In this episode, Greg Dickens and I discuss recent news on cultural susceptibility to optical illusions, on how a boy’s metabolic health influences his offspring’s health, and the effects of prenatal cannabis exposure. We then talk about the recent UK National Diet and Nutrition survey and how snacking affects the findings. We then talk about why typical Western snacking patterns are bad for children’s health, and how we can use snacking as a way to teach children to listen to their bodies and eat more nutritious foods. Finally, we discuss whether breastfeeding on the floor is better than breastfeeding on the couch.

This episode relates to this article (and references are here):

Topics covered

* How do cultural factors affect your susceptibility to optical illusions? [01:40 ]

* When should boys be healthy to set their kids up for better health? [04:48 ]

* What happens to babies exposed to cannabis in the womb? [11:28 ]

* What are children in the UK eating? [17:38 ]

* Is snacking bad or good? [24:06 ]

* How can we make snacking better? [35:34 ]

* Should you breastfeed on the floor? [38:33 ]

These other podcast episodes cover overlapping topics:

Notes

Rural Namibians struggle with the Coffer illusion in the other direction: https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/gxzcp_v3

A boy’s metabolic status when his voice breaks affects the epigenetics he passes on to his children: https://www.nature.com/articles/s42003-025-08121-9

Cannabis exposure during pregnancy affects babies:https://www.nature.com/articles/s41390-025-04209-4

UK National Diet and Nutrition Survey 2019 to 2023: https://www.gov.uk/government/statistics/national-diet-and-nutrition-survey-2019-to-2023/national-diet-and-nutrition-survey-2019-to-2023-report

Children with high dietary fiber consumption at 12 months of age are healthier age 6: https://www.mdpi.com/2072-6643/8/9/531

Katy Bowman’s breastfeeding ecology podcasts:

* https://nutritiousmovement.com/articles/breastfeeding-ecology-part-1-podcast-episode-72

* https://nutritiousmovement.com/articles/breastfeeding-ecology-part-2-podcast-episode-77

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