August 8, 2025 • 45 mins
In this episode of Crunchy Stewardship, cousins Katie Fiola Jones and Chrissy Rombach dive into the topic of sugar and its significant impact on health. We discuss how sugar is the enemy to our health due to its addictive nature and its role in various chronic illnesses such as diabetes, heart disease, cancer, and even cognitive diseases like Alzheimer's. They highlight how sugar is pervasive in modern diets and the importance of avoiding it at all costs, especially for children. This episode explores alternative natural sweeteners such as honey, monk fruit, and maple syrup, and coconut palm sugar which have a lower glycemic index, making them healthier options.
Chapters:
00:00 Welcome to Crunchy Stewardship
01:05 Introduction to Today's Topic: Sugar
01:39 The Spiritual and Physical Dangers of Sugar
03:42 Sugar in Everyday Foods
09:14 Health Impacts of Sugar
36:13 Alternatives to Sugar
45:59 Final Thoughts and Sign Off
Links and Resources Mentioned:
Books:
- Nourishing Traditions (Katie's "crunchy bible"): https://amzn.to/3J6nuD2
- The Home Reference to Holistic Health and Healing: https://amzn.to/3J5XrM2b
Natural Sweeteners:
- Honey
- Maple syrup
- Coconut palm sugar (the organic brand Katie uses): https://amzn.to/455yiK3
- Monk fruit sweetener
- Lakanto powdered monk fruit sweetener
Other Food Products:
- Dutch processed cocoa powder: https://amzn.to/3HnXYZd
Recipes:
- Katie's favorite homemade ice cream recipe: https://blog.crunchystewardship.com/post/naturally-sweetened-homemade-ice-cream
- Max's high protein chocolate ice cream recipe (protein powder, raw cocoa powder, heavy whipping cream, honey)
Additional Resources
- Bible Recap study plan: https://amzn.to/3HqcRu5
Connect With Us:
Join Our Facebook Group: https://www.facebook.com/groups/crunchychristianmama
Follow us on Instagram @crunchystewardship
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.
Katie (00:00):
Hey, and welcome to Crunchy Stewardship.
(00:02):
My name is Katie Fiola Jones.
Chrissy (00:04):
And my name is Chrissy Rombach.
We are two cousins who arepassionate about learning and
sharing knowledge to equipothers to steward their
spiritual, mental, emotional,financial, and physical health
in order to honor God in everyaspect of their lives.
Katie (00:20):
In our podcast, we take deep dives into what it means to
steward our lives as Godoriginally intended for us.
With the resources that God hasgiven us, we look at topics such
as food, medicine, finances,mental health, and lots more
through a natural lens and witha biblical foundation.
Chrissy (00:39):
Before we get started on today's episode, if you've
been enjoying our podcast, makesure you go and subscribe to it
and leave us a five star rating.
This helps other people find ourshow in the future.
And if you haven't alreadysigned up for our weekly
newsletter, take a moment and dothat by clicking on the link in
the show notes so you can stayupdated on all things new and
(01:01):
crunchy.
So in today's episode, we aregoing to be talking about sugar.
It's uh, one of those thingsthat the crunchy world has
identified as equivalent to thedevil, and so we're just gonna
be diving in today and figuringout what are the impacts of
sugar?
How does it impact our body?
(01:22):
How does it change our body?
And what can we do to improveour health and wellness without
sugar?
Katie (01:30):
It is kind of funny actually, now that you say that,
it's like the sugar is like thedevil.
And so if we're going at thisfrom like a spiritual aspect,
you're like, okay, as aChristian you wanna like fight
against the enemy and, and youknow, never give it a foothold
in your life.
And I feel like the same is sotrue with sugar that we have to
be really careful because sugarcan be so addictive.
(01:54):
And so if we do let it kind ofget this foothold in our lives,
it can destroy us ultimately.
And as we'll kind of dive into,and I'm sure Chrissy will share
some of this because again,Chrissy is kind of our, uh,
resident expert, medical person.
She'll probably dive into it alot
Chrissy (02:13):
Definitely not.
Katie (02:14):
Definitely not.
Well, that's the title I giveyou.
Chrissy (02:18):
Definitely just the science nerd.
Katie (02:20):
Yes.
So sugar is linked to a lot, alot guys, and I mean, like you
just, you really gotta hear meout a lot of diseases and I mean
medical challenges, I guess likejust so many chronic illnesses
(02:40):
are linked back to sugar, and soit really is the enemy in kind
of the health world andsomething that we can't let get
a foothold into our lives,especially like mamas.
If you have little kiddos, Imean, I am no expert yet at this
(03:01):
point, but what I have learnedin my process and my journey of
raising a little one is that youwant to try to avoid sugar for
as long as possible for yourlittle ones because again, it is
so addictive that if you getthem started so young, that
(03:22):
addiction is just kind ofsetting into place.
And yeah, so we've been doingour best to try to avoid sugar
as much as possible for Malakai,but it is, it is hard.
They put sugar in everythingthese days but what is
interesting about sugar is thatit helps preserve flavor and
(03:43):
keeps food good for longer, butalso it can be addictive.
And so a lot of big foodcompanies put sugar in their
products because of thesereasons.
They, they want it to lastlonger.
They want the food to tastegood.
They want you to be addicted toit so that you go and buy more.
So sugar really has ended up inall of our food these days.
(04:08):
In fact, you've probably heardme mention this book because I
love this book and it is almostlike my crunchy bible at this
point because I keep referencingit, um, after everything that
I've learned.
But the book is NourishingTraditions, and I wrote down
this fact from it.
It was actually early on in thebook that they shared that in
(04:29):
1821, the average sugar intakein America was 10 pounds per
person per year.
Okay, 10 pounds.
That still sounds like a lot,but you're like, eh, not too
bad.
Today, it is 170 pounds perperson representing over one
(04:50):
fourth of the average caloricintake.
Now this book is actually alittle bit old.
I think when they actually saytoday, it might have been like
10 to 20 years ago.
This book has been around a bit,but I wonder what that statistic
actually is.
Maybe 180 pounds per person peryear because again, sugar is in
(05:14):
so much that we eat these daysthat it's, I'm, I'm shocked
hearing it, but I'm also notshocked because of the amount of
sugar that I see in everything.
Chrissy (05:25):
That's another thing so I have recently started, when I
go grocery shopping, I try myabsolute darnedest to avoid
buying food that has sugar addedto it.
And let me tell you, it is hard.
Like sausage patties have sugarin them.
Why?
I don't know.
What else is like, kind of arandom thing I wanna say.
(05:47):
Like some broths have some sugarin them.
Condiments, all have sugar inthem.
And even like trying.
Yes, some chips do, or even ifyou are looking online at like
recipes or like trying to makeyour own barbecue sauce or
trying to make your own this,that, or the other thing.
A lot of these recipes havesugar added to them too.
(06:08):
And so it is hard to find thingsthat don't have sugar.
Oh, lunch meat has sugar in it.
Um, yeah, it just, it blows mymind.
And another thing is like.
When you think of a few yearsback, there was like the whole,
well, it's kind of actuallystill going.
The low fat craze, you know, ofeveryone trying to get healthy.
(06:32):
And so they're eating low fat,this low fat cheese, low fat
dairy.
The thing is, so fat is a lot ofwhat holds the flavor in our
food.
You know, if you're eating.
A piece of steak.
The most flavorful part of thesteak is the fat that's on the
outside of it.
(06:53):
And so when they create theselow fat cheeses and low fat
dairy and low fat this, that, orthe other thing.
And they take out that fat.
They're essentially taking outall of the flavor from the food.
And so the food then tastes likecardboard.
And what better way to replacethe flavor than to add sugar to
(07:13):
it?
And so even though you have alow fat item, you still have
that extra sugar, which if youbreak it down to like body
mechanics and how the bodyprocesses sugar, there's a
process called lipogenesis,which it essentially quite
(07:35):
literally means fat creation.
And fat creation in the bodystarts with glucose.
And so if the body doesn't haveextra glucose, then it's not
going to create fat.
Whereas if the body is givenlots of extra glucose, it has to
store it somewhere because yourbody goes into this mode of,
(07:58):
okay, I have extra right now.
I'm going to store it for when Iam not having all this extra.
And so it turns it into fat forfuture energy to be used when we
go into a famine sort of thing.
That's like the body's naturalresponse to extra sugar, which
(08:19):
is good if we lived in a timewhen famines were a reality.
But here in America, in the 21stcentury, famines are, if they do
happen, it's with one foodgroup, for instance, like the
bird flu last year, you know?
And all the chickens and theprice of eggs went through the
(08:41):
roof, and so that's the kind offamine that we experience
nowadays, as opposed to like theentire land being wiped out of
all food.
That's just not a reality forus.
And so we don't need our bodiesto be storing all of that extra
energy at this point because.
We're just not gonna use it.
(09:01):
And so, that's one of thereasons, you want to keep your
sugar intake low in order toprevent that extra fat from
being stored because extra fatbeing stored in your body is, it
just leads to a cascade ofissues.
Heart disease, lung disease,digestive problems, low
recovery, like workout recovery,things like that.
