365: Breaking the Sugar Habit: Truth-Bombs on Childhood Obesity | Dr. Joel “Gator” Warsh
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Please go to timeline.com slash drmontley33. That's T-I-M-E-L-I-N-E dot com slash drmontley33. Welcome to the Ancient Health Podcast, where East meets West in the world of medicine. I'm Dr. Chris Motley, and here we explore how modern Western science and traditional Eastern wisdom come together to unlock the body's full healing potential.

Each week, we'll dive into powerful tools, techniques, and approaches from both sides of the world to help you optimize your health and live with vitality. Let's bridge the gap between ancient practices and cutting-edge medicine. Let's get started.

Hello friends, welcome to the Ancient Health Podcast. I'm your host, Dr. Chris Motley, and I have a very special guest here today. He is an integrative pediatrician out of Los Angeles, and I first noticed this doctor because close friends of mine said you need to follow him because he has such good information about how to holistically help your children. It's Dr. Joel Walsh. Welcome.

otherwise known as Dr. Gator. And I will say, Doc, the first time I saw Dr. Gator, we're going to talk about that. I was wondering if it was like you're a Florida Gator fan. I'm not trying to be funny. I was like, what does this mean? But, Doc, thank you so much for joining us today on the podcast. Thank you. Thank you for having me on. And yeah, it's not a Florida thing. Everybody thinks it is. It's a wife thing. Her last name is Intelligator. And so people started saying Dr. Gator. They thought it was funny and it kind of stuck and the kids liked it. So I just kept going with it.

Oh, okay. That makes sense because whenever I'm in the office, I always think that the hardest thing for me when I first got into practice was learning how to interact with kids. And I want to talk to you about that. But I'm just thankful that you are in the podcast today because you're going to be able to drop some knowledge and some truth bombs about things that you've been outspoken about, especially with children's health.

The first thing that I like to do on the podcast is I really love to learn about you. I really want the people out there to know about you. Maybe you can give us a background or a brief background. Just tell us about who you are and what you do, where you're at, because I want people to see your credentials. Yeah, so I grew up in Toronto. So again, not a Florida thing. I grew up in Canada, moved to the States to go to medical school when I was growing up.

always loved working with kids. I used to coach my brother's sports teams, hockey, baseball. Then I ended up working in summer camps and just I love working with kids. And when I went to medical school, I was always to be a pediatrician just because I always found it more rewarding to work with kids and get ahead of problems and really try to prevent things from happening. And so that that's really what led me into pediatrics. But as

As I went through my training, I did get really frustrated with what was going on out there. I mean, the really short visits, medications for everything like it's candy, watching chronic disease rates skyrocket, watching patients go outside the system and get better. And so that's what led me to start learning a little bit about integrative medicine and natural medicine. I'm not against Western medicine at all. I said this all the time. I think there are amazing

amazing things that we have learned and accomplished and that we have in modern medicine. But we're so quick to offer medication these days and chronic disease rates are just absolutely skyrocketing. So there's a lot more that we need to be doing

For our kids, and unfortunately, just the rates of chronic disease keep going up, kids seem like they're getting sicker and sicker. And so that's what really, really has pushed me forward to speak out, to talk more, to really try to push this preventative model, thinking in a preventative way, thinking about our health and root cause in general, and not just giving a medication for everything. So that's really what has, I guess, propelled me to where I am. And I'm trying to be a little more outspoken because, you know, you only do so much in the office.

That's right. I mean, I would love to, you know, people out there want to know about like, as you've gotten into the medical world, as you went to medical school, is there a way to get people to know about you?

Is that when you first what was the first thing that made your brain spark? Like you say, the short visits, seeing kids eat, you know, like sugary things. But when you went to integrative medicine, what was the spark? Was there a particular incident or just something just naturally came on saying I have to go into this route because I don't want to use short visits. I don't want to just give medication for everything. I think it was a few things all at the same time. I mean, a big one was meeting my wife. She's very holistic minded. So that certainly opened up my eyes.

to that world a little bit more. But also, a lot of stuff just didn't make sense in my training. And it doesn't make sense to work 30-hour shifts. It didn't make sense to see five, 10 patients an hour. It didn't make sense that nobody was talking about their kid's diet. It didn't make sense that we weren't focused on anything about root cause. We were just focused on giving them medication and trying to get them out of there. And

as you start to learn a little bit more about integrated medicine, as you start to do some functional medicine, you're like, why weren't we taught this? Like, this so obviously makes sense. And there's obviously no reason we shouldn't be thinking about diet or the things that we're doing. I understand the medical model. I understand how we got here to some degree, but it's seen as woo-woo sometimes, and it's very much not woo-woo. I mean, integrated medicine can be a little bit woo-woo, but the vast majority of it is not. It's just integrating

common sense, integrating holistic practices, but really just integrating the basics like food and exercise and sleep and actually thinking about how those integrate and how we've gone so far away from the basics. And we're not focused on what we're eating and moving and getting enough sleep and our stress. And it's no wonder that everybody's sick and he's

chronic disease rates are skyrocketing. Autism is skyrocketing. Everything is skyrocketing because we're not giving our body what it needs. That's, I think one of the most important things I saw everybody out there, one that struck a chord in me was when Dr. Warsh had a, he puts up these really great quotes and he puts the signs on whiteboards. And I love that on the Instagram feed. And one of them really hit home was about childhood obesity and the

The amount of like, I mean, sadly, could you touch on that? Because I think it's one of the biggest things like if I go to the airport and no way am I talking badly about children that are in this situation. But kids out there are gaining weight at a high rate. And you're like you're saying it's like the food pyramid in our schools today.

