Aidan
00:00:00 – 00:00:41
Hello! Aidan here with a little bit of an update before we get into today’s podcast, we have changed our podcast music, and the reason for that is because we accidentally used the same music that Holly Baxter and Layne Norton do in their podcast, The Beauty and the Geek. I had previously listened to Layne’s old podcast Physique Science Radio, but I hadn’t listened to their new podcast until one of my followers on Instagram let me know that it was the same music. I have now listened to their podcast, can vouch for it, great podcast, but it is the same music as what we’ve been using. We had just purchased the music from one of those websites that allows you to purchase, right, so we got the non-exclusive rights to it,
Aidan
00:00:41 – 00:01:04
and I assume they did the same thing. But obviously, they did it first. So, a bit of a mistake on our behalf, a bit of an accident. So, we have now updated our music to be something new, and hopefully, you, guys all like it. If not, please let me know. But apart from that, I hope you enjoy today’s show.
Leah
00:01:04 – 00:01:20
Welcome. This is The Ideal Nutrition Podcast. This is Episode 6 now. I’m Leah Higl, and I’m here with my co-host, Aidan Muir. And today we’re going to be touching on eight underrated nutrition tips.
Aidan
00:01:20 – 00:01:55
So, my first tip that I think is underrated is that sugar doesn’t really impact body composition noticeably differently to other forms of carbohydrates. I think that’s underrated because it gives you a lot of flexibility, and obviously, there’s a little bit more nuanced than that. Like, I think under most circumstances, we should be trying to limit our added sugar intake and stuff like that. I think that’s a good message. But I think having understanding that doesn’t really impact that much differently whether you gain muscle and lose fat or any of those variables in comparison to other forms of carbohydrate or even actually other forms of fat as well outside of extreme circumstances,
Aidan
00:01:55 – 00:02:38
it makes it easier. It makes it more flexible. And one of the most quoted studies on this topic to kind of really show this point is there’s a study but I’m not sure how you pronounce it: Surwit et al (1997). And they compared a diet containing 43% of total calories from sugar versus one that only had 4% of total calories coming from sugar. They had their total calories much. They had their total macros match the same amount of protein, fat, and carbohydrate, and they were in a calorie deficit. And at the end of the study, both groups lost pretty much exactly the same amount of fat and maintain the same amount of muscle. There’s no difference in body composition, and that’s not to say they have the exact same impact on body composition.
Aidan
00:02:38 – 00:03:07
But the fact that you can look at the study like that with this 43% coming from sugar versus 4% and there’s almost no difference. I think that is a really underrated thing to be aware of because a lot of people are stressing about tiny amounts of added sugar and stuff like that. Like, as an example, I don’t know about you there but like I make meal plans where I have pretty much no added sugar at all, added and sometimes I add one thing that was like seven grams of added sugar, and clients will like freak out about that.
Leah
00:03:07 – 00:03:15
100%. Classic example for me is I have a big fan of Nutrigrain as, like a pre-training snack. But I think a lot of people see the added sugar in that and go, you know, that’s not healthy food.
Aidan
00:03:15 – 00:03:45
Yeah, and it explains a lot of things why some people can still get lean so easily while having a little sugar and stuff like that, because it doesn’t really make a difference. Like, there’s obviously so much more nuanced in terms of like, if you eat more sugar, it’s obviously easier to eat more calories. Or, alternatively, if you have a tonne of are you sure you’re probably not getting as many micronutrients in? But the whole point of this is basically just being like if you are aware that the impact on body composition isn’t really that different, you don’t have to stress over little amounts like there’s no reason you couldn’t just have less brown rice for dinner
Aidan
00:03:45 – 00:03:54
and a tiny bit of added sugar earlier in the day and still get the exact same outcomes versus stressing about going off plan or anything like that.
