Corinna Bellizzi

230 – Corinna Bellizzi

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Welcome to episode 230 of The Art of Living Proactively, and my guest this week is Corinna Belizzi, of Örlö Nutrition, which is all about the power of algae based omega-3 fat fatty acids and about promoting overall health and wellbeing. And she explained in this episode the importance of maintaining a balance between Omega3 and Omega six th fatty acids.

She describes about the differences and why we need them, why they’re important, how the imbalance in a Western diet can lead to inflammation and health issues. And we discussed about the benefits of omega threes in improving cardiovascular brain health, as well as sustainable and bioavailable nature of supplements.

And we go in into supplements in general and a few other areas as well. So that’s this week’s episode 230 with Corinna Bellizzi. Hope you enjoy the episode. Do subscribe to the episode. Well subscribe to the podcast rather so you get regular updates. And remember, we are now on YouTube. All episodes are on YouTube.

You can actually watch the video of Corinna and I chatting. Welcome to another edition of the Art of Living

In this episode of “The Art of Living Proactively,” host Tony Winyard interviews Corinna Bellizzi, founder of Orlo Nutrition, about the power of algae-based Omega-3 fatty acids in promoting overall health and well-being. Corinna explains the importance of maintaining a balance between Omega-3 and Omega-6 fatty acids and how the imbalance in the Western diet can lead to inflammation and health issues. They discuss the benefits of Omega-3s in improving cardiovascular and brain health, as well as the sustainable and bioavailable nature of algae-based supplements. Corinna shares their personal journey in the natural health industry, their motivation to find alternatives to traditional medicine, and the importance of being proactive in taking charge of one’s health. The episode concludes with recommendations for educational books on environmental issues and a discussion on the power of establishing a daily routine for supplement intake.

[00:02:09] Tony Winyard: Proactively Podcast. My guest today is Corinna Bellizzi. Did I say that right?

[00:02:15] Corrina Bellizzi: You make it sound so beautiful. Thank you.

[00:02:19] Tony Winyard: So, Corinna, how are you doing today?

[00:02:21] Corrina Bellizzi: I’m doing really well. It’s, uh, practically summer and sun’s starting to come out, but I’m here in Santa Cruz, California area and we’re having our June gloom, which is honestly one of my favorite times of year because I love the foggy mornings, followed by a warmer afternoon, and then fog rolls, and again, it keeps everything nice and beautiful and green, so makes me happy.

[00:02:43] Tony Winyard: See, and I always, I don’t know, I, and although I’ve been told this before, cause I’ve had other guests from different parts of California, but in my mind I just can’t escape this thing that California is always sunny. Clearly that’s not the case.

[00:02:56] Corrina Bellizzi: Well, I think because I grew up in southern Oregon and what is known as a Pacific Northwest, these kind of foggy, misty mornings to me just feel more like home. So, um, that’s the difference when you’re in coastal Northern California versus Southern California. There’s this quote by Mark Twain. The coldest winter I ever spent was a summer in San Francisco. And I’ve had friends who visited from the East coast, you know, bringing only shorts and t-shirts, expecting to have warm weather who had to duck into shops in San Francisco and grab sweatshirts and pants, and suddenly they’re wearing nothing but 49 ERs gear.

[00:03:36] Tony Winyard: So Corinna, tell me a little bit about who, who is Corinna.

[00:03:42] Corrina Bellizzi: Well, I think, you know, it’s, that’s always a hard question to answer because every person is multifaceted. But I have been, since I was just a little girl, kind of this activist at heart, uh, and where my, um, Professors and teachers through the years might say things like, oh, well you’ll grow up and you’ll be more conservative.

That just hasn’t happened In my case. I remain, um, uh, probably dark green on the sustainability side of things and really try to work to make the world a better place through my actions and through educating my two young boys who are five and eight about the natural world around them and the things that we can each do to make the world a better place.

[00:04:27] Tony Winyard: And so how, what age is it? Can you remember get starting to get interested in that sort of thing?

[00:04:35] Corrina Bellizzi: You know, um, I think the earliest was probably around nine years old when I started to learn about things like animal testing. And that was because my grandmother was diagnosed with cancer and I was just so. Moved by that and really troubled. I wanted to understand what was happening to her. And so. I went to the library and I started reading research and trying to discover what melanoma was and how people got it.

