The School Lunch Revolution: Nourishing Minds, One Meal at a Time

Coming up on this episode of the Dr. Hyman show, there was a credible study by the CDC looking at nutrition in kids and Found that those kids perform far better when they're well-nourished if they're not They're basically having poor academic performance. They're having more absenteeism They're having more disruptive behavior or less likely to problem solve less likely to pay attention But I think this is something we just don't understand that we're doing to our kids And it's something that's completely solvable with real food Before we jump into at 65 I'm still pushing my limits cycling long distances trekking through Patagonia and living life to the fullest but staying active as I age Isn't just about willpower. 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Hyman your future self will thank you today's episode I want to share a few ways you can go deeper on your health journey while I wish I could work with everyone one-on-one There just isn't enough time in the day So I built several tools to help you take control of your health if you're looking for guidance education and community check out my private membership the Hyman hive for live Q&A's exclusive content and direct connection for real-time lab testing And personalized insights into your biology visit function health You can also explore my curated doctor trusted supplements and health products at dr. Hyman calm And if you prefer to listen without any breaks, don't forget you can enjoy every episode of this podcast add free with hyman plus Just open Apple podcasts and tap try free to start your seven-day free trial And that the junk food and the processed food and the food is more expensive Real food cooked from scratch by real humans locally in the kitchen That's exactly right. And you know when we were going through this process We brought in chefs to just help us understand it and so Ken oranger who is a celebrity chef in Boston Pointed this out to us. He said, you know the pre-packaged roast beef that they're slicing up has been processed, right? So the whole bunch of people have touched it manipulated it and you know injected it with preservatives and Salt and all kinds of other things and bread sugar lots of sugar. That's right. Why do you put sugar in Turkey? I have no idea. No, well probably to hide whatever other things you're trying to hide because she cooked it so long ago But the and so he said to you know that costs way more than if we just order some roast beef and have it shipped to the schools And so as we started to do the analysis, it was true in every case if you buy pre-packaged stuff because it's been processed There's so much more cost in it and then you've got margin on it as well. So, you know, there's profit on it Wow, so you basically Decided you were gonna take this on and you created something called my way cafe Yeah, and and you know in the discovery of the the challenges you found a whole set of solutions, right? Cuz yeah, the basic mantra is look there's only a small amount of money the kids get for school lunch What is it $2 or something for lunch? Yeah, it's yeah, it's a little more than that $3 and 45 cents three dollars and 45 cents, but 20 cents of it is milk Okay, which by the way But skim skim or flavored like okay, right? other topic we'll get to it Because I could go on for hours about that, but you you you hear the mantra look this is the best we can do We can't serve kids delicious real whole food because it's too expensive. It's too difficult It's not possible and you actually Figured out that not Possible, but it's not that hard and it's totally scalable. So tell us about that process Yeah, it was fun to do it on paper, right? So if you pull out spreadsheets and you start to you know, put in all the food costs and all the labor costs and all the transportation costs You can show very easily in a model that you can take the same subsidy from the USDA employ three times as many people serve all real whole food and the only Single-time investment you need to make we did it philanthropically and then the city has now taken it over is to build these Micro kitchens and they're not even I mean they have they have a combination oven and they have the right number of sinks They have prep tables and they have a freezer and fridge in them So they're not nothing out of this world, but it's exactly the amount of equipment We have rice cookers as well for people to prepare a full buffet of hot and cold food every day for kids Looks like a rainbow kids. Love it. It smells good. It doesn't smell like heated plastic in schools anymore It smells like real food and so but that process took a long time that process took about nine months of us pushing really hard and Is that a cat? He's my work companion, I know any other people to hang around with you more than my wife's you have the cat We have the cats too So we so so you know we tripped over it was like one thing at a time every hurdle and you you can imagine why Government alone can't do this because there are so many knows that get in the way And so we just kind of every time someone said no we said why not and we would just solve the problem And then we get to the next thing, you know, like one of the earliest problems we solved was everything was coming in Wrapped so apples were wrapped in plastic oranges were wrapped in plastic it just made it just made it look so unappetizing and So the why so the answer to the why why do we have to do it this way? It was well, you don't have fruit washing sinks in the in the kitchens So we said if we put a fruit washing sink in the kitchen do we have to wrap the fruit anymore? They said no you just got to wash the fruit so like it was just you know It was super simple like not expensive solution to a really big problem The kids weren't eating the fruit because it took five minutes to unwrap the bloody thing and it didn't look at but appetizing anyway So we just had to do that with everything And we and we got a set of saying instead of people saying, you know, this is why not and just stopping there You were like well, how how do we fix this? Yeah, exactly There wasn't