Clean Eating for Kids: Why Gut Health Matters More Than You Think with Madeline Lauf
In this episode, Dr. Cassie Smith interviews Madeline Lauf, Founder and CEO of Begin Health, a kids’ health company specializing in digestive health through prebiotic supplementation. Madeline shares her personal journey from the tech world to health entrepreneurship, the shocking truths about the infant formula industry, and why building a child’s microbiome early in life is critical for lifelong health. They also dive into the link between gut health and behavioral issues in kids, constipation red flags, and how parents can take simple steps to foster healthier gut health from the start.
Cassie info and links:
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Guest info and links:
Madeline Lauf is the Founder and CEO of Begin Health, a children’s health company specializing in digestive health through prebiotic supplementation. Originally from rural Illinois, Madeline’s passion for children’s wellness grew from witnessing firsthand the health impacts of processed foods on youth in her community.
Connect with Madeline Lauf:
- Instagram (@madelinezephyr)
- LinkedIn (Madeline Zephyr)
Blog/Transcription:
0:05 welcome back to this week’s episode of Hormones Metabolism and You i’m your host Dr cassu Smith i’m a functional
0:11 endocrinologist based out of Oklahoma City this week we’re going to focus again on gut health but we’re going to
0:18 be talking about gut health in kids i had Dr alisa Song on about 3
0:23 weeks ago and you guys loved that episode she wrote Healthy Kids Happy Kids and I know a lot of you that listen
0:29 to this are parents or grandparents and you want to know what can I do for gut health for my children and so that
0:36 episode a couple weeks ago if you did not listen to it it should have been about 3 weeks ago now please go back and
0:41 listen to that episode it was wonderful with Dr alisa Song but today I also have
0:46 Maline La she is the founder and CEO of Begin Health a company focused on
0:53 children’s digestive health through prebiotic supplements i thought like I said it would be good to kind of focus
1:00 on this because I have a lot of you reaching out to me and asking can my kids take prebiotics can my kids take
1:05 probiotics what can I do to help the microbiome of my children why are my children’s microbiome not you know
1:12 normal why do my kids have symptoms of leaky guts things like that and so if
1:17 you have kids if you are a parent if you have questions about kids microbiome this is the episode for you also if you
1:24 are a parent or you know someone who has children who are struggling with skin issues with digestive issues with
1:31 learning issues with behavior issues this can all be a sign that they have
1:37 gut issues so Meline grew up in rural Illinois she developed a passion and
1:42 interest in children’s health after witnessing the widespread consumption of processed foods and its impact on youth
1:49 wellness before founding begin health Meline built her career in the tech industry starting in finance before
1:56 transitioning to marketing roles at various tech companies her entrepreneurial journey began with an
2:02 ambitious plan to create a healthier infant formula for the Asian market inspired by her time living in Asia
2:09 where she observed high demand for American formula products after facing
2:14 regulatory challenges in the formula industry she pivoted to developing a specialized children’s milk product
2:21 through its venture Meline discovered an underserved market parents struggling
2:27 with children’s constipation issues this led to the creation of Begin Health’s
2:33 growing up prebiotic which launched in 2022 there’s some more information here about why you did this and regulatory
2:40 challenges and the formula industry ind industry and things like that but before we get into that I want you to kind of
2:46 explain to people I think it’s important for listeners explain to them how you
2:51 got here like why you do this why this is so important um just in general and
2:56 just maybe some like basic things about gut health and then you can kind of explain to them too about I think this
3:02 is important for people to understand the formula industry is a big big market
3:07 and I don’t know that it’s always the best market for for kids right because what we’re giving kids at a really early
3:14 age is very important for their microbiome so I want you to kind of talk on that as well yeah for sure so thank
3:20 you so much for having me and I’m really excited to chat about kids health and the infant formula and our gut health
3:26 you know I I am from rural Illinois i grew up in surrounded by corn fields and
3:31 you know it’s just devastating as you grow up and you look around and people around you are not well leaving the
3:38 Midwest you you do see that other habits that people have are a bit healthier
3:44 nutrition and diets and it just got me really upset about the situation when
3:49 you’re in the Midwest or just rural America and you just see everyone around
3:55 you is overweight has chronic illnesses is has mental illnesses they have they
4:01 suffer from obesity etc and you’re like there has to be a better way and personally this impacted me because I
4:08 was suffering from digestive health issues for a really long time and I was put on prescription medication when I
4:15 was 25 years old and thankfully you know I I knew enough to advocate for myself
4:21 to say “Hey look there has to be another way let me look into that.” And the doctors were like “Oh well I guess you
4:27 could try lifestyle interventions.” I was like “Yeah let’s try it.” And it turned out it worked and that was a
4:34 really eye opening experience for me because I started going down this rabbit hole of healing myself from the inside
4:41 out using lifestyle modifications and I found the power of
4:46 gut health and gut healing and how the nutrition and our diet can truly impact
4:52 our overall health and so for me when learning upon this whole idea of gut
4:58 health and gut healing I realized that actually the greatest opportunity for impact is at the earliest of ages and
5:06 that was really what inspired me to start a kids and gut microbiome health company because if we can help kids
5:14 establish and maintain or repair their gut microbiome from a very early age
5:20 that will set them up for lifelong health and so I became super passionate about that and I said,”You know what why
5:26 don’t we start with the first food our first food is infant formula.” And if you look at the label of the infant
5:33 formulas you will be appalled by what is in them but that is what makes infant
5:40 formula formula is it’s it’s called formula for a reason there’s a formula that you basically have to follow and
5:48 there’s very little room for innovation because that is the standard that is set by the FDA and so I set out to build at
