Franziska Haydanek: Well, whenever like wick or food stamps, whatever gets cut, people are just like, ⁓ they're just moochers. Like they just don't want to work. I'm like, I come from a family, like we were trying, right? We were trying. It was it was just a really tough time. And we were on it for a while and then we got off it. So I think most people are in that category where they're just struggling for whatever reason for a period. And it it that part is very frustrating to me when it's just like, ⁓ they're just moochers. I promise you, most of them are are not. Welcome back to I Did My Own Research. I'm Dr. Fran, and today I'm joined by Liam the Plant Slant. Liam is the creator behind The Plant Slant. He has an audience of over 3 million followers around one central idea: eating mostly plants, but not only plants. He's the guy you may have seen sometimes shirtless online, talking about the blue zone longevity habits, ranking healthy snacks by protein and fiber content, and reminding his followers that balance beats extremism. Today we're gonna talk about how nutrition advice becomes a battlefield online and whether balance really is as easy as he makes it look. All right, Liam, thank you so much for being here. You are someone that I have watched on social media for a long time actually. And I actually don't even know how you came across my feed, but you have brought such a calmness to the world of online nutrition and I don't want to say dieting, but like the food that we take in and the way that we take it in. So thank you for being here and being such a voice of reason in that space. It's kind of ironic. I like that I brought quietness because I yell so much in my videos. Like I'm constantly yelling about things. And in doing so, I've brought quietness. But it's like a calmness in the sense that, you know, the stuff that we see on social media is so wack-adoo. Right. People are like dancing in grocery stores. They're re reading labels to us and telling us what we should and shouldn't be eating. They're going to Costco and telling you how the rotisserie chicken is bad for you. It's always the rotisserie chicken. I have thoughts. I have thoughts on the rotisserie chicken. Okay, tell us. Let's start right there. Thoughts on the rotisserie chicken. This this is okay. So every time I see someone saying the rotisserie chicken is bad, minimum one million views. Minimum. And it goes up from there. People pe and and This is why. It's because one, people love it so much. People love the rotisserie chicken. And two, it's very affordable. Like it's the most affordable. It's cra like they sell it at a loss, right? They don't make money off the rotisserie chicken. It's to get people in the door and buy other things. That's why people love it. Five dollars for a whole chicken that also tastes great. It would cost you more to buy a chicken and rotisserie it or whatever. I don't know what the ad adjective. To make it yourself. So of course people love it, right? And that's why it gets fused, is because everyone's like, ⁓ wait, my favorite thing has what kerragenin in it or whatever it is. It's it's it's filled with microplastics or or not in the heat lamp. It's under the heat lamp. I my favorite was was was are we talking about specific people? Because like Paul Saladino was great. He was like, This chicken's too hot to hold. And he was like putting it back. And I saw I made a video like, ⁓ you should probably put it down then. And then he just continued to hold it and talk about what's in it. I'm like, so it's like it's not that hot or should you put it down? Like it was that was funny. So like the and I did that because it also got views for me. Whatever talks about I'm talking about someone talking about the registration, Rutis free chicken, however it comes up. That it gets fused because people love it so much and it's affordable and right now everything's so damn expensive that they're like, No, my favorite thing that's still affordable ⁓ has a problem with it. So it's it's rotisserie chicken is something I I see every time. So I'm glad we got right into that because I too ⁓ love a rotisserie chicken. And those you know, the thing is with those videos is that they exactly for those reasons that you said. It's something that we all purchase, we all love, and then someone gets you with it and you're like, I know you're getting your favorite food, but you really gotta be careful for these reasons. And so people really fall for it and I You know, to go back to say I think those videos are so pervasive and they get so many views and they're in you know, they're really fear mongering people from getting accessible food that's high in protein, that's allowing them to get you know, if you go and buy chicken breast, yeah, and it's so much with it. But if you go to like the chicken breast aisle to get the same amount of chicken, you're gonna spend like five as like five times as much money on it and it's not even cooked yet. Yeah, and you gotta do it yourself. You're like, I ain't doing that. Yeah, and I'm not doing that. ⁓ I wanted to like go way back away from the roast history chicken and just talk a little bit about you and your journey in being on YouTube, social media. I'm sure not one day you're like, I'm going to address all these crazy people on TikTok and make videos about it, but I'd just love to hear like your journey on how you got to that point. So basically it was it was totally a normal. It was very normal in the way I did it, w in which I grew up watching mad T V. And so I really like skit comedy. So I started doing social media, just doing skit comedy. It had nothing to do with nutrition. It had nothing to do with like it was mostly like it was a lot of like gym skits because I was really getting into like gym culture and whatnot. And some of them are still funny. There's like one or two of them. There's still most of them were terrible. One or two of them I was thinking about playing again because I'm like, now that I'm falling, you want to see this one that don't worry about the other ones. This one's funny. And so I was making all those, and that is when I started going back to the Ohio State University for nutrition. And so I was like, ⁓ I could talk about food. Like, be you know, I that's my my mom was like a health nut, definitely growing up for sure. She was like vegetarian when I was a kid and whatnot. And that people always ask me, like, what's your diet? I'm like, I j I got used to eating more of a vegetarian diet. So that's more what I eat. And so yeah, I I was Well, I'm going for nutrition. Let me talk about it. So I started talking a little bit about food and then people started sending me all of these videos because this was like we still have a lot of people at grocery stores, right? Saying like blah blah blah blah blah blah blah. But like this was at the height where Everyone was in a grocery store. Like you could see other grocery store walkers inside a grocery store walker video. Like that was there was so many of them. And so I was like, All right, I gotta try and do something here. So then I started doing more of like the debunking thing was kind of at its height. So I was like, let me hop in on that a little bit and talk about it. And people really liked that. And so then I just kind of I kept going with that. And so at first it was very more like getting into like the science of what experts say. And I'm gonna be honest now I kind of just mock