Mark Bell's Power Project - Neurophysiologist Reacts To INSANE New Child Obesity Guidelines

Starting point is 00:00:00 Pepper, how's your family? How's it going? Now, we talk about meat a lot on this podcast, which is why we've partnered with Piedmontese and have for years now, because they have some of the best beef on the planet. All right. Piedmontese beef has cuts that are fattier in terms of the ribeyes, and they have also cuts that are leaner in terms of their flat irons. But you can get cuts for no matter what diet you're on. Andrew, how can they get their hands on it? Yeah, head over to Piedmontese.com. That's P-I-E-D-M-O-N-T-E-S-E.com. Check out Enter Probo Code POWER for 25% off your entire order. And if your order is $150 or more, you get free two-day shipping. Links to them down in the description as well as the podcast show notes. I saw this because on social media, a lot of people have been going wild because apparently there are new guidelines wanting to give kids weight loss drugs and surgery for obesity.

Starting point is 00:00:50 And it's kind of interesting. It's kind of odd. What do you guys think? Depending on what age, like how old are these kids? From what I read, it was as young as 12 and 13. Oh, see, look, there are genes responsible for obesity, but that's a small population and these kids do they have these genes um or are they just eating too much it's america so i mean yeah like

Starting point is 00:01:14 we'll see but all right so you want to check this out yeah yeah the american academy of pediatrics is out with new guidelines for the first time in 15 years when it comes to the treatment for childhood obesity. AAP now says weight loss drugs should be considered when treating children. CBS's Dr. John LaPook reports in tonight's. It's the first time they're giving recommendations in the last 15 years. How much fatter has this country gotten in the last 15 years? Yeah. So we lost a lot of ground. And so maybe now we're in a position where maybe this might be something that we have to do. I mean, doctors are like suggesting exercise and nutrition, but the main thing is like, are people doing it? Are habits set within

Starting point is 00:01:58 people's lifestyles to make that happen? Yeah. Do you know what's interesting? I interviewed Stephen Guionet and he speaks about obesity. And he said that childhood obesity can be caused by obesity in a mother that can be passed down to the fetus in utero. So we're not just talking about the poor kid. Let's look at mom and dad first. Well, maybe not dad. Let's look at mom. Is she big? Is she obese? Is she watching what she's eating to develop the brain of her fetus? Because if we know now, and this is what he said, if we know now that you can pass down these obesity genes or just obesity through poor lifestyle habits of when you are pregnant, it's going to affect the poor kid as well. And just the predisposition maybe to eat kind of sugary foods because maybe mom is pre-diabetic or overweight or whatever the case may be. Or just lack of education. Like there's so many kids who just don't know what to eat.

Starting point is 00:02:53 It's a lot of adults too. By the way, how do you feel about like, you know, there's a side of things where people mention that in certain areas where people aren't, they don't have as much in terms of money. So they're in areas where there aren't many great supermarkets for food. And it's just they have a lack of ability to get better food because they don't make as much money. How do you feel about those types of situations happening? Because that's a lot of places in the United States. Socioeconomic status is huge when it comes to health outcomes, in my opinion. We are living in, we are not like Australia. We have a different healthcare and an education system. Better?

Starting point is 00:03:32 In my opinion, yes. It's one for all, really. So here you really have to pay a lot for medical insurance and also for education. So in these underdeveloped areas and socioeconomic status is low, it costs a lot of money to actually eat healthy. Do you agree? It can, yeah. It can. Just yesterday, I went to Whole Foods and I went and got, I wanted to get a punnet of strawberries. Guess how much it was at Whole Foods? Five bucks. I was going to say. Nine dollars. Yeah, eight, nine. What? Yeah, if they're already chopped up. No, these were not. I even took a photo of it because it's becoming ridiculous. And so how can these families afford to eat?

