Read Transcript
Child: Welcome to my mommy’s podcast!
Katie: This podcast is brought to you by LMNT, and this is a company you might’ve heard me talk about before, and I really love their products because proper hydration leads to better sleep. It sharpens focus, it improves energy, and so much more. But hydration is not about just drinking water because being optimally hydrated, a state called euhydration is about optimizing your body’s fluid ratios. And this fluid balance depends on many factors, including the intake and excretion of electrolytes, which many people don’t get the right amounts of. Electrolytes are charged minerals that conduct electricity to power your nervous system. I talk a lot about nervous system on this podcast.
They also regulate hydration status by balancing fluids inside and outside of our cells. LMNT was created with a science-backed electrolyte ratio of 100 milligrams of sodium, 200 milligrams of potassium, and 60 milligrams of magnesium with no sugar. Since electrolytes are a key component of hydration, here’s what happens when we get our electrolytes dialed in.
We have more steady energy, improved cognitive function, suffer fewer headaches and muscle cramps, we can perform better for longer, and especially the support fasting or low carb diet because when we stop eating carbs like during a fast, the absence of insulin allows the kidneys to release sodium.
So replacing that lost sodium with electrolytes can help you feel good on a fast. Since LMNT is zero sugar, it also doesn’t break up fast. Electrolytes are also important for maintaining blood pressure, regulating digestion and proper fluid balance. Keeping skin hydrated, which is a big one that I feel like often gets missed and so much more.
I feel like proper electrolytes is a missing piece for a lot of people and I love LMNTs new canned drinks, which are sparkling water with all the same ratios and minerals I just talked about, and they are delicious. You can check it out and learn more at drinklmnt.com/wellnessmama. And at that link you will receive a free sample pack with any order.
This podcast is brought to you by BIOptimizers and in particular, their product that holds my heart, which is their Magnesium Breakthrough. My goal this year is to continue to focus on my wellness and to create more harmony and resonance, and we all know that the foundation of health is a good night’s sleep.
I talk about that so much on this podcast. And magnesium is the one nutrient that helps my sleep so much as well as so many other aspects of my health because magnesium is vital for so many things within the body, and it is nearly impossible to get enough from food anymore. And Magnesium Breakthrough from BIOptimizers is in a category of its own.
They have seven different forms of magnesium in one supplement, and since magnesium is involved in over 600 different biochemical reactions in the body, no other supplement on the market offers all seven types of magnesium in one bottle. Pretty much every function of your body is upgraded when you take magnesium regularly from the quality of your sleep to your brain function, from metabolism to stress levels, and so much more.
This is one of the few supplements that lives on my nightstand and I’m a little odd, but I take every morning because I actually get energy from it though most people notice that it’s better at night. Now studies point to a lot of benefits of magnesium, including that it may help improve sleep quality, especially by supporting healthy sleep onset and have more peaceful nights.
Magnesium is also involved in stress management support and it may help maintain energy levels and positive mood while also supporting mental clearness and relaxation. Magnesium is also important for healthy and balanced muscle tone and providing the building blocks to strong bones, and it promotes a balanced stress response, supports relaxation.
And I feel much calmer when I’m regularly taking magnesium. So let’s face it, even if your 2025 resolution is not all about focusing on your health like mine is, how are you going to be able to achieve your goals in any area without enough quality sleep and stress management? Check out Magnesium Breakthrough and make it part of your daily routine this year as well.
For better sleep, better stress response, and much more. They have a 365 day money back guarantee and you can find it at Bioptimizers.com/wellnessmama and use the code Wellnessmama for a discount.
Hello and welcome to the Wellness Mama Podcast. I’m Katie from wellnessmama.com, and I am back today with The Holistic Kids, Abdullah, Zain, Emaad, and Qasim to go through round two of the Teen Health Revolution, getting teens to eat real food and why this is so important, and I love that this is kind of for kids and teens, from kids and teens, that they don’t rely on the parents to make these decisions.
