Crunchy Stewardship

How PFAS Impact Your Hormones and Fertility

• Katie Jones • Season 2 • Episode 41

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As we continue our Fertility Series, we are shifting our focus to the environmental factors that can throw our bodies out of balance. Today, we are tackling a big one: PFAS (polyfluoroalkyl substances), also known as "forever chemicals."

While the topic of environmental toxins can feel overwhelming, we are here to remind you to choose faith over fear. We break down exactly what endocrine disruptors are, how they hijack your natural hormone production (like progesterone and insulin), and where these chemicals are hiding in plain sight. Most importantly, we share practical, budget-friendly, and stress-free ways to start reducing your family’s exposure today to protect your health and the fertility of the next generation.


In this episode, you'll learn:

  • The Hospital Food Shift: Why local farm partnerships in Florida hospitals are a massive win for holistic health.
  • Endocrine Disruption 101: How "forever chemicals" confuse your body, mimic hormones, and impact fertility.
  • The Pregnancy Nutrient Drain: Why your placenta will prioritize the baby’s growth at the expense of your own bones and reserves if you aren't nutrient-dense.
  • Where PFAS Hide: The truth about your tap water, to-go coffee cups, microwave popcorn bags, and non-stick pans.
  • The Fire-Resistant Problem: Why your mattresses, carpets, and children’s pajamas are coated in chemicals, and how to properly "off-gas" new furniture.
  • Simple Swaps: Easy ways to transition to stainless steel, cast iron, organic cotton underwear, and clean cosmetics without breaking the bank.

Resources mentioned:

Chapters:

00:00 Fertility Series and PFAS Preview
02:39 Random Revelation Hospital Food
04:18 Florida Hospital Nutrition Shift
11:48 PFAS Explained Endocrine Disruption
14:12 Hormones and Fertility Connections
17:01 Katie Progesterone Story
21:11 Pregnancy Hormone Rollercoaster
23:57 Placenta Nutrient Priorities
27:41 Where PFAS Hide
29:08 PFAS in Drinking Water|
33:25 Landfills Contaminate Soil
35:12 Mindset Over Fear
35:58 Cookware Swaps
39:51 Food Packaging Fixes
44:50 Foam Flame Resistant
48:33 Furniture, Mattresses, Carpets, Clothes
50:02 Off-gassing Tips
53:49 Pesticides
54:52 Personal Care Products 
59:32 Protecting the Next Generation


Remember, whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all for the glory of God (1 Corinthians 10:31).

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FREE How to Afford Non-Toxic Living Workbook: https://crunchystewardship.com/how-to-afford-non-toxic-living

Speaker

Welcome to Crunchy Stewardship. I'm Chrissy Roach.

Speaker 2

And I'm Katie Fiola Jones. We are cousins on a mission to honor God by stewarding our health spiritually, mentally, and physically.

Speaker

From ancestral nutrition and natural remedies to biblical finance and holistic health, we are digging deep into how God intended us to live.

Speaker 3

So grab yourself a raw milk latte and join us as we unpack the ins and outs of crunchy stewardship.

Chrissy

Hey, welcome back to Crunchy Stewardship. We got Katie and Chrissy here. Um. On this beautiful Saturday morning that we're recording the episode, um, today we are going to be continuing with our infertility series, or rather our fertility series on how to combat fertility challenges and, um, natural ways to reduce toxins in your life, um, in order to maximize your fertility as best as possible. So today our episode is going to be mainly focused on PFAS, which are, um, poly phalle substances. That's a hard word to say, poly phalle substances, which, um, remain in our bodies and cause endocrine disruption, so, um, imbalances within our hormones and they can cause cancer. So we'll be diving into all of that today, but before we get started in that, with that, Katie, do you have a random revelation for.

Katie

Do. I actually gain more prepared. Christy and I always, right before we start these episodes, we're like, oh yeah, it's your turn for the ran. In Revelation, and sometimes we forget that it's our own turns. And the last few times I've been notorious for not having it right before. And so I'm like scrambling to figure it out. But this time had it prepared the whole week, like I had been thinking about it. And even at that, when I'm thinking about it more, everything seems like something that I want to share with you guys and just stuff that I'm like, this would be really good. This would be really good. So I have a list of different things that I'll be sharing over the next few weeks, so be ready for that because my turn isn't until two weeks from now. So stay tuned. That's a, a note too. If you're not subscribed to our podcast, make sure you are subscribed so that way you get notifications when episodes drop. But they do drop every Friday early in the morning, so just tune back in every Friday you won't miss out. However, getting to my. Random revelation for this week. My random revelation actually comes from a, a few different things that I started learning of over the last couple weeks. And it's interesting because it ties into some personal experience that I have. So, actually a couple weeks ago, I, I'm a part of a bunch of different newsletter things about Maha stuff, you know, make America healthy again and different crunchy things. And I received an email and I couldn't find this one'cause this one was from a couple weeks ago, but I couldn't find it again. I think I deleted it. But it was all about how, uh, Dunkin Donuts is in a lot of children's hospitals how Dunking Donuts offers like all these sugary. Treats and drinks to sick children in the hospital. And if you've been following along this podcast, you know that refined flowers and sugar and seed oils, which are notorious, um, for being in the foods of Dunka donuts. These things all cause our immune systems become more weakened and sickly and we more easily, uh, fall prey to just degenerative diseases. And yeah, our bodies just degrade when we're eating these things. So it's kind of like wild to me that there's all these Dunking Donuts inside of children's hospitals and a lot of hospitals like want Dunking Donuts to be there and, and all this stuff. Anyway, the article was all about how this is, how terrible it is, and the fight against Dunking Donuts being in children's hospitals. Well, week, um, there was kind of a Maha win, um, in the state of Florida. Actually, Chrissy, I, I didn't even mention this. This is in Florida. Um, you're currently in Florida, right?

