S8 Ep 1: Regen Reset Wellness: How Probiotics Impact Mood, Immunity, and GI Balance with Natasha Trenev
“We are more microbes than we are human cells. And it's the only alien thing that's in our body that we have to form a unity with in order to enjoy phenomenal health.” —Natasha Trenev
Probiotics are live microorganisms that can enhance digestive health when consumed in adequate amounts. Cutting-edge research continues to reveal exciting new ways specific probiotic strains can promote a healthy immune response and reduce inflammation throughout the entire body. As the gut microbiome plays a vital role in overall wellness, maintaining a diverse population of beneficial bacteria through probiotic intake is crucial, but only if done the right way.
Joining us for the premiere episode of Season 8 is probiotic pioneer Natasha Trenev, a pioneer in the fields of fermented foods and probiotics, introducing these concepts over 40 years ago. As founder and president of Natren Probiotics, she continues her mission to educate on gut health and choose probiotic strains that support the immune system.
Listen in as Natasha provides a historical perspective on how our understanding of gut health and functional foods has evolved. She details early studies on probiotics and women's health as well as controversial topics like soy milk, kombucha, and raw foods consumption based on her decades of research and experience.
Justine and Natasha also share important factors to consider when choosing a probiotic supplement and practical advice on reintroducing foods and incorporating fermented options like homemade yogurt into our diet.
Connect with Natasha:
Probiotic pioneer, Natasha Trenev, has significantly contributed to the evolution of the probiotics industry. Prior to her work in the field, consumers had very limited knowledge of the supplement and its many benefits. Natasha's extensive experience and knowledge of the industry began with her family's 750-year history of producing the most beneficial yogurt prized by the royal family of Yugoslavia.
After graduating from UCLA in 1970, a decade of research led to Natasha's development of the first revolutionary method of producing an effective and scientifically validated single-strain probiotic bacteria product. Her efforts helped to establish the entire probiotics category in the world!
Episode Highlights:
01:42 Gut Health and Holistic Approach to Health
06:28 Research Studies
12:26 Probiotics and Gut Health
17:55 A Focus on Safety and Effectiveness
24:06 The Impact of Diet on Overall Health
Tweets:
Did you know? Gut health impacts so much more than digestion! Learn about the latest research on probiotics and their incredible abilities to support overall wellness with @jreichman and @natrenpro Founder and Mother of Probiotics, @NatashaTrenev. #podcast #entrepreneurship #socialgood #inspiration #impactmatters #NextGenChef #EssentialIngredients #Season8 #RegenresetWellness #NatrenInc #GutHealthMatters #ProbioticsPower #Microbiome #FriendlyFlora #GutBugs
Inspirational Quotes:
03:44 “We are more microbes than we are human cells. And it's the only alien thing that's in our body that we have to form a unity with in order to enjoy phenomenal health.” —Natasha Trenev
08:05 “Even though we think we're healthy and we're running around, the fact is that the chronic diseases, especially among young people are increasing because our air, our water, our soil, our food is polluted.” —Natasha Trenev
09:17 “So many people are intolerant or allergic or can’t digest well… because of the way [food] is produced. They don’t have the same reactions.” —Justine Reichman
11:03 “The digestive tract is always sensitive to proteins that are not exactly the way the immune system will allow them to come into our bloodstream.” —Natasha Trenev
12:50 “When you have an allergy, you always start with small bites and allow your immune system to start tolerating that food.” —Natasha Trenev
14:16 “If our body's producing cheap proteins, they produce disease. Getting the wrong probiotic bacteria is not okay because the immune system will react to it, and they will at some point take advantage of your body.” —Natasha Trenev
16:07 “Avoid anything that's sitting on the shelf. It either uses dangerous microbes that survive mishandling, or it has microbes that are not going to do you any good.” —Natasha Trenev
18:02 “Communicate with your immune system, make sure the body is being fueled and not just fed, and make sure that all the functions in the body are regulated to enable the human hosts to enjoy a healthy life.” —Natasha Trenev
27:37 “We have to take responsibility for our health, and not just listen to anybody because they look great, or because they're being paid to pitch something.” —Natasha Trenev
Transcriptions:
Justine Reichman: Good morning, and welcome to Essential Ingredients. I'm your host, Justine Reichman. And with me today is Natasha Trenev.
