You have probably seen them all over your Instagram feed. Beef liver supplements, sold as a natural, ancestral, high-iron fix for tired, depleted women. But before you add one to your cart, Leanne and Susie have something important to say.
This week on The Nutrition Couch, they dig into the iron conversation that so many women desperately need to have, including why your doctor might have told you your iron is fine when it is anything but, why infusions are often the only real solution when stores are genuinely low, and exactly why beef liver supplements are one of the most overhyped products circulating on social media right now.
If you are tired, breathless, foggy, or just never quite feel rested no matter how much sleep you get, this episode might be the most useful 40 minutes you spend this week.
In this episode:
Why ferritin is the iron marker that matters most and why a result your doctor calls normal can still leave you feeling exhausted, foggy, and completely flat
The real daily iron requirements for women across different life stages, including why pregnancy and breastfeeding can leave stores so depleted that supplements alone simply will not cut it
Why iron supplements can be so rough on your gut, which forms tend to be better tolerated, and why liquid over capsule is often the smarter starting point
The signs that your iron might be low that most women overlook, including restless legs at night, breathlessness on easy walks, and waking up exhausted after a full night of sleep
The best food sources of iron ranked, including the ones that most women are not eating nearly enough of, and the vitamin C pairing that makes all the difference to absorption
What to avoid when taking iron and why washing your tablet down with coffee or tea is quietly undoing your efforts
Beef liver supplements: Leanne looked up more than ten brands and the numbers are damning. Why these products are providing a fraction of what your body actually needs, what they cost versus what you get, and why they are not a therapeutic solution for anyone with genuinely low iron
A supermarket hot chocolate review comparing Jarrah, Avalanche, Cadbury and Lindt, what the nutrition panels actually reveal, and why some functional hot chocolates retailing at $60 should be approached with serious caution
A review of the new Birdseye scalloped potato with paprika from the frozen vegetable range, and why the nutritionals are stronger than you might expect
Shop Designed by Dietitians:
If you are looking for a genuinely functional hot chocolate to wind down this winter, REST by Designed by Dietitians is formulated with magnesium glycinate, glycine, L-tryptophan, passionflower, chamomile, and jujube extract for sleep and nervous system support, with no artificial sweeteners and a whole milk powder base for that creamy mouthfeel. Find it at designedbydietitians.com
Join the private Designed by Dietitians Facebook community for exclusive giveaways, webinar recordings, and content you will not find anywhere else. DM Leanne or Susie on Instagram for the private link.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Episode Transcript
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Speaker 1 (00:02):
Do you know what your iron is?
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Maybe your iron's in the normal range, but perhaps your
ferretin is low. On today's episode of The Nutrition Couch,
we chat all things iron and what you need to
do to get on top of your iron levels once
and for all.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
Hi, I'm Leanne Wood.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
And I'm Sissy Burrow, and together we bring you The
Nutrition Couch, your weekly podcast with everything that you need
to know in the world of nutrition.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
As well as all things iron.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
We take a closer look at supermarket hot chocolates, we
have a frozen vegetable product to review, and our listener
question is all about the online craze at the moment
beef liver supplements. But to kick us off today, Zuzie,
we are chatting all things iron because admittedly you and
I have both had low iron in the past. Our
clients regularly have low iron. It's something that busy women
(00:47):
really struggle with, isn't it.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
I think one of my most frustrating things with clients
is when I'll look at their blood panel and the
doctor will have said it's fine, and I'll look and
their ferretin is like a eighteen. Now we'll disclose that
recently I had a faretin coming tot eighteen. So it
is incredibly easy, even if you are a red meat eater,
(01:09):
to have low iron stores. And there's a few reasons
for this. The first is that often our intake is
not where it needs to be. So if you are
a meat eater, but you eat red meat once a week,
and you are a young woman who exercises a lot,
has young kids, you might have been breastfeeding pregnant in
the last few years. It won't be enough, and so
(01:31):
over time your stores gradually deplete, and even low iron stores,
which is your ferretin, can make you feel very, very tired.
So I was prompted to get a blood test because
I got up one morning and felt very very dizzy,
and I thought, oh my god, what is wrong with me?
And when I looked my faireshan had been twenty last
year and now it's eighteen. I should have done something then,
(01:53):
but again, you know, the doctors didn't say to me
at the time, would you like to get an infusion,
which is ultimately what many women will need to top
their stores up, because routinely what I'll hear is clients,
and these are even clients who've just had a baby,
and they've gone through their pregnancy, the baby's taken all
the iron from them. They haven't been eating a huge
amount because they're pregnant and not feeling amazing. And then
(02:15):
they'll go home with a newborn with low ferretin and
the doctor's suggesting that they take a fair grad sea. Now,
iron supplements rip through your gut. They are incredibly difficult
to get your iron levels up. It's got to do
with a lot of factors, including absorption, and so if
your stores are low, many people, I believe will need
an infusion to bring it up, particularly if they've got
high energy demands, they're breastfeeding, things like that. Even myself,
(02:38):
I just know that increasing my red meat intakes slightly
has not helped me in twelve months, not even a
little bit. And I'm not ready for letting it go.
And I said to my own clients, do not walk
around with low ferretin. It's really like your body is
constantly running on empty. It means that your blood is
not oxygenated to the extent it should be. Your brain
and cognitive function is not going to be as good
as it should be. You'll be breathless, you'd be your
(03:00):
sleep and still feel fatigued. You know you're starting behind
the eight ball. Your immune systems impacted. It's not healthy
for any of us to be walking around with low ferretin.
So that's the first thing. If you've had to look
at your blood tests and overtime your ferresons declining, you
know it's worth exploring. And we should also say leand
that low ferretin and low iron can also be a
(03:21):
sign that you may not be absorbing, you may be
losing blood in certain ways. It certainly warrants medical investigation.
So when I was at the GP, the first thing
they said to me was, had I had a colonoscopy,
because they too are thinking if you've got chronic low iron,
it can be associated with malabsorption or even bowel cancer
and young people, and we're seeing that more and more.
So it's really it's not a sign that something's wrong.
(03:43):
It's a sign. You need to understand why it could
be low. Are you malabsorbing, are you losing blood? Are
you exercising a lot and not replacing? And if everything
comes back normal, So for example, I've had a colonoscopy
as you had in the last two years, no polyps,
no sign of anything toward no other signs and symptoms.
The rest of my blood's are normal highly likely. Like
(04:05):
many of our listeners, I just don't need enough red
meat for the amount that I expend. I do exercise
a lot. I probably have red meat maybe once a
week if I'm lucky. I always prefer fish and chicken
over red meat. So that's the first thing. You've got
to get your blood tests, have a good look at them,
and decide is it worth investing in having an infusion
and getting the stores up. And it was interesting this
time the end because the doctors actually offered me two infusions,
(04:28):
so when I've had one in the past, they gave
me the one infusion. It brings your eye up to
about one hundred. He said to me. He thinks you
should always have both and bring your stores right up
rather than just go. And I thought that was quite
an interesting thing. I hadn't heard it before either. Then
on top of that, that would be if you're someone
who doesn't eat a lot of red meat in general
(04:48):
and would prefer to take an iron supplement like multi Fi,
which is a very good one a few times a
week to top your stores up as opposed to eating
more meat. Absolutely, go for it. That is, in my experience,
the best thing to do. If you border on low iron,
it's certainly not the solution. If your stores are in
your boots and you're a tired, busy, overwet mum, You've
got to get your levels up and then go from there.
(05:11):
Or if you prefer no supplements, and some of us
don't because they do rip through your gut, I would
say you've got to be having small serves of lean
red meat three or four times a week, like a
lean land Cutlet some lean beef mints and use it.
