Episode 175: Aging Well Begins in Childhood--Diet

In this episode, Dr. Armstrong and Corbin Bruton take a closer look at the Mediterranean Diet and its potential benefits for children and teens. Drawing from a recent study published in JAMA Network Open, they discuss how Mediterranean Diet interventions can promote cardiometabolic health in younger populations. The conversation covers the essential elements of the diet, its impact on growth and development, and practical strategies for parents to make this healthy lifestyle appealing to their kids. Tune in to learn how starting these habits early can set the stage for a lifetime of wellness and… aging well.

Links:
"Mediterranean Diet Good for Kids, Teens Too"
“Mediterranean Diet and Cardiometabolic Biomarkers in Children and Adolescents: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis” 

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Transcript

0:13

Welcome to the Aging Well podcast. I'm Jeff Armstrong here with Corbin Bruton. In this and the episodes that follow, we will share candid discussions on aging and hear from the experts. We are here to inform and encourage as we experience, well, aging. In this episode, we explore the benefits of the Mediterranean diet for children and teens. A recent meta analysis in JAMA Network Open highlights how this diet can optimize cardio metabolic health in young people. We examine the key components of the Mediterranean diet and provide practical tips for parents to incorporate these healthy eating habits into their children's lives and help them to age well.

corbin-bruton_1_08-10-2024_072229: 0:53

So, Dr. Armstrong, we often recommend the Mediterranean diet for aging well. We also suggest that aging well begins at birth. the Mediterranean diet for children?

squadcaster-b8gb_1_08-10-2024_072231: 1:05

Actually, I think we stressed that aging well begins at conception, maybe before. The question of whether the meta training guide is good for children is a really good topic for discussion. As a matter of fact, there was a recent meta analysis published in JAMA Network Open that addresses that very question. That study was Mediterranean Diet, A Cardiometabolic Biomarker in Children and Adolescents, A Systematic Review and Meta Analysis. was by Lopez, Gill and others. Published in July of 2024. And not surprisingly, the researchers conclude that there is evidence to suggest that the Mediterranean diet quote unquote interventions may be useful tools to optimize metabolic health among children and adolescents. It's really interesting that they used the term intervention. Isn't it like a diet is a treatment rather than a lifestyle? But let's talk about how the Mediterranean diet can contribute to a healthy lifestyle in children. This has been my four. Aging well. Yeah, I think a series on aging well begins in childhood is warranted. Sounds like a plan. Uh, diet is a really great place to start. So, remind the listeners, what is the Mediterranean diet? The Mediterranean diet is a nutritional plan inspired by the traditional dietary patterns of countries bordering the Mediterranean Sea. So, countries like Italy, Greece, and Spain. It emphasizes a high intake of fruits, vegetables, whole grains, legumes, nuts, and vegetables. and olive oil while moderating the intake of fish and poultry and limiting red meats and sweets. The regular listener will recall that this diet is known for its potential benefits including reduced risk of heart disease and improved overall longevity. Yeah, it kind of seems like the Mediterranean diet is the Mediterranean diet. The, the, the go to, of all, the best diet there is, really. Well, I mean, I think there is some room for discussion in that and there are other diets out there that can be healthy, but I think overall. the general theme and the contributions to the foods that are in the Mediterranean diet are really what make it the healthiest. And so we're really looking not necessarily at specifically Greek, Italian, Mediterranean style foods, but the components of the food that are being eaten in those regions. Okay, so if it's just for individuals that are eating the foods in that region, is it only good for individuals of that region, or at least descendants of that region, or can it be up for grabs for anyone? Certainly there's no real evidence out there, we hear a lot of these genetic, these DNA tests that are supposed to tell you which diet is best for you. There's no real indication that it is linked genetically. There are other diets, and I think maybe we should do an episode at some point on the Nordic diet, which is another diet that is becoming popularized for overall health benefits. But it's the types of foods that we're eating in those types of diets. When we look at, what are the types of fruits, vegetables, grains, legumes, and things like that, that the Mediterranean's are eating, and how are those beneficial to the overall health? We know that olive oil, very high in omega 3 fatty acids, is one of the healthiest fats that we can consume. And so we see that Mediterranean tend to consume a lot of olive oil in their foods. We look at legumes, particularly lentils is a very popular dish among, some of the Mediterranean cuisines. Those are very healthy in terms of providing protein fiber and other nutrients that are great for heart health. As well as reducing risk of cancers and many other things. So it's just overall really good for the health. You look at fruits and vegetables. What are some of the fruits and vegetables of the Mediterranean that tend to be, a bit more popularized? We have a lot more citrus fruits. You have you know, vegetables that, a lot of tomatoes, which are really high in