Jinger vs. Modern Medicine: Felicity’s ER Scare & the Crunchy Life

Summary

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Podcast Summary:

The Jinger & Jeremy Podcast
Episode: Jinger vs. Modern Medicine: Felicity’s ER Scare & the Crunchy Life
Air Date: October 29, 2025
Hosts: Jinger Vuolo, Jeremy Vuolo

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Episode Overview

In this episode, Jinger and Jeremy Vuolo dive into their evolving views and everyday decisions around health, medicine, and “crunchy living” — with humor, candor, and plenty of real-life anecdotes. The main catalyst is a recent emergency room scare with their daughter Felicity, which sparks broader reflection on modern medicine, natural remedies, family-of-origin habits, and how their perspectives have shifted as parents. They also discuss “crunchiness” in terms of food, cleaning, and lifestyle, attempting to strike a balance between health-consciousness and moderation, all while touching on faith and its influence on these choices.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. “Crunchiness” Defined (09:18, 12:36–13:27)

• Crunchy Scale: Jinger and Jeremy explore what it means to be "crunchy" (i.e., inclined toward natural/alternative health). They create an informal spectrum from 1 (laissez-faire) to 10 (ultra-natural, anti-conventional).
• Jinger rates herself: “I feel like I’m in the middle. 4.5?” (13:22)
  Jeremy jokes she’s “maybe a 6 or 7.”
• Practices: Jinger's become more aware of ingredients/chemicals in household and food products, shifting cleaning supplies to non-toxic, natural alternatives.

2. Felicity’s ER Scare & the Modern Medicine Dilemma (15:00–24:27)

• The Story: During a family wedding at their home, Felicity experienced sudden, severe ear pain. After pain meds barely helped, Jinger considered ER advice from friends and even checked ChatGPT (17:24).
• The Outcome:
  • By the time Felicity reached the ER, her ear “popped” and pain subsided (18:30).
  • Doctors recommended antibiotics for suspected infection.
• Jinger’s Dilemma: Reluctant to give antibiotics due to concerns about gut health and the body’s natural flora, especially ahead of flu season.
  “I don’t want to give her an antibiotic unless it’s absolutely necessary.” (21:24)
• Follow-up:
  • Consulted her “crunchy” friend Audrey Roloff for natural remedy recommendations, resulting in success with ear drops (23:54).
  • “Here’s what you do…” (Advice from Audrey Roloff)

3. Upbringing and Attitude Toward Medicine (24:46–29:42)

• Duggar family approach: Not hyper-crunchy, but careful with meds, especially due to “febrile seizures” running in the family that required prompt fever control with ibuprofen/Tylenol.
• Jeremy’s story: He reflects on his difficult childhood medical issues (ear problems, severe asthma), emphasizing deep appreciation for modern medicine:
  “For centuries, people would just die from that.” (20:58)
• Balance: Both note gratitude for life-saving meds, even as they lean toward holistic/natural for less urgent issues.

4. Food, Cooking, and Household Habits (30:53–36:53)

• Diet: Jinger tries to cook mostly whole, minimally processed foods at home (organic eggs, chicken, veggies, “couscous and chicken,” etc.), but admits to routine and simplicity.
  “I could eat the same meal every day for the rest of my life and be happy.” (33:35)
• Ingredient Awareness: Reading ingredient labels more, avoiding seed oils, making mindful swaps (Siete tortillas, avocado oil chips, almond flour crackers).
• Household Cleaners: Full switch to “Truly Free” for laundry and cleaning, avoiding synthetic fragrances and chemicals (45:20–47:19).

5. Essential Oils & Alternative Remedies (37:06–39:44)

• Essential Oils: Dabbling but not dogmatic. “I have very crunchy friends. So when they tell me, ‘Oh, you have a headache, use this oil,’…maybe I’ll use that and try it.” (38:18)
• Multi-Level Marketing (MLM): Mild skepticism but sees value in products when genuinely liked.
• Sunscreen & Toxins: Avoids conventional sunscreens and tries to find “cleaner” alternatives, but is practical, especially with kids’ sun exposure.

6. Faith, Health, and Balance (48:09–53:11)

• Theological Perspective: Jeremy stresses that while Christians should steward their bodies and creation, scripture doesn’t mandate a specific diet or lifestyle; beware legalism.

  “God was not writing the Bible as a cookbook…the mandates given to Israel were not about nutrition as much as they were about set apartness.” (49:21)

• Against Extremes:
  • Avoid spiritualizing "crunchy" choices or making them a measure of faith.
  • Christ’s freedom allows for both McDonald’s ice cream cones and organic eggs, as long as discipline and stewardship of health are respected.

7. Humorous Memorable Moments & Quotes

• On Jinger’s Crunchiness:
  “You are a little crunchy and I think it’s probably becoming more and more all-consuming.” (09:02, Jeremy)
• On Ear Infection Drama:
  “I looked up the symptoms on ChatGPT, and it said take her to the ER right away…” (17:24, Jinger)
• On NyQuil & the “Man Cold”:
  “Whenever Jairus had a man cold, I said, ‘No, don’t take NyQuil! That’s so bad for you.’” (53:48, Jinger)
• On Cooking:
  “I’m very insecure about my cooking…I know what I like. I could eat the same meal every day for the rest of my life and be happy.” (35:43, Jinger)
• On Parenting Vigilance:
  “We try not to be helicopter parents in normal life. When we step foot onto a parking lot, that’s our thing…” (06:19, Jeremy)
• On Essential Oils:
  “I gave my kids essential oils and three days later they were better! …Yeah, you’d be better anyway.” (38:28, Jeremy, tongue-in-cheek)

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Notable Timestamps

• Crunchy Scale & Definitions: 09:18, 12:36–13:27
• Felicity’s Ear Incident & ER Visit: 15:00–24:27
• Upbringing & Attitudes to Medicine: 24:46–29:42
• Food, Cooking, and Household Habits: 30:53–36:53
• Essential Oils & Alternative Remedies: 37:06–39:44
• Sunscreen & Toxin Concerns: 40:15–41:45
• Product Swaps and Shopping: 41:45–47:19
• Faith and Health: 48:09–53:11
• “Man Cold” & NyQuil Debate: 53:28–54:48

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Episode Tone & Flavor

The tone is candid and relatable, blending humor, real parenting moments, and genuine reflections on health choices. Jinger and Jeremy resist extremism or judgment, repeatedly asserting that they are “on a trajectory”—not experts—just parents doing their best in a complicated world, open to both modern medicine and “crunchy” upgrades.

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Summary for Listeners

If you’re navigating your own path between modern medicine and natural remedies, or just want a down-to-earth look at how a reality TV alum and her husband make micro-decisions day by day—with faith and family at the center—this episode will resonate, amuse, and perhaps encourage healthier habits without the guilt trip.

Transcript

[Ginger]

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[Jeremy]

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[Ginger]

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[Jeremy]

I'Ve got an idea, Ginge, because you are a little crunchy and I don't think you're like full on crunch, but I think it's probably becoming more and more all consuming.

[Ginger]

What brought this up, I wonder.

