EPISODE OVERVIEW
It’s a sensitive subject. And it’s one I was a little hesitant to talk about but I think it’s really important and sometimes we just need to rip the band-aid off to let the wound heal. This episode, we’re diving into the subject of childhood obesity, and how as parents and working with doctors we can help coach kids in a more positive way. Today I am interviewing Dr. Sheila Carroll, a mom, pediatrician and an obesity medicine physician as well as the life and weight coach. She works with the parents of the kids who struggle with their extra weight so that parents can create a healthy lifestyle through nutrition, sleep, movement and emotional regulation skills, which ends up helping the whole family and improving the family’s wellbeing. This episode, we’re focusing on those lifestyle habits that can make a big difference! We live in a time right now where 1 out of 3 children are considered obese, and life expectancy of this generation will not exceed their parents’ generation, and that is the first time in history that this has happened. I know that together we can make a big difference – we just need to talk about it in a methodical, logical and mature way, without inflaming anyone and I hope you’ll find that this interview will do just that. Let’s dig in; and listen; and ACT. Because we need to make a difference!
“The way that humans evolved over the course of time, any time we got something sweet, it's a dopamine response in our brain which tells us, oh, this is good for me. I should keep eating that. However, this doesn't mean that we’re incapable eating vegetables or fruit’’
-Dr. Sheila Carroll
“Regarding the children’s nutrition, what we should be focusing on is their overall health and not their weight. And just stepping away from anything that has to do with numbers on a scale or size of anything.”
-Dr. Sheila Carroll
TIMESTAMPS
00:28 How did Sheila decide to go down the road of pediatrics
01:33 If you want to plant for the next hundred years, plant education
03:36 What is the distinct age group where obesity issues start to appear
06:17 What is BMI and how it’s calculated
07:09 Do mom’s eating choices set a child up for all an uphill battle
10:52 ‘We’re wired to want something sweet’
15:16 Food as a reward
23:30 Focusing on children’s health, and not their weight or size
28:52 Kids are 85% more likely to try something if they've had a hand in it
31:32 What should a parent be focused on with regards to nutrition every day for their kids
35:02 ‘They even put sugar in kids’ vitamins’
41:12 Doctor, we can reverse this lifestyle change, right?
43:42 A perfect plate for a child to eat
45:47 Why does Coca-Cola even exist
RESOURCES
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FULL TRANSCRIPT
00:00:04:07 - 00:00:06:03
Speaker 1
Dr. Carroll, welcome to the show.
00:00:06:26 - 00:00:08:09
Speaker 2
Thank you so much for having me.
00:00:08:19 - 00:00:27:21
Speaker 1
Thank you for being here. You know, I you know, being a parent, obviously, I have such a heart for my kids, but I realize I have a real heart for other people's kids, too. How did you decide to go down the road of pediatrics in your medical discipline.
00:00:28:25 - 00:00:55:13
Speaker 2
In the third year of my medical school. We rotated through every discipline. So a month or two months of OBGYNs and two months of psychiatry and time in pediatrics. And when I did my pediatrics rotation, I really felt at home. I felt this is what I you know, I love kids and I, I have always loved kids. I started babysitting when I was really little.
00:00:55:13 - 00:00:59:27
Speaker 2
And so I feel like it is just a natural fit for me to go right into pediatrics.
00:01:00:06 - 00:01:26:21
Speaker 1
Yeah, I love that. In fact, I have to tell you, just yesterday I posted a graphic on my Instagram. Everybody should go take a look at it because it's so articulates to me what the importance of children, the importance of children in our lives. And basically, it's three traffic signs and pulling up the graphic right now, it's three traffic signs that are stacked up on top of each other.
00:01:27:00 - 00:01:28:18
Speaker 1
The first one says.
00:01:31:15 - 00:01:32:19
Speaker 2
Here, I get it.
00:01:33:07 - 00:01:50:11
Speaker 1
The first one says, basically, if you want to plant for the next year, plant rice. If you want to plant for the next ten years, plant trees. If you want to plant for the next hundred years, plant education.
00:01:52:12 - 00:01:53:02
Speaker 2
And.
00:01:53:09 - 00:02:31:05
Speaker 1
I just that that like resonated so strongly with me because education is not just reading, writing and arithmetic. Education is life skills. It's how do we navigate through our every day and come out as triumphant human beings. Right. And a lot of that has to do with our habits that we start at an early age. So let's dove into that because you're disciplined beyond pediatrics is really helping.
00:02:31:27 - 00:02:32:15
Speaker 2
With.
00:02:33:09 - 00:02:36:19
Speaker 1
Weight management. Is that how you would describe it?
00:02:36:27 - 00:03:11:04
Speaker 2
Yeah. So I have started to help parents of kids who are struggling, carrying extra weight or having way more than they want to And the the core of that, well, for all of us is our lifestyle. And what we mean by that is nutrition movement. And what you were just talking about, these life skills, so they call it in my son's school social emotional learning SCA.
00:03:11:13 - 00:03:35:23
Speaker 2
Yeah. Physically emotional regulation in adults, they call it stress management, but it's helping kids understand why they're feeling what they're feeling, you know, and, you know, kind of empowering them that it's okay to feel all of these things and just to be, you know, to have this mind body connection that is so important for overall health. Well.