nutrients that are going to help prevent heart disease and some of those other things. So it's really just that type that just happens to be in the Mediterranean area. Yeah. Speaking of omegas we had a guest on not too long ago and they started talking about the benefits of omegas. And I've actually incorporated a lot more omega 3s in my diet and yeah, my liver enzymes are dropping. I did some blood work and remember how they couldn't figure out what was going on with my liver? Whatever's going on with The omega is my liver enzymes are definitely dropping down. So there's definitely some science to that. That's good. And I think it just underscores a little bit what we've been talking about the health benefits of the Mediterranean diet. So I guess some of the important things to talk about her. How are these incorporated into meals for kids. And one thing that really blows me away with the whole study is duh, it's, of course it's going to be beneficial for children and teens. Why do we suddenly find importance in a healthy diet? Once we hit 30, 40 years of age or older, it's heart disease and things like that. The risks start really ramping up. We suddenly have to start eating a Mediterranean diet. It just makes logical sense to me that if the Longevity, reducing the risk of heart disease, and so on. Why would it not be beneficial for children? I think it's really beneficial. Obviously it's incredibly beneficial. I think it's just a matter of perhaps parents just don't have the right the luxury to sit down and have their kids eat, some chicken breast or some broccoli because kids are really picky and instead they want a peanut butter and jelly sandwich and some juice and some macaroni and cheese and fruit roll ups and everything filled with high fructose corn syrup, and I know that's not a excuse, but man we've babysat for a couple kids and they You do your best to try and get them to eat as healthy as possible and you try and make it fun and you're like Oh, look at this piece of broccoli. Oh, man. I'm a giant and this is a tree. I'm Trying to make it fun and exciting to eat healthy food, but Little kids they're it's almost as if high fructose corn syrup It creates a habit of addiction at a young age, and I think that habit of addiction is hard to break and we recognize it in our 30s and 40s and even later saying, Ah, I don't want to, I don't want to feel this way anymore. I don't want to look this way. I want to feel good when I eat my food. I don't want to just like I don't want to feel the satisfaction on my taste buds. I want to eat this as a fuel source to energize my body. Our eating habits are really trained, and it's a complicated situation, I think, for parents these days, because we do have issues with accessibility. We have issues with affordability. We have issues with just time. We're parents are so busy and we're also loading so much more on kids and we have youth sports and you got to get them to practices and these practices at the oddest times because now you can't sit down and have the more traditional family dinner, everybody at the table and eating in a way that is both physiologically and sociologically healthy. So we're always rushing and so it's microwave, fast food and all that other kind of crap. I remember, my son started when he played soccer in kindergarten. There was so little time and I had to get something in him and we'd stop at McDonald's and I hated that. And, we tried to find alternatives and eventually really did. And I've gotten my kids to the point now where they don't like McDonald's or really any fast food. And and that's, and I don't want to just pick on McDonald's. It's just McDonald's is the one that, we tend to refer to. But a lot of it is just How do we change the habits of American people, make these foods accessible because we can eat them as adults. Why the heck can't the kids eat it? And we just get in part we get lazy, so there's that component of parent that is just lazy and it's quick and easy to just appease the kid by throwing some chicken nuggets in the microwave, throwing them on a plate, giving them a glass of pop or juice or something. And put an iPad in front of them and they're satisfied and we can go about doing what we have to do. Or we pack school lunches. It drives me insane to see that people would actually send their kids to school with those lunchables. It's really, are you that pressed for time or that lazy that you can't, even match that by just pulling out some Ritz crackers, cutting some cheese up, putting a few little vegetables in the lunchbox and sending them off to school? Not that's a healthy lunch, but if you're going to send them to lunch with those kind of processed, pre prepared lunch, quote unquote lunches, Now my, this is the nice thing with video is my air quotes can now be seen but it's just like, why would we do that? There are healthier choices, and it's, there are ways to incorporate a Mediterranean diet into our lifestyles that doesn't take a lot of time to prepare. Obviously, people in the Mediterranean have the same time challenges that we have. There are still people who have, lower socioeconomic statuses, and so they may be working multiple jobs trying to provide for their kids. It's not something that's totally unique to the U. S. It's just I think our food industry has made it easy for us to gravitate toward the unhealthy foods for Children, and that's where they end up getting them addicted and hooked on all these crappy processed foods. early in life, so they continue that. And so it's really just when we start introducing foods to kids. Kids don't pop out of the womb wanting processed foods. They don't reject the breast milk for processed