The Teen Health Revolution - The Holistic Kids

Hi and welcome to how humans heal. I'm Dr. Donnie Wilson and today I'm really excited to introduce you to the Holistic Kids. This is Abdullah, Zain and Ahmad, and they are not only the hosts of the Holistic Kids podcast, but they are also the best selling authors of the new book called the Teen Health Revolution. And I just think this is amazing because here we have actual teens who are helping other teens to, to improve their health. And these, there's actually four of you in the Holistic Kids group and you've already been winning awards around and doing, speaking, talking about this everywhere. So I'm so grateful for you joining me here at How Humans Heal. Welcome.

Well, yeah, well, thank you so much for having us on this podcast. We're so honored to be here. Thank you. Thank you so much.

You're welcome. You're welcome. I want everyone to know, like, how much you've been learning and what inspired you to write this Teen Health Revolution book. What do you see out there and that's happening that inspired you to say, hey, wait a minute, we have something to say about this and we want to be the one sharing this information.

So it all started back in the pandemic where, you know, we were, we didn't. We had a lot of time on our hands and I'm almost like, why don't you start a podcast? It'd be really beneficial. And so we started a podcast, we interviewed some people, and we actually grew to like it a lot because we benefited and we saw how much the community was able to benefit from it as well. So from there on, right?

So especially after post Covid, like, that was during the pandemic time, so everyone was worried about their health. But post Covid, I went back to school and that year was when. That year was when my best friend, he threatened to kill me.

Oh, my gosh.

So I realized that, you know what? Teens, kids, their health, it's going down the drain. Because before COVID it wasn't like this. So, yeah, we realized why this book was so necessary for teens and kids that we wanted to really create this.

Book because somebody with a healthy mind would not threaten to kill anybody. That's when we knew, and this was back in middle school. And so that's when we knew we needed something, needed to change, we needed a revolution.

And the thing is that your prior books have been a lot about nutrition. The Adam's Healing Adventures health book series has been a lot about choosing healthier foods versus processed foods, which is amazing. And I definitely recommend anyone who's looking for books to help your kids with nutrition. Definitely look up Adam's healing adventures. At the same time, this new book, the Teen Health Revolution, sounds like you're even going into mental health. Is that right?

Yeah, because you want to say so.

The Teen Health Revolution is a book that will. That targets all aspects. Yeah, all aspects of health. It talks about physical health, mental health, spiritual health, emotional health. It talks about just the social health. Like, it's very practical. It's a very, very practical guide for teens by teens, because you realize that teens weren't going to listen to adults. So that's why we made the book ourselves.

So it's 14 by teens.

Yeah.

It's very brave of you to be able to stand up and also insightful to look at what's happening and look at what you're experiencing in your relationships and say, wait a minute, maybe we can all help each other out here. That's what I know is that you come from this place of like, hey, let's help each other out so that we're not going against each other. How can we be working together, would you say?

Yeah, I think if some. If change needs to happen, we all need to get together and do this, because right now we're actually facing a loneliness epidemic. Things need to change. Teenagers need to come together and ask, start asking questions, start changing policies, start bringing this into our schools. Because if we don't do something now, the next generation is going to have to suffer. This needs to happen together now.

Amazing. And your guys ages again? You're just from 12 to 17, right?

Yes.

Yeah. So Mod's 12, I'm 14 and he's 17.

Amazing. And you have your fourth brother as well?

Yeah, we have fourth and fifth brother, so they're a little below with 10 and 2.

Amazing. So you guys are leading the way in your family to say, okay, we can create a better future for ourselves and our generation. Amazing. What do you find when you did your research around this book and what you're experiencing with your peers? What do you notice about kids that maybe is. Is, you know, that you've identified is the issue, so to speak, or where. Where you're helping them to change, to make change.

The main issue is that we are not educated. Like I said before, we're not taught in schools what to do. We're not being mindful now. We're not thinking about what we're doing. We're not thinking about what we're putting in our mouth. We're not thinking about what we're Visually consuming. If teens started to educate themselves and be more mindful, but what they're doing, they can, we can do anything, but we just have to take back control.

Of our bodies and our minds. Right. Because I know you talk a lot about mindfulness, so it's like, yeah, like starting to realize, hey, we have the choice of what we put in our bodies and we have a choice of what we're thinking.

