Realfoodology - What’s Really in Your Medicine Cabinet? Why Beekeeper’s Naturals Is the Upgrade You Need | Carly Kremer

Episode Date: May 15, 2025

249: On today’s episode of Realfoodology, we’re rethinking how we approach healing, immune health, and the everyday products we trust — especially for our families. Courtney sits down with Carly Kremer, founder of Beekeeper’s Naturals, to explore how bee-based remedies like propolis and raw honey can help reinvent the medicine cabinet with functional, natural ingredients that actually support the body. They also discuss why synthetic additives like dyes and corn syrup still show up in OTC meds, why Flonase might not be the best choice, and the emerging science behind nutraceuticals that work with your immune system — not against it. Go to beekeepersnaturals.com/REALFOODOLOGY or enter code REALFOODOLOGY to get 20% off your order.  Topics Discussed: Using food as medicine to support immune health naturally The power of propolis and how science and nature intersect in modern medicine Navigating fear around food toxins while maintaining a balanced approach to health The brain-boosting benefits of royal jelly and other nutraceuticals Supporting brain health naturally with specialized products and environmental toxin considerations Sponsored By: MASA | Go to MASAChips.com/Realfoodology and use code Realfoodology for 25% off your first order. Go to beekeepersnaturals.com/REALFOODOLOGY or enter code REALFOODOLOGY to get 20% off your order.  Timestamps:  00:00 – Introduction 00:03 – Reinvent Your Medicine Cabinet Naturally 00:06 – What’s in Cough Syrup? Why Honey Is Better 00:09 – Food as Medicine for Immune Support 00:13 – Immune Tools for Kids Before Getting Sick 00:15 – Are Nasal Sprays Safe for Kids? 00:18 – Overcoming Stigma Around Natural Remedies 00:20 – Propolis: Bee-Based Immune Boost 00:24 – Risks of Flonase & Why Natural Medicine Matters 00:28 – Food Dyes, FDA, and U.S. Regulation Insights 00:32 – Vetting Wellness Brands: Transparency & Testing 00:37 – Managing Food Toxins Without Fear 00:46 – Hidden Sugars in Medicine & Kid-Friendly Options 00:50 – Honey vs. Refined Sugar: What’s Different? 00:54 – Royal Jelly for Brain Health & Stress 01:00 – How Heat Affects Honey & Best Uses 01:01 – Natural Brain Support & Pregnancy Tips 01:05 – Courtney’s Fertility Journey & Natural Boosts 01:10 – Where to Buy Beekeeper’s Naturals + Discounts Show Links:  Go to beekeepersnaturals.com/REALFOODOLOGY or enter code REALFOODOLOGY to get 20% off your order. 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 think we really need, as a culture, a reset on how we go about healing, how we think about immune health, how we think about illness and medicine, and mostly how we take care of our children. What's up, friends? Welcome back to another episode of the Real Foodology podcast. As always, I'm your host Courtney Swan, and today's guest is Carly Kremer of Beekeepers Naturals. This is such a fantastic episode. We talk about reinventing the medicine cabinet and why it's more important

than ever. I don't know if you've picked up a Nyquil or a cough syrup recently in a CVS or even lozenges and tried to look at the ingredients. First of all, they make you go through like three pages of it, even a little sticker that you have to peel up. And when you finally get to it, I mean, I recently was horrified to find on a cough syrup that they still had high fructose corn syrup and dyes in there. When you're sick, your immune system is already down. We shouldn't be adding more insult to injury and adding in things like toxic petroleum based dyes that don't need to be in there.

And you know, this is going to be addressed in the next couple of years, but my friend Carly has been on this for a long time. She created a line of healthier medicines that are all based around bees and honey. She uses propolis, she uses raw honey, she actually even uses monk fruit in some of her products just to bring the sugar content lower, which I really appreciate.

And she uses real functional ingredients that actually help boost your immune system, not suppress it further. I loved this episode. We also go into such amazing studies around just certain nutraceuticals that are being used that come from nature that are very similar in the way that they work

to these chemical compounds that we're using. We also talk about Flonase and why you probably don't want to be using Flonase anymore and so many other things. I mean this was an incredible episode. I think you're going to love it so much. Make sure you get to the very, very end because the code will save you 20% off. And if you want to stock up on all your favorite Beekeepers Naturals products, now would be the time. So stay till the end and you'll get the code. Thank you so much for listening. If you could take a moment to rate and review it, it really helps this show.

Thank you so much. Thank you for your support. And if you want to tag me at Real Foodology, also tag at Beekeepers Naturals on Instagram if you're loving this episode and we will hopefully see it and repost you. And thank you so much for the support. I just adore all of you for listening. It means so much to me and I hope that you enjoy the episode. Carly, thank you so much for coming back on. I'm so excited to have you back on. Yours

was one of my favorite episodes that we've done. And just for the listeners, if they haven't listened to it yet, make sure you go back and listen to that one because it's a deep dive into honey and all the Beekeepers Naturals products and just all the amazing things that you guys are doing. And we're going to talk a little bit about that, but we're really going to dive in today about reinventing the medicine cabinet and why it's so important. And I'm just so, so excited to have you here. I'm so happy to be here and talking about such an important subject matter. I mean, now more than ever, it's very exciting. We're really starting to have conversations

about what we're giving to our kids and what we're calling medicine and what we're leaning on. And there are just so many flaws in our system. So I am so excited to go deep with you. Yeah, me too. Okay, well, let's first talk about what are some of the issues that we're seeing right now as far as the medicine cabinet?

I mean, I could list off plenty of them. The thing that I find maybe the most horrifying is when a kid is sick, people give them cough syrup, for example, and it has these red dyes in it. Or actually, I've had a lot of moms actually reach out to me recently and say very similar things where they're like, my kid has to be on antibiotics, but this antibiotic is bright red

and they don't give us any other option and it has these artificial food dyes in there. The options are insane. I mean, if you just go to a pharmacy and you look at the ingredients in a children's cough syrup, and again, these are things you're supposed to be giving to a little one when they're sick, when their immune system is already compromised,

when they're the most vulnerable. And we're seeing ingredients like, first of all, this is just an obvious one, but tons of refined sugar. Almost all of these products have drug fact panels, so you don't actually know how much sugar is in any of them. I think this is actually where I want to start because this is just a huge public misconception that I think can help a lot of people. When you're buying something that's in the category of drug, it has a drug fact panel.

So you'll notice on the back of your NyQuil or Robitussin or a lot of these products, it doesn't say anything about calories. It doesn't say anything about how many grams of sugar. If you're categorized as a drug fact, you do not need to disclose nutritional information. So I've seen these products, they're, you know, lollipops for kids that are supposed to support immune health or soothe their sore throat. They don't disclose how much sugar. I've sent it to my lab, reverse engineered them,

and I'm finding six plus grams of sugar in a single lollipop. I've messaged the companies as a mom being like, hey, I've got a 14-month-old I just want to know, ghost. And so, yeah, so I mean, first thing is like, you know, we're trying to limit sugar for our little ones on a normal day to give them sugar, which we know for their compromises in immune system when they're already under the weather, that's just like backwards. And I don't think inherently a drug fact panel is bad, but I think if a product has a drug fact panel on it, they better be

disclosing the rest of the nutritional information on their website. And if they're not, I would get that information before using that product. So that's just like an important thing for consumers, whether you're in the aisle at Target or CVS or wherever, if it doesn't say nutritional information on the back, it doesn't mean that information doesn't exist. It doesn't mean zero sugar, zero calories. Exactly. Yeah, this is what I've always found so crazy

is that for so long we've been, and by we, I mean conscious eaters and conscious shoppers, we've been so on the food and the drinks and everything else and the ingredients, but we've never really paid attention to the medicine. And in fact, like I remember before Beekeepers was on the market. I don't even know what I use.

