Are 6am HIIT classes in winter actually doing more harm than good?
In today’s episode of The Nutrition Couch, dietitians Leanne Ward and Susie Burrell unpack the rising chatter around early morning workouts, metabolic health, and whether you’re better off staying in bed (especially if you’re freezing, exhausted, or juggling toddlers).
Also this week:
- A surprising new study suggests a low-fat vegan diet might beat the Mediterranean diet for weight loss and inflammation. But does it hold up in real life — or just in research labs?
- Our product spotlight reveals why Woolworths’ budget Potato Minis might be a smarter choice than you think (yes, even if you’re trying to lose weight).
- We break down the best supermarket pre-made meals for nutrition, convenience, and value — including Coles Perform, Strength Meals Co, and good old roast chooks.
It’s a jam-packed episode full of science, straight talk and a few laughs — plus some practical wins for your next grocery shop.
Tune in now for smart, no-fluff nutrition advice that actually fits into your life.
Brought to you by Designed by Dietitians — real supplements for real life. Explore the range at designedbydietitians.com
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 does your typical morning start. Do you find yourself
pressing the snooze button a few times or are you
pretty good at getting to your six am gym class.
Maybe you are not a morning person at all and
get up as late as possible. On today's episode of
The Nutrition Couch, we have some new data to show
that getting up early and exercising may not always be
(00:21):
the best thing for your body, when it may actually
benefit from a little more shut eye. Hi, I'm Sussie
Burrow and I'm Liam 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 some new information on
six am starts. We've got some brand new diet data
that is looking at acidity in the body. Our product
(00:44):
review is of a particular freezer favorite for the family,
and our listener question is all about pre made meal. So,
just in terms of how we get contact for the
Nutrition Couch, Leanne and I will throw some messages between ourselves.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
This is the week's row.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
When we see something interesting on Instagram or an article
pop up, or.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
I'll scroll the news headlines.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
But Leanne found this little baby and I thought it
was very relevantly and because you are bright an early
bird getting to the gym each morning very early, when
I'm still snoozerini, So what if they told us about
six am starts.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
Well, I think it's interesting. I don't think there's a
whole lot of like science behind it, but it's basically
a little bit of a trend on Instagram at the moment.
Speaker 4 (01:26):
It's a nice little chat.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
You know, there's not a huge amount of research behind it,
but it's nice to have a little think about. So basically,
the headline that drew me and said the six am
workout habit wrecking your health. And as usual, it's a
very inflammatory headline, and I wouldn't say that everybody who
works out at six am is wrecking your health in winter,
but I thought it was a nice little kind of
conversation starter because essentially the article talks about how many
(01:50):
Australian women are unintentionally derailing their winter fitness routine by
doing the same workouts all year round, despite their changing
like energy and like atabolic and motivational levels during the
colder months. So it's basically saying, if you're someone who
rolls out of bed every day of the year at
six am, you do you hit your high intensity type
workout that might not be favoring you in winter. And
(02:13):
I'm somebody who very much is a morning workout person.
If I don't work out in the morning, it just
doesn't happen. With two tiny humans, David and I go together.
We put the kids in the crage. We know they're happy,
they get to play, they watch a bit of TV.
We do our workout. We can still see them from
the gym floor, and then we're done and everybody goes home.
Go one of the days where I could, you know,
wander down to the gym whatever time I like. With
my flexible working from home schedule, own own business, it
(02:36):
just doesn't happen. So if we don't do our workout
together in the morning, it doesn't happen. So I'm a
big morning workout person, but I know that for a
lot of people they aren't. Other people are very rigid
with that morning schedule. But the article is basically highlighting
that during the winter months, some and it says like
so called experts, and then you look at the experts
in the article and it's basically like TikTokers. So they're
(02:57):
not what I would call the true expert, but there
are one or to sort of exercise physiologist who have
also been talking about this kind of thing, which I
would say is a true expert.
Speaker 4 (03:05):
But basically it's just.
Speaker 3 (03:06):
A couple of girls online on TikTok giving their opinion
about the winter fitness routine and basically saying that we
should be going towards more strength based workouts versus cardio
workouts in the middle of winter because it's just better
from a muscle and a metabolic perspective, And that is true.
Speaker 4 (03:21):
That actually has nothing to do with winter.
Speaker 3 (03:23):
I think resistance and strength based training is very important
from a metabolic and a muscle irrespective of the seasons,
So it doesn't really matter if it's winter or summer
or spring. I think resistance space training is very important.
But it is saying that if you're someone who gets
up at the crack of dawn, whether that's four or
thirty five o'clock six am, and you roll out of bed,
it's super cold, and you're trying to flog your body
(03:45):
through these high intensity workouts day after day after day,
perhaps you should rethink that and lower the intensity in
winter and focus more on resistance based exercise. So I
don't think it's a bad message. It's not black or white.
I think resistance based training is very very important. We
know that there is research that shows about two to
three times a week is very important from a muscle perspective,
(04:07):
a metabolic perspective, and a bone strength perspective as well.
But it's also not to say that you can't do
high intensity training during winter. But I think it's a
good article that just highlights like, don't just go through
the run of the motion every morning, the same kind
of workout at the same time each day, because particularly
if the goal is some body composition changes or some
(04:28):
fat loss changes, the body does well shaking up the
routine a little bit. So sometimes training at a different time,
changing up your exercise routine. If you're a runner, get
into the gym and do some strength training. If strength
training is all that you do, perhaps try some conditioning.
Try a couple of, you know, one to two a
week sessions of some high intensity stuff. It doesn't matter
what the season is. But I think the most practical
(04:50):
advice for listeners is to balance your exercise sessions out
and to ensure that every couple of months, you're actually
changing up what the body is doing because the body
does get very used to a very similar type of training.
And so I think if you are chasing those performance
based goals, and you are chasing some of those bodycop goals,
it's important to not only stay consistent, but to also
(05:11):
change up your exercise sessions as well. And winter is
a really ideal time to do that. If you've been
thinking about, you know, building a bit of muscle, it
is nicer to you know, do that in a gym,
or do that inside versus always doing running outside. When
it's a little bit in the cooler months, it is
easier to do an inside workout. But don't also be
fueled by I've got a lot of clients at the moment,
(05:31):
who are you know, stopping their running for like four
to five reformer Plata sessions a week. And although that's great,
it's good movement, reformer plats is not resistance or strength
based exercise. It's not going to grow your muscles, it's
not going to you know, assist really with that bone
mineral density. It's okay a couple of times a week,
but it's not what you would traditionally call resistance or
strength based exercise, so my exercise physiologist tells me, So
(05:53):
it's a good mix of things that we want to have,
but don't feel like you need to punish yourself by
rolling out of better five six am throughout winter when
it is very cold. And I can say that even
in Brisbane because people normally tease me in Brisbane and
they say it doesn't get that cold. We've had quite
a few eight degree mornings here, Susie recently. And I
did come to Sydney last week and I woke up
and it was eight degrees and I check the weather up, thinking,
(06:15):
oh do I bring my coach?
Speaker 4 (06:16):
It was ten degrees in Sydney.
Speaker 3 (06:17):
So you know, it does get cool in Brisbane occasionally.
So it is nice if we can do some more
of those indoor workouts during winter. But I think the
key point of the article was basically, listen to your
body if it needs to sleep, and have a sleep in.
If you're not feeling like that high intensity conditioning type
exercise all of the time, take it down a couple
of notches.
Speaker 4 (06:37):
Focus on building the.
Speaker 3 (06:38):
Muscle, preserving some of that muscle mass which starts to
naturally decline. Really quickly past the age of forty as well,
and just really stay consistent during winter. A lot of
people find exercise pretty easy during spring and summer, but
a lot of people will back off a lot during
winter because it is quite cold, and so really find
something that you enjoy and you can be consistent with
this time of the year.
Speaker 4 (07:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
I think the thing with exercise is we're kind of
programmed to believe that you're better, a better human if
you get up early, exercise, start your day on the
right track.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
And it's like an idealism.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
You know, you often see those articles online, you know,
CEOs get up at five am, the five Am Club,
Like it's kind of that aspirational approach to life and
how we should be now. I think for women, and
let's be honest, ninety eight percent of our listeners are women.
I think when you're younger and you don't have a
lot of family responsibilities, you know, you're just going to work,
(07:35):
You're caring for yourself. Sure, you know you've probably got
a lot more energy. You can start up late, you
can get up early, you can go to the gym.
I think what changes is that as women move through
the lifespan, the demands tend to become a lot higher.
So first of all, you might be having children, of
course there's a lot of pressure on your body. You
might end up in a split family where you're a
sole parent. You might also be caring for other family members.
