How One State Is Rewriting Health Policy From the Ground Up | Senator Patrick McMath

Summary

Realfoodology Podcast Episode Summary

Episode Title: How One State Is Rewriting Health Policy From the Ground Up
Host: Courtney Swan
Guest: Senator Patrick McMath, Chairman of Louisiana’s Senate Health and Welfare Committee
Date: January 22, 2026

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Overview

This episode dives into groundbreaking health policy reforms in Louisiana, led by Senator Patrick McMath—the architect of a landmark “MAHA-inspired” bill. The conversation covers the specifics of the bill (SB14), state and national food policy movements, obstacles from the food industry, the critical lack of nutrition education for healthcare professionals, and the urgent need to revamp children’s access to nutritious food and nutritional knowledge. Senator McMath shares his vision for reshaping the American food system, emphasizing grassroots involvement and policy innovation.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

1. Context: Louisiana’s Food Reform Bill (SB14, “MAHA Bill”)

[05:11], [12:18]

• The bill is a multi-pronged approach: ingredient transparency, bans on certain ingredients in schools, restaurant seed oil notifications, and mandates for nutrition education for physicians.

• Notable Quote:

  "There's actually kind of one bill in—or actually five bills in essentially one bill. There's some transparency in ingredients. There's some prohibition on certain types of foods to be served in schools... and a section requiring restaurants who serve and use seed oils to notify."
  —Sen. McMath [05:11]

• The bill’s architecture was informed by policy efforts from other states, national advocates, and emerging science on ingredients and metabolic health.

• Louisiana’s unique legislative calendar allowed them to learn from other states’ debates and tailor their approach.

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2. Seed Oil Notification Requirement for Restaurants

[05:57], [33:53]

• New rules require restaurants to indicate on menus when foods are cooked with seed oils.

• Notable Quote:

  "We require them to put it on their menu…this is not a new thing…when one of the lobbyists was telling me that this is just an undue burden…I sent him a picture of a menu from Chick Fil A where they do this already."
  —Sen. McMath [33:53]

• This policy was controversial, especially with major seed oil producers headquartered in Louisiana, but was defended as a consumer right to information.

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3. Mandated Nutrition Education for Physicians

[06:56], [14:19], [14:49]

• The bill requires continuing education for doctors on nutrition and metabolic health beginning Jan 1.

• Notable Quotes:

  "I was floored to find out that med students and when they're in residency are not required to take...nutrition training. 96% of med schools don't require a nutritional course."
  —Sen. McMath [14:49]

• Faced pushback from the medical community—some physicians objected to legislative mandates.

• Both host and guest criticize the “sick-care” model, highlighting how chronic disease is addressed with pills, not root-cause prevention via food.

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4. Cultural Disconnect: U.S. vs. Europe

[20:05], [22:34], [23:24]

• The American approach has prized processed/engineered foods, unlike European cultures that focus on scratch cooking and local ingredients.

• Memorable Story:
  Senator McMath references Mark Schatzker’s book, End of Cravings, to illustrate divergence between Italy and the U.S. in the early 20th century—Italy solved nutritional deficiency with diverse natural foods, the U.S. with food additives, leading to current obesity rates.

• Notable Quote:

  "In Italy they dealt with this crisis by importing different cheeses, bringing in different types of wines, encouraging like communal bread baking…and the United States we enriched our flour."
  —Sen. McMath [20:51]

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5. Ingredient Transparency and Bans in Schools

[26:06], [26:14]

• Products with specific (often European-banned) ingredients must have QR codes linking to ingredient warnings.

• Nine ingredients outright banned from school breakfast/lunch programs.

• Memorable Policy Strategy:

  "The goal was to cause chaos...states go forward and put together just a patchwork of laws and rules and regulations that these food companies cannot possibly abide by. So that forces them to the table in D.C. so that they make the changes at the federal level."
  —Sen. McMath [27:21]

• The patchwork aims to leverage states to force federal reform.

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6. Impact on Food Companies and Lobbying Opposition

[10:48], [11:29], [12:18]

• Intense lobbying; many reps couldn’t substantively defend current practices.
• Companies sometimes opted not to testify, anticipating public backlash.
• Notable Moment:
  Playing a Texas legislative hearing for companies who threatened to oppose Louisiana's bill, warning them of harsh public scrutiny.

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7. Grassroots and Parental Involvement

[67:59], [68:15]

• Strong advocacy from “MAHA moms” was crucial for the bill’s survival.
• Teaching kids healthy eating and involving them in food preparation is emphasized as pivotal for generational change.
• Notable Quote:

  "How incredibly important it is to teach your children the importance of healthy eating and nutrition, and it'll stay with them for the rest of their life."
  —Sen. McMath [67:59]

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8. School-Based Healthcare & Nutrition Initiatives

[39:44], [40:07], [43:44]

• Vision for every student to have on-site access to a nurse or doctor, who can address not just illness but nutritional deficiencies—democratizing preventative healthcare starting in schools.

• Push to involve kids in growing and cooking their own food, including innovative hydroponics and local farm partnerships.

• Notable Quote:

  "If a child is involved in the growing of their food...they are, you know, 90% more...likely to want to eat that food and ingest it."
  —Sen. McMath [46:21]

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9. Farm Policy, Federal Subsidies, and Local Food

[56:02], [57:05]

• Louisiana is exploring how to source school food from local farmers, but notes national farm subsidies favor corn, soy, and wheat—main ingredients in ultraprocessed foods—posing a major challenge.
• Federal policy reform, especially the Farm Bill, is needed for broad impact.

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10. SNAP (Food Stamp) Policy Reform

[58:36], [59:19]

• Attempted to block the use of SNAP dollars for sugary drinks and allow purchases of healthier pre-prepared items like rotisserie chicken.
• Some proposals passed by executive order and now more states are requesting similar waivers.

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11. Addressing Myths About the Cost of Healthy Eating

[60:59], [61:00], [62:02]

• Debunks the idea that eating healthfully is inherently more expensive.
• Notable experiment: Host compared costs cooking organic burgers at home to fast food—the home option was cheaper and produced leftovers.

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12. Broader Impacts & National Momentum

[52:04], [52:31]

• Other states and even international firms have reached out for collaboration.
• The bill and its organizing principles are under consideration at the federal level, with the movement gaining bipartisan traction.
• Senator McMath credits advocacy networks and grassroots involvement as major factors in progress.

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13. Alien Question & Societal Reflection

[64:50], [65:32]

• Lighthearted end-of-episode: what would Senator McMath ask extraterrestrials about human health? His answer ties back to the critical moment when the U.S. turned to food modification—"maybe if we had the opportunity to go back in time and change the push to enrich our flour, it would have led us down a more healthier path."
  —Sen. McMath [65:26]

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• On American Food Culture:

  "We just don't have [the food culture] in America...we went this different route where we have pride in our industrial agriculture and our ability to engineer and bioengineer these crazy food products."
  —Courtney Swan [23:24]

• On Ingredient Bans and Chaos as Strategy:

  "If Senate Bill 14 into law in five years is null and void because we have a federal food safety program...then mission accomplished."
  —Sen. McMath [27:21]

• On Parental Responsibility:

  "Every family should really be paying attention to and taking advantage of" the opportunity to teach kids about nutrition and cooking.
  —Sen. McMath [68:15]

• On Polarization in Politics:

  "The most misunderstood issue in American politics is that we have to be pitted against each other. That is a myth, and it's tearing us apart."
  —Sen. McMath [67:17]

• On the Power of Engagement:

  "Decisions are made by those who show up. Yes. So show up."
  —Sen. McMath [70:18]

• On Education Gaps:

  "Is it political malpractice that we don't teach nutrition or metabolic health in schools? Absolutely."
  —Sen. McMath [70:39]

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Timestamps for Key Segments

• Bill Overview & Seed Oils: 05:11–06:56
• Lobbying & Pushback: 10:48–12:18
• Physician Education: 14:19–15:44
• Cultural Approaches to Food: 20:05–24:55
• Ingredient Transparency & Strategy: 26:06–28:28
• Impact on Food Companies: 29:23–31:20
• Cost of Healthy Eating: 60:59–62:52
• Farm Subsidies/Federal Policy: 57:05–58:26
• Schools & Nutrition Education: 39:44–49:49
• Alien Reflection & Political Division: 64:50–67:48

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Conclusion & Action Steps

• The Louisiana “MAHA Bill” is catalyzing real change, both directly through policy and indirectly as a template for a federal overhaul.
• Real progress comes from grassroots pressure, parental engagement, legislative creativity, and relentless advocacy—especially for the next generation.
• Listeners are urged to get involved by engaging their local representatives and supporting transparent, health-driven food policy reform.