Starting point is 00:04:12 So they just think, you know what? I'm just going to get, what is it that they're getting? Bags of rice in white rice? Like boxed macaroni and cheese. Okay. Yeah. Really inexpensive processed food can feed a ton of kids. But also your schools here provide food for kids.

Starting point is 00:04:30 Really bad food. Yeah. In Australia, they don't. So kids take their own food. But here you're given food and I've seen that the food are like these fruit cups, which are full of sugar and they're rolls, Tootsie Rolls. Yeah, yeah. Is that what they're called yeah yeah fruit roll-ups even yeah fruit roll-ups so they're just high sugary foods so yeah um at my

Starting point is 00:04:52 daughter's high school they have uh nachos they have cheese pizza and then they still do the the what's the meat that's a monster it's smashed together meat like a meatloaf no not a meatloaf uh messy oh sloppy joes that would be good i mean shit at least that would have some protein in it but a lot of these foods cinnamon rolls there's there's just carbs and fat yeah and i'm like damn we you know it's i i don't know what the answer is because like i don't have enough money to be like oh every kid's gonna to eat real food. But some of these kids, maybe that is their best meal of the day. And some of these schools actually don't have PE lessons.

Starting point is 00:05:32 I know that some schools in New York, if you're in the city, in Manhattan, these schools are closed in, in a building, and they don't go out and do any physical activity because it's a danger. Some of these schools are in Brooklyn. So for their physical activity time, maybe they're just playing on the walls or something. I don't know what they're doing. Garcia says for as long as she can remember, doctors told her she was overweight. What did the doctor or others tell you to do? Just to exercise and eat better. She struggled unsuccessfully for years. Then at age 15,

Starting point is 00:06:03 she developed hypertension and became pre-diabetic. I visited my doctor and I told her that I wanted to lose weight, but I wanted help. I knew I couldn't do it by myself. With parental permission, she finally tried bariatric weight loss surgery last June, along with counseling for emotional eating. Since then, she has lost more than 90 pounds. Did you look in the mirror and think, who is that? My clothing was a big, big sign.

Starting point is 00:06:28 What do you guys think of like, you know, apparently she got education on eating from a counselor. But it seems that especially now, there has to be some education on eating in school. Even for parents. One thing that I want to point out, we don't know what she's going through. That's true. Okay. Emotional eating, I've been there. You don't know what somebody is going through. So that's the first thing we want to pick up. So if she's getting help for that, good on her.

Starting point is 00:06:54 When it comes to bariatric surgery, I know, and this is again from my conversation with Stephen, that sometimes it can be a good thing in overly obese adults. We never spoke about getting that in children. So without knowing too much about her, we've got to really understand where the eating patterns come from. Because the doctor said to eat well and exercise. Okay, does she know what eating well is? I don't have any big decisions from when I was that age. You know what I mean?

Starting point is 00:07:23 I don't have any decisions where I'm like, you know, that I would really regret. So that seems like a big thing. But I think that's a great point that you bring up. We have no idea what she's going through in the pictures that I'm seeing. I'm not really noticing like an obese person. Maybe she's heavier than she wants to be. But yeah, maybe she feels, you know, maybe she feels way heavier than she even is. My nieces, my brother has three girls and one is 15, then it's 13, and then it's like 10. And what they go through at school now

Starting point is 00:07:57 is very different to what I went through. Kids are now more cautious of their weight. So you just said she's not as big, but what are the kids at school saying to her? Because they look on TikTok now and they see these, these tiny little, now you have, when I was young, there was no, there was no phones. So I didn't have to see, I just saw the people in front of me. But now you're seeing millions of kids worldwide and, and maybe even teenagers. And you think I need to look like that. I need to be that pretty.

