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The Alcohol Experiment with Annie Grace

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I started using alcohol at age 15 and it felt like the perfect solution to my childhood trauma and dysfunctional home life. My values changed almost immediately, and I went from having LDS background to the other end of the spectrum. I got a DUI when I was 16 and many underage alcohol misdemeanors. I was kicked out of high school and was ashamed that I had a GED and not a high school diploma. I was pregnant at age 18 and was able to stop drinking but started again shortly after my daughter was born. I didn’t have any more legal consequences after that first DUI, mostly because of luck. My biggest consequence from drinking was that it stunted my growth as a human being.

My recovery from alcohol has really been about recovering from the reasons why I drank, which I can address now that I am not drinking. My threshold for being unhappy was fairly low, in comparison to others’ stories. This is not to undermine or deny what I went through. I had withdrawal symptoms from alcohol, shitty relationships, and no sense of self. When people in AA say, “If I drink, I will die,” I don’t entirely relate. If I drink, I may die eventually and my disease will continue to progress, but more likely, I will be miserable in my existence. I won’t achieve my purpose, be connected to a higher power, or have fulfilling relationships. I have learned that my addiction to alcohol is a symptom of trauma, and drinking was merely a coping skill.  Alcohol worked very well to numb my pain and it helped me disassociate. I didn’t even know I was disassociating until I started my recovery journey. It becomes more and more apparent that I didn’t know how to cope with my feelings or know how to be comfortable in my skin.

My personal work and successes have been on self-forgiveness and love, forgiving others, learning healthy boundaries, and being the best mother possible. I am in recovery from alcohol and co-dependency. I am learning how to feel my feelings, cope with life, and stand up for myself and my worth. I live in Idaho, and I am a single mom to 3 amazing, beautiful daughters. I am so proud of myself for breaking the intergenerational patterns in my family.

My curiosity about sobriety started about 3 years ago. I started listening to podcasts in the beginning of my recovery and found The SHAIR Podcast with Omar Pinto. I loved his voice and his energy. I have found his interviews to have a profound impact on my ability to see my addiction as an opportunity and not a dirty secret. I eventually became a member of his FB group and then joined the SRC where I have connected with so many amazing people in recovery. I feel the SRC group has kept me sober.

I can access meetings via Zoom which has been crucial to me since I am at home with my kids and haven’t found an AA group in my community where I feel connected. The connection with others in the group has saved me from loneliness and isolation. I have found a sponsor in one of these groups who was willing to complete the 12 steps with me which has been transformational!  I am almost 5 months in my recovery from alcohol and 95% of the time, I don’t even think about drinking. I am so grateful for the SRC, the SHAIR podcast, my sponsor, the step work, and online recovery.

What happens when you give up alcohol? How will your life change? Welcome to the Alcohol Experiment.

To most people, the thought of never having a drink again is too daunting to consider, but today’s guest tells us that everything we think we thought we knew about alcohol is wrong.

Annie Grace is the author of This Naked Mind: Control Alcohol, Find Freedom, Discover Happiness & Change Your Life and is the host of a podcast by the same name. She is also the creator of The Alcohol Experiment, which interrupts peoples’ patterns around drinking and rewires how we think about alcohol.

Annie tells us what made her first question the powerful hold drinking had over her and shares her journey of self-inquiry and scientific research that ultimately caused her to lose her desire to drink at all.

The focus is not on staying sober, it is instead on just living and being happy.

Annie Grace

Annie Grace grew up in a one-room log cabin without running water or electricity outside of Aspen, Colorado. She discovered a passion for marketing and after graduating with a Masters of Science (Marketing) she dove into corporate life.

At the age of 26, Annie was the youngest vice president in a multinational company, and her drinking career began in earnest. At 35, in a global C-level marketing role, she was responsible for marketing in 28 countries and drinking almost two bottles of wine a night.

Knowing she needed a change but unwilling to submit to a life of deprivation and stigma, Annie set out to find a painless way to regain control. Annie no longer drinks and has never been happier.

She left her executive role to write this book and share This Naked Mind with the world. In her free time, Annie loves to ski, travel (26 countries and counting), and enjoy her beautiful family. Annie lives with her husband and two sons in the Colorado mountains.

