What if you had a toolbox that told you exactly where to start with your child’s health? Honestly, if we could all just find a place to start, just that one foothold over the seemingly rocky cliffs of food and nutrition, the next foothold is often apparent. Sometimes after years of a healthy, fantastic diet, you might hit a plateau again, and that is when a handy toolkit, right in place can help you find your foothold yet again.
In this podcast, Dr. Sachin Patel leads us through a 9 step toolkit for changing your child’s health and energy, starting with my favorite step 1:
- Taste is important. Find out what your kids love. From there we want to make our foods as healthy as we possibly can.
- Don’t give up after the first time.
You can find Dr. Sachin Patel here.
To know more about your child’s diet and how to get it to do some heavy lifting for their brain health, sign up for my FREE training this week : 3 signs that your child’s diet is NOT working for them
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Disclaimer: The information in this Podcast is for educational purposes only. Vaishnavi Sarathy, Ph.D. is an educator, not a doctor, specifically not your child’s doctor. Please consult your physician before implementing any supplement or diet recommendations.
Audio Transcript:
Vaish:
Did you know that despite years of training and nutrition when I have to change my diet, I still struggle a lot It’s just so hard to stop? And what if you had a toolbox that told you exactly where to start with your child’s health? Honestly, we could all just find a place to start just that one foothold over the seemingly rocky cliffs of food and nutrition. The next foothold is usually really easy, it’s apparent it comes up, it shows itself. Sometimes after years of a healthy, fantastic diet, you might find yourself again in that place, that dreaded plateau, right. And again, we use that toolkit, as long as it’s right in place to find our foothold yet again.
My guest today food health and nutrition thinker, extraordinary Sachin Patel gives us just this toolkit in nine easy steps, such as a father has been a philanthropist functional medicine practice success coach, speaker, author, breathwork, facilitator, and plant medicine advocate. He’s convinced that the doctor of the future is the patient and he’s committed himself to helping others raise their consciousness, activate their inner doctor, and initiate the deepest healing through the use of lifestyle breathwork and respectful utilization of psilocybin.
He’s an advocate of transforming the healthcare paradigm. And he’s devoted his life to the betterment of healthcare for both patients and practitioners. And as I was chatting with searching during this podcast, I simply loved what he said this is actually the first step in the toolkit. He talks about prioritizing taste. And I think that is such a fresh approach to prioritizing taste. Now, of course, sometimes we prioritize only taste, and that can boomerang on us. Right.
Now, as you listen to this podcast, I hope you will be motivated to make a change. But it’s also important to know what change might look like for your child. A trip without a roadmap is not of much use. In this context, I’m offering free training three times over the next week to share how your child’s diet may not be working for them. In fact, it is three signs that your diet is actually not doing its job.
And you can sign up at functionalnutritionforkids.com/3signs/. And it’s the number three followed by the word signs. Again, it’s functional nutrition for kids.com/three signs. The link is also in the show notes, wherever you’re watching, or listening to this episode. Now do listen on as such, and leads us to commit to change even if you’re coming from a place of overwhelm. Welcome, Sachin, thank you for being here on this podcast. I’m really excited to talk to you today.
Dr. Sachin:
Myself, as always, thanks for hosting me, and I’m excited for our conversation.
Vaish:
Absolutely, I’m, I had a simple question in my mind to start off. And as I was framing this podcast, that question is, how does one commit to change from a place of overwhelm? Because many of the parents listening to this podcast are overwhelmed with messages of acceptance, on one hand, you know, accept your child as they are. And then messages of change, on the other hand, change the food change the environment, change learning strategies, both of these messages are also ones that, you know, I’ll provide through this podcast. And even though acceptance and change don’t have to be the contrary, they sound contrary. And to add to that parents of children with disabilities are living in a world with messages that are coming in of, you know, you are not okay, or your child is not okay, this is not okay, or that is not okay. So, realize that I’ve complicated my question, but I’ll simplify it again, to rephrase, how do you commit to change from a place of overwhelm? And how do you know what change to commit to?
