Speaker 1: Hi, I'm Susie Burrow and I'm Leanne Wood and welcome
Speaker 1: to the Nutrition Couch, a weekly podcast from two of
Speaker 1: Australia's leading dieticians, bringing you everything that is new in
Speaker 1: the world of diets, nutrition and good food from the
Speaker 1: Nutrition Couch. Today, Cell your light, many women have it,
Speaker 1: but can your diet really impact this very common skin
Speaker 1: and body issue. Our client case study is about low
Speaker 1: iron levels and the profound way iron deficiency can impact
Speaker 1: how we feel on a day to day basis. A
Speaker 1: weekly product Chat is a very popular lower calorie ice
Speaker 1: cream alternative and our listener question we discuss walking. How
Speaker 1: much should we be walking each day to keep the
Speaker 1: kilos at bay?
Speaker 2: But before we get started this week, Leanne.
Speaker 1: In the week we had a bit of a discussion
Speaker 1: about breakfast cereal because I sent you a random text
Speaker 1: asking you about a product because I don't usually actually
Speaker 1: eat very much in the morning and I've tried this cereal.
Speaker 1: But then it got me thinking what do you eat
Speaker 1: for breakfast?
Speaker 3: And I was funny that the product we were talking
Speaker 3: about was jacked full of natural or fiber and probiotics.
Speaker 3: But I think that sometimes food companies go even a
Speaker 3: little bit overboard, and they put too much fiber in
Speaker 3: some of the products, or just too much of I
Speaker 3: don't know, more than the humans can kind of handle
Speaker 3: in one meal. You know, some of these products have
Speaker 3: ten fifteen grams of added fiber into them, and yeah,
Speaker 3: so we're getting a little bit of digestive discomforts in
Speaker 3: some of these, some of these cereal recommendations. So I'm
Speaker 3: not a big cereal person, I must admit, I just
Speaker 3: don't find it gives me. It just doesn't fill me up.
Speaker 3: So probably one of my favorite breakings just eggs on
Speaker 3: sourder with some whatever leftover veggies I have in the fridge.
Speaker 3: This morning I had avocado and toast with some seasing
Speaker 3: and some garlic and some smoke withprika. So it's just
Speaker 3: a standard ava on some high fiber toast, and I
Speaker 3: had a couple of spoons of Greek yogurt with it
Speaker 3: to get my protein in. So they're probably the two
Speaker 3: things I rotate between. And then oats, any any kind
Speaker 3: of oats, baked oats, overnight oats, like soaking them or
Speaker 3: just doing like some porridge sort of oats with a
Speaker 3: bit of protein powder, some cheer or flax seeds and
Speaker 3: some fruit in the winter months, particularly or it's a
Speaker 3: bit colder, is something I really really love. So oats
Speaker 3: and eggs on sourder or probably my two most rotated
Speaker 3: breakfast options.
Speaker 1: And the thing I like about more savory options is
Speaker 1: that when I'm really trying to increase clients vegetable consumption,
Speaker 1: it's much easier to get something like spinach or tomatoes
Speaker 1: or mushrooms in with eggs or even like a breakfast wrap.
Speaker 1: I find it a bit more challenging when it comes
Speaker 1: to bulking up a cereal type breakfast. I guess if
Speaker 1: you have a smoothie, you can also put perhaps some
Speaker 1: greens in it. So when I'm trying to increase clients
Speaker 1: intake of veggies across all meals, that's where the savory
Speaker 1: breakfast can work quite well. So that's a good take
Speaker 1: home message, I guess for everyone listening. The more veggies
Speaker 1: you can slip into your breakfast, even if it's grading
Speaker 1: some extra zucheti into oats, or if you're having a
Speaker 1: smoothie blending some spinach leaves or some kale, that all
Speaker 1: really adds up and adds to that bulk factor of breakfast,
Speaker 1: and that's probably one of the most common areas I
Speaker 1: find clients miss in the morning. It's the most common
Speaker 1: feedback I give on breakfast choices.
Speaker 2: So if you're.
Speaker 1: Listening, give that as a little challenge moving forward this week, Hey,
Speaker 1: you can get some extra veggies into your breakfast each week.
Speaker 1: But moving on from that, we're going to talk about
Speaker 1: something that's close to many of our heart, particularly coming
Speaker 1: into summer when we're going to be bearing all very soon.
Speaker 2: Cellu light. Now, we know it's an issue that many women.
Speaker 1: Have, and we also know that it's a particular area
Speaker 1: of interest when it comes to what we can do
Speaker 1: to reduce cellulite. There's a huge number of supplement products
Speaker 1: and programs and laser interventions and even potentially dietary interventions
Speaker 1: talked about when it comes to how do we reduce cellulite. Now,
Speaker 1: my understanding is that a lot of it is genetic
Speaker 1: in the sense of the way skin holds onto fat
Speaker 1: has a large genetic component, and so you can get
Speaker 1: people who are really quite slim and small, and they
Speaker 1: can have quite bad solulight, and then you can get
Speaker 1: larger people who don't have as much. So that's my
Speaker 1: understanding of it is that a fair caller, absolutely so.
Speaker 1: Genet explays a huge role in cellular and as you said,
Speaker 1: most women have it and men as well, or probably not,
Speaker 1: as I guess prevalent in men more so and women
Speaker 1: all get into that in a second. But soulate is
Speaker 1: one of those conditions that are sort of multifactorial. There's
Speaker 1: no one reason.
Speaker 3: For it, and if you look a lot at the research,
Speaker 3: there's no conclusion as to why some people have silt
Speaker 3: and other people don't. So it's one of the most
Speaker 3: common what we will call imperfection issues that women face,
Speaker 3: and it's something that I think the beauty industry has
Speaker 3: made a billion dollar industry out of. But I think
Speaker 3: it is really important to note that cellulard is very
Speaker 3: different from generalized obesity. Soul It is not because of obesity.
Speaker 3: As you mentioned, you can be very slim, very fit,
Speaker 3: very healthy and still have seilight because there is a
Speaker 3: large genetic component to it. And with solulight, it's the
Speaker 3: atapo sites, which are sort of our fat cells which
Speaker 3: undergo hypertrophy and hyperplasia, which is the cellulite is essentially
Speaker 3: characterized by these large metabolically stable fat cells that are
Speaker 3: limits it to our lower body areas, so you don't
Speaker 3: really see, you know, cellulite on our face or on
Speaker 3: our shoulders or anything like that. It's generally down on
Speaker 3: our thighs and our butt, on our abdomen, that sort
Speaker 3: of thing. So the dimples that we get with cellulite,
Speaker 3: and I say we because I have it too, silly,
Speaker 3: they're due to this herniation of the subcutaneous fat lobduals
Speaker 3: through the dermal layer. So essentially it's the fibrous collagen
Speaker 3: that leads to this shortening and ultimately this retraction through
Speaker 3: the skin, which then causes this depression into the skin.
Speaker 3: So in simple terms, fat pushes upwards through these fibrous
Speaker 3: tissue bands that are connecting the skin to the muscle.
Speaker 3: This fibrous tissue pulls the skin in and that's what
Speaker 3: causes that lumpy appearance or to say, like type appearance. So,
Speaker 3: as you said, a lot of factors are involved in
Speaker 3: whether or not you get slight. Genetics is a big one.
Speaker 3: Your sex is a big one. Obviously a lot of
Speaker 3: females suffer a lot more than males, and lifestyle as well.
Speaker 3: But if you looked at the exact physiology of why
Speaker 3: we develop ceilt. It's just not really understood and we
Speaker 3: just don't have an answer for it, unfortunately. But what
Speaker 3: we do know is that it is more common in
Speaker 3: females than males, and that's because of how as females
Speaker 3: we have this different distribute of fat, muscle and connective tissue.
Speaker 3: So men tend to have this it's almost like a
Speaker 3: crisscross structure Susie in their tissues, and that explains why
Speaker 3: with so luded men, it's less likely that the fat
Speaker 3: cells poke through this criss cross structure in terms of
Speaker 3: women don't have that criss cross structure in terms of
Speaker 3: their tissue, and so it's easier for the fat cells
Speaker 3: to sort of poke through and create that dimpling more
Speaker 3: like appearance. So I think that's why you or women
Speaker 3: suffer a lot more than what men do from zeulate.
