Realfoodology - Honey Is The Bee’s Knees with Carly Stein of Beekeeper's Naturals

Episode Date: April 20, 2022

90: Carly Stein is on a mission to improve the health of both humans and bees. The founder of Beekeeper's Naturals harnesses the power of the hive to improve energy, mental clarity, scratchy throats, and more. She gives us a 101 on all things bees, honey and how their by products can improve our health in so many ways. Beekeeper’s stands out in their category for their sustainable harvesting and environmental initiatives that go above and beyond to provide pollinators with an equal dose of TLC. Check Out Carly: Carly's Instagram: @carly.stein Beekeeper's Naturals Instagram: @beekeepers_naturals https://www.beekeepersnaturals.com/ Check Out Courtney: Courtney's Instagram: @realfoodology www.realfoodology.com Air Dr Air Purifier AquaTru Water Filter EWG Tap Water Database Further Listening: Lyme Free is the Way To Bee Chemical Warfare in the Grocery Store

On today's episode of the Real Foodology Podcast. First of all, without the bees, we would lose one third of our food supply. So apples, almonds, blueberries, you know, you name it. So it is really sad what's happening to the bees right now, and we're losing them in the U.S., and it's created this different industry of commercial pollination where, you know, beekeepers are getting paid a lot of money to put their bees on a truck, bring them around to these different crops,

let them loose sometimes while pesticides are sprayed and then bring them all back. So, you know, it's really not treating the bees the way that they need to be treated and nourished to support our overall ecosystem. Hi everyone. Welcome back to another episode of the Real Foodology Podcast. I am your host, Courtney Swan. For those of you that are new here, I have my master's of science in nutrition and integrative health. I originally went down the dietetic track. I decided that I wanted a more holistic, natural approach, but that was still very heavily based in science, which is how I ended up with my master's of science in nutrition and

integrative health. I started Real Foodology 11 years ago while I was getting my master's. And at the time, it was just simply an outlet for me to share 11 years ago while I was getting my master's. And at the time, it was just simply an outlet for me to share all the things that I was learning about health and about our bodies and recipes. And just, I was so excited about nutrition and learning about how we could better our health in all these ways that I had never even been taught or heard of before. Now, fast forward to 11 years later, I have an Instagram which is education-based, and then of course I have this podcast where I feel so grateful that I get to have these

amazing conversations with people that are truly changing the health and wellness game. And it's just, I love this podcast so much because I learn so much from the guests alongside you guys, and it's really fun for me. Today's guest is Carly Stein. You probably know of her products, Beekeepers Naturals. Unlike most guests on this podcast, I actually knew Carly before I even knew about her products. We got connected through a mutual friend years ago and we stayed in contact. And then as we got to know each other, she started sending me her products. And if you are unaware of beekeepers naturals, definitely look them up after this episode, the products that she is producing and what she is doing is just revolutionizing the medicine space. She really sought out to create a new medicine cabinet.

You know, there's a lot of things that can be solved with nature without all the side effects. And that's not to be said that we are vilifying, you know, modern medicine. And of course there's a time and a place for pharmaceuticals, but we talk about this in the episode. If there are products given to us by nature that are backed by science and they are effective, why are we not using them? I know some people are, but we are not using them on the level that I think that they deserve the recognition. So we dive into that. She gives us kind of a bee 101 on all the medicinal uses for pollen, propolis, honey,

royal jelly. She talks about the roles that these play also for the bees themselves. We talk about the ways that these bee products can optimize our health, optimize our bodies. We also talk a little bit about, I asked her about vegans and avoiding honey, and you're definitely going to want to stick around and listen to that because really loved her answer. And if you are vegan, I would highly recommend just, you know, listening to this and listening to the practices that she implements in taking care of her bees. We also talk about the importance of bees in our everyday lives. Every single human on this planet should be invested and concerned about bees right now,

because without bees, we would not have a third of our food supply. So think about in the produce aisle, the majority of the produce in that aisle would be completely gone without bees. They are absolutely imperative to life on this earth. And right now they are in decline, thanks to all the pesticides that we were using. So we talk about that. And yeah, I feel like that's pretty much it. So let's just get into the episode. I hope you guys love it as much as I did. As always, if you are loving the podcast, if you could rate and review, it would mean so much to me. It really helps the podcast. So thanks for listening guys. Did you know that most cookware and appliances are made with forever chemicals? Yes. That means your nonstick pans, your air fryers, your waffle makers, your blender could

possibly have PFAS and yes, even our beloved crock pots and pressure cookers. I have actually been talking about this for so long. Back in 2006, my mom came to my dorm room and made me get rid of all my nonstick pans because she was concerned about me being exposed to something called Teflon. Teflon is a coating that is used on nonstick pans and a lot of these appliances that I just named. So I've avoided Teflon, nonstick, PFA coated appliances, pots and pans, you name it for a very long time. And the only option for the, for a very long time was just stainless steel pots and pans. So I was really excited when a company like our place came out because they started creating

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then if they are using nonstick coating on their appliances, they are absolutely using forever chemicals. And there's been increasing global scrutiny for their impact on the environment and our health. And recognizing this impact, the EU plans to prohibit PFAS by 2025. Our place has always been PFAS free and they offer durable toxin-free ceramic coatings, ensuring a healthy, safe cooking experience. And let me tell you, you guys, they are changing the game with non-toxic appliances. They have a blender. They have an air fryer.

They have a crock pot, not to mention their amazing always pan. They have a perfect pot, which is just the perfect size for soups. And they also just came out with a cast iron that I'm loving as well. And I more recently replaced all of the bowls and plates in my kitchen because I really needed an upgrade. My other ones were so old. So I got some from our place and they are so beautiful. The ceramics are beautiful. The colors are amazing. Like I said, everything is like a piece of art. If you want to try any of the products from our place, go to fromourplace.com and enter my code realfoodology at checkout to receive 10% off sitewide. That's

fromourplace.com, code realfoodology. Our place offers a 100 day trial with free shipping and returns. This is really exciting. Organifi now has kids stuff. They just released two kid products. One is called easy greens, and it's a refreshing green apple juice where kids will never know that it's packed with veggies. And the other one is called protect. It's a delicious wild berry punch like the Kool-Aid that we used to have as kid, but without any sugar. This is really exciting. And if you've listened to the podcast for a while, you know that I'm a huge fan of Organifi and most specifically because every single product that they make is glyphosate residue free. So you know that you're going to be able to give these powders to your kids and know that they will be able to consume them safely without any glyphosate in it.

