Episode #34 Three Simple Upgrades for Health
Back in Jessica and Beth's culinary school adventures, we learned about three key (and easy) things in our everyday diet that we can upgrade to improve our health. Rather than think that improvements in health and nutrition need to be dramatic sweeping changes, why not just stick with some basics of things that we consume every day, regardless of what kind of eating plan you follow? Listen in and let us know what you think.
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You are listening to Weight a minute, with Beth and Jessica, episode 34.
I'm Jessica Pearson, certified body image and weight loss coach. And I'm Beth Barnett Babel and a integrative nutrition therapist. Hey everyone. It's been a minute since we have shared some good old fashioned nutrition advice, and usually when people think about nutrition and advice, they assume that we just need to always make big sweeping changes.
But what is actually sometimes needed is returning to the basics and making sure that we are doing our best when it comes to the base ingredient. In culinary school, we had a very wonderful Macrobiotics teacher, and she talked about the importance of the quality of some of these key things, which were our water.
Salt and fats. And so this podcast is an honor of the lovely Tina and we hope you learned something new today. Yes. Water, salt and fat are three of my favorite things, . So I'm excited to talk about that. So first let's talk about salt. Okay. There definitely was a time thanks to diet, culture or bad medicine, right?
But it was like salt really got a bad wrap. , and I think it's still can, right? So like low sodium diets, however, are. the complete story, right? So when we hear people that are like, I've been put on a low sodium diet, it's not always necessarily the best answer for them or for everyone, right?
So we do know there are some conditions where definitely like excess salt is not ideal, right? But for kind of just like the regular people that are healthy and walking around the world like Los Sodium's, not necessarily the answer, right? So let's talk more about. Yes, so I will quickly address the whole, there are some people that do need to be on a low salt diet and primarily either because of genetics.
Some people are very salt sensitive, meaning that they have a smaller threshold of how their body, particularly their kidneys, are able to maintain their salt level. So they might genetically retain more salt. So they are salt sensitive and so therefore they don't excrete the excess amount, and so then it does affect blood pressure.
So having too much salt, the main effect is that it increases your blood pressure. Really, why so many people have high blood pressure these days. As a result of high salt in their diet is because a lot of processed foods in order to taste the way that they do have a lot of salt in them. So we've just gotten used to that salty taste.
And then the other reason why is because we don't have enough potassium from fruits and vegetables. To counterbalance all of the salt so many people can have. If you eat a lot of fruits and vegetables, I'm talking like in the neighborhood of six plus servings of vegetables and then, a few servings of fruit a day.
You probably will be getting enough potassium to counterbalance out a good bit of high quality salt in your diet. Before we talk about these fun facts about. , what kind of salt do you like to use? I personally use a sea salt for most things, like a really fine sea salt when it comes in this like red bang.
We used to always use the blue container. I don't remember the names of any of these at a culinary school. And so yeah, I typically use a sea salt. And then after that I like to use Himalayan salt as another one of my favorites. From time to time I use kosher salt. Yeah. New. What do you use just like you?
I think I have a variety. If you looked in my spice Pantry, there's six different kinds of salt , nice . One is because my parents brought some salts home from Hawaii, so I have some like fancy different salts, like a yellow and a pink and a black, like one's a black lava salt, which is pretty fun. I had those.
Yeah, I used to have those. I finally used 'em all up, took me forever because they, they're very coarse and. , it goes a lot. Lot of wet. It's like it's very salty. Yeah. So I just, I use those like for if I'm gonna make like a stew or a soup so that it will like dissolve into the water. It's not like a finishing salt.
Yeah. I feel like just saying the word finishing salt, people are like, what does that mean, ? So there's like the salt we put into the food while we cook it, or there's the salt that we put on top of our food and. Something that I remember Tina also teaching us is it's more ideal to cook it into your food than necessarily put it on top of your food.
But from a like culinary standpoint, who doesn't love like a flaky salts on top of a radish on butter, on toast or something. One of my favorites that, that is I love that as like a warm weather food. Yeah. So the macrobiotic way is to salt your food three times. So you add.
a pinch of your salt over three times of cooking it. I personally, when I make a lot of things like to do most of the salt wall cooking and then add that little bit at the end to bring out all the flavors. , especially when making beans or things with a lot of spices in it. Yeah. There's, yeah, there's so many ways to use salt, but I definitely just typically use sea salt as my base and then if I have these extra salts also, I love smoked salt and think You like smoke salt too?
Yes. I love smoked salt. Yeah, Himalayan is nice to have on hand. I usually don't use kosher. I don't know why. It's just, it is in more cos salt that I don. I don't know. It's something about the way it's packaged. I don't spit box . It's in the way yeah. But I do like it, so I like all the salts. I just usually try to avoid, like the table salt as whenever.
But if I'm at a restaurant, I'm not like, never gonna touch it, , I just, like the variety. Okay. The types of salt that we just all mentioned. One of the things that is important about the types of salt is the source and the processing of how to get that salt. So table salt is pretty much like extracted.
out from a mine typically, so it's not really well cared for, doesn't have very many other minerals in it, like sea salt. I like to use because it does have some other minerals in it, including iodine. So table salt now has to have iodine in it. And the reason is because there are many regions of the world, including the United States, where there's not a lot.