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For Further Information & Involvement:

• Contact Senator Patrick McMath: patrickmath.com
• More on the MAHA movement and Realfoodology: realfoodology.com

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Summary by Realfoodology Podcast Summarizer — for listeners, advocates, and anyone seeking to understand how local action is rewriting the rules of American health.

Transcript

[Senator Patrick McMath]

What's causing us to be sick? Well, we're putting things into our body that didn't exist 120 years ago. People are waking up to this new notion that maybe everything that's available to me is not healthy for me.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

What is one thing that you wish every parent knew about food?

[Senator Patrick McMath]

How incredibly important it is to teach your children the importance of healthy eating and nutrition. I'm a true believer in food is medicine. I love to cook, and I've got some kids that enjoy cooking with me. And mentally it's healthy as well, and it's time you get to share with them. And yeah, it's something that every family should really be paying attention to and taking advantage of.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

What do you think is the most misunderstood issue in American politics right now.

[Senator Patrick McMath]

Is that we have to be pitted against each other. That is a myth, and it's tearing us apart.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

I want to know, if you ever got the chance to ask aliens a question about human health, what would you ask them?

[Senator Patrick McMath]

That's a really good question. You spent a lot of time on that one.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

Welcome back to the Real Foodology podcast. On today's episode, I had the pleasure of speaking to Chairman of Louisiana's Senate Health and Welfare committee, Senator Patrick McMahon. He is at the forefront of one of the most important health reforms happening in the country. With Louisiana's new MAHA inspired food bill already signed into law, McMath has taken on big food lobbyists, push for mandated nutrition education for physicians, and work to bring transparency to harmful ingredients and seed.

[Podcast Sponsor/Ad Voice]

Oils in our food supply.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

His vision expands into K through 12 primary care, teaching children what real food is and rebuilding a farming infrastructure rooted in local whole Foods. Today, he joins us to break down the legislation, the national momentum, and why this moment may finally change what Americans eat. This was such an awesome episode. It was so, so cool to sit down with a senator that is really pushing for change in the food industry right now. And I'm so excited to see what happens in the next couple of years. So stay tuned. I hope you love the episode. If you want to take a moment to rate and review the podcast, it really helps to get the show out. And if you are loving this episode, tag me ealthoodology to help get the word out. Thanks so much for listening.

[Podcast Sponsor/Ad Voice]

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[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

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[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

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[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

Senator McMath, thank you so much for coming on the podcast. I'm so excited to have you here.

[Senator Patrick McMath]

Yeah, thank you for having me, Courtney.

[Podcast Sponsor/Ad Voice]

Yeah.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

So you. I just want to dive right into it because you have done some really cool stuff, and I'm really excited to talk to you about this. So you recently authored and championed the MAHA bill. So Senate Bill SB 14, and it aims to overhaul nutrition and food ingredient regulations in Louisiana. Can you tell us about it? And what does this mean for the future of food, especially in schools for Louisiana?

[Senator Patrick McMath]

Again? Well, thank you for having me and providing us the opportunity to share a huge step that Louisiana took just this past session. And it was Senate Bill 14 became known as the Louisiana Maha Bill. It did a few different things. There's actually kind of one bill in or actually five bills in essentially one bill. There was there's some transparency in ingredients. There's some prohibition on certain types of foods to be served in schools. There is a section requiring restaurants who serve and use seed oils to notify.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

Excited about that one?

[Senator Patrick McMath]

To notify that. That one actually came from a very good friend of mine who we were driving, and I was telling him about the bill, and he said, you know, there's this app that rates restaurants based on the use of seed oils. We were talking about seed oils and the effects. Yeah. And I said, well, let's put it in the bill. And we did. And that one actually was very interesting. I found out that a very large company that is located in my district manufacture seed oils, and they weren't very supportive of that portion of the bill, I'm sure. But we, you know, we had a very frank discussion and reminded them that it's not a warning, it's just a simple notification. And this is kind of important because there's a lot of emerging science and data out there that are suggesting that, you know, perhaps putting hexane and a neurotoxin in your body is probably not the best thing to do.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

Yep.

[Senator Patrick McMath]

Yeah. And so. So that was another portion. And there was a continuing education requirement for physicians when it comes to learning more about nutrition and metabolic health. Another area that I did not think was going to get a lot of pushback, but some doctors took exception to the fact that the legislature was trying to tell them what they should and shouldn't know about health, and so had some interesting discussions as to you know, if it, if it's not a big problem, why does Louisiana have. And the country have a massive obesity issue? And, and, and so. Yes, and so I, you know, and it's. It's hard to, it's hard to debate that. But yeah, that's, it's. And what was wonderful about the bill. So give you a little bit of background. In Louisiana, we prioritize Mardi Gras over pretty much everything else. So the rest of the country, they. Their legislatures gavel in usually in January, and they're out, you know, three or four months. In Louisiana, we wait until Mardi Gras is over with.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

Oh, wow.

[Senator Patrick McMath]

Yeah. Which is a unique cultural thing. If you've never experienced Mardi Gras, come on down. It's wonderful. Spend some money in New Orleans. But, but it kind of gives Louisiana a little bit of an advantage when it comes to legislation because we can watch what's happening in other states and sort of learn from the debate and adjust, you know, certain legislation. Because one of the beautiful things about this country is there's 50 different experience experiments going on right now. Like, you know, and so you can kind of compare. You see which states are doing things right, whether it's education, whether it's healthcare, whether it's roads, and which states are doing it wrong. And there's results. And so you. You can mimic the ones that are doing it well. And, and so I was paying attention to the Maha movement that was kind of going on across the country. Had worked with and been in communication with Cali Means of, you know, of good energy.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

Yeah, Good friend of mine. He's great.

[Senator Patrick McMath]

Yeah, he's wonderful. Which was. That was just a cool experience to get on the phone with him and, and chat and come up with a strategy. And there was a number of states, West Virginia, Utah, Nevada, Florida, Texas, had a wonderful bill. It was a little bit more comprehensive.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

It's similar to this, though, right?

[Podcast Sponsor/Ad Voice]

Yeah.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

With the ingredient transparency. And there was a couple of other overlaps that I was going to ask.

[Senator Patrick McMath]

You about, but yeah, they did something somewhat similar to Louisiana, or actually we kind of followed their lead to an extent and so took all the best parts that I liked and threw it into one comprehensive bill. And it was a lot of fun to run the bill because one is absolutely, unequivocally the right thing to do. Yeah. And I really enjoy having the opportunity to debate people that are fighting, you know, an uphill battle when it comes to having the moral high ground. And, and I think the supporters of that, that bill myself and the governor was, was very supportive of the bill. You know, really dared a lot of folks to come to the table and like, like some of the big food companies and some of the big soda companies.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

So I was just going to ask you this. Did you have a lot of lobbyists come in from big food and you know, big soda and all of them? I'm sure you did.

[Senator Patrick McMath]

Absolutely.

[Podcast Sponsor/Ad Voice]

Yeah.

[Senator Patrick McMath]

Had had more meetings on this bill than I've had on the hundreds of bills that I've read in the past before. But I like to meet and discuss issues beforehand and see if there's ways that you can compromise prior to going into a public hearing and setting and having an all out debate. What was really interesting though is after these series of meetings there was kind of a general theme of we really can't come to the table and defend what we've been doing, so just please be nice to us.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

Yeah.