I don't think I really used any sort of like cough syrup or anything because I mean, I remember years ago, a naturopathic doctor of mine, I had a horrible cold, like really, really bad. Like I needed something more Western medicine type to like really help calm it. And she was like, Oh, you should get this one syrup. I can't remember.

It starts with a D and I go to CVS and I read the nutrition. It actually did say that's exactly what it was because I was, I was literally hacking up a lung. And I remember I put it back on the shelf I was like I would rather like cough a couple more days and you know, maybe a controversial opinion But I was like I'd rather do that then I believe it had a high fructose corn syrup in there It might have had a hydrogenated oil and it also had red dyes in there and I was horrified so many guys so This is why this is so important that we're talking about this.

It's because it's predatory. You're in a need state when you're sick. You can be the healthiest person and I see this all the time. I see people who are super healthy, super conscious and then when they're sick or when they have allergies or when they're in a desperate need state and they need to feel better, it all goes out the window and they're like, okay, just give me something and they sort of abandon their values and that's problematic for a bunch of reasons. One, you're introducing all of these toxins, all of these chemicals.

Two, you're not actually in many cases with these like medicines, you're not actually addressing the root cause, you're not actually supporting overall immune health, you're not actually balancing nutrition, you're just masking the symptom with a chemical. And more and more we're finding out these chemicals don't even work. So you mentioned dextromethorphan. For a long time, dextromethorphan was the go-to for doctors when you have a cough.

It is a chemical, you know, again, it's not going to kill you, but it's a chemical. And there was a study that came out several years ago, and it was comparing dextromethorphin to buckwheat honey. And it was a study done in children. It was looking at upper pediatric respiratory infections, and it found that buckwheat honey was just as effective, just as effective. When that study came out, I was like, why would you ever give a kid dextro?

Like, we know that honey does the job just as well. Plus, it's not just masking a symptom, it's addressing underlying issues, it's addressing immune health, it's full of antioxidants. There's so many reasons and it's such a better option, but honey is a natural substance. It's not a patented chemical that is being sold to us. Well, and that's part of the issue

is because they can't patent it. And you brought up a really great point that this has always been my approach to when I'm sick. I've actually, again, this is probably a controversial opinion in the mainstream because whenever I got sick, I never wanted to go to those things. When I was younger and I didn't really know food is medicine and about ingredients and all that, I was taking the night quills and the day quills. But once I started waking up to, oh, I need to and about ingredients and all that. I was, you know, taking the NyQuil and the DayQuil, but once I started waking up to,

oh, I need to be taking things and doing things that actually support my immune system. And then I started looking around, you know, at the normal way that we do things is, okay, you get sick, then you get on NyQuil and DayQuil. I actually have been training my fiance on this now because he recently got sick and he was like, oh, I need to go get NyQuil and DayQuil.

And I was like, no, no. I was like, we need to get all of this other stuff, you know, echinacea, zinc, and honey, and propolis, and all the things that are actually going to activate your immune system so that your body can fight it off and not just like mask the symptoms and prolong it so much further. Totally. And these things you're mentioning, things like zinc, echinacea, propolis, these are not new things.

These are like tried and true what people have been using. So propolis, you know me, I'm the bee expert, I love bee medicine. Propolis has been around since 300 BC. We have been using propolis as medicine long before the advent of antibiotics. And it's actually what people would use in place of antibiotics.

And it's clean, it's sustainable, it's coming from the earth. It's not nuking your microbiome because there's natural strains of probiotics, it's full of life enzymes, it's a way to really nourish the system and you know that because it's a compound that you can take every day and then just increase the intake when you're sick and you know versus something where you would never put it in your body in a normal day, but when you're sick, you're just taking it down. That just doesn't really make sense.

And so I think we really need, as a culture, a reset on how we go about healing, how we think about immune health, how we think about illness and medicine, and mostly how we take care of our children. Because let me tell you, as a new mom, there are a lot of germs flying around on the playground. I think my daughter has, like, a friend with a runny nose or something come over once a week. And so proactively supporting her immune system

has always just been a part of my routine. And I think more and more people are starting to understand that they can create these circumstances where they significantly reduce illness and when they do get exposed to a virus which happens even to the healthiest of us They have tools that are clean safe sustainable to fight that off support their body's natural recovery without Stripping their system or introducing a ton of chemicals Did you know chips used to be cooked in beef tallow? Then in the 80s, companies switched to cheap seed oils,

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use code realfoodology. Thanks to Masa for sponsoring this episode. So you just brought up something that I have been really fascinated with more recently as more of my friends have started having kids and as Hector and I have started talking about, you know, when we're going to start our family, I have one girlfriend in particular that, you know, has been telling me since her daughter's three now,

and she said, you know, when her daughter started going to daycare, that they in their household, like her and her husband were just getting sick like every other week because she's like, she's going to daycare and then she's bringing back all these illnesses and everybody's getting sick in the household. And then I had a recent conversation with Dr. Peter McCullough and he told me a trick around that. And so I've actually been using your nasal spray with this. And he told me, I don't remember the exact mechanism,

so I'm gonna probably kind of botch this. But basically what he said is that there's about a, I believe he said it's like a four day incubation period, where once you get exposed to something and it kind of like stays around your nose before it like takes over your body. So what he said that he does, and he's a doctor, and he had another doctor give him this protocol, is that he does, and he's a doctor and he had another doctor give

him this protocol, is that he does that nasal spray once in the morning and once at night. And what you do is you spray it and then you blow it out like a minute or two later to just let it sink in, get rid of the virus, and then blow it out. I have been doing that. And I, for whatever reason, this particular season, I have been getting hit really hard with illness more than ever, probably just because I've been flying nonstop. Ever since I started doing that morning and night with your nasal spray, I haven't gotten even a hint of a sniffle or anything. You can stop things before they start.

So I travel a lot for work like you do, and I bring my little one with me almost everywhere. So she has been going on planes a lot since she was quite young. Given that, it's always been really important for me to protect her immune system. I do the same thing for her that I do for me. Propolis in the mouth, nasal spray in the nose before we're entering a public space,

anything where I just know I can't control the variables and there's gonna be exposures, I do that. And it's a nice thing again, because I'm not overloading her system. I'm giving her something that's natural, that's actually helping her build her own defenses, helping to support her overall system. Also, lots of people look at things like propolis when it comes to inflammation. So these are just, these are tools that you can use before you get sick to prevent and

support your overall health and help to combat environmental stressors, whether that's oxidative stress from whatever is in your environment or a ton of flying, or you're actually coming face to face with the virus. Yeah, that's amazing. So we've been doing that daily and then especially I've been doing it extra when I fly. I'm curious you can give your daughter nasal spray because how old is she now? Did you say she's 14 months? So she doesn't love it.

It's not like the most fun experience for her. So what I do is before before we're gonna fly pretty much before we're gonna fly if I'm gonna bring her to a birthday party something like that where I know there's gonna be a lot of exposures, I don't really know what's happening. That's when I'm gonna give her the nasal spray. For me, I do it every single day. I do like you do morning and night.

For her, just because she's a toddler and hates me putting things in her nose, I give her the nasal spray. But we actually launched a kids nasal mister for this reason. And it's propolis, xylitol, and aloe, super soothing, hydrating, helpful to just protect the overall nasal passage, but also really helpful for kids who have allergies, inflammation, that sort of thing. And it's a mister, so it's a lot more gentle than the adult one.

