Naturally Nourished Kids | Ali Miller

[00:00:00] Speaker A: Hello, everybody. Welcome to another episode of youf're the cure. I'm Dr. Ben Edwards. We've got a guest today that I'm excited about and a new book that she's written, Ali Miller, Naturally Nourished. And her new book, Naturally Nourish Kids. You know, lately we've been talking a lot on the peace pillar, which obviously is super important. If you're not at peace, your GI tract can't break down that food and absorb it properly. We may get into that a little bit, but we can't forget we're a spirit housed in the physical. And this physical body needs to be stewarded the right way so it can function like it's designed to function. So there is this natural realm and natural stewardship that needs to happen. And these mitochondria work a lot better, guys, when you feed them deep nutrition. When you flood your cells with nutrients God intended for your cells to have, they will function better. So sometimes anxiety and IBS and autoimmune disease is 100% from what you're putting in your mouth. So we can't forget that we are body, soul and spirit. And so today we're gonna take this opportunity to visit with Ali Miller, registered dietitian. And I'm gonna let her tell her story. But she's got a very unique position as a with a naturopathic background ground best year, university trained. And she is a powerhouse. She has an amazing website, helps a lot of people. You know, doctors don't learn about nutrition. I talk about this all the time. UT Houston Medical School. I got two hours of nutrition lecture in four years of school. There was an elective you could do at lunchtime. And I did do it because there was free pizza. But only like 10 or 15 kids in my class out of 200 went to that elective. I don't know why free pizza. You're a poor medicine, but very poorly attended elective nutrition. And it was a cardiologist talking about how diet reversed coronary disease. And he showed these pre and post perfusion scans and the only intervention wasn't Lipitor, it was diet changes. It was incredible. Like, blew my mind. And I went up to the podium after these images and what he explained. I said, doc, why are you on this little lunchtime elective, not on the main circuit, on the. On our main lecture series? And his answer basically boiled down to, in his opinion was money related. The coronary artery bypass grafts, cabbages and the stents produced a lot more revenue, but that's a whole nother story. We don't need to go down that rabbit trail of corruption. Ali Miller, welcome to the show. Thank you so much for being with us today. You do some amazing work. I'm so glad my audience can hear from you and learn from your res sources, especially this new book. But before we jump into the book, just tell us a little bit, share with my audience because I think you're probably pretty brand new to most of them. Just a little bit about your background, how you got to where you are today. [00:03:04] Speaker B: Well, thank you for having me on the show. I'm excited for a fun conversation about using food as the first line of defense as medicine for the body. And I think that that's a really important topic to cover and for people to feel empowered by versus fear mongering that we're starting to see a lot with the chemical additives and ultra processed foods, there's a way to navigate around them. And so throughout this hour, hopefully y' all feel really confident in identifying what is God food, what are whole real foods versus ultra processed industrialized products. And really I think a lot of those products don't even deserve the term food to begin with. We can unpack that nuance as we get there. But my background, so I let's see, I'm 40 years old now. I have been in the world of natural medicine and functional medicine since my 20s. I went to Bastyr University and that is a naturopathic college outside of Seattle. They now have a California campus as well. But at that time it was just Seattle. I went there from the Midwest. I went to University of Iowa and I started schooling as a dance major and always loved the idea of using the body as an instrument per se, a form of expression. And really early on decided that I wanted to get more medical based. And I was moved into natural medicine because I was volunteering a lot at farmers markets and digging into sustainability within our food system. At that time I made the choice to be a vegetarian, which then became vegan and and the Bastyr cafeteria actually was vegan vegetarian at that time. I think now they have bone broth which is a really big win. But that was actually part of getting me out there. And during my experience out there I started to read books by Dr. Natasha McBride, I started to learn about the GAPS diet, I started to learn about traditional foods, the work of Weston A. Price and really myself. I had the first onset of a panic attack ever in my life. At age 22 or 23. I was driving over the bridge in Washington. It's a floating bridge of itself, could give someone anxiety. But you know, med student, super overloaded, lot of sympathetic nervous system survival drive going on. I also was clinically B12 deficient. We found out after blood testing due to my vegan diet. At that time I wasn't supplementing and I was eating a lot of anti nutrients with the right intention but the wrong application. So I was eating a lot of analogs like isolated soy protein and vital wheat gluten, both which took a toll on my gut and my thyroid. I was diagnosed with Hashimoto's thyroiditis and I was also diagnosed with anemia. I had a ferritin level of A3, which we like to be over 60 to regrow our hair. So I was having hair loss, I was pale, I was short of oxygen from the low iron status and was starting to have onset of severe anxiety, panic and fight or flight surges. And I have always been a type A individual. But when I went to Bastyr, I said, I can't just get straight A's, I have to master biochemistry. I have to feel super confident in anatomy and physiology and not just for the A's, but for really ensuring that this is my work, that I can lead with passion and conviction. So long story short, I ended up making peace with becoming an omnivore. When I went down into the literature and started learning about traditional foods, I really had to make peace with more of a snout to tail eating style, respecting the life of the entire animal, including organs. Into the process. I broke my vegan diet with raw oysters and egg yolks and then quickly transitioned to a ribeye, a grass fed rib eye. My husband was searing it on a cast iron and I was cramming for an exam and he said I floated in like a cartoon charact character and before he knew, it was gone. And so I think intuitively my body just really wanted that heme iron and I really haven't looked back. And I wrote the Anti anxiety diet in 2018. It came out really sharing that