In this insightful and encouraging episode, I had the honor of sitting down with board-certified pediatrician, mom of three, and founder of Ahimsa, Dr. Manasa Mantravadi. Trained in pediatric endocrinology, Dr. Manasa saw firsthand the dramatic rise of chronic childhood conditions like type 2 diabetes and set out to address the root causes of child health through preventive, culinary medicine.

We dive into why modern meal times feel so chaotic and how parents can tune out the noise and lower the friction around feeding kids. Dr. Manasa shares her simple, actionable frameworks—focusing on systems over talent, adding nourishment instead of restricting, and transforming mealtime into a powerful vehicle for joy and connection.

We discuss:

• Shift from counting calories to evaluating ingredient labels

• Practical perimeter-shopping strategies and finding “quiet” foods

• Why adding whole foods is more effective and sustainable than restriction

• Simple rules for reading packaged food labels: added sugars, sodium, and recognizing ingredients

• Practical, low-lift home systems: visibility, meal bars, and repeat theme nights

• Small, manageable ways to reduce exposure to plastics, synthetic food dyes, and pesticides

• Reclaiming mealtime as an opportunity for family connection and long-term health

Connect with Manasa Mantravadi on Instagram @ahimsahomeusa and checkout her products at ⁠https://ahimsahome.com⁠ 

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00;00;29;10 – 00;00;51;12

Dr. Mona

Hello. Hello. Welcome back to the show. It is Doctor Mona, your online pediatrician, your mom friend. Thank you for being here, for sharing these episodes, because that’s how we continue to be a top 30 parenting podcast in the United States. I’m also that person who has stood in front of a refrigerator at 5 p.m. with zero ideas, and two hungry kids staring at me dead in the eye.

 

00;00;51;16 – 00;01;08;29

Dr. Mona

Do you dread the grocery store because you cannot tell anymore what is actually food and what just looks like it? Two meal times in your home feel less like connection and more like a negotiation you never agreed to. And have you ever wondered if there’s a way to feed your family without overthinking every choice and decision? Today’s guest is Doctor Monica.

 

00;01;08;29 – 00;01;35;17

Dr. Mona

Maturity, a board certified pediatrician and certified culinary medicine specialist. Basically, the degree all doctor should have because, well, food is medicine. She’s a mom of three and a national voice on food as actual medicine. Known as the pediatrician in the kitchen, she also founded Ahimsa, a pediatrician designed stainless steel mealtime dishware brand, and the Conscious Cafeteria program, a national initiative helping schools lower toxin exposure in school food.

 

00;01;35;20 – 00;02;01;12

Dr. Mona

We are talking about why modern mealtimes feel so chaotic and how to lower the friction around feeding your family without losing your mind. Manesar breaks down simple systems over sheer willpower. Why? Adding nourishment beats restriction every time, and how to turn the table back into a place of joy instead of stress. So if you feel you are failing at feeding your kids well, you’re not alone and you’re about to get some real doable tools instead of more guilt.

 

00;02;01;14 – 00;02;25;06

Dr. Mona

And remember to download the episode wherever you get your podcast. Subscribe if you’ve not already, and share this episode on social because you never know who will need to hear it. Tag @thePedsDocTalkpodcast, @PedsDocTalk and @Ahimsahomeusa when you do. Let’s get into this week’s conversation.

 

00;02;25;09 – 00;02;27;07

Dr. Mona

Thank you so much for joining me today.

 

00;02;27;12 – 00;02;48;25

Dr. Manasa Mantravadi

Thank you. And, Doctor Mona, I always joke, like, I feel like we’re the same human. We, you know, live our life very similarly, but also, I think we really see that parents today, like, really deeply care about their children’s health, but they’re overwhelmed by a lot of conflicting information. So when it comes to food, you know, it should feel simple and joyful and, you know, not a source of pressure and stress.

 

00;02;48;25 – 00;02;53;03

Dr. Manasa Mantravadi

So hopefully today, after chatting, your listeners will feel that way.

 

00;02;53;06 – 00;03;14;17

Dr. Mona

Yeah. And I have loved connecting with you so long story short, for all of our listeners, I love a good origin story of friendship. So, doctor, you know, Doctor Monica, she is a pediatrician, like we talked about. She’s had been on social media a him. So the company that, she created, she had messaged a long time back, this was when I was like, I think in infertility treatments or something.

 

00;03;14;17 – 00;03;33;03

Dr. Mona

And I forgot to message back without, like, thinking because there’s just so much going on. And then a mutual friend had put us in contact when my brain was actually more regulated to accept connection. And I was like, oh my gosh, you have to tell her that. I did not mean to not respond to her, but I remember her messaging me and the rest is history.

 

00;03;33;05 – 00;03;47;09

Dr. Mona

We love using, obviously the dishwasher. I mean, that’s one of the many things that you’re doing, the many hats that you wear, ahimsa. It’s like these amazing stainless steel plates. I should have actually brought it and like put it up on my, my bookcase just because, you know.

 

00;03;47;12 – 00;03;47;20

Dr. Manasa Mantravadi

I love.

 

00;03;47;21 – 00;04;04;04

Dr. Mona

Letters. But again, this is not like this is obviously not an episode for you guys to go buy the dishwasher, but I really hope that you understand that I never talk about products or things that I don’t love. And yeah, truly not because you’re my friend now. I love love the dishwasher like so much.

 

00;04;04;05 – 00;04;20;04

Dr. Manasa Mantravadi

Oh, that makes me so happy, you know? And we can talk about it when it gets that. But when I designed the dishwasher, it wasn’t really what I thought I’d be doing with my, you know. Right. Yeah. But that being said, it has brought so much joy, to so many family dining tables. And for me, that’s what we care about.

 

00;04;20;04 – 00;04;33;15

Dr. Manasa Mantravadi

As pediatricians, right? Like we’re bringing health and joy, into the lives of families. And that, to me, really kind of fits with all of our training. So I’m excited that, I’m still practicing medicine at scale, but in a preventative form, just like you.

 

00;04;33;17 – 00;05;00;09

Dr. Mona

I love it. And I think with that, there’s a large a larger room for impact. You know, it’s been I think we make a lot of these decisions. You know, I obviously had to make a big decision to cut down clinical hours, to be able to do all the other things that I do. And for someone who’s been trained in medicine who thought that for the rest of my life, I’d be seeing patients, I realized that, you know, 35 or 40 patients a day, family, all the other opportunities and projects that I could work on just was not feasible.

 

00;05;00;09 – 00;05;14;23

Dr. Mona

And now I think, like you, I found this, like, happy blend of I still see patients virtually, on Poppins, the platform that I’m the CMO, but I have time to help build something that I believe in and educate and do this podcast with amazing people like yourself. So I love.

 

00;05;14;23 – 00;05;18;13

Dr. Manasa Mantravadi

That. Yes, awesome pediatricians, you know, nutrition like.

 

00;05;18;15 – 00;05;40;22

Dr. Mona

Yeah, exactly. I know I love when you message me and you’re like, hey, I’m like when you talked about like how we’re so like and you’re like, we’re we got to stick together. I’m like, yes, we do. We are doing right, you know? And I’m happy to have you on because we’re talking about why feeding kids feels harder than ever and just five simple shifts that can actually work to make meal times less stressful, shopping less stressful.

 

00;05;40;27 – 00;06;03;09

Dr. Mona

And I love that you’re able to bridge not only the fact that you’re a pediatrician, but also the fact that you’re a mom. You’re super busy, like many of us are, and that you’re also learning about environmental health and culinary medicine. So what made you pursue the culinary medicine aspect of, you know, obviously health, and why do you think it’s so important for, you know, having that knowledge as a pediatrician?