Dr. Sachin:
Yeah, that’s a great question. And I don’t think there’s one right answer to this. One thing that I will say is that the best thing that I can offer people is to learn to be present. I think a lot of times when we’re not present at the moment that’s in front of us, our head can get stuck in the future, or sometimes it can get stuck in the past, and the voices from outside of us can overwhelm or block with the voices that are coming from inside of us.
A lot of times, even for my clients, you know, the thing that we always want them to do is to be present to the what the as is, as Dr. Shefali would say, is be present to the as-is and, you know, there’s whatever is going on, it might feel like a mess, but there’s a message in that mess. And we want to pay attention to, you know, to be able to read through the lines, you know, what is this moment trying to teach me or what is this?
You know, what is the opportunity at this moment that I can learn from and, you know, there’s going to be lots of noise in from the outside world. And so the key for me is always to be present, shut out the outside noise and pay attention to the inward you know, the sounds and the voice that’s inside of us that is He’s always there to guide us.
Vaish:
When one is in a state of overwhelm, what does that mean from a? Maybe a biochemical perspective? So what is it that is there anything concretely you can do to shift from the place of overwhelm, because sometimes it’s really hard to find that center and to find that presence when it’s just every selling, you just want to either run away or hide your head under the sand?
Dr. Sachin:
Yeah, I think, you know, overwhelm comes from not knowing what our next step is. And so you know, it’s a lot of times overwhelming is, is not knowing what we need to do in order to make the situation better. So our mind is very good at creating usually false negative realities, versus creating positive, and, you know, meaningful realities are moving in the direction that we want to create. So overwhelm is oftentimes, a result of not knowing what that next thing is that we need to do. So a lot of times, you know, we want to take inventory of the things that are overwhelming us, identify the things that we can actually change, and then identify the things that we have no control over.
Then really take ownership over the things that we can control. In terms of the chemistry of what’s happening to somebody, it’s usually when we’re in a state of overwhelm like that, that we’re in a fight or flight response. And in that fight or flight response, we’re not actually even using the part of our brain that can help us come up with a logical, creative, and elegant solution to whatever challenge we’re facing. So again, being present.
The best way for us to be present is by using our breath as a tool. So we’ve heard this, you know, I know, I’m probably preaching to the choir, and many moms and dads have probably heard this before. But when people say, hey, just relax and take a deep breath, you know, there is a little bit more context to that, you know, that, that we could probably unpack here. But you know, getting into a relaxed cadence of breath, doing something like box breathing, can be a very powerful way to induce a parasympathetic state.
In that parasympathetic state, we’re capable of creating an elegant solution. And that takes us from a place of overwhelm, to now being able to overcome so we don’t want to stay stuck in the overwhelm. If we stay stuck in the stress state, then we’re just going to, we’re just going to spiral downwards. But if we shift into a parasympathetic state, now we’re in an overcome state. So we can come up with a solution for whatever challenge we have.
Vaish:
So Breath, breath is the first step.
Dr. Sachin:
Breath is the easiest thing that we can change, you know, and doesn’t cost us anything, it’s a matter of raising awareness around our breathing patterns. And something like box breathing is something that helps us quickly shift into that relaxation state. So box breathing is where you take an inhale for four seconds, hold for four seconds, exhale for four seconds, and hold empty for four seconds. And you repeat that pattern just like a box. So you would do that for a couple of minutes. And what’s amazing is that, when you’re in a state of stress, a minute goes by like this, when you’re in a state of calm and relaxation, and using your breath as a tool a minute feels like an hour. And this is why a lot of people don’t shift gears and use their breath, because they’re illusion by the passage of time thinking, oh my god, I’m spending so much time doing this, when in reality, in a short period of time, you can really shift the state of your physiology and your mental and emotional state as well. In a fight or flight state, a, you’re not remembering anything, b You’re not at all creative.
You’re not even able to come up with you know, an elegant solution to your problem. And time just flies. So slow down, take a few deep breaths, you know, do the box breathing technique for a couple of minutes, and recenter yourself and watch what happens. It’s pretty remarkable. And here’s another interesting thing, that story that I want to share is that this actually happened to my client.
