The Jason Theory
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The Jason Theory
S3 E11 Parents Have a Responsibility to Raise Healthy Kids
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Unlock the secrets to a balanced family diet with insights from Lara Field, a seasoned registered dietitian and owner of Feed Nutrition Consulting. Join us as we explore the crucial role calcium plays in children's nutrition and how to creatively incorporate it into meals. Lara shares her personal journey into the world of nutrition, motivated by her father's health struggles, offering a unique perspective on navigating the overwhelming flood of nutritional advice parents face today.
Discover how your influence as a parent can shape your child’s lifelong eating habits. We delve into practical strategies like grocery store tours, which can transform a mundane shopping trip into an educational adventure for your kids. Discussing the common hurdles of food allergies and picky eating, we emphasize the importance of a balanced approach—showing how expanding your child's palate doesn't have to mean demonizing their favorite treats.
The episode also addresses modern dietary challenges, linking processed foods and childhood obesity to broader lifestyle trends. With expert contributions, including thoughts from neurologist Andrew Huberman, we highlight the importance of tackling diet before turning to medication for issues like ADHD. Equip your family with the knowledge to make healthier choices, even during the holiday season, where moderation in festivities can keep both health and happiness in check.
Nutrition Consulting for Kids and Families
Speaker 1They need 1300 milligrams, so that's like the highest amount they'll ever need in their life, which is about four servings of calcium rich food. So, like an eight ounce glass of milk, which eight ounces isn't that much. There's about 300 milligrams of calcium. Many of our alternative dairy beverages also have about 300 per eight ounces, so but-.
Speaker 2Yeah, because there's orange juice where it says this is one serving size of milk.
Speaker 1But the like negative is the amount of sugar in the orange cheese, right, okay, there you go, okay, and so. But things like cottage cheese, yogurt, regular cheese you know some of them have like a it's like a risk reward. You know the risk of. The cheese has a lot of fat in it so it might not be the best choice for calcium, especially if we need that much. So trying to talk to kids about their willingness is important. You know how we can like sneak some of these foods in?
Speaker 2perhaps what's the five P's? Do you remember it? Proper preparation prevents poor performance. There you go. It doesn't matter how much money we get. If we don't close it's no money, right? So no clothes is no money. I'm everything that I am because of my dad's death, and I wouldn't be as successful without his death. All right, welcome to the Jason Theory. I'm extremely excited to have a friend and someone that's very knowledgeable in something that I think right now is getting the attention it should be getting, and obviously it should be getting it from 20 years in the past, but now we're really at the forefront, which I think has to do a lot with social media and people not being able to censor things that are really hurting our kids. And why don't you give us your two cents, your spiel?
Speaker 1Sure, I'm Laura Field. I am a registered dietitian, I own a nutrition consulting practice called Feed Nutrition Consulting uh health, to help people understand and make a make sense of this mess of of nutrition in the media. And mom of two boys and, you know, trying to keep it healthy at my own house too.
Speaker 2Um do you would you say that the majority of your work is with children, and what age group would that be?
Speaker 1So I started this practice. My story goes that. I goes that when I was 10 years old, my dad had really high cholesterol, like super high. His father unfortunately passed away of heart disease. So when he got the diagnosis he was shook really.
Speaker 1And at that time in the 80s, it was not. We weren't, you know, all this nutrition knowledge was not at our fingertips, was not? We weren't, you know, all this nutrition knowledge was not at our fingertips. And so he learned. He went to the library, got a bunch of books and learned.
Speaker 1You know, if I change my diet, I can change my health. And so, you know, I was just an innocent bystander just sitting there, you know, eating whatever my parents gave me at the time, and I really became super interested in it because I had to right, but I always wanted to work with kids and families. Because of that story, you know, being so young and impressionable and understanding that I could eat better and I, you know, my dad started eating better and then his cholesterol changed. I always forget when I tell this story that he's still healthy and everything's good, but it really changed his trajectory, which was awesome. And so you know, when I was like filling out my college essays and figuring out what I wanted to do for life.
Speaker 1For school I realized that I could be a registered dietitian, and you know our, this profession has a lot of science behind it. You know a lot of our has a lot of science behind it. You know a lot of our schooling education was like pre-med stuff, like chemistry, biochem, learning about the science behind food. And so I really was impressed by you know my story and wanted to work with kids. So I started my private practice after I'd worked at University of Chicago for a couple of years to get my feet wet as a dietitian and then I really wanted to work with kids and kids were always, I thought, the sweet spot, because adults, it's hard to change our habits right, we all have baggage and so doing that it's been such a wonderful process. It's been a really wonderful career. I love it.
Speaker 2Like what would be a really early age client for you. So I like to say, of course.
Speaker 1So I like to say I work with zero to 25. I really I do have a lot of adult clients that I've seen their kids or so forth, but you know, the how to feed our kids is a huge part of my business and a huge question mark. Now again, now that we can get all this access to information, parents come to me to ask like do I give my child milk, you know, or should I try these alternative dairy options available, you know? Do I start with these purees or do I start baby led weaning? There's so much question and also, I think, now that we have all this access to information, we're not sure we're just want to do better, you know, and or want to make changes to make sure that this little new package is perfect.
Speaker 2Were your parents cookers.
Speaker 1My dad is the was chef, or is the chef in our family still loves, you know, baking like made oat bran muffins all the times. But my dad, yeah, it was a.
Speaker 2he is a huge foodie and I learned a lot from that I'm always wondering, like when you meet with one of these kids, you know, how does that come to Jesus moment? Work with the parents when you're like, hey, listen, any way you slice it, he's in your house. If you don't change who you are and your tendencies, if you don't change who you are and your tendencies, how do you expect this child, who's looking at you and taking your cues, to change?
Speaker 1Right. It's a process, I'd say, and I think that there's a lot of different people that I work with and sense that some people want to change and do anything they can to fix their you know. So I see people with, like food allergies or digestive health diseases, like celiac disease or yeah, Nick, you tell me you do a lot with that.
Speaker 1Like you know, crohn's disease, ulcerative colitis, but then also weight management, and so when we're talking about weight management, I guess I would say it's about the parents, you know like, are they really worried? Are they willing to kind of change their habits?