Leah
00:03:54 – 00:04:32
So, my first tip is just kind of meal planning in general, I think no matter what your goal is, this should really underpin your nutrition approach. Because if you don’t plan anything, it’s going to be really hard to go through with whatever your goal might be and actually get there. Um, and I don’t mean meal planning in kind of this bro style way of doing it, like doing your all your meal prep on a Sunday. I don’t feel you have to do it that way. It’s just taking a bit of time out of your week. To do some kind of meal planning can make a huge, huge difference.
Leah
00:04:32 – 00:04:47
So, when I work with clients personally, I tend to take even like a full session for meal planning and just really kind of strategizing the kind of meal planning that works for that individual person. Do you do that much with your clients?
Aidan
00:04:47 – 00:05:23
To a certain degree. And I think an overall philosophy of mine is that it makes sense to just plan things out, like taking a second to think it’s very sometimes. That’s part of why I think some of my clients get good results. Even if they’re intelligent people, they understand nutrition. All those kinds of things, especially, blocking out the entire consult with me to actually plan stuff out, put something together and then follow it. And another thing like that kind of ties in with this. But, like, I think delayed gratification ties in with all of this in terms of, if you don’t have a plan, there’s a lot of short-term thinking that goes on. Planning doesn’t really give you any benefits in the short term, but it sets you up for longer-term stuff.
Leah
00:05:23 – 00:05:58
Yeah, 100%, and like something I see a lot is people will kind of plan, even like a day or two in advance. And they’ll do really well for that, like Monday, Tuesday of the week. And then as the week progresses, it becomes less planned and then getting to the weekend. Even so, like, most people don’t have a plan whatsoever for a weekend, even when they’re only planning to eat out once over the weekend, it can end up being, you know, five or six times, um, on like the worst-case scenario because they just haven’t planned to eat past Friday. Really? Like they just haven’t planned it, so they don’t know what they’ll be cooking for lunches, what they’ll be having for snacks.
Leah
00:05:58 – 00:06:25
So, in general, like, the biggest thing I see getting in the way of people reaching their goals is just a lack of planning When it really does only take about an hour to sit down, you know, once a week and just right out. Okay. These are my lunches. These are my dinners. These are my snacks and do, like the grocery shopping. And then that sets you up for the entire week. No matter if you’re trying to gain weight, lose weight, you know, improve your health. It works for every kind of goal.
Aidan
00:06:25 – 00:06:30
Yeah, for sure. I’d even argue that it wouldn’t even take an hour in some cases.
Leah
00:06:30 – 00:07:04
Yeah, that’s like a stretch. That’s like if you like trying to be really, um, pedantic about it, finding new rescues, keeping it inventive, which I feel like it’s worth it to a certain extent. So, you’re not repeating the same meals all the time? A tip that I really like to give my clients as well as like as part of that meal planning you can do ordering online with your groceries, and that just saves you a ton of time and having to go to the grocery store, particularly if they’re delivered. Um, so I just feel like this meal, like just finding a meal planning strategy that works for you can just go like 1000 miles.
Aidan
00:07:04 – 00:07:48
For sure. My next tip is to check your vitamin D levels. This is more applicable in Australia, where we can really easily check vitamin D levels. We can see a GP if they bulk bill, we can get a free blood test. We don’t have to pay anything. We just get a test and we can check our vitamin D levels. A large percentage of people, I think the classic stat that gets thrown around is 30% of people are vitamin D deficient. I’m not 100% sure how closely that applies in Australia. But another thing to add on to that, though, is that even if you’re not deficient, if you’re just on the low end of the healthy range, it is still a sub-optimal amount of vitamin D. If you increase that level, whether it’s through sun exposure or whether it’s through supplementation
Aidan
00:07:48 – 00:08:09
to the higher end of that range, it is pretty much like a miracle. Like, I don’t want to overhype it, but like it helps you pretty much everything. We’re going to talk about this at like, other states. But, like even IBS like 80% of people with IBS have low vitamin D or, like lower levels of vitamin D, mental health conditions, anxiety. Depression is a really strong link there.
