97: Growing Up Pompa

Transcript of Episode 97: Growing Up Pompa

With Dr. Daniel Pompa and the Pompa family.

Meredith:
Episode 97, hard to believe we’re getting close to 100, and if you’re watching this, it is New Year’s Day, Happy 2016. We’re prerecording this show because we want to be spending time with our families, and I know, Dr. Pompa, as I look across, you have your whole family with you today. And we’re so excited to have the whole Pompa tribe here together today to share about what it was like “Growing Up Pompa” and how you were able to work together to raise a healthy family.

Dr. Pompa:
Yeah.

Meredith:
So hello, everyone out in Utah. How are you guys doing?

Dr. Pompa:
Hello. Hi. We’ve got them all here. So yeah, what was it like being raised by Dr. Pompa was the idea of the show, and matter of fact, I’ll introduce everybody here. We’ll start down here on my left, your right. That’s Olivia. Say hi, Olivia.

Olivia:
Hello.

Dr. Pompa:
Say hi, Olivia. Hi, Olivia.

Olivia:
Hi, Olivia.

Dr. Pompa:
Yeah, there you go, okay. All right, and of course, everyone knows Merily from past videos.

Merily:
Merry Christmas, Happy New Year.

Dr. Pompa:
Down on the floor here is Simon.

Simon:
Hi, nice to meet you, Happy New Year.

Merily:
You already met him.

Dr. Pompa:
Say hello to the Cellular Healing TV people. Most of them know Simon years ago from the Simon, Dr. Pompa video on aspartame, and what was the other one on? I don’t know. He said something about “and I’m standing on a box.”

Merily:
That’s about his thinking.

Dr. Pompa:
And he wasn’t supposed to tell anyone that, and within five minutes of the video, he told everybody that he was standing on a box. This is Daniel.

Daniel:
Hello.

Dr. Pompa:
Daniel has the most experience in the family detoxing. As he’s detoxing today and said, “Dad, I really don’t want to do this. I’m not feeling great. I’m detoxing.” So that’s a common theme in the Pompa family. That’s Izik.

Izik:
Hello.

Dr. Pompa:
We always say Izik got one of mom’s highest lead levels, but really, it was Daniel. Izik was second and Dylan, over there.

Dylan:
Hello.

Dr. Pompa:
Remember Dylan? Dylan’s going to have to speak up. He’s probably our most quiet. I should’ve put him up here, but I wanted to separate him and Olivia. I wanted to separate these two. So there was strategy around this seating arrangement. Trust me. There was. All right, Meredith, I’m going to turn it over back to you.

Merily:
There’s -inaudible-.

Dr. Pompa:
Oh, and this -inaudible-. You see this?

Meredith:
Well, hello, everyone, and thanks, guys, for all making it work today. I know that with the holidays it’s hard to fit everything in. So we’re just really excited that you guys were able to make this happen today, and to all be together. And I mean, I’m just curious. So I don’t know if each of you can go through and share, all the kids, what it was like to have Dr. Pompa as a dad, and really, specifically, on the health and wellness front, what it was like to grow up with Dr. Pompa. So if each of you could take a turn and just share some of your general experiences, then we can dive in with some more specifics.

Dr. Pompa:
Well, yeah, I’ll open it up to make it a little bit easier for them. When, of course, the evolution occurs through raising all of the children, the older ones will testify to the fact that I was a Nazi about everything that they put in their mouth, right, to the point of fear, and by the time it got to this one things changed, and I think there’s even a little resentment from the older ones. So how I got the idea for this show is one day we were sitting around here and the topic of being raised by me—I should say us. Because let me tell you something. She can be more of the Nazi than I can. So let’s not kid ourselves here. But it really came up because they were telling stories about these times of when they were -inaudible-. All right, who wants to open up?

Olivia:
I’ll go. Okay, I remember in sixth grade, Daniel and I, we were—our classrooms were right next to each other, and I remember walking by and seeing Daniel grab a donut out of the -inaudible-. I was like, “Daniel, I’m going to tell mom. I’m going to tell dad. You can’t eat a donut.” And that was—so I held that over him for a while, and he held the same thing over me for a while. But it was all about not eating donuts in school, and we weren’t allowed to bring candy home from school or else we would be in trouble.

Merily:
Not eating donuts anywhere, ever. Top ten mistakes…

Olivia:
But we always got donuts for school. They always had where people give for parties and yeah.

Meredith:
So he didn’t eat the donut?

Dr. Pompa:
I don’t know.

Olivia:
I don’t remember.

Daniel:
I probably ate the donut. I probably even threw it away.

Dr. Pompa:
Yeah, he probably just threw it away.

Olivia:
But I probably told on him.

Dr. Pompa:
Yeah. Yeah, exactly.

Daniel:
It’d be the norm at the time to—for my dad to be such a Nazi about food and what we ate, but then as I grew up, I realized that not many people eat the way we eat. So I thought it was terrible that I was doing these things. It was like a sin.

Dr. Pompa:
That’s about it, yeah.

Meredith:
Did you guys ever eat the school lunches?

Daniel:
No.

Meredith:
Never, no.

Dr. Pompa:
No. Yeah, I mean, they were all raised on—my theory was this. Look, I’m going to raise them on the food that we plant. When they get old enough, they can make their own decisions. So I knew that there was an age to let them go, and I—and they’ll talk about that, that age, because—I don’t want to leak their childhood yet, but there was that age where all of them left the diet for a period of time, and I could say all of them came back, which is kind of unique. So when they were younger, it was very important to merely raise them with the foods that we know are healthy, and really carve their taste buds to that degree. So obviously…

Merily:
We tried to go backwards too, though. Remember? When we started them eating solids, we were actually vegetarians then, and so…

Dr. Pompa:
When these two were babies, yeah.

Merily:
Yeah. And so we were giving them yams and banana, and my gosh, and I—when people ask me now, I’m like blend the spinach. You know? Because give them avocado, but even that’s sweet. Because I think I would’ve done things definitely differently.

Dr. Pompa:
These two, yeah, were—we started off—and that was part of Merily’s story too. Because she was a vegetarian for a period of time and that really added to her methylation problem. Her lead issues added to the methylation problem, and it really—these two had health challenges because of the lead that they got from her and digestive issues you guys both got. So they both went through major detox with lead, for lead, and so True Cellular Detox is still a part of these guys’ lives. Matter of fact, Izik, you just finished detoxing this week, right?

Izik:
Yeah.

Dr. Pompa:
Yeah, and when he was younger, we went through a lot with Izik because he was—we call him—his nickname was “the banshee.” He was always screaming, and it’s like he was just never settled. And we found out he had high lead levels that he got from this one. And then Daniel had digestive issues a lot that he battled, and we detoxed him and cleared that out. And then only, too, when he went through puberty, he started releasing a bunch of lead, and he wasn’t healing, and he had an injury that wasn’t doing well. And he started having other symptoms: fatigue. He wasn’t getting out of bed. He was lack of motivation. Do a lead test. Back up. Because during puberty, you lose some old bone and out comes the lead, and so we revisit it.

Dylan, when he was younger, he was probably the most strict on the diet. Because Dylan was sensory integration as a diagnosis, and he was not the same kid you see sitting here that’s so good looking, and nice, and amazing, and—he was definitely off the wall and had all these sensory issues and hard to integrate into anything, really. He was just absolutely struggling. And it was vaccine damage at age 4. We always talk about that story. Where Dylan was so strict on the diet that it really was a big part of how he got his life back, and so—and then Olivia never actually—really, we didn’t detox her at all when she was younger. She was…

Olivia:
I was pretty normal.

