Hello, Cleanish Squad!

​Click here to listen to me read this email for you.​

First, I want to thank all of you who responded to my last email about our new adventure. If you didn't hear, my family and I have decided to sell our home in Austin and travel the United States in our RV over the next year. (Yep, that means Dustin, me, our four kiddos, and two dogs!).

I loved reading your recommendations on where we should visit along our journey. I also really appreciated your requests for the type of Cleanish Squad content you'd like to see. This was all very helpful, so thank you.

In case you're curious, here are the main types of content requests y'all sent:

• simple, well-rounded meals
• meal prep
• family dinners
• healthy recipes for unhealthy foods you crave
• how I maintain my exercise away from my home gym
• how I eat healthy on the road
• life on the road
• easy weeknight meals

Lots of good stuff! If you haven't had a chance to share your feedback, you can always reply to this email.

Did you hear the news? PepsiCo is buying Siete Foods for $1.2 billion!

When I first heard this, I admit I became concerned. I have recommended Siete Foods products for years, especially their cassava flour tortilla chips and their tortillas. They make very high-quality foods with minimal, great ingredients.

I think it's a good sign that a giant food conglomerate like PepsiCo is interested in expanding into a healthy food brand. That's great, and we could use more access to healthy food options. This also means health brands are making an impact, and that we're helping this by voting with our dollars.

What leaves me worried, though, is the potential for less-than-healthy manufacturing techniques to take over, leading to lesser-quality ingredients, questionable sourcing, and added processing.

And this isn't just happening with PepsiCo.

It's great that these healthier food companies have been able to find their audience and share their great products with so many—I can only dream of growing to that point with my small protein company, Cleanish. But time will tell how true these brands stay to their roots now that they've been sold.

What can we do about this? A lot, actually. It's pretty clear to me that we make a big difference with the foods we choose to buy and consume. Supporting companies with simple, high-quality ingredients means a lot, and it's getting noticed!

Paying attention to nutrition labels is as important as ever. Especially for smaller companies purchased by larger conglomerates, we can read labels and ensure their high-quality product remains the same.

If they release new products, it's important to pay just as much attention to the new ingredient labels, if not more. It can be so easy to trust a brand just by its name, but we are ultimately responsible for what we purchase and consume.

What are your thoughts on this? Please reply to this email and let me know!