They actually are speaking directly to kids and teens and putting that autonomy and control directly in their hands and explaining to them why this is so important. In fact, they’re encouraging a self-led revolution of sorts amongst kids and teens in choosing this for the many reasons we cover and talk about today.
And the importance of real food, how ultra processed food hijacks the body, and how so many foods today are chemically designed and engineered to do just that. They are wise beyond their years and have so many resources available for kids and teens that I will link to in the show notes. But for now, let’s join and learn from The Holistic Kids.
Holistic kids. Welcome back. Thank you for being here again.
Holistic Kids: It really is our pleasure. It is our pleasure. We are so thankful to be here. Thank you so much.
Katie: If any of you listening missed it, I will link to our other episode together in the show notes. It was really fascinating and insightful conversation for me as a parent in understanding kids and teens and how we can actually support them in communication and being more mindful in cultivating purpose in their lives.
I got some wonderful insight from you guys and I’m really excited to now do the same shift gears into the food world because you guys are the authors of the Teen Health Revolution, which I think is a really important and pivotal work based on all the things we talked about in our first episode. And in this one I wanna talk about how can we as parents and for the teens and kids listening, that they make the decision themselves get our kids and teens to eat more real food.
And I think part of answering this question is establishing why we would even want to in the first place. I know statistically your guys’ generation, I’m sure not you guys, but in your generation, eat a tremendous amount of ultra processed food. In fact, I’ve seen crazy stats of the massive percentage of most people’s diets that comes from ultra processed foods.
I know you guys probably make a lot different choices. Can you walk through some of the reasons why, like what are the problems with ultra processed foods that most kids are eating?
Holistic Kids: So ultra processed foods, they’re not foods. It’s ultra processed as it is in the name. It’s fake food. Fake, yeah. We like to call them fake food. Yeah. Because it’s not even real food. Scientists engineer it to be, to make us obsessed with these foods. And like if you take away all these colors and dyes and all of the like, things that make it at least maybe look or taste like a food. It just becomes an inedible mush that just looks like a science experiment because that’s what it is. It is a science experiment. I’ll take it a little back. Roll back a little bit because what islike ultra processed food? I mean, most people nowadays, especially I know teens they think ultra processed food has food in its name, so it must be food. They just connect. That shouldn’t even called food. Yeah, it shouldn’t even be called food. It should just be called junk. And so according to, I think I have the definition here. It says industrialized formula formulations by combining oils, fats, and sugar with extra substances like additives. These undergo physical and chemical processes that the food might not even be food anymore, but a food product.
They start with fractioning of whole foods like corn, soy cane, wheat or beets into sugar, starches, proteins, oil and fat. And these substances then undergo chemical transformations, hydrogenation and then assembled with industrial techniques like molding, pre frying, extrusion. Then they add all these colors, flavors, emulsifiers, and other additives to make the product more attractive and hyper palatable. So basically what they’re saying is that this food is created in a lab. It’s a lab experiment. That’s why we need to hundred, we need to wake up that this food is not just something that they got like other food. And what you guys, I know my parent, I know my mom and our dad, what they had in the past was, is completely different than what we have now. Mm-hmm. Our grandparents do it. Yeah. It like, it changed like thousands of thousands of years. And sadly, even though I know a lot of like millennials, they think that, okay, now they’re starting to wake up, but they think that this food isn’t affecting us. Well, actually, it’s a global diet of doom. Which is what my mom would like to call it.
Yeah. Because it’s caused 11 million deaths yearly due to diet. That’s just crazy. That’s crazy. That’s crazy. And that’s, and what’s, and that’s even worse, that all those additives and sugars can actually really mess up our gut bugs, which caused that wildfire or inflammation, destroying our hormone balance, wrecking our blood sugar balance and even leading to serious health issues in the future. And something I really, maybe we can we’ll touch on later, but even mental health is connected to the cons, the consumption of ultra processed foods, which I’ve a hundred percent seen in my high school. A hundred percent. And studies have come out and shown that ultra processed food can even increase the risk of diabetes, health disease, fatty liver disease, and like I mentioned, even depression. Ultra processed foods have been proven to be linked to over 32 different chronic health conditions and can even cause harm similar smoking and overeating. And it doesn’t even stop there. Especially during like the teenage year, our teenage years, our years, fake food cannot mess with our brains.