(09:25):
So, um.
Yeah, that's my, my quick littletidbit.
Katie (09:29):
I am going through the Bible recap, which is just like
a study plan to go through thewhole Bible.
And today my reading was onJoseph interpreting the dreams
of Pharaoh about the wholefamine and, and everything.
And so as you're talking aboutfamines, I'm kind of thinking
(09:49):
about how, yeah, we don'texperience things like intense
famines where the whole land isgoing to be devoid of food.
No, that's, that's not the case.
But what is interesting, Ithink, is that we are almost,
this is just kind of more of theconspiracy side of me, and it's
(10:10):
like we're almost creating ourown famine because we are quote,
unquote producing foods thataren't necessarily actually
food.
There are a lot of chemicals andpreservatives and things like
that, and there's this wholemovement of bringing back real
food into our lives and into ourdiets.
(10:32):
And if we don't focus on that,then yeah, we will create this
shortage of good nutrient densefood if we kind of keep going
down the route of makingeverything chemical based, so,
and sugar is one of thoseterrible culprits that Yeah,
makes it so hard to have goodfoods because maybe we can dive
(10:57):
into a little bit of the.
Negatives of sugar.
We're, we're kind of talkingabout, yeah, sugar's so bad, but
let's, let's talk about whatmakes sugar so bad.
Like what does it cause, becauseI know in general, like sugar is
linked to things like ADHD ortooth decay, and I've even just
(11:21):
heard like shortened lifespansand things along those lines.
But Chrissy, do you have somemore examples of why sugar is so
bad for us and and what it couldbe leading towards?
Chrissy (11:34):
Yeah.
Yes.
So recent studies have come outon the link between sugar and
Alzheimer's, actually.
Some doctors are referring toAlzheimer's and dementia now as
type three diabetes, soessentially what happens is when
you have increased amounts ofsugar in your body, that also
(11:56):
increases the amount of insulinin your body.
And for those of you who don'tnecessarily know what insulin
is, insulin is released from thepancreas.
So when you eat sugar, itnaturally increases your blood
sugar levels because the sugargets absorbed into your
bloodstream.
Well, in order to then decreasethose blood sugar levels and
(12:16):
actually use the sugar or theglucose as energy because.
Our bodies do function off ofglucose.
We do need some of it in ourdiet.
So in order to use that glucosein the bloodstream, the pancreas
releases insulin, which thenbinds to the glucose molecules
in the blood and opens the gateinto the cells for the glucose
(12:41):
to enter the cells and be usedfor Essentially life like you
need the mitochondria, thepowerhouse of the cell functions
off of glucose.
That's just the reality of it.
Our brains function off ofglucose, and so we do need it,
but when there's an excess ofglucose, then that forces the
(13:02):
pancreas to release more andmore insulin in order to
maintain a safe level of glucosein our blood.
So if the sugar in our blood, ifthose levels get too high,
people who have diabetes, theyknow exactly what this feels
like.
You get like foggy in the head.
(13:22):
You feel like your heart isracing.
You can get dizzy, lightheaded.
You feel really thirsty all of asudden.
'cause your body is like, okay,well I need to dilute this blood
sugar somehow.
And so we need that insulin inorder to get the sugar into our
cells and our cells need thesugar.
To function, but when there's somuch, the pancreas releases a
ton of insulin, which thenincreases our fasting insulin
(13:48):
levels.
And so that is the piece that ismostly linked to this, dementia
and Alzheimer's, is how muchinsulin is hanging out in your
bloodstream ready to attack thatglucose when you are not eating?
And those high levels of insulinjust always in your body.
Can start to degrade and damageyour brain cells.
(14:12):
And so that is what leads to theslow thought processing
forgetfulness, and ultimatelyAlzheimer's and dementia of like
your brain, quite literallycannot function with these super
high levels of insulin becauseit blocks, I don't actually know
how it works, but it damagesyour brain.
(14:32):
Okay.
Um,
Katie (14:34):
Yeah, take that.
Chrissy (14:35):
take that.
But yeah, that is one thing thathonestly, like recently I've
been really concerned about.
So, there are some methods oflike, okay, so how do I you
know, everything in moderation,right?
So the goal is to decrease thoseblood sugar spikes to therefore
then decrease insulin spikes inthe body.
(14:58):
And all your diabetics out therelistening, you totally
understand what is a blood sugarspike and what is a insulin
spike?
So a blood sugar spikeessentially is when you eat
something with a lot of sugar,your blood sugar level peaks,
and then after about an hour, itkind of levels back out because
your body releases that insulinand it fixes itself.
(15:21):
Now, if you eat something likepizza, your blood sugar spike is
going to be a lot higher for alot longer.
And then you crash.
I don't know if you've everexperienced that with eating
pizza.
You feel great for like 30minutes and then you crash so
one of the methods that I haveactually learned that you can
use to decrease those bloodsugar spikes and therefore
(15:42):
decrease insulin spikes in yourbody is to eat something with a
lot of fiber before eatingsomething with a lot of sugar in
it.
So if you want ice cream, so tosay, but you want to avoid that
blood sugar spike because bloodsugar spikes are linked to
(16:02):
insulin spikes, which is linkedto a lot of health issues.
They have found that if you eatsomething with a lot of fiber,
such as a leafy green likespinach or kale, literally just
a handful of it.
If you eat that first, your bodystarts processing that first,
and then if you eat the icecream or the high sugar,
whatever, the cake, your body isgoing to be also focused on that
(16:27):
fiber.
And so the fiber is going toslow down the intake of that
sugar, which then decreases yoursugar spike in your blood, which
is very beneficial for longevitypurposes and long-term health.
Katie (16:45):
I've actually heard similar things that you're
saying about coffee.
Now, I, I don't know thespecifics, but what I do
remember from the podcast that Ilistened to was that if you're
going to drink something likecoffee, it's really good to do
two things.
First, have like a full glass ofwater and eat something because
(17:06):
of the way that the caffeinehits your bloodstream.
It doesn't make all of yourlevels in your blood crazy.
And this is me not being allscientificy.
All I remember was theapplication was, all I need to
do is have a cup of water andsomething to eat before I have
my morning coffee.
Because on an empty stomach itmakes all of your hormone levels
(17:28):
or your blood sugars orsomething all crazy.
Maybe you could speak to thattoo.
I dunno.
Chrissy (17:33):
Yeah.
Yeah.
So essentially the ideal is toeat a balanced amount of all of
the macronutrients every timeyou eat.
So each time you eat, you wantto have a balanced amount of
carbohydrates, proteins, andfats.
And ideally, you'd want theprotein in the fat to be higher
than the carbs.
(17:54):
Um, because those are gonna beyour long-term energy stores.
You know, your protein is gonnamend your muscles.
The fat is also going to giveyour body long-term energy.
The carbohydrates are just therefor short-term energy and then
you crash.
And so you need the protein andthe fat in order to keep those
energy levels high.
And also when you eat all threeof those macronutrients
(18:16):
together, then it decreases thespeed that your body absorbs
those carbohydrates and sotherefore decreases the spike in
your blood sugar.
Your blood sugar will rise at aslower level so your body can
slowly but surely manage it andkeep it low, and it prevents
(18:36):
that spike.
So yeah, I think that podcaststhat you heard, Katie is totally
spot on of like with caffeine,with alcohol.
People say like, oh, if youdrink alcohol in an empty
stomach, it hits you so muchharder than if you drink alcohol
after having a burger orsomething like that.
Well, yeah, a burger has carbsand fat and protein in it, and
(18:56):
so if you eat that first andthen have the alcohol, the
alcohol's gonna take a lotlonger to hit your system than
if you have an empty stomach.
Boom, alcohol is absorbed andyou're donezo so, um, which by
the way, guys, alcohol is a formof sugar, just so you know.
It is merely just fermentedsugar.
So keep that in mind.
Katie (19:18):
So going back a little bit to your discussion on
Alzheimer's.
I did pick up some informationabout it, kind of being linked
to the sugar stuff, as well ashaving, a low protein diet, so
needing, you know, the proteinsand the fats and stuff for your
(19:38):
brain to develop properly.
I also wrote down some notes oflike the necessary nutrients
that you need in order for yourbrain to be functioning long
term in a healthy way.
You need a lot of likeantioxidants and Omega-3 fatty
acids.
I, I actually copied this down.
(19:59):
It looks like it was a bookactually read a while ago.
It's called The Home Referenceto Holistic Health and Healing.
It was, they had a lot of likequick hits of like each chapter
was a different health thingthat they talked about and one
of them was actually um, thisone was called Boost Brain
Power.
This whole chapter was on thatand they had a lot of on
(20:20):
Alzheimer's and talking aboutantioxidants and making sure to
get lots of proteins and avoidtrans fats, and kind of focus on
things that are more likesaturated fats.
So yeah.
What do you have to say aboutsome of these thoughts?
I don't know.
Chrissy (20:38):
I agree.
I know.
Another thing is that a lot ofextra sugar in your diet can
lead to the release of freeradicals.
So essentially the process is,I'm like racking my brain back
to anatomy during college.
But essentially when themitochondria uses the glucose to
(21:00):
create energy.
