(upbeat music) - Hi friends, welcome to the Savvy Cast where we'll talk food, family, beauty, health, relationships and more. Join me for conversation designed to help us live our best and savviest lives. So grab a cup of coffee and let's talk. (upbeat music) - Hello everyone, welcome to the Savvy Cast. This is Jamie and I'm so thrilled that you're here with us today, whether you're watching on YouTube or listening to the podcast. Okay, I have some fan favorites back today. Ellie Hiller and Gina Pitts from Vulcan Nutrition and they are fan favorites. So girls, when y'all are on here, the number skyrocket, everyone loves you all. So, and yeah, I'm sure y'all know Ellie's my daughter and I would take Gina as my daughter but she's already well loved by her mom. But anyway, we are just going to jump on today friends to talk about some things that are newsworthy as of late, very hot news items. For those of you who may have seen the viral interview of Casey and Callie Mings on Tucker Carlson, it's garnered millions and millions and millions of views. And for those of us maybe who couldn't watch the whole entire thing, Ellie and Gina are sort of gonna break down some of what it entailed, why it's important and how we can practically implement some of those things into our world. So thank you girls for being here today. - Thanks for having us. - We love being on the Savvy Cast. - Y'all just start, one of you just start by sharing in a nutshell, this interview that has literally gone viral and Ellie, you might wanna hold up the book and tell about Callie and Casey because I will say I'm blown away by her and her story and the story of her mom and all of that, but go ahead. - I'll kind of introduce with that podcast a little bit and then Gina, maybe you can speak to what our goal with this podcast is specifically as you're not talking about. But okay, so the book is called Good Energy. I took the cover off, it's a lot prettier than this, but it's just easier to read. So Good Energy is by Casey and Callie Mings. And in short, they have been on pretty much any help podcast you can find right now. But the one with Tucker Carlson really blew up and they really, really got into the weeds of who they are and why they're talking so much about what they're talking about. But Casey and Callie, our brother and sister and Casey was basically done with her medical residency when she decided just to drop everything and leave. - Samford, Samford Medical. - Yes, Samford and I believe it was like an ear surgery. - And Chase's actual family. - Like otologist or something. But basically it was done and walked into her supervisor's office and said, hey, I'm gonna leave because she really was just so frustrated with why she didn't know. She couldn't understand why any of her patients were sick and why they had all of this inflammation. Specifically in her case, it was sinusitis and a bunch of nasal passage related inflammation. And she was like, okay, I can help fix them to a certain degree symptom wise, but we don't know what's causing all this inflammation. And so that is what basically in short led her on this, basically root calls medicine journey, which you could also say is kind of functional medicine. They're kind of synonymous root calls and functional meds. And then her brother Callie is, he used to work for a lobbying company, a lot more on the research side. And so he's really educated when it comes to who is funding, who is funding research, what conflict of interest or potential conflict of interest are there when it comes to the studies that we're reading about our nutrition and health. And then to say it, like who's in bed with who, right? Like a lot of, we can get into this later, but he's exposing a lot of companies like Coca Cola who are funding research from the American Diabetic Association to come out and say, oh, this diabetes water is really not that bad. It's more so a lack of physical activity that's causing people to be obese or overweight when the reality is, is no, sugar water has a huge impact, even more so on all of these diabetes chronic disease, all that stuff. So he's exposing a lot of that. - Which is basically there's big pharma and there's big food. - Money being funneled into lots of places that are affecting the information we get. - Yes, and it's really sad. It is so sad for the American individual who's just like, I just wanna read research and know what's right when it's like there's all of these conflict of interest and it's like, who do we believe, right? If we can't even trust these advocacy organizations like the American Heart Association, the American Diabetes Association, all this stuff, then who the heck can we trust? So we'll get into that. But Gina, you speak to kind of, you know, what our goal is with this podcast. - To pick you back off at LA, we even like back and forth through voice memo because we're professional voice memoirs, we were like, who do we believe? Who do we trust? Because I also look at a lot of different research and I'm hearing one thing from this group of people and then we hear them. So we're even like, there's something that we're missing here. So I think it's been really cool to learn more about their background. They don't really have a hidden agenda. So they're not tied. They don't have any affiliation with anyone. So I think for us, that's been cool because they're a reliable source because they're not getting paid by somebody else downstream. So after this, it's a two hour podcast. - So it's a lot of information to digest. And it is about, you know, the big food industry, but it's also big pharma. So there's some stuff we're not going to talk about specifically with the big pharma quite as much. But we really wanted to take the information that we gathered from the podcast because we agree 100% with what they said. And we love them now. Like we're listening to everything they're putting out. But there are some things that I think if the average person listened to or, you know, if they're a mom of four kids and you hear this, you don't want to mess up. I think is what I boil sound to. So we wanted to take away the main points and kind of give advice on how you can implement what they've talked about and actually apply it to your everyday life. - So let's, if y'all are good with this, let's start with the lowest hanging fruit. 