June 9, 2025 • 46 mins
Ever wonder why we're so passionate about conserving the land while neglecting our own bodies? In this eye-opening episode, we turn the mirror on ourselves and explore the fascinating connection between our health and our relationship to nature.
We dive into the stark differences between how our grandparents lived—with gardens, canning, and natural food sources—compared to our modern existence of processed foods and convenience-driven choices. The statistics are sobering: diabetes rates have quadrupled since the 1980s, we consume 50 times more vegetable oil than a century ago, and the average person unknowingly ingests the equivalent of a credit card worth of microplastics every week.
But this isn't just about alarming health trends. We explore practical ways to reclaim our bodies while honoring our connection to the land. From the hidden dangers of seed oils and forever chemicals to the surprising impact of artificial light on our sleep and wildlife, we share personal experiences and research-backed insights that will change how you think about everyday choices.
"We're reclaiming our land. We're reclaiming our bodies. It's all the same journey," becomes our rallying cry as we consider what kind of legacy we want to leave. After all, what good is restoring native plants if we're not around—or healthy enough—to enjoy them with our grandkids?
Whether you're a dedicated conservationist, a health-conscious individual, or simply someone who wants to live more intentionally, this conversation offers valuable perspectives on slowing down and living closer to nature's patterns. We're not doctors or experts—just two guys trying to align our lives with how we believe we were meant to live.
Listen now and join us in questioning the convenience-driven status quo. Your body and the land will thank you.
For more info on light pollution, how it disrupts wildlife and the effects of artificial light on our health visit DarkSky International’s website:
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What is the Natural Obsession Podcast all about?
Growing up, we all had those moments in nature that stuck with us—whether it was a quiet walk in the woods or a grand adventure. On Natural Obsession, it’s our desire to bring those moments to life. As we talk to people from all walks of life we will learn how they fell in love with the outdoors, the different ways they enjoy it today, and explore how we can work together to ensure these spaces are around for years to come. It’s all about sharing memories from the outdoors and ensuring future generations can make their own.
To find out more about Natural Obsession and hosts, Daniel Emison and TJ Virden, visit our website at https://www.natob.co/.
If you have questions about episodes or have guest recommendations please email us at info@natob.co.
Follow us on social media to keep up with upcoming guests and episode info:
- Natural Obsession on Facebook
- @NatObPodcast on Instagram
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
TJ (00:07):
Hi, this is TJ Virden, this is Daniel Emison and this is the
Natural Obsession Podcast.
So how are you doing today?
Doing awesome, just you and mein the rain in the background.
Yeah, don't know if you're hereor not.
(00:28):
Hopefully not.
We're on episode 10 today.
Daniel (00:32):
Yeah, correct.
TJ (00:33):
Can you believe it?
Daniel (00:34):
Yeah, it's kind of crazy .
TJ (00:35):
Yeah, Been in it for about two months.
A little over two months Got 10episodes plus out.
Daniel (00:42):
Yeah, I'm pretty happy with them.
TJ (00:43):
Yeah, I know, we've each had our favorite moments.
It's going to be cool to goback and recap those at some
point, talk about what weenjoyed, what we got from them.
I know that you had a momentwith Rabbit Ridge in that
episode where you were reallyfeeling some things that were
close to your heart there, withthe health stuff they were
talking about.
(01:03):
I think that's what we're goingto do today's episode about.
You want to go into that for us.
Daniel (01:07):
Yeah, so while we were up there, we kind of started
hitting the health topic andthat's been something I've dove
into the last I don't know three, four years.
TJ (01:16):
Yeah, we've had a lot of conversations about it.
Daniel (01:18):
Yeah.
So I think it's important for alot of people.
You see people walking aroundso unhealthy.
Obviously we can do thingsbetter too.
You think how better cansomebody's life be if they just
knew these few things that youcould focus on.
So that kind of tugs at me andI think this episode would be
good to kind of get people intothat.
TJ (01:36):
Yeah, do you want to talk real quick about why you think
that's important for the podcast?
Because I know a lot of peopleare probably going to be like,
hey, I thought this was anoutdoor podcast and now we're
going into health.
Daniel (01:46):
Yeah, you mean tying into our podcast.
TJ (01:48):
Yeah, why this is important to our guests and the things
that we're doing, along withnature.
Daniel (01:52):
Yeah.
So I think if you aren'thealthy yourself, if you aren't
taking care of yourself, you'reconstantly stressed out, like
you just kind of focus onsurvival mode.
But if you focus in on yourhealth and you get healthy, I
think you have the mentalclarity and focus to expand in
other areas.
TJ (02:09):
Yeah, and honestly, if we're not taking care of ourselves
and our family, we probablyshouldn't be worried as much
about the land and differentthings anyway, you'll be gone
way before the land.
Yeah, and I think, like wetalked about with Rabbit Ridge,
the closer we get to nature withour health, the better off.
We see that we're doing.
Daniel (02:25):
Yeah.
TJ (02:25):
And so I think that's a natural progression.
Getting back closer to the landwith our food sources gets us
healthier.
Daniel (02:31):
I think it's good.
So if you listen to this andyou think it fits, let us know.
If you don't let us know, We'lljust dive in.
TJ (02:38):
Sure.
Daniel (02:39):
Go for it.
So today's episode, like we'vetalked about, we're going to
turn the mirror a little bit.
We've talked about restoringthe land, bringing back native
plants, doing right by wildlife,but if we're being honest, a
lot of us are out here livinglike raccoons in a gas station
dumpster.
We're eating junk, we'resleeping weird and we're calling
it normal.
So we figured, if we care thismuch about the outdoors, maybe
we should talk a little bitabout taking care of ourselves.
(03:01):
So this episode's about health,it taking care of ourselves.
So this episode's about health.
It's not getting shredded, notgetting rid of dad bods or
anything, but that'll come withtaking care of yourself.
So we'll hit on seedles,processed foods, blood sugar
crashes and I know TJ wants totalk a little bit about what the
lights in our house are maybecrashing us by 10 pm and causing
brain fog and bad sleep and allthat and bad sleep and all that
(03:21):
.
We're not experts, we're notdoctors.
We're just two guys trying tolive a little closer to how we
feel we're meant to do.
So let's get into it, sure.
TJ (03:30):
I like it.
Daniel (03:31):
We had talked about the Rapid Ridge thing and I've been
in the medical field for a while, not a doctor, but I've been
around the medical field.
TJ (03:37):
We could go into that or you had kind of mentioned earlier
you wanted to talk about, likepaul foshee's farm, and yeah, I
can go into that a little bit.
So I was saying earlier thatwhen I grew up my grandparents
canned foods.
We had gardens grandpa alwaystalked about when he was young.
There was root cellars thepeople stored their food in.
(03:58):
They had a spring house or theyhad a smokehouse where they
smoked their own meats andgrandpa always had his stuff to
butcher his own animals.
I can remember one time weplanted I don't know how many
acres it was probably five acresor more and potatoes.
We harvested a whole truck bedfull of potatoes, took it and
sold them.
Back then, even a couplegenerations ago, it feels like
that we were living a lot closerto land.
(04:20):
You could pass two or threehouses and out of those three
houses you're going to see onewith a garden.
People were just more dependentupon themselves for their foods
than what we are now.
It seems like we're all going tothe fast food restaurant or the
grocery store and getting allthis stuff that we maybe don't
really need, and a lot of us arenot checking the labels.
We don't really know what's inour food.
I know we'd had thisconversation with Rabbit Ridge
(04:40):
the other day that I bought somecheese in the grocery store and
had no dairy, no cheese in it,because I didn't read the label,
didn't pay attention.
Yeah, that's funny the other daymy wife bought some tortillas.
I won't mention the brand name,but I usually get some
tortillas that are prettyreadily accessible on every
grocery store shelf, yeah, andshe pointed out the label on
those and there's just all kindsof stuff even in those
(05:02):
tortillas.
She showed me her gluten-freeones because she's made that
switch lately yeah and they werelike seven ingredients and they
were all pretty well-knownthings.
You know, we know what it is.
Daniel (05:11):
There's a lot of things on these other labels that I
can't pronounce to know whatthey are yeah, when we were in
switzerland not too long ago,our anniversary stuff with our
wives right, it was interestingthat she could eat over there
yeah, she has a glutenintolerance here and then when
you come back here, she can'teat it because it's not over
processed like her food is herethat's another thing that kind
of stuck with me.
It's been in the back of my mindfor a while.
(05:32):
So growing up in the 80s itlooks like the diabetes rate
back then was around threepercent.
Okay, now today we're hoveringaround 12 of adults.
I just looked up a stat so 5.5million in 1980.
Now there's 38.4 million.
TJ (05:47):
Wow, and growing, and growing fast.
Daniel (05:50):
Yeah, that's crazy.
So you grew up like that and Idid after probably the age of
eight, did the same kind ofthing, but earlier than that,
even then living in the city, Idon't remember any gardens in
people's yard here or there.
I didn't feel like it was likea common thing.
But when we went to the grocerystore with grandma or mom and
dad or whatever, we didn't buy abunch of processed stuff.
(06:12):
We had the sugary cerealsprobably the worst thing you can
eat but the other meals werechicken, real potatoes, real
vegetables.
It wasn't, you know, a TVdinner or whatever.
TJ (06:23):
So yeah and I'm not saying that we were eating everything
from a garden or from the land,but we had a pretty good mix.
He had fish in a pond.
We ate the deer that we killed.
We ate the vegetables that hegrew.
We would still go and, likeyou're saying, have the
occasional breakfast cereal, orthere'd be a box of Little
Debbie's in the cabinet orsomething like that.
He was a fan of ice cream, soyou know.
Daniel (06:45):
Yeah, who's not a fan of ice cream?
TJ (06:46):
But he also had diabetes before he passed away, so it's
something we've got to thinkabout for sure.
Daniel (06:51):
Yeah.
So that kind of sets the tonefor it.
I guess, our frame of reference.
I'll jump into my majorfrustrations.
I've been in the medical fieldand just kind of opened my eyes
to things.
And just kind of opened my eyesto things.
So I'm not a doctor.
But you see these patientscoming in with cancer.
They're feeding them Diet Cokeor Coke and giving them a candy
(07:12):
bar.
It's just crazy to think who'snot telling them that this is
bad for them?
We're giving them all thesemedications and things to try to
help cancer radiation, chemo,whatever but you're wrecking
them with all the sugar.
Yeah, nobody really leans intothat and I don't know why.
I mean, they're going through ahard time, obviously, so you do
(07:33):
need some comfort.
That's understandable.
But if they knew how muchdamage they were doing, would
they keep doing that?
Nobody really brings that up.
TJ (07:41):
So the hospital's not making them aware of that, where they
get that information.
Daniel (07:45):
Yeah, that's what I feel and that's totally my
perspective.
TJ (07:48):
Maybe it's different.
Daniel (07:49):
Yeah, but I feel like every patient I have has type
two diabetes.
They're on insulin.
A good book to read is Dr FungObesity Code.
He talks about.
We're treating type 2 diabeteslike it's type 1.
They can't produce insulin, sowe give them insulin.
(08:10):
So in type 2 diabetes, givingthem insulin, you're making them
gain weight and not be able toburn fat, so it's making it
worse, yeah, so why are we doingthat?
TJ (08:23):
It's an easy solution.
Daniel (08:23):
I guess I'm not an endocrinologist or anything like
that, but it doesn't make sense.
If they would just clean uptheir diet, which is hard,
everything's processed andterrible for you.
Now, sugar is addictive, but itjust seems crazy that you're
giving them insulin when that'smaking it all worse.
You're treating the sugar butyou're not slowing down diabetes
(08:46):
at all.
You're making the number lookgreat, yeah, Just not helping.
So it's just super frustratingto see that and it's every day.
TJ (08:53):
Yeah, and especially like when we talked about with Rabbit
Ridge, angela and you weretalking about how diabetes, too,
can be fixed with diet most ofthe time.
Yeah, correct, mm-hmm.
Daniel (09:03):
Yeah, you can 100% fix that type two diabetes with diet
.
Type one's different.
They don't really know thecause of that, but you're not
producing your own insulin, buttype two.
You can 100% fix that with food.
Like I said, I'm not a doctor,but you can research this
yourself and see it.
TJ (09:19):
Yeah, so I think it comes down to what we want to do, what
we want to eat, thoughsometimes, yeah, it's easier and
, like you're saying, it is acomfort food thing.