story. And then this approach of our gut microbiome and the production of neurotransmitters and how that plays a role with mental health, the role of specific micronutrients and how they can even build neurotransmitters when we're talking about amino acids and cofactor vitamins and exploring things like adrenal insufficiency, hormone burnout, et cetera. And so that's where a lot of my work has been. I had my daughter Stella in 2016 and so she's now nine. And also along the while, I've been really passionate about child nutrition and started to work with a lot of ADHD and neurological cases from the anti anxiety diet, but realized that the resource wasn't providing enough for families households. The huge influx we're seeing now one in five adolescents dealing with a mental health disorder or learning disability. And so the work of naturally nourished kids is a collaboration between myself and my partner, Becky Yu. She's my clinic partner and the photographer of my past books and we co authored this book together. She's a mother of now three. She has a four week old, a three year old, almost an almost five year old. And so it's our collaborative project that is awesome. [00:08:35] Speaker A: And that is out now or just about to come out. [00:08:38] Speaker B: It comes out September 16th, officially. Yes. [00:08:42] Speaker A: Okay, cool. So give the audience a little bit of an idea. What. What would be the type of mother or and father that would want to read this book? Is it more focused on kind of the clinical side, you know, anxiety add, learning disability versus just generally how to not be a standard American kid and how to feed your kid deep nutrition? [00:09:02] Speaker B: Yes. So I love that we can really root things in spirituality in this conversation because I think it is for every household and it's especially for parents that are looking to raise their children in this world, but not of this world. And you know, I often Romans 12:2 is on the mantle of my household to not conform to the patterns of this world, but to be transformed by the renewing of our mind. And I think when we're talking about food as medicine, we're talking about reframing these constructs of the way we ate as children and what's been packaged and sold to us or normalized. It takes a lot of conviction to eat whole real foods actually in today's life. And so to I hope that this book provides the confidence of the parents in the household to provide that at the soccer games, at the birthday parties, at every school lunch. And really making the household dinner table the centerpiece of instilling a lot of value in the household, investing spiritually, emotionally, mentally, but also nourishing our household members at that time, taking the time to make meal time intentional. And I love what you said about Pillar of Peace because I think that's what gets a lot of busy parents these days is it's another thing to do. And if we approach mealtime as another thing to do and not something that we are so blessed to have the opportunity to provide, there's A totally different experience that is going to be experienced both palpably, energetically in the household members and also with your relationship of when you meal plan, when you follow the guidelines of naturally nourished kids, you're checking off boxes. And I think that instills confidence and it provides then the foundation to ensure that you make it a reality. [00:10:52] Speaker A: Yeah, for sure. Well, you had mentioned the ultra process thing and navigating obviously that's been in the news ever since Maha Bobby Kennedy, the food dyes, that whole thing. So I think most people have heard that word but from an ultra process term versus just processed food, packaged food, modern food, real food, God food, ancestral kind of for especially kind of a newer person, we, we have a lot of corporate wellness clients. So we're signing up folks to educate them who maybe you're brand new to this topic, haven't, doesn't know how to distinguish what real food. What do you mean? That's not even food. Yeah, so kind of talk through that. What, what qualifies something as God food. [00:11:37] Speaker B: And I think that's a really great start because the amount of grams of protein, carbs, when we get into the nuances for macros into micronutrients, etc, I believe doesn't matter for not eating real food to begin with. And so I think that that's a great place to open with the way that I define whole real foods and I do define those as God foods are foods that wilt, foods that mold, foods that were once viable and living. If we're talking about a meat product, it had a mother that it was birthed from. So that byproduct that takes out petri grown lab meat which is actually already being served. So that's an actual necessary credential if you will, of real food again it being alive once it's not made in a lab by a chemist or a food scientist. And it's important for listeners to know that when we are outsourcing scientists versus farmers, growers, ranchers, land stewards to produce our food, they are looking at both the cost and trying to make things for as cheap as possible so that they can then create the commodity that becomes the standard. And everything else is incredibly expensive and so cost differential. And they're looking at addictive properties, they're looking at actually instead of providing you satiety interfering with dopamine and other neurofeedback in the brain, that actually counteracts the satiety signaling that says I'm safe, I'm fed, I'm nourished. And that can lead some serious addictive properties. When we're looking at whole real foods, they're going to have all of the edible parts intact, so least refined, stripped or processed in that sense. So in a kind of continuum that we could look at is like over here is like the Paw Patrol orange gummy, which would be a food like substance or an industrialized food, then we could move into maybe a glass of orange juice, which you know, if it is from a product that is shelf stable versus fresh squeezed orange juice, there's going to be some form of preservation, whether it is from heat or from light. Either way that's creating oxidation. So we're, we're starting to diminish the natural antioxidants that were present in that juice. Still closer to a real food than the gummy. Right? But we're starting to lose some of that vitality of nourishment. We're losing the nobilin, which is the compound that's in the pith, the white furry pith of the orange, which if we were to fresh squeeze, we may retain some of that. And then as to eating the whole real orange, where we're peeling it, we're sectioning it and we're getting all of that edible part intact, we're going to get substantially more bioflavonoids and unique antioxidants. We're going to get more pectin and fibers that create a lower glycemic index, so less dynamic of a blood sugar