I am thrilled to tell you about this amazing company I have connected with: Captain Soup. This medical diet-focused company has created delicious grab-and-go meals made from the highest quality grass-fed and organic ingredients available.
They help make eating clean, nutrient-dense meals easy and convenient. You can order easily at captainsoup.com and they will ship frozen meals straight to your door. I’m really excited about these meals because whether you are executing the Wahls Protocol®, Wahls Elimination™, Wahls Paleo™ or Wahls Paleo Plus™, all of Captain Soup’s meals are compliant with your diet. These are a perfect solution for traveling, emergency freezer meals, or anytime you don’t have the time or energy to cook a meal from scratch.
I really love that their soups are a perfect way to get vegetables and organ nutrients into your diet. They are packed full of vegetables and most are made with a bone broth base that is crafted with bones and liver from grass-fed, local lambs.
Some of their soups were also designed for people who have histamine, oxalate, lectin, and FODMAP concerns, so if you have other dietary concerns, they are crafting soup for you too.
I met their founder, Brian Gaudette, at a conference and he has an amazing story of healing from an autoimmune disease. He personally developed and used these soups to reverse his Hashimoto’s and reclaim his career as an Army Apache pilot. He even went so far as to preserve hundreds of pounds of soups and ship them overseas ahead of him on deployment, earning him the nickname: Captain Soup.
Captain Soup is a company that truly cares about their customers and I know they are passionate about helping you heal and thrive.
The ordering process is super simple. Head over to www.captainsoup.com, place your order, and these nutrient-dense meals will be in your freezer for when you need them. Use code DRTERRYWAHLS to SAVE $25 OFF your first order.
Those who would like to help bring functional medicine and healing to our servicemembers can donate at www.Taskforcedagger.org
Hit play on the video or read the transcript below:
Captain Sopu s a Wahls Protocol® Sponsor. I am grateful for the partnership with this company and sponsorships like this are part of how we are able to produce so many informational resources at no cost to you. I hope that you do find the information shared to be beneficial!
Read the transcript below:
Dr. Wahls:
Hi there, everyone. It’s Dr. Wahls, and today I’m with Brian Gaudette, from Captain Soup. Now, if you follow me on social media, you know that soups and stews are an essential part of my routine. They are convenient, full of nutrients, and I’m so excited that we are teaming up with Wahls Protocol Seminar sponsor, Captain Soup. These partnerships are a great opportunity to share the products and services that I use as part of my everyday life in my recovery. And it’s part of what I encourage all of the Wahls Warriors to use as part of your recovery.
Sharing these interviews helps me teach you, my tribe, the products and services and devices that I’ve used for my recovery, and that I’m still using every day. So, let’s get to it today. We’re going to talk about Captain Soup. The first thing I have to do is read this important disclaimer, and I’m going to read it to be sure that I get it correctly.
As an Army officer and an employee of the United States Military Academy at West Point, it is important to note that all of the views expressed by Brian are his own and do not represent the views of the United States Army or the United States Military Academy at West Point, where Brian is employed. His comments do not constitute an endorsement by the US Army, West Point, or the military government.
Brian, thank you so much for joining me today. Now, I’m not sure everyone will have heard your amazing story and how you developed Captain Soup. So please, tell us your story.
Brian Gaudette, Captain Soup:
Yeah. So, as you know, I’m a soldier and an officer in the Army. Most recently I was serving as a Apache pilot. About seven years ago, I was serving in the Republican of Korea and I got very sick. And it was very confusing to the doctors, and I was going to every single specialist there is, and just not receiving a lot of answers. I was gaining weight. I couldn’t think. My mood was de-stabilizing. I was getting spatially disoriented, which is a very bad thing when you’re flying an aircraft. And so, I sort of had to raise my hand and say, something’s going on. And we just can’t figure it out.
And I was pretty close to being on my way out of the military when somebody handed me a book about an elimination diet for autoimmune condition. And at that point, I wasn’t even sure I had autoimmune condition. I just knew my thyroid was low. But when I started listening to other people’s testimonies about their symptoms, I just said, That is me. That’s what’s going on with me. And so, I thought I would try an elimination diet, and it was no gluten, dairy, soy, grains, night shades, nothing processed. And, I did it for six weeks and I noticed instant improvement. And so, I kept going and my world changed. And I got better, and I lost the weight, and my cognition came back, and the vertigo went away.
