Crunchy Stewardship

Why You Might Be Dehydrated Despite Drinking Water All Day

• Katie Jones • Season 1 • Episode 19

Share episode

Think drinking lots of water means you're well-hydrated? Think again. In this eye-opening episode, we dive into why you might actually be dehydrated despite chugging water all day long, and reveal what your body really needs to stay properly hydrated. Plus, tune in to our two new segments that we have added to the beginning and end of the podcast! Chrissy’s very first Random Revelation might send your head spinning! 

In This Episode:

  • Our Daily Drink Routine: From morning lemon water with cayenne pepper to electrolyte strategies
  • The Hydration Truth Bomb: Why water alone doesn't hydrate you (it's all about the minerals!)
  • Beyond Gatorade: The problems with conventional sports drinks and better alternatives
  • DIY vs. Store-Bought: When to invest in quality electrolytes and when to make your own
  • The Spiritual-Physical Connection: How caring for our bodies honors God


Chapters:

00:00 Welcome to Crunchy Stewardship
00:43 Introducing Random Revelations
01:24 Chrissy's Revelation on Digestion
02:29 Favorite Podcasts and Books
06:05 Spiritual and Physical Health Connection
11:39 Today's Topic: Beverages and Drinks
24:59 Choosing the Right Salt for Hydration
26:55 Making Your Own Electrolytes
28:24 Cost and Strategy of Electrolytes
30:04 The Importance of Minerals in Hydration
37:33 Electrolytes and Processed Foods
42:13 Natural vs. Processed Foods
46:56 Homemade Electrolyte Alternatives
48:47 Upcoming Episode Sneak Peek
50:14 Community Conversations
53:39 Final Thoughts and Sign Off


Links & Resources Mentioned:

Podcasts We Love:

  • Culture Apothecary with Alex Clark
  • The Dr. Josh Axe Show 
  • Modern Ancestral Mamas

Books Recommended:

  • "Eat Dirt" by Josh Axe https://amzn.to/4my8RHj
  • "Feeding You Lies" by Vani Hari (Food Babe) https://amzn.to/3VmaDzd

Quality Electrolytes:

Mineral-Rich Salts:

  • Baja Gold Mineral Salt https://amzn.to/4oZgsA6
  • Redmond Real Salt https://amzn.to/3HVYXjG

Where to Shop:



Connect With Us:

  • Leave us a review and rating
  • Email us your crunchy discoveries
  • Share your hydration wins in our Facebook group

Remember: Your body is the temple God gave you to glorify Him. Let's steward it well, one sip at a time.




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

Chrissy:

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

Katie:

Hi, my name is Katie Fiola Jones. We are both two cousins who are passionate about learning and sharing knowledge to equip others to steward their spiritual, mental, emotional, financial, and physical health in order to honor God in every aspect of their lives.

Chrissy:

In our podcast, we take deep dives into what it means to steward our lives as God originally intended for us with the resources that God has given us. We look at topics like food, medicine, finances, mental health, and tons more through a natural lens and with a biblical foundation.

Katie:

Today We're actually going to change it up a little bit and introduce a new segment that we are going to regularly incorporate into our episodes, and that is random Revelations. So in this segment of our podcast, one of us is going to share something that we've learned maybe in the last week or so about being crunchy. So anything crunchy, something that we learned on a podcast or heard from a friend. Um, and yeah, so Chrissy's going to kick it off today. So Chrissy, why don't you share with us a Random Revelation that you learned this past week.

Chrissy:

Yeah, the Random Revelation in that I learned this week is that you are actually constipated if you are not pooping every single time you eat, which is about three times a day. And that was kind of surprising to me because, you know, actually it's kind of interesting. In nursing school we learned about the process of digestion and the hormones that are released during digestion and in our anatomy textbook, we learned about how the act of chewing actually starts the release of hormones, which ends with a mass movement peristalsis through the large intestine and should inevitably result with a bowel movement. And I remember learning that and being like, Hmm, that's weird. I don't go to the bathroom every single time I eat. Um, but now I have learned that actually you are indeed supposed to have a bowel movement every time you eat about three times a day. So there you go.

Katie:

It's, there you go. It is such a funny thing. I actually, so we listened to that same episode, and for those who are curious, when we talk about like, these episodes that we listen to, some of our favorite podcasts, one of the ones that both Chrissy and I listened to. Um, the main one is, Culture Apothecary with Alex Clark. So if you're, if looking for new podcasts that is one of the number one podcasts we listen to. We also both like, um, Josh Axe's show is his, is his podcast just Josh Axe. I actually can't remember right now.

Chrissy:

I, I really do think if you search up Josh Axe, it comes up

Katie:

I also, I wanna recommend another show. I don't know if you listen to this one, Chrissy, but it's Modern Ancestral Mamas. I really like that one. They have a show very similar to ours where it's just like two friends chatting about things that they're learning and stuff. Um, they've been around a lot longer than you and I have, and, but I really like theirs. But anyway, on that episode from Culture Apothecary that you and I both listened to about having bowel movements, they mentioned that you typically should be chewing your food about 30 times before you swallow it. And then so since that episode, I have been counting the number of chews and I'm like, I do not make it to 30. I barely make it to 20. But I wonder if it's also like based on the food that you're eating.'cause I don't remember what I was eating. It was cereal I think. And the cereal was somewhat soggy already. So I'm like, I don't really need to chew it or else it's like literally. A hundred percent mush, and it's like a smoothie in my mouth, so, ugh.