And that led me to learn about things like holes in the ozone and the area that she lived in, getting more exposed to the sun and ending up with skin cancer, and then animal testing. And what things like LD 50 levels mean, Because I wanted to see what was happening to her and how I could help her. And so I remember around that age also working to get a petition signed because I learned that they were using Reeses Maccas in a lot of animal studies in Oregon.

And I just, Didn’t understand why we would do things like expose these near to US relatives to immense levels of radiation in the name of research. And of course medical research is often advanced this way, so you know, we benefit from it. And. I could also say that in some small way that makes me a hypocrite because I myself have likely benefited from that medical research over the years.

Right. But I acknowledge at the same time that we live in the world we live in. And um, sometimes that means you have to pick your battles, but when something is right, it’s right. And if something is wrong, you should speak up. And that’s kind of how I live my life.

[00:06:13] Tony Winyard: You’ve been pioneering, some fish, sourced omegas to algae. How did you get into doing that?

[00:06:21] Corrina Bellizzi: Well, again, probably also through my love of research, I, um, got involved in the omega-3 industry back in 2002, shortly after graduating college. Um, I had been selling, I. You know, different ingredients for inclusion and supplements, helping companies to formulate things that would help better people’s health, right?

And that would be an alternative to some of the drugs that you might otherwise take, um, that would potentially help people manage their health a little better without ending up on five different prescriptions by the time they’re 55. Which to me just seems like a travesty, right? And so learning more about Omega three s over the years, I could just see how impactful they are to improve people’s health on every level You have, for instance, omega three s, EPA and DHA that are just depleted from our diets, So we can’t benefit from them the same way unless we supplement or unless we take it upon ourselves to eat fish, and fatty fish, two to three times a week. Most people, and especially Americans aren’t going to do that. And so I started to work in the omega-3 fish oil industry because that’s what was available at the time that had high levels of E P A and D H A, which are the specific fatty acids that are needed to support your cardiovascular system, your brain health, your emotional health, because they are involved in half of the fat in your brain and ice, or specifically the omega threes, EPA and dha.

And so, We need to provide ourselves with these building blocks, right? And fish oil was a great way to help people get there. But the fact of the matter is that our waters are somewhat polluted, um, and in some cases very polluted. We are continuing to see that certain areas of the world are exposed to vast over fishing, to the point where piracy becomes the norm because local fishermen can no longer get the health and tonnage that they once could, even in areas that are supposedly certified as Marine Stewardship Council certified, you know, sustainable, um, or Friends of the SEA sustainable. And so I made the leap back in 2016 to exclusively working in the space of algae for EPA & DHA because technology has come to a point where we can harness the full power of Omega3’s, EPA and DHA from the original source because fish, they get their omega threes, EPA and DHA from the algae they consume. And so it just made sense to go this route. And now what we can do is just so amazing because we can ultimately retain their polar lipid structure. And I know this is technical, but what it means is that the omega three s and algae are actually more bioavailable than the fish oil that you might get from a health food store or online or wherever you choose to purchase it.

So you can. do that by getting a polar lipid omega-3 from Örlö Nutrition. We’ve spearheaded this incredible technology and ultimately have created something that doesn’t burt back on you, there’s no fish burp because it gets absorbed so quickly and it’s not from fish and that you can see the full benefit of in just a matter of a few months.

So it’s been an incredible journey thus far. We’re seeing a lot of early success, and both from people that are, you know, biohackers trying to improve their health and just get that edge. And those that may have consumed fish oil in the past or even are just new entrants into understanding what Omega3s can do for them.

[00:09:39] Tony Winyard: So what do you, there’s a lot of criticism around supplements in general and, and also. Also around sort of various omegas, well, many other supplements. So what, how would you answer criticism about, about what you do?

[00:09:54] Corrina Bellizzi: You know, there are bad actors in every industry. I. That’s just across the board. And the fact of the matter is that, you know, we’ve had in the natural health and and wellness industry, some more, many, many more good actors than back bad actors. But every once in a while somebody comes out, they make outrageous claims about something, they say, oh, this will help to, you know, reduce inflammation.

They’ll lose 30 pounds in a week or whatever. And then they’ll share case studies and they’re. They’re thumbing their nose at the laws that do exist to protect consumers, the natural health and supplements industry. It is regulated and these are not drugs, so we aren’t supposed to be making outrageous claims about what they can do for your body.