Dr. Pompa:
Yeah, right, yeah. But then she started getting sensory issues later in…

Olivia:
After my concussion, especially.

Dr. Pompa:
Yeah, but even before that, you had—no. You had sensory…

Merily:
Smells.

Dr. Pompa:
Sounds, smells, taste, all her senses were like the way his were when he was younger. So it’s like he went through it..

Merily:
And headaches and leg pain.

Dr. Pompa:
And by the way, some people might, watching, these guys we adopted when they were 7 years old because of a tragedy in our family. So they came into a life that they didn’t understand. Matter of fact, Olivia, talk about that because you stepped into a life that was completely different than when you were raised.

Olivia:
Yeah, I mean, I have to mention. Dylan and I were vaccinated, and we had an issue, Dylan, especially. We both were vaccinated, but yeah, it was different at first. I remember when we were not being able to have candy on Halloween or candy canes on Christmas. It was different. But we all adjust, and I could adjust at a young age. But yeah, it was definitely different. I definitely don’t think I understood at first I couldn’t have cookie doughs or whatever, but now I’m thankful for that, I have to say.

Dr. Pompa:
You know what’s amazing, Meredith, is when people say, “Well, gosh, it’s impossible. My kid got strep throat. I needed to give an MMR, or this medication, or that medication.” We would go to visit their parents in Dunedin, Florida, and they were always on antibiotics. We would see them in the thing, and they were—they just lived a different lifestyle, and I would always tell their mom, well, you don’t to give it. Well, you know, they have this bad strep throat or earache. Well, they magically haven’t been on a drug or an antibiotic since age 7, they’re 19 now, since they entered in our home.

So what changed, right? The philosophy changed. Obviously, there’s a time and a place for an antibiotic or any medication, but they went through earaches. Olivia, I remember you having some bad ones. They went through strep throats. I remember both of them dealing with that. Yet, they didn’t end up on an antibiotic.

Merily:
Garlic and olive oil.

Dr. Pompa:
Yeah, right, yeah, garlic and olive oil. Yeah, so I’m saying the point of that is that we raised our family with a different philosophy. None of these kids reach for any medication.

Merily:
Anything, -inaudible-.

Dr. Pompa:
Yeah, of course, we’re adjusting them. Our diet and everything that I preach and teach they were raised on.

Olivia:
I remember, in ninth grade, I had really bad acne, and I begged them to put me on medication for it, and they said no.

Meredith:
Wait. You had a really bad what? I couldn’t hear that.

Olivia:
Face, skin problems in ninth grade.

Meredith:
Uh-huh.

Olivia:
And I begged them to put me on some type of medication -inaudible-.

Dr. Pompa:
Medication.

Olivia:
Medication.

Dr. Pompa:
Yeah, for her acne.

Olivia:
For face.

Dr. Pompa:
Yeah. She wanted to go on it, and we were like, no. That destroyed her liver and creates other problems that—now she appreciates it.

Olivia:
Now I’m teaching all my friends not to do it because they’re the ones on medication. I’m like, don’t do it.

Dr. Pompa:
And by the way, that was the stimulus that put her back on the diet that we raised her on was your acne. Would I—would you agree with that?

Olivia:
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Pompa:
Yeah, so when she got rid of—I said, Olivia, you want to get rid of the acne? Get rid of the grains in your diet, and that’s what she did. And that’s—that changed it, and she got the correlation. A few times, she would go out. She would add grains back in, and sure enough, she would start breaking out again. And so that really got her to realize, wow, I feel better. My skin’s better. Because she had some aches and pain things that were cropping up, popping up and weird headaches and a lot of the sensory stuff, and that put her into the diet. Then she realized that when she was on the diet, she felt better.

Meredith:
Now, Olivia, how long were you off of the diet when you started having some of those symptoms?

Olivia:
I think it’s on and off. Like any teenager, I would go to my friend’s house and have a—whatever, pasta or something that wasn’t…

Meredith:
Pizza, candy, yeah, the usual.

Olivia:
Years later, I didn’t feel too good. It wasn’t like I was—long periods of time. It was off and one.

Meredith:
Mm-hmm, yeah.

Olivia:
There’s a huge difference. I always noticed a huge difference in how I ate.

Merily:
She’s super strict. Now she’s a good eater.

Dr. Pompa:
Yeah, she’s very good. Meredith, she’s like you. Olivia reminds me of you.

Olivia:
I’m a Nazi. I am a Nazi.

Dr. Pompa:
Yeah. Yes, she is.

Merily:
Yes, she is.

Olivia:
My friends call me a health freak. That’s fine.

Merily:
Tell them about the butter.

Meredith:
I’m okay with it too, yeah.

Merily:
Tell them the story. It’s hilarious.

Olivia:
Okay, so I just did my first semester college at -inaudible- in Valencia, Spain, and I lived with a bunch of kids in flats. And one joke I have with one of my friends, Evans, he—when I first met him, I was telling someone about how you can’t burn butter because it turns into a bad oil, right? And I don’t know. He must’ve overheard it. So to this day, he’ll walk in here and say, “Liv, I’ve got to tell you something. I burnt my butter this morning.” And so now it’s this joke that you can’t burn your butter, and that’s happened…

Merily:
She’ll tell them.

Dr. Pompa:
Yeah, she yells at them for using Teflon, and you can’t use these pans. You know?

Olivia:
Oh, yeah, I see people cutting in Teflon in my kitchen, and I’m like, what are you guys doing? Literally, it’s very unsafe.

Meredith:
Yeah. No, that’s awesome, and you’re out there educating and spreading the word there. Because, really, people just don’t know. You know? Awesome, well, great—well, and some of you others have been very quiet. So Izik, Simon, Dylan, any thoughts? Daniel?

Dr. Pompa:
Well, I would say this. If we start from the—we’ll get to Simon in a minute. He’s—believe me. Once we get him going…

Merily:
Save the best for last.

Dr. Pompa:
Yeah, we’ll get to Simon’s story in a minute because Simon’s a very unique Pompa, and he had very neat time when he raised in the Pompa family. But before we leave the twins I have to say, Dylan, we were very strict with him with the diet because we had to fix him, and so it was a very big deal. And then there was a time that we let Dylan go and just explore his own fate and introduce foods. And Dylan just recently, I mean, you got back to it. I wouldn’t say just recently. Maybe a year ago you got back to eating good again, right? What was the stimulus for you that made you say…

Dylan:
Well, I mean, growing up, I was the one who ate most strict, so it’s hard for me seeing everyone else in the family eating things I couldn’t eat. So I mean, growing up, it was harder.

Dr. Pompa:
Yeah.

Dylan:
But I’ve been trying lately to keep that diet. Because, I mean, that’s something I need to do to stay healthy and feel good.

Dr. Pompa:
Yeah.

Dylan:
Because when I’m not on my diet, I don’t feel good.

Dr. Pompa:
Yeah. Yeah. So he came back to the diet too.

Meredith:
Yeah.