It's in our nation, right? I mean, there's something going on there. Could you touch a bit on the obesity and that food pyramid? Yeah, it's an absolute disaster from any direction that you look at it. If 50% of kids are overweight, are obese at this point, if you if you go back to, you know, around when I was born.

None of the states, zero, had a 20% obesity rate. Zero. Now every single state has a 20% obesity rate or more in general. So it's such a staggering difference over just a few decades. So you cannot say that that is genetic. It's not genetic. Genetics plays a role. Of course it does. Different people eat different foods and it affects them, not in the exact same way. But at the end of the day, our genetics hasn't changed at all or very much

Over the last 50 years, but what has changed is our environment and the food and how much we're moving and what we're doing and the chemicals and the toxins. And so we're seeing this explosion of conditions that we never saw before. I mean, diabetes, one third of kids are pre-diabetic or diabetic.

Type 2 diabetes is literally called adult-onset diabetes, right? That's literally the name. And you didn't see it in kids 50 years ago, almost ever, if not ever. And now you see it in kids that are 13 years old and 10 years old. It's just absurd what's going on, and we're not doing anything about it, and we're not moving backwards. I mean, we're not...

terrible at everything in medicine, right? You used to die when you were like 40. People live to their 70 now, right? So there's some good things that we've done with medicine, but a lot of that was infectious disease, right? And medicine was mostly set up, I think, over the years in terms of infectious disease. We got much better at that. We got better sanitation, more food for people, things like that. Not the best food, but we had more food. So people are living longer, but now we're going backwards, right? Now

Life expectancy is going back down. Chronic disease rates are skyrocketing. And so there's somewhere in the middle that we need to go. There's something we need to learn from the past where it's like, well, we didn't see all these. We didn't see all this explosion with chronic disease. So what are we doing differently now? What do we need to change? How do we go backwards a little bit? Not to throw everything out, but.

There is something we need to learn. We cannot be arrogant about this because our kids are suffering. And like you said, you know, you can look around, you can look in the playground, you see that kids are suffering. I don't really remember allergies, right? I mean, they were around, but now every other kid has a peanut allergy.

one in 36 children overall have autism. It was like one in 10,000 just a few decades ago, one in 150, maybe 20 years ago. In California, it's one in 22. Neurodevelopmental disorders, one in six. One in six kids have a neurodevelopmental disorder. Almost every kid has something at this point. So that can't be okay. And we have to have these discussions.

It's not to blame parents. It's not to blame anybody. It's to say there is something going on. We need to identify what those things are or the most major things that we can figure out and start to make changes to go in a different direction. We just have to. We're going to have two kids. One's going to have a chronic disease. That's not okay. It is not one in six kids, Doc. I mean, oh, man, it makes your heart just feel for these kids like,

When you say starting at the root cause, like I love the information you put out. You do talk about like just the process of sugars, like literally like sugary foods. Is that like one thing that you, you know, all the parents out there listening today, they would say like, where do we start? And some people hear about sugars, but it's really, is that one of the first steps you would recommend to the parent? Like when they see a chronically ill?

sick child, what would be like some of the first steps that you would tell them? Yeah. I mean, I would even take just kind of a step back from that and save to read labels. I think that's one of the big keys, you know, very simple. But you have to get really good at reading labels. I mean, that first step is just to do that, right? I mean, you go in the store and you're going to buy something turned over and look at what's on there. And if there are a bunch of words, you don't even know what they are. It's probably not good for you. Don't get that thing. If there's a lot of sugar in there, especially the refined sugars, you know,

sugars that are like high fructose corn syrup or whatever, then that's not good for you. Pick the one that has better ingredients. I mean, if we did that with every single decision, companies would make better products and our kids would be eating healthier. And it adds up. It's not like if they have one piece of cake, it's the end of the world. But that's not what's happening. We're eating sugary food all the time consistently. And it's not that...

sugar is bad. I mean, sugar in and of itself is not bad for you, right? I mean, you need sugar for your body. It's what your brain runs on. It's what your body runs on. It's the kind of sugar and the amount of it that we're getting. It's so much processed, added sugar. We just don't need very much, if not any. It's not that you can't eat fruit and get some sugar or you can't have maple syrup or honey or things like that. That's all, you know, for the most part, good for you. But that's not what's going on. Kids are eating all this

you know, air quotes food. It's not even real food. It's just processed garbage that doesn't have nutrients that they need. And it's full of chemicals and toxins and dyes. And a lot of these things are banned in other countries. They're allowed in America because there's almost no rules here. It's like, it's insanity. Yeah. I didn't, I didn't know this even as a doctor, I didn't know this until more recently when I got more involved that the companies in America are

decide that their products are okay. There's nobody doing anything to stop chemicals from getting in food. They do whatever resource that they deem is necessary and they say, yeah, I guess it's generally regarded as safe and that's it.

There's no oversight almost at all anymore until somebody complains, sues, you know, then you can kind of push back on a chemical here or there. But we have like 10,000 plus chemicals, whereas Europe has around 400 chemicals in food because they have to prove something safe. Whereas we don't have to do that. We have to prove something dangerous. And that's obviously pretty hard to do. That is because that's alarming to me, because when you talk about like allowing things to be passed, what's,

I guess I had to, I'm very careful about how I say it, but I guess it's, it's, I guess it's money driven. Of course, you know, when we talk about food dyes, a parent out there is listening doc and they say, okay, so food dyes, they're bright. I've heard somewhere doc that like some of the dyes are like derivatives of coal tar. A parent may ask you like,

not say the big deal, but why is it so important? How could a die, what are some of the symptoms or what are some of the things that a die does to the body when they get it on their cereal? The things that we...

