Plant-Based Minerals: Nature’s Nutritional Superheroes

Nick Urban [00:00:05]:

Hello, and welcome to MINDBODY peak performance with your host, Nick Urban. Pop quiz for you. What category of nutrients is the most abundant throughout the entire human body? Yet virtually all modern humans are deficient, and that deficiency has devastating consequences. If you guessed amino acids, you’d be close. That’s certainly one of them. But right behind it is minerals. These unsung heroes of the human body have all kinds of biological effects throughout the entire body. And quite simply, if you want to be your healthiest self and perform your highest, you need to be consuming an external source of minerals. As you’ll learn in this episode, the food in your diet simply will not have the amount of minerals you require to thrive. In this episode, we’ll cover why minerals are among the most neglected yet important nutrients of all. Why the RDA, the government’s recommendation of mineral intake isn’t even close to sufficient sources of minerals. The super micronutrients humic and fulvic acid. Why most mineral supplements do not work. Basically, everything you could want to know about minerals and then some. And if the biochemistry our guest shares this week is over your head, don’t worry. Towards the end, we translate that into actionable. Takeaways. Our guest this week is Caroline Allen of Beam Minerals. She came from a career in the corporate world and found herself struggling physically, mentally and energetically. So she dug into the research and discovered the power of plantbased minerals and their incredible ability to support a return to natural balance, aka. Homeostasis in the body. Ever since then, she’s been educating on minerals and plantbased humic and fulvic substances. Her own research has taken her deep into the realms of microbiology, molecular biology, cellular biology, agricultural soil science, and the study of plant decomposition. You’ll find the links to everything we discuss at the show notes, which are@mindbodypeak.com the number of this episode, which is 120. If you’d like to give her product, Beam Minerals, a shot, you can use the code Urban to save 20% on your order. All right, sit back, relax, and enjoy this mineral masterclass with our guest, Caroline Allen. Caroline. Welcome to MINDBODY peak performance.

Caroline [00:02:53]:

Thank you so much for having me, Nick.

Nick Urban [00:02:55]:

It’s a pleasure to host you and I first met you several months back here at KetoCon in Austin, Texas, and I’ve been actually using your B minerals, microbiome and electrolytes products since then. So it’s nice to be talking to the face behind the brand.

Caroline [00:03:14]:

Right on. How do you like them so far?

Nick Urban [00:03:17]:

I like them. I have several forms of micronutrients in my lifestyle in addition to my diet already, but these are nice and convenient. I can add them to my drinks, as I’m actually doing right now, and it’s a great way to get them in because I firmly believe that micronutrients are equally as important, if not more important than macronutrients.

Caroline [00:03:39]:

Yes, equally important. And we’ll talk about it for sure. Great.

Nick Urban [00:03:43]:

Well, let’s start off today? What are the unusuals or non negotiables you’ve done for your health, your performance and your Bioharmony?

Caroline [00:03:52]:

Well, I’m not sure that I separate any of those. So to me they’re all one thing. So actually, I have some practices first thing when I wake up. When I first come into consciousness, I immediately do a practice that is part of something called self identity through hoponopono, which is something that I’ve done for probably about 20 years. And it’s a very simple practice of connecting with the child within me. And I spend a little time with her. I kind of talk about the day, ask her how she’s doing, ask her if she needs anything particular today, like maybe a walk or something in her water bottle or whatever, and just give her a chance to and in the hooponopono tradition, that’s really just talking to your subconscious. They call it the child, but really it’s just giving an opportunity for your attention to turn to your subconscious rather than it needing to scream and cry for your attention.

Nick Urban [00:05:05]:

How do the responses usually come up in that format?

Caroline [00:05:09]:

Well, it is interesting. 20 years ago, when I first started doing that practice, literally, it was like I couldn’t even get that consciousness or that part of my being to even come into the room with me. But now we have quite an intimate relationship and it’s part of what’s allowed me to come more into my body and more present with myself and with people and raised my own awareness and allowed me to be more gentle and loving with myself because my subconscious doesn’t have to scream and cry to get my attention. I’m giving it that opportunity daily.

Nick Urban [00:05:53]:

Nice. Well, let’s talk about minerals. Now, for people who have heard of them and haven’t given them much additional thought, what would you say is like the best segue, like a fact or stat or something that is interesting about minerals?

Caroline [00:06:07]:

What I always like to say before I say anything else is you have in your body, your body is made up of between 37,000,000,000,150 trillion if you’re a very large human cell. And your cells are fueled by two things, minerals and amino acids. And your body makes a lot of amino acids, but it makes no minerals. And what do we know about minerals? Very, very little. So that’s the first thing is to really begin to think, oh, my gosh, everything, even your brain, your heart, your lungs, it’s all cells.

Nick Urban [00:06:59]:

Yeah. And even when we’re talking about minerals, it’s usually lumped into the category of vitamins and then minerals as an afterthought. Can you break down why that is? Why are minerals not more well known if they’re so important?

Caroline [00:07:15]:

Yes. Well, really, I think it’s for one particular reason. The minute you start talking about minerals, the conversation gets very complex very quickly. And so I think it’s taken me nine years to find ways to communicate the importance of minerals. And that’s both in terms of helping people understand depletion and deficiency and helping people understand mineral replenishment and also how minerals operate in the body and find ways to communicate in simple metaphorical ways that people can easily grasp and understand. And they’re just literally I think the people who were talking about it were scientists. And then if you think about doctors, practitioners, even naturopaths, none of these people, and I shouldn’t say none, but a very, very small percentage of even natural health practitioner know about minerals, how they operate in the body and how replenishment happens.

Nick Urban [00:08:24]:

Yeah, it’s certainly a complicated subject. And I’ve read a couple of books on minerals and I read one book on magnesium alone and it was like 250 pages. And I’m like, okay, when we tend.