bottled milk, or whatever formulas and things like that are out there. Now they're trained to select the foods that they pick. They're going to eat what's accessible to them. And even if we educate Children about the health benefits of a Mediterranean diet, that kid's going to come home and say, Hey, mom and dad, I want to eat the Mediterranean diet because I heard it's healthy and it's going to help me grow better. I'll get stronger. I'll have a better brain function and all these types of things. And the parents are like, shut up and eat your Doritos. It's, they're going to have to eat what the parents are providing. And so we have to change the mindset of parents and we have to recognize that what we are putting into the bodies of our children is having long term effects on them, both in the habits that they form as well as their health status. We're setting kids up to either age well or not age well based on what we're feeding them in their childhood. Okay, so what are the key components of the Mediterranean diet and how can they be incorporated into meals for children and teens? Again, it's, going back to just healthy fruits and vegetables, not hard to put that into kids meals. And, again, fruits and vegetables don't have to be elaborate, and they don't have to necessarily be from the Mediterranean. We have, we live in the United States, where we have an abundance of food in this country. We throw away more food than most countries even consume. That's true. And what are the available fruits? And what, what's on the cheaper end? If it's a matter of affordability, what is the best quality fruits and vegetables that you can get? to give to your child to give them some of those nutrients. Frozen vegetables can allow us for some convenience and allow us for freshness and things like that. Because a lot of times we're throwing away fruit and vegetables because we think, okay, our kids are gonna eat this broccoli and then they don't eat it sits in the refrigerator and rots. Actually broccoli stays pretty well in the refrigerator for quite a while. Same with things like carrots, so buying those healthy, most nutrient dense fruits and vegetables. I think carrots and broccoli are two of the best go to vegetables because they are very sustainable. They're generally pretty local. They keep their little bit easier for kids to enjoy. And maybe you have to, jazz up the vegetables a little bit for kids to eat them. Maybe they have to be dipping them in some ranch dressing. Can we concede a little bit on the perfect health benefits of the Mediterranean diet by, doing some of the more Americanized treatment of the foods in order to get kids to eat them. But if we get them to eat their vegetables early and start liking them, then they get used to them. I remember as a kid, my mom used to make eggplant parmesan and it took me forever to get my palate to like eggplant. But you know what? My parents made me eat it. It was either that or go hungry. And eventually, I started to acquire a better taste for it. Same with Brussels sprouts. Took me years to really acquire a taste for Brussels sprouts. But, as a kid I remember like holding my nose and shoving them down my throat trying to get them eaten so that I can leave the table and go do what I want to do. And a lot of times we caved to the temperaments of our children to make it easier on ourselves. And we have to buckle down as parents and say, no, you're gonna eat your vegetables and there's not gonna be anything else. And we're not gonna allow you to, have a snack tonight or you're not gonna get dessert or, there are different ways that we can entice a child that they have to eat their vegetables and whole grains are not really that hard to get. But maybe instead of feeding a kid fruit loops for breakfast, make them oatmeal and it might even be okay. You have to stretch it a little bit initially with maybe the instant oatmeal is that have the different flavorings in them, but try and begin to ease them more toward better quality choices of those grains. Legumes. Lentil soups even just lentils as a side. There's many other beans that we can include in meals. Those are fairly easy to make large pots of those and, serve them up each meal throughout the week. Nuts, that should be a go to snack instead of pulling out cookies and candies and chips and things like that. I'd rather kid, be going for nuts. And, again, there's different types of nuts out there and some are more expensive than others. Some might be a little bit more enjoyable, And more, on a more individualized level, some people like certain nuts better than others. Find what your kid likes and, it's pretty easy to pack a little Ziploc bag in their school lunch, throw some nuts in there for them to snack on rather than a little bag of chips. olive oil. That's easy to incorporate that into a lot of our meals. Our kids need protein. Just make the best possible protein choices that we could make. It's the Mediterranean diet limits red meat. So red meat is generally the most expensive meat. So if we're limiting that, then it's gonna be a little bit cheaper. Certain fish are more expensive than others. But, find what is the most affordable. accessible, the most affordable and go with that. Chicken is generally one of the cheaper meats. And so eating that, but remembering that eating poultry is not eating chicken nuggets. It's eating chicken breast, eating chicken tenders, and it may be rather than getting. The chicken nuggets, you buy frozen chicken tenders that you can throw in as a snack. And those are a little bit better, the breading might not be as good, and you got a little bit of processing in there. But, again, easing toward having a much better, more effective Mediterranean style diet. Now, are you saying go for nuts as a better option because aren't nuts more in calories due to the fat content? And are you saying go that route because individuals aren't necessarily going to be getting their red meat and so they're not that additional fat? Or are you just saying, no, nuts are a way healthier option, period. Both, your, the fats that you're getting in your nuts are going to be much more healthier than the fats that we would get in red meat. and calorically. Okay. Yes, we're starting to see a rise in childhood obesity. But what's driving that rise in childhood obesity? Is it over consumption of fats? Partially, but that's gonna be from poor fats as opposed to healthy fats Right. were seeing in Children. 