Her son was having major behavioral issues, and just not cooperating with her. And she’s a principal at a school. And they had indicated to her that she needs to medicate her son, because of his behavior. And so she joined our program, she was dealing with a lot of stress and struggling with weight and all those things that come along with imbalanced hormones. And so we had her do some breathing techniques using specifically a device called Heart Math.
Heart Math is a Neurofeedback tool that you clip to your ear and it tells you what state of coherence you’re in. And when you’re in a state of coherence, which you can get to using breathing and thoughts, your heart and your brain are connected. And it’s that heart-brain connection that many of us have lost a lot of times stuck in our heads. And really to help our child we want to get you to know in our heart because that’s when we come up with you know, a loving solution to the problem instead of a very logical solution.
Think of the brain as the masculine think of the heart as the divine feminine. And so we want to have a balance between the two, not just the masculine solution, not just the yang energy But we want to have yin energy to the solution. So by using our breath and using the Heart Math, you know, and Heart Math is like training wheels. So you can, you know, once you’ve mastered your breathing technique, you don’t need the device. But until you know how to do that the device is a very helpful tool.
Well, anyways, within two weeks, she started using the device, and her boyfriend at the time, said to her, did you end up filling that prescription for your son because his behavior has dramatically changed? And she said, No. And she realized very quickly that it was when she changed her energy and changed her electromagnetic field, that her son automatically shifted his behavior. So when she broke down crying when she told me the story, because she realized that, because she’s quantumly entangled with her son, and just were quantumly entangled with each other, she realized very quickly that it was her energy that we as adults can contain, right children, don’t have the gift of the very developed prefrontal cortex.
Sometimes they’ll say and do things that we as adults wouldn’t do. And it’s because we are able to, you know, suppress our emotions, we’re able to suppress that energy and drive it deep. And so for adults, it shows up as a disease. And for children, it shows up as misbehaving. But it’s that energy has to dissipate and transform into something. And so when we get the energy inside us, right, then those people that are in our field, their energy becomes balanced, as well. So you know, with our children, especially moms, moms and children have a very unique connection, because you literally printed your children inside your womb, which is a pretty amazing thing to be able to do. And so that connection that we have, is very sacred. And a lot of times, we over-intellectualize a solution, when in fact, we just need to get re-centered in our heart, and the solution presents itself.
Vaish:
Very nice. There are so many things I really liked about that. I liked that you talked about entanglement because I think everybody listening can identify with that. I mean, I myself know that you know, there is a connection between every mom and every child. But when children are in a state of sensory difference, perhaps you know, because when the five senses are operating differently, as in pretty much probably every child with autism, The Sixth Sense shows up as a little bit stronger. Presence. So and you’re right, you know that time and again, I can see that my mental state is a reflection of my son’s mental state and vice versa. That is so true. While I have many questions, let me prioritize this.
You already have given us two tools. One is the breath and you mentioned the box breathing technique. And you said, the heart rate variability Heart Math, right? Yes, the Heart Math technique. So in the toolbox that we have breath, we would you say Heart Math is the same as breath. It’s neurofeedback.
Dr. Sachin:
I would say, well, you use your breath as the guide, right, so it guides you on how to breathe correctly. So I would say it’s an advancement in breathing techniques. And it’s a way for you to identify what breathing style and technique works best for you. So it’s I like neurofeedback because, for everyone, it’s going to be a little bit different, right? So for some people box breathing at a four-second pace might work well for others, a three-second pace might work better. So by using the HeartMath device, you can figure out what makes the most sense for you, because we’re all unique, and we’re all individual. And it’s always nice to be able to see the shift that’s taking place in your body.
So you know, as you know, as intellectual beings, we want to know that what we’re doing is working. And so the Heart Math allows us to know that what we’re doing is actually moving us in the right direction. So there, you know, they’re unique and different in their own ways. But, you know, you definitely would use your breath to get your HRV in the right state.