 

00;06;03;11 – 00;06;26;21

Dr. Manasa Mantravadi

Yeah. So I mean, as you know, in our training, the American health care system really is designed for treatment based medicine. And so in so much of our training, we learned, you know, how to treat patients who have asthma exacerbations or, you know, ear infections and, you know, even more complex issues. But the amount that we spent on food, nutrition and environmental health was very minimal.

 

00;06;26;28 – 00;06;53;25

Dr. Manasa Mantravadi

And it wasn’t until I kind of became a mom myself, and realized, and especially in endocrinology, understanding how important the impact of, you know, healthy food is on long term health. I think that’s when it started really clicking for me. And then really seeing this rise of children’s obesity and type two diabetes, which, you know, me and you, we learned that type two diabetes was an adult onset diabetes.

 

00;06;53;25 – 00;07;17;11

Dr. Manasa Mantravadi

And so, now we have clinics filled with children with chronic disease that usually presents later in life. So that’s kind of what got me interested, because I was seeing such a shift in clinic on what children looked like and what conditions they were getting. And so, kind of backtrack to, okay, where is the problem? Because when we counsel patients, for example, it always comes down to like, what’s happening at home.

 

00;07;17;14 – 00;07;39;17

Dr. Manasa Mantravadi

Yeah, what are we eating? And it really shined a light on. It’s so easy for us to say diet and exercise. Yeah. What that really means for a patient and their family is, is is difficult. So my my story really started with a nine year old who is in my clinic. And it was the first time in my early training that I learned what food deserts were.

 

00;07;39;23 – 00;07;58;24

Dr. Manasa Mantravadi

What, you know, these challenges that many, many kids face. And that’s when I really realized when these children are faced with these problems, the solution just can’t be go eat healthy and go exercise is right. Because if they live in a food desert, they can’t get access to food or honestly shopping for really fast, easy, convenient food.

 

00;07;58;29 – 00;08;21;06

Dr. Manasa Mantravadi

Need a busy parent? Then we’re not really fixing the problem. And so that’s where I really got into both environmental health and culinary medicine specifically, is the field of medicine that breaks down three things for people time, cost, and skill. So it’s one thing to say this is what you should do. But it’s another thing to say, well, how do we do that?

 

00;08;21;06 – 00;08;47;29

Dr. Manasa Mantravadi

How do we actually incorporate more vegetables? How do we actually have low cost ways? You know, most people don’t even know how to necessarily use a knife. And so there’s a big gap between what we are recommending, what a patient can do and then those long term health impacts. So that’s kind of the field of culinary medicine, that I became really interested in as the upstream kind of partner of endocrine, of endocrinology.

 

00;08;48;01 – 00;09;09;26

Dr. Mona

I love that that incorporates obviously the three main things that you said, but time, especially in cost, right? I mean, that’s obviously something that I hear a lot of, is that I don’t have time to make this food. It’s too expensive to eat healthy. And so, you know, the first question I have is when we talk about shifting from focusing on calories to focusing on ingredients, what does that practically look like for families, maybe even if they’re on a budget?

 

00;09;10;02 – 00;09;18;12

Dr. Mona

So what simple questions can they ask themselves at the grocery store when they’re reaching for certain items that can make a meaningful difference for things that they bring home?

 

00;09;18;14 – 00;09;37;00

Dr. Manasa Mantravadi

So, I think this is a really important point, because in general, when we go to the grocery store, we’re thinking we’re shopping for food, but actually there is food and then there’s food products. And I think that’s just a really simplified way for people to even understand what we’re putting in our bodies, just in a modern world and what is available to us.

 

00;09;37;00 – 00;09;57;26

Dr. Manasa Mantravadi

So let’s remember, this is systems level change, not something that we are doing. So there’s not about guilt and blame and shame. It is about understanding that our food system and our grocery stores inherently look different than they did in the 1940s and 1950s. Right. And we’re not just going to a market and choosing food. We were walking into a supermarket with both food.

 

00;09;57;28 – 00;10;27;12

Dr. Manasa Mantravadi

And honestly, way more food products. So what is the difference between food and food products? Food is like actual food, you know, like naturally occurring things, that are happening and those are things like food groups like our fruits or vegetables, our grains, our, protein, and things like our macronutrients, like the, the building blocks, the carbs and the protein, the, the micronutrients, like the vitamins and minerals, water, fiber, these are all under the bucket of food.

 

00;10;27;16 – 00;10;54;19

Dr. Manasa Mantravadi

And then there’s food product. And this is where we get into a lot more additives that are kind of put into our food system to change the taste, the flavor, the shelf life of food. And so that’s when we start to have this conversation on ultra processed food. Food. But really, if you kind of zoom back out now that you know the difference between food and food product, when I go shopping, I really try to think, how can I just incorporate more food than food product?

 

00;10;54;25 – 00;11;22;18

Dr. Manasa Mantravadi

So it doesn’t mean you have to eat every vegetable and everything has to be fresh from the ground. It just means, how can I incorporate more of that? And so that is kind of the underlying issue here. 67% of the calories consumed by an average American child is ultra processed food product. So if we say, okay, you know what, if 70% of what our children are eating are food products, could we just shift that to maybe 60 and then 50 and then 40?

 

00;11;22;18 – 00;11;45;09

Dr. Manasa Mantravadi

Right. So just like slow gradual change. So when you go to the grocery store I always say shop the perimeter, okay. That’s where the real food is. If you think about where the produces where the milk and the eggs and the bread are, if you shop the perimeter, it is a great simple rule to say, okay, that’s where most of the food lives.

 

00;11;45;12 – 00;12;06;15

Dr. Manasa Mantravadi

Another thing I think about when I go to the grocery store is what is the, quietest food, right? So when you’re in that perimeter, eggs are typically just sitting there and orange is just like, hey, yo, I’m an Oreo to, like, talk to you about, right? But then you get to the middle aisles and it’s like you get to all that, the processed food, it’s like, I’ve got calcium, I don’t have this.

 

00;12;06;15 – 00;12;32;00

Dr. Manasa Mantravadi

And they’re really loud. They’re really talking to you for a reason. Right? So the quiet, chill food that has nothing to prove to you is probably typically a better choice than the one that has a lot to explain. So that’s I love that, some simple ways to think about just as you get to the grocery store, choose those quiet, food that looks like food and that what you can envision food is like.

 

00;12;32;02 – 00;12;53;00

Dr. Mona

I love that. And again, I love that perimeter because you’re right. I’m thinking now when I go shopping, we actually organize our shopping list by areas in the grocery store. So produce, baked produce, bakery, dairy milk and then various aisles gets its own category. Like those are all the middle aisles that include maybe canned goods, anything that’s not the vegetables or the dairy.

 

00;12;53;00 – 00;13;19;25

Dr. Mona

Right. And so I love that because that’s exactly how you described it. Now, you know, you talked about the stat for ultra processed food, right? You emphasize adding more of that real food, which I love how you labeled the two instead of banning everything. So why is adding fruit, vegetables, protein, that very boring food and fiber often more powerful and sustainable than restricting ultra processed foods as it you know, when it comes to children?

 

00;13;19;27 – 00;13;41;15

Dr. Manasa Mantravadi

Yeah. So, you know, I always think back to the my, basic math skills addition is actually easier than subtraction. Like, it really as a skill set. It’s easier than. So when you think about that like, okay, it’s actually easier to add more healthy foods, and fresh kind of whole foods and always thinking about restricting and subtracting.

 

00;13;41;15 – 00;14;02;25

Dr. Manasa Mantravadi

Because remember, restriction can often create, you know, negative emotions like stress or guilt, power struggles. And then as a parent, you’re hearing what to avoid. Oh, gosh. Avoid the sugar and the additives and the ultra processed foods. And suddenly, those concerns are valid, by the way. Right. But then the messaging makes it feel really overwhelming for a parent.

