The Real Causes Of ADHD, Eczema & Chronic Illness In Kids | Dr. Ana Maria Temple

Welcome back to Everyday Ancestral. Today, I am joined by holistic pediatrician, Dr. Anna Maria Temple, to talk about kids, immunity, and what modern life may be doing to developing bodies. Are kids today actually less healthy than past generations?

You know, it's so stressful that the answer is yes. 1980s, like, there were— the rates of chronic disease were like 1 in 25. A few years ago, it was like 1 in 5. As of this year, it's 1 in 2. That means 50% of our kids have a chronic disease. And a lot of people are like, oh, my kid doesn't have a chronic disease. I'm like, well, if they're taking any prescription medications, if you have to go to the pharmacy, they have chronic medications. If you're buying over-the-counter medications on a regular basis, like Zyrtec and Claritin and antacids, pain medications, et cetera, your child has a chronic disease. The chronic disease has become the normal. And people have put it in their background, and they're like, no, my kid's fine, they're healthy. And I'm like, are they taking any kind of medications on a regular basis that you're purchasing from a pharmacy or over the counter? Then the answer is yes. And our kids are sicker than ever before. And unfortunately, people are always like, how can that be? We have like the modern medicine, and we're in 2026, and we have the latest technology in the United States. The US, we are the sickest country in the world. We are the number one country for prescription medications. We are the number one country to prescribe chronic medications, and we're the number one country to use chronic medications. And one chronic medication leads to another, and our children are no exception to this rule.

What is a parent to do? Where should a parent start? Because a lot of them are going to their doctors, and they are being prescribed the medications you're telling them They probably shouldn't be prescribed.

A lot of doctors, right, have 10-minute visits, and they're ruled by patient satisfaction scores, and they're worried. And I'm speaking as a physician who was in the traditional model, and we were graded on patient satisfaction. And if a parent came in, because parents also request medication, so we have the folks that come in, request medications, there's a lot of pressure on the doctors. I mean, oftentimes, people will get mad at me that I wouldn't give their children antibiotics because they had a fever for 2 days, but they had an exam tomorrow, and they, the parent, felt they needed an antibiotic. That's a lot of pressure. And then I would say no. And guess what? I would get rated as a poor doctor because I would not give the parent what they requested. So it goes both ways. Doctors are rushed. They're too fast. I mean, the visits are too fast. They're 10 minutes. It's easier to prescribe than to talk about alternatives. A lot of parents are requesting medications. It's a catch-22. One simple thing that you can do as a parent who is more holistically mindset and is like, I want less medication, simply ask. If your child has an ear infection, if your child has croup, if they have allergies, if they have asthma, before they, when they say, hey, your child has XYZ and I'm gonna prescribe this, your question should be, what are other alternatives that we can do to manage said condition? Are there any nutritional changes we can make? Are there any supplements that we can take? Are there any other interventions from other medical, like Eastern medicine, chiropractic care, craniosacral therapy? Are there any methodologies that we can implement before we go to prescription medications?

What changed you? You said you were part of the normal medical model. So what got you to go more holistically?

My 3 kids were sick and they had chronic diseases. And yes, I was trained as a general pediatrician, and my children had eczema, asthma, seasonal allergies, chronic constipation, recurring ear infection, recurrent croup, ADHD, you name it, my kids had it. And One day I got tired of my kids being on chronic meds and I was like, what's going on here? So I took the 3-ring circus to the doctor and I lined my 3 ducklings on the table and I was like, how come my kids are on so many chronic medications? Like what else? I asked those questions. What else can we do besides chronic medications? And the answer was, for the little one, I mean, we've run out of medications. He was on 5 allergy medicines at that time. He couldn't go out for an Easter egg hunt because his eyes would His nose would swell shut, his tears would stream down his face, and his body was covered in hives, and he would rip his skin off in the spring. We have run out of medications. The only next option for him is allergy shots. He was 2 years old. For my daughter, they were like, well, for her asthma, the chronic inhaled steroids are working. For her eczema, topical steroids seem to be working. For her allergies, Zyrtec seems to be working. For chronic constipation—

Zyrtec.