You know, you've been doing that series on your Instagram
with all the hot lunches. You know, do a beef
mince recipe that you have a couple of times a
week when you go for dinner, get a fill at
(05:33):
steak and have it over two meals. Have a steak
sandwich rather than a chicken burger. You know, you've really
got to really focus on it to get your demands
in because, yeah, a lot of us just are not
getting enough or choosing to eat less red meat or
even following a plant based diet. And I argue that
for busy women, it's just not fair that we're walking
around with low ferritin. That makes you feel like you've
been hit by a bus.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
Yeah, And I certainly have shoggled with low iron in
my past. I was bigin for you at a terin
for a couple of years in my early twenties, and
then in my thirties I had two back to back pregnancies,
two back to back breastfeeding lots, and sort of about
four years straight I was either pregnant or breastfeeding. And
just for some context, women between about twenty to fifteen
need about eighteen milligrams of iron a day, and that's
(06:15):
primarily due to regular menstruation. Once women get over fifty,
it drops from eighteen down to eight milligrams a day,
and that's primarily due to, you know, the average age
of metopause. Now, pregnant women go from eighteen milligrams a
day up to twenty seven milligrams a day. And I
always say to my clients, particularly in that third trimester,
the baby is just like a gremlin, like it's just
(06:36):
taken everything.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
From your particularly the iron.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
So so many women, and then if you've had a
really rough berth as well, like you might have lost
a bit of extra blood and all that kind of thing.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
You might have had a hemorrhage.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
Like a lot of times they are replacing it, but
sometimes they're not, and that's where it can really really
you can struggle to get on top of your iron levels,
and then if you have another pregnancy, you know, you
just struggle to get on top of it if you're
not replacing it properly. So it is really important to
be aware of your iron levels. If you are someone
that's been really low on the past, it might be
worth having a check once or twice a year. If
(07:08):
you're someone who is busy and who is tired, who
you may be in that postpartum period and you haven't
had your blood work dead in the last year, I'd
highly recommend going and chatting to your doctor about getting
your iron levels checked, particularly if you are, as Zusie mentioned,
feeling dizzy. You know, you're breathless even just walking, like
doing minimal exertion. In terms of exercise, you know, of
(07:29):
course you've gotta be restless if you're doing a huge workout,
but you're just going for a really easy stroll or
just doing day to day activities, you feel quite breathless.
You wake up after a really good night's sleep, still exhausted.
It's well worth going to get your iron levels tested.
And restless legs is another big one. I remember in
the third trimester, my iron was obviously very low. I
could not keep my legs still at nighttime, like they
(07:50):
would shake constantly, and David was like, what is wrong
and I was like, I don't know, I just I
can't stop moving my legs. And then when I went
back to my ob she was like, oh, your iron
must be really low. When we check it was and
she said that's a big sign. Restless legs is a
big sign of low iron. So that's another good one.
If you are sitting there and you have very restless
legs at night, probably a good good chance to go
and get blood tests. True, but key sauces of iron
(08:13):
really really important. As Zuzi said, it's the red meat,
you know, beef, kangaroo, even chicken and fish have iron
not as much as your red meats. And then if
you're talking about vegetarian or what we call non hem
based iron sauces, your legames and your beans are absolutely
the best sauces tofu as well, dark green leafy veggies
and really dried apricots are a great combo. You would
(08:33):
get clients to have dried apricots and chick beas like
groasted chickpas as a really good high iron snack. And
then making sure you're really having what we call that
iron boost, that vitamin C. So a lot of the
iron supplements on the market do have vitamin C included
in them, but if they don't, something simple like a
squeeze of lemon or orange juice onto your salad or
having a bit of capsicum or tomatoes in a meal
(08:54):
when you're taking your iron tablet is a really good idea.
And making sure you avoid any what we call iron inhibitors,
so the tannins and tin coffee can actually hinder the
absorption of an iron. So don't sit down to take
your iron tablet or capsule and wash that down with
a sipper coffee because you're not doing yourself any favors.
And then also I'll just quickly make a really quick
note because one of my good friends is just starting
(09:16):
her baby on solids and she was telling me how
well he's doing on all the vegetables, and I just
gave a quick reminder because no one really tells you
these things that the most important nutrients. One of the
most important nutrients for babies starting food is actually iron.
It's not vegetables, you know, they don't really get in
much iron. After six months of age, mum's breast milk
stops sort of producing that iron, and so it's a really, really,
(09:36):
really important nutrient. And I said to her, just sucking
on a really well cooked lamb chop to get the
juice the iron out of it is a great thing
for little babies. If you're doing baby led weeding. Obviously,
I've got to chew off the lamb. They're just sucking
the juice. It's got to be really well cooked and
very well trimmed. All black beans, just squash them, and
that can be a really great sauce of iron and
also fiber because a lot of bubs get quite constipated
(09:58):
dropping down the milk as well. So they're my tips
in terms of iron. But like you said, my preference
is a liquid over a capsule. If you are someone
that struggles with you know, constipation and gut issues and
iron tablets, try it liquid because that tends to be
a little bit better absorbed than an iron capsule.
Speaker 3 (10:13):
Now, she hasn't given us her number. What was your
ferresh and leanne in recent weeks?
Speaker 1 (10:17):
Oh, it's always been lower.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
At one point, I think it was about three in
the hospital rang me and they're like, come straight in.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
Now, this is years it go.
Speaker 3 (10:24):
Though she has an in vision two. I've told her
she's not listening to me. Butanne, you've forgotten my favorite
sources of iron in the diet. Well, if anyone grew
up in the seventies and eighties, you cannot go past
the smoked oyster and a smoke muscle in the tin
like they have to be some of the most efficient
ways to get four to seven milligrams of well absorbed
heam iron. If you like smoked oysters, if you like
(10:45):
smoke muscles, I am a big fan. They're not for everybody,
that's the button. I do like them. They're going to
be a very good source.
Speaker 1 (10:53):
That's a problem. Though not many people like them, myself included,
but I.
Speaker 3 (10:57):
Take them and her husband David indulges with me and
the smokedoy sterilia and is horrible.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
And me and me are standing on the side pinching
our noses.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
Well, moving on from iron to hot chocolate, because as
we know, it's cooling down, maybe not so much in Queensland,
but definitely down south a little bit more. It's cooling
down and it is hot chocolate weather. So of course,
like most times in May, a lot of our clients
are saying I have.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
This hot chocolate and this one and this one.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
So we thought we'd do a little bit of a
supermarket wreki and look at what are the hot chocolates
on the markets.
Speaker 3 (11:28):
So I think a lot of our.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
Clients have used the traditional you know, the Milos and
the Cadburys, and it's I don't think we have to
cover it on the podcast. They're obviously heine sugar. They're
more of a treat food. But there are some better
ones on the market these days that are a bit
lower in sugar or even perhaps provide some functional ingredients.
So the one that you and I loved for years
and years and years, and what we admittedly tried to
replicate from a taste perspective when we built our rest
(11:51):
Hot Chocolate and design our dieticians was the Jarrow one.
So we still really like that because it is quite
low calorie. But the thing is with that, to me,
I always get that funny after taste because it does
have the artificial sweetness in their nine to five to one,
but the ingredients or nutrition information is pretty good, like
a stick of that is only around what fifty calories
or something and quite low in sugar because it does
(12:13):
have the sweetness in there. So the Jarra one's one
of the better ones on the market in terms of
a lot lower in sugar.
Speaker 1 (12:19):
The other one that.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
I have clients have a lot recently, in particular as
a brand called Avalanche. But I do get feedback that
although it is quite low in sugar, it doesn't necessarily
taste so good. So my clients tell me that this
one is quite low in sugar, and I believe it
clocks it around that I think.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
I don't have the nutritionals in front of me, but I.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
Think around forty kind of ish calories, so quite low
calorie as well, quite low sugar. But again I think
they are using a lot of the artificial sweetness, aren't they,
And that tends to be sort of the running theme
across the supermarkets are either full sugar or they tend
to be quite low in sugar, but they are using
a lot of those artificial sweetness to obviously reduce it
and replicate that sugar content aren't they they are?
Speaker 3 (12:58):
I think the feedback I'm just a look to confirm
the sweetener in avalanche and I don't think it's artificial,
but I can't actually get the nutritionals, which that's not
our fault. If they don't log them, I'll try and
go to another site. But my experience with it is
it's really watery. So it's actually nutritionally pretty good, but
just watery. And I'm like you, I've always loved the
(13:19):
jarra and would have one every night, but I was
becoming more and more aware of sort of the evidence
to avoid a spartame in the diet. And whilst it
did have a milk powder base which and it does
has some sugar and I think it's got about eight
grams of sugar over all the jarra, but it did
have a lovely mouthfeel, which is what we replicated with
our rest without the artificial sweetener, because there is I think,
(13:41):
so the ingredients in the jarwer is milk solids, glucose solids,
cocoa at seventeen percent, which is a nice amount, but
it does have nine to five one which is a spartame.