Right? That’s kind of reserved for drugs and then is very tightly controlled. In those cases too, they have to tell you all this crazy side effects that can exist from consuming one of their drugs, right? And so we have to be mindful that there are really great quality supplements out there. And that have been setting a stage for success for a long, long time.

Responsible manufacturers and in the category of omega-3, specifically. Omega three s have tens of thousands of research studies behind them supporting their health benefits for brain health, for cardiovascular function, and also for just having healthier cells and vitality. The Framingham Study, which is a multi-decade research study out of the Boston, um, Massachusetts area. Uh,

followed people over decades and looked at what their levels of omega three s were, as well as other vital nutrients, and then just ultimately looked at what their health outcomes were. Right? And even in this case, they discovered that those with the highest levels of omega three s in their systems being at a threshold of over 8% in their cells, they had a dramatic reduction in all cause mortality, period.

Right. So it’s not to say that it was. One thing or another, but their habits that also likely led them to have a higher consumption of fish over other meats or things that might actually damage their health to have a better overall balance of omega threes in their systems, that they were able to live a more healthful life. And so while 74% of consumers have generally said, you know, I’m skeptical of supplements. I don’t know what works or what doesn’t. At Örlö Nutrition, we’ve taken that and we’re running with it. We’re essentially saying, look, we know that this can help your health. And so we started this Tested by You campaign where we have partnered with OmegaQuant to provide one omega quant test to verify your existing levels of omega three s before you start supplementing. So you can say, okay, here’s my baseline. This is where I am before I start treatment, so to speak, right before I start actually supplementing with this every day. And then we’ll test them again after three to four months of taking a daily supplement. So it’s essentially a hundred dollars in tests that we’re covering that’s conducted by a third party. And that lab, their research and their methods are used by Harvard. They’re used by all these medical institutions across the globe for really viable, important third party gold standard level clinical trials that are showing the benefits of Omega3s.

This is one category of supplementation that nobody can stand up against and say they don’t work. And ultimately what we’re saying is that at Örlö, we’re so confident you’re going to absorb more of them into your tissues that we’re proving it by footing the bill for a hundred dollars worth of tests for every single one of our new customers coming into the Tested By You program.

[00:13:39] Tony Winyard: So how well, how is the test done, and is that just in the states or globally as well?

[00:13:44] Corrina Bellizzi: well, we’re doing it in the States, so we’re piloting it here, but it’s just a simple so this is the Omega Quant test. It ships in just this little clamshell. We don’t have a stake or an interest in Omega quant at all. They’re the third party lab that literally just sold these to us at a discount so that we can do this program, um, these retail for $50. We also are reselling them on our site, but you can buy them directly from OmegaQuant as well.

And essentially what they do is they give you a lancet, that’s what they call it. I always forget that word. And then you simply take your drop of blood and you put a couple drops of blood on the little card that they provide.

You send that in as in a pre-addressed and stamped envelope. The postage is already taken care of. And five days after the lab receives it, you receive your results directly in your inbox so you can see where you stand as far as your omega-3 index is concerned. We know that most vegetarians and vegans.

And we offer a vegan solution for Omega nutrition. Um, they often are sorely deficient. Um, and those that do not supplement, generally test around three and a half percent of omega threes in their cellular tissues. And this is considered an at-risk group. We really wanna move them up towards 8%. And while one individual might get to that with a single daily dose of just two soft gels. Somebody else who might have a heavier body or who might not consume other omega three s in their diet might need a little more. So this before and after test is designed to not only help them discover their baseline, but then from there with that second test, they can say, oh, I’ve been taking just enough.

I’m in the perfect spot. I’m at 8%. I’m happy. Or I need to do something a little different. And so I think that power that knowledge, putting their health in their hands is really going to change the life of those individuals because not only are they going to feel better, but they’ll be motivated to keep taking the product over the long term.

And this is one of the things that you’ll see from any supplement based company. It’s like you have attrition. People start the good habit, but then, oh, you know, they didn’t take their supplement with them when they went on vacation and, and they get outta the habit of taking it every day. And then suddenly, you know, they’re no longer supplementing their diet with this thing that is otherwise really hard to get unless you’re eating a can of sardines a couple times a week.

And I personally dunno many people that are willing to do that.

[00:16:10] Tony Winyard: So does it, is it important that it’s done daily or can it be like, say for example, five times a week or what’s the situation with that?