(07:57):
So for poor women, the pressure and demands just more
and more and more greater and greater and greater. And
that we still hold that belief that we should be
getting up early and exercising. And I think you know,
whether it's between the ages of thirty and fifty or
forty and sixty, whatever it is, when you're basically doing
three or four different jobs, I would just take the
pressure off and across the belief because the best time,
(08:19):
as we've said Leanne to exercise is when you're going
to do it, and it's specificity of training as well
as particularly as you get older, so you are much better.
For example, beyond the age of forty to go into
a twenty minute hit session. Then you are to walk
for an hour in the cold, but think that you're
virtuous because you're doing it at six am. So I
think it comes back to really looking at yourself and
(08:40):
being smart with how you use that time, and you know,
being really efficient with it and shift some of those
beliefs that you are a better human because you get
up at five or six am, because we're just different physiologically.
And to have the privilege of time where you can
do whatever you like and not have to worry about
other people fantastic. But it's not for everyone, and we
certainly shouldn't be feeling guilty around that because I am
(09:02):
constantly listening to women talking about the things they should
be doing and adding more and more and more onto
their schedule.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
But I agree with you.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
A standout feature of clients that I'm seeing is I'll
ask them what their exercise or movements like, and they'll
first of all say pilarates. Now, polarates is beautiful, it's
lovely for muscle lines, but it is quite time consuming,
you know, going to pilarates, you've got to get there,
You go to spend an hour. That's almost two hours
of time when you could do a twenty thirty minute
workout and get just a better calorie burn in many cases.
(09:30):
So I think we do have to be smart with
the limited time many of us have. And so first
of all, don't feel guilty if it's not five six am.
But really look and say, right, I'm dedicating three hours
a week to polarates, and maybe I should dedicate one
hour and then do something else the other time to
get the changes and results, because basically the same as
our diet and diet changes. If nothing's changing, nothing's changing.
(09:52):
And if you're doing all that pilates or whatever your
choice of exercise is even going to the gym, and
you're not getting the results or changes, it's time to
mix it up. So I think it's good to have
a bit of a review of what you're doing and
really be strict with your time. And so I've only
got two or three hours a week to train or exercise.
What is going to give me the best bang for
my buck with that very limited time?
Speaker 2 (10:12):
All right, Leanne Well.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
I had to have a moment this week when I
saw a blazing diet headline that talked about diets in acidity.
Because as dietitians, for many, many years, we've often said
that diets that promote an alkaline style of eating, or
supplements that promote alcohalized approaches a BS, you know, there's
no evidence to show that they're beneficial. So when I
(10:35):
saw this and a new research paper that's been published
in front AIDS and Nutrition, which is quite a respectable journal.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
I was like, oh my god, what is going on.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
So this is a new randomized control trial, which is
actually I would normally swear here because I'm a bit
of a swear bear, But it's really frigging interesting, is
what I would say. Like, I haven't seen data like
this in my entire career, so I thought it was
worth a bit of a review and taking a bit
of a deep dive, and we will deep dive it.
It is a little bit more complicated than just alkalizing diets,
(11:03):
so of course they've headlined it as you describe diet
acidity is at the answer to weight loss, and it's
not quite the case. So this is very very new research,
and you can certainly look up the article itself to
get the deep sort of insight into it. But it
was proposing that foods that are high in acidity are
(11:25):
associated with chronic inflammation, which impacts metabolism and may contribute
to weight gain. So this was the hypothesis of the
researchers and the participants in the study, which went across
sixteen weeks four months.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
They compared in RCT.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
A Mediterranean style of eating which was high and fruit, vegetables,
high in good fats, less dairy, less red meat, very
little processed food, and they compared that to a low
fat vegan diet. Now, I want to be very clear
that a low fat vegan diet is pretty simple. We're
(12:03):
talking no dairy, no meat, no seafood. You're basically eating grains, quinoir, legumes, beans, vegetables, fruits, avocado,
olive oil, very simple food. So tofu one hundred percent
vegan and loaf fat. So on one hand, to eat
(12:23):
vegan is not always so easy. But to also have
loaf fat vegan, that's pretty strict because that's not a
lot of oil, that's not a lot of avocado either.
That's basically like veggies and beans in a bowl. So
that's what they compared it to, which I think would
be a very difficult diet to follow, but they got
actually really interesting results.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
So it was.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
Sixty two overweight adults and they were asked to follow
the Mediterranean approach or the loafat vegan. Now it wasn't
calorie restricted, they weren't on like a diet plan. There
was merely assigned to different styles of eating and had
to record everything they found, and over the four months
that the Mediterranean eaters had.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
No weight loss, no significant weight loss.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
Whereas the vegan approach had a six kilo weight loss
over four months. Now that's not insignificant, but it's certainly
not on the high scale. You know, Leanna and I've
spoken before, if we had clients for four months, we'd
be looking at close to ten kilos. And I was
surprised because I really struggle to believe people could be
diet compliant to that strict vegan diet for that long.
But anyway, but what is really important for our listeners
(13:29):
to understand is that when you eat foods that are
what they call not acidic or not inflammatory, so processed foods, meat, dairy,
it doesn't change your pH that is very tightly regulated
by the kidneys. But what the researchers believe is going
on is that basically inflammation was reduced as a result
of eating less of those process type foods, So it
(13:52):
wasn't even though the acidity scores were reduced, it wasn't
specifically that They think it's an indirect effect of the
level of acidity and basically eating a very clean diet
that's very quite a low calorie it's sort of like
the old pretticken diet of the nineteen eighties for anyone
who's old enough to remember that. So they did measures
of dietary acidity through the kidneys rather than just pH
(14:14):
and certainly the reduction in those acidic loads was significantly
associated with directions in body weight and inflammatory markers in
the body. So I've got some thoughts on it. First
of all, I think it's confusing because you have someone
like supermodels who have alcohalizing supplements and they mislead people
about what they're about. To me, it's not an effect
(14:36):
of acidity. It's an effect of a diet that's got
no ultra processed food and.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
No animal food in it.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
And I think that's great to know that if you
eat a bowl of beans and brown rice like a Buddha,
that you're going to be healthier. But I just think
it's not like, who's eating that lean every four months,
no steaks, no chicken, no coffees with milk for four months.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
That's a pretty bland diet.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
Man. I feel like you have to go and live
in a temple for four months and you'll be healthier anyway,
I would miss my cheese. It's interesting, but I reckon
I can get good results but still leave a few
cheekies in there, like some cheese and some chicken.
Speaker 2 (15:16):
I don't know, what do you reckon?
Speaker 3 (15:17):
Yeah, I found it very interesting like you, and I
read it and I was like, oh, I need to
go I need to dive into this further. Because when
I said, you know, true plant based vegan diet versus
Mediterranean diet, we know Mediterranean diet is one of the
most researched and effective dietary pattern in the world. Particularly
there have been many studies that it reduces inflammation as well.
So what I thought, I was like, what is this
Mediterranean diet? But then it was basically suggesting that it's
(15:41):
it's foods that like meat, eggs, cheese.
Speaker 4 (15:43):
Process foods.
Speaker 3 (15:44):
And when I first read that, I was like, okay,
so they're doing a vegan diet compared to like a
Kido diet. But then they were like Mediterranean diets, So
I just kind of think, what was this Mediterranean diet
that they were giving them. They didn't sort of break
that down, but I think it was more meat and
cheese and eggs than a traditional Mediterranean diet actually would
be because a traditional Mediterranean diet actually has very little
(16:05):
meat and exitit, and it does have quite a lot
of more vegetarian and vegan based meals as well, and
even the dairy load isn't significantly high and a true
Mediterranean style diet, so I don't think it was really
fully plant based vegan versus a true traditional Mediterranean diet.
I would say it's more like a Western style, do
what you.
Speaker 4 (16:23):
Wan Mediterranean diet.
Speaker 3 (16:25):
But like you, I think it's great that it showed that,
you know, participants lost weight, and great that it showed
that some of the acidity loads had come down. But
of course, like you're basically just eating fruits, vegetables, beans, legumes,
and grains, like Susie said, so if you didn't see
significant change in health markers and sixty two overweight people,
I would be very very concerned. So I'm not surprised,
(16:49):
But also like you, I would think that it is
very very difficult for ninety eight percent of the population,
myself and yourself included, to just basically eat fruits, vegetables
and beans. Term I think a lot of people could
probably do that from a diet compliant perspective for a
couple of weeks, maybe a few months, and highly motivated people.
But we have enough struggles getting our clients to stick
(17:11):
to really well balanced, you know, healthy eating patterns which
do include a few treats rather than taking all.
