How To Affordably Feed Your Family Healthy Foods on a Budget with Corey Dunn | Ep. 110

0:00If your body can't recognize it, your body can't use it. They can't absorb the nutrients from the food that they're eating. So they have the nutrient deficiencies, which could lead to bad sleep. It could lead to neurological issues. It could lead to things like ADHD. It could lead to things like eczema. Or there's compounds in the foods that they're eating that mess with what's happening in your body. It doesn't have to be fancy. It doesn't have to be this beautiful plate of like, here's my side dish that I spent two hours on. and here's this that I cut up into crinkle shapes because my kid likes it more.

0:36Like, forget it. Just feed the people. Hello and welcome, mom friend. I'm Layla, the host of the Learning to Mom podcast. You and I are going to be great mom friends. I know it. Now, this is the podcast where you get your first time mom questions answered. Here on the Learning to Mom podcast, we discuss the challenges of motherhood, But don't just stop there complaining about it. Here, you'll be encouraged and supported to overcome the heart with the right tools while finding that motherhood is full of fun, joy, and peace. Now, I must admit, we do tend to lean a little bit crunchy, a little bit more holistic.

1:15So if that's your vibe, I think you're going to love it here. Each expert guest comes with their own perspective and background. So please note that the content presented in this podcast is designed for general educational purposes only and is not a substitute for personalized professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. Hi, Kori. Welcome to the Learning to Mom podcast. Thank you so much, Leila. I'm excited to be here. Excited to talk about all the things. Let's go. All the things. Before we just go, why don't you just introduce yourself to the listeners and spill all the tea on what For Nutrients' Sake is all about.

1:52Okay, so my name is Cori Dunn. I started for nutrient sake about seven years ago. Since then, I now have four kids. When I started, I had three. We moved from the Washington DC area down to southeastern Georgia. We live near the coast on kind of a hobby homestead, I would say. Like we raise meat animals, but not all the time. We're just kind of trying to do as much as we can without losing our minds. And then I just wanted to share what food had been doing for my family. We had a massive shift in healing that came directly from food. And I was just blown away by what it had done for my family.

2:41And I wanted everybody to be able to experience that and to know what it was like to feel great and have their kids be really healthy. So that's kind of what happened there. And then about three and a half years ago, I started a podcast with my friend, Christine. So yeah, that's where that all started and where we got to where we're at now. Awesome. Okay. I want to start with, since you talk so heavily about real food, I want to talk about what that even means and why is it so important? Okay. Generally, I would consider real food to be like single ingredient items, you know, so like tomatoes or apples or steak or wheat would be a single ingredient item that you would need to put a little effort into to make it edible.

3:35You can't just go out and eat wheat straight from the field. But you do a little processing, which is where we get into that term, processing. You do a little processing, and that gets it to a state that you can eat it. Same thing with an apple, right? Like you could say, okay, we have an apple. It's one single ingredient food. You could just bite it, right? You could take an apple off a tree and just eat it straight. Or you could slice it, which is a form of processing. or you could saute it with some butter and some cinnamon and you have like a, you know, baked apple sort of thing, which is another form of processing.

4:09Where we get the term ultra processed, which is like the opposite of what most people would consider real food, would be where we're taking foods from nature and processing them to the point where they are almost nothing like they were in nature. So we're using chemicals to change them or we are manipulating the flavor profiles so that we can make people eat more of them essentially. And these are the things that our bodies don't recognize as food and don't know what to do with. So your body can recognize the chemical compounds in an apple, but they can't necessarily recognize the chemical compounds in an apple flavored something, you know?

4:51So they may both taste like apples, but your body doesn't know what to do with one versus the other. And the reason that that's a problem, particularly if you're looking at children, is that if your body can't recognize it, your body can't use it. So if your body can't use it, you're going to have digestion problems. So like all those kids that are on Miralax, so they can't poop, they're backed up. And then that compounds and compounds and becomes problems. They can't absorb the nutrients from the food that they're eating. So they have the nutrient deficiencies, which could lead to bad sleep. It could lead to neurological issues.

