S9 Ep75: Gut Health Without Guesswork: The Emotional Side of Healing and the Science of Real Relief with Xeba Zareie
“Learning and seeing what customers respond to and what they like is how your brand grows. It's half me, but then it's how it's received. They help me decide what the rest will be. And it's so fun to co-create with customers in that way.” —Xeba Zareie
Some days, the body sends signals that can’t be ignored. The bloating that shows up out of nowhere. The foods that once felt safe are suddenly turning into a guessing game. The search for relief becomes an ongoing job that no one feels prepared for.
Xeba Zareie knows that life well. Years of gut illness shaped her path from film production to founding Preme Foods, where she created gentle, science-backed prebiotic blends designed for individuals who feel that nothing on the shelf actually works for their body.
Press play for a refreshing perspective on gut health and the story behind a product built from lived experience, not trend chasing.
In this episode:
• What chronic gut issues reveal about stress, lifestyle, and hidden triggers
• How plant diversity and prebiotic fiber shape long-term digestion
• Why women face gut challenges at higher rates
• The role functional medicine and Chinese medicine played in Xeba’s healing
• How Preme Foods created SIBO-friendly, low FODMAP hydration
• Ingredient sourcing, European standards, and why they matter
• The emotional side of restriction and rebuilding trust with food
• Building a CPG brand rooted in science and personal history
Connect with Xeba:
Xeba Zareie is an entrepreneur and founder of Preme Foods, a wellness-focused nutrition company specializing in gut-friendly, prebiotic beverage products. With a background in TV and film production, Xeba transformed her personal struggle with chronic gut health issues into a mission to create accessible, science-backed nutritional solutions. After working with a functional medicine doctor and experiencing her own healing journey, she developed a line of drink powders designed to support digestive health, particularly for women suffering from conditions like SIBO and IBS. Committed to using high-quality, European-grade ingredients, Xeba's approach emphasizes holistic wellness, nutrition science, and creating products that help people with sensitive digestive systems feel normal and nourished.
Episode Highlights:
00:55 Meet Xeba— Lifelong GUt Struggles
02:15 Prebiotics vs Probiotics
06:05 The Emotional Toll of Eating Restrictions
10:00 The Rising Gut Health Conversation
13:22 Science-Backed SIBO-Friendly Ingredients
18:26 A Gut-Friendly Beverage Line
21:39 Why Women Suffer More Gut Issues
25:10 Glyphosate, Roundup, and Rising Gut Issues in the US
28:27 The #1 Dietary Killer
33:20 Customer-Led Product Innovation
Resources:
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Tweets:
When food stops feeling fun, something’s off. This week, we discuss sensitive stomachs, smarter ingredients, and why gentle prebiotics are revolutionizing the game. Listen in and learn how small shifts can bring big relief with @justine.reichman and @drinkpreme founder Xeba Zareie. #entrepreneurship #socialgood #inspiration #impactmatters #NextGenChef #EssentialIngredients #PremeFoods #SIBO #IBSRelief #GutHealing #HolisticHealth #Prebiotics #LowFODMAP #GutHealth #FunctionalNutrition #Stress
Inspirational Quotes:
01:55 "Something so simple as your diet, and herbs, and the right supplements could shift your overall health and wellbeing down to the way you sleep, the way you feel—everything." —Xeba Zareie
05:07 "I do encourage people with our drinks to sit and sip them ceremoniously because we all need to slow down. We all have gut issues because we are all stressed. Stress ruins your gut barrier, which causes leaky gut." —Xeba Zareie
06:04 "Women need their nutrition, they need their healthy fats for hormones. How can we create a moment of indulgence for people who don't get to indulge very often and feel safe doing it?" —Xeba Zareie
07:11 “It's harder when you've taken all these things out to learn how to deal with them.” —Justine Reichman
07:19 The less plant diversity you get, the more your gut microbiome diversity shrinks, and then your ability to digest actually withers." —Xeba Zareie
10:14 “They say we're more bacteria than we are human cells. So, ‘you are what you eat’ is a real concept.”—Xeba Zareie
16:48 “If you meet people who've accomplished something, then maybe you can accomplish it too. If you talk to them, there are enough similarities.” —Xeba Zareie
17:37 “Just being out there and learning from people and having those conversations and putting yourself out there is part of the entrepreneurial journey.” —Justine Reichman
20:42 "Women tend to suffer from SIBO more than men… because we take on more stress than men and we suppress our emotions more than men." —Xeba Zareie
28:30 "Sugar is the number one killer of people out of any food we have— more than…fats and everything that we [previously thought], it's sugar.” —Xeba Zareie
33:50 “Learning and seeing what customers respond to and what they like is how your brand grows. It's half me, but then it's how it's received. They help me decide what the rest will be. And it's so fun to co-create with customers in that way.” —Xeba Zareie
34:12 “What's really important is what everybody else wants, likes, needs, and thinks. We have to be able to be open and pivot accordingly. Listen to your audience, your community, and your consumers.” —Justine Reichman
Transcription:
Justine Reichman: Good morning, and welcome to Essential Ingredients. I'm your host, Justine Reichman. Today, I want to welcome not only our guest, Xeba, who is the Founder of Preme Foods, but those listening and tuning in, our loyal listeners and our loyal viewers. Because without you, we wouldn't have a community. So we're here today to talk to Xeba to learn more about Preme Foods. I'm sure those of you out there, there's some of you who must have gut issues. I know I do, so you're not going to want to miss this episode.