[00:16:18] Corrina Bellizzi: Well, you know, it’s interesting because doctors say two to three times a week, if you’re consuming fish right now, fat soluble nutrients are like that. But the problem with even just taking something a few times a week is that people won’t remember. You really need to get in a daily habit. It’s like I have hypothyroidism, I take a daily drug for that?

Really, it’s more of a supplement because essentially it’s just a desiccated thyroid hormone. Um, I’m not taking the drug version of it because I don’t respond well to that. So I take this every morning before I eat at least a half an hour before I eat because that’s something that’s required of me. And if I treat my supplements the same way. Then I’ll remember to take them every day. So, you know, I think that’s important, establishing a routine, especially when some something as vital as an omega-3. Now I also tend to run deficient in vitamin D. I have Mediterranean blood. You mentioned my name, Bellizzi, right?

Well, even though my skin is fair and I’m blue eyed, I don’t make a lot of vitamin D from the sun. So even when I spend time in the sun, I’m not getting that much from it. So I have to take a Vitamin D supplement and. I’m also thrilled that I get to do that with Örlö because we have an immunity boost spray that contains vitamin D as well as a smattering of B vitamins.

Again, something else that vegans and vegetarians are often deficient in. So I can boost my immunity, get a little extra vitamin D, and then also have my Omega three s. But there’s one more thing that’s important to think about with fat soluble vitamins and fat soluble nutrients. So that’s like the vitamin A, vitamin D, vitamin K, um, oh, vitamin A, D, K, E, right?

They’re all fat soluble vitamins, is that they can bioaccumulate. And the same is true of fats you consume like omega three s. So when a doctor tells you two to three times a week eat fish, right? They’re accounting for the fact that you’re likely to retain those omega three s in your system. And it’s not likely Many people are gonna consume fish every single day, but when you go to a supplement, Getting into a routine where you can take it every day, I think is critical to long-term success.

There’s something else that comes into play with our product in particular, because it’s in the polar lipid form. I can literally take a few of those soft gels with a hot cup of coffee, and I’m not gonna get that burt back. I’m also going to absorb it because it’s in this polar lipid form. I don’t have to consume it with food. If, however, you’re taking a little soft gel of vitamin D or you’re taking a soft gel of fish oil, you really should be consuming that with a meal. And now we run into this problem, people forget it’s not a part of their everyday routine. Um, they’re like, oh, well I eat breakfast out that day. So I didn’t take my product with me.

It, it becomes harder. So if you can establish a routine where you take something first thing in the morning or right before bed, then you are more likely to continue taking a product. And if that product is in its most bioavailable form, then you’re more likely to realize the benefit. Realizing the benefit means you’re more likely to keep taking it.

So it’s this positive cycle of goodness, essentially for your health.

[00:19:25] Tony Winyard: And is it possible to over consume?

[00:19:28] Corrina Bellizzi: Over consuming omega threes is very, very hard. Now, I’ll give that a caveat. I have done it. So you want me to share my personal story? Uh, my husband calls me an omega-3 evangelist. Right? And so there was a period of time where I eliminated all fried foods from my diet. I consumed zero, uh, omega six sources.

Really? I was going. Full end, the omega threes that, I mean, there were some foods that contained both three and six, and I was getting those, but I’m saying no cooking oil, no grains, you know, really, really focused on eating a Mediterranean diet that was higher in things like fish and olive oil and really n none of the other typical fatty American foods that you would eat.

Right? And so, um, at the same time I was supplementing with a pretty high level of omega threes from fish. And it got to the point where if I cut myself shaving, I had a very hard time stopping that bleed. And I’m just saying just the littlest nick, right? And this is not because fish oil makes your blood thinner.

It doesn’t do that. But if you have a high level, very, very high level of EPA and D H A in your system, your platelets essentially get slippery. And so what happens is the platelets get slippery. They don’t connect together and kind of congeal and create that clot so that you will stop bleeding. This is entirely why doctors and medical professionals will tell you to stop taking your fish oil before surgery, and I would say for like 99.99% of people, that recommendation is completely unnecessary.

I’m not telling You not to listen to your doctors. I’m just saying it’s really hard to get too much omega-3 by reference to everything else. So if you’re taking a daily dose of an omega-3 containing supplement, that’s a fish oil or an algae oil, whatever, it really is. The likelihood of you getting too much is really, really low.

I mean, I was practically drinking cod liver royal at that point. Like it was a fine dessert or a wine or something.

