Crunchy Stewardship

Fat: Friend or Foe? Separating Biblical Wisdom from Modern Myths

• Katie Jones • Season 1 • Episode 23

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For decades, we've been told that fat is the enemy - but what if we've been wrong this whole time? Chrissy and Katie challenge conventional wisdom about dietary fat, exploring why our bodies actually need quality saturated fats to thrive. From biblical references the "fat of the land" as God's portion, to the science of how fat affects brain function and hormones, this episode will change how you think about fat in your diet.

Random Revelation of the Week: Chrissy discovered the ultimate natural cleaning solution using baking soda, Dr. Bronner's castile soap, and hydrogen peroxide - it cleaned her moldy grout in one pass!

Memorial Moment: The hosts take time to honor Charlie Kirk and reflect on the spiritual revival happening worldwide following his recent passing.
Katie's Facebook Post https://www.facebook.com/share/p/1AGYWPp6c2/


Helpful Links & Products Mentioned


Biblical References:

  • "Fat of the Land" - Biblical concept of fat representing abundance and blessing
  • 1 Samuel 2 - Story of Eli's sons stealing the fat from sacrifices before it was burned to God
  • Old Testament Sacrificial System - Fat as the "first and best" portion given to God, paralleling modern tithing principles


Healthy Fat Sources (Naturopathic Doctor Approved):

  • Avocado & Avocado Oil - Rich in monounsaturated fats
  • Coconut & Coconut Oil - Medium-chain triglycerides for energy
  • Extra Virgin Olive Oil - Cold-pressed, unrefined
  • Ghee - Clarified butter with high smoke point
  • Grass-Fed Butter - Rich in fat-soluble vitamins
  • Grass-Fed Beef - Bioavailable nutrients and quality saturated fats
  • Pasture-Raised Chickens - Better omega-3 profile
  • Pasture-Raised Eggs - Complete protein with healthy fats
  • Pasture-Raised Pork - When sourced properly
  • Raw Cacao - Healthy fats plus antioxidants
  • Raw Dairy Products - Unprocessed, nutrient-dense
  • Raw Nuts and Seeds - Variety of beneficial fats
  • Olives - Mediterranean diet staple
  • Wild-Caught Fish - Omega-3 fatty acids


Fats to Avoid:

  • Trans Fats - Banned in the US since June 18, 2018
  • Polyunsaturated Seed Oils - Vegetable oil, canola oil, sunflower oil, safflower oil
  • Processed "Fat-Free" Products - Due to their chemical processing and often contain harmful additives


Harmful Additives in Fat-Free Foods:

  • Carrageenan - Linked to intestinal inflammation
  • Modified Starch - Highly processed thickener
  • Various Gums - Artificial thickening agents
  • Synthetic Vitamins - Less bioavailable than natural vitamins
  • Added Sugars - Fructose, dextrose to replace flavor


Remember: This episode contains educational information only. The hosts are sharing research and personal experiences, not providing medical advice. Always consult healthcare professionals for personalized guidance, especially regarding significant dietary changes.

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Chrissy:

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

Katie:

And my name is Katie Fiola Jones. We are 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 the biblical foundation.

Katie:

So as we get started in today's episode, we are going to introduce our random revelation of the week. This is a segment where one of us just shares something that we have learned the week, or maybe the last month or something. That is somewhat crunchy and maybe is related to today's podcast episode, or maybe it's not related to the topic at all. That's why we wanted to have a chance to just bring in some random facts for you on what we're learning in real time. So, Chrissy, with that, why don't you introduce to us your random revelation for this week.

Chrissy:

My random revelation this week has absolutely nothing to do with our topic today, but it has everything to do with cleaning, specifically cleaning kitchen floors and shower stalls, and anything that has grout, especially so. I don't know if you remember a few episodes ago I mentioned needing to get a bunch of different essential oils to clean the little bit of mold that I thought I had growing in my shower. And it was specifically like dark dots that I had growing in the grout. And I thought it was mold looked like mold. I still think it's mold, and I had seen on Instagram that if you get, I think it was like rosemary oil, clove oil and eucalyptus or something like that, that you can clean it with those. But looking at those three together, I was about to drop$150 on these three oils, and I really did not want to do that until I came across another video on YouTube. On Instagram. This is the only reason I don't get rid of Instagram is because I learned things like this. And it's amazing is that if you combine baking soda. Dr. Bronner's Castile soap and hydrogen peroxide together, they work so incredibly powerfully at cleaning grout and cleaning mold out of grout and things like that. I'm not even kidding you, Katie. I have one of those like electric scrub brushes, things that goes right. One pass over my grout and it was clean With this stuff. I did not have to scrub. I didn't sit in there for hours. I finished the entire like shower in 30 minutes, done beautiful looks, brand spanking new.

Katie:

I love that. I need to do that. I also like that you have one of those electric scrubber brushes. I do not have one, and that would be really helpful. I actually used our bowl cleaner. I don't even know why I thought of this. So Malachi takes almost one bath a day because he has, sometimes he has these nasty blowouts where it's just more worth throwing him in the bathtub than using all of the wipes in the world to clean him off. And so we take a lot of baths in this house and hence there tends to be a ring around the tub very often. And I just felt like the ring was not getting cleaned off and I decided to use, um. A toilet bowl cleaner, like my natural one, just because I was like, I don't know, it seems to like stick to things better like grime and I, I scrubbed that and it with a nice, just good scrub brush and it came right off. So I love finding things like that. I do love Dr. Bronner's soap. Um, his cast style soap is just, that stuff is so good. So that I like that

Chrissy:

It's so good. Although don't use the peppermint scent for body wash.

Katie:

that's the

Chrissy:

doesn't, I don't like it. It like makes my skin feel all prickly

Katie:

Oh my gosh. You know why I do like it is,

Chrissy:

it makes your skin feel all prickly.