Starting point is 00:08:23 Maybe it's people taking pictures of you, teasing you and so on. And that happens. It could be bad. And you know, this is the rough side and I'm not putting judgment on this girl, but I know I have people in my life that are friends of mine and they also have children and they have bad eating habits. But what tends to happen is that spills over to their kids eating habits. So they're overweight and then their children also overweight. But like Mark,

Starting point is 00:08:47 you mentioned your kids have made decisions based off of what you and Andy eat, right? It's like what you bring home is what they eat and both of them are healthy. So, yeah. And I think it also is, you know,

Starting point is 00:08:57 on the same token, I think it's a little bit of the roll of the dice. Like we got lucky that they found that to be helpful in their life, that they found that they're not going to overeat. My daughter Quinn made some cookies, I think, what the hell is today? Wednesday or Thursday? Wednesday. Something like that.

Starting point is 00:09:13 Wednesday, yeah. She made some cookies on Sunday. I ate two cookies. She had one or two. My wife ate one or two. And the cookies are still on the counter. And they're still in like a thing. I've ate one or two and the cookies are still on the counter and they're still in like a thing.

Starting point is 00:09:30 So we have food around and we just we try to give good options. You know, we eat dinner together. I'm grateful that we're able to eat dinner together often and we are financially OK. So we can afford, you know, different kinds of foods and stuff. And I do think that makes a difference. But we just have always had, you know, good options around. So that way it was like, well, I could eat another like granola bar that has chocolate chips in it, or I could just eat that apple. I think maybe culture as well comes into it. So something I didn't mention, I was a high school teacher when I first got started. Yeah. And I

Starting point is 00:10:03 started teaching at the age of 20 back in Australia. But when I came to America, the only way to get my visa was to practice, you know, was to be a teacher. So I worked at a school in Brooklyn and the kids were, the girls were bigger than me to start with. And when they would see me eating my lunch, they'd say, Miss Nicola, you're eating bird food. I was literally eating like chicken and salad. But these girls, 17 years old, were coming with brisket and with mac and cheese and with mashed potatoes. I'm like, whoa.

Starting point is 00:10:38 I'm like, whoa. Like do you have a football game later? Yeah, I just couldn't. And black beans. But they thought, they actually thought that that's, they're like, but how do you fuel yourself, Miss Nicola, on chicken and salad? And I'm like, I was tiny and I'm not small, but to them I was tiny. So maybe there's a cultural aspect to it as well. There is. There is. Dresses and they were too big. And it was really, really surprising to me. The new guidelines

Starting point is 00:11:07 from the AAP recommend better nutrition, exercise, and face-to-face counseling. Treatment may also include weight loss drugs and surgery for adolescents who meet the criteria. But for many families, medication and surgery are not covered by insurance. If they have insurance.

Starting point is 00:11:24 What do you think about these new guidelines? I think that it's definitely a step in the right direction. How do you thread that needle between body shaming and communicating that there are some consequences to your health if you're overweight or obese? It is not about how you look. It's how your body is on the inside. Okay. Now, I'm actually curious what you think of that because, you know, when people say it's not about the way you look, I don't, you have to kind of separate the two because you know, you get blood work done and you can come back as healthy. But as we found on the podcast, as you get older, if you're older and overweight and obese, that is a much worse outcome than when

Starting point is 00:12:03 you're younger and overweight and obese. It's like you can get away with certain things when you're younger. Whereas as you age with that issue, you can, if it doesn't pass the eye test, sometimes it's also not going to pass the blood test. Yeah. Like I sniff a banana now and I gain weight. When I was 10, I could eat 10 bananas. No, that's true. When we think about what's happening internally, I think she mentioned hypertension from being overweight or quote-unquote obese. Hypertension, chronic elevated blood pressure can wreak havoc on the brain. We know that if you have elevated blood pressure, it can actually kill, like the tiny capillaries that are one cell thick in your

Starting point is 00:12:42 brain can collapse. And that's what we see when we get older. So if it's happening in kids, okay, but I think it would be, you know, it really depends on what this kid is doing. Like I don't know about emotionally saying to a seven-year-old that you're going through surgery or a fifth. How old was this girl? She thinks she was 16 when she had, I think she was 16. And that's when a girl is starting to, you know, develop, or maybe they've already developed, but they're starting to interact with the opposite sex. And

