School Food Is the Key to Fixing Our Children’s Health Crisis | Nora LaTorre

25:35The stigma goes away. Oh, school lunch? No. Oh, school lunch is so good. This is delicious. They're like calling their cousins, bragging about it down the road. My school lunch is better than yours. Like it's delicious. And so and it is there's like I just had school lunch and it was they had like chicken teriyaki bowl with broccoli and everybody was getting the broccoli. It was so good. They had a pizza, but it had no harmful ingredients, no dough conditioners. It had real cheese. It had a protein crumble. I think that was a grass-fed beef crumble. It was the pizza done the way if you're going to eat pizza, that is the way to eat pizza.

26:11And then they had a salad grown on site on the school farm and delicious local organic cucumbers and house-made ranch, which I'm Minnesotan, so we drink ranch. It was so with fresh dill. It was amazing. so uh school food can be so good and so we help make it good and then more and more kids eat it and the local economy thrives local farmers thrive the principals are happier the teachers are happier the students are loving it that's amazing because you know there's a mythology out there that is propagated by the food industry which is it's expensive to eat healthy it's elitist it's discriminatory uh you know it's too complicated it's too expensive and they they just you know the food's not going to be safe it's not going to be convenient it's not going to be food safety issues and they have all this propaganda that they tout yeah and it sounds like they're actually looking looking after the benefit of the poor yeah and it's just sort of this halo of They're the good guys.

27:16But it's so manipulative. And, you know, part of the problem is that, you know, people don't think that you can eat well for less. And I'm sure you know this group, but there's a friend of mine in Boston who, Joe Shaw, who basically saw what was happening in school. She had little kids and she's like, this is ridiculous. So she went around the schools and she saw all the schools only had deep fryers and microwaves. and the food was shipped in from out of state in you know big frozen plastic wrapped containers they would heat the stuff up in plastic in the microwave which is like oh my god you know like you do not want to do that it's just going to get microplastics all over your food i mean it's just and all in children's bodies and in their brains yeah terrible and you know she funded as a pilot it as a philanthropist a school to get a kitchen she hired chefs to design recipes that kids would like within the school lunch budget right yeah it's possible within the school lunch guidelines yeah because there are requirements and kind of guardrails and those will change under the new dietary guidelines but she was able to do it yeah and then the boston mayor was like oh my god this works let's scale it up yeah it's possible these kids are performing better their academics are better, their health is better, their attention is better, their focus is better.

28:42How do you get these schools? I mean, there's school workers, nutrition workers, the cafeteria workers, they don't know what to do. They just know how it sticks out in a microwave. How do you change the culture and get these schools to actually do this? In public schools, there are food service directors or nutrition directors, and then they have food service staff. And so they're really our hero. They're the person that wears capes in our model. And so we really - with the hairnets. Yeah, exactly. Yeah, and they're incredible, and they're a passionate bunch, and they're really busy. It's like they have to serve, you know, sometimes it's 18-minute lunches.

29:16They have to serve hundreds or thousands of kids in a short time frame. They are the largest restaurant chain. They have a huge staff. They're dealing with a ton of infrastructure, of sourcing, of service in a fast, short timeline, and they have hard jobs, and they're big jobs. So we really stand next to them and give them the tools, the support, the encouragement. We make it fun to change the world. Like that's like, how do we bring some positivity? And we help them get the recipes. Yeah, they treat, they recipe swap. We have monthly calls across, they call themselves the eat reallys. And so they have their monthly calls with food superstructures from around the country and then in regionally too.

29:53And they swap suppliers. Who are you using for that protein? Who are you using for your, one of our districts were talking about dragon fruit. I just had dragon fruit. Like they were talking about dragon fruit to give the kids some excitement and try something new. They they we do school lunch spotlight tours. We actually just did one and some folks from Idaho and some folks from Washington came or we did one in Georgia and people from North Carolina and Virginia came and they were actually somebody drove home school lunch because it was so good from Marietta, Georgia to North Carolina to show their school board what was possible.

30:25Like they and so they like they look they look at each other's kitchen. How is your kitchen set up? What combi ovens are you using? How are you training your staff? How are you, like, who are your suppliers? How did you get that Eat Real standard? What swaps did you make? And so it's really about creating this community of people. The collective intelligence. Yes, and giving them, we work with them individually and give them the data, the support, the certification, the 14-page certification report, and the action planning support. And then we connect them with each other. And they are a very fun group of people.

30:57And it's happening, like I said, in 20 states now. So Alaska, Washington, Idaho, California, Georgia, Alabama, Oklahoma, like Michigan. We're growing throughout Connecticut. We're growing coast to coast and showing that this works in wintry places and urban places and rural places. This is working in red states and blue states and purple states. It's like kids thrive with real food. And it's a better model for our school districts. And it is hard and it is complicated. It's interesting. And you can do it at the cost. Oh, yeah. Some of our districts save money by swapping, doing certain swaps. So that's really interesting.

