The products we put onto our skin and into our bodies every day can have a profound effect on our health. In this episode, Melanie Avalon returns to the podcast for an important discussion about the various ways endocrine disruptors, which are found in everything from skincare to soap to detergent to deodorant (and countless cosmetics, like lipstick!) pose a major health risk.

As I’ve discussed on the show before, paying close attention to the ingredients found in every product you buy, from cleaning supplies for your home to skin and body care to laundry detergent to makeup, is one of the best things you can do for your health. Unfortunately, the amount of toxic products out there still outweighs the amount of non-toxic ones, so you have to take matters into your own hands and do your own research in order to avoid extra exposure to endocrine disruptors. In this episode, Melanie explains how certain toxic compounds interact with each other and how this can actually increase toxicity levels, why you can’t just trust whatever products that claim to be “natural,” and the clean product lines she does recommend. She also reveals the connection between endocrine disruptors and carcinogens, why certain ingredients have such a profound effect on all aspects of our health, the amount of ingredients that have long been banned in Europe but are still common in America, and much more.

Melanie is the host of two podcasts: The Intermittent Fasting Podcast with New York Times bestseller Gin Stephens and The Melanie Avalon Biohacking Podcast, where she interviews the world’s top experts on a myriad of health and wellness topics. To listen to my previous interview with Melanie, Intermittent Fasting, A Healthy Diet Mentality, And How Both High Fat/Low Carb and High Carb/Low Fat Can Be Effective For Weight Loss, click here.

TIMESTAMPS:

Melanie talks about the bad stuff we put on our body..skin care and cosmetics. [01:18]

Brad changed his diet cold turkey from all the grains he was eating. [08:02]

If we can just clean up our diet, we are well on our way to optimum health.  The rest is just fine tuning. [11:44]

The US has about a dozen compounds that are banned compared to Europe which has banned thousands of toxins.  [13:36]

If you see the word fragrance on the label, it might be because they are protecting their trade secrets (recipes). [18:51]

There are endocrine disruptors which are obesogens. Carcinogens are in these products.  [20:14]

Anything you put in and on your body has the potential for damage. [26:26]

“Natural” isn’t always safe. [32:22]

Just as government’s regulations do poorly on cosmetic’s safety, it is the same for its overseeing food safety. [43:10]

What about soy? [47:46]

Because one does not feel the effects of using these products, they are unaware of what is happening in the body in the long run.  [50:40]

The products that are tested and found to be very safe are available in the US when you look for them. [57:12]

Some products can take the place of skin peel treatment. [59:55]

Males need to pay attention to their skin drying. [01:02:35]   

LINKS:     

• Brad Kearns.com
• Brad’s Shopping page
• Intermittent Fasting Podcast
• BeautyCounter.com
• The Cancer Code
• EWG: Environmental Working Group
• Most Common GMO foods
• Estrogeneration
• Melanie Avalon 
• Avalonx.us

LISTEN: 

Download the episode audio by clicking the arrow in the top right corner of the player above.

Check out each of these companies because they are absolutely awesome or they wouldn’t occupy this revered space. Seriously, Brad won’t sell out to anyone if he doesn’t love the product. Ask anyone.

• Brad’s Macadamia Masterpiece: Mind-blowing, life-changing nut butter blend
• Male Optimization Formula with Organs (MOFO): Optimize testosterone naturally with 100% grassfed animal organ supplement
• Inside Tracker: Ultra-personalized blood, genetic, and fitness data all-in-one online portal
• Primal Blueprint 21-Day Primal Reset: Online multimedia Mastery Course to get healthy and drop fat the right way

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B.Rad Podcast

Brad (00:01:18):
Hello listeners. I welcome Melanie Avalon back to the show for another very interesting episode on a completely different topic. We talked all things fasting and dieting last time. Melanie is the host of the super popular intermittent fasting podcast, as well as the Melanie Avalon biohacking podcasts. And this is cutting edge stuff with the world’s leading experts. So you’re gonna love her show and she shares her information on one of her areas of great interest and expertise. And that is the stuff we put on our body skin care cosmetics. And we are gonna go deep into this extremely concerning health risk of endocrine disruptors in the detergents, soaps, skin cares, cosmetics, lipstick. We’re gonna talk about deodorant and antiperspirant at length, and it’s a little alarming and disturbing. I know we have a lot of stuff to think about when we’re trying to clean up our act with our diet, do the right exercise, get enough sleep, and now we have to, or this on, but I’ve recently become extremely interested and enthusiastic about it, and actually quite disturbed to realize that the same patterns are in place when it comes to human skincare and personal care products.

Brad (00:02:38):
As we see with the major marketing forces pushing the unhealthy foods upon us and try trying to claim that they’re okay, don’t worry about it. They’re healthy. So she talks about this company that she’s involved with called Beauty Counter, and I have recently become involved as well. So you’re gonna get like an infomercial feel towards the end, but it’s really great because the leading forces in this, uh, movement are doing a lot of the hard work for you and scrutinizing their products very carefully. Some of the stats are pretty crazy like the amount of chemicals banned by the FDA. I think it’s 30 versus what’s commonly banned in the European community and it’s in the thousands. It’s over a thousand, so much more regulation. You go to the pharmacy, go to the drug store in Europe and you can rest assured that you’re getting cleaner products with less toxins, heavy metals, all these kind of things.

Brad (00:03:32):
Let’s learn all about it. Keep an open mind,. Relax, don’t get overwhelmed. We’re gonna do the best we in here, but we’re gonna pay special attention to the stuff we put onto our bodies every single day. And that especially is skincare and cosmetics. Oh my gosh, I am done using antiperspirant and I’m gonna go to the natural deodorants for the rest of my life. So inspired to avoid that aluminum toxicity. I also have a wonderful opportunity for you to get started with some Beauty Counter products. If you go to BeautyCounter.com/brad Kearns. So here we go with Melanie Avalon, Melanie Avalon of the Melanie Avalon biohacking podcast is back. Thank you so much. I’m, I’m glad to reconnect and we have an exciting show that may meander in different directions, unlike our usual tightly confined and questioned theme. So we’re gonna have some fun today.

Melanie (00:04:36):
Brad Kearns. Thank you so much for having me back. I am so excited to be be here. I love talking with you. You are pretty awesome.

Brad (00:04:44):
I received many emails from people saying that was, the time that you interviewed me, uh, which was a lengthy interview and the questions were so very well researched and, and free flowing. And, people said that was the best interview. I’ve heard you give Brad,. Also a compliment to the hostess, of course. So thank you so much. It was definitely my favorite show because you were so prepared and we kind of, we kind of took it deep and it really got me thinking about myself and all those things like, uh, it, wasn’t just the breezy, uh, pad answers that you often find yourself backed into a corner when they say, so tell me about your product or whatever, you know,

Melanie (00:05:24):
That makes me so happy. That was such an epic show. And I, I really liked it because it was about a topic that was like your forte, that I am just not knowledgeable on. So that was really fun. My listeners have been loving it. So thank you.

Brad (00:05:38):
Thank you. And also, offline I’ve, I’ve done developed an exciting new hobby thanks to you. And that is the increased awareness of the crap that we put on our body, our skin, and these endocrine disruptors that are so common in the, in the consumer marketplace. So you’re, you got a lot to say about that. I would love for you to educate the audience. I know we have so many things on our to-do list for doing the right workouts and choosing these foods and avoiding these foods, but this is a huge deal, and it’s really concerning to me because it’s another example of how mainstream consumerism, the giant corporate machines have very little concern for human health and are dispensing these products that they’re telling us to stick in our mouth, rub on our skin, uh, whatever, wash our clothes with, and they can be, uh, significant, uh, health challenge.