Dr. Pompa:
And he went right back and dramatic difference. When he was younger, any time he would just get off the diet for a little bit, he would—our cat just pushed his way into the door, so we can just watch that happen. We saw the cat go out the window as well. So it went out the window and back in the door. But anyways, he would veer a little bit. There would be—all of his sensory symptoms would get worse. He would almost get more exclude—you know, just—what’s the word?

Merily:
Reclusive.

Dr. Pompa:
Reclusive is the word I’m looking for.

Olivia:
Dylan, do you remember you’d come home from your friend’s house or something, and you had been eating junk food the whole weekend, and he’d have red spots all over him.

Dr. Pompa:
Yes.

Dylan:
Yes, it’s true.

Dr. Pompa:
Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. He would breakout, right, and we knew. We’d be like, “Okay, what did you eat?” Back then, he was young. He didn’t get it, right? I mean, so it’s almost—it was so hard too for us. Because, I mean, here he comes into a new world, right. Seven years old, they’d just lost their parents, and now they have to eat this strange diet with strange people. It was strange, yeah. Everything’s strange, and we had to be so strict with him.

Because, look, I knew what it would take to get him well. I remember the day, Dylan—I don’t—I doubt you’ll remember this, but you sat next to me on the bed. You were on my left with Merily. And I remember because he was crying. He didn’t like the fact that he had to eat this way. It was very difficult, and do these things, and take these thick oils. We were given him -inaudible- and all this stuff. And I remember you crying, and I said, “Dylan, look, I know it’s hard, but do you want to get well?”

Dylan:
Yeah, and that something I remember.

Dr. Pompa:
Do you remember that?

Dylan:
Yeah.

Dr. Pompa:
Yeah.

Dylan:
Yeah.

Dr. Pompa:
Wow. That’s amazing because he said, “I do.” And it was like that was the tipping point. Because after that, then at least I had something to anchor back. It’s like, I know it’s hard, but remember you want to get well. So I’m not just being mean, or she’s not just being mean all of the time.

Merily:
Wasn’t that right—actually, right after your mom’s funeral? Wasn’t—didn’t you have that conversation even before we started. I think is we…

Dr. Pompa:
Maybe, maybe and then had it—we had it again when he was…

Merily:
Right. And I think it—and it’s—I think it’s really interesting because Lisa knew. We had had conversations about what it would take. And we had conversations before she vaccinated them because we understood, as having twins, she had a RhoGAM shot. She was a dental hygienist.

Dr. Pompa:
The RhoGAM shot has about 160 some milligrams of mercury in it.

Merily:
Micro.

Dr. Pompa:
I mean, it’s loaded with micrograms. Sorry, micrograms with mercury in it, and so you’re talking about massive insult to the central nervous system, which affected both of them. It just affected Dylan more, and actually, studies show that it’s the testosterone, actually, causes an amplified effect of mercury in the brain. And estrogen is a protectant. Olivia got more protection when she was younger, but only because we didn’t focus on her when she was younger. As a teenager, she started getting similar symptoms that Dylan had when he was younger. Not to that degree, but Dylan started pointing it out. Remember that?

Dylan:
Yep.

Dr. Pompa:
Olivia, I know what’s going on. You’re like, “Yeah.” You said, “I know what’s going on with that sound sensitivity and everything.” But I have to say this. Dylan, I always say this when I talk about Dylan. He now—he was the hardest kid in the beginning because, obviously, being on an autism spectrum and all the difficulties there. But now he is the easiest, I mean, in so many ways. Dylan has such a loving heart for people. He’s such a caring person. And all of us would agree. He’s the only one in the family that successfully deals with Simon-isms, right?

Olivia:
Because he’s street smart, that’s why.

Dr. Pompa:
Exactly. He was the only that when Daniel was in his hard space, he dealt with Daniel perfectly. I always used to say if I could just model how Dylan deals with some of the hard things in the family, man, it’s like that would be success. But Dylan has a heart of gold and went through a lot younger, and here he is now. Izik just recently, because of athletic performance—he’s a skier.

Izik, what brought you back to the diet? Because Izik went into ketosis over the summer and he was off doing—we let him go, and he was off eating—I don’t want to say the Standard American Diet. Because even when you were off, you still probably ate better than your friends.

Izik:
Oh, yeah, probably.

Dr. Pompa:
Yeah, probably. But you definitely weren’t eating the way you were raised, right?

Izik:
No. I just—I would have some candy I wanted. If I would see it, I would take it from my friends, and so—but I did eat way better than most people there.

Dr. Pompa:
But still, Izik, I would say, was gravitating to the carbohydrates, right?

Izik:
Mm-hmm.

Dr. Pompa:
And then something happened this fall or this spring that—what was it?

Izik:
Oh, I just saw Daniel got way bigger, so I wanted to be like him, basically.

Dr. Pompa:
Yeah, no, that’s true. That’s honest. Yeah, it’s true. And so we’ll talk about that. Because he saw his older brother transform, literally. I mean, this one, a year a half ago looked like this one, right? And Izik, you should see him. Just in the last six months Izik has really blossomed, but he saw the transformation. So Daniel, talk about what transformed you because—transforming you because you were eating the Standard American Diet. Well, not quite, but what brought you back?

Daniel:
I always ate pretty—I ate—I went through a phase whenever I was in my early teens where I stopped eating healthy, but then more recently, last two, two and half years, I probably ate decent to really well. And now, all of a sudden, I just kind of—I don’t know. Things—I didn’t feel as well whenever I eat a lot of carbohydrates, definitely the carbohydrates more than anything.

Dr. Pompa:
But, I mean, all of a sudden, you recognize that.

Daniel:
And all of a sudden, I’ve been trying eating very healthy. I feel so much better, and I have the energy. And then it was just a stage of two weeks where I’d go on it, and then I took myself and think that I’m okay now. Then I’d eat carbohydrates. And then it was a cycle, and eventually, I just figured it out to always be on this diet and eat very healthy.

Dr. Pompa:
I know when it was. I remember when it was. It was the Stephen Phinney.

Daniel:
Yeah.

Dr. Pompa:
We went to Dr. Stephen Phinney.

Merily:
Yeah, right.

Dr. Pompa:
Who we…

Merily:
“The Arts and Science of Low Carbohydrate Living.”

Dr. Pompa:
Yeah. He was a co-author with Jeff Volek on “The Art and Science of Low Carbohydrate Living,” and this one, he was there talking to athletes about performing. And all these athletes, amazing athletes, are going into ketosis and performing better. I brought him and Izik to the lecture. Izik went away, bah, right? He didn’t know. No, no, it’s stupid.

Olivia:
Where the heck was I?

Dr. Pompa:
Yeah. Yeah, I don’t know.

Olivia:
I read the book.

Dr. Pompa:
Yeah. Yeah. Olivia actually read the book, right?

Olivia:
It was in April.

Dr. Pompa:
It was in April sometime. Anyways, so Daniel went away from that and he said, “That’s it. I’m going into ketosis,” so all of my input is nothing. Stephen Phinney, thank you. Because you influenced Daniel from that lecture, my son. Daniel left there. He went into ketosis, and he started putting on all this muscle. You should see his -inaudible-.

Daniel:
I think it was you. After my dad straightened out—I definitely—my hormones were going in a different direction, and my testosterones were becoming correctly.

Dr. Pompa:
That’s exactly what happened.

Daniel:
And I put on all this muscle, and my body just transformed.