31:40And like, for example, going from local, just even local, like they'll go from apples where they don't know where they're from to local organic apples. they'll start cutting them and then the kids take what they need and they don't just take one bite and get it in their braces and then throw the apple out they just take the apple slices that they need and they're able to actually save money on organic local apples but now they're gonna go that's one example um and what's interesting what we're studying right now and we're working with a research partner on this too we have a bunch of i can't wait to nerd out with you in the future on some of our research that's coming out but one thing we're researching how it's actually a better business model for school food businesses to switch to real food so let me just walk you through this really quick so yeah they if you start sourcing real food like yes you can make some swaps and save money and some things do cost more a higher quality protein is going to be more expensive that grass-fed organic beef or local yeah but i mean just even you're just eating just protein period that's not like some process there is better than but in the school food that like that that would be slightly more and but as our schools invest in real food and they train their staff and they're serving, moving towards more scratch cooking, they're able to then increase the participation or the number of kids, the number of customers, the number of kids eating school meals.

32:51If they, so even if it costs a tiny bit more, if you increase your customer base, you know, 30%, increase, increase, and we're seeing participation numbers go up. You're saying this can scale. I'm saying that our schools then are able to make more money as school food businesses.

33:11They, new kitchens. And so it's actually, they're able to have a more efficient, better school food business model when they switch to real food. That's amazing. And it's win, win, win. They have a better economic model for their school food business. They have happier students that are better performing in the classroom and on the field and in their lives. And they have a stronger local economy because they're keeping those school food dollars going to local farmers. You know, a lot of our schools go from five local farms to 11 local farms. And they're actually, one of our schools is pre-contracting tomatoes and having farmers dedicate cropland for the school.

33:48That's amazing. Which is like the best thing. Yeah, I mean, there's local collaborations, decentralized food systems. It all makes sense. So parents and teachers are noticing these kids are better? Oh, yeah. We're hearing from parents. We're hearing from teachers that, you know, I was actually following a teacher at our classroom. I just wanted to like ask her, you know, what is a real food breakfast? because also we do a lot of breakfast swaps and that's we can talk about some things that parents can do at home too. But it's one of the most game-changing things that you can do is update breakfast where there's a lot of sneaky sugars in breakfast and a lot of sneaky items.

34:18But she said that now in her math class, her kids are sitting better at the beginning of the class and just able to like focus more and lock in. And she said that since they started to have a more nourishing breakfast and things like egg bites and burritos and not just sugary cereal, and whatnot, she said that she hasn't heard one, I'm hungry. And she just feels like her kids are more nourished. Yeah. Well, if you're eating sugar for breakfast and you're eating sugar all day, you're going to have swings in your blood sugar up and down. It's going to cause cravings and hypoglycemia and behavioral issues.

34:52I mean, just go to a kid's birthday party and I see a lot of people talking about like more developmental work, like, like save the children. And like, I heard Jennifer Garner talking in a conference about, you know, these kids who were in Appalachia and they're, you know, they're, they're really dull and disconnected and their parents aren't engaged with them and playing with them and whatever. And they were talking about how, well, they just need to play more ball with them or do more games with them. And I'm like, yeah, but these kids' brains are not functioning because they're nutritionally depleted or they're depleted in magnesium and B vitamins and omega-3s and even sometimes protein and they're eating all the sugar and processed ingredients and dyes that cause behavioral issues.

35:40I mean, how do you expect to actually raise a generation of children that's going to be helping America stay a vibrant, successful country? I mean, it's like, it's highly concerning to me. Yeah. It's how do we make our kids feel better today and then improve their short-term health outcomes and then improve their long-term health and happiness? Yeah. I mean, investing in kids is investing in the future of our country. Right. I mean, it's like, it just, it's such a no brainer, right? Definitely how we stop disease before it starts. And it's the, it is the top solution. Like real, real food to kids is the best way to create health for generations to come.

36:18And quickly, I think that you and I both agree. And I think we've talked about this, like what to me is so powerful and what I love about a lot of the work that you do across so many different avenues is, you know, humans can regenerate quickly. That's what gives me hope is like Dr. Lustig did a study that showed that that in 10 days, just removing added sugar, even leaving starch, kids' metabolic health improved. Like we can, we, if, or you, I did once your 10-day detox. And then I had, and then you and I worked on a seven-day national sugar challenge together. And my family, I had my family do it, the whole house.

36:53And I have a multi-generational house, so. And the whole family did it. And we did, we didn't just do seven days. We extended it to 10 because of that research. And then we actually did the whole month, no added or free sugar. Life-changing for our family, like game-changing. The grandparents lost weight and felt better. We had sourcing agreements pretty much at the house level where we're like, okay, it's hidden in all these sauces we didn't know. And let's just not have it in the house. Like just don't bring it in and it's not going to go on the plate. It changed. It just made us all so aligned and it made everyone feel better and be more vibrant and made blueberries tastes sweeter.

37:31It was life-changing. But I think that's the thing is like, we can change our children's health so fast. If you change what you feel, you start to feel better when you eat real food that day. And then you start to change your metabolic health in 10 days. And you can, I mean, you've seen probably so many patients reverse the prediabetes, reverse the diabetes. One in three kids are prediabetic. If we commit to this as a country, like Americans get things done. And like, if we actually say we're going to right this ship and change the direction and we're going to take our health back into our hands and we're going to advocate that the government aggressively make changes and quickly make changes which there's momentum across the aisle there to do it there's an appetite food pun intended for that and uh then we can do it and we can make change quickly and we can regenerate it's a story of hope to me like we can regenerate our health and reverse these diseases and then stop these diseases from even starting in kids so fast.