[Senator Patrick McMath]

And they wouldn't even, you know, they might have submitted a red card, but they wouldn't come and testify.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

What does that mean when you submit a red card?

[Senator Patrick McMath]

Does it mean you're against that means you're against all of the bill or a portion of the bill. Okay. I think they did see like in Texas, the American Heart association came out.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

And they got hammered.

[Senator Patrick McMath]

And they got hammered in the.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

Honestly, beautiful.

[Senator Patrick McMath]

It was wonderful. In fact, I actually played the clip of that to a company that was threatening to come to the table. I said you were more than happy to. More than welcome to come and testify and explain to me in the public why you think putting artificial dyes and ingredients is safe. So please do this. But just this is what you should expect.

[Podcast Sponsor/Ad Voice]

Yeah.

[Senator Patrick McMath]

So again, kind of an advantage that Louisiana had that I had in running the bill is a lot of this had been. A lot of it had been kind of litigated and debated and then the end product was really just a wonderful bill. Wonderful experience of the bill signing. Senator Kennedy came in and celebrated with us and in his speech he acknowledged that Louisiana had produced the most comprehensive MAHA bill in the country. And so, yeah, it was great.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

Was Louisiana the first one to sign the bill in or. Cause I know Texas has one out. And was it West Virginia that has a similar one out?

[Senator Patrick McMath]

West Virginia actually, I believe was the first state to pass a. Some sort. They removed their dies. I think that's what it was.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

That was their big one. And then I know that Texas had this one out that we mentioned a minute ago, but I'm not sure if the one in Texas has that been signed through yet.

[Senator Patrick McMath]

I don't know if it made it all the way through the process.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

Okay, and yours has officially made it through, right? It's been signed and is when does it go into effect?

[Senator Patrick McMath]

So that was something that we, that I was able to compromise, felt like I needed to compromise on is kind of give some longer runways to these manufacturers, the schools, the doctors, the restaurants to, you know, adjust to the new regulations and laws. I mean it's a huge ship and it does not turn on a dime.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

I have a lot of questions about that actually, because I think it is. I mean it needs to happen obviously, and I'm a huge champion for this. I also think it's gonna be a huge lift and I'm curious to know what some of this is gonna look like and how long you're gonna give them. So let's say, for example, let's dive into the one with the. So I really love what you're doing as far as with the healthcare aspect of things and requiring doctors to actually have nutrition education. And then you're also for, let's see, for K through 12PR, you're trying to change that as well where they have more school based providers prioritize nutrition.

[Senator Patrick McMath]

So the, the continuing education piece for the physicians, actually that goes into effect. That's, that goes into effect January 1st.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

And does that mean they're going to be required to now take courses?

[Senator Patrick McMath]

Yes. Yeah. And what I really wanted to do with that is actually I tried, I wanted to start in the medical schools because my, you know, I was floored to find out that med students and, and when they're in residency are not required to take it.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

No nutrition training.

[Senator Patrick McMath]

96% of med schools don't require a nutritional course.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

In fact, I tell everyone I know, I say don't go to a doctor for nutrition and diet advice. Obviously, you know, you have a broken bone, you need surgery. I mean they're wonderful at that. But do not go ask them, oh, what should I be eating for my heart?

[Podcast Sponsor/Ad Voice]

Don't do it.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

They're not trained on it.

[Senator Patrick McMath]

No, no. Acute care is where I think physicians shine and should. We've gotten into this and this. We can go down this rabbit hole. But how we got here. But there are. Our healthcare system is really based on sick care. And unfortunately the system profits on people being sick and remaining sick and pharmaceutical companies and all that. Their bottom line is it relies on selling drugs and you sell drugs to sick people.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

This time of year it feels like.

[Podcast Sponsor/Ad Voice]

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[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

Yep. They are taught to match symptoms with pills.

[Senator Patrick McMath]

Exactly.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

Instead of root cause. So that was actually going to be my other question. So my assumption would be that the education is also going to be based on more root cause integrative care.

[Senator Patrick McMath]

Yes. That's my hope. And, and I think that's the future of medicine.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

Yes, it definitely is.

[Senator Patrick McMath]

Is we are talking about treating the symptoms and. But what is what's causing this? And that's what I love about food. The. What's the saying? Food first medicine, food before medicine or.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

I actually haven't heard that thing. Oh, food before pharma.

[Podcast Sponsor/Ad Voice]

I like.

[Senator Patrick McMath]

I've actually never heard that the other day and it resonated and it's. It's what's causing us to be sick. Well, it's probably the fact that we, one of the things has got to be that we're eating. We're putting things into our body that didn't exist 120 years ago.

[Podcast Sponsor/Ad Voice]

Yeah.

[Senator Patrick McMath]

You know, and as we as humans have evolved over hundreds of thousands of years, we're used to certain diets and our bodies are built around that. And then we just started, you know, in ingesting things that aren't natural for us to ingest. And the effects that that has on our metabolic system is, is very clear. There's a, there's actually a really wonderful book that was sort of started my journey into this world which is pretty new. I, I'm. You. You guys have been at it probably for, for much, much longer and so I will admit that I am new to this game.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

It's. I mean it's awesome though. We're so happy to have you here. You're doing amazing things for this movement. So well done.

[Senator Patrick McMath]

Yeah. It's also, it's made me healthier too. So. Yeah, that's been good. But the book is called End of Cravings. I don't know if you've ever.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

It's Mark Schatz, by the way. Yeah, he's amazing.

[Senator Patrick McMath]

So my, my wife a few years back was, was having some health issues and went to a number of different doctors and kind of honed in on the fact that there was A her diet could be improved and, and so went down that, that rabbit hole. And this was one of the first books that I, I read. It compared the United States and Italy in the 19 early 1900s. And both those countries were dealing with a, a dietary based disease, essentially almost like a, like a version of scurvy.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

Yeah.

[Senator Patrick McMath]

And it was like in north northern Italy, in the United States, it was in the southeast. This is sharecropper day. So people were just eating like biscuits and you know, lard and weren't getting vital nutrients that they should. And they were, it was a, it was a major epidemic in both countries. And in the, in, in, in Italy they dealt with this crisis by importing different cheeses, bringing in different types of wines, encouraging like communal bread baking. And the curve, it slowly solved it. But it took, you know, 15, 20 years. Right. In the United States we enriched our flower immediately solved the problem. It went from like 3 million people that suffered from this to 15,000 in a year. But that's where our paths as two countries diverge. And at the time the United States and Italy had a similar obesity rate, like 8% or something like that. And now the United states is nearly 50% obese, 70 some odd percent are overweight Americans. And Italy is still kind of hovering on those same numbers they were in the 1900s. And the author sort of identified where we diverged. And it definitely kicked off this acceptance in government that it's okay to modify foods and we'll just use science to dig out of our issues. And it has absolutely had the reverse effect. And we're here today because 70% of our diet, I believe is most average American diet is comprised of ultra processed foods. And that's, that's an issue.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

So yeah, it's the ultra processed food issue which is really a problem. And, and it's not to say that they don't eat them in Europe, but you know, for example in Italy, I just, I always use Italy as an amazing example because they still to this day as a, their whole culture is based around, around food and their community around food and making things from scratch. They take a lot of pride in. And we just don't have that here in America. You know, like my mom and I actually had a conversation about this recently. Cause my mom lived in Italy for a couple years and she brought a lot of those practices back home with her when she was raising me. She was making everything from scratch when I was a kid. And I asked her, I said, where did you get that from? Because I grew up During. I called the Dunkaroos era, because we were all eating Dunkaroos and Pop Tarts and all my friends were eating that stuff. Right?