Iodine in the soil. And so because of that, people would get goiters on their thyroid. And so then those, these goers cause health issues, obviously. And so then they started to iodide the salt so we could get enough iodine. because we were consuming salt with all of our food. But with sea salt, you do get some of that in there.
Kosher. I can't remember if I've saw, I relooked this up because kosher is mind like table salt. Okay. There is no iodine added to it. Oh, okay. But it is kosher. So it's been through the process that makes it kosher. Yeah. And it's like I think about the iodine. Sea salt also does not have iodine added to it, but it correct.
It's natural. The natural, right? Yes. So it's the natural iodine. So that's probably one of the reasons why I do aim for sea salt over other salts, because I do wanna get some of the iodine in. But you can also supplement with iodine if you wanna, yeah, it's in my multivitamin. Small amounts. So the argument is often there's not enough iodine in sea salt.
And my counter-argument is, if your only source of iodine is salt, then your diet as a whole needs some support in increasing its nutritional value. . And then, so I also was looking at Himalaya and salt because a lot of people call it Himalayan sea salt or just Himalaya salt. And it's what? Yeah, so it used to be on a seabed, but then we had a formation of a mountain, which is, the seabed or those tectonic plates push and form that land upward, creating a mountain.
So then that sea salt bed is now. in the mountain, and so then they extract it out of that. Yeah, so that's why it's called Himalaya and sea salt, but it's really in a mountain. Yeah. Yeah. I was reading as still one of the more pure options because obviously the sea salt mining that is happening now includes potential plastics and other.
Things that we don't necessarily want in our foods. But what was interesting is that I did see a stat that said 90% of table salt has microplastics. But I couldn't find a stat that said what percentage of sea salt had microplastics in it. So there's not like actually a ton of hard data on this.
There's not, and they're not gonna be able to test it, to be honest with you. And they also say that fish has microplastics in it as well. And so the thing is our exposure to microplastics are so high that if we start taking out everything that is microplastics, we are left with basically nothing. Not much, we're really discounting a lot of foods that still offer a lot of nutritional benefits, so I really don't think it's necessary to avoid.
Sea salt and sea-based protein for the microplastic content. You know that? I think that's right. Less of a worry. Also if you're gonna be that concentrated on plastics, like first do a hard look at the amount of other plastics in your life. Yeah. Because that's a lot easier to have control over.
Yeah. Cuz especially that's one of the things that I look at, which we can talk about in fats I suppose, but try to buy a. Some of those things. In glass. In glass because of the plastics. So anyways, yeah. I'd rather worry about my plastics and microplastics in other sources. . Yeah. Yeah. So yeah. So before we talk about the benefits of salt, just.
Kind of want to glaze over. So a variety of salts is great. You don't have to stick to just one. And, looking for some of those sea salts or Himalayan salts are gonna also provide more natural mineral content than say like a table salt or a kosher salt. Correct. Oh, yeah. And quickly, like just, what is mssg and sodium nitrate?
These are salts that are basically made in a lab and we're not gonna talk. , whether those are good or bad, but it is just it's science, salt versus natural salt. Okay. Yep. . Okay. I feel like that could be a whole other thing, so we'll just of leave it there. Okay. So why do we need salt Beth?
Okay, so the reason why we need salt is that it is a major part of our electrolytes system, and that is what balances out the water between in cells and out of cells, so that electrical charge that is needed. And so that is important. It also is an important factor in blood pressure regulation, which the kidneys help to maintain that balance by either holding onto salt or excreting excess salt.
That's like the main reason. And so if you are. Not consuming enough salt. Sweat a bunch out. If you live in Texas and you happen to walk more than five feet . Just kidding. We're sweating a lot this summer. So anyways, it can cause headaches, muscle cramps, the same as potassium. It helps with some of the brain things.
So anyways, so SALT has a wide variety of metabolic functions, but its main one is electrolyte balance. So that way we have that normal electrical charge between inside and outside the cell water, incorrect balances inside and outside of the cell. And then also to maintain blood pressure. So we don't want low salt because then sometimes that can affect getting enough blood pressure too high.
too high blood pressure causes damage to, what are those things called? . . You know our vessels. Thank you. Our vessels. Big enlarged vessels. And then, yeah. Yeah. So salt is gonna help keep you hydrated cuz we know that salt holds onto water. Yes. And so we don't wanna be dehydrated, especially in the summer, but yeah.
And really like your kidneys are efficient and at excreting the extra salt assuming you don't have any kidney issues. But we don't create sodium if we don't create it, but we can pull it. From other places along with magnesium and calcium. So we don't wanna pull it from our bones because that's not ideal.
I also read, I've pulled these numbers where it said the U S D A recommendation. First all it was 23 milligram or 2300 . Yeah. Very different, but then, This Instagram doctor, which I'm sure is fully factual. Oh yes, I'm sure. But he does talk a ton about salt and I really liked what he had to say, so therefore he must be right.