[00:21:27] Tony Winyard: You mentioned about omega three s and omega six s, and I think there’s a, there’s a common misunderstanding of how much Omega, omega three s do I need, how much omega six s do I need, what foods contain which, and can you, can you click clear up the confusion.

[00:21:43] Corrina Bellizzi: Yeah, so here’s, here’s the basics, right? Omega three s and omega six s are both considered essential fatty acids. This means that they’re like the vitamins of the fat world. You need to consume them in order to be healthy. They’re involved in every cell in your body. They control and regulate inflammatory processes.

They essentially support the creation of prostaglandins. Cytokines and leukotrienes, which regulate all sorts of processes in the body. They also are critical for the formation of your hormones. And so you need these things in your diet, right? You, you must get them from food. They aren’t something your body can create, but they’re also like two sides of a scale. Omega threes and in particular e p A and d h a, which are the down metabolism. They’re like the, the like. If you think of betacarotene versus vitamin A. Vitamin A is the bioactive downstream regulated portion that betacarotene can com become in your body. It’s the most bioactive, right? E p A and D H A are the most bioactive on the omega-3 side.

So you’d consume something like walnuts, flaxseed, chia seeds. These are all known to be relatively high and they’re plant sourced omega-3 levels, right.

But they’re in this alpha linolenic form, So kinda like betacarotene to vitamin A. It’s like alpha linolenic to EPA and D H a, and our body has to go through several processes to turn them in to EPA and D H A.

And once they’re in that form, EPA & DHA, they can become structural parts of our cells. They can help to regulate inflammatory processes in our body. They can help the body return to homeostasis after inflammatory event. Picture, stubbing your toe, gets red, gets angry. You might have a cut or something like that.

Your body needs to know to send your white blood cells and all the other army to that area to help it heal. Right, that’s the inflammation event. Omega sixes stimulate that inflammation event. But if we don’t have the omega three s in balance, the omega three s don’t bring that back to normal, to baseline, to homeostasis.

And so you’ll understand really quickly why we have far too much omega six. When I tell you where you find it. Omega sixes are in corn oil, soybean oil, canola oil. They’re the all of these oils that we use in cooking and processing foods. And while in the wild, these particular beginning, um, Nutrients.

Like if you take corn oil in the wild, it has some omega-3, some omega six, mostly omega six. But even in processing, what manufacturers do is they remove the omega-3 because the omega-3 reduces its shelf stability, makes it go spoil quicker, right? So they take it out. Um, same thing is true of canola oil and soybean oil and all those other oils.

It just removed the omega-3, so it’s exclusively omega six. Now the plant source that’s really speaking to the plant source, the animal source of omega six is arachidonic acid. And that’s like if you eat hamburgers and hohos and crispy creams and all these, you know, different fried foods, you’re getting plenty of that omega six.

And then you’re also getting err arachidonic acid if you consume animal sources from your bacon into your bake, into your eggs, to your beef, to your chicken, to whatever. And the reason these animals have so much arachidonic acid is because the food we feed them cuz we feed them corn and we feed them grains.

We don’t feed them algae, we don’t feed them walnuts, we’re not feeding them flax seed um, so we just get far, far, far more omega six s and almost no omega three s in our current American diet. And that’s, and most of the developing world, there’s a few exceptions, um, where people eat like, let’s say raw fish a lot in Japan and haven’t adopted a western diet.

Um, and some coastal areas as well where they consume a lot of fish and haven’t adopted a more western diet.

[00:25:40] Tony Winyard: So what should the ratio be between them?

[00:25:43] Corrina Bellizzi: You know, the jury’s out on this, but researchers generally say between about three to one, omega six, to omega3 and one to one. And this is because of a couple things. For one, um, they both, when you’re talking about the plant sources, like if you go to flax or if you go to corn oil or whatever, your body has to use enzymes to break them down and get them into their most vital parts, the EPA and d h a, that your cells use, right?

To regulate inflammatory processes to help communication between cells to become structural components of the cell walls and mitochondria to create energy. All of these things that they do. Right. So we essentially, um, we won’t get to the EPA and d h A from the plant source if we gunk up our system with too much competition between omega six and omega-3 because the same enzymes are used.

Delta five and Delta 60 saturates, they’re both used to help us get to these downstream metabolites of the plant source omega-3 S and omega sixes. One other thing is that when you consume something like a trans fat, It stops the action of these enzymes altogether. And so you just don’t make the EPA and d h a from them at all.