Starting point is 00:13:13 imagine having a girl say, I've just had surgery and I'm on, um, obesity medication. Like it's, it must be very hard on her. So I can only understand what are the secondary effects of these drugs. Yeah, long-term effects, right? Yeah. Now, also kind of because she was mentioning like fat shaming, etc. When it comes to the idea, you've seen a lot within this industry about fat acceptance. Oh, yeah. What are your thoughts on it?

Starting point is 00:13:41 Because it's like I can understand how you never should hate who you are just because of the way you look. But at the same time, you need to probably realize that this is not healthy. Yes. I look, I have seen a lot of advertising now to say that plus size models are, you know, accepting and that's great.

Starting point is 00:14:05 But generally speaking, I am a plus size models are, you know, accepting and that's great. But, um, generally speaking, I am a plus size model. So to see a, um, I'm not, if I was my size, but to see an overly obese woman, um, you know, walking around and I've seen it, there is, there are a lot of girls now when I'm, I'm talking morbid, unhealthy obesity. Um, and they're putting it, you know, they're in their bikinis and they're like, I'm loving myself. I'm like, unfortunately, that is sickness. We have to really think about what are you doing to your body, your heart, your immune system, and your brain when you're that big. As somebody that studies this, you see the inside more so. The outside is a clue and then you're thinking, man, the inside more so. Like, you know, the outside is a clue.

Starting point is 00:14:45 And then you're thinking, man, the machinery inside has got to be all messed up. Yeah. And so why are we like, just have a look at LDL. We know that LDL, which is quote unquote, the bad cholesterol, if that is elevated over 70, you have an increased risk of cardiovascular disease. So we try and do everything to promote a good and healthy lifestyle. Why should we be giving this morbidly obese woman a chance to say to girls, love your bodies? Because everyone should love their bodies.

Starting point is 00:15:14 You should want to also be healthy. And obesity is going to have a negative impact on sleep, and sleep is the overarching thing that kind of helps with everything. Obesity is a risk factor for many diseases and the biggest ones in the world, cardiovascular disease, cancer, and stroke. Lots of obstacles remain, especially inequity and access to health care, medical insurance, and healthy food. Now, some parents may question whether the recommendations for drugs and surgery

Starting point is 00:15:40 in some cases go too far, but Nora, the AAP is making it clear that more aggressive early intervention is needed. Really interesting. Dr. LaPook, thank you. More aggressive early intervention is needed. Whatever it is that drives you. I say amen to that. That's true.

Starting point is 00:15:56 But not necessarily from the medical community. You know, it's interesting. They put this out there and she said, you know, after my bariatric surgery, I felt so good. But what was she doing when she said, I tried everything? What was she doing? Are you insinuating? Was she actually trying in terms of eating better and exercising? Or what kind of help was she getting? Who was directing that and all that? And it sounds like she was trying to get help and didn't lead to a great result. Yeah, but that could be the wrong type of help maybe. Correct.

Starting point is 00:16:26 You know, her parents might have said, that's okay, you can eat a burger. You can eat this. But if we're looking at calories in, calories out, really, I don't know what your stance is on that. But if we are, then were you tracking that? Were you monitoring it? Do you know what a calorie is? Yeah, I know she's older than this,

Starting point is 00:16:42 but I've had friends who were who were like my kid he won't you know he'll throw that across the room i'm like would he throw it across the room if you did it 17 times in a row for seven days straight or would he be like i'm hungry i'm just gonna eat would he throw it across the room if he didn't know that there was something else that's kind of what i'm doing with my son. It sounds harsh, but it's like, yeah, he doesn't understand. He doesn't know what cake tastes like on purpose, right? He only knows what steak, what eggs, what ground beef, he knows what those taste like. And when he sees them, he goes insane for them. He wants them really bad. She's going to be 15, but my 14-year-old daughter, she has had the other things.

