Greg Voisen
Well, welcome back to Inside Personal Growth. This is Greg Voisen, host of Inside Personal Growth. And Luc for all my listeners who've literally known me for years and years, they know that I go to the natural products West Expo almost every year. And there I find new and interesting people. And importantly along with those people new and interesting products, and you happen to be one of them, Lisa May, who is a friend of mine, actually made the recommendation to speak with Luc Maes. And it's Dr. Luc Maes. And it's the Maes Center for Natural Healthcare. And they're located in Santa Barbara. And you can get there at gokaibae.com, that's where you're gonna find more information about them. Well look, good day to you. It looks like a beautiful day in Santa Barbara. Always got this.

Dr. Luc Maes
Thank you for having me on your podcast.

Greg Voisen
Oh, you're quite welcome. And this story is one that I want our listeners to understand and learn more about. Also, they do have a book out and we will show our listeners this cooking. And it's with bad

Dr. Luc Maes
Baobab

Greg Voisen
Baobab cooking with Baba. And this is the last crop we're going to be talking about. But I'm gonna let the listeners know a little bit about you, Luc. With 30 years of experience in plant based medicine and natural products industry and director of the Mays center for natural healthcare practice. Luc has an abiding interest in keen insight understanding health and skincare, and real consumer needs and best practice, practices and product development. His private research includes a study of medicinal plants through Africa, Central and South America. His public interest feels a desire to take what he learns and to share it with global view towards solutions for people and the planet. And his partner in this two partners, one, his wife, Barbara, she's the curator, and Tom Cole. He's the botanist and humanitarian that makes up this organization. Well, welcome, welcome to Inside personal growth. And it's really a pleasure having you on and I've actually been taking the powder and notice the difference already in the gut health. So I'm going to be an advocate for this. But the show isn't about selling anything. It's about educating people. So what we want to do is educate you first. So you tell the listeners a little bit about your background. You know, as a doctor, how you became interested in natural health care is a natural path.

Dr. Luc Maes
Well, I studied naturopathic medicine, and been practicing Santa Barbara for the past 30 years. Integrating Functional Medicine and Classical Homeopathy. I've been fortunate to study with some of the foremost leaders in these fields. But in addition, I've also been very passionate about plants and what plants can do for our health. And in addition to seeing patients. I've done extensive research on plant medicine and hadn't been fortunate to travel the globe and learn from traditional healers as to their uses of the plants that grow around them. And about 12 years ago, I became for some reason this three the baobab tree or bail Bob tree that grows in the African savanna called my name, not to be too esoteric, but I was drawn to connect with this tree as a naturopath. As you know, gut health is at the core of our practice, and the gut and our research is increasingly showing that the gods is truly at the core of many of our health care needs. I became totally intrigued by the benefits of the fruit powder of this amazing tree. You mentioned last crop, the baobab tree is considered a lost crop undervalued for its incredible health benefits. The powder benefits the Gup. Its prebiotic and also benefits blood sugar. So my initial intent was to purely learn about the nutritional the biochemical benefits of the fruit. But as my research went deeper and deeper, I became I realized that this harvesting this fruit would potentially make a huge impact not only for our In the environment of the tree, but also for the people that live around the tree. So it took my practice of naturopathic medicine to a much deeper, broader, comprehensive way of looking at things, and opened up a world where I could benefit health but also protect our planet.

Greg Voisen
Well, you certainly did that you and Tom and Barbara. And this bay ABAB is really just such an interesting fruit. And you also involve the people in it. And you then formed K bay by saying it right again,

Dr. Luc Maes
it's kind of another hard word. But you

Greg Voisen
and you and your wife and Tom, who I mentioned just a second ago, is the botanist and humanitarian. Tell me a little bit about Tom and his role in this overall formation in the organization. Because, you know, he was very important as a botanist to you. And obviously, he's humanitarian, because you formed this B Corp. And then you created this miniseries documentary that will direct our listeners to saw the last crop. And you know, you tell in that, in that thing about the last crop. And I want to really be clear here, the sustainable and socially responsible venture that you took on in Ghana and Columbia and Zanzibar to actually harvest the fruit put the people to work. This is a big part of the story, and provide them with a livable wage and a business. So tell us a little bit about the story and how you and Tom came together.