Melanie (00:06:37):
It’s really, really shocking. And I, I think it’s really interesting because it’s has such a profound potential effect on our health, on our daily experience of our lives, on our weight, on future generations. But we don’t really think about it that much. It’s just so prevalent, but I, so I probably got obsessed with this concept because I that’s

Brad (00:07:05):
Her job. That’s her job people, she goes deep and then reports the news to us.

Melanie (00:07:09):
I know, um, I, the first thing I quote, cleaned up in my life is probably what a lot of people first quote, clean up in their life, which was my diet. It was when I, cuz I went low car first and that’s when I realized that the effect of like what you eat can have on your body rather than just for weight loss. And then I did a paleo diet and that’s when I realized, oh, all these additives and foods actually have an effect as well, because prior to that, I was already doing low-carb. I was doing intermittent fasting. So I was like, it won’t make much difference if I like, what’s the difference between like normal keto low-carb and like paleo where you don’t have these additives and these other things. And I didn’t think it would make that much, that much of a difference, but it really did. And that, so how did you get started with keto or paleo or things?

Brad (00:08:02):
Cold Turkey, um, slap in the face from Mark Sisson in 2008, because we decided to work on this Primal Blueprint project together. And, uh, it was a, it was a major, it was supposed to be a minor kind of a, to, to further some of the comments on his blog about the ancestral style eating. And of course that goes back to 1988, beautiful Atlanta, Georgia, Dr. Boyd Eaton publishing a paper about the paleolithic diets around the world. And, and some study of that and realizing that, Hey, our ancestors ate meat, fish, fowl, eggs, vegetables for its nuts and seeds. They were really healthy. They had better bone structure, they had larger brains, all this stuff. And then, you know, it took many, many years. Lauren Cordain first published a book in 2002 about the paleo diet and then come 2009.

Brad (00:08:53):
When our book came out 2010, Robb Wolf’s book, then this movement was starting to take hold and people were starting to actually realize that if we modeled the diet of our ancestors, it might be a good idea rather than modeling the diet of the billboards and the fast food restaurants. And, so for me, you know, I’ve been in interested in healthy eating. Since I was a teenager, I was a runner. I bought the books of the day back then like Eat to Win was a number one best selling book about healthy eating. There was another one called Fit for Life by the Diamonds. And, I met them in Los Angeles and went to their house. Here’s the number one best selling authors. And they have this book where you could only eat fruit until 12 noon, and then you could start eating your proteins.

Brad (00:09:42):
And then at a certain time on the clock and it was all this stuff was, you know, in my, in my brain for my whole adult life. But, you know, I was also training for triathlons and eating a ton of calories. And so I had a pretty healthy foundation for what we considered healthy back then. But it was a big, uh, leap to ditch all grains from the diet. And that was kind of the assignment from Mark saying like, you know, these grains didn’t exist until 10,000 years ago. So the paleolithic diet doesn’t have any of this. And so I was like, uh, well, okay, what about oatmeal? He’s like, that’s a grain. I’m like, what about granola? Nope, sorry, that’s a grain. I had to like learn the basic of, you know, no bread, no rice, no wheat, no pasta. And so, immediately of course I can’t say that I lost 50 pounds or my skin conditions went away, but I did notice the distinct improvement in things like this routine roller coaster that a lot of us live on from eating so many processed foods.

Brad (00:10:42):
And then it got pared into different low carb and keto. And I jumped into keto in 2017. So that’s, you know, eight years into eating this paleo primal style. And then, you know, for experimental purposes, after talking to the, the great leaders like you’ve had on our show, we’ve had on our shows, Dom D’Agostino, Peter Attia now it’s time to cut carbs down to 50 grams a day and start making these ketones. And that was an interesting experience for me because I realized that it should be considered a tool, these strict and extreme diets that an individual can try out and test out for health optimization, including carnivore, which we just talked about before we turned on record that, um, I’m extremely fascinated by the compelling argument presented by Dr. Paul Saladino, Dr. Shawn Baker, the other leaders that, you know, the most nutrient dense foods are from the animal kingdom and the plants may or may not be harming you, and things worth reconsidering in including the salad as the centerpiece of a healthy diet, which we’ve been writing about for years.

Brad (00:11:44):
So I try to maintain an open mind, resolve, to think critically, not blanket dismiss things out of hand, which is a huge, uh, risk factor for not only your credibility, but your, your personal growth. And so, I’m kind of making a very, long-winded answer to your question when I’m supposed to be interviewing you, but it’s, it’s an ongoing journey. And now I’m gonna back up and conclude my long-winded answer, which is if we can just clean up our diets, like you described. And that means eliminate these nutrient deficient heavily processed foods, which are the, the, the centerpiece of today’s diet we’re well on our way to optimum health and the rest of it really could be considered fine tuning and optimization with the exception of, uh, going vegan, which is a whole nother side where we’re eliminating most of the nutrient dense foods. Then we have a problem and everyone takes a breath, including Brad.

Melanie (00:12:41):
I did not know that history of yours. I learned so much just now. We’re yeah, we’re very much on the same page, especially with the whole being open-minded thing. I just think that is so, so important and not, I’m just always seeking truth and I just wanna bring out like, or seek out all different perspectives and experiment and find what works for me. And that’s just really important. So same page there.

Brad (00:13:05):
Nice.

Melanie (00:13:05):
But so, so going for, oh, and to clarify, I’m actually not keto now. And I haven’t been for a while, but I do intermittent investing. But in any case I, so when I did the paleo stuff, that’s when I started realizing the effects of these non-food ingredients were having on our bodies. And then I got, well, I was gonna say a mosaic of a few different things happened.

Melanie (00:13:36):
I got heavy metal toxicity. I was living in an apartment that had mold, and carbon monoxide poisoning. Every time I was using the oven. So I started feeling not well. And, I started focusing on this concept of toxins in our body, and that’s when I realized that our skin care and our makeup, especially as women with the makeup, every single day is just a huge, huge source of exposure. But I, I don’t know, I was still pretty casual, casual about it when I first learned about it. And it was honestly the last thing for me to actually change.

Melanie (00:14:18):
I don’t know, you have the products that you like, you have your makeup, bigger skin care. It doesn’t seem like it’s that big of a deal. So I had cleaned up my diet. I cleaned up my environment, like my apartment, my air, all of that, but it was really hard for me to make the switch. But when I started looking into the research, it’s, it’s really, really shocking because, if you think about when we’re putting things on our body, like different skin, like skincare makeup, it’s granting it direct access to our bloodstream. So we’re putting it on. It goes in the compounds end up in our bloodstream. And there is you, you touched on this, but there’s essentially no regulation in like by the FDA of cosmetics and skin care. Like if you, it is shocking. If you go to the FDA’s website and look at their regulations, I’m paraphrasing, but they basically, I think they’ve banned.

Melanie (00:15:16):
It’s not many it’s somewhere between like it’s around a dozen compounds that they’ve banned as being toxic. Europe has banned thousands of them. Um, so that’s a big difference. And, um, what the FDA says is basically there’s a paragraph about how basically they say there’s not something about there not being enough evidence or conclusive evidence, and also something about how they don’t really have the, like the time and resources to invest to it. That’s like the takeaway. So it’s basically up to us to do the research. But these compounds one of the problems about whether or not they’re quote toxic, is the studies don’t really like the toxicity studies don’t usually reflect the way we’re actually using them. So they’ll take a compound, they’ll

Brad (00:16:09):
Eat some lipstick, like on the Super Bowl commercial. Yeah. Did you see the Super Bowl commercial where the celebrity, I forget who it was, just took a bite and lipstick and it was, uh, a commercial for Uber eats or something

Melanie (00:16:22):
She did.