5:39It could lead to things like ADHD. It could lead to things like eczema or there's compounds in the foods that they're eating that like mess with what's happening in your body, like blocks things, right so there are some compounds in foods that'll block certain minerals or things that just mess with the microbiome that you have going on in your gut like i said earlier the reason that i started all of what i'm doing is because we had some massive healing that happened from switching to real foods my daughter had eczema she developed it around six months old i'm telling you it was like terrible eczema not just like a patchy elbow like her whole neck to ankles completely scaly covered, rashy, awful.

6:21By the time she was a year old, we decided that all of the conventional things that we were doing weren't working. So we cut out gluten from her diet and her skin cleared up in a week from just cutting out gluten. Okay. So gluten in and of itself is not a bad thing, but the way that we have over hybridized wheat, we've changed wheat and the gluten has gotten stronger and we've started spraying all these things. Most of our foods that are in our food system are sprayed with glyphosate, which is then another compounding problem. What glyphosate does in a bug is that it explodes their stomach. Okay.

6:58So they explode from the inside out when they eat it. And that's essentially what's happening in a human's gut. That's why we have the term leaky gut, right? So it's punching holes in your gut lining, then letting all of these chemicals that are supposed to be filtered out of your body when you're eating food, they let's those chemical compounds go through the lining of your gut. That's where leaky gut comes from. That's where a lot of these problems come from. So the reason that real food is so important for everybody, but particularly for children is, you know, there are a lot of reasons, but those are like the main ones where it's like, they need the nutrients.

7:40Okay. So give us a rundown on like the foods. I guess when you have these conversations, sometimes it's really overwhelming to someone because they're like, I'm going to have to start homesteading and cooking everything from scratch. So like give us some insight into just the logistics here. Okay. I think that the best way to, if your family is starting from Fruity Pebbles and Lunch Bowls, the best way to do this is to basically make whatever your family is eating from scratch. or in the best way possible. So like if you are used to, your kids are used to eating chicken nuggets every night, then you can either find chicken nuggets that are made with better ingredients, but they're more expensive.

8:31So I think that if you're used to doing that, I think that either buying those chicken nuggets or figuring out how to make them, thankfully chicken nuggets are actually pretty simple to make. But I think like things like pizza, burgers, tacos, like all those standard American meals can almost always be made in a real food nutrient dense way. And I think that that's the key, especially if you have like a husband who's not on board. If this podcast is like your parenting textbook, then our mom club on Patreon is like your mom friends group chat and book club rolled into one. It's where the info comes to life and you get to go deeper than this podcast with extra interviews, uncut full-length episodes, and a monthly book club Zoom meeting with other supportive moms.

9:23Here's the deal, though. In full transparency, I've been undercharging for what the mom club offers. And starting next month, the monthly rate for the mom club on Patreon will go up to$15. But I'm letting you know this because if you join now, you can lock in the current 644 forever. So if you want more guidance, confidence, and connection at the lowest rate our mom club will ever be, so you're grandfathered in, head to learningtomompodcast.com slash join. And of course, I also have that in the episode show notes for you. Cannot wait to meet you there inside my friend. So when we talk about buying stuff, let's talk about organic real fast.

10:08Is buying organic a must? Where is it on the priority list? On the priority, like starting from Fruity Pebbles and Lunchables on the priority list, it's pretty low. Share everything. This is so fun. I feel like this is a take that I don't hear a lot. Organic, I think originally was a really great thing. it has gotten somewhat corrupted like for a farm to to be able to call themselves organic or from for a product to be able to call themselves organic it's very very expensive so any of your small local places are going to have a really really hard time getting that organic certification and being able to say that they're organic um it's really expensive there are a lot of hoops to jump through.

10:56And there are more and more things that are being allowed in that organic label that are not necessarily what you are thinking it means, which is where it's so it can get so frustrating and so overwhelming. And I have so much compassion for people who are looking at this going, I want to do something and I want to do the right thing for my family. But this is like impossible to figure out. So for example, I have an amazing little local farm here where we live. That's where we buy most of our produce from. Everything is local. Everything is seasonal, but not everything is organic. And I could be spending more on organic.

