Office Hours: Feeding Kids Is Hard—Here’s What They Actually Need

Mark Hyman, MD

Dr. Mark Hyman is leading a health revolution—one focused on using food as medicine to support longevity, energy, mental clarity, happiness, and so much more. Mark Hyman, MD is a practicing family physician and an internationally recognized leader, speaker, educator, and advocate in the field of Functional Medicine. He is the founder and director of The UltraWellness Center, Founder and Senior Advisor for the Cleveland Clinic Center for Functional Medicine, a sixteen-time New York Times best-selling author, and Board President for Clinical Affairs for The Institute for Functional Medicine. He is the founder and chairman of the Food Fix Campaign, dedicated to transforming our food and agriculture system through policy.

He is a co-founder and the Chief Medical Officer of Function Health. He is the host of one of the leading health podcasts, The Dr. Hyman Show with 150+ million downloads. Dr. Hyman is a regular medical contributor to several television shows and networks, including CBS This Morning, Today, Good Morning America, The View, Fox, and CNN.

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Full Transcript

Automatically generated. Please forgive any typos or errors in the following transcript. It was generated by a third party and has not been subsequently reviewed by our team.

Dr. Mark Hyman
Welcome to Office Hours. This is our dedicated one on one space to go deeper, get clear, and explore what truly moves the needle for your health. I'm doctor Mark Hyman, and each week, we're gonna pull back the curtain and share the insights, the research, the lessons that don't always make it into our conversations with guests. Because at the end of the day, you are the CEO of your own health. And for many of you, your family's health too.

And you might not feel it all the time, but you have far more power and agency than you realize. I'm glad you're here. This episode is brought to you by Function Health, empowering you to live a 100 healthy years with over a 160 lab tests for just $365 a year. And use the code Mark twenty twenty six to get $50 off your membership. And today, we're talking about something that brings up a lot of emotion for parents, what your kids eat, children nutrition.

I just wanna start by saying this. If you feel overwhelmed, I promise you're not alone. You're raising kids in a food environment that is radically different from the one most of us grew up in. Ultra processed foods are everywhere, school lunches, sports snacks, birthday parties, play dates, it's constant. And the marketing is very powerful.

So if you ever wondered, am I doing enough? Is my child getting what they need? That's a very normal question. But here's the reframe. We don't just feed kids to help them grow taller.

Brains. We feed them to shape their immune systems. We feed them to influence their metabolism for decades to come. Childhood is a critical window, and the habits that are formed early and the nutrients available during those years carry a very long tail. They influence everything from food and mood to allergies, eczema, and long term chronic diseases like heart disease, diabetes, cancer, even dementia.

Now this isn't about perfection. It's not about never letting your kid have cake at a birthday party. It's about understanding the fundamentals, like what really matters and making small, shifts that compound over time. And the good news is this, your kids are incredibly resilient. Their bodies are adaptable.

And when you improve the quality of what goes on their plate, you often see changes very quickly. Better energy, better focus, fewer meltdowns, stronger immune function. So today, we're gonna answer your biggest questions. What does optimal nutrition actually look like for kids? And is it different from adults?

Do kids need supplements? How do we build strong immune systems? How do you transition off of processed foods without starting World War three at home? And what about school lunches? What about them?

We're gonna talk about eczema because so many of you asked about the connection between diet and skin. And at the end, we're gonna do rapid fire round of questions to tackle some of your most common quick hit questions. Because at the end of the day, you're not just feeding your child for today. You're helping shape their lifelong health trajectory. And small changes can make a very big difference.

So let's dive in. One of the biggest questions we got was, what do overall nutrition standards look like for kids? Is it different for adults? And where should parents focus? This is such an important place to begin because when you understand the fundamentals, everything becomes simpler.

But here's the good news. The core principles of nutrition are actually the same for kids and adults. Right? We're human beings. Real food, stable blood sugar, adequate protein, healthy fats, fiber, phytonutrients that come from cauliflower plants.

Kids don't need kids' food. They need real food. I mean, in Japan, kids eat raw fish and seaweed, and they don't eat Lunchables and Gokurts and weird frankenfoods because they're kids food. There should be no kids food. It's just food.

Now there are a few important differences. Kids are growing rapidly, and their brains are developing at an extraordinary pace. Their immune systems are still being trained. So pound for pound, they actually need more nutrient density than adults. Not more calories from ultra processed snacks, more micronutrients per bite.