Welcome, Natasha.
Natasha Trenev: Thank you for having me as your guest.
Justine Reichman: Oh, it's my pleasure. I'm super excited to learn more about you. I've heard so many amazing things, read so many amazing things. And if you would, I'd love you to just share with our audience a little bit about yourself. Maybe if you could just give us your name, your title, and a short bit about what you do.
Natasha Trenev: Okay. My name is Natasha Trenev, and I'm the founder and President of Natren Probiotics. I introduced the whole field of probiotics 40 years ago. I'm an expert in fermented foods, and have set standards for yogurt and kefir. I'm considered an expert both in fermented foods and probiotics.
Justine Reichman: You started this way back when? And it was only getting started and people were learning about it. And now it's conversation, everyday normal conversation, people are talking about this. But I'd really like to hear your perspective and your point of view on this. So before we get deep into it, can you tell me what drew you to this speciality?
Natasha Trenev: It started with a family business in the late 1960's. My family brought Bulgarian style yogurt to the US. We introduced kefir to Altadena dairy. And then I set the standards with New York State in the late 1970's. And it drew me because we got phenomenal reports of miraculous changes in people's health, even with those functional foods. And then I decided that this was so important. I had to figure out how to concentrate the best beneficial bacteria so that people can revitalize and actually make their health primal points so that they feel good, they look good, and they think well.
Justine Reichman: That's super important. And you touched on some functional foods. To me, this term has only been something we've been talking about in the last 10 years or so. But tell me about the conversation you were having 40 years ago when you started this, and the impact of what you were doing on functional food.
Natasha Trenev: Okay. Well, a functional food is something that actually derives more benefits before it is fermented or changed in a natural way, from my perspective, not using any chemicals or harsh processes to make the food more acceptable to your body's immune system, and to make it more easy to absorb the nutrients. So that's the functional food. And the functional food didn't carry a great colony of these beneficial bacteria. So when I decided that along with the functional food, I would have to concentrate the beneficial bacteria. Because even 40 years ago, we were seeing the rise of chronic digestive diseases. I wanted to make sure that we gave people a natural holistic way to deal with their digestive issues.
Justine Reichman: So if you could tell people one thing, or let them know one thing about their health, what would that be? And how does it connect with the gut and the probiotics? We're talking about you spearheaded.
“We are more microbes than we are human cells. And it's the only alien thing that's in our body that we have to form a unity with in order to enjoy phenomenal health.” —Natasha Trenev
Natasha Trenev: The one thing about their health is that the gut is the way that all health and all diseases manifest in the body, because we are more microbes than we are human cells. And it's the only alien thing that's in our body that we have to form a unity with in order to enjoy phenomenal health from thinking from skin, from digestive issues, from energy, from everything.
Justine Reichman: When you first got into this, and even now, what is the conversation you have with doctors about this?
Natasha Trenev: The doctors were probably the 5% who I call thought leaders believe me. I worked with the head of Obstetrics and Gynaecology at Cedars Sinai in the mid 1980's. I helped many women with their vaginal issues, fertility issues, health issues, and he was very supportive of my efforts and actually allowed me to give a presentation to about 140 doctors and their grand rounds in Cedars Sinai. I work with the nurses from Yale. We found that using my acidophilus, the women who had AIDS and had yeast infections were able to recover just as well as using a drug without any side effects. I work with a person who is a specialist in celiac disease. Dr. (inaudible) in Argentina. We did two studies in celiac disease, and my products performed very well. We did acne trials with a famous dermatologist. And so that our product did as well as the antibiotic for clearing up the skin, especially from acne. And we've had multiple millions of reviews with people with severe digestive issues such as Crohn's, colitis, inflammatory bowel disease, IBS, just people who are completely not functioning. And we've also had wonderful results with people who are generally healthy and found that they stayed healthy under my regimen.