Brad (00:16:23):
Yeah.

Melanie (00:16:24):
So lipstick, for example, fun fact, they did a study where they tested about a hundred different brands of lipstick and almost every single brand tested high for lead and lead the half-life of lead in your bone, in your in your body is up to 30 years. So that means when you put on some commercial lipstick, you’re probably putting lead in your body 30 years later, maybe half of it is out of your body. So no big deal. But what was I gonna say? Oh, so the actual toxicity studies though, so they’re not that applicable to the way we use these compounds or experience them in real life because they’ll look at, they usually look at, look at them and isolate it amounts. So like one toxin it’s effect on a cell in vitro. We are exposed to these compounds like cumulatively.

Melanie (00:17:25):
So it’s not just like one little exposure. Like if we’re putting on every single day, we’re getting that over and over and over. So it’s building up. So that’s not really applicable. It doesn’t account for the synergistic effects. So, or, or I think it’s called the cocktail effect. So some compound toxic compounds when they interact with each other, they, by themselves might not, might not be toxic, but together they can become toxic and, or by themselves, they might be a little bit toxic together. They’re even more toxic. So we’re putting on all of these different things. Um, that’s a problem. And, and like I said, these combats can actually build up over time. So the toxicity studies, aren’t that helpful, um, where I have a, a lot of other thoughts, but do you have any, do you

Brad (00:18:10):
Have any thoughts possibly there’s possibly some special interest lobbying involved as there is with food, drugs, you know, supplements, anyone who’s got an interest is going to try to steer things in the direction they prefer. And so not only are the studies not helpful, there’s, there’s arguably, you know, we have to, um, take a step back and think if they’re legit or not.

Melanie (00:18:35):
Yes. And I’m glad you mentioned that because, so even if you look at a product and you see all the ingredients, you might think, you know, everything that’s in there, but if you see the word fragrance

Brad (00:18:50):
Mm.

Melanie (00:18:51):
The reason that is probably not there to be a fragrance. It might be. But the reason it’s there, politically, is in the 1960s, there was an act surrounding this, where they said that companies could put fragrances in to protect their trade secret, um, formulas. So anything can be fragrance, anything. And they don’t have to tell you. So, so that just goes out the window with like, with what you might actually putting on your body. Um, so it’s really shocking. And then, um, so these actual compounds, like you’re talking about these toxic compounds, they are often endocrine disruptors, which your audience may be familiar with, but basically they mess with our hormones. And I know, so this actually ties into the whole diet thing. There’s the whole debate in the diet world about weight gain and weight loss. And is it calories or is it other things? And regardless of where you fall on that, there’s a lot of really fascinating research on obesogens. Have you heard of, are you familiar?

Brad (00:20:07):
Something that makes you fat. Oh, mercy. And it, it goes outside the, a food, the food category.

Melanie (00:20:14):
Yeah, exactly. So, um, a lot of these compounds that are obesogens, they directly affect our metabolic health and they can even affect our fat cells to make us store weight, gain weight, less likely to, less likely to gain weight are less likely less weight. And they often end up in our fat cells because when we take them in our bodies, register them as toxic. So to protect us because our bodies are our friends, they shuffle them into our fat cells in the fat cells. They can mess with the metabolism of fat cells to do what I just said, where they actually make the fat cells less likely to burn fat and more likely to gain fat. And they can actually make the cells, they, they create a more inflammatory state. And then the fat cells actually can recruit more fat cells like it makes you more likely to just make even more fat cells. Um, it can also fat cells aside. They also can mess with hormones like insulin, um, grelin, our hunger, hormone, lectin, our satiety hormone. So you may doing really awesome in the diet sphere, and the exercise sphere. But if you’re putting these on your body, you’re, I mean, you’re really shooting yourself on the foot and it can be a huge hurdle for, for weight loss.

Brad (00:21:41):
Dr. Cate Shanahan gives extremely similar description to what you just offered about the refined industrial seed oils. They get consumed and integrated into fat cells, and then they are rendered dysfunctional. In other words, they’re unable to mobilize and burn. And so you tend to store this type of fat that you eat. And, that’s interesting that the non edibles have that same, have that same chemical impact, anything that interferes with healthy fat metabolism, such as being poisoned and what have you, that’s troublesome because like you said, if we’re trying to nail our diet and exercise objectives, but we feel tired, we feel weak. We don’t recover well from workouts, and we’re hungry for quick energy carbohydrates, because we’re not good at burning fat, we’re gonna fail miserably even with great intentions and devotion and willpower.

Melanie (00:22:37):
Exactly. It reminds me of, I feel like this is a reference. Have you seen Mean Girls?

Brad (00:22:43):
Uh, a little, I think I’ve seen some scenes.

Melanie (00:22:46):
It reminds me of, um, the main Regina George, the main mean girl in that, and she’s eating this diet bar that she thinks is a diet bar, but really it’s like a weight gain bar. I feel like that’s what it’s like. Like you, like, you could be doing all the things, but you’re actually sending signals for the opposite. I do love Dr. Shanahan though, by the way, it has a very similar concept. Something else, and you, you’re talking about like the, you mentioned the word poison. So I had a huge, huge epiphany when I interviewed Dr. Jason Fung. Have you had him on your show?

Brad (00:23:20):
No. I’ve enjoyed his books and referenced them often.

Melanie (00:23:25):
Yes. So he’s, he’s fabulous. I brought him on my show for his book, the Cancer Code, for an episode on cancer actually, which was nice because I hadn’t done an episode on cancer. And also he’s really well known in the fasting world, but, but it was nice to kind of talk to him about a different topic. But reading his book was the first time I finally understood why carcinogens create cancer. And a lot of these compounds, these endocrine disruptors are carcinogens, and have carcinogenic properties and the way he described it, this is like such an epiphany for me. So basically cells are in our ideal world. We have our body cells, they’re functioning, they’re healthy. They’re great. If they get damaged or if they, for whatever reason are no longer working correctly, the body can kill them via process called apoptosis because we don’t want dysfunctioning cells hanging around.

Melanie (00:24:31):
So the body normally will just like get rid of them. The problem happens when we have our cells that they get like slightly damaged. So they’re not, they’re not up to par, like they’re not functioning the way they should be, but they’re not damaged enough that the body gets rid of them instead they’re in this like gray zone. And so what they can actually do when this happens is kind of go rogue because they’re no longer like working synergistically with the body, but the body’s not getting rid of them. So that’s when it’s hypothesized that they can switch to, you know, glyco and take on their own entity, their own life and entity and do their own thing. But it’s constant exposure to carcinogens. So like, just like the, a little bit of toxins, that can create this process because if the toxin were so bad that it just killed the cell, then the cell would be gone. Like it needs to kill it just enough to make it dysfunctional and make it still there. And then it can become cancerous and take on a life of its own. So when you’re putting on skincare and makeup with carcinogens, that’s what happens. It’s just ironic that it’s like, if it were more toxic, you might not have that effect because it would just get rid of the cell. But because it’s just enough, this is what results. So,

Brad (00:25:56):
Yeah, I guess that’s the difference between acute illness and lifelong slide into accelerated aging, demise disease through mild, you know, poisoning and adverse health practices chipping away at it a daily basis rather than, you know, if you eat some bad food, you get food poisoning, you’re in bed, your system is turned upside down and then three days later you’re okay.

Melanie (00:26:22):
Yeah. That’s a brilliant analogy. Exactly.

