What It's About...

• The Wonder of What We Eat is an inspiring, science-based, and beautifully illustrated book geared for children ages 8-13, that helps kids discover the extraordinary ways food affects their body, brain, mood, and even the Earth. Written by a physician and mom, the book combines practical and actionable nutrition education, while helping kids build a positive and empowering mindset about food and their bodies. While the book was written for kids, it can be beneficial for people of all ages.

• The book teaches kids about the power of food— exploring how food is more than just calories and carbs, and introducing kids to concepts such as their microbiome health, the power of food on their epigenetics, metabolic health, and food as micronutrients and phytonutrients. The book also teaches essential health literacy skills, helping kids learn how to analyze influences, improve decision making, and practice goal setting. The corresponding workbook provides lessons to solidify this newfound knowledge and build on these concepts.

• At the same time, the book teaches kids how to make diet and lifestyle changes without guilt, or deprivation. The goal is to empower them to feel good about their choices and feel good about their bodies.


Why It Matters...

In a world where ultra-processed food dominates kids’ diets and the childhood obesity epidemic is soaring, our food system and diet culture are failing our children.
 
Our system is failing adults too. 
 
6 out of 10 adults in the US has a chronic disease. 4 out of 10 has two or more chronic diseases.  In the US, we spend the most on health care, but we have among the highest rates of chronic disease in the world.
 
As an Emergency Physician, who has worked on the front lines of our healthcare system for almost 20 years, every day, I see patients suffering with conditions that could likely have been prevented, and can potentially still be reversed. Yet most patients don’t get the help they need to prevent or reverse disease.
 
While searching for answers and a better solution, I continued my training and earned a second board certification in Lifestyle Medicine. Lifestyle Medicine focuses on helping people prevent and reverse our most common diseases, by targeting the root causes of their problems. 
 
Over the past 5 years, I have been working with adults to understand the power of food, understand the power of their bodies, and to help them make positive changes to their diet and lifestyle, in order to transform their health.  The results have been extraordinary. When provided this help, adults have lowered their blood sugars, blood pressures, and cholesterol, lost weight, increased their energy, decreased their pain, and improved their quality of life. Many have even reduced or eliminated their need for medications.
 
Yet, as exciting as it is for adults to transform their health, many are left asking, why didn’t I get this help sooner? Why didn’t I learn about food and nutrition when I was a kid?
 
I had these same questions too.  I only discovered the power of food after studying Lifestyle Medicine, after navigating my own health journey. This was after decades of schooling that taught me surprisingly little about food.
 
I wrote this book series to empower kids with essential nutrition education that most adults don’t even know. Learning this information as kids can change the trajectory of their health and the trajectory of their life.
 
But just nutrition education and knowledge are not enough.  In order to help adults and kids make meaningful change, a healthy mindset about food and their bodies is essential.
 
In our toxic diet culture, which emphasizes numbers on a scale and numbers of calories, food is often viewed as the enemy.  In our diet culture, we learn when we eat food, we must burn it off by exercising. We learn that in order to be healthy, we need to use our willpower and eat less to lose weight. These unhealthy messages set us up to develop an unhealthy relationship with food, and unhealthy relationship with our bodies.
 
The Wonder of What We Eat explores the incredible power of food and the extraordinary power of our bodies.  It helps kids look at food as more than just calories, and helps them look at their bodies/health as more than just numbers on a scale. Understanding these simple, yet revolutionary concepts can be life changing (even for adults).  By teaching kids about food and health in this way, it can shape their mindset and their choices for their entire life.
 
In addition to a book that kids can read at home, this book was also designed to be incorporated into school curriculums. In order to reverse the childhood obesity epidemic, we must empower kids of all demographics with essential nutrition knowledge and provide a positive foundation on how they think about food and their bodies.  I am excited to be working with school systems to incorporate these concepts into their curriculum, and also to be providing input to change the health curriculum standards on the state level.
 
I encourage you to read The Wonder of What We Eat together with your kids. There’s also a workbook you can use to practice what you learn, and a corresponding cookbook filled with delicious, healthy recipes to try at home.
 
Together, let’s build a healthier, happier future—one plate, one choice, and one child at a time.