Dr. Wahls:
How much weight did you lose, Brian?
Brian Gaudette, Captain Soup:
I’m five, six. I ballooned up to about 215 pounds. I ultimately ended up losing about 50 pounds.
Dr. Wahls:
Okay. Yeah, the military would’ve taken you out just because of the weight, of course.
Brian Gaudette, Captain Soup:
That’s exactly right. That’s exactly right.
Dr. Wahls:
And so, you’re in Korea. You’re discovering this new way of eating. You probably couldn’t get that food at mess hall, I wouldn’t think.
Brian Gaudette, Captain Soup:
No. That was the next hurdle to jump. I said, okay, so eating this way is my path to health and wellness. It was, how do I sustain it? And that’s actually how I landed on soup. I could cook them in giant batches. I would make 28 servings in one cooking. It would have a bone-broth base with all the veggies I needed, all the protein and all the good fats that I needed. And, I would just take them with me, working long hours as a pilot, going from here to there. And then I had to figure out, how was I going to eat that way on deployment? I actually ended up tin canning and preserving about 500 pounds of soup, and shipping it ahead of me on a shipping container. And that’s where the nickname Captain Soup actually came from.
Dr. Wahls:
Okay. Where are you shipping them to?
Brian Gaudette, Captain Soup:
This was-
Dr. Wahls:
You were originally in Korea.
Brian Gaudette, Captain Soup:
Yeah. Originally in Korea. Then I got stationed in Fort Bliss, Texas, where I was the commander of Apache Company there. And then we deployed to Europe in support of operation called Atlantic Resolve, to reassure our NATO partners.
Dr. Wahls:
And so, you’re shipping them over there, 500 pounds. I’m curious, how long does 500 pounds last?
Brian Gaudette, Captain Soup:
That lasted me, it lasted me about four and a half months.
Dr. Wahls:
Okay.
Brian Gaudette, Captain Soup:
Four and a half months.
Dr. Wahls:
Was that as long as your deployment, or did you have to cook up another batch?
Brian Gaudette, Captain Soup:
That was as long as my deployment. Yeah.
Dr. Wahls:
Okay. Now, everyone who’s been watching me, how I eat, you see that I have a lot of soups, and sometimes they are Brian soups, by the way, which really are quite delicious, because soup is easily digestible. You can make a big batch and can it. And now I have a refrigerator full of several quarts of soup at any given time, so I have a fast, easy meal. How many kinds do you make?
Brian Gaudette, Captain Soup:
Right now we seven different kinds of soup. We’re always looking to add more. We are about ready to roll out a liver pate this month.
Dr. Wahls:
Ooh. That’s exciting.
Brian Gaudette, Captain Soup:
Yeah, we’re actually very excited. We’ve been testing it and it is just, it is delicious. We’re so excited to get that out there, and that’ll be our first non-soup product.
Dr. Wahls:
Well, tell me more about this liver pate. I have so many people tell me that they can’t imagine eating organ meats, because the taste sounds so miserable. But, you and I know that organ meats are really a super food. I have my favorite ways, but I’m anxious to hear about your liver pate. Please tell me more.
Brian Gaudette, Captain Soup:
Yeah, well, we actually started slipping in organ meat by way of the bone broth that goes into most of our soups. And so, that’s a way for a lot of folks to get some of the nutrients from the organ meat without actually eating it. We start with some grass-fed beef tallow. And then, we use a lemon to help with the texture. And then we puree it up with various spices, and then obviously it comes frozen and is serve chilled. We were testing it at a conference and we had lots of folks who said they just don’t eat organ meat who were really into it. So, we’re pretty excited about it.
Dr. Wahls:
This sounds really lovely. I’ve never made pate with lemon, so I’m going to have a few more questions here. Do you include the lemon rind with that? Just lemon juice.
Brian Gaudette, Captain Soup:
Yeah. You actually can’t really taste the lemon too much. It was more of a preparation process, just to help with the texture.
Dr. Wahls:
Yes.
Brian Gaudette, Captain Soup:
The lemon flavor or essence-
Dr. Wahls:
Is not part of it.