Starting point is 00:17:27 And so it's like when those things are out, it's like, of course, she's going to want them. But she also understands that she has to eat the protein stuff first. But with my son, it's like an easy example. It's like he doesn't even know the other things exist. So when we give him steak, he just only knows that. And he only knows that that's really freaking good. When it comes to kids, uh, really try to introduce protein to them and try to, uh, many different kinds of protein. Um, when Jake was young, he started to like steak a little bit. He went through a period of time. I think now he doesn't really like red meat as much because we

Starting point is 00:17:59 ate so much of it that he starts to eat chicken. And my daughter Quinn only likes certain kinds of steaks. So, but we learn, you know, we're learning all these things about our children over time. And that way we can provide them with the things that we think are, you know, healthy. I think a huge problem is that a lot of parents are absent. You know, a lot of parents aren't really around. And it is the number one thing in the United States, in my opinion, that kids are not growing up with enough support, however you want to say that. But they're not growing up with enough support. And I think that's a huge factor. You'll hear a lot of people say, this needs to be taught in school, that needs to be taught in

Starting point is 00:18:42 school, and that would be cool. But the government has really never stepped in on anything and really done anything that impactful that's been awesome in the first place. So it's probably never going to happen. It's just wishful thinking. And so instead of waiting for the schools to teach it, teach nutrition in your home, teach exercise in your home. If your kids are exercising and you're moving and you say, hey, let's all go for a walk after dinner, maybe it didn't matter that you just ate a bunch of sandwiches or something. Maybe it doesn't matter so much that you overate because you mitigated it because you all went on a walk. I think when it comes to the government also not playing its part, it's about advertising as well. Like we said. I recently found out that Coca-Cola food labels with the FDA don't have to be 100% accurate.

Starting point is 00:19:31 You can actually, I think you can be out of range by at least 20%. That's for everybody. That's important to know. It's for everybody. What do you mean for everybody? It's for all nutritional facts and everything. So you're reading a label, okay, for argument's sake, and it says 100 calories on there. Really, that means there's 120 calories.

Starting point is 00:19:52 So that's when you add them all up, you're getting, you're ingesting. If you're calorie counting, you're ingesting. So that's a lie. I was mortified because Coca-Cola do that. When I read this, they lie about the amount of calories within a Coca-Cola can. They make it deceitful too, like with the measurement of like, you know, I think-

Starting point is 00:20:12 Three-fourths a can is. Yeah, like who knows? Like it's just ridiculous. And a can, especially a can, you're gonna drink the whole thing, right? Yeah, and that's, I think, where marketing comes in. You're not gonna see, you know,

Starting point is 00:20:32 three sexy girls like pouring like water all over themselves or broccoli right it's more so you know Carl's Jr. I don't know who they are. Who's Carl's Jr.? Oh I love that from Australia I'm so happy this is so great no Carl's Jr. isn't from Australia, but it's just great that you're Australian. You don't get it. When I was a kid, when I'd see those Carl's Jr. commercials on the TV, I'd be like, you'll see what I mean in a second. These girls eating these giant burgers

Starting point is 00:20:57 and like a barbecue sauce and drip down on their breasts and everything. This is what I mean. Oh, it was great. America. Is this a classic? Oh, yeah. Where's the food?

Starting point is 00:21:08 Right there. A 13-year-old boy watching this. See what I mean? Texas girl. Is this the way women wash their cars? I think so. Wow.

Starting point is 00:21:18 Oh, man. What woman eats their burger this way? Every Carl's Jr. in America. Wow. She doesn't eat burgers. Yeah, right. She's not eating burgers. She Carl's Jr. in America. Wow. She doesn't eat burgers.