[Jeremy]

Oh, yeah. If I'm sick at night, I should.

[Ginger]

Be a little bit close. Where we totally disagreed. I had no clue it was such a big issue whenever Jerus had a man cold.

[Jeremy]

Okay.

[Ginger]

When he's had a man cold, I've said no, don't take nyquil. That's so bad for you.

[Jeremy]

Okay, let's talk about this, because were you guys crunchy before? Crunchy was cool. Like, talk about the Duggars. What was your approach to it? What's going on, guys? We're back for another episode of the Ginger and Jeremy podcast. I and Jeremy, are we gonna do that? I keep forgetting that that's the Roloffs thing. You should go listen to the Roloffs podcast. They gave us a shout out the other day. Raising Heights and Raising Heights. And they're awesome. We love those guys. Ginger, talk about it.

[Ginger]

Let's talk about it.

[Jeremy]

We don't have that dialed in yet.

[Ginger]

Okay. So this morning.

[Jeremy]

But I want you to talk about that.

[Ginger]

I will talk about it. I'll talk about life. So this morning I was. I got up and I was like, wow, I'm gonna do just great. You know, 6:40 or whatever. I woke up. I woke up earlier than 6:40. I got up around 6:40.

[Jeremy]

Yeah. I wonder if 6:40s are considered early to our.

[Ginger]

It's early. It was dark and I got up the finds early.

[Jeremy]

I like that.

[Ginger]

For me, it does.

[Jeremy]

Yeah.

[Ginger]

But anyhow, it was just one of those nights. I don't know. I woke up a couple times in the middle of the night, so I was already tired. But this morning when I popped out of bed, I was like, I'm gonna do this. I'm gonna get ready. We're gonna podcast today. I'm gonna do my hair.

[Jeremy]

Your hair looks great.

[Ginger]

Thank you.

[Jeremy]

So you said the other a moment ago, like, before we got on, like, I Meant to do all this. I'm like, yeah, it looks great, but did you not do it? You're saying you didn't do it?

[Ginger]

I washed my hair, and it was very frizzy, and then I put it up in this mess.

[Jeremy]

And so I like that.

[Ginger]

Just listening to audio, it's just like I pulled my hair back out of bun.

[Jeremy]

So I like that look. And I think that qualifies as your hair being done.

[Ginger]

Thank you.

[Jeremy]

But maybe I'm not. I don't know.

[Ginger]

But Finn, he is next level right now. He's climbing on things. He's six months. I guess he's gonna be seven months soon. When is he gonna be seven months soon? Ish. But he's been crawling everywhere, and now he's trying to climb our step and climbing up on this little chair we have, he just puts his hands up and stands fully up. So at six months, I'm like, not ready for that. It's so cute. But at the same time, he's more active. And then he's cutting his second tooth. So he has one tooth fully popped through. His second one's coming up, and it's very cute, but it's also, like, a little tough. So I was gonna try to put him down for a nap before this podcast, and he just kept screaming, poor baby, Poor guy.

[Jeremy]

Well, I guess I'll talk about it.

[Ginger]

Yeah, you talk about it.

[Jeremy]

I don't really have a lot to talk about.

[Ginger]

Your arm.

[Jeremy]

Oh, I got hit by a car the other day.

[Ginger]

In other news. He got hit by a car.

[Jeremy]

Yeah. So I was walking to an event and I was going through a crosswalk. And so obviously this arm is incapacitated. This arm is healthy. So I was walking. There was a stop sign. The person stopped. They're in like, an suv. And I didn't make eye contact with them, which is my fault. Always make eye contact. And I'm holding something in my, like, on top of my broken hand. And so I start to walk and they nudged forward. Kind of like what you do if you see your buddy in the parking lot and you try to mess with them. So, like, you nudge forward a little bit and they go, ahaha. Like you're gonna hit me. So that's what I thought it was like, oh, nudge forward a little bit. And then they like, hit the accelerator like they're going through the stop sign. So they hit my leg. I turn and I slam the hood with my other hand, which then my wrist was hurting from that. I'm like, great, you know I'm going to imagine just walking around like this, you know, like my one little finger's free from each hand. So that's my first thought. It's like, great. I'm going to break my hand or my wrist. And then the per. The driver's just sitting there staring like shot like deer and headlights. So I just kept walking, thinking, God, it wasn't worse.

[Ginger]

Insane. You had. You've never broken a bone before this. You fractured some things.

[Jeremy]

I've never gotten hit by a car before.

[Ginger]

Hit by a car. And could you imagine being the person behind the wheel? Like, oh, no. Then she realizes you have already a broken hand. You're in a cast on one arm and the other hand that you hit her.

[Jeremy]

I know. Yeah.

[Ginger]

That's just insane.

[Jeremy]

I hope I didn't dent the car. It was a weird social interaction. I wonder if people have had this moment. Like, it wasn't, you know, it was like we stared at each other. She was, like, shocked. I was shocked because I realized, oh, this wasn't like this. I just got hit by a car. I just kept walking. And then she just drove on. So I wonder if people have had interactions like that where it's not a serious, you know, accident. Because obviously, if I'd been injured or something, I think things would have taken a different turn. Like, we would have had to, like, stop and get out of the car and stuff.

[Ginger]

But that almost happened to Evie, too, recently. So I was on a crosswalk area, and there was, like, a big hill where cars come down and they're supposed to stop. And the car slowed down. And I thought that they saw her. They didn't. She was holding my hand, and they came, like, zipping around, and I just, like. I just grabbed her and pulled her back.

[Jeremy]

It was like a foot or two.

[Ginger]

Away, but right beside her. They didn't see her. And it was so scary.

[Jeremy]

And we are very diligent, and I think most parents or like this, listening, like, we are hyper vigilant in parking lots.

[Ginger]

Oh, yeah. We're like helicopter parents. You don't walk. You don't. You don't run. You don't walk by yourself.

[Jeremy]

We try not to be helicopter parents in normal life.

[Ginger]

No.

[Jeremy]

When we step foot onto a parking.

[Ginger]

Lot, that's our thing. We're vigilant. And even though she was holding my hand, the car still didn't see her and came zipping around right past me. And I was surprised because I'm like, did they not see me? Were they on their phone? I don't Know. But they were also shocked. And when they got right up by her, I was like, whoa. I made noise, and I think they heard me. And so then they kind of, like, slammed on their brakes. But then they didn't even stop and say anything. They just kind of.

[Jeremy]

Because, well, there's like, a weird. So, like, there's a weird embarrassment.

[Ginger]

Yeah.

[Jeremy]

I was. This was probably last year. I was going through a grocery store parking lot, and there was a weird diagonal crosswalk. So it wasn't a crosswalk where people are coming on the grocery store and just go straight. It was, like, diagonal. And I'm not kidding. It was in line with the. On the windshield. You know, the. The.

[Ginger]

Yeah.

[Jeremy]

Where it was, like, in line with that. And there was a guy walking, and I just did. I was driving. I did not see him. So I'm going. And then the second you do see him is when he's in front. So I slammed the brakes, and. And I wasn't going fast because there's a parking lot. But it's awkward enough where people around hear the brakes slam. They see the car kind of jolt. They see the person acrosswalk, like, stunned. And so it brings attention.