Brian Gaudette, Captain Soup:
… doesn’t make it’s way into the pate.
Dr. Wahls:
Well, I am going to be ordering some of your liver pate, so I can definitely check that out. And then, tell us a little bit more about the ingredients that you’re getting. We’ve got bone broth, tallow. And for everyone who’s listening, tallow has a lot of omega nine fats, which are very similar actually to olive oil. These are really great, particularly for our skin. And healthy fats are necessary for cell membranes and the myelin in our brain. But, tell me more about some of the other ingredients you’re putting in your soups, Brian.
Brian Gaudette, Captain Soup:
Yeah. We’re super proud of our supply chain. Our kitchen is out of Eugene, Oregon. We just have amazing farmers and ranchers around there. All of our meats are locally sourced, grass-fed, grass finish certified humane raised, or wild-caught. We do have a tom kah fish soup that is wild-caught lean cod, right there in the Pacific ocean. All our vegetables are sourced locally and are organic. And we’re pretty proud of our process and our ingredients.
Dr. Wahls:
Now, where all do you ship? I live in Iowa. Can people get them here across the United States, or Canada, Mexico? What kind of limits do you have?
Brian Gaudette:
Yeah, right now we’re shipping across the continental United States. So, west coast to east coast, just online at captainsoup.com. And we ship them frozen, straight to the door, and right in the freezer.
Dr. Wahls:
Okay. I presume that Canada and Mexico, we can’t ship across borders yet.
Brian Gaudette, Captain Soup:
Not yet.
Dr. Wahls:
Okay.
Brian Gaudette, Captain Soup:
Not yet.
Dr. Wahls:
All right. Now, once I get the soups, and I tuck them in my freezer, a couple key questions. How long will it take to thaw out once I put it on the counter? And then another question is, how long would it stay in the freezer that I could build confidence for it?
Brian Gaudette, Captain Soup:
Yeah, we recommend thawing out in the refrigerator typically takes about a day, day and a half. And then once it’s thawed in the refrigerator, you want to eat it in about five days. But in the freezer, in its frozen state, it’s good and tastes great and fresh up to a year in the freezer.
Dr. Wahls:
Okay. Excellent. What kind of medical stories have you gotten from people who have had your soups? I’m curious. What are the customers telling you?
Brian Gaudette, Captain Soup:
Oh, my gosh. You’re making me get emotional. We’ve had customers who’ve reversed their ulcerative colitis, who’ve reversed their dysautonomia, who’ve reversed their Hashimoto’s. Several have reversed their type two diabetes diagnoses. Some have reversed their neuropathy. Just so much healing and so many good stories, and it’s amazing to be a part of that.
Dr. Wahls:
For all of you Wahls Warriors who are listening, one of the most common requests that I get is, please develop a food plan, a food delivery system. And what I’m here to tell you is, Captain Soup is the food delivery system that I recommend. It’s convenient. It’s easy. There is variety, and you can use it as Brian did. That’s all he ate for four and a half months while he was deployed. Or, you could use it to supplement what you have on hand so that you’ve got a backup meal if you’re too busy. I’ve got a busy work week, because I’m working hard on my grants or my studies. Then yes, maybe I’m just going to dip into my supply of Captain Soups.
You can do this whichever way best suits you and your family. But for all of you who’ve been asking me to develop a meal plan, a food service, Captain Soup has that. Very much encourage you to check them out.
Brian, could you tell us more specifically what soups you have? I don’t have the whole list in front of me, but I know you’ve got a variety of meats and quite a variety of soups. And I think people would love to hear you rattle off your list.
Brian Gaudette, Captain Soup:
Yeah, absolutely. We have Classic Lamb, Dijon Lamb, Classic Beef, Dijon Beef. An Italian Beef, which is very good. A Tom Kha, which has a fish broth base and is made with Ling cod that’s quite delicious. And then we have an all vegetarian one, the Green Machine, which has about five servings of vegetables in it, some great olive oil, and about two and a half cups of veggies.
Dr. Wahls:
And, I want everyone to know that you can think of these foods very much as a therapeutic diet. Brian and his team have identified what is consistent with a ketogenic diet, a autoimmune protocol diet, an elimination diet, and what’s vegetarian. So, you can collect or order the soup that is specific to your needs.