And that means prioritizing a few things. Protein in every meal, because protein stabilizes your blood sugar. It supports healthy mood, and it builds muscle and brain tissue. Healthy fats, especially omega three fats, because the brain is largely made up of fat, and those fats influence focus, learning, and inflammation. And they need fiber rich foods because that helps your digestion and microbiome.

And they need colorful plant foods with polyphenols because that also helps your microbiome. And the microbiome you build in your childhood shapes your immune system for your life. That's where about 60% of your immune system is. Now where I encourage parents to focus most is on blood sugar stability. Many kids are starting their day with sugar.

Sugar for breakfast. Dessert for breakfast. They have cereal. They have toast. They have muffins.

They have juice. Refined carbs and sugar is dessert for breakfast. And that sets them up for a roller coaster. Spikes of sugar, crashes, irritability, cravings. They can't focus, concentrate in school.

They have behavior issues. It's from their diet. Right? Instead, for breakfast, think protein and fat and fiber at breakfast. Eggs and fruit, Greek yogurt and berries, a smoothie with protein, maybe some nut butter and greens.

When your blood sugar staple, everything works better. Your mood, your focus, your behavior, your immune resilience is better. So rather than obsessing over every ingredient, start with the simple question. Does this meal contain protein, healthy fat, and fiber? If the answer is yes, you're building a strong foundation.

If not, better fix it. And from there, you know, we can layer in all the details. Where should parents focus? Okay. There's five anchors here that I wanna talk about.

First is protein at every meal. Eggs, chicken, breastfed beef, beans if you tolerate those, healthy fats, olive oil, avocados, nuts, seeds, omega three rich fish, small fish. Three colorful plants with lots of polyphenols, And also from the plants, you're gonna get fiber, which feeds the microbiome and helps support the immune system. Four, reduce, and I don't even like to say reduce. I don't think anybody should be eating ultra processed food.

Here's why. It's not food. Technically, it's not food. If you look up the definition of food in the dictionary, it's something that supports the health and nourishment and growth of an organism. This does the opposite.

These foods that are Frankenfoods actually destroy your health. So they're technically not even food, so you shouldn't eat them. Now that doesn't mean you can't have sugar or flour sometimes. It's fine. Like, you can enjoy life.

But if it's some weird factory made science project, don't eat it. Make the cookies at home. Okay? Number five, and this is a big one, stabilize your blood sugar. You wanna really reduce the starch and sugar, eat protein, fat, and fiber.

All of that will stabilize your blood sugar. Next big question is, do kids need supplements? Now let's talk about supplements because this is one of the most common questions we get. Do kids actually need them? The first principle is always food first.

A nutrient dense, whole food diet, it should be the foundation. Supplements are called supplements for a reason. They're supplementing your diet. They're not replacing it. They're meant to fill the gaps, not replace real food.

And that said, we have to be honest about the world we're living. Soils are depleted from organic matter. The plants get can't get the minerals they need in there. The broccoli today is half as nutritious as it was fifty years ago. Many kids, unfortunately, are picky eaters.

Fish intake is low. Sun exposure is inconsistent from the vitamin d. You know, ultra processed foods are just crowding out nutrient options. In fact, what's really surprising to most people is the most obese people in America are the most malnourished. If you actually measure their vitamin and mineral levels, they're in the toilet because they're eating ultra processed food.

They're getting bigger, but they're nutrient depleted. So they're overfed and undernourished. So while I don't believe every child needs a cabinet full of supplements, a lot of kids can benefit from targeted support. And here's the most common gaps I see. Vitamin d, really important.

I mean, unless you're running around naked South Of Atlanta for twenty minutes every day, you know, you're gonna be vitamin d efficient because it's just something that we need to get from sunlight, and most of us don't get enough sunlight. Something you can get from little mushrooms, some herring, but it's very low doses. Next one is omega threes. These are really important. This is so critical for brain development and for mood.

And Americans typically don't eat that much fish, and particularly the fish they eat doesn't have a lot of omega threes, and they'll be eating sardines, and herring, and mackerel, and anchovies, and like small wild salmon. That's fine, but you most people are not eating that. Magnesium, also important. A lot of kids are anxious, irritable. Low magnesium is common from, you know, lots of things, stress, from sodas, from sugar, from poor diet.

