The Dr. Hyman Show - School Food Is the Key to Fixing Our Children’s Health Crisis | Nora LaTorre

Episode Date: February 11, 2026

If we want to fix food, we have to fix the institutions shaping what our kids eat every day. Public schools are effectively the largest restaurant chain in America, serving 30 million children. For many of them, school meals account for half of their daily calories. And yet, a majority of those calories still come from ultra-processed food. On this episode of The Dr. Hyman Show, I sit down with Nora LaTorre, CEO of Eat Real, to talk about why the school cafeteria may be the most powerful lever we have to reverse the childhood health crisis—and why change is already happening faster than most people think. Watch the full conversation on YouTube or listen wherever you get your podcasts. [YOUTUBE THUMBNAIL] Today we discuss: • Why school food policy affects your family—even if you pack lunch • How removing added sugar from school menus can change focus, behavior, and long-term health • Why school lunch participation rises when districts upgrade to real food • How changing school procurement reshapes local farms and food systems • What you can do as a parent to influence your district In less than two years, schools are proving that real food can scale across red states, blue states, rural communities, and major cities. When procurement changes, farms change, and when menus change, our children have a better chance to thrive. View Show Notes From This Episode Get Free Weekly Health Tips from Dr. Hyman https://drhyman.com/pages/picks?utm_campaign=shownotes&utm_medium=banner&utm_source=podcast Sign Up for Dr. Hyman’s Weekly Longevity Journal https://drhyman.com/pages/longevity?utm_campaign=shownotes&utm_medium=banner&utm_source=podcast Join the 10-Day Detox to Reset Your Health https://drhyman.com/pages/10-day-detox Join the Hyman Hive for Expert Support and Real Results https://drhyman.com/pages/hyman-hive This episode is brought to you by Pique, Korrus, Qualia, BON CHARGE, BIOptimizers and Maui Nui. Secure 20% off your order plus a free starter kit at piquelife.com/hyman.   Upgrade your lighting. Enjoy 15% off at korrus.com/drhyman. Go to qualialife.com/hyman and use code HYMAN at checkout for an extra 15% off. Upgrade your routine. Head to boncharge.com/hyman and use code DRMARK for 15% off. Head to bioptimizers.com/hyman and use promo code HYMAN at checkout to save 15%. Learn more about the health benefits of venison and how to get yours, head over to mauinuivenison.com/hyman. (0:00) The health crisis facing children and the role of schools (1:26) Dr. Hyman's personal connection with Nora LaTorre (2:00) The burden of chronic disease and diet's impact on children's health (3:32) Systemic food industry issues and transforming public school cafeterias (7:35) Success stories in school nutrition and mental health concerns (11:06) Long-term impacts of poor diet and research on sugar reduction (15:32) Overcoming challenges in the school food system (23:18) Cost myths of healthy eating and improving school food quality (27:22) Economic benefits and performance impacts of real food in schools (31:07) Nutrition's role in children's behavior and quick dietary change benefits (35:07) Expanding real food programs and empowering advocacy (41:24) Educating families and key food policy initiatives (46:34) Legislation efforts for healthier school meals (49:00) Eliminating ultra-processed foods and the public school role (57:04) Addressing nutrition myths and powerful system change levers (1:01:53) Investing in school meals and underrated family health habits (1:03:29) Policy changes and the impact of real food on kids' futures (1:05:05) Hope for food system change and fixing food to fix health issues (1:07:53) Getting involved with Eat Real and Food Fix Uncensored (1:10:30) Closing remarks, social media plugs, and sponsor gratitude

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. 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. 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. Nora LaTerey 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 all in, 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 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. I don't just aspire to live a long life. I actively build it. The secret lies in consistent, high quality inputs that target immune resilience and longevity. I've trusted Peaks quality for years and their Nandaka adapted job. Gendic Coffee Alternative Blend is the ultimate standard for establishing your strongest internal foundation. Nandaka is a paradigm of sophisticated wellness. It combines ceremonial cacao, wild mimicking functional mushrooms, fermented puer tea from 250-year-old trees and Ayurvedic spices. This formulation

is a daily essential, rich in phytoc compounds that directly support immune function. The engineering is crucial. The cacao powder retains an unprecedented 30% cacao butter. This naturally occurring fat serves as an optimal lipid-based delivery system, dramatically maximizing the bioavailability of the adaptogenic compounds. The mushroom blend notably over indexes on the critical compound, Reishi Spore Powder. This system delivers smooth, perfect energy via cold-extracted puer tea, ensuring you get calm focus, not jitters. Redefine your standard of health and secure 20% off your order to begin your intentional wellness journey today at peaklife.com slash hymen. That's P-I-Q-U-E-Life.com slash hymen. With World Cancer Day this month, we often focus on diet, toxins, and stress, yet one of the

most overlooked disruptors is artificial light. Research links circadian disruption to cancer risk, metabolic disease, obesity, diabetes, and heart disease. And most of us live under light that keeps our brains alert long after our biology is ready to rest. Oyo by chorus was years in the making. With more than 530 patents and millions invested in spectral engineering, they built a circadian light that supports your biology from morning tonight. In the evening, it removes stimulating blue wave lengths so your body can do what it was designed to do, rest, repair, and recover. This isn't just about sleep. When your circadian rhythm is aligned, your immune system, metabolism, hormones, and cellular repair all work better. Your environment should support your healing, and light is one of the most powerful

levers you can change. Learn more about how circadian light can help at corus.com slash Dr. Hyman. That's K-O-R-R-U-S-com slash D-R-Himon. Nora, so good to see you again. We're old friends. You cooked for me when I was sick in the hospital. You came and brought food for me when I was recovering. 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. And I was, I was an old guy, but you really cared for me. And I think the work around Eriel is so powerful. But, you know, we're in kind of a crisis right now with kids. And it's sort of this invisible

thing that nobody's really talking about. I mean, I've been shouting about it for forever, but it's so invisible, and it's this is incredible chronic disease burden in children. We really need to fix it. And, you know, as you know, I wrote a book a years ago called Food Fix and released a new version that's out now called Food Fix uncensored, kind of taken off the gloves a little bit more, a little bit more edgy. And as we look at, you know, our kids, almost.