We also talked a little bit that you’ve had, like some of us who have, a complex autoimmune disease. We get better. We are doing great. And then all at once, we’re not doing so great. I had my derailment with spinal stenosis. I had to go down that path of how to deal with that. But I understand you had a hiccup, Brian. Can you share that story and how you got that new hiccup addressed?
Brian Gaudette, Captain Soup:
Yeah. Yeah. And man, it’s a very disorienting thing when you think you have it licked and then all of a sudden you’re sick again. And the first thing I looked to was my thyroid that I had clinically reversed. The Hashimoto’s thyroid was fine. No TPO antibodies. So, I went down the traditional Western medicine path. Ended up with about 17 providers, most of who were specialists. The labs picking up various levels of cascading dysfunction. And by virtue of being Captain Soup and going to some of the conferences that we go to, I was tied in with a loose affiliation of mostly healthcare providers and other interested parties who are interested in progressing functional medicine in the DOD, both active duty and across the Department of Veteran Affairs.
One of the people I got tied into was a Special Forces Operator named Geoff Dardia, out of the Third Special Forces group. And he has successfully implemented functional medicine practices at the Third Special Forces group for 10 years now. And they’ve had amazing success in increasing the health outcomes of soldiers. And one of the things he did was, created a pipeline for folks who had complex health issues like myself, to go to the Cleveland Clinic Center for Functional Medicine. And, when I went to the Cleveland Clinic, they diagnosed me with mold and heavy metal toxicity, which we now know was at the root cause of a lot of the pain, cognitive issues, mood de-stabilization, stomach issues. I’m so grateful for what Geoff Dardia has done, and Task Force Dagger as a-
Dr. Wahls:
Explain Task Force Dagger, what that is and how that impacted your health journey.
Brian Gaudette, Captain Soup::
Yeah. There is a pipeline to the Cleveland Clinic that Geoff Dardia created, but there’s a part of the build that the Army won’t pay for. And so Geoff Dardia started a nonprofit that picks up the tab for the Cleveland Clinic and gets soldiers the care that they need that the Army currently can’t or won’t pick up. And so, he established Task Force Dagger at taskforcedagger.org, and he raises money to help take care of soldiers using functional medicine.
Dr. Wahls:
Okay. And finally, what else is going to be happening for Captain Soup? We can look forward to liver pate. When’s that going to be available?
Brian Gaudette, Captain Soup:
Right at the start of the new year.
Dr. Wahls:
Oh, excellent.
Brian Gaudette, Captain Soup:
January 2022.
Dr. Wahls:
We’ll get some orders in. And, do you have any other new products that you would see coming up in this coming year?
Brian Gaudette, Captain Soup:
Yeah. We’ve been working on a grass-fed beef tallow that we’re going to release as well, for folks for their cooking needs.
Dr. Wahls:
Oh, excellent. Excellent. Excellent. Well, Brian, as always, it just gives me such joy to see you. I’m so grateful that you help support the sponsor, and that you have these wonderful products available for people who need help in the kitchen and want to have some pre-made meals.
Brian Gaudette, Captain Soup:
Well, thank you so much for having me, and it’s an honor to see you and talk to you as well.
Dr. Wahls:
The love is mutual. Absolutely. Now, for all you Wahls Warriors, who’ve watched this interview, please leave your comments below. What was the one thing that you learned? What are you going to try out? Which of these really great products are you going to try? And I’m going to vote for the liver pate, myself. And then, please go over to terrywahls.com. Download the diet cheat sheet at terrywalls.com/diet, and check out the other great lectures, the other great products. And again, please leave your comments. What was the one thing that you learned that you’re going to do today? Thank you very much, and thank you, Brian.
Brian Gaudette, Captain Soup:
Thank you, Dr. Wahls.
Visit captainsoup.com and use promo code DRTERRYWAHLS and SAVE $25 OFF your first order
DISCLAIMERS + DISCLOSURES
As an Army officer and employee of the United States Military Academy at West Point, it is important to note that all views expressed by Brian are his own and do not represent the views of the United States Army or the United States Military Academy at West Point. His comments do not constitute an endorsement by the US Army or United States government
The contents of this interview are for informational purposes only and are not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Always seek the advice of your physician or another qualified health provider with any questions you may have regarding a medical condition.
