Buzzwords like “non-GMO” and “all natural” can make a product appear like a good choice but with confusing marketing how do we curb the overwhelm and make good food decisions for our kids? Whether you’re navigating snack aisles or Instagram reels, this conversation is a must-listen for anyone who wants real, evidence-based guidance on feeding their family well.

I’m joined by Dr. Adrian Chavez, who has a Ph.D. in Nutrition and Health Promotion, to discuss:

• How fear-based marketing and social media myths mislead parents.
• How to decode buzzwords like “organic” and “non-GMO” and make informed choices without the guilt.
• Practical, judgment-free tips to build healthy habits for your family—without the overwhelm.

 

To connect with Dr. Adrian Chavez follow him on Instagram @dr.adrian.chavez and check out all his resources at https://dradrianchavez.com/

 

Our podcasts are also now on YouTube. If you prefer a video podcast with closed captioning, check us out there and subscribe to PedsDocTalk.

 

00:00 – Meet Dr. Adrian Chavez

02:29 – How Adrian Got Into Nutrition (And Unlearning Misinformation)

05:14 – What Sparked His Social Media Mission

07:49 – Education vs. Debunking Online

10:00 – Social Media Fear Tactics and Food Shaming

13:12 – Is the “Healthier” Option Worth It?

16:15 – How to Spot Buzzwords and Misleading Labels

20:41 – The Reality of Organic Food Labels

21:00 – Marketing Tricks That Make Junk Food Look Healthy

24:05 – Why Education Beats Regulation

27:03 – Movement vs. Nutrition in Kids’ Health

29:07 – How Packaging & Characters Influence Kids’ Food Choices

31:56 – What Real Nutrition Education Should Feel Like

34:22 – Are There Hidden Additives in Kids’ Foods?

38:23 – Final Message: Start Small & Stay Consistent

43:05 – Where to Find Dr. Adrian Chavez

 

We love the sponsors that make this show possible! You can always find all the special deals and codes for all our current sponsors on the PedsDocTalk Podcast Sponsorships page of the website.

00;00;00;00 – 00;00;27;03

Adrian Chavez

I think a lot of people get lost in this and some of the information on social media, because they make it seem like in the industrialization and processing of food, is this horrible thing that is like destroying our health. Yes, we are eating too much of these some highly processed foods that are not very nutritious. But our health has improved as we’ve processed these foods because, and created like new type, like introduced Yamas.

 

00;00;27;03 – 00;00;50;00

Adrian Chavez

And all of these food technologies have actually helped to improve our health because of increased access to food for everyone. You see, a lot of people say, we need to go back to what we were eating 100 years ago. A lot of people didn’t have access to food. We just didn’t have access to it. You know? And today we have we have access to everything we have, but unfortunately, we have access to both healthy and unhealthy options.

 

00;00;50;02 – 00;01;17;08

Dr. Mona

Welcome to the show. It’s me, Doctor Mona, your trusted pediatrician, confidante and mom friend here to help you sort through the chaos of parenting, especially when you’re just trying to survive grocery store tantrums and figure out if organic actually means anything. You’re listening to the PedsDocTalk podcast where we keep it real, keep it science based, and definitely question those all natural, non-GMO fear mongering food labels that somehow make apples feel controversial.

 

00;01;17;10 – 00;01;45;03

Dr. Mona

Today’s guest is one of my favorite followers on social media Doctor Adrian Chavez, a PhD nutritionist Mythbuster and host of the Nutrition Science podcast. He’s the calm voice of reason in a sea of coconut oil, conspiracies, sugar panic and Instagram misinformation. We’re breaking down the truth about food marketing, hidden ingredients in baby and kid foods, and how parents can stop falling for wellness buzzwords and start focusing on what actually matters for our families.

 

00;01;45;06 – 00;02;08;15

Dr. Mona

And before we dive in a quick favor, if you love this show, hit that follow or subscribe button and download your favorite episode and leave a quick rating or review. I know a lot of steps, but it seriously helps more parents find us. And yes, it means the world to me. Let’s get into it. And yes, you can keep those goldfish crackers.

 

00;02;08;17 – 00;02;10;13

Dr. Mona

Thank you so much for joining me today, Adrian.

 

00;02;10;14 – 00;02;11;24

Adrian Chavez

Yeah, thanks for having me. Yeah.

 

00;02;11;24 – 00;02;29;05

Dr. Mona

I’m excited. You know, like I said, I enjoy following you on social media. You’re always debunking myths and as I know, this can get very frustrating sometimes and stressful. Tell us more about yourself, why you started your platform and podcast, and you know what your mission is in this world as a nutrition educator?

 

00;02;29;08 – 00;02;57;29

Adrian Chavez

Yeah. So I got into this field initially, focusing on cardiovascular and metabolic health. So I, I got a degree, master’s degree in exercise science and was interested in nutrition and just saw how the combination of exercise and nutrition could pretty much reverse a lot of chronic health conditions. You know, diabetes, high cholesterol, blood pressure. Like, you can improve a lot of those with, with nutrition and health.

 

00;02;58;01 – 00;03;36;09

Adrian Chavez

And I got really interested in the topic before I was formally educated in nutrition. And I read every book that I could get my hands on. I read all of the blogs, and so my initial education in nutrition was misleading information, and I didn’t know it, you know, so I, I felt like I had a certain degree of knowledge from the things that I was reading, from like popular nutrition sources, because I’m reading these on the side as I’m doing like a bachelor’s degree and a master’s degree in another subject, which there’s relation, you know, there’s some loose relation there, but you learn some of the science, but you don’t actually learn how to

 

00;03;36;12 – 00;04;08;14

Adrian Chavez

like, identify studies and put them together and understand a body of knowledge in a given area. And so I, I had developed some misleading views about nutrition early in my, you know, journey. And going in and getting a PhD opened my eyes, you know. So so I was doing my master’s degree, started taking a couple of graduate graduate classes in nutrition, and then went in, pursued, so took some prerequisites to try to pursue a PhD in nutrition.

