If you watched the ABC Four Corners food fraud documentary and felt unsettled but were not quite sure what to do with the information, this episode is going to help. Leanne and Susie cut through the noise, share their honest dietitian response to what was actually alarming versus what was sensationalised, and give you the practical takeaways that matter.
Then they expose one of the most misleading supermarket product launches in recent memory, and explain something most women who exercise regularly do not want to hear: the workouts you are calling strength training probably are not.
In this episode:
- The ABC Four Corners documentary Duped: what Leanne and Susie actually think, what the investigation got right about tomato products and country of origin claims, why supermarkets and food regulators are equally responsible for the lack of accountability, and what you can practically do to reduce your exposure
- Why claims of Australian-made or Italian-grown do not always mean what you think they mean, and which food categories are most likely to be affected by supply chain substitution
- The xanthan gum research: a new study linking this common food additive to mild colon inflammation and changes to the gut microbiome in animal models, what a large French cohort study of over 100,000 adults found about emulsifier intake and cancer risk, and who specifically should be paying closer attention to this ingredient
- Primo's new High Protein Ham range exposed: how they appear to have increased the protein content without meaningfully changing the product, why the World Health Organization classifies processed red meat as a carcinogen, and the much cheaper and far better protein sources Leanne and Susie recommend instead
- Why going to the gym and lifting weights is not the same as strength training, what progressive overload actually means and why most women are not doing it, and why Pilates with one-kilo dumbbells is not building the bone density and muscle mass the guidelines are recommending
The bone health case for proper strength training: how mechanical load stimulates osteoblasts to lay down new bone, why this matters more from your 40s onward as estrogen declines, and the most practical way to get started if you genuinely do not know whether you are doing enough
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
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Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:02):
If you pay any attention to the media cycle, you
may have seen the clips or even watched the recent
Four Corners review of the food labeling issues in Australia
and naturally, Leanne and I have some thoughts to share.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Hi.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
I'm Susie Burrell and I'm Leanne Wood, and together we
bring you The Nutrition Couch, the weekly podcast that keeps
you up to date with everything you need to know
in the world of nutrition, as well as food labeling issues.
We have some new research on gut cancers and a
particular food additive. We have another high protein supermarket food
to review. And our listener question is all about strength training.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Oh, Leanne, lean Leani.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
And when I was a young dietitian, I would routinely
tune into nutrition documentaries and anything in the media. And now,
to be honest, I watched the block, So I've certainly
reached my limit of information, but certainly on social media,
I came across several clips on the recent Four Corners
(00:59):
two part series juped about some food fraud investigations. So
I was also lecturing to some students this morning and
I had to chat to them about it, and then
it lured me in and I have watched it, and
I believe you have also watched a fair whack of it.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
You did you see it online too?
Speaker 3 (01:17):
One of my dieticians actually posted yesterday and our little
Dietitian group chat and she was like, everybody has to
watch this today, and so I clicked through it, and
I flicked through it yesterday and with an article you sents.
But I haven't got all the way through it just yet.
But it's certainly interesting. That's that's one word for it.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
Yeah, it's certainly I've got thoughts, and you know I
do have thoughts. So I did sort of lure myself
in and watch the first one, I think the first one,
and they're an hour long. I found the first one.
First of all, you can just google it and watch
it online. That's how I watched it on iView, so
they're freely available. If you're in your Telly, you can
find it in iView. No drama. So the first thing
I'd say is that I think the first one is
(01:53):
much better than the second. I actually really sort of
scan through the second one. To me, it's very classic
of a inflammatory documentary in the sense that the person
putting it together is not a scientist, So it's very jumpy.
There's actually a lot of things covered. So the first
thing covered is issues in supply chain transparency and accuracy,
(02:16):
which leads to some misleading products in supermarket. Then it
jumps to food labeling confusion. Then there's issues relating health
star ratings, and then the second one is really about
chocolate and labor issues and slave labor being you. So
to me, it's very jumpy. There's a lot going on.
If I'm pulling out the things relevant to myself to
(02:37):
you as communicators of nutrition in Australia, I think the
things that alarm me most but were also surprising was
the first section about tomato products in particular. So what
they've done is have some of these products tested in
a lab and said, basically they're stating on the front
sourced Italian tomatoes Australian tomato, and they can track from
(03:02):
the biochemistry under the microscope that actually they're often or
can be Chinese or mixed blends of tomatoes. So on
one hand, they're marketing to be Australian or international Italian
tomatoes and they're mixed hybrids. And the premise of this
is that within big food organizations there's so many supply
chain opportunities for dupes, for people to mix in bland,
(03:27):
the same as you know olive oil that comes from
International olive oil, where they'll use last year's bland and
this year's bland to create their extra version, which is
why it's LAWA and antioxidants and Australian extra virgin olive oil.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
The same is basically happening.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
And it doesn't surprise me one bit land because this
is the issue in food. There's no transparency and there's
four hundred suppliers and if two are doing it, it
contaminates the supply, like the bulk of food moving through
is so great.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
And the interesting point that's.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
Raised is that the food regulatory authorities in New South
Australia are much more interested and their resources are sent
to food safety than they are about labeling and misleading information.
So that doesn't surprise me. It's a bureaucracy. Bureaucracy is
notoriously inefficient. Look at Health Star ratings. We've known there's
issues with those for at least eight years, and nothing's happened.
(04:17):
Everyone works very very slowly, and in government bureaucracy, what's happened?
They're worried about people getting sick from food, and rightly so,
but perhaps resources are not sent across to checking if
it says product of Australia or product of itically, is
it actually that. What I found fascinating was when these
results were presented to food industry and supermarkets. What should
(04:39):
happen is if a major supermarket chain is alerted to
the fact that scientists have found these products say they're
from Italy and they're not, or these products say they're
from Australia and they're not. Straight away the supermarket should
be like, right, that product's out until you can prove
to us that this is Australian because you are marketing
and selling through our channelste on that. But of course,
(05:02):
alarmingly that didn't happen. The supermarkets and food industry said,
we refute these claims, well, I hate to tell you.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
It's science.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
This is where it says I don't agree or you
don't get to agree. The science is saying these tomatoes
are from China. There's black and white.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
So the concern for.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
Me is one, it's no surprise that food bureaucracy is
behind the April. This is no surprise government agency generally
often too too slow to do anything. We know that
from supplements, there's heaps and misleading stuff on supplements just
flies by the way, so even if people complain, it
takes years, and by that time this product doesn't even exist.
To inefficiency in government agency and resources. Number two, supermarket
(05:40):
with all the power in the world and food industry,
they're selling product. They say, we don't agree, and that's it.
That's all they have to do. They're not answerable, so
they can actually do what they like. They don't actually
care that you're perhaps buying tomatoes or tomato paste it's
from China, and it says it's from Italy because they're
selling ten thousand units a week and making plenty of cash.
So that's the second and third issue. Food industry obviously
have enough accountability to supply chain or enough motivation to
(06:03):
be checking it properly or to have to act on
this data, which is science. It's not subjective. I think
it's from China. It's the science is telling you it's
from China. And then supermarket says, we know do what
they want, so they say we don't agree, and that's it.
So there's no accountability. So you can see how it evolves.
So that was sort of my first take home message.