almost one in two kids has a chronic disease. Their diet is crap. 67% of kids diet in America is from highly processed or ultra-processed 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 two-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 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 say is the biggest fast food chain in America is the school cafeteria. That's amazing. 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 Schlaen, is also my doctor, Dr. Robert Lustig, who is a good friend, and we collaborate on a movie Fed Up years ago, and is an incredible nonprofit that is

transforming public school cafeterias. It's the largest, you know, restaurant in America, right? And it's an amazing solution for kids' health, for community resilience, for long-term disease prevention, and it's not easy to do. And you're doing it. You're doing it. You're almost up to a million kids who were impacted. You're going up to three 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 medicine, food

systems. And that involves everything from, you know, changing the kind of research we do around nutrition, chronic disease, to changing food marketing practices, food labeling practices, our dietary guidelines, to changing what's allowed as a safe food. We call grass safety. eat, you know, some of these things you're working on. So the definitions around ultra-processed food in California, which we're going to talk about. We need to change the SNAP program, 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, medical education. But where does schools fit in? Because I think, you know, we, I want you to maybe start out by helping me, 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 was a pediatrician. But he's a friend of mine.

I've known it forever. And he was actually my sister's kids pediatrician, and he's on the board of the environment, and a group with me. And he said, if a foreign country was doing to our kids what we're doing, we'd go to war to protect them. So what is going on?

I mean, I think 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 the E-Real and joined up with Dr. Jordan Slane and Dr. Robert Lustig because I wanted to be in this fight to create health for our kids. And, you know, 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 have shorter, less healthy, and less happy lives. And the number one driver is ultra-processed food and ultra-processed 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, restaurants,

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 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 have school food as half of their diet. That's a staggering statistic. Yeah. Right? Yeah, seven billion meals a year. So half of the kids' nutrition comes from schools.

And some kids more. 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. People don't understand that we're not just educating people in schools.

of our feeding them crap, were actually working against the sort of intellectual capital of the next generation. Yeah. We're forever impacting their neurological development, their brain development in so many ways. And when you look at, you know, schools now, I mean, I was talking to a school nurse recently.

And, I mean, all these kids are on drugs, ADD drugs, antidepressants, I mean, it's staggering how much mental health issues there are and behavioral issues there are in school. Parents see it, teachers see it. People are, I think we're concerned as a 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 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 and swapped out the junk food for the real food, the violence went down by over 90, I think 7%, the recid restraints 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 mind-boggling to me. And so all these issues were trying to be Medicaid is really from food. 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 comes such at a faster rate

when they have these problems. I mean, one in three kids now has insulin resistance or pre-diabetes or touch. One in three teens is pre-diabetic. It's up 5%. I would love for you to talk about, like, but I think we hear diabetes and it's still like confusing to people? Can you just talk through when a kid has prediabetes, like what is happening in their body? And as a doctor, like, 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. And then these kids continue to eat this way. And as they grow up and in schools, they're actually accelerating their 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, as I said earlier, like, if you're overweight as a kid, your life expects these

13 years shorter. It's like living in a third world country that, you know, like really is even worse in most durable countries. Yeah. And the latest research is that three out of five kids will be obese by the time they're 35. So it's just like obesity is soaring. The data today is that, you know, one and two children born today will be diabetic in their lifetime. Mm-hmm.

One and two. And I mean, also, I think we hear diabetes, but like every three and a half 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 running through adulthood. We want our kids thriving. And so 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 haven't fully respond to it yet. No, we haven't. And academically, it's impacting these kids. So not just health-wise, but I think we're 30-something in math and reading in the world, like below every other developed nation.

Like maybe that's some degree to do with our school system and an educational system, but how do you learn and focus and concentrate when your brain is on shit? Yeah. I mean, kids drink a bathtub of added sugar a year, a bathtub. And one of our schools in our program just removed 34 pounds of sugar per student per year. We actually had to wheel a wagon into the school board meeting and stack 34 pounds, 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 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 pounds of sugar, 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 behavior change and nutritional quality. And then we're studying right now, talking about academic performance, with USC and LA Children's and Dr. Gorin, we're studying the impact of real food in school on test scores and early results from that research. It's not published yet. Early results indicate increased academic performance and test scores. Of course. So you change food. They help focus better. They have more mental clarity and they're able to perform better. And I think it's one of the big ways that we can improve academic performance and then long-term performance for kids.

I agree. I'll post in the show notes, but I wrote in my book, all the Ultramine's Solution about a kid I saw who was 12 years old with severe ADD, and I wrote a paper about it and it published in a medical journal it was a case report showing that,

you know, this kid was 12 years old, severe ADD, behavior issues, got kicked out of kindergarten. Wow. For being that bad. was on Adderall, had unable to focus, just a mess, but his diet was just pure junk food. He was significantly nutrition deficient, and your brain works on nutrients. You know, it's like not just protein, fat and card, but like he was vitamin deficient,

mineral deficient. His mother brought in his homework to sort of before and two months later after. His handwriting was illegible at 12 years old. And two months after changing his diet to real food, it was perfect penmanship. There was no like handwriting lessons. Talk about 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. That's amazing. You know, in two 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. One of the biggest challenges I see as we age is our body's ability to repair and heal. That's because your body's repair system, stem cells, naturally slow down over time. These are the cells that can become bone, muscle, skin, cartilage, even brain, and immune cells. When stem cell activity declines, recovery, healing, and energy all take longer.

But there's a way to support them that I trust called Qualia stem cell. You take it just four days a month. And it's backed by the award-winning Qualia Science team and includes 15 non-GMO ingredients that support all aspects of stem cell function like survival, renewal, proliferation, migration, mobilization and differentiation. Ingredients like Royal Jelly and C. Buckthorne extract are included because research shows they can help support and mobilize stem cells. For me, this is a simple, accessible way to support youthful healing, recovery, and overall

vitality. Go to qualiaLife.com slash hymen for up to 50% off Qualia stem cell and use code hymen for an extra 15% off. That's qualialife.com slash hymen and use code hymen to help your body repair and recover at any age. As a doctor, I always say healthy, glowing skin, start. from the inside out. Good nutrition, sleep, movement, and cellular health are the foundation. But sometimes your skin needs a little extra support, and that's where red light therapy comes in.

