Chronic Diseases in Childhood; What parents need to know to prevent Obesity, Diabetes and High Cholesterol in our kids with Special Guest Rita Brewer

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Whether you are at your wits end or you want to have more fun as a parent, you're definitely in the right place. Now here's your host, Jackie Fineman. Welcome back, No Problem Parents. Today, we're going to talk all things chronic diseases in our children.

Why in the world are we seeing such high rates of obesity and diabetes and high blood pressure in our kids? Well, my special guest today is going to help us tackle that and get to the root of what's going on. Rita Brewer pursued her passion for medicine by receiving a bachelor's degree in biology from the State University of New York, followed by the Weill Cornell Surgical Physician Assistant Program in Manhattan. Over the past 30 years, she has worked in hospitals, private practices, and outpatient clinics specializing in internal medicine, surgery, weight loss, and integrative medicine.

She is a distinguished fellow of the American Academy of Physician Assistants, certified diplomat of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine, and she is the founder and leader of the Healthy Lifestyles Ministry at Raleigh North Christian Center in Raleigh, North Carolina. After seeing thousands of patients suffering with preventable chronic diseases, her mission became educating, equipping, and empowering men and women around the world with the tools they need to reclaim their optimum health.

Rita has a private virtual health coaching practice where she specializes in weight loss, blood sugar balancing, and chronic disease reversal. She creates customized programs for each individual client using lifestyle and functional medicine principles to transform their health. And you can learn more about Rita at Rita brewer.com. Welcome to the show, Rita. Thank you so much for being here. Thank you so much for the opportunity to share my message with your audience. I've been enjoying listening to your podcast as well. Oh, I appreciate parents of a 16 year old. Oh, me too. Well, I always knew from the time I was in elementary school that I wanted a career in medicine. I was just fascinated with the human body And I wanted to learn everything about it that I could possibly learn and learn how to help people.

So I had the privilege of, you know, going to PA school and like I said, I've been a PA for over 30 years and practicing multiple different specialties. And it's been wonderful. But really about, you know, maybe 15 to 20 years into my career, you know, and I'm always been mostly hospital based with my practices. we just kept seeing the rates of chronic diseases just getting worse and worse you know more obesity more diabetes more high blood pressure more high cholesterol and you know health care workers we're such dedicated people and working our butts off every day and I'm like I feel like we're on this hamster wheel this treadmill we're just busting our butts all day long to help people but we're not really helping them. It's like all these chronic illnesses just keep growing and growing. And why are we not making headway? And it was just, it became so exhausting and overwhelming because, you know, when you feel like you're working hard at a job, but you're not really making headway. I mean, surgery was rewarding, of course, because when people came in with an emergency situation and you could go in and you fix it and they wake up and they're so much better already, you know, and that's one thing, but in internal medicine, where you just see people coming back month after month, year after year with the same problems. And the only thing that we're really offering them is another prescription to add to the list. And I see it all

the time. And it's so common for people, you know, even in their thirties and forties to have a list of 10 prescription drugs that they take every single day. And this is not how we were designed to be and how we were designed to live. And when I relocated from New York to North Carolina for a warmer climate and a better lifestyle for myself, because after 20 years, I became a little burned out. So what am I going to do? I need something else. And I ended up working in a weight loss clinic. And I started to see as people were losing weight, not only were they, you know, happy and getting their confidence and their swag back, but their diabetes was being reversed.

Their cholesterol was better. Their blood pressure was better. They were able to come off all these chronic medications. Their pain was better, you know, emotions are better. They were less depressed, less anxious. I mean, like the list of all these things just goes on and on and on. And when you change your lifestyle and what you're eating and how you're moving and how your stress and your sleep and your community and loving relationships, when we work on these lifestyle changes, everything was getting better. And I just said, gosh, this is where I want to be. I don't want to be a part of that model anymore, where the only thing I have to offer people, and it's just like, you know, it's common for clinicians to see 25, 30 patients every single day. It's overwhelming.