Making it harder to think clearly, learn new things, and even control our impulses. I mean, a hundred percent we all see in our schools how crazy kids are. Yeah, yeah. Literally, right Zain? Especially after lunch. After lunch is when everything just starts to all of it. The effects of these ultra processed foods start to occur. Now you see these crazy kids, especially at the beginning, like they go insanely crazy. For candy especially. Whenever the teacher mentions candy… Oh yeah… The entire class goes crazy. Yeah. But after lunch, everyone is going crazy until the teacher starts talking and everyone dies. Now no one’s able to talk or anything. So they literally give us this food and lunch, and then they expect us to be really good students after we go back to work. Back to school. Yeah. Back to, yeah. School.
Yeah. And like for my teacher, I have no idea why they do this, but like, but it was a math test. It was a really big final exam. Not a final exam. But it was like a big test. Right. And they decide to double the amount of candy. So they gave every single person two peppermints.
I’m like, what’s? And then, and then everybody just get what, poorly. Like F the test. Like most people got F and like geeze. And especially, you know, when that one kid has tons of candy in their lockers and stuff. Oh yeah. They go cray, they’re like jumping off the walls every single day because they, that’s because they can’t live their lives without candy.
Mm-hmm. And that, and that’s like poison to them. Mm-hmm. It’s poison to academics, poison to their social life, poison to them actual like functioning like an actual human being. Like, we wonder why teens and kids, I know they’re probably different than you when you guys were kids. How, why are they so crazy nowadays?
Mm-hmm. And we wonder why they can’t keep up with what usual other kids used to do in other generations. Because if you eat junk food, you become, you actively junk. Yeah. Yeah. Like Dr, we, when we interviewed Dr. Perlmutter, he mentioned like how if you’re going to feed your brain with, you know, those kind of foods and you know what those foods are, then you’re gonna, basically, your brain is gonna be made out of inferior things.
He put it like, straight up to us and we were like, that’s actually crazy. Yeah. Especially like the car. We all really like this car. It can move really fast. It’s really cool. But if, let’s say, instead of putting fuel into it, you put. Smoothie or you put something that shouldn’t belong in that car. Yeah. It’s really gonna make it not function as it should.
Yeah. Something that’s not, it’s not supposed, the smoothie’s not supposed to go in the car, so why would you put it in the car? Now it’s not gonna work. And that’s why, and this is not just what we’re seeing around, studies have even come out, actually studies have come out that shown that eating lots of junk food can increase our feeling of feeling down or anxious. And in fact, a recent study also found that teens who eat a lot of junk food are almost 50% more likely to show signs of depression, have smaller brain, have 10% smaller brains, and a lower IQ. Like this is just crazy. Ultra processed foods are destroying our mind, body, and soul, and leading to an early death, they’re destroying our body and our life.
Katie: Yeah, and something you guys mentioned that I would love to go a little deeper on is for anybody listening who maybe is feeling like they’re feeling because they are eating a lot of these ultra processed foods, really highlighting that point that you said about these things are designed in labs by multi-billion dollar companies to be addictive.
Like these are chemically engineered to be addictive. So it’s totally, to me, understandable how kids especially can get easily addicted to these things. And I think that’s important to understand, to have the mindset of starting to make shifts and realizing like these things literally were chemically designed to be addictive.
And so it might be a little bit of a shift and might require some work to actually start making those changes. And I know we’re gonna get into some of the practical ways of actually, like how do we shift into nourishing our bodies and what are some of the most important steps there? But can you guys just speak briefly to like the addictive nature of these foods and how like kids are really fighting an uphill battle if they’ve gotten used to these foods because they’re literally engineered to be addictive.
Holistic Kids: Exactly. It’s a rigged system, I say. Mm-hmm. Because ultra processed foods, especially food companies in the food industry, has hired thousands and thousands of scientists and have spent billions and billions of dollars over, actually 14 billion a year on advertising, which promotes more like 80% more fast food.
