Realfoodology - The Truth About Health Metals + What’s Really Safe To Eat

Episode Date: September 9, 2025

266: After an intense struggle with depression, Karalynne Call began to explore the way that nutrition impacted mental health. This journey quite literally saved her life - by prioritizing real foods and regular exercise, she felt whole again. And along the way, she created one of my favorite clean food brands, Just Ingredients. Karalynne is known for her food swaps on social media, where she helps people all over the world identify the cleaner alternatives to unhealthy ultraprocessed pantry staples. She also is super serious about testing her own products to make sure every ingredient is up to her standards (which I love).   → Suicide Prevention Hotline | https://www.988lifeline.org/ | Call or text 988 Topics Discussed: → The top 3 nutrients that affect mental health  → Easy tips for upgrading your own pantry with clean, real foods → How Karalynne turned an Instagram account turned into a clean food empire  → Why food changed for the worse in the 1990s and 2000s  → What no one tells you about California’s Prop 65 warnings  → Heavy metal myths and what to really look out for  Sponsored By: → LMNT | Get a free 8-count Sample Pack of LMNT’s most popular drink mix flavors with any purchase at https://www.drinklmnt.com/realfoodology. Find your favorite LMNT flavor, or share with a friend. → Our Place | Stop cooking with toxic cookware, and upgrade to Our Place today. Visit https://www.fromourplace.com/REALFOODOLOGY and use code REALFOODOLOGY for 10% off sitewide.  → Timeline | Timeline is offering 10% off your order of Mitopure Go to https://www.timeline.com/REALFOODOLOGY. → BIOptimizers | For 15% off go to https://www.bioptimizers.com/realfoodology and use promo code REALFOODOLOGY.  → Clearstem | Go to https://www.clearstem.com/REALFOODOLOGY and use code REALFOODOLOGY at checkout for 15% off your first order.  → CURED Nutrition | Get an exclusive 20%-off discount! Subscribe for Night Caps today and never miss a solid night’s sleep. Visit https://www.curednutrition.com/realfoodology and use code REALFOODOLOGY at checkout.  Timestamps:  → 00:00:00 - Introduction  → 00:04:21 - Karalynne’s Depression Struggle  → 00:10:26 - How Diet Impacts Mental Health  → 00:18:18 - Healthy Food Swaps  → 00:32:59 - How Food Changed in the 1990s and 2000s → 00:37:23 - Healthy Diets: Expect Consistency, Not Perfection   → 00:41:20 - Just Ingredients  → 00:45:50 - Prop 65 & Heavy Metals  → 01:01:59 - Prioritize Root Cause Care Show Links: → Prop 65 Banned Chemicals Check Out: → Karalynne Call | Instagram Check Out Courtney:  →  LEAVE US A VOICE MESSAGE →  Check Out My new FREE Grocery Guide! →  @realfoodology →  www.realfoodology.com →  My Immune Supplement by 2x4 →  Air Dr Air Purifier →  AquaTru Water Filter →  EWG Tap Water Database Produced By: Drake Peterson

On today's episode of the Real Foodology podcast, I always wondered why God gave me a second chance at life. And as soon as I started educating people on a healthy lifestyle, I was like, oh, maybe that's why I was given a second chance. Hi, friends. Welcome back to another episode of the Real Foodology podcast. As always, I'm your host Courtney Swan, and today's guest is Carolyn Call. You may know her behind the Instagram account Just Ingredients. She's also created a whole line of amazing products. She has things from tooth powder to protein powders to electrolytes. I'm a huge fan of her account and I'm also a huge fan of her products. Hector and I love her protein powders. We drink those almost every morning and I

just love her desire to really create healthy for you products and she goes above and beyond with her testing. There was some drama that was going on actually with her company online and there was some lawsuits happening and I wanted to get to the root of this and hear from her specifically what was happening. So we talk all about that. We talk about Prop 65, what that means when you see that label on your products and what to do about it. We also talk about her journey and how she got started into all this, which started 19 years ago with really severe depression and what she did about it and what happened when she reached rock bottom and how overhauling her diet completely improved her life and her overall mental state. So if you could take a moment to rate and review the

podcast, I always ask you for this. I know. But if you haven't done it yet, it really really does help the show, and it means so much to me, and it takes literally two seconds. Also, if you're loving this particular episode, just make sure that you tag me at Real Foodology and also tag at Just Ingredients, and we will hopefully see it and share you guys. Thank you so much for the support, and I hope that you love the episode. I am currently on a detox protocol because we found mold and some other things. So I am getting in the sauna like three to four times a week right now, and I've really been having to up my hydration.

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They have 100-day risk-free trial, free shipping and returns, so you can experience this game-changing cookware with zero risk. Carolyn, thank you so much for coming on today. This has been a long time coming. I know. trying to plan it for a while. I know. And I want you on my podcast. So one of these days. Yeah, we will definitely do that. I'm so excited to have you here. We were actually just talking right before we started recording. And I would love my audience to hear a little bit about your story

because it's really, I think a lot of people can resonate with it. Your struggles with depression, especially, I feel like was that a postpartum depression or do you want to just tell your story? Yeah, I'll tell you about it. So it was about 19 years ago now, which is so crazy. Wow. It's just so when I started talking about it, it was like 15 years ago. Now we're 19 years ago. I found myself with really bad depression. And at the time, I had a one-year-old baby.

And so I would go to like the OB and different OBs, and they would say, it's not postpartum depression because your baby's over one. Now they've changed that. But back then, they were like, no, it's not postpartum. So I dealt with this for a little bit, but I kept thinking to myself like, my body hasn't always been like this. so something had to have triggered it. So I would go to doctor after doctor looking for help

and they would tell me all the time there's nothing that we can do about depression. Granted, this was 19 years ago. So unfortunately, there's still doctors today that are like, we don't really know how to treat depression. We'll just give you an antidepressant. And so back then they would say to me, well, all we can do is give you an antidepressant.