them. I kind of just make fun of them because after years of doing it, like I've talked about kerogene, I've talked about food, I've talked about artificial sweeteners to death. ⁓ my goodness. I've talked about these things so many times. Now I kind I don't really it's not even I'm trying to make fun of them directly. I'm just trying to mock what they're saying because what they're saying is so absurd, you know? Yeah. I will say that's just as effective though in many ways, because you almost have to point out the ridiculousness to people. And I do the same with not all chiropractors, but always a chiropractor. Doing the like saying things in the craziest way, out of scope, in like very fear-mongery ways. And at times you just have to be like, You are insane. Like whatever you're suggesting here doesn't even make any sense. Like, are you listening to yourself? And like I think but bringing people's attention to that also is a an important part of the education here is that you have to like educate people on why they're falling for these type of videos and like pointing out how ludicrous some of them are. Yes, I think a lot of comedy is taking a topic, whatever that might be, and just bringing it to the extreme. Right. In whatever sense. And in this and and in this area, it's kind of easy to do because they're already so extreme. Like they're already there and you just go like one step further. Like they're yelling about anti-nutrients in lettuce. And like, yeah, that's I know that's why Americans are so unhealthy. We're eating so much lettuce every day. Like we gotta stop I keep telling you guys, stop eating so much lettuce. It's the reason you're sick. Like, of cour it's absurd. Do I need to get into like the details of anti nutrients and what they are? Do I do you do you need me to tell you that vegetables are good for you? I don't think you do. So like you already know that. So let's just kinda laugh about it and you know, you know, I think ⁓ w have you talked to Mallory before? Mallory's I Mallory's like on my wish list. I love that girl. Like the stuff that she is d I mean, she must put so much work into finding these wild people on the internet. I talked to her. I talked to her a l quite a bit and she she gets a lot of stuff sent to her. Just people are constantly sending her things. And she goes through like there's more of it. Someone drinking their own pee or whatever it is. And I think she does a good job of bringing it to the extreme. One of my favorites is like Paul Saladino's like, Don't touch receipts because they've got BPA and it goes through your skin. And so her whole video was welcome to my day as a receipt maxer. And she just wakes up and she's covered in receipts and she's got receipts on her hands and she's trying to pick up things, but she can't cause she's got receipts everywhere. And I'm like, that's perfect. Like that's what I love. I I remember I did a video, I kinda wanna do another one again because it was just fun. It was like, yeah, ⁓ people ask me all the time, how do I get enough red forty? Which I understand because the government's recommended daily intake of eight hectares is a lot. So let me go through some ways of like increase her like just to kinda how like how sh just bring it to its extreme, exactly. And then people kinda laugh about it and I think that calms down the food fears a little bit when they can laugh about it, you know? And I think it's helpful to have different people address it from different ways. Cause we like we all know Dr. Jess and she comes from a from a point of like she has a PhD in nutrition and she's gonna break it down in a way that we still all understand, but that serves its purpose in very many different ways. And the way that you and Mallory address very similar topics in a different way still draws attention to those same things. But through comedy, through seeing how you know, really to the extreme people are taking it because you can really lead people to like the science and try to explain it to them in a way that makes sense for them. But sometimes you just need to have a good laugh and the laughs are how you spread the message too. I think what I noticed, you know Dr. IDS. ⁓ yeah. Yeah, yeah. Yeah. So he does a lot of the debunking stuff as well. Specific usually for nutrition is what he does. And so I wa I was watching a lot of his ⁓ videos, especially at its height. And what I kind of noticed was Like he would have a three minute long video breaking this down and then he would make one joke about it. Like the in the whole thing. And all of the comments would be talking about that joke. Like that was funny. That was great. And I'm like, hmm, can I just kind of do that? But also like She'd be like, hey, no, this isn't true, but let's laugh about it and let's have some fun. So I think people kinda get yeah, it's it's important to have both where they see like Dr. Jess or Dr. Ids or whatever kind of break it down. And then they also have like us to just kind of laugh about the absurdity of it. Yeah. I just don't want to discount the importance of that too, right? 'Cause I think it's easy to be like, No, I'm just like, you I'm making jokes, but the making jokes makes people see That like maybe they're falling for those people doing their little twirls in the grocery store or w the the fear-mongery way that they're saying things actually is speaking to their emotions rather than to the actual facts. And it just draws attention to the fact that there's different ways that people can approach coming at this misinformation online. I just wanna like give you guys the props because it's entertaining and like I said, it's a even though you're not calm, it is calming to me. I know. I yell at people to calm down, which is kind of ironic, I'm aware. But what I think helps a l what I found one of the most effective methods I found for like Mallory does this a lot. I do this a lot, is that we point out that like, you know, they're saying all of these things are terrible for you. They're saying that, you know, a farm salmon has died and blah, blah, blah, and all whatever. And then How many supplements do they have in their profile? Like how many it's just, it's always like I try and tell people like if someone is is scaring you about a food and they're also trying to get you to buy more products than, you know, a Walmart carries, then they're pro there's there's an incentive there. They're just trying to get you scared about this to go buy their thing. And I think that is something a lot of people gone, ⁓ even the people who liked that person. You know, like, ⁓ I like that person. But when you pointed out that they're selling just so many of the alternatives. ⁓ I remember what was it? With Bobby Parrish, like Flav City was one of the big ones. And I I I learned later on that they were looking into taking legal action against me. I learned from like one of the people who worked for him and they were trying to figure out what to do because my videos were getting millions of views and like his entire comment sections were just calling him out after, and all the comments were just like, I'm just waiting for that dude to call this out. Like it's it was getting ridiculo that's where like my videos really blew up was when I was talking about Flave City and people liked so I just kinda kept talking about it. And like he would always say, ⁓ you know, one of my favorites that I think I pointed out, and I think people