Yeah. So mindfulness is such a really important topic because it's left out in the modern society while we're running from place to place. Just really quickly. Life is not supposed to be this fast. So mindfulness just means to be fully present in this world. Because when we're fully present, we can think about what we're eating, think about what we're smelling, tasting, seeing.

Hearing, feeling. Just, just figure out like, just think about what's around you. Being just present in the moment, not thinking about what's happening next or what's going, happened, what happened before, just being fully present.

Amazing. And is that, is that something you teach in the book or how, what do you find is the best way to help other teens learn how to practice mindfulness?

I think like, deep breathing did just take like a second. Like immediately in the morning, you can just go outside and just think about what are you smelling, hearing, because then you can be fully present in the world and you know what's happening.

It's so true.

Right.

Sometimes using our senses, like you're talking about, like, you come back to what are our senses that help us to get into the moment of what we're perceiving as such a good tip. And of course, taking a breath. Right. Like, we forget that we have that ability to take a nice deep breath and that how much that can help us to get out of our head and out of our stressful moment and get back into the present moment. So powerful.

I know.

It's amazing what we can do if we actually, you know, take back our minds and take back our bodies. Because right now our bodies and minds are not ours. We are running towards, you know, the food industry and the tech companies and usually teens are known to be. We want freedom from our parents, but in reality, we're being controlled by our phones, we're being controlled by the ultra processed foods that we're consuming. And most teens are living blindly. We need to wake up now. And if we can do that, we can, we can change the world.

So I'm curious in the, in the book, I'm sure you have some tips of like, okay, you can do this, this, this to start with and then really creating a community then of teens who are doing this work. Right. So that you can support each other. Is that what your vision is?

Yeah.

Amazing. So like, maybe give. You already gave me some examples of things people could do right away. But I'm curious, you know, if there's other things that you start to talk about in the book that might surprise people of like, okay, here's, here's what you can. Here's how this can start to look for you once you start implementing.

So in our book, we have the Revolution. It's an acronym that we use to make easier for anybody to understand and educate themselves. So you guys want to tell them what the acronym is?

So the acronym goes through every single letter of the Revolution.

But that's good because you get to cover a lot.

Yeah, we do.

So R is revolutionize the gut.

E is eat real food.

V is vanquish toxins.

O is optimize your stress management.

L is love nature.

U is unite with others.

T is tech limits. I is invest in sleep. And then O is open to gratitude and purpose.

N is the navigating decisions.

Mindfulness. Yeah. So basically all of this basically talks about a different key aspect of the book. So. But a key aspect of the. I think a big one would be gratitude because when you're grateful about what you what. When you're grateful, you can really change your entire mood and how you do things to be a lot. You can change yourself to be more optimistic, to be more active. Like, just like, stop thinking about all this negativity like a lot of teens do.

And that's why using the Revolution, the acronym, we want people to become better humans and actually take their control back, control of their health and be able to live a better life going on. Because whether or not you're 10 years old, 15 years old, 30 years old, 70 years old, you still have the rest of your life. And nobody wants to live as a human without health.

That's a good point.

Right.

Sometimes we, we kind of like take that our health for granted or kind of forget how important it is because we're so focused, like you said, on so many other things that seem like they're most important in the moment. But ultimately, if we don't have our health and feeling good about ourselves and what we're up to, then what. What really, what are we doing anyway?

Exactly.

And amazing how you really have. Were so thorough. I love that. I love the use of the acronym revolution, and I love that you address Gut health because so much of the time we don't realize that our gut health has anything to do with our mental health and vice versa. Maybe can share a little bit more about that because I think that might surprise people that you're also encouraging them to pay attention to their digestion and their microbiome.

So the gut is very important for a couple of reasons. And first is because the gut is very important because it holds 70% of our 70 or 80% of our immune system, which is very vital to fight these chronic diseases. And also in the book we called it our second brain.

Yeah, the gut is our second brain because the gut, it, it translates messages, input and sends it to the brain to tell the brain what it's feeling and really just how, how good you work and stuff like that.

