Episode 001: 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?

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 

Transcript

Chrissy: 0:00

Hello and welcome to Crunchy Stewardship. My name is Chrissy Rombach

Katie: 0:06

and my name is Katie Jones. And we are two cousins who are very passionate about learning and sharing the knowledge we have to equip others to steward their spiritual, mental, emotional, financial, and physical health in order to honor God in every aspect of their life.

Chrissy: 0:27

In this podcast, we are going to be taking a deep dive into what it means to steward our lives as God originally intended for us with the resources that God has given us. We are gonna look at topics like food, medicine, finances, mental health, and a lot more things through a natural lens with a biblical foundation. So without further ado, let's get started.

Katie: 0:52

Today in our episode, we are talking all things food and nutrition, and we just decided that this was a really great place to start our podcast. There's so much that goes into this kind of holistic, non-toxic lifestyle, but I think food is one of those areas in which. So many of us begin our journey. Mm-hmm. And so I think it's a great place to start our podcast because you as a listener might be in the space of thinking like, well, what is the difference between organic and non-organic And how do I just have a good diet and eat good healthy foods and. Actually be able to nourish my body. It's also one of those areas that we have kind of the most control over when it comes to this crunchy, holistic lifestyle. You start getting into the weeds with some of these other things that you could learn about when it comes to being crunchy and food is that one thing that we all purchase on a weekly basis and we can really have a lot of momentum with in. The way of changing what we're eating.

Chrissy: 2:05

Absolutely. And

Katie: 2:06

It's easily controllable rather than a lot of those things that are like in our environment and, and what Chrissy and I have both learned in our journeys is that food, what we eat, what we put into our bodies is really, really. Nourishing. It's really healing.

Chrissy: 2:22

Oh, absolutely.

Katie: 2:22

And it can be from both a preventative aspect as well as a healing aspect of like, once you are sick, what can we do to change that and, and heal you through food? So yeah, Chrissy and I both have become very passionate about it. Chrissy, I'd love for you to like, share with us maybe a little bit of just why you are so passionate about food and, and how you kind of. Got into this crunchy lifestyle too, through food. 'cause I know through our conversations outside of this podcast, you've shared a lot with me about how you've changed what you've done with your diet and, and food and nutrition. So yeah, share with us a little bit about that.

Chrissy: 2:59

Uh, yeah. So, let's see. Back in high school, I was a full blown. Chick-fil-A aholic. I remember I gained red status at Chick-fil-A, like within one year. Um, and I, one time the month of October, my senior year of high school, I went to Chick-fil-A 17 times. In one month, and that included one of those days was breakfast, lunch, and dinner. Oh, Chrissy. I know. It was really bad. Looking back, I realized I was at the thinnest that I had ever been. People continuously told me, Chrissy, you look really thin. You need to make sure you're eating. And I was always like, I am eating. I don't understand what you guys are talking about. Um, so coming out of college, I was like, I need to figure out. How to do better, you know? 'cause this whole relationship with food has just not been good for pretty much my entire teenage years. And so, um, after my husband and I got married, we decided to start making bread. Um, that was like the first step in our food journey. And my mom's girlfriend made bread our entire time growing up. And so I asked her for her recipe. I started making bread, and in and of just that one change, I felt dramatic changes in just my overall energy level, my digestive health, you know. And then I was having a conversation with one of my patients family members. Um, he was telling me about milling his own wheat to make bread. So he went home that night and copied a. The bread recipe that they used in their wheat milling recipe book, and he gave me the link to a wheat grinder that I could buy off of Amazon. Pretty simple. And the link to the wheat that I could buy also off of Amazon. Incredibly convenient and honestly, in comparison to my $3 a loaf that. Has all of the extra preservatives and literally I looked, it had 15 ingredients in bread, and the one I'm making at home has five ingredients. And so that switch alone automatically didn't really change much about our financial image at that point, you know? Um, and then also with that, like I just felt so much better again, like I didn't know, I could feel even more energized and. Less bloated than when I started making my bread with, um, regular flour. So I did more research into it and I was like, okay, what is it about regular flour that, you know, it made me feel better than store-bought bread, but why did it still not make me feel as good as when I was grinding my own wheat? And so I went into a research, um, rabbit hole of flour in the grocery store and I found out that. When manufacturers mill their flour to give it, put it on the shelves of grocery stores. There's, so there's different parts of the wheat, um, berry is what it's called. There's mm-hmm. Germ and the brand, the brand is like the outer coating and kind of like the quote unquote meat, uh, or filler of the berry. And it's the white, fluffy stuff that we see once it's all ground up. Yeah. The germ. Is the piece that holds all the nutrients. So it has the iron, it has Oh, the um, fiber. It has all the really, really good stuff for you. But the issue is the germ doesn't have any shelf life nearly at all. So once the wheat berry has been ground up, that germ only has a shelf life of about three days.

