November 5, 2024 β’ 25 mins
Welcome to Season 3 of the Essence of Health Tea Time podcast!
Research shows that children who follow a plant-based diet tend to have a lower fat mass, lower blood cholesterol levels and lower fasting glucose levels. This can be helpful in lowering their risk of developing certain chronic health conditions like type 2 diabetes, high blood pressure, and high cholesterol when compared to their peers. Adopting a plant-based diet early in life can help set children up for a lifetime of better health. However, we understand that sometimes children can be picky little eaters, leaving parents with the frustration of figuring out how to get more plants on their childβs plate. So, on today's episode, Dr. Shayla will be joined by a special guest, Dr. Margaret Towolawi and they will be spilling βππ‘π πππ ππ§ πππ’π¬π’π§π ππ’πππ₯π πππ π π’π ππ¨π―ππ«π¬β.
Dr. Margaret Towolawi is a double board certified physician in family medicine and lifestyle medicine, and founder/medical director of Nurture Well Center and aesthetic practice - SkinStatMD. She is also the published author of βAyomide and Seyi's Kitchen : A kids' guide to plant based nutrition from A to Zβ where she shares tips that she and her own children have found helpful to improve their health and wellness.
Synopsis:
- Discover the effect of your childrenβs environment and its impact on how they prioritize their health.
- Understand the many health benefits that a plant based diet can offer to children throughout their spectrum of growth.
- Gain insight on how to overcome some of the barriers to pursuing a plant based diet for your family.
- Get Dr. Margaretβs βIcy Smooth Teaβ on helpful and flavorful ways to get your kids to eat more fruits and veggies!
Connect with Essence of Health:
- FREE Nourish & Flourish 5 Day Challenge
β FREE Class βDitch The Diet: Mindful Strategies for Lasting Metabolic Healthβ
βClick the SUBSCRIBE button on your favorite podcast platform so that you never miss a moment of the Essence of Health Tea Time Podcast!
β FREE "Healthy Tips For A Healthy Lifestyle" Guide
βFollow Dr. Shayla on social media at Essence of Health Wellness Clinic on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube and at DrShayla on TikTok.
β-----------------------------------------------------------------
Connect with Dr. Margaret Towolawi: www.margarettowolawimd.com
Grab a copy of βAyomide and Seyi's Kitchenβ:
https://www.margarettowolawimd.com/shop
β-----------------------------------------------------------------
Plant Based Plate for Kids ; African American Vegan Starter Guide
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
(00:00):
Welcome to the Essence of Health Tea Time podcast. I am your host, Dr. Shayla Toons-Whithers.
(00:15):
As a double board certified family and obesity medicine physician with over 12 years of experience
in medicine, I teach motivated individuals how to achieve their desired quality of life
while preventing and reversing chronic diseases. It's tea time!
(00:37):
What part of your health journey is most challenging? Is it the actual effort of sticking to a plan?
The cooking and the meal planning? The exercise routine? Not enough time for everything you
think you need to do? Or the confusion of it all? If you said yes to any of these obstacles,
(00:57):
then keep listening to learn how you can smash these problems just by checking your email.
You check your email inbox every day already, but what if checking your inbox brought you
better health instead of the stress it sometimes can bring? Well, I have news for you. You
can improve your health, get a jump start on improving your health conditions, and start
(01:20):
to feel like a better version of you just by checking your email inbox over the next
five days when you join the free Nourish and Flourish 5-Day Challenge. You'll get health
tips, actionable videos, a goal and habit tracker, and healthy recipes every day for
five days. Better health is the best investment you'll ever make, and this is only a small
(01:46):
investment of your time. You have nothing to lose, but everything to gain. The Nourish
and Flourish 5-Day Challenge was designed to set the foundation for healthy habits for
life. Say yes to yourself today and sign up now at drshayla.com forward slash nfchallenge.
(02:06):
I'll also place these details in the show notes. The essence of health is in you. See
you in your inbox. On today's episode of the Essence of Health Tea Time podcast, I have
a special guest, Dr. Margaret To'olowee. Dr. To'olowee is a double board certified physician
with over 15 years of clinical experience in family medicine and lifestyle medicine
(02:31):
with a passion to help people live healthier and longer lives by equipping them with knowledge
to take charge of their health. She is a published author and speaker, leading workshops and
webinars for children, teens, and adults. She is the founder and medical director of
Nurture Well Center and aesthetic practice, SkinStatMD, where she has her own physician-formulated
(02:56):
and curated skincare and supplement line. Dr. To'olowee works with individuals, groups,
and organizations and has a passion for working with marginalized communities to empower them
to advocate for their health using the six pillars of lifestyle medicine. Welcome to
the show, Dr. To'olowee. Thank you, Dr. Shayla, for having me on. It's a pleasure to be on
(03:17):
with you. Yeah, happy to have you, Dr. Margaret. So, Dr. Margaret, tell us your story. What
led you to consume a plant-based way of eating for yourself and even inspired you to write
your children's book, I Amidae and Sayee's Kitchen? So, I started my plant-based journey,
goodness gracious, over 25 years ago. So, I was about 15 years old. And back then, you
(03:41):
remember the magazine Newsweek magazine? Yeah. My parents were getting that up until Newsweek
stopped doing their print. And I used to love reading those articles. And I remember very
clearly they had an article or headline about avian flu. I remember when that was like a
big thing in the news. Yeah. Right. I'm sorry. It's actually that was not the first one.
(04:03):
The first one was a mad cow disease one. So, I remember reading about mad cow disease,
you know, and I'm thinking, okay, there's this, if we eat this beef, we can get this
mad cow. So, why not just eat the beef? So, that was my first thing. First, I cut off
eating beef. I already never really liked pork. And then the avian flu came out a couple
years after that. And I cut out chicken. So, by the time I went out to college, I was pretty
much a pescatarian. So, consuming beef. But at that time in college, fish was like a luxury.
