How would you describe your relationship with food? For many women, it’s complicated — shaped by childhood diets, family comments, or decades of restriction that leave deep imprints on how we eat today.
In this week’s Nutrition Couch, Susie and Leanne open up the conversation on food trauma:
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What it is, how it starts, and the hidden ways it can sabotage eating patterns and weight goals.
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Why early experiences like dieting with your mum or comments from a grandparent can echo into adulthood.
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The first steps to bringing awareness and healing so you can finally enjoy food without guilt or fear.
We also unpack two big nutrition talking points making headlines:
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New research on diet soft drinks — why one diet soda a day may raise type 2 diabetes risk even more than sugary soft drink, and what this means for everyday choices.
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Creatine and kidney health — is it really dangerous? We break down the science and bust one of the most persistent supplement myths.
Plus, we share a new wholefood snack bar find that might just earn a spot in your trolley.
Whether you’re navigating food struggles, curious about the latest health research, or just looking for practical dietitian-approved advice, this episode is packed with insights to support both your health and your mindset.
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:01):
How would you describe your relationship with food? Is it tricky, complicated,
or maybe there's nothing to see, or maybe you are
one of the many women listening who's had traumatic experiences
with food at some point in your life and it
seriously impacts your relationship with food even today. On today's
episode of The Nutrition Couch, we deep dive food trauma,
(00:24):
talk about the origins and most importantly, the steps to
work through it so you can get back to a
place in which you enjoy food without feeling guilty, pain
and suffering.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Hi.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
I'm Cusie Burrow and I'm lean Wood, and together we
bring you The Nutrition Couch, the weekly podcast that keeps
you up to date on everything you need to know
in the world of nutrition as well as food trauma.
We have some concerning new research looking at diet soft drinks.
Leanne has found a new sapar and our listener question
is all about creating and kidney health. So Leanne, I
brought this as a topic to you to discuss on
(00:55):
the potty because I've had a few clients in recent
months that have really struck me as being quite different
to a typical client presentation. So in general, I like
you specialize in women's nutrition. Most of the women I
would see would fall into one of two categories. They
want to lose five to ten kilos. They're already fit,
(01:15):
active and just want to find tune their body composition.
And then I see a group of women who maybe
have twenty thirty kilos to lose over a longer period
of time, perhaps are using a new GORP medication and
need diet support. And it's work I really enjoy. I've
done it for twenty twenty five years, and my background
is in psychology, so I feel quite comfortable to work
(01:35):
through psychological issues as they arise, and inevitably in life,
we've all got some psych stuff that could do with
some therapy at some point or another. But what I
want to talk about today is a couple of clients
who I would describe more as outliers, because what I
have identified is that whilst they may present with wanting
to lose weight, often it is an underlying issue with
(01:58):
their relationship with food. And the way that I would
define it is that it's a little bit unusual. It's
not a case of just turning up and saying what
do I eat to lose weight? Or how do I
find you in my program, or do I have hormone issues.
It's sort of more an unusual presentation of struggling to
enjoy eating. Often it may be someone who's had a
(02:20):
long history of dieting. That may be sort of the
initial They might say that, you know, my mum was
a dieter, I went to weight watches. Since I'm ten,
I really don't know what I should be eating. I
don't feel much pleasure in food anymore, or in some
cases even completely disassociated from what they like to eat,
what they should eat, and even a topic that they
(02:42):
can't talk much about. There's a trauma there. So certainly
I wouldn't say it's everyone, but I would say that
some people listening this will resonate with because what I
wanted to chat about today was the way our very
early experiences with food, and in particular what i'd describe
as traumat events associated with food directly or indirectly, can
(03:04):
have a very powerful impact on how we conduct ourselves
in relation to food throughout our entire life. And in
some of these cases, or many of them, in my experience,
my client is actually not even aware of what has
caused this relationship. All they know is that they can't
necessarily get to the weight they want to get to,
they can't seem to get their eating behavior under control,
(03:26):
and there's just something else there that doesn't make a
lot of sense. Now, this is quite heavy psychological stuff.
I'm certainly not encouraging people to deep dive into emotional
trauma without relative support. My background is in psychology. I'm
skilled and qualified to be dealing with this. But I
would say to any dietitians listening, this may be a
little bit above your pay grade. If you're feeling like
(03:48):
it's getting into territory of eating disorders, long term disordered
eating patterns, personal trauma. It's definitely more worked for a
psychologist than a dietitian. But Lee and we do see
it because so often the food is the symptom. So
the first thing I wanted to say was I would
describe it is when there is maladaptive relationships with food,
(04:11):
sometimes it is indicative that there may be food trauma present.
So when some of the behaviors don't make sense, and
this is across the board in terms of behavior, when
people are behaving in a way that doesn't quite make sense. So,
for example, the way I often pick it up. The
first risk factor I see is when people describe having
a long history with dieting and restrictive eating, and often
(04:32):
that has come through a mother or a grandmother and
a discussion about body image or fat shaming at a
very young age. That's a very big one. But the
other time it comes up for me is when I
perhaps started to work with a client and I have
gone through the process of a diet assessment, talking about
habits we want to change, and then no matter how
(04:52):
good their efforts are, they just don't seem to be
able to do it, and they're not even sure why.
And then I start to deep dive into what I
would describe it early food trauma. So, if you're someone
listening who knows that your relationship with food is not great,
if you were exposed to diets early, or you just
have a love hate relationship with it, you binge eat
(05:13):
for unexplained reasons. You go through periods of extreme diets
and deprivation. You don't ever enjoy your food. It's like
an effort or a chore. You're almost dissociated from making
positive changes and are self sabotaging your dietary or health
related goals. These are all factors that may be suggestive
that food trauma is there. Now. One of the things
(05:35):
I wanted to discuss is that people may not be
as aware that when we're below the age of adolescence,
when we are exposed to some of those what I
call as traumatic experiences, which may be as simple as
a grandmother fat shaming you. It maybe your mother making
comments about your weight, maybe that you were dragged to
weight watchers. Often we're not even aware that that may
(05:59):
be a fact driving our experience. And what happens in
those early years is it basically puts an imprint onto
our psychology, into our psyche, and we identify with that. So,
for example, if you may have had a grandmother when
you were quite small, you might have only been four
or five, the first points that you can establish memory,
(06:21):
and there may have been you may have observed her
with abnormal eating behaviors or restricting food intake. You might
have felt deprived. You might have been always going to
school and your mother never packed you any treats, so
you used to steal other kids' lunches, that kind of
maladaptive behavior which isn't quite normal. And so as an
adult quite likely if you find now that you sneak food,
(06:43):
if you hide food away. Often it is that very
early experience that is driving that behavior as an adult.
Because as human beings, when we find ourselves in similar situations,
So if there's a perception of restriction or a belief
that you should be losing weight, it will trigger those
subconscious programs without you even realizing it. So, for example, Anne,
(07:06):
when I've got a client who is binge eating after
dinner and she's got a well balanced meal plan, she's
having treats regularly already, and yet still binging. One of
the things I will say to try and assess if
this early food trauma may be there, I'll send them
off and I'll say, I want you to think about
your first experiences of food, your memories from when you're
(07:28):
a child. And I cannot tell you. There's stuff that
comes up with clients and the depth of it, ranging
from childhood illness to full eating disordered parents, to actual
physical restriction of food, to parents divorcing to family illness,
and at that time we've found comfort in food or
(07:50):
have formed that belief about ourselves that we were deprived
or fat or naughty, whatever that is, and that's become
what we identify with. So as adults, what happens is
when we find ourselves in that same stress situation, we
elicit the same response. And that's why you may find
yourself even though it makes no sense. You can eat
(08:10):
whatever you want when you want still hiding food, binging
food and feeling and engaging in those maladaptive behaviors that
don't make sense.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
So I thought it was.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
Just worth a bit of a discussion because in the
past few months I've seen a couple of things that
I've gone, oh my God, like, no wonder, you've got
a traumatic relationship with food. So it's certainly not to
make people you know, emotional or feel any more guilty.
But the first step in recovery is awareness. And I
can't tell you how cleansing it is for clients who
(08:43):
have struggled with binge eating restrictive eating diets to understand
why they do some of the things that they do,
because when we understand it, it's a lot easier to
make changes, and you actually don't have to do anything
at all. Sometimes just bringing it into awareness and understanding
that you are always going to be vulnerable to eating
all the cake because you were never allowed cake as
(09:04):
a child. And that's a simplistic example. But just that
knowing that that is old programming, you understand why it's there.
That was your mother's stuff, that was your grandmother's stuff,
that was your father's stuff, and then you can move
on from it. But as I said, if you yourself
are listening thinking, yes, I had very traumatic early experiences
with food and nutritional diets, I never seem to be
(09:25):
able to break the back of it. I don't understand
why I bin j I don't understand why I keep
doing things I shouldn't do. I would urge you, when
you've got some space and time to really think about
what your early experiences was and how they might be
programming your behaviors as an adult. Now, obviously, Leane, you
and I talk in the context of food, because in
our profession, food is the symptom. It's not the problem.