Katie: 6:54

Oh, interesting.

Chrissy: 6:55

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 exactly three days to the grocery store, sits on the shelf for maybe a week before someone buys. It sits in somebody's pantry for. Who knows,

Katie: 7:13

who knows how long,

Chrissy: 7:15

you know, like I think before I started making bread, my flour was years old.

Katie: 7:19

Totally.

Chrissy: 7:19

And did I still use it? Absolutely. You know?

Katie: 7:22

Yep.

Chrissy: 7:22

Um, but so back into the fifties actually, they separated out the germ from the brand. Mm-hmm. And they started milling the flour and just giving people the brand. Which is nothing but killer. Yeah. It has no nutrients in it at all whatsoever, except for like carbohydrates. Um, and the country started having actually quite a few vitamin deficiencies from that. You know, they didn't diet. Yeah, I can imagine at all. But the flour changed and so the United States government decided, well, that. Can't be good. So let's enrich this flour that we have and add back some of those vitamins. They add back vitamin D, they add back iron, you know, and that's how you get these iron fortified cereals and enriched flour, you know? But. Uh, the true enrichment has been lost because they took out all of those natural, um, vitamins and minerals and they put back in synthetic versions of them that our bodies can't absorb as well. Anyways, um, and so. Yay. It gave the flower a shelf life. But the American at what cost exactly. The American population just lost so much nutrients in that process. And now I think we've been a little bit. Kind of led astray of thinking, oh, this flower has been enriched. It must be good for me, you know, more vitamins and minerals. But the true reality is like, no, those are synthetic vitamins and minerals that have been added back to it after they took out the original ones. So, um, yeah. Yeah, that was kind of the beginning of our journey in going down, like changing our food little bit by little bit. Um, and let me tell you, every single change I make. Just makes me feel so much better. And after making quite a few changes, I'm more able to handle those unhealthy foods that I put in my body. Like my gut has more fortifications against it, and, um, I don't feel nearly as bloated anymore. I, it's, it's fantastic. Really.

Katie: 9:30

I love it. The one thing that I have really been learning is that, yeah, food. It is medicine, food is medicine, and especially if we get back to the way that God designed food. Right? Right. Get back to the basics, how God put it on this earth. Like instead of taking something like wheat and. Putting it through this processing, and then turning it into something that is no longer food. It, what we're really eating is just chemicals, like you said, just lots of synthetic, manmade stuff.

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 immune systems in general, we all wonder why everybody's getting so sick and it's because we're, we're not nourishing our bodies with the right types of food. We're not really even actually putting real food into our bodies. The one thing that I've been learning about this process is getting back to like. Again, how God designed it eating whole foods. Mm-hmm. Not packaged stuff, not processed things. And so it's interesting. Part of my journey has been that growing up. I think my parents did a, a pretty decent job kind of teaching us some of the basics about food and nutrition. Um, my dad, I just, I still look back and laugh at it, but he used to call things like granola bars or um, fruit snacks that you'd get in the grocery store for kids. You know, they're all like designed for children.

Chrissy: 11:02

Mm-hmm.