Speaker 1: It is really interesting because, as I said, you can
Speaker 1: get people who are really quite slim, and I do.
Speaker 1: I will say as it offside, I notice if you're
Speaker 1: a bit tanned, it tends to look better. So of
Speaker 1: course we're not advocating spending many hours in the sun,
Speaker 1: but definitely I've noticed that when you're feeling a bit brown.
Speaker 2: It's definitely better.
Speaker 1: There are a couple of research studies that have specifically
Speaker 1: looked at the effect of dietary intervention on cellulite and
Speaker 1: basically looking at calorie control, calorie reduced diets, regular exercise,
Speaker 1: and when they assess, there's a couple available of women
Speaker 1: of sort of between thirty and fifty and when they
Speaker 1: assess the changes literally everything changes.
Speaker 2: Except the appearance of the cellulite.
Speaker 1: So you lose weight, you've got more muscle mass, you've
Speaker 1: got less fat mass, and it doesn't necessarily reduce the cellulite.
Speaker 1: So that's actually some intervention studies looking at that. Now,
Speaker 1: the things that come to mind for me in terms
Speaker 1: of diet is that whenever people are going on sort
Speaker 1: of fad diets where perhaps they're losing large amounts of
Speaker 1: weight quite quickly, and that can result, for want of
Speaker 1: a better word, that kind of skin sagging. I would
Speaker 1: say anecdotally, it tends to be exacerbated and the look
Speaker 1: of that, and that gives I guess good justification to
Speaker 1: lose weight relatively slowly and in a sustainable way, and
Speaker 1: ideally in a way that is encouraging more resistance training.
Speaker 1: And preserving muscle mass, because that means you're less likely
Speaker 1: to get that very pronounced look of the skin when
Speaker 1: you've lost weight quickly, So that I guess is justification
Speaker 1: for doing it more slowly. There's a little bit of
Speaker 1: reading around anti inflammatory diets and reducing the appearance of cellulite,
Speaker 1: so for example, focusing on less that traded fats, less
Speaker 1: processed fats, more natural fats from nut seeds, oils, oily fish.
Speaker 1: But I really want to be very clear the chance
Speaker 1: that's going to reduce the appearance of cellulite, the research
Speaker 1: just is not there. So yes, it's probably better for
Speaker 1: your health. Yes, it's going to be better for your
Speaker 1: overall health of your cells and the body and a
Speaker 1: number of other variables, but specifically when it comes to cellulite,
Speaker 1: not so likely. And just as an offside, I know
Speaker 1: we're here to talk about diet and exercise, and I
Speaker 1: know you've got some specific research looking at trading in
Speaker 1: a minute, but where I work in Bondai and Sydney,
Speaker 1: normally I work quite close to one of those laser
Speaker 1: kind of clinics where you can pay like quite significant
Speaker 1: sums of money, and one of the areas that they
Speaker 1: claim to have benefits of is reducing the appearance of cellulite.
Speaker 2: And I look at the.
Speaker 1: Before and afters, and you know, we're talking about thousands
Speaker 1: of dollars of intervention here to have this result, and
Speaker 1: I can barely see the difference, you know what I mean.
Speaker 1: So I think, you know, we're yet to find a
Speaker 1: QR for this very common issue that we talk about.
Speaker 1: And definitely, in the case of diet, if someone came
Speaker 1: to me and said that I want to reduce the cellulight,
Speaker 1: I'd have to send them on their merry way because
Speaker 1: I couldn't really probably do anything much about it myself.
Speaker 2: But there is a little bit.
Speaker 1: To do with training that suggests that might be one
Speaker 1: of the best intervention points is in there.
Speaker 3: And as you mentioned in terms of you know, there's
Speaker 3: light therapies, there's creams, there's even injectible things that you know,
Speaker 3: you can inject into yourself to try and reduce that appearance.
Speaker 3: But there was a large evidence based review I found
Speaker 3: in the American Journal of Clinical Dermatology which, in a nutshell,
Speaker 3: showed that there was no clear evidence of good efficacy
Speaker 3: which could be identified in any of the evaluated selul
Speaker 3: like treatments. They went through the injectibles, I went through
Speaker 3: the creams, I went through the laser light therapies. So unfortunately,
Speaker 3: you could probably spend thousands and thousands of dollars and
Speaker 3: really not come out much better on the other side.
Speaker 3: But as you mentioned, there is a small amount of
Speaker 3: research that a good diet and lifestyle is important. Drinking
Speaker 3: enough fluid is actually really important as well, and a
Speaker 3: good amount of exercise, but specific weight training, because from
Speaker 3: the readings that I was doing Susie, it was sort
Speaker 3: of hinting that, you know, skin looks smoother and firmer
Speaker 3: over muscle than it does over fat, So we want
Speaker 3: to do exercises that help to replace the fat cells
Speaker 3: with muscle cells essentially, so to make that, say, like
Speaker 3: a little bit less noticeable. So eating in a calorie
Speaker 3: deficit in order to lose a little bit of fat,
Speaker 3: plus proper strength or weight training was really important in
Speaker 3: terms of leaning sort of a leaner lifestyle, which if
Speaker 3: you're going to be a little bit leaner, obviously that
Speaker 3: appearance of so light is going to be a little
Speaker 3: bit less. Not having say that it'll ever go away completely,
Speaker 3: we can never completely get rid of sai light. We
Speaker 3: just hope to, I guess, reduce down the appearance of it.
Speaker 3: And as you mentioned, some days a good fake tan
Speaker 3: is really really beneficial for us ladies.
Speaker 1: And it's interesting you say that because I was just
Speaker 1: writing an article on why it's so easy to gain
Speaker 1: weight as we get older, and it's probably safe to
Speaker 1: say that a lot of women still don't do a
Speaker 1: lot of resistance training and in particular working those larger
Speaker 1: muscle groups like doing squats and the large muscle group training,
Speaker 1: even if they do a little bit of lightweights on
Speaker 1: their arms. So I guess that's good motivation to get
Speaker 1: a very specific weights program, resistance training program that really
Speaker 1: works in the back of the legs and the glutes
Speaker 1: and those areas where a lot of us do find
Speaker 1: that when we put our causes on the dimpools are
Speaker 1: out for everyone to see.
Speaker 3: Absolutely, And I'll just say from my own personal things
Speaker 3: that I've done in my past, I have seen a
Speaker 3: very big improvement with my amount of soult. I have
Speaker 3: a lot on sort of my upper thighs that's sort
Speaker 3: of where I tend to hold it a little bit.
Speaker 3: And with living al in a lifestyle and specific weight
Speaker 3: training that sort of reduced the appearance of my soul
Speaker 3: like quite dramatically. And now that I am what are
Speaker 3: we this week's uzzy, probably twenty eight weeks or something pregnant,
Speaker 3: I've stopped a lot of I'm still weight training, but
Speaker 3: it's a lot less in terms of the frequency. I
Speaker 3: maybe only doing two three sessions a week instead of
Speaker 3: four or five. The weights and the intensity and the
Speaker 3: reps have decreased quite a lot, so I'm sort of
Speaker 3: nearly down to almost body weight stuff with just some
Speaker 3: light stuff at the moment. And obviously I've gained quite
Speaker 3: a lot of fat stores as well to support a
Speaker 3: healthy pregnancy, which is absolutely fine. We're not complaining about that.
Speaker 3: But I have noticed that a lot of my cellulite
Speaker 3: has returned as well. So I do really think that
Speaker 3: there's a lot to be said for, you know, living
Speaker 3: a little bit of a leaner lifestyle, proper weight training
Speaker 3: and that regular weight training, and as you mentioned, not
Speaker 3: yo yo dyeting is such as well, because the more
Speaker 3: that those fat cells expand, think of it almost like
Speaker 3: a balloon like, it has a hard time sort of
Speaker 3: contracting continuously over time as well. So I do think
Speaker 3: that sort of diet and lifestyle plays a little bit
Speaker 3: age in genetics and hormone factors as well. Is probably
Speaker 3: the last one that we didn't mention, because as women
Speaker 3: approach metopause, they are levels of estrogen decrease, and so
Speaker 3: does the blood flow to that connective tissue under the skin.