Vaish:
Okay, and, and the example that you gave us very powerful of a child regulating through his mom because I know that moms are probably more likely to take action when they know that it’s going to benefit their child as opposed to it’s going to benefit themselves. So when we talk about, you know, impulsivity, hyperactivity, a lot of our work sometimes comes through the realm of food in your Can you mention a few things that are in your toolbox other than what their priorities would be for a child?
Dr. Sachin:
Yeah, so first and foremost, the taste is important, right? So we want to make sure that the food tastes good.
Vaish:
I never heard any, it seems like it should be common sense. But you’re the first person to say that taste is.
Dr. Sachin:
Yeah, so we have to figure out what our kids love, right? What are the foods that they love? What are the textures that they love? And then from there, we want to make those foods as healthy as we possibly can. So a lot, so a lot of times it’s going to start there. Right. You know, sometimes if we try to introduce foods that they don’t like the taste of or they don’t like the texture of, then it becomes a very difficult thing for us to make adjustments to. But let’s say your child likes pizza.
Well, okay, let’s start there. And then let’s work backward from there. How do we make this pizza as healthy as we possibly can? How do we eliminate genetically modified ingredients? How do we get rid of chemicals, like glyphosate, which is commonly found in weeds, right? So then it becomes an experiment in how can we reproduce or replicate the taste or make it taste even better? You know, one of the things that I love, I love pizza. And when I gave up gluten, that was one of the things that I missed the most. And every party you go to, there’s pizza, and you know, all that, all that stuff. And, you know, I admit that I do miss that.
However, my wife actually found an almond flour, made by a company called simply simple mills. And that actually tastes better than any other pizza crust that I’ve ever had in my entire life. So now I enjoy that. And what’s cool about that almond crust is that it actually has no spike in my blood sugar when I eat it. So typically, when you’re eating, you know, even a typical gluten-free pizza crust as an example, it’s made with rice and starches and potato starch and things like that. And it’s going to spike your blood sugar, but the almond crust, Pizza pizza dough doesn’t or the almond flour pizza crust does not do that. And I was wearing a CGM. And I was shockingly surprised when I saw that I’m like, Wow, this tastes better. It’s much better for me from a ketogenic standpoint, as well.
It’s not raising my blood sugar. So it’s, it’s a win, win-win all around. So you know, start with what your children like. And then, you know, start an experiment and don’t give up after your first time. Like, if I gave up after my first gluten-free pizza crust, then I don’t know where I’d be right now. So you keep experimenting and talk to other parents and, you know, find out what other people are doing that they really enjoy. So secondly, to that, we want to be aware of certain foods that are neuroinflammatory.
You know, I mean, this is important for any child, any adult even should be aware of this, right? So first and foremost, we never want to feed our children, something that we ourselves are not eating, right, at least you can’t have a different diet for your child that’s, you know, healthy and gluten-free, and all that stuff, and then you’re eating crap, right, they’re gonna see that they’re going to be able to smell right through that. And they’re going to feel, you know, they’re going to feel like an outcast, they’re going to feel like what’s wrong with me, there’s nothing wrong with them. There’s something wrong with people who eat unhealthy food. So first and foremost, we want to try to be an embodiment of health, we need to show up in a way that’s supportive of our own health, right?
We got to put our own oxygen masks on first so that we can be there for our family. And so really, a lot of times, it’s not about the child, it’s really about us, like, how are we going to show up in the world? That’s the first question that we have to ask. And then the default is going to allow them to show up better, as well as as a byproduct of you eating healthy you being mindful of your blood sugar, you being mindful of your energy and mitochondria and your sleep and all those other things, you know, that’s automatically going to set up your child for success as well. When it comes to certain foods, as you know, things that I don’t eat, or you couldn’t pay me to eat anymore.