5:56 least a cleaner baby formula but unfortunately it was just a very very
6:01 expensive category to be in you have to have a lot of money to build big
6:06 facilities um and so that is ultimately when we decided to pivot uh to what it
6:11 is our current day product which is growing up prebiotics okay so yeah I you know I tell people
6:18 all the time I’m huge on ingredient lists and like nonprocessed foods i
6:23 don’t think you should eat anything with more than five ingredients if it comes from a package that’s just my personal
6:28 preference i make a lot of stuff at my house that has more than five ingredients but they’re individual ingredients i know what they are and so
6:35 I’m very passionate about like the food that goes in my body doesn’t have more than five ingredients and ideally none
6:41 of those contain any form of sugar i’ve never thought about looking at baby formula but tell us in general what do
6:49 you see if you look at a baby formula like ingredient list like what what is in there yeah so typically you know a
6:57 baby formula will have all the major food groups if you will but the fats are really the part that are really suspect
7:04 right there’s usually soy oil canola oil what have you and some of those are what
7:12 really like there could be alternative opportunities for uh the challenge is
7:17 that you just can’t you do have to get the full you know amino acid profile and
7:24 sometimes like that is the only way that you can get it is from a mixture of some
7:29 of these oils and so the goal is hopefully a lot of baby formula
7:35 companies if they’re able to pull more fat from the animal and put that in the formula that would be a goal but truly
7:43 like there really is to this day not really an opportunity to innovate there
7:49 uh you just can use cleaner ingredients but based on the current FDA regulations
7:55 you still have to abide basically by this one specific formulation i’ll give
8:01 one more example a lot of these formulas will have corn syrup solids for example
8:06 um that is could be an alternative for like lactose so if you are looking for a
8:12 cleaner baby formula go for the formula that has lactose in it versus corn syrup
8:18 solids small little substitutes like that look for a coconut oil over a
8:24 soybean oil uh that’s a positive look for a whole milk formula over a skim
8:30 milk formula so those are small you know ingredient changes that if you’re a
8:36 parent looking for formula can help you at least choose a better formula over
8:42 some of the others yeah and I think it’s important to point out here too like why does this even matter and so the reason
8:48 I thought this would be a good fit for our podcast guest is because this all
8:54 matters because of the microbiome right so the gut microbiome and I think you know you kind of hit the the nail on the
9:01 head when we were talking about in babies and in kids like you have to make
9:08 sure that we are supporting the environment of their gut and we’re giving them the things that they need so that they have good microbiome and and
9:14 good a diversity of microbiome that are that are being developed i think that part of the problem in this country
9:20 today with childhood obesity and these kids needing liver transplants and just
9:26 all these crazy things in kids is that they start with a poor microbiome which
9:31 I want to talk to you about how much of your microbiome is is predetermined before you even come into this world but
9:37 then once they get here they get no help in supporting that microbiome or diversifying that microbiome or making
9:44 it better and so I want you to kind of talk about that in general what is you know why is it important to diversify
9:51 and have a healthy microbiome in kids and how do we do that yes so having a
9:57 healthy microbiome can begin starts at the beginning just how the method that
10:02 the baby is born right there’s a vaginal birth versus C-section and that right there can already start to determine the
10:10 makeup of the baby’s gut microbiome because it’s the first bacteria that the baby starts to be in contact with and so
10:16 if you’re a baby that’s coming through the vaginal canal you will be coated and we call it seeding of the uh the vaginal
10:23 cavity will see the baby with these good positive gut micro microbes you if
10:31 you’re in a C-section birth that a lot of times those babies from the studies are showing that they tend to have more
10:38 of the microbiome composition that is more similar to the hospital environment
10:44 which can be more pathogenic which is why C-section babies which by the way
10:50 C-section births are on the rise over a third of babies are born are C-section
10:55 birth and you know what it can be life-saving and so there’s a role for C-section births but if your baby is
11:03 C-section it will hopefully you know you can start to look into more ways to
11:08 support their little gut microbiome as it will it might need more support so
11:13 the second piece there is then the method of feeding if it’s breastfeeding versus infant formula and as we talked
11:20 about earlier with the infant formulas you know that is why I’m a huge proponent of this thing called human
11:25 milk oligosaccharides they’re the third most abundant component of human breast
11:30 milk and these are the prebiotics found in human breast milk there are over a
11:36 hundred of them they are now able to be recreated through a process called
11:42 fermentation these prebiotics feed the beneficial bacteria in the baby’s gut
11:47 and the studies demonstrate that the babies that are fed the HMOs in the infant formulas have stools that are
11:55 closer to that of breastfed infants so that is a huge breakthrough for infant
12:01 formulas and if you are selecting infant formula definitely look out for the HMOs
12:07 if you can this starts to kind of lead into the the time when kids do
12:13 transition off of formula or even solids uh when you start introducing more foods
12:19 this can be a tricky time because now your kiddo is starting to come interact
12:25 with foods that they never experienced before right and that is when you start getting the constipations or collicky
12:31 babies and that’s a time when you can start to really establish your good
12:38 positive gut microbes um so you know there’s a lot of different points to develop the gut microbiome what we are
12:45 learning more and more is that the gut microbiome is essentially very malleable
12:50 at the early ages so if you make small changes to promote the growth of the
12:56 good gut bugs the baby’s gut will actually start to transform in as little
13:02 as like three four five weeks which is very different from the adult gut microbiome that will take a lot longer
13:08 so that is why it’s so important to as a parent to really be in tune with your