[Senator Patrick McMath]

Yeah. Cinnamon toast crunch to start the day.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

Exactly. But my mom. I would go home, and my mom is literally baking bread from scratch. She was making pasta from scratch. I would sit on the counter with her and catch the pasta that she would, like, crank out of the machine. And she said that she got all this from Italy because when she went to Italy and she lived there for a couple years, she was in awe of just how much their culture has. It's like this pride in creating their own food and making it from scratch and growing in a healthy way, and we just don't have it in America. We went this different route where we have pride in our industrial agriculture and our ability to engineer and bioengineer these crazy food products. I always bring up this example, too. I used to work with a Swedish woman, and every time a commercial would come on for, like, Pizza Hut or something where it's like double stuffed crust, you know, it's just like. Like, they make, like, SNL skits about it now where they're like. And pile a hamburger on top, you know, and the Swedes would literally look at me and they would go, I cannot believe that this is legally allowed here. They said our government would not allow this kind of food in Sweden. And it's similar. It's like that a lot in a lot of Europe where they just don't. They see food in such a different way.

[Senator Patrick McMath]

Yeah. And. And there's this desire as Americans to be like, well, that's freedom. Right? And we're. And we, you know, we've. We. We can. We can pile on. And we're. We're so. You know, we're so wealthy and successful that our food is bigger, our plates are bigger, and everything's bigger. And as we. I was. As we say this from Austin, Texas. You know, everything's bigger in Texas, But. But it's a problem. It's a problem. And it's.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

It's.

[Senator Patrick McMath]

I don't think it's something that we should really be taking pride in. And I think the country is really post. Covid. You know, Covid had an effect on. On everyone when it came to. I think people finally started taking health into their own hands and asking questions of their doctors. And there was some trust issues that were born out of that that I think is a. Is actually evolving into a good thing. And so for the first time, we're. We Are. We're. We're reading ingredients. And when you turn a box over and it's. It's four paragraphs of things that you can't even, you know, you have to.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

Google half of what they are. You're like, what is sodium triphosphate, calcium? Like, what is that?

[Senator Patrick McMath]

Yeah. Which is great. And I think Americans are finally waking up to that and not. And not being so prideful and wanting to mimic the European model of, you know, if it's bread, it's. It's really. It's flour, yeast, sugar and water or salt. And that's great. So.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

So speaking of ingredients, I want to know, can you remember some specific food ingredients that are being regulated under SB14?

[Senator Patrick McMath]

Oh, gosh. So.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

Or even just like a broader.

[Senator Patrick McMath]

Yeah. Two sections of that bill dealt with ingredients. Listen. One was the requirement to have a. Basically what we ended up doing is we put a QR code if your ingredient contained. If your product contained a certain ingredient that we pulled from. Actually, we pulled them from European lists. And then also some of the lists that Texas had compiled, I can't think of, nor can I really pronounce a lot of those ingredients.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

Well, yeah, that's fair. Chemicals.

[Senator Patrick McMath]

One of 52. You. You. It's going to require a QR code to scan. And. And then that will take you to the FDA's website that some. They actually have some. Some warning labels for those ingredients.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

Awesome.

[Senator Patrick McMath]

And then. And then the school. The school breakfast lunch portion was. Was, I think, nine different ingredients that were like, just the really, really bad ones.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

Yeah.

[Senator Patrick McMath]

But what's great, and this is important to highlight that bill, it was a part of a much broader push across the country engineered by Callie Means and Secretary Kennedy and President Trump. And the goal was to cause chaos. Go. Causes much go. States go forward and put together just a patchwork of laws and rules and regulations that these food companies cannot possibly abide by. So that forces them to the table in D.C. so that they make the changes at the federal level, which is really what's going on, which is really the goal. I've told people. If Senate Bill 14 into law in five years is null and void because we have a federal food, food safety, comprehensive federal food safety program that's pat. That's passed by Congress and signed by the president that makes all of this uniform, then mission accomplished.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

Yeah.

[Senator Patrick McMath]

You know, and so another thing that was. That's a very unique way to run legislation, is most of the time we are trying to kind of conform with and fall in line with what other states are being consistent with what other states are doing. This was really unique because it was like, just, just do whatever you think's right. And don't worry about what Texas or Nevada or West Virginia or Florida are doing, because we kind of want that. And it's.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

And what's awesome.

[Senator Patrick McMath]

Been great because it's working. I mean, you have, I feel like, you know, once or twice a month, you've got food companies that are saying, hey, we're no longer going to include this, you know, in our, in our ingredients or we're pulling this dye or we're, we're. We're, you know, we're transitioning to. Away from seed oils, you know, to, to, to other, more healthier avocado and olive oil. And, and, yeah.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

Well, it's.

[Senator Patrick McMath]

You're seeing that, and it's great.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

It's so cool. Because what, I mean, the listener probably already gets this, but I really want to lay it out, is that what's going to start happening is companies are going to be forced to have to change nationally because they're not going to want to make. They're not going to want to go, okay, we have to make this special one for Texas and this one, you know, for Louisiana. They're just going to have to take it out altogether. And eventually it's just going to become standard.

[Senator Patrick McMath]

Yeah.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

Which is really cool. And so it's kind of cool to see different states maybe passing, addressing different things, because what's going to happen is the companies are going to go, oh, my God. Now we've addressed that because we can't send this stuff to Texas. And, oh, Louisiana is doing that. And so then it's just going to cause this whole everyone to stop doing what they're doing right now and clean up the food.

[Senator Patrick McMath]

Absolutely. And something else that has emerged from not just the bill that we passed in Louisiana, but, but the discussion that's taking place across the country is people are finally being educated.

[Podcast Sponsor/Ad Voice]

Yes.

[Senator Patrick McMath]

That, hey, these food products that have been on the shelf six years and are still stable, they're not healthy for you and. Oh, really? But they have a pretty picture of a granola on it and they're on the shelf.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

They wouldn't possibly sell it if it wasn't healthy for us. Right.

[Podcast Sponsor/Ad Voice]

Yeah.

[Senator Patrick McMath]

Yeah. And people are waking up, up to this, you know, this, this new notion that, hey, maybe. Maybe everything that's available to me is not healthy for me. So I'm going to look into it. And so you have this. I think you're going to have this consumer push like the, the, the free market and the consumer is going to dictate what these food companies, the products that they serve and the products that they put on the shelf. And so if the, if the American public demands, you know, fries that are served in beef tallow and not in, in canola oil or that's I, the restaurants are going to shift to that. Yeah, so, so it's, we have a role to play as well.

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[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

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[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

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[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

And speaking of the restaurants. So it's not a, it's not a ban or anything, Right? Like, they're not required to get rid of them, they're just required to label if they use seed oils at the restaurants.

[Senator Patrick McMath]

That's right. So we, we require them to put it on their menu and we do this. It's, this is not a new thing. In fact, when one of the lobbyists was telling me that this is just an undue burden and no one's going to ever do this, I sent him a picture of a menu from Chick Fil A where they do this already.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

Oh, they do, they do.

[Senator Patrick McMath]

I didn't, I didn't actually realize that somebody pointed that out to me and I went into a Chick Fil A and took a. Sure enough, it's. Their fries are fried in one type of oil and their chicken is fried in peanut oil or something like that. And, and in Louisiana, we also require restaurants to put on their menu if their shrimp is not from the Gulf of Mexico. I get confused. Is what we're calling it now.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

But no, is it. I actually don't know.

[Senator Patrick McMath]

I think technically, is it officially Gulf America now?

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

Yeah.

[Senator Patrick McMath]

I don't want to get anyways Trump administration. But, but yeah, so, so there's, there's certain, we, there's certain requirements that this is consistent with. And, and man, the, the. I don't want to get in the seed oil conversation, but there's right ways to do it and there's wrong ways to do it. And unfortunately, the majority of, of those types of oils are, you know, are derived from, from, you know, hexane extraction.

[Podcast Sponsor/Ad Voice]

Yes.

[Senator Patrick McMath]

And that we should be thinking of that. Like maybe that's not the best thing to put in our bodies.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

Exactly. Well, and because it's the standard now for every restaurant to use them, we're at a, we're at a place now where, you know, if you look back 50 years ago, Americans were getting, I mean, maybe 1% of their diet were from seed oils. Now their diet is coming, it's 20% is consisting just of seed oils. That's really where the issue is.

