Vegan? Carnivore? Mediterranean? What Really Works for Aging Well | Dr. Tiffany Garcia | Ep. 298 - The Aging Well Podcast

Episode Transcript
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(00:03):
Protein is a hot topic, especially as we age.
But with the rise of plant basedproducts on every grocery shelf,
the questions are stacking up. Is plant protein just a vegan
trend? Does it measure up to animal
protein? And what should people over 50
really be eating for optimal health?
Welcome to the Aging Well podcast, where we explore the

(00:24):
science stories and strategies behind living a longer,
healthier, and more purposeful life.
Hi, I'm your host, Doctor Jeff Armstrong, an exercise
physiologist with a passion for making science simple and life
better as we age. My guest today is Doctor Tiffany
Garcia. Doctor Garcia has a PhD in
Clinical Nutrition and Functional Medicine and brings
both clinical knowledge and practical insights to the table,

(00:47):
helping us to separate fact fromfiction when it comes to protein
aging and diet trends like carnivore and flexitarian
eating. Together, we'll unpack what many
adults are missing in their diets, bust some common myths,
and explore how to make smart, sustainable nutrition choices
for aging well. The Aging Well podcast
encourages informed decision making and always consult your

(01:10):
physician and scientific literature when making decisions
about your health. Doctor Garcia, welcome to the
Aging Well podcast. First, let me just say how
excited I am to have you on thispodcast and introduce you as
Doctor Garcia. You were one of my undergraduate
students at Western Oregon University, and I think it was

(01:30):
Season 1 when I spoke to your residence at Dallas Retirement
Village. Now you are a PhD and a clinical
nutritionist, so tell us a little bit about your journey
from bartender and wildland firefighter to nutrition
practitioner. Yeah.
So I mean, I kind of am a Jack of all trades.
I pretty much have been in everysingle industry I feel like.

(01:54):
So I'm someone that tries a little bit of everything but
academically. Got my undergrad from university
or Western Oregon University andexercise science and human
biology, and then went on to getmy master's in Clinical
Nutrition from the Naturopathic school in Portland, OR and then
went on to get my doctor in Clinical Nutrition and
functional medicine from the University of Western States.

(02:16):
But once I, you know, shifted from, you know, younger adult
jobs that I was doing, just kindof bouncing around and starting
professionally, I worked in a cardiac and pulmonary outpatient
rehab facility. And that's where I really
started diving into more of patient care and just trying to
look at things from a holistic perspective and how we can get

(02:37):
patients that are very chronically I'll to, you know,
you know, almost a full recoverywithin just a few months.
I absolutely loved working at that clinic.
It was very much, you know, it was very impactful and very
rewarding to be able to see these patients go from, you
know, major heart surgery to four months later walking and
going about their day just like nothing ever happened almost.

(02:57):
So very cool environment to be apart of.
It was very mentally stimulatingfor me.
But that was definitely the trigger where I knew I kept
wanting to go to school and learn more and learn more and
ultimately brought me to get to my doctorate and Clinical
Nutrition. I'm so proud to have been a part
of that. And I love that you you call
yourself a Jack of all trades, but that's what we need in the

(03:17):
aging space. You know, we need people to
understand that. You know, I mean, in part the
social side, I mean, you bartending know people got to
have fun, they got to socialize.But there's also, you know, the
exercise piece, there's the the clinical health piece, but then
it all ties back into nutrition.And I feel like I'm going to
learn a lot today just talking to you about, you know, the

(03:39):
overall diets and you know, what's good, what's bad.
You know, what recommendations really should we be giving
people that are attempting to age well?
So why do you think diet sparks so much debate and so much
loyalty in kind of the social media spaces in particular, but
also even in research in general?

(04:00):
I think diet is just really related to to our, our culture,
our identity and our upbringing.It tells us a story about who we
are. And I didn't really realize that
until I started practicing in clinical care.
How many people had so much emotion attached to food and I
would ask them about their dietary habits and all of a
sudden it would just essentiallyunleash this whole Pandora box

(04:21):
of just childhood trauma. Good times, the bad times.
And so we're also just connectedto the food that we eat.
And rightfully so, we should be.I mean, we need food to live and
thrive. And there's a lot of cultural
components that bring people together in communities that
arise from nutrition. But I think that's the reason
why it's so weighted in today isthat, you know, everyone wants

(04:42):
to think that the way that they eat is right and it's for
everyone. And you'll get a lot of those
people on, you know, social media or media platforms that
something worked for them and itchanged their life.
And so they want to share it with everyone and they expect
everyone else to have the same response.
And so we are getting most of this advice from people that are

(05:03):
using their own experiences to apply on other people when we
know that everyone's different. Everyone has different genetics,
everyone has different lifestyles.
What works for one person isn't necessarily going to work for
the other. So, yeah, it's, it's sometimes
frustrating seeing some people that are, you know, they'll die
on this hill essentially that this is the best diet and this
is the end all be all. And then someone else tries it

(05:24):
and it doesn't work for them andthey're frustrated and they
discredit that individual. So just, I think that's a lot of
reasons why it's so, so emotionally weighted.
So do you think there are there some general principles that you
believe apply across the board when it comes to healthy eating?
Yeah, I definitely do. I think Whole Foods, if you can
have your diet 90% of the time, Whole Foods and reducing

(05:45):
processed foods, no matter who you are, you're going to age
more gracefully processed foods.I mean, there's something if
you're going to incorporate moreand more than your diet, you're
going to never be getting these chronic diseases, regardless of
who you are. I mean, we do have those people
that are genetically very giftedand they can, let's say, stay
within a healthy body composition eating, you know, a
high abundance of processed foods.

(06:06):
But then I've seen, you know, people that claim to do
everything right and then still end up having heart disease and
that sort of thing too. So it doesn't always come down
to body composition either, whether you're healthy or not.
But yeah, I think across the board, if we could all just
decrease our processed food consumption and just eat real
Whole Foods, I think would all be better off.
Are there any processed foods that you think, you know, you'd

(06:26):
kind of put in that acceptable category?
Because we tend to say, well, all food is processed and else
you're eating it right off the tree or, you know, right out of
the field and stuff. But when we talk processing,
where do you kind of draw the line?
Is this is kind of considered healthy?
This is not considered healthy. Yeah.
So I mean, there is all food, like you said, it's minimally
processed or somewhat processed in just how they are.

(06:49):
But there are there's a big difference between processed
food and then ultra processed food.
And that's where we're seeing the highest consumption is right
now and especially the American diet and now across the world.
And those are going to be the foods that essentially are
processed to the point to increase shelf stabilization and
to make it so they don't they don't go bad.
I don't remember who told me this, but they said that they

(07:09):
got some advice from, you know, a different health provider that
they said if you buy your food and your food doesn't go bad
within a week or two, it means that there's probably there,
it's probably very processed andit's probably not good for you.
And I, I think there's some truth to that, especially when
it comes to, you know, some fruits and vegetables and things
like that that we, we buy those are meant to go bad within a
certain amount of time when they're more processed, they're

(07:31):
not going to. And so I think that does have a
good, good kind of, you know, place.
But also at the same time too, when we're talking about ultra
processed food, we're talking about food that has been
stripped of their natural vitamins and minerals like fiber
and other things that are critical to the component of the
food in order to increase their shelf life.
So now you're consuming calorically dense foods that are

(07:53):
nutrient depleted, which can lead to what we have is obesity
with malnutrition individuals. So we're talking like protein
powders, would you consider thatand they're all typically alter
process, but would you consider that on the healthy side,
unhealthy side? I mean, obviously I'm, I'm sure
you're going to say we should try and get our protein from the
natural source first. Yeah, yeah, 100% of the time.

