Summary:

Alex Rhodes, owner of Humanimal, a company that produces organ supplements, was interviewed on Wellness Your Way. Rhodes is passionate about the connection between nutrients and mental health and believes that organ meats should be a nutritional staple due to their high concentration of essential nutrients. She explained that different organs have different nutrient profiles and can support different bodily functions. For example, liver is high in vitamin A and can boost energy, making it beneficial for those with low moods, while a blend of organs can provide more general support. Rhodes also emphasized the importance of sourcing from healthy, happy animals and being transparent about the ingredients in their products. She recommended incorporating movement and meditation into daily routines for overall wellness.

Full Episode:

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Transcription:

Megan Lyons:

Thank you so much, Alex Rhodes for coming on Wellness Your Way. I am very excited to have you here.

Alex Rhodes:

Thank you, Megan. I’m very excited to be here.

Megan Lyons:

Of course. Well, why don’t you start by just telling our audience a little bit about you.

Alex Rhodes:

Okay. Well, I am super passionate about nutrients and mental health. I feel like that’s kind of my wheelhouse and what I do. I own my own business and a future psychiatry student. I think I’ve done everything backwards, open to the business, got interested in the subject, and now I’m going to go to school for that.

Megan Lyons:

It sounds like a perfect path to me. I think there’s no backwards,

Alex Rhodes:

No backwards, no backwards. So yeah, that’s just a little bit about me.

Megan Lyons:

Amazing. So you’re passionate about organs now and mental health and you will have such an exciting future ahead of you, but let’s talk about the now. Your current passion is developing this amazing supplement line of organs. Now when I say that some of the audience is like, oh yeah, I’ve heard about organs. They’re super healthy, I think I should be taking them. And then some of them are like organs. Are you talking like animal organs? So let’s just start at the basics. Why are organs important? Let’s start there.

Alex Rhodes:

I think first and foremost, we have eaten organs for thousands of years. Bovine organs of all kinds, not specifically beef, but that’s what I use in my products. And I think that over time, due to palate changes and particularly highly processed foods as they have started to emerge, the consumption of organs has really declined. And I think that a lot of that has to do with obviously societal standards, some parental modeling. The great Depression probably played a pretty big part in that shift. And so I think that beef organs are a staple and should be a nutritional staple because they are like nature’s multivitamin and so many multivitamins now are lab synthesized. And not that that can be necessarily a super terrible thing sometimes, but I do think that the body is, and there’s been tons of research on the body is more adept to process a whole food.

It’s like, oh, I need a little of this and a little of that. And I think that we sort of consider micronutrients just vitamins and minerals, and I think it’s so much more than that. I mean, you’ve got amino acids, enzymes, vitamins, minerals, and so I think we’ve done a poor job of educating people in the requirements for, we focus on mental health, so I’ll use neurotransmitters as a kind of a blanket term. Those are your feel good hormones. They kind of run everything. They run your mood, your sleep, your immunity, your digestion. And it’s all created in the gut. But the co-factors or precursors and the necessary nutrients to do those processes are basically all found in beef organs. And so that’s kind of where Humanimal was born.

Megan Lyons:

Yes, absolutely. It’s such a shame that we have just thrown away metaphorically, but also literally the most important or most nutrient dense organ in the whole animal. And we’re like, Ugh, liver. Who would eat that? Let’s take the muscle meat when nutrient wise we’re missing out on so much. And I love how you said it’s not just vitamins and minerals. Those are important, but also the amino acids, all the other components in there, and these are all contained in organs. That’s just fascinating.

Alex Rhodes:

Yeah, it is truly fascinating.

Megan Lyons:

Yes. I saw a statistic, it might be from your website I think is probably where I got it, which is 92% of Americans are vitamin deficient. Is that true?

Alex Rhodes:

Yes. That is a scientific evidentiary statement

Megan Lyons:

That is brutal. And just like you said, because we’re eating so much ultra processed food, even if they’re fortifying with, I don’t know, calcium or vitamin D or something like that, the way we utilize those artificially created fortified vitamins is just so different than consuming the real thing. So thank you for making it a little bit more palatable. And I’d love to dive into nervous system regulation. You said that’s one of your specialty areas. So how are organs and nervous system regulation connected?