'Cause I think that's everyone wants to know. It's like, hey, I've listened to this podcast. I'm terrified, basically, where do I start? And I really think, did I know Gina would agree, it's let's start with older, older processed food because, you know, apart from the pesticide, the part from conflict of interest, all that stuff, like I think the older processed food is where we can start. So I'll just kind of throw out some of the points and then we can discuss in an open forum. But Casey brought up the point that since the dawn of older processed food, which is essentially as they called it an experiment, or like, and it is an experiment on human, even neurology or appetite or hormones, all this stuff to get us addicted to this food. They mentioned the link between the cigarette companies and the food industry and how the cigarette industry basically realized that they can create food that is just as addictive or even more so as a cigarette. And if you can create something that's addictive, you have a lot of profit potential. And so, older processed food, we all know it's addicting, right? Like, if I eat it often, I want it more. - And we're never satisfied with like, I can eat one potato chip, it's just hard to stop. - Yes, and we will get into that because that's part of the experiment, is that if we can keep you never really being full from it, because our body was not made to register from a satiety fullness standpoint. Oh, I'm full on potato chips. No, we're designed our satiety signals. Those hormones are designed to respond to real food that we were made to eat. So then it's this double whammy of it's addicting, but I'm still not full. And so we just never really can stop. But basically they said since the dawn of older processed food, our diet, our American diet is made up primarily at three things. That's processed sugar, ultra processed, refined grains, pretty much lacking old nutrients and fiber, and then seed oils. We can speak to this, but when I talk about ultra processed grain, I'm talking about like white flour, because there's three parts of a grain. You have the brain, brand, endosperm, and the germ. And so white flour is just the endosperm. So you've taken out all of the nutrients, and those three things are what our diet, American diet, is essentially made up of. - And I wanted to go back to the cigarette company, 'cause this part was really interesting to me. This all happened in the late 1980s, 1990s, when the surgeon general put out the report that cigarettes are bad. So the cigarette industry was the biggest money market at the time, like everyone was smoking. And then they put out the report that, "Hey, cigarettes could cause cancer. We need to put the warning on the packages now." And so all of the two biggest cigarette companies essentially bought out the food industry and used all those researchers previously developing cigarettes, all of the addictive nature like we were talking about. And now their job is to figure out how to make us addicted. So that we have people in factories trying to figure out how can we make all of us addicted to their products? And like we've talked about, we can't stop at one chip. It's, you know, you're reaching in and before you know what half the bag's gone. So I think we all know, like innately, what foods are, for lack of better terms, good and bad for us, right? Like we know, okay, if we reach for an apple, that's more nutritious than the bag of potato chips. But there's a reason why we're not doing it. And it's because of the addictive nature of the potato chip and the convenience of it. - And can you all just just at the outset of this conversation define ultra process and then maybe even compare it to processed. We know that a whole food is something that has a mother and comes from the ground. Is that right? - Did you hear that from us? - No, I heard that from my friend Deann a long ago when I was in Faster Way. It has a mother and what else? It comes from the- - We did it on you. - Yeah. - Yeah, yeah. - Does it have a mother? - You can trace it back to that funny process versus unprocessed. I mean, I know this, usually I'm always involved in a cellophane or a package. - I'll say something really short on this. Like don't get into the weeds on it because everything like your meat is processed, right? Like, you know, and that comes from an animal, right? We're not going out and shooting or an animal. So yeah, process versus ultra process. Think like ultra process is your, yes, cellophane, your pastries, your little debbies, your cereals, your candy, like the thing that is just so like, you can tell it just was created in a factory. - Yeah, like something that was formulated from other, obviously edible substances, but it was like