And don't get me wrong, I don't have anything against antidepressants. They can be life-saving for a moment. But it's important to find the under-repressants. root cause of depression. And so I would go to these doctors and I would say to them, will this antidepressant heal me? And they were like, no, it will just help you. And I was like, well, I'm looking for something to heal me. And that's when they couldn't give me anything. And so my depression, there were days that I couldn't get out of bed. There was days I had to

fake it and just get out of bed. There were days that I was angry and frustrated and days that I just couldn't even make decisions or do normal daily tasks. And so depression does, look different for people like that. And so I felt like I went through all the myriad of emotions with depression. And after dealing with this for over a year and getting no help from doctors, there was just a really bad stint. And people would say to me, like, you'll find the light at the end of the tunnel. And I remember so clearly sitting in a rocking chair and thinking there is no light at this end of this tunnel. Like it is just dark as can be. And it got worse and worse. And one day honestly, I had lost all hope. I was like, I can't live my life like this. This is

terrible. It's not good for my kids. It's not good for my husband. Those are the thoughts you start having. And I'm like, enough is enough. Like I'm done. If there's no hope in this and I have to live my whole rest of my life like this, I'm done. And so I actually attempted suicide. And thankfully, by the grace of God, miracles happened. And my life was saved. It failed. But at that moment, I realized I reached rock bottom and I truly needed to go find help. And so I had to search for two years to find a doctor. So at that point, I did go on antidepressants because I was like, I have to have something like, if that's going to save me, you know, from doing this again, I'll get on the antidepressants.

So I got on an antidepressant, but I actually hated it because I felt like I was seatbelted in my emotions. It kept me from being really sad, but it also kept me. from experiencing happiness and joy and laughter. And so they would try to change the prescription or change the dosage, and we tried all these different things, and I just didn't like it. And so for two years, I went looking for a doctor, like, help me please to heal with depression. And finally, I found a doctor, and she was like, I can help you heal from depression, but there's no magic pill.

It's not an overnight fix. Like, are you ready to really work hard at this? And I was like, I am so desperate. you have no idea how badly I want to heal. I will do whatever you tell me, you know. And so I went on a health journey with her, and she taught me that depression is your body screaming for help. That is just your body talks to you, and there's something off.

And so we did like saliva tests and urine tests and blood work and just found a whole variety of issues that were all contributing to the depression. And it was little things to bigger things. It was simple things like low in magnesium, low in vitamin D, not absorbing my B vitamins, to some cortisol issues, to some neurotransmitter things, to some liver issues, to some food intolerances. And so it just was this whole thing of like, you're not fueling your body properly, therefore your body can't do it's best for you.

And so went on a health journey with her after a year of working with her. Then we started tapering off the antidepressants. and within like a two-year span, I then was off the antidepressants and feeling amazing. And at that point, I realized, okay, I never want to fall back into that. I've got to learn everything I can about my health and food and what fuels the body and what doesn't feel the body. And at that point, started making major life switches with what I did because I actually grew up in a home where I went to school on Frosted Flakes.

every morning I took, I think, a baloney sandwich on white bread, you know, for lunch and at dinner, a lot of times I don't know, I had a frozen meal. And who knows if I ever had fruits and veggies during the day and things like that. So I grew up in like a household of eating the American standard diet and didn't know that that was anything wrong. Just thought that's what people did. And so anyways, I had to learn all that new info after that health journey with the doctor so that I would never fall back to that depression. And I can proudly say that I have never fallen back into that depression just because I've learned how to feel my body better.

That's so amazing. And that's such a, that's just such an incredible story because we hear so much about this, especially now online. Everybody's talking about mental health and for good reason, right? And I think more and more people are struggling. And I can't help but to think that there's definitely a connection with what we're eating and how people are feeling. I mean, we know that our food is what's feeling our body,

fueling our cells. I mean, our happy hormone, serotonin is quite literally made in the gut. And if you have gut issues and you're not able to make that serotonin or get it properly to your brain, it's obviously going to have an effect, right? Yeah, there's like three things that I think a lot of Americans are missing that are contributing to mental health. I mean, I have to say with mental health, there are a million root causes, right? It's like with cancer. There's a million root causes. But I think there's three things that people can really look at. And one is B vitamins, especially methylated B vitamins. And those are coming right from a lot of leafy green sources,

things like that, B12, obviously from meat. But I feel like people aren't getting enough leafy greens to get their B vitamins. And you literally cannot feel good if your B vitamins are so low. Like your mind and your mood need those B vitamins. So I think that's a culprit. Yeah, for sure. We know the fiber feeds the good bacteria.

And the stats show that we're not getting enough fiber. are not even getting close to enough fiber. And so how does your gut do the things that needs to do, like build the serotonin and regulate the hormones and help with the neurotransmitters if we're not gain enough fiber? So that's second. And then three, most Americans are low on omega-3s.

And again, omega-3s are so important to bring down that inflammation. Depression can easily be a cause of inflammation. But then those fatty acids are so important for the cells, for our neurotransmitters, so many things in our brain. And so I think those three things really play a part. And a fourth, I should say magnesium. I think we're all deficient in magnesium,

and magnesium helps regulate that nervous system, you know? So, yeah, we're deficient in a lot of these key nutrients just by what we're eating. And I think vitamin D too. Most Americans are deficient in vitamin D, and we know that there's a connection with the gut and with the hormones and with serotonin and vitamin D levels. there's so many different things that we can connect to low vitamin D levels.

So I think you're spot on with that, and most Americans are deficient in a lot of these essential vitamins and minerals and nutrients that we need in order for our brains to work. And to me, it's so crazy that it's taken us this long to understand, oh, wait, so what I'm eating affects my hormones and my gut, and then that's going to affect my brain health. Like, it's wild to me that it's taken us this long. Right? Well, what's wild to me is that people still don't believe it. I know.

I have people that fight me on this on Instagram all the time. All the time. Like, it doesn't matter what you eat. Food's not going to affect you. Oh, it's so maddening. It's because a lot of them are getting this from their doctors, and their doctors just tell them, well, depression is just a chemical imbalance in the brain, which is really wild, actually.