spike spike and thus crash. And we're going to register more satiety in that eating experience because it might take 15 minutes to eat that said orange. We salivate, we're having a digestive experience versus taking that similar amount of carb of processed orange juice which we shoot back in six seconds, you know, and that's maybe 3, 4 ounces versus that single gummy which has now additives and is now not gaining any of those benefits. Maybe they'll say enriched with vitamin C, but they'll probably add ascorbic acid to it as a, you know, again, dead isolated product. So the big variance that we see is in the world of food is medicine. It's kind of like a double edged sword. I want you to get an abundance of these whole real foods for the synergy of the nutrients intact. And I want you to limit as many of these ultra processed foods because unfortunately we've been told that they're empty calories or yes, maybe these ultra processed foods aren't as healthy, but I would argue they're not just empty calories, they're actually net harmful. When we start to get into the world of ultra processed foods and we're looking at ingredients like preservatives, we're looking at industrialized oils. These can create inflammation in the body, these can disrupt our endocrine system. And on your point to mitochondria, we're seeing mitochondrial toxicity as a driver of obesity. So even though things could be the same calorie based on the composition, if it's chemical additive composition and the body doesn't know what to do with it, it's going to be more stressed and have less metabolic health response. [00:16:26] Speaker A: Right. What's your thoughts on regarding obesity and how you tackle that? I mean, I know there's maybe one approach for, for clients of yours or patients who are just wanting to learn how to eat healthy versus a very challenging case, especially metabolic dysfunction, morbid obesity or any amount of excess weight, diabetes, hypertension, lipid disorders, you know, the whole let's just completely cut carbs out. Keto, intermittent fasting versus eating deep nutrition versus a blend of those kind of what. How's your approach on that? [00:17:06] Speaker B: So I do take a blend, I call it a keto reset in my program. So I run a keto reset to literally unlock stubborn metabolism. When I'm looking at biomarkers beyond an A1C and you know, getting blood pressure metrics and base lipids, I really like to look at leptin and insulin. So those are markers that I'll use more in adults than kids. But we are seeing one in 60 children now dealing with a diagnosis of obesity. And we actually mark in naturally nourished kids keto friendly recipes which are 10 grams of carbs or less and talk about where that might be metabolically appropriate. And for children, the answer is if considering a GLP1 or if the child's BMI is at a level where the doctor's recommending weight loss, then I do think that keto can be appropriate and, or if dealing with a neurological condition that we're considering medication intervention. Especially in the world of bipartisan, I mean there's just such benefit to cooling the inflammation in the brain by producing ketones. So mental health disorder, neurological disorder and metabolic disorder, there's even a place, absolutely, I would argue for children, but luckily kiddos are a lot more metabolically flexible than adults. And so adults have to be more carb focused and aware because we don't have that flexibility of that caloric burn. We're not as active generally speaking, and we can see individuals that have insulin resistance before their A1C starts to show pre diabetic. So hyperinsulinemia or excessive insulin levels often precedes even pre diabetes. And yet that's still a time that we're seeing on a cellular level that the cells are overstressed with food. And we need to bring down that insulin level to a sensitive level. I like it around 8 or less clinically. And I will do that by completely bringing carbs down to 30 grams per per day, Only coming from residual sources, so only coming from the carbs in your avocado, your almonds, your broccoli, et cetera. And so I count a tight 30 total carbs. Once I get that insulin level down, then we play with metabolic flexibility. And some individuals can tolerate 60, 75 grams of carbs, which could look like a half a cup of sweet potatoes at dinner with your brussels sprouts and your salmon, that could look like some sliced peaches in your salad with your goat cheese and your chicken thighs and a lovely dressing, and that could even look like some berries at your breakfast to stay within that threshold. Still eating seasonal fruit and produce, but still making light nutritional ketones once you've reset that metabolism. And I do believe that we were designed to have that ability to hybrid swing into ketosis. I think that it is one of the most therapeutic, natural healing tools available to us. But we are just so metabolically handicapped by excessive carb consumption that we don't have daily access as we should. [00:20:09] Speaker A: Yeah. Where have you or have you spent some time in the autoimmune world and you know, autoimmune, paleo or, you know, you mentioned gaps earlier. I know some autoimmune folks will utilize the gaps or just a paleo and kind of. What's your approach and your take on that? [00:20:27] Speaker B: Yes, so I use. So generally first, assuming someone's eating an anti inflammatory whole foods diet as the foundation before, before I'm stressing out about black pepper or, you know, certain potential non AIP ingredients. The first, you know, top five pro inflammatory foods, corn, soy, dairy, gluten and refined sugar. Once we've pulled those out and I feel like they're eating relatively clean, if we still can't get things covered and we're coating their gut with bone broth, eating a probiotic rich food, or we've done a gut cleanse if necessary, and we're supporting that gut lining, then I start to look at potential other irritants that would be driving the immune system into that overdrive mode. I like to, at that point do the MRT test by Oxford Biomed. That's my favorite one on the market. Different than like an ALCAT test where it doesn't just look at igg, it actually looks at cytokines, prostaglandins. And so when it measures a client's blood it's looking at the inflammatory chemical release to response of that food versus just a potential neutral immunoglobulin tagging. And I see really good clinical outcome outcomes with that. I'll use that in cancer care and autoimmune disease, especially when we can't get their markers into remission just using diet and supplement. [00:21:51] Speaker A: I want to kind of circle back. Should ask this earlier on your journey. Plant based vegetarian vegan. Could you speak to that a little bit? I did have Dr. Natasha McBride on a few years ago in her book Vegetarianism Explained and guys, y' all