Justine Reichman: You mentioned a couple studies that you have participated in. Can you talk to me a little bit about this?
Natasha Trenev: Yes, of course. The studies at Yale were phenomenal because we tested our acidophilus on vaginal yeast with women who are HIV positive. They had a terrible time. So if you are HIV positive, you are much more susceptible. So the fact that our products perform as well as the metronidazole without any side effects when the woman was incredible, and that's a published study.
Justine Reichman: That's amazing. Are there any other studies you're working on today?
Natasha Trenev: We're not working on any studies, unfortunately, because of COVID. But I am working with a number of people to figure out what the next studies are. Because it's difficult to get people to go into placebo when there's so much suffering and pain going on right now. But you know that for 40 years, if you look at the reviews, and that's why I'm still working. Because now, our immunity is jeopardized. Our digestive health, we have 80% of our whole entire health budget being spent on chronic disease. So that's unacceptable. The rate of autism. And you say, well, I don't have an autistic child so it doesn't affect me. But things that are concerned with the GI tract do affect you. Because if one in two children are autistic by 2030, we're going to have to have a budget of 17 trillion just to deal with that problem.
Justine Reichman: So with everything that you have done in the past, and things that you're working on today, what's the most revolutionary thing that you're working on currently?
Natasha Trenev: The most revolutionary thing is I'm working with a prominent doctor, Dr. Sabine Hazan, and she has a protocol for long haul COVID and people who are vaccine injured. And I'm very proud of that because we get tons of people sent to us in our professional division, and we're putting on her protocol. And she's very happy with the results. And we're even in the process of developing new products to help these people who have been immunocompromised.
Justine Reichman: Wow, it sounds like there's so many positive reasons to implement this into our daily regimen. Are there any reasons? Or is there a reason or a cause for somebody not to be a candidate to incorporate this into their daily routine?
Natasha Trenev: Not really, and I'll tell you why. Even though we think we're healthy and we're running around, and we're listening to people in TikTok or whatever the 32nd pitches, the fact is that the chronic diseases especially among young people are increasing. They're not decreasing because our air, water, or soil is polluted. Our food is polluted. Even if you're buying organic foods, the organic foods because they're organic are loaded with bacteria because people don't know that pesticides are also very strong anti microbials. And so what happens with this natural food now? It has this background bacteria, which we call soil bacteria. That bacteria has evolved and become more dangerous. So we really have to wash your organic vegetables. We have to prepare them properly. We have to learn a whole new way of eating, and a lot of things that were brought into our diets because people were allergic to milk and wheat are not good. Because for centuries, we've subsisted on these staples, and we need to see how we can bring these staples back into our diet and get into a more healthy lifestyle.
“So many people are intolerant or allergic or can’t digest well… because of the way [food] is produced. They don’t have the same reactions.” —Justine Reichman
Justine Reichman: So that's a very interesting topic, because so many people are intolerant or allergic or just don't digest it well. And I know that. Oftentimes, I've heard stories that people are not able to digest it here in the States. But equally when they travel overseas, to France and England, you name it, because of the way it's produced, they don't have those same reactions. What do you think about that?
Natasha Trenev: I come from the Balkans, and we were noted for our good health. In fact, books and articles are written about the health of the people in Bulgaria, Macedonia, Serbia, the former Yugoslavia. Before the wars, these people were exceptionally healthy. And interestingly, milk and bread are the staple in our diets. And for me to see what happened here in the States, and it's because we've damaged our collars, we've damaged them with pesticides, hormones and the way we hear them. And therefore, the milk has become a source of every carrier of those problems. And when human beings ingest it, then they have a reaction. It's the same thing with wheat. First, we hybridize the wheat in the United States, then we GMO it, and that changes the protein molecule in the wheat, which is the gluten. Most people don't know that. And that's what our bodies are reacting to because your immune system is sensitive to any protein that it's not fitting their perspective of what a healthy protein should look like. So immediately, the immune system starts overreacting. And that's what you have when you have gluten sensitivity. And then when it develops into celiac disease, the digestive tract is always sensitive to proteins that are not exactly the way the immune system will allow them to come into our bloodstream.