 

00;14;02;28 – 00;14;30;20

Dr. Manasa Mantravadi

But then when we kind of switch, you know, flip the script a little bit to say, okay, what can I do to this meal or this snack to bring nourishment? Right. That is a positive, easier thing to do than all the restriction. So, you know, as I mentioned, most kids aren’t getting enough real foods. In general, only 1 in 10 children are eating enough vegetables in the United States of America, and only 40% of children are eating enough fruit.

 

00;14;30;23 – 00;14;57;02

Dr. Manasa Mantravadi

So the bigger nutritional gap is really like we’re not over consuming produce, we’re over consuming ultra processed, kind of empty calories. And so we can again, flip the script. So a really simple, easy thing to do is think through, how can I add one fruit, one vegetable, one protein, one fiber? How can I just add that? So simple thing is like when I Friday Friday is our pizza night at our house.

 

00;14;57;02 – 00;15;21;04

Dr. Manasa Mantravadi

Sometimes we’ll make homemade pizza and the kids do toppings. Another lot of times we’ll just order pizza. So pizza inherently isn’t bad on its own, right? Like, yeah, you’re ordering it and maybe there’s some extra grease and whatnot, but it wasn’t. If you now look at that pizza and say, ooh, on my plate, the we’re going to also serve a few little carrots and some strawberries and maybe a little cup of Greek yogurt for dessert.

 

00;15;21;06 – 00;15;46;14

Dr. Manasa Mantravadi

Now suddenly you’ve added stuff and it becomes so much more, easy to think about as well balanced meal when you start to add whole food and it decreases this kind of negative talk and shame around what we say. Like because junk food or empty calories doesn’t mean you go to zero, it just means how do we continue to add, to our meals a lot easier?

 

00;15;46;17 – 00;16;06;22

Dr. Mona

Now let’s take a quick break to hear from our sponsors who support helps us keep bringing you this show. Oh, I, I love it. No, you’re right. And I mean, you’re you’re awakening something in my childhood about how much I loved addition more than subtraction and and and it’s very it’s very true. And, you know, I think about it in my own parenting because you’re right.

 

00;16;06;22 – 00;16;23;08

Dr. Mona

I didn’t realize that I was actually doing that. But it’s like, no, you know, my son will want something that’s packaged, for example, I’ll say it, he loves granola bites from, from Trader Joe’s. They’re like these little chocolate chip granola bites, but they’re processed. You know, I could probably make them at home. I’m not against it because we give it to him.

 

00;16;23;08 – 00;16;38;17

Dr. Mona

But I always pair it with the fruit, and I’m like, hey, sweetie. Yeah, have your have your granola bite, but what would you like it with it? Do you want a banana, orange or apple. Right. And he’s like, okay, I’ll have an orange today. And it’s again a boring item with something that’s more marketed with designs on it.

 

00;16;38;17 – 00;16;56;29

Dr. Mona

Right? That’s right. And I love what you said because it’s simple. It adds versus subtracts. So you’re not feeling like you’re creating that restrictive. And it does the cardinal rule of exposure. Right. Like that. So many parents just stop exposing because their kid doesn’t like it. And from a ways from a waste component. I mean, just think about it like when I give my son a tangerine, right?

 

00;16;56;29 – 00;17;11;20

Dr. Mona

Like with his granola bite, I will maybe give half of the tangerine. I’ll eat the other one, because I will also want to model that I eat the foods that he eats. So it’s two, right? Right. Now you can say, you know what, I’m going to sit with you. I’m going to eat the orange. Or maybe I’ll have some granola bites too.

 

00;17;11;22 – 00;17;25;00

Dr. Mona

But here, have what you like and then you’re not going to be wasting because I think parents are like, well, then I’m wasting the carrots. And I’m like, but you’re also not exposing them like you have to expose it. That’s right. For it to actually be something they want to try. That’s.

 

00;17;25;01 – 00;17;44;21

Dr. Manasa Mantravadi

Why and and to follow up points of that, number one, it can be like one carrot. So yes additive one piece. So if you start to build healthier plates and more balanced, I think there’s you know, I’m going to create this Instagram worthy recipe. Nobody’s doing that. I can tell you your pediatrician’s not doing that. Right.

 

00;17;44;25 – 00;18;02;17

Dr. Manasa Mantravadi

Definitely not. Not. But if you can, just like I’m just going to add it. And again, I think the mantra for pediatricians is like, okay, you are the server, your child is a consumer. So when you come to a restaurant, you that child is coming into your restaurant. Your job is to serve, right? Yeah. Even if it’s one P.

 

00;18;02;21 – 00;18;19;05

Dr. Manasa Mantravadi

Hey moms, dads, you did it right. You you did your job. You put that one P on it. Now it’s up to the child of like whether they can eat that p. And that’s okay because that consistent exposure is better than not having it all. And then the other thing I did want to follow up on, you know, you’d mentioned like, oh, the snack.

 

00;18;19;07 – 00;18;38;09

Dr. Manasa Mantravadi

It’s not about vilifying kind of packaged food because there are actually some foods that are fine. And look at our busy modern parents, and we can’t necessarily cook everything from scratch and go to zero plastic like it’s just not feasible. So another rule that I have is when you read those ingredient labels, I think there’s a few different things that you can look at.

 

00;18;38;09 – 00;18;54;25

Dr. Manasa Mantravadi

I typically look at three, and I’ve actually taught my children how to look at ingredient labels. Because again, food is education and food is modeling. And so when you teach kids this, they will naturally start doing this on their own as they grow older. I’ve got, twins who are all who are 13 and then a ten year old.

 

00;18;54;27 – 00;19;12;13

Dr. Manasa Mantravadi

So I promise this works because I’m seeing it now, right? Yeah. So number one, when you’re looking at a packaged food, in the middle of the, grocery store, you can just look at the ingredient list. And so my typical rule is if it’s got five ingredients or fewer, that’s great. Yeah. If it’s 5 to 10, usually okay.

 

00;19;12;13 – 00;19;29;06

Dr. Manasa Mantravadi

If it’s more than ten, maybe it’s like highly processed. But more important than the number of ingredients is do I recognize these ingredients. So there are a lot of times where I see a package and I can read all the ingredients and understand, I actually do have this in my kitchen, I got paprika, I have, you know, onions.

 

00;19;29;08 – 00;19;47;04

Dr. Manasa Mantravadi

And so if you recognize ingredients and, you can pronounce all the names of those ingredients and they don’t have a bunch of numbers, it’s probably okay, you know, and there’s no shame or guilt there. The two numbers, you know, we talked about calories versus ingredients. I will say there’s two numbers that I typically look at. One is added sugar.

 

00;19;47;05 – 00;20;14;16

Dr. Manasa Mantravadi

Same here. Yep. And one is and went to salt right. Yep. This is what I love, Mona. Because I think we all as pediatricians it’s intrinsic to our brain because we went to school for so long. It’s in our brain. So we’re just making these decisions. So you’re naturally doing the things I’m recommending. And what I love about this is how do we kind of unlock that for the masses of parents, understand the why behind those parenting choices, as opposed to just do this or restrict this?

 

00;20;14;16 – 00;20;31;29

Dr. Manasa Mantravadi

It feels very different. So those two things are important because, listen, for an average American child, the recommended limit for sugar, for example, six teaspoons a day, like that’s like the match. But the average American child two and a guess how many, teaspoons the average American child can.

 

00;20;32;00 – 00;20;34;26

Dr. Mona

Teaspoons a day.

 

00;20;34;29 – 00;20;38;10

Dr. Manasa Mantravadi

Instead of 617 seven team.

