Speaker 1: Do you know what your iron is?
Speaker 2: Maybe your iron's in the normal range, but perhaps your
Speaker 2: ferretin is low. On today's episode of The Nutrition Couch,
Speaker 2: we chat all things iron and what you need to
Speaker 2: do to get on top of your iron levels once
Speaker 2: and for all.
Speaker 1: Hi, I'm Leanne Wood.
Speaker 2: And I'm Sissy Burrow, and together we bring you The
Speaker 2: Nutrition Couch, your weekly podcast with everything that you need
Speaker 2: to know in the world of nutrition.
Speaker 1: As well as all things iron.
Speaker 2: We take a closer look at supermarket hot chocolates, we
Speaker 2: have a frozen vegetable product to review, and our listener
Speaker 2: question is all about the online craze at the moment
Speaker 2: beef liver supplements. But to kick us off today, Zuzie,
Speaker 2: we are chatting all things iron because admittedly you and
Speaker 2: I have both had low iron in the past. Our
Speaker 2: clients regularly have low iron. It's something that busy women
Speaker 2: really struggle with, isn't it.
Speaker 3: I think one of my most frustrating things with clients
Speaker 3: is when I'll look at their blood panel and the
Speaker 3: doctor will have said it's fine, and I'll look and
Speaker 3: their ferretin is like a eighteen. Now we'll disclose that
Speaker 3: recently I had a faretin coming tot eighteen. So it
Speaker 3: is incredibly easy, even if you are a red meat eater,
Speaker 3: to have low iron stores. And there's a few reasons
Speaker 3: for this. The first is that often our intake is
Speaker 3: not where it needs to be. So if you are
Speaker 3: a meat eater, but you eat red meat once a week,
Speaker 3: and you are a young woman who exercises a lot,
Speaker 3: has young kids, you might have been breastfeeding pregnant in
Speaker 3: the last few years. It won't be enough, and so
Speaker 3: over time your stores gradually deplete, and even low iron stores,
Speaker 3: which is your ferretin, can make you feel very, very tired.
Speaker 3: So I was prompted to get a blood test because
Speaker 3: I got up one morning and felt very very dizzy,
Speaker 3: and I thought, oh my god, what is wrong with me?
Speaker 3: And when I looked my faireshan had been twenty last
Speaker 3: year and now it's eighteen. I should have done something then,
Speaker 3: but again, you know, the doctors didn't say to me
Speaker 3: at the time, would you like to get an infusion,
Speaker 3: which is ultimately what many women will need to top
Speaker 3: their stores up, because routinely what I'll hear is clients,
Speaker 3: and these are even clients who've just had a baby,
Speaker 3: and they've gone through their pregnancy, the baby's taken all
Speaker 3: the iron from them. They haven't been eating a huge
Speaker 3: amount because they're pregnant and not feeling amazing. And then
Speaker 3: they'll go home with a newborn with low ferretin and
Speaker 3: the doctor's suggesting that they take a fair grad sea. Now,
Speaker 3: iron supplements rip through your gut. They are incredibly difficult
Speaker 3: to get your iron levels up. It's got to do
Speaker 3: with a lot of factors, including absorption, and so if
Speaker 3: your stores are low, many people, I believe will need
Speaker 3: an infusion to bring it up, particularly if they've got
Speaker 3: high energy demands, they're breastfeeding, things like that. Even myself,
Speaker 3: I just know that increasing my red meat intakes slightly
Speaker 3: has not helped me in twelve months, not even a
Speaker 3: little bit. And I'm not ready for letting it go.
Speaker 3: And I said to my own clients, do not walk
Speaker 3: around with low ferretin. It's really like your body is
Speaker 3: constantly running on empty. It means that your blood is
Speaker 3: not oxygenated to the extent it should be. Your brain
Speaker 3: and cognitive function is not going to be as good
Speaker 3: as it should be. You'll be breathless, you'd be your
Speaker 3: sleep and still feel fatigued. You know you're starting behind
Speaker 3: the eight ball. Your immune systems impacted. It's not healthy
Speaker 3: for any of us to be walking around with low ferretin.
Speaker 3: So that's the first thing. If you've had to look
Speaker 3: at your blood tests and overtime your ferresons declining, you
Speaker 3: know it's worth exploring. And we should also say leand
Speaker 3: that low ferretin and low iron can also be a
Speaker 3: sign that you may not be absorbing, you may be
Speaker 3: losing blood in certain ways. It certainly warrants medical investigation.
Speaker 3: So when I was at the GP, the first thing
Speaker 3: they said to me was, had I had a colonoscopy,
Speaker 3: because they too are thinking if you've got chronic low iron,
Speaker 3: it can be associated with malabsorption or even bowel cancer
Speaker 3: and young people, and we're seeing that more and more.
Speaker 3: So it's really it's not a sign that something's wrong.
Speaker 3: It's a sign. You need to understand why it could
Speaker 3: be low. Are you malabsorbing, are you losing blood? Are
Speaker 3: you exercising a lot and not replacing? And if everything
Speaker 3: comes back normal, So for example, I've had a colonoscopy
Speaker 3: as you had in the last two years, no polyps,
Speaker 3: no sign of anything toward no other signs and symptoms.
