be to create a business and life you love. One of the things I learned asking you our

beloved viewers about what you’d like to see more of is that you want to see more MarieTV

viewers, people who are out there in the world shaking things up and making it happen doing

what they love. So when I heard about this particular MarieTV viewer, this woman, who

is making big waves out there taking on the big major food corporations, I knew I had

to have her on.

Vani Hari started foodbabe.com to spread information about what's really in the American food supply.

Her activism brought national attention at the Democratic Convention when we protested

in front of the US Secretary of Agriculture on the issue of GMO labeling. Vani has taken

on and gotten response from huge food corporations like Kraft, Chipotle, Whole Foods, McDonalds,

Coca Cola, and Red Mango. She's been profiled in the New York Times, USA Today, the Washington

Times and appeared on the Dr. Oz show, Inside Edition, Good Morning America, CNN and others.

Vani, so great to have you here on MarieTV

Vani:            Thank you so much Marie. You’ve been a huge inspiration to

me. I'm so excited to be here.

Marie:          Awesome! So before we dive into it about the five surprising

health foods you shouldn’t be eating, I would love to know about your story, how less

than a year ago, you were at this cushy job and why you left to go to foodbabe.com and

do it full time.

Vani:            I never thought I would be blogging and taking on some of

the biggest food corporations for my daily job. I never thought that would actually be

my job one day when I started foodbabe.com which was two years ago in response to a bunch

of friends and family that begged me to share my lifestyle with them, my recipes, how I

was able to heal myself naturally. About 10 years ago I suffered appendicitis and I could've

died from this because the initial doctor that saw me told me that there was nothing

wrong and asked me to go home. At that moment recovering in the hospital room over the holidays

in December I made a commitment to myself. I said “to make myself my number one priority.”

I was living the typical American lifestyle before that; I had just gotten out of school,

I got a really awesome job at a top management consulting firm which I thought was my dream

job and I wanted to fit in. I wanted to eat what everybody else was eating, I wanted to

live the lifestyle, I wanted to work the crazy hours so that I could impress my boss and

get promoted and I didn't realize what a toll that was going to be on my health.

I started to slowly teach myself the habits on how to live a really clean organic lifestyle

and in this over processed world and in this corporate environment. Slowly but surely I

started developing all these habits and my coworkers and my friends and family and everyone

around me started wondering “why is she drinking that green stuff” and “what's

going on with this lemon water thing she does every morning” and “how did she go from

being chubby and not really in shape to being in shape for now over 10 years maintaining

my weight.” To this day one of my aunts thinks I got work done. I started foodbabe.com

in response to their wanting to know everything that was going on especially some people at

work that were watching my daily habits and sat next to me in my cubicle and were trying

to mimic what I was doing and I was teaching them a lot and they just loved it. They were

like “you know so much about food, you really need to tell everyone and you need to tell

me so I can tell my mom and share it,” and I said “okay sure,” so I started the blog

and I remember I had 20 or 25 readers for the first month.

Marie:          Probably your friends and your coworkers.

Vani:            I think my mom and my best friend read it and that was about

prior to starting my blog; I was never on social media. I actually had an intervention

from some friends that said “listen, you don't know about anything that's going on

in our lives because you are not on Facebook, so you need to go on Facebook right now because

how are you going to spread your blog,” and I'm like “that’s such a good point.”

So I'll get on Facebook and I started Twitter and I had no social media experience before

that because I was in the corporate world; it was scary to be on Facebook with all of

your party pictures and you didn't want your boss finding those. I got on and slowly but

surely I remember the first person who commented that wasn't someone I knew and I was like

“whoa, who’s this.”

Little did I know at the time that I developed this power and I really didn't understand

this power at the time until companies started reacting to my writing. A lot of things get

me energized and I'm really an activist at heart; I want to fight for the people. I was

at this yogurt place that's an organic yogurt place or “organic” yogurt place in Charlotte

and they had all this marketing on saying it was organic, and then when I found out

what was really in the ingredients, it started with organic yogurt, but they added trans

fat, which is in a little bit of amount to eat that stuff can cause heart disease, artificial

colors made from petroleum products, artificial flavors and then other crazy ingredients and

I'm like “what is going on here, this is not truth in advertising, I need to write

about it.” I wrote about it and immediately the president of the company reached out to

me and took down all the marketing. It's because of not me writing about it but all the people

sharing it with their friends and telling their friends about it and being like “watch

out” and it just went viral and of course the president heard about it through their

customer service hotline and they listened and that was pretty amazing at that point

because I realized, ok I have this voice. My name “Vani” means “voice” so I

always knew that I had something to voice growing up and I was even nationally ranked

debater in high school, and I was just always into research. I spent every summer researching

at Dartmouth College and I would bury myself; I quit the cheerleading team to join the debate

team. At that point in time in my life in high school was one of the most exciting times

and I was able to bring that back because I was able to research and get in and fight

for the people. In a debate you weren't really fighting for the people but you're fighting

for your side, and I've always had that tenacity about me so it was coming out.

Marie:          I love this. I love your story and not to interrupt you too much

but I can see the fire in you but I think it’s so interesting also for our viewers

because so many of us are multi-passionate and there's things that we have a strong skill

set for maybe early on in life and then they kind of fall away, but it sounds like you’ve

really rediscovered that ability to use all the skills you built up as a debater and bring

that into your now incredibly fast growing career as a food babe. Curious, take me to

the point where, I know it wasn’t that long ago, you were still blogging but you also

has your job and then you made the decision that you were ready to leave your full time

job and do your new business full time. What was that like?