Dr. Pompa:
Yeah, so he started catching up to me and getting stronger and stronger, and I was like, oh, my god. Izik saw him go into ketosis, and sometime in the summer, Izik said, “I want to go into ketosis,” and so we did.

Olivia:
The family did it.

Dr. Pompa:
Yeah, the whole family. Olivia, you were already there at this point. Yeah, you were—Olivia was already there. She just didn’t know the numbers, right? But she was so strict on her diet. And then he decided, okay, I’m going to do it, and that was history. Really, you realized how much better you felt.

Izik:
Yeah.

Dr. Pompa:
So he did it to look like him, but he realized, ultimately, oh, my gosh, I feel so much better. And by the way, remember, both of them, when they would do a carb day, they would do ridiculous carbs. And that whole day, the next day, they’d be like, “Oh, I hate carb days,” right? Isn’t it true?

Merily:
Yeah. Love-hate relationship with carb days.

Dr. Pompa:
Yeah. Yeah. So they were both very carbohydrate…

Merily:
Sensitive.

Dr. Pompa:
Sensitive, yeah. They don’t—so again, I would say Daniel is probably as strict as Olivia now. These two are the most strict.

Merily:
I think Izik’s the most strict when he’s in ketosis.

Dr. Pompa:
When he’s in ketosis? Yeah.

Merily:
Yeah. He is counting and he is…

Dr. Pompa:
Right now he’s not in ketosis.

Merily:
He makes us crazy. Stop counting. You’re there.

Daniel:
I’ve been in ketosis for three months now straight without a carb day.

Dr. Pompa:
Yeah. Yeah. Its true. Because he doesn’t like milk.

Daniel:
Yeah.

Dr. Pompa:
And Daniel’s detoxing. Izik’s recently detoxing, and so is Olivia off and on when she was in Spain.

Meredith:
-inaudible-. I don’t know. Okay, my computer is being a little weird, hysterically. Well, just to break it down, maybe there’s some people that are watching for the first time hearing you talk about ketosis, and we’ll definitely refer you back. There’s many Cellular Healing TVs where you can watch and learn a lot more about the Ketogenic Diet. But perhaps some people with family, kids, are wondering about the safety of the Ketogenic Diet for kids, for teens. Can you speak to that, and if there are any precautions there?

Dr. Pompa:
Yeah, I mean, like you said, definitely read the articles. And I think the biggest thing, especially with kids—I said make sure you read the articles, but I think one of the biggest things is just watching your electrolytes. The kids would start to get tired or something. I would always have to remind them to take extra electrolytes, especially for the first month. When you’re adapting, you lose electrolytes, and that can make you feel weak, more tired, even more irritable. So I think you have to be more cautious of electrolytes with children, with kids. And again, I mean, these, they’re more grown now, so this—it’s not like they’re babies here. I mean, I don’t think that ketosis has to be something that a kid does. It’s something that they wanted to do to take their health to the next level, ultimately, and their performance to the next level.

But yeah, I mean, besides that, listen, humans for thousands of years were all in ketosis. I mean, children, babies. I mean, the difference is is that most kids aren’t used to that, and they don’t—that adaptation can be rough, but again, anyone can be in ketosis. That’s the way humans are. When we look at different cultures, ketosis is what they did always.

Daniel:
I feel like teenagers do ketosis—if they’re going to do ketosis, it’s how much more of the way it makes you look. You look so much healthier, feel so much better. It’s definitely more looks driven. I get so…

Dr. Pompa:
It’s true.

Daniel:
Get lean and things like that.

Meredith:
Yeah, okay, so Daniel, what’s a typical day look like for you on the Ketogenic Diet now?

Daniel:
Oh, I don’t know. It depends. Some mornings I…

Merily:
A dozen eggs.

Daniel:
Yeah. I’ll wake up. Go to the gym, and then I’ll do my protein weight. And then I’ll do—I’ll make a dozen or so eggs and half pound of bacon.

Meredith:
For real?

Daniel:
Yeah.

Dr. Pompa:
That’s how he got this way, right? Yeah.

Daniel:
Yeah.

Meredith:
A dozen eggs, wow. Okay, that’s a lot.

Daniel:
Yeah.

Dr. Pompa:
You know what’s funny? When I was a kid, I made my mother make me a dozen eggs at a time. It’s so funny. I didn’t even know you were going to do that. I mean, that’s what I did too, right?

Meredith:
There you go.

Dr. Pompa:
Just getting bigger.

Daniel:
And then I only eat about two meals a day. That’s it.

Meredith:
Okay, so you practice intermittent fasting. So you do breakfast and dinner, like a brunch and a dinner?

Daniel:
A brunch and a dinner, I’d say.

Meredith:
Mm-hmm, and what would be a dinner for you?

Daniel:
Chicken or steak, some vegetable and I just eat a lot of it.

Merily:
They drink a glass of milk, raw milk we get, and they do a protein powder. If they eat a snack, they all go with that.

Meredith:
Mm-hmm, yeah and you’re asking—oh, go ahead, Dr. Pompa.

Dr. Pompa:
Yeah, I was just going to say Olivia eats two meals a day as well. What time do you eat your first meal?

Olivia:
Well, I intermittent fast until—I mean, I have a cup of coffee with a lot of whipping cream and coconut oil or butter in the morning. So I usually don’t eat until—it depends. It depends on what I’m doing in the morning, but usually 1, 2 o’clock. But if I’m at the gym in the morning, I have to eat earlier. I’ll have eggs, and like Daniel said, at night we’ll eat a lot of meat and vegetables so a little carb, but yeah.

Dr. Pompa:
Yeah, so she—1 or 2 o’clock is her first meal. Pretty much the very same that I do, that Merily does so one, two, three. Yeah, so…

Merily:
Him too.

Dr. Pompa:
Yeah, four.

Olivia:
But why is that? Because some people would think missing breakfast is dangerous.

Dr. Pompa:
Yeah, you’re right. Yeah, Olivia says why is that? Some people would think, well, missing breakfast is dangerous, and we have some articles on intermittent fasting. We’ve done some shows on intermittent fasting. What we call that is daily intermittent fasting where we’re giving our body time to rest. We’re giving our body time to not have to break food down, and we’re also giving our body time to burn its fat stores, which it gives you perfect glucose levels, which is really a way—it’s a restriction. Studies show you live longer. You live healthier. And it really, you know, it’s a way to be—to stay leaner, and honestly, you can even almost be a little more free with your diet when you do it. But some people, you have to adapt to get there. You can’t just start that.

Olivia:
Yeah, it took me a month to adjust.

Dr. Pompa:
Yeah. Yeah. Because she would try to—at first, she was just too hungry. She was just too hungry.

Olivia:
I was so hungry, but now I have so much energy.

Meredith:
Yeah, have all of you practiced fasting, all the kids?

Daniel:
Simon.

Dr. Pompa:
Yeah, no, I would say—I don’t know.

Merily:
Do you mean intermittent fasting or regular fasting?

Dr. Pompa:
Yeah, no.

Meredith:
Either, both.

Dr. Pompa:
Simon never eats breakfast just because he’s not hungry, so he intermittent fasts just by default. I shouldn’t say never but mostly. Izik, you—Izik’s, I don’t know. You eat three meals.

Izik:
I barely eat breakfast.

Dr. Pompa:
Yeah, barely eats breakfast but three meals. Dylan, you eat breakfast every morning.