 

00;20;38;12 – 00;20;39;09

Dr. Mona

That’s a lot.

 

00;20;39;11 – 00;20;59;08

Dr. Manasa Mantravadi

It’s a lot. It’s about three times the recommended amount. Why that is important is it’s not that parents are putting a bowl full of sugar in front of their children, but eating it right, it’s hidden like you will, and you won’t even know that it’s there. Sugary drinks, breakfast cereals, even yogurts. Sometimes what you think yogurts like and you see the amount of added sugars, snack bars, package.

 

00;20;59;14 – 00;21;22;19

Dr. Manasa Mantravadi

So that is a really great, thing to look on, when you’re shopping these packaged foods is what are the added sugars? And then the other statistic that’s shocking is the sodium intake. So, you know, from toddlers head, to teens, it’s anywhere from 1200 to 20 300g. But the average American child is eating 33, 100mg of sodium per day.

 

00;21;22;19 – 00;21;43;02

Dr. Manasa Mantravadi

So that’s anywhere between like 30 and to 100% more sodium than recommended. Again, no one is serving their child salt for salt, but they’re all right. Yeah. And the pizza, it’s in the package. Snacks. It’s in the deli meats. And so those are kind of things. It’s not really coming from a salt shaker. It’s already built into the highly processed food.

 

00;21;43;09 – 00;22;10;05

Dr. Manasa Mantravadi

So now that, you know, what few things you should look at, it’s a little easier. And that’s because, you know, your child is still growing, developing their organs are still developing, their kidneys still are immature, can’t process all of that salt. And so there are reasons why we actually from a from a metabolic and health perspective, really care about those particular two numbers, in terms of metabolic health and cardiovascular health as they continue to grow.

 

00;22;10;05 – 00;22;16;27

Dr. Manasa Mantravadi

So that’s the one caveat I will say is, as you’re shopping in the middle of the aisle, here are some like little tips that you can look at those labels.

 

00;22;17;00 – 00;22;36;20

Dr. Mona

I do the same thing. And so I love that you simplify that. You know, because I do look at added sugar. And I like to be clear here that for me, for listeners is that when I’m looking at the added sugar labels, it’s for the things that are the regular item. So for example, those granola bites from Trader Joe’s, again, not sponsored by Trader Joe’s, they’re less than their seven grams of sugar per serving, right.

 

00;22;36;20 – 00;22;47;22

Dr. Mona

Like meaning per bag. And to me, I have made the threshold that if something is less than nine grams of sugar, added sugar, that for me it’s okay to be part of our routine snack.

 

00;22;47;24 – 00;22;49;01

Dr. Manasa Mantravadi

Rotation, right? Right.

 

00;22;49;04 – 00;23;06;21

Dr. Mona

Now, of course, there are items that are 24g of added sugar. Like I think about like my son. My son and daughter love Hot Chocolate night and I look for the low added sugar option. That’s right. And so I am very conscious about if there is a no sugar added component, I will always go for that. That’s right.

 

00;23;06;27 – 00;23;15;28

Dr. Mona

This meal with me in Monticello we’re talking about is that you’re not. You can still get the stuff with added sugar, but trying to make that more of the exception.

 

00;23;15;29 – 00;23;17;07

Dr. Manasa Mantravadi

Not the rule. That’s right.

 

00;23;17;08 – 00;23;33;01

Dr. Mona

Know. But but I there is added sugar in some of our things. Right. But I try to keep that under a certain amount. And I it works well because my son and daughter, I can’t restrict them from sugar, nor do I want them to because of that healthy relationship. And this is how, you know, there will be times where my my son’s a sweet tooth.

 

00;23;33;01 – 00;23;54;12

Dr. Mona

Like he loves sweet things. My day to like. Yeah, it’s so funny. I must admit I had to thin mint the other day like a girl. And like I offered it to my daughter. She took one bite and she was like, And I’m like, are you serious? Oh, my son would be like, oh mommy, that’s delicious. But it’s so important because I want to teach them both that I am not again vilifying these things like you’re mentioning.

 

00;23;54;12 – 00;24;12;14

Dr. Mona

But I do care about labels in terms of not getting an item that’s 24g of added sugar, and they’re eating that every other day. And when there’s other options that are just as delicious, just convenient. Because I think people think that convenient has to mean a lot of added sugar or a lot of salt. Right?

 

00;24;12;16 – 00;24;40;04

Dr. Manasa Mantravadi

That’s not true. That’s that’s right. So I think one of the greatest skill set that a parent can have, and also teaching your children as you can grow because again then it just becomes like part it, it doesn’t become this big thing. It just becomes part of your natural routine. And if you’re able to read ingredients and you have eight choices in front of you and you can read those, labels, now you have a skill set to choose at least the best option that’s in front of you.

 

00;24;40;04 – 00;24;49;14

Dr. Manasa Mantravadi

Right. And that is really what we’re talking about is not going to zero and going to 100% is what are those small little incremental changes that we can make.

 

00;24;49;17 – 00;25;06;20

Dr. Mona

And you know I already mentioned that a lot of this talk about this process food. Parents just feel so overwhelmed. Right. Whether they’re I’m sorry I’m tight on time or tight on money. Those are the two issues that I feel like a lot of parents are like, well, I just it’s so much easier to grab these packaged, processed, ultra processed foods.

 

00;25;06;22 – 00;25;20;10

Dr. Mona

You have said this beautifully that healthy eating requires systems, not talent. So what are a few realistic systems families can put in place that lower the skill time barrier? Maybe even the cost to yes.

 

00;25;20;10 – 00;25;41;05

Dr. Manasa Mantravadi

So I think that’s what everyone thinks, that, cooking at home is this elaborate thing, and that’s what they need to transition to. So if you can kind of start understanding, that’s not really what we’re talking about. Kind of, you know, in these first two buckets that we’ve really simplified it. Eating healthy is not about talent. It’s about making those healthy choices easier and accessible.

 

00;25;41;10 – 00;26;04;05

Dr. Manasa Mantravadi

Right. And so right now, so like for simple things that I do at home that makes it, you know, really easy, one is just producing what I call like a visibility system, right? Yeah. So kids eat what they see. So if you just make fruits and vegetables easier to access, so easy things like, you know, taking an apple and cutting it into slices, time yourself.

 

00;26;04;10 – 00;26;21;17

Dr. Manasa Mantravadi

It’s actually way less. Just a few seconds. Really. Yeah. So when you can start to say, oh, I didn’t take me that long and have apples, and then it’s just sitting on a, a bowl or a rainbow ball and you got some, apples on there, right. They’re going to be like, oh, cool. Right. Because it’s there.

 

00;26;21;17 – 00;26;55;20

Dr. Manasa Mantravadi

Right? But if you put the, if they see Oreos, I’m going to probably choose Oreo, because guess what? It is designed to make you want it more. It tastes really good. It’s highly addictive. And so just making fruits and vegetables easier to access, putting fruit on the counter, having some washed fruit and, ready to grab and go cut vegetables with little dips or when and putting it at eye level, especially for those toddlers where they can just pull open, the, the, the refrigerator door and say, oh, I can take some strawberries.

 

00;26;55;27 – 00;27;17;18

Dr. Manasa Mantravadi

Suddenly it’s visible and it’s convenient and that, like, kids will naturally eat more of it. So that’s a really good, easy way. In terms of like a visibility system. The other, and I designed actually our balanced bite plate. It’s called balanced bite plate on purpose. It’s because visually, you want to build a balanced plate, right?

 

00;27;17;18 – 00;27;41;27

Dr. Manasa Mantravadi

So this is the balanced plate method in which you, you yourself, visually and your child aren’t focused on calories, but it’s building this good, like, variety of food groups on your plate. Yeah. So one of the things that I’ve taught my kids from a really young age is you need to like, we need to have protein, a vegetable, a fruit and a grain or carbohydrate on your, plate.

