00:00 - Chase (Host) The following is an Operation Podcast production.

00:03 - Patrick (Guest) Post-COVID. We're in a world where people are paying close attention to their health and their individual health outcomes and the health of their children, and asking questions, getting into nutrition and public health in schools is SB 14, act 463 is limiting artificial dyes, additives, sweeteners in school meals and even adds ingredient transparency like QR codes.

00:26 - Chase (Host) Seed oil disclosures.

00:27 - Patrick (Guest) I've kind of found myself in a position, as chairman of health and welfare, to respond and to perhaps do something about and support this kind of growing movement, the Maha movement, if you will. The healthy food, healthy living, healthy lifestyle. All right State Senator Patrick McMath here from Louisiana and welcome to Ever Forward Radio.

00:47 - Chase (Host) If you're listening to Ever Forward Radio right now, I know this is true about you.

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02:00 You can actually head to curednutritioncom slash ever forward to get 20% off of both the flow and serenity gummies with any subscription or any purchase curednutritioncom slash ever forward, or at checkout you can throw down code ever forward to get 20% off of my two favorite gummies flow and serenity linked for you as always in the show notes today under episode resources. Welcome everybody back to Everford radio. You're in for a real treat today, because I don't have an author, an influencer, a health wellness scientific advisor, just community leader. That, I feel, embodies the mantra of living a life ever forward. But I do have somebody. Well, you could say community leader for sure my first time ever sitting down with a politician on the show, and so with that, welcome.

02:53 - Patrick (Guest) Yeah, Senator McMath, welcome to the show. Thank you very much. Four letter word politician.

02:59 - Chase (Host) So please give us a quick little you know high and dry intro of you position where you where you herald from these days, yeah, and you know, current kind of just core mission.

03:11 - Patrick (Guest) So one of the hats I wear and I think the one that we're mostly going to discuss today is I'm a. I'm a state senator from Louisiana. I represent the 11th Senate District. It's an area north of New Orleans, covington, mandeville. Probably more importantly than that, the the father husband, father of four little kids 11, 9, 7, and 6.

03:30 Been in the Senate for six years now I chair the Senate Health and Welfare Committee. Prior to that, I was a city councilman in the city of Covington and and yeah, just just just public service has been always a passion of mine Post COVID. We're in a world where people are paying close attention to to their health and their individual health outcomes and the health of their children, and asking questions, and so I kind of found myself in a position, as chairman of health and welfare, to respond and to perhaps do something about and support this kind of growing movement, the MAHA movement, if you will, the healthy food, healthy living, healthy lifestyle. And so I have authored some significant legislation this past session Senate Bill 14, and would love to talk about it with you.

04:30 - Chase (Host) Absolutely, we're going to get into SB 14 specifically. But I'm just curious, someone like yourself, were you always prioritizing focused on with your political career? You know health care, health care reform, health care legislature? If not, what got you into it and you know why is it so important?

04:47 - Patrick (Guest) Yeah, so it's actually a funny story. No, the answer is health and education scared the hell out of me. I didn't know anything about them. I was. I ran initially on kind of an infrastructure platform bringing dollars back to the district. We were in an area that has grown pretty rapidly post-Katrina, you know, 20 years ago, and a lot of it was, you know, I was focused on solving traffic problems Important problem, that's right. That's right, by the way, la is hard.

05:22 - Chase (Host) You could definitely put that in the mental health bucket. So you were already kind of in the health care reform. You just didn't realize it was through traffic.

05:28 - Patrick (Guest) That's right. That's right and in fact I told so. The way committees and assignments work and chairmanships work is that the Senate president selects which committees you're going to serve on and who's going to chair those committees. And I'm a freshman senator, coming in 35 years old, really don't know what I'm doing at all and you know I tell him which committees I want to serve on.

06:01 Transportation was one, revin Fisk, which controls the dollars for funding those projects, and he said which ones do you not want to serve on? I said do not put me on education and do not put me on health and welfare. I did not. I did because I didn't know anything about Right and and that wasn't really why I was there he put me on health and welfare and he said look, I think you're going to thank me one of these days. You're built for this committee and he was 100% correct. Very quickly it became my favorite committee to serve on. I was not the chairman on my first term but I was on the committee and you know the legislature. It's mostly policy that you're debating, right, and you don't have the opportunity that often to effectuate a meat like have an immediate impact on a constituent or someone in a positive way. Council and you know, was able to help Mrs Smith's, you know trash get picked up. Or you know, miss Betty's, you know her her ditch cleared out.

07:15 - Chase (Host) Things that are appreciated, but we're not talking major health promotion initiatives.

07:20 - Patrick (Guest) But but helpful nonetheless. And you know, you see him in the grocery store later that day and they say thank you so much. Or they say, how come you never called me back? And it was. It was actually very personal issues to people, whether it be, you know, helping someone get a wheelchair right that they, that they couldn't get, or you know, having the ability to make a phone call to a hospital to get somebody in that that that needs, that needs some care, fairly quickly. And I just fell in love with the committee and uh, and ended up, you know, four years later, uh, chairing it and wanting to chair it, and it was. It was, um, kind of what I was angling for and the new senate president, um, uh, you know, put me in this position and I feel like I have this. I'm duty bound to to to make some sort of impact when it comes to individuals health. Like Louisiana we're not, we're not known for our, our healthy lifestyle right Mardi Gras and fried foods, and, and and to go ahead of my bachelor party.

08:40 - Chase (Host) So, yeah, yeah, it wasn't a wellness retreat. That's right, right.

08:43 - Patrick (Guest) That's right, and so it was. It's kind of ironic that we passed what RFK, who came down for the bill signing, said was the most comprehensive Maha bill this past year, and we did it right here in Louisiana, where we're, you know, typically 48th, 49th when it comes to our individual health outcomes.

09:10 - Chase (Host) And.

09:10 - Patrick (Guest) I think it sends a message that you know we're serious about tackling this health crisis that we face right now. You know, nine out of 10 top causes of death are from chronic disease, from lifestyle Ie, preventable, preventable right, and that's. You know, we're the greatest country in the world, the richest country in the world, but we're ranked, you know, in the 30s when it comes to 37th, 37th right, and that's unacceptable, particularly for the amount of money that we spend every year on, you know, on health care, um and so, yeah, I think you're, you've seen this shift in mindset of of post-covid again, you know, people wanting to, they're paying attention more, they're, they're taking accountability and ownership in their individual health and um and and there's a desire to treat the root cause, perhaps for the first time, and not the symptoms. And a lot of that starts with food and that was reflective in what we passed.

10:18 - Chase (Host) I'm curious with someone like yourself, with your personal accord, who did not get into politics, did not get into wellness, health care reform, specifically in this political channel, but it was kind of thrust upon you. I guess the question there is well, does he really care If a politician is put into a position to spearhead or at least contribute to an initiative that was quite literally not his choice? How much can they really care? And I guess, kind of caveat to that is what was. I'm sure you can only speak to your experience, but you know what was thrust upon you as to, hey, these are the initiatives that we that you will will be working on, and what were the kind of general benchmarks? Or hey, these are the things that we need someone like you to work on. And how did you even get traction in that?

11:15 - Patrick (Guest) Yeah, well, I can great question. While I might not have started with an interest in health care six years ago, this is a deeply personal issue for me Because about two years ago my wife was best friend, mother of four. She was having some health issues and could never really figure out what was going on.

11:44 - Chase (Host) When you say health issues. Can you give us a light picture?

