3. How to Raise Resilient, Nourished Kids in a Fast-Paced World

In this grounded and empowering episode of Nourished, Dr. Anikó Gréger, shares a deeply practical conversation on what truly keeps kids healthy in today’s fast-paced, screen-saturated world.

Drawing on years of experience supporting families through integrative and lifestyle medicine, Dr. Anikó reveals that it’s not about trendy supplements or quick fixes but rather the foundational habits we model, the emotional security we offer and the culture we create in our homes.

Whether you're navigating tantrums, tech battles or just trying to make family meals more intentional, this episode is a nourishing reminder that small, consistent choices have lifelong impact.

Episode Highlights:

• Why being a “sturdy presence” is one of the most powerful things you can do as a parent
• How to foster secure attachment through calm, regulated responses
• The underrated magic of simple, whole foods and what “close to nature” eating really means
• How screen time, junk food, and cultural norms don’t have to define your family
• How to raise empowered kids who understand how their choices impact their body and mind
• Why you’re not alone in wanting a more intentional, connected parenting path and how to find community

There’s no one-size-fits-all approach to health but every parent can make impactful and nourishing shifts with awareness, intention, and community.

Connect with Dr. Anikó:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/dr.aniko/

Website: https://www.draniko.com/

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Disclaimer:
The content of this podcast is for informational and entertainment purposes only and does not constitute medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment. The views expressed are those of the host and guests and do not substitute for professional medical advice. Always seek the guidance of your physician or other qualified healthcare provider with any questions you may have regarding your health or a medical condition. Never disregard professional medical advice or delay seeking it because of something you heard on this podcast.

Transcript

Dr. Anikó [00:00:00] So a couple things that I think are really powerful for parents to know might be more than a couple things are that the number one way to help your kids to be a sturdy presence in their lives. And it is a tall order. I don't know that any of us ever actually get there. But if we keep working on it, we do so much good in our kids' lives.

So very often when our kids bring us their [00:01:00] storms, we kind of get sucked into them. Or we try to maintain our calmness by controlling everybody else in our lives, which isn't exactly. Maintaining our own calmness, right? And maintaining our own calmness would be to have a sense of sturdiness and equanimity no matter what's going on.

 But again, that's a tall order, so we're all, we're all working towards it. Not necessarily ever getting there, but working towards it. And the more that we can work towards that, the more our kids can seek us out as a refuge. And as a steadying source of calmness, just a steadying force in their lives. And it not only benefits them because they see that no matter how stormy their lives get, we don't get sucked in as their parents.

But also they learn from us by our modeling [00:02:00] how to do that for themselves. So they learn if maybe we take a deep breath. We say we need a walk away. We do a meditation, we take a walk, we communicate our emotions without taking our emotions out on the people around us. That is a really, really big deal, and it really impacts our kids in a powerful way, and it allows them to attach to us more securely because when you think about secure attachment.

Uh, all it really means is that the child isn't afraid to come to their parent for comfort. They know that their parent will give them at least some comfort, maybe not exactly what they need, but some of what they need, and they know that they can explore far from their parent. And that they can always come back when they need to.

 So they're not worried about losing their parent when they go too far, and they're not afraid of coming too close to [00:03:00] their parent, which can happen when we get sucked into their own storms. that may be the number one thing that I feel like we can do for our kids. And again, it is, it's a, it's a lifetime of work.

We're never really done with it. We never perfect it, but we do get better at it. And you can see the impact. You can see the relief in kids. You can see that they're not acting out in the same kinds of ways, out of desperation because we're just sturdier presences in their lives. And I think the other things, and a lot of what inspired me to start this podcast and write my book is that the very basic things that we think of as sort of obvious have such a profound impact on our kids' lives and overall health, and that they're not.

As hard to do as the [00:04:00] world makes it seem. I think sometimes the world makes it seem like there's no other way besides having our kids on phones and screens and social media all the time. There's no other way besides having them eating junk food and fast food and sodas, and it's almost like society can't imagine a life.

Outside of

the kind of common life, many of us experience, but that's not the case at all. It's actually quite simple to have a more whole foods based diet. I don't mean the store, I mean foods that are. As close to their natural form as possible. So fruits and vegetables and grains and meats and dairy that are not processed or at least minimally processed since obviously cooking is a form of processing, but I'm thinking more like a hot dog versus a pork chop kind of thing.

