Speaker 1: A report from the nonprofit Environmental Working Group or E W G found that several popular brands of cereal and oatmeal and granola, and snack bars may con, may contain glyphosate. So that’s the same active ingredient found in the weed. Roundup. All right. Shock here. Dr. Erica Steele from Holistic Family Medicine is in Virginia Beach, and she’s here to explain what this can mean for our children’s health. Okay, so when I heard that news, I was stunned. I’m like, round up what the weed killer is in my kids’ food. Yes. So what do we do as parents?
Speaker 2: So the most important thing is to stay educated. Okay. And be aware of what you’re actually putting in your body. And that’s universal, right? We shouldn’t be mindless. Just going in. We just listen to a whole grocery store. That’s all about that conscious awareness. A lot of people, especially families, are jam-packed. They don’t have time to read every single ingredient. That’s why I really promote more of a whole food, plant-based diet.
Where you know, if it doesn’t grow in a tree or you can’t pick it, it doesn’t have vital force life energy in it, then you pretty much know most of those foods that, they found, they were foods that were in boxes, in bags, they were processed foods, so we already knew. You already know intuitively. Those foods don’t necessarily have all the most significant things in them. But I think we just needed a little extra wake-up call to say, wait a second, what are we doing to ourselves?
Speaker 1: How do we discover this? I look at the packaging and how many sugars and added sugars and all of those things, cuz I know those are bad for us. Yeah. But, like, how did we come upon this, that there was the same thing in Roundup?
Speaker 2: Yeah. I always say I have this funny analogy when I’m talking about food. It’s kinda like a mul. Business in the front party in the back. Okay. So like, in the front, it’s, it’ll say, heart, healthy, organic, whatever.
But then you flip it over, and you look at the ingredients. There are a couple of literal rules of thumb. One, you put your finger on, their thumb on there, and if the ingredients list is longer than that, it’s not healthy. But I think just over time, with trying to help with the growing population of all the people and trying to feed, they use the herbicides to be able to cut down on some of the weeds. And then now it’s just, Spun out of control. Now we have genetically modified foods. They were trying to replicate different seeds and things like that. I don’t think at the time, like they weren’t thinking, oh, this is gonna, this is some sinister plan,, was just, they were trying to really help with the ever-growing population. Okay. And feeding everyone.
Speaker 1: Okay. So how does it impact a child exposed over a long period?
Speaker 2: So herbicides can affect the neurological system, the hormonal system. So like focus, concentration, and behavioral it also, heavy metals tend to combine with minerals in the body. So that can create all kinds of even aversions to food. Especially when, like teens, they start to have their period, their cycles, and things like that.
It can throw that. It has a lot of long-term impacts, unfortunately, if it’s missed and treated, and that’s why detoxification, even though now it’s a fad, has really been something that’s been in holistic healthcare practice for ages. Okay. Because of all the ever-growing toxicities in our environment, we wanna be mindful of, I’m not afraid of them. We just want to be aware of them to decrease those out of our bodies.
Speaker 1: In your opinion, do you think this is connected to all of the issues children are having today? You’re seeing children that are very large or developed at a very early age. You’re seeing children with focus problems. Yeah. And do you think it’s somewhat related to this at all?
Speaker 2: The environment has a lot to do with the impacts. I think our food supply, I think what we’re eating. We’re eating faster on the go. We’re not eating whole foods.
And it really puts a lot of stress on the liver. The liver has two main essential jobs. You can’t live without a liver, right? And so it’s to metabolize all the nutrition that you’re eating, so your proteins, your fats, your carbohydrates, but also to eliminate toxins. So if the food that you’re eating.
That you’re supposed to be digesting is toxic; what do you think is gonna happen to the body? The metabolism is just gonna go through all kinds of havoc. Got it. And so the metabolism starts to slow because it doesn’t identify the food as food. Cuz it’s really not food. It’s junk. And then the body can’t detoxify it properly.
Speaker 1: Okay. You have a wellness event too. Yes. Where people can get more information, they can find out how they can feed their families properly. Tell us about it. Yes,
Speaker 2: Definitely. We have three children’s health classes where we. Parents, moms, and dads especially how to really help their children and their children’s health.
So we always have about three or four dates. So we have September 15th at two 30, September 17th at five 30, and September 28th at 5:30 PM And again, all of our wellness classes are complimentary till the end of the year.
Speaker 1: Thank you so much, Dr. Steele, and check out those labels, parents out there.
Speaker 2: Please do.
What do you think?