(04:28):
So, I rarely got to eat fish. I was pretty much a vegetarian, if you will, through college
and after college. And it was only in the past five, six years that I became 100% plant-based
as I really started to learn about the health benefits and even the issues with dairy and
being very pro-inflammatory. So, yeah. So, it all started with me being a little nerd,
eating a lot and consuming all the articles about food-related, food-borne-related illnesses.
(04:53):
I love that because it's like even before you were a doctor, you were like, nope, I
know I don't want that. No, no, no. To me, just two plus two equals four. Like, I just
accept, right? And then the book aspect came into play, you know, after having thousands
of patient encounters with people, young and old, a common theme I saw was a lot of people
who just didn't know how to eat healthy, right? And my thought was if we can get the kids
(05:18):
at a young age to understand why we want to eat certain foods consistently to improve
our health, that will be golden. So, I came out with the book, I Am in a Shade's Kitchen,
A Kid's Guide to Plant-Based Nutrition from A to Z. There we go. And the hope-
Yeah, we're going to get the link to that in the show notes, so listeners look out for
it because it is beautiful. Thank you. And if you get it from my direct website, I will
(05:40):
sign it to you and personalize it. That's the one thing I like to do. But this book
is really my love letter to my patient community, to the plant-based community, and just to
anybody who wants to eat healthier. You don't have to be 100% plant-based to consume all
the goodness in the book, if you will. I just want kids to be informed so they can make
the choices that they want to make for themselves as adults and not just say, oh, I'm eating
this because I have to. They can understand the why.
(06:00):
Yeah, I love that. And you know, being a mom, and often what I even hear from other patients
who are moms is that, you know, we make a lot of our health decisions for ourselves
because it's like, well, I want to be healthy for my kids, but then even taking it a step
further and wanting our children to be their healthiest. So let us know, give us, you know,
(06:22):
your thoughts about plant-based nutrition in children and those health benefits and
development benefits that they can get from a plant-based way of eating.
Yeah, great question. A lot of people who, you know, think that plant-based eating is
not the best for kids, that they're going to grow, and not optimally, that's just not
true. When we look at the data, data has shown maybe at first they have a little bit slower
(06:42):
acceleration with growth, but over time they catch up, if not are often, you know, the
same height as their peers, and not even taller at times. But the biggest thing I tell people
is if you can get your kids to adopt these healthy habits and get their taste buds trained
to like these foods, over time they tend to consume less sodium, and we know the link
to sodium and high blood pressure, consume less saturated fats, and that's tied to risk
(07:05):
of high cholesterol and heart attack and stroke, right? So their taste preference will change,
right? They're likely to develop certain chronic diseases, are decreased as well, right? So
that's a lot of the buying I get people to think about at first, like thinking about
their kids and their decreased likelihood to get certain diseases that we all know somebody
who's affected by heart attack or stroke and so trying to make that personal connection.
(07:26):
Right. Yeah, yeah, that's so true. Even with children of color, you know, we see a lot
of children who may have eczema or these, you know, kind of skin conditions, and I know
for me one of the first thing I tell parents, cut some of that dairy from their diet because
that dairy can be inflammatory producing and can contribute to those eczema flares. And
(07:46):
so even, you know, when parents just see that change, it helps to get them on board too,
and then they know they're giving their child that extra benefit to not have to suffer so
much with that condition too. Right. A lot of misinformation, you know, we're
sold that dairy is best, you know, the billion dollar milk industry, you know, you go to
your pediatrician's office and you have that, how many cups of milk are they, you know,
(08:09):
right? Yeah. Right. So the book really helps to, I think, demystify some of that. I talk
about how calcium is so important and you don't need to just get it from milk. It's
in foods like your dark green greens, kale, bok choy, just to name a few things, right?
So parents always walk away like, oh, I didn't know that. And they can think about all the
rainbow and not just, you know, what we've been told and taught for such a long time.
(08:31):
So right. Right. Yeah. That's great. And so with parents, another thing with children,
we have these picky eaters, you know, sometimes they only want to eat this or that. So how
can parents ensure that their children are receiving an adequate amount of protein, fat
and those other essential nutrients on a plant based diet? Yeah. So first thing to people
(08:53):
is hopefully your doctor feels confident to give you an idea of what the typical kids
should be eating at their age group, regardless of their plant based a hundred percent of
the time or not, you should have a set idea. And that's the first point, right? So you
kind of know where you're trying to strive to. And then, you know, if for example, your
kid doesn't like to eat, I don't know, tofu, right? They can still get those sources of
(09:16):
good protein from beans. Right. So they may just eat a certain food all the time for a
certain season. And that's okay. For example, my youngest, she has surface that she just
hates and her brother will love. And at first I would get annoyed like, oh, why? But then
if I change, I prepare it or help have her help me make it or put it in a smoothie. You
know, I've made bean smoothies. Oh yeah. I made black bean smoothie and she, you know,
(09:40):
she doesn't have an idea. Right. So getting creative is a good way to get to those goals.
But first, knowing the ideal amount for the age group that you're dealing with it's the
team because teens need certain more amounts of iron. So they get the menstruating woman
or girl, I should say, then a younger kid does. Right. So kind of knowing where you
need to get to is the first step. And then working with the foods they like, and then
trying to, as a family shop together and get excited about cooking together. And that gets
(10:05):
more buy into. Yeah. And I'm glad you said that too, about working with what they like,
because you know, a lot of times we'll feel the need to give them all this variety of
stuff. But if you, you know, you have a picky kid and they, they're like, Nope, I'm not
eating that. But if you find that one thing they like, just give it to them. Especially
if you, you know, that it's packed with nutrition. And then the smoothies, we definitely do the
(10:28):
secret smoothies in my house. Yeah. My youngest too, something about those youngest kids.