Speaker 2Are the parents willing to stop bringing fast food home and eating pizza Just?
Speaker 1doing. You know there's so many things that we do to affect our food space, whether it's not going to the grocery store ever with our kids, like I've had an? Um interactions with kids and they don't even know what like an like asparagus is. You know what I mean and so it's it's not like it's, it's funny, but it's not in a sense, like I love doing grocery store tours with kids and families Cause, and it's not just like looking at labels.
Speaker 1So you go to grocery stores and say, hey, listen let's walk like like let's make good decisions here, at like produce and understanding that these things grow from the ground and these have beautiful colors because they're naturally found in nature. Right, and they're, you know this bright orange, or like a purple beet, or you know green kale, it's. Those all have different nutrient groups, because that's what they are, but it's grown in nature and it makes it that way, and so it's. It's something that's super important to keep you know. I guess expanding their knowledge, even at the grocery store, I think, is important too.
Speaker 2Yeah, and I think I think, like you said, like learning how to cook and and preparing stuff that people traditionally wouldn't like, but maybe preparing it in a way where the kid can accept it and like it.
Speaker 1I think there's also, you know, there are a lot of kids that like things certain way, meaning like not mixed, for instance, you know, and parents are used to like making recipes and they like lasagna for instance right.
Speaker 1They like, you know, they might like a noodle, they might like spinach, they might like ricotta, but mixed together not so much. But you know it's the taking it apart sometimes is also half the battle, and then kids might like it better. So I guess there's no right way is what I usually say. You know there's a lot of. I think exploring what can get our kids just into taking care of their bodies is important, right, and like making sure that we're not, you know, eating all of this processed food, some of which is okay. Like I, a big part of my practice is relationship with food and we should really and as a registered dietitian, my goal is never to have, really never to have foods that are like you can't ever have that because that's not life, you know, and so having it's not sustainable have that because that's not life you know, and so having it's not sustainable it isn't and it's not and it's not.
Speaker 1It's not how I want to. I want to be either right.
Speaker 1I want to have fun sometimes, and, but it's about approaching that certain food and not going crazy with it. Right, and learning how to kind of navigate the not so great foods we have sometimes, oh, and then even the foods that we don't love so much. You know, like I think kids tastes are all about. They usually go to the ultimate yum. You know, like, like this food is the best thing I've ever had. And um, I'll, you know, be stranded on a desert Island with this food. But the reality is there is this like gray area that's kind of close to, I like to say it's like the goal, right, it's kind of close to yum, but it's not their ultimate food. And that's the space we want to keep working on, because it's not foods that they're going to say, like no way, I'll never eat, but it's foods that they're not so gung-ho about. And that's the little sweet spot, I think.
Speaker 2What do you do when you have a client I talked to this, too, about when I have PT or I have other people on that the parents are involved, yeah, and you're not getting the results you want because you're not getting the participation at home. How do you have those hard discussions with the parents and say, hey, listen, I can't do my job if you don't do yours? And does that happen a lot?
Speaker 1It's tough. What I face a lot is the two-parent family not seeing eye to eye, and so when one parent wants something and the other parent is kind of not supporting, it can make it really hard. And so I try very hard to not make this like a 180 change, but also just kind of, I like to say, turning the dial, so to speak. So it shouldn't be such drastic things Like if you don't usually cook at home, that's okay, but trying to find convenience products that we can incorporate in our diet that are better than the X, you know, or you know, with picky or selective eaters, sometimes that's really tough, and trying to not force a kid to eat is a huge goal of mine, like I never want to pressure a child, because there's a lot of research that says that's totally, you know, not great for long term.
Speaker 2So it's about kind of how do you handle that?
Speaker 1Well it's slow, kind of, how do you handle that? And well it's, it's slow and steady.
Speaker 2You know my food would just be in the fridge. And my mom was like you won't eat again in this house till that plate's empty. And then I just was like, all right, I might as well. Then I was just like interviews, I know it's probably the worst advice. And then I just my mom stuck to it, yeah. And after like two meals I'm like I'm starving, yeah, and I ate it and I go well, next time I'll just eat it from the get go, because I know it's going to be in the fucking fridge.
Speaker 1It's actually not a bad practice to be honest with you.
Speaker 2So I like to say well, I like.
Speaker 1So that was like a clean your plate club, historically right. But I like to say I'd rather have a kid not eat and this sounds a little strong, but I'd rather have a kid not eat than be forced to eat anything. And the reality is, you know, after a few days it depends on the age of the child, obviously, but like at a two, three years old kid, if they're really resistant they learn quickly that they need to you know they need to eat, and I've had my share of experiences that my own kids too, like you know.
Speaker 1There might have been sauce on the pasta, but they didn't want the sauce. And if you say this, is it, dude, this is what we're having. Eventually, they come around because there's nothing else you know, and so the problem becomes when parents become short-order cooks or when the kids feel Too many options, too many options.
Speaker 2Oh, I tell that to Nikki all the time. This is not a restaurant.
Speaker 1Right, but also when kids have the authority to go into whatever the pantry or fridge and just get what they want, and so it can become a battle, a little bit a power of wills, I guess so to speak.
Speaker 1But it's about having a conversation at home, being on the same page, trying to the yums and the yucks. You know, like I do feel it's a good exercise with families to give, especially kids that are selective or picky eaters, to give the ultimate you know, to put in a little sheet of paper Like what foods will you never want to pass your lips? Because we all have them. You know I don't like sardines are not my favorite option, just the little heads don't really work for me. But some people love them. But that's just fine.
Speaker 2They love them on pizza. That's just fine. Oh, that's anchovies.
Healthy Habits for Kids and Families
Speaker 1Anchovies. Still, you know that's kind of my like. No, thank you. But you know that doesn't mean I love fish, you know, but that does. I guess the point is we all can. We don't have to eat everything to have a healthy diet. It's really about making good choices to have less processed food more often. Try and have more vegetables that's like a huge goal of mine with kids. Just how we can get them in our diet. It can be raw, steamed, whatever, but just that vegetables have so much nutrient power, they have so much volume and fiber and that's what makes us feel full and satisfied. So trying to get those in our diet whether it's, you know, lunch, dinner, snack, whatever is a huge goal. The other thing is getting our kids to like water too.
