School Food: The Missing Piece to Fixing Children's Health

Key Takeaway

Schools serve 30 million kids 50% of their nutrition—making them the largest restaurant chain in America, bigger than Subway, Starbucks, and McDonald's combined. One school removed 34 pounds of sugar per student per year through simple food swaps, proving that transforming school food is both possible and powerful. Teachers report students sitting better, focusing more, and saying 'I'm hungry' less after switching to real food breakfasts. The actionable insight: Support or advocate for school food transformation in your community—it's the fastest, most scalable way to create health for the next generation.

Episode Overview

Nora Lere, CEO of Eat Real, discusses the childhood health crisis in America and how transforming school cafeterias is the most powerful lever for change. For the first time in history, children are expected to live sicker, shorter lives than their parents, with one in three teens pre-diabetic and 67% of kids' diets coming from ultra-processed food. Eat Real partners with school nutrition directors across 20 states to swap harmful ingredients for real food, creating a certification program that has scaled from 50,000 to 1 million kids. The results include reduced sugar intake (34 pounds per student per year in one district), increased participation in school meals, better academic performance, improved behavior, and a more sustainable economic model for school food programs.

Full Transcript

Transcript of School Food: The Missing Piece to Fixing Children's Health from The Dr. Hyman Show. Auto-generated from episode audio; may contain minor errors.

We're in a crisis right now with kids and it's sort of this invisible thing that nobody's really talking about. For the first time in human history, the average child born today will live sicker, shorter lives than their parents. Life expectancy of an obese kid is 13 years less than a kid who's healthy. healthy. healthy. You know, at Eat Real, we looked at the entire food system and asked ourselves, what is the best lever to create health for our kids? We really saw that schools are the big bet to create health because what you said, they're the largest restaurant chain in America.

They're bigger than Subway, Starbucks, and McDonald's combined. Wow. They serve 30 million kids 50% of their nutrition. It's like if we want to stop disease before it starts. Schools are the lever. the lever. the lever. Nora Lere is CEO and co-founder of Eat Real, a national nonprofit transforming school food systems and advancing evidence-based nutrition policy to improve children's health. We've gone allin just helping kids have access to delicious, nourishing food that helps them learn, grow, and thrive. And it's working. And it's working fast. We went from 50,000 kids to a million kids since then.

And one of our schools in our program just removed 34 pounds of sugar per student per year. We can change our food system fast. And we can change our health fast. If we fix food, we fix our children's future. I agree with that. I would say if we fix food, we fix everything. Yes. Yes. Yes. Hey, it's Dr. Heyman. I'm so excited to share this episode with you today. But before we dive in, I want to get your help. Please take a minute to hit that subscribe button.

Whether you're watching here on YouTube or listening on your favorite podcast platform, it truly means the world to me and it helps my team and I bring you this podcast every single week. Plus, I don't want you to miss a thing. So, thanks so much for being part of this community and I'm glad you're here. Nora, so good to see you again. Um, we're old friends. Uh, you cooked for me when I was sick in the hospital. You came and brought food for me when I was recovering.

Uh, you were like my kind of I don't know, surrogate mother for a minute, even though you're like a 30 years younger than me. And I was just so touched by how caring you were. And you know, your work is really about caring for kids. Uh, and I was I was an old guy, but you really cared for me. And I I think the work around e-real is so powerful, but you know, we're we're in a kind of a crisis right now with kids. Uh, and it's sort of this invisible thing that nobody's really talking about.

I mean, I I've been shouting about it for forever, but it's it's so invisible and it's this this incredible chronic disease burden in children. we really need to fix it. Uh, and you know, as you know, I wrote a book years ago called Food Fix and released a new version. It's out now called Food Fix Uncensored. Kind of taking off the gloves a little bit more, a little bit more edgy. And as we look at, you know, our kids, almost one in two kids has a chronic disease.

Their diet is crap. Like 67% of kids diet in America is from highly processed or ultrarocessed or junk food. Just crap, industrial stuff that by definition is not food. Food is something that sustains and nourishes life. This stuff does the opposite. It harms health and it causes death. You know, one in five kids is actually obese. 40% are overweight. For the first time in human history, the average child born today will live sicker, shorter lives than their parents. Life expectancy of an obese kid is 13 years less than a kid who's healthy.

And in my new book, Food Fix Uncensored, I make the case here that chronic disease is not about personal choice. When you see a diabetic 2-year-old, it's not their fault, right? It's not their fault. And so, it's not about personal choices. It's a systemic problem and it's it's a toxic food landscape we live in. It's the politics that drive that. It's the policies that drive that. It's the food industry that drives that. And if we really want to fix food, we have to change the institutions that are driving this.

And one of the things you you say is biggest fast food chain in America is the school cafeteria. That's amazing. And and we have to change those institutions. And you are changing all this through your nonprofit Eat Real which you collaborate with a couple of really good buddies of mine. Jordan Schlane is also my doctor. Dr. Robert Lustig who is a good friend and we collaborated on movie Fed Up years ago and it's an incredible nonprofit that is transforming public school cafeterias. It's like the largest, you know, restaurant chain in America, right?