Zinc, also really important for immune function for kids, iron, especially in girls. Now you don't have to give all these things, but you have to personalize, you have to measure, you have to test, so know what's going on. I mean, that's why at Functional Health, we test everything so we know what's going on, and we're gonna soon have a pediatric panel. But it's important to know because a lot of kids are very deficient. And I see I see this, like, because we see kids with ADD and all these behavioral issues, and these kids are just malnourished, and you you fix their biochemistry, and they get better, and their brain gets better, their mood gets better.

I mean, the first ever paper on essentially on functional medicine was by Linus Pauling, winner of two Nobel Prizes, who wrote orthomolecular psychiatry as in science in the science journal in 1969, talking about how to use nutrients to actually optimize neurotransmitter and and mood and brain function in psychiatric diseases. So it's this is quite an important area. And then you also have to consider other things when you're deciding about your kid's supplements. What's their diet like? What are their symptoms?

What are their growth patterns? Of course, don't want a mega dose. More is not better. The goal is just to correct the deficiencies, not to overwhelm a child's system. Now I also consider probiotics, and unfortunately, of us do need them because we've all taken antibiotics.

You know, I often do lectures and see rooms full of people, a thousand people, say, who who here has never taken antibiotic? And I know we don't raise our hand, or one person will raise their hand. Because we're all we're all been given antibiotics, and they destroy your microbiome. And if kids take antibiotics, it it really affects them. If kids have eczema, allergies, gut issues, you know, they do need probiotics, especially if they're born by c section.

So the key message is supplements are tools, are helpful, but they're not replacements. They work best when they're supporting a strong dietary foundation, not really compensating for a consistently crappy ultra processed diet. If we focus on real food first, and then we fill the gaps with nutrients strategically as needed, we're setting these kids up for resilience, not being depend on these things their whole life. Alright. How do you build a strong immune system in kids?

That's another question we got. It's an important one. I want to start with a subtle but powerful shift in language. We don't quote boost the immune system, we regulate it. An overactive immune system is not necessarily good.

It can lead to allergies, eczema, asthma, autoimmune diseases. An underactive immune system, well, you can get frequent infections, cancer. What we want is balance, resilience, adaptability, and that resilience starts very early. It starts with your gut health, you know, even how you're born in c section, whether your mom had antibiotics, all that's important. So you need fiber, colorful plants, Try not to use antibiotics if you can.

Sometimes you obviously need them, but be careful. They're given out like candy sometimes by pediatricians. Also, sleep. It's so important for immune regulation and your immune system can't work. Kids also need outdoor time and and exposure to microbes.

You know, when you look at kids who were born on farms, they have far better immune systems. They don't get allergies. They don't get eczema. They don't get asthma. They don't get autoimmune diseases because they're basically living in the dirt, and their immune systems are learning how to regulate an environment as opposed to these sterile environments we all grew up in.

And there's a whole, you know, school of thought in medicine called the hygiene hypothesis about this. And then, of course, keeping your blood sugar stable is really important, and that really helps these kids a lot with their overall immune system because, you know, too much sugar is an immune suppressant. When you think about it, people don't realize that, but it actually does. If you give people sugar, their immune system is suppressed, and it doesn't work as well to fight things. If kids' immune systems are not working well, then they're going get all kinds of problems, like eczema, asthma, and allergies.

And you can usually avoid that by setting them upright with food and the right nutrients and probiotics. So when you zoom out, building a strong immune system isn't about this one super food or supplement. It's about creating a healthy internal environment that supports balance. And the beautiful thing about kids is their systems are incredibly resilient and adaptable. And small changes actually produce meaningful big shifts for these kids.

More whole foods, better sleep routines, more outdoor play. Simple these are simple habits, but they compound over the years. And that's how you build a resilient immune system, not trying to fight every germ by strengthening but by strengthening the terrain. Now I when I was a kid, I spent every summer on a ranch, and I was just in the horse stalls, in the manure, sleeping outside, in the dirt, and I don't have any allergies. And I don't have any immune issues related to that.

So I think there's something to that. I obviously, you know, not everybody can do that, but it's important to get out and not be overhygienic. Next big question is, how do you get your kids off the stuff that they're addicted to without World War three? Right? How do you transition kids off processed foods without a huge battle?

Let's talk about the part that feels the hardest for most parents. Hey. How do you do this without, you know, a big family disruption? First, I wanna normalize something. If your kid loves crackers, packaged snacks, sugary cereals, it's not a parenting failure.