really understood this, is when he was trying to fear monger the sugar in wine. The sugar sugar is a problem in wine. So buy this wine that has reduced sugar, and I'm like, You okay, listen, listen. Our brains run on sugar. It's it's our primary energy every all carbs are brought down in sugar. Yes, you shouldn't have too much. But you know what's like a real carcinogen? You know what's real not good for you? Like alcohol. And so he would have ⁓ promo codes for like these wines that were like low in sugar. And I'm just like, look come on. Come on, you gotta see what I'm seeing, please. And I think that kind of helped, along with pointing out that like he had like a fridge haul and it was like $800 for what like what was in his fridge because you know there was yogurt that was like 40 bucks or whatever. And I'm like, this is yeah, I think people started to realize with that. So you kind of point those things out, and even and yeah, like you said, you need the people pointing out the research and like what experts saying, blah blah blah, all of that stuff, but then also pointing out they're trying to sell you something. they're, you know, in a different league than they're they're they're they're trying to, you know, sell these really expensive products 'cause they make money and I think that helps people understand. Yeah. I mean I love my one of my favorite things is when I find a video and then I go to their link in bio, usually because I'm spending about seven minutes trying to find where their degree is from because they're calling themselves doctor, but I like don't can't tell what kind of doctor they are. Right. I know I not all chiropractors, but always a chiropractor love to my chiropractor friends who Do real work. ⁓ I talked to some good ones. There's some great ones out there. You know, and that's why I always say it's not all chiropractors, but it's always a chiropractor. When I have to click through their seven links in their bio to get to possibly at the bottom of a page somewhere on their website that tells me where their degree is in, you know, I have to scroll through about 27 different supplements and other things that they're selling. And, you know, from like a physician point of view, I am not anti supplement actually. I think there are supplements that can help treat medical conditions as long as you understand like what you are taking it for. You're do doing it under the direction of like a healthcare team. It's not just like a generalized thing that's gonna solve all your problems. It's not every supplement has evidence behind it. I you know, I talk about supplements a lot because I have conditions that do well with supplements. So I just I'm not anti supplement. But I am anti people just like selling you anything and everything to make money while at the same time demonizing the things five dollar chicken at Costco or your tortillas you were talking about the other day or cabbage leaves or whatever because they want to sell you a forty five dollar supplement that you have to take four times a day for the rest of your life for like longevity rather than like go outside and go on a walk and like go eat your Costco chicken for your protein today. Do you have a favorite thing that you've seen in someone's profile? Because recently I think I saw my favorite thing. ⁓ tell me. And that It was from a chiropractor. I know. You're shocked. I'm not I think it was like a husband and wife, like they were both chiropractors. ⁓ nice. And they both just like and she was saying that he's anti-microwave. So she was heating up food in a pan with water because, you know, radiation. Yeah. And so I ⁓ I would go to the profile and they have a they have a rancid seed oil card, which is an Allergy card that you're supposed to give to your server to let them know that you're allergic to seed oils. And it was like $25 for this card, right? It was like some around 20 bucks or something. Yeah. And it was just a little card. And I'm like, this just seems like such a fuck you to people who actually have allergies. Cause there are people who are like, they will die if they get shellfish or whatever it is. And like, this is just this is not that's not cool. Like I there's just so many things in in in the there and and that was there was like hundred there was like scorpion venom or something. Like I didn't even click on that. I'm gonna be honest. People were pointing that out. I'm like I didn't even see that at first. It would there's just so many things. There's so much nonsense that like Can you imagine being that server? Like if someone handed you that card as a server, I would be like, ⁓ I guess you can't. We don't use rancid seed oil, so we're fine. We just use a few words. You're good. Your allergies like protected here. That's not a problem. I do want to talk and like I wanna commend you for this because you shared recently a little bit about your history as a child. I thought it was really insightful to share your history in that part and I'm you know I'll let you share a little bit more about that and why you share that. But I think part of when it comes to like nutrition, especially, there's such a privilege with a lot of that. And I think at least in medicine, at least, you know, we're taught to know about your the social determinants of health and all of that, but it's really hard to address. And I think especially online, that is not talked about enough. So I would love for you just to share a little bit more about like what you shared with your audience and why you felt it was important. So yeah, I at that time that video, I believe I was talking about Wick. because there's ⁓ they were d they were trying to, they're attempting to, ⁓ it might not pass, but they were attempting to cut it, ⁓ cut a lot of it anyway. And it that was just really frustrating to me because like, okay, so yes, well as as a kid, my ⁓ my parents had me young. So my mom was born I d like I don't even know. Like she born nineteen seventy. Like I don't even know how old like so and I so yes, and I was born in ninety one. So math. Fairly young. And yeah, like she was still she was actually going to Russell Sage, which is kind of funny. I told her I'm like, I'm going back there too now. That's where I'm going. But she yeah, she we were we were broke. So I'm I plan on making a video on this because there's someone who made a video talking about ⁓ their struggle meal as a kid and my struggle meal, which I ate every single day. And I'm not jo I promise you I'm not exaggerating. I ate this every day was beans, which were Stuart's beans. They were 20 cents a can because they were the cheapest beans and it was ⁓ frozen corn that was warmed up in a pan and cottage cheese mixed together. And I ate it every single day. Cause we were broke. It was like the cheapest thing. And it and she was vegetarian too. So like kinda hit all those. And I had protein and everything. So like we just got with you know, we had food stamps, we had wick, we had, you know, all of that. You know, my dad was dealing with some things at the time. He's a lot better now, but he had his own, you know, a lot of stuff going going on in his life, some struggles. So, you know, and I see a lot of this From people, whenever like wick or food stamps, whatever gets cut, people are just like, ⁓ they're just moochers. Like they just don't want to work. I'm like, I come from a family, like we were trying, right? We were trying. It was it was just