America, right? America, right? And and it's a amazing solution for kids health, for community resilience, for long-term disease prevention. And it's not easy to do. Uh, and you're doing it. You're almost up to a You're doing it. You're almost up to a million kids who are impacted. You're going up to 3 million. I would say let's do all of them. Go. Let's do it. Food to fix uncensored is really about fixing the systems across the scale of of um medicine, food systems and and that involves everything from you know changing the kind of research we do around nutrition, chronic disease to to to changing food marketing practices, food labeling practices, our dietary guidelines to changing what's allowed as a safe food we call grass safe to eat.

you know, some of these things you're working on, some of the definitions around ultrarocessed food in California, which we're going to talk about. We need to change the SNAP program, the foods programs, the programs that are the government procurement programs. There's so many things that need to get changed and we're working on all of them. Um, medical education, but where does schools fit in? Because I think, you know, we we we I want you to maybe start out by helping me uh and everybody listening understand that what we're doing to our kids now is so dangerous.

I don't know if you know Harvey Karp who's a pediatrician but he's a friend of mine. I've known him forever and he was actually my sister's kids pediatrician and he's on the board of Vermont working group with me and he said if if a foreign country was doing to our kids what we're doing we'd go to war to protect them. Mhm. Mhm. Mhm. So what is going on? I mean I think we we do need to fight for our kids health. It's a critical moment as a mom.

That's why I got involved so deeply with Eat Real and joined up with Dr. Jordan Slain and Dr. Robert Lustig because I wanted to to be in this fight to create health for our kids. And you know what what we're seeing we're calling American health collapse. This phenomenon that American progress is at risk. For so long as Americans, we want better, brighter, longer, healthier, happier lives for the next generation and for our kids. We believe in progress. And now we're seeing what you said like the potential for our kids to have shorter, less healthy, and less happy lives.

And the number one driver is ultrarocessed food and ultrarocessed food preventable diseases related diseases. And so we really think that changing our food is the best way to change our future and to restore American health, to restore progress, to create healthy, happy lives, longer, vibrant lives for our kids. And so when you know at Eat Real we looked at the entire food system and we looked at what and asked ourselves what is the best lever to create health for our kids upstream. And when we looked at all the different leverage points, hospitals, points, hospitals, points, hospitals, um restaurants, you there are medical facilities, there's so many different ways that you could change food.

We really saw that schools are the big bet to create health because what you said they're the largest restaurant chain in America. They're bigger than Subway, Starbucks, and McDonald's combined. They've heard they serve 30 million kids 50% of their nutrition. It's like, if we want to stop disease before it starts and change core calories and get real food to kids and fight for our kids' health, schools are the lever, and schools, we think, are the big bet. And so, we've gone all in since 2019 on just helping kids have access to delicious, nourishing food that helps them learn, grow, and thrive.

And it's working. And it's working fast. That's what's so exciting. We went from 50,000 kids to a million kids since then. That's amazing. I mean, I just want to double down on what you said for a minute. 30 million kids Mhm. Mhm. Mhm. have school food as half of their diet. That's a staggering statistic, right? right? right? Yeah. It's 7 billion meals a year. So half of the kids nutrition comes from schools. schools. schools. And some kids more. some um we just had the Sacramento Kings, some of the Kings players come and serve school supper.

Some of our schools serve breakfast, lunch, and dinner, especially in low-income communities. It's a major nutrition security net. And it's so important for kids development. Uh people don't understand that, you know, we're not just educating people in schools. If we're feeding them crap, we're actually working against the sort of intellectual capital of the next generation. Yeah. were forever impacting their neurological development, their brain development development development and in in so many ways. Um, and when you look at, you know, schools now, I mean, I was talking to a school nurse recently, and I mean, the all these kids are on drugs, ADD drugs, anti-depressants.

I mean, it's staggering how much mental health issues there are and and behavioral issues there are in school. Parents see it, teachers see it. People were I think we're concerned as a nation. nation. nation. So, it's not just obesity, it's a lot of things. I remember researching food fix and there was a paper I found where they looked at juvenile detention centers and there was there was a swap out of their diet they were feeding these kids. It's violent aggressive kids in juvenile detention centers. And they found that if they fed them real food um and swapped out the junk food for the real food that not the violence went down by over 90 I think 7% that the reser strains went down by 70%.

The suicide rates which are the third leading cause of death in those teenage boys went down by 100% meaning to zero. And so that's mindboggling to me. Um and and and so all these issues we're trying to medicate to medicate to medicate is really from food. Uh and the obesity issues, the metabolic issues that are going to give these kids a legacy of diabetes and heart disease and cancer and dementia that come such at a faster rate when they have these problems. I mean, one in three kids now has uh insulin resistance or pre-diabetes.