[Ginger]

Yeah.

[Jeremy]

And I'll tell you, like, there's embarrassment. I was embarrassed. So I had to go to a restaurant right next to the grocery store. I drove to the other end. It was like a strip mall. I drove to the other end of the complex, parked like, 100 yards away, and then walked over, and they were.

[Ginger]

Like, oh, that's you, the guy in the cast.

[Jeremy]

I didn't want them to be like, you almost hit that guy, you know?

[Ginger]

Yeah.

[Jeremy]

Yeah. So I was like, I'll just act like I'm leaving.

[Ginger]

Oh, my goodness.

[Jeremy]

But, like, I. There's got to be that sort of embarrassment.

[Ginger]

Yeah, no, it makes sense. It totally makes sense.

[Jeremy]

And then to actually hit someone. Like, I hit this person's hood hard.

[Ginger]

Like, it's good that you let them know.

[Jeremy]

Well, I didn't. It wasn't intentional. It was just my reaction.

[Ginger]

I think I would have done that, too. On purpose.

[Jeremy]

Yeah. It was, like, stopping. I was. Yeah, I was, like, turning my body to, like, stop the car. As if I. As if I could stop the car.

[Ginger]

You should just jump out of the way. Jump into the bush.

[Jeremy]

See, that would have been a better reaction.

[Ginger]

That's crazy. Oh, my goodness.

[Jeremy]

So anyway, that's insane.

[Ginger]

Okay. We talked about it.

[Jeremy]

Yeah.

[Ginger]

This.

[Jeremy]

I like this segment more and more. It's growing over.

[Ginger]

Okay, what are we going to talk about today?

[Jeremy]

Well, I'VE I've got an idea, Ginge, because here's the reality is, and I'm curious how you would define this, but you are a little crunchy and I don't think you're like full on crunch, but you are a bit. You've got crunch crunchiness growing. And I think it's probably becoming more and more all consuming.

[Ginger]

What brought this up, I wonder? Well, you know, I say, was it Felicity? Her ear infection? No, the other day.

[Jeremy]

Oh, yeah. But that's a good conversation because you didn't want her to take the antibiotic.

[Ginger]

I want to take a break from this episode to tell you about Brooklyn.

[Jeremy]

Bedding and what did you just tell me before we did this ad? So I said, all right, Jen, first up, we're doing an ad for Brooklyn Bedding.

[Ginger]

Oh, my goodness. I was literally sitting there this morning as I woke up. I was laying in bed thinking about Brooklyn Beds. And I was like, I'm so glad we have this bed. I thought back to previous mattresses we've had and they were just not comfortable.

[Jeremy]

So people think we do these ads, Ginge, and they're like, oh, they just get like, here, read these ads. But they don't really care about this stuff or they're just trying to sell us a bill of goods or whatever. Yeah, not true. If it's on this podcast, we love it.

[Ginger]

We had some that we got just off of typical mattress places and they were, they would never fully when we.

[Jeremy]

Until with the bedding, when we got.

[Ginger]

Our bed in the mail, it was so thick, so heavy.

[Jeremy]

Oh my gosh.

[Ginger]

But it's so quality. And we had this morning, four of us in bed because you and I, and then Finn, I nursed Finn and he was laying in the bed and then Felicity came into our bed and so it was crazy, but there was room for all of us.

[Jeremy]

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[Ginger]

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[Jeremy]

BrooklynBetting.com Code JJ.

[Ginger]

We want to take a break from this episode to tell you about function, health.

[Jeremy]

Okay? Your immune system is supposed to protect you, but sometimes it misfires and in autoimmune disorders, the body starts attacking its own tissues. And that sounds scary because it is scary and it's a very real problem. But the good news, you can actually test and track early indicators of autoimmune disorders.

[Ginger]

What I love about function health option is that you can track over 100 plus biomarkers from hormones to toxins, markers of heart health, inflammation and stress. Yeah. And it's just incredible to get that 360 view of what's happening inside your body.

[Jeremy]

Yeah. Even your normal doctor checkups rarely check for these early indicators of autoimmune misfiring.

[Ginger]

Just crazy.

[Jeremy]

Yeah, it's crazy. They will. If you go to your doctor, they will usually only see in a checkup once the symptoms are severe. And so function health is getting you ahead of the game. It really is functional health for your body. So what you, what you want to do is go to functionhealth.com ginger use our code ginger100@signup and the first 1000 of our listeners who sign up will get a hundred dollars credit toward their membership. So go to functionhealth.com ginger and use code ginger100 and you'll get 100 bucks off if you're in that first 1000. Even if you're not in that first 1000, there's, there's nothing you shouldn't invest to get your health on track and to be aware of how you're doing.

[Ginger]

Now back to the episode. Okay, so yes, I'm growing more and more crunchy, but I don't think I'm like imbalanced in it. I have. Maybe I should go a little more crunchy than I am right now.

[Jeremy]

On the crunch scale, where do you think you are from 1 to 10? Where are you putting yourself? And one would be like, eat anything. All medicine. Don't do anything about it. 10 would be what? Like what would be the 10? Crunchy.

[Ginger]

You never go out to eat because you're afraid of seed oils and everything you want.

[Jeremy]

You ground your feet in the morning.

[Ginger]

Yes. You'll never eat anything out, ever. You won't let your kids have one piece of cake at a birthday party on the rare occasion they.

[Jeremy]

Essential oils?

[Ginger]

Yes. For everything. So we're not there.

[Jeremy]

Okay. So where are you? In the sky?

[Ginger]

I feel like I'm in the middle.

[Jeremy]

Are you. You think 4.5 is good rating?

[Ginger]

You think 6?

[Jeremy]

7 is like a. You'd be a 6 7?

[Ginger]

Not yet. I kind of wish I was a little bit more, but we're on the lower end of that, but I'm more aware of what's in our house. And so I have switched all of our cleaning products pretty much over to healthier things. But mind you, we still have like, we've started having some cleaning people come in just even for once every two weeks. And just to do like a deep clean for me, because that's something in the season of life I feel like is a necessity. Especially, you know, as it's approaching flu season. I'm like, okay, there's so many germs. I do want our house cleaner in the season. And we host a lot. We host college students all the time. So it's helpful if I have just an overhaul, like deep clean. Because I do all the housework every day. I'm doing laundry, dishes, cleaning, sweeping, mopping, vacuuming, all those things. But to have somebody come in every once in a while is worth it for us in the season. So we're doing that. But I don't have them bring cleaning products in that are clean. And I've thought about that because when they leave, I don't like the smell of fabuloso in our house.

[Jeremy]

Really?

[Ginger]

I don't like it because I'm like, no, that's not healthy. Now we're bringing in those breathing in the toxic cleaners.

[Jeremy]

So real quick, I walk in after the cleaning people are here and go, wow, it smells so good.

[Ginger]

Because it smells.

[Jeremy]

Yeah.