We don't know so much, right? Because a lot of it is done by the companies themselves. But what we do know for dyes is that there is actually a significant amount of research to show that it affects your behavior, especially in sensitive kids. So for kids with ADHD and other behavioral concerns and diagnoses, it

it's pretty strong evidence that it affects them at this point. We know that it affects your hormones. We know that affects your immune system. We know that it increases your risk of cancer, certainly does in animal studies. So it's pretty strong evidence that there is at least some,

potentially negative side effects for you with zero health benefits. And so that is the argument there, I think, is if you know there's no health benefits to it, then if there is another alternative, even if you don't have 100% definitive proof that it causes a problem, there's really no need for that to be in our food ever.

So what is the argument to keep it in there other than making companies more money? And that's the issue because it's really hard to prove something dangerous, right? You need a lot of studies over a lot of years. And obviously, these companies have a lot of money. So they have really good lawyers and they do their own research. And they say, oh, you know, it's not really that dangerous. Or, oh, you know, we're just inconclusive. It's really hard to be conclusive. I mean, think about the big cases. Like, how long did it take to work through lead?

How long did it take to work through glyphosate? How many studies and how many lawsuits, how many billions of dollars for them to fight for 10, 20, 30 years for one thing? And then by the time they sue that thing, they make another product. So these companies know what they're doing. So it's really up to us to just stop buying it and kind of push the companies out of it. The exact same box. It's like you can make it here and you're an American company and you're making a worse product, knowingly a worse product,

here. And so why are we doing that to our own kids and why are we allowing it? And that, if you're a parent or if you're anybody, you would be like, okay, obviously, why would we do that? That's just a big idiot he said. They don't need more billions. They can lose one or two billion. They can still make 50 billion or whatever. I don't know what the numbers are, but

They can still make plenty of money and have a slightly better products. And if every single company did that, and we kind of monitor like, that's the way that it was, you know, not so many years ago. And when people didn't have all these conditions, I mean, even if you look at things like, I don't know, McDonald's or, you know, candy bars, whatever, like a lot of what you hear from, from adults these days, especially,

you know parents that are very resistant it's oh you know i ate that when i was younger oh i went to mcdonald's when i was younger oh i had a snickers bar when i was younger oh i had this but the ingredients are so different now you know back then i mean maybe you didn't have the best quality burger at mcdonald's or something like that but it was like real meat with not that many ingredients you know with fried in in beef tallow or whatever instead of the i don't know who knows what the ingredients are now they're like super long list you look like a chick-fil-a

Sandwiches with a thousand ingredients in there. So it's not the same thing, right? And it's not to say that you should be eating fast food, but if you ate it 20 or 30 years ago, you're probably eating something very different than your kids are eating now. And because of the rule changes where companies can say that their product is safe,

We just have more and more chemicals, more and more ingredients. Some studies show 70 to 90% of the calories that kids get are ultra processed foods. Many, many kids, I don't know, I've seen like 20%, 50% of kids don't have a veggie or a fruit in any given day. School lunches, I mean, you look at any pictures of what school lunches are these days and you compare them to other countries and it's pretty gross. It's ridiculous. Like what we're giving our kids in school, you know, like there's Lunchables contracts now, they're giving them Lunchables lunches.

What? Food in public schools gets really bad and that is not real food. It's food. I mean, there are calories but it's not something that was picked here. Everything's mass produced. Everything's full of sugar and chemicals and

we can only handle so much. Our bodies are amazing. We can handle some, but, but they get, we can only handle so much. And we forget that we're literally built of what we eat. And if we're not giving ourselves and our kids nutrients, and we're giving them a bunch of chemicals, at some point, they're going to fall off a cliff. They can't handle anymore. And they get sick. And that's what I think is happening. That's what I think autism is for the most part. That's what I think all these chronic conditions are is, you know, for some, it's just genetic, but for many it's,

chemicals, toxins, lack of nutrients, and then it expresses itself in whatever way in some sort of neurologic condition or autoimmune condition or diabetes or whatever, however it affects you based on your genetics. That's what what happens. And that's what's going on. And that's why you can turn it around. Like you look at diabetes, right? Yeah. All of the years for type two diabetes, you're like, okay, if you eat better and you exercise, you can get rid of your diagnosis.

That's the way it is for everything. For all the autoimmune conditions. It's the same thing. There are some people that have cystic fibrosis. It doesn't matter what you do. You still have those genetics and you're going to have it. But the vast majority of these conditions are not that. It's environment. And if you change up the way that you were living, your symptoms would vastly improve if not go away. I think. I...

I love the fact that you say, like, if you take the most productive steps, like in any condition, you can see some improvement. Like we always say, like in the Chinese medicine world, they always say, like, what? It's like you just have to improve your blood flow and improve your circulation. It's all about circulation. And what do you do to do it? You exercise. You have to have right nutrients in your food just to create circulation. And we're seeing a stagnation. I think, like, you and I see it all the time, Doc. Like there's just an over, it's called stagnated circulation.

Mm hmm.

And even back in the day, Doc, like, I'd go back over there and they would have, like... My cousins would always tease me because I was kind of the health guy or something. And they would always, like, oh, you want a snack? And they'd tease me about it. But literally...

To appease them, they would say, here, I want to show you this derivative of a Snickers bar. And I always take and check the label. And sure enough, over there, their Snickers bar had different ingredients than ours did. And then I started getting investigatory. I would be like, oh, goodness, their cereals and their chips, they're all like – they had a lot different flavor. Now, this is crazy, but I think –

they are saying that we have some of the most, the sickest rates of health rates in the, in the, in the world. And it's alarming to me that like Korea, South Korea, they're starting to see even more like health issues because they're trying to mimic, you know, a lot of the production processes we have here. And to me, like, like you said, you can't pronounce it. That's one of my friends. She always say, if you can't pronounce it, don't eat it. Now,

As a doc, there's some out there that are going to say, well, what signs do I look for? I know we have like neurological. Are those some of the biggest things that come into your office? You're seeing all these things, is it? What are some of the main signs and symptoms you say you tell a parent like these are the things you look out for? And we know that it could be food related.