Vani:            My friends about a year ago said to me “Vani, you need to

make a decision, you need to do this full-time, this is your calling,” and I said “Oh,

that’s so nice for them to say that, it's so great.” I wasn't until I really allowed

myself to appreciate my own voice and allow myself to understand this is why I was put

on this planet. It wasn't until in all actuality I found you Marie. In December I was in Machu

Picchu in Peru and I was reading a book, and you had her on here, Danielle LaPorte, Fire

Starter Sessions, watched one of your interviews with her and I was reading the book at the

same time and I just found you through a mutual friend, and I couldn't believe that I was

like number one “where Marie Forleo been my whole life, why hasn’t she been coaching

me this whole time to do my passion,” and number two, I was on the top of Machu  Picchu

on December 21st, the day the world was supposed to end, and I made the decision right there

on top of Machu Picchu and my contract was ending and I could've gotten another contract

because I am a management consultant, but I said to myself “I'm going to make this

happen.” I turned over to my husband and I said “are you willing to do this, I am

giving up my salary and we're going to do this and I am going to tell everyone what's

in their food and I want to change the way Americans are eating and the way they think

about food and I'm going to make it my life's mission, are you on board?,” and he looked

at me and he's like “what have you been waiting for?”

Everybody else was giving me permission but not myself and it wasn't until I really realized

that that's what I needed to do and it was scary. I landed back the first week of January

and I didn't go into an office, I had no boss, I was like “what is going on, this is so

weird, and I got to figure out a way to make some money because I got to pay the mortgage.”

I started slowly just figuring out a way that met my values partnering with the right companies.

The companies I already use and by and have loved my whole life and that provide benefit

to the world in finding and reaching out for those relationships so that I could start

working with them and everyone can really live the life that they want to live. What's

so amazing is I didn't realize this at the time but if people have something that they're

really passionate about and they love and they're really good at it, you have to cherish

that and you have to find out what it is that you can do to share that passion and no matter

what, the money will follow. I never really believed that. I was like “I had to work

hard; I had to keep my job.” I was a management consultant for 13 years of my life and to

give all that up, I was successful too, and say bye was a tough transition mentally, and

then the thought of going back and being a management consultant totally freaks me out.

And I wake up every single day right now and I put my feet on the ground and I still live

in the same condo surrounded by the same people that I used to work with and I walked down

the street and I just smile and I'm like “Ha, ha - I'm not in that cubicle anymore.”

There's nothing wrong with being in a cubicle because there are great companies that have

cubicles but-

Marie:          But for you it wasn’t the right match and for you there was a different

path.

Vani:            I needed to be using my voice in a way to change the world.

I really think I was put on this planet to change the world and I really want to do that.

Marie:          That actually was the perfect segway to what we’re going to

talk about next, which is the five surprising health food that we shouldn’t be eating,

but before we start, I just want to make this point. This is about awareness so you can

learn how to help yourself and your family make better choices. This is not about being

perfect, we all have our vices, but we want to make better choices more often. So let's

get rolling.

Vani:            The first one is, and this one is a really tricky topic because

a lot of people when they go out to eat and when they order a sandwich when they go for

lunch or whatever, they order the whole-wheat bread. The whole-wheat bread at different

major fast food chains, for example, Subway, the nine grain bread. Everyone thinks that

the nine grain bread is like the hallelujah sandwich. You get it and you get your veggies

on it and it's under 300 calories and you're good to go. But that sandwich has probably

close to over 50 ingredients in it and the sandwich actually has an ingredient in there

along with the slew of other ingredients that is a dough conditioner that is banned in Europe.

If you get caught using it in Singapore you get fined $450,000. It's banned in Australia

but we still use it here in the United States, and let me just try to say this word because

it's a long word: Azodicarbonamide.

Marie:          It’s funny and it's not funny because to think that that’s what

we’re putting in our bodies, we can’t even pronounce it but it's going in our food

system, so we’ll lay it on there, but keep going.

Vani:            The reason why it's so controversial is it gives people asthmatic

symptoms and allergies and it's really sad. It's a really sad ingredient. But what you

can do instead, that’s the important thing. If you are at Subway don't recommend it but

if you are at Subway, get the salad, get a whole avocado on top. An avocado has protein

added to it and that's the way to really enjoy a meal without any major toxins and you are

getting some really healthy fat with the avocado.

Marie:          Awesome, so we’re going to stay from the whole grain, whole

wheat bread generally speaking and go just for a salad.

Vani:            Yes, that’s right. And if you do go for bread and you love bread,

I really love this Ezekiel bread. It’s amazing because there's no flour in it, it’s actually

a whole grain so that’s the way our body was intended to actually digest grains and

it actually gives us more energy that way because flour what it does is spikes our insulin

level and promotes fat gain.

Marie:          What's number two?

Vani:            Number two is agave nectar.

Marie:          Oh God, I'm guilty of this one. Tell me about it.

Vani:            Agave got really popular because the raw vegans found a sweetener

that they could have that was raw and vegan, and it was as close to nature as I thought

to put in a lot of different desserts and other sweetened items. It’s a liquid base

so it replaced honey for people who are concerned about the bees and things like that. What

they found is actually agave nectar has a higher concentration of fructose and almost

80% more higher concentration than high fructose corn syrup. What that means is that the first