uniquely designed, like you can't go outside to your backyard and find a cosmic brownie hanging from a branch. Like we know these things are specifically designed in a lab. But yeah, processed foods can be baby carrots, right? That's a processing part is to cut the carrots up small. So processed foods is most of our foods way processed. - That's right. If you kill a deer, you're going to process the deer. - Yeah, so ultra process is more of the package. As people, you just say the middle isles of the grocery store. If you're trying to visualize it and when you're going to go shut in. - Yeah, that makes sense. That's good, good point. - And here's one other thing I want to say on this that was so interesting when they brought up there. They were speaking to the peer reviewed research studies that a lot of academia is producing. And all of these nutrition colleges and universities. And there's been over 50,000 peer reviewed research studies. And they're like, why are we the only animal or the only species that is chronically diabetic, chronically obese and chronically crippled by metabolic dysfunction? So we have all of this research floating around about nutrition, yet we are so sick, so overweight and so unhealthy. And that goes back to ultra processed foods 'cause animals aren't out there having to choose between ultra processed food and the food that is just available to them and their environment, it is actually impossible to overeat meat. Like, I think we all agree if I sat down at a table and I was just eating meat, like I am not going to sit there and eat myself to death on meat, but I can sit there and eat myself to death on a potato chip. So that is the problem is people are just not, we don't understand that it's not really food. In our body, it is hijacking our body's biological signals and systems. And so that's really all I wanted to say about that unless there's anything else y'all wanna speak to on ultra processed food, we can get into kind of how to make choices there in a second. - Yeah, that's all I had on that. - I will say, I'll throw this in for any people who watch or listen to the podcast who follow me on Instagram, you'll be, you're aware that I have started milling my own flour and Ellie just mentioned flour. And it is amazing when you have a bag of flour and then you mill your berries and you look at them and you feel the difference, it's mind-blowing. So even one small change vinyl simple mill and graining flour can eliminate even one third of that equation that is causing so much issue as far, you know, the ultra processed flowers, the sugar and so forth. - Right, and just to speak to that really quick, okay, what if we don't mill our in flour? Like I wish I did, but you know, I don't process. Okay, Dave's killer bread, for example. - Mm-hmm. - The highly seeded bread, Ezekiel bread. - Payrow. - Payrow bread. - I'm not familiar with that, but like a seeded bread, a seeded bread, so Ezekiel, let me speak to that. Very, very, it's still processed, but very rich in fiber and in whole grain and nutrients. And then a white bread, like a Sarah Lee, completely stripped of all nutrients. So yes, are they both processed? Yes, is one ultra processed? Yes, so if you're a mom just trying to figure out what bread to buy for your kids, let's go with the whole grain, one with fiber, right? And even like, let's say you want to make your own bread and but you're not milling your own flour, like you can use almond flour, coconut flour. There's different things that you can bake with that you still get the nutrients from the almond and the coconut. So, and even in her book, she was like, okay, refined grain, grain product on the left. What is the swap she would make on the right? Flower tortillas, let's sub those for flax wraps or a high fiber wrap, finished chickpea wrap. You can find all of these in your grocery store. - Yeah, yeah. - White rice is a refined grain. What if we swapped with cauliflower rice or even broccoli rice and then pasta, let's swap for spaghetti squash or zucchini noodles or even sweet potato noodles? So, you could go on and on and on and even pizza crust. Mom, you do cauliflower pizza crust often, right? - Mm-hmm, yeah. - So there's actually just as good or better than, you know? - Yeah. - And have you ever cooked like an almond flour crust? Have you ever done that for pizza? - No, but I've done a sourdough crust and those are super easy. If you keep sourdough, I mean, super easy. - Yeah, yeah, yeah. So her book has a ton of good swaps in there, but that's where I would start when it comes to bread. But then as for just grocery store shopping to avoid ultra processed food, people have heard this, I know. But if you stay on the perimeter of the grocery store, you're pretty much gonna get everything on the perimeter is gonna be your best bet, right? You have your dairy, you have your produce section, you have your meat section. If you're going in those center aisles, it needs to be very limited, hopefully just like your condiments and maybe like your pickles or the things that are still have a long shelf life, but it's not something ultra processed. You can still find good things on the inner aisles, but not a majority of your food. - I do want to say, Ellie, I'm surprised you haven't heard of it because I've talked about it a million times. Hey, Rob, Brad, it's literally, have you heard of it, Gina? - I have, there's one other one they just came out with. Is it super high fiber? - There's 12 grams of fiber per slot. And it, and I'm saying this for the