Chrissy

I am, yes. As we're recording this, it is Easter weekend and so Max. And I flew down to Florida to visit his parents for Easter. So I'm sitting in their den right now looking out over the lake beautiful sunshine and birds and alligators and it, it's just, I love it here. But anyways, yes, I'm in Florida right now.

Katie

and it's a huge bummer. But anyway, so in the state of Florida, they've actually had a lot of like Maha wins in the last year since, um, has become. HHS secretary and one of them has to do with spraying chemicals in the air. So you can look up some of the like, chem trails stuff and geoengineering things. And that happened sometime last year. But this win is really, um, interesting because hopefully it can, you know, happen other places. But he the commitment to improve nutrition in Florida hospitals through a unique partnership with local farmers. So really interesting is that report that I was kind of checking out, it kind of outlines how, um, you know, Robert F. Kennedy. this successful initiative to partner with local farmers to kind of upgrade the nutritional quality, um, and the food that's served inside of Florida hospitals. So this is honestly a really awesome development because it's starting to like signal shift away from heavily processed artificial meals that typically find in healthcare facilities and instead move towards food that's more deeply nourishing. Um, more on the traditional side, you know, focusing on whole foods, especially like what we talked about in our previous episode on nutrition, especially when you are pregnant or trying to get pregnant or just in general, if you're trying to be healthy, or especially when you are trying to fight off. Something like cancer or any other or illness, food is one of those first things that you can do to help support your body to be healthier. And so it's wild to me that in hospitals, they serve such poor food, like just, junk, like honestly. And it's something that I actually got to experience when I was in the hospital myself. And when I was living there for like a month, it was nice that they provided me meals and I didn't have to cook. I didn't have to think about bringing food in. And they did have some decent, healthy options at the hospital that I was in, I was also shocked at how much junk really was on the menus. And their dessert menu was huge. And you're just like, people are really sick and these foods are not going to help them get better. So yeah.

Chrissy

You know what's wild? When I was working in the hospital, we had a patient come through who was allergic to preservatives. And she could only eat, I think, maybe two or three things off the menu in the hospital because every single food item had preservatives in it. I think the only thing she could eat was like the fruit cup and maybe a salad without dressing, and that was it. We ended up having to change her diet orders because she couldn't eat anything, and she eventually was like, screw it. I'll just deal with the consequences of eating preservatives because I need to eat. It was so unfortunate.

Katie

It really, I just like, I have a lot of, obviously we were in the hospital, they saved our lives and I am so. Grateful that we have the emergency medical technology and these days to be able to save people from things like, you know, sepsis that we had, was great. However, people who are dealing with more chronic illnesses, these foods are not helping them get better. And so you just have to think about the like, big picture of like, what are hospitals really trying to do? Are they trying to heal people are they really just trying to make money? Right? I don't know. And I, I don't want to just necessarily jump on the bandwagon and be like, yeah, they're all out to get our money. And everybody in the hospital's evil because I don't believe that and I've, I've known lots of people who have worked in hospitals and even just the doctors that helped. and Malachi when we were sick and needed treatment. It's like they all seemed like really wonderful, genuine people and, and some of them were even Christians and we had really great conversations with them and, and all this stuff. But I just feel like the big picture of all of it tends to point towards the fact that hospitals really are just trying to make money off of sick people and trying to keep them sick and so anyway, it's really awesome to hear that RFK is making some of these big changes and, and helping, I mean, it's not necessarily just him that's making these changes. Obviously these hospitals are on board and the state of Florida has been on board with trying to help make people healthier, which is so great. And I'm just praying that initiatives like this that are happening in the state of Florida will. Uh, uh, maybe inspire other states to do similar things. And it's really cool that they're partnering with local farmers to bring from their area to the hospitals. Because we've talked about this before, that a, once any food has been cut off from its life source. So when you pick a piece of, like a vegetable or a piece of fruit from its vine, or its tree or its bush, it starts to lose nutritional value. And so the longer you wait to eat that food, less nutrients that it will have. And so by providing foods that are from the local area, they have a better chance of having more. Nutritional value for the people eating them than say something coming from California, which is where a lot of produce in America comes from. It's like all the way on the other side of the, the country and then shipping it over there and who knows how long it had been picked before it came over anyway, so it's, it's just like a really cool initiative and I saw that and it made me really excited and I'm just hoping that maybe it'll spark a little bit of a flame across our country, but I don't know. We'll see.

