Full Transcript Welcome and Summer Convenience Foods 0:00 Hey team, welcome back to the X-Men Kids podcast. 0:02 I'm your host, Andrea McHugh. 0:03 And in this episode, I wanna make your life a little bit easier this summer.I know you have a lot of running around to do and I want to say something that 0:10 I believe very, very deeply is that food is one of the most impactful healing tools that we have. 0:15 It's something your child comes into contact with multiple times a day, every single day.And it means it's also one our biggest opportunities to actually 0:24 change the trajectory of their skin, further their health in general. 0:29 And that is why food is always just our first step in our process. 0:33 Not the only step, certainly, but the first one. 0:36 Because the return on getting this right is really, really big. 0:40 So today's episode is a little bit different. 0:42 I am taking you guys grocery shopping with me. 0:46 And I want to paint a picture of my summer real quick. 0:58 dance in the afternoons a lot and you want to see the friends and You're still doing school because of course we didn't finish fifth and third and first 1:08 grade this year and So I can't take a pause. 1:12 We still have I don't even know guys a few more units left, which each unit is like a month I it's crazy and then I'm running a business and Right now 1:23 we're really lucky to have a latkes staying with us throughout the summer and That's amazing and you know it takes extra time and so when I tell you I 1:33 don't have hours to spend in the kitchen I mean it and that's exactly why this episode exists. 1:39 This is my real honest grocery haul, the convenience foods that live in my kitchen, why I trust them and how I use them to support my children's health 1:50 without spending my whole life at the stove. 1:52 Because it's hot, so you don't want to turn on the stoves anyway. 1:56 And you want capitalize on fun that is summer, right? 1:59 And honestly, in any time of year, I never live at a stove, like I still have all those things going on all throughout the year. 2:05 So it is never an option for me. 2:07 I don' have a bach cooking day. 2:10 But I just do want you to know in my conversations with you all, convenience is a real thing.
Why Convenience Matters in Eczema Healing 2:15 I want you to be able to capitalize on convenience, and I have a really good roundup of foods here that make sure that we're not swapping convenience for health, 2:26 because we can't do that. 2:28 We don't have that option anymore. 2:30 So, let's get into it. 2:32 Is your child struggling with itchy nights and endless flare-ups? 2:35 I'm Andrea McHugh, mom of four and host of eczema kids. 2:38 Here, you'll find natural solutions that actually work so you can heal your children's exima without steroids, without the overwhelm, 2:44 and finally see calm, healthy skin again. 2:47 Let's Get Into It. 2:48 Okay, friends, for real, convenience does not have to mean compromise. 2:53 I want to start here because I think a lot of parents hear root cause healing and then they picture bone broth simmering for two days and three trips to 3:04 the farmer's market. 3:06 That is not my life. 3:10 It wasn't my life when I was healing my own kids. 3:13 And I sincerely believe convenience is certainly not the enemy, but there are some ingredient lists that are the enemies. 3:20 So my rule of thumb when standing in a grocery aisle is really simple. 3:24 If I can't pronounce it, if it has more than a handful of ingredients, I definitely put it back. 3:30 If it's not real food-based, I put it back. 3:32 And if it is cooked with anything that I know goes rancid, past a certain temperature, or is bleached, deodorized, those types of seed oils, 3:42 then I don't buy them. 3:44 That's the filter. 3:45 If is needs a preservative, like citric acid, We put it back. 3:49 That's just not doing your child any favors, eczema or not. 3:53 But if we're in this healing phase of we need to solve this exema problem now, we really can't afford to make those compromises. 4:00 Thankfully, you honestly don't have to. 4:02 You can still have convenience and still omit all of this junk from their diets. 4:08 So what I'm sharing today isn't a cheat list. 4:10 It's just foods that I stand behind or that give me just a better swap when everybody else is eating the Doritos. 4:18 You know, there's some better options and they also just happen to save me time. 4:22 So I wanted to take you through, honestly, just different sections of the grocery store and what actually buy. 4:27 I mean, one, we definitely always get pre-washed baby carrots, and I always buy cucumbers. 4:34 I mean, that's the carrots are zero prep. 4:37 Always, always get cucumbers and bell peppers, just, you know, slice around the seeds for both of them. 4:44 Those are always on hand. 4:45 And I was have some avocados, three or four on the counter at different ripeness ideally, and then there's usually one ready if I need it.