11:47 - Patrick (Guest) Yeah, like you know, constantly sick, constantly inflamed, constantly, you know, gut issues, headaches, just always battling something, there's something Okay, and you know, did a host of tests and went to a couple different doctors and finally there was a physician friend of ours, who is a primary care physician, that left a very large healthcare system where she had 3,000 patients and just was sick of pushing paper, essentially, essentially and not helping make people healthy. She went out on her own and opened up a concierge practice where she went down to just 300 patients and her goals and her patients' goals were finally aligned, which isn't— Go figure, right, go figure.

12:45 Her interest is to keep people you know out of the doc, out of her office, right and keep them healthy and so, um, and you're seeing this trend across the country and it's, it's great.

12:55 - Chase (Host) And it's um, that's my old background. Before Right, when I started the show, I was in concierge medicine as a wellness director and working right by with our CMO and I'm pretty sure our cab, our sweet spot, was like 200 patients per doctor and that was the most change I'd ever seen in any kind of healthcare system. Sure, and I hope.

13:14 - Patrick (Guest) I hope that continues. Right, that's a. We got to figure out a way as a state and on the federal level to to, to support that, um, that type of industry. But she, the doctor you know, said, listen, tell me what you're eating. And very quickly she, she started to. You know, we did a lot of research, read a lot of books, um, listened to a lot of podcasts and, kind of like, discovered this, this thing, that you've been living right and that a lot of people, um, you know, health thing this health thing right, this thing paying attention to, like reading ingredients and you know all the way down to you know, you know you're, you're in good company when people start talking about baking their own bread right, it's like a secret handshake um uh within this community and

14:04 and we need t-shirts. Um, and just learned a lot about this and read, uh, the first book that really, where the light bulb went off. It was a book called um, uh, end of cravings, and very interesting it's. It talks about, um, italy and the United States in 1900. And at that time, both of those countries were dealing with a regional type of a disease and the name escapes me a disease, but it's essentially like a diet caused by malnutrition Rickets no, it wasn't rickets, it almost very similar to like scurvy in a way. No, it wasn't rickets, it almost, it almost, very similar to like scurvy. Ok, and, and both of the countries had to deal with this, and I think in Italy it was in northern Italy and in the United States was actually in the southeast, where I'm from this was like the sharecropper days, where people were eating like biscuits and, you know, dried pork and like molasses.

15:05 I'm from southwest Virginia, I know all about, okay, yeah, cuisine. Yeah, right, you got that um and and so you know, in italy they dealt with it by importing different types of cheeses, uh, fruits, um, recommending communal, like bread baking, adding certain yeasts and things, and and it over time they curved the the issue and ultimately, in maybe 10 or 15 years, eradicated it just with that shift in uh, nutrition, yeah right, and diet nutritional recommendations.

15:33 In the united states, we solved it within a year, instantly, by enriching our flour, and it was where our paths as a. At the time it, italy and the United States had very similar obesity rates, very similar chronic disease rates, and now Italy is still consistent with where they were in 1900. In the United States, I mean America we're. You know, over 75% of our population is obese or overweight. 75%, yeah, over 75%.

16:04 Overweight or obese, that's right. It's overweight or obese, that's right. It's unacceptable, it's crazy, it's a it's. It's a crisis, right. And so the thought the author of this book was made the suggestion that this is where our paths diverge. Where, in the united states, we solve this instantly, we solved with science and um, just simply by enriching our flour, and didn't enrich it just in that region, by the way, like across the country.

16:28 - Chase (Host) And when we say enriching, we're talking putting back in basically most if not all of the vitamins, minerals, essential nutritional profile ingredients, items that we strip away because of the processing of that ingredient yeah, correct, right, so you're adding certain things.

16:46 - Patrick (Guest) And that in processing of that, yeah, correct, Right, so you're you're adding certain things like and that's that in and of itself. That in and of itself is not unhealthy, but it in our, in our minds we, as Americans, said okay, well, we can, we'll just modify our foods. Which I kickstarted. This, this desire, this, this accepted it, made it acceptable to, to, to end up where we are today and that's where over 70% of our diet of the average American I feel like you might be a little different is comprised of ultra-processed foods, which, these foods that we're consuming at a very high level, didn't exist 100 years ago.

17:26 - Chase (Host) No.

17:27 - Patrick (Guest) And we've been around for several hundred thousands of years as a species and our body doesn't know how to process a Dorito right? Or some sort of high fructose corn syrup. The tongue tells the brain hey, stomach, get ready for a strawberry. And a strawberry doesn't show up. It short circuits our system, right.

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20:36 If I had to pick only one supplement to take daily for the rest of my life, if I had to scrap everything else, I'm telling you it would be Timelines Mito Pure. I love them. I've been using them for over three years now and I also appreciate the fact that they waited to come to the market with this product with over 10 years of human clinical trial evidence. Flat out, it works and if you want to try it for yourself, you're going to get a free three-day gummy starter kit when you head to timelinecom slash ever forward sample Linked for you in the show notes today under episode resources. Was this the case for your wife? Was she kind of finding through this nutritional dissection? Was she really on a lot more eating a lot more processed foods or just kind of finding through this nutritional dissection? Was she really on a lot more eating a lot more processed foods, or just kind of surprised by some food items that were more processed or had or did not have things that she needed? We?

21:27 - Patrick (Guest) did a lot of shopping in the aisles right and not so much on the outside perimeter.

21:32 - Chase (Host) Yeah.

21:32 - Patrick (Guest) Yeah, and very quickly our pantry transformed into, into what it is today, and it's very limited. You know, processed foods. We do. We eat a lot of, you know, game meat and and paying attention to to what we're drinking and and just what happened with your wife.

21:54 - Chase (Host) What, what, what did she see, what did she feel, what changes happened?

21:57 - Patrick (Guest) and and just what happened with your wife. What, what did she see? What did she feel? What changes happened. Headaches went away, swelling went away, um, probably dropped, you know some, some weight yeah um, she's.

22:06 She's in the best shape she's ever been in her life and, and our kids like we're also starting to pay attention to the fact that, you know, we probably shouldn't be sending our kids to school after having a couple of donuts. You see the effect that that has on them from just when they get back home, they're tired, they didn't have a very productive day, they're cranky, right.

22:30 - Chase (Host) So it was a top-down change in your household, not just for her health, but kind of everybody All the way and we got some really great eaters.

22:37 - Patrick (Guest) You know we start the day with farm raised scrambled eggs and avocados and sourdough toast and they come back and there's you just their ability to, to, to take in. You know, information is dramatically improved. It's kind of crazy, but also it makes so much crazy, but so obvious at the same time.

22:58 - Chase (Host) It's so obvious, and so she was getting these amazing health benefit changes her and the whole family, uh. So this was uh, this was kind of the moment where you go okay, I want to carry this more into what I'm doing downtown, kind of thing that's right.

23:13 - Patrick (Guest) Um, it was right around the time. You know, with that book I started listening to to Casey and Callie Means Good Energy.

23:21 - Chase (Host) I saw the copy Casey's a personal friend on the show three, four times now.

23:27 - Patrick (Guest) Yeah, she's awesome, she's. Her and her brother are are definitely responsible for, whether they know it or not. What's you know, this movement and what movement and what ultimately ended up in Senate Bill 14. And it was around that same time, I think, the Tucker Carlson podcast, where they were on yeah, that was earlier this year.

23:48 - Chase (Host) Yeah, it was in Late last year.

23:50 - Patrick (Guest) It was late? Yeah, it was. I think it was right around. It was during the Late 2024, maybe.

23:55 It was well it was during the presidential campaign. Oh, right around, it was during the late 2024. Maybe it was well it was during the camp, the presidential campaign, because correct me if I'm wrong and friends with them. They, both of them, were sort of advising both rfk and trump uh on, you know, health policy and and so all of this just sort of kind of came together, um, right around the same time that I became chairman of health and welfare and just had this like aha moment and I need to. You know, we're fortunate that we were able to solve this problem. Um, wouldn't it be great if, at the very least, I can help educate the rest?

