Tune in today as Eco Mama shares her journey to Florida, joining over 1,500 other amazing, independent creators in the podcasting arena, talking about what she recently learned about yeast infections, their causes and the crazy places they can develop on the body, and the importance of avoiding artificial flavorings in our food.
See episode 9 for Artificial Colors and the dangers that lie within them.
DISCLAIMER: Thank you for listening to the Eco Mama podcast. Please note that this podcast's information is for educational and entertainment purposes only and is based on personal experiences and opinions. We are not licensed healthcare providers; the content should not be considered professional medical advice.
We encourage you to consult a healthcare provider before changing your diet, exercise routine, or lifestyle. The information shared on this podcast is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
Furthermore, any views or opinions expressed on this podcast are not intended to malign any religion, ethnic group, club, organization, company, or individual. The content is intended to be informative and enjoyable.
By listening to this podcast, you agree that the hosts, guests, or anyone associated with the Eco Mama podcast will not be held liable for any loss, damage, or injury caused or alleged to be caused by the information or opinions shared on this podcast.
Thank you for your understanding, and we look forward to continuing to share our journey toward a healthier and more sustainable lifestyle with you.
Tune in today as Eco Mama shares her journey to Florida, joining over 1,500 other amazing, independent creators in the podcasting arena, talking about what she recently learned about yeast infections, their causes and the crazy places they can develop on the body, and the importance of avoiding artificial flavorings in our food.
See episode 9 for Artificial Colors and the dangers that lie within them.
DISCLAIMER: Thank you for listening to the Eco Mama podcast. Please note that this podcast's information is for educational and entertainment purposes only and is based on personal experiences and opinions. We are not licensed healthcare providers; the content should not be considered professional medical advice.
We encourage you to consult a healthcare provider before changing your diet, exercise routine, or lifestyle. The information shared on this podcast is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease.
Furthermore, any views or opinions expressed on this podcast are not intended to malign any religion, ethnic group, club, organization, company, or individual. The content is intended to be informative and enjoyable.
By listening to this podcast, you agree that the hosts, guests, or anyone associated with the Eco Mama podcast will not be held liable for any loss, damage, or injury caused or alleged to be caused by the information or opinions shared on this podcast.
Thank you for your understanding, and we look forward to continuing to share our journey toward a healthier and more sustainable lifestyle with you.
Welcome back to the Eco Mama Podcast. I'm Jaime Snell, and I'm excited to be with you here today and to tell you about some of the things that I've been up to. A lot of it has been behind the scenes with my small business, and a lot of it has been with my family because that's what we do over the holidays, but now we're in February. I'm gearing back into the real world of life and work and helping others, which is definitely something that I have a passion. So I just returned from pod. It was a wonderful event. There were 1500 of us independent creators and we got together and we shared our stories and we learned together from some professionals and successful individuals in the industry. And we collaborated and we networked, and I've got new friends. I love it. I love it. I love it. It was a good mix of, well, I would say there's all different categories that were in there. The. For moms, of course it was. There were people who liked to talk about beer, talk about golf. There was a lot of business oriented podcast there, which was good cuz that's helps me learn with on the business side. But there was also some holistic caregivers. There were, quite a few where, end of life. I was surprised to hear that. I did not know that those podcasts existed. But it was just really, really neat to learn all the different things that people love to talk about and love to learn about that are available to us on podcasting. And so I'm grateful to have this forum. I'm super grateful to Buzz Sprout. I'm gonna give a shout out to them because they sponsored me to go, which was absolutely wonderful. And I got to spend some time with family and my daughter got to go with me. My middle daughter, she got to spend time with family and it was just, it was a really good trip. It was a good time. Great people and so many takeaways. I was able to connect with some people and some of these new friends that I have where we're going to be collaborating throughout this next year and helping push