parents, your children will have no clue they are not eating white bread or there's one that's seeded, but it's blowing everybody away. And they make hot dog ones, hamburger ones. So you're getting your whole five days of fiber almost with one sandwich. So that's just a brand to look for if you want to implement it with picky children. - Yeah, they have tortillas too. - Yeah, I've got them all in my freezer. I had buy one, get one. I know my public scariest them sprouts carries the most, at least here in Birmingham, but it's mind blowing it tastes just like normal bread, but it's loaded with fiber. - And Ellie, I know I've shared this tip before, but something that's super helpful, like if you have no idea when you're looking at a food label, hey, is this considered a high fiber food? If you add a zero next to the fiber, so let's say there's four grams of fiber in it, which is pretty standard for just a regular seeded bread like Dave's killer or Ezekiel. If you add a zero to your fiber and it's greater than the total carbs, that would check off as a high fiber source. So when you're scanning the grocery house, if they don't have the super high fiber hero bread and you're trying to figure out other alternatives, that's a quick, just check. And if it meets that standard, I would say that's typically a safe bet because if there's fiber, they haven't refined the grain so much to where they've stripped all the nutrients away. - Okay, so we talked a little bit about this all fair, so y'all are gonna hear me repeat myself, but this part was so fascinating in the podcast. Do y'all know what the fastest growing industry in the United States is right now? - Fastest growing industry? - Healthcare. (laughs) - Yeah, healthcare, yeah. So like, it's not AI, it's not tech, it's not all the things that I think we would think it is. It's healthcare. And then you need to start asking the question, why? Like, why is healthcare the largest growing industry right now in the United States? Number one, we're sicker than ever, but number two, they speak a lot about this, so I won't belabor the point, but the sicker people can get the earlier in life, the longer time you have a profitable patient, right? So if a child becomes really sick, then now they say it like this, they're on the treadmill of big pharma and big food for the rest of their life, right? You have a very profitable patient. And so I was very interesting once Callie started talking about Coca-Cola, for example, and how he was talking through their donations, he's like, follow the money, right? So in 2009, Coca-Cola made the largest individual donation of a million dollars to support a British Nutrition Foundation who stayed on their website, their mission is to translate evidence-based nutrition science into stuff that is engaging and actionable. So this company that's translating evidence-based science, their biggest funder was Coca-Cola. You have to ask the question, what in the world would Coca-Cola be donating to them for? It's a new tradition. And the reason is to make it sound like their product is not as bad for people as it really is. And then Coca-Cola gave the second largest individual donation of almost half a million dollars to an international network called EPODE that aims to prevent childhood obesity. And so basically now all, we'll see the American diabetic association come out and say Coke's not as bad as everyone says it is, that the main problem with obesity is a lack of physical activity. So it's like a diversion of, okay, this organization that we trust to give us good quality research is now in a conflict of interest with the companies that are their biggest donors, right? And so that was just really fascinating when you're knowledgeable about that. I think it just goes back to being like, we all know Coke is not good for us, right? So like an article from the ADA shouldn't change our mind, but the reality is is that it does for people because people are looking for ways to justify continuing to drink Coke, continuing to give it to their kids and make some happy, all this stuff. Gina, anything you wanted to say on that? - Yeah, it's very fascinating. And it speaks to the fact that not that kids are the only target, but just like you said, the goal is for the industry to make us sick enough. So we're having to be on medications, but not kill us. And so targeting kids at a younger age is a great person. If you're looking to make money because they have their entire life, right? To be on these medications. And 70% of children's diets are from packaged foods, which would be those ultra processed foods, which is extremely alarming. And over 50% of kids are considered obese. So it's a huge problem. And not to super tie into like the big pharma stuff, but it's all tied back to, you know, getting these kids on medications. And then we put them in a classroom for eight hours a day and they talk in the podcast about how kids are indoors more than a prisoner, which is insane. So kids are inside all day. They're having to sit in a classroom. They're giving ultra processed foods for 70% of what they eat in a day. Then they get put on ADHD medication because they can't, you know, they're wound up and it's like, duh. Like, I mean, I don't know what else to say. Like you do that to a lab, right? And they're gonna go bonkers too. And so it's just, again, follow the money. But what we are doing to our kids is so unhelpful. You get them addicted to ultra processed foods. They're obese by the time they're six, seven, eight. And you set them up for