Starting point is 00:21:27 She's definitely spit that food out. Oh, okay. That's dark. I didn't say she threw it up. I said just spit it out. Do you see the way she licked the sauce as well? Oh, it's Parasilted!

Starting point is 00:21:43 Well, I mean, to be fair in commercials, when you have to do multiple takes of a food thing, you take a bite and you spit it out. Because if not, you're going to be eating all day long. So you can't do that. Oh, gosh. Great abs, though.

Starting point is 00:21:56 Great body. I'm pretty sure she's not eating those burgers. But see, there we go. Advertising. For young boys, they'd probably be like, I don't know what they're thinking. I was never a young boy, so I don't know. It affected me.

Starting point is 00:22:08 I don't know how. I don't want to know how. But we'll just say that you wanted the burger. I did. I really did. Gave them an appetite. Yeah. But look, young girls even, and it's scary because now they want attention from boys.

Starting point is 00:22:24 You know, I know I was bigger in high school and I used to always think, why don't the boys like me? You know, so it was a- There definitely was a boy or two though. Oh yeah. Right?

Starting point is 00:22:33 So you always find that out way later because nobody ever says anything. No one ever tells anybody. Yeah, it was fun. You're like, damn, you liked me the whole time?

Starting point is 00:22:40 Fuck, I didn't know that. Why didn't you tell me? Yeah. Would have been a boost in my confidence for God's sakes. It's like, what? I still have a chance. No, no, no, you never had a. Why didn't you tell me? Yeah. Would have been a boost in my confidence, for God's sakes. It's like, what? I still have a chance.

Starting point is 00:22:47 No, no, no. You never had a chance, but it would have made me feel better. Yeah, yeah. But no, look, it's what kids are going through these days. I'm so happy I didn't have the internet. When I was growing up, I would probably, I don't know how I'd handle it. I'm curious about the fine line they have, though, because they kept making sure to say when it comes to the surgical or the medical interventions, it's going to be specific to that individual.

Starting point is 00:23:10 But it makes you wonder, you know, with pharmaceutical industries, they want, I'm not going to say they want people taking medications. Yeah, they do. There's aspects of that where it's like some medications are given out very liberally. So it's like when a nine-year-old or 10-year-old obese child comes in, is a doctor going to say diet exercise? Or is the doctor going to say, hey, there's this weight loss drug that could help you? Maybe it could, but is that a good thing? Yeah.

Starting point is 00:23:36 And there is another obesity drug, GLP-1, I think. Is that what it is? Yeah. Eczemaglutide and all those kinds of drugs. Okay. But, I mean, I think we need to stress. That is just like saying, my kid is depressed. Let's put them immediately on an SSRI.

Starting point is 00:23:54 Yeah, we've been doing this for years already. And that's, you know, we know, and I'm not obviously putting anyone, unless you're in a major depression and you need it. But for a kid, sometimes it just means saying to them, you know, what those girls said at school doesn't mean anything. I know easier said than done. I don't have kids as well. If any parents are listening, thinking she has no idea what she's talking about. You're right. I don't have kids. I'm just thinking about, you know, the factors of what SSRIs can do to you and what, uh, what these obesity drugs can do to you, especially as a kid. Do you know anything about, because we don't know if they're saying semaglutide is the drug that they

Starting point is 00:24:28 will give children but do you know how semaglutide can potentially affect brain chemistry or habits no no just curious okay yeah i'm not sure either i think it does shut down some hunger signaling but i don't know enough about it well yeah but also guess what else shuts down hunger signaling exercise sleep yeah yeah yeah so then I guess grand scheme of things kids being on a fat loss drug and maybe potentially surgery is that a better outcome in 50 years compared to what's happening right now from our from your current assessment what are your like what are your thoughts on that because we're not they're not getting smaller oh it's tough it's tough okay i guess if you look at if you take a helicopter view and not take anything else into consideration if we are making a nation

Starting point is 00:25:16 of kids uh thinner or you know less fat then it would correlate to yes it's you're doing the nation good however we'd have to follow this for 20 years to see if the adherence because you i've seen heaps of people go and get bariatric surgery oh yeah and then still end up they're just i don't know what they've done they've expanded their stomach again i know someone someone who had to get it three different times three different times the habits didn't change and you as, as a kid, okay, you're, like I said, your brain doesn't fully develop until you're mid-20s. We go through so many changes in our teenage years, especially.

