Learn True Prevention Techniques For Your Kids

Introduction and guest background 0:00

Welcome back to another interview of Reversing Chronic Gut Conditions. I'm your host, Sinclair Kennally, and today I am joined by my wonderful friend and colleague Lisa Jendza. Lisa is a really important voice in this space, and I wanted to make sure that you got the benefit of her wisdom here, because she has absolutely devoted her life and her career to helping this generation to wake up and the generation coming along behind us, those who are most vulnerable, our kids. So she's a master of critical thinking and of sourcing and getting creative about how can we feed ourselves in this time when the big food, big ag system has really been infiltrated and corrupted by, you know, this unfortunately, you know, putting profits before health.

So she is the founder of Freedom Kitchen and which is a judgment free zone, helping kids and their parents and families of all shapes and sizes to explore different ingredients and ultimately how to be leaders of their own health and happiness in and out of the kitchen. She's been at this for 25 years and 16 years of health coaching and has really started to create a movement in her region and is now sharing that with the world. So welcome, Lisa. Well, thanks so much for having me, Sinclair. Yeah. Okay, so let's dive in.

You know how sophisticated our audience is. I really want to give some folks some beginner stuff to consider if you're just taking your health into your own hands listening in today. And I also want to get you a chance to dive into some more advanced concepts, because you know that we have a lot of summit junkies in our audience, but gluten free yogis who, you know, they say goodbye to gluten ten years ago and they're still not feeling great. You know, they still have more work to do on their health.

And they're like, look, I need some help here. Let's get to the more advanced stuff they know more than their doctors do. And then, of course, we have practitioners in the audience who are really looking for those new tools, those new gems.

Lisa's health journey and root causes 2:06

How can I help my population get well, which is getting more and more complex to do? So yeah, there are three audience buckets and we're going to take care of all three of you guystoday. Don't worry. Listen and in. we absolutely will. So here's where I wanted to start. You know, I. I don't want to take up too much time on it, but I think your personal story is really interesting and your journey because you really, you know, you and I talked about this. We were working on our own journeys before all this stuff was widely available.

And, you know, very little was understood. So just briefly, can you share with us why this topic is so important to you and a little bit about your own journey? Yeah, absolutely. You know, to sum it up, I was in corporate America and I was a consultant for Hewlett Packard. And so I was always a very sharp person mentally. And so I would go into underperforming accounts to turn them around. And I reached a point where I couldn't think I had brain fog so bad and I was having trouble functioning and preceding that for ten years I was having these little symptoms.

And I share this because people in the audience may be having some minor symptoms like unexplained ankle pain or unexplained wrist pain or trouble sleeping. And all of these were related. It was chronic inflammation in my body, my inability to process stress well, but also poor nutrition. And at that point in my life, I was gosh, I was addicted to coffee, Diet Coke. I was a smoker, and we ate out because my job was extremely intense. So we ate out seven days a week, basically. So I always say this is a judgment free zone.

I have no room to judge anyone. I had to go on this journey on my own now because one doctor wanted to do carpal tunnel surgery for my wrist pain while telling me to take Advil every day for the pain in my ankles. I was 26 years old. I was 26. I had just had baby number two. And had I been taking Advil every day for the last 26 years, I would probably now be on dialysis. Yeah, absolutely. But none of this was correlated. Sinclair So when I was ten, my dad was put on a low fat diet. He was told he was in his thirties, that he had high cholesterol.

They put him on statins, and we went on a low fat diet for an Italian family. That was bad news because they told us we could eat all the pasta and bread we wanted. And I have you know, I'm a carbohydrate addict and, I mean, who wouldn't be so bad? Everything low fat in our house and all these carbohydrates. And so it my first lipid panel at age 18, my triglycerides were 150 and they said, well, this is three times higher than it should be and we have no idea why. So lay off the fast foods, the fried foods and the fatty foods.

And I'm like, Well, I don't eat fat. It wasn't that it was the carbohydrates. And so, of course, by age 36 that turned into type two diabetes. And my triglycerides at that point were 300, which was pretty severe. So I, I had to do a lot of investigate of work and I knew I needed to detox. I had a very stressful lifestyle and I needed to start to take that lifestyle apart and rebuild it. Yeah, it makes total sense. I mean, so many of us had that kind of journey and then you went through developing your own protocols in your spa for a detox, which is amazing.