each other along as we develop our podcast and work together. And I have a few special guests in store for you. I can't wait. A couple of these topics are a little controversial, but I think you're gonna love it. So definitely stay tuned. I will be announcing when. Interview them and when their shows will, when their shows will air. So you don't, so you're sure not to miss it. And if you're not already subscribed, go ahead and do so now so that you never miss a beat or a chance to connect. So here on the Eco Mama podcast, I wanted to share with you today something that came up just yesterday. So it's like hot off the fresh. Hot off. What would you say? Hot off the frying pan or fresh off the presses. unfortunately got a couple of, health Yuckies in the past week or so. One was a, An infection from a cat scratch. I think I got ringworm, which was just so gross. And the other one is, yeast infection. So nobody likes to talk about that stuff either. However it happens. And I was very, very surprised to find out that my yeast infection is not your typical, not your typical. I'm not talking about the female parts. The yeast infection, happened in. A crevice that, had heat and the reason that it had the heat was because of the night sweats that I'm having as I'm perimenopausal. Yes. Welcome to the Eco Mama Podcast, where I will now be talking about holistic ways to treat perimenopausal for women. something. I did not anticipate this soon, but I'm, I'm grateful to, to be here and to share what I'm learning. So one of the things that I learned about this, this yeast thing, number one, Insanely itchy so, so itchy. I mean, but I learned that you can get a yeast infection anywhere. You can get a yeast infection between your toes. I mean that, it's just a buildup of yeast that causes itching and inflammation. Under the arms, under the breast, Anywhere that the skin can fold and hold onto heat, where you have excess sweating and it doesn't have a time to dry out and it's still hot and it like bakes the skin and you get the yeast development. So, lo and behold, I am diagnosed with a yeast infection of a kind that I never knew could exist and ringworm crazy stuff. Right. good news. Is that the same cream treat both. And did I go with the prescription cream? You're damn right. I did. And the reason I did was because I was miserable for days. Everything itched everywhere. I had the yeast everywhere. I had the ring worm, it was miserable. I was like, just fix me. I tried all the natural stuff. I did hot sits cuz I wasn't too sure what it was that was making me uncomfortable. So I got in the tub. So call Hot sits where you just fill it as hot as you can and you sit in the. And you're trying to, reduce whatever discomfort you have when, when you get hemorrhoids. That's a great thing for that. But, so whether it's, you know, under your legs or whatever, or you have that discomfort. So I tried the hat sits. I tried, oh my gosh, I tried preparation. H you know, I'm like, is this a hemorrhoid? What is this? I don't understand. And sure enough, long story short, I know tmi, right? I just said, in the future you'll get to know me more than you ever wanted to. And here I am sharing so much already. Anyway, I di, I digress here. I got the medication for it and I got to talking with the physician's assistant. I ended up going to a urgent care center. Not that I don't have a primary, I do, but I decided that if I had to share those parts of my body with someone that I'm not used to sharing them with, and whether it be someone that I don't know and I could possibly never see. Well, I was wrong about that because this pa that I met, it was my first time meeting her, but she was so amazing that I hope that I get to see her again. And the reason is because we got to talking about medicine and nutrition. The big thing was on nutrition, but we got to talking about holistic lifestyles. She was telling me that if I wanna minimize my night sweats in the pyramidal phase, that I'm. Then I need to adapt more to a Mediterranean diet. So I already naturally do get, we get farm-based deliveries every other week for vegetables and fruits. I try to buy organic when I can. I follow, EW g's. Dirty 15 oh, dirty dozen and clean 15 when I go and buy food for our family. Try to avoid things that have ingredients I've shared with you in the past that I don't like artificial colors or artificial flavorings. We try to avoid that at at at all costs, really. I mean, that's something that I have. My kids read the label when we're at the store and they ask for something and I said, more than likely I'll buy it for you as long as there's no artificial colors or artificial flavorings. Well, we're talking and she suggest. The Mediterranean diet, and then she's going over a list of things that I sh, that I can have and a list of things that I should avoid. And she said carbonated beverages. I'm not a big soda fan. actually I, I do like ginger beer every now and again, and I've just recently started making my own ginger beer. I've yet to perfect it. I'm