So Xeba, welcome. Thank you again for joining us. I'd love for you just to talk a little bit about yourself, and give us the highlight, sort of the top line on what Preme Foods is. So that when people tune in, they know what they're listening to, and then we can dive in deeper.
Xeba Zareie: Thank you for having me, Justine, I'm so excited to be here and to talk with your audience. So I struggled for a lifelong gut illness. I was in and out of the hospital as a baby. My parents joked that I would only go to the bathroom, number two, once a week. So I've been chronically constipated my whole life, and it wasn't until I had a dark night of the soul where I kind of realized like, I couldn't keep going on. I had cut out gluten. I had done all the things, cut out dairy, and I was still bloating all of the time. And so I had the good fortune of getting to work with a functional medicine doctor who is knowledgeable in traditional Chinese medicine as well, and she put her own Hashimotos into remission and deals with IBS. So she really taught me a lot about the difference between prebiotic fiber and probiotics, which I had no idea there was even a difference, and I started to see a lot of improvement versus all the doctors, all the specialists I had been to in the medical field. And it was so shocking to me that something so simple as your diet, herbs and the right supplements could shift your overall health and well being down to the way you sleep, the way you feel, everything.
So I lived in LA at the time. I would go to Erewhon all the time, and I just couldn't find anything that fit the bill of my strict diet that I was on at the time. I was on a low-FODMAP diet. I had been diagnosed with SIBO, H. pylori, toxic black mold, parasites, you name it. It was like the universe was like, you're gonna have it so that you know about gut illness. And so I realized a lot about anti-inflammatory foods. The difference between sourcing organic versus non organic, and just how all that can play a role if our gut is thriving, or if our gut is having a harder time processing foods. So I wanted to create just like an on the go option for people to have a functional medicine doctor prescribed prebiotic fibers that you just do not see in the snack aisle. Every prebiotic fiber snack drink out there uses the three same types of fiber. It's inulin, chicory root, or artichoke, Jerusalem artichoke, and these are all irritating to people with IBS. So I wanted to create a prebiotic fiber option for people that have sensitive stomachs.
Justine Reichman: First of all, I totally relate. Not in the same way. I wasn't going to the hospital. But when I was a little girl, I got nauseous 20 minutes after I ate all the time. I'd eat, and then I'd be hungry again, and then I'd eat. So my body was all about protein or vegetables, protein or vegetables, protein or vegetables. That's how I've always eaten. But as you get older and as you go out, and as you live your life, you're like, oh, I'm gonna eat this. Or it's not quite as straightforward as when your mom is making a steak and some broccolini, right? And so as you're talking and you're saying this, I'm like, I've chronically had stomach issues. bloating, gas, tract gas. So painful.
Xeba Zareie: You're like on your knees, you're wondering why.
Justine Reichman: My partner has said to me, do I need to take you to the hospital? Like, no, no, it will pass. The fact that I could say, no, no, I've had this before, is a little crazy, right? And you're going to be fine. And it's so interesting. So you lived in LA, because as you're telling the story, I'm like, oh, she's in Dallas. There's lots of hospitals there with all these knowledgeable people. And then you're like, wait, I lived in LA. And I'm like, oh, okay. So she went to the functional doctor. I'm sort of going with you on your journey and I'm like, yeah, I wonder if she met with Elissa Goodman, as you're telling me this story, because you're like, the Hashimoto's and this. I don't know everybody, but I felt like that too, you were talking about.