Katie: 11:03

He used to call them candy and. That infuriated me when I was a child. Like I was so upset that he would call the snacks that I loved candy. 'cause I'm like, no dad. This is not a Snickers bar that I'm eating. I'm eating this granola bar and it is healthy. But now, like going back and, and looking at it as an adult, like through this lens now. And seeing the ingredients in like 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 love hearing this. He's gonna be like, I told you. So I, I am thankful for that foundation that. Okay. I may not have followed it. And of course my parents like, let us have some stuff, but we, we just never really had things like the colorful, sugary cereals that often, like it was a, it was a major treat to have something like Lucky Charms or it was going to Grandma and Grandpa's house and grandma always had lucky charms for us and that was one of the main reasons why Jenny, my sister and I wanted to go to Grandma and Grandpa's house 'cause we knew we'd get Lucky Charms. It was like a fight for them. They were so great. And that's what grandma Grandpas are for. Right. But yeah, we just never had those in our house. We never had things like pop in our house, like, unless it was like a, we were having some party and it was some special occasion, but that just never existed and we, we rarely got it at like. When we went out for dinner and stuff, it was usually just water. Occasionally, like a lemonade, which is still pretty sugary, but never like we had Sprite every now and then, but it was always, it was such special occasions. Right. And I'm really thankful for that mentality because now as an adult it's, it's really easy for me to say no to a lot of that stuff because growing up we just never really had it around a lot. But now getting further into this journey myself, I. You know, I, I question things like, well, what's, what's the deal with organic foods? Why are those better than mm-hmm. Non-organic foods? Why do people buy ketchup that is different than the Heinz ketchup in the grocery store? Like, what's, what is the purpose of that? And so I've been asking these questions. And as you're saying, as you've explained to us, like when it comes down to it, the ingredients really matter in what we're eating and whether or not it's something manmade and processed and synthetic, or whether it is just very basic, like ketchup really doesn't need to be a lot of ingredients. It really just needs to be like tomatoes. And so when you go and look at. The ingredients on ketchup and you see like sugar, like so many things include sugar. And we don't need sugar really at all for anything because when we're filling our body with the nutrients, we get energy from, you know, the protein and the, and the carbohydrates that we're eating. So that's been like, my main thing is like really switching from. Buying the package snacks. Like even, even if they're like the generally healthier ones, you know, not getting the chewy granola bars, but maybe I'm getting the like Nature Valley or something. Mm-hmm. And like they seem a little bit healthier. But then same thing, like you go and read those labels and it's still a lot of sugar and corn syrup and all these other like terrible things that you're like, oh my gosh. Like why? Why do they put all this in here? So. The way that I've kind of started changing things is the way when we go to the grocery stores, we actually shop the outer perimeters of the grocery store versus more that like interior. 'cause you think about all the shelves inside the middle of the grocery store are usually things like cereal, crackers, cookies, packaged things, canned goods. And when we look at just the outside, that's where we get like the whole like more ingredient. Pieces of a meal where you get like your fruits and veggies and even your milks and your meats, it's all on the outside. And so we try as little as possible to get the stuff of the middle of the grocery store. It's really hard. It's really hard changing that mentality. Yeah. Um, because I mean, we've always, we've kind of enjoyed cooking, um mm-hmm. For the most part. But at the same time, we've used a lot of like. Cheats, right? Like, like the, actually like the made versions of our foods, but then you kind of still do a little 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 bread was also for us, like a really great way that we were introduced to this was like, I, I just wanted to try making sourdough 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 to that. Um, and so stay tuned. I'm sure I will go back. I've been making a lot of bread in general. Um, I really like making bread, but now I'm trying to figure out how to make bread without all the sugar. 'cause I still feel like a lot of the recipes I have have 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 lot of 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, but yeah, it kind of gives your body little micro doses of allergens that are around in your area. Yeah. So that when allergy season comes, your body already knows. What these allergens are like and already knows how to fight them off well and so it doesn't overreact and give you all of those allergies that you usually get in allergy season, in spring and fall. And so, um, it's so great merely just incorporating, you know, our bread has what, two tablespoons of honey in it and I have no allergies. And when we first moved here to North Carolina, I did have allergies. Yeah. Add them. Mm-hmm. My body didn't know what North Carolina Pollen was like. I grew up in Texas, you know, and moved here first spring. I had the worst allergies I could think of. And then we bought local honey. I put honey in my bread and slowly but surely, you know, fall came around and that's cool. I cool. I didn't have allergies anymore.

Katie: 17:24

It's, I just love that. God really did design things so perfectly, I think. Right. We don't necessarily out loud question what he did. Right. We're not like, God, why did you make honey and fruits and do all these things the way he did?