The byproduct is free radicals,which is essentially like a
super unstable form of energy inyour body that can react pretty
explosively on a cellular level.
Katie (21:16):
And the, free radicals can lead to things like cancers,
right?
Chrissy (21:20):
Yeah.
Yeah.
'cause it damages the cells likehealing abilities.
And so cells lose their abilityto like check themselves.
There's a process calledapoptosis, which is essentially
when the cell decides, okay.
I am no longer healthy, I'm nolonger good, and then it dies on
(21:43):
purpose, essentially.
Or the body will like kill offdying or damaged cells in order
to prevent them from replicatingover and over and over again,
which causes cancer.
And so yeah, these free radicalsprevent the cells from dying off
when they are sick or notworking properly.
(22:04):
And so yes, it can lead tocancer.
Katie (22:07):
Actually, yeah, I, I found the page finally in my
Nourishing Traditions book.
I've been sitting here flippingback and forth, and I did find
this sentence that said, tumorsare known to be enormous sugar
absorbers.
And I do like, that's one ofthose facts that I keep hearing
so often is that our choicestoday, like what we're eating,
(22:30):
what we're drinking, what we'rebreathing in, how we're living
our lives, you know, theactivity that we're doing.
It all impacts our healthlong-term.
And so if we're eating a lot ofsugar, it sounds like we are
essentially feeding canceroustumors in our bodies.
And I, I read a fact once thatsaid, you know, that the tumors
(22:54):
like that, the cancerous tumorsthat you have in your body, they
don't just show up there oneday.
Right.
That, that would be silly.
It's like all of a sudden youhave this golf ball sized tumor
somewhere in your body.
No, it, it's a result of yearsworth of lifestyle choices.
So the tumors that you have aretypically.
Eight to 10 years old.
(23:15):
So it's the choices that youmade 10 years ago that are
impacting your health today.
And so it's so important.
Like the, when you go out toeat, you're like, I'm gonna go
get this really sugary icecream.
Or even just when you go out toeat and you're eating something
that is just loaded with sugar,it's not even a dessert.
'cause like we said, sugar's inso much.
(23:35):
You might think like, it's notgonna kill me right here and
right now.
Sure.
Yeah, you're right.
You're not going to die byeating that bowl of ice cream
today.
But what is happening is thatit's building up over time,
these lifestyle choices buildup, and then eventually that
bucket kind of spills over andcauses these chronic illnesses
(23:56):
such as diabetes or cancers orAlzheimer's or Parkinson's
disease, any of these things areresults from the choices that we
make.
And for some reason, I don'tknow why I mentioned this one
time to someone, when I learnedthat fact about the tumors
growing from years past, youknow, like the choices you made
(24:18):
when you were like, like adecade ago when you were in your
thirties and is now showing upin your body like.
People for some reason seem likethey, they get really offended
by that because oftentimes Ithink what the traditional
narrative, what they like to sayis that it's kind of a random
(24:39):
chance that you got ill withwhatever sickness you have and
nothing you did was the cause ofit.
And so it's just totally bychance, it's totally your genes,
but it's really our choices plusour genes.
So there's epigenetics.
(25:00):
And the way that I've heard itexplained is, yes, you were born
with certain genes in your body,right?
But, it's like, it's like thegun in the story, but the way
that you choose to live out yourlife is you loading that gun and
kind of pulling the trigger,versus if you have these genes,
(25:23):
they can stay dormant in you ifyou don't act on the unhealthy
lifestyle choices and you mightnever get sick because you chose
to live a really healthy lifeand avoid sugars and other
harmful chemicals and toxins.
So, I don't know, it's, it'sreally interesting because I
(25:47):
feel like sometimes the answercan be so simple to avoiding
these chronic illnesses, butpeople don't want to always take
responsibility for what happensto them and their health.
I don't know.
I don't, I don't like, I don'twanna offend anybody, but that's
just kind of where my thoughtprocess is going.
It's like I wanna help you andshare with you that if you avoid
(26:09):
sugar, not just sugar, lots ofthings, but sugar is one of the
big culprits.
If you avoid it now, it can helpyour health in the future and
maybe you won't get sick.
I don't know.
Chrissy (26:20):
Yeah, I think it's one of those things that like if
somebody who has been diagnosedwith cancer.
It's a lot easier to swallow thediagnosis pill.
If you know, you hear, okay,well it just happened my chance.
This is all a fluke.
Nothing you did could havecaused it.
Whereas if you hear, no,actually the lifestyle choices
that you've made for the past 10years is what caused this super
(26:44):
traumatic life altering illness.
Well, that's a lot harder newsto swallow.
And it's one of those thingsthat people, especially those
who like try to be healthy and,don't know any better with the
sugar.
They're, it's kind of like anews flash that you just got
smacked in the face of like,I've been.
(27:05):
Working out, I've been eatingquote unquote healthy and I've
been eating low fat and allthese things for so many years
and trying to do my best.
And you're saying that all ofthose choices that I thought
were good led to me havingcancer like that, that's a lot
harder of a pill to swallowthan, yeah, well this is just
what the universe had for me andwe'll get through it, you know,
(27:27):
to like actually take thatresponsibility.
Accountability and takingresponsibility for one's actions
is so incredibly difficult,especially when it's an action
that you thought was good butactually wasn't, or that you
didn't know was bad and you justthought it was neutral, you
know?
And so, um, eating sugar andeating toxins I think is one of
those things that like the mediahas to.
(27:50):
Totally let us astray in ourdiets because they say that low
fat things are good and, it'sokay to eat, food colorings and
things like that, uh, that it'snon-toxic and it's not gonna
cause problems.
But the reality is like, no,actually all of these things are
adding up in our bodies, andultimately in the end, it's
(28:12):
going to kill us slowly butsurely.
Like Katie said, you're notgonna drop dead after eating a
fruit loop.
But, if you eat those fruitloops every single day, you'll
eventually have problems fromit.
So.
Katie (28:25):
Yeah, the phrase generally regarded as safe is
what you typically will hear inregards to lots of ingredients
that we find in our food.
Food dies is one of those easyones to pick on now because it's
been exposed that food dyes areactually very harmful and have
(28:46):
been linked to a lot ofchallenges and illnesses in
children, especially because.
food coloring is in so much, somuch food for children, it's
generally regarded as safe.
But the FDA never actuallyreally does studies on it.
In fact, it's, there's a bunchof loopholes where the food
companies can kind of like dotheir own research to prove that
(29:10):
these things are generally safefor human consumption.
And it's basically the wholeidea of like, oh.
Well, when kids eat this fooddye.
They're not keeling over deadright now, but, we have to ask
those questions.
What is it doing over time whenit gets piled up in our systems
and these food dyes are comingfrom?
(29:32):
Like literally petroleum, likeit's, it's like we're eating
gasoline and we all know thateating gasoline itself is so
bad, but why is it okay if weeat it in these really tiny
micro doses in our foods as abeautiful coloring?
It doesn't really make sense.
So.
And I, I wanna actually make onesmall note on, like, I just
(29:57):
wanna kind of go back to thecancer stuff, and I'm not
pointing fingers at peoplesaying like, you're doing,
you're, you're, you've done thisto yourself.
And I want to also say, youknow, give yourself some grace
in the midst of it.
Like, we have been taught thatcertain things are okay and that
certain things are safe.
And so I don't want to say like,it is your fault for getting to
(30:18):
this place because ultimatelywe've been lied to and, and
that's just kind of the resultof our world, is that it is
broken.
It has fallen, and there arepeople out there who are trying
to make a dollar.
And so they tell the rest of uslies knowing that we trust them.
We trust our doctors, we trustpeople who are making our food.
(30:41):
We want to believe that theyhave our best in mind, but the
reality is, and what I've, I'vekind of been learning is that.
Nobody really does have the bestin mind for us.
And so I, I've been kind ofquestioning the narrative a lot
more when it comes to all thisconventional quote unquote
wisdom about health andwellness.
(31:02):
Especially after reading thisbook when we've been told that
fat is evil and really, no, weneed fat and good proteins and
everything to make our brainsgrow and to keep our bones
healthy and our muscles strong.
And.
We need these things, but thenarrative has been reversed so
that people can sell stuff tous.
(31:23):
And it's really, really sadbecause it's people who we want
to trust.
We want to believe them and soit's, it's.
Not a hundred percent yourfault, but now that you have
this information, you shouldhopefully feel empowered to make
a lifestyle change and to dosomething different so that
(31:44):
things can change.
And the good news is that a lotof these chronic illnesses with
a lot of lifestyle change can bereversed.
And that is like the, theredemptive story of this is that
there is kind of a way out.
Yes, there are moments wheremaybe an illness has gone too
far and there might not be a lotthat you can do, but if you
(32:06):
start to see things early on, ifyou catch them early, you can
actually reverse a lot of thisstuff, which is so cool that we
have these tools and that likeour bodies, like God did design
them to heal themselves and towork against the toxins and to
push them out, you know, that'swhy we have things like kidneys
(32:27):
and livers that are supposed tohelp take out all the toxins and
to do all that.