Dr. Luc Maes
So when I was drawn to travel to Africa, I had no relationships. There were connections there. And I had to find a way to meet somebody who knew about working in Africa and happened through Google of all things to connect with Tom Cole, an incredible individual here that lives in Montecito only 10 minutes away from my home. But we connected through Google, I wanted to find somebody who knew about Africa. And Tom Cole is a migratory ecologist. He is experienced humanitarian works in post conflict regions throughout Africa. Ensuring of projects through permit gardens permaculture to promote food security in these regions. And I was lucky to connect with him and his passion for trees for aloes, and the baobab tree of all trees. He knew it very well. We connected and traveled to Northern Ghana, about in 2012 met with elders and through his expertise, were able to develop solid relationships with local communities. His expertise and community development came is a very valuable asset for Kobe. We've been since through his experience and my background in the medical uses of Baobab have been able to create a supply chain that benefits the communities in Northern Ghana as supply chain that wasn't there before have been able to establish a processing center that now makes a an impact on about 1000 community members and 85% women handle the fruits and processing equal pay. So for us, KB KB means hello, how are you by the way Shalom Basu in Kusa, which is the language of local communities. For the first time we drove up in the northern region. The ladies were all lined up and cheering me on Kobe, Kobe was very enthusiastic energy and on my way back as like, I need to call my company KB because it was such a powerful energetic while you still gives me the chills, greeting that will leave me connected to that first, forever to that first day. And so yes, Kobe means hello, how are you? Are you well, and bow Bob is actually called the African tree of life. It's served a very important purpose to communities throughout centuries, not only as a plate for shade, place for shade, but a place to gather a place for food. And it's gutting sort of lost in its appreciation. Because of the delusion that access to plastic packaged foods are a step up in the world. It's an incredible ingredients that we all need to integrate more back into our lives. Yeah,

Greg Voisen
well, you've done a lot of work around this and I use you were telling the years and years you've been working on So and, you know, you also had some challenges you faced along the way you did share those with me to get this not only to a B Corp, because people understand that a b is a betterment Corporation. And when you start the new ventures, how were you able to overcome them? And obviously found Tom helped you work in Africa? And he was a big part of that? I mean, there's no way you could have done it without him. You got to have somebody to navigate the terrain while you're there. But what challenges did you face? And how did you actually overcome some of those challenges? To get where you are today? I mean, you're importing a product, you're, you're processing it in a plant here. I think you have a co packing plant near you there in Los Angeles, you say that? grinds it into the powder. So there's a lot to this. It's not this, you know, what people think it is? There's a lot to it.

Dr. Luc Maes
It was hard to call it, I will say very idealistic in the beginning. And, and we've learned along the way, and we're able to find people with specific expertise to help us along the way. So initially, we had to figure out, can we truly sustainably harvest this tree without stressing the environment in the communities. So we had people in the agroforestry region, I mean, the expertise field in Ghana help us out. And then we had to develop a quality product. So we roughly process the ingredients in Ghana. But then the final processing is done here in the US, where it's milled and processed and tested to ensure we have a quality ingredient for the food and beverage industry and the cosmetic industry. But yes, every step of the way from ensuring that we're that we're supporting the communities and the environment the way we want to, and all the way here to providing high quality ingredients with the proper certifications. So the trees are harvested according to guidelines by equal cert in Ghana and processed according to USDA Organic guidelines. And we're a B Corp. Yeah, a B Corp took me several years to achieve that third party certification. But for me, it was a stamp verifying that what we're saying about supporting the ingredient, as environmental wise and social good wise, that we are truly adhering to our promise that the consumer is going to participate in it with a company that truly high court has true values. And truly is committed to not only providing quality ingredients but also protect our environment. There I as a as a naturopath and as somebody who loves nature. There's an interconnectedness that we have to preserve reestablish for our health and for the planet.

Greg Voisen
Well, I think what you've done really well Luc is it's, it's like a tapestry. You know, when we create a tapestry in life, we look at all the interconnections. And when you've gone to the lengths, you have to harvest the valve of fruit, and then have your company make these products, these various products, which we'll talk about free grad health and your skin health and all this, that again, make you can just go to G O K KIB a.com. That's where you're going to find a sorry, sorry. I'm gonna link A E. Okay. So I think that brings us down to this fundamental personal philosophy when it comes to health and wellness, right, and as a naturopath, there's the allopathic doctors, I just had an allopathic doctor on but you see many of the allopathic kind of approaches now, going different directions, functional medicine, doctors, they're moving different directions, because they believe in the natural way to arrive at health and wellness. That's not to say that drugs and medications should be thrown out the window. It's to say that what we do you want to live your life and what can you do so you've got a philosophy, I'm sure. And the bail bonds is this powerful superfood? And actually it's an ingredient that you're now selling, you got FDA approval, people can you know, eat Of course it's a natural sunlight. I don't think you really needed FDA approval, right? Because it isn't right it's

Dr. Luc Maes
grass certified meaning it's record generally recommended us safe.

