Episode 296 — Demand TOXIN Transparency
Guest: Zen Honeycutt • Date: February 26, 2026
Episode Overview
Zen Honeycutt returns to the show to explain why parents can no longer assume the food system is protecting their children. Drawing from personal experience and years of national advocacy, she outlines why testing and transparency are essential for physical and mental health.
About Zen Honeycutt
Zen Honeycutt is the founding executive director of Moms Across America, a national nonprofit dedicated to empowering families with education and action to create healthy communities. She is an international speaker, author ofUNSTOPPABLE, and a leading advocate for food safety, toxin transparency, and informed consent. Zen has helped initiate nationwide glyphosate testing, supported legislative efforts, and worked directly with policymakers to address toxins in the food supply.
https://www.momsacrossamerica.com
You’ll Discover
Why Chronic, Low-Level Toxin Exposure Is Easy To Miss And Hard To Reverse (4:34)
How Nutrient Deficiencies And Toxins Can Drive Depression And Mental Health Decline (8:59)
Why Eating Organic Alone Does Not Eliminate Toxic Or Nutrient Risk (21:39)
How Repetitive Diets Can Increase Exposure And Create Hidden Imbalances (30:08)
Why Testing Is The Only Way To Know What’s Really Affecting Your Child (36:13)
Referenced In This Episode
Full Transcript
Zen Honeycutt 0:00
We want to get these harmful pesticides out of our food, because some people may not consider certain ones toxic, even though they're very harmful. But either way, toxic chemicals kill things, and they can also cause lifelong, permanent damage. They can cause mental illness, endocrine disruption, liver and kidney disease. They can slowly kill people right over a period of 10 or 20 years. It doesn't necessarily mean that they will kill somebody within 96 hours. Now, there's certain levels of toxic chemicals that can kill people within you know less than 96 hours for sure, but what we're talking about is chronic exposure over time of these toxins that add up.
Len Arcuri 0:38
If you're a parent of a child with autism, you are being called to rise with love, courage and clarity. This journey isn't easy, and most parents aren't equipped, but you can be. This podcast is your invitation to rise higher, because how you navigate matters. I'm Len, and this is autism parenting secrets, where you become the parent your child needs now. Hello and welcome to autism parenting Secrets. Today, I'm joined once again by Zen Honeycutt, founder of moms across America, Zen has been on the podcast multiple times over the years, and every conversation has helped parents think more clearly, ask better questions and step more fully into their role as advocates for their children. And since we last spoke, Zen has been deeply involved in federal level advocacy and continues to lead important work around food safety, toxins and transparency. The Secret this week is demand toxin transparency. Welcome Zen,
Zen Honeycutt 1:42
thank you. Len, thank you for having me. Thank you to your wife and to all of your listeners who have been following for so long and are endeavoring every day to improve the health and you know, behavioral issues and mental well being of their children, mostly who have autism or on the spectrum, I am there with you. Two out of three of my children have really been impacted very severely, I believe, by toxins in the food supply and in vaccines. And so I'm going to talk about those issues that they've had and and the issues that I've heard from many, many people about how the toxins have impacted their children. And I really want to preface it by saying that we're all doing the best we can, and that, though this information may seem overwhelming, we just need to take one step at a time, do one thing at a time, listen to one podcast at a time, obviously, and do the best we can and not, you know, do, do the best we can to not get overwhelmed by it. And I wrote a book called unstoppable, which has been a big part of why I keep going. But I also am a huge advocate for pausing now and then, and, you know, and taking a break and making sure to collect yourself and take care of your self care. So just wanted to put that out there ahead of time. What I'm about to say may seem very overwhelming to people, but I that's not my intention is. It is to help you find one thing that you can do and take actions in that direction.