Alex Rhodes:

I think there’s kind of a long process through this, but we believe and we’re going to die on this hill that organs they have. When we talked a little bit about co-factors and the necessary micronutrients for neurotransmitter production, we’re going to die on the hill that we think that we don’t have the nutrients to produce those neurotransmitters any longer. And so that’s leading to things like depression and anxiety, and I think it’s a lot more common now than it used to be. So for instance, we used to have mental hospitals were for somebody that had anxiety. So I would say the average human experiences anxiety at some point or another, high stress, we’re just in a different environment than we used to be. And so if you could imagine, I mean, could you send somebody to a psychiatric facility for anxiety today? Probably

Megan Lyons:

Not, unless it was extremely debilitating.

Alex Rhodes:

Unless it was extremely debilitating. And so I just think that that is the gap in our history. And so I think it starts, the microbiome is a huge, it’s a huge and important factor. I think that for the microbiome, and to get it started, you need amino acids which are readily found in meat, organ meats, and predominantly there and complete amino acids. And so you think of also there’s B six, which is highly involved in the process of, it’s like the most commonly used nutrients in neurotransmitter production. So I think the first step obviously is addressing your microbiome. And I think eating more protein does that sort of naturally. Now if you are deeper, if you have a chronic illness or maybe a parasitic infection or something along those lines, that can be a tougher road. But I think for the average person who just suffers with a little anxiety or gets in a really low mood that just eating more protein and including organ meats can really jumpstart that journey to feeling optimally better.

Megan Lyons:

That’s really great. I love the emphasis on eating more protein because I would say 90% of especially the women, really all genders, but especially women in my practice who are looking to maybe lose some weight feel better overall, 90% of them are under consuming protein, and it’s so important for so many functions. It’s great that you’re connecting that to neurotransmitters. I wonder if you have any comments on the differences in amino acids between more protein, which is like chicken breast and organ meats. And what I mean there is a chicken breast does have a complete protein, meaning it has all amino acids, but is the concentration different there versus organ meats?

Alex Rhodes:

For sure, for sure. So I’ll use serotonin because it’s one of the most common ones. One of the co-factors is tryptophan. And tryptophan is actually found in the highest concentration in nature in beef liver amongst all muscle meats. So if you put muscle meats and organ meats on a spectrum, you’re going to go least nutrient dense to most nutrient dense. It’s not that this doesn’t have any nutrients, but the organ meats are going to have way more. And so it makes, I sometimes even when I have vegans or vegetarians reach out to me sometimes because they’re just feeling down poor. I always tell them, first of all, organ meats are something that is generally thrown away or sold overseas or anything of that nature. And so the most ethical way I think to eat meat is to start with organ meats. And so you’re talking about a vegetarian or vegan spectrum and coming into this, but yeah, the concentrations and you get more bang for your bug. So if you’re a vegan or vegetarian and you’re like, I can’t think about chewing on meat, my first thing would be like, you should take an organ meat supplement. Yes. It’s like the gateway into everything really. Just being more mindful of your eating patterns and just feeling sharper and being more present in your daily life.

Megan Lyons:

Yeah, that’s a great point. I remember I started this business in 2014, so it must’ve been maybe 2015 or 16 early on. And I had someone who had been vegan for maybe three years or so, and she just knew in her body, and we knew from her testing that she needed more nutrients, and so she was willing to incorporate some organ meats, but she just really couldn’t stomach eating a plate of liver. And so what I suggested at the time was liver ice cubes, blend up some liver and put it in an ice cube tray and put those in her smoothie, and she did it, and she actually felt better. So that’s amazing. But goodness knows the average person is not going to do that. It’s kind of gross to put liver in your own blender. So thankfully there are other products out there like yours that are making that process a lot easier.