So anything I'm putting in her face, she doesn't love it. I do give it to her anytime there's going to be any exposures, and then she loves Propolis. She will grab the bottle and try to figure out how to spray it in her own mouth. It's really cute. But yeah, these are tools. And I think it's important to think of medicine as a tool versus a band-aid. And I think that's something that more broadly fits

our entire food system and the changes we're trying to make right now is moving away from this model of like, get sick, fix it, get sick, fix it, get sick, mask the symptoms just until you're sick again, and move towards a model of more broader wellness where we're only introducing things that are nourishing, supportive healing that bolster our systems to avoid getting sick. And then when the inevitable happens, and you can take your sick days down really meaningfully by introducing these different natural compounds

that just support your overall health and do so much more than affect your immune system, but really do support overall immune health, you can take your sick days down. And then when you come into contact with something, you might be able to bypass it completely, or you might have a much more muted response than you otherwise would have. Yeah, this is what I love so much about this approach to medicine because not only is it

effective and not only does it help to turn on your immune system, but then you're not also on top of that adding insult, like adding in the high fructose corn syrup, adding in the red dyes, etc. Let's talk a little bit about that because I know, especially with like older generations, I think younger generations are opening their eyes more to this, but you know, there's kind of this stigma that the natural stuff doesn't work. Totally. And it's why we have this like hardcore medication. And this is also what I love about your particular products because not only do the things work and their study and their scientific back, but every

ingredient has a purpose like the xylitol, for example, and the nasal rent. So can we talk about all of that? Yes. Okay. So first of all, on this subject of people trusting the old stuff, the tried and true stuff, supposedly, more and more, we're seeing science come out that is disrupting all of these ideas. So, you know, we talked about dextromethorphan. Dextromethorphan is a super common active in cough syrups. We have seen at this point, study after study, showing that honey is just as effective. So we know that.

There's no reason to take that. And in most of these formulas that have dextro, they're also, like you said, they have food dye, they have refined sugar, they have corn syrup, they have all kinds of additional chemicals, they have numbing agents, they have steroids in many of these products. So it's just why would you introduce yourself

to all that toxicity when you can bypass it entirely for something cleaner? Another great example of that, another compound that is in most over-the-counter cough syrups, most cough syrups that an old school doctor would recommend or maybe that your parents, my parents at least were using,

it's a compound called phenylephrine. The FDA has just recently come out saying that they're rolling back the use of phenylephrine because it doesn't work. So this is an active ingredient that warrants a drug fact panel that has been prescribed for a long time that the FDA is now saying it straight up does not work. So that's just an introduction, introducing a chemical into your body when your system

is already overwhelmed and under the weather that does nothing for you and then maybe a few other numbing agents and some food dye and some refined sugars and you just don't know because again that drug fact panel hides everything. That is so crazy. So let's talk about, I want to talk about a couple of the different ingredients that you have in there that you guys use kind of across the board. You've mentioned propolis a couple of times. What does propolis do exactly for it and what is it? Okay.

So propolis comes from the beehive. Everyone knows honey. The bees make more than just honey. They do honey. They make royal jelly. They make bee pollen. They make propolis. Propolis, how you can think of it is it's the immune system of the plant itself mixed

with the bee's enzymes. So bees are going tree to tree. They're collecting the tree's enzymes and resins. So think of sap as the base ingredient. It's literally the immunoproperties of the plant itself. So it's really high in antioxidants, really high in polyphenols, flavonoids, all the good stuff. They're bringing it back to the hive, mixing it with their enzymes, and then they use it

to line the entire hive to keep it germ free. So in the beehive, propolis is the medicine. It's the antibacterial, antiviral, anti-inflammatory defense system. For newborn baby bees, they literally line the cell walls with propolis to keep it clean and germ free. And we've been using this forever, for thousands of years. It's actually super common in different parts of the world. In parts of Europe, it's straight up a part of the medical system. In the burn ward, in hospitals in Poland, they're using Propolis on open sores and things like that. They're

using Propolis in some countries in an IV capacity. So, Propolis is a really well-known immune support. The thing that's really nice about propolis is it's an immunomodulatory agent. So the same way adaptogens will work with your body, propolis will work with your immune system to balance it. So if you're autoimmune, if your immune system's in hyperdrive, if you've got an underactive immune system,

propolis is going to be gentle. It's going to help to balance your body's immune response and then just strengthen it. So it's something that can be used every day for me, for my kid, for my family. We're using it every single day. And then if there's going to be an exposure situation or if someone is feeling rundown, we just double up on it because it's coming from plants and bees. So I feel really comfortable with it.

It's been around for thousands of years. We know the long-term effects. So that's a really great one. And then we're also, the whole sort of methodology for me behind Beekeepers Naturals is look, like as we're saying, sadly, we're in a state right now

where you can't really trust medicine. And we're seeing all kinds of viruses floating around. We're seeing all kinds of illnesses that are wreaking havoc on people's bodies in ways that they didn't before. And most of us just can't afford to get run down. I mean, we don't want to feel terrible, but we live busier, more demanding lives

than we ever have. And we can't afford to take a sick day and be parenting on top of that and be dealing with these things that really wreak havoc on our systems. And so with all of that in mind, Beekeepers Naturals was born to just really reinvent the medicine cabinet. Give people medicine that is safe to use. Give them things that they can use preventively, but they can also use in a reactive way. So they can use, you know, when they're

having a good day just to help protect themselves against stressors in their environment and they can use when they're super run down to recover quickly, minimize symptoms, all of those things. And so it's just really thinking about where science meets nature and how can we create medicine that actually works without giving you all these exposures. And we're really focused on the different medicines coming out of the beehive, but then we'll use things like shaga mushroom, we'll use things like elderberry extract, olive leaf extract, aloe vera, all of these things that are science-backed that have long-standing

studies on them to really reformulate medicine to give people better tools. It's so amazing. I love that you just said where science meets nature because for so long we've been working against nature and we forgot that for thousands of years humans have relied on all of these things, you know, on herbs and vitamins and things of this nature to bolster our immune systems and take care of us. And it wasn't until more recently that we started adding all these chemicals. And then, you know, to your point, like you said, a lot of these chemicals now we're finding

out don't actually work that well or they're actually causing harm. I remember you sent me an article last year about Flonase and I was like floored about this because thankfully I don't use it, but I know plenty of people that do that use it. And it's addictive. It's totally addictive. Exactly. So can we talk about that study? Because there was something about it was harming, was it brain matter?

And then it's addictive and there's like so many different pieces to that one. Yeah. So, Flonase and corticosteroids, they're super habit-forming. So that in and of itself is a big problem. I think anything that's habit-forming, we should take a very hard look at. And they affect the matter in your brain. So they literally affect your brain chemistry. You know, they're super toxic products and because they're habit-forming, people build

this reliance on them. They think they need them. And then next thing you know, they're addicted to this substance that has been approved by the FDA that they bought in a drug store that their doctor is telling them is fine, but they can't stop using it and it's affecting their brain in ways that we only find out about years down the line when it's too late. So the state of medicine is really scary and that's why you know all the work that you're doing in medicine and also looking at our food supply in our system it's really helping to empower people to make choices to

protect themselves. And I think we're at this really incredible, inspiring time where there's a lot of change happening, but so much change needs to happen. We basically need to break down a system that has been like so thoroughly etched into stone around us. And there's a lot of skeptics. And so that's why I really love bringing

together the world of science and nature. Everything we're doing at Beekeepers Naturals is clinically studied. We have an amazing team of physicians we work with to formulate our product. So we really are trying to kind of, our whole goal is to take the scientific approach, apply the scientific rigor typical of the pharmaceutical world. I would say much more than the pharmaceutical world because a lot of stuff gets approved that shouldn't. But really doing the studies, doing the clinicals, working with the traditional doctors and also though bringing the naturopaths into the room and the people with PhDs in micronutrients and creating the best tools to help people feel better. But it's sad, and it's, you know, it's sad for me as a parent

because as a mom, you're just so busy. And when your little one's sick, you'll do anything to get them out of that state. And you go to your doctor, and of course, you trust your doctor. They're the expert. Why wouldn't you? And unfortunately, they've been poorly informed. And so it's really tough. I mean,

I look at one of the things that really kills me, I've been on the soapbox for a long time and I feel like people are now really starting to care about it, it's food dyes. I mean, red dye number three, that was just banned and that's awesome. But we've known since the 90s that, you know, studies showed in the 90s that this compound was causing tumor growth in rats. And it was banned in cosmetic products because of that. But people were like, you know what?