These foods are engineered to be hyperpalatable. They're presalivated. They're designed by craving experts and food scientists to light up the reward centers in the brain. They override your body's natural satiety signals. That means your your biology of how you feel full.

You know, you're not competing with willpower here. You're competing with basically evil food scientists, and I'm using the word evil here because it's deliberate. And I know about things going on back in the food industry that are happening that deliberately are putting foods to addict people, just like the cigarette companies increase the nicotine content of tobacco to get them addicted. They knew this, and the food industry knows this. It's not your fault.

Okay? It's about how do you how do you deal with this? What's the strategy? The first principle is don't try to change everything at night. If you suddenly remove every familiar food from the house, you're likely gonna get resistance and, you know, understandably so.

Although in my house, there's only two things on the menu, take it or leave it. Okay? Take it or leave it. There was no there was no menu at my house. Instead, you know, I want you to think in terms of how you create upgrades for your kids.

Not deprivation, but just swaps, substitutions. Like, swap sugary cereal for a higher protein breakfast. Replace packaged snack bars with maybe apple slices and nut butter. Trade soda for sparkling water with little fruit juice in it. Small shifts feel manageable.

Small shifts add up. Okay? Second, control the environment more than you control the child. You can't out parent the pantry. You have to make your home a safe zone.

If ultra processed snacks are consistently available and visible, kids are gonna gravitate toward them. That's human biology. If there's ice cream in the fridge, and sometimes my wife buys, like, five pints of ice cream, and I have no idea why, because she likes a lot of flavors. It's there, and it's late at night. Sometimes, like, if I'm tired or whatever stress, I will do it.

So I try not to leave that in the house. It's just human biology. But if the default options are whole food snacks, then that becomes the norm. The only thing you can eat is something that's healthy, well, that's all you're gonna eat. The third thing you wanna do is involve the kids.

Right? Take them to the grocery store. Let them pick out a new fruit or a vegetable to try. Get them involved in cooking. You know, that when the kids participate, they're just more likely to eat what they help create.

Fourth thing you should remember is avoid labeling foods as good or bad. Right? It can kind of backfire. It can create shame, rebellion. You you use language like everyday foods and sometimes foods.

Foods that help grow strong and foods that we can maybe enjoy occasionally. And here's something most parents don't realize. Taste buds adapt. When kids reduce sugar in ultra processed foods, their palate recalibrates often in a few days, sometimes as long as ten to fourteen days. Suddenly, tastes sweeter.

Mean, I do this all the time. I take people on retreats. I take away all the sugar, all the flour, all the starch for five days, seven days. And then the last night, I gave them a quote dessert, which is blueberries or chia seed pudding with blueberries or something with no sugar. And they're like, man, this is so sweet.

That's what happens. When you get used to things like that, then vegetables taste better, whole foods are more satisfying. You have to kind of kind of sometimes get through a transition window, but just realize you have to aim for progress, not perfection. If your child eats real whole foods, most of the time, a cupcake at a birthday party is not gonna kill them or undo that. And what shapes long term health is the pattern, is the repeated daily habits, not just an exception of, you know, having a piece of pizza once in a while.

So instead of trying to win every battle, just focus on building a new normal, and make your home a safe zone. Because when real food becomes a default, then everything gets easier. Nobody wakes up one day with a chronic disease. It doesn't work that way. It builds quietly over months and years and can show up as inflammation that never quite goes away, an immune system that never calms down, vitamin d declining year after year.

These aren't random numbers, they're patterns, and they show up in your labs long before they show up in your life. I've been practicing medicine for forty years and the patients I've seen avoid serious outcomes are not the ones who get lucky. They're the ones who had data early enough to act on it. The problem is most people get a basic panel once a year maybe and they're told everything looks okay, but okay is not ideal. Spring is when your immune system is already under pressure from pollen and stress and it's exactly the right moment to know where you actually stand.

Function gives you access to over a 160 lab tests annually so you can see what's going on inside your body. Go to functionhealth.com/mark, and if you're one of the first 1,000 people this week, use the code mark twenty twenty six for a $50 credit toward your $365 a year membership. That's functionhealth.com/mark, and use the code Mark twenty twenty six today. Next question we got was, what are some kid friendly clean snack ideas? Right?

Once you start shifting the environment and upgrading options, the next question people ask is, okay. What do actually give them? Right? Because snacks are where things tend to fall apart. Breakfast could be structured.