This Naked Mind

This Naked Mind  has ignited a movement across the country, helping thousands of people forever change their relationship with alcohol.

Many people question whether drinking has become too big a part of their lives, and worry that it may even be affecting their health. But, they resist change because they fear losing the pleasure and stress-relief associated with alcohol, and assume giving it up will involve deprivation and misery.

This Naked Mind  offers a new, positive solution. Here, Annie Grace clearly presents the psychological and neurological components of alcohol use based on the latest science, and reveals the cultural, social, and industry factors that support alcohol dependence in all of us.  Packed with surprising insight into the reasons we drink, this book will open your eyes to the startling role of alcohol in our culture, and how the stigma of alcoholism and recovery keeps people from getting the help they need. With Annie’s own extraordinary and candid personal story at its heart, this book is a must-read for anyone who drinks.

This Naked Mind  will give you freedom from alcohol. It removes the psychological dependence so that  you will not crave alcohol , allowing you to easily drink less (or stop drinking). With clarity, humor, and a unique blend of science and storytelling,  This Naked Mind  will open the door to the life you have been waiting for.

Annie Grace’s Links

[email protected]

alcoholexperiment.com

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The Alcohol Experiment with Annie Grace

Annie Grace, the author of The Alcohol Experiment and This Naked Mind, has joined me on my 100th episode to shift your perspective on drinking so that you can gain control of alcohol and find freedom. 

Her work has helped thousands of people understand the impact of alcohol on their lives and dispel widely held beliefs and misconceptions about the benefits of drinking, including that it helps you relax, sleep and connect.  

Annie’s goal is to help you decide that alcohol is a substance that isn’t making your life better so that you’re able to walk away from alcohol painlessly, genuinely feeling that you no longer want or need to drink. 

For full show notes, head to www.hellosomedaycoaching.com/100

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Information

• Show The Hello Someday Podcast For Sober Curious Women
• Frequency Updated Weekly
• Published March 10, 2022 at 8:00 AM UTC
• Length 52 min
• Episode 100
• Rating Explicit

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The Alcohol Experiment: Expanded Edition: A 30-Day, Alcohol-Free Challenge to Interrupt Your Habits and Help You Take Control Audible Audiobook – Unabridged

Now complete with daily prompts to reflect on each day of a monthlong alcohol-free plan, the author of This Naked Mind helps listeners challenge their thinking, find clarity, and form new habits.

Changing your habits can be hard without the right tools. This is especially true for alcohol because habits are, by definition, subconscious thought processes. Through her methodical research of the latest neuroscience and her own journey, Annie Grace has cracked the code on habit change by addressing the specific ways habits form. This unique and unprecedented method has now helped thousands redefine their relationship to drinking painlessly and without misery.

In The Alcohol Experiment , Annie offers a judgment-free action plan for anyone who's ever wondered what life without alcohol is like. The rules are simple: Abstain from drinking for 30 days and just see how you feel. Annie arms her listeners with the science-backed information to address the cultural and emotional conditioning we experience around alcohol. The result is a mindful approach that puts you back in control and permanently stops cravings.

With a chapter and journal prompt devoted to each day of the experiment, Annie presents wisdom, tested strategies, and thought-provoking information to supplement the plan and support your step-by-step success as you learn what feels good for you. It's your body, your mind, and your choice.

• Listening Length 8 hours and 29 minutes
• Author Annie Grace
• Narrator Annie Grace
• Audible release date December 31, 2018
• Language English
• Publisher Penguin Audio
• ASIN B07KX4TC3T
• Version Unabridged
• Program Type Audiobook
• See all details

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Customers say

Customers find the information in the book insightful, challenging, and kind. They also describe the book as easy to read and comprehend, making the journey easier. Readers describe the self-examination as motivational, supportive, and doable. They find the chapters broken down to where they read one per day. Customers also mention the author is nonjudgmental and genuine.

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Customers find the information in the book insightful, motivating, and helpful. They say it comes from a place of science, facts, and Annie's personal experiences with drinking. Readers also mention that it challenges their beliefs about drinking.