Aidan
00:08:09 – 00:08:32
The obvious stuff in terms of bone strength or bone mineral density and everything like that, balance. And even if people like elderly populations like muscle strength, if they supplement vitamin D, they get stronger. Like I’m not gonna go out there and be like all the powerlifters that we work with. If they’re low vitamin D, this is going to add tankless adventure like I’m not gonna make that claim. But like it’s enough, It’s like if you get a test
Aidan
00:08:32 – 00:08:50
that’s free and there’s no downside from supplementing. It’s such an easy win. So, like if you’re going to the doctor anyway like I might not unless you’re suspicious of having low vitamin D. I probably wouldn’t go out of my way to go to a doctor to specifically get this. But if you’re going for something else, there’s no harm in just like adding this on, basically.
Leah
00:08:50 – 00:09:31
So, a tip number four is going to be the concept of eating more plants. So, obviously I’m vegan, but I’m not talking about eating more plants in a vegan or vegetarian bias way. I’m talking about just having a diet that is really focused around plant-based foods with a small amount of animal products. So, making sure we’re getting enough whole grains, legumes, nuts, seeds, fruits, vegetables. You know, all those kinds of core food groups that aren’t just kind of meat and dairy. So, there is a lot of research to suggest that people that do have an adequate or high intake of these plant-based foods typically are less likely to be overweight,
Leah
00:09:31 – 00:10:06
less likely to develop chronic diseases. Things like cancers in some cases, and generally have better gut health. So, for a lot of like the population in Australia, we just don’t eat enough plant-based foods. So, I find even the people coming into clinic and going “Oh yeah, I’m great with my veggie intake”. When we actually sit down and assess that, it’s like they may be just hitting the minimum or even just below it. So, I think our idea of like how much plant-based food we should be eating versus the actual reality of when we get good health outcomes is very different.
Aidan
00:10:06 – 00:10:42
Yeah, I completely agree. And it’s one of those ones that, like once again a start, it’s somewhere along the lines like it’s a debatable start. But like 6% of Australians eating enough fruits and vegetables, I think it’s even as low as 4%. When you combine, it’s like it’s a very low percentage, like it’s under 10%. That’s all that we really need to go on with that. And it’s kind of like what percentage of Australians are vegan and vegetarian? Like, they are surely making up a large portion of that stuff which therefore means if you’re an omnivore, there’s a very, very, very low chance you’re getting enough vegetables to start off with, and probably for the thing is about 50% of Australians eat enough fruit.
Leah
00:10:42 – 00:10:46
Fruit is not as bad as vegetables when it comes to the stats. Yeah, 100%.
Aidan
00:10:46 – 00:11:01
And I completely agree. Like increasing. And it’s funny because I think about this on Instagram because people, like, jump onto my post about paddle pops and stuff like that and like hear what they want to hear. But it’s a very boring message. If I’m like, eat more vegetables.
Leah
00:11:01 – 00:11:33
It’s not a fun message and it’s not nuanced in any way. And I feel like people do enjoy when things are interesting, and we’ve been hearing eat more fruits and vegetables since we were kids. So that’s just not an interesting message. Yet barely anyone any of us are actually doing that in practice. And that’s just looking at fruits and vegetables. Like, the amount of people that I know that can cook well with legumes is very small, especially if we’re looking outside of like vegans and vegetarians. We know legumes have such a great
Leah
00:11:33 – 00:11:54
health benefit for us but no one is eating them, like people eat sure-baked beans on toast. But how many people are putting like chickpeas and curries? And it’s just rare to see that, like mixing lentils in this bag ball. And I think it’s one of those things where it can be a really easy win for long-term health outcomes. But we’re just not getting these basics.
Aidan
00:11:54 – 00:12:29
Yeah, and jumping onto that as well. Something like, I really want anybody who’s listening to this to this, actually to think through if you’ve ever been attracted to any abnormal dietary approach like something apart from the norm, because you’re questioning whether the normal approach is going to give you the results that you want. But you haven’t eaten enough vegetables that it’s food for thought like it’s just like that’s probably the easy win before you should start questioning being like: Is my body different? Like, Am I the outlier? When you haven’t tried one of the most obvious things, we’ve got available to us?
