From Hive to Health: Unlocking the Ancient Wisdom of Bees with Angela Ysseldyk of Dutchman's Gold - Episode 266

Important links:

You must check out Dutchman's Gold website to shop, discover new bee products, recipes and more:  https://dutchmansgold.com/

Join my Substack here:
https://sandykruse.substack.com/

If you want to get in touch, email me sandy@sandyknutrition.ca or sandy@tkgpartners.com

Discover the extraordinary world of beehive wellness with nutritionist and second-generation beekeeper Angela Iseldyke of Dutchman's Gold. This eye-opening conversation reveals how honey and beehive products offer profound health benefits far beyond their sweetening properties.

Did you know a single honeybee produces just one-twelfth teaspoon of honey in its lifetime? Or that raw honey contains enzymes, antioxidants, and compounds that make it a functional food rather than just a sweetener? Angela shares fascinating insights into bees' crucial role in our ecosystem and how supporting these incredible pollinators benefits both environmental and human health.

We dive deep into the stark differences between processed sugar and raw honey, revealing why one causes inflammatory chaos in the body while the other provides sustained energy without the crash. "Processed sugar is like throwing gasoline on a fire, while raw honey is a slow-burning log," Angela explains. If you've been confused about sweetener choices or worried about blood sugar impacts, this conversation offers clarity through evidence-based nutrition.

The most fascinating segment explores lesser-known beehive treasures – propolis with its 300+ beneficial compounds, bee pollen as nature's complete multivitamin, and royal jelly's remarkable benefits for hormonal health. Angela shares practical ways to incorporate these functional foods into your daily routine, making wellness accessible through simple, sustainable changes rather than restrictive approaches.

Share this episode with anyone interested in natural wellness, environmental sustainability, or simply making better food choices. Your support through ratings, reviews and subscriptions helps bring these important conversations to more listeners each week. Remember, as Sandy says – balanced living works!

Chapters

• 0:00 Introduction to Sandy K Nutrition
• 4:30 Meet Angela Iseldyke of Dutchman's Gold
• 9:29 The Importance of Bees for Our Ecosystem
• 17:02 Raw Honey vs. Processed Sugar Explained
• 28:28 The Hidden Benefits of Bee Propolis
• 34:17 Bee Pollen as Nature's Multivitamin
• 49:12 Beeswax, Royal Jelly, and Sustainable Wellness
• 58:11 Key Takeaways and Where to Find Dutchman's Gold

Transcript

Sandy Kruse: 0:02

Hi everyone, it's me, Sandy Kruse of Sandy K Nutrition, health and Lifestyle Queen. For years now, I've been bringing to you conversations about wellness from incredible guests from all over the world. Discover a fresh take on healthy living for midlife and beyond, one that embraces balance and reason, without letting only science dictate every aspect of our wellness. Join me and my guests as we explore ways that we can age gracefully, with in-depth conversations about the thyroid, about hormones and other alternative wellness options for you and your family. True Wellness nurtures a healthy body, mind, spirit and soul, and we cover all of these essential aspects to help you live a balanced, joyful life. Be sure to follow my show, rate it, review it and share it. Always remember my friends balanced living works. Friends, balanced living works. Hi everyone, welcome to Sandy Kay Nutrition, health and Lifestyle Queen. Today with me, I have a special guest and her name is Angela Iseldyke, and she is the co-owner of Dutchman's Gold. They are a honey and beehive wellness company and they are not located too far away from me, so please be sure to listen to this entire podcast, because we are going to talk all about the powerful benefits of raw honey propolis, why bees are so important to the environment and more. On another note, I released a special episode on Friday and really it's all geared to the wellness and prevention from a young woman's perspective. I was inspired to record this and, who knows, maybe I'm going to make it a series, but on Friday I released a podcast. I would love for you to share it with your daughters, with anyone who has a daughter that is a young woman navigating their own journey in wellness and really just some wisdom from myself, a 55-year-old woman who started to have health challenges in my early 40s. I believe that wellness starts at a very young age and you know, being a 1970 baby, I you know I wasn't really cognizant of any of that. I didn't really even think about that and I think, just because of the world that we live in now, it's more important to teach this to our young women. And, of course, it all begins with our senses and being in touch with how we feel. And right now, in the world that we live in, we've got more numbing opportunities than ever and are less present than ever before. So I think this is a really important episode.

Sandy Kruse: 3:36

As with all of my podcast episodes, I am very passionate to choose passion over profit. This is why you don't see a ton of sponsors on my podcast. I don't seek out one-off opportunities for sponsorship. I don't care about that. If you are interested in aligning with me, please do know that it's always about an alignment and a partnership. I don't do one-off sponsors. I don't work with people just on a one-off basis. So this is why you don't hear a lot of sponsors on my show. Lot of sponsors on my show.

Sandy Kruse: 4:30

I'm also very let's just say, it's very important for me to show up here every single week and on my social media platforms with integrity and authenticity, something that is a miss in this wellness space. I've been in it for eight years now, wellness space. I've been in it for eight years now, podcasting for over five, and I've seen a lot of changes. So I'm doing my best to ensure that I do not change with this trend of ego power greed. So all I ask of you is that you share my podcast. That's my ask, and it doesn't cost you a penny. What it does do is help me to keep getting these amazing guests and topics each week for you, not to tell you how to live or how to be healthy, but to equip you with information so that you can take that back to the practitioners that you know, that, know you that you work with? I am not into this. All knowing, all saying what I say goes for health. I'm not into that. A lot of people are in this space and things need to change where we need to turn inwards and understand what actually makes us healthy and vibrant and helps us to age better. So please share this podcast, any of my episodes. Share them on social media. Share them with a friend. Also, spotify and Apple have reviewing and rating options. When you add a few kind words, it really helps my podcast to be seen amongst all of these giant podcasts out there.

