Speaker 1: Welcome to healthy Ish, your podcast from body and Soul.
Speaker 1: How are you hope you are feeling healthish? Of course
Speaker 1: I am your host, Felicity Harley for some extra media inspiration.
Speaker 1: This week, we're dropping the most popular Healthyish episodes from
Speaker 1: the past six months, and this one, my friends, was
Speaker 1: at the top. Dietitian and podcast host Susie Burrell joined
Speaker 1: me to discuss how much protein you really need and
Speaker 1: the best foods to eat to boost your quota. Now,
Speaker 1: as you know, we keep our Healthish episodes really short,
Speaker 1: so if you want to hear more, listening to Extra
Speaker 1: healthy Ish, where she discussed where the protein powders actually work.
Speaker 1: Search for that wherever you get your podcasts. Susie, Welcome
Speaker 1: back New year. I think we haven't have you on
Speaker 1: this year yet.
Speaker 2: Always so nice to see you. And we've always got
Speaker 2: so much to talk about in the world of nutrition.
Speaker 1: Always we do, and I can't believe we haven't even talked. Actually,
Speaker 1: you know what, in my three years on the podcast,
Speaker 1: we have never done an episode about protein, So go figure.
Speaker 2: I think that because I talk about it all day
Speaker 2: every day. It's like anything, you just take it for granted,
Speaker 2: but it's probably the like one of the if not
Speaker 2: the most important dietary areas we can focus on for
Speaker 2: overall nutritional intake to promote optimal body composition for weight control.
Speaker 2: So and certainly online it goes gang bus because people
Speaker 2: are very interested. It's got a very positive association. But
Speaker 2: it's like all areas of nutrition, it's not just black
Speaker 2: and white. Just because you see protein plastered on a
Speaker 2: product doesn't mean it's actually good for you. So there's
Speaker 2: lots of intricacies I think we can discuss and hopefully
Speaker 2: share some practical tips.
Speaker 1: Yeah, it's interesting, isn't it, because in terms of the macros,
Speaker 1: you know, we've had so much focus on carbs, and
Speaker 1: then fat or fat fat came perhaps in carbs, I
Speaker 1: don't know, And now I feel like protein is really
Speaker 1: picking up in terms of people wanting to know about
Speaker 1: it before we kick off. What is protein?
Speaker 2: Protein is one of thos you described the three macronutrients.
Speaker 2: So whenever we consume food, it's usually a mix of carbohydrate, protein,
Speaker 2: and fat to different proportions. But protein's a little bit
Speaker 2: different from carbohydrate and fat because protein has a really
Speaker 2: functional role in the body and we have a requirement
Speaker 2: for it, so it builds all the other tissue. It's
Speaker 2: involved in hormone production, it is involved in muscle growth
Speaker 2: and repair in the body. You know, it's got a
Speaker 2: huge range of functional functions. But because it's not used
Speaker 2: as energy per se, it's digested after carbohydrates, so it
Speaker 2: helps to keep us full. So the interest for many
Speaker 2: people is when you're looking at overall diet quality, not
Speaker 2: only are protein rich foods tending to be the ones
Speaker 2: also rich in key micronutrients things like iron, zinc, amega,
Speaker 2: three fats, calcium, which are of course particular interest to women,
Speaker 2: often needing more of those at certain times. But it
Speaker 2: also helps to regulate blood glucose levels in the body.
Speaker 2: So we are learning more about it, and what we're
Speaker 2: coming to understand is if you're not getting an optimal amount,
Speaker 2: or specifically the right amount spread through the day, it
Speaker 2: can impact your food intake because if you don't get enough,
Speaker 2: there's a hypothesis called a protein leverage hypothesis, and it
Speaker 2: basically means you keep eating until you get enough protein.
Speaker 2: So when it comes to weight control and appetite control,
Speaker 2: getting enough protein is really really important, and particularly for women,
Speaker 2: if weights on your mind now.