So let's break down each one. The easy greens is a nourishing and delicious blend of superfoods and veggies that provides essential nutrients, probiotics, and digestive enzymes to bring balance to kids growing bodies without fillers, additives, or junk. It helps to fill in nutritional gaps, aids in growth and development, supports digestive health, has a rich micronutrient profile, and includes digestive enzymes. This would be a great way to sneak in greens for your little one without them actually knowing that it's healthy for them. And the second one, which is the wild berry punch similar to Kool-Aid is called Protect. And it is to support your child's daily immune

health with food derived nutrients that work to strengthen their body's first line of defense. I know just through girlfriends of mine that have children that when your kids are going to school, going to daycare, they're coming home sick a lot more often just because they're getting exposed to different kids and different viruses when they're out in the world playing with kids. So this would be a great way to help to support your little one's immune health. It's organic and it's also made with real whole food ingredients. It has a delicious berry taste and it's low sugar and it's gentle enough for kids to take every single day. And I really love the ingredients in this one. It's orange and acerol cherry, which is a powerful source of vitamin C and antioxidants, astragalus, elderberry,

and propolis. These are all really great for overall immune health. If you want to try the products that I talked about today or any of the Organifi products, go to Organifi.com slash Real Foodology and use code Real Foodology for 20% off. Again, that's Organifi. It's O-R-G-A-N-I-F-I.com slash realfoodology. Okay. Well, let's start kind of from the beginning for people listening who don't really know your story. I love the story about how you got all into this, like how you got into beekeeping and how you started Beekeeper as natural. So can you kind of start from the beginning and tell everyone your, your background? Yes. So, um, I'll start from the very beginning. I have an autoimmune condition.

I grew up always, always sick and I cannot take antibiotics. And one of the things that went along with my autoimmune condition is I have a really weak immune system and I had chronic tonsillitis growing up. So for anyone who hasn't experienced tonsillitis, it kind of, it's your tonsils being infected. It feels kind of similar to strep throat. It's very, very painful. Mine would become very severe where I had a hard time breathing, swallowing, anything was very, very painful. And because I couldn't use antibiotics, I would be sick for like weeks at a time. And typically people who had chronic tonsillitis like me, they would, you know, use antibiotics and clear up in a week.

It's not a life-threatening condition. Or if they had it as often as I did, they would probably have a tonsillectomy, which is removing the tonsils. But I couldn't take antibiotics and it was considered too dangerous to perform a tonsillectomy on me because in the case of infection. Yeah. Can I ask you really fast? Sorry to interrupt you, but I want to know before you keep going, what happens when you take antibiotics? Because I've never really heard this, yeah, that someone has an effect like that. Yeah. It's very interesting. so my whole body breaks out in hives like head to toe and I get very extreme

joint pain and so yeah like I'm like I cannot move I get very very extreme joint pain it's a really strange reaction to it but such is the world of autoimmune um and yeah so again it's not life-threatening you know I take antibiotics, but the joint pain is so severe, I would be bedridden for a very long time. And the hive outbreak is like head to toe. And the one time I had the experience with antibiotics, it was, and it was very, very young. So I don't even know what would happen now because it's been so many years and allergies

change and all of these things evolve. But when I was very young, it was decided that that's not going to work for me. And so antibiotics were just, they've always been off the table, which means getting sick is a little bit more complicated. And I had the tonsillitis situation, which means I was always sick. I was missing, you know, weeks of school at a time as a kid. I kind of was always missing out because I would just get sick and basically be on the sidelines. And I saw every specialist, every ear, nose and throat doctor, you name it, I saw them. And I really just couldn't find resolution.

And that pushed me from a pretty early age to explore the world of natural. And I found a lot of incredible things, a lot of tools that I still use to this day that have helped me solve different problems, but nothing that was really effective for the viral condition I was dealing with. And so I actually became kind of frustrated with the world of wellness. I felt like it was a lot of marketing and, you know, expensive items that made big, bold claims and just didn't really deliver on results. And so I was really frustrated with the system. And I, I felt like, why isn't there something natural based that's created with this, with like the scientific rigor that you can really look to

and know that it's efficacious. And so I kind of like had that idea very early on and it was shaped by my experience, but never, ever, ever did I think I could or would start a business. And so it was just, you know, personal frustration. And that continued up into college. And when I was in college, I did a semester abroad. I did a semester studying in Sweden. And I was so excited. It was, you know, I busted my butt waitressing to be able to go out there. It was like my first big trip on my own. And I was really enjoying my time in Sweden. And I went over to Florence to visit some friends. And I actually had a course that allowed me to do some work at the school in Florence. And right when I got to Florence, I got very, very sick with tonsillitis.

And it was a very severe situation where I was having a really hard time breathing. And so I was looking at coming home. I wasn't really sure what to do. And I was just like, okay, I'm going to exhaust every possible option before I put my butt on a plane and get out of here. So I was just so sick of missing out and so excited to be there. And I went into a pharmacy in Florence and it was not a natural wellness shop. It was like a classic corner pharmacy. And I spoke to the pharmacist and I rattled off my long list of allergies and spoke about my condition. And she looked at me like I was crazy. And she's like, oh, you just need propolis. And I was like, okay, what's that? And she's like, you know, from the bees. And like many of us in North America I was

only aware of honey I thought all the bees did was make honey and pollinate and that's end of story and she's like no no no there's a lot of medicinal compounds that come from the beehive propolis is the substance the bees use to line their hive and keep it germ free it's like a natural option for people that can't necessarily ingest antibiotics or people that want to take a natural course when struggling with something viral. Gave me a whole like whole spiel about it and set gave me a tincture of propolis and set me on my way with some instructions. In five days of using this tincture I made a full recovery and that had never ever happened to me before.

I have, I had tried everything. And so that was really my first experience. And it was just an experience of healing. And that put me down this like research rabbit hole. And I started reading. I mean, if anyone listening to this wants to just go on PubMed and type in propolis, you'll see there's a ton of studies. There's really a lot of research. So given how unknown it is in North America, it's wild to me given how much research there is around this product and how much it can help people. So I read all these studies and then was using it. It became a part of my everyday routine because I learned that you can take it in a reactive way, but you can also take it on a regular basis

to stabilize your immune system. And for me being autoimmune, having something that works as an immunomodulatory agent really helps to kind of stabilize and create that balance that I do not have. And, you know, it's a balance that a lot of people use with stress and poor diet and travel and all these things. So it's something that I was using every

day and I stopped getting sick and that was insane for me. And I went, that was my longest stretch. I went seven months without getting tonsillitis again when I was using Propolis. And it was really cool because as I was traveling around Europe and I mean, I think we've spoken about this offline, but like Europe is much more progressive when it comes to natural health and as I traveled around I would see you know brain products and anti-aging supplements with royal jelly and energy supplements with bee pollen and so much propolis for the immune system and for antioxidants and products for inflammation and I was like oh my gosh why is this stuff not accessible why is there no education around it this is is, these are things that can

help people and should be readily available to everyone everywhere. And so I did have that kind of like light bulb moment. But I was like, I'm not an entrepreneur. I'm studying social sciences. Like I'm going to become a researcher. That's what I'm going to do. So I went back to finish up college in Canada where I'm from. And then I had my other challenge where I got sick again, of course. And I went to the health food store. I went to the pharmacy. I went everywhere. I could find endless manuka honey, but I couldn't find propolis anywhere.