00:03:36:09 - 00:03:46:20
Speaker 1
What in your practice is the age group where you start to see the issues start to transpire? Is there a distinct age group that you're noticing?
00:03:48:10 - 00:03:57:05
Speaker 2
Well, if you read the literature, the older kids get that there's more prevalence of overweight and obesity.
00:03:58:10 - 00:04:00:21
Speaker 1
And old by older. What age bracket?
00:04:00:22 - 00:04:30:12
Speaker 2
Well, we're just so we're talking pediatric. So it's like zero to 19 or zero to 18. And so there's more kids that are overweight and obese that are 15 then say like ten year olds. Yes. On the three. What we've been seeing in the past, you know, well, I've been in clinical practice for more than 20 years is we are seeing babies born that born They call it large for gestational age.
00:04:30:12 - 00:04:57:28
Speaker 2
They don't call it, you know, under two. There's no one medical label for a baby but babies are moms. Moms, nutrition moms. You know pregnant women's eating habits are creating a hormonal environment in there in the babies that are creating babies that are born quite large, too. So we're seeing it from the get go from conception really.
00:04:58:08 - 00:05:13:01
Speaker 1
So how. Okay, let's take a step back for a second. How is that evaluated? Is there an actual obesity? Is it just basically what's on the scale? Is it how much?
00:05:14:01 - 00:05:15:22
Speaker 2
Yeah. So it depends on how is.
00:05:15:22 - 00:05:18:20
Speaker 1
It a BMI measurement, how is that being evaluated.
00:05:18:20 - 00:05:48:01
Speaker 2
To wind up its people? Pediatricians tend to or doctors tend to use BMI and for babies, newborns, there's graphs, different scales that you can put in the baby's gestational age and plot them out. And and then under two, they're kind of like not really good true medical definitions of obesity and.
00:05:48:02 - 00:05:50:15
Speaker 1
Weight and size based.
00:05:50:20 - 00:05:53:25
Speaker 2
So. So BMI, you know, is your weight and.
00:05:53:25 - 00:05:54:27
Speaker 1
Body mass index.
00:05:54:27 - 00:06:16:14
Speaker 2
For your body mass index. It your weight and your height, the square root of your height. It's a calculation and it's a rough estimate of what it's really trying to speak to is adiposity or fat tissue. So carrying extra care, carrying extra adipose tissue Right.
00:06:17:00 - 00:06:39:25
Speaker 1
So as we get older and I want to clarify for people, because I know I have a lot of listeners who are in the the fitness muscle and fitness kind of arenas, you know, as as we get older. BMI is just one measurement, you know, because oftentimes you'll have somebody who is pretty muscular that could actually index as being obese, which.
00:06:40:04 - 00:06:42:16
Speaker 2
We know Brady is technically obese.
00:06:43:00 - 00:07:03:11
Speaker 1
Right. So obviously, it makes no sense whatsoever. But when we're talking about a child, when we're talking about, you know, under a certain age, we're not really looking at that. We're looking at really true BMI. All right. Sure. Look at BMI because we're not, you know, a baby. Obviously, it doesn't have muscle yet.
00:07:03:11 - 00:07:07:23
Speaker 2
Spoke a little bit, but not a lot. A little bit, but not much good.
00:07:07:27 - 00:07:39:10
Speaker 1
But the point here is you're seeing that the trend is now is now leaning much younger. And a lot of that is because of what mom is eating while baby is in utero. So in this case, this is a true lifestyle or dietary choice that is then leading to this. Does that set a child up for all an uphill battle when they are born this way?
00:07:40:23 - 00:08:05:24
Speaker 2
I think, you know, the researchers are really trying to figure that out. Like if you are born, you know, there is data that suggests if you're born underweight. So there's a term large for gestational age. Those are the big babies and then there's small for gestational age. If you're born underweight, which technically means under 2500 grams, that predisposes you for overweight later in life.
00:08:06:04 - 00:08:37:06
Speaker 2
Hmm. So because what's happening is so for example, if you're a baby in utero and a growing but more might you might not be getting good blood supply for whatever reason or infection your body might the baby's body might have some altered gene expression where they now are really good at saving energy you know a.k.a. weight. And so that keeps going as they as they age.
00:08:37:11 - 00:09:01:15
Speaker 2
So not every baby that's born small for gestational age will end up overweight. It's not like you're predestined for any of those things. But I guess the point is like, you know, yes, lifestyle, mom's lifestyle. And it's not I don't at all want to shame anybody or blame anybody or say this is your choice. Like it's honestly the water we are swimming in.
00:09:01:15 - 00:09:24:28
Speaker 2
It is this food environment that we're in. That is, yes, people have a choice. But at the same time, we've made it really difficult for people to fully understand what they're eating. And it takes some real digging to really understand what you're eating and how it's really affecting you.
00:09:25:14 - 00:09:54:07
Speaker 1
Okay. So putting aside babies, because obviously at that point they're, you know, you're kind of don't the carbs that you have. But once once we get to about the age of five, five is roughly when your taste buds have become pretty well imprinted. So the things that you are predisposed to craving or wanting are pretty set by age five, which is a pretty young age.