that hard right it's a sink. It's it's other simple things and I think you know Was interesting you shared me once it was a little subversive because you sort of started this program in the school You did in one school you showed it could be done. You got them To not ship in the food from out of state all wrapped in plastic and you didn't really tell anybody what you were doing and By the time people caught on it was sort of too late Yeah, you know these these big food service providers that were you know cashing in all the government supports and making crappy food Yeah, we're out of business right. That's right, you know So it was it was interesting because the one thing that we caught wind up was that the food provider so the the vendor that provided all the plastic rep food that That opportunity was up for bid and So and we happened to just walk in the door as that bidding process is being set up And so the only recommendation we made because we didn't want anything to do with plastic rep food is we said make sure that You have the right to pull out any school if if you if for any reason you would want to shift the way you were feeding kids so they wrote that into the bid and and the deal was done with that in mind and we knew already like if this thing Works then we're just gonna be able to you know pull off So and that's what's happened 30 schools a year have come off of that contract and have gone on to this You know fully managed by the Boston Public Schools Real Whole Food so who made those decisions about the contracts within the school's Superintendent's was that the head of food services was terrific. Yeah, who came from LA She had you know, she was trying to do a lot of things in LA in terms of shifting the food Also in what they were serving there. And so she was she was you know This all seemed very risky to her and we kept saying to her We're here to carry the risk on this. Well, we'll make sure that like we don't break anything and But you know, it was her decision to put the language into the contract and she really kind of made sure that we could keep pushing forward It was because it was complicated. Yeah, it is, you know, I think Right now we're hearing a lot of mantras about school lunch. Oh, you know, we put in these nutrition guidelines that are better under the hunger-free kids act that Obama passed in 2010 which improve guide what to eat more whole foods more vegetables, etc. Although they still passed potatoes. I mean quote French fries as a vegetable and ketchup and pizza as vegetables Which you know, just still is hard to imagine But but now what's happening is these these guidelines are being rolled back because they're saying the kids won't eat the healthy food They throw it in the garbage. Yeah, it's bad. It costs too much and so They're they're rolling back these these guidelines And and yet your your model shows that that's just a bunch of nonsense. Yeah. Yeah, we know it's interesting I think the one thing we did in terms of a service model, which I think Changes the way kids behave around food is we we it's all child driven So we the protein is separate from the grains is separate from the warm vegetables is separate from all the cold fruits and vegetables separate from the beans, etc And so nothing has to touch anything else which is a big reason that kids don't like certain things So if I if I walk down the line, right? Well, I might take protein I may take chicken and I might forego the rice because I don't like it But maybe there's a role that I want and I like the roasted broccoli Or I don't like any of the hot vegetables So maybe but I do want an apple and I want some celery and I want a carrot But I definitely don't want a salad and I do not want dressing but I do want the hot sauce So kids make their own meals and and this is not slow This happens there are servers on the other side is all within the three dollars and 45 cents who are talking with kids Kids are saying please and thank you There's a whole conversation that's going on that wasn't happening before and they're getting exactly what they want They walk up the line pretty gleefully actually and they eat it. They eat it all because they asked for it That's what they wanted. I did no food waste There's no food waste and then you know and then we really insert opportunities for kids to try things, right? So while they're sitting around they're sitting at the table eating We might say these are chickpeas would you like to try chickpeas right so that we introduce new foods tofu Tofu is like kids love tofu now love it, you know, it's it's just so hard to hear The argument that kids won't eat the food I think the adults don't know how to present the food to the kids So just to recap the the economics work You can create better food more locally sourced made from scratch All you need is a little bit of an improvement in the kitchens. Yep. You hire more people Yep, which still was is within the cost structure Totally who are happier with their jobs because they're actually cooking and making kids happy Yeah, and the kids are happy. They're not throwing out the food. Yeah, and and how is their health and academic performance? Have you tracked that it's interesting? So we are doing there's a study being done right now on the behavioral health because We were hearing from so many principles and teachers that Be hit negative behavioral events had gone way down in the schools and so kids were just being disciplined less and Teachers and principals thought it was because of the of the school food the new school food We don't have data yet. We are gonna start doing some research on their Physical health as well, but I can tell you one story that I tell all the time There was a child who was diagnosed with failure to thrive and part of the school's responsibility was to try to get a half a can of a Protein drink into this child every day His name was George and I walked in about three days after the my way cafe program had started in his school And the principal was kind of teary-eyed and she said I gotta tell you she said this boy George told me his situation She said um, he's eating every meal. Wow. And so I I ended up meeting George