Speaker 4 (17:18):
That away as well.
Speaker 3 (17:19):
So I think it's it's interesting, but is it practical.
Probably not, But it just heightens the research bulk that
we have that shows that are you know, the more
plants and whole foods that you eat, the better it is.
And funnily enough, my husband David was watching the news
headlines this morning and he started like scoffing, and I
was like, what are you laughing at? And he's like, oh,
the headline says it's you know, ultra processed foods lead
(17:42):
to weight gain, and he's laughing because he's like, everybody
knows that. And I'm like, people might know that, but
they don't actively look to reduce the amount of ultra
process foods in their diet.
Speaker 4 (17:51):
It's not new research.
Speaker 3 (17:52):
We know that ult process foods aren't good for us,
yet people continue to eat them. So it's one thing
to have the research to show that ultra process foods
aren't good. Too much meat, eggs, dairy isn't good. Too
much processed foods aren't good. And a fully big in
diet is better. But practically, how do we get people
to actually adopt that? You know what I do with
my clients, I think that small and consistent beanza, So
(18:15):
you know, start with like plant based Monday, or start
with you know, fake away Friday where you do your
favorite takeaway but in a vegetarian form. So just start
with one or two days a week where you're really
eating really great whole foods, unprocessed foods. You know, lots
of plants and vegetables and legumes and whole grains. And
start with that, just one to two days a week
(18:36):
and see how you feel. Because it's all well and
good to tell people to do that every single day
for four months straight and you might get a six
kilo weight loss, But I doubt a lot of people
could actually do that forever.
Speaker 4 (18:46):
I hand on my heart could not. I would miss
my cheese.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
A day in the life would be so I fruit
salad to breakfast or maybe some baked beans on toast.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
Then lunch would be like a quinoir.
Speaker 3 (18:57):
But is that process like it's bread and baked beans
considered process food.
Speaker 4 (19:01):
Do you know what I mean?
Speaker 1 (19:02):
It was low fat ve not processed. No, no, low
fat vegan, low fat vegan. And then lunch would be
kinwar and salad, and then dinner would.
Speaker 2 (19:12):
Be handful of nuts, and then dinner would be chickpea curry. Yeah,
I don't know, it's a lot of vegetarian food.
Speaker 1 (19:20):
Like I'm like you, I think just increasing the bulk
is smart, you know, having a I like a light
day of eating each week.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
I feel like we have at least one or two
heavy days.
Speaker 1 (19:29):
I think a light day where you have just you know,
light fruit salad for breakfast, a salad for lunch, and
a soup or vegie sturf for dinner.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
I think there's nothing.
Speaker 1 (19:37):
Wrong with that, and you'll feel pretty good doing it
as well. So yeah, I've thought it interesting though, because
that was the first time I've ever seen a giant
headline on acidity in a positive.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
Way, and I was like, whoa, what is going on
in the world. So it was very interesting. So have
a look online if you're interested. The whole story is there.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
But Leanne, I've given you a product of the week
this week you're gonna like it. I've given you a
whole section on Leanne's favorite tato time off your potatoes.
Speaker 3 (20:02):
And we were saying this on the last podcast as
soon as you couldn't believe me. It's like whipped a
man in my freezer. I took a photo. I sent
her it and she's like done, we'll talk about it
next week. And every time I put these on my stories,
like my two little girls, they're only three and two,
they're obsessed with potato tots and we call them potato
gems in our household, will apparently calls them potato minis,
whatever you want to call them. I'm sure the majority
of us we have I've got my mum's Malaysian. We
(20:24):
still grew up with potato gems in the household. So
I think they're a real ossy staple. And honestly they're
not as bad as people think they are. Like my
Instagram dms blow up every time I put these on
my stories, like.
Speaker 4 (20:35):
Aren't they bad? Aren't they processed? What's the best brand?
How many can you eat? Am I allowed to eat
them and lose weight? Even my clients like they look delicious?
Can I eat these?
Speaker 3 (20:44):
I'm like, yeah, sure, there's so many I guess benefits
of the potato. And yes they're a little bit process,
they've got a bit of oil, they've got a bit
of salt. But these are hands down better than some
of the frozen chips on the market. If you were
to make your own at home, would it be better. Yes,
But all these nutritionals that I'm about to go over, honestly,
I could not beat them, and I hands down by
(21:05):
them myself. I don't have time to shape these little
potato gems in my kitchen at home. I literally just
don't have the time, and so I think that these
are a really great product. So one of the best
I've found on the market is the wool Worst home brand.
So where we can, we will always suggest the best
quality product, and when it is the cheaper version, it's
the home brand version. Like tic tikticks all around, it's
always going to be good from a budget perspective compared
(21:27):
to some of the more expensive brands. So this is
the wool Worst Potato minis a kilo bag at an
everyday low price. So Woo wearst tells me of five
dollars eighty So five dollars eighty for a kilo potato
gems is pretty reasonable, like a kilo bag lasts as
well over a week, because obviously we don't use them
every day. Ingredient wise, you've got ninety one percent potato.
(21:48):
Some of the potato chips on the market, even some
of the sweet potato chips are only about seventy to
eighty percent potato because a lot of that is oil
and coating and a bit of batter and stuff as well.
So ninety one percent potato is pretty much as good
as you're going to get from a frozen chip or
a frozen potato gen perspective, The next ingredient is canola oil, salt,
and dextrous.
Speaker 4 (22:07):
Four ingredients. That's it.
Speaker 3 (22:08):
A little bit of oil, a little bit of salt,
a little bit of dextrous.
Speaker 4 (22:11):
That's it.
Speaker 3 (22:12):
So pretty much like a winner in my books. And
then nutrition wise, luck you would expect for most potatoes
one hundred gram serving size, so there's ten servings per pack.
At one hundred grams, you've got about seven hundred kilodules
per serving, two grams of protein, eight point eight grams
of fat, with only one of that being saturated fat,
so a very low saturated fat product, just sh I
(22:32):
have twenty grams of carbs, so nineteen point six grams
of carbohydrate is serve, with only one gram of that
being naturally occurring sugar. Two point two grams of dietary fiber,
which is actually pretty good. You know, it's better if
their skins on the potato, absolutely, but still two point
two grams of dietary fiber, particularly for small children like
my Matilda's, only she's not even two yet, she's just
about to turn two. Two point two grams of dietary fiber.
(22:54):
Plus I'll give her a bit of black beans and
some veggies on the plate.
Speaker 4 (22:57):
It all adds up. It's a good amount.
Speaker 3 (22:59):
And the sodium is at quite low as well, two
hundred and twenty milligrams of sodium per one hundred grams.
So these are like a ten out of ten in
my book, Susie like, are they a slightly processed? Yes,
the taste is unreal. They're super satisfying. I put mine
on the air fry. You can also do them in
the oven. I put a handful in the air fry
between thirteen to fifteen minutes, depending on how crispy you
like them.
Speaker 4 (23:19):
I put it.
Speaker 3 (23:19):
I had a touch more salt for myself personally, sometimes
a few rosemary flakes. But they go down an absolute
treat and we would have them a couple of times
a week in my household. Sometimes we do salmon, potato
gems and veggies. Sometimes we might do a bit of steak,
a bit of broccoli and some veggies. Sometimes we might
just do a salad kid, a couple of potato gems
and some grilled fish or something. So they're on high
rotation in my household. My kids absolutely love them. They
(23:42):
only have a handful, they might have four or five
on their plate, but yeah, I think that they're an
absolute winner. I think that they help my clients be
quite diet compliant as well, like compliant with their meal plans,
because they do add that extra level of satisfaction and taste.
Speaker 4 (23:55):
I reckon your boys would like.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
Them too well.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
And I've just been down to Cole's and I've because
I was thinking what am I going to give the
boys tonight.
Speaker 2 (24:03):
I don't have many veggies, and I thought, oh, I'm
going to get Liam's potato gems.
Speaker 4 (24:07):
So I got.
Speaker 1 (24:08):
I didn't know it to clothes. I didn't have a
home brand one, but I bought the main one. It's
like six point eighty for a big packet, so we're
going to give them a whirl. But to me, that's
just a classic example of foods that you think aren't healthier.
Actually okay, because I was going to say to you,
what's the fiber like, and it's actually better than I thought.
Because just recently I did a review on margarine and
(24:29):
spreads and I didn't want to do it because I
didn't want to be like, these are healthier, because ultimately
nothing is healthy about margarine. But what surprised me most
of all was the home brand varieties, the cheapest ones,
like the two dollars per container with some of the
better ones. Nutritionally they had the least saturated fat overall,
and they were a lot cheaper. So that just shows
(24:50):
about the intricacy of nutrition and why sometimes you do
need some pretty in depth analysis. But to help you, guys,
we are about to relaunch our product guide. So three
years ago, so we launched an e product guide which
sold because gang Busters, Leanne and I were just shocked.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
We traveled to Europe for three months off the profit.