"...examined why I was considering NOT drinking, so the exercise was quite enlightening and set up a really important foundation for me to really absorb..." Read more

"...This book reminds us that life is a beautiful thing . We were not born with a glass of wine in our hands...." Read more

" This book is definitely helpful . I made it through thirty three days without alcohol, relatively easily...." Read more

"...Scientifically, this happens because alcohol is a depressant AND a stimulant ...." Read more

Customers find the book easy to read and comprehend. They say it breaks down the science of alcohol into simple understandable terms. They also say the author has a way with words and never feels judged. Customers say the book has made the journey easier and kept them hydrated. They mention that failure is an amazing and easier way to accomplish changing a habit.

"...She provides a lot of science and a lot of easy-to-understand analogys and explanations to help us see alcohol differently...." Read more

" Easy read . Clear categories to direct to sections of interest. Author figured how to accomplish goal her way." Read more

"...I made it through thirty three days without alcohol, relatively easily . I like the journal prompts and the chapters are short...." Read more

"...This course is well structured , taking you step by step through eliminating alcohol, supporting you as you do it and pointing out each step of the..." Read more

Customers find the self-examination in the book motivational, supportive, and comforting. They also say the lessons and encouragement are a good fit for them, and self-affirming.

"...So, the biggest difference between AA and this book is that I feel free ...." Read more

"...This book and its day by day lessons and encouragement were a good fit for me ...." Read more

"...It was inspiring and comforting to connect with people on the same journey as myself...." Read more

"...with alcohol is forever changed… have never felt better, felt more free , or more in control...." Read more

Customers find the book a good read, with helpful and insightful daily readings. They also appreciate the journal prompts and short chapters.

"...I like the journal prompts and the chapters are short . It does suggest against moderation...." Read more

" Great book broken down into bite sized readings so you don’t have to dedicate an hour everyday to reading...." Read more

"...The chapters are broken down to where you read one per day which I thought was great to keep engaged." Read more

"This is an awesome read . Really helped me be more insightful while drinking...." Read more

Customers find the cravings in the book to be easy to stop drinking, and say it has totally changed their attitude about alcohol.

"...never my goal- but I’m now 7+ months without drinking and zero desire to ever drink again ...." Read more

"...I have no physical craving for alcohol ...." Read more

"...It has been so easy for me to stop drinking (evening drinker to relax) because it's just for 30 days...." Read more

"...Not only do I feel healthier and more focused, my cravings have been dismissed . This 30-day detox was a game changer for me!..." Read more

Customers find the book nonjudgmental and genuine. They also say the author genuinely wants to help all who struggle.

"...She is non-judgmental and genuinely wants to help all who struggle. I have both the hardcopy and the audible version...." Read more

"...She has a way with words and you never feel judged ." Read more

"...But reading this book was a perfect start. She is so un-judgemental and well studied in this approach...." Read more

"...Fact based and encouraging, not at all preachy or judgmental ...." Read more

Customers appreciate the support provided in the book and online. They also appreciate the supportive blog, Facebook groups, and web site.

"...By the way, there is support online with others who are going through the experiment with you, and Annie also answers questions Online as well...." Read more

"... Offers also a free online community and various ways to engage further w the material, such as a live group w daily emailed videos on the content..." Read more

"...There is also online and Facebook supports , if needed. Highly recommend!" Read more

"Great book, well written, with additional love of the supporting blog , Facebook groups, web site and communities that offer support and insight...." Read more

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Can fungi turn food waste into the next culinary sensation?

UC Berkeley microbiologist makes the case for Neurospora-laced oat pulp and cheesy moldy bread

By Robert Sanders

August 29, 2024

Courtesy of Blue Hill at Stone Barns and Alchemist

Chef-turned-chemist Vayu Hill-Maini has a passion: to turn food waste into culinary treats using fungi.

One of his collaborators is Rasmus Munk, head chef and co-owner of the Michelin two-star restaurant Alchemist in Copenhagen, who serves a dessert — orange-colored Neurospora mold grown on rice — inspired by Hill-Maini.

For the past two years, Hill-Maini has worked with a team of chefs at Blue Hill at Stone Barns , a Michelin two-star restaurant in Pocantico Hills, New York, to generate tasty morsels from Neurospora mold grown on grains and pulses, including the pulp left over from making oat milk. At Blue Hill, you may soon be served a patty of grain covered with orange Neurospora with a side of moldy bread — orange Neurospora grown on rice bread that, when fried, smells and tastes like a toasted cheese sandwich.