Sandy Kruse: 6:21

Now the last thing I will say is I, sandy K Nutrition, is alive and well, but I have joined forces with TKG, the cruise group and Ripple Distribution. I am their director of business operations and brand manager for health and beauty in the health and beauty channel. This is my husband's company and he has been operating for many, many years on a global sales level B2B and Canadian distribution. So because it just kind of made sense that it's synergistic, we decided that my being the brand manager for a completely different channel, that is, health and beauty, made sense and I really resonated with this because I'm like, wow, if I could have the opportunity to bring better products to more people. Now that's really doing even more good on a larger scale scale. So if you are a brand that is ready to scale up to go B2B and you know we're talking about sales and distribution on a larger level, like the Costco's of the world or Best Buy Canada, walmart Canada, these are massive opportunities for smaller brands who are really ready to go big. And if you are interested, if you are a great brand in the wellness space, in the beauty space, please get in touch with me. You Sandy@sandyknutrition. ca or sandy@ sandy tkgpartners. com. Please do get in touch if you feel you're ready for this.

Sandy Kruse: 8:43

And now let's cut on through to this amazing interview with Angela Iseldyke of Dutchman's Gold. Hi everyone, welcome to Sandy K Nutrition, health and Lifestyle Queen. Today with me I have a special guest and her name is Angela Isildyke and she is a nutritionist and the co-owner of Dutchman's Gold, a honey and beehive wellness company based in Hamilton, ontario. I'm going local guys today. This is great.

Sandy Kruse: 9:18

And this beehive and wellness company was owned by her parents, who are master beekeepers, and they started this in the 80s. She's passionate about the bees and loves to educate on the incredible superfoods and ingredients from the hive, from honey to propolis, royal jelly and bee pollen propolis, royal jelly and bee pollen. And today we're going to talk about the powerful benefits of raw honey, propolis and more, and where processed sugars may sneak into your diet that you're not even considering. And this goes for you, for your family. This is going to be a family-friendly conversation because many people who listen to my podcast have children. Many of you have younger children, some older, like myself, some young adults. So this is going to be a great educational podcast for everyone. And I'm going to ask you, angela, can I ever visit your beehive?

Angela Ysseldyk: 10:23

You certainly can. Well, would you give you a special invite? Oh, we've got 97 acres is a few yards. But yes, don't worry, Invite will come your way Once the bees are buzzing. Obviously, right now, if you're listening, it's there's snow on the ground and so the bees are overwintering right now. But yes, I would love that.

Sandy Kruse: 10:41

I would love that. That would be so cool. Anyway, I just want to thank you for coming today and welcome to the podcast, angela.

Angela Ysseldyk: 10:49

Thank you so much, sandy. It's such a pleasure to meet you. I've been listening to your podcast and so it's just so great to be here.

Sandy Kruse: 10:56

Thanks, so you have to tell me your story. I did say that you know your parents owned this since the 80s, so you grew up with this.

Angela Ysseldyk: 11:08

I did. I mean I grew up on the Dutchman's Gold Honey Farm so I was surrounded by bees and honey and really that hard work of entrepreneurial and beekeeping parents. So my childhood was very hands-on, we were very much a part of the business, everything from bottling honey, going out and beekeeping, extracting, then selling the honey off our very front porch. I mean we were my parents were kind of like hippies as well, so we made bread and granola and picked flowers and sold stuff off our front porch. I mean that's just as entrepreneurial as you get, right. We answered the phone, we made beeswax, candles, you name it. Really just learning firsthand about the incredible world of the bees but also what it takes to make a business thrive. So, and work ethic, right. But I mean I think that was really the majority of my childhood. But then from there I think it planted the seed for me to pursue more interest in wellness and nutrition. So I became a certified nutritional practitioner as well as obtained my degree in business. So I've worked between because that's what we do, right, we don't always think we're going to stay in the family business. So I went out and worked for different nutraceutical companies. I worked as a nutritional consultant, sales and marketing and leadership, and ended up working in the end for Jameson Wellness and I was director of education and training where I gained a ton of experience just working with small to large businesses and the science behind functional foods and supplements.

Angela Ysseldyk: 12:27

So it feels really great to come back to your roots. You know what I mean. That kind of happens sometimes where somehow, as you go through life, you have different seasons, and so coming back to my roots has really been a blessing and I think this has been the plan the whole time. So I found my way back. So now I run the business alongside my husband, mark, and we balance sort of that tradition because you know my parents brought things to a certain level which was their ceiling, and now that's become kind of our floor. So we're really looking on. You know, how can we scale? How can we tell more people about the benefits of the beehive? How can we talk more about the bees and talk about these functional benefits? So no matter what I did over the past, it was really deeply rooted in nutrition and wellness and really empowering people to have an extraordinary life just by making simple, better choices, including myself.

Sandy Kruse: 13:19

I love it. I love it and you know I noticed that that happens a lot of the time is that we go back to what was more inherent and what was more rooted in us. It's just like my parents are Eastern European. Okay, they were not hippies, they were traditional farmers. They grew up on farms where they lived off the land literally. And you know my dad is now going to be 88 in April, so he's been around a long time and you know he's been around.

Sandy Kruse: 14:02

And when I hear their stories, it really it makes me value that foundation that I have and hearing how they lived, because, facts are, we can't go backwards in time, but I do feel like there's many things that we can do to emulate a healthier way of living. So I totally relate to what you're saying. But let's start with a conversation about bees, because one thing I've noticed you probably noticed it too is that over the last few years, social media influencers, whatever, I'm not sure I like to hear, I like that word, but a lot of people on social media are doing a better job of educating on the importance of bees. And these are those little clips that I go. Okay, this is important information, so do you, can you get into bees, and I just find them so fascinating.

Angela Ysseldyk: 15:02

I know bees are very fascinating and they're so important. So let's just think of the big picture here. We wouldn't be here on this earth if it weren't for the bees and that sounds like a crazy statement to make, but they are part of our ecosystem. So one third of the food that we eat that's on our plate. It's responsible of that. That. Pollination is responsible by either a bee or a pollinator, but mostly majority is bees, and so they are very important for helping our ecosystem survive. So that's really really important. The next time you look at your plate, understand and appreciate those bees, because they're super important for our survival. So bees work really hard and they are.