[Senator Patrick McMath]

You're right, you're right. It's, it's maybe it's not necessarily the product itself and like you said, 1% of your diet is this. But now seed oils are just about in everything we, we eat.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

And I still think the seed oils are a problem, just to be clear. They're inflammatory. And there's so many things, but there's so many parts of the conversation. I'm so sorry to interrupt you, but there's so many other angles of the conversation that people are not talking about because everyone's debating right now in my nutrition world of oh, are they actually bad for you? Well, the, you know, the health aspects of it aren't that bad. The nutrition of it is not that bad. Well, I would argue that they are about inflammatory, especially if you watch a video of, of how they're made. They're made with hexane. It's like a 12 step process. They're deodorized. It's a whole thing. But you can also argue that Americans are eating too many of them.

[Senator Patrick McMath]

Yeah, no, a thousand percent. It's, you know, when you go into a grocery store and if you were to press, I heard this somewhere, if you were to press, you take a watermelon and you've, you, you press 10 different watermelons individually, you put them in a jar, it's all going to look a little different. The juice, right. When you go into a grocery store and, and all of the seed oils look exactly the same. Like that's not a natural thing. Right?

[Podcast Sponsor/Ad Voice]

It's true.

[Senator Patrick McMath]

We try in our house, in our household to limit what we eat to things that existed a hundred years ago. And I think that's like a good, very simple, you know, rule. And you know, seed oils didn't exist 100 years ago. So in fact, I think they were, I correct me if I'm wrong, I think they were invented for, for engine lubricants.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

Yeah, so, yeah, so they were actually. So they originally come from what's called the rape seed and they were being used a lot in the war as an engine lubricant. And then what happened is they had a surplus of it afterwards. And at the time, if it's just straight rape seed oil, it's actually really high in something called ursuric acid. I mess this up every time. I always forget how to pronounce it.

[Podcast Sponsor/Ad Voice]

Exactly.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

It's not uric acid. It's. It's like uric ac. And so what happened was in Canada. I love this story. I find it so fascinating. So in Canada, they actually. They revised it to take the oil out of there. It made it lower usuric acid, so it was a lower amount. And it's why it's called canola oil. It's Canada low acid oil.

[Senator Patrick McMath]

Okay.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

So they took what was an engine lubricant.

[Senator Patrick McMath]

I just wanted to change the name from rapeseed to canola oil just because it sounded better.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

I mean, that too, honestly.

[Senator Patrick McMath]

Yeah.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

It's not ideal, but. Yeah. And so that's why they called it Canada low acid oil, because they took that. That acidic oil in there because it's.

[Podcast Sponsor/Ad Voice]

Before it's not.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

I mean, it's not even edible at all. So it is. It's still an engine lubricant. They just modified it to be less acidic, essentially, is what it is. So, I mean, that alone, to me, I'm like, again, we have so many things already provided to us by God, nature, whatever you want to call it, whatever you subscribe to. Why are we modifying all these things? Because what we keep finding is that every time we modify something, we make it worse for us. Think about margarine. Doctors are pushing margarine. And, you know, when was that? Like, the 70s, 80s? And then we come to find out.

[Podcast Sponsor/Ad Voice]

That heart attacks went through the roof.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

Because margarine's not good for us. We should just be eating butter. So we need to be eating the real things that we're getting from nature, from God already, because they're already there.

[Podcast Sponsor/Ad Voice]

And provided for us.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

And when we start modifying things is when we get in trouble.

[Senator Patrick McMath]

Amen. Amen. And I dabble in the restaurant business, and I am seeing a trend, too. You know, the restaurants will say beef tallow is too expensive, and we would love to serve everything in beef towel tastes better, but it's. It's too expensive. The price of beef towel is. Is actually started to come down. More people are making it because they're responding to the market's desire to. For people to. To use beef towel over canola oil. So, again, I think there's. There's a light at the end of the tunnel here, and we're. The pendulum is swinging back towards more whole natural foods. I know.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

I'm so excited.

[Senator Patrick McMath]

Yeah, it's great.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

I want to ask you more. I brought this up briefly. I was very interested. So I was reading about all the different things that you've been doing, and One of them, your vision for K2K through 12 primary care.

[Senator Patrick McMath]

Yeah, yeah.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

Can we talk more about that? Because when I was first reading about that, I was like, wait, so are you wanting to put nurses in there? But it sounds like you're wanting to do a more, more comprehensive assessment for kiddos.

[Senator Patrick McMath]

So this wasn't in the MAHA bill. This is something that I've started educating myself on a few months ago. So a little background. I chair the Senate Health and Welfare Committee in Louisiana. And so it's sort of my, I guess duty to, or my lane, my scope as a legislator. And is that a position as the.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

Chair and is that like public health or.

[Senator Patrick McMath]

Okay, yeah. So we're over everything my committee serves, serves has oversight over Department of Health, Department of Child and Family Services and a lot of food safety stuff. So in K through 12, what, what this was, this was brought to me this concept we have. We have a very, very unhealthy population, a very poor population in Louisiana. And a huge problem is the vast majority of people don't have a primary care physician. Yeah. And they use the emergency room as their doctor's office. If they're not feeling well, they go to the er. The problem with that is ER visits are by far and away the most expensive form of healthcare and it drives up costs for the state. And so if we can figure out a way to drive people to, or encourage people to go to their primary care physician, it is an undisputable fact that if you have a primary care physician that you see it just even once a year, your health statistics and quality metrics are substantially better than someone who doesn't have a primary care physician. For women, that's typically their ob, but most men don't, don't have a primary care physician. So there's, there's this model that exists out there to go to the population as opposed to having the population come to you because there's the people. People don't have cars. People don't have. Yeah, they don't have time to get to a, to a doctor, particularly students and children. And so I've been working with a couple of different, different groups that have introduced this concept to me as well as the Secretary of the Louisiana Department of Health who's a big believer in this model to expand access through, for primary care physicians to K through 12 students. So. And you're physically going to the school and it's a nurse and a lot of times it's a follow up by a doctor and it would be my, my Goal to get to a point where every school in Louisiana has, and every student in Louisiana has a nurse or a doctor that they can go to at their school that can prescribe them medication that they're allowed to take home. That's another huge thing. I mean, you can go to a doctor and you can figure out what's wrong with you and be prescribed certain meds and. But you don't have the ability to fill that or to go to the pharmacy. Right. And so, so yeah, that is, that's a. Another little initiative that I think is somewhat of a silver. Could potentially have a silver bullet effect in terms of solving access to care.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

Yeah.

[Senator Patrick McMath]

In, in the state. And so that's awesome. Yeah. Something I'll be pushing as well.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

And I was curious again, would it be from more of a lens, hopefully of maybe preventative root cause care? They're looking more into, you know, nutritional deficiencies, looking at their gut 100%.

[Senator Patrick McMath]

And that again, I think is the direction that primary care is starting to go into. Is more. Is more a more holistic approach to medicine, to healthcare. It has to be. Because what's. What the system that we have now is just simply not working.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

Yeah. So I know. I mean, I feel like every system right now, we could name every system. There's such a. I just, I love so much the work you're doing because there's so many things that need to be fixed and there's a lot of cool things that you are doing right now. Another thing is in the bill. Is there. I was unclear about this. Is there a. Is there something written about nutrition education for schools? Because we know nutrition education is abysmal. I talk about this all the time. I was so frustrated because, you know, I went, I actually went to a really amazing school and you know, I went through K through 12, basically went through all of college. No one ever talked to me about how important food was for my body. And to me now, knowing what I know, I'm like, that is one of the most fundamental things that we need to be teaching kindergarten kids. Just simply making the connection of, hey, what you put in your body is going to affect how you feel, it's going to affect how your cells work, it's going to affect how your energy is. No one ever had a conversation. I had to learn that on my own. Is there any sort of plan to fix that at all in schools too?

[Senator Patrick McMath]

Yes, I think the future of Maha, particularly in Louisiana, deals with farms and with education, educating the population. And so this portion obviously is the education Piece. Twenty years ago we mandated schools to start teaching financial literacy. So teach people how to balance a checkbook, which makes a lot of sense. That provides a everyday skill that people should. People need to, you know, have their finances under control. I wish, by the way, I would have taken that class a little bit more seriously because it's not necessarily the case in our household. But why would we not want to teach our children the benefits of not only eating healthy, but what is healthy?