And I don't know all thespecifics and that is where
Chrissy comes in, but it's,that's the good news.
And one other last thing,because I just like, I'm, I'm
sitting here thinking aboutlike, oh, what did I say?
And I don't want to.
Like offend people.
The other question then is are,so are things like childhood
(32:50):
cancers because obviouslychildren have not lived long
lives of bad lifestyle choicesand so where do we find answers
for those kinds of cancers?
And ultimately I don't have allthe answers, but what I have
started to pick up from, fromthe doctors that I do trust that
(33:12):
I've been listening to, um, onpodcasts and in books that I've
been reading, is that.
Cancers are the result ofcertain toxins in our bodies.
And so we have to ask ourselveslike, where are children being
exposed to these toxins?
Um, some of the things that Ihave learned can be those toxins
(33:33):
are pesticides are a big one.
Um, as well as things likemercury or aluminum, poisonings.
And so.
You kind of have to look in yourenvironment where those toxins
might be coming from andpotentially avoid them.
Um, especially, you know, for usit's, it's a really big thing
(33:55):
that we've been focusing on isavoiding a lot of these toxins
because Malakai's life startedwith being in the hospital and
being subjected to a lot ofantibiotics, which ultimately
really harmed his immune system.
And so we want to be really,really, really, really careful
(34:16):
about what he's exposed tobecause his immune system and
his gut, lining and everything,it's all out of whack because of
the antibiotics.
And so we are trying our best toavoid as much of these so that
way he doesn't get sicker in thefuture.
So that's my little rant.
(34:37):
And I had to just say thatbefore we moved on.
Chrissy (34:40):
You are so encouraging.
I love it.
It makes.
It brings a nice light to thisconversation.
'cause I, this conversation hasbeen very like, you're gonna
die.
But like, no, that's not thereality.
It's like when you change yourlifestyle choices, you can
change the trajectory of yourlife.
And, that, that's kind of whatwe're trying to get at here is,
(35:00):
not you're gonna die, but ratheryou
Katie (35:02):
Mm-hmm.
Chrissy (35:03):
can live better and live healthier.
So I think what you wannatransition and maybe talk about
some sugar alternatives, becauselet's be real, we still all want
our sweets in our lives.
So how can we still have sweetfood and decrease that blood
(35:24):
sugar spike and ultimatelydecrease that insulin spike?
So, there are a few things outthere that are really great for,
um, sugar alternatives.
One of the ways that you canactually truly identify what is
a good sugar alternative andwhat is not is if you look up
the glycemic index of something.
(35:45):
So the glycemic index of glucoseis 100, so that's about as high
as you can get.
And so ultimately if you wantsomething that is not going to
be as dangerous to your bloodsugar levels as sugar, uh, do
something else.
So.
There are some things that Maxand I have incorporated into our
(36:06):
diets, and I have some otherthings my friends have
incorporated into their dietsthat they really like.
The first and foremost thingthat we love, is honey, we have
been incorporating honey intoour diet like nobody's business.
In our coffee in the morning, wedo milk and honey.
My theory was originally, youknow, if you have a land flowing
(36:28):
with milk and honey, let's putmilk and honey in my coffee and
maybe I'll reach the promisedland someday.
I haven't reached the promisedland yet, but milk and honey is
very yummy in my coffee.
So.
I've been doing that and theglycemic index of honey is
usually, anywhere from like 50to 60 depending on what kind of
(36:50):
honey and where it's from andeverything like that.
So I already, that's half ofwhat.
Regular sugar is.
But at the same time, if you'remaking like brownies or cookies
and stuff like that, you're notnecessarily gonna use honey in
it because that is just not theright flavor profile.
(37:11):
I, and so there's another, sugarsubstitute that is very, very
good.
They haven't identified any sortof long term issues with it.
And that is Monk fruit.
Monk fruit actually has aglycemic index of zero, meaning
(37:32):
if you have a spoonful of monkfruit, it will not increase your
blood sugar, but it tastes justlike sugar.
It looks like sugar and actslike sugar.
And so, um, it's reallybeneficial.
Katie (37:45):
I actually went to the store the other day.
I was looking for powdered sugarbecause right now powdered sugar
is one of those items that Ihaven't been able to find as
good of a replacement for,especially when you're making
some kind of frosting likething.
I like to bake and put frostingstuff on my foods, and I've been
(38:05):
just trying to look fordifferent alternatives in
general to that.
But I was in the sugar aisle andI found this powdered monk fruit
sweetener.
I actually, I'm looking at itright now.
I took a picture of it with myphone because I wanted to know
more about monk fruit as asweetener because it, it looked
(38:27):
exactly like powdered sugar.
The way that they had it.
It was loads more expensive, Iwill say.
And that's why I didn't justlike jump into it.
'cause I had no idea really whatit was but maybe if somebody out
there has any experience withit, I'd love to know if you have
made any kind of frosting withpowdered monk, fruit sweetener.
(38:48):
The brand that I found here iscalled.
Lakanto, L-A-K-A-N-T-O.
So anyway, check it out.
They had other like monk fruitthings with it, but yeah,
that's, I didn't know anythingabout it.
So it's interesting that youmentioned it.
Chrissy (39:04):
Yeah.
Monk Fruit I've learned is I, Idon't have experience working
with Monk Fruit nearly at all,but I have a friend actually
crazy enough, she had a tumorand from discovering this tumor.
She has completely changed herlifestyle and her diet and
everything, and they have takensugar completely out of their
(39:27):
household and replaced it withmonk fruit.
And so, um, that has been verybeneficial for them.
And they make, still have allthe same kind of desserts and
everything like that, but theymake it with monk fruit instead
of sugar.
And so it greatly decreases thatglycemic index on their bodies.
and, um, she says has made herfeel tremendously better, which
(39:49):
is great.
Um, one thing I also wanna touchon is artificial sweeteners.
This conversation is not one toencourage you to go out and use
artificial sweeteners likesucralose and aspartame and
things like that.
Those, even though they do nothave a high glycemic index, like
(40:13):
they do not cause a blood sugarspike crazy enough, they do
still cause the insulin spike,which is wild.
And so it's very important tostill avoid aspartame and
sucralose and things like thatbecause you still get that
insulin spike from them, whichcan still lead to these health
(40:33):
issues that are related to bloodsugar levels.
And so, um, especially peoplewith diabetes out there, I would
highly encourage you to lookinto using monk fruit as a
sweetener instead of.
Artificial sweeteners becauseultimately anything that says
artificial on it is bad.
Avoid, get away from it.
(40:53):
In the end, anything that manhas created is not as good as
the things that the Lord hasmade for us to use for our
bodies.
Katie (41:02):
What I have learned is that you wanna avoid kind of the
refined sugars and a lot ofthose.
Synthetic sweetener kind ofthings and focus on anything
that is a natural sweetener.
So anything that's found innature.
So we've been doing maple syrup.
I put maple syrup in tons ofstuff.
(41:22):
I love the flavor of it.
We do a lot of honey as well,but maple syrup has been my
favorite in things like coffee.
Um, and the other one actually,Chrissy is coconut palm sugar.
I really like,'cause I reallylike coconut, like the flavor of
coconut.
And so coconut palm sugar doeshave a coconutty taste to it.
(41:45):
And those two have been like my,my favorite in fact, fun story
and I'll have to share witheverybody the recipe.
I finally found like my favoriteice cream recipe to make
homemade ice cream.
We've been making ice cream fora while and it's really hard to
get a good, yummy ice creamwithout using like boat loads of
(42:08):
sugar.
And I finally found, I, I kindof actually made it up a little
bit.
It's a combination of coconutpalm sugar with maple syrup, and
it is now my favorite ice creamrecipe.
In fact, I have a batch of icecream being made right now that
we're gonna enjoy thisafternoon.
So I'm actually really excitedabout that.
(42:28):
But those are my two favorites,of, instead of like doing sugar,
like, so those are the naturalsweeteners that we've been
using.
Chrissy (42:37):
Yeah, Max has actually made, he has successfully made a
very delicious high proteinchocolate ice cream.
He used like natural proteinpowder and then, raw cocoa
powder, and I think it was likeheavy whipping cream and honey.
And those were the fouringredients, and it was
(42:59):
delicious.
And I think that's anotherthing.
If you're gonna make chocolateice cream versus vanilla, you
can get away with using lesssweetener because you have that
cocoa powder as like a otherflavor kind of thing.
Katie (43:11):
I found that, I think it's called Dutch pressed cocoa
powder.
It's something Dutch, if you'relooking at cocoa powders, the
one that says Dutch in front ofit is actually just slightly
sweeter than the traditionallike cocoa powder because of the
way that it is like.
They actually process it orsomething.
And it is so good in ice creamand in coffee'cause it doesn't,
(43:34):
has have as much of a bittertaste to it.
So definitely I would recommendchecking that out.
I'll send Chrissy, I'll, I'llsend you a link to the one that
we've been using that it's likean organic one that we have
found on Amazon.
And yeah, I've been, I lovethat.
I love it in all my things, soit's really good.
Chrissy (43:52):
Also just for you listeners out there, all of
these things that we'vementioned, we will make sure we
mention them in the descriptionfor this episode so you can go
out and try to find them.
