Join us for a compelling discussion with Nora LaTorre, who leads Eat Real's mission to revolutionize school food systems through technology and data-driven approaches. As a pioneering force in sustainable food systems, Nora brings extensive experience from agtech (Ganaz), global trade (Fair Trade USA), and retail sustainability (Target Corporation) to address one of healthcare's most pressing challenges: the impact of ultra-processed foods on children's health outcomes.
Under her leadership, Eat Real has achieved significant policy wins, including the 2024 California school food dye bill, while implementing scalable solutions that are reaching over 500,000 students in 10 states and are on track to reach 1M students by the end of the year. The organization's innovative approach combines digital tracking systems, sustainability metrics, and health outcome data to transform school nutrition programs.
In this episode, we explore how emerging technologies and data analytics are reshaping school food systems, measuring health impacts, and scaling sustainable solutions across districts. Nora shares insights on using technology to tackle rising health concerns, from early puberty to declining fertility rates, and discusses how digital transformation in food systems directly impacts population health outcomes.
Key Topics:
Nora LaTorre, CEO, Eat Real
Megan Antonelli, Chief Executive Officer, HealthIMPACT Live
Welcome 0:01 Welcome to Digital Health talks. Each week we meet with healthcare leaders making an immeasurable difference in equity, access and quality. Hear about what tech is worth investing in and what isn't. As we focus on the innovations that deliver. Join Megan Antonelli, Janae sharp and Shahid Shah for a weekly no BS, deep dive on what's really making an impact in healthcare.
Megan Antonelli 0:29 Hi, Welcome to Health Impact, digital health talks. This is Megan Antonelli, the CEO of health impact, live, and we are excited to talk to Nora Latour today, the CEO of eat real Nora, is pioneering data driven approaches to revolutionize school nutrition programs and improve health outcomes for the next generation. Got a chance to meet Nora and hear her speak about a year ago, and there's just been so much excitement and movement in this space that I'm delighted to have her on the show. Hi, Nora. How are you today? Great. Thank you so much for having me and for having this important conversation take place. Yeah, you know, I mean, I think when it must have been either a health impact or another conference a couple, you know, a couple years ago, really just coming out of the pandemic where I heard the phrase food is medicine, and it just spoke to me so much. And then I started kind of looking into it, and found, you know, the work that you're doing, you know, with eat, real and and the schools, and I just, I love what you're doing, and so I want to make sure all of our listeners are aware of the program and how they might get involved, but tell us a little bit about your background and how You got there.
Nora LaTorre 1:40 So my background is an interesting combination of for profit, nonprofit government, and so I started my career actually at Target Corp after studying movements. So I'm really curious about movements, and how do we come together to do good in our world? And I went and worked in corporate America because I felt like corporate America had the opportunity and big business could move and make do good the fastest. And so I learned so much, and I helped pioneer some sustainability there. And really loved having my beginning. I am Minnesotan, so also starting at Target corporate Minnesota was was a nice launch, and I worked and helped build the fair trade movement, kind of taking that from niche to mass. And that was all about activating major brands and retailers to respond to demand for conscious consumerism and creating better for you, better for the planet products. And so that was a lot of fun to scale that movement. And I live in the Bay Area, so you can't live in the Bay Area without working in tech for a little while, so I started my own app. I had a very cool app, and I learned a ton about agility and speed to market, and it was really fun to be in that space. And I also worked in ag tech, really bridging the world my background in Food and Tech, and got my got my boots dirty on a lot of farms throughout our country, and learned a lot about our US food system. And about that time, I was pregnant, and some one of the board members of eat real saw me in action, very, very pregnant, I think was like eight and a half months pregnant, stirring up and building community in Ag, and trying to, you know, change the status quo. And they told me about Eat Real, and I really I fell in love with it because it was started by the top doctors. And while I had worked in food, I don't think I realized how sick our kids were. And when I became a new mom, I had to be a quick study on nutrition. I had to I learned that our kids are on track to see 693 fewer sunsets than we will in medical terms, that's two years less of life expectancy than than we have. And when I learned that, as an as a pregnant as a pregnant mom, I thought, What world am I bringing my daughter into? I want her to have a longer, healthier, happy life than me. I have to do something about it. And it turns out that food is the best way to expand human lifespan, the planet's health, etc. And so when I learned what eat real was up to, I was like, Give me the keys. Like, let's go. This is such an important thing. And if there was anything that was going to take me away from my family, and I wanted it to be the cause of my lifetime, and I felt like, Eat Real was really like, works with the best doctors, works with the best thought leaders, data driven, and was on to something big. And so I came in as a co founder, and five, five years ago, almost six we decided to just go all in on kids health and working with schools and changing our food system. And we've had this tremendous growth, and it's been truly my dream job, and I love what we're building with our community.