MiraLAX, look, it's fine. And she'll outgrow the recurring ear infections. Don't worry about it. But the time we got to my middle one with ADHD and chronic snot that you would never even be able to walk outta the house these days, I stopped paying attention because I felt dismissed. I felt unheard. I felt like a crazy person. So I walked outta that office and it was like my mama warrior took over and she was like, yeah, wait, what? This is not, this cannot be the rest of the story. I hear you. These kids are on chronic medication, but this is not how the story ends. I don't I don't know what the next step is. All I know, this is not the answer. We're going to figure out the answer. And one day, these children are going to be the example by which other families are going to change their health and their life. I didn't know what to do next. I just knew that that was my calling. That was it. And it's funny, you know how the universe presents opportunities and we take them when we have a different mindset and we're like, we're lucky, or it was a coincidence? There's no such thing as coincidences. It's just opportunities which you choose to take. And the week A few weeks later, there was a nutrition talk in my children's elementary school. And I always showed up at any event that the school had because I was supporting, but I walked in with total attitude. I was like, I'm a pediatrician and I know exactly what she's going to say, but I got this, but I'm just here to support. Tell you what, on that Tuesday morning, 7:30 in the morning, sitting in a first grader's classroom, freezing my booty off in one of those tiny little chairs, the fog lifted. and I realized the root cause of my children's chronic disease. All that the lady talked about was sugar. I thought I was doing a great job with the strawberries at lunch and broccoli at dinner. The kids were getting nutritious meals. I didn't realize how much added sugar my children had in their diet and what the impact of that was on their chronic illnesses. So that night I came home in my stilettos from clinic, and I went to the pantry, and I got rid of the Cinnamon Toast Crunch, Lucky Charms, Pop-Tarts, Toaster Strudels, Orange crackers with peanut butter, 'cause, you know, protein, the chocolate milks, 'cause, you know, calcium, and all the garbage that my children were eating went in a trash bag. And that's when I became an outcast in my own family. My husband and I, who is an orthopedic surgeon, he and I fought over food over the next 5 years. My friends thought I lost my mind. My family was like, need to get her off the wheel immediately 'cause she's a goner. And my partners in medicine were like, where's the evidence behind all this? It was like 2007, guys. My kids were 2, 4, and 6. I don't know where the medical evidence was at that time in 2007, but it couldn't be wrong to get rid of processed food and replace it with fresh fruits and vegetables. And that's all that was my mission to get my— and my kids were selective and annoying about food because they had eaten so much processed food for their entire lives. My little one never needed allergy shots. He came off his allergy medicines. My daughter stopped needing inhaled steroids. She got off of the topical steroids. My middle one never needed ADHD medicine. He didn't need any more antibiotics for his recurrent sinus infections. And in 2016, my husband and I quit our jobs. We moved to New Zealand where we had no health insurance, no medications. We didn't have any connections into that world. And our children thrived. They climbed the highest mountains and bungee jumped off all the bridges. And, that's when I realized what it looks like to come back from chronic disease. So, when I came back in 2018, I wasn't going to do medicine the way I used to. I started doing it differently because I saw the change in my children and I knew that other families could achieve the same goal.

But, it sounds like your first step towards healing was simply around food, focusing on the food.

It's the foundation. A lot of people are like, I talk about food all the time, but I don't know my The channels, and people are like, right, but what supplement do I take? I'm like, you cannot out-supplement a terrible diet. You can't eat Chick-fil-A and take vitamin D and expect that your immune system is going to be rocking and rolling.

Sometimes when these foundations are talked about, like, you know, getting outdoors, this sun, you know, they're very simple, but they, they also sound to me sometimes like an adult's perspective of a foundation. So if You, as a pediatrician, were coming at these ancestral tenets, but we were specifically shaping them for kids from a kid's perspective of like, how does a kid achieve these tenets?

Well, I'll tell you, the kids will focus on those tenets if the parents do. Children don't listen to what we say. They model everything that we do. And I'll give you a perfect example. My husband and I, you know, our nutrition was Garbage for a long time. However, we always had movement. Movement, fitness, exercise was an integral part ever since we met before med school. So when the kids were little, I would take 'em. We had a local YMCA and we had on Sundays the classes were outdoors, so you cannot bring— well, we brought our children, no one said anything. And so the kids would kind of do a workout, maybe they'll do some lunges, but there was a playground, so they'll go on the playground over there. And they were like 5, 7, and 9. And I'm like, no. I never had the fear that they were getting taken. I mean, the playroom was literally next to where we were working out. Anyway, so my kids would work out. One of them would complain. One would lay on the ground in the middle of the grass of everyone working out because he was like, I'm doing shavasana. But they were outside in the sunshine next to us doing whatever they wanted to do. They didn't get in trouble if they didn't do the exercise. It was an opportunity they were given and they had the choice to take it or not take it. Anyway, I remember at 14, I remember the day my husband and I went to work out with a next-door neighbor. And all of a sudden, the 14-year-old gets up out of bed at 9 o'clock and is like, where's the workout? And John is like, we're like, don't make a face, don't make a face. Wow, that's so interesting. Because with teenagers, you cannot make a face. We can explore that further, but you cannot make a face. You have to have a neutral expression. We're like, wow, that's just so interesting. You wanna work out? He was like, yeah, when are we going? And from that day on, that boy came to the workout classes, Participated fully. There's no more shavasana. Then he started going to the gym with his friend, and now he's in college, has a workout routine. All my kids have workout routines, nutrition routines, but it didn't happen overnight. I mean, we're talking when he was 5, he's doing shavasana, 14 when the neurons clicked. That's 9 years. You have to lead by example. If you want them to eat vegetables, you have to eat vegetables. If you don't want them on blue screens, you have to put your phone down. If you want them to move, You have to move. And perseverance. It's a long play. How long is this going to take? And it's years. It is literally years. That was 9 years of work to get this kid. That was perseverance. We were, every time we, on Sundays, worked out, he came with us, whether he complained, whether he— I don't care, you're coming. So those would be the things. I would say those 2 things is gonna be role modeling and it's a long play. So perseverance.