Speaker 3: And also as we get older, the collagen production decreases
Speaker 3: and our fat cells become slightly more in large, so
Speaker 3: all of those things aren't exactly going to be supportive
Speaker 3: towards cellu light, so I think, and hormone factors definitely
Speaker 3: can work against us. And genetics like if you have
Speaker 3: those genetics, if your mum and your grandma had saylight,
Speaker 3: chances are you're going to have a tou no matter
Speaker 3: how lean or fit or healthy you might be. So
Speaker 3: it's one of those things where it might just be
Speaker 3: that we embrace, you know, the best parts of our
Speaker 3: body and learn to love all of the parts of
Speaker 3: our body rather than wasting thousands of dollars on light
Speaker 3: therapies and injectables and creams and that sort of thing
Speaker 3: as well, and just knowing that, you know, censoring our
Speaker 3: social media feed zusie, so that we're seeing more real
Speaker 3: life bodies, because solight is one hundred percent something that
Speaker 3: I would probably say. I think the research says eighty
Speaker 3: to ninety percent of women struggle with So if you've
Speaker 3: just got constantly airbrush photoshop models on your Instagram page,
Speaker 3: you're not really doing yourself or your mental health any
Speaker 3: favors because you're just not you know, you're trying to
Speaker 3: compare yourself to something that isn't really real or isn't
Speaker 3: really a great representation of the rest of the population.
Speaker 1: And I don't think those latest swimming costumes everyone's wearing,
Speaker 1: does anyone any favors?
Speaker 2: Like they're barely there, are they? Some of them?
Speaker 3: I'm like, is that a newd to speech?
Speaker 1: If you've got no bottom on your bikini bottoms, what
Speaker 1: do you expect? Like, I can't believe it everone's wearing
Speaker 1: those causes you won't see me in one of those
Speaker 1: anytime soon. But just leading back to the hormone issue,
Speaker 1: something I will mention is if you notice a profound
Speaker 1: difference in your body composition. So if you're someone who
Speaker 1: didn't have a lot of cellu light, you retained a
Speaker 1: lot of muscle mass, and then as you get older,
Speaker 1: or perhaps you're feeling overly fatigued. Something's changed and you
Speaker 1: notice your body composition isn't as strong as it once was,
Speaker 1: You're having a lot more difficulty holding onto muscle mass.
Speaker 1: I do think that's worthy of investigation because at times
Speaker 1: it may be indicative of something going on with your
Speaker 1: estrogen levels, your dhea, which I've spoken about before, which
Speaker 1: is the precursor to testosterone, and I have noticed with
Speaker 1: some clients that sometimes when those hormones are low, they
Speaker 1: have a lot of trouble putting on lean tissue in
Speaker 1: the gym, and so the underlying hormone condition needs to
Speaker 1: be addressed. So if you've noticed a distinct change in
Speaker 1: your body composition and you're not being able to train
Speaker 1: or retain muscle tissue like you once did, I do
Speaker 1: think that is worth looking at too, because that can
Speaker 1: be indicative of some changes of those underlying hormones, which
Speaker 1: in turn may impact your ability to get that good
Speaker 1: muscle and reduce the appearance of any cellu light to
Speaker 1: So be mindful.
Speaker 3: Of that great point, and that sort of leads us
Speaker 3: into I guess our next section, Susie, where you mentioned
Speaker 3: quickly fatigue and just being a bit tired. I'm sure
Speaker 3: we can all sort of appreciate that life seems to
Speaker 3: be even despite lockdown and this crazy, you know, worldwide pandemic,
Speaker 3: we seem to be busier than ever some of us.
Speaker 3: So nutrient deficiencies are incredibly common. Being tired is incredibly common.
Speaker 3: But what's also quite common is iron deficiency. So this
Speaker 3: is one of these medical conditions that is so common
Speaker 3: in women. Up to eighteen percent of healthy women have
Speaker 3: low iron, but it's often not really talked about. It's
Speaker 3: often something that's kind of just brushed over, like, oh,
Speaker 3: you're low and iron, that's normal. No, ladies and men,
Speaker 3: it's not normal. And research by the University of Western
Speaker 3: Australia actually showed it was one of these conditions that
Speaker 3: doctors were actually overlooking because it was sort of something
Speaker 3: that was just popping up here, there and everywhere, and
Speaker 3: they weren't really paying too much attention to it. So
Speaker 3: I think it is a really important discussion that we
Speaker 3: have today around iron deficiency. So what is it? And
Speaker 3: you know what causes it and what we can do
Speaker 3: about it. So do you want to kick yourself, Susie
Speaker 3: and tell us a little bit more about why iron
Speaker 3: is so important in our bodies and why we seem
Speaker 3: to have such high rates of deficiency.
Speaker 1: I think that that estimate of eighteen percent is quite low.
Speaker 1: My understanding is that if you take into consideration people
Speaker 1: who have low iron stores, which is kind of the
Speaker 1: stage before iron deficiency. It's when your body is depleting
Speaker 1: your stored iron to try and keep your hemoglobin up
Speaker 1: or the key molecule that transports oxygen around the body
Speaker 1: at normal level.
Speaker 2: And I remember it being.
Speaker 1: As high as twenty five percent of Australian women and
Speaker 1: just anecdotally speaking to women I knowing myself you're pregnant,
Speaker 1: you know the huge number of women who are constantly exhausted.
Speaker 1: It is often an iron issue.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: The reason it affects all of our systems because it's
Speaker 1: transporting oxygen around the body. So it means that if
Speaker 1: you've got relatively high energy demands, as most women do,
Speaker 1: perhaps you're losing a lot of blood in the menstrual cycle.
Speaker 1: You might have been demitriosis or one of the other
Speaker 1: endocrine conditions, which means that you're menstruating more frequently or
Speaker 1: losing a lot of blood. All of those issues means
Speaker 1: that we're prone to that feeling of chnic fatigue, dizziness, breathlessness,
Speaker 1: and just even quite poor mood. And what I found
Speaker 1: interesting reading one of these studies is that a study
Speaker 1: found that more than thirty percent of those women affected
Speaker 1: by low iron levels will also being treated for anxiety
Speaker 1: and low mood. So there seems to be sometimes we're
Speaker 1: misdiagnosing potentially a basic nutrient deficiency that's incredibly common and
Speaker 1: linking at two mental health disturbance because people are feeling
Speaker 1: so poor and unable to get through their activities without
Speaker 1: feeling really constantly tired. And when I'm asking my clients,
Speaker 1: I'll say to them, if you wake up in the
Speaker 1: morning and you've slept a decent amount and you still
Speaker 1: feel tired, I would straightway be getting my iron levels checked.
Speaker 2: Now.
Speaker 1: The most common time I see it leanne. It's really interesting.
Speaker 1: I don't see it in my vegetarian or veagan clients.
Speaker 1: I see it in what I call my sporadic meat eaters,
Speaker 1: because people who or wole who eat read meat are
Speaker 1: often not having small amounts of lean red meat three
Speaker 1: or four times a week. And I'm only talking seventy
Speaker 1: to one hundred grams not very much, but they need
Speaker 1: access to it three or four times a week to
Speaker 1: have enough well absorbed iron to maintain iron levels when
Speaker 1: energy demands are high. But what I see very frequently,
Speaker 1: and I'm probably guilty of at myself. I'm just about
Speaker 1: to get an iron check, so I'll share those results
Speaker 1: because I'm not feeling overly positive about it. What I
Speaker 1: find is they're having it about once a week. They
Speaker 1: might indulge in a steak or some lean mince in
Speaker 1: a spaghetti bolonnaise or burritos once a week, So they're
Speaker 1: sporadic meat eaters, and so they're trying to eat a
Speaker 1: lot more fish and a lot more chicken. Maybe they
Speaker 1: don't love red meat, but they're not anti at either,
Speaker 1: so they include it occasionally, but it's not their first
Speaker 1: go to. And then what happens over time is the
Speaker 1: body is so trying so hard to absorb that very
Speaker 1: limited amount of iron or hem iron as it's known,
Speaker 1: which is the well absorbed form of iron that's found
Speaker 1: in animal food, that it's just not enough to keep
Speaker 1: them going in line with all their energy demands, the
Speaker 1: menstrual cycle, or their activity levels. So the different for
Speaker 1: people who are vegetarian or vegan, the body has had
Speaker 1: to adjust to absorb what we call non hemion from
Speaker 1: plant sources like grains and legumes, so it's used to
Speaker 1: doing that. Whereas when you're a sporadic meat eater and
Speaker 1: you only give the red meat the good stuff that's absorbed, well,
Speaker 1: occasionally it's just not enough. So the take home message is,
Speaker 1: if you don't feel great, and if you had a
Speaker 1: history of iron deficiency, you might have had a pregnancy,
Speaker 1: several pregnancies, you're just not feeling yourself. You're moody, you're tired,
Speaker 1: you're breathless, you're even a bit dizzy, it is time
Speaker 1: to get a full iron check.