One in three teens is pre-diabetic. It's up 5%. I would love for you to like talk about like what is but I think we hear diabetes and it's still like confusing to people. Can you just talk through when a kid has pre-diabetes like what is what is happening in their body and as a doctor like what's how is that impacting their health and their health trajectory? You know, I mean, disease starts in the womb. Really, when the mother's eating sugar and starch and crap, it's causing these kids to be epigenetically programmed to be obese, to have more heart disease, to have more cancers.

cancers. cancers. And then these kids continue to eat this way. And as they grow up and in schools, they're they're actually accelerating their um risk for heart disease, for diabetes, for cancer, and not just, you know, causing health issues. But the data is really clear that these kids have a lower chance of having a successful life and lower job opportunities, lower incomes. It's just this cascade. So, and as I said earlier, like if you're overweight as a kid, your life expecties 13 years shorter. That's like living in a third world country that, you know, like really even worse than most third world countries.

Yeah. And the latest the latest research is that three out of five kids will be obese by the time they're 35. So, just like obesity is soaring. The data today is that you know one in two children born today will be diabetic in their lifetime. lifetime. lifetime. One and two. And I mean also I think we hear diabetes but like every 3 and 1/2 minutes in America there's an amputation because of diabetes. And so like we don't want our kids to be on a path to that.

We want our kids on the playground. We want our kids kids kids running through adulthood. We want our kids thriving. And so I think I think we hear that still as a nation. And I think things are starting to shift, but I think we still don't we're not we haven't fully grasped onto it yet. No, we haven't. And and academically it impacted these kids. So, not just healthwise, but I think we're 30 something in math and reading in the world like below every other developed nation.

nation. nation. Like, and maybe that's some degree to do with our school system and educational system, but how do you learn and focus and concentrate when your brain is on [ __ ] [ __ ] [ __ ] Yeah. Yeah. I mean, do your kids drink a bathtub of added sugar a year? A bathtub. And one of our schools in our program just removed 34 lbs of sugar per student per year. We actually had to wheel a wagon into the schoolboard meeting and stack 34 lbs, which is like almost as tall as my four-year-old.

And that's how much sugar they removed. And so how are we going to expect so how are we going to expect kids to focus and to sit down in circle time, especially little kids, if they're eating 34 pounds of sugar or a bathtub, 65 lbs of sugar to like to then sit in circle time and focus and learn. And so actually our nonprofit in addition to changing school food and raising awareness and doing advocacy and policy change, we've started to do a lot more research, which even since I think I last saw you, we've really kicked up our research.

We launched a research partnership with Christopher Gardner at Stanford to study behavioral change and nutritional quality. And then we're studying right now talking about academic performance um with USC and LA Children's and Dr. Goran. We're studying the impact of real food in school on test scores and early results from that research. Uh it's not published yet. Early results indicate increased academic performance and test scores of course. course. course. So you change food, they help focus better. that they are have more mental clarity and they're able to perform better and that can I think it's one of the big ways that we can improve academic performance and then long-term performance for kids.

I agree. Just I I'll post it in the show notes, but I I wrote it in uh in my book uh The Ultra Mind Solution about a kid I saw who was 12 years old with severe ADD and I I wrote a paper about it and and it published it in a medical journal. It was a case report showing that, you know, this kid was 12 years old, severe ADD, behavioral issues, got kicked out of kindergarten. of kindergarten. of kindergarten. Wow. Wow. Wow. For being that bad, was on aderall, had unable to focus, just a mess.

But his diet was just pure junk food. He was significantly nutritionally deficient. And your brain works on nutrients. You know, it's like not just protein, fat, and carbs, but like he was vitamin deficient, mineral deficient. His his mother brought in his homework instead of before and and 2 months later after his handwriting was illeible at 12 years old and 2 months after changing his diet to real food. It was perfect penmanship. Was no like handwriting lessons or about cogn cognitive change. And it was one of those moments in my medical career I was like, "Oh my god, what is happening here in this kid's brain?" And now he's like an astrophysicist or something, you know, that's amazing.

that's amazing. that's amazing. You know, in 2 months he was completely better just by switching his diet, cleaning up his gut, giving him a couple vitamins, like not a lot of stuff. And I I think, you know, kids are so close to actually doing better. It breaks my heart like I see so many of these parents coming to me with their kids challenged and you know this was never the case. One in you know six kids has a neurodedevelopmental issue any everything from learning disabilities to um you know ADD to asberers to autism.

I mean that's a lot of kids you know it's scary and worse. It's hard for the kid. It's hard for the family. It's hard for the community. It's hard for the school. It's hard for our economy and the workforce. It's like it's it's and it's it's it's like it's it's and it's heartbreaking. heartbreaking. heartbreaking. And schools have been co-opted by the the food industry. Um and there's like McDonald's Monday and Taco Bell Tuesday and Wendy's Wednesday. And I mean it's it's bad. And 50% of the like meals in there provided and there's all the junk in there and you know Yeah, it's kind of crazy.

So what were the barriers that you saw when you started working on this? Cuz you you basically were going into a system that was basically like a fast food restaurant and saying, "Hey, this isn't good anymore. How do we change this with the eel?" Yeah. I think we think schools are the fastest, most enduring way to make scalable change for our kids. And so it and it is complicated like so we've been heads down since 2019 and we really started with one pilot district and 50,000 kids and we were like we have WFIO is one of our sayings at our small but mighty nonprofit.