(09:46):
It's always the symptom of the other issue. But this
would be relevant for anything in our lives, you know,
relationship dynamics, all of those different things. But you'll be surprised,
you know. And I can't share too many examples because
I certainly don't want to breach my client's confidentiality, and
it is very sensitive issues. But all I'll say, some
of the stuff that's been brought up, I think, wow,
you know, it's no wonder that this poor girl has
(10:08):
got such aversion. You know, like, for example, if someone
might have gone through fertility treatment and had to go
on very special diets or lose weight and there never
was successful in having a child, you can see how
that would be a very sensitive issue for that person.
And again that's a broad example, but yeah, some pretty
deep stuff comes up for people, and I think it's
certainly worth starting to reflect and think, actually, have I
(10:30):
got some food trauma that I do need some support
with to move through it? Because it's absolutely real that
early programming and beliefs we have about ourselves. You know,
they can form so young, four or five, six years
of age, and sometimes it's not until you bring it
to the surface that you realize how it's impacting your
behavior now and you're perhaps inability to reach the goals
(10:51):
that you have.
Speaker 3 (10:52):
Yeah, and you mentioned how it's sort of linked in
with our identity, and it's so true because the amount
of clients that have said to me, oh, I don't
think I can lose weight, it's my metabolism, or I'm
big boned, and it just becomes this belief that you're
big boned and that you can't lose weight. So you
just end up self sabotaging yourself every time. And that's
not really linked to food trauma, but I think a
(11:12):
lot of the food trauma does become part of your
identity and you do end up just believing that to
your core, even though it may not be true.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
And then I also think it's a.
Speaker 3 (11:23):
Really great time to just remind everyone of how a
lot of us needs support from a whole team. So
articians are wonderful, but as Susie said, unless they're particularly
specialized in psychology, which most aren't, it is really important
to be linked in with a great team. So a
great GP, a great psychologist, a great exercise physiologist or
(11:43):
personal trainer or physiotherapist like a women's health physio.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
It's very uncommon.
Speaker 3 (11:47):
Where you're just going to get great results at last
a lifetime from just one profession. I have a lot
of clients who are working with me as a dietician
but also an exercise physiologist, or they're seeing a women's
health physio but they're also linking in with their GP
and also seeing a psychologist.
Speaker 2 (12:02):
So I think it is.
Speaker 3 (12:02):
Really important that we remember that it is as part
of the healing journey. There may be many practitioners alongside
you on that journey. It's not like it just because
you've tried one thing and it didn't work, you shouldn't
ever do it again. It is really important to find
that I guess practitioner, a professional that you really do
del with and that really can help you move forward.
(12:24):
And just because you have a bit of a relapse,
or you know, you might have not binged in days
or weeks or years and then you have a bit
of a relapse, doesn't mean that there's anything wrong with you.
I think just bringing that little bit of grace into
it and being kinder to yourself, it's easier said than done,
can go a long way. Because some of these things
are so deep and they've been around for decades and decades,
and like Susie, I've worked with people that for thirty
(12:45):
years have had a terrible relationship with food, and the
minute they slip off the wagon or they slightly fall
of track in week three or four, they're beating themselves up,
but it doesn't really help anyone, and it certainly doesn't
help you get towards your goals. Because none of us
are perfect. We're always going to have times where we
deviate from the plan, and that's just life. We're just human.
But I think that it's understanding that a lot of
(13:05):
these traumas, or even if it's not a trauma, a
lot of these bad food habits, just for many of us,
can be deeply ingrained in decades and decades of behavior
and can take more than eight or twelve weeks or
a six week gym program to unravel. So I think
time and grace and the correct professionals and a team
around you goes a really long way.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
It doesn't exist.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
It doesn't. That's a good example that time and time
again of trying to lose weight and never getting there.
If I experienced that, I'd be questioning, what is the
story that you tell yourself about that? And how is
that as program? Because the biggest predictor of future behavior
is past behavior. So for ten twenty thirty years you've
had no success in your goal of losing weight. There
could certainly be some underlying psych stuff that needs a
(13:47):
deep dive and then the other thing I see probably
is the most common symptom of it. If you as
someone who no matter where you are, you literally can't
stop eating. So when there is cake in the house
or you will literally eat the whole lot, like you
feel out of control around food. That is another warning
(14:10):
sign for me that there could be some underlying food
trauma that we need to look at. Now you know,
a qualified professional won't just launch in and say what
did your mother used to say to you about your diet? Like,
of course not. It's a very sensitive process and in
some cases it won't be until the tenths of twelve
sessions that I'll be able to broach it and develop
that trust with a client. In some other cases, I'll
(14:30):
bring it up far earlier because I feel like my
client is ready to deal with it. But the other
probably thing to be keeping in mind that a lot
of our listeners will still have parents who are alive,
which is fantastic, But if you know that, for example,
anything to do with your food and diet, if you
take it back to your mother, the comments and feedback
are negative. Again, that is going to be a heavily
(14:51):
programmed because no matter how strong you are psychologically, your
mother will heavily influence you until the day you die.
So again, if you have that really sensitive relationship with food,
if your mum still comments about your weight or your
weight loss attempts, or your failure to do so, or
even your successes. You know, I've got situations where clients
of mine have lost twenty killers and their mother doesn't
(15:11):
even acknowledge it. You know that, you know straight away
is assigned. There's some stuff going on there. And certainly
once your parents are getting to the eighties and nineties,
it's probably not the time to bring up at a
family meeting what they did with terms of food trauma.
But you know, definitely it's an understanding because then you
can see perhaps where they got it from. Because ultimately,
as human beings, Ley and we just passed it on,
don't we. And for these generations and our listeners, what
(15:33):
we want to do is and if we are a
mother of daughters in particular, you know, how do we
stop this cycle and teach better program habits because ultimately,
you know, growing up in the forties fifty sixties, when
our parents would have been growing up, they're only a
victim of their own parents and the beliefs at that time,
which was came because food became more abundant and it
(15:53):
became more of an issue. Whereas you know, going back
to the depression and beyond far less people had weight issues.
It wasn't enough food to go around. So you can
see how the cycles go. And I think that all
aids to the understanding of actually what's going on, and
sometimes when you understand what it's like for your own
parents too, but as parents ourselves, it's really insightful and
useful I think when it comes to teaching much better
(16:15):
less maladaptive strategies. So I think just some food for thought,
and I think we'll get some interesting DMS about this
because I think it will really resonate and I know
that if it's something in you that elicits emotion, if
you're feeling emotion listening to this a bit teary, there's
probably some stuff they're worth exploring.
Speaker 3 (16:30):
Yeah, one hundred percent, like you said, with a qualified professional,
because I truly believe that the majority of parents out
there do the absolute best we can at the time
with what we've got. So I don't think that there
are any parents out there who are intentionally trying to
ruin their child's relationship with food or intentionally set upon
these behaviors that they carried with them through decades of time.
I just think we do the best we can at
(16:50):
the time with what we've got. So, as you said, Susie,
if your parents are elderly, if they're approaching in their
eighties or nineties, potentially it's not something you want to
bring up with them, but you do have to deal
with that yourself with somebody. You have to acknowledge it,
you have to accept it, and you have to just
let it go if you ever really truly do want
to move on and heal your own relationship. But it
does start with that acknowledgment, which we hope that some
(17:11):
of you may have gotten from this podcast today, and
then it's linking in with a great professional who can
truly help you heal. And it's going to take some time,
but you can certainly do that, and we've certainly had
a clients who have come out the other side with
great relationships with food. And it may take many months
or even many years, and that's okay as well, because
a lot of you have been carrying it around for many.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
Decades as well.
Speaker 3 (17:32):
All Right, well, onto our next segment, Susie, and we
have quite an alarming headline. You're ready to read it
out to you. One artificially sweetened soft drink?
Speaker 2 (17:41):
Are you diet?
Speaker 3 (17:42):
Soft drink a day increase diabetes risks by more than
a third? Pretty alarming. So let's break down this new
research study which has been all over social media lately
and people are kind of losing their marbles a little
bit about it. But it's an interesting study. So it's
a longitudell Australian study, which we don't get that big
studies Australia, and it was published in a quite reputable journal,
(18:03):
the Diabetes and Metabolism Journal, and it tracked over thirty
six thousand adults across fourteen years, so over a decade.
And these adults in the study were aged between forty
and seventy And essentially what the study found was that
drinking just one artificially sweetened soft drink per day was
associated with a thirty eight percent higher risk of developing
(18:25):
type two diabetes. And that's actually higher than the twenty
three percent increased risk link to traditional sugar sweetened soft drinks.
So if you have a soft drink a day, you're
twenty three percent more likely to develop type two diabetes.