00:09:54:07 - 00:10:21:17
Speaker 1
But between the time that you are now weaned off of mother's milk and you're eating solid food, you're able to make some choices and let your parents know or let your parent know what you like as a child. Are we giving our kids way too much free rein at that point to say, I will only eat pizza or I will only eat chicken nuggets?
00:10:21:17 - 00:10:40:15
Speaker 1
Or if I see a vegetable, I'm going to throw a tantrum? How do we get to that point? Because we're seeing that now so much more where, you know, all you have to do is look at a kid's menu and see this is what we have sort of molded our kids to, to thinking that that's what a kid eats.
00:10:41:15 - 00:10:50:11
Speaker 2
Right. And you know, lots of countries all over the world, they don't even have kids menus. So kids eat what their parents eat. In other.
00:10:50:26 - 00:10:52:17
Speaker 1
The. I'm one of them. Yeah.
00:10:52:23 - 00:11:22:15
Speaker 2
Yeah. And so I think helping parents understand that humans and babies especially babies, but like all of us, we're wired to want something sweet. The way that humans evolved over the course of time, any time we got something sweet, it's a dopamine response in our brain which tells us, oh, this is good for me. I should keep eating that.
00:11:22:15 - 00:12:02:25
Speaker 2
Number one, it's so it's part of that learning pathway and and it tastes good. So kids want it. So, of course, I just tell parents, of course they want something sweet, you know, that's normal. But what it doesn't mean is that they they're incapable or they can't eat vegetables or even fruit, you know, because the processed foods and the concentrated flours and sugars, they are so constantly treated that it's hard for her, for someone who is eating a lot of processed foods to really enjoy the natural sweetness of a peach or an apple or something.
00:12:03:04 - 00:12:03:18
Speaker 2
Yeah, but.
00:12:04:05 - 00:12:10:06
Speaker 1
We've, we've like programed people to think everything needs to have a sauce, everything needs to be.
00:12:10:10 - 00:12:46:04
Speaker 2
Altered What good news is. Oops, sorry. Let me just say about the taste. It's not, you know, our taste buds turn turned over every 14 days and so our you know, we can change the way we if you gave up sugar for 14 days, gave up added sugars for 14 days you would get really used to the way the way vegetables taste and the way you know it's just so there it's not like total game over you just have to be willing to go through that process.
00:12:46:19 - 00:13:11:19
Speaker 1
So we are if we are to be sort of the frontal lobe of our children and helping them to make better choices. What is a parent do when their kid just refuses to eat like has a meltdown or just will not eat if they're, you know, trying to do the right thing and encourage them to eat? Well, I mean, I think there are people out there listening that are like that's my kid.
00:13:11:20 - 00:13:19:18
Speaker 1
If you if I try and do this or take away what they want, they just won't eat or that they'll have a meltdown. How do you manage through that?
00:13:21:03 - 00:13:51:08
Speaker 2
So first of all, don't panic. I think a lot of parents, it's such a primal need as a parent to feed your child and make sure your child is fed, you know? So my recommendation is to always have at least one thing that they like to eat or that, you know, they eat. And depending on where you're at and how you know, how what kind of changes you want to make, you can slowly you don't have to change everything all at once.
00:13:51:17 - 00:14:25:25
Speaker 2
You can slowly make some changes that and that's easier for kids than having, you know, all of a sudden every favorite food is completely gone. All right. I think not panicking and then just staying the course, parents having the confidence like I sometimes say like, you know, I would never give my son a beer. He's 11, you know, no matter how hard he threw a fit or cried because I totally believe it's just not right for him at this age, you know.
00:14:26:05 - 00:14:47:20
Speaker 2
And so when parents get that confidence and get that commitment, you know what we have? We want to change. We want to become people who are healthy eaters. And then it's a big you know, it's not it's not great. My son, I sometimes cook things and he's like, oh, man, you know? And I just wish it was easier.
00:14:47:20 - 00:15:01:24
Speaker 2
But it's, you know, I'm also just like, well, I'm willing to tolerate that discomfort of him being not that happy with dinner or lunch. Would because I truly believe it's the best thing for him.
00:15:02:09 - 00:15:14:23
Speaker 1
Yeah. And I think we have so many advances in terms of available ingredients better for you, things that you can do to substitute one for another and make it more palatable.
00:15:15:18 - 00:15:16:12
Speaker 2
To talk.
00:15:16:12 - 00:15:50:02
Speaker 1
To us a little bit about food as a reward, because I think that this is maybe one of the most dangerous things that we can do as parents. You know, when we we see it so often, you know, I hear it's so often like if you eat this, then you can have dessert or if you are, you know, do well in school, then you get to have this and seeing that reward of food in exchange for something an accomplishment here.
00:15:50:03 - 00:15:56:15
Speaker 1
But how do you see that? Do you think that can be used in a constructive way or is it something to be avoided?
00:15:57:28 - 00:16:25:17
Speaker 2
To try to avoid that? I think that sets the stage for you know, that's one kind of emotional eating where you're training your child. You're not training them on purpose, but you're inadvertently using food in a way that food was never meant to be used No need cut. You know, nobody's saying, well, if you you know, if you're really good at your, you know, whatever to practice a piano, I'm going to give you some carrots.