The bond charge red light face mask makes it easy. Just 10 to 20 minutes a day, and you're helping your skin look more radiant and youthful. It uses clinically studied red and near infrared light at 630 and 850 nanometers to energize your skin cells, boost circulation, and support tone, texture, and plumpness right at the cellular level. It's lightweight, comfortable, and fits into your routine, pop it on while reading, relaxing, or even folding laundry. Think of it as a mini spa session that complements everything else you're doing for your skin from the inside out. Try it today at boncharge.com slash hymen and use code D-R-Mark for 15% off. That's B-O-N-C-H-A-R-G-E.com slash hymen, code D-R-Mark. And 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 neurodevelopmental issue. Everything from learning disabilities to, you know, ADD, to Asperger's to autism. I mean, that's a lot of kids. You know, it's scary and it's getting 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. Like it's, it's, it's, and it's hard And school has been co-opted by the food industry. And there's like McDonald's Monday and talking about Tuesday and Wendy's Wednesday.

And I mean, it's bad. 50% of the like meals in there and there's all the junk in there. And, you know, it's not by accident. So can you talk about the School Nutrition Association? Because I think it sounds nice, but it's just an industry front group. I think the School Nutrition Association, which does, you know, gain some funding from the food industry. They have a membership model as well with a lot of school food professionals. And I think that there's a big opportunity for them to become powerful, positive players in school food.

And I do think that they have incredible presence. And we've been participating in some of their local events that are really helpful and supportive to the local community. I think the opportunity for them is to think about their advocacy role. and to think about how can they help really improve standards and investment and making sure that they're challenging the status quo, not supporting the status quo and really shifting to fast change. So historically, they weren't bad, and now they think they're getting better? I think they can really get a lot.

They can get better. They need to improve. Room for improvement on your score. I think that they, I mean, we locally love working with them. And I think that they could be a really powerful force for good in our country. It's amazing how powerful the food is. I mean, I remember, remember that, you know, ketchup is a vegetable thing. Well, pizza was also considered a vegetable.

Yeah. And, you know, initially it was, they were, they're going to sort of not allow that as something that was, you know, considered a healthy food. And in the biggest supplier of pizzas to schools in America is Swanson's. They're in Minnesota. Where I'm from. And Amy Klobuchar, is the senator, Democratic Center from Minnesota, who basically lobbying to remove that restriction on pizza and get it be considered a vegetable.

Yeah. That just kind of stuff makes me crazy. And, you know, the Tom Harkin, when he was the head of the health education, labor, pension committee, which oversees health policies, Cassidy's on the committee now as the chair. He said he went to like visit some little school somewhere. I don't know what. And it was like the entire classroom had Coca-Cola chairs in kindergarten. So all the chairs were like branded Coca-Cola.

Hepsico sponsors banned. Fund all the sports programs. And then it's, it's, you know, what was that saying? You know, what if the Department of Defense had to do bake sales to make enough money for defense at the schools? and schools got like actual food. Yeah, it's kind of crazy. So what were the berries that you saw when you started working on this?

Because you basically were going into a system that was basically a fast food restaurant and saying, hey, this isn't good anymore. How do we change this? For the e-real. Yeah, I think we think schools are the fastest, most enduring way to make scalable change for our kids.

And so it is complicated. Like, so we've been heads down since 2019 and we really, 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, 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.

And we looked at everything from how much sugar is in the food, what quality proteins, how local, how sustainable, how much a 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 a get it done group. You know, we operate kind of like a for-profit startup, but with a heart and 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

rod lestig was on the phone at one point with one of the food suppliers explaining why that harmful ingredient leached calcium from kids bones and what they could swap it with and we don't do that with every with every call we can't call up rob lusick and dr ralb for lestick on everyone but um we were able to have them swap out a ton of harmful ingredients get out um toxic ingredients and reduce sugar. At that point, they were removing 10 pounds of sugar, and we thought this is game-changing. 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 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, 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 E-Rail 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 E-Rill 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, they had a, uh, uh, uh, uh, like chicken, terriacobole with broccoli and everybody was getting the broccoli. It was so good. They had a pizza, but it had no harmful ingredients, no dough conditioners. It had real cheese. It had a protein crumble. I was like, I think that was a grass-fed beef crumble.

Like, it was the pizza done the way if you're going to eat pizza. Like, that is a weighty pizza. And so, and then they had a salad grown on site on the school farm and delicious local organic cucumbers and housemaid ranch. which I'm Minnesotan, so we drink ranch. It was so with fresh dill, it was amazing. So 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's a mythology out there that is propagated by the food industry, which is it's expensive to eat healthy, it's elitist, it's discriminatory,

you know, it's too complicated, it's too expensive, and they just, you know, the food's not going to be safe, it's not going to be convenient, it's not going to be food safety issues, and they have all this propaganda that they tout. Yeah. And it sounds like they're actually looking after the benefit of the poor. Yeah.

And it's just sort of this halo of the good guys, but it's so manipulative. And, you know, part of the problem is that, You know, people don't think that you can eat well for less. And I'm sure you know of this group, but there's a friend of mine in Boston who, Joe Shaw, who basically saw what was happening in schools. She had little kids and she's like, this is ridiculous.

So she went around to the schools and she saw all the schools only had deep friars 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.

Yeah. I mean, it's just terrible. And all in children's bodies and in 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?

Yeah, it's possible. Within the school lunch guidelines. Yeah. Because there are requirements and kind of guard rails. There are USDA requirements. Change under the new dietary guidelines, but she was able to do it. Yeah. And then the Boston mayor was like, oh, my God, this works.

Let's scale it up. Yeah, it's possible. These kids are performing better. Their academics are better. Their health is better. Their attention is better. Their focus is better. How do you get these schools?

I mean, there's this school worker nutrition workers or the keff chair workers, they don't, they don't know what to do. They just know 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 and capes in our model. And so we really The ones with the hairnets. Yeah. Yeah. And they, they're incredible and they're a passionate bunch and they're really busy. It's like they have to serve, you know, sometimes it's 18 minute lunches. 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. And they have hard jobs and their big job. So we really stand next to them and give them the tools, the support, the encouragement. We make it fun to change the world. Like that's like, how do we bring some positivity? And we help get the recipes.

Yeah, they trade, they recipe swap. We have monthly calls across. They call themselves the EREALIs. And so they have their monthly calls with food superstructures from around the country and then regionally, too, and they swap suppliers. Who are you using for that protein? Who are you using for your one of our districts were talking about dragon fruit? I just had dragon fruit.