It's small amounts in food. It's all good. And so we've been having this in our food, in our medicine for so long. And, you know, I am so happy that there's starting to be awareness, but that's red dye number three. There's multiple other food dyes. All of our products, I'm maniacal about this. We're using fruit and vegetable extracts to get color. We're using things like spirulina to create blue and things like that. Like we were using, there's different ways to do it. And, you know, I'm

saying that and sharing that for other people listening who might have companies or might be building products, there's other ways to do it. It can maybe be more expensive at the start, or it can be a little bit harder to formulate, harder to source. But we have to start taking care of our customers in this way. For myself as a customer, too, we have to start demanding better from all of the companies that are producing anything we're ingesting and from the regulatory bodies that are approving these things that never should have gotten through in the first place. Yeah.

I mean, you brought up a couple really great points. I mean, that's what it's basically what real foodology was founded on is that I figured out that we had so many things in our food system and, you know, this applies, it goes across the board to our medicine as well, that should have never been approved in the first place because you look at other countries and they've pulled these out or banned them, you know, a long time ago or never approved them for use in the first place. And I just don't understand how we keep going down this path where at what point are we gonna stop and go, okay, so this system doesn't really seem to be working.

I mean, there's time and time again, example after example of the FDA approving something and then down the line, they're like, oh, shoot. Oh, oops, oops, we shouldn't have done. I mean, there's so many examples of that. And you've brought up a few just now where the FDA is starting to go, oh, oops. Oops, we shouldn't have done. I mean, there's so many examples of that. And you've brought up a few just now where the FDA is starting to go, oh, oops, sorry, this one doesn't actually work. We're going to pull that one.

And it's like, how many times do we have to do that before we realize, okay, maybe we have a flawed system here and we need to change course. And so I'm so grateful in general that there's finally a conversation happening on a national stage. And it's so unfortunate that it's become so politicized because in my mind, I mean, you and I have known each other for a long time. I mean, my message has been the same. It's just like, can we clean up our food and our medicine?

Can we clean all this up? Can we get these dyes? Can we get these artificial ingredients out? Because they're only harming people, you know? And it's just crazy that it's taken us this long to get here. Totally, totally. And I am hesitant to even say this because I feel like this can be a little bit alarmist. It were perceived that way.

But I think it's really important that people know and you know, I've known I have known you for a long time and like if there's any place to talk about this, it's right here. But I think again, right right now at this stage, we really have to kind of become our own detective because another thing that I'm seeing that's really upsetting to me is predatory wellness companies. There's a lot, in the US,

there's a lot of amazing companies, incredible ones. I am obsessed with wellness, I work in this world. But there's also a lot of predatory practices, and the reality is in the U.S., there's not really, there's poor regulation for pharmaceuticals, but there's really no regulation for wellness companies. In other parts of the world, there are regulatory bodies. In Canada, where I'm from, you can apply it again in MPN,

and you have to legally validate the health claims you're making. My company, we build our products in accordance with European and Canadian standards because we sell in those geographies too. And also, for me, it's just what I believe in. But I think it's also really important as consumers that, again, we're going to whatever company it is that we're purchasing something from and saying, hey, are you heavy metal testing? Are you testing for third-party pesticides? What testing standards do you apply? Do you use the European Union standards for manufacturing or are we going off US standards?

And if you're going off US standards, amazing, that's not bad, but I want to see what third-party tests you're practicing. And so I think just in a really holistic sense we need to take a look at everything we're buying and really understand what goes into these things, what is good for us, what our bodies need, what's the mission behind these different companies. Because I know for me I'm just I'm sick of learning that some product I've been buying for my family or ingesting myself, surprise it's full of glyphosates or full of something.

Like I just want to know that people are taking care. And if the government isn't there yet in terms of creating structures to care for and protect us, then I hope at least the corporations are holding true to their mission. Yeah, for sure. It's a great point. I mean, I remember you and I did some videos last year. And I believe if I'm remembering correctly, there was there's I remember you and I did some videos last year and I believe if I'm remembering correctly, there was like another, and I don't know if I'm allowed

to talk about this, but I think I can and we can cut it out if I'm not. There was another lollipop company that was not being transparent about how much sugar they had in it. And when you figured out, like you said, you basically tested it backwards where you like sent it to a lab and you figured out that it had like six grams of sugar or something in there. And then I was shocked by it because I'm looking at the packaging going, oh this all looks great, you know, it's like no artificial flavors and no this and that and that but like there just are, you have to be very vigilant and careful about where you're actually buying your products and I think we're at a time and an age where you have to, I mean,

maybe like get to know the founders of the companies that are creating the products that you like, go listen to them on podcasts, listen to their practices. And like you said, are they testing? This is one thing that I love about Beekeepers Naturals. And it's why I always tell everyone I know and my family and everybody to buy your products. Because I remember when you came on my last podcast, we went into depth about how much you are concerned about glyphosate, which is something that I'm incredibly concerned about. And I know that you personally, I mean, I'm like psycho about it

because it's a huge concern and our government is not paying attention to this at all. In fact, there's some things happening right now where the companies are looking for immunity, where if you get cancer from glyphosate, you can't sue them. But that's another, I did a whole podcast about that. Heavy metals too, heavy metals, I am like losing's another idea. I did a whole podcast about that. Heavy metals too.

Heavy metals, I am like losing my mind over. I mean, it's crazy. So what are some of the things, so you guys are doing third party testing. Maybe you can share a little bit about the lengths that you go to as far as to make sure that your products are glyphosate free. Yeah. Because I love that. So I also just want to start that product you're talking about.

I literally built a product because of it. I was so upset at seeing what these better for you options are actually putting in their products and it's hard because for people listening it's like, okay, great. What do I do? I can't trust the pharmaceuticals. The wellness brands are full of it. So what you have to do is just ask for transparency. If you message a company, it's totally cool if they have a drug fact panel, they don't

disclose sugar information, DM them, send them an email. They should let you know how many grams of sugar is in a single serving of their product. They should let you know the quantities and the specific ingredients. If they're not doing that, red flag, huge, huge red flag. So that's kind of a good way to think about it.

I mean, we can all send a quick DM to any company. We can all send an email and it's just getting that response. Or is it on their FAQ page? It should be, if I were to ever come out with a product that had a drug fact panel, it would, and you can hold me to this, it would be on our website, the full transparency of what is in it. Because I think people just need to know what is going into the things that they're being sold to put in their bodies. So yeah yeah, so that's just like, you know, a foundational value of mine. But what we're doing at Beekeepers and what I hope more of my peers will start doing, and some are, and it's awesome.

I love seeing it. There are some supplement companies in the US and elsewhere that are just doing a great job here. But, you know, third-party pesticide testing. Third-party pesticide testing is really important today. There's so much toxicity, so much leakage, so much blow over. It's really hard to control for this. I'm very much in this world because I work with an agricultural.