13:15 baby’s gut how did the stools look how are they feeling after eating to start
13:21 to really you know build and establish that strong healthy gut for like So when
13:28 you say prebiotics what do you mean for people that are listening do you mean like the
13:34 type of food that they’re eating do you mean something that you’re giving them like explain to listeners what a prebiotic is yeah so there’s a lot of a
13:42 lot of people are probably in tune with the probiotics probiotics are the living bacteria within us the prebiotics are
13:49 the food so they’re non-digestible fibers that the living probiotics
13:55 actually feed on and so we really want to nurture and feed our good gut bugs
14:02 and we can do that by feeding them prebiotics prebiotics are found in a lot
14:07 of really great food sources and at Began Health we are the number one proponent of getting your nutrition from
14:15 food uh we really stress the importance of clean nutrients that are going
14:21 directly in us uh that you know you don’t we really shouldn’t have to rely on supplementation right if we can get
14:28 our nutrients from food that is in the top top priority uh however a lot of
14:34 times especially with kids you are not able to get your kiddos to eat all the
14:40 fruits and veggies out there and so that’s when uh we specifically created
14:46 uh growing up prebiotics which are a tasteless and textureless prebiotic
14:51 supplement uh that’s composed of the human milk oligosaccharide that is found
14:56 in breast milk and chory root fiber and so these are two ingredients that have
15:01 been very well studied and they are the ones that feed the good gut bugs help
15:06 with softer stooling and really help support kiddos who may not be getting
15:12 their nutrients fully from food uh to help them establish and build their good
15:18 gut bugs uh at that early age so this prebiotic that you’ve made is
15:27 more to help kids maintain or to help them develop I guess a a good healthy
15:33 diverse gut microbiome is that correct that’s right yeah so you know this is the challenge
15:40 is that all of us even as adults even when we’re eating as much as the good
15:45 foods it’s still we do not consume enough fiber in our diets just period
15:51 like 95% of us are not getting enough of it our gut bugs are starving essentially
15:56 they they’re hungry they want to be eating these prebiotics but if we are not feeding them that is when it starts
16:03 to cause the challenges that is when your gut microbiome lining will start to
16:10 essentially fray and that is when you start getting leaky gut uh you start
16:16 having other issues that come from that and so you want to support your good gut
16:21 bugs if you don’t support your good gut bugs the bad gut bugs the ones that are related to other health issues will
16:29 start to take over and that is something we call disbiosis so it is not balanc
16:36 and so by feeding the good gut bugs the ones that are responsible for so many different processes from digestion to
16:44 immunity we want to feed them so that they are the ones that are
16:49 primarily you know taking up the gut microbiome and so for us at vegan health
16:54 you know we we of course we support getting your nutrition from the food but
17:00 if you are not able to this is a really great way to support that and again it
17:06 is establishing that early gut microbiome um from the beginning
17:11 so this prebiotic that you have is this a like a chewable something is this like a powder what is this yeah it’s a
17:19 powdered supplement it’s tasteless and textureless you can put it in water milk yogurt you can bake with it and it
17:26 really just helps a lot of the kiddos that are struggling uh specifically we
17:33 found a really important use case in the kiddos that are transitioning off of long-term laxative use and what we find
17:42 is that it really does help with softer stooling more comfortable stooling and
17:47 so many kiddos are struggling to poop they are constipated there are so many
17:53 different signs that your kiddo might be constipated and you may not even know it so we always recommend to parents to
18:00 really make sure that they are studying their kids stool off the Bristol uh comparing it to the Bristol stool chart
18:07 which is a really nice chart to evaluate because the stool is a daily biioarker
18:14 that we can see essentially hopefully every single day and it tells you you
18:19 know a report card of how your kiddo is is doing with their digestive health and
18:25 actually even for adults we can use this And if your stool is harder you know
18:32 more pebble-l like what have you like maybe it’s time to add more hydration maybe it’s time to add a little bit more
18:38 fiber if you’re also on the other end you might have more diarrhea uh you
18:44 could have a bacterial uh issue etc and so all of this really goes to supporting
18:50 those good gut bugs uh to help balance and restore the gut microbiome if
18:56 somebody listening to this is thinking maybe this is something good for my kid but they have celiac they have lactose
19:02 intolerance they can’t you know deal with dairy is any of that going to be a problem with this yeah you know we get
19:10 this question often because of course we have human milk oligosaccharide first of all it does not come from human milk so
19:17 I want to clarify that it is something that is made uh in we can now make it
19:22 using a process called fermentation so that is all really cool uh it also even
19:28 though we do mention it may contain traces of milk the starting ingredient is lactose and that in eaten up in the
19:35 fermentation process so there’s we call it invisibly small traces amounts of
19:41 lactose and certainly there shouldn’t be any cow milk protein so we’ve very
19:47 successfully had kiddos that are allergic to milk or lactose or cow meal protein using growing up prebiotics so
19:54 that is not a challenge we’ve had kids with celiac uh also you know there’s
19:59 just so many applications for this product that uh kiddos can’t that are
20:05 struggling with other health challenges of course always we recommend clearing it with your specific healthcare
20:11 practitioner uh just to make sure that you know that this is something that they are aware of but uh typically there
20:18 really is uh not an issue with those kiddos is this something that adults can take too absolutely i take a Grow Your
20:26 Prebiotics every day in my morning coffee and you know we just up the dose
20:32 essentially so you take a little bit more than the kiddo uh dose level but it
20:38 works just as well so uh we highly recommend it for parents too that are
20:43 may also be experiencing some digestive health issues so that’s what I wanted to kind of transition and talk to you about
20:49 too is addressing kind of these parental pain points with kids like where parents