Starting point is 00:25:51 So who's to say that this 16-year-old, when she's 20, she's not going to gain it all back again. So it really comes down to instilling the habits first and foremost. I do think that some of these drugs probably can be done relatively safely. And if it can get someone to a better spot, I mean, who knows, maybe this girl would kill herself. We don't want that to happen, right? And so the surgery, I just am a little more scared of surgery. So I would be very'd be very scared if my kid needed, you know, uh, felt they needed a surgery, but I can imagine, you know, in, in being a parent and

Starting point is 00:26:31 just always wanting to help your kid and to kind of helicopter around your kids all the time and, and, and just watch them. And it's so hard not to like step in all the time and fight all their battles for them or pay for things or like whatever you, you know, you want to try to do the best thing for them all the time. Uh, you feel like that's what you're put on the earth for. Once you have a child, you're like, I'm going to do anything and everything, protect them all the time. And then you're like, oh wait, I shouldn't protect them all the time because they need to learn how to protect themselves. They need to learn how to like fight for themselves, defend themselves and so forth. Like just in life in general, not like a fist fight.

Starting point is 00:27:09 But I think with something like this, you know, if I had a kid that was 80 pounds overweight and I talked with Dr. Gabrielle Lyons and I said, and my, my daughter or my son is there, it's really negatively impacting the whole family. And I, I don't, I, And I don't, we've tried different diet stuff. She doesn't want to do it. I'm at wit's end. I'm not sure what to do. You know, then maybe there would be a plan with a doctor. And then maybe it's one of those things, like, I think as kids, I remember certain things from being a kid, but I didn't have to take like medication and stuff.

Starting point is 00:27:44 But I remember being like allergic to penicillin, like just, I don't know, different things from when I was a kid. Sometimes kids have to wear braces. It's temporary, right? So I remember there was a kid in my class. He was one of my good friends. He had to always wear these braces on his legs because his legs were like bowed out.

Starting point is 00:28:00 And he had a lot of pain in his legs and stuff like that. And he got made fun of all the time for it, you know. He didn't like it, but it was temporary and it led to a better result. So if you're doing something with the supervision of a doctor, I could see how this could be something that could potentially be really helpful. It might even motivate them, find that motivation to get to the gym and then adhere to the protocols. And yeah, what about a kid that just has just insane acne? You would take them to the doctor, prescribe something, wipe that out. They don't have to feel that horrible feeling of all that stuff again, right?

Starting point is 00:28:37 So it just sounds so crazy though, right? For a 12-year-old, 13-year-old, you're like, can we try some other stuff first? Yeah, let's think of this real quick. And Louisa, if you could give us just a quick rundown on what you would suggest here, because on the podcast we did with you, I mean, we talk about sleep all the time, but when you think about kids, phones, games,

Starting point is 00:28:58 they might not even be getting enough sleep. And we know how big of an effect sleep can have on your habits, eating well, et cetera. So if people are listening in, quick things that parents can do to make sure that their kids get their sleep, because that's hard as a parent. Locking phones up from like 9pm onwards. I know for a fact that kids, because I have nieces and I say to them, you know, what are you doing in your room? And they're like, I'm up until everyone goes to sleep until one on the phone. Mom doesn't know. I'm like, what? So first of all, get rid of the phones because it's going to help with not just getting them to sleep,