Alex Rhodes:

That’s where I started, honestly. Really. Yes. So sort of a little bit of background of my own personal health journey, which I should also side note just for the listeners, everybody’s journey is different and it is a process. It takes time. Even me where I am at, there are still things. I tortured my body for 27 years. I was a hundred pounds overweight at one point. I was on hypothyroid medication for seven years. I lived out of the country and had a parasite and salmonella and would put on multiple rounds of antibiotics. When you have this compacted history, there’s no just fixing it overnight, but I think it’s just important to remember that the journey is worth it along the way. But that’s where I started whenever I also had a grandma mal seizure in 2021. So that’s kind of where all of this whole journey for me started. And I had been vegan previously, and that’s when I was diagnosed hypothyroid and started taking levothyroxine. Through that journey, I really just started, I focused in on my health and started bodybuilding, which was beneficial for a get more whole foods in perspective, but also very not beneficial for a, I think even for a nutrient perspective, because you’re reaching for the leanest meats and stuffing yourself with highly processed protein powder. And so there were beautiful parts of it, but there were also parts of it that I was like, huh, looking back, I’m like, oh.

And so that led me into, I was bodybuilding and competing at the time when I had my seizure, and after that I was just like, I’ve got to change something. I was 26. Wow. I’m like, I’m 26 years old. There’s no way I should be almost dying on a street in Tulum, Mexico. And I was like, there has to be something. Yes. So I kind of went on this whole healing journey in general, trying to get my anxiety under control, trying to figure out what foods make me feel good, working through sugar addictions and all of these things that we’ve been modeled and taught through life into this place where I was talking to two people. One was, I would say mostly meat based. So ate a lot of meat, ate some other things like maybe fruit or some vegetables, a very small amount, but also ate raw liver every day. So I had this one person, she’s like, come on, join me. And I mean, let me tell you, she was exquisite looking. I was like, your skin, how do you do that? And then I had another lady who was like, oh, vegan is the answer.

And it not, she is on her own journey, but she was overweight and kind of like her skin looked dull and she didn’t seem happy to me. So I have this one person who is vivacious and just full of light, and then I have this other person who is highly educated, way more intelligent than maybe I will ever be,

But telling me vegan is the answer. And so I flip flopped back and forth between the two of them, and I was still on my thyroid meds at the time, and I ended up inviting the girl who ate raw liver every day over to my house. And I was like, stay with me for two weeks and teach me what you do. And so she came, she brought her dog, we meditated and did all the fun stuff, and she showed me how she ate. And so I started doing that and almost, I mean, when I say immediately, I think I started experiencing severe anxiety when I would take my meds maybe on day four after eating an ounce or two of raw liver every day. And I think it took maybe 10 days for me to just stop taking my meds completely. And so when I say it’s the hill I will die on, it’s the hill I’ll die on. I think that it’s a foundational part of what we are missing.

Megan Lyons:

Yes.

Alex Rhodes:

What our health is missing.

Megan Lyons:

Thank you so much for sharing that part of your story. I’m sorry you’ve had to go through that winding journey to get here, but goodness, thank you for turning it into good for so many people.

Alex Rhodes:

Yeah. Oh, I feel like now it’s my life’s mission.

Megan Lyons:

Yes. Amazing that you’ve been able to recognize that. So cool that you felt the difference right away. It’s like your body saying to you, yes, Alex, this is what you needed. You found it. And then I’m not telling anyone to go off of their thyroid medication in four days, but it’s cool that you were able to do that, and everyone else should listen to their bodies as well. Yeah,

Alex Rhodes:

Yeah, yeah, for sure. For sure. Awesome.

Megan Lyons:

Oh, I so love it. So I think hopefully most of the audience doesn’t relate to your exact story, but very many pieces of it are relatable to a lot of people with this anxiety, this nervous system dysregulation, this feeling of something’s off in my body, I need this medication. All of that stuff is super relatable. So why do you think so many of us need all of this support these days? Part of it is the lack of organ meats. Are there any other parts to why we’re in this state?

Alex Rhodes:

Oh, yeah. I hate for it to be the way that it is, but I just think, think there’s a statistic somewhere that says that 60% of the food that we eat in America is not food. It’s a food like substance. And so something that I’ve learned along the way on this journey is I used to ignore things on the ingredients list like gel and gum or xantham gum or all of these kind of weird ingredients that you can’t really pronounce. And no matter if it is a whole food plus those things, as soon as they’re added, it is no longer a whole food. It’s a food-like substance.