Speaker 3: The rest of my blood's are normal highly likely. Like
Speaker 3: many of our listeners, I just don't need enough red
Speaker 3: meat for the amount that I expend. I do exercise
Speaker 3: a lot. I probably have red meat maybe once a
Speaker 3: week if I'm lucky. I always prefer fish and chicken
Speaker 3: over red meat. So that's the first thing. You've got
Speaker 3: to get your blood tests, have a good look at them,
Speaker 3: and decide is it worth investing in having an infusion
Speaker 3: and getting the stores up. And it was interesting this
Speaker 3: time the end because the doctors actually offered me two infusions,
Speaker 3: so when I've had one in the past, they gave
Speaker 3: me the one infusion. It brings your eye up to
Speaker 3: about one hundred. He said to me. He thinks you
Speaker 3: should always have both and bring your stores right up
Speaker 3: rather than just go. And I thought that was quite
Speaker 3: an interesting thing. I hadn't heard it before either. Then
Speaker 3: on top of that, that would be if you're someone
Speaker 3: who doesn't eat a lot of red meat in general
Speaker 3: and would prefer to take an iron supplement like multi Fi,
Speaker 3: which is a very good one a few times a
Speaker 3: week to top your stores up as opposed to eating
Speaker 3: more meat. Absolutely, go for it. That is, in my experience,
Speaker 3: the best thing to do. If you border on low iron,
Speaker 3: it's certainly not the solution. If your stores are in
Speaker 3: your boots and you're a tired, busy, overwet mum, You've
Speaker 3: got to get your levels up and then go from there.
Speaker 3: Or if you prefer no supplements, and some of us
Speaker 3: don't because they do rip through your gut, I would
Speaker 3: say you've got to be having small serves of lean
Speaker 3: red meat three or four times a week, like a
Speaker 3: lean land Cutlet some lean beef mints and use it.
Speaker 3: You know, you've been doing that series on your Instagram
Speaker 3: with all the hot lunches. You know, do a beef
Speaker 3: mince recipe that you have a couple of times a
Speaker 3: week when you go for dinner, get a fill at
Speaker 3: steak and have it over two meals. Have a steak
Speaker 3: sandwich rather than a chicken burger. You know, you've really
Speaker 3: got to really focus on it to get your demands
Speaker 3: in because, yeah, a lot of us just are not
Speaker 3: getting enough or choosing to eat less red meat or
Speaker 3: even following a plant based diet. And I argue that
Speaker 3: for busy women, it's just not fair that we're walking
Speaker 3: around with low ferritin. That makes you feel like you've
Speaker 3: been hit by a bus.
Speaker 2: Yeah, And I certainly have shoggled with low iron in
Speaker 2: my past. I was bigin for you at a terin
Speaker 2: for a couple of years in my early twenties, and
Speaker 2: then in my thirties I had two back to back pregnancies,
Speaker 2: two back to back breastfeeding lots, and sort of about
Speaker 2: four years straight I was either pregnant or breastfeeding. And
Speaker 2: just for some context, women between about twenty to fifteen
Speaker 2: need about eighteen milligrams of iron a day, and that's
Speaker 2: primarily due to regular menstruation. Once women get over fifty,
Speaker 2: it drops from eighteen down to eight milligrams a day,
Speaker 2: and that's primarily due to, you know, the average age
Speaker 2: of metopause. Now, pregnant women go from eighteen milligrams a
Speaker 2: day up to twenty seven milligrams a day. And I
Speaker 2: always say to my clients, particularly in that third trimester,
Speaker 2: the baby is just like a gremlin, like it's just
Speaker 2: taken everything.
Speaker 3: From your particularly the iron.
Speaker 2: So so many women, and then if you've had a
Speaker 2: really rough berth as well, like you might have lost
Speaker 2: a bit of extra blood and all that kind of thing.
Speaker 1: You might have had a hemorrhage.
Speaker 2: Like a lot of times they are replacing it, but
Speaker 2: sometimes they're not, and that's where it can really really
Speaker 2: you can struggle to get on top of your iron levels,
Speaker 2: and then if you have another pregnancy, you know, you
Speaker 2: just struggle to get on top of it if you're
Speaker 2: not replacing it properly. So it is really important to
Speaker 2: be aware of your iron levels. If you are someone
Speaker 2: that's been really low on the past, it might be
Speaker 2: worth having a check once or twice a year. If
Speaker 2: you're someone who is busy and who is tired, who
Speaker 2: you may be in that postpartum period and you haven't
Speaker 2: had your blood work dead in the last year, I'd
Speaker 2: highly recommend going and chatting to your doctor about getting
Speaker 2: your iron levels checked, particularly if you are, as Zusie mentioned,
Speaker 2: feeling dizzy. You know, you're breathless even just walking, like
Speaker 2: doing minimal exertion. In terms of exercise, you know, of
Speaker 2: course you've gotta be restless if you're doing a huge workout,
Speaker 2: but you're just going for a really easy stroll or
Speaker 2: just doing day to day activities, you feel quite breathless.
Speaker 2: You wake up after a really good night's sleep, still exhausted.
Speaker 2: It's well worth going to get your iron levels tested.
Speaker 2: And restless legs is another big one. I remember in
Speaker 2: the third trimester, my iron was obviously very low. I
Speaker 2: could not keep my legs still at nighttime, like they
Speaker 2: would shake constantly, and David was like, what is wrong
Speaker 2: and I was like, I don't know, I just I
Speaker 2: can't stop moving my legs. And then when I went
Speaker 2: back to my ob she was like, oh, your iron
Speaker 2: must be really low. When we check it was and
Speaker 2: she said that's a big sign. Restless legs is a
Speaker 2: big sign of low iron. So that's another good one.