20:54 are saying I’m having these issues with my kids i want to talk to you about some of the common issues that parents
21:00 struggle with with kids and then I want to kind of transition too to the role of gut health and like the overall
21:06 well-being of a child because what I want people to understand is that a lot of and this is in adults too if you’re
21:12 somebody who’s struggling with digestion issues so kid or adult you know diarrhea
21:20 constipation especially when you’re not pooping every day it is so vital for I
21:25 mean this is how we relieve toxins in our body if you’re somebody who’s struggling with immune system issues you’re sick all the time you have weird
21:32 skin reactions eczema things like that or you’ve got a lot of behavioral or
21:38 mental disturbances so in kids that looks like learning disabilities that looks like autism that looks like
21:44 they’re in trouble all the time at school in adults that looks like brain fog inability to concentrate maybe even
21:49 ADHD i want us to put the puzzle pieces together for people and help them
21:54 realize that most of this goes back to your gut correct yes for sure no I think
22:01 we call it the command center of the growing little body and a lot of parents like there’s so many signs but a lot of
22:08 times you know doctors will be kind of quick they don’t have a ton of time with families and so they’re quick to
22:17 rightfully or wrongfully you know get get you on a medical path prescription
22:22 medication for something oh you have constipation here’s a laxative oh you have trouble learning at school here’s a
22:29 you know prescription medication for ADHD and then they they really don’t have the time to sit there and really
22:36 educate the families on like let’s go through you know your food log or your stooling patterns you know trying to
22:43 understand more of a holistic profile of that family and child a lot of times
22:49 specifically when it comes to digestive health uh there the couple warning signs that we share with parents or that we
22:55 commonly see are specifically one is just let’s just start with the basics of
23:00 what are the stooling patterns is it a daily bowel movement is it every 3 days
23:06 some kiddos are 7 days we’ve seen some really drastic cases at that point like
23:12 we we definitely recommend please you know go see a doctor or a physician because that really it can become a
23:19 really bad issue fast when it comes to stooling patterns even if your kiddo is
23:27 going daily your kiddo could still be carrying what we call a large fecal load
23:33 and this sometimes we see parents are like “Well my kid’s not constipated they’re going daily.” And if they go get
23:38 an X-ray they realize that their kiddo is actually fully backed up right and so
23:43 one of the signs that we can start to see is if your kiddo is having skid
23:50 marks or any kind of accidents that could potentially be something that your
23:56 kid is constipated uh we see a lot of withholding behaviors that’s a lot of
24:02 times that’s because the kiddo has had some kind of traumatic event around pooping they may have just had something
24:09 that was painful they might have you know just experienced something that was uncomfortable they’re smart they don’t
24:16 want to do the thing that hurts and so they will start withholding that creates a downward spiral because now they’re
24:24 withholding now they’re they’re getting more irritable they’re experiencing more constipation more inflammation and then
24:30 their stool gets harder so then it’s even more painful so that is something you definitely want to avoid uh a lot of
24:37 times we see families that have had consistent UTI uh UTI are really a
24:44 challenge um with the the kids that are constipated and then also uh bedwedding
24:50 that’s another sign that your kiddo um there might be some pressure on the bladder so those are just some issues
24:58 that could be stemming from it when it comes to attention and behavior and just
25:03 being generally irritable a lot of times those kiddos can be constipated they’re
25:08 just in a constant state of irritability and discomfort and that can lead to just
25:14 general attention issues behavioral issues uh emotional issues so you know
25:21 all of these things really can stem from the overall digestive health status of
25:27 the kiddo so we do recommend you know being in tune with your little one if
25:33 they are seemingly backed up finding ways to do a clean out you know per your
25:38 pediatrician or uh working with different you know there’s a lot of natural ways that we like to encourage
25:46 parents to clean their kiddo out make sure that everything is kind of out and then find a really nice routine thing
25:53 that you can do with your family so that your kiddo will hopefully stay consistent and not get backed up again
25:59 so those are some of the watch outs for families if they think their kid might
26:05 be struggling yeah and again to the point of like skin issues as well uh I think that’s something that’s overmissed
26:11 in kids a lot like when they do have eczema or rashes things like that a lot of times it gets blamed on they got into
26:18 something or maybe they’re eating something but nobody really addresses that long term right so that’s something
26:24 that I think definitely gets missed in adults and in kids and to your point the laxatives like nobody should have to
26:32 take laxatives every day to go to the bathroom every now and then you may have an issue right like you had pain
26:38 medication or something like that but and you know if you’re having to constantly take a laxative or give a
26:44 child a laxative because they’re not having consistent bowel movements then there’s a big problem there that we need
26:49 to be addressing in lots of different ways not only the food they’re eating but their stress and their sleep and
26:55 their you know hormone levels maybe not in children but definitely if you’re talking about kids stress sleep and the
27:02 food that they’re eating and so I think those are all very important things that we need to think about tell me about the
27:10 link between like digestive health and behavior in kids like what you guys have
27:16 seen as far as like behavior issues ADHD that sort of stuff yeah well we’re
27:22 learning more and more the about the brain gut connection right and so you
27:28 know what we’re seeing is that the kiddos that really do have a disbiosis
27:33 or some kind of issue in their digestive health it can be manifesting in behavioral issues just because they’re
27:40 they’re essentially in like this fight orflight mode and it can contribute also
27:45 back to digestive health issues so if you’re constantly stressed out that could actually be
27:52 killing or the good gut microbes right because they’re just in this state of
