Samantha Skyring : This Desert Salt Could Supercharge Your Brain & Body | DSH #1618

Summary

Digital Social Hour – Episode Summary

Podcast: Digital Social Hour
Host: Sean Kelly
Guest: Samantha Skyring, Founder of Oryx Desert Salt
Episode: "This Desert Salt Could Supercharge Your Brain & Body" – DSH #1618
Date: November 14, 2025
Duration Noted: Approx. 47:18

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Episode Overview

In this enlightening conversation, Sean Kelly welcomes South African entrepreneur Samantha Skyring, founder of Oryx Desert Salt. The episode dives deep into the world of salt—debunking myths, unpacking the differences between various types of salt, and exploring the health, environmental, and energetic implications of what we consume. Listeners are treated to Samantha's knowledge on mineral-rich desert salt, the story behind her business, and her perspective on holistic wellness, sustainability, and the vital role salt plays in our brain and body health.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. The Essential Role of Salt in Human Health

• Salt’s place in our biological hierarchy (00:04, 25:18):
  • "Salt is actually third most important to the body. Oxygen is obviously the first one, second one would be our water...and third would be salt." – Samantha [00:04, 25:18]
  • Without salt people experience headaches, nausea, dizziness, and eventually could die.
• Historical misconceptions led many, including Sean, to avoid salt due to fears about health risks (00:00, 04:01).

2. Dangers & Drawbacks of Table Salt & Sea Salt

• Table salt origins and industrialization (01:19, 04:06):
  • Table salt is highly processed, includes anti-caking agents, free-flow chemicals, and dextrose (sugar) to mask bitterness.
  • “Table salt...in a way, is fake salt. It looks like salt and it tastes like salt...but the body doesn’t recognize it as a whole food.” – Samantha [02:50]
  • Often stripped of minerals, bleached, and heavily processed.
• Microplastics and contamination (05:55):
  • 90–95% of sea salts reportedly test positive for microplastics due to ocean pollution.
  • "We're now eating our packaging, which is completely crazy." – Samantha [06:05]
  • Other contaminants in seafood include opioids and contraceptives (09:22), a direct result of pharmaceutical runoff.

3. Sustainability & Packaging Innovations

• Problems with plastic grinders:
  • Most salt grinders use plastic, which sheds microplastics into food over time (07:01).
  • Oryx Desert Salt uses a ceramic grinder, designed to last and prevent microplastic contamination.
  • Samantha’s team’s switch to ceramic grinders and cardboard travel shakers saved close to 818,000 bottles from landfill (07:06, 36:40).
• Corporate and social responsibility:
  • The business gives back to local Kalahari communities and funds Project Biome to support agroecology in South Africa (37:06, 37:43).

4. Samantha’s Journey: From the Namib Desert to Global Shelves

• Personal story of inspiration:
  • A transformative 75-mile, seven-day trek in the desert and a close encounter with oryx antelope informed Samantha’s brand identity (15:02–21:14).
  • Oryx are desert-adapted animals that rarely drink water—relying on salt licks and even hygro­scopic hair to stay hydrated.
  • “So they hydrate from, you know, what they’re eating.” – Samantha [21:14]
• Starting small and scaling up against the odds:
  • Samantha invested all she had, selling her house and buying 34 tons of salt to launch her business (23:22).
  • Oryx Desert Salt now employs a 50-person team, many from disadvantaged communities, providing wellness and self-development opportunities (24:25).

5. Salt as a Conduit for Energy, Taste, and Well-being

• Salt’s structure and frequency:
  • Salt forms "sacred geometry" crystals, which Samantha believes play a role in bioenergetic conductivity and hydration (05:55, 29:19).
• Musings on intention and energy:
  • Discusses experiments by Dr. Masaru Emoto and Veda Austin on “messages in water,” suggesting positive thoughts/intentions structurally change crystalline forms (29:19–33:29).
  • “Your thoughts are changing the crystalline structure of your body.” – Samantha [29:20]
  • Music and positive atmosphere in the workplace believed to infuse salt with 'better energy' (33:29).

6. Practical Considerations: Taste and Cooking

• Taste tests and flavor discussions:
  • Oryx Desert Salt consistently scores higher in taste tests at food shows (14:13).
  • “This beautiful desert salt...is like a fine wine. It’s just got a beautiful terroir. It seems to open up all the taste buds.” – Samantha [14:34]
  • On air, both host and guest try table salt vs. Oryx Desert Salt, noting a "bitter, sharp" flavor from standard sea salt and a superior, clean taste from Oryx (46:01).
  • “Yours, you could just eat it straight up and not even have any visceral reaction.” – Sean [46:44]

7. Getting into Whole Foods and the Power of Networking

• Whole Foods entry story:
  • The pandemic allowed Samantha to focus on strategic outreach (work on not in the business).
  • Perseverance and careful LinkedIn networking led to a Whole Foods listing after months of persistence (39:21–41:29).
  • Networked with health-minded communities (like Dave Asprey’s conference) to spread the message (41:30).

8. Salt and Everyday Wellness/Longevity Tips

• Daily practices:
  • Both Samantha and Sean discuss using Oryx in drinking water to enhance energy and prevent “cognitive slumps” (36:10).
  • Samantha’s electrolyte formulas and homeopathy travel kits for immune support (11:22).

9. Transparency and Labeling in the Food Industry

• Call for honesty in food labeling:
  • Oryx is required by law to state it does not contain iodine; Samantha argues table salt should be labeled for its stripped minerals and additives (45:02–45:39).
  • Exposes industry loopholes (e.g., olive oil “fraud”) and underlines the need for greater consumer vigilance (44:26–44:41).