10 and under now starting to see more fatty streaks in their blood vessels because of the elevated levels of both, bad types of cholesterol and fats in the diet, too high of sugar and, vascular damage that leads to those streaks building up. And so incorporating healthy fats, first of all, they're going to be fuller. They're not going to be over consuming those. Whereas if, Lay's Potato Chips has made a brand of saying, you can't eat just one. There's a reason you can't eat just one is because the flavoring, the salt, the fats. Stuff that they add to those, and this is not just picking on Lay's, it's like the foods that are promoted as snack foods for kids have that quality that causes them to want to eat more and more of them. And so we always are going to overindulge in many of these processed, high fatty, high sugar foods, whereas it's hard to really overindulge in nuts. And if you are you really doing harm to your body? I could sit down. I can chow through nuts and I'd probably get my excess calories from eating too much nuts, but they're healthier and they're much more satisfying and they're going to fill me more than sitting down with a bag of chips. So it's a much healthier snack. And then as far as like the grains and the oatmeal go, is there a concern with the type of grains that we have here in America being so genetically modified? Or is that just throw that out the door, but because obviously with the Mediterranean diet, it does talk about taking in whole grains and stuff. I think that a lot of people's concerns as far as eating oatmeal or whole grains in America is our grains are so genetically modified that a lot of people they it causes more damage to the body. And I what are your thoughts on that? I really have not seen any evidence that most genetic modification of foods is harmful. I think we get really freaked out over that. Honestly, if you think of how we. Modify strains of certain things naturally. We're genetically modifying them. If it's done in a lab which probably not quite as often done as people tend to think, but there are benefits to some of the modifications that have been done to our grains and things like that in terms of making them can grow more of them. They are a little bit more resistant to maybe the pesticides and resistant to different bugs and things like that might, harm the harvest. And so it, Actually, some of that genetic modification allows for greater food accessibility. And I think that's a whole nother discussion. But if somebody is really that concerned over genetic modifications, In grains, they're labeled, non GMO. So look for that on the label. Look for organic. And organic grains are not that much more expensive than, just other grains. Buy within an affordable quality. When it comes down to affordability and trying to make choices that are going to be healthier for my kids that whole decision of GMO versus non GMO when you're comparing it to healthy grains versus processed grains and, processed cereals and high fructose corn syrup in the cereals and all that kind of stuff. It's such a moot argument. There's just not a lot of reason to think that, we're doing so much harm to our kids by having GMOs. When the majority of their food intake is processed and has so many other chemicals and things in it that are far worse for them than anything that a genetic modification might be doing. well, are there specific nutrients that the Mediterranean diet brings to the table that are particularly of importance for young people? Pretty much brings all of the nutrients that are important for young people. You think of any nutrients that we discussed, all the vitamins, minerals, the carbohydrates, proteins, fats, all of those are essential to children. Children are developing. And that's when we want children to be getting the best possible nutrition so that their bodies grow properly and healthy and their brains are developing. And so the Mediterranean diet is chock full of all those healthy nutrients that a child needs to develop. And again, it takes me back to why do we emphasize it so much for adults? And not worry about the diets of our children and think that, just throwing a bunch of processed, low nutrient, dense foods at them is going to allow them to develop well and healthy and age well. How does the Mediterranean diet benefit the growth and development of children and teens? Again it's providing them with the healthy nutrients a complete balance of nutrients. It is going to be healthier amounts of protein and better quality protein, and we've talked recently about amino acids and their roles. Getting that balance of essential amino acids, getting the branched chain amino acids that their bodies need to develop, getting fiber and, healthy nutrient dense foods are fueling the brain, it's fueling the body. And it is less likely, and we've seen that the Mediterranean diet tends to maintain a healthier body composition overall than