Len Arcuri 3:17
Thank you for that preface. And yeah, it's impossible to be unstoppable if you don't recharge and slow things down periodically, to again, to take more intentional actions for yourself, for your child, for your family, that's the key. It comes down to decision making, and toxins are a term that's thrown around, and it's easy to get overwhelmed, because there's toxins everywhere. But truly, for parents who have a child with challenges, if they look at the root cause of what might be behind this, what might be contributing to it, you can't ignore toxic exposure as a potential root cause.
Zen Honeycutt 3:59
Yeah, and let's talk about that just for a second. Toxins in the in the chemical industry are described as chemicals, which are, you know, contaminants or heavy metals. They're, they're chemicals that kill more than 50% of the animal subjects in a study in less than 96 hours. So, you know, so they could, might not describe certain elements, like aluminum is considered a toxic metal. It's not considered a heavy metal, yeah, even though heavy metals can be toxic, right? So I don't, there's, there's like, there's framing around it, which is difficult, and they, some people wouldn't describe certain pesticides or chemicals as toxic because it may take longer for them to kill. You know those, those animals in the in the subject, so sometimes we just say harmful pesticides, right? Like we want to get these harmful pesticides out of our food, because some people may not consider certain ones toxic, even. They're very harmful, but either way, toxic. You know, chemicals kill things, and they can also cause lifelong, permanent damage. They can cause mental illness, endocrine disruption, liver and kidney disease. They can slowly kill people right over a period of 10 or 20 years. It doesn't necessarily mean that they will kill some somebody within 96 hours. Now, there's certain levels of toxic chemicals that can kill people within, you know, less than 96 hours, for sure. But what we're talking about is chronic exposure over time of these toxins that add up, sometimes, often do not get, you know, detoxified very easily, and can cause an impact. You know, many, many years down the road, I've personally experienced this with my sons. I did have huge benefits when we went organic, when they were children, my sons, when we they had many different allergies. That was at first what I noticed. They had rashes, febrile seizures. You know, this is definitely after vaccines, and I didn't know it until later, but two out of three were, you know, on the spectrum. And so they had issues with learning, behavior and focus and attention, mood, you know, circular thinking, depression, all of that. And and we got some testing along the way, and we noticed things like, they had over 20 different food allergies. They had some industrial chemicals in their bodies, and we did take certain steps for detoxing, like, you know, foot baths, or certain, you know, activated charcoals, eating organic as much as possible. And we found when we ate organic, we definitely noticed results. Our children's allergies went away. A lot of the rashes went away, that a lot of the behavioral issues calmed down. And at one point, my, my, one of my sons who had autism symptoms that were very apparent, you know, very aggressive and difficulties with learning and all of that. All of those went away when he ate organic after a period of six weeks, like they just, he just dramatically improved. So I'm a huge advocate for eating organic. However, my eldest son who ate organic for 10 years. His name has been he ate organic food for 10 years. When I say organic food, I mean when we went to a restaurant, he would drink water or bring his own food. He would not eat the food at the restaurant. The only food he ate was from Chipotle because we had tested and we had found they had the least amount of pesticides. They had advertised that they were non GMO. Many of their ingredients were organic. So he had Chipotle maybe once a month, some maybe twice a month, if it was like, you know, he got a gift card from somebody you know. He but other than that, he ate organic 100% of the time. And he also became a vegan. But he wouldn't have called himself a vegan. He would have said, he said he was a whole food plant, organic, whole food, plant based diet person, because you can eat chips and soda and be a vegan, right? He did not eat processed food in that way, hardly ever. Maybe some salsa, chips, right? Chips with salsa. That was it. And of course, they were organic. So he ate vegan or organic, whole food, plant based diet for seven years and organic for 10 years. And yet, unfortunately, close to six months ago, he succumbed to depression and committed suicide. And it's been horrible, and it was the least, the last thing that we suspected, because, as I said, he ate very healthy. He wanted, at one point, to be a nutritional scientist. You know, he was very focused on food. He read the