And then talk to me about the the journey in terms of becoming an educator of kids and parents. Like, why not just talk to parents about food? You know, why do you have to go straight to the kids and what do you see? What change when you do that? Well, there was definitely a journey because when I left my corporate job after 25 years and I started with a wellness spa, I was teaching the parents, I was teaching moms. And I thought when mom got healthy, the whole family got healthy. And so I do want to share with the practitioners who are listening, maybe don't make that assumption that Mom is taking all of this home and changing everything for the kids.

You might have to probe. And, you know, and if you're a mom listening,

Why kids need direct food education 6:34

ask yourself how much of what you're learning and changing in your life you're actually implementing with your kids. Because what I was told, what I heard from my clients was why cook a separate dinner for my husband and my kids because they want to eat this way. They they they won't do anything healthy. I can't change. And some things are hard to change. Again, I'm not judging. I'm observing and then trying to work with what I'm observing. Yeah, changing things for my kids was difficult too. When I got on this journey, my kids were in middle school, so it was gradual.

I didn't change everything over. It is gradual for me and it was even more gradual for that. I can say now in their twenties they're both very healthy. One thing though is like, I can't get them to give up with just my daughter, the deodorant I like, Please just get rid of this one. It has aluminum in it, so some things are harder to change than others. I totally get it, but I thought when mom got healthy, the whole family would get healthy and the message really wasn't making it to the kids. It was really through a lot of prayer where I was saying, How do I make a difference?

How do we stop this? Because in 16 years of health coaching, we haven't slowed down in the number of sick adults. But worse yet, I'm witnessing the sick kids. I have my own nephew who's 11 years old, who was having absent seizures as an infant, and then the chronic constipation. He was so constipated by age two, you know, they did an ultrasound and they said he was impacted and they put him on Miralax, which now he has grand mal seizures and he's been diagnosed with epilepsy. But in my research, Miralax can then lead to seizures.

Right? And so if we don't talk to the kids, the parents are very stressed out. I know how I was. I was very tired from working. We can't really we can't just assume that the parents have the time or the energy to be able to do this level of education with the kids. Yeah, the parents need help and it's kind of interesting which I know we'll get into. The kids want to be independent, so there's already tension. There's a parent child tension because they're trying to break free from their parents.

It's actually better coming from an outside source. They're much more receptive. And then I employ the same technique that I employed in corporate America. I was very successful because I learned to make everything my boss's idea. And then when I had a staff, I learned to make everything their idea. It's the same thing with the kids cooking class. I make it all their idea. I ask a lot of questions. I get them engaged. We have a great time. It's conversation. They have these great ideas and I'm like, That's a great idea.

I just set the stage for them to have those ideas. That's brilliant. Okay, so let's talk about this, because for so many parents, even when to like you just describe the journey, even if they're organic, even if they had their own health journey, they're still resorting to convenience foods. You know, hopefully it's the lesser evil. They're doing what they can. And yet kids are ending up on a lot of convenience foods. So can we unpack for a minute what what the cost of convenience foods really are on children's?

Can you give us a. Review of that? Yeah, this is this is something that's near and dear to me, is moving kids from convenience to creativity. So we my generation, we were we were the first generation of women who were told that we could do everything men could do and better. We could go to work. We could, you know, bring home the bacon and cook it. Right. I think we all remember those commercials. Like, that was that was me. Right? So I was too tired. I was too. So of course, they gave us convenience foods and it was really the first generation of convenience foods, you know, Hamburger Helper, for example.

Convenience foods, creativity, and family habits 10:49

But everything in a box, you know, cake mixes instead of making them, you know, using a mix. And it's only taken one generation, Sinclair, for us to lose the knowledge of how to cook, how to make things. And and so I'm kind of playing on not only the kids budding independence, but their desire to be creative. They're kids. So they're still in a place where they're adults might view this as another chore or response ability. The kids view it as an opportunity to get creative. Yeah. And so when we can shift that perspective of what can be why convenience foods came into the picture, it was because we didn't we didn't have the time, but we didn't take the time and we discounted the value of preparing our food.