And no one really knew what I was talking about when I said propolis. And so it was really, really frustrating. And I finally found propolis at a farmer's market and it was like $40 for a tiny little glass bottle. And it was certified organic and all these things. And I was really excited and I used it and I had a very extreme allergic reaction. And I was like, what is going on? And so at the time I was a TA for my chemistry class so I was pretty comfortable in the lab and I had a very chill professor and so I ran a toxicity panel on the product I'd purchased just to be like what the heck and I saw that there was trace amounts

pesticides and that's when I started to really explore the structure around bee products and organic and all of these different certifications and what I found was number one if a person who's not autoimmune and doesn't have a serious reaction ingests a little bit of pesticides it won't hurt them the way it hurts me so you know I'm not saying that all bee products are toxic if they're not sustainably made. But I also learned that, you know, organic bee products are kind of BS. You can't put a leash on the bees. Like, you know, for blueberries, you can fence them into an area. For cattle, they'll stay within a fence. Bees will forage for a five mile radius. So they'll forage for food. They'll fly pretty far. And unless there's a five mile radius of clean grounds on all side, which is incredibly hard to do in North America because of how our agricultural system is, you really can't guarantee that there's not a little bit of pesticides getting in because what's to stop the at different ways to combat this because, you know, I would love to be able to get our products locally to where I'm from instead of working all these remote geographies that are beautiful but definitely challenging to operate with.

But yeah, it's really a problem because bee products are amazing and they should be very accessible to people with autoimmune. And at that time, I learned that the organic certification is not enough. And I did some digging and I realized that in Europe, there are certain pesticides that are banned, whereas not the case in North America yet, still not the case yet. And I was like, okay, I can't get the bee products and the quality that I need. What am I going to do? And so I was just like, I guess I have to start beekeeping and run quality control myself. And that was like the best thing that ever happened to me because I found my great passion, which is working with the bees and building products. And I found a really wonderful mentor. I started going to the local beekeeping. I literally Googled like, how do you become a beekeeper? And I found the local beekeeping association meetings. I started going, I found a mentor, um, and I started beekeeping and

it just was a beautiful hobby for me and a really relaxing space. And I was making all these products and it was this amazing experience because I was not starting a company. There was like zero pressure on me. I was just like, how can I create the best product for me and do this in a way that is really nourishing for the earth and the bees? And, you know, I would go back to the lab and perfect my extraction type and then really work in the hives and get to know the bees and, you know, what works for them. And I was very, very fortunate that my mentor was a retired biochemist from Romania and a third generation beekeeper. So he had a lot of tricks of the trade and, you know, took a very, looked at everything through a scientific lens, which was really helpful. And I basically started making my own products. And at first they were just for me and my friends thought I was batshit crazy. Um, cause beekeeping

now is like very cool and hipster, but in 2012, when I was in college, it was a very confusing hobby. And then people started using my products. And next thing you know, people were Facebook messaging me on campus asking if they could buy these products for me. So I was like, OK, the science is there. I've had this experience myself. And clearly there's like demand for it. So maybe this could be a thing.

And so that was like my, you know, second kind of like bulb moment. Yeah. It's such an amazing story. And I love like, okay, so you touched on so many different things that I want to talk about, but first and foremost, the thing that I think is so important is what you were talking about with Europe, how they are so progressive with their medicines. They're open to like more natural remedies. They're more aware of it. And this is what I find so sad about in our country is that we put so much focus and emphasis on pharmaceuticals, which there is a time and a place for them.

Absolutely. But we suppress all these other amazing modalities that we can use. And you keep bringing up, you're like, go to PubMed. You can look at the studies. We have studies that back up how effective these are. So that being said, can we kind of go, can we kind of do like a bees 101? I want to talk about all the different properties, like the pollen, propolis, honey itself, and royal jelly and kind of what they do and how we can use them medicinally. Absolutely. So really quick, I'll just say I'm a big fan of Western medicine. I think there's definitely a time and place for it, but it's not a one size fits all model. And we're learning more and more that there's nuances and, you know, different conditions and new conditions coming up. And, you know, we are also learning a lot of gut health and a lot of just different issues that can come

from that experience. So I think, you know, just having options out there available, it's really important for people. And that's really like what this was for me at the start. Yeah. Well, and I find it really interesting too. I don't know if a lot of people know this, but a lot of pharmaceutical drugs either use properties from nature already, or they try to mimic them. And again, like this is not, of course I'm on the same page as you, like there's a time and place for it, but it's just interesting that, um, we suppress all these other modalities as if they're like snake oil and they don't work and they do, they do work and there's a different time and a place for different things. Well, it comes down to money because you can't patent nature. So like I can't patent

propolis as it is. I would have to alter it in some way or create some nuanced formula which totally could be done and could be done in a beautiful way but you know people want to charge and push what they can patent because then there's a monopoly and then you know big money around that price and control there's there's a lot of structures at play that aren't really nourishing for us and so I'm a big fan of talking about them, breaking them down, and at the very least being like a champion of a different way of doing things. So it's good to just be informed. So I will tell everyone about Propolis. So I'll start with, this is actually great because I'm recording in my kitchen and I have

all my props next to me. I love it. Did not plan that. So my propolis spray. So this is what I was kind of using at the start. So what propolis is, maybe I'll talk about how the bees use it in the hive and then how humans can use it. Yeah, that's great. So propolis is literally made of plant and tree resin. So if you cut open a tree, sap will flow out. That's the immunoproperties of the tree of the plant. It's their protective properties. The bees are collecting the sap, the plant and tree resins, and mixing it with their own enzymes and creating this sticky amber colored substance called propolis. So it's literally the immune system of the plants, the immune system of the bees combined and used to protect the entire hive. And what they'll do with propolis is they will

literally line the entire hive with it to protect them from germs, pathogens, anything. For newborn baby bees, they line the inside of the cell wall to create a sterile environment for newborns. So for the bees, it's really the protector of the hive. Without propolis, the hive would not survive. It's the immune system um for humans propolis functions in very much the same way it's i think of it as like my bodyguard or my swiss army knife it's just something that i use on a daily basis to support my overall health keep my immune system stable so it's really well known because it's antiviral antifungal antimicrobial and antibacterial there's a lot of studies looking at the effects of propolis on inflammation, really high in antioxidants,

according to the ORAC chart. It's actually higher in antioxidants than blueberries. And I love it because it's really versatile. It works really well with your body. So, you know, people ask me all the time, like, how do I take it? I only take it when I'm sick. And yeah, when you're sick, double down on this. But I take it every day to protect and prevent and support my overall health. And for me, it's created dramatic changes in my health. And we do see a lot of that. So propolis is a really important substance.

And it's cool, too. It's not new. That's why it's so crazy to me that we don't all just know about it. Because the first recorded human use of propolis dates back to 300 BC. That's wild. Yeah. And like in the 17th century, it was actually listed in the London Pharmacopedia as an official drug.