But if you have one diet soft drink a day,
this study is found that you were thirty eight percent
higher risk of developing type two diabetes. So that's like
(18:46):
you look at that data and think, oh, my goodness,
that's very concerning. So of course, this is one of
the first studies that I don't have SUSI that's really
shown this link, particularly with diet soft drink, because for
many many i'd say years and decades, we sort of
thought that, you know, would be a lot healthier if
they swap from normal sugar soft drink to artificially sweetened
soft drinks. So it presents a whole range of public
health implications because I think people just thought it was
(19:10):
always the better choice. But I think a lot of
that is also people sort of assuming that people that
drink artificially or diet soft drinks are generally people who
live in larger bodies. But this study was really interesting
because it actually adjusted for that co founder, So it
actually took people's body weight in their BMI and adjusted that,
and it's still found that even after adjusting for body
(19:31):
weight and BMI, the risk was still a lot higher.
So it's very very interesting and presents its own challenges
because I'm certainly I'm happy if my clients are going
out that I don't want to drink alcohol, I'll say,
of course, you know, drink a diet coke. Or if
they feel like a little something not just water in
their diet, and I'll say, yeah, have a sugar sweeten,
you know, have a diet lemonade or something like that.
(19:51):
I'm the first to admit I like a I like
a diet lemonade occasionally. I'm not someone who has something
for lunch and dinner every day, but I do think that,
you know, it's in enjoyable and I certainly don't want
to be drinking fool sugar soft drinks. So I'm always
one that has thought that diet or artificially sweetened soft
drink work better than the fool sugar soft drink. So
it's a very interesting study. I hope that we'll see
(20:12):
more of these types of research and studies done in
the future. But I think that it's just it's a
moderation thing as well, isn't it Like if you're somebody
who's having one for lunch and one for dinner every day,
like a diet coke at lunch and a diet lemonade
at dinner every day. You may want to pay attention
and cut down the amount, but it is it is
about the amount in moderation. Like if you're just having
(20:33):
one a couple of times a week, or you know,
you go out to the public a Saturday night and
everyone's having a few beers and wines and you choose
a diet coke. I'm certainly going to say that that
is a better alternative to drinking alcohol if you don't
want to drink alcohol, So moderation is key. Of course,
whole Food's unsweetened cups of tea, soda, water, of course
they go into better choices. But I do think that
(20:53):
it's interesting, and I do think that we'll see more
of this in the future.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
How do you feel about this.
Speaker 3 (20:57):
I'm certainly not telling my clients to avoid all diet
soft drinks, but I do think the amount and the
frequency matters, doesn't it.
Speaker 1 (21:04):
I think that interesting because it doesn't give a lot
of detail in these news headlines. But my gut feeling
with it would be I want you to think about
the kind of foods you're often consuming when you're having
diet soft drink as well, you know it's with a
meal deal at a fast food chain like I know
they've said they've controlled for diet, but I do wonder
if it naturally lends itself like you have it at
(21:25):
the pub, you have it at a service station, you
have it on road trips, you have it at fast
food joints like. I don't think there's that many people
buying a salad for lunch with a diet soft drink.
I think people who are buying a salad for lunch
are havingkom butcheral water, So I think it's food association.
And I also think that that very sweet substance drives
cravings for more sweet food. So my gut feel with
(21:46):
it working with clients would be if they're sweet food drinkers,
they're more likely to be in consuming it. But I
think you and I would both agree, and we're both
partial to a cheeky diet coke. It's not good for us.
The sweetness are not good for us. It is certainly
not good for us, which is why companies like Coca
Cola are phasing it out, and any kind of artificial
sweetenes is not good for us. The less of it
(22:07):
we have, the better, and I think that has to
be our message. And you know, we're just about to
release our new product guide with the sort of top
two hundred food products, and we've been quite strict and
gone back on our choices and said, right if ultimately,
if it's ultra process, we can't be mentioning it anymore.
We have to be strict on that. And I would
agree with the artificial sweetness as well. It's at the
point where we have to be very clear these are
not good for us. So I think there are so
(22:29):
many other options now, Like you go, there's the Aunt
Franklin sparkling waters with a bit of fruit through it.
It's all the komb Butcher's, it's all those nexper drinks.
Speaker 3 (22:38):
What are the ones we get on the retreat, those
remedy the kombucher sotally remedy ones.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
Yeah, there's so many drinks that don't have it in.
I think that really. You know, sure, occasionally you love
a diet coke, but if there are other choices for
most of the time, So if you're a daily diet
soft drink user, I would be cutting back. And I
think there's plenty of better options, So I actually think
it's not that complicated. Now we have so many other options,
it's not completely difficult.
Speaker 2 (23:03):
Term.
Speaker 1 (23:03):
You could have an alcohol free wine if you want exactly.
Speaker 3 (23:06):
Yeah, there's a huge range of back or free alternatives.
My friend I went to her party the other day.
It was her daughter's party, a bunch of three year
olds running around, and she had I can't remember the brand,
but it was like passion fruit flavored sparkling water and
it was delicious, and she also had alcohol and beer.
Speaker 1 (23:20):
That's Mount Franklin.
Speaker 2 (23:21):
It's really good, is it Mount Franklin. Yeah, it was delicious.
Speaker 3 (23:23):
Yeah, it's a good one. I like it too, one
hundred percent. There's so many good options. In our retreat,
we always put a little four pack of either the
Remedy Kombucha's or the sodaly ones with the prebodic in
there as well into the goodie bags for all of
our retreat attendees, so we love them.
Speaker 2 (23:36):
They're a really great range too.
Speaker 3 (23:37):
So there's just as Susie said, there's no real reason
or excuse to have an artificially sweetened soft drink. There's
so many naturally sweetened ones available. There's beautiful types of
soda waters, mineral waters, sparkling waters, lots of that, you know,
save it for the I don't really have an option,
like you know, diet cokes the only thing on the
menu besides a full sugar soft drink or alcohol. Sure,
that's okay, but as Susie said, if you're having it
(23:58):
every day, if you're having one a day with your lunch,
it's time to rethink that choice. Because this was a
very large study and it followed people for fourteen years,
and it did it just for some of the things
in there as well, like body weight and diet. So
I do think we need to sit up and pay attention.
And I certainly think we are probably going to be
seeing more and more of this research, you know, as
time goes on.
Speaker 1 (24:17):
Yeah, true, true, Now, Leanne, you found a little interesting
snack bar.
Speaker 2 (24:21):
I have. I quite like these.
Speaker 1 (24:22):
So if I saw it at the top it's at
the top of Willis, I realized because I was looking
for it and I thought, oh, it is in there.
Speaker 2 (24:28):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I found it right on the bottom
of mines. Interesting.
Speaker 3 (24:30):
So they don't obviously have the budget to pay for
the prime position at eye level like some of the
large brands do.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
Unfortunately, that's how they and that we should listeners should know.
That's how it works in supermarkets. You pay for shelfs.
Speaker 2 (24:41):
You pay for it.
Speaker 3 (24:41):
Yep, you pay for that eyeline visibility. But if you're
someone like me who's six foot one, you know, we
can see quite moore.
Speaker 1 (24:47):
I only see the bottom shelves in a.
Speaker 3 (24:48):
Smaller package, in the bottom shelves. So this brand, I
haven't heard of this brand before, Susie.
Speaker 2 (24:54):
It's good.
Speaker 3 (24:54):
Fixate fix At Fixate natural fruit lemon coconut bars. They
also do. Off the top of my head, it was red.
I think it was like a cherry maybe a cherry
chocolate one as well. There was two flavors, so I've
got a five style health rating. There's no preservatives, which
I really like. There's no artificial you know, stuff in there,
no colors, no flavors.
Speaker 2 (25:12):
It's all really natural ingredients.
Speaker 3 (25:14):
It's a good source of fiber and it's basically just
cold pressed fruit and nuts, so I really like them.
They retail for six dollars at woolworst in a five pack,
so there's five little thirty five grand bars in there,
so not like it's not cheap. Let's be honest. But
you pay for quality, and this is what it comes
down to. You pay for better quality products. So if
a little bar or a snack bar is something that
(25:34):
you eat regularly, it is probably time to make that
investment if this is something that's going into your diet
multiple times a week. So I quite like these because
the only ingredients susy ad dates, rolled oats, chicken, root, fiber, cashews, pepitas,
sunflower seeds, coconut natural flavor, cheer seeds, lemon powder, and
lemon oil.
Speaker 2 (25:53):
That's it.
Speaker 3 (25:54):
So you literally could make that in your kitchen at home.
So it's a wonderful product. The ingredient list is very strong.
Allergens are gluten, soy and cashew, so unfortunately not okay
for our Celiac listeners because of the oats in there,
and nutritionally per thirty five gram bar, five hundred and
eighty kilodels, four point eight grams of protein, which is
very strong in a small bar, five point six grams
(26:16):
of fat and that's all the healthy bats coming from
the nuts and the seeds, with only one gram of
that being saturated, thirteen point eight grams of carb with
close to seven point eight grams of sugar and then
seven point five grams of dietary fiber, which is a
whopping amount, and it's also boosted up by the addition
of the chicory root fiber. So if you're someone with
a bit of a sensitive tummy and a bit of IBS,
you may want to be careful with these because sometimes
(26:38):
chicken root fiber can not be so great for sensitive tummies.