And so I'm moving the kids into a place of creativity. Look, we get to create not we have to not we have to cook dinner. We get to create something. We get to serve our family. They love doing that, too. There's a such a sense of pride. So if the parents could actually just take the time to teach the kids, which I didn't. So I understand. But if the kids learned how to cook, they would actually do a lot of the cooking. I have students that actually cook for their whole family. They they learned a meal prep in my every semester we have a segment on meal prepping because they get busy too.

They have this and karate and homework and so I said, you're going to have a busy day and we don't want to reach for a box, right? For one of our meal prep boxes in the refrigerator. So see, we've stack up and we do meal prep and we stack them up. Yeah. So, you know they're stressed out. There's an unfortunate lead. The stress, you know, trickles down. The teachers are stressed, they get report cards. Now the kids have behavior issues because of the processed foods. There's more and more kids who are struggling.

So the teachers are losing their patience with the kids, parents are seeing their patients. And so when when people say, wow, I don't know what these kids have so much depression or anxiety for, how they can be so stressed out. And I look around, first of all, kids, it's 90% nonverbal communication with kids, my 10% verbal and so they're dealing and perceiving all of the stress around doesn't matter what you say if they still the milk and you go it's okay, it's okay. The 90% that comes through in that nonverbal communication is that it's not okay.

You know. So this is the best way that we can support and help our kids. And it really needs to be their decision. We have to enroll them in the process. That's really beautifully said, and the best success that we've had with families in our practice is having a very real conversation with the kids. That's age appropriate, you know, but actually, you know, ten, 11, 12, 13, they love to hear all about how the corporations don't have their best interests at heart. And now and they get it really fast, you know, and they kind of feel like they have the inside story and they become a more activist if you respect them enough to to share the process with them.

One of my proudest moments is when we have we were working with the parents who both had serious health issues. Mom was really, really unwell, very chronically ill, number of conditions. And, you know, it's a struggle to get the the concepts into the family in the right place and time and the little the littlest one was the last one to to get on board because she really loved her sugar and she loved her, you know, birthday parties and the social events and the you know, it's like, why do I have to do this?

You know? So she was the last one to get on board. And her mom and dad were over the moon when she they heard her say to her friend at a birthday party, Oh, I just can't do sugar anymore. Yeah, yeah. I had a couple of girls come to class one week and they said, Miss Lisa, our friend Katie, had a birthday over the weekend and she had purple frosting like chemicals. So we just scraped it off. I said, Oh, that's amazing. You the stories. I just I just love them. I'm telling you, cooking classes are a lot of work I would never minimize.

I do them, you know, not only online, but I do them in person here for my school district. And so to pack up my kitchen, you know, every week, lug everything into class and set up for cooking classes, I would never minimize that. But that's something that happens every single week, no matter how much I complain or how much work it was. Within the first 5 minutes of the kids walking in the door, it's like a miracle. Their blessings. I love that. Okay, so let's talk about how to protect this generation then, you know, getting out of the cycle of immediate gratification.

How do you get kids to understand that tummy issues and those those early skin and, you know, chronic fatigue, behavioral issues? Do you connect the dots for them? What is your process around that? So I always lead with food and start with some of the obvious things. And again, we don't even talk about the obvious things in life. I always start with, so who here has to eat for the rest of their life? And they, you know, who has to eat today? Who has to eat the rest of their life? I do. I do. Okay.

Do you want mom to cook for you the rest of your life? No. You know, so we have to always start with,

Teaching kids about chemicals and blood sugar 16:58

like the basics and the obvious. Then we start building from there as we're talking about different food and we're talking about different ingredients. I have different handouts. So we might talk one week about food dyes and we'll have sprinkles that we use that don't have dye in them. We'll talk about fruits and vegetables and what is real food. So what do you think these good dyes could do to us if they if they're chemicals, they're just pretty chemicals. And so that's another week. We talk about like ugly chemicals and pretty chemicals.

So is it okay pretty chemicals or are they still chemicals? And the kids actually start coming up with, though, like things that chemicals might do to our body. So they know that it causes skin issues. They know it causes tummy issues like they can start intuiting that through conversation. That's all it takes. As I don't have to lecture, I don't make it real heavy. I ask a lot of questions for them to get in touch with their intuition to critically think, think. If this was a chemical, why is there a poison control sign on this?