We'll figure it out. We're going to figure it out. And so we stood next to an incredible food service director, uh, Dominic, and we, you know, what we do is we actually come in and we assess the school food program with our 10 science-based standards that are super rigorous. We just went through a review. It includes some of the best doctors, the best research. Um, and we looked at everything from how much sugar is in the food, what quality proteins, how local, how sustainable, how much variety, how many fresh food choices and options there are for students.

And we assess them. And then we give them a score. And then we help that food leader, that change maker in the community understand how do they make change and what is their food action plan? And it's all about action. We're we're a get it done group. You know, we we operate kind of like a for-profit startup but with a heart and um dedication of a nonprofit. So we move fast and we stand next to these change makers and we give them the playbook and then we meet like Dominic and I met actually at a school nutrition association meeting.

We met with 40 of his vendors and we lust was on the phone at one point with one of the food suppliers explaining why that harmful ingredient leeched calcium from kids bones and what they could swap it with. And we don't do that with every with every call. Can't call up Rob Le, Dr. Robles on everyone. But um we were able to have them swap out a ton of harmful ingredients, get out um toxic ingredients, reduce sugar. Um at that point they were removing 10 pounds of sugar.

And we thought this is gamechanging. And so now we have we're working with over 57 of these heroes, these school food change makers in 20 states. We went from 10 states to 20 states this year. And we went um from half a million kids to a million kids. We doubled our impact this year. And we added that many more incredible food heroes in these communities. And we stand next to them and we give them the support, the inspiration. Um we give them the playbook. We give them the registered dietitians and the nutritionists and the doctors that they need and we give them the local suppliers and the other friends across the country that are making change and then we help them get EARL certified and then we celebrate with them and the families and the communities and the students and then we help them keep going and get Eat Rail Green, silver, gold and keep raising the bar and making the food better and better and better for their kids.

And we're seeing participation more and more kids are eating school lunch as a result. Like one of our districts on the East Coast is serving 59,000 more meals since they got and started doing more real food for kids because it's more delicious. The kids like it more. The parents trust it. Are like, "Okay, you can eat school lunch." The 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 um they had uh like chicken teriyak bowl with broccoli and everybody was getting the broccoli was so good. They had a pizza but it had no harmful ingredients, no dough conditioners. It had real cheese. It had a um protein crumble like I think that was a grass-fed beef crumble even like it was the pizza done the way if you're going to eat pizza like that is the way to eat pizza.

And so and then they had a salad grown on site on on the school farm and delicious local organic cucumbers and uh housemade ranch which I'm motan 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, the local farmers thrive, the principals are happier, the teachers are happier, the students are loving it. That's amazing because you know there there's a mythology out there that is propagated by the food industry which is which is 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 going to be food safety issues. issues. issues. And they have all this propaganda that they tout. they tout. they tout. Yeah. And it sounds like they're actually looking looking after the benefit of the poor. Yeah. And is this sort of this halo of their the good guys, guys, guys, but it's so manipulative. And and you know, part of the problem is that, you know, people don't think that you can eat well for less.

Uh and and I'm sure you know this 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 into the schools and she saw all the schools only had deep fryers and microwaves and microwaves 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 just and all in children's bodies and in their brains. their brains. their brains. Yeah. terrible. And you know, she funded as a pilot, 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? right? right? Yeah, it's possible. Within the school guidelines, cuz there are requirements and guardrails and those change under the new dietary guidelines, but she was able to do it.

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. How do how do you get these schools I mean there school worker nutrition workers, the cafeteria workers, they don't they don't know what to do. They just know how to stick stuff 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 cape capes in our model. And so we really The ones with the hairetss. Yeah. And they uh 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 18minute lunches. They have to serve hundreds or thousands of kids in a short time frame. They have they are the largest restaurant chain.

They have a huge staff. They're dealing with a ton of infrastructure, of sourcing, of service and a fast short timeline. uh 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 it's like how do we bring some positivity and we help them get the recipes. Yeah. them we help them get the recipes. Yeah. They tra they recipe swap. We have monthly calls across AC ac they call themselves the eat realies and so they have their monthly calls with food service directors from around the country and then in regionally too and they swap suppliers.

Who are you using for that protein? Who are you using for your one of our districts? We're talking about dragon fruit. I just had dragon fruit. Like um they were talking about dragon fruit to give the kids some excitement and try something new. Um they um they we do school lunch spotlight tours where they'll 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 homeschool lunch cuz it was so good from Marietta, Georgia to North Carolina to show their school board what was possible.

Like they and so they like they look at each other's kitchen. How 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 that and giving them we work with them individually and give them the data, the support, the certification, the 14page certification report and the action planning support and then we connect them with each other.

Um, and they have they are a very fun group of people and it's happening like I said in 20 states now. So, Alaska, Washington, um, Idaho, uh, California, uh, Georgia, Alabama, Oklahoma, like uh, Michigan. We're growing throughout the 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 like kids thrive with real food and it's a better model for our better it's a better model for our school districts and it is hard and it is complicated.