Chrissy:

I just think of eating oatmeal, are you going to chew oatmeal 30 times?

Katie:

30 times? So I'm sure that it has to do like the, with the, the different foods, but

Chrissy:

You know who actually does chew their food 30 times before they swallow?

Katie:

Does Max do that?

Chrissy:

My mother

Katie:

oh, I was like, does Max, your mom.

Chrissy:

will put something in her mouth and be chewing it and like walk you around the house and putting things away. And then she sits down. I'm like, mom, you're still chewing that piece of meat. She goes, yeah, you gotta chew it 30 times. I'm like, oh my gosh,

Katie:

I bet Josh, because she really likes Josh Axe also, and so I bet he mentions it somewhere in his books. I am Chrissy. I just started listening to his book, um, Eat Dirt

Chrissy:

I love that book!

Katie:

Finally, I just started it. And it is so good. Like I, it's already, he actually has a lot of resources in that book, like a lot of links that he mentions. And so I'm only listening to this book and it's usually while I'm in the car and I'm like, I wanna write it down, but I'm like driving and it's really awkward to like try and take notes and stuff. So I, I already know that it's a book that I need to potentially get physically so I can see all this stuff in there too. But, um, anyway, so good. That's another book, um, that I would add to your lists.

Chrissy (3):

That's the book that encouraged me to start eating organic

Katie:

Really? Oh,

Chrissy:

Mm-hmm.

Katie:

the book that really pushed me over the edge was Feeding You Lies by Vani Hari, who is um, known as the Food Babe. And that was, I think that was really the book that propelled me into my crunchy journey. I was already on that and obviously I picked that book up because I was really curious about it. So I was going that direction. But that book was the one that tipped me over the edge and then I forced Wess to read it as well. And then he was like, okay, I get it. You learn all the things and just don't make me read another book like this. And I was like, okay, I'll just teach you all this stuff.

Chrissy:

You know what's one

Chrissy (2):

thing that

Chrissy:

I have actually been thinking about a lot recently is the connection between spiritual health and physical health.

Katie:

Yeah.

Chrissy:

Of like God created humanity in his image and we have our physical bodies that he has given us. And our job as humans is to use our physical bodies in order to glorify God spiritually. And it just kind of makes me wonder of like how in the world can a physical body that is unhealthy and sick possibly glorify God to its maximum possibility. You know? It's just one of those things that I'm like, it actually kind of hurts my heart when I see a Christian who's obese and who has all these chronic illnesses. I'm like, you are You are missing out on such an important part of glorifying God by failing to take care of your body, which is the vessel that the Lord has given you to glorify him. And yeah, it's just, it's one of those things that I just see and I'm like, wow, This is, I think honestly, a space that the church doesn't talk about nearly as much the church doesn't talk about physical health at all. Yeah. They kind of just gloss over it And. It it just makes me wonder, me wonder, I'm like we should, talk about physical health more so in the church as a means to glorify God. He created us to be able-bodied humans who are capable of carrying his gospel to the nations.

Katie:

Yeah.

Chrissy:

And

Chrissy (2):

you can't

Chrissy:

Do that if you're too sick to do that. So

Katie:

Yeah.

Chrissy:

that is another

Chrissy (2):

thing that's

Chrissy:

Been on my mind recently and just like the spiritual physical connection that it's all connected, like health is not just physical health. Is spiritual it is emotional health. It's mental health. It's financial health too. And that.

Katie:

Yeah.

Chrissy:

Plays a big into your physical and emotional and mental health and spiritual health. So it's all connected.

Katie:

Yeah.

Chrissy:

And the more I learn about physical I more I feel spiritually healthy, I am thankful for the things and the body that God has given me, you

Katie:

totally. Yeah. Well, it is nice though, I mean, because so many of us have been duped by the system and by what other quote unquote experts are telling us or what we need to do in order to be healthy, or even just the lies that perpetuate throughout our society about like, you can be your best self if you still, if you eat like this, or if you live a sedentary lifestyle. And, and so we hear all these. Lies from everybody else that yeah, it's okay to be unhealthy like this. And, and so I think in those moments, like if you are someone who isn't in their kind of peak health, that God still has so much grace and you can still glorify God in an unhealthy body. I mean, it should be the goal, like we should be. Working towards kind of sanctification and redemption in all areas of our lives, and God is working on that through us. And so if you're listening to this and you're like, yeah, you're right. So get on that path towards being more healthy with your bodies and the way that you're eating and the, the activities that you're doing physically. And so it's not to say that you can't glorify God and that you aren't glorifying God through the way that you're living, but it's just like, now that you've kind of woken up to that reality, do something differently about it. Um, I, I get, monthly food deliveries from a company called Azure Standard. It's A-Z-U-R-E standard. They're kind of like a. I like to think of them as like an online Costco of organic foods. And so you can buy bulk of organic foods. It's really great. Um, and so I, when when you get your shipment each month, um, they send you a magazine and usually it's like they have all their products in there and different, the sales that are going on. But I love reading the owner, um, I can't think of his name right now, but he usually writes like an article in the beginning of the magazine each month. And this month's, article that he wrote was kind of about the three pegs of the stool that he believes are kind of like health. And one of the pegs is like food and nutrition and like what you're feeding yourself. The other one is like physical movement and exercise. And then the third one is actually like spiritual and emotional health. And so he's a Christian and he talks a lot about like your faith and your, and how those, these all kind of come together to kind of create this stool. Like you think of a three-legged stool, not stool like poop like we were talking about before, but that is what kind of like those three pegs need to be. Aligned in order to have like kind of your ultimate health. And so yeah, I think that's really cool that you mentioned that Chrissy and I just read that article yesterday of his