38:27And we change the food system in schools in less than two years, like night and day, like game changing. And we get the data because we audit or assess them. We assess the school food, then we do the action planning, then we reassess. So we get the before and after and we can see dramatic changes, a major upgrade in less than 24 months. And so we can change our food system fast and we can change our health fast. How do you just have 30 million kids? Yeah. How do you go to 30 million? Yeah, 30 million. I mean, well, we're our goal. So we just reached a million kids in 20 states, doubling our impact.

39:01Now we have the big, bold goal to reach 3 million kids in 30 states in three years, which is fast. Out of zero. This is good. Out of zero. But that's pretty fast. And that is a tipping point. That's 10 % of the population. So our theory is if we can get to 30 states and 3 million kids in three years. Then we have the presence, the proof, and the partnerships to be the food systems changemaker. And we have these case studies and these examples from throughout the country that show how fast real food is possible and that kids want it, that teachers are happier, that our communities are demanding it.

39:36And then we think that's how we catapult policy and change state and national policy because we have the grassroots momentum and we have all the proof and the data and the momentum and the inertia across the aisle to say, this works, let's do this fast. There are some major bets we can make at the state level and the national level. And here are all the examples. So our goal is reach the 3 million because then let's change the whole game for all 30 million kids that depend on school meals in America. Yeah. It's just sort of existential. And, you know, I don't know what the number is, but, But, you know, if you're feeding 30 million kids, that's a huge procurement of food and food service, right?

40:20I don't know what the percentage of all food service, but it's a lot. And when you change the food service, you change the incentives for the farmers and the food service providers. And it changes the whole system from the farm to the field, to the fork, to the mouth. Yeah. In just Northern California, in one year, we generated over a million dollars of grass-fed organic beef ranchers across just Northern California. You changed the economy. They had to go start converting to more regenerative ag. We changed cropland. It's like when Walmart decides they're not going to do something or they're going to do this or that, then the industry has to change.

41:00Otherwise, they're not going to be in Walmart. It changes what crops are being grown the next season. It changes what farmers invest in. It changes our society fast and our economy. That's why it's like it's so exciting to me, the momentum and the power of school meals and how fast local communities. And it's cool. We have eatreal.org slash parents where people go and there's a template that people use to email their school districts. And we're seeing parents and students engaging their food service director and saying, hey, I'd love to introduce you to this nonprofit Eat Real. And their school districts, one district signed up within 12 hours to our program.

41:37And a parent reaching out with our template email saying yours. And so, and then they got into our program and within a couple of years now they've re-regionalized their whole food system. They're buying more organic, more local. I just had such a good meal at that school district in Southern California. So, in Capistrano. So, it's happening. It's happening fast. And so people feel powerless. You know, they go, oh God, we have a food system that's broken. We have a healthcare system that's broken. Chronic disease is rising. The healthcare costs are rising. And health insurance premiums are rising.

42:08Everything's just a mess, right? Our kids are behaviorally challenged. they're cognitively challenged and mental health in kids is a massive crisis ever in human history. Where do they start? Like, how does a parent or a school listening to this podcast, how do they, where do they go? I think they could start with going to eatreal.org slash parents. There's a template email where they can send an email to their local food service director or nutrition director telling them about Eat Real, which because of incredible philanthropists and some government funding, we're able to offer our program free of cost to school districts.

42:44And so we, parents can then reach out to their school district and say, hey, I heard about this awesome nonprofit, Eat Real on Dr. Mark Hyman's podcast. I'd love to introduce you. Thank you for doing everything you do. And thank you for feeding your kids. And I want to connect you with this nonprofit that can support you more. And so that's one way that they can get involved is get their, tell their local school district and their local nutrition director about us. And then I think that we also have Eat Real Certified on Instagram and our newsletter, which is there are a lot of different ways then in terms of advocacy and campaigns that people can plug in and just get active and start to join the conversation and join the real food movement with us and continue to help us build it as we have calls to action about various opportunities to create change.

43:29It's amazing how simple things make a big difference. You know, our friend Kim Ryan, who's congressman from Ohio, his wife is a fourth grade teacher i wonder i wonder for in her school i need to find out she's great but she she instituted a whole bunch of things in her classroom like kids could eat anything they wanted any time in the class as long as it was real food the kids would go home say mom dad go let's buy carrots let's buy apples let's buy this like an evening school and then she would have this policy where you know kids had to drink water yeah and they got to go to the bathroom they have to ask they could just get up and go to the bathroom and i was like encouraging them to like compare their pee Is your pee clear or not?

44:07Because they want to be hydrated. Yeah. Are they having like championship level pee that's clear? Or are they like, are they drinking enough water? It's like, yeah. And then they had like fiber fun Fridays where they talked about their poop. Yeah. And so, you know, the teachers can do this too in the classrooms in ways that kind of make it fun. You know, I think it really changes kids' framework. And I think what happens at home too is important because I think, you know, then the parents hear the kids actually feeling better, doing better, and they actually go up to the home. Yeah. Because, you know, the home is where a lot of the problem is because, you know, these families are struggling.