Because I think part of it is when you have
more of a watery one, you don't get that fulfillment,
and that's the case with a couple of those tube
style ones. There also is some avalanche, a sugar f
that might have the type of sweetener on it actually,
(14:04):
so that's part of the issue. And then of course
if you go to the good Oh, they're using a
erythrotol in the avalanche rain, whereas if you go to
the cabri, which is delicious, but we want to be
because it's based on pure sugar and that's traditionally what
hot chocolate would be. And I think actually for anyone
listening who isn't a coffee drinker, who will say to me,
at this time of year, I had a hot chocolate. Well,
hot chocolate at the coffee shop is got twenty to
(14:26):
thirty grams of sugar in a small They're incredibly concentrated.
So if you are looking for a hot drink in
this at this time of year, and you do get
it from a cafe occasionally as a bit of a treat,
I wouldn't be having one every day. A little trick
is to ask for half strength and they'll put half
the powder in so you're not getting as much sugar
and it would be just as sweet. You know, you'll
enjoy it just as much, but you will cut a
(14:47):
little bit. But yeah, the cabri one, for example, per serve,
it's still only just over one hundred calories, but it's
got thirteen point four grams of sugar because the first
ingredient is sugar, followed by glucose syrup another form of sugar, milk, solids,
vegetable fat, So nutritionally, it's not a great choice. And
my understanding is the linked one is also similar because
(15:07):
I think the other thing when it comes to hot
chocolates is there's a lot of functional hot chocolate. So
we'll be very clear. We do have rest our functional
hot chocolate, but there are some varieties out there that
retail for as much as sixty dollars for a packet
of hot chocolate. Now, it would have to have liquid
gold in there to warrant that price. There is nothing
in a functional hot chocolate that should warrant it being
as much as sixty dollars. You're probably lining the pockets
(15:30):
of it. Influences to just be mindful, you know, if
it's promising the earth, it probably is too good to
be true because that kind of amounts. I don't care
whether it's a greens powder, a hot chocolate, sixty eighty
dollars for a small container, there is no possible way
even if it contains collagen. Collagen does add a cost
to hot chocolate, but nowhere near those amounts. And often
(15:50):
they might have as little as three grams of collagen,
which is not a big dose either. If you're paying
that much, you'd want at least ten grams of collagen,
if not more so. Buyer beware, you know, if it's
sounding too good to be true, or for supermodel selling it,
it's probably ripping you off a little bit, because at
the end of the day, a functional drink is not
going to solve the problems of the world, you know,
so just be aware. I think our kind of product
(16:13):
is about that thirty dollar mark. That's where you're going
to be getting the benefits of some functional ingredients, magnesium,
some sleep additions, a whole food base as opposed to
artificial sweetness, a great mouth feel. But yet you can
certainly be ripped off when it comes to some of
the ones out there. And I'm just having a look
at the limp one right now, leam, this is certainly
(16:33):
much more indulgent sugar, cocoa butter, whole milk, powder, cocoa mass.
So it's really a good quality one, but again it
would want to be. It's over two hundred calories a serve.
It's got almost thirteen grams of sugar and twelve grams
of fat. So that's a very indulgent type product that
might burn off if you're living in the Arctic, but
probably not in the Australian winter. So I would stick
(16:55):
to a low calorie option that is reasonably priced, and
if you can avoid the artificial sweetness or too much sugar,
even if you buying hot chocolates away from the home,
that would be the goal. And my client's question was
does it matter if I occasionally have a Jarrah? And
I was like, no, nothing occasionally ever matters. It's more
if you rely on it every day, you would want
to make sure the nutrition's going in his better quality.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
Yeah, one hundred percent.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
And I will say I have actually had one of
those Lint hot chocolates at the Link Cafe and oh
my goodness, it was amazing, like incredible, But yeah, definitely
not something I'd want to be having every single night,
or I don't think if it in my jeans by
the end of winter.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
But it's definitely definitely a tree delicious.
Speaker 3 (17:31):
Actually, tell you what my little boy did the other day.
He got milk. I actually had some high protein milk
in the fridge and he was using it. I do
like those high protein, low fat milks that are out.
I am using them a bit more. So he put
it in the saucepan and then I said to him.
He'd shaved down one of his bunnies from East Easter,
(17:54):
so he'd got a Cabri bunny and he sliced it
all up, so it was a lot of chocolate, like
it would have been one hundred and fifty hundred. And
I said to him, Harry, you can't make a hot
chocolate by melting chocolate into milk. It won't mix. I said,
you need to put some of the hot chocolate rest
in there. So he got sort of a heaped tablespoon
of rest and mixed in it, and then he melted
(18:14):
the chocolate through it. Oh my god, it was so delicious.
I was like, yeah, that's how you make a real
hot chocolate. Like he had it down pat Man, but
he's a ten year old boy who doesn't eat a
whole lot, so he can get away with it. But
I was like, oh my god, this is like liquid gold.
So yeah, you can certainly make some indulgent varieties with
your leftover Easter chocolate if you're looking for a bit
of a special trait.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
Yeah, delicious.
Speaker 2 (18:36):
But I think it really does come down to read
the ingredients, read the nutrition label, and be aware what
you're having. As Jusie said of it's a one off
occasionally it doesn't really matter, but if you are having
something regularly, i e. Every night or multiple times a week,
you want to make sure that there are some good
quality ingredients actually going into your body. And we quickly
go through the ingredients and rest and why we chose them. Yeah,
(18:56):
so the base of our rest is whole milk powder,
So we wanted to that beautiful creamy mouth feel. We
didn't want it to be super watery because ideally, like
if you've got a super watery supplement, which we get
that feedback that the avalanche is like, people just add
milk to it anyway, So it might be low calorie,
low sugar, but that then you're adding a whole heap
of milk into it, it's obviously going to drive the
calories up, so we wanted to start with whole milk
(19:17):
powder as our base, what had that beautiful, whole food rich,
creamy mouth feel. And then we've got cocoa powder going in,
and glycine is one of our top functional ingredients. So
glycine has been shown in the research to really support
the nervous system and help you wind down and calm
down in terms of improving your sleep quality. Then we've
got magnesium in there as well, which we know help
(19:38):
support muscle relaxation. And then we've got a couple of
functional ingredients which have been traditionally used in Western medicine
for their beautiful calming effects. So we've got passion flower extract.
And if anyone remembers our Restop chocolate, was it last
year that we ran out? It was so popular and
we couldn't get it back in stock for ages And
it was because of the damn passion flower extract which
we've imported in from Europe and it got ordered, it
(20:00):
got lost, that we got it expressed on the plane
and it got We just had so many issues and
it was out of stock for months, nearly all through
last winter, and people were very upset with us, but
it was because of this beautiful passion for our extract
we just couldn't get and that traditionally has been used
to help to calm and ease an overactive mind. We've
also got camomile extract in there, which we know has
(20:20):
been well recognized for its calming properties. We've got l
trip to fane, which is a very essential amino acid
which is involved in serotonin and melotonin production in the
body as well. And then finally we've got to jube extract,
which traditionally has been used in a lot of sleep
support formulations in terms of calming and winding down as well.
The restop chocolate is also good and free, so appropriate
(20:42):
for clients with Celiac disease as well, and clocks in
around sixty five calories with only six grams of carbohydrates
in there, and naturally sweetened with a little bit of
steavier as well, So that is our beautiful rest formulation.
It's not too sweet, but it does have a nice
creamy mouth feel as well. And we we'll be doing
a special giveaway with our arrests, so if you haven't
(21:04):
joined our private Facebook group yet, and you are on Facebook,
send us a message on Instagram and we will send
you the link to join our private Facebook Design by
Dietestians community because we do a lot of special giveaways
and exclusive access to things webinar recordings, trainings and that
kind of thing in our group as well.
Speaker 1 (21:21):
So it's for our Design by Ditestian community.
Speaker 3 (21:23):
Yes, indeed, we'd hope to see you there. We're having
simple conversations because we're cutting through some of the barriers
to chatting to people online in those community groups, so
it's worth joining, all right, Leanne, I found a nice
winter comfort food. I don't know if you're going to
like it, though, I will tell you I did buy
it for the family, but I don't know if it
ticks all our nutritional boxes. So we have previously talked
(21:44):
about our love for the Delhi range of birds Eye
frozen vegetables. They've got a whole growing range like seasoned beans, broccoli,
and they've got some lovely flavor. Because my belief is
if you make vegiet taste good, people eat more of them.
And I think in the current climate where you go
and broccoli can be like twelve dollars a kilo. You know,
when you can buy a bag of broccoli florets that
(22:05):
might last you a week or two for seven dollars. Financially,
it makes sense. And frozen veggies are generally snap frozen
at time of harvest, which means they retain all the nutrition.