Speaker 1You know, I know that sounds maybe silly, but but, you know, we have this huge well, and we have this huge sweet sensor. You know that we are born with we're, we're innately born with a preference to love sweets, so you know. And then like formula and breast milk is sweet, and then like baby purees have sweet, so we're constantly primed to like sweet things and it's like almost as if the rest of her life we're like fighting against it. But you know, water, yes, it's so important and trying to get something that's not sweet is so important to our body.
Speaker 2When you mean sweet, you're talking about like a sugar drink, like Gatorade or yeah, or lemonade or soda or whatever it is.
Speaker 1I mean all that.
Speaker 2Soda's the killer.
Speaker 1Well, the sad story too Soda's the killer, I mean all that. Soda's the killer.
Speaker 2Well, the sad story too Soda's the killer.
Speaker 1There's a lot of sugar in a small space and the government regulations say we should only have 25 grams of added sugar a day.
Speaker 2That's like a half a cup Nothing.
Speaker 1It's nothing.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 1So in one teaspoon is five grams of sugar. So that's five teaspoons. I can't tell you how many things like, even things that are lower in sugar, like a yogurt, perhaps that's lower in sugar can have like, which is okay, that can have like 10 grams of added sugar. So two teaspoons, so that yogurt plus, you know, a cereal, plus whatever in our day, it adds up really quickly.
Speaker 2So sugar is really bad. The more. I I read about sugar.
Speaker 1It's just like a well fuel for cancer it's a few. It's a.
Speaker 2It's a messes with your neurons in your head, makes things misfire, creates adhd. I mean it's bad?
Speaker 1well there's. It's also the diabetes question too. You know, the insulin, it's the insulin resistance that happens. So. So you know the other thing too, like in coffee or teas or things that people are drink, you know we have, it's best to have. If we do have them, like, have a meal, take a break. Have a meal, take a break, because that space is something that our body really needs to digest, and like, kind of get back to center. Well, if we're drinking something constantly throughout the day, that's sweet.
Speaker 1We're constantly pushing our making our insulin say hey, we need you, you know, to help digest glucose and then eventually, after years of doing that constantly, our pancreas is like dude, I'm done and so. And then we stop, and so that's something that causes. That's what type two diabetes is in a nutshell, and so, and then we stop, and so that's something that causes. That's what type two diabetes is in a nutshell. And so, really, you know, understanding the the need for sweet cause, it does give us pleasure, like it's something that's important.
Speaker 2I hate sweet stuff Really. Yeah, I can't even put anything in my coffee. Yeah, which is good. I can't stand candy.
Speaker 1Well, some of it you know I don't, and I me too. I mean I is good. I can't stand candy. Well, some of it you know, and I me too, I mean I know maybe sometimes I know too much, but some things I enjoy. But I guess the point is, you know, approaching it and having a little and then taking a break is key. There's another thing that's pretty interesting that when you have something that's sweet or pleasurable, it's like if you have one bite it feels good If you have two bites and then after three bites the pleasure that you get from it declines and so when people eat it's like drugs it is so when people have, like a huge cookie-.
Speaker 2Then you have to have like 17 Kit Kats.
Speaker 1When you have a huge cookie, it's like that you should have only had three bites and moved on you know, so it's an interesting. It's very. There's so much science.
Speaker 2It's really fascinating and how your body reacts to it and everything. Yeah, yeah, um, how about, like, is there enough research in terms of how a kid eats from, let let's say, three to six can dictate what the body is yearning for? Like you know, if you are a garbage eater at a young age, does your body need that garbage? Like, does it yearn for it? Like, do you have withdrawals?
Speaker 1Well, there's this genetic. You know, it's nature nurture right, so there is a lot of talk about our genetic potential and you know what was happening in utero with mom also can cause our kids like weight management for instance too, and so my big thing is in the weight management Like.
Speaker 2I see kids that are like.
Speaker 1Yeah.
Speaker 2You're like man. You got to get a handle on that now.
Speaker 1Right and it's interesting. I I'd say zero to three is probably doesn't really matter. I mean, it matters, but we're setting the foundation for their life. But the habits can be, the habits can be different than and not really affect their long-term outcome. I would say, can be different then and not really affect their long-term outcome.
Speaker 1I would say, I see, like 9, 10, 11, 12, like puberty time, that's when we have kids that go in one way or another and so, yeah, the habits that they're having at the smaller ages might lay the foundation. It's interesting. It's kind of what parents do, though, though too right, like if we are in these habits and you know whether it's ordering fast food or night eating or snacking all the time, the kids see that at 2 versus, you know, and at 10. And so they might replicate the habits too. Like, role modeling is something actually I did research on for my master's research on for my master's and there's a huge impact of parents and what they are doing in their daily habits and how it affects their kids, and the reality is most obese parents have obese kids.
Speaker 2I was about to say that too. There's gotta be, it's gotta be 80%.
Speaker 1Yeah, it's really, and the sad part is that you know, when you have that genetic background you're kind of like running uphill with a heavy backpack.
Speaker 2Yeah, you've got to work harder, yeah it's really hard. If you're not a natural athlete, you've got to work harder. Yeah, it's complete, but that's just the card you were. That's just life, right.
Speaker 1But there is ways to change it and you know I talk a lot about movement and athletics and exercise with kids and adults and how important that is too, because that does help everything honestly I mean from an emotional part to physical and then some and I think getting in those habits are something that we could teach our kids young.
Speaker 2But it seems like they're scaling back like gym and scaling back.
Speaker 1Well, it depends on where we are. But yeah, I think you know the problem also is we're in this competitive environment of getting our kids in all the things you know and trying to, whether tutoring or you know. There's priorities that come into play, but most, again, like research, talks about an hour a day for kids to be active. So if that's working, then that's probably you know, going to help a healthy body.
Speaker 1So whether, if they're not in gym all the time, if they can be, you know, in some sort of organized or even just on their own sport, just run around. Yeah right, just movement. So it's the screens that are, you know, making it harder, it's the other priorities that are making it harder. But if parents the same thing with modeling too, if, like, kids, see parents move, you know, working out and taking time to do stuff to help their body, they'll do it too, which?