Justine Reichman: As you mentioned, it's so important for us to incorporate these things back into our diet. How do we do that, given what we know about how the cows are treated here in the States to be able to have a better response through the probiotic.
Natasha Trenev: As a matter of fact, I have a product that started the whole probiotic category called Megadophilus. And it's a super strain of lactobacillus acidophilus. I tell people that they should get organic milk from pasture raised cows. I don't encourage raw milk simply because if you don't have your own cow and you don't have sanitary conditions, raw milk can pick up bacteria from the air from anywhere. So you need to heat the milk. You can buy raw milk, heat it. When you cool it down before you drink it, you can add a teaspoon of the Megadophilus to help with any of the background noise that might be left and make it easier to digest. Or even better yet, I have a yogurt starter which is not a huge moneymaker for me. But I made it so that people can make their own Bulgarian style yogurt at home following my directions. And when you use organic milk that's not pasteurized and not anything done to it other than just normal eating, if you follow my directions, heat the milk, hood it down, add the cultured that it's not dark workplaces for five to eight hours, you're going to have beautiful homemade yogurt that you can have every day. And when you have an allergy, you always take small bites. You start with small bites and allow your immune system to start tolerating that food.
Justine Reichman: Super interesting. I was in France this summer for three weeks where I was eating anything I wanted, and I never got bloated. I didn't feel like I had that. You know that gassy feeling or fall in a bad way. And I was excited because I thought, okay, well, maybe I'm growing out of this or something. And I came back to the States and I ambitiously started to incorporate things back into my diet, and I got the same response I did previously. So to be able to have and utilize what you're talking about, which can allow me to enjoy some of those things sounds very exciting to me.
Natasha Trenev: Well, that's the whole point because I think these are perfect foods. As I said, they're staples in a culture that is very healthy. Milk may not be good for somebody from an Asian culture where the children are not fed milk products once they're weaned off of breast milk. But the thing is we have to start analyzing why our immune systems here in North America are reacting to all these proteins. Because without proteins and adjustable proteins, we cannot rebuild our body. Because every minute, we lose 10 million cells. And every year, our 50 trillion cells are replaced. So if our body's producing cheap proteins, they produce disease. It's as simple as that. And that's one thing I want to leave people with, that getting the wrong probiotic bacteria is not okay because the immune system will react to it. And they will at some point take advantage of your body. You have to choose probiotic bacteria that evolved with homosapiens. Have at least literature that it's 100 years old or more, that it's been around and tested with safety measures for at least 40 to 50 years, and that you don't have any feedback of anybody ever having an adverse reaction to it. That is so important because people don't understand microbes. And actually, the microbes will determine the state of our health or disease in this country.
Justine Reichman: Wow. So there are tons of products when we go to Whole Foods or any natural food store to choose from. What are some of the things people should look for on the packaging so that they can make the best choice for themselves?
Natasha Trenev: Well, I was part of this industry for 56 years. I sat on standards committees for 10 years so my probiotic labeling standards were read into congressional record in 1995. So I'm going to quote them. In other words, if the product tells you that it doesn't need refrigeration, then each organism listed on that label has to have a specific potency guaranteed to the expiry date. And if you look at those products that are sitting on the shelf, first of all, none of them have a specific potency for each microbe listed. All they do is they give you a total potency. You have no idea of what's in that product when you take it. That's what I'm saying. So that's number one.
So for a rule, just avoid anything that's sitting on the shelf. It either uses dangerous microbes that survive mishandling, or it has microbes that are not going to do you any good because they've been abused and not handled properly. So let's go to the refrigerator. The products need to be in a dark glass and have to have each microorganism listed. And again, each microorganism has to have a specific potency through an expiry date. Without that assurance, you have no idea what you're ingesting, which bacteria may be alive, dead, stress, dysfunctional. And that's why these products are not working because this is a marketing decision. It's not a scientific decision. They'll tell you that this probiotic bacteria is going to treat the symptom. Again, the wrong approach probiotic bacteria, and how I've chosen them are to inhabit the small intestine, the large intestine, control the transient flora and assist the immune system allowing the body to nourish itself without food sensitivities, without food allergies, without lowering our immunity and making sure that that combination and that communication is always beneficial to the human hosts. That cannot be achieved if you don't know exactly what you're ingesting. And the most important thing to remember, if those bacteria don't survive stomach acid, I don't care what they say on the label, nothing will help you. So I've developed in my healthy trinity, a unique oil matrix. Now these (inaudible) are three bacteria that can survive stomach acid for as low as 1.8 pH for over an hour. And they're also bio tolerant. So now, they're able to go into the intestinal tract, park on your intestinal wall, communicate with your immune system, make sure the body is being fueled and not just fed, make sure that all the functions in the body are regulated to enable the human hosts to enjoy a healthy life.
