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15-Year Old Attempts To Educate Her P.E. Teacher On Low-Carb Nutrition

At the Ancestral Health Symposium (aka #AHS11) in Los Angeles, California on the campus of UCLA last month, I noticed a stunningly obvious trend about the Paleo/primal/low-carb/ancestral/real food movement that is taking place in the health culture right now. It’s getting younger! People who are flocking to this way of eating are a LOT younger than I ever expected and I love the trend.

While I was sitting in the back of the conference room tweeting away on my iPad, this 17-year old young man who was volunteering at the event came up to me and ask, “Hey, you’re Jimmy Moore, right?” The baby-faced, skinny-as-a-rail kid looked all starstruck at me when he continued: “I’m a big fan of your podcast.” Really? A teeny-bopper likes listening to a man over twice his age talking to really old researchers, authors, doctors and other adults talk about boring stuff like nutrition, science and health? Apparently so.

Okay, that was a bit strange to me because I wasn’t like that at all when I was that age. But maybe in the information age of the Internet, all of that is changing. This wasn’t unprecedented since I had interviewed 17-year old Sarah Czipowski and 12-year old Birke Baehr on my podcast in February about eating real food and nutritionally correct. The message IS getting through and at an age when an even younger generation can be influenced with the correct information instead of what the government or the so-called health “experts” (can you say Dr. Oz anyone?) have to say. This could very well be an encouraging sign of things to come.

The kid offered to help me in my coverage of #AHS11 and I happily obliged his generosity to assist by having him snap a few photos of the speakers so I could continue to post LIVE updates on my Twitter and Facebook pages. It was a neat experience seeing this teenager get so excited about the science of nutrition. And the more I’ve thought about him and Sarah and Birke, it makes me wonder how many more kids are actively following this way of eating that goes against the “healthy whole grain”-based, low-fat, high-carb, eat-in-moderation mumbo jumbo that is fed to us on a daily basis! Apparently that number is beginning to grow by leaps and bounds.

I received an encouraging e-mail just this week from a 15-year old high school sophomore who is a fan of the healthy low-carb lifestyle. She’s seen success eating this way and has armed herself with knowledge by reading my blog, listening to my podcast and reading popular low-carb books. Now she has mustered up the courage to take what she’s learned in an attempt to educate her physical education teacher about the science supporting low-carb when he recently railed against eating fat in a rant about nutrition.

Here’s what she wrote to me:

I am a 15-year old sophomore in high school who’s been on a low-carb diet ever since last year. I looked into it after my dermatologist recommended it to me to control my acne, and also after one of my friends (who is much older than me and has been on low-carb longer than I have) told me about it. I went from 138 pounds to 116 pounds. At my lowest, I was 113 pounds. (I gained back the weight due to some very stressful things this year, but I am beginning to lose it again!)

I just wanted to e-mail you to tell you that I am attending an online school. For P.E., in addition to logging at least 3 hours of exercise each week, we also have an online textbook that we have to read, takes notes from, and take quizzes on. I am currently at a section of the textbook where they’re going into how exercise and diet prevent certain diseases, and they’re preaching about how you should avoid foods high in fat–basically, low-fat, high-carb.

Gosh, getting ‘em started early, huh? Thought you would find that interesting! But don’t worry, I won’t take the textbook’s advice. I’ve actually already recommended Why We Get Fat And What To Do About It by Gary Taubes to my P.E. teacher during one of our live sessions (which is the entire class plus the teacher in a chatroom, with the teacher going over info we need to know), but I’m not sure if he saw that or not.

But yeah, just wanted to mention that! They’re misinformed, but I don’t want to try shoving low-carb down anyone’s throats. I’m not sure if there’s much I can do!

You did PERFECTLY! I don’t know how many 15-year old kids would be willing to counter anything their teacher has to say–SO KUDOS TO YOU! Your experience with livin’ la vida low-carb opened your eyes to what this healthy nutritional plan can and will do and now you are being an incredible ambassador for low-carb to your fellow classmates in a strong and powerful way. Keep educating yourself and sharing what you learn every chance you can. In fact, maybe you should start a blog called “Low-Carbing Teen” (combatting this one for teenaged vegetarianism) or something like that. You’d be surprised how much of a hit that would be!

I look forward to having this young lady on my “Low-Carb Conversations with Jimmy Moore & Friends” podcast sometime in the next few months to let you hear her story in her own words and her experience being a low-carber while still in high school (I wish I had found out about low-carb when I was her age!). That’s just amazing and I’m super-proud of her for being willing to think for herself and make an informed decision about what diet is right for her to follow. I so gotta get the name of that dermatologist who suggested low-carb living to her to put him on my “List of Low-Carb Doctors” blog.