44:42They're working hard, maybe two jobs. They have, you know, not any education about how to cook or shop or eat food. The food industry has made it so confusing. Yeah, the food industry deliberately confuses people. Like Cool Whip is a, you know, zero trans fat, healthy dirt topping, which is almost all trans fat because it's almost the air. It goes through a loophole, which the FDA allowed because of the food industry, that it has less than half a gram per serving. They can say it has less than zero, it has zero trans fats. There's so much to fix. It's so broken. But, you know, it's not that hard.

45:18We're almost like one meal away from educating America about how to actually cook. And one of the things Brianna, my wife, and I are doing as part of a Food Fix Uncensored launch and education is to do a SNAP challenge. where we're, SNAP is food stamps, otherwise known as Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, because there's no N in there. It's not nutrition. It's, I don't know what it is, something else. Supplemental poison. It can be eventually. We're going to show how on$7 a day, you can eat healthy, delicious food. It's not hard to make. It doesn't take a long time. You have to learn a few basic skills.

45:57You have to know how to chop an onion. yeah how does derby something like it's not you know how to open a can knife skills and some kitchen confidence a few pots and pans yeah and that's it yeah and you know i'm excited like we're gonna make one of my favorite dishes which is just my mother used to make this a spanish omelet the spanish tortilla like basically you take onions uh garlic chop them up stir fry them in some olive oil you take these uh red potatoes right you slice them really thin yeah and then you layer them flat and then you pour water over them and salt and pepper and you let them sort of cook with a cover so that kind of cooks the potatoes when the water's all gone you pour like a dozen eggs over it and um and you stick it in the oven for 10-15 minutes so it kind of bakes and it's the most delicious thing and it's like 82 cents a serving so nerf so filling you just like give a few big pots of food in a week a few batch cooked meals so that you're set up for the week some bulk cooking with your neighbors or i bulk cook with my friend chef natalia and uh then you can really get those kind of key recipes that you can use on your budget with like your local grocer and that your kind of go-to's for your family that are health changing like they'll be like the kind of anchor key dishes for your family even me you know there's there's a cow share programs where you can cut out the middleman yeah by direct i just got my i just went to my My rancher, yep.

47:25Yeah, so it actually can be extremely affordable even to get regenerative beef. Oh, yeah. You know, if you go direct to the farmer.

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49:54and i talk a lot about this in food fix and we have a lot of resources on foodfix uncensored.com i think you know people don't know how easy it is because we're convinced how hard it is by the food industry and i think you know you've shown with schools how it can be done like it's one thing to talk about it. Yeah. There's a great, I don't even saw that cartoon. The one who says it can't be done should not interrupt the one who's doing it. I hope that's us. I hope that's us. I hope that's Israel. And it shows like a Chinese Tai Chi master thing walking around the edge of a wicker basket without it falling over, you know?

50:29And it's both. It's like, how do we make it easier for people to take individual action and to take their health into their own hands and make it, and give them the skills and the knowledge and the support to do it and more resources? And then how do we also change the systems so that, and push back on the food industry? Well, let's talk about that because you've been instrumental in some really key initiatives in California that you almost single-handedly have done. I mean, like... In collaboration with some incredible orgs. You need like a superhero costume, I think, actually, because you are a force of nature in an unassuming package that I think is disarming, but you're kind of a lioness underneath all that, taking no prisoners with a smile.

51:17And maybe you can share some of the key things that you've done policy-wise, because Food Fix really makes the case that food policy is health policy. Yes. And you've done it through both what's happening in schools, but also in some major bills that got passed in California around food dyes, around ultra processed food. So take us through some of those key initiatives and what you've done and showing that it is possible to change policy. Yeah, and quickly, again, like that's what gives me so much hope is like this can happen so fast and together with incredible advisors like yourself and incredible other nonprofits and partnerships and our school food hero.

51:57And really, we look to our school leaders and they beam us, they tell us what to do. They say, you know, I want to change the food in my school and I want to change it in the state and I want to change it nationally. So our group of eat reallys really determine our policy approach and determine what we advocate for. And they tell us what do they need to really change the whole game. So some fun ones, we helped advocate for school meals for all. And then we actually with Senator Skinner in California and some of our eat real heroes, our school food service directors, we helped pass the first sugar bill ever in America's history for kids.

52:32there had never been a sugar standard in school meals. Wow. And so we wonder why kids drink a bathtub of added sugar or there are 250 sneaky names for sugar and it's hidden all throughout our food system. And so it just hadn't been done before. There had been no challenge and no accountability there. And so we helped pass it in California and then we actually passed that nationally. And so the USDA did just begin to implement its first sugar bill nationally, which will benefit all 30 million kids. So throughout the country, they're starting to reduce sugar burden and sugar exposure for our kids, which is one of the most powerful, like, health-changing initiatives we can do.