A couple years ago, we found out that it came out that that study was actually debunked, and it was not true. Apparently, the pharmaceutical companies were trying for years and years and years to prove in their scientific studies that depression was just a chemical. imbalance in the brain, they never were able to actually prove that that was true. It's so crazy. And depression can be due to inflammation, but it can also be due to hormonal issues. You could just have a balance of it, an estrogen progesterone ratio causing it.

It can be due to minerals or different vitamins. I mean, there's a whole slew of things. So to just say it's only one thing is really hard. I'm currently on my trying to conceive journey, and it's actually coinciding with my longevity journey at the moment. We know that a lot of the things that we do for longevity and things to protect our mitochondria and our cells really has a lot to do with conceiving as well, because our eggs and our fertility will only be enhanced by taking care of ourselves and our mitochondria. And one of the ways that I'm doing that is taking a supplement called Timeline Mitopure.

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Yeah, and it's everybody's bio-individual, and this is why I'm constantly encouraging people to go find doctors that are practicing root cause prevention. You know, like you said earlier, I'm glad that antidepressants that they exist because I think, really, really extreme situations where somebody needs a quick intervention right then and there. I think it's a great way to bridge the gap, but I don't believe that it's a long-term fix. We need to actually get to the root cause, and so I encourage people to go and get testing done like what you did to see what deficiencies they have. Yeah, someone gave me a great analogy that antidepressants are like a cast when you break your leg. You wouldn't wear that cast forever, but you're going to wear that cast while it heals

and while you find some help or, you know, you're still going to eat nutritiously to help with that healing, things like that, but eventually you're going to get the cast off. And so antidepressants can be sort of the same way. Like, let's wear them as, you know, wear them as a cast, take them to help you survive. I mean, they were life-saving for me, you know? And so I'm grateful for them. But at the same time, I think some people think they have to then be on them the rest of their life. And that's not true. You can find the underlying root cause so that you can take that cast off or wean off of the antidepressants. Yeah, because how sad. I've heard this many times, you've mentioned this, and I've heard this many, many times from friends of mine and just online that when people aren't antidepressants, they feel numb to everything in life.

And to me, that makes me really sad because I want everybody to be able to experience the full scope of emotions and how beautiful life truly can be. And that means that we go with the lows and the highs. And again, like, it's a cast, but then how can we get to the root cause so that we can really help them live a better life so that they can thrive? And I know this is something you're super passionate about why you started just ingredients and you ended up on this, whole path. So I'm curious, what were things, maybe swaps or, like, things that you started doing that really, that you started to see a difference in your mental health. It really helped you along that path. So talking about being seatbelted in the motions, like you said, I have to tell you that I remember the first time after I was waning off the antidepressants, the first time

I laughed, I have just a clear memory of it. And I was like, oh my gosh, I haven't laughed in two years or even more than that. I'm like, that felt so good. And that was the moment, that was the moment that I was like, I can never go back to what I used to be. Like, I have to do differently because I can't believe how amazing a laugh feels. And so, but with your question of what swaps do you think played the biggest role, people ask me that all the time. And it's really hard for me to say because I actually was on the antidepressants while I was making all of these changes. And then we slowly weaned off the antidepressants after I had made all of the changes. And so since I was sort of in that numb state, I don't know which thing helped me the most.

Yeah, that makes sense. But I did a lot of things from started exercising. I just started walking every day. Like I had not made exercise a priority. And so I made exercise a priority, which to this day is my number one thing. Like if I go too long without exercising, I can feel like the depression start to creep in. And so that is a huge contributor for me. Another thing was vitamin D, like you said, I started walking outside during while the sun was out to try to get my vitamin D.

But then just eating whole foods. I was eating so much packaged food that eating the whole foods, like my body almost felt like it was getting cleansed out, you know, like a cleaning job, a detoxing job. And it probably was. Yeah, you're scrubbing your insides. Yeah, it just felt so good. So I think those three things obviously played the biggest role. But to eat whole foods, I still had, I had three kids at the time.

They liked their goldfish and their pancakes and their, but we were doing Biscquick, you know, and things that weren't real foods. And so I did go by ingredient to swap things out. So for instance, my doctor was like, go home and just see what you have artificial dyes in and go see what things are in. and then make that swap of finding a better choice at the grocery store. And so I'm like looking at pops and otter pops and things in the pantry. But then I was like hand soap.

Like we're washing our hands, what, seven, eight times a day? And we're just rubbing in this artificial dye into our skin. And so that one was like eye-opening for me. So I swapped out all of the things in the pantry with artificial dyes and felt like I got really good at knowing where artificial dyes were hidden. And then I would move on to the next ingredient. So then I moved on to high-fructose corn syrup. And I was like, oh, it's in ketchup and it's in ritz crackers and it's, oh, and all these things.

Okay, let's swap out of, make those changes and swap to other products that don't have the high fructose corn syrup. And then once I got really good with that and felt like I had mastered high fructose corn syrup, then I moved on to the next ingredient. So I didn't just like go into my kitchen and throw it all away and be like, okay, I'm starting over. One, I didn't have the money. Two, I mentally couldn't do that. And so that's why I'm always telling people like, just make one little change at a time because eventually they all add up.

Yeah. Yeah, you made such a great point there, and it's great for people to hear that because that's one of the main questions I get is, where do I start? I'm so overwhelmed. And I just say, just start with one thing. And I think what you brought up is great. And I was thinking about my path and my journey through this, and I had a similar one. I think I started with high-furtress corn syrup. And what's interesting, and it helps you because you're focusing on one thing, but as you're focusing on this one thing, a lot of the other stuff just gets tossed by the wayside just because a lot of those products have a lot of those crappie and ingredients all in there. But like, I think my first one was high fructous corn syrup. And then just by not buying any products with that, you're also going to toss out a lot of other, you know, preservatives and horrible things because if a company is using high fructous corn syrup, they're also using the other terrible stuff. So artificial preservatives and, yeah, artificial flavorings usually, things like that. Exactly. And we live in such an amazing time where there's pretty much a swap for everything now, which is so cool. There is now. Yes. Back in the day, there wasn't. Yeah, it was crazy. You had to like go to Whole Foods

where now you can go to Costco, to Kroger, to Walmart. Yeah. And so, and back then, 15 years ago, like, you were thought of as sort of crazy. Like, what in the world? Like, why are you so picky about what you eat? Oh, everyone thought I was insane. Everybody looked at me like I had foreheads, but I always tell people just ride the wave because eventually people will come back around because all those people that thought