Are you a teenager or do you know a kid under the age of 20 who is following a Paleo/primal/low-carb/ancestral/real food diet of some sort or another? Share your story in the comments section below. I’d be curious to see how widespread this nutritional youth movement is considering how en vogue going vegetarian or vegan tends to be for the younger generation.

September 28th, 2011 | Tags: , , , , , , , , , , , | Category: 1
  • Anonymous

    I’m a paleo (currently lc) teen from germany and it’s incredibly difficult totalk about this stuff and endure the ridiculuous reactions. no one in my class or friends seem to get the concept, because they don’t want to listen! It’s so complex, when I start explaining it they aren’t interested anymore after a few minutes. Eventually I just said I battled all my diseases with it and suddenly everyone says “ok if thats the case, then its of course important that you do it.” but never they would accept it as general facts applying to everybody. They even agree with me in certain things but somehow they are that addicted to food that they can’t understand that its important to apply the theory.

    The reason might be that young people are often more or less healthy, especially here in germany, so they don’t grasp the concept of changing a diet when they feel healthy. In 20-40 years they may develop alzheimers, insulin resistance, cancer or something else but then it’s to late. I also notice that I don’t get any infectious disease any longer but others suffer regularly from it. It is difficult to see them suffer and not being able to reach them, I just don’t have the carisma to explain such complex things to groups, a few minutes after I began someone makes a joke and suddenly it is talked about a completely different topic.

    • Anonymous

      Stay engaged buddy because you are doing great work. Never lose faith in what you know is true. Keep up the fabulous job.

      • Jillm

        Hi Primordial49.  I have been low carb for over a year now and I don’t get infectious diseases any longer.  Previously I frequently had throat and sinus infections.  Last week I had to stop eating for 24 hours (fluids only) to prepare for a medical procedure.  I was amazed that I didin’t suffer any hunger.  Perhaps this is because my blood sugars and insulin are stable now.  Like you, I can’t convince anyone to even look at low carbing, not even my children who are overweight.  My suggestion is to google diabetes amputation and choose the most shocking colour picture.  Print it out and show people what carbs can do.  Stay engaged. Warm wishes from Australia. 

        • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_6ZPXB5DBFDYKX36DEYLTOH6XM4 Space Vegetable

          Shock therapy like that can work. When I was a kid, we went to the Boston Science Museum on a class trip. They had an exhibit on the human body, including a display of three pairs of lungs (real ones). One was healthy, one had emphesema(sp?) and was sickly gray with swiss-cheese holes all over, and the third had one cancerous lung that was a shriveled and gross-looking blob.

          That exhibit, more than anything else, kept me from even thinking about smoking. I had also actually tried it once, when I was about 7. My dad smoked and left a cigarette burning on the ash tray, so I thought I’d be “cool” and picked it up and took a big drag. I thought I was going to die, it was so nasty! So, basically, I was lucky to have two forms of aversion/shock therapy to keep me away from the cigarettes. It could be great if we could do the same for carbs!

    • Weeji

      I hate the “Oh, its good that it worked FOR YOU.” comment. They distance themselves from ever thinking it will work for them by attaching the “It wont work for everybody” stigma to it before even trying it.

    • PHcihocki

      Wow!  I’m impressed–not just by the fact that you aren’t even 20 yet and already know a lot more about nutrition than most people much older than you, but also by your command of the English language.  I bet you have plenty of charisma–your friends and classmates just don’t know it.  Sad for them.  You are also correct in that it is much harder to get the message across to people who are more or less healthy–they just don’t see the need to change their ways.  I am having trouble convincing my daughter (who is much older than you) because she is healthy and has a metabolism that–for now–allows her to continue to eat whatever she wants (in moderation) without  putting on weight or getting sick.  She is not afraid of fat, but unfortunately also is not afraid of starchy carbs.  But you and others like the 15 year old and 17 year old that Jimmy Moore showcased above give us all hope for the future–keep up the good work!

      • Anonymous

        Thanks for your encouraging words, Jimmy, Jillm and Phcihocki.

        PHcihocki, my english skills are a product of having been forced to get
        my information from the english speaking nutrition/paleo/low-carb blogs
        ’cause most of this knowledge is not available here.
        A lot of people are like your daughter. Some people read abstract theories about nutrition, metabolism and health and even if they aren’t sick they know that they can get sick from this way of eating and change accordingly. Most people need bad experiences to change their lives. From this perspective those who get sick early in live from this kind of eating are the lucky ones, since they are more prone to discover the truth.