But for most people they're completely fine with it, and
only two milligrams of sodium, so that's all naturally occurring.
It's very basically non existent, so very strong nutritionally, very
strong macro and nutrient breakdown as well.
Speaker 2 (26:55):
So I love them.
Speaker 3 (26:56):
I give them a five stars as well. We don't
normally love the health direting, but time they have done
a really great job in creating a wonderful product, and
I hope that people go out. I hope people buy them,
I hope people enjoy them. This is obviously not sponsored,
but I do think that when these small brands create
better products, we need to be supporting them, or before
we know it, in three months time, they'll be off
the shelves and all of the ultra process bars will
(27:16):
we will be back unfortunately.
Speaker 1 (27:18):
Yeah, I've just had a look at the company. They
do appear to be a small producer. And the other
couple of products, they've got what we would call ultra process,
kind of lower carb options, whereas this is a natural one,
the cherry coconut, which sounds very nice. I have to say,
it's got a couple of grams more sugar in it.
But have you eaten them? Because I want to know
do they taste good?
Speaker 2 (27:36):
I bought them and David smashed them and he said
they were nice.
Speaker 3 (27:38):
David smash them don't mean can eat. I didn't even
get one, not one out of the whole flightpack. We're
allowed to say yet that he's built your sauna. He
hasn't built it yet, so no, we don't give him
credit it.
Speaker 1 (27:49):
I'm coming in a couple of weeks, so I expect
that sauna to be there, so better get another box
of bars and smash it.
Speaker 2 (27:54):
We should actually do it.
Speaker 3 (27:55):
We should actually do a sauna episode because I'm loving
saunas lately.
Speaker 2 (27:58):
Anyway, back to the fruit.
Speaker 1 (27:59):
Bars, So Leanne's Leanne's getting a sauna. I'll just say
this because we're keen, you know. And about three of
my friends all said, oh, I'm thinking of getting a sauna,
and I said, I reckon, I might be able to
get your little discout code through Leanne, so Leanne if
we get a whole lot of nutrition. Couch listeners also
thinking about getting a barrel sauna.
Speaker 3 (28:16):
Watch this space. We might have a code we can share.
You never know, yeap, I can reach out to a company.
I can work the magic exactly.
Speaker 1 (28:21):
Tell the barrel sauna people it's hot, hot right now.
And David, you've got two weeks until I'm up, and
I expect a barrel sauna to be ready to my arrival,
no pressure. I haven't tasted them, so I don't know.
Do you think the kids would like them? You don't know,
you haven't tried that.
Speaker 3 (28:34):
I think so, But I can't give it to my
kids because he's got Kashum. He's got a very severe
cashun Yeah, so if you've got an allergies in the family,
not your goer.
Speaker 2 (28:40):
But otherwise I think, yeah, I think kids would like them.
Speaker 3 (28:43):
I do. I think, particularly smaller kids because the size
I mean for your boys, they're growing. They burn so
much energy and might not even touch the sides for
you know, boys, probably ten and older, but I think
for smaller children they're a great little size.
Speaker 1 (28:54):
Yeah, great, awesome, Okay, very nice, All rightly, and we'll
for our last listener question, I'm going to hand it
over to you a little bit more so I know
you're a bit more across this at I. But the
listener question is around the use of creation and kidney health,
because of course, we did release a CREATI range at
the end of last year which has gone gangbusters as
more and more evidence emerges around the really powerful health
promoting and brain health promoting effects of creating, particularly for women,
(29:18):
we have seventy to eighty percent less still creating it's
really important for brain health, body composition, mood, it appears,
and sometimes we do get a listener question asking about
the impact on kidney health, and I think I'll let
you take over. But my first port of core would
be if you have kidney issues, it is imperative that
you consult with a medical professional first. Absolutely, and in
(29:39):
many cases, no, you won't be able to take it,
but you must. Anyone who is concerned or does have
an underlying medical condition should be checking. But in generally
and it is safe for most people. Yeah, the bottom
line is that is completely safe. So creating is the
most research nutritional supplement in the world, the most research
and the safest nutritional supplement in the world. There are
(30:00):
hundreds hundreds of studies with creatine looking at it from
a both of performance aspect but more recently the health
outcomes as well as Susie mentioned. So it is a
naturally occurring compound that's made in the liber end in
the kidneys, and we basically store it in our muscles
and in our brains to help with short term like
bursts of energy production essentially. But there is a myth
that just refuses to die that creating damages your kidneys,
(30:23):
and this myth has been going on for decades. Like
I said to my mum in law, my husband David
did quite high level rowing when he was at school,
and my mom in law said, yeah, the coach used
to make them supplement with creatine when they were thirteen,
and I was like, it's not legal. And this was
you know, like what thirty years ago or something, so
we would never have said under sixteen.
Speaker 3 (30:41):
Yeah, yeah, well when they were quite young, but they
were rowing it, you know, like state national level, so
they were you know anyway, we wouldn't say that. We
definitely don't recommend supplements for children, particularly that young unless
it's got strong advice from a sports dietician. But this
is a myth that has just been around forever, and
it basically comes from the fact that creatine supplementations slightly
increases your blood level of what's called creatinine. So creatinine
(31:04):
is a breakdown product of creatine and it comes through
because it's like measured in your blood test and it's
a marker of kidney function. But the key point is here,
listeners that when people take creatine, the rise in creatinine
in the blood test is actually due to the creatine
supplement itself, not kidney damage. So it's basically like a
(31:26):
false red flag. It's not actually a problem in healthy people.
But the issue is because creatinine is used to calculate
what's called our EGFR, so it's our estimated glomular filtration rate.
It's a marker of like how well our kidneys are functioning. Essentially,
so creating users can often appear to have a lower
EEDFR on paper or through a blood test. And I
(31:49):
say this with respect, but a lot of doctors aren't
aware that this is happening. So a lot of doctors
aren't aware that creatine supplementation increases creatinine breakdown, which seems
to falsely reduce EDFI rate, and many doctors are seeing
this as quote unquote early kidney damage. But the reality
is that it's completely expected when you're supplementing with creatine,
(32:10):
and it's a very harmless effect or a byproduct of
creating use. So it's very common, it happens to most
of us. I recently had my blood test. My EDFI
was lower than the quote unquote standard or normal range,
and my doctor was like, what's happening. She's really good
and I was like, look, I'm supplementing with creatine. I
have been for like two years now. And she went
back to my blood test and she's like, oh, you're right,
(32:31):
but the lower EDFR has been stable. So what I
would say, if you have a doctor that is concerned
with your kidney function or that your EDFR is slightly lower,
request a test that doesn't use creatinine to measure your
kidney function. So there's a specific type of blood test
called a cysteten C blood test. Basically, what it does
(32:51):
is it measures your kidney function without using creatinine. So
it gives you a much more accurate indication of your
kidney function while you're supplementing with creating. And I can
pretty much I can't say that on the podcast David
or Kidney because he's a lawyer. I was gonna say,
I pretty much guarantee that it'll be fine, but don't
don't listen to that. But basically, if you have your
(33:11):
doctor that is worried about your kidney function because you've
been supplementing with creating, request assistanty blood test, send me
a message, send me a DM and I can send
you more about that blood test. But that is a
much more accurate indication of kidney function. And then once
the GP can see that your kidneys are actually functioning well,
they as well will have a better appreciation for that
(33:33):
as well. Because I've got a family member who's also
a family GP, and he was saying to me, all
of these Jim Brows are coming through with early kidney damage,
and I was explaining it to him. He went away
and he did some research and he came back and
he's like, you know, I have been requesting this additional
test and actually for all of my career, I've thought
that all of these Jim Brows had been doing early
kidney damage, but it's actually completely fine. So it was
(33:53):
a really interesting conversation to have. And I do think
that as creating becomes more and more popular and it
enters you know, quote unquote normal households, people who aren't
even exercising, they're using it for the brain benefits, for
the cognitive benefits. It is important that as health professionals,
we're all across this, but particularly as doctors, you know,
they're seeing this more and more. They need to be
requesting separate tests so that we're not all assuming that
(34:15):
everybody has early kidney damage.
Speaker 2 (34:17):
Because the research is very very clear in.
Speaker 3 (34:20):
Healthy individuals with normal kidney function, creating supplementation is completely
safe at the recommended dose of three to five grams
a day. So that's basically the key takeaway here. At
the right dose in healthy people, your kidneys will be
absolutely fine. And if your doctor's concern, just requests that
assistance C test and you'll get a much clear result
or a much clearer indication of how your kidneys are going.
(34:42):
So hopefully that clears it up for a lot of people.
