The Kids Aren’t Alright (But They Could Be)

Podcast Intro and Guest Introduction 0:00

if we have a healthy future, then imagine what we can achieve. Imagine what the next future of the generations can achieved if our brains are working properly and our bodies are also not sick and diseased. Because like we always say, our health is our top priority. And as teens, we kind of like to leave health. When I become older, when I'm adult, I'll care about my health, but in reality, the state of our starts now. It doesn't start tomorrow, it starts today. Welcome to the TBD Fit podcast on Dr.

Talks. I'm your host, Daniel Keeley, and I will be guiding you through this wellness journey in terms of optimizing health and longevity, where we unpack the science, the dos, dos and everything in between. Come join us. Look forward to seeing you inside. Welcome back to another episode of the TBD fit podcast, where it is my goal to uncover all things in health optimization. And I always try to find who's doing best in their category to distill what we can such that we all pursue optimal health and longevity.

I'm your host, Daniel Keeley, functional medicine practitioner. My goal is to help serve yours. Today is a super interesting conversation with a couple of teens. So I had the pleasure to listen to them speak at A4M, the pediatric module in Boston, not long back here. They have their own podcast. And it was very, very empowering and insightful to hear kids understanding the nutrition message and just above all else, the mindfulness message. So we'll dive into what they're doing and kind of give light to their platform.

Two of the teens we have today, Abdullah and Zayn. So you guys are the hosts of The Holistic Kids Show podcast, national speakers and co-authors of traditionally published book, The Teen Health Revolution, Lifestyle Secrets to Optimize Your Mind, Body and Soul, which I believe is released today. If I'm not mistaken. They are co-authors of Adam's Healing Adventure Children Health Book Series. The host of the kids have lectured at leading integrated and functional medicine conferences, including being speakers at the 2024 International Institute of Functional Medicine, which I'm a part of, A4M 2025, where I saw them speak, the Mindshare Summit 2025 to name a few.

In May 2025, Abdullah was featured in the docu-series Young and Thriving as a young voice for mental health, who is bringing a unique perspective of today's youth into the conversation. Abdullah and Zayn have made appearances on the Emmy award-winning Dr. Nandi show as well. The Holistic Kids have been featured on top podcasts and media outlets like Wellness Mama podcast, Rational Wellness podcast to name a few and super excited to dissect their book, which I believe just launched. So thank you so much.

It's really our pleasure. Yeah. We're so honored to be here. Thank you. I love introducing guests with understanding a little bit of their background. How did you get to where you are today? What Was that with the catalyst or what inspired the journey? I know as we discussed offline, I said, parents usually pave the way, right? We want to model the behavior that we want us to see in our children. I don't believe in bad apples or bad students.

How the Teens Got Into Health Advocacy 3:30

Take that with a grain of salt. Often enough, it comes at the helm of parenthood. So this conversation is very much going to be centered around parenthhood and what that means for you guys in terms of how you took kind of the principles, values that your mom has distilled and been able to really optimize your entire lifestyle. Well, you talked about how parents should be such good role models. And our mom was a very good roll model. Even though at the beginning we were on this hamster wheel of just constantly eating fake, altered processed foods and being constantly consumed by the social media, we then realized our chronic issues and where they come from.

Specifically, we were kids, so our mom, she learned this and she taught us, and we really grew to understand how our body works and how to listen to our bodies. During COVID, when everyone was worried about their health, We decided that we are going to be like kids out there trying to tell like other kids like we need kids talking to kids so we want to tell other Kids maybe about how we're learning this and as at the same time in our podcast we are learning while they're Learning so but yeah And so it was really based on, you know, getting out and helping the community.

First, educating ourselves and then helping educate our peers, our classmates, and the people around us that we love. And that's really where, like, that motivated us because Being in school, we saw the reality of what was happening to teens. We saw that teens were never going to get better until we were educated. Because the reason why most people aren't deciding to fix their health the natural way is because they're not shown that there's a way like that. They're just told, here's the pill, you have a problem.

You have depression, and here is the antidepressant. That you're going live with this for the rest of your life. obesity, diabetes, you know, here's this medication, that medication. When in reality, there is always hope. And that's the message you want to get out there. So to hear all that, were you guys ever a product of our modern society and unfortunately, sick culture? It's estimated that today one in two kids have a chronic health condition, one and five eczema, uh, 1 in 5 also obesity 1 and 10 with anaphylactic food allergies, One in 13 autoimmunity.

I mean, these statistics are startling. One in ten also ADHD, autism, neurodivergence on the rise, obviously, teens suffering from anxiety and depression. Obviously, we'll get into the mental aspect in a bit here because I know that's strong to your core. But were you guys ever suffering anything from nutrition related issues growing up? And then your mom kind of threw in the towel and said, We have to make a change. Of course. We were definitely a product of this modern society of chronic issues.