(08:14):
That's what I was say, try to get your protein from Whole
Foods first. But I do think protein powders
do serve a purpose for specific populations.
However, you need to be careful whenever you're sourcing
anything like that, just becausein the processing there could be
additives in there. There can be artificial
colorings, flavorings. There can also be heavy metals
as well too. We know plant based protein
powders is one of the highest products with heavy metals in

(08:37):
them. So you're trying to do the right
thing by reaching your protein sources, but then you're also
possibly putting yourself at risk for toxicity for heavy
metals. So I think I think you know
those things try to buy them with ingredients that you can
read mentally process, especially when it comes to
proteins and animal based proteins.
We can get them from sources that are not only third party
tested, but also grass fed, grass finish, animal sources,

(08:59):
organic, all those things that help just make it just a higher
quality protein. And then when we're doing plant
based proteins, again, making sure that the third party tested
and that they also come with a variety of different proteins.
We know that plant based proteins are not always complete
protein. So they're seen some of those
essential amino acids. So if you're buying a protein
powder that's just one specific incomplete protein, you could

(09:21):
still be missing out on some very critical amino acids that
we need. So making sure that you're
buying one that has several different plant based proteins.
I do. I would say when it comes to
processed foods, protein powder will be one of those ones that I
tend to learn more on and thingsare more acceptable for
individuals just because how critical it is to just meet your
protein requirements, especiallyas we're aging, that the risks

(09:43):
outweigh the are the benefits the risk when it comes to
protein powders, I would say. So why is protein such an
important topic, especially for people over 50?
And I know you got a ways to go before you're even close to 50.
Yeah. I mean, we know as we age, our
muscle mass and our bone mass steadily just declines.
I mean, we decline about .5 to 1% of muscle mass per year once

(10:04):
we hit age, I believe 45. And then it continues to, you
know, compound from there. So muscle mass and bone mass is
not only critical for helping support our metabolic health,
but also for our independence and our longevity.
So, you know, one of the major issues is having a fall when
you're older and breaking a hip or breaking a bone that could

(10:24):
be, you know, a death sentence, unfortunately, or that could put
you in a care facility where you're no longer able to be
independent. So when it comes to quality of
life, really making sure that weare prioritizing our muscle
health and our bone house is very, very critical for overall
health. The muscle also is the organ
that's going to help us stabilize our blood sugar.
It's going to help us stabilize our cholesterol, our heart

(10:45):
health as well. And so just having more muscle
mass on the body is going to just equate to more longevity
down the road in general. And unfortunately, I think, you
know, there's a lot of people that have the misconception that
protein is not as important whenwe're older and that, you know,
we are increased, Our intake of protein actually decreases as we
age for just a different different things as well.

(11:07):
But we actually have a higher need for protein when we get
older because our body is less sensitive to things like muscle
protein synthesis. So it needs more protein to be
able to trigger that muscle to grow into maintenance.
And yeah, so we need to put moreattention.
On so you address questions about longevity and protein
because on one hand we have a lot of really good science out
there that's saying that proteinrestriction increases longevity.

(11:32):
But on the other hand, just likeyou've been talking about, it's
essential that we're getting those proteins to be able to
maintain muscle mass. And maintaining muscle mass in
itself is going to increase longevity.
And so I think that's one of theareas I've been struggling a lot
with lately is like, where do where do I put the protein
recommendations for healthy aging?
I mean, obviously it's, it's easy with athletes because

(11:53):
athletes needed to build building protein or building
muscle. But where do we kind of cross
that line in the older adults? And I think it's probably easier
if we just say, if we were lifting weights, then your
protein needs are going to be even higher.
So where do you put it? Yeah, I mean, I think a lot of
it comes down to the quality of our proteins as well too.
So a lot of people like to compare, you know, more
processed meats like hot dogs and salamis and sausages as the

(12:17):
same thing as grass fed grass finished beef or organic
poultry. And they're not necessarily the
same. And so I think as long as we're
making an emphasis on our proteins coming from, you know,
healthy organic sources and grass fed grass finish, we're
going to be decreasing a lot of the risks that come with higher
meat consumption. You know, a lot of people are
concerned about higher meat means that you're going to be
getting a lot more saturated andtrans fat in your diet, which

(12:40):
can cause cardiovascular disease.
But we know that if we the difference between like a grass
fed grass finish steak versus a conventionally raised steak, it
has less saturated fat and it has better amino acid profiles
and better vitamin mineral content in that.
So I think as long as we make sure that the meat that we are
sourcing from are good sources and high quality sources, we can

(13:01):
decrease a lot of those risks that come with too much meat
consumption as we age. But I mean, we do come from an
aging population where they knowmeat and potatoes and fast food
and all those things. I remember talking to a couple
of different patients that, you know, they're, they consider
going to McDonald's and getting the hamburger the same as if
they were at home making a steak.

(13:21):
And I'm like, those two are not the same.
Yeah. So I think that if we make sure
that we're sourcing it appropriately.
But I also do think that, you know, limiting your protein in
specific times can be beneficial, but in short terms,
not for a long term. So I think a lot of these diets
that are popular can work reallywell in the short term to help
correct issues and conditions. But then again our body needs

(13:45):
needs it eventually again. So making sure that we
reincorporate it back into our diet.
I think there's, you know, a couple major points.
There's one quality should be the priority so we can eat less,
but but eat better when we do, you know, because a lot of
people say, oh, it's so expensive to eat healthy because
good healthy, you know, good healthy meat that grass fed beef
is really expensive. OK, well, if you're not eating

(14:08):
the McDonald's burgers all the time, but when you're going to
have some meat, you're enjoying good quality meat, that's going
to be better for you and you're going to get better outcomes
from the meat overall. And second would be if you're
eating meat which has a certain level of pro inflammatory
components to it, which is the concerns for longevity, but

(14:29):
you're eating a far more plant based diet that has more
anti-inflammatory benefits. You can counteract some of the
negativity and get the best benefits out of the meat and,
you know, the best benefits out of the fruits and vegetables
that we're eating. Yeah, definitely.
And I, that's what I try to educate my patients on is that
making sure that we're pairing our protein with fibrous foods.

(14:50):
So fiber has a really great component that it's able to help
the body secrete excess cholesterol and that was excess
fats from our body that we don'tneed.
So we do need, you know, some ofthat cholesterol and some of
that fat to help build our hormones and for building blocks
of our body. But the excess stuff, when it
gets stuck in, you know, in our body gets reabsorbed, that's
where it causes issues. So as long as we're pairing
those foods with high fibrous foods, we'll be in a good place.

(15:12):
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(15:35):
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Thank you. And now back to the podcast.
So we're going to talk a little bit about plant based protein
versus animal based protein. We touched a little bit on
quality and bioavailability. You, as I recall was you were a
vegan for over a decade. What made you switch to

(15:57):
including? And I'd probably say you're
you're probably not carnivore, certainly not carnivore, but
you're probably leaning into what I would prefer to call more
plant centric or plant oriented rather than simply plant based
because a lot of times plant based people just think vegan
but in flexitarian, I don't likethe term flexitarian as much,
but. Yeah, there's so many weird

(16:19):
terms now. Yeah.
So when I first became a vegan, I came from a very processed
food diet. So I was eating, you know, the
Bologna sandwiches, just anything that's processed.
And I ate little to no vegetables.
I hated vegetables and the only time I liked vegetables if they
were covered in cheese. So I had a very unhealthy diet.

(16:41):
And then being in sports when I was younger, I noticed a really
decrease in my energy, especially in high school when
it comes to sports, just not being able to feel like I can
really keep up as well as I usedto be.
So I started looking into diet and things that I can do to help
promote my athletic performance.And I came across this book that
was talking about veganism and, and so I was like, you know,

(17:02):
I'll give it a go. Didn't think I was going to
stick to it originally, but within like a week of doing it
and force feeding myself vegetables, that was awful.
I noticed just a huge increase in my energy.
And I remember even my coach waslike, wow, what did you eat
before, you know, before our training session because you're
performing so much better. You have so much energy, you
seem so much more vibrant. And so that alone maybe just

(17:25):
kind of reinforce, oh, this dietis working.
This must be the best diet out there.
And so I just kind of got into this warm whole of just, you
know, reading all the information that supports that
lifestyle and that diet. And yeah, I did that for several
years. And but when I first started
off, I did it completely wrong. I did start eating more

(17:45):
vegetables, but then I also was eating a lot more of those
processed meat substitutes as well too.
And then kind of where my energydid increase for a little bit,
started to decrease again. And so I try to look into why is
my energy levels decreasing? And then I realized how many
vitamin mineral deficiencies I'mmore prone to because being a
vegan and being so restricted inmy diet.
And so I started supplementing alot.