[Podcast Sponsor/Ad Voice]

Yes.

[Senator Patrick McMath]

And there's some really great programs and there's some studies out there that, that, that prove that if a, if a child is involved in the growing of their food.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

Yeah.

[Senator Patrick McMath]

Like lettuce for example, they are, you know, 90% more, you know, likely to want to eat that food and ingest it. And we're working on some things in back home where we're going to partner with some farms. There's this really cool facility in Harvey, Louisiana which is on the west bank right outside New Orleans. It's very urban setting and they have something called, I always mess this up, the Agra Aqua Culture Center. And it's hydroponic farming. And it's not a very large footprint greenhouse that the fertilizer comes from channel catfish that they have in these tanks. And everything is self sustaining. The water's captured from the rain and it's solar powered. It's pretty cool operation. Self sustaining. It can produce 11,000 heads of lettuce if they were to go vertical a month. If they were to go vertical, they could produce 44,000 heads of lettuce a month.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

Wow.

[Senator Patrick McMath]

And, and I just have this vision of putting these facilities in or next to schools so that kids can go and they can see and they can work it and they can understand the benefits of eating healthy whole foods that you've touched from seed to plate. And I think that's the mindset we need to start having in this country. And by the way, it's, it's, it's a way to, to boost economic activity. I mean, a lot of the lettuce that is served in schools is typically grown in greenhouses in Canada or in Mexico. Yeah. It's harvested and by the time it makes it to the kids plate, it's five weeks, six weeks after it's been harvested. And this by the way, is also the lettuce that most we mostly buy in our supermarkets. And it has no nutritional value anymore.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

And it's probably sprayed with pesticides like glyphosate.

[Senator Patrick McMath]

Exactly.

[Podcast Sponsor/Ad Voice]

Yep.

[Senator Patrick McMath]

And so we can really lean into this healthy whole food Movement. And I think there's an economic advantage as well. But yes, education should be. Nutritional education should be a part of every children's curriculum starting in kindergarten. I mean, we teach it at our house, our kids, God forbid, my kids, kids see me and I'm not perfect with walking around with like a Doritos bag because she'll be like, there's so many chemicals in that, Dad, I can't believe you're eating that now. And it's, I don't do it anymore because I don't want to get caught. Right? Yeah, they've, they've, they've bought into it. And, and I think, I think kids are so impressionable and we should be, we should be teaching them, you know, the right things to do. Like, and you don't think about it, right? You don't think, well, you got to teach your kid how to eat, eat well.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

Yeah.

[Senator Patrick McMath]

In this world and in this country where it's really, really hard, it's hard to eat healthy, to find the healthy things, you almost got to go out and scavenge and kind of work at it and go to the farmer's market on the weekend to build up your supply for the week of what you're going to do. But it is absolutely worth it in the long run. And it's changed our family. And so hopefully that's something that we can do for the rest of the state and the country.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

That's so exciting. Do you think you'd ever do any kind of cooking classes for kiddos and maybe even. I know you mentioned the hydroponics. I do want to say one thing because I didn't know this until very recently. There are some nutrition people speaking out against hydroponics only in the sense, because it doesn't have the soil. And when you take out the soil, you take out the nutrients of the plants and you put in synthetic fertilizers instead. Now, I will say I still think that if you're growing vegetables and that's the way that you can do it, I would rather you do that than not do anything at all. But I do think that there is kind of a importance in keeping the soil in there and having almost like a little backyard garden for the kids.

[Senator Patrick McMath]

I, I, and I actually brought that up when we took a tour of this facility and people that seem to be, you know, smarter than me in this world were explaining how the, the, the, the, the channel catfish and, you know, the, the waste that they produce acts as a more nutrient, maybe not more, but a nutrient dense version of soil itself.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

Oh, for the plants.

[Senator Patrick McMath]

For the plants.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

Oh, that's cool.

[Podcast Sponsor/Ad Voice]

Yeah.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

Maybe there's new ways to do it now.

[Senator Patrick McMath]

Yeah, that. That was. That seemed like some sort of outlier that. That made them a little bit different than. Than your typical hydroponic operation.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

Yeah, that's awesome.

[Senator Patrick McMath]

Yeah.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

I mean, still getting kiddos involved in their food regardless, I think is so. It's so incredibly important. I will never forget. Did you ever watch that show by Jamie Oliver? Do you remember him? He was a British guy and he came to America and he did a series of shows when he went to American schools and he tried to revamp their schools and, you know, the kitchens and how they were cooking and all that.

[Senator Patrick McMath]

Oh, yes, yes, yes, yes, yes.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

And there was one episode where he went into a kindergarten class and he. He was showing the most basic food. Like, he literally had, like, a tomato and a cucumber, and he was like, what is this? And the kids were like. And they didn't know what. They were just very plain vegetables. And that horrified me. And so I just. I really hope that this is something that we do moving forward, because, I mean, I think the. The effect of it and the cascade it can have on our society if we. If we start with kiddos early could make a huge difference.

[Senator Patrick McMath]

Couldn't. Couldn't agree more. More.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

Yeah.

[Senator Patrick McMath]

Than every. More. And that's what we're going to be focused on. Yeah. Back home.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

That is so cool. So we kind of talked about this, but I want to hear a little bit more your thoughts on this. So now I feel like Louisiana. There's a couple states now that have done this. Louisiana, Texas. You guys are kind of setting the model for this moving forward. Have you seen any other states, like, maybe have states reached out to you with any sort of interest? And how do you kind of see this moving forward as far as. As other states, you know, following in your path?

[Senator Patrick McMath]

Yeah. Not only have other states reached out, but I've had some. Some companies from. From France actually want to lend a hand and. And explain what they do differently over there and how they could perhaps get a foothold and take advantage of this movement. And in Louisiana and the rest of the country.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

That's awesome.

[Senator Patrick McMath]

There's constant national conferences now. I've been invited up to the White House to take part in a roundtable discussion on all things related to Maha. We've got some really great leadership in D.C. with Secretary Kennedy, who I absolutely think the world of. I know you and I have talked about that.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

Yeah, he's awesome.

[Senator Patrick McMath]

And it's almost like we need to take advantage of the situation now. And there's. There's so much momentum that is that we're trending in the right direction when it comes to our nutrition and our metabolic health and just the awareness that it's creating. And a lot of it has to do with the maha moms out there. And that bill. You know that that bill was a controversial bill early on. I mean, there was a lot of powerful.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

Was it because the pushback. Is that why it was so controversial?

[Senator Patrick McMath]

Yeah. Well, there's a lot of powerful companies out there that been around for a long time and make a lot of money and donate a lot of money and have a ton of influence that were absolutely going to kill that bill, save for the Maha moms coming in and just blowing the doors, you know, you know, off the out of the Capitol and really making a huge appearance and a huge impact and reaching out to all their legislators. And that's happening across the country. There's tons of communication networks are being established to keep this going in every state. And yeah, I mean, we've. In fact, I've got a zoom call with some folks and Mississippi next week to discuss, you know, what they can do over there.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

Awesome. I feel like Mississippi really needs it. A lot of those southern states over there really need it.

[Senator Patrick McMath]

Yeah, yeah. It's really ironic.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

Everyone does.

[Senator Patrick McMath]

But it's ironic that this was passed and most. Secretary Kennedy said the most comprehensive bill, Maha bill in the country was passed in Louisiana because we are not known for our healthy families.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

I know, but you know what, that's why it's so amazing. Because I feel like, like, like I said, everyone needs this in America, but there are some states that are really, really suffering right now. And this is going to have such a huge impact on those people that are really suffering with their health.

[Senator Patrick McMath]

Yeah, No, I agree. I agree.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

It's so cool. You know what? I can't believe I didn't even ask you. There is a plan for changing up the food in schools too, right? Meaning, just meaning like there's.