I was insane are now texting me going, wait, what you were on to something? What was that thing you were telling you about? Yeah. So we're just, you know, we were early adopters to it. But this is what I love so much about your Instagram, too, is you have, you are so good at showing people swaps. Like I love when you do, especially around like the holidays, for example, you know, or like any holiday. Like you're great at going, okay, if you buy this normally, you know, for Easter or whatever, get this instead. What would you say, try to think of like maybe some easy swaps that we could tell people or maybe what is your, when you're doing these swaps, what is your mind frame around that as far as like, do you just have ingredients that you think?

about that you're like, okay, I don't want any of these ingredients in here. And so this is what I'm looking for instead. Like, what is kind of your parameters around that? So I'm always looking for things made with just whole foods, obviously, and without the artificial ingredients. But let's take maybe like baking cookies, okay? Because everybody's like, I can't live those extreme diets. And I'm like, I can't either. I've got six kids now. I'm like, they want cookies, especially like at Christmas, you're going to make cookies for Santa, you know, and have those fun traditions. And so I'm like, you don't have to eat a kale and sardine diet you can still have fun things but let's make them with real food and so for instance

like baking cookies um there might be baking powder in there well let's get the baking powder without the aluminum in it right so that's one easy swap um butter let's maybe choose grass fed butter so there's an easy swap salt let's maybe a sea salt that's got some additional minerals let's do that flour. Well, you could do camut flour. You could do oat flour, organic. You can do anything but bleach. Why are we using bleach flour? We don't need bleach flour. So make that easy little swap. Eggs, you can do some pasture raised eggs in there. You know what I mean? So every little ingredient you can choose the better choice of. And then your cookies aren't the cookies that you would find at the store that are full of the artificial dyes, artificial flavors,

artificial preservatives, artificial sweeteners even. You know what I mean? They're made with real food ingredients like they always have been. Exactly. I actually just saw on your stories this past weekend. I watched a video of your kids making you like these was a seven-layer cookie. I finally showed my one guilty pleasure because I get asked all the time. Do you ever like cheat, they say, or ever eat something not nourishing? I get asked that all the time.

I really don't. Like honestly, my body just doesn't feel good when I do that. And I've just learned how to make everything with better ingredients anyway. So it's never like a cheat to me. It's never like a temptation to me. Yeah. But these seven-layer cookies are the one thing from back in my day when I didn't live a healthy lifestyle that I still like. And so Mother's Day and my birthday are the two times we make it.

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bundle. Go to curednutrition.com slash real foodology and use code real foodology. Again, that's cured nutrition.com slash real foodology, or you can also just use code real foodology at curednutrition.com. Yeah, well, that's what I was going to say. Like, I still noticed that, yeah, you were using organic graham crackers and I couldn't see any of the other brands, but this is what I think so many people still struggle to really understand. And this was what helped me along my journey, because, you know, similar to what you said earlier, I'm the same way. I can't just eat things that don't taste good. And obviously, I mean, I'm a I'm a kid of the 80s, and I grew up eating Dunkeroo's and, you know, frosted flakes and all that crap, too.

And some of it's nostalgic. And obviously, like, I want to have a cookie sometimes. And this is what I tell people all the time. I have never felt more free in the way that I eat because I actually don't restrict anything. I just don't eat junk. Like, if I want a cookie, I'm either going to go to the grocery store and find one that's just made with real food ingredients or I make it at home. And I buy exactly what you just said, you know, pasture is eggs and organic flour. And I have to be gluten-free.

So I make them gluten-free. And I just, I get all of the normal real food ingredients and then make amazing cookies and they taste great. They just don't have all the preservatives and the additives and the food dyes in there that we don't need. And then I don't feel restricted at all. So I just, yeah, it's crazy. Okay, so one thing that I do want to talk about that you have posted about a lot on your Instagram is from around maybe like 1996 or so to 2008, our food really drastically changed. what are some of the main things that happened in that time period? Yeah, so I know you've talked about GMOs and glyphosate.

And so GMOs, there's five that I really care about. And I know you talk about the five that I'm concerned about, the five that are genetically modified to withstand the glyphosate. But those came about starting like late 90s, early 2000s. And so, for instance, the sugar beets being modified, right? sugar is in everything almost. And if it says just sugar on the label, most likely it's from the sugar beets. And 99% of the sugar beets are made GMO now.

And so you can just assume that it's a GMO sugar. But that has the glyphosate. And we have all the testing showing that the glyphosate is getting into the food chain. And so you talk about it. I mean, it's harmful on the gut. It's actually they're finding out affecting neurotransmitters and contributing to mental health. health. And so there's a lot of different health issues that are just terrible with this glyphosate,

but it came in the late 90s and that the sugar beets were around 2005, 2006, that they really became popular. And so when I grew up eating like cinnamon toast crunch in the 80s, and when you did, we were eating just the sugar and just, is there corn? I think there's corn. I know. I was just trying to think I'm like, what are the ingredients? It is interesting. But yeah, if you look back at like, you know, in the 80s ingredient list versus the ones now. They didn't have all these artificial ingredients in there. So the cinnamon toast crunch today has the GMO sugar in it. So when people say to me, well, hey, I ate that growing up and I was just fine. We hear that all the time. I'm like, no, you didn't because in the 70s, 80s, 90s, we didn't have all these