Uh it's interesting different people different people different people and you can do it at the cost. Oh yeah. Some of our districts save save money by by swapping doing certain swaps. So that's really interesting. And like for example going from local just or 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 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 organic. 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. I have a bunch of I can't wait to nerd out with you in the future on some of our resources 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, 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. I mean just even just eating just protein period that's not like some processed thing 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 kids the number of customers the number of kids eating school meals if they so even if it costs a tiny bit more if you increase your customer base you know 30% % what increase and we're seeing participation numbers go up.

You're saying this can scale? So I'm saying that our schools then are able to make more money as school food businesses. They they're and then they're reinvesting that in chefs in training in infrastructure in 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. That's amazing. That's amazing. And it's win-winwin. 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.

Um, 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 and having farmers dedicate crop land for the schooling, which is like the best. best. best. Yeah. I mean, these local collaborations, decentralized food systems, it all makes sense. So, parents and teachers are noticing these kids. Mhm. Mhm. Mhm. Or better. Or better.

Or better. Oh, yeah. We're hearing from parents. We're hearing um from teachers that, you know, I I was actually following a teacher to her classroom. I just wanted to like ask her, you know, what is what is a real food breakfast? Cuz 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.

But she said that um 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 um burritos and not just sugary cereals 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. I mean, just go to a kid's birthday party and all. I see a lot of people talking about like more developmental work like like Save the Children and like I 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 or I'm like yeah but these kids brains are not functioning because they're nutritionally depleted or there's 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 diets that cause behavioral issues.

I mean, it's how do these 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 their long-term health and happiness? It's happiness? It's happiness? It's Yeah. I mean, investing in kids is investing in the future of our country. I mean, it's like it just it's such a no-brainer, right?

no-brainer, right? 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. And and 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 um avenues is you know humans can regenerate quickly. That's what gives me hope is like Dr.

Leic did a study that showed 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 10day um 10day detox and then I had and then you and I worked on a 7-day national sugar challenge together and my family I had my family do it the whole house and I have a multigenerational house. multigenerational house. multigenerational house. Um, 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 gamechanging. Like the grandparents lost weight and felt better. The we changed this. We I we got we had sourcing agreements pretty much at the house level where we're like okay it's hidden in all these these sauces we didn't know and let's just not have it in the house and like just don't bring it in and you're not 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 it made blueberries taste sweeter.

It 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 they 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 pre-diabetes reverse diabetes reverse diabetes reverse diabetes diabetes. Yeah. diabetes. Yeah. diabetes. Yeah. One in three kids are pre-diabetic. If we commit to this as a country, like Americans get things done and like if we actually say we're going to write 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 reverse these reverse these diseases and then stop these diseases from even starting in kids so fast. And we changed the food system in schools in less than two years. Like night and day, like gamechanging. And we get the data cuz we certifi 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, dramatic changes, 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 vast 30 million kids. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. How do we 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. Now, we have the big bold goal to reach 3 million kids in 30 states in three years, which is fast.

Add zero. Add a zero. This is good. Add a zero. So, like, 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 3 years, then we have the presence, the proof, and the partnerships to be the food systems change maker. 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.

And 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. Let's 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 you know I I if if if you're feeding 30 million kids that's a huge procurement procurement procurement um um um of food of food of food and food service right I don't know what the percentage of all food service but it's it's a lot and when you change the food service you change the incentives for the the farmers and the food service providers and yeah and it changes the whole system from the farm to the field.

Oh yeah. To the fork to the mouth. mouth. mouth. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. In just Northern California in one year, we generated over a million dollars of grass-fed organic beef franchise across this like just Northern California. Like you changed you changed the economy. They had to go start converting to more regenerative a. We changed crop land. Yeah. 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. Otherwise, you're not going to be in Walmart.

No. changes what crops are being grown the next season. It changes what farmers invest in. It changes our society fast in our economy. That's why it's like it's so exciting to me the momentum uh and the the power of school meals and how fast local communities and it's cool. We have eatal.org/parents /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 and of a parent and reaching out with our template email saying you're and so and then they got into our program and within a couple 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 uh 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 health care system that's broken. Chronic disease is rising. The health care costs are rising. Health insurance premiums are everything's just a mess, right? Our kids are behaviorally challenged. They're They're They're cognitively challenged. mental health in kids is a massive crisis than 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? they go? they go? I think they could start with going to eatreal.org/parents. eatreal.org/parents. eatreal.org/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 uh and um some government funding, we're able to offer our program free of cost to school districts. And so we parents can then reach out to their school district and say, "Hey, I heard about this awesome nonprofit, Ereal, on Dr.

Markman's podcast. I'd love to introduce you. um 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 um nutrition director about us. And then I think that we also have eat rail 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.

change. change. It's amazing how simple things make a big difference. You know our friend Tim Ryan who's congressman from Ohio, his wife is a fourth grade teacher. I wonder I wonder if we're in her school. Like 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 at any time in the class as long as was real food. The kids would go home say, "Mom, dad, go let's buy carrots. Let's buy apples.