Dinner's usually planned out. But snacks, after school or between activities or on the go, well, that's often where ultra processed foods sneak back in. So here's a quick practical tip for some things you can have on hand all the time. And you can have a cooler in your car. That's what I I did when my kids were little.

And you know, apple slices and almond butter, you can have hard boiled eggs, you can have grass fed beef sticks, I like Maui Nui, they're great. They're like medicine sticks with clean ingredients. You have chia seed pudding, unsweetened yogurt with berries. You can just have a lot of nice things, homemade trail mix with lots of nuts, seeds, frozen banana bites, kinda like ice cream, smoothies with protein and lots of healthy fats, you can make a strawberry smoothie with some whey protein. There's all kinds of ways to do it to kinda trick the kids in eating yummy stuff.

But you always want to pair any carbohydrate you're eating with protein and fat and fiber because that stabilizes the blood sugar and prevents these crashes and it keeps the kids feeling full longer. What about school and school food? And how do you how do you deal with that? Because even if you get everything right at home, well, there's a whole another environment parents are thinking about. It's constantly school.

And I hear this all the time. Well, I can control breakfast and dinner, but what about lunch? What about what's being served every single day at school? That's a real concern because for many kids, school meals make up a big portion of their daily calories. And in many districts, those meals are still heavily reliant on ultra processed food.

In fact, in most districts. And they have refined grains and added sugars, industrial ingredients. The new dietary guidelines are gonna help shift that because they have to follow the the the guideline around getting rid of highly processed foods. So let's see what happens, but that's that should be coming down the pike. But what can you do?

Well, first, I want you to shift out of this feeling of helplessness. Change doesn't usually start at the federal level. It starts locally. Parents, teachers, community members who care enough to ask better questions. So start by asking for transparency.

What are the ingredients in the kids' food? Where is it sourced from? How much of it is cooked from scratch, they only have a microwave and a deep fryer there, and they just get it shipped in in plastic containers with microplastics? Find out what's going on. Join a wellness committee at school.

Connect with other parents. Partner with the administrators of the school instead of positioning yourself as the adversary. Help them. There's a great nonprofit called Eat Real. It helps kids by transitioning a lot of school lunch programs to healthier Whole Foods and doing it at an affordable level within the school lunch budget.

And then there's whole road map for this around the country. They're also incredible examples of districts that have transformed their food programs. They've already done it. They move towards scratch cooking. They use real ingredients.

They use local sourcing. So if you haven't already listened to this podcast I did with Nora LaToure, it's about this this nonprofit, Eat Real. It's a powerful reminder that systems can change when communities engage. So how do these how do you expect to actually raise a generation of children that's gonna be helping America stay a vibrant, successful country? Mhmm.

I mean, it's like, it's highly concerning to me.

Nora LaTorre
Yeah. It's how do we make our kids feel better today and then improve their short term health outcomes and then improve their their long term health and happiness. It's

Dr. Mark Hyman
Yeah. I mean, investing in kids is investing in the future of our country. Right. I mean, it's like it just it's such a no brainer. Right?

Nora LaTorre
Definitely how we stop disease before it starts. And it's the it is the top solution. Like, real real food to kids is the best way to create health for generations to come. And and quickly, I think that you and I both agree, I think we've talked about this. Like, what to me is so powerful and what I love about a lot of the work that you do across so many different avenues is, you know, humans can regenerate quickly.

That's what gives me hope. It's like doctor Lustig did a study that showed that in ten days just removing added sugar, even leaving starch, kids' metabolic health improved. Like, can we if or you I did once your ten day Detox. Ten day detox. And then I had and then you and I worked on a seven day national sugar challenge together.

Remember that. And my family I had my family do it, the whole house, and I have a multigenerational house. So and the whole family did it, and we did we didn't just do seven days. We extended it to ten because of that research. And then we actually did the whole month.

No added or free sugar. Life changing for our family. Like game changing.

Dr. Mark Hyman
What happened?

Nora LaTorre
The grandparents lost weight and felt better. The we changed this we I we got we had sourcing agreements pretty much at the house level where we're like, okay. It's hidden in all these these sauces we didn't know, and let's just not have it in the house. And, just don't bring it in, you're not it's not gonna go on the plate. It changed it just made us all so aligned, and it made everyone feel better and be more vibrant and made blueberries taste sweeter.

