The #1 WORST Ingredient Hiding In Your Food! | EP 396

Summary

Podcast Summary

Podcast: The Dr. Gundry Podcast
Episode: The #1 WORST Ingredient Hiding In Your Food! | EP 396
Date: March 24, 2026
Host: Dr. Steven Gundry
Main Theme:
Dr. Gundry exposes glyphosate—commonly known as Roundup—as the most dangerous hidden ingredient lurking in everyday food and drink. He unpacks how glyphosate undermines human health, why its use persists, and what listeners can do to minimize their exposure. The episode is a call to action for more mindful food choices, with actionable tips to reduce risk.

---

Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. What Is Glyphosate and Why Is It Harmful?

• Definition & Background

  • Glyphosate is the active ingredient in Roundup, a widely used herbicide (02:34).
  • Monsanto patented glyphosate as an antibiotic, not just an herbicide—a crucial detail (02:52).

• Mechanism & Impact

  • Shikimate Pathway: Glyphosate blocks this energy pathway in plants, but bacteria use it too (03:18).
  • Human cells lack this pathway, which led regulators to assume glyphosate was safe for humans.
  • However, gut bacteria do use it, so eating glyphosate damages your gut microbiome (03:45).

"Glyphosate actually attacks a pathway for making energy called the shikimate pathway. [...] Animals do not have a shikimate pathway. [...] But our gut microbiome use the shikimate pathway to grow and divide. So, glyphosate was patented as an antibiotic that would kill bacteria."
— Dr. Gundry (03:05 – 03:50)

• Broader Health Consequences
  • Disrupts gut bacteria, causes leaky gut, and interferes with key hormones (cortisol, adrenaline, thyroid) (04:32).
  • May block the action of vital adrenal hormones, compounding its effects (04:52).

2. How Glyphosate enters Our Food Supply

• Widespread Use in Agriculture

  • Initially used on GMO crops (Roundup Ready soybeans, corn) to kill weeds without harming crops (05:27).
  • Industrial practice: Sprayed on conventional (non-GMO) crops prior to harvest to dry and synchronize harvesting times (06:20).
  • Now found on "almost all commercial agriculture in North America"—not just GMOs (06:38).

• Food Chain Contamination

  • Glyphosate residue remains on grains post-harvest; most isn't washed off (08:24).
  • Contaminated grains are fed to livestock, entering the meat, milk, and eggs we consume (08:34).
  • High levels in commonly eaten grains—wheat, oats, corn, soybeans—plus processed foods like cereals, bread, cookies, crackers, oatmeal, even "multiple organic oat bars" (09:13).

• Beyond Food: Wine, Plant-Based Meats, & Environment

  • Sprayed between vineyard rows; non-organic wines commonly contain glyphosate (09:55).
  • Organic fields still at risk due to drift from neighboring fields (10:20).
  • Detected in some plant-based meats (10:38).
  • Ubiquitous in environments: schoolyards, golf courses, residential lawns (10:45).

"Test after test show high levels of glyphosate in all of our breakfast cereals, in all of our breads, our cookies, our crackers, our oatmeal, even multiple organic oat bars have been found to contain glyphosate."
— Dr. Gundry (09:13)

3. Glyphosate's Official Status & Risks

• Regulatory Position

  • FDA continues to deem glyphosate "perfectly safe," so it does not appear on food labels (12:46).

• Health Agencies & Lawsuits

  • The International Agency for Research has declared glyphosate a “probable human carcinogen”; successful lawsuits for cancers (lymphomas, blood cancers) against Monsanto/Bayer (11:31).

4. How To Avoid Glyphosate Exposure

• Home & Garden

  • Stop using Roundup—natural alternatives like vinegar washes work (12:01).

• Food Choices

  • Buy organic whenever possible; Walmart was identified as America’s largest organic food supplier, so affordability is possible (12:19).
  • Support local farmers and farmers' markets to know how your food is grown (12:39).
  • Choose biodynamic and organic wines, especially wines from Europe (12:50).
  • Even organic food can be contaminated due to drift—be aware but aim for best practices (10:20).

"Try your best to buy organic whenever possible. Believe it or not, Walmart is the biggest supplier of organic foods in America."
— Dr. Gundry (12:19)

• Key Takeaway
  • Glyphosate is "the number one hidden ingredient in almost everything you’re eating"—and it's absent from labels (12:46).

5. Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On Glyphosate's True Nature:

  • "Glyphosate is an antibiotic... every time you eat a glyphosate-laden food, you’re killing your gut microbiome. Thanks to Monsanto and Roundup."
    — Dr. Gundry (03:55)

• On the Risks of Modern Agriculture:

  • "Nobody goes around after they harvest the wheat, the oats, the soybeans, and the corn and washes the Roundup off of them."
    — Dr. Gundry (08:24)

• On Industry Practices:

  • "Industrial farming requires these multimillion dollar harvesting machines arrive at a field on a certain day… So in the last 10 years, big factory farms use glyphosate on conventional crops to kill them and desiccate them."
    — Dr. Gundry (06:07)

• Closing Warning:

  • "Don’t believe [the FDA] for a minute. It’s one of your leading health killers that you’re eating almost every day."
    — Dr. Gundry (12:58)

---

Timestamps for Important Segments

• [02:34] — What is glyphosate and why it's worse than we thought
• [03:45] — Glyphosate's effect on gut microbiome
• [04:32] — Broader hormone disruption and leaky gut
• [05:27] — Introduction of glyphosate-resistant GMO crops
• [06:38] — Use in conventional crops and modern agriculture
• [08:24] — Post-harvest contamination and entry into the food supply
• [09:13] — High-risk foods: grains, processed foods, oat bars
• [09:55] — Glyphosate in wine
• [11:31] — Health risks, carcinogenic status, and legal action
• [12:01] — How to avoid: natural weed control & food selection
• [12:19] — Organic food is more accessible than you think
• [12:46] — Hidden glyphosate: the labeling loophole and closing remarks

---

Listener Q&A Segment

[13:40]

• A listener asks about Japanese Hai Gao rice. Dr. Gundry explains that all types of rice, including Hai Gao, contain wheat germ agglutinin—a hard-to-destroy, mischievous lectin that can be absorbed through the gut and isn’t deactivated with pressure cooking.
  • “Sorry to break your heart. Now it’s time for the review of the week…” — Dr. Gundry

---

Final Takeaways

• Glyphosate is a pervasive and hidden threat in North American foods—damaging gut health, potentially raising cancer risk, and not easily avoided.
• Making better choices—favoring organic, getting to know your food sources, and demanding transparency—can help reduce your exposure and protect your health.

---

For further insights and health tips, check out Dr. Gundry’s other podcast episodes and YouTube channel.

Transcript

[Progressive Insurance Announcer]

Why does Progressive work hard for truckers? Because truckers unite the world. They unite kids with their first drum sets and parents with earplugs. But truckers can't do this if they're not on the road. That's why Progressive has over 360 heavy truck employees to help truckers stay on time and on track. Quote Truck Insurance today in as little as eight minutes at progressive commercial.com progressive casualty insurance company and affiliates, the Bleacher

[Bleacher Report App Promoter]

Report app is your destination for sports. Right now. The NBA is heating up. March Madness is here, and MLB is almost back. Every day there's a new headline, a new highlight, a new moment you've got to see for yourself. That's why I stay locked in with the Bleacher Report app. For me, it's about staying connected to my sports. I can follow the teams I care about, get real time, scores, breaking news and highlights all in one place. Download the Bleacher Report app today so you never miss a moment.

[Dr. Gundry Podcast Host]

You're already reading labels, avoiding inflammatory foods, and during the work of eating clean. But there's one sneaky ingredient that keeps showing up where you least expect it. Today, I'm breaking down exactly what it is, why you need to avoid it, and what to look for next time you're at the store. So. So stay tuned. A few years ago, the wildfires came through my town in California. I lost my home. But what haunted me wasn't the fire itself. It was what I saw in my clinic weeks later. Neighbors I'd known for years, burning eyes, crushing fatigue, lungs loaded with invisible ash they couldn't even see. That's when it hit me. The air inside our homes is silently working against us every single day. Not just during wildfires, but right now in your home. From your candles, your furniture, your cleaning products. That's why I created Total Air as part of my new brand, Homekind medical grade filtration. The same standard I trusted in the operating room. Now protecting your family at home. And go to homekind.com and use code cleanair for 10% off total air filters. Because every breath matters. Make each one count.