Like, they were talking about dragon fruit to get the kids some excitement and try something new. They, we do school lunch, spot-late tours, we actually just did one. And some folks from Idaho and some folks from Washington came where we did one in Georgia and people from North Carolina and Virginia came. And they were actually somebody drove home school lunch because it was so good from Marietta, Georgia, to North Carolina to show their school board what was possible.

And so they look at each other's kitchen. How is your kitchen set up? What combi ovens are using? How are you training your staff? How are you? 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. The collective intelligence. Yes. And giving them, we work with them individually and give them the data, the support, the certification, the 14-page certification report, and the action planning support, and then we connect them with each other. And they are a very fun group of people.

And it's happening, like I said, in 20 states now. So Alaska, Washington, Idaho, California, Georgia, Alabama, Oklahoma, Michigan. We're growing throughout Connecticut. We're growing coast to coast and showing that this works in wintry places and urban places and rural places. This is working in red states and blue states and purple states. Like, kids thrive with real food. And it's a better, it's a better model for our school districts.

And it is hard and it is complicated. It's interesting, different people. And you can do it at the cost. Yeah. Oh, yeah. Some of our districts save money by swapping, doing certain swaps. Because 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 who 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 that's one example. And what's interesting, we're studying right now and we're working with a research partner on this too. We have a bunch of, I can't wait to nerd out with you in the future on some of our 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, but I mean, just even, just eating just protein, period, that's not like some processed there is better than. But in the school food, like that, like that would be slightly more. And but as our schools invest in real food and they train their staff and they're serving, moving to towards more scratch cooking, they're able to then increase the participation or the number of kids, the number of customers, the number of kids eating school meals.

If they, so even if it costs a tiny bit more, if you increase your customer base, you know, 30% increase, increase, and we're seeing participation numbers go up. You're saying this can scale. I'm saying that our schools then are able to make more money as school food businesses. They're there, and then they're reinvesting that in chefs, in training, in infrastructure, and new kitchens. And so it's actually they're able to have a more efficient, better school food business model when they switch to real food.

That's amazing. And it's win, win, win. They have a better economic model for their school food business. They have happier students that are better performing in the classroom and on the field and in their lives. And they have a stronger local economy because they're keeping those school food dollars going to local farmers. A lot of our schools go from five local farms to 11 local farms.

They're actually, one of our schools is pre-contracting tomatoes and having farmers dedicate crop land for the school. That's amazing. Which is like the best. Yeah, I mean, there's local collaborations, decentralized food systems. It all makes sense. So parents and teachers are noticing these kids are better? Oh, yeah. We're hearing from parents.

We're hearing from teachers that, you know, I was actually following a teacher at her classroom. I just wanted to, like, ask her, you know, what is the real food breakfast? Because also we do a lot of breakfast swaps, and that's we can talk about some things that parents can do at home, too. But it's one of the most game-changing things that you can do is update breakfast where there's a lot of sneaky sugars in breakfast and a lot of sneaky items. But she said that now in her math class, her kids are sitting better at the beginning of the class and just able to focus more and lock in. And she said that since they started to have a more nourishing breakfast and things like egg bites and burritos and not just sugary 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 we're all like ice creamers. I see a lot of people talking about like more developmental work, like save the children. And like I heard Jennifer Garner talking to a conference about, you know, these kids who were in Appalachia and they're, you know,

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 do. And I'm like, yeah, but these kids' brains are not functioning because they're nutritionally depleted. Or there's a depleted in magnesium and B vitamins and omega-3s and even sometimes protein and they're eating all the sugar and processed ingredients and dies that cause behavioral.

issues. I mean, how do you expect to actually raise a generation of children that's going to be helping America stay a vibrant, successful country? I mean, it's like, it's highly concerning to me. Yeah. How do we make our kids feel better today and then improve their short-term health outcomes and then improve their long-term health and happiness? It's... Yeah, I mean, investing in kids is investing in the future of our country. I mean, it's like, it's such a no-brainer, right? Definitely how we stop disease before it starts. And it's the, it is the, the top solution. Like real food to kids is the best way to create health for generations to come. 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 avenues is, you know, humans can regenerate quickly. That's what gives me help. It's like Dr. Lustig 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, are you, I did once, your 10 day, 10 day detox. And then I had, and then you and I worked on a seven-day national sugar challenge together. And my family, I had my family do it, the whole house. And I have a multi-generational house, so.

And the whole family did it. And we did, we didn't just do seven days. We extended it to 10 because of that research. And then we actually did the whole month, no added our free sugar, life-changing for our family. game changing. What happened? The grandparents lost weight and felt better. We changed this.

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. Like, just don't bring it in and it's not going to go on the plate. It changed. It just made us all so aligned and it made everyone feel better and be more vibrant and it made blueberries taste sweeter. It was life changing.

But I think that's a thing is like, we can change our children's health so far. fast. If you change with the you, 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 the diabetes. 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.

quickly make changes, which there's momentum across the aisle there to do it. There's an appetite, food pun intended for that. And then we can do it. And we can make change quickly and we can regenerate. It's a story of hope to me. Like we can regenerate our health and reverse these diseases and then stop these diseases from even starting in kids so fast. And we change the food system in schools in less than two years, like night and day, like game changing. And we get the data because we certify audit or assess them. We assess the school food. then we do the action planning, then we reassess so we get the before and after. And we can see dramatic changes, a major upgrade in less than 24 months.

And so we can change our food system fast and we can change our health fast. How do you do this have 30 million kids? Yeah. How do you go to 30 million? Yeah, 30 million. I mean, well, we're our goal, so we just reach a million kids in 20 states, doubling our impact. Now we have the big bowl goal to reach 3 million kids in 30 states in three years, Just fast.

Out of zero. That is good. That is zero. That is zero. But that's pretty fast. And that is a tipping point. That's 10% of the population. So our theory is, if we can get to 30 states and 3 million kids in three years, then we

have the presence, the proof, and the partnerships to be the food system 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. 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 reached 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, if you're feeding 30 million kids, that's a huge procurement of food. Yeah. And food service, right? I don't know what percentage of all food service, but it's a lot. And when you change the food service, you change the incentives for the farmers and the food service providers. Yeah, you change the demand.