the rest of their life to have a struggle with that, which we're not saying that there's not a struggle involved for some people because it can be a very difficult thing. But when they're already obese at six, it's really difficult to get out of that. - And they said that a pediatrician before the 1950s would have seen probably about 1% of their population having great diabetes or diabetes. And now it's 50% of American adults that have pre-diabetes or diabetes. So half of America has it and 30% of teens. So it is just fascinating. And then we know that 74% of Americans are overweight or obese. And then pre-1950s, you know, they mentioned like, you would only see someone overweight like in the circus at the side gym, right? And so, and this is not to be shameful or anything. Like it is 100%. Like we are at a disadvantage in our food culture today. Like it is terribly hard to make good decisions, right? Cause everything is coming at us and a lot of people just don't know what to do, right? - And y'all aren't parents yet, but let me just say this. If you're realizing that, oops, I need to make changes, you're gonna have a battle. Cause your children love, and I'm telling you, they're gonna throw themselves in the floor. They're going to go find it at school. They're going to act the devil at worst. I mean, y'all, I'm sick. Now, some children may be actually having some experience on their baby sister. No, I never tried to take one. But if you have kids who are addicted and they love their Cheetos and they're used to having a cup. And y'all, the juice voxes, I mean, all of that stuff, if you decide which we all should, hey, okay, I'm just gonna use your dad as an example, Ellie, bad A1C. And this morning, he said, if my blood work doesn't come back, he says, I've made some changes. Because it's all diet, it's all diet, just like obesity. He said, if I don't have drastic changes instead of these little changes, I'm gonna go scorched earth. So, you know, you're gonna have to decide it with your kids. Am I gonna try to slowly implement this or just, but the fact is there's so many wonderful choices now that they don't have to suffer, but there will be a little hump probably when you're transitioning them to the poison, to the good stuff. - Yeah. And I was talking to a parent the other day, 'cause I'm not one, but we were on this same topic. And they brought up a good point. They're like, yes, it's very hard at first. Even if you use swabs, like, you know, there's almost like, they're creating these chickpea cheetos. You mentioned cheetos, but you know, there's like these like good old turds - Yeah, they're a lance-old crunch thing. They're very good. - I've got some in there. - Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. So it's like, they were talking about how they're making these swabs and transitioning more to whole foods. And like, yeah, it's really, really hard at first. But they eventually get used to it. If that is all that's there, you know, it's like, okay, they learn to love it. And yes, can they find it at school? Can they find it at other kids' house? Yes, I think it's just important to have an open discussion and not like scare them about these foods. But just like, yeah, if your kids are old enough, like be open with them and say, we're not trying to like hide this good stuff from you. Cause they're going to go to a friend's house in gorge, right? If they think that they can never have it. Like Sean, my husband talked about how his, you know, his mom only ever had skin milk. And then the first time he had whole milk at his friend's house, you know, he couldn't get enough of it. And he would go over there just to drink all their whole milk, right? Like, and so it's like, but then once he realized he was being deprived and that that's just what they were going to buy was the skin milk, he was totally fine. But I just, yeah, I don't, I don't know if that helps at all. But I think just know it's going to be hard at first, but then if that's all that's available for dinner and they have nothing else to eat, they're going to learn to eat it, you know? Yeah, yeah. Well, and thankfully there's never been a better time in the history of the world to have options that taste not only as good, but even better in the chomps. So, okay, Joanna, get into the real quick, the organic versus non-organic pesticides stuff. 'Cause this is, yeah, that's, yeah, yeah. Yeah, this is really confusing for people. Gina, I've talked a lot. Do you want to start with this? Yeah, so I think with, first of all, if you're going to make one change, like we said, before we started that long discussion, start with the ultra process foods. So like, if we're talking about pesticides and you're like, okay, I can't afford to buy organic. Well, don't just not buy the fruits and vegetables because of that, but start with ultra process foods. So, pesticides, this was very, very interesting and I can't even speak early to like the specific names or some of the pesticides, and I don't know if you remember, but round up is one, yeah. But they were talking about this one specific one and how have you sprayed it on a frog embryo? It would turn a male frog into a female. Yes, and how a lot of our issues with just, you know, infertility has skyrocketed. sperm counts have been going down this in one person every single year and puberty is six years earlier in girls. Like the average age is 10 to 13, they said. So I mean, there's no disputing that we are having problems with both male and female reproductive systems. And a