00:16:25:17 - 00:16:47:10
Speaker 2
Like, you know, people are only rewarding with, you know, highly processed, highly sugared foods. Yeah. Which is a reward for people, you know. So I think we do it in the doctor's office. Oh, you have a shot. Here's, you know, here's a lollipop. Yeah. It looks like. Oh, my gosh. Yeah, yeah. What's true?
00:16:47:11 - 00:16:52:11
Speaker 1
It's like I walk in a church and there's donuts when we first walk in Lagos.
00:16:53:14 - 00:16:58:20
Speaker 2
Yeah. You start. It's not like the snacks and.
00:16:59:15 - 00:17:07:12
Speaker 1
Even, like, the cool, healthy, you know, or, you know, energy drinks, like the sports energy drinks. They're terrible.
00:17:07:12 - 00:17:09:21
Speaker 2
Terrible, terrible. Yeah. So.
00:17:09:21 - 00:17:39:09
Speaker 1
So keeping food and and, you know, rewarding with food out of the mix. What advice can you give to parents that are just, again, trying to do the right thing? Maybe you know, kids are set in their ways. They want to eat certain things, but you just want to get that broccoli and or that spinach and like how do you advise parents to do that so that their kids will tolerate it?
00:17:41:20 - 00:18:05:00
Speaker 2
Keep trying. I would never source somebody to eat something because what we really want is we we ultimately want a child to step into the role of wanting to be a healthy eater. We want to want to move every day, go to bed to get the right amount of sleep. We want to, you know, have the autonomy to do all of these things.
00:18:05:06 - 00:18:31:26
Speaker 2
And nobody wants to be forced to do anything. So I would not recommend forcing your child to eat, you know, eat anything. I would recommend trying to make it taste as good as possible for them and and for vegetables and vegetables. Are like a struggle for a family that might include at the very beginning a source that might not be the healthiest source, but at least they're you know, and put a little bit of sauce on it.
00:18:31:26 - 00:18:55:07
Speaker 2
So they're they're tasting the vegetable, but yet it's also like the sauce which is going to and then over time, the more they get used to it, you know, there's conflicting things, but people say it's like either 15 or 18. I forget. Exactly. That's how many times sometimes a child has to see something on their plate to to really be willing to, you know.
00:18:55:27 - 00:19:39:15
Speaker 1
15 times. So yeah. And and so, you know, I think, you know, would you say that sometimes we entangle our own insecurities in with these issues, like we fear rejection, that our kids are not going to like what we made or we fear they're going to be mad at us or we fear that there is going to be some sort of, you know, backlash thrown piece across the wall or, you know, spit out spinach I mean, is that our own security that kind of gets entangled with our wanting to, you know, kind of just maybe avoid this object or you know?
00:19:40:17 - 00:20:03:12
Speaker 2
Yeah, because it can be a challenge and because there's usually pushback. Yeah. Some parents are tired, you know, depending on you know, what meal it is. I one thing I think especially if we're talking about kids, parents of kids who are struggling with or extra weight, is that oh, my gosh, I just completely lost my train of thought.
00:20:04:25 - 00:20:36:01
Speaker 2
Oh, I got to back. The parents might say they fear saying the wrong thing, harming their child by implying they need to eat vegetables, you know, and and I think that that's sometimes parents don't know what to do with those feelings of like, okay, you know, they don't want to be even viewed ever as telling their child that they have a problem or the parent thinks something's wrong with them.
00:20:36:10 - 00:21:03:17
Speaker 2
And so but I think there's definitely ways around that. And that's that's that the whole approach is we're changing as a family. I you know, the parent can say, I learned I read this or I learned this new thing and I realized, well, we are not eating enough vitamin D or whatever. And and so you're not it's not putting any specific requirements on one child.
00:21:04:08 - 00:21:09:07
Speaker 2
And then the parent has to do it, too. So everybody changes as a family. Yeah.
00:21:09:19 - 00:21:12:07
Speaker 1
Okay. I'm going to address the elephant in the room.
00:21:12:14 - 00:21:12:26
Speaker 2
Okay.
00:21:14:27 - 00:22:05:15
Speaker 1
We as a society have a real hard time talking about obesity. Especially with kids, because there is this thought that it is fat shaming. How do we address this in a safe and constructive way so that we are potentially avoiding any destructive behavior and really focusing on the benefits? And let me let me just give you sort of a backstory for why I'm asking this so recently, I was hired to teach a family, specifically their 16 year old son, how to cook healthy because he had recently lost £75.
00:22:05:15 - 00:22:35:27
Speaker 1
He was over £100 overweight at 15 and was, you know, obviously kind of going through his own changes and desiring to, you know, in their families wanting to for him to eat better really wanted him to learn because he's got an interest in cooking but the parents don't cook especially you know the the mom who is with them most of the time does not cook.
00:22:35:27 - 00:23:03:05
Speaker 1
She doesn't have any confidence in cooking. So it really led to a lot of issues. But you know, how do we kind of just address this without hurting people? Because I feel like we've got to open the door for discussion to let the healing happen. But if we can even bring the discussion up because we're going to step on somebody's toes or hurt someone's feelings like it's it's stuck between a rock and a hard place.
00:23:04:05 - 00:23:30:13
Speaker 2
Yeah, well, lots of time. You know, there's a push in the medical community to ask permission. May we talk about your weight or may we talk about, you know, your your your nutrition or some, you know, something like that. So don't you want to get their permission and buy in? Because if they're not really if they don't really want to talk about it, you know, they're an adult.