a really tough time and we were on it for a while and then we got off it and we're not on it and we're not in it anymore anymore. When I got older, I I was in school and I was working part time and I still just wasn't I had barely enough. For food and everything. So I had food stamps like a few hundred, like a couple hundred bucks a month or whatever. It helped out a ton. For again, it was only like a a year or two. Then I graduated and I did all this stuff. So I think most people are in that category where they're just struggling for whatever reason for a period. And it and that part is very frustrating to me when it's just like, ⁓ they're just moochers. I promise you, most of them are are not. And and again, like you said, this it's really not talked about ⁓ enough where like people You know, like they're they're doing what they can, but when like we have put so ⁓ Jess Dr. Jess talks about this, we put such an emphasis on corporate profits, and now we're growing like tons of corn, wheat, and soy and which are used in ultra processed foods, and now because those are subsidized, now those foods are the cheapest. So that's what people can afford. So that's what people buy. And like I totally get it. So I think it's important we ⁓ we try to address those people and say I know it's tough, but these are some things hopefully you can do to help a little bit. We're not going for perfect, we're just going for a little better. Yeah. I mean, I think, you know, we're not going for perfect and we're going for a little better. Maybe should be your new tagline. I I say what is it that w I love the ⁓ don't let ⁓ perfect be the enemy of good. I really like that one or the enemy of better or whatever you want to say. Like there's different ones, but it's just like I think so many health influencers are going for perfect. That's what they're going for. They're going for like this. Well, this has this thing. ⁓ fucking okay. But in replace of what? In replace of what is the question. They act like, it's this granola that costs three dollars or this granola that costs ten. No, that's that's not the replace no, it's this or like a candy bar, or it's this or this ram or whatever they can afford that's cheaper. So like let's work with that. And that's what's that's what I find v very frustrating. It's just like ⁓ your kids shouldn't be having these like little fruit pouches because they have this amount of phthalates or whatever was tested. Instead, they should get like simple farm. I'm like, those are like five dollars a pouch. Are you kidding me? Who can afford it? What? I mean again, it's like a from a place of place of privilege where people aren't acknowledging their own privilege. And you I see this, you know We work in different realms, but like especially with like birth control or managing painful periods or any of those things where people are like, you can just and like listen, I love like tracking cycles. Like I think that's wonderful. And I've I've used that method for myself, but that's coming from a place of privilege where you don't have irregular cycles, you don't have painful periods, you don't have endometriosis, you absolutely can't get pregnant right now. Like everyone's situations are different. And by making something so extreme, you really are basically cutting a whole group of people out and making them feel like unless you're doing it this exact way, then you are in fact harming yourself. You're harming those around you. Your future everything is ruined. So you might as well not even try. I just I like I really hate that it that part is not acknowledged and that people don't think about that part, especially because they're trying to sell you their forty seven dollars worth of supplements in their bio because that's it's much and Those things are also easier to sell. It's easier to sell you a supplement than it is to sell you eight hours of sleep, right? Like I think it doesn't matter what field we're talking about when it comes to well, a lot of things, but especially like the and all of the health field, whether it's nutrition or whatever, is it's it's black and white. You have to make it black and white because what black and white is what sells things. Like this always bad, this always good. If you go, it depends. That's not good for selling whatever you're selling. I think that's what you're always gonna see is just this black and white. Yeah. I was looking at your TikTok earlier today to look at your most popular videos of all time. And one of your top videos was had eleven million views, which is like a lot. And it's a guy who is talking about the three things that like can help with you losing fat. And I thought it was so interesting because at the end of the video, you're like, huh. Those are all very reasonable things. They were like, eat fiber, eat protein, get sleep. I know the exact video You made a video about the boring thing, but it got 11 million views. And at the end you're like, huh, I'm so surprised that that was so like normal and balanced. I know the exact video you're talking about. ⁓ is from Mulla Gaines, who's great, who's also does a lot of like fat loss stuff. He's he does a lot of things about fat loss. And It's he has like a little bottle where there's like water and there's yellow stuff coming out of it. And he's this represents you like pea leaving your body or something like that. And like these are things to speed it up. So of course that like is a good hook. But also, yes, at the time I was doing a lot of like these debunking stuff, and I saw this video. I was like, Finally, ⁓ my goodness, there's a video that's like, make sure you sleep, get more fiber, protein's probably good. And then like that's it. And I was like, This is awesome. This is like the first time I haven't been had to be like, ⁓ I don't know. You know, like people were expecting like I was expecting just to put a knife into the bottle and pour it out and be like, ⁓ just do with your b like something something weird and crazy. I'm like, no, it's actually just the the simple things and it that was really nice. That was really nice. I do exactly what you were talking about. Yeah. Well I think it 'cause I too was waiting for like the crazy thing to be said, right? And for you to like, Okay, dude, so absolutely not. And then it was like, Huh, how nice that people can actually like make a very like simple but thoughtful video and can still get your attention and have it not be absolutely like off the wall crazy. ⁓ and we need more of that actually. That's what I kinda started to do was just like try 'cause that the that stuff gets attention, right? The crazy stuff. So it's like with the debunking you take that and then you and then you kinda make fun of it and then you give people like the realistic advice. And that's what I found kind of work the best because we're all laughing. At the person, one of my favorites was a guy saying that the reason we got rid of bells after World War II is because of the resonance. When you hit a bell, you start to heal. And so it was the best. It was the best. I just I loved every second of it because it was so absurd. Yeah, it was like he's like, Look at all the bells. Why are they all cracked and broken? Because they want a sick society. When you ring the bells, that resonance heals you. I was like, this is amazing. Amazing. And I think I just played that clip from Billy Madison at the end where he was just like, I award you no points. May