He's a picky little eater, but he loves the smoothie. And so we just toss a bit of everything
in that smoothie and he'll slurp it up. And make it work. Make it work. If you're frustrated
with your weight, taking more medications than you like to have been told that you are
(10:52):
at risk for the development of a chronic preventable disease, or just are not filling in the best
of health, then I'm talking to you. Why? Because you're tired of fat dieting. You know, it's
time for a change and you want a sustainable plan to improve your health. If you have found
yourself at this place in life, well, I have developed a program that's just for you. It's
(11:15):
called the essence of health. And it's your prescription for transformation. My goal with
this program is to give you the tools needed to create sustainable lifestyle changes within
a group coaching setting, along with one to one individualized coaching to give you a
personalized path to help that's just for you. The benefits are priceless. So join today.
(11:40):
Head on over to eohcoaching.com to learn more. The essence of health is in you.
Another thing when it comes to picky eaters and even, you know, incorporating some of
those tips, I'm sure, you know, within your book, that's the great thing about it because
they can see children doing these things. And that's helpful too, for those picky eaters
(12:01):
to see what other kids are doing. And then even something I did, I know when my kids
were little is incorporating them. So like when we make the smoothies, I let them, you
know, put some of the fruits and stuff in the blender and then I throw my little secret
stuff in there, you know, that I know they need. So what other tips do you usually share
for those picky eaters?
(12:22):
Yeah. So, you know, I mentioned going to the grocery store and having them shop with you,
but specifically when I'm in the store, I'll tell my son and my daughter, I'll say, you
know, I'm going to be like, what new fruit do you want to try today and what new vegetable?
And then he'll walk around the aisle and find something and same with my daughter, Shae
and then we'll say, okay, let's go home and try to make a salad. The other day I made
(12:42):
what I call the eat the rainbow salad, right? And it was technically was off with except
for one thing, but it was an unconventional blend if you were to think about it, but it
worked well. It was cucumber, banana slices, grapes, strawberries, little mandarin oranges.
And then I threw in some microgreens. That was the veggie in there. A little bit of lime
juice and then some date syrup and mixed it up. And they really enjoyed that, you know,
(13:07):
that's definitely a different combination.
Yeah, but it works so well, you know, it's a fruit salad sands, the microgreens, the
cucumbers are fruit, right? But it worked well. And that's something I think if I had
just said, eat these microgreens, they would have been like, I don't know. Right. That
way, you know, and then sometimes for me, honestly, Dr. Sheila, it's sometimes you have
to give it a little bit like, okay, right. But other times I might say, okay, just it's
(13:29):
compromising some shifts. I know they're kids, but you sometimes you got to compromise for
your own sanity. Oh, yeah. Eat two of these. We'll use the microgreens to these microgreens.
Just try to. Okay. All right. You know, it's nice even getting creative with the presentation.
So I will buy little heart shaped and kind of star shaped cookie cutters and like cut
out shapes and some of the veggies and some of the fruits to get my daughters, many of
(13:53):
my daughters, my son, he's like teens, 100% plants. Yay. Ra Ra. Right. But my daughter,
she's she's she keeps things exciting for me. So I get creative, you know, with her. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah, for sure. With my my same with my picky eater, he gets some of these kicks
will he only want like noodles. And so what I love now, you know, we can get a lot of
(14:14):
the bean based noodles. And so we'll buy the chickpea ones or the lentil ones. And, you
know, he's getting that fiber and that protein and all of those nutrients. But for him, he's
like, Yep, I get to have my bowl of noodles. So we're both happy. Yeah, yeah. And the thing
else I thought of, again, it's with my youngest, if I gave her corn on the cob, she's I don't
(14:35):
want to eat corn. But if I get Trader Joe's has this frozen roasted corn, she would just
eat that all up. Right. Like, so it's funny sometimes how just changing again, the presentation.
That was another example I thought of. Yeah, yeah, for sure. And then you know, summertime
coming up for those folks that are listening. Popsicles are another thing that we've done
and you can put some good stuff you can still juice a lot of those fruits and vegetable
(14:59):
blends together and put it in a Popsicle mole. And that's also a good way for kids to Yeah,
yeah, we've been having fun. So we've done that a lot. And then I just I'm not sure,
actually, if you've seen this trend on social media, making your own vegan, like, you know,
Magnum bars, the Magnum, the ice cream, covered with chocolate. So when I was vegetarian, I
(15:23):
used to love those, right? I think we came out with the vegan one, I think, but I'm not
sure. But anyway, this is a trend making your own vegan one. So we've been making our own
and it's just so much healthier. You can put in bananas, a little bit less saturated fat
with a reduced fat coconut milk. And then the outer coating is just 72% dark chocolate
chips. You know, the kids are loving that. So again, kind of making finding finding an
(15:43):
alternative to seeing the store making it healthier. Yeah, even you know, nice cream
what a lot of people frozen bananas. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I even I don't know,
have you seen the ninja cream any? Oh, yeah, I have. Oh, yeah, you do. You've got a whole
nice cream. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Parents, you got to get that take a look at
(16:07):
that nice cream recipe there. But yeah, but with the ninja cream, any that's something
you know, my kids like to do that too at our house and you can put a lot of those good
ingredients in it and then blend it down and it makes it real smooth and cream. I was surprised
actually with how well it does of making it just really creamy. I've seen that but I haven't
(16:27):
tried. Okay, ninja cream. Yeah, yeah, for sure. All right. So we're gonna pivot just
a little bit. And because I know this is, you know, a subject that's passionate to the
both of us, but tell us about those cultural or socioeconomic factors that sometimes you
know, you've run into that may influence the adoption of plant based ways of eating amongst
(16:48):
families and then how can people address some of those barriers? Yeah, so science people
are often not so often times you say people will say, Oh, so expensive. And I pause and
I say, process plant based eating is highly processed. So we all know, Dr. Sheila, these
fast food, vegan spots are popping up everywhere. I tell people, everyone's is okay, but eating
(17:11):
that regularly is not really getting you the healthy that we all want to see. Right. So
I tell people ways to kind of address the cost is to try to eat things that are as close
to the actual source as possible. So even the fresh fruits as they are buying in bulk,
shopping in season, right, telling people that it's okay to buy things frozen and even
(17:31):
can look for the low sodium veggies and beans and then rinse them off when you get home.