 

00;04;08;17 – 00;04;33;12

Adrian Chavez

And getting the education really opened my eyes to how misleading a lot of the popular nutrition information is. And if you’re if you’re not being formally educated in this topic, you’re going to get exposed to these things, and that’s going to be your primary exposure in most cases, like if you if you have some, if you’re trying to learn about something, with nutrition with your kids and you go search online or you go to social media.

 

00;04;33;15 – 00;04;59;01

Adrian Chavez

Yeah, it’s more likely that you’re going to be exposed to something that is not accurate. Then then the opposite. And so I saw that in my own journey. And I wasn’t, you know, I wasn’t it wasn’t a big deal at that point. Like I went on, I was, you know, doing my research, focusing on interventions like I was running, we were out running studies, like teaching people.

 

00;04;59;01 – 00;05;14;08

Adrian Chavez

I was running nutrition education classes in communities. And then you see it there. I started to come up there and everyone’s like, you know, people there trying to take what are the things that came up during that time? It was people were taking like spoonfuls of coconut oil to lose weight. And I’m like.

 

00;05;14;26 – 00;05;15;09

Dr. Mona

Wow.

 

00;05;15;10 – 00;05;37;00

Adrian Chavez

Yeah, they’re telling me about this and I’m like, I. And I wasn’t on social media at that point. Yeah. I just wasn’t really on Instagram or anything like that. And, and I was just like, what is going on? This is you’re taking in 300 calories, of straight oil to lose weight. That’s like the same as if you took, you know, seven tablespoons of sugar to lose weight.

 

00;05;37;00 – 00;05;55;03

Adrian Chavez

Like you’re just concentrated energy is not going to help you lose weight. It didn’t it didn’t register to me how how people were becoming so misled about these things, you know, because I had been out of it for a while. You get into academia, you. Yeah. You get into a bubble. You know, they call it the ivory tower.

 

00;05;55;03 – 00;06;19;19

Adrian Chavez

And then so I started teaching. Started, you know, finish my PhD and, started actually working with people. And you see it there over and over and over again. So working with clients, you know, a large percentage of the actual time of working with people now is having to explain all of the misleading information that they’ve been exposed to in the past.

 

00;06;19;19 – 00;06;39;26

Adrian Chavez

So that is what led me to getting on Instagram, is I used to run group programs like group fitness, in nutrition programs, and so I worked with a lot of people through those. And I would just, I would be running these chat forums and it was just debunking misleading information the whole time. It’s like, what about this?

 

00;06;39;26 – 00;06;55;19

Adrian Chavez

What about this? And I’m like, you don’t need that test. You don’t need that supplement, you don’t need this, you don’t need this. You just need to be focusing on the things that I’m telling you to focus on. And so, that’s what, you know, kind of led me to to getting on social media. I’m like, you know, I can address some of this stuff on social media.

 

00;06;55;19 – 00;07;17;17

Adrian Chavez

And then when people ask me, I can just refer them to these things instead of having to continuously, debunk those same things over and over again. So, I try to do a mix of education and also the debunking stuff on social media, the debunking stuff, kind of works well in terms of like getting growth in success.

 

00;07;17;20 – 00;07;22;13

Dr. Mona

Because it’s controversial, if you will. Yeah. You’re responding. You’re disagreeing. Yeah I know, yeah.

 

00;07;22;16 – 00;07;49;03

Adrian Chavez

Yeah. But I feel like, you can’t like it’s not education. It’s telling people what not to do. And it leads them just going in circles. I’ve seen a lot of people who do this. They’ll, you know, find misleading information, and then they find people who, you know, kind of debunk some of that misleading information. And they never learn anything because they’re just on two extremes and no one’s teaching them nutrition.

 

00;07;49;03 – 00;08;18;20

Adrian Chavez

And that’s, you know, that’s that’s the what I try to do is kind of use some of that debunking content to get people to my page. And then, you know, sometimes just very I get no engagement on these posts because it’s Instagram. But yeah, yeah, I send people to social media or to, to my podcast where I really like, try to educate in more depth because, at the end of the day, all of these myths, all of this stuff is, is really just, most people just don’t have the basic knowledge to be able to see do these things.

 

00;08;18;20 – 00;08;39;15

Adrian Chavez

And if you understand, you know, oh, this is how energy balance works, because it’s not that difficult. Like understanding how our body we’re I mean, there’s some some nuances to it and, and it can get quite difficult. But just having a basic understanding of how that works helps you to to be able to identify a lot of misleading information when people tell you to eat tablespoons of coconut oil, you know that’s incorrect.

 

00;08;39;15 – 00;08;50;00

Adrian Chavez

If you have a basic foundational understanding of how energy balance and weight loss works, which is really not that challenging to to kind of learn.

 

00;08;50;03 – 00;08;58;05

Dr. Mona

Now let’s take a quick break to hear from our sponsors who support helps us keep bringing you this show.

 

00;08;58;07 – 00;09;16;19

Dr. Mona

Yeah, and I think exactly that, that also it’s really hard to educate through nutrition or even stuff that I do on 92nd Instagram real with us, you know, 2000 character limit. Right. So having the longer form content for like for you for the podcast and saying, hey, I actually had a podcast about that. Let me direct you there.

 

00;09;16;24 – 00;09;41;26

Dr. Mona

It’s kind of what we have to do because true education requires the nuance requires that. Well, let me tell you about this. Let’s talk a little bit about the science, because that’s how we have to educate. And I really love how you tie your content into fitness and obviously nutrition, because they are very much connected. And I think, you know, although I am a parenting podcast and a lot of my listeners have younger children, it is a good foundational thing for parents to know that this stuff is connected, right?