God have pity on your soul. Like everyone in this room is now dumber for having heard what you just said. And I just played that clip and everyone loved it. Cause it's writ it's of course it's the most absurd thing, but it's so much fun. And so you can take that and then you can kinda add on, like, all right. What do you think through what do you think the real things are that actually help us? You know, you know, I I like I do wonder what these people are thinking when they make these videos. There was a man a couple of weeks ago who was popular who was getting ⁓ stitched a in like the OBGYN's sphere about the the medical medium was, you know, a completely ⁓ made up title he gave himself. But he was going around telling people that if you get your blood drawn in pregnancy, which we do in pregnancy, you know, we do at the beginning of prenatal care, a couple of times in the middle, sometimes at the end, that that's causing miscarriages. And I'm like, how did you even come up with that? Like And now you're telling people that, you know, I think it's like similar to like our broken bells or the reason that we're all sick now. It's just like you can just say whatever you want on the internet and people will believe you. The internet because it it is what you make it, right? Like the internet is great, it brings people together, it can spread information for good or for really bad, you know, and as I it I I don't We have this idea. Okay. I think a lot of people have the idea and I understand why that like we're getting dumber, right? Like there's this idea that we're all like it's idiocracy and like I totally get it. I totally understand. But also it's just we all have a voice now and that can be a problem when everyone has a voice. Not everyone should use their voice, actually. No, like not not everyone needs to share their ideas. Yeah. Yeah. It's like every not every idea is a good idea and not everyone needs to speak on the internet. Okay. It's like everyone has a phone now. All it takes is a couple clicks and you could be in a grocery store or you could be wherever you want saying, like, hey, you know, this is terrible. This is killing you. And and the you know, like I think all those people always existed, but now you they just have a voice and that could be a problem. Well, in the past they were standing on their soapboxes on the corner, right? And so like four people heard them, but nowadays they're standing on their, you know, iPhones and like millions of people could watch and like I you I'm sure you get tagged. I know you get I've tagged you in videos, right? Where it's like, look at this crazy stuff that people are saying. But at least nowadays we can like almost shop like put up a bigger soapbox, right? Like so that's fine. You I don't know if V4 people were throwing stuff at people at the soap on the soapboxes, like the actual soapboxes on the corner, where people like standing next to them be like, This guy's lying. This isn't true. Right? Like did that happen. Like, don't listen to this guy. He's crazy. Like, were there doctors out there who are like, I can't let this crazy guy in the soapbox be outside my office? I have to go yell at everyone too. I think You think that existed? I would be a great snake oil salesman. I really I think I could be. I mean, I wouldn't be, but if I wanted to be, I think I could be a really good one, especially knowing everything I know now. Like how what works and what doesn't. Yeah. But that was so but that was was so great. If you had the guy with the slightly bigger soap box, guess what? You just leave. You just fuck off like I'm going down to the next town. No one there's no transfer of information. Now it's stuff follows you. Like, ⁓ no, Tony. Like Tony's always saying bullshit. And like everyone knows it. But you just go like just, you know, three miles over to the next town and no one knows you. Yeah. No one knows that. Same thing over again. That was so you know, at least now we can be like, Hey, no, we saw that before. Uh-uh. Yeah. ⁓ liver king. You're out. You're done. You're done. Everyone saw it. He is. He is. He's still try ⁓ he's still t ⁓ he's still trying. He's still trying. Yeah Man. Sometimes I block these people and I forget that they exist for a while, you know? Like I'm not giving you my views. Like even I don't not gonna follow you, but like the algorithm's gonna notice that I have spent like two more seconds on this video and they're gonna be like, I'm gonna show you this again. I'm like, please do not. I don't want to see it. That's a good point. I've I've s I've thought about that a lot with the like how much like when you play a video, you're giving them more attention, right? So like I do think as a net it is positive to like show it and be like, hey, this is nonsense. Like it helps. But also you are giving them a voice, even if you are telling people it's a maybe s people because people might only watch the first ten seconds, right? And then they only see that and they don't see your part calling it out or whatever. So like, you know, there there is like risk with it, but I I think as a whole, it's probably positive. I I don't know. I mean, I think it's too it's also important because each of us have a slightly different way of putting their content into our content. So like mine is always like a screen green screen behind me and I give like a little sly wink, right? And then like but I'm there so people see my face. And you do similarly where you're kind of like in the corner and you have like a big picture. Like Dr. Jess does it usually like in front of her. Like everyone has like slightly different ways. And I think that is helpful because people, especially when you have a bigger viewership like you, people are n are knowing that the next thing is coming. So it's not just like you're watching the video to give it views, but it's like, okay, but what's the response? And Dr. Jess does that a lot too. And like people know her face, they trust her and are going to wait for the follow up to hear what she has to say. So I think most people will, right? People that follow them, just for like the people that might happen to pop up or whatever who don't know them. you know, there is some they they might take the wrong thing away. But that is gonna be a smaller percentage. And again, I think is better. Also, like, whenever I'm calling out bullshit to be honest, like, I generally don't even like tag the creator or anything because I don't I don't want them going over there and like even saying things because like that's comments. That boosts the algorithm. We we don't I ship sometimes I will in like certain circumstances, but for the most part I try to just like, no, we don't need that. But I try and only Tag people where I'm like, hey, this person's giving great information. Finally, go over there. Let listen to Yeah, watch that person. How many videos a day do you think you get tagged in? Like on other stuff? Like how many mentioned? Including cottage cheese or not including cottage cheese? Okay, I'm gonna get into cottage cheese in just a second. So just in general, how many do you think? ⁓ my goodness. I would say probably like four to five hundred a day. Four to five hundred a day? ⁓ wow. I would say at least three hundred. At least three. Like probably like I am scrolling through so like it it I can't s if I don't look within like sixteen ish hours, I can't see all of them because TikTok won't even