I think almost any symptom could be food related. Big ones would be stomachache. Like there's a lot of gut issues these days. So stomach aches, gas, bloating, pain, trouble going to the bathroom, constipation, diarrhea. I mean, those are obvious because they're gastrointestinal, but rashes, you know, very common rash can be related to your diet. Um,

inflammation, pain, these things can be related to your diet, headaches, anxiety, stress, I mean, all these, everything can be related to your diet. It's the everything's connected, right? And I think that's the that's the key. That's what we forgot in medicine, it's all connected. So it's all related to your diet and any condition that you have, it might not be because of your food, but it certainly can be improved. If you eat more healthy, and you move, I mean, almost

every condition, if you look at it, look at depression and anxiety. All the studies show exercise beats out almost all the medications every single time, right? And that's not to say there isn't a place for it. Like sometimes in an urgent situation, a medication can save your life and people do need these medications. But if you look at the research, it tends to do better. You know, so at least at a minimum, if you're going to get an anti-anxiety medicine or anti-depression medicine, you should also be getting a prescription for exercise.

Right? Like, what logic is there to not do that? I mean, there's no downside to it, because one, you should be exercising, but two, you might not need that medication if you just exercise. Or you might use your medication to kind of get you moving in a better direction. The exercise keeps you moving in a better direction, so you can get off your medication one day. I mean, they work synergistically, and it comes, like, this is basic stuff, but we live in a pharmaceutical model, and we have to change it. Like you said,

you look at the data, you look at the charts, America is way off the deep end in terms of all the health statistics. I mean, we're doing terribly. We're like one of the worst, if not the worst in almost every category when it comes to health and spending. And we don't live longer or live better than most of the industrialized world, if not anywhere. So more medicine is not the answer. You don't,

you don't fix everything with a pill. There are great things that come from pills. Like you can save your life and it's amazing when you need it and it can give you a bridge to get somewhere. But that's not the solution to where we need to go. We have a big system change we need to do, but,

Again, like when I talk on this stuff, it's there are big things to change, but you're not going to be able to necessarily do that in the short term. So for from your family's perspective there, these are the things you think about and work on your own family. And for the most part, that's going to be enough. You move more, eat a little bit healthier, make sure you get your sleep, shut off your phone, try to de-stress a little bit whenever you can. Like these things add up and tend to be healthy or healthier if you do those things.

That's a great point, Doc. I want everybody to listen to what Doc just said. He's like, eat a little bit better, right? Drink more water, get some movement with your family, and turn off the TV or the iPad. And I hope this doesn't divert too much from the main point of trying to have a healthy family. But do you see that if children tend to be sedentary, they don't mean to, it's in our lives, we're in a culture, you just said, like,

We're in a nation where everything is so accessible, but do you see an alarming grade of kids that are like addicted to like things that would make them sedentary? Do you see like in your office, like games and iPads and stuff? And if so, like what are some of the things that you suggest to parents, like how to help, I guess, break a child from that?

Our lives are set up not to move now, which is a big problem. And that's another big systemic thing that we need to change. But of course, you know, the big thing is screens, right? I mean, that's not any new news, but...

teens are now on screens average seven to nine hours a day, which is insane. Like that's just such a huge amount. And it's not the screen. That's the problem. It's what all the things you're not doing, right? It's like, it's not like you can't be on a screen. It's not like we didn't watch TV when we were younger or watch a cartoon or something like that. It's not like you can't do your homework on a screen, but when you're spending your whole day on a screen, you're not moving. You're not with your friends. You're not outside. You're not getting sunlight. You're not in nature. You're not,

All these things that your body also needs and we're so addicted to screens and to not moving. And it feeds into this, you know, everything you said, like this chi or the stagnation. It's all one thing. It's all connected because we don't eat well, so we don't get the nutrients and we get the toxins. Then you don't move, so you don't sweat. You don't get sunlight, so you don't get your vitamin D. All of these things are just a recipe for

for a disaster. And if you, you know, take the analogy of like a fish, right? It's like you put a fish in a dirty bowl with a bunch of toxins. Not like you give them medicine, they're going to get better. You have to clean the water, right? And that's what's going on with us, right? It's like we're trying to give ourselves more medication instead of cleaning the water. And we can only give ourselves so much medicine. But if the air that we breathe and the things that we're doing are not clean, then it doesn't matter how many medicines we give ourselves. We're still going to be sick.

Yes. I mean, doc, when, when you think about like a parent or anybody that's out there and they going through this, like you just said, like if they feel, you know, they're set, let's say somebody has to take a medication. You know, I had a surgery back in 2017 and I had a ruptured ulcer and I always say modern medicine saved my life. I mean, I'm, I'm not at all like anti, like, you know, having to get like surgeries or anything like that. But I,

I would say, though, like if you see like a parent who felt like they're stuck, like let's say a kid does have like medication issues. I mean, not medication. It has to take medication, of course. But what are like some thoughts or steps that you would think that would help a parent? Like, let's say a kid's addicted to sugars or they have to do you know, they want it and their parents like I don't want to give it to them. Are there things that you tell them like, hey, this is what I would suggest for your child maybe to break some of that?