(06:23):
It doesn't surprise me. This is where the missing links
are what. And then the second thing that was relevant
to us Lean is something that we've talked about for
quite some time. The issue with ultra process food, in
particular snack bars snack food mark which are ultra process
food masquerading is healthy with labeling like natural one hundred
(06:45):
percent and all full of all the ultra process ingredients.
We have spoken about the healthy maskerade and I don't
want to name products, but it's anything that looks and
sounds super healthy, low carb, high protein, and an ingredient list.
While long it's an ultra process food, it links to
the fact that any ultra process food should not have
more than one or two Health Star ratings. This is
just basic common sense. And again the Health Star rating
(07:05):
system is so slow they can't even.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
Get that right.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
So it didn't surprise me. To me, the food labeling was, Yeah,
we've known that for quite some time. This isn't groundbreaking.
The issue is again to do with food industry moving
more quickly than government regulation and bureaucracy, and second to that,
supermarkets allowing it to happen because they're the ones who
can actually say to food production, no we're not taking
(07:29):
that food because it's ultra processed.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
We need more.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
You know.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
They've got the power to do that.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
Their buyers are perhaps junior people who don't actually care
about nutrition.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
It's all about margins.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
So supermarkets to me have a much bigger role to play,
as do the Australian Food and Grocery Council, but there's
no need for them to do so and as such
they will just continue as they are. So that's we've
said that if it looks like an ultra process food
with a long ingredient list, it probably is your best
not to eat it. Going back to the country of origin,
the take home message from me is the more you
(07:59):
can miss my supply chain and buy local, when you
can buy Australian, you're going to be much less likely
to be exposed to this because if you don't have
your tomatoes coming from five different countries, there's going to
be less room for this kind of work to be
done in terms of subbing, in duping, changing it. But
the downside of that, Leanda is of course these products
(08:21):
austrain products are much more expensive you know, you can
buy tin of beans or tomatoes for eighty cents a
dollar the Australian or the organic or what three bucks,
so you pay for it. So I don't know what
the answer is other than it's not overly surprising. I
think there's a bigger issue at play here that needs
better regulation in Australia. Is it going to change? Probably not.
(08:42):
But when you are buying fresh produce, etc. You're probably
minimize risks by buying Australian if you can afford it.
And that's my argument with seafood, for example. You know,
people are very very quick to criticize farm fish, and
of course I do an ambassador fatatol and you can read,
you know, pages and pages of all the but at
least it's Australian. At least you know what's going on.
(09:03):
You know, we all have all this Vietnamese fish and
overseas fish. And that was one of the other findings
was that food provision for restaurants cafes will often say
there's no regulation, so it's a lot of it's coming
from overseas, even though it's marketed as Australian. Particularly it
was in the case of Prawn's so to me, particularly
with fresh produce. At least if you're getting locally grown
(09:24):
and sourced food, our regulations are tighter and better than
international generally. So that's one way or one option. But
as soon as you're exposed to overseas anything vegetables, fish,
frozen seafood, olive oil, there's going to be more variables,
which mean it's less likely to be as wholesome, pure natural,
you know, and say the labels because no one's really checking.
(09:46):
That's basically the take home message.
Speaker 3 (09:48):
Yeah, it was super interesting. And going back to the
part where they did a section and ultra processed foods,
they interviewed a man who was a He was a
food scientist like a food technologist, and he was essentially
saying that his role was to work with these companies
to find, well, was it the bliss point of food
that hits the perfect amount of like fat, salt, sugar
that just makes it absolutely irresistible to stop eating. And
(10:11):
this has always been the problem with ultra process foods,
and one of the main issues with obesity in Western
cultures is that we have an abundance of ultra processed foods.
It's one of many concerns but he was basically saying,
like his own moral compass, he got to a point
in his career he was like, what am I doing
and why am I working with these food companies because
we're making these sort of like horrendous types of foods
(10:31):
and we're feeding it to our children. And I won't
name a brand, but they showcased these yogurt chops which
were basically promoted to babies as young as ten months old,
and they were like seventy percent sugar, and parents at
a quick glance would look at the front of the label,
pick it up and just be like, oh, this is
a healthy product. I'm trying to make a good choice
for my children. And so it really brings us down
(10:52):
to the issue of it is so important to read
food labels, but not the front of the pack, the
back of the pack, the nutrition information panel there. And
I would have said the source of origin up until
this documentary SUSI, But what we now know is just
because it claims to be Australian made, it may not
be the case. I will say that it is very
important to kind of just reconfirm that this investigation, as
(11:16):
you said, was talking about sort of like origins of claim.
It wasn't talking about food safety, So this doesn't mean
that the Australian food supply is unsafe. What it really
raised concerns about was that some product, particularly they really
covered tin tomatoes, tomato pace, they were quite misleading in
terms of the country of origin. A lot of the
Australian made tomatoes weren't actually coming from Australia. They were
(11:38):
coming from parts of China which used a lot of
slave labor basically, which I don't think if people actually
knew that would be very happy with that. So a
lot of people consumers are paying a real premium price
but products that they believe are Australian made, they believe
they're supporting Australian farmers, Australian growers, but in many cases
they're actually not. So there's a huge gap in terms
(12:01):
of you know, labeling, verification, enforcement to consumer trust. Like
there's there's multiple multiple issues here and is it I
don't know, is it a lack of awareness, is it
a lack of funding. Does I like to think the
government cares? Do they not? Like there's just so many
issues here, But I do think that more transparency is important,
and I do think that they need to enforce this
(12:22):
somehow a lot better because it's not just tomatoes. They
also brought up things like beef and pork, I think,
and you know products being what was it mixed in
with other sources of animal pro Yeah, yeah, so it's
not just tomatoes. It was as many products actually went
through and they even covered alcohol. There were you know,
eight six to eight times lethal levels of was it
ethanol in some of the alcohol tested brands that were
(12:44):
selling in Australia as well. So it's a really really
good documentary if anyone's interested. As Zuzzi said, it's on
the ABC on iView for corners. It's called The Food
Fraud Investigation. It's well worth a watchig and watching in
a couple of part series. But I'd sit down, you know,
even if you're having a girl's night or something and
watch together because it does cover you know, have a
little chiky wine. It does cover some important issues.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
Leanne.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
I feel like there's a million shows I would rather
watch with the girls, like The Rookie for example.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
But I do think it's interesting.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
I just think that mixing up the issues with like
sources of labor versus the actual what's in the food
is a bit confusing. There was a lot of issues
I think that were interrelated. But yeah, it's certainly worth
a watch, whether you're doing it with a girls night
or just I just listened to it on a walk.
Actually you don't even have to watch it, but yes,
some certainly some interesting points if you're interested in food.
(13:30):
Moving on to breaking news land, this just came up
today actually about some new research looking at an additive
that's in quite a few foods.