lot of that can be tied back to the types and the quantities of pesticides being sprayed on these fruits and vegetables. And they've been given to us or we bought them some exchange from other countries that have banned them. So it's like we're taking something from a country that has created a product that isn't illegal for them, but they're glad that we are filling our crops with that. So I found it just for FYI, it's advertising and it's primarily used on corn crops. Yeah, so very, very interesting. But so all of our foods are pretty pesticides. I mean, there's not really any way to get around that fact, very alarming that other countries have banned it and we have not, but we don't want to scare people like, oh, you have to buy organic or don't eat them at all. There are ways to get around this. Like we'll talk about techniques to wash your fruits and veggies to clean them better. But Ellie had a great suggestion of if, you know, you can't afford to buy all organic, even just starting with like the dirty dozen list would be a really good first step versus swapping everything. And also buying frozen. Frozen actually saves you a ton of money. The nutrient quality and quantity in frozen is sometimes even better than fresh because they flash freeze it at the peak ripeness. So frozen is also a really great option if that's a way that you can, it's more affordable for you and you can save money doing that. And I'm gonna quickly go through the dirty dozen. Yes, go through the dirty dozen. One thing I'll say on it though, don't people, we'll talk about washing in a second. But people are like, oh, I'll just shave the skin off the apple. No, because then you're getting rid of all the fiber and in my opinion, that is like a net zero, right? So don't be so afraid of pesticides that, we'll talk about washing, but mom, go ahead and do this. - Okay, and I'm starting with number one. I don't know if there's any order, but strawberries, spinach, kale, collard and mustard grains, grapes, peaches, pears, net drinks, apples, bell and hot peppers, cherries, grain bains. - One thing I'll point out about that, just so that people notice, those dirty dozen are a lot of like, quote unquote, soft fruits and veggies, kind of like, just think about a very penetrable exterior. You know, like a strawberry, you know, when they're very right, they're so soft. It's just like stuff almost just like would ooze in, if that's a good analogy. But then when you look at the clean 15, a lot of these have like hard shells and think like it's pineapple, onions, like you can peel off an outer layer, avocado, no one needs the skin of an avocado, honey, honeydew, melon, kiwi, cabbage, mushrooms, mangoes, watermelon, carrots. So a majority of those, like, yes, we're taking the peel off already. So just kind of keep in mind, like my tip for this is, I don't buy organic. I can't afford all organic. But what I do is when I do buy organic, I stick to the things on the dirty dozen. And I really wash them well. And we'll talk about that. But I think that's the, that's what I'm passionate about telling people and my clients is like, hey, if you can afford all organic, that's amazing, but very few people can. So why would I buy an organic avocado when I'm not even eating the skin anyway? And there's hardly ever any pesticides found on those. Same thing for like watermelons and melons. So make yourself acquainted with those lists and then triage accordingly for what you're gonna spend some extra money on. - In the podcast, they talked about how, I don't know if they only shop at farmer's markets or what their plan is. I love that idea. I don't have a farmer's market where I'm located, especially, I mean, I know there's one every month. There is not one I can go to every single week. So that's, you don't freak out and think you're doing everything wrong. Like we've said a million times, we know that some of this stuff can't be taken from, oh, my kitty, 70% packaged foods to now they put zero percent in their body. Like there is a middle ground here because that's just the reality of life. Like there's going to be a time where you're gonna have to go through the fast food drive-through again. We want to make this practical and actually useful and not, oh, I only can shop at farmer's markets and everything has to be organic 'cause I can't do that. I can't afford all organic and I can't go to a farmer's market every single week. And so like Ellie said, buy from the organic, from the dirty doesn't if you can, buy from the frozen section. If you know someone who is selling like a half a cow where you can buy in bulk, that's also a really good way to save on meat. And you know like the source is a little bit better than just your meat coming from China. - Yeah, and I will say to the point about farmer's markets and then if you have a friend who has chickens or you can buy meat from people, like regenerative farming number one, it's I love supporting local, I love supporting people who have a fully owned farm and the stuff tastes better anyway. - How am I gonna do this? - Yeah. - If you can find someone who has a regenerative farm or runs one or knows of one, you know you're gonna get the best soil, typically they avoid synthetic pesticides, obviously just talk to them and ask if you're not sure. But then you know focusing on soil help, we know our nutrients and the food that we're growing has a lot to do with the soil that we're using. And so that is if you can get to know people at your farmer's market, get to know people with farms, all that