And so I think that has been a huge journey for myself, but also something that I see that’s super common. People go in and they pick up beef jerky and it’s got 70 ingredients. It may have beef in it, but it is certainly not the form of a whole food of beef itself. And so I think that that holds us back quite a bit. I think the lack of regulation in the food industry really is disheartening. I will even say nothing against Whole Foods, I shop there because sometimes they have the best that I can get in my area, but they talk about, I think they ban 260 food additives, but if that doesn’t tell you how many things we allow into our food.

Megan Lyons:

Yes.

Alex Rhodes:

260 additives off list is not enough. That’s just a step above Walmart. And honestly, it’s not that Walmart doesn’t have options and it’s honestly not that Whole Foods doesn’t have options either, but we as the consumer really have to pay attention to the things that we put into our bodies because it really does affect us. And even if I tell my dad this all the time, I put him on a carnivore diet probably a year and a half ago now. He lost 30 pounds. He was feeling amazing doing all this stuff. And then slowly but surely things crept back in. He wanted candy at the movies and just started kind of, I’m carnivore ish, I’ll be honest. I don’t do that. But if it works for some people, it does. But I think that the point that I’m trying to make is that my dad just called me the other day and he’s like, honey, I just dunno why my stomach’s hurting, or I’m just not feeling as good as I was feeling.

And I had to point out to him that it’s a cumulative effect, even if it doesn’t hurt in that moment, it has a lasting ripple effect in life. And so trying to tell somebody it is about the quality of life you live, you want to feel energized and clear and present and remember your life or I mean, you can go the other way and yeah, maybe you would live a long life, but would it be as fulfilling as it would have been if you paid attention to the things that you ate and respected your body and its signals?

Megan Lyons:

I could not agree more. There are unfortunately no guarantees in life, even for those of us who try really hard with nutrition. But I know for sure that I feel so much better focusing on my nutrition every day, and I believe it will help my longevity and my quality of life. So why wouldn’t I do that? I feel the same as you. It’s such a gift to know what works well for your body. It’s hard sometimes for me to understand, although I do, because I’ve worked with enough people to know that there are just so many other situations that make it hard. But at a surface level, it’s like, ugh, what a gift to know what’s right for my body.

Alex Rhodes:

Yeah, truth. Truth. And I tell people all the time, I do, I feel like I lean more towards a carnivore diet because that’s how my body operates the best. Now we’ll also break down. So we do what’s called a mood based diet. So more highly anxious people tend to do better on more raw fruits and vegetables and sort of a more carbohydrate focused diet. And then people with depression and lower moods tend to do better on a carnivore, lower carb, lots of saturated fat type of diet. And so I totally forgot what I was going to say there.

Megan Lyons:

Well actually that’s really interesting. It leads me into another question, which may or may not be what you were going to say, but when your team reached out to me and I was fortunate to try the product, the first thing they asked was, do you tend towards the anxious side? And I was like, absolutely yes. And they said, okay, well this specific product is for you. And to be honest, I don’t know why they chose that. So can you tell us within your product line, how do you determine if someone’s a little more anxious, which organs or which blend would be right for them?

Alex Rhodes:

So all beef organs have different nutrient profiles, and liver specifically is really high in vitamin A. And with the combination of iron and a few other energy enhancing micronutrients, it can really, if you’re a highly anxious person, make you more anxious and more hype. Interesting. But if you have a lower mood like depression or anything like that, you really would benefit from that boost in energy. And so I am like you more highly anxious, and I definitely, if I take too much liver, I’m like that somebody sitting on my chest feeling

Megan Lyons:

Yes, interesting

Alex Rhodes:

Will hit me. And so I think something that’s been not talked about in the organ meats community in general is that different organs are better for different things. I do think that there, so there is liver in our beef organ blend, but there’s a lot less. So there’s a lot less of that energy producing. I don’t know why I keep getting these stuff

Megan Lyons:

The thumbs up,

Alex Rhodes:

But a lot less of these energy producing micronutrients and they’re more of a general support. I also dunno why that keeps popping up.

Megan Lyons:

That’s okay. It’s all good. So I love what you’re saying here with the energy producing that’s more the liver. What are some of the more grounding organs that are in that beef organ blend?