Speaker 1: I feel like a lot of headlines and studies say
Speaker 1: that women don't get enough. I mean, how do we
Speaker 1: know if we're getting enough?
Speaker 2: I think the interesting thing with protein, particularly in Australia
Speaker 2: is the way we consume it. So it's not necessarily
Speaker 2: we don't get enough overall, but we don't necessarily consume
Speaker 2: it in the right way. So we tend to have
Speaker 2: quite low amounts through the morning. So you might grab
Speaker 2: a coffee and if your preference is plant based milk,
Speaker 2: you're not getting a lot of protein, or you might
Speaker 2: have a birch amusee, or you might just grab sour
Speaker 2: dough and then lunch on the go is often things
Speaker 2: like sushi or a quick salad, so that first three
Speaker 2: quarters of the day we're not getting anywhere near enough,
Speaker 2: and then we get to the second half of the
Speaker 2: day and have a huge piece of steak or chicken
Speaker 2: and absolutely we've had enough, but it hasn't been spread.
Speaker 2: So for optimal absorption and to get those glucose regulation
Speaker 2: benefits and appetite control, it needs to be spread evenly
Speaker 2: throughout the day to promote optimal absorption hence better blood
Speaker 2: glucose control.
Speaker 1: So talk to us about spreading it throughout the day.
Speaker 1: I mean, obviously different depending on your age group, what
Speaker 1: you're doing in terms of exercise dictates will dictate how
Speaker 1: much protein you actually should be getting. But for the
Speaker 1: general guidelines of how much we should be getting talked
Speaker 1: to us through perhaps what we should be eating every day,
Speaker 1: like a bit of a menu.
Speaker 2: At an absolute minimum, adults near a gram percular of
Speaker 2: body weight. Now that can go up to as high
Speaker 2: as one point four grams per kilo, particularly if you
Speaker 2: want to gain lin tissue or if you're losing weight.
Speaker 2: You might have come from a high starting weight. So
Speaker 2: for the average female that's about at least at at
Speaker 2: eighty up to one hundred grams per day, maybe as
Speaker 2: low as sixty if you're tiny, but most of us
Speaker 2: need a bit more muscle mass, so I usually stay
Speaker 2: between eighty and one hundred grams. So the key for
Speaker 2: women is to spread that out through the day in
Speaker 2: about twenty gram increments. So when we're talking grams, it's
Speaker 2: not the absolute amount, so it's not twenty grams of chicken,
Speaker 2: but for example, one hundred grams of chicken has got
Speaker 2: about twenty grams of protein, so you basically want to
Speaker 2: protein rich food at each meal and snacks. So for example,
Speaker 2: in the morning for breakfast, you want a protein greek
Speaker 2: yogurt or some eggs for breakfast. When you have your lunch,
Speaker 2: you want some tofu. If you're vegetarian, you want some
Speaker 2: chicken breast, you want some tuna, you want some salmon.
Speaker 2: And that's just as important as snacks because a lot
Speaker 2: of my women have nowhere near enough for snacks because
Speaker 2: they're grabbing hommus or rice, crackers or a bar and
Speaker 2: it might have five grams of protein. So you really
Speaker 2: got to try and get that twenty grain when you
Speaker 2: have a snack. So that's like tuna on crackers, salmon, cottage, cheese,
Speaker 2: a slice of protein, toast of protein shape. So really
Speaker 2: bumping up the snack amounts will help to even out
Speaker 2: your glucose control through the day, so you're getting not
Speaker 2: only enough protein, but enough protein at the right time.
Speaker 1: What about if you're on a plant predominant diet, I mean,
Speaker 1: what should you what's some plants that are high in protein?
Speaker 1: How do we get more rather than reaching for the chicken.