"I do encourage people with our drinks to sit and sip them ceremoniously because we all need to slow down. We all have gut issues because we are all stressed. Stress ruins your gut barrier, which causes leaky gut." —Xeba Zareie
Xeba Zareie: The story is, Dr. Juliana King, she's incredible. Shout out to her, but no, I think it's really interesting when doctors can take a more holistic approach and look at everything. Look at your emotional trauma and how that could be playing a role in your nervous system, and how that could be impacting your gut brain access. And just thinking about it, are you chronically consummated because you don't let emotions out? Maybe it's beyond your gut microbiome. So I would love to play a role in the nutrition aspect, but I do encourage people with our drinks to sit and sip them ceremoniously, because we all need to slow down. We all have gut issues because we are all stressed. Stress ruins your gut, your gut barrier, which causes leaky gut. There's so many factors. But I love what you were saying about how it's different when you're at home and your mom's cooking for you, and then you go out and you're in the real world, and there's all these options, and you want to be normal. What was also the impetus for this idea was one of the biggest issues with having a gut illness is you have to restrict so much in your lifetime. You're constantly like, I can't have that. I need to restrict you. Need a special circumstance. And I think what that does to you over time is it actually hurts your gut health, because you're not getting to live like everybody else. You're feeling othered. You are constantly trying to control, micromanage your food, and that over time can wear on you, and I think create more stress. And I think it creates more bloating. You can create stress around food. You can get disordered eating. Women need their nutrition. They need their healthy fats for our hormones. So I was very much like, how can we create a moment of indulgence for people who don't get to indulge very often, and feel safe doing it?
Justine Reichman: What an amazing thing to do for people. Because I know, like myself, I'm like, I'm gonna have one marshmallow. I have the one marshmallow, and I bought the good ones, right? Those Dandies, instead of the ones with all the corn syrup and all the other stuff, and I still get an acid feeling on my tongue. And then I'm like, yeah. I had one marshmallow. I thought I'd be safe with one marshmallow. I hear what you're saying, and I love that. Because as we change, as stress happens, as weather changes, we crave different foods, and not all those foods are actually good for us. And then to go on to something else you said, I remember saying, oh, I'm not gonna eat nitrates, nightshades or gluten and etcetera. But then, you try to put that back in your diet. That's not a good idea. Because now, you've kind of screwed with your gut. And I'm not a doctor, but I think that it's harder when you've taken all these things out to learn how to deal with them. At least in my experience.
Xeba Zareie: Well, you're onto something. Because the less plant diversity you get, the more your gut microbiome diversity shrinks, and then your ability to digest actually withers.
Justine Reichman: I used to eat everything, from asparagus to Brussels sprouts, to broccolini, to all these things, and artichokes. And then I read, oh, well, artichokes are high in histamine. I shouldn't have that, because I get really congested. And then I was reading another thing, oh, I shouldn't eat that, that is also high in histamine. Tomatoes, it has too much acid and all these things. So like you're saying, I'm taking these things off, removing them from my diet, and then maybe I shouldn't be. I don't know the answers, but I do love the idea that you found somebody that was able to walk you through it, that also has a background in Chinese medicine.Because that philosophy, in of itself, is different where certain things require heat, certain things require coldness. My favorite example is for women or girls, when they get their period, they should add more red into their diet, beets, meat and stuff. And like that one, I use that example because you can see the color and the meat, and you can see the color in the beets is red. And then when you're menstruating, you're getting rid of that. It's like you're replenishing it. But I love how you brought all those things together. I just want to go back to the beginning, not to the beginning, but back a few steps. So you're struggling with these issues. And I guess you had a moment where you figured things out with Dr. Juliana?
Xeba Zareie: I went to the Top GI Beverly Hills Specialists, and all they would do is prescribe me an antibiotic or an antidepressant, and send me on my way. There was no talk about nutrition, diet or whatever. Essentially, my body was asking for a lifestyle change.
Justine Reichman: Interesting that you were just saying that doctors chronically get three to four hours worth of nutrition training. And I know that there are places that are working to change that. The Rodeo Institute is like integrating a whole educational thing with some universities.
