April 25, 2025 • 44 mins
The Basics of Holistic Food and Nutrition: A Return to God-Intended Eating
In this first episode of Crunchy Stewardship, cousins Chrissy Rombach and Katie Jones introduce their podcast, aimed at equipping listeners to steward their health in a holistic manner rooted in biblical principles. They underscore the importance of prioritizing spiritual, mental, emotional, financial, and physical health to honor God. They begin the series by discussing food and nutrition as crucial starting points, sharing their personal experiences and transition to a more natural and organic diet. Topics covered include the benefits of homemade bread, understanding the difference between organic and non-organic food, and the detrimental impact of processed food on health. They also touch on the pharmaceutical industry's role in healthcare and offer practical tips for making healthier food choices on a budget. The episode promotes their Facebook group, 'Crunchy Christian Mamas on a Budget,' as a platform for continuing the conversation.
Episode Takeaway:
Reflecting on your current eating habits and the information shared in this episode, what is one small, manageable change you feel inspired to make in the way you shop for or prepare your food this week in order to better steward your physical health?
Chapters:
00:00 Welcome
00:52 Diving Into Food and Nutrition
02:59 Chrissy's Journey to a Healthier Diet
10:24 Katie's Food Journey and Family Influence
19:14 The Organic vs. Non-Organic Debate
22:28 Budgeting for Organic Foods
25:10 Misconceptions About Organic Costs
27:14 Nutrient-Dense Meals and Reduced Snacking
30:24 Economic Implications of Healthy Eating
33:30 Lack of Nutrition Education in Healthcare
36:47 Resources and Tips for Healthy Eating
41:41 Book Recommendations and Final Thoughts
Mentioned in this Episode:
- Feeding You Lies by Vani Hari https://amzn.to/441LhfE
- Eat Dirt by Dr. Josh Axe https://amzn.to/441LhfE
Connect With Us:
Join Our Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/crunchychristianmama
FREE How to Afford Non-Toxic Living Workbook: https://crunchystewardship.com/how-to-afford-non-toxic-living
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Chrissy (00:00):
Hello and welcome to Crunchy Stewardship.
My name is Chrissy Rombach
Katie (00:06):
and my name is Katie Jones.
And we are two cousins who arevery passionate about learning
and sharing the knowledge wehave to equip others to steward
their spiritual, mental,emotional, financial, and
physical health in order tohonor God in every aspect of
their life.
Chrissy (00:27):
In this podcast, we are going to be taking a deep dive
into what it means to stewardour lives as God originally
intended for us with theresources that God has given us.
We are gonna look at topicslike food, medicine, finances,
mental health, and a lot morethings through a natural lens
with a biblical foundation.
So without further ado, let'sget started.
Katie (00:52):
Today in our episode, we are talking all things food and
nutrition, and we just decidedthat this was a really great
place to start our podcast.
There's so much that goes intothis kind of holistic, non-toxic
lifestyle, but I think food isone of those areas in which.
(01:14):
So many of us begin ourjourney.
Mm-hmm.
And so I think it's a greatplace to start our podcast
because you as a listener mightbe in the space of thinking
like, well, what is thedifference between organic and
non-organic And how do I justhave a good diet and eat good
healthy foods and.
Actually be able to nourish mybody.
(01:35):
It's also one of those areasthat we have kind of the most
control over when it comes tothis crunchy, holistic
lifestyle.
You start getting into theweeds with some of these other
things that you could learnabout when it comes to being
crunchy and food is that onething that we all purchase on a
(01:56):
weekly basis and we can reallyhave a lot of momentum with in.
The way of changing what we'reeating.
Chrissy (02:05):
Absolutely.
And
Katie (02:06):
It's easily controllable rather than a lot of those
things that are like in ourenvironment and, and what
Chrissy and I have both learnedin our journeys is that food,
what we eat, what we put intoour bodies is really, really.
Nourishing.
It's really healing.
Chrissy (02:22):
Oh, absolutely.
Katie (02:22):
And it can be from both a preventative aspect as well as
a healing aspect of like, onceyou are sick, what can we do to
change that and, and heal youthrough food?
So yeah, Chrissy and I bothhave become very passionate
about it.
Chrissy, I'd love for you tolike, share with us maybe a
little bit of just why you areso passionate about food and,
(02:43):
and how you kind of.
Got into this crunchy lifestyletoo, through food.
'cause I know through ourconversations outside of this
podcast, you've shared a lotwith me about how you've changed
what you've done with your dietand, and food and nutrition.
So yeah, share with us a littlebit about that.
Chrissy (02:59):
Uh, yeah.
So, let's see.
Back in high school, I was afull blown.
Chick-fil-A aholic.
I remember I gained red statusat Chick-fil-A, like within one
year.
Um, and I, one time the monthof October, my senior year of
high school, I went toChick-fil-A 17 times.
(03:23):
In one month, and that includedone of those days was
breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
Oh, Chrissy.
I know.
It was really bad.
Looking back, I realized I wasat the thinnest that I had ever
been.
People continuously told me,Chrissy, you look really thin.
You need to make sure you'reeating.
And I was always like, I ameating.
I don't understand what youguys are talking about.
(03:43):
Um, so coming out of college, Iwas like, I need to figure out.
How to do better, you know?
'cause this whole relationshipwith food has just not been good
for pretty much my entireteenage years.
And so, um, after my husbandand I got married, we decided to
start making bread.
(04:04):
Um, that was like the firststep in our food journey.
And my mom's girlfriend madebread our entire time growing
up.
And so I asked her for herrecipe.
I started making bread, and inand of just that one change, I
felt dramatic changes in just myoverall energy level, my
(04:25):
digestive health, you know.
And then I was having aconversation with one of my
patients family members.
Um, he was telling me aboutmilling his own wheat to make
bread.
So he went home that night andcopied a.
The bread recipe that they usedin their wheat milling recipe
(04:45):
book, and he gave me the link toa wheat grinder that I could
buy off of Amazon.
Pretty simple.
And the link to the wheat thatI could buy also off of Amazon.
Incredibly convenient andhonestly, in comparison to my $3
a loaf that.
Has all of the extrapreservatives and literally I
(05:07):
looked, it had 15 ingredients inbread, and the one I'm making
at home has five ingredients.
And so that switch aloneautomatically didn't really
change much about our financialimage at that point, you know?
Um, and then also with that,like I just felt so much better
again, like I didn't know, Icould feel even more energized
(05:30):
and.
Less bloated than when Istarted making my bread with,
um, regular flour.
So I did more research into itand I was like, okay, what is it
about regular flour that, youknow, it made me feel better
than store-bought bread, but whydid it still not make me feel
as good as when I was grindingmy own wheat?
(05:51):
And so I went into a research,um, rabbit hole of flour in the
grocery store and I found outthat.
When manufacturers mill theirflour to give it, put it on the
shelves of grocery stores.
There's, so there's differentparts of the wheat, um, berry is
(06:12):
what it's called.
There's mm-hmm.
Germ and the brand, the brandis like the outer coating and
kind of like the quote unquotemeat, uh, or filler of the
berry.
And it's the white, fluffystuff that we see once it's all
ground up.
Yeah.
The germ.
Is the piece that holds all thenutrients.
So it has the iron, it has Oh,the um, fiber.
(06:36):
It has all the really, reallygood stuff for you.
But the issue is the germdoesn't have any shelf life
nearly at all.
So once the wheat berry hasbeen ground up, that germ only
has a shelf life of about threedays.
Katie (06:54):
Oh, interesting.
Chrissy (06:55):
And that's not beneficial if you're going to be
selling these things.
At a grocery store, you know,like you needed to be able to
sit on the shelf for a few days,days to even get to a grocery
store to be purchased exactlythree days to the grocery store,
sits on the shelf for maybe aweek before someone buys.
It sits in somebody's pantryfor.
Who knows,
Katie (07:13):
who knows how long,
Chrissy (07:15):
you know, like I think before I started making bread,
my flour was years old.
Katie (07:19):
Totally.
Chrissy (07:19):
And did I still use it?
Absolutely.
You know?
Katie (07:22):
Yep.
Chrissy (07:22):
Um, but so back into the fifties actually, they
separated out the germ from thebrand.
Mm-hmm.
And they started milling theflour and just giving people the
brand.
Which is nothing but killer.
Yeah.
It has no nutrients in it atall whatsoever, except for like
carbohydrates.
Um, and the country startedhaving actually quite a few
(07:46):
vitamin deficiencies from that.
You know, they didn't diet.
Yeah, I can imagine at all.
But the flour changed and sothe United States government
decided, well, that.
Can't be good.
So let's enrich this flour thatwe have and add back some of
those vitamins.
They add back vitamin D, theyadd back iron, you know, and
that's how you get these ironfortified cereals and enriched
(08:09):
flour, you know?
But.
Uh, the true enrichment hasbeen lost because they took out
all of those natural, um,vitamins and minerals and they
put back in synthetic versionsof them that our bodies can't
absorb as well.
Anyways, um, and so.
Yay.
It gave the flower a shelflife.
(08:30):
But the American at what costexactly.
The American population justlost so much nutrients in that
process.
And now I think we've been alittle bit.
Kind of led astray of thinking,oh, this flower has been
enriched.
It must be good for me, youknow, more vitamins and
minerals.
But the true reality is like,no, those are synthetic vitamins
(08:52):
and minerals that have beenadded back to it after they took
out the original ones.
So, um, yeah.
Yeah, that was kind of thebeginning of our journey in
going down, like changing ourfood little bit by little bit.
Um, and let me tell you, everysingle change I make.
Just makes me feel so muchbetter.
(09:13):
And after making quite a fewchanges, I'm more able to handle
those unhealthy foods that Iput in my body.
Like my gut has morefortifications against it, and,
um, I don't feel nearly asbloated anymore.
I, it's, it's fantastic.
Really.
Katie (09:30):
I love it.
The one thing that I havereally been learning is that,
yeah, food.
It is medicine, food ismedicine, and especially if we
get back to the way that Goddesigned food.
Right?
Right.
Get back to the basics, how Godput it on this earth.
