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If you’ve been listening for long, then you know I am a big believer in bone broth. From its gut-healing properties to its nutrient-dense profile, bone broth is always something I have around for sipping or adding to recipes. 

I’ve been making my own broth for years but as we all know, sometimes it’s nice to have some stocked and ready-to-go in the pantry. Ready-made bone broth is also a good option for those of us that are time-strapped or maybe just intimidated by the whole broth-making process. Believe me – we’ve all been there. 

My favorite shelf-stable bone broth is Fond and Alysa Seeland, founder, and CEO, is on the show today to talk about her story and why she started Fond Bone Broth. Along with the Fond origin story we also chat about:

• The delicious Fond flavors and how they came to be
• Fond’s setbacks and growth over the years
• Tips and tricks for making broth at home (there’s one that even I didn’t know about)
• The outer and inner results from drinking bone broth regularly

If you are a bone broth evangelist or skeptic, this episode is for you so tune in!

Resources:

Weston A Price Foundation

Sally Fallon’s Nourishing Traditions

Sustainable Dish posts on chicken and beef bone broth

Connect with Alysa:

Website: Fond Bone Broth

Instagram: @fondbonebroth

Twitter: @fondbonebroth

LinkedIn: Alysa Seeland

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Episode Credits:

Thank you to all who’ve made this show possible. Our hosts are Diana Rodgers and James Connelly. Our producer is Emily Soape. And of course, we are grateful for our sponsors, Patreon supporters, and listeners.

This episode is sponsored by Levels, a continuous glucose monitor that gives you individualized insight into your metabolism. This is a tool I personally use and recommend to people I work with. It’s helped me figure out what foods spike my blood sugar and which ones keep me level. I can also see how certain tricks like walks after a meal affect my body. Right now Levels has a waiting list of over 150,000 but they are allowing my listeners to skip the line if you go to sustainabledish.com/levels and sign up. Try it out to see how the food you eat affects your metabolism. This is a must-have tool for anyone interested in personalizing their nutrition. 

Quotes:

“I believe this product needs to be in people’s hands. They’re little jars of healing. I want them to go as far and wide as they can.” – Alysa Seeland

“It’s easy to look great in your early 20s, but by the time you are in your late 30s and 40s, how people have taken care of their bodies, largely through nutrition, is really the difference between looking like you’re 40 or 50.” – Diana Rodgers, RD

“A beautiful byproduct of a really hard past two years, like with COVID and all of the hard things that happen there, is people really started investing in their wellness again.” – Alysa Seeland

Transcript:

(Intro) Diana Rodgers, RD  0:01  

Welcome to the Sustainable Dish Podcast. I’m Diana Rodgers, a real food registered dietitian, author, and sustainability advocate. I co-host this podcast with James Connelly who was a producer on my film Sacred Cow. I also founded the Global Food Justice Alliance and initiative advocating for the inclusion of animal source foods like meat, dairy, and eggs for a more nutritious, sustainable, and equitable worldwide food system. You can check it out and join me at global food justice.org. Thanks again for listening. And now onto our show. 

Diana Rodgers, RD 0:40

Welcome back to the podcast everybody. Today I have with me, Alysa Seeland. And she is the founder of Fond Bone Broth, which is one of my absolute favorite products that I keep on hand. I make my own broth, but it’s always nice to just have some shelf-stable, ready-to-drink, and delicious. Like I do not have to season it at all. It’s just perfectly salted. I love it. And you have such an interesting story. And it’s actually kind of similar to my backstory. So I wanted to have you on just to you know… people are always really fascinated by the origin stories of how people start small businesses and your health really drove you to this. And it’s so similar to Chris Kresser’s story, Robb Wolf’s story. You know, we all… a lot of us came into this because of health issues. So yeah, why don’t you dive into it? How did this all get started?