53:11So I think you and I saw each other and we were high-fiving. I was, like, bursting. And I came up to you, like, it's passed. It's so exciting. And Senator Skinner was a new grandma at the time. And she was, like, she wanted to make change. And she worked with her incredible chief of staff and so many others to champion it and then to help advocate it for it nationally. and then we helped advocate for the first food dye bill, which was passed. The first one was in California. Then we also worked on it in West Virginia and helped roll it in other states. But what's so powerful about our model is that we were able to present to lawmakers when they were worried, like, is this feasible?

53:45Or they were getting, you know, food industry pressure. This is too complicated. This is going to raise costs. This is not going to be possible. Kids aren't going to want it. It's going to hurt. It's not going to eat it. It's going to end up in the garbage. Yeah, it's going to hurt our budget supporting the schools. Like, all this. Uh, cause the, that is real, that food industry pressure is, I think people hear it and they're like, that's conspiracy. And definitely not conspiracy. You read my book. It's so documented. You can talk a lot about it. I won't go there, but it's scary and it's real.

54:14It's like, it's terrifying and it's like dangerous and it's like really harmful for our kids. And as a mom, it makes me so mad. Yeah. Um, but it's real. And we were able to say, no, that's not true. and push back on that and be able to say, like, actually, we already with the real standards, remove those harmful dyes. We already remove the sugar. We've already done it in 500 schools or in 1 ,000 schools or now 1 ,700 schools. And so they can't really say, oh, it can't be done because we did it. And we're like, the numbers are going up. More kids are eating it. The teachers are happier. The kids are happier.

54:46Talk to this mom. Talk to this dad. Talk to talk to this food service director. Talk to this supplier. Talk to this local farmer who's winning because of this. talk to this principal who's happier, talk to this teacher who's looking at the test scores go up. We're like, exhibit A, B, C, D, E, F, G. It's working. Like, no, this works. Like I said, don't, don't, those who say it can't be done should not interrupt those who are doing it. The most exciting one that we just did in six months. We partnered with your, the now probably where you're on the board, environmental working group, Scott Faber, who I'm like a huge fangirl of.

55:17We partnered with Scott Faber and we also partnered with Food Fight. They're incredible. Todd Wagner's group. I love Lori over there and Todd. They're wonderful. And so we really built this group that was really championed by Assemblymember Gabriel, who I think is another national hero. He's out of California. And so. Yeah, I met him. Oh, you did. OK, good. I met him with Todd Wagner at an American cinema event. Oh, wonderful. OK, good. OK, yeah. Two incredible change makers. And so... And the lieutenant governor who was very interested. Oh, good. Oh, yeah. Yep, yep. Governors can be major change agents in this.

55:56AB 1264 was introduced. This was... It was introduced in the spring. That's the name of the bill. It's called AB 1264, and it's the first bill to define what are harmful ultra-processed foods and to basically prevent big food from selling those dangerous, most dangerous, most harmful items into schools. So we passed the sugar bill, we passed the food diet bill. And then it was about, well, let's make sure that the most harmful ingredients and products, high in sugar, salt, fat, harmful, toxic, ingredientless, banned in other countries, known to cause cancer, known to be dangerous to our kids' health, known to hurt their outcomes.

56:32Let's just not let those be served in our public institutions, in our schools. And so we championed it. We should be feeding our kids poison. Maybe not. Maybe not. Maybe not. Maybe not a good idea. Maybe not a good idea. I don't know. I don't know. maybe a failed experiment. I think a failed experiment, like tried it. It's not working. Health is going in the wrong direction. Let's try something new. And so we worked with them in the spring. Then we were able to, they invited Eat Real to testify, which was so wonderful. And we were able to say, look, we already removed the most harmful ultra processed foods from kids meals in California.

57:04We did it in 500 schools, over hundreds of thousands of students. We're seeing really strong results. We had farmers come in, me too, and testify. We had local school food heroes come from across the state and say they wanted it. We had the data. We met with lawmakers. We worked with tons of orgs and we met with lawmakers across the aisle. And there was major pushback and there was some major tactics that were not cool. Tell us about that. You don't want to tell us? I want to live, Mark. I want to live. You want a big bullseye on your back? Yeah. Well, I would just share one. Okay. Then we can go back to your story.

57:44To share the extent to which people go in the food industry, that it's so corrupt and so manipulative. And it was in California when Jerry Brown was governor, second time. He was probably the most liberal governor in the history of America. They call him Governor Moonbeam. I remember he ran for president in 76, but he was so liberal. And in California at the time, there were starting to be a lot of soda taxes. Berkeley was the first, and then other cities and towns started to do them, and the food industry freaked out. So what they did was to put a ballot measure on the ballot in California that would make it mandatory for any law or bill to be passed to any local state government would require a two-thirds majority.

58:29which means because you know most legislatures are not like two-thirds of a party they're like half half right or more or less right like to get a two-thirds majority of senate it's impossible because you know it's like 53 senators or republican whatever and they it had nothing to do with food and nothing to do with soda tax but they knew it was going to cripple the entire state government and they spent millions and millions and millions and millions of dollars driving this ballot initiative. And they went to Jerry Brown and said, unless you put in a prohibition against any future soda taxes in California, and if you wonder why there aren't more, and there haven't been since then, we're going to pass this measure.