That’s only the beginning for Hill-Maini, a Miller postdoctoral fellow at the University of California, Berkeley. Working in the lab of Jay Keasling , UC Berkeley professor of chemical and biomolecular engineering, he has devoted himself to learning everything there is to know about Neurospora intermedia — a widespread fungus that is traditionally used in Indonesia to make a food called oncom (pronounced ahn’ cham) from soy pulp — so it can be adapted broadly to Western food waste and Western palates.

“Our food system is very inefficient. A third or so of all food that’s produced in the U.S. alone is wasted, and it isn’t just eggshells in your trash. It’s on an industrial scale,” said Hill-Maini. “What happens to all the grain that was involved in the brewing process, all the oats that didn’t make it into the oat milk, the soybeans that didn’t make it into the soy milk? It’s thrown out.”

When a fellow chef from Indonesia introduced him to fermented oncom, he said it struck him that “this food is a beautiful example of how we can take waste, ferment it and make human food from it. So let’s learn from this example, study this process in detail, and maybe there’s broader lessons we can draw about how to tackle the general challenge of food waste.”

Hill-Maini’s evangelizing about the benefits of Neurospora inspired Blue Hill to install an incubator and tissue culture hood in its test kitchen this summer, allowing the restaurant to dive more deeply into fungal foods. Before, Andrew Luzmore, chef in charge of special projects at Blue Hill, FedExed various substrates to Hill-Maini’s lab at the Joint BioEnergy Institute ( JBEI ) in Emeryville, California, near UC Berkeley, where Neurospora magically transformed them for study. Luzmore has tasted many Neurospora experiments, though his favorite is made from stale rice bread.

“It’s incredibly delicious. It looks and tastes like you grated cheddar onto bread and toasted it,” Luzmore said. “It’s a very clear window into what can be done with this.”

While people from many cultures have long eaten foods transformed by fungi — grain turned into alcohol by yeast, milk curds turned into blue cheese by Penicillium mold, soy sauce and miso produced from soybeans by koji mold ( Aspergillus oryzae ) — oncom is unique in being produced from waste food. Developed by native Javans long ago, it appears to be the only human food fermented solely by Neurospora mold. But not for long.

A paper by Hill-Maini about the genetics of the Neurospora intermedia strains that transform soy milk waste into oncom, and how the fungi chemically alter 30 different kinds of plant waste, will be published online Aug. 29 in the journal Nature Microbiology .

“In the last few years, I think, fungi and molds have caught the public eye for their health and environmental benefits, but a lot less is known about the molecular processes that these fungi carry out to transform ingredients into food,” he said. “Our discovery, I think, opens our eyes to these possibilities and unlocks further the potential of these fungi for planetary health and planetary sustainability.”

A nutritious snack in 36 hours

In West Java, oncom comes in two varieties: red oncom, which is made by fermenting soy pulp left over from making tofu, and black oncom, which is grown on the leftover pressings from making peanut oil. They’re used similarly — in stir-fries, as fried snacks and with rice as a dumpling filling.

Vayu Hill-Maini, UC Berkeley

One of the amazing things about these moldy concoctions, Hill-Maini found, is that the fungi transform indigestible plant material — polysaccharides, including pectin and cellulose, originating from the plant cell wall — into digestible, nutritious and tasty food in about 36 hours.

“The fungus readily eats those things and in doing so makes this food and also more of itself, which increases the protein content,” he said. “So you actually have a transformation in the nutritional value. You see a change in the flavor profile. Some of the off-flavors that are associated with soybeans disappear. And finally, some beneficial metabolites are produced in high amounts.”

Yeast — a single-celled fungus — is famously transformative, fermenting grain and fruit into alcohol. But the fungus that makes oncom is different: it’s a filamentous fungus, growing and spreading as filaments identical to the mycorrhizae of fungi that live in forest soil and produce mushrooms. The oncom fungus does not produce mushrooms, however; it is like the mold that grows on spoiled food. The Penicillium mold that produces blue cheese and the koji mold that produces soy sauce, miso and sake are examples of filamentous fungi that raise bland food to a whole new level.

Oncom, however, is one of the only, if not the only, fungal food grown on food by-products. In the new paper, Hill-Maini demonstrated that N. intermedia can grow on 30 different types of agricultural waste, from sugar cane bagasse and tomato pomace to almond hulls and banana peels, without producing any toxins that can accumulate in some mushrooms and molds.

