Dr Jackie Busse - Healthy children make healthy adults

Are you aware adult health is influenced by what we eat as adults AND as children?

Whilst it might seem difficult to believe the food we eat early in life can influence the diseases we develop and how long we live, most of us do understand that childhood nutrition is at least a little bit important. And that foods like cow’s milk, soft drinks and sugar-laden processed foods might not be the best things we can feed our children.

So if you are a parent, a grandparent, a budding parent, or even a child, you’d do very well to listen to American pediatrician, Dr Jackie Busse on this episode of the New Normal Project podcast.

Jackie is a board certified pediatrician with expertise in plant-based nutrition for kids and families. She grew up in Madison, Wisconsin, received her undergraduate and medical degrees from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, before training in pediatrics at Rush University in Chicago. Shortly after moving to California in 2011, she was introduced to "The China Study" and it changed her life and practice. She has been living and teaching a whole-food, plant-based lifestyle ever since.   As a founding member of the pediatric working group of the Plantrician Project Jackie was the lead author and editor of the Pediatric Quick Start Guide, published in 2018, and spoke at the International Plant Based Nutrition Healthcare Conference in 2019.  As an expert lecturer for the T. Colin Campbell Center for Nutritional Studies, she recently rebuilt the pediatric and family lecture modules for the Plant-Based Nutrition Certificate program offered through eCornell.

In addition to her full-time general pediatrics practice in Santa Cruz, CA, Jackie teaches an ongoing whole-food, plant-based nutrition series for adults as well as the nutrition component of a lifestyle medicine series for kids. She is a member of the American College of Lifestyle Medicine and a fellow of the American Academy of Pediatrics. Most importantly, Jackie is a mother to two thriving plant-eaters, now 3 and 5 years old. She is passionate about sharing her knowledge, insights and personal experience with the plant-based lifestyle.

Jackie has read widely on plant-based nutrition and is a world-renowned pediatric expert on the topic. In this conversation she speaks about:

• Growing up with a dairy farming grand-father
• Jackie’s own transition to a plant-based diet after her husband read “The China Study”
• Her progression to advising a plant-based diet in her pediatric medical practice
• A couple of excellent patient examples
• The importance of understanding that healthy kids make healthy adults
• How primary disease prevention can begin in childhood and even in pregnancy
• How 80% of adult chronic diseases come about from lifestyle factors
• That almost all 10 year old children eating a standard American diet have fatty streaks in their heart’s arteries
• The knowledge that our chances of cancer as an adult are affected by our childhood lifestyle
• Some wise thoughts about how we should think about genetics
• Childhood development of taste preferences
• Bringing up her own children as plant-based
• The differences between plant-based and animal-based diets on childhood health and disease
• The dangers of cow’s milk and other dairy-containing products
• How long women should consider breast-feeding for
• Which plant-based milk best approximates breast milk
• The difference between juices and smoothies
• Some practical recommendations for dealing with parties, sleep-overs and peer pressure
• Advice for those wanting a gluten-free plant-based lifestyle
• What breakfast, lunch and dinner looks like for an average day of her family
• Which supplements you might consider for your children

Jackie knows what she is talking