Speaker 2: If you are sitting there and you have very restless
Speaker 2: legs at night, probably a good good chance to go
Speaker 2: and get blood tests. True, but key sauces of iron
Speaker 2: really really important. As Zuzi said, it's the red meat,
Speaker 2: you know, beef, kangaroo, even chicken and fish have iron
Speaker 2: not as much as your red meats. And then if
Speaker 2: you're talking about vegetarian or what we call non hem
Speaker 2: based iron sauces, your legames and your beans are absolutely
Speaker 2: the best sauces tofu as well, dark green leafy veggies
Speaker 2: and really dried apricots are a great combo. You would
Speaker 2: get clients to have dried apricots and chick beas like
Speaker 2: groasted chickpas as a really good high iron snack. And
Speaker 2: then making sure you're really having what we call that
Speaker 2: iron boost, that vitamin C. So a lot of the
Speaker 2: iron supplements on the market do have vitamin C included
Speaker 2: in them, but if they don't, something simple like a
Speaker 2: squeeze of lemon or orange juice onto your salad or
Speaker 2: having a bit of capsicum or tomatoes in a meal
Speaker 2: when you're taking your iron tablet is a really good idea.
Speaker 2: And making sure you avoid any what we call iron inhibitors,
Speaker 2: so the tannins and tin coffee can actually hinder the
Speaker 2: absorption of an iron. So don't sit down to take
Speaker 2: your iron tablet or capsule and wash that down with
Speaker 2: a sipper coffee because you're not doing yourself any favors.
Speaker 2: And then also I'll just quickly make a really quick
Speaker 2: note because one of my good friends is just starting
Speaker 2: her baby on solids and she was telling me how
Speaker 2: well he's doing on all the vegetables, and I just
Speaker 2: gave a quick reminder because no one really tells you
Speaker 2: these things that the most important nutrients. One of the
Speaker 2: most important nutrients for babies starting food is actually iron.
Speaker 2: It's not vegetables, you know, they don't really get in
Speaker 2: much iron. After six months of age, mum's breast milk
Speaker 2: stops sort of producing that iron, and so it's a really, really,
Speaker 2: really important nutrient. And I said to her, just sucking
Speaker 2: on a really well cooked lamb chop to get the
Speaker 2: juice the iron out of it is a great thing
Speaker 2: for little babies. If you're doing baby led weeding. Obviously,
Speaker 2: I've got to chew off the lamb. They're just sucking
Speaker 2: the juice. It's got to be really well cooked and
Speaker 2: very well trimmed. All black beans, just squash them, and
Speaker 2: that can be a really great sauce of iron and
Speaker 2: also fiber because a lot of bubs get quite constipated
Speaker 2: dropping down the milk as well. So they're my tips
Speaker 2: in terms of iron. But like you said, my preference
Speaker 2: is a liquid over a capsule. If you are someone
Speaker 2: that struggles with you know, constipation and gut issues and
Speaker 2: iron tablets, try it liquid because that tends to be
Speaker 2: a little bit better absorbed than an iron capsule.
Speaker 3: Now, she hasn't given us her number. What was your
Speaker 3: ferresh and leanne in recent weeks?
Speaker 1: Oh, it's always been lower.
Speaker 2: At one point, I think it was about three in
Speaker 2: the hospital rang me and they're like, come straight in.
Speaker 1: Now, this is years it go.
Speaker 3: Though she has an in vision two. I've told her
Speaker 3: she's not listening to me. Butanne, you've forgotten my favorite
Speaker 3: sources of iron in the diet. Well, if anyone grew
Speaker 3: up in the seventies and eighties, you cannot go past
Speaker 3: the smoked oyster and a smoke muscle in the tin
Speaker 3: like they have to be some of the most efficient
Speaker 3: ways to get four to seven milligrams of well absorbed
Speaker 3: heam iron. If you like smoked oysters, if you like
Speaker 3: smoke muscles, I am a big fan. They're not for everybody,
Speaker 3: that's the button. I do like them. They're going to
Speaker 3: be a very good source.
Speaker 1: That's a problem. Though not many people like them, myself included,
Speaker 1: but I.
Speaker 3: Take them and her husband David indulges with me and
Speaker 3: the smokedoy sterilia and is horrible.
Speaker 1: And me and me are standing on the side pinching
Speaker 1: our noses.
Speaker 2: Well, moving on from iron to hot chocolate, because as
Speaker 2: we know, it's cooling down, maybe not so much in Queensland,
Speaker 2: but definitely down south a little bit more. It's cooling
Speaker 2: down and it is hot chocolate weather. So of course,
Speaker 2: like most times in May, a lot of our clients
Speaker 2: are saying I have.
Speaker 1: This hot chocolate and this one and this one.
Speaker 2: So we thought we'd do a little bit of a
Speaker 2: supermarket wreki and look at what are the hot chocolates
Speaker 2: on the markets.
Speaker 3: So I think a lot of our.
Speaker 2: Clients have used the traditional you know, the Milos and
Speaker 2: the Cadburys, and it's I don't think we have to
Speaker 2: cover it on the podcast. They're obviously heine sugar. They're
Speaker 2: more of a treat food. But there are some better
Speaker 2: ones on the market these days that are a bit
Speaker 2: lower in sugar or even perhaps provide some functional ingredients.