59:08And he's like, okay. He's like basically blackmailed by the food industry. And there's a picture of him in the governor's mansion with all the heads of Coca-Cola and the American Beverage Association, Pepsi. It was so bad. So many front groups with shady, seemingly healthy. So I said it, you don't have to say it, but that kind of is the kind of nonsense that goes on behind the scenes. Oh, yeah. I mean, yeah. They do. They do. They do. They have done to major researchers death threats. They've like, it's like. Yeah. Really bad. Yeah. And we're up against a lot. And Americans have had it. I think we're just like, we're going to stand up.

59:46I don't know why I haven't been taken out yet. I'm like, that's what I was like. I've read him and I said, you need a bodyguard. You need like a security force. I'm like. He does. He does have bodyguards. He does have security. I have angels. I have angels. No, but it's real. But I think the ties are changing and we're able to stand up. But there was a lot of pushback. And how did you overcome that? So we were able to meet with lawmakers face to face. And we were able to have them meet with local school food professionals and say, this works. My kids are happier. My numbers are going up. Like, I'm able to do it.

1:00:20It works for the school food business model. It's actually better. And any of their concerns, we're able to work with them. And then and we worked with with ag and we worked to show that this was better for the local economy and better for local farmers. And within six months, it was about six months from the spring to the fall, we were able to pass AB 1264 nearly unanimously, unanimously in the Senate and one naysayer in the Assembly. Which I asked Assemblymember Gabriel, I was like, has anything been this bipartisan? Unanimous? One naysayer, unanimous in the Senate, almost unanimously in the House.

1:01:03I said, Assemblymember E. Rill, is there anything that has had this much bipartisan collaboration and like this much inertia behind it? He's like, maybe naming a freeway. Maybe. Maybe. Maybe they agreed on that. But like to come together and to have Republicans and Dems and independents say, we're going to protect our kids at school. We're going to make sure that the most harmful ingredients and products aren't in their menus. And we want to stand up for our kids. And we're going to do what's right. And we're going to make history and define what are ultra processed foods. and they did it. We did it.

1:01:34We did it in California. Gavin Newsom signed it into law. And now we're already advocating to then do that at the national level and we're working with other states. And we think that we can really make change fast. And it starts at the district level with school leaders showing it's possible. States can take bold action and just change their policies and then we can do it at the national level. Yeah, I always say, I always say change doesn't start in Congress, that ends in Congress, you know? It all comes from grassroots. Then it goes up to the local levels. Then it goes up to the state levels.

1:02:08Then it goes up to the federal levels. And I think that's true for everything, whether it's civil rights. I mean, whether it's women's rights, gay rights, like it happens and then it's like a wave. It's a movement. People are powerful and people coming together and advocating for change can build a movement and make massive change fast. And this, our children's health, is what can bring people to the table and what is the greatest opportunity of our lifetime. Yeah, I mean, you look pretty bad if you're like unwilling to protect children in America. Yeah, yeah. I don't want my kids to live longer and healthier.

1:02:42Wait, what? No, you're, no, no. I think this is something we can all agree on. We can all agree that our kids should have healthier, happier, longer lives. Like that's easy. That's what we fight for. That's what we exist to do as parents. Okay, we're gonna do this wrap fire questions. I'm gonna answer the question and you go first and I'll go after you. So what's one nutrition myth that we both wish parents would stop believing? Juice is a health food. Juice is good for you. Juice boxes. Juice, I just wanted to break this down. And this, I grew up on orange juice. I was a Tropicana kid. Like I drank juice and I like did not, I thought it was starting a healthy day.

1:03:22But when you drink juice, they juice the fiber and remove it down and it just spikes your sugar levels. Yeah. And so it spikes our kids. It's basically Coca-Cola with a few vitamins. And I was like, it's extra pulpy. It's good for me. It's like such a myth. And I had to like, like I had to stop my orange juice addiction. And I like it was a health game changer for me. I'm about to be like 40 and I'm feeling the fittest and the healthiest ever and vibrant. And coming off of juice was one of those things that I got rid of in my like my recent history. so amazing well i would say the biggest myth is well my kids won't eat anything because they only eat mac and cheese and pizza and otherwise they won't eat and they're going to starve to death and i'm like what do you think kids eat in japan raw fish and seaweed they eat what you give them and eventually they'll change it just reminds me of the story my my mom told me about my sister when she was little she didn't want to eat eggs she made it for breakfast so she's like okay you don't have to eat them, but she fed her the same eggs at dinner and the same eggs at lunch, same eggs at dinner.

1:04:24And the next morning, the same egg for breakfast. And she finally ate them. Honestly, it's 15 times of exposure can change a kid's palate. So it is about like interesting, letting try one bite, give it to them one way, let them try the eggs another way, keep exposing them, keep exposing them, eat it together. Eating together is huge. Like we can, kids change their eating habits fast. All right. What is the most powerful lever for fixing our food system? Our U.S. public schools are the fastest, most scalable, biggest lever to create health and to change our food system fast. This is a hard question for me because there's so many levers.