Greg Voisen
Yeah. So speak with us because I think what our listeners want to know as much about your venture to actually get this to the marketplace today, but also how as a naturopath you're using these products and to what kind of successes have you seen from people.

Dr. Luc Maes
I mean, as an I mean, as a naturopath, I feel like we've lost his connectedness is interconnectedness with our natural environment. And that is I think at the root of many of our ailments. Today, we look at the rising metabolic syndrome, diabetes, cardiovascular disease, we're learning that our internal environments, our internal mill us, I look at the body as an environment when it's out of balance that's expressed on our mental, emotional, physical levels. So our internal environment very much parallels the outside environment. And what we're learning is that we're losing diversity, biodiversity around us. But we're also losing diversity within us. The gut microbiome as we may get into a bit more in their talk, we're learning that these bacteria that live in the gutter were neglected for a long time. And now research is showing that gut health and the prebiotic fiber that Baobab provides encourages the flourishing the growth of these bacteria that are vital to our immune health. You know, we all think all bacteria are harmful or paint our cause disease, but actually, we live in harmony with many organisms around us, and as a naturopath. But also, as science is showing our modern lifestyle is disconnecting us from the nurturing benefits of the natural environment. So KB is all about bringing nature back reconnecting us with the nature's benefits, we call it rewilding the gut microbiome, because it's pulling us back towards nature. So yeah, as a naturopath, I look at a very, I look at it as a very in a very comprehensive way. And how can we, in the best way, maintain the health of ourselves, but also our environment?

Greg Voisen
So given that, and I totally agree that they're interconnected, and that we've lost that connection to it, like you said earlier? You know, what? Packaged plastic products that people eat? Right? And I think that's good. And in some areas, it's easy to get. There's, there's, you know, lots of fresh food markets, there's natural products, their inner cities, maybe not as much, you know, people stopped relying go to the grocery store, but they should be buying more of the stuff in the vegetable aisles, but maybe not. And in this case, so if somebody is on a probiotic right now, a pill probiotic with balpa actually be a substitute for some kind of probiotic because you were speaking about the gut health? Well, obviously, they're both for the gut health,

Dr. Luc Maes
but not necessarily. So what we're learning is that the American diet is low in fiber, rich and sugar and high in inflammatory fats. And the American diet, our modern lifestyle with pollution around us, is driving us into these metabolic disorder direction. And what we need to look at this one, we look at our diet first, because you need a diet that drives us in the other direction in a healthful direction. A diet rich in fiber Abobe up offers is in addition to a diet that's more rich in plants and vegetables, and actually, you know, maybe some people can grow up themselves in their backyard because we need to eat more plants. And Baobab is a constant super concentrated source of prebiotic fiber and poly phenols. So what we're learning is that these prebiotic fibers, these poly phenols, and these probiotics, so probiotics are the healthy organisms. prebiotics is the fiber that feeds the probiotics. So one improve, move towards a plant based diet and add foods rich in prebiotic fibers such as Baobab as an example. And if you're not familiar with polyphenols, Polyphenols are what plants concentrates in order to survive in their environment. So you may have heard of polyphenols from wine or that why need the chocolate, but plants,

Greg Voisen
Resveratrol right

Dr. Luc Maes
but resveratrol. Well cool. We have theobromine. So when you concentrate these polyphenols these plants in the wild like for example Baobab grows in the savanna, one of the harshest environments in the world. So it's very rich and phenols so the prebiotic fiber the polyphenols and the probiotics work in synergy to help the body produce these metabolites that cross into the bloodstream that are anti-inflammatory in their benefit, benefits the heart, the brain, the nervous system, benefits the guts, local gut, digestive health, and benefits the skin from within. So we're learning that polyphenols and prebiotic fiber are truly essential to good health.