Chrissy: 17:39

Well, I, I do ask that question in regards to mosquitos. Hey, I haven't quite figured that one out yet,

Katie: 17:45

but it's like we're, we're kind of admitting that we're like not trusting the way that God designed things

Chrissy: 17:51

right

Katie: 17:51

by. Like, and, and I'm not saying on an individual basis, but on a macro view of food, our whole society, our whole world even has kind of said, no, we need to take our food and modify it in order for it to actually be this thing that's gonna be good for us, but Right. We're, we're really messing it up. 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 my freshman, my, literally my first semester in college I did a project in a science class on GMO Foods. And I literally had no idea what I'm talking about, but I, I think back to that time because. All the mainstream media says like, oh, GMO food is really good because it's helping reduce the food insecurity across the world. You know, we're feeding the world and this is the way we have to do it, is by making this genetically altered meat and corn and soy. And you're like, oh, okay. And you just kind of go with the flow with it. 'cause you're like, yeah, we wanna 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 originally designed by changing it in our own way and thinking we know better than God, we're actually worse off for it. And our health has really taken an impact on that.

Chrissy: 19:13

Absolutely.

Katie: 19:14

Do you, I wanna know Chrissy, like about, um, what have you learned about like organic 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 was always told, you don't need to buy organic. That's just a label. They put on just a label so that they make it more expensive. They only need like one ingredient that's organic in order for it to actually be organic. And you know, there was even documentaries that I've watched that. They were like, well, this is the organic field and this is the non-organic field, and they're right next to each other, and the runoff from the non-organic field with the pesticides goes into the organic field. And so technically there's no pesticides there, but it's still getting the runoff from. The non-organic field. And so for a very, very long time, I really thought that organic was just a label. Mm-hmm. Like disregard or something. Mm-hmm. And I was like, well, you can wash your vegetables, wash the pesticides off. Um, but then I kinda came to realize like, no, these pesticides are in the soil and it's being absorbed into the fruits and vegetables and. Then I was like, well, I'm, I'm like quite literally just eating pesticides right now. And this is something that is designed to kill living beings. Mm-hmm. And I'm eating it. And so I was like, that just can't be good for me. And. Uh, the cost of organic food really was a hard one for me. Um, as many times as I tried to buy organic, you know, I'd go to my normal grocery store and I'd see regular apples, dollar, dollar 50, organic apples, $3 a pound. Yeah. And I just couldn't get myself to 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 for the cost benefit?

Chrissy: 21:14

Last week was officially the first week that I dropped my old grocery store and I switched to a grocery store that has more organic options and, um, I bought organic celery last week because we it beef stew and it called for celery. And I was like, well, you know, the organic celery is only 10 cents more expensive than the regular celery. I'm gonna try it. We will see how it is, and I put some of the organic celery in my lunch to take to work with me, and it was so good. Mm-hmm. And so, you know, pun intended, crunchy. So I was sitting at the nurse's station just crunching away on my celery and my coworkers thought 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 onto the organic trend. Um, and, you know, I, it, it did also one of the other things that took a while to get me. Well, I kind of mentioned it was the cost of it, you know? Mm-hmm. Some organic foods really are much more expensive. You know, spending $3 a pound on apples versus a dollar 50 a pound on apples, it can really add up over time. Um, but at the same time, my husband and I worked together. We sat down with our budget and we were like, okay, how can we change our budget over the course of the month? To allow us to eat these healthier foods to make us feel better, you know? Yeah. Um, and we broke it down and realized we really only had to increase our weekly food budget by $25.

Katie: 23:02

Oh, wow.