Yeah, well, one part of it is kind of taking back the power and the control as a parent. I think sometimes we're too afraid of our kids and having good conversations with them, especially as they're getting older and we're like, you know, I don't feel like we're eating that healthy. Maybe it's having a conversation with your doctor. Maybe it's getting a natural practitioner to sit down with the family so you can kind of talk through these things. I mean, it depends on your kid and how much information you feel like they need or would be helpful. But you have to model it. You have to do it yourself.

and you make a decision like we're not buying this stuff anymore, you're purchasing the food. So if you're not purchasing it, it's on your house, they're not going to eat it. And if you're punishing them, it's not going to go over well. You're not trying to punish them. You're trying to teach them to eat healthier, trying to provide them with healthier options. So it doesn't mean you have to go from chips to broccoli, but maybe there's some better versions of chips. Maybe there's some better snacks you can have at home. There's a wide range. We're lucky. We have a lot more food

options these days. So it doesn't have to go all the way to extremely crunchy. But somewhere in the middle, kind of move in that direction and start to buy some better products, take them with you, reading labels with them as they're getting older. All this stuff can be really helpful. And sometimes it's like, we're not going to buy anymore. I know you're not going to love it, but that's just how it is. I want you to be healthy and too bad. And usually within a couple

of days. They'll be okay. They're not going to starve. They may not be the happiest with you for a few days, but sometimes parenting is parenting and sometimes you got to do what's best for them. And you've done one thing in the past and maybe we're going to do something different based on

what's going on out there. I mean, you look around and if you live the same way that we're all living, your kids are going to be sick. That's just how it is, right? The statistics don't lie. One in two kids have a chronic disease. And if you're okay with that, that's fine. Keep doing what you're doing. But if you're not okay with that, then we have to do something different. And it starts with the basics and it's not rocket science, doesn't have to cost a lot of money, but it does involve being conscious and being aware of the decisions that you're making with a health spin.

Um, we have been, we've been marketed to, and we've been taught about money and finance and quicker, faster, cheaper. I mean, this is what we grew up with and we have to break that cycle a little bit and put back in health because you lose health when you talk about quicker, faster, cheaper, better, right? I mean, healthy food is not faster. It takes a long time, right? It takes some time to prepare it. You have to make meals. You have to go buy the food. You have to prepare it. You have to put it together. These are not quicker things. And, and, and,

It's a priority. It's just a decision to prioritize our health. And if you do decide that you're going to prioritize it a little bit more, then you make a step forward, whatever that means for you. It might mean you weren't buying any

You weren't making any meals. Maybe you're making one. Maybe you weren't buying organic. Maybe you buy a few things organic. Maybe you were buying these really crappy chips. Maybe you buy a little better chips. Whatever it is for you and your family, you don't have to throw everything away. You don't have to move to the middle of the mountains and start a farm or a commune like that. There's a big middle ground there. But as long as we're moving forward, then then I think we're moving in a better direction because, again, most kids are resilient.

and they can handle a lot, but it's very clear that we're doing too much. So whatever little things we can do here or there, I think that makes a big difference. And that's what I try to

push on parents. It's like, okay, there is stuff that we can do if we just care. We just put that into our repertoire of what we care about and it's not just about the money or the time because the thing you always hear is, oh, it costs more. Oh, I don't have the time. Well, you have to make it. If it's important to you, you figure it out. You find ways to make it cost the same or you spend your money on food if that's what you can do or you spend a little more wherever you can and time. Okay, you're busy, but

you find time to make more meals or you make a really big meal once a week or whatever it is. I mean, it's just, that's up to you to figure out within your, your schedule and, and your life, what works for you. But, but if it's not a priority, then you just won't do it. And, and then we are where we are. Yes. I mean, when you see those, um,

Like the way that people and families operate with each other, you start to see that if you change like the dynamics of the family, you know, and the parents, it's really good that it can make a positive shift in them. If they take the time, you know, like to do this or that to help improve, hopefully it strikes a spark in the parent too. You know, like, hey, this is actually working. It's good for me too. And I mean, and times doc, and I don't say this at the detriment of any or like to my patients, but,

But have you ever had – well, I know you because you had this really good post about dehydration. And I'm just saying just having water. Now, I'm saying I'm guilty of it. I try to drink water as much as I can throughout the day. But do you – like with all the chronic disease –

Some of the things like that I'll see is like some people like in the kidney area and the bladder, they just do not flush or in the colon. So I was just going to ask you with parents and trying to treat, you know, trying to cook, you know, or make better meals. What's the importance also to like just water? I mean, I know this is like a side note, but I don't know about you, but I see a lot of people come in there dehydrated. Is there is there something to say about that?

For sure. When people ask me about detoxification or like, should I do a detoxification protocol for my kids? How should I detox? You know, there are things you can do, of course, but I...

you start with the basics. Like how do you get stuff out of your body? You pee, you poop, you sweat, right? So how do you pee more and how do you poop more? You need to drink more. So yeah, of course that, that is key. And I don't know what the numbers are, but most people are not drinking enough water. Almost nobody is because you need to drink theoretically a lot of water. And most people are not carrying on a water bottle all day. So yeah,

Whatever it is, whatever you're drinking, most people can drink more. So push your kids to drink a little more. Have them take a thermos with them to school or whatever it is. It's a very simple thing to get them to drink more. But if you're peeing more, you're getting more stuff out of your body. If you're going to the bathroom more, you're getting their toxins out from your body more so you're not absorbing as much. So is that going to

cure everything? No. But is it going to be a little bit of a factor that's going to improve things? Yes, of course it will. So yes, I think that's key. And certainly if you're working on turning things around, that's a great

thing to incorporate and again pooping peeing sweating so when you're starting get outside get moving more if you're sweating a little more drink more fluids and make sure you're having more more fiber and more foods that help you go to the bathroom and if you're doing those three things then you're detoxing more without taking a supplement or a pill or a protocol i mean you can do those things too if you want to but but nothing replaces actually just doing it the

proper way which is you know natural way which is getting stuff out which we're supposed to be doing all the time but we don't you look at indigenous tribes they're going to the bathroom they're pooping like five ten times a day most people here you know maybe once if they're lucky um so it's just not it's just not enough um and and and yeah so if we're not eating healthy and things are sitting there then you're absorbing it more and you have more chemicals in your body and that's obviously not a good thing it's to me i remember um