Alysa Seeland  1:34  

 Well, thank you, Diana, it’s so great to be here. And yeah, I love to say Fond was born of need, right. And that’s like you said is such a good foundation for just creating products that add real value to our lives because they were born from, you know, something we didn’t have or couldn’t find. And so I was told that I wouldn’t be able to have kids. When I finally did get pregnant, I was told I wouldn’t be able to keep my first baby to term. When he was born shortly after I had emergency surgery just due to gut health issues. And so very serious, very stressful, very frustrating. And when I woke up from the surgery, during the post-op, the surgeon said, Hey, we should get you scheduled for your next procedure in the next three to six months. And I just thought this cannot be the trajectory of my life. I mean, I was 23 years old at the time, I just couldn’t even believe the health issues I’d had being so young. And so I was determined to find a solution. And so I started searching high and low and found a solution that spans cultures and centuries – bone broth, and it was missing from my diet. And it completely changed my life. And I went on a five-week bone broth diet when I started and there were so many things I couldn’t have that I craved. Right, so I had so many intolerances at the time. And my first one was you know that homestyle Thanksgiving stuffing and I couldn’t have gluten and so I created a bone broth with all those flavors, right. And so, youth tonic with the shitake, the shallot, and the sage was born and I wanted it for the iron. I wanted it for the immunity postsurgery and then I was dealing with some inflammation and so I came up with our turmeric, cracked pepper, and thyme, and then I was dealing with some bacterial fungal issues right as my body was continuing to heal from surgery. And so I came up with the lemon, garlic, radish, and onion, right. Highly antiviral, antibacterial, antifungal. Then dealing with some digestive issues again, right that is the current of my life. And so I made our flavor with fennel, apple cider vinegar, and bay leaf, and then my iron was low. And so I created our beet, fennel, oh sorry, our beet, poblano, and serrano flavor. And so just very natural, very organic, again born from need, and just to serve what I was deficient in the time. And so after five weeks, I felt better, and I felt my entire life. And when you have that experience, you share it. And so I was telling everyone like you have to try bone broth. Have you had it? And they were like, are you crazy, you have to babysit this pot. I don’t even know where to get chicken feet or like, you know, pig’s feet or wherever. And by the time I make it, it doesn’t even taste good. And I thought, wow, like, I could really help people here. Right, I could really make a difference in people’s lives if I could make this easy for them. And one of the reasons I was so excited to talk to you, Diana, is that my journey led me out of the grocery store and down to the farmers market. The quality of the meat that I was able to get and that I started making Fond with, right, all pasture-raised, all organic, or beyond organic, right because some of the farmers couldn’t afford the certifications. And that’s a whole other thing. And but whether it was beef or pork or chicken, right, it was the highest quality and it was… I loved that experience and my heart grew not only to provide this nutrient-dense product in the grocery store for people so that they didn’t have to make something when they were sick, right, they could reach for a jar of Fond and know, okay, this is actually good for me, it’s actually going to help me. But I wanted them to be able to have the farmer’s market experience no matter where they were. So you know, not all of us in Texas… we have this beautiful like several season farmers market. And I mean, California is like, you know, next to none. It’s great there too. But it’s just great that we can take advantage of that. And I wanted people no matter where they were right, even in a food desert, to be able to have a shelf-stable product that was made with the highest quality ingredients was really important to me. So you know, again, born of need, and it’s changed my life, I still… I had my fifth child. So I’m in remission from Lyme disease, had my fifth and last baby boy, this August. And I love my little basketball team. And I mean, I had 59 jars in the first several weeks postpartum. I mean, it is, it’s not just something that I tell people, they should… I live it, I breathe, and I use it all the time. I had it for lunch today, right? I usually start my morning with it. And it’s just a product that I love. I mean, we do a couple of things that I think I’m really proud of, for example, you know, we test for oxalates. We test for heavy metals, we, you know, test for histamines, we do all these things just to make sure it’s a healing product. And we’ve been super careful in our sourcing. And, you know, I’m excited to dig more into that with you today. But just as we’ve grown, like how can we grow well and maintain that commitment, and one of the partners that we will finally get to use this year, we’ve been growing with them for three years. And so it’s something we’ve invested in from day one, and it makes a difference for the product that we’re able to deliver to our customers. So. 