But I think when you get hung up in the process, foods, the process, cheeses, the process,
vegan meats, buying that all the time, that does add up, that does get expensive. First
thing I want to push back and say, I say to people, but yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, I love
those tips. And you know, something else I will add to because a lot of times people
(17:56):
may be in areas where they don't have certain things available to them. But even buying
done in bulk now can even be done affordably online. Yeah, because I purchased some bulk
items myself and I was surprised how much cheaper even it was to get it online versus
going to the store and purchasing it. And so just another tip for the audience out there
(18:16):
is to even look for some of these bulk items like Dr. Margaret talked about even online
if in your grocery store, it seems to be an inflated price, but definitely stick into
those foods that are least processed is going to be the much more affordable way to go,
as you mentioned for sure. And then when it comes also to reducing health disparities,
(18:42):
tell us just a bit about the way plant based diets can even help with that, especially
what we've been seeing, you know, even in our children now who are developing some of
these more what we were trying to think were adult based conditions. So tell us, you know,
how that can even help them. Yes, I'm a really big fan of the initiative put out through
the American College of Lifestyle Medicine, which I know we're both certified in that
(19:05):
the HEAL initiative so health equity achieved through lifestyle medicine. That's actually
what got me. I'm really excited about lifestyle medicine because I see it as a way for families,
patients, kids even to take charge of their health by taking over taking the power back
and being mindful what's on their plate. Right. So if we choose to eat a more plant based
diet, the data is there. A lot of people will say, oh, how do we know if you look up the
(19:28):
evidence that shows that when you eat a plant based diet, even if you want to eat something
more Mediterranean, there's still the benefits of being able to reverse and prevent diabetes,
prevent heart disease, high blood pressure, cholesterol, high cholesterol. These are all
things that are really prevalent in communities of color. Right. So that's why I get so passionate
about it. Honestly, I tie it back to the health care disparities that are still rampant. And
(19:53):
at the rate things are looking, not going away soon until we really get more people
to buy in that they need to not reach for the pills more so but change was on their
plate. So yeah, right. Right. Exactly. Yep. Because people are probably tired of hearing
it if they listen to me, but food is medicine. It really is. We're both practicing physicians
and we're really good at prescribing medicines and we can certainly do that. But you can
(20:16):
also change the way that you eat or get more sleep or move more, go get some sunlight and
heal these conditions that way as well. Yeah. Yeah. All right. And then I think we'll talk
about is resources that you typically recommend for families and getting families really on
board with getting more plants on their plate. Yeah. So the first thing that comes to mind,
(20:40):
especially if I'm talking to families, you know, I'll be honest, black, black, brown
families, there's a lot of resources. So Afro vegan society has so many great resources
they even have. I have it to the to the left of me down there. I don't want to get a frame.
They even have a free handout that they give out the vegan African American vegan starter
(21:01):
guide and it goes over how much of certain nutrients you need to have some great recipes
and I've had patients who aren't even thinking about being plant based who take the pamphlet
it's not even pamphlet it's a 20 page plus little book for my office and wrap that myself.
I had it out. Awesome. Actually, let me let me just get out of frame and show you. Yeah,
go get it. Yeah. But it's great. So okay, I keep going out of frame. Sorry about that.
(21:27):
Yeah, no, no, no, I can see it. Yeah. About 30. I'll put a link for that to our audience
listening. I'll put a link for that too in the show notes because I'm going to go grab
it too. Yeah. So that's great. And then the plant protocol that's owned or run by Lisa
Smith. She is super passionate about getting communities color to take charge of health
through eating healthy and she has a free online academy great resources. And then if
(21:52):
you have families, young kids, there's certain Instagram handle that I like to direct people
to just because in this day and age, a lot of people they'll say I don't have time to
read but they'll go and they'll consume world fast so plant based juniors to dietitians
who focus on plant based eating and kids I haven't was able to meet them recently at
a conference at an expo conference and talk with them and they love the things they share.
(22:15):
Yeah, I agree. They're really, really, really good. So those resources come to mind as far
as like easy consumable content. And there's so many great books too that are out there
for families. There's the book nourish by Brenda Davis, I believe she's a transaction
and then Dr. Peters whose name is Casey right now but it's kind of how many and what you
need and recipes and things like that. And then knowing the nutrient guidelines. So I
(22:41):
think it's interesting guidelines to follow when you're plant based. So right, right.
Yeah, for sure. And then you know, just adding to for communities of color because you know,
we like our food to taste good. And I tell people, just because you're plant based that
doesn't mean you got to go be a rabbit and you know, wilted lettuce, you can have some
good food. So yeah, definitely, you know, get that vegan god that you mentioned and
(23:05):
then PCRM actually a couple of years ago, came out with the cooking with soul. It's
a and I think it was from the black cardiologist who helped them compile the book. And it's
got some really good recipes in it too. And so yeah, I'll share that one too for the audience.
But but yeah, you know, your food doesn't have to be bland, your children like good
food that's flavorful to them as well as you. You can have plants that way. Yes, yes. I
(23:29):
tell people nobody eats, people who eat meat don't eat it raw, they got to season it, they
got to all the things right. So same with plant based eating spices are life. So yeah,
exactly. Exactly. All right, Dr. Margaret, well, thank you so much for being on the show.
Can you before you go just share with the audience how they can connect with you? I
think the best the best place to start that'll lead to everything I do is going to be my
(23:52):
website. The book will be there as well. www dot Margaret margarit towlowy t o w o l a w
i m d so medical doctor MD comm that's my main website will lead you to the books. My
practice if you're in Seattle area, and some other resources as well. So yeah, awesome.