Just kidding. But what he was saying is somewhere above that, closer to three, up to even five, depending on your activity, and you know how much you're sweating. Yes. He's gonna be a better balance for a lot of people. Yeah. , 2300 milligrams is one teaspoon of salt. That's not very much. Yeah. So if you make, a giant pot of stew, I guess I'd probably put like one teaspoon in like. a six survey. So then that's not gonna be very much. Yeah. So yeah. So I think you can go upwards, assuming you have normal blood pressure if you are sweating because you have to replenish that. and if you were getting lots of potassium rich sources. So that's what really matters is being able to balance it out there.
And so if you ate a bunch of potassium rich foods and almost no salt, you would actually have the other one. The when you have too much potassium, which can cause heart attacks and death. So it happens. Yeah, I was just googling a McDonald's hamburger to see how much sodium it , but it's actually not, it was, it sounds, you ran, it said five 10 mil milligrams, so it's, I thought I was gonna say like 2000 oh.
Yeah. It's not so bad. I But it's still like a lot of times process, more processed foods, condense the amount of salt in something versus if you were to make it and add your own salt at home. And that's why a lot of times when we get people cooking in their own kitchen at home people are afraid to use salt or to add salt. But I'm like, it's definitely okay to season your food with salt. You want it to taste good. And. You're never gonna add as much salt as a restaurant would or processed food would. Yeah. Because it would be like impossible to do it. Yeah. The most salt foods pro, in terms of like foods you buy at the store are frozen foods.
Cause it helps with taste after it gets heated up and also helps with preservation. But the other thing is canned foods because it really helps in preserving the foods. So those are the two main places, like the soups tend to be the. I, from what I remember. And then of course, like things like chips and whatnot will have a good amount of salt, but by and large, those are the two biggest sources of salt that we would consume the outside of a restaurant.
Yeah, if we were buying those types of foods from the store. I did read one final fun fact that I knew would be sad for both of us, which is that coffee and caffeine. Complete sodium. So it just, I currently am only on one cup at decaf cuz I just got off this detox. Or I'm about to finish it I, I dunno, but I, it sounds like two cups, which would be a close to a hundred.
Is it milligrams of caffeine? One cup is about 30 to 50. , they vary depending on what kind of coffee you're drinking, but that's about 600 milligrams of sodium loss just from having two. Oh, cause of the diuretic. Cause yes, coffee at acts as a diuretic. So it's pulling out more salt. Yeah. So if you're drinking like six cups of coffee, then you're losing quite a bit of sodium, which also.
This is totally in theory, but it's if you're losing that much sodium and you're drinking that much coffee, it's like that would be potentially not great for your kidneys, for your bones, for everything else. So just, yeah, so that's interesting how that's functioning. So it's like revving up your adrenal system, but making it more challenging on your kidney system, which also helps.
Oh, fascinating. Okay. Isn't it? Yeah. Yeah. I know . Yeah. All right, let's move on to water. Okay. This topic. Yeah. Water is life . So if we can make it much longer without food, then we can without water. So if, we get into a situation where we don't have access to food or water, we will only make it like two, two, maybe three days without water.
So it's really important to us. Our body is mostly made of water, so having good quality water is like tops for me. Yeah. What do you do at home for better water? So currently our best thing is we have the home. Water filter that we've, hooked up to our water line though that is because in Austin we have chloramines which is ammonia plus chlorine.
So we filter that out and then it filters out some of the other stuff. Is it getting everything? Probably not, but I also. Don't wanna go to reverse osmosis yeah. Yeah. I think it's just doing what works for you. It doesn't have to be perfect, which is our message usually across the board, right?
Yeah. Like we're just, we can take it up a level, whatever that means for you. I don't know. We bought our house in 2019 right before the pandemic. It's like a 10 year old home. We did not invest in changing the water system, so we have a Burque filter, so we're just filling the burque and drink out of the burque.
And that filters out like bacteria, heavy metals. One of the big things I think is really important that we don't talk enough about in this world is the pharmaceuticals, that are just floating around in our water and by pharmaceuticals it could be ibuprofen, it could be hormones from birth control.
There's so much. Yeah, there's that. And then there's also from runoff as well, like I've read a number of studies about glyphosate. , which is, from roundup type products, getting into the water supply as well, so that coming in through the regular water supply. Yeah, that's fun. I saw a post that they were like, this was what an Austin water pipe looks like on the inside, and it's just so old and it's filled with so old gunk and I was like, oh god, . And I think that we relatively compared to a lot of other places and cities have pretty decent tap water. , by comparison. , it's just interesting to think if we have decent, what does bad look like?
I don't know, but it looks like Flint, Michigan is, oh yeah. That's the ultimate extreme. That's the worst you can do, right? So yeah, it's just over time, some of things that are in our control and some things are not. Like the aging infrastructure of your city. Definitely. Can play a role and that sort of thing.
So it just really I do my best. It's probably not, but I also don't worry myself sick about it either. No. . So there's that but I know, like when I used to live in the Dallas Fort Worth area a long time ago, and then even when we lived in the outside DC. The water smells like straight up pool water because it's just it's so strong of chlorine that it, you can smell it like when you turn on.
Yeah. I was like, because even back then I wasn't as into these things as I am now and I was like, I can't be good . Yeah. Have you ever been anywhere where it smells like sulf? Coming out of the tap. Only places that are on well water. Yeah, that's it. That's the only place. Yeah. And the place I stayed in New Mexico was since it was out on the desert, it was well water and it smelled sulfur free, but I've smelled worse.