So I feel like we were using it medicinally and then we're like, huh, this can't be patented. Bye-bye. Which is very irritating. But yeah, so propolis is the protector of the hive. And for humans, it's what you can use on a daily basis to support, regulate, stabilize, prevent, and protect. And so I do four sprays a day, every single day. And then if I'm flying or I'm just, I was complaining about my schedule right now,

if I'm really run down, like overbooking myself, or I feel like I'm going to be in an environment where i'm vulnerable i'll double dose that um it's a really safe substance to use it's coming from the bees and the plants so you know it's uh you know very well tolerated by most of our bodies and so that is my propolis spray um and then the next product that the bees make i'll do i'll do this one we're talking about how much we love our bee, our brain fuel shots. So these are, I'll take one out here actually. So the key ingredient, there's a few great ingredients in here, but the key ingredient, the hive based ingredient in these bad boys is royal jelly. And so in these vials, we have royal jelly,

which comes from the beehive. We have Bacopa monnieri, which is an adaptogen. It's a extract from a leaf. It's really popular in Ayurvedic medicine. And then we have Ginkgo biloba, which is an extract from a tree that's really popular in traditional Chinese medicine. So we have, you know, three different herbs that are all very active on a neurological level. And I'll start just kind of focusing on royal jelly. So in the beehive royal jelly you can really think of as the superfood or brain food of the hive. So nurse bees will create royal jelly and they feed it to all newborn baby bees for the first three to five days of development. So the same way we have breast milk baby bees will take royal jelly so it's incredibly nourishing and a lot of people will compare it to like um i think it's called colostrum yeah yeah so a lot of people will compare it to that

it's an incredibly nourishing food and then after three to five days the newborn bees switch on to a more regular diet of honey and pollen and only the bee who's to become queen stays on her exclusive royal jelly diet so that's why it's got the royal um and it's really interesting to see just the biological differences of a queen bee versus a regular bee so a queen bee will live three to five years versus a regular bee that will live you know six to eight weeks during foraging season longer during and not during a not foraging season but still under the three to five um the queen bee will lay 1500 babies a day minimum um a regular worker bee female worker bee they're all female if they're workers um doesn't have

reproductive organs and so it's really the queen having the babies um and then the queen bee is a lot more robust if you look at a picture of a queen bee versus a regular worker bee she's just like jacked and like, you know, a lot, a lot stronger looking. So it's really interesting in nature. It creates all of these biological changes. And then for humans, a lot of the studies around Royal jelly have focused on brain health. Imagine having a metabolic coach in your pocket that you could access at any point, any time in the day, whenever you want. That's what Lumen is. Lumen is the world's first handheld metabolic coach. It's a device that measures your metabolism through your breath. And on the app, it lets you know if you're burning fat or carbs and gives you tailored

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neurohacker for sponsoring today's episode. So there was a study in University of Warsaw that came out focused on how regular consumption of royal jelly increases your spatial reasoning. That's why we have a lot of athletes that like the brain shots, a lot of people who are coming back from a concussion situation. The reason royal jelly works so well in the brain, there's a few reasons. So the first one is it contains acetylcholine, is a neurotransmitter responsible for brain body connection so you can think of royal jelly as helping to support your overall transmission system helping to support the communication between your brain and body and then royal jelly also contains these two

fatty acids that are only naturally occurring in royal jelly one's called 10 hda and the other one's called amp n1 oxide and they basically act as catalyst called 10-HDA and the other one's called AMP-N1 oxide. And they basically act as catalysts for neurogenesis. They promote brain-derived nootropic factors. So what they really do, you know, the process of creating fresh, clean, new neurons, that slows as we age, it slows with stress, it slows with drinking. There's, you know, a lot of things we're doing that are not great for the vital organ that is our brain. And what Royal Jelly will do is help to support the overall structure. So supporting neurogenesis is supporting the process of cell regeneration. That's another reason why anyone, I mentioned people in the aging population who are struggling with neurodegenerative

conditions. Royal Jelly is really, really, really helpful for that. So the brain shots is something I do at least five days a week. Definitely when I'm working, I do one shot a day. So we've got the royal jelly in there, which of course helps to speed up the transmission system, like kind of turn the light on. For me, it just helps me stay in the zone and be productive. It naturally supports your energy levels, which is amazing. And then we've got the two adaptogens. Bacopa is really

great because one it's an adaptogen so helps to modulate the stress response which tends to go hand in hand when you're working really hard and need to use your brain um and then it's also really well known for supporting memory um and then ginkgo biloba as well modulates the stress response and reduces inflammation in the brain so the thing i love about Royal Jelly and the brain fuel shots and just kind of like how our approach to healing and wellness is pharmaceuticals over the counter. It's very like symptomatic. It's, it's in, in some cases it's not, but in other cases it's very much a bandaid solution. Whereas when we're trying to address an issue, we're looking at the whole body. We're saying, I want to give you something that's going to help you focus concentrate get in the zone get your work day done but i also really

want it to nourish your brain i also want to reduce inflammation i also want to you know support your overall brain health and give you something that you know with regular use can improve the way that you function so that's kind of how we take our approach and um the last thing i'll say about royal jelly it's also it also has a very long healing history like propolis because people have been using in other cultures people i mean the same my experience in europe has been you know i've had that experience in asia i've had it in other cultures many times over um but royal jelly is best studied for its effects on the brain but in other cultures a lot of people will use royal jelly for anti-aging for supporting fertility there's actually a cool study i found um that showed that for both men and women royal jelly

helps to support fertility which is very interesting um there's not a lot of studies generally looking at male fertility so i was pretty excited about that one um and then pollen which i don't have in front of me because i keep it in my fridge um pollen you can think of as the main protein source of the hive so the bees will literally go around flower to flower collect the pollen mix it with their enzymes and the enzymes allow them to like attach it to their hind legs and you call that their pollen pants which I always think is very cute and I know I know if you go on our Instagram there's like so many pictures of bees with their pollen pants on. Um, and they bring it back to the hive. And so it's the protein source of the

hive and then bee pollen for humans. So first of all, bee pollen has more protein per weight than any animal source. So eggs, fish, meat, um, more protein per way, which is very, very cool. It's very complete nourishing food. And I like to think of bee pollen as an all-natural very bioavailable multivitamin so I do a teaspoon of bee pollen every single day I'm not big into multivitamins just because I think we titrate a lot it's hard to tell what's going to work best for you and then you know people certain people need more or less iron and all those things and so I like going with bee pollen because I just know that it's like very clean. It's coming from a plant source and a hive source. Um, and it's also really great for supporting overall energy levels. It's high in

B vitamins. So it's a really, really great thing to take if you're kind of on the go. Um, and the last thing about pollen, that's just like a fun fact that I love. There was a study looking at competitive cyclists and it found that when you take bee pollen, it increases your blood hemoglobin value. So it actually increased endurance. So I like to also have pollen in the morning and then go for my run and that's how I kind of do it. And then the last one I'll talk about on this bee product 101 is honey because we all know and love honey so honey comes from the floral nectar so literally the bees are sticking their tongue in sucking up the floral nectar they bring it back to the hive and they let it ferment they actually like fan it out with their wings to get the water

out um and then you're left with the sticky delicious honey and i like to use honey i mean this is our bee powered honey so this is not just honey it's honey with royal jelly propolis and pollen so this is like a more therapeutic dosage um but I like to use honey actually to help me calm down I love putting honey in my tea uh really high in antioxidants it's got antiviral properties it's like the healthiest sweetener um it doesn't spike your glycemic index as much as sugar does which is wonderful um but a lot of people don't realize that we can actually use honey to calm down because when you take honey it creates a slow steady spike in insulin which allows the tryptophan in your broad body to cross