(24:13):
Awesome. All right. Well, thank you so much. Thank you for having me. Thank you for joining
me today on the essence of health t time podcast. Click the subscribe button on your favorite
podcast platform so that you never miss a moment of the essence of health t time podcast.
Check out the show notes to obtain your free tips for healthy living guide to get you started
(24:37):
on your health and wellness path. Follow me on social media at essence of health wellness
clinic on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube and that doctor.tw at e o h w c on TikTok.
Interested in becoming a member of the essence of health coaching program? Well, head on
(24:57):
over to www.e o h coaching.com. The essence of health is a you
Welcome to the Essence of Health Tea Time podcast. I am your host, Dr. Shayla Toons-Whithers.
(00:15):
As a double board certified family and obesity medicine physician with over 12 years of experience
in medicine, I teach motivated individuals how to achieve their desired quality of life
while preventing and reversing chronic diseases. It's tea time!
(00:37):
What part of your health journey is most challenging? Is it the actual effort of sticking to a plan?
The cooking and the meal planning? The exercise routine? Not enough time for everything you
think you need to do? Or the confusion of it all? If you said yes to any of these obstacles,
(00:57):
then keep listening to learn how you can smash these problems just by checking your email.
You check your email inbox every day already, but what if checking your inbox brought you
better health instead of the stress it sometimes can bring? Well, I have news for you. You
can improve your health, get a jump start on improving your health conditions, and start
(01:20):
to feel like a better version of you just by checking your email inbox over the next
five days when you join the free Nourish and Flourish 5-Day Challenge. You'll get health
tips, actionable videos, a goal and habit tracker, and healthy recipes every day for
five days. Better health is the best investment you'll ever make, and this is only a small
(01:46):
investment of your time. You have nothing to lose, but everything to gain. The Nourish
and Flourish 5-Day Challenge was designed to set the foundation for healthy habits for
life. Say yes to yourself today and sign up now at drshayla.com forward slash nfchallenge.
(02:06):
I'll also place these details in the show notes. The essence of health is in you. See
you in your inbox. On today's episode of the Essence of Health Tea Time podcast, I have
a special guest, Dr. Margaret To'olowee. Dr. To'olowee is a double board certified physician
with over 15 years of clinical experience in family medicine and lifestyle medicine
(02:31):
with a passion to help people live healthier and longer lives by equipping them with knowledge
to take charge of their health. She is a published author and speaker, leading workshops and
webinars for children, teens, and adults. She is the founder and medical director of
Nurture Well Center and aesthetic practice, SkinStatMD, where she has her own physician-formulated
(02:56):
and curated skincare and supplement line. Dr. To'olowee works with individuals, groups,
and organizations and has a passion for working with marginalized communities to empower them
to advocate for their health using the six pillars of lifestyle medicine. Welcome to
the show, Dr. To'olowee. Thank you, Dr. Shayla, for having me on. It's a pleasure to be on
(03:17):
with you. Yeah, happy to have you, Dr. Margaret. So, Dr. Margaret, tell us your story. What
led you to consume a plant-based way of eating for yourself and even inspired you to write
your children's book, I Amidae and Sayee's Kitchen? So, I started my plant-based journey,
goodness gracious, over 25 years ago. So, I was about 15 years old. And back then, you
(03:41):
remember the magazine Newsweek magazine? Yeah. My parents were getting that up until Newsweek
stopped doing their print. And I used to love reading those articles. And I remember very
clearly they had an article or headline about avian flu. I remember when that was like a
big thing in the news. Yeah. Right. I'm sorry. It's actually that was not the first one.
(04:03):
The first one was a mad cow disease one. So, I remember reading about mad cow disease,
you know, and I'm thinking, okay, there's this, if we eat this beef, we can get this
mad cow. So, why not just eat the beef? So, that was my first thing. First, I cut off
eating beef. I already never really liked pork. And then the avian flu came out a couple
years after that. And I cut out chicken. So, by the time I went out to college, I was pretty
much a pescatarian. So, consuming beef. But at that time in college, fish was like a luxury.
(04:28):
So, I rarely got to eat fish. I was pretty much a vegetarian, if you will, through college
and after college. And it was only in the past five, six years that I became 100% plant-based
as I really started to learn about the health benefits and even the issues with dairy and
being very pro-inflammatory. So, yeah. So, it all started with me being a little nerd,
eating a lot and consuming all the articles about food-related, food-borne-related illnesses.
(04:53):
I love that because it's like even before you were a doctor, you were like, nope, I
know I don't want that. No, no, no. To me, just two plus two equals four. Like, I just
accept, right? And then the book aspect came into play, you know, after having thousands
of patient encounters with people, young and old, a common theme I saw was a lot of people
who just didn't know how to eat healthy, right? And my thought was if we can get the kids
(05:18):
at a young age to understand why we want to eat certain foods consistently to improve
our health, that will be golden. So, I came out with the book, I Am in a Shade's Kitchen,
A Kid's Guide to Plant-Based Nutrition from A to Z. There we go. And the hope-
Yeah, we're going to get the link to that in the show notes, so listeners look out for
it because it is beautiful. Thank you. And if you get it from my direct website, I will
(05:40):
sign it to you and personalize it. That's the one thing I like to do. But this book
is really my love letter to my patient community, to the plant-based community, and just to
anybody who wants to eat healthier. You don't have to be 100% plant-based to consume all
the goodness in the book, if you will. I just want kids to be informed so they can make
the choices that they want to make for themselves as adults and not just say, oh, I'm eating
this because I have to. They can understand the why.
(06:00):
Yeah, I love that. And you know, being a mom, and often what I even hear from other patients
who are moms is that, you know, we make a lot of our health decisions for ourselves
because it's like, well, I want to be healthy for my kids, but then even taking it a step
further and wanting our children to be their healthiest. So let us know, give us, you know,
(06:22):
your thoughts about plant-based nutrition in children and those health benefits and
development benefits that they can get from a plant-based way of eating.