(18:06):
And then it came to the point where I was supplementing, you
know, with 10 to 20 supplements a day just to try to fill in
these nutrient voids. And then I took out the
processed animal product or processed meat substitutes and
just try to do all Whole Foods base, but still was never able
to hit my protein targets. And then if I was able to hit my
protein targets, I was over consuming calories, which was

(18:28):
also affecting my performance aswell too.
So it was just as hard, hard position to be in, you know,
trying to do what's best for my body, but realizing that my body
is also suffering. And then that's when I got into
pretty intense weight lifting and, you know, strength
training. And I was just having a really
hard time putting muscle on. Even though I was hitting my
protein goals and, you know, supplementing with protein

(18:49):
powders in there, I was just having a really hard time
putting muscle mass on. And then it got to the point
where I was having a really hardtime recovering and I noticed my
recovering was decreasing, you know, and I'm in my early 20s.
I shouldn't have any problem recovering from exercise.
It's but I find myself being sore for, you know, weeks and at
a time. And I pretty much just, you
know, didn't think it was diet related.

(19:10):
I thought I was doing everythingright.
I was supplementing. There was no way I could be
nutrient deficient on anything. I'm filling in all the voids.
And it wasn't until I went and got my master's in nutrition
that I expected everyone to be vegan, actually, when I went
there. And then to my surprise, no one
really was there was like me andbe one other girl.
And a lot of my professors just kept telling me how, you know,

(19:30):
that's actually not the healthiest diet for you to be
on. You know, you need to animal
products. And I was refusing it.
And then I worked in the clinic there.
So I had patients and I started,you know, experimenting a little
bit on myself and doing lab tests for vitamins and minerals.
And I was just having a really hard time maintaining adequate B
vitamins, iron, vitamin D, critically low in a lot of

(19:53):
essential vitamins and minerals.And even though I was
supplementing with high quality supplements, it still wasn't
moving the mark at all. And I was so fatigued.
And yeah, it wasn't until I think my last year of my Masters
is when I decided I was going tostart incorporating eggs again
into my diet. And then when I started eating
eggs, my B vitamins shot up almost immediately.

(20:13):
Which was very interesting, but very reassuring.
And then I was nervous, you know, about incorporating meat
back into my diet. A lot of people say if you go
this long without eating meat, your body is going to reject it.
And never kept telling me, no, it's not the case.
Your body's built to digest meat.
But then I went into fish. I was like, okay, maybe I'll
just be a pescetarian. And then immediately started
feeling better and then slowly just started adding meat in from

(20:35):
there and realizing that my strength went up significantly
within the first, probably I would say six months, I was PR
ING all my lifts. My recovery was so much better.
I was sleeping so much better. I was starting to experience
hair loss, which was really scaring me in my early 20s.
And that was improving. And yeah, just overall
everything, just all my lab markers started improving as

(20:57):
well, too. And so then I would just say,
OK, so I'm going to stick with it.
But I will say, being vegan for as long as I am really taught me
how to eat vegetables and fruitsand all those great foods and
eat them and make them taste well.
So I still have those same principles.
And there's still times where I'll, you know, still eat tofu
or I'll still eat, you know, something alternative.

(21:17):
But I have now, I have the meat in my diet, but I'm also still
eating a really high volume of fresh fruits and vegetables
every single day as well too. So I still carry those
principles with me. So where would you say your diet
falls on that spectrum between vegan and carnivore?
I would definitely say I'm closer to more of a carnivore if
there's, you know, if there's something where it's meat versus

(21:37):
the vegetables, I'm most likely going to eat the meat.
And it's also to this point too,a lot of people used to talk
about or tell me that when you're vegan for a certain
period of time that you'll startgetting meat dreams.
We'll start like craving meat and it wasn't until like year 12
that I started getting those andrealizing that maybe there is
something inside that actually crazes for me, but I don't get

(21:58):
those anymore. But yeah, I would say I learn
more towards carnivore. I always put my protein first
before I put anything else on myplate.
So what are some of the biggest misconceptions people have about
animal that based diets versus plant based diets?
Yeah, I think a lot of one of the main reasons why I became a
vegan is animal welfare. So, you know, thinking that if

(22:20):
you stop eating animal based products that you're going to be
helping animal welfare. And that one's was probably the
hardest one that I had to come to terms with when I was vegan
because that was the one that was the kind of the core reason
behind why I wanted to become a vegan other than my health.
And I think the common MIS assumption there is, is that if
you're eating more plant based, you're not harming animals when

(22:42):
you know monocropping the raising of soy and corn and
wheat and all those things are very harmful to the environment,
very harmful to the species thatlive in that environment as well
too. So not only the, the lack of
biodiversity in the crop really decreases, you know, the micro
microorganisms within the soil, but they also decrease the
animals that surround it as welltoo.

(23:03):
You know, the, the rabbits, the the squirrels, the birds, all
that ecosystem really hurts and is damaged by just monocropping
these these products that help supply your plant based foods.
So it just came to this point where it was just like, OK, I
mean, they might actually helping animal welfare by eating
this way. And then another one of my

(23:24):
professors did tell me as well too.
She's like, OK, well, now you'resupplementing with all these
things as well. So you're in taking, you know,
10 supplements a day. Think about all the processing
that comes into to manufacturingthat those supplements and how
hard that is on the environment and how, you know, plastic stays
in the environment forever. And so it's constantly getting
pulled into these, you know, these scenario.

(23:45):
So I was just like, I don't evenknow now.
So I think there's, you know, that is a common misconception
is that, you know, if you are vegan, you are going to better
animal welfare. And I don't necessarily think
that's the case. I think, you know, we're better
off by making sure that we're sourcing our animal products
from sustainable and regenerative farming and
supporting companies and organizations that are doing it

(24:06):
correctly, that do care for their animals.
And I grew up where both sides of my family were farmers.
They owned cows, goats, chickens, pigs, all sorts of
things, and they cared for thoseanimals and they loved those
animals. So as long as we can make sure
that we're sourcing our meats from those sources, we can
really do a lot for not only in the environment, but also for
animal welfare as well too, but supporting our health along the

(24:29):
way. So how much protein should
adults in midlife and beyond be getting again?
I think the numbers are all overthe place anymore.
You're hearing higher numbers, lower numbers From your
experience, your education, doesit change with age or activity
level? Or is there a basic standard
that we can just tell people cost across the board this many

(24:51):
grams per pound or kilogram? Yeah.
So the RDA 4 protein is .0 to 1.2g per kilogram of body
weight, which now we're realizing is probably on the
lower side, but still is, you know, sufficient.
I would say for the average population that doesn't
exercise, that's a good place tostart.
Once you start adding exercise in and you start adding aging in

(25:12):
and you have more breakdown of the muscle tissues and the bone,
we need more protein on hand to help support that.
So for example, like endurance athletes, you want to be closer
to like 1.2 to 1.4g of kilogramsof body weight.
And then if you get into strength athletes, we're looking
more at 1.6g per kilograms of body weight.
But if you're also looking at aging population, because we do

(25:34):
have have a decrease for muscle protein synthesis and we need
more protein, you're looking forthe same intake as a strength
athlete. So 1.6 to 2.0 grams per
kilogram, which can seem like a lot, but we need that extra
protein on hand to be able to just support the breakdown of
our body from natural physiological aging, but then
also from strength training as well too.