Speaker 2: So the one that you and I loved for years
Speaker 2: and years and years, and what we admittedly tried to
Speaker 2: replicate from a taste perspective when we built our rest
Speaker 2: Hot Chocolate and design our dieticians was the Jarrow one.
Speaker 2: So we still really like that because it is quite
Speaker 2: low calorie. But the thing is with that, to me,
Speaker 2: I always get that funny after taste because it does
Speaker 2: have the artificial sweetness in their nine to five to one,
Speaker 2: but the ingredients or nutrition information is pretty good, like
Speaker 2: a stick of that is only around what fifty calories
Speaker 2: or something and quite low in sugar because it does
Speaker 2: have the sweetness in there. So the Jarra one's one
Speaker 2: of the better ones on the market in terms of
Speaker 2: a lot lower in sugar.
Speaker 1: The other one that.
Speaker 2: I have clients have a lot recently, in particular as
Speaker 2: a brand called Avalanche. But I do get feedback that
Speaker 2: although it is quite low in sugar, it doesn't necessarily
Speaker 2: taste so good. So my clients tell me that this
Speaker 2: one is quite low in sugar, and I believe it
Speaker 2: clocks it around that I think.
Speaker 1: I don't have the nutritionals in front of me, but I.
Speaker 2: Think around forty kind of ish calories, so quite low
Speaker 2: calorie as well, quite low sugar. But again I think
Speaker 2: they are using a lot of the artificial sweetness, aren't they,
Speaker 2: And that tends to be sort of the running theme
Speaker 2: across the supermarkets are either full sugar or they tend
Speaker 2: to be quite low in sugar, but they are using
Speaker 2: a lot of those artificial sweetness to obviously reduce it
Speaker 2: and replicate that sugar content aren't they they are?
Speaker 3: I think the feedback I'm just a look to confirm
Speaker 3: the sweetener in avalanche and I don't think it's artificial,
Speaker 3: but I can't actually get the nutritionals, which that's not
Speaker 3: our fault. If they don't log them, I'll try and
Speaker 3: go to another site. But my experience with it is
Speaker 3: it's really watery. So it's actually nutritionally pretty good, but
Speaker 3: just watery. And I'm like you, I've always loved the
Speaker 3: jarra and would have one every night, but I was
Speaker 3: becoming more and more aware of sort of the evidence
Speaker 3: to avoid a spartame in the diet. And whilst it
Speaker 3: did have a milk powder base which and it does
Speaker 3: has some sugar and I think it's got about eight
Speaker 3: grams of sugar over all the jarra, but it did
Speaker 3: have a lovely mouthfeel, which is what we replicated with
Speaker 3: our rest without the artificial sweetener, because there is I think,
Speaker 3: so the ingredients in the jarwer is milk solids, glucose solids,
Speaker 3: cocoa at seventeen percent, which is a nice amount, but
Speaker 3: it does have nine to five one which is a spartame.
Speaker 3: Because I think part of it is when you have
Speaker 3: more of a watery one, you don't get that fulfillment,
Speaker 3: and that's the case with a couple of those tube
Speaker 3: style ones. There also is some avalanche, a sugar f
Speaker 3: that might have the type of sweetener on it actually,
Speaker 3: so that's part of the issue. And then of course
Speaker 3: if you go to the good Oh, they're using a
Speaker 3: erythrotol in the avalanche rain, whereas if you go to
Speaker 3: the cabri, which is delicious, but we want to be
Speaker 3: because it's based on pure sugar and that's traditionally what
Speaker 3: hot chocolate would be. And I think actually for anyone
Speaker 3: listening who isn't a coffee drinker, who will say to me,
Speaker 3: at this time of year, I had a hot chocolate. Well,
Speaker 3: hot chocolate at the coffee shop is got twenty to
Speaker 3: thirty grams of sugar in a small They're incredibly concentrated.