Leah
00:12:29 – 00:12:40
Yeah. One of the most simple strategies you can try is increasing your plant-based foods from like a weight-loss appetite management perspective. So, if you haven’t tried it, it’s very much well worth it.
Aidan
00:12:39 – 00:13:14
100%. My next tip is based on cutlery advice. This is something everybody’s heard, but I’m going to put in the underrated advice, kind of basket because it’s so boring. That’s underrated. It’s basically that the way I think about it is if somebody is trying to gain size and they struggle to gain size and they’re having cereal as an example; it makes sense to use a larger bowl. The chances of you going back for seconds when it comes to cereal or something like that, pretty slim something with, like dinners and stuff like that, larger plates, whatever it is, you’re more likely to eat more. Vice versa, if you’re trying to eat less food,
Aidan
00:13:14 – 00:13:53
using smaller bowls, smaller plates or whatever, it’s so-so boring. But like, have you actually tried it? Like if you’ve never tried it, like, it is worth trying? And it does seem to make a difference from everybody who works with, like most people seem to find it same thing with as a different example. With bariatric surgery, people who’ve had bariatric surgery, often really benefit from getting a bariatric plate where it’s basically got everything portioned out for them, like, what the size of everything should be. You could tell somebody that and encourage them to do that. But actually, having the cutlery that matches the goal makes it so, so, so much easier. Um, what about your next tip?
Leah
00:13:53 – 00:14:37
So, I feel like I’m seeing a bit of a theme in that sometimes the boring advice can be the most helpful, but also the most underrated. So, the next one is eating mindfully. I’m sure this is one we’ve all heard at some point, whether it’s from like a weight management perspective or just like a weight loss perspective. We’ve all heard that taking time to eat your meal without distractions, being focused on what’s on your plate and what you’re doing can make a huge difference to many things. So firstly, it can be just managing your hunger and satiety cues. So, if you’re taking the time to eat slowly, so, say, it takes you half an hour to eat a complete meal as opposed to previously, it took you 10 minutes,
Leah
00:14:37 – 00:15:17
perhaps you’re going to be more in touch with your… by the time you get full. You’re going to know that you’re full, as opposed to scuffing something down within 10 minutes and then having those cues come afterwards when you’ve already overeaten. So, it can really help from that perspective. But I find that where I use this advice the most in practice can also be from, like, a gut perspective in that. When you slow down and you actually chew your food well, that could be like the thing that gets rid of your bloating. Because I don’t know about you, but I have a lot of clients come into the clinic, and bloating is like their number one concern.
Leah
00:15:17 – 00:15:35
And I would say a good majority of the time eating mindfully and chewing well solves a good portion of that. So, I’d say, if you haven’t tried it from the perspective of it, like managing your appetite or from the perspective of reducing bloating, then it’s worth to go there.
Aidan
00:15:35 – 00:16:02
100% agreed with all of that, yeah, it’s pretty clear cut. It’s boring, it’s hard to do, but it is seriously helpful. And there are two things that I want to add on to that in terms of like, for me, from like the weight management stuff like that perspective, like, if you whipped out a pyramid of like priorities for like how to get lean or whatever I had like all these kinds of things. It’s not really on that, like it’s very low priority, but like it’s still a method. But that’s how I think it was being low priority.
Aidan
00:16:02 – 00:16:25
But it’s one study like to make this a little bit more interesting. That really shaped my views on it. So, there’s a study out of Stanford University by Dr Christopher Gardner. He had 600 participants in it, so it’s one of the largest nutrition studies that’s really ever been done as a randomized control trial. So, it was a randomized control trial, not like an observational one. And basically, they put people into low-fat or low-carb groups.