can go listen that interview veritas wellnessmember.com resources podcasts and just put in McBride Dr. McBride's name and you can get that podcast. But speak to that a little bit for folks who maybe are there or are looking at going there. Obviously plants have lots of good nutrition for us, but speak spend a few minutes speaking to that topic and and why maybe we need to get a little more broad in our nutrition than just plant based. [00:22:35] Speaker B: Yes. So I think those are two of my big kind of constructs of nutrition is that the body is made to be a hybrid with access to ketones throughout the week, maybe not every day but during periods of time throughout the week and that the body was designed to be an omnivore. And I think the omnivore continuum can be great. So for some individuals they might lean more into the carnivore spectrum. But I still believe that we need phytocompounds and plant based antioxidants and that they were put here to support us from toxicity. And so, you know, even if we're arguing in that community, let's say there's a lot of argument of sulforaphane, which is one of the antioxidants in broccoli, which we see just a myriad of medical literature on cancer fighting effects. And especially in the world of breast cancer research, you know, there's a lot of argument that there's anti nutrients in broccoli. There's a lot of argument within the world of anti nutrients. This could be things like lectins or oxalate, et cetera. And anti nutrients can, yes, stress the gut. In the world of oxalates, they could potentially Stress, the kidney or the bones, but everything, it's like the dose makes the poison type of way that I look at it. And when I look at human studies and I see that when you eat you, you make the only variable change of adding broccoli sprout to these athletes and their glutathione levels went up and their oxidative stress markers went down. Then I'm saying that whether that broccoli helped the human body to make glutathione because it stressed it. And so we endogenously, that's what we're seeing is we're endogenously in the human body producing more antioxidant in response to this. Whether that is called then a hormetic stressor. Right. In a sense, or it's called an antioxidant or it's called a toxin. Either way, if it yields a net benefit in the body, I think that that's good. And so I think for some people that have serious destroyed guts, like where I was when I was diagnosed with Hashimoto's at that time, I believe that my gut permeability was so severe because of a lot of the concentrated gliad and because of a lot of raw food that I was eating without the balance of some of those meat products and such that that wasn't serving me, that was creating more disturbance. But also on the other end of the spectrum, I think when we're consuming bone broth, when we are eating snout to tail and we're eating in balance of whole real foods, that those micro stressors have a net benefit and we need to include them for that health support. [00:25:13] Speaker A: Right. Talk a little bit to the mothers. Maybe these picky eaters. Yeah, I had just had one yesterday. Yes, literally. I mean this kiddo just refuses to eat. And I know that's multifactorial. There can be some neurological things, there can be some social things. There's, it's multifactorial. But in general it's, it's a challenge for these mamas. Number one, everyone's so busy. Just the convenience factor, the cost factor, all these other factors and the lack of knowledge. You know, young moms today, just a lot of them grew up, they don't know how to cook, they don't know. I we had one one time didn't know how to boil an egg. Which not demeaning that. I'm just saying that's where our culture's at. So that can be very intimidating for a mom who knows, especially with the whole Maha and Kent Bobby Kennedy, this food's toxic. It's no good. But it's such a challenge and an intimidation kind of speak to those moms. What are some tips for these kind of picky eaters or a mom who just doesn't know? [00:26:20] Speaker B: So we'll first talk picky eaters, because I think I got a lot on that. And then we can talk about kind of like cooking and getting back into that. In the world of picky eaters, we have to first acknowledge that, and we know this intuitively, and we've experienced as parents, our children are extremely intelligent. And at age 2 and on, especially 2 through 5, is a great test of autonomy and. And ownership and boundaries. We all see it right? And so when we're in the world of food, this is not a place where you want your child asserting boundaries and autonomy to work against you in a power struggle. You need to be very aware that this is a common place where children feel that they're able to assert themselves, and they are able to read the emotional stress it puts their parents under. And it is a control grasp. It is a known feedback. And the more we stress out about it, they feed off of it, et cetera. So I want you to intentionally, first off, ensure that when we're talking to our kids, we are listening and we are actually wanting to have a symbiotic experience with them in the kitchen. We want to understand their likes and dislikes, because ultimately, that's what children want. Attention to be heard, to be seen, and to be understood. So if we invest that in our children in the constructs of healthy eating, you will get such strong returns on investment. We have a specific section here called Being a Taste Adventurer, and it's a table. It's actually laid out like a worksheet that we hope that you, you know, photo scan or whatnot, photocopy and use in your household. And it can take 10 to 15 introductions of a new food for a child to learn. Acceptance. And we work with the children and we provide you areas of conversation and guided conversations starting at age 2, all the way up through 18. And some husbands or wives might need it themselves. And so instead of saying, this is yucky, or I don't like this, we need to learn about the why. We talk about texture, we talk about taste, we talk about appearance, and we talk about combinations and flavors. So if my daughter at age 3 didn't like cooked bell peppers, I learned after talking with her, instead of her just saying yuck and flicking them on the floor or not eating them and me Throwing them down the disposal or to the chickens. I ask her, what is it about these peppers that you don't care for? And after conversation, I learned that she thought that they looked like slimy worms. And that's fair. Like, if something looks like slimy worms, maybe I also don't want to eat it. I hadn't seen them that way. So I asked her, hey, what if I cut these up next time and we do them in your quesadilla? Would you be willing to try it? Okay, I'll try it. Well, we'll get a star on your taste adventure chart if you try it that way. So we should give it a try. Guess