And trans fats can be labeled as partially or fully hydrogenated oils, and sometimes they will even say on the label, zero grams trans fats. But in the ingredients you can see that it contains partially or fully hydrogenated, soybean, canola, whatever, oil, and often it’s even palm kernel oil. So these are just things that we need to get mindful of, and I think the best way forward is to just stop eating so many packaged and processed foods.

Get back into your kitchen, eat real whole foods, and maybe even consider ditching the bread.

[00:27:33] Tony Winyard: So if someone is wondering about their levels of Omega-3 and Omega six, what, what would you advise them to do?

[00:27:39] Corrina Bellizzi: Well, I’d say first you can take your own omega-3 index test. You can pretty much count that you’re getting plenty of omega sixes in your diet. Um, and what you’ll find when you take the omega-3 index test is you get an entire fatty acid profile of those fatty acids that are included in your cell wall, and they specifically call out to e p a and d h a.

Now, as I’ve said before, with Örlö Nutrition, we’re footing the bill for that for our tested by you subscribers. This is available for only a limited time, but the Omega-3 Index test is available. You can buy it on Orla Nutrition site for $50 or directly from OmegaQuant, from the same price, and just their basic test will give you what you need and will tell you what your fatty acid profiles look like.

Again, you know the. Goal is to get to 8% to 12% omega-3 in your cell walls. Um, and the remainder is other fatty acids. So you know, you can also see that there are plenty of omega six s in there as well.

[00:28:38] Tony Winyard: And do you think that you will be extending access to other countries as well?

[00:28:43] Corrina Bellizzi: Well, we’re starting with United States, but we have launched our product line in Iceland and also our mid road. In doing so within Israel and other spots around the globe, we do have consumers in Canada that have ordered the product and have, um, even taken the tested Bayou campaign. They just have to pay additional shipping, and sometimes those shipping charges can get quite high.

We’ve sold to people in Australia, the uk, England, Ireland. So really it’s, um, wherever people want to purchase, they may just have to end up paying a pretty high shipping cost to help us get it to them, and we’re working to resolve that as we continue to grow.

[00:29:22] Tony Winyard: Or could they just take a, a test locally with, with, you know, the various companies that that offer these tests.

[00:29:29] Corrina Bellizzi: Yeah, and they could do that as well. I’m not, um, sure if OmegaQuant sends into, um, every locale around the globe, I imagine they do. Um, The reality for them is that they’re primarily working through research institutions. Um, you can also ask your doctor for omega-3 tests.

Um, and now, you know, I just interviewed Dr.

Bill Harris on the Nutrition Without Compromise Podcast. He’s the co-founder and creator of the Omega-3 Index. Um, he essentially has shared that, you know, this is. This is something that’s used globally and that, you know, is a reliable test and even more reliable as an indicator of cardiovascular risk, um, cardiovascular disease risk than even just your standard lipid profile of L D L and V L D L, cholesterol, et cetera.

So, um, you can ask if it’s even included within your insurance plan. In the United States, it mostly is not, and what I found when I. wanted to have my O three omega-3 lug tested through my doctor was that I would have to pay double the price for the same test. So what I, you know, did instead is just go direct to OmegaQuant and bring the results to my doctor to discuss them.

And so that’s something that you can do as Well, and, I think it’s an affordable enough test and available broadly enough that people around the globe should be able to do that as part of their health management.

[00:30:57] Tony Winyard: Well, and, and that test leads me onto, I was gonna ask you about what your definition of it is of being proactive about health.

[00:31:07] Corrina Bellizzi: My definition of proactive? Well, I mean, it’s not waiting until you have severe health challenges that you’re confronting. If, for instance, you know that you have a family history of something like Alzheimer’s, I know that my grandmother had Alzheimer’s and in her later life also experienced cerebral palsy, um, other neurodegenerative diseases.

What I learned on the heels of that is that I have one representation of the A P O E four genome type, which is more likely to develop that disease in particular now, thankfully, I now know that and I can make some steps to ensure that I have better nutrition support, and I ultimately look at it as serendipitous because as it would turn out, um, individuals with at least one, and if, you know, you might have one or two representations of a p o e four, I’m not cursed with two, but that they have a harder time integrating the omega-3 e p a and d h a into their brain and eyes. And so those with, um, consumption of polar lipid form, Are better suited because they literally go exactly where they’re needed. And this may be part and parcel of the reason that when I take three soft gels a day, I see better results than two perhaps because I’m a little bit more challenged in this arena genetically.