Look at them on Amazon andthings like that, and buy them
for yourselves because we wantyou guys to be healthy just as
much as we want us to behealthy, and we want the whole
(44:14):
world to be healthy.
So let's get on this bandwagontogether.
Okay.
Katie (44:19):
Well, I think we definitely need to sign off.
Malakai is scooting around thehouse and wants attention from
mommy now that he's back fromhis walk with daddy, so Chrissy,
you wanna sign us off?
Chrissy (44:32):
Absolutely.
Well, we, uh, pray for you guysevery day, and we hope that
these episodes can be helpful inyour journey to becoming a
better steward of your body,your mind, your soul, your
spirit, your finances, and yourfamilies.
And we are praying that thisepisode was helpful for you.
And we'll see you next time.
(44:54):
Until next time, my name isChrissy
Katie (44:56):
And my name is Katie.
Chrissy (44:58):
and thanks for listening to Crunchy
Stewardship.
Bye bye.
Hey, and welcome to Crunchy Stewardship.
(00:02):
My name is Katie Fiola Jones.
Chrissy (00:04):
And my name is Chrissy Rombach.
We are two cousins who arepassionate about learning and
sharing knowledge to equipothers to steward their
spiritual, mental, emotional,financial, and physical health
in order to honor God in everyaspect of their lives.
Katie (00:20):
In our podcast, we take deep dives into what it means to
steward our lives as Godoriginally intended for us.
With the resources that God hasgiven us, we look at topics such
as food, medicine, finances,mental health, and lots more
through a natural lens and witha biblical foundation.
Chrissy (00:39):
Before we get started on today's episode, if you've
been enjoying our podcast, makesure you go and subscribe to it
and leave us a five star rating.
This helps other people find ourshow in the future.
And if you haven't alreadysigned up for our weekly
newsletter, take a moment and dothat by clicking on the link in
the show notes so you can stayupdated on all things new and
(01:01):
crunchy.
So in today's episode, we aregoing to be talking about sugar.
It's uh, one of those thingsthat the crunchy world has
identified as equivalent to thedevil, and so we're just gonna
be diving in today and figuringout what are the impacts of
sugar?
How does it impact our body?
(01:22):
How does it change our body?
And what can we do to improveour health and wellness without
sugar?
Katie (01:30):
It is kind of funny actually, now that you say that,
it's like the sugar is like thedevil.
And so if we're going at thisfrom like a spiritual aspect,
you're like, okay, as aChristian you wanna like fight
against the enemy and, and youknow, never give it a foothold
in your life.
And I feel like the same is sotrue with sugar that we have to
be really careful because sugarcan be so addictive.
(01:54):
And so if we do let it kind ofget this foothold in our lives,
it can destroy us ultimately.
And as we'll kind of dive into,and I'm sure Chrissy will share
some of this because again,Chrissy is kind of our, uh,
resident expert, medical person.
She'll probably dive into it alot
Chrissy (02:13):
Definitely not.
Katie (02:14):
Definitely not.
Well, that's the title I giveyou.
Chrissy (02:18):
Definitely just the science nerd.
Katie (02:20):
Yes.
So sugar is linked to a lot, alot guys, and I mean, like you
just, you really gotta hear meout a lot of diseases and I mean
medical challenges, I guess likejust so many chronic illnesses
(02:40):
are linked back to sugar, and soit really is the enemy in kind
of the health world andsomething that we can't let get
a foothold into our lives,especially like mamas.
If you have little kiddos, Imean, I am no expert yet at this
(03:01):
point, but what I have learnedin my process and my journey of
raising a little one is that youwant to try to avoid sugar for
as long as possible for yourlittle ones because again, it is
so addictive that if you getthem started so young, that
(03:22):
addiction is just kind ofsetting into place.
And yeah, so we've been doingour best to try to avoid sugar
as much as possible for Malakai,but it is, it is hard.
They put sugar in everythingthese days but what is
interesting about sugar is thatit helps preserve flavor and
(03:43):
keeps food good for longer, butalso it can be addictive.
And so a lot of big foodcompanies put sugar in their
products because of thesereasons.
They, they want it to lastlonger.
They want the food to tastegood.
They want you to be addicted toit so that you go and buy more.
So sugar really has ended up inall of our food these days.
(04:08):
In fact, you've probably heardme mention this book because I
love this book and it is almostlike my crunchy bible at this
point because I keep referencingit, um, after everything that
I've learned.
But the book is NourishingTraditions, and I wrote down
this fact from it.
It was actually early on in thebook that they shared that in
(04:29):
1821, the average sugar intakein America was 10 pounds per
person per year.
Okay, 10 pounds.
That still sounds like a lot,but you're like, eh, not too
bad.
Today, it is 170 pounds perperson representing over one
(04:50):
fourth of the average caloricintake.
Now this book is actually alittle bit old.
I think when they actually saytoday, it might have been like
10 to 20 years ago.
This book has been around a bit,but I wonder what that statistic
actually is.
Maybe 180 pounds per person peryear because again, sugar is in
(05:14):
so much that we eat these daysthat it's, I'm, I'm shocked
hearing it, but I'm also notshocked because of the amount of
sugar that I see in everything.
Chrissy (05:25):
That's another thing so I have recently started, when I
go grocery shopping, I try myabsolute darnedest to avoid
buying food that has sugar addedto it.
And let me tell you, it is hard.
Like sausage patties have sugarin them.
Why?
I don't know.
What else is like, kind of arandom thing I wanna say.
(05:47):
Like some broths have some sugarin them.
Condiments, all have sugar inthem.
And even like trying.
Yes, some chips do, or even ifyou are looking online at like
recipes or like trying to makeyour own barbecue sauce or
trying to make your own this,that, or the other thing.
A lot of these recipes havesugar added to them too.
(06:08):
And so it is hard to find thingsthat don't have sugar.
Oh, lunch meat has sugar in it.
Um, yeah, it just, it blows mymind.
And another thing is like.
When you think of a few yearsback, there was like the whole,
well, it's kind of actuallystill going.
The low fat craze, you know, ofeveryone trying to get healthy.
(06:32):
And so they're eating low fat,this low fat cheese, low fat
dairy.
The thing is, so fat is a lot ofwhat holds the flavor in our
food.
You know, if you're eating.
A piece of steak.
The most flavorful part of thesteak is the fat that's on the
outside of it.
(06:53):
And so when they create theselow fat cheeses and low fat
dairy and low fat this, that, orthe other thing.
And they take out that fat.
They're essentially taking outall of the flavor from the food.
And so the food then tastes likecardboard.
And what better way to replacethe flavor than to add sugar to
(07:13):
it?
And so even though you have alow fat item, you still have
that extra sugar, which if youbreak it down to like body
mechanics and how the bodyprocesses sugar, there's a
process called lipogenesis,which it essentially quite
(07:35):
literally means fat creation.
And fat creation in the bodystarts with glucose.
And so if the body doesn't haveextra glucose, then it's not
going to create fat.
Whereas if the body is givenlots of extra glucose, it has to
store it somewhere because yourbody goes into this mode of,
(07:58):
okay, I have extra right now.
I'm going to store it for when Iam not having all this extra.
And so it turns it into fat forfuture energy to be used when we
go into a famine sort of thing.
That's like the body's naturalresponse to extra sugar, which
(08:19):
is good if we lived in a timewhen famines were a reality.
But here in America, in the 21stcentury, famines are, if they do
happen, it's with one foodgroup, for instance, like the
bird flu last year, you know?
And all the chickens and theprice of eggs went through the
(08:41):
roof, and so that's the kind offamine that we experience
nowadays, as opposed to like theentire land being wiped out of
all food.
That's just not a reality forus.
And so we don't need our bodiesto be storing all of that extra
energy at this point because.
We're just not gonna use it.
(09:01):
And so, that's one of thereasons, you want to keep your
sugar intake low in order toprevent that extra fat from
being stored because extra fatbeing stored in your body is, it
just leads to a cascade ofissues.
Heart disease, lung disease,digestive problems, low
recovery, like workout recovery,things like that.
(09:25):
So, um.
Yeah, that's my, my quick littletidbit.
Katie (09:29):
I am going through the Bible recap, which is just like
a study plan to go through thewhole Bible.
And today my reading was onJoseph interpreting the dreams
of Pharaoh about the wholefamine and, and everything.
And so as you're talking aboutfamines, I'm kind of thinking
(09:49):
about how, yeah, we don'texperience things like intense
famines where the whole land isgoing to be devoid of food.
No, that's, that's not the case.
But what is interesting, Ithink, is that we are almost,
this is just kind of more of theconspiracy side of me, and it's
(10:10):
like we're almost creating ourown famine because we are quote,
unquote producing foods thataren't necessarily actually
food.
There are a lot of chemicals andpreservatives and things like
that, and there's this wholemovement of bringing back real
food into our lives and into ourdiets.
(10:32):
And if we don't focus on that,then yeah, we will create this
shortage of good nutrient densefood if we kind of keep going
down the route of makingeverything chemical based, so,
and sugar is one of thoseterrible culprits that Yeah,
makes it so hard to have goodfoods because maybe we can dive
(10:57):
into a little bit of the.
