Episode 198 · September 3, 2025
From Pain to Purpose with Dr. Jessica Hoogendoorn
with Dr. Jessica Hoogendoorn, Naturopath, herbalist, and founder of Eat to Live
20 min
From Pain to Purpose with Dr. Jessica Hoogendoorn
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In this episode
In this episode I sit down with my friend Dr. Jessica Hoogendoorn, a naturopath and herbalist who turned some of the hardest seasons of her life into a company built on clean, healing products. Twenty years ago, Jessica's family walked through something I wouldn't wish on anyone — her oldest daughter was diagnosed with leukemia, and six months into treatment, two of her children were severely burned in a maple syrup accident, all while she had a three-week-old baby and her husband had just lost his job. Through what she calls a series of God events, they learned to treat those burns naturally, and that knowledge became the seed for everything she does today.
We talk about her company, Eat to Live, which started with an edible sunscreen and grew into balms, decongestants, and now a luxury "Ritual" line designed especially for women in perimenopause and menopause. Jessica is wonderfully raw about why what we put on our skin matters as much as what we eat, and why she wants women to stop putting themselves last and start feeling like queens.
I love that this whole business literally started with a dream — Jessica woke up with a list of ingredients in her mind. Her encouragement to you is one I'll be holding onto: you were not made to play small. If there's a dream that lights you up, that's your God-given gifts and talents asking to be used. Keep going.
Key takeaways
- Your place of pain can become your place of purpose — Jessica turned her family's experience with cancer and severe burns into a body of knowledge that now helps thousands.
- What you put on your skin matters as much as what you eat. The skin is your largest organ and bypasses the body's filtering systems, so topical ingredients reach the bloodstream in seconds to minutes.
- Coconut oil, while popular and healthy in many ways, can disrupt the natural microbiome when used as a personal lubricant — which is part of why Jessica developed a healing, edible alternative.
- Reach for what actually works. Jessica builds her formulas to be extraordinary, using targeted ingredients like castor oil, carrot seed oil, pomegranate seed oil, rosehip, and raw honey.
- Healing is generational — when you help a mom, you change a family, and when you impact a family, you impact a generation.
- Don't put yourself last. Women deserve products and moments that make them feel cared for, not just everyone else around them.
- Act on the dream. Eat to Live started with a literal dream and a list of ingredients — stepping out and doing it is what turned it into a thriving business.
Chapters
- 00:00Welcome and introducing Jessica
- 02:00From cancer and burns to natural healing: Jessica's story
- 06:00Why clean ingredients matter — the skin as a conduit
- 09:00The new Ritual line and intimacy oil
- 14:00How Eat to Live grew beyond what she imagined
- 18:00Looking ahead: messages that light her up
- 20:00Thriving in 2025: don't play small
“Your place of pain can be your place of reign. What you walk through can be what you can turn around and help others with.”
“What we put on our skin is more important than what we even eat.”
“When you can change a mom's life, you've changed a family. And when you can impact a family, you've impacted a generation.”
“God never placed small, so why would we play small with the gifts he's placed in us?”
About Dr.
Naturopath, herbalist, and founder of Eat to Live
Jessica Hoogendoorn is a naturopath and herbalist who, after walking her family through her daughter's leukemia and severe burns to two of her children, learned to heal naturally. That experience became the foundation for her company, Eat to Live, which makes clean, healing products — from an edible sunscreen to balms to the new Ritual line for women.
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