Let's buy this cuz I can eat it in school." And then she would have this policy where, you know, kids had to drink water and they got to go to the bathroom. They'd have to ask. They could just get up and go to the bathroom. I was like encouraging them to like compare their pee. Is your pee clear or not? Because 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 like like and they had like fiber fun Fridays where they talk about their poop you know know know and so they you know teachers can do this too uh in the classrooms in ways that 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 that the parents hear the kids actually feeling better, doing better, and they actually go up to the home. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Cuz you know, the home is where a lot of the problem is because, you know, these families um are struggling. They're they're working hard, maybe two jobs. They have um you know, not any education about how to cook or shop or eat food.

Like 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 dessert topping which is almost all trans fat because because because it's almost air. It uh 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 said has less than zero. It has zero trans fat so it's so broken but but you know it's not that hard. We're almost like one meal away from educating America how to actually cook.

And you know, one of the things Brianna and my wife and I are doing as part of a food fix uncensored launch and and education is to do a SNAP challenge where we're SNAP is food stamps um uh otherwise known as supplemental nutrition assistance program. 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 that's not hard to make that doesn't take a long time.

You have to learn a few basic skills. You have to know how to chop a onion. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. How to stir by something like not, you know, how to open a can, knife skills, and some kitchen confidence. confidence. confidence. A few pots and pans. And that's it. And, you know, I'm excited. Like, we're going to make one of my favorite dishes, which is this. My mother used to make this a Spanish omelette. The Spanish tortilla like basically you take onions, uh, garlic, chop them up, stir fry them in some olive oil.

You take these red potatoes, like potatoes, you slice them really thin. really thin. really thin. Yeah. Yeah. 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. Ooh. Ooh. Ooh. And um and you 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 80 two cents a serving.

So nourishing breakfast. So filling. You just like a 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 ger and that your kind of go-tos for your family that are health changing like they can be like the kind of anchor key dishes for your family.

your family. your family. Yeah. Even meat, you know, there there's these cow share programs where you cut out the middleman. Yeah. By direct. I just got I just went to my rancher. Yep. Yeah. So it's it's actually can be extremely affordable. extremely affordable. extremely affordable. Mhm. Mhm. Mhm. Even to get regenerative beef. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. Oh yeah. You know, if you go direct to the farmer. 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 policy makers, all feeding off your plate. They call it choice, but your options were engineered. From the grocery aisle to the school cafeteria, Big Food, Big Egg, 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. And I talk a lot about this in Foodfix and we have a lot of resources on foodfixensored.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. Yeah. Yeah. There's a great I don't saw that cartoon.

The one who says it can't be done should not interrupt the one who's doing it. doing it. doing it. I hope that's us. I hope that's hope that's hope that's it. It shows like as Chinese Taichi master saying walking around the edge of a a wicker basket without it falling over, you know, like and it's both. It's like how do we make it easier for people to take individual action and take to take their health in their own hands and make it and give them the skills and the knowledge and the support to do it and and more resources and then how do we also change the systems so that and and push back on the food industry.

Well, let's talk about that cuz you you've been instrumental in some really key initiatives in California uh that you almost single-handedly have done. I mean, like in collaboration with you need like a superhero costume, I think, actually, cuz you are a force of nature in a um package that I think is disarming, but you're kind of a lionist underneath all that. Uh and taking no prisoners. uh with a smile and and maybe you can share some of the key key things that you've done policy-wise because you know food fix really makes a case that that um food policy is health policy.

Yes. Yes. Yes. And and it and you've you've done it through both what's happening in schools schools but also in in some major bills that got passed in California around food dyes around ultrarocessed food and so 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 um incredible adviserss like yourself and incredible other nonprofits and partnerships and our school food hero and really um 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. our group of eat reallyies 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. Uh so some fun ones we helped advocate for school meals for all. Um 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.

There had never been a sugar standard in school meals. Wow. Wow. 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 just hadn't been done before. There have been no no challenge and no accountability there. And so we helped pass it in California and then we actually passed that nationally. And so there 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. So I think you and I saw each other and we were high-fiving. I was like I'm bursting and I came up to you like it's passed. It's just so exciting. And Senator Skinner was a new grandma at the time and she was like she wanted to make change and she worked um 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 what's so powerful about our model is that we were able to present to lawmakers when they were worried like is this feasible or they were getting you know food industry pressure. This is too complicated. This is going to raise cost. This is not going to be possible. Kids aren't going to want it.

It's going to eat it. It's end up in the garbage. It's going to hurt our budget supporting the schools. all this uh because the that is real that food industry pressure is I think people hear it and they're like that's conspiracy and it's definitely not conspiracy. You read my book and it's so documented with I won't go there but it's scary and it's real. It'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 real standards remove those harmful dyes. We already remove the sugar. We've already done it in 500 schools or in a thousand schools or now 1,700 schools. And so so they can't really say oh it can't be done done 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. Talk 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, We're like, We're like, "Yeah, "Yeah, "Yeah, uh, exhibit A B CDE EFG. It's working." Like, no, this works. Like I said, like I said, don't don't those who say it can't be done should not interrupt those who are doing this.