a week later And he said, you know, do you know the people who make the food? I said, oh, I do. Yeah He said, how do you how does someone make a recipe? I said, oh, it's kind of like coloring, you know, if you Take a red crayon and a blue crayon and you put them together. It's purple. So that's what they do, you know And he's like, you know, it's a pretty sure that I want to be a chef Like it was a kid who's couple of weeks ago Is his pediatrician came in to see what was happening his mom wanted to be able to bring the food home So he would eat at night. I mean, this is like a game changer and as far as I can tell it was his relationship when I went with one of these newly hired cafeteria service workers who just changed his mind about Eating it it was mind-blowing for it still is so they don't know when you search your kid Yeah, and then you know that maybe you haven't collected the data yet But I think it's gonna show remarkable things, you know, when you look at kids in schools And violent disruptive behavior. It's a big issue. I mean kids at one in ten kids are on a VD medication You know, we have that special ed. There's it just it's an enormous problem in school school nurses are dishing out medications left to write It's and you know, we know from the studies that you know, is there is or difficult kids is a 3000 kids study which were incarcerated youth And they were basically replaced junk food with healthier options and got rid of sugar and refined foods and in 12 months there was a 21% reduction in antisocial behavior a 25% reduction in assaults a 75% reduction in use of restraints and get this gel there was a 100% reduction suicides, which is basically You think about it suicide is the third leading cause of death and children's age 10 to 19 And when you look at the CDC study there was a credible study by the CDC looking at nutrition in kids and found that those kids perform Far better when they're when they're well-nourished if they're not they're basically having poor academic performance They're having more absenteeism. They're having more disruptive behavior. They're less likely to problem-solve less likely to pay attention But I think this is something we just don't understand that we're we're doing to our kids And it's something that's completely solvable with real food I mean the CDC published this in a report in 2014 called health and academic achievement And it was just such a clear link between poor nutrition and poor academic performance with lower test scores lower grades Poor cognitive first cognitive function less alertness less attention poor memory It was just amazing and so we have the ability to change this We just don't do it and I think the science is there and now what you've shown is that the possibility of scaling this is there At 65 I'm still pushing my limits cycling long distances trekking through Patagonia and living life to the fullest But staying active as I age isn't just about willpower. It's about giving my body the vital support it deserves See as we get older our mitochondria the powerhouse of our cells naturally begin to slow down stealing our energy and strength That's where timeline powered by might appear has truly been a life changer for me It contains your alythin a which helps renew and recharge my mitochondria keeping my muscles performing like they did when I was younger My to pure is backed by solid research showing it can boost cellular energy increase muscle strength and support overall healthy aging Personally, I take my to pure every day It's helped me keep up with my active lifestyle whether it's a high intensity workout or an adventure in the mountains So if you're looking to support your muscles and want to feel younger from the inside out my friends at timeline are offering 20% off your first order check it out at timeline.com slash dr. Hyman. That's timeline.com slash dr. Hyman your future self will thank you Two out of ten kids now are obese not just overweight four out of ten or overweight We're seeing this effect there cognitive behavior and academic performance. What's most striking in the studies It really shocked me Was that the ones the kids were the most? Obese are also the most nutrient deficient You look at their vitamin and mineral levels. They are among the lowest because they're eating crap And it's affecting their cognitive function their metabolism and setting them up for really bad Bad outcomes in lives lower life expectancy lower ability to earn higher incomes and in schools It's it's a cesspool there sugar salt processed carbs industrial refined fats And then they look I mean I went to the school. They had no McDonald's Monday Taco Bell Tuesday Wendy's Wednesday. They had advertising all over the Gymnasiums and bathroom stalls Yeah And and you guys really went to work on this with the hunger free kids act to help the hunger free kids act Which was signed in a law in 2010. Can you tell us about that? And what were the challenges you found that you faced in addressing? Changes to the school lunch program from the food industry and from the congress and you know, what was that like? There are lots of them You know, so when we got there there was no rules at all about what you could sell in schools So in vending machines and in the ala cart lines and the lunch rooms There was literally zero standards. You could sell anything you wanted And and the Guidelines had had him been updated in terms of the new and standards for the school lunch meal itself in 20 years There have been new resource for the program in 30. Wow And you know part of the challenge there's lots of different challenges One we were trying to do it in the middle of economic class not too You know different from what's happening right now Um, he's probably that was 2008, right? Yeah, and so, you know as and we were working on this in 2009. So, um, you know, pretty pretty intense time trying to get a bill like that done Um, but you know for us in the administration and it by the way took president Obama intervening and push helping to push with With the first lady to get that done Um, you know as we think it was the bedrock of the future of the nation and so that's why it was such