Xeba Zareie: It's beautiful what we're seeing with that. But some doctors are like, why do we have to learn that stuff? We already have to learn it all. And I'm just like, it is intrinsic to the way our bodies are, and I had no idea. I didn't understand why people went to the grocery store and bought so many different types of plants. I'm like, why not just buy the same? I love to eat the same thing every day. I'm like a little freak. I'll go to the restaurant and just order the same thing every time. And it's like, we need this plant diversity. But no one had ever taught me this. No one talks to you about your gut microbiome. I think it's becoming more and more researched, and we're starting to understand and learn more just in the last 5, 10 years.
Justine Reichman: I would agree completely. I think it's a very big conversation now, and apparently a lot leads to your gut. I don't want to say everything, but I feel like there are conversations, and it seems like they always do lead back to the gut.
Xeba Zareie: I would argue everything they say we're there are more bacteria than human cells. So you are what you eat. It is a real concept.
Justine Reichman: It's true. Okay, so you finally find this Dr. Juliana in LA, which is amazing. And maybe we can throw up her name in show notes, just so people can investigate.
Xeba Zareie: Yeah. She's the doctor on our website too. She overlooked everything with the formula.
Justine Reichman: Okay. So then, at what point did you decide, I have an idea. I want to create a solution for people like me that are struggling, that don't want to be the other person there, or that person that always has an issue when they're eating at the menu, looking at the menu, deciding what can I eat, or being that Sally and Harry.
Xeba Zareie: I was working in TV and film before, and those were long 12 hour days, and I had gotten so sick at that point that I was not working full time. I was doing a podcast to try to document my healing journey because she was sending me to different types of practitioners. She was like, you need a Chi Nei Tsang, which is like a Chinese stomach massage. I was going to try all these different things, and I wanted to document it so I started making podcasts, and it actually did really well in Europe. I got some clients from it. We were doing some freelance podcasting, and I was actually working with Sophie Jaffe at the time, and she had her own snack brand. And every morning, I would wake up and would make this oatmeal in the morning. It was oatmeal with my gentle prebiotic fiber that we now have, and collagen, and just trying to get as much nutrition into this soupy oatmeal that I could because I was waking up nauseous all the time. I had no energy, and I didn't want to eat anything to begin with. So getting this into my body, I knew I needed it so I could heal. And I would wake up and be like, I miss Greek yogurt. That's really what I miss.
I miss carving into something nice, creamy, luxurious. This oatmeal just feels not luxurious and fun. So what ended up happening was, I actually started with a refrigerated pudding. It was an oatmeal, collagen pudding. It had 10 grams of protein. It had the prebiotic fiber, and it was made with eggs, and we were selling in a few stores in LA, and that's how the whole concept began. But I was a bit naive about the grocery store and how all that works. And not to give away everyone's secrets, but every one that has a snack brand in the grocery store, minimum shelf life is about 8 months to really do anything. I wanted to keep the concept of all the healing stuff that we were doing. And besides the oatmeal, I would make these lattes that had all the powders in there. And so I was like, I'm gonna make a drink, a beverage that people can just have so I can ship it no matter where I am, and get it to as many people as possible. And it was crazy. Because at the time, I was the only one having a gut illness. A lot of my friends were starting to mention things like, oh, I just got diagnosed with IBS. Or, oh, I just got diagnosed with SIBO. In the last five years, there's been a rise in the diagnosis of SIBO and things like that.
Justine Reichman: I have SIBO, but I was diagnosed like, I want to say 12 or 15 years ago when it goes away and it comes back. It has its moments acceptable.
Xeba Zareie: So what's great about our products is that most fibers on the market are not SIBO friendly. Because as someone with SIBO, you bloat easily. And so taking too many added probiotics is going to cause you to bloat, and then also high FODMAPs can cause you to bloat. So our formulas are all science back SIBO friendly.
Justine Reichman: When you say science fact, did you do clinical studies?
Xeba Zareie: Not doing clinical studies, but we use efficacious doses of science backed ingredients. They're trademarked ingredients with 25 to 30 years of clinical studies behind them, and we used all low-FODMAP ingredients with it.
Justine Reichman: Wow. That's amazing. But here you are, you're going from producer and podcaster, and you know somebody in the entertainment and media industry, let's just say a Founder of a CPG product, or a medical grade food if you want to call that, and that's a completely different path.
Xeba Zareie: We would package TV shows and sell them to Netflix. And I think packaging a TV show and creating a deck is not unlike creating a product, creating a deck that you're going to go pitch, it's similar. It's a totally different field and group of culture and people. It's been quite the transition.