I grew up with rashes, mood disorders, like eczema all over my body. Yeah, Abdullah had severe dizziness and all these other chronic issues. And we didn't understand because no one told us. No one tell us the issues, so we were constantly eating these same ultra processed foods. I mean, we used to love the ultra-processed foods, Yeah, like my favorite food back then was Flaming Hot Cheetos in Fanta. I could not get enough. That was like, my all-time hands-down favorite. And eventually, as hard as it was, it worth it because I was able to then take back control of my body, which meant I able live life as a better human.

And that's really where what we want teens to know is that, yes, as good as they taste and as much as a lot of kids nowadays want them, they are causing ultra processed foods right now are one of the main reasons and are actually linked to over 32 chronic diseases, especially in kids and teens. I mean, like we always mentioned, we mentioned before, and I think on other podcasts and on our own channel, that right one in three kids have pre-diabetes. which is a problem because pre-diabetes, I'm pretty sure, was only meant for older people, and now kids are getting it too.

And surprise surprise, all your processed foods are actually connected and directly linked to that rise in pre diabetes, as well as mental health issues, obesity, so many other issues that so much teens, kids, even adults So let me even challenge that one step further because to me, anything diabetic in nature, which is a metabolic issue, didn't exist in the early 1800s. It's kind of a product of our modern post-industrial revolution where we've kind gone to this big agro farming process and preservation of foods through our convenience culture and preservatives.

And then coupled with obviously the herbicide, fungicide pesticide, which is completely just driving in a huge inflammatory burden, in which obviously hits our mitochondria hard. Then you know, you have insulin resistance and we're still get diabetes. So all of which, is reversible. I applaud you guys for understanding that our ultra processed food or what I call crap food,which is CRAP, completely refined and processed.

Ultra-Processed Foods and Childhood Health 9:00

is poisoning our youth. And we see that now with an inflection point, some studies suggest that our kids are not going to outlive our parents anymore, which is really, really startling. What's really interesting is it starts with nutrition and understanding that either You're healing or you're hurting nutrition to me is very binary in that regard is food is medicine. So the food that we're eating is providing instruction for healthy hormones, for immune support, For our microbiome, which impacts every biological system of the body.

And so we understand that, uh, in terms of nutrition, how I equate it often to. our young athletes, because we train a lot of athletes here. And in general, we see kids and more importantly, parents that food, if it's not, I always say all the time, If it man made it, stay away. If nature made, it it okay. So if coming from a box or a bag, and certainly in plastic, avoid it like the plague. To me, that's all poison. Now. The goal ultimately is just eat from mother earth, right? Vegetables, plenty of colors, fruit, meat, fish, poultry, wild game.

So I really adhere to a paleo protein, excuse me, a Paleolithic nutrition plan. Often enough, that's what helps our patients heal. Where do you guys stand? What does your nutrition look like? what is your meal plan look? How do think of that in terms of meal prep? Because we live in this convenience culture. Are you doing the cooking? Is mom still doing cooking. How is that involved? So we love what you said about how when we actually kind of have our own version where every single bite you take is either gonna help you or hurt you.

And so that's what we implement into our lives and that is how we live. Every single thing that we eat, we make sure we know why we're eating it and making sure it has a purpose. Obviously we also like to have as kids and teens, it's kind of unrealistic to just only eat vegetables all the time, only the green broccoli and Brussels sprouts. And so we also have chips and we have, you know, desserts like other kids. And honestly, it's funny kind of because it surprises a lot of people, but you just do it naturally.

That's what our favorite foundation is, is natural foods. Once you are able to get back to that natural, Then just building on nutrition from there, then we start focusing on clean proteins, healthy fats, carbohydrates. Zan, you want to say more about that? Yeah, so whenever we're hungry, especially like we've been implementing this since we were kids, whenever were hungry we would go down the list. vegetables clean protein healthy fat and then maybe like a treat like some carbohydrate or yeah which like Some fruit or dark chocolate and but we've implemented this even into our school lunches because school.

Lunches are where kids are gonna be eating at school. So, and it's just because we saw how gross and toxic the school lunches are, we implement this into ours. For us, vegetables are more like the appetizer, a fresh vegetable just to get us more nourished, while the protein is going to be the main meal. Maybe it was last night's leftovers or just some other protein that we can find. And then the carbohydrate slash fat is usually some maybe almond flour, cookies or cakes that make or it's a fruit or some dark chocolate or honey.

It can either go like that. Plus you talked about what we do for nutrition and we always make sure we have a balance. Because if you don't have a balance, you can't only just eat one certain kind of food as well. Sometimes we talk about this, like yogurt and stuff. Even though sometimes it's dairy, but yogurt, the amount of probiotics and prebiotics it has, literally is so beneficial for the gut microbiome. And so sometimes, you know, we have organic non-GMO gluten like once in a long while, maybe like two or three times a year, just so that because to keep and have some balance in it.