And plus, how can you say the brain is not connected to the gut when not 80% or 90% of neurotransmitters are actually made in the gut? I mean that mind, brain, gut brain connection is one of the biggest things that determines our health in general, mental health and physical health.

I've done a lot of detoxes over the years and many of them made me feel a lot worse. Not only that, but I've had a lot of patients come in and tell me how after doing a detox they have a stomach ache and headache and they can't sleep and they're feeling anxious. And I'm like, I can't just recommend that my patients don't a program that's going to make them feel worse. So I finally decided to design my own detox program. It's a 14 day detox program that's not like other detox programs out there in several ways. One is that I'm focused on helping you to get the toxins out in a safe and effective way using nutrients, antioxidants and supporting our natural detoxification pathways in the body. Also, I'm helping you to decrease your exposure to toxins by learning the ways that you've been exposed to toxins and how to change your day to day lifestyle to decrease your toxins over time. And I'm helping you to look not just at chemical, environmental, toxins, but also emotional and energetic toxicity. And yes, it's possible to accomplish all of this in 14 days. I have so many patients who have done the 14 day detox and report back to me how much better they feel. And I think it's also because I help you to know what to eat, you are getting adequate food that tastes good, plus Protein Shakespeare that I developed that are good for your body, that your body knows how to use these nutrients and take them in and use them to help you safely detoxify without feeling worse. Also I help you to balance your blood sugar levels, get better sleep and introduce things like meditation, biofeedback and other types of stress recovery into your day to day routine. So I just am so excited about it.

I want to make sure you know.

About this 14 day detox. I'm going to put the link, you can find it at drdani.com forward/detox-program but I'll also put the link below so you can find the 14 day detox program@drdani.com I look forward to guiding you through this detox so that you can actually feel better on your way to better health.

It's so true and I love, I love that you are pointing that out and it's, and it's what I do with my patients as well. Like so much of the time if you know someone has anything else going on in their body or their mind, you know, if it's anxiety, depression, sleep issues even, we might not originally think of the gut health, but the research really shows we need to pay attention to our gut health. And the gut health is very vulnerable to all the stress and toxins we're exposed to. So it's like in some ways you start to go, oh well, no wonder. If we're exposed to so much stress and toxins, of course our end up reading processed foods, our gut health and our microbiome is going to get disrupted. And like you said, then it's going to disrupt our immune system, our nervous system. Of course we're going to notice in other areas of our body. And so I totally agree with you that addressing diet and gut health is so important. And I love that you have found ways to encourage teens because sometimes for teens it's a kind of time in your life where you're, because before that kind of like your parents just give you food and put it in front of you and you eat whatever's there. But when you're becoming a teen, you're becoming a little more of a decision maker with your diet. What did you find helped you make that transition to choosing your own foods and, and really being responsible and accountable to what you're feeding yourselves?

We were educated and I think that's something that a lot of kids and teens these, these days where they are not educated about what they're putting in their food, what they're eating. What they're putting in their mouth. Because.

When you're educated about what these different types of ingredients can do to your body, why would you want to eat it? It's just like if a bag of Doritos had a big black box and it said can cause cancer, would you want to eat it?

Like, nobody imagine, like you go to the grocery store and on Takis, on Doritos, it's just like Zan just said, there's a label can cause cancer like that. Nobody in their right mind is going to eat something like that. So that's why we say, when we were learning about this, we heard from someone we interviewed on a podcast that if you eat junk, then you're gonna start working like junk. And we would notice that in a lot of, a lot of kids as well in our schools that they actually can't focus. They're always irritable, they're always, you know, having anger issues and problems and chronic disease, and they're not working mentally well. And, you know, sadly, with autism and ADHD on our rise, it's not just out of nowhere, but it's actually all connected back to.

Eating the real food.

Now sometimes, and this can happen with adults as well as teens. Sometimes when we hear, oh, hey, you know, you could change your diet and you could feel better. Some people take that and they're like, great, let me do it. And some people, there's a little resistance, like, oh, I know better what to do and I'm not going to change my, you know, I don't want to change anything. Is there something you, you like to or you find is helpful in those situations where someone's a little bit close minded to making changes?

