At 14 years old, Diya Nath is a health advocate, researcher, entrepreneur, innovator, and a publicist.
Yes! Read that again! This young lady blew me away and I am absolutely amazed by her and proud.
Diya’s mission is to change the world by introducing healthy smoothie recipes, her brand of superfood of flavonoids (Oxi- Blast), and also by introducing meditation and breathing techniques to live a better life.
Her research on the microbiome (E.coli) and how it is affected by different chronic medications that we take on a daily basis like metformin, losartan, ibuprofen, Tylenol, and even vape, shows the deleterious side effects it can have on gut bacteria. I had the honor of learning more about her work in this interview.
Tell us about Yourself and your Work?
Hi, my name is Diya Nath and I am 14 years old and I live in Chandler, Arizona. I love cooking, reading, playing video games and editing videos! I have published a book called Healthy Habits for a Healthier You, which is now a #1 Bestseller. It talks about my struggles with health as a little kid, 2 years of research that I did on the gut microbiome and gut health, healthy eating and healthy diet, and 21 smoothie recipes to help improve your lifestyle!
What Motivated you to Write this Book?
I dealt with many health struggles when I was younger and I wanted to share my story on how I improved my lifestyle with healthy eating to help young teens like me! I also did 2 years of research on the gut microbiome and how what you ingest affects it. Since your gut microbiome, which has millions of species of good bacteria, can easily be negatively affected and could cause tons of problems for your body in the future, I tied that in with my health story to help educate people on the importance of gut health and eating healthy! I also provided 21 smoothie recipes that people can use to start improving their eating habits today!
What Advice do you have for Young Adults who want to Change Habits and Eat Healthy?
Some tips are having a positive mindset and having a plan for eating healthy. Having a positive mindset can help you stop stressing and worrying about being as healthy as possible, becoming healthy fast, losing weight, etc. Stressing and worrying about things like when you will become healthy, when you will lose weight, etc. will make it harder for you to believe in being able to do it and hence, be harder to do. Believing you can do it and that you deserve it can help tremendously with how well you improve your lifestyle! You’re beautiful the way you are and I believe that you can do it! Another strategy is to make a plan on how you are going to improve your lifestyle. Will you meal plan, add more exercise, take time off from the screen, meditate, etc.? What are you going to do and how will you do it? How can you achieve it and what happens after you achieve it? Can you measure your progress? Write all of these things down and stick to it. Make a calendar to record what you did that day or what you plan to do that day and commit to it.
How Can Teenagers Handle Stress due to School and Extracurricular Activities?
Some ways to handle stress are meditation, taking time for yourself, planning your activities, and time management. Meditation is great for relaxing the mind and helps a lot with stress and anxiety. Since teens have many things to do daily, they hardly get any time for themselves. Using time management and activity planning, try to figure out a time for yourself and to relax. This period of time should be stress-free and should be about yourself and the things you want. Use this time to refocus, replenish, and relax so that when you have to go back to your other activities, you are more focused and have more energy. Using time management, you can decide which activities are most important and which could wait, how long you take for each activity, and how much time you have for other things. Time management is also where planning your activities comes in. Decide which activities would be more important or easier to do and put them first in your schedule. For example, if I have an English paper due and a chemistry worksheet and a questionnaire to fill out for a club, I would do the worksheet first because it would be due sooner and would take less time to do. Then, I would work on the questionnaire because it takes less time and you get more done in less time than if you started the English paper first. Lastly, I would start the paper and work on it in increments since it is a large assignment. I would work on a few segments in one day and then the others on other days.
What Advice do you have for Parents of Teenagers?
For parents of teenagers, it’s best to make sure your teen child gets the care, love, appreciation, and rest that they need. In their lives, a lot goes on and it’s hard to sometimes manage and decide what to do first and they hardly get time to catch their breath. Make sure you spread positive messages to your child and let them know that they are trying their hardest and doing their best. Inspire them to take on the challenges and offer small rewards after completing an activity. They will feel appreciated for their hard work and will have some fun collecting their reward! When you think something is wrong with your child (having a bad day, tired, anxious, depressed) talk to them and let them know that you are here for them and talk with them about your own experiences to help them feel understood and not alone.
What are Some of your Upcoming Projects?
I am starting a company called Oxi-Blast, which is a fruit and vegetable nutrient additive. These are rich in flavonoids (plant metabolites that are thought to have numerous powerful health benefits) and antioxidants (compounds that inhibit oxidation or the composition of free radicals, which are molecules that can cause cell damage through chain reactions), which are essential for our body. Since it is an additive, you can add it to things like water, smoothies, desserts, curries, soups, face masks, skin care routines, perfumes, plants, soil, etc. for a boost of nutrients, a huge step in having a healthy lifestyle!
Anything Else you Would like to Add?
I have a discord server called the S.P.E.A.K. (Support, Positivity, Equality, Acceptance/Assistance, and Kindness) Server which is for helping people talk about themselves, their opinions and their problems without judgement. Discord is a platform where people can join servers or groups which have different text and voice channels for chatting. You can also live stream and sync certain accounts to your discord account. You can also make your own servers for your own purposes which people can join. Then, we use breathing techniques and meditation to motivate people to help themselves! This is the link to join: https://discord.gg/pMkmJcf
How Do People Reach You?
People can reach me through email at business.diyasworld@gmail.com, through my Discord account Saki#0046 or my website www.diyasworld.com. Note that to reach me on discord, my username had to be put in exactly as I typed it. I can also be reached out through my instagram, twitter and facebook at diyasworld_1.