Speaker 2: Absolutely.
Speaker 1: The other quick mental check is if you do include
Speaker 1: red meat in your diet, but you only include it
Speaker 1: once maybe twice a week, you'll be much better to
Speaker 1: include small amounts more frequently. So if you're cooking something
Speaker 1: like a burrito, mince or a spaghetti bowl, have it
Speaker 1: for lunch as well. Make sure you're having a small
Speaker 1: steak once or twice a week, or including it at
Speaker 1: lunch time, as well as iron rich foods from other
Speaker 1: sources like your eggs, your legumes. Every single day, and
Speaker 1: that will make a massive difference to how you feel,
Speaker 1: because basically we're constantly running on empty. I see it
Speaker 1: all the time. I've experienced it. It's a terrible feeling,
Speaker 1: and it's another one of those quite chronic in our society,
Speaker 1: but we just overlook it because all of us are
Speaker 1: feeling tired all the time, and we don't consider actually,
Speaker 1: hang on, when was the last time I really did
Speaker 1: sit down and have a steak.
Speaker 3: And the reason that we feel so tired is because
Speaker 3: iron is one of our dietary minerals that actually carries
Speaker 3: oxygen around the body. So the reason we feel so
Speaker 3: tired is because our blood isn't being oxygenated as well
Speaker 3: as it should be. And you mentioned a couple of
Speaker 3: people who were more prone. You mentioned it's your sporadic
Speaker 3: sort of clients who eat red meat. For myself, obviously
Speaker 3: being a gasteomentrology dietition by sort of trade or background,
Speaker 3: I used to see a lot of iron deficiency, and
Speaker 3: a lot of that was in undiagnosed CELIAX, so people
Speaker 3: who had Celiac disease. Often iron deficiency was one of
Speaker 3: the big symptoms, sometimes the only symptom that we would
Speaker 3: see that iron was just bottoming out. They didn't really
Speaker 3: have any other symptoms until we got them onto an
Speaker 3: appropriate gluten free dant was when we actually saw the
Speaker 3: iron come back up. I also see it in over exercises,
Speaker 3: particularly runners who do a lot of long distance running,
Speaker 3: really really low levels of iron, pregnant women, and coffee lovers,
Speaker 3: because the tannins in tea and coffee. If you constantly
Speaker 3: drink tea and coffee throughout the day, even if it's
Speaker 3: decap or herbal tea, that sort of thing, it's the tannins,
Speaker 3: not the caffeine that actually inhibits the iron absorption. So
Speaker 3: I think that it's important to reference that there are
Speaker 3: two types of iron. You do not have to eat
Speaker 3: red meat to get iron. Obviously, your hem iron is
Speaker 3: from your animal based food sources that see what you
Speaker 3: would call the best or the most easily absorbed type
Speaker 3: of iron. But your non hem iron is your iron
Speaker 3: from plant based sources. Yes, the body has to work
Speaker 3: a little bit harder to absorb it, but it's still
Speaker 3: a great sauce. So particularly if you're eating non hem
Speaker 3: iron based sauces, so from plant foods, think chickpeas, think
Speaker 3: dried apricots, think even iron fortified tofu really really great
Speaker 3: vegan sources of iron. But you want to ensure that
Speaker 3: you're eating that with the vitamin C rich food, because
Speaker 3: vitamin C helps to increase the absorption of iron. So
Speaker 3: say you have chickpeas and a meal, you're having a
Speaker 3: beautiful chickp salad for lunch, add some oranges into that,
Speaker 3: or out a squeeze of lemon juice with some extra
Speaker 3: version olive oil as you're dressing, or say for dinner
Speaker 3: you're having you know, dark green leafy veggies or another
Speaker 3: really great source of iron. In terms of your broccoli
Speaker 3: and your spinach, put some capsicum or put some tomatoes
Speaker 3: with that because they're high in vitamin C. They're going
Speaker 3: to help you to absorb the amount of plant based
Speaker 3: iron in that meal as well. And then also think
Speaker 3: of your iron block it. So I mentioned that the
Speaker 3: tannins and tea and coffee can help to block the
Speaker 3: absorption of iron. Things like unprocessed brand some of your
Speaker 3: soy proteins, and also some medications as well, you can
Speaker 3: actually block the body's absorption of that iron. So really,
Speaker 3: if you're somebody who has had low iron in the past,
Speaker 3: or your sort of borderline, or you're just feeling fatigued
Speaker 3: and exhausted, you don't like needles, you don't want to
Speaker 3: go get a blood test. Make sure you're keeping your
Speaker 3: tea and coffee I would say ideally at least an
Speaker 3: hour apart from your main meal, so having like your
Speaker 3: tea and coffee in between your main meals, particularly at
Speaker 3: lunch and dinner, because I find that most people will
Speaker 3: get the bulk of their iron intake from lunch and dinner,
Speaker 3: So sitting down and having a coffee with lunch and
Speaker 3: then a cup of tea with dinner isn't the best
Speaker 3: habit you can get into if you do have low iron,
Speaker 3: so really really important to remember out of vitamin cea
Speaker 3: rich sauce, don't include it with any iron blockers like
Speaker 3: tea coffee on process brand, and make sure that ASUSI
Speaker 3: said you're getting in regular amounts of iron throughout the day.
Speaker 3: Main meals are important, but snacking on things like roasted
Speaker 3: chickpeas and dried apricots a really really great ways to
Speaker 3: get in some additional iron from your plant based sources
Speaker 3: as well.
Speaker 1: And we're much in Australia One of the biggest issues
Speaker 1: with red meat consumption is that when we do have it,
Speaker 1: we tend to over consume portion wise, so we have
Speaker 1: a massive steak or a big burger. Whereas the thing
Speaker 1: with iron, it's not the volume that you need of
Speaker 1: red meat, it's just the regularity. So we needed quite
Speaker 1: a small portion seventy to one hundred grams, which is
Speaker 1: a small palm size, but we do need it three
Speaker 1: or four times each week, so you're much better to
Speaker 1: spread it out or as you mentioned, include it with
Speaker 1: a lunchtime salad a couple of days as well, just
Speaker 1: to make sure you're giving the body that regular access
Speaker 1: to it. And if you're leaning towards a plant based lifestyle,
Speaker 1: really ticking the box each and every day on an
Speaker 1: iron rich food at least a couple of meals, and
Speaker 1: then looking for those ways to enhance it. And absolutely
Speaker 1: right for big coffee and tea drink, because that's another
Speaker 1: big standout that it is a significant blocker. And that's
Speaker 1: actually also of interest because if you think about a
Speaker 1: lot of our breads and cereals can be fortified with iron,
Speaker 1: particularly in the mornings, whole grain cereals, but of course
Speaker 1: we consume it with milk, which is another blocker from
Speaker 1: the calcium. So even though I might say it may
Speaker 1: consume it, it's always going to be better from more
Speaker 1: of a natural food that it's present in, rather than
Speaker 1: adding it into a fortified version. And then in the
Speaker 1: natural way, we're often not consuming it with the right
Speaker 1: kind of absorbing food. I'm thinking toast that's fortified with iron,
Speaker 1: and then you're having it with a coffee of milk,
Speaker 1: or same with a cereal and milk. So you're right,
Speaker 1: we're always much better to go back to those naturally
Speaker 1: rich sauces. And if your preference is for a plant
Speaker 1: based diet, and that's absolutely no judgment if you choose
Speaker 1: not to eat red meat or prefer plant based, it's
Speaker 1: completely personal decision. But there are certain tricks to it
Speaker 1: when it comes to making sure you're getting plenty of iron.