following. The Zero Waste Chef's, recipes for it. She's amazing. If you haven't checked her out, zero waste chef.com. Super simple. She's also on Instagram when I'm following her recipe for ginger beer. My first time did not work. It was flat, but I didn't use organic Ginger like she had suggested I couldn't find it. I was really excited to try it, so I went ahead and. And it didn't work. She promised it wouldn't work. She said it will not work with conventional garlic. It must be organic. So she was right. Now I fast forward a little bit and then I went and got a big thing of organic garlic from Sprouts, grocer near us. And now I keep saying garlic. I'm so sorry, ginger. You must have organic ginger. I don't know why I was thinking garlic. So organic ginger and the traditional ginger did not. Organic Ginger did work. It worked so well that I didn't even get to try the ginger beer because when it, by the time it was done fermenting and I followed the directions, I opened the bottle and it just exploded. It spurt everywhere. And actually I have one small video. It's not much because my son insisted on taking it and he turned it off too soon. So you don't get to see the whole thing. But the first one I opened, I did it in my kitchen sink thinking. I'll just open it a little bit, let some air out and we'll see what happens. I did not have a choice. I I went to flip that top and it just popped off. I tried to put my hand over it, which actually made it worse because when you have pressure coming out, think of like a soda, or you shake up anything that is carbonated and it blows up well, I put my hand over it. So not only was it still going up in between my fingers, it went 10 feet that way, four feet this way, cuz the wall blocked it. It would've gone further if there wasn't a wall. It went behind me. It went all down the front of me and it went all over the ceiling. This thing was just everywhere. And so the second bottle, I went outside to do it, and that's the recording that I have and I'll probably put that up somewhere. Maybe I'll pop it in here for you to see towards the end. So she says carbonated. I say, oh, I don't drink sodas. It's fine. But, and I didn't even, actually, I didn't say that. I just thought to. What about sparkling water? Because I love sparkling water. I'm fine without sodas. I'm making the ginger beer for my own experiments, something fun and different to drink, but I don't buy Coca-Cola Pepsi products, what have you. But sparkling water, I'm like, I don't wanna be, I don't wanna give up sparkling water. I don't wanna sweat at night. I don't wanna have yeast infections in random crevices of my body, but I do want sparkling water whenever I want it. So I asked her about it and she goes, as long as it's not artificially flavored or artificially sweetened. And my little, like, that was dog whistles for me. My antennas went up and I was like, you think that stuff's bad for you too? And she's like, oh my gosh, yes. And I'm like, I'm all about that. And we started, we went on like a 20 minute conversation. I think we spent more time talking about our passion for. Good nutrition and real living and the importance of knowing the ingredients of your products, knowing the ingredients of your food than we did about my actual ailments. So turns out she is from a farm. She's, gosh, she's been practicing. She's in her sixties. She's been practicing medicine for over 40 years now. Again, she's a PA, physician's assistant at this urgent care center. So she's been practicing for over 40 years. And she grew up in the country. She raised four children in the country, all boys. And she's like, I never had sicknesses. My boys were never sick. We ate the food that we grew or we got it from neighbors. We, you know, we didn't do these big box shops. We just had what was natural for us. Products we just had what we needed, not too much, not to overkill, simple things of nature. Everything we had we needed in the country. And then now she's practicing in, the city. I live near Greenville, South Carolina, and she's practicing here and she's like, it's insane. It's insane how many ailments I have seen in so much of. Contributed by the environmental toxins that's found in our food and our everyday products. And I'm like, girlfriend, you are singing my song. I was so excited to hear those words from someone else. And it's not that they, I don't hear them ever, but when you're face to face with someone, especially a doctor, okay, or someone who's been in the medicine field for so long and to hear her opinion. That natural is better. It was just, I mean, it was music to my soul. It really, really was. So that brings me a very long-winded introduction to today's topic, which is artificial flavors. So recently I did artificial colors and I shared, just some facts and stuff about that. That was more like a focus Friday episode. But today with artificial flavors. I just wanted to share some personal experiences like I just did. but I also wanna talk. Why we should avoid it. There are lots of things that have been