Diet, Allergies, and Childhood Nutrition
Speaker 2is like the simple simple answer yeah, so I also wanted to touch on I was redoing some, some numbers which were just blew my mind. Um, thought it was crazy. Um, from 2000 to today, obesity has tripled in kids and at the same linear line so has allergies what type? And there's I. Then I got into a. I literally, like three days ago when you were here, I just went into, like a dark hole yeah.
Speaker 2And the links between allergies and diet and just like it seems that everything Now there's not a single solution. But from what I've read and what I've been reading over the last couple of years, everything starts and stops with your diet and it just seems like there's a lot of things that people could prevent if they just weren't sedentary and they just like worked on their body physically.
Speaker 1Yeah, I think allergy.
Speaker 2the allergy question is really interesting, it was crazy, it's triple two with it.
Speaker 1It's so interesting, interesting and you know, in practice I've seen it. You know, like day to day, I guess what's I? It's hard to know why. You know there's a lot of allergies, no, and there's this hygiene hypothesis that we're so clean too clean. Yeah, that's causing herd immunity so oh and or um the diagnostic methods of testing.
Speaker 2You know know allergies are different, but if you eat peanuts in your mouth, you don't need testing, right? If you have bumps all over your body and your throat's closed, you have an allergy, no one had that I know.
Speaker 1No, you're right.
Speaker 2Everybody ate peanuts.
Speaker 1There was like one or two kids when we were growing up. Maybe that had a peanut allergy, but that's it.
Speaker 2I don't even remember. Yeah, Maybe one Cause.
Speaker 1It would have been like I was like peanut allergy, yeah, but I just it's really questionable, we don't know. But obesity, I mean there's there's a lot of theories of like packaged food, portion sizes bigger, you know, fast food how we can get fast food is easier. Um, the the way that we process food is different. Like there's just the marketing that you different, like there's just the marketing that you know. There's just a lot that's coming together that is causing, and then again we have heavier adults that are causing, are producing heavier kids yeah, it's.
Speaker 280 percent of people's diets right now, on average, are processed food.
Speaker 1Yeah, and I was like, wow, well, and there's actually some research that talks about ultra processed food and when we think of that, it's like, it's like fake, it's like Cheetos, you know, extruded corn chip or whatever, or like bologna, or hot dogs Like those actually are.
Speaker 2are you know again when I, when I?
Speaker 1when I when I say that there's foods that I like to say that we should what do you?
Speaker 2what would you say? What would you say get that out of my house or I will slap you.
Speaker 1There are foods I like to say that I'm accepting of all foods, but I'm not actually. Those ultra-processed foods I would say are probably the worst, like the foods that don't have any nutritional value to them. Like a hot dog, go to a ballpark, have it once a day, but don't have it on a regular basis necessarily at your house. Same thing with, like many of these chips, whether-.
Speaker 2What's a good chip?
Speaker 1I would say like a authentic tortilla chip. Great, it's corn, it's oil and that's it. Salt fine, but some of these extruded in nature. But also the colors, jason, too Like the you know things that have, like I don't want to name a brand, but that have a variety of like Takis and you know the Flamin' Hots and all these things that have red dye Right, like red and yellow, and you know all these numbers, those, are petroleum-based Well they're and that's cancer.
Speaker 2It's a carcinogen.
Speaker 1So in our US government we still allow them here.
Speaker 2But in.
Speaker 1Europe they don't, and so that's something I also you know. Again, it's Halloween, we have candy once in a while, but you kind of have to have it and then move on because all those things. There's a lot of research with colors linked to hyperactivity and possibly ADHD.
Speaker 2So it just seems like everything I read is like ADHD, adhd. I was listening to a neurologist. I'm going to mess up his name, but I always listen to his podcast, eric Hoberman. He's a PhD neurologist, hoberman.
Speaker 1Hoberman, he's a.
Speaker 2PhD neurologist Uberman. Uberman, that's it, and I can grab about. If I listen to two hours of him. I maybe understand an hour Me too, if that and then he gets on some crazy stuff and he's just like listen. He's like you're taking a 10-year-old kid who parents don't put their kids to bed enough, right, so he's tired. Who who parents don't put their kids to bed enough, right, so he's tired. You throw him pop tarts, sugar, cereals you know everything is firing crazy because he's all hyped up on sugar and you throw him in a classroom you say sit for eight hours and then, when he can't, you then drug him as an adhd which is he's like. He's like yeah, you know. Can we start changing people's diets?
Speaker 1before we drug kids well, and and and colors the two things together. So when we eat sugar, our body gets this wonderful sensation and our you know we're utilizing it, and then, if it's not something with fiber, we get this crash right, and that crash is actually. What is this attention deficit?
Speaker 2question. I mean, we have them as adults, you know of course, of course, we're like. Oh, I shouldn't have had that.
Speaker 1Correct, so you know. So the balance of having something that has some complex carbohydrates, like whole grain cereals or breads, or having something with fat with it also, so if we can have like avocado or even cream cheese on you know, toast or something, or yogurt.
Speaker 2How important is fats? They're like they feed everything.
Speaker 1It helps? Well, it helps us manage that glucose, and so that's. You know, protein and fats are things that digest slower than carbohydrates. So if you have something like Pop-Tart is a perfect example or candy, you know, we eat it. Our body breaks it down super quickly and then we're we're left with nothing. If we have something that has a better carbohydrate, a little bit more fiber, but also incorporates something with protein and fat, it takes us longer to digest. We don't get that crash so like eggs and holy toast and beans are great.
Speaker 1Um. Have something with fiber, protein and fat in the morning is my usual trifecta and the lunch that's going in a lunchbox. That's tough, it is tough and I think with lunch I like to say keep it simple. Sometimes parents are looking at this big box and try to shove as much as possible in, but what we really need is to make sure that they're getting things that they're willing to eat and they're willing to like.
Speaker 1They're not just eating the garbage, the extruded potato chip you know, but I usually, I usually like to say try to have four things. So whether it's like a sandwich, you know that has some protein on it, maybe a veggie or a fruit and then something with calcium actually. So they need 1300 milligrams. So that's like the highest amount they'll ever need in their life, which is about four servings of calcium rich food.