a priority for us Um, you know, I think there's a lot of challenges one Like on the vending machines, you know, they are huge sources of revenue For things that we care about in schools like art class and music class Um, the school's budget boards. Yeah for sports. So these budgets have been cut so much That schools are depending on basically selling these kids junk food to heat programs that we all care about Alive. So there's a real, you know tense conflict there. Um, uh, but you know, obviously You know Killing them or prematurely over the long cut like nada solution for art So they can they can write great poems as they're dying and great songs Is there anybody else who we're like, this should work. We had to work this out um You know, there's huge raging and sometimes, you know, the debates in washington just, you know, make how leave you scratching your head But huge debates on whether you had to just offer the vegetable of the kid or actually had to serve That's weird Well, he's talking about competitive foods in schools, which makes me crazy I mean if you a competitive food is a doughnut versus an apple So if you put them side by side guess which one the kid's gonna pick. Yeah, it's not exactly competitive big big big fights there Uh And you know, then there was a pretty infamous effort by the frozen Food institute, which is basically the pizza and friend fire is yeah, cool um that got uh That made the the tomato sauce on the pizza to be counted as a vegetable. Yeah And french fries we were working very hard to put limit. We were we proposed limitations on the amount of fries that could be served And given week Which is also vegetable Right exactly. You didn't know Uh And the ketchup also is a vegetable. Yeah. Yeah, and so the congregate got congress to intervene and They they let they attached that onto another bill and got that through so we were able to then increase the serving of vegetables So you could serve fries, but you still also had to serve like broccoli or something like that Uh, so it really kind of defeated the purpose of serving the fries. So yeah, we're able to constrain that significantly Um at the time anyway, and I mean I remember a story that you know swansons pizza, which is is a big pizza company in minnesota Is the largest supplier of pizza to schools Yeah, then and Amy klobuchar who's the center of minnesota democrat was instrumental in getting Pizza being included as a vegetable which just goes to show you the Ways in which the food industry is so influential in driving our policies, which had nothing to do with science Yeah, that is true. We had big fights on potatoes in many arenas similar to school lunch as well as with wick You know so but I gotta say like so there was real fights. I I did think there's this like Um, I have gotten over the outrage that industry is going to pursue their interests I'm sort of just like we got to get over it and just win and just beat them At there at this game and we need to be smarter and more strategic and get in power run for office get in power and win So you think the congressmen and senators would be your allies. Did you find that? I mean clearly the food industry put it back Yes, sometimes they well, we got it all passed and the bill was actually quite good Outside of those things that I mentioned, you know the whole grain provisions the sodium provisions The amount of vegetables we had to serve like all those things were actually quite very very strong There wasn't enough money for the program Could it be improved? Of course could it be significantly improved? Absolutely. But was it just a transformational bill compared to what was there before absolutely So, you know, uh, and it took a Herculean effort to get it done At be given everything else that was going on in washington. So um, so, you know, look, I mean I that was just a huge win and Uh And was there was there any follow-up data on how? Kids who did in terms of their weight their academic performance the impact of the new school lunch guidelines the uh, the I haven't seen a robust Analysis for the whole program in its entirety The other part of the bill that we buried and didn't really talk much about because it didn't Yeah, but maybe the most impactful thing in this bill. I don't know one you could debate it Was uh, was provision that basically said that it's called the community eligibility program and it allowed schools that had 40 percent Free or reduced basically where the majority Almost the majority of your kids were low-income kids. You could serve breakfast to every kid In the school for free And every kid got lunch for free and so amazing It was what was what's very powerful about that is not as much at lunch but at breakfast because At lunch everybody's eating together and you don't know who's too But breakfast was only in the cafeteria for the poor kids. And so what would happen is Um, those kids would have lunch at school. They'd go home. Most of them don't get food at home when they get there Maybe a lot of baggage through some and then they come back to school But they were so ashamed of being Identified as poor that they would skip breakfast even though they hadn't eaten since lunch the day. Wow um, and so by serving it in the in the in breakfast in the classroom Uh and serving it to everybody Uh All like millions of poor kids are getting food that otherwise wouldn't Um, and so you saw there increased participation Uh better improved significantly improved attendance and significantly improved Reading and math scores. Um, because you know with those kids, you know, can you remember when you were like 12 or 13? How hungry you were all the time? Yeah, and imagine you hadn't eaten since you know lunch and it's now nine o'clock The lunch the day before and it's now nine o'clock and you're asked to like focus That's yeah, forget it. Forget that. I could barely do that if I was full let alone if I was strong Right and so, you know, um, so it was a transformational piece of of legislation that regard And for the the just the they've seen just incredible results There's been challenges to implement it but those resources remain and more and more districts each year are signing