Justine Reichman: Okay, so I'm gonna reevaluate what I have. And when I'm taking and taking a page from your book, because you really seem to be the mother of all probiotics, while the family business for years, but you got this knowledge from participating with the family just continuing your education.
Natasha Trenev: At first I started a love of the family products, and the compliments, and the really magnificent feedback we got. So that started me on my own excursion. I would find the best people in their field. I would have a brain melt with them. I would want to learn everything they knew, what their opinion was. Like I said, the best 10 people in the world in microbiology, fermentation, and taxonomy, in immunology, I would work with them and learn everything that they learned. And then put all this information together so that my products would incorporate all of those features that would make each person have a positive response to their health when they took these products. Because I'm a vertically integrated person. Meaning that I want to dig down. I want to know everything that makes these bacteria function. Which ones are safe, which ones are not safe. How do I protect them? Especially now. I'm going to mention $4.3 trillion dollars spent on healthcare in the United States. 80% of chronic disease. We're totally bankrupt in healthcare. Most people are not aware of that. Especially concerning to me is the number of young women and young men that have diseases that I've never heard about in this young age. And that's what my biggest concern is.
Justine Reichman: So what is the most important thing someone can do to take control of their gut and their health?
Natasha Trenev: I would start with one of our Healthy Trinity twice a day. I would tell them to stop eating raw foods. Right now, raw foods are not the best. Stop going to juice bars. I know I'm gonna get a lot of flack for this because it's not that the juice is bad for you. But if those machines are not cleaned every 45 minutes to an hour, you're ingesting a whole load of bacteria. Because when you break down fruits and vegetables, they become a gathering point for every bacteria that's in the air.
Justine Reichman: Is it safe to say that instead of going into a juice bar, maybe just at home, as long as you clean it everytime?
Natasha Trenev: Exactly. In fact (inaudible) 20, 25 years ago when she was promoting Vitamix, they did the right thing. They told everybody, juice for 45 minutes, no more than an hour. Put that in glass bottles, put them in the fridge, you can have it for two days. And then wash your machine, sterilize it. And that's it. Do not keep those machines running because you're introducing a whole lot of bacteria, viruses and got the yeast. God knows what else in that juice because you've broken it down and made it very appealing to whatever is airborne. Does that make sense?
Justine Reichman: Yeah, totally. I used to live in New York. I'm born and raised in New York, and we had a juice shop every other block, and I used to go to the juice shops and get the ones in the glass bottle. Since we've been in California, we just don't have the same access so I've started making it myself, which actually sounds like it's the right move here.
Natasha Trenev: Yeah. And then I told people the craze with kombucha, I told them to stop it. I really give you a little bit of background. That was the first one that I told people. Don't drink soy milk. People were calling me all kinds of names, telling me I've lost my mind. I don't know what I'm talking about. And I said, listen, I look at the culture. The culture in Japan uses soy milk once a week. They use six to eight ounces as a treat. They're not drinking a pint of this stuff every day. We found that it's a simulated supplementation with estrogen. Everybody who knows about the soy milk catastrophe knows what happened. All of a sudden, those 20 skews in Whole Foods disappeared. And well, the same thing is happening with kombucha. I've worked with a lot of iron aromatic physicians on this.Kombucha is a natural medicine that's made by specific families in Asian cultures to be administered to people when they know they have a problem or an illness that this family has dealt with before and culturally treat these people in those regions. What we've done is we've taken the yeast organism, which is the same organism that's used to brew beer, and we've mixed it with a bacteria that produces cellulose. We have no idea what the safety of that bacteria is, and what the daily consumption of that bacteria means to us and we're drinking this. Many times I've seen people drink this in courts every day, since there has been anti candida information for at least 40 years. I don't understand. They said, please tell me how all of a sudden we've gone from not eating yeast to consuming larger amounts of yeast than even beer uses every day in a drink that also has a bacteria, which we have no safety records on. How can that be healthy?