27:58 stress and so it really is this this balance that they contribute to one
28:03 another and what we found is when you do support or remove the bad things that
28:09 are causing the issues in the gut or in the stress world then you can start to
28:14 see more of a that relaxation and those behavioral issues start to subside so
28:21 with us at Begin Health when we’ve seen some these kiddos that are super irritable uh we have absolutely noticed
28:28 um with families that they tell us specifically that their kiddo is able to sleep better now because they’re not
28:34 going to bed uncomfortable right so that is a positive they they are generally
28:39 able to focus more so those are all things that we hear anecdotally from
28:45 families that have invested in these gut microbiome different investments and so
28:51 and and I want to address Cassie back to the point of the skin health is like their little bodies are are essentially
28:59 telling us that there is something that is wrong it doesn’t always have to
29:05 specifically be related to nutrition so I’m a proponent that nutrition you know
29:10 solves 90% of these cases but for families that are just they know they’re
29:16 they know their kiddo better than anybody in the world they know that something is off but they don’t know
29:22 what it is their doctor is not able to pinpoint it for those families you know
29:28 I just always recommend you have to audit almost every single part of your
29:34 child’s life you know starting with even the fabrics that your clothes are made
29:40 of you know what are the cleaning products you use at home is there mold
29:46 or are they you know in a rooms that in their schools that could be causing
29:51 issues with asthma or what have you um what are the foods that they’re eating
29:57 processed foods when they’re outside the home versus inside the home there’s just so many different I guess toxins and
30:05 that the toxic overload can really just impact their overall health so I we
30:10 really recommend you know just from bottoms up you have to evaluate all of it to really get to the bottom of what
30:18 could be the issue yeah these are all points that I make with my adult patients too right like so that’s what
30:24 we do at Modern Endocrine we really look at everything and and I think that this is so important and I wanted to bring
30:29 this up because I do think that gut health is one of the things that is definitely overlooked people don’t understand it they don’t understand you
30:36 know why it’s important they don’t understand how you know their gut and their microbiome plays into the the role
30:43 of other things your hormones your attention your sleep your mood and it does it plays into role of with
30:48 everything and like I was telling you you know I have a book that’s going to be coming out this year and the entire book is just on gut health and it’s on
30:56 you know what how do how does our gut get here why is it not functioning right how do we fix it you know what when our
31:03 gut isn’t working right what are the symptoms that it causes and I think in kids this is a I mean a huge thing
31:09 because what I hate and what I see all the time is all these kids on I mean it’s it’s bad enough that we have adults
31:15 that take you know over 75% of the adult populations takes more than three medications which is alarming but now
31:22 this is like moving into kids right so you have all these kids on all these medications and many times it’s to mask
31:28 symptoms that our body is telling us by you know a skin issue or a GI issue or a
31:35 behavior issue something is wrong and it goes back to environmental things right
31:41 food and nutrition and sleep and things like that and so it’s just really important for people to understand that
31:46 and I’m not in the the kids space very often but I mean this is a great point
31:54 with you know kids are are more unfortunate than adults in the fact that they can’t even really stand up for
31:59 themselves right like they don’t they’re they can maybe tell you “My stomach hurts.” or they can like you said you
32:04 know like try not to go to the bathroom hold it in because it hurts like they are smart enough to know how to do things that doesn’t hurt them but
32:11 they’re not at the intellectual age yet or capacity to be able to explain to
32:16 someone like “Hey I don’t feel good.” Um and so you have to as the parent as the doctor as the person in charge of that
32:22 human be you know taking that responsibility upon yourself and looking at them and and and doing all these
32:28 things and so it can just be more difficult I think right yeah i’m so glad you brought that up that was the reason
32:36 why my I was motivated to begin begin health was because kids do not have the
32:43 agency to say “Nope mom i’m not taking red dye 40.” Right uh now as an adult
32:50 you know I I sometimes battle my own parents to say “No you’re not taking this.” But as kids it’s they really do
32:58 not have that agency that they cannot advocate for themselves and it is so
33:04 hard to be a maf parent and I’m not yet one of them but I you know just living
33:10 is hard right everything around us is laced with different things that we
33:16 really don’t want to have in our bodies but we’ve traded these bad ingredients
33:21 for convenience because it’s easier to grab a salad dressing with you know
33:27 10,000 ingredients in it than it is to make it at home right and so we I do
33:32 realize how hard it is on the modern parent everyone’s just trying to get by
33:37 and and I really feel and empathize with that parent and so at Begin Health we
33:43 really have a no compromised policy and it it makes it actually really hard to
33:49 build clean nutritionbased products because it’s a lot easier to build
33:56 products that have bad ingredients in them frankly they have longer shelf
34:01 lives they are more appealing to the consumer it’s a lot more fun when you
34:07 have a product that is sparkly red because it has a food dye in it than when it’s made with fruit powders right
34:14 so at Began Health we are so just focused on how can we create
34:21 nutritional products that we can stand by when of when you create a kid’s
34:27 brand as parents we always recommend like make sure you know everything that
34:33 company is doing and and it’s really incumbent on companies to be more
34:38 friendly to consumers by doing the right thing uh even when it’s hard and we
34:46 really recommend to parents too like demand more of these companies tell them
34:51 how you feel and vote with your dollars yeah no I completely agree it’s
34:58 Yeah it it’s very difficult and so it is very important that as a parent you pay
35:05 attention to this and then also as a parent you know I’m going to go back to a lot of my listeners it’s so important