Negatives of sugar.
We're, we're kind of talkingabout, yeah, sugar's so bad, but
let's, let's talk about whatmakes sugar so bad.
Like what does it cause, becauseI know in general, like sugar is
linked to things like ADHD ortooth decay, and I've even just
(11:21):
heard like shortened lifespansand things along those lines.
But Chrissy, do you have somemore examples of why sugar is so
bad for us and and what it couldbe leading towards?
Chrissy (11:34):
Yeah.
Yes.
So recent studies have come outon the link between sugar and
Alzheimer's, actually.
Some doctors are referring toAlzheimer's and dementia now as
type three diabetes, soessentially what happens is when
you have increased amounts ofsugar in your body, that also
(11:56):
increases the amount of insulinin your body.
And for those of you who don'tnecessarily know what insulin
is, insulin is released from thepancreas.
So when you eat sugar, itnaturally increases your blood
sugar levels because the sugargets absorbed into your
bloodstream.
Well, in order to then decreasethose blood sugar levels and
(12:16):
actually use the sugar or theglucose as energy because.
Our bodies do function off ofglucose.
We do need some of it in ourdiet.
So in order to use that glucosein the bloodstream, the pancreas
releases insulin, which thenbinds to the glucose molecules
in the blood and opens the gateinto the cells for the glucose
(12:41):
to enter the cells and be usedfor Essentially life like you
need the mitochondria, thepowerhouse of the cell functions
off of glucose.
That's just the reality of it.
Our brains function off ofglucose, and so we do need it,
but when there's an excess ofglucose, then that forces the
(13:02):
pancreas to release more andmore insulin in order to
maintain a safe level of glucosein our blood.
So if the sugar in our blood, ifthose levels get too high,
people who have diabetes, theyknow exactly what this feels
like.
You get like foggy in the head.
(13:22):
You feel like your heart isracing.
You can get dizzy, lightheaded.
You feel really thirsty all of asudden.
'cause your body is like, okay,well I need to dilute this blood
sugar somehow.
And so we need that insulin inorder to get the sugar into our
cells and our cells need thesugar.
To function, but when there's somuch, the pancreas releases a
ton of insulin, which thenincreases our fasting insulin
(13:48):
levels.
And so that is the piece that ismostly linked to this, dementia
and Alzheimer's, is how muchinsulin is hanging out in your
bloodstream ready to attack thatglucose when you are not eating?
And those high levels of insulinjust always in your body.
Can start to degrade and damageyour brain cells.
(14:12):
And so that is what leads to theslow thought processing
forgetfulness, and ultimatelyAlzheimer's and dementia of like
your brain, quite literallycannot function with these super
high levels of insulin becauseit blocks, I don't actually know
how it works, but it damagesyour brain.
(14:32):
Okay.
Um,
Katie (14:34):
Yeah, take that.
Chrissy (14:35):
take that.
But yeah, that is one thing thathonestly, like recently I've
been really concerned about.
So, there are some methods oflike, okay, so how do I you
know, everything in moderation,right?
So the goal is to decrease thoseblood sugar spikes to therefore
then decrease insulin spikes inthe body.
(14:58):
And all your diabetics out therelistening, you totally
understand what is a blood sugarspike and what is a insulin
spike?
So a blood sugar spikeessentially is when you eat
something with a lot of sugar,your blood sugar level peaks,
and then after about an hour, itkind of levels back out because
your body releases that insulinand it fixes itself.
(15:21):
Now, if you eat something likepizza, your blood sugar spike is
going to be a lot higher for alot longer.
And then you crash.
I don't know if you've everexperienced that with eating
pizza.
You feel great for like 30minutes and then you crash so
one of the methods that I haveactually learned that you can
use to decrease those bloodsugar spikes and therefore
(15:42):
decrease insulin spikes in yourbody is to eat something with a
lot of fiber before eatingsomething with a lot of sugar in
it.
So if you want ice cream, so tosay, but you want to avoid that
blood sugar spike because bloodsugar spikes are linked to
(16:02):
insulin spikes, which is linkedto a lot of health issues.
They have found that if you eatsomething with a lot of fiber,
such as a leafy green likespinach or kale, literally just
a handful of it.
If you eat that first, your bodystarts processing that first,
and then if you eat the icecream or the high sugar,
whatever, the cake, your body isgoing to be also focused on that
(16:27):
fiber.
And so the fiber is going toslow down the intake of that
sugar, which then decreases yoursugar spike in your blood, which
is very beneficial for longevitypurposes and long-term health.
Katie (16:45):
I've actually heard similar things that you're
saying about coffee.
Now, I, I don't know thespecifics, but what I do
remember from the podcast that Ilistened to was that if you're
going to drink something likecoffee, it's really good to do
two things.
First, have like a full glass ofwater and eat something because
(17:06):
of the way that the caffeinehits your bloodstream.
It doesn't make all of yourlevels in your blood crazy.
And this is me not being allscientificy.
All I remember was theapplication was, all I need to
do is have a cup of water andsomething to eat before I have
my morning coffee.
Because on an empty stomach itmakes all of your hormone levels
(17:28):
or your blood sugars orsomething all crazy.
Maybe you could speak to thattoo.
I dunno.
Chrissy (17:33):
Yeah.
Yeah.
So essentially the ideal is toeat a balanced amount of all of
the macronutrients every timeyou eat.
So each time you eat, you wantto have a balanced amount of
carbohydrates, proteins, andfats.
And ideally, you'd want theprotein in the fat to be higher
than the carbs.
(17:54):
Um, because those are gonna beyour long-term energy stores.
You know, your protein is gonnamend your muscles.
The fat is also going to giveyour body long-term energy.
The carbohydrates are just therefor short-term energy and then
you crash.
And so you need the protein andthe fat in order to keep those
energy levels high.
And also when you eat all threeof those macronutrients
(18:16):
together, then it decreases thespeed that your body absorbs
those carbohydrates and sotherefore decreases the spike in
your blood sugar.
Your blood sugar will rise at aslower level so your body can
slowly but surely manage it andkeep it low, and it prevents
(18:36):
that spike.
So yeah, I think that podcaststhat you heard, Katie is totally
spot on of like with caffeine,with alcohol.
People say like, oh, if youdrink alcohol in an empty
stomach, it hits you so muchharder than if you drink alcohol
after having a burger orsomething like that.
Well, yeah, a burger has carbsand fat and protein in it, and
(18:56):
so if you eat that first andthen have the alcohol, the
alcohol's gonna take a lotlonger to hit your system than
if you have an empty stomach.
Boom, alcohol is absorbed andyou're donezo so, um, which by
the way, guys, alcohol is a formof sugar, just so you know.
It is merely just fermentedsugar.
So keep that in mind.
Katie (19:18):
So going back a little bit to your discussion on
Alzheimer's.
I did pick up some informationabout it, kind of being linked
to the sugar stuff, as well ashaving, a low protein diet, so
needing, you know, the proteinsand the fats and stuff for your
(19:38):
brain to develop properly.
I also wrote down some notes oflike the necessary nutrients
that you need in order for yourbrain to be functioning long
term in a healthy way.
You need a lot of likeantioxidants and Omega-3 fatty
acids.
I, I actually copied this down.
(19:59):
It looks like it was a bookactually read a while ago.
It's called The Home Referenceto Holistic Health and Healing.
It was, they had a lot of likequick hits of like each chapter
was a different health thingthat they talked about and one
of them was actually um, thisone was called Boost Brain
Power.
This whole chapter was on thatand they had a lot of on
(20:20):
Alzheimer's and talking aboutantioxidants and making sure to
get lots of proteins and avoidtrans fats, and kind of focus on
things that are more likesaturated fats.
So yeah.
What do you have to say aboutsome of these thoughts?
I don't know.
Chrissy (20:38):
I agree.
I know.
Another thing is that a lot ofextra sugar in your diet can
lead to the release of freeradicals.
So essentially the process is,I'm like racking my brain back
to anatomy during college.
But essentially when themitochondria uses the glucose to
(21:00):
create energy.
The byproduct is free radicals,which is essentially like a
super unstable form of energy inyour body that can react pretty
explosively on a cellular level.
Katie (21:16):
And the, free radicals can lead to things like cancers,
right?
Chrissy (21:20):
Yeah.
Yeah.
'cause it damages the cells likehealing abilities.
And so cells lose their abilityto like check themselves.
There's a process calledapoptosis, which is essentially
when the cell decides, okay.
I am no longer healthy, I'm nolonger good, and then it dies on
(21:43):
purpose, essentially.
Or the body will like kill offdying or damaged cells in order
to prevent them from replicatingover and over and over again,
which causes cancer.
And so yeah, these free radicalsprevent the cells from dying off
when they are sick or notworking properly.
(22:04):
And so yes, it can lead tocancer.
Katie (22:07):
Actually, yeah, I, I found the page finally in my
Nourishing Traditions book.
I've been sitting here flippingback and forth, and I did find
this sentence that said, tumorsare known to be enormous sugar
absorbers.