GMO crops. And so you didn't eat that. And so, but then also a lot of artificial sweeteners became popular in the 80s, the 90s. And so, and we're finding out new studies. all the time on artificial sweeteners. Some have even been recalled and then brought back on the market. And so again, in the 70s, you weren't eating those artificial sweeteners in the 80s, things like that. And so, yeah, that phrase of, I ate that growing up and I was just fine. I was like, you did not eat that. They have switched their recipe. That recipe in cinnamon toast crunch, whatever, frosted flakes is not the same as it used to be. I just have to say that comment It drives me so nuts. I see it all the time from, like, my parents' generation. They're like,

well, yeah, I grew up eating all that, and I'm fine. Kids are just hyperchondriac these days. And I'm like, but you didn't eat the same thing. Right. I will never forget this. When I was, I think, in high school, when my mom started really understanding this, because my mom is the reason that I am the way that I am. Maybe I was in college. Somewhere around then, when my mom started waking up to the fact that they had changed a lot of the ingredients in a lot of these foods that she had grown up eating, she literally flew to Kansas, which is where my grandma lived, her mom. And she took her through her pantry and said, you can't buy these brands anymore. I know that you've been buying these brands since I was a kid and you've trusted them,

but they have sneakily changed the ingredient labels under your nose. And you're not reading the ingredient labels because nobody trained us to read the ingredient labels. And these are not the same foods that you were buying when I was a kid. Well, and the ingredient labels didn't even change because they just kept it as sugar. Yeah. But now it's GMO sugar. Exactly. And I tell people like, these companies were really smart. They didn't throw out those older recipes, they actually turn them into the organic cereals. So like General Mills owns Cascadian Farms. And so they just took that Cinnamon Toast Crunch recipe from the 70s and 80s, and now Cascadian Farms makes it, but it's organic and you pay double the price for what we used

to get back in the 70s, 80s and 90s. I never even thought about that. That's so madame. So they were smart, these businesses. They didn't just like, these recipes didn't just then go to pot. They transformed them into new organic products. Oh, my God. Okay, I never even thought about that. That is crazy. They also just weren't using all these preservatives, artificial colors, all the things that they're using today.

They weren't using those back in the day. And I would say that's too, like how our food has changed so drastically. So what would you, where do you think people, if they're just feeling like overwhelmed, where would you say people should start? So I always tell people to figure out a plan that best works with their, their like personality and what they can handle. So I tell some like moms, like what's the number one thing that your kids eat a ton of? Maybe start with that because I had this one lady who was like, oh my gosh, my kids eat so many fruit snacks. And I was like, well, there you go.

Swap those out. Swap those out for ones that are made with just real fruit, no added sugar, no artificial dyes, etc. or maybe you just want to change one thing every time you go grocery shopping or maybe that's even too much for you and you want to just do one thing a month. But whatever, figure out a plan that works best for you. Mine was, I figured out all the artificial dyes and then the high fruit toast corn syrup. You know what I mean? So just make a plan that works best for you. Yeah, I think that's really smart. Start with the things that you're eating consistently and consuming a lot and that your kids and your family are consuming a lot. I think that's a really good place to start because that, I mean,

people all the time. It's about consistency, not perfection. I'm not worried about you eating out every once in a while and having a little bit of canola oil. Do I think it's terrible for you and we shouldn't be consuming it at all? Yes. But I'm more worried about the consistent choices that you're making in your home every single day, the things that you're eating every single day, because that's where it really starts to add up. Well, that goes right along with this question I get all the time, and they're like, what do you do about your kids when they're at their friend's house? Oh, yeah, that's a good one. Or your older teenage kids when they go out to like McDonald's, or something with their friends. And that's the thing is you can't expect perfection. You can't

expect perfection in your diet, in their diet, in food itself. But I can't expect consistency. So I know that when they're in my house, they're consistently getting a good breakfast, a good lunch, good dinner, good snacks. So when they do go to their friend's house, I have no control over that. We have to stop stressing about that. You literally have really no control. I mean, you can talk to the parent obviously or the friend's parents and talk to them, but really you don't have much control. So you let them enjoy the food or try to help them make good decisions when they're at that friend's house. They come home. You provide the better choice meals for them. Yeah. And I think, too, part of that is like, well, one, it's like you teach them all these

principles and then you hope when they go out in the world that they are making better choices and decisions. And then it's also a great learning experience for them, too, if they come home and they're like, oh, I ate all this junk at my friend's house. And now I feel like crap. It's like, as the parent, you can help them connect those dots, you know, where you're like, oh, remember when you ate that stuff, then you come home and you don't feel good. I have to tell you, they do learn. Like, having older kids now, I'm like, I promise you guys they learn. But you have to let them have those learning experiences because my one son was like,

I want McDonald's so badly. And of course, we never went to McDonald's, and he never had him. So I kept saying, well, when you turn 16, you can drive there and pay for them yourself with your friends one day. So he did. He got double order. He figured out, I can't remember the exact amount, but he figured out how many grams of added sugar there was. And it was over like 120 grams of added sugar in one sitting. We're supposed to only get like 25 grams max of added sugar a day. He came home and he felt so sick. He's like, Mom, my head is pounding. My stomach hurts so bad. I feel miserable. Needless to say, he's never had him since. So they do learn. And sometimes it's just a great learning experience. for years down the road. Exactly. I mean, I had to go through that my own experience. I had to go through that in my own experience

after my mom teaching me all this, and then I went to college, and I gained weight, and I was lethargic, and I just started connecting like when I was eating these things and I was feeling terrible in my body, and then I was able to recourse because I remembered all the things that my mom had taught me. So, you know, we just have to trust

that they're going to be able to make those decisions for themselves. So I love, so you created a brand called Just Ingredients, which I love. I love your protein powder so much. This is what we consume in our house. It's so good. And I want to address this because I get comments about this all the time, and it drives me insane when people are like,

oh, how convenient that this person is talking trash about these types of foods, but then they're selling you something. And it drives me so insane because I don't know how people can't see that just ingredients, and I'm not just saying that they just do this to your brand. I see it with my friend Bobby. I see it with so many different amazing entrepreneurs that created these food companies as a way to combat all of this shit that's on our shelves. And so I just don't understand how they don't see that, just ingredients, I feel like was born out of the fact that you couldn't find any healthy

options at the grocery stores. So you're like, I'm going to make my own. Yeah, so crazy enough, how this came about is about six or seven years ago, I felt like everyone around me talking neighbors, community members, church members, extended family members. Everybody was dealing with either like anxiety or depression or some autoimmune condition or migraines, chronic fatigue, ADHD, like, you name it. They were dealing with it. And I'm like, oh my gosh, there's so many sick people around me. And I was like, I wish I could just go into their homes and cook for them for one month or like grocery shop for them for one month. And I know they would feel better. And I was like, but obviously you can't do that. So I was like, you know what? I'm just going to start a little Instagram.

account. And my goal is just to get 2,500 followers. If I get 2,500 followers, I could teach them just how to make better choices when grocery shopping. And so that's how it started. And so I just started with teaching like, buy this ketchup at Walmart rather than this one. They're sitting right next to each other. One has the high fructose corn syrup and one does not. And word just started spreading. I didn't do any marketing or anything, you know, and people were sharing posts. And when we got to 100,000 followers, I was like, oh, maybe I have like a customer base. And so I tried it out with these like little digital downloads. I still have them. They're now free, but back then they were like 99 cents. And it was like, top 10 things you should look for at the grocery store.