Diana Rodgers, RD  6:45  

Yeah, and so there’s a lot of things that sets your bone broth apart, you know, there’s… go to the grocery store, and we’re starting to see more bone broth, and even bone broth from pastured animals, but it’ll just be chicken, right? It doesn’t have, you know, for those of us who really like deep flavors, you know, I’m drinking different teas all the time, like I have, whatever, you know, time of day it is I’ve got some kind of warm beverage in my hand. And the flavor combinations you have are amazing. I love that it’s glass, that’s super unique. I’m sure it poses some challenges for you with you know, distribution. But I’m also sure that most of your consumers really appreciate the fact that it’s in glass. 

Alysa Seeland  7:30  

So I’m one of those people that like reads Chemical Engineering Today. And when they talk about packaging, glass is the only virtually inert substance right, you’re not having any leaching from the packaging that the bone broth is stored in. And one of the biggest recalls that food actually will be recalled for this reason is the ink on the label. So like baby formula, like they’ve had, you know, 1000s of pounds be recalled, just because ink from the label got into the product. And so again, you know, wanting to have those stainless steel lids, wanting to have the glass products that… just our customers knew they could trust it. And then feel good about being able to recycle it. Now, you know, the jars are beautiful, the labels are beautiful. So they’re perfect for storage for like, you know, your dry goods, too. I love when customers show us how they’re reusing them. But they’re also you know, you can feel free to recycle them as well, which I think is just awesome as a consumer that you know, hey, this even this package will have another life. 

Diana Rodgers, RD  8:30  

Yeah. And then all your ingredients are organic, that you’re using 100% or no? 

Alysa Seeland  8:38  

There’s like one, you know, cactus is pretty hard to get organic because it’s grown in the wild. But that’s like one ingredient in one broth. But yeah, all of that stuff. 

Diana Rodgers, RD  8:47  

So for those of us who have, you know, romanticized starting a company? And I mean, I can’t even imagine A) having five children and having just had your last one and having a little guy. But then also, what’s involved? Will you talk a little bit about like, what’s involved like you, obviously, you can’t just dish it out from your kitchen, you need a certified kitchen, like how did this all grow? 

Alysa Seeland  9:14  

So we’ve been doing this for six years. And the first three, I call our farmers market stage. So it wasn’t a full-time gig. I loved doing it on the weekends. I loved…We made it. Yeah, I just like you were saying Diana in a commercial kitchen that still had to be FDA inspected, right, even as a part-time gig. Early on, the FDA didn’t know what it was going to do about bone broth, because it had so much protein in it that they were like, well, the USDA should have to deal with this because it’s a meat, but it’s a liquid. And it’s chicken. So I mean, there was a lot of gray area when we started out and this was back in 2015. And so if you talk to a lot of early bone broth providers, we all kind of started out going a certain way and then you know, the FDA, USDA had some firm rules around what they were gonna decide to do. So early on no fault of our own, no one got sick, no one got hurt, they just changed the rules, we had a $25,000 recall, like very early on in our business,

Diana Rodgers, RD  10:11  

Aw, just because they changed the rules. And…

Alysa Seeland  10:14  

They decided what they were going to do, right, like they decided, okay, this is. And so it was really, really hard, it was really hard because I felt like I was putting my life force into these jars. And they made me open them out and pour them out in front of them. So that’s probably as low as it gets. And I share that to say, you know, I believe in this product, I believe this product needs to be in people’s hands. They’re little jars of healing. I want them to go as far and wide as they can. But I’ve had to go through several valleys to fight for this product to be in the world. And that’s one of them. And, you know, in the middle of pregnancies in the middle of, you know, raising children. And the reason that I do it is because I firmly believe everyone who interacts with Fond, it’s my goal, it’s our mission. But it’s also an experience that I’ve had is better for having experienced the product is better after having had a jar is… even if they have a problem like they should be better talking to our customer service team, right, they should feel cared for and respected and valued. And that’s our mission. But our world should be better because we were here, right? The land should be better because we were stewards of the products that we were sourcing, how they were raised, and how they were grown. And I have five children, I want the world to be a beautiful place when they are grown and in it and I want their children. So there’s this idea of legacy, right? That’s been a big part of motivating us as we’ve grown it. But you know, it’s been really hard. I mean, when our big lead investor came to me and said, Hey, I really think we can make this something together, it took me three months to respond to him. I really… Diana, I had to think through. Are we all in here? Are we going to be the broth makers? Is that gonna be how people know us? That, you know, like, are we going to do this? And so it took a long time for my husband and I to be like, yeah, we’re all in. And we’d been all in from a this product needs to be there, you know, all the other factors. But like, is our family going to commit to this is like our place in the world contribution our thing? Yeah, so it took, and I’m thankful that we were thoughtful about it. Because now we can go back to it and be like, Hey, these are the reasons we are still here. And these are the reasons we signed up for it. And part of one of those things was legacy. One of those things was creativity, we love to create. We want to create something that wasn’t there before, right? There’s ownership and excitement there when our kids go into an HEB or a Sprouts, and they can be like this is you know, Mommy and Daddy’s bone broth, right. But there’s also the big, big goal for us of just that life force of caring for each other, right, and getting a healing product into people’s hands when I was so sick having to make it myself. And all I wanted was for there to be something available that I could trust. That was up to my standards.