Good, I'm working with bees and bee products. And so I'm out there in the apiary. Apiary is a bee farm for anyone who doesn't know. But I'm out there in the apiary. I'm working with the beekeepers. I'm surveying the environment. I'm taking soil sample tests. I'm monitoring for the bees' health as well as our own. So I'm probably going a little bit deeper than the average person would with all the testing parameters around our bees and our bee products. But third-party pesticide testing is something that anyone can pay to do. Find a good lab, reputable lab. I think, you know, formulating your products in accordance with EU standards is a way to

simplify it for any founder or supplement company. You know, some companies do that. Canadian standards as well, just because they have that NPN number. It's NPN stands for natural product number, and it's basically you have to certify with Health Canada that the claims you're making on the products are substantiated. So the product actually does what you say it's going to do, which it should always be like that. But there is, you know, there's more regulatory bodies and other geographies. And then I think heavy metal testing is really important. I mean, I'm like, I threw out all the protein powders in my pantry recently

because I just went off the deep end with this. And I'm really fortunate because I actually have a lab. I was getting tea from my acupuncturist and I sent it all to my lab. And I was like, test for lead, test for mercury, test for this. I want to know every contaminant. The average person does not have access to lab because that is my job. But I think people can ask their companies, look for things that have certain certifications, that talk about heavy metal testing, that are open and transparent about it.

I think if a company is doing it, they want to share it. I'm very proud to share our testing practices and standards for beekeepers, and I'm proud to share that with our customers who want to know, and also with other founders and companies who are curious about how they can safeguard what they're creating. So I am a little bit curious about this because, you know, some friends of mine in this wellness space, we've been talking more and more about this because there has been this, trying to think of how to word this. So we've been getting a ton more about this because there has been this, trying to think of how to word this. So we've been getting a ton of messages from people, you know, where there's this alarmist, in my opinion, it's gone a little bit overboard in the sense that

like every time I post about a square of chocolate or, you know, protein powder, I get, you know, 1500 DMs, oh my God, that's high in lead, that's high in this and that's high in that. And what seems to be happening, but I really, I'm genuinely curious to know what your personal opinion on this is, that some of this stuff is hard to avoid. Because some of it, like for example, I have mostly stopped consuming cassava because I learned that cassava really sucks up those heavy metals from the soil. And so to me, it's just not worth it because time and time again, you're testing cassava products and they're coming up higher in lead and mercury and other, or not mercury, sorry,

lead and other things. What is your opinion on that as far as like, how do we find the balance of knowing that like some of this stuff is naturally occurring in heavy metals versus like really where we should be paying attention and being concerned? This is so challenging and I really struggle with this. The reality is a lot of these heavy metal exposures are coming from our soil. So anything grown in the ground, from cassava to carrots, is going to have a higher level

of lead, for example, because of how degraded our soil has become and how contaminated our soil has become. That doesn't mean that it's inherently bad for you. I'm not saying never eat a carrot. Carrots have, same with cassava, these things have nutritional value and it's all about total toxic burden. Someone like you, not worried about you eating cassava. Someone who lives in a different environment, maybe an older home with lead paint who is

eating a tuna fish sandwich on a more regular basis, maybe they have a higher toxic burden, higher heavy metal load in their body. I think more and more companies are starting to test. So this whole protein powder rabbit hole that I've gone down, I have found a few brands that actually do test for heavy metals. Love That Levels is one of them. They do weigh, and the thing is these things are always changing. So people do need to be reviewing and testing, or I need to be reviewing and testing on an

ongoing basis. It's nice for me because we, every single batch we retest. So we have that sort of built into our practices, but these things are always changing and it's important that people are retesting on a regular basis. But anyways, there are some brands who are starting to test But our soil is really contaminated. So I do think about it as total toxic burden How can I reduce my exposures in other areas knowing that it's not perfect? I mean I eat rice all the time. I love rice. There's high levels of arsenic in rice

It's it's an environmental inevitability and it absolutely sucks. And that's why it's so important that whether it's when we're sick or what we're having for a snack or what we're exposing ourselves to, we're just considering all of it. And look, you can drive yourself crazy with this stuff. I have definitely driven myself crazy with this stuff at one time or another. We're not going to be perfect. We have really strong systems if we're taking care of ourselves.

And you know, we have detox organs for a reason and we can introduce the right amazing natural foods to help support those detox organs and support our body's natural ability to expel these things we're exposed to. But we're exposed to a ton of stuff today and so it's limiting the exposures where you can. Yeah, I couldn't agree more. And I just, I really, I've been wanting to ask somebody in a founder situation that has a company that's testing for that. Because I, same as you, I don't really know the answer either.

And I'm getting all these messages from people, but I can tell you that living in fear and stressed out all the time is definitely not going to help you. And so, you know, my message- That's going to hurt your health more than the cassava, I promise. Exactly. So my message to people is similar to you is like, you know, where we know that we can control it and like, let's say, you know, something comes out really, really high in something and the other products aren't.

I mean, chocolate, for example, is a hard one. People come at me all the time. I love chocolate. I know. I know. Every time I post about Hue, they're like, oh my God, it's so high. And I'm like, if you tested every single one of your dark chocolate bars, it's going to be similar levels because chocolate in general, the cacao is similar to cassava. It's pulling up a lot of heavy metals and it's coming from the soil. And unfortunately, what's crazy with chocolate is that the lower the less quality chocolate you get, so like a Hershey's probably isn't that high in it because it

doesn't really have much cacao, the better quality the chocolate is, the more heavy metals it probably has in it. Does that mean I don't eat chocolate? No. But I'm very conscious about the things that I'm putting on my body. I also sauna a ton. I do things that support my detoxification pathways. And then another thing that I tell people is, you know, if you're able to, I get blood work done like three times a year. And if my levels are crazy, then I'm going to start freaking out and really going through my pantry and going, oh my God, okay, where's the source of this?

But as long as I'm monitoring those, and this is usually where I tell people, this is why you always got to test and not guess. Do the best you can, control the controllables, and then figure out if your blood work is high, then you like address it from there. But just overall, from a founder standpoint, I love that you're testing for all this stuff, and I think it's incredibly important.

It's just, I like to speak to the nuance of that so that everybody doesn't go, oh my God, ah, about all their products, you know? Because there's only so much we can do. I have done that. I have literally driven myself crazy. I'm sure I've caused more damage to my system, shooting my cortisol through the roof, going through every single product, sending everything in my house to my lab.

My chem team is like, she's lost it again, guys. So for all of the people listening, I am there with you. And it's so hard because we want the knowledge, we want the information, we want to protect ourselves. And right now we're in this state of cleaning up a world that's become too dirty for us, too dirty for our environment, for our animals. We're in a deep state of pollution across the board that we need to clean up.

And our bodies adapt. We have kidneys and livers and detox organs. And if you are sleeping and moving your body and well hydrated and getting enough fruits and vegetables, introducing greens, doing your best to introduce yourself to high quality food, organic where possible to limit these pesticides, you are going to be totally fine.

Your body is strong and you can do it. And you are so right. Tests don't guess because everyone's affected differently. I have a super sensitive system. I do blood work and my husband, who's so much less careful, does blood work. And like we can eat the same thing and his glyphosate levels are lower than mine. I mean, he's sweating more. He's like a big dude.

He's got his own ecosystem, I guess. But all that to say is that everybody's different. We're affected in different ways. And if we're doing our best to be aware of all of these things and limit where possible, the best thing you can do is just live and enjoy your life and take care of yourself. Amen, I love that.