Speaker 1So, like an eight ounce glass of milk, which eight ounces is not that much. There's about 300 milligrams of calcium. Many of our alternative dairy beverages also have about 300 per eight ounces, so but-.
Speaker 2Yeah, because there's orange juice where it says this is one serving size of milk.
Speaker 1But the like negative is the amount of sugar in the orange juice.
Speaker 2Right, okay, there you go, okay, and so.
Speaker 1But things like cottage cheese, yogurt, regular cheese you know some of them have like a. It's like a risk reward. You know the risk of. The cheese has a lot of fat in it, so it might not be the best choice for calcium, especially if we need that much. So trying to talk to kids about their willingness is important. How we can sneak some of these foods in, perhaps whether it's like mixing milk in oatmeal or mixing it in a smoothie, or if they don't love milk on its own. But there's a lot of research. It's really interesting about chocolate milk and that.
Speaker 1The well, the, the the benefit well, the risk it's again like the benefit of the calcium is better than the risk of the added sugar. Cause the amount of added sugar, especially for athletes, and young athletes too. I would so much rather them have chocolate milk in their lunch than no milk at all. Yeah, I agree with you so that's like that would be my like perfect thing to have in lunch.
Speaker 2Yeah, that's that gray area you were talking about. Like you're almost there, like here.
Speaker 1Here's yummy, it's delicious. Yes, you need milk, but if you can't, with protein, something with whole grain, a vegetable would be lovely, if possible, and then something with calcium, that would be awesome.
Speaker 2Like carrots.
Speaker 1Yeah, sure, carrots, cucumbers, maybe a little hummus, but it doesn't have. I mean, fruit is fine. I think fruit is always our first choice because it's like sweet tastes good. It's acceptable. But if there's some veggie that our kids would be willing to have at lunch and like maybe a dip on the side, great, because it doesn't have sugar in it, you know.
Speaker 2At nighttime. How do you feel about fruit?
Speaker 1Great, I mean fruit is something I love. When I'm talking to kids, I like to say, like we have two hands, you should have two servings of fruit and that serving should be like what can fit in your hand, because I've had many kids that I've worked with that eat bowls of fruit like a lot of fruit and that you know digests the same as sugar, as same as candy, the same as bread and pasta. You know those carbohydrates are same but different, right?
Speaker 1And so our net carbohydrate intake from any of those groups. If we eat more than we are burning, we will store them as fat. That's it. It's that simple. So making you know having fruit as dessert or having fruit as like an accessory for breakfast to like make your oatmeal taste better. Or you know again, like after dinner, if you want something sweet, there's many things you can do to fruit. You know again, like after dinner, if you want something sweet, there's many things you can do to fruit to make it like exciting, maybe after dinner. But I think that would be so much of a better routine than having like a real dessert, you know.
Speaker 2Yeah, I remember when I was trying to cut weight in college and in like I was like, okay, I looked at and I was reading all the stuff. They're like one diet was like okay, I looked at and I was reading all the stuff, they're like one diet was like you cannot have any pieces of fruit, any orange. You can't have a drink, nothing, nothing after 12 PM. Like if you want fruit, you got to have in the morning. After 12 PM you can't have any fruit.
Speaker 1I mean some of those diets.
Speaker 1And I was like, but it kind of made sense. I was like all right, well, it's sugar, well, and you is. When it's going in our stomach it takes a little bit to digest anyway. So it's mixing and it's really about knowing how much your body needs. Though, too. Fruit has some wonderful fiber properties. It makes us feel full and satisfied. It's this volume idea too, that if we, our stomach has all these receptors on it and if we touch, you know, and if we touch all those receptors, our body feels full, gets signals to our brain like hey, you're full. If we have something that's tiny in our stomach and the same calories if it's smaller, we won't feel as full. So volume is key really.
Speaker 2So vegetables are the preferred choice because it doesn't have as much sugar, you know or any I, if I have a bowl of grapes in front of me, it could be like 40 of them before.
Speaker 1I know it's over.
Speaker 2I can't stop eating grapes especially now, it's good season. Yeah, I don't know. I had grapes last night.
Speaker 1I was like but I just, you know, it's really like it's better than candy, it is, but it isn't, isn't right. And so just I think, taking a portion, putting it away, also distracting ourselves, I think what there are so many visual cues that we may have around our house, you know, a candy jar, a little cake plate, what there's things out that we left out, that like, oh, or even if you open the fridge or freezer and there's, like you know, ice cream and you see it, you're like, oh, that looks, want some Right. And so sometimes moving those things into like a little bit higher or throwing them away would be great, but also our pantry.
Speaker 1You know I do like pantry overhauls.
Speaker 2I was going to ask you if you go to people's houses and take a look at what's going on.
Speaker 1It's actually, you know, we have an office space and it's myself and I have another dietitian that works for me and I have a therapist too that works with some of our clients also, and we have an office space. We don't use it as much anymore, mostly post-covid, but also I really enjoy going into people's homes. It tells a lot of the story and really going to.
Speaker 1That's where you got to be well and understanding the size of their cereal bowl or understanding like what's in our pantry or what's you know. I did this little pantry overhaul with family once and I opened the pantry doors and I saw this like huge you know Costco size box of chocolate, brownie mix or something, and it was like right in my eye and she's like I never use it, but you see it every day, you know, and so moving some of those things around can actually be really helpful.
Speaker 2You know we talked when we were changing the batteries in the camera about, like, how do you? You know you have a child that needs help, you know, and the first thing that the parent wants to do is, obviously we can call you up, consult with you and say this, this or this, how does other than just going into the house and getting rid of stuff? How do you explain to a kid hey, you know, in a nice way.
Speaker 1Sure.
Speaker 2So they don't hate you for the rest of your life. Like how do you say to them hey, we need to make changes.
Speaker 1Well.
Speaker 2We need. We need maybe you don't say we need to get you healthy, but we need to make sure that you live a long life.
Speaker 1Right, I think. Well, there's life expectancy in the U.
Speaker 2S is falling compared to everyone else.