Diana Rodgers, RD  13:02  

Yeah. And it is those people that I know that are food entrepreneurs. I mean, it’s, it’s your whole life force like you said. So what, what exactly is your I mean, you’re, you’re with kids. And so I’m imagining it’s, you’re not like in there stirring the pots all day long. But like, how do you and your husband divvy up the work? And how many people do you have working for you now?

Alysa Seeland  13:28  

So we have a team of eight people. And you’re right, I’m not the ones, you know, stirring the pot in the kitchen anymore. Although I did do it for the first four years, right. I mean, I would be up until three in the morning supervising a kitchen while pregnant. Right? So that commitment, that’s what we’re talking. That’s the level of commitment we’re talking about. And, you know, I really had to think as a wellness company, if this company is the reason I get sicker, right? Like, am I okay with that? No. I had to really think through when people say how do you have good life/work balance, it’s like, because I can’t be a hypocrite and can’t tell people to take care of themselves, and then not do the same, right? And I’m a steward of Fond’s, talents, and product and people. And so that trickles down to my team, like the way that I take care of myself. And then they feel the space in the margin to say, oh, I can take a vacation. Like yes, we’re a startup and we’re pushing as far as we can. But we also need to, you know, rest and take care of ourselves. And it’s quality over quantity every time. My husband’s amazing. So he’s the Boy Wrangler. I’m the CEO and I actually run… I run the company and I’m, you know, the, our COO is a woman as well. So we’re female lead. So he’s a full-time dad. And he has been Fond’s Creative Director for the past six years as well. So he’s actively involved in how Fond looks and you know, the label experience and the website presence but otherwise, he’s full-time with the kiddos. So…

Diana Rodgers, RD  14:57  

Wow, that’s really, really awesome. So like on a given day, how… what volumes are we talking about? What are you looking like as far as like, yeah, like, how much broth are you producing?

Alysa Seeland  15:11  

So I remember when 18 pallets was like a lot of product. We would do that over the course of a month. And I would lay out our production schedule and be like, Okay, we’re going to make six pallets of Youth Tonic, and six pallets of Liquid Light and six pounds, because those are the best sellers of Spring Clean, and then we’re going to do two pallets the others, right. And now we’re doing upwards of sometimes 18 pallets a week, sometimes 40. So it’s been really explosive growth. And that’s been really fun and really challenging, right from a supply chain level to grow that fast. We’ve been fortunate that the regenerative movement has also been gaining momentum as we’ve been growing. And so like I said, you know, we started the supply relationships three years ago. And now we’re at the point where we’re launching a regenerative line of cooking broths. And in fact, it looks like we’re going to be able to do more than just the cooking broths, like our whole entire chicken line will be regenerative by the end of the year, which is incredible. So we’ve been really working hard to make sure that our sourcing standards catch up and grow with our growth. And one of the things that has been, you know, a beautiful byproduct of a really hard past two years, like with COVID and all of the hard things that happen there is people really started investing in their wellness again. So that’s been part of the Fond accelerator as people looking into how can I build my immunity at home? How it’s not the only thing, but it’s one of the things right, and like this is important. And, you know, my digestion is on the frontline of like, even if I get sick or not right. And so if I take care of that, you know, so again, that’s then you know, one one of the beautiful byproducts as we’ve seen a lot of people reinvesting in themselves that way. 