Angela Ysseldyk: 15:41

I think that there are some risks to bees, right? So that's why the environmentalists and maybe influencers or whatever it may be, are talking about how important bees are, because we need them for our environment, and so things like pesticides you know even the 5G network they're talking about. But monocropping you know, lack of biodiversity, things like this, you know, from an environmental perspective, is impacting the bees' overall health, and so not every spring, when we open up over winter, we're saying, right, are the bees healthy? Right, a lot of beekeepers, and we work with a lot of beekeepers in Canada. You know, over the winter, you know the bees may not survive. Why is that? It's because their immune systems have been so bombarded over the spring and summer and fall through those things that I was mentioning, and so they can't kind of fight off the roll of mite and certain you know just different bacterias and things like that that are always inherent. It's just it kind of takes over. So we really want to take a look at that. When we're looking at you know what we're doing, you know in our, when we're choosing organic, you know there's things we can do in terms of planting and things like that. I mean, I know that's not part of this conversation, but just having overall awareness of how important they are and how hard they work.

Angela Ysseldyk: 16:51

So a single honeybee produces one twelfth of a teaspoon of honey in its lifetime. So honeybees do not live as long as the queen bee, or, sorry, like the drones and worker bees. So one colony is like a hive, let's say, and so I know you're with you and you're the queen of nutrition. So the queen bee is really the glue that holds the entire colony together. It's fascinating, and she is responsible for everything that goes on in the hive. She leads through her pheromones versus force, if you know. If you talk about leadership style, she's just sort of natural leader and she lays 2,000 eggs per day, which is pretty amazing.

Angela Ysseldyk: 17:30

So she's busy. As a bee she lives three to five years, whereas the other bees there's workers which are female, and drones and they only live about three to five weeks during the busy season, and over winter they'll live because there's enough food. During the busy season and over winter they'll live because there's enough food. But they're really busy because they're literally flying 55,000 miles to make one pound of honey. They're very, very busy, and that's just something to really think about when you're appreciating what goes on and just the intricacies of the hives.

Angela Ysseldyk: 17:59

I could go on and on about it, but really it's very interesting and fascinating to see what they do. And so they do things like make honey, they make bee pollen, propolis, all these things, and even just like, if you've ever had a chance to look inside the hive, even just the hexagonal shape of the bees the comb where the honey sits in is all done by design, like they've thought that through it's maximized space, and so that hexagon is really cool. And then the fact that you could use that wax that's in there that holds the honey, for beeswax, candles or creams or you know things like that. Like there's multi-use from those benefits that the bees produce. And of course I want to mention that you always leave enough for the bees, right? It's not harming the bees. Where you know it's kind of working with the bees when you look after the bees, they look after us.

Sandy Kruse: 18:47

Yeah, that's what I was going to ask you, because they provide so much for us, you know at what point is taking from them too much. Like you obviously would know what. Like you know you have to leave, like I don't know.

Angela Ysseldyk: 19:02

You have to leave enough for them to continue to survive right, like the queen 100%, and it's in our best interest to do that, and so that's why, you know, we have our Bee Friendly Promise, which is all about supporting beekeepers, you know, ethical, sustainable beekeepers, supporting our bees. You know, using sustainable packaging, like it's all kind of that holistic big picture, and when you do that, then they give back and it works like a circle, right? So you can do that just like, just like farmers do, just like your parents did, right, where you're working the land, but there's there's certain rotations and there's things you can do to ensure that that land doesn't get eroded, right? So it's the same with these.

Sandy Kruse: 19:43

Yeah, I have to ask because I don't know what you think of this. Listen, I live in the suburbs. I don't have a ton of property. We have a pool which we put in many, many years ago If it was today, I would have put a garden in right was today, I would put a garden in right but I have seen that any way that we can help would even be to plant wildflowers, not use pesticides, like what are some of the things that almost anybody who has a home can do to support bees.

Angela Ysseldyk: 20:23

I love this question because we have a. We have a kind of a campaign that we run every year. Well, every year this is like our second year, but we ran one last year, just because it's it's just this very thing. People want to know what they can do, and so it's. There's a few things. So, number one, choosing organic wherever possible, and that just feeds the organic farming practice. Right, we don't have 100% organic farms here in Canada, right, if we did, it would mean that that's where the consumer demand was. So the more what we put into our cart, we'll tell the producers what we want, right, and what is needed, so they'll make more of it. So, the less pesticides we have in the environment, the better. But anybody can plant something, whether you have a planter or you're working with a conservation area, or you can just work with someone who does have a garden, right, and you can plant those wildflowers. So last year we helped Canadians plant 2 million wildflower pollinator-friendly gardens and this year we're hoping to do 10 million.

Angela Ysseldyk: 21:22

And so there's certain flowers that the bees love, so echinacea, bergamot, coreopsis there's a whole bunch of wildflowers that are pollinator friendly, mugwort, even milkweed right, you remember milkweed?

Angela Ysseldyk: 21:35

You go on your, your, your science experiment walk, you know, in elementary school, and they talk about milkweed.

Angela Ysseldyk: 21:41

The bees love that, and so it's giving a nod to the weeds. You know, maybe don't pick all the weeds out, because some of the things that we perceive as weeds are actually beneficial to pollinators. And it's the monocropping that I was mentioning earlier, where there's just like two things, like it's canola and corn and cotton, and just like very those are the things that are being monocropped, encouraging biodiversity, having your own garden if you can, but if you, if you can't, just get a planter and you can get some of these wildflower seeds and and plant away and, like I mentioned, work with your conservation area, because they actually have special planting days on earth day and even world bee day, which is may 20th, once we get into the spring. So so there's things you can do, and it's also just being aware of that and just giving a nod when you do see the bees flying around, because wasps are very different than honeybees, so wasps are not involved in pollination, but honeybees are, so just keep that in mind.

Sandy Kruse: 22:40

Yeah, I'm not a big fan of wasps. I'm just not. I'm just not. And it's pretty easy to tell the difference too, right, like how would somebody be able to tell the difference between a honeybee and a wasp? Aren't honeybees a lot smaller, they're fuzzier, they're not like yeah.