Gluten is something that I’ve eliminated for over 11 years now, since my son was born, I gave it up. Very rarely do I eat any dairy. And I’m personally a vegetarian, I don’t project that on to anyone. But, you know, I find that when we eat adrenalized animals, who are grown in a stressful environment, and under stressful and toxic conditions, it’s hard for me to accept that that energy isn’t passed on to us in some way. So, you know, personally, I tried to, you know, I am vegetarian and I would encourage people to maybe explore that and see if that’s the right solution for them. Because some children are going to be very sensitive to energies that we may not be sensitive to. And so, you know, there’s, there’s that to take into consideration.
Another big thing that’s, that’s often overlooked, that, you know, keep in mind that all of our senses eat right, so our skin eats touch, our eyes eat light, our ears eat sound, right, our nose eats sense, and our mouth, tastes our food. So we have in our senses, all of our senses are eating. So we always want to be careful and mindful of that, right? So what’s the, you know, the auditory environment in your home because that’s going to potentially trigger the nervous system.
What’s the lighting like in your home, you know, certain types of lighting like LED lighting and certain colors, temperatures of lighting can be very disruptive and can actually cause an increase in certain hormones like cortisol, for example, which can make us feel more stressed and more in a fight or flight type of state, which obviously is not good for our behavior. It’s not good for our mental health.
It’s also not good for our hormonal balances, and it causes us to crave the wrong foods. So believe it or not, if your children are bathed in you know, this the wrong temperature of lighting, such as anything above 4000 Kelvin And chances are that they’re going to crave sugary foods more than somebody who’s in the right type of lighting, or who has full-spectrum lighting, which comes from being in the sun.
A lot of our cravings are actually going to come from being exposed to the wrong type of lighting, which is going to cause us to choose the wrong types of foods. And so then when you try to feed your child something healthy, there is a mismatch in the signal that his body’s getting what he’s craving, or she’s craving, compared to what you’re feeding them.
We always have to be careful of lighting as well, that’s something that’s very overlooked, and often not discussed when it comes to food and nutrition because it does affect that. And another thing that I want to always get people to pay attention to is their sleep. So the quality of sleep that you get also affects your hormones, two hormones, in particular, one is called ghrelin. So when we don’t get a good night’s rest, or if our children don’t get a good night’s rest, then they’re going to make more ghrelin, ghrelin makes us feel hungry all the time. So think of gremlins. And then the other thing that happens is we become leptin resistant.
Leptin tells us when we’re full. So if we become leptin resistant, because we’re not sleeping, well, then we’re going to feel hungry all the time. So no matter how much we eat, we’re going to keep feeling that we’re hungry and unsafe, created. And then you know, so you combine that poor sleep with poor lighting, and now you’ve got somebody who’s basically going to be craving, you know, basically, you know, high fat, high sugar, inflammatory foods, never going to feel satisfied, always going to be hungry.
This is going to create the recipe for a blood sugar rollercoaster. And so this can also lead to, you know, inflammatory food choices that are obviously going to affect not just the brain, but globally, it’s going to affect the body as well. And you know, also for parents to keep in mind, there’s something called the gut-brain axis.
Our brain and our gut are constantly communicating back and forth with one another. In fact, there are more signals coming from the gut to the brain, than from the brain to the gut. So it’s a superhighway, it’s a two-way superhighway. And so our gut environment, our microbiome in our gut is playing a key role in our brain and neurological function. And it’s important to pay attention to that as well.
Eating foods that are going to promote a healthy microbiome is very important. So these are going to be fibrous foods, so vegetables and fruits, and eating variety. So if we eat the same foods over and over again, and we feed the same bacteria, although these are healthy bacteria, variety creates balance. And so we want to create variety, a variety of colors, a variety of different food choices, especially plant-based food choices that are high in fiber is going to create a diverse microbiome, and that helps regulate inflammation, neurotransmitters in the body.
Vaish:
Thank you. And that was very well-rounded. I mean, you touched on many areas of like, I would say, maybe a foundational toolbox that anybody can just, you know, get started, you don’t need to immerse yourself in more and more information. And as you were saying this, one of the thoughts that came to my head is that a lot of this is, especially with the light that you were talking about, the information coming from the light is ongoing information, right. So there are studies going on, and it’s kind of like cutting-edge science.
