you know, and so, yeah, and so but it actually for us, we were able to kind of price ourselves in a place where it's like, you just have to pay, you know, five or 10% more than you're paying right now. And you can have a vastly superior premium product.

David Sandstrom 17:13
And that's when you know, your knowledge and your experience in the supplement and food industry pays off pays big dividends, because you know, where you can, as you just mentioned, cut a corner, but not sacrifice quality in a significant way. And I think that's great. You know, I'm curious, everyone's heard of green tea, but I'm thinking there's got to be somebody in the audience. Someone in the national nation says, What in the world has got Guayusa? Never heard of that. So can you speak to that a little bit?

Ethan Hirshberg 17:41
Yeah, actually, I'm glad you asked that question. So I first came across quite used to I'll try not to be too long winded in this answer, but we got Okay, so there's a company that some of your audience may have heard of called Runa. Um, and it's a beverage company that made it must have been like 10 years ago came out with this bottled guayusa tea and I first started drinking them back when I was I was working at homeless harvest the coconut water company. That was where I kind of cut my teeth in the beverage industry and learn the ins and outs of it but I discovered this product and I was kind of just out of college and looking for that nice energy drink but wasn't really into coffee like I hadn't started that part of my caffeine journey yet and this drink blew me away like I was just getting used to a nine to five at work you know and I was just drinking this and I have felt so energized and just really clear and clean. And so that was like my first discovered why use because these guys basically went to Ecuador and discovered this amazing plant caffeine source, which down there the Keto and Quechua people like they've been drinking it for 1000s of years. And they actually have a name for it. They call it the nightwatchman or the nightwatchman. Because it keeps them like energized and clear all night. And so it has like this lore around it in Ecuador. We just didn't really discovered it discovered and you know, certainly not the US until this brand really brought it here and now you start to see it popping up more there's another energy drink called guru to Canadian company. They do like a kind of healthy organic Red Bull. And they're using it and i It's funny that you mentioned that because like on the front of our bottle, you'll see it says green tea and B vitamin shot. Right. So we In other words, we kind of leave the guayusa out of the messaging because people have no idea what it is and we've tried or I've even seen like Runa really tried to message around guayusa and I think it just fell flat like people didn't Yeah, really care to know Whatever. Yeah,

David Sandstrom 20:01
Yeah be like Nike starting off with the with the checkmark alone. Right?

Ethan Hirshberg 20:05
You know, it's like, yeah, exactly. And so like, it's kind of our secret. Well, insofar as it's on the label or on the back of the label, but it's like our secret booster. And even though we do use this incredible organic green tea extract that really delivers nicely, the guayusa is we played with, I think it was, like 65 Different versions when we were first launching the Energy Shots. Wow. And when we would drop the why use out we just didn't feel quite as good. Yeah, we started feeling a little bit more of that, like, up and down that you tend to get. And so in full transparency, like I said, the caffeine was the most expensive, or the, you know, the caffeine sources were the most expensive parts of our products, specifically, the guayusa is yeah, the most expensive as you

David Sandstrom 20:59
A similar tea or leaf is herbal latte is the same family, is it not?

Ethan Hirshberg 21:05
It is actually it's I think it's like, yeah, it's a cousin, same genus, maybe. But it's, we tried. Yerba Mata, as you might imagine, we tried gharana, we tried every possible organic plant based caffeine source out there. And I feel quite confident saying what you say is a cut above the rest, including the green tea. That's where it just, it creates a far superior effect. And I would attribute a lot of the positive feedback we get about the clean energy aspect to our products to the guayusa. You know, the better, the better B vitamins and the green tea, they all help with the glycine is kind of a backbone of the product.

David Sandstrom 21:50
I got you. So another ingredient in there is lion's mane and Cordyceps mushrooms. So again, many people have heard of them, but many people haven't. So talk to those ingredients a little bit.