Caroline [00:08:39]:

To think about minerals, we tend to, as you said, think about the macro minerals, which are the electrolytes that we all take. They call them macro because these are the ones your body utilizes a lot. It’s also what your body is made of a lot. But there are a lot of other micronutrients that your body absolutely needs that nobody really understands or salts much about.

Nick Urban [00:09:07]:

Can we talk about all of them today? And hopefully fairly concise and not too sciency level because I know that even just defining them, there’s the minerals, the macro minerals, the trace minerals, there’s like ultra trace minerals according to some people. Can you just define the landscape?

Caroline [00:09:25]:

Yeah. And there’s lots of different languages. And really here’s what I’d like people to think about. Look around your room and look at everything. Everything that has substance, your entire body is made of minerals. All the food that you eat, it’s all made of minerals. All structure is composed of minerals. If you took all the water out of your body, you’d be a little pile of minerals. Think of that. Okay? And really these concepts of like macro minerals, micronutrients, phytonutrients, these are really related to the formulation. So your body has a lot of the macro minerals and it utilizes a lot of macro minerals, which are magnesium, calcium, potassium, the ones that we hear about a lot, those are the ones your body uses a lot. But as you go down the chain of the ratio of what your body is made of in that little pile of minerals that you ended up with when you took the water out and we actually pulled it out and said, oh, there’s this much magnesium, there’s this much calcium, this much potassium, this much molybdenum, phosphorus. Things you wouldn’t take a pill for. But your body absolutely needs what we call the full spectrum of minerals and we can get into how it works. I think it’s kind of where I really like to start is talking about cell. Why are we even talking about minerals? Like, okay, my body is made of minerals and my body needs a lot. But why am I depleted? Can’t I just eat good food if I eat well? Can’t I just get enough minerals that way? Have you done much work in that world?

Nick Urban [00:11:16]:

Yeah, I’ve looked into it, especially in the context of the macro minerals and industrial farming practices. But like to play devil’s advocate, if you’re going to eliminate all the water from the body and all that’s left is the minerals, it seems like that’s the last thing we would need to add more of into our diets.

Caroline [00:11:33]:

Oh, that’s where you’re not right.

Nick Urban [00:11:36]:

Yeah, I get that.

Caroline [00:11:39]:

Here’s the thing. When you grow a plant in soil, how does the plant grow? How does it create that structure? It sucks the minerals out of the soil. It’s the minerals that create the structure. It’s the minerals that also fuel all the cellular processes. And we can talk a little bit about that, but that’s what makes the structure of the plant. So it’s very hard to get minerals back into the soil. They add nitrates, they add other humus and other things that bulk out the plant, actually make the plants create more carbohydrates, but it doesn’t necessarily make the food more nutrient dense. It is an absolute fact you cannot get enough minerals from food that you buy at the supermarket or food that you grow in your backyard. And I’m sorry to say it, but it is absolutely the fact. And in fact, most scientists who study this, they say that because of that, because of our food supply, but also because we’re all drinking bottled and filtered water which is devoid of minerals. And so, in fact, I don’t know about you, but when I was a kid and I played soccer, nobody was coming off the soccer field. My friends weren’t coming off the soccer field. Cramping. But lots of kids now, and lots of parents are really struggling because they’re trying to figure out what can they give their kids because they’re exhausted, they’re having heat stroke, they’re having cramping, but they’re drinking a lot of water and Gatorade and stuff. But it’s because they’re mineral depleted. They start out mineral depleted. Then they go out and sweat really hard and work out really hard and they just go into deep depletion and it’s hard to get back to a balance after that. So they’re playing soccer every other day. They’re hitting their system over and over again. So we’re depleted. And in fact, scientists believe that most people, modern humans have only about if you eat really well and take care of yourself, like 40% of the minerals in your body that you need. Wow. I want to give a quick I know. Think about that 40% 40%. And think how much better you’re going to feel if you only just even add 5%. It’s going to make a big difference. So why is that though? So I want to give people a way to think about it. So inside the 37 trillion cells, you have these energy generating powerhouses. They’re called the mitochondria. I’m sure you know of that. People hear this word mitochondria. And all of the energy in your body, every single function, process, activity, is generated via energy that’s created by the mitochondria. And just as a reference point, one single skin cell on your arm might have ten to twelve of these little energy generating units in your heart. One single cell might have five to 7000 mitochondria inside your eye. One single cell around 40,000 mitochondria. So the areas in your body that are really critical to your survival, they have a huge amount of energy generating units inside those cells. And the farther you get to the extremities, et cetera, the less important pieces have fewer and fewer mitochondria. Gut those mitochondria are completely fueled, as I said, by amino acids, which your body makes a lot of amino acids and minerals. And the way it works is these little mitochondria, they have a life cycle. I call it a life cycle. It’s called the Krebs cycle. Doesn’t matter. And at each stage of this life cycle, there are two things required for it to pass that stage. And it’s amino acid cofactor and a mitochondria. I mean, excuse me, and a mineral cofactor. And those things go together and they complete that portion of that life cycle. And if that mineral, it could be also an amino acid. But again, your body does make most of these critical amino acids. But if it’s a mineral that’s not available, then that mitochondria can only generate like 112 of the energy. 112. So the way I like to describe it is if you’re in a room right now and you have a main primary light, just take the light and just turn down the dimmer on it to 40%. And that’s how most of us are operating. And in fact, I talk to people all day, every day. I kind of make myself available to customers who want to have a deeper chat. And they’re always saying this every time, like there’s something missing, there’s something. And in fact, do you know there’s actually a term for micronutrient deficiency? And it’s called the hidden hunger. Isn’t that how most of us feel? Like there’s something missing, there’s something when I open the fridge or I use drugs or alcohol or coffee or whatever, or something to fill that hidden hunger.