Brad (00:26:26):
Okay. So you talk a little bit about lipstick and let’s get into all the categories that we need to watch out for. And maybe some, um, some dos and don’ts.

Melanie (00:26:37):
Yeah. So, really anything that you put on your body has the potential for this issue. So for the ladies, everything on your face, all your makeup, there is probably, you’re going to more likely get more issues with things that are more directly entering your body. So like the lipstick really is something to, to watch for. But anything going on you is the potential for that. And then like, like skin cleansers, lotions, your entire routine that’s problem. Deodorant is huge, huge, huge. I, I bet a lot of people are, I feel like the one skin care thing that people are becoming more aware about in general, like the normal public is, the normal public. I’m not like people who are not normally obsessed

Brad (00:27:29):
The average health enthusiast, not the extreme biohacker, we gotcha.

Melanie (00:27:33):
Yes. Um, would be aluminum and deodorant. So getting,

Brad (00:27:39):
Yeah, well there’s antiperspirant and deodorant and the antiperspirant is what, the sweating. And that has the aluminum. I’d love to know how bad that is cuz I’m, I’m kind of like I make a half hearted attempt to try out the natural products and then I’m traveling and I get the little travel size of Secret or whatever the you know, the consumer, um, the mainstream brand. And so I need to up my game in this area as well.

Melanie (00:28:06):
Yeah. I’ve um, there’s a lot of clinical literature on the toxicity of aluminum. And, I think it’s a huge, huge issue, especially something as well. Oh, this is so sad. So for ladies, when we have children, there’s actually a huge detox process that happens where, we actually lose a lot of our toxic burden through the placenta and it goes into the newborn. So if like with these compounds being built up on our skin over time and in our system, if you, you have a baby, you actually shuttle them into the newborn, which is really shocking and aluminum would be one there. Also just, if you just think about it, I feel like we sweat for a reason. And so aluminum works by physically blocking our sweat ducks. I just don’t, I, I just like, from a very, just thinking about it, normally, it doesn’t seem like the, it, it’s not working in, uh, it’s not on, it’s not, what’s the word it’s like not working, it’s not supporting our body the way our body is.

Brad (00:29:20):
Yeah. It’s like, you know, a drug, a stopping inflammation, your pain goes away, but you’ve just overrided the natural inflammatory processes that the body needs to work through in favor of getting some instant relief. And at the expense of, there’s always a long term consequence, there’s a side effect with every single drug, an adverse side effect. And so I suppose that’s the same for, you know, chemical going up for the busy day.

Melanie (00:29:49):
Yeah, yeah, exactly. So I made the switch. That was one of the first things I switched was the, the deodorant. And, it actually, it wasn’t that bad when, so I was on the, the flip side of the transition

Brad (00:30:03):
You broke through to the other side.

Melanie (00:30:06):
Yeah. Yeah. There is sort of like a, I don’t know, it’s not like a withdrawal, but there is like a transition phase. Um, interestingly I, well, like I I’ve follow a very non-processed diet, and a very clean lifestyle and environment, and I don’t normally get body odor, but if I have some sort of, it doesn’t happen very often, but if I, for some reason have something that has a lot of ingredients in it, I actually, I will, which is very telling to me. Oh, it happens like when I, when if I get sick and I have to have, and I have a lot of like conventional cough drops or something, I will actually start getting body odor, which is really interesting. I don’t know if I’m just like, so my body’s just like, so ready to

Brad (00:30:56):
Yeah. Just

Melanie (00:30:56):
Shoot stuff out of my,

Brad (00:30:57):
Your skin is detoxing, I guess.

Melanie (00:31:01):
Yeah. Yeah. But back to your question, so the makeup, the skin, the deodorant, the hair products, that’s huge. So shampoo, conditioner, and these ingredients. A really, really helpful resource for people is the EWG. If they’re not familiar with that, and there’s the EWG has a, a skincare, like a skin database, I could have to look up, does that

Brad (00:31:28):
Stand for?

Melanie (00:31:29):
Environmental working group? So they go through and they rate the toxicity of pretty much every compound you can think of. Not just skincare, like for everything. So it, it’s, it’s a great resource for cleaning products. anything where you’re are, wanna look up, go food, any, anywhere you wanna look up ingredients, but they have a specific database for skincare and makeup products, and they will rate the toxicity of all the ingredients and give it a rating. Yeah. Between like one in one in seven, one in seven or one in eight. So that’s a really, really good resource for listeners to, you know, check out their current products. And, what I suggest doing. Cause it’s really overwhelming. Like I said, it was literally the last thing I switched over. Cuz I was overwhelmed. I had the products that I knew worked.

Melanie (00:32:22):
But I, one by one, as I would run outta something, I would not, not get the same one again. Something though, something that’s a little bit that can make it even harder though, is I remember when I first sat down, I was like, okay, I’m gonna change. I’m gonna, I’m gonna like do this. And I would go to the makeup store, or Ulta or Sephora. And I would look through all the different things and it can be confusing for a few different reasons. One things will often market themselves as natural, but that doesn’t really mean anything. And natural isn’t always safe. so

Brad (00:33:07):
Natural, racin from that, right? One of the most deadly poisoned known mankind is from rice. Right?

Melanie (00:33:14):
Exactly. Whatever. Or like snake venom, you’re not gonna, that’s natural

Brad (00:33:19):
Right. I mean, it seems to me that if you look on the ingredient label and you can understand what their, the ingredients, rather than a bunch of chemicals, that’s probably a step in the right direction.

Melanie (00:33:31):
Yeah. Yeah. Well, yes. But then also, synthetic compounds can be safe. So, that’s, that’s why it can be really confusing, but that’s why the EWG app is really helpful in that regards. But on top of that, I think something that’s really huge is going back to the heavy metals. So like I said, lipstick is really high in lead. That’s the heavy metals is something that’s not gonna be on the, on the label. So, so that’s upsetting. And, back to the makeup world,

Brad (00:34:04):
Right. That’s just a chemical, uh, the chemical nature of the makeup, whatever the, the ingredient is called has lead in it.

Melanie (00:34:14):
Yes. Right. And, and many natural foundations for women are powders. And because they’re quote natural, they’re using these natural powders that are, are high and lead. So natural makeup can often be, or are, are lead and other heavy metals. So that, that contamination issue is a whole problem. So that’s why you have to find brands that test for heavy metals. Um, so, so yeah, it’s some of these actual compounds that you might see commonly are things like parabins, um, those are pretty common. They’re used as preservatives and a lot of skincare and cosmetics. Um, fallates are pretty common there’s

Brad (00:34:58):
And these are toxic.

Melanie (00:35:00):
Yes. Yeah.

Brad (00:35:01):
These are things who wanna avoid. I know they, most of the candles are made out of parabins, which you do not want that air burning in your room.

Melanie (00:35:10):
Yes. Yes. I, um,

Brad (00:35:12):
Parabin free candles. Okay.

Melanie (00:35:13):
Yeah. I don’t, I don’t do candles anymore. My mom for Christmas, my mom gave me or no for my birthday. She gave me this happy birthday candle. And she was like, I know you don’t like candles, but it smells. She was like, it so smells

Brad (00:35:26):
Wonderful. Like root beer. Yeah.