other diets, and certainly the American diet and our highly processed diet. And it's going to allow healthy calories to be getting into the body for the body to grow, for the brain to be receiving the nutrients that it needs to, allow for better education better knowledge growth and things like that. It's also going to be a little bit better for sleep and allow children to get more quality sleep so that their bodies can recover and their brains can recover and they're ready for school the next day. They're ready for their physical activities and all those types of things. I just, there's no negatives to feeding children a Mediterranean diet. There are countless. negatives to maintaining a more traditional American diet for kids. Now, does that mean that we have to deny our kids, some of the things that we, you know, an American diet that we tend to like hamburgers and pizza and some of those types of things. No, I think we talked enough about on this podcast about how part of aging well is enjoying life and it doesn't have to be totally restrictive to the point where, we get extra years in our life within the most miserable years of our life because we're having to eat crap, not crappy food, but eating unpalatable foods and we're eating boring foods and all we do is exercise and count calories. Not drink alcohol. And of course, kids, as we're talking about kids, they should not be consuming alcohol. And that could be a whole nother piece of, as we look at the Mediterranean diet. But I think it's important that we just understand that these are the most formidable years. And that first age is when the body is developing, the brain is developing. That should be the period of time in our lives when our diets are most important. And we tend to put less effort into our child's diets than we put into our own diets. Yeah I don't know. I know you say that, it's okay to eat a cheeseburger every now and then or a piece of pizza every now and then, but after listening to Dr. Farrow when we were interviewing him on the stress that pizza causes on the body, I've stayed away from pizza. I just, it just woke me up a little bit and you have no idea. that there's an entire There's an entire stress system that happens when we eat and so he really opened my eyes on that one He luckily he didn't say anything about cheeseburgers. So I feel like i'm good there but pizza itself. Whoo But I also think that was, if I recall correctly, that conversation, that was a stressor for him. It's not always going to be a stressor for everybody. And we have to balance that stress, right? And, do you want to be that kid whose parents Won't let them go to parties because they're serving pizza or, they're, they have to, they're forced to eat a vegetarian diet or, they're forced to not eat some of the things that, they go to school and they're having a birthday party or something and they can't have cake. They have to have, healthy snacks or something like that. And so they're sitting there, everybody's eating cake and they're, they're sliced apples. what they're munching on. We got to understand that we're, we have to balance our kids healthy diets with what's going to be available, what the social implications are going to be for all this. Now, ideally, we want to see everybody eating a more Mediterranean diet, but I guarantee kids in the Mediterranean are having cake once in a while and they're having desserts. Pizza is an Italian dish. Come on. And so How do we make those pizzas? What's the quality? And what are we putting on the pizzas? And we can kind of balance that all out. Yeah, hamburger is not going to be very good for the body physiologically either. But, you can make it healthy. And you have, the meat. You have, maybe you make a better choice in terms of the dairy that's put on there. Throw some vegetables on there. Healthy grain bread. Good. Yeah, we can manage these things that we strike a balance in the kids diet so that they're not socially isolated because they're eating too healthy of a diet. And if we totally restrict kids to of some of the foods and beverages and things that are out there, first opportunity they have to access that, they're going to go crazy on it because they want to try it. And, we could actually totally destroy their lifelong dietary habits because we were overly restricted with them as a child. And as they get into that second age where they have that freedom, they're going to make their own choices and they're going to say, screw what my parents taught me. This tastes better. I'm going to do this. So it's a balance of really educating them. And why are we eating these foods? How? Why are they healthy? Teaching them that actually the taste of these foods can be a lot better than these other foods. We experienced this as adults as we start to shift away from some of the highly processed, really crappy foods that we eat and we start eating healthier. It's hard to go back to those crappier foods. I find it very difficult to eat most like store bought processed cookies and stuff like that, like an Oreo or something like that, that is, it's really? There's what I used to eat this and I used to like this. This, it just tastes too sweet. There's just no real flavor to it. And so our palates begin to adjust to the foods that we give them. And ultimately the kids are going to start making healthier choices if they're educated Why they should be eating these foods and they're introduced to them in a way that makes them more enjoyable rather than Punitive. I guess I mean you answered my next question but I was going to ask can parents encourage children and teens to adopt the Mediterranean diet in a way that's appealing to them? I think it's by