I don't know about you, but it feels to me like something that's very different from the current generation versus maybe our generation. You know, those of us that are older, we had very strict, at least I did, I had very strict boundaries that I—

With consequences. That's what I get in clinic all the time when I give these examples. They don't wanna come work out. I'm like, I'm sorry, why is that a choice? We've confused gentle parenting with child-led parenting. Gentle parenting is, You have boundaries. I love you, I adore you, I'm not gonna shame you, I'm gonna provide you with a safe home, with a roof over your head, with food on. That is gentle. I'm not yelling at you, I'm not making you feel bad about yourself, but we have boundaries, we have expectations. I'm the leader, you are the follower. You have feelings, we're gonna validate those, but we're not gonna lead by those feelings. So what's happened in our current parenting world is become more child-led. Oh, if the child doesn't want to do it, if they're not happy. Here's the thing. We, me, you and I are the only people responsible for our own happiness. Children are responsible for their own happiness. Us, the parents, are not responsible for their happiness. And because we've confused that with what parenting is, and we've confused gentle parenting with child-led parenting, they really want to eat Lucky Charms. So I mean, I can't take that away from them. Literally, this is what I say in clinic. I'm like, dude, I don't know. I've had a bad day. I kind of want a margarita right now. What? I'm not drinking a margarita. I mean, you can figure out why I'm not. So just because they want Lucky Charms doesn't mean that they're going to get it. It's become this conflict, but then they're not happy. Well, that's their choice to not be happy. Your choice as a parent to put a boundary in and how you tell them about the boundary and why this boundary's in place. I'm all about explaining the boundaries, why that's happening. However, the boundary stays and then there are consequences, positive or negative, on the follow-through.

The screens is, is a hot topic, right? That's really the biggest difference between these most recent generations and our generation. We didn't have them. We were told TV was rotting our minds, but now TV is like, well, I'd rather have them watching TV than I'm— than on an iPad, right? So we keep moving the marker. Is that something we genuinely should be concerned about? Do you think it's affecting children's nervous systems, their sleep, their immunity, behavior, or is this just us moving the needle? Like once it was TVs, then it was video games, and now it's iPads.

Screens are a toxin, are a horrible toxin. We are on a screen right now, so I'm not saying it's not a necessity of humanity, but it is a toxin to children's brains. Children under 2 should not be on screen. They do FaceTime with grandma. That doesn't count. You are sitting and watching Sunday football with your baby on your lap and you guys are laughing and talking and interacting and you're like, oh my gosh. And you're talking about the play. That's not what I'm talking. I'm talking about when you take the child and you put 'em in front of a screen so they can sit and have their show. Or, you know, what drives me nuts when kids have their iPads. I'm like, ugh, they have iPads with like plasticky handles that like their initials on it. I'm literally like, I have like this nervous twitch. I was like, we just gave 'em a toxin that we put their initials on it. And basically now the kid is like, well, it's my iPad. It's not your iPad. It is my iPad and with my Wi-Fi and with my data. So I choose when you have it. When it becomes their thing, they're the boss of it. So then it becomes a huge conflict. But here's the thing, there's a pediatrician in 1998 who looked at children's programming in '98, which is not the programming of now, which is even more insane. And he did a comparison. It was a mouse experiment. It was so fabulous. He put mice in front of lights that simulated Mr. Rogers' show. And for anyone who hasn't seen Mr. Rogers, He talks like this, is very neutral. Nothing's moving in the background. It is very wholesome. And now everybody talks like this, and all the cartoons are like really like this, and there's lights, and there's flashing, and there's the continuous movement of the screen so that the kid is watching a frame for like 3 seconds, and then it moves to another frame and another frame. So what he did is he put the mice in front of Mr. Rogers simulation, the mice, and then he put mice in front of current programming of 1998, which was really fast-paced, la la la. And then he looked at the mouse behavior. The mice who watched the Mr. Rogers simulation did mouse things. What happens is when you go in a box with the cheese in the middle, the mouse goes around because he's scared everything eats him, so he has to be very cautious. So he went around the perimeter, he would go get the cheese and around the perimeter, it's very clean how he just stayed around the perimeter with a little bit of cheese. The mice that watched the simulation of the current children's programming for 3 to 5 hours simulation went into the same box. And they start on the perimeter and they become completely disorganized, and they would eat the cheese and be in the middle and run around in circles and go to the corner. So basically they're open to the predators. But what he demonstrated is that the mouse brain became completely dysregulated, hyperactive, inattentive, no memory, discombobulated, neurologically chaos from the programming. So when we say that the children's programming, 'cause they're all, my parents are always like, oh, it's just this show. The amount of money spent on that show to see how how much they could retain a child's attention, how many ads they can add to that show so they could sell to the parents. There's so much strategy. It's not just a benign show. Oh, we're all here for children's benefits. Get outta here. It is all in marketing. It's the end is money. And the children's brain are not taken into account. Children's brain from a young age are very susceptible to the blue light and the continuous stimulation from blue screens. And that affects them long-term. And now most schools have moved to all this stuff online. We don't have long-term data on what happens when you're 8 hours in front of a screen learning. I hate to do quotations, Mo, but I mean, you're learning in front of a screen for 8 hours. How would that affect your brain? We know that because of screens, brains have, on functional MRIs, have changed Fundamentally. So it is a toxin. It needs to be used with caution. We do need it for our daily lives, absolutely. But we need to intermix that with a lot of outdoor sunshine, parent quality time, face-to-face communication with other humans.