In order to know it to know what to do you need to be up to date with what’s going on in the world yet that itself is another source of stress and negativity just, you know, just information itself. So how do you personally balance the input of information? Because give I’m guessing that doing what you do you have to be abreast with it at the same time, maybe not to abreast with it. I don’t know, what’s the balance?
Dr. Sachin:
Yeah, that’s a great question. Because it is it can be very overwhelming. And it can be very confusing because when we get to this the next week, it’s that. So I like to apply common sense and ancient wisdom. So the best source of lighting is the sun. Right? So without a doubt, I think most people would agree that we probably spent way too much time indoors and under artificial lighting. And unfortunately, the lighting sources that are available to us, especially in academic settings, are usually fluorescent bulbs, and these fluorescent bulbs or LED bulbs are you know, toxic in terms of the lighting, color temperature, that because they’re usually about 5000 Kelvin. And so you’re getting this full spectrum of lighting throughout the day, and that doesn’t happen in nature. So as much as we can, you know, we don’t have a choice sometimes. But as much as we can I encourage people to get outside.
You know, getting outside in the sun first thing in the morning is a great time to get outside that increases dopamine that helps us feel much more grounded. It helps it energizes us, you know, in some cultures sungazing is a popular tradition as well. And I try to do that as many mornings as I can. Getting our bare feet in the grass is also something that we can do to help us ground electrically and discharge some of those negative ions. The other thing that you want to try to do is get out in the middle of the day. So midday sun is very important because that helps us increase serotonin and serotonin is, is our feel-good neurotransmitter.
Serotonin is primarily made in the gut. And when you think about it, that’s why they call the gut the solar plexus. So the gut requires proper sunlight in order for it to function properly. And then the third time of the day is sunset, so we can watch the sunset. And that’s a great tool for us to kind of let our body know at, an unconscious biochemical level, that is time to wind down. And then the evening I discourage overhead lighting. So I encourage people to use, you know, lamp shades or up lighting. Because in nature, the sun after it goes below the horizon, there’s no light coming from above anymore, right. So only in an artificial environment would light be coming from above after the sun has set.
In nature, if you were to light a fire, the light would come from the ground up. And so when light hits the bottom of our retina, versus the top of our retina, that sends a different signal to the brain. So we use a special type of bulb, it’s a red bulb, it’s a flicker-free LED. And we use we turn those lights on in the evening after the sun goes down so that our room and our home is group is read. And so what that does is it prevents the production of cortisol, the excessive production of cortisol, and starts increasing the production of melatonin.
Melatonin is what helps us get to sleep at night. But melatonin knows is also a very important immune-modulating hormone. So, you know, we want to get a good night’s rest, build up a healthy immune system, increase our dopamine production the next day, and then also wake up energized, then we have to make sure that our lighting environment is correct. And what’s beautiful about something like this is you just have to make these changes once, right, so it’s only overwhelming if we don’t do anything about it, because it just keeps looming and lingering. Whereas if you just take action, get the bulbs, you know, order three or four, depending on what your home setup is like, and then just set it up and then you forget about it. And then you just incorporate it into your life.
I like to you know, what I like to do is I like to evaluate and start with, you know, kind of working through my day. So and it’s not going to happen overnight, right? So the routines that I have the tools that I have the investments that I’ve made, you know, it wasn’t just like going to an Amazon cart, pressing an order, and it all shows up the next day, you have to find what works for you. So start with your morning, right. So when you wake up first thing in the morning, you know, how can you optimize that experience? Right? So maybe you have a gratitude journal? And you might brush your teeth? Who am I using toxic toothpaste? Or am I using healthy toothpaste? Toothpaste? Am I using a tongue scraper right? To help stimulate my vagus nerve, which helps me stimulate digestion? When do I go to the bathroom? Am I sitting in the right position? Most people sit on a throne.
Our body anatomically is designed to use a squatting position so you can get a squatty potty, right? The water that you’re drinking? Is that high-quality water that you’re drinking? Is it reverse osmosis filtered and re-mineralized? No. So you just kind of take a moment each day and ask yourself, Is this the best that I can do? When you turn the lights? The next time? Is this the best lighting that I can have for my home? Right?