Speaker 1 (34:44):
Excellent thanks Ianne, very comprehensive. Thank you for listening to
the Nutrition Couch for another week. Please keep telling your
friends about us, and we've got a little surprise coming
in the next couple of weeks about how this podcast
is going to be streamed. So watch this space and
have a great week, you guys.
Speaker 2 (35:00):
Next week,
How would you describe your relationship with food? Is it tricky, complicated,
or maybe there's nothing to see, or maybe you are
one of the many women listening who's had traumatic experiences
with food at some point in your life and it
seriously impacts your relationship with food even today. On today's
episode of The Nutrition Couch, we deep dive food trauma,
(00:24):
talk about the origins and most importantly, the steps to
work through it so you can get back to a
place in which you enjoy food without feeling guilty, pain
and suffering.
Speaker 2 (00:33):
Hi.
Speaker 1 (00:33):
I'm Cusie Burrow and I'm lean Wood, and together we
bring you The Nutrition Couch, the weekly podcast that keeps
you up to date on everything you need to know
in the world of nutrition as well as food trauma.
We have some concerning new research looking at diet soft drinks.
Leanne has found a new sapar and our listener question
is all about creating and kidney health. So Leanne, I
brought this as a topic to you to discuss on
(00:55):
the potty because I've had a few clients in recent
months that have really struck me as being quite different
to a typical client presentation. So in general, I like
you specialize in women's nutrition. Most of the women I
would see would fall into one of two categories. They
want to lose five to ten kilos. They're already fit,
(01:15):
active and just want to find tune their body composition.
And then I see a group of women who maybe
have twenty thirty kilos to lose over a longer period
of time, perhaps are using a new GORP medication and
need diet support. And it's work I really enjoy. I've
done it for twenty twenty five years, and my background
is in psychology, so I feel quite comfortable to work
(01:35):
through psychological issues as they arise, and inevitably in life,
we've all got some psych stuff that could do with
some therapy at some point or another. But what I
want to talk about today is a couple of clients
who I would describe more as outliers, because what I
have identified is that whilst they may present with wanting
to lose weight, often it is an underlying issue with
(01:58):
their relationship with food. And the way that I would
define it is that it's a little bit unusual. It's
not a case of just turning up and saying what
do I eat to lose weight? Or how do I
find you in my program, or do I have hormone issues.
It's sort of more an unusual presentation of struggling to
enjoy eating. Often it may be someone who's had a
(02:20):
long history of dieting. That may be sort of the
initial They might say that, you know, my mum was
a dieter, I went to weight watches. Since I'm ten,
I really don't know what I should be eating. I
don't feel much pleasure in food anymore, or in some
cases even completely disassociated from what they like to eat,
what they should eat, and even a topic that they
(02:42):
can't talk much about. There's a trauma there. So certainly
I wouldn't say it's everyone, but I would say that
some people listening this will resonate with because what I
wanted to chat about today was the way our very
early experiences with food, and in particular what i'd describe
as traumat events associated with food directly or indirectly, can
(03:04):
have a very powerful impact on how we conduct ourselves
in relation to food throughout our entire life. And in
some of these cases, or many of them, in my experience,
my client is actually not even aware of what has
caused this relationship. All they know is that they can't
necessarily get to the weight they want to get to,
they can't seem to get their eating behavior under control,
(03:26):
and there's just something else there that doesn't make a
lot of sense. Now, this is quite heavy psychological stuff.
I'm certainly not encouraging people to deep dive into emotional
trauma without relative support. My background is in psychology. I'm
skilled and qualified to be dealing with this. But I
would say to any dietitians listening, this may be a
little bit above your pay grade. If you're feeling like
(03:48):
it's getting into territory of eating disorders, long term disordered
eating patterns, personal trauma. It's definitely more worked for a
psychologist than a dietitian. But Lee and we do see
it because so often the food is the symptom. So
the first thing I wanted to say was I would
describe it is when there is maladaptive relationships with food,
(04:11):
sometimes it is indicative that there may be food trauma present.
So when some of the behaviors don't make sense, and
this is across the board in terms of behavior, when
people are behaving in a way that doesn't quite make sense. So,
for example, the way I often pick it up. The
first risk factor I see is when people describe having
a long history with dieting and restrictive eating, and often
(04:32):
that has come through a mother or a grandmother and
a discussion about body image or fat shaming at a
very young age. That's a very big one. But the
other time it comes up for me is when I
perhaps started to work with a client and I have
gone through the process of a diet assessment, talking about
habits we want to change, and then no matter how
(04:52):
good their efforts are, they just don't seem to be
able to do it, and they're not even sure why.
And then I start to deep dive into what I
would describe it early food trauma. So, if you're someone
listening who knows that your relationship with food is not great,
if you were exposed to diets early, or you just
have a love hate relationship with it, you binge eat
(05:13):
for unexplained reasons. You go through periods of extreme diets
and deprivation. You don't ever enjoy your food. It's like
an effort or a chore. You're almost dissociated from making
positive changes and are self sabotaging your dietary or health
related goals. These are all factors that may be suggestive
that food trauma is there. Now. One of the things
(05:35):
I wanted to discuss is that people may not be
as aware that when we're below the age of adolescence,
when we are exposed to some of those what I
call as traumatic experiences, which may be as simple as
a grandmother fat shaming you. It maybe your mother making
comments about your weight, maybe that you were dragged to
weight watchers. Often we're not even aware that that may
(05:59):
be a fact driving our experience. And what happens in
those early years is it basically puts an imprint onto
our psychology, into our psyche, and we identify with that. So,
for example, if you may have had a grandmother when
you were quite small, you might have only been four
or five, the first points that you can establish memory,
(06:21):
and there may have been you may have observed her
with abnormal eating behaviors or restricting food intake. You might
have felt deprived. You might have been always going to
school and your mother never packed you any treats, so
you used to steal other kids' lunches, that kind of
maladaptive behavior which isn't quite normal. And so as an
adult quite likely if you find now that you sneak food,
(06:43):
if you hide food away. Often it is that very
early experience that is driving that behavior as an adult.
Because as human beings, when we find ourselves in similar situations,
So if there's a perception of restriction or a belief
that you should be losing weight, it will trigger those
subconscious programs without you even realizing it. So, for example, Anne,
(07:06):
when I've got a client who is binge eating after
dinner and she's got a well balanced meal plan, she's
having treats regularly already, and yet still binging. One of
the things I will say to try and assess if
this early food trauma may be there, I'll send them
off and I'll say, I want you to think about
your first experiences of food, your memories from when you're
(07:28):
a child. And I cannot tell you. There's stuff that
comes up with clients and the depth of it, ranging
from childhood illness to full eating disordered parents, to actual
physical restriction of food, to parents divorcing to family illness,
and at that time we've found comfort in food or
(07:50):
have formed that belief about ourselves that we were deprived
or fat or naughty, whatever that is, and that's become
what we identify with. So as adults, what happens is
when we find ourselves in that same stress situation, we
elicit the same response. And that's why you may find
yourself even though it makes no sense. You can eat
(08:10):
whatever you want when you want still hiding food, binging
food and feeling and engaging in those maladaptive behaviors that
don't make sense.
Speaker 2 (08:19):
So I thought it was.
Speaker 1 (08:20):
Just worth a bit of a discussion because in the
past few months I've seen a couple of things that
I've gone, oh my God, like, no wonder, you've got
a traumatic relationship with food. So it's certainly not to
make people you know, emotional or feel any more guilty.
But the first step in recovery is awareness. And I
can't tell you how cleansing it is for clients who
(08:43):
have struggled with binge eating restrictive eating diets to understand
why they do some of the things that they do,
because when we understand it, it's a lot easier to
make changes, and you actually don't have to do anything
at all. Sometimes just bringing it into awareness and understanding
that you are always going to be vulnerable to eating
all the cake because you were never allowed cake as
(09:04):
a child. And that's a simplistic example. But just that
knowing that that is old programming, you understand why it's there.
That was your mother's stuff, that was your grandmother's stuff,
that was your father's stuff, and then you can move
on from it. But as I said, if you yourself
are listening thinking, yes, I had very traumatic early experiences
with food and nutritional diets, I never seem to be
(09:25):
able to break the back of it. I don't understand
why I bin j I don't understand why I keep
doing things I shouldn't do. I would urge you, when
you've got some space and time to really think about
what your early experiences was and how they might be
programming your behaviors as an adult. Now, obviously, Leane, you
and I talk in the context of food, because in
our profession, food is the symptom. It's not the problem.
(09:46):
It's always the symptom of the other issue. But this
would be relevant for anything in our lives, you know,
relationship dynamics, all of those different things. But you'll be surprised,
you know. And I can't share too many examples because
I certainly don't want to breach my client's confidentiality, and
it is very sensitive issues. But all I'll say, some
of the stuff that's been brought up, I think, wow,
you know, it's no wonder that this poor girl has
(10:08):
got such aversion. You know, like, for example, if someone
might have gone through fertility treatment and had to go
on very special diets or lose weight and there never
was successful in having a child, you can see how
that would be a very sensitive issue for that person.