Mm-hmm. And they’ve spent all this money even on food science, where they manipulate us and food and food science to make it so that we can’t get off of it. And in 2025, an average child could be exposed to over 3000 commercials per day across various media, including television, internet, billboards, and magazines. And ultra processed snacks especially, they can trigger as well addictive eating patterns that then also hijack your hunger signals. Yes. You know, there’s a, there’s this famous commercial, I forgot, but everybody knows the Oreo commercial, you can’t have just one.
And that’s what they’ve taken to their core. They make sure that when you open that pack, you can’t stop eating it. With the colors, with the MSGs, everything. And I remember, I think Zain and you guys probably have experienced this too, I asked my, I told my classmates about this, I’m like, they, you literally can’t have one. Just think about that. And they said, yeah, but wouldn’t they care about our health? And I’m like, no. They only care about making money. They’re profiting off of us. It’s a really greedy system. So why are we trying to help this greedy system, right?
We want to help the people who actually care about our health. So, but this has to start on you. Like you have to start caring about your health. But I also wanna talk a little bit about how they advertise this. Let’s say if you’re gonna go to a grocery store at the, let’s say like one of the first aisles, there exists a huge line of huge, colorful cereal boxes. So like with like, fun animals, kids, happy like characters. And now the cereals also like, really it’s so colorful. So now especially kids, they see this and they’re like, wow, this is cool. Like, I want this, this probably makes me really happy. And they do this to drugs with teens, they do the exact same things.
They make it appeal, like vapes, they make it very appealing to these teens. Like, oh, this is flavorful, it’ll make you happy, it’ll do all this. And it’s the same technique that we’re seeing in all these pro, ultra processed foods. Also, because they also like fill up the packaging, what Zain has said, that you put these animals, they also get like famous people that maybe like your influencers that you like, to sponsor that product.
Now let’s say if I like Mr. Beast, and now if I see Mr. Beast that I’m gonna buy it. But and they just keep using that method to hook you in. And I love how Zain mentioned, you know, vaping and stuff. Because actually, and this is really interesting, apparently we did research back in the 2000’s when the tobacco industry was failing because, you know, these guideline reg, restrictions came out. RJ Reynolds and Philip Morgan, they actually bought certain companies, food companies, now that we know, like Nabisco and Kraft, and they started to implement their same techniques that they used for tobacco, the, and cigarettes and they started to implement into the food. And so even though that was like, what, 10, 20, 25 years ago, the shadow of the big, the shadow of the big tobacco industry is still looming on us today.
And so that’s why when I was going into this, it was absolutely crazy. Because for decades, massive food companies, like I mentioned like Kraft and Kellogg’s, they’ve started to make trillions off the manipulation of food science and food scientists and ultimately us. And so I was, I needed to know, I was researching this and I wanted to know what their goal was. And for those listening, their goal is much like tobacco companies, I know you guys were around during that era, to do and say whatever they can to get us to buy their product repeatedly until it’s no longer a want, but a need. And they’ve, I can safely say I think they success, they’ve successfully done that. We’ve been brainwashed into thinking that this is how we should eat, that we need this, when really it’s these food companies that are hijacking the system, hijacking our brains, and really forcing us to think in this way.
Katie: So many good points. And like you guys said, when we can reframe it and easily feel the difference between ultra processed foods, like anybody who’s ever maybe opened a bag of potato chips and seen how easily you can just keep eating those. I don’t know of anybody who’s ever like accidentally eaten like two pounds of raw carrots, for instance, like our body has natural feedback loops when it comes to real food that tell us when we’ve gotten enough of it.
And these things get overridden by these ultra processed foods. It’s literally like chemically hijacking our bodies. And you guys touched on this a little bit, but I love that you guys don’t wait for the adults to solve the problem. So I would love to hear you speak to kids and teens specifically on why kids especially need to wake up to save our future and save our planet, because I actually, like I said in our first episode, I’m really inspired by your generation. And my oldest son said something similar when I had him on my podcast years ago, and I was talking about the environment, and he’s like, mom, you’ve got, you’ve got the question all wrong.