 

00;09;42;03 – 00;10;00;11

Dr. Mona

Kids tend to be more active. But, you know, how are we balancing that? How are we using screens? What is the impact? Are we getting our kids outside and how are we incorporating foods into that without dropping into fear like we talk about? And, you know, you talk a lot about this, what’s happening on social and this coconut oil misinformation.

 

00;10;00;13 – 00;10;12;11

Dr. Mona

Do you think it’s a combination or just one or the other of social media issues, as well as marketing from companies? Or where do you think a lot of this, this misinformation is coming from, in your opinion?

 

00;10;12;21 – 00;10;39;00

Adrian Chavez

I think it’s a bit of both. I think I think right now it’s largely influenced by social media. Yeah. I think companies were probably more of a factor previously, but now, the information, the flow of information is more controlled by the average person who can build an audience. Yeah. And so if you get on social media and you say things in, in social media, the algorithm rewards fear.

 

00;10;39;00 – 00;11;06;17

Adrian Chavez

If you scare people, you are going to be rewarded by social media algorithms. That’s just how it works. If you if I say if I hold up a product that you’re familiar with or you know, a formula that you’re using with your children, and I say this formula is going to kill you. Yes. And no matter what I say after that, that specific video is going to go viral, unfortunately.

 

00;11;06;17 – 00;11;28;26

Adrian Chavez

I mean, I wish there would be a way for that not to be the case, but, that is how social media works. And there are hundreds, if not thousands of people who are just making copycat videos of holding up products that people are familiar with because you immediately create that, that you know, that that’s something you’re familiar with.

 

00;11;28;26 – 00;11;43;08

Adrian Chavez

So when you see that you’re going to pay attention because you see it, you have that visual, you’re familiar with it, and they tell you it’s going to kill you. So you’re going to listen to the rest of what they say. And regardless of whether or not you even engage with that, you watch the video because they told you that.

 

00;11;43;08 – 00;12;02;19

Adrian Chavez

So that tells Instagram that that video is interesting, sends it out to more people, and that stuff just just blows up in the algorithm. If you get on social media, that and unfortunately that’s that tends to be where a lot of people are getting a lot of their information. A lot of the in previously was blogs and books and other things.

 

00;12;02;19 – 00;12;42;24

Adrian Chavez

But now it’s, you know, I feel like social media is more dominating things and companies a lot of companies are using some of the trends that are coming out from social media and previously blogs and other things to, to kind of pull out buzzwords in order to sell people products at a higher cost point. And this is always been done, but it’s just exaggerated nowadays, because now you can get an influencer or two or a group of influencers to and oftentimes they’ll probably invest in the product and, you know, scare people out of, you know, scare people out of a regular formula, scare them into this other formula that is a cleaner option.

 

00;12;42;25 – 00;13;12;10

Adrian Chavez

Yeah, that is 4 or 5 times as much that, you know, probably isn’t any healthier. But, they’re making a lot of money off the difference of the cost. And it’s not that hard to do on social media. A lot of these accounts that do what I mentioned, they’re affiliated with these products. And so they’re they’re they’ll scare you out of using one product, and then they will recommend another that is significantly more expensive.

 

00;13;12;10 – 00;13;34;08

Adrian Chavez

And yes, oftentimes it is a better product. Like from a health standpoint, there is some advantages to choosing that product. Right. But at the end of the day, you have to be able to make an informed decision. And you’re not you’re not given that opportunity because you’re being told that this one’s going to kill you. And this one some mental health food in in.

 

00;13;34;08 – 00;13;58;25

Adrian Chavez

That’s not the truth. The truth is that this one is not as nutritious as this one. And maybe it’s a little bit healthier, but is it worth paying five times as much? Correct. Especially especially if you have a family to feed. Yeah. That like, I see some of the things that people are recommending, like chips, for example, you know, one of the one of the brands that they got heavily recommended for a while was the cat chips.

 

00;13;58;25 – 00;14;00;17

Adrian Chavez

And there’s nothing like it’s a good brain.

 

00;14;00;17 – 00;14;01;08

Dr. Mona

Yeah.

 

00;14;01;11 – 00;14;26;11

Adrian Chavez

Taste, you know, tastes good. Good brand. But a lot of influencers were fear mongering normal tortilla chips and telling people that they needed to educated chips, which they’re a little bit healthier. I mean normal tortilla chips are just corn fried and vegetable oil and chips are like cassava flour, which is like is that much healthier than corn? Not really.

 

00;14;26;28 – 00;14;42;09

Adrian Chavez

And I forget it. It’s fried in like avocado oil or something like that. Like, is that much healthier than than the, sunflower oil or whatever it’s used for the, for the tortilla chips? Maybe. Not really, but those chips cost ten times as much as a normal bag.

 

00;14;42;11 – 00;14;47;00

Dr. Mona

Less chips inside of them. Like I said, there’s like ten chips in there.

 

00;14;47;03 – 00;15;12;25

Adrian Chavez

That’s what it’s over ten times as much money. The fact I’m like, wait. And so if it’s like $2 for a regular bag of chips versus six and it’s like two ounces versus a pound, it’s like a it’s yeah, it’s ten, it’s 10 to 20 times higher cost point for those chips. So like yes this may be a good choice for some people, but it really doesn’t make sense for the vast majority of people.

 

00;15;12;25 – 00;15;38;19

Adrian Chavez

The solution for most people is to probably just eat a little bit less chips, right? And enjoy the ones that you want to enjoy, and maybe pair that with other nutritious options so that you can create a balanced meal out of it. Those are the things that are actually going to help you to, improve your health. Like those are the educational tools that are going to help you to make better choices as opposed to this food’s going to kill you.

 

00;15;38;19 – 00;15;55;17

Adrian Chavez

Choose this one. That’s 20 times more costly. Instead. That isn’t really going to make a difference in your overall nutrition. If you make this different and make this swap, and that’s unfortunately a lot of that is directed towards parents because as a new parent, you’re scared like.