Angela Ysseldyk: 22:58

Yes, yeah, so honeybees, when they stay, they're, they're, they're wasps are yellow jackets, like they're bright yellow and kind of like they look angry a little bit, whereas honeybees are, and they're longer and brighter, whereas honeybees are a little bit kind of more, just a little lighter in their yellow color and they're fuzzier. And when a honeybee stings you, it dies. So it's got to have a reason, right, if you're bothering the bee and honeybee, then it's more apt to kind of sting you as a defense. Right, if you're squishing it or you're step on it or something like that, they don't want to, they're busy, they want to do their work, so get out of their way. But wasps are a little bit different, they just buzz around and they can sting you multiple times. So just, yeah, that's something to be of note to note.

Sandy Kruse: 23:48

I always look for local raw honey. Yeah, talk to us about the difference between pasteurized and raw honey.

Angela Ysseldyk: 24:04

Yeah, that's a really, really great question. We get this question all the time. So pasteurization, first of all, is a process that some manufacturers will do to improve the shelf life of the honey. So you're basically heating the honey to a point of pasteurization, and that's over 60 degrees Fahrenheit, and so it's basically you're boiling honey so that it could prove the shelf life. What do I mean by that? I mean shelf life is equals crystallization.

Angela Ysseldyk: 24:32

So sometimes raw honey or unpasteurized honey will crystallize a bit faster than pasteurized. So that's just one one note there. So there's no real difference other than a little bit of crystallization. It's crystallization bad? Definitely not. It's not at all. But you can always just put the honey into a warm fat to improve the crystals and melt them a little bit. Why is that? You want to have unpasteurized honey. Unpasteurized raw honey is healthier than pasteurized honey because it's going to have higher nutritional value. So unpasteurized honey is loaded with antioxidants. I mean there's so much research on this. Sandy Honey is just, it's like a, it's a functional food and it's got benefits beyond being a sweetener and it's got antioxidants. You know anti-inflammatory aspects to it. I mean they've used honey in wound healing, you know externally. So raw honey is basically unpasteurized and minimally filtered, kind of matching what comes right out of the hives, and so you're going to maximize that nutritional value versus pasteurized. So hopefully that helps a little bit with describing the two there.

Sandy Kruse: 25:40

Yeah, why do some honeys crystallize faster than others, even though they're both raw?

Angela Ysseldyk: 25:51

yeah, it's a couple things. Well, one thing is that temperature. If you're keeping the honey in a cold temperature room, it is more likely to crystallize faster. Um, just because honey naturally is is in a warm environment, I mean actually honey never actually goes back. They found honey in mummified caves, you know, in egyptian tombs that is is safe to eat, you know, like all these years later so it's. You know the antibacterial effects that it has and just the natural properties help to preserve it, which is absolutely amazing.

Angela Ysseldyk: 26:24

And so types of honey that are going to crystallize faster. It sometimes can be just the ratio of glucose and fructose that's found in honey naturally. That can sort of offset that. But really it's just a matter of the source, the temperature, where you're keeping it. If you've opened it already, that kind of thing, then it might crystallize a little bit faster. You can still eat it, you can put it, like I said, in a warm pot or just pop it in the microwave real quick. But those are things you can do to, you know, make it a little bit more usable.

Sandy Kruse: 27:00

I think you just said something that's a good springboard to the conversation about glucose. And yes, here's the thing I'm going to say this.

Sandy Kruse: 27:11

I am also a nutritionist and I'm going to say that the internet and social media there is so much food fear and when you are looking at something that is a whole, real food source versus a processed, heavily processed sugar, you're looking at two very different things. I mean, I come from a place where there are people who are afraid to eat an apple for God's sakes, and it's time to change that narrative. So it's not to say that honey will not have an effect on your blood sugar, but maybe let's talk about sugar and the different effects, because we always have to be cognizant of the fact that honey might raise a little bit of your blood sugar, but it's going to give you so much more health benefits as well, because it is that whole food option to sweeten. Does that make sense, right?

Angela Ysseldyk: 28:20

It totally does, and what you said there really resonates, because I think, like you, we're both nutritionists and you get people who are very extreme on their dietary choices by removing an entire food group or demonizing certain aspects of certain aspects of a food, and you know sugar is one of them and you know protein's another and fat's another one. But not all sugar is created equal, and I'm not saying to over-consume sugar, but just being aware of those sources, that some sources are better than others and there's sometimes are beneficial choices you can make. You know when you have that choice, and so that's what we're here for. I'm not telling people to consume a whole jar of honey. It's not going to have an impact on your blood sugar, not at all, and we want to be mindful. You know of how much sugar we're consuming for sure, and it's it's quality over quantity, right? So sugar in general isn't the enemy, so it's over consumption of processed sugars is, and so that goal is to replace refined sugars with more nutrient-dense alternatives like raw honey, even fruits or natural sources that offer benefits like enzymes and fiber and antioxidants, and we both know this. When you pair a sugar with protein or fiber or healthy fats, the impact on blood sugar is less dramatic, so it makes it easier for the body to process, and so just having that mindfulness about that is very, very important. Using those whole sweeteners is really, really good, prioritizing real, unprocessed foods and, of course, listening to your body. You and I were talking before the show started. You know how much, you know how much sugar we should be consuming in a day and all that kind of stuff. We can get into some of that.

Angela Ysseldyk: 29:51

But if we were to kind of, let's just say, talk about, let's just give an example. So if we were to eat a high white sugar processed food, you know, like a donut or a sugary drink or something like that, versus having a little bit of raw honey, let's just go through it together. So, first of all, when you're eating the white, high processed sugar, you're going to have a rapid sugar spike, right, you're going to have a cause sugar spike, right, you're going to you're going to have a cause of, like bloodstream glucose that's going to cause a surge of insulin to happen. Then you're going to have an energy crash because that sugar lacks fiber, enzymes and nutrients but it's burned through quickly. So you're going to have a sudden you know drop in blood sugar and we all know that feeling doesn't feel good, and so when you feel tired, irritable, and then you want more sugar, and then also this leads to inflammation and fat storage because you're having more sugar than you should be having, and so it causes, you know, inflammation and it's stored in the fat and that's actually one of the causes of fatty liver. It's actually not always the alcohol, it's sugar and the fat cells. And so, and this causes inflammation in the body, which we know leads to a whole bunch of things brain fog, sluggishness, you know, long-term conditions like metabolic syndrome, right, which is that increased risk of heart disease, stroke and type 2 diabetes and I'm not trying to scare, I'm just saying. And then that gut disruption, so processed sugar feeds harmful gut bacteria, you know, potentially leading to bloating and digestive discomfort and increased sugar cravings.