Dylan:
I eat breakfast sometimes.

Dr. Pompa:
Sometimes.

Dylan:
But now I come in here and eat eggs. But I mean, I definitely get a snack. Not too much.

Dr. Pompa:
Right.

Dylan:
Yeah, I mean, it’s like a lunch thing for me. So I’ll eat a lot of lunch.

Dr. Pompa:
It was funny because Dylan and Olivia both worked at Whole Foods, and the funny things was—I can speak for Dylan because he told me this. He’s like, man, one of the best things of me leading Whole Foods is because I’m eating better now.

Olivia:
I disagree.

Dylan:
That’s like one of the…

Olivia:
I didn’t agree. I thought it was easier to eat…

Dr. Pompa:
Tell them why.

Dylan:
That’s one of the biggest things for me. I was in the grocery department, so I handled all the food.

Merily:
Yeah, stocking shelves and she was a cash register.

Dylan:
Yeah, stocking shelves and working there, you’re allowed to try stuff. So I would try a lot of the food.

Dr. Pompa:
So he was doing the healthy junk food, right?

Dylan:
Yeah. Yeah. You think Whole Foods, you shop there, it’s healthy. But it’s not. There’s a lot of junk food there.

Olivia:
Don’t be deceived.

Dr. Pompa:
Yeah.

Merily:
Right.

Dr. Pompa:
So he’s just going I’d get out of there. It’s like I’m eating better again. His skin cleared up. I mean, I feel better. Because again, people go, oh, your body on whole foods, you think it’s healthy. They were eating healthy junk food.

Meredith:
Yeah, plenty of healthy junk food there too. Not that we all haven’t enjoyed that from time to time. But have any of you guys done any of the longer fasts?

Daniel:
Yeah.

Dr. Pompa:
Daniel’s done a four-day fast. Olivia, have—Olivia’s done a four-day fast, Izik and Dylan, no.

Izik:
No.

Dylan:
No.

Dr. Pompa:
No. So there you go, split.

Simon:
What about me?

Daniel:
I’ve done it twice.

Dr. Pompa:
Yeah, Daniel’s done it twice, yeah, twice.

Simon:
What about me?

Dr. Pompa:
Have you done a four-day fast?

Simon:
No.

Dr. Pompa:
No. No.

Olivia:
I actually have…

Dr. Pompa:
Okay, he wants to talk. Simon has so much to say. Go ahead.

Meredith:
Simon, join the conversation.

Olivia:
I actually have bones and spam with a few of my friends, but we couldn’t find a crockpot. So being in college isn’t easy to do a four-day fast.

Dr. Pompa:
Yeah.

Meredith:
Yeah, it’s true.

Merily:
They couldn’t take up with one working burner.

Meredith:
Right, right, yeah. And then your friends smell the bone broth, and they’re like, “What are you doing?” Yeah.

Dr. Pompa:
Another thing, people always say, yeah, but what about—it’s hard to get discouraged while they’re—I can tell you this. That in Spain, it’s so very hard to eat the foods that you’re used to, and Olivia has stayed on the diet the whole time, first year of college.

Olivia:
My organic store is a 30-minute bike ride from my door.

Dr. Pompa:
She did it, right?

Meredith:
Oh, dedicated.

Olivia:
It’s about 30 minutes to my organic store every time I want vegetables. But I mean, the food in Spain is different, so there is a fresh market near me. So I do trust it more than I do in the U.S. But still, there are things that I would absolutely want when I go home: good butter, good milk. So I do go to an organic store.

Dr. Pompa:
You know what’s interesting, though? Oliva said she came out of ketosis at some time when she was there. I probably encouraged her to do that just to make it easier on her. And she came out of ketosis, and she said, gosh, you know, I was eating—not all the time. But she was eating some of their…

Olivia:
I’ll tell the story.

Dr. Pompa:
Go ahead. Tell them.

Olivia:
In Spain, I was eating all the time. I stopped doing ketosis -inaudible- diet variation, but I didn’t gain weight. I didn’t gain weight. I was feeling good up until I came home, and I ate a big bowl of pasta with all my friends. And then two days later, I gained five pounds just from—it just goes to show you how different the food is from Spain and America, I mean, emphasis on GMOs.

Dr. Pompa:
Yeah, right. In our last show, there were—one of our shows, we interviewed Stephanie Seneff, and she said, “Look, that’s the glyphosate.”

Olivia:
It’s a scary thing.

Dr. Pompa:
In Spain, they’re not using the glyphosate. She says that the glyphosate is the reason why people gain weight when they eat grains here. It opens up the gut type junctions and drives inflammation, and it drives weight gain, and I told her that.

Olivia:
People wonder why their people are so beautiful.

Dr. Pompa:
Yeah, it’s like they’re thinner. Yeah, it’s like they—yeah, no doubt. I mean, they eat more carbohydrates. They eat more carbohydrates, and yet, they’re thinner than we are. And according to Seneff and others, it’s the glyphosate used, the GMOs, so watch out. Watch that show with Stephanie Seneff.

Meredith:
It makes perfect sense, yeah. Well, so I’m looking at the Christmas tree behind you and talking about carbohydrates, what did you guys do over the holidays? How did that work over Christmas with food? Did you guys cook together? What kind of—how many meals did you share over the holidays?

Dr. Pompa:
Daniel said it’s easy. And we’ve always had great Christmases, and we’ve always ate our diet. Cellular Healing Diet always—is always part of our Christmas meals, Thanksgiving meals.

Olivia:
I think the only thing that was different was we made stuffing out of Ezekiel bread because we wanted to have stuffing.

Dr. Pompa:
Yeah.

Meredith:
Oh, keto bread stuffing. That sounds amazing.

Dr. Pompa:
Yeah, it was, but Olivia and Merily put together two amazing meals.

Olivia:
We walked through it.

Dr. Pompa:
Yeah.

Olivia:
What did we make the first night? The first night we made…

Dr. Pompa:
Lamb.

Olivia:
Lamb in the crockpot, she did that.

Merily:
Yeah, it was simple. It was salt, and pepper, and garlic, and shallots, rosemary.

Dr. Pompa:
Thyme.

Merily:
A little bit of thyme and then…

Olivia:
You did a kale salad.

Merily:
And I did this…

Dr. Pompa:
Kale salad.

Merily:
Like a braised kale with pine nuts and -inaudible- and that was fantastic too. It’s an old—that’s actually a recipe on Lorna Sass’ Complete Vegetarian Kitchen. And then we did—what was our other…

Olivia:
We did the mashed yams for the little one.

Merily:
Right, and then…

Dr. Pompa:
The mashed yams that Simon ate, probably, the whole bowl.

Meredith:
Yum.

Dr. Pompa:
We did natural cranberries with Stevia cream.

Merily:
That was Christmas dinner.

Dr. Pompa:
Oh, that was Christmas dinner, yeah, sorry.

Olivia:
Christmas dinner we did a big, big turkey and with Ezekiel stuffing. And then what else did we do? We did mashed cauliflower.

Merily:
And this cabbage slices that were chunks of cabbage.

Olivia:
Oh, yeah. We did cabbage with—just like a cabbage salad kind of.

Merily:
With walnuts, a walnut sauce, it was really good.

Dr. Pompa:
It was very good.

Olivia:
And for dessert we did a…

Merily:
And mashed cauliflower.