The most exciting one that we just did in six months. We partnered with your the now you're on the board, environmental working group, Scott Faber, who I'm like a huge fan girl of. We partnered with um Scott Faber um and we also partnered um with Food Fight. They're incredible. Todd Wagner's group. Um I love Lori over there and Todd. They're wonderful. And so we really built this group um that was really championed by assembly member Gabriel, who I think is another national hero. He's out of California.

And so um yeah, I met him. Oh, you did? Okay, good. I met him with Todd Wagner at a at a American cinema event. Oh, wonderful. Okay, good. Okay. Yeah. Two two incredible change makers. And so any lieutenant governor who was very interested. interested. interested. Oh, good. Oh, yeah. Yep. Yep. Governors are can be major change agents in this. AB1264 was introduced. This was it was introduced. It's called AB1264 and it's the first bill to define what are harmful ultrarocessed 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 just and products high in sugar, salt, fat, harmful, toxic ingredient list, banned in other countries, known to cause cancer, known to be dangerous to our kids' health, known to hurt their outcomes. Let'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. I don't know. maybe a 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 directions. Try something new. And so we worked with them in the spring. Then um we were able to they invited um eat to testify which was so wonderful. We were able to say look we already removed the most harmful ultrarocessed foods from kids meals in California. We did it in 500 schools over hundreds of thousands of students.

Um we're seeing really strong results. We had farmers come in me too and testify. We had uh local school food heroes come from across the state and say they wanted it. We had the data. We had we met with lawmakers. We met we worked with tons of orgs and we met with lawmakers across the aisle and there was major push back and there was some major tactics that were not cool. Tell us tell tell us about that. You don't want to tell us. I want to live Mark.

I want to live. Like I don't I You want a big bullseye on your back? Well, I would I will just share one. Okay. then we can go back to yours right to to share the the extent to which people go in the food industry uh that it's so corrupt and so many and it was in California when Jerry Brown was governor second time he was the probably the most liberal governor in the history of America they called him governor Moon Beam Beam Beam I remember he ran for president 76 but he he was so liberal and in California time there were starting to be a lot of soda taxes Berkeley was the first and then other cities and towns started do them and the food indust industry freaked out.

freaked out. freaked out. Mhm. Mhm. Mhm. 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 any local state government government government would require a 2/3 majority which means because you know most legislatores are not like 2/3 of a party. like half, right? Or more or less, right? Like to get a two3 majority of Senate, it's impossible cuz you know it's like 53 senators or Republican, whatever. whatever. whatever.

And they it had nothing to do with food. It had nothing to do with soda tax, but they knew it was going to [ __ ] 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." And and 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, and so many front groups.

So many front groups with groups with groups with shady, seemingly healthy Oh, 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 major researchers threats. They've like it's like Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. really bad. really bad. really bad. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And we're up against a lot and Americans have had it. I think we're just like we're going to stand.

I don't know why I haven't been taken out yet. I'm just like like like I read said you need a bodyguard. You need like a security force. I'm like he does. He does have bodyguards. He does have security activities. I have angels. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. like angels. So, no, but it's real. But I think the tide the tides are changing and we're able to stand up, stand up, stand up, but there was a lot of push back. And how did you over how did you overcome that?

that? 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. It's works for the school food business model. It's actually better." and um any of their their concerns, we were able to work with them and um then and we worked with with agg and we worked to show that this was better for the local economy and better for local farmers.

And within 6 months, it was about 6 months from the spring to the fall, we were able to pass AB1264 AB1264 AB1264 nearly unanimous unan sorry nearly unanimously unanimously in the Senate and one naysayer in the Assembly which I asked as member Gabriel I was like was has anything been this like bipartisan one naysayer unanimous in the Senate almost unanimously in the house. I said as somebody memor is there anything that has had this much bipartisan collaboration and like this much um inertia behind it he's like maybe naming a freeway 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 ultrarocessed foods and they did did it.

We did it in California. it. We did it in California. Gavin Newsome signed it into law. Uh 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 change Yeah. I always say change doesn't start in Congress, it ends in Congress.

you know, it's all comes from grassroots, then it goes up to the local levels, then it goes up to the state levels, then 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 Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. women's rights, gay rights, like it happens happens 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 it is this is this is this our children's health is what can bring people to the table and what is the greatest opportunity of our lifetime.

lifetime. lifetime. Yeah. You look pretty bad if you're like unwilling to protect children in America. America. America. It's like It's like It's like I don't want my kids to live longer and healthier. Wait, 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 that's easy. That's easy. That's what we fight for. That's that's what we exist to do as parents. Okay, we're going to do this rapire questions.

I'm going to answer the question and you're you're well you 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 trapanic. Like I drank juice and I like did not I thought it was starting a healthy day, but when you drink juice, you were 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. vitamins. 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 in my recent history.