If you're having a baby, these top 10 things I would buy. And they sold really well. So I was like, oh my gosh, okay, I have a customer base. I'm going to finally start making products then that I can't find on the market that I want. And so protein was one of our first products because I had three teenage boys at the time. And they would bring in protein powders that they liked the taste of, but I hated the ingredients. So then I would bring in protein powders that I like the ingredients of and they would hate the taste. And there was no winning. And so I was like, I've got to go make my own protein powder. And so I found a food scientist and then made it with all the certain ingredients that I wanted because I was like, if I'm going to do this, I'm going to put in there

what I want. So it has like chia seed protein in it for the omega-3s. It's got pumpkin seed protein for the triptophan. It's got collagen in there because I wanted it for the hair and skin and nails and things like that. So amazing. Anyway, so I did end up making products that will nourish the body, but my mission has always been to educate others on living a healthy lifestyle so that they can live a life full of energy and happiness because if you're dealing with depression or you're always sick, it's really hard to live the life that you're meant to live. And so I always wondered why God gave me a second chance at life. And as soon as I started educating people on a healthy lifestyle, I was like, oh, maybe that's why I was given a second chance. Who knows? Maybe

it was to be a mom to my six kids. I'm sure there's lots of reasons. But my mission has always been to educate. So when people do say that about me, I'm just like, you know what? They don't know my full picture. If they took 20 seconds to look at my Instagram, they would see that I'm educating on something different every single day. It's never just my product after my product after my product day after day. It's never that. Yeah. No, it's just so frustrating. I mean, your entire account was created on just educating people. I mean, I can very much relate. That's what I set out to do, you know, 15, 14 years ago, too. So I just get so frustrated. when people make the comments like that, because, yeah, of course, this is literally what entrepreneurs do.

They see that there's a problem and that they haven't been able to find a solution for it, so they create the solution. Right. You know, it's incredible. And I love what you've done with just ingredients. And I actually, I want to talk about this because there was a lot of stuff going around online about a current thing that you were dealing with with your products. And there was something about Prop 65, and I just, I really want my listeners to understand what the flaws are with Prop 65.

and how it can leave a loophole in there where people can take, you know, like predators can come in and basically take advantage and get money out of you. Yeah, so let's talk about Prop 65. Prop 65 is a law that is only in California, and it's sort of a crazy law

because it had good intentions, but now people aren't really using it with good intentions. And it's being taken advantage of, too. It's being taken advantage of for sure. So Prop 65 tests how much lead, mercury, arsenic, cadmium is in products. Their levels are very, very low. It's very hard to reach those standards.

It's so hard that they excluded produce from Prop 65 because potatoes, carrots, spinach, all those things that are grown in the earth. Cassava, I bet, too. Yeah, will never pass Prop 65 because they contain too much lead. But crazy enough, we have way less lead today than we did in the 70s and 60s and 60s and things like that, which is just a little interesting fact. We all freak out about lead, but we actually are consuming way less today than we were back in the day. So anyway, so produce has been exempt from the Prop 65 unless you make a product with produce. So make that make sense, you

can't. And so I'm learning that a lot of people use natural flavors and don't use a real strawberry. One, it's cheaper, it's easier, but also because then it doesn't have the lead. strawberries contain lead being grown in the earth because the lead comes from the crust of the earth. But the cool thing, though, because you don't see people walking around with lead toxicity who are eating a ton of strawberries. The missing key that people don't talk about is that the real food contains co-factors to help your body eliminate the lead. So it's got co-factors like calcium, zinc, glutathione, B vitamins, things like that that will help get the lead out of your body. So, anyway, so we have protein powders that use real food. We do not use any natural

flavors because natural flavors is a hidden term. I mean, they can hide anything under that term, as you know. So we use real strawberries, real cacao, things like that. So we have to try to get those levels under Prop 65 levels, which are really stringent. I think we do an amazing job. We have tested every single ingredient in our protein powder and we figure out who's causing the highest number. And at one time it was the pumpkin seed. So we brought in pumpkin seed from literally all over the world to find the lowest amount of lead in that pumpkin seed. And we now use that one. And so we are very careful at always testing our products, things like that. But what happened is in our chocolate, it will test as like 0.44 on one batch and 0.45 on a next batch and

0.49 on a batch. Well, one batch tested as 0.51, and you have to be 0.5 or under. And so we got caught with that one being 0.51 because it went out without a California Prop 65 warning on it. And so we did get a little hand slap for it, or others can say a lawsuit for it. And so now those that go to California do have the label on it. Some people that worries them to me, it doesn't worry me at all because we're using real food, so it also has all the co-factors in there to help eliminate that. If you have an artificial protein, that is all artificial foods and things from the lab, and those can test really high in lead as well, because artificial foods can test high and lead.

That's more concerning to me. And so it doesn't concern me that a couple of our proteins, the strawberry and the chocolate might just barely go over that Prop 65 level. So our chocolate, vanilla, strawberry, snickerdoodle, quite a few of our things are NSF certified. And NSF is one of the third-party testing labs that is known throughout the world. There's three real big labs, and NSF is one of them. And so we took our products to NSF, and they test for over 350 different contaminants, heavy metals, mold, bacteria. I mean, you name it, they test for it.