Megan Antonelli 4:37 Well, I do too. I mean, it is such it's such an important place. And you know, we're all about impact here, so finding that place where you can make the most impact. And I think you know what kids eat, and you know, using and leveraging the school programs is such a brilliant and wonderful way to go about doing that, you know. And in that. Five years, you know, I'm sure, you know, I've seen, even you know, that the beginning discussions of social determinants of health, which was maybe a little bit more than five years ago, where the health system has started to focus on that. But at the time, I think, because of the, you know, certainly from the provider perspective, right? It was like, how are we going to collect that data. How are we going to look at that data, you know, and now the technology is there, you know, where that you know, the systems are in place. A lot of you know, the EHRs are collecting it and things like that, from your perspective, you know, having had a tech background as well, like, what are some of the tech tools that are enabling, you know, eat real and other programs like that to, you know, kind of help with these school systems.
Nora LaTorre 5:47 Yeah, and I'll talk about our kind of, how we're very tech driven, and how, in my co found, like, I'll talk about that in a second. I just want to you, made me think about this, like, data gap that we have today, and how we have with AI and with government systems, and with so many new tech tools, we have the potential to leapfrog, I think, in terms of measuring baseline population health, breaking it down, we're, I mean, between now and five, five years, I think it's going To be a whole health data revolution in terms of what real time and between people, you know, getting their real time personalized feedback from their ora rings and from their levels on their CGMS to government data on population health, etc. And right now, it's all the data is very hidden in sub databases, and it's really hard to extrapolate, but I think we're going to be able to get better real time data on people's health, and I'm so excited about that, and then be able to make informed structural decisions as a government, as as as providers, as nonprofits, etc. So I'm really excited about, you know, what's what it's going to look like in just a couple years. And it's really fun. I was just at the conference doc, and we actually did a workshop thinking about the data evolution, and it's so exciting to me.
Megan Antonelli 7:11 Yeah, no, it's amazing anyway, especially things like the aura ring. And, you know, obviously, we've had our Apple Watches forever, but I have to say, not to do a plug or a commercial for aura, but you know, it really, because it's, you know, on all the time. You know, you you really see things and you know. And just in the recent weeks where we've had this, the surgeon general coming out about, you know, alcohol and and cancer and and health, you know. And whereas, you know, certainly my generation, you know, maybe I logged onto, you know, I leeched onto that the news that, you know, a glass of wine every night was good for you, you know, very, very religiously. I mean, it shaped my adulthood for sure. And, you know, wine is not a health food. And, you know, it took the Surgeon General's news was not new, because the ring could told me that, you know, and
Nora LaTorre 8:03 I drink one glass of red, you know, maybe one glass of red wine or a Mezcal Margarita, and I go for a walk and I drink some water, and I'm fine, but regularly, or if I don't do those things, and I just have that, that celebration cocktail, I see it immediately, like you already had the data in our hands to see that it affected our HRV, our resting heart rate, our overall sleep score, our resiliency. Like, yeah,
Megan Antonelli 8:29 yeah, no, it's so significant. And that data, you know, really it changed, you know, literally changed my behavior, you know, over a few nights,
Nora LaTorre 8:40 it's, a time, you know. And yeah, we're all Oh yeah, no, it's crazy. But yeah, no. So tell me a little bit about the technology that you guys use there and how that supports the program. Yeah. So we do kind of three core things, and I think that might help explain, then, how we designed our tech stack to then support the data. So we really focused on changing and doing advocacy at a national and state level. So that's about policy change and system change structurally, systems change top down. So for example, we helped pass the first sugar standard ever in America's history, first in California, and then nationally. We just passed the first food die bill, and now other states are starting to adopt it. And then we just saw that the FDA may address food dyes. Most recently, California just championed an executive order on ultra processed food. So how do we support that and move that across the line? And so those are just three quick examples within the last year where we leveraged our data from our program and then turn the data from our program to show demand and how much constituents want change into then policy. And so policy is one important part that we work on, and then we also do awareness building. And so that's really about getting data and insights out to people so that they can make informed decisions when you hear. Sure that our kids are going to see 693 fewer sunsets, or then when they're going to see that many fewer and live two years less than we will. You can't unhear that, I think. And so how do we take that CDC data and then put it in a way that resonates, like I'm a sunset chaser, and so like that? I It's like it every time I almost cry when I think about that, because I want to fight for more sunsets for my kids. And so thinking about, how do we use data, then to compel consumer action and individual action? And then the core thing that we do is we go and do grassroots food systems change. So kids today, about 50 to 100% of their calories are in schools. And so if we can, our theory of change is, if we can change those calories and make them nutrient dense, healthy, sustainable, delicious, culturally relevant, and kids eat them, then we'll change their health trajectory. And so we work with schools around the country, and we've gone from 50 to 500 and now this year, what took us five years we're about to reach go from 500 