What do they tell us to do? If we have contact with that? We have to rinse our body or rinse our eyes or what makes this chemical any different. It's still a chemical. It didn't come from beats. It came from a chemical. And so, you know, I just ask a lot of questions of the kids and I make it playful and funny. We made lemon meringue pie one week. They were so proud. And I said, Oh, my gosh, you guys, we forgot the yellow food dye. And they're all looking around. They're like, I followed the recipe mostly.

So I followed the recipe. And then look. And then, you know, it clicked. And they look at each other and they look at me and they go, That's Lisa. My pie is yellow. If I don't, I know. So why does everyone put yellow food dye? And of course, I had a box that you can buy that a lot of families might buy. And I'm like, they put yellow food dye and they're like, we don't need yellow food dye. We make Jell-O. And the kids will look at me and they're like, That's it. We use unsweetened fruit juice and pasteurized gelatin and hot water.

That's it. And the kids look at me like they're thinking, thinking, and I go, Do you have a question? They go, Yeah. How come that was so easy? I thought this was really hard. And then why do we buy the instant stuff at the grocery store? I go, That is such a good question. So see, Sinclair, my teachings have actually been by being able to go deeper and deeper with these concepts because of questions like that, it's their questions that show me what they're comprehending and what they're thinking.

I create an environment for them to ask questions I might prompt, I might probe a bit, but I want it to be their idea and I want to see where their head is. That's what's been so impressive to me is I didn't know that the kids would really grasp this much. And they are. Yeah, I talk about you all the time and tell people they got to go learn from you and send their kids to you and you know, as soon as somebody tells me, well, kids aren't ready to hear the stuff or they don't want to hear this, I totally disagree because Lisa's figured this out.

So, you know, you I remember it's like burned into my brain. One interview we did together for another summit, we were talking about blood sugar for kids. And you teach them about the different flowers and blood sugar. What goes up must come down, you know we do. Yeah, I think I've even taken my glucose meter. They did? I'll decide not to get their finger picked that they. They saw the Lancet. They're like, wait a minute, they have a you know, I'm like, How did you think my finger bled? It was kind of funny.

But we do talk about glycemic index. We talk about how we feel when our blood sugar goes up and comes down. We talk about that throughout every semester. So given the landscape of how our kiddos today are really on the back foot, like mom, whatever mom's body burden was, you know, before keto was, you know, growing in uterus and that's going to be a factor. Of course, some really scary studies around, you know, chemical body burden of infants when they're born. Okay. So we have that piece. We have a piece of mom being malnourished from our corporate food system and, you know, soil poverty and all that stuff.

So kids are already, you know, arguably as a generation starting on the back foot. So what are the core concepts that we need to impart upon our kids so that they have real control over their future? What do they need to know? Like, what are the pillars that they need to understand and in every family household about this so that they have a shot at reclaiming their health? Yeah, I think first and foremost, I'm teaching them to take personal responsibility for their health because they're going to have to continue to take personal responsibility for their health.

So if I can start with teaching them how to prepare my food, thinking through how to nourish myself in that personal responsibility, I mean, even like thinking about how busy is my week, do I need to meal prep? So in every way I am to not just how to cook, but how to think and how to plan. I'm teaching them how to take personal responsibility because you and I both know they may still have health issues because of toxic burden. Body toxic lays that out really well. I know EWG has done some more research on that.

To me they they only tested 400 chemicals and 200 of them were found in cord blood. It's I know everybody misquotes that study like oh you know 200 total. No, no, no. They only tested for just a few hundred. There's over a hundred thousand chemicals. Now, let's get this right.

Personal responsibility and food sourcing 22:58

Yeah. And I have to tell you, I'm I'm devastated as well, because I was a smoker before I had my kids. And my kids were both C-sections and they I went back to work too soon, you know, so they weren't breastfed for long. And so I know all the research and it's devastating to me. I my daughter is a mental health professional and we look around at the amount of mental health illnesses issues. And and I know I mean, you and I have talked about this. It's got health. It's got health that leads to mental health.