And it changes. the whole system from the farm to the field. Oh, yeah. To the fork to the mouth. Yeah. And just Northern California in one year, we generated over a million dollars of grass-fed organic bee ranchers across just Northern California. Like, you changed the economy.

They had to go start converting a more regenerative ag. We changed cropland. 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, they're not going to be in Walmart. Yeah. It changes what crops are being grown. 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 and the power of school meals and how fast local communities. And it's cool. We have eatreal.org slash parents where people go and there's a template that people use to email their school districts. And we're seeing parents and students engaging their food service director and saying, hey, I'd love to introduce to this nonprofit Eat Real. And they're school districts, one district signed up within 12 hours to our program and a parent reaching out with our template email saying yours. 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 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.

and chronic diseases rising, the healthcare costs are rising, and health insurance premiums are rising. Everything is a mess, right? Our kids are behaviorally challenged. They're cognitively challenged and mental health and kids is a massive crisis. Never in human history.

Where do they start? Like, how does a parent or a school listening to this podcast, how do they go? Where do they go? I think they could start with going to eReal.org slash parents. There's a template email where they can send an email to their local food service director or nutrition director.

telling them about Eat Real, which because of incredible philanthropists and some government funding, were 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 Eat Real on Dr. Mark Hyman's podcast. I'd love to introduce you. Thank you for doing everything you do. And thank you for feeding our kids. And I want to connect you with this nonprofit that can support you more. And so that's one way that they can get involved is get their, tell their local school district and their local nutrition director about us. And then I think that we also have Eat Real certified on Instagram and our newsletter, which is there are a lot of different ways then in terms of advocacy and

campaigns that people can plug in and just get active and start to join the conversation and join the real food movement with us and continue to help us build it as we have calls to action about various opportunities to create change. 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 for in her school. I need to find out. She's great, but she instituted a whole bunch of things in her classroom. Like, kids could eat anything they want at any time in the class as long as it was real food.

The kids would go home and say, mom, dad, go, let's buy carrots, let's buy apples, let's buy this because I can eat it in the school. And then she would have this policy where, you know, kids had to drink water. Yeah. And they got to go to the bathroom. they'd have to ask, they could just get up and go to the bathroom. And I was, like, encouraging them to, like, compare their pee. Is your pee clear or not? 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, yeah. And then they had, like, fiber fun Fridays where they talked about their poop, you know? And so, you know, the teachers can do this too in the classrooms in ways that we're going to make it fun. You know, I think it really changes kids' framework. And I think what happens at home, too, is important because I think, you know, then the

parents hear the kids actually feeling better, doing better, and they actually goes up to the home. Yeah. Because, you know, the home is where a lot of the problem is because, you know, these families are struggling. They're working hard, maybe two jobs. They have, you know, not any education about how to cook or shop or eat food. Food industry has made it so confusing. Yeah, the food industry deliberately confuses people like Cool, like Cool, Cooop is a, you know,

zero trans fat, healthy dirt topping, which is almost. all trans fat because it's almost the air, it goes through a loophole, which the FDA allowed because of the food industry that has less than half a gram per serving, they can say it has less than zero trans fats. There's so much to fix. It's so broken.

But, you know, it's not that hard. We're almost like one meal away from educating America about how to actually cook. And one of the things Breonna and my wife and I are doing as part of a food fix uncensored launch and education is to do a snap challenge. where snap is food stamps, otherwise known as Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program,

but there's no end in there. It's not nutrition. It's not what it is, something else. Supplemental poison. It can be eventually. We're going to show how, on $7 a day, you can eat healthy, delicious food. It's not hard to make.

It doesn't take a long time. You have to learn a few basic skills. You have to know how to chop of an onion. Yeah, yeah. How does stir buy something? Like, not, you know, how to open a can. A nice skills and some kitchen confidence. A few pots and pans.

Yeah. And that's it. Yeah. And, you know, I'm excited. Like, we're going to make one of my favorite dishes, which is just, my mother used to make this, a Spanish omelet, the Spanish tortilla. Like, basically, you take onions, garlic, chop them up, stir fry them in some olive oil. You take these red potatoes, you slice them really thin.

Yeah. And then you layer them flat and then you pour water of them and salt and pepper, and you let sort of cook with a cover so that it kind of cooks the potatoes. When the water's all gone, you pour like a dozen eggs over it. Ooh. And you stick it in the oven for 10, 15 minutes, so it kind of bakes. And it's the most delicious thing. And it's like 82 cents a serving for breakfast.

So nerfing. You're just like 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 then you can really get those kind of key recipes that you can use on your budget with like your local grocer and that your kind of go-toes for your family that are health changing. Like they'll be like the kind of anchor key dishes for your family. Yeah, even meat, you know, there's these is a cow share programs where you can cut out the middleman. Yeah, by direct.

I just got my, I just went to my rancher. Yep. Yeah. So it's actually can be extremely affordable. ball, even to get regenerative beef. Oh, yeah. You know, if you go direct to the farmer. When I work with patients, I see the impact of sluggish digestion every day. Even with a clean diet and regular exercise, if your body can't properly break down food, you're not absorbing the nutrients you need. That can lead to bloating, low energy, and difficulty feeling your best.

That's why I recommend mass zimes by bioptimizers. It's a scientifically formulated enzyme blend with 18 digestive enzymes, including four times more protease than top competitors that efficiently breaks down protein, carbs, and fats. This supports optimal nutrient absorption, reduces bloating, and helps your body get the energy it needs from the food you eat. Masszymes is smooth, effective, and reliable, making it an easy, non-negotiable part of my routine. No post-meal discomfort, no digestive drag, just better digestion and steady energy. You can try it for yourself at bioptimizers.com slash hymen. Use promo code Hyman at checkout to save 15%. And if you subscribe, they are currently offering free gifts while supplies last. Do you ever wonder if the

meat you eat is actually good for your body and the planet. I often talk about what I call the nutrition of place, how an animal's environment shapes the food it provides. An Axis venison from Maui Nui is not just another red meat. These deer roam wild across Maui, foraging diverse native plants on volcanic soils, no feedlots, no grains, no antibiotics. That natural lifestyle preserves micronutrient integrity and glycogen balance, so every cut retains its full protein energy and nutrient profile at the cellular level. Wild harvested Axis venison delivers the highest protein to calorie ratio of any red meat. About 21 grams per 100 calories supporting metabolism, muscle maintenance, and satiety. Because the deer are harvested stress-free

at night using Fleur technology, oxidative stress markers like 4H&E and pyrolean remain low, giving you much cleaner, healthier meat than conventional systems. And it's not just about your health, it's about the planet. Axis deer are invasive, harming watersheds, soil, and native plants. Every responsibly harvested deer helps restore ecological balance. That's why with Axis Fennyson, you get nutrient-rich, stress-free, sustainable red meat, better for your body, better for the planet, and naturally delicious. To learn more about the benefits of venison and to get the only source for wild harvested Axis Fennyson, head over to Maui-Nuivenson.com slash hymen again. That's M-A-U-I-N-U-I-Venisin.com to learn more. And I talk a lot about this in Food Fix.