 

00;15;55;22 – 00;16;15;09

Dr. Mona

Yes, there’s so much fear based, there’s so much fear based marketing towards parents in every aspect of parenting, like from diapers to ointments to food to it’s just so stressful. And I’m a pediatrician, so I know, I know how to like I know right from wrong in terms of the science, but I’m like, literally feel protective of my community.

 

00;16;15;09 – 00;16;38;26

Dr. Mona

I’m like, no, no, no, no, no, y’all don’t need that. And let’s explain why this, like you said, like why this may be a little bit better, but why the other one, like you said, is not necessarily bad. It’s that what are your resources like, what are your finances here? And you know, my biggest question for you is how then can parents differentiate between general genuine health benefits and buzzwords used for marketing?

 

00;16;38;26 – 00;16;47;20

Dr. Mona

And what are those buzzwords that you may see, whether it’s through marketing or others, through social media like that you want parents to be aware of when they’re consuming information.

 

00;16;47;22 – 00;17;12;02

Adrian Chavez

Yeah. So when it comes to like health benefits of foods, I mean, do we really want to be centering most of our diet around, you know, mostly whole, unprocessed foods? Like that’s where the health benefits are going to come from, you know, other more processed foods like trying to get health benefits from some of those types of foods or trying to, like, choose the healthiest options of those typically isn’t where most people are going to benefit from, like improving their health.

 

00;17;12;02 – 00;17;31;23

Adrian Chavez

It’s really like, how do we introduce more fruits? Veggies? How do we figure out how to cook more meals at home? Like, these are the things where you’re actually going to see some improvement in health versus making some of these swaps from, like, you know, the Cheez-Its to the ants, the Annie’s Cheez-Its, you know, that cost a bit more like a good thing to do.

 

00;17;31;24 – 00;17;48;11

Adrian Chavez

Like, not not do not something that’s like, not like it’s slightly healthier. There’s going to be a little bit less sugar in most cases or a little bit less oil in most cases. But really, it’s like the average American diet right now is 60% highly processed foods. And it’s really like you got to just be cooking more food at home.

 

00;17;48;11 – 00;18;13;26

Adrian Chavez

We have to be bringing snacks along with this. We have to be preparing ahead of time, you know, and really making that a priority, I think, is the key when it comes to marketing on labels is, really almost anything that you’re going to see stamped on the front of a label, you know, you see, like the non-GMO, the all natural, like these, these don’t tell you anything about the health value of a food.

 

00;18;13;28 – 00;18;33;24

Adrian Chavez

You know, when when it comes to nutrition, what we’re looking for is we want to we want to be eating a dietary pattern that meets our nutrient needs. So where does it meet your energy needs? Is it meets your protein needs? Is it meeting your needs of various micronutrients B vitamins, zinc, you know, minerals, all of those important things.

 

00;18;33;24 – 00;19;12;25

Adrian Chavez

And these labels don’t tell you anything about that. Like non-GMO tells you absolutely nothing about that. And there’s actually no advantage to non-GMO. I mean, we are genetically foods are being genetically modified because we are trying to produce more crops to make, you know, yeah, to make it easier to provide food for the population. I think a lot of people get lost in this in some of the information on social media, because they make it seem like that in the industrialization and processing of food is this horrible thing that is like destroying our health.

 

00;19;12;27 – 00;19;34;22

Adrian Chavez

And yes, we are eating too much of these some highly processed foods that are not very nutritious. But, our health has improved as we’ve processed these foods because, in created like new type like introduced Yamas, and in all of these food technologies have actually helped to improve our health because of increased access to food for everyone.

 

00;19;35;02 – 00;19;53;19

Adrian Chavez

Because, you know, we look a hundred years ago, you see a lot of people say we need to go back to what we were eating 100 years ago. A lot of people didn’t have access to food. We just didn’t have access to it, you know? And today we we have we have access to everything we have, but unfortunately, we have access to both healthy and unhealthy options.

 

00;19;53;19 – 00;20;20;26

Adrian Chavez

But, the healthy options are there, and we really, you know, there’s, there’s just a lot of options available. And so with, with these labels, though, you know, GMO, organic, there is some advantages in some cases to choosing organic. That’s a whole topic in itself, an entire podcast episode on, but it also goes back to what I mentioned earlier.

 

00;20;20;26 – 00;20;41;10

Adrian Chavez

Sometimes it’s 2 to 3, times as much and not much better in terms of nutrition. And if you have to feed a family that has to be taken into account, you’re not going to triple your grocery budget for something that’s slightly better. Which is what a lot of people are being led to do with some of this misleading information.

 

00;20;41;10 – 00;21;00;14

Adrian Chavez

So, you know, I would pay less attention to all of the labels, you know, on the all of the stamps on the front of the package, there’s a there’s a guy on Instagram called Cheat Day by Design. Okay. And, I will share his because they may not be, exactly correct, but I’ll share it with you.

 

00;21;00;14 – 00;21;33;05

Adrian Chavez

His handle, he takes unhealthy products and he shows how to you like green market them with non-GMO, all natural, well, no sugar added. He adds all of these different buzzwords and makes like a Pepsi look like a health food product. By adding all of these buzzwords. So, like, he’ll take a Reese’s and put, you know, four grams of protein per serving on the front end, and we’ll put non-GMO and, on fruit flavors, and he’ll make a Reese’s look like.

 

00;21;33;11 – 00;21;34;00

Dr. Mona

A health food.

 

00;21;34;00 – 00;21;56;05

Adrian Chavez

Yeah, exactly like what you would perceive as a health food in everything. He’s putting all of the buzzwords that he’s putting on there are entirely true interesting. But it’s just it’s not you’re not getting the context in unfortunately, the context requires, just kind of learning about nutrition and how to feed yourself to be able to look and see, oh, four grams of protein per serving.

 

00;21;56;07 – 00;22;20;18

Adrian Chavez

That’s not enough for me. And that’s not enough for for my child. But you, if you don’t have that baseline knowledge, it’s hard for you to be able to make that determination. And so those buzzwords are going to catch you very easily without kind of learning some of that. And so that’s, I think the, the key to, to being immune against the buzzwords is really like trying to learn more about, you know, just just be the basics.