Nick Urban [00:17:39]:

And the way I like to think about it is if the body is constantly deprived of energy because our mitochondria aren’t working as well as they should, then it has to cut corners somewhere, it has to save, reduce the function somewhere. And a lot of times that’s going to result in the things that aren’t as necessary to our immediate survival. Which also, I think, explains a lot of the disease rates skyrocketing in the tissues where there are the highest number of mitochondria in every cell. And I don’t know if you mentioned it but I think the brain is another one that’s really mitochondria rich.

Caroline [00:18:12]:

Of course, it’s even higher than the eyes. I’m literally sometimes overwhelmed by the beauty of this. So the thing about it is the human body has it’s truly magical. And when I did my own research and I just delved so deep into all of this, I became more and more amazed at the incredible capacity of the human body and to heal itself, to fix things, to just keep all our autonomic processes going to perform at really high levels. If you’re a high performance athlete or something, or a high performance thinker. And the thing about it is that if you can imagine taking your light and turning the dimmer up on it, maybe even 20%, think how much more capacity your body would have to heal itself to deal with any chronic symptoms that are happening, whether it’s brain fog. I mean, these are all things that are related to mineral deficiency, brain fog, anxiety, depression, panic, skin problems, cramping, hair loss.

Nick Urban [00:19:30]:

I want to go back to what you were saying earlier. That obvious. I mean, not obviously, but if you’re buying your produce from the supermarket, you’re certainly mineral deficient because there’s been several studies that have come out showing or comparing the nutrient levels of produce these days versus decades ago. And it’s sadly a very different picture. But then even if you’re growing your own produce in your backyard, you still aren’t going to be getting enough of the micronutrients and the minerals. Why, if you’re doing in your backyard and you’re doing all the right things, are you not going to be getting enough?

Caroline [00:20:06]:

Well, again, if you think about the plants so let’s say you have this beautiful backyard garden. You put a lot of humus in there and compost and all this stuff, it’s definitely better. It’s definitely going to be more nutrient dense than buying it at the store. But again, as I’m telling you, when you are growing plants in the same soil over and over again, it simply depletes the minerals from the soil. And we’re talking about the micronutrients because the problem is even when you put that compost in there to get it to go all the way back to its ionic components so meaning dissolve that plant material has to dissolve all the way down to its ionic chemical components for the plants to be able to utilize it. Now, I’m not saying that none of it does, but it’s just when you’re constantly utilizing that soil. So the best thing is if you had a big garden and you grew over here in this place for a year and then you move to the next place and then you let that live fallow for several years, that would be much more ideal. There are other solutions which we’ll talk about when we get into talking about plant based minerals.

Nick Urban [00:21:22]:

Yeah. So if you have a biodynamic farm and you’re rotating your crops and doing everything you can, which excludes the vast majority of us, pretty much everyone, then you might be getting enough. And if you have, like, a low stress lifestyle where you’re not burning through your mineral reserves extra fast, then you might be in that camp. But for everyone else, it makes sense to focus on getting them as the underlying pillar of health before you start adding more caffeine or more other supplements to just increasing the dose. Increase the dose? Start with fueling your body with minerals.

Caroline [00:21:55]:

Exactly. Really? And what if just by giving your body really bioavailable minerals, you wouldn’t need that coffee or that caffeine in whatever form you use? Yeah.

Nick Urban [00:22:11]:

Anyway, first let’s talk about supplements in general. So we laid the groundwork for why supplementation of minerals matters. One thing I’m sure you’re asked about often is mineral products, because you’ll rarely see a product that’s just a full spectrum, has everything in it in this pure form. Usually it’s a mineral of some sort, bound to some kind of other molecule. And you’ll see, like in parentheses sometimes, like this much elemental magnesium, for example. And you’ll see magnesium bound to glycine in magnesium glycinates and like that. How does it actually work when you take what occurs in our bodies and you’re packaging it into a supplement to try and increase those levels.

Caroline [00:22:55]:

So this is where I come in, because I’m a mineral geek. That’s what I am. And I’ve spent years and years studying minerals and mineral replenishment in the body. And what I really want to do right now is completely change the way you think about it. Okay? So we are humans. We’re smart. We’ve got a lot of scientists telling us this and that, and a lot of doctors, a lot of people in the know. And the problem with the current methodology or paradigm is that it looks at the body the way you would look at a car. So you’ve got a gas tank, you’ve got an oil tank. You have a windshield wiper reservoir. You’ve got your radiator. So you need some water, you put it in the radiator. You need some windshield washer fluid. You fill up the reservoir. You need some gas, you fill up the tank. And that’s how we tend to think about our body. So we’re like, oh, I need magnesium. Let’s throw in oh, let’s throw in the most bioavailable format. Or let’s use the magnesium citrate, or let’s use this form of potassium. Or people ask me, what form of calcium do you have? Because they’re looking for the most bioavailable format. And the conversation that I am bringing to the world is a completely different code. What you have to do is you have to begin to understand how mineral replenishment actually works, because you have no reservoir in your body for magnesium or potassium or whatever that you’re just filling up. Okay? So what we have to do is we have to get into this word, bioavailability. It’s a buzzword, but I really think it’s so empowering to break it down for people. So does that seem like a good direction to go?

Nick Urban [00:24:53]:

Let’s do that.