00:23:30:16 - 00:24:06:29
Speaker 2
That's that's up to them, honestly. And for a child, you know, I think what we really should be focusing on is their health, their overall health and not their weight. And and just stepping away from anything that has to do with numbers on a scale or size of anything. And first, really focusing on parents, focusing on what's really important is is the child's worthiness.
00:24:07:07 - 00:24:34:05
Speaker 2
And they're 100% where they need. There are 100% valuable right from the beginning. Losing weight or changing any habit, you know, is not going to make you more valuable or a better person or more worthy, you know. And you can you can use this approach even with school like getting an A doesn't mean you're a better child or you're more valuable than getting a D, you know.
00:24:34:14 - 00:25:06:04
Speaker 2
So really because our society is so thin focused and we you know, we people do feel shame. I mean, I was a overweight kid and I noticed like I felt ashamed of myself because I was overweight. I knew there was something different about me than everybody else. So kids feel that. Yeah. And I think being willing to talk about it and not and not try to convince them that they shouldn't feel that way because they do feel that way.
00:25:06:14 - 00:25:33:22
Speaker 2
So just be willing for the parent. And it's hard to see your child upset, but be willing to sit there and let them experience their negative emotion in that feeling. And then, okay, so you know, what are, what are small steps we can take and that's the the child doesn't have to do that. But the parent can start doing that, you know, figuring out what parents and I.
00:25:33:22 - 00:25:56:10
Speaker 1
Have to believe that, you know, empowering the parents to have this education. It doesn't have to be you don't have to have a nutrition degree, but to have basic fundamental education so that you can be the mentor to your children. Because, look, I worked with the school districts.
00:25:56:18 - 00:25:57:06
Speaker 2
In.
00:25:57:29 - 00:26:35:17
Speaker 1
California up and down the coast. And what we deem as, you know, the right nutrients is very skewed. It's very different from school district to school district. In some school districts, pizza is a vegetable, you know, so so I think the onus to me really falls on us as parents to be that frontal lobe. How do you empower it, empower parents to actually take that step of feeling comfortable with advising their kids and guiding their kids on nutrition?
00:26:35:17 - 00:26:50:01
Speaker 1
So that's actually preventative rather than waiting to fix a problem. We're actually taking progressive steps to do it while we can to raise healthy kids so.
00:26:50:12 - 00:27:17:11
Speaker 2
You know, my approach is education for them, acquire the knowledge. You know, people have certain knowledge gaps or, you know, or try to figure out what that is and fill in those knowledge gaps. You know, they're simple. You don't have to be you don't have to have a complicated Ph.D. to understand, you know, the science of weight loss and weight gain and weight loss can be quite simple.
00:27:18:06 - 00:27:47:14
Speaker 2
So have people understand that. And then the next step is really helping them, you know, believe that they can do it themselves, they can help their child, they can make these changes. I mean, honestly, so many adults are struggling themselves to change, struggling themselves to live a healthy lifestyle. So there's a lot of that's where like coaching is so amazing and so powerful.
00:27:47:14 - 00:28:16:05
Speaker 2
You can you can help uncover people's limiting belief systems. Why why do they think they can't do it? Or are they they might think, yeah, I can do it, but there's some other few little thoughts in there that are really blocking them, and that's why they're not doing it. So, you know, some giving them the knowledge they need and helping them really find the belief in themselves makes a commitment to doing it.
00:28:17:14 - 00:28:31:22
Speaker 2
And then take action, decide every day, you know, okay, miss going to, you know, do what I can today. Yeah, it's it can be very simple. It seems like the overwhelming process, what I was.
00:28:31:22 - 00:28:49:21
Speaker 1
Going to say, it can seem daunting, but it can be really simple. You know, I used to teach cooking classes for kids and their parents and I would, you know, simple things like put a handful of greens in a smoothie you know, and let them be involved in the process because kids love.
00:28:49:29 - 00:28:51:25
Speaker 2
Dandelions in it. Yeah.
00:28:52:12 - 00:29:17:08
Speaker 1
Let them press the button on the blender. Let them mix the batter or let them, you know, peel the the vegetables or wash the vegetables, you know, letting them have a hand in it. And then, you know, encouraging them to try things with your guidance. Because the data shows that kids are 85% more likely to try something if they've had a hand in it.
00:29:17:29 - 00:29:18:00
Speaker 2
A.
00:29:18:11 - 00:29:32:23
Speaker 1
While. We think, you know, let them sit on the side and call them when dinner's ready. No, let them be a part of the process. Put them into the mix with you. And that's one of the most powerful ways you can really get them to try new things.
00:29:33:00 - 00:30:00:08
Speaker 2
I agree. And even taking them shopping and even this step before that. Okay, let's let's sit down and talk about like what would be some good meals for us this week. Yeah. What are you yeah. What do you love and how can we make this something that we know is going to be good for us? Yeah. And the more bought in they are in that regard, then then that speaks to their autonomy.
00:30:00:08 - 00:30:09:04
Speaker 2
Right? And now that they've they've agreed and they're participating of their own free will, then that that's good. Yeah.