Speaker 1: I usually suggest clients are having iron rich foods at
Speaker 1: at least two of their three meals a day, whether
Speaker 1: it's the legums, the eggs, just to be ticking the
Speaker 1: box and keeping on top. Anecdotally, Yeah, I don't have
Speaker 1: trouble with iron with my non made eaters. It's always
Speaker 1: my made eaters, you just don't get enough.
Speaker 3: Yeah, because I think a lot of our more plant
Speaker 3: focused or plant forward approach kind of clients are eating
Speaker 3: such a wide diversity of plants, nutsieds, legumes, whole grains,
Speaker 3: that sort of thing that have such great amounts of
Speaker 3: non heme based iron in them, and they're getting that
Speaker 3: frequency and that I guess intensity because they're having it
Speaker 3: in regular meals and snacks throughout the day, but just
Speaker 3: quickly with iron as well. If you are somebody who
Speaker 3: has an I in efficiency anemia, you may be on tablets.
Speaker 3: Bear in mind that it can take months for those
Speaker 3: levels to come up through blood tests, So if you
Speaker 3: are quite animic, you might actually want to have a
Speaker 3: discussion with your doctor about having a an infusion. Just
Speaker 3: if you're feeling crap and you don't have months to
Speaker 3: wait for that energy to come back, you might actually
Speaker 3: want to consider something like an iron infusion. I've had
Speaker 3: one in the past when my iron was just completely
Speaker 3: horrendous after I had a really bad bat of Bali
Speaker 3: belly Susie when I was like twenty twenty one. Couldn't
Speaker 3: keep anything down or in either either way either end.
Speaker 1: It was terrible for months.
Speaker 3: On end, and I just had to have an iron infusion.
Speaker 3: My levels were just so incredibly low and there was
Speaker 3: no way that I was able to get in enough
Speaker 3: nutrition and have the time to wait months for that
Speaker 3: to come back up. And I do know that a
Speaker 3: lot of clients who take iron tablets regularly also suffer
Speaker 3: from constipation. So a quick tip here is to to
Speaker 3: more of a liquid based iron rather than iron tablets
Speaker 3: that can assist with constipation a little bit. But I
Speaker 3: think the bottom line here, Susie, is that an iron
Speaker 3: deficiency is not normal. It's sort of glossed over and
Speaker 3: it's really like, oh, you cut a low iron Haha,
Speaker 3: me too. That's not normal, guys. So really something that
Speaker 3: you need to investigate. And I actually spoke extensively about
Speaker 3: this on one of my own podcast episodes with a
Speaker 3: leading hematologist, doctor Sanjay Juneja. He is absolutely excellent, and
Speaker 3: he talks you through what are all the differing reasons
Speaker 3: for an iron deficiency, why it's not normal, and why
Speaker 3: we need a reason for being iron defficient, and a
Speaker 3: lot of the times it's not due to nutrition, it's
Speaker 3: due to some other sort of medical or disease condition
Speaker 3: within our bodies. So that's episode eighty four on the
Speaker 3: Lean Word Nutrition podcast, Give my own Little potty a plug, Susie.
Speaker 3: If you guys wanted to learn more about iron deficiency,
Speaker 3: if you had any friends or family that struggled with
Speaker 3: it and kind of wanted to get to the bottom
Speaker 3: of their condition a little bit more, you're.
Speaker 1: Right, just a little offside. Personally, My mum's only symptom
Speaker 1: of bow cancer was severe iron deficiency.
Speaker 2: So absolutely, if you are.
Speaker 1: A red meat eater and you'll still have quite low
Speaker 1: levels like you mentioned, Siliacs, it can be an underlying
Speaker 1: decatur of quite significant medical issues, So don't let it
Speaker 1: go unexplored. And I'll also say don't wait till it
Speaker 1: gets to full blown iron deficiency. If your stores are
Speaker 1: running low, that is enough to make you feel really tired.
Speaker 1: And whether you're coming off the back of a pregnancy
Speaker 1: or breastfeeding, these are major risky times that women get depleted,
Speaker 1: So really urge your obstetrician or whoever's looking after you
Speaker 1: from a general health perspective to take care of that
Speaker 1: iron before before they leave you go out of their care,
Speaker 1: because you don't want to have a new baby and
Speaker 1: coming out of a pregnancy and going into breastfeeding with
Speaker 1: low levels of iron. All right, so something a little
Speaker 1: bit more upbeat as we're talking about fatigue. Now, we
Speaker 1: don't feel great, so we thought for our product review.
Speaker 1: We've had several questions about this product in supermarkets because
Speaker 1: who doesn't love desserts and ice cream. So the topic
Speaker 1: we're going to talk about today is Halo Top and
Speaker 1: we've had several of our listeners requests and information on
Speaker 1: this product. Tonight picked birthday cake because if I was
Speaker 1: going to be choosing a Halo Top flavor, that would
Speaker 1: be my go to choice, and we thought we'd have
Speaker 1: a little chat about it in terms of is it
Speaker 1: really a healthier option? Are these sort of ice cream
Speaker 1: ice desserts too good to be true? So this was
Speaker 1: a product that started to come into Australia, I want
Speaker 1: to say, about three years ago now, and it was
Speaker 1: a well known brand in the US and it started
Speaker 1: to be imported here as a significantly lower fat, lower
Speaker 1: calorie alternative to full ice cream. And the first thing
Speaker 1: to kick off this discussion about Halo Top is that
Speaker 1: a Halo Top dessert is quite different from four ice cream,
Speaker 1: which has a certain proportion of milk fat. I don't
Speaker 1: know if the top I think it's eighteen percent milk
Speaker 1: fat off the top of my head to be actually
Speaker 1: called ice cream, because there has to be a certain
Speaker 1: proportion of cream in it. So these tend to be
Speaker 1: more what we would describe as dessert products in the supermarket.
Speaker 1: Now you'll be very reasonably familiar with them.
Speaker 2: They're there, little tubs.
Speaker 1: They're quite small preserved. They're about I think three hundred
Speaker 1: meal between two fifty three hundred mill and a serving
Speaker 1: size in one of those little tubs is sixty four
Speaker 1: grams or a quarter of that tub, and that will
Speaker 1: give you just over eighty calories, five grams of protein,
Speaker 1: two grams of fat, and just one of saturated which
Speaker 1: is significantly lower than regular ice cream, six grams of
Speaker 1: carbohydrate and sugars. Now, the first ingredients are milk and
Speaker 1: cream sixty seven percent, but eggs is right up there,
Speaker 1: as is milk, protein concentrate, a fair wack of sweetness
Speaker 1: from erythrotol as well as some sugar. And they're quite
Speaker 1: heavily processed to get the taste and consistency of an
Speaker 1: ice cream, but obviously much much lower in fat.
Speaker 2: And in sugars, so.
Speaker 1: What would be perceived sometimes is a much healthier product.
Speaker 1: So where do we sit on halo top? For me, Leanne,
Speaker 1: the biggest issue is I don't believe anyone has four
Speaker 1: portions in that tub. I think that most of us
Speaker 1: are kitting ourselves if we think we buy that tiny
Speaker 1: tub and they're not inexpensive.
Speaker 2: I think they're eight or ten dollars per serve.
Speaker 1: I think they're more likely to eat at least half,
Speaker 1: if not the whole thing, and then it's not looking
Speaker 1: so appealing nutritionally. And indeed they do market with their
Speaker 1: entire calorie load of the tub on the front, ranging
Speaker 1: from about three to four hundred calories if you eat
Speaker 1: the whole tub, which is then comparable to a regular
Speaker 1: serve of ice cream, although admittedly lower in fat. So
Speaker 1: it's one of those products when I'm giving recommendations to
Speaker 1: clients on there as you would describe soul foods. If
Speaker 1: this is a soul food for them, absolutely, but it
Speaker 1: probably wouldn't be my sole food of choice because I
Speaker 1: tend to go for a less processed product and get
Speaker 1: the mouth feel and taste of the actual ice cream
Speaker 1: or chocolate or whatever. They're looking for rather than consume
Speaker 1: this and think that it's so much better. But I
Speaker 1: tread carefully because I know these products are quite polarizing,
Speaker 1: and I know we've got quite a few Halo Top
Speaker 1: fans listening. So yes, it's definitely not my first go
Speaker 1: to when it comes to recommending a healthier dessert. But
Speaker 1: portions is my biggest concern and the level of processing
Speaker 1: that comes in them, so definitely not something I would
Speaker 1: describe as overly healthy. Definitely more of that occasional treat
Speaker 1: if you can control yourself around that tub.