up for it and so that you know, um, I think I think we have to be careful like things, um Messi and politics is messy and you're going to have people loving for their for their own Interest of their businesses sometimes in ways that you know, I can understand sometimes that I find disgusting and just I pour it And you're aware of what you experience that you know kind of reveal the underbelly about what you're fighting against I mean look at cut both ways. I mean, I think you know, we will we ban trans fats Which uh, you know, there was an attempt to try to figure out from the industry side You know, they could still because of a few people who wanted a very icey in other trouble products where You know, it was harder to replace. They wanted to like Go Fight uh to try to allow a certain level Right in under the ban Am I allowed to swear this podcast you can I mean And I told the lob them ahead lob is these guys like if you want to have that fucking fight like I let's go Because I cannot wait to take it to you on this if you want to make sure that you're pumping trans fats That is a no killer like let's go at it So, you know, there's people like that's like clearly something that was killing everybody a very specific thing that had ample evidence um And sometimes just like ready for a nasty fight But I will also say and it's important for everybody to understand There's a lot of nuance and a lot of gray. So there's some issues like pizza in you know as a vegetable or trans fat Which is a black and white issue But there's a lot of other companies that you know have done tremendous work to try to make it easier More affordable families to get decent food Um that are working With real constraints from wall street, you know, like if you know CEOs try to change too much too fast and lose some revenue In a three or six month period they're gonna get fired, right? So there those efforts are You know, what would be undone in a minute? So if you're trying to get as many to change there's the pragmatism that has to be taken and And by the way, like a lot of people talk about wanting to eat better and how we need better food, but consumers You know, uh tend to eat what they eat and tend to like pretty unhealthy food Uh, and that's because that food likes them. It's addictive and it sort of sets up the biology of Hunger and craving and addiction, which is very hard to fight with willpower and that's part of the problem I told that that's absolutely right, but it's also a real problem for the industry So they've created they box themselves into a problem creating, you know highly cremable food And now it's they're it's people want it and they like it and they identify themselves with eating So it becomes the whole, you know, what we eat is really how we understand who we are And so when you start to change you're saying you want to change me as a human and so it's it's super complicated And people aren't changing as fast as we think they are And so for some for a ceo who's like I get it like my portfolio. It's not good. I'm sure gotta make the real change It's not like they're in the position to say I get these products are terrible. I'm just gonna get rid of them Yeah, well, they're innovating these companies are innovating. They're getting the crap out there reformulating their product We're getting there You're getting into I just I just think we have to be careful to See like the monolith evil food industry. I agree versus everybody because it just actually doesn't capture the reality Nor is it going to go away? And so I think we have to work to figure out who's a good actor trying to do the right thing Who's not and just needs to get called out and pressured and fought and won And and they work strategically to make progress We you know to work collaboratively when you can and fight when you have to Yeah, it's hard. It's hard to have the sniffed a tester on for the greenwashing, you know What what's true? What's not and you know, a lot of people are saying the right things. Are they doing the right things? You know, one of the things that's challenging and all the hard work you did with the obamas to get the Healthy hunger free kids act passed in 2010 The current administration is trying to roll that back and their their arguments are that oh kids are throwing out the food It doesn't taste good Don't eat it You know, so we have to fix those guidelines both fix the guidelines and which means Roll them back so that more junk can be in the schools Yeah, and I think you know, there's a real challenge in the culinary world in school lunches As a chef, I love your opinion about this because like we're talking about before you've learned how to make delicious yummy meals in a short order From ingredients and aren't going to break the bank And that and that can be done and I think there are models of this, you know, my friend Jill Shaw I think I might have talked about her Yeah, it was also going to be on the podcast talking about my way cafe where she got top chefs to create delicious Meals within the school and nutrition guidelines within the school budget for school lunches Which is not very much And kids love it and they're not throwing it out and they're eating it And I see this happen over and over throughout the country. So can you speak to the rollbacks that are happening? Why they're happening and and what we can do to fight those? Yeah, well the main reason they're happening is because the school nutrition association And that is an organization whose name they it does not deserve to be the school malnutrition association Basically, um, so basically what's happened with them is, you know, they represent the school chefs as I call them Uh, and you know, they've been under a lot of pressure for for many years And you know, I will say that school chefs around this country have For the most part and they go Into these cap materials with very little resource with almost no support They love those kids and they're really trying to do right by them. Fortunately, they're the organization that represents them Is one that is just dominated by Uh, some of the worst players, uh in in the food system the those same pizza and french fries