It’s not whether or not we save the environment. It’s whether or not we get to stay here because the environment is a self-correcting organism. We get to make the decision if we keep living here or not. And that was a really sobering reminder. But speak to why you guys feel like this change can really come from kids and teens and why that’s so important.
Holistic Kids: We teens are the future. Who are the people that are going to be working and creating those, who are gonna be the… Who are gonna be the people who are gonna be creating, who are gonna be in the workforce, in the army, who are gonna be the people who are building all these houses, building the cities. All of these is the next generation. We are the next generation. We are the next lawyers, the next doctors, the next businessmen, the next engineers. And if we don’t start now, then our, the entire future generation can be ruined. Mm-hmm. Because yeah, that’s what Zain was about to mention. Zain, you were… I was gonna say that like, the people who are, who are brainwashing us, they’re not gonna be around.
They’re not gonna be here. They can’t live forever. They’re not gonna be here while we’re suffering, while we’re in the workforce. They’re trying to make us suffer. It’s like they’re putting all this on us. Because they just stopped caring about their world. We need to start caring about our future.
We need to start caring about our generation. Because this is a problem that is mainly gonna affect us and the next generations after us. And that’s why no matter, no matter how much the adults ignore this, their time is up. Basically. We are ready to take center stage because this is our life and our future.
We’re ready to take that light. You know, like I like to say that torch to blaze a trail for us and we can create a better future. But we need to get off our devices. We need to start thinking for ourselves. We need to start having full control over our lives again. And we need to start taking action today.
Katie: Oh, I love it. Well, let’s start there then. What are some of the things that kids and teens can do, nourishing foods they can start choosing that help their gut microbiome and keep that healthy, stabilize their blood sugar, and save the planet? What are some of those first steps?
Holistic Kids: So really just like what we did is that we didn’t get, we didn’t take through all, like we didn’t get rid of all gluten. We wouldn’t get rid of all GMOs just straight. We went like one down the next and maybe then in a couple days we do the next one, because if you do it all at once, you’re not gonna be able to succeed. It’s too hard. Mm-hmm. So we just could do, maybe that’d be really easy just to do no GMO’s… Step by step. Yeah. Then maybe start doing or maybe, or maybe only organic and like organics. And then also go down the list, eat real food and keep that gut healthy, nutrient dense and stabilizes blood sugar. Yes. That’s why I was saying step by step. Yeah. Like we didn’t automatically go from eating McDonald’s. Like I remember 10, 15 years ago, I used to love going to McDonald’s, Sprite, Coca-Cola. They’re my favorite drinks. Mm-hmm. We went after 10 years of researching and looking up what we need for our bodies, we started cutting things out of our life.
When we realized fast food was a problem, we started to cut fast food. When we started realizing that these artificial flavors and colors and stuff were effecting our body negatively, we cut those out. It wasn’t immediately, it was like Zain said, step by step by step. And that’s, anyone can do that.
Mm-hmm. Anyone can say today that we, I no longer wanna go out to eat fast food. We don’t. We can reject McDonald’s, reject Burger King. These people, these industries that are trying to hijack our lives, make easy swaps. You know, I used to love Flaming Hot Cheetos, okay? Mm-hmm. I used to love the sensation of getting it on my fingers, you know, eating it…
But now there’s so much better version that taste exactly like that. But they’re actually not destroying your gut. They’re not made to keep you addicted. They’re just made for you to have a little treat. So, swaps, like let’s say you always have candy, right? You can swap to organic candy because there’s so many other options than just not organic candy. Or same with chips. So many other options as chips. And that actually, I know definitely we’ve all heard this, I, our life sounds depressing when you just say it like that, but then we actually, we eat ice cream, we eat pizza, we eat candy. We have things that kids enjoy. Like that’s why I would like, I know it’s definitely right Zain, people in our class, like you only eat vegetables all day.