Angela Ysseldyk: 31:12

So there's some things going on here with just eating like just pure sugar, something that doesn't have any nutrition to it at all, versus eating some raw honey. You're going to have a gradual energy increase and so you're going to have a natural like using those natural sugars that have the enzymes and antioxidants and trace minerals and slow the absorption of glucose. It's less of an insulin spike, because honey has fructose in addition to glucose. The liver processes it more gradually and so that's something to be aware of. And then anti-inflammatory effects.

Angela Ysseldyk: 31:45

Raw honey contains compounds like polyphenols, as we were talking about earlier, flavonoids, organic acids, and reduces oxidative stress, which combats inflammation, which is so important. Right, we know inflammation, you can feel it a little bit when you're in pain and sluggishness and all that kind of stuff. And raw honey contains probiotics as well, prebiotics which helps enrich that gut bacteria. So it's kind of like the, not the opposite. You're still getting sugar, but you're having less of an impact overall on the body. And so eating white sugar or refined sugar is like throwing gasoline on a fire, whereas having raw honey is slow burning, log right. It's like sustained energy, nutrients and protective benefits without the metabolic chaos. So I hope that answers, but I think it gives a little bit of a picture when you're kind of comparing the two and the impact on the body.

Sandy Kruse: 32:39

I'm going to throw in a third aspect to this conversation, only because I come from. I come from a place of pretty severe food restriction. After I had my thyroid out, I was like afraid to eat because I didn't even know my body anymore and I do talk about this a lot. I went through a period of keto, okay, and in the keto world there were all kinds of non-caloric sweeteners. I think it's important to bring this up. So what was happening was I had so much, like I would pull back from so many different food groups when I was eating keto, and one of them included all sugar. So here I was adding in like erythritol and stevia and all these things. And then I'm like, what's going on with my gut, like I started. And so then there's other ones like aspartame, there's sucralose, there's all of these non-caloric sweeteners, and I'm gonna tell you right now, if you think that stevia in a white powder that's like dust is less processed when it comes from a green plant, I think you're kidding yourself. I'm just going to ask you to think about it because I'm like, why am I doing this? And then I was needing more because I felt like I lived very restricted in how I ate, I wasn't getting a lot of joy from the food that I was eating, and so I was eating more of those non-caloric sweeteners and it was causing more distress on my gut and I certainly didn't need it. And then I'm like what am I doing? And then I just cut all of that out and I switched to. You know there's there's a few that I will use. One of them is raw honey, one of them is pure maple syrup, another one is I will use dates, and then the other one that I actually like is coconut sugar, because I feel like it's kind of like almost like a brown sugar when it's extracted and made into crystals. So those are.

Sandy Kruse: 35:05

I just wanted to note that I was looking you're going to laugh at me, angela, and you know what I'm going to do is I'm going to make my own syrup for my kids who love to drink from a special coffee shop, and I'm sure most of you know, and I think it's a good time. Just to mention, the recommended daily amount for women is six teaspoons. That's about 25 grams of sugar, and when I was analyzing it was a grande of one of the specialty drinks. That grande was 52 grams of sugar in one drink. That is more than two days worth of sugar in one drink. So people don't even think about it. So I'm like I'm going to make my own syrup coffee syrup from honey. At least it's a whole food source, right? I would love to hear your take on just this whole thing. I feel like we live this sugar drink laden life with kids and adults the same.

Angela Ysseldyk: 36:23

Yeah, I mean, I think our receptors are all over the place, right. And so when you're consuming the artificial sweeteners, you're almost tricking your body, right? It's too sweet, right? When you think of honey versus sugar. Honey tastes sweeter, so you'd use less. But stevia and xylitol and these other alcohol kind of sugars are 10x sweeter and you're tricking your body. It's not even like a human, natural sweetness. So our receptors go all crazy and it makes us want more sweet.

Angela Ysseldyk: 36:58

But if you're having something that's from nature and it's just in that amount, that is, that that's just. You can consume it and it will help your receptors. You will naturally kind of have have your fix and you don't need it again because you don't have to crash and your and your body's not being tricked. So we shouldn't be tricked either by some of these artificial sweeteners thinking that we're doing something good. And you're right, they do disrupt your gut. It's it's, it's, it's proven. Not only that, you know some of these artificial sweeteners are no good for your brain. I'm not saying you know, never to have some Stevia, you know sodas or you know things like that if you're having that instead of, like, you know, sugar-laden one. But there are things you can do and just having that awareness and so that chat about with your daughter and taking her to you know, a coffee shop.

Angela Ysseldyk: 37:43

We need to teach our young teenagers and our young adults about what they're consuming as well, because I think there's this sense of a hall pass or I'm young so it doesn't matter but we definitely need to teach about what is feasible. I mean, maybe 25 grams of sugar a day for a woman and 65 for a man. I can't remember exactly what it was we said, but there's going to be room, for you know, we don't want to get so strict, where it's like we're looking at everything so strictly, but just creating some awareness, like you said. Did you know that this drink that you're having is double the amount you should be having in one day? And you're just having this at breakfast? You're going to probably want to have sugar later on because you're going to be craving it and what it's doing to your overall health is not great. Right, we want to leave room for treats, but is this the kind of treat you want or can you have it? Like you said, can you have your cake and eat it too? Can you still have that treat and get that sweet feeling by using honey or maple syrup in your latte instead. Yes, you can, and it's kind of fun right To find alternatives and there's ways you can do it. And we're doing something actually right now called the sugar swap challenge. It's like it's. It's so fun because it's something that I've done and you probably do this too, sandy. It's something naturally that you do.