00:30:09:12 - 00:30:38:24
Speaker 1
I was on a show called Recipe Rehab, and we would teach recipes from families across the country that wanted to enjoy their family recipes, but make them healthier. I loved that show format. The whole family got involved in making the recipe. So like, I had one recipe that was chocolate cake, and it has pureed beets in it. And I remember watching footage of the family going pureed days gross.
00:30:38:24 - 00:31:00:08
Speaker 1
And then when they made it, they were like, this is like the best cake we've ever had. So actually what I would say is, don't hide that from your kids. Just let them see it. But then let them taste that because you want them to be educated. Do you do you agree with that? Or should we find the veggies?
00:31:00:08 - 00:31:29:25
Speaker 2
Should we slogan I don't think hiding I don't think hiding anything from your kids is a good idea, to tell you the truth. You know, like pretty much anything, I think I'm not a I. I think kids want to be healthy, you know, and I think just sharing that with them and, you know, I think that's so powerful and especially if it ends up tasting great, they'll be like, oh, this is this is good for me and tastes great.
00:31:30:02 - 00:31:30:19
Speaker 2
Yeah.
00:31:32:15 - 00:32:01:09
Speaker 1
If if you were to kind of and maybe you have this kind of already pre formulated, but what should a parent be focused on with regards to nutrition every day for their kids? Is there sort of a a formula for that? Is there a certain calorie count that we're after? How do you actually sort of, I guess, prescribe what they should be eating every day for those proactive parents who just want to get ahead of the curve?
00:32:03:02 - 00:32:46:09
Speaker 2
I think we could steer away from calorie counting, steer away from macros, anything like that. That kind of has like a diet mentality to it. That's not a lifelong strategy for wellness. So what I my biggest focus for parents is trying to push out the prep processed food as much as possible, you know, controlling what you can control, doing what you can at home, but focusing on whole, you know, real unprocessed foods because that allows a child to really be in touch with their true hunger and their true hunger signals.
00:32:47:10 - 00:33:11:03
Speaker 2
And we want our kids, we want all of us to really eat when we're hungry and stop you know, before we're full, really stop when we've had enough and use food for fuel, so to speak. And so I if you were to look at a text book, like it depends on your age, depends on your gender about how many calories and things you need.
00:33:11:12 - 00:33:33:08
Speaker 2
But, you know, kids go through growth spurts and different different times. And, you know, if somebody if my son says that I'm still hungry, even after he ate dinner, I would offer him more dinner or offer him something healthy. You know, I wouldn't say, oh, you know, I have ice cream. A little bit of ice cream is fine, but that is not really you know what we're going for?
00:33:33:08 - 00:33:37:25
Speaker 2
We're going for if you're hungry, eat real food. Yeah.
00:33:38:01 - 00:33:57:01
Speaker 1
And I think for people, you know, listening to define processed foods, can we just kind of break that down? Because I think sometimes people just think junk food or fast food, but processed food is actually you can find processed food in a healthy food store.
00:33:57:13 - 00:34:21:04
Speaker 2
Yeah. Time it. Yeah, yeah. I mean, processed foods really anything that comes in a bag that has more than one ingredient, you know, usually something like that. But I think these highly processed, some of these highly processed foods, they they do masquerade as health food we.
00:34:21:04 - 00:34:30:05
Speaker 1
See a lot of that in this industry nowadays, especially, you know, as marketing claims have been a big thing to sell food, whether it's keto or.
00:34:30:14 - 00:34:30:25
Speaker 2
Gluten.
00:34:30:25 - 00:34:53:08
Speaker 1
Free or, you know, plant based or whatever. You know, you can have these frank and foods that sure they check off all the boxes. But the problem is what they are made out of are completely manufactured in a lab or they're genetically modified. So encouraging people to eat more single ingredient foods, you know, where you can identify the one ingredient.
00:34:53:08 - 00:35:02:03
Speaker 1
Okay, it's chicken or okay, it's beans. Oh, okay. It's a vegetable. Like let's try and identify that food, right?
00:35:02:22 - 00:35:47:10
Speaker 2
Yes, for sure. And people sometimes, you know, if parents haven't heard this before, shop the perimeters of the grocery store because the inside has a lot of packaged and processed foods. Yeah. So the the more real whole unprocessed foods you can eat, the better. And the other thing that's really would be really helpful for parents is to you don't have to become an expert at it, but get a basic sense of how to read a food label because that you'll be shocked if you start realizing like and so for example, looking at for added sugars for food with added sugars.
00:35:47:13 - 00:36:20:10
Speaker 2
Yeah. For anybody who's two years old to like an adult and you're supposed to have six teaspoons of sugar a day, 24 25 grams of sugar a day. So if you take a look at what you're eating and you know how to read the label and you're looking for added sugars and grams, there's sugar and almost, I think they said 85% of processed foods, I mean spaghetti sauce things you would never, ever expect sugars, vitamins.
00:36:20:12 - 00:36:21:15
Speaker 2
Oh yeah, yeah.
00:36:21:16 - 00:36:22:26
Speaker 1
It's disgusting.
00:36:23:06 - 00:36:59:04
Speaker 2
And especially in low fat foods. So they take out the fat, which makes it tastes terrible. Like cardboard, and to make it palatable they add in a ton of sugar. So this is this, I think this is where the kids this is where kids nutrition is. If you look at curves of overweight and obesity in children, they started spiking up in the eighties, really, and that was correlating with the low fat craze with all the sugar and all the snack foods coming in.