schools to 1000 nationwide, from 10 states to 20 states in one school year. And so what's really powerful is that we put data in the hands of those community leaders in those schools, so that then they can make a food action plan that works for their constraints, for their students, for their school food businesses, which are the largest restaurant chain in America. So if we can give better data to the largest restaurant chain in America and incentivize them to go move those data points towards healthier, more sustainable options. We're going to change our food system and the health trajectory. And so we assess school districts on our 10 standards and about 34 data points, and we give them this really robust report, and then we help them create a food action plan, and then we re measure. So we get a pre and post. It's really powerful. So, for example, one of our schools just removed 34 pounds of sugar per student per year. So, and we can see the before and after. Or they went from five local vendors, so farmers to 11, which is keeping those dollars from the largest restaurant in that farming community in that region which and you can measure that. And so it's really powerful that and but I would say, five years ago, we were in a lot of spreadsheets. It was pretty clunky. We were figuring it out. Figure out ability is one of our big things. Like, we'll figure it out. I think we say we'll figure it out about 20 times a day, maybe more, maybe in just one meeting. But we were in a lot of spreadsheets, and we had the data was very disparate, and now our team has done is that they using machine learning, and they've increased the data efficiency over 60% almost 70% and so we're leveraging things like using the our schools simultaneously have started to leverage more of a tech stack and more tech tools too. So now they have more databases, and we can pull from their databases. We can use things like PDF readers and AI to synthesize the data, to collect the data, to synthesize it. And so our team is always how can we be more efficient? How can we take less of our schools time because they're busy feeding lots of kids? And how do we use our teams, our nonprofits? You know, small resources the best that we can. And so that's been really interesting. And just in terms of the data, and then thinking about the core thing that we do, like, how do we also then think about our own nonprofit tech stack? And so, you know, we were on Slack right away. We just migrated to rippling a PEO. Or instead of, you know, having to run payroll with 20 buttons, we can click one button. And instead of having, you know, to think about changing passwords, we have, you know, a different security system. And so thinking about how to, you know, our our nonprofits tech stack, using things like Slack, rippling, Asana, figma, etc, have been game changing for our fully remote teams efficiency, right? And it's amazing peace of mind,
Megan Antonelli 13:48 like, yeah, no, it's amazing what you know, what some of these technologies and tools have been able to do in terms of that, but certainly with respect to data and data analytics. And I wonder, I mean, you have me thinking about all the all of the levers that could be impacted. Like, are you seeing and do you measure, like, within the schools, obviously there's, you know, health, but like in terms of their own KPIs, like attendance or performance and things like that, are they seeing positive results like that? And do you help, you know, kind of with that, or do they come back?
Nora LaTorre 14:18 We've started more and more data collection beyond just our standard audit. And so looking at things like participation is really powerful. So what's amazing is we've seen that as schools improve their school food, and the parents and students like it and trust it more, they've increased their participation, which is the number of kids saying yes, that wanting school lunch, basically saying yes and going and having school lunch. And as a result, our schools have gone from in many schools, not every school, but the we're working on some case studies right now. So I can't share everything, but they some of our schools were in the red, and schools are tasked with being profit centers. They have to at least break even, because they can't pull from teachers budgets, classroom budgets, etc. And so they went from being slight. In the red to now in the black, to the students, like they were $200,000 in the red one district, and now they're $700,000 in the black. And so they're able to show that they can have a better business model if they invest in high quality real food. It doesn't always have to cost so much more, but they're upskilling their staff. They're getting higher quality ingredients. Sometimes they make it strategic investments. Grow their food budget slightly and but then, you know, make more revenue because they have more participation. So that's something that we look at. And then we're launching some very exciting research partnerships, which we're looking at some like working with some of the best institutions in the world. So this year, we're launching a Medical Advisory Council, and so we're working with those top researchers, and their institutions, whether it's academic, etc, to do research on our program. And so I'm so excited about some of that, because we'll be able to do like mental health surveys with kids and understand how, how did better food at school change their their health, you know, and work and how. And we can already pull some academic test scores and truancy and behavioral issues and nurses office visits like we can already pulled a ton of data. But then how do we work with external institutions and some of the top researchers to show even more the case for this? And so we're looking at everything from behavior change to mental health impact to preferences, etc. So I'm so excited about the research, and there's a major research gap, so I think, like just showing what's possible, and then there's so much more we could do, right, especially with with wearables and everything else, like there's so much important research that needs to happen. And as a mom, I want, I want that information about my kids, and what's my kids in my community, too. So I think parents and more and more are going to be hungry for getting more information about what works for kids.