11:43And yeah, I could actually even just go to the grocery store and get the organic things, right? But that organic thing that I'm buying at the grocery store is coming from, you know, shipping in from wherever it's shipping in from. It is being grown on a monocrop basis. A lot of times these places are just like literally throwing plastic down on the ground and like putting pots of blueberries on the top of the plastic. So they're not actually doing anything better for the planet. But But they're not being sprayed with glyphosate. So that's good. You know, like it's there's like a catch 22 when it comes to it.

12:18And I don't want to tell I don't want to discourage anybody because organic, if what you're doing is buying organic at the grocery store, that's great. You know, it is also the more expensive. So it's like if you're starting off at, you know, Fruity Pebbles or fruit. Yeah. At the very start. Organic is not the first step. If you can afford it. Sure. First step organic. But organic processed food is not any better for you than other processed food. So if I were first stepping it, I would go try and just switch over to more single ingredient options or less ultra processed foods rather than trying to just go automatically to organic.

13:08The next step, if you're already like cooking at home for the most part, I think it's to then start trying to incorporate nutrient-dense foods. So that would be things like raw dairy. If you can get it where you live, if you feel comfortable with it, do some research and figure out what the deal is with raw dairy. But also if you don't have access to raw milk, you can get raw cheese, which is actually really simple to get. All you have to do is get like a Parmesan cheese from Italy. If it's imported from Italy, it'll be a raw cheese. And that'll give you amazing nutrients, high protein, good fats, super, super good for kids, particularly toddlers.

13:51Fermented foods like sauerkraut or fermented pickles or kombucha or water kefir, yogurt, milk kefir, those sorts of things. Organ meats, which I know sounds really scary. There is a company called Pluck and they make little seasoning blends that you just shake on your food. Like it's just a seasoning blend and it has organ meats in it. And that's the best way, I think, to start introducing yourself to organ meats. It doesn't taste weird. It tastes really delicious and your body kind of recognizes the really good stuff in it. And so, yeah, so that would be my next step. And I would go at it slowly too.

14:32Like I would say, okay, you know what? right now, this month, I'm going to focus on fermented foods, right? We, or not even this month, like this season, I'm going to focus on getting fermented foods into our lives. That's going to look like we're having milk kefir with breakfast, or we're having pickles with our sandwich at lunch or we're having a sauerkraut on the side with our dinner or a glass of kombucha. It doesn't have to be scary. It doesn't have to be weird. But I would focus on that for a season until you feel comfortable with it. And you're like, when you feel like I've gotten this, this is normal.

15:22This feels like just a part of our food culture in our house, then you move on to something else. And now it's time for your favorite segment, mom mail. If you're new here, this is the part of the show where I answer a listener submitted situation or scenario. Basically you write in your tricky situation and I give you the advice only a real mom friend would give. Here's what I got this week. Hi, Layla. I just wanted to say I'm such a fan of your podcast. I love how real and relatable you are. Your episodes make me feel not so alone. Here's what I need help with. I'm really needing some mom advice.

15:55I'm six months postpartum and feeling like I can't get anything done during the day. My baby naps a total of maybe two hours and when they're awake, they need me constantly. I thought I'd have time to exercise, cook, or even shower, but nope. How do you actually find little pockets of time for yourself without feeling guilty or like you're feeling as a mom? First and foremost, you are not alone. The six months postpartum is such like a tricky stage because things can still be pretty difficult at six months. And yet you're like, I didn't know I would be still struggling at six months postpartum.

16:32And I think it's hard because of that. Like you've been doing it long enough. You're like, when is it going to be easy? So know that you're heard, know that you're seen. Secondly, I do think that there are some tips that that I would suggest that you can start with. Hopefully they help. Again, take it with a grain of salt. This is just one mom friend to another. But I would suggest baby wearing. I think that's going to help you a lot because then baby can still be on you and you can do things like cook, clean, just feel like you are doing something rather than just like holding the baby or staring at the baby or reading the baby some books.