(25:55):
So I always thought that was very, very interesting that our
RDA for elderly would also be the same as like a strength
athlete. And whenever I tell my patients
that, they're always like, well,that's way too much.
I can't eat that much. So trying to get that intake in
in our aging population has beena challenge.
So it seemed like across the lifespan, the key is to remain

(26:18):
physically active, incorporate quite a bit of strength training
in your exercise routine and then your protein really doesn't
have to change too much. There's not a lot of calculation
involved in there. If we're active and we're active
aging, then we're probably OK with, you know, anywhere from I
always go in pounds because mostpeople kind of talk in terms of

(26:39):
pounds. I usually just go a nice easy
number of one because everybody knows what they weigh and they
can multiply by 1. Is that 1g per pound?
Is that too much? Right about enough.
Yeah, so I like to say 1g per ideal body weight, just because
everyone doesn't know what theirlean body mass is.
So if your ideal body weight is 100, 85 lbs, you'll shoot for

(27:00):
185g per day. If it's 120, you'll shoot for
120 grams per day. That's pretty much the easiest
thing to follow and it makes it really simple for everyone to be
an over registered. That's how much they should be
getting. But yeah, you'll get the best
results from that. Yeah, it's important too, for
people to understand it's not your total body weight, because
if you're over fat, which the majority of the American

(27:22):
population is, there's a significant number of pounds in
there that don't require protein.
And we actually need a little less protein, a little less
calories in order to get to a healthy weight.
Yeah, definitely. I have someone that's 230 or
£250. I'm not recommending that they
eat 250 grams of protein. They can, but I don't generally
recommend that. So are there benefits to

(27:45):
adopting a more flexible plant forward kind of approach to
eating? I think you mentioned earlier
about 90% plant based, 10% animal based protein is was that
the number you kind of threw out?
No, I was more or so saying that90% of the time just eating
Whole Foods, Whole Foods, OK, Whole Foods.
And 10% of the time is when you,you know, incorporate more of

(28:07):
those processed foods. You know, it could be an 8020%.
But I also like to, you know, have balance in your life.
There's other things other than just nutrition.
You know, you need to be able togo out and enjoy yourself.
So I think there should be room for you to be able to enjoy
things that maybe are not so health promoting.
So I was always like to vocalize, you know, if you are
wanting to shift your body composition, try to be more of
that 9010 balance if you're pretty happy with where your

(28:30):
body composition is and you could be a little bit more
flexible and have an 8020 balance.
But no, I think there's a lot ofbenefits to having more of a
plant based forward diet. So plants are very high in
phytochemicals and antioxidants that help support us on a
cellular health level, but also especially when we're getting
older and we're having more rigidity in our vascular health.

(28:51):
And so, you know, we need to have more or more plant based
compounds in our diet to help combat oxidative stress and
things that can accumulate to contribute to things like
atherosclerosis and other heart diseases.
So just making sure that every single meal we're having some
sort of antioxidants, whether that's the form of fresh leafy
greens or vegetables or even fruit.

(29:13):
I think a lot of times people just kind of think that fruit is
the enemy and they try to avoid it entirely and that's not the
case. There's so many great benefits
from fruit. You know, not only do you are
you getting vitamins and minerals, you're also getting
electrolytes as well too, which is critical for fluid balance,
but also muscle contractility and cognitive health as well

(29:33):
too. So I think as long we're making
sure that we're getting anywherefrom 5:00 to 7:00 servings of
fresh fruits and non starchy vegetables per day, we're going
to be in pretty good spot. So what does your diet look like
on a daily basis? Put you on a spot here.
Yeah, yeah, I'm pretty boring with my diet.
I do try to mix it up, but everymorning I usually start off with
some with eggs. I love eggs, eggs with some sort

(29:56):
of Turkey bacon or chicken sausage or something like that.
And then vegetables, I usually do.
Zucchini. I do zucchini and onions are
usually my go to. It's usually every single
morning is eggs with Turkey bacon and zucchini and onions.
I can eat that every single morning.
I wake up looking forward to that every morning.
But every once in a while I try to mix it up and, you know, do a

(30:17):
couple different things, like I'll do feta and spinach eggs or
something like that. But it's usually some form of
eggs and some form of Turkey bacon or regular bacon in there.
And then for lunch is usually, you know, some kind of ground
meat. I'll do ground beef a lot,
ground chicken or ground Turkey.I like ground beef.
I just think it tastes better than ground chicken and ground
Turkey. But I'll do that with rice and

(30:38):
some veggies. And then for dinner, that's
pretty much the same thing. I do try to get more intake of
freshwater fishing. So eat, I do eat a lot of
salmon, a lot of shrimp and try to incorporate more freshwater
fish as well. But yeah, if I'm not cooking for
other people and I'm just cooking for myself, I can eat
the same thing every single day.I try to remind myself that we

(30:58):
need diversity in foods and it helps our microbiome, of course,
to have different foods in our diet and we shouldn't be so, you
know, regimen with our diet. But I always end up kind of
resorting back to that. So sometimes I'll get a little
bit more adventurous, but that'susually what my intake is.
And then occasionally maybe I'llhave a protein shake in there,
you know, with my coffee or, youknow, after a training session

(31:19):
or something like. That So what are your
recommendations to someone who like myself has tested high in
cholesterol? I mean my, my cholesterol is
down a little bit, but it was actually into the mid three
hundreds and that set up an alarm for my doctor.
So what would be your recommendations there in terms
of what to the diet balance be in order to maintain a healthy

(31:44):
level of cholesterol? Yeah.
So cholesterol is something that, you know, people like to
wave the red flag as soon as your LDL is elevated or your
total cholesterol is elevated. But we know that that's actually
a poor indicator of cardiovascular health.
Just because you have more cholesterol in the body doesn't
mean that you're having, you know, atherosclerosis or any
kind of issues developing. It's more so looking at the

(32:08):
total inflammation of the body. So there's a lot of other lab
markers that you should be doingif your cholesterol is elevated
to see if that that cholesterol is actually a risk.
So the thing about cholesterol is cholesterol, we use it to
build all of our sex hormones inour body.
So we need cholesterol and they're just, you know, just
shuttles that are in our in our body and they just settle
different things around, but doesn't necessarily mean that

(32:30):
they are an issue. It's just that we have more
shuttles in the body. So we won't also look at our HDL
levels as well too. So, so a lot of times if we have
elevated LDL, but we also have elevated HDL, that's our health
promoting cholesterol that helpsus, you know, secrete things out
of the body that usually, you know, kind of bounce itself out.
But when we're looking at, you know, lipid profiles, if we do

(32:51):
want to improve those, we definitely want to put a big
emphasis on fiber and gaining fiber from Whole Foods.
So a lot of people when they think about fiber, they're
thinking about fiber supplementation and a lot of
fiber, fiber supplements out there are a low quality form
inulin, which can actually increase bloating and
gastrointestinal symptoms. So we want to make sure that

(33:11):
we're getting fiber from whole food sources.
And that's because fiber from whole food sources is going to
contain not only soluble fiber, but insoluble fiber, which is
really critical for, for absorbing that excess
cholesterol in the body and thensecreting out through the body
as well, too. So I always say, let's bump up
the fiber intake. You know, on average the, I

(33:32):
think the average American gets anywhere from like 10 to maybe
15 grams of fiber per day. I always recommend a minimum of
at least 35g and then even upwards of maybe 40 to 50 grams,
especially if you're trying to correct those lipid profiles.
Now being said, if you do only eat 15 grams right now, I
wouldn't say jump up the next day to 40 grams because then
you're going to really have somediscomfort.