Like instead of takingsomething like wheat and.
(09:50):
Putting it through thisprocessing, and then turning it
into something that is no longerfood.
It, what we're really eating isjust chemicals, like you said,
just lots of synthetic, manmadestuff.
Chrissy (10:03):
Yes.
Katie (10:03):
And, and really when we, when we take a look at chronic
diseases and just.
Illnesses and even our immunesystems in general, we all
wonder why everybody's gettingso sick and it's because we're,
we're not nourishing our bodieswith the right types of food.
We're not really even actuallyputting real food into our
bodies.
(10:24):
The one thing that I've beenlearning about this process is
getting back to like.
Again, how God designed iteating whole foods.
Mm-hmm.
Not packaged stuff, notprocessed things.
And so it's interesting.
Part of my journey has beenthat growing up.
I think my parents did a, apretty decent job kind of
(10:45):
teaching us some of the basicsabout food and nutrition.
Um, my dad, I just, I stilllook back and laugh at it, but
he used to call things likegranola bars or um, fruit snacks
that you'd get in the grocerystore for kids.
You know, they're all likedesigned for children.
Chrissy (11:02):
Mm-hmm.
Katie (11:03):
He used to call them candy and.
That infuriated me when I was achild.
Like I was so upset that hewould call the snacks that I
loved candy.
'cause I'm like, no dad.
This is not a Snickers bar thatI'm eating.
I'm eating this granola bar andit is healthy.
But now, like going back and,and looking at it as an adult,
like through this lens now.
(11:23):
And seeing the ingredients inlike a chewy granola bar, the
brand Chewy.
And I'm like, whoa.
Oh my goodness.
This is literally candy.
Like, he was right.
Oh my gosh, my dad's gonna lovehearing this.
He's gonna be like, I told you.
So I, I am thankful for thatfoundation that.
Okay.
I may not have followed it.
(11:44):
And of course my parents like,let us have some stuff, but we,
we just never really had thingslike the colorful, sugary
cereals that often, like it wasa, it was a major treat to have
something like Lucky Charms orit was going to Grandma and
Grandpa's house and grandmaalways had lucky charms for us
and that was one of the mainreasons why Jenny, my sister and
I wanted to go to Grandma andGrandpa's house 'cause we knew
(12:05):
we'd get Lucky Charms.
It was like a fight for them.
They were so great.
And that's what grandmaGrandpas are for.
Right.
But yeah, we just never hadthose in our house.
We never had things like pop inour house, like, unless it was
like a, we were having someparty and it was some special
occasion, but that just neverexisted and we, we rarely got it
at like.
When we went out for dinner andstuff, it was usually just
(12:26):
water.
Occasionally, like a lemonade,which is still pretty sugary,
but never like we had Spriteevery now and then, but it was
always, it was such specialoccasions.
Right.
And I'm really thankful forthat mentality because now as an
adult it's, it's really easyfor me to say no to a lot of
that stuff because growing up wejust never really had it around
a lot.
But now getting further intothis journey myself, I.
(12:49):
You know, I, I question thingslike, well, what's, what's the
deal with organic foods?
Why are those better thanmm-hmm.
Non-organic foods?
Why do people buy ketchup thatis different than the Heinz
ketchup in the grocery store?
Like, what's, what is thepurpose of that?
And so I've been asking thesequestions.
And as you're saying, as you'veexplained to us, like when it
(13:10):
comes down to it, theingredients really matter in
what we're eating and whether ornot it's something manmade and
processed and synthetic, orwhether it is just very basic,
like ketchup really doesn't needto be a lot of ingredients.
It really just needs to be liketomatoes.
And so when you go and look at.
The ingredients on ketchup andyou see like sugar, like so many
(13:31):
things include sugar.
And we don't need sugar reallyat all for anything because when
we're filling our body with thenutrients, we get energy from,
you know, the protein and the,and the carbohydrates that we're
eating.
So that's been like, my mainthing is like really switching
from.
Buying the package snacks.
(13:52):
Like even, even if they're likethe generally healthier ones,
you know, not getting the chewygranola bars, but maybe I'm
getting the like Nature Valleyor something.
Mm-hmm.
And like they seem a little bithealthier.
But then same thing, like yougo and read those labels and
it's still a lot of sugar andcorn syrup and all these other
like terrible things that you'relike, oh my gosh.
Like why?
(14:12):
Why do they put all this inhere?
So.
The way that I've kind ofstarted changing things is the
way when we go to the grocerystores, we actually shop the
outer perimeters of the grocerystore versus more that like
interior.
'cause you think about all theshelves inside the middle of the
grocery store are usuallythings like cereal, crackers,
(14:33):
cookies, packaged things, cannedgoods.
And when we look at just theoutside, that's where we get
like the whole like moreingredient.
Pieces of a meal where you getlike your fruits and veggies and
even your milks and your meats,it's all on the outside.
And so we try as little aspossible to get the stuff of the
(14:53):
middle of the grocery store.
It's really hard.
It's really hard changing thatmentality.
Yeah.
Um, because I mean, we'vealways, we've kind of enjoyed
cooking, um mm-hmm.
For the most part.
But at the same time, we'veused a lot of like.
Cheats, right?
Like, like the, actually likethe made versions of our foods,
(15:14):
but then you kind of still do alittle bit of the cooking where
you're putting it all together.
Mm-hmm.
And what I've realized is like,oh yeah, like we can make our
own tortillas, for example.
Or, you know, bread, like breadwas also for us, like a really
great way that we wereintroduced to this was like, I,
I just wanted to try makingsourdough and I really enjoyed
that.
Mm-hmm.
But yeah.
Chrissy (15:34):
Are, are you still on your sourdough kick?
Katie (15:37):
I'm, I'm not as much on sourdough at this point.
I've kind of let that go.
I, I would like to get back tothat.
Um, and so stay tuned.
I'm sure I will go back.
I've been making a lot of breadin general.
Um, I really like making bread,but now I'm trying to figure
out how to make bread withoutall the sugar.
'cause I still feel like a lotof the recipes I have have
(15:58):
sugar.
Chrissy (16:00):
Max and I have, um, we've substituted honey instead
of sugar in most recipes and,um,
Katie (16:07):
and it works out.
It
Chrissy (16:08):
does.
Absolutely.
Um, and the beauty about honey,especially if you buy a really
high quality local honey mm-hmm.
Um, is it also has like a lotof allergen protectors in it.
Katie (16:21):
Yeah.
Chrissy (16:21):
I don't know exactly like how to say it.
Totally the correct way, butyeah, it kind of gives your body
little micro doses of allergensthat are around in your area.
Yeah.
So that when allergy seasoncomes, your body already knows.
What these allergens are likeand already knows how to fight
them off well and so it doesn'toverreact and give you all of
(16:44):
those allergies that you usuallyget in allergy season, in
spring and fall.
And so, um, it's so greatmerely just incorporating, you
know, our bread has what, twotablespoons of honey in it and I
have no allergies.
And when we first moved here toNorth Carolina, I did have
allergies.
Yeah.
Add them.
Mm-hmm.
(17:04):
My body didn't know what NorthCarolina Pollen was like.
I grew up in Texas, you know,and moved here first spring.
I had the worst allergies Icould think of.
And then we bought local honey.
I put honey in my bread andslowly but surely, you know,
fall came around and that'scool.
I cool.
I didn't have allergiesanymore.
Katie (17:24):
It's, I just love that.
God really did design things soperfectly, I think.
Right.
We don't necessarily out loudquestion what he did.
Right.
We're not like, God, why didyou make honey and fruits and do
all these things the way hedid?
Chrissy (17:39):
Well, I, I do ask that question in regards to
mosquitos.
Hey, I haven't quite figuredthat one out yet,
Katie (17:45):
but it's like we're, we're kind of admitting that
we're like not trusting the waythat God designed things
Chrissy (17:51):
right
Katie (17:51):
by.
Like, and, and I'm not sayingon an individual basis, but on a
macro view of food, our wholesociety, our whole world even
has kind of said, no, we need totake our food and modify it in
order for it to actually be thisthing that's gonna be good for
us, but Right.
We're, we're really messing itup.
(18:12):
And that's where things like,you know, genetically modified
foods come into play here and
Chrissy (18:17):
Oh yeah.
Katie (18:17):
It's actually interesting.
I.
Years ago, this was myfreshman, my, literally my first
semester in college I did aproject in a science class on
GMO Foods.
And I literally had no ideawhat I'm talking about, but I, I
think back to that timebecause.
All the mainstream media sayslike, oh, GMO food is really
good because it's helping reducethe food insecurity across the
(18:41):
world.
You know, we're feeding theworld and this is the way we
have to do it, is by making thisgenetically altered meat and
corn and soy.
And you're like, oh, okay.
And you just kind of go withthe flow with it.
'cause you're like, yeah, wewanna feed the world.
Right.
That's a good thing to do.
Right?
Makes sense.
What we don't realize is,again, by.
Altering what God originallydesigned by changing it in our
(19:04):
own way and thinking we knowbetter than God, we're actually
worse off for it.
And our health has really takenan impact on that.
Chrissy (19:13):
Absolutely.
Katie (19:14):
Do you, I wanna know Chrissy, like about, um, what
have you learned about likeorganic foods versus non-organic
foods?
Ooh, you know,
Chrissy (19:24):
I have always been so hesitant to buy organic.
Mm-hmm.
Um.
You know, growing up I wasalways told, you don't need to
buy organic.
That's just a label.
They put on just a label sothat they make it more
expensive.
They only need like oneingredient that's organic in
order for it to actually beorganic.
And you know, there was evendocumentaries that I've watched
(19:46):
that.
They were like, well, this isthe organic field and this is
the non-organic field, andthey're right next to each
other, and the runoff from thenon-organic field with the
pesticides goes into the organicfield.
And so technically there's nopesticides there, but it's still
getting the runoff from.
The non-organic field.
And so for a very, very longtime, I really thought that
(20:10):
organic was just a label.
Mm-hmm.
Like disregard or something.
Mm-hmm.
And I was like, well, you canwash your vegetables, wash the
pesticides off.