the blood-brain barrier where it's then converted into serotonin then melatonin in the dark so i do a teaspoon of honey not this one this has pollen and royal jelly in it. So this will, this you want to take in the morning. You don't want to take before bed, but raw honey, I do a teaspoon every night before bed. And then this one I do in the morning. Oh, that's amazing. Do you have, wait, you have a raw honey too, right? Cause I think I just have the one that you just talked about right now. Yeah. So we do have a raw honey. Um, it's only sold at select stores, but I think we can buy it online now as well. And then we also have our cacao honey, which I believe you can get at Whole Foods. So that's the, I mean, that too. It's so amazing. So with honey, I mean, you know,

there's a lot of conversation right now about sugar and the way it affects our body. And you touched about this little touched on this a little bit, but I want to know a little bit more because I'm always curious about this. And I don't know if you even know this, but, um, honey is pretty high in fructose, right? But is it still, is it because it has all these other properties in it that it doesn't affect our body the same way? Like why is honey so much better than any other forms? Yes. So first of all, propolis and our brain shots, there's no sugar. They're certified keto. You know, you're totally, if you're watching your keto you know you're totally if you're watching your sugar intake you're totally safe to take them um pollen has some sugar in it but same

thing it's got a lot of different enzymes nutrients fiber so it doesn't spike you in the same way and i see a lot of people who are following keto comfortable with pollen this one you want to watch if you're like strictly following keto but generally the reason honey is different and this is also the reason that the squeezy bear um processed honey is not good for you so when you're eating raw unpasteurized honey you're having you're getting trace amounts of pollen of propolis of these different of the beeswax which has beta carotene these different nutrients in it full of antioxidants full of live live enzymes. Um, so it affects your body differently. Whereas when you buy like the squeezy jar honey, um, or pasteurized, not raw honey, it's been cooked. It's been heated at a really high point that people it's actually like boiled

in a pot, um, for a long period of time. And it cooks all the nutrients and enzymes and good stuff out. So you're just getting sugar water at that point. So whatever honey you're buying, whatever bee products you're buying, make sure that they're raw unpasteurized. I love that. And I've always wondered this. So when you put the raw unpasteurized honey in like hot tea, does it neutralize all those enzymes or is it still? I have it in my tea right now. I actually have this one in my tea. So to pasteurize honey. Okay. Well, here's the first thing. Anytime you heat anything up whether it's broccoli or honey you're killing some of the enzymes that's just a fact of life but to pasteurize honey literally it's boiled for an extended time period so definitely when you put

your raw honey in a hot substance or your prop I put propolis in my tea as well. Um, propolis in a hot substance, you're going to lose some of those enzymes, but you're not losing all of the nutritional value. It's still, you know, doing wonderful things for your body. You'd have to be, unless you're like boiling it. And I don't think you could drink scolding hot water like that. Um, then, then you're fine. Like I use honey in baking all the time. Yeah, it's my number one sweetener I use. I love that. What is the difference between the honey that you make and Manuka honey? Because we've been hearing, or I should say I have been hearing over the last couple of years, all the amazing healing properties of Manuka honey. Can you explain to people kind of what the difference is?

Yeah. So I love Manuka honey. Manuka comes from the Manuka plant, which has similar properties to the eucalyptus plant. So if you were to purchase eucalyptus honey, it would be pretty similar. So here's the thing. All honey has antiviral activity. The difference between Manuka honey, which comes from New Zealand and other honey is that we've done studies in, well, not us, New Zealand has done studies on Manuka honey and found that it has antiviral properties. Now, one of my friends actually, who's a researcher at Guelph was trying to get funding for a study to show that the local honey has antiviral properties. They couldn't get funding, which is really frustrating because it's quite possible that our local honey also has great antiviral activities. And like we could create an amazing North American export and yeah you know save some money because manuka honey is really expensive and a lot of the manuka honey on the market as well is watered down with other things and you know we don't have enough manuka honey to supply the world at this point um so I really do wish that study got approved but it didn't but it's just coming like manuka honey is just coming

from a different plant and it's just it's just been studied so to say that our local raw honey doesn't have that same antiviral capabilities who can say um what i will say is that even the bees pollinating the manuka plant they're making propolis propolis is the protector of the hive whereas honey is more like their carbs and energy source so what we do is number one if you're looking for immune stimulation i i do propolis over manuka any day of the week antioxidants as well and then for our be powered honey we have 42 milligrams of pollen per teaspoon sorry not pollen prop pollen, propolis per teaspoon. So in one teaspoon of this, you're getting 745 milligrams of royal jelly, 54 milligrams of pollen and 42

milligrams of propolis. I maybe got the pollen quantity wrong, but something like that. Um, but definitely that much propolis. And so what we did here is we were like, I was kind of frustrated with the nuka honey. Cause I was like, okay, this is really expensive and it's just honey. And like, you know, it's expensive. Yeah. And a lot of it's fake because you can't supply, I mean, they've like New Zealand's brilliant because they've created this huge export, but we can't supply Manuka honey in the way that we are. Like there's just not enough manuka plants. Yeah. Um, and they're native to New Zealand. So yeah, it's, it's not necessarily as amazing and that's why it's so expensive because it's so rare. And so when I was looking at that, I was like, okay, I don't really want to pay $50 for honey. Um, can I make a honey and $50 is like the cheapest

can I make a honey that has, that I know has those properties in it. And so one, I still really am a firm believer that our local honey, wherever you are, whether it's North America, Europe, that your local honey has these great properties in it. But I know for a fact that propolis has those properties. So I'm like, okay, I'll just put propolis in there and then get some brain boost and anti-aging effects with the Royal jelly and get some broad spectrum vitamins and minerals with the pollen and make just a much more complete holistic product that, you know, you don't have to pay $70 for this much. Yeah, no, that's amazing. Well, and you keep you eat local honey and you struggle with allergies, that it can

actually help with your allergies. If you get the honey from a farm, that's like local to where you are. First thing, propolis reduces the histamine response. So when people come to me with allergies, I always say propolis before honey. It's just going to be a little bit more impactful. Um, I found recently when I was in Europe, Propolis nasal spray, which was very inspiring. Something I'm looking at right now, but Propolis is really fantastic for allergies. We're working on an allergy product actually right now, a few different

ones, but the subject of local. So local bee products are a beautiful idea in the old days of local farms with varied crops and different plant types 100 you want local because you're exposing yourself to the native plant life specifically for allergies i should say like local if you're looking to boost your immune system or you know get the neurological effects of royal jelly that's not as much of a thing but you know in the olden days when farms were like there was biodiversity local meant that you were getting exposure to local plants today we don't have as much biodiversity unfortunately particularly in north america so local can mean almond flowers local can mean avocado plants local can mean a monocrop and a ton of pesticides. So I actually, for me personally, I'm, I can't do local because it typically means

pesticide exposure. Um, and so I really don't worry about that. I think about the overall health benefits of these different bee products and like what I'm trying to achieve with ingesting these different ones. And for allergies, I definitely go hard with propolis. I mean, that's a big, there's a big customer group that don't even talk about the immune health and just use propolis for allergies. Yeah, no, that makes sense. I mean, it's such a testament to how well propolis works. I always find myself saying propolis and then I'm like, wait, I don't know which one it is. It's a tomato, tomato thing. One of my, our chief beekeeper in Brazil says propolis. And I'm always like, does he think I'm dumb? Cause I'm saying propolis. Yeah. Well, no, you're

definitely not dumb, but I feel you. So let's, let's talk about pesticides and bees. I mean, this is a huge thing. I talk about this all the time on the podcast and the way that it's affecting our bodies. And also, I mean, this is directly correlated to your business. It's affecting the bee colonies as well. Is this still like a huge concern or have we kind of like remedied that? It's still a huge concern. So we're not hearing about it as much.