Chrissy:

There you go. The Lord works in amazing ways

Katie:

in

Chrissy:

giving us

Katie:

such mysterious ways

Chrissy:

similar revelations at the same time. Well let's actually about are going to talk about on this episode. Um, so today's episode is about beverages and drinks and our go-to, what do we drink throughout the day, but before we actually get get started that, on if you haven't already, we would love it if you could go subscribe to our episode and leave us a five star rating. This definitely helps other people find our show in the future, makes it more searchable on Spotify and YouTube and all the things alike. Um, and also, if you haven't signed up for our weekly newsletter go ahead and take a moment to do that by clicking on that link in the show notes. Okay. Now we're actually gonna start on the episode that we said we are going to today talking about drinks. Katie is your go-to drink throughout the day?

Katie:

Yeah, good question. Um, I definitely start my day out with coffee. I've been doing like a coffee with some. Milk, usually my raw milk in it or some heavy whipping cream in it. And then some protein powder. I've been doing, um, some protein powder in my, coffee in the morning, but during the day, I really like, I have, some electrolytes that I have been enjoying, um, from Just Ingredients, the company, Just Ingredients. We've been doing that. And so I usually have like a cup of coffee in the morning. Um, and then I have like electrolytes during the day and then I love tea in the evenings. I guess actually even before my coffee in the morning. My first drink is typically a, lemon water. I do lemon water, so water with a, a bunch of lemon juice in it, and then some cayenne pepper. And that just kind of helps stimulate your, uh, immune system.

Chrissy:

Do you squeeze your own lemons or Do you have store-bought lemon juice?

Katie:

Oh, good question. Uh, I like squeezing my own lemons when we have them, but we often go through them so quickly that I just keep an organic lemon juice thing in my fridge. We, we actually got this really, I think it was maybe from Azure Standard, that I ordered this giant thing in a glass jar. Which is really great that it didn't come in plastic. But it's primarily from there, just because one time when I did buy bulk lemons that like half of them ended up going bad before I ended up using them. So it was like one of those things that I'm like, okay, 40 lemons is probably not the right amount of lemons for us. But then buying them individually, like by the week, it's just. That's a lot of thinking for me. That's why I like buying bulk, honestly, is just so I don't have to think so much every time I go to the grocery store, like, what all do I need? I hate grocery shopping actually, so that's a fun tidbit for me. Anyway, that's kind of it in a nutshell. What are you, what are your go-to drinks? Chrissy?

Chrissy:

My go-to drinks. First thing, when I wake up, before I get outta bed, full glass of water. I don't do anything until I have had a full glass of water

Katie:

do you do like a lemon water or any kind of water? Just water.

Chrissy:

Just regular water. I have it sitting on my bedside table before I go to bed and my lovely husband, oh, he's so awesome. Actually, he fills up my water every single night for me before we go to bed. But I've gotten him on this trend also of first thing, wake up full glass of water, rehydrate, you know, haven't had anything to drink for the last eight hours I've been sleeping. Um, and then usually with my breakfast, I will have a cup of coffee. And in my coffee I, so I have not yet gotten onto the raw milk trend, but I have found A2 A2 minimally pasteurized milk, which is kind of your next best

Katie:

Yeah.

Chrissy:

It's pasteurized at a low temperature, and so it's not as quote unquote sterile as ultra pressurized milk

Katie:

Mm-hmm.

Chrissy:

and it comes in a glass jug, which I really love, and we kind of just exchange the glass jugs every time we go get another gallon of milk.

Katie:

That's great.

Chrissy:

So I've been putting that and honey in my coffee, I think I mentioned this on a previous episode of I started the milk and honey thing in my coffee when I was like, oh, well, God brings people to the promised land, the land flowing with milk and honey, let's just put milk and honey in my coffee instead of cream and sugar, because why not? And it's actually really yummy and I think it's superior. But yep, I have that. And then the rest of the day, honestly, I just drink lemon water. I, we do buy a three pound bag of organic lemons every single week. And I go through the three pounds of lemons

Katie:

Nice.

Chrissy:

every week and I usually, I have my. Well, it's the equivalent to a Stanley, but it's not a Stanley because I'm cheap. I got it for free from work, but I have my jug and I put half a lemon in it. That's cut into slices and I just keep refilling that with water throughout the day. And then the lemon slowly but surely gets the water and lemon in your water. It has a, it does release some electrolytes into the water'cause it's got vitamins and minerals in the lemon,

Katie:

Mm-hmm.

Chrissy:

So there's some electrolytes there, and also it acts as, um, like a cleanser of your intestines. I don't know exactly how it works, but it's one of those things my mom told me a lot growing up of like, you should put water in your lemon. It cleanses your intestines. And so,

Katie:

Chrissy, you just said you should put water in your lemon. That was so funny.

Chrissy:

You don't put water in a syringe and then squirt it into your lemons?

Katie:

Oh, is that how we're supposed to do it?

Chrissy:

Sorry, you put lemon in your water.