I enjoy eating, and you cantell it by the way I look but a
lot of times my health decisionsare just made in the moment.
Daniel (09:37):
Yeah.
TJ (09:39):
About what sounds good and what looks good, and there's got
to be some level of discipline,especially when it's talking
about the rest of our lives.
Daniel (09:44):
Yeah, and we may get into this a little bit later,
but the food has been engineeredto be that way.
You crave the sugar.
It's bioengineered for you tocrave that kind of food and it
makes sense If you can thinkabout something you would
overeat on, like any kind ofsugar thing, bread or whatever.
Nobody's going to eat tons ofsteak and crave it.
(10:07):
But you could eat a full mealand still eat that piece of cake
, Don't?
make any sense, it justoverrides your ability to make
those decisions.
Your body don't care.
It still feels hungry.
TJ (10:19):
Yeah, and we haven't had this discussion on our podcast a
lot, but a lot of the guys Ilisten to in the wildlife areas
will say people will feed deercorn, other minerals and things
that are, the same way, notreally healthy for animals and
stuff.
That's why we've been talkingabout having native plant
species and getting all thatstuff back, because it makes a
healthier wildlife habitat.
(10:39):
I think it's the same for us.
Daniel (10:42):
There's a lot things that, yeah, we can survive on,
but does not mean that we'reliving our best life and not
doing our families the bestservice in the long run either
no, we're causing us lots oflong-term problems down the road
like this doesn't change itlike day to day for now, but
it's a compounding problem andonce it compounds it's a serious
problem yeah, and with yourprofession you're seeing those
(11:04):
people come in every day withthose kind of problems from
these lifestyles.
TJ (11:07):
So that's probably what's making it easier for you to stay
awake at night thinking about.
Daniel (11:14):
I don't want to be there .
TJ (11:15):
Right.
Daniel (11:15):
You know where would our medical system be if we weren't
treating these problems?
TJ (11:20):
Yeah.
Daniel (11:21):
They would be fixed so you could work on real problems.
I mean they're real problems,but you know it could be doing
all kinds of other thingsbesides managing diabetes and
but is that the plan?
TJ (11:33):
Yeah, who knows, I'm going to be the conspiracy theorist
here.
Daniel (11:36):
It don't take far to start getting that way, though.
Yeah, yeah, for sure, that's myfrustration.
Do you have any frustrationsthat you know of?
TJ (11:44):
a lot of it I put on myself.
My eating habits are my fault,but I will say that when we were
in europe, you didn't have someof the food choices that we
have here.
It was harder to find junk foodin europe than what it is to
find junk food here, yeah, so Ithink that we're doing people a
disservice by having it soreadily accessible.
I believe that we're in a freecountry and people ought to have
(12:07):
a choice to eat what they wantto eat.
But it would be nice if therewere some kind of campaign or
something that made people moreaware of the foods that we're
eating, or some kind of controlwith the ingredients that are in
our food.
We talk about the food dyes andall the things that are in some
of these snack foods that doreally bad damage to our systems
(12:27):
.
So to have the governmentcontrol some of that kind of
stuff, I feel like would be agood one.
Daniel (12:31):
Yeah, in the hospital you see these vending machines
that say healthy snacks andthey're terrible.
Like, why is this, even in ahospital?
Like why is any of this food inthe hospital?
In the doctor's lounge you gotSkittles and candy bar.
Like, why is any of this foodin the hospital?
In the doctor's lounge you gotSkittles and candy bar.
Like what is going on?
Why is this here?
It's everywhere and it makespeople feel good.
Who doesn't want Bobby to feelgood?
(12:52):
You know?
TJ (12:53):
Yeah, we do a lot of this stuff for convenience.
We're out of desire, yeah.
Daniel (12:59):
We've kind of touched on this.
Life today is engineered forconvenience and not our health.
Maybe it's not some bigconspiracy trying to make us all
sick I don't know why theywould do that anyways but
convenient food is unhealthy.
It stores a long time, that'sgood, but it's not good for our
health.
So maybe there needs to be somechanges.
Maybe have more hubs of wherefood comes from, so you don't
(13:22):
have to ship it from east coastto the west coast, or something
like that yeah, maybe so we'veaccepted this as normal.
All the packaged foods leds atnight.
We've talked about the cellphones right when you wake up.
We're just kind of wrecking ourhealth and all facets of life
yeah, just for convenience, yeah, just for convenience.
That dopamine hit from tiktokin the morning.
(13:44):
Go eat our sugary cereal.
TJ (13:46):
Sugary coffee.
Daniel (13:47):
Yeah, sugary coffee.
Then you go sit in an officefor a lot of people Eight to 12
hours a day not moving.
We're just far removed fromeven 40 years ago, probably.
TJ (13:56):
I can remember Grandpa was cutting firewood for a point in
time to make his living.
He had the physical exercisethere.
He wasn't going to the grocerystore buying all the things that
he was buying before, when hewas on a fixed income.
He was more selective aboutwhat he bought and what he grew
and what they canned.
I think that's what we got toget back to.
Even if it's not us doing thegardening or us doing the
(14:19):
butchering or that kind of thing, places like Rabbit Ridge and
farmer's markets are making thatkind of stuff a little more
accessible for us.
So even if it's not us doingthe work, even if we want to
live in a suburb and not moveout to the country that's not
what we're saying necessarily,but we've got to take a little
bit of that convenience out.
It takes a little bit of effortto go to the farmer's market
and drive to Rabbit Ridge, ordersome of that stuff online, but
(14:45):
it's for the benefit of ourhealth and our family's health
to do those things.
Take that extra time.
Daniel (14:49):
Yeah, I think I've struggled with that too, because
it sounds good to go buy someland do it all yourself, but
that's just not practical for alot of people.
A lot of jobs and it's a lot ofhard work.
TJ (15:08):
It sounds good when you're thinking about it, but once you
get out there and you're chasingcows and putting up fences,
yeah, that euphoria fades, I bet.
Yeah, I personally want to movecloser to that, but I also
enjoy going to big cities andhaving the conveniences and the
fun of a nice restaurant,watching a show or doing
something like that.
So, yeah, I'm definitely a lotsaying let's all move off the
grid, let let's all grow our ownfood, let's don't have
communication with everybodyelse, that's not what.
I'm advocating for, but thecloser we can get back to nature
(15:32):
, I think, the more healthywe're going to be.
Daniel (15:35):
Yeah.
TJ (15:36):
Mentally, physically.
Daniel (15:39):
Yeah, I agree.
Another thing I kind of wantedto touch on earlier is healthy
food.
We know it's good for you andwe all kind of know what healthy
food is.
There's been diet fads and allthat throughout time, but we
kind of know real food is whereit's at Me and you can afford to
buy kind of what we want to eat, right.
(16:01):
But the underserved, they'rekind of stuck with getting
subsidized food.
It's all bad, like why can'tthey go to a farmer market and
get real meat, real vegetablesand things like that?
It's because it's so cheap toprocess food.
TJ (16:18):
So it's a frustration yeah, it is for sure, even canned
foods.
When we were lower income,canned foods was a go-to.
Daniel (16:28):
I think if you did it yourself, that's probably okay
and some of them are decent.
That's kind of canned Preservedstuff.
Yeah, it's crazy.
TJ (16:34):
Well, eating corn from a can from the grocery store itself
is not the same as corn from afarmer's market.
We know that to be true.
It looks like we're eating good, but it's still not the same.
Daniel (16:44):
Yeah, I agree We've talked coming up to this episode
about some microplastics andforever chemicals and artificial
light.
I know you've looked into thata little bit.
Do you want to talk about thata little bit?
TJ (16:55):
I have.
Yeah, I see that you hadplanned to talk about how our
food is packaged.
I was looking into themicroplastics and forever
chemicals.
I read some statistics thatsaid that 10 to 40 million
metric tons of microplastics arereleased into our environment
every year and that's expectedto double by 2040.
(17:17):
What that means for us is whenwe're having packaged food from
the grocery store or we'regetting a water bottle and those
kinds of things.
The average person is taking infive grams of plastic a week,
which is equivalent to a creditcard a week.
I thought it was a credit carda year, but they're saying it
can be as much as a credit carda week that we're taking.
Daniel (17:39):
Where's that plastic going?
Is it coming right out, or isit sticking somewhere?
No, it's sticking somewhere.
TJ (17:43):
It's going into our brains.
It's going into our brains,it's in our bloodstream.
They found it in breast milk.
They've even found it in baby'sfirst stool.
It's crazy that it's making thatfarm.
But these things don't just goaway once they're in your body.
And then forever chemicals.
They can't biodegrade, theycan't be degraded by oil or
water or even the human body.
(18:04):
So those things are staying.
Even if we stopped foreverchemicals today, they're around
for a long time.
We've done a lot of damagealready.
There's no way to really getrid of those kind of things at
this point in time.
Those have been linked tocancers and dementia, just all
kinds of diseases and thingsthat do damage to our body.
Daniel (18:24):
Yeah, so have you personally changed anything?
You drink out of that waterbottle anymore.
You get a stainless steel cup,or what do you got going on?
TJ (18:31):
Like in my business, we put in a filtered water fountain, so
we've got that for theemployees.
We used to do at least a packof 36 or so waters a week, and
usually more than that.
36 or so waters a week, andusually more than that.
We changed our utensils in thehouse to wooden utensils, just
going back to how grandpa andgrandma did it.
(18:52):
They were right.
Yeah, got away from that.
We try not to have non-stickcookware because those contain a
lot of forever chemicals.
When we do pick a restaurant,we try to be more health
conscious about it.
This week we ate out a lot morethan we should have because I
was working on the house andthat's one thing, but we do try
to be more conscious about it.
One of the main things thatforever chemicals aren't in is
(19:14):
our food wrappers.
Who would have thought thatthey're wrapping our food and
things that are gonna?
Daniel (19:20):
yeah, this in the long term?
Yeah, obviously they didn'tknow this was going to be a huge
problem.
Like plastic was revolutionary,that we could do all these
things with plastic.
But now that we're figuringthese things out, there needs to
be quick and decisive changeabout it, not just you know
we're working on it and it takes10 years.
Like how much damage is done in10 years?
We need to get on it, yeah.
TJ (19:39):
We got to stop it now I I mean, you look at our oceans.
We're a nature podcast.
Yeah, all these microplasticsare going into our oceans and
our waterways, yeah, and so ourmarine life are picking it back
up.
Our mammals that drink fromthese sources are picking it
back up.
They found it in animals and inmarine life.
All these microplastics arebeing processed through their
(19:59):
body.
We've got the great trash islandin the sea with all the plastic
that they're trying to pick upand clean up.
I tell my boys, if there'splastic in our yard, it's
washing to the ditch and theditch is running to the Creek.
The Creek is running to thelake.
The lakes run to the river.
Daniel (20:16):
It's, just it's all going downstream.
And then we eat the fish, andnow we're back to eating more
microplastics.
TJ (20:21):
Yeah, so we got to think about these things, not just for
the benefit of the wildlife,but also for ourselves,
ourselves and our kids yeah,most important lives we had to
protect here.
Daniel (20:34):
Yeah, so along the forever chemicals and
microplastics.
That's kind of what we've done.
We very rarely do water bottlesRight.
I'll just hold off, I'll drinksomething later.
Usually it is what I do becausethey're sitting in the truck
getting hot, leaching thosechemicals into your water.
I'd just rather be thirsty.
I'm probably doing more harmthan good than drinking this
water.
(20:54):
We have stainless steel cupsfor the girls to drink and
that's why my coffee cup is here, thank goodness, because my
voice is doing all kinds ofweird stuff this morning.
We've changed our cookware up.
We do a lot of cast iron orstainless steel.
It's not super convenient.
Stainless steel can be a painto cook on sometimes, but at
least we know it's not leachinginto our foods.
So we're happy about that.
I'm so far out there.
(21:15):
I guess.
I have a filter on my waterthat's in my shower.
It filters that chlorine outand all these things, because
our water system is not greateither.
We filter all of our waterthrough the house.
It's called clearly filtered.
It just sits in therefrigerator.
But it's just all these littlechanges we're trying to do.
Hopefully they amount tosomething.
TJ (21:33):
Yeah, that was another place that was going to say that
forever.
Chemicals and plastics are abig part of our self-care
products, so our shampoos,cosmetics, all that kind of
thing that's touching our body.