[Senator Patrick McMath]

Oh.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

So I guess we kind of went over this already. But is there any initiative as far as. Yeah, I think because you, you're. You're very focused on farming too. And I'm trying to remember. Sorry, there's so many different facets of this bill that I'm trying to remember. Meaning cleaning up their food and obviously getting ingredients out, but also trying to prioritize more local, like farm based.

[Senator Patrick McMath]

No, exactly. So, so we're we're working on partnering with, you know, local farmers in that, that deal in whether it's livestock or chicken or pork that are currently, you know, a lot of those foods, they, they're, they're shipped out to, to other countries. And I think there's some opportunities that, that absolutely exist to partner with the schools and the farms to again deliver healthy, whole foods that are grown or harvested, you know, within a 10 mile radius of the school that's, you know, L.A. we talked about southern states. While we're at a disadvantage and we're not known for our healthy foods, we also have a very rich culture in farming. And if we can. This kind of has to start at the federal level though, to some extent. Yeah, you know, 97%, I believe, of the, of the subsidies in the farm bill go towards corn, soy and wheat.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

I know we need to change that.

[Senator Patrick McMath]

Yeah. I mean those are the three primary ingredients in ultra processed foods foods. And think about the impact it would have not just in the foods that we conserve in schools or hospitals or nursing homes, but the foods that make it to our shelves. If the farm bill went to subsidize whole organic rotational crops, we've gotten away from that. And I know I need to be maybe careful with, with what we say here.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

I mean, you don't for me, but maybe for.

[Senator Patrick McMath]

Yeah, no, I mean, food companies for safety, right?

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

Yeah, yeah, exactly.

[Senator Patrick McMath]

In fact, we were running the bill there, There was one point where I started like remote starting my vehicle. Just, just.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

No, I get it. My husband and I have been talking about the same thing. He's like, you talk a lot about, you go up, up against some pretty powerful companies. But anyways, yeah, so I hear you.

[Senator Patrick McMath]

It's the righteous thing to do and it's the right thing to do and. Yeah, but yeah, I, I think, think if we can, the fastest way to get healthy foods in schools is removing, you know, redirecting these, these subsidies towards a more, you know, like I said, organic, healthier food and farming infrastructure system.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

Is there? This might be kind of a naive question, but I've actually never thought about this from a state level. Is there a way that, that states can start redirecting some of those funds or is that really just a federal thing?

[Senator Patrick McMath]

Yeah, no, that's a good question. So one of the things that we actually, the bill as originally filed did was prohibit the sale of sugary drinks to snack recipients. So the modern day food stamp and the thought there being that maybe we shouldn't be subsidizing diabetes, you know, in a can and redirect that towards. There's some goofy rules that were in place that you know, wouldn't allow, say, like a rotisserie chicken or snap recipient to buy a rotisserie chicken. And.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

Which was ridiculous.

[Senator Patrick McMath]

It's ridiculous. And they say, well, you're, you're, you're prohibiting. You're, you know, you're, you're picking on these folks by dictating what they can and can't purchase. Well, we also don't let them buy cigarettes and alcohol.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

Yeah.

[Senator Patrick McMath]

With, with snap. So we do that already.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

Makes sense.

[Senator Patrick McMath]

Yes. Right.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

But not allowing them to buy cooked chicken is.

[Senator Patrick McMath]

Yeah. And so we were going in the bill, it was. We were going to require or request a waiver from the, the ag. The Agriculture Department, U.S. agriculture Department for, To allow. To, to prohibit the sale of, you know, candies and, and drink and sugary drinks, but also allow for the rotisserie chickens to. To be purchased. The governor did not, after we had our first hearing, did not want to wait until the bill was actually passed. And he decided that he could do this by executive order. And so he did that. And it was, I was supportive of it.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

Yeah.

[Senator Patrick McMath]

And so, yes, there were, I believe there's now 10 or 12 states that have requested, probably more than that, have requested waivers to move away from the sale of candies and sodas. And, and, but, but also allow for the common sense, you know, purchases like rotisserie chickens. Yeah, there's another, there's another. And this brings up an interesting point too. There's another debate or it was. That was part of this bill that's, you know, suggested that it's too expensive to eat healthy. And, and the counter to that is. It's actually, that's a, that's a false premise.

[Podcast Sponsor/Ad Voice]

I agree.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

I talk about this a lot.

[Senator Patrick McMath]

Yeah. Okay. You know, a Big Mac at McDonald's is. Now it's like $6 or something like.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

That.

[Senator Patrick McMath]

But 2 pounds of red beans back home in Louisiana is like 2 or 3 bucks. You know, a rotisserie chicken that can feed you multiple meals is, what is it, like seven or eight dollars? It's almost the same price as a value meal. So that's not true that eating healthy is more expensive. In fact, it's the opposite.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

In fact, it has completely become the opposite now, especially when you look at these ultra processed foods. And I talk a lot about nutritional bang for your buck. Exactly. Right. So it's like if you were to buy a box of cereal, cereal's not cheap anymore. Especially if you get, get the, you know, the, the known brands, Cheerios or whatever it is, it's not that cheap anymore. Versus if you were to buy a pack of bacon and a pack of eggs, it's gonna maybe be one or two dollars more, but you're gonna have, you know, five breakfasts out of that.

[Podcast Sponsor/Ad Voice]

Versus a bowl of cereal. Nobody ever eats the serving size.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

First of all. You always go two or three servings over. So you maybe have two or three bowls in that cereal bag and then you're gonna be hungry an hour later. Versus if you eat something like eggs and bacon or get a ground, you know, a pound of ground meat or something like that, it's going to satisfy and keep you full for longer and you're going to have more meals out of it as well. And it's the same with the fast food thing. I did a thing on my podcast where I went to very popular fast food chains and I would buy a value meal and then I would go to a grocery store and I would buy every single ingredient organic to make all of that from home. And it was all organic ingredients, by the way, because we really wanted to see if we could like, you know, really prove a point here. Every single time. It was cheaper to go to the grocery store and make four burgers and then you had leftovers to make stuff the next day.

[Senator Patrick McMath]

Yeah, it's wild. So it's, it's actually not wild. It's, it's, it's the way that it should be. Yes. And, and again, that's something else that people, we were, when you educated them on it, they're like, oh, you could see the light bulb go off. Oh, okay, well, that does make sense. Right? Maybe I should be eating 80% of my meals or as many as I possibly can. And by, you know, at home, home through cooking.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

And I do understand that there's a convenience aspect there. If people are working multiple jobs, they have kids. I understand. I know it's really tough, but you can, there's workarounds where you can, you know, look up recipes online, do meal preps, do as much as you can on the weekends and freeze it. And there, there's ways around it. And I know it is a little bit more of a hurdle than just simply driving through the drive thru, but if you're really in dire straits and money is, is not abundant, I mean, that's the way to do it.

[Senator Patrick McMath]

Yeah. Set aside the healthy aspect of eating, which will then ultimately lead to a better lifestyle and a healthier lifestyle later on down the road to where you're not constantly sick, but it saves you money.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

Exactly. And it saves your health. Yeah. So I know you're super into aliens and aliens are not really my thing, but I have a fun question for you that kind of.

[Senator Patrick McMath]

I can't believe you actually put this on the list.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

All right, well, my husband last night was like, we need to watch this. There's this documentary that's out Age of Disclosure. Yes. So we haven't watched it yet. So in Disclosure.

[Senator Patrick McMath]

Okay, okay. I can't believe we're talking about aliens.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

All right, well, this isn't a fully alien question. Although if there's anything you want to say about aliens, I'm here for it. I'm so open for all this, but I thought this was kind of a fun question to. To blend both of our worlds. So if non human intelligence has been monitoring Earth for millennia, they've watched us go from virtually zero chronic disease and Hunter gather to 60% of our kids are now pre diabetic or obese in a single century. I want to know if you ever got the chance to ask them a question about human health, what would you ask them?

[Senator Patrick McMath]

That's a really good question. You spent a lot of time on that one.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

Yeah, we were brainstorming last night over that.

[Senator Patrick McMath]

Well, some people, and I don't necessarily know if I fall into this category, would suggest that technology that exists this can and is documented, can alter space and time. And so maybe if we had the opportunity to go back in time and change the push to enrich our flower.