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Most Memorable Quotes

• “Table salt, in a way, is fake salt...the body doesn’t recognize it as a whole food.” – Samantha Skyring [02:50]
• “90 to 95% of sea salts have been tested with microplastic in them.” – Samantha Skyring [05:55]
• “Plastic’s so useful, and yet we’re now eating our packaging, which is completely crazy.” – Samantha Skyring [06:05]
• “I feel like I’ve outed myself here—you’re putting plastic into the world...so now we’ve switched over to the cardboard little travel shakers.” – Samantha Skyring [36:40]
• “Your thoughts are changing the crystalline structure of your body.” – Samantha Skyring [29:20]
• “The wrong white crystal got the bad rap.” – Samantha Skyring, referencing The Salt Fix [26:10]
• “If you were to cut your salt completely from your diet...eventually you will go into a coma and you’ll die.” – Samantha Skyring [25:18]
• “So we've kind of swapped from gossip to gospel.” – Samantha Skyring, on the workplace culture [33:44]

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Highlighted Segments & Timestamps

| Segment | Timestamp | |-------------|:-------------| | Debunking salt myths & health essentials | 00:00 – 04:01 | | How table salt is made and why it's problematic | 01:19 – 05:50 | | Microplastics & pharmaceutical contamination in sea salt/oceans | 05:50 – 10:00 | | Oryx Desert Salt's environmental innovations | 07:00 – 08:55, 36:40 | | Story of the brand & desert inspiration | 15:02 – 21:14 | | Formation of Oryx and its connection to nature & animals | 21:15 – 21:22 | | Scaling the business & community impact | 24:25 – 25:13, 37:43 | | Energy, frequency, and experiments with salt | 29:19 – 33:29 | | Whole Foods breakthrough & networking insight | 39:21 – 41:29 | | Taste test and direct comparison of salts | 46:01 – 46:49 | | Discussion on food industry transparency | 44:26 – 45:39 |

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Notable Moments

• The dramatic switch from plastic to cardboard packaging, prompted by Samantha's commitment to environmental integrity (36:40).
• Realization and scientific-narrative about how energy and intention may infuse into the crystalline structure of water and salt (29:19).
• The taste test on air, with Sean’s genuine surprise at the difference between commercial sea salt and Oryx salt (46:01).

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Tone of the Episode

The episode maintains an energetic, conversational, and educational tone, blending Sean’s curiosity and humor with Samantha's deep knowledge, passion for sustainability, and personal storytelling. There is a consistent thread of challenging the status quo and calling for greater transparency and mindful living.

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Conclusion & Recommendations

• Sean signs off encouraging listeners to try Oryx Desert Salt and consider the source and quality of their food ingredients (46:51).
• Samantha reaffirms the vital role of salt in wellness, the importance of sustainability, and the potential for business to create positive change at every level—from nutrition to community development.

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For more information or to purchase Oryx Desert Salt:

• Available at Whole Foods, Amazon, and via the brand’s Shopify shop.

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Transcript

[A]

When I was growing up, they said salt was like unhealthy for you. And I used to like, avoid it.

[B]

I think it's one of the biggest lies, actually. Salt is actually third most important to the body. Oxygen is obviously the first one. Second one would be our water, which we also really need to look at the source of our water. And third would be salt. And water and salt have this incredible alchemy. In fact, if you were to cut your salt completely from your diet, you would get headaches, nausea, dizziness, and I don't know what the time factor is. And obviously it's going to be different for everyone and what the temperatures are, but eventually you will go into a coma and you'll die.

[A]

Holy crap.

[B]

So it's time, time now for us to make new choices.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And to really understand the source and the quality of the products that we're consuming because it makes such a difference.

[A]

Okay, guys, from South Africa we got Samantha from Oryx Desert Salt. Thanks for the long journey over here.

[B]

Yeah, thank you for the invite, Sean. Yeah, Great to meet you.

[A]

It's great to meet you. It's an important message. And I've been using the salt just to let everyone know for the past four months now.

[B]

I think about that.

[A]

Yeah, yeah. And it tastes damn good.

[B]

It sure does.

[A]

Well done.

[B]

And does it feel good?

[A]

Feels good. And especially the more research I do into like regular salt and sea salt, there seems to be some concerns there. Right?

[B]

They definitely, definitely are.

[A]

Could you address some of those?

[B]

Yeah, sure. So, I mean, I even I grew up on table salt because that was what was on the supermarket shelf. And you know, we, in this time where we're not really looking at and considering the source of our products and the quality of our products, but I think that's changing with podcasts like yours. So table salt came around early 1900s and it was the start of the convenience food era. See how it runs or see how it pours. So anti caking and free flow chemicals were added into the salt in order for it to not clump and absorb moisture. But that's actually what salt's gift is to the body. It helps us stay hydrated. And the salt is actually also used in textiles, paint, plastic, paper. So it's a binding agent. And they needed to use it, they do use it in huge, vast volumes. So they needed to pour freely without it clumping. And so they put various different anti caking and free flow chemicals in some of which the body doesn't recognize. And it's a chemical that's countering the fact that salt is hygroscopic. And dextrose is also added in because those anti caking and free flow chemicals have a bitter taste. And so they then add sugar to counter that.

[A]

Wow. Sugar to salt.

[B]

Sugar into salt, dextrose. So if you have a look on some of the table salt packaging, you will find dextrose on it. So table salt, in a way, is fake salt. It looks like salt and it tastes like salt and, you know, definitely adds flavor to your food, but the body doesn't recognize it as a whole food. It doesn't come with its minerals and its trace elements. In fact, sometimes they call those impurities. But I mean, that's how salt, that's how nature produces salt is with that combination. And there's an alchemical process that happens with the body. It recognizes it. In fact, the minerals and the trace elements and the sodium chloride create like a positive negative charge. And we are electromagnetic beings. We require that salt medium to stay hydrated and to conduct our brain functioning, our digestion, our muscles, every function in our body actually requires us to be hydrated with a good balance of minerals and trace elements and sodium chloride.