Megan Antonelli 16:48 Yeah, no, I think, I mean, that's when I had my I always think when my sons are six, six years apart, and when I had my first son, it was kind of like pre, everything being organic. And every, you know, sort of pre this sort of, you know, kind of organic food movement in mass market. But then it happened, and I, you know, and, and then with my second it was very much so. And then sort of in the middle, all of my friends kind of had kids and kind of educating myself and them on all of that. And, yeah, I mean, as you said, you said, you know, when you think about this, the sunsets that we're gonna see like, all of a sudden, it really matters. You know, when it's just you and you're in your 20s and 30s, you don't think about it as much, but when it's about your kids and what you're putting into their bodies, it's so you know, all of a sudden it, you know, the world opens up and you realize. And I think at the same time Michael Pollan's books came out, and I was reading all of that and seeing it, and I had this sort of aha moment where I was away on vacation, and it was like we went and we were at Club met. So it was, it was a very it was like President's week. So it was like, Americans were there the half week, but we had to save money. We had gone, like a half week, and then the other half week, and the Europeans came the second week. Yeah, it was literally like watching, you know, two different species walk in and walk out. And at the same time, I was reading Michael Pollan's book, and it just like it all went, Oh my God. Now it didn't immediately change my behavior, but I removed trans fats and all that stuff. But what and food dies became a big, you know, focus in our house and all of that, and that was,
Nora LaTorre 18:24 we're actually calling it American health collapse, like what you saw and felt and the experience that you had, like when you look at the data we are we do spend the most on healthcare with the worst health outcomes. We life expectancy peaked in 2014 so six years prior to COVID, life expectancy started to go down, with the biggest driver being preventable, ultra processed food related disease. And not only did life expectancy then start to decline, but health span, and then happiness span. So measurements around, how many healthy years do you have? How many happy years do you have? Like, all going down. And so that, that phenomenon we're actually, you know, calling American health collapse because of like, something that's so American is to give your kids a better life, or at least as good of a life as you had. So I think innate, and it's like, very primal to like, fight for fight for your kids. And we're, by so many measures, not able to say that we can do that right now. And so I think there's, it's a rallying cry, and it's causing people across the aisle to come together, and people across business, nonprofit for profit, coming together to scale solutions that work.
Megan Antonelli 19:27 Yeah, well, that's so, you know, I think it is, and it's just, and I think the there was a study this year too, about about that, you know, and just about our, our numbers being so, you know, sort of disappointing, given how much money we spend on the healthcare system, you know, and so we're spending it all at the end, instead of, you know, doing the right thing from the beginning, you know. And certainly well our GDP, it's over $3.5 trillion a year. Yeah, we spend on preventable disease. So. When it comes to that, and so much of it is, and, you know, I have so much appreciation for the policy work that you're doing, because that's, you know, a lot of it happens there, right? I mean, the the food system is not built in such a way that gets healthy food on on plates, whether they're at home or at school or, you know, on the way home from school, if you will. You know, I live in a town where people are very focused on health, and yet there is a McDonald's across from both high schools, you know, I mean, and I just think that's a crime, you know, but with the food dies, and that, that legislation that just passed when it comes to, you know, where the the data and the analytics were to kind of make that like, what how does that become? You know, you sort of studied the movements, right? Like, how did that get to a place where the, you know, the legislators actually did something?
Nora LaTorre 20:56 Yeah, and how do you kind of do culture change, and should the zeitgeist send a man and whatnot. I think you know, individually, people caring matters so much. So I think you coming back from your vacation and talking to your friends about it like that matters. You reading the book and giving it to three friends and having a book club on it that matters. And so I think that that started to happen and around American tables for years. So like, that has and this feeling, this kind of gut feeling that things aren't right, and that our food has a lot to do with it. There are a lot of things, like the technology. Also, people are feeling that has a lot to do, that it does. Like, you know, we have, we you have this kind of it feel, this gut feeling, and individuals started to make change. So I want to acknowledge, like, I really believe that individuals do create ripples, and that it's and now it's creating a swell. And so there have been incredible visionaries who have been ringing the bell saying there are problems here. And that's visionary moms, you know, and that's visionary certain leaders that have taken a stance, and companies that have said, We're die free, and that shown that there are alternatives. And then what was really exciting is like, over the last five years, we've been working with these school districts, and they remove food dye. So it was really pivotal with the first food dye legislation that Jesse Gabriel and that especially Devin Newsome then championed, was that our school districts were able to say to lawmakers, which then helped, was pivotal in passing the legislation. They were able to say we already did this. So our school districts were ahead of the game, and they actually, they call themselves the Eat release. 