Speaker 3: So if you are looking for a hot drink in
Speaker 3: this at this time of year, and you do get
Speaker 3: it from a cafe occasionally as a bit of a treat,
Speaker 3: I wouldn't be having one every day. A little trick
Speaker 3: is to ask for half strength and they'll put half
Speaker 3: the powder in so you're not getting as much sugar
Speaker 3: and it would be just as sweet. You know, you'll
Speaker 3: enjoy it just as much, but you will cut a
Speaker 3: little bit. But yeah, the cabri one, for example, per serve,
Speaker 3: it's still only just over one hundred calories, but it's
Speaker 3: got thirteen point four grams of sugar because the first
Speaker 3: ingredient is sugar, followed by glucose syrup another form of sugar, milk, solids,
Speaker 3: vegetable fat, So nutritionally, it's not a great choice. And
Speaker 3: my understanding is the linked one is also similar because
Speaker 3: I think the other thing when it comes to hot
Speaker 3: chocolates is there's a lot of functional hot chocolate. So
Speaker 3: we'll be very clear. We do have rest our functional
Speaker 3: hot chocolate, but there are some varieties out there that
Speaker 3: retail for as much as sixty dollars for a packet
Speaker 3: of hot chocolate. Now, it would have to have liquid
Speaker 3: gold in there to warrant that price. There is nothing
Speaker 3: in a functional hot chocolate that should warrant it being
Speaker 3: as much as sixty dollars. You're probably lining the pockets
Speaker 3: of it. Influences to just be mindful, you know, if
Speaker 3: it's promising the earth, it probably is too good to
Speaker 3: be true because that kind of amounts. I don't care
Speaker 3: whether it's a greens powder, a hot chocolate, sixty eighty
Speaker 3: dollars for a small container, there is no possible way
Speaker 3: even if it contains collagen. Collagen does add a cost
Speaker 3: to hot chocolate, but nowhere near those amounts. And often
Speaker 3: they might have as little as three grams of collagen,
Speaker 3: which is not a big dose either. If you're paying
Speaker 3: that much, you'd want at least ten grams of collagen,
Speaker 3: if not more so. Buyer beware, you know, if it's
Speaker 3: sounding too good to be true, or for supermodel selling it,
Speaker 3: it's probably ripping you off a little bit, because at
Speaker 3: the end of the day, a functional drink is not
Speaker 3: going to solve the problems of the world, you know,
Speaker 3: so just be aware. I think our kind of product
Speaker 3: is about that thirty dollar mark. That's where you're going
Speaker 3: to be getting the benefits of some functional ingredients, magnesium,
Speaker 3: some sleep additions, a whole food base as opposed to
Speaker 3: artificial sweetness, a great mouth feel. But yet you can
Speaker 3: certainly be ripped off when it comes to some of
Speaker 3: the ones out there. And I'm just having a look
Speaker 3: at the limp one right now, leam, this is certainly
Speaker 3: much more indulgent sugar, cocoa butter, whole milk, powder, cocoa mass.
Speaker 3: So it's really a good quality one, but again it
Speaker 3: would want to be. It's over two hundred calories a serve.
Speaker 3: It's got almost thirteen grams of sugar and twelve grams
Speaker 3: of fat. So that's a very indulgent type product that
Speaker 3: might burn off if you're living in the Arctic, but
Speaker 3: probably not in the Australian winter. So I would stick
Speaker 3: to a low calorie option that is reasonably priced, and
Speaker 3: if you can avoid the artificial sweetness or too much sugar,
Speaker 3: even if you buying hot chocolates away from the home,
Speaker 3: that would be the goal. And my client's question was
Speaker 3: does it matter if I occasionally have a Jarrah? And
Speaker 3: I was like, no, nothing occasionally ever matters. It's more
Speaker 3: if you rely on it every day, you would want
Speaker 3: to make sure the nutrition's going in his better quality.
Speaker 1: Yeah, one hundred percent.
Speaker 2: And I will say I have actually had one of
Speaker 2: those Lint hot chocolates at the Link Cafe and oh
Speaker 2: my goodness, it was amazing, like incredible, But yeah, definitely
Speaker 2: not something I'd want to be having every single night,
Speaker 2: or I don't think if it in my jeans by
Speaker 2: the end of winter.
Speaker 1: But it's definitely definitely a tree delicious.
Speaker 3: Actually, tell you what my little boy did the other day.
Speaker 3: He got milk. I actually had some high protein milk
Speaker 3: in the fridge and he was using it. I do
Speaker 3: like those high protein, low fat milks that are out.
Speaker 3: I am using them a bit more. So he put
Speaker 3: it in the saucepan and then I said to him.
Speaker 3: He'd shaved down one of his bunnies from East Easter,
Speaker 3: so he'd got a Cabri bunny and he sliced it
Speaker 3: all up, so it was a lot of chocolate, like
Speaker 3: it would have been one hundred and fifty hundred. And
Speaker 3: I said to him, Harry, you can't make a hot
Speaker 3: chocolate by melting chocolate into milk. It won't mix. I said,
Speaker 3: you need to put some of the hot chocolate rest
Speaker 3: in there. So he got sort of a heaped tablespoon
Speaker 3: of rest and mixed in it, and then he melted
Speaker 3: the chocolate through it. Oh my god, it was so delicious.
Speaker 3: I was like, yeah, that's how you make a real
Speaker 3: hot chocolate. Like he had it down pat Man, but
Speaker 3: he's a ten year old boy who doesn't eat a
Speaker 3: whole lot, so he can get away with it. But
Speaker 3: I was like, oh my god, this is like liquid gold.
Speaker 3: So yeah, you can certainly make some indulgent varieties with
Speaker 3: your leftover Easter chocolate if you're looking for a bit
Speaker 3: of a special trait.
Speaker 1: Yeah, delicious.
Speaker 2: But I think it really does come down to read
Speaker 2: the ingredients, read the nutrition label, and be aware what
Speaker 2: you're having. As Jusie said of it's a one off
Speaker 2: occasionally it doesn't really matter, but if you are having
Speaker 2: something regularly, i e. Every night or multiple times a week,
Speaker 2: you want to make sure that there are some good
Speaker 2: quality ingredients actually going into your body. And we quickly
Speaker 2: go through the ingredients and rest and why we chose them. Yeah,
Speaker 2: so the base of our rest is whole milk powder,
Speaker 2: So we wanted to that beautiful creamy mouth feel. We
Speaker 2: didn't want it to be super watery because ideally, like
Speaker 2: if you've got a super watery supplement, which we get
Speaker 2: that feedback that the avalanche is like, people just add
Speaker 2: milk to it anyway, So it might be low calorie,
Speaker 2: low sugar, but that then you're adding a whole heap
Speaker 2: of milk into it, it's obviously going to drive the
Speaker 2: calories up, so we wanted to start with whole milk
Speaker 2: powder as our base, what had that beautiful, whole food rich,
Speaker 2: creamy mouth feel. And then we've got cocoa powder going in,
Speaker 2: and glycine is one of our top functional ingredients. So
Speaker 2: glycine has been shown in the research to really support
Speaker 2: the nervous system and help you wind down and calm
Speaker 2: down in terms of improving your sleep quality. Then we've
Speaker 2: got magnesium in there as well, which we know help
Speaker 2: support muscle relaxation. And then we've got a couple of
Speaker 2: functional ingredients which have been traditionally used in Western medicine
Speaker 2: for their beautiful calming effects. So we've got passion flower extract.