And we passed NSF standards because they don't believe in the Prop 65 standards. because it's so hard with produce that they lift it just a little bit. And so we pass NSF standard so athletes can have our products, things like that. So I truly believe we're one of the cleanest protein powders in the world just because I know the time that we've spent bringing in each individual ingredient, testing those ingredients, putting them together. That's amazing. And I'm so glad that you explained all that because, you know, I get a lot of questions from people.

I will tell you, it drives me nuts because in the health and wellness, world, there has become this obsession with heavy metals. And as someone who tries to educate people and I give them healthy swaps and I say, hey, buy this instead of that. Or I'll just simply show on my Instagram like, hey, I'm eating this today. Like Hugh chocolate is a perfect example. Somebody did a test of them years ago. Apparently it's really high in a bunch of heavy metals. But what people don't understand is any good dark chocolate because cacao pulls heavy metals from the soil is going to be higher in heavy metals, just period, end of story. If you're getting like a Hershey's bar where they barely have any real cacao in there, it's probably going to be

low in heavy metals, but then it's not going to have all of the good benefits from the dark chocolate. Right. The antioxidants, the cofactors to pull the lead out, all the nursing things that come from dark chocolate. And it drives me nuts because, you know, we hear all the time from people that are outside of the wellness world and they're like, oh, I could never live in that way. Like, you guys think that you need to live in a bubble and everything's a toxin and, you know, this and that. And this is where I push back on the heavy metals thing. is, look, we can't live in a bubble. Like, it is literally impossible.

And do you want to now not be eating strawberries and not be eating cassava and not be eating carrots, carrots, spinach, potatoes, like everything that's good for us? And like you said, we have those co-factors in those foods that allow the body to then detoxify and get rid of those contaminants. And I really believe in testing, not guessing. So let's say that you get blood work back and you do have really high levels of a heavy metal.

Then you can reassess your pantry, get some things tested, toss some things out that are higher in that. But I would prefer to live in a world where I just want to eat as much whole real foods as possible. And you're going to be playing whackamol if you're like trying to figure out like, oh my God, well, this is high in heavy metals and this is high in heavy metals.

It's like it's just a part of living in our world. Do you want to hear something interesting? So I've talked to numerous doctors about this. And the doctors that I've spoken to have never found someone with lead poisoning because of food. It is purely from paint like in their home, you know, the paint before the 80s that is just toxic and they're not removing it correctly. Like some people are just scraping it off, trying to repaint and get rid of it, and they're

breathing it in and inhaling it. It's from things like that or even like eating off these ceramic plates that are just full of lead, things like that, that are causing it rather than the food itself. And so these people have taken, and if you ask these people on the internet, because they'll claim like, oh, my kids were so sick, they got lead poisoning. They're just, They got the lead poisoning from paint. They did not get the lead poisoning from eating too many strawberries or eating too much spinach or eating too many potatoes. Never do.

We don't even know of people like that. So we've messed up the narrative of this. Yeah, lead toxicity is a concern for sure. Yeah, it's serious. But it is in the, it's in paints. It's in those types of things in your home that you're breathing all day long. It's not in, the lead toxicity concerns are not from the strawberries. Yeah. Well, because if that was, if it was as big of deals we're making it out to be,

then literally everyone would have lead toxicity. Right. We all would from eating fruits and veggies, and especially the crunchy people who love to eat the fruits and veggies would be all very high in heavy metals. And so I went and got my heavy metals tested. In fact, we did like all of my employees. Mine were the lowest out of like all the employees there. Wow. And so, yeah. Yeah. And look, our bodies have detoxification pathways. They have a way to get this stuff out. And yeah, it's just, it drives me so mad because there's like this crazy obsession with it, in my opinion, right now online. And I just wanted to address it. And also, I just want to say one more thing about the Prop 65 that I had just learned.

And it's the reason I wanted to talk to you about this because I don't think many of my listeners know this. So you kind of briefly touched on this. But Prop 65, in my personal opinion, is I don't want to say it's a full bone scam, but it's a little bit of a scam. Because there's many things that don't actually apply in a Prop 65 that should, like, for example, vaccines are out of Prop 65. and we know that they're adding mercury to it. And produce is another one. And there's a whole list of them that I'll add in the show notes that I wish I'd written down. But there was a bunch of them that are completely excluded from that label, which I think is crazy.

And then another thing that I just learned that a lot of these food companies just preemptively put a Prop 65 label on their product because they're so worried about getting sued by people because there are these predatory companies now that just go after companies if they don't have it on there. And so they, this is just what I have been told is that a third-party company, like apparently there's this one company that just fully exist to do this to companies where they will seek out a brand, they will send out a product from the brand and get it tested personally. And then if it doesn't match up what the brand says that theirs is, which it's not always going to match up because if you're picking produce every week, it's going to be a different

level based on like, you know, where it was sourced from or maybe you just changed sources or whatever it is, if they don't fully match up, then that company can now sue your company and saying that you're making false claims. So I heard that a lot of companies now, because they don't want to be taken down by predatory companies like that, they just put a Prop 65 label on it and just say, you know what, we're protecting our business so that these people don't come after us and sue us. Yeah, it's sad. So people are doing that. But here's the crazy part to this. You want to hear what's even crazier. So, well, one, they go test it, but you can test heavy metals a whole variety of ways. And so when you go to NSF, they will test like by

vapors but or vapors and gas and steam and water, but then also dry. Like they do a whole analysis of it where these people can just do a $200 Amazon test, you know, and be like, oh, you don't pass Prop 65 and then sue you for it. And then you have to fight that your testing shows that you do pass it, things like that. And so how you test it can differ, things like that. But the crazy part is, here's the crazy part I was going to get to, people started just slapping Prop 65 labels on everything, right? And so someone came after me and was like, why didn't you just Prop 65 everything then? Like, you're lying. Just put it on everything. Well, here's the problem now. Now they're coming after you and suing you if you put it on a product that will never

not pass Prop 65. So if you just blanketly slam them on every product, then you can now get in trouble for that as well. So now companies are really in this tight line of like, well, I can't ever put it on my lemon lime electrolytes because those will never not pass. They're so low, like limes and lemons are just so low that those will never not pass. So if I stuck a label on that, I could get in trouble for that one. And so it's this crazy line that we have to walk. And so, but you might put it on the lemon lime just in case someone has a crappy testing kit that shows something. high, you know. And so, but people in California, like this warning label isn't even a concern to them anymore because people are slapping it on everything. So you go to the park and you'll see

it on the play equipment at the park. We went to Disneyland last month and literally as you're walking into Disneyland is a big Prop 65 warning label. And they're like, things inside the park may, you know, not pass. Well, if we're slapping this on everything, who's even looking at it then? And when is it even really warning us that there is something of concern? And so it's missed its intention, I think, by now. Totally. I think it started with good intention, but now it has become something that's really not helpful for people. As someone who lived in California for a decade, by the end of it, I was just like, oh, okay, another product that had.