So they're a very very good choice. And I always
have a range of frozen veggies in the freezer. Now
for Bird's Eye, who we would love to work with.
Birds Eye, if you're listening to us, we love what
(22:25):
you're doing with your veggie ranges. But they've got some
new ones we am. They've got a cauliflower cheese bake
and they have this new scallopped potato with paprika. And
I was making a lamb backstrap for the family and
I purchased both this scolet potato with paprika as well
as the cauliflower bake. Now, the couliflower bake was pretty tasty,
(22:50):
I have to say, but I thought today we would
review the scolet potato because I don't know if you
what you're going to.
Speaker 1 (22:56):
Think of it.
Speaker 3 (22:57):
So this comes in the It's quite a big bag
they sell them in. They're like six eight hundred grams.
Speaker 2 (23:02):
I think six hundred grams eight dollars fifty at wol worst.
But they do regularly come on sale for about six
seven dollars. They're often twenty thirty percent off.
Speaker 3 (23:09):
Yeah, eight dollars fifty now for a kilo. Now, potatoes
are not inexpensive, are they? Like if you put a
few big potatoes and you can think not cheap all right,
So the ingredient list is sixty percent potato and forty
percent sauce. The sauce is milk, water, cheddar cheese, palmasan cheese, cornstarch, salt,
mineral salts, thickener, paprika andion powder, garlic powder, so quite
(23:32):
a few powders. It's quite a long list, but it's
actually reasonably clean. If you are summarizing it. It's mostly
potato cheese sauce, and the cheese sauce is mainly cheese,
milk and salt. Like, it doesn't have a huge amount
in it, but I guess the ratio sixty potatoes to
forty cheese, it looks gonna taste pretty good. Whether it's
that good nutritionally, we don't know. So per serve they're
(23:53):
saying there's four serves per pack, so quite a hearty
serve for four, and for that you get just over
hundred just shy of one hundred and fifty calories, so
about one hundred and twenty calories per serve, five point
four grams of protein, four point eight grams of fat.
It's not low fat, but it's low and saturated fat overall,
thirteen grams of carbohydrate, one point eight grams of dietary fiber,
(24:16):
and three hundred and seventy milligrams of sodium, so land
if I was looking at the nutritionals, I would say, oh,
I probably preferred twenty percent sauce eighty percent potato. But
when I take a look at the nutritionals, they're actually
pretty good for a cheesy potato bake. They've kept the
sat fat low, which means that they're kind of diluting
(24:37):
out the creamy cheese sauce. So if you're making a
proper cream sauce you're adding cream or full cream milk
to it. They've skipped that. They're kind of using some
rich tasting cheeses, and they're thickening it up with the
corn start. So in the couliflower, which I assumes a
similar recipe. It wasn't thick cream in the sauce. It
(24:57):
was tasty, but it did have more a more watery
mix than a full cream cheesy sauce. It was quite light,
which is how they're doing it. They're using the milk
and the cheese flavoring to get it and a bit
of salt, although it's not overly highd salt for a
product that's got quite a few different additions of mineral salt.
So I actually quite like it because when I go
(25:20):
to dinner parties with friends and they we make potato bake,
it is heavy, you know, it is really cheesy and creamy.
There's a lot in it. I actually think this comes
up pretty good, and most importantly, it tasted pretty nice,
so to save I quite the family ate it. Everyone
liked it, so it's got three and a half health stars.
I think. Would it be a product I'm adding to
(25:41):
the family dinner every night, No, but certainly on a weekend.
If I was having a roast meal and wanted to
save a lot of time and energy and effort, it
would certainly cost me a lot more to make a
potato bake with fresh potatoes, cheese, milk. Then this would
cost for ease and convenience, so I quite like it a.
Speaker 2 (26:00):
Great I like the entire range. I use them regularly.
My girls love. There's like a garlic broccoli one. I
love the green bean ones often I put them in
the air fryer. And I love the purple bag. It's
like potato mushrooms, onion and beans, I think. And there's
also like a country venge mixed as well with beans
and carrot I think, and potato. So I like the
entire range. I haven't tried this one. It is one
of the new ones. I have tried the corn ribs.
(26:22):
That's another one of the new ones as well. They
were really good, but I found it a bit harder
to kind of cook them. I was like, oh, can
I put them in the air fryer. But yeah, I
think I'll definitely try this. I think the nutritionals are
very strong, and I think that if you were to
buy a pre made, as you said, potato bake, it
wouldn't be anywhere you're as strong nutritionally. You get what
you're buying, like you're not buying playing broccoli, so you
can't expect it to be the world's best ingredient list.
(26:45):
I think overall for a nice tasting scullot potato bake,
I think it's very strong, and I think that for
four serves, if you can get that on SAP for
six seven dollars, I think that's a really affordable cost.
You just add a bit of greens on the side,
add some protein, and that's a really nice, hardy, well
rounded meal. But perserving thirteen grams of carbohydrates is very small.
(27:05):
So I think even if you had two serves, if
you were hungry or growing, or had higher requirements, I
still think that would be absolutely fine. And you just
whack it in the oven fifteen minutes to cook, grill
it on top, and you've got this delicious tasting, well
balanced carbohydrate push and it ticks all the boxes from
my perspective. And if you say it tastes good, I'm in.
Speaker 3 (27:22):
Yeah, I like it, so give it a go. So
I found that at Coals. But yeah, they're doing a
great job with getting making it easier for ousis to
eat more veggies that taste great. Actually, that's a lie.
I bought them at all worse.
Speaker 2 (27:33):
Yeah, always has a better range of the birds eye,
yeahs one or two.
Speaker 3 (27:37):
Yeah, I buy the coals corn ribs for five dollars
and I love the coals Mediterranean vegetables for seven. So
they're kind of my staples. And then I'll add these
kind of other ones, particularly the broccoli. I like the
bird's eye broccoli. And yeah, I just think functional ways
to eat veggies is such a good investment in this
day and age.
Speaker 1 (27:56):
You think these ones are at will worst. Definitely at
wil worse. Smark Koles.
Speaker 2 (28:04):
Okay of this product, and it's our beef liver supplements
worth the hype for your iron. And I just every
single day am be marketed by a different company. Maybe
it's because they heard me and Susie talking about our
low iron, maybe it's because all my clients have been
asking about it. But I just feel like I'm being
hounded left front and center on Facebook with beef liver supplements.
And I looked into them because even I was like,
(28:25):
oh this sound good. I bought into the hype. But
I have to be so clear on this, ladies, like
this is not okay. This is the really really over hype.
So beef liver itself is a great source of iron.
It is a great source of iron, but the supplements
are where I have an issue because the supplements have
like tiny, tiny microdoses in them. They're so small that
(28:46):
it is doing absolutely nothing for your iron. So if
you are low and iron, do not waste your money
on beef liver supplements. I cannot be more clear about that,
because when I looked up I looked up over ten
of these different brands online Susie and the majority were
providing zero point four to zero point five milligrams of
iron only, absolutely nothing. Do you remember when I said
(29:08):
about women and their iron supplements, like most women are needing,
you know, close to twenty grams you're getting in a
serve of these beef liver supplements, not even one milligram,
Whereas if you were taking something like a clinical dose
of iron, for example, a Farograd C that's giving you
one hundred and five milligrams of iron, Like zero point
four compared to one hundred and five milligrams is a huge, huge,
(29:30):
huge difference. So this is one of those times where
the marketing online, the hype is being it's ridiculous, and
even I fell for it until I actually looked it
up and I was like what, And I hope people
aren't actually taking this for their iron because if you are,
you're being ripped off. And these are more expensive than
a traditional iron supplement as well, so this is like
a wellness gimmicky product. It is not a therapeutic iron supplement.
(29:54):
You're paying a premium, but you're not getting anywhere near
the benefit from actually clinically improving your iron level. So
if you are focused on getting your iron up, increase
your levels of red meat, get an iron infusion, or
take a proper clinical dose of iron supplement. So go
into a pharmacy and get something over the counter. And
like Susie and I said, we prefer the liquid types
(30:15):
to the capsules because they're just a little bit they're
better in terms of constipation and gut issues. And if
you do find that it is a little bit rough
on your gut, try every second day. A lot of
my clients have a lot better gut issues taking it
every second day, taking a liquid as well. But please
do not waste your money on beef liver supplements if
you have low iron, because you're doing just that, you're
wasting your money and you're not getting anywhere near the
(30:36):
effective clinical dose that is going to make a difference
at all. Like you're barely even scratching the surface in
terms of what your body needs. From an iron perspective.
