In this conversational segment of the Human Upgrade podcast, Dave Asprey and Vani Hari discuss how parents can teach children to make healthier food choices amid pervasive processed‑food marketing. They reminisce about childhood cereal mascots like Tony the Tiger, explain why they limit TV and ads for their kids, and share a personal anecdote about an ice‑cream‑truck day at school. Vani describes how her six‑year‑old daughter independently chose an ice‑cream sandwich, prompting Vani to research its ingredient list and discover numerous additives and chemicals. The dialogue explores the tension between guiding children with family health values and allowing them autonomy to think critically, emphasizing kindness toward other parents who may lack the same knowledge. Throughout, they stress using personal health experiences as a value framework, encouraging respectful, non‑judgmental conversations about food, and fostering critical thinking without overt persuasion.
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So what you're doing is you're teaching kids though, in your new book, which is interesting because you know who else does that trick? Tony the Tiger. Yeah, because you remember, some listeners may not know Tony the Tiger, but when I was growing up watching cartoons on Saturday morning, Tony the Tiger would come on and tell you. What was he, what did he promote anyway? Tricks or something? Trickster.
Oh, no, no, no. Frosted Flakes.
Frosted Flakes. Thank you. I was more of like a Fruity Pebbles kid myself. But, you know, there's all these, these things. And they know if they can get kids addicted when they're young. So my kids didn't watch tv, they just weren't allowed to. They could do audiobooks, which don't have ads. And then I would also tell them, like, oh, that's not food. Like, that's a McDonald's. You just go there to pee, right?
Yeah. That's awesome. That's not food.
Yeah. And they have chemicals in their food. But then something happened. My daughter was probably 6 or 7. Our nanny takes the kids to McDonald's drive thru not to get the food. She knows not to feed them fast food. But she wanted to get a latte, which is weird because there was free coffee, like bulletproof coffee. It was at my house, Danger Coffee, my new coffee brand. But it was funny. So my daughter's like, oh, my God, you can talk to this box. And then like, and you can get food. And so the. Our nanny orders the food and then my daughter rolls her in. A ghost goes, one poopy chemical latte, please. Right? And then it's like, ha, I got away with it. But our nanny was like, pretty pissed off, like, you know, feeling judged a little bit because my daughter's like, that's not food. So this is my question for you. Your kids, when they look at highly processed yoga mat bread and all this other nonsense that's out there, how do you teach them to be kind and accepting of people who don't know as much as they know?
Yeah. That is the name of the game right now. And it's happening right now with my daughter, who's 6. An ice cream truck visits school and they sent out a note to parents ahead of time and they said, hey, we're going to have ice cream day this day. And I immediately, in like 2 nanoseconds, I was like writing back and I was like, I'll provide the ice cream for that day, right?
Yeah.
But the headmaster was like, no, we got it covered. And I'm like, oh, Should I push this or should I just let kids be kids? Like, you know, I just kind of let it go. And it was the end of the school year, and the ice cream truck comes and Harley gets home from school, and she says to me, she goes, mom, I want to let you know I picked the best option. I said, oh, really? What'd you pick? She said, I picked an ice cream sandwich because all the other things were brightly colored. And I said, oh, that's great. Well, did you enjoy it? She goes, mom, it was double the size of the ones we get at home because, like, the little small ones are, like, organic, right? And then they have the big tall ones. And I go, oh, wow, it was double the size. She's like, yes, it was so, so good. And I just left that conversation with, like, the best feeling in the world that she, at 6 years old, thought about her decision, chose something not brightly colored because of the fact that she knew it was conventional and it wasn't like, you know, it was a ice cream truck. And she made that decision on her own. But what did I do after she told me that? I went to the Internet and I typed in Good Humor ice cream sandwich. What would be in a typical ice cream sandwich? What do you think's in there?
Well, you've got to have skim milk full of glyphosate and no good fat. You got to have canola oil, high fructose corn syrup. I'm sorry, thickener gum, tons of.
Oh, yeah, Carrageenan. Yeah. Yep, all of it. Right? It has all the bad stuff. But then on top of it, they're putting dye to make it white vanilla ice cream. They're putting dye into make the chocolate wafer caramel color level four. So, like, even though she thought she was making a better choice, she still was doomed, Right? And of course, I didn't have the heart to tell her because I want her to think critically and think about these things on her own. And I don't want to, you know, persuade her too much. I do want to educate her, but it was awesome because she made that decision. She didn't say anything else about anyone else's, and she was kind about it. Right? But there are going to be those situations where she asks me and she has already where she asked me, why does this mom not know about this? Right? Why does this mom allow this and you don't and why don't you buy this? Right? And that's the point in time where I tell her about values. Like, this is a value of our family. We highly value this because I've been super sick in my life, and I don't want you to experience that, and so this is a value in my life. That person probably hasn't gone through that lesson yet. And maybe they will and maybe they won't. But you're lucky in that I'm your mom and you get all this information, and so you get to feel the best.
You're listening to the human upgrade with Dave Asprey.