what, mama? I don't mind them peppers in my quesadilla like that, you know? And so it's like, well, there you go. You just gotta win, and all you gotta do is take the time. And we also found out she likes crunchy raw peppers in that same shape, but she just didn't like them cooked. And so again, it's when we're having conversations. Also at the dinner table or on the morning of meal planning. We have fish today for dinner. Would you like it seared in butter with spinach, or would you like it dredged in almond flour like fish sticks? That's the two ways mama can prepare it. And then they get autonomy and choice, and they're committed to their decision, and they're likely going to accept it. You don't say ever to your child, what would you like for dinner? Because then you're opening the door to not honor. The thing is, is what happens with parenting is if you let them speak and you don't honor them, that breaks the trust in the relationship. You have to be very mindful about the types of questions you ask and the offerings so that they get what they ask for. So it's, what protein choice would you like between leftover burger or deli roll ups in your lunch tomorrow? Or for a green item on your plate, can you go in the refrigerator and select a vegetable for tonight's dinner? Right. And so it's like, very guided, very intentional, but you're bringing them in, and this scales up as they grow. You then start. We have an entire section about getting kids involved in the kitchen. Anything from washing the lettuce to setting the table to making the salad dressing in the ball jar. My daughter, at 9, now has oven privilege so she can light the burner of the gas stove. They get excited and they're in it, and then that investment feels like it's fun. It feels like you're dancing, you know, and it's not white knuckling. It's not hoping and praying that they'll eat the thing and not looking and being too excited about the wins. It's a celebratory experience for all. [00:30:59] Speaker A: Hey, everybody, quick break from the show. I've got something really special to share with you. I'm so excited to introduce youe're the Cure, a self paced nine module online video program we've been prayerfully and passionately building here at Veritas. And this isn't just another wellness program. It's a movement of truth, transformation and hope. And I truly believe it has the power to change your life life. It's designed to help you uncover the root causes of what you're facing and walk in true healing. I'll be guiding you along with other members of the Veritas team as we return to God's original design for your health. Through simple, powerful tools focused on nutrition, hydration, movement and peace, you'll gain clarity, confidence, and lasting transformation. The journey is yours to take because the truth is, you are the cure. Head over to veritas wellnessmember.com to get access today. Become a Veritas wellness member now and get $100 off the program. Guys, I'm just so excited about this. After 20 years of practicing medicine, it's boiled down into this. This is the core of what you need to truly be. Well, so we'll see you in the program. And how would you encourage these parents that are kind of new to the real food journey and probably more from the busyness standpoint because we're all so busy. [00:32:25] Speaker B: Yes, yes. And that is. And I think a part of that is, is like I said before, about intention of just surrendering to the investment. This has to be an investment in the household. And I find, I mean, this is a cultural problem, I believe, but we have put such a value so quickly on children's sports and after school activities that that can create a lot of disharmony in the household of trying to get four kids off to four places with two vehicles and two parents that are burned out at the end of a day and then they just look at each other with tired eyes of what's happened, what's happening for dinner, where are we stopping? What are we doing in those types of scenarios if we've already overcommitted, we have to batch cook, we have to meal plan on Saturdays or Sundays. And it's really important that when you wake up, when your alarm goes off at 5 or 6am you know what's for dinner because that's setting you up for a better opportunity to make it happen. I'm a big proponent of buying local produce and meats. And so we visit a farmer's market weekly as a family. It's something that we do together and it's a way for also us to pay our dollar to our farmers directly and invest in the security of the food and real food access, but also to eat within season and to stay inspired versus the same monotony of carrots, broccoli, celery kind of thing. And then with meats we a deep freeze. And so when my husband and I are sitting with our cup of coffee, we open the deep freeze, we pull the meats, we want to slack for the week. And that's money slacking. Like you know, you have to make it, you know. And so there's that, there's that commitment, it's sitting, it's ready to be prepared. And then we just kind of grocery shop based on the blanks of in between what we didn't get from the market and or our deep freeze. And I do think you need to have a couple 15 minute throw together meals. It does not take long to pan sear and oven finish a protein. Usually three to five minutes on each side with a quality fat. And so like getting out the barriers from these having to be super complex recipes. Some of the best meals we have have five or six total ingredients. And so it could be chicken thighs, a steak, a piece of fish. Usually bone down first, three to five minutes. I use tallow often as my go to cooking fat. Then we flip it to skin side down, flip it one more time. Literally just salt and pepper on that protein, finish it in the oven at like 375. As that's in the oven, I'm cutting up my broccoli or cauliflower that takes all of five minutes. Shake that in some olive oil and an herb, pop that in the oven and you can literally stab a couple potatoes if you want or cook up some rice. All of that hands on can be 12 to 15 minutes. And can feel in a deep state of surrender and peace if you allow it to. And you set that principle and tone versus chaos reactive. When you know what's going in, you just kind of do it. [00:35:18] Speaker A: That's right. That's awesome. Very helpful. Can you touch on maybe some key nutrients and or key foods especially for kids? You know, you can get in your routine and even like you just said, so busy and you might end up doing that protein broccoli thing a few times. But are there some key ingredients or nutrients that our kids really need? That if we just knew about them and we kept them consistent in the diet, what would that be? What food group or key ingredient? [00:35:50] Speaker B: Food group of importance is protein. Truly, Truly. We just see such compelling literature on protein and especially