We have to see these things the way you're saying, which is they are a toxin, or they are a drug, or we have to label them a specific way so that we approach them with the delicateness And the hesitancy that we would if something was a drug.

Right. And I'll give you a perfect example that's going to scare everybody. Everybody get ready. Here we go. So TikTok, we'll just use TikTok. Let's beat up on TikTok for a second. TikTok is a dopamine hit. Doing cocaine is a dopamine hit. And what's happened is that our teenagers are using TikTok and they're becoming more accustomed to it and it's quick and it's fast and it's moving. Majority of teenagers cannot watch a 60-minute show without referencing back to their phone and watching TikTok. They can no longer sit through whatever murder mystery or whatever show, family show, without TikTok. I'm saying that again and again and again. That is an addiction. Addiction means that you, doesn't matter what the substance is, in this case TikTok, the toxin, they get such a dopamine hit that now regular TV programming is not enough. You need to look at it because otherwise your brain is getting like, Like the, you know, when you're doing a withdrawal, you're basically going through TikTok withdrawal without you realizing. So I just want anyone with a teenager, watch them when they're watching a family show. What percentage of your kids pull out their phone to either text, but it's usually TikTok because they need to get that dopamine hit from somewhere else because the TV is not doing it for them anymore.

Really, we're almost inducing ADHD, right?

Absolutely. And the rates of ADHD are through the roof. Not just from the food, but also from the screens. The combination is is lethal.

I feel like though we can't just talk about the problem because the reality is is like when we as parents start to create these boundaries and say, okay, I'm gonna feed my family differently. Let's just use that as an example. When you did that, you got ostracized because the minute you do something that's different from society, society sees you as like oh well she's da da da da da or they treat you differently, and that's the last thing kids want to be. treated like. They don't want to be treated differently in school. They don't want to open up their lunchboxes and have kids laugh at them or be looked at because they have some, you know, specific, you know, cracker that was homemade versus a Goldfish, right? How do you recommend we navigate those waters of kind of societal norms versus like wanting to be optimally healthy?

Got it. Well, first, I will also say that the children don't want to feel different, but the parents Parents don't want to be different. I can't tell you how many parents are like, yeah, but I don't want to be the weirdo mom on the sports field bringing orange slices and water when everyone else is bringing Doritos. Again, it's got to start with the parents. We have to be the role model to it.

Okay.

So, 3 things that we're going to do to change this. Number 1, we got to change our mindset. We have to understand that food, walking outside, being in the sunshine, decreasing screens, And prioritizing sleep and pooping every day is imperative to children's wellness. If that is a number one and you understand that that is what needs to happen, that becomes your mission and all the other stuff falls to the wayside. Number 2, we're not gonna become a no culture. No, you can't have Goldfish. No, you can't have Doritos. What we're gonna do is, of course you have the processed food, but first you have to eat a fruit or a vegetable before you're gonna eat the processed snack. When you eat a fruit or a vegetable, Your body gets the right to have a processed food, and then worry about changing the processed foods later. And number 3, we have to be the example that our children are going to grow up seeing.

Anxious parents raise anxious kids, right?

The apples don't fall far from the tree. I mean, it's like, you know, when families come into the clinic, you could see the ducklings following along. If mom is anxious, the kids are anxious. If the mom is like, let's go do this, the kids are like, we are gonna do this, you know? And there's nothing wrong if you are anxious, it's just how are you projecting that? What work are you doing on you? Are you putting your oxygen mask on first and then teaching the kids? Unfortunately, so many parents are like, oh no, no, no, no, the kids are first. The kids are never first. Mama's first, then the marriage is second, the children are third.

Yeah.

We've got it all backwards. We're like, the children first, the marriage will wait. Guys, the marriage doesn't wait. I've been through 4 marriage counselors. The marriage does not wait. If you don't cultivate it and care for it, it is not going to withstand the difficulty. It is— having children is hard. It is much harder than anyone anticipates. I cannot tell you how many people come in a clinic and they go, well, I knew it was hard, but I didn't think it was this hard. Raising kids is hard. Raising healthy kids is even harder. And if your marriage is wobbly, then that's 1,000 times harder.

Let's touch base on some fast-fire topics that are making people anxious, and I'd love your answers. To hopefully alleviate some of the anxiety. Right off the bat, the one I just read about recently is, oh, measles outbreak, you know, it's increasing and everyone's blaming MAGA or Maha. Should we be worried about measles? And I will preface this with, I remember as a kid watching The Brady Bunch and Peter got measles and it was no big deal. Like, and I don't remember the measles being a big deal when I was a kid. And yet everyone's so scared. So what's truth? What's fiction here?