Speaker 3 (13:39):
Yeah, mm hmm. And as a gut health dietician, I
know that a lot of our listeners as well are
very concerned with gut health. Colon cancer diagnosis are on
the rise worldwide. So whenever something pops up with respect
to gut health or how we can improve it, it's
certainly our little ears always pick up. So this is
an additive that is commonly used in a lot of
You'll see it a lot in like frozen dessert, ice cream,
(14:00):
and even in healthier salad dressing, some plant based milks
even and actually a lot of good and free foods
as well. So the additive is xanthem gum. So xanthem
gum acts like a stabilizer. It's been added to our
food supply for many, many years since about the nineteen sixties,
and it basically helps to make food thicker and it
also helps to stop ingredients from separating as well. So
(14:22):
it's used in a ton of what you would call
process and ultra process foods and it's becoming quite common
in our food supplant. So there was a new study
which is quite interesting, but I will start by saying
first and foremost it was in rats. There's no real
reliable human studies to date, so we have to take
this with a grain of salt. But the studies were
(14:43):
basically done in rats. So what it found was the
chronic consumption of xanthem gum led to mild inflammation in
the colon of rats, and it also increased the intestinal
permeability or what some people would call leaky gut or
the leakiness off the gut. And also it changed the
end gut microbiome in these rats as well. And the
(15:06):
aspectecs were very dose dependents. They gave quite large doses
of the zanthem gum to the rats and then not
to the other group as well, and they obviously only
saw these changes in terms of inflammation leaky gut permeability
changes in microbiome at really high doses of this as well,
which would suggest that you'd have to be eating a
lot of you know, ultra processed foods to actually get
(15:27):
this in because it's not like somebody sits there with
a spoon and just eats zend them gum out of
the you know, out of the container. You'd have to
be eating quite a lot of these foods that actually
use that as an as an additive. So the research
alone doesn't mean that, you know, zendom gum causes cancer.
We are not saying that because a lot of studies
(15:48):
that have been done in humans have been more observational.
I did found another one which was it was a
French cohort study. It involved it was quite a large study.
It had over one hundred thousand adults, and those those
adults who had higher intakes of emulsifieres, including things like
zanthem gum, were associated with a very small increase in
cancer risk overall. However, this wasn't observational based studies, so
(16:11):
not the highest quality study we could do. And also
it looked at people consuming large amounts of ultra process
foods as well, so we can't say that it's cause
or we can't say that somebody consuming large amounts of
xantham gum will get cancer or has an increased risk,
because you know, was it to do with their genetic maker,
was it to do with their age, was it to
(16:32):
do with the fact that they had ultra process foods overall?
And then the last point I'll make is that, as
I said, the study used quite a large amount of it,
so well over a grammar day, and it was also
in raps too, So I do think that if there
is one population group I would say just needs to
be a little bit more careful SUSI, it is those
that do have sort of chronic gut conditions, so inflammatory
(16:55):
bound disease and select disease. In particular, because xanthem gum
is used a lot in the gluten free diet, because
it basically is used as a thickening agent in a
lot of gluten free products. So if you look at
gluten free products, naturally, when you take out the wheat,
it changes these sort of like texture and composition of
a lot of different products such as breads and biscuits
(17:17):
and bakes and things. So they do tend to use
zent them gum quite a lot. So if you are
someone who needs to do, or has to do, or
wants to follow a gluten free diet, that is something
that I would be just a little bit more cautious of.
Perhaps I wouldn't be completely cutting it out, but I
would perhaps be looking at the overall load or threshold
of I guess, your intake across the week as well.
(17:38):
But I'm not saying that every product that contains dnth
and gum you definitely can't eat. Like I've got products
in my freezer at the moment. You know, ice creams,
that kind of thing that have a little bit in it.
It really is that dose dependent and a good look
at how many other whole foods that are going in
through your diet as well. So I think a really
interesting study overall, Susie, But not something that we can
(17:59):
directly say increases your cancer risk or will cause colon
cancer in humans or anything like that. We just simply
don't have that research fright now.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
True, the pressure is on attitudes in general, isn't it,
Like just everywhere there's a new study coming out, so
interesting times all right, Leanne, Well, we're in a protein
bender at the moment, and there seems to be a
whole new range of supermarket foods cream cheese, everything cheeses
or high protein And you said to me recently, oh,
(18:28):
that's an interesting one. There's a new high protein Premo
now Leanne. And I wouldn't normally talk about process meet
on the podcast because we shouldn't be eating it, should
be leanne. It's really not very good for us, and
the World Health Organization has identified it as a cast engine,
so really none of us should be having it, let
alone high protein versions of it. But it's a little
(18:48):
bit interesting and you've certainly, certainly not recently, I should say,
pop this on your Instagram and it's gone crazy. But
what are Primo doing with their new high protein range
of hands and sess meats?
Speaker 3 (19:01):
Yeah, it's so interesting because you know, not only have
we got high protein chips, high protein chocolate, high protein breads,
now we've got high protein ham and one would you know,
have been led to believes that most animal products overall
are pretty high proteins. So it's clever marketing from Primo.
And certainly when I went into my local will Worst
to film this. As I was filming it, some lady
was like, oh, excuse me and grab the shelf, and
(19:22):
I was like, oh no, I need to refilm this.
But I was like, should I step in? Should I say,
don't wash your money, so let's talk about this, And
I didn't.
Speaker 2 (19:29):
I closed my mouth that.
Speaker 3 (19:30):
I thought, hopefully she'll figure this out of see my Instagram.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
You could have done like a whole scene. It could
have gone.
Speaker 1 (19:35):
You've probably got better views on that than you would
have if you just chill. This is it's best cancer in.
Speaker 3 (19:42):
A container anyway. So the issue, the issue I have is, yes,
the ham is one issue, but the issue I mostly
have is that their marketing is high protein, so it's
a big black label. Primo typically is the white and
red packaging. If you look at their ham, their turkeys,
this is completely black, so it really stands out. If
you're scanning the sort of packaged hams and kind of
(20:03):
bacon chicken turkey isld really stands out. So there was ham,
there was chicken, and there was I think pepperoni or
salami as well in this new Primo protein range, and
I thought, geez, nineteen grams are served. That's pretty good.
And then when I flicked over the double smoked protein
ham and the double smoked leg ham. Susie I was like,
how are they getting in more protein? This is really interesting,
(20:23):
and then my little dietition hat where they've just doubled
the body serving size and I was like, no, they
haven't sure. And when you're comparing products together, you want
to use the per hundred gram column because that way
you're comparing the serving size to you know, comparable serving size.
So per hundred grams on the double smoked ham, the
protein is seventeen point two grams. For the protein double
(20:45):
smoked ham, it's twenty grams. So what they've done is
they've slightly increased the protein ever so slightly, ever so
slightly by yeah, by basically putting the tinese bit more
pork in there. So they've gone from seventeen point two
grams to twin so it's about a sixteen percent increase.
It's minimal. But what they've also done which made the
biggest difference, was they took the serving size from fifty
(21:08):
grams in the regular ham to ninety five grams in
the protein ham. So that gave them the biggest bang
for their bucks. So, not to be called out on it,
they did ever so slightly increase the amount of pork
in there. So they did ever so slightly have more
amount of protein. But the biggest thing they did is
they just doubled it nearly double the serving size they
want from fifty grams to ninety five grams. So it's
(21:29):
really really clever marketing. But we don't want you to
fall for it, like seriously, like if you're chasing eating
more protein, definitely, as dieticians, we do not want you
to get this from ultra process red meat, because we
know that there is very good research The World Health
Organization tells us to limit process red meats long term
for bow House. So if you're trying to get more
(21:51):
protein in your diet, please do not get it in
from ham or other types of process red meat. Getting
it in from a little bit of tuna or some
cottage cheese or some eggs or other ways. It's beans, legumes.