There's other ways to enter thebody besides the mouth.
It can go through our skin.
We're absorbing a lot of thatthrough the things that we use
on ourselves just to get clean,and then that goes down the
(21:55):
drain, which has to go somewhere.
Yeah.
Daniel (21:59):
It's just like a vicious cycle we're creating.
TJ (22:02):
I want to be careful because I don't want everybody to think
that we're just going nuts andbe like go today and eliminate
all this stuff.
I know it's a process andthat's what we're going through.
We're not there.
We don't claim to be I don'tknow 100% natural, but we're
trying to get as close to thatas we can.
Daniel (22:18):
I think as long as you're making intentional
decisions, what you're eating,what you're putting on your body
, you're making progress.
I mean, we aren't going tochange this overnight, but if
more people start thinking whichI do think they are.
I think a lot more people arethinking about these things.
You start diving into thesethings and you can kind of tell
what's wrong.
Yeah, things like sunscreen.
TJ (22:37):
Yeah.
Daniel (22:38):
I mean, all of those sunscreens have been pulled from
the market because they causecancer, isn't that crazy?
Sunscreens have been pulledfrom the market because they
cause cancer, isn't that crazy?
So you got to question like,what are you putting on your
body?
You got to dig in and do alittle bit of research yourself,
because you can't trust thatsomebody is trying to make money
off their sunscreen.
They're not trying to hurt you,but they're probably trying to
do it the cheapest they can havethe best arbitrage between it
(22:59):
and make money.
So you got to take thatresponsibility to figure that
out.
It is a lot to pay attention to.
We've got all these otherthings going on in life raising
kids, doing a job, paying bills.
Now you've got all these otherthings you've got to do.
TJ (23:13):
It is less convenient.
I think that's part of theresponsibility we have to our
families.
I know my wife does a reallygood job of making sure that our
sunscreens are really healthy.
It's just crazy that to protectourselves from skin cancer, we
put something on our body thatgives us cancer.
Daniel (23:28):
Possibly.
Yeah, and that's exactly right.
It's crazy.
I don't know the stats on this.
I've just read some things thatsay these refined products
products we're eating they'recausing you to get sunburned
easier.
So if you were eating a cleanerdiet, you would have something
in your body and maybe protectyourself better.
(23:48):
That's a thought, maybe yeahbut if not use a mineral
sunscreen and call it good fornow?
But it's just kind of things tothink about yeah, we're talking
with alan from rabbit ridgefarms.
TJ (23:59):
He's like you're not what you eat, it's what you eat eats.
Yeah, those vegetables andstuff that we talked about
earlier, coming from a garden,it's in the ground, it's not
been overused, and stuff A lotmore healthy for us than the
canned things that we're gettingon the store shelf, and those
cattle that are eating the righttypes of native grasses are a
lot more healthy for us.
(24:20):
All that puts into our system,which does have an effect on the
way that our bodies respond tothe environment around us.
Daniel (24:27):
So I know we've talked a little bit about what we're
doing different.
Have you started avoiding seedoils or anything like that?
TJ (24:32):
Or do you know why you're avoiding seed oils?
I don't even know why, becauseDaniel said so.
Daniel (24:37):
Yeah, don't go off that, but yeah.
So seed oils, a lot of themlike cotton seed oil used to
lubricate machinery and somehowI don't know exactly how, but
it's gotten into our food system.
It must make money somewhere.
It's an easy filler.
But the problem with seed oilsthey're highly refined.
(24:57):
They're high in omega-6.
You want omega-3 and omega-6,the ratio to be like close to
one to one.
One to four is okay, but we'reway off.
Our omega-3 is like one andomega-6 are like 50 at this
point.
So when you do that, you causelots of inflammation to the body
and now you have all kinds ofproblems.
(25:18):
Your knee's hurting, you'remore set up for diabetes and all
kinds of other metabolic issues.
So that's the reason we try toavoid seedles, and it is very
hard because it is almostanything you pick up that's
packaged, it will have seedlesin them and it is super
frustrating to me that that'sallowed to be done.
TJ (25:38):
Yeah, I know for sure, Like our ranch dressings and the
margarine's butters or whatever,not real butters, but you know.
Daniel (25:45):
The first ingredient in ranch dressing or any of those
is always like soybean oil.
You're not even eating ranchdressing, You're eating soybean
oil.
Yeah, Nobody really thinks thatyou think ranch dressing
buttermilk, but if you turn thepackage over it's kind of like
your cheese.
Where is the buttermilk ranchdressing?
TJ (26:04):
it's not in that, it's not in this package.
Daniel (26:05):
It's just a pretty picture on this thing.
Yeah, I think they should haveto put the picture of where this
stuff really comes in.
I think we talked about this inrabbit ridge.
They show the cow in this nicepasture.
They don't show this cow inthis concrete jungle yeah, it
doesn't see daylight, it itnever sees daylight and it only
lasts for like three yearsbecause it's just worn out and
broke down by the end.
If you're milking it orsomething on the concrete like
(26:27):
that, yeah, yeah, it's crazy.
TJ (26:30):
I know that we have made the switch to like avocado oils and
olive oils and that sort ofthing instead of the peanut oils
like grandparents used to use,but they used to use lard as
well, and lard is good for us.
Butter is good for us.
Talk a little bit about that,because I think most people are
(26:51):
still under the assumption thatwe shouldn't be eating a lot of
butter, we shouldn't be eatingfatty kind of stuff, because
it's bad for us.
But that's not necessarily thecase, is it?
Daniel (26:57):
Yeah, so from my research, like I said, I'm not a
nutritionist, the case isn't it?
Yeah, so from my research, likeI said I'm not a nutritionist,
you know I'm not a doctor.
But there was a big push,especially in the nineties, that
low fat, high carb, high sugar.
Because something takes inthose places those calories of
the fat so that it went highsugar that that's somehow good
for us, yeah.
And why that was ever pushed Idon't really know.
(27:19):
I've dug into some things andyou can kind of get out there in
it.
But butter, tallow, all thosethings are whole foods and the
margarine that they've replacedthat with is totally 100%, just
man-made plastic that you'reeating.
How we ever convinced anybodythat that is better, I have no
(27:39):
idea.
But it was good.
Marketing Butter was the devilfor a while.
So you won't catch margarine inmy house.
I just have nightmares.
I was eating sticks of this asa kid making cinnamon toast and
stuff because we thought thatwas good.
TJ (27:54):
I remember people saying that grandma, cooking with lard
was bad.
That was the thing for lots ofyears.
Now they're saying to go backto cooking with lard if it's
from a healthy animal.
Daniel (28:03):
Yeah, and let's be honest, cooking lard from this
animal that's been in a concretejungle for a while probably not
the best either, I can saywithout a doubt, it's better
than the margarine.
At least it's coming from areal animal.
Yeah, that I had written down.
So in 1909, we ate two grams ofvegetable oil.
(28:24):
In 2000, we were up to 40 gramsa day.
Wow.
Yeah, I don't know what all theimplications of that are, but
when these seed oils heat up,they create harmful compounds
called aldehydes, and those arelinked to DNA damage and cancer,
and that was from a groupcalled Veld, a 2014 study that I
(28:44):
had written down here, andthat's in everything we eat, and
they're packaged in themicroplastics and forever
chemicals yeah, and then packedfor that sugar.
We ate two pounds of sugar ayear in 1800 and today we eat
around 100 pounds of sugar perperson every year well, that's a
lot of sugar.
TJ (29:01):
That's a lot of sugar.
Daniel (29:03):
That's a lot of sugar.
You have that much sugarfloating around, your insulin
rises.
I don't know if I explained italready on this podcast or not.
If you eat a bunch of sugar andprocess stuff, it spikes your
glucose in your body.
Your body tries to releaseinsulin to shove that sugar into
your cells.
Release insulin to shove thatsugar into your cells.
But when it's constantlyoverloaded with sugar it has
(29:24):
nowhere to go.
So your body makes more insulin.
So all that extra insulinfloating around in your body
ultimately leads to insulinresistance.
It leads to lots of differentkinds of cancers, metabolic
dysfunction.
TJ (29:39):
Fatty liver yeah fatty liver .
Daniel (29:41):
So you're really hurting your body doing that, and
that's another thing.
Somehow we got on this eat sixtimes a day.
That's a terrible idea, becausenow you're keeping your insulin
up all day long, yeah, so yourbody never gets a break.
So if you do that, your body'snaturally going to cause insulin
resistance because it's tryingto fight that insulin load.
So, it's just wrecking ourhealth to have all these meals a
(30:02):
day, this high processed sugarsand processed carbs in the body
.
TJ (30:08):
I would say sugar is probably the one I'm still most
dependent on.
I have not done a good job ofgetting away from that as much
as I should have.
I've got to do better aboutthat.
Daniel (30:17):
Yeah, it's a very hard thing to break away from Just a
few days.
Really, it will get you thatcraving to go away.
Your fruit's going to tastesweeter and all these things.
Another thing that I'verecently found fruit juices.
They're pretty terrible for you.
Occasionally you can have them,but just think could you sit
down and eat five oranges in arow?
That's like what's in one cupof juice.
(30:37):
You're stripping it of all thefiber and all the things and
you're just getting to that carb.
You're just getting to thesweet part of it.
If you're eating a whole fruit,you're good to go, but if
you're stripping it down to justone part of the whole product,
you better be cautious probablyyeah, so it sounds like find the
(30:59):
animal butcher it don like findthe animal butcher, don't wrap
it in anything and you're gonnapay for it.
TJ (31:05):
Eat it there, on the spot.
Get your vegetables straightout of the garden that hasn't
been overworked in some big agfield and eat it straight.
That way, pick your fruitstraight from the tree.
Drink water that's filteredproperly.
It really is a lot it is a lot.
Remember baby steps don't eatsix times a day, but maybe
reduce it, do some intermittentfasting.
Daniel (31:24):
Yeah, do some fasting man.
People say they can't do it,but we as humans did that all
along.
TJ (31:33):
It's built into every major religion we might get canceled
over this episode I might, it'sjust our opinion.
Daniel (31:40):
What else you got?
TJ (31:42):
Let's talk a little bit about light pollution.
Yeah, we talk about things thataffect our body, like the
microplastics and the foreverchemicals.
One thing that bothers me andit's not been just because I'm
worried about it from a healthstandpoint but I'll go to my
land and my land is out farenough from everybody that I
(32:02):
don't see any street lamps orany night watchers from my
property.
I can sit there and don't seeanything, but I can still see
the glow from other places.
There's a manufacturer off inthe distance that I can see some
lights glowing from.
That kind of thing.
So all those things have aneffect on our migratory birds,
(32:25):
the way our pollinators work.
Studies have shown that apollinator in the same field
will pollinate 60% less withartificial light than it would
with no light that bleed overthat sky glow that we're seeing
from all the cities and stuffand they're saying that 30% of
(32:45):
the light that we use is lost tothe sky anyway.
Daniel (32:49):
It's just wasted light, yeah, and I'm guilty of it too.
TJ (32:51):
Out here in the building that we're in right now, there's
a big night watcher up and itdoes want more to the ground,
but there's not a shield to keepit from going up, and so a lot
of that light that I'm using iswasted in the sky.
Yeah, and all that is known toaffect wildlife movements.
Nocturnal species are affectedby that kind of thing.
Our insects, our migratorybirds are affected by that.
(33:13):
But also artificial light isaffecting our circadian rhythm,
our body's production ofmelatonin and our sleep cycles,
which leads to headaches, moodswings, and artificial light has
even been linked to some typesof cancer.
Since we're already talkingabout the other things that are
affecting our health, I thinkthat that's something else that
(33:33):
we have to consider.
And blue light artificial lightis everywhere in our home.
If you walk in my house rightnow, I've got light switches and
stuff that are where you cancontrol them with the internet,
and each one of those lightswitches has this little bitty
glow at night when you look atit.
If you think about all thelittle devices we have around
our house and chargers andthings usually there's a little
blue, a little red, a littlegreen light on all these
(33:56):
different devices in our home.
By the time you get that inevery room it's never dark.
Yeah, it's never dark.
We get all this kind of bleedover.
I'm not one of these people.
That's weird and I'm puttingaluminum foil on my windows.
Sorry if you're that guy orgirl, but I still like to sleep
(34:17):
in the dark as much as possible.