It's connected to our mental health. And so I am adding a new curriculum this fall because I don't venture much into the health space except talking to the kids about how they take care of themselves. Yeah, but this fall I will be adding a leadership program for students linking their health and the origin of their food. So they already know the difference. Right? Like if I know the ingredients and I make myself a cake, that's not bad. That that may not be bad for me, right? If I'm using wheat from a regenerative farm like guardian grains that's tested and proven not to have any glyphosate or any chemicals in their wheat, if I know that I'm using an olive oil and not a vegetable oil or I'm using applesauce in place of oil, they on there understanding the importance of the gradients.

Now we're starting to look more at the source. So they're going to be learning more about beekeeping and microgreens and what has regenerative mean. We're going to have a worm farm and when we class, which is kind of crazy, but they need to start thinking about the soil because the microbes come from the soil and we need the microbes for our gut. And so I'm really going in that direction versus talking to them more about health. And I'm really trying to be 100% prevention. Sinclair And this this comes from being an IT consultant.

My job was to get to root cause was to do root cause analysis. And that's how I got to the root cause of my health issues. No one else would get to root cause I had, you know, five doctors and no one got to root cause of all my issues. Yeah. And so we have to be the detective, right? We have to get to the root cause. So the most important skill I can teach them is personal responsibility. Keep their body clean so their mind is clean, clear, so they can critically think, and then get them to focus on the root cause, the root of where their food is coming from.

Literally, the roots really. This is prevention. This is the only prevention. Everything else that we're all doing, even me as a health coach. And we're we're helping people to reverse or reclaim their health. But true. This is where true prevention starts. Yeah, I totally agree. So let's talk about what parents can do. Obviously, if people are watching this, you know, wherever you are on your health journey, you're clearly engaged with the idea of supporting your family and supporting your kids through this crazy teenage or you're a practitioner that's wondering how to have this conversation with your clients and patients in a way that's going to make a difference.

Right. This is so important to do. And with a blame free, you know, approach, because this is nobody's idea that's alive in this time. And yet, you know, while it may not be our fault, it's certainly our job to fix it. So how can parents get started in this? Because it can feel so overwhelming. It is overwhelming. And I, I actually have come to the realization that it's better to have an outside person teacher because there's a parent child dynamic that causes a little bit of rebellion. Mm hmm. I actually play on that rebellion, so I know the kids want to be independent.

So some of the things I'll say to them is, do you want your mom to pick out your clothes when. No, I'm like them. Why do you want your mom to cook your food? Right. So if we can help them see this is they want to dress themselves and they should want to feed themselves. And then if I can show them that this is artistic, that this is creative, look at what you can do. Look what you can create. And they can take a sense of pride in that. This is no longer a chore or a responsibility. Oftentimes when things come from parent to child, it's a you though know you this you this is a chore.

It's a responsibility. Now it's your turn to do the dishes. This is one of your like, I don't want it to be a chore. I want to inspire the kids to want to create. And and then they are so proud. They go show their parents look and they always want to feed their parents. Sinclair It never fails in every class. Do we have extra? So I can like Mom will come pick up the kids? Typically. Sometimes, Dad. But mostly mom. Can I take some home for my dad too? Can I take some home for my five siblings? Can I take some home for my next door?

We're going to my grandmas today. Can I take some home for her? So I allow parents to come to class. Grandparents can come to class.

Helping parents, teachers, and different ages 28:38

I have an adjoining classroom to my commercial kitchen. I just say the parents need to sit in the adjoining classroom. They can listen, they can hear everything clearly. And I actually have they can see, but I don't want the kids to really see their parents. Right. It needs to be there. They're not allowed in the kitchen space because the kids will then be like looking at their parents for like approval or something all the time. And I'm like, you have to leave the kitchen space, but you are always welcome.

I have an open door policy. I tell other teachers who want to come in, they can come in and and listen. I have other homeschool groups that come in to witness. It is a such a beautiful thing, but the kids always want to serve whoever comes to watch. Can I take some to my grandma grandpa now? And I'm like, Hold on, let's get our lessons done. But they are so anxious. Can I go serve them now? I'm like, okay, go ahead. So that so I, I like to think that that's because it's someone that doesn't have any history.