You can get protein from many, many other ways. I
get that this is convenient, I get that it is cheap,
but please, I would not be paying more for this,
particularly because you're not actually paying for a better quality product,
(22:12):
you're just paying a little bit more. It was like
seven dollars something as well. Mind you, you're paying more
to basically just eat double the serving size. That's all
you're doing. So it's marketing at its finest. But the
will will not be pulled over our eyes on the
nutrition caut SUSI not on our watch.
Speaker 1 (22:27):
No, it's really it's serious because it's deeply, deeply misleading
and we shouldn't be any more process mean anyway. And
as a reference, so I was doing a review on tuna,
and I think there's a couple of tuna varieties including
I think an Audi and Coals product that retail for
just over a dollar, like I want to say, it's
like one dollar ten, one dollar thirty, and it's for
(22:48):
like twenty one grams of protein. So don't before you
don't have to spend seven dollars fifty to get nineteen grams.
You can easily spend two bucks on tuna and get it.
And same how much with three eggs costs less than
three dollars and that's about at least eighteen grams of protein. Sorry,
less than two dollars I would say for three eggs.
So yeah, there's much better sources really, and I think
(23:08):
it's one of those things that let's you know, ham
can taste quite good like a cheeky ham soundwich. And
if you think you're getting high protein, but I very
rarely use it as a primary protein source, you're much
better to get it from what I describe as real meat. Then,
of course it's the night traits and preservatives that are
the concern when it comes to gut health in particular.
So yes, don't be misled nutrition couch listeners, all rightly
(23:29):
and well to finish us off today, this has been
a private conversation you and I have had, and there's
some private conversations that we can share on the Nutrition
couch and others which need to just remain private. But
this was about strength training because we were having a
bit of a discussion about the tendency of clients to
ditch cardio in favor of strength, and then we also
had a bit of a conversation about how the truth
(23:51):
is unfortunately for different reasons, people are not always doing
strength training. And my argument is, and you are a
strength training from wayback, is that the recommendations for women
in their forties and beyond to do more resistant strength
training is great. Yes, women generally need to help support
bone mass. A lot of women haven't done a lot
(24:13):
of strength training in their life, so their muscle mass
as lower than ideal and then declining as they get older.
So they're told to get in the gym. But there's
a big difference between going in the gym and lifting
a few weights in between being on your phone and
actually doing proper strength training. And strength training is generally
a progressive load on the bone and the muscle to
(24:36):
build strength. That's where the word comes from. And a
lot of us are doing what I would call a
maintenance workout, which is a lot easier. But because strength training,
I think the reason we were talking about it because
I said to you it hurts.
Speaker 2 (24:48):
It does hurt.
Speaker 1 (24:49):
If you do proper strength training, the next day you
can't walk. So this is more your area in the
sense that you do a lot more of this than
I do. But I don't disagree. And the message is
some is better than none. But a lot of us
need to change the way we're strength training or learn
how to do it properly to really get the bone
health and metabolic results, isn't it.
Speaker 2 (25:09):
That's what's going on.
Speaker 3 (25:11):
And I will say that I run this by two
good friends of mine. One's a personal trainer and one's
an exercise physiologists, just to make sure that I am
absolutely giving our nutrition couch listeners the correct messaging. But
strength training isn't just picking up a weight. It's not
doing you know, little one two killer you know dumbbells
at your plate session. Even though it feels like it
might be burning, it may not actually be. It probably
(25:34):
actually isn't strength training because clinically, strength training is performing
exercises against resistance that is heavy enough to progressively overload
your muscles so that your muscles actually adapt and become
stronger over time. So, as Susie said, the key concept
is progressive overload. Most people aren't doing that. Most people
are going into the gym. If they do, they're picking
(25:55):
up the same dumbbells every time. They're doing the same
rep range every time they go on pilatees. They're picking
up their little one kilo dumbells and they're doing you know,
twenty thirty fifty reps of that. It burns, and they
think great, tick the box on strength training. But that's
for most of us, not strength training. So, according to
the Austrained Physical Activity Guidelines and Sports medicine guidelines. Resistance
(26:16):
training involves working all of your major muscle groups against
external resistance, and you can do that in many weights.
You can do free weights, you can do machines, you
can do resistance spans, and you can actually do body weight.
But the important part is that the resistance must be
sufficient to actually fatigue the muscle. So for some people
body weight is enough to be strength training. For some people,
(26:38):
one two kilo dumbbells is enough to be strength training,
but not for very long because if you can comfortably
perform fifteen, twenty, thirty fifty repetitions of that weight without
actually needing to stop, for most people the load is
probably too light and you're not making any meaningful improvements
in your strip. Now, it doesn't mean that one two
kilo weights are useless. They can be great, they can
(27:00):
improve muscular endurance, they can be appropriate during rehab. All
really good for very small muscle groups. But for most
people to maximize strength gains, it's actually not enough. Now
when not saying you have to get in there and
be able to deadlift your body weight or to one
hundred kilo squat. Some people can, and that's great, for
others just using the bar itself, which may be twenty kilos.
(27:21):
That is enough to effectively build muscle. But again the
goal is to actually progressively get stronger over time, because
you've got two benefits from strength training. One for your muscles,
because as you progressively increase the weight over time, your
muscle fibers become stronger, and over time you can increase
your muscle size, and that's what's called hypertrophy. And then
(27:42):
also your nervous system becomes more efficient at recruiting muscle fibers.
And so for beginners who are just starting out on
their strength training journey, they can get better gains and
get stronger faster. So if you're someone who hasn't really
done a whole lot of strength training, you have a
great advantage. Now when it comes to bone health, I
think a lot of us forget that bones a living
tissue as well. So when your muscles contract forcefully during
(28:04):
resistance or strength training, they actually pull on the bones
that they're attached to. Now, this mechanical load stimulates specialized
bone cells called osteoblast to lay down new bone, and
that helps to maintain or increase in some people your
bone mineral density. But if there's not enough loading on
the muscle or on the bones, the body essentially just thinks,
you know, I don't need all of this bone and
(28:26):
then over time, your bone density actually starts to gradually decline,
particularly with the effects of perian menopause as well as
your estrogen level start dropping. So the most important thing
women can do at any age, but particularly I would
say from kind of your forties and beyond is strength
training and the right type of strength training. And if
you still listen to this podcast and you're still not sure,
(28:47):
if you're still confused, I would one hundred percent recommend
investing in yourself and getting a great personal trainer or
a great exercise physiologist to show you around a gym
or show you what you can do at home, or
show you how you can actually add progressive overload into
your training program, because it's one of the best things
you can do for your general health, for your metabolic health,
and to actually ensure that your bones stay really strong
(29:09):
and stable over time. All right, is it for me?
Do you want to ad anything else?
Speaker 1 (29:14):
All I'll say is that if you don't hurt after
a workout, you're probably not doing the right kind of
strength training because generally the next day is pretty uncomfortable.