Diana Rodgers, RD  16:58  

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Diana Rodgers, RD 18:40

And broth is such a lovely entry point to all of this, I think and I know that you read Sally Fallon’s book. Nourishing Traditions, and that was also my entry point into this whole world and my whole career shift and everything was learning about with the Weston A Price Society and then jumping off from there. And broth… making broth from scratch, it seemed really intimidating to me. I know it still seems really intimidating to other people like even when… I mean, I just always save the chicken carcass and always make broth, right. But a lot of people will respond on my Instagram stories saying what’s the recipe? And I always laugh because I don’t even see broth as a recipe. Right? It’s just like whatever I’ve got is throw it in there. So what’s your… for folks who are listening that have never made broth before and they want to try to make their own broth from scratch. What’s the process and what are some tips? I mean, obviously, drinking yours is is an awesome thing. But you know, I also want people to feel empowered to try it at home on their own as well.

Alysa Seeland  19:51  

It does two things, right. It gives you a respect for how hard it is to make it the right way. Yes. It also is great because you know one of the things that we still do is like… Fond is working on sourcing for its pork line. But we don’t have one yet and like red snapper. And so there’s these things that we don’t you know source yet that of course, we want people to make their own bone broth too. And so what I always say is an easy mistake is to overwater it, right. So if you are going to start making it home, start saving all of your scraps from roasts and dinners all the bones, put them in a bag in the freezer or a jar, and start to just save those bone scraps. And once you have about halfway, you know in like a two-gallon pot, pour it in there and pour the water on top just to cover it. I love to add some apple cider vinegar in there. If you don’t have an egg allergy, one of the things that’s great is if you put eggshells into the bone broth, you can actually get minerals from the eggs. And then the egg whites will clarify the bone broth for you. So it’s a really nice kind of culinary slash nutritional trick. 

Diana Rodgers, RD  21:00  

Oh wait, wait, wait. That’s really cool. I’ve never done that before. I’ve never added eggshells. So do you add the eggshells at the beginning and then the egg white at the end and then strain it out? Is that what you’re talking about?

Alysa Seeland  21:12  

So good clarification. I will add them in the beginning. And it’s just the residual egg white on the shell. So I’m not adding any egg white into the bone broth. It’s the residual. And then it’s what’s great as it helps to clarify it. And then you’ve got this beginning part of your bone broth making where the like soup scum will come up. And that’s when the egg whites will really have to clarify and then you just strain them all out and you keep cooking it. But it’s a great way to do that. And then you know, any sort of like when I’m making soup, and I cut up carrots and celery, or you know, onion, that’s like the holy trinity of cooking, right, and I save those in a bag in the freezer too. And I just throw those in with the bones.

Diana Rodgers, RD  21:55  

And it can be any combination of bones to like it… I think people think that they, you know, they can’t mix. Like if I eat some lamb, I’m going to throw a lamb bone in with you know, because it can help with extra gelatin and it just deepens the flavor.

Alysa Seeland  22:12  

Yes. Oh, good. You’re right. And so yeah, don’t be afraid to mix you know animals in there. And the only thing I would say is don’t mix fish because it’s got a dramatically different time. Everything else. Yeah, I mean for sure. Right. And it’s so good. Roasting the bones before you cook them we’ll develop the flavor more and so even if you have them in the freezer, just pop them in the oven for a couple minutes and roast them, you don’t have to put any additional oil on it, you know, the oils will kind of come out themselves in the roasting. If people have… I mean tomato paste is like if you have… if you can tolerate tomato it’s so awesome to develop that flavor. I would coat our beef bones in tomato paste because the acid helps and then kind of develops the flavor there.

Diana Rodgers, RD  22:58  

So before you roast them, is that what you’re saying? 

Alysa Seeland  23:01  

Yeah and then roast them with a tomato paste on. Yeah.

Diana Rodgers, RD  23:03  

And when you have a little bit of extra meat, it actually gives you a lot more flavor and I think a lot of people don’t realize to that to get that nice rich brown color. Yeah, when you’re making beef broth. It super helps. And beef shanks are so cheap at the grocery store. Like I mean even if you don’t have access to really great like Farmer’s Market meats. Beef shanks. oxtail are really inexpensive.