guys kind of aggrud and a few others are the most influential companies on their board and they were very supportive of of the Healthy young and free kids act and the work that we were doing and we were real allies of theirs And then they realized that this was standards were going too far and kind of in the middle of the whole thing they Fired the the city brought in a bunch of hacks for big food and have then since started fighting us And um, and now I've been lobbying the the trump administration to roll back The standards so if they're listening Have been talking to you guys in a while, but shame shame on you It should just an abomination Of your role in our society to be safeguarding the well-being of the kids that are eating in In our schools and representing and supporting the The people and mostly women who are Working so hard with so little support day in and day out to to do the best they can with these resources And I just am so disappointed Um in how that has played out, um, you know, they argue in it that it's just good enough to have some green beans on the line That that's like a serious argument for a 10 year old to say they want it. It's just a joke um, the reality it's all the evidence shows that They the the evidence shows two things one people kids have been throwing out school lunch As since the day was invented And that is nothing new and there's zero evidence that our new standards led to any Uh increased food waste Secondly the evidence shows that there's a substantial increase in consumption if you actually serve The food to the child like you put it on their plate if it's on their plate They're more likely to eat it. You know, actually we had a research that Uh, but it's true. It turns out that's that's how it goes And our curriculums have been disrupted so that there is no longer homec It was an intentional initiative by the food industry to remove homecrumbs schools and it was successful And we have changed gender trained now raised generations of americans who don't know how to cook So you're trying to change all that and what's what's interesting is that a lot of people talk about school gardens And helping with school lunches and all that's great But at the end of the day you have to retrain Kids to learn about food nutrition and you've done it not just with the gardens But integrating the gardens in the curriculum. So can you talk about? Yeah, so how that works? Yeah, why it's why big green is such an important big thing has become My proudest achievement and I I am so happy The team that we have a big green what we've done. So PayPal was kind of a footnote. Yeah And you know, I think the what what I found when we opened the kitchen in 2004 We we took some of the profits and we supported school gardens in the community one of our first employees I wanted to do that and we thought that would be a nice way to give back And every year with a lot of financial support from us and others this person was able to open two new school gardens a year and I had a very serious accident in 2010 and by so between 2004 and 2010 I was getting really frustrated that we couldn't reach that many more kids. It was very effective You get a school garden into a school Uh food literacy goes up access to food increases the choice of fruits and vegetables goes up Test scores go up. I mean you can see if you do the same science lesson in fifth grade in a school garden versus In in the class Test scores go up by 15 points on a hundred point scale. Is it because they're eating that food or because? There's why I mean it's experiential learning fun. Exactly. I mean you're imagine learning out of a textbook versus being in a garden I mean you're just gonna remember and learn that better. So it did work, but it just didn't scale And I got really frustrated and I had a in 2010 At a very serious accident. I went down a ski hill on an energy one of those Sanctioned children's runs. It wasn't wasn't an illegal. You never saw the age limit. You're not speaking. No, exactly I mean they should have been they should have been a height limit I'm six. I was I'm six four weirdly. I'm six five now because of the surgery, but um No, that's an I'm still gonna be writing and how do I get the height extension surgery? Well, you need to break your neck. You break your neck And so uh, I went down the ski hill Of the tube flipped it was meant for a kid. So I I'm six five and and just really wasn't meant from from someone of my size It threw me Landed on my head going 35 miles an hour Broke my spine at c6 and c7 ruptured the spinal column paralyzed for three days and if I mean, it's just impossible to describe the uh the lack of feeling Because paralysis there's no pain There's just nothing Like the void it's just you watch you you watch your body and you just can't move it You'd send the signal to your left hand to go move and it just doesn't move you just can't believe it. You just cannot cannot process it and um and The doctors actually were telling me that the way I broke my my spine my neck was they could fix it It was bleeding in the spinal column. So that was causing the paralysis But if they can get in and fix it fast enough, I'd get feeling back and hopefully motion and so forth But I remember them telling me this and I paralyzed and I'm thinking to myself. Oh, no, okay It's gonna be fine. It's gonna be fine. And there were just tears streaming down the side of my face. I just had no No ability to process what was going on. It was just absolutely awful and um Three days later, they they did the surgery was successful But I also had to be horizontal for two months in as part of the therapy And I think Uh, so while I was in hospital while I was paralyzed and they were telling me how they could fix me I said to myself that if I did they did fix me I would figure out food and how to scale real food bring real food to everyone because the hospital food was so bad Well, partly because I had been working in food, but I couldn't scale I had this block in my head that you can't scale school gardens. You can't scale restaurants That's that's more precious. You never heard of mcdonald's. Yeah, you know, that's the weird thing. It's obviously