400 schools in California already took out food dies. And so they were able to say we already did it. Our participation is up. Parents are happier. Students are happier. We're hearing from teachers that the kids are focusing better, that there are fewer behavioral issues, like we have already done it. It's better. It's a better for our school food business. It's better for our students. Our communities are demanding it. This is feasible. There's interest, and it's we already did it, so let's just do it as a state. And so there that, to me, is like an example of, like, how grassroots builds and then individual leaders that are willing to say, I'll champion this, and then working together with a lot of other nonprofits, we worked really closely with environmental working group, for example, and coming together in coalitions, and then getting different experts. So we have, you know, we brought in medical expertise and quotes from the top mental health doctors that said this is really critical for kids health. So we had the data, the grassroots, the top researchers, and then political leaders that all came together and said, Let's move this forward. And so I think that's just an example of how and it can happen quickly, like that's within years we've seen that kind of change. So we our food system. When you think about time like it, we had a real food system, and then it's become an ultra processed food system, only in the last 50 to 70 years. And we can quickly make change. We see schools start to transform their food in less than two years. Like it can happen fast. One school district in Washington state is joining our program this spring, and day before even joining or like we're already working on it, we're making changes. We already made changes so it can happen quickly. And you see it, what's really powerful, I think, too, is like, just something I've been thinking about the power of human regeneration and planetary regeneration, but we regenerate like we in so many ways. Of course, we age and in some in some ways we don't, but we you can. Dr Robert Luk, who is our Chief Science Officer, did a UCSF study that showed, when you just removed added sugar from kids diets and left starch like the one didn't make it that much you know, that much better. But we're just removing sugar. Which kids eat a bathtub of added sugar a year. So it is really important to remove added sugar. Another thing you can't on here 65 pounds of added sugar per year, when they just remove sugar for 10 days, their metabolic health transform. It's really exciting that we can make change quickly, structurally, and it will quickly start to transform health trajectory like we can. Can Heal Americans. We can restore our kids lifespans and health spans. We can get kids back in the classroom and on the field instead of in the doctor's office. And we have to, because our kids are so sick right now,
Megan Antonelli 25:12 right now. It really is, and it's so, I mean, it's, I think, the fact that the data shows you know that you can measure the impact so well and so easily, and that, you know, in essence, helps create the movement, right? And it helps drive it when, when everybody can just see it, that that clearly, you know, even though we might have gone, and you mentioned technology, and I think, you know, when we think about the timeline of that, you know, 2014 where the where our health sort of starts to fall off the cliff, it certainly had to do with where some of these smartphones and kind of ever present, you know, sort of always connected kids has happened to, you know, and it's such a double, you know, it's two sides of the same, of the same kind of health piece of that. But you know, at the end of the day, some of the food, you know, the food choices that they make are impacting their technology behavior. And you know otherwise, you know, and the not going out and, you know, kind of getting, getting the movement and the exercise that they need, and then tying that, of course, to, you know, you talked about the lifespan and and where that comes in. So, you know, it's, there's a lot, but when you can see an impact with small changes, tell me a little bit about, like how, I mean, you said you went from 400 schools to 1000 so that's a big scaling challenge. You know, I love slack and Asana, but it can't, it can't all be put on them. So tell me a little bit. What about how? How do schools get involved? But also, then, how are you, you know, implement, helping implementing these programs in so many different schools.
Nora LaTorre 26:41 Yeah. So our team is, I love what nerds we are, and like how data driven we are. And so all 100,000 about 100,000 97,000 schools, are organized into about 13,000 school districts. So our team is actually use data to analyze those 13,000 school districts, and we've sequenced it down to 200 that we would love to work with based on size, location, variety health risk, planetary health risk, like, community sustainability, demographics, historically underserved populations like, and we basically like, we have a map of kind of dream districts that show that this works. And so we are really strategic about and we meet every single, you know, every week, about where, where, so where we intentionally, strategically want to work. And then also, there's a lot of serendipity too. You can't, you can't, you can't plan for everything. Or, you know, there's not, it's, it's, you have to leave room. We say leave room for magic as one of our values. So we're, like, extremely data driven, and we also leave room for magic. And so we it's a combination of highly strategic and wanting to work. So we're we're working we're launching in Alaska right now, and we're launching in Georgia, Alabama, Louisiana, Oklahoma. So when you look at Ultra processed food related disease, disproportionately impacts the South, and when you look at COVID hotspots, etc. So it was really important that we work there. It was also important that we show that this can work in isolated winter, more isolated winter, you know. And so we have a strategic map, but then it's a combination of that map with looking at district readiness. Where is it feasible? Where can we have some people that are leaders or want to become leaders, and then also being able to, you know, people reach out and they call me, or they, you know, they reach out on LinkedIn, or they email our team. And so I had, for example, down near you, in Southern California, in the ninth largest school district, about 42,000 students. Lynn Choi calls me, and she's a mom, and she was club Nora, I'm driving my kids lunch to school, and I love him so much, and I'll do this every day, but I shouldn't. I don't think I should have to. I don't think any parent should have to, and I think our school lunch should be better. And I What can I do to help? And like, Can I, can I, can I bring eat real to to my school? And I said, Well, here's the email, and we have a template that people can reach out to us for. Here's the email that you can send. First of all, we have an attitude of gratitude, so we encourage her to thank her district for everything that they're doing today, because they work really hard and it's a really hard job, and then present us as a resource, and we raise philanthropic capital, and hopefully we'll have more health system leaders getting involved, and government grants, et cetera. But we offer our program free of cost, so she was able to reach out to our district and thank them, offer support, and then present eat real and say, can I connect to eat real or let me you know, here's the real team, and within 12 hours, her district was