And we have a lot of resources on Food Fixonsensored.com. I think, you know, people don't know how easy it is because we're convinced how hard it is by the food industry. And I think, you know, you've shown with schools how it can be done. Like, it's one thing to talk about it. Yeah. There's a great, I don't even saw that cartoon. The one who says it can't be done should not interrupt the one who's doing it. I hope that's us.

I hope that's us. I hope that's real. It shows like a Chinese Tai Chi master's thing walking around the edge of a wicker basket without it falling over, you know? And it's both. It's like how do we make it easier for people to take individual action and 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 more resources? And then how do we also change the systems so that and push back on the food industry? Well, let's talk about that because you've been instrumental in some really key initiatives in California. that you almost single-handedly have done.

I mean, like... In collaboration with some incredible orgs. You need like a superhero costume, I think, actually, because you are a force of nature in an assuming package that I think is disarming, but you're kind of a lioness underneath all that and taking no prisoners with a smile. And maybe you can share some of the key things

that you've done policy-wise because, you know, food fix really makes the case that food policy is health policy. Yes. And you've done it through both what's happening in schools, but also in some major bills that got passed in California, around food dyes, around ultra-processed food. So take this through some of those key initiatives and what you've done and showing that it is possible to change policy.

Yeah, and quickly, again, like, that's what gives me so much hope, is like, this can happen so fast. and together with incredible advisors like yourself and incredible other nonprofits, partnerships, and our school food hero. And really, we look to our school leaders and they beam us. They tell us what to do. They say, you know, I want to change the food in my school and I want to change it in the state and I want to change it nationally. So our group of EREALIs really determine our policy approach and determine what we advocate for, and they tell us what do they need to really change the whole game. So some fun ones, we helped advocate for school meals for all. And then we actually with Senator Skinner in California and some of our Eat Real Heroes,

our school food service directors, we helped pass the first sugar bill ever in America's history for kids. There had never been a sugar standard in school meals. Wow. And so we wonder why kids drink a bathtub of added sugar or there are 250 sneaky names for sugar and it's hidden all throughout our food system. And so it just hadn't been done before. There 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 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 out to you. I'm like, it's passed. It's so excited.

And Senator Skinner was a new grandma at the time. And she was like, she wanted to make change. And she worked with her incredible chief of staff and so many others to champion it. And then to help advocate it for it nationally. And then we helped advocate for the first food die bill, which was past, the first one was in California. And then we also worked on it in West Virginia and helped roll it in other states. But what's 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 costs. This is not going to be possible. Kids aren't going to want it. It's going to hurt it. It's going to hurt. It's going to hurt our budget supporting the schools, like all this. Because that is real.

That food industry pressure is, I think people hear it. And they're like, that's conspiracy. And I'm definitely not conspiracy. You read my book. It's so documented. You can talk a lot about it. I won't go there. But it's scary and it's real.

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. But it's real. And we were able to say, no, that's not true. And push back on that and be able to say, like, actually, we already, with the real

standards, remove those harmful thighs. We already remove the sugar. We've already done it in 500 schools or in 1,000 schools or now 1,700 schools. And so. Because they can't really say, oh, it can't be done. Because we did it. And we were 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 this food service director, talk to this supplier, talk to this local farmer who's winning because of this. Talk to this principal who's happier. Talk to this teacher who's looking at the test scores go up. We're like exhibit A, B, C, D, EFG. It's working.

Like, no, this works. Like I said, don't, don't, those to say it can't be done. Should not interrupt those who are doing this. That was food die. The most exciting one that we just did in six months. Yeah. We partnered with your, the now probably where you're on the board, environmental working group, Scott Faber, who I'm like a huge fan.

and girl love. We partnered with Scott Faber, and we also partnered with Food Fight. They're incredible. Todd Wagner's group. I love Lori over there and Todd. They're wonderful. And so we really built this group that was really championed by assembly member Gabriel, who I think is another national hero. He's out of California. And so... Yeah, I met him. Oh, you did. Okay, good. I met him with Todd Wagner at a American Cinema event. Oh, wonderful. Okay, good. Okay, yeah, two incredible change makers.

And so... And the lieutenant and governor who was very interested. Oh, good. Oh, yeah. Yep. Yep. Governors are, can be major change agents in this. AB 1264 was introduced.

This was, it was introduced in the spring. It's called AB 1264. And it's the first bill to define what are harmful ultra-process 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 in 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 don't. We should be feeding our kids poison? Maybe not. Maybe not. Maybe not a good idea.

Maybe not a good idea. I don't know. I don't know. Maybe a failed experiment. I think a failed experiment. Like, tried it. It's not working. Health is going in the round directions.

Try something new. And so we worked with them in the spring. Then we were able to, they invited Eat, Eural, to testify, which was so wonderful. And we were able to say, look, we already removed the most harmful ultra-processed foods from kids' meals in California. We did it in 500 schools over hundreds of thousands of students. We're seeing really strong results. We had farmers come in Me Too and testify. We had local school food heroes come from across the state and say they wanted it.

We had the data. We met with lawmakers. We worked with tons of orgs and we met with lawmakers across the aisle. And there was major pushback. And there was some major tactics that were not cool. Tell us about that. You don't want to tell us? I want to live, Mark.

I want to live. You want a big bullseye in your back? Yeah. Well, I would just share one. Okay. Then we can go back to your story. To share the extent to which people go in the food industry, that it's so corrupt and so many people. And it was in California when Jerry Brown was governor, the second time, he was probably the most liberal governor in the history of America.