But most of the time, what we do have is like Zan said, We try to make sure on every single meal we had our protein, have our vegetables, and we add some kind of carbohydrates. and maybe add some fruit on that and I know it's not like a hundred percent like nutrition nutrition but always prioritizing water because right now so many teens and kids and especially us we're so dehydrated and so also making and implementing that into every single meal that we try to having as much water as we can remember to have and is probably beneficial for us at that moment so when it comes to our overall nutrition and lifestyle It's mostly by keeping things simple, easy and effective and nutritious.

Even when I was listening to your mom speak, when you guys were mentioning dessert and to me, I always said just that fruit is nature's dessert. She was very, very specific with what ingredients she was using and wasn't using. So when people think of dessert, often it's just laden with sugar, which to is just extremely damaging on the endothelial lining and driving a lot of our metabolic issues. You guys are very intentional with ingredients and you are intentional in your decisions. As you said, is this food going to heal you or is it going hurt you?

So every bite, what is the impact? When you're referencing substitutions or choices, I see it's It's super mindful, which I think we become detached. Food is usually an afterthought or to fill in a gap before we have to go on to training or practice or after school activity, right? We're looking for something fast, comes out of a bag or a box because we don't have time to cook. But yet it's to our detriment. We're only becoming unhealthier and people aren't making that connection, the intersection of food and our health.

And so you guys put together, it looks like a simple revolution acronym. You mentioned the microbiome. What does your revolution mean? So the revolution is in the title. It breaks down the biggest topics. So to start, it's R, revolutionize the gut.

Building a Simple Nutrition Framework 15:30

E, eat real food. V, vanquish toxins. O, optimize stress management. And then L, love nature, U, unite with others, T, tech limits, I, invest in sleep, which we kind of as teenagers and kids kind suck at, O, open to gratitude and purpose, and N, navigate your decisions with mindfulness. And so we created this simple acronym, Revolution acronym to educate ourselves and help the person reading educate themselves and then implement those key principles into their lives. Because look, Eating real food, toxins, stress management, nature, uniting with others, relationships, healthy, having healthy relationships.

Tech limits, sleep, gratitude, purpose, mindfulness. These are all simple, easy things. Pretty much free that anybody can do and actually super beneficial and can help like catapult your life until it's the next, you know, your next like the best you. And that's why we're trying to tell people is that you don't have to live in this groggy, you know, phase of having this chronic illness and this is going to be the rest of your life. No. By doing simple, easy tips. You don' t need some miracle supplement.

you Don't need to have this kind of like radiation there like this thing happened or this weird thing on tiktokers telling you.You can get back to how the body it was supposed to heal itself and use that implement it to your day and feel so much better without having to do so much extra of that complex nonsense. And that's what we want to teach and help people focus on, is that these are so important, yet we're missing out on them. As soon as we start focusing on that, we can change our lives. What are some of the tips, tricks?

I know you mentioned sleep, right? That's a huge one with especially even adults, let alone kids, where it's an afterthought. My suggestion is always I always ask patients, what time do you set your alarm? I think, oh, you know, 5.30, 6. 30, whatever, AM. And I go, no, What time you say you alarm to go to bed? What are you doing in your evening routine? How are your optimizing for sleep? Because that is going to set you up for not only long-term health and longevity, but on a cellular level, it's critical to, to repair.

So you said V for vanquished toxins. My thinking in one of those, obviously sleep is such a critical component. Any sort of tips for asleep, for teens, or just in general, any other tips that have allowed you to practice or for you guys to become the, the holistic health kits. So one of the best things that I think that's helped me and I've told my friends and it's help them as well. Before you go to sleep, try to turn off your phone and not look at any device an hour before you to go sleep. because the blue light that the ice floam screens emit actually really messes with your sleep, making you have less quality sleep which then kind of ruins your night.

Even if you sleep 6, 7, 8, 9, 10 hours, that sleep isn't going to be as good compared to you if didn't expose yourself to bluelight. Secondly, to help with this, Put your phone at least like on the other side of the room. This is what I do. Don't keep it next to your bed. And if the phone across the road is too, you know, tempting, put it downstairs. Put it on charge downstairs and honestly, that one tip itself, the amount of teens right now from what, I've talked to my friends and like what they've told me, they're staying up until 2 a.m.

in the morning doing what? Scrolling. going on their phones they don't even know what they're doing at 2am in the morning but they are so addicted that they just doing it and so putting that away and first of all focusing on that phone addiction that I like to call it because that's what it is Your sleep will thank you, your body will. Thank you. And I think that's one of the most important, crucial, free things, easy things. You're absolutely right. I. Think putting it away from your bed, not only for the EMFs, um, the constant bombardment connecting to your wifi.