Look, honestly, everybody wants to be a better person. And if you don't want to be a better person, then, like, you can't do anything. You have to make that decision for yourself. Do you want to live the next day, you know, 15, 20 years struggling, like, mentally, physically, with your health and with your wellness? Do you want to live a life without your health? Do you want to live waking up every single morning, you know, with chronic disease, scratching your eczema, allergies, sinus issues? If you don't want that and you want to make a decision, you don't have to change overnight. Start making simple steps to become a better person, to better yourself, and, and from there, just keep educating yourself and you can always get there eventually. But all that matters is making that first step.

It's so true, right? Like, each day is a new day. Each Day, we can make a different choice. And it does. I like how you say it doesn't have to be big leaps and bounds. It can be just little micro changes that start to add up. What do you find is especially related to diet? What are some of the little micro changes that you recommend? First, if someone's like, you know, start to be like, oh, my gosh, I can see it. I've been eating in a way that no wonder I don't feel good. I want to start to make changes. But I'm afraid what are some little places you recommend they begin?

I recommend just.

Learning. Maybe just like learning about each different type of ingredient and something, because then you get a sense of what you're putting inside your body. So you might not want to, like, jump. Like, you might not want to have the Doritos as much. And then just, like, start getting rid of a ingredient that is really toxic at a time. And look for foods that don't have that ingredient. So maybe every day just eliminate an ingredient and just say goodbye and don't have it again. Right? Or just a brand also.

Plus, swap out foods. Look, we have. We eat ice cream, okay, I know it's gonna be a surprise to everybody else, but we eat ice cream, we eat pasta, we eat cake, we eat. We have chips, we have, you know, everything else a kid has, but we have swaps. We have alternatives. And actually, we've told that. We've. Our friends have tried them, and they're like, oh, my God, these are actually better than what we have. We. You can have fun with your food. Food doesn't have to be boring and healthy, but it can also be fun and good for you. That's what it's all about. Making food fun. Making real food fun and actually living normally, but better because you're putting the right foods in your body.

I love it. And so you're like, you're saying, hey, maybe even if you haven't even been going to the grocery store, maybe go to the store or pick up the package and flip it over and see what are the other ingredients in this product. Just to kind of like, get to know, hey, what is it that I'm eating, what's in it, and what are the other options? I love them.

Plus, because people think that chips or donuts always has to be unhealthy. No, the donuts that you see, like a Dunkin Donuts, they have, like, what, 30, 40 ingredients in them? Then you also compared to donut that you can find at the store. If you just look in the ingredients. There's just what you would expect in a donut. Five, six, seven, eight ingredients. And that's how it's supposed to be.

Awesome. So it's like you can actually start to be determining more just by doing a little research, looking for other options. And like you said, swap it out so you don't have to be denying yourself or restricting yourself. It's not, you know, you can actually enjoy your food and be eating healthy at the same time.

Exactly. I think that's how it should be.

I completely agree. I mean, I've been a nutritionist and a naturopathic doctor for over 25 years, and people always will say to me, oh, my gosh, how do you eat that way? And I just, like, I don't even know anything different. It's just normal to me. And so sometimes it's a matter of just. We just have to create a new routine, a new habit, and next thing we know, we're like, it's just normal to me. I don't think about it anymore. Do you find that, too?

Yeah, yeah, yeah.

Because now when we look at our classmates, like, people always asking me, us, don't you feel, like, left out? Like, what about when you see other kids eating their stuff at lunch? Don't you feel weird? And for us, we just think they're just.

There's.

They're really just poisoning themselves. That's. That's all it is. They're. They're poisoning themselves. They're. They're addicted to foods that are gonna hurt them. They're addicted to foods that are gonna hurt their brain, their body. And, you know, that's why we don't feel bad about eating what we eat, because actually it makes us feel good. But what they eat eventually is going to be bad for them.

It's such a good point. That food. We can become addicted to certain foods. Like, we usually think of things we get addicted to as, you know, like, other substances that we hear about. But it's true. We can become addicted to food. Maybe tell us a little bit more about that. Like, what are some of the common food addictions you see teens having?

So the food industry, that. The. The food industry, they use, like, ways for us to get addicted. Like, it's called, like, something called sonic blast booming or something like that. It basically, they. They calculate, like, what it feels when you crunch it. They add msgs to go into the bag to get more. This is all what they do to get that bliss point, which gives that really additive of people wanting more and more and more.