Chrissy

I hope so. That would be great. Well, let's transition into our actual episode for today. We are going to be talking about pfos, which as I said earlier, is poly furcal substances, which essentially, uh. It's substances that they use in, um, flame retardants and non-stick coatings and water resistant coatings and things like that. Um, that work great for their intended purposes of flame retardants and water resistance and, um, things like that. But at the same time, they can seep in through our skin and they can be abdo absorbed through our digestive system. And when that happens, our bodies are completely unable to filter them out and get rid of them. And they, they stay in our bodies, they accumulate in our bodies. They often cause endocrine disruption, which we say endocrine disruption a lot of times. And some people are like, oh, that sounds like a big, fancy, crunchy word that I don't really know. Essentially, broken down endocrine disruption means that your body is not creating the hormones the way it's supposed to. So our bodies function off of hormones, literally. Think of a bodily function that you do and it's probably because of a hormone. Are you hungry? That's the hormone ghrelin. Are you thirsty? That's another hormone. I forgot what it's called. Um, are you tired? That's the hormone melatonin. Did you eat some candy and get a sugar high? And then a crash, that's your hormone insulin. Did you ovulate this month? That's your hormone. FSH and lh. Um, and estrogen and progesterone. Are you losing your hair? That could be your hormone Cortisol. Um. Things like that. All of these things, like our bodies are constantly functioning off of hormones. There are hundreds of hormones in our bodies that work in beautiful unison to keep our bodies functioning on a daily basis, to keep the processes functioning on a daily basis. And so when those hormones get disrupted and their natural release and their natural signals get interfered with, then that's when we have problems. And as we've mentioned before, specifically with fertility, you know, fertility specialists and obs and things like that, they will check, um, like two or three major hormones for fertility. They'll check estrogen, progesterone, and maybe FSH. Um, that's what my doctor checked those three actually. She might've checked LH also. I don't remember honestly. Um. But they check like three main ones and that's kind of it. But when you really look down, look into it, you realize that progesterone and cortisol, which are is our stress hormone, are inversely cor, inversely related to each other. So if you have high cortisol, your body's not gonna be able to produce as much progesterone because they work opposite. They, it's like, um. As I've said before, sodium and potassium in the body, they go opposite directions. And so if your sodium's high, your potassium is going to go low. And so, uh, uh, progesterone and cortisol are the same way. If your cortisol is high, then your progesterone's gonna go low. And that progest, that low progesterone prevents a pregnancy, but it's caused by the, the cortisol levels or similarly, um, with insulin. You know, if we have, uh, high re fasting insulin in our bodies, then um, that's indicative of insulin resistance and in, in incomplete processing of sugars and things like that in our bodies, which can lead to high blood sugar levels, which then in impacts our estrogen levels because estrogen is stored in the fat of our bodies. And if we have. Too much insulin. That means we're increasing the amount of fat, which then increases the amount of estrogen in our bodies because estrogen is stored in the fat. And so it, it's all so interconnected that like our fertility is more than just estrogen, progesterone, and follicle stimulating hormone. It is the insulin, it is the cortisol, it is melatonin that impacts our fertility. So many other hormones in the body are interconnected. And so that's why Katie and I believe that talking about PFAS or poly furcal substances, look at that. I actually said that without looking at the word this time. I'm so proud of myself. Um, so looking at PFAS in our lives and identifying where. They are around us, and then working to remove those from our lives can greatly impact our fertility because our bodies aren't getting assaulted with endocrine disruption or interfere. Substances that interfere with our hormone balance on a daily basis.