Everyday Grocery Staples and Smart Swaps 4:54 You can also get those avocado mash cups. 4:57 If it doesn't have citric acid in it and it does not have tomatoes in, then great. 5:02 Those are widely abundant and very easy to find. 5:05 We always have Coconut yogurt. 5:08 I mean, now my kids eat regular dairy yogurt, but I don't, so we have coconut yogurt unsweetened. 5:15 That's always available. 5:16 And frozen fruit, just organic frozen fruits, whatever you like that doesn't have any other ingredients. 5:21 We always have that. 5:23 It just makes smoothies better. 5:25 Right now, it is so hot. 5:26 My kids just eat frozen mango by the bag all the time. 5:30 And in the pantry, we always have Mary's Gone crackers. 5:33 The super seed variety are really, really good, and it's got clean ingredients. 5:37 And you can always pair that with a hummus or guacamole or whatever you want. 5:43 Sun butter, We love sun butter. 5:45 Now my kids eat peanut butter and all the things, but for a long, long time they didn't. 5:50 We always had sunbutter. 5:51 It's so delicious. 5:53 I really like the Once Again brand in a glass jar. 5:56 That's my personal favorite. 5:58 sweetened or unsweetened, they're both fine. 6:01 We're obviously keeping tabs on how many grams of added sugar our kids are having throughout the day, but either is totally fine, 6:08 of course I have kids that prefer different ones. 6:11 And now, you know, my kid's skin is amazing. 6:15 Like they are doing really well and we've done this work and so we have certainly expanded past this list. 6:20 Now they eat peanut butter and they lots of things. 6:24 There aren't any more limitations, but before we were there, this is again what we have. 6:29 Store-bought hummus, we bought that all the time. 6:32 Still buy store- bought humus. 6:34 Making your own is amazing and fantastic, and I definitely want to get back into that rhythm. 6:39 But you know, as long as it doesn't have an inflammatory seed oil in it, it should be all good. 6:44 And we get rice cakes and rice crackers, just plain or just salt added. 6:50 My kids love those for breakfast with sun butter on it. 6:53 so fast, so easy, and they love those things. 6:57 And roasted seaweed snacks, as long as they're cooked with avocado oil, those are a huge win. 7:04 Of course, not for all four. 7:06 Nothing do all of my kids like, I don't think, at the same time, but a couple of them really do. 7:13 I really think it's a great source of iodine and minerals, that's probably the one processed snack that i'm like sure eat this anytime you want even five 7:24 minutes before dinner right and in the freezer we have a wild caught shrimp which you can just cook for zero minutes inside the insta pot so i kind of 7:34 consider that a convenience food that's if you didn't prep anything, like you don't take anything out the night before, and you did not soak any beans 7:41 or whatever it was, you just can throw those frozen straight into the instapot and it's done within 10 minutes because it takes some time, 7:49 obviously, for the Instapots to heat, but then it is so fast. 7:54 So I also get these Force of Nature brand meatballs now. 7:59 They are so good. 8:01 they have some organ meats in them, they are in the freezer section, Those are a super win. 8:06 That's a fast lunch or dinner. 8:09 You can add in herbs, you can pair it with brown rice noodles, whatever you want to do. 8:15 But those are lifesaver sometimes. 8:17 And I just found these recently. 8:20 There's these Jesse & Venns fries in the frozen section and made with just tallow and salt and that is it. 8:27 I wish those were a thing seven years ago when I was really going through it, but I feel like if you are making a dinner with pre-made frozen patties like 8:40 pre cut up organic broccoli and these fries It feels like you're cheating, right?