Yeah, great question. A lot of people who, you know, think that plant-based eating is
not the best for kids, that they're going to grow, and not optimally, that's just not
true. When we look at the data, data has shown maybe at first they have a little bit slower
(06:42):
acceleration with growth, but over time they catch up, if not are often, you know, the
same height as their peers, and not even taller at times. But the biggest thing I tell people
is if you can get your kids to adopt these healthy habits and get their taste buds trained
to like these foods, over time they tend to consume less sodium, and we know the link
to sodium and high blood pressure, consume less saturated fats, and that's tied to risk
(07:05):
of high cholesterol and heart attack and stroke, right? So their taste preference will change,
right? They're likely to develop certain chronic diseases, are decreased as well, right? So
that's a lot of the buying I get people to think about at first, like thinking about
their kids and their decreased likelihood to get certain diseases that we all know somebody
who's affected by heart attack or stroke and so trying to make that personal connection.
(07:26):
Right. Yeah, yeah, that's so true. Even with children of color, you know, we see a lot
of children who may have eczema or these, you know, kind of skin conditions, and I know
for me one of the first thing I tell parents, cut some of that dairy from their diet because
that dairy can be inflammatory producing and can contribute to those eczema flares. And
(07:46):
so even, you know, when parents just see that change, it helps to get them on board too,
and then they know they're giving their child that extra benefit to not have to suffer so
much with that condition too. Right. A lot of misinformation, you know, we're
sold that dairy is best, you know, the billion dollar milk industry, you know, you go to
your pediatrician's office and you have that, how many cups of milk are they, you know,
(08:09):
right? Yeah. Right. So the book really helps to, I think, demystify some of that. I talk
about how calcium is so important and you don't need to just get it from milk. It's
in foods like your dark green greens, kale, bok choy, just to name a few things, right?
So parents always walk away like, oh, I didn't know that. And they can think about all the
rainbow and not just, you know, what we've been told and taught for such a long time.
(08:31):
So right. Right. Yeah. That's great. And so with parents, another thing with children,
we have these picky eaters, you know, sometimes they only want to eat this or that. So how
can parents ensure that their children are receiving an adequate amount of protein, fat
and those other essential nutrients on a plant based diet? Yeah. So first thing to people
(08:53):
is hopefully your doctor feels confident to give you an idea of what the typical kids
should be eating at their age group, regardless of their plant based a hundred percent of
the time or not, you should have a set idea. And that's the first point, right? So you
kind of know where you're trying to strive to. And then, you know, if for example, your
kid doesn't like to eat, I don't know, tofu, right? They can still get those sources of
(09:16):
good protein from beans. Right. So they may just eat a certain food all the time for a
certain season. And that's okay. For example, my youngest, she has surface that she just
hates and her brother will love. And at first I would get annoyed like, oh, why? But then
if I change, I prepare it or help have her help me make it or put it in a smoothie. You
know, I've made bean smoothies. Oh yeah. I made black bean smoothie and she, you know,
(09:40):
she doesn't have an idea. Right. So getting creative is a good way to get to those goals.
But first, knowing the ideal amount for the age group that you're dealing with it's the
team because teens need certain more amounts of iron. So they get the menstruating woman
or girl, I should say, then a younger kid does. Right. So kind of knowing where you
need to get to is the first step. And then working with the foods they like, and then
trying to, as a family shop together and get excited about cooking together. And that gets
(10:05):
more buy into. Yeah. And I'm glad you said that too, about working with what they like,
because you know, a lot of times we'll feel the need to give them all this variety of
stuff. But if you, you know, you have a picky kid and they, they're like, Nope, I'm not
eating that. But if you find that one thing they like, just give it to them. Especially
if you, you know, that it's packed with nutrition. And then the smoothies, we definitely do the
(10:28):
secret smoothies in my house. Yeah. My youngest too, something about those youngest kids.
He's a picky little eater, but he loves the smoothie. And so we just toss a bit of everything
in that smoothie and he'll slurp it up. And make it work. Make it work. If you're frustrated
with your weight, taking more medications than you like to have been told that you are
(10:52):
at risk for the development of a chronic preventable disease, or just are not filling in the best
of health, then I'm talking to you. Why? Because you're tired of fat dieting. You know, it's
time for a change and you want a sustainable plan to improve your health. If you have found
yourself at this place in life, well, I have developed a program that's just for you. It's
(11:15):
called the essence of health. And it's your prescription for transformation. My goal with
this program is to give you the tools needed to create sustainable lifestyle changes within
a group coaching setting, along with one to one individualized coaching to give you a
personalized path to help that's just for you. The benefits are priceless. So join today.
(11:40):
Head on over to eohcoaching.com to learn more. The essence of health is in you.
Another thing when it comes to picky eaters and even, you know, incorporating some of
those tips, I'm sure, you know, within your book, that's the great thing about it because
they can see children doing these things. And that's helpful too, for those picky eaters
(12:01):
to see what other kids are doing. And then even something I did, I know when my kids
were little is incorporating them. So like when we make the smoothies, I let them, you
know, put some of the fruits and stuff in the blender and then I throw my little secret
stuff in there, you know, that I know they need. So what other tips do you usually share
for those picky eaters?
(12:22):
Yeah. So, you know, I mentioned going to the grocery store and having them shop with you,
but specifically when I'm in the store, I'll tell my son and my daughter, I'll say, you
know, I'm going to be like, what new fruit do you want to try today and what new vegetable?
And then he'll walk around the aisle and find something and same with my daughter, Shae
and then we'll say, okay, let's go home and try to make a salad. The other day I made
(12:42):
what I call the eat the rainbow salad, right? And it was technically was off with except
for one thing, but it was an unconventional blend if you were to think about it, but it
worked well. It was cucumber, banana slices, grapes, strawberries, little mandarin oranges.