Katie

so you mentioning progesterone actually reminded me. So in our, would it have been? I think it was our first or second episode. I think we, we started talking about it in our first episode of the series of our fertility series. We shared our own, you know, fertility slash infertility journeys, and I had talked about how was a point in my early on before I was married and everything that I had stopped having a period, and it was really strange. And so I had gone to the doctor to try to figure out what it was. And was interesting was at the time they actually did not do any tests to figure out what was wrong with my hormone levels at the time. And instead they just simply put me onto some sort of medication to kind of stimulate the, you know, hormones in my body to then start to quote unquote regulate and then, um, you know, jumpstart my cycle again. And what was so wild was Chrissy and I, we recorded this episode and then it was like a day or two after this I happened to be looking through. I was, so we moved into our new house. I was putting documents away in our new filing cabinet, and I just happened to pull out the document. I don't know why I still have this, the document that has the information from, what was this, 2014? On the medications they happened to give me during that doctor's appointment. And the, the medication they gave me in order to kind of jumpstart my cycle again was a form of progesterone. Um, it was called, the is Med Roxy progesterone or also known as Provera, which was like the fancy or the fun name for it or whatever. Anyway, I just, it was interesting that I happened to come upon this and they just decided, you know, here's some progesterone to jumpstart your system and also progesterone was what they gave me. When, when I did finally, you know, when I was going through and getting a bunch of testing done to figure out why I wasn't getting pregnant, progesterone was something that was off in my system. I, I guess it was, I think it was probably pretty low because then they gave me progesterone to take. Um, however, when I was taking it at, at that time, so that would've been in like 20, 22 or so when I was taking it, it whacked out my entire system and my hormones were so just, they were going crazy. And so it basically put me into like a state of depression. And I mean, hormones really impact your mood. They impact your day-to-day functioning. Um, and when it comes to our fertility, they can actually impact like our egg quality, um, and the pregnancy outcomes, like actually like. What your pregnancy is like and how your, uh, labor is. I'm like, what is that word? When you give birth labor? Anyway, it's, it's interesting because, you know, PFAS when they're introduced into our system, they sort of mimic these natural hormones that are supposed to all be balanced. And PFAS aren't the only thing that are impacting our endocrine system. Food impacts our endocrine system. a lot of other, um, things that we'll continue to talk about in this series that do impact our endocrine system. But PFAS, they, they basically trick your body into responding in ways that eventually hinder our abilities to. Kind of have a successful pregnancy. And, and so when, what's interesting, the more that I've also learned about it too, is that when our endocrine system is, is very imbalanced, you can potentially get pregnant, but then it's hard for your body to stay pregnant because obviously there are so many hormones. Your hormones change so dramatically when you're pregnant from, you know,'cause it's, it's your, your system trying to tell your body to then start to build a human. And there are so many, like your, your hormones are now telling your body to do all these new things. And so it's really interesting when you study how your hormones change from when you're, when you have. When you become pregnant during the pregnancy and then they stimulate your body to then start contracting to go into labor. And then afterwards you have like a dramatic shift in hormones after the baby is out because now your body's trying to go back to normal. And then for a woman, it is just wild. And I, I remember, I mean, one of the things, like one of the interesting things when you're pregnant is that you often have like really full. Hair, like your hair just becomes really luscious and dense and you don't lose hair as easily and your nails often grow really strong. And it's, it's like your body starting to, it's, it's, what it was. I, I learned about it because I was like, why is it that it pregnancy? You have all this hair and then as soon as you give birth, it's usually like within the month or so after that, you all of a sudden just start losing your hair. And I started losing my hair so intensely that like, was worried I was gonna go bald at a certain point and I could notice it pretty, pretty much.'cause I'm like, I'm looking at myself every day in the mirror and I was like, my bangs are really thinned out and they were so beautiful and luscious during my pregnancy and ugh, I would just lose globs of hair in the shower. And I hated showering just because so much hair would come out and I'd be like, what I'd like going bald. But it's like your body is the certain hormones that tell your hair when to fall out and when not to fall out. It's like those were re or they were like redirected to a different area of your body. And so your hair cycle doesn't happen like normal, so all of your hair kind of stays in the head and then afterwards your head is like making up for all of the hair that it kept during the pregnancy, and it's just like, goodbye hair, we don't need you anymore. And then it just starts falling out because I, I was just so concerned about it. And anyway, it usually goes back to normal after like a month or two, but it was very intense. speaking of like your body is like telling to do different things when you are pregnant. And I, and I actually, I had this thought after we recorded our nutrition episode, but I also think it's really important to understand that if you get pregnant and you don't have the proper nutrition or your hormones are not exactly balanced, it's like your body does actually have, so there's, um, there's like a hormone, maybe I didn't actually write down the, the hormone name. So your placenta starts to act as a small pump that shunts glucose and fat from the mother and prioritizes the baby's growth and the baby's survival the mother's like own reserves. So like the hormones are being redirected in different areas, so are all of the like vitamins, minerals, and nutrients that you have in your body. And so that's why it's also really important to be eating a very nutrient and dense diet, because if you're not, the placenta is programmed to take in all of those minerals and all of those nutrients no matter what. And so it will find those reserves in your body. And oftentimes where that comes from is your bones. And so your placenta, like the baby, is literally like sucking all of the good stuff from your bones. And it's oftentimes why, mothers, like, especially like later in life, if you have many babies, you become weaker and you're more prone to things like osteoporosis and like you're. it's, it's basically your bones are being demineralized because it's all those minerals are now going to the baby because the placenta is like, this baby must survive and we will do anything to make sure it survives. And so if you aren't taking in a proper diet, it will literally suck all the, the good stuff from you. And so it's really important to take your health seriously before you get pregnant because a lot of that happens like early in your pregnancy. And so sometimes you don't know you're pregnant until you're, you've been pregnant for a little bit and then the baby's already taking all the good stuff from you. So the pregnancy diet early and, and even taking like a prenatal vitamin really important before you conceive, so that way you have a good reserve of all of the minerals and vitamins and nutrients that you need. Um, but also, you know, just. Taking like all this stuff very seriously, like, like the PFAS and making sure to get rid of anything that will disrupt your endocrine system. Because again, like your body is going to be pre-programmed to make sure the baby survives at all costs. And, and if it doesn't, like, if you don't have those reserves in you, unfortunately it leads to things like miscarriage and, and that's so sad when it, it could be prevented by changing your diet or eliminating these toxins from your lives. And so, I, I just, I, I was having that thought of like, what happens really if you, if you don't have the good reserves, and it's like baby could still survive, but you might be weaker for it because the baby's gonna take everything from you.

Chrissy

Yeah. Yeah. So let's talk through where in our lives are we exposed to PFAS? Because they're kind of every. And sometimes really hard to avoid, but it's really important to understand where exactly they are, um, so that we can take steps to avoiding them as best as we can. Now, we do live in a modern society. It's not really possible to avoid them at all costs. And so this is one of those things where I would encourage our listeners, like, have Grace with yourself if, because some, some changes can cost a little bit of money and so have grace with yourself. If there is one change that you can make this month and another change that you can make a few months from now, then that's great. You know, every little baby step is worth it and it's. It's adding to the overall cascade of becoming healthy again. And so, um, a lot of the places we find them, some people, I would encourage you, don't be overwhelmed when you hear, oh my gosh, they're literally everywhere and I'm never gonna get away from them like that. That's not what we're trying to tell you. We're trying to help you to identify where they are so you can make more informed decisions about, um, where you go and things you touch and what you eat and things like that. Um, ultimately this is one where there is no such thing as perfection here in America, um, when it comes to PFAS because they're everywhere. So we're gonna start through, um, this list. It's not exhaustive, but it's a list that has a decent amount of, um, items in it that contains PFAS. So the first one. Unfortunately is drinking water, especially public drinking water or tap water. Um, a lot of times when water is sent through the city or filtered through, they go through um, PVC pipes and PVC pipes are made of plastic often, and, um, they are mold resistant, water resistant, all of these things. Sometimes even the glue that they use to glue together, the PVC pipes can have some PFAS in it. So that is one, um, that is hard to get away from. You know, like you have to drink water. Um, there are some ways that you can filter it out, um, with certain water filters. I think a Burke water filter probably filters out PFAS. Um, I don't know if a Brita does, does a Brita filter it out?

Katie

this is

Chrissy

not.