17:13Baby wearing really has been a game changer for me. and then also also I would suggest that you do like put the baby down and just try to do small increments and I know that's not going to change overnight like trust me I'm not suggesting that you put the baby down and then be like don't pick him up and I'm I'm not suggesting that you're going to set the baby down and then the next day then you're going to set them down and they're going to be able to play by themselves for an hour but I think continuously giving your child the opportunities for independent play is going to help you out in the long term because your child is not going to magically turn 12 months old and be able to independently play.

17:54I literally have friends of two-year-olds who their child does not play independently because they've never had to. So I would just encourage you to quite literally put your baby down for, you know, start with five seconds and then 10 seconds and then work your way up to a minute and then work your way to five minutes and then 10 minutes. And I'm not suggesting that you do this all the freaking time. Like your child obviously wants to be with you and on you. And that is a beautiful attachment that you and your child have. I think it shows that your child, that you and your child are really close.

18:29And I think that is really beautiful, but I know the need to be productive. So set the baby down just for a couple minutes, get them some toys to help entertain them, and then pick them up again, right? Or like you can work on increasing that. Another idea, if you have the financial means, getting a mother's helper would be really helpful. If you don't know what mother's helper is, it's kind of like a babysitter. But instead of them being alone with your child, you are still there. I have a mother's helper so that I can do work. So I'm still like at the house while the mother's helper is feeding my kids lunch and playing with my children, but I'm still there and my kids will come still come to me.

19:15Like if they get a boo-boo or if they have a question, like I'm still involved and I'm still there. I'm not, I didn't just leave the house, but that might help you get some stuff done if you have the means to hire a mother's helper. Yeah. I think that's what comes to mind now. I would definitely start with baby wearing and And then I would increase the amount of time that you have, the amount of opportunities that you would give your child to independently play. And I would also say many times this is just based on child's temperament and child's love language, which I do believe they are born with that love language.

19:53To me, you might have a child whose love language is physical touch and just needs to be on mom, which is so sweet and like so amazing. but I know on a very human level as the mom, you're, you're, you can get burned out. So make sure you are still trying to find time for yourself, um, and find ways that like fill your cup, whether that be brunch with your girlfriends on Saturday or dinner plans with your girlfriends at night, date nights with your husband, whatever. Um, because I know that it's taxing when you have a child that like is just glued to you. So I think you're doing a great job. I'm rooting for you.

20:35You got it. Now, if you're looking for advice, email me at learningtomompodcast.mommail at gmail.com with the subject line, mom mail, and then keep your ears open because we might just answer it on next week's episode. Yeah, that's a good tip. And the fermented foods is something that I really struggle with just because like, I feel like the only fermented food I really grew up with was sauerkraut. Oh, and you grew up with sauerkraut. That's awesome. I have German roots. Well, lucky you. Yeah. But other than that, like, that's it. Like I am, I'm in a cycle syncing. And so you're supposed to increase your fermented food.

21:10And we just basically eat the sauerkraut. I love it the whole time. Cause I'm like, I don't know what else there itself. So those were, those were good. Okay. Now what about your go-to strategies for keeping grocery costs down while you're focusing on real food? Yeah. So this can be something that gets really overwhelming. I think there's a lot, there's like main, the main ideas here. Okay. one is to um kind of get to know local people who are creating food growing food for example that little farms that i told you about they have a little corner stand that has their what they would call seconds so these would be like bruised peaches or tomatoes that are good for today but it won't be good tomorrow you know so but they're all like 50 cents you know like everything on that shelf is 50 cents.

22:11So you could go and get all of those tomatoes. I've done this before. I like went and just bought all of the tomatoes on that shelf and came home and I made tomato sauce out of them and just froze it all. Right. So then I have tons of tomato sauce that I don't have to buy any more of and it's just in my freezer or you could can it if you can do that kind of thing. Same with, you know, especially during gardening season, people always have an enormous supply of like zucchini or something. Another way is to not buy like snacky things, you know. So like a bag of Lay's potato chips is going to cost, I have no idea actually how much it costs, maybe$2.