Melanie (00:35:28):
It smelled like birthday cake. And I was like, thanks, mom. And then I gave it away to somebody else. Um, but yeah, so the, these compounds are, um, very, very prevalent and there’s just, there’s so many of them, that’s why rather than memorizing a laundry list. I think it’s really helpful to, to use something like the EWG and look them up. But you’ll, you’ll get familiar as you start looking and you’ll, you’ll be able to kinda like you were saying earlier, you get a sense of what is in the right direction. But

Brad (00:35:56):
Yeah, it seems like, uh, antiperspirant and deodorant is a huge category because you’re applying every single day, a fairly large amount to an extremely porous area of the skin. Obviously that’s where we sweat and release, uh, special chemicals and whatnot. Um, so as I understand, like the antiperspirant is the chemical intervention, so that you actually don’t sweat, you don’t accumulate moisture and the deodorant is to mask the smell, but you’re gonna feel different when you use a deodorant versus an antiperspirant. And I sometimes appreciate that dry, sensation if I’m wearing a dress shirt or something. And so that’s of like my, my justification, but if it’s that unhealthy, I guess we should put that high up in the rankings. And again, you said you were overwhelmed at one point, which is such an important, uh, thought to appreciate. And when we’re trying to get compliance and people motivated in sight to march forward and take control of their health, we can’t over well them, but we do wanna put these thoughts out for consideration, and I’m going to end this show, going through my, my various supplies and, and toss out the ones that are antiperspirant

Melanie (00:37:11):
Yeah. And so, um, there are like not, well, there are non aluminum form of antiperspirant, so companies will use ingredients that will have a drying effect without that aluminum. And so it’s really, there’s a lot of different ones on the market. So there’s a lot of different ones. And I, I find it really interesting that, you know, different ones like different quote, natural, safe ones tend to work for different people. Like, I don’t know why that is like, cuz this is something I’ve thought about before. I’m like in theory, if, if it, I feel like there should be one that works like really well for everybody just based on the science of it. But people tend for seemingly tend to react differently to different, um, non aluminum deodorant versions. But so like, I, I don’t know if, can we talk about brands on here? Like I,

Brad (00:38:00):
We might lose some sponsorship, but it’s worth it. I don’t want any garbage sponsors on this show. No way.

Melanie (00:38:05):
So a lot of people use Native. I know that one’s good. I love Green Tidings. That’s actually what I use. And then I love Beauty Counter. They have a good one as well.

Brad (00:38:17):
These are deodorants you’re talking about right now.

Melanie (00:38:19):
Yeah. Yeah. Green Tidings is the one I, uh, use most consistently.

Brad (00:38:24):
Dang, you go to trade show like Paleo FX. And I came home with a ton of choices. Like these are emerging markets now, and it’s really cool to see these, generally the small operators are, are, are coming into the mix and providing an incredible alternative to toothpaste. I think maybe we should cover that one next, cuz that’s another huge category where we’re putting stuff in our mouth and I’ve heard or read some, you know, quick offhanded comments about taking the regular toothpaste, taking regular mouthwash. And this can have an adverse effect on your gut health and on your immune function in your mouth and all these things. We think we’re killing germs in our mouth, but we’re actually kind of compromising the microbiome accordingly.

Melanie (00:39:10):
Yeah. Um, fascinating that you bring that up. I’ve, I’m really it by the oral microbiome and actually a company reached out to me, I’ll have to connect to you if you’re interested. Company reached out to me last week. Um, and they do oral microbiome tests, um, which is, I’m very excited about that. Um, and they, they said their focus is gonna be cuz their new company, but their focus is a lot of what you just said, the, the role of our actual mouth care and how it affects things and yeah, in general, those, you know, the alcohol and the mouth washes and the conventional toothpaste, I think can have a pretty negative effect on our oral microbiome. Um, so yeah, that’s a whole overwhelming rabbit hole as well. But I will say just cuz I, like we said, it could be overwhelming.

Melanie (00:40:01):
I really encourage listeners to, cuz what I, what I did at the very beginning was I was like individually researching every single product and trying to find alternatives. And it was really overwhelming. If you can find one or two, go to few brands that you trust the brand, then that really helps with making this, this shift. Um, especially with things like, cause we say things like the heavy metals like that, like that’s something that is not, you’re not even gonna be able to figure out you yourself unless you know that the brand test for heavy metals. So the majority of what I use is Beauty Counter, which I mentioned they do make a deodorant. But they were founded on a mission. So the founder of the company, it was her either her friend, somebody that she knew, I dunno if it was her friend or a sister or somebody had a miscarriage and she started doing the research on endocrine disru ptors and how they relate to fertility and miscarriages.

Melanie (00:41:03):
And that’s when she realized the overwhelming toxic burden of our skin care and makeup and realized that there wasn’t really any company that was really paying attention to this. And then on top of that, um, she really needed a like, like, like I mentioned before, like the natural confusion, like a lot of the approaches to this are just to make these quote natural products that they might not even work that well. So what I love about Beauty Counter is they, they don’t care if it’s all natural, it’s all just about testing for safety. So they have their list of 1300 different ingredients that will never be in their products that have, that are common in normal skincare and makeup. But then on top of that, they, they will have like, uh, they’ll have, what’s the word I keep using the word. Um, they’ll have compounds that aren’t natural because it’s just about the, the safety.

Melanie (00:42:00):
So everything is tested to be safe. They actually test every product six times to heavy metals. So that really spoke to my heart. Um, and then on top of that, the products just really, really work and they’re really good quality. So like the makeup, which was the hardest thing for me to switch over, um, Tina Fey hosted the golden Globes in 20, was it 2021 or 2020 of those years. And she wore all Beauty Counter makeup as the host. So like the, so ladies, the makeup is high definition, camera, high camera definition. Ready? So yeah, so I just like trust them as a brand and I was able to switch over everything, champion, conditioner, makeup, all the things. Um, if they don’t have a product that I want or still need, then I go and there are a few other different brands that I will use. I like Thrive cosmetics a lot. Um, so yeah, , that helps with the overwhelmingness at least a little bit. But, um, I do think it’s just up to us as consumers to make change here because we can’t rely on companies or government agencies to take care of our health. Um,

Brad (00:43:10):
Oh my gosh. It’s so relatable to other things too, like food and finding some trusted brands and you know, you and I live and breathe this stuff. So I have the opportunity to go and dig into some of these food manufacturers and ask them a few innocent questions. A lot of times it’s by email and the response I get a lot of times it’s lame-o city and I know right away, you guys don’t give a crap and they’re, they’re trying to blow someone off. And then, um, you know, on many occasions cuz I’m also picking something that seems good and I wanna know more, they will pounce with a wonderfully detailed response to a single consumer about how passionate they are about sourcing the finest bean to bar original, you know, from the farmers and Ecuador. And they roast the like themselves and everything’s clean and they’re so happy that I reached out and contacted them.

Brad (00:44:00):
And those are the kind of people that, you know, we wanna support with our consumer choices. Same for, you know, Whole Foods Market. I, I talk about them a lot on, on, on the show because, um, it’s great. It’s the wonderful, you know, evolution in the supermarket world over decades. But they pass themselves off as everything in the store is super duper healthy and, and clean and they have canola oil prevalent in their hot bar. They sell it on the shelves, they have products containing canola oil. And so you wonder like, well, where are you gonna draw this line? And I want you to draw it further out, even at the expense of profit, but you’re, you’re getting a starting point by going into a healthy, natural food supermarket. But then you have to go all the way to the finish line and scrutinize your choices, especially when they become habitual.

Brad (00:44:50):
And that’s my I big one is like I was buying Paul Newman’s red wine and olive oil salad dressing for probably 15 years cuz it tasted great. And it was made with red wine and olive oil. And I never once got my reading glasses out and looked on the back of the label where it had the ingredients listed and it said canola and or cotton seed oil, olive oil, red wine vinegar, whatever. And so not only they couldn’t specify which one, because I guess whichever one was cheaper that came in the big vats that were shipped to the manufacturing plant, but it, it predominated over whatever olive oil, they, they sprinkled in there to have prominently on the front of the label and you’re like, why could they even, how can they even be allowed to put that on the front of a label and same with, you know, the other examples in the supermarket.