Caroline [00:24:54]:

So bioavailability, and I’m going to tell you, this piece of information I’m going to talk about is one of the biggest AHAs that I had in my entire process of learning. So bioavailability has three stages. The first stage is digestion. Now, we all think we know about that, but we’re going to talk more about it. The second is absorption. And that’s absorption from your gut or from some tissue into your bloodstream. And then the final stage is called assimilation, and that’s going from the bloodstream into the cells. Now, the most important thing to remember about minerals is they have to go through all three stages. So it’s not good enough to get some potassium and throw it in your gut. It has to be absorbed, and it’s not good enough for it to be absorbed. So let’s say you get that really good magnesium glyphosate, that’s really absorbable, okay? So it gets absorbed into the bloodstream, but how does it get into the cell? Because remember, the mitochondria are inside the cell. That’s where the minerals have to get. There are a few minerals that do their job in the bloodstream, but most of them have to get inside the cell to be available as cofactors for energy generation. Okay, so let’s talk about digestion. We all think we know about digestion, but here’s the thing. When you take anything, actually, all of the nutritional elements that you put in your mouth, they have to be completely dissolved all the way down to their chemical ionic components before they can be absorbed. Now, when you think about most mineral supplements, what are they made of? Rocks, shells and bones. Now, salt, that’s pretty biobit. I mean, pretty digestible. We’ll talk about that separately because it has some separate issues, okay? But those three so you put most of those, you take a big 320 milligram pill of magnesium, let’s say capsule, and you throw it in your gut. Guess what happens? Only about ten to 12% of it ever gets digested. And let’s say you used one of those really bioavailable formats, maybe 15%, maybe 18%, but a very small amount, okay? So that’s one of the biggest problems. When you look at mineral supplements, most of them are formulated, they’re mega dose, they’re measured in milligrams, and they have low digestibility. So first stage so what also happens is when I put that 320 milligrams of magnesium in my gut, what happens? Now, what we know about the microbiome in the gut is it’s this very complex, beautifully beautiful system that wants to create and exist in balance. And every time you’re putting these mega dose formatted minerals into your gut, you’re creating imbalance. So all that stuff that didn’t get digested, your body has to eliminate. This is why people who take large amounts of magnesium often get diarrhea. That is the body saying, I’ve got too much. I’ve got to get rid of it. And different minerals have different kinds of symptoms that are saying, I’ve got too much, I need to eliminate. Okay, so it’s so important, and why do we do this? Why do we take 320 milligrams of magnesium? Because somebody said there’s a minimum daily requirement of that. And the fact is it’s ludicrous. Why should you need the same amount that I need? The same amount that a 90 pound woman, small woman needs relative to 170 pound guy? So the minimum RDAs are ludicrous, and it’s not how the body works. So the body wants small amounts of extremely bioavailability minerals infused in the system all the time so that your body, in its infinite wisdom, can determine what it needs. Now, you’ve gotten we’ve talked about digestion, but let’s say that 10% 12% of a rock, shell or bone has been digested down to its ionic components. Now, here’s the thing. The lining of your gut this is we’re going to talk about absorption, how these things get into your bloodstream through the lining of your gut. This piece blew my mind. So we think, okay, well, now it’s small enough. Let it go through. But it doesn’t work like that. So your gut is lined with these finger like, they kind of look like fingers structures. They’re called VLI. They completely line the inside of your gut. And those VLI are lined with these cells that are called epithelial cells. And each one of those cell is lined with receptor sites. And here’s the thing. Every receptor site is specific. It’s not just general. Like, here’s a catcher’s mitt. Throw me any ball. It’s like, no, here’s a magnesium receptor. Here’s a potassium receptor. Okay? And of those macro minerals that we talked about, you’ve got a lot of those, but you also have some much smaller amount of very important receptors for things like phosphorus, molybdenum, chromium, zinc, selenium, on and on this huge number of minerals that your body needs and utilizes. So let’s say that a smaller amount of that magnesium actually hits those receptor sites and gets absorbed. Now, we also have to remember that your lining of your gut may not be the same as mine or somebody who’s very unhealthy, who has gut dysbiosis leaky gut or who has had SIBO or IBS or some other problem with their gut microbiome. So that also is very dependent on the health of your gut lining. So some smaller amount gets absorbed into your bloodstream. Now, guess what? We’ve only gone through two stages. Now, the problem is that most of us don’t have very effective systems for assimilation. And the way assimilation happens, you have a cell, and the cell has a cell wall. And if you’re in a room right now and you have a door and a window, so open the door open the window, air can go in and out. And in liquid solutions, that happens via something called diffusion, and it just naturally goes in and out. Now there’s something called the concentration gradient. And that concentration gradient is a law that basically says if you’ve got more salt outside of your cell than inside, when that door opens, it’s going to try and balance the amount of salt that you have inside and outside. It happens in all liquid solutions. If you think about a glass of water, you put a pinch of salt in the bottom, you drop it into the glass or sugar, and you come back an hour later, it’s completely dissolved. And that will be completely dispersed equally across all of the liquid in the glass. Same process. Okay. The problem is that most of these nutrients require a particular receptor to get through the cell wall as well. So there are these things, they’re called flavonoids. And a flavonoid is an intercellular transporter. We’ve heard that word and they’re like, oh yeah, I’m supposed to have flavonoids. That’s good. But what is it now? You know, it’s something that supports intercellular transportation. It enhances intercellular transportation. That’s why you want them in your system. Now, when we get farther down and we talk more into the plant based minerals, you’re going to learn why they are so effective for supporting this assimilation process. So we said maybe ten to 12% of that magnesium got digested, a smaller amount got absorbed, and a smaller amount gets assimilated because that depends on how effectively your body does assimilation. Hence the problem. This is why we’re all depleted. It’s not only that our food supply is depleted, it’s also that we’re using supplements that are made from rocks, shells and bones that don’t digest very well. It’s also because our guts aren’t very healthy and they have some level of gut dysbiosis. So the absorption in the system doesn’t work very well. And finally, we don’t have very many flavonoids in our system, so we don’t have very effective assimilation. So now you mind of see the picture.

Nick Urban [00:34:30]:

Yeah, that makes a lot of sense. And I have heard a bit about that, not in nearly as much detail. So if I’m eating a food and it has, say, some whole food based minerals in it, it’s going to be a much smaller dose than if I take 1000 milligrams of, say, potassium citrate. But am I going to have better absorption and assimilation so that it end up being like the same functional amount or perhaps greater functional amount than if I was to take a huge dose of a supplement? That doesn’t seem like it’s going to be very efficient.