Speaker 1 (25:07):
So it was incredibly successful, and I think it's because
people were like, yes, just tell me what to have.
But what we've done differently this time, and I'm busy
beavering away at it at the moment, is we've done
the top two hundred supermarket products. So if there's like
six yogurts, there's like multiple products in category, not just two,
which we did last time. So and to be honestly,
(25:29):
and after going through the supermarket myself and getting the products,
I was pretty pushed to get more than two hundred.
There's roughly about two hundred products in supermarket that I
think are healthy. The rest I just would ditch. So
I haven't sent the finalist to Leanne yet to Peru's.
But it's actually interesting because there's a lot of noise
in supermarket with crap, and really we've just honed in
on the two hundred best across every category. And we've
(25:51):
also got a section on gluten free and audi so
watch this space.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
I'm hoping to have it out in the next couple
of weeks.
Speaker 1 (25:56):
And if you're a supermarket shopper and just want to
know what to buy, hopefully we've taken that guesswork because
the other thing they land is how small are the
labels you can't even read them, Like, who's got that
kind of time? Like I didn't know potato gems were good,
you know. So hopefully we're going to make things a
lot easier for listeners in terms of being at the supermarket.
Speaker 2 (26:14):
So I watch this space all right.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
Speaking of rich, I listen to a question from our instagram
today about what are the best pre made meals in supermarket?
And this is a fascinating area land because it's growing
every week. Every week there are new frozen meals, new
fresh meals across the board, and there are sort of
in general they're improving nutritionally, but there's certainly some still
(26:36):
some differences. So the first thing I would say is
any product that you see that has a pastor or
rice base, particularly the cheaper frozen meals across sort of
the basic coals. All these brand or bigger brands like McCain,
they're not great nutritionally generally. They're usually are very very
high carbohydrate. They've got forty to sixty grams of car
(26:57):
per serve, and even though they're relatively cheap, might get
ten twelve fifteen grams of protein, which is probably about
half what you really need from a well balanced meal,
so you do sort of get what you pay for
in those categories. Then you've got this more boutique sort
of offering coming through, which is certainly a high price point.
Speaker 2 (27:15):
You know.
Speaker 1 (27:15):
They retail between seven to ten dollars per serve, and
they're things like the Strength Meals co the Coals Perform range,
and indeed they're higher protein, they're generally better. They're probably
my standout favorites. I particularly like the Coals Perform. I
think that it comes on sale three for twenty one.
They're nice meals. They've got a good amount of carbohydroten protein,
(27:37):
similar to the Ald couple, which are in the fit range.
Now they don't have a lot in that they've only
got two or three skews, but they are nutritionally superior.
But probably the ones I wanted to speak about a
bit more in detail today was the growing range of
fresh meals. So there's obviously frozen, but you'll also notice
sort of in the near the meat section, there is
a couple in both Coals and Woolies and a few
(27:59):
other brands. I think Strength Meals Coal also have some,
but my favorite ones at the moment Leanne are the
Coals and Woolies meat and veggie mixes, because if you
have a dish like chicken in parmesan with potatoes, they're
still much higher in protein generally than any of the
other mixed dishes, So even though you're paying between nine
(28:23):
and even eleven dollars for them, they're actually pretty good.
There's a salmon, potato and peas, there's a proshuoter wraped chicken,
and Woolies Coals have a few as well, So I
sort of would be moving towards that the protein and
veggie mix even though it's costs a little bit more,
they're really actually pretty strong nutritionally. And then second to that,
i'd go the coals Perform or maybe a Strength Meals
(28:45):
company are sort of the best ones at the moment
in general, and I think if you like them, they
can be really helpful. The other products Land and I
like us sort of the tuna pouches. I think they're
great meals to have on the run, especially for people traveling.
You can throw it into your own nightcase and you've
got to back up meal or long live soups. But yeah,
they're sort of my standout the protein and veggie mixes,
(29:06):
And we might review one in a couple of weeks.
But yeah, they're retailing between nine and eleven dollars. But
they're really pretty good nutritionally. It's basically a chicken breast
and some veggies and a bit of seasoning on it,
and they're pretty strong nutritionally, about four hundred calories, thirty
grands of protein, twenty thirty grams of car I do
like them. I hope they sell and they keep them
in the market. Have you seen any that you like
(29:26):
at the moment, I'm like you.
Speaker 3 (29:28):
My favorite at Wallas is generally the Strength Meals Go,
and my favorite at Coals are generally the Coals Perform range,
because I know that Coals hires a sports dietitian to
develop that range and the other big ones I personally
eat myself, and I recommend sometimes for clients who were
just busy and time pushed, the long Life soup. So
I'm not a huge range of the fresh soops. This
summer two years ago, nearly when I had Tilly, I
(29:49):
had her in the middle of winter. I heavily relied
on those fresh soops that I was just heating up
nearly every day, having them with a slice of my
berg and so Lynn like I'd had that three, four
or five times a week sometimes and I was early
postpartum and just wanted.
Speaker 4 (30:01):
To hot meal. I can't find many fresh.
Speaker 3 (30:04):
Soups on the market that I really like nutritionally this year. Unfortunately.
They're just they're not as strong as they were a
few years ago. So I'm more leaning towards the long
Life seeps.
Speaker 2 (30:12):
The tango has been taken off the market. There's no
potango that.
Speaker 3 (30:16):
Wasn't overly high in protein here that it was good
from an I went high. Yeah, yeah, anyway, so I
don't find the fresh ones as good. I find that
the ones in the Long Life soup isle and the
pouches are far better nutritionally and far better ingredient wise
these days. But also don't go past a roast chook.
Like I had a client the other day who got
stuck at her son is in a big training camp.
(30:37):
He's like, you know, quite good at the sport that
he plays, and then he get home till like seven
thirty and she's like, I've got five minutes and running
past the shops, what do I get? I said, get
a roast chicken, get a salad bag, get some potato gems.
Speaker 4 (30:47):
Dumb.
Speaker 3 (30:48):
She got home and dinner was on the table in
fifteen minutes. So don't discount a roast chook. If the
goal is fat lost, try to get rid of the
majority of the skin and stick to the chicken breast.
But a bit of chicken breast, a bit of salad,
a couple of potato gems. You have a knowing meal
on the table for about you know, twenty twenty five
dollars with leftovers in you know, ten to fifteen minutes.
That's it, Like it's it goes a long way a
roast chook. I mean, he's quite cost.
Speaker 1 (31:09):
Effective too, especially I just put one today actually because
my dog Taco just loves it when we get a
roast chicken. But I also like it now because I
think they're between twelve and thirteen dollars. They used to
be like ten, but if you get the ones that
are a bit older, sometimes they discount them like to
six dollars.
Speaker 4 (31:25):
Yeah, yeah, we're gonna eat them on the day.
Speaker 2 (31:26):
Yeah, and costcos chickens are only six bucks. How good's that?
Speaker 1 (31:29):
So they can be quite cost effective, particularly at the
moment when the cost of living is so high and
well looking at getting enough protein at lunches. You're a
million times better to use the chicken breasts from that
than ham or turkey, So yeah, I'm with you.
Speaker 2 (31:42):
I think they can be a great option.
Speaker 1 (31:43):
Or you can also if you get super organized, just
buy a couple of cheap chooks like the six dollar
frozen or ones and then cook them for lunches too.
That can be quite a cost effective lunch option on
the weekend. To stick it in the oven or the
air fryer, and you've got your chicken meat for lunches,
and you can give the kids the thigh or the wing,
and then you just have the breast. So yeah, all right.
We could just muse about these things all day, can we?
(32:04):
Land But brings us to the end of another episode
of the Nutrition Couch. If you like our content and
would like to see more of us, we are hosting
a retreat at the end of October beginning of November
in gorgeous Kingscliff and we would love to see you
there to reinvigorate your approach to nutrition. Have a nice
weekend away without the family, just immerse in some activity
and some sun and some nice meals and come and
(32:26):
see us and we'll sort your diet out. So have
a look at the nutritioncouch dot com for that or
actually is that is an email admin at the nutritioncouch
dot com. Don't have a look on the website you
won't find it.
Speaker 2 (32:36):
Admin at the nutritioncouch dot com.
Speaker 1 (32:38):
And we will see you next Wednesday for our regular
episode drop catch you guys next week
How does your typical morning start. Do you find yourself
pressing the snooze button a few times or are you
pretty good at getting to your six am gym class.