Starting point is 00:29:35 but also with addiction. We know that addiction to this dopamine addiction that's getting released through the TikTok and through Instagram, that's just, that's havoc on the brain. It's also rewiring the brain in different ways and they're seeing things they shouldn't. So get rid of the phones. And if your kid is eating the right amount of food and they're getting out and getting sunlight and running and community involvement, they're being kids, get them out instead of playing video games and they're exercising and you're watching and monitoring what they're eating to an extent. If all else fails and they're exercising and you're watching and monitoring what they're eating to an extent if all else fails and they're still big maybe get them a genetic just find out why you know because more often than not kids are just eating a lot i know because

Starting point is 00:30:15 you're growing at that age right you're you're a boy i mean i grew up my i have two brothers yeah when they were teenagers they could eat the mom would leave us at home they were older than me they if mom did a grocery shop even if it was a one thousand dollar grocery shop they'd eat it all it was it was like they never got full and it would drive me insane i ate 60 nature valley granola bars in three days my mom very rarely swore i remember a distinct day where she went into the pantry. She goes, what the fucking shit? Everything just spilled out all at once. She's like, everything's gone.

Starting point is 00:30:52 Where is everything? I heard that from downstairs. I just got chills. I'm like, we're in so much trouble. Rosemary was holding all those cuss words for her whole life and you just made them all come out. My parents thought I had some form of eating problem because I started to store food in the- You're like a gerbil.

Starting point is 00:31:11 Because I was like 13. I knew if I don't get to the back, if I don't get that food first, okay, my brother's going to eat it. All they have to do is see it and they inhale it. So I used to take food upstairs. And what happened was I said, mom, there's a cockroach in my room. She's like, where is it coming from? We found that Louisa had food and parents were like, does she have an eating problem?

Starting point is 00:31:31 I'm like, no, but the boys eat my food. So we have to you do get hungry and when you are ravenous as a growing kid. I picture a wall in this. I picture a hole in the wall and you've got a poster. It's got all the food in there. It's got like a steak in there, roterie chicken i had david beckham posters all over my wall back then but um so yeah you've got to make sure that yes you're ravenous at that age you're

Starting point is 00:31:55 growing rapidly your brain is developing and creating so many different neurons and so you need energy but it's like can you control that where the, where's the energy coming from? Is it coming in the form of a steak or in the form of like chips and chocolate? So until you exhaust all options and maybe do a genetic test and then figure out what the, maybe the last resort is, yeah, two years, let's get you on this protocol. And then, but don't let that be the, be all and end all. Don't let that be the end of the story. Like she's had surgery. We don't have to care about the chips anymore and the chocolate. Cool.

Starting point is 00:32:31 Take us out of here, Andrew. All right, guys, if you guys are digging this conversation, we have long form content just like this on the channel. Just go ahead and check out the rest of the videos. And for everything podcast related,

Starting point is 00:32:39 head over to power project dot live. Follow the podcast at MB power project on all social media. My social media is at I am Andrew Z and Seema where you at? chime in about this and let us know

Starting point is 00:32:48 what you guys think I know this is it's very controversial but let us know we're curious at Seema Inye on Instagram and YouTube

Starting point is 00:32:53 at Seema Inye on TikTok and Twitter Louisa where can people find you? Louisa Nicola on TikTok Twitter and Instagram

Starting point is 00:33:00 also you have an amazing podcast you didn't mention that in the last one your podcast is really informational it is it's called The Neuro Experience N-E-U-R-O and we really and Instagram. Also, you have an amazing podcast. You didn't mention that in the last one, but your podcast is really informational. It is. It's called The Neuro Experience, N-E-U-R-O.

Starting point is 00:33:10 And we really, it's all, it's like a university for the brain. Awesome. I'm at Mark Smiley Bell. Strength's never weakness. Weakness never strength. Catch you guys later. Bye.

Mark Bell's Power Project - Neurophysiologist Reacts To INSANE New Child Obesity Guidelines

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