Speaker 2: What do you think?
Speaker 3: Honestly, I hope you don't really have anything to add, Susie.
Speaker 3: I think you've summed up my thoughts exactly.
Speaker 2: She's not saying anything. She's giving me nothing. When I'm
Speaker 2: looking at it. There's no emotion.
Speaker 3: Oh, I think the biggest thing, as you mentioned, like
Speaker 3: the marketing of the brand is really around like you
Speaker 3: can eat the whole pint of ice cream for three
Speaker 3: hundred and sixty calories. It's like I'd actually rather go
Speaker 3: and eat some real life scream for three hundred and
Speaker 3: sixty calories thanks, because it is overly overly process I mean,
Speaker 3: just looking at the ingredient label. There's got to be
Speaker 3: twenty plus ingredients on there. It's just packful of ruth
Speaker 3: through a toll on palm oil. Like, I wouldn't actually
Speaker 3: say it's a healthy product. If you needed a high calorie,
Speaker 3: hy energy diet, it could probably be quite good because
Speaker 3: there's you know, a fair whack of protein in there,
Speaker 3: and if you're going to eat that whole whole tub,
Speaker 3: the whole little pint of it or whatever you want
Speaker 3: to call it, it's sort of twenty four grams of
Speaker 3: sugar and that whole thing. So I wouldn't actually say
Speaker 3: it's that healthy if you were to go and eat
Speaker 3: the whole thing. And I think that that's what the
Speaker 3: majority of people actually do, suit you know, as you mentioned,
Speaker 3: And it's not a cheap it's not a cheap option.
Speaker 3: I think it's I mean, I think it's eight dollars
Speaker 3: on sale. I think it's normally around twelve dollars. If
Speaker 3: you're buying it from one of those smaller conveniences or
Speaker 3: health food stores, I think you're looking at sort of twelve, fourteen,
Speaker 3: fifteen dollars for the little thing of it. So call
Speaker 3: me a sucker, but I'd rather my Ben and Jerry's
Speaker 3: or my gelato Missine, I thank you very much.
Speaker 1: I think what they do have as well when I
Speaker 1: quite like the transparency around the calorie load, Like you know,
Speaker 1: when you buy it, you're very clear what's in it
Speaker 1: calorie wise.
Speaker 2: I don't think that's a bad thing. I would also say.
Speaker 1: There are quite a lot of vegan options in the range,
Speaker 1: so for people who are seeking out a plant based diet,
Speaker 1: it does give quite a lot of variety in that space.
Speaker 2: But yeah, you know, it's one of those foods.
Speaker 1: If you like it, I would include it in small amounts,
Speaker 1: be very mindful of the portions. I myself am too
Speaker 1: tight to be paying that much for dessert, so that's
Speaker 1: the barrier for me. I wouldn't spend that much on
Speaker 1: a product. I guess if someone's really specific in calorie
Speaker 1: counting and likes to measure it out, and also really
Speaker 1: likes those rich flavors that you get more in the States,
Speaker 1: you know, the birthday cake and the cookies and cream
Speaker 1: and those rich flavors. It's certainly lower in faten calories
Speaker 1: than the equivalent of regular ice cream. So you know,
Speaker 1: if it's your thing that you really enjoy and you
Speaker 1: can control yourself and you like it, and maybe it
Speaker 1: reminds you of being in the States, you know, sure,
Speaker 1: but as a SAI it's not my first go to.
Speaker 1: I do think it's pretty processed and very easy to overeat,
Speaker 1: and that somewhat defeats the purpose given I'm usually working
Speaker 1: off one or two hundred extra calories per day for
Speaker 1: clients at the end of the day, as opposed to
Speaker 1: three four hundred.
Speaker 2: Which would be the equivalent if you ate the whole tub.
Speaker 1: So yeah, I think it's interesting and I think when
Speaker 1: it first came out it was kind of one of
Speaker 1: the first formulated foods that was using things like eggs
Speaker 1: and milk mixes in a way to create food products
Speaker 1: with significantly lower calories. Now, these kind of products are
Speaker 1: a dime a dozen in America and we haven't had
Speaker 1: a huge amount of them here in Australia, so I
Speaker 1: think it was also that novel factor. I think since
Speaker 1: then we've now had a whole lot of these kind
Speaker 1: of dessert products coming out. If you go into the
Speaker 1: freezer section, there's yoga varieties of this, and a number
Speaker 1: of plant based alternatives to ice cream. So I think
Speaker 1: in line with food processing, they will continue to expand
Speaker 1: and grow. But I'm a little bit like you. I'm
Speaker 1: not a natural ice cream eater. In general. It's not
Speaker 1: my go to, and if I'm with the kids having
Speaker 1: a more indulgent cone, I'd much rather that indulgent cookies
Speaker 1: and cream occasionally. But I do see a group of
Speaker 1: my clients who are very calorie conscious and like to
Speaker 1: have something like this that's particularly sweet at night. And
Speaker 1: indeed it is much lower in calories than the average treat,
Speaker 1: so if they can use it, it can fit in there.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I definitely think it has a time and a place,
Speaker 3: and I do like that they have a sense of
Speaker 3: range of flavors as you mentioned. And I'm not a
Speaker 3: birthday cake girl. I'm absolutely a chop chip cookie dough
Speaker 3: kind of girl. But as I said, you know, I
Speaker 3: think I'd rather the extra couple of hundred calories and
Speaker 3: eat the normal ice cream. Just for me, the mouse
Speaker 3: feel and the after taste of the artificial sweetness in there,
Speaker 3: I just I can't get past that. But that's just me,
Speaker 3: you know. As you said, of it's something that people
Speaker 3: genuinely really enjoy and the happy to pay the cost
Speaker 3: of it, then yeah, it can be I guess, a
Speaker 3: slightly healthy alternative from a calorie perspective than some of
Speaker 3: the other ice creams on market as well, but good
Speaker 3: to have a discussion about it.
Speaker 1: And I don't love any of my clients having any
Speaker 1: of those tubes of ice cream at home, because let's
Speaker 1: be honest, if you buy Ben and Jerry's, which is
Speaker 1: not dissimilar price all size, it is like twenty to
Speaker 1: thirty percent fat, it is really high in sugar, and
Speaker 1: who's not eating that entire little tub? So I think
Speaker 1: it's much better a product in general to keep dessert
Speaker 1: tubs out of the household, and then when you are
Speaker 1: going to really indulge, do it that way rather than
Speaker 1: have them as part of the routine shop each week.
Speaker 1: Because if it's in the house, of course you can
Speaker 1: eat it.
Speaker 3: Yeah, take the kids out for gelato at the beach
Speaker 3: in the middle of summer, you know once a month
Speaker 3: is probably a better habit than you're consistently buying tubs
Speaker 3: of ice cream every single week. If the goal is
Speaker 3: sort of bat lost, if the goal is weight to
Speaker 3: gain in your Malinois, then go for gold. I think
Speaker 3: it's an easy way to get calories in through ice cream.
Speaker 3: I'd definitely be supportive of that for a lot of
Speaker 3: my clients suffering with malnutrition.
Speaker 2: Well, gelato is good because of the portions. This is
Speaker 2: why I like it because when you go to the.
Speaker 1: Gelato shop, you have the little cup, which is what
Speaker 1: it's supposed to be, as opposed to the enormous clones
Speaker 1: that have got you know this waif that chucked in
Speaker 1: them and dipped in this and added that. So I
Speaker 1: think from a food enjoyment perspective and portion controlled gelato
Speaker 1: is a smart choice for kids and adults because it's
Speaker 1: then or served in the portions as it should be.