Yeah. And especially like their advertising. I mean, why do you think all the cereals that you walk with in the grocery, they're all super colorful and they all have a fun cartoon animal? Because when a kid sees that, they're going to be like, oh, I want that. Or maybe they see a superhero that they like, oh, yeah, that, maybe that'll make me a superhero. But instead it's a trick that.

That keeps people addicted and keeps kids who don't know better to want those.

Brands.

I'm so glad you're pulling back the veil and saying, hey, listen, you got to be more careful. You got to be aware that these companies are just trying to sell their products. They're not really caring about your health. You have to be the one to care about your health. That's what I hear you guys saying. Like, you're like, hey, each of us, we need to take responsibility for our health and what we put in our bodies and what we do in our daily life to be able to be healthy without being influenced by all these different factors that are influencing us. Do you find that as teens, does it feel overwhelming sometime that there's so much, oh, information and stimulation and you're just like, you know, do you find that that can be overwhelming?

A hundred percent. Because we live in an age of, you know, where we be, say, basically being manipulated. There's a saying that if you're not paying for the product, you are the product. With social media, with everything that's going on right now, we feel like that, you know, people are trying to pitch us, eat this. Another person saying, eat that. Then we're living with so much information that can overwhelm us and then we go, you know, to social media. Nowadays a lot of people just go to ChatGPT and a lot of people are getting a lot of misinformation because there's just so much information out there and people don't know what to do. That's why we wanted to also come out with this book. A simple, easy handheld guide. Anybody can just go find what they need. Practical tips anybody can do.

Here's what we're talking about. The best selling the Teen Health Revolution. Ahmad is showing us here. I love it. It's. I'm. Oh God. How did you guys do this, by the way? Did you like work together writing? Did you each pick a chapter? How did you work together to write the Teen Health Revolution?

Divine Conquer?

We all had different roles. So let's say my role was to create, add a baseline draft. Just like write Right, Right. In each chapter, Ahmad, I would like.

Edit a lot, add the jokes, add in the recaps, add in some quotes.

Now the meaning of get, like, citations. And then we do research. And then each of us, like, with Xan wrote it. Then we go through the chapter. If we don't like anything, we put like, a comment like, can we talk about this? And then if we all agree to delete it or we agree to keep it, or, you know, we all came to a majority on something, then we were able to keep it. You know, just work together on it.

Really amazing. How beautiful. What an experience to get to do together as brothers and to create something so amazing. I really feel so proud and grateful to you because I've known you now for a couple years, so I feel like, oh, my gosh, I'm so happy for you and I'm so glad you created this book for your yourself and for your peers, because I really see how you have the potential to change the future, and I know that's part of your passion and your mission. What would you say in terms of, like, you know, what do you see that's possible in terms of creating change with the health. The Teen health revolution?

Well, we compiled over 200 expert tips from all the people interviewed on the podcast. And each of them had such amazing information. And so imagine if you had all those Harvard professors, New York Times bestsellers, all those experts in one book. And it's made practical because of how we've been living for the past 10 years, so we know what teens have been doing. Anybody can just pick up the book, flip to a page, learn something new that they can implement that day. And honestly, as long as you take it day by day and, you know, you can always keep getting better and better and better.

It's so true. Right? We just. So they can. Like, even if you get disappointed with yourself one day or kind of like, oh, that was challenging, I don't know if I can do that again. And then the next day you just pick up the book and you guys are just there to, like, say, okay, here's where you can keep going from there. Do this next. Try this next. Where you're. You're so supportive, like, like, you know, to be like, hey, don't give up. Keep going. Would you say that's part of your. Your way of showing up is just like, every day is a new day. Keep going.

Exactly. Because can you imagine where we can go if our minds and bodies actually worked?

Yeah. Like, we could be able to, like, we could be Able to like create so much things, just create such a better world. And that's why we want to make this book because we know that all the adults in the future are not going to be there when the teens of today are going to be, will be the leaders of the world.

We are the future. Like we teens are the future. Like if our brains and bodies don't work, like the future's gone. That's why we need our brain, body and soul to work.