Brad (00:45:41):
So, um, this is exciting to kind of branch that thinking out into a whole nother realm. And when you listen to your show, the, the for Beauty Counter you can’t even tell it’s a commercial because you talk so eloquently and maybe it’s longer than your average commercial, but you learn so much in that commercial message. And it got me inspired to talk to you, even though I’m not a cosmetics person. I think my drawer is like, you know, let’s see, there’s a toothbrush, there’s some toothpaste. Um, I don’t even have a comb. I use my fingers as, as you can tell, if you’re watching on YouTube and I have very little that I put on my body besides Dr. Broner’s and a couple other things. Um, but you know, I’ve become recently interested in improving my skin care cuz mostly I look fit and healthy and then it’s like, geez, I got a lot of wrinkles too.

Brad (00:46:32):
Maybe I should, you know, get into this world and you sent me some amazing samples. It felt so good to put on my skin. And then I started learning more about, you know, if you were to go down to the store and buy a facial serum or um, you know, something that even men are interested in, you could get whacked and we haven’t talked about this yet, but the endocrine disruptor umbrella also includes these estrogenic compounds, which are extremely disturbing to male hormone health. And that’s why we have these amazing testosterone decline stats that I reference with my MOFO mission where the average male testosterone level has declined at a rate of 1% per year since eighties. So that means your dad at the age of 53 had way more testosterone than you, listener, at the age of 53 or 43. I’m not talking about the decline every year. We, we drop a little bit in our hormones. I’m talking about average to average. So the 37 year old back in the eighties had way more testosterone than today’s 37 year old. And it’s just, you know, an extremely accelerated decline for a lot of reasons. One of ’em being these estrogenic compounds in the environment, especially stuff that goes on our skin

Melanie (00:47:46):
So much, so much there. I do the exact same thing with emailing the companies about the thing. And sometimes it’s really funny because I sometimes I’ll get completely different answers. Like there there’s this one product I got and it said had natural flavor and I emailed them on two different occasions, maybe a week apart. And I got completely different answers about what it was. I was like, oh,

Brad (00:48:10):
Okay. Maybe that was the second batch they ran was something different.

Melanie (00:48:14):
I, I think they just made it up, honestly. But, so, but yeah, so many things that you touched on the, the estrogen effects I think are really, really huge problem. I wanna a question, but it’s, it’s a really big rabbit hole. Do you, how do you feel about like soy natural Vitoestrogen compounds like whole soy?

Brad (00:48:41):
Well I know the things that are fermented are reducing a lot of the offenses that you might read about from the soy family. Soy and flax are 200 times more estrogenic compounds than any other food. And we know flax seed oil is a popular supplement, flax seeds to sprinkle on your salad. And then the many foods made with soy, especially, you know, as an additive as an agent in food, you know, nutritional supplements, whatever packaged boxed frozen food. And so it’s something that I’ve tried to stay away from, but I, I do have a small understanding that certain types of fermented soy can be non-offensive.

Melanie (00:49:25):
Yeah. I that, that was pretty much my approach. Soy is just so well. So I is also common in skincare makeup. It’s so prevalent. I think it, is it the most genetically modified crop?

Brad (00:49:43):
Up there. It like there, 99% of soy, people, yeah. Is GMO. And so if you’re getting something with soy soybean, soybean oil, you’re into the GMO category. Yeah.You know,if you don’t care about any of this, you’re probably still not listening right now, but it’s interesting as it, I just had a thought pop in my head. Like I don’t feel bad when I put antiperspirant on. I don’t feel bad when I have, you know, a tofu meal that I use to eat a ton of back, you know, back when I thought I was eating healthy. Um, and so it really takes kind of a leap of consciousness to make this informed choice that we’re gonna do this for the sake of, let’s say our longevity rather than an instant payoff. And, that, that part, I’m gonna ask you a question here too. Like I find that’s a sticking point for a lot of my everyday what’d you call ’em regular people or something regular citizens. Yeah.

Melanie (00:50:40):
There’s, like, not a word for like non really intense people.

Brad (00:50:46):
Right. I mean, people are really busy and I love interacting with, let’s say my old friends where I’m not on stage with a microphone, thereby getting a, you know, an immediate, characterization of the interaction where people are there to listen to me and sit in the chair. Um, so it’s more like I gotta get two sense in, and when I’m talking with my animated five old friends that each like to talk and then, you know, throw some darts in there. If they ask me about health matters or diet or exercise or whatever, and see what sticks and you realize a lot of time, people will make a dismissive comment. They’ll say, I’ve been doing this my whole life. They’ll say, well, it sure tastes good. So I, I still love Ben and Jerry’s even if they put refined industrial seed oils on some of their, uh, some of their flavors, which is so shocking because these brands try to convey this hippie trippy, natural, wholesome image, and then they stick it to you. So they don’t really care. Same with the, you know, the cosmetics you talked, the people touting their natural foundation that’s heavy and lead because they didn’t test it.

Melanie (00:51:56):
Wait, what, what’s the question in there? Yes,

Brad (00:51:58):
No. Yeah. You take over. We’re not doing Q and A, we’re just like the Brad and Melanie show

Melanie (00:52:06):
Set it, you set it up by saying you set it up by saying that it made you think of the question

Brad (00:52:09):
I was, oh yeah, that’s right. The question is like, do you see this? I mean, obviously you have a, you have a goal of, influencing people, sharing information, being a voice and what’s effective. And then where do you see people getting glitched up for whatever reason and not going to town, if it’s, you know you, a friend, family member, uh, listener person, you randomly meet on the airplane flight, whatever?

Melanie (00:52:36):
Okay. Got it. Um, well, well, first of all, to that point, this kind of, this goes back to what you were saying about the way I talk about it on my shows and the quote advertisements. I like, I’m not trying to sell this to anybody. I just find issues that I’m really obsessed with. And I just have to tell people, because I learn about this and I’m like, this is so important. And this is so life changing for me. Like, people need to know this. And I honestly think because the processed food industry, for example, is a huge issue, but I think there’s a lot of, there’s a lot more awareness surrounding it. Like, like things are, I think the tides are turning, like, especially even Whole Foods. And we talked about like, it has its problems, but at least there’s like a general awareness of the issue.

Melanie (00:53:27):
With the skincare and makeup, I would say, I mean, I think it’s just as bad, but we just don’t realize it because there’s just no education surrounding it. And then it is, like you said, you, you might not immediately the effects. It’s a long term chronic effect that it’s having on your body that is going to create health issues down the line, um, add to your toxic burden. So it, it’s something that’s really hard to measure. Yeah. Like you said, it’s not like I’m not gonna like put on some, put on some foundation and then be like, oh, I feel so sick.

Brad (00:54:03):
Yeah, I’m tired. I don’t feel like going at out now.

