Food Bullying Podcast

Do you feel guilty for not being able to afford the "better" food label?  Food Science Babe is back for a rousing game of "Guess What I Saw in the Grocery Store?" to kick off season five of the Food Bullying Podcast. Super foods, non-GMO, and other food bullying labels cause unnecessary guilt.  "Food doesn't have morals - food isn't good, food isn't bad." Erin, a chemical engineer and a food scien...

In this special Mother's Day edition, Michele and Eliz are joined by Grace Greene, Eliz's daughter.   In a nod to the West Wing Weekly Podcast, Grace leads a "Big Block of Cheese" format to turn the tables on her mom and Michele.   To peals of laughter, Grace asks questions on a range of topics including: Was Eliz a food bully when Grace was little? How lactose-free and A-2 milk works Selective br...

Navigating through unsolicited advice as a new mom is hard enough.   Imagine the complexity of bringing a child into the world hours after receiving a breast cancer diagnosis! Our guest, Brooke Taylor is an Oklahoma ranch girl who has lived in various cities across the United States, while working with national and global food and agricultural organizations through ad agencies. Today, she's back i...

Our guest, Heather Barnes, tells parents, "You are doing great."   Having a child with different dietary needs opens the door to bullying. Parents have to make the choice about what is right for their family. "We need to respect the choices and the benefits of science." Heather grew up in town and didn't know anything about farming other than how to identify cotton and peanuts before going to coll...

Did you know t he term "sustainable" is used in food marketing to achieve price advantage, without any science backing the claim?  For example, greenhouse gas emissions associated with a glass of milk today is 1/3 what it was in 1944, but many people have been led to believe both milk and meat are not environmentally friendly.  In this Earth Day episode, our guest is Dr. Alison Van Eenennaam, a li...

  How can you support people who are food insecure with dignity?   Our guest, Community Network Dietitian Nicole Weeks, share how her organization uses the MyPlate model in choice food pantries. Nicole shares ways to help by, "Shopping with your wallet and having a voice, as well." Nicole is a registered dietitian focused on community nutrition. Her background includes the WIC (Women, Infants and...

  As we all cope with stay-at-some orders due to COVID-19, cooking and grocery shopping have become more challenging.  In this special episode, Registered Dietitians Alice Henneman and Liz Ward share tips for stocking your fridge, pantry, and freezer while sharing quick meal ideas. Liz Ward, RDN, recipe developer, writer and nutrition communicator from the Boston area.  Registered Dietitian Alice...

Fancy shoes and cheap prices. Chicken breasts and hormone myths. Food snobbery and the hungry. Healthy food and fat.  Cheap food and sustainability. "It's really easy for us to look at a product that has a fancy name or claim and assign higher perceived value to it." Dr. Jayson Lusk is a distinguished professor and head of the Agricultural Economics Department at Purdue University. He studies what...

"Kids are dirty and if you're worried about what you're feeding them, you're a good a mom," says this millennial mom who prioritizes low-cost food at the grocery store. She offers insight on how the science of producing food is remarkable, along with the care that farmers and ranchers provide for the planet. Brandi Buzzard Frobose is a rancher, head honcho of their family's ranch, and an environme...

If you are feeling unsettled, stressed, or have jangled nerves as we all weather changes due to COVID-19, there is a good reason. In this special edition of the podcast, Michele and Eliz discuss why your brain likes a predictable environment and how uncertainty creates stress. Eliz shares her research on stress and some tips to decrease the impact of these unsettling times.   As always, there's a...

Did you know that nutrition programs are the majority of the farm bill? It's one of the many ways agriculture and nutrition go hand-in-hand.  That's why the Food Bullying podcast is celebrating National Nutrition Month and National Agriculture Month with a joint release with the Sound Bites podcast. Melissa Joy Dobbins, a Registered Dietitian Nutrition (RDN), is the host of the Sound Bites podcast...

Wine. Tomatoes. Green beans. Tofu. What may sound like a menu is actually what this Maryland farmer grows. Jennie Schmidt shares why her farm transitioned from organic to conventional to be more sustainable, how she produces such a wide variety of crops,  and what food bullying terms like factory farming mean to her family farm. Jennie is a dietitian turned farmer, so she's a great #featuredfarmer...

