behavior – Sparking Wholeness with Erin Kerry

It’s the day after Halloween, and my dining room table is completely covered with candy. Some of my old favorites are featured: Reese’s pumpkins, peanut M&Ms, Milky Way, and Heath. In our house, my kids get to pick their favorite pieces, no more than ten (I’m flexible because the size varies), and the rest gets donated. Mom and Dad get to save a few as well, because ’tis the season, right?

I know there’s an intuitive eating movement to let kids have all the access and listen to their bodies for stopping cues, and I respect that… but it doesn’t line up with what we know about brain health. Big Food Patriarchy wants your kids (their consumers/users) hooked on candy for a lifetime, so of course they develop their products to hit the bliss point of food, without ever feeling the physiological satiation or urge to stop.

I’m all about teaching my kids to listen to their bodies, but we also have to understand the neurotransmitter hijack that occurs with these engineered food products and the long term impact on developing brains.

It’s not about willpower, discipline, or being able to eat intuitively. It’s about understanding that our brains are wired for survival. And anything that gets our serotonin and dopamine hitting harder and faster pumps up our norepinephrine to make us feel good in the moment – until we don’t anymore, and we need another stronger hit.

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Parents and teachers and anyone who works with children – you’ll want to tune in to this episode! While it seems as if children are experiencing more mental challenges than ever before, there IS a way to get to the root of those challenges.

dr sandy gluckman circle headshot Special guest Dr Sandy Gluckman has made it her mission to get to the root of child behavior. She is not in favor of ‘managing’ the symptoms children have. Instead she removes the symptoms by finding and healing the underlying root causes. She is a learning, behavior and mood specialist, author, educator and international speaker who has consulted with and trained thousands of parents and teachers in different parts of the world. She presents a fundamental and highly effective shift in understanding how to treat and heal learning, behavior and mood challenges, preferably without medication.

She is the author of Parents Take Charge: Healing Learning, Behavior and Mood Challenges Without Medication and Who’s in the Driver’s Seat: Using Spirit to Lead Successfully. She also authored a chapter in Mission Possible and has published extensively in parenting, education and business journals. She is a frequent speaker at healthcare, parenting, education and business conferences.

In our conversation, she discusses neurotransmitters and their role in emotional resilience, the science of interpersonal neurobiology, and what parents and teachers can do to raise confident children. Her solutions are surprising yet encouraging.

For more information on Dr. Gluckman and the services and resources she offers, click here.

Find the link to the episode here or on iTunes. Don’t forget to subscribe to the Sparking Wholeness podcast to stay up to date on all the latest episodes!