 

00;22;20;18 – 00;22;41;22

Adrian Chavez

And that’s what I try. Like I said, I try to kind of do that on my podcast. You cannot learn that on social media, right? If I post, if I post a video or real or anything, just explaining a basic topic like protein on my social media, it won’t get very much engagement typically.

 

00;22;41;22 – 00;22;47;00

Dr. Mona

And so it’s not spicy, you know. Exactly. Yeah. It’s not. Yeah.

 

00;22;47;02 – 00;23;18;16

Adrian Chavez

I just I used to do that a lot more and I just don’t anymore because it’s like Instagram kind of, you know, there’s no incentive to, to educate on those platforms anymore. It’s more how can you spark controversy. And, and so I’m, you know, I just say, hey, I have a podcast on it. Let’s, you know, just go check it out there because you can really talk about the nuances like you mentioned, because, you know, each of these topics like it’s important to understand your protein needs.

 

00;23;18;16 – 00;23;44;14

Adrian Chavez

And then you can make that determination because there’s so many I mean, with health food marketing, like you can go into a grocery aisle and this one will say high protein, and it’s five grams of protein per 200 calories. And it’s like, just not sufficient. But, there’s just not great, regulations around any of these things. And companies, if it in some people, you know, get frustrated about that.

 

00;23;44;14 – 00;24;05;02

Adrian Chavez

But if the FDA did try to regulate, the companies would just use different buzzwords and just keep using different buzzwords. It would be just trying to continuously, change the regulations to address the, the new buzzwords that they tried to use. And that’s where I say, like, it’s really just I feel like the the answer is education.

 

00;24;05;04 – 00;24;40;25

Adrian Chavez

And I would like to see more education in like a public school setting around nutrition because I agree, you know, just a semester in high school would set most kids up to never falling for a lot of this dieting and years of disordered eating habits that I tend to see a lot of times in people in their 30s, because they started dieting in their teens, because they were trying to look a certain way or, and they didn’t have the right knowledge that parents didn’t have the knowledge or, and the only sources of information were magazines and, you know.

 

00;24;40;25 – 00;24;42;19

Dr. Mona

Social media like give misinformation.

 

00;24;42;24 – 00;25;06;11

Adrian Chavez

That now social media and magazines and now it’s now social media. And this is getting just, people, you know, we talk about, you know, like crisis and health crisis. It’s like, education at the population level. And then also and you know, this, like we just need better integration of nutrition services in the health care setting.

 

00;25;06;14 – 00;25;28;16

Adrian Chavez

Absolutely. People. Doctors are this is not their job. A lot of people think, oh, the doctor should be educated on nutrition. That’s not their job. You know, they’re people who are educated. There’s dietitians who are educated on nutrition. We just need better integration. And and I don’t think that’s all malicious, in my opinion. I think that’s just, nutrition.

 

00;25;28;18 – 00;25;58;09

Adrian Chavez

We didn’t know how important it was until the last 20, 25 years in terms of like, overall health and how nutrition changes can really help to, to improve a variety of different health conditions. We didn’t know and we didn’t have the research. Yeah. And now it’s there and now it’s building. And now it’s just a matter of like figuring out how to how to deliver that effectively in a cost effective way in, in the health care setting.

 

00;25;58;25 – 00;26;28;03

Adrian Chavez

Because, you know, ten years ago we didn’t know how to if someone came in with IBS, we didn’t know what to do in terms of, in terms of like an evidence based approach. And we know now, like the nutrition, the science of nutrition is, is growing so quickly and providing us so many answers so quickly. And I feel like the in the next ten, 20 years, there should be better integration of nutrition services in the health care setting, which I’d love to see.

 

00;26;28;05 – 00;26;46;00

Dr. Mona

Now let’s take a quick break to hear from our sponsors who support helps us keep bringing you this show. Oh me too, I think it would be so helpful. I mean, I, I went to osteopathic medical school and we do I, we do actually do more nutrition than our allopathic colleagues. But we’re not nutritionists like by any means.

 

00;26;46;13 – 00;27;03;00

Dr. Mona

Because it is something that we look at as the whole picture of a patient. But I always want to learn more, which is why I love following you and other nutrition evidence based nutritionists on social media. I will be linking your organic food podcast. Send that to me so I can add that I also did do one with Food science fame.

 

00;27;03;00 – 00;27;19;03

Dr. Mona

I think you know who she is on social. Yeah, we talked about organic labeling and all that, but I want to link yours for anyone listening and maybe have you come back to talk about that again? And I love what you said about, you know, the focus always being on, you know, it’s been more in the last 20 years with nutrition than the importance.

 

00;27;19;03 – 00;27;39;22

Dr. Mona

Because even for me in pediatrics, what I see is that there tends to be more of a focus on movement, meaning let’s get your kids exercising, which obviously we know to be important. But you know, myself, my husband, everyone that I know that is, I would say, looking out for their health. We know that both are important. And I would say nutrition is usually what’s not focused on as much.

 

00;27;39;22 – 00;27;59;16

Dr. Mona

Right? We know that like meaning we’re not talking about the, you know, Whole Foods and the, you know, how can we minimize the processed foods. Not that we can’t have them in our life, but how can we incorporate fresh fruits as a snack? Like, how can we incorporate those fresh foods for our children, mixed in with the, you know, processed foods for convenience or whatever that food child may like.

 

00;27;59;23 – 00;28;19;09

Dr. Mona

But I, I agree, I think that I want to see more of that focus in schools on nutrition and quality nutrition education from school systems, from pediatricians, because it’s lost and, you know, it’s like, oh, how much should you exercise today? But and then, oh, did you eat vegetables? But it’s not that’s not the only healthy thing. Like what about protein?