Speaker 3: Definitely. And then finally, Susie, our listener question of the
Speaker 3: week was around walking in steps. So we get asked
Speaker 3: this question quite a lot, and I think the gold
Speaker 3: standard has now become you know, we should be aiming
Speaker 3: for ten thousand steps a day. People get a little
Speaker 3: bit confused around that because often you know, as dietesians,
Speaker 3: we shorten that and say aim for ten k steps
Speaker 3: a day, and people say ten kilometers. So let me clarify,
Speaker 3: it's ten thousand steps a day is the average of
Speaker 3: what we I guess as health professionals would recommend. But
Speaker 3: you know, how many steps should we be taking each
Speaker 3: day for fat loss and for weight control? And I
Speaker 3: think the bottom line here is Susie, that it really
Speaker 3: depends on your baseline, and it really depends on how
Speaker 3: active you are day to day. If you are someone
Speaker 3: that is a PE teacher or like a you know,
Speaker 3: a physical education sport teacher and you spend all day
Speaker 3: in your feet, or you're a PT who's constantly tracing
Speaker 3: after clients in the gym all day and during your
Speaker 3: lunch break you get a bit bored, so then you
Speaker 3: go for a little walk on the treadmill. Your job
Speaker 3: is very different to somebody who sits down at a
Speaker 3: desk job for eight or nine hours a day. So
Speaker 3: I think for a lot of my clients, you know,
Speaker 3: they are those sort of corporate workers of those desktoms.
Speaker 3: Worker is you know, they do a forty five minute
Speaker 3: hit session three four times a week. Sadly it's not enough.
Speaker 3: You know. They always come to me and they say,
Speaker 3: you know, and I'm signing up to you because my
Speaker 3: exercise is great. I do enough, I do, you know,
Speaker 3: three or four forty five sessions a week, it's it's
Speaker 3: my nutrition that scrap, and that may be true. But
Speaker 3: also I think there's a lot of room in terms
Speaker 3: of exercise for a lot of people when it comes
Speaker 3: to steps, because steps is something that's significantly underrated from
Speaker 3: a fat loss perspective. But I really do think it
Speaker 3: depends on your baseline. If you're someone who averages I
Speaker 3: don't know, two three k steps, which is quite normal
Speaker 3: for a death worker, then just increasing that to five thousand,
Speaker 3: you know a day on average, is going to do
Speaker 3: you significant benefit versus trying to aim for ten thousand,
Speaker 3: which just isn't realistic and you're never going to achieve it,
Speaker 3: so you don't do it anyway, So it's like you
Speaker 3: just stay at two thousand. So I think just raising
Speaker 3: your baseline or you know, my modo has always been
Speaker 3: just that ten percent better. Just doing a little bit
Speaker 3: more or a little bit more each day or each
Speaker 3: week or each month is really going to serve you
Speaker 3: much better than aiming for this gold standard number, which
Speaker 3: feels really overwhelming for a lot of people.
Speaker 1: I think that it's good to know that the rationale
Speaker 1: for ten thousand steps per day was not based on
Speaker 1: an exercise prescription as opposed to reminding people that in
Speaker 1: our incredibly inactive lifestyles, and even more so now that
Speaker 1: we're spending a lot of us a lot more time
Speaker 1: at home, that's just a basic amount of movement a
Speaker 1: human body should be doing on a day to day basis.
Speaker 1: So I don't count that as exercise. And often if
Speaker 1: I'm starting with a client and I have a look
Speaker 1: at their pedometer, which may just be on their phone,
Speaker 1: and they're doing two or three thousand steps per day,
Speaker 1: I'll describe to them that that is one of the
Speaker 1: biggest issues is that their body is moving so little
Speaker 1: through the day. It's not getting through their food, let
Speaker 1: alone getting into fat stores. So as a reference point,
Speaker 1: between eight thousand to ten thousand steps a day is
Speaker 1: the bare minimum human body should ideally move to keep
Speaker 1: them relatively weight stable. If the goal is weight loss,
Speaker 1: you then have to do a whole lot more, and
Speaker 1: that can come as a big shock. And indeed, like you,
Speaker 1: I would grade clients up very very slowly, as opposed
Speaker 1: to go from two thousand a day to sixteen thousand
Speaker 1: a day. But over time, the goal is to just
Speaker 1: reintroduce activity into a very sedentary lifestyle, and so as
Speaker 1: a starting point, I'll encourage clients to not go for
Speaker 1: any longer than two hours a day sitting before they
Speaker 1: make an active attempt to do some movement, particularly after eating.
Speaker 1: It aids digestion and insulin regulation to be moving after
Speaker 1: you eat rather than sitting down in front.
Speaker 2: Of the couch.
Speaker 1: And the other thing that is a powerful predictor of
Speaker 1: increasing movement is just monitoring your steps. The research shows
Speaker 1: you do at least two thousand more each day when
Speaker 1: you're mindful of it, So keeping an eye on how
Speaker 1: much you're moving. So the other way I describe it
Speaker 1: for clients is if you want to lose weight, we
Speaker 1: need to do at least ten thousand steps per day,
Speaker 1: plus either some cardio training or if you're not that
Speaker 1: way inclined, you're going to have to get the steps
Speaker 1: right up to about sixteen thousand. Now that's just anecdotal
Speaker 1: reports in my own experience, but it's because in Australia
Speaker 1: we're particularly inactive. If you live in cities London, New York,
Speaker 1: people are doing twenty thirty thousand steps per day because
Speaker 1: that is part of the commute and that is part
Speaker 1: of their lifestyle. Don't forget how inactive we are here.
Speaker 1: We drive everywhere, we tend to park right outside the shops.
Speaker 1: We live in big suburbs, so we're not doing strip
Speaker 1: shopping anymore. All those factors really impact and the same
Speaker 1: at the moment with many of us not doing a
Speaker 1: commute as part of our day. So often people will
Speaker 1: be getting to five six thousand just by getting to
Speaker 1: work and getting on the train and getting off the bus.
Speaker 1: And if you're not doing that any day, we really
Speaker 1: at the moment we really have to look for ways
Speaker 1: to reintroduce it. So the first thing I would say
Speaker 1: is start to monitor. You don't have to go and
Speaker 1: by an expensive monitoring watch, although you can, because that's great.
Speaker 2: It's always on you.
Speaker 1: But as a starting point, just carrying your phone a
Speaker 1: little bit or having it in your handbag. We'll give
Speaker 1: you a very rough idea of how much you're doing,
Speaker 1: and then just try and gradually increase it. And do
Speaker 1: some amount of walking in the morning, even ten to
Speaker 1: fifteen minutes, maybe some after lunch, and then maybe some
Speaker 1: late afternoon or after dinner, and just gradually over time,
Speaker 1: try and increase it. And that is just basic health
Speaker 1: requirements for your body. Then on top of that, it's
Speaker 1: separate if the goal is actually weight loss, so it's
Speaker 1: a progression. But I think we can be quite honest
Speaker 1: in a conversation about steps to say that a lot
Speaker 1: of us are severely inactive, and that is a big
Speaker 1: reason why a lot of us struggle with our weight.
Speaker 2: And once we look at.
Speaker 1: Activity as a minimum what we need to do to
Speaker 1: keep our body healthy and look at exercise separately, that's
Speaker 1: often when we strike the right balance between movement, higher
Speaker 1: intensity activity to get our heart rates up and our
Speaker 1: muscles more sensitive and calorie control. And that's often the
Speaker 1: missing link for a lot of us is that we're
Speaker 1: just a lot more inactive than we need to be.
Speaker 3: And it's a really important point you mentioned. It's just
Speaker 3: a general health guideline is ten thousand steps a day
Speaker 3: because thinking about my grandma, like I remember what she
Speaker 3: told me. She used to walk, I think it was
Speaker 3: six kilometers to school every day and then six kilometers back,
Speaker 3: and then she'd come home and she'd help, you know,
Speaker 3: my great grandma or whatever it was, her mum around
Speaker 3: the house. And you know, on the weekends they'd be
Speaker 3: all out and being active, and like it was crazy.