book How Not to Die by Michael Greger at 14 years old, and decided to focus on doing everything he could to live a long life. He was a survival skills expert. He was a runner. He was a man of God. He worked at the neighbor's house next door three hours a day on a farm, outside, outdoors, you know, organic farm. He practiced Mutai for a while, you know, the year before he passed. So there were a lot of things that he was doing for a long time to keep himself very healthy. And it was the last thing that we ever would have expected. But a year before he passed, I did notice signs of depression, and I was very concerned about him eating, of being a vegan, because I had heard that some people get depressed after a while. So we got him tested, and we did notice genetically that there were certain things like he had to he really should have been eating eggs, because His body did not absorb choline well through plants, same with me. So he and I both started eating more eggs, and I do believe it impacted our memories. It did help, but he had some toxins in his body. I gave him supplements. I found out later he was not taking them, so he was not detoxifying the way he should. And then four months before he passed, we did an additional test on him and found out that his cholesterol was extremely low, and it was contributing to his depression. We also found out that he had high levels of heavy metals, and one in particular is thallium, and thalium causes DNA breakage and. Mental illness, and it's found in very high levels in kale. And he ate a giant bowl of kale salad, or green salads every day. I mean, like a family size bowl. So we believe that the thallium contributed to his mental illness. Also, he had high levels of mycotoxins, which are found in grains and beans, and that's primarily because glyphosate increases the growth of molds, and the byproduct of molds are mycotoxins. And we also found high levels of Candida, which eats the heavy metals. So there you'll have higher levels of Candida in people with high levels of heavy metals and and Candida definitely causes suicide ideation. And we also found very low levels of other nutrients that were indicative of a vegan diet, which, you know, like vitamin D and E and other vitamins that contribute to the to the health issues and the problem. So we know now we know basically why he passed, and the mtfa charging variants also did not help, right? He had several of those, and those impair a person's ability to detoxify. And so the heavy metals and oh, he also had high levels of DDT and some banned pesticides in his body, which we don't know where those came from, but we know that they can impact people, especially, you know, worse, when they have a MTF, HR and other gene variants. So we are advocates for people finding out about those toxins and mycotoxins, heavy metals, pesticides, you know, all these things in their bodies, because they can and do contribute towards depression. And I'm also a massive advocate now for genetic testing to find out, you know, if your body, you know, can handle not only the toxins, but being a vegan, there are just some people that should not ever be a vegan, and I don't think that's information that you know advocates of veganism are telling people often enough.
Len Arcuri 12:07
First of all, just thank you so much for sharing all of this, and there's so much I think that you're learning and discovering. So the fact that you're willing to share your story, I just can't tell you how much I appreciate it, and I know our listeners will as well. When you think about the testing, though, and that piece of it, you, first of all, you mentioned genetic I'm guessing you're talking about more like functional genomic testing, where you can get an idea of what your blueprint is, and that would help inform diet choices, correct.
Zen Honeycutt 12:39
Yes, well, I had originally done with my kids ancestry.com a long time ago, and I just sent that genetic information. It's like the raw data to a friend of mine who has a child with autism vaccine damage. She ended up training becoming a nutritionist, and then she learns how to read genetic snips, so it's her occupation. Now, like many of the parents, I'm sure that you talk to, what she does is tries to help other people with these problems. And so I sent her the genetic information, and she read his genetic snips and and learned, you know, what he and I both, we did that for both of us, and we both learned an awful lot about, you know, genetically, what we should and should not be eating and, and it's oftentimes things that you would never suspect. I mean, you know, and if you have these certain genes, sometimes you don't, you know, absorb vitamin B 12 easily. So you know, the even the B, vitamin B supplementation that he was taking may not have been working the way that it should have, you know, with or would with other people, and
Len Arcuri 13:42
it may not have been enough, or even the right form of vitamin B, correct?