It was life changing, but I think that's the thing is, like, you we can change our children's health so fast. If you change what you you feel you start to feel better when you eat raw food that day.

Dr. Mark Hyman
That day.

Nora LaTorre
And then you start to change your metabolic health in ten days. And you can I mean, you've seen probably so many patients reverse the prediabetes, reverse the diabetes? Diabetes. Yeah. One in three kids are prediabetic.

If we commit to this as a country, like, Americans get things done. And like, if we actually say we're going to right this ship and change the direction, and we're gonna take our health back in our hands, and we're going to advocate that the government aggressively make changes and quickly make changes, which there's momentum across the aisle there to do it. There's an appetite, food pun intended, for that, and then we can do it. And we can make change quickly, and we can regenerate. It's a story of hope to me.

Dr. Mark Hyman
And here's the bigger picture. Even if you can't control every meal your child eats at school, what you do at home matters enormously. Metabolic resilience is built over time. Immune strength is built over time. So focus on what you can influence, and then if you feel called to it, get involved locally because when parents advocate together, real change can happen.

The next big question was about eczema and the diet. What's the connection? There is a big connection. We got a lot of questions about eczema. It's a big problem for kids.

Honestly, this is an area that drives me crazy because it's such an easy fix with functional medicine. And I was watching TV the other night, there was a commercial for this drug that costs $90,000 a year for eczema. And I'm like, this is just ridiculous. It's such an important topic because, you know, the problem is eczema seen as a skin problem. So dermatologists slather lotions, potions, and all kinds of crap on there, creams and moisturizers, steroid this, and steroid that.

That's just putting a Band Aid on it. Not the problem. The problem isn't from the outside in, it's from the inside out. And they can help give you relief, and obviously it can be important and necessary sometimes, but they're not addressing the root cause, addressing the symptom. Eczema is frequently an immune system dysfunction that shows up on your skin.

The skin is not separate from your immune system. It's actually one of our largest immune organs. And in many kids, eczema reflects underlying immune dysregulation, which often traces back to the gut. Now remember, most of the immune system lives in the gut. It's about 60%.

So when the gut lining is inflamed, when it's compromised, when you have a leaky gut, when the microbiome is imbalanced, when there's chronic low grade inflammation, the immune system becomes hyperactive because your your food proteins and and your bacterial toxins are leaking literally across the lining of your gut, and your immune system's right there, and it starts to go, hey, this is bad. I'm going to do something. And one of the things that it can do is it shows up as eczema. It shows up as as a real problem. There's other things that can happen when your gut's not healthy, food sensitivities, allergies, asthma.

These are common things that kids get, and they're not things that are inevitable. They're not a sign of some design flaw in human biology. It's because something's out of balance. And this is often referred to as atopic disease or the atopic march where immune system balance goes you know, from little eczema in infancy to allergies to asthma, even autoimmune disease later on. It's not an uncommon story.

So we think about eczema from a functional medicine perspective, we ask like, what's driving this immune activation? Well, there's a lot of contributors. Number one being a gut issues. Leaky gut, gut dysbiosis, overgrowth of bad bugs, too much yeast, fungal overgrowth is a big cause of eczema. Food sensitivities are a big one that can often drive things.

You know, when you have a leaky gut, you start reacting to proteins like gluten or dairy. Dairy is a big factor in asthma. And I think if you have dairy, I I literally just talked to a a mother who is a friend, and she had a kid who has head to toe eczema. It's just absolutely miserable. And, you know, seeing all the dermatologists, the doctors, they have lots of resources.

They were just it was kind of miserable. And I said, well, you know, don't really know what's going on with this kid particularly, but just try to stop dairy, see what happens. She I saw her at dinner the other night, she said, yeah, 80% of his eczema went away just from that one intervention. Ultra processed foods are also full of things that can trigger immune dysfunction. A lot of the dyes can be very immunogenic.

So I I think you'd be very careful about getting rid of that. If your blood sugar's unstable, that stresses your immune system. If you're deficient in nutrients like zinc, omega threes, vitamin d, vitamin a, all these can affect affect your immune system. Now this isn't a one size fits all solution. Not every kid with eczema has the same trigger.

Eczema is a symptom. Right? One person can be from gluten. They're from dairy. They're from yeast overgrowth.