Caroline [00:35:05]:

Well, I personally absolutely would say that the food based minerals would be much better for your system long term. So I’m going to give you an example. So one of the things people don’t understand is minerals work in balanced pairs. Magnesium, potassium, potassium. And calcium. Magnesium and calcium. So they work in these balanced sets, and I like people to think of them more like hormonal balance or blood sugar balance. Because again, we’re used to thinking about the body like this car with this tank, I’m going to fill it up, and it doesn’t work like that. So I work with athletes a lot because athletes come to me and they’re like, I’m really depleted. I can’t ever get feeling hydrated. I’m really struggling with electrolyte balance. And I say, okay. And I’ve had several athletes come to me with incredible cramping. They take all these electrolytes magnesium, these supposedly bioavailable magnesium supplements, et cetera, and they still have cramping, and they still have hydration and depletion issues. And they come to me and I say, okay, stop that stuff. Because what’s happening is your body is having to work so hard to try and gain balance homeostasis when you’re constantly throwing it into imbalance and in fact, aging performance. Athletes who have taken huge amounts of magnesium in their life often end up with osteoporosis decalcification of their bones. Because they put so much magnesium, the body tries to balance it by pulling the calcium out of the bones. So especially for young men like you, I don’t recommend it. It might be okay for a very short period of time, but let me tell you the story. So this athlete, he’s a cyclist. He’s in his fifty s, I think, and he’s a competitive cyclist. Excuse me, not pro, but competitive. And he came to me a really bad cramping, just constantly. We got him completely off his other electrolyte supplements. He just started taking beam minerals, and we can talk about how he took them to make it work really well. And his cramping went away, started feeling hydrated and replenished. Spring came and he started doing training runs, rides, and he thought, Well, I’m doing some intensive training. I should take some extra magnesium. He went and took some magnesium citrate immediately. Within two days, he got horrible cramping. He’s like, oh, maybe it was the maybe it was the magnesium citrate. I’ll try this magnesium gluconate. So he went and tried that. He got really bad fasciculations. People call it creepy crawlies. It’s like, literally your muscles are they’re just going and you have nothing, like, in these little micro movements. He sent me a video of it, and he sent a long text, and he’s like, I did this. I did that. I’m like, Why did you take that extra magnesium? Why do that? If you want to give yourself extra electrolytes, all you have to do is use electrolyze, our product, because that gives you the balanced full spectrum of minerals you need in this extremely bioavailable format. You don’t need to throw your system into imbalance by adding these large mega dose formatted, meaning single mineral supplements.

Nick Urban [00:38:53]:

Yeah, okay, I get what you’re saying. The reason I was using a magnesium product additionally, is because from my own diet and the reading that calcium is much more abundant in the diet, it’s not degraded the same way as magnesium is when food is cooked, and for a bunch of different reasons like that, that I added a bit of magnesium. I don’t like mega dose it or anything, but it’s interesting to hear that even that might be too much, because I’m like bypassing the body’s innate wisdom and intelligence and knowing how to use the different fuel substrates that it receives.

Caroline [00:39:26]:

Yeah. And this is I’m a biohacker, so I understand the interest of a biohacker to be smarter than the body, let’s put it that way, and create certain responses in the body, et cetera. And I’m just saying with minerals, it’s not the best, really. If you think about your body and the way it works and the fundamental foundational way that minerals operate in the body, the best way is to use a full spectrum, extremely bioavailable mineral supplements and then infuse regularly. So that it gives your body, in its infinite wisdom, the opportunity to have what it needs when it needs it where it needs it, how it needs it.

Nick Urban [00:40:14]:

And so the difference between this style of, like, a mineral bound to some other kind of molecule versus what you have in your beam minerals products is the technology. I think you said ionic at one point. Can you break down what that is?

Caroline [00:40:29]:

Yeah, well, people often ask because people are trying to reference our products to other minerals, and they’ve learned about these different bioavailable formats, et cetera. So they say, what kind of calcium do you have? What kind of and I say, no, it’s calcium. Think about the periodic table. That’s what is in our when you say ionic calcium, it is the calcium molecule. Okay? So the beautiful thing about it is if your body needs magnesium, citronate or citrate or gluconate or whatever it needs, now you have that base component available and ready. Now the body can put it together. You can go, oh, here we go. Here’s this particular whatever is needed, it’s available for ionization with other nutritional elements to become whatever the body needs. That’s one of the key things about beam minerals. Beam minerals is also really a completely different concept. So we talked about the rock, shells and bones. Beam minerals is made from plant based minerals. And that’s not like plants you grew in your backyard. These are ancient decomposed freshwater plants. Freshwater is important because it helps to discern the difference between sea minerals and plant based minerals. So sea minerals are made from either sea plants or from salt water, from salts. And the plant based minerals are freshwater from freshwater plants. So imagine an entire rainforest back when the dinosaurs lived, and it decomposed over millennia into this incredibly beautiful, black, mineral rich substance. It’s like 15ft below the Earth. Twelve to 15ft. It’s really pure. It hasn’t had any contact with modern pollutants. And it’s got all the minerals that your body is made of that the Earth is made of in it. Okay? And inside of that material that’s called humate, there are these two molecules. That crystalline substance is called humate. There’s also other forms around the Earth called like shilajit is one. There’s also peak. This is another word. And sometimes people have called shale. So there are different words. But the material we use is called humate. And ours comes from the southwest United States. And again, it’s really beautiful material. And inside of this humate, there are these two molecule. And this is the interesting thing. So you’re not only when you use plant based minerals, this is what I call a technology. And this is a technology designed by nature. And because you are a set of cells or a set of cellular systems that evolved from the Earth and all cellular systems, every single cellular system on Earth utilizes this technology that I’m going to describe for you for mineral replenishment, nutrient replenishment, and system detoxification. So the beautiful thing about this plant based material is not only that it provides all the mineral content that you need, but it also provides these other capacities. So are you ready to jump into them?

Nick Urban [00:44:25]:

Let’s do it.