I've got kids and so we try tokeep a nightlight on, but I'm
trying to get rid of more andmore of these lights.
And there's some really coolorganizations I can't remember
exactly what the name I have tolook this up later and put it in
the notes of the episode butInternational Dark Sky.
Daniel (34:34):
They're trying to that's what it's called.
TJ (34:36):
Yeah, they, they're trying to make these spaces.
I think the Buffalo wildernessarea is one close to us.
That's a dark sky park whereyou can actually go, and not
have any of those lights.
Daniel (34:46):
I listened to a podcast the other day.
I think you sent it to me.
TJ (34:48):
Yeah.
Daniel (34:49):
They talked about that.
I didn't know if we had one.
TJ (34:51):
Yeah, I think the Buffalo wilderness area is actually the
closest one to us, but anyway, Ithink that's just another thing
that we're talking about.
The closer we get back tonature, how many artificial
lights are you seeing in nature?
They were talking about thesatellites.
I forget how many satellitesthey say that are circulating
(35:12):
now.
Daniel (35:12):
I think it was like one in 10, now, I think, or soon it
will be one in 10 bright lightsyou see in the sky will be a
satellite.
TJ (35:18):
Yeah, I think that was the statistic they provided in the
episode you're talking about.
The bright lights you see inthe sky will be a satellite.
Yeah, I think that was thestatistic they provided in the
episode you're talking about.
But it's just crazy to thinkabout all these artificial
lights we have on the ground andnow we're putting them in the
sky.
We have the cell phone towersand we have airplanes with
spotlights and helicopters.
It's just light is everywhereand it's another thing that's
not natural.
So I think and I'm crazy here,but I think the closer we get
(35:48):
back to living the way that weused to live where we're in the
woods I'm not saying you got tobe in the woods, but we're
taking away those things thatare convenient and manufactured
that we're getting back to ahealthier way of living for our
wildlife and for our family.
Daniel (36:05):
I agree with that and I think with all the artificial
light and stuff you never reallyturn off, you're constantly
your body's confused Like is itdaytime or not?
So I read something earlier.
It said most urban kids havenever seen the Milky Way.
Yeah, that's crazy.
TJ (36:22):
I was listening to someone talk the other day about light
pollution and they were sayingback in I'm going to get this
wrong, so you can fact check me.
But I think it was Vegas or oneof those places Lost Power and
they were having all thesepeople call in and complaining
about there's some weirdsomething in the sky going on.
They didn't know what it was.
It was the milky way.
Daniel (36:43):
Nobody had ever seen the milky way before that blows my
mind yeah, I mean because youknow we're both grew up in the
country for most parts of ourlife walking around at night.
TJ (36:50):
You would see that because there was no light pollution
really yeah um, but in the cityman it never sleeps, yeah we
went to time square in new yorkand the birds in time square are
just going like 24 hours a daybecause literally when we walked
in time square it felt like itwas day in that part of the city
.
Daniel (37:10):
We don't have that everywhere, but it's a big thing
yeah, so affecting a lot morethan we know yeah, after I
listened to that podcast Ithought do I really need these
outside lights on my housealways on?
If somebody's going to rob me,they probably won't rob me if
it's completely dark.
Now they can't size me up andstuff.
That episode kind of talkedabout that.
You know, like if you have amotion sensor light, that's cool
(37:31):
.
We all got night vision camerason our house these days, or a
lot of us do.
They're pretty cheap to get,but just turn the street lights
off.
Have a motion sensor light atyour house, Unless you're going
outside playing, then turn themon.
That's cool.
But there just is a lot ofwasted light and you know it's
LED light, so you're probablynot wasting tons of energy, but
you're still wasting energy.
TJ (37:53):
And you're doing that blue light and all that stuff, so
you're messing up your sleeveno-transcript.
Instead of a floodlight that'sstanding on all the time, choose
an LED that has a softer glowand not all the blue lights.
Blue light travels further.
(38:13):
That's where we see a lot ofour sky glow come from is from
the blue lights.
So just make healthierdecisions is what it's coming
down to.
It's about everything that wedo.
It's not just about wildlife,it's not about streams, it's not
about light.
Daniel (38:28):
It's about all of it together yeah it's a different
approach to life how do youthink this ties into our podcast
with stewardship and all that?
TJ (38:40):
yeah, I go back to Paul Foshee.
We interviewed him.
Paul, even though he's livingin the modern world, still
doesn't have a lot of the samethings that the average person's
going to have, even at80-something years old, is
growing a garden and eating outof that garden.
I think that that's what we'vegot to get back to and that's
(39:01):
what we've been talking aboutthis whole season with the
podcast is creating those waysto get out, whether it's chasing
waterfalls or hunting, orhiking, or biking or climbing,
farming whatever it is thatyou're doing.
We're trying to create thoseways where we're getting back
into the land.
It's healthier for our mentalcapacity.
(39:22):
We haven't talked about thebusyness of life.
Really, in this episode thatwas something else we talked.
We were going to say somethingabout that.
We're just all so busy anddoing these things that a lot of
times don't matter as much aswe think they do.
It's all about getting back toa more natural way of living,
(39:43):
away from some of theseconveniences, not because
they're convenient, becausethey're not as healthy for us
mentally.
Daniel (39:50):
Yeah, you gotta slow down, think more intentionally
on what we're doing with ourtime, what we're putting in our
bodies.
Like, if people do that, justslow down just a little bit.
It's just hard to pay the bills, get things done.
A gazillion things you need todo a day yeah but do you really
need to do all those things, orcan you cut some things out?
Yeah, and on yourself a littlebit.
TJ (40:10):
I think that's what this whole podcast is about is
creating those moments, creatingthose spaces and leading people
back to that.
We're not advocating for peopleto go out, start starving
themselves, eating everythingfrom a farmer's market and stuff
, but if we make those decisionsmore and more, then we're going
(40:32):
to be healthy.
Daniel (40:34):
You'll see it pretty quickly in your own health.
Like just making a few changes.
Just change one thing and seeif it changes.
If that doesn't change, changesomething else.
Your body will tell you whatyou need to do and your mental
clarity will free up.
We're reclaiming our land.
We're reclaiming our land.
Yep, we're reclaiming ourbodies.
It's all the same journey.
If you don't take care ofyourself, won't have the energy
(40:55):
or the mental capacity to takecare of anything else, or the
longevity.
TJ (40:59):
I'm maybe getting these projects and my land started
only to be hit with diabetes anddifferent things like that and
go before I'm wanting to go.
So leaving that legacy you knowthat's what we talked about in
the beginning of the show islike we want to leave a legacy.
And what good does it do me toleave a legacy about land if I'm
not leaving the legacy ofhealth for my own family, if I'm
(41:21):
more worried about the thingsmy deer eat than what my
family's eat, is that any kindof legacy?
Daniel (41:25):
Or not knowing your grandkids, because your mind's
so wore out and riddled withterrible things that you've got
mental decline, dementia.
You're in the hospital all thetime.
That's kind of one of mydriving factors.
I want to have a sharp mind.
When I'm old, I want to be ableto play with my grandkids.
I don't want to be somebodythat can't get in the floor with
you.
Bobby, like grandpa, needs tostay up here in this chair.
(41:45):
I don't want to be that way.
I think people will justattribute that to age.
Sometimes it is, but for themost part I think it's not a far
stretch to think.
If we took care of our bodies,with exercising a little bit,
getting out and getting somesteps in and eating healthy, you
could be 80 years old andenjoying your grandkids, not
sitting in a recliner and theyhave to come over to you, and I
(42:07):
do not want to be that way.
TJ (42:08):
That's why I personally have like really dove into this
topic yeah, and I appreciate theway that you've pushed me,
because I'm more concerned,honestly, about the conservation
things than I am about thehealth things.
Yeah, and so having you to comealong and be like, hey, these
are things that we should beworried about as well, it was
great.
That's why we're bringing it toour listeners is because all
(42:32):
the other stuff we talk about isgood.
Getting outside is definitelyawesome.
It all works together.
Let's just hit on that busynessfactor real quick.
We'll make that the last thingwe talk about before we get off
here.
I've got five kids, I've got ajob, my wife has a job, got a
business to take care of, and mykids are homeschooled.
(42:53):
We've got a busy day withoutadd-ons.
Then you start adding thingslike sporting events, birthday
celebrations, time with extendedfamily vacations.
We just live in a fast-pacedsociety and that's why we
advocate for being outside andslowing down as much as we do is
(43:15):
to create those times formental clarity space to think,
observe, slow down.
I want to see people doing moreof that.
I don't think we think aboutthe health implications and the
stress that we bring toourselves by staying so busy and
worked up.
Yeah, I'm guilty of getting up,picking up the phone, going
(43:38):
straight to work, working allday, laying down in bed picking
up the phone, reading something,and when I'm tired I fall
asleep right after looking atthe blue light.
Daniel (43:49):
Two minutes of REM sleep and you're good to go the next
day.
TJ (43:51):
Yeah, exactly Just exhausted .
Yeah, that's just not healthy.
Daniel (43:54):
Yeah, the world's not getting any slower.
You just had to be veryintentional with your time.
Is it worth it to put your kidin soccer five nights a week?
Maybe?
Yeah maybe, but as long asyou're intentionally making that
decision, that's fine.
I'm guilty of this.
Are you blowing it?
Looking at TikTok, facebook, Imean, those are good things to
(44:14):
keep up with people and relax alittle bit.
But are you relaxing?
Are you just hitting thosedopamine hits Moving on when you
could have been really restingoutside, doing a short walk
through the woods or downthrough your neighborhood or
preparing a meal that you'regoing to eat later?
That's nice.
The dopamine hits are supereasy and they're super addictive
(44:35):
.
That would free up a ton oftime if you cut some of that out
not all of it.
everybody wants to not thinkabout anything and just enjoy
something like a movie orwhatever.
That's totally fine, I think.
But if it's every day, yeah,maybe it's too much, I don't
know.
I like playing video games.
I've got to reel myself back inbecause, yeah, I'm stewarding
(44:56):
my farm on Stardew Valley, I'mtaking care of my health on that
game, me and Kirsten we'retearing it up.
But it's probably better to getoutside and go plant some
flowers or play in the woods orwhatever.
You just got to be intentionalwith what you're doing, with
your time.
TJ (45:09):
Yeah, I think, being in nature, going out, sitting in
the deer, stand, looking at myproperty, those are things that
help me remember that when youstay busy all the time, it's
hard to remember that there is away or a place to slow down.
It's hard to remember that ourgrandparents didn't quite go at
the speed that we go at do allthe things that we do, and so
(45:29):
that's why taking a hike withSam Files at Pinnacle Mountain
State Park is a good idea.
Daniel (45:36):
Yeah, turn that phone off.
TJ (45:37):
Yeah.
Daniel (45:38):
Leave it behind, maybe.
TJ (45:39):
Yeah, want to see a waterfall Taking a canoe down, a
big piney Getting out andgetting on the lake.
All those things are reallygood because they're really good
at reminding us that all thethings that we do are not that
important.
Usually, if you really try hard, you can create extra space in
(46:01):
your schedule.
It's hard, just like denyingyourself sweets or a soda, but
making those daily intentionaldecisions to make space and do
without something are reallygood for our well-being.
Daniel (46:18):
I've kind of leaned into this because I do fasting.
I just came off like a 74-hourfast.
That's reclaiming time.
There You're letting your bodyheal.
You're not worried aboutprepping any meals for three
days.
Not everybody could do that.
Everybody can do that.
But whether you should do thatthat's up to you.
But you are reclaiming a ton oftime and money.
72 hours you're at the peak ofautophagy, like where your
(46:40):
body's repairing itself.
So, you can gain time places.
There's plenty of places togain it.
Yeah, you just got to reallyfocus in yeah.
TJ (46:51):
I think this has been a good talk.
I don't want everybody to thinkthat we're berating them and
telling them how to live theirlives.
Just bring a more awareness tothings that we think are
important journeys that we'vebeen on ourselves.
Daniel (47:02):
Exactly, it's personal experiences from us.
TJ (47:10):
And I've still got a long ways to go on all of these
topics.
Yeah, same, definitely notthere on any of them.
But the closer we get to nature, the healthier we'll be, in my
humble opinion.
Daniel (47:19):
I think that's going to be a wrap for today.
Hopefully everybody's walkingaway with something to chew on
besides seed oils andmicroplastics.