show after a certain number. And so what percentage of of those are cottage cheese videos? ⁓ it right. I guess it has it's not as bad as ⁓ the height, but it is a good like quarter, like to like twenty five percent of ⁓ But also a lot of beans, which I'm very happy for. So like It's it's it's healed my it used to be where I only got tagged in like bullshit. And that was like I'm like, I can't do this for years. I can't do this. It's just nonstop. You don't have to think. There's I'm like, I I I have to think about how miserable I am. That's all I have to think about because there's just so I'm like, I can't I can't deal with it. I need some beans, I need some other things, people giving good information, and then I take the you know, the ridiculous ones. And I talk about those. Yeah. Like lately it's all been the ⁓ like ingredients, like the length of ingredients. People talking about like, ⁓ there's so many ingredients that means it's bad. And I have to talk about like we actually kinda have strict regulations and we have to list everything and you know, all that stuff. That's been big. Or the fake foods is big. Those that's another one. Yeah. People everything's fake, you know, that sort of stuff. Yeah. I saw your video about the cottage leaves or the cottage. What am I what is the word a cabbage? The ca the fake cabbage. Yes, that was a fake cabbage. That's all plastic but doesn't melt. ⁓ yeah, of course we all know plastic. It never melts. Yeah. That's the case. Notoriously held over a flame and holds its shape. The unmeltable plastic that we all have we use all the time. Yeah, so like that sort of stuff, or the Hershey's bar that's like or you know, all these different things that have that have blown up. ⁓ have you seen the Costco ⁓ berries? ⁓ sorry, Costco blue ⁓ blue the blueberry bagels. Blueberry bagels. ⁓ what are we saying about the Costco blueberry bagels? There's no actual blueberries in it. And this is true. There's no actual blueberries. They're imitation. They even say on it, imitation blueberry bagels. And people are freaking out. Like, what do you mean there's no actual blueberry? It just looks like there's blueberries in there. And I'm like, I d like, I get where you come in from, right? Cause you expect a blueberry bagel when there's no blueberries in it. You're like, what? But also I'm like, it's for like, it's to make it cheaper. Like foods are expensive. They're trying to make an exp like imitation crab. Do you eat imitation crab? Be wait, you you're telling me it's not real? You tell this. You mean this isn't from the ocean? Yeah, like you know you know it's imitation. Like so, like that's kind of my like, ⁓ it's you know, it's just it's it's it's fake blueberry. It's just little. Also, do we recare like a blueberry bagel like with real blueberries would have like two and a half blueberries in it, right? It's not like that's a good that's not a condensed, like high ⁓ value in a bagel. It's just because you want to put like, you know, sweet cream cheese on it instead of like the salmon cream cheese. That's that's the difference between the bagel. So yeah, like there's lots of things. Like, ⁓ everything's fake, you know, that's what's big right now. But I get tagged a lot. Yeah, I would say like a few hundred a day. At least there's definitely times where it's a thousand for sure. Do you have a lot of I don't want to say haters, but you know, for me, there are you know, I I'm a l I feel a little bit more controversial in some ways. I think medicine does that to people. And so I feel over the last two years, enough people who hated me have blocked me. So actually my feed is like very warm and fuzzy to me now. But are there people who are like giving you a lot of grief in your videos? ⁓ yeah, no, I g I get ⁓ quite a bit of hate. I would say like mo I would say most of the hate though I get comes from like carnivore community. Like that sort of thing. Yeah, most of it is because you know, they are very because they're both like ultra processed food's bad, right? Obviously. All that Skittles are poison. And then also vegetables are bad for you. Like they're they're in that as well. So I get kind of the double and also soy is like the worst thing. That turns you into a woman if you're a man or whatever, you know. Gotcha. But butter by the stick is good. ⁓ depending on which one, but at least half a stick at least. Well, maybe you can work your way up to a full stick. Where do you put it in your mouth? Maybe. It just depends. ⁓ my god. ⁓ so yeah, no, there's lots of stuff with with that. So I would say a lot of it does come from that, from that community. But like it's yeah, especially me saying that like I am I am enabling people's bad habits, you know, that sort of stuff, because I say it's okay to eat like, you know, sc ⁓ Starburst or whatever it is. But ⁓ I even had one I I was talking about the woman that was doing the the the chiropractor who was doing like the seed oil card. And so like I had a woman who even like a made they're like, This is, you know, you're not even addressing the point. You're just saying they're a chiropractor. This is, you know, a diversion from the and I'm just like, listen, I think it's important we talk like, hey, the that they're let's just mention I just mentioned they're at chiropractor. I was just like, hey, you know, like, would it surprise you? Probably not. And like so I just try and point to the extreme. Do I have like really do I have to go in and and tell you that like microwaves aren't like horrible for you? Do I have to do that? I don't feel like I really do. So yeah, I I get plenty of hey, I really do. ⁓ okay. Well I'm sorry for that, for you, because it I mean it is I will say like I get asked about that a lot because I think I'm at least with like medical content creators. w I think a lot of us feel very vulnerable, especially if you're employed, you know, you don't want to draw negative attention, but there is such an anti-medicine gr vocal group of people that I think people feel very vulnerable as like medical content creators because like people report us to our jobs. Like I get reported to my job like weekly. Thank God my organization is so supportive of me and I'm so thankful for that. But you know People are really out there to give I mean, we just saw there is a PA I follow who just got fired for something from social media. Yeah, that's something I hadn't thought about, honestly. You don't have to. That sounds nice. That's I mean, yeah, I'm gonna be honest. That's my privilege. Is this like I wake up and I make beans and cottage cheese and then talk about whatever. Who are you gonna report me to? I I th this is just what this is what I do somehow. It's been very strange the past couple of years. No, I love that though. I think it's that sounds freeing, actually. You know, I'm always happy for my like medical content creator friends who are like, Yeah, report me to my boss. I'm my own boss. I'm like, ⁓ Like amazing, good for you. 