Speaker 3 (30:45):
I would never take a liver supplement in general. I
think the liver is the detox organ of the body.
I would never use the liver supplement for anything that
I would take anyway, let alone that one is ineffectual. So, yeah,
you've gotta be so careful. And yeah, we're being listened to,
aren't we listen to Gary?
Speaker 1 (31:02):
All right?
Speaker 2 (31:03):
Well, that brings us to the end of another Nutrition
Couch podcast for the week.
Speaker 1 (31:06):
Thank you for listening.
Speaker 2 (31:07):
Tell your friends about us so they can listen as
well and enjoy all things beef, liver, supplements, iron, and
all the other many ranges of topics we chat about
on the Nutrition Couch. But thank you for listening and
we will catch you in next week's episode.
Speaker 3 (31:19):
Have a great week.
Do you know what your iron is?
Speaker 2 (00:03):
Maybe your iron's in the normal range, but perhaps your
ferretin is low. On today's episode of The Nutrition Couch,
we chat all things iron and what you need to
do to get on top of your iron levels once
and for all.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
Hi, I'm Leanne Wood.
Speaker 2 (00:16):
And I'm Sissy Burrow, and together we bring you The
Nutrition Couch, your weekly podcast with everything that you need
to know in the world of nutrition.
Speaker 1 (00:23):
As well as all things iron.
Speaker 2 (00:25):
We take a closer look at supermarket hot chocolates, we
have a frozen vegetable product to review, and our listener
question is all about the online craze at the moment
beef liver supplements. But to kick us off today, Zuzie,
we are chatting all things iron because admittedly you and
I have both had low iron in the past. Our
clients regularly have low iron. It's something that busy women
(00:47):
really struggle with, isn't it.
Speaker 3 (00:48):
I think one of my most frustrating things with clients
is when I'll look at their blood panel and the
doctor will have said it's fine, and I'll look and
their ferretin is like a eighteen. Now we'll disclose that
recently I had a faretin coming tot eighteen. So it
is incredibly easy, even if you are a red meat eater,
(01:09):
to have low iron stores. And there's a few reasons
for this. The first is that often our intake is
not where it needs to be. So if you are
a meat eater, but you eat red meat once a week,
and you are a young woman who exercises a lot,
has young kids, you might have been breastfeeding pregnant in
the last few years. It won't be enough, and so
(01:31):
over time your stores gradually deplete, and even low iron stores,
which is your ferretin, can make you feel very, very tired.
So I was prompted to get a blood test because
I got up one morning and felt very very dizzy,
and I thought, oh my god, what is wrong with me?
And when I looked my faireshan had been twenty last
year and now it's eighteen. I should have done something then,
(01:53):
but again, you know, the doctors didn't say to me
at the time, would you like to get an infusion,
which is ultimately what many women will need to top
their stores up, because routinely what I'll hear is clients,
and these are even clients who've just had a baby,
and they've gone through their pregnancy, the baby's taken all
the iron from them. They haven't been eating a huge
amount because they're pregnant and not feeling amazing. And then
(02:15):
they'll go home with a newborn with low ferretin and
the doctor's suggesting that they take a fair grad sea. Now,
iron supplements rip through your gut. They are incredibly difficult
to get your iron levels up. It's got to do
with a lot of factors, including absorption, and so if
your stores are low, many people, I believe will need
an infusion to bring it up, particularly if they've got
high energy demands, they're breastfeeding, things like that. Even myself,
(02:38):
I just know that increasing my red meat intakes slightly
has not helped me in twelve months, not even a
little bit. And I'm not ready for letting it go.
And I said to my own clients, do not walk
around with low ferretin. It's really like your body is
constantly running on empty. It means that your blood is
not oxygenated to the extent it should be. Your brain
and cognitive function is not going to be as good
as it should be. You'll be breathless, you'd be your
(03:00):
sleep and still feel fatigued. You know you're starting behind
the eight ball. Your immune systems impacted. It's not healthy
for any of us to be walking around with low ferretin.
So that's the first thing. If you've had to look
at your blood tests and overtime your ferresons declining, you
know it's worth exploring. And we should also say leand
that low ferretin and low iron can also be a
(03:21):
sign that you may not be absorbing, you may be
losing blood in certain ways. It certainly warrants medical investigation.
So when I was at the GP, the first thing
they said to me was, had I had a colonoscopy,
because they too are thinking if you've got chronic low iron,
it can be associated with malabsorption or even bowel cancer
and young people, and we're seeing that more and more.
So it's really it's not a sign that something's wrong.
(03:43):
It's a sign. You need to understand why it could
be low. Are you malabsorbing, are you losing blood? Are
you exercising a lot and not replacing? And if everything
comes back normal, So for example, I've had a colonoscopy
as you had in the last two years, no polyps,
no sign of anything toward no other signs and symptoms.
The rest of my blood's are normal highly likely. Like
(04:05):
many of our listeners, I just don't need enough red
meat for the amount that I expend. I do exercise
a lot. I probably have red meat maybe once a
week if I'm lucky. I always prefer fish and chicken
over red meat. So that's the first thing. You've got
to get your blood tests, have a good look at them,
and decide is it worth investing in having an infusion
and getting the stores up. And it was interesting this
time the end because the doctors actually offered me two infusions,
(04:28):
so when I've had one in the past, they gave
me the one infusion. It brings your eye up to
about one hundred. He said to me. He thinks you
should always have both and bring your stores right up
rather than just go. And I thought that was quite
an interesting thing. I hadn't heard it before either. Then
on top of that, that would be if you're someone
who doesn't eat a lot of red meat in general
(04:48):
and would prefer to take an iron supplement like multi Fi,
which is a very good one a few times a
week to top your stores up as opposed to eating
more meat. Absolutely, go for it. That is, in my experience,
the best thing to do. If you border on low iron,
it's certainly not the solution. If your stores are in
your boots and you're a tired, busy, overwet mum, You've
got to get your levels up and then go from there.
(05:11):
Or if you prefer no supplements, and some of us
don't because they do rip through your gut, I would
say you've got to be having small serves of lean
red meat three or four times a week, like a
lean land Cutlet some lean beef mints and use it.
You know, you've been doing that series on your Instagram
with all the hot lunches. You know, do a beef
mince recipe that you have a couple of times a
week when you go for dinner, get a fill at
(05:33):
steak and have it over two meals. Have a steak
sandwich rather than a chicken burger. You know, you've really
got to really focus on it to get your demands
in because, yeah, a lot of us just are not
getting enough or choosing to eat less red meat or
even following a plant based diet. And I argue that
for busy women, it's just not fair that we're walking
around with low ferritin. That makes you feel like you've
been hit by a bus.
Speaker 2 (05:53):
Yeah, And I certainly have shoggled with low iron in
my past. I was bigin for you at a terin
for a couple of years in my early twenties, and
then in my thirties I had two back to back pregnancies,
two back to back breastfeeding lots, and sort of about
four years straight I was either pregnant or breastfeeding. And
just for some context, women between about twenty to fifteen
need about eighteen milligrams of iron a day, and that's
(06:15):
primarily due to regular menstruation. Once women get over fifty,
it drops from eighteen down to eight milligrams a day,
and that's primarily due to, you know, the average age
of metopause. Now, pregnant women go from eighteen milligrams a
day up to twenty seven milligrams a day. And I
always say to my clients, particularly in that third trimester,
the baby is just like a gremlin, like it's just
(06:36):
taken everything.
Speaker 3 (06:36):
From your particularly the iron.
Speaker 2 (06:39):
So so many women, and then if you've had a
really rough berth as well, like you might have lost
a bit of extra blood and all that kind of thing.
Speaker 1 (06:45):
You might have had a hemorrhage.
Speaker 2 (06:46):
Like a lot of times they are replacing it, but
sometimes they're not, and that's where it can really really
you can struggle to get on top of your iron levels,
and then if you have another pregnancy, you know, you
just struggle to get on top of it if you're
not replacing it properly. So it is really important to
be aware of your iron levels. If you are someone
that's been really low on the past, it might be
worth having a check once or twice a year. If
(07:08):
you're someone who is busy and who is tired, who
you may be in that postpartum period and you haven't
had your blood work dead in the last year, I'd
highly recommend going and chatting to your doctor about getting
your iron levels checked, particularly if you are, as Zusie mentioned,
feeling dizzy. You know, you're breathless even just walking, like
doing minimal exertion. In terms of exercise, you know, of
(07:29):
course you've gotta be restless if you're doing a huge workout,
but you're just going for a really easy stroll or
just doing day to day activities, you feel quite breathless.