(33:53):
It's a gradual increase of fiberover time, but it's also from a
variety of leafy grains and different types of fiber sources
as well too, to help balance those lipid profiles.
The other thing is what you're already doing is strength
training and exercising. So that's a huge component of
detoxification and then supporting liver health as well
too, and then just supporting digestive health.
So maybe taking a little bit of deeper dive into your liver, see

(34:15):
how you're detoxifying, maybe take a little bit deeper dive
into your gut microbiome and looking at your microbiome
composition and seeing, you know, do you have a lack of
diversity in microbes, which canalso contribute to higher ink
levels of blood lipids as well too to the.
Gut by micro bike, spit it out, Jeff, The gut microbiome, what

(34:36):
are some of the things that would harm our gut microbiome
that we should be concerned about kind of nutritionally,
pharmacologically or just in ourdaily health practices that
could damage it? Yeah.
I mean a big component is added sugars and foods and processed
foods in general. So those support the growth of,
you know, non health promoting bacteria in the gut and decrease

(34:59):
the healthy a bacteria as well. We also have a diet that's not
high in fermented foods as well too.
So we're not constantly re inoculating and supporting the
gut microbiome that we need to like other cultures do.
So decreasing the amount of processed sugars that we have in
the diet, refined carbohydrates and then increasing fermented
foods and fibrous foods can helpshift that microbiome into more

(35:21):
of a health promoting profile. And we can also, you know, take
probiotics as well too. But if we're not feeding the
probiotics, prebiotics, the fibrous food that it needs to be
able to live is essentially justgoing to die off.
So we want to make sure we're taking high quality probiotics
to help re inoculate the gut, but then we're also feeding it
the foods that it needs to be able to thrive.
Now there are other, there are certain conditions to you know,

(35:43):
like overgrowth, stuff like H pylori and SIBO and things like
that that do need to be completely eradicated sometimes
by even, you know, antibiotics or higher strained
nutriceuticals to be ordered to correct that profile.
But in a general sense, yeah, ifwe can increase more fibrous
food, more fermented food and decrease those processed foods,
we're going to be better off There big component also is

(36:04):
stress. So stress if we're, you know, in
a hyper stress state, that is going to promote more production
of those negative microbes and decrease the production of
health promoting microbes as well.
Sleep is another big component. So we repair our whole body when
we're sleeping. So if we're sleep deprived, not
only do we have more craving forthose hyperpolatable foods,

(36:26):
which are going to also increasethe production of that non
health promoting bacteria, but it's also going to shift our gut
microbiome to be more of a favorable profile.
What? About dairy, What are your
thoughts on dairy? Yeah.
So dairy is something that I think some people tolerate it
and some people don't. So it depends on the individual
when it comes to dairy. So some people are allergic to
lactose, some people are allergic to lactose and then

(36:48):
also milk proteins as well too. So it's important to incorporate
dairy very much based on the individual and how they react to
dairy. Some people will have clear
symptoms of dairy intolerance. Some people have maybe latent
symptoms of dairy intolerance, but I usually say if you're
going to incorporate dairy, makesure that it's aged and
fermented dairy. So it's dairy that's, you know,

(37:10):
has probiotics in it, has digestive enzymes in it, aged
cheeses, aged cottage cheese, Greek yogurt, but then it also
doesn't have added sugars as well too.
So dairy is a high source of additives as well because they
add a lot of extra sugar, especially the low fat options.
When you take the fat out of dairy, it loses part of that
probability and that that mouthfeel.

(37:31):
And so they replace that fat with sugars.
And so we could be unintentionally getting a lot of
food additives and added sugar through dairy products.
So if you were to prioritize forsomebody who has no symptoms
with lactose intolerance or any issues with with dairy, how
would you, what would you prioritize?
This is the dairy, you know, your go to dairy and then kind

(37:53):
of take it down the scale a little bit.
Yeah, I mean, if you want to do full milk, you can definitely do
milk, full milk. I think that if you're going to
do milk, you want to do the fullfat milk especially because the
fat is really critical for nutrients, nutrient absorption
within the milk as well too. Vitamin D, calcium, all those
things need that to be able to be absorbed.
So when we're actually doing lowfat or fat free options, we're

(38:14):
taking away a lot of the health benefits that could possibly
become with that milk. So full fat milk when we're
doing things like, you know, butters, that's I think those
are good options as well too, especially when it comes to
cooking, they're one of the better options.
So grass fed, grass finished butter.
And then also when we're lookingat aged cheeses, so things like
your hard cheeses like feta cheese, Gouda cheese, those type

(38:35):
of things that naturally just have a really low to no lactose
content from the aging process, but also are going to have more
content of those digestive enzymes and those probiotics in
those foods. And then also, I think Greek
yogurt's great as well too. It's a really high concentration
of those probiotics that are going to help support gut
health. And surprisingly to whey protein

(38:55):
is one of the highest concentrations of leucine.
So leucine is a critical amino acid that triggers muscle
protein synthesis and helps us build muscle.
And so if you can tolerate whey,whey is actually a great
supplement to add in to help support muscle mass.
I'm. Going to come back to Leucine in
a moment, so don't let me forgetthat, but have you ever tried
skier? I have not.

(39:17):
Skiers like the Icelandic yogurt.
It's similar to Greek yogurt, generally has far fewer
ingredients. It's a very specific bacteria
that you have to use in order toferment.
It kind of got on a skier kick. Yeah.
I really like it. You know, it's low in sugar.
What's that? Is it?
Similar to like kefir. Perhaps a little bit, yeah.

(39:38):
But it's it still has a kind of distinct taste to it.
It doesn't taste like sour creamy like like Greek yogurt
does if it doesn't have flavoring to it, except kind of
gone down that that Ave. that's my go to dairy now because the
probiotics and everything else. So back to leucine.
Leucine is one of those interesting amino acids.
We know it's essential and from an aging standpoint, in terms of

(40:03):
maintaining our muscle mass or lean muscle mass, leucine is
important because it triggers emptor, but also then in the
longevity circles, you. You reading you here
conversation about how leucine also triggers M Tor in unwanted
cellular growth and we look at increasing the risk of cancers
and and those types of things. How do you address the balance

(40:26):
between the importance of leucine for maintaining muscle
mass as we age and countering that with the, you know, the
role that leucine can play in decreasing our longevity?
Yeah. So leucine is a very important
amino acid when it comes to, like I said, triggering that
muscle protein synthesis and maintaining muscle mass and also

(40:48):
building muscle mass. I think the benefits outweigh
the cons with that one. I think there's a lot of other
drivers when it comes to drivingthings like cancer and, you
know, chronic inflammation that contribute more so to that stage
versus actually losing itself. So I think that we put a lot of
weight on Leucine and saying that it's responsible for these

(41:09):
diseases when it's I just don't think that it's necessarily the
culprit. It's the other stuff that other
people are incorporating into their food or it's their
lifestyle or it's it's chronic stress, sleep deprivation, you
know, exposure to different toxins.
I think all that has way more weight on our health outcomes
than actually losing itself. And also I think the benefits
outweigh the risk. I mean, when we want, we want

(41:30):
muscle mass. Muscle mass helps prevent, you
know, things like diabetes and, you know, hypertension, heart
disease, all those things. Muscle, you know, is really a
key component to longevity. And I think supporting muscle
mass is going to ultimately improve your quality life a lot
more than if we were to cut it out of our diet and decrease our
muscle mass in order to hopefully prevent something like

(41:52):
tumor growth. So the lifestyle and leucine is
probably a much more important approach to longevity than
cutting leucine and trying to counter all the things that
might counter emptar in our bodies.
Yeah. And like I makes sense to me.
Yeah. Like I mentioned as well too, as
long as we're making sure our meats are coming from healthy
sources and good sustainable sources, we're going to get so

(42:13):
many other vitamins and mineralsand nutraceuticals, You know,
carnitine, creatine and all those other things are going to
help counteract that possible side effect of tumor growth.
And you mentioned creatine, I was also going to bring up BCA's
in terms of supplementation for the aging population.
Where where do you stand on creatine and and or branched

(42:33):
chain amino acids or the health of the aging population?
Yeah, I think creatine is really, really great.
Creatine is one of the most wellstudied supplements on the
market. There's thousands and thousands
of studies that show the health benefits of creatine with
minimal to no side effects. So it's safe for majority of the
population and I think that's something that as we age, we

(42:56):
definitely could benefit from, not only from a muscular
strength point, but also for cognitive health as well too.
So creatine is really great at helping support energy
production in the brain and helping with cognitive function.
So there's a lot of really cool studies that show, you know,
increased memory recall and increase, you know, problem
solving and just overall cognition from creatine

(43:17):
supplementation. And then also of course, you
know, producing ATP and the muscles and helping us with
muscular performance as well too.
So I think creatine is great. Creatine also has a really great
way of pulling more water and nutrients into the muscles.
So it helps, you know, hydrate those muscles and helps those
muscles with repair and maturation as well too.
So I think, I think creatine is great.

(43:38):
I don't think that you need to front load creatine like some
people say, you know, get up to 20 grams per day and then reduce
back to five. I think for the general
population, 5g per day is great.Doesn't matter if you're
exercising or not, you can stillget the benefits of creatine.
And then there are some studies that are coming out that
actually for cognitive health, increasing it up to 10 grams per
day might be more beneficial as well too.