It's exhausting. It's just a poor system. You know, it's a disease management system. It's not a healthcare system. So I wanted to work in a different way with people to be able to have a better impact. So that's what I do now. I decided I can't stay in this model. There's not enough like lifestyle type clinics and integrative practices.

We're growing a lot now. Functional medicine is growing more, which is wonderful. Lifestyle medicine is growing. It's like, but I'm 55.

I can't keep waiting, you know, for the healthcare system to change because there's, you know, it takes 50 to 100 years for major system changes to happen. So I said, I want to work with people individually, help coach them and teach them all everything that I know and have learned over these years to, to help see them get better and help people get off the prescription drugs, because most people don't want to take them. They just don't really feel like they have any other option and they trust their clinicians. You know, we're like the educated group, you know, supposedly who's had all this training. And if they tell us this is what the best thing is, then that's what we should do. But in healthcare, we're not trained with nutrition at all. We're not trained in physical activity and strength training and, you know,

all these amazing, wonderful lifestyle things that really help us. So, yeah. Wow. You know, I just heard that not too long ago too, that I can't remember, is it like a class or maybe like a little piece of your training as a doctor is in nutrition and, you know, healthy lifestyle, but really you're not, that's not. Oh, it's minuscule. Yeah. Oh, it's minuscule. It literally could be some, some programs, it could be just a few hours. Some could be a day or two. Um, and that's it. Um, that's amazing to me. Yeah. It's confusing a little bit and a bit concerning as well. So let's, let's talk today about, um, I have a question about obesity. You know, we're seeing lots and lots of kids, uh, that really are obese. They're, they're eating,

lots of processed foods, lots of quick meals, parents are busy. So, you know, I think a lot of it is unintentional from a parenting perspective. But we're just kind of racing out the door, getting kids to school, then to sports, you know, stopping and picking up, you know, a fast food meal, or, you know, throwing Pop Tarts in the car or whatever we have just to to keep our kids fed. But the obesity rates are growing in adults and kids. So I also have this question though, everybody kind of seems to me to have, they're born with like a size, you know, or like a, like some people are just genetically thin and others are genetically bigger. You know, some people say bigger boned, right. Or whatever, but is obesity genetic?

There is definitely a genetic component to it. However, what we're learning a lot now through the field of epigenetics is that we actually have the power to change our DNA when we make these lifestyle changes that will affect generations to come. So if you are one of those people right now, we feel like, you know, I am obese, but my parents were, everybody in my family is, and well, number one, lifestyles are also very common, right?

So if your parents are eating the bad food and then you're eating the bad food and the whole family is sedentary, that is getting passed down. Unhealthy lifestyles are getting passed down. But then, yes, it does affect your genetic makeup. But the awesome thing that we know now about this epigenetic field is that we have the power to change that.

So if you were the first person in your family to start making these changes and adopt a healthy lifestyle, you are now improving your future generations, your children and their children. So that's the really exciting part. And that's what I, you know, why I like sharing this message so much because we have the power to change it. The lifestyle that we live has the power to alter our genes, our DNA. Why are we seeing so many chronic diseases in kids like obesity, diabetes, high cholesterol? You know, it's a compilation of factors that have been building ever since like the 1980s. Cause I mean, if you look at pictures of big groups of people back in the seventies, like nobody was obese, right? They, and sometimes these circulate on the internet, like look at the 1970s pictures of people, like mobs of people walking in big cities and there's no one that's obese. And now it's the majority of the population, 70% of the United States population is overweight. I mean, that's the true pandemic in my eyes. And over 40% of adults are obese currently. And the really sad thing is that 19% or more of children are also obese. That's 14.4 million children are obese. And, you know, from that age group of age six to 19, it's like 20 to 21% of these children are obese. So it's been this factor of it started with the whole nutrition part of fat is bad. And that whole mindset and teaching that got,

you know, circulated all over the world. And through the food industry was that fat is bad. So what they did, they start taking fat out of all the food products and they're replaced, they have to replace it with something else because, because the fat tastes good. And talking about good fats, I'm not talking about fried foods, but the fat has all been replaced with sugar. So since the 1980s. So, I mean, if you look at the curve of obesity and like the CDC statistics, it's just a continuous upswing and it continues to go up. And that's why I love sharing this message with so many people because it's still climbing, you know, and like I said, all the, we're like one of the most advanced healthcare systems, you know, as far as technology in the world, but our rates of, you know, chronic diseases just keep going up and up up. So we have not even started the downswing yet. So it's the food is huge. The sedentary lifestyles that we have adopted. Of course, the pandemic has made that a whole lot even worse.