Um, but then I kinda came torealize like, no, these
pesticides are in the soil andit's being absorbed into the
fruits and vegetables and.
Then I was like, well, I'm, I'mlike quite literally just
(20:33):
eating pesticides right now.
And this is something that isdesigned to kill living beings.
Mm-hmm.
And I'm eating it.
And so I was like, that justcan't be good for me.
And.
Uh, the cost of organic foodreally was a hard one for me.
Um, as many times as I tried tobuy organic, you know, I'd go
(20:55):
to my normal grocery store andI'd see regular apples, dollar,
dollar 50, organic apples, $3 apound.
Yeah.
And I just couldn't get myselfto spend 200% the price.
Katie (21:07):
Now, are you still, are you still doing that now with
organic foods?
Are you still avoiding them forthe cost benefit?
Chrissy (21:14):
Last week was officially the first week that I
dropped my old grocery storeand I switched to a grocery
store that has more organicoptions and, um, I bought
organic celery last week becausewe it beef stew and it called
for celery.
And I was like, well, you know,the organic celery is only 10
(21:36):
cents more expensive than theregular celery.
I'm gonna try it.
We will see how it is, and Iput some of the organic celery
in my lunch to take to work withme, and it was so good.
Mm-hmm.
And so, you know, pun intended,crunchy.
So I was sitting at the nurse'sstation just crunching away on
(22:00):
my celery and my coworkersthought I was eating chips.
Um, because it was so crunchy.
It was so delicious.
And I, I really do think that.
It kind of got me hooked ontothe organic trend.
Um, and, you know, I, it, itdid also one of the other things
that took a while to get me.
(22:20):
Well, I kind of mentioned itwas the cost of it, you know?
Mm-hmm.
Some organic foods really aremuch more expensive.
You know, spending $3 a poundon apples versus a dollar 50 a
pound on apples, it can reallyadd up over time.
Um, but at the same time, myhusband and I worked together.
We sat down with our budget andwe were like, okay, how can we
(22:44):
change our budget over thecourse of the month?
To allow us to eat thesehealthier foods to make us feel
better, you know?
Yeah.
Um, and we broke it down andrealized we really only had to
increase our weekly food budgetby $25.
Katie (23:02):
Oh, wow.
Chrissy (23:03):
Yeah.
In order to incorporate thosehealthier, organic options, you
know, mind you, I was alreadybuying, like shopping the
perimeter of the store andmm-hmm.
Um, buying fruits andvegetables and meat and things
like that.
But switching to organic, I waslike, well, you know, the
celery, like I said, was only 10cents more expensive.
(23:26):
And the fruits and vegetablesin general, I realized we don't
eat as much mm-hmm.
When we're eating better, youknow?
And so you don't have to buy asmuch.
And, um, with that, yeah, itonly.
It wasn't a huge sacrificefinancially to switch to
(23:49):
organic.
Um, and I was, I'm able to, um,kind of plan my meals according
to each other.
So I will look at sales at thegrocery store and see like, oh,
well these specific foods are onsale this week, so let's create
meals.
According to those sales, youknow, and that's great.
(24:10):
Um, so we've got coupons, we'vegot sales that we use, and we
make our meals each weekaccording to those coupons and
sales.
So that's another way that youcan eat healthier, but still at
a, a lower cost or the same costas eating unhealthy, um, is
just by looking at the sales andthen also.
Having a similar meal each dayduring the week, you know, of
(24:35):
like, instead of havingMediterranean on Tuesday and
tacos on Wednesday, well I guessyou'd have tacos on Tuesday
'cause you have to have tacos onTuesday, taco Tuesday.
But um, and then fish onThursday.
You know, those are socompletely different foods.
It's like, well let's havelike.
Maybe stuffed bell peppers onMonday, and then tacos on
Tuesday.
You know, still keeping thatground beef is the main thing.
(24:58):
And then maybe we'll haveburgers on Wednesday.
So we have ground beef threetimes.
Well look at that.
Ground beef was on sale thisweek.
That's why, you know.
Um.
That's perfect.
So that's kind of, I love that.
How we've transitioned.
Katie (25:10):
It's interesting, you kind of alluded to some of it
too, is that there is thismisconception that to switch to
organic, it has to be extremelyexpensive.
And the way that we haveavoided some of the really big
cost load is, is switching awayfrom the, the pre.
Made stuff, the pre-made foodsthat are organic and very
(25:34):
expensive, and then now goingreally to that, the whole foods.
Mm-hmm.
You know, getting, buying theingredients and kind of making
it from scratch.
And the cost, you know, tradeoff would be your time in that
case.
Because when you switch frombuying, like for, for example,
spaghetti sauce.
(25:55):
Yeah.
Like if you make your ownspaghetti sauce versus.
Buying a pre-made organicoption, that spaghetti sauce is
going to cost a lot more thanthe ingredients to make the
spaghetti sauce.
And what's really cool is thatlike when you buy the spices and
herbs and stuff for it, likeyou are gonna have those for a
long time and can utilize themin different meals, kinda like
(26:18):
you're saying is like spread itout over time.
And when we've made that switchfrom buying the pre-made stuff
to making things on our own,it's saved us a lot of money.
And there hasn't been a huge,like, cost change for us in our
grocery budget, which has beenreally great.
Mm-hmm.
Um, but yes, it does take alittle bit more time planning
(26:39):
and preparation versus like justgoing in and getting everything
from the grocery store and ittakes like a few minutes to
throw together.
It does take a little extratime, but.
We've really enjoyed learninghow to, you know, use our
crockpot and Instapot a littlebit more to help us with that
process.
Um, I've actually reallyenjoyed now with the intention
(27:00):
of like, becoming healthier anda better steward.
I, I enjoy learning and, andgrowing in this area of like,
how can we, how can we make newmeals that are really awesome
that we really love, but alsoare nourishing for us?
And just like you said,Chrissy, it's what, what is also
so fascinating about gettingback to the basics, getting back
(27:21):
to how God had designed ourfood, is that I don't snack as
often, right.
I don't even need to buy thecrackers and granola bars as
much now to tide me over betweenmeals because the meals that
we're making are so much morenourishing.
They're so much more nutrientdense.
Mm-hmm.
That.
The energy that I get from thatmeal lasts and it keeps me
(27:45):
full, and I don't get thosecravings to eat a sweet snack
here and there in between meals.
So we actually haven't beenbuying as many snack kind of
things in general.
And so that also has been ahuge trade off because my gosh,
snack foods, like again, goingback to the granola bars like.
Even the healthier ish kinds,like, but not organic.
(28:08):
Like they can be more, they canjust be really expensive and
so, mm-hmm.
Yeah, just getting back tothat, the whole.
Whole foods, whole everything.
Chrissy, I wanna know your takeon, um, why have we gotten to
this place with our food?
Like, why, if we kind of knowthese things like you and I,
again, we're not the experts inthis.
(28:29):
We have just been learning fromthe experts about we need to
eat nutritious foods.
We need to be healing ourbodies through food and through
our diets.
Why do you think it is that?
We don't focus on this.
Why are we so focused onmedicine versus alternative,
quote unquote, alternative wayof healing ourselves?
(28:52):
What do you, what do you thinkis the big reason?
Chrissy (28:53):
Oh man, there, there's so much that goes into it, you
know?
Um.
You just mentioned a little bitago, cravings, you know that
mm-hmm.
You don't have as many cravingsthroughout the day and last
week I heard a very interestingperspective.
I'm not 100% sure how much Iagree with it, because I know
cravings have a lot of mental,um, aspects to them too.
(29:17):
But you know, there is aphysical aspect to cravings
also.
And this person said.
You know, cravings is just yourbody telling you that you're
missing out on a certainnutrient, and so it gives you to
a craving to get that certainnutrient.
Now, often cravings are relatedto sugar because sugar is
actually one of the mostaddicting, um, oh yeah.
(29:38):
Things that we can put in ourbody.
The American population is soincredibly addicted to sugar
that we just don't realize itbecause it's in everything.
And it's just like, um, ifsomebody.
Starts a whole 30 diet.
You know, they really do gothrough withdrawals the first
couple days.
Like they get nauseous at thethought of food or the thought
of meat.
(29:58):
They can't stop thinking aboutbread, you know, because their
body really is craving thatsugar Totally.
That they so crazy addicted to,and it's so sad to see.
Um, so I think that is onething, uh, that is wrong in our.
Health industries, that thereis sugar in everything and, um,
(30:21):
our bodies are incrediblyaddicted to it.
Another thing that I think is avery, very sad reality when it
comes to the health industry isthat food does not make money.
Mm-hmm.
Um, by a doctor telling theirpatient to change their diet and
(30:42):
so reverse their hypertensionor high blood pressure.
Um.
The doctor doesn't make anymoney from that.
Mm-hmm.
They don't get any kickbacksfrom the profits that are made
from the patient buying thehealthier foods.
You know, pharmaceuticalcompany doesn't get any
kickbacks from it.
Heck, even the ag industryreally doesn't get all that much
of a kickback from it.
(31:02):
And there's financially thereis no benefit to.
People eating healthy.
Mm-hmm.
You know, I saw like a, a kindof a funny meme that I thought
was very relatable.
It said healthy people are verybad for the economy and here's
why.
Totally.
(31:23):
They don't buy medicine.
And so their expenses don'tprofit.
The pharmaceutical companies,they don't need to go to the
doctors, so the doctors can'tprofit off of them.
They ride their bikeeverywhere, so car industries
can't profit off of them.
And if they ride their bikeeverywhere, then they don't need
to buy gas, and then the gasindustry can't profit off of
(31:43):
them.
And.
Also then they don't have topay for maintenance on their
car.
So the maintenance people can'tprofit off of them.
And if you need to buy a newbike, it's what?
A hundred dollars.
Like in the grand scheme ofthings, and I thought it was
very funny that the meme wasmore making fun of healthy
(32:04):
people, that they don't quoteunquote, contribute to the
economy.
Totally.
But I have a very differentperspective that healthy people
can actually contribute to theeconomy so much more in that we
can provide more for theeconomy.
Yeah.