It's not about doing everythingperfect, just paying attention
(47:44):
to it Like microplastic out inthe wilderness.
Sometimes you just got to grablunch at Taziki's and call it a
win.
Yeah, you might have some seedoils in there, but at least it's
not a drive-thru cheeseburgerwith all processed ingredients.
So just pick one thing, eatsomething real, get outside
early, get the sunlight in youreyes and just see what shifts.
We're not doctors, we're notexperts.
We're just trying to live alittle more aligned with how we
(48:06):
believe we were meant to do it.
Thanks for listening.
If this got you thinking deeperon the subject, send it to a
friend, send us questions, or ifyou want us to dive into
something else, let us know.
Appreciate you being here.
TJ (48:20):
All right, we're out.
Hi, this is TJ Virden, this is Daniel Emison and this is the
Natural Obsession Podcast.
So how are you doing today?
Doing awesome, just you and mein the rain in the background.
Yeah, don't know if you're hereor not.
(00:28):
Hopefully not.
We're on episode 10 today.
Daniel (00:32):
Yeah, correct.
TJ (00:33):
Can you believe it?
Daniel (00:34):
Yeah, it's kind of crazy .
TJ (00:35):
Yeah, Been in it for about two months.
A little over two months Got 10episodes plus out.
Daniel (00:42):
Yeah, I'm pretty happy with them.
TJ (00:43):
Yeah, I know, we've each had our favorite moments.
It's going to be cool to goback and recap those at some
point, talk about what weenjoyed, what we got from them.
I know that you had a momentwith Rabbit Ridge in that
episode where you were reallyfeeling some things that were
close to your heart there, withthe health stuff they were
talking about.
(01:03):
I think that's what we're goingto do today's episode about.
You want to go into that for us.
Daniel (01:07):
Yeah, so while we were up there, we kind of started
hitting the health topic andthat's been something I've dove
into the last I don't know three, four years.
TJ (01:16):
Yeah, we've had a lot of conversations about it.
Daniel (01:18):
Yeah.
So I think it's important for alot of people.
You see people walking aroundso unhealthy.
Obviously we can do thingsbetter too.
You think how better cansomebody's life be if they just
knew these few things that youcould focus on.
So that kind of tugs at me andI think this episode would be
good to kind of get people intothat.
TJ (01:36):
Yeah, do you want to talk real quick about why you think
that's important for the podcast?
Because I know a lot of peopleare probably going to be like,
hey, I thought this was anoutdoor podcast and now we're
going into health.
Daniel (01:46):
Yeah, you mean tying into our podcast.
TJ (01:48):
Yeah, why this is important to our guests and the things
that we're doing, along withnature.
Daniel (01:52):
Yeah.
So I think if you aren'thealthy yourself, if you aren't
taking care of yourself, you'reconstantly stressed out, like
you just kind of focus onsurvival mode.
But if you focus in on yourhealth and you get healthy, I
think you have the mentalclarity and focus to expand in
other areas.
TJ (02:09):
Yeah, and honestly, if we're not taking care of ourselves
and our family, we probablyshouldn't be worried as much
about the land and differentthings anyway, you'll be gone
way before the land.
Yeah, and I think, like wetalked about with Rabbit Ridge,
the closer we get to nature withour health, the better off.
We see that we're doing.
Daniel (02:25):
Yeah.
TJ (02:25):
And so I think that's a natural progression.
Getting back closer to the landwith our food sources gets us
healthier.
Daniel (02:31):
I think it's good.
So if you listen to this andyou think it fits, let us know.
If you don't let us know, We'lljust dive in.
TJ (02:38):
Sure.
Daniel (02:39):
Go for it.
So today's episode, like we'vetalked about, we're going to
turn the mirror a little bit.
We've talked about restoringthe land, bringing back native
plants, doing right by wildlife,but if we're being honest, a
lot of us are out here livinglike raccoons in a gas station
dumpster.
We're eating junk, we'resleeping weird and we're calling
it normal.
So we figured, if we care thismuch about the outdoors, maybe
we should talk a little bitabout taking care of ourselves.
(03:01):
So this episode's about health,it taking care of ourselves.
So this episode's about health.
It's not getting shredded, notgetting rid of dad bods or
anything, but that'll come withtaking care of yourself.
So we'll hit on seedles,processed foods, blood sugar
crashes and I know TJ wants totalk a little bit about what the
lights in our house are maybecrashing us by 10 pm and causing
brain fog and bad sleep and allthat and bad sleep and all that
(03:21):
.
We're not experts, we're notdoctors.
We're just two guys trying tolive a little closer to how we
feel we're meant to do.
So let's get into it, sure.
TJ (03:30):
I like it.
Daniel (03:31):
We had talked about the Rapid Ridge thing and I've been
in the medical field for a while, not a doctor, but I've been
around the medical field.
TJ (03:37):
We could go into that or you had kind of mentioned earlier
you wanted to talk about, likepaul foshee's farm, and yeah, I
can go into that a little bit.
So I was saying earlier thatwhen I grew up my grandparents
canned foods.
We had gardens grandpa alwaystalked about when he was young.
There was root cellars thepeople stored their food in.
(03:58):
They had a spring house or theyhad a smokehouse where they
smoked their own meats andgrandpa always had his stuff to
butcher his own animals.
I can remember one time weplanted I don't know how many
acres it was probably five acresor more and potatoes.
We harvested a whole truck bedfull of potatoes, took it and
sold them.
Back then, even a couplegenerations ago, it feels like
that we were living a lot closerto land.
(04:20):
You could pass two or threehouses and out of those three
houses you're going to see onewith a garden.
People were just more dependentupon themselves for their foods
than what we are now.
It seems like we're all going tothe fast food restaurant or the
grocery store and getting allthis stuff that we maybe don't
really need, and a lot of us arenot checking the labels.
We don't really know what's inour food.
I know we'd had thisconversation with Rabbit Ridge
(04:40):
the other day that I bought somecheese in the grocery store and
had no dairy, no cheese in it,because I didn't read the label,
didn't pay attention.
Yeah, that's funny the other daymy wife bought some tortillas.
I won't mention the brand name,but I usually get some
tortillas that are prettyreadily accessible on every
grocery store shelf, yeah, andshe pointed out the label on
those and there's just all kindsof stuff even in those
(05:02):
tortillas.
She showed me her gluten-freeones because she's made that
switch lately yeah and they werelike seven ingredients and they
were all pretty well-knownthings.
You know, we know what it is.
Daniel (05:11):
There's a lot of things on these other labels that I
can't pronounce to know whatthey are yeah, when we were in
switzerland not too long ago,our anniversary stuff with our
wives right, it was interestingthat she could eat over there
yeah, she has a glutenintolerance here and then when
you come back here, she can'teat it because it's not over
processed like her food is herethat's another thing that kind
of stuck with me.
It's been in the back of my mindfor a while.
(05:32):
So growing up in the 80s itlooks like the diabetes rate
back then was around threepercent.
Okay, now today we're hoveringaround 12 of adults.
I just looked up a stat so 5.5million in 1980.
Now there's 38.4 million.
TJ (05:47):
Wow, and growing, and growing fast.
Daniel (05:50):
Yeah, that's crazy.
So you grew up like that and Idid after probably the age of
eight, did the same kind ofthing, but earlier than that,
even then living in the city, Idon't remember any gardens in
people's yard here or there.
I didn't feel like it was likea common thing.
But when we went to the grocerystore with grandma or mom and
dad or whatever, we didn't buy abunch of processed stuff.
(06:12):
We had the sugary cerealsprobably the worst thing you can
eat but the other meals werechicken, real potatoes, real
vegetables.
It wasn't, you know, a TVdinner or whatever.
TJ (06:23):
So yeah and I'm not saying that we were eating everything
from a garden or from the land,but we had a pretty good mix.
He had fish in a pond.
We ate the deer that we killed.
We ate the vegetables that hegrew.
We would still go and, likeyou're saying, have the
occasional breakfast cereal, orthere'd be a box of Little
Debbie's in the cabinet orsomething like that.
He was a fan of ice cream, soyou know.
Daniel (06:45):
Yeah, who's not a fan of ice cream?
TJ (06:46):
But he also had diabetes before he passed away, so it's
something we've got to thinkabout for sure.
Daniel (06:51):
Yeah.
So that kind of sets the tonefor it.
I guess, our frame of reference.
I'll jump into my majorfrustrations.
I've been in the medical fieldand just kind of opened my eyes
to things.
And just kind of opened my eyesto things.
So I'm not a doctor.
But you see these patientscoming in with cancer.
They're feeding them Diet Cokeor Coke and giving them a candy
(07:12):
bar.
It's just crazy to think who'snot telling them that this is
bad for them?
We're giving them all thesemedications and things to try to
help cancer radiation, chemo,whatever but you're wrecking
them with all the sugar.
Yeah, nobody really leans intothat and I don't know why.
I mean, they're going through ahard time, obviously, so you do
(07:33):
need some comfort.
That's understandable.
But if they knew how muchdamage they were doing, would
they keep doing that?
Nobody really brings that up.
TJ (07:41):
So the hospital's not making them aware of that, where they
get that information.
Daniel (07:45):
Yeah, that's what I feel and that's totally my
perspective.
TJ (07:48):
Maybe it's different.
Daniel (07:49):
Yeah, but I feel like every patient I have has type
two diabetes.
They're on insulin.
A good book to read is Dr FungObesity Code.
He talks about.
We're treating type 2 diabeteslike it's type 1.
They can't produce insulin, sowe give them insulin.
(08:10):
So in type 2 diabetes, givingthem insulin, you're making them
gain weight and not be able toburn fat, so it's making it
worse, yeah, so why are we doingthat?
TJ (08:23):
It's an easy solution.
Daniel (08:23):
I guess I'm not an endocrinologist or anything like
that, but it doesn't make sense.
If they would just clean uptheir diet, which is hard,
everything's processed andterrible for you.
Now, sugar is addictive, but itjust seems crazy that you're
giving them insulin when that'smaking it all worse.
You're treating the sugar butyou're not slowing down diabetes
(08:46):
at all.
You're making the number lookgreat, yeah, Just not helping.
So it's just super frustratingto see that and it's every day.
TJ (08:53):
Yeah, and especially like when we talked about with Rabbit
Ridge, angela and you weretalking about how diabetes, too,
can be fixed with diet most ofthe time.
Yeah, correct, mm-hmm.
Daniel (09:03):
Yeah, you can 100% fix that type two diabetes with diet
.
Type one's different.
They don't really know thecause of that, but you're not
producing your own insulin, buttype two.
You can 100% fix that with food.
Like I said, I'm not a doctor,but you can research this
yourself and see it.
TJ (09:19):
Yeah, so I think it comes down to what we want to do, what
we want to eat, thoughsometimes, yeah, it's easier and
, like you're saying, it is acomfort food thing.
I enjoy eating, and you cantell it by the way I look but a
lot of times my health decisionsare just made in the moment.
Daniel (09:37):
Yeah.
TJ (09:39):
About what sounds good and what looks good, and there's got
to be some level of discipline,especially when it's talking
about the rest of our lives.
Daniel (09:44):
Yeah, and we may get into this a little bit later,
but the food has been engineeredto be that way.
You crave the sugar.
It's bioengineered for you tocrave that kind of food and it
makes sense If you can thinkabout something you would
overeat on, like any kind ofsugar thing, bread or whatever.
Nobody's going to eat tons ofsteak and crave it.
(10:07):
But you could eat a full mealand still eat that piece of cake
, Don't?
make any sense, it justoverrides your ability to make
those decisions.
Your body don't care.
It still feels hungry.
TJ (10:19):
Yeah, and we haven't had this discussion on our podcast a
lot, but a lot of the guys Ilisten to in the wildlife areas
will say people will feed deercorn, other minerals and things
that are, the same way, notreally healthy for animals and
stuff.
That's why we've been talkingabout having native plant
species and getting all thatstuff back, because it makes a
healthier wildlife habitat.
(10:39):
I think it's the same for us.
Daniel (10:42):
There's a lot things that, yeah, we can survive on,
but does not mean that we'reliving our best life and not
doing our families the bestservice in the long run either
no, we're causing us lots oflong-term problems down the road
like this doesn't change itlike day to day for now, but
it's a compounding problem andonce it compounds it's a serious
problem yeah, and with yourprofession you're seeing those
(11:04):
people come in every day withthose kind of problems from
these lifestyles.