So ideally turn it on airplane mode is, but I always say, you know, sleep is. Is you need to set your up for a healthy sleep hygiene and often it is creating a bedroom that. productive on where it's not full of distraction or where you're doom scrolling. Because we see now that our modern tech and social media is designed to keep us attached. And in fact, when we are unattached or when, we detach is like the dopamine hit. Because it's so sensitized, it becomes diabolical, especially for kids in developing brains and neuroplasticity.

We see a huge hit in cognitive performance, but obviously same if you're not sleeping. In terms of mental health, how are you looking and navigating that whole frontier in terms what you guys are doing inside your home or within your sphere and with other teens? So what we do, especially when it comes to health, probably one of our top tips for mental health is just being more mindful. And that's, I know we talked about a little bit at the very beginning, but mindfulness is knowing what you're doing, when you are doing it.

Mindfulness is, knowing that we're putting into our mouth, not eating whatever we can find, or not shoving whatever, we could find and putting it into your mouth. But actually thinking about what were doing and what's around us and how we feel in this moment. Because when we are fully present in the world, then we're not going to scroll mindlessly. We're going not to stay up late. we are not just going sit on the couch not exercising, not doing anything. Were not gonna be playing video games for hours and hours because were being mindful about what we were doing.

And it's time for us kids and us teens to stop blindly following and putting whatever we can into our mouth mind visually consuming things without even knowing what were are doing and right now What I've seen the most in adults, teens, and kids is that we're living mindlessly. I 100% think that one of the reasons why teens and kids, as well as why three-fourths of adolescents and teens now are dealing with depression and anxiety, is because we're not being mindful anymore. Does anyone add anything?

Yeah, I definitely want to talk about gratitude. And a lot of kids or teens, they think of gratitude and like, yeah, that's why we have Thanksgiving. But Thanksgiving shouldn't just be on Thanksgiving. It should be every single time we wake up.

Sleep, Screens, and Tech Limits 22:00

Every single we might think we should always be grateful of what we have. Because in today's society, I see it around in high school, we're constantly being compared and comparing ourselves to others. Either it's on social media or it in person. It's everywhere, especially when maybe the news that's going around us, all this negativity is overwhelming teens and it leaves teens to a plinth of despair. So what we want to do is that we're going to bring gratitude to teens. If every teen could wake up in the morning and say at least like five things that they're grateful for, it'll make...

If five is too much, one, if one is like anything, just start anywhere. Yeah, start anywhere and constantly build up the gratitude because it'll make you feel better, well definitely feel, better. As well, I just wanted to mention quickly, because Dan briefly mentioned it. Social media. Stay away from social media unless you really have to be on it, the only reason like I don't have any social-media app on. Our mom, she takes care of a lot of that stuff. If I have go into social medial, through Safari, cause if I had the app, it's way too like overstimulating.

And right now as teens, we're living in a world where overexposed and there's like a well like there is just so much information out there and we're being overstimulated and this I mean right now honestly like like Zan mentioned teens are comparing themselves like never before this is a hundred percent linking a 100% one of the reasons our mental health is like so in the dumps is because when we see something on social media we that highlight reel of that person doing this They have this girlfriend or boyfriend.

They're having this food, they're going at this restaurant, They've this family, this hotel. You know, Maui or somewhere. On a great vacation. they go to Harvard, college, that college. Just take a step back. Take a deep breath because all of that are compared to your life. They're only showing you that highlight reel. It's not the reality. We're living in this false of reality where we think that their life is so amazing and my life must be like terrible. when in reality, that's not how it is. They're only showing the best parts, and we don't see what's going on in the background.

And that why a lot of teens, they see, oh, this person is so attractive, I'm not attractive. This person has like this, And I have like that. That mentality is just going to destroy us. And that's why we have to be conscious. I bring it all back to mindfulness. We have be concious about what we're visually consuming and what our mom did for any parents out there. Don't give your teenager a phone until they're at least 16. Keep them away from social media. You know, maybe until like, you know also 16, don't let them go into social medial until 16 because...

Right now, we're seeing mental health issues happening in kids as young as I think even like eight or nine and maybe even younger. And that's all due to the overuse of technology. So monitor screen time, you know, for us, even we play video games, obviously, but we only do it for like an hour and a half, two hours. It may be like only an hours a day on like the weekdays and then maybe an an half on the weekends. Just simple things like this. will help teens regain back control of their mental health.

And honestly, one of the best things that anybody can take away, parents, if we see you doom scrolling, we're gonna be doom-scrolling as well. I just wanna put that out there. Because I can tell teens, don't do this, but at the end of day, you guys are role models. And if we see you wasting your time on your phone, if you see just sitting on the couch all day, you know, watching TV. If we really see your wasting time and not being mindful, then most likely we're going to adopt the same behavior.