So measles is super contagious. It is a viral illness. Number one complication of measles is ear infections. Second is going to be respiratory, asthma, pneumonia. There could be some encephalitis, which is brain inflammation, and there could be some long-term. Generally, for most people, it's a mild disease, but because of the encephalitis and because of how many people were sick with it and And in the hospital, that's one of the reasons that they started the immunizations. We had in 2019, before Maha and whatever, we had about 1,275 cases of measles in the United States. Then we had COVID, then we had none. This past year, we had about 2,279 cases of measles in the United States, 285 hospitalizations. Out of those hospitalizations, the number one was respiratory issues, number two was dehydration, and number 3 was isolation. There were 3 deaths, 2 children, 6 and 8, and 1 adult. Whenever it comes to measles or anything pertussis, before we panic, let's look at the numbers, because the moment there's 1 case, the media is going to explode. It is sensational. Having measles has not been around for us. It was around The Brady Bunch, but not during— as our children have grown up. So it's new. Newish, and because of the political climate, it's controversial. So news sells. So if one case shows up in your community, boom, it's like a major dramatic thing. So number one, when it comes to measles, what I would do is figure out what the numbers are around you and where you usually travel. Number 2, you're going to find a provider who can have this open conversation with you, whether you choose to do the vaccine or not do the vaccine. And number 3, we're going to work on the things we already addressed. We got to work on our nutrition. We're going to do our sleep. we have to poop, we have to be outside. We have to have resilient immune systems. To your point, when you have a fragile immune system and you get measles, you're more likely to have severe complications. The same way when we had fragile immune systems and we got COVID, we had horrible complications. Resilient immune systems can withstand the viruses that have been around for thousands and thousands of years. Do immunizations work? They do. One immunization protects you 93%. Having 2 shots of the MMR protects you 97%. The timing is also important. If you have it between 12 and 15 months, it is not as effective as if you have it over 18 months of age. So all these things have to be addressed with a provider who's open-minded to discuss and alleviate your stress regarding this illness. We are not doomed. It's not the end of the world. It's an illness that can be addressed in many different ways with many different options, depending on everybody's anxiety.

How about ear infections? That one comes up a lot, and it's always recommended with antibiotics. Is that parents' only option?

Absolutely not. So fun fact, 80% of ear infections get better without antibiotics. Let me say that one more time. 80, 8-0, percent of ear infections get better without antibiotics. So after you go and you get— your child gets diagnosed with an ear infection, 3 things you can do. Number 1, if they're not having 104 fever and screaming in pain, and we have some time, we can do some pain relief. I do ibuprofen for 3 nights because ibuprofen is way less toxic than 10 days of antibiotics. I use Sinex, which is an Afrin, form of Afrin, even in little people. But there's like neosynephrine if you don't wanna use Afrin, and you use it for 3 nights, no more than 3. That helps decongest. Again, 3 days of the Sinex or Afrin, significantly less toxic than 10 days of antibiotics. And then I teach parents how to do craniosacral therapy, that there's a specific ear massage. You can Google that, you check that on YouTube. There's a specific ear massage that helps open the Eustachian tubes so we can have everything drain and we can let the pus come out so the child can get over the ear infections without antibiotics. Easy. There's no side effects. I mean, I have more tips, but I'm trying to do so people are not overwhelmed because if I give you 17,000 options, but those are Super simple. Most people have ibuprofen. You can go to CVS and get Sinex, and then you just need your hands and your youngster to do the craniosacral moves on the ears.

If the ear infections are chronic, meaning they keep happening, right? Are there certain foods that should be looked at or removed from the kid's diet?

Absolutely. So one-off ear infection, right? Happens to everybody. No big deal. Now we have a recurrent situation. Number one is going to be our processed foods. And a simple rule of thumb for that is if you you can't read it, don't eat it. If you turn the package around and you have to send me a DM on Instagram, is monosodium glutamate bad for my child? You're going to put that food back. Can't read it, don't eat it. Number 2, we're going to reduce the added sugar in a child's diet. No, fruits don't count. Less than 24 grams of added sugar in children over 2. Under 2, 0 grams of added sugar. And if mama's nursing, mama has 0 grams of added sugar in her diet because it comes through breast milk. Sugar lowers our immune system and makes for immune fragility. And third thing for ear infection, chronic ear infection is dairy. I don't care if it's wild-caught, farmed, raw, cow, goat, camel, sheep. It's the casein protein that can be very inflammatory to specific humans. Is it 100%? Never 100%, but it's majority that when we remove that until the ears infections have now resolved and you can bring it back in the diet at like once Once weekly or twice weekly tops, then we can show a significant improvement in recurrent ear infections.

What is your thought about dairy, by the way? That's kind of a bit of a topic, and it's one that, you know, historically, pediatricians are like, oh, yes, of course, drink all your milk you want. But I think you'd probably agree that it's not so black and white.