Like there's no parent child tension there, right? It's an outside person who's giving them this wisdom. And then, like I said, it's their idea, right? So there I do think it's helpful to have a teacher. I did, as a result of that, start recording my classes so that kids can take them. I have had students from elsewhere. It all started just with word of mouth from my local families and sharing it with other families. So now they can watch my videos and the families say it's great. They put the iPad in the kitchen and they cook because I cook on the video with them each recipe and go through all the lessons.

And so they just take the iPad in the kitchen and cook with me. So here's my question to you. Do you think there are different strategies or what are the different strategies and needs for each developmental stage? Because you might get a kid at six years old or you might get them at 16. I do. I take them from 6 to 18. I actually have five year olds. I've done even DKA back. It's difficult in the kitchen. I often encourage them to do it at home with my recorded classes because they just usually can't even reach the counter.

And we are using, you know, heat and knives and things. So typically I start them in the class at six and so I speak to them on the different levels that they're at. But you know, the high school kids, I can have more conversations really about like what's going on in the world. But it's pretty surprising to me the kids that come to my class really do comprehend if if I teach them week one, what is flour week 14 they can say any not seeder grain that's turned into a powder. It's you know any of these.

And I'm like, now name some of the flowers we used this semester, you know, coconut almond like they, they remember a six year old. Wow. I have a nine year old. His first semester of my class, we were doing end of semester review and he said if, if anyone ever tries to feed me chemicals again, I'm going to tell them, no way, man, I don't want those. And I'm going to tell all my friends that they shouldn't eat anything with chemicals. And you know what? The grocery store is not going to be able to sell anything with chemicals because we're not going to buy it.

Oh, I cried and I thought, That's why I'm here. Yeah. Okay, last question. I know we need to wrap, but what we see in our practice, our group courses is a really heartbreaking phenomenon where kids start with their health issues, they start shifting some of those health issues into their assessing of themselves at the identity level. You know, like I can't because, you know, not like other kids because or I'm the problem kid because or I'm so sensitive because. And it's a very disheartening experience for them to have to navigate food in the world and also navigate their their own stories about not being well in this day and age.

You know what what kind of advice do you have for parents and educators navigating that piece with them, especially when it comes to food? Yeah. First of all, I wish they could come to my classroom because I just love them. There's unconditional love that I wrap around each one of those children and around my kitchen, and I do get all walks of life. I get kids every semester who have an IEP, an individualized education plan for one reason or another. So I have my fajitas. I have made ones with attention deficit.

I have some of my hyper and I and it's okay, it's all okay and I know that they're in the right place. And so we work with what we have and they're able to build a sense of pride. So what I would say is find something to help build their confidence. So I have one who's extremely shy, a lot of gut issues, probably on an emotional level, not sure how much on a physical level, but definitely on an emotional level. And it shows on a physical level. And he's an introvert, but he loves to cook. And so he's working on a cookbook this summer.

He wants to write his own cookbook. And so, you know, there are careers that they can do in the food world. And so I introduced him to a whole new world and opportunity, and he's only in middle school. I said, You can start making money like now because you love to do that. So I just love what cooking does for them, the sense of pride and the the confidence. So I always say, if you look at my website, Freedom Kitchen Kids, it says, I teach courage, confidence, creativity and critical thinking all through cooking

Confidence, courage, and protecting the next generation 34:48

because those are the things we need. Maya Angelou said Courage is the greatest virtue because without courage, you can never be true to yourself or live any of your other virtues. So I tell the kids, I have to teach them courage because I'm creating leaders in my class. And so when they're out with friends and the peer pressure is to have things with food dyes and chemicals or fast food, they need to have the courage to say, no, thank you. That's not for me. Or when Grandma comes over and says, Oh, but I made these for you.

They need to have the courage to say, No, thank you. I can make it myself. No, but confidence. I would say, no matter where a child is confidence, I strive to set them free. And you know, Sinclair, I started with really food, freedom, freedom from addiction, freedom from sugar addiction, freedom from the control of the food corporations who intentionally try to hook us on the food. And if anyone doubts that, read the Dorito Effect is probably the simplest book on the topic, right? You know, but there's something more that has really come through this.