You know, because by eatinghealthy and taking care of your
body, you have more energy.
(32:24):
To contribute more to theeconomy.
Katie (32:28):
I heard something really interesting recently that we are
kind of at like a nationalsecurity crisis because we have
so many unhealthy people that ifwe were to go to war right now,
like if we were to need toimpose a draft or something and
and have people like physicallydefending our land, yeah.
We would not have the healthypeople to be able to do that
(32:50):
well, and that is terrifying.
Chrissy (32:51):
The Texans.
The rednecks down in Texas.
Katie (32:54):
Texas has got us,
Chrissy (32:57):
but just Texas.
Katie (32:58):
Unless they, unless they leave us, unless Texas becomes
its own country.
Right.
Because haven't they been, beenjoking about that?
Chrissy (33:03):
That'll California.
Katie (33:05):
But it is, it's so, it's so sad.
Um, yes, because I think whatyou're saying here is it's all
about money.
It's who's, who's making thebuck off of this, who's really
benefiting and, and.
And so when, when thegovernment themselves knows the
answer about our health, whenthe doctors kind of know the
(33:27):
answers about our health, andwhen everybody knows all these
answers is like,
Chrissy (33:30):
you know, I would argue oftentimes the doctors don't
know those answers.
Katie (33:35):
You're right.
And, and you, you actually haveenlightened me on that too,
because I think me as like aconsumer and the person who's
kind of like woken up to this,I, I feel like I need to blame
my doctor for not.
Teaching me all these things,but what you've shown me and
what other nurses and doctorshave been saying is like, no, we
just never were educated aboutthis.
(33:55):
And so you have to think aboutwho is again benefiting?
Why are we not being taughtthis?
Mm-hmm.
It's so sad.
Chrissy (34:02):
Yeah.
In nursing school, the onlything I remember learning about
nutrition was that a highprotein diet heals wounds.
Interesting.
That's all I got.
And talking with doctors, youknow, I've heard like, how long
do you guys spend on yournutrition courses?
And they're like, oh, maybe anafternoon, maybe a day.
You know?
(34:22):
And then it's like, well, howlong do you spend learning about
pharmaceuticals?
And they say, oh, years.
Wow.
We take pharmacology one, two,and three, you know?
And, um, and similar with me,we had, uh, two semester
semesters of pharmacology and.
I learned that protein healswinds in terms of that's
nutrition education in yourself.
Katie (34:43):
It's really sad.
I, yeah.
What the news doesn't want usto know again, 'cause they're
getting paid by all these peopletoo, is mm-hmm.
Is that we have the answers.
We know what it takes to behealthy, to stay healthy, to get
healthy again.
But if we do that.
Nobody's going to profit.
So many of our industries aregoing to mm-hmm.
(35:05):
Suffer if we do all becomehealthy because big food and big
pharma, big agriculture, likeall these big giants who kind of
control all of the narrativeabout what's being said, they.
They all benefit each other andthey're all paying each other.
And they're paying our newsoutlets.
They're paying, they're fundingour schools, so they're funding
(35:26):
the schools that are educatingour doctors.
So of course the educators inthese schools, like for you,
like going to nursing school?
Oh, big pharma's paying.
For us to be here.
They're helping fund thiscollege.
We're not gonna speak outagainst them.
Same thing with the newsoutlets.
When, when they knew all thisstuff about health and wellness,
(35:48):
especially during the pandemic,and, and we don't have to go
there specifically, but peopleknew the answers.
But if they spoke out againstit.
All of their funding would becut because Absolutely.
It's the pharmaceuticalcompanies that are paying them
to stay afloat, right?
Mm-hmm.
Like that's where they'regetting so much of their money.
'cause you think about all theads that are being spent on
(36:08):
their shows, like, don't evenget me started about all the
food, like.
Advertisements geared towardschildren about cereal and oh my
goodness, snacks and candy and,and there are all these
companies.
Chrissy (36:21):
Last time you saw an advertisement for organic fruits
and vegetables.
Katie (36:24):
Oh, never.
No, no, no.
Chrissy (36:28):
Not even at the grocery store.
The grocery store, I, I brokeup with the organic fruits and
vegetables section, wasliterally only 10 feet long.
Katie (36:38):
Oh my goodness.
Chrissy (36:39):
It was a 10 foot section on the wall in the back
corner that was kind of like putin a place for you to walk
past.
That's crazy.
Yeah.
Katie (36:47):
Oh, Chrissy, I, I think this conversation, I, I know the
two of us could talk about thisforever because again, we're,
we're both very passionate aboutthis.
It is something that you and Ihave both been going down the
rabbit hole, so to speak with.
Um, but in order to wrap thisconversation up just a little
bit, um, I want to give peoplesome resources to, to dive into
(37:13):
a little bit on their own, likein, in the.
You know, span of our podcast,we're gonna, we're gonna
continue to dive into this more.
Um, and especially as questionsand, um, things arrive on our
end as well as things that weare learning, we wanna share
with others.
But if someone is hearing thisand they're like, holy cow, this
(37:34):
is all new to me.
Mm-hmm.
What, what tips would you givesomeone on what to do next?
And maybe do you have anyresources that people could.
Look up, I'll share some afteryou, but why don't you go first?
Chrissy (37:49):
Learn how to read food labels.
You know, a lot of times peoplesay like, don't buy something
that you can't read what's onthe label.
And yes, to an extent, but alsolike sodium bicarbonate sounds
really scary, but it's reallyjust baking soda.
Um, and that's a very non-toxicthing.
But if somebody who doesn'tknow sees sodium bicarbonate on
(38:12):
a.
Label, they might freak out alittle bit.
Um, yeah, I'd say learn how toread food labels, um, and
specifically look for foodlabels that have names of foods
on them as opposed to all theselike chemical compounds, you
know?
Yeah.
Some of those com chemicalcompounds are okay for you.
(38:34):
Um, some of them are even goodfor you.
Some of them are just acomplicated way of saying baking
soda, you know?
Um, or if they said, I.
Uh, di hydrogen peroxideinstead of water, you know, um,
funny people would get confusedabout that too, uh, which they
do sometimes, but not eventaking a step towards the
(38:56):
organic direction yet.
You know, if this is the veryfirst step that somebody is,
mm-hmm.
Doing and they want to kind ofdip their toes in.
I'd say learn how to readlabels, look for things on a
label that are food, um, thatyou know what it is.
You know, my pasta sauce that Ihave in my, um, pantry right
(39:18):
now, it has eight ingredients.
It has tomatoes, onions,garlic, spices, I don't know
what else, but eight.
Food ingredients, and that isall the ingredients that are in
it.
Um, so yeah, that, that's mybiggest recommendation is look
at the labels and look foringredients that you know, and
(39:40):
you understand and you can tellwhat it is.
Katie (39:44):
That's a great tip.
And I think even adding ontothat, like again, we kind of
touched on sugar as this big,bad, ugly, and, and it really is
because.
Sugar is not something that weneed at all.
And so trying to look for thosealternatives that just maybe
don't even have sugar, you know,like look for something without
the additive sugar in it.
(40:05):
Um mm-hmm.
So you don't need it or it has
Chrissy (40:06):
honey.
Um, there are sugarsubstitutes, but some sugar
substitutes really are not verygood for you and have other side
effects of their own.
Um, so I'd recommend looking atlike natural.
Sweetening agents.
Um, I've heard a lot of reallygreat things about Stevia, but
I've also heard not as greatthings about Stevia.
(40:30):
Yeah.
So just look into alternativenatural sugar substitutes.
Cool.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I think my, my tip would.
Be kind of like what I wassaying, like learn how to shop
on the outside of the grocerystore and start to find joy in
cooking.
Does that mean I can have icecream?
(40:52):
'cause ice cream is on theoutside of the grocery store.
Katie (40:54):
Definitely.
Chrissy, I will give you thethumbs up on that.
Actually, the ice cream for usis in the middle, so that's
interesting.
I wonder.
Chrissy (41:00):
Mine is definitely right next to the milk on the
outer edge of the grocery store.
Katie (41:05):
How fascinating.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, I, yeah, I would saylearn how to cook.
Um, I know that that's like, itcould be really scary, but I
mean, just think about yourfavorite foods, like
Chick-fil-A, for example.
Mm-hmm.
Or something like that.
And find an alternative way tomake that from home and, and
just start finding some joy incooking, uh, with.
(41:27):
The whole foods, again, the waythat God really designed it,
um, you might find that you'llsave more money this way, and
actually you might, you mightfind that you actually like
cooking and doing that.
Mm-hmm.
Because that's kind of what Ifound.
I, I didn't really expect that.
I did not like cooking.
But that's one thing that I,um, learned.
(41:47):
I did like, yeah, I, my bookrecommendation, if somebody
wants to kind of dive into this,is.
Learning more about the organicside of things.
Um, the book that I read thatreally changed the way that I
viewed food and, and really whenI kind of dove into the deep
end with organic food wasfeeding you lies by Vani Hari,
(42:10):
who is considered the food babe,if anyone's heard of her.
I highly recommend that book.
And it, it describes a lotabout like, the difference
between organic versusnon-organic.
Um, the big word there isglyphosate, which is the, the
chemical that they spray oncrops.
Um, and it's what we're alleating.
And yeah, that one really wokeme up to the reality of our
(42:31):
food.
Um, and I highly recommend it.
And yeah.
Do you have anyrecommendations?
Chrissy (42:37):
Yeah, the, the book recommendation that I would say
is a book called Eat Dirt byJosh Ax, by Josh.
He really, he really focuses onthe microbiome of our gut and
good bacteria versus badbacteria, and what kinds of
foods can we eat to really feedthat good bacteria and maintain
(43:01):
the good, bad bacteria?
Um.
Ideal levels mm-hmm.
For our gut balance.
Um, one thing that he actuallysaid that was very interesting
is that the gut has trillions ofbacteria in it, more bacteria
than our body has cells.
(43:21):
Whoa.
Yeah.
Right.
So our microbiome in our gutis.