[Podcast Sponsor/Ad Voice]

Yeah.

[Senator Patrick McMath]

It would have led us down a more healthier path. And perhaps alien technology could do that. How about.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

That's pretty cool. I like that.

[Senator Patrick McMath]

Okay.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

I always make a joke that Earth is such a mess right now. I feel like aliens just drive by and they lock their windows. They're like, oh, God, we don't want to go there. They're.

[Senator Patrick McMath]

They're a mess. Yeah, Rogan talks about it all the time. He's like, we are, we are. You know, we're. We're primates with nuclear weapons. Like, it's literally, though, pretty scary.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

It is pretty scary.

[Senator Patrick McMath]

And I wonder what they think about that.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

If I knew more about aliens, I could probe you more. To be honest, I don't even know what to do. Watch the document. Okay.

[Senator Patrick McMath]

Watch the documentary.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

We were going to try to yesterday. We just ran out of time.

[Senator Patrick McMath]

I think Dan Farah is the producer of it and age of it's pretty. It's. It's crazy because you have the top officials in the country, including the Secretary of State, who's also the National Security Advisor, Marco Rubio, saying some. Some pretty fascinating things.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

I mean, it's definitely really fascinating. And I always. I love to look under rocks and places where I feel like we're being. Being. We're being pushed to not look into things like that always tells me, oh, there's a thread there that we need to look down. And so I'm definitely very intrigued by it. I just. I've spent so much time nerding out of our nutrition. I haven't spent a lot of time on aliens, but I definitely think that they're. They're hiding things from us for sure.

[Senator Patrick McMath]

Definitely hidden from us in our food. So why would they not hide it from us? And.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

Exactly. It's kind of a copy and paste scenario where I'm like, I know they're doing it here, so why would they not be doing it here?

[Senator Patrick McMath]

Exactly.

[Podcast Sponsor/Ad Voice]

Right.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

Yeah. So I need to. We need to watch that. And then maybe after I watch the documentary, we'll reach out and be like, okay, I'm gonna have you back on for Alias.

[Senator Patrick McMath]

I would love to. I would love to talk to you about a glance. And thank you, Courtney, for working in the alien question. Yeah, that was good.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

I was like, we gotta. We gotta slide at least one of those in there. What do you think is the most misunderstood issue in American politics right now?

[Senator Patrick McMath]

Oh, wow, that's a great question. The most misunderstood issue in American politics is that we're. We have to be pitted against each other. Other. You know, that's. That is a. That is a myth. The system wasn't designed this way, and it's tearing us apart. And we should really reassess how we view one another and our individual, you know, opinions and stances and. And quite honestly, I think if we really did that, we would be much more respectful to each other.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

I agree. I always say your fellow. Your fellow human is not your enemy.

[Senator Patrick McMath]

That's right.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

And we have to remember that. Yeah. I love that. What is one thing that you wish every parent knew about food?

[Senator Patrick McMath]

One thing that I wish that every parent knew about food would be how incredibly important it is to teach your children the importance of healthy eating and nutrition, and it'll stay with them for the rest of their life. And they can pass that down to their generation as well.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

Yeah. There have been studies that show that what you introduce to your kids in the first, like, six, seven years of their life essentially creates a blueprint for the rest of their life. And it's not to say that, you know, if you quote, unquote, messed up when they were kids, that you can't change that around. That's not what I'm saying. It just really stresses the importance of if you can be present with your kids and really teach them these valuable lessons early on, that it really will have an impact on their overall health for life.

[Senator Patrick McMath]

I'm a true believer. I totally agree. I'm a true believer in food is medicine, and I love to cook. And I've got some kids that enjoy cooking with me and partaking in that and cracking the egg or, you know, or stirring the bowl. And it's not only healthy eating, it's mental mentally, it's healthy as well. And it's time you get to share with them. And yeah, it's something that every family should really be paying attention to and taking advantage of.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

If someone is really passionate about what's going on right now with the Maha movement and politics and really wanting to change the food landscape, what are some things that they could do to get involved?

[Senator Patrick McMath]

Great question. Get engaged. Most people don't typically take the time to engage in their, you know, with their elected official, whether it's. It's at the federal level or down near city council counsel. So get to know those people. And I think people will be really surprised at the vast majority of the folks that I serve with are very open and willing and want to help. And that's why we're in the position that we're in. That's why I ran for office, because I just want to help people. And when you engage with your elected official, you're going to very quickly learn that you have a lot louder voice than you probably think you do. And so it's an. It gives you an opportunity to fight for the things that you believe in, like healthy foods and. Or public safety. And so just be engaged. Decisions are made by those who show up. Yes. So show up.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

Love that. Well, I was joking with you before we recorded that. It's so funny that I got thrown into politics because I could have cared less about it when I was younger, and now I'm so passionate about it just because I see how much of a difference we really, truly can make. When we show up, we start paying attention.

[Senator Patrick McMath]

Amen.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

Yeah.

[Senator Patrick McMath]

Amen.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

Is it political malpractice that we don't teach nutrition or metabolic health in schools?

[Senator Patrick McMath]

Absolutely. We teach, you know, we allow for times for recess, which, by the way, is very important. We teach art, we teach math. All those things are Wonderful. And they're gonna serve a purpose. But every day we eat food, we're surrounded by it. It's what keeps us going. It's what gives us the energy. We should be professionals and experts in food and nutrition. And that absolutely has to start early on in kindergarten.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

Yes.

[Podcast Sponsor/Ad Voice]

I love it.

[Senator Patrick McMath]

Thank you for the opportunity to come here and speak with you and send this message and help you deliver the message. I'm not in the position I'm in without the input from folks like yourself, so keep up the fight because it encourages us in elected office to actually do something about it and ask.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

Yeah. Thank you. Well, I wanted to say thank you, too, for what you're doing. I know it's not easy, especially when you have, you know, these large corporations that have a lot of vested interest breathing down your throat. And we're definitely all. I mean, we're in a battle right now, and I. I know you're kind of on the front lines of that right now, trying to protect us from all of the corporate interests. And I'm so grateful for that and so grateful for all the work that you're doing.

[Senator Patrick McMath]

Yeah. Well, thank you very much.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

Yeah, thank you so much. Please let everyone know where they can find you. Maybe join your cause any way they can get involved.

[Senator Patrick McMath]

Yeah. So I'm not the best politician. I don't. I don't even really keep my Facebook anymore because that's just a whole nightmare. But you can. You can find me at. Or reach out to [e-mail] that's P-E-R-C-K M C M A T H.com or just, you know, look. Look up the Louisiana legislative website and. And you'll find me there, too. So awesome.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

Thank you so much for your time. Appreciate it.

[Senator Patrick McMath]

Thank you again.

[Podcast Sponsor/Ad Voice]

Thank you so much for listening to the Real Foodology podcast. This is a Word Wellness Loud production produced by Drake Peterson. Theme song is by Georgie.

[Courtney (Podcast Host)]

You can watch the full video version.

[Podcast Sponsor/Ad Voice]

Of this podcast inside the Spotify app or on YouTube. As always, you can leave us a voicemail by clicking the link in our bio. And if you like this episode, please rate and review on your podcast app. For more shows by my team, go to wellnessloud.com. see you next time. The content of this show is for educational and informational purposes only. It is not a substitute for individual medical and mental health advice and doesn't constitute a provider patient relationship. I am a nutritionist, but I am not your nutritionist. As always, talk to your doctor or your health team. First.

[Dr. Tina Moore]

Are you ready to rock middle age? I'm Dr. Tina Moore, Gen X truth teller and holistic physician. On the Dr. Tina show, one of Apple Podcasts Top Alternative Health shows, I share what actually works for metabolic health, hormones and strength. Backed by decades of clinical research results, not trends. From loving the gym and hitting your protein goals to peptides and microdosing GLP1s, it's all done the right way, not the hype way, because menopause doesn't have to suck if you're fit. New episodes every Thursday, produced by Drake Peterson and Wellness Loud.