'Cause like that's not the situation some of us are in. So I think some of us feel just a little more vulnerable with that. And so the hate peop like medical content creators get a l very nervous about that and I get asked about it a lot because I am vocal against people who are trying to mislead people and that makes people upset. And how do they take it out on you? They call your boss. Like it's like calling your mom. Like I'm getting called into the principal's office. I think people get upset about pretty much anything though. That's that's are people boy howdy, have people gone I Like I you know me in my videos I make a lot of jokes, right? Like I try in comedy, whatnot. I try and direct most of the jokes towards myself because like that's usually like a safe area to be. Like, you know, I'm try to like I I really try not to point the point the jokes at other people more just like their like I said, their ideas, their beliefs, that sort of stuff. But even still, yeah, ⁓ boy ha I've people have gotten mad at me. for just anything and like I have a list of things where I thought I listen, I l I thought funny, okay? There was ⁓ I had a little piping bag and they're like, you know, you have to stip the tip off. I was like, and you know, you stip the tip and I'm like, it reminds me of when I was born. Like, come on, that's a little, you know, that's a little funny. And I had people they're like, genital mutilation isn't funny. And I'm like, ⁓ god damn, like I can't even You're like what do I do? You can't even make a joke. I can't even make a joke about a joke. About my I can't even talk it. My circumcision about that, okay? I didn't decide this for myself. ⁓ it was just so s like you know, that my point is just like, yeah, it doesn't really matter what you do, people are always gonna find something to be upset about. Even if it's a silly joke about something that you think is really dumb. So I've gotten to the point where I'm like, as long as I think it's, you know, funny and it's not pointing the I'm not pointing the the laughter at a an individual, like another individual. I am pointing ⁓ some laughter at the concept that you're portraying here though. And like if you happen to be caught up in that, like that's on you. That's not so much on me, but right. Like these beliefs that they have are just totally absurd. So let's just laugh ab you know, let's absolutely laugh about ⁓ Right. Yeah. The crack and bells is why we're all sick. So that makes like that's funny. That's great. I love that. Like ⁓ you know, there's the people that are like, ⁓ what's the craft singles? You know, it's not real cheese. There's like a guy with a lighter trying to light it on fire in a store. In the grocery store. Like he opened it up in the grocery store and like started like trying to light it up. But can you light up real cheese? Like what is a real Okay. I was like, I don't think that that like turns on fire either. Like, what do you mean? Also, like anyone eating a craft single knows that that's not real cheese and I love that about it, right? Like I love a little snack of a craft single that It makes it grilled cheese. We're not eating it because it's the healthiest Diane. Come on, help us out a little bit. Yeah, I'm not th this wasn't imported from like France, and I know that, and I love that about it. So it's okay. ⁓ my god. All right. I want to get a little rapid fire with you. Yeah. What's your favorite bean? Favorite bean? There's so many good ones. ⁓ Yeah, but you to choose. I have to choose a favorite bean. Yeah. ⁓ I usually ask the doctors what their favorite vaccine is. So I can ask you that instead if you'd rather. The one with beans in it. ⁓ I d I don't know if I have a f ⁓ I I'm gonna go polio and then and then also pinto 'cause it sounds like polio a little bit. All right. So your favorite vaccine is the polio vaccine, your favorite bean is the pinto bean. I'm gonna just go with pinto 'cause it's also a car and like it's other things and like so I think that's back to the cars. Got it. I don't I'm not a car guy. I wanna make that very clear. Not a car guy here, okay? I don't know anything. I don't even know what a transmission is. I'm gonna be perfectly honest with you. When people are just like, You need a new Johnson rod, I'm like, sure, I'll pay ⁓ for it. I get two I get duped very easily. I don't know. The inside story for that, because that was before we started recording, is that Leah made a joke about the DeLorean and I confuse that with the Mandalorian. I want more David Hasselhoff and here we are now. Yeah, I don't I haven't seen the movie. It'll be funny if I drive it around people think I see the movie. That's the whole bit. And I want that bit in my life. That's all I want anyway. Okay. What is the weirdest way that you have seen someone use cottage cheese? The weirdest so does can an April Fool's Day joke count? Well, you can tell us that one, but then I still want to hear the other one. ⁓ so there's a guy like I so he he does a lot of these recipe. If yeah, bit, bit, bit, and there's like three things. And so he was like Make some ⁓ dip and dots cottage cheese and you know you rinse it off and you freeze it and you eat it. And it was posted on April Fool, so obviously it was a joke, but like I had to do I did it anyway, because I commit to the bit. That is what I do. And I was like, ⁓ boy guys, I'm so excited to try the new dip and dots flavor. And then I've eaten it's like, ⁓ no, it's so bad. ⁓ you know, that sort of thing. ⁓ but the worst actual one is I ⁓ smear case, which why would you name your company that? Why would you What is it? That seems like something you deal with. That seems like smear case seems like something you were ⁓ and now we get the smear case. ⁓ yeah. I the cap smears, right? That cap smear, that's what I'm saying. That's what a of the comments were like. Hey, like that sounds like something I get at the gynecologist. That's a lot of the comments I got from that video. I didn't get tagged in that video, so disappointing. I n you should have because yeah, smear case makes cottage cheese ice cream. ⁓ it's made out of it's made out of cottage cheese. They sent it to me. There's chocolate, there's peanut butter, there's all these things. I tried it. How does it taste? Have you ever thought to yourself, Fran, man, I wish cottage cheese just re was really grainy and hard to dig a spoon into and also cheesy in a bad way. Have you ever thought that to yourself? I mean I have now, so now I know how to So now that you've thought about that, what you should do is go and order some because that's exactly what it I left it out for ten minutes, and it was literally a rock. Like I couldn't even get it get I couldn't get a spoon into it because it's yeah, there's like no fat cause the fat content's so low. And so I and it tastes just like so grainy. Like and then there's that cheesy background that hits you and not like a cheesecake way, not a good, like you know, that's like a real cheesy flavor. And I was like, This is horrible. Then another video blew up and I got tagged legitimately over a thousand times. I was like, I've tried it, and they commented me, like, we got a new supplier, we have this new thing, so can we send it to you? And I was like, I told them, I like, No, no, no. Supplier is not the problem. The problem is you made ice cream out of cottage cheese. So if you change that, then send me some more with actual like ice cream ingredients. With whole milk in it. With milk and cream and sugar. Yes. Yeah, it's it's it's so bad. I've but ⁓ cottage cheese brownies. I've tried many of those, cottage cheese ⁓ chocolate lava cakes. They're all off any stop making it into sweet things. It's a s it's a great savory option if you're making your like Burger bowls with sweet potatoes and you want to add some cottage cheese, dope. That's great. Do that. Yeah. Put it on toast. Make pizza. I don't know. Whatever. Yeah. Just