Alysa Seeland  23:31  

Yeah, and you can make a big pot with that. And I also just immediately strain it into big mason jars like the big ones or big ball jars and we just cook-off of it, eat off of it all week so it’s become an ingredient for us right. It’s everything we do. Fond, you know, has replaced almost every one like I have like certain ones for chili, certain ones from marinara, certain ones for you know, my stew bases. But yeah, there’s so much you can do with broth. And even from putting it you know, we do everything from macaroni and cheese, right? One thing that I like to tell people is start savory in the morning. Our kids eat soup for breakfast, and like people can’t hardly believe it, but I really… your kids will eat it too. You know, I mean, especially if you offer it and they’re hungry. They’ll try it and it’s delicious. And it’s good for them. And it’s so easy. Believe me, it’s so easy to start with the cereal, and hey, do we do that occasionally? Sure. Right with our raw milk from our farm that we drive, you know forever to get it. But like, it’s so great to just have that foundation where I know… Okay, they’ve had… they’re starting out good. They’ve re-sealed that gut lining in the morning and like, no matter what happens the rest of the day we’ve started off on the right foot and it tends to set the tone right and they’re not just… it’s not just sugar craving after sugar craving so that’s another thing that we do you know, as a family. Healthy eating is just become like, part of our DNA and we have a lot of food traditions. You know, like, for Christmas, I make Grinch-a-ladas, which are just green chile poblano enchiladas. And we cover them with cilantro. And it’s great. And so it doesn’t mean you can’t enjoy food together just because you’re eating healthy, right? I mean, you and I, so resonate on that were like good food should be good tasting. So your bone broth to go back to that, like it will need to be flavored, right, I think that’s what people don’t realize is, it may not taste like anything, right, you need to add the salt in, you need to add something like a bay leaf if you can tolerate it, or you’re going to have to work with it a little bit in the flavoring process. And you can do that, you know, in the last one to two hours of cooking so that you’re not cooking that like flavorings the whole time.

Diana Rodgers, RD  25:47  

Yeah. And, again, you’re… the seasoning and your broth is so great. And what I mostly appreciate is that they’re perfectly salted. And I am always having to add extra salt and there’s nothing wrong with consuming salts. And you have to use a lot more than you might think in order to bring it up to the right flavor. 

Alysa Seeland  26:12  

Yeah. Yeah. I’m so happy you’re not afraid of salt. I mean, sea salt is almost like a vitamin in our family, right? The salt we use has 84 trace minerals in it. And it’s crucial, especially here in Texas, we got a lot of heat, a lot of sweating, a lot of humidity. You just have to replace that electrolytes. When you’re breastfeeding have to replace those electrolytes. When you’ve got a crew that’s running around playing soccer all day, right? Gotta replace those electrolytes. And so I love that you’re not afraid of salt because that’s… It’s hugely important to the taste, but also to, you know, the absorption and to getting you to actually drink it, right. Like, if it tastes good, you’re gonna make a habit out of it.

Diana Rodgers, RD  26:51  

Definitely, and the kids will like it too. And, I just I don’t… you know, people are starting to, you know, I see the launch of LMNT. And you know, people really starting to understand that replacing those electrolytes is very important. And just drinking plain water can actually make things worse, if you’re dehydrated and no replenishing, with broth or with LMNT. You know, it’s similar in their medicinal qualities just for the electrolytes, but then you’ve got all the other compounds, and you know, polyphenols, and all the other stuff that you have in your broths as well. Let’s talk about some of the things that people notice when they start drinking broth on a very regular basis because that was something when I went to Nutritional Therapy Association, which was I did that first, and then I became a dietitian. But one of the first things we all started doing in my course was drinking broth and making broth and all the women were like Oh my God, my nails my hair, my skin. So those are the outward things, right? And then not only guts, but I mean, like radiant skin.