It's so true. Yeah, it's like we have to be careful in this world. Like, you know, we have to recognize that we are, like you said, we have a lot that we need to clean up right now. We live in an exciting time where finally, for once ever, we actually have some regulatory bodies that are naming the issues and saying they're going to address them. Now talk to me in four years and let's see if they've addressed anything and then we'll adjust accordingly. But right now, yeah, I'm hoping, I'm really hoping right now it looks good. It looks really good. But we'll see. I'm

never attaching myself to one thing. I'm just kind of like sitting back and being patient and going, this is great. They're actually addressing that or they're talking about it and they're starting to put policies in place. But yeah, but we still are in a place where we have to really be vigilant on the products that we're buying, the things that we're putting in and on our body and yeah, just being careful of all of this stuff. But my quick cheat code for people, look for products that are formulated to the EU standards or have NPNs, the Canadian standards, or are third party pesticide testing testing or our practicing heavy metal testing, if they're doing all four of those things, amazing.

If they're doing any one of those things, it's going to be so much better than anything else you can find and it's probably great. Yeah, yeah. I think that's, in my personal opinion, now we can always get duped, but in my personal opinion, if there's a company that's going above and beyond and doing all that stuff, chances are that the founder actually really cares and they're doing all that and they're putting in all that extra money and time because they care and they want to create high quality products.

So that's kind of my take with that. And if they're doing all that, it usually is findable. I'm like shouting it from a rooftop because I'm like, guys, my team's putting a lot of work in here. Please notice what we're doing for you. So usually you can find it and again, message the company. Don't be afraid of that. I do it all the time as a consumer because I just take that detective role with my family. Yeah, exactly. So I want to talk a little bit more about medicine because we just barely

touched on sugar. But I think this is another really important one to talk about because I just am trying to think of all the things that really make Beekeepers Natural stand out. And there's no artificial ingredients. There's a lot of immune boosting properties. Another really big thing that I love about your products is that you're very conscious of the sugar that you're putting in there and also the sugar amounts of it.

And you'd mentioned earlier that you're worried about what the kids' products, too, which I really appreciate because when I have kids, I'm going to be looking for your products. So let's talk about that. So you're using honey and you're super conscious about the sugar. Super conscious about sugar quantity and sugar quality. So first thing that's really big for us is no refined sugar. We're a refined sugar-free company. We'll work with things like primarily raw honey.

Well, raw honey is kind of our main sweetener, but we'll use a little bit of brown rice syrup sometimes, things like monk fruit, all of those I'm comfortable with, things that are unrefined sources, and even with those in moderate quantities. So our kids' lollipops, for example, we're using raw honey. There's two grams of sugar per lollipop, for example, we're using raw honey. There's two grams of sugar per lollipop and it's coming from raw honey. So it's unrefined sources. It's over 50% less sugar

in terms of grams than any of our competitors. And then it's also what else is going in there. So we've got the propolis, the zinc, the vitamin D. It's really an immune supporting formula. It's got other ingredients that are going to help to support overall health, flood the body with antioxidants. It's not just, you know, a sugar bomb to placate your kids and, you know, give them something so that they're not whining, that quiets them down for a little bit. I'm really allergic to that kind of thing. But you see a lot of that in kids' products. There's so much sugar. I think people see organic cane sugar and great, love organic, always love organic.

If there's a little bit of cane sugar here and there, I'm not losing my mind over it. It's really about quantity. But you start giving kids medicine or products that have five, six grams of sugar. And then they're having a little bit of fruit and they're having all these other things that are great for them. And you look at how many grams of sugar they've consumed at the end of the day and it's like, oh my goodness,

that's not okay for a little body. And we know this looking at children across the US right now, sugar is a huge problem. It affects everything from obesity rates, the obvious one, to heart health, it's affecting brain health. We're seeing behavioral changes due to the high sugar diet. So, you know, we really want to be conscious of that. And medicine is, medicine and vitamins are a,

specifically kids ones, are a sneaky place where sugars can be found. So it's again, it's that drug fact panel. We need to know how much sugar is actually in it. I want to know how many grams of sugar or if it's not sugar, how many grams of that artificial sweetener are in my spoon of cough syrup? How many grams of sugar are in that lollipop or in that lozenge? And if it's not sugar, I want to know what artificial sweetener you're using because

you know, big difference between monk fruit versus aspartame and maltodextrin. So those are all things that we really need to be looking into. A lot of these artificial sweeteners are, in my opinion, more problematic than cane sugar and I'm a cane sugar avoider. Yeah, I couldn't agree more. I mean, before you came out with all of your products, you know, your cough syrups and your lozenges, I mean, anytime I would get a cold or get sick, there was really nothing that I could buy because I'd go to the store and, you know, the Ricola's and the, you know, cough syrups of the world that had the dyes in it and then they

have like sucralose if they're sugar-free or they have ace K. I just was so, yeah, I was so upset about it for so long and then you came around and I was like, yes, somebody is finally addressing this. Like this is so cool. I also want to say for people, because I get this question a lot, all sugar is not created equally. Raw honey versus cane sugar, a very different glycemic index. So your body will respond very the same way your body will respond very, the same way your body's gonna respond differently to berries than it will to a chocolate bar. That's obviously an extreme example,

but the glycemic index for honey, particularly raw honey, which has trace amounts of propolis and pollen and all of these other nourishing things from the beehive, very, very different effect on your body. And then you also wanna be looking at fiber, right? Because the fiber and the sugars can balance each other. That changes the insulin spike.

If there's a product that has three grams of sugar and a one gram of fiber, that changes the entire equation for how that affects your insulin response, how that affects your overall health. So these are just important things to know and things to look at. Because again, it's not, I'm very, very pro low sugar and unrefined sources, but we have to also look at things more broadly and understand what the sugar source is, where it's coming from, you know, sugar from fruit, sugar from honey, very, very different than a refined sugar source.

Yeah. And, you know, and I mean, I've said this a lot in the episode, but I was thinking recently when you were talking about your lollipops and how I love that they're lower in sugar, but also nobody usually just has one, especially kids. And if they're having two or three and it's six grams per thing, you're almost getting up to 20 grams of sugar in. So I just wanted to note that. It's a very obvious thing, but I was thinking about recently when I had a terrible cold last fall, and I mean, I just

could not stop coughing. It was nonstop. I was like eating your lollipops basically like all day. And I was so grateful because I didn't have like a sugar high afterwards. And it was actually helping with my cough and getting my cough to calm down. And I wasn't coughing anymore. And I just remember being like, oh my God, I'm so grateful. These aren't like, you know,

10 grams per lollipop. Oh my gosh. Yeah. And again, it's coming from primarily raw honey. So very different body response. That's why also our lozenges, I pop those all day. I was like, guys, these cannot have more than one gram of sugar per lozenge because I'm going to eat the whole bag.

They're so good. So I have to, as long as I can eat the whole bag, we're good. So we're super conscious of that. And again, you know, I get, I don't have zero grams of sugar in my day. I eat a lot of honey. Like, I really eat a lot of honey, but I do a lot, I do more blood work than the average person. And what I can see is that my body responds really, really well to it.

And what I do limit is the refined sugar. and what I do consider is the overall load. So, you know, I am a person that probably has three of my own lollipops a day. I definitely get high on my own supply, but it's two grams of sugar per pop and it's coming from raw honey, so I'm not worried about it. And I know that I'm not eating a chocolate bar and ice cream before bed, and I have a really high protein intake, and I eat lots of fiber and plants and all of that. Yeah. Yeah. And like you said, the sugar sourcing makes a huge difference.

I feel very differently when I have honey versus if I have something that has cane sugar in it. And it's just the glycemic index is very different on it. Plus you're discounting the fact that with honey, you have all these other amazing properties that we've kind of talked about in this episode. You know, there's the polyphenols and the antioxidants and all those other things that are helping your body.

Your body's gonna assimilate it very differently than something that's just highly refined. Yeah, we've been, I mean, like all bee products, honey has been used for thousands of years. And it's really, for most of our lives as humans, we've been using these things like honey and propolis in a healing capacity. So our body really integrates these things very well. Yeah.