24:26 - Chase (Host) of you know the louisiana yeah and tell the story that we told and try to fit that into some sort of legislation at that time, when you kind of had this newfound sense of you know purpose and excitement for it, and you're also getting these amazing personal results with your own household wellness reform. What stood out to you that now you have this heightened sense of awareness, you know, like I said, what stood out to you most as being the key? Necessarily, where did your community need help the most? What were the key items that you then kind of began to work on? Let's, you know, stay with Louisiana for right now.

25:02 - Patrick (Guest) That ultimately ended up in the bill. Is that where you're? Is that where you're from? Well, just you know before we get to the bill.

25:07 - Chase (Host) Just you know. You know now that you're aware of these things and what actual change can happen when people just become more informed of what they're eating and then making different choices for their own personal wellness goals, health care goals. What did you then do next, as, like your, was your first kind of flagship initiative or what stood out or what were the main things needed by your community and how did you embark upon them?

25:30 - Patrick (Guest) Yeah, well, obviously just general education and and out what as a legislator, what is in my boundary of influence, and a lot of that has to do with schools, and figured that, if we can, you know who doesn't want to support healthier eating in schools and it's not a new idea, by the way, healthier eating in schools and it's not a new idea, by the way. In fact, first Lady Michelle Obama originally had this initiative, I believe, in President Obama's first term. So you know, again, I'm not taking any credit for this. This thought has been around for a while, I think that movement or her initiative, sort of shifted to exercise and away away from food for whatever reason.

26:22 Yeah, yeah, I think so, yeah, um, but it was kind of a no-brainer. It's like, all right, let's, if we can put healthier foods in schools, we can also teach kids what it means to eat healthy and why it's important, and it's kind of know the education is a silver bullet sort of thought. And then they were, they're going to go home and they're going to tell their parents that you know, hey, this is this is what we had today. And and oh, by the way, we learned a little bit about farming. In fact, some of the vegetables that we had in our plate we grew right and and that's a really cool thing to learn. You know, know to teach people, teach children, um, they get really excited about it. They get super excited about it when they're, when they eat a. You know, when they're eating lettuce that was that's in they pulled, you know, from the recess yard, right, like that's awesome, um, and then it's, and then it just sort of other things kind of kept popping up as I was having conversations with you know, I've discovered something called the Maha moms. These are very engaged.

27:22 Um, post COVID, this is, this is a population. That was not political pre COVID, post COVID. They absolutely are. You know, you, you, you get a lot of conversation from them around healthy eating, exercise. Certainly, vaccines pop into their discussion, but I started discovering these groups of very engaged mothers exist out there and they're coming to me with other ideas for the bill, like we tackled or addressed seed oils and learned about, you know, hey, maybe we need to be educating people on the possible effects of this. And also found out that you know physicians, 90% of med schools don't require a nutrition course. Oh, it's an elective. It's crazy.

28:13 - Chase (Host) That's crazy. Still it's an elective.

28:15 - Patrick (Guest) Yes, that is insane. And what I wanted to do was initially require, you know, those courses to be taught in med schools. Come to find out. The legislature doesn't have that jurisdiction, but we do have some say in continuing education, and so, you know, that was another component of this bill and it just sort of kept kind of building upon itself. A lot of the ideas came from the book Good Energy. Had a conversation with Callie when I dropped the bill, and that was a pretty neat experience too, just given the fact that you know, a lot of the stuff that I was working on was an inspiration from them.

28:58 - Chase (Host) So I'm curious, um it seems like you know what I'm hearing in your story and I'm not a I don't very heavily get involved in in politics, um, but it does seem like, especially when we're looking at public health initiatives, really any major initiative, one that just gets the public's attention and two that actually gets any kind of traction we're in, like, the children's world. Yeah, I'm curious, is that just from the political side of things? Do initiatives focusing on children have more probability of actually happening? Yeah, or and or? Is it that's actually the best place to go? Because, let's be honest, most adults are set in our ways. Yeah, so if we can educate and inform and empower the next generation, is that only ever the best place to start when we're looking at public health reform?

29:56 - Patrick (Guest) Yeah, the answer is all the above. It's easier to convince a fellow legislator. Look, there's 39 state senators in Louisiana, there's 105 House members. No one can do anything by themselves in that building, and on top of that you have the governor, and so you've got to build consensus. And a very an easier way to do that is to involve kids, because everyone wants to protect children, right? No one's going to. I don't think anyone would disagree with that. Right, debate that with you. It's actually very similar as a as a veteran yourself. If you do something that's geared towards veterans, people are like, yes, oh, whatever, let's do it usually, right?

30:49 - Chase (Host) we gotta help?

30:49 - Patrick (Guest) yeah, usually, um, and so, yeah, the answer to your question is it's strategically. You start with wanting to, you know, to protect the kids and make their lifestyles healthier and you, just because it gets, again like who's going to come and debate that?

31:10 - Chase (Host) Yeah, I wouldn't disagree. And also now, as a new dad, it's even more tough. I mean my son's not even in school. It's even more tough. I mean my son's not even in school. You know he won't be for years, but you know it's just even more apparent and more important to me of whatever I'm doing in my household and whatever I care about outside of my household, in my world and the world I'm doing now for a more of a cause, for influencing him yeah, and becoming more aware of what I'm eating and drinking, because you know he's super aware and what I'm bringing into the home and what he's eating and we're already a pretty healthy household.

31:41 But yeah, even for someone like myself, my wife, who it is very top of mind, once you bring children into the fold, it is typically all for them.

31:49 - Patrick (Guest) That's a game changer. Yeah, it's, it's. I've also found that we have. We have some wonderful people that are in the legislature in Louisiana. We really do, and you know, young, old, black, white, democrat, republican, for the most part people are there for the right reasons and that's to, you know, make a positive impact and do right for their district and for the state district and for the state. I have found there's a almost like the younger legislators that have a young family. There's more, there seems to be more urgency in what we're trying, the changes that we're trying to make, because we're not. You know, our kids are. We go home to them and we want them to stay home and to be in Louisiana and have opportunity and have healthy, you know, a healthy environment to grow up in. And we see them every day Like that's, that's the, the. The reason that I ultimately wanted to to to serve is to try to make my state better for them. It sounds cheesy, but that is the God's honest truth.

33:00 - Chase (Host) And you're also a parent. So I feel like you know it's a very intrinsically, you know it's an intrinsic motivator, I think for you as well, which no one would fault you for, for wanting to carry over to public service, I would think you know, speaking of you know we've talked about a little bit, mentioned this, sb 14. And you know, speaking of children, this getting into nutrition and public health in schools is SB 14. Act 463 is limiting artificial dyes, additives, sweeteners and school meals and even adds ingredient transparency like QR codes, seed oil disclosures. What was your biggest motivator? You know, besides, maybe, what we kind of talked about, uh, what was your biggest motivator? This push for SB 14, especially, it's focused on student nutrition.

33:44 - Patrick (Guest) Yeah, um, again I you know personal for us with, with Jane and and kind of her health, uh, my wife and and the journey that we went on to to um, to kind of hit the reset button on how we view food, right the primary motivator, but again the timing of it, and life is very interesting, right Timing is everything. All of this sort of took place around the same time that this Maha, the Make America Healthy Again movement, really really got, you know, mainstream. There were some Senate hearings that took place with Casey and Kelly Means and a bunch of other folks that are in that world. That you know was really unprecedented in that legislators, us senators, were willing to go out on a limb and have a discussion. That Big Food and Big Pharma very powerful groups.