So please educate yourself and then educate us. Yeah, and I also think that parents have a huge role in this for things like Abdullah said, but also teaching kids and teens on why this is wrong, like why you shouldn't, why should stay away from social media or why, you should like not have phone until high school. Because I've noticed when adults deprive their kids, a lot of kids at my school, they're like, oh yeah, my dad grounded me, I hate him, like I can't have a phone. Basically, it just creates this hate.

So when we can teach them and when they can understand... why something is necessary, it'll make it much easier on the parents as well. So also, yeah, teaching them at a younger age, but if you can't, just teach them now. And that's why I always bring it back to the point because I told some people this and I know some adults they're saying but and someone actually brought up a good point is that the reason why adults don't tell us the why, especially for like simple things like why can't we have a phone?

While social media has been linked to increases of anxiety, depression, mental health issues, it can worsen and cause certain like, like it basically even like worsens your memory, worsened focus. you know the dopamine hits over and over again are going to just not be like they're gonna worsen your like your mental health and the reason why adults don't give us the why for simple things like this is because adults Don't know themselves and this isn't what a lot of what I realized and a what if you were saying and so that's why please Educate yourself and then that way you can educate us and we can then take that into our adulthood So thank you.

So yes, that's what you need to do, please. For our future. There's a lot to unpack there. Let's take it kind of point by point. But you're absolutely right. At the end of the day, we need I will tell my patients is I'm providing you the education. I am nothing more than your guide. If the onus is on you is to take action. Here's what I know to be true. here's the science, here is the reason why. And it's this same thing I do with my children. My goal isn't to a tyrant or a dictator imposed. my goal is provide education and for them to empowered to make a better decision.

Mindfulness, Gratitude, and Mental Health 28:30

Case in point, it was just Halloween. We took our kids trick or treating. I didn't expect this outcome. When they came back home, they dumped all their candy in the garbage can. All of it. I did not ask. Literally they went because they understand that's poison. And I don't know how else to put it, reframe someone's paradigm in a sense of nutrition has such a major impact on our lives. Like I said, it's instruction. And so either you're going to help your kids grow healthy or you are going deter from that.

It starts with our decisions, whether it is our action or even sometimes our inaction. What are we not doing to promote healthy living? Sometimes there is in action where we need to take action, but at the end of the day, its being mindful, living with intention and providing the education. I loved what you said Zane was. When you walk in here, the first thing you see on my wall is attitude of gratitude. So when you guys said, you know, five or when a bill you chime in and said even one, your right.

Start with one. It starts from a little bit. Cause even if you, when we look at our current mental health crisis, to me is depression living in the past, anxiety living the future, and we miss out on each moment, beautiful gift of the present today. And then in terms of social media, You're absolutely right, it's super toxic. it is a tool. and needs to be leveraged as such, much as like a phone. So we have to understand that technology can also help us or hurt us, and it needs to be utilized in a very safe manner where we can use it as a tool to enhance specific outcomes, not to what is happening today as it coincides again with this rise in mental health issues we see in our kids.

Because what happens is we're now looking externally for internal validation. And that's always changing and it's never going to be one that is anchored in positivity when we're constantly looking for that external approval. And it goes back then in terms of purpose. When I asked this question with my adult patients, some of them don't even have, or haven't identified their own purpose, How did you guys find your purpose? Because obviously, not only do you speak with a high degree of conviction, but you've been able to take this and now become a model for what it means to live this holistic lifestyle.

Honestly, for us, we noticed the current state of the world and that's what's motivating us. Because like I said, we're going to be the next doctors. We're gonna be next engineers. And if our brains aren't working, then what's gonna happen to our next generation? What's going happen our generation and that's why we need to start educating. I realized that teens aren't going to listen to adults. Sometimes, especially our parents, sometimes, you know, they are our worst enemy. But a lot of teens, let's be honest here, don't want to listening to an adult.

If a teacher or someone tells them something, most likely they're going be like, I don' really care. And that's why what we're trying to do is teens educating teens. Because we've been there. We've doing this for over 10 years and we have seen improvements. How it's helped people. And so for us to then share that message and creating that ripple effect is one of the best things that we can do. Imagine what we can achieve, imagine what the next generations can do if our brains are working properly and our bodies are also not sick and diseased.

Because like we always say, our health is our top priority. And as teens, we kind of like to leave health for when I become older. When I'm an adult, I'll care about my health. But in reality, The state of our health starts now. It doesn't start tomorrow, it starts today and we need to make that change. And I know you also talked about positive purpose, actually. Teens are missing our sense of purpose. And that's also one of the key drivers of why our teens are not able to then achieve our true potentials.