Ethan Hirshberg 22:03
Yeah, so this is fun, I usually don't get to go this in depth into the back of the label, people just want to they just hear healthy five hour, that's all they want to talk about. But this is actually a kind of similar one. And it's an interesting convergence of like the health and nutrition side with the marketing side. Because there are some people in the natural foods industry referring to what's happening right now is the mushroom boom. Where people are really starting to get excited about them and and get familiar with them. And in particular, I would say, I don't know what you would say, based off your research, but Lion's Mane Reishi I would say which we have in our immune products, but and quadriceps I would say those are probably the top three, maybe Chaga that people are starting to get familiar with, like on a first name basis. And starting to understand like, okay, these ones are good for this. And those ones are good for that. But yeah, we we, when I say we I'm mostly referring to my little team, but Sebastian is my, my co founder that I mentioned who who really gets the nuts and bolts of all the product development side, but we just love them. And we really wanted to make like a lion's mane shot, or you know, mushroom shot and there are some products out there like that. But in the end, we just felt like it was better served our brand as like another added ingredient to our energy line. And I I kind of stand by that still, maybe there will be a day we'll where people will purchase a shot strictly with mushrooms in it for focus, or something like that. But right now it's just kind of a nice added supplement. And same thing like I know we took us this long to get to the mushrooms but we buy this amazing mushroom powder. And that is one I don't want to speak on something I don't know enough about but that is one that if you're into that, and exploring the mushrooms that is when I would definitely consult a qualified nutritionist on because what I've heard particularly from our supplier is that many if not most of the mushroom products out there are mostly like the filler or the binder, and very little of the actual product. Yeah, makes sense.

David Sandstrom 24:37
Yeah, that totally makes sense. It's quite common practice.

Ethan Hirshberg 24:39
So we buy we buy like a pure Yeah. And maybe you know more about it than than I do. But

David Sandstrom 24:44
No, probably not. But I do want to just add this to what Ethan said is, they're adaptogenic and that means they will stimulate where your body needs stimulating and then calm when your body needs to relax and chill out a little bit more so they adapt to due to what your body is asking for, which is super cool. I mean, God has made some amazing stuff out there. And to use them like this, and the product is just, you know, just smart. And it just, it just lines up with my naturopathic approach to health. And I tried to say this in every episode at some point in time, but I believe we've maximized our health potential when we align our lives more fully with God's natural design for spirit, mind and body. And God has provided leaves and herbs and in fruit in various things and caffeine sources for our use. And, you know, is he didn't put them in a laboratory, you know, when we have when we get our vitamins a USP synthetics that are made in a laboratory, Chemically speaking, they might be a B, vitamin or a vitamin C, or, you know, whatever. But it's not the same as naturally occurring. And Ethan understands that and that's why he's, you know, paying a little bit more for sourcing these products. But putting what's in that bottle, what needs to be there, what's supposed to be there by design.

Ethan Hirshberg 26:06
And we, the one of the hardest parts, about being so involved on the product development side, particularly now that we're in this great space where we can make any functional product is like, we I come across a new ingredient, or a study a white paper about a new ingredient that amazes and fascinates me, like, probably on a weekly basis. And there are just such incredible whole food plant based sources for almost anything that you need out there. Right. And, yeah, it just takes a obviously a good bit of research and like, not everyone has a registered dietician on staff, like, like I do, but you know, finding brands, people platforms that you trust to kind of do that, I guess, vetting for you. Is is easier than ever, and I would say probably more helpful than ever to

David Sandstrom 27:01
Yeah, yeah. Well, you know, we spend a lot of time talking about the energy realist. Let's talk just shift gears a little bit. Talk about your detox product with the apple cider vinegar. What's What's the magic about apple cider vinegar?

Ethan Hirshberg 27:13
So, um, the apple cider vinegar was my first product that I made, and it was kind of like my first love, I guess. So while I was in that, working in that, for that coconut water company, I just discovered using apple cider vinegar on a daily basis. I think I've read it on like a health blog. I was doing research for a product. And I was like, huh, so I've been using it that way for a while. And I don't know if you remember when it first started coming around, or just being mentioned more. It was

David Sandstrom 27:46
like say it started getting some traction in the late 90s.