Katie:

Well, not that, but I guess maybe if it kind of does The reason I actually like it, and if you're listening, you maybe think that I sound very weird. Well, I do because I'm getting over like a little sinus thing, so I'm so clogged up and. Peppermint is so helpful for your sinuses and it helps clear'em up. And that's why I love it because in the morning when I'm taking a shower, it just feels like it awakens me, and that's literally why we decided to go with that scent. That is so funny that you're like, of all the scents, don't use it. And I'm like, that's the one

Chrissy:

Oh my gosh. It's like the complete opposite. We decided, we tried it first and we said, absolutely not. We're never doing this for body wash again. It's so strong and like a teeny bit gets in your eye, you're done for the day.

Katie:

Yep. Yeah. Wow. Okay. Doesn't like it on his face. What scent do you use?

Chrissy:

the almond, right now,

Katie:

Okay. I,

Chrissy:

it's the green one and it's rather gentle. I don't think it smells like almonds, but apparently it does. Um, I like it. I think next we're gonna try lavender. We're kind of just going through all of them.

Katie:

I personally, have everything lavender scented if I could. Wes actually doesn't love the smell of lavender and so. Anything that's just mine is typically either a lavender or a vanilla scent.'cause those are my favorite. But anything that we share is like body soap. we don't do that because he's like, it just smells too, like frilly and girly. Dr. Bronner has like a baby, um, soap as well. And we have one for Malachi. I don't remember what scent it is. I think it, the bottle has like orange on it, so anyway. Yep.

Chrissy:

I actually just made a new batch of my homemade laundry detergent using the lavender Dr. Bronner's soap. I haven't actually used it yet. It's still curing, mostly because I just haven't, Hmm.

Katie:

My quick update with laundry detergent too. I got all the stuff to make my own laundry detergent. I'm making a dry version, like a powdered version. I personally prefer it because it's less messy. You do a liquid one, right?

Chrissy:

I, it's like a gel, but yeah.

Katie:

Yeah, we, I just, I, I get so messy for me that it's not as

Chrissy:

Yeah, I

Katie:

I wanted to

Chrissy:

I,

Katie:

powdered,

Chrissy:

I made the mistake this week. Um, I had, I had just a little bit left in the bottom of my five gallon bucket, and so I poured it into like a mixing bowl so I could easily scoop out the remainder of it. And I forgot that I had put the mixing bowl on top of my five gallon bucket in the cabinet under my sink. And so when I opened the cabinet under the sink, I just grabbed out the empty five gallon bucket, forgot that the bowl was on top of it with the detergent in it and spilled it. All over myself and all over the rug and the kitchen floor, and now there's a very clean spot on the kitchen rug.

Katie:

Ugh. funny. See, it would, it would definitely be a pain too, if it were powdered, but at least you could vacuum it up versus like

Chrissy:

Mm-hmm.

Katie:

of yours.

Chrissy:

Well, hey, I just did a whole load of kitchen towels. It was great.

Katie:

There you go. That's so funny.

Chrissy:

Anyways, let's transition to the actual topic for our episode today. We are going to be talking about fat, specifically, fat in food, fat free food, fat substitutes in foods, all the things fat, which is gonna be fun.

Katie:

Yeah, it sounds kind of funny, but This topic is something that I keep coming back to a lot in conversations about food and nutrition the whole, like right now, the conventional wisdom out there, and I'm kind of using air quotes as I'm saying this, like the conventional wisdom about food is that we really should avoid fat at all costs and saturated fats are evil and they're what's making us fat in general, overweight fat, and they are killing us. And so that's, that's kind of the like paradigm that we've been in. But what I've been realizing and learning over and over, and I think we've kind of touched on this subject a few different times throughout our episodes, but we wanted to kinda dive into just fats specifically here. What I've been learning is that fat actually is. So necessary for a healthy, robust body. Like something that is like optimized. Your body is like healthy and working right? You need good saturated fats and yeah, that's just not usually what we're told. In fact, I had a very good conversation with my father, um, just this past weekend because we were kind of talking about this and I was telling him, you know, like, is, oh, we were talking about meat. That's what it was. We were talking about meat and he was asking about like fat contents and meat. Because growing up even, we really stuck towards like chicken and Turkey and pork and things that typically have a lower fat content than something like a, a steak would. And so because we've been taught that. these fats is what's healthy. And so when I, when I said that we've actually been switching as a family ourselves, like me and Wes and Malachi, um, we've been switching to eating a lot more red meat and a lot higher fat contents and lots of butter and all this stuff. And he was like, well, don't you wanna be avoiding all the saturated fats? And I was like, oh, actually that is what we've been told. But that is not actually true because our bodies really, really need these good saturated fats for. Our brains, like our brain is made up of fat and cholesterol primarily, and we need lots of good, healthy fats in order for our brain to work properly. We also need it for our muscles and our joints and our ligaments and even our bones, like literally all parts of our body really do need fats, um, including your like digestive system, which kind of makes sense when you think about fat as almost like this lubrication. Um, it kind of helps like the track keep going clear and it just helps things run properly. So, yeah, I think this is a really good topic.

Chrissy:

Fat is so incredibly important in our diet, and I feel like the mainstream message that has been sent to us for. 50 years at this point is that like fat is the devil, but the reality is that sugar is the culprit here and the one that's causing this high cholesterol and obesity and everything like that. So think of it as fat is often like the flavorful part of of food. You know, if you take the fat off of your meat, your meat has significantly less flavor in it than it did before. Think of like a ribeye is so much more flavorful than a New York strip. Well, yeah, that's because the ribeye has gristle in it and it has a lot of fat interwoven into that muscle. Whereas the New York strip is just straight muscle, unless you have the fat on the side of it, which I cut off a lot as a kid because I thought it was yucky and it tasted weird. And it was squishy, but like, no. The reality is that's the really, really good stuff and fat actually does hold. Really great vitamins and minerals for us. It has all of the fat soluble vitamins. That's A, D, e, and K. And those are so important for, um, day-to-day function. Think of like vitamin D. The vast majority of Americans are vitamin D deficient. Well, another reason, not just because we're sitting inside all day not seeing the sun, while also we're limiting our fat intake because we've been told for so many years that fat is bad. But when we actually break down and look at how different things are processed in our bodies, um, fat is the thing that holds the most energy, right? So if you think about how your body uses energy, it goes to glucose first, then glycogen, which is like a complex. Sugar molecule and then it goes to the fat. So if you don't have enough glucose in your body, you need that fat there in order for your body to continue to function because it will break down that fat in a prop process called lipo lysis. It'll break down that fat back into sugar for your cells to function off of that sugar. But at the same time, if there is a lot of excess sugar in the body, then it gets transformed and stored as long-term energy stores through a process called lipogenesis is where the body takes extra glucose, changes it into a fat molecule, and stores it for the long term. Now, when the body starts to do that. It requires a lot of glucose. In order for the glucose, I'm just going on like a full anatomy train right now. In order for the glucose to be used by your body, you need insulin in order for it to actually get into the cells. But if you have so much glucose in your body, O over and over and over, constantly giving your body more and more glucose, it's constantly trying to either use it or store it. And oftentimes, not necessarily by cause or effect, but when you have excess fat stores, that is often related to insulin resistance. And that's because so many of our cells are like, oh, well I see that insulin again. I'm just not gonna respond as much as I did before because like sugar is a drug, you need more of it to get the same response out of your body that you got before just like normal drugs. And so. That's where that insulin resistance comes from. So increased fat in the body has a correlation with insulin resistance. Additionally, one thing I learned is, um, so fat, let me back up a little bit. Fat is very, very, very good for you, but when your body has too much fat in it from eating too much glucose or too much sugar, that's when you get the problems. The body doesn't store fat directly as fat, like when you eat it, it doesn't store it directly as fat because your body can't actually absorb fat by itself. It needs to connect a protein to that lipid in order to open the gate for that fat to be absorbed into the body, at which point is then connected to a protein and works to help build. Amino acids and extra proteins and helps with hormone balance and all the things like that. Think of it this way. Estrogen is a fat-based hormone. People who have a lot of excess fat in their bodies often stro struggle with infertility because that their estrogen being out of whack. The same note, people with incredibly low body fat, think of people with, um, eating disorders such as anorexia who have very, very little body fat on their body. They also suffer from incredibly low estrogen levels because estrogen is stored in the fat. Hence why one of the results of eating disorders such as, um, anorexia is menses the stopping of the. the monthly cycle because you need estrogen in order to have a cycle. It's a, it's a balance. You know, fat is so, so good for us, but at the same time, we need to make sure we're getting it the proper way and not giving our bodies the opportunity to store more than is necessary.

Katie:

Yeah. Wow. That is really fascinating. I, I don't think I was aware of all the estrogen stuff. I maybe I've heard of that at some point, but you just saying that again is kind of like mind blowing. Um, knowing, I mean, I always kind of knew like it's, it's hard to get pregnant if you have too much weight or if you have too little weight. Like, I've just kind of known that. But then understanding like the hormones and then even the way that like fat just plays a role in that is so, so interesting to me.

Chrissy:

And also the difference in like different kinds of fat, like visceral fat, which is the fat that's in and around our organs tends to store more of the estrogen than subcutaneous fat, which is the fat that we have just like ripe beneath our skin. The kind that keeps us warm. That's really important that. Living in northern climates like you have more of versus me living in a southern climate? I have none because that's not from the things that we eat, it's from the environment that we live in. So yeah, those estrogens aren't stored in the subcutaneous fat. It's stored in that visceral fat. When you got like the beer belly or a lot of excess fat in and around the muscles, that's where that extra estrogen is stored.

Katie:

What's really fascinating to me is, mention of fat so many times throughout the Bible. Uh, I came across a quote that was in my. Favorite nutrition book that I mention all the time, but it's actually a quote from another book called The Fat of the Land. And they kind of mention how Bible brings in phrases such as to live on the fat of the land how that was readily understood, um, in Greece, Italy, and France, um, as kind of being like the best, like when you, when you have something that is rich, it's typically something that has fat. Like these are, these are good things. And I actually, today I'm reading, um, the book of First Samuel, and in chapter two they, it's actually this funny story where you have Eli who is, um, a prophet at, or is he a prophet or is he just a. Or is he just a priest? He might just be a priest. Um, you have Eli and he has these two sons who are not good guys and they often would steal the meat from the sacrifices before the fat was burned because the fat was often burnt as, um, a sacrifice a like a, an incense sacrifice to the Lord. And so they, obviously, they wanted the meat with the fat on it still. And so they would steal this meat before the fat was ever burned off of it. And I, was just funny, I, I like noticed that this morning'cause I, I knew that we were going to have this conversation today about fat and I'm like, like even back then they knew that the fat was really the best part of the piece of meat, like that cut of meat, which is obviously why God. them to burn that as a sacrifice. Um, and then the rest of the meat E Oh, so Eli must have been He must have been

Chrissy:

I think he's a priest.

Katie:

he's probably a Levite, right? Because,

Chrissy:

Mm-hmm.

Katie:

Levite, because they are the ones who are the priest and they got the meat, like the priests were the ones who were able to keep meat from the sacrifices to eat. And obviously they wanted to keep the, the pieces of fat too, because they knew that it was so good. So it's just so fascinating. Like even

Chrissy:

and that also, that also ties into like tithing nowadays of like in talking about the meat, God got the first and the best part of it, he got the fat, which, and he got it first before anybody else got access to that meat. He got the first and the best. And that kind of relates to nowadays with tithing, you know. Technically tithing. The 10% ha was only mentioned in the Old Testament, but nonetheless in the New Testament, it is continued to be an expectation that we continue to give God our first and our best. And that 10%, the first and the best, 10% of what we have been given as a blessing from the Lord goes back to him as like a God. Thank you for your gift, uh, your financial gift to me. Let me give it back to you. You know, um, very similar to the sacrifices that, um, were done in the Old Testament, the only differences in the Old Testament, those sacrifices had to be done to atone for people's sin because the only payment for sin is. Death is blood. That's the only way to pay for it. And now that we have Jesus, Jesus has paid the ultimate sacrifice by shedding his perfect and spotless blood on the cross so that we no longer have to cover ourselves in the blood, in sheep's blood or ram's blood and things like that. We have the blood of the lamb covering us at all times, making us perfect before the Lord. And how much better can we honor him by, giving him the first and the best of what he has given us, you know, and with the gifts that he's given us. So anyways, that's just like a little side note that doesn't really have to do with fat, but it's cool to think about.