stuff, as crazy and homesteading as that sounds, it is so worth it. And then you know, hey, I'm supporting local, but also I know how my food is being grown. - Ellie, it's actually becoming the trend and I'm gonna throw this out because anywhere anybody might be that's watching and you're listening and I'm gonna put a link to this in the show notes, Azure Standard, A-Z-U-R-E, Azure Standard. It is an online co-op and it's based out of Oregon, but I started ordering my wheat berries there, butter and some things and when I went, you go once a month to a drop in a city near you and almost every place has them. - It is. - There, yes eggs, there you will meet people who will give you tip. I had a sweet lady named Jane. She gave me tips who would sell a count. So that is a great Azure Standard. And guys, best butter I've ever eaten in my life, they pull up their Christian family, they ship all over the United States and everything, you know it's organic. So that is a what, that's a good start. And William Latham's mother was there, Ellie, you remember him from love? And her husband's a doctor, but when he's not doctoring, they have started a farm, started all this. And she said, Jamie, you wouldn't believe the people who are coming and asking, can we get eggs? It's trending, people are understanding now, that's the way to go. And you can find those people, you just have to start with where they are. - And you're right, it's not as expensive as people think. Like, just doing your produce and your meat. And even, I do so many people that have gardens in a raised flower bed now. Like, if you keep it, Jean, I might have been you out talking to you, but if it's raised, like you're gonna already eliminate a certain number of pests that might get into it, right? So I just think, yeah, it does sound a little crazy 'cause all we've ever known is to go in the grocery store and get what we need. But now that so much is coming out, that is your right mom, that's the way places are going. And it's pretty cool to know the chicken's name that hatches the eggs that you know you're eating. - I'm the one, Colin the chicken. Remember, there's a commercial once the chicken's name was Colin. - Oh, yeah, that's funny. - But no, guys, I'm telling you, and I'm gonna put a link and I encourage everyone. And I'll have a discount code there. You can buy anything, anything there. Raw milk, raw cheese, regular cheese. And a lady there told me, she said, "I get this cheese now that you, "I used to get it sprouts and it's cheaper." And you're supporting local people, you know, from all over. So it's not as hard as it might look. And the more you get into it, the more you can make connections. - Yes. Gina, will you talk about how you want your produce so we don't forget to do that? - Yes, okay, so the first thing is if you don't have like glass storage containers, that's the one you need to purchase those. Because to touch on something really quick, they talked about was our exposure to plastics is insanely high. Some things we really can't control like in the water unless you have a specific filtration system, but in the air. But every single thing we get out of grocery stores in a plastic, some type of a package, even our fruits and vegetables are wrapped in it. It lines the cans of things we drink. And then if we store products in it, our food products, that's another exposure. So I would suggest buying glass storage containers. When you come home from the store, rinse your produce, whatever it is, with water and baking soda. I let that sit for a few minutes and then I like really rinse it off good. - What ratio, Gina? - I just dump. - Yeah, I just dump in the container, rinse them, let it soak for two to three minutes and then I rinse them good again. I line a glass container with a paper towel and put the berries or whatever into that. It absorbs the moisture. So if you have berries that go back really fast, they usually last up to two weeks if you clean them that way. So less waste if you clean them and store them properly. And another have specific fruit and vegetable cleaners to you. I can't speak to them, I've never used them, but I'm sure you could purchase one of those and it would do something similar. - And I leave the baking soda in a mason jar right by my water spout just so I don't forget and I just dump too, but it's crazy how much comes off. Like I have this little salted dinner and you will see so much come off with that. And honestly, I think it makes the berries taste better 'cause it gives it almost this like sharpness. I think it tastes great too. But rinse under running water for a good day after that. - Yeah, that's good. I'll put that in the show notes as well. - Yeah, I do have a question about plastic. If it says, like I put my sourdough and these containers from Dollar Tree but it says BPA free food grade, is that okay? - I mean, I know if it says BPA free, I know BPA is one of the number one things that Casey says in her book to avoid, but I mean, best case scenario would be, in my opinion, something glass, but-- - Or ziplocs, no, no, even if you don't hate them in the microwave. - I would say your BPA free is better than a ziploc. - Yeah, I would say the same. - Okay. - Yeah, there's a certain level that you're not gonna be able to avoid everything, but. - Yeah. And I guess, Ellie, what would you say would be your number one way to make this practical for someone? Like, we just gave a lot of really great tips, but for someone that's like, okay, I have three kids that are younger, they eat a