They call him Governor Moonbeam. I remember he ran for president 76, but he was so liberal. And in California, the time, there were starting to be a lot of soda taxes. Berkeley was the first and then other cities and towns started to them, and the food industry freaked out. So what they did was to put a ballot measure on the ballot in California. They would make it mandatory for any law or bill to be passed any local state government would require a two-thirds majority, which means because, you know, most legislatures are not like two-thirds of a party. they're like half, right?

Or more or less, right? Like to get a truth of the majority of Senate, it's impossible because, you know, it's like 53 senators or Republican or whatever. And they had nothing to do with food. And had nothing to do with soda tax. But they knew it was going to cripple the entire state government.

And they spent millions and millions and millions and millions of dollars driving this ballot initiative. And they went to Jerry Brown and said, unless you put in a prohibition against any future soda taxes in California, and if you wonder why there aren't more and there haven't been since then, we're going to pass this measure.

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. So many front groups. So many front groups with shady, seemingly healthy. So I said it. You don't have to say it. But that kind of is the kind of nonsense that goes on behind the scenes.

Oh, yeah. I mean, yeah. They do, they do. they do, they have done to major researchers, death threats. They've like, it's like, yeah, really bad. Yeah. And we're up against a lot. And Americans have had it.

I think we're just like, we're going to stand up. I don't know why I haven't been taken out yet. I'm like, that's what I was like, I want to like. I've read in mind and I said, you need a bodyguard. You need like a security force. I'm like, he does, he does have bodyguards. He does have security. I have angels.

I have like angels. So, so. No, but it's real. But I think the ties are changing and we're able to stand up. But there was a lot of pushback. And how did you overcome that? So we were able to meet with lawmakers face to face. And we were able to have them meet with local school food professionals and say, this works.

My kids are happier. My numbers are going up. Like, I'm able to do it. It works for the school food business model. It's actually better. And any of their concerns were able to work with them. And then we worked with with ag and we worked to show that this was. better for the local economy and better for local farmers.

And within six months, it was about six months from the spring to the fall, we were able to pass AB1264, nearly unanimous, unanimously, sorry, nearly unanimously unanimously in the Senate and one naysayer in the assembly, which I asked somebody remember Gabriel, has anything been this bipartisan? One nayser, unanimous in the Senate, almost unanimously in the House. I said, as somebody member of your role, is there anything that has had this much bipartisan collaboration and like this much inertia behind it? He's like, maybe naming a freeway. Maybe.

Maybe they agreed on that. But like to come together and to have Republicans and Dems and independents say we're going to protect our kids at school. We're going to make sure that the most harmful ingredients and products aren't in their menus. And we want to stand up for our kids. And we're going to do what's right. And we're going to make history and define what are ultra-processed foods. and they did it. We did it.

We did it in California. Gavin Newsom signed it into law. And now we're already advocating to then do that at the national level and we're working with other states. And we think that we can really make change fast. And it starts at the district level with school leaders showing it's possible. States can take bold action and just change their policies and then we can do it at the national level. Yeah, I always say, I always say change doesn't start in Congress or ends in Congress.

it ends in Congress, you know. It all comes from grassroots, then it goes up to the local levels, then it goes up to the state levels, 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 was women's rights, gay rights,

like it happens, and then it's like a way. It's a movement. People are powerful, and people coming together and advocating for change can build a movement and make massive change fast. And this is, this, our children's health, is what can bring people to the table and what is the greatest opportunity of our lifetime. Yeah, I mean, you look pretty bad if you're like unwilling to protect children in America.

Yeah, yeah. I don't want my kids to live longer and healthier. 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 what we fight for. That's what we exist to do as parents. Okay, we're going to do the rap fire questions. I'm going to answer the question and you're You're going to, well, 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 is, I grew up on orange juice. I was a tropicanic kid. 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 spiced your sugar levels. Yeah. And so it spikes our kids. It's basically Coca-Cola with a few vitamins. And I was like, it's extra pulpy. It's good for me. It's like such a myth. And I had to like, like, I had to stop my orange juice addiction.

And I like, it was a health game changer for me. I'm about to be like 40 and I'm feeling the fittest and the healthiest ever and vibrant. And coming off of juice was one of those things that I got rid of in my, like, in my recent history. So. Amazing. Well, I would say the biggest myth is, well, my kids won't. eat anything because they only eat mac and cheese and pizza and otherwise they won't eat and they're going to starve to death. And I'm like, what do you think kids eat in Japan?

Raw fish and seaweed. They eat what you give them and eventually they'll change. It just reminds me the story of my mom told me about my sister when she was little. She didn't want to eat bag. She made it for breakfast. So she's like, okay, you don't have to eat them. But she fed her the same eggs at dinner and the same eggs at lunch, same eggs at dinner. And the next morning the same make for breakfast and she finally ate them. Honestly, it's 15 times of exposure can change a kid's palate. So it is about like interesting, letting try one bite, give it to them one way, let them try the eggs another way, keep exposing them, keep exposing them, eat it together.

Eating together is huge. Like we can, kids change their eating habits fast. All right. What is the most powerful lever for fixing our food system? Our U.S. public schools are the fastest, most scalable, biggest lever to create health and to change our food system fast. This is a hard question for me because there's so many levers. I would say the thing that came to mind right away was food marketing.

Just as we don't market cigarettes anymore in newspapers, magazines, TV, online, and just prohibited because it's harmful and it kills you. Foods that kill you should not be allowed to be marketed. Wait, can I give one more magic wand? And if schools are the big bet to change some school food policies that would like rapidly change things nationally are changing commodities subsidies. We subsidized corn, soy, sugar, and wheat. And if we change those, it changes. It also flows into school food.

And there are school food commodities that get pumped into schools. And so we could do cash in lieu. You can give more flexibility to use those. They're called commodity dollars for local schools. So that's like change what the sourcing options for school. and change with the, yeah, starting with like what's happening at the government level and then increase actual reimbursement rates. And so schools get reimbursed for their meals. And I just called McDonald's this morning because McDonald's, a happy meal in Texas costs $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 health care costs, we would rapidly convert our school food program to be more real food. And so it's about 40% of that is food costs, so $1.80 per school meal. And we expect them to serve real delicious, amazing local food. It would be game changing to double down and raise a reimbursement rate and actually invest. invest and make the bet a few billion more. Pay now or pay a payer later.