signed up, and Capistrano is now one of the most go get districts out there. They have the prettiest organic food map that I've like seen, and that we've helped them work on. And they are incredible champions. And now they want to get the whole region involved, and they're go getters within the state and the nation, like they are unstoppable. And Lin Choi was that spark. And so we want to leave room for those sparks and that magic while we, like Capistrano, wasn't on our immediate map, but it was. So that's where it's like, you know, a little bit of like, you know, in cooking, super strategic measurement, and then also, like, heart. So that's where it's a combination of, or someone heard. In Connecticut, heard one of our doctors and on Huberman and reached out. And so, or like, how can and or in this podcast, hopefully someone will, someone will hear about eat real and they'll reach out. Or I'm at a conference that I'm speaking, or they reach out to me on LinkedIn, and they say, I want to get my school involved. And so we start, we start the process. And even if it's not their school, where in their state would make sense. And how do we we now have this network of not only eat, really, these food service directors across the country who are getting their friends involved, but these community leaders that want to make change and want to see action happen, that are helping expand eat real nationally,
Megan Antonelli 30:32 right? Well, that's great. Well, I'll have to connect you to the beach city's health district here, so we in Hermosa and some of the surrounding schools. It would be great, but, you know, I think, and that's, and that's what I thought, but I wasn't sure, because it's you know, and that's, you know, what a great way. Because, of course, you're targeting the schools that need it most, and maybe have, you know, have that right combination of readiness. But then obviously, if school districts are interested and have someone who's able to kind of champion it internally. They can, they can get it happening in their own, own district around develop new programs, because we don't work in private schools again, like, how do we adapt a rail to have a private school system model, etc? So we're trying to also kind of think about and new tech that can help us reach even more schools so that we can have our deep dive. But then we also have tools that get community started everywhere, right? And then, I mean, I even think about even, like, those sort of the graduate school programs and the things you know to get in from the places of where teachers and school administrators are getting educated to, like, make sure that they're getting that education now, so that we can just start from the beginning with the with the next generation of educators and leaders in the in the system. One thing I saw recently, I think, I don't know whether it was a post of yours or an article, but something that I think about to having teenage, teenage boys, you know, is that we've heard about kind of the fertility issues and puberty issues around around these foods, and so, you know, tell me a little bit about the, you know, the data, the trends that you're seeing, and kind of what, what people can do, and what you guys are doing.
Nora LaTorre 32:10 Yeah, I'll start with a little bit of a children's health overview, and then I'll go into the specific question about, about puberty, because so our children's health stat status is that they are on track to have shorter lifespans and health spans. What the problem is that we're starting to see formerly adult onset diseases that used to happen to people in adulthood are happening to our kids at extreme rates. So, and that's not that's not me being like inflammatory like this. It's when you look at the data. So right now, in America, three fifths of kids will be obese by the time they're 35 so we're not just overweight, obese, and so, and that then is like when a lot of people are thinking about children, etc, other than and then there can be a myriad of challenges that make that more difficult. So, and then we're seeing type two diabetes I mentioned is up 77% but then we have pre diabetes soaring in kids. And then you have things like fatty liver disease, which fatty liver people used to develop fat around their liver and get fatty liver disease from alcoholism, but now kids are getting it from sugary beverages and sugar, ultra bad at Sugar and those are just and chronic kidney disease. And so we're seeing just these issues that used to be at towards the end of life, now happening in the beginning of life, that are then causing major health challenges. And so, and I don't want to say that it's just the food, like, you know, there's also, you know, endocrine disruptors plastics. Like, it's what's not, it's what's being done in the food. It's what's in the food. Doctor, listen, always says it's, it's a combination. It's that kids are drinking plastic water bottles and it's leaching, and then we're using those. Everyone's hearing right now about the everyone's about black spatulas, you know? So, like, it's the plastic, it's the plastic surrounding our food is the lining in those Starbucks cups that kids are addicted to. You know, that's that's a problem. And so just thinking about all this exposure and this load that we're giving our kids that then is causing their bodies to age faster. So we're seeing kids hitting puberty earlier, and that actually means that you're aging faster. If you hit puberty earlier, you've started that aging process earlier. And what the problem with that, especially for girls, is that then a lot of times we're seeing early puberty, irregular periods, and then it puts kids at a higher risk for cancer, for PCOS, for having fertility, for having functioning bodies, so that then when they do choose to have children that they're not able to and then, and I, you know, we're it's happening in our kids, and it's, I think, in my generation of millennials, like we're seeing it in an extreme way, like IVF, soaring fertility issues, soaring sperm count going down. We're already seeing. It. So it's not like it's just the kids, it's just that my what I want people to realize is it's like it's we all, I think we all know people going through major fertility challenges, and it's only intensifying, based on the health stats that we're seeing in children. And so it unless we do a lot more, it's going to get worse, predictably. And so that's where it's very serious and important, and it's literally whether or not a family can continue. It's whether or not it's so expensive, it's so heartbreaking, it's all consuming for people, and it's a real marker of of human health and of our vibrancy. And as I So, I think you know, how do we do everything we can so that our kids can have the families that they want, so that they can they they can thrive in childhood and into adulthood?