Caroline [00:44:26]:

Okay, so there’s these two molecules, and one is called folvic, and the other is called humic. And it’s really important to understand these two because they are magical. They’re really incredible. I have a friend who’s been studying humic for probably 20 years and he studied with this Russian, like one of the world renowned experts on humic. And they call it the God particle because of the capacity. So you have folvic and humic. And just so we’re clear, fulvic is extracted out of humic. So the humic molecule actually includes folvic. But when we do it, we actually extract it. And we extract it because they have.

Nick Urban [00:45:13]:

Two capacities and shilajit is higher in or it contains which naturally both okay.

Caroline [00:45:20]:

Is a humic substance. So it’s like humate, which includes humic and fulvic. Shilajit includes humic and fulvic because humic includes humate is to shilagid or shilajit. Those two are just different substances. And they both include the humid molecule and the fulvic molecule. Help. Okay. One of the main differences is that the shilajit tastes really bad. But if you can do it, I think it’s a great thing to use. Absolutely. For sure. Let’s talk about the molecule. So the folvic molecule, it’s a very small molecule. It’s much smaller than a cell. And it’s one of those things that we talked about, a flavonoid. In fact, it’s the most powerful flavonoid known to man.

Nick Urban [00:46:17]:

Wow.

Caroline [00:46:19]:

And I’ll explain to you why when you have the cell wall, most things that go across the cell wall require a receptor. So you can open a channel, but not everything can just go through. And of course, the body would say that you wouldn’t want anything to go through. Right. But the beautiful thing about the Folvic molecule is that any channel that opens, so if you open the door, the fulvic can go in and out as much as it wants. It doesn’t require a gatekeeper. So think about that. Actually, nature provided this delivery system. So the Folvic molecule, it includes 70 plus minerals as part of the molecule. And it also is an extremely strong electrolyte, one of the strongest electrolytes known to man. So things cling to it. It can carry 60 times its molecular weight of minerals and nutritional elements through the cell wall. And then it does what no other molecule on Earth can do. It changes its polarity. And when it changes its polarity, those things fall off inside the cell. Now they’re available for the mitochondria, for energy generation. Is that a technology or what? This is literally a nutrient uptake enhancement technology, and all cellular systems across the Earth use this. Your body already utilizes it. Before you even took the minerals, your body utilizes it. You just had very small amounts. Okay, so now this molecule, this fulvic molecule, has changed its polarity, and all that nutritional value has dropped off inside the cell available for energy generation. Now, what clings to it? Biowaste, heavy metals, chelate with it, the environmental toxins like glyphosate free radicals. And now it carries those out of the cell.

Nick Urban [00:48:33]:

Wow.

Caroline [00:48:34]:

And then it changes its polarity again, and those things drop off inside the bloodstream. So it is not only just a nutrient enhancement tool for uptake into the cell, it also carries biowaste and toxins out of the cells. So it’s an intercellular detoxifier. And if you’ve done any detoxification processes, you know, or if you’ve been involved in those kind of protocols, you know, it’s one thing to get toxins out of your bloodstream. It’s another thing to get them out of your stored tissues. And what are your stored tissues inside your cell? Your tissues are all made of cells. So if you use folvic, you are allowing your body to lower its toxic load over time. Okay, so now let’s talk about the humic molecule, which is completely different, I mean, in many ways. So it’s a very large molecule. I’m going to give a description that helps people visualize it. Imagine a velcro ball. It’s extremely sticky. It’s much larger than a cell. It hangs out in the bloodstream and it just moves through the bloodstream. And things stick to it because it’s got a huge amount of receptor sites on the outside. And it’s a very, very strong electrolyte molecule. And what binds to it? Heavy metals, biowaste, free radicals. It’s like thousands of times more effective as an antioxidant in the system than any other antioxidant that you could take. I’ve seen charts. I mean, it’s like thousands of times more effective. It also does something called adsorbing glyphosate. And we know because of production, farming, we’re dealing with real issues of exposure and toxicity with glyphosate, which is an herbicide that’s sprayed on genetically modified food so that the weeds die and the plants live. But then you eat that food which has glyphosate and it has all sorts of gut dysbiosis, creating symptoms and other issues. Cognitive there’s a lot nasty molecule, it’s really nasty. But the beautiful thing is, if you use humic, you’re constantly remediating its effects and removing it from your system. So what the humid molecule does is it binds to the molecule and then it builds a film around it like a biofilm around it. And as soon as it has that film around it, it starts breaking down the glyphosate molecule. So once that molecule is even broken down a slight amount, it no longer can have all sorts of inhibiting effects, its problematic effects in your gut. And then at a certain point, this humic molecule gets so heavy at a molecular weight that it falls out of solution the same way. Like if you put something in your glass and it looked like it dissolved, but you let it sit for a while and it cell out and you’d see that material at the bottom of your glass, it’s just like that. It’s called precipitating. It just precipitates gut and it leaves your body through all the normal channels. And that’s also important. So if people know about detoxification protocols, they usually require certain channels to be open. But the humic is evolved to utilize every elimination channel. So that includes your tears, your breath, your snot, your saliva, every part of your skin, and of course, your feces and urine. So it will use any channel. One of the stories I like to tell is there was a man who was tasked with keeping astronauts in space and he was a scientist. And the solution he ended up coming up with was keeping the astronauts infused with humic because it would constantly clear and chelate out and remove the heavy metals that were associated with radiation, et cetera.

Nick Urban [00:52:52]:

I’ve been using Sheila Jeep for a long time and I did some research on it a while back and discovered that it had those fulvic and humic in it. And I thought it was fascinating and really promising. So I started using it. I didn’t dive nearly as deep. And I now am even more mind blown about everything these can do and the different sources that we can get. And also for people who don’t like the taste of shilajit or they want a higher concentration, these products taste neutral. And I cannot say the same thing.