00:36:59:12 - 00:37:20:20
Speaker 2
Yeah. And so, you know, I gave a talk at the local PTO the other night and I bought a Mountain Dew more just to show. The other thing that's really fun for parents is kind of EYE-OPENING for parents and kids is to actually. So buy a Mountain Dew or something. Don't plan to drink it, but look at the back.
00:37:20:20 - 00:37:31:20
Speaker 2
69 grams of sugar, I think it was either 96 or 69. And if you did that. Oh, it's like 14 teaspoons of sugar now.
00:37:31:21 - 00:37:51:27
Speaker 1
It's a great visual. I've done that events where I'm like, Okay, look at this, but let me show you how much that is. And I literally dumped the bag of sugar on the calendar and people are like, Oh am gee, the visual demonstration is real. And by the way, it's not just in Mountain Dew, it's in Starbucks drinks.
00:37:52:10 - 00:37:56:10
Speaker 2
Oh my gosh. Yeah, I'm pulling them out right now. The yogurt, you know, it's.
00:37:56:10 - 00:37:56:19
Speaker 1
A new.
00:37:56:20 - 00:37:58:18
Speaker 2
Idea. Oh, yeah, yeah.
00:37:58:18 - 00:38:28:08
Speaker 1
And it's in bars masquerading as health food. Might as well be a Snickers bar. Like, we're really not upgrading here, guys. So reading a label is fundamental and know that sometimes the serving size is deceiving. So it might say actual serving sizes in one bottle is two servings. So make sure you're looking at the serving size to know if that's describing one or two.
00:38:28:26 - 00:38:38:09
Speaker 1
And there's a whole movement now to to change that. So if it's one bottle that's meant to be a one serving that, it's one serving so yeah.
00:38:38:21 - 00:39:02:02
Speaker 2
And the other thing to really know is that essentially eating flour, white flour or, you know, lots of different kinds of flours that pretty much breaks right down into sugar, you know, in your stomach. So people are like, well, they didn't have added sugar, you know, well, the flour, all the flour in it, you know, pretty much just turn it turns right to sugar.
00:39:02:03 - 00:39:16:12
Speaker 1
All those simple carbohydrates which you know, and also for everybody listening, you know, sugar presents itself in 29 different ways. You know, it's, it's maple sirup in the names.
00:39:16:14 - 00:39:21:13
Speaker 2
The names they have for it is more than 270. Yeah.
00:39:21:15 - 00:39:44:07
Speaker 1
You know, it's maple sirup, it's honey, it's agave, all of those are still sugar. They're all still sweeteners. It doesn't mean that, you know, we're saying that there aren't benefits to some things, but the point being here, you need to look at that cumulative number, that guideline that you gave, which is again 20. You said how many grams.
00:39:44:26 - 00:39:56:16
Speaker 2
24 to 25 grams a day. And for babies zero to two years old, you're supposed to have enough, but you're not supposed to be giving them any added sugar content.
00:39:56:23 - 00:39:58:22
Speaker 1
That does not include fruit, correct?
00:39:59:04 - 00:40:20:26
Speaker 2
Right. This is a fruit is, you know, anything like. Yeah, this is added sugars. This is like cane sugar, maple sirup or whatever, you know, these are things that are added in. But all of these little baby foods puffs or you know, flavor biscuits, all of this stuff has added sugars, which is just kind of training, training our babies.
00:40:21:00 - 00:40:27:20
Speaker 2
We love to see them eating it because they're so cute and the babies love them, but the babies are loving them because they have sugar.
00:40:28:04 - 00:40:48:29
Speaker 1
One of the cutest little things for babies that have been created is you can put any piece of fruit in this mesh little thing and they just suck on it and it's safe. They don't choke on it, but they get the sweetness out of it. And at least you're giving them whole fiber filled food, which.
00:40:49:04 - 00:41:12:04
Speaker 2
Hopefully they're getting good vibrations. Yeah, because, yeah, this doesn't count that's the difference between eating like fruit juice, drinking fruit juice or drinking an orange. You're getting the fiber of the in the orange which slows down the glucose absorption. And so it's just so much healthier for your body. Yeah. This has been.
00:41:12:04 - 00:41:41:08
Speaker 1
So educational and fun, and I think we owe it to our kids to plant the seed of health and wellness at a young age because you know, this is the first generation, they're saying, of children that will not have as long of a life expectancy as their parents, which is shocking. But the great news is, Doctor, we can reverse this lifestyle change, right?
00:41:41:19 - 00:42:17:03
Speaker 2
Yes. Yeah. And it has to come from the individual person. That has to come from the family. The family has to do it. We can't wait for you know, the government to outlaw soda. They're just not going to do that. And so we so I think that it's just understanding okay. I'm a very ancient body. You know, in a very modern time, my body wasn't designed to handle these foods that are on the market today.
00:42:18:04 - 00:42:38:23
Speaker 2
I can handle a little bit of it, but not not in the amounts that we're using today. Yeah. And the other thing is, I just I always just feel like saying and it's not that bad. Your life is not going to be miserable. It's going to be so much better and you are going to feel better. Your child's going to feel better.