Katie:

Well, so that's why I so it, again, this book Feeding You Lies Vanni Hari. I actually, it may or may not have been in that book. I have read two of her other like cookbook slash educational books. And in some one of her books, she was the one who talked about starting your day with a lemon water, with like a dash of cayenne pepper because it's supposed to stimulate your, digestive system, and then also supposed to help boost your immune system and supposed to help you, feel more like full and satisfied when you eat food throughout the day. And it's supposed, so again, it kind of then helps you with like weight loss and, and all sorts of stuff. It's supposed to be really good for your system. She was the one who recommended starting your day with this lemon water, cayenne pepper mix. And so if, if we're traveling though, and I don't have it, I usually just do water and she actually recommends doing like a, when you do it, make sure the water is room temperature or slightly warm. Um, and apparently that's supposed to help. In general too. I don't know if you know anything about that, but I don't know.

Chrissy:

I do know. That your body is actually able to process room temperature water better than cold water because it's one of those things that like if you're working out outside and it's really hot out, you think that cold water would actually cool you down more so, but the body uses more energy to warm up that cool water, which then means it doesn't actually cool you down all that much because it's like using more energy. So putting off more heat in order to warm up the cold water that you just put into your body. So if you drink room temperature water your body doesn't have to work as hard to warm it back up to room temperature essentially. Um,

Katie:

yeah.

Chrissy:

So it can use the water quicker.

Katie:

That kind of makes sense.

Chrissy:

But, question about the cayenne pepper. How does that taste in the wa? Do you just do like a dash?

Katie:

I do a very small amount so you're also supposed to drink this with a straw because when you do so much lemon in your water, the acidic ness of the lemon can erode the enamel on your teeth. So you're supposed to drink it with a straw so it doesn't like, so it goes past your teeth and kind of more directly down your throat. So if it settles.

Chrissy:

Straws are more fun to drink from anyways

Katie:

You're so right. You're so right. And so we use straws for everything. I have my silicone straws that we love, but if it settles at the bottom and you get like a big like swig of it at that moment, then you kind of taste and it's a little spicy. But since it's such a small amount, I mean she even says just do a small dash of it and it's, it's supposed to again, kind of help to stimulate your. Everything, all, all sorts of stuff. There's apparently a lot of benefits to it. Sometimes I do it mo most days I do it now. We grew a lot of cayenne peppers. The like last, last year when we had a garden in Colorado and we had so much of it that I dried out a bunch of them, like I baked them and dried them out and then ground them up into just cayenne pepper, you know, into a cayenne pepper shaker kind of thing. And, and so we have so much of this cayenne pepper that I'm like, I'll just use it all in that

Chrissy:

I remember when you did that and you posted on Instagram, like the color difference

Katie:

yes

Chrissy:

between your home grown cayenne. Pepper and the store-bought cayenne pepper. It was a completely different color too.

Katie:

Yeah.

Chrissy:

Did it have a different flavor profile also?

Katie:

Yeah. I mean, it was just stronger tasting. I mean, you think about, again, like my, my classic example are eggs. When you have pasture raised eggs and the, and the chickens are feeding on all the good stuff in your yard, and they have lots of nutrients in those eggs. The color profile of the eggs are just so much brighter. Same thing with like grass fed pasture raised cows uh, when you make butter out of that milk, the milk is vibrant yellow versus the like muted white kind of yellow that we get in the store. And so same thing with your like tomatoes and vegetables that you grow in your own garden. The cayenne pepper was just this really deep, beautiful red, and it's just, it's much more flavorful. And I would even say it's, it is spicier, but it's also like you could just taste like kind of the the richness to it versus like just the spice.'cause I feel like the store-bought stuff that we've had is just, to me it's just spicy and there's not a lot of flavor to it. So I don't know. I've, I've grown to like it

Chrissy:

It has more depth to its flavoring.

Katie:

It's very deep and emotional.

Chrissy:

There's a lotta layers to the flavor. If we're gonna sound like fancy chef people.

Katie:

So one of the things that's interesting too, about like the lemons and then the cayenne pepper, is that what I've learned too is not only does it help stimulate your body to get moving in like for the day, but also it helps to hydrate you better. And I think that that is one of the really interesting things that I've been learning lately is that. Uh, so many quote unquote experts out there tell us like, oh, you need so much water throughout the day in order to stay hydrated. But what I've been learning is that our water actually isn't hydrating us. In fact, water itself is not necessarily the agent that hydrates us. It's the minerals in inside of our water that do the hydrating. And so if your water is depleted of these natural minerals and trace minerals and things, then you actually aren't being hydrated, and so you could technically be dehydrated even if you're like chugging tons of water. And going back to our like first conversation of the day and having bowel movements, I, I learned in an episode somewhere, if you are. Peeing like a lot throughout the day. Like if you drink water and you're just like, you always have to pee, it might actually be a sign that you are severely dehydrated because the water is not like actually being taken into your body and like being absorbed. It's just kind of being flushed straight out because there's no benefit to that water. It doesn't have the minerals and stuff in it. So that was something for me that I learned that I'm like. Oh my gosh. I could be drinking all this water throughout the day, but it might not actually be beneficial in actually hydrating me. So that's when we kind of started getting more into the electrolytes that are putting those minerals and things back into your water. So yeah.

Chrissy:

You know what also helps with improving the electrolytes and actually getting your water to stick into your cells is, eating a pickle. If you eat a pickle before you drink a full glass of water, all of those minerals, you know, pickles are salty, all the sodium, the potassium, the calcium, the phosphorus, like it's all in the pickle. And so you eat the pickle first. That gets into your cells, and then your cells are like, Ooh, I'm extra salty now. I need some water to dilute the salt. And so then you drink the water. And your cells are like, all right, let's hold onto this water. Um, so I think also another way that you can like improve the hydration level of your water is even just putting some salt in it. but it has to be like a certain kind of salt, I'm pretty sure.