found in, tests and studies that have been done that it's just bad for us, and I can definitely do a focus Friday on why and what it is and the stats and all that jazz. I'm not gonna weigh you down on that today, but I just wanna share that something that is on our no thank you list, it's something that we try to avoid as a family, as an eco Mama, it's something. I just try to stay away from, so the artificial flavors, in particularly artificial sweeteners. Now you've heard that certain sweeteners are being found to have more of a negative effect on us, and that's good. I'm glad that that is coming out worldwide and it is getting more attention that we should avoid the artificial sweeteners. But diet soda is still a really big thing, and even my. Bless him. Love him. He's a Diet Coke addict. He has been drinking Diet Coke since I was, since I could walk. I mean, I don't know. for 40 years and he lives in Colorado and when I visit him, he's still guzzling that Diet Coke, but I've given him such a hard time over the years. He doesn't do it in front of me anymore. He, I mean, that's an addict, right? When you, when you call someone out on something that they can't stop it and they keep doing it and they know it's not good for them. So then they start hiding that they do it cuz they don't want you to call'em out. so definitely a diet cooked addict. So I wished lo I wish to God he would stop or even just switch to regular soda. As bad as that is, just switch to regular soda, stay off the diet stuff. But even more importantly than that is the food that we eat. they, they say, nutritionist say the best way to avoid all the artificial stuff is to shop the perimeter of the grocery store. Well, you'd think, sure, no problem. Easy. I will stick with fruits and vegetables and meats. I'm sorry to report that that's not enough anymore. So if you listen to the artificial colorings episode that I had on the focus Friday, and I'll refer down to which one that is in the notes. But I shared with you that farmers and some of the larger, big farms are actually injecting colors into their products. And some of them are doing this with flavors too, to enhance the. It's horrible. I don't know how it's allowed. I don't know how it gets on the shelves. I ca it can't be legal. It shouldn't be legal, but it's happening. So they're doing this. some of it's in the seating process, so it grows, and then some of it is just after it's, it's grown and they want it to look prettier on the shelf, so they put it through this dying process. So it's mostly with the colors, but it is happening with the flavors. I don't know, with the chicken. And the eggs and you know, like, which came first, the chicken and the egg, right? So I'm not too sure about that, if they're doing any flavor enhancements on those. But, anything that does come in a box. So now we're gonna shift our gears. So that's the fresh stuff. Be careful, I mean, I. I trust the organic labels, but even more so, I trust the farmers near me, and I do try to stick to that. I, I try to get to know who's growing my food if I'm not growing my own. There are ways to make things taste sweeter when you grow them. And I'm learning about this. It's, oh, it's called pairing garden. Pairing. There's a term for it. And, and, I'm gonna do an episode later in the year on it when we get more into the gardening season. But it's basically where you put a couple different plants together. In your garden and it enhances the flavor of one or the other. Some are also known to protect the plant from certain bugs as well as protect them from other diseases. So it's really interesting, like the science behind all of this gardening. But I can't do everything myself. I mean, that's part of why I am doing this podcast to let you know that you don't have to do everything. Just be aware of the most important things and then make decisions based on what's convenient for you and whatever stage of life that you're in. So, I trust the farmers that I go to. I go to the farmer's markets. I order, currently I'm using Carolina Farm Box, but there are, or Farm Box, Carolina, something along those lines. But there are. Lots of other co-ops that you can get involved in, where you can get to know who's growing your food, what they use when they grow your food, and how they treat your food. So listen, oranges shouldn't always be bright orange and bananas can't always be bright yellow. It's the flavor of the food and make sure that it's ripe and eat in season, Eden season. So now that we transition the conversation into processed foods, right, we should avoid those to begin with. But this is the 24th century and anyone with children. that has influence of other kids probably knows how impossible that is to never serve or never have processed foods in their diet. There are some mamas out there and God bless you, that can do it, that can keep it strict. But I surrendered one day and I've never gone back. So I do still buy some things that are boxed and processed not to my liking. Again, I have boundaries of what I will