Yeah, pay now and spend a few billion to save a few trill. Medicaid dollars would go dramatically down. I mean, the state's budget, a third of it is Medicaid. Yeah. And the same thing for federal. The third of our entire federal budget is our chronic disease. Yeah. 17% of our GDP almost $4 trillion. So a year is spent on preventable ultra-processed food-related diseases.

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

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 help? Eat together. I would say cook together. Ooh, I like that even more. Cook together. Ooh, and go to the farmers market together. I had a purple day of the farmer's market with my daughter who's really into purple right now.

We just got zucchini, purple peppers, and it was like, we had a purple day, and then we had purple food throughout the week. You know, we also go to the grocery store and go to the farmer's market together. And the thing about cooking together is that kids like it. Like, you know, there was a book by Molly Katzen for kids. I forget 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. So 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 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 didn't go to cooking school. Yeah. 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 ever cooked together. My son's really into chopped eggs, Nikko'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, that's just basically scrambled. But he's like, he's doing it and he's like cracking the eggs

and learning this kitchen. It's so much fun. And it tastes better. And we all have so much fun eating it. So I agree with you. I'll change mine from eat together. Shop for food together. Cook together and then eat it together.

All right. We answered this one, I think, which is the biggest obstacle of the real food in schools, food industry. I think 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. I would say that. And I would say, you know, changing the school lunch standards, which are now going to happen with the new dietary guidelines because they actually have essentially said eat real food, no highly processed food. So if the U.S. dietary guidelines say no highly processed food, that means the schools have to follow the dietary guidelines. That's one of the reasons why dietary guidelines are so important because they influence school lunch. We've actually designed our eat real standards to be plug and play and states can implement eat real standards. that national government can implement higher real food standards.

So I fully agree with you that going towards real food standards at the state and national level is game changing. If kids grow up eating real food, what changes most about their future? I think their happiness. I think it's like food changes, kids gut health, their mental health. It changes how they feel. It changes how they grow and learn and thrive. It's literally about giving our kids more happy years. And that's what life is all about.

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

Yeah. And we're seeing actual real policy change at the federal level and state levels. Super exciting. All right, finish the 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. We fix our chronic disease epidemic. We heal our children's and catastrophic futures that they're facing. We save trillions of dollars from the federal budget and state's budgets. We help restore the environment by improving soil health, water resources, and saving them,

and preventing damage to our water waste through run off of the pollution and fertilizers that go into there. We help reduce climate change by sequestering carbon. We increase the overall mental health of America. We end so much violence in prisons and the violence in our society. we improve social justice at every level. So I think to me, literally it's almost fixing everything because food is a nexus

where everything comes together, right? Fix our economy. I mean, that's the subtitle of the book that was, what the first book was, you know, food fix, how to save our health, our economy, our communities, in our future. I love that.

I'm Midwestern, so we talk about, on our planet, yeah. I'm Midwestern, so we talk about two-fers and I think fixing our food, what you say. Yeah, it's a tenfer. Or it's at least a for-for-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 that. It's like, yeah, it's probably more like a ten-for. It's like you fix food and you change everything. I really. I love that. All right. So people want to learn more about Eatreal. They go to e-reel.org.org. If they want to get their district involved, they can go to e-reel.org slash parents. They can go to Eatreal certified on Instagram. I'm a lot. on LinkedIn, Nora Latore. I'm nourished with Nora on Instagram.

They can find me on Instagram. They can find E-Rail certified on Instagram. They can sign up for our newsletter at E-Rail.org. And they can also donate to the nonprofit. We're a small but mighty nonprofit, but donations help us reach more kids and say yes, and more schools and reach 3 million kids in 30 states. So we can get more schools and communities on board

and help change our food system. Amazing. Amazing. And for those listening, I want to know more about food fix uncensored. to foodfix 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 this feels like a really consequential moment. It feels like Cory Booker said this to me. It feels like 1963 in the Civil Rights Movement is what it feels like. And I think that's right. I think.

It's right with everyone getting involved. With everyone getting involved, we're going to change a future for our kids fast. Margaret Mead said, never doubt what a small group of highly committed people can do. In fact, it's the only thing that's ever changed the world. Well, thank you for everything you do to change the world. And thank you for all your generous support of E. Real and of me and of our team. So thank you. Let's go.

Let's go. Let's do it. All right. What if the greatest threat your health wasn't bad choices, but bad design? In America, chronic disease isn't accidental. It's the predictable outcome of a food system built for profit, not people. A web of corporations, lobbyists, and policymakers all feeding off your plate. They call it choice, but your options were engineered.

From the grocery aisle to the school cafeteria, big food, big ag, and big pharma wrote the rules together. The food pyramid distorted. The science bought. The front-of-packaged 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. If you love this podcast, please share it with someone else you think would also enjoy it. You can find me on all social media. channels at Dr. Mark Hyman. Please reach out.

I'd love to hear your comments and questions. Don't forget to rate, review, and subscribe to the Dr. Hyman show wherever you get your podcasts. And don't forget to check out my YouTube channel at Dr. Mark Hyman for video versions of this podcast and more. Thank you so much again for tuning in. We'll see you next time on the Dr. Hyman Show. This podcast is separate from my clinical practice

at the Ultra Wellness Center, my work at Cleveland Clinic, and Function Health, where I am chief medical officer. This podcast represents my opinions and my guest's opinions. Neither myself nor the podcast, or the podcast endorses the views or statements of my guests. This podcast is for educational purposes only

and is not a substitute for professional care by a doctor or other qualified medical professional. This podcast is provided with the understanding that it does not constitute medical or other professional advice or services. If you're looking for help in your journey, please seek out a qualified medical practitioner. And if you're looking for a functional medicine practitioner,

visit my clinic, the ultra-wellness center at ultra-wellnesscenter.com and request to become a patient. It's important to have someone in your corner who is a trained, licensed healthcare practitioner and can help you make changes, especially when it comes to your health. This podcast is free as part of my mission to bring practical ways of improving health to the public, so I'd like to express gratitude to sponsors that made today's podcast possible. Thanks so much again for listening.