Chrissy: 23:03

Yeah. In order to incorporate those healthier, organic options, you know, mind you, I was already buying, like shopping the perimeter of the store and mm-hmm. Um, buying fruits and vegetables and meat and things like that. But switching to organic, I was like, well, you know, the celery, like I said, was only 10 cents more expensive. And the fruits and vegetables in general, I realized we don't eat as much mm-hmm. When we're eating better, you know? And so you don't have to buy as much. And, um, with that, yeah, it only. It wasn't a huge sacrifice financially to switch to 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 the grocery store and see like, oh, well these specific foods are on sale this week, so let's create meals. According to those sales, you know, and that's great. Um, so we've got coupons, we've got sales that we use, and we make our meals each week according to those coupons and sales. So that's another way that you can eat healthier, but still at a, a lower cost or the same cost as eating unhealthy, um, is just by looking at the sales and then also. Having a similar meal each day during the week, you know, of like, instead of having Mediterranean on Tuesday and tacos on Wednesday, well I guess you'd have tacos on Tuesday 'cause you have to have tacos on Tuesday, taco Tuesday. But um, and then fish on Thursday. You know, those are so completely different foods. It's like, well let's have like. Maybe stuffed bell peppers on Monday, and then tacos on Tuesday. You know, still keeping that ground beef is the main thing. And then maybe we'll have burgers on Wednesday. So we have ground beef three times. Well look at that. Ground beef was on sale this week. 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 this misconception that to switch to organic, it has to be extremely expensive. And the way that we have avoided some of the really big cost load is, is switching away from the, the pre. Made stuff, the pre-made foods that are organic and very expensive, and then now going really to that, the whole foods. Mm-hmm. You know, getting, buying the ingredients and kind of making it from scratch. And the cost, you know, trade off would be your time in that case. Because when you switch from buying, like for, for example, spaghetti sauce. Yeah. Like if you make your own spaghetti sauce versus. Buying a pre-made organic option, that spaghetti sauce is going to cost a lot more than the ingredients to make the spaghetti sauce. And what's really cool is that like when you buy the spices and herbs and stuff for it, like you are gonna have those for a long time and can utilize them in different meals, kinda like you're saying is like spread it out over time. And when we've made that switch from 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 been really great. Mm-hmm. Um, but yes, it does take a little bit more time planning and preparation versus like just going in and getting everything from the grocery store and it takes like a few minutes to throw together. It does take a little extra time, but. We've really enjoyed learning how to, you know, use our crockpot and Instapot a little bit more to help us with that process. Um, I've actually really enjoyed now with the intention of like, becoming healthier and a better steward. I, I enjoy learning and, and growing in this area of like, how can we, how can we make new meals that are really awesome that we really love, but also are nourishing for us? And just like you said, Chrissy, it's what, what is also so fascinating about getting back to the basics, getting back to how God had designed our food, is that I don't snack as often, right. I don't even need to buy the crackers and granola bars as much now to tide me over between meals because the meals that we're making are so much more nourishing. They're so much more nutrient dense. Mm-hmm. That. The energy that I get from that meal lasts and it keeps me full, and I don't get those cravings to eat a sweet snack here and there in between meals. So we actually haven't been buying as many snack kind of things in general. And so that also has been a huge trade off because my gosh, snack foods, like again, going back to the granola bars like. Even the healthier ish kinds, like, but not organic. Like they can be more, they can just be really expensive and so, mm-hmm. Yeah, just getting back to that, the whole. Whole foods, whole everything. Chrissy, I wanna know your take on, um, why have we gotten to this place with our food? Like, why, if we kind of know these things like you and I, again, we're not the experts in this. We have just been learning from the experts about we need to eat nutritious foods. We need to be healing our bodies through food and through our diets. Why do you think it is that? We don't focus on this. Why are we so focused on medicine versus alternative, quote unquote, alternative way of healing ourselves? What do you, what do you think is 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 bit ago, cravings, you know that mm-hmm. You don't have as many cravings throughout the day and last week I heard a very interesting perspective. I'm not 100% sure how much I agree with it, because I know cravings have a lot of mental, um, aspects to them too. But you know, there is a physical aspect to cravings also. And this person said. You know, cravings is just your body telling you that you're missing out on a certain nutrient, and so it gives you to a craving to get that certain nutrient. Now, often cravings are related to sugar because sugar is actually one of the most addicting, um, oh yeah. Things that we can put in our body. The American population is so incredibly addicted to sugar that we just don't realize it because it's in everything. And it's just like, um, if somebody. Starts a whole 30 diet. You know, they really do go through withdrawals the first couple days. Like they get nauseous at the thought of food or the thought of meat. They can't stop thinking about bread, you know, because their body really is craving that sugar Totally. That they so crazy addicted to, and it's so sad to see. Um, so I think that is one thing, uh, that is wrong in our. Health industries, that there is sugar in everything and, um, our bodies are incredibly addicted to it. Another thing that I think is a very, very sad reality when it comes to the health industry is that food does not make money. Mm-hmm. Um, by a doctor telling their patient to change their diet and so reverse their hypertension or high blood pressure. Um. The doctor doesn't make any money from that. Mm-hmm. They don't get any kickbacks from the profits that are made from the patient buying the healthier foods. You know, pharmaceutical company doesn't get any kickbacks from it. Heck, even the ag industry really doesn't get all that much of a kickback from it. And there's financially there is no benefit to. People eating healthy. Mm-hmm. You know, I saw like a, a kind of a funny meme that I thought was very relatable. It said healthy people are very bad for the economy and here's why. Totally. They don't buy medicine. And so their expenses don't profit. The pharmaceutical companies, they don't need to go to the doctors, so the doctors can't profit off of them. They ride their bike everywhere, so car industries can't profit off of them. And if they ride their bike everywhere, then they don't need to buy gas, and then the gas industry can't profit off of them. And. Also then they don't have to pay for maintenance on their car. So the maintenance people can't profit off of them. And if you need to buy a new bike, it's what? A hundred dollars. Like in the grand scheme of things, and I thought it was very funny that the meme was more making fun of healthy people, that they don't quote unquote, contribute to the economy. Totally. But I have a very different perspective that healthy people can actually contribute to the economy so much more in that we can provide more for the economy. Yeah. You know, because by eating healthy and taking care of your body, you have more energy. To contribute more to the economy.