buy, but. there's some crackers out there. There's some cereals out there that have more sugar than I'd like. They're processed with flowers that I don't like. However, I just try to pick the worst, and avoid that. And then the rest we indulge in now, artificial flavors that comes in, drinks it comes in, food, it comes in. Let's see, crackers, candy, anything that's gonna give it like more of a strawberry I'm just thinking of an article I read last night, and I'll share that in a minute. But anything that comes in like a, an extra flavorful, mostly candies that's coming to mind right now, but. Even some crackers. If it says like, rosemary, garlic, you gotta read your ingredients because did they use regular rosemary and garlic? Because that's not hard to do. You can actually, I can make my own rosemary garlic crackers, however. It's probably cheaper to use artificial flavor, alcohol. Some of these alcohols that are made, like, I'm not gonna go with any name brands right now, but some of the, cause I don't, I'm not here to slander anyone, but be aware, like if it's a flavored alcohol, make sure they're using natural flavors in that you don't want something artificially flavored in your drinks. And there are things that, bottles and packages that'll say naturally and artificially flavor. Stay away from those two. because anything that, it's got a little bit, it could have a lot, you just don't know what the portion is. So just stick away from that and then you'll be, you know, edging your bets on the safe side. So the story that I read last night, it was, I think it was a TikTok or something, and this guy had done like eight things for kids who grew up in the nineties that. Still traumatize us to this day. And one of the things was those pedals that look close to a bear trap and if you missed your foot and you were going fast on your bike, how it would come up and just like take the skin off of your leg. And I so resonated with that. But then the next one was the strawberry doll. Okay. I think the closest thing that they have to, that today for children would be, there's these pillows that are scented. They have these horrible, toxic foam balls inside of'em, and then they are scented with artificial scents, so it like lasts. My daughter actually has one, she got it for her birthday present and it makes me gag every single time I'm near it. It smells like cupcakes and she's had it two years and it still smells like cupcakes. I don't want this thing in my house, but I also, I'm not a legalist. I try to pick and choose and it is still here, but I make her keep it in her room. I don't want anybody else to be exposed to it, yada, yada, yada. So the strawberry shortcake, I had one and I absolutely loved her. I mean, she was my pride and joy. But the way this guy described it, he said, you know, this was such an intoxicating scent because I can only imagine how many. chemicals. I was inhaling every time I sniffed her hair, but I couldn't get enough and I would steal her from my sister every chance that I got. And I would hide under the covers and just sniff away as if I was hiding a new addiction that no one was allowed to know about. but I think about that today and it just, it makes me laugh. But yes. So toys. Artificial sense in toys. That would be like a whole new category. Scratch and sniff. I try and avoid'em. As a kid, I loved them, but now I'm like, what on God's green earth did they inject in that to make it smell like that? let's see, what's another one? Artificial flavors. Oh, jelly beans. Hello? What's your favorite jelly bean? Mine, orange. does it have real oranges in it? I highly doubt that. So we don't really do flavor jelly beans anymore, but they still exist and they still sneak their way into our life. And Easter is usually the most common time, especially if we do a community Easter egg hunt. Let's see, what other foods are notorious for artificial flavors that we should avoid? Well, I would say some of our seasonings, some of our seasonings, have all natural stuff. I like the stuff that I buy from Trader Joe's, but then there are also some seasonings that you can get from less known brands. That will have artificial flavors on them to enhance your food. So watch out for what you have on the labels with your seasonings too. I mean, when in doubt, just do the real thing. Don't sprinkle powdered butter on your popcorn. Put in real butter. Don't put. Powdered milk into your cocoa, just add some fresh milk. Now, of course, there's circumstances. If you're camping or you're living out in the woods, or it's Armageddon, you know, then you gotta deal with what you got. But in the meantime, if you've got the convenience of the real thing, choose the real thing. You'll be better off for it. Well, that's all I have for you guys today. I hope you enjoyed this session, and thank you so much for listening. Again, if you have not already, please subscribe to my podcast and we will make sure that we have everything in the show notes that you need. Have a wonderful day, and until next time, take care.