And the food industry is huge. If there's a big, you know, gosh, it's such a complex topic, but there's socioeconomic implications. There's, you know, urban planning and development. and what's available to people.

There's a lot of what they call food deserts all around the country where people don't have access to healthy food. Maybe they only have one of these little bodega type convenience stores and that's where all they can get their food and they don't have access to fresh fruits and vegetables. The way the food is processed and chemically altered and treated and the amount of toxins that are in our environment that affects us as well.

Um, you know, there's so much poison being put into our food. I mean, I don't know if you've heard about, um, Quaker oats. I mean, how many kids in the world and adults I know every day are eating oatmeal for breakfast. Um, and Quaker oats has been, you know, one of the biggest, um, uh, companies that have had high rates of glyphosate in their oatmeal. What is glyphosate?

It's the chemical compound that's in Roundup. So no one would ever even imagine, even think for a second to spray Roundup on the food that they're eating. But guess what? The farmers are doing it. And they're supported by the agricultural industry and the government subsidies that help them, you know, farm this way, these monocrops.

so gosh there's so many factors that come into play and I feel like most people don't really know what's going on like we only see our food in the grocery store and we don't really know where it came from or how it was processed so that's why I love talking about it and because I feel like parents want to do well for their kids we just don't always have the knowledge so when we know better, we do better. And I think a lot of people are just kind of thinking, if I go into a grocery store, everything is in there, it must be okay, right? It must be regulated by the FDA, so it must be all right, but it's really not. There's only a handful of major food corporations in the world that regulate all of the food that's coming into our grocery stores. And they're all, you know, they're in the pockets of, or the government is in the pockets of these subsidies. And there's a great book that talks all about this, which I totally geek out on if your moms are, you're interested in checking it out. It was one of Dr. Mark Hyman's books.

It's called Food Fix. So he's like the big wig in functional medicine. He's written like probably at least a dozen books. But Food Fix is the one that really takes that deep dive into this food industry. And he's like, you know, trying to be, you know, one of the people on the lobby floors of this, you know, the Senate, you know, where all these food subsidies are being dished out and, you know, trying to make a difference, you know, in our government who's not really supporting healthy nutrition. It can be overwhelming, you know, when you hear me talk about this stuff, Like, I don't want to try to overwhelm people, but I just want people to know kind of what we're dealing with and then just make one swap at a time.

I mean, like any healthy behavior, we can't make tons of changes all at once. We can really only work on one change at a time. So I like to start with my clients. Well, first of all, finding out what their goals are.

But just starting with a food journal of what you're currently eating, because people, you know, have a hard time chain making, you know, changes because we like what we like, right? So just show me what you're currently eating. And then let's just work on one thing at a time, one thing to educate you. I mean, like now that I told you about those Quaker oats, you're never going to want to eat them again, most likely, right? Because you know what's in them. A close friend of mine who's also a colleague, her two-year-old son was sick. And when she did deep functional medicine tests and he had glyphosate toxicity in his brain. And he was only two, you know, we, even these toxins, um, there's been studies that showed in, in umbilical cord blood that was tested right when the baby was born, they have been found over 200 different chemical compounds that was in this umbilical cord blood. So our babies are coming into the world already toxic because moms are toxic, right? So like one swap at a time. So we can talk about the food part and how to clean up that. Our beauty products are very toxic too, but there are healthy swaps. I have them all on my website too, because I think that's really important for people to know and to also help you save the time to figure in not having to figure all that out. So like I have a beauty and makeup section on my website, food and supplements or snack ideas and things like