Maybe you are not a morning person at all and
get up as late as possible. On today's episode of
The Nutrition Couch, we have some new data to show
that getting up early and exercising may not always be
(00:21):
the best thing for your body, when it may actually
benefit from a little more shut eye. Hi, I'm Sussie
Burrow and I'm Liam 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 some new information on
six am starts. We've got some brand new diet data
that is looking at acidity in the body. Our product
(00:44):
review is of a particular freezer favorite for the family,
and our listener question is all about pre made meal. So,
just in terms of how we get contact for the
Nutrition Couch, Leanne and I will throw some messages between ourselves.
Speaker 2 (00:59):
This is the week's row.
Speaker 1 (01:00):
When we see something interesting on Instagram or an article
pop up, or.
Speaker 2 (01:03):
I'll scroll the news headlines.
Speaker 1 (01:05):
But Leanne found this little baby and I thought it
was very relevantly and because you are bright an early
bird getting to the gym each morning very early, when
I'm still snoozerini, So what if they told us about
six am starts.
Speaker 3 (01:19):
Well, I think it's interesting. I don't think there's a
whole lot of like science behind it, but it's basically
a little bit of a trend on Instagram at the moment.
Speaker 4 (01:26):
It's a nice little chat.
Speaker 3 (01:27):
You know, there's not a huge amount of research behind it,
but it's nice to have a little think about. So basically,
the headline that drew me and said the six am
workout habit wrecking your health. And as usual, it's a
very inflammatory headline, and I wouldn't say that everybody who
works out at six am is wrecking your health in winter,
but I thought it was a nice little kind of
conversation starter because essentially the article talks about how many
(01:50):
Australian women are unintentionally derailing their winter fitness routine by
doing the same workouts all year round, despite their changing
like energy and like atabolic and motivational levels during the
colder months. So it's basically saying, if you're someone who
rolls out of bed every day of the year at
six am, you do you hit your high intensity type
workout that might not be favoring you in winter. And
(02:13):
I'm somebody who very much is a morning workout person.
If I don't work out in the morning, it just
doesn't happen. With two tiny humans, David and I go together.
We put the kids in the crage. We know they're happy,
they get to play, they watch a bit of TV.
We do our workout. We can still see them from
the gym floor, and then we're done and everybody goes home.
Go one of the days where I could, you know,
wander down to the gym whatever time I like. With
my flexible working from home schedule, own own business, it
(02:36):
just doesn't happen. So if we don't do our workout
together in the morning, it doesn't happen. So I'm a
big morning workout person, but I know that for a
lot of people they aren't. Other people are very rigid
with that morning schedule. But the article is basically highlighting
that during the winter months, some and it says like
so called experts, and then you look at the experts
in the article and it's basically like TikTokers. So they're
(02:57):
not what I would call the true expert, but there
are one or to sort of exercise physiologist who have
also been talking about this kind of thing, which I
would say is a true expert.
Speaker 4 (03:05):
But basically it's just.
Speaker 3 (03:06):
A couple of girls online on TikTok giving their opinion
about the winter fitness routine and basically saying that we
should be going towards more strength based workouts versus cardio
workouts in the middle of winter because it's just better
from a muscle and a metabolic perspective, And that is true.
Speaker 4 (03:21):
That actually has nothing to do with winter.
Speaker 3 (03:23):
I think resistance and strength based training is very important
from a metabolic and a muscle irrespective of the seasons,
So it doesn't really matter if it's winter or summer
or spring. I think resistance space training is very important.
But it is saying that if you're someone who gets
up at the crack of dawn, whether that's four or
thirty five o'clock six am, and you roll out of bed,
it's super cold, and you're trying to flog your body
(03:45):
through these high intensity workouts day after day after day,
perhaps you should rethink that and lower the intensity in
winter and focus more on resistance based exercise. So I
don't think it's a bad message. It's not black or white.
I think resistance based training is very very important. We
know that there is research that shows about two to
three times a week is very important from a muscle perspective,
(04:07):
a metabolic perspective, and a bone strength perspective as well.
But it's also not to say that you can't do
high intensity training during winter. But I think it's a
good article that just highlights like, don't just go through
the run of the motion every morning, the same kind
of workout at the same time each day, because particularly
if the goal is some body composition changes or some
(04:28):
fat loss changes, the body does well shaking up the
routine a little bit. So sometimes training at a different time,
changing up your exercise routine. If you're a runner, get
into the gym and do some strength training. If strength
training is all that you do, perhaps try some conditioning.
Try a couple of, you know, one to two a
week sessions of some high intensity stuff. It doesn't matter
what the season is. But I think the most practical
(04:50):
advice for listeners is to balance your exercise sessions out
and to ensure that every couple of months, you're actually
changing up what the body is doing because the body
does get very used to a very similar type of training.
And so I think if you are chasing those performance
based goals, and you are chasing some of those bodycop goals,
it's important to not only stay consistent, but to also
(05:11):
change up your exercise sessions as well. And winter is
a really ideal time to do that. If you've been
thinking about, you know, building a bit of muscle, it
is nicer to you know, do that in a gym,
or do that inside versus always doing running outside. When
it's a little bit in the cooler months, it is
easier to do an inside workout. But don't also be
fueled by I've got a lot of clients at the moment,
(05:31):
who are you know, stopping their running for like four
to five reformer Plata sessions a week. And although that's great,
it's good movement, reformer plats is not resistance or strength
based exercise. It's not going to grow your muscles, it's
not going to you know, assist really with that bone
mineral density. It's okay a couple of times a week,
but it's not what you would traditionally call resistance or
strength based exercise, so my exercise physiologist tells me, So
(05:53):
it's a good mix of things that we want to have,
but don't feel like you need to punish yourself by
rolling out of better five six am throughout winter when
it is very cold. And I can say that even
in Brisbane because people normally tease me in Brisbane and
they say it doesn't get that cold. We've had quite
a few eight degree mornings here, Susie recently. And I
did come to Sydney last week and I woke up
and it was eight degrees and I check the weather up, thinking,
(06:15):
oh do I bring my coach?
Speaker 4 (06:16):
It was ten degrees in Sydney.
Speaker 3 (06:17):
So you know, it does get cool in Brisbane occasionally.
So it is nice if we can do some more
of those indoor workouts during winter. But I think the
key point of the article was basically, listen to your
body if it needs to sleep, and have a sleep in.
If you're not feeling like that high intensity conditioning type
exercise all of the time, take it down a couple
of notches.
Speaker 4 (06:37):
Focus on building the.
Speaker 3 (06:38):
Muscle, preserving some of that muscle mass which starts to
naturally decline. Really quickly past the age of forty as well,
and just really stay consistent during winter. A lot of
people find exercise pretty easy during spring and summer, but
a lot of people will back off a lot during
winter because it is quite cold, and so really find
something that you enjoy and you can be consistent with
this time of the year.
Speaker 4 (07:00):
Yeah.
Speaker 1 (07:00):
I think the thing with exercise is we're kind of
programmed to believe that you're better, a better human if
you get up early, exercise, start your day on the
right track.
Speaker 2 (07:11):
And it's like an idealism.
Speaker 1 (07:13):
You know, you often see those articles online, you know,
CEOs get up at five am, the five Am Club,
Like it's kind of that aspirational approach to life and
how we should be now. I think for women, and
let's be honest, ninety eight percent of our listeners are women.
I think when you're younger and you don't have a
lot of family responsibilities, you know, you're just going to work,
(07:35):
You're caring for yourself. Sure, you know you've probably got
a lot more energy. You can start up late, you
can get up early, you can go to the gym.
I think what changes is that as women move through
the lifespan, the demands tend to become a lot higher.
So first of all, you might be having children, of
course there's a lot of pressure on your body. You
might end up in a split family where you're a
sole parent. You might also be caring for other family members.
(07:57):
So for poor women, the pressure and demands just more
and more and more greater and greater and greater. And
that we still hold that belief that we should be
getting up early and exercising. And I think you know,
whether it's between the ages of thirty and fifty or
forty and sixty, whatever it is, when you're basically doing
three or four different jobs, I would just take the
pressure off and across the belief because the best time,
(08:19):
as we've said Leanne to exercise is when you're going
to do it, and it's specificity of training as well
as particularly as you get older, so you are much better.
For example, beyond the age of forty to go into
a twenty minute hit session. Then you are to walk
for an hour in the cold, but think that you're
virtuous because you're doing it at six am. So I
think it comes back to really looking at yourself and
(08:40):
being smart with how you use that time, and you know,
being really efficient with it and shift some of those
beliefs that you are a better human because you get
up at five or six am, because we're just different physiologically.