Speaker 2: And if anyone remembers our Restop chocolate, was it last
Speaker 2: year that we ran out? It was so popular and
Speaker 2: we couldn't get it back in stock for ages And
Speaker 2: it was because of the damn passion flower extract which
Speaker 2: we've imported in from Europe and it got ordered, it
Speaker 2: got lost, that we got it expressed on the plane
Speaker 2: and it got We just had so many issues and
Speaker 2: it was out of stock for months, nearly all through
Speaker 2: last winter, and people were very upset with us, but
Speaker 2: it was because of this beautiful passion for our extract
Speaker 2: we just couldn't get and that traditionally has been used
Speaker 2: to help to calm and ease an overactive mind. We've
Speaker 2: also got camomile extract in there, which we know has
Speaker 2: been well recognized for its calming properties. We've got l
Speaker 2: trip to fane, which is a very essential amino acid
Speaker 2: which is involved in serotonin and melotonin production in the
Speaker 2: body as well. And then finally we've got to jube extract,
Speaker 2: which traditionally has been used in a lot of sleep
Speaker 2: support formulations in terms of calming and winding down as well.
Speaker 2: The restop chocolate is also good and free, so appropriate
Speaker 2: for clients with Celiac disease as well, and clocks in
Speaker 2: around sixty five calories with only six grams of carbohydrates
Speaker 2: in there, and naturally sweetened with a little bit of
Speaker 2: steavier as well, So that is our beautiful rest formulation.
Speaker 2: It's not too sweet, but it does have a nice
Speaker 2: creamy mouth feel as well. And we we'll be doing
Speaker 2: a special giveaway with our arrests, so if you haven't
Speaker 2: joined our private Facebook group yet, and you are on Facebook,
Speaker 2: send us a message on Instagram and we will send
Speaker 2: you the link to join our private Facebook Design by
Speaker 2: Dietestians community because we do a lot of special giveaways
Speaker 2: and exclusive access to things webinar recordings, trainings and that
Speaker 2: kind of thing in our group as well.
Speaker 1: So it's for our Design by Ditestian community.
Speaker 3: Yes, indeed, we'd hope to see you there. We're having
Speaker 3: simple conversations because we're cutting through some of the barriers
Speaker 3: to chatting to people online in those community groups, so
Speaker 3: it's worth joining, all right, Leanne, I found a nice
Speaker 3: winter comfort food. I don't know if you're going to
Speaker 3: like it, though, I will tell you I did buy
Speaker 3: it for the family, but I don't know if it
Speaker 3: ticks all our nutritional boxes. So we have previously talked
Speaker 3: about our love for the Delhi range of birds Eye
Speaker 3: frozen vegetables. They've got a whole growing range like seasoned beans, broccoli,
Speaker 3: and they've got some lovely flavor. Because my belief is
Speaker 3: if you make vegiet taste good, people eat more of them.
Speaker 3: And I think in the current climate where you go
Speaker 3: and broccoli can be like twelve dollars a kilo. You know,
Speaker 3: when you can buy a bag of broccoli florets that
Speaker 3: might last you a week or two for seven dollars. Financially,
Speaker 3: it makes sense. And frozen veggies are generally snap frozen
Speaker 3: at time of harvest, which means they retain all the nutrition.
Speaker 3: So they're a very very good choice. And I always
Speaker 3: have a range of frozen veggies in the freezer. Now
Speaker 3: for Bird's Eye, who we would love to work with.
Speaker 3: Birds Eye, if you're listening to us, we love what
Speaker 3: you're doing with your veggie ranges. But they've got some
Speaker 3: new ones we am. They've got a cauliflower cheese bake
Speaker 3: and they have this new scallopped potato with paprika. And
Speaker 3: I was making a lamb backstrap for the family and
Speaker 3: I purchased both this scolet potato with paprika as well
Speaker 3: as the cauliflower bake. Now, the couliflower bake was pretty tasty,
Speaker 3: I have to say, but I thought today we would
Speaker 3: review the scolet potato because I don't know if you
Speaker 3: what you're going to.
Speaker 1: Think of it.
Speaker 3: So this comes in the It's quite a big bag
Speaker 3: they sell them in. They're like six eight hundred grams.
Speaker 2: I think six hundred grams eight dollars fifty at wol worst.
Speaker 2: But they do regularly come on sale for about six
Speaker 2: seven dollars. They're often twenty thirty percent off.