[A]

It's so ironic because when I was growing up, they said salt was like unhealthy for you.

[B]

I know, yeah.

[A]

And I used to like avoid it.

[B]

I think it's one of the biggest lies, actually. Yeah. A couple of people have sort of planted some seeds, which makes sense. Dr. Zach Bush, you know, he said it's the most dumbed down version of salt, table salt. So it came around the industrial revolution. And in the late afternoons, if you're feeling that sort of energetic cognitive slump, one can take some water, grind some, I would say, RX desert salt into your water and have that and it actually, you can, you know, you feel this lift.

[A]

Wow.

[B]

So in the Industrial revolution, were they wanting people to be switched on and to be questioning the status quo or not? So, I mean, whether that was intentional, but that was almost a kind of a side effect.

[A]

Right.

[B]

So, yeah. And then in 1970, the Celtic salt, Jacques de la Ronge, was the founder. And thank you to him for switching people off table salt onto sea salt. Because it does come with the minerals and the trace elements, but sadly the oceans now, 50 years later. So that was in 1970, he was a naturopath, so understood how important a quality mineral, rich, unprocessed, unrefined salt is for the body. So table salt, it's mostly heated to high degrees, stripped of all the minerals, and it's sometimes bleached in order to get it that pure white and then they add the chemicals. So really isn't, you know, it's very far from its original state and has been completely processed and denatured and adulterated.

[A]

Plus they put it in the plastic on top of that, there's probably microplastics in it, right?

[B]

Yes, I would say, because salt is. I mean, if you have a look at it through a microscope, it's sacred geometry. And it's. Some of them are different. There's the beautiful mold in which comes in a pyramid shape. Most salt is a very cubed shape and very, very sharp corners. So if it's in a packet, then it could, you know, it could nick the paper, pack it and have. But where we're at now with the oceans, there are several university studies that have tested 90 to 95% of sea salts have been tested with microplastic in them. Wow. If you think about. I mean, there are these islands of plastic in the oceans and whatever you, you know, draw up from the oceans into salt pans in order to create salt water, whatever is in there is in there, and plastic is one of them. I mean, it's quite crazy how prevalent it has become in our lives. Plastic's so useful and yet we're now eating our packaging, which is completely crazy.

[A]

Nuts.

[B]

And in fact, as far as I can tell, and as far as my research in the us, all other grinders have a plastic or a polycarb mechanism. So those are plastic. And when you grind them, they've got a very crunchy sound to them. And that's because the salt is actually wearing away the teeth. So if you were to buy a plastic grinder, the first grind, the salt would be quite fine, but by the end of the bottle they would be coarse because the plastic teeth have gone into your food and you've gone and eaten it and then you throw it away and go buy another one. So RX Desert Salt has been spearheading and trailblazing a grinding mechanism that has ceramic, so that doesn't wear out, doesn't grind into your food, and it's refillable and reusable. I had a chef the other day who phone who messaged me and said that she had just thrown her grinders away and she'd had them for eight years. So for a $6.99 product that lasts eight years and. And then she obviously buys the Oryx Desert salt to refill it. So it's not grinding plastic. And I did a calculation of the sales last year on our refill boxes and the buckets that we sell in South Africa to restaurants, and we saved 817,900 bottles and heads from landfill.

[A]

Holy crap.

[B]

So that's making a proper difference.

[A]

Yeah, that's just in South Africa.

[B]

I use all of our sales across the board. So in total, that's still insane. That's. So it works out to 12, 20 foot containers, which is, you know, almost the size of your studio. And 12 of those per year that aren't ending up in landfill or needing to be recycled, which obviously then takes other energy and water and. And what have you.

[A]

Wow.

[B]

So, yeah, that's exciting.

[A]

That's eye opening stuff. I used to love seafood, sushi, oysters, pink Himalayan sea salt. But yeah, I think the oceans are just so polluted right now.

[B]

Right, totally. And I mean, mentioned oysters. I met a marine biologist at David Ashby's biohacking conference and he creates a product from oysters because they're high in zinc. But he decided to test his oysters and what do you think he discovered?

[A]

Microplastic.

[B]

No, opioids and contraceptives.

[A]

What?

[B]

Aha. So if you think 360 million Americans, how many of those can you guesstimate are not on at least one allopathic procedure, prescription drug? Some people are on 10 or 20. And some of all medication, everything that we, you know, we consume, we pee out.

[A]

Right.

[B]

Ends up in the rivers, it ends up in the oceans. And the oysters. And I also used to really love oysters and mussels, but now eat them very occasionally, but with a different, you know, with a different view. And they're the filters of the ocean and that's what they're filtering.

[A]

Oh, I love me some green mussels from New Zealand.

[B]

Okay. The big ones, New Zealand's probably fairly clean. I would imagine these mussels particularly, or these oysters were from Ireland.

[A]

Ah, so they drink too much over there.

[B]

Yeah, so. And yet the ocean is also one beautiful big moving body of water. So they're not. There aren't walls that go, hey, this section's clean. And this isn't, you know, everything that's happening in the oceans is moving. So Cruise liners dump 1 billion tons of sewage into the oceans every single year. Just the cruise liners. That's not including the other effluent that comes from third world countries I know in South Africa, as well as all the farms that are using glyphate and fertilizer and pesticides. Side, that's all running off into the rivers and ending up in the oceans. So I. I've grown up in homeopathy and my son's nearly 18 and he's pretty much only had homeopathic medicine.

[A]

Wow.