35:11 that you model behavior for your children because I think what people forget in this crazy world is that kids
35:19 are like sponges you may know it but but I mean they really are kids are looking
35:24 to their parents for everything so you need to be modeling the behavior of movement of exercise of eating well of
35:30 being happy of practicing gratitude like all of these things right of paying attention and listening to yourself and
35:36 so it is so difficult to be a parent but just think about all the things that I’ve taught you on this podcast up to
35:42 this point if you’ve listened to all you know 50 plus episodes these are things that are also going on in the little
35:48 body of the humans that are your children and it actually starts there and so it’s really really really
35:55 important to focus on this and that’s why I think it’s important you know to to have you on and to let people hear
36:02 this i have I think two chapters of my book that are coming out so 20% of my book just talks about your microbiome
36:08 before the age of like two and all the reasons why people’s microbiomes are all messed up by the time they’re older and
36:15 it’s because we don’t focus enough at the beginning of our life on this diversity and just making sure that
36:22 we’re doing what we’re supposed to do so that our our gut microbiome fixes itself and to your point like if it’s not where
36:28 it needs to be in a kid it’s a lot easier to fix right when we’ve only had two years worth of damage or four years worth of damage as opposed to 40 years
36:35 worth of damage so and I also think maybe you can talk to this but I also
36:41 truly believe like so I take care of a lot of diabetics i did um with diabetes
36:47 it has been shown in research that the longer you have diabetes and the longer you have uncontrolled blood sugar and
36:52 the longer you have issues with it the harder it is for your body in general even your cells your cell membrane your
36:59 mitochondria to come back and like fix that disease process right it’s like they get used to living with that it’s
37:05 kind of the same with your gut if you have a kid who has been sick you know their whole life or they’ve got this
37:11 dispiosis or this leaky gut like you’re talking about and they’ve had it since they were two and now they’re 35 and
37:17 we’re trying to fix it it is a huge undertaking because I do it every day every single day I do gut health stuff
37:23 and when you have I mean the older people are the harder it is because it’s like their body’s gotten used to that and it’s just like it it fights back and
37:30 so I’m all about preventative medicine that’s what functional medicine is about and so I think if you can start this in
37:37 a kid that’s amazing right absolutely and you know you bring up such a great
37:42 point the role of personal responsibility in our health is so important and you know we run a really
37:50 large online community for support for constipation with kids it’s peer-to-peer where parents just talk to each other
37:56 and we really notice it’s like their doctors aren’t listening to them they they want solutions but their doctors
38:03 are not giving them the sufficient information for them to take matters
38:09 into their own hands and so that is why you know the this is so important and
38:15 podcasts like yours where parents can find other information to help them take
38:21 matters into their own hands you parents do have that power and we see it every
38:27 single day parents advocating for their kiddos they know that there’s a better way and to your point they have to be
38:33 role models themselves being eating well physical activity modeling that behavior
38:40 is so so important and it is not okay that we have soaring rates of diabetes
38:46 in kids like that’s just not okay right it it doesn’t have to be this way and if
38:52 we can prevent it by building and establishing that gut microbiome from the earliest of ages which we know now
38:58 is like up to age eight is really that time you will as a kiddo you might start
39:03 to experience other issues health issues along your life antibiotics might be one
39:10 of them surgeries what have you but you will always essentially bounce back to
39:15 what we call the gut print that gut print is what you want to build and invest in early because your body will
39:23 ultimately start to go back to bounce back to that gut print if you never
39:29 built it to begin with as you were mentioning it’s a lot harder to go back
39:34 to that because your natural state is really not a very balanced gut microbiome i like that building a solid
39:43 gut print love it yes um yeah no I like it so yeah and and I do agree like if
39:51 you’re a parent you know this is something like unfortunately or fortunately however you look at it but
39:56 this is kind of your role as the parent to help this little human develop into the best you know person that they can
40:03 be and so it is hard work but just under I think the education is so important and you brought up another thing about
40:09 you know the constipation so I tell adults this but like treating constipation with laxatives that is not
40:16 the answer that is not the answer long term and because there there are bad
40:22 side effects of laxatives long term right and your gut almost gets lazy and then that’s a whole another issue that we have to address and so again going
40:29 back to like why why we need to be asking why if we’re not having bowel movements every day why not if we’re you
40:36 know if we’re having these symptoms if we’re having all of a sudden behavioral issues why are we having behavioral issues and I think sometimes and I don’t
40:43 mean this to be like derogatory at all but I think sometimes parents are almost like they feel bad or they like blame
40:49 themselves or they’re like if their kid has an issue like they’re developing a behavior issue or they’re developing ADHD or they’re developing constipation
40:56 it’s almost like the parent sometimes doesn’t want to say anything or sometimes is even like scared or you
41:03 know just feels bad about taking their child in because they feel like well maybe it’s it’s their fault and that’s
41:08 not what I’m saying at all i don’t think it’s ever a parent’s fault i think it’s a lack of education it’s that we live in
41:13 a society that makes it very uh difficult to be healthy we live in a a society that’s unconducive to health we
41:20 have infant formula that has corn syrup in it i didn’t even know that that’s alarming um and so there’s just all
41:26 these things that kind of just get thrown into the mix right and so then it’s like this balance of like do we
41:31 have more good things and are we able to detox versus the bad things and when you start having GI issues the problem with
41:37 that is we detoxify through our skin and our gut and so when we’re not having regular bowel movements that