So that's some one my learning is it hurts. So yeah,
I hear your sisters, I hear all right, and well
that brings us to the end of the nutrition couch
for another week. Please keep telling your friends about us
so we can continue to grow. And if you don't
follow us on our social media, please do because that's
(29:36):
where we get all of our inspiration. Or join our
private Facebook page under designed by dietitians. You can dms
on Instagram or maybe dms on our Facebook pages and
we'll give you the link because that's where we share
a lot of good supplement advice and information based on
our scientifically formulated range designed by dietitians.
Speaker 2 (29:55):
We'll see your next Wednesday for our regular episode drop.
Have a great week. Thanks for listening.
Speaker 3 (30:00):
The Man st
If you pay any attention to the media cycle, you
may have seen the clips or even watched the recent
Four Corners review of the food labeling issues in Australia
and naturally, Leanne and I have some thoughts to share.
Speaker 2 (00:15):
Hi.
Speaker 1 (00:15):
I'm Susie Burrell and I'm Leanne Wood, and together we
bring you The Nutrition Couch, the weekly podcast that keeps
you up to date with everything you need to know
in the world of nutrition, as well as food labeling issues.
We have some new research on gut cancers and a
particular food additive. We have another high protein supermarket food
to review. And our listener question is all about strength training.
Speaker 2 (00:36):
Oh, Leanne, lean Leani.
Speaker 1 (00:38):
And when I was a young dietitian, I would routinely
tune into nutrition documentaries and anything in the media. And now,
to be honest, I watched the block, So I've certainly
reached my limit of information, but certainly on social media,
I came across several clips on the recent Four Corners
(00:59):
two part series juped about some food fraud investigations. So
I was also lecturing to some students this morning and
I had to chat to them about it, and then
it lured me in and I have watched it, and
I believe you have also watched a fair whack of it.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
You did you see it online too?
Speaker 3 (01:17):
One of my dieticians actually posted yesterday and our little
Dietitian group chat and she was like, everybody has to
watch this today, and so I clicked through it, and
I flicked through it yesterday and with an article you sents.
But I haven't got all the way through it just yet.
But it's certainly interesting. That's that's one word for it.
Speaker 1 (01:32):
Yeah, it's certainly I've got thoughts, and you know I
do have thoughts. So I did sort of lure myself
in and watch the first one, I think the first one,
and they're an hour long. I found the first one.
First of all, you can just google it and watch
it online. That's how I watched it on iView, so
they're freely available. If you're in your Telly, you can
find it in iView. No drama. So the first thing
I'd say is that I think the first one is
(01:53):
much better than the second. I actually really sort of
scan through the second one. To me, it's very classic
of a inflammatory documentary in the sense that the person
putting it together is not a scientist, So it's very jumpy.
There's actually a lot of things covered. So the first
thing covered is issues in supply chain transparency and accuracy,
(02:16):
which leads to some misleading products in supermarket. Then it
jumps to food labeling confusion. Then there's issues relating health
star ratings, and then the second one is really about
chocolate and labor issues and slave labor being you. So
to me, it's very jumpy. There's a lot going on.
If I'm pulling out the things relevant to myself to
(02:37):
you as communicators of nutrition in Australia, I think the
things that alarm me most but were also surprising was
the first section about tomato products in particular. So what
they've done is have some of these products tested in
a lab and said, basically they're stating on the front
sourced Italian tomatoes Australian tomato, and they can track from
(03:02):
the biochemistry under the microscope that actually they're often or
can be Chinese or mixed blends of tomatoes. So on
one hand, they're marketing to be Australian or international Italian
tomatoes and they're mixed hybrids. And the premise of this
is that within big food organizations there's so many supply
chain opportunities for dupes, for people to mix in bland,
(03:27):
the same as you know olive oil that comes from
International olive oil, where they'll use last year's bland and
this year's bland to create their extra version, which is
why it's LAWA and antioxidants and Australian extra virgin olive oil.
Speaker 2 (03:38):
The same is basically happening.
Speaker 1 (03:39):
And it doesn't surprise me one bit land because this
is the issue in food. There's no transparency and there's
four hundred suppliers and if two are doing it, it
contaminates the supply, like the bulk of food moving through
is so great.
Speaker 2 (03:53):
And the interesting point that's.
Speaker 1 (03:55):
Raised is that the food regulatory authorities in New South
Australia are much more interested and their resources are sent
to food safety than they are about labeling and misleading information.
So that doesn't surprise me. It's a bureaucracy. Bureaucracy is
notoriously inefficient. Look at Health Star ratings. We've known there's
issues with those for at least eight years, and nothing's happened.
(04:17):
Everyone works very very slowly, and in government bureaucracy, what's happened?
They're worried about people getting sick from food, and rightly so,
but perhaps resources are not sent across to checking if
it says product of Australia or product of itically, is
it actually that. What I found fascinating was when these
results were presented to food industry and supermarkets. What should
(04:39):
happen is if a major supermarket chain is alerted to
the fact that scientists have found these products say they're
from Italy and they're not, or these products say they're
from Australia and they're not. Straight away the supermarket should
be like, right, that product's out until you can prove
to us that this is Australian because you are marketing
and selling through our channelste on that. But of course,
(05:02):
alarmingly that didn't happen. The supermarkets and food industry said,
we refute these claims, well, I hate to tell you.
Speaker 2 (05:08):
It's science.
Speaker 1 (05:09):
This is where it says I don't agree or you
don't get to agree. The science is saying these tomatoes
are from China. There's black and white.
Speaker 2 (05:16):
So the concern for.
Speaker 1 (05:17):
Me is one, it's no surprise that food bureaucracy is
behind the April. This is no surprise government agency generally
often too too slow to do anything. We know that
from supplements, there's heaps and misleading stuff on supplements just
flies by the way, so even if people complain, it
takes years, and by that time this product doesn't even exist.
To inefficiency in government agency and resources. Number two, supermarket
(05:40):
with all the power in the world and food industry,
they're selling product. They say, we don't agree, and that's it.
That's all they have to do. They're not answerable, so
they can actually do what they like. They don't actually
care that you're perhaps buying tomatoes or tomato paste it's
from China, and it says it's from Italy because they're
selling ten thousand units a week and making plenty of cash.
So that's the second and third issue. Food industry obviously
have enough accountability to supply chain or enough motivation to
(06:03):
be checking it properly or to have to act on
this data, which is science. It's not subjective. I think
it's from China. It's the science is telling you it's
from China. And then supermarket says, we know do what
they want, so they say we don't agree, and that's it.
So there's no accountability. So you can see how it evolves.
So that was sort of my first take home message.
(06:23):
It doesn't surprise me. This is where the missing links
are what. And then the second thing that was relevant
to us Lean is something that we've talked about for
quite some time. The issue with ultra process food, in
particular snack bars snack food mark which are ultra process
food masquerading is healthy with labeling like natural one hundred
(06:45):
percent and all full of all the ultra process ingredients.
We have spoken about the healthy maskerade and I don't
want to name products, but it's anything that looks and
sounds super healthy, low carb, high protein, and an ingredient list.
While long it's an ultra process food, it links to
the fact that any ultra process food should not have
more than one or two Health Star ratings. This is
just basic common sense. And again the Health Star rating
(07:05):
system is so slow they can't even.
Speaker 2 (07:07):
Get that right.
Speaker 1 (07:08):
So it didn't surprise me. To me, the food labeling was, Yeah,
we've known that for quite some time. This isn't groundbreaking.