[Dr. Gundry]

Hey, Everybody, this is Dr. Gundry. I want to tell you about the number one worst ingredient that's actually hiding in the food you're eating right now. Don't eat this glyphosate. Glyphosate is better known as Roundup. It's the active ingredient in Roundup. Why is glyphosate so bad? Well, sadly, Monsanto patented glyphosate, patented Roundup as An antibiotic, not as an herbicide. Now think about that. Glyphosate is an antibiotic. It turns out that glyphosate actually attacks a pathway for making energy called the shikimate pathway. That's a fun word. Try it three times. Shikimate plants use shikimate pathway to produce energy and to grow and divide. Animals do not have a shikimate pathway. So it turns out that sounds pretty good. If glyphosate blocks the shikimate pathway, we could use it on plants. But if we ate glyphosate, we'd be fine because we don't have the shikimate pathway. Not so fast. Bacteria. Our gut microbiome used the shikimate pathway to grow and divide. So glyphosate was patented as an antibiotic that would kill bacteria, kill fungi, antibiotic. So every time you eat a glyphosate laden food, and we'll get to that in a second, you're killing your gut microbiome. Thanks to Monsanto and Roundup number two, we now know that there are increasing studies that glyphosate, even without killing your gut microbiome, causes leaky gut, causes disruption in the barrier of the wall of your gut. Lastly, we now know that glyphosate interrupts the efficiency of adrenal hormones like cortisol, like adrenaline and thyroid hormones, and actually blocks the effect of these hormones. So this is an all in one health destroyer. Now, as you know, glyphosate was originally used in GMO crops, genetically modified organisms, so that you could have, for instance, a Roundup ready soybean, and you could spray these soybeans and they wouldn't die, but the weeds would die because the Roundup killed the shikimate pathway in these weeds. And this was considered a great boon. Now, no one was worried because the glyphosate didn't affect humans, or so we thought. And so it was approved by the FDA and the federal government as perfectly safe. Subsequently, almost all corn in the United States is genetically modified to withstand Roundup Treatments. 95% of all corn is genetically modified. Almost all soybeans are genetically modified. But it doesn't stop there. It turns out big industrial farming requires having these multimillion dollar harvesting machines arrive at a field on a certain day to harvest the corn, harvest the wheat, harvest the soybean, harvest the oats on a particular day. And you can't wait for something as fickle as the weather to end the cycle of these plants, having them die and dry, having A plant dead and dried makes harvesting incredibly more efficient and hauling these grains much cheaper because water weighs a whole lot. So in the last 10 years, big factory farms use glyphosate Roundup on conventional crops to kill them and desiccate them so they can be harvested on a particular day. So most all commercial agriculture in North America now uses Roundup. Not on GMO crops. Yeah, they're still used on that, but on conventional crops to dry them.

[Dr. Gundry Podcast Host]

This episode of the Dr. Gundry podcast is brought to you by Progressive Insurance. You choose to hit play on this podcast today. Smart Choice. Progressive loves to help people make smart choices. That's why they offer a tool called Auto Quote Explorer that allows you to compare your progressive car insurance quote with rates from other companies so you save time on the research and can enjoy savings when you choose the best rate for you. Give it a try after this [e-mail] Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates. Not available in all states or situations. And prices vary based on how you buy.

[Dr. Gundry]

Now, nobody goes around after they harvest the wheat, the oats, the soybeans, and the corn and washes the Roundup off of them. The vast majority of these foods are fed to our livestock, are fed to cows, pigs, chickens, and that glyphosate goes into their flesh. So when you eat commercial factory farm foods from cows, chickens, pigs, you're actually eating glyphosate because you are are what you ate and you are what the thing you're eating ate. Now, not only that, but these. Now, regular wheat, regular oats, regular corn, regular soybeans are now made into the foods we eat. They're in our breads, they're in our crackers, they're in our cereals. Test after test show high levels of glyphosate in all of our breakfast cereals, in all of our breads, our cookies, our crackers, our oatmeal, even multiple organic oat bars have been found to contain glyphosate. But that's not all. Glyphosate is sprayed between rows of vines in our vineyards. And almost all, all North American wines, which primarily come from California, have glyphosate in the wine. Now, that's not true for organic wines and it's not true for biodynamic wines, but even organic foods. We now know that if your field is growing organic vegetables or organic wheat or organic oats, the farmer next door may be spraying his fields with Roundup. And that Roundup drifts. And that's why we see that many organic grains are contaminated with glyphosate. We also know that some of the new plant based meats are contaminated with glyphosate. Last but not least, Roundup is now the world's most popular home school institutional weed killer. Golf courses use it, school yards use it. You probably have some in your yard that you spot kill weeds. And if your kids and you play in these yards, play in schoolyards, you're being exposed to glyphosate. Sadly, the International Agency for Research declared glyphosate, the active ingredient Roundup, a probable human carcinogen. And many of you know there now been numerous successful suits brought against Monsanto, which is now owned by Bayer Corporation for causing particularly blood cancers and lymphomas. Now one food that typically has the highest glyphosate is our grain products, particularly our corn, our soybeans, our wheat and our oats. Now how do you avoid it? Well, first of all, you do not need raw Roundup to control weeds. There are multiple other natural options to contain weeds. For instance, vinegar, vinegar wash sprayed on plants are very effective weed deterrent and insecticide. And try your best to buy organic whenever possible. Believe it or not, Walmart is the biggest supplier of organic foods in America. Walmart. So you don't have to spend a lot of money to get organic. Moreover, please support your local farmers market, get to know your farmers, get to know what they're doing in making their food. Please seek out biodynamic and organic wineries. They're up and coming. Europe is filled with organic and biodynamic wineries. And that's the next step in taking care of your health. So the number one hidden ingredient in almost everything you're eating is glyphosate, better known as Roundup. It does not appear on the label because the FDA says it's perfectly safe. Don't believe it for a minute. Minute. It's one of your leading health killers that you're eating almost every day. All right, that's it for today. I'm Dr. Gundry and I'm always looking out for you. And look out for a Roundup.