Back in the days, like when you're in school, I remember they had this thing called functional constipation, Doc. And I remember reading about that. And for everybody out there, it's literally like some people can...

poop, but even the quality, like you said, the indigenous tribes would poop that many times a day. It's the quality of the poop. It's like, how much do you actually void out of your body? And, and is it getting rid of like some of the serious toxins? And one of the things I appreciate your message is that the preservatives in the body are coming in and

It can actually like you have to have a good quality of people like you to flush that stuff out. Is that like I know it is. But do preservatives cause the body to like to hold on to like more toxin? That's why, like all these kids are like constipated. Is that a big deal in the kids? I mean, I think that anything that your body does.

anything that's newer and causes inflammation in your body, like any of the chemicals or toxins, everybody's different, right? So it depends what's going to affect you. But common sense to me would say the preservatives, the chemicals, the toxins inflame your gut and that inflammation slows it down, causes issues, doesn't make it an ideal, you know, it's a pipe, right? So basically, so things are moving through and if it's not

through in the best way possible, then it's slowing it down. And so then things are things are sitting there. So I would presume yes. And, you know, personally, even when you go to other countries, like it's very obvious if you go to places that are more natural, like Costa Rica or something like that, you just see right away how much better you feel, how much more you go to the bathroom, like all these things. And it's not that you're necessarily eating so different, but the food is just so different that's available that

and your body reacts differently. And pretty much everyone I've ever met says that, right? And regardless of where you go around the world, it just seems like the food is better, and so you feel better when you go there. Like, people go to Europe, and they eat more bread and cheese, and they don't feel nearly as bad as if they eat it here or whatever it is. So I think just our food in general is so...

poor compared to the rest of the world and we just don't realize that because that's all we know and that's in the best case scenario here like it's really hard to get good like really really really good food here because for the most part it doesn't exist and

And, you know, then you have the even poor quality, like really crappy food. So you have to do the best that you can with what we have. But it's not like you're living in Costa Rica where someone picked it off the plant and you're like eating it today when they picked it off. That's not what we're getting for the most part. And that's really what food is supposed to be. Right. That's what we we always had. We always had food that was local. Yeah.

you know, before, um, until we had the modern society. So that's what our, our body evolved to do. It's like, you know, to hunt and eat that or to plan something locally and eat that. Uh, so we're, we're really experimenting with a new food system and, and,

It's good that we have calories for everybody. Like, we can produce a lot of food for someone in a big city, but it's not really good quality food for the most part. That's a great point when you say it's the quality of it. Like, because some individuals out there, and I mean, I remember...

when I first was in, you know, like school and learning about health, like I would never even have thought about like checking my food. It was sprayed with chemicals. And like, I guess when you look into like pesticides, like that could actually be dangerous. And I mean, there's going to be people out there docs that are going to be like, what does that mean? Like looking for stuff with pesticides? Are there like, um,

How much is our food sprayed with chemicals or how much like are we seeing that these chemicals are all in all grown grains? Is it all over the place? Well, in America, almost all the food is sprayed with something, if not many things. Right. You know, firstly, talk about organic. Right. So there's there's the pesticides. So things that are sprayed are not sprayed. But then I'm sure there are a lot of companies that are spraying things that are not considered a pesticide. But.

but they're still sprayed in something. So it's maybe just not considered a pesticide, but it still is. And then even if you get the best quality stuff, well, then it's picked and then it's shipped across the world or wherever it goes. And nothing stops them from spraying it after that. So you're not spraying with a pesticide, but you can spray it with things that seal it or keep it fresh for longer, wax, all these things that are put on it. So there's so many levels of what can you put onto our food because it's being shipped. And the better the food looks, the, you know,

less of it that spoils the more money that everybody makes. So they're, they're, everyone's doing all sorts of funny business with our food. Uh, and, and we don't even, we don't even think about it. And, and just like very simply on the pesticides, a lot of the food was modified to be able to handle these pesticides, like pesticides, you're spraying on the food. Um,

to kill off the pests, right? That's what it is. And so that way they can have these crops. Because of course, if you don't spray it, then the world is the world and animals eat food because they're supposed to, right? And they eat your crops. And so they change them to make them resistant to these pesticides, especially glyphosate. The thing that

Was not supposed to be on there. That would make the food. Killed or make bugs not want to eat it. Now you're changing it. So you can spray it in this thing. That we're never supposed to have. So you can think about it. It's like they're modifying it. So that it won't kill it or destroy it. But then we're eating it. In a thing that should never be eaten. Because it should never be on the food in the first place. So again. It does go back to money. And food science. And all these.

that they've done over the last 50 years or 100 years to change things, to provide food in the way that we eat it in modern society. But it's not a sustainable system. It's not going to last. And we have to change things. We have to start to move back to more local and more producing things ourselves and producing things in gardens. And that's the way back. I mean, it's not easy. It's not something that...

It's going to be like, oh, well, we can we can just everyone can have a garden and just have all their food locally. That's not going to happen in the short term, but it certainly can start to move that way. Like maybe you can get five percent of your food from a local garden and, you know, you can go to some farmers markets and get things from local farms. So, you know, maybe 25 percent of the food you're eating is of better quality. And that's going to move things in a better direction. And then as people start to eat that way, then they're going to be more interested, then more people will do it and they'll be more available. Like it's a snowball effect. It has to be available and cost effective. And right now it's not.