Katie:

Yes. Yeah, so I did write that down because, um, so actually, uh, Modern Ancestral Mamas, that podcast that I kind of mentioned before. Um, I forgot that I wrote this down from one of their episodes. They actually did an episode on drinks and things like that, and so they talked about. A lot of times when they have their like Stanley water bottle or something, like they're just their water bottle throughout the day, they will add a small pinch of their, their go-to is called Baja Gold Mineral Salt, and so. Even if you see mineral salt or sea salt, you have to really be careful about like the processing that that salt goes through, because it's actually the processing that eliminates a lot of the trace minerals, like magnesium, um, potassium, I think calcium. So a lot of times, like your regular table salt will not have any of that. In it because of the processing it goes through. So you have to find something that has not been processed severely. Um, and so Baja Gold Mineral Salt is the one that they recommend. But the other good one that I've heard is the Redmond Red Sea Salt. And we'll add links to these. So if you're curious and wanna check those out, um, you can go and look at those. And so those salts do have the minerals in it in order to keep the hydration of the water. And so we've been buying certain electrolytes, um, primarily from Just Ingredients. There's another brand out there that is highly recommended called Taylor Duke's Wellness. Um, I really like those because they often flavor them with all sorts of yummy things. And so you can, like my favorite one is like their mango lemonade one, and I, I just love that one and it's so good and it makes me feel like I get like a little treat in the day versus just having water with some salt in it. But you can make your own electrolytes. In fact, as I was kind of doing some research for this episode a while ago. Um, I found a very simple electrolyte, uh, like recipe that you can, that you can make yourself. I posted it in our Facebook group like a week or two ago, so we'll link to that in the show notes if you wanna go find it. But you do have to be a part of our Facebook group to actually see it. So, um, we'll link to it, but you can ask to join our group. We'd love to have you. Um, and one of the main things though, that electrolytes have in it. One of the main ingredients that it has in order to actually be, uh, like hydrating is magnesium. And so in order to make your own electrolytes, you do need like a magnesium powder to put in there. But from my understanding is that a lot of us are very magnesium deficient in general, and so we. Most of us could benefit from having more magnesium in our diet. So I think after we finish some of these electrolytes that we have at home, I might end up buying some of the ingredients to just make our own, um, because. It's probably more cost effective to do that. And you know, it's just nice to have the fancy stuff sometimes to have like a fun drink. Especially like when we go to the beach or something. It's fun to have like my yummy drink and be like, it's so refreshing and yummy and delicious and I don't know.

Chrissy:

Our Strategy with like putting electrolytes in our water.'Cause, you know, buying those electrolyte packets, especially if you're getting the good quality stuff can be so expensive! So we've gotten the Flav City brand, and the only reason we got those is we were going on a hiking trip and it was like the day before and his was the only ones that were sold on Amazon and we could get one week, one day delivery. so we bought them, but it was still like$40. And Taylor Duke's Wellness and Just Ingredients, they are fantastic, but they're a chunk of change.

Katie:

They're expensive.

Chrissy:

And so, our strategy with, okay, so we do want these electrolytes, but also like you don't really need them

Katie:

Mm-hmm.

Chrissy:

water you know if you are eating a balanced diet and you're making sure that you're getting all of these vitamins and minerals in your diet through your food, then you shouldn't actually need all these extra electrolytes in your water to hydrate you because that's the job of your food, to give you those vitamins and minerals so that your water actually stays in your cells.

Katie:

Mm-hmm.

Chrissy:

so we tend to use our electrolytes merely just for hiking trips or beach trips or if it's really hot in the summertime, we're gonna be walking around downtown Chicago or something for the entire day. We'll put electrolytes in our water just because those are the instances where you really do tend

Katie:

Mm-hmm

Chrissy:

get super dehydrated super fast. Like they say hydrate or dydrate, you know? It's those days where it's like, okay, I'm going to be drinking water all day long and I might only eat three times in the day, but, I'm gonna be sweating so much and when you sweat, your body releases a lot of those minerals that hold on to the water. And so that's like after you sweat, your skin is always a little bit sticky.

Katie:

And salty!

Chrissy:

Yeah. It's that salt that is supposed to be inside your cells that holds onto the hydration and the water. But when your body's hot, it needs to cool off. So it releases all of it because salt and water follow each other. So if the body needs to release the water, it's going to release the salt also. And so merely just by drinking more water, you're not going to replenish that hydration level because your body has released the salt. So you need, you kind of need both. You need the minerals and you need the liquid. And so, yeah, just eating, making sure your food has adequate vitamins and minerals. So that's when it goes back to like eating high quality food, you know organic things that are, or fresh picked, you know, like picking your food straight off the vine, it's going to have more of those rich vitamins and minerals. It's gonna have that magnesium, the sodium, the potassium, the calcium in, it, rather than after, it's been sitting on the shelf at the grocery store for a week or two. You never know how long it's been sitting there. Um, so that's just some of those things like if you're not sweating working out like a crazy person all the time, then you really should be able to manage your electrolyte levels and your hydration levels with, just the food that you're eating you know? They have some good, salty, nutty crackers out there that have all of the things. So eat a cracker and then drink your water or eat a pickle and then drink your water and

Katie:

I do, I mean, I like where you were going with the, like needing to have very mineral nutrient, vitamin dense food because I mean, I, I talk about this a lot too. Each episode like this, like you really should heavily consider switching to organic local produce and meats and things like that because that is going to be the most nutrient dense because like you said, Chrissy, if your diet is balanced, you really don't need the electrolytes. But the reality is that so many of us are living more in that like standard American diet. And even if you are. Eating primarily whole foods, like just whole veggies and whole fruits and and meats versus the processed stuff. Even if you're focusing more on that, the fruits and veggies that you are eating might not have all of those minerals that you need in order to stay hydrated. And so my point is kind of like you may actually need. The electrolytes in order to stay hydrated because you're not getting all of those minerals, especially the trace minerals, because the way that our produce is grown, the soil is so depleted of these minerals that it's just not in your fruits and veggies. I mean, I think I heard the other day that one orange back in the, I think it was maybe the fifties or something, is about the equivalent to eating eight oranges today. Like you need eight oranges today in order to get the same amount of vitamins, minerals, and nutrients that one orange had. Like a, just a few decades ago, because of the way that we have depleted our soil so much that it's like our food is just not the same. Like nothing is the same that we eat unless you're trying to focus on organic regenerative farming, you know, having really good, uh, soil in order to fill those foods up with the minerals and nutrients that you need. So. If you are kind of eating that more standard diet, if you're not yet doing kind of the local produce and organic stuff, which we've done episodes on how to find that kind of stuff. So go check that out. Um, in. Like on Spotify or wherever you're listening to this podcast, right? So go find those episodes, on how to find that stuff. But if you're not doing that already, you, you likely will need to do electrolytes, um, or at least the bare minimum, like find, like get this, these good salts just to add to your drinks. In fact, that's, that's one of our next steps when when we deplete the rest of our regular table salts and things that we have. I do want to switch over to these mineral salts because then. Even if we're flavoring our foods, like that mineral dense salt is getting into our food, then getting into our systems, and then we can add little pinches of it to our water and things like that. Because we had an episode a while ago talking specifically about water and how bad our water is these days. I think we talked about filtration systems, and one of the interesting things I did learn is that. Uh, the water filtration system that we plan to get in our home one day, which is, it's called reverse osmosis. It takes out literally all the bad stuff from your water, um, but it also takes out all of the good stuff from your water. So it takes out all of the minerals from it. And so in essence. That water from a reverse osmosis system. While it is not toxic, it also is not hydrating at all. And I was just shocked by this because I'm like, that's what I really wanna get in our home so we can get out all of the terrible stuff like the fluoride and the pesticide chemicals and the pharmaceuticals from the water supply and all this stuff. Like I want to get rid of all that, but it's just getting rid of all the good stuff. So I need to figure out then how to replenish our water so that it's actually hydrating, because I kind of heard that it's, it's almost like doing the opposite for your body where it's like pulling the minerals or something from it. And so anyway, I don't, I don't know that for sure, but basically the whole point was that that water's not hydrating if you're just taking out everything good from it. So Yeah,

Chrissy:

yeah. I don't know about it like dehydrating you per se, but essentially the idea is that if you don't have the minerals for the water to stick to, then. The water just stays in what's called the intercellular space, so like the space in between your cells and then just gets flushed right outta your body, or it stays within your bloodstream and doesn't actually go into your red blood cells and then just gets flushed outta your body. Whereas when you have those minerals in your body, the, the cells absorb the minerals and then they look to absorb water to dilute those minerals to keep

Katie:

Hmm

Chrissy:

to keep an even balance of it so. Um, that's where the minerals in, the water play, they kind of, the water follows the minerals so to say. So if you have minerals in cells, the water's gonna follow into the cells. If you don't have minerals in your cells, the water's not gonna follow into your cells, and it's just gonna get flushed right out. And then there's no benefit to it. But

Katie:

Interesting. And I think I wanna touch a little bit on,'cause like, you know. Years ago when we were kids, and even, even today now, like as kids, one of the products out there that is typically the go-to when we're talking about like sports and electrolytes and things like that. Are our products like Gatorade or Propel or, gosh, I don't even know. Some of the other ones. I, I can think of them, but I can't think of the names.

Chrissy:

Gator Light, there's Pedialyte, there's liquid iv.

Katie:

All these, yeah, there's, there's a lot of them these days, but Gatorade was kind of that first one. I feel like, you know, back in the maybe nineties, early two thousands I feel like is when it just really got super popular and was like the drink to drink. If you were an athlete and you needed to get hydrated and, and they kind of. Promoted it as this primary electrolyte drink. And the reality is that things like Gatorade and even Propel, which is clear, um, most of them have added sugars or artificial sugars. They have dyes in them. Um, and even if they don't have dyes and maybe added sugars, like I'm, I'm pretty sure propel'cause we did Propel for a while earlier. Um, actually just a, like a couple years ago, we were doing a lot of Propel'cause I was like, there's no added sugars. There's no dyes in it. But the main thing that I started to learn was that it has the natural flavors in it. And so then you're like, okay, well really what is in this drink now? And so the problem is that they have all of these other not great things and they might actually, I think I did learn that Gatorade does have electrolytes and it does actually hydrate you in the short term, but then it's also. Quite toxic because it has all these other terrible things in it. And so it's, it's promoted as this thing that for kids, it is actually really hydrating because they actually drink it versus water, which they might not drink because it's boring or something like that. So they're like, here, just give'em this like blue Gatorade that's full of all this not great stuff, and it's actually harming them in the long term. And so. When, when we're talking about getting electrolytes and things like that, you really want to stay away from all these ones that have added sugars. Even a lot of the brands that you can find that have the packets or the powders or whatever they, they might have electrolytes in them, but they also might have a lot of not great stuff. So you just really wanna be careful of the ingredients and just reading the ingredient label to make sure that it is just what you need and not all this added stuff. Because yeah, Gatorade does have the things you need, but it also has a lot of stuff that you really, really don't need. And they're just, they're so sugary and I mean, I can literally feel it, like when I'm like drinking it, I'm like, I can feel these sugars and, and it's just not good. Um, yeah, it's, it's not good.