Ethan Hirshberg 27:50
Okay, yeah. So it was like, touted as this miracle cure, which I know people are justifiably skeptical about. And it's like, one of the one of the things, problems that I had when I first started was even just trying to figure out how to talk about it, it was like, Is this for you know, blood sugar? Is it for digestion is weight loss, what is what is it for, and because it kind of has this, it truly does kind of have this laundry list of benefits and, um, you know, Hair, Skin nails, I think it gets mentioned for like, kind of more, more cosmetic purposes a lot, too. And so that was that was really how I got into this was via apple cider vinegar. And if you look at like our very, very early marketing materials, it was all about apple cider vinegar, because that was our main product. Right? Of course, since then, we've, I mean, we just spent the first half hour talking about our energy line, and we could get into immunity as well. But like, so we've we've obviously transitioned into other functions, but um, you know, I kind of found myself getting in these like nutrition debates. So there are a lot of people who dispute it. And all I knew at that time was that I felt great. When I was taking it, I felt quick, like, my skin was clear. I felt like my digestion was, was probably better than it ever had been. And then, you know, we read some studies about weight loss, and there's some dispute over does it make you lose weight because it actually burns fat or does it make you lose weight because it makes us hungry, which it definitely does.

David Sandstrom 29:39
I think since satiety thing that's my opinion, society.

Ethan Hirshberg 29:42
Yeah, me too. And so I think we, we and I kind of tried to stay out of like, I don't want to stick my nose and into super scientific debates that were not necessarily like the most informed party on. Yeah, so, but we did, you know, like we have, we've had that product has been around longer than all of our other products and it has a steady like kind of small consumer base that just loves it. And all I did at that point that was when I was doing my own product development was take, you know, research research with with our r & d, kind of what a like, beneficial daily dose of it was, make sure that was in each shot bottle and then add, you know, turmeric and black pepper and some apple juice in one. And then the other one had like ginger juice and pineapple juice and just kind of create these little concoctions to make this amazing ingredient tastes better. Right. So that was how it all started was was because of apple cider vinegar.

David Sandstrom 30:44
Yeah. Well, you know, I think what you just said a moment ago about how do you feel afterwards. And I think that's important that a lot of people are not really in tune to their bodies, you know, and I'd say this, not just with your supplements, but with food in general. Take notice of how you feel before meal, or how you feel before you take that supplement. And then an hour or two later. Take another assessment of how you feel and how is your energy doing? How was your satiety? Are you standing in front of the frigerator an hour later after a meal, if you are is probably something missing? Your body's saying I didn't get what I wanted. You know, your memory, your mood, your sense of well being, these are all indicators that that that meal or that supplement, were good or not so good for you. And it takes a little detective work. You know, it takes little tuning into your body's language. But and it's worth the effort because it works. And yeah, as you said, not everybody enjoys the apple cider vinegar. I do. But not everybody does. I totally believe in biochemical individuality. And these things will react differently with different people. You know, there are people that just absolutely love coffee, you know, and they're gonna drink it all day long. And that's it, you never gonna talk them out of it. Right? I just think those people's bodies their their, you know, metabolism just does really well with it. And but that's not everyone. It's certainly not me. I don't.

Ethan Hirshberg 32:04
Yeah, and I mean, the the other side of that is, you know, you're obviously familiar with goalie gummy. Like we had been in the apple cider vinegar space for a couple of years, and actually got approached by a retailer about launching an apple cider vinegar gummy. It's like, this is like four years ago. And we kind of did our all our research and just didn't feel like it was going to deliver what it was supposed to, like that format just didn't work like Yeah. First of all, you have to destroy the apple cider vinegar and turn it into a powder. But then how do you deliver a functional dose in a tiny little gummy, and then if you have to eat 10 Gummies to get the proper amount of acetic acid, and now you're having 10 grams of sugar or whatever, you know, so we just kind of stayed away from it. And then that blew up into like the mainstream use of apple cider vinegar is the gummy format. Yeah. And so, you know, to your point, look like if, if there are people that take those and really feel that it's helping with them, I'm not going to argue with them, like all we can do is kind of look at our research. And say, you know, like, well, if you have to have 10 or 20 grams of sugar to get this tiny amount of apple cider vinegar, there's probably a better way for your body, and you're probably gonna feel better if you find another way.