 

00;28;19;09 – 00;28;41;12

Dr. Mona

What about how are you balancing things. And yeah, I love that you’re on social. I wish that would be so much more integrated because for me, I see it as the future of health. As you know, you said it yourself that nutrition and exercise can beat a lot of health issues. And we know that. And we talk so much about that buzzword longevity for adults, but we don’t really focus on how can we create healthy foundations for children.

 

00;28;41;12 – 00;29;07;00

Dr. Mona

Right. And that that involves parents and how they’re looking at food and what they’re avoiding and what they’re, you know, like how they talk about food with their children. And so you know, one of the biggest things that I see from a marketing standpoint is, you know, fancy cartoon characters on a lot of products. And I, I’ve done my own, like, Mark, you know, I go into the stores and my son will see like a Paw Patrol string cheese, which is like $0.80 more than the regular string cheese.

 

00;29;07;00 – 00;29;25;22

Dr. Mona

And I know you’re like $0.80 is not that much, but it adds up. I mean, come on, like you. And then you see the yogurts, which are like little characters. And so I do want to, you know, I want to make sure people know that there is a marketing ploy here to put fun little characters on these child products, that you could just buy the low sugar version.

 

00;29;26;07 – 00;29;47;09

Dr. Mona

And a lot of those things, like especially the, the baby yogurt, which I have a problem with, add a lot of added sugar to it when you could just get like no added sugar and add some mashed fruit in it. Are there are certain things that you feel like from a packaging and branding influence, besides the organic, natural, and non-GMO all that affect a parent’s perception of food quality or safety?

 

00;29;47;09 – 00;29;49;12

Dr. Mona

Or are those the big things that you normally see?

 

00;29;49;15 – 00;30;14;03

Adrian Chavez

Yeah, I mean, you’re right there with the the characters and yeah, I mean, there should definitely be some regulation on this. When I was doing my PhD quite a while ago, I went to, a presentation of, of some research where they were trying to institute some regulations and that the, the food industry was supposed to self-regulate is, is what the conclusion was from that.

 

00;30;14;03 – 00;30;45;14

Adrian Chavez

And that doesn’t seem to be happening. So yeah, I definitely I mean, I think it’s, it’s really like colors and like you mentioned this, it’s a whole, holistic way of, that has been studied very well of how we perceive various things. So these agencies, these marketing agencies have spent it’s a science. They’ve spent millions of dollars understanding this science of how we perceive the products that they’re placing in front of us.

 

00;30;45;28 – 00;31;10;14

Adrian Chavez

The words that they’re putting on it, the colors, the characters, the, the labels, you know, every aspect of it. And we have to that it’s very challenging. If you don’t, that’s where I just keep going back to it. It’s like, you just have to have that education because like you mentioned, if you’re seeing, something with the characters and you’re like, oh, I’m just going to purchase this one because, you know, this is the one they want.

 

00;31;10;14 – 00;31;33;03

Adrian Chavez

And, you don’t have the, the knowledge to turn around and read the label and say, oh, this one has ten grams of added sugar. This is probably too much. That that’s very helpful. And unfortunately, like with, these companies are doing everything that they can to sell you their products, and it’s not, you know, I don’t think it’s malicious.

 

00;31;33;03 – 00;31;56;21

Adrian Chavez

Like, they’re not trying to hurt people. They’re they’re companies that they’re so, you know, end goal is to make as much profit as possible. So they’re trying to sell as much product as possible. And so they they create products that are very tasty, that are very appealing that, that, you know, kind of catch people’s attention when they’re sitting on the shelves that have words that, that catch your attention.

 

00;31;56;21 – 00;32;15;14

Adrian Chavez

And, and you’re going to be marketed like this in the grocery store, you’re going to be marketed to like this on social media. You’re going to be marketed to like this when it comes to nutrition, especially if you’re a new parent, probably in every aspect of your life. And it’s really important. And if you’re listening to this podcast, you’re probably your steps ahead already is.

 

00;32;15;17 – 00;32;47;02

Adrian Chavez

It’s just really important to get the right voices in your head. And really, you know, I’ve talked about education, find people who are actually educating you. And there’s a difference in, in that in and it’s helpful to identify that. So like you can when people are constantly scaring you, they are not educating you. Right. If you’re hearing a lot of fear based messaging from someone, if they’re if it’s causing you when you’re trying to learn from them, it’s causing you to go into the grocery store and have more anxiety.

 

00;32;47;14 – 00;33;18;03

Adrian Chavez

They’re probably not actually educating you, and they’re probably using your fear to get your attention in many cases. So, you know, quality like education about nutrition or education about, anything, you know, in these realms shouldn’t be served to you, through that lens of fear. It should be coming to you from, from helping you to make decisions and, you know, being empathetic about your situation of, like, you know, that there’s many things to take into consideration.

 

00;33;18;03 – 00;33;42;20

Adrian Chavez

Besides, you know, this product has two grams less sugar than this one, but it costs three, $3 more. You know, there should be nuance brought into the discussion with with anything related to nutrition. It should never be, you know, very black and white. This one’s bad. This one’s good. Buy this one instead. There should be more nuance to help you make a decision.

 

00;33;43;04 – 00;34;21;13

Adrian Chavez

Rather than someone, you know, trying to just kind of push you in a direction. And I think that’ll help a lot of people to be able to navigate the space a little bit more easily, because just the number of things is I, I never expected it getting into this. You know, I, I got interested in nutrition and I never expected this to like to, to be able to be dealing with all of these things in the day to day, like all of the marketing and the influencers confusing people to where that ends up being such a large percentage of people eat healthier.

 

00;34;21;13 – 00;34;22;23

Adrian Chavez

Unfortunately.

 

00;34;22;25 – 00;34;43;28

Dr. Mona

Do you feel like there’s certain ingredients or additives that are often hidden or downplayed in baby and child foods that parents should be aware of? Or I know this could be an entire conversation around how to read nutrition labels. I think parents don’t even know how to do that. You know, I learned I learned a bit of it, obviously through my training, but not nearly as much as a nutritionist.