Olivia:
Yeah, I said mashed cauliflower, and we had some other salad. We had so much food.

Dr. Pompa:
Oh, the soup.

Olivia:
Oh, yeah, the barley soup.

Merily:
Oh, my gosh, that soup recipe’s on my Facebook. I was looking for a soup to make, and I made that. That was…

Dr. Pompa:
He was going—oh, my gosh.

Meredith:
What kind of soup? What was the soup?

Merily:
Simon just…

Dr. Pompa:
Simon, this one, the youngest, right?

Merily:
You can ask him.

Dr. Pompa:
Okay.

Simon:
I have a question.

Dr. Pompa:
All right, what’s your question?

Simon:
Can dogs go in ketosis?

Dr. Pompa:
Dogs are always in ketosis.

Merily:
Yeah, ours are.

Dr. Pompa:
Yeah, because they’re all eating meats and fats. That’s it.

Merily:
Ours are.

Dr. Pompa:
Yeah, they get zero—I won’t say zero carbohydrates, but probably 5 grams a day.

Meredith:
Good question, yeah.

Dr. Pompa:
Yeah, some of the vegetables that are in some of their meat. But that was a good question.

Merily:
Cats too.

Dr. Pompa:
But anyways, so Simon was raised in a different time. We had gone through a lot of stress. I had just gotten well, and we—after I had just started getting well—I can’t even say I was completely there. The twins came into our life because of a tragedy, and that changed life dramatically. And we went through all kinds of changes.

Merily:
He was six weeks old.

Dr. Pompa:
Stuff with—I explained on some past shows. That just tore up our family, family battle, court stuff, and a lot of stress. And Simon was raised during that time. So, of course, we weren’t even focused on what Simon was going to eat or eat. It just wasn’t on the radar. When life got very stressful, Simon pretty much—it was like, hey, he’ll figure it out, which is common, I would say, for the younger child.

Merily:
Yeah, sure.

Dr. Pompa:
It’s like, he’ll figure it out. He’ll eventually follow the older ones, right? It was that thing with Simon is he’ll figure it out.

Daniel:
I think he had us all fooled.

Merily:
What we didn’t know was he would bribe the older ones.

Daniel:
He definitely ate the healthiest out of any of us whenever he was younger.

Dr. Pompa:
It’s true. It is true.

Merily:
And by default.

Daniel:
And he’ll just eat everything, and he’ll eat everything on the table.

Dr. Pompa:
He became a disposal.

Daniel:
Yeah.

Dr. Pompa:
Yeah.

Daniel:
Instead of eating a carrot, he had a little bit of sugar. But then his diet slowly shifted.

Dr. Pompa:
Yeah, and he became a -inaudible-, like the dinosaurs that just eat pizzas and whatever. He was the first Pompa to gain weight. I mean, it’s like all of us. I mean, you can see it’s we practice what we preach. But this guy was the first to put on the…

Yeah, the poor kid takes ribbings, I mean, from these older ones. Trust me. He does. I mean, the Agouti joke, so Daniel coined—if you saw any of my past videos, there’s the Agouti gene gets turned on in mice, right, when they give them certain toxins. So Daniel kept saying “he triggered his Agouti gene,” meaning the obesity gene that triggered with the mice.

Merily:
And in his cell, that means Agouti work.

Dr. Pompa:
Yeah, his cellphone name is Agouti work. Meaning his Agouti gene is triggered. I mean, imagine… I say only the grace of God this kid is turning out normal, right? It’s like—he’s like—he’s ADD.

Merily:
We’re praying for him.

Dr. Pompa:
He got dyslexia from me. Okay, dyslexia, he got ADD from her.

[Crosstalk]

Dr. Pompa:
Yeah, and OCD—and these three are OCD, right, every little thing. So it’s like every label the poor kid has, but he’s brilliant. He’s so smart. Yeah, he really is. But anyway, so…

Simon:
I have a lot of issues.

Merily:
Don’t we all, honey. Don’t we all.

Meredith:
Everyone, we’ve all got them. You guys are real, though. It’s real.

Simon:
I’m real dumb in a way. I just don’t know—it’s like I have a—I don’t know. I made a flamethrower with gas. Remember that gas…

Dr. Pompa:
Oh, Simon almost killed our family.

Merily:
At least a couple times.

Dr. Pompa:
Yeah, because he does those things, right? He’s so—his brain wants to do things, right? So he—what did he do?

Simon:
Green Gas.

Dr. Pompa:
Green Gas, he was lighting it, almost exploded everywhere. We’re like, you can’t do that. I mean, he lit our Christmas tree.

Daniel:
He set the Green Gas can on…

Dr. Pompa:
On fire. I mean, every possible…

Izik:
And dad, he was hitting the Green Gas can with a…

Daniel:
Hammer.

Dr. Pompa:
Oh, yeah, Green Gas, very explosive, he was hitting it with a hammer all to get it to spark, to blow up. It’s like, I mean, one thing, he was pulled by a motorcycle, and he put…

Merily:
This summer.

Dr. Pompa:
A toggle bolt—like this pointy toggle bolt into plastic.

Simon:
It was that long.

Dr. Pompa:
And he was being pulled on a wagon. It snapped.

Izik:
It was a wood that was like a -inaudible-.

Dr. Pompa:
Luckily, his knee was up. It went all the way into his knee, into his meniscus, okay. So I mean…

Olivia:
Bottom line is -inaudible-.

Meredith:
Wild man.

Merily:
Okay, actually, the bottom line is pray for God’s mercy and protection over your children. Because that is the only way these guys have gotten to where they are and us too, by the way.

Dr. Pompa:
Yeah, honestly, and that’s a—only the grace of God that we have survived as a family and come together as a family. We have gone a lot of adversity.

Simon:
-inaudible-.

Dr. Pompa:
Let me finish with him though because in his defense, he now is on the diet.

Simon:
I did zero carbs.

Dr. Pompa:
Yeah. Yeah. He actually can really discipline himself when he wants to and…

Simon:
Zero carbs a day.

Dr. Pompa:
He’s on the program. He’s officially been on the program.

Merily:
He’s lost about 10 pounds.

Dr. Pompa:
He’s lost about 10 pounds already.

Meredith:
Wow.

Dr. Pompa:
And he’s eating healthy, and it’s getting easier.

Simon:
I get zero carbs a day on it.

Dr. Pompa:
He did it.

Meredith:
Wow. What are you feeling, Simon?

Simon:
I’m not sure.

Merily:
He always feels good. Don’t let him—that’s the thing about Simon. He doesn’t have the challenges right, so yeah, so he always feels well. So he doesn’t have the same value that all of us do. And obviously, given the fact that he has tortured himself to a different level than the rest of us willfully, we are—obviously, we’re trying to prevent that from happening. So if we can reel him back in, then that’s going to go a long way.

Dr. Pompa:
And Simon, all these kids would attest to this. When Simon’s eating carbohydrates, sugar, is he a different kid?

Dylan:
Yeah.

Dr. Pompa:
I mean, completely, right?

Izik:
Yep.

Dr. Pompa:
And they’re the first to say knock it off. Knock off the sugar. And they’re the first to say what are you eating? What were you eating? Because he changes, he doesn’t realize himself. Am I correct?

Izik:
Yeah.

Dylan:
Yeah.