Greg Voisen
Well, and I think for the average person listening to this podcast, while they may not understand all that, there's so many resources they can go to, they obviously can go to your websites, which we're going to have a link to. They can Google any of this to find it out. But you have a center, the Natural Health Center in Santa Barbara there that offers a variety of naturopathic services, you know, if they go check out the website, they can see that if I'm listening out there, and I want to speak with somebody like you, you're a doctor, and I want to do a visit, what's the first thing they can expect? And how do you integrate natural remedies and treatments into this because someone comes to you and says, hey, look, I'm six medicines, I got these problems. I've gone to the regular MD, or I've gone to my cardiologist or have gone whatever, what kind of expectation because I, I don't believe there's a fear about going to a naturopath. I think there's a misunderstanding of what a naturopath can actually supplement and can do. And I want to I want to break that myth around maybe what it is

Dr. Luc Maes
so naturopathic doctors are doctors that are trained as family practitioners, there's licensed naturopathic doctors are licensed as family doctors. But when you visit a doctor such as myself, I look at the whole picture I tried to understand who are you? And how is your health concern limiting you in your life. So when you sit in my office, the way I work is I listen for sometimes an hour and a half, sometimes longer until I truly understand the mental emotional and physical limitations that are that emerge with a specific health concern. As a Classical Homeopathy, which is a doctor that uses minut dilutions of plants and minerals that serve as a spark to help the body's own ability to re reorganize. I, my goal is to truly understand my patient as a whole. And I tend to as part of that, let's say we live in it, let's say let's say we live in a very stressful lifestyle. Well, who doesn't win, we live in a state of anxiety or sleeplessness or greater depression, that states trickles into our chemistry and our cells start to talk a different language. So whereas we may go to a therapist or a psychiatrist, for example, where allopathic medications are prescribed to alleviate depression or anxiety, while those medications sometimes have their place, by understanding a person on a deeper level, and can really help him along further before they have to resort to medications. So

Greg Voisen
it's a whole mind body spirit approach. Right? And I think when people sometimes people hear the word spirit, they don't understand they know mind body, right? But it isn't spiritual. It isn't. Religious, its spirit is what you believe it's your philosophy. It's what you carry as a soul. It's the DNA that's implanted in you. You know, and you said a minute ago, and this is a word that I'd never heard before. And like I've done almost 1100 interviews at this point with authors on books. And you call it rewilding, you said it a few minutes ago. Yeah. And I think you refer to it as rewilding. So how does this rewilding restore the microbiome health? Because we know now because of the studies that have been done? Not in particular, the studies between Heart Math Institute, but there's a connection between the heart and the gut. And actually now they're saying that the gut is more important. I don't want to say more important, but as important as the heart and that the two are interconnected. How would we use this rewiring to restore the microbiome and what is this connection between the gut and art?

Dr. Luc Maes
So it so when our state shifts? It's also reflected in the guts and we're finding that people who are stressed that the gut microbiome shifts. Now what is the gut microbiome? The gut microbiome is a collection of microorganisms that actually is present not only in the guts, actually mostly in the gut, trillions of microorganisms are present in the guts. Who are they are influenced not only, by the way by our stress around us, but actually the diversity the if those if the gut microbiome is balanced, you can actually deal with stress in a much more effective way. So it's a two way street. So what we're learning is that these organisms, the gut microbiome, there's actually a microbiome in the lungs in the skin. But actually, the gut microbiome is truly more important because 70% of our immune system is wrapped around the guts. And these organisms that live in a microbe in the guts continuously monitor the external environment, they assess the diet, they also assess the nutrients that they can extract and provide our bodies with. So the healthier the gut, the healthy the healthy diet, the healthier the gut. So the gut can make messengers that benefit as you mentioned, heart health, and also brain health, also our mood, so that the expression I have a gut feeling wasn't far off. So yes, the gut is crucial to our mental, emotional and physical health.

Greg Voisen
It's important and, and we've all gone through this, this bout this period of time with the pandemic and COVID and around our immune system. So you stress this immune properties associated with a boba. Yeah. And I think this is as, as important or, as most important, you know, especially since everyone is very on top of this, they're like, Okay, immune is a big thing. Can you speak with us about how this helps our immune health as well? And really what we can do to improve our immune health?

Dr. Luc Maes
Correct. I mean, to get back to the world rewilding to explain that a little bit more. rewilding is actually a word that comes from conservation biology, where we are where biologists restore environments to their native or original state, so repopulating an ecosystem, rebalancing an ecosystem. So when I talk about rewilding our back microbiome, that's what we're doing by eating healthier by including ingredients such as Baobab that help the gut flourish and become more of a balanced ecosystem to have a healthy immune system. So yes, immune health 70% of our immune system is wrapped around the guts. And what we're learning like for with COVID, for example, there was some research done in Italy, that show that people with a healthier gut microbiome, people who were eating more fiber, more probiotics had a less severe outcome from COVID, they were able to have be more protected from the damaging effects of COVID. So again, pointing back to the way we fuel our environment, our internal environment, and how we can best protect ourselves in this rapidly changing environment.

