this lmnt electrolyte controversy has gotten out of hand I actually do think it's a big deal but not for the reasons you may think first let me get you up to speed element is a famous brand of electrolytes that has built their brand on a promise of no sugar and no dodgy ingredients but recently it was exposed that element actually includes meltex a high glycemic index sugar ah Panic ensued Maybe is it warranted actually the amount of multidex that the company includes or then said they included was only 4 mg which is so minuscule as to be likely irrelevant and it was included in the formulation as a quote flavor carrier subsumed in the natural flavors item on the ingredient list that's how the company rationalized it but then it was further exposed that elementy products may have far more than 4 mg more like 250 to 550 mg which is about 100 fold more now that relative difference sounds like a lot and technically it is but the fact of the matter is even at 550 mg or about half a gram you're still getting a very very tiny dose of multitran carb sugar or to look at it a different way to get the amount of carbs from LMN electrolytes as are in 1/8 of a banana you need to ingest about 8 full G of sodium from the element electrolytes So physiologically speaking this is all somewhat of a nothing burger for most people however people are fuming and I understand why it's about trust in the war between big food and personal health there are so few brands people feel they can trust so when that trust is breached as here through a failure to disclose and ingredient people understandably become irate and yes I did use the term irate it's not so much about the multiex the sugar the carb but the apparent cover up now I did say apparent because I am not to be clear making any accusations at the LMN team LMN team say that 10 times fast I'm not making accusations what I am saying is this is how it appears to people that the multitran content was intentionally excluded to help with brand perception and therefore increase sales that might not be reality however when it comes to the brand it's the perception that matters I'm sure their bottom line can tell them that it's kind of obvious now to read some comments by other individuals to hammer home my point comments on a tweet I put out the issue is that people who are into personalized medicine expect a company that markets to this group people who are interp personalized in n equals 1 medicine to be clear about their ingredients this feels like a punch in the gut another person said it's bizarre to me that companies have yet to catch on to just how much people value brutal transparency most people would much rather support an honest company that has a small amount of quote sketchy stuff maybe even necessary in formulation quote sketchy stuff in their product as opposed to a company that is secretive about it here multiex content and another person said I agree Nick everyone should know what they're consuming and but I think the backlash is a little over the top so here kind of echoing my position but I understand the frustration from people because when you put your trust and money into a brand you expect transparency and they LM did not deliver that here that said I also want to highlight this other form of comment this person said this poor company referring to lmnt is being destroyed while I'm sure 99% of all other supplement companies are doing the same hiding the real ingredients in their products now I like this comment because it acknowledges a reality in the market there is pressure to craft your story in the most aesthetic way possible you can see how a company would be swayed to Omit from their ingredients list an ingredient that quote looks dodgy given the dose has questionable biological relevance at least in in the company's team's estimation that said I do not think it's up to the company or their team to determine what is or is not relevant for their consumers I think that should be left up to every individual on their own n equals one journey and I can clearly see others feel the same way so stepping back what do I suggest to you well speaking to my general audience biologically speaking I want to reinforce I don't think half a gram Max of multiex is a B deal for most people but that's not up to me it's up to you to make your own determination now you know and now you can decide if you want to use LMN if you do use electrolytes or go to other vendors but bearing in mind however this failure to disclose is likely a broad problem so remain skeptical and ask questions where you can but I also suggest to you to keep an eye on lement and here's why now I'm speaking to the company and the company's co-founders some of whom follow me I'm just going to say straight to them hey guys I think this is a moment where you can actually brand differentiate where element can Rise From the Ashes so to speak clearly trust has been breached and people are angry and I would understand the reflex to get defensive based on the low dose of the quote flavor carrier andoss labeling loopholes but what I think personally think might go down better is an own up and a sincere apology like something like our intent was to blah blah blah here's how this happened we're really sorry many of you feel betrayed we hear that we value trust and here is what we are going to do better moving forward personally I'd really respect messaging like that now turning the tables and pointing the spotlight on myself for a moment I've thought a lot about this in my own communication because I think people really really appreciate that there are always practicalities and Imperfections when it comes to a company when it comes to an influencer or a brand and when these are acknowledged up front I generally feel people are pretty generous on the whole so for example I previously disclosed that as an activity I really like making cheesecakes just regular cheesecakes loaded with sugar and carbs with my girlfriend it's an activity we do it's an activity we enjoy and it's super anti- keto anti- low carb one can say quote antimetabolic Health but honestly it's something I do it's an activity that I engage in as part of like who I am as a human being Beyond The Avatar that is my influencer and just for some kicks and giggles and fun math the amount of net carb equivalence in one of our cheesecakes is equal to about 750 LMN sticks in carb equivalence using that 550 milligram so you know comparing apples to oranges here it's like you know a tsunami and like a ripple so you can call me a hypocrite if you want but the truth is I'm a human not a metabolic Health robot and I like to try to actively disclose this sort of information because I think people like the feeling that they are dealing with real humans not pseudo perfect influencer avatars or people trying to pretend they's something they're not and when those facts are obscured people feel stabbed in the back at least those are my two cents now I want to know what your two cents are what do you think about this whole controversy is it blown out of proportion or is deceit deceit how should the company deal with this Mayhem also if you like cheesecake what flavors should we make next anyway with that stay curious and also stay authentic so while I was making this video I reached out to the company's co-founders to see if they had any two cents to give I think it's only fair that they get to share their side of the story co-founder Rob wolf got back to me so I want to read you with permission what he wrote he said hi Nick it was very kind of you to reach out to Lewis and I if there seems to be a good place to put this what I'm about to read it would be greatly appreciated we launched LMN nearly 6 years ago when I started to realize the significance of our special electrolyte equation I Rob wolf had been following a low carb ketogenic diet for a long time and my body was highly responsive to the ratio that would later become our formula our goal was to make a product that we could share with people and that would taste great and deliver on the health promise using flavors that dissolved well because they had been sprayed onto dried multiexon and adding sweetness with stevia I knew might be off-putting to some of our consumers that's exactly why we made sure to offer a raw unflavored version and we even published a free Homebrew guide so folks had options that fit their individual needs we got a couple of things wrong along the way and I want to own those mistakes and apologize for them one of my co-founders at one point mistakenly said we didn't use multitran at another point we Quantified the amount of multitran using bad math we should have written .4 G but instead wrote 4 mg the actual amount is around 400 mg or4 G we've had all this information the use of melted extran the reason we use it and the amounts we use disclosed on our blog and Via our customer support for years we recognized that for many people these issues are important to disclose we've done our best and as we grow we keep learning and we commit to doing better in the future if you've been impacted and you're disappointed or upset I want to know that I am gutted by this it's hard to adequately put into words but please know that we are going to do everything we can to earn back your trust I actually thought that was a pretty great response by Rob I think it was very open transparent vulnerable and it seemed authentic to me so I wanted to bring it to you now you can make your own determination I've shared my thoughts and robs as well have a good one [Music]