41:43 detoxification process is not working and so then these little tiny things that we get from living right like
41:50 everyone gets them like I detox once a month because I’m I I live um those things build up and especially in kids
41:56 cuz we’re so much littleler right like they don’t have the ability to accept all of that and detox as well as we do
42:02 when we’re older so that’s absolutely true and you know I think there’s there’s a positive thing happening here
42:09 this whole concept of root cause health and getting to the root cause of these health challenges i think
42:17 that in general the modern American parent is starting to be more educated
42:23 and I think that is wonderful more and more families do know that it doesn’t
42:29 have to be this way they might still be struggling to make those changes and of course those changes are hard right but
42:38 like it includes you know maybe you need to eat more meals at home versus eating them out like small little changes like
42:45 that can have an enormously large impact on the overall health of a family and
42:51 the positive is that from a national perspective the conversation does seem like it has shifted which you know I’m
42:59 very optimistic about because people are realizing that it doesn’t have to be this way and now we are seeing companies
43:07 where I mean I’m so excited about Shake Shack moving to beef tallow for example
43:13 for their friers right like I’m seeing it more and more these restaurants that
43:19 are like hey this is safe on our menu etc so there is a very positive momentum
43:25 in this country that gives me a lot of hope that even if you’re more aware you
43:31 can make better choices previously we were not even aware so we couldn’t even
43:36 make those choices right so I’m really excited about that yeah me too and I do think that people
43:43 are sort of taking back their health and it it is difficult I’m not going to say it’s not I get it you’ve got you know
43:49 parents with three kids going to three different activities after school running here and there you don’t get home till 8:00 but like you have to make
43:57 a choice from a health perspective like you know what are we going to do like are we
44:02 going continue to take and eat the the fast food and the stuff that is convenient at the risk of the health of
44:08 our children or are we not and you know as a parent some people don’t like to hear this but as a parent it is your
44:14 responsibility to take care of that child and is your responsibility to make decisions for them if they are not making intelligent decisions because you
44:22 as the parent are financially supporting them emotionally supporting them so it is your right that’s how I feel about it
44:28 right like whenever I was a teenager I remember getting really mad at my parents when they would have opinions about my food or you know my what I was
44:36 doing with my time after school or whether I was studying whether I wasn’t and I would become very angry and my dad
44:41 used to say to me “Well Cassie you can get as angry as you want but I have the right to have this uh this conversation
44:48 with you and I have the right to have a large um you know impact in the decision
44:53 that you’re making because I financially support you.” And that’s true right like he was he used to tell me all the time
44:58 when you financially support yourself you can do whatever the hell you want but while I’m financially supporting you
45:03 you know this is how it’s going to go and I think that sometimes as parents you just have to you it’s hard because
45:09 it’s not your role as a parent to be someone’s friend it is your role as a parent to make sure that you are creating this human that is going to be
45:15 a functional part of society and be a good person and so sometimes that is difficult especially as kids get older
45:21 but I think that as a parent you really have to make that decision of you know yes we are going to eat more meals at home yes you are going to eat your
45:27 vegetables i understand that you may not like the taste of them so we’re going to try to make them in another way that you like the taste of them and you’re just
45:33 not going to eat that processed crap i don’t care that your friends eat it i don’t care that that’s what’s on TV we’re just not going to do it in this
45:39 house again when you’re 25 or you’re 21 or you’re however old that you are and you can financially support yourself
45:45 great but while you’re living here and we’re eating here this is what we’re going to do and it’s just I mean it’s just something that as a parent that’s
45:52 in my opinion part of your job as a parent right yeah and you know on top of that I I fully agree with that and I
45:59 always I firmly believe like the two greatest investments that we can have for our families and your little ones is
46:08 their health their health because that is going to live with them for forever
46:14 that is a massive investment my second one is love so health and love are the greater investments even above financial
46:20 in my opinion uh and even though of course they’re all equally they’re all
46:26 important but if you can invest in their health that will allow them to really
46:32 lead lifelong you know positive lives no I completely agree okay so I appreciate
46:41 you kind of walking us through all of these things about you know the science of gut health and how you know some of
46:48 these pain points that patients have with or parents have with their kids uh you know some of the things they can do
46:54 about that and just kind of talking about gut health with behavior all these things i think this is all very beneficial we will definitely link all
47:02 of your stuff the prebiotics everything in the show notes social media wise do
47:07 you guys have social media can you tell people where they can find you information you can find us we’re on
47:12 Instagram we’re also on Tik Tok at began.alth and our website is
47:19 veganhealth.com so come check us out we We’re always excited to chat with families about any of their gut health
47:26 positive routines or uh even help you audit your labels we’re here for it
47:32 awesome so I have three questions I end every podcast with so I want to ask them
47:38 to you and you could even tailor them maybe towards children if you want but
47:43 don’t overthink them what is one food that is most beneficial and why
47:50 i love kefir so kefir is uh fermented yogurt right and it has so many positive
47:57 gut microbiome properties i even dabble in the raw kefir but I am a huge
48:03 proponent of kefir something that you take every single day uh that supports the development of your good gut bugs
48:09 how do you take do you just drink it do you mix it with something how do you do keep her i I’ll take a I’ll drink a