Katie:

No, but it is so important. I mean, there are so many times throughout the Bible where. I going and rereading them is so important like that. The point I'm trying to make is like, it's just so important to reread them. Even if you've read parts of the Bible a million times, like I have read these books before, but then seeing them through these new lenses and things that I have learned, it just makes it so much more eye-opening in what I now know versus then that I didn't know and, just noticing little things like that. Like it makes so much sense why they would want to keep this this prized piece of meat that has all the fat on it because it is so good. But that is what God calls us to do, is to give him the best.

Chrissy:

Hmm. And that's also like testament to the fact that God's word is living inactive. That we could read a passage at one point in our life and it means something, means one thing to us and read it another point in our life and something completely different sticks out. And I, I love going back, so I take a lot of notes in my Bible. When I read my Bible. I have like really big margins and I will look back at the notes that I wrote from high school and I'm like, how in the world did I come to that conclusion from this part of scripture? And like. My faith was very, very strong in high school, other than now I'd say my faith in high school was like the second strongest my faith had ever been in my life. And that's just evidence to me that like God was revealing something very different to me as a 16-year-old than he is to me now as a 24-year-old. You know, like very different learning opportunities from the Lord. And yet both are still true because God's word is living inactive and he continues to reveal himself slowly but surely to us over time, through the works of the Holy Spirit. And so anyways, um, let's transition back to fat. Um, one of the things you said earlier, I don't even remember what you were talking about, but it made me think of baby fat. And so when babies are born. They are born specifically with brown fat

Katie:

fat,

Chrissy:

and yellow fat. Brown fat is what gives, they have majority brown fat actually and very little yellow fat. Brown fat gives the babies this like round, chunky, cutesy, little marshmallow look to them. Yellow fat is the kind of fat that adults have that looks a little bit more liquidy almost, and like moves around when you move and is not as nice looking as brown fat. Now, the thing that I found really, really cool when I learned this, I think I learned it in nursing school when we were going over our pediatric or pediatrics unit, was that the. Amount of brown fat that a baby has is like the fat that's responsible for keeping them warm, not the yellow fat. And so as a baby grows, if the baby is kept warmer, then they won't burn through that brown fat in using energy to keep themselves warm, and they then won't create yellow fat. And so studies have been shown, or studies have been done and have shown that young children like five to seven years old, who still have that brown fat in their body, like I don't know if you've ever seen an elementary school kid and looked at them and like, do they still have their baby fat? You know, like some elementary school kids still have a little bit of baby fat, you know? But those kids that still have that brown fat up until their older years. Tend to have much lower incidents of obesity and chronic diseases and things like that because their body doesn't start creating that yellow fat until a much later point in life. So, fun fact, if you keep your babies warm, then they'll be skinny. That's probably not an accurate conclusion, but.

Katie:

That is really interesting. I've always kind of wondered. Why some babies just tend to be very, very chunky. Malachi was not a chunky baby, like from the beginning he, he was more than full term. Um, and he weighed just very average. And then obviously, well, you know, when we were in the hospital for a month, he blew up into a little jelly bean and he weighed more than double at, at a certain point when he, uh, was in the hospital than when he was born. And it was a very pretty sight, uh, when that was happening. But all of that, and when he came home, he has just never been like a very chunky baby. And I've always kind of been like sad that he never really had like the major roles on his wrist and all the things that are just so cute and pudgy. But now looking back at photos of him, then. He actually was decently chubby.'cause now that he's like moving a lot more and he's like burning a lot more of his calories and stuff with like learning how to walk, he's definitely thinned out even more. And yeah, so it's just very interesting saying that. And I'm like, I wonder, I wonder what's going on.'cause I've had friends who have very chunky babies and yeah, they just continue to stay very chunky. So I'm just like, I wonder, and I've always like that it might be like breast milk versus formula, the babies I'm thinking of were all breastfed and yet some of them were more chunky than others. So I don't know, it's just kind of interesting.

Chrissy:

Now you're just gonna have to wait 10 years. Are the chunky babies the ones that end up to be skinny kids or is it the other, other way around? Chunky babies. Stay chunky child.

Katie:

Yep.

Chrissy:

don't know.

Katie:

I guess. I guess we'll find out. So I actually, I came across something really interesting So we're talking about how good saturated fats are. You know when, when you have really vitamin rich fats from, especially when you have grass fed meats, or when you have like butter from a grass fed cow, or when you have organic or organic avocados and you're getting your fats from these kinds of places, like these are really, really good for our bodies. But when we focus on avoiding those and focusing only on like trying to take in trans fats, which is what kind of conventional is trying to tell us is the better fats. So they're saying trans fats are good, but that's not true.

Chrissy:

I thought trans fasts were illegal.

Katie:

um, are they illegal?

Chrissy:

I think so. Hang on Google. Yes. In the United States, they have been illegal since June 18th, 2018.

Katie:

Okay, well good. Don't eat them because they are really bad. And you know, that's actually really interesting you say that because the book I'm reading is, it was published before 2018. I don't know the exactly when, but it was definitely before 2018. So trans fats were obviously still around and they knew then that trans fats were really bad. And so good for them for knowing that and telling us to avoid them.