 

00;34;44;03 – 00;34;48;29

Dr. Mona

Are there certain things that you would say, hey, maybe watch out for these things or not really. It’s really hard to give that nuance.

 

00;34;49;05 – 00;35;15;24

Adrian Chavez

As sugar is usually going to be a big one. But yeah, cases sugar is, especially in younger kids, you know, in like say for example, formula like sugar is supposed to be there. And so sometimes saying telling people, hey, beware of sugar can can sometimes cause people to avoid some things that they shouldn’t be avoiding. But overall, a lot of processed foods will have added sugars and added fats.

 

00;35;16;04 – 00;35;41;20

Adrian Chavez

That’s that’s really the issue with highly processed foods is they take these, they take some ingredients and they process them together. They they add, you know, processed carbohydrates or sugars, or refined flour, almost the same thing as sugar, like refined flours and sugars. And then they combine that with fats, typically. And that’s, you know, vegetable oils typically because those are some of the cheapest fats available on the market.

 

00;35;41;20 – 00;36;08;09

Adrian Chavez

Yeah. And so a lot of these processed foods are just refined flour and sugar combined with fats with some flavors and in other things to make them appealing. And that’s really what we want to be looking out for. We don’t want these to make up a large percentage of our diet. I think those are the main culprits of like really causing people’s diet to really go down in terms of quality, because if you’re including those to the point that they’re making up 30% of your diet, you’re getting almost no nutrition from that.

 

00;36;08;12 – 00;36;17;03

Adrian Chavez

And it’s very high in calories and not very filling. So, for example, if you eat some chips, you could easily sit down and eat 250 calories of chips.

 

00;36;17;05 – 00;36;18;00

Dr. Mona

That’s in there.

 

00;36;18;05 – 00;36;35;21

Adrian Chavez

Yeah, usually. And in, you know, in, in that’s not going to be very filling. You’re not going to get much nutrition out of it. And, and then it’s probably going to cause you to overeat in your overall diet if you’re including that to that, to that extent. And then, you’re not going to be meeting your micronutrient needs.

 

00;36;35;21 – 00;36;59;10

Adrian Chavez

So we, we have certain needs of, you know, B vitamins and vitamin C and zinc and iron. You’re not getting that from, from these foods, from these highly processed foods, unfortunately. And so we that’s where, you know, some of, including too much of those in our diet is really going to be a problem. We have to try to try to, avoid some of those things and minimize those.

 

00;36;59;10 – 00;37;17;21

Adrian Chavez

And so ingredients wise, like I’d say the added fats, added sugars, refined flours, and that’s like most highly processed foods or that’s that’s just what they’re made out of. They’re they’re mostly those three ingredients or some combination of similar ingredients like that.

 

00;37;17;23 – 00;37;37;20

Dr. Mona

Yeah I definitely I love this I definitely watch out for those two things. The added sugar and added fats for processed foods because we do buy. I like to be very clear that I have bought the Paw Patrol string cheese because my son wanted it. Big deal. Okay, fine. But I also explained to him, you know, when he goes into the cereal aisle, and a lot of childhood cereals, you know, they’re colorful, like we talk about.

 

00;37;37;25 – 00;37;55;13

Dr. Mona

They have amazing characters. And although I did grow up on a lot of those sugary cereals, you know, I’ve changed kind of how I view things. And once in a while on vacation, maybe he’ll have some Cinnamon Toast Crunch because it’s delicious. But yeah, like looking at those added sugars and added fats I think is really useful information.

 

00;37;55;19 – 00;38;22;29

Dr. Mona

And I think I might have you come back to talk about nutrition labels in deep dive and maybe, you know, since this is recorded we can do some examples and whatnot. But this was so helpful. You know, I really think it’s so vital that we look at this and talk about this and parents are aware of what’s happening on social, in marketing, you know, obviously when they go to the stores, what would be your final uplifting message for everyone listening, particularly those who may be feeling overwhelmed by the information on food labels and all the conflicting misinformation out there.

 

00;38;23;02 – 00;38;47;19

Adrian Chavez

Yeah. So I want to, speak to what we just talked about, too, because I feel like, you know, I probably made some people feel a little bad about the way. I don’t think so themselves. I don’t yeah. You know, these foods are they are convenient, and they are inexpensive, and they can help to meet nutrient needs overall.

 

00;38;47;19 – 00;39;09;20

Adrian Chavez

And so I’d say, you know, everyone, you know, we’re all doing our best in nutrition is one aspect of many important aspects of health. So one thing I do see, people, they get overwhelmed with nutrition because they think that it, it means everything. And it doesn’t, you know, nutrition is important, but also movement is important.

 

00;39;09;21 – 00;39;33;20

Adrian Chavez

Your relationships with your children are important. So don’t let nutrition take over. In terms of your, that your focus, but definitely put some intention into it and try to slowly make some better choices. So if you know that you have some improvement that you can make, start small and figure out, okay, maybe we can switch out breakfast for a simple breakfast option.

 

00;39;33;20 – 00;39;52;15

Adrian Chavez

And one of the easy things that I typically recommend is like a smoothie is a really simple, easy breakfast that most people can do that you can make very nutritious. And you know, next thing is, okay, maybe you start packing for lunch instead of eating out and just take those small steps and that don’t make a big difference over time.

 

00;39;52;15 – 00;40;15;20

Adrian Chavez

A lot of times people, like you said, feel overwhelmed. There’s a lot going on. There’s a lot of information, and you feel like you want you need to do everything perfect, and you want to make this major lifestyle change where you clear out your whole house and everyone starts eating differently. And that’s great. It sounds great in theory, and maybe that’s a good thing to do, that if you can stick with it and really do that in a transition period, like great.