Sulfur water. , . Oh yeah. Do you care? Do you care about pH? I do. But this is tricky because. It's hard to measure. I guess you could get those little strips and see, what the pH of your water is, we want our water to be neutral or alkaline. When it's alkaline, it has more minerals in it.
We are already acid producing individuals in acid production does create disease, and we do have buffering systems within our body to bring the acid loaded down. But the breakdown of the foods we eat of carbohydrates, proteins, and fats, naturally creates acid as well. And so I wanna minimize my water adding to.
as much as possible. Do I measure my waters pH? No. Am I curious now? Yeah. . . So now I'm like, oh, I might go see if I have, I think I have some test strips. I think they're here. Have Have you heard of the Kagan machine? Yeah. I had forgot all about it and then the place I went to in New Mexico had one of those, and it was so fascinating, using it.
And it wasn't that hard. The gal had bought one on. Craigslist for $500, which was a Oh, that's a deal. Steal. Yeah, it was a total steal. Cause they're usually way more expensive. They're like 3000 at minimum. Oh my gosh. Yeah. So it was super neat and it was like a very easy process to use. They have to clean it a little bit more because of the well water.
But other than that, like it was pretty interesting. So I, from time to time will go. Here in Texas by Crazy Water. It's from, I love Crazy Water. It's from, the Wells. Wells in, where is that from? Mineral Springs. Something. Springs something somewhere up near the Dallas Fort Worth area.
And they have all these different mineral wells concentration, so it's like natural. mineral water and you have three different levels and it's really all about like taste. Cuz some people really don't like that taste of the highest mineral content. Water. I love it. The number four, this is gonna sound weird, but it tastes like milk to me.
I dunno. It's like the calcium. Yeah. Or what? It was like smooth. It almost tastes creamy. Yeah. I can't, I haven't had the four in a really long time. I usually get three. I miss it and I will say if you drink like reverse osmosis water or distilled water or anything like that, you do need to make sure you're getting extra minerals.
In either putting them in your water yourself. There are different ways to do that, or making sure you're getting the extra from food because it strips all of that out. That mineral content that we get from our water is actually an important source of our amount throughout the day. So if you're drinking reverse osmosis, distilled water, that type of thing, please.
replete it with more minerals. Yeah. So this kind of goes without saying, but I feel like we have to say it here, which is single use plastic water bottles are not ideal for many reasons. We don't really wanna drink the water out of plastic whenever possible. Not that we never do it.
There's, there's times that it happens. Yeah. To our best stability, get a refillable water bottle and try to use that as much as you can. And then we also need to address the bubbly water. The sparkling water that we all, it seems like as a society, we've really taken to over the last, five to 10 years, people are like if I drink this, do I still have to drink regular water?
And the answer is yes. Yeah. Yeah. Your body cannot handle that much bubbles. I guess it could, but it's not really that, it's not ideal for you to consume that much carbonation. There are some that are better than others. There's a compound in Topo Chico that has been there. They did a study on it.
They forget the sciencey name of it, but they tested it and it's, can be cancer causing, I believe, I don't know, some. Additive that they add, but they have since reduced the amount of that it contained because Topo Chico contained the most of whatever it was. And so that has been reduced, but it's still there.
But like all those gas bubbles are challenging. So if you're struggling with excess belching and flash lens, maybe look to see how much Yeah, just general water you're. Bloating. Just people are like, I don't know, I can't stop burping. And then they're like, oh, I do drink four cans of smoking water. Yeah. So that does like, that we're just not our pipe that goes from mouth to anus is not designed to have that much gas in it.
Or air bubbles. So that's like when people eat really fast, they get a lot of air in there and can cause discomfort as well. So just, think about that. Yeah. I like to have it as another option because mostly I'm only drinking water, so sometimes I'm like, Ooh, my sparkling water is so exciting.
But I do, I try to keep it to one a day. Have you been that? So yeah, I have gotten to since, we've had to drink so much water this summer, more so than usual. I have really fallen in love with the trace minerals, electrolyte packets. There's like tons of flavors. There is a smidge of Stevia in it, but it doesn't have that hit you over the head Stevia flavor.
There's just some things where you just can't avoid it. And so I have to say that I've really enjoyed that because I actually f. Feel like I'm getting hydrated if I have at least one of those a day. I felt like I was, could not get hydrated just because of how hot it was and how much we were sweating or are sweating.
So I gotta . Yeah. Got those electrolytes, which just goes back to the salt, right? So yes, like water and salt, our friends. Okay, so let's talk about oil. Okay. So this one is like a big one that I feel like we never, people really don't, , that we work with, really don't quite. Take me serious on this one, but the quality of our oils is like really important and I really would like for people to really start to pay attention to this more and start to make these changes.
One of the reasons why I feel like people don't feel well when they eat out frequently is because of the quality of the oils. All of our cells have this what's called a lipid bilayer. So it is a fat with a little fat tail and then there's a little fat clo and then like these little, fat tail and then another little fat on the other side.
And so this like protective layer. So you gotta get, think back to however long it was that you last did. Biology soft. Yeah, so it like our, all of our cell membranes are fat-based and it's really important because the, that layer, the phospholipid bilayer is there to help like decide, what is the concentration of water electrolytes across the cell.