You wake up after a really good night's sleep, still exhausted.
It's well worth going to get your iron levels tested.
And restless legs is another big one. I remember in
the third trimester, my iron was obviously very low. I
could not keep my legs still at nighttime, like they
(07:50):
would shake constantly, and David was like, what is wrong
and I was like, I don't know, I just I
can't stop moving my legs. And then when I went
back to my ob she was like, oh, your iron
must be really low. When we check it was and
she said that's a big sign. Restless legs is a
big sign of low iron. So that's another good one.
If you are sitting there and you have very restless
legs at night, probably a good good chance to go
and get blood tests. True, but key sauces of iron
(08:13):
really really important. As Zuzi said, it's the red meat,
you know, beef, kangaroo, even chicken and fish have iron
not as much as your red meats. And then if
you're talking about vegetarian or what we call non hem
based iron sauces, your legames and your beans are absolutely
the best sauces tofu as well, dark green leafy veggies
and really dried apricots are a great combo. You would
(08:33):
get clients to have dried apricots and chick beas like
groasted chickpas as a really good high iron snack. And
then making sure you're really having what we call that
iron boost, that vitamin C. So a lot of the
iron supplements on the market do have vitamin C included
in them, but if they don't, something simple like a
squeeze of lemon or orange juice onto your salad or
having a bit of capsicum or tomatoes in a meal
(08:54):
when you're taking your iron tablet is a really good idea.
And making sure you avoid any what we call iron inhibitors,
so the tannins and tin coffee can actually hinder the
absorption of an iron. So don't sit down to take
your iron tablet or capsule and wash that down with
a sipper coffee because you're not doing yourself any favors.
And then also I'll just quickly make a really quick
note because one of my good friends is just starting
(09:16):
her baby on solids and she was telling me how
well he's doing on all the vegetables, and I just
gave a quick reminder because no one really tells you
these things that the most important nutrients. One of the
most important nutrients for babies starting food is actually iron.
It's not vegetables, you know, they don't really get in
much iron. After six months of age, mum's breast milk
stops sort of producing that iron, and so it's a really, really,
(09:36):
really important nutrient. And I said to her, just sucking
on a really well cooked lamb chop to get the
juice the iron out of it is a great thing
for little babies. If you're doing baby led weeding. Obviously,
I've got to chew off the lamb. They're just sucking
the juice. It's got to be really well cooked and
very well trimmed. All black beans, just squash them, and
that can be a really great sauce of iron and
also fiber because a lot of bubs get quite constipated
(09:58):
dropping down the milk as well. So they're my tips
in terms of iron. But like you said, my preference
is a liquid over a capsule. If you are someone
that struggles with you know, constipation and gut issues and
iron tablets, try it liquid because that tends to be
a little bit better absorbed than an iron capsule.
Speaker 3 (10:13):
Now, she hasn't given us her number. What was your
ferresh and leanne in recent weeks?
Speaker 1 (10:17):
Oh, it's always been lower.
Speaker 2 (10:19):
At one point, I think it was about three in
the hospital rang me and they're like, come straight in.
Speaker 1 (10:22):
Now, this is years it go.
Speaker 3 (10:24):
Though she has an in vision two. I've told her
she's not listening to me. Butanne, you've forgotten my favorite
sources of iron in the diet. Well, if anyone grew
up in the seventies and eighties, you cannot go past
the smoked oyster and a smoke muscle in the tin
like they have to be some of the most efficient
ways to get four to seven milligrams of well absorbed
heam iron. If you like smoked oysters, if you like
(10:45):
smoke muscles, I am a big fan. They're not for everybody,
that's the button. I do like them. They're going to
be a very good source.
Speaker 1 (10:53):
That's a problem. Though not many people like them, myself included,
but I.
Speaker 3 (10:57):
Take them and her husband David indulges with me and
the smokedoy sterilia and is horrible.
Speaker 1 (11:01):
And me and me are standing on the side pinching
our noses.
Speaker 2 (11:06):
Well, moving on from iron to hot chocolate, because as
we know, it's cooling down, maybe not so much in Queensland,
but definitely down south a little bit more. It's cooling
down and it is hot chocolate weather. So of course,
like most times in May, a lot of our clients
are saying I have.
Speaker 1 (11:20):
This hot chocolate and this one and this one.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
So we thought we'd do a little bit of a
supermarket wreki and look at what are the hot chocolates
on the markets.
Speaker 3 (11:28):
So I think a lot of our.
Speaker 2 (11:29):
Clients have used the traditional you know, the Milos and
the Cadburys, and it's I don't think we have to
cover it on the podcast. They're obviously heine sugar. They're
more of a treat food. But there are some better
ones on the market these days that are a bit
lower in sugar or even perhaps provide some functional ingredients.
So the one that you and I loved for years
and years and years, and what we admittedly tried to
replicate from a taste perspective when we built our rest
(11:51):
Hot Chocolate and design our dieticians was the Jarrow one.
So we still really like that because it is quite
low calorie. But the thing is with that, to me,
I always get that funny after taste because it does
have the artificial sweetness in their nine to five to one,
but the ingredients or nutrition information is pretty good, like
a stick of that is only around what fifty calories
or something and quite low in sugar because it does
(12:13):
have the sweetness in there. So the Jarra one's one
of the better ones on the market in terms of
a lot lower in sugar.
Speaker 1 (12:19):
The other one that.
Speaker 2 (12:20):
I have clients have a lot recently, in particular as
a brand called Avalanche. But I do get feedback that
although it is quite low in sugar, it doesn't necessarily
taste so good. So my clients tell me that this
one is quite low in sugar, and I believe it
clocks it around that I think.
Speaker 1 (12:35):
I don't have the nutritionals in front of me, but I.
Speaker 2 (12:37):
Think around forty kind of ish calories, so quite low
calorie as well, quite low sugar. But again I think
they are using a lot of the artificial sweetness, aren't they,
And that tends to be sort of the running theme
across the supermarkets are either full sugar or they tend
to be quite low in sugar, but they are using
a lot of those artificial sweetness to obviously reduce it
and replicate that sugar content aren't they they are?
Speaker 3 (12:58):
I think the feedback I'm just a look to confirm
the sweetener in avalanche and I don't think it's artificial,
but I can't actually get the nutritionals, which that's not
our fault. If they don't log them, I'll try and
go to another site. But my experience with it is
it's really watery. So it's actually nutritionally pretty good, but
just watery. And I'm like you, I've always loved the
(13:19):
jarra and would have one every night, but I was
becoming more and more aware of sort of the evidence
to avoid a spartame in the diet. And whilst it
did have a milk powder base which and it does
has some sugar and I think it's got about eight
grams of sugar over all the jarra, but it did
have a lovely mouthfeel, which is what we replicated with
our rest without the artificial sweetener, because there is I think,
(13:41):
so the ingredients in the jarwer is milk solids, glucose solids,
cocoa at seventeen percent, which is a nice amount, but
it does have nine to five one which is a spartame.
Because I think part of it is when you have
more of a watery one, you don't get that fulfillment,
and that's the case with a couple of those tube
style ones. There also is some avalanche, a sugar f
that might have the type of sweetener on it actually,
(14:04):
so that's part of the issue. And then of course
if you go to the good Oh, they're using a
erythrotol in the avalanche rain, whereas if you go to
the cabri, which is delicious, but we want to be
because it's based on pure sugar and that's traditionally what
hot chocolate would be. And I think actually for anyone
listening who isn't a coffee drinker, who will say to me,
at this time of year, I had a hot chocolate. Well,
hot chocolate at the coffee shop is got twenty to
(14:26):
thirty grams of sugar in a small They're incredibly concentrated.