00:42:38:29 - 00:42:58:04
Speaker 2
You're going to have more energy. They're going to be happier. Your school performance goes up. I mean, it's kind of like, oh, man, it's going to, you know, stink to give up my favorite X, Y, or Z. But when you can shift you know, your thought to be like, I'm choosing to give those up because I want a different result for myself.
00:42:58:10 - 00:43:07:27
Speaker 2
And then you give that a try and then you actually feel how good you feel. You'll be like, Man, and we should have done this a long time ago.
00:43:08:21 - 00:43:42:26
Speaker 1
I always say, what's your why you got to find out what your wife is and let that be your North Star, because your wife is going to be more powerful than your willpower. You know, you got to fix your eyes on that and know that everything that you do to make shift happen comes from you. And that why so I really think that we have a lot of great, you know, food for thought and some wisdom in here for parents but let me ask you a question.
00:43:42:26 - 00:43:49:17
Speaker 1
If you could design sort of the perfect plate for a child to eat, what would it look like?
00:43:51:25 - 00:43:54:03
Speaker 1
Let's leave out the calories and the.
00:43:55:01 - 00:43:55:19
Speaker 2
Girls here.
00:43:55:19 - 00:44:05:22
Speaker 1
For a second. What just kind of give us an image of what would be on that plate? What would be the best foods that you could possibly put on that plane to feed a growing body?
00:44:06:03 - 00:44:37:05
Speaker 2
Yeah. So obviously fruits, vegetables, you know, we tell kids to eat the rainbow. You've probably heard that a million times. So protein and carbohydrates are fine, you know, so, you know, just a just a well-rounded plate with water that's like my other big thing. I'm like, we don't need to be drinking all of this extra stuff. Just drink water.
00:44:37:05 - 00:44:37:16
Speaker 2
Yeah.
00:44:37:26 - 00:44:52:18
Speaker 1
Swap the soda out for a while. I think that's probably the biggest step that makes the most impact that families can do. Swap out the juice and juice to and soda.
00:44:53:01 - 00:44:54:19
Speaker 2
And diet soda. Yeah.
00:44:54:19 - 00:45:00:23
Speaker 1
Just like all soda. No. And even the craft sodas, the ones that, again, masquerade as.
00:45:01:00 - 00:45:01:17
Speaker 2
Something.
00:45:01:23 - 00:45:24:20
Speaker 1
Earlier and something better. No, none of it. And just drink water and see what that one swap will do. It's pretty amazing. I worked on a campaign for the state of California, and we did that, and it was incredible to see what the results were and quickly like within a week, you know, people were dropping weight like crazy.
00:45:25:02 - 00:45:47:07
Speaker 2
Yeah. If that to me, that is very low hanging fruit. But, you know, if that's if that's a habit of yours, it could be hard. But it is so it is one of the best things that you can do for your your own health and your child's health is just stop that, you know, stop soda. It's so bad.
00:45:47:24 - 00:46:10:21
Speaker 2
I just sometimes I just you know, I'm just like, why why does Coca-Cola even exist? Not just Coca-Cola, you know, but I mean, I speak to my son all the time, like, you know, that Coca-Cola is not it's not existing for our health. None of these products are out there to help us. You know, they're out there to make money, period.
00:46:11:17 - 00:46:22:14
Speaker 2
And then it's up to us to realize that not only are they not helping us, they are hurting us. And so then then we have the option. Okay, I'm just not going to buy that. Yeah.
00:46:23:04 - 00:46:27:29
Speaker 1
So and that is probably another subject for us when I have you back.
00:46:27:29 - 00:46:28:29
Speaker 2
On okay to.
00:46:28:29 - 00:46:44:24
Speaker 1
Talk about is the difference between the Health Association with Food and the Pleasure Association, because I think I definitely associate it in food with being all about pleasure, when in fact its function is not for pleasure, its function.
00:46:44:24 - 00:46:45:01
Speaker 2
Is.
00:46:45:01 - 00:47:08:20
Speaker 1
For health and for energy and productivity. And how do we balance the two? But we'll save that for an okay. Yeah, I can talk for I know. No Doctor. Carol, thank you so much for being on and for sharing your wisdom and your practical tips. I know that parents can do better if they just decide that it's that important.
00:47:08:22 - 00:47:16:27
Speaker 1
And that's their why they're why is raising healthy, well-adjusted kids how can people find out more about you?
00:47:17:22 - 00:47:48:00
Speaker 2
I have a website. It's my full name. I'll spell it. S h e i l cair r o l l. Sheila Carroll M.D dot com I have a free download for ten simple steps to help your child achieve a healthy weight. If anybody's interested in that. But my email is on my website, so if anyone wanted to reach out to me through that, I'd be happy to answer any questions or respond.
00:47:48:13 - 00:47:56:17
Speaker 1
I'm just really thrilled that you as a doctor, talking about the importance of nutrition. It's really, really great to hear.
00:47:56:18 - 00:47:57:11
Speaker 2
How things.
00:47:57:24 - 00:48:08:13
Speaker 1
I think. I think we can all do a little bit better for ourselves and for the people that we love by just making a couple of small changes baby.
00:48:08:13 - 00:48:18:05
Speaker 2
Steps into in the long game. This is, you know, this is a long process, so. Yeah, yeah. Thank you so much. Thanks for having me.