David Sandstrom 33:37
Totally agree with that. You know, I'm not an expert in this area at all. But I think it's worth mentioning, I just, I just got finished reading a book by Dr. Steven Gundry. I forget the title, but he's been around forever, he says mid 70s. And the guy's just like machine he just has never runs out of energy. And he talks a lot in his latest book about mitochondrial uncoupling. And he says that the acetic acid in apple cider vinegar helps to uncouple your mitochondria. And for those that aren't familiar, the mitochondria are the energy powerhouse of our cells. And if you are if your mitochondria struggling, you're going to be struggling for energy. And your body's going to struggle to do a lot of different functions. And when they when the mitochondria uncouple. It makes them more efficient. And that's one of the things apple cider vinegar does. So it's if you want to learn more about that I'll put I'll put a link to his book in the shownotes. I can't quite remember the title at the moment, but it was a good read a little bit a little bit technical, but good, good read. nonetheless.

Ethan Hirshberg 34:37
I've heard I haven't read that book. But I've heard of that some of that effect for that study. And I will say to what extent this can confirm it for anyone interested like that's what our RDs say is that the true I mean there's a prebiotic fiber in apple cider vinegar, that is no adds to its health aspect but the acetic acid is really the the kind of golden nugget in apple cider vinegar. And for anyone I mean, I might be shooting myself a small part of my business in the foot here, but I believe that acetic acid is available and about the same content in most vinegars. So and So, I think so don't quote me on that, but I'm definitely in a few. Um, and so it's like apple cider vinegar has kind of risen to the top of like, the pile in terms of mainstream popularity. But you know, just another way of saying like, you know, you can do some research and find one that works for you. I mean, maybe maybe like, red wine vinegar on your on your side? I don't know. So yeah, that's true. But yeah. Acetic acid. Yeah. Acetic acid is an amazing component to that.

David Sandstrom 35:48
Yeah. Well, listen, we're running out of time here. I wanted to talk about the immune product for a little bit. But is there anything you'd like to say to that product? If as we wrap things up?

Ethan Hirshberg 35:59
About our immune line? Yeah. Yeah, all I would say is, you know, while we're kind of going through each, each function here, and you could probably say the same we don't currently have a, we've been working on a sleep product for a long time. It's one of the more difficult functions to figure out a holistic answer to, and I'm sure you could do a whole podcast on melatonin. And, yeah, we could probably talk about that for an hour separately. But community immunity is one of the trickiest ones in the supplement space. Um, there's, there's little regulation around using the word immune in products and what constitutes an immune claim. And obviously, with the onset of COVID. It's like it became a high demand function for people who are who are justifiably concerned about their immune health and their immune response. And so naturally, as with any kind of, like, large mainstream trend, a lot of people jumped on it. And I think that's just one like, if I were to send the warning beacon out to people who are consumers out there, it's to really vet that your immune products and again, you know, we, I know, I mentioned at the top of the podcast, like, we've kind of been thinking about our immune health all wrong, like, people up until recently, the only thing you would get for your immunity is like, when you were getting sick, you run to CVS and get emergency or airborne, you know, and just try to flood your system with vitamin C and hope that that didn't check. And it's an inconvenient answer. But the The truth is, you really need to build your immune response on a daily basis. And part of that is just having a good diet, like we've talked about, and that's usually the answer to most things, but look for kind of, like, you know, daily immunity products, and not just the emergency response, Panic Button products, right. But with that said, to go back, I mean, you know, bioavailability is the crucial aspect of all vitamins. And you knew it about the medical balm, and when it came to our, our energy product, but it's the same thing with vitamin C. So, you know, there are, there are food and fruit based vitamin C sources, and a lot of products are out there using them, Arcerolla cherry is a great one that your body will actually absorb and use. And if you just see a product with only acetic acid on there, that's that's just like you're you're just, that's just running right theory, it's not gonna write helped you do anything. So, um, and then we love the Reishi. Mushroom for this. Yeah. as well. Yeah. So

David Sandstrom 38:57
huge. We could do a whole a whole episode on mushrooms.