Zen Honeycutt 13:46
Yeah, yes. And so that type of investigation is really important to do. And he was of the mind because of the books he's read that he can get all his nutrition from food. And ideally, you know, that's what would happen. But when we when we have the testing that we've been conducting lately and the science that we've been seeing from organizations like bio nutrient I'm sorry I'm not remembering. I think it's bio nutrients anyway. It's a Dan Kittredge has a whole organization where they test nutrient density and and the nutrients, the food that in the food supply today is so nutrient deficiency that, you know farmer, Dr Don Huber, who's a farmer educator, said, I wouldn't even call that food. It's just, it's just so devoid of nutrients that if, unless you're supplementing with the right form, right and actually good quality supplements we are walking around, really, all of us just, it's, it's miraculous that we're even functioning right because of the lack of nutrients that we're having right now. I mean, it's just, it's just a testament to how miraculous our body. Are that it can they can't. Our bodies compensate and make up for and do the best we can, but there's, you know, severe nutrient deficiencies happening, and I noticed, I learned something new. Recently, we met with the EPA. We had some scientists that came with us. We discussed some food testing that we're doing that we'll be able to reveal soon. And Dan Stein was one of the scientists with us. And when, when I had asked him, why are the iron levels so low in some of the samples that we were testing? And he said, Because glyphosate chelates copper. And I said, Well, what does that have to do with iron? And he said, Well, iron won't get absorbed into the body unless you have sufficient levels of copper. So I found that very interesting, because, you know, the anemia and the fatigue that comes with the iron deficiency and all of the other health issues, the imbalance of copper and zinc in children with autism is, you know, across the board, pretty much every child with autism has an imbalance of that. Some could be too high in zinc, some be too high in copper, right? And so the the mineral levels in our food are very much dependent on food and in our bodies. Right? How our bodies absorbs them is very much in a if there's a relationship between the toxins in our food supply as well, right? The toxins such as glyphosate, that's a key later, and a toxin right impacts our mineral absorption and how our bodies function. So we need to know what those toxins are in our food. And we need to know what the toxins are and the mineral levels are in our bodies. We need to know the mineral levels in our food as well, but we need transparency. We need transparency with what is happening in our food supply today. And I hate to say it, but although the work that's incredible that's being done around the nutritional guidelines, right, and the new food pyramid and all of that, and I highly approve of, you know, all that was done there, the missing thing is that they're not basing the nutritional guidelines based on like, for instance, if they give serving sizes right, those guidelines would not be based on the reality of the food supply. Today, those guidelines are based on fantasy figures. They're based on numbers from maybe the 30s of when there were actual nutrients in the food today, if you compare, if you actually test and look for how much iron or, you know, zinc or magnesium or manganese or copper is in the food, it is so deficient that a person would have to eat hundreds of servings of a particular food item, in Some cases, in order to get the recommended daily intake of that nutrient, or vitamin. I mean, you've seen the memes, probably for 10 years now, you'd have to eat 70 servings of spinach to get the same amount of iron today that you would have in the 30s. We did some testing with fast food. It was 333 Chick fil A sandwiches that I would have to eat as a woman. You'd have to eat 380 as a man to get your recommended vitamin b3 levels right and for in one day. So in most cases, the the numbers are anywhere from 40 to 300 of that one particular item that you would have to eat in a day in order to get the same amount of vitamins and nutrients that you would have in the 1930s before the industrial chemical chemical farming started. So you see, there's a massive discrepancy between what we're being told, as far as servings you know, of food that we should consume, and the reality of the nutrient density in that food and you know the reality of of what's actually happening in the food supply. So you know what we're being told, and what's actually there is is very, very different. So that's one of the, one of the big areas that we need transparency. And it's not just toxins, but it's in the in the nutrient density, and the toxins are strongly related?