And to have the privilege of time where you can
do whatever you like and not have to worry about
other people fantastic. But it's not for everyone, and we
certainly shouldn't be feeling guilty around that because I am
(09:02):
constantly listening to women talking about the things they should
be doing and adding more and more and more onto
their schedule.
Speaker 2 (09:07):
But I agree with you.
Speaker 1 (09:08):
A standout feature of clients that I'm seeing is I'll
ask them what their exercise or movements like, and they'll
first of all say pilarates. Now, polarates is beautiful, it's
lovely for muscle lines, but it is quite time consuming,
you know, going to pilarates, you've got to get there,
You go to spend an hour. That's almost two hours
of time when you could do a twenty thirty minute
workout and get just a better calorie burn in many cases.
(09:30):
So I think we do have to be smart with
the limited time many of us have. And so first
of all, don't feel guilty if it's not five six am.
But really look and say, right, I'm dedicating three hours
a week to polarates, and maybe I should dedicate one
hour and then do something else the other time to
get the changes and results, because basically the same as
our diet and diet changes. If nothing's changing, nothing's changing.
(09:52):
And if you're doing all that pilates or whatever your
choice of exercise is even going to the gym, and
you're not getting the results or changes, it's time to
mix it up. So I think it's good to have
a bit of a review of what you're doing and
really be strict with your time. And so I've only
got two or three hours a week to train or exercise.
What is going to give me the best bang for
my buck with that very limited time?
Speaker 2 (10:12):
All right, Leanne Well.
Speaker 1 (10:13):
I had to have a moment this week when I
saw a blazing diet headline that talked about diets in acidity.
Because as dietitians, for many, many years, we've often said
that diets that promote an alkaline style of eating, or
supplements that promote alcohalized approaches a BS, you know, there's
no evidence to show that they're beneficial. So when I
(10:35):
saw this and a new research paper that's been published
in front AIDS and Nutrition, which is quite a respectable journal.
Speaker 2 (10:40):
I was like, oh my god, what is going on.
Speaker 1 (10:42):
So this is a new randomized control trial, which is
actually I would normally swear here because I'm a bit
of a swear bear, But it's really frigging interesting, is
what I would say. Like, I haven't seen data like
this in my entire career, so I thought it was
worth a bit of a review and taking a bit
of a deep dive, and we will deep dive it.
It is a little bit more complicated than just alkalizing diets,
(11:03):
so of course they've headlined it as you describe diet
acidity is at the answer to weight loss, and it's
not quite the case. So this is very very new research,
and you can certainly look up the article itself to
get the deep sort of insight into it. But it
was proposing that foods that are high in acidity are
(11:25):
associated with chronic inflammation, which impacts metabolism and may contribute
to weight gain. So this was the hypothesis of the
researchers and the participants in the study, which went across
sixteen weeks four months.
Speaker 2 (11:38):
They compared in RCT.
Speaker 1 (11:41):
A Mediterranean style of eating which was high and fruit, vegetables,
high in good fats, less dairy, less red meat, very
little processed food, and they compared that to a low
fat vegan diet. Now, I want to be very clear
that a low fat vegan diet is pretty simple. We're
(12:03):
talking no dairy, no meat, no seafood. You're basically eating grains, quinoir, legumes, beans, vegetables, fruits, avocado,
olive oil, very simple food. So tofu one hundred percent
vegan and loaf fat. So on one hand, to eat
(12:23):
vegan is not always so easy. But to also have
loaf fat vegan, that's pretty strict because that's not a
lot of oil, that's not a lot of avocado either.
That's basically like veggies and beans in a bowl. So
that's what they compared it to, which I think would
be a very difficult diet to follow, but they got
actually really interesting results.
Speaker 2 (12:43):
So it was.
Speaker 1 (12:43):
Sixty two overweight adults and they were asked to follow
the Mediterranean approach or the loafat vegan. Now it wasn't
calorie restricted, they weren't on like a diet plan. There
was merely assigned to different styles of eating and had
to record everything they found, and over the four months
that the Mediterranean eaters had.
Speaker 2 (13:03):
No weight loss, no significant weight loss.
Speaker 1 (13:06):
Whereas the vegan approach had a six kilo weight loss
over four months. Now that's not insignificant, but it's certainly
not on the high scale. You know, Leanna and I've
spoken before, if we had clients for four months, we'd
be looking at close to ten kilos. And I was
surprised because I really struggle to believe people could be
diet compliant to that strict vegan diet for that long.
But anyway, but what is really important for our listeners
(13:29):
to understand is that when you eat foods that are
what they call not acidic or not inflammatory, so processed foods, meat, dairy,
it doesn't change your pH that is very tightly regulated
by the kidneys. But what the researchers believe is going
on is that basically inflammation was reduced as a result
of eating less of those process type foods, So it
(13:52):
wasn't even though the acidity scores were reduced, it wasn't
specifically that They think it's an indirect effect of the
level of acidity and basically eating a very clean diet
that's very quite a low calorie it's sort of like
the old pretticken diet of the nineteen eighties for anyone
who's old enough to remember that. So they did measures
of dietary acidity through the kidneys rather than just pH
(14:14):
and certainly the reduction in those acidic loads was significantly
associated with directions in body weight and inflammatory markers in
the body. So I've got some thoughts on it. First
of all, I think it's confusing because you have someone
like supermodels who have alcohalizing supplements and they mislead people
about what they're about. To me, it's not an effect
(14:36):
of acidity. It's an effect of a diet that's got
no ultra processed food and.
Speaker 2 (14:40):
No animal food in it.
Speaker 1 (14:42):
And I think that's great to know that if you
eat a bowl of beans and brown rice like a Buddha,
that you're going to be healthier. But I just think
it's not like, who's eating that lean every four months,
no steaks, no chicken, no coffees with milk for four months.
Speaker 2 (15:01):
That's a pretty bland diet.
Speaker 1 (15:03):
Man. I feel like you have to go and live
in a temple for four months and you'll be healthier anyway,
I would miss my cheese. It's interesting, but I reckon
I can get good results but still leave a few
cheekies in there, like some cheese and some chicken.
Speaker 2 (15:16):
I don't know, what do you reckon?
Speaker 3 (15:17):
Yeah, I found it very interesting like you, and I
read it and I was like, oh, I need to
go I need to dive into this further. Because when
I said, you know, true plant based vegan diet versus
Mediterranean diet, we know Mediterranean diet is one of the
most researched and effective dietary pattern in the world. Particularly
there have been many studies that it reduces inflammation as well.
So what I thought, I was like, what is this
Mediterranean diet? But then it was basically suggesting that it's
(15:41):
it's foods that like meat, eggs, cheese.
Speaker 4 (15:43):
Process foods.
Speaker 3 (15:44):
And when I first read that, I was like, okay,
so they're doing a vegan diet compared to like a
Kido diet. But then they were like Mediterranean diets, So
I just kind of think, what was this Mediterranean diet
that they were giving them. They didn't sort of break
that down, but I think it was more meat and
cheese and eggs than a traditional Mediterranean diet actually would
be because a traditional Mediterranean diet actually has very little
(16:05):
meat and exitit, and it does have quite a lot
of more vegetarian and vegan based meals as well, and
even the dairy load isn't significantly high and a true
Mediterranean style diet, so I don't think it was really
fully plant based vegan versus a true traditional Mediterranean diet.
I would say it's more like a Western style, do
what you.
Speaker 4 (16:23):
Wan Mediterranean diet.
Speaker 3 (16:25):
But like you, I think it's great that it showed that,
you know, participants lost weight, and great that it showed
that some of the acidity loads had come down. But
of course, like you're basically just eating fruits, vegetables, beans, legumes,
and grains, like Susie said, so if you didn't see
significant change in health markers and sixty two overweight people,
I would be very very concerned. So I'm not surprised,
(16:49):
But also like you, I would think that it is
very very difficult for ninety eight percent of the population,
myself and yourself included, to just basically eat fruits, vegetables
and beans. Term I think a lot of people could
probably do that from a diet compliant perspective for a
couple of weeks, maybe a few months, and highly motivated people.
But we have enough struggles getting our clients to stick
(17:11):
to really well balanced, you know, healthy eating patterns which
do include a few treats rather than taking all.
Speaker 4 (17:18):
That away as well.
Speaker 3 (17:19):
So I think it's it's interesting, but is it practical.
Probably not, But it just heightens the research bulk that
we have that shows that are you know, the more
plants and whole foods that you eat, the better it is.