Aidan
00:16:25 – 00:16:59
And they basically said, like: Go as low as you can sustainably manage for whatever macronutrient, whether it’s carbs, or whether it’s fat for the entire year, just do as low as you can. Don’t focus on anything else. Outside of, mindful eating and good quality foods. Like, the low-fat group couldn’t just go around having like a bunch of soft drink or something like that because it’s low fat like they had to actually still try and have nutrient-rich whole foods. And there were some people who didn’t lose anyway. There were other people who lost as much as 30 kg. The average weight loss at the end of study, I believe, was about 5 kg because it was a free-living study, they could do whatever they want.
Aidan
00:17:00 – 00:17:24
And in the exit interviews, they were a whole bunch of questions. And the thing that shook me is because often people get attached to diets. Often people that if somebody loses 30 kg doing a low-carb diet or whatever, I assume most people are going to jump onto that and be like because they cut out carbs, I’ve never tried that before. In this study, every single one of them, pretty much who had lost 20+ kg, credited mindful eating.
Leah
00:17:24 – 00:17:25
That’s interesting.
Aidan
00:17:25 – 00:17:55
They were basically just like I used to eat in front of the TV and now I sit down at a table with my family. I used to eat on the run and now every meal I have, like, I actually focused on the meal and I eat slower. And all those little things you just talked about, but like I want to add that in there because I’m like me, I find it boring. But the fact that so many people who found success in that particular study with such a large sample size almost every single one of them came to that conclusion. It’s interesting for me. It’s like it’s worth keeping an eye on.
Leah
00:17:55 – 00:18:12
Yeah. It’s a little bit like talking about meditation and anxiety. So, a lot of people, myself included, we do suffer from, you know, some sort of anxiety. We know that meditation can be really helpful but because it’s boring, we don’t do it. And I think this falls into that category.
Aidan
00:18:12 – 00:18:52
Yeah, for sure. So, my next one, I don’t know if I’m gonna be able to explain this succinctly. I’m stealing it from a guy named Mike Israetel from Renaissance Periodization, and he calls it the hedonic staircase principle. And basically, I think it’s an underrated way of thinking about food. So basically, the concept is at the top of the staircase. You’ve got really nice tasting food, and there’s a lot of variety at the bottom of the staircase you’ve got really bland food, and there’s not much variety. Um, a question for you, Leah, to set the same. If you were trying to gain as much weight as you could over the next eight weeks, which ended the staircase, would you want most of your food coming from?
Leah
00:18:53 – 00:18:54
I’d want variety.
Aidan
00:18:54 – 00: 18:55
You’d want variety.
Leah
00:18:55 – 00: 18:56
Totally.
Aidan
00:18:56 – 00: 19:34
You’d want your food tastes good. It makes it easier to eat more food. It’s a no-brainer. When people come to see us looking to lose weight and if they’re asking for a meal plan. One of the most common things I see is people asking “Hey, can I have variety so I don’t get bored? And can it taste good so it’s easy for me to stick to?” And that makes a lot of sense, I see that. And this isn’t a black and white kind of way of looking at things, but something that Mike Israetel said that really something for me is he’s talking about bodybuilders going through competition prep, and they’re starving. They want food all the time. They’re at stage that chicken, broccoli, brown rice, probably taste appealing when they’re hungry. And he’s like if you’re in that state
Aidan
00:19:35 – 00:20:13
and you were trying to get stage lean, if you’re trying to add in foods that tasted nice, it makes it harder to eat less calories. Like, if you’re working backwards from the calorie restriction to start off with, it makes it harder to stick to if your food tastes really nice because it makes you want to overeat. The whole point of this is not being like a pick one end of the spectrum or whatever and go really extreme of it. It’s just been like if you’re Australian game size, maybe it makes sense for your food to taste better. Maybe it makes sense food where will be more variety. Like, imagine a professional chef cooking every meal for you. It makes it so much easier to gain weight. Vice versa. If you’re looking to get lean,
Aidan
00:20:14 – 00:20:44
I don’t know. I’m a big fan of variety from a nutrition perspective, something I see amongst clients before they start working with me. If they had already lost a decent amount of weight is a lot of very routine focusing a lot and have the same stuff over and over and over and over and over to the point that it annoys me, to the point I’m like that there’s not enough variety here. But it is food for thought that it’s easier to get leaner when your food tastes less appealing and there’s less variety. So, it’s like thinking about in terms of spectrums, in terms of when you’re in higher calories, maybe go a little bit higher up the staircase. When you’re on lower calories, maybe go a little bit lower down the staircase.