(43:59):
Yeah, when when you had me for exercise Physiology, at that
point I was just basically thinking creatine was solely for
performance, muscle health and that's types of things.
And it's amazing the level of research coming out that, you
know, first of all, 15% of the creatine in our body is in the
brain. And, you know, the creatine
supplementation not only for theathlete or the aging population,

(44:22):
but also for the developing brain, how important it is.
And I've seen studies where I think it's about 60 to 67% or so
of the US population is actuallydeficient in creatine, which is
depressing considering that, youknow, the daily requirements for
creatine is about 1g a day. And so that means we're almost

(44:44):
getting no healthy meat that's going to give us the adequate
creatine. So supplementation would be
pretty important. Yeah, and especially for those
individuals that are more plant based, just because creatine is
found in those animal products. So especially if you're vegan,
you definitely need to be supplementing with creatine and.
What are your thoughts on the branched chain amino acid
supplementation then? Yeah, branched chain amino
acids. I think that if you're hitting

(45:06):
your recommended allotment of protein per day, you probably
don't need BCA's. You're going to be getting, you
know, plenty of those from complete protein sources.
If you're vegan, however, and you're not in taking a lot of
complete protein, you're mostly plant based, you could benefit
from having the BCA's on board. And then also as we're aging,

(45:26):
just because we do have a decrease affinity of that amino
acid pool, BCA's have been shownto be beneficial in aging
populations as well. The other component of BCA's is
that I think that they help withwater intake in general.
So a lot of people have a hard time, especially as we're aging
our we have a decrease in thirstof staying hydrated.
So ultimately if someone says that they're going to drink Bcas

(45:48):
and it's just going to help themdrink water, I'm like, OK, I'm
for it. Go ahead and drink the Bcas, but
from, you know, from a scientific perspective, we can
see some benefits and aging populations with BCA
supplementation and especially those that are vegan.
Any suggestions on timing of theBCA's?
Not necessarily. I think it's something that, you
know, as long as we're just, I think if you drink it in between

(46:09):
meals for aging populations, it can definitely help keep that
amino acid pool punished. And then also for individuals
that are doing higher maybe intensity strength training and
things like that, it could just help help with that as well too.
But I don't necessarily think it's a timing, a timing thing.
Creatine for example, like thereare some benefits with taking it
after exercise versus taking it before, but it's really comes

(46:30):
down to consistency. So for someone like myself that
just kind of mixes a big water bottle with some BCA's and
creatine and just maybe some electrolytes for flavoring.
I'm not doing myself any harm ornecessarily any exceptional good
either, but I'm not doing anything incorrectly by kind of
just nursing on that throughout the day.

(46:50):
I just think, you know, with anysupplementation, just making
sure that you're getting it froma good source as well too, and
making sure it's third party tested.
So if you're drinking Bcas and it comes with a it's a product
that's loaded with sugar and a lot of other additives, then
yeah, you're probably not doing yourself any, any service there.
But if you're sourcing it from agood company, then yeah, there's
no harm in that. Yeah, I just get this straight
powdered BCA's, no flavoring, nothing added.

(47:13):
Yeah, worrying stuff. But you, you flavor it up.
So let's talk Mediterranean dieta little bit.
It's often held up as the gold standard when it comes to health
and longevity, cardiovascular disease, and so on.
Do you think it deserves that reputation?
Yeah, I do actually. So I think there are a lot of
really great principles when it comes from the Mediterranean

(47:33):
diet, especially with aging populations.
There's tons of studies that show that even if you adhere to
slightly to the Mediterranean diet, you're going to have
better health outcomes. And so I think the biggest basis
when it comes to Mediterranean diet is that you are having, you
know, a high abundance of those antioxidants and phytochemicals
from fresh fruits and vegetables.

(47:54):
But then also again, you're eating Whole Foods majority of
the time. So most Mediterranean diets in
those regions didn't have accessto processed foods.
If it is processed, it's things that they ferment themselves and
they age themselves. They're not eating, you know,
ultra processed foods. So eating a whole food diet with
high end vitamin, vitamins and mineral dense foods,
phytochemicals, but also high intake of omega-3 fatty acids.

(48:16):
So those healthy fats are reallygreat for not only muscle health
but also cognitive health as well too.
So freshwater fish, you know access to those type of foods as
well. There is a lower intake of more
of those processed meats and redmeats with a higher intake of
more lean meats do. You have any familiarity with
the Nordic diet? Have you come across that?
I have it's, there are some similarities in the two.

(48:39):
Definitely. There's a lot of different, you
know, spin offs, I guess of the Mediterranean diet, you know,
I've heard Mediterranean Asian diet, you know, the onoric diet
where they have a lot of the same principles.
Yeah. I think, you know, we tend to be
just kind of fed the Mediterranean diet is the the
diet, but you know, we have so many different regional
differences in how people consume food.

(49:00):
I mean, you can look at the Okinawa diet, you know, the
traditional canal and not the kind of the modern Okinawa diet
being one of the blue zones. And you know, Nordic diet being
much more root based. The the commonality between all
those generally seems to be eating local, eating
sustainable, eating in season, eating healthy meat sources and

(49:21):
eating an overall greater plant based diet that is again
seasonal, local and sustainable.You know so.
And a lot pretty straightforward, yeah, a lot of
these dietary habits come from the region in which they live
in. So the reason why they have
these higher intakes is because they're exposed to different
environmental factors that they need those vitamin and minerals.

(49:43):
So for example, like during the summer months, you know, our
higher intake of dark, dark fresh fruits and vegetables that
are very high in antioxidants and electrolytes to help hydrate
us and protect us from the sun as well too.
So there's eating in season is ahuge component as well.
And I think we discredit that that we do.
There's reasons why we have these dietary habits are based
off of where we are geographically.

(50:04):
So let's go down the low carb keto rabbit hole for a little
bit here. Those approaches have been
greatly popularized for weight loss, and I think rightly so.
But how sustainable or healthy are they for the long term?
Yeah. So I think when it comes, when
you're speaking to aging males, they have a lot more flexibility

(50:25):
and being able to thrive in a low carbohydrate diet, whether
it's keto or carnivore, carnivore.
But when it comes to females, especially postmenopausal
females, we are much more susceptible to low carbohydrate
diets. So I think, you know, and that's
tends to be the population unfortunately, that gravitates
more to this, this type of dietary style because they're

(50:46):
hopefully trying to, you know, wanting to lose weight.
But I think there's ways to do it correctly and there's ways to
do it not correctly, especially when it comes to keto.
A lot of individuals think that if it's labeled keto, it's going
to be healthier alternative. And so I have a lot of patients
that are filling their, filling their diet up with these
processed keto products and are frustrated because they're still

(51:08):
not losing weight or they're notthriving.
They're having all these issues,you know, with, you know, blood
lipids, blood sugar instability because they're still eating a
very highly processed, ultra processed diet.
Even though it's keto. You might initially find weight
loss from keto because when you pull carbohydrates out of the
diet, you're going to also pull water.
So majority of the weight that you drop quickly is going to be

(51:29):
coming from water weight, not actually from fat mass.
And so I feel like just because people like that whole instant
reward, they see that happen andthey're like, Oh my gosh, it's
working. And so it reinforces that
behavior. But then what I see is, you
know, after that first initial 10 pounds, 20 lbs is lost, they
usually plateau and then ends upbeing that you're in this cycle
where you're eating really low carbohydrate, you're having low

(51:52):
energy. So you're not moving as much
throughout the day, which means you're not burning as much
calories. Your workouts are suffering,
your energy is suffering. And so it just, and then you're
at this position where you're not eating very much, you're not
moving very much and you're still not able to lose, lose the
weight. So I think there's definitely,
you know, wrong ways to do it and there's right ways to do it.
I much more prefer if you're going to do like a lower

(52:12):
carbohydrate to be more of a moderate carbohydrate intake.
So anywhere from like, instead of, because low carbohydrate,
we're looking at, you know, lessthan 20 grams per day for a keto
in those diets, which is very, very low.
And you know, those are can be good for short term, but I don't
think they're great for a long term.
And so I'd rather have someone be more of a moderate intake,
closer to 100 to 150 grams per day of carbohydrates.