Megan Antonelli 35:49 Yeah. I mean, you know what? I think if there, if there isn't a more important data point and indicator of how important this, this is, you know, and to get these ultra processed foods out of our food system, and, you know, sort of certainly out of a place where the kids should be getting healthy food that improves and enriches both their health and their lives. I can't, I can't think of anything more important or impactful.
Nora LaTorre 36:14 So we're hearing one teacher just told me she's like, real food breakfast. Means that in two years I haven't heard one I'm hungry in class, and she's like, and my kids in math are focusing better, like real food at school instead of the process stuff means kids immediately don't have the tummy, don't have the tummy grumbles, don't have aren't jitter, don't have those jitters like that. They're able, they're able to sit still and be present and get that test score. And so what does a What does a real food, breakfast and lunch, look like at one of your schools? Yeah, oh my goodness. Also, I love School Lunch and School Breakfast. I like, I crave it, which is not what I grew up on. It's so delicious. I like, like, I get texts all the time from our food service directors, which are my favorite, and then they add what's on the menu, or they'll just tell me, Hey, look what we're cooking up today. I'm like, can you Uber eat that? Can I please get that for breakfast now? So a lot of it's like, how and protein is real hot right now, and it should be. How do we get kids more protein rich breakfast, rather than the standard American breakfast, when you look at it for a kid, they can get four times the amount of sugar they're supposed to have the entire day, so we're spiking our kids. And so when you look at it, like sugary yogurt and orange juice that has the fiber removed that makes insulin, and the muffin, that's more like bald cake, you know, like, that's like, so Jim Gaffigan says it has a funny joke about that, but, oh, like, cupcakes are just our muffins are just bald cupcakes or something like that. So like, but looking they're eating yogurt, they're what we're traditionally like. You know, continental American Standard, sad breakfast Standard American Diet breakfast is pumping our kids with sugar. So when, if they're getting the Cinnabon or the pop tart or the sugary cereal with food dyes, and then they're getting a juice or a flavored milk. And then they're, you know, they're just, they're starting their day in such a difficult spot. And so, really, we like swap. So how do you swap that yogurt for a Greek yogurt with cut fruit? That's like a yogurt parfait, that's kids love. Let's like, protein, rich, local, delicious, like fresh and cool and or like egg bites or breakfast burrito or hot so like, how do you or, you know? So there are lots of really delicious breakfast items that are more savory and that still are delicious, and kids love and then. So those are just some examples. Other things that are in schools, like I'll just give a couple examples. We just celebrated Fresno Unified, which is the third largest school district in California, 70,000 students. And we had, they got, after years of hard work, they got ero certified green. And I, man, I want that lunch right now. It's they were serving diesel organic Turkey. They had a pasole with organic chicken that the kids voted that wasn't solely unless it had cabbage and lime. So then they added that, and it was so delicious. They had buffalo chicken salad with ranch of my dreams. This like fresh dill ranch that our partners at brigade made, which is the former head chef of Noma, started that, and it was like they had real chefs cooking this amazing food for these kids, and so paired with our program that's so data driven and helped make get nutrient dense delicious and local and sustainable. So that meal was amazing, and I'm leaving things, yeah, I was thinking about Fresno. I have family that live there. And, you know, with all the farms that are there, that it would be such a perfect a lot of it's area. I mean, like, instead of buying it from this manufacturer and having them ship it across, where can you get, like, what your local farmers market? How do we re regionalize them? And in our country, where possible? So it's really exciting. But yeah, so we're starting to do that, reconnect the dots of our entire food system around the country, and then helping them trade recipes and talk about what's working. And can I, yeah, which grass fed beef patty are you using for that? Oh, you have to try my Thai lentil basil burger that they have in San Luis coastal, which is also so good. So, you know, like, Oh, I'm growing my own hydroponic, you know, lettuce and Morgan Hill, like, they're, they're just, there's so many cool examples of amazing food systems innovation that's happening in our schools around the country. It's so exciting,
Megan Antonelli 40:31 well, and that's, I don't know, I think it was a meme about, you know, what's her name I'm going to forget, because I always forget when I'm doing these, but the finance, the woman who always tells everybody how to do their finances, and she's like, don't buy coffee, you know. And you think about how much money we spend on, you know, ultra processed food that isn't, you know, isn't better for us, and that doesn't even really save time, you know. I mean, it's not that hard to make your own cup of coffee. Don't waste money and waste, you know, your health on, you know, kind of cheap, and what we perceive is easier, but in fact, you know, real food can be easy and and healthful and cheaper, and coffee shop, but you can make your own coffee in three, right, totally. Well, that's, that is amazing. So we always like to talk about five good things. And of course, this has been a lot of good things, you know, based in a in a system that has some bad things going on, but you're doing so much good work. But tell me a little bit about, you know, what you're most excited about in terms of, you know, where things are going and how things have, you know, kind of changed over the last few years.