They determine what else can come through the cell so it doesn't make your cells all open and leaking. Everything can come in and out of them because that could. Total chaos. It also is really important for communication, so there's a lot of like little messengers that happen on it. I, there's these really cool cellular videos where there's like this, I don't know exactly what the molecule is, but you can see this other like molecule that's got fats on the bottom and it's basically this like walking molecule, walking across these cells and it's so fascinating.
Our cell wall is really important. We don't want it to be too rigid and that can happen from eating lots of saturated fats or from eating low quality fats that have been oxidized, meaning more air. It's been turned and added more oxygen to them, another oxygen compound to it. And so that can cause issues as well.
Cause her body doesn't use it in the same way. So really I think that this is super, I. When we were talking about the little walking molecule, I was thinking about hormones, right? Which also like cholesterol and hormones, those are fat based. Some of the fat based, yeah. Yeah. Those are all fat based, right?
Yeah. So if our foundation of our fat layers is not doing well, then our cholesterol and our hormones are not gonna be doing well. The cholesterol is from cholesterol, so you, so we make some cholesterol. So if you were a vegan, you can still make cholesterol. However, sometimes people don't make enough cholesterol, and so then you won't make enough hormones, so the quality of your cholesterol, is important, and that goes with animal fats.
Yeah. So it, it's a compound within the fat structure, but it's its own compound. But they're found together in plant-based foods. We wouldn't find cholesterol, but we would find fats. But the quality of the cholesterol does matter, the amount and types, because yes, cholesterol is the foundation and goes on to make our fight or flight hormones that we do need.
We need cortisol. It helps wake us up in the morning and then keeps our energy going. If something does happen and we need to have a fight or flight moment, it is available to us. It also then goes on to make. All of our sex hormones and is important in that way. So we definitely need cholesterol, but the type matters.
And so if it becomes oxidized, then oxidized fats cause inflammation and inflammation creates disease within the arteries. Yeah. Did you, sorry, did you talk about the saturated versus unsaturated? Saturated versus unsaturated fats? So typically what we'll hear about is saturated fats and then all other fats.
Saturated fat is predominantly animal based, but it can also be in the tropical oils like palm and. Coconut oil and some of it is good, like we need some saturated fat is helpful for us but all of our fat to come from that is not helpful. And what that means is that it's a carbon structure.
So fats are carbon structures and so there's no double bonds. It's just a straight carbon chain. And so it doesn't have the flex. And so with. Fats, like the monounsaturated fats, they have some double bonds in there and then that creates some of that, that flex in there. And so it's good to have that, that mix in there.
Which goes back to what we were talking about, salt, vary it up. We don't have to be married to one kind of fat and be obsessed or Yeah. Overthink it too much. Keeping it in mind and usually what I think is like we can always upgrade the types of fats that we have at home so easily and start to cook more at home.
Using these fats like you could still make a cheese enchilada at dinner. Something that you would eat out that is comforting and delicious. But just upgrading your, fat and salt is gonna be a huge improvement versus going to take out, because we know that restaurants are trying to profit, they have to make money.
The oils that they're buying are gonna be the lowest quality because oils are expensive. Even the cheap ones at mass quantities are gonna be expensive. So most restaurants, luckily in Austin we have a couple that are invested in upgraded oils, but most. Yeah, so anytime you're cooking at home, if you have, invested in some of these nicer quality oils, that's gonna make a big difference.
Yes. Yeah. So the science is really out there about the how important mono NCES fats are in terms of heart health. Versus even polyunsaturated fats, which are some, those are like your grape seed and vegetable oil fats. So your monounsaturated, or the MFA, as we like to call them, is extra virgin olive oil and avocado oil.
And then the pfas are most of your other vegetable and seed oils. I can't remember. Flax, I think is a pofa, I think you say poof. Pfa . Yeah. Polyunsaturated fatty acid, , . But it's a lot, it's a lot easier to say pfa and MUA than to say polyunsaturated fat. This is my new fat, favorite word. Fat. Yeah. I'm so glad you read that because I feel like the internet is against seed oils right now.
Like it's all about happening again. Are we going back to. Yeah, they're like, seed oils should be banned. We should just, arrest people that are making seed oils. Cuz the wellness on the internet goes full extreme. Wh why? Just they think, oh, yes, there, there are some that are not ideal.
Would we be better to eat the actual seeds? Yeah, definitely. But there's a place for them. If you're going to use high heat cooking, like I am definitely not opposed to grape seed oil. I just, there's a time I do enjoy sesame seed oil. I think it's delicious. I like to use it. Yeah. But you have to be careful with how high of a heat you go with it, because whenever we do use high heat and oxidize them, they do become inflamm.
For us. So we do need to be aware of that. But there's a time and a place. And when I should also point out that this is like the consistency of your fat intake is one meal a week. That's gonna have beef, fried food gonna take out your cells? No, probably not. Like this is what are the oils that, and fats that you're consuming on a daily day in, day out basis versus that one-off meal that is potentially fried or Yeah, oxidized or whatever.
I wish I could know, like when I'm sauteing something, what is the temperature? I've never actually thought about that until right now because I will buy a high heat oil for a stir fry, but I'm not using a walk, and like in a restaurant, they do use really high heat because they have those huge burners and they're trying to cook really quickly or at home.