(52:34):
Then again, making sure those carbohydrates are coming from
Whole Foods, single ingredient sources, and they're not
processed carbohydrate sources. Great answer.
I like that answer. Yeah.
What about intermittent fasting?Yeah, it's not technically a
diet, but it is a timing strategy.
Does the research support its benefits for aging?
Yeah, I mean, I think a lot of reasons why people choose
intermittent fasting is for weight loss, which I don't think

(52:56):
that's how it should be used. It should not be used as a
Weight Loss Diet protocol. The other thing people use
intermittent fasting for is for autophagy.
So helping with, you know, reducing inflammation and
helping with, you know, killing off those negative cells.
And it's just for autophagy in general.
So I think from a autophagy perspective, you definitely can

(53:17):
experience benefits from intermittent fasting.
However, studies show that you can get those benefits from just
going through a 12 hour fasting window, which is, you know, you
finish eating at 7:00 PM, you don't eat again until 7:00 AM.
So we are in a culture where we're just constantly feeding
all the time. And so if you just went back to,
you know, going 12 hours throughout the night and not
eating, you can still get a lot of autophagy benefits.

(53:39):
Studies also show that if you'rejust in a minor calorie deficit
throughout the week, you can also get those atopicity
benefits. So if you're just in a calorie
deficit of 150 to 250g or calories per day, you can still
get benefits from atopicity. You can also get those benefits
if you do let's say one day of alonger fasting window where you
maybe do more 16 hours or longerthan that versus one day of the

(54:01):
week as well. So I think there's definitely
ways that you can still get those benefits where you don't
have to every single day do intermittent fasting.
Again, men are a little bit moreflexible where they don't see as
many downfalls from doing intermittent fasting.
Females tend to have more pitfalls when it comes to
intermittent fasting. We just tend to be more in that
sympathetic state than parasympathetic state.

(54:21):
So actually doing long bounce offasting can just prolong that
sympathetic state in women, which can be harmful for hormone
production, slow down the thyroid, slow down those other
sex hormones as well too that weneed for just to be able to
thrive as well. So don't necessarily love
intermittent fasting for my female population.
It can be, you know, great. Like I said, if we just do a 12

(54:43):
hour fasting window or maybe do one day of fasting, I just find
that, you know, people get a lotbetter results if they are just
doing those shorter fasting windows.
But also again, most people are using intermittent fasting for
weight loss. And so they're just, you know,
trying to not eat for extended period of times, but then they
get to the point where they're starving and then they eat

(55:03):
whatever and anything in front of them.
And so then they're going these long periods where they're not
eating. And then when they do eat, they
start making poorer food decisions because they're being
driven by their food cravings. And so even though they're
eating in a smaller window, they're still not making the
best decision decisions. So I'd rather someone be better
fueled throughout the day where they don't feel like they're
starving and they can make healthier decisions.

(55:25):
I think there's a lot more benefit in that.
Yeah, I like that more circadianfasting approach where you end
your eating generally, you know,no later really than about 7:00
PM, couple hours, 3 hours beforeyou go to bed.
And then, you know, you can start eating as soon as you get
up in the morning again, provided you're coming at that
12 hour window or so. Just seems to have far better

(55:48):
longevity results for individuals, but also
maintaining A caloric balance because we're not eating in that
late night and our bodies are able to actually use the
nutrients that we put in as we're sleeping.
We're in that restorative sleep as opposed to, oh, I got to, you
know, digest and process all this food.
I can't be worried about puttingnew building blocks up because I

(56:09):
have to tear all this stuff down.
Yeah, or eating up until the point where they go to bed.
And so instead of focusing on sleep cycles and having a
healthy sleep, your body's focused on digesting food.
So how can listeners start making some changes they're
interested in, you know, adding more plant based protein or
maybe eating better quality protein without going full

(56:32):
vegetarian or vegan or going full kind of or you know what,
what what are some small changesthat you recommend for the aging
population? Yeah, I usually always recommend
that every single meal, think about what's your protein source
and what's your fiber source andthen build your meals around
there, making sure that when youcan and sourcing your protein

(56:53):
from sustainable sources, the closer to home is possible.
So if you do have access to, youknow, a local butcher or, you
know, different closer areas that you can source your
proteins from, you know, fresh farm eggs, that sort of thing,
definitely do that. I mean, if you can't, then just
try to make the best decisions that are available to you in
your grocery store. But that should be, you know,
the first building block of the meal is what's my protein

(57:13):
source, whether it's plant basedor it's animal based.
And then from there, what's my fiber source?
So their fiber source can be anything from berries to leafy
greens to chia seeds, flax seeds, whatever fiber source
that you add in. Just build your your meal from
there. Fill up on those two first.
And then, you know, if you have room for everything else, that's
fine. But as long as we're just trying

(57:34):
to not overcomplicate it, just have a good balance at every
meal. We'll be able to better balance
our blood lipid profiles, our blood sugar throughout the day.
We'll be able to balance our hunger and our craving.
We'll be able to reach our protein requirements a lot more
and that's the issue as well too.
As we age, you know, sometimes it's harder for us to to really
be able to eat larger meals at one time.
So as long as we're getting our protein and our fiber in, we're

(57:56):
going to be hitting a lot of those major building blocks that
we. Need kind of personalization is
key when it comes to finding theright diet.
How do you go about helping somebody find, you know, where
should I be on that spectrum from vegan to carnivore?
Yeah, definitely listen to your body, how your body feels after
your meal. So you shouldn't feel rundown.

(58:16):
You shouldn't have loading, you shouldn't have all these
symptoms after every single mealand doing a little bit of food
journaling. So it might sound a little bit,
you know, monotonous at times tobegin with, but just
understanding how your body reacts to food, especially when
it comes to things like carbohydrates.
I, I like to say that everyone has their own carbohydrate
threshold where amount of carbohydrates makes them feel
good and then the too much makesthem feel tired, maybe sleepy.

(58:39):
So it's really important to track the trends that work for
you and then understand how yourbody is reacting to those foods.
There's some individuals when itcomes to certain animal
proteins, they just don't feel like they digest them well for
whatever reason. It doesn't mean you have to have
those foods and there's going tobe another alternative that you
can also try in. So a lot of times it's just
education about, OK, if this food's not sitting well with

(59:00):
you, what's a better alternativefor you?
Try that one out. OK, that's good.
Then just trying to pick a menu throughout the day that's
customizable to you and what your body's reacting.
But I think the biggest thing islisten to how your body feels.
A lot of people will follow a meal plan or a dietary protocol
because someone told them to, but they're not thriving on it.
They don't feel well on it. And so when it comes down to OK,

(59:22):
that protocol is not good for you.
Let's figure out one that is. How important is it to maintain
kind of the cultural history of the individual as well when
we're looking at their diet? Yeah.
So I think as I mentioned at thebeginning of this podcast that
we have a lot of emotional weight around their food choices
and a lot of cultural influenceson why we eat.
Whether that is because we are, you know, genetically we're in a

(59:46):
geographical location, which means we need higher B vitamins
or we need higher this. There's reasons why we eat the
foods that we do. And a lot of the times we'll be
able to thrive better if we stick to those cultural meals as
well. However, there are ways to make
those meals a little bit more health promoting.
So me coming from a Hispanic family, there are ways to make

(01:00:07):
his, you know, Mexican, traditional Mexican dishes
really healthy for you. And I think a lot of the
foundations of Mexican cuisines is very health promoting.
But then, you know, convenience comes in and all these other
things come in where all of a sudden those health promoting
foods are not so health promoting.
So I like to joke. I'm like, we don't have to use
tortillas as spoons. You know that, right?
There's actually spoons that youcan use.

(01:00:30):
So I think it's really importantto maintain those cultural
foods. And a lot of those cultural
foods are really high and, you know, herbs and spices that come
with a lot of really great health benefits.
So I think it's really importantto still stick to those.
But just try to find, you know, are there ways that we possibly
can, you know, either go back tooriginal recipes and or just
tweak them a little bit to better support your health?