Frozen Foods, Snacks, and Pairing Tips 8:46 It just takes three minutes to get everything into the oven and you are done, or onto the grill and your done. 8:52 It's the best. 8:53 So, you know, just same thing. 8:55 Same filter applies here as everywhere else. 8:57 You can definitely get frozen vegetables. 8:59 They're not my personal favorite just because I don't like the taste, but those are fine because they're picked at the peak of their freshness and then 9:06 they are frozen, so a lot of the nutrients are still maintained. 9:09 So, whatever gets it in, but just make sure everything is a short ingredient list or a one food ingredient and it's all real food. 9:19 So I also need to say, before you go out and you buy all the crackers, the rice crackers and the super seed and rice cakes and whatever it is, 9:30 we need to be cognizant of how many of these things our kids have throughout the day. 9:33 One, obviously they're not filling them up, but two, eczema specifically is a very dry condition. 9:39 Yes, for the most part, unless it's a weepy sort of examon and a little more lung-based, with this, For the more part it is very, 9:45 very very and like increases like. 9:48 And we wouldn't want to then eat just dried rice crackers when we have a dry, mobile, heat-induced condition. 10:00 You know, it just feeds the fire. 10:03 So we can have some, but this wouldn't want to be something that we have multiple times a day or even every day. 10:10 I would save it for a time when we are really going to the beach or the pool or whatever it is all day And you're going with a group of people and you 10:20 really want to fit in. 10:21 Like 4th of July, right? 10:23 That would have been a good time. 10:24 Just keep that in mind. 10:26 It's fast, but it's not like actual food. 10:28 These aren't the foods that they should actually be filling their bodies with. 10:31 And further, when you do give them those foods, which is again fine, But we really want to think about balancing these quick carbs with a healthy fat, 10:42 always, just to slow the digestion, to slowly the blood sugar spike. 10:47 Because when we're continuously spiking their bloodsugar all throughout the day, then we are adding to the systemic inflammation that is already running 10:55 rampant throughout their bodies, right? 10:56 So we just want dial it down, and if you eat a rice cake, you put some butter on it. 11:02 Or if you're eating those crackers, you pair it with hummus. 11:05 And if your eating even carrots and cucumbers and bell peppers, they're more delicious one with like guacamole or humus and they better serve you with 11:15 those things. 11:16 I also want to mention since we're in the middle of summer and the bounty is so great and it's all available to us right now, 11:22 all the stone fruits, Just playing fruit is a great snack. 11:26 That's fantastic. 11:27 And ideally, for digestive purposes, fruit IS eaten by itself because it digests so quickly, and when you pair it with other things it usually means those 11:38 other thing are left in the stomach. 11:40 and left there to ferment, and especially melons and things like that. 11:44 Watermelon is a really good example of fruit that doesn't need any pairing at all. 11:48 It's just water and it digests fast and works really beautifully and quickly as its own snack. 11:55 And when you're pairing those quick carbs with healthy fats, you know, we just want to be cognizant that also healthy fat are essential for building skin 12:03 cells and supporting the skin barrier and absorbing fat soluble vitamins like A, D, E, and K. 12:10 And those are nutrients that play a real role in skin and immune health. 12:14 So when you're pairing a carb with a fat, you are not just curbing a hunger between meals, your giving your child skin something that it actually needs 12:23 to heal.
Reading Labels and Choosing Better Ingredients 12:24 So when you're in the grocery store and you are reading labels, you just want to make sure the primary fat source is real whole and won't be inflammatory. 12:33 So everything that I buy that's pre-packaged now is made with avocado oil, coconut oil or ghee because they all have a high smoke point and They can tolerate 12:45 the high heats that it takes to actually cook things. 12:47 If it's made with olive oil and it is cooked, that's likely a problem because olive really shouldn't be heated above 225 degrees. 12:58 And if it made it with any other kind of oil, we're not doing your child's skin any favors. 13:05 We're definitely making sure there's no artificial dyes ever, no matter what it is. 13:09 And when we're also avoiding natural flavors without any specificity, just the word natural flavor, they don't have to report what that actually means, 13:19 these food companies, and they can be highly problematic for eczema-prone children. 13:25 Then, as I mentioned before, preservatives like citric acid, like maladextrin, those things we really, really do want to avoid. 13:34 while we're healing our kids' skin from the inside out. 13:38 But there are so many things out there now. 13:41 There's smoothie cubes. 13:50 There's so many things out there now. 13:52 I feel like ingredient lists are getting cleaner and cleaner. 13:55 People are really starting to wake up and start to read these things and, and started to care. 14:00 And so I'm just seeing a really big shift for the better, honestly, on a lot of these packaged foods. 14:07 That's the hall. 14:09 Nothing fancy, nothing that requires a special trip to three different stores, just real food and a few smart pairings. 14:18 you know, an eczema-aware filter that I really trust. 14:22 And if you want more food pairing strategies built directly into a full healing plan for your child's skin, for you routine, 14:29 or exactly what you have going on, that's exactly we do inside the exima elimination method. 14:33 You can grab a spot, you can book a free alignment call via the link in the show notes, and we'll talk through your childhood specific situation, 14:41 what we've tried, we can try, And we will leave it knowing our next steps.
Closing Thoughts and Call to Action 14:47 So until next time, keep going and just know that you can heal your child's eczema for good and you do it while still having fun, 14:55 while enjoying your summer, maintaining your schedule and everything else you have going on. 15:00 So I'm rooting for you and I will talk to you next week. 15:04 Take care. 15:04 Thank you for helping with my exema. 15:08 Love you. 15:10 Thank you for listening today, friend. 15:11 I know healing your child's skin isn't easy, but you're doing it one smart step at a time. 15:17 If this episode gave you a little hope or a better night's sleep, leave a quick review so more exhausted parents can find eczema kids and finally rest 15:24 easy too. 15:25 Follow, share, and let's help more kids heal. 15:27 Take care.
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