Patrick Farrell, UC Berkeley

He also analyzed the genetics of the fungi that produce oncom. Surprisingly, he found that the fungus responsible for red oncom is primarily N. intermedia — it was the main fungus in all 10 samples from West Java.

“What was very clear is, wow, this fungus is probably dominant and maybe sufficient for making this food possible, growing on the cellulose-rich soy milk waste and making the food in 36 hours,” Hill-Maini said.

The fungi in black oncom, however, were dominated by a range of Rhizopus species that depended on where it was made. It also contained many bacteria. Tempeh, another ancient and popular Javanese source of protein, is also produced by Rhizopus mold fermenting fresh soybeans.

Delving deeper into the genetics of the Neurospora in red oncom and comparing its genes with the genes of Neurospora intermedia strains not found in red oncom, he discovered that there are essentially two types of the mold: wild strains found worldwide, and strains adapted specifically to agricultural waste produced by humans.

“What we think has happened is that there’s been a domestication as humans started generating waste or by-products, and it created a new niche for Neurospora intermedia . And through that, probably the practice of making oncom emerged,” Hill-Maini said. “And we found that those strains are better at degrading cellulose. So it seems to have a unique trajectory on waste, from trash to treasure.”

But is it tasty?

Since the domesticated Neurospora strain degrades the cellulose in soy and peanut waste into a tasty food, Hill-Maini wondered if it could make other waste products edible.

Courtesy of Vayu Hill-Maini, UC Berkeley

“The most important thing, especially for me as a chef, is, ‘Is it tasty?’ Sure, we can grow it on all these different things, but if it doesn’t have sensory appeal, if people don’t perceive it positively outside of a very specific cultural context, then it might be a dead end,” he said.

In collaboration with Munk at Alchemist, he presented red oncom to 60 people who had never encountered it before and asked their opinions.

“We found that, basically people who never tried this food before assigned it positive attributes — it was more earthy, nutty, mushroomy,” Hill-Maini said. “It consistently rated above six out of nine.”

The chefs at Alchemist also grew Neurospora on peanuts, cashews and pine nuts and everyone liked those, too, he said.

“Its flavor is not polarizing and intense like blue cheese. It’s a milder, savory kind of umami earthiness,” Hill-Maini said. Different substrates impart their own flavors, however, including fruity notes when grown on rice hulls or apple pomace.

This led Munk to add a Neurospora dessert to Alchemist’s menu: a bed of jellied plum wine topped with unsweetened rice custard inoculated with Neurospora , left to ferment for 60 hours and served cold, topped with a drop of lime syrup made from roasted leftover lime peel.

“We experienced that the process changed the aromas and flavors in quite a dramatic way — adding sweet, fruity aromas,” Munk said. “I found it mind-blowing to suddenly discover flavors like banana and pickled fruit without adding anything besides the fungi itself. Initially, we were thinking of creating a savory dish, but the results made us decide to instead serve it as a dessert.”

This dessert was among other edible Neurospora fermentations discussed in a paper published last December in the International Journal of Gastronomy and Food Science , in which Hill-Maini, Munk and their colleagues reported on taste tests of oncom and oncom-like foods grown on substrates other than soy.

“I think it is amazing that we as a restaurant can contribute something like this to the scientific community,” Munk added. “We have said from the start that Alchemist’s ambition is to change the world through gastronomy, and this project has that kind of potential. I am very excited to see what other culinary applications this research can lead to in the future and using other waste products from the food industry.”

Munk recently launched a food innovation center, Spora, initially focused on upcycling side-streams from the food industry and developing delicious and diverse protein sources.

A culinary upbringing

Hill-Maini grew up in a household centered around cooking. His mother, of Indian descent from Kenya, held cooking classes in their apartment in Stockholm, Sweden, in the 1990s, introducing Swedes to the spices and cooking styles of India. His father is of Cuban and Norwegian descent.

“Growing up, I got connected to cooking really early on as a way to understand my cultural heritage and where I came from,” he said.