Len Arcuri 19:02
Yeah, no, that's absolutely mind boggling, and it's been kind of known, pretty well established over the last few years, particularly with people like Dr Zach Bush, who's been talking about how incredibly depleted the soil is, which is why he has his initiative to with farmers footprint, to help farmers reclaim the land and reclaim the soil, and because it is so nutrient poor, for lack of a better word. But what you're describing is how that's translating into what we're actually ingesting with the food. And it may be wildly, wildly different than it was. It is
Zen Honeycutt 19:39
and and so we we feel like, Oh, we've eaten. And then many of us feel we still feel hungry, and we wonder why. And we crave, you know, certain, if we crave certain salty snacks, what we're really needing is magnesium, right? If we create craving sweet things, mate, there's other vitamins and nutrients that that's what we really want. Is nutrients, not. Necessarily that type of crunchy or sweet food. And so I wish I'd memorized more of what those were right now, but I'm sure we can come up with some great graphics and means to support your listeners about that. There's, I've seen those floating around in the internet, and you know, that's the thing to think about. I know for sure one of if you do have a craving, a good thing to reach out to is to get sauerkraut. So if you have sweet cravings at night, if you have a tablespoon of sauerkraut, it's really, it's your it's the bacteria in your gut that's calling out for the that sweetness and, you know, that type of satiation. And you can feel more satiated if you have a big tablespoon of sauerkraut, and you're sorting out your gut microbiome and and all of that. So it's, it's a much healthier thing to do. But yes, we need, we need the transparency and and there's, yeah, there's just, there's so much to say about these toxins. I'd like to say one thing about, I'd like to go through each one of them again that was found in my son, the heavy metals. I want people to know that the FDA is not regulating for heavy metals at all in our food except for applesauce, some guidelines for baby food and candy, and that's only primarily lead. So if you think the government is doing a good job in regulating heavy metals in the food supply, you are sorely mistaken, and unfortunately, some of the highest levels are being found in organic food, and I have no good answer for you. Know what we really can do about that, except for consistently detoxify, right? Because I'm always going to continue to suggest people to eat organic, because there are 1000s of times less pesticides in organic and glyphosate is not allowed, right to be used in organic production. So I'm always going to recommend organic. However, there can be some food such as cinnamon, some sweet potatoes and potatoes, some types of meat can be much higher in heavy metals than conventional and the reason for this is because conventional food can use straight up chemicals like phosphorus, nitrogen, right? They can just add in the chemical versions of those, those elements. But organic farming has to use natural substances like manure, like chicken manure, you know, pig manure, cow manure. Some may even, I don't even know if they some may use human manure sludge, right? PFOs is in that. And because they're using manure, they're getting, they're getting all of the the excrement has the heavy metals and the chemicals in it, right? That's how the cow gets rid of it. That's how the pig gets rid of it out of their body, and how they survive, is because they're getting rid of those chemicals and so and heavy metals. So we are. We end up, then they end up up taking into the foods that we eat, and and organic foods can have higher levels of heavy metals. So I would encourage people to to defy to detoxify on a daily basis. To you know, things like sauna. According to, I think it's Dr Edward group from global healing, which we highly recommend their supplements. He said that a 20 minute sauna can can expel as much as a month's worth of supplements for detoxifying. So if you, if you, if you haven't done a month worth of detoxifying with supplements like activated charcoal and bentonite clay and different kind of detox projects, I mean products, and you can get access to a sauna, 20 minute sauna will really make a difference. So doing that a couple times a week would be a if you can, would be a huge step in the right direction. If you can't do sauna, then go sweat, go run until you're sweating, right? Exercise, work, workout until you're sweating. And so that's one thing that we can do about the heavy metals.
Len Arcuri 23:55
And then there's even supplements, maybe that you can take that can help, like even, even just consuming cilantro, you know, naturally, it's a natural key later. So there's other things that you can do to help with detoxification, but what you're saying is organic food, which you still want to consume, compared to conventional, but if there's higher levels of metals in there, and not being able to test it yourself, then just having a good process where you're detoxing on a consistent basis, or doing things that set up your detox pathways is a powerful move.