That's why we can create a ripple effect that can spread all across the world to anybody, teen, kid, adult even that can help bring people back to how it's supposed to be and take true charge over their health and body and wellness.

Well, I can tell you I have a lot of kids and teens in my practice who I help every day. I love getting to help children and teens and adults with their health and I can't wait to share your book with them and say, hey, this is your resource, your guide, your tool for your toolbox so that as we go through a healing process, you can keep referring to it. So where can people find the Teen Health Revolution?

So the Teen Health Revolution, you can pre order the book on Amazon and you can find it in Barnes and Nobles. Soon you'll be able to find in Barnes and Nobles. But.

It'S also, but you can also, we also have a website for it, the teenhealthrevolution.com no caps, no spaces.

And you get it on the website. You can also, you also get 3, 4 bonuses which we can help a lot. Like the shopping lists, stress busting.

Yeah. Recipes.

Things anybody can do. Like also how to make a good like lunches. Right now we realize a lot of parents don't really like make good lunches for kids. So because it's hard. Right. You know, and then they just send them to school where they buy lunches. So we made it something easy and simple that any parent can do to help their kids and make good nutrient dense lunches.

So I'm definitely going to put the link down below to go to. It's the Teen Health revolution dot com, right?

Yeah.

And so then you can get already these and you know, order the book, then get all of these bonuses to support you along the way. And this is also such an amazing gift for others if you have a child or a teen in your life and you want to help them out. Right. Give. You can give the gift of the Teen Health Revolution book. Is it going to be audio also?

I think we're still talking to publishers eventually. Right now we're focusing on the physical version. If an audio version comes up, we'll definitely let everybody know.

Oh, my gosh. Well, you all are so amazing with your Holistic Kids podcast. I want everyone to make sure you know about the Holistic Kids podcast as well, because they can come learn from you all the time on the podcast. And so you're so good with your voices and your interaction with each other that I can only imagine that the audiobook is going to be so powerful too, once it's available. So amazing. Well, thanks again so much for writing the book and coming here on How Humans Heal to share about it. I can't wait to be recommending it as well to all of my patients and listeners here at How Humans Heal. Absolutely. What amazing. Life changing and really a movement to create health for our future. Anything else you'd like to share?

I think just there's always hope. Anything is possible if you put your mind to it and you can always get better. You just have to start putting in that work into yourself.

I think that would be my final message.

Amazing, right? Like to say, like, hey, you're worth it. You're worth the effort, you're worth the learning and the implementing. And I love that. That's a beautiful message because a lot of times kids and teens don't feel worth it. They don't feel like they're valued. And you're already just saying, hey, from the start, you're worth it, you're valued. Let's start helping you to feel better.

Yeah. So we need to get this, we need to get this in schools.

Because right now in schools you're not learning about looking in the ingredients and knowing what to eat and what's not really in school. You're learning about only like health, only like food thing. You're really learning. In my class, it's just learning how to read like the nutrition facts, which isn't all like, you need to learn it. Go down like just a little bit, a couple inches and find the ingredients. If you can't read it, you shouldn't eat it.

So. So please, if there's any teachers especially, we need to get this into the school system and school needs to start teaching us the actually beneficial food information we need to know.

So you are all, I know you're already doing a lot of speaking and winning awards based on your work. And it sounds like you're saying, hey, if there's any other school systems or anyone else who wants to share this message, they can reach out to you. So you can share it with their community, too.

Definitely.

We would love to. Yeah, we'd be honored.

Amazing. Amazing. Well, I'm sure that so many people are going to see what you're doing and be so grateful and wanting to share this with others. And I'm so glad to get to spend this time with you. I'm so looking forward to hearing your next update of what you're up to.

All right, well, thank you.

Thank you so much. We're so honored for being here today. Thank you for having us.

It's really our pleasure.

It really is our pleasure.

Thank you. Abdullah, Zain and Ahmad, amazing to see you again and to have you here with us. And so glad and congratulations for your new bestselling book, the Teen Health Revolution. And thank you all for joining us here at How Humans Heal. And if you don't already subscribe, I welcome you to subscribe so you don't miss the next episode. I'll see you all soon.

Bye.

Thanks for listening to How Humans Heal. If you liked this episode, leave a rating and a review. And for more resources, visit drdani.com.