Melanie (00:54:06):
Yeah.I know. So, um, it can be really, really hard. And I, I think this is, this is not the answer that you’re probably looking for. But I, personally, I, I don’t want to take on the responsibility of changing anybody. I just, don’t like I, so I’m not here to convince anybody to make the changes or convince them of why they have to do this.All I can do is share what I’ve learned, which is like, this is the information. Again, it, it might not be something that you notice right now with the health of effects, but it, at least from what I’ve researched and what I’ve seen, it is something that is going to affect you long term and your children, future generations for all the things that we just talked about. So, that I, that’s not that helpful, but,

Brad (00:55:04):
I think that could be the secret right there is that you, you know, you have to wait until someone’s ready to receive the message. And if you start to try to hack that, uh, that reality, you’re gonna get pushed back. And I think that’s just the way human nature is. Mark Manson talks about how difficult it is to change someone’s mind and how rarely it happens. And so we waste a lot of time arguing, just for the, the sake of doing it and whatever the, the strange payoff that we get for, you know, soap, boxing, our views on politics, COVID 19, healthy eating, use of cosmetics. But if you, if you experience that initial resistance or repeat existence, if it’s coming with family, friends, people you interact with a lot, you’re just, you’re just digging a hole and wasting your energy. And I’ve had to learn that lesson over the years because I’m so enthusiastic about this stuff. And so excited. And I want everybody to you know to get on the journey here. Uh, but not if you’re not ready, then, then we’re, you know, more, or we’re not getting outta the train station, which is fine.

Melanie (00:56:11):
Exactly. And I think that’s why I love podcasting because it’s not like I’m showing up talking to somebody and trying to convince them of something. I’m just, I’m just like learning and interviewing people and sharing that information and people who want to listen can, and so I just, I think it’s wonderful. And then, as I, there, I do passive aggressively try to get this into people’s lives by like skincare makeup is, makes the most amazing gifts. So basically the gifts people get from me is like all Beauty Counter all the time. Right on, um, yeah. Cause then it’s yeah. Then they wanna, and then they experience. I think it’s really important for people to realize. I think there’s a lot of fear that, you know, what they’re doing is working with their products. So, you know, switching might not work, but once you get really good quality stuff that really works and is amazing in their hands and it’s safe, it’s easier to, it’s like the gateway drug, but it’s easier to keep going with it. So,

Brad (00:57:12):
So, I’m interested in it because it’s, it, it’s so new to me I’m trying some of these products that you, Jenn, he sent me and I’m, I’m gonna get involved with this company cuz um, it is a rare kind of distinction to see this level of testing going beyond even what’s banned in Europe, but that distinction between the FDA and what’s routine and customary in Europe, where they’re doing a much better job protecting their citizenry, um, we at least want to get to of that standard. So you can either go look around and shop for some Beauty Counter stuff or go on a trip to Europe and stock up on every little cosmetic thing that you need and feel more comfortable flying home with your with your carryon bag, but maybe just tell us a little more about more kind of offerings they have, what you like to use, what you’ve seen from your listeners and followers. That’s really been a transformation.

Melanie (00:58:13):
Sure. I love this. I love talking about things.

Brad (00:58:16):
Just getting teed up people. I know. Yeah. It’s an infomercial, right?

Melanie (00:58:19):
I know. No, I love this stuff so much. So I started, this is, it’s kind of funny started just with the makeup, not the skincare lines. I was like, I’m just gonna do the makeup. I’m gonna slowly switch over. Um, so I was obsessed. So they have, and ladies, they have they have everything, so amazing foundation, tons of shades. They’re new mascara. Get their new mascara. It is my favorite. I I’m the type historically that has to combine multiple mascara’s. This is a lot of girl talk, Brad. So I’m just, you can just zone out a,

Brad (00:58:56):
A little bit combinations are important.

Melanie (00:58:57):
Yes. So yes. There was never one mascara that would do all the things I wanted. I had to combine different mascara. Their new think mascara is amazing. Their old one, I still had to combine, but their new one, get it, think big mascara, their lipstick, their eyeshadows, all of that. But the funny thing about the skincare is I, so I was so sold on trusting their mission and their ingredients. So I wasn’t actually using the skincare products, because I, prior to this, I was like, oh, I don’t want any skincare products. I’ll just use Castile soap, take off my makeup and be done. That’s really what I was doing. But I was like, I know other of people want stuff and I trust this company, so I’ll send samples. So I started giving samples of people and people and talking about it and people would report back. And I was like, oh, I gotta start trying stuff. Cause people were saying how amazing it was.

Melanie (00:59:55):
So then I started trying my own samples and I was like, oh, this is amazing. So they have an overnight resurfacing peel. That’s incredible. It’s basically going to give you the anti-aging benefits of those really pricey peels that people go get done that are full of toxic ingredients and are probably not doing good things to your skin. It’s like the safe way to do that. So I kind

Brad (01:00:21):
What kind of peel are you talking about? They go to the treatment center and what are they doing to the skin? I’ve heard of it and seen people come back with shiny skin, but I don’t know what’s going on there.

Melanie (01:00:32):
Yeah, I haven’t, well, I haven’t done any of the, the chemical peels, but I know it’s a very intense process and the ingredients are no bueno, so it’s

Brad (01:00:43):
Super popular, right? I mean, this is common.

Melanie (01:00:45):
It’s very popular. It’s very popular. Yeah. So that’s why they created their overnight resurfacing peel. It’s just a, um, you don’t peel off anything. It’s just a, like a cream or a gel, like a gel cream, but it has ingredients in it that are going to create that cellular turnover effect. So it’s incredible.

Brad (01:01:03):
What the cellular turnover effect overnight cellular turnover effect of your skin?

Melanie (01:01:08):
Wait, what, that’s, what it does

Brad (01:01:09):
What is it? What does that mean?

Melanie (01:01:12):
What is, oh, so cuz your skin so that your skin cells in your face are constantly renewing and they have a, a timeline for you have a timeline for being renewed. And when you increase that cellular turnover, that’s when you can get that young, glowing, new skin look. And so there are certain compounds that can increase that it and you’ll feel it, it has like a, I can’t really describe it, but you’ll you feel stuff happening? The what’s the word? The, the effect that I got from it was, when I, the most amazing skin I had was when I was in my high pineapple diet phase, like I was eating so much pineapple, which is really, really high and I’m called bromelian that can help just so many things in your body. But I really noticed the fact of my skin when I, when I was eating a lot of pineapple, I’m not eating a lot of pineapple now cuz I’m doing slightly lower carb in the fruit world. I’m still high carb, but I’m not doing this, the pineapple cuz the sugar, um, the overnight resurfacing, that’s why we’re talking about this has that it was the first thing that kinda gave me that effect, which is really exciting. There, you tried their vitamin C serum I believe, right?

Brad (01:02:35):
Yeah. I should say I, I only got interested in this stuff. Um, maybe a couple years ago, cause I heard Ben Greenfield talking on and on about his wonderful skin serum that he designed with experts and was selling on Keon. And so I said, okay, Ben, I’ll try this stuff. And I had no idea the cost of some of these things. So for like $65 for a small bottle, I could not believe it. But I, you know, I gave it a art and it felt great for putting something on my skin for the first time in my adult life or in my whole life. And you know, doing this nightly regimen, it really felt like it worked and I was doing something that was, you know, nourishing rather than just kind of running dry usually because I, I go in this spa so much and or the lake and you know, you come out and you just, your skin tends to dry up. Uh, so I was hooked on his product and then they discontinued it and then you stepped into the rescue and the product that you sent me, you, you just named it, what is it? The vitamin C

Melanie (01:03:35):
Vitamin C um, it’s, they’re all bright sea serum.

Brad (01:03:37):
Yeah. It’s just, it’s so fan fantastic. I feel great. And so I want to talk to the, the male listeners here and I get into your skin care a little bit. I’m not about to go wearing lipstick or putting on foundation, but this thing has become, you know, a regular key element of my routine. And I’m really glad to, I, I think I’m doing my skin a solid and, we’re gonna check back like in a year, see if my, my wrinkles have entirely disappeared. Right now I’m, I’m halfway there. So follow along, listeners, follow along.