Angela Ysseldyk: 39:00

But it's not very common for people to think about replacing the refined sugars for natural. It's not even like a conscious thought that it's that you can do that or look at a recipe and go I can swap this out for something. So, for example, for every one cup of sugar if you're doing baking or just relatively speaking, it's one half to two thirds a cup of honey, so you're using less and you're lowering some of the liquids because honey is naturally got liquid in it. And the same thing with maple syrup. It's one cup of sugar equals three quarters of a cup of maple syrup, so you're using less and there's things you can do.

Angela Ysseldyk: 39:35

You can be empowered now to look at recipes and try something different. It's going to have a little bit of a different taste, but it's going to be better for you and you're going to feel better. You're going to get that sweetness craving marked checked because we're human and we crave sweet, we crave sour, we crave salty, we crave all of it. And so giving yourself that and not restricting it, and knowing that you're giving something good to your body, that's not going to be inflammatory, it's not going to disrupt your gut and you're not going to have that energy crash, is like the reward.

Angela Ysseldyk: 40:06

That's what you want to go towards right, you don't want to go towards fear and saying you know, don't have the sugar and don't have the sweet, because we want the sweet.

Sandy Kruse: 40:18

There, I have a new product for you. You're going to make we're going to make with the three pumps of this and 60 grams of sugar, and no benefit, no benefit. So I think this is the key here it's more about processing and no health benefits, versus having a little bit in moderation and all of these other health benefits. That's the way I look at it. So, anyway, something to consider.

Angela Ysseldyk: 41:17

Same here, girl? Yeah, I think the same way, because that's sustainable, right? Anyone who goes on a crazy diet or changes something, right? It doesn't last, right? You even said it yourself it's just not sustainable. And so let's pick the things that we're going to stick with and keep it going right, and so that's yeah, that's a great, great idea.

Sandy Kruse: 41:37

Mm-hmm. So let's get into a little bit of the research behind, okay, and maybe let's categorize it. So there's propolis. A lot of people don't know what propolis is. I was actually giving bee propolis to one of my dogs for a while there for allergies.

Angela Ysseldyk: 41:57

Okay, okay. Interesting, yeah, we have a lot of customers who use bee pollen for their pets and absolutely loves the impact of it. But let's get into propolis. So first, of all sorry, sorry.

Sandy Kruse: 42:10

There's a okay Paul. Okay Bee pollen versus bee propolis. I had to keep it in the fridge. I'm trying to think what's the difference between the two?

Angela Ysseldyk: 42:23

Yeah, okay. So let's talk about propolis first. So propolis is basically made by bees. If you ever have a chance to go to a beehive and you look at some of the dark spots that are in the cracks and it looks kind of waxy, dark, waxy stuff, that's actually propolis. Kind of waxy, dark, waxy stuff, that's actually propolis. So the bees make propolis from gums and resins and pine and mix it with nectar and they use it to seal the cracks of the hive. They're so intelligent they do this to basically keep the inside of the hive pristine. So the inside of the hive you can lick the floors Because, like I said earlier, the queen bee, she's busy man. She's like laying eggs and making babies and they're making honey in there. So it's very clean inside.

Angela Ysseldyk: 43:10

And so propolis has 300 compounds. It's naturally antibacterial, antimicrobial, antifungal and has all these amazing benefits. That way it's immune supporting and it's used. I mean amazing benefits. That way it's immune supporting and it's used. I mean we use it a lot now, more so, for humans can use it, and lots of research on propolis From a Health Canada perspective. You can use it to soothe sore throat and mouth infections. So using a spray or gummies or capsules or tincture, is really popular, a way to kind of soothe their sore throats. It's also high, just like honey. By the way, all BHA ingredients are loaded with antioxidants, so that's really good. So propolis is also loaded with antioxidants as well. And beyond that, you know people are using propolis for other things, like oral health, wound healing. You know well, I was talking about immunity as well, and when we first started actually I didn't say this earlier, but we started a website called BeBuzz and it's really popular in Canada and the US and we would just basically showcase all of the research that's out there and we were at the time. It's not allowed in Canada anymore, but I'm sure it is in the US, but we were selling toothpaste that had Propolis in there and the Propolis was our number. Toothpaste was our number one seller Because think about it right, it's antibacterial, antifungal. So you're getting, you know, this natural kind of almost antiseptic, and so people loved using it for toothpaste. And you can also use it, obviously internally too, to help with that as well. And you know other things. You know just people are using Propolis for warts and like HPV and for candida and other things. But there's just there's a ton of research on Propolis. It's just kind of getting started. Here in North America it was a staple or it is a staple in other countries, you know, such as in Eastern Europe and in Asia, where it's just a part of the medicine cabinet and recommended by doctors as as a as a medicine.

Angela Ysseldyk: 45:08

And then there's bee pollen. So bee pollen is another ball of wax, it's another beehive ingredient powered by bees, and bee pollen is and you've seen it in action and I'm going to tell you why. So when you go up to in the springtime and summer, when you go up to the flower or you know, just you've seen the bees buzzing and you're just looking. It's so pretty and you see these orange sacks on the back of her hind legs. By the way, it's the worker bees, the females of the hive, who are doing all the gathering of the pollen. So when they're pollinating the flower and the flower pollen, bee pollen is collected naturally and it's stored on their hind legs, and so that's a combination of flower pollen and nectar, and it's orange and brown and red, depending on the floral source, and so that's bee pollen.

Angela Ysseldyk: 45:51

And so bee pollen is really nature's superfood and multivitamin, powered by bees, and it can be used you see it in granules, so you can use it as a superfood. It is probably the fastest growing beehive ingredient that we've seen in the last year, because superfoods are really hot. But not only that. They call it superfood super because it's packed with nutrition. So bee pollen is high. It's a complete food. It's got protein, it's got carbohydrates and fats, amino acids, vitamins and minerals in there as well Polyphen, antioxidants, you name it and people are using this on in their granola, on their granola, in their yogurt and smoothies, eating it on its own.

Angela Ysseldyk: 46:30

I grew up with bee pollen, like I grew up with everything I used to eat raw propolis and bee pollen was the number one thing that my mom would ask before school, like I could still remember her getting out on that front porch, getting into the, the bus, having the window turned down, and she would say did you have your bee pollen? I was so embarrassed because back in the 80s, right, it was not really popular to have bee pollen, but I swear I never got sick. People always complimented me on my skin and it's just a natural multivitamin loaded with antioxidants. So a great superfood to add to your diet and I think people are catching on to it, and animals included, so maybe that's what you gave to your dog one.