[Ginger]

Our cleaning products don't smell because they're non scented and they're healthy. I'm not crunchy, but this is it. So I have tried to get away from using a lot of things that are not healthy in our house. And for instance, the other day, this is part of the conversation, we hosted a wedding at our house which was very fun and special. It was going great. At the end of the wedding, Felicity had been on the dance floor and she was dancing so hard. She comes inside and is in excruciating pain. And mind you, this is our social butterfly. She cannot like if people are around. She begs us to stay awake. She's like, do I have to go to bed? I know I have to get up early, but I just want to stay awake because I love our friends. So this is Felicity. Well, she comes in and she says, I need to go to bed. It's like 8:30 and she wants to go to bed. And I'm like, what's wrong? And she said, my ear, my ear, my ear. It's hurting, it's hurting. I need to lay down. So when she goes to lay down, she can't lay down because it's hurting so bad, and she was in so much pain. So I was like, okay, this is time for pain meds. So I had a bottle of, like, kids chewable ibuprofen. So I gave her two tablets, which is her dose, and she took that, and I waited.

[Jeremy]

Even that is like, even that's a lot for you, because you don't even like doing medicine.

[Ginger]

I don't like doing medicine. I'm anti medicine.

[Jeremy]

And that's kind of your upbringing, which I want to get into, but I want you to finish the story. Well, we did not even cheese in, right? But it's like, you really wait, like, you will have a headache all day, and I'll say, why don't you take some medicine? You're like, oh, y. I guess I could, but I never. You've had a headache for 10 hours. So anyway, I knew when you told me that you had given her two ibuprofen. Cause I was at an event, I was like, oh, this is serious. If Jennifer's giving her medicine right now.

[Ginger]

I gave her medicine. She's in pain. She tells me, give me the whole bottle. And I was like, oh, my goodness.

[Jeremy]

She hates medicine.

[Ginger]

She hates it.

[Jeremy]

So for her to say that she.

[Ginger]

Cannot stand taking anything, even if she's.

[Jeremy]

Like, we have a little kids book like that talks about why medicine tastes bad, but what it does, it makes you feel better.

[Ginger]

Yeah.

[Jeremy]

And she still like it.

[Ginger]

She can't.

[Jeremy]

She still hates medicine.

[Ginger]

So I gave her those, and she's like, give me the whole bottle. I was like, who are you? And, no, I'm not giving you the whole bottle. You're gonna take just your dose. But she was in so much pain. I was like, okay, I don't know what happened. So I asked a couple other people at the wedding. As it was, like, winding down, I said, is there a doctor here? Do we have somebody who could just peek in? Like, look, with our little earlooker thing. I don't even know what it's called. But they were like, no, we don't have anybody here now. So all the people at the wedding told me, I think you should take her to the ER because she may have burst. Her eardrum may have burst or something, Whatever. Is that right? I don't know. So anyhow, I looked up the symptoms she was having on ChatGPT, and it said, Take her to the ER right away. And so the symptom, like, even after being on meds, it did not go away. The pain did not go away for an hour. And so she was sitting up, and then she'd, like, lay down in pain. She'd say, I just need this to go away. This is the worst pain I've ever had. So I end up like, okay, I texted you. You said your vent was winding down as well. So you come home, you take her to the er. By the time she gets there, she said that it had popped, so I don't know if she had.

[Jeremy]

Yeah. So I took her in. She was feeling better. Her eyes were bloodshot from crying, but she wasn't, like, in active pain. I take her in, and as we're in line getting checked in for the er, she said, dad, my ear popped, and it feels better. And then she tells me, but we should still get it checked out. It's like, thanks so much. We go in and, yeah, that was my fear. Was that something? Because I had very terrible ears as a kid. I had the worst ears my ear specialists had ever seen.

[Ginger]

It's insane.

[Jeremy]

I should be deaf. I think, like, my ears were very, very bad. So for years, I would need to take ear drops. And I remember. I think they've done a better job with these things now. But there's a certain set of ear drops I would take. My mom would literally have to, like, sit on me on the couch. And I remember this. I was probably Felicity's age, if not younger.

[Ginger]

They hurt.

[Jeremy]

Yeah. This moment, it would drop in, it was agonizing pain. So my mom would have to sit on me and put these ear drops on me, like. And sit on me, like, not squishing me, but to keep me from, like, fighting, because I would not want these. But it was the only thing. I think they've come up with, like, better things now. But it was, like, the only remedy to, like, save my ears. And then she would put these ear drops in, and it would hurt like nothing else.

[Ginger]

That's crazy.

[Jeremy]

I had awful ears. And I don't. I don't even. I should even go and ask my mom, like, what. What did I have? Cause I don't even remember that. It's, like, part of my childhood, and I don't.

[Ginger]

You had a lot of things, though, as a kid. Like, you had asthma. You had allergies.

[Jeremy]

I almost died from asthma. I remember my mom. I couldn't breathe. And my mom was running around to the neighbors homes. This is before cell phones. We had one car in the family. She couldn't get a hold of my dad, I don't think, because he was probably in a Meeting, and the church phone didn't answer, you know, so she's knocking on Miss Rose's door up the street. And I remember, I don't know if it was our car, if my dad came back or someone else. My mom threw me into the back of a car, zipped off to the hospital. I could not breathe. I was like, having an asthma attack.

[Ginger]

Insane.

[Jeremy]

So, wow, you're triggering, like, all these childhood memories. That should be.

[Ginger]

That's where. See, like, with things like that, modern medicine needs to be used, and that's where we're so thankful you have it. Because for inhalers, things like that, where it's like, your asthma is so severe. Yes. There can be other things that play into it, Diet, whatever, With some things that you couldn't.

[Jeremy]

But the reality is, for centuries, people would just die from that.

[Ginger]

Yes. And so that's so modern medicine.

[Jeremy]

You're not so crunchy that you're, like, against modern medicine. But this started because they wanted to give her an antibiotic because she had an ear infection.

[Ginger]

Yes. They wanted to give it to her right away. And then I was thinking about it, and I was like, ah, I don't want her to have an antibiotic, because those can really just mess up your gut.

[Jeremy]

Well, they just clear out the good and the bad.

[Ginger]

Yes. All the bad bacteria. All the good bacteria makes you vulnerable, and it just. Especially before flu season, all of that, where you're gonna be encountering more sicknesses. You do not want your good bacterias getting cleared out too. So then I was like, well, I don't want to give her an antibiotic unless it's absolutely necessary. We want to take a break from this episode to tell you about Poncho.

[Jeremy]

Okay. I'm very excited about this brand partnership. This is a new one for us. I am wearing this new poncho shirt that I just got.

[Ginger]

It is super cool.

[Jeremy]

Oh, it is so comfortable. This. I've got, like, five or six of them now.

[Ginger]

The one thing I'm sad about Poncho is that they're not women's clothes yet. Yet.

[Jeremy]

I wasn't sad about that, by the way, listeners. So just so you know, like I said on our podcast, we advertise stuff we like. So I wanted some samples first. I got these shirts and immediately went and, oh, this is my new. This is my new favorite shirt.