"I shouldn't eat this...I'm too fat to have this cupcake...I'm not a good parent because I bought this snack." When was the last time you judged or criticized yourself about food?  National Nutrition Month is a great time to change the restrictive mentality we have around food and today's guest will help you spend less energy  worrying about food. Cara Harbstreet is a Registered Dietitian Nutritio...

Are dairy farmers crazy? Maybe, but it's because they always put their cows first. It's National Agriculture Month and we are bringing you a featured farmer (#featuredfarmer) each week.  Derrick Josi, an Oregon dairy farmer and founder of TDF Honest Farming, encourages farmers to bridge the gap with consumers – and understand the divide goes both ways. He talks about his little brown cows, while M...

Did you know that only 8% of males wash their hands after using the restroom? And those hands may have picked up that apple you just purchased? Hygiene is important – both on your hands and in your kitchen. More important than concerns around chemicals and pesticides when it comes to food safety. Jennie Hodgen has her doctorate in food science and works as a meat scientist.  She's a mom of four wh...

Are you leaving foods out of your diet? You can run the risk of creating health issues if you are leaving out a food group, such as carbohydrates. "Our bodies need a variety of nutrients, which are obtained from variety of foods in our diet" points out Neva Cochran, a registered dietitian nutritionist. When you eliminate most of the foods in your diet, you are not going to be adequately nourished...

Artificial insemination. Vegetarian choices. The Oscars. STDs. Greenhouse gas emissions. Baby calves. Nursing. Starbucks. Nutrient density of food. Personal choices.  If those topics don't add up to a civil conversation in your mind, listen in for a model on how to have a discussion around food and the environment that's respectful and informative with someone different than you. Yes, you can stil...

"Don't eat what you can't pronounce... Synthetic chemicals are more dangerous than natural chemicals... Chemicals in food are killing us... There is no safe level of pesticides…" It's no wonder we are scared of food with myths like these flying around our plates. Today's Food Bullying podcast guest not only knows and loves chemicals, she can help you understand why it's O.K. that your food is fill...

Did you over-indulge during the Super Bowl festivities, Christmas, or the last family holiday? You're not the only one – holiday heart syndrome and atrial fibrillation (afib) is not uncommon after eating too much. Food can help you proactively manage your health – or it can lead to missed heart beats.  In addition to explaining more about afib, today's guest talks about figuring out what fuels you...

A basic nutritional building block. Part of your everyday eating. Used for baking, breakfast and bullies. Wait, what? Eggs – or the hens that produce them and the people who care for those hens – have long been the target of animal rights bullies. But rest assured, there is no big nutritional difference in eggs, and science shows that no single hen housing is superior. In this episode, Dianne McCo...

The "health industry" is a business of money, contends Bill Sukala, a Registered Dietitian Nutrition and Clinical Exercise Physiologist in Australia. He has three decades of experience as a consumer health advocate in standing against the latest trends in health and food. Listen in to this episode to help yourself not be swayed by the tide of public opinion and the latest health claim. Advertising...

Explaining "This is what we do and how we do it" helps a legislator understand agriculture and natural resources, and is easier than swaying public perception. Shelly Boshart Davis knows firsthand, as she's gone from the farm to the capitol. She wears a variety of titles: State Representative, wife, farmer, mom, and business owner. Shelly runs a trucking company, is active on their farm with her h...

How do you have a meaningful conversation with others in today's overly emotional food arena? In this podcast episode, dietitian Leia Flure explains the steps to maintaining respectful discussion and making personal choices about what you eat. She suggests more critical thinking is needed in food-based decisions by being analytical about your choices and verifying information. "What is the motivat...

Why is it so easy  to call farmers names despite the great efforts they put in place to ensure we have food? "It hurts so much when someone says that I am an animal abuser because sometimes I work day and night take care of my animals." German dairy farmer Agnes Greggersen, from the northern part of Germany is the latest guest on the Food Bullying podcast. Unfortunately, Agnes was cyber bullied by...

"Food is such an integral part of our social fabric. It becomes a part of the storytelling process," but our farming memory is being lost across generations, says Dr. Cami Ryan, a Canadian social scientist on the latest Food Bullying podcast. This loss of farming memory has created gaps and barriers between rural and urban. Opportunists fill in the gaps with new information, which isn't always acc...