Okay, I want to ask you about royal jelly because you were kind of telling me a little bit about how it contains a unique compound that helps with brain oxidative stress. I just love, you're such a wealth of knowledge with all of these amazing, what do you call them, nutraceuticals, I guess? Things that come from nature that are really beneficial for our bodies. Thank you. We go really, really deep.

So I mean, I know so much because I have such an awesome, awesome team. So, royal jelly, I am obsessed with. We've talked a lot about this offline. So, royal jelly, what it actually is, a lot of people don't realize, and most people don't know what it is at all. So, I'll just make, I'll keep this quick. But royal jelly is the colostrum of the beehive. It is literally a secretion that the nurse bees make and they feed it to newborn baby bees. So, the first three to five days of life for a newborn baby bee, they're eating royal jelly and then they switch on to a more standard bee diet of honey and pollen. And the bee who's to become the queen bee

exclusively eats royal jelly. So that is all she is eating for her whole life and it's really cool because you can see these huge, amazing biological differences for the queen bee versus a regular bee. So you're seeing how that royal jelly actually creates changes. The queen bee will have up to 1400 babies a day versus a regular bee who doesn't have reproductive organs, so helping with the babies. Royal jelly, the queen bee lives three to five years versus a regular bee that lives six to eight weeks during foraging season.

And the queen bee is also much stronger, more robust. If you Google a picture of a queen bee versus a regular bee, you can see the difference. Royal jelly has these amazing effects in the beehive. And then for humans, it's really most of the Western world has focused on its effects on brain health. Royal jelly contains these two ingredients that are only naturally occurring in Royal Jelly. They can only be found here in all of nature. And they're called AMP N1 oxide and 10-HDA. And these are fatty acids that help to promote neurogenesis. They literally help your brain to create clean, new, fresh

brain cells and neurons. They help to support the messaging system between brain and body. And these are systems that get eroded with time, with age, with exposure to chemicals, carcinogens. And so Royal Jelly is a way to help nourish and protect your brain, support your overall system. And then what's really exciting is there's a lot of new research on royal jelly and women's health. A lot of research, early research, but looking at royal jelly when it comes

to fertility. There was actually a study done in rodents and it found that consumption of royal jelly helped to stimulate follicular growth. So that's really exciting. So you know, I just did a whole podcast where I went really, really deep into fertility and we talked a lot about this. We're seeing more and more, I mean, we're seeing this in our communities, people struggling with fertility and so all of these things that can be beneficial, they're very, very exciting. And then there was another study done looking at menopause symptoms. And this is really cool to me because that's just women's health is so understudied so I love love seeing some attention being given to significant

portion of our population. But this there was this huge study done it was I believe 200 women and it was looking at metaphors metaphors across a bunch of different parameters so looking at everything from mood stabilization to hot flashes to sleep cycle. And I think they were given a thousand, I might be getting this wrong, I think it was a thousand milligrams of royal jelly daily, something like that.

It was like 600 to a thousand milligrams. And it was done for eight weeks. And across the board, people had, they had paired down symptoms really significantly. So that tells us that royal jelly has amazing potential for hormone balance and for fertility and for supporting our overall health. So we know that it is amazing for treating concussions, for focused memory concentration, for you know if you're a member of the aging population and you want to be

preventative with things like Alzheimer's, dementia, neurodegenerative conditions, but we're just starting to see how it can play a role in fertility. And there was also a study done looking at royal jelly for men, and it found that it improved sperm across a bunch of different parameters from maturation to motility. It's really cool. So, you know, when I'm in baby making phase, my partner and I are like extra with the royal jelly. And you don't make just a royal jelly product, right?

But you do have those little brain fuels that have it. We have the brain fuel liposomal and that one's got royal jelly, ginkgobaloba, bacopa monieri and then cognacin. Cognacin is a patented form of citicoline, which people are now talking about citicoline for brain health in a big way. People are talking a lot about choline for field development, actually, which is really interesting. It helps to promote IQ. So choline is a good thing if you're pregnant.

But anyways, our brain health packets, I take those pretty much every day. I take that, like, I've kind of eliminated my afternoon coffee, and I do that because it really helps me with focus memory concentration, but it's also a way I can nourish and protect my brain. And then I also do our superfood honey. So our superfood honey, one teaspoon. Yes, it's honey, but it's medicinal grade honey. So one teaspoon of that honey has 745 milligrams of royal jelly, 532 milligrams of pollen, and 43 milligrams

of propolis. So it's a great way to just kind of cover your bases and get exposure to all of the superfoods from the hive in their raw form. That's like a very primal product to me because we're much more of a medicine company. So having a honey, sometimes people are like, what honey? But it is a medicinal grade honey and it's a way to get all of just like the raw core bee products in a really delicious form factor. So I do both of those every single day. I love that. I need to get back on the train of doing the superfood honey every day because

I have a jar, but I just like, I sometimes do you think it changes the properties if you put it in like hot coffee? It slightly will degrade the enzyme quality. What I do, because I do put it in my matcha, I put it in my coffee, I just wait until it's cooled down a little bit. Like I'm not, you know, putting it in steaming hot water, but I am putting it in hot things and I bake with it as well. You have to remember, it gets hot inside the beehive and all of these things are alive and living and functioning and supporting the bees. It gets so hot in the beehive in the summer of these things are alive and living and functioning and supporting the bees.

It gets so hot in the beehive in the summer that the bees will do something called bearding, where they literally, you might see this actually in Texas. I saw it at the apiary I was at here. The bees all come outside and they're like covering the hive box and it looks like a beard because it is so hot in the hive. And they're not taking their royal jelly out.

They're not taking everything out of there. So these things are somewhat heat stable, but for like absolute, absolute best if you're a total purist, then you can avoid heat. But I don't, I just don't put it in like boiling bubbling things. Okay, that's good to know. Yeah, I've been wondering that. And also, I just have to take a moment and just say how much I love your brain health. I know I've told you this personally, but just for the listeners, they can also hear this. I am obsessed with that product. Like truly, it turns on my brain in like no way that any product ever has before. In fact,

I always pack it with me because I've been flying a lot for my podcast. I took one today before I podcasted. Like it is my tried and true. Like whenever I have a podcast, I make sure I do it or have really, really intense days because it, I mean, it's like a super food for my brain. I can actually feel the difference on the days that I take it. I love that. I totally feel the difference with that one. For me, I noticed it so much with my jet lag recently. I came back from Paris and I, the next day, had like a team off site, jumped right into

it. It made such a difference just helping my body adapt, helping me feel like I was turned, I was like aware, alert, all of the things. It really helps me to function. But again, it's really, for me, I think of it as a preventative tool. I think of it as something that protects my brain

and helps me to protect myself from, we're talking about total toxic load, all of these environmental toxins that affect our brain health. Exactly. Yeah. And because it has the choline in there, I'm going to want to take that when I'm pregnant. And I don't know if you're allowed to say that publicly or not, but I will just say personally, I will probably be taking that when I'm pregnant.

So really amazing product to take in the lead up, ginkgo biloba. You're not really supposed to take when you're pregnant. So that's the only thing. So when I am in the trying phase, I'm hitting that one really, really hard. And then once I, the second I get a test, there are some practitioners that are fine

with ginkgo biloba during pregnancy. I always tell people to be the most careful, but what I hit really hard during pregnancy, a few things. One, you're immunocompromised when you're pregnant. So you are so susceptible, and getting sick when you're pregnant is not fun. You want to avoid that.