It's not so black and white. And here's the thing, we— by the way, I used to be a big dairy pusher. My kids drank 5 gallons of milk a week. I am not kidding you. I'd go to Costco and the people were like, OMG, you need a cow. I'm like, all right. And I was like, oh my God, my kids drink so much milk. And then I was like, oh my God, why do they drink so much milk? Dairy on its own is not anything bad. The problem is the overconsumption. And the same thing for gluten, because when people hear a holistic pediatrician, they're like, ah, she's gluten-free and dairy-free. And I'm like, nah. The point is, That when we eat a food over and over again, we become sensitized to it. You know what people are not sensitized to? Brussels sprouts or sardines, broccoli, because we don't eat them. But what happens with dairy? For breakfast is milk and cereal. At lunch, we have cheese sticks. For snack, we have some cheese. At dinner, we put cheese in our tacos, right? Dairy, dairy, dairy, dairy. When people go, I don't need that much dairy, awesome. Go to next Thanksgiving meal and tell me how many foods you And everyone's like, I can't eat anything. I'm like, I know, because there's dairy in every single main and side dish and dessert. That's where the problem is. It's the overconsumption of it. And so when kids are over the age of 1, I usually go, yeah, should you have some dairy sometimes? Sure. And I usually go, okay, so do some whole milk. Never skim or any of the other stuff, because that's processed. So you do a whole milk. Milk, preferably from locally sourced. And you do some milk, but then after you finish that, then you do some almond milk, then you do some cashew milk, then rotate all the different milks. People are very obsessed with calcium. When we look at the medical literature, it's vitamin D that strengthens bones. It's not the overconsumption of dairy.

Right. It's not necessarily the most optimal source for either of those, right?

Correct. And another thing I heard from doctors, and this is a legit quote, well, they have to eat dairy because that helps them grow. Because there are other things that grow too, like tumors, like insulin resistance. There's a lot of other things that grow. So I'm like, what is our end goal? I want a giant kid full of chronic disease, or I want a normal-sized kid that is healthy with a resilient immune system that goes out and conquers the world?

What is filling the carts at these stores? Isn't it just processed junk? I mean, it's just bigger amounts of the crackers, of the cookies. Now you're seeing all those nutritional bars. And, and what's a crime, and what I'm shocked about, is, you know, you've jumped the shark. And that's like a TV term of when, you know, a TV show is like clearly gone past like being relevant. It's just like they're trying to put everything and anything on the show just to keep it relevant. So basically, you know that nutrition bars have jumped the shark when you now see candy bars that are putting out nutrition bars, because nutrition bars have always just been expensive candy How should someone really shop at Costco? Because I don't see anyone truly shopping there the way that I think either of us would want them to.

When you go to the big box stores, it's always like massive stuff. I will give Costco a prop. They're the number one distributor of organic food in the country. So there's, there's my gold star for Costco. And the reason I do go to Costco is because you can get amazing whole foods, organic, at really good prices. prices. And that's why I direct people. And yes, I agree. I'm like, we're not gonna go in the mac and cheese section. I will tell you that they've done a great job of, you know, you have, yes, you have your Doritos and the other chips and stuff, but they have the other versions with avocado oil and organic options. So you can go to Costco and get a lot of good food that is whole foods with great ingredients. Yes, there's gonna be the junk. Yes. When people go and you look in their carts, absolutely. So that's one of the reasons that I So, Costco specifically just has higher number of products that are going to be organic than other stores. And, I'm very much pro, let me show you, don't get this, get this, because knowing and doing are 2 very different things. And, parents are like, oh, now I have to read the labels and how would I know? And, I'm going to spend 1,000 hours reading labels. I'm like, no, no, you just take my video and you walk through the aisles and you go, and I'm going to get this from and make smoothies with this, and I'm going to do Here's my breakfast with this, and here's my lunch with this. Because it is very confusing. The marketing is off the chain for all these products. So I usually go to Costco and Walmart to kind of hit 2 different target audiences to make life easier. Because there's also a lot of changes happening at Walmart. They're actually getting rid of artificial food dyes in their Walmart brands, and they're working on decreasing the artificial flavoring. I'm gonna give some kudos to Walmart as well. They're actually putting some real effort into making real changes to their food so it's more economical for those need to shop in that store.

But I do worry though that the swaps or the things like that are, it's just like pushing things down the road with like, first it's TVs, now it's video games, now it's screen iPads that we're just pushing down. Like, well, it's not Doritos, but it's the Siete chips. You know what I mean? It's still reliance on chips and snacks. And so we're still moving away from the priorities of like that basics of how you should be filling your diet with the real foods that are single ingredients, right?

Yeah.

So, I do get the lure of like, oh, people going there, but I just still question if we're just pushing the health conversation a little bit further down the road and avoiding the real grittiness of it, of like, you know, really, maybe we shouldn't be snacking so much. Like, why are we snacking so much?