Dr. Pompa:
Yeah, he doesn’t realize it himself what the food does to him. So he’ll go to the movies with Dylan, and Dylan’s like, you’re not eating that. Because Dylan’s like I don’t want to deal with you, right? I mean, it’s like it’s the—Simon on carbohydrates is a different Simon, and Simon on sugar is not a good thing.

Daniel:
He’s actually a good kid when he’s on the diet.

Dylan:
Yeah, he is.

Meredith:
Yeah, it’s a good reminder too that we all have different sensitivities to sugar and to carbohydrates. Even within the same family.

Dr. Pompa:
Mm-hmm, yeah, totally, yeah.

Meredith:
Wow.

Merily:
Anything else?

Dr. Pompa:
Anything else?

Simon:
-inaudible-.

Dr. Pompa:
Simon’s got a lot to say. Believe me.

Meredith:
Well, you can feel free to jump in. I know we touched on this a teeny bit earlier, but didn’t really go into it so just wondering about your experiences with True Cellular Detox with the CytoDetox drops. I know you’ve all taken them. If you can share some of your individual experiences, I think that would be really valuable to our audience.

Dr. Pompa:
I think so too because we have such a different thing.

Daniel:
Well, I think I have the most experience in the detox realm.

Dr. Pompa:
Daniel was using them before they were even launched to the public or even to doctors.

Daniel:
My lead was very bad. It probably still is not great, but I’ve just been really determined to get all out of detox the most effectively, I guess. And as you get on the detox, I guess, you start cycling, you start to figure out how your body works and functions and even more so than just my father can explain to me. Everyone’s different. So I found—I slowly find, myself, just the little things that work for me. I don’t know. Just how dialed in it has to be. Every day that I detox, I have to sauna. And then after I sauna, I have to drink so much water. Just help flushing it out. Then I’ll feel so bad.

Dr. Pompa:
Well, Daniel, when he first started with the CytoDetox, he could barely take, I mean, three drops, three times a day.

Daniel:
Yeah, something like that.

Dr. Pompa:
He could barely take it. How many are you taking now?

Daniel:
About 25.

Dr. Pompa:
Twenty-five, three times a day and he takes the GCEL, the BIND. He does everything that we do, right? I mean, he does True Cellular Detox. Now, like I said, he’s able to do more. Izik, he can do 20. You’re last cycle, how many drops did you do?

Izik:
Twenty.

Dr. Pompa:
Twenty, three times a day, he’s not affected by it, right? Olivia…

Olivia:
I just started.

Dr. Pompa:
Yeah, but it took her to the back. I mean, she…

Olivia:
Oh, I’m like—literally, I can only do a few drops right now. I feel so sick when I do it.

Dr. Pompa:
Yeah, so she did…

Olivia:
I’ll get there.

Dr. Pompa:
She’s where they are, right? I mean, so she just started doing the drops when she was in Spain. I’m getting emails and texts going, oh, my gosh, I feel like crap. What’s going on? I’m like, cut back your does down. Back your does down.

But Olivia, she’s faithful. She has her GCEL. She has her BIND. She has her MoRS. All the products, she’s doing it all. And Merily, she can do whatever doses too, right, and you feel fine.

Merily:
Yeah, I used to get really tired until you take—my second day, I was always really tired. With the detox drops, I take 30, 3 times a day. I don’t even know that I am detoxing. I mean, I’m pretty much like Izik. I mean, just go ahead and do it. No issues. Which, obviously, then I want some. I want some. And I’ll take Lipoic Acid with it too.

Meredith:
Okay.

Dr. Pompa:
Yeah, so—yeah and then the Lipoic—Izik, you did Lipoic and Cyto last cycle together.

Izik:
Yeah.

Dr. Pompa:
And he still did great. He was doing 100 milligrams, 3 times a day.

Izik:
Yeah, three times a day.

Dr. Pompa:
Yeah, so he did…

Daniel:
I cycle Alpha Lipoic every other cycle. And I—it does really well for me.

Dr. Pompa:
Yeah, so Daniel doesn’t do Alpha Lipoic with the Cellular Detox every cycle, every other cycle, which is really smart, actually. And I’ve done that with other clients as well, and so all of these kids have been on programs. What’s being raised by Dr. Pompa? You see our cabinets? It’s like I’m always putting them on different things. And so it’s—we’ve known with…

Merily:
He’s added on.

-inaudible-

Meredith:
He said that. Well, okay, we’re talking supplements now. So what do you guys do individually too as far as supplementation goes. Are there things that you always stick with and then cycle, or what’s in your medicine cabinet of supplements?

Daniel:
Well, me personally, I have a—I’ve always had a gut problem and bacterial. So I’m very focused on the anti-Candida and also really good bacteria. So I’d say I’m really determined and dedicated to definitely getting good supplements in every day but the GCEL also.

Dr. Pompa:
Yeah.

Meredith:
What were the supplements you take?

Daniel:
Oh, I always—I mix it up frequently. I think just so I get good bacteria. I’ll even do—I’ve just started taking -inaudible-.

Dr. Pompa:
Yeah, I mean, he’s been on NBC. He’s been on Prescript. He’s now on Restore.

Merily:
Number three.

Dr. Pompa:
Number three, number four. He gets Candida when he detoxes. The same, that was always my issue too. So he always has to knock down that. I mean, so he does—he’s been through so…

Daniel:
-inaudible-.

Dr. Pompa:
Yeah, NBC is that program. So he’s really good at taking them now, and I have to say this. I could never get any of these kids to take anything. But once they have a self-interest, and Daniel said it, of looking good, they’re all on their supplement program. It’s like they don’t miss. Yeah, Simon?

Simon:
What happens when…

Dr. Pompa:
Oh, no. Not good. Anyways, Olivia, what do you take?

Olivia:
I take lots of magnesium. I definitely have a magnesium deficiency. OsteoForce for my knee pain, OsteoForce for magnesium, Potassium for the NPO, for being in ketosis, that’s why I’m here.

Dr. Pompa:
Yeah, she does the GCEL, BIND, all that. That’s part of her program.

Olivia:
I mean, I have to admit, I don’t have as much as I do Spain as we have here, but I have what I need.

Meredith:
Yeah, just keep it simple. And are you going back to Spain for another semester?

Olivia:
For eight months.

Meredith:
For eight months. Wow, awesome, great.

Dr. Pompa:
Yeah, I mean, I have to say this. Our family, we—over Christmas I had time before Christmas Day to just pray over each one of these children, and we all testify to what God has done in our life this past year. And for us, even in the past how many years? It really is a miracle. And hearing the kids, every one of them had very specific insights to what God has done for them and our family. It’s just witness to how God can change so many things. And we’ve had some really hard times with our family, and just hearing their viewpoint from it, it was more…

Merily:
Mm-hmm, it was the best Christmas ever.

Dr. Pompa:
Yeah. Yeah, it was. I mean, it was just amazing because they all had such unique stories. And the one thing, Dylan said it, it was on my heart. He said, just the last year, just watching how our family—the tension has left. And one of our prayers and I know one of the promises God gave that we’d be a unified family because we came together through tragedy. It’s some really hard times in our life, and imagine losing your parents at age 7. Imagine, all of a sudden, you’re not the oldest anymore and all these stressors and tensions. And imagine the family fighting over all these things that really don’t matter and all of the stress that really—here we are. And to hear Dylan speak to that and it was right on my heart. That nothing makes Christmas better this year than seeing us as a unified family go through that amount of adversity, and here we are to make a difference in the world.