scalable But but I had this block in my head and and when I when I had this accident and I was sitting in hospital hospital I said to myself You know, I'm going to give this a try. I'm going to focus entirely on food It was a restart in my life When you break your neck you get permission from everyone to do anything at all It's uh, if if not for my joke about it is if not for the physical trauma I highly recommend the psychological awakening. Yeah because what I got out of that was permission to be myself Yeah, and myself was working you like came right up against your mortality Exactly and you look back on your life and and you you you say to yourself that Uh, I sold myself that you know, I have I have a capacity to do good things and I've Good at building businesses. I'm good at leading people And I had done my restaurant and I'd done a little bit of work in school gardens But most of my effort was in the technology space, which really just did not get me going didn't hit your soul Yeah, and and many other people are even better at it than me, you know, and good for them and they should do it But for me what where I'm uniquely gifted at is I love food and I love cooking for people And I'm good at building businesses. And so I just gave myself permission to combine my purpose and my passion and Uh, it's just been amazing Yeah, that's such an incredible story, you know I went through a similar crisis that changed the course of my life Which was I got very ill like 25 years ago and having to figure out how to get better led me to sort of want to tell the world about a new way of thinking about medicine in the body But it's really about systems thinking and it's about ecosystems and that's sort of what's led me to think about Farming and all the things that we're talking about today because they're all connected if we don't we don't fix these problems We're not going to fix our health. We're not going to fix our economy. Well, I've got I've got to give you a shout out one of my team members Um, his name is Kevin his daughter Uh struggle with asthma for years. Yeah chronic asthma and we try we go to the doctor that give her medications and um Never worked and he read your book Eating eating to be disease That was William Lee. Sorry. That's William Lee's book. Yours is uh, what the heck should I eat? Yeah, food what the heck should I eat? Sorry about that. William Lee is good. He's well. I love William Lee. Sorry but I mean you read your book and um Changed the way his daughter ate and not only that she Improving she's a healthier kid right now But he actually went to her Went to her doctor and I took your book in and the doctor doctor said that your book was the best approach to eating that that she as a doctor had seen and is now prescribing that book to her amazing Well, it's not it's not based on ideology. It's like really honest. It's like here's what we know Here's what we don't know. Here's what we're sort of learning And like here's how to eat this better for you on the planet and it's sort of pretty simple and yeah brings common Thank you Old I interact with every day. So that's amazing. So so you you're going to get this school curriculum out there to not just Thousands but millions we're we're at 350,000 kids every school day. We're 650 schools We combine the curriculum of science what what kids learn and science in the classroom We bring it into the garden and they actually learn their science lessons in the garden So that the teachers don't have to do extra work. They just go outside to teach the same lesson. It's um, it's a one of the Maybe right or wrong thing to do but we actually know what paragraph Of what textbook is being taught on at what hour of the day In every district so we can I mean it's just because that's how teachers are trained to focus on It's amazing how how structured it is unfortunately. I wish teachers had a bit more freedom But as a result we can say oh, we know that you're going to teach But we do plan to seed down the first day of spring so march 19th This coming year we get teachers across the country to pledge to plan a seed with their kids But what we do is we know the paragraph on in the science textbook. They have to teach on that day And so we can say here's the lesson so let's all go teach together and In the classroom if you're in the northern climates and outdoors if you're in the southern climates and you'll plant a seed with your kids And our goal of this coming plan to see days to get every teacher in america to pledge to plant the seed with their kids So you're teaching also them cooking you're teaching about food. You're teaching about nutrition. You're well anytime the food comes out of the garden um You deal with kitchens in schools, which are not very sophisticated. So they're really big friars and microwaves mostly Yeah, basically warming ovens and so there are things that you can do really well So if you give kale from the garden to a to a kitchen worker They can put the kale in an in an oven warming oven and bake it make kill crisps Kale chips. Yeah, and it's absolutely delicious a little a little bit of drizzle of olive oil a little touch of salt And you put it in the in these warming ovens. And so that's what that's a very popular Ingredient that's cooked from our learning gardens that it's absolutely delicious and anyone at home Go get some kale make sure there's no water on it Put it in the oven 350 degrees for about 30 minutes a little salt and olive oil And you'll have kale chips, which is like french fries It's sort of like your chicken with all the nutrition you can imagine sort of like your magic one hour chicken. Yes, exactly Cooking is not that hard. Yeah, it's really true. So You've been thinking long and hard about the food space and you've been acting in these sectors farming school gardens and learning and restaurants You know as someone who's really deep in this looking at our global food system looking at our food policies What really needs to change and and how are you sort of working in in the advocacy space or are you? You know, I I did work um, I toured the Congress congressional halls with tom calico who was so passionate around policy Um, and he