We eat vegetables, but we also have treats we have to have there. We have so much food that we can eat. We, anytime we want something, we just find an alternative. Mm-hmm. And we live in a country a hundred per, we’re so blessed. We live in a country where you can find that kind of food.
We just have to go out and find it. And people say, oh, you have to go Whole Foods to get this kind of stuff. No, Walmart, Costco, get real food. Yeah. It’s not that hard. Like, berries are so delicious, like mm-hmm. So much like each color helps in its own way. Blueberries help with the brain. Like, especially like blue foods help with the brain. Orange foods help with beta carotene and alpha carotene. Which helps your eyes. Yeah. Which helps your eyes. Yeah. And so much things help. You just have to find it. Yeah. Like there’s certain brands out there that if you like crackers, do you like chips. There’s amazing brands out there that have organic chips and organic crackers, and I remember that we brought them to our classmates and stuff, and we were like, try this.
And they tried it and they were like, oh my God, this tastes even better than the other stuff. They run the same. They like it, they actually like it. They like it actually a lot more. Because it doesn’t taste so fake. It tastes like the same. But now you remove all of these artificial things, so it tastes like you’re eating real food that tastes just as good as that. Like Zain, remember you brought it to lunch one day, you brought the chips and everybody was asking you for them. Oh, yeah. Yeah. I barely even got it. Everyone was eating it. And that’s why this, that’s why we, something we always love to remember is that every single food, this is the core of our beliefs, every single food should have a purpose.
Mm-hmm. Everything that we eat should have a purpose. Vegetables. It shouldn’t destroy us. Fiber, eat like blueberries for brain powers. Vegetables are fiber and protein for energy. And even what, like dark chocolate. Dark chocolate has so many benefits. Polyphenols. Polyphenols. Yeah. Honey, you have even, you know. Like, and then Emaad, like your favorite thing? Yeah. Sulforaphane, you can have broccoli sprouts, broccoli sprouts is packed with sulforaphane, which has glutathione, which helps detoxification.
Mm-hmm. And broccoli sprouts, they’re really tiny. They don’t even actually taste like anything. You can put it in like, let’s say your pasta, like our mom does, we figure it out. You don’t, yeah. You don’t taste anything. But the… like in the smoothies… the effects on your body is huge. Like, imagine if you were to go out and get a burger and not feel bad after. Like, that’s how, like some people when they first start doing this, they’re amazed that when you have a burger, your stomach doesn’t have to hate you after, it doesn’t have, you don’t have to feel bad after about having something like that.
Mm-hmm. Because it’s actually new. It’s like, it’s, it’s nourishing your body. Yes. And that… Yeah, like when Zain makes lunches, he starts with… Yeah. I mean when I, whenever I would make lunches, I said, and like, I’ve been making lunches since fifth grade. It’s really simple to just understand the list. So what is the list?
Yeah. So before we’re ever hungry, mom was, especially when we were younger, our mom was like, what are you hungry? Go down the list. So now we’re gonna be like… Qasim do you want to tell them the list? Vegetables, clean protein, healthy fat, and then carbs. Yeah. And then carbs.
So I use this technique in lunches. So vegetable as the delicious appetizer to get you refreshed. And then protein as the main course. This is the what you’re gonna mainly eat. This is what’s gonna make you full. So and then carb or healthy fat is what’s going to, it’s a nice treat to conclude everything. So now you can use this easily to create a perfectly well balanced lunches and it actually is really helpful. So now you can, now you can be really strong and be really smart the rest of your school day. We have so much energy. The amount of times, you know, my classmates and peers, that’s like, how do you have so much energy at the end of the day is crazy because they don’t have, we see how easily our classmates and peers crash after eating these kinds of foods for, especially for lunch. Mm-hmm.
Katie: And I would love to hear what are some of your, I know you guys are deeply involved in food prep in your house and you talked in our first episode about how you actually have a very, like real contributions to your family and to your household and to keeping things organized and with the food prep. So you mentioned school lunches and I know from following your mom on Instagram, you guys also help out with other food prep in the house.