[Dr. Gundry Podcast Host]

Now it's time for the question of the week. Question comes from udybridges8796 over on YouTube. On my episode about the best review rice, they asked what about Japanese Hai Gao rice? The outer hull and bran are removed, but the rice germ stays. Well, here's the bad news. Yes, it's true that white rice removes all of the hull and the germ and brown Rice has both the germ and the hull. And it's true, Hyga removes the hull but leaves the germ. So it's kind of a cross between white and brown. But here's the bad news. Rice of all kinds contain get ready for this wheat germ agglutinin. Just like wheat. And if you remember, wheat germagglutinin is one of the most mischievous lectins that is so small that it can actually be absorbed through our gut when without leaky gut being in place. And so that's why rice, even white rice, can be mischievous. Now the other bad news is that wheat germ agglutinin cannot be destroyed with pressure cooking. And so that's why even white rice for many people can be mischievous. But certainly Hyga rice will be very mischievous. So sorry to break your heart. Now it's time for the review of the week from Ant Bioenergetica Metabolica over on my Spanish channel, Dr. Gundry en Espanol. On my episode about the best potatoes, they commented in Spanish, but we've Translated into English. Dr. Gundry always surprises with information that goes against the conventional narrative. Narrative distinction between cool, resistant starch potatoes and freshly cooked potatoes are a detail that very few people know. I'm glad to see content in Spanish that addresses nutrition with this depth. Thank you for continuing to educate about real food. Well, we all share the only body that we're ever going to live in, and even though we may have different languages we speak, that doesn't mean that information shouldn't be shared. And so thanks. I hope this really helps.

[Pluto TV Promoter]

Pluto TV has thousands of free movies and TV shows.

[Dr. Gundry Podcast Host]

I swear, if I'm lying, I'm dying.

[Dr. Gundry]

This is the mindset free. This is the mantra mindset.

[Pluto TV Promoter]

With movies like Interstellar Dream Girls and Gladiator, Are you not entertained? And TV shows like Survivor, SpongeBob SquarePants, the fairly odd Parents and Ghosts. Pluto TV is always free.

[Dr. Gundry]

Huzzah.

[Pluto TV Promoter]

Pluto TV stream now pay Never.

[Dr. Gundry Podcast Closing Host]

I hope you enjoyed this episode of the Dr. Gundry podcast. If you did, please share this with family and friends. You never know how one of these health tips can can completely transform someone's life when you take the time to share it with them. There's also the Dr. Gundry Podcast YouTube channel where we have tens of thousands of free health insights that can help you and your loved ones live a long, vital life. Let's do this together.

[Progressive Insurance Announcer]

Ever wonder who's out there making the world go round? It's truckers who unites baristas with coffee beans. Truckers who unites dogs with their favorite chew toy. Truckers. That's why Progressive offers truckers even more protection with cargo. Plus coverage to keep truckers moving right along. Quote Truck insurance today in as little as 8 [e-mail] Progressive Casualty Insurance Company and affiliates coverage subject to policy terms, limits and conditions not yet available in California, New York and Virginia.