in the prefrontal cortex of the brain. So this is the part of brain that makes decision making processes. This is like the advanced intellect. This has learning and recollection of information, also impulsivity control. So like that's the important part of the brain that we want nourished for our children to set them up for success on a school day. And even out in the real world, we all want our prefrontal cortex optimized. And we see in studies that protein nourishes this part of the brain. And when we eat excessive refined carbohydrates that we can have prefrontal cortex dysfunction. We can even see hypocampal shrinkage in the brain when inadequate protein is consumed and or if kiddos aren't chewing enough. So I like to encourage in all meals, minimum 20 grams of protein, which is about 3 ounces of biological source protein. So this could be a string cheese stick, would be one ounce and then we're still looking at maybe like two ounces coming from leftover meatballs or could do we like to do in lunches kebabs often. And this is fun from like ages 6 to 12, I would say where now there's so many different fun sticks out there, whether it's like bamboo or it has a little fish on the edge or a unicorn or whatever. My stells will do her own kebabs where we'll take leftover pieces of grilled chicken, maybe olive cheddar cube and cucumber maybe. And so all those go and she makes a bunch of kebabs. Or it could be leftover sausage or burger with a chunk of lettuce and a cherry tomato and a piece of bacon. And that would be a kebab. Maybe we'll make a fun like BLT dip kind of thing. So protein at least getting 2 to 3 biological ounces in all meals. So breakfast we're looking at getting that from eggs or cottage cheese or yogurt. Using a quality grass fed whey protein in a smoothie can work well for kiddos that have low appetite. But really thinking on that minimum 20 grams at all meals. And we give you in the book a guide based on age and weight to be a little bit more specific, but that's a preliminary start. I really believe very strongly we're putting kids at a disadvantage if they aren't meeting that minimum protein need. And the protein recommendations in America are to really just hit the avoidance of wasting, like true muscle wasting, not cognitive support. And Remember I mentioned 1 in 5 kids has a mental or learning disorder. So just getting that protein up I think would resolve a significant amount. And choosing from whole real foods of that protein and then I think as far as specific nutrients, choline is a really big one that we think of in the world of neurological health. Choline is found in our egg yolks. Also pretty rich in bacon, which is always a fun one to give permission for an uncured or quality source and then live. So doing ancestral blends, we actually have a really fantastic. Every child that's tested has loved it. They're called superfood chicken nuggets and we make them with organic riced cauliflower that you can buy frozen. So you just strain out the excess water as it thaws. And that cauliflower is mixed with eggs as well as one pound of ground chicken and one pound of an ancestral blend of ground chicken which incorporates the organs in there and heart. And so that's providing CoQ10. It's providing a lot more rich sources of minerals and antioxidants in there. And then they get also that sulfur from the cauliflower. And then we dredge that, we form that into patties and we add some seasonings and dredge that in almond flour and sear that. We just spray avocado oil and bake those in the oven. And those batch freeze fantastically as well. So go really well into a lunch or for a dinner on one of those busy nights. So getting choline with organs or egg yolks is another, you know, more specific food as medicine goal. And then I would add lycopene actually for specifically, we're seeing the world of autistic spectrum and adhd. We see a lot of BPA and other forms of plastics higher bioaccumulated in these kiddos. And we know that lycopene can actually offset the stressors of these in the body. We can actually see BPA levels go down when lycopene is eaten in abundance. So like my tomato basil bone broth soup or even using tomato paste and making a really nice like leveled up ketchup where maybe we're adding coconut oil in there and some herbs that could be a really lovely delivery as well. And then Getting tomatoes in a salad as well. [00:40:42] Speaker A: Yeah. Awesome. What about ferments for kids? What's kind of some of your go tos? [00:40:47] Speaker B: Yes. So one of our guidelines of eating naturally nourished is having a probiotic rich food four times a week. And for some kids that are dealing with digestive disturbances or autoimmune conditions, maybe dairy wouldn't be the best option because usually we think yogurt, kefir, raw aged cheeses as easy ones for kids. But we also extend that into the world of pickled vegetables. So these work really lovely. We even have a, we have kimchi incorporated in our Thai so sardine cakes. There's a kimchi dipping sauce also in our acorn squash, cheesy acorn squash fingers. And we use pickled. We have a quick pickled onion recipe as well in our barbacoa tacos. So pickled vegetables can be lovely even consuming the brine as a good electrolyte when we're dealing with immune issues or having diarrhea. And then we also look to kombucha as a dairy free option which can be sipped. [00:41:55] Speaker A: Let's talk a little bit about babies. Obviously breastfeeding's awesome. Transitioning from breastfeeding to how to talk. Talk through that a little bit. And does your book go into that? [00:42:08] Speaker B: It does. So there is a section I think that's called throughout the ages. So it starts with what's called savory starts with baby led weaning and then it goes all the way into making healthy hip for your teenagers. So we try to get you covered in all of the developmental stages that your child is going through. And I believe that savory starts is so essential for wiring your child's palate for eating whole real foods. So you know, many of us are told at the doctor's office, I think the still general recommendation through the AAP is fortified rice cereal or fortified oatmeal. And so back to that idea of a whole real food. Both of those instant cereals are heavily processed and so very low fiber, very low parts of their grain intact and have preservatives like soy lecithin. And these foods are synthetically enriched. And so this is concerning especially if we're talking about mthfr. If your audience is familiar of, you know, concerns with genetic mutations with folate usage and that methyl folate pathway, when kids right off the bat in either a synthetic enriched formula or baby infant cereal are getting synthetic nutrients, specifically folic acid versus methylated folate, this can set up for a lot of neurological dysfunction and can interfere