So if you are looking for a hot drink in
this at this time of year, and you do get
it from a cafe occasionally as a bit of a treat,
I wouldn't be having one every day. A little trick
is to ask for half strength and they'll put half
the powder in so you're not getting as much sugar
and it would be just as sweet. You know, you'll
enjoy it just as much, but you will cut a
(14:47):
little bit. But yeah, the cabri one, for example, per serve,
it's still only just over one hundred calories, but it's
got thirteen point four grams of sugar because the first
ingredient is sugar, followed by glucose syrup another form of sugar, milk, solids,
vegetable fat, So nutritionally, it's not a great choice. And
my understanding is the linked one is also similar because
(15:07):
I think the other thing when it comes to hot
chocolates is there's a lot of functional hot chocolate. So
we'll be very clear. We do have rest our functional
hot chocolate, but there are some varieties out there that
retail for as much as sixty dollars for a packet
of hot chocolate. Now, it would have to have liquid
gold in there to warrant that price. There is nothing
in a functional hot chocolate that should warrant it being
as much as sixty dollars. You're probably lining the pockets
(15:30):
of it. Influences to just be mindful, you know, if
it's promising the earth, it probably is too good to
be true because that kind of amounts. I don't care
whether it's a greens powder, a hot chocolate, sixty eighty
dollars for a small container, there is no possible way
even if it contains collagen. Collagen does add a cost
to hot chocolate, but nowhere near those amounts. And often
(15:50):
they might have as little as three grams of collagen,
which is not a big dose either. If you're paying
that much, you'd want at least ten grams of collagen,
if not more so. Buyer beware, you know, if it's
sounding too good to be true, or for supermodel selling it,
it's probably ripping you off a little bit, because at
the end of the day, a functional drink is not
going to solve the problems of the world, you know,
so just be aware. I think our kind of product
(16:13):
is about that thirty dollar mark. That's where you're going
to be getting the benefits of some functional ingredients, magnesium,
some sleep additions, a whole food base as opposed to
artificial sweetness, a great mouth feel. But yet you can
certainly be ripped off when it comes to some of
the ones out there. And I'm just having a look
at the limp one right now, leam, this is certainly
(16:33):
much more indulgent sugar, cocoa butter, whole milk, powder, cocoa mass.
So it's really a good quality one, but again it
would want to be. It's over two hundred calories a serve.
It's got almost thirteen grams of sugar and twelve grams
of fat. So that's a very indulgent type product that
might burn off if you're living in the Arctic, but
probably not in the Australian winter. So I would stick
(16:55):
to a low calorie option that is reasonably priced, and
if you can avoid the artificial sweetness or too much sugar,
even if you buying hot chocolates away from the home,
that would be the goal. And my client's question was
does it matter if I occasionally have a Jarrah? And
I was like, no, nothing occasionally ever matters. It's more
if you rely on it every day, you would want
to make sure the nutrition's going in his better quality.
Speaker 1 (17:15):
Yeah, one hundred percent.
Speaker 2 (17:16):
And I will say I have actually had one of
those Lint hot chocolates at the Link Cafe and oh
my goodness, it was amazing, like incredible, But yeah, definitely
not something I'd want to be having every single night,
or I don't think if it in my jeans by
the end of winter.
Speaker 1 (17:28):
But it's definitely definitely a tree delicious.
Speaker 3 (17:31):
Actually, tell you what my little boy did the other day.
He got milk. I actually had some high protein milk
in the fridge and he was using it. I do
like those high protein, low fat milks that are out.
I am using them a bit more. So he put
it in the saucepan and then I said to him.
He'd shaved down one of his bunnies from East Easter,
(17:54):
so he'd got a Cabri bunny and he sliced it
all up, so it was a lot of chocolate, like
it would have been one hundred and fifty hundred. And
I said to him, Harry, you can't make a hot
chocolate by melting chocolate into milk. It won't mix. I said,
you need to put some of the hot chocolate rest
in there. So he got sort of a heaped tablespoon
of rest and mixed in it, and then he melted
(18:14):
the chocolate through it. Oh my god, it was so delicious.
I was like, yeah, that's how you make a real
hot chocolate. Like he had it down pat Man, but
he's a ten year old boy who doesn't eat a
whole lot, so he can get away with it. But
I was like, oh my god, this is like liquid gold.
So yeah, you can certainly make some indulgent varieties with
your leftover Easter chocolate if you're looking for a bit
of a special trait.
Speaker 1 (18:35):
Yeah, delicious.
Speaker 2 (18:36):
But I think it really does come down to read
the ingredients, read the nutrition label, and be aware what
you're having. As Jusie said of it's a one off
occasionally it doesn't really matter, but if you are having
something regularly, i e. Every night or multiple times a week,
you want to make sure that there are some good
quality ingredients actually going into your body. And we quickly
go through the ingredients and rest and why we chose them. Yeah,
(18:56):
so the base of our rest is whole milk powder,
So we wanted to that beautiful creamy mouth feel. We
didn't want it to be super watery because ideally, like
if you've got a super watery supplement, which we get
that feedback that the avalanche is like, people just add
milk to it anyway, So it might be low calorie,
low sugar, but that then you're adding a whole heap
of milk into it, it's obviously going to drive the
calories up, so we wanted to start with whole milk
(19:17):
powder as our base, what had that beautiful, whole food rich,
creamy mouth feel. And then we've got cocoa powder going in,
and glycine is one of our top functional ingredients. So
glycine has been shown in the research to really support
the nervous system and help you wind down and calm
down in terms of improving your sleep quality. Then we've
got magnesium in there as well, which we know help
(19:38):
support muscle relaxation. And then we've got a couple of
functional ingredients which have been traditionally used in Western medicine
for their beautiful calming effects. So we've got passion flower extract.
And if anyone remembers our Restop chocolate, was it last
year that we ran out? It was so popular and
we couldn't get it back in stock for ages And
it was because of the damn passion flower extract which
we've imported in from Europe and it got ordered, it
(20:00):
got lost, that we got it expressed on the plane
and it got We just had so many issues and
it was out of stock for months, nearly all through
last winter, and people were very upset with us, but
it was because of this beautiful passion for our extract
we just couldn't get and that traditionally has been used
to help to calm and ease an overactive mind. We've
also got camomile extract in there, which we know has
(20:20):
been well recognized for its calming properties. We've got l
trip to fane, which is a very essential amino acid
which is involved in serotonin and melotonin production in the
body as well. And then finally we've got to jube extract,
which traditionally has been used in a lot of sleep
support formulations in terms of calming and winding down as well.
The restop chocolate is also good and free, so appropriate
(20:42):
for clients with Celiac disease as well, and clocks in
around sixty five calories with only six grams of carbohydrates
in there, and naturally sweetened with a little bit of
steavier as well, So that is our beautiful rest formulation.
It's not too sweet, but it does have a nice
creamy mouth feel as well. And we we'll be doing
a special giveaway with our arrests, so if you haven't
(21:04):
joined our private Facebook group yet, and you are on Facebook,
send us a message on Instagram and we will send
you the link to join our private Facebook Design by
Dietestians community because we do a lot of special giveaways
and exclusive access to things webinar recordings, trainings and that
kind of thing in our group as well.
Speaker 1 (21:21):
So it's for our Design by Ditestian community.
Speaker 3 (21:23):
Yes, indeed, we'd hope to see you there. We're having
simple conversations because we're cutting through some of the barriers
to chatting to people online in those community groups, so
it's worth joining, all right, Leanne, I found a nice
winter comfort food. I don't know if you're going to
like it, though, I will tell you I did buy
it for the family, but I don't know if it
ticks all our nutritional boxes. So we have previously talked
(21:44):
about our love for the Delhi range of birds Eye
frozen vegetables. They've got a whole growing range like seasoned beans, broccoli,
and they've got some lovely flavor. Because my belief is
if you make vegiet taste good, people eat more of them.
And I think in the current climate where you go
and broccoli can be like twelve dollars a kilo. You know,
when you can buy a bag of broccoli florets that
(22:05):
might last you a week or two for seven dollars. Financially,
it makes sense. And frozen veggies are generally snap frozen
at time of harvest, which means they retain all the nutrition.
So they're a very very good choice. And I always
have a range of frozen veggies in the freezer. Now
for Bird's Eye, who we would love to work with.
Birds Eye, if you're listening to us, we love what
(22:25):
you're doing with your veggie ranges. But they've got some
new ones we am. They've got a cauliflower cheese bake
and they have this new scallopped potato with paprika. And
I was making a lamb backstrap for the family and
I purchased both this scolet potato with paprika as well
as the cauliflower bake. Now, the couliflower bake was pretty tasty,
(22:50):
I have to say, but I thought today we would
review the scolet potato because I don't know if you
what you're going to.
Speaker 1 (22:56):
Think of it.
Speaker 3 (22:57):
So this comes in the It's quite a big bag
they sell them in. They're like six eight hundred grams.
Speaker 2 (23:02):
I think six hundred grams eight dollars fifty at wol worst.