What are some tips there for, especially protein sources for school lunches? I feel like that can be a tough one for some people, especially when they’re just switching because to your point, when you go from not getting enough protein and then you start getting enough protein, it almost feels like you got like jet fuel.
You have so much energy and especially for kids and teens. You guys are in such a amazing high energy demand phase of life while you’re building all your skeletal muscle and bones. So what are your tips for like really helping hit that protein to get that energy level and have that untapped energy like you guys have?
Holistic Kids: Have it with every meal. So when you’re going to eat a meal, don’t just only take one. Let’s say if you’re only gonna have a salad in the meal, right? Mm-hmm. Which is, it’s healthy, but you’re not getting everything you need. You also need a little bit of protein. So maybe putting some meat or putting some beans in the salad.
Mm-hmm. Or let’s say if you’re just gonna have chicken, maybe on the side of the chicken you can have like a little bit of brussels sprouts. Just, or even nuts. Or even nuts. Something that you, let’s say like eating. Like, let’s say if you don’t really like brussel sprouts, there’s so much more delicious vegetables that you can have that are also so helpful. Mm-hmm. If you eat diverse foods, it’s like easy. And you’re talking about protein, things that you know, like fill you up. Because obviously maybe a salad’s not gonna a hundred percent fill you up. Right. Stuff, even simple stuff like avocados, nuts, cashews, almonds, there’s so many things to choose from.
Beans if you’re… healthy fats… Yeah. Healthy fats. And there’s so many options. Even if you’re not, you don’t eat meat as well. Mm-hmm. And you know, like the simple things like fish, chicken, you know, all that kind of stuff. They’re really easy to make actually. Mm-hmm. All you need to do is just put some seasonings on it and just stick it in oven. Yeah. And then now you have this delicious, yeah, now you have this delicious meal. You don’t, yeah. It’s really easy actually. So. Yeah Qasim that’s why when we, any time that we have a meal and we’re trying to figure out what kind of protein we need, honestly, what we just do is we think, okay, what is going to nourish us the best? Maybe if I just had a bunch of, you know, maybe I just had some kind of meat example, or I just had a big meal, maybe as a snack, instead of grabbing a Doritos or grabbing some chips, we can grab something simple like nuts.
Mm-hmm. Right. Just take a handful of, you know, a handful of cashews or almonds. It sounds really depressing, but it’s really not. You just have to retrain our brains to properly enjoy and eat these foods again. Because this is our nature. Our nature is not to have these hyper palatable foods, that, our nature is to eat the foods we were meant to eat.
Mm-hmm. Food that came from the ground, food that had, were exposed to sunshine, food that was exposed to soil, food that is actually meant for our bodies to consume. Mm-hmm.
Katie: And I know you guys cover that in so much detail in your book, and you also go into all these topics on your podcast. I will of course link to these in the show notes, but please tell people about your book a little bit and where they can find you if they wanna keep learning from you.
Holistic Kids: So for the past couple years we’ve been working on our book and it’s actually coming up November, like this November, November 13th. Yeah. So definitely check that out. And it’s already on Amazon, like you can pre-order it on Amazon. It’s already a bestselling, which is amazing. We are so, because now people are actually taking the time to get this book, like they’re wanting to get this book.
Now we can empower this next generation. We’re so thankful that everyone’s doing this. And that we can also find it in Barnes and Nobles, there’s also like you can pre preorder it there and the Bloomsburg Publishing like you can, there’s so much places you can find it and. And that’s what, yeah, there’s, there’s three sections.
Mm-hmm. On like, so there’s why, like, why teens are suffering. Mm-hmm. There’s teens can be empowered with like, with the, there’s the revolu, and then there’s the revolution as well. Mm-hmm. Right? Zain, you wanna go through like, the revolution. So the revolution is… We have abbreviations for each and every single chapter.