We're 100% on the same page on the snacky situation. And by the way, do you know this? It's a fun fact. Snacking didn't become a thing until the 1950s. And guess what country You're right. United States. In the US, in the 1950s, after the war, because they were like, oh, women are in the kitchen too long and we need— that's when they started developing processed foods. And they're like, to help women not be in the kitchen so much. Well, what happened in the '50s when they did these processed foods, people became nutritionally devoid. So their labs were horrible and they were sick. So then the food companies were like, oh, we should put vitamins in there because then we can get 'em to eat more processed foods. And so then they're like, oh, now they're nutritionally dense. And then it was like, oh, well, you know, when the mama's on the go, we need to have some snacks. So we became a snack culture. We develop snacking issues when our children are tiny little beady, because you know why? When you're trying to do something and your child's crying, they're annoying. We're just going to be honest about it. And so then you give them food because then they shut it. And then we develop this thinking, which is back to the mindset, Well, they're crying because they're hungry. No, they are bored and they want your attention, but now they have something to do. And food and the snack foods that we choose are usually carbs or sugar. So either carbs or sugar, they both break down into sugar. They feed the part of the brain, which by the way, loves cocaine. So it's a dopamine hit. And now the child is like, all right, well, I feel great. I just had a bagel or Goldfish for 30 minutes, and then I'm gonna scream again in 30 minutes. So what the parents do So then I give more snacks and then they're like, oh my God, they're so annoying. They want snacks all the time. I'm like, we created it. It is we create the snacking and then we're mad. And then, by the way, and then we purchase the snacking. So we become the drug dealers and then we're annoyed that the drug users are always whining and complaining and want another fix. I'm like, back to me. So when my younger one was also the selective eater, and what I'm telling you is So I would say 50% of his younger childhood, he ate air for dinner because in my house, you don't get a second meal. In a food secure home, you choose to eat or you choose hunger. Then there's nothing wrong with choosing hunger, but I'm not going to cater to your sad self because you don't want to eat the good food. So he ate 50% of the time, he ate air. And as I was trying to dissect, why is he always eating air? He's never hungry. Then we went into the snack and then I was like, let me do this exercise. Every time he puts something in his mouth, I'm going to write it down. And I literally was like, oh, Goldfish, got it. Oh, we're at Target shopping, Goldfish.

Okay.

Oh, a pouch of a fruit and veggie pouch. Oh, we're in the carpool line and he's bored. So then I started taking note, giving him so many snacks. I'm not even realizing anymore because it's become my background noise and I'm doing 1,000 things. So every time we would get in the minivan, he And he's like, I'm hungry. I'm like, of course you are, because I created a habit. Every time we're in Target, they want a goldfish. I'm like, because I created a habit without even realizing it. So then I was like, well, let's bring it back. And so was it hard? Of course it's hard because I got to deal with whiny, annoying kids. But I was like, okay, well, we're going to play I Spy. It was my job as a parent to come up with other things. They had to be bored for a bit and I had to tolerate whining obviously because they would figure some things out. But at other times I'm like, at a restaurant, there's no screens at a restaurant. I don't bring snacks at a restaurant. Never did, thank God. Always was like, all right, so let's play tic-tac-toe with the sugar packets. Let's play sticks with whatever. To this day, and they're adults, we always have games that we play when we're sitting and waiting at a restaurant rather than snacks. When you're in the car, waiting in the carpool line, when you're shopping, what other things are you doing? Are you tolerating boredom? Are you tolerating some whining or are you giving in and always feeding them? And now it's become a snack culture. culture. But when we're a snack culture, the reason we go for the Siete chips, which I do love sometimes, but the reason that's become a norm, because mamas have to have something in their purse all the time. You don't need something in your purse. In my clinic, I had to put giant signs, no food in here, because our appointments are an hour and the kids whine because it's boring, even though we have toys. And they're like, I want a snack. And the moms are like, here's a snack. I'm like, under no circumstances. First of all, a doctor's office is not a restaurant, number one. Number two, I have kids with major food allergies and they're like, oh, we are so clean. No, you're not. The food falls out of their mouths. I mean, it's just, they're kids. And then three, I'm like, it's okay for them to be bored. It is okay for them to whine. It is okay that they're unhappy for an hour. And by the way, after they whine for like 5, 6 minutes, then they're like, oh, I can play. Back to your point. Yes, our reliance on processed foods has increased significantly because our snack culture, we have created the snack culture. It is our job to reverse the snack culture. And as we reverse it, we're going to eat more whole foods. If we rely on snacks for all the things we have, we mentioned, yes, then you're going to go and choose more packaged foods for sure.

What's the one thing you wish parents would stop worrying about, you know, and one thing you wish they take more seriously?

I wish parents would stop worrying about about what's on their Instagram feed. The number one cause of anxiety in my clinic is the Instagram feed. I wish they would just stop worrying about Instagram and missing out on what other people are doing. Mind your own business, do your own stuff, go video yourself if you want to, but stop watching what other people are doing 'cause that's just creating more anxiety and more FOMO and then making the mamas especially feel like less than, that they're not good enough because look at that mom with 6 kids that she's got it all handled and she's making sourdough bread and they're riding horses. Get outta here. That's not true life. Stop it. Stop the madness. That's complete garbage. Number one thing people need to stop worrying about is what's there on their Instagram feed, what everybody else is doing. One thing people need to take more seriously is the food that they put in their children's bodies.