1:04:58I would say the thing that came to mind right away was food marketing. Just as we don't market cigarettes anymore in newspapers, magazines, TV, online, And just prohibit it because it's harmful and it kills you. Foods that kill you should not be allowed to be marketed. Period. Wait, can I give one more magic wand? If schools are the big bet to change some school food policies that would like rapidly change things nationally are changing commodities, subsidies. We subsidize corn, soy, sugar, and wheat. And if we change those, it changes. It also flows into school food. And there are school food commodities that get pumped into schools.

1:05:42And so we could do cash in lieu. You can give more flexibility to use those. They're called commodity dollars for local schools. So that's like change what the sourcing options for schools and change. Yeah. Starting with like what's happening at the government level and then increase actual reimbursement rates. And so schools get reimbursed for their meals. And I just called McDonald's this morning because McDonald's, a happy meal in Texas, costs four dollars and 80 cents. schools are reimbursed$4.50. You can't even get a Happy Meal for how much we expect schools to cook a real food meal. So if we were to actually invest in higher reimbursement rates and spend a few billion dollars, some billions, spend some bills to save trillions of dollars in health care costs, we would rapidly convert our school food program to be more real food.

1:06:35And so, and like, it's about 40 % of that is food cost. So$1.80 per school meal. And we expect them to serve real delicious, amazing local food. We, it would be game changing to double down and raise the reimbursement rate and actually invest and make the bet a few billion more. Pay now or pay later. Yeah. Pay now and spend a few billion to save a few trill. Medicaid dollars would go dramatically down. I mean, the state's budget, a third of it is Medicaid. Yeah. And the same thing for federal. The third of our entire federal budget is our chronic disease. 17 % of our GDP, almost$4 trillion. So a year is spent on preventable ultra-processed food-related diseases.

1:07:16If we spend a few billion on real food for kids through schools, we'll save trillions of dollars a year. So pretty good return on investment. Pretty instant, like pretty fast, not the fastest as we like, but fast ROI. And so I think that is like if I were to have a magic wand, it would be invest in the power of school meals. update the commodities, increasing reimbursement rates, actually do more farm to school grants, do kitchen infrastructure grants, give schools kitchen money, like actual let them get the combi ovens and the stoves and the chefs and the training for their staff. And if we bet on school meals, we will have instant return in terms of our children health.

1:07:55100%. All right. What's the most underrated family habit for health? Eat together. I would say cook. I like that. even more cook together oh and go to the farmer's market together i had a purple day at the farmer's market with my daughter who's really into purple right now we just got zucchini purple peppers and it was like we had a purple day and then we had purple food throughout the week it's like you know we also um go to the grocery store and go to the farmer's market together and you know and the thing about cooking together is that kids like it like you know um there was a uh a book by molly Katzen for kids uh I forget the the title of it but it was the one woman who wrote the moose food cookbook and it was an enchanted broccoli forest is one of her cookbooks it wasn't that it was another cookbook for kids but it was basically recipes that you can make with your kids that they would love to eat that are healthy and and I did this with my kids and they loved it they made a mess and whatever but they're part of it and they see how to make food and cook food and now my kids both know how to cook they don't didn't go to cooking school yeah but they just learn.

1:09:02It's like help kids learn to love real food, put on some music, have cooking time, maybe have another family over cook together. My son's really into chopped eggs, Nico's chopped eggs. I'm like, cool, let's make Nico's chopped eggs. If that's what you're into, you won't eat them scrambled. But if they're chopped, it's just basically scrambled. But he's like, he's doing it and he's like cracking the eggs and learning this kitchen. It's so much fun and it tastes better and we all have so much fun eating it. So I agree with you. I'll change mine from eat together, cook, shop for food together, cook together and then eat it together.

1:09:31All right, we answered this one, I think, which is the biggest obstacle to real food in schools, food industry. What's one policy change that would immediately improve kids' health? One policy change, yeah, invest in school food. Make a bet on school food. I would say that. And I would say, you know, changing the school lunch standards, which are now going to happen with the new dietary guidelines, because they actually have essentially said eat real food, no highly processed food. So if the U.S. Dietary Guidelines say no highly processed food, that means the schools have to follow the dietary guidelines.

1:10:04That's one of the reasons why dietary guidelines are so important, because they influence school lunches. We've actually designed our Eat Real standards to be plug and play, and states can implement Eat Real standards. The national government can implement higher real food standards. So I fully agree with you that going towards real food standards at the state and national level is game-changing. If kids grow up eating real food, what changes most about their future? I think their happiness. I think it's like food changes kids' gut health, their mental health. It changes how they feel. It changes how they grow and learn and thrive.

1:10:37It's literally about giving our kids more happy years. And that's what life is all about. And more years. I mean, it flips the script from shorter, sicker lives than their parents to healthier, longer lives than their parents. So that's what I think. And like, how do you feel vibrant and fully alive and live your best life possible? Like, real food helps fuel that. And so I think it's about giving our kids happier and feeding our kids happiness. Eat happiness? Mm-hmm. Eat real and eat happiness. I like that. That's a good one. Just write that one down. I'm going to use that. What gives you the most hope right now?