that, because I've done all this research for so many years to find these healthy products. Our cleaning products in our home are very toxic and loaded with chemicals, but it's really easy to, you know, once we learn, you know, okay, this is bad. And like, as we do as moms, we go hard for our families and we go all in and we're like, this is what we're going to do. And Hey, if you can afford to get rid of all the bad stuff all at once and replace everything more power to you, but most people can't afford to do that, you know, financially. So I just say, make one swap at a time. Like if you look up your shampoo and find out, you know, that it's really, that it's toxic. The next time you buy shampoo,

you know, make a healthier choice or toothpaste, you know, without the fluoride and you know, the beauty products, you know, your hair care, skincare products, your soaps, makeup, all, you know, all of these things. There's so many things even in our, in our homes, you know, the carpets and mattresses and furniture, you know, the companies process them with all kinds of chemicals and flame retardants and all kinds of things which can be harmful to us. But, you know, making those little swaps, buying from a healthier company or opening up the windows and airing, you know, your house out for 10 minutes every day, you know, just because toxic chemicals build up in our homes. So yeah, there's so many things that we can do. So I basically just kind of unpack things with my clients one at a time. But like I said, I have a lot of stuff on my website on the shopping page that so people can make those swaps right now. They don't have to be my client to see what those are, you know, what's a healthier brand of lipstick and, you know, different, you know,

different makeup and, you know, things like that, my favorite soaps or shampoos. So there's a lot. And I, you mentioned the fat being replaced with, with sugar. So like good fats, like I did not jump on the bandwagon when all the low fat things came out, low fat dressings for your salad. And, but Even the fake sugars that, you know, they'll say that this soda or this flavored water or whatever doesn't have any sugar in it.

Well, it does. It's just not regular natural sugar, right? Yeah, it depends on the product. There's tons of artificial sweeteners out there and those are not good for us either.

So I always recommend things that are low in sugar or no sugar and, but no artificial sweeteners or chemicals or genetically modified toxins and pesticides and things like that, which are all over the grocery stores and people don't know it. And that's the sad thing. And, uh, you know, guilty as charged here. I am not a label reader.

A lot of the time, um, I will look for sugars sometimes, but if I really am hungry for something or want something, I buy it. And so guilty, uh, have not done the best job as a mom with that. I've heard if you can't read the label, the labels, and you don't understand what the word is, it's probably not good for you, but even like glyphosate it's in a lot of stuff and it is labeled. It is on the labels. Uh, no glyphosate is not going to be on the labels and people don't know that it's roundup either. People know roundup and they know what that is and what we do with that. And we spray it on our weeds and our lawns and farms. And where does it go? I mean, it gets washed off and ends up in our water supply, right? So I cringe when I see people spraying or the landscaper guys spraying these weed killers all over the place because I mean, eventually it's coming back to us, right? So maybe my grass doesn't look as great as I would like it to,

because I refuse to use those weed killers, but it's kind of a guilty pleasure for me. I get down on my hands and knees and I pull weeds myself. So glyphosate is not in the label. They don't want to put it, but how do we know what's in there then? Just by reading and getting educated. I love the website called ewg.org. It stands for the Environmental Working Group. And this is a company that is actually working on behalf of the people to discover what's healthy and what's not. And they will evaluate your water supply. You can punch in your zip code and it'll tell you about toxins in your water. And that's why, you know, I recommend a good water filter in your home because the toxins are everywhere and having a good water filter system, or even, you know,

just a countertop water filter, you know, can make a big difference and air filters as well. But they have on their website also the beauty section and they have an app you could download that has a barcode. So you can scan all the beauty products and cleaning products that you have in your house and it'll give you a rating. It tells you all the ingredients that are in it and then it gives you a rating from one to ten.