Chrissy:

I feel like now the narrative has switched from trans fats to polyunsaturated fats, which are like our vegetable oils, our canola oil, our seed oil, sunflower oil, safflower oil, all the. The yuck, the yuck. It's polyunsaturated because it's unstable.

Katie:

Mm-hmm.

Chrissy:

The saturated fats are stable fats, and they don't cause nearly as much inflammation in our bodies. They're very useful. Unsaturated fats, very unstable, causes a lot of inflammation in our bodies, which then also interferes with hormone production and metabolism and general day-to-day functioning. It I, it interferes with sleep, all the things.

Katie:

Yeah. Good. I'm glad we corrected that because I knew, I mean, I, I literally have in my notes right here, trans fat equals bad, saturated fat equals good. So here's me my just nonscientific non, like, I just don't know all what I'm talking about except for like. Okay. Saturated fats are actually good. So, what's, okay, so my point where I was going with this is that we've been told to focus on those polyunsaturated fats. So switching to the vegetable oils, which sound good in turn, right? You wanna eat your vegetables, so why not get your oils from vegetables? Like it sounds, honestly, growing up I was like, vegetable oil sounds like a good thing'cause it comes from vegetables like that. Just in my mind I'm like, that kind of sounds like it makes sense. But when we focus on those polyunsaturated fats versus getting the good rich vitamin, saturated fats, is that it is unstable and it leads to a lot of chronic illnesses, um, including like heart diseases linked with these cancers or, um, linked with these even things like, um. What is it called? Alzheimer's. I almost said autism because you and I were talking about autism right before this, and I was like, Nope, that's not right. maybe, maybe it is linked to autism. I don't know. Maybe Robert F. Kennedy will know for us if, um, there, it's also linked to

Chrissy:

RFK. If you are listening, let us know.

Katie:

Well, let us know. Give us a call. Um, but anyway, so when people focus on these things, it leads to a lot of really bad stuff. In fact, I like you. I honestly don't like Instagram, but I do like Instagram because I like the things that I often learn, um, from, I, I have a specific few set of people that I love, the things that they teach and post, and I'm just like, this is so good. Like I, I, I just love soaking it up. Anyway, I found this. post that, um, talked about a study that was done, um, at, at Stanford University by an oncologist who just looked at, I think it was, it was just like an what is it? What are the, is it an epidemiological study when they just observe things

Chrissy:

Sure.

Katie:

like the trends? Does that make sense? It's

Chrissy:

Um,

Katie:

a causation, they're not looking for the actual cause. They're just observing a trend of something.

Chrissy:

okay. Sure. I don't know. And

Katie:

epidemiology.

Chrissy:

that's the study of epidemics and like diseases,

Katie:

Is it it or there's it up. Look it up. Whatever the study of like a correlation thing is and you tell me in a second.

Chrissy:

sociology,

Katie:

No, it's, that is funny. Sociology though,

Chrissy:

that actually in college when I had to take my sociology class, we were only allowed to make observations. We were not allowed to make any causation statements. And it drove me crazy because the causation was so clear to me, but I was not allowed to make those statements. They were illegal.

Katie:

I honestly though, it makes sense. So when you were talking about the estrogen and fat thing, in my mind you associate something like if you have more fat, you can't get pregnant, or if you have too little fat, you can't get pregnant. So it seems like the fat is the issue when really the estrogen is likely the cause of it. So it kind of makes sense why you can't always make claims just based on your observations, because there could technically still be an underlying cause. So I guess it kind of makes, it makes sense, but in other It doesn't, I don't know. Anyway, I, I understand the being safe about it because there could still be something that's causing the fat or the something else, if that makes sense. I feel like I'm not even making sense to myself maybe.

Chrissy:

No, you're making sense, but confirmed you were correct. It is the epidemiological study. This is a scientific process of examining the distribution patterns and determinants of health related events in a specific population without making causation statements.

Katie:

Yep. Thank you. RFK uses that term a lot. I also learned it from the book Turtles all the way down, which we do not need to get into that book because that is a

Chrissy:

That's not the turtles all the way down by John Green. It's the other one,

Katie:

it's the other one. If you're curious, you can go look it up

Chrissy:

not the one by John Green.

Katie:

Not the one by John Green. I've never actually read that book. I almost did because I actually really like John Green as an author. I, he, he writes a lot of good stuff, like The Fault in Our Stars. Anyway, I was like, wow, he has that same title. That's so crazy.

Chrissy:

You know, what's my, sorry, off topic. My favorite John Green book. It's really great. You can like pick it up, read for five minutes, put it down, pick it up a month later, and you're in a completely different part of the book and put it down. It's called, the op scene, reviewed. And he goes through just like random things about air conditioning and pop stars and how LA came to be, and frogs, and just like each chapter is like how each of these things relates to humanity and its significance on humanity.

Katie:

guy.

Chrissy:

It's so random. I know. Anyway.

Katie:

my book called, um, American Frugal Housewife, that I got one time at a national park and I found it really fascinating. It was like written in the 18 hundreds about just like ways to save money as a housewife. And I just thought it was really interesting. But literally every sentence is like a different subject. It'll be like save the ashes from your fire in order to makely soap. And then the next sentence will be about like stitches and socks. And then it'll talk about like bathing in general. And then it'll talk about food. And it's like literally like, it'll be a paragraph, but every sentence is about something different. And it drives me slightly nuts because like, it's not something I can go back and reference to be like, what was that one fact about soap that she said, I literally have to like go through everything in order to find it. So

Chrissy:

At least John Green has his thoughts separated by chapters,

Katie:

Yep.

Chrissy:

sorry.