Sometimes these natural ways, these holistic practices do take longer. These are lifestyle changes that will not only just affect a few years, but will affect So a lot of folks are like, well, it's my genetics.

There's nothing I can do because it's my genes. I have type 2 diabetes because it's my genes. That's not a genetic disease. You may have the genes, but the environment pulls the trigger. It is a lifestyle that changes the genes. So you can have the gene for cancer, you can have the gene for type 2 diabetes, for type 1 diabetes, for all the different things. Exactly the same thing. asthma, it doesn't mean that this is your story. And if you gave those genes to your child, it is your responsibility to give 'em the tools to turn those genes off. It's called epigenetics. Feel free, everyone, to Google this. What is epigenetics? Epigenetics means we are given the genes, but we, the human, have the power to turn those genes on or off on how they're going to manifest. And if you help your child turn those genes off, let's say eczema, you have eczema, you gave your child the genes of eczema, you do all the things things that we were talking about for immune resilience, you turn off those genes. Well, that child, when they have kids, that gene will be transmitted as off. So, their kids are not going to have a gene for eczema because they've turned the gene off with the food, nutrition, lifestyle changes that you have implemented, role modeled, and enforced through their childhood. And, as they become adults, they'll continue that. Their genes will be turned off. off, and their children are not going to have to deal with the illnesses that your generation or their generation had to deal with.

Last question. So, if you could wave a magic wand and bring back one ancestral practice, what would it be and why?

There's 2 foods, sardines and organ meats.

You're speaking my language now. I know.

And, that's why I was like, oh, you're teaming me up, because they're nutritionally dense foods. Culturally, we don't eat them. Well, I eat them, but culturally, people don't eat them. And there, again, instead of leaning on supplements and buying— I make supplements too, but I am of the, please eat the food first, because Mother Nature has created the human body with the food in the environment. Our bodies know how to extract the nutrition, how much of it to extract, how to use it, as compared when it comes from a supplement. So I would bring back sardines and organ meats.

Thank you so much. So before we go though, I want you to share A how people can work with you, how they can follow you, and and if you wouldn't mind also sharing about the supplements you offer because I know they're unique. They're different from what most supplements contain ingredient-wise.

You can find me at Costco or Walmart shopping, showing you how to eat, not eat. Many people meet me there and they're like, "Oh my gosh!" And they watch they they watch the behind the scenes and they're like. This is really interesting. We can see me at the stores. I'm on Instagram, TikTok, of course, and it's D-R-A-N-A Maria Temple. And I share tons of information from nutrition to ear infection tips, flu tips, fever tips, measles. We talk about measles, whatever is current, I try to share. My goal is to empower, inspire, and educate families to raise healthy kids with less medications. And I do that on my social platforms. I have an online eczema program for anyone suffering with eczema. Please don't do it yourself. There's so many We can make your life so much easier and get to the finish line faster. And I'm super excited about our supplement line. We have an organic vitamin D with just 2 ingredients. It's liquid. We have organic zinc liquid with a couple ingredients, no natural flavors or preservatives. We have 2 eczema creams actually that don't have antibiotics or steroids in them. They're loaded with B12, which is powerful anti-inflammatory. And up on deck is our organic zinc gummy with amazing ingredients and less sugar. And we should be able to go into production at the end of February.

Oh, we needed that one like yesterday due to all the cold weather right now and everyone getting sick. Well, I so appreciated talking with you and it's just been lovely getting to know you. Obviously they got a sense of your liveliness, of your, just your passion for what you do, but your, your social media exudes that even more so because there's just so much, even more content obviously than we can encompass in an hour. But I just really appreciate that you made the switch, that you had the courage To make the switch, and we need more doctors making that holistic switch with you. So hopefully you're inspiring those people to do that, and maybe even generations to come who become doctors to think about that.

I think we are seeing a trend. It's turning in our direction of what we hope to see. It is slow, but I think we are seeing the tides are turning, and I'm very excited to see what's next.

Yeah, absolutely. Well, thank you for showing up, and thank you all for joining us. If you're enjoying this podcast, there are a few easy ways to support us. Number 1, tell a family member or a friend, hey, you should check out Everyday Ancestral. Uh, 2, you can leave us a rating or a review on whatever podcatcher that you are using to listen to this show on. Or number 3, you can make a purchase from, uh, one of our sponsors and/or our guests like Dr. Anna Maria Temple. And lastly, you can subscribe to one of our channels. So thank you. And remember, stay curious. Thank you so much for joining me on Everyday Ancestral. If you enjoyed this episode, hit subscribe so you don't miss the next one. You can find the show notes, links, and resources mentioned at eatpluck.com. That's eatpluck.com. And hey, if you know someone who'd get something out of this, share it with them too. Stay curious, live well, and keep it ancestral.