"Is 'Crunchy' Christianity Biblical? Seed Oils, Stewardship & Fear-Based Eating | Greg Gifford"
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Jonny Ardavanis
4.9 β’ 901 Ratings
ποΈ 10 March 2026
β±οΈ 42 minutes
ποΈ Recording | iTunes | RSS
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Summary
Is obsessing over seed oils, beef tallow, sourdough, and toxin-free living actually biblical stewardship β or is it something else?
Biblical counselor and professor Greg Gifford joins the podcast to tackle the growing "crunchy" movement inside the church. We define what extreme crunchiness looks like, why it's spreading among Christians (especially post-COVID), and how fear-based eating can quietly become legalism.
In this episode we cover:
β’ What "crunchy" and "extreme crunchy" actually means
β’ Why stewardship gets misused to justify health anxiety
β’ The danger of Christian Gnosticism in wellness culture
β’ Romans 14, Christian liberty, and food freedom
β’ How the sovereignty of God sets us free from fear-based eating
β’ Practical wisdom for navigating this in Bible studies, friendships, and parenting
Whether you're crunchy, anti-crunchy, or somewhere in the middle β this conversation will help you think biblically about food, health, and honoring God with your body.
This episode is brought to you by our ministry partner Accountable2You. Join thousands living in freedom with nothing to hide, and visit https://accountable2you.com/dialin. Use our unique code DIALIN to get 25% off your first year of an Accountable2You Personal or Family Plan
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Transcript
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| 0:00.0 | Give me a definition of terms between you talk about crunchiness and extreme crunchiness. |
| 0:06.0 | We're talking about something like a focus on healthy living, that includes food, avoiding certain chemicals, using drinks, home choices to promote perceived health. |
| 0:17.0 | So that's one definition. |
| 0:18.0 | That's a very slippery slope to get on to say, wait a minute, I'm using seed oils and detergents |
| 0:23.6 | and plastic. |
| 0:24.6 | And this is dishonoring to the Lord because I'm not stewarding my body well. |
| 0:29.6 | Stewardship kind of becomes this word, like this idea, an entity where you can kind of use |
| 0:34.6 | it and abuse it to kind of say, well, you're not being a good steward. Right. Food is a means of sustaining our body to serve the Lord. Yeah. Not to live longer. What is good stewardship of your body, your home, your kids? How do you think through that in a prudent way, you know, going back to Proverbs, because it helps us make decisions. |
| 0:58.2 | So how do we move forward without feeling like, all right, we can't know all the answers, |
| 1:00.0 | so let's just throw up our hands. Where's the Cheetos? |
| 1:05.5 | All right, Greg. |
| 1:09.1 | For those who aren't familiar with you, tell them about what you do, |
| 1:12.5 | your work in biblical counseling as a professor and so forth. |
| 1:15.3 | Yep. |
| 1:15.8 | Thanks for having me, first of all. |
| 1:17.7 | My name is Greg Gifford. |
| 1:18.7 | I teach here at the Masters University. |
| 1:21.1 | I do teach biblical counseling. |
| 1:22.7 | That's kind of my passion and love. |
| 1:24.7 | It's the emphasis I teach here at the school. |
| 1:29.8 | I've been here since 2017 doing that. Oh, I also host Transforms and get to work with Todd Freel out in Atlanta doing a lot of biblical |
| 1:36.4 | counseling resources, so that's been a blast. Did that desire to do biblical counseling come out of |
... |
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