And funnily enough, my husband David was watching the news
headlines this morning and he started like scoffing, and I
was like, what are you laughing at? And he's like, oh,
the headline says it's you know, ultra processed foods lead
(17:42):
to weight gain, and he's laughing because he's like, everybody
knows that. And I'm like, people might know that, but
they don't actively look to reduce the amount of ultra
process foods in their diet.
Speaker 4 (17:51):
It's not new research.
Speaker 3 (17:52):
We know that ult process foods aren't good for us,
yet people continue to eat them. So it's one thing
to have the research to show that ultra process foods
aren't good. Too much meat, eggs, dairy isn't good. Too
much processed foods aren't good. And a fully big in
diet is better. But practically, how do we get people
to actually adopt that? You know what I do with
my clients, I think that small and consistent beanza, So
(18:15):
you know, start with like plant based Monday, or start
with you know, fake away Friday where you do your
favorite takeaway but in a vegetarian form. So just start
with one or two days a week where you're really
eating really great whole foods, unprocessed foods. You know, lots
of plants and vegetables and legumes and whole grains. And
start with that, just one to two days a week
(18:36):
and see how you feel. Because it's all well and
good to tell people to do that every single day
for four months straight and you might get a six
kilo weight loss, But I doubt a lot of people
could actually do that forever.
Speaker 4 (18:46):
I hand on my heart could not. I would miss
my cheese.
Speaker 1 (18:51):
A day in the life would be so I fruit
salad to breakfast or maybe some baked beans on toast.
Speaker 2 (18:56):
Then lunch would be like a quinoir.
Speaker 3 (18:57):
But is that process like it's bread and baked beans
considered process food.
Speaker 4 (19:01):
Do you know what I mean?
Speaker 1 (19:02):
It was low fat ve not processed. No, no, low
fat vegan, low fat vegan. And then lunch would be
kinwar and salad, and then dinner would.
Speaker 2 (19:12):
Be handful of nuts, and then dinner would be chickpea curry. Yeah,
I don't know, it's a lot of vegetarian food.
Speaker 1 (19:20):
Like I'm like you, I think just increasing the bulk
is smart, you know, having a I like a light
day of eating each week.
Speaker 2 (19:26):
I feel like we have at least one or two
heavy days.
Speaker 1 (19:29):
I think a light day where you have just you know,
light fruit salad for breakfast, a salad for lunch, and
a soup or vegie sturf for dinner.
Speaker 2 (19:37):
I think there's nothing.
Speaker 1 (19:37):
Wrong with that, and you'll feel pretty good doing it
as well. So yeah, I've thought it interesting though, because
that was the first time I've ever seen a giant
headline on acidity in a positive.
Speaker 2 (19:46):
Way, and I was like, whoa, what is going on
in the world. So it was very interesting. So have
a look online if you're interested. The whole story is there.
Speaker 1 (19:53):
But Leanne, I've given you a product of the week
this week you're gonna like it. I've given you a
whole section on Leanne's favorite tato time off your potatoes.
Speaker 3 (20:02):
And we were saying this on the last podcast as
soon as you couldn't believe me. It's like whipped a
man in my freezer. I took a photo. I sent
her it and she's like done, we'll talk about it
next week. And every time I put these on my stories,
like my two little girls, they're only three and two,
they're obsessed with potato tots and we call them potato
gems in our household, will apparently calls them potato minis,
whatever you want to call them. I'm sure the majority
of us we have I've got my mum's Malaysian. We
(20:24):
still grew up with potato gems in the household. So
I think they're a real ossy staple. And honestly they're
not as bad as people think they are. Like my
Instagram dms blow up every time I put these on
my stories, like.
Speaker 4 (20:35):
Aren't they bad? Aren't they processed? What's the best brand?
How many can you eat? Am I allowed to eat
them and lose weight? Even my clients like they look delicious?
Can I eat these?
Speaker 3 (20:44):
I'm like, yeah, sure, there's so many I guess benefits
of the potato. And yes they're a little bit process,
they've got a bit of oil, they've got a bit
of salt. But these are hands down better than some
of the frozen chips on the market. If you were
to make your own at home, would it be better. Yes,
But all these nutritionals that I'm about to go over, honestly,
I could not beat them, and I hands down by
(21:05):
them myself. I don't have time to shape these little
potato gems in my kitchen at home. I literally just
don't have the time, and so I think that these
are a really great product. So one of the best
I've found on the market is the wool Worst home brand.
So where we can, we will always suggest the best
quality product, and when it is the cheaper version, it's
the home brand version. Like tic tikticks all around, it's
always going to be good from a budget perspective compared
(21:27):
to some of the more expensive brands. So this is
the wool Worst Potato minis a kilo bag at an
everyday low price. So Woo wearst tells me of five
dollars eighty So five dollars eighty for a kilo potato
gems is pretty reasonable, like a kilo bag lasts as
well over a week, because obviously we don't use them
every day. Ingredient wise, you've got ninety one percent potato.
(21:48):
Some of the potato chips on the market, even some
of the sweet potato chips are only about seventy to
eighty percent potato because a lot of that is oil
and coating and a bit of batter and stuff as well.
So ninety one percent potato is pretty much as good
as you're going to get from a frozen chip or
a frozen potato gen perspective, The next ingredient is canola oil, salt,
and dextrous.
Speaker 4 (22:07):
Four ingredients. That's it.
Speaker 3 (22:08):
A little bit of oil, a little bit of salt,
a little bit of dextrous.
Speaker 4 (22:11):
That's it.
Speaker 3 (22:12):
So pretty much like a winner in my books. And
then nutrition wise, luck you would expect for most potatoes
one hundred gram serving size, so there's ten servings per pack.
At one hundred grams, you've got about seven hundred kilodules
per serving, two grams of protein, eight point eight grams
of fat, with only one of that being saturated fat,
so a very low saturated fat product, just sh I
(22:32):
have twenty grams of carbs, so nineteen point six grams
of carbohydrate is serve, with only one gram of that
being naturally occurring sugar. Two point two grams of dietary fiber,
which is actually pretty good. You know, it's better if
their skins on the potato, absolutely, but still two point
two grams of dietary fiber, particularly for small children like
my Matilda's, only she's not even two yet, she's just
about to turn two. Two point two grams of dietary fiber.
(22:54):
Plus I'll give her a bit of black beans and
some veggies on the plate.
Speaker 4 (22:57):
It all adds up. It's a good amount.
Speaker 3 (22:59):
And the sodium is at quite low as well, two
hundred and twenty milligrams of sodium per one hundred grams.
So these are like a ten out of ten in
my book, Susie like, are they a slightly processed? Yes,
the taste is unreal. They're super satisfying. I put mine
on the air fry. You can also do them in
the oven. I put a handful in the air fry
between thirteen to fifteen minutes, depending on how crispy you
like them.
Speaker 4 (23:19):
I put it.
Speaker 3 (23:19):
I had a touch more salt for myself personally, sometimes
a few rosemary flakes. But they go down an absolute
treat and we would have them a couple of times
a week in my household. Sometimes we do salmon, potato
gems and veggies. Sometimes we might do a bit of steak,
a bit of broccoli and some veggies. Sometimes we might
just do a salad kid, a couple of potato gems
and some grilled fish or something. So they're on high
rotation in my household. My kids absolutely love them. They
(23:42):
only have a handful, they might have four or five
on their plate, but yeah, I think that they're an
absolute winner. I think that they help my clients be
quite diet compliant as well, like compliant with their meal plans,
because they do add that extra level of satisfaction and taste.
Speaker 4 (23:55):
I reckon your boys would like.
Speaker 2 (23:56):
Them too well.
Speaker 1 (23:57):
And I've just been down to Cole's and I've because
I was thinking what am I going to give the
boys tonight.
Speaker 2 (24:03):
I don't have many veggies, and I thought, oh, I'm
going to get Liam's potato gems.
Speaker 4 (24:07):
So I got.
Speaker 1 (24:08):
I didn't know it to clothes. I didn't have a
home brand one, but I bought the main one. It's
like six point eighty for a big packet, so we're
going to give them a whirl. But to me, that's
just a classic example of foods that you think aren't healthier.
Actually okay, because I was going to say to you,
what's the fiber like, and it's actually better than I thought.
Because just recently I did a review on margarine and
(24:29):
spreads and I didn't want to do it because I
didn't want to be like, these are healthier, because ultimately
nothing is healthy about margarine. But what surprised me most
of all was the home brand varieties, the cheapest ones,
like the two dollars per container with some of the
better ones. Nutritionally they had the least saturated fat overall,
and they were a lot cheaper. So that just shows
(24:50):
about the intricacy of nutrition and why sometimes you do
need some pretty in depth analysis. But to help you, guys,
we are about to relaunch our product guide. So three
years ago, so we launched an e product guide which
sold because gang Busters, Leanne and I were just shocked.