Katie:

That was a really good tangent. I really enjoy our conversations. The, the thing that I was going to originally share was that I found this post that talked about this study from Stanford done by an oncologist. I think it was just an epidemiological study, which we now learned is just the observation of these trends within health and things. But they did a study on what the favorite food was of millions of cancer patients, and they found out that the favorite food, you'd think. Would probably be something, maybe like sugar or maybe, um, that they just loved fast food or red meat like these things that people often associate with maybe more bad health in general, which fast food is one of those things that there's a lot of problems with it. I'm not saying go eat a bunch of fast food or even sugar, but interestingly enough, the type of food that they loved the most was,, fat free foods. So fat-free dairy products, 0% fat yogurt, fat-free, cottage cheese, fat free, um, keefer, skim milk. It's just that, that like blew my mind. I was not, I was expecting it to be sugar, like when I saw this post and I was like going through and reading the information about it. I thought it was gonna be sugar because I know that I have learned a lot. We've talked about sugar obviously, and how that is really bad, but it's so interesting that it's the fat free stuff and it is really, what it really comes down to is a lot of the chemical processing, in order to get something to be fat free, you know it, it has to go through this treatment process where it's treated with different acids, um, and alkali in order to make it fat free. And then they have to add back in some sort of artificial thickener to make sure that it actually stays like milk. Like you think about milk, like skim milk nowadays, like we have switched to full fat, you know, whole milk. But we are also doing raw milk these days, so it's like extra fat milk, like it's got all the fat in it and drinking skim milk literally tastes like water to me. And it is so nasty

Chrissy:

And

Katie:

so, yeah, I don't

Chrissy:

the crazy thing is I grew up on skim milk.

Katie:

Ditto.

Chrissy:

didn't, you also like our family. Just whole milk was just not a thing. It was disgusting. It was so thick and had such a milky flavor to it. But now the thought of putting skim milk on cereal or something like that, I'm like, that's like eight egg cereal in water.

Katie:

I mean, literally, I will not put it in my coffee because I actually think it makes my coffee taste disgusting now. And I would rather drink it black than put skim milk in it because I'm like, I would, it's basically just like adding more water to it. But here's some of the things that they often have to add to these fat-free, especially dairy products. So they add things like keraginin, different gums, modified starch, and these things often cause intestinal inflammation. really

Chrissy:

Remember as the,

Katie:

first step.

Chrissy:

it's a epidemiological study. They don't cause anything. It's just related to it. Katie.

Katie:

okay, this is the actual, the, the stuff inside of it.

Chrissy:

Oh, okay.

Katie:

you're right, we should only talk in generalizations so as to not get sued.

Chrissy:

That's true though. Don't sue us, please.

Katie:

And we talked about this I think too in a, a previous episode that when, when you have like fat free stuff, the, the st like everything is tasteless and, well, you kind of alluded to that earlier too, is that the meat that often is full fat the best. And even like milk, milk just tastes better when it has all of the fat in it. It's just richer. It's creamier, it has flavor and substance to it. And so when you take all that out. You have to add back in stuff in order to make it taste at least worthy of putting into your mouth. And so they often do have to add sugars or, um, fructose and dextrose, which are also just types of sugar. Yeah, it's just stripping it of all of the good stuff and then putting in some not good stuff. And even they, they add things, um, like the, what is it called? The vitamins, the not good vitamins. The what

Chrissy:

Synthetic synthetic.

Katie:

Synthetic synthetic vitamins. They add all the synthetic vitamins, which are not as bioavailable to your body to absorb, which, uh, my dad and I, when we were having this meat conversation, I. I talking to him about red meat and how I've learned, been learning a lot of the benefits of red meat and, and that's why we've been switching. But one of the main things is that the red meat tends to have more bioavailable vitamins and nutrients for your body than getting those same vitamins and nutrients from things like vegetables. And the reason this is so fascinating to me, I'm, I'm trying to remember, actually, it might have been on, um, a Wise Traditions podcast episode. I've been listening to that podcast a lot more lately. It's so good. It's basically all about the Westin a Price foundation, which is where a lot of this information comes from. Um, but they, they talk more in depth about all of it, but they were mentioning that red meat, so you think of a cow, a cow goes and eats plants. And then goes and digests it and breaks it all down, and then all of the nutrients from that grass, like the vitamins and everything, gets into the cow and is in its meat and, and, and, you know, it's in its muscles and fats and body parts. And then we go and eat that meat and it is just, it's already processed by the cow, so it's more available for our body to absorb and use instead of the vi, like through getting it through vegetables, is still good. There's still obviously plenty of benefits to vegetables. It's just that certain forms of vitamins are not as easily absorbed into our bodies as they would be if you had it through something, especially like red meat, which was really fascinating to me. So I'm like, wow, okay. We're just, we're gonna go on this journey of diving into having lots of burgers and meatloaf and. Chili. I love red meat and chili,

Chrissy:

this is making me thinking, think about, so I'm starting a process with a naturopathic doctor right now to essentially like heal my gut. And so we're going through, we're starting by eliminating different foods and then eventually I'm going to get to a full meat and vegetable diet for, I don't even know how long a month or two, which I did the math. Unfortunately, that month or two is like over Thanksgiving and Christmas and I don't know what I'm gonna do. Oh, we're gonna figure it out. The Lord is good and he is going to use this for his glory and my joy. And so anyways, I'm doing this process and so they gave us like a full list of healthy vegetables. Well vegetables are healthy, but vegetables and good fats to in, to implement into our diets and like keep as integral parts in our diets. And so I'm just gonna go through this fat list real quick because. I found it really, really interesting how many items there are that contain good fats for you. So hang on to your socks. Here we go. Avocado, avocado oil, coconut, coconut oil, extra virgin olive oil, ghee, which is clarified Butter, grass fed butter, grass fed beef, pasture raised chickens, pasture raised eggs, pasture raised pork raw, caico, which is the raw form of chocolate, raw dairy, raw nuts and seeds. Olives and wild caught fish.

Katie:

I don't think I heard tallow on, there was tallow on that list.

Chrissy:

Oh, it's not,

Katie:

I expected you to say, gee, and then tallow right after that, and then you didn't, and I was like,

Chrissy:

I didn't, I'm gonna have to ask him about that because I would definitely put tall in that list.