34:46 - Chase (Host) Yeah, I think like half the attendees of that event I saw have been former guests on the show, or like these are people that a lot of the public looks to on social media and books and just media in general. That was unprecedented for me.

35:02 - Patrick (Guest) It was amazing yeah, right, and, and that made it okay to have the discussions. And so and these are, louisiana is not the only state that's done this. In fact, um, you know, funny enough, in Louisiana, we really prioritize Mardi Gras over just about everything else, as you should, yeah, and because of that, our legislative session, we wait until Mardi Gras ends before we start. It's funny, but it's also, you know, I think it says a lot about what our priorities are.

35:39 - Chase (Host) Well, I mean, it's a huge part of New Orleans' history, louisiana's history, and culture.

35:44 - Patrick (Guest) Culture in Louisiana is at the top.

35:48 - Chase (Host) And, I'm sure, a prime driver for the economy.

35:50 - Patrick (Guest) Huge. It's huge. So you know, rightfully, so we should prioritize that. But I say that to say most other states in this country. They kick off their sessions in January and February and so we're usually like two or three months behind everybody else.

36:06 Now there's some good in that and in that you can kind of see what other states are doing and the debates that they're having and the issues that they're bringing up and see what, where the conversations are going right, and that a lot of that was happening with with these maha bills, with um, with these nutrition bills, with healthy eating, getting diet like west virginia had a had a bill that that prohibited dyes and foods, and texas had a kind of an omnibus bill, ut, utah.

36:38 There's tons of states In fact I think there was like 32 states that had some form of kind of, you know, maha type bill, and so, as that was all happening, I'm paying attention to those debates and I'm kind of cherry picking the initiatives that those states are trying to pass and I'm putting it and compiling it in one sort of omnibus bill, and so the motivation was already there. You're kind of capturing this movement that's taking place, that I have a personal story that I can relate to, because of what was happening in our household and it just everything just kind of came together in a way. You know, this was also around the time where Secretary Kennedy was up for confirmation.

37:33 - Chase (Host) So there's just tons of this, a lot of awareness for this general health wellness push. I'm curious, you know you all kind of it sounds like you had, just in general, a little bit of a strategic advantage, because the timing of when you typically go in to do the work was or how much really does what other states, what they're doing in terms of their legislation and what they're bringing up is prime initiatives. How much of that matters state to state in terms of what you all decide? I guess a better way to put it is how much weight does it hold with these other states of what they're doing in terms of what Louisiana chooses to focus on? Does it need to be this cohesive push in order for things to really to matter, or is it really kind of siloed, because what Texas does is different from Louisiana or West Virginia? Or was it just, hey, these topics are really getting a lot of attention right now and if we ever wanted to do anything with them, now's the time. So we have to prioritize them.

38:34 - Patrick (Guest) So that that always happens happens, right you, if, if something is, um, if something is, if there's a movement afoot, if there's something popular that's that's taking place or there's a, you know, a priority um that you're seeing pushed in other states, it'll, it'll, it all kind of blends down. It's actually one of the beautiful things about our system in this country is there's 50 kind of experiments taking place all at once.

39:00 - Chase (Host) That's a good point.

39:01 - Patrick (Guest) And you can pick and choose, like what's working and what's not working Right Now. A lot of that has to do with socioeconomic. Like Utah and Louisiana's population are very different and so you're mindful of that. But if Utah is doing something really really well and there's a way to implement that in Louisiana and kind of import that knowledge, it's beneficial. In the South we pay close attention to the good things that, like Texas and Florida and Tennessee do, because those are states that are experiencing a lot of growth and in migration and they've got good tax policy Right. So you, you do most of the time you'll, you pay attention to that.

39:52 - Chase (Host) You can probably better gauge of what probably is going to work.

39:56 - Patrick (Guest) Yes, yeah, that's right, that's right.

39:57 - Chase (Host) Better gauge of what probably is going to work. Yes, yeah, that's right. That's right. It has to be a determining factor in what you all choose to work on, or not? Sure, the you know policy side.

40:03 - Patrick (Guest) And as a legislator too, it's easier when you're presenting a bill because you got to go and you got to sell this thing to your colleagues.

40:08 - Chase (Host) You're like hey by the way, like our neighboring states you know are seeing similar results, or you know we could hope to have similar results based upon boom boom boom and the sale becomes easier.

40:18 - Patrick (Guest) Right, this bill is actually different in a way, because the really the primary goal with all of this and not just Louisiana but across the country is to force the food companies to the table in DC. Force the food companies to the table in DC and make the changes that they know that they need to make, that they've been resistant on making for for decades, by removing certain dyes and certain ingredients that are making us sick. It's, it's not complicated, right, but they didn't have the motivation to do that because they weren't being forced to. No one was at the state level, at the federal level, when this new administration came in and they're in this sort of tidal wave of this movement sort of overtook the country. It has forced them to table.

41:17 They don't want to go and try to abide by 50 different rules and regulations? Right, they don't. They can't they. You literally, you physically cannot have fruit loops made in 50 states, right, abiding by 50 different. You know, patchwork of regulations and in the end, you know secretary kennedy and president trump and casey and callie. You know, when I had a conversation with callie, they I said look, I'm concerned that this isn't consistent because I'm thinking like old mindset.

41:51 You need to be consistent with what our states are doing. I said this isn't really consistent with what texas is doing, right, and he says don't worry about that. Like the goal should be to go cause chaos. Like go out and pass this stuff and just cause chaos, cause it's, it's helping us, it's giving us air cover in DC to to negotiate with these, with these companies, and it's it works. It's working right now. I mean you're seeing PepsiCo is announcing the removal of certain ingredients, the phasing out of certain ingredients in some of their products. Coca-cola is talking about making a push by eliminating artificial sweeteners and going back to, you know, real cane sugar Not to say that Coke's going to be healthy for you, but that's healthier Less worse.

42:38 - Chase (Host) Less worse's healthier, um less worse. Less, less worse.

42:39 - Patrick (Guest) Yeah, less worse yeah, and but it's so. It's cool to kind of see that strategy yeah one being a part of it, and also to watching it unfold. I mean, where you know, the fda has announced the elimination of a lot of artificial dyes, or the phasing out of them, uh, over the next several years, and and we're, we're getting to the a point where our food is actually similar to what they're eating in Europe and Australia and New Zealand, yeah, I was going to say this stuff for me and again just my little amount of information that I know of it.

43:12 - Chase (Host) I feel like this really wouldn't be that much of a difficult thing for these organizations like Pepsi and Kellogg's and Post for these people to do because they have to abide by these unique rules in other countries. I mean, if they just adopted the same policies. For example, like in Europe, most European countries don't allow you know they'll allow processed foods, but you know the laundry list of ingredients that have been not only just like hey don't, but actually banned or else you're out of the country kind of thing is wild. So the fact that these companies can't just follow the same rules over here means to me one thing, and that's just that America doesn't care as much about it and there's gotta be some ulterior motive for continuing to allow it, despite the hard evidence we see of benefits in other countries that we respect and work with a lot of other policies by not having it in there. Yeah, that's money.

44:08 - Patrick (Guest) That's what. That's what it typically comes down to. I mean, I read something the other day that fruit loops. You know, I don't know if it was a 10 years ago or 15 years ago, they were. They changed, they removed some of their artificial dyes and it made their cereal less colorful and sales dropped, and so they went back to making them, you know, bright, beautiful yeah not fruit, fruit loops, right, um, and, and it's profit driven, and, and there's nothing.