The issue is again to do with food industry moving
more quickly than government regulation and bureaucracy, and second to that,
supermarkets allowing it to happen because they're the ones who
can actually say to food production, no we're not taking
(07:29):
that food because it's ultra processed.
Speaker 2 (07:31):
We need more.
Speaker 1 (07:32):
You know.
Speaker 2 (07:32):
They've got the power to do that.
Speaker 1 (07:34):
Their buyers are perhaps junior people who don't actually care
about nutrition.
Speaker 2 (07:38):
It's all about margins.
Speaker 1 (07:39):
So supermarkets to me have a much bigger role to play,
as do the Australian Food and Grocery Council, but there's
no need for them to do so and as such
they will just continue as they are. So that's we've
said that if it looks like an ultra process food
with a long ingredient list, it probably is your best
not to eat it. Going back to the country of origin,
the take home message from me is the more you
(07:59):
can miss my supply chain and buy local, when you
can buy Australian, you're going to be much less likely
to be exposed to this because if you don't have
your tomatoes coming from five different countries, there's going to
be less room for this kind of work to be
done in terms of subbing, in duping, changing it. But
the downside of that, Leanda is of course these products
(08:21):
austrain products are much more expensive you know, you can
buy tin of beans or tomatoes for eighty cents a
dollar the Australian or the organic or what three bucks,
so you pay for it. So I don't know what
the answer is other than it's not overly surprising. I
think there's a bigger issue at play here that needs
better regulation in Australia. Is it going to change? Probably not.
(08:42):
But when you are buying fresh produce, etc. You're probably
minimize risks by buying Australian if you can afford it.
And that's my argument with seafood, for example. You know,
people are very very quick to criticize farm fish, and
of course I do an ambassador fatatol and you can read,
you know, pages and pages of all the but at
least it's Australian. At least you know what's going on.
(09:03):
You know, we all have all this Vietnamese fish and
overseas fish. And that was one of the other findings
was that food provision for restaurants cafes will often say
there's no regulation, so it's a lot of it's coming
from overseas, even though it's marketed as Australian. Particularly it
was in the case of Prawn's so to me, particularly
with fresh produce. At least if you're getting locally grown
(09:24):
and sourced food, our regulations are tighter and better than
international generally. So that's one way or one option. But
as soon as you're exposed to overseas anything vegetables, fish,
frozen seafood, olive oil, there's going to be more variables,
which mean it's less likely to be as wholesome, pure natural,
you know, and say the labels because no one's really checking.
(09:46):
That's basically the take home message.
Speaker 3 (09:48):
Yeah, it was super interesting. And going back to the
part where they did a section and ultra processed foods,
they interviewed a man who was a He was a
food scientist like a food technologist, and he was essentially
saying that his role was to work with these companies
to find, well, was it the bliss point of food
that hits the perfect amount of like fat, salt, sugar
that just makes it absolutely irresistible to stop eating. And
(10:11):
this has always been the problem with ultra process foods,
and one of the main issues with obesity in Western
cultures is that we have an abundance of ultra processed foods.
It's one of many concerns but he was basically saying,
like his own moral compass, he got to a point
in his career he was like, what am I doing
and why am I working with these food companies because
we're making these sort of like horrendous types of foods
(10:31):
and we're feeding it to our children. And I won't
name a brand, but they showcased these yogurt chops which
were basically promoted to babies as young as ten months old,
and they were like seventy percent sugar, and parents at
a quick glance would look at the front of the label,
pick it up and just be like, oh, this is
a healthy product. I'm trying to make a good choice
for my children. And so it really brings us down
(10:52):
to the issue of it is so important to read
food labels, but not the front of the pack, the
back of the pack, the nutrition information panel there. And
I would have said the source of origin up until
this documentary SUSI, But what we now know is just
because it claims to be Australian made, it may not
be the case. I will say that it is very
important to kind of just reconfirm that this investigation, as
(11:16):
you said, was talking about sort of like origins of claim.
It wasn't talking about food safety, So this doesn't mean
that the Australian food supply is unsafe. What it really
raised concerns about was that some product, particularly they really
covered tin tomatoes, tomato pace, they were quite misleading in
terms of the country of origin. A lot of the
Australian made tomatoes weren't actually coming from Australia. They were
(11:38):
coming from parts of China which used a lot of
slave labor basically, which I don't think if people actually
knew that would be very happy with that. So a
lot of people consumers are paying a real premium price
but products that they believe are Australian made, they believe
they're supporting Australian farmers, Australian growers, but in many cases
they're actually not. So there's a huge gap in terms
(12:01):
of you know, labeling, verification, enforcement to consumer trust. Like
there's there's multiple multiple issues here and is it I
don't know, is it a lack of awareness, is it
a lack of funding. Does I like to think the
government cares? Do they not? Like there's just so many
issues here, But I do think that more transparency is important,
and I do think that they need to enforce this
(12:22):
somehow a lot better because it's not just tomatoes. They
also brought up things like beef and pork, I think,
and you know products being what was it mixed in
with other sources of animal pro Yeah, yeah, so it's
not just tomatoes. It was as many products actually went
through and they even covered alcohol. There were you know,
eight six to eight times lethal levels of was it
ethanol in some of the alcohol tested brands that were
(12:44):
selling in Australia as well. So it's a really really
good documentary if anyone's interested. As Zuzzi said, it's on
the ABC on iView for corners. It's called The Food
Fraud Investigation. It's well worth a watchig and watching in
a couple of part series. But I'd sit down, you know,
even if you're having a girl's night or something and
watch together because it does cover you know, have a
little chiky wine. It does cover some important issues.
Speaker 2 (13:04):
Leanne.
Speaker 1 (13:05):
I feel like there's a million shows I would rather
watch with the girls, like The Rookie for example.
Speaker 2 (13:09):
But I do think it's interesting.
Speaker 1 (13:10):
I just think that mixing up the issues with like
sources of labor versus the actual what's in the food
is a bit confusing. There was a lot of issues
I think that were interrelated. But yeah, it's certainly worth
a watch, whether you're doing it with a girls night
or just I just listened to it on a walk.
Actually you don't even have to watch it, but yes,
some certainly some interesting points if you're interested in food.
(13:30):
Moving on to breaking news land, this just came up
today actually about some new research looking at an additive
that's in quite a few foods.
Speaker 3 (13:39):
Yeah, mm hmm. And as a gut health dietician, I
know that a lot of our listeners as well are
very concerned with gut health. Colon cancer diagnosis are on
the rise worldwide. So whenever something pops up with respect
to gut health or how we can improve it, it's
certainly our little ears always pick up. So this is
an additive that is commonly used in a lot of
You'll see it a lot in like frozen dessert, ice cream,
(14:00):
and even in healthier salad dressing, some plant based milks
even and actually a lot of good and free foods
as well. So the additive is xanthem gum. So xanthem
gum acts like a stabilizer. It's been added to our
food supply for many, many years since about the nineteen sixties,
and it basically helps to make food thicker and it
also helps to stop ingredients from separating as well. So
(14:22):
it's used in a ton of what you would call
process and ultra process foods and it's becoming quite common
in our food supplant. So there was a new study
which is quite interesting, but I will start by saying
first and foremost it was in rats. There's no real
reliable human studies to date, so we have to take
this with a grain of salt. But the studies were
(14:43):
basically done in rats. So what it found was the
chronic consumption of xanthem gum led to mild inflammation in
the colon of rats, and it also increased the intestinal
permeability or what some people would call leaky gut or
the leakiness off the gut. And also it changed the
end gut microbiome in these rats as well. And the
(15:06):
aspectecs were very dose dependents. They gave quite large doses
of the zanthem gum to the rats and then not
to the other group as well, and they obviously only
saw these changes in terms of inflammation leaky gut permeability
changes in microbiome at really high doses of this as well,
which would suggest that you'd have to be eating a
lot of you know, ultra processed foods to actually get
(15:27):
this in because it's not like somebody sits there with
a spoon and just eats zend them gum out of
the you know, out of the container. You'd have to
be eating quite a lot of these foods that actually
use that as an as an additive. So the research
alone doesn't mean that, you know, zendom gum causes cancer.
