Food advocate Vani Hari has made a mission out of pushing for greater transparency and responsibility in the American food industry. Vani started blogging as the Food Babe in 2011 and has since used her platform and passion as a vehicle for some impressive changes in food.

The activist and New York Times bestselling author — whose new book Feeding You Lies dropped earlier this year — has helped transform the practices (and recipes) of massive corporations like Kraft, Subway and Chick-fil-A. According to Vani, she’s also become the target of industry giants who want to quiet her voice.

Vani’s goal is to hold companies accountable for some of the controversial chemicals found in many commercial food items and to educate the public at large about how to sort through information overwhelm and make smart decisions for long-term health. She recently appeared on an episode of Dr. Mark Hyman’s Broken Brain Podcast and dropped an eye-opening load of truth that everyone should hear…

The Pod: Broken Brain Podcast #42: Uncovering The Food Industry’s Lies and Reclaiming Your Health with Vani Hari

The Message: In this episode, Vani digs deep into the dark practices of certain food brands and just how far they’ll go to silence activists like herself. The truth about food industry ingredients and practices are sometimes hard to come by and that lack of transparency often benefits brands more than consumers.

Vani reveals the personal health journey that stoked her passion for food advocacy, walks us through her personal experience as the target of food brands possibly threatened by her work, and how she continues to advocate for consumers when it comes to food safety and transparency.

Why We Loved It: Vani makes compelling arguments for what’s wrong with our modern food industry. She also offers actionable ways to shop smarter. What we love about her message is that it’s not all doom and gloom — her advice for how to stay positive, and how to make healthy choices in the face of info overwhelm is inspiring.

Vani encourages listeners to look beyond the headlines, find trustworthy information resources (she loves NRDC, EWG, and The Center for Science and Public Interest) and to make sure we know who is delivering the information we’re being fed (and who is funding the messages).

She also offers three simple questions we can ask ourselves before every meal to transform our health:

What are the ingredients?
Are the ingredients nutritious?
Where do the ingredients come from?

Sound simple? We challenge you to answer those three questions about your dinner tonight!

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