 

00;27;42;00 – 00;27;59;11

Dr. Manasa Mantravadi

And I’ve explained to them that these are different good fuels for your body that help you, you know, play sports and pay attention in school and, feel better. And so suddenly it’s like, oh, these are the different types of good fuel I’m supposed to put on my plate. Now we’re having a different conversation. It feels like a very positive conversation.

 

00;27;59;14 – 00;28;25;08

Dr. Manasa Mantravadi

Remember, kids love being involved. They really love being involved in the kitchen. And I don’t know if you do this, but we will often. A really great tip is do a bar a bar of someone. Yes, yes. Right. So at breakfast routinely we do yogurt parfait bar I will have a bunch of different berries, granola. Chia seeds, coconut, shreds, just a little containers.

 

00;28;25;10 – 00;28;44;13

Dr. Manasa Mantravadi

And they feel so cool together, a little bowl and they will make their own, you know, Greek yogurt. And they’ll put all of their toppings. By the way, we call things like chia seeds, and have, hemp seeds and flax seeds. We call it brain food. Yeah. And they’re sprinkling that on and they think it sprinkles again at a young age.

 

00;28;44;13 – 00;29;01;14

Dr. Manasa Mantravadi

When they’re older, they actually understand that it really impacts their health in a positive way. And so they do it because they want to, not because they’re tricked into doing it when they’re three and so these are a great ways to get children involved. You can do toast bars. You know, a piece of wholegrain toast. You can either put keto or hummus on it.

 

00;29;01;14 – 00;29;23;27

Dr. Manasa Mantravadi

Eggs for lunch. You can do sandwich for dinner. We do taco bar a lot. Yeah. So these are just really, really easy. You know, how to build their own plate. And then the last one is a repeat meal system. Okay? You do not need to think every single evening. What am I going to cook? I feel like every every parent who’s listening is like, yep, that’s me.

 

00;29;24;00 – 00;29;43;02

Dr. Manasa Mantravadi

And father Refrigerator being like, what do I cook tonight? Yeah. So what I do is make it as simple as possible, repeat things, repeat them. So I have a system for dinners, for example. We always do like Monday is my we’re Indian so I always try to cook some sort of Indian food. Yeah Monday Tuesday is always taco night.

 

00;29;43;02 – 00;30;03;02

Dr. Manasa Mantravadi

Wednesday is walk Wednesday. And so I know I have to use my walk now. Your brain can just like, take a breath because you know what you need to do on each of those. You know, you can rotate things, but you’re just kind of making that same theme. And it just decreases the amount of decision fatigue that we have.

 

00;30;03;04 – 00;30;23;07

Dr. Mona

Now let’s take a quick break to hear from our sponsors who support helps us keep bringing you this show. How do you know that? You know, when you said that we’re the same person? Did you know that I do the same thing? Like, is this how we’re with this in person? So we so I’ve actually this is, this is why it’s so wild like we to take off that load.

 

00;30;23;07 – 00;30;33;08

Dr. Mona

I mean, we do the same thing where we think of a different type of ethnic food for every night. Right. So that way. So for example, Tuesday is Taco Tuesday because my, my husband is obsessed with tacos, right?

 

00;30;33;10 – 00;30;33;17

Dr. Manasa Mantravadi

Yes.

 

00;30;33;17 – 00;30;49;28

Dr. Mona

But then Wednesday is like Asian food night. So what I mean by that is maybe it’s going to be Thai food. Maybe it’s going to be Indian food to like rotate through and then another night maybe will be Mediterranean. So yeah, with that we have this is more but we have a way to be like, okay, it’s Mediterranean night.

 

00;30;50;04 – 00;31;06;16

Dr. Mona

Are we going to do gyros? Are we going to do falafels? What are we going to make? Are we, you know, and that’s how it makes it so much simpler. And the kids get exposed to different flavor palates. And I also love the diversity, but we’re not overthinking. Like, do I need to now make some cool new meal that, like, is crazy?

 

00;31;06;16 – 00;31;21;27

Dr. Mona

And if we want that cool new meal, we’ll go out like maybe just say like, I don’t I’m not good at, I don’t, I don’t know how to make sushi. Then we’ll go out to sushi or or is hotpot, like, going to, hotpot and like, making our own food? We do that every two weeks, and the kids love it.

 

00;31;21;27 – 00;31;22;06

Dr. Mona

They.

 

00;31;22;12 – 00;31;22;27

Dr. Manasa Mantravadi

Yes.

 

00;31;22;28 – 00;31;39;06

Dr. Mona

Your point, they kids love being able to cook. And you’re right. My my kids eat so much at hotpot because they’re cooking their own meal and they get control. I’ve never seen my son eat that many veggies. Then when we’re at hotpot, because he’s like, mom, I’ll try this, I’ll try this. And I’m like, because he gets to cook it himself.

 

00;31;39;06 – 00;31;46;26

Dr. Mona

And like, you could bring that home and just know that you can like, do that same sort of concept without needing to make it like too much of a lift.

 

00;31;46;29 – 00;32;12;21

Dr. Manasa Mantravadi

And that you can, you can make dining out also a great experience and healthy. Right. Like I think it’s both it’s it’s and it’s always and it’s like just like I said math subtraction is harder than addition. I actually think instead of just always feeling like you have to do all of these things, you can do and or and just like take, give yourself some grace on them that count as healthy.

 

00;32;12;23 – 00;32;35;21

Dr. Manasa Mantravadi

The other thing that we do, this brings up a good point. Those flavor palettes, when we introduce spices and different flavors early on in life. Truly, it, you know, you know, your, gas station is like one of my favorite words, I love it. Yeah, right. The gustatory. So, yeah, that really is connected to your brain and the way that your brain processes.

 

00;32;35;21 – 00;32;57;05

Dr. Manasa Mantravadi

So think about it. When we’re always giving children added sugar again as a society, not a single blame on your training your child. Right. Inadvertently as a society to crave those foods. Yeah. We flip the script again and do these beautiful flavors from different parts of the world. It’s exciting, it’s tasty, and actually you can make it fun.

 

00;32;57;07 – 00;33;23;15

Dr. Manasa Mantravadi

One of the things we do is if it’s Italian night, we try to put on some Italian inspired music. If it’s, you know, taco night. And then we try to learn, when they were younger, we would say, oh, let’s try to learn hello in Spanish. Hello. And so there’s just all these fun opportunities to again make food joyful, connected, healthy and instead of what we normally feel is chaotic, overwhelming.

 

00;33;23;15 – 00;33;30;17

Dr. Manasa Mantravadi

And so just starting to say, like, actually food is one of the greatest things I can, I love it. Yeah, a fun experience.

 

00;33;30;19 – 00;33;39;15

Dr. Mona

Oh, and exactly. Taking the stress out of that. You know, if this was our house, it would be Puerto Rican night every day because my my daughter’s obsessed with Bad Bunny right now.

 

00;33;39;17 – 00;33;50;09

Dr. Manasa Mantravadi

I’m telling you, every time I see, it’s funny every time I see a post from her, like, from. Yeah, I’m like Moana. Literally. My children have memorized the day. So fun. Super Bowl.

 

00;33;50;12 – 00;34;07;10

Dr. Mona

Like. So whether it’s Italian food tonight, sushi, whatever. My daughter is going to be listening to Bad Bunny so much and like, if we’re playing something else, she’ll be like, mama, Bad Bunny. Like, she’ll just say it and then go back to eating like. Like you are my bit. Please put on the bad bunny. Right.