And again that's a broad example, but yeah, some pretty
deep stuff comes up for people, and I think it's
certainly worth starting to reflect and think, actually, have I
(10:30):
got some food trauma that I do need some support
with to move through it? Because it's absolutely real that
early programming and beliefs we have about ourselves. You know,
they can form so young, four or five, six years
of age, and sometimes it's not until you bring it
to the surface that you realize how it's impacting your
behavior now and you're perhaps inability to reach the goals
(10:51):
that you have.
Speaker 3 (10:52):
Yeah, and you mentioned how it's sort of linked in
with our identity, and it's so true because the amount
of clients that have said to me, oh, I don't
think I can lose weight, it's my metabolism, or I'm
big boned, and it just becomes this belief that you're
big boned and that you can't lose weight. So you
just end up self sabotaging yourself every time. And that's
not really linked to food trauma, but I think a
(11:12):
lot of the food trauma does become part of your
identity and you do end up just believing that to
your core, even though it may not be true.
Speaker 2 (11:22):
And then I also think it's a.
Speaker 3 (11:23):
Really great time to just remind everyone of how a
lot of us needs support from a whole team. So
articians are wonderful, but as Susie said, unless they're particularly
specialized in psychology, which most aren't, it is really important
to be linked in with a great team. So a
great GP, a great psychologist, a great exercise physiologist or
(11:43):
personal trainer or physiotherapist like a women's health physio.
Speaker 2 (11:46):
It's very uncommon.
Speaker 3 (11:47):
Where you're just going to get great results at last
a lifetime from just one profession. I have a lot
of clients who are working with me as a dietician
but also an exercise physiologist, or they're seeing a women's
health physio but they're also linking in with their GP
and also seeing a psychologist.
Speaker 2 (12:02):
So I think it is.
Speaker 3 (12:02):
Really important that we remember that it is as part
of the healing journey. There may be many practitioners alongside
you on that journey. It's not like it just because
you've tried one thing and it didn't work, you shouldn't
ever do it again. It is really important to find
that I guess practitioner, a professional that you really do
del with and that really can help you move forward.
(12:24):
And just because you have a bit of a relapse,
or you know, you might have not binged in days
or weeks or years and then you have a bit
of a relapse, doesn't mean that there's anything wrong with you.
I think just bringing that little bit of grace into
it and being kinder to yourself, it's easier said than done,
can go a long way. Because some of these things
are so deep and they've been around for decades and decades,
and like Susie, I've worked with people that for thirty
(12:45):
years have had a terrible relationship with food, and the
minute they slip off the wagon or they slightly fall
of track in week three or four, they're beating themselves up,
but it doesn't really help anyone, and it certainly doesn't
help you get towards your goals. Because none of us
are perfect. We're always going to have times where we
deviate from the plan, and that's just life. We're just human.
But I think that it's understanding that a lot of
(13:05):
these traumas, or even if it's not a trauma, a
lot of these bad food habits, just for many of us,
can be deeply ingrained in decades and decades of behavior
and can take more than eight or twelve weeks or
a six week gym program to unravel. So I think
time and grace and the correct professionals and a team
around you goes a really long way.
Speaker 2 (13:23):
It doesn't exist.
Speaker 1 (13:24):
It doesn't. That's a good example that time and time
again of trying to lose weight and never getting there.
If I experienced that, I'd be questioning, what is the
story that you tell yourself about that? And how is
that as program? Because the biggest predictor of future behavior
is past behavior. So for ten twenty thirty years you've
had no success in your goal of losing weight. There
could certainly be some underlying psych stuff that needs a
(13:47):
deep dive and then the other thing I see probably
is the most common symptom of it. If you as
someone who no matter where you are, you literally can't
stop eating. So when there is cake in the house
or you will literally eat the whole lot, like you
feel out of control around food. That is another warning
(14:10):
sign for me that there could be some underlying food
trauma that we need to look at. Now you know,
a qualified professional won't just launch in and say what
did your mother used to say to you about your diet? Like,
of course not. It's a very sensitive process and in
some cases it won't be until the tenths of twelve
sessions that I'll be able to broach it and develop
that trust with a client. In some other cases, I'll
(14:30):
bring it up far earlier because I feel like my
client is ready to deal with it. But the other
probably thing to be keeping in mind that a lot
of our listeners will still have parents who are alive,
which is fantastic, But if you know that, for example,
anything to do with your food and diet, if you
take it back to your mother, the comments and feedback
are negative. Again, that is going to be a heavily
(14:51):
programmed because no matter how strong you are psychologically, your
mother will heavily influence you until the day you die.
So again, if you have that really sensitive relationship with food,
if your mum still comments about your weight or your
weight loss attempts, or your failure to do so, or
even your successes. You know, I've got situations where clients
of mine have lost twenty killers and their mother doesn't
(15:11):
even acknowledge it. You know that, you know straight away
is assigned. There's some stuff going on there. And certainly
once your parents are getting to the eighties and nineties,
it's probably not the time to bring up at a
family meeting what they did with terms of food trauma.
But you know, definitely it's an understanding because then you
can see perhaps where they got it from. Because ultimately,
as human beings, Ley and we just passed it on,
don't we. And for these generations and our listeners, what
(15:33):
we want to do is and if we are a
mother of daughters in particular, you know, how do we
stop this cycle and teach better program habits because ultimately,
you know, growing up in the forties fifty sixties, when
our parents would have been growing up, they're only a
victim of their own parents and the beliefs at that time,
which was came because food became more abundant and it
(15:53):
became more of an issue. Whereas you know, going back
to the depression and beyond far less people had weight issues.
It wasn't enough food to go around. So you can
see how the cycles go. And I think that all
aids to the understanding of actually what's going on, and
sometimes when you understand what it's like for your own
parents too, but as parents ourselves, it's really insightful and
useful I think when it comes to teaching much better
(16:15):
less maladaptive strategies. So I think just some food for thought,
and I think we'll get some interesting DMS about this
because I think it will really resonate and I know
that if it's something in you that elicits emotion, if
you're feeling emotion listening to this a bit teary, there's
probably some stuff they're worth exploring.
Speaker 3 (16:30):
Yeah, one hundred percent, like you said, with a qualified professional,
because I truly believe that the majority of parents out
there do the absolute best we can at the time
with what we've got. So I don't think that there
are any parents out there who are intentionally trying to
ruin their child's relationship with food or intentionally set upon
these behaviors that they carried with them through decades of time.
I just think we do the best we can at
(16:50):
the time with what we've got. So, as you said, Susie,
if your parents are elderly, if they're approaching in their
eighties or nineties, potentially it's not something you want to
bring up with them, but you do have to deal
with that yourself with somebody. You have to acknowledge it,
you have to accept it, and you have to just
let it go if you ever really truly do want
to move on and heal your own relationship. But it
does start with that acknowledgment, which we hope that some
(17:11):
of you may have gotten from this podcast today, and
then it's linking in with a great professional who can
truly help you heal. And it's going to take some time,
but you can certainly do that, and we've certainly had
a clients who have come out the other side with
great relationships with food. And it may take many months
or even many years, and that's okay as well, because
a lot of you have been carrying it around for many.
Speaker 2 (17:31):
Decades as well.
Speaker 3 (17:32):
All Right, well, onto our next segment, Susie, and we
have quite an alarming headline. You're ready to read it
out to you. One artificially sweetened soft drink?
Speaker 2 (17:41):
Are you diet?
Speaker 3 (17:42):
Soft drink a day increase diabetes risks by more than
a third? Pretty alarming. So let's break down this new
research study which has been all over social media lately
and people are kind of losing their marbles a little
bit about it. But it's an interesting study. So it's
a longitudell Australian study, which we don't get that big
studies Australia, and it was published in a quite reputable journal,
(18:03):
the Diabetes and Metabolism Journal, and it tracked over thirty
six thousand adults across fourteen years, so over a decade.
And these adults in the study were aged between forty
and seventy And essentially what the study found was that
drinking just one artificially sweetened soft drink per day was
associated with a thirty eight percent higher risk of developing
(18:25):
type two diabetes. And that's actually higher than the twenty
three percent increased risk link to traditional sugar sweetened soft drinks.
So if you have a soft drink a day, you're
twenty three percent more likely to develop type two diabetes.
But if you have one diet soft drink a day,
this study is found that you were thirty eight percent
higher risk of developing type two diabetes. So that's like
(18:46):
you look at that data and think, oh, my goodness,
that's very concerning. So of course, this is one of
the first studies that I don't have SUSI that's really
shown this link, particularly with diet soft drink, because for
many many i'd say years and decades, we sort of
thought that, you know, would be a lot healthier if
they swap from normal sugar soft drink to artificially sweetened
soft drinks. So it presents a whole range of public
health implications because I think people just thought it was
(19:10):
always the better choice. But I think a lot of
that is also people sort of assuming that people that
drink artificially or diet soft drinks are generally people who
live in larger bodies. But this study was really interesting
because it actually adjusted for that co founder, So it
actually took people's body weight in their BMI and adjusted that,
and it's still found that even after adjusting for body
(19:31):
weight and BMI, the risk was still a lot higher.