22:53But then if you were going to go switch it for the seed oil free ones, you're going to pay like$6. That's a huge difference in your weekly grocery shopping. so instead of doing that switch which is normally I would say doing a switch like that is a good thing um but budget wise it does make it a lot harder so if you need potato chips like I would say to my family okay this is something that we're gonna buy once a month or something this is not something we're gonna buy all the time because it's just not in the budget and that's okay. You know, it's okay to have those conversations. A friend of mine has this saying that the most expensive things in the grocery store are the cheapest things to make at home.

23:39So that's things like sourdough bread, kombucha, sauerkraut, fruit leather, like these sorts of things that are, they take a long, long, long time to make. But if you were to make them at home, it has to sit on your counter for 10 days. That's not active time. It's just sitting on your counter. But if it was in a factory, they have to count that time. So keep in mind that the most expensive things to buy are often the cheapest things to make. And if you can prioritize making those things, you might have more budget to be able to buy some of the other things. I think budget-wise, learning how to cook with cheaper cuts of meat, using ground beef, using a whole chicken rather than a just chicken breasts.

24:25So those sorts of things, like learning how to kind of extend whatever you're cooking and then don't waste. Like this is such a problem in our country. Like people just throw food away, but like get hyper fixated on not wasting food, you know, like save the tiny little piece of cheese that your toddler didn't eat at lunch, put it in a little bag in the freezer. And once you've accumulated enough little bits of cheese, you have some enough cheese to make macaroni and cheese, you know, or, um, you know how your kid will take a bite of an apple and just like put it down and never touch it again. And they're like, no, now I hate apples, right?

25:05Fine. Okay. You hate apples, but we're not going to throw this whole apple away. Cut off the little bit that he bit and then saute up the rest of it, put it into a bag because it's only one apple. So stick it into a bag in the freezer, keep adding to it until you have enough to serve that as a side dish at dinner or make apple muffins with it or whatever, if it's at all possible. Buy meat in bulk because it's definitely less expensive. However, you have that upfront cost and you have to have a freezer and you have to have space for a freezer. So like when we lived in an apartment, that was not an option.

25:44And then I think the way people blow their budgets is that they get focused on like, I have to buy this convenience thing. Like I have to buy this salad dressing or I have to buy canned beans. Like you buy canned beans, they're more expensive. Maybe it doesn't look like a lot, but like at the end of when you're tallying everything up, it's way more expensive to buy canned beans than it is to buy a bag of beans. Now the bag of beans, it's more work. So you kind of have to figure out if you can trade work for price. I think frozen fruit and vegetables are so underrated. Fruits and vegetables are way less expensive, particularly if they're out of season.

26:26And in our country, we kind of forget what season means because we can get strawberries all year round. Strawberries don't grow all year round. They have like two weeks, you know, like there's like two weeks where strawberries are in season. Otherwise you're buying them. They're totally out of season and they're shipping from probably another country, if not, you know, a pretty probably far away state. And they're not picked at the peak of freshness, like all of those things we all know about. But if you're buying the frozen ones, they are picked at the peak of freshness. they're frozen right away.

27:01Hot take. If something isn't safe for pregnancy, then I don't believe it's ever actually safe. That's why I only use products that are safe for pregnancy and breastfeeding, even when I'm not in those seasons. But here's the thing about me and my skin. I need skincare that actually works and helps me feel like myself again. As someone who has struggled with acne since middle school, I understand the desperate desire to just find something that curates your acne, which is why I turned a blind eye to my cosmetics for a long time, because at least it was helping my acne. But once I found a brand that could help my acne, even my skin tone and treat my acne scars without the guilt, because the ingredients are safe, it was game over for my past skincare routine.

27:51That's why I'm passionate about this company. it's clean toxin-free effective and does exactly that gets your skin radiant healthy and glowing without any harsh chemicals it has legitimately transformed my skin and if you know me in real life then you know that that's true and because it's clean it gives me peace of mind to be able to use it in pregnancy and while breastfeeding without stressing about it hurting the baby it's called crunchy it's the only skincare and makeup I've stuck with for years so if you're wanting clean safe products that actually perform this is it I have it linked in the show notes below for you but if you're not a huge makeup or skincare girly and don't know where to start check out my most used products from them by going to learningtomompodcast.com slash makeup I have that linked and their whole website linked in the show notes below plus a discount code for you.