[Ginger]

They are so high quality. I was feeling the quality is so thick. It's soft. It's impressive, actually. So if your guy, he lives in denim or he wants something that he needs like an upgrade, you know? You know he needs an upgrade. Go ahead and buy this for him. Especially with the holidays coming up, it's the perfect time to get something that feels like this. This material feels like it's already broken in. It's soft, it feels like a lived.

[Jeremy]

In feel and it's something he'll actually wear. So, like I got these shirts and was so excited. So if you want your husband, your boyfriend, your son, your uncle, your dad to get a gift that he's super stoked about and it's just a shirt, you go, it's just a shirt. Now these aren't just a shirt. So here's what you want to do. Go to ponchooutdoors.com ginger and enter your email for $10 off of of your first order. That's Poncho P O N C H O outdoors.com ginger for $10 off and free shipping. And when they ask how you heard about them, let them know that the Ginger and Jeremy podcast sent them to you. I'll say this, they're true to size. I'm an XL slim ordered XL slim fits perfectly. I love my shirts. If you want to get a gift that they'll love. Ponchooutdoors.com Ginger now back to the episode.

[Ginger]

So her pain, Actually, she did not complain of pain at all. For the next, like three days, she hasn't had any pain. And so I texted Audrey Roloff who is very crunchy, and she sent me.

[Jeremy]

What is she on the scale of 1 to 10?

[Ginger]

You'll have to ask her. Audrey, what are you? She's very crunchy.

[Jeremy]

I guess 8.5 Audrey. But we'll see.

[Ginger]

She's maybe 9. She's very good at, like knowing all the things. I wish I knew more. So anyhow, she was like, yes, here's what you do. Here are these drops you can buy. So I ordered them next day on Amazon and they seem to be working. It's great. She said that they've worked like a charm for their kids. You put these drops in. I'll have to link them below and let you know if it's working for her.

[Jeremy]

We'll put a lot of links to all the crunchy stuff in the show notes here.

[Ginger]

It's great because they were not expensive and it's just like a two drops of like oil that you put in their ear. It's like a. I don't know what it's called. See, I don't even know what it's called because that's But I'll look it up and put it in there. It's great.

[Jeremy]

So. So you. Okay, let's talk about this. Because you grew up, you. Your family. Crunchy is kind of like this recent term, but you had a different approach to medicine than I did. And my family, as well, did not just pump us with medicine all the time. We weren't by any means crunchy, but it was like, my mom wasn't just, like, throwing Tylenol at us, but you have, like, an aversion to it. And like I said, you'll have a headache all day, and I'll be, like, popping ibuprofen. And you're like, no. It's, like, not your first thought, which is good. But you grew up. Were you guys crunchy before? Crunchy was cool. Like, talk about the Duggars. Did they. What was your approach to it?

[Ginger]

No. So we were not. Actually. We were not on that side of things. We would use medicine, but, like, if we. If we had a fever, we'd take ibuprofen or Tylenol, which you don't have to do. But I think part of that was because we had febrile seizures in our family. And so quite a few of the kids, when they got a fever, they'd immediately get a seizure, and it was scary.

[Jeremy]

Did you ever have a seizure?

[Ginger]

No. I think that Jessa, maybe Joseph, Joy, and Josie. Quite a few of the kids had febrile seizures when their fevers got high. It's when your fever spikes. I think it's when it raises so quickly or like, if you're in a warm building. This happened a couple times with the kids in the winter. They had a fever. They didn't know it. They were at a restaurant. Their fever spiked really fast, and then they went out into the cold air, and it sent them into a seizure because that change of temp. So that happened with a couple of the kids, and it was very terrifying because your body is naturally. When it's seizing, it's, like, moving. But the only thing is, with some kids, you're supposed to let the body, like, just do its thing when it's seizing like that from a febrile seizure. I don't know about normal ones. Just make sure they don't hit their head. But with Josie, I don't know if this was because she was premature. She had a couple different seizures. I remember we were on the road once. We were parked somewhere on a road trip in our big bus. She was sitting in the back watching a show, probably, or something with the kids, the younger kids. And she had a seizure out of nowhere. And one of the kids was like, josie's. Josie's. You know, like, I don't think they knew it was a seizure, but they're like, she's moving a lot. Whatever. My mom, like, ran back. She was having a seizure. So every time that happens, you call the ambulance, you know. But there was one time, even at the house, where that happened, and she had a seizure and her tongue was blocking her airway. So then they were trying to hold her mouth open and hold her tongue down so that way she wouldn't block her airway. But it's crazy because you're supposed to let them seize, like, move. But she. Yeah, went code blue. I feel like it was on the show, but maybe not. But it was so scary. Like, thankfully, we had a couple of the siblings were trained as first responders because they worked for the fire department. And that was helpful because they were able to know what to do in that situation. And she was fine. But it's so scary. So with things like that, when it runs in the family, and I don't know if it's hereditary or not, but, like, it for sure happened so many times in our family. Maybe five of the kids had them six. I don't know. It was a lot. And so anytime we get a fever, my mom was very cautious to, like, make sure that she would take care of it so it wouldn't get too high. She'd give us medicine to calm it, like, to bring it down. But anyhow, needless to say, I remember Tylenol and ibuprofen were common for us to use. But beyond that, we would not do a ton of medicine. I remember once when the flu went through it, like, was in our house for a month and a half, and we had antibiotics, I think, for that because it was so severe and it lasted for so long that I remember bottles of Tamiflu in the fridge for, like, with each person's name on them. And there were antibiotics everywhere. I just remember that for the flu. Cause it was so bad. And like, anytime strep throat would go through or something like that, we would take prescriptions for them. But aside from that, I mean, we were not. No one was on medications for anything. And I think that, you know, we were fairly healthy and we didn't eat super healthy foods. We would eat a lot of just whatever. Like, we make a lot of casseroles, but we were cooking at home all the time. So I think there's a difference. There Where?

[Jeremy]

Well, there's definitely been. Even in my upbringing and yours, I think families 20 years ago did not eat out nearly as much as we do now. I think the convenience and the proliferation of food, fast food restaurants and the availability of doordash and things like that, I don't, I don't know if it's just. I don't know if this is. Can be documented like across the culture, but I know for us, we eat out so much more with our kids than I did growing up.

[Ginger]

Yeah, for sure. And I think that that's the side of it where when you look at our culture, we're so fast paced. Everybody's going places, we're playing sports, doing things. You know, there's travels, there's. With the ability to do so much, you lose the ability to sit, sit at a table as a family and cook a homemade meal. And you're just constantly going from one thing to the next, one thing to another, you know. And so when you're able to like slow down a little bit and stay at home, then you're going to have healthier meals that you're cooking and you're going to be able to be more monitoring of what comes in.

[Jeremy]

How crunchy are you when it comes to food?

[Ginger]

I want to be.

[Jeremy]

Is that the least crunchy of you?

[Ginger]

No. Oh, no. Right.

[Jeremy]

I don't know.

[Ginger]

So I think when it comes to food at home, we eat a lot of the same things. I don't love to cook, but I also.

[Jeremy]

Chicken and couscous is unbelievable. I could eat that every day of my life.