TJ (11:07):
So that's probably what's making it easier for you to stay
awake at night thinking about.
Daniel (11:14):
I don't want to be there .
TJ (11:15):
Right.
Daniel (11:15):
You know where would our medical system be if we weren't
treating these problems?
TJ (11:20):
Yeah.
Daniel (11:21):
They would be fixed so you could work on real problems.
I mean they're real problems,but you know it could be doing
all kinds of other thingsbesides managing diabetes and
but is that the plan?
TJ (11:33):
Yeah, who knows, I'm going to be the conspiracy theorist
here.
Daniel (11:36):
It don't take far to start getting that way, though.
Yeah, yeah, for sure, that's myfrustration.
Do you have any frustrationsthat you know of?
TJ (11:44):
a lot of it I put on myself.
My eating habits are my fault,but I will say that when we were
in europe, you didn't have someof the food choices that we
have here.
It was harder to find junk foodin europe than what it is to
find junk food here, yeah, so Ithink that we're doing people a
disservice by having it soreadily accessible.
I believe that we're in a freecountry and people ought to have
(12:07):
a choice to eat what they wantto eat.
But it would be nice if therewere some kind of campaign or
something that made people moreaware of the foods that we're
eating, or some kind of controlwith the ingredients that are in
our food.
We talk about the food dyes andall the things that are in some
of these snack foods that doreally bad damage to our systems
(12:27):
.
So to have the governmentcontrol some of that kind of
stuff, I feel like would be agood one.
Daniel (12:31):
Yeah, in the hospital you see these vending machines
that say healthy snacks andthey're terrible.
Like, why is this, even in ahospital?
Like why is any of this food inthe hospital?
In the doctor's lounge you gotSkittles and candy bar.
Like, why is any of this foodin the hospital?
In the doctor's lounge you gotSkittles and candy bar.
Like what is going on?
Why is this here?
It's everywhere and it makespeople feel good.
Who doesn't want Bobby to feelgood?
(12:52):
You know?
TJ (12:53):
Yeah, we do a lot of this stuff for convenience.
We're out of desire, yeah.
Daniel (12:59):
We've kind of touched on this.
Life today is engineered forconvenience and not our health.
Maybe it's not some bigconspiracy trying to make us all
sick I don't know why theywould do that anyways but
convenient food is unhealthy.
It stores a long time, that'sgood, but it's not good for our
health.
So maybe there needs to be somechanges.
Maybe have more hubs of wherefood comes from, so you don't
(13:22):
have to ship it from east coastto the west coast, or something
like that yeah, maybe so we'veaccepted this as normal.
All the packaged foods leds atnight.
We've talked about the cellphones right when you wake up.
We're just kind of wrecking ourhealth and all facets of life
yeah, just for convenience, yeah, just for convenience.
That dopamine hit from tiktokin the morning.
(13:44):
Go eat our sugary cereal.
TJ (13:46):
Sugary coffee.
Daniel (13:47):
Yeah, sugary coffee.
Then you go sit in an officefor a lot of people Eight to 12
hours a day not moving.
We're just far removed fromeven 40 years ago, probably.
TJ (13:56):
I can remember Grandpa was cutting firewood for a point in
time to make his living.
He had the physical exercisethere.
He wasn't going to the grocerystore buying all the things that
he was buying before, when hewas on a fixed income.
He was more selective aboutwhat he bought and what he grew
and what they canned.
I think that's what we got toget back to.
Even if it's not us doing thegardening or us doing the
(14:19):
butchering or that kind of thing, places like Rabbit Ridge and
farmer's markets are making thatkind of stuff a little more
accessible for us.
So even if it's not us doingthe work, even if we want to
live in a suburb and not moveout to the country that's not
what we're saying necessarily,but we've got to take a little
bit of that convenience out.
It takes a little bit of effortto go to the farmer's market
and drive to Rabbit Ridge, ordersome of that stuff online, but
(14:45):
it's for the benefit of ourhealth and our family's health
to do those things.
Take that extra time.
Daniel (14:49):
Yeah, I think I've struggled with that too, because
it sounds good to go buy someland do it all yourself, but
that's just not practical for alot of people.
A lot of jobs and it's a lot ofhard work.
TJ (15:08):
It sounds good when you're thinking about it, but once you
get out there and you're chasingcows and putting up fences,
yeah, that euphoria fades, I bet.
Yeah, I personally want to movecloser to that, but I also
enjoy going to big cities andhaving the conveniences and the
fun of a nice restaurant,watching a show or doing
something like that.
So, yeah, I'm definitely a lotsaying let's all move off the
grid, let let's all grow our ownfood, let's don't have
communication with everybodyelse, that's not what.
I'm advocating for, but thecloser we can get back to nature
(15:32):
, I think, the more healthywe're going to be.
Daniel (15:35):
Yeah.
TJ (15:36):
Mentally, physically.
Daniel (15:39):
Yeah, I agree.
Another thing I kind of wantedto touch on earlier is healthy
food.
We know it's good for you andwe all kind of know what healthy
food is.
There's been diet fads and allthat throughout time, but we
kind of know real food is whereit's at Me and you can afford to
buy kind of what we want to eat, right.
(16:01):
But the underserved, they'rekind of stuck with getting
subsidized food.
It's all bad, like why can'tthey go to a farmer market and
get real meat, real vegetablesand things like that?
It's because it's so cheap toprocess food.
TJ (16:18):
So it's a frustration yeah, it is for sure, even canned
foods.
When we were lower income,canned foods was a go-to.
Daniel (16:28):
I think if you did it yourself, that's probably okay
and some of them are decent.
That's kind of canned Preservedstuff.
Yeah, it's crazy.
TJ (16:34):
Well, eating corn from a can from the grocery store itself
is not the same as corn from afarmer's market.
We know that to be true.
It looks like we're eating good, but it's still not the same.
Daniel (16:44):
Yeah, I agree We've talked coming up to this episode
about some microplastics andforever chemicals and artificial
light.
I know you've looked into thata little bit.
Do you want to talk about thata little bit?
TJ (16:55):
I have.
Yeah, I see that you hadplanned to talk about how our
food is packaged.
I was looking into themicroplastics and forever
chemicals.
I read some statistics thatsaid that 10 to 40 million
metric tons of microplastics arereleased into our environment
every year and that's expectedto double by 2040.
(17:17):
What that means for us is whenwe're having packaged food from
the grocery store or we'regetting a water bottle and those
kinds of things.
The average person is taking infive grams of plastic a week,
which is equivalent to a creditcard a week.
I thought it was a credit carda year, but they're saying it
can be as much as a credit carda week that we're taking.
Daniel (17:39):
Where's that plastic going?
Is it coming right out, or isit sticking somewhere?
No, it's sticking somewhere.
TJ (17:43):
It's going into our brains.
It's going into our brains,it's in our bloodstream.
They found it in breast milk.
They've even found it in baby'sfirst stool.
It's crazy that it's making thatfarm.
But these things don't just goaway once they're in your body.
And then forever chemicals.
They can't biodegrade, theycan't be degraded by oil or
water or even the human body.
(18:04):
So those things are staying.
Even if we stopped foreverchemicals today, they're around
for a long time.
We've done a lot of damagealready.
There's no way to really getrid of those kind of things at
this point in time.
Those have been linked tocancers and dementia, just all
kinds of diseases and thingsthat do damage to our body.
Daniel (18:24):
Yeah, so have you personally changed anything?
You drink out of that waterbottle anymore.
You get a stainless steel cup,or what do you got going on?
TJ (18:31):
Like in my business, we put in a filtered water fountain, so
we've got that for theemployees.
We used to do at least a packof 36 or so waters a week, and
usually more than that.
36 or so waters a week, andusually more than that.
We changed our utensils in thehouse to wooden utensils, just
going back to how grandpa andgrandma did it.
(18:52):
They were right.
Yeah, got away from that.
We try not to have non-stickcookware because those contain a
lot of forever chemicals.
When we do pick a restaurant,we try to be more health
conscious about it.
This week we ate out a lot morethan we should have because I
was working on the house andthat's one thing, but we do try
to be more conscious about it.
One of the main things thatforever chemicals aren't in is
(19:14):
our food wrappers.
Who would have thought thatthey're wrapping our food and
things that are gonna?
Daniel (19:20):
yeah, this in the long term?
Yeah, obviously they didn'tknow this was going to be a huge
problem.
Like plastic was revolutionary,that we could do all these
things with plastic.
But now that we're figuringthese things out, there needs to
be quick and decisive changeabout it, not just you know
we're working on it and it takes10 years.
Like how much damage is done in10 years?
We need to get on it, yeah.
TJ (19:39):
We got to stop it now I I mean, you look at our oceans.
We're a nature podcast.
Yeah, all these microplasticsare going into our oceans and
our waterways, yeah, and so ourmarine life are picking it back
up.
Our mammals that drink fromthese sources are picking it
back up.
They found it in animals and inmarine life.
All these microplastics arebeing processed through their
(19:59):
body.
We've got the great trash islandin the sea with all the plastic
that they're trying to pick upand clean up.
I tell my boys, if there'splastic in our yard, it's
washing to the ditch and theditch is running to the Creek.
The Creek is running to thelake.
The lakes run to the river.
Daniel (20:16):
It's, just it's all going downstream.
And then we eat the fish, andnow we're back to eating more
microplastics.
TJ (20:21):
Yeah, so we got to think about these things, not just for
the benefit of the wildlife,but also for ourselves,
ourselves and our kids yeah,most important lives we had to
protect here.
Daniel (20:34):
Yeah, so along the forever chemicals and
microplastics.
That's kind of what we've done.
We very rarely do water bottlesRight.
I'll just hold off, I'll drinksomething later.
Usually it is what I do becausethey're sitting in the truck
getting hot, leaching thosechemicals into your water.
I'd just rather be thirsty.
I'm probably doing more harmthan good than drinking this
water.
(20:54):
We have stainless steel cupsfor the girls to drink and
that's why my coffee cup is here, thank goodness, because my
voice is doing all kinds ofweird stuff this morning.
We've changed our cookware up.
We do a lot of cast iron orstainless steel.
It's not super convenient.
Stainless steel can be a painto cook on sometimes, but at
least we know it's not leachinginto our foods.
So we're happy about that.
I'm so far out there.
(21:15):
I guess.
I have a filter on my waterthat's in my shower.
It filters that chlorine outand all these things, because
our water system is not greateither.
We filter all of our waterthrough the house.
It's called clearly filtered.
It just sits in therefrigerator.
But it's just all these littlechanges we're trying to do.
Hopefully they amount tosomething.
TJ (21:33):
Yeah, that was another place that was going to say that
forever.
Chemicals and plastics are abig part of our self-care
products, so our shampoos,cosmetics, all that kind of
thing that's touching our body.
There's other ways to enter thebody besides the mouth.
It can go through our skin.
We're absorbing a lot of thatthrough the things that we use
on ourselves just to get clean,and then that goes down the
(21:55):
drain, which has to go somewhere.
Yeah.
Daniel (21:59):
It's just like a vicious cycle we're creating.
TJ (22:02):
I want to be careful because I don't want everybody to think
that we're just going nuts andbe like go today and eliminate
all this stuff.
I know it's a process andthat's what we're going through.
We're not there.
We don't claim to be I don'tknow 100% natural, but we're
trying to get as close to thatas we can.
Daniel (22:18):
I think as long as you're making intentional
decisions, what you're eating,what you're putting on your body
, you're making progress.
I mean, we aren't going tochange this overnight, but if
more people start thinking whichI do think they are.
I think a lot more people arethinking about these things.
You start diving into thesethings and you can kind of tell
what's wrong.
Yeah, things like sunscreen.
TJ (22:37):
Yeah.
Daniel (22:38):
I mean, all of those sunscreens have been pulled from
the market because they causecancer, isn't that crazy?
Sunscreens have been pulledfrom the market because they
cause cancer, isn't that crazy?
So you got to question like,what are you putting on your
body?
You got to dig in and do alittle bit of research yourself,
because you can't trust thatsomebody is trying to make money
off their sunscreen.
They're not trying to hurt you,but they're probably trying to
do it the cheapest they can havethe best arbitrage between it
(22:59):
and make money.
So you got to take thatresponsibility to figure that
out.
It is a lot to pay attention to.