I'm like, how hot am I really getting? I don't even know. I think I looked this up once. It's not very, I didn't go very far. I got bored. Is that, I think medium heat is around 300 to three 50. Yeah. Yeah. And so you start going, getting up to high. And this also depends on your stove. Like Gaspers is like gas versus electric and induction.
There's a wide range of what high means on your stove. Sure. And so high can be anywhere. 400 up. Yeah. Which also an easy way to know there's a difference between steam and smoke. And if your fat is smoking in a pan, then it has gone above its smoke point, which is, if for whatever reason that happens.
I usually, it's usually cuz I put the fat in the pan, I walked away and then it burned. So I will almost always just clean it out. I don't do that anymore. My hard rule is don't walk away from the stove. I wish I could say that about myself at least twice a week. I'm like, oh crap, . Yeah. My husband will turn the heat on the burner the strongest burner on the highest amount on walkaway, and I'm like, dude, you can't do that.
It's gonna it will bite you back if you do that. So that's just one of those things. You gotta watch the stove or if you do need to walk away, turn the heat way down so that you don't have to ruin your meal or yeah. Reuse your oil cause. So by and large, I would say that your primary fat should be extra virgin olive oil.
And I don't buy Italian. , extra virgin olive oil because most of it is not real. It's been altered in some way. They did, I don't know if they changed their ways after they did the study to see like what's what. And most of it was like not all olive oil. A lot of it is old and has gone rancid.
So if you open. Oils And what, how would you describe that smell that of a rancid fat? I don't even, you just have to use your intuition and know that it doesn't smell right. ? Yeah, like it doesn't smell right. It should have either no smell or like a slight fragrance like extra virgin olive oil, depending on, where it's from, can be.
Fragrant in the way that it tastes and smells. So it's just like a, it's a weird smell. But anyways, so always smell that your oils, avocado oil is, can be really helpful as well. I keep that around. But when you get into the outside of the extra virgin olive oil, what is happening is they're trying to get, they're trying to maximize their profits and so they are going to do a second.
And I don't know if they do, but maybe even a third press of the olives to try to extract anything out. But in order to do that, they have to add hexane to it. And HEXA is a chemical. And so you're adding hexane and olive oil to get non extra virgin olive oil. . And then I do use butter, but I use grass fed butter like the Kelly Carry gold.
Carry gold, thank you. Carry gold butter. I like to use those. And then some people use GE and that's fine. Gee works cuz all the milk, it's just butter with all the milk solids removed. So if you struggle with. Dairy, then gee could actually work for you, but it does not bake well. And then what about tallow or like animal?
Yes, there's gonna be glider fat. There's higher saturated fat, so it's higher saturated fat. And then the only caveat to that is you wanna know where that came from, right? . And so if it's was, a pasture raised grass-fed tall grates, if it was feed. Tall probably, it's gonna be not good quality.
It's gonna be oxidized. So yeah. So that is important. And then the other place that if you eat animal products that your fat matters from is when we eat animal fats. What they eat determines the quality of their fats. Then determines how it functions in our bodies. So for example, we keep seeing all this, the stuff that coming up about pasties and grassfed and all of that.
And so what happens is like if they. Eat pasties. They're eating their natural diet, so they're making more omega-3 fatty acids and less omega six arachidonic acids. And so when we have more arachidonic acid come into, they are have more arachidonic acid and they're marbling and we consume that, it is much more pro-inflammatory and it's going in an inflammatory process.
Versus like the omegas or other fats in being metabolized in a different way to be beneficial for us. And so the quality of our animal protein does matter and a lot of it has is because of the fats that we're consuming. What about like nut oil and not like peanut oil obviously, but those little jars that we like that have like hazelnut oil or pecan oil that are no heat whatsoever.
Yeah, those are just like finishing. They're finishing oil, so they're really good for like salads. You've cooked something and you want that little, that SL flavor. To impart a little bit of that flavor. Then you would put it on that. Yeah. Those you cannot heat at all. Yeah. And all of these oils need to be purchased in not clear bottles.
So it needs, because exposure to light oxidizes them ex and they need to be closed. So like putting them on the counter with those little open little tops, it needs to have a little, that little flap that can close. Because when it's exposed to oxygen, it gets oxidized, which then changes the fats, becomes inflammatory.
Heat, oxygen light cause them to change. So we just need to take care of them. And then flax oil. Is really dicey. You gotta be really careful with it because it oxidizes super, super fast. So have to buy it in the refrigerated section in those black bottles. Keep it cold. But really, if you're going for flax because of heart health, the research is really that flax seeds, fresh ground, flax seeds is a better way to go for cholesterol and heart.
So if you didn't wanna grind them all yourself every day, , then so you could grind a, you should get a coffee grinder or something like one of those little small ones and you could grind quite a bit up and then store it in the freezer and then get out the spoon fold. That helps every day.
That would really help. But buying them pre-ground at the store in the bulk bins and stuff like that, those are just, they're not, they're for sure. Yeah, they're oxidized, but even if you ate them whole, you're not getting any of the fats out of them anyway. The shell is too strong. So you're, they're basically used to create a gel that helps to move things through your intestines.