So it's very very interesting and presents its own challenges
because I'm certainly I'm happy if my clients are going
out that I don't want to drink alcohol, I'll say,
of course, you know, drink a diet coke. Or if
they feel like a little something not just water in
their diet, and I'll say, yeah, have a sugar sweeten,
you know, have a diet lemonade or something like that.
(19:51):
I'm the first to admit I like a I like
a diet lemonade occasionally. I'm not someone who has something
for lunch and dinner every day, but I do think that,
you know, it's in enjoyable and I certainly don't want
to be drinking fool sugar soft drinks. So I'm always
one that has thought that diet or artificially sweetened soft
drink work better than the fool sugar soft drink. So
it's a very interesting study. I hope that we'll see
(20:12):
more of these types of research and studies done in
the future. But I think that it's just it's a
moderation thing as well, isn't it Like if you're somebody
who's having one for lunch and one for dinner every day,
like a diet coke at lunch and a diet lemonade
at dinner every day. You may want to pay attention
and cut down the amount, but it is it is
about the amount in moderation. Like if you're just having
(20:33):
one a couple of times a week, or you know,
you go out to the public a Saturday night and
everyone's having a few beers and wines and you choose
a diet coke. I'm certainly going to say that that
is a better alternative to drinking alcohol if you don't
want to drink alcohol, So moderation is key. Of course,
whole Food's unsweetened cups of tea, soda, water, of course
they go into better choices. But I do think that
(20:53):
it's interesting, and I do think that we'll see more
of this in the future.
Speaker 2 (20:56):
How do you feel about this.
Speaker 3 (20:57):
I'm certainly not telling my clients to avoid all diet
soft drinks, but I do think the amount and the
frequency matters, doesn't it.
Speaker 1 (21:04):
I think that interesting because it doesn't give a lot
of detail in these news headlines. But my gut feeling
with it would be I want you to think about
the kind of foods you're often consuming when you're having
diet soft drink as well, you know it's with a
meal deal at a fast food chain like I know
they've said they've controlled for diet, but I do wonder
if it naturally lends itself like you have it at
(21:25):
the pub, you have it at a service station, you
have it on road trips, you have it at fast
food joints like. I don't think there's that many people
buying a salad for lunch with a diet soft drink.
I think people who are buying a salad for lunch
are havingkom butcheral water, So I think it's food association.
And I also think that that very sweet substance drives
cravings for more sweet food. So my gut feel with
(21:46):
it working with clients would be if they're sweet food drinkers,
they're more likely to be in consuming it. But I
think you and I would both agree, and we're both
partial to a cheeky diet coke. It's not good for us.
The sweetness are not good for us. It is certainly
not good for us, which is why companies like Coca
Cola are phasing it out, and any kind of artificial
sweetenes is not good for us. The less of it
(22:07):
we have, the better, and I think that has to
be our message. And you know, we're just about to
release our new product guide with the sort of top
two hundred food products, and we've been quite strict and
gone back on our choices and said, right if ultimately,
if it's ultra process, we can't be mentioning it anymore.
We have to be strict on that. And I would
agree with the artificial sweetness as well. It's at the
point where we have to be very clear these are
not good for us. So I think there are so
(22:29):
many other options now, Like you go, there's the Aunt
Franklin sparkling waters with a bit of fruit through it.
It's all the komb Butcher's, it's all those nexper drinks.
Speaker 3 (22:38):
What are the ones we get on the retreat, those
remedy the kombucher sotally remedy ones.
Speaker 1 (22:43):
Yeah, there's so many drinks that don't have it in.
I think that really. You know, sure, occasionally you love
a diet coke, but if there are other choices for
most of the time, So if you're a daily diet
soft drink user, I would be cutting back. And I
think there's plenty of better options, So I actually think
it's not that complicated. Now we have so many other options,
it's not completely difficult.
Speaker 2 (23:03):
Term.
Speaker 1 (23:03):
You could have an alcohol free wine if you want exactly.
Speaker 3 (23:06):
Yeah, there's a huge range of back or free alternatives.
My friend I went to her party the other day.
It was her daughter's party, a bunch of three year
olds running around, and she had I can't remember the brand,
but it was like passion fruit flavored sparkling water and
it was delicious, and she also had alcohol and beer.
Speaker 1 (23:20):
That's Mount Franklin.
Speaker 2 (23:21):
It's really good, is it Mount Franklin. Yeah, it was delicious.
Speaker 3 (23:23):
Yeah, it's a good one. I like it too, one
hundred percent. There's so many good options. In our retreat,
we always put a little four pack of either the
Remedy Kombucha's or the sodaly ones with the prebodic in
there as well into the goodie bags for all of
our retreat attendees, so we love them.
Speaker 2 (23:36):
They're a really great range too.
Speaker 3 (23:37):
So there's just as Susie said, there's no real reason
or excuse to have an artificially sweetened soft drink. There's
so many naturally sweetened ones available. There's beautiful types of
soda waters, mineral waters, sparkling waters, lots of that, you know,
save it for the I don't really have an option,
like you know, diet cokes the only thing on the
menu besides a full sugar soft drink or alcohol. Sure,
that's okay, but as Susie said, if you're having it
(23:58):
every day, if you're having one a day with your lunch,
it's time to rethink that choice. Because this was a
very large study and it followed people for fourteen years,
and it did it just for some of the things
in there as well, like body weight and diet. So
I do think we need to sit up and pay attention.
And I certainly think we are probably going to be
seeing more and more of this research, you know, as
time goes on.
Speaker 1 (24:17):
Yeah, true, true, Now, Leanne, you found a little interesting
snack bar.
Speaker 2 (24:21):
I have. I quite like these.
Speaker 1 (24:22):
So if I saw it at the top it's at
the top of Willis, I realized because I was looking
for it and I thought, oh, it is in there.
Speaker 2 (24:28):
Yeah, yeah, yeah, I found it right on the bottom
of mines. Interesting.
Speaker 3 (24:30):
So they don't obviously have the budget to pay for
the prime position at eye level like some of the
large brands do.
Speaker 1 (24:36):
Unfortunately, that's how they and that we should listeners should know.
That's how it works in supermarkets. You pay for shelfs.
Speaker 2 (24:41):
You pay for it.
Speaker 3 (24:41):
Yep, you pay for that eyeline visibility. But if you're
someone like me who's six foot one, you know, we
can see quite moore.
Speaker 1 (24:47):
I only see the bottom shelves in a.
Speaker 3 (24:48):
Smaller package, in the bottom shelves. So this brand, I
haven't heard of this brand before, Susie.
Speaker 2 (24:54):
It's good.
Speaker 3 (24:54):
Fixate fix At Fixate natural fruit lemon coconut bars. They
also do. Off the top of my head, it was red.
I think it was like a cherry maybe a cherry
chocolate one as well. There was two flavors, so I've
got a five style health rating. There's no preservatives, which
I really like. There's no artificial you know, stuff in there,
no colors, no flavors.
Speaker 2 (25:12):
It's all really natural ingredients.
Speaker 3 (25:14):
It's a good source of fiber and it's basically just
cold pressed fruit and nuts, so I really like them.
They retail for six dollars at woolworst in a five pack,
so there's five little thirty five grand bars in there,
so not like it's not cheap. Let's be honest. But
you pay for quality, and this is what it comes
down to. You pay for better quality products. So if
a little bar or a snack bar is something that
(25:34):
you eat regularly, it is probably time to make that
investment if this is something that's going into your diet
multiple times a week. So I quite like these because
the only ingredients susy ad dates, rolled oats, chicken, root, fiber, cashews, pepitas,
sunflower seeds, coconut natural flavor, cheer seeds, lemon powder, and
lemon oil.
Speaker 2 (25:53):
That's it.
Speaker 3 (25:54):
So you literally could make that in your kitchen at home.
So it's a wonderful product. The ingredient list is very strong.
Allergens are gluten, soy and cashew, so unfortunately not okay
for our Celiac listeners because of the oats in there,
and nutritionally per thirty five gram bar, five hundred and
eighty kilodels, four point eight grams of protein, which is
very strong in a small bar, five point six grams
(26:16):
of fat and that's all the healthy bats coming from
the nuts and the seeds, with only one gram of
that being saturated, thirteen point eight grams of carb with
close to seven point eight grams of sugar and then
seven point five grams of dietary fiber, which is a
whopping amount, and it's also boosted up by the addition
of the chicory root fiber. So if you're someone with
a bit of a sensitive tummy and a bit of IBS,
you may want to be careful with these because sometimes
(26:38):
chicken root fiber can not be so great for sensitive tummies.