I think we're not hearing about it as much in North America because of the lobbying that's done with these different pesticide companies, which is really sad. But, yeah, so first of all, without the bees, we would lose one third of our food supply. So apples, almonds, blueberries, you know, you name it. Sometimes I talk to people who are vegan and they're like, I don't want to eat bee products because I don't want to hurt the bees and I'm like dude more bees are harmed in commercial pollination of blueberries than like our honey yeah um so it is it is really sad what's happening to the bees right now and we're losing them in the U.S. and it's created this different industry of commercial pollination where you know beekeepers are getting paid a lot of money to put their bees on the truck, bring them around to these different crops, let them lose sometimes while pesticides are sprayed and then bring them all back. So, you know, it's really not treating

the bees the way that they need to be treated and nourished to support our overall ecosystem. In the U.S., neonicotinoids are still the most commonly used class of pesticides so in 2006 people probably remember seeing those photos of what was happening to the birds with ddt um so that was taken out of the game in 2006 and it was replaced by a neuroactive substance called neonicotinoids that is still the most common class of pesticides used in the u.s it's disgusting so you know for for my company we don't do a lot of work in the U S because remember what I said about organic, you need a five mile radius of clean grounds on all end. It's really hard for us to find a space that's that big that I'm not worrying that my

bees are going to fly over here and do this. So we, you know, a lot right now we're doing a lot of our pollen in Spain. We do a lot of work in canada brazil um you know different companies have different regulation a lot of the a lot of places in the eu have banned neonicotinoids and glyphosate um in canada ontario where i'm from was actually the first province to ban neonicotinoids they instituted a partial ban that's been instituted over the past few years but in the u.s we're still using neonics and it's really i mean it's so harmful for our bees, but it's harmful for everything. It's a water-soluble substance. It's degrading our soil, getting into our water supply.

We really don't know the long-term effects. We do know that it's very harmful to the bees. So it's really tough when it comes to sustainable beekeeping for a few reasons. One, because, you know because local can become quite problematic. It means that if you want to run a sustainable company with bee products, you have to really understand supply chain and understand bees and beekeeping and work in a lot of different corners of the globe, which is why I travel so much. It also is tough because of the commercial pollination industry. Think about how almonds have evolved. So almonds are a hugely popular crop now. I mean, they have negative effects with the water situation as well, but I don't need to go into that right now. But almonds

are like, I mean, almond milk, it's such a popular crop and we don't have enough bees in the U.S. to pollinate almonds at the rate they're being consumed so commercial pollination like large almond growers will pay beekeepers a really large sum of money and so it's been harder and harder for beekeepers even if they want to operate in a sustainable way to you know stay out of that because they you know have to earn an income to support themselves and their families and there are migratory beekeepers that do a good job and it can be done thoughtfully but in most cases it's not um so it is really important with bee products whether you're gonna you know with beekeepers naturals we practice third-party pesticide testing

on everything and we do that for two reasons one is because I can stand behind my product quality. I can use all my own products and know that I'm safe, know that it's the product quality that I want to put out into the world. But two, because that's our benchmark of success for our bees. We're trying to create sustainable environments for our bees. And I go a heck of a lot, but I can't be in Brazil every day. And I can't be in Spain every day. And I can't be in Brazil every day and I can't be in Spain every day and I can't be in Canada every day. So all of the product before it goes, all of the raw ingredients before it goes into our bottles, we send it to a third party lab in Canada and we test for every pesticide, toxin and pollutant in conjunction with Health Canada, which is more rigorous than the US.

So we're pretty strict about what goes into our bottles and making sure that it's high quality. But in doing that as well, it really means that our bees are having a food source that doesn't expose them to pesticides. And it's been really interesting because what we've seen year over year with our bees is hives have grown, populations have grown. So the simple thing of giving them an environment with biodiversity, of taking pesticides out of the equation, really allows the bees to flourish and thrive. So I, you know, I, one of the things, one of the call to actions I always ask is for people to get involved with their local governments, start talking about pesticides, vote with your dollars, don't, you know, to the best you can, and I appreciate that it's more expensive, but to the best of your ability, support local growers who, you know, have biodynamic and organic, even though organic isn't my favorite certification, but organic or clean ways of doing things because the use of pesticides is really harmful to our bees. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, what you just touched on is so important. And this is an issue that affects

all of us because like you brought up, without bees, we wouldn't have a third of our food. I mean, I tell people all the time, I'm like, just think about if our produce section was basically just got like, we just wouldn't have produce really without bees. Totally. And it's the other thing, a hundred percent. The other thing I think about a lot, we know what antibiotics do to the microbiome. We don't really know what all these pesticides are doing. Like that's, I, I actually haven't taken mine yet. I'm going to take my bee biome right now. Love it. I take that every day too. But a big part of wanting to make a gut health product that we were a part. So we work a lot with UC Davis bee research and a few different orgs that focus on bee health. And we are a part of the study where we gave the bees different foods and probiotics, and we're looking at if we can

protect their guts. And when I was, you know, when we were a part of that, I was like, okay, well, humans are ingesting this stuff too. How do we protect our own guts as well? And so, and then I, you know, propolis, one of the, it's like, it does so many things, but one of the amazing things about propolis is it has prebiotic effects. So it's really amazing. Even if you're not using our B biome, take your prop, take your probiotic with some propolis sprays. Um, it will help to support the way that that probiotic works in your body. Just make it all over more effective. And so propolis has prebiotic. And then we did a spore-based probiotic, so soil-based, which is the most effective and has the highest survivability rate. And then we put a postbiotic in here, which is pretty new.

So we used a compound called tributyrate, which is a postbiotic that's absorbed by the colon. So this formula, it's a way to really protect your gut from all the different things you're ingesting. It's really great for bloating, discomfort, creating regularity. We did our beta with two gastrointestinologists. So we had people with like colitis and SIBO and seeing people with different intestinal issues

who had really good results with it. But gut health is really important because we are ingesting a lot of pesticides and microplastics and all kinds of things that we really shouldn't be in our environment, unfortunately. Yeah, well, and as I talk about a lot in this podcast, gut health is your health. Like that is the single most determining factor of where your health is. Like if you're dealing with skin issues, if you're dealing with brain issues, whatever it is, it can most almost always be pointed back to your gut health. A hundred percent.

So it's pretty crazy. I have pretty bad psoriasis or I had pretty bad psoriasis. We're going to do a big post on beekeepers that might be up by the time this podcast is released. Amazing. But my psoriasis went away with bee biome. It's wild. Yeah.