Speaker 1It's I. My main kind of mantra is like preventing future disease. That's on our website, that's a huge part of how I practice and that that's you know. Again, like the foundation, of why.
Speaker 1I started right and so it's a really tricky. It's a tricky situation and I would say there's sometimes when we kind of can be, you know, tiptoeing around the subject, and then there's times when we need to like go into it, and so usually I like to make it a family movement, you know, and not single one child out, Because the reality is, even if there's one child that has having concerns, the rest of the kids are probably eating the same thing.
Speaker 2Eating the same stuff. Just one is predisposition to be like that.
Speaker 1Right, exactly, or movement is different, or different ages or whatever, and so I like to kind of say this is like a family thing. Sometimes it's about the adult too. You know, we need to help dad and get him healthy, so we can't have some of this in our house Now it's this, Blame the father.
Speaker 2It's just like we're there for you guys. We're the punching bags Someone has to take the beating.
Speaker 1Someone take the beating, it's not mom, but the key is to know that it might not be great to have it in our house all the time, but we can still go out for treats and it's usually about treats, to be honest like the candy, the garbage.
Speaker 1So it's not that we can't ever have it, but maybe don't have it in your house. And so I think this gentle dance means that we need to kind of make it a family approach, a family affair. You know, family changes Again, like how I experienced this, but also when it's kind of not a big issue, that's a great approach. When there is something that you know seems to be a dangerous place, like when we, you, obesity means that their body mass index is greater than 95th percentile, which is 20% of the kids right now.
Speaker 2It's a lot. It's a lot.
Speaker 1And so that's pretty high though also. So BMI body mass index is weight for height, how proportionate they are. But between 85 and 95, bmi, that actually technically is at risk for overweight, and so those kids are just as bad.
Speaker 2I wonder what that percentage is, because it's 20% right now, is over 95. And then it's one third in adults.
Speaker 1And the 95 and above is where it's really dangerous. There's other comorbidities like diabetes and heart disease that kind of come along with it. So when our kid is at that stage we really have to have a conversation and I think it's a. You know, kids are impressionable and the things that we say to them it lasts like they will remember forever, and so I think understanding that this is something that should not come from a doctor also, you know, a lot of doctors have done, unfortunately, some emotional damage to a lot of kids to talking about their weight, and so it's stressful and it's good intention, obviously, but I think that you know if mom and dad could have, or parents, or whomever can have just a kind of a nice calm conversation and say, hey, we need to make some changes just because we want you to be healthy, we want you to stay around, we don't want you to take medication.
Speaker 1I think that there's this. It's not about our physical image and that's what some people are focusing on, but it's really about preventing these future diseases yeah, I always get nervous on on, like you know, and it's probably like you said we talked about.
Speaker 2I always get nervous like all right, if it's now, are you gonna be susceptible to this, susceptible to this? And I always worry about, in the food, the food part. I always worry about the brain and how we feed the brain at nighttime. And you know, I've I've had many of conversations with people and I'm like I and it's obviously not a uh, it's obviously not a cure-all, but I think that we get rid of a lot of the poverty, we lower insurance costs, uh, people in school starting to be able to read at the level which is food. If we could, just in this nation, if we could just start with the food first and push that and then sit back and be like, okay, we did this with children's foods. You know, we know that omega-3s and fats and proteins feed the brain. You're having problems with retention or you're having issues at school. First thing, what do we eat? What do we eat?
Speaker 1Yeah, and they don't go there.
Speaker 2They are starting to and I think that has a lot to do with RFK too, like really hitting and bringing it to. You know like they have to start with the food and they don't.
Speaker 1Well, the problem is, nutrition education isn't covered by insurance.
Speaker 2Yeah, so it's not worth it. No, one's making money. No, we're preventing.
Speaker 1Well, and it's sad.
Speaker 2But we should be doing that Totally.
Speaker 1I mean nutrition education programs in schools are pretty limited, if that you know. There's a couple hours that they get during like health class, like I know you talked to the guys at Payton that are doing that green?
Speaker 2thing, and like they came to me first and I said you got to talk a lot, yeah, and I said, listen, people need to know this stuff and you know, like, when you're talking about kids not paying attention to school, or you're talking about you know like what, like inverse proportion of inner city kids and where they are scholastically versus this to me, listen, we can't. If a parent doesn't want to be a parent, we can't affect that. Right, but let's, let's figure out the food.
Speaker 1Yeah.
Speaker 2Most of these kids in the inner city are eating two. They eat twice a day, right At school, and it's at school.
Speaker 1Yeah, I mean, people need to understand that they're not eating at home. They're eating twice a day. What's also tragic is to see what's offered.
Speaker 2Yeah, it's like instead of handing money out for everything like why don't we, why don't we work on nutrition? Why don't? Why doesn't a kid come in for breakfast? Hey, you're going to have milk. Yeah, you're going to have some eggs You're going to have.
Speaker 1you know good food they're living in, like food deserts too. You know, a lot of these kind of underprivileged areas don't have access to food too, and it might be like a gas station or something that they're getting food from and there's not fresh produce. So there's some big issues, but why?
Speaker 2can't we attack that? I mean, there's so much stuff we spend money on, why can't we attack that? Listen, how about he's not going to do it? But how about Mayor Johnson says all right, ctu, you want a new deal? All right, and part of this deal. Instead of giving teachers free housing, which is part of the deal.
Speaker 1Why don't we give kids food Well and a better quality, like maybe more than $2. It's like $2.86.
Speaker 2You guys got an EBT card from COVID right, yeah, of course, yeah. Okay, so, like Will, this was what a year ago and I think this is when I started really getting upset Will took his EBT card, went to 7-Eleven and bought candy and came home and I said this is the card that people get when they're on assistance and this and this, and people are going and they're able to buy a Coke and Snickers. That EBT card. There should be a separate section. Wherever you're at, these are the only foods.
Speaker 1Well, Whole Foods accepts an EBT card too.
Speaker 2Yeah, but they're probably buying candy there too, or some healthy candy, it's just that's the-. We have to change that.