Greg Voisen
Yeah, and I think everybody who's listening understands the importance of this in their overall health. So when you do mind body spirit medicine, in this case, as a naturopath as a functional medicine doctor, that interview that first intake that you take in, which can be an hour, hour and a half, is to really start to look at that tapestry of your life, the own DNA, your own web you've created so that you can get in there and dig deeper into somebody's health, both their mental, their emotional, their spiritual, all of it. And I think that's the integrative medicine approach, and always has been for a naturopath. Now, I know we talked about a lot today. But if you were to leave the listeners with some sound advice on gut skin and immune health, what would you inform them that they need to do or might want to consider doing and why these supplements that you produce are so potent, and helping them with this overall healthy lifestyle because, you know, look there, there isn't a be all and end all in any one thing. There are lots of things you need to adjust in how much exercise you get in what you take in your in natural foods that you're taking in, in the supplements that you're taking in. And it all blends in together to kind of make this tapestry, this big tapestry. And so what kind of advice would you give him if you were given him Mind Body Spirit advices and naturopath.

Dr. Luc Maes
I mean, we're in a great time to kind of make inventory it's spring. You know, we try to clean home when it's spring, and maybe we can clean Our internal home was well, and you can look in the fridge look in your cabinets. Look at what foods contain artificial sweeteners and chemicals that you can't read and probably yourselves and know what to do with. Try to add foods as much as you can that are as close to nature. Shop at your local farmers market, get the cleanest foods you can and support people around you with local foods and also integrates once you have cleaned up that diet, which is the ultimate foundation, then you can start refining that with adding more fibers such as Baobab wood more poly phenols. What I like about Baobab is because it's so nutrient rich, you don't have to add too much more. It has calcium, magnesium, potassium, a lot of vitamin C. So you're slowly built, you're built on one a good diet. Secondly, when you address that part, I recommend to sit down every day and breathe, take at least five minutes, take a deep breath because we forget to breathe, we're all in a rush. You're all running around that part of the parasympathetic nervous system, the calm part of us needs nurturing. Sleep, very important exercise. In fact, exercise has been shown to improve my gut microbiome health. A healthy sleep improves gut microbiome health. So as you refer it as being a web, everything is connected. So I would say sit down, take inventory, maybe do a seven day diet history. Look at what you what you feel your body with and maybe what you can replace it with. And, and look at all these different aspects, the breath, your sleep, your exercise your diet, and start there before resorting to a huge complex of supplements, which should be tailored according to your individual

Greg Voisen
needs. important advice, really great advice. And for my listeners. Here's a little cookbook, a little cookbook that

Dr. Luc Maes
We work together with local vegan chefs here in Santa Barbara, who have created plant based recipes adding the benefits of Baba.

Greg Voisen
Yeah. So when you go to the website, look for this. You can go to Amazon, is this book on Amazon? I presume it is?

Dr. Luc Maes
Yes. And I mean, people can also access it for no problems accessing the site.

Greg Voisen
Okay, super. Well, what I can say is I've learned a lot about boba, and about you guys and again, I for my listeners, it's go K ay ay IB a e.com. There, you're going to find out more about Tom and Luc and Barbara, you can shop at their gut health, their skin health and their immune health kind of stores for their products. There's also the link to the last crop film. So if you want to see more about what they were doing, you can learn it down there. So it's pure, it's potent. It's wild. And it's microbiome, micro wellness, microbiome wellness, microbiome wellness, this is the book actually go out and get it. We appreciate having you on Luc, really so much training, all the things that literally make up who we are as individuals, and how you as a physician and a naturopath and a functional medicine doctor approach it. You know, I think the key is how people approach the healing, right? Because when we when people are sick, there's so many ways that you can approach that healing and I love your approach. I think it's fantastic. Namaste to you and the team. Thank you. Thank you for being there. I appreciate you and Barbara and Tom. And again for all the listeners. Go watch the last crop video. I think that you'll learn a lot just from that because it was very well done. And you can see what they're the B Corp is doing. Thanks so much, Luc. It's been a pleasure and an honor.

Dr. Luc Maes
Thank you so much for having me. That was fun.