Nora LaTorre 41:39 Yeah, I think we're in a moment where it's it is really changing. And I think people have never wanted to have their health more in their hands. People have never been. People are aware that something's not right. They have that feeling that you had when you got back from vacation. People are sick of feeling sick like 93% of Americans are cardio, metabolic sick. Most Americans are walking around not feeling great. We're not, you know, and and, you know, and we're learning so much. We have so much knowledge at our fingertips, and now we're also learning so much, you know, through wearables, etc, about ourselves and our own bodies. And so what I'm most excited about is I think our best health as a nation is in front of us. And I personally feel that, I feel like my best health of my life, and I'm gonna be 39 this month, like I think 39 could be my healthiest year yet. And I think that we, you know, we can quickly make change, and while we're at a health low, we can regenerate our health as a nation and ourselves, and we can achieve the best health and restore our kids health spans, happiness spans and life spans. So I think that's most excited about. I really I like personally feel it, because I see my own vitamin C and energy, and I feel so alive, and I believe our country can feel that, and I know our kids deserve it, and I know that our kids don't have it right now. Kids deserve happy, healthy childhoods, and they deserve happy healthy lives. And so I'm most excited about that. The other thing I'm really excited about, number two, is that I believe that we can achieve our best health, and our best health is in front of us by working across the aisle. So I'm most excited that real food and real health for Americans has become a red, white and blue issue. I think that it's not, it doesn't need to be a red versus blue issue, that this can be the American issue and the cause of our lifetime. It's become the cause of my lifetime, and I believe that across the aisle, lawmakers, individuals, communities are coming together, and that food can bring us to the table and be something we unify on and that so that we can give our kids that better life. So I'm hopeful that we can achieve our best health as a nation, and that we can achieve it together.
Megan Antonelli 43:52 That's great. I really I agree that we've seen a lot of improvements and a lot of discussion around this. And I think the you know, to some degree, whether it's the data or the education that has come with that you know lots of you know Netflix documentary that exposes things that you know, makes it sort of a mass understanding of of what kind of the traditional American diet has done so and then, of course, like yours.
Nora LaTorre 44:17 So thank you.
Megan Antonelli 44:18 Yes, but people like you who are doing such great work, you know, across across the country, to really educate and inform and then actually even feed our kids good food. So thank you so much for joining me, Nora, and thank you for the work that you do. Tell our audience, if they want to get in touch, if they want to learn more about the program, what's the best way to do it?
Nora LaTorre 44:40 Yeah, so the best way to do it is to go to www dot eat real.org and get in touch with our team. You can join you can reach out to us. There's a form on our website. You can reach out to us. You can reach out to us on Eat, eat real, certified, on Instagram, on social media. Personally on LinkedIn or La Torre, and so, you know, we'd love to keep the conversation going, have people reach out through our website, through social media, stay involved. Become eat real champions. Join the Eat real movement. Become supporters of eat real and that's everything from becoming donors to becoming advocates to becoming champions of this, of this movement, in the knowledge building that we're doing. So
Megan Antonelli 45:26 yes, and so I know that's how I met Nora and how I reached out was, was on LinkedIn, but also on LinkedIn. No, I love, I love like, I love LinkedIn. I'm like, I mean, we just had someone from a new state reach out yesterday. So good. Yeah. Well, you do great amplification of the work that you do on there. So I encourage everyone to follow her and follow eat real and to reach out and get your schools and communities involved in this, in this great movement. So 2025, absolutely,
Nora LaTorre 45:55 we're goingto launch it nationwide. We need everyone's help. It's an all it's an all hands on deck moment. So we would, we would love it. So thank you so much.
Megan Antonelli 46:05 Thank you. Thank you Nora. And this is Megan Antonelli signing off for health impact digital health talks, and join us for our next session exploring Healthcare's digital frontier with more innovative leaders and change makers like Nora latori,
Thank you 46:20 Thank you for joining us on digital health talks, where we explore the intersection of healthcare and technology with leaders who are transforming patient care. This episode was brought to you by our valued program partners, automation anywhere, revolutionizing healthcare workflows through Intelligent Automation natara, advancing contactless vital science monitoring Ellit Groups delivering strategic healthcare. IT solutions, sell point, securing healthcare, identity management and access governance. Your engagement helps drive the future of healthcare innovation. Subscribe to digital health talks on your preferred podcast platform. Share these insights with your network and follow us on LinkedIn for exclusive content and updates. Ready to connect with healthcare technology leaders in person. Join us at the next health impact event. Visit Health Impact forum.com for dates and registration until next time this is digital health talks, where changemakers come together to fix healthcare. You.