example and anybody that's eaten a true Mediterranean diet. That's great food I love like Italian and Greek food and things like that and so it's finding those healthier choices that the kids are going to enjoy and not making it punishment make it enjoyable You I think probably one of the reasons why I think myself, I was able to enjoy more healthier foods, a variety of Mediterranean foods and things. I was introduced to that stuff a lot when I was younger. We used to go out to more ethnic restaurants and Pittsburgh was a great place for those. I remember I think it was Omar Khayyams was the name of the restaurant. It was a Lebanese restaurant that we used to go to a lot. I loved that place. And I love Lebanese food. And I love Greek food. Gyros, we called them gyros in Pittsburgh. But, gyros got introduced to me in probably like early part of high school. It was brings back fond memories of two days and three days in football practice where we'd have to go grab lunch somewhere and we'd all go up to the local this new restaurant that was serving these new things called we called again gyros and eating those. And yeah, gyros or euros aren't necessarily the best, healthiest of Mediterranean foods, but it does incorporate a little bit of that. And so it's really just, it's incorporate maybe making it fun. Hey, tonight we're gonna have greek night tonight. It's gonna be italian night and we try different foods. You get kids to experience foods, you make it fun and yeah, we have to get back to making meal time a little bit more family time as we're able to make it, about getting nutrients, understanding that food isn't about just satisfying these stomach urges that we have. It's about fueling our bodies for performance. And more and more kids are involved in sport. Teach them how eating these foods are going to make them perform better on the field. So it's really just changing the overall mindset. And again, once You know, it's easy to talk about changing that mindset. But again, we're gonna have to deal with those families that look, I don't have the time. I don't have the money. I don't have the knowledge. I don't understand what a Mediterranean diet is. And so it might take a little bit more education on the part of the I think in the schools we could probably be doing a lot better job in terms of educating kids what's healthy food. You know we try and tell kids in a wellness class or health class what is healthy eating and then they go from that class to the lunch room and they see the crappy foods that are being served. That's not underscoring The health benefits or, you have unpalatable foods in the school and these kids look over at the sack machines or in case like my kids school, they can actually leave campus and go down the hill to fast food restaurants or things like that to get food. They're not going to be underscoring those healthy choices. And we need to do better in education. We need to do better as communities and making access to these foods. We need to make it much more of a policy driven, community driven, family driven approach to getting kids eating healthier foods. So it's almost as if we need to not only teach the kids the long term health benefits, also educate the lunchroom staff other faculty staff of schools or daycares or whatever the case may be in the benefits for that long term health and maybe have the staple be more Mediterranean diet? Is that to say? I think that's very safe to say. I think, and maybe it begins with, our colleges and universities as they're educating You know, dietitians and nutritionists. I think nutritionists get a little bit better understanding. I have run across a lot of dietitians that are themselves unhealthy and okay. Yeah, we understand the basic food pyramid sense of nutrition, but we don't understand the more nuanced approach of the nutrition and why You know just the word grain is a lot different amongst cultures, amongst, healthy versus unhealthy, what choices are going to be the best and what are the most affordable, what are ways that we can, on the school budgets that we have, incorporate the most healthy of diets for the kids. And there's been projects out there where schools have really taken on more of a Mediterranean approach and found that it's actually been cheaper and it's been more enjoyable for the kids. By having a little bit more healthier grains, maybe it's, and maybe not purely Mediterranean, but, serving rice instead of mashed potatoes, there's crappy, flake instant mashed potatoes that they tend to, serve in schools, or the frozen french fries, or tater tots, or, list all the very unhealthy grains that we have gotten in school. and replace those with legumes and, other healthier Mediterranean type of choices. Are there any potential drawbacks or considerations parents should keep in mind when introducing the Mediterranean diet for their children? I think we touched on this a little bit already that for the kids, we don't want to make them stand out too much. And when you're packing a lunch for the kids, you don't want to have some weird meal that everybody's going to be looking at them like, what the hell are you eating? But And we also have to have a little bit more flexibility, knowing that they're going to want on occasion to try some of the other stuff that their friends are having. They're going to go to friends houses, and you don't want your kid going to somebody's house for dinner, and they serve them a more traditional American dinner and the kid won't eat it because it's not healthy. That could be a bit embarrassing for the kid. And also maybe limit their friends because it's I don't want to have Joey over because Joey only eats the Mediterranean foods