with detox processes as well. And then those rice cereals are high glycemic index. So we're right away stressing that insulin response. And so we instead look at baby lead weaning with whole real foods. My daughter's first food was avocado and then that followed by salmon, which was followed by smashed blueberries. The benefits of baby lead weaning are broad. One is going back to that autonomy. So right away you're allowing a child to both have fine motor development and neurological development and getting that pincer grip and, and hand to mouth and the proprioception of where they are in space and how to feed themselves. That's all very beneficial for child. But they're creating right away. So self satiation and hunger regulation, they are choosing when the food goes in the mouth and how much food they want to have. I can't tell you how many times I see a mother on their phone feeding their child cereal with a spoon and not even making eye contact with the poor baby. And the baby's just getting a spoon in the mouth and not even showing that their readiness is to eat. And so right off the bat we're then starting a little bit of, I believe an unhealthy relationship with, with, with eating experience when we're being kind of force fed without, without cue and desire. So satiety is regulated, blood sugar is regulated because there's more fiber in these whole foods. We're getting protein right off the bat with salmon as early as six and a half, seven months instead of just refined processed carbs. And we're also setting that palate for savory versus bland and, or sweet. And so even the bitter alkaloids in the blueberry salad skin, even the kind of more gamey or unique profile of salmon, we know with breastfeeding we're starting to create taste preference in child from mom's diet. So maternal diet matters as well to set that palate. But those first foods coming from whole real foods and being baby led weaning I think can have such a beneficial impact on metabolic and mental health. [00:45:43] Speaker A: Yeah. Do you have an opinion or thought or what would you recommend to clients who for whatever reason their breast milk is not available, hadn't come in, they get mastitis or just whatever the the situation may be. How do you handle that? What are your recommendations? [00:46:00] Speaker B: So I think absolutely, reach out to a lactation consultant if you're having any issues early on, check about tongue tie, connect with a pediatric dentist that specializes in that and then Reach out to Leila Leche League for donor milk opportunities and or your circle if you have such opportunities out there. And if and need be Serenity Formulas is a pretty good brand that I know of off the top of my head. Whole or H O L L E out of Germany is another one. And the things we would watch for. And then even Weston A. Price has a homemade raw milk based formula as an alternate. So at that point it's kind of just determining good, better best options. But breast is best in the sense that we and this is the idea of again, God food, right? We are just starting to figure out these, these third tier nutrients. So we've known about vitamins and minerals, we're learning about antioxidants, but terpenes and these really unique phytocompounds that we're just scratching at the surface. You know if we think back at the grocery store there used to be like Red Delicious and Granny Smith, there were two apples. And now we're starting to bring back to life a lot of these heirloom varietals which have complex visual changes but also complex nutritional changes. And when we eat in diversity in a whole real food, we're getting nutrients that I think we haven't even identified in the world of breast milk specifically. You know you're getting human milk oligosaccharides, you can't get human milk oligosaccharides without human milk. Now you can get plant based oligosaccharides but we don't necessarily know if those prime the microbiome. In the same way we get colostrum of course in that first breast milk we get even CBD cannabidiol and the body is made with an endocannabinoid system. So there's some rhyme and reason of why mama's milk has that and why baby's body is wired to receive that. And that likely helps with anti inflammatory benefits, depth and quality of sleep, appetite regulation. And so again when we're looking at these whole real perfect foods from God, they were made with the incredible design to nourish the body. And I think who are we to say oh it's the vitamin C we're after, oh it's the you know, lycopene or and you know, I speak on these compounds but always trying to get them at home whole real foods first. [00:48:30] Speaker A: Absolutely speak to. And I don't know if it's more just in general chewing the food, you know, versus a smoothie or juicing. But even in kiddos developing the Right. Muscle tone structure, facial structure, tongue, all that, the chewing of and, and hard foods, not just all these soft foods speak to that a little bit. [00:48:53] Speaker B: Yes. And, and I mean this is important for all of us listening because really when we think about a lot of our foods, even if they crunch, if they're a processed crunch, it doesn't work the mandible in the same way. So we're talking about dense chew like a good old raw carrot, or we're talking about the stew cuts of meat or more tough cuts of meat, which is why we love snout to tail. You know, you don't just want to eat the grinds, you have to eat all varieties. When we are masticating and using more of a primal jaw, first off, we've gotten to open occlusion in the oral space because of eating ultra processed foods. It really happened when we started to create higher consumption of flour and really moved into a higher carbohydrate processed diet in the last five decades plus. And this is where we're seeing sleep apnea, more teeth removal being necessary, more orthodontics, and the crowding in the jaw happens when we're not using the mandible. Another thing that's important about using the mandible is that, you know, you all have heard of the fight or flight versus rest and digest state. So that fight or flight is the sympathetic nervous system. The rest and digest is that parasympathetic nervous system. When we chew, we're actually creating more salivary enzymes and that's actually telling the body that it's safe. We actually see through the vagus nerve regulation and fine tuning that occurs. That doesn't happen with just like, like sucking a smoothie through a straw or having a pouch or a bar that's pre processed protein bar. We're just kind of gumming that and swallowing it. When we're actually chewing, the body says, oh, I'm safe. And it goes into more of a parasympathetic nervous system. If you think about it, if we're running from a cheetah, we're not going to stop to gnaw on a steak. Right. We're running. And so when we salivate, we even see yawning as a