44:36 That's the system we live in in this country, right, and there's, there's nothing. You know there's good and bad when it comes to a capitalist system where profit drives things with some pretty unhealthy stuff but the good being the, the market dictates, you know, consumer consumers dictate what, um, what they're going to. So, and that's in, the consumer mindset has shifted and it will continue to shift towards wanting healthier products once they become. People become aware of the effects that these can have on your body, right, and so they're going to change because they're going to want to continue to sell their stuff. Right, and so if we, the consumer, make these demands and we have some support from state legislators and from the federal government, right, we're going to end up with a healthier environment.

45:38 But, chase, you bring up a really good point. I didn't fully appreciate the fact that Heinz ketchup in France or Germany is completely different than Heinz ketchup, same label, except when you flip it over on the backside and you read a laundry list of words. You can't, uh, with high fructose corn syrup added to that, right, um, and, and you know, in in europe you're not, you don't have these things and so they know how to do it.

46:08 They make this stuff already. It should be an easy profits abroad as well.

46:13 - Chase (Host) That's right. I don't think heinz is hurting in france. Yeah, correct me if I'm wrong, heinz, but I don't think Heinz is hurting in France.

46:19 - Patrick (Guest) Yeah, correct me if I'm wrong, heinz, but I don't know. I think they actually dip their.

46:22 - Chase (Host) French fries in mayo. Yeah, yeah, that's true, I love France, but I can't get on board with that. Yeah, so how was the line drawn in your experience for which additives or sweeteners to restrict, and how will this new QR code transparency really work in practice out in the field?

46:36 - Patrick (Guest) Yeah, great question. Again. The beauty of the bill was, the ultimate goal was just to cause chaos, right, and so while we took, you know, I think, on the ingredient piece, the QR code, there was something like 50, some odd ingredients that were on this list. We pulled from a list that are where these products are banned, or at the very least there's warning labels on them in Europe. We pulled some stuff from Texas, some stuff from West Virginia and really, admittedly it is.

47:11 It's not like a there's not one definitive list that exists out there that all science can agree is these are the really bad products. I mean, we know what things are absolutely terrible for us. Um, but there's, you know there's. There's not a. There's not a a. This is the, the gold standard list of things that we should that are causing us to be sick. A A lot of the times. You know these food companies, they'll pay for the studies themselves to have their doctors and their scientists say that, no, this stuff's healthy. So there's also reports out there that suggest, you know that this thing that we're trying to remove is actually healthy, and they'll say well, what about this report?

47:54 - Chase (Host) Or, just not that bad.

47:56 - Patrick (Guest) Not that bad.

47:57 - Chase (Host) I kind of feel like sorry to interrupt, but I just feel like this is such an important point In my opinion. There are items, there is an objective list of things that we just know I won't even go as far as saying are bad for you, because I personally I struggle with saying that about really, about you know more or less anything. I struggle with saying that about really, about you know more or less anything. But objectively, we look at things. They have no need to be in food, they have no need to be put into food items, especially when we're looking at our schools and children. They have no need in being in there. They do not directly enhance the nutritional value, the bioavailability, the delivery mechanism, really in any capacity. It is purely for the Froot Loops example, purely for shock and awe and wow and sales. So I think if we kind of looked more at that, I believe we could get to a place we could get to a list of again these aren't bad for you, but there's no need for them in these.

48:59 - Patrick (Guest) That's a that's I like looking at that way that's a good way to put it is what is the actual purpose of this product being this food? Um other than to sell more of the product right, like high fructose corn syrup.

49:11 - Chase (Host) Yeah, our body doesn't need it, other than like, maybe, enhancing. You know satiety and sweetness and you know shelf life, but again, that's that's, that's economics, that's not nutrition. So I think we've lost sight of what the actual goal of food is that's a great point.

49:27 - Patrick (Guest) Yeah, um, there's a lot of a lot of the things that the ingredients that are in these foods you and you hit on it is to short circuit. You know the system, um, you know if you eat, if you eat a steak, regular old protein, your we being around for hundreds of thousands of years, our body knows what to do with that and it and it tells us at some point hey, we're full, stop eating, it's not going to taste as good as it as it once did when we first started. Right, that's our satiation. A lot of this stuff, like you said, it's designed to short circuit that. So, where you can't stop eating that bag of Pringles and you want more, and so you go out and you buy more.

50:12 - Chase (Host) Hyper palatable. We're no longer satiated. No, we're near as quickly as we need to be Some. Some things are proven, like you know endocrine disruptors, hormone disruptors we literally begin to confuse the body with the innate signaling system that is in place for things like hunger cues, full cues, leptin, ghrelin, and just it becomes a very slippery slope very quickly right, and they design food that is so light and dissolves basically in your mouth without having to chew, because they've discovered that the more you chew, the faster you get full.

50:48 - Patrick (Guest) And so I mean, it's not even just the taste, it's like the actual physical makeup of this stuff and that again didn't exist like 100 years ago. We, our rule in our house. We and look by the way in in no way. This is still a new journey for me. You've been in this world long, much longer than I have um, probably two, two years in right, and so absolutely not perfect. I could do much better.

51:13 - Chase (Host) I don't think we ever get perfect with it yeah, yeah, it's like well, thank you also, you know we change, you know times, they are changing. But also, I mean, you literally are not the same person you were two years ago. I'm not the same person I was 10 years ago. Our cellular turnover I forget this exact reference, but I think we go through, like literally and like every cell in our body, our bones, everything, every, every cell, tissue. We're different, I think, by like every two or three years. I could be butchering this, but everything changes. Our needs change, our wants change. What works for us changes, what doesn't work for us changes. So it's a constant evolution, it's a frequent evolution.

51:51 - Patrick (Guest) There's something comforting about that, though right In a way that it's almost like a reptile that sheds its skin and kind of right, can, can start back over again yeah the body is such an amazing instrument in that it has such a powerful ability to to self-heal when you give it the right environment, homeostasis is its most natural inclination, amen, yeah, and a lot of that starts with the.

52:14 You know what we're putting into our bodies, yeah. So we are kind of rule in our house and fortunately my kids are like really good eaters. They're not picky, we've gotten them and they never really were like, just, you know, chicken finger or chicken nugget folks Like, they like deer, they like buffalo, I mean, they like bison, and so we try to stick to those things, to those things which, by the way, I know we're probably gonna people are gonna say, yeah, this guy's, you know, feeding his kid bison and that's really expensive if you look at the caloric value of something. So like right now, with inflation, I think what mcdonald's like a number one at mc is it's expensive, it's like $7 or something like that.

52:59 - Chase (Host) Like a value yeah, like a value meal yeah.

53:02 - Patrick (Guest) It's not again not being the perfect person in the world. I snuck off and did and got a McDonald's breakfast a couple weeks ago and was like shocked at how expensive it was. I hadn't been in a very long time and you can buy two pounds of red beans at the store back home in louisiana for like two bucks. That's a lot of food. You can get a rotisserie chicken for the same price. Actually might be less than a value meal at a fast food joint.

53:33 - Chase (Host) I did it last night. My wife and I do this a lot of time. Yeah 7.99, yeah right, okay, whole chicken lasts us for a couple days. I was gonna say, and it's not, that's not one for two people.

53:36 - Patrick (Guest) You keep eating on that. I did it last night. My wife and I do this all the time. Yeah, seven, ninety, nine, yeah Right, ok, whole chicken lasts us for a couple of days. I was going to say it's not, that's not one for two people. You keep eating on that.

53:42 - Chase (Host) And then we make bone broth with it. Yeah, with the leftovers, yeah Right.

53:45 - Patrick (Guest) And, and I think the more that people are doing what you guys already do and what we've started to do in our family markets. Again, we'll take note and adjust and and you're going to see those prices. For those like beef tallow, people say you know that some people would suggest that's, that's healthier to cook in than than like canola oil. Um, I happen to agree with that. Beef tallow is expensive, but the but that's because you know the market isn't there for people wanting to go out and buy beef tallow. It is. Now you're starting to see this growing demand and it's a supply. It's an economics issue, right, and so more people are going to be starting making beef towel. It's going to be more readily available. The price will come down. It's it's basic economics and that's. That's like I don't know it's really it's reassuring to me?