I love the gel. That's my favorite word is mucilaginous.
Black seeds are mu mucilaginous, like chia seeds, right? So if you put liquid in with chia, we know that it causes that. Situation. Yeah. Yeah. So I, to me it's super important, like just the oxidized L d L is like one of the most problematic compounds that we have in heart health. It creates a lot of issues.
It's contributes to the inflammation of the arterial wall and the plaque buildup. So I, it's, it is important, to really be mindful of these things. If you care, about your health, I guess you don't care about your health and guess it doesn't matter, . And so there are small things that you can make.
And so even if you can't afford, all, grassfed things and whatnot, whatever. Start with the best that you can do and that would be, good buy a good oil cuz it will last you a long time. We really don't need to use that much. And then a good salt they're pretty inexpensive compared to like how big the jar is and stuff like that.
It doesn't have to be like this really super. Fancy salt. Yeah, no, you don't have to buy like a $65 oil or . Hundred dollars. Not all. Like the California olive oil is a good company. They print the date on there. I really like to use them. Costco usually has really good olive oils and salt.
as well in larger quantities. So if you go to somewhere like Costco, they usually have good qual, good quality versions of these things as well. They always have avocado oil now. Yeah. So do that. And then when you can buy these other Better quality fats. Yeah. And I think it sucks really bad that the things that we need to make us healthy to support our health cost the most.
And so I, in no way do I think that it's fair. I think it's. By design. But whenever you can lean on that. And then in order to of make up for these lower when we do consume either fried fats or we can't buy grass fed beef, just eat extra. Broccoli and or cauliflower or any of those like cruciferous vegetables, all of that and high, just get higher plant volume in.
And that does help to counterbalance always be veg. Yeah. So there are sometimes that, it's just we do the best that we can, but whenever you can just try to, you add in some more. Veggies just wa and they don't always have to be organic, just wash them well to get out whatever residue that you can.
And yeah, there's lots of water filters that you can get just at, you at the tap for your sink. Your kitchen sink. So those are fine. Those are usually pretty inexpensive, so maybe look into getting one of those. Doesn't have to be a whole water filter. We just had the opportunity to be able to do it when it was easy.
So we did yeah. Thank you for all of this information. It is. So helpful. I'm actually feeling inspired because I just ran out of my lemon olive oil. Oh. And I like all, I like the avocado oil for cooking, but I don't, yeah. I've been eating more salads lately cuz it's hot outside. Outside, yeah. So I'm like, Ooh, I want some good salad oils. And one of my favorite places in Austin to go is central market for oils because they have a whole. Aisle just dedicated to different oils, so yeah. And they're not olive expensive. Yes, they do have some that are higher quality and more expensive, but they also have their own brand and they even have olive oils where they will tell you the specific olive.
Oh. So and it will tell you like, is this olive grassy or buttery? Or, yeah. Yeah. We go to, if you're in Austin, we're in the region, we go to the Phoenicia market. Ooh yeah. I love Phoenicia. And so they have a lot of Mediterranean based things and they have a olive oil in this huge jug that is like organic.
You, you can even see like the residue of the olive skin at the bottom. I don't know. It's 20 bucks. So cheap. And the olive oil is so good. That's a hot tip. I'm gonna agree. Hot tip. Yeah. So I highly recommend going and getting something like that because you can get some really good olive oil from some of these markets.
I'm sure if you live outside of Austin, just look for some of the international markets and you will find. Where is it? I think it's from Israel. The oil that we settled on. We tried a few and I think the one that we like the most is the, and can you take a picture of that and send it to me? Cause I'm gonna go get it.
Sure will. Okay. Yeah, it's in a big old container. Takes forever to go through it, but it's in a metal container with a good lid. Great. So it lasts, okay. So this is pretty easy to just go upgrade your water, salt and fat and you'll be making. Bigger strides than you even know towards your health.
All right, let's do our segment. Okay. We keep our eyes peeled for things in the media or in real life that come from diet culture or that perpetuate diet culture in some way. These are often the subtle ways it creeps in, which is why we are shining a light on it and sharing it with you. Okay? What do you got for us?
This was just something that I had Marco Polo you over the weekend. . Yeah, because we love to Marco Polo. So I had seen this Instagram post and it was this doctor who, I'm not gonna call out , but something I learned about weight loss surgery that I didn't really know before. So she is a doctor that does surgery, which is the sleeve gastronomy.
So I don't even if I'm saying that but it's the sleeve surgery where they basically take out 85% of the stomach. , including the fundus, which maybe, is, so is it a sleeve or they're actually removing it like snips snap. They're actually removing it. So I thought the sleeve meant something else, but least me too.
In this particular thing, the way she explained it is she removes 85% of the stomach, including the fundus, which I guess is the stretchy part. Connects. I don't know. You probably know. I don't know. I do. This part is also the part of the stomach that contains cells that produce the hormone growlin, and so that is our hunger hormone.
This is how we feel. Physical hunger is through short hormone. Short-term hunger hormone. Yeah, so it's interesting because if we're removing that, , in her theory is that without the physical hunger then, oh, all you have to do is manage your emotional hunger with therapy and then you're good to go.