But instead of subsidizing corn and soy and wheat, maybe we can start subsidizing small local farms and then...

maybe every school can be connected with the farm so they can get some fresh food every week. You know, like these things are possible. It's doable stuff. It's not simple, but it is actually like humanly possible to be done. We just have to prioritize it and build that infrastructure, which is not going to be short or easy or quick. But if that was our priority, if we were like, we want every school to have fresh local food, it's a thing that could happen. It's not, not easy to do. So we'll just going to have to prioritize it at some point, hopefully. Yeah.

I would love to see any studies that would show a school that, you know, had fresh food and the amount of behavioral changes that

that could result if you just fed the cells the right amount of nutrients. And I hope and pray that like in the future that, you know, steps are taken to make it to where they can actually go into this arena. Because I love like you and Dr. Axe and a lot of the people that we look into to give us information, everybody out there about

Like what to help our bodies, even these storms, like when we have all these things and I believe like food is medicine and we should like in the like in our Chinese medicine where we always are trying to find foods that accentuate certain organs. And, you know, but there's times when we take like different herbals or different supplements or different minerals.

Is there anything like with parents, like let's say a parent says, man, I try to have my kid eat pretty well. I try to watch them when they go to school, but they eat foods that their friends are eating. I can't get them to eat that particular food. Are there things that you see that like for a parent like these are just some hints like.

Do they give them any type of vitamins or minerals? Or do you just say, like, we need to use good multis? I mean, what's your suggestion on, like, minerals and supplements? This is a great question. So I think the first part of the question is we need to focus on food because you cannot replace food with a supplement.

the word is a supplement, like you're, you're, you're giving it on the side, right? It's a supplement. It's additional too. So I'm not against supplements. We have them in our office. We use them all the time. I think it is a great option to boost things up, to help with immune support, to move things in a better direction. If you're deficient in something, it can help boost that much more quickly. Um,

but the longterm solution is not to be like, Oh, my kid's not a good eater. So I'm going to give them multivitamin and that's going to be, they're going to be just fine. I don't think you can replace food with a multivitamin. I think that if your kid is a picky eater, it's totally reasonable to give them a multivitamin. You know, the things that have the most evidence like vitamin C, vitamin D, elderberry, zinc, zinc, um, those, um,

tend to have the most scientific research in terms of improving immune support and also decreasing the lengths of viruses and um helping with coughs and colds and runny noses and all those things that we see there is actually a lot of research out there that shows that it's beneficial not like magic but you know improves things a little bit um and so for a supplement i think that's good um

So the simple answer to your question is yes, I think those are things are fine to do if you want to stock those things. But at the end of the day, the food is what really matters. And that's over the long run. That's what really, really gets you there because like supplements, it's still synthetic, right? It's still not the real thing. So I think you lose something when you take a multivitamin. That's not the same thing as when you get it from a carrot.

That's exactly right. When you talk about the bioavailability, I think a point in case, my mom's side is from Asia, from Korea. And it's amazing to me that when they eat a fermented food, they'll eat a lot of kimchi, which is fermented. It has good probiotics in the gut. And you can see that their digestive system is geared towards

with the right bacteria to absorb the nutrients. So they're like, you know, you'll see that they're able to process more of the starch in the rice because it gives them energy. And I think that and just food sources with spices are

I mean, I can't tell you how many when I was a kid, I would eat things with like crushed red pepper and garlic and ginger. And we had I had bone broth when I was like two years, you know, itty bitty. Like I eat rice porridge with bone broth. To me, it was normal. And we'd eat like little dried anchovies. Literally, that's what they do. They put in their food and you're getting all your omega. So you see all this food has sources rich within the basic needs of the culture. Yeah.

And I think that's why we get alarmed here in the U.S. is because it's just we don't have like a good example, like about what we should be eating. Like we have like everything's processed and too fast because we live in a fast world. And you guys spread the message and you have been spreading the message. And I think that coming from

somebody in the, you're a holistic practitioner, but you're also in the middle of being in the, in the Western medicine world, which is awesome. You know, like you see all sides and angles. Where, where do you see, like in your work, work in your world? Like, do you see like a bigger movement? It's going to happen. Like, you know, you're seeing more awareness. Do you feel a momentum? Like more people are coming up for this and getting ready for this change? There's definitely a momentum right now. I mean, I,

it's amazing to me to see how much momentum there has been in the last six months to a year. You know, for, for me as a pediatrician, I've been working on this for a while and, and, you know, kind of spreading the message as much as I can within my network, but it's not so huge. Um, and then all of a sudden to see this, this election, um,

And, you know, some of the candidates talking about it and some of the kids health became a big issue this year, which it should. It should always have been a big issue because our health should be a big issue. We're not just kids health, like everybody's health, adults, too. We're just not that healthy. And and and we have the actual power, not companies. But but it's such a hard thing to be like, OK, I'm one person. I can I can I change companies? Can I change America? Can I change the food? You know, and so that that's what they bank on. But.

if there is enough momentum, we absolutely can change things because companies want to sell you products. So they're not going to sell you things aren't selling. So we actually can change things. And the momentum is, is for sure there. And we'll see where it goes. It's very exciting to see that, that there is a,

I don't know, like a snowball effect. It seems like it's growing. It seems like more people are interested in it. More people are talking about it. Discussions are happening that never used to happen. I think a lot of stuff was censored before. That's not censored as much anymore. I mean, there's still some censorship, but it's not seemingly as bad as it was. So I think that the conversations are starting to happen. And it's also...

the fact that the problems are just so big that you can't ignore them anymore. Like it's there, you can't walk down the street and not see it. So I think that most people recognize that it's a problem. They're just not sure what to do about it. And, and I do hope that, that we move forward and keep making small incremental changes and, and pretty quickly that will add up to a big difference. So yeah, I'm excited. I think that this is this more than ever. I've never, I've never seen such a big change in such a short time. So yeah,

I think that there will be change. I don't know what's going to happen or where we're going, but I think that there'll be a lot of change coming in the next few years in a better direction if you want to. I think we have a lot of both. Everything's kind of slow, but there's going to be a lot more discussion around these topics. And some companies will do it and some companies won't. And hopefully at the end of the day, the healthier stuff kind of prevails. And then that's where companies are forced to move to.