Katie: 32:28

I heard something really interesting recently that we are kind of at like a national security crisis because we have so many unhealthy people that if we were to go to war right now, like if we were to need to impose a draft or something and and have people like physically defending our land, yeah. We would not have the healthy people to be able to do that 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, been joking 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 what you're saying here is it's all about money. It's who's, who's making the buck off of this, who's really benefiting and, and. And so when, when the government themselves knows the answer about our health, when the doctors kind of know the answers about our health, and when 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 have enlightened me on that too, because I think me as like a consumer 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 doctors have been saying is like, no, we just never were educated about this. And so you have to think about who is again benefiting? Why are we not being taught this? Mm-hmm. It's so sad.

Chrissy: 34:02

Yeah. In nursing school, the only thing I remember learning about nutrition was that a high protein diet heals wounds. Interesting. That's all I got. And talking with doctors, you know, I've heard like, how long do you guys spend on your nutrition courses? And they're like, oh, maybe an afternoon, maybe a day. You know? And then it's like, well, how long 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 heals winds in terms of that's nutrition education in yourself.

Katie: 34:43

It's really sad. I, yeah. What the news doesn't want us to know again, 'cause they're getting paid by all these people too, is mm-hmm. Is that we have the answers. We know what it takes to be healthy, to stay healthy, to get healthy again. But if we do that. Nobody's going to profit. So many of our industries are going to mm-hmm. Suffer if we do all become healthy because big food and big pharma, big agriculture, like all these big giants who kind of control all of the narrative about what's being said, they. They all benefit each other and they're all paying each other. And they're paying our news outlets. They're paying, they're funding our schools, so they're funding the schools that are educating our doctors. So of course the educators in these schools, like for you, like going to nursing school? Oh, big pharma's paying. For us to be here. They're helping fund this college. We're not gonna speak out against them. Same thing with the news outlets. When, when they knew all this stuff about health and wellness, especially during the pandemic, and, and we don't have to go there specifically, but people knew the answers. But if they spoke out against it. All of their funding would be cut because Absolutely. It's the pharmaceutical companies that are paying them to stay afloat, right? Mm-hmm. Like that's where they're getting so much of their money. 'cause you think about all the ads that are being spent on their shows, like, don't even get me started about all the food, like. Advertisements geared towards children 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 broke up with the organic fruits and vegetables section, was literally 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 put in 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 this forever because again, we're, we're both very passionate about this. It is something that you and I have both been going down the rabbit hole, so to speak with. Um, but in order to wrap this conversation up just a little bit, um, I want to give people some resources to, to dive into a little bit on their own, like in, in the. You know, span of our podcast, we're gonna, we're gonna continue to dive into this more. Um, and especially as questions and, um, things arrive on our end as well as things that we are learning, we wanna share with others. But if someone is hearing this and they're like, holy cow, this is all new to me. Mm-hmm. What, what tips would you give someone on what to do next? And maybe do you have any resources that people could. Look up, I'll share some after you, but why don't you go first?