Justine Reichman: I hear ya, I hear you. When you think about it intellectually, what you're saying makes perfect sense. However, when I'm going to the store and we're learning about kombucha, they're leaving that out. They're just selling us a new product. Something that they say is good for the gut, etc. So I think one of the things that we really like to do on Essential Ingredients is give people this information just so that they have their arm to make more informed choices. And that's exactly what you've done. You've given me a lot of information so that I can go make better choices for myself. And that's what we hope that our community will do when they listen to or watch our podcasts. So I was super appreciative of you sharing this information and as controversial as one thing or another. I think it's important to share it all and let people make decisions for themselves.
Natasha Trenev: That's right. I don't judge anybody. I just said that I'm not here to promote myself. As I said, I've been in this industry for 56 years, I've seen and heard everything. And I'm telling you that right now is not the era to eat raw foods. Be very careful. If you're going to have salad at home, you're getting all kinds of contradictory information. Tomatoes are bad for you. Spinach now is bad for you because of the oxalates. That one is not good for you. What I tell people, what has your family historically eaten? And if it's eaten frozen foods and prepared foods, forget that. When you eat fresh foods, I would recommend that before you start eating anything raw, steam it, Put extra virgin olive oil on it, saute it, break it down a little bit so that your body has a better chance of digesting it. Take a good probiotic like hours in the morning and in the evening to give your body the chance to adjust to a completely new environment, both for air, soil, water so that you can start adjusting and feeling better. Because of the number of allergies that all of us are exposed to, the number of not feeling good, the depression, especially young man, young women. The anxiety is not good because your mind is so powerful. It can also make your GI tract a bad environment for these beneficial bacteria. And since 40% of your dry weight fecal matter is bacteria, they're not going to want to hang out with you.
Justine Reichman: So before we wrap this up a little bit, are there any hard hitting statistics that you can share about the impact of the way we eat?
Natasha Trenev: The only statistics that can show you the rise of chronic disease, the rise of colon cancer, you have to see that in the 1950's, we ate beef, we smoked and we drank. The statistics for chronic disease are way lower in the 1950's than they are now. So you have to say, what are we doing now? The chronic diseases among young people have exploded. Colon cancer people in their 20's and 30's having part of their intestines taken up. That's horrific. What have we done? We need to go back and examine. We just can't listen to gurus that are shaking their butts in the TikTok commercial for 30 seconds or 60 seconds and say that that's what I want to follow. You have to listen to someone who's been in this field for at least 20 or 30 years who's actually done their homework, knows and sees what has happened. We have to take responsibility for our health and not just listen to anybody because they look great, or because they're being paid to pitch something.
Justine Reichman: Natasha, thank you so much for joining me. If people wanted to find your product, where would they be able to find it? How would they be able to get their hands on it?
Natasha Trenev: The best way to find that is to go to our website natren.com. We still have live people that will take phone calls and answer, or you can order online. And then if you still shop at Whole Foods and Sprouts, we're available there. But we have a limited line because of the discounts they want us to give. And that's not conducive to us producing the best product. So either way, I'm grateful that people come in. And all I can tell you, the reason I'm still working at 76 is because my message has not penetrated. My message is still being watered down and I want them to remember that you have to listen to people who are doing this for the right reason.
Justine Reichman: Awesome. Thank you so much, Natasha. I really appreciate it. And we will continue the conversation and we look forward to hearing what other information you have to share with us as things continue to progress in this industry.
Natasha Trenev: Thank you so much. I really enjoyed it.
Justine Reichman: Likewise.