So it’s an abbreviation. We go through every single letter. So R, so R, which is revolutionize the gut, E eating real food, V vanquishing toxins, O optimizing stress management, L loving nature, U uniting with others, T tech limits, I investing in Sleep, O open to gratitude and purpose, and N navigate your decisions with mindfulness. And then after that, obviously you need some practical self, right? Yeah. Because the teen, the modern age, this world is kind of difficult to navigate. So we have these tips and these chapters to help teens navigate through the physical and mental self. Yeah. So we have, we go through over 20 chronic conditions that teens are especially dealing with today.
Mm-hmm. Like acne, I know a hundred like teens are trying to find all different ways to get rid of the acne when it’s really simple. Switch to eating real food. We go through digestive issues, mood disorders, how to use an integrative approach to like add to your conventional care, which we got our mom’s help for that, who’s a doctor. So she went through all of that, added all of the the health benefits and what to do from a doctor standpoint. Mm-hmm. And then we have simple stuff that anyone can introduce into their day-to-day life. Mm-hmm. We have recipes, right. Shopping lists and amazing pictures that are drawn by Zain and we are gonna plug that a little bit more, and so much more.
And we batch it by back fact, chance, fact fact-checked it from like 200 people. People from, yeah. Best selling authors, doctors, Harvard professors. And we use all of these quotes and all of their tips and to put it in our book. Because we’re just teens, they’re all experts. So now we have expert knowledge that we’ve done 2, oh like, 200 episodes of podcast.
Now we’re using this in our book, so it’s, they can get like expert advice and a teen approach with teen advice. Yeah. Like we say, for teens by teens. And this book is I what we feel that we’ve created this book because it’s a way for teens to take back control of their lives. Mm-hmm. Obviously, it’s gonna be a journey.
We’re not telling anyone to switch a hundred percent to a hundred percent of something else. Mm-hmm. We want them to take it easy, step by step. At least make an effort because like they say, once you start and you make it a habit, that’s really all that matters. And that’s all we really want. Mm-hmm.
Katie: Well, I love it and I will, oh, go ahead…
Holistic Kids: So, and like Zain was, Zain was about to say, but I think he got, he forgot. But listening, you know, we want this book to help teens understand their body. You know, listen to their body, listen to their emotions, and work on becoming an adult. I think that’s also really big. Mm-hmm. And build the life you love. Be present, grateful and mindful. That’s our three biggest things along with food.
Katie: I love it. It’s such an inspiration. I’ll of course link to that in the show notes along with links to your podcast so that kids and teens can find you and follow you and learn from you. And like I said, I have so much hope for your guys’ generation, for these, this upcoming generation. I feel like you guys are ahead of the curve, and so many in your generation are, and I love that you’re creating resources directly for your peers to help that without relying on adults to make the change.
That gives me so much hope. I’m so grateful. It’s been an absolute joy to talk to you today. Thank you so much for being here, for this work that you do and for all that you’ve shared.
Holistic Kids: It is our pleasure. Thank you so much. And I just wanna leave with at least a big one last thing that you can take home. Mm-hmm. That anyone can remember. We need to create a ripple effect for change. There is so much goodness in the world. There is so much that unites us. Together we can create change. Us teens and teens all around the world are on a journey. We are discovering ourselves, learning how we fit into the world. We are also on the journey with you. We have ups and downs.
Our good days and bad days, life stresses will throw us off path. Place hurdles that we need to climb. Just we need to get back on path. We need to create a revolution, a revolution. And that’s why you get to choose how you show up at school. You get to choose how you feel. You get to choose to have your emotions all over the place, or whether you feel grounded, happy, and focused. This is your choice. You have the choice to have courage to stand up for yourself by taking care of your body, mind, and souls.
We, it gives that gives you the power. And that’s courage. Like that’s why courage comes from having power. We need to become leaders. We need to create that ripple effect, right Zain? We need to create that ripple effect, that for change and to change the world. The world needs you. So how you show up in the world matters and there’s so much in your control.
Katie: Wow. Perfectly said. And like I said, will be linked in the show notes. Thanks to you guys again, thanks to all of you for listening and sharing your most valuable resources, your time, your energy, and your attention with all of us today. We’re so grateful that you did, and I hope that you will join me again on the next episode of the Wellness Mama Podcast.
Leave a Reply