54:30 - Chase (Host) Absolutely, absolutely. Can I getting back to you know, the political side of things. You've mentioned this word chaos a couple times and I don't know how many people are picking up on that, but you know, to hear a politician say the point is chaos. The point is chaos, yeah, can kind of maybe stir the pot a little bit. What do you mean by that? I have to imagine you know introducing this bill and a lot of other initiatives that you and your team are working on, and a lot of other initiatives that you and your team are working on, and a lot of other states. Now you hope that what you're working on becomes change. You hope that the bill passes, you hope that it becomes law and you hope that you actually see its effect, but also the downstream effects of just like systemic change. Yeah, but sometimes that doesn't happen, but you do make enough of a ripple for other changes to happen. Is that what we're talking about? We're talking how can we have good chaos?

55:23 - Patrick (Guest) Yeah, it's. It's funny my Some of the folks on my team when I first said that in an interview I gave her I think I gave an interview on the local period visors like don't say that.

55:35 Yes and it's like well, but that's what we're trying to do here and I and I'm not gonna, it is what it is, and I, you know if, if we can't be honest and genuine with the people that elect us, like we, we're wasting our time like just stop. I think in today's, today's day and age, people just crave, they just want honesty and authenticity, and it's a that should be like a really good, easy thing for us to provide. And so one would think, yeah, yeah, I guess. Um, but it was funny though they were like, just, you're not supposed, you shouldn't say that, don't say that on the mic, done. But it is true, like the the whole, for decades and decades, um, these companies refused to make the changes that they needed to make because they didn't have to.

56:24 And when 30-some-odd legislatures across this country at once, kind of sort of out of nowhere from a lawmaker standpoint not that folks have been aware of this for years and years um, the emphasis on, on healthy ingredients and healthy foods, but really, this, this came out of nowhere from a from a lawmaker standpoint, um, this big push it it, and it was chaos.

56:52 It really was. It was like this again this patchwork of laws that are being passed that it's impossible for them to abide by. So they go run to Washington and say, help, we can't navigate this chaos. Please help us, come up with the changes that you want us to make, and we'll work together and make them. And it's not the normal route, for sure. And it's not the normal route, for sure, but in this case you're talking about an industry that has been in existence and has been one of the primary causes of our terrible health in this country. They've been making a lot of money and they needed some, I guess, some motivation to change what had been working for them, but not for the American people and not for the people of Louisiana, and so thus, the chaos ensued, right?

57:56 - Chase (Host) Well, let's face it, you know money, right, there is chaos happening, there's a disruption happening, there is a distraction happening, but hopefully intentional chaos, intentional distraction. And you know we have people like yourself and you know Casey and Kelly Means and so many others, you know. You know at the forefront of just finally having voices like this heard and right now it's, I think, kind of being quantified just as chaos and noise. But there are people with actual initiatives and marching orders, basically. So time will tell.

58:31 But the big Goliath that we're all up against are these giant multi-billion dollar, if not trillion. I mean. Now, you know Amazon no shade to Amazon but you know these billion dollar plus organizations that they're not going to give up their money, right. So change can happen, I hope. I'm sure you know for the better when it comes to nutrition and just awareness and education and labels and schools, but these organizations are not going to give up their money, right? So what do you think is really going to happen from the economic standpoint? Because they've got to make it up somewhere. So if they're giving up something, they got to get it from somewhere else. Where's the money of all this?

59:14 - Patrick (Guest) That is. I'm sure that's important for some people to consider and to take into account. It's really not what I and what a lot of people are worried about Really. Yeah, I mean it's not.

59:29 - Chase (Host) You're not worried about an organization such as PepsiCo maybe potentially losing hundreds of millions, potentially billions of dollars because of these changes, in the short term at least, and that doesn't worry you all If I have to and maybe I should just speak for myself and not sure, but I think there are a lot of folks around this country that would agree with me.

59:55 - Patrick (Guest) If I have to choose between, you know, between PepsiCo's bottom line and their stock value, and healthy Americans, healthier Americans, I'm going to go with the healthy Americans all day long.

01:00:09 - Chase (Host) But then I see some people even make the argument of okay, let's say there's a Red 40 department at PepsiCo, just insert any giant corporation here and in order to get on board with these initiatives, they cut that department. I mean, now we're talking job loss and probably people in the same socioeconomic status that are eating these foods with Red 40. So now we might have just saved them from these nutritional woes. But now dad doesn't have a job, sure.

01:00:39 - Patrick (Guest) Yeah, I would. I I would be remiss to not take into account the trillions and trillions of dollars that we spend, that the taxpayer in this country spends, on healthcare every year. And so, yes, while a private company or publicly traded company might not have the net profits that they once had, we still spent, as taxpayers, a lot of money, a lot, a lot of money um combating these horrific health outcomes that that we have. This help, the situation, this crisis. There's a health care, there's a health crisis crisis, absolutely. And so you know what's our priority. Like what are we as a country, as in the state of louisiana, and you know, in the country, united states, like what are? What needs to be our priority is it, is it is it always profits over, like the, you know the the health um individual health of our children, if we really care and we really want to make a difference and be healthier and I've got to believe that Americans, we don't want to be obese. No one wants to do that.

01:02:05 Secretary Kennedy's got a great saying you know, a healthy person has a thousand dreams. A sick person has one, and that's to be healthy. And so are we going to be serious about what our priorities are in this country, and I think the answer to that is yes, and we're waking up to this and it's it's a great thing. It should be celebrated. Are there going to be consequences where, where certain companies aren't going to make as much money as they do? I'll tell you something else if we have a healthier population, we've got less people on pharmaceutical drugs like those companies might lose out too. But are we, do we really want to be profiting off of our population being and remaining sick? To me, that's an easy right. That's an easy question. The answer should be an easy question. The answer should be absolutely not.

01:03:01 - Chase (Host) And I'm in that bucket with you.

01:03:03 I mean, I wholeheartedly agree that I think if everyone, especially you know, countrywide, if the initiative, the goal, was to help as many people as possible, as consistently as possible adults, and especially with the next generation, you know, focus on things that get them and keep them well, get them to homeostasis coupled with a balanced, affordable, accessible healthcare system that actually freaking works, instead of just a sick care system, that's like utopia.

01:03:34 But you know, if I'm hearing you correctly and you know I think anyone would be remiss to say, you know, with any kind of reform, aren't going to be Consequences, aren't going to be other forms of losses and short term, you know, collateral damage, if you will, and you know I hate to downplay anyone's situation, I'm not saying anyone's job loss is collateral damage for the greater good. But you know, is that kind of the mindset we have to have of for the big picture of America, of humans, to be what we truly can be, or maybe even somewhat argue what we used to be, from a homeostasis standpoint, longevity standpoint, metabolic standpoint, mental, physical, spiritual, emotional standpoint, is that what it's going to have to take? Are these the sacrifices necessary to keep us around and to keep us not only just present, but thriving.

01:04:26 - Patrick (Guest) Yeah, yeah and well put, I think the answer is absolutely yes, At least it is for me. You know, I absolutely there was one. You know I, absolutely there was one. With this bill, I had countless meetings, a lot of them In fact, it probably was over 100. And I'm talking about, you know, meeting with folks that you know, doctors not wanting to do the continuing education and why should we have to do that food grocery store saying what is this going to mean for our current inventory and and who's going to be in charge of the repackaging to, like coca-cola, for example? So many logistics involved.