[B]

Only been vaccinated with the tetanus injection and well done.

[A]

That's rare in Africa.

[B]

Absolutely. And one. One shot of antibiotics when he needed them. But otherwise I've. I've used the homeopathy medium to keep him healthy and strong.

[A]

Amazing.

[B]

I travel with them. Sort of a combination remedy, throat and bronchial. Because when I'm traveling a lot and, you know, the time delay and not much sleep and long travel, I tend to get a sore throat and then I get chesty. And these two remedies have saved me countless times from not getting sick.

[A]

Wow. I need that because I travel a lot. You should start selling that too.

[B]

So the oceans from a homeopathic perspective. And in fact, Tyus and I were having an it and I were having an interesting conversation outside around homeopathy because. And I'm going to do some more research on it. Why the. The most diluted remedies are the most potent. So it's the ones that have no molecular structure left in it. It's just the. The energy and the frequency of whatever the herbs, the plants or various other, you know, they use all sorts of things for remedies. Even gunpowder is a remedy really. And Himalayan salt now is dynamited out. And so it has the energy of this blast, you know, this, you know, this high dynamite energy. And some of the Himalayan has been tested with some chemical residue. And yet thank you, Himalayan, for actually creating a global gourmet awareness of salt. It was this beautiful pink salt that ladies love that in a way woke people up to salt. Oh, it's because of the different color. Oh, wow. Comes from, you know, Pakistan and. Oh, it's mineral rich. And what fascinates me as well is that it came about pre the Internet. So it went global and viral before the Internet. And that almost tells me that, you know, us as a species, humanity really needed to upgrade their salt. Like it was necessary for us to wake up and get off table salt and get onto salt that is mineral rich. And so, you know, sea salt as well. But because table salts and sea salt are white, the sea salt didn't have that, you know, as much effect of creating awareness as the pink salted. That was pretty amazing.

[A]

That is a good point. It blew up before the whole TikTok trend. It was just word of mouth.

[B]

Yeah, 100%.

[A]

Yeah, exactly. I grew up eating the pink salt for sure.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Interestingly, I've never ever bought it. I don't know why.

[A]

Really?

[B]

I was never attracted to it.

[A]

What?

[B]

Yeah. Strange.

[A]

That is strange.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

My mom loved that stuff.

[B]

Okay.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And it would be. I actually didn't bring any with me, but it would be very interesting for you to do the taste. Taste. Taste.

[A]

We have to do that one of these days. Well, I kind of know what desert salt tastes like, so I might be biased, but I think it tastes better.

[B]

It does. And, and I do a lot of trade shows and I was just in Teller right now at a food and wine festival. And you know, I, I give them oryx to taste. I usually ask them for tequila fist because it's cleaner than, you know, the open palm and, and then sea salt afterwards. And nine out of ten people can taste a difference.

[A]

Wow.

[B]

So this beautiful desert salt that comes from the Kalahari of southern Africa is like a fine wine. It's just got a beautiful terroir. It seems to open up all the taste buds. It's very flavor enhancing where it seems sea salt has just got a bitter, sharp flavor to it.

[A]

Right.

[B]

In comparison. So. And that's just on the taste side.

[A]

So did you know about all this information of these different salts before you got involved or you kind of came across it as it went on?

[B]

Yeah, it's been, been a beautiful learning journey. So interestingly, the Oryx desert salt journey seemed to have started seven years before I even came across the product. So I did a 75 mile, seven day walk in the Namib Desert by.

[A]

Choice or like, how did that come about?

[B]

So I was traveling with friends and the Skeleton coast of Namibia is quite an enigma. It's very hard to get to because there's just hundreds of miles of desert dropping into the ocean. And we had tried to go down, you know, no entry signs and we got fined. And then eventually we ended up in Hartman's Valley, which is the last public sort of access. And then there's the Kunene river that splits Angola and Namibia. And now because there was this beautiful water source and when I walked over with my partner at the time, Daniel, the Kunene river has white beaches and palm trees. We'd been in the desert for three months. We were like, this is amazing. Okay, so we've got water. Let's walk to the Skeleton coast as one does in the desert. So yeah, so we headed over backpack. We only had one liter of water.

[A]

Oh my gosh.

[B]

I learned then to pre hydrate. Pretty amazing. We'd drink like 15 cups of tea in the morning before we left and we'd go through the desert so the, up the sand dunes and, and kind of a straight line because rivers obviously meander and the sand dunes dropped at like this 45 degree angle into the river and there were little footpaths from the animals. But it was, it was hard work walking at an angle. So we would then go up and then walk through the desert and then come back down in the evening. So, so we only had one liter at lunchtime to, to top up our hydration.

[A]

Wow.

[B]

So we would. So it was an amazing experience not to get dehydrated because we had drunk so much water to start with. And then we just did a top up and then obviously by the end of the day we would, we would do a massive top up again. So in fact I was in Sources flay this most beautiful place. So when you come to South Africa, maybe you can piggyback a trip to Namibia because it's incredibly special. It's apparently got the least number of people per square mile or square kilometer of any country that's very spacious and very beautiful.

[A]

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[B]

I was sitting with a friend and we happened to watch two oryx bulls. So the oryx is this beautiful gazelle that is endemic to the Kalahari desert and they have meat along horns. But we were fortunately sitting with an umbrella over us and the one was chasing the other and then we lost them. They kind of went behind one of the sand dunes. And then a couple of minutes later, these two oryx bull that are probably three meters, so they must be nearly nine foot high, literally run up and we are sitting in their path. So they skid to a stop. We're like, what do we do now? And they were like, they were heaving from the breath. They had been running for quite a long time and there was steam coming out of their nostrils. We could smell them. But because we didn't look human, because we had this umbrella was a blessing. And then they ran off as friends. So that close encounter to them, which was literally about nine feet away, when seven years later, a colleague was selling the salt in bulk to Germany and he didn't want to create a product for South Africa. He felt that the South African market was too small. And I had just come, I'd firstly just had a son and I'd also just come out of a project called 20,000 Drums. I had an NPO for seven or eight years drumming doing facilitated drumming events around South Africa as a transformation through Celebration project.