Alex Rhodes:

So in the beef organ blend, we have kidney, heart, liver, pancreas, and spleen. And so spleen is super high in iron, but without that vitamin A, it doesn’t take you into that, oh, I think I need to clean the whole house today. Mood and heart is super dense in Cottin. And so if you think of all of, I like to think of beef organs as general support. So in ancestral nutrition we used for, so if somebody had a heart condition, they would eat heart because it has all of the micronutrients that our heart is made of in it. And so it is naturally going to support those organs. In the same way beef liver is going to support your detoxification pathways because that’s the responsibility of the liver. And so this is where quality for us comes into play. As well as that we make sure that all of our animals are happy and healthy because if it’s a not healthy cow, they may not have the enzymes for liver detoxification that a healthy cow would. And so we definitely are woo woo in our energetic sense where we believe that we need happy, healthy animals, not sick animals.

Megan Lyons:

Well, I’m grateful for that woowoo ness. I would not want to take concentrated organs from a cow who was not happy and who was fed, who knows what and who was living in very poor conditions. So I think that’s extremely important. And I’m sure as a supplement provider that comes with extra costs for you and it would be easier not to do that. But I’m really grateful that you’re putting emphasis there.

Alex Rhodes:

Yeah, for sure. For sure. And it’s something about the supplement industry that I feel like everyone should know is that in 2008 there was a test across supplements, Jen, and I think something like, and I could be making this up, I don’t remember the exact numbers, but something astronomical, like 60% of supplements contained zero of what they claimed was in the capsule.

Megan Lyons:

Brutal.

Alex Rhodes:

I know. So when I started this journey, I kind of was like, woof, that’s a hard pill to swallow literally. And so something that we have tried so hard to do is be super transparent about where our organs come from and we can trace certain lot numbers back to the actual farms that they came from. And we do our best to make sure that everybody knows what they’re eating and that there are no hidden ingredients because I think a lot of people have lost hope in the supplement industry. It doesn’t work. But I also think there are supplements that have been very effective but have a hidden ingredient in it, like a amphetamine or something of that nature. And so the supplement industry is, it’s a tough one.

Megan Lyons:

Yeah, look where you wound yourself up, but again, doing so much good. So I almost can’t imagine someone out there is listening and they’re like, oh no, I don’t struggle with anxiety or depression. But there are those rare unicorns out there. What are some other reasons why we might look into organ support, maybe mood or digestion or sleep or immune function hit on any of your favorite other reasons?

Alex Rhodes:

Yeah, I feel like digestion is certainly one we kind of touched on earlier, the gut microbiome and microbiota. It’s a very intricate system and the gut brain axis that you, that gut brain connection that you’ve probably heard of elsewhere, it involves your immune system, your endocrine system, your nervous system. And we’re dying on the hill of nervous system as we have discussed, but it affects so much more than that. Hormones and immunity are a huge piece of that. And so if you look at the microbiome as a basis of controlling all of those systems, even sleep neurotransmitters are also involved in every single one of these processes. But I think that digestion is a huge, huge, huge one. And we sort of talked about protein is for sure a step one in the right direction.

Megan Lyons:

Yes. Amazing. So we got the thumbs up again. Got it. Again. So now everyone listening has something they’re anxious or depressed or poor digestion or sleep or whatever else, and they’re all interested and they’ve heard you talk about your quality of products. Tell us a little bit about how you would recommend someone take your products. Is it you cycle it, you try different products, you choose one and you take it forever. What’s the best way to take your products?

Alex Rhodes:

So we have three products in our product line. Liver is the first one, and it’s just beef liver, and then the beef organs that we touched on earlier with the kidney, heart, pancreas, spleen and liver. And then we have a bone and bone marrow blend. And so I personally take a combination of all three of them. So if I were to suggest one for everyone, I would have to say bone and marrow because to support the integrity of your gut lining, you have to have full spectrum collagen. And I mean you don’t have to have full spectrum, but we kind of talked about in the beginning it’s much more efficient to have a whole food as opposed to a lab synthesized or even lab, I don’t even know how you distilled, I don’t even know how you would describe it, but it’s like maybe was a food, but now it’s a powder but not a powder that you can rehydrate into food. Again, it’s just a powder that’s going to dissolve.

