Opinion
Urban: Paleo health benefit claims were not particularly backed by science
“I'm not sure was particularly science-backed in terms of, you know, the health benefits of eating more like our Paleolithic ancestors, but some of the information he presented in his findings was like the idea that there may be compounds in certain foods to wh…”
Insight
Urban advises professionals to never change their surname when marrying
“I just never change your name. Just don't. Just keep the same name that you have. That's my advice.”
Assertion Supported
Urban: Scientific research shows elimination diets have a placebo effect
“You know, when you're talking about an elimination diet, the research definitely does show a placebo effect.”
Insight
Melissa Urban: There are no universally good or bad foods
“There are no good or bad foods universally. What we're doing here is just providing you with a template to experiment with these foods, pull them out of your diet, reintroduce them, and decide for yourself how they work for you.”
Insight
Melissa Urban: Whole30 is not meant to be followed permanently
“You know, the goal is not to eat Whole-Thirty forever. It's about to figure out what works for you, and then incorporate that in whatever way you like into your long-term diet, and that's what I did.”
Disclosure
Urban rejected scaling Whole30 to $100M because the strategies felt 'gross'
“I don't care if we turn into a billion-dollar organization, and so many of the things that these consultants or investors wanted to do to turn us into a hundred-million-dollar company would have felt gross, and I didn't want to do it.”
Prediction Not checkable as stated
Urban: Whole30 program will endure forever even if the business fails
“If all of this blows up for some reason, and I have to lay my whole team off, and Whole 30 is no longer a business, and we no longer have Whole Thirty-approved partners or licensing, and I never write another book, the Whole 30 will live forever. People will s…”
Opinion
Urban: Early CrossFit in 2006 required embracing extreme physical punishment
“CrossFit in 2006 was very hardcore. You had to be willing to punish yourself and really hurt. If you want to do some of these workouts that are so short, but so brutal, you have to be comfortable with discomfort.”
Assertion Supported
Urban: Allowing White Potatoes Was Whole30's First Major Rule Change
“You know, the earliest iteration of the whole thirties said no white potatoes because Lauren Cordain said no white potatoes. And then we do some research and we do some digging and we're like, well, that's dumb. Potatoes are whole real nutrient dense food. Lik…”
Disclosure
Urban: Epic Bar paid ~$500 early on for Whole30 logo licensing
“Epic Bar was another very early adopter, now owned by General Mills, and an absolutely huge company. But at the time, they were just like two, you know, two young, young adults who were making these meat sticks that happened to, again, meet Whole-Thirty compat…”
Assertion Supported
Urban: Whole30 Approved is a legally registered trademark requiring a license
“You can still describe your food as Whole-Thirty friendly, but if you want to use the Whole-Thirty logo, and now Whole-Thirty approved is also a legally registered trademark, yeah, you have to have a license for it.”
Disclosure
Urban: Whole30 overhauled underpriced licensing contracts around 2018
“In 20, I think 2018, we hired an in-house attorney, somebody to run our licensing program, and she was the one To take a look at all of our contracts and all of our deals and say, y'all are undercharging, like massively. And she was the one who created our new…”
Disclosure
Whole30's direct-to-consumer dressing line failed due to supply chain issues
“So the salad dressings did very, very well when we launched, but we quickly ran into issues. Manufacturing issues, supply chain disruptions, you know, freight and distribution challenges. We just started getting our butts kicked, to be perfectly frank, and we …”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Melissa Urban: Sexual Abuse at Age 16 Altered Her Life Trajectory
“Pre-sixteen years old, everything that we've just talked about, I was a good kid, I got straight A's, I followed the rules, I had a good relationship with my family, and then at 16, I was sexually abused by someone in my family, someone I really loved and some…”
Disclosure
Melissa Urban: Dropped out of college amid escalating drug addiction
“Yeah, I did drop out. By my junior year in college, I was dating a drug dealer who gave me access to anything I could possibly want, and I dove into harder and harder drugs, and so halfway through my junior year, I realized I was failing all my classes.”
Disclosure
Urban: Received $50,000 corporate retention bonus before leaving to pursue Whole30
“At this point in the company, they had done a round of layoffs, but offered several employees retention bonuses if they agreed to stay for the next three years. And so I signed on for that retention bonus, which was great. My job was secure, and I knew that at…”
Disclosure
Urban: Left corporate job with $40,000 in debt and poor credit
“Yeah, I had like 30 K in student loans. I had 10,000 dollars in credit card debt. I had a terrible credit score because of my drug days”
Disclosure
Whole30 Launched as a $39.99 40-Page Downloadable PDF
“We put together a forty-page PDF on how to do the whole 30. It was essentially our seminar packaged down into PDF format. All of the stuff that we talked about, the science behind it, the big picture recommendations, the rules of the program, how to do it, tip…”
Assertion Not checkable as stated
Urban: Whole30 co-founders quietly booked separate hotel rooms on 2015 tour
“We are on tour for this book in April, 2015, and our publisher is booking our hotel rooms, and we are quietly booking a second hotel room paid for with our own money so that we could maintain our own individual spaces.”