We've got all these otherthings going on in life raising
kids, doing a job, paying bills.
Now you've got all these otherthings you've got to do.
TJ (23:13):
It is less convenient.
I think that's part of theresponsibility we have to our
families.
I know my wife does a reallygood job of making sure that our
sunscreens are really healthy.
It's just crazy that to protectourselves from skin cancer, we
put something on our body thatgives us cancer.
Daniel (23:28):
Possibly.
Yeah, and that's exactly right.
It's crazy.
I don't know the stats on this.
I've just read some things thatsay these refined products
products we're eating they'recausing you to get sunburned
easier.
So if you were eating a cleanerdiet, you would have something
in your body and maybe protectyourself better.
(23:48):
That's a thought, maybe yeahbut if not use a mineral
sunscreen and call it good fornow?
But it's just kind of things tothink about yeah, we're talking
with alan from rabbit ridgefarms.
TJ (23:59):
He's like you're not what you eat, it's what you eat eats.
Yeah, those vegetables andstuff that we talked about
earlier, coming from a garden,it's in the ground, it's not
been overused, and stuff A lotmore healthy for us than the
canned things that we're gettingon the store shelf, and those
cattle that are eating the righttypes of native grasses are a
lot more healthy for us.
(24:20):
All that puts into our system,which does have an effect on the
way that our bodies respond tothe environment around us.
Daniel (24:27):
So I know we've talked a little bit about what we're
doing different.
Have you started avoiding seedoils or anything like that?
TJ (24:32):
Or do you know why you're avoiding seed oils?
I don't even know why, becauseDaniel said so.
Daniel (24:37):
Yeah, don't go off that, but yeah.
So seed oils, a lot of themlike cotton seed oil used to
lubricate machinery and somehowI don't know exactly how, but
it's gotten into our food system.
It must make money somewhere.
It's an easy filler.
But the problem with seed oilsthey're highly refined.
(24:57):
They're high in omega-6.
You want omega-3 and omega-6,the ratio to be like close to
one to one.
One to four is okay, but we'reway off.
Our omega-3 is like one andomega-6 are like 50 at this
point.
So when you do that, you causelots of inflammation to the body
and now you have all kinds ofproblems.
(25:18):
Your knee's hurting, you'remore set up for diabetes and all
kinds of other metabolic issues.
So that's the reason we try toavoid seedles, and it is very
hard because it is almostanything you pick up that's
packaged, it will have seedlesin them and it is super
frustrating to me that that'sallowed to be done.
TJ (25:38):
Yeah, I know for sure, Like our ranch dressings and the
margarine's butters or whatever,not real butters, but you know.
Daniel (25:45):
The first ingredient in ranch dressing or any of those
is always like soybean oil.
You're not even eating ranchdressing, You're eating soybean
oil.
Yeah, Nobody really thinks thatyou think ranch dressing
buttermilk, but if you turn thepackage over it's kind of like
your cheese.
Where is the buttermilk ranchdressing?
TJ (26:04):
it's not in that, it's not in this package.
Daniel (26:05):
It's just a pretty picture on this thing.
Yeah, I think they should haveto put the picture of where this
stuff really comes in.
I think we talked about this inrabbit ridge.
They show the cow in this nicepasture.
They don't show this cow inthis concrete jungle yeah, it
doesn't see daylight, it itnever sees daylight and it only
lasts for like three yearsbecause it's just worn out and
broke down by the end.
If you're milking it orsomething on the concrete like
(26:27):
that, yeah, yeah, it's crazy.
TJ (26:30):
I know that we have made the switch to like avocado oils and
olive oils and that sort ofthing instead of the peanut oils
like grandparents used to use,but they used to use lard as
well, and lard is good for us.
Butter is good for us.
Talk a little bit about that,because I think most people are
(26:51):
still under the assumption thatwe shouldn't be eating a lot of
butter, we shouldn't be eatingfatty kind of stuff, because
it's bad for us.
But that's not necessarily thecase, is it?
Daniel (26:57):
Yeah, so from my research, like I said, I'm not a
nutritionist, the case isn't it?
Yeah, so from my research, likeI said I'm not a nutritionist,
you know I'm not a doctor.
But there was a big push,especially in the nineties, that
low fat, high carb, high sugar.
Because something takes inthose places those calories of
the fat so that it went highsugar that that's somehow good
for us, yeah.
And why that was ever pushed Idon't really know.
(27:19):
I've dug into some things andyou can kind of get out there in
it.
But butter, tallow, all thosethings are whole foods and the
margarine that they've replacedthat with is totally 100%, just
man-made plastic that you'reeating.
How we ever convinced anybodythat that is better, I have no
(27:39):
idea.
But it was good.
Marketing Butter was the devilfor a while.
So you won't catch margarine inmy house.
I just have nightmares.
I was eating sticks of this asa kid making cinnamon toast and
stuff because we thought thatwas good.
TJ (27:54):
I remember people saying that grandma, cooking with lard
was bad.
That was the thing for lots ofyears.
Now they're saying to go backto cooking with lard if it's
from a healthy animal.
Daniel (28:03):
Yeah, and let's be honest, cooking lard from this
animal that's been in a concretejungle for a while probably not
the best either, I can saywithout a doubt, it's better
than the margarine.
At least it's coming from areal animal.
Yeah, that I had written down.
So in 1909, we ate two grams ofvegetable oil.
(28:24):
In 2000, we were up to 40 gramsa day.
Wow.
Yeah, I don't know what all theimplications of that are, but
when these seed oils heat up,they create harmful compounds
called aldehydes, and those arelinked to DNA damage and cancer,
and that was from a groupcalled Veld, a 2014 study that I
(28:44):
had written down here, andthat's in everything we eat, and
they're packaged in themicroplastics and forever
chemicals yeah, and then packedfor that sugar.
We ate two pounds of sugar ayear in 1800 and today we eat
around 100 pounds of sugar perperson every year well, that's a
lot of sugar.
TJ (29:01):
That's a lot of sugar.
Daniel (29:03):
That's a lot of sugar.
You have that much sugarfloating around, your insulin
rises.
I don't know if I explained italready on this podcast or not.
If you eat a bunch of sugar andprocess stuff, it spikes your
glucose in your body.
Your body tries to releaseinsulin to shove that sugar into
your cells.
Release insulin to shove thatsugar into your cells.
But when it's constantlyoverloaded with sugar it has
(29:24):
nowhere to go.
So your body makes more insulin.
So all that extra insulinfloating around in your body
ultimately leads to insulinresistance.
It leads to lots of differentkinds of cancers, metabolic
dysfunction.
TJ (29:39):
Fatty liver yeah fatty liver .
Daniel (29:41):
So you're really hurting your body doing that, and
that's another thing.
Somehow we got on this eat sixtimes a day.
That's a terrible idea, becausenow you're keeping your insulin
up all day long, yeah, so yourbody never gets a break.
So if you do that, your body'snaturally going to cause insulin
resistance because it's tryingto fight that insulin load.
So, it's just wrecking ourhealth to have all these meals a
(30:02):
day, this high processed sugarsand processed carbs in the body
.
TJ (30:08):
I would say sugar is probably the one I'm still most
dependent on.
I have not done a good job ofgetting away from that as much
as I should have.
I've got to do better aboutthat.
Daniel (30:17):
Yeah, it's a very hard thing to break away from Just a
few days.
Really, it will get you thatcraving to go away.
Your fruit's going to tastesweeter and all these things.
Another thing that I'verecently found fruit juices.
They're pretty terrible for you.
Occasionally you can have them,but just think could you sit
down and eat five oranges in arow?
That's like what's in one cupof juice.
(30:37):
You're stripping it of all thefiber and all the things and
you're just getting to that carb.
You're just getting to thesweet part of it.
If you're eating a whole fruit,you're good to go, but if
you're stripping it down to justone part of the whole product,
you better be cautious probablyyeah, so it sounds like find the
(30:59):
animal butcher it don like findthe animal butcher, don't wrap
it in anything and you're gonnapay for it.
TJ (31:05):
Eat it there, on the spot.
Get your vegetables straightout of the garden that hasn't
been overworked in some big agfield and eat it straight.
That way, pick your fruitstraight from the tree.
Drink water that's filteredproperly.
It really is a lot it is a lot.
Remember baby steps don't eatsix times a day, but maybe
reduce it, do some intermittentfasting.
Daniel (31:24):
Yeah, do some fasting man.
People say they can't do it,but we as humans did that all
along.
TJ (31:33):
It's built into every major religion we might get canceled
over this episode I might, it'sjust our opinion.
Daniel (31:40):
What else you got?
TJ (31:42):
Let's talk a little bit about light pollution.
Yeah, we talk about things thataffect our body, like the
microplastics and the foreverchemicals.
One thing that bothers me andit's not been just because I'm
worried about it from a healthstandpoint but I'll go to my
land and my land is out farenough from everybody that I
(32:02):
don't see any street lamps orany night watchers from my
property.
I can sit there and don't seeanything, but I can still see
the glow from other places.
There's a manufacturer off inthe distance that I can see some
lights glowing from.
That kind of thing.
So all those things have aneffect on our migratory birds,
(32:25):
the way our pollinators work.
Studies have shown that apollinator in the same field
will pollinate 60% less withartificial light than it would
with no light that bleed overthat sky glow that we're seeing
from all the cities and stuffand they're saying that 30% of
(32:45):
the light that we use is lost tothe sky anyway.
Daniel (32:49):
It's just wasted light, yeah, and I'm guilty of it too.
TJ (32:51):
Out here in the building that we're in right now, there's
a big night watcher up and itdoes want more to the ground,
but there's not a shield to keepit from going up, and so a lot
of that light that I'm using iswasted in the sky.
Yeah, and all that is known toaffect wildlife movements.
Nocturnal species are affectedby that kind of thing.
Our insects, our migratorybirds are affected by that.
(33:13):
But also artificial light isaffecting our circadian rhythm,
our body's production ofmelatonin and our sleep cycles,
which leads to headaches, moodswings, and artificial light has
even been linked to some typesof cancer.
Since we're already talkingabout the other things that are
affecting our health, I thinkthat that's something else that
(33:33):
we have to consider.
And blue light artificial lightis everywhere in our home.
If you walk in my house rightnow, I've got light switches and
stuff that are where you cancontrol them with the internet,
and each one of those lightswitches has this little bitty
glow at night when you look atit.
If you think about all thelittle devices we have around
our house and chargers andthings usually there's a little
blue, a little red, a littlegreen light on all these
(33:56):
different devices in our home.
By the time you get that inevery room it's never dark.
Yeah, it's never dark.
We get all this kind of bleedover.
I'm not one of these people.
That's weird and I'm puttingaluminum foil on my windows.
Sorry if you're that guy orgirl, but I still like to sleep
(34:17):
in the dark as much as possible.
I've got kids and so we try tokeep a nightlight on, but I'm
trying to get rid of more andmore of these lights.
And there's some really coolorganizations I can't remember
exactly what the name I have tolook this up later and put it in
the notes of the episode butInternational Dark Sky.
Daniel (34:34):
They're trying to that's what it's called.
TJ (34:36):
Yeah, they, they're trying to make these spaces.
I think the Buffalo wildernessarea is one close to us.
That's a dark sky park whereyou can actually go, and not
have any of those lights.
Daniel (34:46):
I listened to a podcast the other day.
I think you sent it to me.
TJ (34:48):
Yeah.
Daniel (34:49):
They talked about that.
I didn't know if we had one.
TJ (34:51):
Yeah, I think the Buffalo wilderness area is actually the
closest one to us, but anyway, Ithink that's just another thing
that we're talking about.
The closer we get back tonature, how many artificial
lights are you seeing in nature?
They were talking about thesatellites.
I forget how many satellitesthey say that are circulating
(35:12):
now.
Daniel (35:12):
I think it was like one in 10, now, I think, or soon it
will be one in 10 bright lightsyou see in the sky will be a
satellite.
TJ (35:18):
Yeah, I think that was the statistic they provided in the
episode you're talking about.
The bright lights you see inthe sky will be a satellite.
Yeah, I think that was thestatistic they provided in the
episode you're talking about.
But it's just crazy to thinkabout all these artificial
lights we have on the ground andnow we're putting them in the
sky.
We have the cell phone towersand we have airplanes with
spotlights and helicopters.
It's just light is everywhereand it's another thing that's
not natural.
