Real Chalk  — Plant Based Power w/ Chris Manderino  — 37

Chris Manderino is founder of, a whole-foods plant-based company that helps people achieve optimal health. LYFE FUEL produces simple, functional products from trustworthy and sustainable sources.

Chris is a former NCAA and NFL player, who pursued an opportunity to live abroad while playing football in Italy post his NFL career. While in Italy, he was struck by the vast cultural chasm between the Italian approach to food and the American approach. Italians, even with all the pizza, pasta, downtime and copious desserts, seemed a much healthier population than the US.

Chris boiled it down to this striking difference: in Italy, food was simpler. The Italians used higher quality, mostly plant-based ingredients and had smaller portion sizes. His revelation inspired a career change, and ended up taking a job in the nutraceutical industry.

Later on, Chris decided to study dietary and training theories, and while most nutritionists and food experts disagreed on just about everything else, there was one thing everyone seemed to agree on: eating a plant-based diet is the most important thing you can do for your health.

Using this knowledge, Chris co-founded LYFE Fuel, which every aspect of the company is backed by science, right down to the amounts of each ingredient. Instead of simply throwing healthy ingredients together, LYFE’s products are engineered with the specific purpose of aiding absorption to make sure the body receives the full benefits of each and every life-sustaining nutrient.

In this episode, we talked with Chris about the main differences between plant and whey based proteins, how a vegan diet can change your body, the benefits of c