One being the most clean and healthy to ten being the most toxic. That's how you can pick and find out where the healthy options are. Don't think you can scan food, but the thing that you want to look out for with food is the label that says, is the USDA organic label. The other one says non-GMO verified. So if I do buy a cereal, it's got to be low in sugar and organic or non-GMO.

they're not perfect they will still even some of the organic uh cereals will still have some level of unfortunately toxic chemicals or glyphosate but how it's better than the other ones you know so it's healthier in reality no matter how much we try to avoid it we're putting toxins in every day even when we're eating organic like you say because there's toxins in our soil uh you know So what can we do to at least do our best to fight that off?

Yeah. So, well, I start with try to figure out where the toxins are so you can stop putting them in in the first place. Right. Because a lot of people will do a detox and then like, as soon as it's over, they go back to eating fast food or drive-thrus and you're just retoxifying yourself all over again.

So I feel like, well, why do you want to put yourself all that? Because it's not easy to do a detox, right? It's stressful. It's very challenging. You can feel like crap. So the goal, the best thing is to not start putting that stuff back in. But like you said, I mean, it is everywhere. So for me with my clients, it has to go, I go by what their symptoms are, you know, what is going on? What are the symptoms that you're having? Have we already made all these healthy swaps with your food and your household products, and you're still feeling bad. And then that's where I love functional medicine, because we can do more like deep dive into looking at toxin levels. Do you have mold toxicity? Do you have all these environmental chemicals? I have changed over my household products years ago,

but when I still have had my chemical toxins tested, I still had a lot of environmental like pollution type chemicals in my body. These toxins get stored in our body fat and now we're obese and overweight. So we have more body fat. So there's more room to store these toxins and it can make it more difficult to lose the weight as well. So most people start feeling better in the short term when they start making these changes, just eating better quality food or getting better sleep and lowering their stress. But then when it's not enough, you need to take a deeper dive and say, okay, let's look at your vitamin and mineral and nutrient levels, all those things that we would love to know that our conventional medical practice don't test for.

So see, am I deficient in magnesium or potassium and calcium? And what supplements do I need to realize? Or what foods can I add? So we can look at those things on a deeper level and then determine based on what those toxins are, what's the best treatment plan to go ahead with.

I customize my program for each individual. We do a really deep dive into not just your health and medical history, but lifestyle history as well. And then we see what your goals are. I do have, I love working with people who want to lose weight and helping people reverse those chronic diseases because I love to see help people get off of their medications because type two diabetes is completely preventable and reversible.

And the rates of diabetes are astronomical in all around the world now. So in the pediatric community now, practitioners are having to deal with learning how to treat childhood heart disease, obesity, diabetes, high blood pressure. these were never, ever pediatric illnesses before, but now they are. And pediatric practitioners have to learn how to treat and manage these conditions now in children. It breaks my heart that we're, you know, hearing now about even in bariatric surgery centers where they have pediatric weight loss programs, where they're doing now bariatric surgery in children. And to me, it's so heartbreaking.

And I honestly, I feel like it's criminal. You know, there's so many better options out there. But this is just the system of health care that we currently have. And until we start shifting, that's why that's why I love talking to the moms, right? Because the moms, you know, we're not afraid to go outside of the box, right? Like, well, this is the way the conventional system is. But when it doesn't work for your kid and your family, you're going to go outside that system and find what works.

making those changes little by little, one thing at a time in your home, in your lifestyle, the way you live with your kids. And, you know, don't let them sit in front of the TV for two to four hours a day, like the rest of the population is doing and limiting their screen times because we know it's not good for them. It's not good for their brain. There's an electromagnetic radiation that's emitted from every device that we're on. And we have to have set boundaries.

And who's going to do that better than the moms? Nobody. So I share the information with the moms. The moms will just take charge like we always do.

Well, Rita, thank you so much for being here today. You're a wealth of information. You have so much more on your website. So I encourage everybody to go out to Rita brewer.com.

They can also follow you on Facebook and Instagram at Rita brewer consulting. I appreciate your time today. I appreciate you sharing all your knowledge with our listeners. I appreciate you so much for having me.

And I just want to see everybody prosper and help. That's my mission. Thank you for tuning in to the No Problem Parenting podcast. Join Jackie next time for more tips, tools, and resources that will help you become the confident leader your kids crave you to be.

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