Like, I just didn't even care about it anymore because it was on everything. And you can't trust it. You're like, is that label on there because it truly has lead or it's on there because they're afraid they're going to get sued? Exactly. So you have no idea. or is it on there because it really does have high amounts of cadmium and we really should be worried about it. You don't even know anymore. I know. That's the problem. So what do you suggest that people do as far as like when they're looking for products? What do you suggest that they do?

As far as like trying to find the healthiest best products, like what should they look for that they're testing? I guess should we not be worried about Prop 65? Like what's kind of your? One, I think people should realize because I was really concerned. concerned about it for a while. And then when I started talking to doctors and realizing that the lead toxicity is coming from paint and things in the home, crystal dishes and paint on baby bottles and things like that, that's to me more of the concern than the real food. But at the same time, I think companies should be transparent and just show you their COAs because on their COAs will show their heavy metal amounts. And maybe you choose like 0.5 is the California one for lead.

I've seen COAs with, that are popular brands that have led of seven point something. To me, that's too high. That I don't want to consume. But if we're right around that point five, even under one, I'm fine with that. Like, that's just nature. That is literally the strawberries, the kick cow. When you're at seven point something for a healthy drink, something's happening. Something's happening in the processing, the manufacturing, the water, something's being added in there. and so then that's when I would be of concern. So I would just say, ask the companies for their COAs. If they don't want to provide their COAs,

that's also when I get a little hesitant of like, well, do you have a seven-something lead? And that's why you're not wanting to show the COA. So our COAs are just on the website so anybody can click on them and see. And, yeah, if people are concerned, that's where I would start, is just asking people asking companies for their COAs,

but at the same time realizing they're never, going to get lead toxicity from eating too many strawberry, spinach, carrots, potatoes, those things. And stick with the whole foods that have the co-factors that your body, bodies have known for thousands of years how to deal with this lead. It's from the crust of the earth. Like, this is not our day's problem. Our bodies have dealt with this for thousands of years. So eat the real food that the body is meant to have. Exactly. And just because people love to put words into my mouth that I don't actually say, I just want to be very clear to say, I I am not saying that I don't think heavy metals are not an issue.

I think that they're very, very serious and important to pay attention to. I'm just tired of this like over-exaggeration of fear around all of it and around things that we can't actually really control. Well, okay. And those that are over-exaggerating and causing fear, let's also realize that there's a motive behind that because it's really easy to sue other companies for Prop 65. It's a big scam out there that many, many,

people are doing. And so that is one of the reasons they're over exaggerating it so that they then can go sue the company. Exactly. Yeah. So I just wanted, I'm so glad that we address this because I really want people to understand that. Okay, so in the essence of time, is there anything that we haven't covered that you think is really important for my audience to hear? I would just say, I have a lot of followers that are dealing with a health issue. And so, I mean, we sort of mentioned this, but seriously, go find a doctor that will help you with your root cause. If you have symptoms, it's your body speaking to you. Your body is amazing. It's just trying to tell you, hey, check this out. Go get help with this. And so find that

doctor that's just not going to slap a Band-Aid on it. And the Band-Aid's okay, maybe for a minute. But let's find the underlying root cause so that we can then nourish our body and fuel it properly so that it can do its best in return for us. Yeah, I love that so much. Just encouraging people to get to the root cause of whatever it is that they're dealing with. And to not believe the myth that we've been told for so long that, oh, diet, lifestyle, all that doesn't matter. It actually makes all the difference in the world. For me, it was my whole life. Yeah. It depended on that. Well, I'm so grateful that you're here with us because your work is amazing and you're helping so many people. And I'm so grateful for your time. Thank you so much.

Yeah. So thank you so much for coming on. And if you just want to share with everyone where they can find you and where they can find all of your amazing products. Yeah, so we're on Instagram, and it's just dot ingredients. We also have a Just Ingredient Shop page on Instagram. That's where we show all of our products and recipes to make with our products, things like that. But on my page, it's just all about health and wellness. We also are on TikTok trying that same, just ingredients, just ingredients shop. We have a Facebook group. I've got a podcast as well, the Just Ingredients podcast. So anything, basically Just Ingredients. I love that. And please, if you have not tried her products yet, definitely go check them out. I love the protein. I also love that your electrolytes have no natural flavors. Thank you. Yeah, they're awesome. So definitely go check them out. And thank you so much for listening, guys. Thanks for coming on. Thank you so much for listening to the Real Foodology podcast. This is a wellness loud production produced by Drake Peterson and mixed by Mike Fry. Theme song is by Georgie. You can watch the full video version of this podcast inside the Spotify app or on YouTube. As always, you can leave us a voicemail by clicking the link in our bio. And if you like this episode,

please rate and review on your podcast app. For more shows by my team, go to wellnessloud.com. See you next time. 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.

If you struggle with bloating gas, constipation, digestive issues, yeast overgrowth, Well, you may already know about Digest This. It's the podcast hosted by me, Bethany Cameron, also known as Little Sipper on Instagram. I dive into gut health, nutrition, the food industry, and drawing from my own experience. I break down what's good, what's bad, and what's the best for your gut, your skin, and so much more. I even offer gut-friendly recipes. New episodes every Monday and Wednesday, produced by Wellness Loud.