But for most people they're completely fine with it, and
only two milligrams of sodium, so that's all naturally occurring.
It's very basically non existent, so very strong nutritionally, very
strong macro and nutrient breakdown as well.
Speaker 2 (26:55):
So I love them.
Speaker 3 (26:56):
I give them a five stars as well. We don't
normally love the health direting, but time they have done
a really great job in creating a wonderful product, and
I hope that people go out. I hope people buy them,
I hope people enjoy them. This is obviously not sponsored,
but I do think that when these small brands create
better products, we need to be supporting them, or before
we know it, in three months time, they'll be off
the shelves and all of the ultra process bars will
(27:16):
we will be back unfortunately.
Speaker 1 (27:18):
Yeah, I've just had a look at the company. They
do appear to be a small producer. And the other
couple of products, they've got what we would call ultra process,
kind of lower carb options, whereas this is a natural one,
the cherry coconut, which sounds very nice. I have to say,
it's got a couple of grams more sugar in it.
But have you eaten them? Because I want to know
do they taste good?
Speaker 2 (27:36):
I bought them and David smashed them and he said
they were nice.
Speaker 3 (27:38):
David smash them don't mean can eat. I didn't even
get one, not one out of the whole flightpack. We're
allowed to say yet that he's built your sauna. He
hasn't built it yet, so no, we don't give him
credit it.
Speaker 1 (27:49):
I'm coming in a couple of weeks, so I expect
that sauna to be there, so better get another box
of bars and smash it.
Speaker 2 (27:54):
We should actually do it.
Speaker 3 (27:55):
We should actually do a sauna episode because I'm loving
saunas lately.
Speaker 2 (27:58):
Anyway, back to the fruit.
Speaker 1 (27:59):
Bars, So Leanne's Leanne's getting a sauna. I'll just say
this because we're keen, you know. And about three of
my friends all said, oh, I'm thinking of getting a sauna,
and I said, I reckon, I might be able to
get your little discout code through Leanne, so Leanne if
we get a whole lot of nutrition. Couch listeners also
thinking about getting a barrel sauna.
Speaker 3 (28:16):
Watch this space. We might have a code we can share.
You never know, yeap, I can reach out to a company.
I can work the magic exactly.
Speaker 1 (28:21):
Tell the barrel sauna people it's hot, hot right now.
And David, you've got two weeks until I'm up, and
I expect a barrel sauna to be ready to my arrival,
no pressure. I haven't tasted them, so I don't know.
Do you think the kids would like them? You don't know,
you haven't tried that.
Speaker 3 (28:34):
I think so, But I can't give it to my
kids because he's got Kashum. He's got a very severe
cashun Yeah, so if you've got an allergies in the family,
not your goer.
Speaker 2 (28:40):
But otherwise I think, yeah, I think kids would like them.
Speaker 3 (28:43):
I do. I think, particularly smaller kids because the size
I mean for your boys, they're growing. They burn so
much energy and might not even touch the sides for
you know, boys, probably ten and older, but I think
for smaller children they're a great little size.
Speaker 1 (28:54):
Yeah, great, awesome, Okay, very nice, All rightly, and we'll
for our last listener question, I'm going to hand it
over to you a little bit more so I know
you're a bit more across this at I. But the
listener question is around the use of creation and kidney health,
because of course, we did release a CREATI range at
the end of last year which has gone gangbusters as
more and more evidence emerges around the really powerful health
promoting and brain health promoting effects of creating, particularly for women,
(29:18):
we have seventy to eighty percent less still creating it's
really important for brain health, body composition, mood, it appears,
and sometimes we do get a listener question asking about
the impact on kidney health, and I think I'll let
you take over. But my first port of core would
be if you have kidney issues, it is imperative that
you consult with a medical professional first. Absolutely, and in
(29:39):
many cases, no, you won't be able to take it,
but you must. Anyone who is concerned or does have
an underlying medical condition should be checking. But in generally
and it is safe for most people. Yeah, the bottom
line is that is completely safe. So creating is the
most research nutritional supplement in the world, the most research
and the safest nutritional supplement in the world. There are
(30:00):
hundreds hundreds of studies with creatine looking at it from
a both of performance aspect but more recently the health
outcomes as well as Susie mentioned. So it is a
naturally occurring compound that's made in the liber end in
the kidneys, and we basically store it in our muscles
and in our brains to help with short term like
bursts of energy production essentially. But there is a myth
that just refuses to die that creating damages your kidneys,
(30:23):
and this myth has been going on for decades. Like
I said to my mum in law, my husband David
did quite high level rowing when he was at school,
and my mom in law said, yeah, the coach used
to make them supplement with creatine when they were thirteen,
and I was like, it's not legal. And this was
you know, like what thirty years ago or something, so
we would never have said under sixteen.
Speaker 3 (30:41):
Yeah, yeah, well when they were quite young, but they
were rowing it, you know, like state national level, so
they were you know anyway, we wouldn't say that. We
definitely don't recommend supplements for children, particularly that young unless
it's got strong advice from a sports dietician. But this
is a myth that has just been around forever, and
it basically comes from the fact that creatine supplementations slightly
increases your blood level of what's called creatinine. So creatinine
(31:04):
is a breakdown product of creatine and it comes through
because it's like measured in your blood test and it's
a marker of kidney function. But the key point is here,
listeners that when people take creatine, the rise in creatinine
in the blood test is actually due to the creatine
supplement itself, not kidney damage. So it's basically like a
(31:26):
false red flag. It's not actually a problem in healthy people.
But the issue is because creatinine is used to calculate
what's called our EGFR, so it's our estimated glomular filtration rate.
It's a marker of like how well our kidneys are functioning. Essentially,
so creating users can often appear to have a lower
EEDFR on paper or through a blood test. And I
(31:49):
say this with respect, but a lot of doctors aren't
aware that this is happening. So a lot of doctors
aren't aware that creatine supplementation increases creatinine breakdown, which seems
to falsely reduce EDFI rate, and many doctors are seeing
this as quote unquote early kidney damage. But the reality
is that it's completely expected when you're supplementing with creatine,
(32:10):
and it's a very harmless effect or a byproduct of
creating use. So it's very common, it happens to most
of us. I recently had my blood test. My EDFI
was lower than the quote unquote standard or normal range,
and my doctor was like, what's happening. She's really good
and I was like, look, I'm supplementing with creatine. I
have been for like two years now. And she went
back to my blood test and she's like, oh, you're right,
(32:31):
but the lower EDFR has been stable. So what I
would say, if you have a doctor that is concerned
with your kidney function or that your EDFR is slightly lower,
request a test that doesn't use creatinine to measure your
kidney function. So there's a specific type of blood test
called a cysteten C blood test. Basically, what it does
(32:51):
is it measures your kidney function without using creatinine. So
it gives you a much more accurate indication of your
kidney function while you're supplementing with creating. And I can
pretty much I can't say that on the podcast David
or Kidney because he's a lawyer. I was gonna say,
I pretty much guarantee that it'll be fine, but don't
don't listen to that. But basically, if you have your
(33:11):
doctor that is worried about your kidney function because you've
been supplementing with creating, request assistanty blood test, send me
a message, send me a DM and I can send
you more about that blood test. But that is a
much more accurate indication of kidney function. And then once
the GP can see that your kidneys are actually functioning well,
they as well will have a better appreciation for that
(33:33):
as well. Because I've got a family member who's also
a family GP, and he was saying to me, all
of these Jim Brows are coming through with early kidney damage,
and I was explaining it to him. He went away
and he did some research and he came back and
he's like, you know, I have been requesting this additional
test and actually for all of my career, I've thought
that all of these Jim Brows had been doing early
kidney damage, but it's actually completely fine. So it was
(33:53):
a really interesting conversation to have. And I do think
that as creating becomes more and more popular and it
enters you know, quote unquote normal households, people who aren't
even exercising, they're using it for the brain benefits, for
the cognitive benefits. It is important that as health professionals,
we're all across this, but particularly as doctors, you know,
they're seeing this more and more. They need to be
requesting separate tests so that we're not all assuming that
(34:15):
everybody has early kidney damage.
Speaker 2 (34:17):
Because the research is very very clear in.
Speaker 3 (34:20):
Healthy individuals with normal kidney function, creating supplementation is completely
safe at the recommended dose of three to five grams
a day. So that's basically the key takeaway here. At
the right dose in healthy people, your kidneys will be
absolutely fine. And if your doctor's concern, just requests that
assistance C test and you'll get a much clear result
or a much clearer indication of how your kidneys are going.
(34:42):
So hopefully that clears it up for a lot of people.
Speaker 1 (34:44):
Excellent thanks Ianne, very comprehensive. Thank you for listening to
the Nutrition Couch for another week. Please keep telling your
friends about us, and we've got a little surprise coming
in the next couple of weeks about how this podcast
is going to be streamed. So watch this space and
have a great week, you guys.
Speaker 2 (35:00):
Next week,
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