And it's it's really freedom. Freedom Kitchen is about our freedom. The kids don't know anymore what our First Amendment rights are and what our Second Amendment rights are. And so we have to help them think critically so they can preserve their freedoms. I'm I'm fearful for what the future is bringing to this generation with poor gut health and poor mental health and the inability to critically think. I agree with you. Yeah. If you start to get out of key nutrients, you mess up their microbiome, you disrupt their ability to create and regulate their neurotransmitters, and you get them hooked on neuro exciter toxins that totally disrupt their ability to have an emotional center and be present in their own bodies and create a generation of chronic illness.

And they're not learning critical thinking in school the way that we could, the way we know is possible. So in 20 years, I want everyone to stop and think for a minute because I think we all suffer from immediate gratification and short term thinking, and I'm always thinking 10 to 20 years out. So think about what our world will look like in ten years and again in 20 years. So in 20 years I'll be in my seventies and the students that I'm teaching right now will be running the world. We have 6.1 million of them who are, what, 88 ADHD with more than 60% of them on amphetamines, which is setting them up for addiction.

And then the processed food companies literally have a business model called the addictive food business model. So our our country may be run by a whole generation of addicts. Yeah, that's a really good way to say it. We all need to be concerned about the kids. And I have been imploring every practitioner that I talk to put a program in place for kids, put a program in place for kids, because I just don't think that they're being included in the conversation. So I also want to really help people who if you've made it this far into the interview, of course, you're super passionate this topic and you probably like I know that there's many people in the audience right now and think I know this stuff.

I can't get anyone else to listen to me and we have to remember and take responsibility for the way we invite people into this conversation. Like you've heard Lisa and I talk about how we screwed up in this entire interview. Every every time I give a talk, I'm I make sure that I talk about how imperfect I am and how I learn things the hard way and how I wish I didn't, you know? And of course, there are regrets about that. But, you know, I'm not the toughest cookie out there. I'm not the food police.

And, you know, I'm inherently a little bit of a worse. So doing the deep healing work was really hard for me, you know? And I think that if we if we are the ones who are the most awake and the most passionate about this topic, if you want people to come along with you, you have to share your vulnerability about it as well, if to come from a place of curiosity and wow, I did not know this. This blew my mind. You know, this is instead of like, well, you should've done it this way, you know, nothing shuts down the conversation more than that high, holier than thou, high and mighty perfectionist shaming thing.

Like, we got to get better at this. And you cannot sit in a place of blame about the people in your life who are not as for as long as you are. Guess what? If you're here, that means you are the torchbearer and you will never hear me. You know, judge folks for coming along this discovery journey, because what would be the point? I would rather listen to that that stupid, you know, you got to you got to share with heart and talk about your ups and downs and be the beacon of light that is magnetic.

So that's my as frustrating as it is, you want them to catch up with you right away. It ain't going to happen. It's a drip, drip, inviting them in conversation. Yeah, that's so well said. I weep for the kids today. They, I, I do catch myself and others around me when they say the kids should behave differently or should behave better. We have all of these behavioral issues. What's wrong with the kids today? I hear the older generation I'm now, I think in that older generation and I hear people say the kids today and I weep for the kids today.

So I always tell the kids, if you ever hear me say should correct me. I never want to shut on you. Yeah, but yeah. So well said. We need to be a little more compassionate and understanding and together. This is going to sound so cliche, but it's love. And Jesus said it's love that heals. And that's what that's what I have in Freedom Kitchen. It's love. Yeah, I think that's so beautiful. And it's part of what makes you so special and what you do. You know, we are in a crisis and I think absolutely love and a lot of strategy and creativity is what's going to get us through it.

Thank you so much for sharing your stories today and your wisdom about what it takes for kids to thrive in this time. And you know how parents can get help in that because, you know, it's more complex than ever to be a parent and a kid. So you have such compassion there. Again in front of you. Yeah. So where can people find you? freedomkitchenkids.com is the best site. And then I also have LisaJendza.com is my main site. There's a contact form on there for anyone who wants to contact me about anything from you know, I did a health coaching tour. I don't open the floodgates, Missy.

I know how hard you work. Okay. Thank you so much, sweetie. Appreciate you.