Speaker 3: They didn't have cars. They walked absolutely everywhere a lot
Speaker 3: of times out you know, great grandparents grew up on
Speaker 3: farms and like, they were just so incredibly active. So
Speaker 3: you're right, but I think that hearing something like you know,
Speaker 3: you need to do sixteen thousand steps of fat loss
Speaker 3: is very, very overwhelming. So I actually find that my
Speaker 3: clients get the most benefit just from ten thousand steps
Speaker 3: with three to four exercise sessions on top of that
Speaker 3: a week, so three to four times of hit training
Speaker 3: or strength training or some sort of you know, gym workouts,
Speaker 3: plus getting those daily steps in every day. And it
Speaker 3: doesn't have to be ten thousand every day because to
Speaker 3: achieve ten thousand steps, if you have a desk job
Speaker 3: like myself, Susie, that's about an hour and a half
Speaker 3: of walking. So I will generally hit my standards about
Speaker 3: two thousand a day. Like with my desk job, with
Speaker 3: working from my computer, being on my phone most of
Speaker 3: the day, I'll start most of my days with a walk.
Speaker 3: It'll take me about an hour twenty minutes. I'll clock
Speaker 3: around eight thousand steps. I'll get the other sort of
Speaker 3: two two and a half thousand throughout my day, and
Speaker 3: then I'll go to the gym during pregnancy two three
Speaker 3: times a week. Usually sort of aim about four sessions
Speaker 3: on a good week, five sessions a week, and that
Speaker 3: for myself works really well and for the majority of
Speaker 3: my clients works really well. But I think it's important
Speaker 3: to note that we can average that ten thousand steps
Speaker 3: out across the week. So if during Monday to Friday
Speaker 3: you're getting five seven thousand, then Saturday Sunday you're getting
Speaker 3: like fifteen thousand up to twenty thousand, that's wonderful and
Speaker 3: that average really does count as well. It doesn't have
Speaker 3: to be ten thousand every single day. I think, just
Speaker 3: like our calorie intake, it's sort of based on an
Speaker 3: average of what we're doing across the week, So I
Speaker 3: think that that helps to be a little bit less overwhelming.
Speaker 3: But I really like how you mentioned like try to
Speaker 3: get fifteen minutes of walking in around breakfast, fifteen minutes
Speaker 3: around lunch, and fifteen minutes around dinner. And if you
Speaker 3: are a desk you know worker, utilize some strategies like
Speaker 3: get one of those headsets. If you spend a lot
Speaker 3: of time on the phone on conference calls or waiting
Speaker 3: for clients or waiting for people to call you back.
Speaker 3: Get one of those headsets and pace up and down
Speaker 3: the corridors at work, or do some laps of your house,
Speaker 3: or go outside and the fresh air and your lunch
Speaker 3: break and just the act of going outside, or get
Speaker 3: you you know, a couple hundred steps anyway, So find
Speaker 3: ways to get that movement in in terms of we
Speaker 3: call that incidental exercise, don't we, Susie, So park in
Speaker 3: the furthest car park away when you go to the supermarket,
Speaker 3: take the stairs wherever you can. You know, things like airports.
Speaker 3: I always laugh when I see people get on those
Speaker 3: travelators at airports. Honestly, not that anyone's been there at
Speaker 3: airport in the last two years, but you know they
Speaker 3: always catch the travelator. I love going to the airport
Speaker 3: because I had two thousand steps in. Whenever I go
Speaker 3: to the airport, I don't sit there at the gate
Speaker 3: and wait for my flight. I'm like lapping around doing
Speaker 3: some window shopping. I avoid the travel laders like the plague.
Speaker 3: I always take the stairs, even with my suitcase. Probably
Speaker 3: wouldn't do it while I was pregnant, to be fair,
Speaker 3: but you know, usually like I see airports, there's a
Speaker 3: great way to hit my ten twenty thousand steps a day.
Speaker 3: Traveling holidays, that sort of thing. Love being active, hiking,
Speaker 3: exploring new places. So I think, just find that opportunity
Speaker 3: within your day to day life. Even when I'm doing
Speaker 3: my shopping, suitsie or the aisles have different things. If
Speaker 3: I'm you know, in Aisle seven, and I'm like, oh crap,
Speaker 3: I forgot the tin tomatoes two aisles back, I'll go
Speaker 3: when i'll finish my shopping, you know, across the ten
Speaker 3: or twelve aisles. Then I'll go all the way back
Speaker 3: through the different aisles, just to get more steps in.
Speaker 3: On a Sunday, when I do my meal prep and
Speaker 3: my shopping, my grocery shopping, go to the farmer's markets,
Speaker 3: go to the supermarket. I reckon I can easily get
Speaker 3: ten thousand steps without any walking in because that's just
Speaker 3: me being super active that day, walking throughout the shopping center,
Speaker 3: the shops, the farmers' markets, and then across my kitchen
Speaker 3: for two plus hours while I'm doing my meal prep.
Speaker 3: So I think, as much as possible, try to include
Speaker 3: those steps as part of your incidental activity and you
Speaker 3: won't notice. I guess how much time it takes up
Speaker 3: as such.
Speaker 1: And we definitely know that on Sunday mornings, we've got
Speaker 1: a lot of nutrition couch listeners who wait to do
Speaker 1: their walk till our episode drop.
Speaker 2: So yeah, I shout out to all of you who
Speaker 2: are walking out.
Speaker 1: But I guess just to wrap that up, because we
Speaker 1: could again talk about steps for a long time.
Speaker 2: Is the other thing is.
Speaker 1: If you don't move a lot, I would not start
Speaker 1: and try and hit really high targets because you don't
Speaker 1: want to get an injury. So grade up slowly so
Speaker 1: there's nothing worse than hurting your knee or your ankle
Speaker 1: because you're not used to walking and suddenly you want
Speaker 1: to go and try and do twelve thousand steps per day.
Speaker 1: So grade up gradually so you get a training response,
Speaker 1: because we're definitely not encouraging you to go and flog
Speaker 1: yourself and get a terrible injury. So grade up slowly
Speaker 1: and look after your body and listen to it. If
Speaker 1: you're feeling a bit sore on the hips or the knees,
Speaker 1: just take it easy until your body gets used to
Speaker 1: that increase in movement. But over time, just by having
Speaker 1: this conversation you'll see you significant increase your movement and
Speaker 1: that's only a good thing when it comes to metabolism
Speaker 1: and weight controllers.
Speaker 2: We all get a little bit older.
Speaker 3: So quickly, just before we wrap up, Susie, let me
Speaker 3: introduct quickly and say slip slops up. In Australia, we're
Speaker 3: heading into the warmer month. We got up at six
Speaker 3: o'clock this morning to did our walk and by the
Speaker 3: time we probably didn't make it out till six thirty
Speaker 3: and a bit slow to get started in the mornings
Speaker 3: these days. But by the time we got back at
Speaker 3: eight it was hot, hot, hot, and David was like
Speaker 3: put some sunscreen on and he like slathered me up
Speaker 3: and I'm so grateful that he did because it was
Speaker 3: so hot. So just reminded that everyone gets your suns
Speaker 3: screen in if you're doing more than sort of fifteen
Speaker 3: twenty minutes out in the sunshine, get a hat on,
Speaker 3: put some sunny's on. It is sort of getting into
Speaker 3: that magpie season, so particularly in Australia, protect yourself, protect
Speaker 3: your eyes, get your sunny's on, get your hat on,
Speaker 3: get your sun's green on and pop a good poddy
Speaker 3: in and give it a listen. And go for a
Speaker 3: long walk on the weekend, particularly outside of that peak
Speaker 3: UV sort of rays within the midday sun. Try to
Speaker 3: do very early morning or a lot later at night,
Speaker 3: and you'll be protected a little bit better from the sun.
Speaker 1: What I'm saying to that is there's nothing worse than
Speaker 1: Queensland as this there showing off about their sun. Anyway,
Speaker 1: that does bring us to the end of the Nutrition
Speaker 1: Gouts another week. If you haven't done so already, don't
Speaker 1: forget to subscribe to have us delivered to your inbox
Speaker 1: every Sunday morning. And we are really trying hard to
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Speaker 1: We have our Instagram and Facebook sites running for any
Speaker 1: feedback or your questions, and it is at the Nutrition
Speaker 1: Couch podcast and we're going to see you same time,
Speaker 1: same place next Sunday.
Speaker 2: Have a great week.
Speaker 1: Touch you guys next week.