Justine Reichman: I could see the similarities. You're packaging it, you're creating branding for it, you're marketing the whole thing. But as you said, getting into grocery stores and understanding how to package things, co-packing and all these things, they're different from doing a television show. I love the idea that you can draw on the similarities, because I love to lean into what we already know and recognize that the journey wasn't that big from here to there, and then, of course, there was a learning curve.
Xeba Zareie: I'm a manifesting generator in human design. They talk about how we pivot quite often, and we have to use our previous work to inform our former, our ongoing work. So I do think of it that way.
Justine Reichman: Yeah, I do too. I think that it's great to be able to express that so other people can see that. Maybe it's just about reframing the way that they're looking at it. Maybe it's not such a leap. Maybe their role in what they did was the same thing, so I think that that's really integral.
Xeba Zareie: Something like we've never had so much access to information and knowledge at this time, like I developed the pudding on my own. I really had no cooking background, but I spent 8 months in the kitchen trialing and erroring. And the reason I thought that was possible was because I've never told this story to her, but I'm sure she'll find out one day. There's a woman named Erin McKenna, and she has a vegan bakery. She was the first vegan, gluten free, dairy free, whatever, all the things free bakery in New York, and she opened a location. It's called The Erin McKenna Bakery, and it's all pink, and it's vegan.
Justine Reichman: Where is it? Oh, is it down on the lower east side?
Xeba Zareie: I think it might be. Let's see.
Justine Reichman: I get curious when you say New York. If I don't know something, it kind of gives me issues like I'm not paying attention, or something.
Xeba Zareie: Permanently closed. But it was on Broome Street.
Justine Reichman: Broom Street. Okay, all righty. Erin McKenna, I wonder if I'd been there. Anyway, that's not the point.
Xeba Zareie: Did these healthy pastries. And I believe in seeing to believe. And if you meet people who've accomplished something, then maybe you can accomplish it too if you talk to them with enough similarities. So I really was just praying that I would go in there at the same time that she was working there. So I went in one morning, and she was working. She was the only one there, and we ended up talking. I really asked her, how did you develop these products? What did you do? She was like, I worked in fashion. I had no cooking experience. But every night at home, I would do like three trials, and I would just test out different recipes. And after like 7 months, I was able to open my bakery. So I was like, okay, I'm gonna do that.
“Just being out there and learning from people and having those conversations and putting yourself out there is part of the entrepreneurial journey.” —Justine Reichman
Justine Reichman: I always believe that going out in the world, you meet people, and there's so much to be said for that. And like the formal networking, it could be going to a coffee house, it could be sitting on a plane, just being out there and learning from people, and having those conversations, and putting yourself out there is part of the entrepreneurial, I think, journey. Oh, I have that personality though. A lot of my founder friends say that, you really need a certain personality to just go out there and not be afraid of rejection, and just put your own. We want to make this episode all inclusive. Can you turn around and grab that dog? It ran away.
Xeba Zareie: Hey, I actually got a puppy this year. And I was like, wait, this is so hard compared to doing.
Justine Reichman: Oh, my God, you're very cute. I have two too.
Xeba Zareie: Ah, well, it's about seven months.
Justine Reichman: Oh, well, I'm sure that we could talk about dog food too.
Xeba Zareie: Our Gentle Prebiotic is science packed for dogs. Sometimes, I give it to them, and it helps them.
Justine Reichman: Okay, so talk to me, you had your first pudding. That was the first thing that you put out. You tried that in Erewhon, then had this revelation, if I'm hearing you correctly, that you want it to make it more accessible and get it in more people's hands, so you created the drink. So talk to me about the drink, and how you created that? And a little bit about that profile and the response you got from people.
Xeba Zareie: I love to drink powders. I've been using adaptogens and Moon juice, and I love electrolytes and all that stuff, but I'm often disappointed by them. I'm not gonna lie, they taste cake to me, and they're hyper sweet.I literally cannot handle it.
Justine Reichman: I'm with you. If I have monk fruit, it's like--
Xeba Zareie: It's way too sweet. I really believe in pulling it back and letting people, if they want to sweeten it on their own, be able to do that. So we only have one gram of date and coconut sugar in each bag, and we have less than 1% of stevia leaf. And we do that to kind of tie the flavors together, but it's not sweetened with an empty calorie, because I think that that does something to your body. I really think trying to say that you're consuming sugar with a zero calorie just throws you off, and they say that it can cause more gut problems. So it's called gut building hydration. We use science back efficacious dosage of three different types of FODMAP friendly prebiotic fibers, meaning like bloat friendly prebiotic fibers. We have a kiwi lemonade electrolyte. It's made with real New Zealand, organic grown green and golden Kiwi fruit. And they're also a science backed prebiotic. There's about 1.5 kiwis in one serving. We use apple cider vinegar, bamboo extract, just all the most high quality. We have trace minerals, 100 milligrams of magnesium, glycinate, literally wanted to make like an electrolyte for your gut, and so this is an electrolyte that you don't need to sweat for most electrolytes have like 1000 milligrams of sodium. Women do not need that much sodium. Men might if you're working out.
