welcome to this week's episode of the geeta chopra show my guest today is mayor murat day he was sworn in on january first of this year he has lived in west windsor since one thousand nine hundred four and is a familiar figure in the small suburban towns political  served twelve years on the school board nine as president and then ascended to the city council last year he has also served as a counselor liaison to the affordable housing committee zoning board and the parking authority the mayor and i recently discussed at a friend's house how important it is for our youth to start eating healthy when i advised them on the show to discuss this he expressed great interest he grew up according to ironic principles in india which go back over five thousand years and he did eat healthy as a school child today we will discuss the importance of healthy eating for youth and opioid crisis for adults we have a long way to go to fix both of these complex issues but we are making substantial progress the mayor will enlighten us on his thoughts his plans and his vision as well daughter our two daughters in ninety four my daughter was studying in kindergarden so i said all of me them for school board i would like to contribute i didn't win that election i didn't win the next election but i won the school board election on the third try and i think i can contribute to the township that's the reason i do it so if i lose not a big deal life goes on you have fifty of the things you can do oh absolutely there's definitely a lot today right right great opportunity so i'm really glad you did when you're here today  we're actually going to talk about the health and opioid crisis today and healthy eating for children in school lunches so before we get into that can you just tell me more about your personal belief in terms of having a healthy lifestyle  as you get older i think something happens when i was younger i could eat anything i want and never again i eat now you and if i don't need anything i again read yeah there's something that gets turned on along the way and that happened to me so as you get colder people are living longer it's even more important to eat healthy so that you are in good and you can enjoy life that you have and they have energy to be able to perform your task your job especially when you have such an important role in society absolutely i mean  and there was some changes in school lunches too now one of the things is that school lunches some of the rules are going by the federal government so useful you know you're definitely needed to have certain stable certain healthier than buying food prepared outside because when you prepare at home you know exactly what ingredients are using how much oil you're using whether it's fried or big oh yes so that certainly helps bring in food from lunch ok well that's great improvement would you say that's a good improvement and moving in the right direction now do you think that they're making that connection with performance and what people what the students take in terms of food the certainly has i mean  for example if i eat too much at lunchtime i feel sleepy yeah so if i'm taking a test in the afternoon i definitely don't want to eat food that is healthy and that would make me sleepy and i'm certain there's a certain connection between  can do is as a society is it just spreading awareness i would have been sort of form when the kids are young and we are creatures of habit so i think it's important to start the kids young stress on the young i mean i was young once and you feel invincible you are nothing if you're going to stay just like that nothing is going to happen to you but it's important to let them know that no matter what time this is tough for anybody they're going to get older and and because now people have all kinds of things like you said in their forty's people are getting what people used to get in their sixty's and there's just so much pain and suffering out there about what can be prevented just by eating a healthy meal or eating you know having a healthy lifestyle from the time you're younger like  not starting when you're fifty five but if you start in your in your teens or at like you said high school lunches and sort of building from there the new you have a strong backbone i think yeah absolutely i mean it's better to start when you can then when you have to because the on the other side so that's for the children eating healthy and now we have the adults who are you know some of them addicted to painkillers and they just can't get out of the cycle they don't even know what why they're in it so why would you like to do about this or what's your comment see that if somebody heard you just manage to live with it or you take what are natural stuff like you know c n n said opioids by interceptors in the brain and spinal cord disrupting pain signals they also activate the reward areas of the brain by releasing the hormone dopamine creating a feeling of euphoria or a natural high so do you think that there is a natural alternative to this for example acupuncture can that i release in your segment or can certainly work i mean i have friends who have used that like you said even before in your day when they didn't have pain killers or even way before like our grandparents what did they do acupuncture was around back that coronado guy writes this yeah it's i think it's just getting the message out there that people don't want to believe it or they can't believe it or like you said the addiction so it because it creates a mental dependency so they just can't break away from that they think they need it more than they actually do anything that's part of the problem so absolutely proper of the problem are response for partly responsible for that yes i mean there are i mean they have had studies where they have found that certain doctors prescribes opioids more easily than other doctors and given what we know really get dependent on it and educate the public nobody starts by saying here i would like to get dependent on that slowly happens on knowingly nobody does it on purpose  r just generating an awareness when you first take the pill that this is something that you should if you take it as a last resort and you should stop as soon as you possibly can right and i think that goes back to the role of the doctor because who else can actually give that provide that information society can do that but when you go to see the doctor want on one i think that they know the background on these drugs they have experience prescribing them and the side effects kids you hear all the time that the kids are getting i'm really not sure how they're getting it but they are all loosing on it and that's causing bed and that is a prize that the society pays for treating them true but again as i said i'm not a medical professional so i can't make comments about who should get in what situations you should get it but we should treat all these drugs as anything that's not natural will have some side effect i mean there's nothing that's not natural that doesn't have side effect it has and we should be aware of for the side effects would the short term side effects and the long term side effects and deter the meaning of that something that is absolutely they had to go in tenth grade do it in during the summer camp when the summer camp needed a doctor's certificate so when we went to the doctor the doctor pulled out a chart and realized that she hadn't been to him since second grade and never been due because her shots were done and she didn't get sick so we never went to the doctor so that i've been fortunate in that regard and that's how it should be right that's that's how it should be so what did you do what can other people learn from you what can other parents or families of i don't i don't know but i usually always tell the kids that don't take medicine unless you have absolutely have to i mean that cannot be that's good advice that's not due first resort that's the last resort if you are really sick and substance that they shouldn't wow well that's why we need people like you to spread the message you know bring these things up and make a positive impact in society so what we're going to close now but you have anything you want to say to the youth of america in terms of having a healthy lifestyle i mean i i would tell i was young once and i'll say the same thing it when you're eighteen and younger you feel that you're invincible and nothing is going to happen to you but trust me you will get older so it's time to build a good habits when you're young and then they have big scary you rest of your life it's very difficult to change when you're thirty and forty because they have been sort already formed unless there's a life changing event the habits don't change so i would highly recommend you don't have a good habits when you're younger and so you can enjoy a long and healthy life that well words otherwise that's really good advice to live by and thank you so much for being here today thank you i have to have you and we hope you enjoy this episode and see you next week thank you