And so I have that power of knowledge in my hands. I can make adjustments from there. I don’t have to wait until, oh my gosh, where are the keys? I can’t find them, wear my sunglasses when they’re on the top of your head. Um, or just feeling forgetful and forgetting names and little things like that, which can be early signs that a problem is developing. So I think it’s taking charge of your own health journey and of seeking solutions that might exist a little bit outside of what might be the typical healthcare system. And I think here in the United States that is. Perhaps more important than some other spots around the globe. Um, but you know, because our healthcare system is, is really kind of broken and that’s a completely different discussion.

[00:33:13] Tony Winyard: Will you be producing any other sort of products and covering other vitamins and minerals?

[00:33:18] Corrina Bellizzi: Yeah, I mentioned briefly that we’re already producing an immunity boost product. This is from spirulina. In particular, we grow spirulina as well as other algae strains at our facility in Iceland, and we’re able to do so using only green energy, which means it’s a viable solution for the long term. We’re also growing our algae in brackish water because we’re growing species that can use brackish water, which means it’s non-potable water.

And in the end, this means that we’re producing a human nutrition solution that uses 99% land and water resources than cattle or soybeans or any other type of nutrient. Um, we know that our spirulina produces a very similar profile with its amino acids to that of beef, and essentially covers all of the essential amino acids. From spirulina, a vegan source, right? And so as we head down the road, we anticipate producing more products that can leverage this power of our spirulina. For at the present time, we’re using the phyto compounds that come from the spirulina that support just overall immune system health. That can help battle some of the, um, cytokine storm that individuals might see if they have things out of whack because of its antioxidant power.

And also that can really support vi vitamin B12 because it actually contains vitamin B12 in the methylated methylcobalamin form, which means that even those that suffer from genetic anomalies with the MT H FFR gene can actually receive the full benefit of the vitamin B12 without any issue. So we’ll continue to develop these sorts of solutions.

We’re really looking to harness the full power and impact of algae for human and animal nutrition. Um, we’re starting of course, with humans. We do have some products in Aquafeed, so, you know, supporting the, the fish farming arena as well.

[00:35:14] Tony Winyard: And what you mentioned there about b12, cause many people think that it’s just vegans or vegetarians are deficient, but it’s not as, there’s many more people in.

[00:35:25] Corrina Bellizzi: And that’s unfortunate because a lot of the vitamins that we see in our food supply and also in supplements, they are not in their most bioavailable form. And this is one of the things that is really critical within everything that we’re doing at Örlö, is we’re working to, to provide more impact with our nutrition solutions.

So we commonly say we provide impact nutrition solutions, that we’re the number one source for these source of solutions and that we are going to continue our commitment in this arena. Um, You know, providing vitamin B12 in its methylated form makes a huge difference for a lot of people. Everyone absorbs it better, but those that have this genetic, um, issue have a really hard time absorbing f folate or other ingredients that are vitamins, um, on the B spectrum that aren’t methylated.

And we need them in a daily capacity in order to subsist and thrive. B vitamins, unlike these other vitamins we’ve been talking about, are water soluble. So they are just in our systems for a short time and we need to get them in our diets routinely. Um, they’re very hard for vegetarians and vegans to get in particular B12 because most of our good B12 reliable sources are from animal sources.

So providing one that is vegan that comes from the algae and its methylated form in the first place is an incredible solution. And when we’re gonna keep heading towards.

[00:36:47] Tony Winyard: Tell me more about, I know you are on a couple of podcasts. Tell me more about your podcast?

[00:36:51] Corrina Bellizzi: Yeah, so for the launch of Örlö because I was already a podcaster, I was like, I have the podcaster bug. Uh, let me come out and help us, um, get the word out by hosting a podcast on behalf of the company. So we started Nutrition without Compromise. In May, 2022, which was when I launched the brand, I’ve been able to feature some incredible doctors and medical professionals, including Dr.

William Lee, who wrote Two New York Times bestsellers, including Eat To Beat Disease and Eat To Beat Your Diet. It opened up collaborations with Dr. Tassone, who is America’s holistic gynecologist. He has a podcast himself called Confessions of a Male Gynecologist, which is really fun and um, Disarming and real, he, uh, is really helping women get their health right and a variety of other doctors and medical professionals I’ve known over the years to really dig into real nutrition solutions and how people can manage their health better.