Sandy Kruse: 47:09

Because, yes, yeah, okay, that's okay because it now that I I'm certainly not a honey or bee pollen expert, but I try and keep my dog healthy and I remembered reading about it and researching that pollen, because it is, it's exactly what you said the little little like balls that were yellow.

Angela Ysseldyk: 47:30

Yeah, exactly, humans can eat it too, and it's got a bit of a bittersweet taste. It can be kind of it's kind of crunchy soft, but it's a superfood. You don't need a lot of it, so you can use, start with a couple granules and work your way up to one to two teaspoons. I grew up on it and I thought I'm fine, and I don't have any pollen allergies or anything like that, so I'm fine with having a tablespoon a day. I had a tablespoon before this interview. So if you're feeling the buzz from me, it must be the bee pollen, and so it's very easy to take and something that you can kind of add into your smoothie if you're if you're a smoothie person oh, that's excellent.

Sandy Kruse: 48:07

So wait a second.

Angela Ysseldyk: 48:08

You say good for the skin, because that's like one of my specialties yeah, you know what anybody who starts taking bee pollen and my daughter was taking it too she started noticing that her skin, the the color would come back into it. You know, like in the winter, when your skin's kind of like dull, if you think about it, if you ate a lot of oranges or and carrots, your skin does kind of it's. It's so you're, you're eating something that is adding those polyphenols and those antioxidants and those carotenoids to your diet, and so we know how great those are for your skin and helping with that, you know, like just overall appearance of skin. So I mean we don't have a health Canada claim for that, but there's research showing, you know. Just, we just know, from a nutrition perspective, when you load your body with the good stuff, your skin tells you right.

Sandy Kruse: 48:57

So that's what I will say? Yeah, so what I will say is I always encourage people to do their own research on anything. We are not making any medical claims on this podcast. We never do. We just educate. We're just talking about certain things and then you have to go and look up the research yourself and decide if it makes sense for you. I just want to put that little disclaimer in there, because it's really important that people know. Even though I am a wellness podcaster, I do not give any medical advice. I thought it's a good time to add that in there. So let's get into beeswax what's, what's, what is that all about? Into beeswax what's what's? What is that all about?

Angela Ysseldyk: 49:44

Yeah, so beeswax, like I mentioned, right? So that's that's the the, the wax cappings that are on top of the honey when inside the hive and also what holds the honey. That's beeswax. And so beeswax is also high in polyphenols, but it's antibacterial, antimicrobial. People are using beeswax in two ways. They're using it as an ingredient for their skincare, right so? Beeswax creams and lip balms and different tinctures and things like that for your skin. And then they're also using it for beeswax candles, and I love this, especially this time of year.

Angela Ysseldyk: 50:19

Being able to light a candle is amazing, but you don't want to light a candle and have it burn petroleum into the air or unnatural fragrance. It's going to be negative on your health. You want to do something that's going to be positive for your wellbeing and so lighting a natural beeswax candle is well, it's naturally heat producing. It's going to be just natural, clean burning, in that there's no added not added fragrance to it and it's made from beeswax, so it actually promotes negative ions in the air, which helps with that good feeling, and it's heat producing as well. So you can sit beside a nice beeswax candle and feel nice and warm and cozy.

Angela Ysseldyk: 50:55

And the canadian enzymatic society actually recommends using beeswax candles, because we know the impact of the environment on your breathing and it just what happens. You know when you're, when you're having different environmental toxins in the air. You know, just walk by a laundry aisle or you know light some of those other fragrance laden. You know petroleum based candles and see what happens to your breathing right, especially if someone is asthmatic or they've got, you know just poor respiratory health and then yeah, from that, from there, you know, using beeswax as a skin cream is phenomenal. You know, as part of a base for moisturizing, locking moisture in antibacterial right. So using a body butter or something like that is just so great, especially this time of year, if you've got those cracked hands to really kind of seal that in and keep that moisture in. It's just such a naturally used ingredient that you can use in lots of different ways. Lips as well, lips and face and body yeah, I like it.

Sandy Kruse: 51:54

Now, the other thing to note, just about the candles. So there's different components of a candle and I actually look into this a lot because I'm a big feng shui girl. I like to light up my fire corner for the year and that sort of thing, so I'm cognizant of what I'm burning. And just so that you guys know, any candle that has fragrance, even if it's essential oils, may not be right for you, or even your pets, or right Like. I just want to note that, like when it's a natural candle, with what a cotton wick? No, what is it that they put in wick? Is it aluminum or is it? No, what is it? Lead, lead, lead, yeah.

Angela Ysseldyk: 52:47

Yeah, that's right, and yeah, go ahead.

Sandy Kruse: 52:51

No, I was just going to say like, just think about it. Like when you go into one of those shops that sells like and you walk it, I happen to be extremely sensitive to scents and smells. I have to be very careful and I actually I was actually reviewing my genetics and apparently it relates to my inability to detoxify them. So this is very much a personal thing for me. Not everyone's like that, but I have to be careful. So I just wanted to note that. Did I explain that correctly, angela?

Angela Ysseldyk: 53:28

Yeah, absolutely. We already know from the Environmental Working Group that fragrance is not especially artificial fragrance, but even essential oils for some might cause an issue, but I'm talking the artificial fragrance that can really be a concern as a toxin, right, and so different levels. So you want to be wary of what you're putting into your environment and your home and what you're lighting. And maybe there's just like sugar versus honey there's other things you can do that are going to give you that same feeling of self-care and that peaceful feeling that lighting a candle does do, but without those negative effects. So just just kind of yet be aware of that. Yeah, so, and the other thing too is I forgot to mention royal jelly. Did you want to talk about royal jelly?

Sandy Kruse: 54:13

because that's another ingredient I've almost yeah, yeah, yeah, this is really interesting too yeah, so remember I was talking about the queen bee.