01:05:09 - Chase (Host) There was a lot.

01:05:10 - Patrick (Guest) I mean it was, it was a lot. Um. Big change typically requires that, though, right and meaningful change, and so that's what we were trying to do. Coca-cola, for example, they pointed out. Another component of this bill originally was prohibiting the sale of soda for SNAP benefit providers for the Supplemental Nutritional Program.

01:05:36 - Chase (Host) That's correct. If I'm wrong, that's like the new food stamps. Yes, correctly Right, we changed the name Food Assistance. Yeah, program, that's correct. If I'm wrong, that's like the new food stamps. Yes, correctly, right, we changed the name food assistance yeah, that's right.

01:05:43 - Patrick (Guest) Um, yeah, the supplemental nutrition, something program I used to forgive me for forgot.

01:05:50 I'm drawing a blank there, but I love how coke is on the snap program well, okay, also, I didn't know this, but there's no nutritional guidelines for the SNAP program, for the nutritional supplemental program, which that's about to change, by the way. But that's kind of wild, so very wild. So you know, part of this bill was going to prohibit that the sale of soda for for snap recipients and coca-cola. Came to me and I understand why, and they I get it, their job is is to sell coca-cola and their products. Um, they said you know, this is really going to hurt us, it's going to hurt our bottom line. Fun fact 17 to like 22 percent of their sales came from snap.

01:06:37 - Chase (Host) No way almost a quarter.

01:06:38 - Patrick (Guest) That's a huge huge number and my response was I, you know I. I'm fully aware that this is going to affect your bottom line, but what's a quarter of?

01:06:50 - Chase (Host) I mean, what does coke make in a year in louisiana? I don't remember what the numbers were they've got to be in the billions, right it was a lot of money okay. So let's just for argument's sake, let's say a quarter of a billion coke, you're gonna be fine, you know right, yeah, well, yeah, is this my own naivete kind of you know? I mean, I'm again. I don't think we're gonna have job loss, we're gonna have a shift in economies.

01:07:10 - Patrick (Guest) Okay yeah, um, but it it's a huge number, like that's a lot of sales.

01:07:16 Um, my argument to them was well, I think you'll be able to sell a lot more water now, right, and or make make products, yeah, that don't have these, these high levels of sugar. I mean, we, we, we put in there it was like five percent of of the, or five grams or less you can, you can still be eligible for. Now that that actually ended up coming out of the bill because the governor decided Governor Landry decided that he wanted to do this through executive order, and so meaning what? Meaning that he could just he could require the Department of Child and Family Services in Louisiana to petition the federal authorities to grant Louisiana this waiver, this change for their SNAP program, and he can do that through executive order. So ultimately, that didn't end up being in the bill, but we've already implemented that program in Louisiana and so come January 15th of 2026, you will no longer be able to buy, you know, sugary drinks with your snap card. But we're trying to add into that like rotisserie chicken.

01:08:27 So we're replacing something that is not nutritious, like no one's going to argue that Pepsi is a healthy drink for you, but then we're trying to replace it with a rotisserie chicken or some sort of you know whole protein, and that's what we should be doing.

01:08:46 - Chase (Host) It's common sense. Are you getting? That was a great example. Thank you for sharing. Are you getting any other significant pushback from? And if you want to share their organization or company, by all means go ahead to share their organization or company, you know, by all means go ahead. But you know what is the biggest pushback you are seeing from these conglomerate organizations, these corporations, on this, this initiative, these changes trying to get made yeah, well no and also sorry.

01:09:09 Are they bigger? Yeah, are they. Are they proving to be big enough to like really push back and, you know, not get the change that you all want?

01:09:17 - Patrick (Guest) well, fortunately, um, I'm not getting any more pushback, because we passed the bill overwhelmingly. In fact, it received not one no vote. It was, it was bipartisan, amazing, it was awesome, yeah, I mean, and a lot of that. I gotta mention this group and I mentioned to him before the, the Maha moms, the, the, that group was so engaged and were was I mean, they filled the Capitol the day that we had moms get shit done.

01:09:48 They do man Like don't get in the way of mama bear. Um, I saw it and and it was an amazing site, the day that we ran the bill in in my committee in senate health and welfare. Um, we had to have we the committee that we're in is one of the larger committees it's called the hankle room, and it was full, and so we actually had to open another overflow room, and then another one, and then another one. Wow, and at one point the Senate president calls me. He goes what are?

01:10:22 y'all doing down there Cause he has to like allow security, to like open the rooms. And I said everyone's here for the bill. And 90% of those people were there and 90, probably 99%, were there in support of the bill. And he said look, I've. I've been here for a while.

01:10:35 - Chase (Host) I've never seen have we've never had to have three overflow rooms in one in one day on one issue and it was awesome. And honestly, when you think about it, I mean there should be that turnout for every bill, for everything that matters. It's just wild that it's only taking this now to get this amount of turnout and support is kind of mind blowing. When you think about that, you know why don't other topics matter as much?

01:11:01 - Patrick (Guest) you know I'll, that's a good question. Uh, it's a frustrating one for, for, for us at times. Um, because you have a, you have a lack of engagement and in a democracy it's a, it right To to maintain this Republic and you need to have an educated, engaged population to do that. In a democracy, you get a, you get the government you deserve, and I think there was people can only handle like one issue. I think that's changing. I think, post COVID, that's changing. I think the curtain was pulled back in a lot of ways and we are now asking questions that we didn't ask before and not just nutrition.

01:11:55 It's, you know, education, it's tax policy, it's. A lot of people are now the pendulum's swinging back, which is great and that should be celebrated, but it's still, you know, it's some people just they've got lives to live and they've got families to raise and support and they've got baseball practice to make and support and the people that care also have all that as well.

01:12:19 - Chase (Host) Yeah, yeah you know it's not either, or, uh, it's this, that's right. And I think, um, in order for somebody to care about something, for me to have, for me to want to care about something, I have to believe that, one, I can actually make a difference about this, or, two, someone else can, and if there's anything in between, I think that's where people fall through the cracks and that's why we're not seeing people show up with this amount of turnout. So I feel like, with this movement, I think it's a little bit of both. You know we finally have platforms and voices. You know whether it's the Maha moms or just.

01:12:56 You know authors, podcasters, influencers, scientists. You know whether it's the maha moms or just. You know authors, podcasters, influencers, scientists. You know all these people now, finally, I think, who have cared long enough, and now we're in a place in time in american culture and government where, like maybe, me, talking about it or talking about it more and more publicly is actually going to move the needle. But then also, with people like yourself that, and like I, care enough, I can maybe make a difference. And we have people like yourself in these bills and these initiatives that are actually collectively making a change as well, so I can make a change, you can make a change. Therefore, we all can as well.

01:13:30 - Patrick (Guest) Yeah, chase, I got to tell you and thank you, like a lot of what it starts with with what you guys do here, you know, and what have are have interest in Clinton. Clearly they have interest in these long format discussions where it's not the 20 second news clip where you're getting the dopamine hit by the death scroll of minute information, it's real, substantive conversations. It's real substantive conversations and that people are so interested in that because you know, 10 years ago, right, I think heads of these major news networks would laugh at what a pod someone's going to listen to.

01:14:28 - Chase (Host) There was like us, like, if you know, you know, kind of community, but I mean the spotlight that COVID put on this type of media. This platform, in my opinion, has been great, you know. So, give it like six years ago, I don't think people would have, even most people would have gone. What is a podcast? Not? Oh, I'm listening to it, I'm on one, I'm doing, I'm listening to it, I'm on one, I'm doing, I'm using it. People like yourself are actually engaging with these platforms and you know hosts to actually make a difference. It's part of your campaign, as part of, you know, the initiative.