stop putting in desserts. Do you have a favorite like company of cottage cheese? Like not sponsored, obviously. ⁓ well, to ⁓ so to be fair, I've worked with good culture multi like a f I've worked with them a few times in a few videos because ⁓ even before then I was like, this is my favorite cottage cheese, this is the best. And they reached out to me and I was like It's the b this is my favorite. They reach I was like, ⁓ totally. Like I've only taken I think three sp like th maybe three sponsors in my years of doing this. It was like cottage, it like Good Culture Beyond because I eat a lot of the meat alternatives and like one or two other things. So yeah, like ⁓ so yeah, when they reach out I like, Yes, totally. And I still work with them pretty much to this day 'cause I I love that's my favorite cottage cheese. It's so good. But if If you're broke though, like hey, store brand, go for it. Like I've I listen, I I will get a Hannaford brand all the time. Like it's it's great. Absolutely. Who are your three favorite content creators right now? ⁓ man, there's so many, like there's so many great people out there. It's I kind of want to do there's like I'm I'm thinking like, do I talk about like the the like in like the health? I'll just kinda like stick to the like the health space, the nutrition space. I kinda wanna do that because I feel like that's where I'm in. But like I don't know if there's something so like obviously ⁓ that we talked about Mallory. I love Mallory. She's great. She did really does, I think, a great job. We've done some skits together. We made like an RFK Health Center. Have you seen that? If you haven't seen that, I gotta send you that. We did ⁓ L RFK's Health Spa, where she comes in and I'm like, welcome to RFK's health spa. Are you in jeans? I'm shirtless in jeans, obviously. Because you have to be shirt when that's our first line. It's like you have to be shirtless in RFK's health spa, obviously. And we only play kid rock. Like it was So yeah, that sort of stuff. So I love Mallory. And I also love ⁓ Zach, who's ⁓ Zach Cohen is a dietitian. He was one of the people I definitely like looked up to when I started making content. ⁓ and s cause he did a lot of he did some of the call out, but like a lot of recipes, and they were always focused on being like affordable. And I really appreciated that. So ⁓ I I talk to him now, like we text back and forth, which is super cool. And there's sh I mean there's just so many other people that I like though that ⁓ I I guess I'll just I doctor doctor I'm gonna say Dr. Jess and Dr. It's together. I like both of I love both of them. It's like hard 'cause you're like, ⁓ my god, I love all my friends. Like and ⁓ know, I always try to like uplift all my friends and like talk about my friends, but then like you're like But who, like when their video comes up, will I watch their videos every time? Like I feel like I know them. I don't know if you've met a lot of other content creators, but the parasocial relationship you have with each other is always like a little odd. Like, you know, someday when I'm in your neck of the state and we meet each other, I'm gonna like, Well, I feel like I know you, but I've never met you. And that is like a very weird experience actually. It's weird meeting like fans in in person 'cause they're like, What ⁓ and I was like, Yeah, I don't know, I'm just a guy. Like it's it's that's always been like kind of learning that is like meeting fans in in person has been interesting. Yeah. For me it's hard because I'll go like round on patients postpartum and I'll walk in and they're like Dr. Fran. I'm like, Hi, it's Dr. Heydanik. How you doing? Like, how you feeling today? And they're like, ⁓ my God, I follow you on Instagram. And I it's so sweet and I love it so much. But I'm always like, I think it probably throws them off a little bit that they're in their like postpartum recovery room. And then this girl will walk in who they've seen on the internet and are kind of like there's people who like don't know I work in their hospital system. Right. So then like I'll walk in, they're like I didn't know you worked here. I'm like, here I am. How you doing? How's your bleeding? So anyway, yeah, no, I I totally understand that. Well, it's a lot weird because me, they just meet me. I was at the coffee shop the other day and someone looks at me and they just stare for a second and they go, Beans? And I'm like, yeah, beans. I just wanted beans. Yeah. It was that was like that was my one of my favorite things where they just go, Beans? Like that would Yes, absolutely. But you understand what they meant. That's like the funniest part of that. You're like, Yeah. I had another time I was eating ice cream at a a really good ice cream place. It was like graters. And someone walks by and goes, Is that cottage cheese flavored? And I'm like, Thankfully, no. Like there's definitely times like that that are that are pretty that are pretty funny. But yeah, I don't know. I love I love all my friends. And then like on social, I I probably don't even what's weird is like I don't even watch that much Unlike short form. ⁓ I really have to say Hank Green. I really got to like Hank Green up there. Like I watch him all the time. I watch his long form, probably even more than his short form. Anytime he has a long form video, I always watch those. So that's definitely one of my favorites. Yeah. Speaking of long form versus short form, where you are in several different places doing several different things. So I'd love for you just to share where everyone can find you in all those places. So I'm usually at your local grocery store buying cottage cheese. So just go to the dairy section and then check out the can section for the beans. And I'll be one of those. And the frozen food section for the cottage cheese ice cream. Why I th I I'm just so like why anyway. ⁓ so no, I on most platforms I go by the plant slant. ⁓ I learned Yeah, could you quickly explain why that is? Yes. I got into the I like the blue zones. Now obviously I know there's a lot of talk about the blue zones and they're like, they're fake, those people aren't actually that old. But I'm like, listen, it's still like good ideas. The ideas behind them stress less, have community, you know, move your body. Like all I still have all the ideas. And their diet is focused on plants or slanted towards plants. Which is yes, they was like the pl so it was called the plant slant. Their diet is the plant slant. And I was like, I don't know, I that's mu my diet is. So people wait which caused even more confusion because now people are like, ⁓ you're vegan or vegetarian. Like, no, I'm not vegan, I'm not vegetarian, I'm not pescatarian. It's just like mostly plants and then sometimes animal products occasionally. And so that's caused a lot of confusion. But that's why I'm the plant slant. And then except for Facebook, because I am Liam Leighton there and I started posting there on my own personal because I was like, no one's gonna watch this. And then they did, and now I have like a million followers there, and it's very weird. Well, thank you so much for being here. I love hearing more, like getting to know you, hearing what you're doing, hearing what you believe in. I want people who want some humor and all of this to follow you because we all need a little bit of not calm to calm ourselves. So thank you for being here. I will yell at you to calm down, no problem.