And I do like, that's one ofthose facts that I keep hearing
so often is that our choicestoday, like what we're eating,
(22:30):
what we're drinking, what we'rebreathing in, how we're living
our lives, you know, theactivity that we're doing.
It all impacts our healthlong-term.
And so if we're eating a lot ofsugar, it sounds like we are
essentially feeding canceroustumors in our bodies.
And I, I read a fact once thatsaid, you know, that the tumors
(22:54):
like that, the cancerous tumorsthat you have in your body, they
don't just show up there oneday.
Right.
That, that would be silly.
It's like all of a sudden youhave this golf ball sized tumor
somewhere in your body.
No, it, it's a result of yearsworth of lifestyle choices.
So the tumors that you have aretypically.
Eight to 10 years old.
(23:15):
So it's the choices that youmade 10 years ago that are
impacting your health today.
And so it's so important.
Like the, when you go out toeat, you're like, I'm gonna go
get this really sugary icecream.
Or even just when you go out toeat and you're eating something
that is just loaded with sugar,it's not even a dessert.
'cause like we said, sugar's inso much.
(23:35):
You might think like, it's notgonna kill me right here and
right now.
Sure.
Yeah, you're right.
You're not going to die byeating that bowl of ice cream
today.
But what is happening is thatit's building up over time,
these lifestyle choices buildup, and then eventually that
bucket kind of spills over andcauses these chronic illnesses
(23:56):
such as diabetes or cancers orAlzheimer's or Parkinson's
disease, any of these things areresults from the choices that we
make.
And for some reason, I don'tknow why I mentioned this one
time to someone, when I learnedthat fact about the tumors
growing from years past, youknow, like the choices you made
(24:18):
when you were like, like adecade ago when you were in your
thirties and is now showing upin your body like.
People for some reason seem likethey, they get really offended
by that because oftentimes Ithink what the traditional
narrative, what they like to sayis that it's kind of a random
(24:39):
chance that you got ill withwhatever sickness you have and
nothing you did was the cause ofit.
And so it's just totally bychance, it's totally your genes,
but it's really our choices plusour genes.
So there's epigenetics.
(25:00):
And the way that I've heard itexplained is, yes, you were born
with certain genes in your body,right?
But, it's like, it's like thegun in the story, but the way
that you choose to live out yourlife is you loading that gun and
kind of pulling the trigger,versus if you have these genes,
(25:23):
they can stay dormant in you ifyou don't act on the unhealthy
lifestyle choices and you mightnever get sick because you chose
to live a really healthy lifeand avoid sugars and other
harmful chemicals and toxins.
So, I don't know, it's, it'sreally interesting because I
(25:47):
feel like sometimes the answercan be so simple to avoiding
these chronic illnesses, butpeople don't want to always take
responsibility for what happensto them and their health.
I don't know.
I don't, I don't like, I don'twanna offend anybody, but that's
just kind of where my thoughtprocess is going.
It's like I wanna help you andshare with you that if you avoid
(26:09):
sugar, not just sugar, lots ofthings, but sugar is one of the
big culprits.
If you avoid it now, it can helpyour health in the future and
maybe you won't get sick.
I don't know.
Chrissy (26:20):
Yeah, I think it's one of those things that like if
somebody who has been diagnosedwith cancer.
It's a lot easier to swallow thediagnosis pill.
If you know, you hear, okay,well it just happened my chance.
This is all a fluke.
Nothing you did could havecaused it.
Whereas if you hear, no,actually the lifestyle choices
that you've made for the past 10years is what caused this super
(26:44):
traumatic life altering illness.
Well, that's a lot harder newsto swallow.
And it's one of those thingsthat people, especially those
who like try to be healthy and,don't know any better with the
sugar.
They're, it's kind of like anews flash that you just got
smacked in the face of like,I've been.
(27:05):
Working out, I've been eatingquote unquote healthy and I've
been eating low fat and allthese things for so many years
and trying to do my best.
And you're saying that all ofthose choices that I thought
were good led to me havingcancer like that, that's a lot
harder of a pill to swallowthan, yeah, well this is just
what the universe had for me andwe'll get through it, you know,
(27:27):
to like actually take thatresponsibility.
Accountability and takingresponsibility for one's actions
is so incredibly difficult,especially when it's an action
that you thought was good butactually wasn't, or that you
didn't know was bad and you justthought it was neutral, you
know?
And so, um, eating sugar andeating toxins I think is one of
those things that like the mediahas to.
(27:50):
Totally let us astray in ourdiets because they say that low
fat things are good and, it'sokay to eat, food colorings and
things like that, uh, that it'snon-toxic and it's not gonna
cause problems.
But the reality is like, no,actually all of these things are
adding up in our bodies, andultimately in the end, it's
(28:12):
going to kill us slowly butsurely.
Like Katie said, you're notgonna drop dead after eating a
fruit loop.
But, if you eat those fruitloops every single day, you'll
eventually have problems fromit.
So.
Katie (28:25):
Yeah, the phrase generally regarded as safe is
what you typically will hear inregards to lots of ingredients
that we find in our food.
Food dies is one of those easyones to pick on now because it's
been exposed that food dyes areactually very harmful and have
(28:46):
been linked to a lot ofchallenges and illnesses in
children, especially because.
food coloring is in so much, somuch food for children, it's
generally regarded as safe.
But the FDA never actuallyreally does studies on it.
In fact, it's, there's a bunchof loopholes where the food
companies can kind of like dotheir own research to prove that
(29:10):
these things are generally safefor human consumption.
And it's basically the wholeidea of like, oh.
Well, when kids eat this fooddye.
They're not keeling over deadright now, but, we have to ask
those questions.
What is it doing over time whenit gets piled up in our systems
and these food dyes are comingfrom?
(29:32):
Like literally petroleum, likeit's, it's like we're eating
gasoline and we all know thateating gasoline itself is so
bad, but why is it okay if weeat it in these really tiny
micro doses in our foods as abeautiful coloring?
It doesn't really make sense.
So.
And I, I wanna actually make onesmall note on, like, I just
(29:57):
wanna kind of go back to thecancer stuff, and I'm not
pointing fingers at peoplesaying like, you're doing,
you're, you're, you've done thisto yourself.
And I want to also say, youknow, give yourself some grace
in the midst of it.
Like, we have been taught thatcertain things are okay and that
certain things are safe.
And so I don't want to say like,it is your fault for getting to
(30:18):
this place because ultimatelywe've been lied to and, and
that's just kind of the resultof our world, is that it is
broken.
It has fallen, and there arepeople out there who are trying
to make a dollar.
And so they tell the rest of uslies knowing that we trust them.
We trust our doctors, we trustpeople who are making our food.
(30:41):
We want to believe that theyhave our best in mind, but the
reality is, and what I've, I'vekind of been learning is that.
Nobody really does have the bestin mind for us.
And so I, I've been kind ofquestioning the narrative a lot
more when it comes to all thisconventional quote unquote
wisdom about health andwellness.
(31:02):
Especially after reading thisbook when we've been told that
fat is evil and really, no, weneed fat and good proteins and
everything to make our brainsgrow and to keep our bones
healthy and our muscles strong.
And.
We need these things, but thenarrative has been reversed so
that people can sell stuff tous.
(31:23):
And it's really, really sadbecause it's people who we want
to trust.
We want to believe them and soit's, it's.
Not a hundred percent yourfault, but now that you have
this information, you shouldhopefully feel empowered to make
a lifestyle change and to dosomething different so that
(31:44):
things can change.
And the good news is that a lotof these chronic illnesses with
a lot of lifestyle change can bereversed.
And that is like the, theredemptive story of this is that
there is kind of a way out.
Yes, there are moments wheremaybe an illness has gone too
far and there might not be a lotthat you can do, but if you
(32:06):
start to see things early on, ifyou catch them early, you can
actually reverse a lot of thisstuff, which is so cool that we
have these tools and that likeour bodies, like God did design
them to heal themselves and towork against the toxins and to
push them out, you know, that'swhy we have things like kidneys
(32:27):
and livers that are supposed tohelp take out all the toxins and
to do all that.
And I don't know all thespecifics and that is where
Chrissy comes in, but it's,that's the good news.
And one other last thing,because I just like, I'm, I'm
sitting here thinking aboutlike, oh, what did I say?
And I don't want to.
Like offend people.
The other question then is are,so are things like childhood
(32:50):
cancers because obviouslychildren have not lived long
lives of bad lifestyle choicesand so where do we find answers
for those kinds of cancers?
And ultimately I don't have allthe answers, but what I have
started to pick up from, fromthe doctors that I do trust that
(33:12):
I've been listening to, um, onpodcasts and in books that I've
been reading, is that.
Cancers are the result ofcertain toxins in our bodies.
And so we have to ask ourselveslike, where are children being
exposed to these toxins?
Um, some of the things that Ihave learned can be those toxins
(33:33):
are pesticides are a big one.
Um, as well as things likemercury or aluminum, poisonings.
And so.
You kind of have to look in yourenvironment where those toxins
might be coming from andpotentially avoid them.