and he doesn't like bologna and he won't eat chips and all this kind of stuff. So we want to make sure that we're doing it with a more balanced approach. We're making it fun for the kids. We're educating them. And, again, the drawbacks could be. that it may take a little bit more time for the parents to prepare those meals. And it may come with added expense. I don't think personally that eating a Mediterranean diet is, has to be more expensive than what we typically do feed our kids. Cause if you start looking at the price of foods in the grocery store, there are a lot of cheaper options that we can get out there other than some of these processed foods. This isn't necessarily relating to the Mediterranean diet, but I recently took my daughter to Montana for a trip and stopped along the way, about the only place we could find to quickly eat and stay on the road. Cause it was going to be a 10 hour drive if we didn't stop ended up taking us about 12 hours to get there. I ended up having lunch at a Carl's Jr. And again, I'm not picking on any particular brand, but tend to think some fast foods are a little bit better than others. And I hadn't had Carl's Jr.'s in a while. Oh, what the heck, we'll stop there. It'll be quick. It was like well over 30 for the two of us to eat. And yeah, this is supposed to be, this is cheap fast food. And we went out, I don't know if it was the same night or the next night, but we went to a steakhouse in Butte, Montana, and we had salad soup, the meal. And I got, a sirloin and just really good cut of sirloin, well cooked, the potato dish. I got the that particular night I got the twice baked potatoes. Incredible. And we got our drinks included and ice cream for dessert. And it was only the bill came to 49 without a tip for two people. Very rarely am I ever able to go to a restaurant and have that much food, include drinks and dessert and everything else for under 50 bucks. And so there are places out there that are serving healthier, more affordable food. And same thing when we, go to the grocery store, if we stayed to the outside of the store and kind of avoid a lot of the highly processed crappy foods in the middle of the store, it's going to be cheaper to buy things and the ingredients that we can make some of the stuff ourselves. It's probably cheaper in the long run, although it might take a little bit more time to make. Birthday cake by from scratch instead of buying a mix, so be cautious about the choices. Invest a little bit of time in what are we purchasing? What are we preparing in our foods? And, begin to plan this. And once we, invest the time on the front end and you start finding those few recipes that kids really you can make the same dishes over and over again. If a kid really likes a dish, kids can eat chicken nuggets every day, right? So why can't they eat, Mediterranean dish every day? Yeah, and so balance that time investment with the costs and the overall benefits that you're gonna get with serving your kid a healthier diet. I don't know if that makes any sense, but it just, it's going to take some effort. And really, I look at the American diet. Why does the American diet have to be the worst in the world? Which literally probably pretty close to is we have the most food production. We have the best access to foods. Although, we. We damage that a lot by creating these super stores that you can't get to and so people in food deserts and areas like that have less access to those foods. But maybe in those communities where there's tending to be less availability of some of these healthier, more Mediterranean style foods. We, as communities, create local gardens that can grow local vegetables that can meet the needs of the Mediterranean diet. And when you look at things like being dried beans, like legumes, whether it's I like making split pea soup. I like making lentil soup, dried beans keep forever, right? And you can buy those in bulk. You buy those and you make meals, on a regular basis using those beans, they're going to last forever. You can still get canned legumes that can be nearly as healthy. and, frozen as well, so it's going to take some work. I think we need to consider this all as a community, but there's no reason why the American diet should be the worst. And we can incorporate a lot more of this into some of the Americans, Americanized styles of food. Again, like we talked about hamburgers, if you want to have a hamburger, you want to have a barbecue, how can we make this a little bit more Mediterranean style than just pure garbage. Does that make sense? Totally. I also think that we add a lot of preservatives that are unnecessary. There's a huge trend right now on social media where people are going to a different country, whether it's Germany or Greece or even Canada right up north of us and They're just buying something simple like a condiment like ketchup or whatever the case may be and they're bringing it home and they're showing the difference between the ketchup from Canada versus the ketchup from America and Canada just has five ingredients and there's and that's it while America we've got 30 ingredients You And you can't even pronounce good majority of them and it it looks like a chemistry set It Yeah, you need a PhD in chemistry to be able to read food labels anymore. Yeah and I think a lot of that an effect on that. There's a ton of literature out there that about how You know the foods we eat even foods that we attempt to eat that are You We believe are healthy are filled with so much other it causes inflammation. It causes swelling. It causes brain fog. It causes Just weird So I think it's just Not only trying to make healthier choices, but also just be aware and