I was like, wait, all you have to do, that's like the biggest part is managing emotional hunger and like therapy is a big deal. And that's a lot. Yeah. For most people to manage. And she does say that she requires people to do it prior to the surgery because if you obviously can't get any gauge on that prior, then they're not gonna be able to determine your post-surgery.
Yeah, she was, and she was very clear that, the surgery alone is not successful without this other part, but I did, which is great because that it's missing that's the biggest part, right? But I was like in theory, if we're taking away physical hunger, and let's say you actually do tackle your emotional hunger, then what?
I did message her back. Cause I was like very curious about does that mean you're a robot? Now you have to live on a dedicated eating plan that you have to follow because you just don't have hunger at all. And like, why is there this war on hunger? Or do these people have very different hunger based off, is it like depression or something where you're, it's like a chemical imbalance, but it's a hormone imbalance with their body.
. So I still have a lot to learn here, but I just thought it was really interesting cause I was like, did she respond back? Not yet. So I had asked her, I was like, What did I originally say? I will tell you. My original question was, how do people learn to work with hunger or understand hunger without functioning grelin?
Or like I had asked you, like maybe other areas start to produce it because the body is amazing and sometimes if we're missing an organ or something, it will just start producing what we need anyway. from other places, which is fascinating as well. And so I just told her I was really curious because we know the surgery requires these healthy habits.
How can they learn without understanding their physical hunger? If we just take away the physical hunger, how does that work? , and then she just she did reply to that one and said, there is physical hunger, which is due to the Grelin release. She called it head hunger or emotional hunger is due to the emotions or relationship with food.
It can also be due to habits that we've created over time, like snacking. This type of hunger is not controlled by ghrelin, but by psychological reasons, which we know this will not be fixed after surgery and they need to be tackled beforehand with therapy. But that's all she said. And I was like that doesn't really answer my question, which is how do they know if they're hungry?
Yeah. And my response to this on Marco Polo was we do have leptin, which is our long term hunger cuz it helps to control fat storage. And so sometimes what happens is leptin, we become. Leptin so where our body stops responding to it and then not regulating fat, which is potentially how, one of the mechanisms of obesity.
It is very complicated. And then when we start to lose weight, oftentimes leptin will fight back and be like whoa. This is not okay. And it will create hunger so you can keep the fat on. So we do have some other hormones that you play with it. But I agree with one aspect of what you're saying, which is that if we are taking out ghrelin, which is, that the short term hunger hormone, how can we teach people?
The difference between physical and emotional hunger, which is like a big part of what we do with people. . And so if you never get the physical, then you know, I guess you're relying on I guess around this time I normally eat. And then I guess maybe you would start to get tired and notice.
Some malnutrition like symptoms. And so then you would be like I need to consume food to not have these side effects, but you would potentially have to be really regimented in it and then you know, your signaling would get off. So I don't love. a hundred percent this idea, and the reason why we, I was like, I think we should talk about it is because even though she mentions that you have to do therapy, I think that's great, but a lot of people still, just will use surgery as the only way that they can lose weight, which in some cases, That is true, but I feel like it's just so much more there's just so much more to it and it's where is their capa what is, it just is like the only way to be X, Y, and Z is to be thinner.
And so it doesn't, I'm like, where's the more at. More of the person, are they even gonna be happy with themselves, period. , even if you deal with some of these emo, the emotional hunger because like some, in some cases you could quote unquote deal with emotional hunger in therapy, but there's still so much.
Other stuff going on that would cause you to I don't love it. Yeah. But I know that it can be really helpful. Really helpful. I think it can be lifesaving in a lot of cases. . And it can sometimes be the catalyst for larger change in some people. So it's not like I'm like fully like against it, don't do it.
But I just think it's really interesting learning like. This theory of let's just remove physical hunger, altogether, right? Because I do think in the diet world, it's all about tackle your hunger. Don't be hungry. But we're like no. Like hunger is not the issue. In a lot of cases.
And if hunger is an issue, a lot of times it's because it's oh, that's related to blood sugar regulation or something else. That can usually be. Through lifestyle change, so , I'm gonna learn more. I did reply back to her because I did ask what does that mean? Does that mean people would just be on a regimen or how does that work?
Yeah, I can always keep you posted on the update as I learn. Yeah. I saying is, Fascinating. I struggle with it from a nutrition standpoint because when you alter the organs, at least it's not a full, you only have 15% of your capacity, so you can't really eat very much solid food.
Like eating beef would be really challenging because you've got. Only 15% of your stomach that will so you're not always gonna fully be able to break down a lot of these things. And it's hopefully the b12, I don't know, B12 is, the first step of B12 absorption, which is super important to your nerves and your nerve health and all of that.
And energy is, first step of absorption is in the stomach, so there's a lot of nutritional. Components to these types of weight loss surgeries that are really troubling for me. And so you have to be careful of what you eat and be able to supplement because if not, you're gonna have probably.
This equal amount of damaging things from being malnourished okay. Okay, I sure hope that we give you something new to think about today and help you take one more step on your path to freeing yourself from Diet Picture. Please be sure to subscribe to this podcast and follow us on Instagram at Path Nutrition if you're interested in learning more about working with.
And joining a 1 0 1 program. Please visit our website at Path Nutrition to get started. Hi everyone. Bye.
