The Cult of Crunch: Breaking Down the Good, the Bad, and the Biblical (or not) of Natural Living Part 1: Identity

Groggy, I sat up in bed from an entirely too long nap. How long had I been sleeping? Checking my phone, I realized my morning nap landed me into the afternoon. “Shoot!” I exclaimed as I shot up realizing from the missed calls that I had forgotten about my appointment. I slumped down discouraged that I couldn’t remember anything it seemed anymore. My brain fizzed. I couldn’t think straight. A sudden onset of anxiety made me want to smash my head into the wall. Maybe then my head would clear and I’d find some rest and peace. Unable to shake the feeling of exhaustion and worry, I laid back down for a bit longer.

This one day turned into two then a week then a couple weeks. I had just come off of one of the busiest summers of my then young life. I had gotten married earlier in the year, trained for a half marathon in addition to CrossFit 6 days a week and Olympic weightlifting 3 days a week, and had thrown a reception at our house in September. I was doing it all just to suddenly not be able to get out of bed. After an antibiotic from my primary doctor not fixing anything, I called up a newly opened functional medicine office. It was my last resort to regain some kind of vitality. I was 24 and knew I wasn’t supposed to feel like this. The prognosis: adrenal fatigue, leaky gut, and low thyroid.

I didn’t know it then, but this was my introduction to the more crunchy world. I ate more whole foods because what else can you eat on an elimination diet? I had already reduced my running (thanks stress fractures!) but cut back my lifting to just the 3 day a week Olympic lifting. I went from about 16% body fat to a healthier 20% to try to regain some hormonal balance. I started a more natural pharmaceutical thyroid medicine. My life got better for living better. But I would never have considered myself crunchy.

A last-minute home birth with my oldest rocked my world. It was so natural. I felt like this was what God made my body to do. It shattered and shifted so many of my paradigms. This tiny precious little girl made me rethink everything, but especially everything that concerned her health. I dove into research on everything from baby led weaning to vaccines to natural sleep to breast feeding to sunlight to screen exposure to everything and anything you can think of. I wanted the best for her and I wanted to do everything right. I wanted to live and raise her as God intended.

In the depths of this research, we needed a shift on the farm. The idea of raw milk sprang up. We researched, planned, and worked to do everything as well as possible. If we were going to provide raw milk to the public legally and well, we wanted to be sure that we were doing our very best to bring the best milk to our community. A year after the birth of the idea, our herd shares opened.

If I didn’t identify as crunchy before, I sure did now.

Natural child birth and raw milk weren’t the only things that consumed my thoughts. It expanded to chem trails and chemicals in the water and ultra processed foods and vaccine shedding and toxic cleaners and so much more. Exhausted with my toddler daughter, a newborn son, and a farm business to run, I felt crushed by the weight of the harms in the world. I longed to live naturally. I did all in my power to live a crunchy, almost crispy, life. But every time I turned around, I found a new thing that was toxic. The harder I tried, the more I fell short. The first year of my son’s life and herd share business, everything felt heavy.

But the Lord was kind to me.

As we stumbled into 2025, a fog once again was lifted off of me. This fog wasn’t from adrenal fatigue and low thyroid: those things were well managed. This fog was from postpartum depression and resting my identity in my health habits. The Lord restored joy and peace to my life as I remembered in whom my identity lies. It’s not in my child birth nor in my food choices nor in my red-light therapy or air doctor. It’s in Him. And when I remembered that, it changed everything.

When I leaned into Christ instead of my favorite crunchy influencer, I was able to step back and evaluate the practices I had adopted or were learning through a biblical lens. Is there scientific evidence for grounding? Is buying red light or a water filter or even organic stewarding what resources I have well? Should we be cycle syncing everything as women? How much time and peace do I need to give up to air quality? I realized I had not first been filtering everything through a true biblical worldview.

I was truly desperate to be as crunchy as possible. I framed it as living as God intended. But really, I put my identity in my laundry soap and bone broth and bare feet and home births. I traded the God of the universe for natural living. I was serving the creation over the Creator.

Natural living is great, if kept in check. If made your god, it is a cruel one. You won’t ever be enough. While the same is true of the one true God, we are not enough, the true God gives us His righteousness to cover our sins and lacking. Perhaps if alone in the Alaskan wilderness you can avoid all EMF and ultra processed foods and most toxins, but that won’t send you to heaven nor cure your loneliness nor wipe away your sins nor cure your cancer. A healthy life won’t save you. You can do everything right in the health sphere and will still be marked by the fall. Your days are numbered. No amount of organ meats and organic produce and natural fibers will save you if your day has come. And no occasional French fry nor family member’s air freshener will take you if it’s not your day.

Before you all jump ship on me and write me off as silky or cheer me on and run through McDonald’s, hear me out. I think we should live the most biblically aligned natural lives we can while maintaining sanity and perpetually aiming to glorify God in all we do. 1 Corinthians 10:31 says, “So, whether you eat or drink or whatever you do, do it all to the glory of God.” If you are a Christian, this should be a top concern for you. We don’t serve some deistic god who is hands off of his people. No! Our God is alive and active and cares about the significant and mundane aspects of our lives. I believe He cares how we treat ourselves.

While the type of toilet cleaner you use or the bread you eat or (in my opinion) whether or not you vaccinate your kids is an area of Christian liberty, meaning many of these crunchy things are not sin issues, I do think that we should be treating our bodies well to the best of our knowledge. We are precious to God. We are created in His image (Genesis 1:27) and our bodies are temples of the Holy Spirt (1 Corinthians 6:18-20).

But while foods and cleaners and other things are areas of Christian liberty, there are also ideologies and practices in the crunchy wellness world the conflict with Christianity. Reiki, yoga, much of traditional Chinese medicine, and more have roots in belief systems that stand in stark contrast to what the Bible says is good, right, and true.

While the current crunchy community is more conservative Christian, it didn’t start out that way. Stay tuned for the next blog as we research the origins of the crunchy movement and how it can bring a different worldview to the Christian table.

A couple notes as we start this series: clearly, this is an introductory overview to share my journey in assessing the movement that I put my identity in for a period of time. As stated, next, we will go over the history of the current crunchy movement. After that, there will be individual deep dives on certain practices. It won’t be exhaustive, but will cover some common areas of concern. Not all deep dives will be negative! Some will be a thumbs up for Christians. Some will be a procced with caution. Some will be a hard no.

Know that as I write this, my beliefs are challenged! I aim to share a story with you as an opening for each to share that I have once again had to shift paradigms on certain areas. If you feel judged in any of these area, know that I judged myself first. I also am not infallible, but the Word of God is. If you’re challenged by something, take it to God in prayer and with an open Bible. I am doing the same.

Lastly, if you’re not a Christian reading this, you may not care about the Christian worldview, but I encourage you not to write off the series all the same. While I am writing mainly to my brothers and sisters in Christ in this series, I don’t subscribe to moral relativism. I think if something is true, it is universally so. While you may believe differently, I think it’s still worth reading along. Some things are objectively harmful. Beyond just the spiritual aspect, we will chat the tested helpfulness or harmfulness or uselessness of certain practices. Stick with me, guys.