So I think and I'm crazy here,but I think the closer we get
(35:48):
back to living the way that weused to live where we're in the
woods I'm not saying you got tobe in the woods, but we're
taking away those things thatare convenient and manufactured
that we're getting back to ahealthier way of living for our
wildlife and for our family.
Daniel (36:05):
I agree with that and I think with all the artificial
light and stuff you never reallyturn off, you're constantly
your body's confused Like is itdaytime or not?
So I read something earlier.
It said most urban kids havenever seen the Milky Way.
Yeah, that's crazy.
TJ (36:22):
I was listening to someone talk the other day about light
pollution and they were sayingback in I'm going to get this
wrong, so you can fact check me.
But I think it was Vegas or oneof those places Lost Power and
they were having all thesepeople call in and complaining
about there's some weirdsomething in the sky going on.
They didn't know what it was.
It was the milky way.
Daniel (36:43):
Nobody had ever seen the milky way before that blows my
mind yeah, I mean because youknow we're both grew up in the
country for most parts of ourlife walking around at night.
TJ (36:50):
You would see that because there was no light pollution
really yeah um, but in the cityman it never sleeps, yeah we
went to time square in new yorkand the birds in time square are
just going like 24 hours a daybecause literally when we walked
in time square it felt like itwas day in that part of the city
.
Daniel (37:10):
We don't have that everywhere, but it's a big thing
yeah, so affecting a lot morethan we know yeah, after I
listened to that podcast Ithought do I really need these
outside lights on my housealways on?
If somebody's going to rob me,they probably won't rob me if
it's completely dark.
Now they can't size me up andstuff.
That episode kind of talkedabout that.
You know, like if you have amotion sensor light, that's cool
(37:31):
.
We all got night vision camerason our house these days, or a
lot of us do.
They're pretty cheap to get,but just turn the street lights
off.
Have a motion sensor light atyour house, Unless you're going
outside playing, then turn themon.
That's cool.
But there just is a lot ofwasted light and you know it's
LED light, so you're probablynot wasting tons of energy, but
you're still wasting energy.
TJ (37:53):
And you're doing that blue light and all that stuff, so
you're messing up your sleeveno-transcript.
Instead of a floodlight that'sstanding on all the time, choose
an LED that has a softer glowand not all the blue lights.
Blue light travels further.
(38:13):
That's where we see a lot ofour sky glow come from is from
the blue lights.
So just make healthierdecisions is what it's coming
down to.
It's about everything that wedo.
It's not just about wildlife,it's not about streams, it's not
about light.
Daniel (38:28):
It's about all of it together yeah it's a different
approach to life how do youthink this ties into our podcast
with stewardship and all that?
TJ (38:40):
yeah, I go back to Paul Foshee.
We interviewed him.
Paul, even though he's livingin the modern world, still
doesn't have a lot of the samethings that the average person's
going to have, even at80-something years old, is
growing a garden and eating outof that garden.
I think that that's what we'vegot to get back to and that's
(39:01):
what we've been talking aboutthis whole season with the
podcast is creating those waysto get out, whether it's chasing
waterfalls or hunting, orhiking, or biking or climbing,
farming whatever it is thatyou're doing.
We're trying to create thoseways where we're getting back
into the land.
It's healthier for our mentalcapacity.
(39:22):
We haven't talked about thebusyness of life.
Really, in this episode thatwas something else we talked.
We were going to say somethingabout that.
We're just all so busy anddoing these things that a lot of
times don't matter as much aswe think they do.
It's all about getting back toa more natural way of living,
(39:43):
away from some of theseconveniences, not because
they're convenient, becausethey're not as healthy for us
mentally.
Daniel (39:50):
Yeah, you gotta slow down, think more intentionally
on what we're doing with ourtime, what we're putting in our
bodies.
Like, if people do that, justslow down just a little bit.
It's just hard to pay the bills, get things done.
A gazillion things you need todo a day yeah but do you really
need to do all those things, orcan you cut some things out?
Yeah, and on yourself a littlebit.
TJ (40:10):
I think that's what this whole podcast is about is
creating those moments, creatingthose spaces and leading people
back to that.
We're not advocating for peopleto go out, start starving
themselves, eating everythingfrom a farmer's market and stuff
, but if we make those decisionsmore and more, then we're going
(40:32):
to be healthy.
Daniel (40:34):
You'll see it pretty quickly in your own health.
Like just making a few changes.
Just change one thing and seeif it changes.
If that doesn't change, changesomething else.
Your body will tell you whatyou need to do and your mental
clarity will free up.
We're reclaiming our land.
We're reclaiming our land.
Yep, we're reclaiming ourbodies.
It's all the same journey.
If you don't take care ofyourself, won't have the energy
(40:55):
or the mental capacity to takecare of anything else, or the
longevity.
TJ (40:59):
I'm maybe getting these projects and my land started
only to be hit with diabetes anddifferent things like that and
go before I'm wanting to go.
So leaving that legacy you knowthat's what we talked about in
the beginning of the show islike we want to leave a legacy.
And what good does it do me toleave a legacy about land if I'm
not leaving the legacy ofhealth for my own family, if I'm
(41:21):
more worried about the thingsmy deer eat than what my
family's eat, is that any kindof legacy?
Daniel (41:25):
Or not knowing your grandkids, because your mind's
so wore out and riddled withterrible things that you've got
mental decline, dementia.
You're in the hospital all thetime.
That's kind of one of mydriving factors.
I want to have a sharp mind.
When I'm old, I want to be ableto play with my grandkids.
I don't want to be somebodythat can't get in the floor with
you.
Bobby, like grandpa, needs tostay up here in this chair.
(41:45):
I don't want to be that way.
I think people will justattribute that to age.
Sometimes it is, but for themost part I think it's not a far
stretch to think.
If we took care of our bodies,with exercising a little bit,
getting out and getting somesteps in and eating healthy, you
could be 80 years old andenjoying your grandkids, not
sitting in a recliner and theyhave to come over to you, and I
(42:07):
do not want to be that way.
TJ (42:08):
That's why I personally have like really dove into this
topic yeah, and I appreciate theway that you've pushed me,
because I'm more concerned,honestly, about the conservation
things than I am about thehealth things.
Yeah, and so having you to comealong and be like, hey, these
are things that we should beworried about as well, it was
great.
That's why we're bringing it toour listeners is because all
(42:32):
the other stuff we talk about isgood.
Getting outside is definitelyawesome.
It all works together.
Let's just hit on that busynessfactor real quick.
We'll make that the last thingwe talk about before we get off
here.
I've got five kids, I've got ajob, my wife has a job, got a
business to take care of, and mykids are homeschooled.
(42:53):
We've got a busy day withoutadd-ons.
Then you start adding thingslike sporting events, birthday
celebrations, time with extendedfamily vacations.
We just live in a fast-pacedsociety and that's why we
advocate for being outside andslowing down as much as we do is
(43:15):
to create those times formental clarity space to think,
observe, slow down.
I want to see people doing moreof that.
I don't think we think aboutthe health implications and the
stress that we bring toourselves by staying so busy and
worked up.
Yeah, I'm guilty of getting up,picking up the phone, going
(43:38):
straight to work, working allday, laying down in bed picking
up the phone, reading something,and when I'm tired I fall
asleep right after looking atthe blue light.
Daniel (43:49):
Two minutes of REM sleep and you're good to go the next
day.
TJ (43:51):
Yeah, exactly Just exhausted .
Yeah, that's just not healthy.
Daniel (43:54):
Yeah, the world's not getting any slower.
You just had to be veryintentional with your time.
Is it worth it to put your kidin soccer five nights a week?
Maybe?
Yeah maybe, but as long asyou're intentionally making that
decision, that's fine.
I'm guilty of this.
Are you blowing it?
Looking at TikTok, facebook, Imean, those are good things to
(44:14):
keep up with people and relax alittle bit.
But are you relaxing?
Are you just hitting thosedopamine hits Moving on when you
could have been really restingoutside, doing a short walk
through the woods or downthrough your neighborhood or
preparing a meal that you'regoing to eat later?
That's nice.
The dopamine hits are supereasy and they're super addictive
(44:35):
.
That would free up a ton oftime if you cut some of that out
not all of it.
everybody wants to not thinkabout anything and just enjoy
something like a movie orwhatever.
That's totally fine, I think.
But if it's every day, yeah,maybe it's too much, I don't
know.
I like playing video games.
I've got to reel myself back inbecause, yeah, I'm stewarding
(44:56):
my farm on Stardew Valley, I'mtaking care of my health on that
game, me and Kirsten we'retearing it up.
But it's probably better to getoutside and go plant some
flowers or play in the woods orwhatever.
You just got to be intentionalwith what you're doing, with
your time.
TJ (45:09):
Yeah, I think, being in nature, going out, sitting in
the deer, stand, looking at myproperty, those are things that
help me remember that when youstay busy all the time, it's
hard to remember that there is away or a place to slow down.
It's hard to remember that ourgrandparents didn't quite go at
the speed that we go at do allthe things that we do, and so
(45:29):
that's why taking a hike withSam Files at Pinnacle Mountain
State Park is a good idea.
Daniel (45:36):
Yeah, turn that phone off.
TJ (45:37):
Yeah.
Daniel (45:38):
Leave it behind, maybe.
TJ (45:39):
Yeah, want to see a waterfall Taking a canoe down, a
big piney Getting out andgetting on the lake.
All those things are reallygood because they're really good
at reminding us that all thethings that we do are not that
important.
Usually, if you really try hard, you can create extra space in
(46:01):
your schedule.
It's hard, just like denyingyourself sweets or a soda, but
making those daily intentionaldecisions to make space and do
without something are reallygood for our well-being.
Daniel (46:18):
I've kind of leaned into this because I do fasting.
I just came off like a 74-hourfast.
That's reclaiming time.
There You're letting your bodyheal.
You're not worried aboutprepping any meals for three
days.
Not everybody could do that.
Everybody can do that.
But whether you should do thatthat's up to you.
But you are reclaiming a ton oftime and money.
72 hours you're at the peak ofautophagy, like where your
(46:40):
body's repairing itself.
So, you can gain time places.
There's plenty of places togain it.
Yeah, you just got to reallyfocus in yeah.
TJ (46:51):
I think this has been a good talk.
I don't want everybody to thinkthat we're berating them and
telling them how to live theirlives.
Just bring a more awareness tothings that we think are
important journeys that we'vebeen on ourselves.
Daniel (47:02):
Exactly, it's personal experiences from us.
TJ (47:10):
And I've still got a long ways to go on all of these
topics.
Yeah, same, definitely notthere on any of them.
But the closer we get to nature, the healthier we'll be, in my
humble opinion.
Daniel (47:19):
I think that's going to be a wrap for today.
Hopefully everybody's walkingaway with something to chew on
besides seed oils andmicroplastics.
It's not about doing everythingperfect, just paying attention
(47:44):
to it Like microplastic out inthe wilderness.
Sometimes you just got to grablunch at Taziki's and call it a
win.
Yeah, you might have some seedoils in there, but at least it's
not a drive-thru cheeseburgerwith all processed ingredients.
So just pick one thing, eatsomething real, get outside
early, get the sunlight in youreyes and just see what shifts.
We're not doctors, we're notexperts.
We're just trying to live alittle more aligned with how we
(48:06):
believe we were meant to do it.
Thanks for listening.
If this got you thinking deeperon the subject, send it to a
friend, send us questions, or ifyou want us to dive into
something else, let us know.
Appreciate you being here.
TJ (48:20):
All right, we're out.
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Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark
My Favorite Murder is a true crime comedy podcast hosted by Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark. Each week, Karen and Georgia share compelling true crimes and hometown stories from friends and listeners. Since MFM launched in January of 2016, Karen and Georgia have shared their lifelong interest in true crime and have covered stories of infamous serial killers like the Night Stalker, mysterious cold cases, captivating cults, incredible survivor stories and important events from history like the Tulsa race massacre of 1921. My Favorite Murder is part of the Exactly Right podcast network that provides a platform for bold, creative voices to bring to life provocative, entertaining and relatable stories for audiences everywhere. The Exactly Right roster of podcasts covers a variety of topics including historic true crime, comedic interviews and news, science, pop culture and more. Podcasts on the network include Buried Bones with Kate Winkler Dawson and Paul Holes, That's Messed Up: An SVU Podcast, This Podcast Will Kill You, Bananas and more.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.