Ethan Hirshberg 38:59
Yeah, I just wanted to keep that one short. But yeah,

David Sandstrom 39:03
I appreciate that. Well, you know, and I totally agree. What do you think just said is that you know, the time to think about immune is before you get sick, right. And, you know, for instance, if your vitamin D levels are low, you're going to have, you're going to struggle with the with viruses. And it takes a while to bring your vitamin D levels up your serum levels up. So you're going to have to supplement with vitamin D for a good while, a good long time, maybe months before it gets up to the level you want. Of course, being outdoors in the sunlight on your skin is important as well. But for many people living in northern climates and winter months, that's not really practical. So supplementation is recommended and maybe even necessary if you really want to optimize your immune function. So yeah, the time to think about immune function is before you get sick, not after you get sick. That's a huge point. So yeah, even if you wanted to just remind people of the most important thing we've talked about today, what what would you like to tell people

Ethan Hirshberg 40:00
Yeah, I guess what I would say is, since we're on this supplement thing is to be careful and protect yourself. Because if there's one thing I've learned, it's with food and beverage and supplement products, it's that, you know, frankly, you can kind of put most anything into anything and call it anything. And so I wish that weren't the case. But it's really important to find find brands that you trust and believe in and they're the positive side is there a lot out there like we're, we are far from the only one or the first one. And you can probably go through people like David to find the good ones. But you know, the nice thing about supplements is they can make health and wellness really convenient. And, and quick and kind of easy. If you have if you go to the right people, but the other side is you can spend a lot of money and and kind of waste your time with a lot of as well.

David Sandstrom 41:01
Yeah, absolutely. For sure. So if and if someone wanted to get a hold of you, what's the best way to do that?

Ethan Hirshberg 41:08
Well, first of all, my my email is on every single bottle and product that we make. And it's really easy to remember it's [email protected]. So love outreach and, and feedback. And then of course, our website, Ethans.com, I'm going to end up saying my name about 50 times. And then you know, we're available on on Amazon. We have some of our shots and powders nationwide. And CVS, we're in Whole Foods, a couple other big retailers soon to come. I don't think I'm supposed to say yet but but we are excited. And you can come. Yeah, come find us and and definitely shoot me an email if you have any questions or want to read.

David Sandstrom 41:52
And Ethan's got a generous offer 20% off your first order. If you go to the show notes at I think this is going to be let's see, it's going to be episode 97. So it's got to be davidsandstrom.com/97. And you'll find the link in there to a 20% coupon for your first order at Ethan's so I encourage you to do that. Cool. Ethan, thank you so much for your time. I appreciate it. Enjoy this conversation. Thanks, me too. For more, go to the show notes page at davidsandstrom.com/97. There you can find a video as well as an audio version of the podcast and links to all the resources that we mentioned. And we just mentioned the discount code for Ethan's products. I encourage you to take advantage of that. And I always include a downloadable transcript that you can print out and read later if you want. If you're enjoying this podcast, I sure would appreciate you telling somebody about it. Though this information is difficult to find. And if you have a like minded friend who is interested in health and wellness from a natural and biblical perspective, I'll bet they'll appreciate you telling them about it. So I sure would appreciate you helping me spread the word. Thanks in advance for doing that. Thank you for listening, and I'll talk with you next week. Be blessed

About the author 

David Sandstrom

I want to help you maximize your health potential so you can look and feel your best at any age. We do this by aligning our lives more fully with God's natural design for our spirit, mind, and body. I've been helping people maximize their health potential since 2005.

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