Episode 86: The Evolution of Modern Food & Label Reading 401 with Becky Wells of Hippie Moms

You get to sit in on what turned into a college class in food history and nutrition label reading!

This interview is high-energy, high impact, and will fill both your academic brain and your mama heart.

Becky Wells of Hippie Moms is passionate about helping other mamas understand their food and build a healthy foundation for their families, and she cuts through all the marketing confusion and teaches us how to Just. Eat. Food.

I thought this interview might be more for the rookies to healthy living among us, but let’s just say that I learned multiple new facts that I’m implementing immediately, so this is 100% for everyone, wherever you are on your journey!

You can look forward to:

• Understanding the 6 major milestones in the evolution of food and how we got to this complicated modern food landscape
• What first baby steps should be to reverse the problems we see in our health
• Label reading 101: What’s important in the ingredients
• Label reading 201: What words mean absolutely nothing and why to skip the numeric data on the Nutrition Facts
• Label reading 301: Organic and non-GMO certification
• Label reading 401: Hot tip on an “ingredient” to avoid and how to make the nuanced decisions about how important various commitments are in the grocery store
• How to explain to our kids the importance of listening to our bodies, understanding the connection between food and how we feel, and how to assess food marketing

I love Becky’s approach and her dedication to making this easier for moms, and I’m so honored by her time today. I know you’ll learn a lot and can’t wait to hear more about you and your kids making food with “just ingredients” and what baby steps you choose to take!!

Can’t see the video? Watch the evolution of modern food here on YouTube!

No time to listen? Check out the time stamped notes. Just a note that these align with the video, not the audio podcast, but it will be close!

The Evolution of Modern Food

• 0:16: Today we’re talking about building foundations for a healthy family with Becky Wells.
• 2:23: Becky tells us about the day she began her journey to healing. She believes that women are not given the information they need to make healthy choices.
• 5:29: Becky did the “right” things: eating organic chicken, margarine, exercising, choosing “healthy” restaurant food, but she was still sick and just didn’t know what a truly healthy lifestyle looks like.

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• 7:27: We look back at the history of food. It’s crazy how hard it is to just eat real, nutrient-dense food in our current culture.

No early human diets were free of animal foods. -Becky Wells

• 10:41: Refined sugar was introduced to the western world as a luxury product in the 1600s. Now the average American consumes 150-200 pounds of sugar a year! :0
• 12:22: In the 1800s the Industrial Revolution brought about manufacturing and more food processing.

Food manufacturers have a tremendous influence on public policy and research. -Becky Wells

• 15:05: The chemical revolution during the Second World War had the biggest impact on our current food supply. Chemical agents developed to create bombs and nerve gas were repurposed following the war. Can you guess where they ended up?

• 17:07: The last big milestone is the Digital Revolution. Of course, the information available in a digital world has helped many seek out more healthy food and lifestyles, but it has its drawbacks to our health as well.

Practical Steps to Eat Healthy Food

• 19:26: Let’s look at some practical baby steps to reverse the modern food problem.

I eat delicious food! I just make it at home and use real ingredients. -Becky Wells

• 21:14: Don’t be discouraged. There were 6 giant leaps in the process of getting where we are today, you won’t undo it in a day. Start small, but start somewhere. Subscribe to the Monday Missions to get baby steps in your inbox! 

Food Labeling Crash Course

• 22:03: There are so many “natural” food companies and icons on the front of the packaging that lead us to believe processed food is healthy. Becky shares some buzzwords that are greenwashing on food packaging.

If a food package is telling you it’s healthy, just read the ingredients to see for yourself. -Becky Wells

• 23:24: Becky’s rule is that if a product is more than 10 ingredients or she doesn’t know what they are she puts it back. There are some good companies making convenient but actually healthy food. See my video on teaching kids to read nutrition labels here.

Reading ingredient lists is a life skill. -Becky Wells

• 24:00: It’s also important to talk to kids about food marketing and commercials that are bombarding them. It’s so important to be connected to our food and teach our kids to connect with how foods make them feel.
• 26:56: It seems like the numbers on the nutrition facts label would be important, but they are not a good indicator of the health of a food. I only look at nutrition labels when I can’t remember the breakdown of polyunsaturated fats.

Real, whole food doesn’t come in packages. -Becky Wells

• 28:56: Some labels worth looking at are “GMO-Free” or “organic.” It’s important to know if something contains GMOs or pesticides and herbicides and then we can make the choice whether we want to consume those or not. Look at clean 15 and dirty dozen lists when prioritizing organic.

• 30:09: “Natural flavors” is a loophole. Companies can include up to 100 chemicals that may be GMO or not organic because it’s proprietary information.

• 32:34: We leave you with one practical step you can start today to lead your family towards a healthier lifestyle.

Resources We Mention on the Evolution of Food

• • Grab your kids to watch this video on reading nutrition labels
  • Check out this episode on how organic food is labeled and might be deceiving you
  • Following the dirty dozen and clean fifteen
  • What’s the problem with polyunsaturated oils?
  • Becky’s website
  • The Hippie Moms Podcast
  • Follow her on Facebook, Instagram, YouTube

Becky is a nutritional therapy practitioner, clean living educator & advocate, and the founder of Hippie Moms.

Her journey began when she walked out of her doctor’s office with a pad of prescriptions. Innately she knew there had to be a better way to live!

After a decade of research, studying, and experimenting, she received her NTP designation to gain more tools to help people heal their lives through food.

She is VERY passionate about helping moms transform their and their family’s health through deepening their understanding of the food system, how to read labels, and implementing baby steps towards their version of optimal health.

She offers online programs, clean eating resources, the Hippie Moms podcast dedicated to this lifestyle, and her ever-popular 14 Day Gut Healing Cleanse program!