Katie

that thankfully have our own well, and we don't have PFAS currently in our water. Um, we, we've had it tested, but it's something that eventually they could end up in our, well, because, you know, PFAS are known as Forever Chemicals, and they, they basically just do not break. Down. Um, they do, but it's like, it takes centuries. So they're con, they're considered forever chemicals. So if like, if it builds up, then eventually it's going to get everywhere. Um, we've been looking into doing, um, either a reverse osmosis or a carbon filter, um, for our drinking water. Again, we don't have like an intense need for it now because we, we're not on city water here, and so we have a little bit more, you know, uh, safety, I guess from PFAS because they, they really are like all over the city water system. So if you have city water, I highly recommend it. I don't know if Brita though, uh, filters it out

Chrissy

Yeah, I'm gonna be completely honest. We are on city water and we use a Brita, and so I probably have P-P-F-A-S in my water and it's one of those things that I have just. Because of the cost of a Burke water filter or any sort of reverse osmosis. That is just one of those areas that I have decided this is a, something I would love to do in the future, but right now it's not something that I am going to waste my energy on. Um, because there's other things in my life personally that I can put more energy towards and more thought towards that will have a bigger impact on my body than the drinking water. So.

Katie

or if anybody is wanting to get like a Burke filter check Facebook, like check Facebook Marketplace or even eBay, are selling them and selling the filters and stuff often, um, especially when people graduate from having just a Burke on their counter to having like a reverse osmosis system. So then they're like, oh, I don't need this as much. Um, also if you are, like, this is, this is an interesting thing. Burke actually makes like a travel, like they call it their travel size. It's their, it's their smallest one. I think it does like a couple gallons at a time versus like, they have some that do like 10 gallons or something. They have like really big ones, but they have like their cute travel ones that you could bring it with you when you do travel or go camping or something like that. Because it really, it filters all water to make it drinkable. So it's also something that I'm like, oh, that's kind of like a neat idea. Again, they're really expensive, so it's not like I'm just gonna go out and get one just for traveling. But, um, yeah, it's one of those things that I'm like, that would be a big, a good idea. At some point, maybe if I save up for it or find one on, like if someone's getting rid of it on like super sale

Chrissy

That, that's one thing. It, it's a future endeavor for me, for sure. Let's see. Another place that PFAS are often found is in the soil and, um, water, specifically near waste sites. So if you live nearby a landfill or a disposal site or um, a dump of some sort, uh, there's likely PFAS in there because it's in our trash, unfortunately. It's kind of it. That is where it is. And so then it seeps from the landfill or the dump into the soil through erosion, and then ends up in your yard. So that is one, again, unless you're gonna move to somewhere that's thousands of miles from any sort of landfill like that Katie did or.

Katie

they've been finding that even in these very remote areas, when they collect water like rainwater and test it, there are like microplastics and PFAS and um, heavy metals and stuff found in the rainwater much everywhere. And it's in smaller amounts depending on Yeah, your proximity to some of these places. But basically it's, it's one of those things that it's like, it'll be found in very, very minute amounts, but it's still there. Like even, even if it's like a village that doesn't even use plastics or non-stick pans or anything like that, it's like they still are exposed to it in very small amounts, but eventually it's going to. Accumulate and add up, and that's what's kind of a little bit scary about them. But you're like, again, just doing the best that you can to eliminate your largest areas, so yeah.

Chrissy

And and focusing on the scary. Of it overall, like the stress of focusing on the scariness of the parts that you can't affect in your own life is unhelpful towards your health. So I would encourage you as a listener, as you're hearing this and you're like, oh my gosh, I can't do anything about that. I can't do anything about that. I would just encourage you to practice some thought discipline, you know? Um, and the Bible Bible tells us to thank our, take our thoughts captive and to make them obedient to Christ. And so constantly worrying about all the things in our lives that are wrong, that are poisoning us, that we can't control is, is not going to help us. Okay? We need to take those thoughts captive and say, I recognize that that is a reality in my life. And I am choosing to focus on the things that I can control. For instance, one place that we can control that we get PFAS from is from some household products. For instance, our cleaning products, our non-stick cookware, paints, sealants, some fabrics, upholstery, water repellent, things like that. So these are areas that we do have control over. We can say, all right, I'm gonna look at my closet today, and I'm pulling out every single item that has polyester in it, which for me is the vast majority of my closet right now because I haven't gone through my clothing yet. That that's on the list of things to do. Okay. Or we could say, this month we have. A few hundred dollars extra in our budget. Let's go out and buy a stainless steel pan and get rid of that one frying pan that we've been using that has Teflon. That's kind of scratched up at this point. And because once a Teflon pan gets scratched, then it releases those chemicals into your food that much more. And so that is one that Max and I have done is we didn't replace all of our pots and pans because as everybody knows, to buy a full set of stainless steel pots and pans can be upwards of a thousand dollars. And personally, I just don't wanna spend that kind of money just willy-nilly. And so we went out and we got two pans and we replaced two pans. And in a few months we'll get a pot and then we'll replace a pot and a few months later. We'll get this size pan and then we'll replace that size pan, you know? And so it's a process that you can do, um, easily throughout

Katie

recommend if you're wanting to find some ways to save some money, a a couple ways that I wanna recommend. Obviously Facebook, you can always find used either like ceramic or cast iron or stainless steel pots and pans. That's a great way to do it. The other thing, if you're looking for something a little bit more on the new side, but all a way to save money. If you Google like, uh, what is it? What is the stainless steel brand that all clad is one of them. Um, if you Google them and look up factory seconds. They often have pots and pans that maybe the label is misprinted or something is just slightly off on them. Maybe there's like a dent on the side, like a very small one. But again, it's not perfect. They're still very usable. They often sell those at a discounted rate. And so, but you have to like find it. I, I do actually have a blog post. I'll link to it, um, in this episode, like the show notes. So I have a few links to some of the, excuse me, some of the websites where you can find factory seconds. Um, for some of these brands, I think the cast iron brand lodge also does those. Um, but I have found that you can go to a lot of thrift stores or antique shops and find cast iron pans and they might not be in perfect condition. They might not be seasoned properly, but go on YouTube and find videos on how to re season. Any kind of cast iron pan because those can like literally last a lifetime. They might have to go through a small process of, you know, re seasoning them and preparing them to be cooked on properly, but it's way cheaper than buying a brand new one.'cause those things are expensive. Um, and I have, yeah, I've found a few at thrift stores and stuff. Um, they also make really great wedding gifts. So, uh, definitely think about that for people when they're getting married.