Speaker 1Yeah, and I've done a few lectures into some of these underserved communities and it's really about educating them on the sugar, like what we were talking about before, understanding that soda. There's nothing beneficial from it and that's a big part of the diet, you know. It's not having access to fresh vegetables or fruit. Trying to think about there are a lot of things that are in those grocery stores too that can be nutritious. It's just like about finding them and not being lured into the chip and the soda you know.
Speaker 2But they can manipulate that by saying you can't buy that. Yeah, of course With this, if you get government money, you can only buy these things and let's feed the brain.
Speaker 1That would be a nice world.
Speaker 2I just don't get it like why that's so hard for them to do. And I agree with you no one wants to fix a problem, because fixing a problem doesn't make money and it's so sad and it like we were driving. I don't Will's into politics big time.
Speaker 1Love it.
Speaker 2So me and Will are are driving to school today and I don't know we got on some tangents on tax credits and this and that, of course. And I was like I don't know, we got on some tangents on tax credits and this and that, of course. And I was like you know, insurance will pay for the stomach band.
Speaker 1Right Gastric bypass.
Speaker 2But they won't pay for a gym.
Speaker 1Right.
Speaker 2I said what do you think? Or a dietician, or a dietician?
Speaker 1Yeah, when a diagnosis of celiac disease, which is the only thing you need to do is change your diet, insurance doesn't cover, which is crazy.
Speaker 2Well, it's because Big Pharma gets more money off the pills.
Speaker 1With that? They don't. There's not pills for it. But in general there's diabetes and kidney disease are the only true diagnosis that insurance will cover for a dietician visit and it's I'm not just you know this is my space, so I know it. But it's if more people had access to a nutrition professional and learn a little bit. It would be great, you know.
Speaker 2I read something yesterday, when I was doing this stuff too, or a couple of days ago, that they spend $1.2 billion on children and diabetes, when it could just be a change in diet.
Speaker 1Yeah.
Speaker 2And everyone's like we can't afford healthcare. But we can't because we're not curing anything Right Like and that's what me and Will were talking about. And Will's like, well, the gyms. I said, well, if everybody's healthy insurance cuts in half, I go. My car insurance doubled because everybody's carjacking everybody in the city.
Speaker 1Right, totally.
Speaker 2So you know my house insurance went up.
Speaker 1We're feeding it a problem.
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 1Right, essentially yeah.
Speaker 2It's tragic, oh my Lord. All right, any other closing remarks Let me see. I had so much other stuff, but some of it. We talked about the dyes. I can't believe it's made out of petroleum. It up the dyes. I can't believe it's made out of petroleum.
Speaker 1It's gross. It's just fake food and you know it's and what. I guess if you could look at a food label and understand. You know people always say like you should read the ingredients and understand and be able to pronounce them. It's also about limiting the things that are on them. You know having food, like we said, the tortilla chip. A tortilla chip, that's corn. You know salt oil.
Speaker 2So where would you get a tortilla chip like that? Just go to Whole Foods and say I want no even at, like you know, any kind of grocery store. There's plenty of plain, like just a simple authentic chip versus the big and those aren't bio the big those aren't like bio-made Most are not like bioengineered or something.
Speaker 1No, but I guess it's not about the chip, right, it's just about looking at our diet as a whole and saying, like, how many foods are we eating that are either grown from the ground or minimally processed? And I think that would be a perfect diet.
Speaker 2So I'm gonna leave you on this because I want some people to be able. You said the hot dogs for, like, ultra processed food. What are three other ultra processed foods that people have that like? I don't know many people that have hot dogs in their house. I mean, if they do, they really have problems. No judgment here. Oh, this is a judge zone.
Speaker 1I would say like bacon, hot dogs, bacon, bacon. But that's cut off a pig, I know, but it's not, there's not much Nutritive value, but how?
Speaker 2about pancetta.
Speaker 1I'm just telling you Prosciutto is fine. No, I'm saying in general Of like the Alright so bacon. Well, let's just say Hot dogs.
Speaker 2What do you think of bacon Hot dogs.
Speaker 1Because bacon and hot dogs the nutritive value Is pretty low let's just say um, but also those extruded chips, like we said, like takis and cheetos like doritos not great not great um other other candy is all in there, you know like. So ultra process means that there's a lot of manufacturing that's going in to produce the, the food. So it's the? Um bologna, of the, you know, the lunchable um meat, the craft I don't like using brands, but the craft American cheese, it's like plastic.
Speaker 1Well, actually some of the pasta um box things are not as bad. There's okay, you know but you know boiling some whole wheat pasta, you know using your own like cheese and now it doesn't taste the same but, like cheese and milk and like that's the goal, like that would be much better nutritive wise. There may be more calcium. It's like just real food, you know. So trying to assess again, like taking a step back, saying how much of our food is less processed, would be a goal.
Speaker 2How about these microplastics in people's foods.
Speaker 1I'm so glad you brought that up.
Speaker 2I was thinking about bringing it up too. Let's keep doing that so microplastics is really interesting. So I'm just diving into this. I heard a couple pods and I'm like all right, let me look into this.
Speaker 1Well, let me say I don't know how to approach it because it's a newer. I know people have looked at it forever, but to me, you know thinking about how much of our food is consumed, that is plastic involved, like even water bottles. You know like we as a society go and grab a water bottle, like the at the store a pack of water right like so much plastic is in there you know, can we? Can we like have a filter system in our house and like use glass bottles?
Speaker 2just a question right, yeah um also the is metal not good?
Speaker 1well, metal fine yeah no, it's just not plastic, right, yeah, but then the other part is the plastic, where that we are microwaving things in our house too, you know, so is it. Can we put it on a, you know, a dish, a plate, versus microwaving in plastic? Cause it's so it's to me. I'm not a perfect scenario here, but I guess most as much as I can. In my own house I tried it. Like we don't have water bottles anymore, we have these glass bottles that are, you know, I got on Amazon, and we fill them up and put them in the fridge and move on and it's a little part that I thought would be helpful.
Speaker 2Just also, I kind of didn't want to keep buying water, to be quite honest with you too If you do one thing every six months, that changes your dynamic it's huge because it's going to.
Speaker 1It's going to roll up.
Speaker 2Correct. I had a guy. I was listening to something and it blew my mind and I came home and I told Nikki. She goes you're right. And the guy goes how in the hell does Starbucks give you a paper cup that never gets wet and you're putting steaming hot coffee into it? He goes do you understand what that cup is laced with? And I was like fuck.