Melanie (01:04:06):
Yeah, that’s definitely one of their most popular ones. I’m obsessed with it. Um, also in the wrinkle department. So they actually have, they have skincare lines, so they anti-aging line is called Counter Time. They have a counter match for normal skin. They have counter start for sensitive. And if you have acne or oily prone skin, which I had, I had really bad acne growing up and I did in high school, I was on birth control for it. And I did accutane which looking back, um, so they have their counter control line, which is really, really amazing for that. And I’ve heard amazing feedback from people saying, it’s the first thing that’s worked for for their acne. So, um, yeah, that’s, that’s amazing. And then they’re their shampoo conditioner I love. And then they have like body, they have body lotions, they have products for babies. So, um, like diaper creams and, um, baby washes. And so that’s love it. Yeah,

Brad (01:05:11):
Love it. So I think taking a big picture here with the show. The reason I wanted to talk further about this is cuz I, I know you to be authentic legitimate person who really is living and breathing this stuff. And, and so am I, now I’m a, I’m a big fan and I think it’s a great example of an area where we can educate ourselves further, look deeper than what’s presented on the, of shelves at the nearby pharmacy chain store and try to, try to upgrade without any additional, um, time or energy required. Like I’m gonna talk to you probably on a future show about adding this to your exercise program or you know, spending some more time fasting or doing things where the person really has to get and motivated. But this is simple, you know, changing your consumer purchasing decisions to make a huge improvement in your health. I believe you had the estrogen expert on your show, Dr. Anthony Jay or, or another one.

Melanie (01:06:11):
Um, I just thought, well, the reason I was talking about the so is I just had Dr. Neil Bernard, but he has a different opinion. Um, no, who was the estrogen person?

Brad (01:06:20):
He wrote a book called Estrogeneration Anthony Jay, oh,

Melanie (01:06:25):
Um,

Brad (01:06:26):
You,

Melanie (01:06:27):
We, we might have been talking about him offline

Brad (01:06:29):
Probably. Yeah. Yeah. I mean, I, I was captivated by his very crisp message that, you know, these are the areas that we gotta watch out for. Plastics touching your food and drink and is highly estrogen. That’s so easy to manage where you can go and buy the glass bottle instead. You don’t microwave stuff, that’s in a plastic nasty bowl, uh, because then the heat will further drive the plastic molecules into the food. And so just these little tips that don’t require pain and suffering and you can up your game dramatically. That was, that was really memorable to me. But one of ’em was a few of ’em were the stuff that you wash your clothes in, put on your skin, and consume. And so those are kind of the centerpiece that we really deserve to zero in on this stuff and, and make some changes and protect ourselves.

Brad (01:07:18):
And now it’s re my, of our friend, Dr. Paul Saladino’s quote, where he said, you know what we’re talking about going from level nine to level 10 or level six to level eight. And we really don’t know what it’s like to feel better because we have our own baselines. And that’s where we really deserve to be open minded and do some experimenting with a crazy 30 day carnivore diet experiment. Cuz guess what? Maybe you’ll feel better. Maybe you’ll feel better if you can you know, even psychologically better to clean out your beauty game and put products in that don’t have toxins in there. And so that part, you know, bumping up to another level, even when you don’t have an extreme complaint right now, that’s what I’m all about. Cuz there’s no other way to live. In my opinion. You, you can’t, you can’t settle. Right?

Melanie (01:08:08):
I could not agree more. And like you said, there are, there are so many little things that we can make adjustments for every single day. Like not grabbing the receipts if you don’t need the receipt.

Brad (01:08:19):
Oh. And the

Melanie (01:08:21):
Reason that thermal paper, that thermal paper has toxic compounds in it. So I, I always feel bad. Yeah. I, I just, I ne I feel bad because I’ll be at the self checkout and then I, I always let the receipt print and I just walk away, um,

Brad (01:08:36):
Get a, get a plastic bag, pull the receipt out, throw it in the garbage.

Melanie (01:08:39):
Yeah. Yeah.

Brad (01:08:40):
Wow. It’s everywhere. Right. All right, Melanie, you, you, you killed it again. Thank you for enlightening, this, this crew and having a great, great discussion. Tell us more about your latest and greatest. You launched this interesting product. How do we find you to follow you? Let’s hear it.

Melanie (01:08:57):
Well, first of all, thank you for having me back, Brad. I said this in the beginning, but you’re just, I just, you’re just like one of the most fantastic, amazing human beings on the planet. And I mean that, um, thank you. But, uh, so for listeners, I have two shows. I have the intermittent fasting podcast and Melanie Avalon biohacking podcast. That’s the one that Brad was on. I have a lot of, Brad and I have had a lot of similar guests between those shows. So if people like this show, they might like that show and vice versa. I did recently launch a supplement line and in it’s for the same reason that we talked about all on this show, oh, that’s an industry with lot of sketchy stuff. The supplement industry, you did

Brad (01:09:40):
You talk about the research you did to, to find a clean product and it was like an ordeal, huh?

Melanie (01:09:46):
Yeah. Yeah. I, with what I’ve learned with the supplement industry, I honestly just want to make my own version of everything now that I’m, that I’m currently taking. I my own version because I just don’t trust, love the brands out there. But, so Avalonx.us is where you can get my serrapeptaste supplement. That’s a protic enzyme that does a lot of things. You take it in the fastest day and it, um, it breaks down potentially problematic proteins in your body. So it helps things like allergies and inflammation, where your body is reacting to proteins. It clears your sinuses, it clears brain fog. It’s one of the supplements I supplements I’ve been taking for the longest. And so that’s why I wanted to make my own version for the first one. But there are a lot of other ones coming soon. And then my main website is Melanie avalon.com. And I, Melanie Avalon, all the places like Instagram and really just, oh, and then on Facebook, I have a few different groups. So if you search for Melanie Avalon on Facebook, I actually have a clean beauty and safe skincare group there as well.

Brad (01:10:50):
Ooh. What do they talk about? Just some, some back and forth from real people?

Melanie (01:10:53):
Yeah. Real people we have about, I don’t wanna misquote it. Um, we have over and members. But people share product reviews. It’s not just Beauty Counter, it’s all clean beauty and safe skincare. So people do, we do polls. People share their reviews. I do a giveaway every single week for, with Beauty Counter stuff in there as well. So it’s a fun place to be. My main Facebook hub though, is if biohackers, that’s my main, my main group. So that’s where I interact with people. If you wanna talk to me. Um, yeah.

Brad (01:11:25):
Good, good stuff. Keeping busy.

Melanie (01:11:27):
Thank you for having me.

Brad (01:11:28):
Thank you. Thanks for listening. Everybody do thank you for listening to the show. I love sharing the experience with you and greatly appreciate your support. Please. Email podcast@Brad ventures.com with feedback, suggestions and questions for the Q and A shows. Subscribe to our email list to Brad kearns.com for a blast about the published episodes and a wonderful bimonthly newsletter edition with informative articles and practical tips for all aspects of healthy living. You can also download several awesome free eBooks when you subscribe to the email list. And if you could go to the trouble to leave a five or five star review with podcast or wherever else, you listen to the shows that would be super, incredibly awesome. It helps raise the profile of the B.rad podcast and attract new listeners. And did you know that you can share a show with a friend or loved one by just hitting a few buttons in your player and firing off a text message? My awesome podcast player called Overcast allows you to actually record a sound bite excerpt from the episode you’re listening to and fire it off with a quick text message. Thank you so much for spreading the word and remember B.rad.

 

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