 

00;34;07;10 – 00;34;14;24

Dr. Manasa Mantravadi

And by the way, this, this is actually. I can’t believe I’m showing this on your podcast. This is actually my Missy Elliott blanket.

 

00;34;14;24 – 00;34;38;24

Dr. Mona

Oh, my gosh, the one you told me I love it. Oh my gosh. Yeah. So they they’re still obsessed with Bad Bunny with Katy Perry and Missy Elliott’s halftime show. This was like the whole year. Like let’s watch that. But I love that. I love that they love millennial music too. So, you know, you already mentioned you already mentioned about the three things, the ingredient labels, ten ingredients or less recognizing ingredients that you, you know, added sugar, added salt.

 

00;34;39;01 – 00;34;47;03

Dr. Mona

Is there anything else when it comes to additives and packaging that you feel like families should want to look at without having to overhaul their entire kitchen?

 

00;34;47;06 – 00;35;03;03

Dr. Manasa Mantravadi

Yes. So a lot of the things that we talked about were kind of on these, what we call like ingredient list, right. And, and part of that is, you know, looking at that, but then also like what is the food coming in. So the three things that I really think about again, progress over perfection. It’s not about taking these things down to zero.

 

00;35;03;03 – 00;35;23;22

Dr. Manasa Mantravadi

I want to make sure that’s very evident. Yeah, I think about that. So from an environmental health standpoint I think about plastics, I think about food dyes and I think about pesticides just as kind of three big groups. Again, you don’t need to take this down to zero. You don’t need to overhaul your whole kitchen overnight. But why this is important is children eat multiple times a day, right?

 

00;35;23;22 – 00;35;49;20

Dr. Manasa Mantravadi

Yeah. So this is the most consistent environmental exposure in childhood. And why that’s important is when children are eating, these environmental health exposures are more important because number one, when they consume, like, they consume more food and drink per, grain, like per kilo or per weight and per body surface area. So basically their bodies are a little larger than ours.

 

00;35;49;20 – 00;36;10;27

Dr. Manasa Mantravadi

And, you know, for everything that they eat, it’s more exposure. Number two is they are eating right, like they are growing and develop developing. So these consistent exposures are happening during critical stages of growth and development. And then number three, remember these kids, especially your toddlers or your infant, like they’re exploring food. They’re exploring everything with their mouth.

 

00;36;11;00 – 00;36;32;17

Dr. Manasa Mantravadi

So there’s so much, exposure. So the goal is to reduce unnecessary exposure when it’s easy to do so. So three kind of high impact areas to focus on plastics. So there’s a lot of talk about plastics. So you can’t change everything. You can’t change the supply chain of the grocery store that you necessarily are going to.

 

00;36;32;18 – 00;36;55;06

Dr. Manasa Mantravadi

But you can make some simple changes. So the American Academy of Pediatrics came out the policy statement in 2018. It’s actually the reason I started the company a Hampshire, in which they said plastics are actually harmful to human health, particularly children. And, we, we would like to formally recommend to avoid plastics, to serve and store food and use glass or stainless steel instead.

 

00;36;55;06 – 00;37;19;06

Dr. Manasa Mantravadi

And that was actually what was the entire origin story of why I created a company. Yeah, yeah. So number one, you know, trying to replace your food where so, you know, your bottles and your cups and your dishes, with glass or stainless steel, if you are going to use plastic, avoid heating, exposing that plastic to heat, because the chemicals in plastic can leach out kind of at baseline.

 

00;37;19;08 – 00;37;47;12

Dr. Manasa Mantravadi

But when you expose it to heat, like the dishwasher microwave, it increases the amount and speed at which those plastic chemicals, are going into your child’s body. So that’s kind of a, one simple way, plastics and food where, artificial dyes. I know there’s a lot of a lot of stuff out there about this, but in general, if you can look at those, food labels again, you will often see that these dyes are in brightly colored candies, snack foods, sugary cereals.

 

00;37;47;16 – 00;38;00;19

Dr. Manasa Mantravadi

So just try to choose foods that are, you know, the real ingredients. So, are causing that color. So things like turmeric, I mean, we we’re Indian, right? Turmeric really does change the color of your food and your counters.

 

00;38;00;22 – 00;38;02;06

Dr. Mona

And your fingernails, you.

 

00;38;02;08 – 00;38;22;24

Dr. Manasa Mantravadi

Know, all of it. And so just if the if the color is coming from something like beets or turmeric, if there’s an option, that’s a great way. And then the last time the last thing is pesticide. This is really important because again you can’t you are not in control of what’s happening kind of in the entire supply chain of your food system that you can choose, better.

 

00;38;22;24 – 00;38;46;17

Dr. Manasa Mantravadi

So for example, fruits and vegetables, incredibly important for children’s health. We just talked about it. If you’re going to prioritize organic purchases that really decrease the amount of pesticides that are on your food, I always recommend, the environmental working group, there’s a they’re kind of like a consumer watchdog on all of these environmental toxins. They have a really nice list that’s called the Dirty Dozen.

 

00;38;46;23 – 00;39;22;06

Dr. Manasa Mantravadi

That means these are foods that have a higher residue and higher chance of pesticides hitting them. So the dirty dozen things like spinach, strawberries, kale, grapes, peaches, pears, nectarines, apples, bell peppers. I’m just reading this one. Cherries. It means that if you’re going to prioritize organic, start with that. So typically what I’m purchasing, if I’m going to choose organic because it is more expensive at times, I’ll try to choose those because that really will help to decrease the amount of, pesticides that are, you know, in higher burdens on those particular.

 

00;39;22;13 – 00;39;42;15

Dr. Manasa Mantravadi

But then there are some that just have lower residues and those are called the clean 15. So things like that, you peel so like an avocado, bananas. Often I don’t purchase organic, so I save a little cost there. So, you can check out their website, Environmental Working Group. And so, the Dirty Dozen and the clean 15 are just, like, a nice way to think about.

 

00;39;42;23 – 00;39;57;19

Dr. Manasa Mantravadi

Okay, I got to buy produce. My doctor told me I have to eat more vegetables and fruits, but now she’s telling me there’s all this crap on it. Which ones do I choose? These are simple ways to kind of think about it. And the last thing is you can just simply wash your produce, making sure that you’re rinsing it.

 

00;39;57;19 – 00;40;08;04

Dr. Manasa Mantravadi

You can use a food, you know, like a, like a vegetable brush. You can even just soak it in some, baking soda and rinse it. And those are really helpful in, reducing some of that pesticide residue.

 

00;40;08;06 – 00;40;23;05

Dr. Mona

Well, I love that you’re talking about not bringing things down to zero because that’s just not sustainable. And I think that’s a lot of the stress the parents have is like, oh my God, the plastic and you gave some really great, you know, ways to like reduce plastic load. I love that you reiterated that. Obviously not microwaving things in plastic.

 

00;40;23;05 – 00;40;44;14

Dr. Mona

That’s what I recommend. And then also just swapping out the plates and stuff. My question for you is about the EWG, because the Dirty Dozen gets a lot of criticism by dietitians, agricultural experts for using a lot of flawed method, methodology, feeding unnecessary fear. What are your thoughts about the EWG? I’m I, I’ve really love them for a lot of the things, but now I love you.

 

00;40;44;14 – 00;40;50;29

Dr. Mona

So I’m very curious. Just differing opinions on is there some like limitations to that or what do you feel about it?

 

00;40;51;02 – 00;41;24;22

Dr. Manasa Mantravadi

I think there’s limitations to everything. Yeah. And like a lot of stuff that AARP, you know, might say. Right. And so it’s it’s it’s about taking kind of the overall evidence based approach, which I do think AARP does and obviously, EWG like or obviously AARP does. And I do believe EWG does. So it’s about taking the evidence from the most kind of volume of like published, peer reviewed literature making some recommendations, and then for, for, for us to implement it with a grain of salt.