[Ginger]

Thank you. So I love to make. It's like I try to buy organic eggs. Like I buy eggs from either organic if they're from the store or from my friends. Our friends actually have chickens.

[Jeremy]

Ginger, if I was a jealous man, I'd be jealous of your relationship with eggs. You, the other day, I think you ate breakfast, lunch and dinner eggs.

[Ginger]

You know why? Because I got lazy and I was like one of the only ones here with Finn and I was like, I'm not making a meal for myself. So I ate eggs maybe for one too many meals because I like eggs. I can eat them for every meal and be so happy and, and I'll just make em all different ways. I'll make an egg burrito with like all the stuff in it. I'll put some cheese, veggies in it, whatever I have. And then I'll make myself like scrambled eggs in the morning. Every morning I eat four to five eggs. You guys think I'm crazy. It's a lot of protein. I have to have protein in my diet. Otherwise, I feel like I get all shaky.

[Jeremy]

You know what's funny is I don't like eggs. Finn neutral right now, Felicity. No. This is like, a sweet little bond you and Evie have. You share eggs in the morning with Evie?

[Ginger]

Yep.

[Jeremy]

Evie's eggs. And this morning, her and mommy eat eggs together.

[Ginger]

This morning, they had Magic Spoon cereal. Cause it's like a healthier cereal. So I let them have that this morning, and she ate that, and then she saw me eating eggs, and she goes, I want eggs. After she already ate, like, a bowl and a half of Magic Spoon. So I made her eggs, and she ate them, and it's great, but. Okay. So for our normal food, I do try to just buy a lot of the same things, because I know, okay, this is convenient. I can make it. So I like meals that are, like, only 10 to 15 minutes of prep time. That's my preference. If I'm gonna make a dinner, maybe it'll be more like 20. But in this season of life, I don't like to spend a ton of time in the kitchen, but I also don't like us eating a lot of really junky foods. So I wish that I could just, like, get outside of this mindset of, like, okay, let's. Let's, like, meal plan. Let's do all this stuff. I'm not a planner. Planning stresses me out and makes me depressed, but I have to plan things out. So I'm like, I know what I like. I know what we like. I could eat the same meal every day for the rest of my life and be happy.

[Jeremy]

I'm gonna do it.

[Ginger]

But I make chicken, steak, salmon, or eggs for our protein. And then we will do a variety of things with that. So I will dice up the chicken, and I'll make tacos on siete almond flour tortillas, which we love.

[Jeremy]

Yes. Shout out siete. That's. Is that crunchy stuff or what?

[Ginger]

Yeah, it's healthy. It's great. And they're almond flour, or they even have the Cassandra. I think it's called flour, which is like a cactus, I think plant tortilla. But whatever it is, it's healthy and it's delicious. So I get those, and then we'll put salsa. Or sometimes if I'm feeling fancy and I want to take an extra 10, 15 minutes, I will dice up peppers and onions and saute those in olive oil and top them in the taco or burrito. And it's so good. So we eat tacos sometimes twice a week, and they're healthy. So I'll do, like, the organic chicken thighs. I don't like the chicken breast. I'm weird about chicken if it's rubbery, if it's squishy. Except for, like, good ranchers, Chicken is actually very good. It's very, very good. But some chicken, I'm like, it doesn't taste fresh. It doesn't taste as. I don't know, it gets like that rubbery texture when you cook it. So that's why I like chicken thighs. And I usually do the organic ones. And then our other go to meal is pasta, which is not. It's not, like, amazingly healthy, but it's a go to.

[Jeremy]

So I'll just do half my people ginger. I know that's perfectly healthy, but I.

[Ginger]

Don'T make my own sauce in this season of life. I did make your grandma's sauce for years.

[Jeremy]

Yeah.

[Ginger]

Um, and maybe one day I'll get back to that. But in this season, I will just buy a fairly decent quality pasta sauce and then I'll put in, like, some ground beef or meatballs.

[Jeremy]

Here's the thing is ginger also. It can. You've heard her even say it just now, like, a few times. I'm not the best cook. I don't like cooking. And sure. You not every. You know, some people get all jazzed up.

[Ginger]

I'm very insecure about my cooking.

[Jeremy]

Yeah. But also it's a matter of enjoyment. Like, some people get jazzed up to be in the kitchen all day. And you don't so much. But it's like, cook to stay alive kind of vibes.

[Ginger]

Yes. But in certain seasons, I just want.

[Jeremy]

You to know this. So I'm gonna say this, you know, with everybody listening here, like, I'm a very simple man, and our kids like you. The. The meals you make, I could eat them every day. They're phenomenal. Like couscous and chicken. You make. The Israeli couscous is unbelievable. You make. Well, all the pastas, the rigatoni, meatballs, meat sauce. Like, it doesn't take a lot. It's delicious.

[Ginger]

I'm glad you don't get bored of it. Cause I need to get outside of my normal cooking.

[Jeremy]

But it's also like, you're cooking healthy stuff. So there's.

[Ginger]

Yeah. And then I love to do, like, the sauteed. Like, I'll do either sauteed green beans. Like the frozen French green beans are good. Or you just put them on a pan in the oven at A super high temp and they kind of get crunchy. Felicity thinks they're like french fries, so we love to eat those.

[Jeremy]

Here we go. Talking crunchy again.

[Ginger]

Yeah, and sweet potatoes diced up really good.

[Jeremy]

I've got another avenue we've got to talk. Another avenue of crunch. Ginge. Because essential oils. Talk about essential oils, talk about multi level marketing. Talk about.

[Ginger]

Ready to get into that.

[Jeremy]

Yes. Talk about all the things because we love essential oils. What's the brand?

[Ginger]

So Young Living is something that I've had some of, but okay, I have to say so I like the essential oils and I use some Young Living products. I have like their house cleaner stuff that I'd used for years. I switched to Truly Free because I love the convenience of that. I love how it comes to your door.

[Jeremy]

Truly Free is unbelievable.

[Ginger]

It's amazing. It's healthy. It's all clean products and that's been amazing. So yeah, I used some of that for a while. The essential oils, I have not figured out exactly how to use them and so I'm not like as versed in it. I guess that's just part of it. And it's a learning curve for me and it's something that I feel like would take more time and energy to sit down and figure out. But I have very crunchy friends. So when they tell me, oh, you have a headache, use this oil, Then I'm like, okay, cool, maybe I'll use that and try it. But I'm not sitting down and taking the time to research it.

[Jeremy]

It works. Like when you do, it works. I would always knock essential oils because people would be like, hey, if my kids had a cold, I gave them essential oils and like three days later they were better.

[Ginger]

And then you'd always say, and I'm.

[Jeremy]

Like, yeah, three days later you're better anyway, like, it's just cold ran its course. However, that was like years ago. I do think essential oils have benefits we've never done. So we never did like the, the MLM part of Young Living. However, you know, multi level marketing can be sketchy because it can take advantage of people on products they don't really. I always felt differently about Young Living because Young living's it was. I, I found a ton of people we knew were getting involved with the marketing and selling of it, not because they were trying to get rich quick and be part of like a scheme, but because they genuinely loved the products.