When you’re in the shower? Is this the best water that I’m bathing my family and you know, when you’re using you know your utensils, or when you’re using your pots and pans? Are these pots and pans healthy for me? Or are they toxic? Right, if you’re using Teflon still, then I encourage you to watch the movie black waters. And you’ll see that this is information that was suppressed for many, many millions, not millions, but decades.
Teflon is known to cause cancer. And, and cause a lot of, you know issues for, you know, adults and children. So stop using that stuff, right? So you just kind of take a daily inventory. And then you know, you replace one of these things. So some of these things, you know, one item at a time. And eventually, you know, you look back 30 days later and you realize wow, like what an amazing transformation. Or you might look back a year later and realize that you’ve made a transformation, so ticket, you know, one step at a time and you know, obviously whatever your budget permits, but make that investment in yourself and I like to do things that are passive.
Most of what I teach my clients to do is absolutely free. It doesn’t cost them anything. So it’s not about you know, you know, buying things that are you gonna run out after 30 days, right? It’s not about buying supplements and you have to keep buying them every month or it’s not about doing lab testing, which you have to keep repeating every few weeks or few months. What are the things you can do on a daily basis that are going to move the needle for not just you but your entire family?
You know when you change the lighting in your home your whole family benefits when you change water quality, your whole family benefits when you change the pots and pans the whole family benefits. So what are things that we can do that give us you know four to one return? Because the entire family is benefiting from the process, not just one person.
Vaish:
And I think that perspective is very important. Because a lot of times we’re trying to do things to our kids and too and assuming that we’re kind of immune from whatever it is, like you said, we’re maintaining the same diet, we’re maintaining the same lifestyle. And it’s hard to make a change on both fronts, perhaps, but I think that maybe takes us farther to the long term.
Dr. Sachin:
Yeah, absolutely. I mean, here’s the thing, what I learned about I have an 11-year-old, as I mentioned to you, and so I can speak from, you know, being a parent, I can’t speak from having a child who has some of the challenges that some of the listeners might have. But what I do know is that, if we’re going to stand in a place of integrity, we can never tell our child to do something that we ourselves are not doing. And so I, you know, at they say Bruce Lipton says that you know, basically you, you teach your child everything they’re going to learn between the ages of zero and eight. And after that,, their way of looking at the world has been formed. And my job as a parent is done. You know, of course, I have to protect him and provide for him. But his conscious and unconscious belief patterns have already been established at this point. And so I didn’t teach him anything, I just did it myself. So that this was the only way he knew how to live.
Right. So that’s where I encourage people to start start with you. Because the absolute worst-case scenario starting with you is you’re healthier. Right, whereas if we start with our child, then the worst-case scenario is they may not be accepting of the changes that you want to make, because you’re not making them for yourself. And then you end up frustrated, and then it all falls apart. But if you start with you, then you’re guaranteed at least some result and then your child will naturally follow.
Vaish:
And a question that came to my mind of what if it’s a specialized therapeutic diet, but I also thought of the answer, maybe it’s that that’s maybe not where we start, we start with a foundational anti-inflammatory diet and that everybody can if you do need to do a specialized therapeutic diet that may be later, but your foundations are still going to be the same for you and your child.
Dr. Sachin:
Yeah, exactly.
Vaish:
Yeah. Well, thank you so much that that was such a beautiful discussion you we did a full circle, maybe I’ll do an action sheet or a note card to accompany this because we hit on such a matrix of issues. It was really useful. Thank you so much for watching.
Dr. Sachin:
Thank you. I appreciate this opportunity. And, you know, lots of love to all the families and parents that are out there doing their best.
Vaish:
What an awesome podcast now can you believe we’re already on episode 96 Now before I bid you goodbye for a week. Don’t forget to sign up for my free training this week. Three signs that your child’s diet is not doing its job. Remember, you can sign up at functionalnutritionforkids.com/3signs The link is also in the show notes season.