Speaker 3: Yeah, eight dollars fifty now for a kilo. Now, potatoes
Speaker 3: are not inexpensive, are they? Like if you put a
Speaker 3: few big potatoes and you can think not cheap all right,
Speaker 3: So the ingredient list is sixty percent potato and forty
Speaker 3: percent sauce. The sauce is milk, water, cheddar cheese, palmasan cheese, cornstarch, salt,
Speaker 3: mineral salts, thickener, paprika andion powder, garlic powder, so quite
Speaker 3: a few powders. It's quite a long list, but it's
Speaker 3: actually reasonably clean. If you are summarizing it. It's mostly
Speaker 3: potato cheese sauce, and the cheese sauce is mainly cheese,
Speaker 3: milk and salt. Like, it doesn't have a huge amount
Speaker 3: in it, but I guess the ratio sixty potatoes to
Speaker 3: forty cheese, it looks gonna taste pretty good. Whether it's
Speaker 3: that good nutritionally, we don't know. So per serve they're
Speaker 3: saying there's four serves per pack, so quite a hearty
Speaker 3: serve for four, and for that you get just over
Speaker 3: hundred just shy of one hundred and fifty calories, so
Speaker 3: about one hundred and twenty calories per serve, five point
Speaker 3: four grams of protein, four point eight grams of fat.
Speaker 3: It's not low fat, but it's low and saturated fat overall,
Speaker 3: thirteen grams of carbohydrate, one point eight grams of dietary fiber,
Speaker 3: and three hundred and seventy milligrams of sodium, so land
Speaker 3: if I was looking at the nutritionals, I would say, oh,
Speaker 3: I probably preferred twenty percent sauce eighty percent potato. But
Speaker 3: when I take a look at the nutritionals, they're actually
Speaker 3: pretty good for a cheesy potato bake. They've kept the
Speaker 3: sat fat low, which means that they're kind of diluting
Speaker 3: out the creamy cheese sauce. So if you're making a
Speaker 3: proper cream sauce you're adding cream or full cream milk
Speaker 3: to it. They've skipped that. They're kind of using some
Speaker 3: rich tasting cheeses, and they're thickening it up with the
Speaker 3: corn start. So in the couliflower, which I assumes a
Speaker 3: similar recipe. It wasn't thick cream in the sauce. It
Speaker 3: was tasty, but it did have more a more watery
Speaker 3: mix than a full cream cheesy sauce. It was quite light,
Speaker 3: which is how they're doing it. They're using the milk
Speaker 3: and the cheese flavoring to get it and a bit
Speaker 3: of salt, although it's not overly highd salt for a
Speaker 3: product that's got quite a few different additions of mineral salt.
Speaker 3: So I actually quite like it because when I go
Speaker 3: to dinner parties with friends and they we make potato bake,
Speaker 3: it is heavy, you know, it is really cheesy and creamy.
Speaker 3: There's a lot in it. I actually think this comes
Speaker 3: up pretty good, and most importantly, it tasted pretty nice,
Speaker 3: so to save I quite the family ate it. Everyone
Speaker 3: liked it, so it's got three and a half health stars.
Speaker 3: I think. Would it be a product I'm adding to
Speaker 3: the family dinner every night, No, but certainly on a weekend.
Speaker 3: If I was having a roast meal and wanted to
Speaker 3: save a lot of time and energy and effort, it
Speaker 3: would certainly cost me a lot more to make a
Speaker 3: potato bake with fresh potatoes, cheese, milk. Then this would
Speaker 3: cost for ease and convenience, so I quite like it a.
Speaker 2: Great I like the entire range. I use them regularly.
Speaker 2: My girls love. There's like a garlic broccoli one. I
Speaker 2: love the green bean ones often I put them in
Speaker 2: the air fryer. And I love the purple bag. It's
Speaker 2: like potato mushrooms, onion and beans, I think. And there's
Speaker 2: also like a country venge mixed as well with beans
Speaker 2: and carrot I think, and potato. So I like the
Speaker 2: entire range. I haven't tried this one. It is one
Speaker 2: of the new ones. I have tried the corn ribs.
Speaker 2: That's another one of the new ones as well. They
Speaker 2: were really good, but I found it a bit harder
Speaker 2: to kind of cook them. I was like, oh, can
Speaker 2: I put them in the air fryer. But yeah, I
Speaker 2: think I'll definitely try this. I think the nutritionals are
Speaker 2: very strong, and I think that if you were to
Speaker 2: buy a pre made, as you said, potato bake, it
Speaker 2: wouldn't be anywhere you're as strong nutritionally. You get what
Speaker 2: you're buying, like you're not buying playing broccoli, so you
Speaker 2: can't expect it to be the world's best ingredient list.
Speaker 2: I think overall for a nice tasting scullot potato bake,
Speaker 2: I think it's very strong, and I think that for
Speaker 2: four serves, if you can get that on SAP for
Speaker 2: six seven dollars, I think that's a really affordable cost.
Speaker 2: You just add a bit of greens on the side,
Speaker 2: add some protein, and that's a really nice, hardy, well
Speaker 2: rounded meal. But perserving thirteen grams of carbohydrates is very small.