Chrissy

So true. some other places that we find PFAS in our household is, um. Inside food packaging. So we've talked a lot about, um, eating whole foods and eating foods that God created straight from the ground or straight from the animal. And so this is already one that if you've been working towards eating more organic, eating more whole foods, less processed foods, then you're probably on track already to reducing the PFAS from your food packaging. But PFAS are found in, um, grease resistant paper. So if we're talking about like wax paper kind of thing, um, fast food containers, wrappers, microwave, popcorn bags, pizza boxes, candy wrappers. Essentially, if your food is wrapped in plastic, then there's probably PFAS in it.

Katie

again, okay, so this is like, kind of talked about this a little bit in the past and it's something that I've become more confident in myself is if you're going out for coffee, you think about like the coffee cups that they give you at Starbucks or any, any coffee place, they usually have that like waxy coating on the inside because they're paper cups. if they were truly paper, like just cardboard. Coffee would literally leak out of it. You all know this, right? Like if, if we had a, like you think about just a cardboard box that you find on your porch and it's been raining or snowing, and then all of a sudden it gets soggy and it's like soggy all the way to the inside. Cardboard does not resist water. And so when you're thinking about PFAS, you think about anything that is either water resistant or grease resistant or stain resistant. Like if you ever hear any of those resistance, there are PFAS involved with them. And so. You think about like a coffee cup and it is just coated with the PFAS inside of it. So I highly, I mean, this is such a simple thing guys, and it's like not frowned upon at all. Like just bring your own coffee mug, like bring your own to-go mug if you're going out to coffee with some friends. It's so easy. And I often bring my own coffee mug now with my raw milk inside of it, and I just say, Hey, can you just put the coffee straight into here? I already have my own milk. And it's like to, like, I don't even get a second look or like a, what is this all about? It's, or if you forgot your coffee mug and if you're staying there at the coffee shop. Some places it's usually more the boutique coffee shops will have their own mugs that you could use, like, uh, reusable mugs versus the paper cups. And so if you ask for a, like an actual mug, like ceramic reusable mug, some places actually have that and they're happy to put it in a little, you know, mug for you. They might even put it with little saucer underneath it and it'll be really cute. And so just like think about those things. I know that people also, when they're going out to dinner will bring their own reusable. Uh, like dishes to put food in for their leftovers. I have not gotten to that point, mostly because I forget about it, but I think about it every time we have leftovers and I was like, I should have brought my own container. And so that helps to reduce waste, but also reduces your exposure to those foods. But if you do get, like, if you do get the to-go boxes from the Chinese restaurant or from the American restaurant or whatever, like you think about the coating that's on the inside of it, it's that slick coating so that it doesn't stick or leak through the paper or plastic box. Don't reheat the leftovers inside of that box in the microwave because you are just creating. An environment where now the PFAS are going to be cooked into your food. And so if you are going to reheat the food, put it onto a plate into the microwave. Or if you are like us, we don't have a microwave anymore, which has not been a burden at all. I actually really enjoy not having a microwave. I just put it right into a pan on the stove and I just reheat things like that, and it has been very easy. And so those are just some like simple ways that it's like, okay, yes, P FFAs are everywhere, but these are ways that you can start to eliminate your exposure to them on a daily basis. So bring your own stuff to restaurants and coffee stores. It's not that weird.

Chrissy

It isn't, I haven't done that mostly just because I don't go to coffee shops very often and I'm not really one to want to bring my own Tupperware dish to, or my glassware dish to a restaurant to take my leftovers home. I'm more so like. I'll take my leftovers home in that dish and then promptly, as soon as I get home, transfer it into a glass container. So it's like the amount of time that it's touching, the leftover box is smaller, so in my mind is like less exposure in that case. Um, let's see, another place where we find PFAS, which is one that most people probably don't come across very frequently, but firefighting foam has a ton of PFAS in it. And so, um, especially the ones that are used in training. So if training in airports or shipyards, military bases, firefighting training, chemical plants, things like that. Um, there is PFAS in firefighting foam and you know, it's one of those like, so I have a friend who's a firefighter and he always jokes. He's like, yeah, I'm gonna get cancer one day. It's just part of the job and. I have to say, like the fire department, at least where I live, has taken measures to reduce PFAS exposure to firefighters. Because I mean, you're going into a burning home, you're already breathing in thousands of toxins from everything burning in that house, or things you don't even know are burning that are burning. Right? Um, but then the firefighting foam on top of that is more toxins. And so one of the things that my friend said that he used to do, they're not allowed to do anymore, is he would just like strip out of his, uh, firefighting suit, I guess you call it, strip out of it, leave it right next to his bed and go to sleep, right? As soon as he got home. And he said he was just like sleeping next to this chemical fire. Not really a fire, but like a chem collection of chemicals, like all night long. And he wouldn't shower before going to bed and things like that. But now the fire department has actually put in regulations that you're not allowed to walk through the fire station like wearing your fire suit essentially. So the fire suit is for like the garage in the truck and going to the fires and coming back from the fires. And I think even after leaving the fires, you have to take it off before you get back in the truck, um, because of the amount of toxins that are on their suits and things like that. So I am encouraged by that fire departments are creating measures to reduce PFAS exposures, and I think they're even doing blood tests with their firefighters to see, um, how much exposure they're getting and then like using that as a baseline to create next steps and things like that to reduce exposures.