And so bone and marrow for sure. I think everyone needs, I think we have such structural gut health issues as it is that I think that if you’re in the 92%, you should for sure take bone and marrow. And then I think the other ones are, like I said, dependent on mood. Obviously taking beef organs is not going to give you that. Taking the beef organs themselves, that’s going to be a long-term process that may take you three to six months to see really significant results. Although obviously I saw significant results. It kind of depends on where you are.

And so if you have a lower mood, I always recommend doing the liver and the bone and marrow together. So to support that structural gut lining and then to have that energy spark that maybe I want to get out of this and maybe I want to take baby steps into living a healthier life. And then for those that are highly anxious, definitely I recommend the opposite, so the bone and marrow and the beef organs. And then as you sort of take them over time, you can actually kind of do your own regime. So like I said, I take all three of them in different doses. And so I take one beef liver because an anxious person and I take three beef organs and I take one to two bone and marrow. And so sometimes if I notice my skin or digestion being off or my nails being kind of not as strong as they usually are, I’ll incorporate more bone and marrow. If I notice that my energy levels are kind of low and I’m just kind of down, I’ll incorporate more beef liver. But I most generally stay pretty balanced at the amount that I do. And so that’s what I really love about our products specifically, is there’s a really balanced way to figure out what regime works best for you.

Megan Lyons:

That’s really great. I love the way you describe the differences. It I’m sure will help people slot themselves into a good intro point. Maybe they want to try one to start out and then they can build and flex from there.

Alex Rhodes:

Absolutely.

Megan Lyons:

Okay. So I think we have so much more to learn about organs, but as we close it down, I would love to just hear one or two other things that are in your personal routine that you do that make you feel really great. Just so we can give the audience some additional tips.

Alex Rhodes:

I’ve been through so many different things. Exercise is certainly one of the things that for sure I cannot go without. There have been phases in my life where I’m like, oh, I need to be flexy. So I do more mobility training or I’ve never really gotten into yoga, but I will do flexibility, mobility, training or weight way of training, which I also love. But I definitely think whatever fits, if it fits, it sits. If you like dance, go dance, just anything to move your body. I think that we were designed to move. Yes. And so I think that’s number one. Number two, something that’s in my daily routine for meditation, whether that’s, sometimes I sit down and I think a lot of people have talked about this and they’re like, you should have no thoughts. It should be quiet in your brain and you should be able to easily just slip down into that. No, there are some mornings I’ll sit down for three minutes and I’m like, today’s not the day. But there’s also a lot of power in just observing the thoughts and not being the thoughts. And so I think that that really helps me carve out my day and just have the best outlook on life that I can.

Megan Lyons:

That’s amazing. I love it. As another highly anxious person, I struggled to get into meditation, but just like you, I love it. I also struggled to get into yoga, and I encourage you, although I totally agree that there’s not one right thing for everyone, but try it. I hated yoga at the beginning and now I do it once a week almost without fail because it really compliments my other workouts and the other things I do for my mental health. I don’t think I’ll ever be the person who does yoga seven days a week, and that’s just it for me. But that once a week has really helped me.

Alex Rhodes:

I’m going to try it now. I’m so open.

Megan Lyons:

Amazing. Well, like I said, I am sure the audience wants to learn more, so if you could direct them to where they can learn more about your products, you information, anything you want to share.

Alex Rhodes:

Okay. Well, our website, it’s shop Humanimal.com. If human animal is hard to spell, you can just go to I eat organs.com. Interesting. That’ll take you to our homepage.

Megan Lyons:

I don’t think Humanimal is hard to spell, but I guess I can see how people might get confused. Not a regular word in our language. I happen to think. It’s a very creative company title and I am thinking aside from the intro that we haven’t even said the name of your brand until right now. So Humanimal, yay. Shop Humanimal.com, or I eat organs.com. That was the other one.

Alex Rhodes:

Yep, that was the other one. Okay. And the Instagram handle’s also going to be Shop Humanimal.

Megan Lyons:

Amazing. Well, you’re putting out great information and great quality products, and I very much appreciate you doing the hard work you do as well as coming on Wellness Your Way and sharing your insights today. Thank you.

Alex Rhodes:

Thank you, Megan. It’s been such a pleasure.

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