Speaker 2 (25:05):
We traveled to Europe for three months off the profit.
Speaker 1 (25:07):
So it was incredibly successful, and I think it's because
people were like, yes, just tell me what to have.
But what we've done differently this time, and I'm busy
beavering away at it at the moment, is we've done
the top two hundred supermarket products. So if there's like
six yogurts, there's like multiple products in category, not just two,
which we did last time. So and to be honestly,
(25:29):
and after going through the supermarket myself and getting the products,
I was pretty pushed to get more than two hundred.
There's roughly about two hundred products in supermarket that I
think are healthy. The rest I just would ditch. So
I haven't sent the finalist to Leanne yet to Peru's.
But it's actually interesting because there's a lot of noise
in supermarket with crap, and really we've just honed in
on the two hundred best across every category. And we've
(25:51):
also got a section on gluten free and audi so
watch this space.
Speaker 2 (25:55):
I'm hoping to have it out in the next couple
of weeks.
Speaker 1 (25:56):
And if you're a supermarket shopper and just want to
know what to buy, hopefully we've taken that guesswork because
the other thing they land is how small are the
labels you can't even read them, Like, who's got that
kind of time? Like I didn't know potato gems were good,
you know. So hopefully we're going to make things a
lot easier for listeners in terms of being at the supermarket.
Speaker 2 (26:14):
So I watch this space all right.
Speaker 1 (26:16):
Speaking of rich, I listen to a question from our instagram
today about what are the best pre made meals in supermarket?
And this is a fascinating area land because it's growing
every week. Every week there are new frozen meals, new
fresh meals across the board, and there are sort of
in general they're improving nutritionally, but there's certainly some still
(26:36):
some differences. So the first thing I would say is
any product that you see that has a pastor or
rice base, particularly the cheaper frozen meals across sort of
the basic coals. All these brand or bigger brands like McCain,
they're not great nutritionally generally. They're usually are very very
high carbohydrate. They've got forty to sixty grams of car
(26:57):
per serve, and even though they're relatively cheap, might get
ten twelve fifteen grams of protein, which is probably about
half what you really need from a well balanced meal,
so you do sort of get what you pay for
in those categories. Then you've got this more boutique sort
of offering coming through, which is certainly a high price point.
Speaker 2 (27:15):
You know.
Speaker 1 (27:15):
They retail between seven to ten dollars per serve, and
they're things like the Strength Meals co the Coals Perform range,
and indeed they're higher protein, they're generally better. They're probably
my standout favorites. I particularly like the Coals Perform. I
think that it comes on sale three for twenty one.
They're nice meals. They've got a good amount of carbohydroten protein,
(27:37):
similar to the Ald couple, which are in the fit range.
Now they don't have a lot in that they've only
got two or three skews, but they are nutritionally superior.
But probably the ones I wanted to speak about a
bit more in detail today was the growing range of
fresh meals. So there's obviously frozen, but you'll also notice
sort of in the near the meat section, there is
a couple in both Coals and Woolies and a few
(27:59):
other brands. I think Strength Meals Coal also have some,
but my favorite ones at the moment Leanne are the
Coals and Woolies meat and veggie mixes, because if you
have a dish like chicken in parmesan with potatoes, they're
still much higher in protein generally than any of the
other mixed dishes, So even though you're paying between nine
(28:23):
and even eleven dollars for them, they're actually pretty good.
There's a salmon, potato and peas, there's a proshuoter wraped chicken,
and Woolies Coals have a few as well, So I
sort of would be moving towards that the protein and
veggie mix even though it's costs a little bit more,
they're really actually pretty strong nutritionally. And then second to that,
i'd go the coals Perform or maybe a Strength Meals
(28:45):
company are sort of the best ones at the moment
in general, and I think if you like them, they
can be really helpful. The other products Land and I
like us sort of the tuna pouches. I think they're
great meals to have on the run, especially for people traveling.
You can throw it into your own nightcase and you've
got to back up meal or long live soups. But yeah,
they're sort of my standout the protein and veggie mixes,
(29:06):
And we might review one in a couple of weeks.
But yeah, they're retailing between nine and eleven dollars. But
they're really pretty good nutritionally. It's basically a chicken breast
and some veggies and a bit of seasoning on it,
and they're pretty strong nutritionally, about four hundred calories, thirty
grands of protein, twenty thirty grams of car I do
like them. I hope they sell and they keep them
in the market. Have you seen any that you like
(29:26):
at the moment, I'm like you.
Speaker 3 (29:28):
My favorite at Wallas is generally the Strength Meals Go,
and my favorite at Coals are generally the Coals Perform range,
because I know that Coals hires a sports dietitian to
develop that range and the other big ones I personally
eat myself, and I recommend sometimes for clients who were
just busy and time pushed, the long Life soup. So
I'm not a huge range of the fresh soops. This
summer two years ago, nearly when I had Tilly, I
(29:49):
had her in the middle of winter. I heavily relied
on those fresh soops that I was just heating up
nearly every day, having them with a slice of my
berg and so Lynn like I'd had that three, four
or five times a week sometimes and I was early
postpartum and just wanted.
Speaker 4 (30:01):
To hot meal. I can't find many fresh.
Speaker 3 (30:04):
Soups on the market that I really like nutritionally this year. Unfortunately.
They're just they're not as strong as they were a
few years ago. So I'm more leaning towards the long
Life seeps.
Speaker 2 (30:12):
The tango has been taken off the market. There's no
potango that.
Speaker 3 (30:16):
Wasn't overly high in protein here that it was good
from an I went high. Yeah, yeah, anyway, so I
don't find the fresh ones as good. I find that
the ones in the Long Life soup isle and the
pouches are far better nutritionally and far better ingredient wise
these days. But also don't go past a roast chook.
Like I had a client the other day who got
stuck at her son is in a big training camp.
(30:37):
He's like, you know, quite good at the sport that
he plays, and then he get home till like seven
thirty and she's like, I've got five minutes and running
past the shops, what do I get? I said, get
a roast chicken, get a salad bag, get some potato gems.
Speaker 4 (30:47):
Dumb.
Speaker 3 (30:48):
She got home and dinner was on the table in
fifteen minutes. So don't discount a roast chook. If the
goal is fat lost, try to get rid of the
majority of the skin and stick to the chicken breast.
But a bit of chicken breast, a bit of salad,
a couple of potato gems. You have a knowing meal
on the table for about you know, twenty twenty five
dollars with leftovers in you know, ten to fifteen minutes.
That's it, Like it's it goes a long way a
roast chook. I mean, he's quite cost.
Speaker 1 (31:09):
Effective too, especially I just put one today actually because
my dog Taco just loves it when we get a
roast chicken. But I also like it now because I
think they're between twelve and thirteen dollars. They used to
be like ten, but if you get the ones that
are a bit older, sometimes they discount them like to
six dollars.
Speaker 4 (31:25):
Yeah, yeah, we're gonna eat them on the day.
Speaker 2 (31:26):
Yeah, and costcos chickens are only six bucks. How good's that?
Speaker 1 (31:29):
So they can be quite cost effective, particularly at the
moment when the cost of living is so high and
well looking at getting enough protein at lunches. You're a
million times better to use the chicken breasts from that
than ham or turkey, So yeah, I'm with you.
Speaker 2 (31:42):
I think they can be a great option.
Speaker 1 (31:43):
Or you can also if you get super organized, just
buy a couple of cheap chooks like the six dollar
frozen or ones and then cook them for lunches too.
That can be quite a cost effective lunch option on
the weekend. To stick it in the oven or the
air fryer, and you've got your chicken meat for lunches,
and you can give the kids the thigh or the wing,
and then you just have the breast. So yeah, all right.
We could just muse about these things all day, can we?
(32:04):
Land But brings us to the end of another episode
of the Nutrition Couch. If you like our content and
would like to see more of us, we are hosting
a retreat at the end of October beginning of November
in gorgeous Kingscliff and we would love to see you
there to reinvigorate your approach to nutrition. Have a nice
weekend away without the family, just immerse in some activity
and some sun and some nice meals and come and
(32:26):
see us and we'll sort your diet out. So have
a look at the nutritioncouch dot com for that or
actually is that is an email admin at the nutritioncouch
dot com. Don't have a look on the website you
won't find it.
Speaker 2 (32:36):
Admin at the nutritioncouch dot com.
Speaker 1 (32:38):
And we will see you next Wednesday for our regular
episode drop catch you guys next week
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