Right now, we're just like I said, mindlessly following the herd mentality. We're putting whatever we find into our mouths. If a branding or company says eat this or do this, we'll just do that. We're not thinking for ourselves and that needs to change. we need to start thinking ourselves again because if we don't do it, then our future is going to suffer. Does anyone add anything? I was going to talk about really reconnecting with your mind, body, and soul. Because really, when you have purpose, you know what you want to do.

You know where you're gonna go. specifically where you want to go, but where, yeah, so where do you WANT to GO. So when we can focus on where we want TO go and when can connect with our mind, body, and soul, if this means connecting spiritually, then that would be amazing. Really connecting with yourself and with your surroundings, specifically mindfulness, is what's gonna help you get to your purpose. And like even Zen said, like if somebody can connect to something bigger than ourselves, then we can see with our own eyes that something that we rely on in the times of stress and despair.

Because sometimes, you know, I mean, studies have come out that, especially when it comes to spirituality, that's something helps and it's actually like something, it helps really improve our mental health. And it something a lot of teens right now are missing. Yeah, and I think it is difficult. But when, often enough I'm asking, you know, how do you, find your purpose? I always suggest just start following your passion, right? See what drives you. What motivates you? What excites you because this is going to provide meaning to your existence and you'll meet people or you indulge in certain experiences and, something new that you like, and that can actually drive purpose.

And purpose can be different in different years of your existance. So when you're a child versus a teenager versus young adult to a future adult, You can have different purposes if you will. And so I'm a huge proponent of just following your passions, do what you enjoy. Obviously be respectful to everyone along the way. But really, as you said, being mindful of your decisions, live with intention. And understand that your decisions have a consequence. And you nailed it when you said, it starts today.

Literally it's starts in the health of the mom's womb because we see now almost 300 chemicals in a birthing placenta. So what mom decisions both, not only her decisions, but transgenerational, her mom, mom decision, I have the ripple effect. We see that in terms of chronic disease and how that's implicated decades later. When I said one in two kids have a chronic health condition, that is extremely alarming. And that's a product of our modern society where we are no longer being mindful. We are not longer detached from our natural roots.

we're pursuing this convenience culture which just makes us more and more sick. So I appreciate the message that you're trying to portray to children and to teenagers and anyone of that age. It really is a project of our decisions. So starting with parents, we have to acknowledge that if we're not modeling the behavior we want to see in the kids, why would you expect any different? And so something is simple of understanding what clean eating means, or something as simple as movement, which I always say movement as medicine, something simple is gratitude.

or meditation or even sports and community and uniting. I think this is, it's a great time to be alive as technology is really accelerating the pace of where we can build and grow and take human physiology to a whole new limit. But we have to be mindful along the way and recognize some of this stuff that we're doing is actually setting us up for failure.

Purpose, Parenting, and Modeling Healthy Habits 36:30

And that's why I can't stress it enough. We need to wake up. As teens and adults, we need start finding our direction and stop wandering aimlessly in our life. because nothing's going to happen. We're never going be successful until we find that direction in our lives. Fortunately for you, I think your mom has been able to be that guiding compass. So I applaud her in instilling the values because again, all too often that's such a... critical component that's overlooked. And so as parents, again, we really, really need to set the standard.

What were some things maybe early on that, because often enough you'll see teens fight back, right? Or I hear this all the time, you know, well, they're going to do it at some point, meaning like eat the garbage or stay up late or whatever the case. what were somethings maybe, early that your mom instilled in you guys in terms of education? So early on, when we started this, I think I was like seven years old. Zen was about like five, four or five years. And then our younger brothers, one of them was born into this and the other one was three.

But as a seven-year-old back then, especially, the thing that benefited me and I thought impacted me the most now going into my teenage years, and then now even adulthood, was that she taught us to read ingredients. And that's been one of the most beneficial things because now if we see a product, Doritos, you know, Takis, whatever, we look at the back. We go down just past the nutrition info and we'll look the ingredients and if there's a bunch of chemicals in there, like you said, if it's not made from a nature, then it is probably better to stay away from it.

Our mom used to tell us if looks like it was made in a chemical lab, then it's probably not good for you. And so she taught us to read ingredients. I mean, Nan, you can talk about that as well. Yeah, like as a kid we learned how to reading ingredients, we learn how when something looked especially a little too long and crazy and we didn't really know what it was, We stay away from it. Because why would you eat something that you don't even know about it? Like anything? I remember we used to go down this is back like I think two or three years in and we use to just go Down like the cereal aisle and as kids see you know like cinnamon crunch you see like Cheerios all these you Know uh cereals out there especially in the serial aisle with all the animals and stuff And we sometimes even ask can we have this can you have that and she said oh if you want that take the ingredients first and tell me if you think this is going to be good for you or bad for.