Katie:

Yeah, learned for those who are looking for a good deal, Costco does sell like big jars of ghee and tallow and it's apparently a grass fed version of it. You know, who knows if it's like truly a grass fed, you know, version of it.'cause there's a lot of loopholes and stuff. But I, I just felt like that was a really good step in the right direction. I actually got a, um, a thing of the ghee and we've been using it more. It is definitely a different, like that's the first time that I've really been cooking with it. I've had food that's been cooked in it.'cause like we have, um, friends, it's, GH is used a lot in Asian, like, especially Indian cultures. And we have some really good friends who are Indian and they cook a lot with it. I personally have never cooked with it and it's, I mean, it's just like using butter, but it's just more. Intense flavor, which is just something I've been getting used to, especially on vegetables when I've used either like olive oil or um, just regular butter before. So yeah, it's, it's good. I, I've been growing to like it a lot more.

Chrissy:

Ghee is one of those that it's like$12 every time I go to buy it, and it's just a small container and I just cannot justify the$12 butter.

Katie:

Yeah,

Chrissy:

You know, like it was hard enough to switch to pasteurized butter. That was literally double the price for half the product. Then like normal butter, the generic brand, and then to switch then to gh, which is again, double the price and half the product again. I was like, I can't do that. That's a lot.

Katie:

Honestly, it's a really good conversation as far as like finances go that. I would probably just stick to one of them as like your go-to and just, you know, decide, okay, I'm going to have the, the butter. Like you, you switch to the better butter But even honestly, like if you are someone who has been using vegetable oil or canola oil for all of your cooking, like, don't even think about necessarily jumping straight to the grass fed premium butters and things. The next best step would be really just switching to butter instead of a vegetable oil or a canola oil, because at least it's a step better than these polyunsaturated oils that are creating a lot of inflammation in your body. And so I would, I would ditch that and then move to just the next step. Oh, I actually wanted to mention this at some point. I found this girl who I think her Instagram account is called like a Little Less Toxic, and she, really wanna get one of her books. In fact, I think it's going to be, I'm gonna get it. Don't tell Abby, maybe, I don't know if Abby listens to this podcast. Abby's one of our cousins. She is getting married very soon and I'm so excited, but I think I'm gonna get it. This woman's book for her, um, it's basically just like a non-toxic household, but it's not like outrageous stuff. She basically gives you like scales. From my understanding. I have not looked up the book, but she gives you like a scale of like, okay, if you're looking to have cleaner water. Depending on where you are at the scale, the next best thing is doing this. And so it's not necessarily jumping all the way to getting like a reverse osmosis and all these like fancy filtration systems. But if you've just been drinking tap water, just get like one of the Brita filters and start there and then do a burkee filter and then, you know, So when you're thinking about where you're at on this like fat like the scale of where you're at with eating fats, you've been doing the um, polyunsaturated oils, which are basically just your vegetable oils or seed oils. Just switch to something like olive oil even, and then go from there and then switch to the next like slightly less toxic thing versus like going all the way to the Rolls Royce version of something. So I just, I, I listened to a podcast episode with her. I don't even remember if it was what, what podcast it was on, but just, I really liked it'cause she had a lot of practical steps that you can take that weren't super overwhelming and she has a whole book on it. And I was like, that would be a really good wedding gift. And so I was like, I am going to a wedding soon and so I'm gonna get it for Abigail. So Abby, don't tell yourself that I'm getting it for you if you're listening.

Chrissy:

It's okay. She probably won't be listening'cause she's planning a wedding right now.

Katie:

Yeah. It's like, I think four weeks away, so.

Chrissy:

Is it? No, it's like three weeks away.

Katie:

Oh my gosh.

Chrissy:

Is it? Yeah, like it's really close. There's no way she's listening to this episode.

Katie:

It was her birthday yesterday too. Happy birthday, Abby.

Chrissy:

Oh no. I didn't even wish her a happy birthday.

Katie:

Oh, I'll give you a heads up. It's my birthday tomorrow, by the way.

Chrissy:

Okay, good. I'll text you. Thanks.

Katie:

Okay,

Chrissy:

I didn't get the reminder text from my mother.

Katie:

Laura,

Chrissy:

I know she needs to get with it.

Katie:

get with it. Laura, that is funny that your mom does that. Wes'

Chrissy:

Does your mom, does your mom do that?

Katie:

No.

Chrissy:

Oh, you're just responsible for remembering everybody's birthdays all on your own.

Katie:

Yeah, and I have him on my calendar. I generally know

Chrissy:

Oh,

Katie:

at least the month of all of our cousin's birthdays to remember like, oh yeah, October's coming around. Lindsay has a birthday.

Chrissy:

and this is why you're the first born cousin and I am closer to the younger ones.

Katie:

of the totem pole.

Chrissy:

I don't know anyone's birthdays. I know mine and my sister.

Katie:

I know, I bet everybody in our family knows your birthday. Yours is the easiest.

Chrissy:

It is, you know. Okay. So for reference for our listeners, my birthday is on Christmas and growing up when kids didn't know their birthday, I would always look at them like they were stupid. I was like, how do you not know your birthday? Like your birthday's such a fun day outta the year, shouldn't you like always have this huge party and always celebrate with all of your family? Always there every year and you get like lots and lots of presents in like double the presents that everybody else gets because it's your birthday. And I did not realize that to remember a birthday such as May 21st is a little bit more difficult to remember than Christmas,

Katie:

Yep. That is funny.

Chrissy:

you know?

Katie:

All right, well, I think we have sufficiently the fat on that conversation. I had to throw that in there. I'm sorry. That was terrible. That is not even like me to come up with such a pun.

Chrissy:

I am not editing that out.

Katie:

I know.

Chrissy:

That's staying there.