Zen Honeycutt 24:25
Yes, that will help. And then and also getting the testing. I you know it's expensive, so you're not going to be doing it every month, but it may be once or twice a year. If you can get your own heavy metal levels tested, you can see the difference. And I did this. I had, I had levels of aluminum in my body that were, you know, not wonderful. I mean, they weren't terrible. It was less than 25 is toxic, right? Of aluminum. I think I had, like, four or six or something like that. But I had Fiji water every day, and then I retested myself a year later, and the levels were. On a non detectable so, you know, you there are things that you can do to lower those levels and and you, when you retest, you can see the difference so that there's definitely, I think that that's one of the best investments to make, is to get that testing done. And we have a relationship now with Kendall McIntosh, who's one of the highest certified, licensed nutritionist that you can get, and that's on moms across america.org under action, and you it's, you click on, get testing, and you can get heavy metal testing, total tox testing, genetic testing, allergy testing, you know, all kinds of things. And she's has a discounted rate there, and a portion of the proceeds go back to support Moms Across America. So we appreciate that. And and you get to find out what's going on, you know, in your body. And if you have high levels of heavy metals, you may also have high levels of pesticides, because, I'm sorry, of parasites, because parasites eat the heavy metals. So it's actually the body's What, like nature's way of trying to support you, and when so if you have high levels of parasites, you probably have high levels of having metals, you know. So getting both tested would be useful. You may also have high levels of Candida, as I mentioned earlier, and that is when you have an overgrowth of yeast in your body, you can have, like, a certain body odor to yourself that is unpleasant and that high levels eating sugar can exacerbate the Candida. So you want to keep an eye out for that and get tested for that as well. And then the other thing is pesticides. You know, we just don't know where these pesticides are coming from. Ben ate a lot of beans, and most beans that like black beans, canned beans that he ate come from China. And you know, it's somewhat some food groups like we import 60% of our fruit. I'm not sure exactly how much is it is with beans, but it's somewhere probably between 30 and six 60% of our beans are imported. So we, we import a lot of food from other countries, and they do not give a rat's patootie about regulating chemicals in these other countries, right? So we do not know what we're eating when we import food from other countries. I'm a huge advocate for reducing our dependency on foreign food and growing food in America, eating food that's grown in America, and having it be carefully regulated so that we're not consuming these toxins and basically experiencing chemical warfare from other countries, potentially, right? So, so that's that's important about the pesticides is to, you know, get retested. Same thing with the mycotoxins get tested to check your levels and and the Candida you know, as well. And the nutrients also very important to, you know, to keep up on and keep, you know, keep up to date with, because when you have certain low nutrients, it really can affect your your mental health, your physical health and your reproductive health. You know, people who are trying to get pregnant, it could just be one nutrient that they're missing that that prevents the the egg from, you know, attaching to the the uterus and growing properly. It could it could be very simple fix. So getting tested and finding out the truth about what's going on in your body, I think now I would even say comes number one, even before eating organic you know, is find out the truth what's going on with you,
Len Arcuri 28:18
right, right? It's having more awareness of what's actually happening. And testing is a wildly overwhelming area, right? Because you know, in terms of what labs to run, whether you're running blood labs, urine, stool, there's so many different ways of assessing what's going on in the body and and, yeah, we'll include the link in the show notes to your page and the testing that you feel is relevant in those various areas. But I think for anyone who's listening, sure you can actually run labs yourself, with your doctor, if you're working with someone, the problem is, if you run labs with a quest or a lab core, and do whatever testing they're doing, the ranges that are used as to what's acceptable what's not can be ridiculous and not meaningful. So you might get reports that say, hey, everything's fine, when in fact, it's not. And that's why, when it comes to toxicity, there really sometimes aren't acceptable levels. Dr Anju Usman Singh was on about a month before this podcast, this episode will air, she talked about the impact of low level lead toxicity and how it's not the high levels, it's the lower level exposure that really has a profound impact on so many kids when they're very young. And that was the case with our son, Ry, and even now, he's testing really high for lead toxicity, like the lead in that boy's body, that young man's body, is through the roof, and we have deduced that at least a piece of that is because of something very innocent sounding, which is sea salt. Because he would add sea salt to his water anytime he drank water, and he added the Celtic gray salt. Which in recent testing is, I'm sure, you know, tested through the roof for lead. You know, naturally occurring, but lead nonetheless. So sometimes, as a parent, you may be doing things that you feel are healthy, whether it's the sea salt for my son or kale for Ben, where, hey, you got to really be careful about what it is that you're feeding your child. And would you agree that a key strategy would be, whatever you're doing, do more diversity and not