So amazing. Well, I would say the biggest myth is well my kids won't eat anything cuz 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 bags she made 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, and the next morning the same eggs for breakfast. And she finally ate them. Honestly, it's 15 times of exposure can change a kid's palette. 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, eat it them, keep exposing them, eat it together. Eating together is huge.

like we can kids change their eating habits fast. fast. fast. All right. What is the most powerful lever for fixing our food system? Our US public schools are the fastest, most scalable, biggest lever to create health and to change our food system fast. fast. fast. This is a hard question for me because there's so many levers. Uh I would say the thing that came to mind right away was food marketing. M just as we don't market cigarettes anymore in newspapers, magazines, TV, online, just prohibit it because it's harmful and it kills you.

Foods that kill you should not be allowed to be marketed. Period. Period. Period. Wait, can I give one more magic wand? If if schools are the big bet to change some school food policies that would like rapidly change things nationally are um changing commodity subsidies. We subsidize corn, soy, sugar, and wheat. And if we change those, it would changes. It also flows into school food. And there are school food commodities that get pumped into schools. And so we could do cash in loo. 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 the Yeah. Starting with like what's happening at the government level and then increase um actual um 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 $4.80. 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 healthcare costs, we would rapidly convert our school food program to be more real food.

And so and like it it's about 40% of that is food cost. So $180 per school meal. And we expect them to serve real delicious amazing local food. We it would be gamechanging to double down and raise a reimbursement rate and actually invest and make the bet a few billion more. more. 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. Yeah. Yeah. A third of and the same thing for federal. The third of our entire federal budget budget budget Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. is our chronic disease. Yeah. 17% of our GDP almost 4 trillion. So a year is spent on preventable ultrarocessed food related diseases. If we spend a few billion on real food for kids through schools, we'll save trillions of dollars a year. So like pretty good pretty good return on investment. investment. investment. Pretty instant like pretty fast. Not the fastest as we like it, but fast ROI.

And so I think that is like if 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 um do more farm-toschool 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 100%. All right. What's the most underrated family habit for health?

Eat together. Eat together. Eat together. I would I would say cook together. I like that even more. Cook together. Cook together. Cook together. And go to the farmers market together. I had a purple day at the farmers 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 farmers market together.

And you know, and the thing about cooking together is that kids like it. Like, you know, um there's a u a book by Molly Kassen for kids. Uh I forget the the title of it, but it was the one woman who wrote the Moosewood Cookbook, and it was an enchanted broccoli course 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 love and 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, but they just learned. It's like help kids learn to love real food. Put on some music, have cooking time, maybe have another family member cook together. My 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. Uh 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 we 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 um shop for food together, cook together and then eat it together. All right. We 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 improves kids health? One policy change. Yeah. Invest in school food. Bet. Make a bet on school food. food. food.

I would say that and I would say you know um changing the school lunch standards which which are now going to happen with the new dietary guidelines because because because uh they actually have essentially said eat real food no highly processed food. So if the US dietary guidelines say no highly processed food that means the schools have to follow the dietary guidelines. That's one of the reasons why dietary guidelines are so important because they implement school lunches. We've actually designed our eat real standards to be plugandplay 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 gamechanging. 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. It's literally about giving our kids more happy years. And that's that's what life is all about. And more years.

I mean, it flips the script from shorter, sicker lives in their parents to healthier, longer lives than their parents. So, that's what I think. think. 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 giving our feeding our kids happiness. Eat happiness. Eat real and eat happiness. I like that. That's a good one. Write that one down. Uh, what what gives you the most hope right now?

What's giving me the most hope is that individuals like the folks listening to your podcast leaders like you, our food service heroes, our rockstar team and our board and real like the 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 in 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 and people are showing that it's possible and when you change the food for kids you change the future.

Absolutely. 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. is like, wait, everybody's finally paying attention attention attention and 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.

Yes. Yes. Yes. We fix our chronic disease epidemic. We heal our children's and um catastrophic futures that they're facing. We save trillions of dollars from the federal budget and states budgets. We help restore the environment by improving soil health, water resources, and saving them and preventing damage to our waterways through run off of the pollution and fertilizers that go into there. We help reduce climate change by sequestering carbon. We in 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 at every level. So I think think think to me it literally is almost fixing everything because food is a nexus where everything comes together, right? It 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 and our and our future I love that I'm Midwestern so we talk about our planet I'm Midwestern so we talk about twofers and I think fixing our food what you say is yeah it's a tener and it's or it's at least a four for 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. So, like it's like Yeah, it's probably more like a temper. It's like you fix food and you change everything. Really? I love that. All right. So, people want to learn more about Eat Real, they go to eat rail.org. Eatel.org. If they want to get their district involved, they can go to eel.org/parents. They can go to eat railcertified on Instagram. I'm on LinkedIn, Nora Lator. I'm nourished with Nora on Instagram. They can find me on Instagram. They can find Eracertified on Instagram.

They can sign up for our newsletter at eat.org. org and uh 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, uh we can get more schools and communities on board and help change our food system. Amazing. Amazing. And uh for those listening want to know more about Foodfix Uncensored, go to foodfix uncensored.com. uncensored.com. uncensored.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, uh this is feels like a really consequential moment. It feels like uh 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. Margar 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 Ereal and of me and um of our team.

So, thank you. Let's go. Let's go. Let's do it. All right. If you loved that last video, you're going to love the next one. Check it out here.