Like another whole living beingin there, you know, with how
much bacteria is in there andthe having an adequate, good,
bad bacteria balance can reallymake it or break it in terms of
(43:42):
health and wellness and healingyourself from illnesses.
And he goes into his diet,which is.
The diet that my mom adoptedwhen I was in eighth grade that
healed her from ulcerativecolitis.
So yeah, that's the, the book Iwould recommend.
Katie (43:57):
Perfect.
Well, great.
This, um.
I think this has been a reallygreat conversation.
I hope that it helps others tostart that journey into food and
nutrition and, um, we'vestarted a Facebook group to
continue this conversation'cause this just touches on the
surface level.
Our Facebook group is calledCrunchy Christian Mamas on a
(44:19):
Budget.
So come and join us over thereto continue the conversation and
say hi, and be sure tosubscribe to our podcast.
That way you don't miss out on.
All of our new episodes, wehave plenty of really exciting
episodes in store and sharedthis with a friend who is also
going on their own crunchyjourney with you.
(44:40):
We'd love for you to share thisaround, so we will see you next
time.
Hello and welcome to Crunchy Stewardship.
My name is Chrissy Rombach
Katie (00:06):
and my name is Katie Jones.
And we are two cousins who arevery passionate about learning
and sharing the knowledge wehave to equip others to steward
their spiritual, mental,emotional, financial, and
physical health in order tohonor God in every aspect of
their life.
Chrissy (00:27):
In this podcast, we are going to be taking a deep dive
into what it means to stewardour lives as God originally
intended for us with theresources that God has given us.
We are gonna look at topicslike food, medicine, finances,
mental health, and a lot morethings through a natural lens
with a biblical foundation.
So without further ado, let'sget started.
Katie (00:52):
Today in our episode, we are talking all things food and
nutrition, and we just decidedthat this was a really great
place to start our podcast.
There's so much that goes intothis kind of holistic, non-toxic
lifestyle, but I think food isone of those areas in which.
(01:14):
So many of us begin ourjourney.
Mm-hmm.
And so I think it's a greatplace to start our podcast
because you as a listener mightbe in the space of thinking
like, well, what is thedifference between organic and
non-organic And how do I justhave a good diet and eat good
healthy foods and.
Actually be able to nourish mybody.
(01:35):
It's also one of those areasthat we have kind of the most
control over when it comes tothis crunchy, holistic
lifestyle.
You start getting into theweeds with some of these other
things that you could learnabout when it comes to being
crunchy and food is that onething that we all purchase on a
(01:56):
weekly basis and we can reallyhave a lot of momentum with in.
The way of changing what we'reeating.
Chrissy (02:05):
Absolutely.
And
Katie (02:06):
It's easily controllable rather than a lot of those
things that are like in ourenvironment and, and what
Chrissy and I have both learnedin our journeys is that food,
what we eat, what we put intoour bodies is really, really.
Nourishing.
It's really healing.
Chrissy (02:22):
Oh, absolutely.
Katie (02:22):
And it can be from both a preventative aspect as well as
a healing aspect of like, onceyou are sick, what can we do to
change that and, and heal youthrough food?
So yeah, Chrissy and I bothhave become very passionate
about it.
Chrissy, I'd love for you tolike, share with us maybe a
little bit of just why you areso passionate about food and,
(02:43):
and how you kind of.
Got into this crunchy lifestyletoo, through food.
'cause I know through ourconversations outside of this
podcast, you've shared a lotwith me about how you've changed
what you've done with your dietand, and food and nutrition.
So yeah, share with us a littlebit about that.
Chrissy (02:59):
Uh, yeah.
So, let's see.
Back in high school, I was afull blown.
Chick-fil-A aholic.
I remember I gained red statusat Chick-fil-A, like within one
year.
Um, and I, one time the monthof October, my senior year of
high school, I went toChick-fil-A 17 times.
(03:23):
In one month, and that includedone of those days was
breakfast, lunch, and dinner.
Oh, Chrissy.
I know.
It was really bad.
Looking back, I realized I wasat the thinnest that I had ever
been.
People continuously told me,Chrissy, you look really thin.
You need to make sure you'reeating.
And I was always like, I ameating.
I don't understand what youguys are talking about.
(03:43):
Um, so coming out of college, Iwas like, I need to figure out.
How to do better, you know?
'cause this whole relationshipwith food has just not been good
for pretty much my entireteenage years.
And so, um, after my husbandand I got married, we decided to
start making bread.
(04:04):
Um, that was like the firststep in our food journey.
And my mom's girlfriend madebread our entire time growing
up.
And so I asked her for herrecipe.
I started making bread, and inand of just that one change, I
felt dramatic changes in just myoverall energy level, my
(04:25):
digestive health, you know.
And then I was having aconversation with one of my
patients family members.
Um, he was telling me aboutmilling his own wheat to make
bread.
So he went home that night andcopied a.
The bread recipe that they usedin their wheat milling recipe
(04:45):
book, and he gave me the link toa wheat grinder that I could
buy off of Amazon.
Pretty simple.
And the link to the wheat thatI could buy also off of Amazon.
Incredibly convenient andhonestly, in comparison to my $3
a loaf that.
Has all of the extrapreservatives and literally I
(05:07):
looked, it had 15 ingredients inbread, and the one I'm making
at home has five ingredients.
And so that switch aloneautomatically didn't really
change much about our financialimage at that point, you know?
Um, and then also with that,like I just felt so much better
again, like I didn't know, Icould feel even more energized
(05:30):
and.
Less bloated than when Istarted making my bread with,
um, regular flour.
So I did more research into itand I was like, okay, what is it
about regular flour that, youknow, it made me feel better
than store-bought bread, but whydid it still not make me feel
as good as when I was grindingmy own wheat?
(05:51):
And so I went into a research,um, rabbit hole of flour in the
grocery store and I found outthat.
When manufacturers mill theirflour to give it, put it on the
shelves of grocery stores.
There's, so there's differentparts of the wheat, um, berry is
(06:12):
what it's called.
There's mm-hmm.
Germ and the brand, the brandis like the outer coating and
kind of like the quote unquotemeat, uh, or filler of the
berry.
And it's the white, fluffystuff that we see once it's all
ground up.
Yeah.
The germ.
Is the piece that holds all thenutrients.
So it has the iron, it has Oh,the um, fiber.
(06:36):
It has all the really, reallygood stuff for you.
But the issue is the germdoesn't have any shelf life
nearly at all.
So once the wheat berry hasbeen ground up, that germ only
has a shelf life of about threedays.
Katie (06:54):
Oh, interesting.
Chrissy (06:55):
And that's not beneficial if you're going to be
selling these things.
At a grocery store, you know,like you needed to be able to
sit on the shelf for a few days,days to even get to a grocery
store to be purchased exactlythree days to the grocery store,
sits on the shelf for maybe aweek before someone buys.
It sits in somebody's pantryfor.
Who knows,
Katie (07:13):
who knows how long,
Chrissy (07:15):
you know, like I think before I started making bread,
my flour was years old.
Katie (07:19):
Totally.
Chrissy (07:19):
And did I still use it?
Absolutely.
You know?
Katie (07:22):
Yep.
Chrissy (07:22):
Um, but so back into the fifties actually, they
separated out the germ from thebrand.
Mm-hmm.
And they started milling theflour and just giving people the
brand.
Which is nothing but killer.
Yeah.
It has no nutrients in it atall whatsoever, except for like
carbohydrates.
Um, and the country startedhaving actually quite a few
(07:46):
vitamin deficiencies from that.
You know, they didn't diet.
Yeah, I can imagine at all.
But the flour changed and sothe United States government
decided, well, that.
Can't be good.
So let's enrich this flour thatwe have and add back some of
those vitamins.
They add back vitamin D, theyadd back iron, you know, and
that's how you get these ironfortified cereals and enriched
(08:09):
flour, you know?
But.
Uh, the true enrichment hasbeen lost because they took out
all of those natural, um,vitamins and minerals and they
put back in synthetic versionsof them that our bodies can't
absorb as well.
Anyways, um, and so.
Yay.
It gave the flower a shelflife.
(08:30):
But the American at what costexactly.
The American population justlost so much nutrients in that
process.
And now I think we've been alittle bit.
Kind of led astray of thinking,oh, this flower has been
enriched.
It must be good for me, youknow, more vitamins and
minerals.
But the true reality is like,no, those are synthetic vitamins
(08:52):
and minerals that have beenadded back to it after they took
out the original ones.
So, um, yeah.
Yeah, that was kind of thebeginning of our journey in
going down, like changing ourfood little bit by little bit.
Um, and let me tell you, everysingle change I make.
Just makes me feel so muchbetter.
(09:13):
And after making quite a fewchanges, I'm more able to handle
those unhealthy foods that Iput in my body.
Like my gut has morefortifications against it, and,
um, I don't feel nearly asbloated anymore.
I, it's, it's fantastic.
Really.
Katie (09:30):
I love it.
The one thing that I havereally been learning is that,
yeah, food.
It is medicine, food ismedicine, and especially if we
get back to the way that Goddesigned food.
Right?
Right.
Get back to the basics, how Godput it on this earth.
Like instead of takingsomething like wheat and.
(09:50):
Putting it through thisprocessing, and then turning it
into something that is no longerfood.
It, what we're really eating isjust chemicals, like you said,
just lots of synthetic, manmadestuff.
Chrissy (10:03):
Yes.
Katie (10:03):
And, and really when we, when we take a look at chronic
diseases and just.
Illnesses and even our immunesystems in general, we all
wonder why everybody's gettingso sick and it's because we're,
we're not nourishing our bodieswith the right types of food.
We're not really even actuallyputting real food into our
bodies.
(10:24):
The one thing that I've beenlearning about this process is
getting back to like.
Again, how God designed iteating whole foods.
Mm-hmm.
Not packaged stuff, notprocessed things.
And so it's interesting.
Part of my journey has beenthat growing up.
I think my parents did a, apretty decent job kind of
(10:45):
teaching us some of the basicsabout food and nutrition.
Um, my dad, I just, I stilllook back and laugh at it, but
he used to call things likegranola bars or um, fruit snacks
that you'd get in the grocerystore for kids.