Another from heavy metals. I had a case of that once where it was just heavy metals The system was causing constant gut issues and yeast overgrowth and leaky gut. It can be from an imbalance in in any one of those things or nutritional deficiencies. There's some short term strategies that can really help. First, get rid of all the junk.

No more ultra processed foods. Get rid of the chemicals in the food. Get rid of frankenfoods. It ain't food anyway. Second, just do a full 100% dairy removal for three weeks, and I would probably add gluten to that because that's another big one that's a sleeper.

Increase omega three intake. You know, kids can take fish oil. There's liquid fish oils. Get your gut reset, you know, that that's a whole project with functional medicine, but it's we call it the five r program. It's really about removing the bad stuff, taking probiotics, prebiotics, and repair of nutrients for the gut, but probiotics can be very helpful.

Sugar, you have to cut way down, Flour, way down. All that really drives yeast overgrowth. So the goal isn't just actually better skin. It's restoring your immune system function and balance. Because when your immune system is calm internally, the skin just, you know, gets better.

It's really easy. Alright. One more reminder. If your kid needs a topical medication in the short run, that's okay. A little topical steroids is not gonna kill him.

Stay away from the strong stuff. But if the eczema keeps coming back or it's persistent, you gotta look deeper. The skin's often you telling something about your internal terrain. Now it can also be from chemicals on the outside, and that can be, you know, toxins or chemicals or different weird ingredients and lotions or creams or, yeah, you know, things kids are exposed to. But I I think, you know, that often is a result of an overactive immune system in the gut too.

So you gotta deal with both things. Now when you address the root causes, you're not really just managing the flares, you're actually building this long term resilience. Now let's shift gears a bit and move into our rapid fire question round, where I'm gonna tackle some of your most common quick hit questions with short clear answers. So let's do it. Are seed oils bad for kids?

Oh, boy. That's a good one. I use seed oils and bean oils, but they are have to be from the right sources. If they're in small amounts and you're using them as part of cooking in your kitchen, no problem. You know, like, I used sesame oil last night.

I was stir frying some chicken. That's fine. That's a seed oil. Hey. If it's expeller pressed, cold pressed, if it's not industrially produced, I think it's okay.

The problem is the volume of these refined industrial oils that are highly processed, deodorized, that are often oxidized, that are in all the ultra processed foods, they're in all the junk. So that's what I worry about. All the deep fryers, all that stuff. That's that's the problem. Next question.

Is organic necessary? I mean, look. Your kids are often toxic waste dumps. So the less toxins you can put in better, they're more sensitive than everybody else. They accumulate things more and faster than anybody else because they're just little smaller creatures exposed to the same volume of stuff.

So when you can, eat organic. And I encourage you use the dirty dozen clean 15 guide from the environmental working group. That's ewg.org. That'll give you a good idea of of actually which are the like, for example, strawberries. You should never have those if they're not organic, but if you want to have like a banana that's not organic, it's not a big deal.

Alright. What about the best milk alternative? Well, I personally am very suspicious of a lot of these nut milks because they have thickeners, they have emulsifiers, they have sugar, they have additives. I really am concerned that these are often harmful foods masquerading as health food. However, there are a few companies that just have simple ingredients.

I like Elmhurst. It's just basically water and the nuts. Like, there's cashew milk. There's almond milk. You know, there's walnut milk.

There's hazelnut milk. And they're just made from the nuts and water and maybe a little salt. So I really encourage you use better brands. I I don't have any relationship with that brand, but it's the one that I personally like because I I see the other ones having so many problems. Okay.

Here's another big question. Thoughts on plant based diets for kids being a vegan as a kid. In some countries, it's illegal. Take the kids away from the parents. It can be done, but it's risky.

And you have to make sure these kids are getting enough of the nutrients. They're going to need b twelve. They're going to need iodine. They're going to need vitamin d. They're going to need omega three fats.

They're probably gonna need more zinc. There's a whole bunch of nutrients that these kids are not getting vitamin a that are so important for their growth and development, and they need adequate protein. And, you know, it just it's just harder on a plant based diet. So I think, you know, plant rich diets? Hell yes.

And should most of your diets be plants? Absolutely. But plant only, I think, or vegan diets are are problematic. And I I think if you look at the literature, it's it's it's quite concerning. Alright.

Should kids fast? Definitely not. Are food dyes harmful? Some. Yes.

And there's, for example, red dye. They've been many of these dyes have been eliminated in other countries, tartrazine, yellow dye. There there there are things that cause allergic disorders and other issues, and many of these are just not even allowed in other countries. What about protein powders for teens? Listen.