Speaker 2: Yeah, it's a little bit tricky, but there are a
Speaker 2: range of plant based foods that do contain protein. The
Speaker 2: key is to often combine it to get what we
Speaker 2: call well absorbed protein. So foods plant bated foods are
Speaker 2: particularly rich, are things like our tofu at a marmai
Speaker 2: and soy products. If you're using any plant based meats,
Speaker 2: you'll notice now there's a lot more in the minces
Speaker 2: or the faux chicken that are much higher at sort
Speaker 2: of fifteen twenty grams of protein. So if you look
Speaker 2: at the ingredient list, you're looking at products that have
Speaker 2: got a soy or a textured vegetable protein based care
Speaker 2: can get a vegan based protein powder, so that can
Speaker 2: be very handy to sort of supplement or make your
Speaker 2: own snacks, things like protein balls or additions that are
Speaker 2: still plant based that have that bit of extra protein.
Speaker 2: Or you can find so your alm and milk, sometimes
Speaker 2: your soy milk, and then you can find protein in
Speaker 2: rich versions of that. So it is a little bit
Speaker 2: more tricky because it's often assumed things like nuts a
Speaker 2: high protein. They have some, but they have a lot
Speaker 2: more fat, so you do have to be quite specific
Speaker 2: and making sure that you're getting it from a plant
Speaker 2: based diet. So it requires a little bit more focused,
Speaker 2: but there's some of the superfoods I tend to kind
Speaker 2: of reach for pumpkins. Seeds is another trick we use
Speaker 2: often snap foods that have got pumpkin seed based is
Speaker 2: one of my gohs for plant based diets. And yeah,
Speaker 2: making your own protein balls with a vegan plant based
Speaker 2: protein can be a good way too.
Speaker 1: Oh protein balls. Yeah, Now, I saw a stat that
Speaker 1: one in ten people now consume protein bars and powders
Speaker 1: for all different reasons, whether it we weight loss, muscle
Speaker 1: banish cravings. What do you see with your clients when
Speaker 1: they need to take a powder? I mean, what's your
Speaker 1: thoughts around this?
Speaker 2: Well, as a dietitian, We've just designed a protein powder
Speaker 2: designed by dietitians because we do use it to supplement
Speaker 2: people's diets up. So the way I use it if
Speaker 2: I have a client who is a plant based has
Speaker 2: a plant based preference, and for example using a coconut
Speaker 2: yogurt in the morning, I will then use a protein
Speaker 2: powder at time to increase the amount of protein in that.
Speaker 2: I have a lot of clients who are very busy,
Speaker 2: so they might be using a shaker, a smoothie on
Speaker 2: the run, to create that balance and then adding the
Speaker 2: protein to bump it up a little bit there, or
Speaker 2: as I said, in baking, or if you like pancakes,
Speaker 2: you can just get a little bit more by adding
Speaker 2: that to a product. So that's a very functional food
Speaker 2: because protein powder is basically just concentrated milk protein in
Speaker 2: most cases, or in the case of a plant based protein,
Speaker 2: concentrated soil and rice powder normally, So it's just a
Speaker 2: convenient way to get a lot. You know, a heap
Speaker 2: tablespoon of protein powder will have about fifteen twenty grams
Speaker 2: of protein. That's a very convenient way to add it
Speaker 2: to food rather than sitting down to a chicken breast,
Speaker 2: particularly for busy people on the So they are the
Speaker 2: two times I would use it most with clients. Either
Speaker 2: is it a shake on the go or a recovery
Speaker 2: shake after training, or adding it to foods just to
Speaker 2: bump that protein up a little bit, particularly if they're
Speaker 2: certain foods they're not overly fond of.
Speaker 1: Yeah, Susie, thank you for coming on healthy anytime. Well,
Speaker 1: there you go, just add pumpkin seats to every meal,
Speaker 1: or perhaps that might give you too much protein. Well,
Speaker 1: add a few here and there enjoy them as a snack.
Speaker 1: Thanks for listening to this chat with Susie. If you
Speaker 1: did enjoy it, make sure you rate and review it,
Speaker 1: or you can subscribe to this podcast. Anything else, head
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Speaker 1: Grab our print edition which is out in your local
Speaker 1: Sunday paper, and until tomorrow, stay healthy.