Leah
00:20:44 – 00:21:05
Totally. And I think that’s something that comes to mind recently that happened is I had a client who often had these really tasty foods but was able to hold back and have a very small portion of it. So, like, they’d order a meat lover’s pizza and have two slices and not finish the whole pizza. But that is such an outlier. It’s not even funny. That’s different.
Aidan
00:21:05 – 00:21:18
Yeah, I’ve had one. There’s one elderly client in my first year of being a dietitian who would have two squares of chocolate at night and stop there. It’s like what a monster? – That’s insane. – Yeah, these things are rare.
Speaker 0
00:21:18 – 00:22:02
Yeah, if it’s not portioned out and it’s really tasty and you’re hungry, chances are going to go back for more. So, yeah, that’s a good one. Um, so our last tip of the day is again a very simple one. But taking a food first approach to nutrition. So, a lot of the time I do see people kind of walking into clinic with their bags because I ask everyone to bring in everything they’re taking, like in terms of vitamins and supplements. And they’re walking with this huge bag of, like, miscellaneous supplements. Because they’re very health focus and taking all these supplements, but they’re not doing the basic things when it comes to their actual diet. So, from a lot of dietitians feel that, you know,
Leah
00:22:03 – 00:22:47
these supplements should be that they should supplement an already well-balanced diet, and you should only be taking what you need. But in practice, it is easier to take a pill than it is to actually have any kind of behavior change or, you know, change what you’re doing with your nutrition. So, a lot of people do tend to take this route of supplement first diet later. And it is something I see all the time. Times that it does make sense is if you do have a diagnosed deficiency, so something like vitamin D deficiency. Yeah, it makes sense to take a supplement. Or something that you are chronically low in again like if you don’t get enough sun and you don’t need a lot of vitamin D rich foods, it then makes sense to supplement with that.
Leah
00:22:47 – 00:23:16
But I see a lot of people taking things like vitamin C when we know you can get enough vitamin C by just meeting your basic fruit and vegetable intake every day. And most of the people don’t need a supplement on top of that. They’ve taken that route instead of just the food first approach. So, in general, I would just say before you go and purchase a supplement. I really think you know, what can I do from a nutrition and diet perspective that could fill this gap before I go out and do that?
Aidan
00:23:16 – 00:23:39
Yeah, completely agree. Like, I wouldn’t change anything with that. I’m very much big on doing everything you can through food within reason, and then just chucking stuff in on top based on a specific need. And I think the best example of this that comes to my mind is creating, as in you can get creating through food. You just probably have to have a lot of red meat like you probably have to have an excessive amount of red meat by a lot of people stands, not everybody stands,
Aidan
00:23:39 – 00:24:03
but like you have to have so much that’s not really practical. You can have vitamin C, example. Um, what is like one orange is like over 100% of the RDI already. So, it’s like it’s an easy one to get, whereas, like creating, as I just said, you have to go so far of your way to achieve it that it makes sense to supplement that. But like when you go through this process and if you end up with an overall pretty good quality diet within reason, there’s not that many supplements left. On top of that that you probably need to add.
Leah
00:24:03 – 00:24:27
Yeah, like a healthy person shouldn’t need too many supplements if they can optimize their diet, even if it’s not 100% optimal I feel like there’s not many supplements you should be taking anyway, like an example in practice, would be for vegans, we need B12. That’s something that just makes sense. We can’t get it through food. But perhaps a greens powder is unnecessary.
Aidan
00:24:27 – 00:24:33
Yeah, well, that’s going to wrap it up for this week’s episode. Thank you for listening, and hopefully you all enjoyed it.