Zen Honeycutt 30:26
yes, absolutely, over and over. I remember walking in the kitchen one day and seeing him eat a giant salad, and, you know, having a pot next to him, he would eat up two cans of beans and just eat right out of the pot. I don't know why, but, and I remember seeing that and thinking, you know, that can't be good, the same thing every day. And I mentioned it to him, and he's like, Mom, I'm fine. It's fine, you know, like, because, you know, there was diversity in his salad. He did have many different seeds and, you know, vegetables and things in his salad, but it was the same type of food every day. And that's just not how our ancestors were ate. They grazed, they hunted, they had seafood, they had berries and nuts, and, you know, all kinds of grains, and, you know, they they ate a varied diet. And so that's what's I think is incredibly important to do. Even my cat died recently because he was having, I looked it up. It was the problem. Was an all fish diet, an all fish diet, can create bladder stones, and then they have, you know, the stones in their urethra. They can't urinate. They, you know, they can die from that, and it can be reoccurring and and so I researched later, and I found out, oh, they're not supposed to eat an all fish diet, or all one anything diet. They're supposed to eat a very diet. And that's not what my vet told me. Find a cat food that they like and feed them that stick to that. It's like the exact opposite of what I was told. So, so, you know, humans are the same way, and also genetically, we are all very different. You know, Europeans and Caucasians, 60 to 70% of their diet during biblical times was grains, not the case for Chinese, right, who also didn't have a lot of dairy. So genetically, we're very different. And I'd like to raise awareness about the fact that we we came up with the idea of Kendall and I when we were looking at the his Ben's genetic testing, she mentioned, well, you know, we really should have at birth, parents should know whether or not their kids have the MTF, HR or other gene variants that prevent them from detoxing. It could dramatically change their choices, inform their choices around whether or not they vaccinate on the first day of life and subject their child to aluminum or mercury or whatever is in the vaccines at that time, whether or not they give them an organic formula or formula at all, whether or not the mother eats organic when she's breastfeeding. What baby wash, what body care, you know, what lotions they would subject your child to? If they knew their child had this MTF, HR and other gene variants that impair their ability to detox, they would be much better informed in the child, you know the care of the child. So So I came up with a proposed bill to expand the newborn genetic testing. There's newborn genetic testing that's already happening right now. It's called pick you heal testing. It's just a little pin prick, and within very short period of time, the parents can find out whether or not their child has a rare genetic disorder or not, and the hospital informs them, right? Or the they tell the doctor, and a doctor informs them if they do, if they don't, they don't get the rest of the information. So every baby is tested in every state now, unless some states may allow some opt outs, but it's it's not my understanding that as the usual thing, they test them for, you know, 200 different gene variants and markers, but they don't give the parents all of the information. They only given the information of the testing that's considered pathogenic. And so I think that's a problem. I think parents should be fully informed. So I've updated, instead of an expansion Act to include the genetic testing, we found out from a genetic a genetic system. Sorry, I missed that point, but the geneticists called me after I was on the high wire talking about this, and said, Zen, they already do that testing. They just don't inform the parents about it. So we've changed the name to the newborn genetic Disclosure Act, right? So whatever the parents are being tested, testing their kids for the parents get to know. And we would also like to include, if the parents don't want to be have their baby tested for genetic, for genetics, then they get an opt out, right? It shouldn't be forced upon anybody. So that's our recent sort of ask, and we're looking for sponsors on the hill. We have a very favorable response. So by the time this airs, it may be you may be able to ask your senator representative to get that bill passed. It makes sense. It doesn't cost any additional money, pretty much, and the parents have a right to know what their children or babies are being tested for.