And so this has been a really fun show to host. Um, we are going to be shifting its name to Impact Nutrition, formerly known as, Nutrition without compromise. Just to really drive home the importance of absorption and getting the most benefit from your diet and from your health choices that are in your control.

[00:38:10] Tony Winyard: Can you think of a book that’s really moved you for any reason?

[00:38:14] Corrina Bellizzi: One recent book that I. Was exposed to through my other podcast, Care more Be Better, which is all about social impact and sustainability, um, connected to my work in the fish industry, and then reasons that I’ve shifted over to working in algae. Um, this is a book written by Stephen Hawley he’s an award-winning filmmaker, but he’s a writer. That’s his real thing. And he wrote this book called Cracked the Future of Dams in a hot, chaotic World. So it connected to, you know, fish spawning sites and the damage that we’ve done to some of our environments and some of the crumbling and infrastructure that we have here.

And I just felt connected to so many different points. I spent a lot of time thinking about that. It helped me to see the forest for the trees are some of these interconnected issues, and also how we might get into more of a solutions mindset and really build the future that we want to live in. He ends with this beautiful story of what the future could look like in this really optimistic fashion.

And I think sometimes we can be so, um, forced into thinking about issues that seem too big and too hard and, you know, what are we facing, what is this world we live in? I’m, you know, feeling. Incapable of making a change. And then you have someone like him come through and say, okay, here’s the problem, but here’s the solution and this is how we can get there and, and really reveal for people a sense of hope that can ultimately result in creating the future that we wanna live in, and whether that also contain a package of shifting how we even handle capitalistic thought and work to, you know, rise the ranks of Common Man. At the same time, I, I think, can offer some some beautiful thinking points. Another I really love is Regeneration by Paul Hawkin. Which is all about ending the climate crisis in one generation. And he really gives people solutions from any number of arenas. So if you’re interested in climate science at all, it operates as kind of a, um, primer and textbook for how you might approach these different issues and even create, um, entrepreneurial solutions that can, can ultimately build the better future and also create vitality, um, for humanity at the same time.

[00:40:35] Tony Winyard: So if people wanna find out more about you, about where would they.

[00:40:40] Corrina Bellizzi: Well, https://orlonutrition.com is where you can find everything about Örlö Nutrition we host on that site, the podcast in addition. Um, and you can also find me personally, um, on social media platforms including Instagram, LinkedIn. I’m the only Corinna Bellizzi that I know of, so if you Google me, you’ll see. Um, but I do write, uh, quite a few blogs for Örlö Nutrition and I’m active with the company as well.

And, um, everywhere you want to look on social channels, it’s simply @ÖrlöNutrition, that’s O R L o nutrition.com or @orlonutrition on social channels.

[00:41:20] Tony Winyard: And to finish is there, can you think of a quotation that you really like?

[00:41:26] Corrina Bellizzi: You know, I. I always go back to this same one, which is a quote by, you know, Mary Leaky. It never really goes back to just this idea of a small group of people can band together and change the world, and I’m paraphrasing the quote, even though it’s included as a signature on most of my personal emails.

But I think it’s important for us all to think about is that we can collectively make a difference, and it’s often through that power of community that we’re able to do so. So working and collaborating with like-minded individuals, creating solutions together, banding together with hope. That’s something that I hope we can all do.

[00:42:08] Tony Winyard: Well, thank you Corinna. It is been a pleasure and thank you for educating everyone on omega threes, omega six s, getting them from algae and and so on, so thank you.

[00:42:18] Corrina Bellizzi: Yeah, absolutely. It’s my passion. I wanna correct the global Omega-3 deficiency. I think the more correct thing would be to say the insufficiency, but, um, that’s only if I’m answering to the F D A.

[00:42:31] Tony Winyard: Thank you.

Next week is episode 231 with Amy Stein, and she’s on a mission to educate and empower those who are struggling with their health, on how to reconnect their bodies to innate intelligence using mother nature as a guide. And she finds that when she awakens inner light and wisdom, we can sync the mind with the body and the spirit, and she combines the power of the plants, along with energy medicine, techniques and breath work. So we’re going to find out more about that. With Amy Stein next week, episode 231. Hope you enjoyed this week show. Please do subscribe, leave a review. That would be really helpful. I’d really appreciate that, and have a fantastic week.