And then I threw in some microgreens. That was the veggie in there. A little bit of lime
juice and then some date syrup and mixed it up. And they really enjoyed that, you know,
(13:07):
that's definitely a different combination.
Yeah, but it works so well, you know, it's a fruit salad sands, the microgreens, the
cucumbers are fruit, right? But it worked well. And that's something I think if I had
just said, eat these microgreens, they would have been like, I don't know. Right. That
way, you know, and then sometimes for me, honestly, Dr. Sheila, it's sometimes you have
to give it a little bit like, okay, right. But other times I might say, okay, just it's
(13:29):
compromising some shifts. I know they're kids, but you sometimes you got to compromise for
your own sanity. Oh, yeah. Eat two of these. We'll use the microgreens to these microgreens.
Just try to. Okay. All right. You know, it's nice even getting creative with the presentation.
So I will buy little heart shaped and kind of star shaped cookie cutters and like cut
out shapes and some of the veggies and some of the fruits to get my daughters, many of
(13:53):
my daughters, my son, he's like teens, 100% plants. Yay. Ra Ra. Right. But my daughter,
she's she's she keeps things exciting for me. So I get creative, you know, with her. Yeah.
Yeah. Yeah, for sure. With my my same with my picky eater, he gets some of these kicks
will he only want like noodles. And so what I love now, you know, we can get a lot of
(14:14):
the bean based noodles. And so we'll buy the chickpea ones or the lentil ones. And, you
know, he's getting that fiber and that protein and all of those nutrients. But for him, he's
like, Yep, I get to have my bowl of noodles. So we're both happy. Yeah, yeah. And the thing
else I thought of, again, it's with my youngest, if I gave her corn on the cob, she's I don't
(14:35):
want to eat corn. But if I get Trader Joe's has this frozen roasted corn, she would just
eat that all up. Right. Like, so it's funny sometimes how just changing again, the presentation.
That was another example I thought of. Yeah, yeah, for sure. And then you know, summertime
coming up for those folks that are listening. Popsicles are another thing that we've done
and you can put some good stuff you can still juice a lot of those fruits and vegetable
(14:59):
blends together and put it in a Popsicle mole. And that's also a good way for kids to Yeah,
yeah, we've been having fun. So we've done that a lot. And then I just I'm not sure,
actually, if you've seen this trend on social media, making your own vegan, like, you know,
Magnum bars, the Magnum, the ice cream, covered with chocolate. So when I was vegetarian, I
(15:23):
used to love those, right? I think we came out with the vegan one, I think, but I'm not
sure. But anyway, this is a trend making your own vegan one. So we've been making our own
and it's just so much healthier. You can put in bananas, a little bit less saturated fat
with a reduced fat coconut milk. And then the outer coating is just 72% dark chocolate
chips. You know, the kids are loving that. So again, kind of making finding finding an
(15:43):
alternative to seeing the store making it healthier. Yeah, even you know, nice cream
what a lot of people frozen bananas. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. And I even I don't know,
have you seen the ninja cream any? Oh, yeah, I have. Oh, yeah, you do. You've got a whole
nice cream. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. Parents, you got to get that take a look at
(16:07):
that nice cream recipe there. But yeah, but with the ninja cream, any that's something
you know, my kids like to do that too at our house and you can put a lot of those good
ingredients in it and then blend it down and it makes it real smooth and cream. I was surprised
actually with how well it does of making it just really creamy. I've seen that but I haven't
(16:27):
tried. Okay, ninja cream. Yeah, yeah, for sure. All right. So we're gonna pivot just
a little bit. And because I know this is, you know, a subject that's passionate to the
both of us, but tell us about those cultural or socioeconomic factors that sometimes you
know, you've run into that may influence the adoption of plant based ways of eating amongst
(16:48):
families and then how can people address some of those barriers? Yeah, so science people
are often not so often times you say people will say, Oh, so expensive. And I pause and
I say, process plant based eating is highly processed. So we all know, Dr. Sheila, these
fast food, vegan spots are popping up everywhere. I tell people, everyone's is okay, but eating
(17:11):
that regularly is not really getting you the healthy that we all want to see. Right. So
I tell people ways to kind of address the cost is to try to eat things that are as close
to the actual source as possible. So even the fresh fruits as they are buying in bulk,
shopping in season, right, telling people that it's okay to buy things frozen and even
(17:31):
can look for the low sodium veggies and beans and then rinse them off when you get home.
But I think when you get hung up in the process, foods, the process, cheeses, the process,
vegan meats, buying that all the time, that does add up, that does get expensive. First
thing I want to push back and say, I say to people, but yeah, yeah. Yeah, yeah, I love
those tips. And you know, something else I will add to because a lot of times people
(17:56):
may be in areas where they don't have certain things available to them. But even buying
done in bulk now can even be done affordably online. Yeah, because I purchased some bulk
items myself and I was surprised how much cheaper even it was to get it online versus
going to the store and purchasing it. And so just another tip for the audience out there
(18:16):
is to even look for some of these bulk items like Dr. Margaret talked about even online
if in your grocery store, it seems to be an inflated price, but definitely stick into
those foods that are least processed is going to be the much more affordable way to go,
as you mentioned for sure. And then when it comes also to reducing health disparities,
(18:42):
tell us just a bit about the way plant based diets can even help with that, especially
what we've been seeing, you know, even in our children now who are developing some of
these more what we were trying to think were adult based conditions. So tell us, you know,
how that can even help them. Yes, I'm a really big fan of the initiative put out through
the American College of Lifestyle Medicine, which I know we're both certified in that
(19:05):
the HEAL initiative so health equity achieved through lifestyle medicine. That's actually
what got me. I'm really excited about lifestyle medicine because I see it as a way for families,
patients, kids even to take charge of their health by taking over taking the power back
and being mindful what's on their plate. Right. So if we choose to eat a more plant based
diet, the data is there. A lot of people will say, oh, how do we know if you look up the
(19:28):
evidence that shows that when you eat a plant based diet, even if you want to eat something
more Mediterranean, there's still the benefits of being able to reverse and prevent diabetes,
prevent heart disease, high blood pressure, cholesterol, high cholesterol. These are all
things that are really prevalent in communities of color. Right. So that's why I get so passionate
about it. Honestly, I tie it back to the health care disparities that are still rampant. And
(19:53):
at the rate things are looking, not going away soon until we really get more people
to buy in that they need to not reach for the pills more so but change was on their
plate. So yeah, right. Right. Exactly. Yep. Because people are probably tired of hearing
it if they listen to me, but food is medicine. It really is. We're both practicing physicians
and we're really good at prescribing medicines and we can certainly do that. But you can
(20:16):
also change the way that you eat or get more sleep or move more, go get some sunlight and
heal these conditions that way as well. Yeah. Yeah. All right. And then I think we'll talk
about is resources that you typically recommend for families and getting families really on
board with getting more plants on their plate. Yeah. So the first thing that comes to mind,
(20:40):
especially if I'm talking to families, you know, I'll be honest, black, black, brown
families, there's a lot of resources. So Afro vegan society has so many great resources
they even have. I have it to the to the left of me down there. I don't want to get a frame.