[A]

That's cool.

[B]

But then 2007, 2008 was the financial crash and so there wasn't money for Feel Good, Happy, Make a Difference project projects. And so I was kind of looking for something. And so that was when I created the product. So it was seven years later and this beautiful masked creature was what came to mind.

[A]

Wow.

[B]

When I thought of creating a logo and because they're endemic from the Kalahari Desert and this beautiful salt comes from the Kalahari. Yeah, it was a perfect fit. And in fact, I found out even a couple of years after choosing them as the logo, that they can apparently go their whole lives without drinking water. Some of them go years or months without drinking water. But they have to lick salt frequently because of the minerals in the trace elements and because of the salt helps them stay hydrated. So another sort of miracle is that their hair is hygroscopic. Apparently it's microscopic straws. And so they hydrate hypodermically, which is fascinating because there's always moisture in you in the nighttime air in the desert. And all vegetation swells at night as well. So they hydrate from, you know, what they're eating.

[A]

That is really interesting.

[B]

Pretty rad.

[A]

Wow. So they can hydrate through their skin.

[B]

Yeah, exactly.

[A]

Holy crap, What a story. And then you came across a 34 ton brick of salt, right?

[B]

No, not quite. So I had started the brand and I was told that there was, there were big storms and so this beautiful salt pan where oryx Comes from is inside the Kalahari desert, which is 9 million hectares. The closest town is 175 miles away. It's a 5,000 hectare salt pan. And they discovered underground a 55 million ton salt lake. Absolutely. And it is renewed and sustained by three subterranean rivers that flow 100 and 300ft underground. They flow through rock strata that have been tested at 280 million years old. And a phenomenon is that the saltwater or brine, when it gets poured up onto the salt pan, one, it has not been touched by human hands, and two, it is over saturated. So in summer, at 120 degrees Fahrenheit, where I think we're about getting to.

[A]

We're close out here.

[B]

We're close. It crystallizes in only four weeks, which is one lunar cycle. And so it lies on the pan. The sun obviously evaporates the extra water and then it crystallizes into these pure white crystals with the minerals and trace elements that nature's balanced from these underground rock strata. Because all of our minerals and trace elements in our veggies actually come from the soil. So permaculture, you grow the soil in order to create your healthy vegetables as opposed to, you know, kind of creating your healthy vegetables. It comes from the soil. So I had. I'd actually left the father of my child in Europe. I needed to get away. It was better that way.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And started with the product and. And then there was some big storms in the desert. And so the person I was buying from said, oh, you must have buffer stock. Anyway, so I sold my house and I bought 34 salt.

[A]

You were all in.

[B]

I was committed.

[A]

Does it last forever?

[B]

Salt? Absolutely. Salt's a preservative. So it would actually, I'm sure they. Around America, you get this sort of storage garage units. So I hired one of those or rented one of those, stashed 34 tons of salt into it.

[A]

You were a salt hoarder.

[B]

And started packing grinders on my dining room table. And that's essentially how I started. Wow. And now we are nationally in Whole.

[A]

Foods Crazy rags to riches.

[B]

Not yet. It's a low commodity product. You've got to sell a lot of grinders. But what's exciting for me now, actually, because it was just me originally, and now I've got a team of 50 people.

[A]

Wow.

[B]

In South Africa, in. In Cape Town, this very southern tip. And all of my staff come from areas that are disadvantaged, disempowered, pretty much dysfunctional, actually. And it's. It's really exciting to be able to make a difference, a difference to them.

[A]

That is beautiful.

[B]

This year they've done a self defense course. I do life coaching every Wednesday. Last year they did a parenting course called Love and Logic which is. I wish I discovered it when my son was younger. Discovered it too late. All the bad habits had been set in by 15. Yeah. But it was beautiful to offer it to them so that, you know, they could parent differently and their children can grow up in a different way to how the rest of their communities are being parented.

[A]

I love that. I mean, I think you're helping a lot of people. There's a lot of benefits to something like this, right? Taking this every day.

[B]

Absolutely, yeah. Salt is actually third most important to the body. Oxygen is obviously the first one and we can last what, three to five minutes. Second one would be our water, which we also really need to look at the source of our water. And third would be salt. And water and salt have this incredible alchemy and it is needed for us to function. In fact, if you were to cut your salt completely from your diet, you would get headaches, nausea, dizziness and I don't know what the time factor is. And obviously it's going to be different for everyone and what the temperatures are, but eventually you will go into a coma and you'll die.

[A]

Holy crap. From no salt.

[B]

From no salt. And apparently there was a Chinese torture many, many years ago where they used to withhold salt from their victims.

[A]

Wow.

[B]

And it's just because you can't function. And in fact I was just leaving my hotel room and closed the door and I got an electric shock. And I think most of us have had that experience in a supermarket, you know, pushing our trolley along and you touch somebody and you get that little. And that just shows how we are this electromagnetic beings and we need salt for it to conduct our thoughts, digest our food and for us to thrive. And I'm not sure in this day and age how many people have the experience of thriving because I think most of us are probably self deficient because we've been told to avoid. And there's a beautiful human, James D. Nicolantonio. He's written a book called the Salt Fix. And I love what the sort of the wrap up is. The wrong white crystal got the bad rap. So it was almost that sugar, you know, our attention was put onto sugar in terms of. Rather it was put onto salt because it was creating hypertension and various other things to the body. But actually sugar is probably, you know, one of the world's biggest addictions yeah. And, and so salt somehow, you know, got, got vilified and demonized and yet it is absolutely essential and vital.