Chrissy:

I even feel that way with Propel. I feel like Propel kind of leaves a flavor on the of your tongue like little. I don't even know what that flavor is called, but I've actually, I have learned that that flavor, that drinks like this leave on the back of your tongue. It's actually a marketing technique that companies in

Katie:

Oh.

Chrissy:

order to make you want to drink that drink again, because. It tastes really good, and then once you're finished with it, you have that like lingering flavor on the back of your tongue that just isn't as good, but still kind of makes you want that drink more. And so that's actually one of those flavors that has been chemically created in a lab. In order to help companies with their marketing to create a consumer who is actually like addicted to their product because of that little flavor kind of just lingers in the back of their mouth,

Katie:

I totally got that with Propel. I, I mean, I would drink my Propel and I felt like I needed it every day. When I, when we were getting it regularly, I would, it would be in our garage fridge, and as I would like leave for the day to drive the girls like our foster daughters somewhere, I would grab one and we'd go for the day, and it was just like, I always, I like, I felt like I needed it, and so I totally understand what you're saying.

Chrissy:

Right. And, and that's another way that you can kind of identify of like, is this food more natural or is this food more processed? Is, does it leave a flavor in your mouth like. Yeah, eating your mouth should not feel gross. You also shouldn't have a different breath after eating, unless you're eating and that's a special situation. But like, the vast majority of natural foods when you eat them they don't really leave any sort of lingering flavor or coating inside your mouth. But on the flip note, the vast majority of ultra processed foods leave like a little film inside your mouth or like a lingering flavor for a while, or it leaves your breath smelling a certain way. And those are like the little things that these companies use to make you want to eat their products more and more.

Katie:

Or I would even say like, does the food or drink leave you satisfied or does it leave you wanting more of it? Because there is definitely something different when I drink, like my electrolyte drink that I have now from just ingredients, I feel a little bit more satisfied when I am finished drinking it versus when I'd have Propel or something I wanted more. Like I literally was like, I have not gotten enough and I would want to drink another one, but there are expensive, so I would tell myself I only get one a day and so I'd have to like hold myself to that so that I wasn't just going bankrupt, buying Propel. But there's definitely something when I'm eating certain snacks or certain foods that I feel like I need more of it or it hasn't satisfied me, and it's because they're, they're, so again, it's coming back to that like nutrient density of it. It's not filling your body. It's probably loaded with things like MSG, which are just creating this addiction in you of needing and wanting more. So it's, it's leaving you unsatisfied and like you need to kind of keep replenishing. And so if your food is ever making you feel like that, it likely. It. That's not the way food is supposed. It's supposed to satisfy you and eventually you're supposed to feel hungry when you need another boost of all that stuff. But it's like it shouldn't, you shouldn't eat like a chicken wing and then feel like you need 20 more because you're like unsatisfied. Because, anyway, it's going back to that, just getting your, getting all the good stuff from your food that is nutrient dense versus needing to buy lots more Propel or Gatorade.

Chrissy:

That's the truth. I find myself sometimes when I'm like really kind of just having a meh day and I'm like, man, I really want some Chick-fil-A right now. And I go through the whole conversation in my head of, oh. I want Chick-fil-A. Well then I'm gonna have a stomach ache and then I'm gonna feel horrible and I'm gonna have no energy tomorrow and I'm just gonna feel like a drag. And then I'm gonna feel more like a drag because I already feel like a drag, which is making me want the Chick-fil-A. And then I have, I go through like this whole spiral and then eventually I'm just like, okay, fine. I won't get the Chick-fil-A. It's not even worth it for the next 24 hours of like how I'm gonna feel. But that's so true of like the food and the drink that you put into your body, it, it fuels you, and so give yourself good fuel. Like you put regular gasoline into a diesel engine truck. It's not gonna work. And so kinda do that to ourselves sometimes too. It's like we put things that God did not create as food to be pretend fuel for us, and it just doesn't work.

Katie:

And beyond, like fueling you. I, I think we always have this focus of like, yes, you, the, the food and the drinks that you put in your body give you the energy for the day and they, they are that fuel, they are that gasoline to make your engine go. But even more than that. Like, you literally become what you eat. Like your food turns into the cells in your body. And so you think about eating like a Big Mac or something and like, do you want that to be your body? Like your cells regenerate, you know, you shed your cells and like you think about like your skin, like you lose skin, you lose hair. All these things are shedding constantly and so your body like literally regenerates itself out of whatever you are putting in your body. And so. Do you want to be a Big Mac or do you want to be a pasture raised chicken? I wanna be a chicken.

Chrissy:

A chicken. Everything's a chicken. And baby chickens. Human chickens. Kitten chickens, doggo chickens.