sign of vagal nerve tone. Right. But, but chewing actually is a way to swing that pendulum to safety. So really important to prioritize that because that gives us neurofeedback to get into that less stimulated space. Especially important when kids are in LED lights and they're on screens for their education and they're just being hyper stimulated. We need to swing back into that primal, regulatory safe place. And we even see with brain function, not only having less cortisol and feeling safer, which is key, but we do see also in the hippocampus region, a soft diet can start to create atrophy in that area. And so really important that we're getting something dense and chewy at least once a day is kind of the goal there. [00:51:32] Speaker A: Yeah, okay, we're kind of coming to the end, but I want to get this part in because I know a lot of mamas get excited, get into whole food, get to cooking. But then in baking in particular, maybe, but different treats they're making. And they need coloring. Yeah, they need to make a red velvet cake or they need to make gummies or whatever it is. But you know, we're not going to be using this yellow 40, red 40. All these artificial dyes. Talk about natural alternatives to these food colorings. [00:52:04] Speaker B: Yes. So, you know, one thing that's important to think about when you're just simplifying things to getting closest to God food, versus stressing out about what ingredient to avoid. I think there's a lot more peace in that. And then we don't get tricked by marketers because marketers are constantly onto us. So even before states started banning the food dyes, the, I don't know if you saw this, that the food dyes themselves were rebranding. And so they were calling like from, you know, blue number whatever to bright blue. And the yellow number five was tetrazine. And so they were already starting to get tricky. And so I just like to say that, you know, don't get anxious about the buzzworthy stuff you see on social media of this is bad, this is bad. Just think about what is good, focus your mind on the good, and the rest will kind of fall into place. So when we're looking at getting color, we look at like the rainbow of produce or the rainbow that were provided in the world of antioxidants and phytopigments and how we can use those. And I actually have a table in naturally nourished kids I where we take a food dye. We talk about the research of the harm. So whether that's bladder cancer, whether that's behavioral disorder, whether that is kidney stones, et cetera. And then we take in that same color family alternatives of whole real food. So if it is red, let's say, for instance, you can use beets and actually you can light boil beets in concentrate of water and then use that water you can also puree and use small amounts. Raspberries tend to lean really well into flavors. So we have a pink princess lemonade that I did for Stella's fourth birthday. It was a tea party and actually we used strawberries in that instead of the raspberries to keep it less tangy. But blending berries can be a really beautiful still color pigment. We look at the yellow turmeric, we look at in the green options like Matcha, which in small amounts, I'm talking less than a 6 16th of a teaspoon will color a heavy cream based frosting. And I have the recipe named after my daughter in here. Each of the kids got a recipe named after them and it's Stella's cutout cookies actually. And it's an almond, flour and honey, very simple butter, almond flour, honey, baking soda. That's the cookie. And they turn out really well. Still the same nostalgia of rolling them out with your kids using any kind of cookie cutter based on the season or style of party. And then we just use a very simple buttercream frosting. And so yes, it's organic powdered sugar. Right. Good, better, best. But a heavy cream, little bit of vanilla bean and that's it. And then whatever of these natural flavor compounds, we use elderberry syrup sometimes for more of like a purple pigment. And what's so beautiful is when we lean into these antioxidants to give color, we're adding more vibrancy and nutrients to the food. So now instead of having that hyperactivity or the stress of neurological impact or cancer, we're giving antioxidants that combat against toxicity. We're getting anti inflammatory support from that turmeric or that elderberry is helping our body to combat viral exposure. And so again, it's not that net neutral, it's that these are net harmful. And when you use food as medicine, you actually get net benefit. And I think that's what really helps to wrap our mind around it when we're making these decisions of what goes in our bodies and our children's bodies. [00:55:28] Speaker A: Amen. Well, I do want you to share with the listeners how they can follow you how to get the books again, the two books, the Anti Anxiety Diet. [00:55:41] Speaker B: Yes. [00:55:42] Speaker A: Naturally Nourished kids, which is coming out soon. [00:55:45] Speaker B: Yeah. [00:55:45] Speaker A: But what's the best way for people to follow you? Find the books and continue to just learn more about your work. [00:55:52] Speaker B: Yes. Thank you. So my website is very simple alimillerd.com and we have both books on there as well as protocols and my supplement line Naturally Nourished. And then I have a YouTube channel and podcast under Naturally Nourished. And so our YouTube is more bite size, we show you. Actually, in the book, we have a YouTube icon. So, like our super greens cube, how to troubleshoot bone broth. Some of these things that might need a little bit of a visual cue. The homemade marshmallow recipe made with gelatin is fantastic. You'll never buy a marshmallow ever again, but sometimes you need to see it being done in a kitchen. So we try to help connect the dots there. On Naturally Nourished. [00:56:35] Speaker A: It'S Allie Miller, A L I Miller, rd.com Ali, thank you so much for. I mean, this is a lot of work, obviously, what you're doing, writing a book, but. But all the resources I know. And you're a busy mom and wife, so thank you. It's so beneficial to have folks like yourself who really love people, care for people, care for the truth, and just want to see people well. So thank you for all your hard work. [00:57:03] Speaker B: It's my pleasure. Thank you for sharing your platform and audience. [00:57:07] Speaker A: You're welcome. Okay, everybody. Dr. Ben Edwards, you're the cure. This will be broadcast on all the usual platforms for podcasts. Plus, it'll be archived on our website, veritas wellnessmember.com on YouTube. So go check it out. Spread it far and wide. School's about to start. These mamas, these daddies, they need this kind of support. So all you grandparents out there that are listening, get this to your kids and your grandkids. All right, everybody, we'll be back next week with another great show. Bye. Bye.