[Ginger]

And it was an established brand and.

[Jeremy]

It was polymer people that would buy the products, enjoyed the products. So nobody felt like they were gypped. They were like, yeah, I get my essential oils. Oh, I made a few sales. This person made a ton of sales. Whatever, I'm gonna buy these oils anyway. Like, it was a aspect of living where they were like, I want this product. Sure, I'll be involved in promotion of it or something. But it just felt less like mlm. Honestly, it didn't feel like an MLM in the sense of like, I don't think we were ever part of it as organizationally, but it was like we could have been because we were just buying the products anyway.

[Ginger]

Yeah, for sure. And I use a lot of the products and I still actually have some that are really excellent that I love. And I had like some mineral sunscreen that was really great from young living that I loved.

[Jeremy]

Sunscreen's a fast, fascinating one because I've just seen headlines. So I haven't done the research. Again, I'm not claiming to be crunchy here, but the rates of skin cancer and I've seen something saying sunscreen is actually not helping with that.

[Ginger]

I don't put sunscreen on all the time, which is probably why I have more wrinkles because I'm in my 30s. But I don't use.

[Jeremy]

The Botox isn't working. Jin Ah, it's not.

[Ginger]

I don't use all the time, but I definitely try not to use the normal sunscreens because they're so toxic. When you do the sprays and stuff, it's like, I like the mineral based sunscreens that you can apply. Like if we're going to be in the pool for hours or at the beach or in an area that has like heavy sun. But in the day when the kids are going out to play, I actually let them soak up some sunscreen sun. I don't know if that's bad or good, but I do let them soak up some sun because I'm like, if it's not like beating down, we don't try to go out when it's 100 degrees. But yeah, I don't know about that. So I'm not like, I'm not one who's going to study everything out for myself in this season because I don't have a lot of time. So I kind of am just. I'm very aware. So when I am thinking through what things are we doing for our family, I try to cut back on. I do try to cut back on seed oils. So I'm reading labels and sometimes I will buy a bag of chips that has a Bad ingredient in it. And I'm like, it's fine. But then, like, yesterday, I went to Costco and I read the back of so many labels, and I was like, oh, my goodness. These chips that for years I thought were pretty healthy, they're not.

[Jeremy]

Which ones?

[Ginger]

They're like the kettle baked kind.

[Jeremy]

Oh, no.

[Ginger]

But then there's a kettle baked one that has avocado oil instead of seed oils. And so I was like, let's go for that one instead. Or I get the Siete brand, which actually are great. Again, I'm not. This is not a sponsored thing, But I'm just saying it's so good. I like those. So we get those as, like, a special treat. And so I'm. And then the almond flour crackers, there's. What is that brand? It's a yellow and white box. Y' all might know.

[Jeremy]

Oh, so good.

[Ginger]

But at Costco, it's amazing. And they're almond flour crackers with very few ingredients. So we buy those for best for charcuterie. We buy those for charcuterie, and we have those almost every single night. And so, like, I used to buy bagged popcorn that you put in the microwave. And then I was like, why don't we use a whirly pop and make our own? So we just do a little olive oil, sea salt, and then we could buy whatever kernels we want to go in and things like that. So we're making tons of switches. And I'm very. I'm just very aware now of all those things. And I see how health is going. It's decreasing everywhere. And at the end of the day, God is sovereign. We don't wanna be fearful. So say we had cancer or something. Well, God is sovereign in that way, too. But we also realize, okay, we need to do our part to try to take care of what God's given us. And yes, we love a McDonald's ice cream cone. So we're gonna go get a McDonald's ice cream cone and enjoy it. And. And at the same time, we can't do that every day. So we're making little decisions that will benefit our family. And I think that part of the issue is we can, as a culture, we become so commercialized to where we're like, okay, we're just gonna grab whatever's convenient because we're always on the go. Like I said, we're not slowing down to actually read and see what's in things. We're going, going, going. So we're like, we don't have any time for that. Well, you're gonna make time for it when you're sick. So now is the time to think ahead a little bit and not to be paranoid, but to read what's in your food is healthy and it's helpful. So, yes, if you look in our pantry, we will have some stuff with seed oils, But I'm trying to weed that out. I'm really trying to make those switches. And it's expensive to do. So we're like, okay, what are the priorities? What things are we eating every day? That's a. That's a must for us. Where can we make that switch? So if that is buying, you know, less processed junk for a snack, then we'll do that. So I usually would get, like, fruit. And I've tried to switch our fruit to organic fruits, like for the Dirty Dozen and switching those things over. Or maybe it's like for, you know, a protein maybe. If we're eating chicken, I'm gonna make sure I get the organic chicken. Cause it's gonna have, you know, it's gonna be hormone free, no antibiotics in it, all those things. So I'm trying to make those little switches, but it's hard. It is hard because we live in a time where you see so many people talking about it, but so many companies are putting ingredients in things or hiding them under certain labels of natural flavors to where you don't know what you're getting. You're getting chemicals.

[Jeremy]

So talk about then. Cause the chemical side is a big thing. And we have made that switch to truly free, and we've really enjoyed it. It was actually our dear crunchy friends, the Roloffs, who turned us onto it and said, you guys gotta be looking into this brand. And they have a ton of products.

[Ginger]

A ton of products.

[Jeremy]

And it's not just cleaning. It's detergents and things, soaps. So talk about what we've switched over with Truly free.

[Ginger]

Yeah, so I've switched all of our home products over to truly Free. So our laundry detergent, it is these. It's actually really brilliant. They reuse the containers that you have. So I will get a laundry detergent container. When you first, like, get your shipment or whatever, and they send you this container, you pour a packet of liquid into it, into your container, and then you just fill it up the rest of the way with water. You shake it up. It cleans your laundry so good, it comes out. It's so fresh. They have. Even the fabric softener version, it has. It doesn't have those scents that like, other Brands would have the traditional laundry detergents, but it smells fresh when it comes out because it's all natural products and they don't hide their ingredients. So I love that it's very, like, straightforward for us. So I use those for all of our cleaning products. Now when you look around our house, we have their soaps, their dish soap, their dishwasher, detergent. That's something that I had started buying, trying to find something that was kind of like healthy. But even some of the healthier brands were still putting fragrances in there. So it's smelling and then you're thinking, wait, am I eating that? Like, it's going in the dishwasher. And then now I'm like eating this chemical basically on my stuff because it doesn't all come off. So those are just switches I've made. Now I haven't been able to find the right kind of shampoo and conditioner. So if any of you guys have recommendations, please leave those for us. Because I'm trying to make a switch to those natural products. That's one of the last areas I haven't made the switch in is my hair products. So if you find any, like, looks.

[Jeremy]

Great to bring it full circle to the start of the episode.

[Ginger]

This is all natural, actually. I washed it and it has no product in it.