Yeah. Oh, sorry. I was just going to say, it's funny. I used to have an issue with psoriasis just on the back of my scalp and mine was directly related to gluten intolerance. And it was a, that's a gut thing. Same, so same kind of thing. And it was the second that I took gluten out within like three weeks, it was just gone. Crazy. Really crazy. Yeah. And then I had it come back. There was a time where I was like, F it. And I just had like all the sourdough products for like a week. And then my psoriasis came back really bad. And I was like, wait, that's literally the link. That's how I got rid of it.

I mean, wouldn't it be great though? Cause I don't know about you, but when I first got psoriasis, I went to the doctor and I was given all these steroid creams and like all these things and it made it so much worse. And if somebody had just been like, check your gut health, is propolis is a prebiotic with this kind of probiotic, like could have skipped a lot of steps. Well, and this is exactly what we were saying earlier is like, there are a lot of things that can be solved in nature without all the side effects of all of these other drugs. So there's a time and a place for them, but you know, when you can find all these amazing healing properties in stuff that nature gives us, like everything that we just talked about

with the bees, like this is incredible. You've also just made me so like pumped and like fired up about all your products. I mean, I use them all on a daily basis, but I'm like, yes, it's just backing it up. It's so cool. You touched on this, but this was actually a question I wanted to ask you. So a lot of vegans avoid honey. And I've always thought this was really interesting because, well, because, you know, it's, it's a super healing property. And also like, if you, if you provide the right practices for these bees, like, I don't think it's harming them at all. Can you kind of talk about, talk about some of the practices you implement to protect the bees? Totally. So we have a lot of beekeepers, naturals customers that call themselves vegan. So they're vegans who only eat sustainable bee

products. Um, but the truth is, and it was what I was talking about with migratory beekeeping, we actually need more sustainable beekeepers. We need that to support our bees right now. People whose full focus is on nourishing, supporting these bees so that we can share their byproducts versus like shipping them around and using them for different things. So I really encourage any person who's interested in beekeeping or sustainable beekeeping or backyard beekeeping, just so you can have your own honey to get into the market. You really need more beekeepers just nourishing their bees. But a big difference for us, like when it comes to sustainable beekeeping, it's basically the practice of putting the bees first. So we see the bees as our partners.

You know, something that's typically done when bees are not kept sustainably is overharvesting. So the honey is the, I mean, all of these things have a place in the hive. The honey is the bee's food source. So you'll see sometimes people will overharvest the honey and take all of it and then give the bees sugar water as a replacement, which throws off the pH balance in the hive and, you know, isn't what they're really meant to eat. So sustainable beekeeping means never over-harvesting, really being thoughtful with our pollen as well. We take the pollen catchers on and off. We make sure our bees have enough of their own before we share in it. We're always monitoring that.

We're creating clean, sustainable environments for them. So big commitment to pesticide-free ecosystems that we can build for our bees. And that means, you know, at Beekeepers Naturalsals that means some of our bees are in the rockies in canada and we're going to like a really remote places which made my life very hard during covid um but but yeah the commitment to sustainable beekeeping to pesticide free beekeeping to creating biodiversity all the beekeepers that we work with even if they have a particular crop type that they specialize in they have to show me 30 margin planting that we work with, even if they have a particular crop type that they specialize in, they have to show me 30% margin planting before we work with them. So what that means is if you're like a dedicated blueberry grower, your practice is to grow,

you know, biodiverse things in the margin so that there is biodiversity for the bees, which gives them a healthier diet and helps them, you know, just to be well, just like us, if all we ate was, even if kale is healthy, if all we ate was even if kale is healthy if all we ate was kale it wouldn't be the best um also with monocropping there's an infrequent bloom period so it's kind of like a time of abundance and then a food desert for the bees so it's a little bit chaotic um and then it also means staying away from pesticides herbicides different ingredients that are used to get mites away that sort of thing so you know we always opt for more natural options there so like little things like

my hives where it gets colder and when I'm wrapping them over the winter I'll put winter green essential oil because that helps with mites that could get in when the bees are hibernating so little things like that but really the core practices it's about pesticide free creating a clean sustainable environment and not over harvesting and just having kind of a little things like that, but really the core practices, it's about pesticide free, creating a clean, sustainable environment and not over harvesting and just having kind of a philosophy that's really surrounded or that's really about putting the bees first and having to bolster bee populations, knowing that without them, not only would these products not exist, but we would have a very hard time nourishing ourselves in this world.

Yeah. Well, I mean, it just goes back to, um, really understanding where everything that you consume comes from, you know, and the practices that go behind it. And then that's just really important. And unfortunately it's something that we have to do now, you know, is like research into that and know the products that we're buying and the food. Um, I don't know if you want to touch on this at all. You can also just say, you don't want to talk about it all, but you know, for the last two years, it's been a hot topic of immunity. Have you seen any, like, does it help with COVID? Or I don't know if you can say, does it help with COVID? But you kind of get what I'm going at here. like this is crazy and terrifying and how can we support first responders and so we're like what do we have to give we have these products and so we made this discount code for anyone who's a first responder in the medical system um and it was you know a discount code that we never give which is

50 off wow um you know it's tough for us to do that because we have a sustainable operation we we really spend on caring for our bees so So it's really, really tough for us to do something like that. And to be involved in this and to receive the discount code, we didn't just post it on Instagram. You actually had to email the company, send your bio, email from your hospital address, all of that. So we were like, we don't want to be taken advantage of. We're still, you know, a sustainable benefit corp company. And so we had, we had all these doctors, nurses right in. And at the start, I was like, okay, these people are insanely busy. I don't know how much work we're going to get here. If this doesn't work and we're not able to, um, access or support these people, we'll just try a different thing. And thousands, thousands of doctors, nurses all over Canada, all over the US.

You know, I remember we had a video from the nurses in San Diego working a night shift, doing brain fuel cheers. Like, it was really, really cool. So it was really interesting to see one because there's always this like, not always, but there's always this like not always but there's sometimes this tension between western medicine and other modalities um and what at beekeepers naturalist what i'm really trying to do is sit at the intersection of science and nature so i want to make products that your md loves your naturopath loves your acupuncturist loves like i really want to include all the different voices and make something we can all agree on. So that's just how we build. But what we saw is, you know, people in that environment were really heavily leaning on the products and sharing their own anecdotes of how they feel it's

helped them. And there are other parts of the world where they're doing in South America, there's a study looking at COVID and the effects of propolis. So there is some research being done. Um, for me, I have not had COVID. I've been really fortunate. Um, I'm now vaccinated as well. So there's also that, but, uh, I use propolis religiously and, you know, it's definitely been a tool and. And like, yeah, that's all I'm going to say about that. But, you know, we've had a lot of people write in and share different stories that are compelling. And I think we're just in an environment today and coming out of that

where we see how fragile immune health is. And it's really important to not take that for granted and incorporate the things we can do that are not going to be harmful or going to actually be healing in different ways and support our overall health to help prevent and protect. Yeah, that's amazing. I know. I remember at the start of all this, I was religiously using the propolis. I mean, I still do it every day, but I remember really then I was like, okay.