Katie

So again, you hear the word resistant. If it is a flame resistant item, likely has PFAS in it. So now think about it on your daily basis. So if you are not a firefighter, which I'm not either, you can think about all the other things in your household that are flame resistant. So some things that maybe your, your mind first goes to are, oh, okay. There's like stuff in our, like our house is made of flame resistant stuff. So like a lot of times the insulation and walls, so if you're a contractor, you're more exposed to it, but you are also exposed to it just as the chemicals kind of seep through and are released in your household, like through the walls and stuff, which it's very minute amounts. Again, once it's like sealed up, it is not as prevalent. Um. I mean, some of the lumber in, in our houses are treated with flame resistant chemicals. And here's, here's where for me, it starts to get like slightly more like, ugh. Like I, I just, ugh. So just as we go into this, again, take a deep breath. A lot of our children's stuff is treated with flame resistant chemicals. So you think about, children's cribs, children's mattresses, our mattresses are often. and sprayed down with flame resistant and water resistant and stain resistant chemicals in order to these products last longer. And you think about like children's mattresses that often get peed on and spit up on and all this stuff, they want it to be like stain resistant so that it, it stays nicer longer. Same thing with a crib. They're often made with a, a flame resistant chemical. Um, so that way if there is a fire, the baby's crib is likely not to burn as quickly as maybe some of the other stuff in the house. Our carpets are often used like sprayed and, and created with, um, these PFAS, um, children's pajamas. So if you read their LA like labels, they often say stuff like flame resistant on them and you're like, oh my gosh. They use PFAS for our children's. Uh, pajamas. Also, things like our underwear. So you think about like stain resistant underwear and things like that. And so they're often made with PFAS. So when it comes to these kinds of items, again, it's going to be difficult to then go and all these items in our household. So here are just some ways that we can combat some of these or maybe make the most impact on the things that we can change. I highly recommend getting percent organic cotton underwear. I think that that is one of the easiest places that we can make an impact because you think about the places that underwear usually touch, more delicate, it's more absorbent in those areas than say your arms and legs, you know? you think about just like moisture and just the way that those areas are designed, they just tend to be more absorbent. And so I highly recommend, especially for like little kids, um, getting a hundred percent organic cotton underwear, um, or if you are a woman or man who is trying to get pregnant, this is just one of those ways that you can, um, reduce a lot of these chemicals, um, from getting into your system. also if you. Are going to get some of these like flame resistant items like furniture pieces in your house or stain resistant or whatever it is. Like a couch is often like you, you see it's like, oh, stain resistant couch, yay, water resistant couch. It's cool because you're like, I don't have to clean it or take care of it as deeply as I would, something that gets stained easily or soaks in water. of the ways that you can combat some of these PFAS from leaking into your home as much is letting them do, um, what's called like offgassing. And so you think about, a really good example is like an IKEA piece of furniture. They come super wrapped up and they're packaged really nicely directly from the factory. Well, you know, they get sprayed down with these chemicals and then they're packaged and all the chemicals are just sitting inside of that tight packaging. Well, when you get that piece of furniture, whether it's from IKEA or somewhere else, let it like open up the packaging. You don't have to build the piece of furniture yet. Like, open it up, let it sit in your garage, or if it's nice out, let it sit in your backyard and let it sit there for a couple days to like breathe and to off gas, a lot of those chemicals before bringing it into your home. Or even better. If you're up for it, you can buy these things used. So oftentimes I get a lot of these items used from other people. So like Malachi's crib is actually just one that I got on Facebook marketplace, including the mattress and everything. And it's like those pieces of furniture have already done a lot of their intense offgassing for the first couple months and now it's already, it's, it's off gassed probably for many years because they were used in people's homes for years before they came into our home. And so I know that many of the intense chemicals have already off gassed. Obviously they are still. in those pieces of furniture, but they've done their main offgassing already. So if you're going to buy something brand new, I, I recommend doing a little bit of that offgassing first before bringing it into your home if you choose to have them. Otherwise, they do make lots of furniture that do not have these chemicals, or if they are made with them, they're, they're not like the PFAS chemicals. There's ways that they can be water resistant and stain resistant that are natural. However, again, those items are going to be more expensive. But I do know a lot of people in the crunchy community who choose to invest in like an organic mattress because we do spend so much of our lives sleeping on these mattresses that maybe it would be great to get one that doesn't have all these terrible chemicals in it, as well as like the sheets that you are sleeping on every night. Um, those are some ways that you can reduce your exposure.

Chrissy

Yeah, for sure. All right, we got two more, um, common places to touch on where PFAS are found, and those are, um, the first one is pesticides, which a lot of you probably already know. So if you think of the, um. Pesticide Roundup or, uh, glyphosate that has a lot of PFAS in it. It is an endocrine disruptor. It is in a lot of our food, um, especially non-organic food. It is in the yard. It is on the sidewalks. It's kind of everywhere, unfortunately.

Katie

next episode we're gonna go into more deeply, like why pesticides are such a big deal for our endocrine system specifically and for fertility. So, um, we'll. Leave that funness for next week. But yes, they are also a intense source of PFAS, so there's a lot of

Chrissy

Yep.

Katie

great stuff about them.