 

00;41;24;27 – 00;41;49;02

Dr. Manasa Mantravadi

Always. Yeah, right. Because the decisions are not kind of the same for every patient or every mom, every family. So it’s I always say take what is out there and make the best decision that so take what is out there based on evidence and science, and incorporate that into your parenting in the best way possible for your family at that time.

 

00;41;49;02 – 00;42;06;10

Dr. Manasa Mantravadi

Because what what might be true today might not be true in three months. In terms of your decision making, like you might have a change in your job. It allows you to, you know, be able to cut up more fruits and vegetables and put it at eye level. But you might not. Right. And so that’s what I that’s how I feel about all of the organizations.

 

00;42;06;10 – 00;42;10;27

Dr. Manasa Mantravadi

Right. So medical organizations, consumer watchdog.

 

00;42;10;27 – 00;42;11;25

Dr. Mona

Agency.

 

00;42;11;28 – 00;42;25;06

Dr. Manasa Mantravadi

I think it’s important to take all of this with a grain of salt, but that the root of the recommendations are truly coming from at least evidence based, literature. And then knowing that there’s going to be limitations to all of it.

 

00;42;25;08 – 00;42;42;00

Dr. Mona

And so I, I love that. I mean, that’s, that’s how I feel, you know, because I think that there is some, you know, thought of like, okay, well, you know, the the intent is there that obviously we want to reduce plastics, we want to reduce this. But it’s just like the AP can be all or nothing. Sometimes EWG can be all or nothing.

 

00;42;42;00 – 00;43;11;04

Dr. Mona

And it’s finding that balance in the middle. And that’s so much on your own value system. And I love what you said. Like, my, my motto is like you’re doing the best with the information and resources you have at the current moment. So information is always changing as we know. And resources include time and money. And if you have help with the kids and like I trust very well that my, my information and my especially my resources have changed so much in the last six years, whether I had a nanny, whether my husband was working 15 shifts a month or 20 shifts a month, you know.

 

00;43;11;04 – 00;43;13;03

Dr. Manasa Mantravadi

Like was at home to make that.

 

00;43;13;08 – 00;43;25;17

Dr. Mona

I’m exactly, you know, I love that. I love that connection. Thank you so much. Because, you know, obviously people who follow me are like, oh, I think she’s talked about the EWG and I, I love that perspective you come from. And so since I respected Jules, like, I want to hear your thoughts.

 

00;43;25;23 – 00;43;27;00

Dr. Manasa Mantravadi

Yeah. Yeah.

 

00;43;27;02 – 00;43;46;09

Dr. Mona

You know, you already mentioned, like, the playing of music, the cultural nights, obviously. That really made me feel that connection was happening in your house. And you talk a lot about reclaiming mealtime as connection. What does that actually look like in a busy household? And how does connection at the table do you think influence long term health?

 

00;43;46;11 – 00;44;03;02

Dr. Manasa Mantravadi

So what I really think about is meal time is both biological, right. Like all the stuff that we just talked about, in terms of how your body works, but it’s also relational. So think about our most joyful times. Like you go out to eat with your friends and you’re reconnecting. You have girls nights and you feel re-energized.

 

00;44;03;02 – 00;44;29;07

Dr. Manasa Mantravadi

It literally makes you feel better, right? So food will nourish the body. But the environment around meals also shaped, you know, health and development. You know, well beyond just metabolic health. So we know, like the studies actually show that if you, participate in children who participate in three shared meals a week, okay, so not three family meals around a dining table and what people think about, like, you know, leave it to Beaver.

 

00;44;29;07 – 00;44;54;09

Dr. Manasa Mantravadi

And that’s three shared meals, a week actually will lead to healthier overall diets, better mental and emotional health, lower risk for obesity, and even improved academic outcomes. And so when you think about shared meals, breakfast, lunch, dinner, snacks, seven days a week, that’s a lot of opportunity. You just need to worry about that space, right.

 

00;44;54;09 – 00;45;16;24

Dr. Manasa Mantravadi

So when you when you start to reframe that, it’s like, oh, I just need to share three eating opportunities together with my kid, you know, undistracted. No. With a, you know, really being disconnected. So for example, it can mean that you’re eating family meals around the dining table and have the table set. It can mean that it can also mean throwing a picnic.

 

00;45;16;24 – 00;45;43;11

Dr. Manasa Mantravadi

I’m like looking at it my window, throwing a picnic blanket out and, your front yard and eating an apple with some peanut butter together. That counts, right? You don’t have your phone. You don’t have your TV. You are connecting with your child over a shared meal. And so that model that provides connection to reconnect with your children, after they’ve gone to daycare or school all day, or if they’re a teenager, it’s a great option, to really reconnect with your teen.

 

00;45;43;11 – 00;46;07;00

Dr. Manasa Mantravadi

And so that becomes where this shared meal experience, now kids are learning, you know, in general how meals are fitting into daily life, how to listen to hunger and fullness, how to enjoy food socially and culturally, remodeling their, their experiences for their long term relationship with food and reconnecting. So these do not have to be perfect routines.

 

00;46;07;02 – 00;46;31;02

Dr. Manasa Mantravadi

I’m. I’m a busy mom with three kids. I’ll play club soccer. I can tell you that. We’re not, during those days, having a this beautiful meal at the at the dining table. Right. It can mean going out to eat and choosing healthier and connecting over, you know, a meal that’s outside the home. So I think just in general, to understand how important meal time is more than just nourishment.

 

00;46;31;04 – 00;46;56;15

Dr. Manasa Mantravadi

Right. And so, I just I think people underestimate the value of truly food is health, food is medicine, food is joy. But when you sit back and really think about some of your most cherished childhood memories, it is probably around dining, right? What do you think about your cherished moments with your friends? It’s probably around meal time.

 

00;46;56;17 – 00;47;04;27

Dr. Mona

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

 

00;47;04;29 – 00;47;20;06

Dr. Mona

Well, my son, we do a gratitude jar. I think you’re familiar with that. So my I do gratitude jar where I put things and then my son does. And it’s so awesome hearing the gratitude of a six year old because it shows you what is most valuable in this world. And I have a lot of gratitude for non-material things.

 

00;47;20;06 – 00;47;45;12

Dr. Mona

That’s just who I am. Yeah, but a lot of adults, I think, have become so unhappy with their lives because they are grateful for things that are materialistic. And so when I talk about this, my son, anytime he talks about how much he loved eating with mommy, eating with mom and going to lunch with mommy, going to a date with daddy, going to hot pot with mommy, Bura and daddy, like so many of the events, are not about something he got as a toy, but about that connection.

 

00;47;45;14 – 00;48;01;00

Dr. Mona

Or like you said, around the food. And I was like, I love it. And I, you know, to be quite frank, just like you, I’m very busy. And when my husband’s, my husband’s more of the cook, when he’s working, I tend to take them out for one meal, like in that working weekend, just to take the load off.

 

00;48;01;03 – 00;48;18;17

Dr. Mona

And I love it, I think. And also I take them to the same regular places. We find again the good, the great, balanced options. And it just goes to show you how much that connection really matters. Yes. And I also very much value that time with them. And for anyone listening who’s like, I just don’t have time to have dinner or meal, you do.

 

00;48;18;17 – 00;48;46;16

Dr. Mona

If you have time to get on the phone. Again, we’re not asking for like a 45 minute Kumbaya session, but you have a moment to stare at your kid, talk about something else besides the food. I think we forget that. That also adds so much pressure when you’re, like, staring at your toddler or your five year old and you’re like, hey, you need to eat your broccoli, talk about something else, talk about their day, and don’t take the pressure off of nourishment and bring it back to the connection.