 [00:05:00] Or an apple versus a fruit rollup, right? So you want to eat as close to nature as possible. You wanna drink plenty of water. You wanna eat nutritious foods, you wanna eat together as a family in a nondistracted way. You wanna get good sleep, you wanna get time outside. So all these really basic things that nobody is going to feel like a lightning bolt has struck them when I say them.

It's not some magic supplement or a magic bullet. And I will say too, an integrative medicine. When I see patients, and I'm in pediatrics, so I see kids and I talk to families and I try to set their expectations that, especially in integrative medicine, a lot of this isn't rocket science, and a lot of this is a lot of little tweaks, some bigger than others.

But when we tweak all of those very fundamental pillars of our health, when we [00:06:00] tweak all of them to be more nourishing, we end up with a really powerful result. And it's relatively rare, I would say, barring some obvious deficiencies. Right? I mean, scurvy is an example of something where you supplement vitamin C.

And that resolves everything. But I've to date, never seen a patient with scurvy in my medical practice, although it's always good to be aware of things, but it's pretty rare to have a single supplement or a single kind of magic bullet. Resolve everything. Usually it's a lot of these little tweaks and sometimes supplements can be involved and sometimes medications can be involved, but even if you just do lifestyle tweaks, all the things that I just mentioned.

And I say just in quotes, because this is powerful stuff, right? I mean, people say [00:07:00] if you could put exercise into a pill, if you could put good nutrition into a pill, if you could put actual good sleep, and I'm not talking about sleeping pills because when you take sleeping pills, it changes the natural rhythms of sleep.

What sleep specialists call the architecture of sleep. So you're not actually really getting into all the stages for as long as you need to be that you would find yourself in naturally. But when you focus on any of these different parts of lifestyle and health, if you could put any of those in a pill, it would be the most impactful pill we've ever created.

And yet we don't have to put any of that in a pill. And I think knowing that this is absolutely within your power, that society doesn't create the culture of your family, you get to create the culture of your family. If you don't want your [00:08:00] kids eating junk food or minimal amounts of junk food, you get to decide that you get to not buy junk food.

And yes, they might still have it at a friend's house or they might still have it.At school or something like that, but they're not having it at home. And through this modeling and also through communication, right? Explaining to them why we're not making those choices. And even encouraging them to observe their own.

Bodies, so how they respond to different foods. How do you feel after you eat junk food? Write it down in a journal. How do you feel after you eat a banana versus, you know, a candy that tastes like banana? Make it even more, more of a controlled study, so to speak. Encourage them to observe that in themselves.

And they will then be motivated to make those choices in their own lives. But I think sometimes we get so intimidated by what the world tells us. Things must be like that we [00:09:00] forget that we are the creators of the culture in our families, and we get to do that. Frankly, there are so many like-minded folks that all feel kind of isolated in their own silo of a home where everyone feels like, Ugh, all the kids are on screens and all the kids are eating junk food, and all the kids aren't moving, and all the kids aren't sleeping well and all that.

And actually there are so many families that are interested in supporting their families in a lifestyle and integrative approach that when you find one another, it can be really, really empowering. It can be. Such a relief and such a source of nourishment to find other families who also don't have screens in their home, or at least don't use them or allow them during play dates or sleepovers or just time together.

 It can be so wonderful to gather with other families and have [00:10:00] potlucks, for example, where you're bringing nourishing foods and you're being thoughtful about that. So the idea that. We are just trying to fight this battle alone is so disheartening and I think realizing that there is a whole community of folks, not just healthcare professionals like myself, but parents and families who are all waking up to the.

Very old reality that we've become a little bit disconnected from of how important our lifestyle is for not just our health but for our kids' health, 

and we have the power to instill these healthy habits in them young, and then they get to have these healthy habits for their entire lives and start from the very beginning, eating nourishing food, knowing the power of movement and nature disconnecting from screens, which is something that's. Relatively new in our evolutionary history that we need to be aware [00:11:00] of, but we get to be so impactful because they will go out into the world as it is, but we get to strengthen their roots in the time that they live in our homes and in the time that we spend with them modeling these behaviors for them. [00:12:00]