Um, especially, you know, for usit's, it's a really big thing
(33:55):
that we've been focusing on isavoiding a lot of these toxins
because Malakai's life startedwith being in the hospital and
being subjected to a lot ofantibiotics, which ultimately
really harmed his immune system.
And so we want to be really,really, really, really careful
(34:16):
about what he's exposed tobecause his immune system and
his gut, lining and everything,it's all out of whack because of
the antibiotics.
And so we are trying our best toavoid as much of these so that
way he doesn't get sicker in thefuture.
So that's my little rant.
(34:37):
And I had to just say thatbefore we moved on.
Chrissy (34:40):
You are so encouraging.
I love it.
It makes.
It brings a nice light to thisconversation.
'cause I, this conversation hasbeen very like, you're gonna
die.
But like, no, that's not thereality.
It's like when you change yourlifestyle choices, you can
change the trajectory of yourlife.
And, that, that's kind of whatwe're trying to get at here is,
(35:00):
not you're gonna die, but ratheryou
Katie (35:02):
Mm-hmm.
Chrissy (35:03):
can live better and live healthier.
So I think what you wannatransition and maybe talk about
some sugar alternatives, becauselet's be real, we still all want
our sweets in our lives.
So how can we still have sweetfood and decrease that blood
(35:24):
sugar spike and ultimatelydecrease that insulin spike?
So, there are a few things outthere that are really great for,
um, sugar alternatives.
One of the ways that you canactually truly identify what is
a good sugar alternative andwhat is not is if you look up
the glycemic index of something.
(35:45):
So the glycemic index of glucoseis 100, so that's about as high
as you can get.
And so ultimately if you wantsomething that is not going to
be as dangerous to your bloodsugar levels as sugar, uh, do
something else.
So.
There are some things that Maxand I have incorporated into our
(36:06):
diets, and I have some otherthings my friends have
incorporated into their dietsthat they really like.
The first and foremost thingthat we love, is honey, we have
been incorporating honey intoour diet like nobody's business.
In our coffee in the morning, wedo milk and honey.
My theory was originally, youknow, if you have a land flowing
(36:28):
with milk and honey, let's putmilk and honey in my coffee and
maybe I'll reach the promisedland someday.
I haven't reached the promisedland yet, but milk and honey is
very yummy in my coffee.
So.
I've been doing that and theglycemic index of honey is
usually, anywhere from like 50to 60 depending on what kind of
(36:50):
honey and where it's from andeverything like that.
So I already, that's half ofwhat.
Regular sugar is.
But at the same time, if you'remaking like brownies or cookies
and stuff like that, you're notnecessarily gonna use honey in
it because that is just not theright flavor profile.
(37:11):
I, and so there's another, sugarsubstitute that is very, very
good.
They haven't identified any sortof long term issues with it.
And that is Monk fruit.
Monk fruit actually has aglycemic index of zero, meaning
(37:32):
if you have a spoonful of monkfruit, it will not increase your
blood sugar, but it tastes justlike sugar.
It looks like sugar and actslike sugar.
And so, um, it's reallybeneficial.
Katie (37:45):
I actually went to the store the other day.
I was looking for powdered sugarbecause right now powdered sugar
is one of those items that Ihaven't been able to find as
good of a replacement for,especially when you're making
some kind of frosting likething.
I like to bake and put frostingstuff on my foods, and I've been
(38:05):
just trying to look fordifferent alternatives in
general to that.
But I was in the sugar aisle andI found this powdered monk fruit
sweetener.
I actually, I'm looking at itright now.
I took a picture of it with myphone because I wanted to know
more about monk fruit as asweetener because it, it looked
(38:27):
exactly like powdered sugar.
The way that they had it.
It was loads more expensive, Iwill say.
And that's why I didn't justlike jump into it.
'cause I had no idea really whatit was but maybe if somebody out
there has any experience withit, I'd love to know if you have
made any kind of frosting withpowdered monk, fruit sweetener.
(38:48):
The brand that I found here iscalled.
Lakanto, L-A-K-A-N-T-O.
So anyway, check it out.
They had other like monk fruitthings with it, but yeah,
that's, I didn't know anythingabout it.
So it's interesting that youmentioned it.
Chrissy (39:04):
Yeah.
Monk Fruit I've learned is I, Idon't have experience working
with Monk Fruit nearly at all,but I have a friend actually
crazy enough, she had a tumorand from discovering this tumor.
She has completely changed herlifestyle and her diet and
everything, and they have takensugar completely out of their
(39:27):
household and replaced it withmonk fruit.
And so, um, that has been verybeneficial for them.
And they make, still have allthe same kind of desserts and
everything like that, but theymake it with monk fruit instead
of sugar.
And so it greatly decreases thatglycemic index on their bodies.
and, um, she says has made herfeel tremendously better, which
(39:49):
is great.
Um, one thing I also wanna touchon is artificial sweeteners.
This conversation is not one toencourage you to go out and use
artificial sweeteners likesucralose and aspartame and
things like that.
Those, even though they do nothave a high glycemic index, like
(40:13):
they do not cause a blood sugarspike crazy enough, they do
still cause the insulin spike,which is wild.
And so it's very important tostill avoid aspartame and
sucralose and things like thatbecause you still get that
insulin spike from them, whichcan still lead to these health
(40:33):
issues that are related to bloodsugar levels.
And so, um, especially peoplewith diabetes out there, I would
highly encourage you to lookinto using monk fruit as a
sweetener instead of.
Artificial sweeteners becauseultimately anything that says
artificial on it is bad.
Avoid, get away from it.
(40:53):
In the end, anything that manhas created is not as good as
the things that the Lord hasmade for us to use for our
bodies.
Katie (41:02):
What I have learned is that you wanna avoid kind of the
refined sugars and a lot ofthose.
Synthetic sweetener kind ofthings and focus on anything
that is a natural sweetener.
So anything that's found innature.
So we've been doing maple syrup.
I put maple syrup in tons ofstuff.
(41:22):
I love the flavor of it.
We do a lot of honey as well,but maple syrup has been my
favorite in things like coffee.
Um, and the other one actually,Chrissy is coconut palm sugar.
I really like,'cause I reallylike coconut, like the flavor of
coconut.
And so coconut palm sugar doeshave a coconutty taste to it.
(41:45):
And those two have been like my,my favorite in fact, fun story
and I'll have to share witheverybody the recipe.
I finally found like my favoriteice cream recipe to make
homemade ice cream.
We've been making ice cream fora while and it's really hard to
get a good, yummy ice creamwithout using like boat loads of
(42:08):
sugar.
And I finally found, I, I kindof actually made it up a little
bit.
It's a combination of coconutpalm sugar with maple syrup, and
it is now my favorite ice creamrecipe.
In fact, I have a batch of icecream being made right now that
we're gonna enjoy thisafternoon.
So I'm actually really excitedabout that.
(42:28):
But those are my two favorites,of, instead of like doing sugar,
like, so those are the naturalsweeteners that we've been
using.
Chrissy (42:37):
Yeah, Max has actually made, he has successfully made a
very delicious high proteinchocolate ice cream.
He used like natural proteinpowder and then, raw cocoa
powder, and I think it was likeheavy whipping cream and honey.
And those were the fouringredients, and it was
(42:59):
delicious.
And I think that's anotherthing.
If you're gonna make chocolateice cream versus vanilla, you
can get away with using lesssweetener because you have that
cocoa powder as like a otherflavor kind of thing.
Katie (43:11):
I found that, I think it's called Dutch pressed cocoa
powder.
It's something Dutch, if you'relooking at cocoa powders, the
one that says Dutch in front ofit is actually just slightly
sweeter than the traditionallike cocoa powder because of the
way that it is like.
They actually process it orsomething.
And it is so good in ice creamand in coffee'cause it doesn't,
(43:34):
has have as much of a bittertaste to it.
So definitely I would recommendchecking that out.
I'll send Chrissy, I'll, I'llsend you a link to the one that
we've been using that it's likean organic one that we have
found on Amazon.
And yeah, I've been, I lovethat.
I love it in all my things, soit's really good.
Chrissy (43:52):
Also just for you listeners out there, all of
these things that we'vementioned, we will make sure we
mention them in the descriptionfor this episode so you can go
out and try to find them.
Look at them on Amazon andthings like that, and buy them
for yourselves because we wantyou guys to be healthy just as
much as we want us to behealthy, and we want the whole
(44:14):
world to be healthy.
So let's get on this bandwagontogether.
Okay.
Katie (44:19):
Well, I think we definitely need to sign off.
Malakai is scooting around thehouse and wants attention from
mommy now that he's back fromhis walk with daddy, so Chrissy,
you wanna sign us off?
Chrissy (44:32):
Absolutely.
Well, we, uh, pray for you guysevery day, and we hope that
these episodes can be helpful inyour journey to becoming a
better steward of your body,your mind, your soul, your
spirit, your finances, and yourfamilies.
And we are praying that thisepisode was helpful for you.
And we'll see you next time.
(44:54):
Until next time, my name isChrissy
Katie (44:56):
And my name is Katie.
Chrissy (44:58):
and thanks for listening to Crunchy
Stewardship.
Bye bye.
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