[A]

Your pepper tastes good too, by the way.

[B]

It does. I'm glad you enjoyed it. It's from small scale farmers in Madagascar.

[A]

Wow.

[B]

So also supporting communities and apparently all French Michelin star chefs only use Madagascar pepper.

[A]

Really? What's so special about their pepper?

[B]

Probably just where, where it's grown. This beautiful island, very untouched, very tropical.

[A]

Right.

[B]

And so yeah, the, the place from where it comes obviously makes a difference. And I guess that's why RX also has this beautiful taste because it comes from this special region that's untouched. The, the closest town is 175 miles away.

[A]

Holy crap.

[B]

So I don't even think there's air pollution up there. And I went up two years ago to do a documentary and we were gifted. A Kalahari thunderstorm on the second afternoon, which is quite rare in the desert. And it was quadraphonic lightning, thunder and this wall of water that we literally watched coming towards us. We actually managed to see, send up the drone and, and get footage of it.

[A]

That's beautiful.

[B]

It was absolutely spectacular. And then after it passed was about 20 minutes, I went outside and went to the back of the chalet we were staying at, which was about 5 km from the salt pan. I couldn't see the salt pan, but I knew the direction that they were. They were sort of behind the sand dunes and there were double rainbows. And it suddenly made me realize how elemental the salt is because it only crystallizes in four weeks in one lunar cycle. Literally, you know, lies under the stars, the desert wind, the moon. And we bottle it. And. Have you ever heard of Dr. Masaru Immortal?

[A]

No.

[B]

Japanese scientist. His book is called Hidden Messages and Water. So he did some experimenting and he took some glass jars and, or bottles and he put water in, let's say 10. And on five of them he did two experiments. One was where he wrote the word and put it onto the bottle. And on the other, the second experiment, he just put an intention and a thought into the water. And some of them were positive. Faith, joy, love, beauty, happiness. And then the others were anger, jealousy, guilt, shame. And when he took a drop and he crystallized it and photographed it, all of the positive words look like snowflakes. They beautifully symmetrical, perfectly unique. Whereas the negative words have no form. And so his message to the world is that your thoughts are changing the crystalline structure of your body. And then there's a beautiful woman in New Zealand, her Name is Veda Austin. And she's been having some really interesting conversations with water. So water has this kind of intelligence to it, and it is able to absorb the memory of what is around it, the words that's put into it, then its environment. And so I got quite excited when I was introduced, you know, introduced to Veda, and I started seeing the work that she was doing on Instagram. And so I decided to do an experiment myself. And in that five month trip that I went on in Namibia, we ended up taking a wrong road and we ended up on a salt pan at full moon. And it was the most incredible experience to walk across it. It's like these tiny crystalline diamonds. And from that thunderstorm and the double rainbows and the time that I. The three nights that I spent at the salt pan doing filming, when I think of oryx and I think of the salt pan, I imagine the full moon over the salt pans. Anyway, so I took a. I didn't have a petri dish, but I took a. Found a glass lid, put some spring water in and put one crystal of Oric salt and then put it in the freezer. Obviously took longer because salt water freezes at a lower temperature. It takes longer. And then I took the lid and put it over a light and I took a photograph. And it looks exactly like the full moon.

[A]

No way.

[B]

And I'm like, whoa. I mean, I've got it here, I'll show it to you.

[A]

We'll throw it on the.

[B]

Okay. Amazing.

[A]

On the video. That's crazy.

[B]

It is so crazy. And then I was like, okay, this is really exciting. So then I took the. The refill box with the beautiful oryx logo on it, the head with the horns, and put the glass lid on and we chatted for a little bit and then put it in the freezer and then took it out. The head is in the water.

[A]

No way. What?

[B]

For real? So I feel like I've actually been listening to a couple of podcasts of hers the last couple of weeks, and I want to do some more experimenting. I want to do some experimenting with table salt and with sea salt, with Himalayan, and to see what the. What the message that the water is telling because it gives the essence of what it, you know, what it is. So, yeah, so, you know, everything is frequency, everything is energy. And I think that that is becoming more and more. That knowledge is becoming more available. We've got incredible people who are sharing the quantum physics and how, you know, our thoughts are changing our reality. And, you know, when hopefully most of us say grace before our meal and that is literally putting a blessing, you know, into the food. And I think we might all have had an experience where somebody's been cooking and they've been in a bad mood and their food definitely does not taste as good as somebody who's happy, you know, laughing, listening to music. And in fact, I love having music on in the warehouse. So the team pack, all of the grinders are packed in a happy environment.

[A]

Smart. The music makes them happy.

[B]

Totally. And we, we had to bring on 15 more people for a new product for JetBlue. So in JetBlue Premium, you now get a sachet with a little info booklet and they are hand stuck in.

[A]

Wow.

[B]

So we employed 15 more people. But they, because it's a finished product, they don't need to work in the high safe care area where the grinders are packed. And yeah. Realized after a little while that there was some sort of gossiping and some kind of trouble brewing in the teams anyway, so I brought my, my speaker in and they put gospel on. So we've kind of swapped from gossip to gospel.

[A]

Smart.

[B]

And it's so beautiful to go in and they singing away and. Yeah, it's really special.

[A]

Yeah. Gospel music is powerful.

[B]

Yeah, it is, right? Sure. Music in generally, in general.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

But I guess the, I guess again it's the intention, you know, what is the mood, what is the, the message that people are trying to tell. But gospel certainly has a beautiful soulful energy to it. And, and, and it makes him happy. It's beautiful. I love it.