And if do you know what these ingredients are?" And so we used to turn the box around, we'd look at the ingredients, and there was red 40, yellow number 5, along with teaching us how to read ingredients. She taught us to research and look into what those ingredients said. So she said, okay, go take my phone, search what red 40 and red number five does. We used to go search up. It's our carcinogen that leads to cancer. Obviously, carcinogen was too big of a word back then, but this red forty that's in the cereal is going to lead to a cancer, so I don't want to put that into my body.

And as an eight-year-old, I was like, oh, wow. Actually, maybe now when I look at these other ingredients, these chip packs, and I see other stuff, now I maybe see high fructose corn syrup. So I set up, what even is that? Is it made in a lab? is it real food? And just doing that, Now, if somebody offers me something, a bag of chips, whatever I've never seen before, just looking to the back, seeing the ingredients. If it's natural, I can pronounce all the ingredient. I know what they are. then it's probably better for me.

If it has like organic or non-GMO, it is natural, you know, then I can probably eat this. But if it a bunch of like garbage chemicals and I could see that this is clearly not real food and this probably going to hurt my body, than now I know not to put this into my. Definitely. And I think with that, learning how to read ingredients, another big thing is to take it step by step. Because we, like we told you at the beginning, we suffer through all these chronic issues. But we didn't go from eating really bad to going to perfect vegetables, everything like only vegetables and fruits.

We took it, step-by-step. We went, like for example, we started maybe taking out a specific chemical or getting rid of gluten or get rid a dairy. We did these like relatively small changes over an extended period of time. So it was easier for us to ease into the eating more healthy without feeling super left out at one time Because if you go from eating super bad to super good in like a day, you're gonna wanna go super-bad again. Because you are not gonna develop those habits that are super important to maintaining a healthy lifestyle.

So I think when you can teach kids at a young age and slowly build them up instead of just saying, get rid of all that, you're eating only organic, non-gmo foods right now, then you can really ease kids into loving this. And also one tip I think that I have especially for parents that have teenagers is when it comes to them converting teenagers, especially if they've been eating that you know this ultra processed foods for their entire life, one of the best tips I showing them that if you eat this and telling them like, you know, actually, if have the more ultra processed foods, they're actually linked to then worsened acne.

That you're gonna basically look uglier if eat these kinds of foods. Like it's gonna affect your skin because teenagers, we're kind of really conscious of our skin about, how we look. And so even then putting that into perspective, like you don't wanna be overweight. You don' wanna have obesity. you wanna to be healthy. be sick you don't even want to have like sinus issues every single time you wake up and so then and then teaching them like the why like and that's just so important that this is what these foods to you do to and if you can if like you you want this you to want a feel you know why your body to feel like that I remember what we used to do is if we use to like a bunch of gluten or a sugar I remember in Halloween, if we used to have a bunch of candy, then we would feel really bad.

Our stomachs would kind of be pain after. We'd have stomach aches. And our mom would be like, why do you think that you have all these stomachaches? And we're like it's probably because we had all that sugar. Or if were really irritable that day, she's like because you had a lot of sugar that one. You just had lot a sugar and so Just putting that into perspective as kids, we realized that our choices have side effects and our choice are going to come back and bite us and that we have to make the right choices.

And so that's what our mom did. Honestly, she's amazing for doing all that. Now as a teenager, as an 18 year old, after 10 years, I can really see the benefits and how much they've paid into my life. Well, listen, for both of you, your skin is glowing and the external is always a reflection of the internal. And if you feed the healthy microbes with healthy nutrition, the body is going to look good. It's going feel good, it's gonna perform good My foundation five is you got to eat right, sleep right move right top right poop right.

and you're going to feel right. Any one of those that are interrupted, there's going be dysfunction. And then two of these, now you have chronic disease, which is reflected in our children. So looking at skin health, that's certainly a motivating factor for teenagers, anyone in general. But it's a reflection of what's happening internally. Zayn, I want to highlight what you said. Uh, in terms of making it approachable, it's progress over perfection. Right? So I always say this, uh, every, everyday with my patients is I look for 1% better.

So the point isn't to go from zero to a hundred or zero and a hero is to, hey, just one better choice. One better decision today. Again, going back to the mindful component, Going back, to going, back the component of living in the moment and understanding the consequences of our decision. Today is going to have a, an impact generationally. In terms of nutrient labels, I love that you referenced labels and to even push that one step further, well, what does it say if a food has a label on it? Again, if nature made it, it's okay if man made stay away.

And I don't want to undermine all packaged goods, but my paradigm is try to avoid anything that comes out of a bag or a box and certainly not plastic.