01:15:02 - Patrick (Guest) Well, a lot of the information that I got and was able to educate and really um being introduced to people that are experts in this field, cause I'm absolutely not one, but I know enough to where I can talk to that person and reach out to them. It has been a game changer and, you know, I don't think we're having this conversation about, you know, this huge health movement, without the fact that you've guys been having this conversation for for a few years and so and.

01:15:36 I think the trend is going to continue to grow. Folks like myself legislators in other States will continue to sort of listen and pay attention. I hope so To what the conversations that you, you know folks like you were having.

01:15:50 - Chase (Host) I'm just you know, maybe there's going to come a day where there's, you know, in the political cabinet, there's a you know secretary of podcasts.

01:15:59 It cracks me up because, you know, coming from DC, you know, even even living in DC for like four years, I was never really deep into the political situation, which made small talk out kind of interesting sometimes.

01:16:15 But you know, even there, you know, I would tell people I do a podcast and they would go what? What is this, you know. But also, I think, being in an environment now out here, it's so much more well received and I'm just, I'm just so glad that I'm able to just keep doing this thing that I love and to further educate myself and to put myself in the room with experts or people even just you know, one step further along in their wellness journey, and also people like yourself making a splash with, which is why I started the show to begin with. You know, I started as a way to supplement my health care job. You know, working with patients every day, I realized that even the information and people and politics that I had access to weren't enough. I needed to go digging more. I owed it to myself and to my patients to, to do more and ultimately to share more, and that hasn't changed since eight years now.

01:17:09 - Patrick (Guest) Well, man, man, don't stop, jason, keep going Ever forward, right? We need all the help we can get.

01:17:15 - Chase (Host) So, speaking of, I want to get into my final question here with you in just a minute, but I have a few just quick, rapid-fire questions I would love to just kind of ask you and kind of whatever comes top of mind or you think is most important we'll go with. If you had to pick just one prevention or treatment, where should America invest more Prevention?

01:17:34 - Patrick (Guest) That's easy. I mean you treat the cause, not the symptom. It's like kind of wild that that's not of those symptoms and not have a true health care. You said it earlier. We have a sick care system. We don't have a health care system.

01:18:05 - Chase (Host) What's one thing every American family could do today to improve their health.

01:18:10 - Patrick (Guest) Educate yourselves Read books, listen to podcasts. I am a. Like I said earlier, our pantry is completely different from where we were just two years ago, and the improvements that I've seen just within our family alone is is is you can feel it, it, you can see it? Right, it's, it's real, and we didn't get there, um, just on a by luck. I mean, we, we taught ourselves what's what's healthy and for us individually, and and what we should be staying away from and what we should be focusing around. So, then, that that started with education what's the most overlooked public health issue?

01:18:54 - Chase (Host) we're not talking about enough that maybe we haven't hit on already chronic disease, I mean inflammation.

01:19:02 - Patrick (Guest) how about that? I think, if we can cure or we can address chronic inflammation that bleeds down into so many other problems, let's focus on that as a country.

01:19:16 - Chase (Host) If you could wave a wand and a lot of what you're doing kind of is a magic wand but if you could wave a wand right now and solve one public health issue in the next decade so give yourself kind of the next 10 years to work on it what would it?

01:19:27 - Patrick (Guest) be and why, Wow, that's a.

01:19:32 - Chase (Host) I feel that's a tough one what's something you think would take a decade? Yeah, I would make happen.

01:19:41 - Patrick (Guest) I would be curious to know how possible it is to eradicate cancer, cancer, and, and again, I'm in no way a scientist or a doctor, and will never claim to be, but there's something that is, um, you know, adding fuel to the fire when it comes to cancer rates. And and what is that? I'll give you another one too, and I've, I need to. You know these, the autism rates that we're seeing in this country are is completely unacceptable, from where we were in the early 80s to where we are now. Not to get into, like the, the. You know the conspiracy theories here, but that's a, that's a problem and something is causing it. It's not because we've we've started diagnosing it differently.

01:20:37 - Chase (Host) That's kind of the argument now I see a lot of people are bringing up is oh, now we're just actually better at diagnosing it, so of course the numbers go up versus how many actual cases of autism are there.

01:20:47 - Patrick (Guest) One in 1500 to one in 32, is not a diagnostic deal.

01:20:53 - Chase (Host) I agree, yeah, I agree. Yeah. Well, pat Patrick, senator McGrath McMath, excuse me, this has been a real treat for me. Like I said, not my usual guest on the show.

01:21:06 - Patrick (Guest) Thanks for having a sleazy politician Appreciate it.

01:21:09 - Chase (Host) No, I appreciate it because it's kind of gotten me out of my comfort zone, a little bit out of my usual prep zone, and just gotten me, like I was sharing with you earlier, kind of back to my roots a little bit with you know, I went to grad school, a shadow American University back in DC, and I went to their grad school program for masters in public health or health promotion Excuse me, it's been a long day, um, and so I I really believed in that being an important part of my future, um, by making sure that I was staying aware of and abreast of and implementing large-scale health initiatives what works for large uh communities, kind of going more over that just large scale approach, because the more people know about these basic, fundamental things, in my opinion, that you know move the needle for health.

01:22:00 That's how we have a better world. And so I haven't really had people on over the eight years now of the show to really talk about it from that, that vantage point of the political change necessary, the public health change that's necessary. So it's been great. It's been great, thank you.

01:22:18 - Patrick (Guest) Yeah, no, thank you for having us and keep up the good work, man. Again you're providing folks like myself some real inspiration, so keep it up.

01:22:29 - Chase (Host) Well, whatever we can do to support, let me know when can my audience go to learn more about this bill and other initiatives you're working on for for public health and, you know, us health care?

01:22:38 - Patrick (Guest) Yeah, the easiest way would be to google, or my kids call it, search it up. Is that what the kids are saying?

01:22:43 - Chase (Host) So the kids are saying shit, I'll search it up, yeah, search up Louisiana Senate bill 14 there's.

01:22:50 - Patrick (Guest) There's tons of great articles about it and it'll kind of lead you down the rabbit hole as to what other states are doing. I'm not a huge social media guy. I do have a Twitter handle at McMathPat on X and I say Twitter, see I don't even know, yeah, it's Twitter.

01:23:10 - Chase (Host) It's Twitter, come on, but yeah and there See, I don't even know. Yeah, it's Twitter.

01:23:12 - Patrick (Guest) It's Twitter, um, but yeah, just um, and there's. There's a lot of good stuff out there, and so I hope at the very least, maybe, whether it's this or whether what we did, um, back in Louisiana with the bill it'll lead people to educating themselves on on the importance of what they're putting in their body. So thank you again.

01:23:30 - Chase (Host) My pleasure. So my my final question, last and final question, is you know I ask at the end of pretty much every interview so that we have had a chance to kind of understand each other more and my audience has had a chance to really understand what you're, what every guest brings to the table in terms of the collective wellbeing. But you know, there are so many different verticals of wellness and well-being physical, mental, emotional, spiritual. Now here we are political, so my goal is to have people on to kind of highlight an area that can help that area move forward and then collectively move the needle in our entire life and to live a life ever forward. I say so, those two words, what do they mean to you? Ever forward.

01:24:13 - Patrick (Guest) Progress. Yeah, keep going ever forward. Keep moving Darkness to light. Right, that should be, especially in today's age and what's kind of taking place across this country. We need to move out of the darkness and into the light, and I think you do that by moving ever forward.

01:24:34 - Chase (Host) There's never a right or wrong answer. I always say so. Thank you for your interpretation and my pleasure. Thank you so much. Appreciate it. For more information on everything you just heard, make sure to check this episode's show notes or head to everforwardradio.com.