Justine Reichman: Is the target audience is women?
Xeba Zareie: Our target audience is women. Women tend to suffer from SIBO more than men. It's like, do you not know the percentages? I think it's like 30% more women experience something like that. I wonder why? They're saying this because we take on more stress than men, and we suppress our emotions more than men.
Justine Reichman: Oh, interesting. What's really interesting about that is they always say women are so emotional. I hear that women, you're so emotional, or all these things. And they always say men are going off to the office, traditionally speaking.
Xeba Zareie: We all work, but it has flipped. Women keep working the brunt of the responsibility in their households. Now, it's not just about work. It's about who's taking kids,, and the house, and the laundry, the dogs? You just have a more naturally caring and nurturing nature, so we're more willing to be the ones giving and bending over backwards, so to speak.
Justine Reichman: So it's more focused, your audience is more women.
Xeba Zareie: More women. Men really like our hot cocoa. They really do. Men who are already leaning towards health and wellness, they love and get the brand.
Justine Reichman: Buy that for my partner.
Xeba Zareie: We have a kiwi lemonade. Would you love it chilled? It's really good. It's like a refreshing lemonade made with all real fruit, and we brought in, we made sure everything was European grade standard for ingredients.
Justine Reichman: Can we talk about that for a second? Because I think that's an overlooked conversation so often. I didn't mean to cut you, but I also want to acknowledge it. I think this is a big part of the conversation. When we talk about traveling to Europe, and people say that they feel better eating so many different things versus here, that's a really big issue in conversation. I think a lot of people don't understand that the regulations there are a lot more stringent. So by you integrating that, that gives me so much excitement, and it also makes me feel better about the product because I feel like we've got so many different things that we could do that maybe aren't ideal here.
Xeba Zareie: I was torn because there's (inaudible) drink powders that don't use flavors, and they just use the real fruit, and they're made with coconut powder. And to me, it doesn't taste good. And the whole goal is really to provide that taste to people like you're not missing out, you're getting to be privation. So I tried all the flavors, organic flavors, here in the US, and none of them tasted good. So I thought, well, I'm gonna go to Europe and see what they're offering. So we import from France, and they taste unlike anything on the American market. It just tastes so refreshing, light and nice. And to know that it's fully organic and that they use 10,000 less chemicals than we use here, it's just such a reassuring thing. And I feel the difference. And we've tested the product on my sensitive stomach. And then literally, anyone I know with like Crohn's, IBS, SIBO, anything like that, we've sent out the samples to them to make sure that no one really had a reaction.
Justine Reichman: Wow, that's amazing. The other just to connect with that, I think about how agriculture is different in Europe too, and how that plays a role. Because it's not just the rules and regulations. Yes, those play a role. But also the rules and regulations as it relates to agriculture versus how it is here. So even within my own personal shopping experience, when I go shopping for food, I buy French butter. I have the issue with fossil fuel, and it's not local and all those different things. But at the end of the day, I want to be healthy, and want to feel good. It's not that I'm trying to kill the planet, but I want to find a balance. And so for me, I found when I was in Europe, because I felt so good, I wanted to adopt and eat as many European things. Even with the small trace of wine that I drink, I buy European French.
Xeba Zareie: Well, that's so intuitively smart of you, because wine nowadays in the US, and I stopped being able to stomach wine a couple years ago here. But the wine is just so heavily sprayed with roundup here and glyphosate, and it's really, really, really scary. I've noticed the rise of our glyphosate usage, so Roundup, for anyone who doesn't know Monsanto, it's basically what deciphers a product as organic or not organic if there's glyphosate in there. And the more that we've used glyphosate in this country, like my gut issues have definitely increased with glyphosate usage. It's still prevalent in France. They have it there. But I think there's way more independent, small, local type of people who really do adhere to their thousand year old traditions of the way they made butter, and the way they produce stuff and things like that. But apparently, Italy and Spain have the best, best, best agriculture, and no usage of glyphosate. They're the most strict about it, which is ironic because their economies are suffering.