Oh, I love, I really love this. And I think that when you pull your heart out like this and you see it in the way you like you love on your patients, I think people out there, when they go to your Instagram page, we'll see how much you care. And that's one thing I noticed too, is like, I can tell your heart. And with this big shift, I always try to ask, you know, any guests on the podcast, like, what is like,

Some people have it like in their head really quick and some people think about it. But was there any like stories like in your heart, in your mind that sticks out to you? Like like just says this makes it worth it. I mean, you know, like when you have these times of patients coming in and there's or there's some life advice that you can give out there, like some words of like your wisdom that you can give to the folks out there.

Yeah. I mean, there's so many cases for, you know, just from a very basic standpoint of patients that I've worked with or families that I've worked with that their kids get better from things that they thought were going to have for life or they changed up their diet just because they heard me say something and they, you know, message you and they're like, hey, you know, I heard you speaking on this and I changed up the diet and the symptoms actually did get better. Like, that's crazy. You know, thank you so much. That stuff matters. I mean, people forget that even if somebody...

for me i take care of a lot of celebrities um and famous people in my office just based on where i am and people forget that all these people are just regular people and like nice things are good and they don't always hear nice things they hear lots of bad things and like i'm not like super famous or anything like that but like if somebody sends you a nice message that's great like if a kid brings you in a little picture like oh thank you for for being a good doctor whatever like that matters that matters to you like you mostly just hear bad things right and so i think it's so nice that like

There's this momentum of people reaching out and joining together and spreading positivity, which is what we need as opposed to all the division and anger. Because we're all on the same team. It doesn't matter what topic we're talking about. Food or vaccines is a big, obviously, controversial topic always. Or medications or all these things. We're all on the same team. We're all moving towards...

hopefully healthier kids. Like that's what everybody wants. That's what parents want. That's what doctors want. That's what practitioners want. We want the same thing that everyone agrees always on how to get there, but we do agree that we want it. And so as long as we're coming together and working together, I think we can get to a better place. There's no reason why we can't, but we do have to have open, honest discussions. And I'm glad to see that that's starting. So yeah, I think that does wear my heart to see like this is happening. Like it really is. And, and,

I don't know, maybe it was COVID. A lot of people got mad and a lot of people got frustrated and there was a lot of censorship and a lot of stuff that happened. But it did, on the other side, bring people together that were focused on health, I think, more than ever. And so I do think there is a movement towards a healthier future that isn't based on money.

So much like I think a lot of health stuff was based on before his money and now it's not really based on money. It's not like I make money from posting stuff on Instagram or whatever or doing this. Like this is just because we care. Right. And so that's right. You know, I think that matters. It does. And I think that when you see how people care, like when you're taking time out of your day because you're in a busy practice and you're going to show people like this is what would help your your child and help yourself.

And for everybody out there listening, it is, you're right, the chronic health crisis that's out there, especially in our children, is a big deal. And, Doc, that's why I'm so glad you came on today, because making more people aware and seeing that they do have support out there, that they have docs like you that are out there, they're spreading the message around.

I enjoy our time and I respect your time. I know you're busy, Doc, and I really appreciate it. I want everybody out there to find out where you're at. I mean, do you like can you tell them your website and your handles and your feeds online? Sure. So the easiest places to find me would be at Dr. Joel Gator on Instagram or X. Or I have a book that came out recently, Parenting at Your Child's Pace. It's for new parents talking about health and wellness and de-stressing and all the big things.

things that come up. So that's Parenting at Your Child's Pace. And you can go to parentingatyourchildspace.com to get that or Amazon or all the regular places. So I think those are the easiest, easiest places to connect with me.

I'm telling you, I'm so grateful that we can all come together in different aspects of health and we can all just work towards a common goal. And everybody out there, please check out his Instagram, check out his website. And if you guys have questions, please get his book. We'll make it available in the show notes.

And I want you guys to make sure that if you have questions, like if your child has eczema or has a rash or has a digestive issue, please check out Dr. Joel's information. You're going to find a lot of good stuff. I'm serious, Doc. Whenever I see you do the whiteboard examples, I'm like...

It's information that sometimes like I will go, I can't believe like I haven't really like instilled that with my patients. So I need to start like, you know, when I watch it, I'm just saying I'm always learning. So we appreciate it so much, Doc. And for everybody out there, I'm your host, Dr. Chris Motley. Until the next time, enjoy this day and be well.

Before we wrap up, please remember that the information shared in this podcast is for educational purposes only and does not constitute the practice of medicine, nursing, or other professional healthcare services, including the giving of medical advice. No doctor-patient relationship is formed through this podcast, and the use of information here or materials linked from this podcast is at your own risk. The content is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis, or treatment.

Always consult with your health care provider before making any changes to your health regimen and do not disregard or delay seeking medical advice for any condition you may have. Thank you for joining us today on the Ancient Health Podcast. We hope you've gained valuable insights into the harmony between Eastern and Western medicine. If you've enjoyed today's episode, be sure to subscribe, share, and leave us a review.

Remember, true health is about balance, mind, body, and spirit. So stay tuned for more episodes where we continue to explore how ancient wisdom and modern science can work together to help you thrive. Here's to your health, balance, and well-being. I'm Dr. Chris Motley, and I look forward to our next episode together.