You know, they're all likedesigned for children.
Chrissy (11:02):
Mm-hmm.
Katie (11:03):
He used to call them candy and.
That infuriated me when I was achild.
Like I was so upset that hewould call the snacks that I
loved candy.
'cause I'm like, no dad.
This is not a Snickers bar thatI'm eating.
I'm eating this granola bar andit is healthy.
But now, like going back and,and looking at it as an adult,
like through this lens now.
(11:23):
And seeing the ingredients inlike a chewy granola bar, the
brand Chewy.
And I'm like, whoa.
Oh my goodness.
This is literally candy.
Like, he was right.
Oh my gosh, my dad's gonna lovehearing this.
He's gonna be like, I told you.
So I, I am thankful for thatfoundation that.
Okay.
I may not have followed it.
(11:44):
And of course my parents like,let us have some stuff, but we,
we just never really had thingslike the colorful, sugary
cereals that often, like it wasa, it was a major treat to have
something like Lucky Charms orit was going to Grandma and
Grandpa's house and grandmaalways had lucky charms for us
and that was one of the mainreasons why Jenny, my sister and
I wanted to go to Grandma andGrandpa's house 'cause we knew
(12:05):
we'd get Lucky Charms.
It was like a fight for them.
They were so great.
And that's what grandmaGrandpas are for.
Right.
But yeah, we just never hadthose in our house.
We never had things like pop inour house, like, unless it was
like a, we were having someparty and it was some special
occasion, but that just neverexisted and we, we rarely got it
at like.
When we went out for dinner andstuff, it was usually just
(12:26):
water.
Occasionally, like a lemonade,which is still pretty sugary,
but never like we had Spriteevery now and then, but it was
always, it was such specialoccasions.
Right.
And I'm really thankful forthat mentality because now as an
adult it's, it's really easyfor me to say no to a lot of
that stuff because growing up wejust never really had it around
a lot.
But now getting further intothis journey myself, I.
(12:49):
You know, I, I question thingslike, well, what's, what's the
deal with organic foods?
Why are those better thanmm-hmm.
Non-organic foods?
Why do people buy ketchup thatis different than the Heinz
ketchup in the grocery store?
Like, what's, what is thepurpose of that?
And so I've been asking thesequestions.
And as you're saying, as you'veexplained to us, like when it
(13:10):
comes down to it, theingredients really matter in
what we're eating and whether ornot it's something manmade and
processed and synthetic, orwhether it is just very basic,
like ketchup really doesn't needto be a lot of ingredients.
It really just needs to be liketomatoes.
And so when you go and look at.
The ingredients on ketchup andyou see like sugar, like so many
(13:31):
things include sugar.
And we don't need sugar reallyat all for anything because when
we're filling our body with thenutrients, we get energy from,
you know, the protein and the,and the carbohydrates that we're
eating.
So that's been like, my mainthing is like really switching
from.
Buying the package snacks.
(13:52):
Like even, even if they're likethe generally healthier ones,
you know, not getting the chewygranola bars, but maybe I'm
getting the like Nature Valleyor something.
Mm-hmm.
And like they seem a little bithealthier.
But then same thing, like yougo and read those labels and
it's still a lot of sugar andcorn syrup and all these other
like terrible things that you'relike, oh my gosh.
Like why?
(14:12):
Why do they put all this inhere?
So.
The way that I've kind ofstarted changing things is the
way when we go to the grocerystores, we actually shop the
outer perimeters of the grocerystore versus more that like
interior.
'cause you think about all theshelves inside the middle of the
grocery store are usuallythings like cereal, crackers,
(14:33):
cookies, packaged things, cannedgoods.
And when we look at just theoutside, that's where we get
like the whole like moreingredient.
Pieces of a meal where you getlike your fruits and veggies and
even your milks and your meats,it's all on the outside.
And so we try as little aspossible to get the stuff of the
(14:53):
middle of the grocery store.
It's really hard.
It's really hard changing thatmentality.
Yeah.
Um, because I mean, we'vealways, we've kind of enjoyed
cooking, um mm-hmm.
For the most part.
But at the same time, we'veused a lot of like.
Cheats, right?
Like, like the, actually likethe made versions of our foods,
(15:14):
but then you kind of still do alittle bit of the cooking where
you're putting it all together.
Mm-hmm.
And what I've realized is like,oh yeah, like we can make our
own tortillas, for example.
Or, you know, bread, like breadwas also for us, like a really
great way that we wereintroduced to this was like, I,
I just wanted to try makingsourdough and I really enjoyed
that.
Mm-hmm.
But yeah.
Chrissy (15:34):
Are, are you still on your sourdough kick?
Katie (15:37):
I'm, I'm not as much on sourdough at this point.
I've kind of let that go.
I, I would like to get back tothat.
Um, and so stay tuned.
I'm sure I will go back.
I've been making a lot of breadin general.
Um, I really like making bread,but now I'm trying to figure
out how to make bread withoutall the sugar.
'cause I still feel like a lotof the recipes I have have
(15:58):
sugar.
Chrissy (16:00):
Max and I have, um, we've substituted honey instead
of sugar in most recipes and,um,
Katie (16:07):
and it works out.
It
Chrissy (16:08):
does.
Absolutely.
Um, and the beauty about honey,especially if you buy a really
high quality local honey mm-hmm.
Um, is it also has like a lotof allergen protectors in it.
Katie (16:21):
Yeah.
Chrissy (16:21):
I don't know exactly like how to say it.
Totally the correct way, butyeah, it kind of gives your body
little micro doses of allergensthat are around in your area.
Yeah.
So that when allergy seasoncomes, your body already knows.
What these allergens are likeand already knows how to fight
them off well and so it doesn'toverreact and give you all of
(16:44):
those allergies that you usuallyget in allergy season, in
spring and fall.
And so, um, it's so greatmerely just incorporating, you
know, our bread has what, twotablespoons of honey in it and I
have no allergies.
And when we first moved here toNorth Carolina, I did have
allergies.
Yeah.
Add them.
Mm-hmm.
(17:04):
My body didn't know what NorthCarolina Pollen was like.
I grew up in Texas, you know,and moved here first spring.
I had the worst allergies Icould think of.
And then we bought local honey.
I put honey in my bread andslowly but surely, you know,
fall came around and that'scool.
I cool.
I didn't have allergiesanymore.
Katie (17:24):
It's, I just love that.
God really did design things soperfectly, I think.
Right.
We don't necessarily out loudquestion what he did.
Right.
We're not like, God, why didyou make honey and fruits and do
all these things the way hedid?
Chrissy (17:39):
Well, I, I do ask that question in regards to
mosquitos.
Hey, I haven't quite figuredthat one out yet,
Katie (17:45):
but it's like we're, we're kind of admitting that
we're like not trusting the waythat God designed things
Chrissy (17:51):
right
Katie (17:51):
by.
Like, and, and I'm not sayingon an individual basis, but on a
macro view of food, our wholesociety, our whole world even
has kind of said, no, we need totake our food and modify it in
order for it to actually be thisthing that's gonna be good for
us, but Right.
We're, we're really messing itup.
(18:12):
And that's where things like,you know, genetically modified
foods come into play here and
Chrissy (18:17):
Oh yeah.
Katie (18:17):
It's actually interesting.
I.
Years ago, this was myfreshman, my, literally my first
semester in college I did aproject in a science class on
GMO Foods.
And I literally had no ideawhat I'm talking about, but I, I
think back to that timebecause.
All the mainstream media sayslike, oh, GMO food is really
good because it's helping reducethe food insecurity across the
(18:41):
world.
You know, we're feeding theworld and this is the way we
have to do it, is by making thisgenetically altered meat and
corn and soy.
And you're like, oh, okay.
And you just kind of go withthe flow with it.
'cause you're like, yeah, wewanna feed the world.
Right.
That's a good thing to do.
Right?
Makes sense.
What we don't realize is,again, by.
Altering what God originallydesigned by changing it in our
(19:04):
own way and thinking we knowbetter than God, we're actually
worse off for it.
And our health has really takenan impact on that.
Chrissy (19:13):
Absolutely.
Katie (19:14):
Do you, I wanna know Chrissy, like about, um, what
have you learned about likeorganic foods versus non-organic
foods?
Ooh, you know,
Chrissy (19:24):
I have always been so hesitant to buy organic.
Mm-hmm.
Um.
You know, growing up I wasalways told, you don't need to
buy organic.
That's just a label.
They put on just a label sothat they make it more
expensive.
They only need like oneingredient that's organic in
order for it to actually beorganic.
And you know, there was evendocumentaries that I've watched
(19:46):
that.
They were like, well, this isthe organic field and this is
the non-organic field, andthey're right next to each
other, and the runoff from thenon-organic field with the
pesticides goes into the organicfield.
And so technically there's nopesticides there, but it's still
getting the runoff from.
The non-organic field.
And so for a very, very longtime, I really thought that
(20:10):
organic was just a label.
Mm-hmm.
Like disregard or something.
Mm-hmm.
And I was like, well, you canwash your vegetables, wash the
pesticides off.
Um, but then I kinda came torealize like, no, these
pesticides are in the soil andit's being absorbed into the
fruits and vegetables and.
Then I was like, well, I'm, I'mlike quite literally just
(20:33):
eating pesticides right now.
And this is something that isdesigned to kill living beings.
Mm-hmm.
And I'm eating it.
And so I was like, that justcan't be good for me.
And.
Uh, the cost of organic foodreally was a hard one for me.
Um, as many times as I tried tobuy organic, you know, I'd go
(20:55):
to my normal grocery store andI'd see regular apples, dollar,
dollar 50, organic apples, $3 apound.
Yeah.
And I just couldn't get myselfto spend 200% the price.
Katie (21:07):
Now, are you still, are you still doing that now with
organic foods?
Are you still avoiding them forthe cost benefit?
Chrissy (21:14):
Last week was officially the first week that I
dropped my old grocery storeand I switched to a grocery
store that has more organicoptions and, um, I bought
organic celery last week becausewe it beef stew and it called
for celery.