 

00;48;46;16 – 00;48;48;07

Dr. Mona

And nourishment can come.

 

00;48;48;10 – 00;49;06;25

Dr. Manasa Mantravadi

That, I’m so you said that so beautifully. Because that’s what it’s about. Because, listen, there there are opportunities everywhere. You’re taking your child out once the once a weekend. You know what it also teaches them? It’s teaches them these skills on how to order, how to kind of be like how to there’s just so many other things.

 

00;49;06;27 – 00;49;30;29

Dr. Manasa Mantravadi

So I always say like, it’s love, it’s joy, it’s health is also an education opportunity. Like always. Like there’s so much around, meals that can really and I really strongly believe that it is the best investment, an ROI you can have in your child’s current health and future health, hands down. You know, and when you say things like that, I think it is true.

 

00;49;31;06 – 00;49;53;00

Dr. Manasa Mantravadi

I don’t have the time. I don’t have the like, it’s too expensive. It’s, I don’t have the skill. It’s like these are the moments that we can invest in, right. So investing in that little bit of time to connect with your kid. Right. And again, food doesn’t have to be expensive. I oftentimes I’m vegetarian. I will soak chickpeas overnight and then pressure cook them.

 

00;49;53;00 – 00;50;18;19

Dr. Manasa Mantravadi

And guess what. It took me literally. This is a good exercise count when you do these things. Yeah. So instead of so when I say okay, go for a snack, open the pantry and grab goldfish. Right. Count how many seconds that takes. Now go and do the same thing and go to your refrigerator. Get an apple, wash it, cut it, and put a scoop of peanut butter.

 

00;50;18;22 – 00;50;39;25

Dr. Manasa Mantravadi

Is it longer? Yes. Is it that much fun? Right. It’s like actually not even it’s like it’s definitely not hours. It’s it’s probably maybe one minute longer. So when you these things start to become, cumulative when you do it in an additive fashion. But we have to kind of stop and evaluate what it is that we’re doing.

 

00;50;39;25 – 00;51;02;14

Dr. Manasa Mantravadi

And is it are you going to scroll on that phone much longer than a minute? Probably. So you probably have that minute. But it’s about stopping and thinking about, oh yeah, that’s not going to take me that long because our default is it’s going to take me so long, right. It’s going to be too hard. And so just start doing those exercises because I bet you you’ll find little opportunities.

 

00;51;02;16 – 00;51;30;22

Dr. Manasa Mantravadi

And that’s what this is all about. Little opportunities. Little small habit changes over time. I’m telling you, it works. My kids are 13 and I cannot believe, like my investment, that little piggy bank I’ve been putting that penny in. And sometimes that penny gets spit back out. Yeah, like it? It’s working. Yeah. And so I just want to really give a message of hope to, to families listening to this I love it.

 

00;51;30;22 – 00;51;45;27

Dr. Mona

And that was actually that, you know, I always wrap up with like for anyone who did listen to this, that felt overwhelmed, which I don’t talking to you, I feel like these are very practical. You just gave them like a very good take home, like starting with obviously like the small things start with understanding how you reframe the the words.

 

00;51;45;29 – 00;51;51;18

Dr. Mona

What is something that is making you very happy right now? And what is something that you’re hopeful for with the work that you do?

 

00;51;51;21 – 00;52;13;02

Dr. Manasa Mantravadi

Yes. So one thing that’s making me very happy right now is honestly seeing children who are kind of, you know, as a founder of like, I’m a pediatrician always. I’m a mom, always. And I’m like a newer founder house. Just seeing children be more engaged with food, like, unfortunately they’re using our products or you’re like, oh, mom, this is God.

 

00;52;13;05 – 00;52;33;12

Dr. Manasa Mantravadi

You’re supposed to put fruits and vegetables in here. I’m like, oh, it’s working. This tool is working. And that to me, that makes me happy because going down entrepreneurship, becoming a founder, it’s been it’s a challenge. But when you see the results, you know, honestly, these unintended results were kids like, I want a broccoli on my plate.

 

00;52;33;17 – 00;52;50;26

Dr. Manasa Mantravadi

It just makes you feel like that intentional thing that you did is working, you know. And so that is it has bring has brought me a lot of joy. My husband’s like, you’ve been doing this now for a few years. You still see children on social media and get so excited. I’m like, because love. And yeah, they can love it.

 

00;52;50;26 – 00;53;24;12

Dr. Manasa Mantravadi

Be joyful. And then I am hopeful about school lunch. What people don’t know is watch this company with stainless steel products for kids at home, but also at school. Many of our patients collectively are eating, meals at school, you know, getting more than 50% sometimes all of their calories are coming from school lunch. What I’m really hopeful about, is as I’ve been connecting with school nutrition directors across the country, there’s a real concerted effort to go away from plastics, away from heat and serve model and go to scratch cooking local produce.

 

00;53;24;12 – 00;53;46;24

Dr. Manasa Mantravadi

That makes me so hopeful, because a lot of these health discrepancies that we see in our patients are skewed more towards children who are living in lower socioeconomic kind of areas and do have to eat at school. So it’s making me hopeful that the systems that were designed, around these children are changing, and hopefully health outcomes will change for those children.

 

00;53;46;26 – 00;54;05;11

Dr. Mona

I love that, I love I love asking that question. Especially obviously with the work that you’re doing, I can just see the light that it brings you. No wonder you get excited because I also get excited. You think, thank you so much for joining us. Now, where can people go to stay connected, to learn more about you and obviously the work that you’re doing and all of the tips that you’ve given.

 

00;54;05;13 – 00;54;30;26

Dr. Manasa Mantravadi

Absolutely. So you can go to Ahimsa home.com. Hi, MSA. Home.com, you can shop products, but actually we have a whole content section called the Pediatrician Kitchen. So you can find content like this to really help break down time, cost and skill on how to do these things in a more digestible way. And you can also follow us on Instagram, TikTok, Facebook at Ahimsa Home USA.

 

00;54;30;29 – 00;54;36;05

Dr. Manasa Mantravadi

Because ahimsa home was taken so and so.

 

00;54;36;07 – 00;54;45;18

Dr. Mona

Thank you I know, thank you so much. I am so happy that we got to connect. Obviously, we’ve connected in other ways beyond the podcast. But thank you so much. This is awesome.

 

00;54;45;21 – 00;54;51;23

Dr. Manasa Mantravadi

So you’re welcome. And, you know, again, the mantra food is love. Food is joy, food is health. Remember that parents get.

 

00;54;51;23 – 00;55;12;21

Dr. Mona

It on a T-shirt. Girl, get it on a t shirt. I will have merch. I am some merch. Okay, I’m not going to do that again. It. Well, that conversation left me wanting to reorganize my entire fridge in the best way. My biggest takeaway shop, The Perimeter, is honestly just so brilliant. That does not mean you can never venture into the inside aisles.

 

00;55;12;21 – 00;55;34;22

Dr. Mona

I do too, but prioritizing the veggies, fruits, meat, and dairy around the edges of the store makes balance the default. Instead of the exception. Ultra processed food can be a part of life without being your entire life. If you can take one thing from this episode, let it be this. Stop asking what you need to cut out and start asking what you can add in.

 

00;55;34;24 – 00;55;54;04

Dr. Mona

Nourishment beats restriction every single time. And if you know a parent standing in the cereal aisle overwhelmed and trying to do right by their kid, send them this episode. It might be exactly what they need to hear today. And remember to tag the PedsDocTalk podcast, PedsDocTalk and Ahimsa when you share this episode on social media.

 

00;55;54;11 – 00;55;59;22

Dr. Mona

We love seeing it out in the world. Until next time, take care of yourselves and stay well.