48:15 whole cup or even uh a little shot before bed okay love I I personally have
48:22 to mix it with something so I usually put it with some Greek yogurt or maybe some like berries nuts but or put it in
48:28 a smoothie that’s easy too but yeah I agree i love kefir as well what is one thing that anyone can do that’s 100%
48:37 free but beneficial for their health so maybe what is something that a parent could do with a child or for a child or
48:43 do with a child that would improve their health but is 100% free get outside and get some sun i am a huge proponent of
48:51 the sun and vitamin D vitamin D we know is so helpful to us but I am not even
48:58 that big of a proponent of taking vitamin D but getting it from the sun we can do every single day if we can yeah I
49:05 agree we have this whole generation of kids who are just so like sedentary and want to stay inside on video games and
49:12 computers and things like that and I mean my best memories as a kid was being
49:17 outside you know on my go-kart on my four-wheeler in the pond playing like we never we never really got to stay inside
49:23 so I would agree with that the last getting outside i think school should even be outside
49:29 i’m crazy about it you know there’s actually a school in Oklahoma City that is on a farm and it’s for little kids
49:36 and they like literally go to this farm to school where they go outside and like pick up chicken eggs and that’s how they
49:41 learn to count and then they go into the kitchen and like prepare their food and that’s how they learn to like do math and it is pretty cool it’s a pretty cool
49:48 concept so I would agree i think that school outside is a great idea last question is if you if there’s one thing
49:57 that you wish you would have known about your health let’s say 10 years ago because you’re pretty young what is one
50:03 thing you wish you would have known about your health 10 years ago that you would have done differently if you knew that now i would have been so much more
50:10 critical of fast food and seed oils you know I I grew up I I worked really hard
50:15 when I was a teenager and I would get fast food uh as a teenager and I think that I just didn’t even know about seed
50:23 oils in general and so I I mean I’m so to the point now where it’s like if it
50:28 even has a seed oil in it like I’m just abstaining from it and I wish I really
50:34 would have known that a long time ago so I complet
50:39 yep taco Bell was like my jam i used to eat there every day well you know back
50:45 in the day Taco Bell had was coconut oil was their oil for a really long time and
50:53 they did make the switch but it was actually one of the healthier options i want to say you know into the 90s but
51:01 yeah unfortunately I’m talking about definitely in the 2000s and maybe college uh college time i I’ve
51:08 definitely ate my fair share of bean burritos unfortunately but join us next week for the next episode thank you i
51:14 hope you enjoyed this episode of Hormones Metabolism and You if you listen to this and you know anyone who
51:20 is a parent please please please share this with them i know parents are asking all the time “What can I do to make my
51:26 kids’s guts healthier what can I do as far as probiotics prebiotics?” If you know anyone who has a kid struggling
51:32 with skin issues with behavioral issues with gut issues please make sure that
51:37 you share this podcast with them make sure that you’re following us on any platform that you get podcasts whether
51:43 it be Apple Spotify or YouTube we’re on all of them you want to make sure that you get every episode that drops so
51:49 please follow us and leave me a review that’s how I know that I’m doing something that you guys enjoy and that’s
51:55 what keeps us making more of these podcasts lastly make sure that you’re following us on social media i’m
52:01 dropping lots of good information on social media i have a course coming an app that’s about to launch as well and
52:08 it’s all about gut health and finally Modern Endocrine is available in 39 states now we are working towards 50 but
52:15 currently 39 a whole list of those states can be found on our website and we see people virtually so if you’d like
52:20 to become a patient and let us help you with your gut health hormones thyroid weight loss journey whatever it is that
52:27 we can help you with we would be happy to do that join us next week on the next episode of Hormones Metabolism and You
52:33 have a great week the information presented including any materials discussed referenced or
52:41 linked within this podcast are for general educational purposes only not
52:46 the practice of medicine no doctor patient relationship is formed from you listening to this podcast or utilizing
52:52 any of the information provided i am a doctor but I am not talking to you as your doctor the information provided is
53:00 not intended to diagnose or treat health problems or take the place of the professional medical care provided by
53:06 your doctor if you are experiencing any health problems including problems you believe have been touched upon in any
53:13 respect within this podcast you should consult your doctor about the problems without delay you may ask your doctor
53:20 whether he or she believes the information I have provided would be helpful to you but you should still consult your doctor immediately and
53:27 follow his or her medical advice as your treating physician i’m just here to provide you basic knowledge about the
53:34 issues we discuss so you are more aware of them and can better discuss them with your doctor that’s why we call it back
53:41 to the basics join me on the next episode as we continue our journey
Disclaimer:
The information presented including any materials discussed, referenced, or linked within this podcast are for general educational purposes only, not the practice of medicine.
No doctor-patient relationship is formed from you listening to this podcast or utilizing any of the information provided.
I am a doctor, but I am not talking to you as your doctor. The information provided is not intended to diagnose or treat health problems or take the place of the professional medical care provided by your doctor.
If you are experiencing any health problems, including problems you believe have been touched upon in any respect within this podcast, you should consult your doctor about the problems without delay. You may ask your doctor whether he or she believes the information I have provided would be helpful to you, but you should still consult your doctor immediately and follow his or her medical advice as your treating physician.
I’m just here to provide you with basic knowledge about the issues we discuss so you are more aware of them and can better discuss them with your doctor.
That’s why we call it Back to the Basics. Join me on the next episode as we continue our journey.