just make a cognitive Decision is this really as healthy as I believe it to be. Because although you need a PhD to read the back of the food label you still should try to make that effort to read the back of the food label. To say, hey, what exactly am I putting into my body? And what's cool about the garden idea is don't need a food label. You don't need that PhD. You can just go up and grab a tomato right off the vine and pull it. Because it's your garden or it's the community garden, you can have the guidelines of no pesticides or no whatever special manure or whatever it, no miracle grow, right? You can have that special thing. Now you know exactly what it is that you're putting into your body. Will it have as long of a shelf life? Probably not. But it'll last a lot longer if you keep it on the vine. And then when you're ready to cook it, pull it off, slice it up, your tomato, whatever, and call it a day. Yeah, I think it's going to take a lot of community advocation. We have to stand up for the rights of our kids. We have to demand better foods in schools. Maybe we demand that our schools incorporate, I always love hearing people complain about, I never used algebra, which is bullshit because everybody uses algebra to a certain extent, but there is a certain argument, we spend too much time teaching to these tests that are required by, the state and federal governments for kids to be You know, being able to prove that they can do this or that different math or science or proving their reading. And we don't teach the skills that are lifelong skills. And I don't agree with the argument that, we have to teach kids how to do taxes because yes, you are teaching kids how to do taxes. When you teach the math, if they know multiplication, addition, subtraction, division, they can do taxes. Now, do they understand the tax code? No. But again, that's part of our government just. putting more and more crap on top of us that makes it harder and harder for us to function. But we need to demand that our communities are supporting healthier nutrition in the schools, teaching the kids. Maybe how to garden and have a school garden and be harvesting some of those vegetables and using them in the school meals and then giving our communities access to those better food choices and how to use those foods and, putting greater pressure on food companies to stop loading us with crap and chemicals. They are a powerful lobby in Washington, and so they can get away with the crap that they can get away with. The FDA and, different federal organizations are going to turn a blind eye to some of this, the cancer causing chemicals that are being put in our food and all those types of things, because that's the money that is fueling our government and fueling our politicians, I should say, probably more so than our government. I'm starting to sound really conspiracy oriented and very libertarian here, we need to advocate as community members, as neighbors, as parents, and. make sure that the quality of food is elevated, the accessibility of that food is accessible, is elevated, and that we're educating our communities and our Children. What? How to use these healthy foods? Because if you don't know how to cook them, you can make access to them. But, if I give somebody a bag of beans and they don't know how to make lentil soup, It's not really helping them. And so we need to make some pretty dramatic changes in the American diet. And I would love to start seeing studies that are showing that the American diet is the healthiest diet for brain development and preventing Alzheimer's disease and all forms of dementia, limiting heart disease and cancers and all those types of things. Instead of, yeah, this diet is, Basically the source of all of these diseases, and how much would it cost our country to make some of these changes and Shift us or us to a more Mediterranean style diet relative to the cost of treating all of the disease and physical impairments that come from eating a more traditional American diet. I don't know. I think that's the age old question. I think that's that's a question that people have been asking for years, honestly. I don't know. I think we're, we've started a conversation here. I think we're going to do hopefully a few more episodes on different aspects of how aging well begins in childhood. The answers aren't always going to be easy. It's going to take some community and lifestyle changes might take some sacrifice on a part of some parents. I think it might take some level of I know it will take some level of sacrifice and a part of us that maybe would be considered to be more privileged, that have better incomes, better access to these foods. And hopefully we're gonna be educating some of our listeners that just because we have access to healthy mediterranean style foods, doesn't mean that all families do, which means not all Children are gonna have access to that. And so how do we work to benefit others and make these healthier choices available to them? Because in the long run, it's gonna benefit us. If I can make every kid in this country healthier, And it might cost me a little bit now in terms of tax dollars or whatever it might be. If I look at what that's going to save me long term relative to the cost of overall health care in this country, cost of insurance, cost of, you name it it's going to save us a tremendous amount of money. And so it's an investment in our futures by considering that. The diets of our children are a very important consideration, especially for aging well.

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Thank you for listening. I hope you benefited from today's podcast. Until next time, keep aging well.