[A]

I'm learning a lot. Water is very intelligent. Our body is a lot of water too.

[B]

Yeah. So babies are around 75% water. And as we grow older, we dropped to about 65 or 60%. And I wonder if that is, I guess more research is required from me. Is that because we're not hydrating and having enough salt, I wonder if we could push it up to 70 again and that's when we would be really thriving and functioning at our peak performance. Whereas, you know, the, the, if the water's dropping and we're not having enough salts, then we're actually walking around dehydrated.

[A]

Right.

[B]

And then of course, the planet is also 70% water or saline solution. So. And we've got, we've got water and a salty water in every organ. Our brain is 75% water. And I've had an experience myself. I had a meeting late afternoon and I kept yawning and it was really embarrassing. It was like, sorry, you're Not, I'm not bored of our conversation, John, you know, but I just kept yawning and I realized I hadn't had much water that day. And my water's always got a few grinds of oryx in or actually I also put an electrolyte which is made with oryx desert salt. And I chunked back half my, my bottle and I stopped yawning.

[A]

Wow.

[B]

Like. Oh, there you go.

[A]

I might start putting this in my water then because some days, some days I get yawning, man.

[B]

Ah, okay.

[A]

I start yawning non stop even though I'm not tired. It's weird.

[B]

Exactly. Okay, new experiment. Give me feedback, please.

[A]

Yeah. Start using this. I'll definitely give you feedback.

[B]

Fantastic.

[A]

Yeah, I like how easy these are. You just peel this off and it's good to go, right?

[B]

Yes, exactly that. And they're now made from cardboard because after. Yeah, you can probably put quite a bit more of that in.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

After creating 250000 of those beautiful little travel shakers that are so convenient and so practical and cute, I started feeling guilty because I talk about the plastic in the oceans and then I'm like, hang on a moment. You're very out of integrity here. You know, you're putting plastic in to the world. And even though they were refillable. So now we've switched over to the cardboard little travel shakers which are available in world market.

[A]

Wow. Respect for first of all, admitting that, you know.

[B]

Yeah, it was, it, it feels, yeah, I guess it feels so good to know that the, the, the quality of the product is absolutely the best that there can be and that the packaging suits that. And, and we also, from the very beginning, I've given back a percentage to the first people of the Kalahari. And now there's another very beautiful place project in South Africa called Project Biome and that was sparked and initiated by Rachel Curl and Zach Bush, MD. And it's supporting agroecology projects.

[A]

Nice.

[B]

Across South Africa. So we give a percentage of all US sales into that project as well.

[A]

I love that Zach has been one of my favorite guests of all time.

[B]

Amazing.

[A]

I couldn't believe the soil epidemic that's going on.

[B]

Exactly that.

[A]

Yeah. He really opened my eyes.

[B]

Absolutely. Yeah. The soil, how it's been demineralized as well and poisoned and essentially that's happening to our water and we're being offered salt that is actually the same. So it's time, time now for us to make new choices and to really understand the source and the quality of the products that we were consuming, because it makes such a difference. And what fascinates me is salt is the smallest ingredient in any meal, and yet it makes the biggest difference in the meal. And it, and it's such a small ingredient, and yet it makes such a radical difference to our health and how we function and how we think and how we operate in the world.

[A]

Taste wise, too. It can make or break a meal too.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

Salt, if it has too much or too little.

[B]

Totally exactly that.

[A]

Yeah. It's very important. I gotta hear how you got in Whole Foods.

[B]

Ah. So Covid was a blessing. So I have this saying with my son, painful blessings. So even the fact that I wasn't in a, you know, safe marriage, it meant that I had to get my. My life and my shit together and had this opportunity with assault. And so it just, you know, it gave me a focal point and it gave me a purpose. And also my son was three. So Covid came. We lost 60% of sales, but I had for five years, I'd actually been growing my. My network on LinkedIn one single invitation at a time.

[A]

Wow.

[B]

Handpicked and chosen and. And then so I just, I was working from home and not in the warehouse. And there is that saying in sort of the entrepreneur world and probably in most businesses actually is work on your business and not in your business.

[A]

Right.

[B]

The fact that I wasn't going into the warehouse kind of gave me perspective and it was like, okay, what, what do I need? What does the business need in order to get out of this hole and to scale, you know, to make it not only just get out, but let's, you know, make a proper difference. And Whole Foods had been on my radar for many years. And for me, it was quite a sort of holy grail of supermarkets that they vet all the products that are on shelf.

[A]

Yep.

[B]

And it was right time, right moment, right place, that beautiful, you know. Synchro. Destiny and I had been to an Expo Expo west the year before and had networked up on LinkedIn and had met somebody who then gave me the buyer's name and contact email address. And so I emailed him and waited and emailed. And fine balance of not nagging, you know, not being an irritant, but trying to get the message across. And then sort of three or four weeks after my third email, he wrote back and said, I apologize for my delay in getting back to you. And I was like, aha, I think I've got you. Anyway, it took five months to then get a presentation. We got a listing five months later, and we landed on shelf five months after that. So we've been on shelf for four years. Nice and growing. And, yeah, through LinkedIn, such a brilliant platform, really. And also I met or saw a video of Dave Asprey's just maybe about six months before we launched. And it was a video where he said, the smallest buyer hack is put salt into your drinking water. And I was like, I like you, and I want you on my team. Anyway, so networked up with his then beautiful pa, Bev, and ended up at the conference.

[A]

Nice.

