
What a Pig Expert Says About Eating Pork | with Charles Mayfield | Ep. 111
The Modern Ancestral Mamas PodcastShow Notes
What if everything you’ve been told about pork being “unclean” is missing the bigger picture?
In this episode, Corey and Christine sit down with Charles Mayfield of Farrow Skincare to unpack one of the most misunderstood foods in the modern health space. From viral claims about pork being toxic to long-standing religious and cultural beliefs, this conversation digs into where those ideas came from and whether they actually hold up. Charles brings a rare perspective as someone who has raised pigs, studied their history, and built a business around their benefits, both nutritionally and even for skin health.
Together, they explore what makes pork truly nourishing, what went wrong in the modern food system, and how to think more clearly about the meat you’re feeding your family.
✨ Topics Covered in This Episode: ✔️ Is pork actually bad for you, or just poorly raised today? ✔️ The real difference between pasture-raised pork and grocery store pork ✔️ Why pigs have been a foundational food source throughout human history ✔️ The truth about parasites, toxins, and “dirty meat” claims ✔️ How modern farming practices changed the quality of pork ✔️ Why our ancestors relied heavily on pork for survival and nourishment ✔️ Proper ways to prepare pork, from curing to cooking ✔️ The surprising role pigs have played in medicine, exploration, and civilization ✔️ Breaking down labels like “organic,” “humanely raised,” and “vegetarian-fed”
🧠 More About This Episode: Charles Mayfield is a father, bestselling author, entrepreneur, and risk management strategist. He is the founder of Farrow Skincare, an animal fat-based skincare brand that launched following his unique experience as a regenerative farmer and health enthusiast. Through his work, Charles has become a strong voice in the movement to restore traditional food systems, challenge modern health narratives, and reconnect families with truly nourishing sources of food. This episode challenges common assumptions and invites listeners to rethink what “clean” food really means, and how much of what we believe is shaped by modern systems rather than ancestral wisdom.
📚 Resources & Links Mentioned: 📍 Farrow Skincare – https://farrow.shop/ 📍 Follow Farrow on Instagram – https://www.instagram.com/farrowskin/ 📍 Join our Patreon Community -- https://patreon.com/modernancestralmamas
✨ Support the Show! 👍 Like & Subscribe for more ancestral motherhood conversations ⭐ Leave a 5-star review on Apple Podcasts or Spotify 💬 Comment below: Have you avoided pork, and why?
#PorkMyths #AncestralEating #RealFood #RegenerativeFarming #FoodTruth #ModernAncestralMamas #HealthyLiving #PastureRaised
📲 Stay Connected: Patreon Community | https://www.patreon.com/c/ModernAncestralMamas @fornutrientssake | https://www.instagram.com/fornutrientssake/ @nourishthelittles | https://www.instagram.com/nourishthelittles/ @modernancestralmamas | https://www.instagram.com/modernancestralmamas/ YouTube | https://www.youtube.com/@ModernAncestralMamas
More from The Modern Ancestral Mamas Podcast
📍 Unsifted Freshly Milled Flour: Enjoy $10 off your first purchase of $100 or more (Code: MAM10) https://unsifted.com In this conversation with Dr. Ben Edwards, a conventionally trained family physician from Texas, we hear a healing story that changed the course of his career. Dr. Ben grew up the grandson of two small-town country doctors and was on top of the world running a rural clinic in West Texas. Then his nurse practitioner, who had lived with celiac disease for years, came to work one day and ate gluten right in front of him. That moment led Dr. Ben to a doctor who challenged everything he had been taught, and eventually to leaving the insurance model behind and building a clinic focused on getting to the root cause of illness. This is the third episode in our grain series, where we look at the health benefits of freshly milled flour. Dr. Ben shares why he believes the modern American gut struggles with refined flour, how stomach acid, the microbiome, and leaky gut all play a role in gluten reactions, and why freshly milled whole grain behaves so differently in the body than white flour. We also dig into phytic acid, the fermenting and soaking debate, when to introduce grains to babies, and why he encourages his patients to bring these decisions to prayer and not just protocols.
📍 Unsifted Freshly Milled Flour: Enjoy $10 off your first purchase of $100 or more (Code: MAM10) https://unsifted.com
📍 Unsifted Freshly Milled Flour: Enjoy $10 off your first purchase of $100 or more (Code: MAM10) – https://unsifted.com In this conversation with Jen, a registered nurse of nearly 40 years, we hear her story of chronic illness and how she came back to bread. After years of microscopic colitis, psoriasis, and a long list of autoimmune diagnoses, Jen tried nearly every protocol out there, including carnivore, GAPS, and low FODMAP, and stayed gluten-free for close to a decade. Then she felt led to eat bread again, and what happened next surprised her, her doctors, and her family. This is the "healed" episode in our new series on grains, where we look at wheat through the eyes of the farmer, the miller, the baker, and the healed. Jen shares why sourdough made with store-bought flour didn't work for her, what changed when she started milling her own grain, how her labs and digestion responded, and what she experienced in the first few weeks. We also talk about choosing a grain mill, how she bakes six loaves a week, and why she believes the real issue is not gluten but what has been stripped from our flour.
📍 Baja Gold Signature Minerals: use code MAM10 for 10% off – https://bajagoldminerals.com/ 📍 Vintage Traditions Whole-Food Skin Care: use code MAM10 for 10% off – https://www.vintagetradition.com
📍 Baja Gold Signature Minerals: use code MAM10 for 10% off – https://bajagoldminerals.com/ 📍 Vintage Traditions Whole-Food Skin Care: use code MAM10 for 10% off – https://www.vintagetradition.com