But they do regularly come on sale for about six
seven dollars. They're often twenty thirty percent off.
Speaker 3 (23:09):
Yeah, eight dollars fifty now for a kilo. Now, potatoes
are not inexpensive, are they? Like if you put a
few big potatoes and you can think not cheap all right,
So the ingredient list is sixty percent potato and forty
percent sauce. The sauce is milk, water, cheddar cheese, palmasan cheese, cornstarch, salt,
mineral salts, thickener, paprika andion powder, garlic powder, so quite
(23:32):
a few powders. It's quite a long list, but it's
actually reasonably clean. If you are summarizing it. It's mostly
potato cheese sauce, and the cheese sauce is mainly cheese,
milk and salt. Like, it doesn't have a huge amount
in it, but I guess the ratio sixty potatoes to
forty cheese, it looks gonna taste pretty good. Whether it's
that good nutritionally, we don't know. So per serve they're
(23:53):
saying there's four serves per pack, so quite a hearty
serve for four, and for that you get just over
hundred just shy of one hundred and fifty calories, so
about one hundred and twenty calories per serve, five point
four grams of protein, four point eight grams of fat.
It's not low fat, but it's low and saturated fat overall,
thirteen grams of carbohydrate, one point eight grams of dietary fiber,
(24:16):
and three hundred and seventy milligrams of sodium, so land
if I was looking at the nutritionals, I would say, oh,
I probably preferred twenty percent sauce eighty percent potato. But
when I take a look at the nutritionals, they're actually
pretty good for a cheesy potato bake. They've kept the
sat fat low, which means that they're kind of diluting
(24:37):
out the creamy cheese sauce. So if you're making a
proper cream sauce you're adding cream or full cream milk
to it. They've skipped that. They're kind of using some
rich tasting cheeses, and they're thickening it up with the
corn start. So in the couliflower, which I assumes a
similar recipe. It wasn't thick cream in the sauce. It
(24:57):
was tasty, but it did have more a more watery
mix than a full cream cheesy sauce. It was quite light,
which is how they're doing it. They're using the milk
and the cheese flavoring to get it and a bit
of salt, although it's not overly highd salt for a
product that's got quite a few different additions of mineral salt.
So I actually quite like it because when I go
(25:20):
to dinner parties with friends and they we make potato bake,
it is heavy, you know, it is really cheesy and creamy.
There's a lot in it. I actually think this comes
up pretty good, and most importantly, it tasted pretty nice,
so to save I quite the family ate it. Everyone
liked it, so it's got three and a half health stars.
I think. Would it be a product I'm adding to
(25:41):
the family dinner every night, No, but certainly on a weekend.
If I was having a roast meal and wanted to
save a lot of time and energy and effort, it
would certainly cost me a lot more to make a
potato bake with fresh potatoes, cheese, milk. Then this would
cost for ease and convenience, so I quite like it a.
Speaker 2 (26:00):
Great I like the entire range. I use them regularly.
My girls love. There's like a garlic broccoli one. I
love the green bean ones often I put them in
the air fryer. And I love the purple bag. It's
like potato mushrooms, onion and beans, I think. And there's
also like a country venge mixed as well with beans
and carrot I think, and potato. So I like the
entire range. I haven't tried this one. It is one
of the new ones. I have tried the corn ribs.
(26:22):
That's another one of the new ones as well. They
were really good, but I found it a bit harder
to kind of cook them. I was like, oh, can
I put them in the air fryer. But yeah, I
think I'll definitely try this. I think the nutritionals are
very strong, and I think that if you were to
buy a pre made, as you said, potato bake, it
wouldn't be anywhere you're as strong nutritionally. You get what
you're buying, like you're not buying playing broccoli, so you
can't expect it to be the world's best ingredient list.
(26:45):
I think overall for a nice tasting scullot potato bake,
I think it's very strong, and I think that for
four serves, if you can get that on SAP for
six seven dollars, I think that's a really affordable cost.
You just add a bit of greens on the side,
add some protein, and that's a really nice, hardy, well
rounded meal. But perserving thirteen grams of carbohydrates is very small.
(27:05):
So I think even if you had two serves, if
you were hungry or growing, or had higher requirements, I
still think that would be absolutely fine. And you just
whack it in the oven fifteen minutes to cook, grill
it on top, and you've got this delicious tasting, well
balanced carbohydrate push and it ticks all the boxes from
my perspective. And if you say it tastes good, I'm in.
Speaker 3 (27:22):
Yeah, I like it, so give it a go. So
I found that at Coals. But yeah, they're doing a
great job with getting making it easier for ousis to
eat more veggies that taste great. Actually, that's a lie.
I bought them at all worse.
Speaker 2 (27:33):
Yeah, always has a better range of the birds eye,
yeahs one or two.
Speaker 3 (27:37):
Yeah, I buy the coals corn ribs for five dollars
and I love the coals Mediterranean vegetables for seven. So
they're kind of my staples. And then I'll add these
kind of other ones, particularly the broccoli. I like the
bird's eye broccoli. And yeah, I just think functional ways
to eat veggies is such a good investment in this
day and age.
Speaker 1 (27:56):
You think these ones are at will worst. Definitely at
wil worse. Smark Koles.
Speaker 2 (28:04):
Okay of this product, and it's our beef liver supplements
worth the hype for your iron. And I just every
single day am be marketed by a different company. Maybe
it's because they heard me and Susie talking about our
low iron, maybe it's because all my clients have been
asking about it. But I just feel like I'm being
hounded left front and center on Facebook with beef liver supplements.
And I looked into them because even I was like,
(28:25):
oh this sound good. I bought into the hype. But
I have to be so clear on this, ladies, like
this is not okay. This is the really really over hype.
So beef liver itself is a great source of iron.
It is a great source of iron, but the supplements
are where I have an issue because the supplements have
like tiny, tiny microdoses in them. They're so small that
(28:46):
it is doing absolutely nothing for your iron. So if
you are low and iron, do not waste your money
on beef liver supplements. I cannot be more clear about that,
because when I looked up I looked up over ten
of these different brands online Susie and the majority were
providing zero point four to zero point five milligrams of
iron only, absolutely nothing. Do you remember when I said
(29:08):
about women and their iron supplements, like most women are needing,
you know, close to twenty grams you're getting in a
serve of these beef liver supplements, not even one milligram,
Whereas if you were taking something like a clinical dose
of iron, for example, a Farograd C that's giving you
one hundred and five milligrams of iron, Like zero point
four compared to one hundred and five milligrams is a huge, huge,
(29:30):
huge difference. So this is one of those times where
the marketing online, the hype is being it's ridiculous, and
even I fell for it until I actually looked it
up and I was like what, And I hope people
aren't actually taking this for their iron because if you are,
you're being ripped off. And these are more expensive than
a traditional iron supplement as well, so this is like
a wellness gimmicky product. It is not a therapeutic iron supplement.
(29:54):
You're paying a premium, but you're not getting anywhere near
the benefit from actually clinically improving your iron level. So
if you are focused on getting your iron up, increase
your levels of red meat, get an iron infusion, or
take a proper clinical dose of iron supplement. So go
into a pharmacy and get something over the counter. And
like Susie and I said, we prefer the liquid types
(30:15):
to the capsules because they're just a little bit they're
better in terms of constipation and gut issues. And if
you do find that it is a little bit rough
on your gut, try every second day. A lot of
my clients have a lot better gut issues taking it
every second day, taking a liquid as well. But please
do not waste your money on beef liver supplements if
you have low iron, because you're doing just that, you're
wasting your money and you're not getting anywhere near the
(30:36):
effective clinical dose that is going to make a difference
at all. Like you're barely even scratching the surface in
terms of what your body needs. From an iron perspective.
Speaker 3 (30:45):
I would never take a liver supplement in general. I
think the liver is the detox organ of the body.
I would never use the liver supplement for anything that
I would take anyway, let alone that one is ineffectual. So, yeah,
you've gotta be so careful. And yeah, we're being listened to,
aren't we listen to Gary?
Speaker 1 (31:02):
All right?
Speaker 2 (31:03):
Well, that brings us to the end of another Nutrition
Couch podcast for the week.
Speaker 1 (31:06):
Thank you for listening.
Speaker 2 (31:07):
Tell your friends about us so they can listen as
well and enjoy all things beef, liver, supplements, iron, and
all the other many ranges of topics we chat about
on the Nutrition Couch. But thank you for listening and
we will catch you in next week's episode.
Speaker 3 (31:19):
Have a great week.
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