he does great things in that area and I respect it It's just not good. It's not like I don't I didn't find it good for me. You know, like I I doesn't ring your bell Yeah, for me, I'd rather you don't like hanging out with politicians who don't get anything done Exactly. Oh my god. It's so against my dna. It's just crazy. So I support tom and I do everything I can to help him succeed Um, and there's another group called the young the national young farmers coalition Which is a which is a lobbyist for young farmers Which of course the young farmers don't pay them anything So it's it's a non-profit that that people who care about farming support like myself and a few other folks But those folks understand capitol hill. They understand the patience that's required And I trust them to to move The help move legislation forward, but they need more help. They need as much of us as possible to help them either with political support where we actually go to the congressional hill and and and support folks like tom and national young farmers, but Also financial support if there's a non-profit out there, you guys want to support it's called the national young farmers coalition And that's how those guys are really working hard to figure out how to get young people into farming gives them access to land Uh, uh, you know, if they don't know about square roots, they'll let people let young farmers know about square roots If they happen to live into one of the cities we're working in But it's about getting that you know, young farmers engaged which is going to be both political support which um Which I support others to do because I I don't have that DNA And then actual entrepreneurial support of figuring out how to how to create businesses that work for young farmers Well, it's true. There's so much innovation in this space, you know in food and it's a very exciting time It's really one of the fastest growing sectors of innovation and funding from venture capitalists And I mean it's just striking and you know, it's sort of bypassing the government in a way Which is actually what's needed. I think I mean, I've I've I grew up in South Africa where where I've been gripped during the partite era I was in protests anti-product protests, you know my teen years I grew up with such a skepticism of what of government's role You know, just how how bad it could be frankly and you know in America I you know, I'm not suggesting government shouldn't play a part. They should do their part But I don't I don't come at it from a perspective of the government's going to solve our problems I come at it from the perspective that We are going to probably solve it despite the government True and unfortunately, I think in the food world that that is becoming the case You know, it's interesting. We're at this conference where we met called food tank and Sam Cass who worked with the obamas on their food policy and nutrition standards He said, you know, we don't have a food movement. I mean people sort of disputed that Who were in the audience? But I think what he meant was we don't really have an organized force it's lobbying And creating coordinated policy and strategy. There is that group the national young farmers coalition That's one set. That's one second. I think he's right though. I think for for the most part The only lobbyists out there are the ones protecting the entrenched corn and soybean industry the ethanol industry and those are the wrong people to succeed and and unfortunately because there's no one to to be a counterbalance um We we we do struggle on capitol hill that being said Tom calico got up right after that and said hey, wait a minute. Let's give ourselves some credit One of the things we have programs that have that have been successful because of the food movement in in Washington DC So I think it's it's uh, it's good for the provocative talk But I actually do think that there is some success happening and we should be proud of our achievements It's just the beginning though and we have a lot of work to do if you love this podcast Please share it with you have a question about my favorite books supplements or recipes then sign up for my free Mark's picks newsletter at dr. Hyman.com Slash mark's picks where I'll share all of this information with you and so much more You'll get emails from me every Friday with recommendations on things that have helped me on my health journey And I hope they can help you too. Thank you so much again for tuning in We'll see you next week on the dr. Hyman show someone else you think would also enjoy it You can find me on all social media channels at dr. Mark hyman. Please reach out. I'd love to hear your comments and questions Don't forget to rate review and subscribe to the dr. Hyman show wherever you get your podcasts And don't forget to check out my youtube channel at dr. Mark hyman for video versions of this podcast and more Thank you so much again for tuning in. We'll see you next time on the dr. Hyman show This podcast is separate from my clinical practice at the ultra wellness center My work at cleveland clinic and function health where I am chief medical officer This podcast represents my opinions and my guest's opinions neither myself nor the podcast endorses the views or statements of my guests This podcast is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional care by a doctor or other qualified medical professional this podcast is provided with the understanding that it does not constitute medical or other professional advice or services If you're looking for help in your journey, please seek out a qualified medical practitioner And if you're looking for a functional medicine practitioner visit my clinic the ultra wellness center at ultra wellness center dot com And request to become a patient It's important to have someone in your corner who is a trained licensed health care practitioner and can help you make changes Especially when it comes to your health This podcast is free as part of my mission to bring practical ways of improving health to the public So I'd like to express gratitude to sponsors that made today's podcast possible. 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