Speaker 1Well, and also hot liquid, hot liquid, and it's not coming out. Yeah.
Speaker 2And I'm like he's like you have no idea what's coming in your drink, what you're drinking.
Speaker 1Well it's. I mean think about the how many things have.
Speaker 2Really how many things have?
Speaker 1plastic in it though right. I mean it's a lot so again, but it's also taking this information with a grain of salt.
Speaker 2You know we can't avoid it completely there are some plastics that are-, but aren't they using a lot of plastics to hold food together? Isn't there a bunch of plastic?
Speaker 1There's like they're using plastic now to hold I hope I'm not consuming it, though.
Speaker 2But you know, you don't know food consistency, yeah.
Speaker 1I just I think that there's I mean, there's like cellulose. Is that what you're thinking?
Speaker 2Yeah.
Speaker 1But the, the, the. I guess the takeaway to me is can you do something to decrease it a little bit? And I would say, you know, at our house, the plastic bottle, we're trying. We're not perfect but that's lovely, the microwaving things in plastic, cause it's like when you're making it hot and it's there's some idea that it's like seeping into your food, which is.
Speaker 2It is. That's what this study was.
Speaker 1With the Starbucks, they're like it's impossible to keep the liquid Well, and especially hot liquids, right, and so I think in colder things it's kind of less questionable. But you know again like sorry to go back to the water bottle but like you have a water bottle sitting in your car for days and it gets so hot in the middle of summer and you know there's gotta be something.
Speaker 2Yeah, there's gotta be something. That's going in there. That's a bottle of cancer.
Speaker 1The straws that are we're drinking from. So it's just, you just have to kind of take it with a grain of salt. I don't think the grain of salt, or stop doing it, or just decrease think of something that you can do to decrease. I think would be a health benefit. But if we're looking at all these things like, we can't be free of any of these issues. Right, like water has issues, now you know there's things that fish, there's a whole question well, the government finally admitted that fluoride is screwing up kids' brains.
Speaker 1Yeah, well, I think there's a lot of things out there. Let's just say, and cumulative, when we look at all of them, it leaves us scary, Right now it's a little scary, but we have to kind of take a step back and again. When I say minimally processed ingredients and things in nature, that also has a problem like organic versus not, and pesticides and all these things, and so we have to eat we have to function. So just trying to kind of do the best we can.
Speaker 2I have a great friend and he's in the food business and he is a person that you do not want to have a conversation with and he's the. He just looks at me and goes. The only thing he said to me is just like you can eat whatever you want. He goes the water's killing us. And now and then he moved and I went to his house and visited. But you walk in his garage. He's got seven tanks and there's not one. He goes.
Speaker 2I will not let water touch my body that doesn't run through those seven tanks that he's in the fish business body that doesn't run through those seven tanks that he's in the fish business. So he knows he goes, he goes, he goes. Forget about the food he goes. You know they're washing the food in this water. He goes and that water is going straight into the food and he went on with water and I was just like oh well and then that was one that we went and got a.
Speaker 2Uh, we got this thing called the kagan at our house, like this just pulls everything out of the water and then makes it, you know, then takes the water and makes it an alkaline like bases, the water.
Speaker 1Listen I again like I think all these things are whatever you can do yeah, important, but it's like is there one that's more important? Not necessarily, you know so just do the best.
Speaker 2I just don't want to have an awful death. It's great. I don't want to have like. I don't want to be like a neurological death.
Speaker 1Let's try not to.
Speaker 2So the last question we're talking about calcium and this. That obviously something's better than nothing, but do a daily vitamin that has calcium? Does that? So no tom's giving me your opinion on so so vitamin.
Speaker 1So I would say, in a global stance, all talking about issues of things, many of our right most of our vitamins are mechanically derived synthetically derived, not from food, and so when our body takes something that's synthetically derived, we don't absorb it so well. So trying to find food-based supplements would be my first choice in general, and there are plenty of companies out there, so it's actually made from food, so you get a vitamin and mineral combination from food.
Speaker 2Do you know any like Mega Food is a brand, Mega Food okay.
Speaker 1Rainbow Light is another brand. There's a few out there. Some of them are better than others. The other problem, though, too, is that many of these have hundreds of percentage of the daily value, meaning too much. So, you know, vitamin B6 or whatever it is it's like the daily value should be up to 100. It's like 4,000%. So more is not better, and so that's the other problem with supplements that I don't feel that we need extra, because you are getting some from food too. So in general, I don't usually recommend a multivitamin supplement. Calcium is different. Calcium for a five foot one on a good day person whose mom has osteopenia? I don't. I am worried about my calcium. So I try to focus on, you know, calcium rich foods in my daily diet. Also, having a calcium supplement for me is important because of my medical history, but in general, many people small frame people should have more calcium. But also, you know, calcium can put some people at risk for kidney failure, kidney disease.
Healthy Eating Tips for Families
Speaker 1It's calcium is is, you know, kidney stones for instance and so if you're, you know, susceptible to kidney stones, I would be really cautious and not have a calcium supplement. So we just have to kind of be careful when we're talking about supplementation. That it's not. You know, more is not better All right.
Speaker 2So the 14 pills I take every morning we just want to.
Speaker 1Maybe we should take an assessment of it.
Speaker 2All right, great, I really appreciate your time.
Speaker 1This was awesome. It was super fun. I appreciate you.
Speaker 2Hopefully parents will stop being lazy and tell their kids that they're overweight and they need to stop eating. I'm joking, don't say that.
Speaker 1Take it one step at a time, yeah.
Speaker 2All right, so the Jason Theory. Thank you so much. We'll have this. I don't know it's Halloween, it's.
Speaker 1Halloween.
Speaker 2Yeah, speaking of candy, so this will drop in the second week of November, and that's good too, because that's going into Thanksgiving, so you don't want to eat like a slob, lay off the gravy and then Christmas. Don't eat candy and everyone buy their kids good foods for Christmas and Thanksgiving.
Speaker 1Totally.
Speaker 2We won't get into tryptophan. All right, thanks Be good guys.