[B]

And I've been there for four years running. And that community is amazing. They arrive, they excited, they're curious, They've already done research. You know, they're learning about what's best for their bodies. So they're really open, and they actually understand that salt is important. So we have very incredible conversations. They're very dynamic and alive. It's, you know, sharing information with people who are already switched on as opposed to, you know, people go, oh, no, but I use table salts. I'm like, I know. And I'm trying to tell you, do not.

[A]

That's beautiful. I'll be at that conference next year. I was. I was bummed I missed it this year.

[B]

Sorry, something came up.

[A]

But, yeah, next year I'll be there. Asprey, I know he's been. He's. He's also a great guest, too.

[B]

Yeah, he is.

[A]

He knows a lot of stuff. But, yeah, I saw him and Gary Brecker telling people to put salt in their water.

[B]

That's right.

[A]

I think Gary uses Celtics.

[B]

No, I think Gary's using Baja Gold.

[A]

Oh, Baja Gold.

[B]

Which, yeah. Is from the Sea of Mexico. Cortez. I think, as far as I know, it comes from sort of deep in.

[A]

The ocean, so no microplastics in that one.

[B]

I'm. I'm not sure it's still from the ocean in, but. But I would say one of the better quality ones, but I tend to. Not if it's, you know, the travel shakers, they're always in my bag. If I get to any restaurant and they've got any other salt on the table, it's like, thank you. No, thank you.

[A]

Oh, that's smart. I might start bringing these to restaurants.

[B]

Absolutely.

[A]

Because I'd imagine.

[B]

Have it in your pocket.

[A]

Yeah, I'd imagine most restaurants use table salt, Right?

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

It's when they're cooking food.

[B]

Yeah, it is. It is. The one industry and sector that I'm really trying to crack into in America is finding a good you know, maybe true kitchens.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Franchise that are offering healthy food and being able to get into their kitchens and being able to get onto their tables.

[A]

Yeah. You'd probably have to start with the healthier chains because the other ones probably don't care as much.

[B]

Exactly.

[A]

They want to make more money, right?

[B]

Yeah, exactly.

[A]

And table salt is cheap.

[B]

So, so cheap and so nasty.

[A]

Can you tell when you eat it? When you eat food, like if it's.

[B]

Table salt, there's something that is missing. There's kind of an umami that's missing. There's a blandness to food that is, that is cooked with table salt for me. But I'm also, I've become very mindful of, you know, I make my own food. I, I be, I mean, I, I do once or twice a week order from a restaurant. That's usually a salad and then I put my salt over it makes sense. So I try not to have the processed foods because they just. Most of them actually, I would say in a supermarket, I don't know, what do you think 90 or 95% is actually not real food?

[A]

I'd say 95% and even like healthy supermarkets too. You know, I'm not trying to call anyone out, but even the healthy ones, you'll read the labels. Just a bunch of seed oils and weird ingredients.

[B]

Absolutely. Yeah. No, we've got to be quite vigilant now around what the heck is in it.

[A]

Yeah. Because even some olive oil, I just found out is seed oils hectic.

[B]

They can, they can put only 1% of, you know, extra virgin olive oil and call it. And call it extra virgin.

[A]

Crazy.

[B]

That, that. Shouldn't that be illegal?

[A]

It should be, but they're paying someone or something. I don't know.

[B]

I don't know.

[A]

Or taking advantage of the system.

[B]

Exactly. I think, I mean, I even think that table salt should not be offered on shelf as a food product or.

[A]

At least more transparent. Right. Because I think if people knew and they still want to buy because it's cheaper, I'm cool with that.

[B]

Yeah.

[A]

But people don't even know that's true.

[B]

So I guess. So with Oric salt, we have to put on the label, this does not contain iodide, a necessary nutrient. So Oryx does not have iodine naturally because it comes from the desert and not from the ocean, which is amazing for some people because there are many people who suffer from hypothyroidism.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And so, so they can't have iodine. So for them it's a blessing. But I'm not allowed to put on there that it has all of the minerals, that it comes naturally in it. So I think table salts should also have to have a label that the minerals have been stripped, you know? Yes. Agree. More transparency.

[A]

Should we end off with a little taste test?

[B]

Let's do it.

[A]

Let's do it. How do you want to do this?

[B]

Please give me a tequila fist.

[A]

So just like this.

[B]

Exactly. There.

[A]

So this is sea salt.

[B]

No, that's oryx desert salt. And I'm actually going to do a grind in front of the microphone so you can hear that. It's. You can barely hear it. It's very smooth. And then have a look.

[A]

Wow. Phenomenal. That's Oryx.

[B]

That's Oryx.

[A]

Nice.

[B]

Okay. And now this is sea salt.

[A]

You can tell the pieces are bigger. It's too salty. Oh, my God.

[B]

It's.

[A]

Yeah, it's too strong.

[B]

It's bitter and it's sharp. It just doesn't. So it almost feels like the body's talking because the body is so intelligent. So, I mean, to everyone out there, your taste buds are your. Your communication, your message of what you're taking in. And for sea salt, somehow everyone seems to do this little bit of a contraction.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

And just gonna do. I mean, that's.

[A]

Yeah.

[B]

Grinding.

[A]

Yeah. Yours. You could just eat it straight up and not even have any visceral reaction.

[B]

Exactly that. Yeah, yeah, yeah.

[A]

Well, guys, try it out for yourself. Can they buy it online, too?

[B]

Yes, we've got a Shopify site, Amazon and Whole Foods. If you're popping in there and getting the balance.

[A]

Good old Instacart. I'd be instacarting Whole Foods all the time.

[B]

Amazing.

[A]

All right, guys, check her out. Check out Oryx. Thanks for coming on.

[B]

Amazing.

[A]

Appreciate. Nice. I hope you guys are enjoying the show. Please don't forget to like and subscribe. It helps the show a lot with the algorithm.

[B]

Thank you.