(01:00:50):
So how easy was it, coming from a Hispanic background, to have
made that shift to vegan when you did?
My family did not take it well at all.
Oh, it was it was a whole thing.Yeah.
Especially my abuela. She was trying to sneak in me
into my meals when she would make them or she would tell me
it's not, it's not meat. It's just chicken or, you know,

(01:01:14):
but yeah, I know my family did not think that it was a good I,
there were so many conversationsand so many, you know, heated
conversations about how unhealthy it was for me.
And, you know, just and also we,we speak with food as love as
well too. So me not being able to eat the
meals that, you know, my, my grandmother makes or, you know,
relative makes, that's essentially rejecting their love

(01:01:36):
as well. So they did not take it well.
But I did my best. I tried to eat what I could, you
know, especially when I would goto Mexico.
It was really hard to to be ableto still go out and enjoy those
meals only knowing that I could only have maybe a couple things
here. But I got bad.
And I think that's an important thing for people to understand
when you're making these dramatic lifestyle shifts in

(01:01:58):
your diet, that you have to weigh it against the cultural
plausibility of doing that diet.I mean, for example, like
ketogenic diets, the reality of being able to be truly keto is
next to impossible. And most people say, well, I'm
doing a keto diet. But then on Friday nights they
go out and they they drink alcohol or they have desserts
and things like that. And then just, well, one day a

(01:02:20):
week I'm, you know, go out to diet a little bit, then you're
not keto. You're just suffering through
the week only to destroy it on the weekend.
But if we look at it from, OK, well, what are the small changes
that I can make within my Hispanic culture to eat a little
bit more healthy? Yeah, I can still eat some meat
maybe, you know, I changed the quality or the quantity of the

(01:02:41):
meat that I'm eating. You know, the goons are big part
of the Hispanic diet. You know, it's just having
variety in there. It's it's not that hard if we
just approach it from a standpoint.
OK, I'm not going to offend my family.
I'm not going to force these bigchanges on my family.
What are the small changes I canmake now to make my diet a
little bit healthier and be ableto go to family events and not

(01:03:04):
be, you know, yeah, ridiculed ordisrupt the family or cause
fights? Yeah, and it's funny, I feel
like I have definitely circled back down to the principles that
my grandparents were telling me back when I first became vegan.
You know, they, as I mentioned that they're both, both sides of
my family that were farmers. So they raised a lot of their
own food. You know, they garden, they
raised their own cattle, They butchered their own cattle.

(01:03:27):
They ate very close to home and ate what they raised.
And it's funny that now I'm kindof full circle right back to
that. I'm like, oh, so I suppose that
they tried to teach me those actually were really good.
Won't tell them that, but yeah. Yeah, if you get, I mean,
culturally, the Hispanic diet isa very healthy diet when you

(01:03:49):
stick to it in a non Americanized way.
Exactly. Yeah.
You know, we tend to think of, you know, Mexican food as being
what you get at the Mexican restaurant, you know, down the
street. And that's not healthy Mexican
food. Exactly, Yeah.
So let's see, what have we not talked about?
We've talked about culture preferences.
Let's see, you know how well you're doing post bachelor's

(01:04:14):
degree and exercise. And I know the answer here, but
I'm going to have you address itfor our audience.
What are you doing personally toage well?
Yeah, so exercise has been a huge component of my life.
I grew up in sports. Every sport that I possibly
could do, I was doing. I was a very active child.
So physical movement has always been really ingrained to me and

(01:04:35):
when I when I first started in college, I really wanted to just
go directly into dietetics and then end up finding the exercise
for Physiology route and fell inlove with that as well too.
So throughout my academic career, I was always personal
training on the side. And then I found CrossFit,
really gotten doctorate into that whole whole world of

(01:04:55):
CrossFit and really fell in lovewith it, fell in love with the
community. And I just really enjoyed
personal training and helping people gain their independence
back and just, and it's not, it has to, it didn't have to do
ever with body composition, how people looked necessarily.
It was just being able to show up in life, show up for their
family, show up for their kids and just be able to do.

(01:05:15):
I remember one of my clients, her goal was she just wanted to
be able to pick up her dog food bag and not.
And then when she hit that marker, it was just like, you
know, life changing. But yeah, so exercise, I've seen
it change individuals life. And I just think movement,
movement is so therapeutic and it's such a huge component and I
weigh very heavily on that. I exercise pretty much every

(01:05:36):
day. I'm at the point where it's
like, you know, if I'm going on vacation, I'm like, okay, how
can I get some exercise in? How can I get some movement?
And, and I love all types of exercise.
It brings me joy. It helps me get centered and it
just, you know, improves my quality of life so much.
And yeah, and I really enjoy sharing that with everyone else.
So right now what I do is I was doing mostly CrossFit, I would

(01:05:58):
say, up until probably this lastyear.
And I've transitioned a little bit more into just traditional
bodybuilding and running, surprisingly, which I never
thought I would go back to running, but I just kind of got
to the point where, I mean, I love CrossFit, but my body was
hurting a lot. So I was, you know, constantly
hammering myself into the ground.

(01:06:19):
And I was like, this might be a little bit of an unhealthy
relationship with exercise. So now I still do it every once
in a while, a while for community and for enjoyment and
for fun. But I don't take it quite as
seriously as I did in the past. And I'm more so focusing on
making my body feel good, keep staying strong, and then making
sure I can still run a 5K without feeling like I'm going
to die. So you're doing well.

(01:06:41):
Yeah. And so what's 1 myths about
nutrition and aging that you wish everyone would unlearn or
could unlearn? Oh man, 1 myth.
I think the biggest myth that I wish people could unlearn is
that eggs cause your cholesterolto raise eggs.
I'm so, yeah. It's just so funny helping
people still demonize eggs just from that.

(01:07:01):
There's one study that essentially showed that there
was possibly an increase of cholesterol, but eggs are just
such a good health promoting food.
They're so high in choline, which is so great for a
cognitive health in general. And so I just, you know, they
use these core foods that unfortunately people are
demonizing and taking out of their diet and then they're
replacing them with, you know, unhealthier alternatives.

(01:07:23):
And I just wish that, you know, we would stop with these one
study and this put so much weight on them and it completely
neglect everything else that comes with it, all the other
health benefits, so. So get people to eat more eggs.
Get. More eggs, yeah.
So where can any of our listeners or viewers connect
with you? You do a lot of personal

(01:07:44):
consultation with Diet and I know you have a Instagram
account, so can you share some of the different accounts and
things that people can use to connect with you and learn more
about Doctor? I'm not under score that Doctor
Tiffany Garcia. I'm so happy to be able to say
that. Yeah, so I'm on Instagram at
Doctor Tiffany Garcia. So really simple.
I also Doctor Tiffany garcia.comwhere you can take a look at my

(01:08:08):
website. I do do so offer one-on-one
consultations as well and then on YouTube at doctor Tiffany
garcia.com so really easy. Fortunately, no one else has
that name, so it makes it simple.
It's good. Anything we missed talking about
today that you want to share? I.
Feel like we covered a lot, honestly.
So I'm just excited to be part of the space and, you know,

(01:08:29):
helping people improve their quality of life.
And whatever I can share, you know, it's, I just love being
able to learn more and just share what I do know.
Well, I'm glad I finally got to have you on the podcast.
So we'll have you back again at some point.
We'll talk about some other different areas of nutrition,
but just keep doing what you're doing, keep making me a proud
professor, and keep aging well. Thank you.

(01:08:52):
Thank you for having me. Thank you for listening.
Hope you benefited from today's podcast and until next time,
keep aging well.

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Vegan? Carnivore? Mediterranean? What Really Works for Aging Well | Dr. Tiffany Garcia | Ep. 298

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.css-14f5ked{margin:0;word-break:break-word;display:-webkit-box;-webkit-box-orient:vertical;box-orient:vertical;-webkit-line-clamp:2;overflow:hidden;}Vegan? Carnivore? Mediterranean? What Really Works for Aging Well | Dr. Tiffany Garcia | Ep. 298