Len Arcuri 34:53
And assuming that bill doesn't pass, can parents now request it like can they? Can they get the information if they ask? Ask, Are you saying that they can in any way access?
Zen Honeycutt 35:02
No, they won't. They won't give it to them because it's not classified as pathogenic. So there needs to be a law change around that they're only, they only give the parents information for something that's like a diagnosed disease, right? So it's that you're getting in the world of diagnosis, and then the doctor has to give it to them. So if they, if you ask them for it, they'll be like, Well, it's, you know, it's not, it's not a diagnosed disease. So we can't give you that information. So you can go get yourself baby test your baby tested yourself, though. It's like a simple swab, you know, cheek swab test with ancestry.com or there's all, there's a lot of different genetic, you know, testing companies now so and with, with Kendall. You know, through our moms across America too, there's a good a good company there that does it.
Len Arcuri 35:45
All right, super No. Good luck with the bill. And yes, I think I teed it up at the beginning, but yes, you've been taking lots of trips to Washington and working I'm sure it's been very eye opening for you in terms of how the government works, the HHS and the like. But phenomenal that these conversations are being had, that there's momentum, and again, with the fact that you're there to to advocate and to help educate and to get real change enacted. You know, again, I just can't tell you how much your passion, your your your commitment and your organization have done just so much. So I'll leave it at that. Is there anything that you feel like that you feel called to say to parents that we haven't covered yet?
Zen Honeycutt 36:29
Well, I just like to say, get involved. You know, I had no formal training in, you know, lobbying, or, you know, speaking to my senators or representatives and, and mostly you're, speaking to staffers that are 26 years old. You know, they're not intimidating. They're paid to listen. You can call them and talk to them and leave a message. They will, you know, they will, especially if they add up over to 10. You know, people on the same subject, they will translate that information to their boss. And are their bosses work for us. You know, we're their bosses, really. So just take that on that you know the government works for us. We're the ones that you know, give them the marching beat. And the reason why anybody can run for office, unlike a an athlete, an athlete has to train for years to be an Olympic athlete, right? You can't just be an Olympic athlete, but anybody can be an elected official, because their only job is to represent us. Their only job is to speak up on behalf of what we want. So anybody can do it. You can be an actor, you can be real estate agent, you can be a teacher. You know. You can be stay home mom, and you can run for office. So keep that in mind, that they work for us, and please support our new legislative arm called the Moms Across America movement, and the tagline is Yes, ma'am, right? Our mission is championing policy and public servants who put children, health, safety and America's future first. And so that's our new legislative arm, so that we can, you know, be much more active in lobbying and supporting candidates. And we have our yes ma'am calls once a month where we, you know, bring on a candidate who's running for office who's doing some wonderful things. We had an ag from Texas. We've had a man running for office in Missouri. And, you know, it just, we've, we've been starting to feature some people, and it's, it's really wonderful. So get involved and and just because you haven't done it before, it really, it doesn't matter. What matters is what matters is what you're committed to. If you're committed to a future of health and freedom for your child, for your family, and you take actions every day, you and I, we will all transform the world. And I fully believe that
Len Arcuri 38:33
I do too, and that's a beautiful message to end on. So again. Jen, thank you so much for for sharing your perspective, we look forward to having you on again down the road and again. Thank you for your leadership and courage and vulnerability to share what's happening with you and your family and again, wishing you great success as you make those trips to Washington, DC.
Zen Honeycutt 38:55
Thank you so much, Len, thank you to your listeners. Appreciate you.
Len Arcuri 38:58
Your child needs you running on all cylinders now, and the fastest way to rise is with personalized one on one support, get started today. Go to elevatehowyounavigate.com.