And I was like, well, you know,the organic celery is only 10
(21:36):
cents more expensive than theregular celery.
I'm gonna try it.
We will see how it is, and Iput some of the organic celery
in my lunch to take to work withme, and it was so good.
Mm-hmm.
And so, you know, pun intended,crunchy.
So I was sitting at the nurse'sstation just crunching away on
(22:00):
my celery and my coworkersthought I was eating chips.
Um, because it was so crunchy.
It was so delicious.
And I, I really do think that.
It kind of got me hooked ontothe organic trend.
Um, and, you know, I, it, itdid also one of the other things
that took a while to get me.
(22:20):
Well, I kind of mentioned itwas the cost of it, you know?
Mm-hmm.
Some organic foods really aremuch more expensive.
You know, spending $3 a poundon apples versus a dollar 50 a
pound on apples, it can reallyadd up over time.
Um, but at the same time, myhusband and I worked together.
We sat down with our budget andwe were like, okay, how can we
(22:44):
change our budget over thecourse of the month?
To allow us to eat thesehealthier foods to make us feel
better, you know?
Yeah.
Um, and we broke it down andrealized we really only had to
increase our weekly food budgetby $25.
Katie (23:02):
Oh, wow.
Chrissy (23:03):
Yeah.
In order to incorporate thosehealthier, organic options, you
know, mind you, I was alreadybuying, like shopping the
perimeter of the store andmm-hmm.
Um, buying fruits andvegetables and meat and things
like that.
But switching to organic, I waslike, well, you know, the
celery, like I said, was only 10cents more expensive.
(23:26):
And the fruits and vegetablesin general, I realized we don't
eat as much mm-hmm.
When we're eating better, youknow?
And so you don't have to buy asmuch.
And, um, with that, yeah, itonly.
It wasn't a huge sacrificefinancially to switch to
(23:49):
organic.
Um, and I was, I'm able to, um,kind of plan my meals according
to each other.
So I will look at sales at thegrocery store and see like, oh,
well these specific foods are onsale this week, so let's create
meals.
According to those sales, youknow, and that's great.
(24:10):
Um, so we've got coupons, we'vegot sales that we use, and we
make our meals each weekaccording to those coupons and
sales.
So that's another way that youcan eat healthier, but still at
a, a lower cost or the same costas eating unhealthy, um, is
just by looking at the sales andthen also.
Having a similar meal each dayduring the week, you know, of
(24:35):
like, instead of havingMediterranean on Tuesday and
tacos on Wednesday, well I guessyou'd have tacos on Tuesday
'cause you have to have tacos onTuesday, taco Tuesday.
But um, and then fish onThursday.
You know, those are socompletely different foods.
It's like, well let's havelike.
Maybe stuffed bell peppers onMonday, and then tacos on
Tuesday.
You know, still keeping thatground beef is the main thing.
(24:58):
And then maybe we'll haveburgers on Wednesday.
So we have ground beef threetimes.
Well look at that.
Ground beef was on sale thisweek.
That's why, you know.
Um.
That's perfect.
So that's kind of, I love that.
How we've transitioned.
Katie (25:10):
It's interesting, you kind of alluded to some of it
too, is that there is thismisconception that to switch to
organic, it has to be extremelyexpensive.
And the way that we haveavoided some of the really big
cost load is, is switching awayfrom the, the pre.
Made stuff, the pre-made foodsthat are organic and very
(25:34):
expensive, and then now goingreally to that, the whole foods.
Mm-hmm.
You know, getting, buying theingredients and kind of making
it from scratch.
And the cost, you know, tradeoff would be your time in that
case.
Because when you switch frombuying, like for, for example,
spaghetti sauce.
(25:55):
Yeah.
Like if you make your ownspaghetti sauce versus.
Buying a pre-made organicoption, that spaghetti sauce is
going to cost a lot more thanthe ingredients to make the
spaghetti sauce.
And what's really cool is thatlike when you buy the spices and
herbs and stuff for it, likeyou are gonna have those for a
long time and can utilize themin different meals, kinda like
(26:18):
you're saying is like spread itout over time.
And when we've made that switchfrom buying the pre-made stuff
to making things on our own,it's saved us a lot of money.
And there hasn't been a huge,like, cost change for us in our
grocery budget, which has beenreally great.
Mm-hmm.
Um, but yes, it does take alittle bit more time planning
(26:39):
and preparation versus like justgoing in and getting everything
from the grocery store and ittakes like a few minutes to
throw together.
It does take a little extratime, but.
We've really enjoyed learninghow to, you know, use our
crockpot and Instapot a littlebit more to help us with that
process.
Um, I've actually reallyenjoyed now with the intention
(27:00):
of like, becoming healthier anda better steward.
I, I enjoy learning and, andgrowing in this area of like,
how can we, how can we make newmeals that are really awesome
that we really love, but alsoare nourishing for us?
And just like you said,Chrissy, it's what, what is also
so fascinating about gettingback to the basics, getting back
(27:21):
to how God had designed ourfood, is that I don't snack as
often, right.
I don't even need to buy thecrackers and granola bars as
much now to tide me over betweenmeals because the meals that
we're making are so much morenourishing.
They're so much more nutrientdense.
Mm-hmm.
That.
The energy that I get from thatmeal lasts and it keeps me
(27:45):
full, and I don't get thosecravings to eat a sweet snack
here and there in between meals.
So we actually haven't beenbuying as many snack kind of
things in general.
And so that also has been ahuge trade off because my gosh,
snack foods, like again, goingback to the granola bars like.
Even the healthier ish kinds,like, but not organic.
(28:08):
Like they can be more, they canjust be really expensive and
so, mm-hmm.
Yeah, just getting back tothat, the whole.
Whole foods, whole everything.
Chrissy, I wanna know your takeon, um, why have we gotten to
this place with our food?
Like, why, if we kind of knowthese things like you and I,
again, we're not the experts inthis.
(28:29):
We have just been learning fromthe experts about we need to
eat nutritious foods.
We need to be healing ourbodies through food and through
our diets.
Why do you think it is that?
We don't focus on this.
Why are we so focused onmedicine versus alternative,
quote unquote, alternative wayof healing ourselves?
(28:52):
What do you, what do you thinkis the big reason?
Chrissy (28:53):
Oh man, there, there's so much that goes into it, you
know?
Um.
You just mentioned a little bitago, cravings, you know that
mm-hmm.
You don't have as many cravingsthroughout the day and last
week I heard a very interestingperspective.
I'm not 100% sure how much Iagree with it, because I know
cravings have a lot of mental,um, aspects to them too.
(29:17):
But you know, there is aphysical aspect to cravings
also.
And this person said.
You know, cravings is just yourbody telling you that you're
missing out on a certainnutrient, and so it gives you to
a craving to get that certainnutrient.
Now, often cravings are relatedto sugar because sugar is
actually one of the mostaddicting, um, oh yeah.
(29:38):
Things that we can put in ourbody.
The American population is soincredibly addicted to sugar
that we just don't realize itbecause it's in everything.
And it's just like, um, ifsomebody.
Starts a whole 30 diet.
You know, they really do gothrough withdrawals the first
couple days.
Like they get nauseous at thethought of food or the thought
of meat.
(29:58):
They can't stop thinking aboutbread, you know, because their
body really is craving thatsugar Totally.
That they so crazy addicted to,and it's so sad to see.
Um, so I think that is onething, uh, that is wrong in our.
Health industries, that thereis sugar in everything and, um,
(30:21):
our bodies are incrediblyaddicted to it.
Another thing that I think is avery, very sad reality when it
comes to the health industry isthat food does not make money.
Mm-hmm.
Um, by a doctor telling theirpatient to change their diet and
(30:42):
so reverse their hypertensionor high blood pressure.
Um.
The doctor doesn't make anymoney from that.
Mm-hmm.
They don't get any kickbacksfrom the profits that are made
from the patient buying thehealthier foods.
You know, pharmaceuticalcompany doesn't get any
kickbacks from it.
Heck, even the ag industryreally doesn't get all that much
of a kickback from it.
(31:02):
And there's financially thereis no benefit to.
People eating healthy.
Mm-hmm.
You know, I saw like a, a kindof a funny meme that I thought
was very relatable.
It said healthy people are verybad for the economy and here's
why.
Totally.
(31:23):
They don't buy medicine.
And so their expenses don'tprofit.
The pharmaceutical companies,they don't need to go to the
doctors, so the doctors can'tprofit off of them.
They ride their bikeeverywhere, so car industries
can't profit off of them.
And if they ride their bikeeverywhere, then they don't need
to buy gas, and then the gasindustry can't profit off of
(31:43):
them.
And.
Also then they don't have topay for maintenance on their
car.
So the maintenance people can'tprofit off of them.
And if you need to buy a newbike, it's what?
A hundred dollars.
Like in the grand scheme ofthings, and I thought it was
very funny that the meme wasmore making fun of healthy
(32:04):
people, that they don't quoteunquote, contribute to the
economy.
Totally.
But I have a very differentperspective that healthy people
can actually contribute to theeconomy so much more in that we
can provide more for theeconomy.
Yeah.
You know, because by eatinghealthy and taking care of your
body, you have more energy.
(32:24):
To contribute more to theeconomy.
Katie (32:28):
I heard something really interesting recently that we are
kind of at like a nationalsecurity crisis because we have
so many unhealthy people that ifwe were to go to war right now,
like if we were to need toimpose a draft or something and
and have people like physicallydefending our land, yeah.
We would not have the healthypeople to be able to do that
(32:50):
well, and that is terrifying.
Chrissy (32:51):
The Texans.
The rednecks down in Texas.
Katie (32:54):
Texas has got us,
Chrissy (32:57):
but just Texas.
Katie (32:58):
Unless they, unless they leave us, unless Texas becomes
its own country.
Right.
Because haven't they been, beenjoking about that?
Chrissy (33:03):
That'll California.
Katie (33:05):
But it is, it's so, it's so sad.
Um, yes, because I think whatyou're saying here is it's all
about money.
It's who's, who's making thebuck off of this, who's really
benefiting and, and.