One thing that God put on my heart when I was praying over them is that I know that every one of these kids are going to be used in an amazing way and make a difference in this world. I know it. I know it’s because of our struggle that we had as a family, and I know that everything that we’ve all been through is part of that. And people watching this, it’s like we have a struggle. We have a battle. Look what God’s been doing. And just hearing these young kids testify to that, that’s huge.

Meredith:
Yeah, it’s so cool that you guys have just jumped in and walked the talk and learned so much in the process, obviously, too. I’m wondering. Are any of you interested in the future being a part of the health and wellness field? Have you thought about that?

Olivia:
Wait. Wait. I’m sorry.

Dr. Pompa:
She asked the question. Are any of you thinking about being part of the health and wellness field?

Merily:
We look to you.

Olivia:
Oh, yeah. Yeah. I always have really been inspired by my parents. And I’m actually going to State right now and getting the—I’m majoring in biology because my dream is to go to chiropractic school. Yeah.

Meredith:
Awesome, very exciting.

Olivia:
I can’t wait. I’m so excited.

Dr. Pompa:
Yeah, so we know we have one.

Meredith:
You got one.

Daniel:
We have such a background in education on all of this already and such an interest, I’d say, for me anyway. I’m so dialed into my body. And I feel like one way or another, whether it’s through business or something, I’m going to be tied into the health industry. It’s been such a -inaudible-.

Meredith:
Mm-hmm, yeah, regardless, yeah, someway, somehow.

Dr. Pompa:
With challenges because of the lead that he got from mom, and that’s really his interest. And now, he’s sticks more to his diet than all of us just because he feels better. I tried to get him into carb days, and he’s just like, I don’t feel good. He doesn’t want to do it. Anyone else? I don’t know. I think they’re business guys. You never know. But who knows. Maybe in a business way they’ll be involved, right?

Meredith:
Yep. You never know. And I think that’s so true too of just you got to let your kids be, and learn, and going off the diet, or exploring different fields. And it is just so important to let kids be open and to find things out for themselves because, really, that’s really the only way to learn.

Dr. Pompa:
Yeah. I think it’s—like I said, just letting your kids explore. And I think it’s very important to raise your kids on a healthy diet to form their taste buds in those formative years. The formative years, that’s the most important. That’s where the genetics get set, a lot of them, right? And the, of course, they can change later and get turned off. But something in the Bible, it talks about raising your kids a certain way, and then coming back to it later. And that’s what we’ve seen.

Merily:
And we always said that we do in our home is going to be the standard that we live by. And if they go out and experience other things, other places, that—I mean, obviously, they have. But when they’re home, they know what we do and why. And they’ve all been very well educated. But even if they have struggled to not want to fit in with their friends, we definitely give that room to experience that too.

Daniel:
I’d say, reflecting upon it, that looking back at how I was raised that I’m definitely going to be even harder on my kids.

Dr. Pompa:
I believe that here too.

Daniel:
No doubt, 100%, I’ll drive it home and make them—try to raise them to be the way that you guys tried to raise us, except with less lead and things like that.

Dr. Pompa:
Yeah. Yeah, right. Less lead, yeah.

Merily:
You’re one generation removed. So it takes four years to get—we know.

Dr. Pompa:
That one down there, I almost feel bad for her kids. I mean, they’re going to be five…

Meredith:
Cracking all whip.

Dr. Pompa:
Yeah, Olivia’s going to be—she’s going to be down in it.

Merily:
Yeah, she’ll be tough.

Dr. Pompa:
You know what? I’m going to be the—I’m going to be grandpa coming over. And you know what I’m going to do? I’m going to be going, hey, let’s go for ice cream kids like their grandfather did. And I said, oh, you can take them for ice cream as long as you take them home with you, right? It’s like, here grandpa, you get to go home. I can’t wait to do that. I can’t.

Meredith:
A lot to look forward to. That’s fun.

Dr. Pompa:
I’ll be coming over with a bag of ice cream. They’ll be like, get that crap out of here.

Meredith:
Maybe if it’s raw and organic and maybe Stevia might be acceptable but yeah.

Dr. Pompa:
In fact, I don’t even know if I could do it. I joke about it, but I doubt I could do it.

Merily:
I don’t think so.

Dr. Pompa:
Are there any last words? Being raised by Dr. Pompa and his Nazi wife, is there any other comments?

Daniel:
Yeah, actually, I have one last thing, that looking back on, I realized recently that I had so many health challenges before. And what I would be in my life if I didn’t have a father that knew all of this that could lead me in a way to understand how to get well. I honestly don’t even think I could be functioning to any extent of success. And it makes all the difference having my health back. Thanks, dad.

Dr. Pompa:
You’re welcome. Yeah, no, it’s amazing. His lead was literally off the chart just like his—just like hers, yeah, just like hers, just like his. They all got it from mom. I mean, they—we talked about that on past videos. If mom has lead, mercury, baby has lead and mercury. They get it in utero. And they were raised really well, had a great diet, and yet, they had massive issues. But it’s formed them to who you are today. No doubt.

And like us, but the twins, different, different family, different toxic source the way they got it. And yet, here we are. Gosh, I just think about that, right? It’s like, I mean, every one of us have gone through major health challenges that sit here. It’s like—and that really makes us who we are. And not just health challenges, but even challenges beyond that. It’s like if we didn’t have those challenges, we would not be who we are, right? You all agree with that?

Merily:
Yeah.

Daniel:
Yeah.

Dylan:
Yeah.

Dr. Pompa:
Yeah, absolutely. Yeah, that’s one thing I always want to tell them too. It’s like, look, the battles that you face in life define you. How we respond, how we react in the battles, in the hard times, in those valleys, is who you become. And I’m so proud of every one of them because we’ve been through a lot and these are amazing humans right here. They really are.

Merily:
They’re solid.

Dr. Pompa:
They are solid humans, and I’m so proud to be their dad, honestly, so proud of every one of you and proud to be a husband of this amazing woman. Thanks, Dylan.

Meredith:
Awesome. Wow, those are beautiful words, and it’s such a good reminder too to anyone watching that as you guys say, “from pain to purpose.” That God doesn’t waste any of these challenges in our life, and we can grow from them and learn so much. And Dr. Pompa, the knowledge that you share with your family, with me, with everyone has just made such an amazing impact on the world. And there’s a lot of people to get well and give so many people hope. So thank you for all that you do, and thank you to the Pompa tribe for sharing your stories, and your challenges, and your lessons, and everything that you’ve been through to lead you to where you are today.

Dr. Pompa:
Yeah.

Meredith:
So thanks, everyone. Thanks so much for watching, and we’ll close out for Episode 97. Hoping you have a wonderful New Year’s Day today and a really happy, healthy, amazing 2016. And we will see you next week. Dr. Pompa and I will be interviewing Dr. Dominic D’Agostino, and we will be talking about his research on ketosis and just doing a really deep dive into ketosis. He’s done some really incredible research, and we’re really excited to talk to him next week. So thanks, everyone and Happy New Year to all, and we’ll talk to you next week.

Dr. Pompa:
All right, Happy New Year.

Daniel:
Bye.

Dr. Pompa:
Thanks, you all.

Simon:
Bye.

Meredith:
Bye.