Justine Reichman: Well, it's interesting. And I think, of course, you were talking about the kiwi's that you were using, and the organic ones. And I'm just curious, what about the ones that you're using from overseas that are so much better, what do you find the impact of using that?
Xeba Zareie: Such a good question. They actually did a study where they tested the nutrient density of all Kiwi's across the entire globe and their most nutrient dense when they're grown in New Zealand.
Justine Reichman: Why is it about agriculture?
Xeba Zareie: They think it's just a combination of the geography and the way that the soil is, I think it is more native there, anyway.
Justine Reichman: But they are kiwis, right? They are kiwis.
Xeba Zareie: It was so important to me. The traceability is like I've been a freak since I was 8. I've been taking packages and turning them over, and reading the back and being like, oh, I can't eat this. And putting it back. That's been my journey. It comes with a balance now for me. I know what makes me feel good, I know what doesn't make me feel good, and I avoid those ingredients now, and I search for the better ones.
Justine Reichman: And I think that more and more people are looking at the back of what they're buying. And I think you and I have been doing this. My mom trained me at a very young age to buy apple juice without sugar in it. You don't need to buy apple juice with sugar in it. You can buy regular apple juice and real apple juice.
Xeba Zareie: Better now, it's cloudy, it is so cool. I love it.
Justine Reichman: Me too, and that's how I grew up. So I think throughout my life, I always turn around and look, and I'm like, so much stuff has sugar. And I'm like, why? It doesn't need to have sugar?
Xeba Zareie: Oh, but it's crazy because I have been in LA the last 10 years, and it's been a bubble. But the more events I do in Texas, the more I'm like, oh, I get why things have the amount of sugar that they do. It's truly like America is addicted to sugar. And like our sugar standards are insane. When I talk to my other friends who have snack brands that are low sugar, they also experience the same thing. They do really well in coastal towns. And then when it comes to Middle America, they don't get it.
Justine Reichman: Yeah. It's very different. I think there's a real education. Part of my journey here is to be able to provide a platform so people can share information, like yourselves, to inspire others to make more informed changes. So if somebody is listening to this, and if one of our listeners was tuning in right now, what would you say to them about sugar and the impact it has? What do you think about that?
Xeba Zareie: No food kills more people. Sugar is the number one killer of people out of any food we have. Number one, so first of all, more than heart like fats and everything like that that we've thought, it's sugar. Second of all, every disease is increased and inflamed with sugar. I quit sugar throughout my healing process, and I didn't realize how addicted I was. We all have some level of addiction. We don't even realize, because we're consuming almost 100 times the amount of sugar that we consumed when we were back roaming.
Justine Reichman: I also think that if you don't look at the ingredients, you don't realize how often sugar is an ingredient stuck in there. That's part of the problem. You got to look for the information. It's not going to be right there, but you'd be surprised.
"Sugar is the number one killer of people out of any food we have— more than…fats and everything that we [previously thought], it's sugar.” —Xeba Zareie
Xeba Zareie: Low sugar added, and then you'll turn the back, and then they'll have the chocolate chip in there, has sugar in there, right? But it tastes better, and that's what it is.
Justine Reichman: That's why what you're doing is so important.
Xeba Zareie: That's why I encourage people to have alternative routes. Because when I was quitting sugar, it's like, you can't just quit sugar. You need to have blueberries on deck.
Justine Reichman: I have grapes because I want something sweet after I eat dinner.
Xeba Zareie: You need to set yourself up for success. You're not going to just quit this cold turkey. I encourage anyone who wants to lower their sugar to find natural sources. That's why I love the date and coconut in ours. It's an anti-inflammatory natural source, and your body's used to that. Like eating a fruit. Why not do that? Why not try?
Justine Reichman: Yeah, totally, totally. So now, you have this product, and are you selling direct to consumer? Tell us where people can find these products.
Xeba Zareie: So we wanted to start direct to consumer. We did a pilot run. We wanted to just control, kind of a more premium product. We want to test the market. We have this kiwi lemonade and our hot cocoa back to traditional Chinese medicine. Warm puts your nervous system into rest and digest. So we wanted a warm electrolyte skew. Try to sip that slowly and watch your nervous system slow down and digest better. We're available on our website, it's premefoods.com. You can also find us with this low-tox online retailer called Live Healthillie, and it's spelled like IE at the end. And we're about to launch on Amazon, so you'll see us.