1:11:09What's giving me the most hope is that individuals like the folks listening to your podcast, leaders like you, our food service heroes, our rock star team and our board and the real community members, but individuals who are coming together and who are individually making change, but then are coming together to advocate for more change together and showing what's possible and who are changing our food system at their homes, at school, and then advocating a national policy. It gives me so much hope because real change can happen really fast. And we believe that real change starts in our cafeteria.

1:11:44And people are showing that it's possible. And when you change the food for kids, you change the future. I think what gives me most hope right now is just this awakening in America around health that I've been shouting at the rooftops about for the last 30 years. It's like, wait, everybody is finally paying attention. and that we're seeing actual real policy change at the federal level and state levels. Super exciting. All right, finish this sentence. Last question. If we fix food, we fix blank. Our children's future. Our children's future. I would say if we, I agree with that. I would say if we fix food, we fix everything.

1:12:21Yes. We fix our chronic disease epidemic. We heal our children's and catastrophic futures that they're facing. we save trillions of dollars from the federal budget and state's budgets we help restore the environment by improving soil health water resources and saving them and preventing damage to our waterways through runoff of the pollution and fertilizers that go into there we help reduce climate change by sequestering carbon we increase the overall mental health of america we we end so much violence in prisons and the violence in our society we improve social justice at every level so i think to me literally it's almost fixing everything because food is a nexus where everything comes together right fix our economy i mean that's the subtitle of the book that what the first book was, you know, food fix, how to save our health, our economy, our communities, and our future.

1:13:28I love that. I'm Midwestern, so we talk about twofers, and I think fixing our food, what you say. It's a tenfer. Yeah, it's a tenfer, and it's at least a fourfer. You fix food, you change our children's health, you strengthen the local economy, you actually regenerate the planet, and you improve national security, which I know you talk about in your book a lot. I forgot that. I forgot that. And so like, it's like, yeah, it's probably more like a temper. It's like you fix food and you change everything. It really is. I love that. All right. So people want to learn more about Eat Real, they go to eatreal.org.

1:13:59Eatreal.org. If they want to get their district involved, they can go to eatreal.org slash parents. They can go to Eat Real Certified on Instagram. I'm on LinkedIn, Nora Latore. I'm nourished with Nora on Instagram. They can find me on Instagram. They can find Eat Real Certified on Instagram. They can sign up for our newsletter at eatreal.org. and they can also donate to the nonprofit. We're a small but mighty nonprofit, but donations help us reach more kids and say yes to more schools and reach 3 million kids in 30 states. So we can get more schools and communities on board and help change our food system.

1:14:31Amazing, amazing. And for those listening who want to know more about Food Fix Uncensored, go to foodfixuncensored.com. You'll learn all about what we're doing with the book and resources and ways to activate across not just schools, but every sector that might touch you. So this feels like a really consequential moment. It feels like, Cory Booker said this to me, it feels like 1963 in the Civil Rights Movement is what it feels like. And I think that's right. I think, so. It's right with everyone getting involved. With everyone getting involved, we're going to change the future for our kids fast.

1:15:04Margaret Mead said, never doubt what a small group of highly committed people can do. In fact, it's the only thing that's ever changed the world. Well, thank you for everything you do to change the world. And thank you for all your generous support of E-Real and of me and of our team. So thank you. Let's go. Let's go. Let's do it. All right. What if the greatest threat to your health wasn't bad choices, but bad design? In America, chronic disease isn't accidental. It's the predictable outcome of a food system built for profit, not people. A web of corporations, lobbyists, and policymakers all feeding off your plate.

1:15:43They call it choice, but your options were engineered. From the grocery aisle to the school cafeteria, Big Food, Big Ag, and Big Pharma wrote the rules together. The food pyramid distorted. The science bought. The front-of-package health labels designed to deceive. This isn't a broken system. It's a perfectly functioning machine, producing disease, dependency, and distraction, exactly as intended. Food Fix Uncensored pulls back the curtain on the collusion shaping your health, your choices, and your future. Because once you see how it works, you can never unsee it. Food Fix Uncensored, the truth they never meant for you to read.

1:16:40to hear your comments and questions. Don't forget to rate, review, and subscribe to The Dr. Hyman Show wherever you get your podcasts. And don't forget to check out my YouTube channel at Dr. Mark Hyman for video versions of this podcast and more. Thank you so much again for tuning in. We'll see you next time on The Dr. Hyman Show. This podcast is separate from my clinical practice at the Ultra Wellness Center, my work at Cleveland Clinic, and Function Health, where I am Chief Medical Officer. This podcast represents my opinions and my guests' opinions. Neither myself nor the podcast endorses the views or statements of my guests.

1:17:10This podcast is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional care by a doctor or other qualified medical professional. This podcast is provided with the understanding that it does not constitute medical or other professional advice or services. If you're looking for help in your journey, please seek out a qualified medical practitioner. And if you're looking for a functional medicine practitioner, visit my clinic, the Ultra Wellness Center at ultrawellnesscenter.com and request to become a patient. It's important to have someone in your corner who is a trained, licensed healthcare practitioner and can help you make changes, especially when it comes to your health.

1:17:44This podcast is free as part of my mission to bring practical ways of improving health to the public. So I'd like to express gratitude to sponsors that made today's podcast possible. Thanks so much again for listening.