Alysa Seeland  28:04  

Yeah. So it’s funny. We’re buying our first house, right? When you decide to start a business young, you put off some things. And so we’re buying our first house and I’m I kid you not Diana, my realtor, like interrupted me three times was like your skin’s like, just I can’t like, what do you do? And I would, and it was so sweet. Because I was one of those kids that like caked on the makeup in high school, I had the worst skin. My mom was always taking me to get the latest acid peels, right to like, see if we could Hello gut issues, right that was going on. And so it was just beautiful. Because I was like, wow, I just never thought would be at the point where someone would comment on my skin. And it happens all the time. And it’s that easy, right? It’s that easy. It’s and you have beautiful skin too. I mean, yeah…

Diana Rodgers, RD  28:46  

Yeah and people don’t realize. So I’m 48. And when I go to school pickup, I see the tired look, the protein deprivation, the low-fat diet, like I see that. And in people’s faces, I see the carb bloat in people’s faces. And it’s really sad, because if you need to start taking care of yourself, I mean, you know, it’s easy to look great in your early 20s. But by the time you, you know are in your late 30s and 40s how people have taken care of their bodies through largely through nutrition is really the difference between looking like you’re at when you’re 40 or 50. Or looking like you’re, you know, in your early 40s when you’re in your late 40s. So, I credit a lot of that to just like animal source foods, broth, you know, all of that. 

Alysa Seeland  29:45  

Yeah. I think you know, one of the things people have asked is how can you have, right, so many kids and run a business and not just be out of gas. And I think a lot of it is again that work-life balance that we were forced to do. But what if we did not eat the way that we did, and we know this, we would not be able to keep the pace of life that we keep – our food is how we do it. Right? It’s as it’s more important in our family because we’re then exercising, exercising is important. But the most important thing that we do is we eat well, right? And so we don’t get sick as often. And we, right, and it’s so important. And so I’m glad you say that. One of the things I noticed during COVID when we didn’t see people as much as in the two years, people aged a lot or didn’t, right. And it was almost scary to me when I started seeing people. And of course, it was a stressful time and stress adds a lot too but you’re right. It’s so huge. So we’re talking about what benefits you notice you’re gonna start seeing that cellulite smooth out. I have had people tell me in as little as seven days, right, and this is women again, you know, mid-40s to mid-50s tell me within seven days, the cellulite on the back of their legs started smoothing out. I love it. Right? It’s that elasticity. It’s you know, it’s beautiful. I did have one person tell me hey, I’ve already gone through menopause and you made the hair grow back on my legs. No, thank you. It was like so hilarious. It was like the most hilarious review. That shows you right like it is so good. And it’s just applying what these things need. Teeth. You know, teeth are… so Weston A Price, one of the things I loved was how they talk about how other cultures and their teeth health and what they’ve done. And that’s so huge, especially in you know, America where there’s a lot of dental issues. And you know, a lot of it’s from the sugar and the carbs or we can go into other things like environmental toxins. But um, but yeah, just remineralizing your teeth and making sure your teeth have what they need to stay healthy. And, you know, I used to drink… I mean, I’m embarrassed to say, but it’s true, like seven cups of coffee a day. And I don’t drink coffee at all anymore. And I was just you know, I was just… I went from a business owner to running from a like in a frenetic state of like, the next thing always to like, very planful very purposeful, not hurried or rushed or chaotic. And it was weird because when I finally let my body be tired to sleep to recover from the tiredness, it was life-changing. So I do recommend replacing your coffee with bone broth because I’ve had such a… even homemade, like, such an amazing experience with it. I do like the taste of coffee. It’s just something that I like never even find myself drinking anymore.

Diana Rodgers, RD  32:39  

Well, I think that may have turned some people off. Because when you suggest to someone to not drink coffee, that is like a deal breaker on every level. Right? But they could at least cut down on some and I think what you’re getting at is the overall benefits of really eating well. Yeah, you mentioned that level of calm and that’s, you know when I do my nutrition talks, or even when I do one-on-ones, I’ll talk about this blood sugar roller coaster, and I’ll describe how I would start like feeling sweaty, if I missed a meal, I would get extremely irritable. You know, some people call it hangry. And I always was like, frantic about where I’m going to eat next, I was like overly obsessed with what I was going to make for dinner constantly. And when you give yourself the right nutrition, and that’s largely focused on animal source foods, I strongly believe, the liberation of not needing to worry about where your next meal is coming from. It gives you that sense of calm, and especially you know, like you I run my own business, but I’m able to move from task to task in a very calm way without feeling frantic about it because you just feel so much more in control of your body and your life and you feel calm because your body has what it needs. And it’s not freaking out about everything. And so, you know, whether that’s you know, complete caffeine avoidance, or maybe just one or two cups or I drink tea in the morning, but it… I think it really comes down to making sure that you’re getting all those micronutrients that you need. So it’s not just like hitting your macros but really, you know, I think we don’t know enough about all the different little compounds that we need that are things that you would find in broth