We are not saying that because a lot of studies
(15:48):
that have been done in humans have been more observational.
I did found another one which was it was a
French cohort study. It involved it was quite a large study.
It had over one hundred thousand adults, and those those
adults who had higher intakes of emulsifieres, including things like
zanthem gum, were associated with a very small increase in
cancer risk overall. However, this wasn't observational based studies, so
(16:11):
not the highest quality study we could do. And also
it looked at people consuming large amounts of ultra process
foods as well, so we can't say that it's cause
or we can't say that somebody consuming large amounts of
xantham gum will get cancer or has an increased risk,
because you know, was it to do with their genetic maker,
was it to do with their age, was it to
(16:32):
do with the fact that they had ultra process foods overall?
And then the last point I'll make is that, as
I said, the study used quite a large amount of it,
so well over a grammar day, and it was also
in raps too, So I do think that if there
is one population group I would say just needs to
be a little bit more careful SUSI, it is those
that do have sort of chronic gut conditions, so inflammatory
(16:55):
bound disease and select disease. In particular, because xanthem gum
is used a lot in the gluten free diet, because
it basically is used as a thickening agent in a
lot of gluten free products. So if you look at
gluten free products, naturally, when you take out the wheat,
it changes these sort of like texture and composition of
a lot of different products such as breads and biscuits
(17:17):
and bakes and things. So they do tend to use
zent them gum quite a lot. So if you are
someone who needs to do, or has to do, or
wants to follow a gluten free diet, that is something
that I would be just a little bit more cautious of.
Perhaps I wouldn't be completely cutting it out, but I
would perhaps be looking at the overall load or threshold
of I guess, your intake across the week as well.
(17:38):
But I'm not saying that every product that contains dnth
and gum you definitely can't eat. Like I've got products
in my freezer at the moment. You know, ice creams,
that kind of thing that have a little bit in it.
It really is that dose dependent and a good look
at how many other whole foods that are going in
through your diet as well. So I think a really
interesting study overall, Susie, But not something that we can
(17:59):
directly say increases your cancer risk or will cause colon
cancer in humans or anything like that. We just simply
don't have that research fright now.
Speaker 1 (18:07):
True, the pressure is on attitudes in general, isn't it,
Like just everywhere there's a new study coming out, so
interesting times all right, Leanne, Well, we're in a protein
bender at the moment, and there seems to be a
whole new range of supermarket foods cream cheese, everything cheeses
or high protein And you said to me recently, oh,
(18:28):
that's an interesting one. There's a new high protein Premo
now Leanne. And I wouldn't normally talk about process meet
on the podcast because we shouldn't be eating it, should
be leanne. It's really not very good for us, and
the World Health Organization has identified it as a cast engine,
so really none of us should be having it, let
alone high protein versions of it. But it's a little
(18:48):
bit interesting and you've certainly, certainly not recently, I should say,
pop this on your Instagram and it's gone crazy. But
what are Primo doing with their new high protein range
of hands and sess meats?
Speaker 3 (19:01):
Yeah, it's so interesting because you know, not only have
we got high protein chips, high protein chocolate, high protein breads,
now we've got high protein ham and one would you know,
have been led to believes that most animal products overall
are pretty high proteins. So it's clever marketing from Primo.
And certainly when I went into my local will Worst
to film this. As I was filming it, some lady
was like, oh, excuse me and grab the shelf, and
(19:22):
I was like, oh no, I need to refilm this.
But I was like, should I step in? Should I say,
don't wash your money, so let's talk about this, And
I didn't.
Speaker 2 (19:29):
I closed my mouth that.
Speaker 3 (19:30):
I thought, hopefully she'll figure this out of see my Instagram.
Speaker 2 (19:33):
You could have done like a whole scene. It could
have gone.
Speaker 1 (19:35):
You've probably got better views on that than you would
have if you just chill. This is it's best cancer in.
Speaker 3 (19:42):
A container anyway. So the issue, the issue I have is, yes,
the ham is one issue, but the issue I mostly
have is that their marketing is high protein, so it's
a big black label. Primo typically is the white and
red packaging. If you look at their ham, their turkeys,
this is completely black, so it really stands out. If
you're scanning the sort of packaged hams and kind of
(20:03):
bacon chicken turkey isld really stands out. So there was ham,
there was chicken, and there was I think pepperoni or
salami as well in this new Primo protein range, and
I thought, geez, nineteen grams are served. That's pretty good.
And then when I flicked over the double smoked protein
ham and the double smoked leg ham. Susie I was like,
how are they getting in more protein? This is really interesting,
(20:23):
and then my little dietition hat where they've just doubled
the body serving size and I was like, no, they
haven't sure. And when you're comparing products together, you want
to use the per hundred gram column because that way
you're comparing the serving size to you know, comparable serving size.
So per hundred grams on the double smoked ham, the
protein is seventeen point two grams. For the protein double
(20:45):
smoked ham, it's twenty grams. So what they've done is
they've slightly increased the protein ever so slightly, ever so
slightly by yeah, by basically putting the tinese bit more
pork in there. So they've gone from seventeen point two
grams to twin so it's about a sixteen percent increase.
It's minimal. But what they've also done which made the
biggest difference, was they took the serving size from fifty
(21:08):
grams in the regular ham to ninety five grams in
the protein ham. So that gave them the biggest bang
for their bucks. So, not to be called out on it,
they did ever so slightly increase the amount of pork
in there. So they did ever so slightly have more
amount of protein. But the biggest thing they did is
they just doubled it nearly double the serving size they
want from fifty grams to ninety five grams. So it's
(21:29):
really really clever marketing. But we don't want you to
fall for it, like seriously, like if you're chasing eating
more protein, definitely, as dieticians, we do not want you
to get this from ultra process red meat, because we
know that there is very good research The World Health
Organization tells us to limit process red meats long term
for bow House. So if you're trying to get more
(21:51):
protein in your diet, please do not get it in
from ham or other types of process red meat. Getting
it in from a little bit of tuna or some
cottage cheese or some eggs or other ways. It's beans, legumes.
You can get protein from many, many other ways. I
get that this is convenient, I get that it is cheap,
but please, I would not be paying more for this,
particularly because you're not actually paying for a better quality product,
(22:12):
you're just paying a little bit more. It was like
seven dollars something as well. Mind you, you're paying more
to basically just eat double the serving size. That's all
you're doing. So it's marketing at its finest. But the
will will not be pulled over our eyes on the
nutrition caut SUSI not on our watch.