Well, it was, it was really, really cool because, you know, physicians who work in hospitals who just really aren't exposed to this stuff became like, they fell in love with it. And now as a company, we're actually working with Fullscripts and Emerson. So MDs can prescribe us. Wow. That's really, really cool. So cool. That's yeah. And we're seeing, we're seeing a ton of, I mean, it's really, it's a beautiful shift right now because people are starting to open themselves up to these different ideas where, you know, there still is tension, but it's really changing. And, you know, there, we have MDs where, I mean, someone in California I was with the other day, he's a pediatrician and he sells our kids propolis and kids cough syrup in his office. We work with a

ton of practitioners that have it at their fingertips to prescribe because they're looking for something more natural or their patient has autoimmune or there's this susceptibility and they need something that they can put the patient on for a very long time without worrying about side effects. So it's really, really cool seeing that shift. That is really cool. Well, and I love how accessible your products are because a lot of these wellness products, products can get really pricey. And I wanted to point that out too, for the listeners, because it's very, it's, they're at a great price point and it doesn't feel like you're going to break the bank and they really work too. So that's what's, you know, you nailed it, girl. Yeah. I'll give a

little money saving pro tip to people. So with our brain fuel shots, you can actually do half a vial. So, you know, you can do half a vial. The nice thing about adaptogens is they're at peak effect after two weeks of use. So especially if you're taking it regularly. So we have people who struggle, I mean, athletes who have really severe concussions and like need to get back on the field. And with them, what they'll typically do, I'm thinking of, you know, one person's protocol recently, they do a full shot every day for a week and then move to half a shot. And then like, that's their formula. And so, you know, for me, I am a tank and I do a full shot five days a week at least. Um, but we see a lot of people having

really great effects doing half a shot and that's a great way to save money and make the product last and just, you know, put, put the cap on, let it sit on your counter. But yeah, our mission is to bring people products that work and really reinvent the way we're looking at both medicine and wellness. So we're making things that are reactive, that you can take when you're sick, like our cough syrups. We're making everyday things like our lozenges. I keep just like pulling things up. We make things that are everyday that are just going to support your overall

health. We make, we're focused on, you know, the different pillars of health. So gut, brain, allergies, sleep, cognitive, like anything that is going to disrupt your life. We want to figure out how we can give you tools that are truly effective or truly efficacious that have, you know, sustainable impact and clean ingredients to help people thrive and feel their best. Yeah. You're reinventing the medicine cabinet. It's so cool. Well, is there anything that we didn't go over that you think is really important for people to understand, whether it's about bees or, you know, any of the products that you just mentioned? Yeah. I mean, the last thing I'll just say for people so I went through propolis people always

confuse propolis and honey and royal jelly and honey so I think you know that 101 should have clarified but I'll just do a little refresher propolis goes with immunity complete gut health formula which has propolis in it and you know it's a three-in-one so it's got the prebiotic probiotic postbiotic we love royal jelly and some different plant-based adaptogens for brain health pollen is nature's multivitamin our b-powered is a high ball in one don't take this at night because it will give you energy so i do this in the morning i do a teaspoon i actually do a teaspoon plain but i have some in my tea right now um and then yeah we have

our lozenges for propolis on the go plus zinc and vitamin d so that's kind of the products but the big thing that I want to leave everyone with is really and there's there's so much going on in the world and it's really easy to lose sight of a creature that's this big but the bees are responsible for one third of our food supply and beyond our food supply the bees pollinate 40 percent of wildflowers so think about other creatures other species just what it would do to our world if we lost the bees also from a monetary perspective without the bees we can't grow things like there's a lot of things that just can't grow without the bees so think of the inflation on natural foods like what would happen if we lost the bees. So think of the inflation on natural foods, like what would happen if we lost the bees? How much would an apple cost? You know? So it is really important to do what you can to champion

the bees. Um, again, this is a little thing, but it really is helpful planting local organic heirloom seeds in your yard. If you're in an apartment, when I I when I'm in New York I have like this probably isn't the most the best for like fire safety but my my fire escape is covered in plants I'm always really focused on creating clean food food sources for the bees that aren't covered in neonicotinoids so doing little things like planting in your yard can make a huge difference please try not to use pesticides in your yard if you're not sure and you have a gardener, talk to them. There are more sustainable solutions. Vote with your dollars, whether it's sustainable bee products or biodynamic, well-grown produce. And if you feel comfortable, send a letter to your local government about pesticide regulation. So those are a few steps that you can take to just help support the bees. And you remember it's one third of our food supply. It's our entire

ecosystem that's hinging on this little creature that gives so much. So do what you can to support. Yeah. Oh, I love that so much. So for everyone listening, Oh wait, before we get there, I almost forgot to ask you the question that I ask all my guests, what are your not your health non-negotiables? So like, I know you're super busy right now and your schedule is crazy, but these are things that no matter what you prioritize these for your health. So propolis every single day. I mean, I truly, my health is different without propolis in it. So propolis is a big part. Um, I love meditation. I'm really bad about sticking to to it but I am good at sticking to a gratitude

practice three things I'm grateful for every single morning I do that that's a big non-negotiable for me um and then hydration I'm traveling a lot I'm on a lot of planes it's I'm a person who's like bad at drinking water and so I make my water fun by putting chlorophyll and propolis in it. And so that's, that's the key for me. So those three tips, um, and then this isn't necessarily a practice, but something I've just been focused on lately because I am so busy is mindfulness. And so what that is, and I used to not really, I mean, I'm sure people have different definitions of mindfulness, but so I'll just say what it is for me. Cause I used to not really understand what mindfulness is um and for me what it is is just

being really really aware and non-judgmental when it comes to your varying emotions so you know this morning I was like deep anxiety attack about just how much I have to do today and doing my deciding which was 100% my choice to do my dive open water certification. When I have like this hectic of a schedule and I was just, I just stopped and I was like, okay, where do I feel the anxiety in my body and slow down my breathing and really sat with it. So mindfulness, paying attention to your emotions without judgment and identifying where they are is something that's been saving me recently. Wow. You're really speaking to me because that's something I've been struggling with a lot lately. And so it's a good reminder of that. Thank you. So for everyone listening, where can they find you and where can they find beekeepers naturals?

Yeah. So beekeepers naturals, it's beekeepers underscore naturals. That's our Instagram handle. We're on Instagram, Tik TOK, Facebook, every social platform. Our website is beekeepersnatural.com. You can find all of our products there. You can also find them at Whole Foods, Target, Sprouts, GNC, any local health food store, Erewhon. And then we're also available on Amazon. And my Instagram is stein.carly. And yeah, any questions about the bees,

the environment, our products, we love to hear from you. So please don't be shy. Amazing. Carly, thank you so much. This was such a great episode. Thank you. Thank you for having me. Yeah. Thank you. Thanks for listening to today's episode of the Real Foodology podcast. If you liked this episode, please leave a review in your podcast app to let me know. This is a resident media production produced by Drake Peterson and edited by Chris McCone. The theme song is called Heaven by the amazing singer Georgie, spelled with a J. Love you guys so much. See you next week. The content of this show is for educational and informational purposes only. It is not a substitute for individual medical and mental health advice and doesn't constitute a provider

patient relationship. I am a nutritionist, but I am not your nutritionist. As always, talk to your doctor or your health team first. Thank you.