Angela Ysseldyk: 54:20

She lives three to five years, even sometimes six years depending, and the worker bees live less because they're busy as bees and the drones. They live three to five weeks in the busy season, but the queen bee, what she does is she solely consumes royal jelly. So royal jelly is something that is very longevity promoting. It's nutrient rich. It's actually produced by the glands of worker bees and it is fed to the queen as well as the baby bees, so it's kind of like breast milk, but only for bees, right, If that makes sense. So it's very nutrient dense. It's loaded with nutrition as well.

Angela Ysseldyk: 54:56

It's a nutritive tonic and we've seen just different studies coming out on royal jelly as well, all across the board. But I think too, even just noting that for menopausal symptoms and perimenopausal symptoms women were using. It was a double-blind, placebo-controlled study that was conducted in Iran with 200 postmenopausal women this is postmenopause, age 45 to 60, pre and post. I would say this is like a combination and they were using 1,000 milligrams of royal jelly per day for eight weeks and the study found that the group consuming royal jelly had a significant reduction in their perimenopausal, their menopausal symptoms, including hot flashes, anxiety, back pain compared to the placebo group. So that's just something to note that that's something that was in the complementary therapies of clinical practice study. That was just a few years ago.

Angela Ysseldyk: 55:45

So there's things you can do with royal jelly, you know. Just knowing that number one it's a nutritive tonic health Canada claim. It's high in antioxidants, health Canada claim. But but beyond that, like you mentioned, if you're doing your own research, there's, there's a lot of places you can go with royal jelly and, depending on what you're looking for, it might be a neat ingredient to add to your regime For things like menopause.

Angela Ysseldyk: 56:08

There's studies on it for cholesterol lowering. There's studies on it for helping improve collagen production and they've even done another recent study that showed that it improved glucose tolerance, red blood cell production and even mental health. So again, do your own research. We're on the same page there, but it is interesting to see what research is coming out on that and keeping in mind that in some countries, even in the Middle East, there like this was done in Iran, this one here they're using it as a regular medicine. So I think we're going to need to catch up a little here in North America on some of the things we can say. When it comes to royal jelly, I know it's being used as well for brain health too, so just check it out, you know, because we need to be in charge of our own health and what we put into our bodies, and this might be an option for you as well.

Sandy Kruse: 56:58

How do you eat it? Like do you just like take a teaspoon of royal jelly and it's like jelly in your mouth. Like what is it?

Angela Ysseldyk: 57:06

Oh, my goodness, I'm glad you asked. So, truth be told, I have tried royal jelly on its own. We have fresh frozen and we have um, we have the concentrated powder and we also have capsules. Fresh frozen royal jelly tastes disgusting. It is like not tasty at all, like I cannot do it, and so I will use the capsules myself. That is where I'm at. I'm just being honest. I have not seen someone who's tried real jelly, and I've seen a lot of people try it who are. I think it's delicious. It's not delicious, so you need a very tiny amount, like it looks like honey, but you just need a small amount of it. It's very concentrated, um and so, depending on what form you're consuming, just be aware that it's not like having honey. It might look like honey, but it's not honey. So I prefer the capsules myself. And yeah, so there's, but there's different options.

Sandy Kruse: 57:56

So maybe plug your nose if you're going to try it. Yeah yeah, that's always worked for me, yeah.

Angela Ysseldyk: 58:04

Yeah, yeah, I get it Totally, totally.

Sandy Kruse: 58:11

I think we covered a ton of information. We're almost at an hour, I believe, so I want to make sure that I give you that we didn't miss anything. Angela.

Angela Ysseldyk: 58:22

Yeah, I'm just thinking back to the conversation, and we covered a lot, sandy, we did. I think there wasn't anything in particular that's missing. I mean, I may say a couple of things, but just in terms of I mean, I think just what you're saying at the beginning, right, it's just when we are looking at our health and our choices that we make, don't underestimate the power of the small, simple choice and the impact it can have on your overall health, because the small, simple choices we make are easier and then they're going to last and they're going to become a habit. And so, just being aware of processed sugar in this example of conversation, and, you know, replacing it with something else, it may just, over time, be that thing that continues to help you on your journey for health. But there's other places. You're going to see it everywhere. You know, once you start looking for it, it's like is there something better I can do here?

Angela Ysseldyk: 59:22

You know, when it comes to your food choices, right, if you're going for the chips or you're going for the, you know the things that you know aren't going to be as good.

Angela Ysseldyk: 59:29

It's like, maybe I can have something else, right, maybe there's something that can give me that crunch and give me that feeling. You know, veggies and hummus or something like that. Or you know, making sure you're prioritizing your protein when you're having a meal from a nutrition perspective, but also being mindful about who you surround yourself with, right? It's like it's not just the food, it's the environment and the people. Right, and some of the choices that we make and just being aware of that. I think it's again like you said, it's not about perfection, it's about being intentional and just a small choice can have a big impact and you want to do something that's sustainable and you know this. This type of thing is sustainable. So my goal really is to educate, inspire people to embrace that real functional food and really have your best life right. And it's not just the nutrition, it's everything from your your body, mind and soul and, yeah, just just having that awareness.

Sandy Kruse: 1:00:25

Thank you, thank you. Where can we find you, angela?

Angela Ysseldyk: 1:00:30

Well, we're Dutchman's Goldcom. We're on Instagram at Dutchman's Gold. We're on Facebook at Dutchman's Gold. You can find us online at Amazon, canada and the US. We're in a lot of retailers in Canada and yeah, I mean just to search it up. We've really been working on improving the website since my dad didn't have a website at all, so we're selling online. So we're in quite a few different places online and in stores and reach out to me as well. I do answer. You know the DMs and all that on Instagram or you can email us as well, and you can find all that on our website.

Sandy Kruse: 1:01:04

Thank you. Thank you so much, Angela.

Angela Ysseldyk: 1:01:07

Thank you too, sandy. It's a pleasure and, yeah, I really enjoyed our chat today.

Sandy Kruse: 1:01:11

Me too. I hope you enjoyed this episode. Be sure to share it with someone you know might benefit, and always remember when you rate, review, subscribe, you help to support my content and help me to keep going and bringing these conversations to you each and every week. Join me next week for a new topic, new guest, new exciting conversations to help you live your best life.