Caroline [00:53:23]:

About, you know, and the other beautiful thing about our products is that the process that we use to manufacture them and we manufacture them ourselves in our own facility, FDA registered, we do third party testing, we use cGMP practices, et cetera. And we have complete control of the full chain of the process is that these products aren’t formulated. They are nature formulated them. So when we talked about that mineral balance, when you think about these humic and fulvic substances, they’re exactly formulated in the ratios that your body is made of and utilizes minerals. So when you use these, you’re not creating imbalance. So instead of, let’s say you’re a runner and you use electrolytes, maybe you use some powdered supplements or different things to increase your electrolytes. You’re creating that imbalance in your gut. But all you have to do is use the electrolytes, which is the Folvic supplement. And when you think about it, so if you’re taking that fulvic, you’re actually enhancing the uptake of electrolytes and nutrients into your cell, which is exactly what you’re wanting from those other electrolytes you’re trying to use that are creating imbalance. So that’s the first piece. The second piece is that because of the way that we process our minerals and they’re extracted from that dry crystalline substance using perfectly amazingly pure, beautiful water that is taken through many different proprietary filtration processes. And the product that you drink is completely ionized, which means that it requires no digestion. So when we talked about those three stages of bioavailability, you completely skip the digestion stage and go straight to absorption. And because it’s already completely ionized, it’s already completely ready for those receptor sites that very available for where and when and how the body needs it. And then, of course, once it gets absorbed into the bloodstream, now you have that flavonoid capacity of the fulvic to support getting the minerals into your cells.

Nick Urban [00:55:53]:

And the flavonoid capacity is the same one that’s present within certain foods. And we eat those foods, say for the flavonoids, but maybe like much weaker flavonoids, like much smaller quantities.

Caroline [00:56:04]:

Yes, exactly. Much, much smaller. Like literally the fulvic flavonoid are like in terms of I’ve seen charts of kind of their capacity and some vegetables, some specific superfoods are in the like thirty s and fifty s, maybe 150. And the phobic is in the thousands, 2500. I’m telling you in terms of scale just gives you an idea. It’s an exponential difference, in fact, to the point where because I’ve been using these for so long, if I drink the tiniest amount of alcohol, I immediately feel it. Because my system is so fully have so many flavonoids in my body that are these effective Folvic flavonoids that the uptake is really quick.

Nick Urban [00:56:52]:

I’ve experienced the same thing and especially recently as I’ve been using and consuming more of the humics and fulvic, I’ve noticed the same thing and I thought it was like just me getting older. But it’s like a market difference where I used to feel the effects after like three drinks and now after three sips, I feel like a market change.

Caroline [00:57:11]:

I’m telling you, absolutely it is those phobic flavonoid. I’m telling you, it really is true. I’ve even had some people test it by saying, okay, we’re going to go. We’re going to have a party, and we’re all going to have big cups of we’re going to have a couple shots of Electrolytes, and then we’re going to have drinks and we’re going to see. And they have come back to me and said they definitely noticed the difference.

Nick Urban [00:57:36]:

Caroline and a lot of the research and the observations, other products, they look at certain forms of minerals, say magnesium, malate, and they say they measure certain elemental concentrations of magnesium, and they find certain effects. How do you go about translating your products? Because they don’t have the there’s not, like, consensus around 250 milligrams after an intense workout or something.

Caroline [00:58:07]:

Yeah. And again, I’m just going to tell you that this is science gone awry, okay? And I understand because I’m just saying, look, your body has evolved from the Earth. These substances evolved from the Earth. Your body knows how to utilize them. It’s like, why go anywhere else? I know if you’re a biohacker, you’ve heard this word homeostasis. Okay? So the body is a homeostasis generating engine. It is always working to create perfect balance with your blood sugar, with your hormones, with your endocrine system, with your adrenals. And it’s so complex. And you think not you, but people think that because some trainer or somebody said that after you work out, you need so many of this or that. And I’m just telling you, from the research that I’ve done, from going I mean, I’ve studied molecular biology, chemistry, cellular biology, plant decomp. I mean, just the amount of study that I’ve done and the more that I got down to it, I’m sorry to say there is nothing better than using the technology that was designed to work with your body, which is made of cells and mitochondria.

Nick Urban [00:59:37]:

Is there a way, other than self experimentation and reading and following the label, to know how much to be using after a workout or, say, first thing in the morning?

Caroline [00:59:48]:

First of all, I always recommend that you learn to really be aware of your body, and you can actually ask your body how much it needs. So the difference between taking a 320 milligram pill or capsule of magnesium and taking our products is because these are trace minerals, they are very, very minute amounts. They’re measured in parts per million, not micrograms or milligrams. So you don’t really have to worry about taking too much. And again, they’re formulated in that ratio of amount that your body is made of. Okay? So the foundational amount of our products, for just a normal person who’s not a big athlete, is just a normal work. A day person is half an ounce per day of electrolytes and microboost. So that’s the foundational amounts. But then now let’s say we’re drinking throughout the day. We’re drinking filtered water. We have reverse osmosis water at work. So I go and I fill up my glass of water, and I just put a little shot of small shot of electrolytes. We have it in a dispenser at our place and I just dispense a little electrolyze. It’s a great way to remineralize your water. You don’t have to worry about taking too much. I saves not had one single person ever saves any reaction to using electrolyze, which is our fulvic supplement. As much as you want if you’re an athlete, the same way you’d use your other electrolyte supplements, you’d use electrolyze, our fulvic supplement, that’s the green bottle. And you just take another extra capful let’s say you’re a cyclist, you’d take an extra capful and you would put it in your water. I do want to tell you about our other product that we have, which is a spray. Yeah. So the spray is called Instalites. And Instalites is a Folvic spray, which is really revolutionary. So imagine being able to put the minerals wherever you want them on your body and they would absorb directly through your skin because remember how small that fulvic molecule is. It absorbs directly through the skin in 3 seconds into the muscle and it also reinvigorates the electrical system in the area. So we were at an aid station during a cycle race recently and people on their ride out, they would stop by the aid station on their ride back. They would stop at the aid station on the way out. They’d be like, Spray my legs. What are you talking about? We’re like, yeah, let’s spray it. Come on, tell me, where do you usually get sore? And we’d spray and they came back and they were like, oh my God, that’s amazing. Do it. And even some people came back who hadn’t done the spray because they’re like, no, I don’t know what that is. And they would ride out, they’d come back and their legs would be cramping. And we’d be like, let’s spray it on. We spray it on the cramp. They’d be like literally standing at the aid station for a moment while they’re getting their whatever, their little snacks and they’d be like, that’s amazing. How did that happen? It would release the cramp. So that’s a really great way for athletes to use the fulvic is through the InstaLite spray. But the electrolytes can be used ubiquitously as an electrolyte replenishment tool as well as the foundational amount. So you’re just infusing your system with flavonoids on a daily basis. So then the Microboost, which is the dark humic product in the blue bottle, what’s now a blue bottle used to be purple, but now it’s blue. So the humic supplements. One thing about humic that people I’ll let people know about is that for some people, if you’re highly toxified, you could get some sort of detoxification response for it. So if you have an autoimmune, which I have, Lymes or mold exposure or you just know you’re very sensitive, we always recommend starting very slowly with microboost. So the standard amount per day is half an ounce now I always take mine and I pour it in a big this is like a 16 ounce glass of water and I just drink that through the day and then I never get any kind of detox symptoms. It’s called Herzheimer and I have a great article on our website in case anybody’s interested. If you want to put it in the notes, you can give it to them because it helps people understand what I’m talking about. But it’s really easy to get over. All you do is mix it with non chlorinated filtered water.

Nick Urban [01:04:32]:

Okay, Caroline, I’m curious. Why are companies using the bound form of minerals when ionic seems to be the obvious better solution? Is it just a matter of cost and I guess supply chain difficulty or are there other reasons?

Caroline [01:04:52]:

Number one, they don’t know what I’m talking to you about today. They are coming from that scientific daily requirements. They are coming from the scientific background that has said it’s just literally people don’t know. So I’m going to tell you. Mineral replenishment is the vanguard of health in the same way that nobody ever knew about probiotics before. I don’t know how many years ago it is now, or even electrolytes before there was gatorade or you know what I mean. But really, I actually think that it’s the keto diet that began to make people think about electrolytes and minerals even more because it became really mainstream. Lots of people were doing it. They were already depleted. Then they did keto and they got even more depleted. They started having some serious depletion issues, cramping and headaches and couldn’t sleep and anxiety and stomach problems and all that from the depletion. And then so there was an audience that was actually beginning to learn. So it’s starting to come out and I’m personally on a mission to let people really shift their whole way of thinking about it.

Nick Urban [01:06:16]:

Well, thank you for doing that. And if people want to connect with you, if they want to try out beam minerals products, how do they find you on the Internet?

Caroline [01:06:25]:

So they would find us@beamminerals.com. And we created a discount code for you, for your followers, so you can use the code Urban for 20% off.

Nick Urban [01:06:37]:

Thanks for that site. Yeah, thanks. The link to that and the code and everything will be in the show notes as well as the article she mentioned and any other resources that will accompany this episode. We will start to wind down. And before I ask you a couple of rapid fire questions, I’ll ask you the usual, and that is if there was a worldwide burning of the books and all knowledge on Earth was lost, but you get to save the works of three teachers, who would you choose and why?

Caroline [01:07:08]:

Okay, I would choose Hulen Morna, Simeona Nalamaku. These are both ho pono people and humid.

Nick Urban [01:07:22]:

What a combination. What are some of the big myths around minerals and electrolytes that we did not cover today that you can answer in a couple of sentences.

Caroline [01:07:36]:

The biggest myth that I want to dispel around minerals is that you can just take a lot and it will work.

Nick Urban [01:07:45]:

Okay. What’s a topic unrelated to minerals that you’re currently researching or fascinated by?

Caroline [01:07:53]:

I’ve been watching the series called Skinwalker Ranch, and although the series is very annoying because it’s one of those crazy documentaries where they keep going over and over again, I am extremely fascinated by the fact that they’ve found a place on the Earth that works like a battery. The actual land. They created a whole circuit that powered a flashlight, and part of the whole circuit was just a big, like, 60ft of Earth. I’m really fascinated by that whole thing. I’ve been researching a lot about that. I’m a bit of a Sci-Fi nerd.

Nick Urban [01:08:28]:

I can tell. I love it. What’s one thing that your tribe does not know about you?

Caroline [01:08:35]:

Probably that I used to be a recording artist and singer songwriter.

Nick Urban [01:08:44]:

Would not have guessed.

Caroline [01:08:46]:

Yeah.

Nick Urban [01:08:47]:

Well, Caroline, how would you like to wrap up this episode today? Do you have any final takeaways?

Caroline [01:08:53]:

Well, first of all, I really want to just thank you for having me and giving me an opportunity one more time to get the word out about mineral depletion and mineral replenishment, how it really works in the body. That’s really what I want to leave people with.

Nick Urban [01:09:09]:

Thank you. You’re a wealth of knowledge here. You’re obviously very passionate about this subject, and it shines through every time you speak about it. I’ve heard you on other podcasts, and they’re all very interesting. So thanks for joining me today on the MINDBODY Peak Performance podcast.

Caroline [01:09:25]:

Thank you so much for having me.

Nick Urban [01:09:26]:

Nick, I hope that this has been helpful for you. If you enjoyed it, subscribe and hit the thumbs up. I love knowing who’s in the 1% committed to reaching their full potential. Comment 1% below so that I know who you are. For all the resources and links, meet me on my website@mindbodypeak.com. I appreciate you and look forward to connecting with you. As a reminder, please cell your primary health professional.