Chrissy

Yeah, for sure. And then the last place that I wanted to touch on that we commonly find PFAS is in personal care products. So we're talking shampoos, dental floss, cosmetics, things like that. Um, this one is another little bit cheaper. Quick fix, um, sort of strategy that you can use in your own household. Um, just whenever you run out of your shampoo, make an effort. Say, oh, I'm, I'm like halfway through my shampoo. I'm gonna start doing research to find inorganic, plant-based. Um, no chemicals added, no fragrances, no PFAS, no parabens, things like that. A a, a good quality, um, shampoo and conditioner that is good for you and good for the environment that isn't gonna hurt your body. You can start looking into that research, um, when you're about halfway through your shampoo bottle. And then by the time you finish your shampoo bottle, you already have it lined up what you're gonna buy next. And so it's not stressful for you. You already know what you're gonna get. Um, and that gives you some time to do the research to actually make that change in your life. And I'm gonna be honest, like a bottle of organic. Shampoo is like$20 versus a bottle of normal shampoo is maybe$15. And so it's a$5 difference that is going to change your health for years. You know, like Katie and I have said before, like, you're going to pay for your health one way or another. Are you gonna pay for it now in the products that you're buying and the food that you're buying? Or are you gonna pay for it later in medical bills? And so you take your pick, you know, how do you want to pay for your health? How do you want to enjoy your health? And so, um, this is one. The cosmetics dental floss, that's another one that is really quick and easy to fix in your life. Um, just requires a little bit of research to find, um, some good brands. There are some good brands out there that we like. Um, for shampoo and conditioner, I personally like the brand attitude. Um, although you have to be careful with them. They are EEWG certified, but some of their products have changed their recipes and so you have to be intentional and actually read the label. Um, go through, read the label, make sure that there's nothing on there that has PFAS or parabens or fragrances in it, even though it's EWG verified, they have changed some of their, um, ingredients lists. So beware of that. Um, in terms of like cosmetics and things like that, I really like Primally Pure or Adele Natural Cosmetics. Um, both of those. Really are committed to clean, um, high quality sourcing of their products and really committed to matching our skin composition in order to make their products, um, less aggressive on our skin to make'em just kind of, um, go on smoothly. And then in terms of dental floss, there is a brand called Zebra. That's what it was, I forgot. Um, zebra Brand. They make like a bamboo silk dental floss that's really fancy and real expensive.

Katie

I should look back into it. I did find one that. Was more natural. Uh, I wish I knew, but so the only reason we didn't get it was we had recently purchased like a giant pack of like 20 things of floss.'cause we usually get them from like Costco or Sam's Club and they come in those giant packs. And we had recently bought it and I was like, well I guess I'll look into this in like a year because that's how long it's gonna take us to go through this big pack. But anyway, there are some other ones out there besides Zebra, but Zebra is probably known as one of the and

Chrissy

You could even just Google it. I, last time I bought Floss was off of Amazon and it's funny, my computer knows me. And so the first options that came up were like the cleaner options of floss and then a little ways down was the typical like 300 pack of floss for$3. Um, I'm gonna be honest, I got the 300 pack for$3 because I didn't really wanna spend$7 on 50 when I could spend$3 on 300. And floss is a lower. Lower exposure item to me in my mind. I don't use it every day. I should use it more frequently, but I don't. So anyways, that's where we're at and we are coming to the end of our episode today. So I hope you guys learned something new, something interesting that you plan to take with you from this point on. Um, before we close, Katie, do you have anything else you would like to add?

Katie

thought, and I was kind of thinking of it when I was talking about just like a lot of those items in a baby's room and stuff that have these PFAS, honestly, I mean, so for me, if you hadn't listened to our first episode on our fertility journey where I talked about, um, you know, the fact that I had a hysterectomy, um, after, um, Malachi. Birth. You know, for me, some of this stuff isn't as prevalent in the sense of fertility. it's so important to me that I am protecting fertility of my son, like of our children. Like, I want to make sure that am preparing him as best as I can for the day that he hopefully becomes a father. And he, he starts trying to begin his own family. so, you know, this, this journey is very, it's, it's different for me because I'm not necessarily, like, again, we, we've talked about like fertility is also a sign of health in general. So I'm also thinking about it of my general health. But when it, in terms of fertility, I'm, I'm, I see it through a different lens now that I'm like trying to help the next generation become as, as fertile. Like stay as fertile as possible and become as fertile as possible. Um, and hopefully one day Malkay will have. children or something crazy like who knows? Uh, obviously we'll see what his future wife says about that. But

Chrissy

That's crazy.

Katie

I'm just of

Chrissy

I.

Katie

I'm not able to have all of my own that, you know, I was hoping that I'd be able to have, but one day Malachi will be ready to have lots and lots of children, but I can help him pre-prepare himself by eliminating as many of these endocrine disruptors as I can. And so, you know, if you think about it in terms of just preparing the next generation to be healthy, um, it's also really important. To consider and I think is a really great way that we can help our children steward their health and, and be prepared. So anyway, that's, I, that was just, was what was on my mind as I was thinking about, like, this is, this is why it's also really important to us and our family is like preparing Malachi day to have lots of babies.

Chrissy

Yes. I love it. And I was just thinking if you want to learn more about PFAS or, uh, the history of them and how they even started getting into our food. Um, we actually have released an episode, what, like a year ago or something like that, that also talked about PFAS, but it was more so in, it was less in regards to like the hormone disruption, uh, perspective of it and more so in terms of like the history, the what and the why of P-P-F-A-S. So if you're interested in listening to that episode, there's some really great information on there. We'll have it linked down below in the description, and you can go back and listen to it. Um, please forgive us. That was before we got our really cool intro. So the intro is.

Katie

Probably awkward.

Chrissy

It's a little awkward and different, but hey, we're growing and we're getting better, and that's what it's all about. So, um, yeah, we will see you guys next time. Remember, as you are going through your day that whatever you eat or drink or whatever you do, make sure you do it all for the glory of God. Thank you for listening to Crunchy Stewardship. Bye guys.