  • Anonymous

    Hi Jimmy! This is a very inspiring story & I hope that this gal does decide to start a blog. I have been coaching my 16 year old cousin through his transition to a paleo/primal diet. He has very high blood sugar levels, but I am confident that he will reverse this soon. He is doing great so far, however he is a very social teenager, and it does seem to be more of a struggle for him than the adults I know, as many of his friends don’t understand what he is doing. Anyway, I think a teenage focused blog would be a great tool for him and many other teenagers!   

    • Anonymous

      I haven’t seen anything like it…I hope she does too!

  • Siri

    My 12-year-old son isn’t low carb or paleo (he looovvveess his bread and pizza and bagels!), but he has heard me rant enough — probably for about as long as he can remember, since I’ve been LC for most of the last 9 years — against the established dietary advice of low-fat, high-carb that he has gotten into arguments with his teachers at school, telling them that the USDA food pyramid is wrong, telling them saturated fat is actually healthy, bringing them copies of a Scientific American article advocating low carb and supporting the science behind his claims, etc.  He never gets anywhere (who’s going to listen to a know-it-all 12-year-old, anyway — especially when they already *know* the “truth” — even if his claims are well-supported by scientific research?), but he’s not shy about trying to set them straight!  After all, he also looovvveess his butter, cream cheese, and full-fat milk.  LOL.  (And, frankly, I believe he’d be a lot less smart if I had listened to the powers-that-be and had kept those good things from him since the age of 2, like they advise.)

  • http://www.bodybybrand.com Stephen Brand, CPT, SFN, SSF

    Great post, Jimmy. The thought that there are teens that are coming into contact with this information is uplifting. I’ve got a feeling that it’s only going to be about 20 more years and the ideas about nutrition will be completely different. That’s how long it will take the old guard to die off unfortunately. Change is in the air!

    • Anonymous

      It’s coming one person at a time.

  • http://pulse.yahoo.com/_6ZPXB5DBFDYKX36DEYLTOH6XM4 Space Vegetable

    Awesome! I wish I’d known about low-carb when I was a teenager. We ate decently when I was a kid. My mom is diabetic, so we always ate good, home-cooked ‘balanced’ meals with plenty of meat and veggies. We drank mostly diet soda, since Mom couldn’t have sugar, but even that was a rare treat. Dad liked potatoes, so we had a lot of those, though, plus pasta sometimes, but we did eat better than most. No fake food, for the most part. School food, though, was Carb Central, with pizza, spaghetti, tater tots, french fries, and other high-carb delights. I suppose it’s lucky I was active – at least until my arthritis kicked in at 16, otherwise I might have ended up being a lot fatter at an earlier age.

  • http://www.facebook.com/ABDada A.b. Dada

    If there ARE any Generation Y or Generation Z young adults who want to start up a little blog network for paleo or low carb teens, I’ll put my money where my mouth is and help the start up a blog network — I have a web design team and a hosting company and will cover all the costs.

    Drop me a Facebook message if you’re interested folks.

    A.B. Dada ( http://www.facebook.com/abdada )

    • Anonymous

      AWESOME! Thanks A.B.!

  • http://www.facebook.com/krista.leicht Krista Leicht

    It is remarkable how smart kids are these days.  My six-year-old daughter was righteously indignant the other day when I picked her up from school.  They had been learning about the Canada Food Guide in class.  She said:  ”the teachers and the other students just don’t get it, they think meat is bad for you and fruit, sugar, and bread is good”.  ”I’ts too bad there are only 1000 people in the world who really understand what is good food”  ”I keep telling them to eat lots of meat and eggs, and they think I’m wrong”  ”It’s too bad they will die soon”  

    My DD has it all figured out at six….now if only her teachers and classmates would listen!

    • Anonymous

      Wow, that’s one smart kid!

  • Rindycb

    I just had to chime in here with a supportive example. I’m a teacher with a charter school that focuses on “homeschooled” students. I meet with each family (usually just mom and kids, but sometimes dad is there too!) most often in their home. I worked with 2 children from a family a couple of years ago in which the older son (had been my student since 5th grade and was in early high school at this point) coached his dad in the paleo lifestyle that he had adapted. Dad was about 100 pounds over weight (mom is skinny!) and was suffering from knee problems and just freshly diagnosed with diabetes. Dad lost 80 pounds in 6 months and continued to shed the rest of the weight in the next 6  months. Typically, as you know, his blood work all normalized, the diabetes disappeared and his knees were much better without all that weight – and probably no wheat helped! Our kids are often much smarter than we were at that age. I agree that the internet has had a lot to do with getting the information out to anyone who is curious.

    Keep it up, Jimmy and Christine!

    • Anonymous

      So awesome! It encourages me for the future.