Justine Reichman: Congratulations. That's exciting. Wow. And so as you look forward to the next few years, are you going to be putting out more skews, more things, more options? What does that look like? What are you hoping to create?
Xeba Zareie: Now, the mission is to just provide people with on the go accessible nutrition that's medicinal. So we're going to do sticks next because I feel just with our busy lifestyles, people prefer having those as much as I wanted to avoid the extra packaging. I'm in a kind of a wasteful industry. But we're going to do sticks, and we're going to do a new skew variant that's also a fruity that goes with the kiwi lemonade. We're leaning into maybe like a berry flavor that we'll do. Hopefully, maybe years down the road, we want to get back into the puddings. That's our goal. We would love to do R&D on the pudding to make it have a longer shelf life without adding pesticides, and that requires some money. So the goal will be to provide that at the end for our customers because everyone misses them, and I miss them too.
Justine Reichman: They sound really yummy, and it sounds like a good thing for breakfast. Because for me, I like to eat protein in the morning. I don't like to be dairy. I don't like to do all these different things. So what a good alternative instead of eating a steak for breakfast.
Xeba Zareie: Exactly. Dairy to go with it, and you don't want an oatmeal sludge.
Justine Reichman: So I think that sounds amazing, especially for somebody like me that is equally similar to you, while maybe not as extreme experience on some of these things. I'm sure some of our listeners do also. So I'm curious, you made this transition from producing and selling things to Netflix to creating your product, and now getting it out there. What was the one thing you did not expect to be a hurdle, or an obstacle, or a challenge that you came across that maybe you can share with those tuning in today, and maybe how you worked through it?
Xeba Zareie: Sure. I think that buyers of stores are all very overwhelmed. We don't realize how grocery stores run. I didn't realize how much these stores run until I got into the business. And I didn't understand all the ins and outs that came with whether a brand succeeds or not. I always wondered why there was so much rotation of brands. But I think creating a brand that has longevity, like 98% fails. 98% of CPG companies failed in the first three years or something. So I learned a lot about the industry overall. I go back to the shelf life issue like that. I have all these ideals as a Founder that I want to bring into the 3D into the material, and I'm just trying to meet it in a compromised way at this point. There's only so much you can do with food, but it's so cool to see how the technology is increasing over time to help shelf life of products last longer without adding pesticides. It's so cool to learn about all that stuff. I taught myself essentially food science the first two years, so I've been loving that aspect of the business. And the R&D aspect of developing new products is really fun to me. So yeah, just learning and seeing what customers respond to, and what they like, and that's how your brand grows. It's half me, but then it's how it's received. And they help me decide what the rest will be. And it's so fun to co-create with customers in that way.
Justine Reichman: Well, I think what you just said is so important to remember, because we can come up with a million ideas that we think they're brilliant. But what's really important is what everybody else wants, likes, needs and thinks, and we have to be able to be open and pivot accordingly. Because as much as I might like my branding, or my this, or my that, if it's not resonating, it doesn't matter what I think. So I think that a really great takeaway is to listen to your audience, your community and your consumers.
Xeba Zareie: Yes, absolutely. As much as it hurts, and as much as you want to do what you want to do.
Justine Reichman: Yeah, I agree. Oh, my god, this was such a great conversation. I'm so glad that you were able to join us. But in the meantime, if those listeners that have been tuning in, whether they're listening to the podcast or watching the video cast that are interested in the product, is there a special discount we can offer, though?
Xeba Zareie: Yeah. Of course. I would love to do that. So we'll do essential15, all lowercase, and that's 15% off the first bag of cream.
Justine Reichman: Thank you so much. Thank you for joining us. I can't wait to continue the conversation and see how things evolve for you and your company going forward.
Xeba Zareie: It's been such a great pleasure. Thank you.
Justine Reichman: And I want to thank our listeners for tuning in. For those of you tuning into the video cast, don't forget, you can listen to us on the go on iTunes, on our podcast, or anywhere you choose to listen to your podcasts. And for those that are tuning into the podcast, don't forget, if you do want to catch the video and see us in person, we do have a YouTube, that's Essential Ingredients, so we hope to see you there. Let us know what you think. Comment, like and share the greatest gift you can give your friends. If this episode is interesting or meaningful to you and you know somebody else with gut issues or that is suffering in some way, share this episode. Thanks again for tuning in.