Alysa Seeland  34:35  

Yeah, it’s amazing and even just potassium levels right in our broth is one of the things that I didn’t know I needed. We did an amino acid profile. It’s really high in glycine, which is amazing for people who are dealing with anxiety issues and among other things, tryptophan which can aid in sleep. So like you said, there’s on a lot of levels. The best way to describe it, as our customers will say, my body just knew what to do with it. And I think that’s such a great explanation. And you were saying, I went too far in the coffee line, we tell people use it as your changeup cup, right, whenever you need like names, like, try it in the afternoon, instead of that second cup of coffee. I totally get it’s been a long progression of me of like, yeah, seven cups a day. And I loved that energy, right, I loved it, it was how I survived for a while. And then I just got totally burnt out on it, right. And so it’s something where I wasn’t able to do it in moderation as I should have been, but it was great, you know, to be able to have a healthy relationship with it. Now where like, I can enjoy a cup, and I’m not dependent on it.

Diana Rodgers, RD  35:40  

And that afternoon crash completely goes away when you start, especially with lunch, just cutting out the junk, right. And the energy, you know, when you’re getting enough sodium, you need sodium for that ATP pump for the energy to work. And so instead of running on adrenaline and norepinephrine and things like that, which is a very jittery feeling, to just run on ATP, from, you know, the help in the extra sodium that you’re getting from the broth like there’s actual science there.

Alysa Seeland  36:15  

Yeah, it’s a totally different feeling. And as you know, one of the… I have, I’m in remission from Lyme disease. And one of the biggest symptoms that I had was I would have blackout, panic attacks, and very severe. And so you know, my fifth baby was actually like, such a total miracle because I wasn’t able to have kids for like, three years. And it was during that once I healed from Lyme disease, it was funny, because my body was like, Oh, we can have a baby. And it was just like it but it was a beautiful experience. And because it was so intense. And so to go from that really intense, you know, no control couldn’t even drive for a little bit, right? Because the panic attacks would just come out of nowhere. And that was the Lyme … what the Lyme disease was doing, to take back that control to find those tools in my chest to help with that. And bone broth was one of them. And so it showed up for me again, so whether it was like the gut health or dealing with Lyme disease and even healing from it. It’s been beautiful how many times it’s shown up.

Diana Rodgers, RD  37:16  

Yeah, well, it’s such a cool story. Where in Texas are you guys located?

Alysa Seeland  37:20  

In New Braunfels. Which is in between San Antonio and Austin.

Diana Rodgers, RD  37:25  

Yeah. I know that… I know that area, because that’s where Robb Wolf used to live actually. Right. He’s, he’s now in Montana, but he was there. Yeah. Well, it’s a really awesome place to be. I’m a little bit jealous because I’m looking out my window right now at very frigid temperatures. It was really cool to hear your story. I’m a massive advocate for broth in general, but specifically for yours, because of the sourcing and the glass bottles, and the flavor. I mean, you have to have a delicious tasting product to hook people in. And number one, that’s what you’ve got. So I highly encourage people, how can they find you?

Alysa Seeland  38:09  

So if you go to Fond Bone Broth.com We are in over 1700 brick and mortar stores nationwide. So that’s exciting. But you can always buy a case online as well, which is, you know, maybe the best way to its fastest way to get it to you. But yeah…

Diana Rodgers, RD  38:24  

Sounds good. All right. Well, thank you so much for being on. Have a wonderful afternoon and thanks for sharing your story. 

Alysa Seeland  38:30  

Thank you, Diana. 

Diana Rodgers, RD  38:32  

Thanks so much for joining us on the sustainable dish podcast. If you liked the show, please leave us a review on iTunes, and don’t forget to sign up for our newsletter at Sacred Cow dot info. See you next time. Thanks for listening