Katie:

Um, I wrote this down and I have to share this for the mamas out there who are looking for ideas of like, if you have kiddos who they've been drinking Gatorade or Propel or the fun, fancy drinks at sporting events and stuff, and like all their friends are doing it, if your kiddos need some kind of replacement for that fancy drink, a great substitute or alternative to that is getting. An electrolyte from a company that does kind of like the flavors they are used to and enjoy. Uh, Just ingredients. The company that we get our electrolytes from, they make a Blue Hawaiian flavor out of all of the good stuff. Um, no dyes, no added sugars and stuff. And so you can actually use that in order to make kind of like your homemade. Like your own version of blue Gatorade for your kiddos. So that's a great way to do it. Again, it, the electrolytes are a little bit more expensive. I'm sure. Maybe you could find like a homemade recipe, like just Google it. Or actually, uh, here's a pro tip. I've been using, AI like either Google Gemini or Chat GPT lately to help me make. Alternative ingredient recipes, like actual, like healthy recipes. In fact, I've been using it for ice cream recipes lately to like, how can I naturally sweeten this instead of using tons of boatloads of sugar? Like, how can I do this without sugar? Um, and how can I make it yummy and all this stuff? So you could even ask an AI engine to make some good electrolyte alternatives for you. I'd be curious to know what it comes up with. So if you try that, let us know. But yeah. Do you have any other thoughts on hydration? Chrissy?

Chrissy:

I don't think so. I think we kind of covered it. I just wanna give a little sneak peek into our next episode. Um, this next episode, after this one next week, we are going to continue the conversation about beverages and drinks and hydration. Except next week's episode is going to be focused more on coffee, tea, and alcohol, which are very hot topics. So, um. make sure you subscribe and get those notifications so that you can tune into next week's episode because it's gonna be a good one. We're gonna be talking about what a lot of professionals say about coffee, tea, and alcohol, Not everybody agrees on the severity of these items. So, um, I'm very interested in next week's episode, so Yeah. Make sure subscribe so you can hear about it. And yeah.

Katie:

If, you have been enjoying our show lately and you want to support us, you're, you're just like, we wanna hear more of this. Honestly, guys, the best way to do that is by leaving us. A rating, a comment, um, a review, something like that. We really do enjoy hearing from you and we really do actually read everything that you send us, whether it is through emails or comments on our Facebook group, or comments on our podcast. Um, and speaking of comments. I want to also introduce another new segment that we are going to be introducing to our show, which is called Community Conversations. So this is going to be a short segment here at the very end of our show where we're going to highlight something from you, our audience. And now this could be anything from a review that you've left us a comment on, um, a podcasting platform. It could be a bit of a conversation that we had from you. Like, if you are a friend or family member who's texted us and said something about our podcast, or you've messaged us on Facebook or on our Instagram, we, we wanna share, like, the conversations that we are having because we actually are having them. And it's been really fun. Um, so we wanna kind of continue that conversation as a group. And so today's shout out is actually from, the account is called Victory Garden. Homestead who left us a comment on our Spotify on the Farm to Table episode that we had now. Victory Garden Homestead said. That"you've mentioned about the gamble you take with organic food in the grocery store, and you're totally right. Not only that, you have to worry about certain coatings and chemicals that are now labeled as quote unquote organic being sprayed on our foods, and that is beyond disgusting and ridiculous!" Now, hey, victory garden Homestead, we completely agree. Um, we feel the same way about this and I've been doing a lot more research re recently on the topic or like the, this APEEL, or A-P-E-E-L, um, appeal is a coating that is going on a lot of fruits and vegetables lately on a lot of our produce, it is created by Bill Gates and his foundation. Um, and unfortunately it has kind of passed the, organic certification stuff so it can go on foods that are considered organic and, and these foods can continue to keep their organic certification. Um, there's a lot of craziness going on about it because it's still chemicals. That's, that's the whole point, is that it's still not natural. Um, and it's supposed to help keep the crispness of the food and all this stuff. So some people are like, it's really great, but then a lot of us are kind of like, well, it's still a chemical. I don't want to eat it. If you are trying to avoid this coating on your food, I've been doing a little bit of research from places that are avoiding it. Costco, actually right now, is one of those places that has agreed not to use APEEL coated produce, um, Azure Standard, which I have mentioned in the past. I actually think I talked about it today. Yeah. Um, they also are not using appeal. I actually learned that our local Meyer store, I called them, I literally called them. If you're curious, you can call your grocery store and ask them. They should know whether or not they're doing it. But, um, the, the guy who runs their produce section, he said that, they are not using it at their store, but he doesn't know about Meyers, um, like across the country and stuff. So you can call your local store, but that, I just wanted to. You know, share that little tidbit for you guys if you're curious about that whole conversation. Um, that's what I've been learning about it. But anyway, we don't want to let this conversation necessarily end here. This, this conversation about appeal coated produce, as well as beverages and hydration. Um, so this whole crunchy journey that we are on is. Honestly, it's so much better than when we are having these conversations and we are learning together. So, um, we know that you have your own stories, whether it is about, hydration or things like, you know, like last week we were talking about. Hunting for, or I guess not last week, I would think it was like two weeks ago. But we were talking about like hunting for goat cheese and Chrissy's cold plunge disaster. And um, yeah, just all these discoveries that we're making, we want to hear your own stories and your own experiences, so. Please feel free to write us an email, leave a comment on this episode today, or come join us in our Facebook group, Crunchy Christian Mamas on a budget where we are continuing these conversations all week long. And with that, I think we're just gonna sign off for the day. My name is Katie Jones,

Chrissy:

And my name is Chrissy Rombach.