After high school, he took his love of cooking to New York City, where he worked low-level food-prep jobs at several restaurants before impressing one employer with the sandwiches he brought for lunch. At the age of 18, he was chosen to redesign the menu of a venerable sandwich shop in Manhattan. One creation was voted among the city’s top veggie sandwiches by the New York Times.

He eventually returned to school, supporting himself as a chef for hire, and became interested in the science behind the chemical transformations possible with cooking. After obtaining his bachelor’s degree from Carleton College in Northfield, Minnesota, he was accepted into the graduate program at Harvard University, where he studied biochemistry and did Ph.D. work on the gut microbiome.

“Then, you know, I wanted to come back to the kitchen,” he said. “The Miller Fellowship was an opportunity to say, ‘I have training in the culinary world. I have training in biochemistry, microbiology. How do I bring them together, especially looking at the sustainability challenges that we’re facing and how wasteful and devastating our food system is on the planet?’”

With fellowship support, he visited restaurants — including Blue Hill, Alchemist and the Basque Culinary Center in Spain — to give workshops on fermentation.

“That inspired me to go back to Berkeley and think about my research differently,” Hill-Maini said.

Blue Hill has hosted him five times over the past two years, most recently in late June to help inaugurate the restaurant’s microbiology lab, where Luzmore hopes Hill-Maini and other chef-scientists will visit and experiment.

“The reason why we have loved working with Vayu is because he embodies so much of where we are going as an organization,” Luzmore said. Now 20 years old, the Blue Hill restaurant, which is affiliated with the non-profit Stone Barns Center, is evolving from being a champion of farm-to-table dining to “A new type of research center that treats the study of food and farming as one subject. We’re working to create a sandbox for innovation to bring in people like Vayu to do this research.”

In addition to playing in Blue Hill’s sandbox, Hill-Maini will soon have his own: a kitchen-equipped lab at Stanford University, where he has been appointed an assistant professor of bioengineering.

Sauteing an oat milk waste burger he made in his Berkeley apartment last June, Hill-Maini talked enthusiastically about the opportunities opened up by Neurospora and the debt he owes to the Javanese, who long ago coopted the fungus to make oncom. Neurospora provides another type of fermentation complementary to the widely used koji mold, which in recent years has been adapted by chefs to transform so many foods that it has become tiresome, he said.

“This is a new tool in the chef’s toolbox,” he said.

Hill-Maini plated the perfectly-seared burger, indistinguishable from a small beef patty, on a bed of cashew-avocado sauce, pairing it with roasted sweet potatoes and a fresh cucumber-cherry tomato salad with herbs and lemon. He cut the burger with a fork, swirled it through the sauce and lifted it to his mouth.

“Mmm, look at that — waste to food,” he said. “It has good bite, it’s savory, a note of mushrooms, some fun, fruity aromas.”

In future research, he hopes to discover how Neurospora produces these flavors and aromas, but at the same time make a dent in the food waste stream.

“The science that I do — it’s a new way of cooking, a new way of looking at food that hopefully makes it into solutions that could be relevant for the world,” he said.

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Hill-Maini’s co-authors on the Nature Microbiology paper include Keasling; Munk, Nabila Rodriguez-Valeron, Mikel Olaizola Garcia and Diego Prado Vásquez of Alchemist; José Manuel Villalobos-Escobedo of UC Berkeley; Alexander Rosales and Edward Baidoo of JBEI, part of Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory; Christofora Hanny Wijaya, Lilis Nuraida and Isty Damayanti of Bogor Agricultural University in Dramaga, Indonesia; and Ana Calheiros de Carvalho and Pablo-Cruz Morales of the Technical University of Denmark in Lyngby. The genome sequencing was performed at Berkeley Lab’s Joint Genome Institute by Robert Riley, Anna Lipzen, Guifen He, Mi Yan, Sajeet Haridas, Christopher Daum, Yuko Yoshinaga, Vivian Ng and Igor V. Grigoriev.

RELATED INFORMATION

• Neurospora intermedia from a traditional fermented food enables waste-to-food conversion   ( Nature Microbiology )
• From lab to table: Expanding gastronomic possibilities with fermentation using the edible fungus Neurospora intermedia ( International Journal of Gastronomy and Food Science )
• It’s Hearty, It’s Meaty, It’s Mold (Berkeley Lab story, 2023)
• Vayu Hill-Maini’s lab website
• Jay Keasling lab website