lot of packaged foods, where would be? And obviously, we've talked about minimizing ultra-processed foods, but like, they're at 70%. Obviously going to 0%, we've talked about, they're just gonna go to a friend's house and eat everything they see. So like, where is the middle ground? - I mean, my number one thing would say, okay, like let's just look at, just look at where you shop. Let's just change where you shop, maybe. - Right. - And from there, it's even just gonna naturally limit some of your options. Let's say you only do the farmer's market and maybe you get your meat from somewhere else. That's very extreme. But, you know, that alone would condense a lot down. Maybe it's just a transition though, from Walmart to Sprouts. Maybe you just start there. - And Ellie, let me say this. And I'm not a huge Walmart shopper. I mean, I do order online, they have a lot of organic, not Walmart. - Yeah, yeah, it's becoming more mainstream. - 100%, I was just saying, like if you're kind of confused on, oh my goodness, like, what do I even buy? Like, if you just have knowledge yet, if you change where you maybe shop that'll limit some of the options. But I agree with you, you can find some very affordable organic produce at Walmart. But yeah, I mean, I would just say the ultra processed food, like trying to look at each meal and maybe even just know if you can identify, like, do I have in my kids lunch box, what is ultra processed in here? - Well, I know we talk about the plate method a lot, but I think it's really helpful to even, for a really simple reference, like we could even put that in the show notes, what we use for the plate method. But if you just can visualize a plate, half of your plate should be some type of a non-starchy vegetable. So like, think you're colorful foods. Can you feel half of your plate with that? The other half, the top portion should be, you're serving up protein, so a quarter of your plate should be your protein. And then that bottom corner should be, like, your starchy carb, potatoes, rice, some type of your grain. And then typically, we're cooking in a fat. So I don't always have to recommend adding that to your meal. But if your kid always has an ultra processed food at each meal, maybe start by asking them which one they would, would want to remove. Instead of going cold turkey, like getting their input and asking them which one they would want to maybe do away with for now. So they're still getting at least something, not that they need it, but, you know, they're gonna ask for it. So a way to make it practical would be to maybe ask them, get their input as to what we could take away from, maybe their lunchbox and stop packing that. And then kind of trickle down from there. I think cold turkey, I don't have kids either. I don't know if that would be effective, but I think maybe the slow elimination to the point where you're kind of at that 80/20. I know that rule gets thrown around all the time. But if 70% right now are from ultra processed foods, we kind of have to do the exact opposite, right? We need 80% from whole foods and only 20% from ultra processed. - And even mom, like, last thing I will say on this, but we sat down for dinner pretty much every night. That's not practical for everyone, totally understand. But it was cool because that made me crave meals that were, you know, made by your hand. You worked so hard to cook meals that did follow the plate method for us. And it was an awesome time of fellowship, really enjoying the food that you worked very hard over. And I think that ties a lot of positive, even just dopamine responses to a high quality meal. I look forward to that every night. So if that were to show up in my lunchbox the next day, I would be really happy with it, you know? And so maybe that's a good place to start, is try to incorporate a few more family meals in a week if you can. I know not every mom is able to do that, but that would go a long way in kind of acclimating your child to that. - Yeah, and approach it from a positive, you know, like we're not taking away, we're replacing with something that's gonna make you so much stronger and healthier. And yeah, there are ways. And it's a brief, once they acclimate to the healthier food, though, I think they'll crave those more. It's a process for sure. So guys, this has been so helpful. And I think we could keep talking forever, but I know y'all got other things. So why don't we circle back and do another one soon and just offer some more tips. - Yes, link to the show they did with Tucker because that was fascinating. - I will link to the two hour episode with Tucker. I'll also link to her book, which I'm actually gonna buy. When does she do an Audible? - Oh, I'm sure it's like number one on Amazon right now. - Yeah, I'm gonna get that as soon as we get off. - But you might want to buy a heartful fee because it's actually one of the, it's more like a textbook. - So like she has recipes in the back? - Oh, then I'm gonna get a heart. Yeah, I wouldn't do, this was not one I would listen to. - Okay, okay, thank you for that tip and I'll order it. So, well, ladies, thank you. I so appreciate it and enjoyed it as always. And until next time-- - Thank you. - Have a fabulous rest of your day. (upbeat music) - Hi, everyone. I hope you enjoyed this episode of The Savvy Cast. If you'll take the time to rate, review and subscribe on iTunes, that would mean so much. As always, thank you for listening and have a blessed day. (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music) (upbeat music)