 

00;40;15;20 – 00;40;36;18

Adrian Chavez

But really like the real change for most people is going to be coming on a day to day, week to week basis, just consistently being intentional, making those small changes, you know, trying to stay hydrated, trying to plan your meals ahead of time, trying to make sure you’re getting enough protein, trying to make sure that you’re including, you know, fiber and vegetables in each meal.

 

00;40;36;29 – 00;41;01;09

Adrian Chavez

You know, all of these simple habits that if you put together in your life, it’s you’re going to be living a healthier lifestyle, and it doesn’t require all these overwhelming decisions. It’s just, you know, simple habit after simple habit that you incorporate. And I think that for a lot of people who are feeling overwhelmed, which I feel definitely is going to be the case for parents for sure, because there’s just a lot going on, especially if you have a lot of young kids.

 

00;41;01;21 – 00;41;33;09

Adrian Chavez

It’s really just take your focus there, which is, you know, one simple thing that you can do that you can stick with and do that, stick with that, get consistent with that, and then move on to the next one. And I often will post, like podcast or post on this particular topic because I know that, for a lot of people, it’s just like you said, there’s there’s overwhelm and people underestimate the value of really just these small, simple steps and what they can do if you if you really implement them over time.

 

00;41;33;09 – 00;41;35;18

Adrian Chavez

So I highly recommend kind of going that route.

 

00;41;35;21 – 00;41;52;18

Dr. Mona

Yeah. And I don’t think it was overwhelming. You know, I’m, I’m the host of the show and I always listen to my guests and I’m like, no, this sounds wonderful. And you know, it applies to a lot of different aspects. You know, I have nutritionists on the show. We talk about child behavior, I talk about development. And it’s so much that take the information and work with what you have in baby steps, right.

 

00;41;52;18 – 00;42;08;26

Dr. Mona

Like, again, I do not expect anyone or do we need to do a complete overhaul of how we purchase? No, but it’s saying, hey, that sounds like a good idea that I can actually implement, whether it’s about what me and Adrian talked about today or whether it’s about I have a conversation about how we manage tantrums or how we manage, how we speak to our children.

 

00;42;08;26 – 00;42;29;10

Dr. Mona

And yes, all this advice can be overwhelming, but it’s truly about the big picture of what is in my resources and what is in my time to make little baby changes. You know, I when I talk to my families, a lot of my population has fallen into the sugary drink, you know, category, meaning a lot of the children drink, a lot of added sugar drinks.

 

00;42;29;10 – 00;42;45;07

Dr. Mona

And for me, I personally don’t love them. I think that we can substitute. So it’s not a shameful thing. It’s a hey, I get that your child really loves this soda or this juice, but how can we maybe wean it off and allow it to be part of their life, but not let it be their sole source of hydration?

 

00;42;45;07 – 00;43;02;06

Dr. Mona

Right? Introducing it water. Like, how can we get them? That water is really great. So it is healthy conversations and I think parents should be having and I really appreciate you. And I think you approached it with such, you know, such, class and such obviously ability to, connect with our families and our listeners today to make it not scary.

 

00;43;02;06 – 00;43;03;28

Dr. Mona

So thank you, Adrian. I really appreciate that.

 

00;43;04;02 – 00;43;05;05

Adrian Chavez

Thank you so much I appreciate it.

 

00;43;05;05 – 00;43;12;29

Dr. Mona

Yeah. Where can people go to stay connected? I know you have a podcast and you know, you can reiterate where you can be found on social media. So tell our listeners all of that information.

 

00;43;13;01 – 00;43;46;25

Adrian Chavez

Yeah, definitely Instagram. As you mentioned earlier at Doctor Dr.. Period. Adrian, Adrian. Period. Chavez. Chavez. And then also my podcast, I highly recommend that when I really try to break down various topics in nutrition and really educate about some of these nuances, and I try to keep my episodes pretty short, 15, 30 minutes typically. And, I will cover one topic per episode typically and try to just help people understand so that when you do like I might have it episode on added sugar, for example.

 

00;43;46;25 – 00;44;04;27

Adrian Chavez

So, you know, we talk about added sugar, what to look out for, whether or not you may need to limit it in your life because there are some people who may need to be eating, you know, higher amounts of added sugar for a variety of reasons. So that’s why, you know, it’s hard for me when you’re like, is there anything that you would say to limit?

 

00;44;04;27 – 00;44;15;18

Adrian Chavez

I’m like, it’s hard for me to say things without providing all of the additional nuance for people’s individual circumstances. So, you know, the podcast lets me do that, so I’d highly recommend checking that out as well.

 

00;44;15;25 – 00;44;30;02

Dr. Mona

I love it, and I will be linking all of that information here on our YouTube channel, as well as where if you listen to the audio podcast. And thanks again, Adrian. I love connecting with you. It’s so nice to finally meet you virtually, after following you on social and I hope you can come on the show again.

 

00;44;30;05 – 00;44;34;04

Adrian Chavez

Definitely. Thank you so much.

 

00;44;34;06 – 00;44;56;19

Dr. Mona

And that’s a wrap on today’s episode. If you’re walking away still holding that organic granola bar and wondering if you actually needed to spend the extra $3. Same friend. I love to hear your thoughts on this conversation. What resonated most with you? And what’s one thing you’re taking into your next grocery trip? Or scroll through mom talk. Let’s keep the chat going over on Instagram at the PedsDocTalk podcast.

 

00;44;56;22 – 00;45;18;20

Dr. Mona

Drop a comment on the latest post about this episode and if something hit home. Share it on your stories and tag PedsDocTalk the PedsDocTalk podcast and Doctor Adrian Chavez. That’s Doctor Adrian Chavez. You never know who in your circle might need to hear this. Thanks for tuning in. Thanks for laughing. Learning and unlearning with me and for being such a valuable part of this community.

 

00;45;18;24 – 00;45;27;11

Dr. Mona

Have a great week and remember, you’re doing amazing even if your kid just asked for snacks again. Stay well and I’ll catch you all next week.