Chrissy: 37:49

Learn how to read food labels. You know, a lot of times people say like, don't buy something that you can't read what's on the label. And yes, to an extent, but also like sodium bicarbonate sounds really scary, but it's really just baking soda. Um, and that's a very non-toxic thing. But if somebody who doesn't know sees sodium bicarbonate on a. Label, they might freak out a little bit. Um, yeah, I'd say learn how to read food labels, um, and specifically look for food labels that have names of foods on them as opposed to all these like chemical compounds, you know? Yeah. Some of those com chemical compounds are okay for you. Um, some of them are even good for you. Some of them are just a complicated way of saying baking soda, you know? Um, or if they said, I. Uh, di hydrogen peroxide instead of water, you know, um, funny people would get confused about that too, uh, which they do sometimes, but not even taking a step towards the organic direction yet. You know, if this is the very first step that somebody is, mm-hmm. Doing and they want to kind of dip their toes in. I'd say learn how to read labels, look for things on a label that are food, um, that you know what it is. You know, my pasta sauce that I have in my, um, pantry right now, it has eight ingredients. It has tomatoes, onions, garlic, spices, I don't know what else, but eight. Food ingredients, and that is all the ingredients that are in it. Um, so yeah, that, that's my biggest recommendation is look at the labels and look for ingredients that you know, and you understand and you can tell what it is.

Katie: 39:44

That's a great tip. And I think even adding onto that, like again, we kind of touched on sugar as this big, bad, ugly, and, and it really is because. Sugar is not something that we need at all. And so trying to look for those alternatives that just maybe don't even have sugar, you know, like look for something without the additive sugar in it. Um mm-hmm. So you don't need it or it has

Chrissy: 40:06

honey. Um, there are sugar substitutes, but some sugar substitutes really are not very good for you and have other side effects of their own. Um, so I'd recommend looking at like natural. Sweetening agents. Um, I've heard a lot of really great things about Stevia, but I've also heard not as great things about Stevia. Yeah. So just look into alternative natural sugar substitutes. Cool. Yeah. Yeah. I think my, my tip would. Be kind of like what I was saying, like learn how to shop on the outside of the grocery store and start to find joy in cooking. Does that mean I can have ice cream? 'cause ice cream is on the outside of the grocery store.

Katie: 40:54

Definitely. Chrissy, I will give you the thumbs up on that. Actually, the ice cream for us is 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 say learn how to cook. Um, I know that that's like, it could be really scary, but I mean, just think about your favorite foods, like Chick-fil-A, for example. Mm-hmm. Or something like that. And find an alternative way to make that from home and, and just start finding some joy in cooking, uh, with. The whole foods, again, the way that God really designed it, um, you might find that you'll save more money this way, and actually you might, you might find that you actually like cooking and doing that. Mm-hmm. Because that's kind of what I found. I, I didn't really expect that. I did not like cooking. But that's one thing that I, um, learned. I did like, yeah, I, my book recommendation, if somebody wants to kind of dive into this, is. Learning more about the organic side of things. Um, the book that I read that really changed the way that I viewed food and, and really when I kind of dove into the deep end with organic food was feeding you lies by Vani Hari, who is considered the food babe, if anyone's heard of her. I highly recommend that book. And it, it describes a lot about like, the difference between organic versus non-organic. Um, the big word there is glyphosate, which is the, the chemical that they spray on crops. Um, and it's what we're all eating. And yeah, that one really woke me up to the reality of our food. Um, and I highly recommend it. And yeah. Do you have any recommendations?

Chrissy: 42:37

Yeah, the, the book recommendation that I would say is a book called Eat Dirt by Josh Ax, by Josh. He really, he really focuses on the microbiome of our gut and good bacteria versus bad bacteria, and what kinds of foods can we eat to really feed that good bacteria and maintain the good, bad bacteria? Um. Ideal levels mm-hmm. For our gut balance. Um, one thing that he actually said that was very interesting is that the gut has trillions of bacteria in it, more bacteria than our body has cells. Whoa. Yeah. Right. So our microbiome in our gut is. Like another whole living being in there, you know, with how much bacteria is in there and the having an adequate, good, bad bacteria balance can really make it or break it in terms of health and wellness and healing yourself from illnesses. And he goes into his diet, which is. The diet that my mom adopted when I was in eighth grade that healed her from ulcerative colitis. So yeah, that's the, the book I would recommend.

Katie: 43:57

Perfect. Well, great. This, um. I think this has been a really great conversation. I hope that it helps others to start that journey into food and nutrition and, um, we've started a Facebook group to continue this conversation 'cause this just touches on the surface level. Our Facebook group is called Crunchy Christian Mamas on a Budget. So come and join us over there to continue the conversation and say hi, and be sure to subscribe to our podcast. That way you don't miss out on. All of our new episodes, we have plenty of really exciting episodes in store and shared this with a friend who is also going on their own crunchy journey with you. We'd love for you to share this around, so we will see you next time.