I went really hard with propolis during my pregnancy, and I didn't get sick. I also, I didn't want to introduce any medicine, anything. I didn't want any chemicals when I was pregnant. And so I was very conscious of not getting sick because the last thing I wanted was to be, you know, in a situation where I was forced to take something that I'm not comfortable with.

So I was doing like eight sprays of propolis a day. I was traveling, I was working. I had such a great pregnancy. It's one of the tools, I mean, in all the mom groups, I mean, it's like one of the tools you can use to support yourself while you're pregnant. And then the other thing is the royal jelly. So there have not been any studies done on how royal jelly affects fetal development. That would be cool, but very hard to run studies on pregnant women and babies. But I took that product

every single day. I did a spoon every single day of my pregnancy. I did a pretty large spoon when I was trying and, you know, we had a really great experience. We're very lucky too and we lead healthy lifestyles in my house. But we got pregnant really quickly and again, there's those studies looking at follicular growth and sperm maturation and motility and DNA with the royal jelly. And so I do give royal jelly some credit. But yeah, I think those are two things that are really fantastic when you're pregnant. And then the last thing that I was addicted to, actually two things I was addicted to

when I was pregnant, pollen. Bee pollen is so nutrient dense. It is nature's multivitamin, broad-spectrum vitamins, really high in B vitamins, so it's gonna give you that extra energy boost. It is super bioavailable. I have lots of friends that are like, I actually am a big believer in a prenatal

when you're pregnant, but I have friends that are just anti-prenatal, anti-multivitamin who use B-Polin to fill that void. And then the lozenges, the ginger ones, when I was first trimester nauseous, those helped a lot. Oh, that's good to know. Okay, I'm keeping all this stashed for when I get pregnant. Well, and for when we're trying, too.

This is amazing. Well, and this is so, the timing of this is perfect, too, just because my listeners know all I've been talking about this whole year is like my fertility journey of like what I'm doing, my way up to starting to try. And so this is just perfect. I love this. I have a question for you. I love that.

And I'm so, this is just like so topical for me right now because of this, all this other work that we're doing. But I'm so curious, what are like the four things you're doing in your lead-up to trying? Okay, so I mean there's so many things where where do I want to start so a lot of testing in the sense that we did really deep testing to make sure that I don't have super high levels of you know Heavy metals glyphosate like all that kind of stuff and actually shockingly enough my glyphosate levels are really high right now They were really low when I lived in California. When I moved to Colorado, something happened. We're trying to figure that out.

So what about your heavy metals, mercury, all that stuff? Because everyone I talk to right now has crazy mercury levels and it's like the healthiest people. Yep. Mine were actually okay. Mine were all like pretty much in like range and fine. Like nobody was worried about that. It was more my glyphosate and they also found mold.

So I know it's just just ugh. So that's been kind of my biggest thing. Getting Hector tested. That's actually been a really, really big one is making sure that like we're getting his health on board. He has some gut issues, making sure that we're clearing out his gut issues, like just trying to get him in like tip top shape. That's like been another really big one on my radar. Because, you know, when we met, he was, you know, just like standard typical American guy was like, he thought he was healthy. And he was doing a lot of things. Not to throw him under the bus. But you know, he was well meaning but kind of missing the mark a little bit. And so we're really working on like cleaning him up right now because that's a big one.

I'm really working on my, I would say my number one is like my detoxification pathways and then also my nutrient levels. So I've been, I actually am taking, I've been taking a prenatal for like three or four months now and I've been upping my choline and I've been upping my, everything that's in the WeNatal, I actually forgot what's in the WeNatal supplements.

That's a great one though, I know that one, yeah. I love. I'm doing the egg quality and also the for her. And there's something else that I'm blanking on right now. So if you have any suggestions. So if I may be so bold, take your brain health every day. I know you're already really good with that, but that's a really, really good one in the lead up because especially with the cognacin, that's the patented form.

So that will give you really healthy levels and then it's just when you take that when you get the test I would stop just because the ginkgo. But that one will help you get really really great levels and sort of set you up there. And then the royal jelly as well. Do the superfood honey every day. Do and that's for Hector too. Both of you guys do that one. That's like a really really great one for sperm health as well. Both of you guys do that one. That's like a really, really great one for sperm health as well. Both of you guys do propolis every day, not for immune health, but for oxidative stress. Oxidative stress is a killer for fertility. Lots of studies looking at how propolis helps to combat oxidative stress, which is huge.

Propolis also specifically at Beekeepers, we test for certain compounds in our propolis. So we're testing for things like kacertin, apigenin, pinobanthin. There's like six different parameters that we test for because we want to standardize and make sure that we're giving people the highest quality bee product in the universe. And so all of those have a different flavonoid and polyphenol profile that has a really protective effect on the body holistically. So that's a really big one. And then for you, bee pollen, just again, even though you're taking your amazing prenatal,

just to kind of cover, it's so great with the micronutrients. And then I noticed too, when people are doing detoxes, it's great because we are exposed to so many toxins, but it can sometimes wash out some of our micronutrients and minerals. So giving it that extra support, it's not going to hurt you and it's just a good thing to throw in there. I kind of veered us in a totally different direction here, but just throw it out there. No, I loved it. That was great. No. Yeah, it's really like just my main focus right now has really been like, I mean, you know, I've been on this health journey forever and really had my diet dialed in for a long time, but I am like really just like dialing in certain things

like my minerals and just making sure that I'm really like, you know, not forgetting to eat lunch and like eating super late. Like I'm just there's so many little things that I'm like really, really starting to pay attention to more from like just making sure overall that that mine and Hector's health are tip top shape. So yeah, and a lot of sauna and sweating right now too to try to get all the glyphosate out. Oh yeah. You know what you should look into for glyphosate? Ebu. Have you heard of that?

Well, you know what? I've actually never done Ebu, but I've done ozone IVs, but I haven't done the full where it goes through and back all in one go. Just like one session, it can be helpful when we've been exposed to some toxin. I did that. I had a mercury exposure. That's a really good idea. Yeah, I need to do that.

Okay, great. Well, okay, before we go, you have so generously given me a code to share with my audience, which is 20% off when you use code realfoodology. So you can go to beekeepersnaturals.com slash realfoodology and you'll get 20% off. So yeah, thank you so much for coming on Carly. Please let everybody know where obviously they go to beekeepersnaturals.com, but where can they find you and anything else that you want to plug? Thank you so much for having me. This was so fun. One thing that I actually just want

to mention for you, this isn't a plug per se, but I forgot to tell you, the Beekeeper's Gut Health. I know you take that one. You and Hector both in the trying phase. That's a really good one, especially if he's trying to clean up his gut health, because that one, the Propolis, is really great as a prebiotic. You've got a spore-based probiotic, so highest survivability. And then we're using tributrate. Butrate is really, really important as a postbiotic, and a lot of products don't have that. So that's a really good thing to just kind of clean up your gut health, which

is so important. And there are not many studies on tributrate during pregnancy, but I got my OB's blessing and I took that one every day of my pregnancy. And again, great experience, amazing little girl. So just my own experience there. Hector's actually on that right now, because he's on a totally different gut journey than I'm on. But actually now I'm wanting to take that too. But he's currently on that. So that's great. I love it. I'll send you some for you. Oh, thank you. I would love that. Well, amazing. Okay. So beekeepersnaturals.com. Anything

else you want to plug? Beekeepersnaturals.com. If anyone has any questions, wants to go deeper, we go pretty deep on our Instagram, on my TikTok. My TikTok is Carly the Beekeeper. My Instagram is at Carly underscore Kramer. Reach out to us. We love hearing from you guys. And thank you, Courtney, so much for this time.

Yeah. Thank you so much, Carly. This has been so much fun. Thank you so much for listening to the Real Foodology Podcast. This is a Wellness Lab 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.

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