Katie:

So we've talked a lot and if you have any thoughts or questions about it, we'd love to hear from you. So please reach out to us. Um, as we end this episode, as we're recording this, um, it's been now about almost two weeks since there was a quite pivotal moment in history, but also the history of the world, um, especially for believers. Um, if you don't know what I am alluding to, that is the assassination of Charlie Kirk and Christy and I, before we started recording this episode, we discussed whether we should say something because for the two of us, this was an event that really, really shook us for a lot of different reasons. Um. And we just, we decided that it was, it was an important enough topic that needed at least a moment, um, of mention and for reflection because this assassination, life that was taken from us, really has represented kind of this moment, this pivotal moment. And, and I'm, I've kind of, I, I, I wanna use the phrase turning point, but it almost seems funny to use the word turning point because Charlie Kirk's, um, organization was called Turning Point. But it really is this moment that our country and our society and our, like, our world is really starting to shift. It, it is so to me what we are going through. Um, I actually sent out an email for, for those who don't know, and maybe I don't usually talk about this, but I am also a certified Christian financial counselor. Um, that's what I've, what I do besides just this podcast. And so I have a whole nother email list of people that I send regular emails to. And I typically talk about finances and how we can steward our resources well to glorify God. So I talk a lot about money. I usually don't talk about politics at all. I talk a lot about faith because it is a faith-based thing that I'm doing, and it's for Christians. But I sent out an email this, uh, it was about a week ago, just kind of taking a moment to talk about it. And so I, I thought that, I could read a little bit of what I sent. I posted it on my Facebook. Paige, I have like a kind of business Facebook page. If you look up Katie Fiola Jones, you will find it. But I will also share a link to it. So you can read the whole that I sent if you are curious on it. The reason why this is so big of a deal for so many of us is that Charlie Kirk stood for so much more than like the conservative movement, which is typically what he was known for. Um, he really was pivotal in Trump getting elected, like in this, this recent election, because he, what he's known for, what he was known for, of the things he was known for was going on to college campuses to talk with young adults about the conservative movement. But more than that, and bigger than that, was sharing the gospel. I mean, Charlie Kirk was an evangelist to the core, and he knew that when you go through politics and you go through this, like seeing it through the lens of this conservative movement, that it only ends at the gospel. Like it, you, you know, that the gospel in Jesus Christ, that God himself is at the root of, of all of it. And so no matter what end of the spectrum you are on, if you are a follower of Christ, this moment is so. Sad because we lost a brother in Christ and someone who was so courageously declaring freedom for our country, but also freedom from Satan, um, through Jesus Christ. And so this, I know that there's a lot of weird stuff going on on both ends of the spectrum with this, um, death. there's been a lot of hate online. But as a believer, this is a really big moment. Because he really stood for more than we speak, even when we disagree with one another. with grace in our families and communities. He was a huge advocate for the, the reformation of the family basically. And, and really, um, empowering families to grow and to unify together. And then he also stood for living out our faith in very practical ways, um, simply by just having conversations and loving our neighbors. The last two weeks have been really hard. And as we're recording this, the memorial was just the last, just yesterday. Um, and it has been very clear to Chrissy and I that, there is a spiritual revival happening not only in America but around the world because his life and his death is like ringing across literally the planet and people are coming to know Christ because of it. And. I was in tears reading some of the comments and seeing people at the memorial stand up declaring faith in Jesus for the very first time. And people who have never opened a Bible and have been going out to the stores and buying them and walking into churches for the first time, like this is incredible. So I wanted to, to say a few words. I know Chrissy wanted to share a few things too. Um, and then we will wrap up the podcast.

Chrissy:

Yeah. Yeah, I think you said that so beautifully. And this, uh, death of Charlie Kirk has been very truly evidence of the quote that I hear over and over and over again that. The seeds of the gospel are watered by the blood of the martyrs. That seeds of the gospel had been planted all over the world by faithful Christians going and declaring the truth of their faith, and those seeds were watered and blossomed when Charlie Kirk was assassinated and this side of heaven. It's very sad that that is the reality, but on the other side of heaven, how glorious must it be right now to have all of the angels singing and crying? Hallelujah. Glory to God in heaven because so many people are coming to know Jesus and surrendering themself to God. And so I also wanna open this up to any of our listeners who have been listening to us and questioning their faith and everything like that. God, I just, I want to open this up to you guys, that if you are not a believer in Jesus, and you have seen this revival happen, that it is powerful. The Lord is powerful, and God is at work and he moves through this world. And if you have been sitting on the edge of your seat debating whether or not to trust in Christ, I just wanna ask you, invite you to do that now. Officially surrender. Put your trust in Christ and let him work in and through you. God doesn't promise us riches. He doesn't promise us glorious things when we come to know him, but he promises us peace and he promises joy. And that has been so true in seeing the result of Charlie's death is the peace and the joy that has come over this entire world. And so I just wanna invite you to that today. If you haven't put your faith in Christ yet that to do so right here, right now, you can just open your heart to the Lord

Katie:

Amen. If you decided to do that, we would also really love to know and get to celebrate you and yeah, I,

Chrissy:

and also.

Katie:

do

Chrissy:

And also to walk alongside you and get you connected into a Christian community so that you can have other believers pouring into you, so you're not walking in this faith walk alone. You're not supposed to. God created us for community. We are communal beings and so help, help us, help you find people to walk with you wherever you live.

Katie:

hope that you enjoyed this conversation today. Um, we, yeah, we really enjoy what we get to do with this podcast. It's really fun for us to have these conversations because we'd be having them anyway. And so it's fun to get to share them with you, and we would love to continue the conversation. So feel free to email us. Feel free to join us on Facebook at Crunchy Christian Mamas on a budget. Um, if you know us personally, you can definitely just continue the conversation by texting or calling us, which we have so many of you do, and it's really enjoyable to getting to hear from you and what this podcast has meant to you because it means a lot to us. So that, we are praying for you guys. Um, we pray that these, these conversations are a blessing and hopefully they make you move just even an inch closer to knowing Christ, um, and to be in that relationship with him. So my name is Katie Jones.

Chrissy:

And my name is Chrissy, and thanks for listening to Crunchy Stewardship.