If you want a whey protein, no problem. There's certain other plant proteins that are made from different kinds of nuts or seeds or different things that are fine. I would stay away from like highly processed industrialized protein powders that are out there with tons of sugar and added ingredients and artificial sweeteners, and there's a lot of crap out there. Applesauce, yogurts in patches pouches. I mean, listen.

I worry about the pouch more than the applesauce and the yogurt, but if it's sweetened, definitely not. If you wanna make homemade applesauce, great. Put it in a glass container. If you want to, you know, have yogurt for your kids, give them real yogurt that's not, you know, stored in these weird plastic pouches full of sugar. Next question is how much sugar is too much?

Well, dose makes the poison a little bit's fine. It's part of, you know, after meal, if I have a dessert or cookie, no problem. It's just the volume kids are having. The average kid has 34 teaspoons of sugar a day. It leads to obesity, diabetes, the host of metabolic issues, it's just the volume we're having, and it's hidden in everything from ketchup to salad dressing.

Should kids take a multivitamin? I think so. Just given the the stress of modern life, the depletions we have, the nutrient deficiencies. I looked at our data from Function Health the other day, and I was shocked to see that in our in our population, which I I think people are using function or more health forward, ninety percent had some nutritional deficiency on testing. Ninety percent, which was shocking to me.

As we wrap it up, I wanna zoom out for a sec. There's one thing I hope you take away from this conversation. It's this. You don't need to be perfect to profoundly impact your kids' health. You don't have to win every battle.

You don't have to eliminate every single processed food, although I wish you would. You don't have to control every school lunch or birthday party. What matters most is the habits over time, the pattern. Because kids' bodies are incredibly adaptable. Their microbiomes are still forming.

Their metabolic systems are being programmed. So these small consistent inputs day after day shape their long term trajectory. Real foods, stable blood sugar, healthy fats, good sleep, outdoor play, a supportive and loving environment, these are the fundamentals that build kids' health life, their immune systems. They help support immune focus. They help reduce inflammation, and they lead the groundwork for lifelong health.

And here's something really important. You, my friends, are the most powerful influence in your child's food environment. Not the marketing, not the packaging, not the cafeteria, you. You're the CEO of your household's health. In my house, there's nothing that comes in that kills you.

I just don't buy it. There's no Doritos. There's no Pop Tarts. There's no Froot Loops. I don't put that stuff in the house, And I never did, even when my kids were little.

That doesn't mean controlling everything perfectly, it just means setting the tone. Now, the default, creating an environment where real food is normal, movement is normal, balance is normal, play with your kids, you know, progress over from perfection. Because when healthy habits become the baseline home, occasional cupcake doesn't matter. So keep sending your questions, and remember, changes today get powerful health dividends over time for your kids for years and decades to come. Thanks for joining me for office hours.

I love diving into these topics with you. Remember, you are the CEO of your own health, and every choice you make can move you closer to healing and vitality. I wanna keep these episodes as relevant and useful as possible. So tell me, what do you wanna explore next? What questions are you wrestling with?

What breakthroughs are you chasing? Share your ideas in the comments on social media or through the link in the show notes. I'm listening. Until next time, keep taking charge, keep asking questions, and keep showing up for your health.

Dr. Mark Hyman
If you love this podcast, please share it with someone else you think would also enjoy it. You can find me on all social media channels at Doctor Mark Hyman. Please reach out. I'd love to hear your comments and questions. Don't forget to rate, review, and subscribe to The Doctor Hyman Show wherever you get your podcasts.

And don't forget to check out my YouTube channel at Doctor Mark Hyman for video versions of this podcast and more. Thank you so much again for tuning in. We'll see you next time on The Doctor Hyman Show. This podcast is separate from my clinical practice at the Ultra Wellness Center, my work at Cleveland Clinic, and Function Health where I am chief medical officer. This podcast represents my opinions and my guests' opinions.

Neither myself nor the podcast endorses the views or statements of my guests. This podcast is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional care by a doctor or other qualified medical professional. This podcast is provided with the understanding that it does not constitute medical or other professional advice or services. If you're looking for help in your journey, please seek out a qualified medical practitioner. And if you're looking for a functional medicine practitioner, visit my clinic, the Ultra Wellness Center at ultrawellnesscenter.com, and request to become a patient.

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