Speaker 1 (22:27):
No, it's really it's serious because it's deeply, deeply misleading
and we shouldn't be any more process mean anyway. And
as a reference, so I was doing a review on tuna,
and I think there's a couple of tuna varieties including
I think an Audi and Coals product that retail for
just over a dollar, like I want to say, it's
like one dollar ten, one dollar thirty, and it's for
(22:48):
like twenty one grams of protein. So don't before you
don't have to spend seven dollars fifty to get nineteen grams.
You can easily spend two bucks on tuna and get it.
And same how much with three eggs costs less than
three dollars and that's about at least eighteen grams of protein. Sorry,
less than two dollars I would say for three eggs.
So yeah, there's much better sources really, and I think
(23:08):
it's one of those things that let's you know, ham
can taste quite good like a cheeky ham soundwich. And
if you think you're getting high protein, but I very
rarely use it as a primary protein source, you're much
better to get it from what I describe as real meat. Then,
of course it's the night traits and preservatives that are
the concern when it comes to gut health in particular.
So yes, don't be misled nutrition couch listeners, all rightly
(23:29):
and well to finish us off today, this has been
a private conversation you and I have had, and there's
some private conversations that we can share on the Nutrition
couch and others which need to just remain private. But
this was about strength training because we were having a
bit of a discussion about the tendency of clients to
ditch cardio in favor of strength, and then we also
had a bit of a conversation about how the truth
(23:51):
is unfortunately for different reasons, people are not always doing
strength training. And my argument is, and you are a
strength training from wayback, is that the recommendations for women
in their forties and beyond to do more resistant strength
training is great. Yes, women generally need to help support
bone mass. A lot of women haven't done a lot
(24:13):
of strength training in their life, so their muscle mass
as lower than ideal and then declining as they get older.
So they're told to get in the gym. But there's
a big difference between going in the gym and lifting
a few weights in between being on your phone and
actually doing proper strength training. And strength training is generally
a progressive load on the bone and the muscle to
(24:36):
build strength. That's where the word comes from. And a
lot of us are doing what I would call a
maintenance workout, which is a lot easier. But because strength training,
I think the reason we were talking about it because
I said to you it hurts.
Speaker 2 (24:48):
It does hurt.
Speaker 1 (24:49):
If you do proper strength training, the next day you
can't walk. So this is more your area in the
sense that you do a lot more of this than
I do. But I don't disagree. And the message is
some is better than none. But a lot of us
need to change the way we're strength training or learn
how to do it properly to really get the bone
health and metabolic results, isn't it.
Speaker 2 (25:09):
That's what's going on.
Speaker 3 (25:11):
And I will say that I run this by two
good friends of mine. One's a personal trainer and one's
an exercise physiologists, just to make sure that I am
absolutely giving our nutrition couch listeners the correct messaging. But
strength training isn't just picking up a weight. It's not
doing you know, little one two killer you know dumbbells
at your plate session. Even though it feels like it
might be burning, it may not actually be. It probably
(25:34):
actually isn't strength training because clinically, strength training is performing
exercises against resistance that is heavy enough to progressively overload
your muscles so that your muscles actually adapt and become
stronger over time. So, as Susie said, the key concept
is progressive overload. Most people aren't doing that. Most people
are going into the gym. If they do, they're picking
(25:55):
up the same dumbbells every time. They're doing the same
rep range every time they go on pilatees. They're picking
up their little one kilo dumbells and they're doing you know,
twenty thirty fifty reps of that. It burns, and they
think great, tick the box on strength training. But that's
for most of us, not strength training. So, according to
the Austrained Physical Activity Guidelines and Sports medicine guidelines. Resistance
(26:16):
training involves working all of your major muscle groups against
external resistance, and you can do that in many weights.
You can do free weights, you can do machines, you
can do resistance spans, and you can actually do body weight.
But the important part is that the resistance must be
sufficient to actually fatigue the muscle. So for some people
body weight is enough to be strength training. For some people,
(26:38):
one two kilo dumbbells is enough to be strength training,
but not for very long because if you can comfortably
perform fifteen, twenty, thirty fifty repetitions of that weight without
actually needing to stop, for most people the load is
probably too light and you're not making any meaningful improvements
in your strip. Now, it doesn't mean that one two
kilo weights are useless. They can be great, they can
(27:00):
improve muscular endurance, they can be appropriate during rehab. All
really good for very small muscle groups. But for most
people to maximize strength gains, it's actually not enough. Now
when not saying you have to get in there and
be able to deadlift your body weight or to one
hundred kilo squat. Some people can, and that's great, for
others just using the bar itself, which may be twenty kilos.
(27:21):
That is enough to effectively build muscle. But again the
goal is to actually progressively get stronger over time, because
you've got two benefits from strength training. One for your muscles,
because as you progressively increase the weight over time, your
muscle fibers become stronger, and over time you can increase
your muscle size, and that's what's called hypertrophy. And then
(27:42):
also your nervous system becomes more efficient at recruiting muscle fibers.
And so for beginners who are just starting out on
their strength training journey, they can get better gains and
get stronger faster. So if you're someone who hasn't really
done a whole lot of strength training, you have a
great advantage. Now when it comes to bone health, I
think a lot of us forget that bones a living
tissue as well. So when your muscles contract forcefully during
(28:04):
resistance or strength training, they actually pull on the bones
that they're attached to. Now, this mechanical load stimulates specialized
bone cells called osteoblast to lay down new bone, and
that helps to maintain or increase in some people your
bone mineral density. But if there's not enough loading on
the muscle or on the bones, the body essentially just thinks,
you know, I don't need all of this bone and
(28:26):
then over time, your bone density actually starts to gradually decline,
particularly with the effects of perian menopause as well as
your estrogen level start dropping. So the most important thing
women can do at any age, but particularly I would
say from kind of your forties and beyond is strength
training and the right type of strength training. And if
you still listen to this podcast and you're still not sure,
(28:47):
if you're still confused, I would one hundred percent recommend
investing in yourself and getting a great personal trainer or
a great exercise physiologist to show you around a gym
or show you what you can do at home, or
show you how you can actually add progressive overload into
your training program, because it's one of the best things
you can do for your general health, for your metabolic health,
and to actually ensure that your bones stay really strong
(29:09):
and stable over time. All right, is it for me?
Do you want to ad anything else?
Speaker 1 (29:14):
All I'll say is that if you don't hurt after
a workout, you're probably not doing the right kind of
strength training because generally the next day is pretty uncomfortable.
So that's some one my learning is it hurts. So yeah,
I hear your sisters, I hear all right, and well
that brings us to the end of the nutrition couch
for another week. Please keep telling your friends about us
so we can continue to grow. And if you don't
follow us on our social media, please do because that's
(29:36):
where we get all of our inspiration. Or join our
private Facebook page under designed by dietitians. You can dms
on Instagram or maybe dms on our Facebook pages and
we'll give you the link because that's where we share
a lot of good supplement advice and information based on
our scientifically formulated range designed by dietitians.
Speaker 2 (29:55):
We'll see your next Wednesday for our regular episode drop.
Have a great week. Thanks for listening.
Speaker 3 (30:00):
The Man st
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