[Jeremy]

I like the fact that you've thought through these things and are so conscientious because, yeah, I mean, it's just looking out for our family. There's so. There's so much that we're putting in our bodies that we're eating that we're breathing in. And the, you know, the, the consumerism has kind of popped off and has gone crazy where people are just trying to sell products. And so the cheaper, more mass produced and if you, if you buy it, you know, everything's the bottom dollar. And we stop thinking about our health, we stop thinking what are we actually ingesting, what are we like as we go through that drive through because it's convenient. What really are we putting into our bodies?

[Ginger]

Yeah.

[Jeremy]

And some people have become real spiritual about it. Like, I know there's people homesteading and calling us to return to, like, biblical foundations. And I will just say this. Yes, there is a biblical mandate to care for creation, to treat our animals with respect and dignity, to treat our bodies with care. We're made in the image of God to reflect his majesty and glory. And we're called to do that in all aspects of our life. So for the person who's like, ah, it doesn't matter what you put in your body, it doesn't matter what you eat. You know, we're just going to heaven one day. They don't have a holistic understanding of the Christian life. One pastor said it, well, there's the old man before Christ, there's the new man in Christ, and there's the human old man, new man, human. God has made us as people, as bodies, as physical creatures, and we're called to reflect his majesty and glory in this earth, in our physical bodies. So as Christians, we should be thoughtful and conscientious about caring for what God has given us to care for. That was the original creation mandate in the Garden of Eden, to work the soil and to keep it.

[Ginger]

And what is the imbalance in that, though?

[Jeremy]

Yeah, so the imbalance in that is then you're going to gain a spirituality or you're going to gain standing, or you're going to gain Christian maturity by living off the land. And what always happens. Bill Gothard used to do this. There's so many teachers who do this. They say, here's a biblical diet. And you realize, bro, the Bible was not written as a cookbook. The mandates given to Israel were not about nutrition as much as they were about set apartness. God was creating an image of Israel to show to the nations that they were different and separate. And so a lot of their food mandates were not nutritional. Which is why In Acts chapter 10, God commands Peter, his apostle, to kill and eat food that had been forbidden to be eaten because they were now breaking down the dividing wall between Jews and Gentiles and the food laws were gone. So if God was giving those food laws to Israel because of nutrition, how silly would it be that his New Covenant people, he says, hey, forget your nutrition, just eat whatever. It was never about nutrition. It was about separateness and mind you, separateness of a people who, who they did not have a universal language. So if Israel was to be distinct, they could not communicate with foreign nations verbally. They had to be distinct in how they looked, in what they ate, what they didn't eat. And so there was a barrier of separation. And God used food as one of the barriers. Well, in the New Covenant, he just completely eradicates that and says, Peter, kill and eat. And Peter, there's another time where he recoils from eating with Gentiles and he's rebuked by Paul, sit down and eat. So it wasn't about nutrition, it was never about nutrition. So some people will take it too far and try to come up with Biblical diets. Right. And try to go to what was the manna, you know, that came from heaven. And John Locust and honey, they missed.

[Ginger]

The whole point because that's also something that. What is that passage they're talking about? The teachers who will say that you should. They forbid marriage from foods, which. Yeah, God is.

[Jeremy]

God is given to be. To be received with Thanksgiving. Yeah. So false teachers will. So like that's where Gothard got into hot water. Cause he would actually forbid marriage and require abstinence from certain foods. And so he's in the realm of, oh, legalistic false teacher. But some people just get real hyped up on it and they want to act as if God's given a biblical mandate for a. All of these aspects of life and he hasn't. Like, God doesn't say you can't go to McDonald's. He does talk about gluttony. He does talk about discipline and diligence. So we need to look for scripture and base our life off of what's biblical, but then not get into like weird territory of trying to over apply texts that weren't written for that purpose.

[Ginger]

So good, babe.

[Jeremy]

Like when you read a historical narrative and you read it like a cookbook, you're reading it wrong. Like get your literal literature genres right. You know, so anyway, we don't want to like wade into the waters of weird, legalistic man made spirituality when we start.

[Ginger]

And fear as well, because I think fear can be a huge thing. And we, we see so many people around who are getting sick, who are coming down with things and that is how, like, it's so sad because you see, the health is declining as a whole. Our health is declining. And so it does make you think twice before you go and eat a bag of Doritos, which is good. And at the same time it's like we need to be aware and we need to, you know, in our minds we've sought to make those changes and we're not gonna buy that all the time, but yes, will I let my kid enjoy a snack or whatever? Yes, I will. But at the same time it's like, that's not our normal diet.

[Jeremy]

Yeah. So we are trying, we're on a trajectory of health.

[Ginger]

We're trying to every day battle it out and figure out what we're going to keep out of our house, which is hard.

[Jeremy]

That's good. Okay. Well, I guess you're more crunchy than I am, but I appreciate your crunchiness. Love.

[Ginger]

I don't let you take. What is that stuff you used to take nyquil.

[Jeremy]

Oh, yeah. If I'm sick at night, I just.

[Ginger]

Want a little bit of night cold thing where we totally disagreed. I did not know. I had no clue it was such a big issue. But I. Whenever Jairus had a man cold.

[Jeremy]

Okay.

[Ginger]

When he's had a man cold, I've said, no, don't take Nyquil. That's so bad for you. And I said also, I don't want you to be just like knocked out. And I don't know.

[Jeremy]

Well, with kids, now that's important. But there's nothing worse than having a cold and being woken up through the night five times, not being able to sleep kind of in like that. You're midway between dreamland and reality and it's just the worst.

[Ginger]

But last time you had a cold, I went out and bought you Nyquil, remember? Because you were feeling so rough.

[Jeremy]

That's true love.

[Ginger]

Should have bought you a thing of essential oils, but if you were really.

[Jeremy]

Crunchy, you would have.

[Ginger]

No, I. I don't like. I don't like it when we take medicines for normal things because it does need to run its course. Or if you do some healthy remedy. That's fine. Medicines in. In that sense for stuff. I feel like it is just covering up your symptoms.

[Jeremy]

Yeah.

[Ginger]

And it's gonna make you sicker long term.

[Jeremy]

Sometimes I don't like the symptoms.

[Ginger]

But you don't like the symptoms. Well, that's our one disagreement.

[Jeremy]

I'm proud of you.

[Ginger]

I throw it out there.

[Jeremy]

You're. You're a good mama. You're a good wife. And I guess we're getting crunchier. Hope you guys enjoyed this little chit chat. We'll link a bunch of this stuff below. Actually low key, like the Siete truly free. Maybe some good ranchers, chicken, whatever. There's. There's a lot of stuff that's healthy that we've been. And we're not experts on this stuff, but we're just. We're just doing our best.

[Ginger]

Yep.

[Jeremy]

Like, we all are. All right, guys, well, thanks for tuning in. Make sure you subscribe so you get updates. Follow us on the Tick tock, on the Instagram. We've got. We're on Facebook as well. I don't know if we started. Yeah, I've started posting all the pods on that guy.

[Ginger]

Learned something new.

[Jeremy]

We hadn't been doing that for years, but you can follow us along for any updates. And we've got some fun episodes coming up. We've got some interesting guests I think you guys are gonna like. With some very interesting, interesting topics. So stay tuned for more. We will see you next week.