They even have a free handout that they give out the vegan African American vegan starter
(21:01):
guide and it goes over how much of certain nutrients you need to have some great recipes
and I've had patients who aren't even thinking about being plant based who take the pamphlet
it's not even pamphlet it's a 20 page plus little book for my office and wrap that myself.
I had it out. Awesome. Actually, let me let me just get out of frame and show you. Yeah,
go get it. Yeah. But it's great. So okay, I keep going out of frame. Sorry about that.
(21:27):
Yeah, no, no, no, I can see it. Yeah. About 30. I'll put a link for that to our audience
listening. I'll put a link for that too in the show notes because I'm going to go grab
it too. Yeah. So that's great. And then the plant protocol that's owned or run by Lisa
Smith. She is super passionate about getting communities color to take charge of health
through eating healthy and she has a free online academy great resources. And then if
(21:52):
you have families, young kids, there's certain Instagram handle that I like to direct people
to just because in this day and age, a lot of people they'll say I don't have time to
read but they'll go and they'll consume world fast so plant based juniors to dietitians
who focus on plant based eating and kids I haven't was able to meet them recently at
a conference at an expo conference and talk with them and they love the things they share.
(22:15):
Yeah, I agree. They're really, really, really good. So those resources come to mind as far
as like easy consumable content. And there's so many great books too that are out there
for families. There's the book nourish by Brenda Davis, I believe she's a transaction
and then Dr. Peters whose name is Casey right now but it's kind of how many and what you
need and recipes and things like that. And then knowing the nutrient guidelines. So I
(22:41):
think it's interesting guidelines to follow when you're plant based. So right, right.
Yeah, for sure. And then you know, just adding to for communities of color because you know,
we like our food to taste good. And I tell people, just because you're plant based that
doesn't mean you got to go be a rabbit and you know, wilted lettuce, you can have some
good food. So yeah, definitely, you know, get that vegan god that you mentioned and
(23:05):
then PCRM actually a couple of years ago, came out with the cooking with soul. It's
a and I think it was from the black cardiologist who helped them compile the book. And it's
got some really good recipes in it too. And so yeah, I'll share that one too for the audience.
But but yeah, you know, your food doesn't have to be bland, your children like good
food that's flavorful to them as well as you. You can have plants that way. Yes, yes. I
(23:29):
tell people nobody eats, people who eat meat don't eat it raw, they got to season it, they
got to all the things right. So same with plant based eating spices are life. So yeah,
exactly. Exactly. All right, Dr. Margaret, well, thank you so much for being on the show.
Can you before you go just share with the audience how they can connect with you? I
think the best the best place to start that'll lead to everything I do is going to be my
(23:52):
website. The book will be there as well. www dot Margaret margarit towlowy t o w o l a w
i m d so medical doctor MD comm that's my main website will lead you to the books. My
practice if you're in Seattle area, and some other resources as well. So yeah, awesome.
(24:13):
Awesome. All right. Well, thank you so much. Thank you for having me. Thank you for joining
me today on the essence of health t time podcast. Click the subscribe button on your favorite
podcast platform so that you never miss a moment of the essence of health t time podcast.
Check out the show notes to obtain your free tips for healthy living guide to get you started
(24:37):
on your health and wellness path. Follow me on social media at essence of health wellness
clinic on Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube and that doctor.tw at e o h w c on TikTok.
Interested in becoming a member of the essence of health coaching program? Well, head on
(24:57):
over to www.e o h coaching.com. The essence of health is a you
Popular Podcasts
Stuff You Should Know
If you've ever wanted to know about champagne, satanism, the Stonewall Uprising, chaos theory, LSD, El Nino, true crime and Rosa Parks, then look no further. Josh and Chuck have you covered.
My Favorite Murder with Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark
My Favorite Murder is a true crime comedy podcast hosted by Karen Kilgariff and Georgia Hardstark. Each week, Karen and Georgia share compelling true crimes and hometown stories from friends and listeners. Since MFM launched in January of 2016, Karen and Georgia have shared their lifelong interest in true crime and have covered stories of infamous serial killers like the Night Stalker, mysterious cold cases, captivating cults, incredible survivor stories and important events from history like the Tulsa race massacre of 1921. My Favorite Murder is part of the Exactly Right podcast network that provides a platform for bold, creative voices to bring to life provocative, entertaining and relatable stories for audiences everywhere. The Exactly Right roster of podcasts covers a variety of topics including historic true crime, comedic interviews and news, science, pop culture and more. Podcasts on the network include Buried Bones with Kate Winkler Dawson and Paul Holes, That's Messed Up: An SVU Podcast, This Podcast Will Kill You, Bananas and more.
The Joe Rogan Experience
The official podcast of comedian Joe Rogan.