Speaker 2: So I think even if you had two serves, if
Speaker 2: you were hungry or growing, or had higher requirements, I
Speaker 2: still think that would be absolutely fine. And you just
Speaker 2: whack it in the oven fifteen minutes to cook, grill
Speaker 2: it on top, and you've got this delicious tasting, well
Speaker 2: balanced carbohydrate push and it ticks all the boxes from
Speaker 2: my perspective. And if you say it tastes good, I'm in.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I like it, so give it a go. So
Speaker 3: I found that at Coals. But yeah, they're doing a
Speaker 3: great job with getting making it easier for ousis to
Speaker 3: eat more veggies that taste great. Actually, that's a lie.
Speaker 3: I bought them at all worse.
Speaker 2: Yeah, always has a better range of the birds eye,
Speaker 2: yeahs one or two.
Speaker 3: Yeah, I buy the coals corn ribs for five dollars
Speaker 3: and I love the coals Mediterranean vegetables for seven. So
Speaker 3: they're kind of my staples. And then I'll add these
Speaker 3: kind of other ones, particularly the broccoli. I like the
Speaker 3: bird's eye broccoli. And yeah, I just think functional ways
Speaker 3: to eat veggies is such a good investment in this
Speaker 3: day and age.
Speaker 1: You think these ones are at will worst. Definitely at
Speaker 1: wil worse. Smark Koles.
Speaker 2: Okay of this product, and it's our beef liver supplements
Speaker 2: worth the hype for your iron. And I just every
Speaker 2: single day am be marketed by a different company. Maybe
Speaker 2: it's because they heard me and Susie talking about our
Speaker 2: low iron, maybe it's because all my clients have been
Speaker 2: asking about it. But I just feel like I'm being
Speaker 2: hounded left front and center on Facebook with beef liver supplements.
Speaker 2: And I looked into them because even I was like,
Speaker 2: oh this sound good. I bought into the hype. But
Speaker 2: I have to be so clear on this, ladies, like
Speaker 2: this is not okay. This is the really really over hype.
Speaker 2: So beef liver itself is a great source of iron.
Speaker 2: It is a great source of iron, but the supplements
Speaker 2: are where I have an issue because the supplements have
Speaker 2: like tiny, tiny microdoses in them. They're so small that
Speaker 2: it is doing absolutely nothing for your iron. So if
Speaker 2: you are low and iron, do not waste your money
Speaker 2: on beef liver supplements. I cannot be more clear about that,
Speaker 2: because when I looked up I looked up over ten
Speaker 2: of these different brands online Susie and the majority were
Speaker 2: providing zero point four to zero point five milligrams of
Speaker 2: iron only, absolutely nothing. Do you remember when I said
Speaker 2: about women and their iron supplements, like most women are needing,
Speaker 2: you know, close to twenty grams you're getting in a
Speaker 2: serve of these beef liver supplements, not even one milligram,
Speaker 2: Whereas if you were taking something like a clinical dose
Speaker 2: of iron, for example, a Farograd C that's giving you
Speaker 2: one hundred and five milligrams of iron, Like zero point
Speaker 2: four compared to one hundred and five milligrams is a huge, huge,
Speaker 2: huge difference. So this is one of those times where
Speaker 2: the marketing online, the hype is being it's ridiculous, and
Speaker 2: even I fell for it until I actually looked it
Speaker 2: up and I was like what, And I hope people
Speaker 2: aren't actually taking this for their iron because if you are,
Speaker 2: you're being ripped off. And these are more expensive than
Speaker 2: a traditional iron supplement as well, so this is like
Speaker 2: a wellness gimmicky product. It is not a therapeutic iron supplement.
Speaker 2: You're paying a premium, but you're not getting anywhere near
Speaker 2: the benefit from actually clinically improving your iron level. So
Speaker 2: if you are focused on getting your iron up, increase
Speaker 2: your levels of red meat, get an iron infusion, or
Speaker 2: take a proper clinical dose of iron supplement. So go
Speaker 2: into a pharmacy and get something over the counter. And
Speaker 2: like Susie and I said, we prefer the liquid types
Speaker 2: to the capsules because they're just a little bit they're
Speaker 2: better in terms of constipation and gut issues. And if
Speaker 2: you do find that it is a little bit rough
Speaker 2: on your gut, try every second day. A lot of
Speaker 2: my clients have a lot better gut issues taking it
Speaker 2: every second day, taking a liquid as well. But please
Speaker 2: do not waste your money on beef liver supplements if
Speaker 2: you have low iron, because you're doing just that, you're
Speaker 2: wasting your money and you're not getting anywhere near the
Speaker 2: effective clinical dose that is going to make a difference
Speaker 2: at all. Like you're barely even scratching the surface in
Speaker 2: terms of what your body needs. From an iron perspective.
Speaker 3: I would never take a liver supplement in general. I
Speaker 3: think the liver is the detox organ of the body.
Speaker 3: I would never use the liver supplement for anything that
Speaker 3: I would take anyway, let alone that one is ineffectual. So, yeah,
Speaker 3: you've gotta be so careful. And yeah, we're being listened to,
Speaker 3: aren't we listen to Gary?
Speaker 1: All right?
Speaker 2: Well, that brings us to the end of another Nutrition
Speaker 2: Couch podcast for the week.
Speaker 1: Thank you for listening.
Speaker 2: Tell your friends about us so they can listen as
Speaker 2: well and enjoy all things beef, liver, supplements, iron, and
Speaker 2: all the other many ranges of topics we chat about
Speaker 2: on the Nutrition Couch. But thank you for listening and
Speaker 2: we will catch you in next week's episode.
Speaker 3: Have a great week.