And so when, when thegovernment themselves knows the
answer about our health, whenthe doctors kind of know the
(33:27):
answers about our health, andwhen everybody knows all these
answers is like,
Chrissy (33:30):
you know, I would argue oftentimes the doctors don't
know those answers.
Katie (33:35):
You're right.
And, and you, you actually haveenlightened me on that too,
because I think me as like aconsumer and the person who's
kind of like woken up to this,I, I feel like I need to blame
my doctor for not.
Teaching me all these things,but what you've shown me and
what other nurses and doctorshave been saying is like, no, we
just never were educated aboutthis.
(33:55):
And so you have to think aboutwho is again benefiting?
Why are we not being taughtthis?
Mm-hmm.
It's so sad.
Chrissy (34:02):
Yeah.
In nursing school, the onlything I remember learning about
nutrition was that a highprotein diet heals wounds.
Interesting.
That's all I got.
And talking with doctors, youknow, I've heard like, how long
do you guys spend on yournutrition courses?
And they're like, oh, maybe anafternoon, maybe a day.
You know?
(34:22):
And then it's like, well, howlong do you spend learning about
pharmaceuticals?
And they say, oh, years.
Wow.
We take pharmacology one, two,and three, you know?
And, um, and similar with me,we had, uh, two semester
semesters of pharmacology and.
I learned that protein healswinds in terms of that's
nutrition education in yourself.
Katie (34:43):
It's really sad.
I, yeah.
What the news doesn't want usto know again, 'cause they're
getting paid by all these peopletoo, is mm-hmm.
Is that we have the answers.
We know what it takes to behealthy, to stay healthy, to get
healthy again.
But if we do that.
Nobody's going to profit.
So many of our industries aregoing to mm-hmm.
(35:05):
Suffer if we do all becomehealthy because big food and big
pharma, big agriculture, likeall these big giants who kind of
control all of the narrativeabout what's being said, they.
They all benefit each other andthey're all paying each other.
And they're paying our newsoutlets.
They're paying, they're fundingour schools, so they're funding
(35:26):
the schools that are educatingour doctors.
So of course the educators inthese schools, like for you,
like going to nursing school?
Oh, big pharma's paying.
For us to be here.
They're helping fund thiscollege.
We're not gonna speak outagainst them.
Same thing with the newsoutlets.
When, when they knew all thisstuff about health and wellness,
(35:48):
especially during the pandemic,and, and we don't have to go
there specifically, but peopleknew the answers.
But if they spoke out againstit.
All of their funding would becut because Absolutely.
It's the pharmaceuticalcompanies that are paying them
to stay afloat, right?
Mm-hmm.
Like that's where they'regetting so much of their money.
'cause you think about all theads that are being spent on
(36:08):
their shows, like, don't evenget me started about all the
food, like.
Advertisements geared towardschildren about cereal and oh my
goodness, snacks and candy and,and there are all these
companies.
Chrissy (36:21):
Last time you saw an advertisement for organic fruits
and vegetables.
Katie (36:24):
Oh, never.
No, no, no.
Chrissy (36:28):
Not even at the grocery store.
The grocery store, I, I brokeup with the organic fruits and
vegetables section, wasliterally only 10 feet long.
Katie (36:38):
Oh my goodness.
Chrissy (36:39):
It was a 10 foot section on the wall in the back
corner that was kind of like putin a place for you to walk
past.
That's crazy.
Yeah.
Katie (36:47):
Oh, Chrissy, I, I think this conversation, I, I know the
two of us could talk about thisforever because again, we're,
we're both very passionate aboutthis.
It is something that you and Ihave both been going down the
rabbit hole, so to speak with.
Um, but in order to wrap thisconversation up just a little
bit, um, I want to give peoplesome resources to, to dive into
(37:13):
a little bit on their own, likein, in the.
You know, span of our podcast,we're gonna, we're gonna
continue to dive into this more.
Um, and especially as questionsand, um, things arrive on our
end as well as things that weare learning, we wanna share
with others.
But if someone is hearing thisand they're like, holy cow, this
(37:34):
is all new to me.
Mm-hmm.
What, what tips would you givesomeone on what to do next?
And maybe do you have anyresources that people could.
Look up, I'll share some afteryou, but why don't you go first?
Chrissy (37:49):
Learn how to read food labels.
You know, a lot of times peoplesay like, don't buy something
that you can't read what's onthe label.
And yes, to an extent, but alsolike sodium bicarbonate sounds
really scary, but it's reallyjust baking soda.
Um, and that's a very non-toxicthing.
But if somebody who doesn'tknow sees sodium bicarbonate on
(38:12):
a.
Label, they might freak out alittle bit.
Um, yeah, I'd say learn how toread food labels, um, and
specifically look for foodlabels that have names of foods
on them as opposed to all theselike chemical compounds, you
know?
Yeah.
Some of those com chemicalcompounds are okay for you.
(38:34):
Um, some of them are even goodfor you.
Some of them are just acomplicated way of saying baking
soda, you know?
Um, or if they said, I.
Uh, di hydrogen peroxideinstead of water, you know, um,
funny people would get confusedabout that too, uh, which they
do sometimes, but not eventaking a step towards the
(38:56):
organic direction yet.
You know, if this is the veryfirst step that somebody is,
mm-hmm.
Doing and they want to kind ofdip their toes in.
I'd say learn how to readlabels, look for things on a
label that are food, um, thatyou know what it is.
You know, my pasta sauce that Ihave in my, um, pantry right
(39:18):
now, it has eight ingredients.
It has tomatoes, onions,garlic, spices, I don't know
what else, but eight.
Food ingredients, and that isall the ingredients that are in
it.
Um, so yeah, that, that's mybiggest recommendation is look
at the labels and look foringredients that you know, and
(39:40):
you understand and you can tellwhat it is.
Katie (39:44):
That's a great tip.
And I think even adding ontothat, like again, we kind of
touched on sugar as this big,bad, ugly, and, and it really is
because.
Sugar is not something that weneed at all.
And so trying to look for thosealternatives that just maybe
don't even have sugar, you know,like look for something without
the additive sugar in it.
(40:05):
Um mm-hmm.
So you don't need it or it has
Chrissy (40:06):
honey.
Um, there are sugarsubstitutes, but some sugar
substitutes really are not verygood for you and have other side
effects of their own.
Um, so I'd recommend looking atlike natural.
Sweetening agents.
Um, I've heard a lot of reallygreat things about Stevia, but
I've also heard not as greatthings about Stevia.
(40:30):
Yeah.
So just look into alternativenatural sugar substitutes.
Cool.
Yeah.
Yeah.
I think my, my tip would.
Be kind of like what I wassaying, like learn how to shop
on the outside of the grocerystore and start to find joy in
cooking.
Does that mean I can have icecream?
(40:52):
'cause ice cream is on theoutside of the grocery store.
Katie (40:54):
Definitely.
Chrissy, I will give you thethumbs up on that.
Actually, the ice cream for usis in the middle, so that's
interesting.
I wonder.
Chrissy (41:00):
Mine is definitely right next to the milk on the
outer edge of the grocery store.
Katie (41:05):
How fascinating.
Mm-hmm.
Yeah, I, yeah, I would saylearn how to cook.
Um, I know that that's like, itcould be really scary, but I
mean, just think about yourfavorite foods, like
Chick-fil-A, for example.
Mm-hmm.
Or something like that.
And find an alternative way tomake that from home and, and
just start finding some joy incooking, uh, with.
(41:27):
The whole foods, again, the waythat God really designed it,
um, you might find that you'llsave more money this way, and
actually you might, you mightfind that you actually like
cooking and doing that.
Mm-hmm.
Because that's kind of what Ifound.
I, I didn't really expect that.
I did not like cooking.
But that's one thing that I,um, learned.
(41:47):
I did like, yeah, I, my bookrecommendation, if somebody
wants to kind of dive into this,is.
Learning more about the organicside of things.
Um, the book that I read thatreally changed the way that I
viewed food and, and really whenI kind of dove into the deep
end with organic food wasfeeding you lies by Vani Hari,
(42:10):
who is considered the food babe,if anyone's heard of her.
I highly recommend that book.
And it, it describes a lotabout like, the difference
between organic versusnon-organic.
Um, the big word there isglyphosate, which is the, the
chemical that they spray oncrops.
Um, and it's what we're alleating.
And yeah, that one really wokeme up to the reality of our
(42:31):
food.
Um, and I highly recommend it.
And yeah.
Do you have anyrecommendations?
Chrissy (42:37):
Yeah, the, the book recommendation that I would say
is a book called Eat Dirt byJosh Ax, by Josh.
He really, he really focuses onthe microbiome of our gut and
good bacteria versus badbacteria, and what kinds of
foods can we eat to really feedthat good bacteria and maintain
(43:01):
the good, bad bacteria?
Um.
Ideal levels mm-hmm.
For our gut balance.
Um, one thing that he actuallysaid that was very interesting
is that the gut has trillions ofbacteria in it, more bacteria
than our body has cells.
(43:21):
Whoa.
Yeah.
Right.
So our microbiome in our gutis.
Like another whole living beingin there, you know, with how
much bacteria is in there andthe having an adequate, good,
bad bacteria balance can reallymake it or break it in terms of
(43:42):
health and wellness and healingyourself from illnesses.
And he goes into his diet,which is.
The diet that my mom adoptedwhen I was in eighth grade that
healed her from ulcerativecolitis.
So yeah, that's the, the book Iwould recommend.
Katie (43:57):
Perfect.
Well, great.
This, um.
I think this has been a reallygreat conversation.
I hope that it helps others tostart that journey into food and
nutrition and, um, we'vestarted a Facebook group to
continue this conversation'cause this just touches on the
surface level.
Our Facebook group is calledCrunchy Christian Mamas on a
(44:19):
Budget.
So come and join us over thereto continue the conversation and
say hi, and be sure tosubscribe to our podcast.
That way you don't miss out on.
All of our new episodes, wehave plenty of really exciting
episodes in store and sharedthis with a friend who is also
going on their own crunchyjourney with you.
(44:40):
We'd love for you to share thisaround, so we will see you next
time.
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