Reading Labels and Making Better Food Choices 45:30

So in this respect, the goal is to just eat food directly from mother earth, in season, local, fresh, sustainable, better still. That's something that we've detract from in terms of eating the seasons. berries don't grow year-round nor does avocado. And so we see, similarly as our evolutionary biology, Amylase, which helps break down carbohydrates and starch, typically is up-regulated in certain times of the year in conjunction with the harvest of certain produce. And so, yes, it matters how close we live to the equator in that respect, but regardless, the premise remains is we have to start asking better questions and it goes back to them mindfulness component, right?

If you're going to a grocery store and there's a healthy food aisle, what does that say about the rest of this store? stop and think or start asking questions. And so yes, we definitely need to read food labels and that's the educational component that I've integrated with my children, which is why they make those decisions. At some point, I'm not going to be able to control their decisions, but I can try to set them up for success in early childhood, uh, wish they can carry on for the rest of their life and develop skills such as cooking or again, gratitude, mindfulness, living in the moment.

So I appreciate the. The tips you provided with us today. Any last takeaways for our audience? I definitely believe that we should really get back to our true self. Because when we can start to implement these different lifestyles, when start live naturally, stay away from our phone, or other technologies for keep it more limited. We can limit all these manmade things that are just destroying us. we're really destroying our bodies. So when we can get back to our natural self, either it's being out in nature or eating lots of real whole food or it playing or exercising, we need to get to back our normal self because this is not normal and us not being normal is leading to all these...

Issues with chronic issues and mental health that we are seeing now So we really need to wake up and the hundred percent just want to drive home gratitude Gratitude, gratitude, because us teenagers, like honestly, we are kind of, teenagers are the most negative people I've ever met. Like I hate life, I hated my school, my homework, We need to start changing our subconscious from negative to positive because we will never be able to achieve anything in life. if we're always going to be negative. And that's just the reality of it.

So just changing that, you know, that our subconscious to positive is going be so beneficial to us in the future and we are going able to really become a true best version of ourselves just like Zan mentioned. Absolutely. Love it! I think you guys nailed it, I mean in terms of What is normal? That's a beautiful question because what we've begun to do is, normalize the abnormal, asthma, allergies, eczema. This has become normal. ADD, ADHD, this has became normal, none of this is normally, especially in particularly allergies.

Even seasonal allergies that is barrier disruption. The integrity of our barrier, whether it's in the sinus, in our lungs, at the level of the gut or in skin, all that is barrier dysfunction and all of that can be repleted. None of my kids have asthma, none of them have seasonal allergies, nor do I. Once you restore health barrier function, you will restore healthy organism function which is who we are. And it particularly starts with nutrition. And obviously we reflected on the discourse around social media and tech and purpose and mindfulness and all of that player role.

Obviously sleep as you guys said it so eloquently early on, but this has been a genuine pleasure. The last question I in every episode is if you could have anyone's superpower, what would it be? I think honestly, flying. Flying is pretty cool. Okay, I mean, flying might be one of the best superpowers out there. I think being really fast would be the super power out. When you're fast, you can get things done really quickly. Flying is a little overrated because you go everywhere. But when you are fast you actually can go anywhere.

So, and you can do everything fast and, you know, have a lot more time on your hands. So. And you, yeah, do a, lot of cooler things. Yeah. I guess this will be our two, top two. But that's super speed, but definitely flying. Thank you for your time today. Where can people learn more, follow you and keep track of what you guys are doing?

Final Takeaways and Where to Find Them 50:30

We are all over socials, especially with the more general one. The Holistic Mom D is our main is, our general, one, but our specific is the Holistik Kid Show. You can find it on either like TikTok or Instagram. We're starting out. So yeah, find us there on our social and we have a. website called TheHolisticKidShow.com and TheTeenHealthRevolution. com if you want more specifically about our book. And so yeah, definitely check out the podcast, The Holistic Kid Show. It's on iTunes, Spotify, anywhere you find podcasts, it's there.

Also, you can pre-order today, theteenhealthrevolution .com. If you preorder, we get our bonuses. We have shopping lists, recipes. You know, a bunch of other stuff, things that can help, you know even stress management, easy tips. And because we want people not just to read the book, but then to implement them into their lives to take it as that step forward. Because we don't want to be able to just read a book and be like, oh, that was nice. We want the people to actually then use those and implement those tips into life so that they can benefit themselves and their loved ones.

So definitely go check that out. Yeah, for sure. Actual insights, right? So make sure you're taking one step progress over perfection and pursue change. Change is good. If we don't change, we become a dinosaur. Taking those next steps. I love what you guys are doing. And I encourage everyone to check it out and appreciate again your time and for everyone listening, like, subscribe and review that helps us reach more people and have enlightening more conversations. So until next time, stay healthy, Stay wealthy, my friends.

Thank you for tuning in to the TBD Fit Podcast on Dr. Talks, where we unpack all things health and longevity. If you enjoy the show, like, review, and subscribe. This allows us to have a greater reach and help others on their health & wellness journey.