May 13, 2025 • 34 mins
Australia’s leading dietitians, Susie Burrell and Leanne Ward, delve into a pressing health concern: the increasing incidence of aggressive cancers, such as bowel and breast cancer, among young adults. They explore recent research findings, discuss potential lifestyle contributors, and emphasize the importance of early detection and routine health screenings.
Also Featured:
- A novel approach to structuring weekly meal plans from a new diet study.
- A review of a popular new winter porridge.
- Listener Q&A: The role of fiber powders in maintaining gut health.
Why Listen?
This episode sheds light on a concerning health trend affecting younger populations and offers actionable insights into prevention and early detection. Whether you’re in your 20s or 30s, or have loved ones who are, this discussion is crucial for informed health decisions.
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):
Do you know someone who has had bow cancer or
breast cancer? A number of different types of cancer are
on the rise, especially in young people. And on today's
episode of The Nutrition Couch, we have some new research
to share which dells deeper into the disturbing rise in
the incidence of cancer in young people. Hi, I'm Cusie
Barrel and I'm Lea and Mott, and together we bring
you The Nutrition Couch, the weekly podcast that keeps you
(00:23):
up to date on everything you need to know in
the world of nutrition, as well as the latest in
cancer research. We have a new diet study which has
a novel approach to structuring your weekly meal plans. We
review a popular new porridge for winter, Don't Worry up today,
and our listener question is all about fiber powders prayer
healthy tummy, so Leanne. This is a lot of your
(00:46):
specialist area. Because I have to be honest, I'm certainly
asking a lot more of my clients about their routine
health checks. So you know, have you had your boobs
done not in an uplifting way, have you changed your boobs?
Have you, you know, had a bow cancer screening test?
And a lot of clients are onto it. I think
particularly out to listen to the nutrition couch because we're
(01:07):
constantly referring to medical tests that you should get done
at certain ages, but sometimes clients are like, oh no,
I haven't been told that. So we're constantly reminding people
about you know, there's a lot more we can do
lifestyle wise, but also prevention wise for a number of
different types of cancer. But that doesn't change the fact
that we're seeing dramatic rises in aggressive cancers, particularly digestive cancers,
(01:28):
in young people. And we know if we catch them
early that there's a great prognosis. But for young people,
I'm talking people in their twenties and thirties, you know,
sometimes the cancers are quite far advanced and they can't
do a huge amount, and so there has to be
something happening out there lifestyle wise. So this was a
study that just popped up last week, and I'm going
to hand over to you because digestive health is really
your area, and it's fascinating because it's just a really
(01:52):
fascinating piece of research suggesting why this is happening, isn't it?
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Yeah? One hundred percent, And I think we've seen more
and more come out about different types of cancers, the
risks increasing and the young people. Like in the Western world,
the cancer risk in young people is absolutely exploded and
there has to be a reason for that, and our
poor Western style diet absolutely has to be a key
part of that. Our excessive amounts of alcohol. Let's be honest,
(02:17):
Australians like to drink. Like if you go out to
a barbecue and you say I'm not drinking, people are like,
are you pregnant? Like there's something wrong with you if
you're the one not having a drink. It's so natural
and common to over drink to overeat in our culture
that it's not a good thing and I don't think
it's really helping us out as a society. So whenever
we do see new research regarding cancer risks, we really
(02:39):
should sit up and take notice of it, even if
it's small studies, because there's new and new stuff coming
to the market all the time. But this was really
groundbreaking new research. I haven't seen anything like this to date,
and it's basically the research. The study suggests that there's
a new type of gut dwelling bacteria that may potentially
be behind the recent surges in the early onset of
(03:01):
colorectal cancers. So colorectal cancers are some of the biggest
types of cancers that young people in their twenties and
thirties are actually dying from. And what this study is
suggesting that the culprit is a toxin. It's called Coli bactin,
and it's a toxin produced by certain strains of E.
Colid that tends to thrive in the colon and in
the rectum. So what this study found diving deeper into
(03:25):
this Coli bactin toxin was that they believe that the
exposure actually happens really early on, like basically back in
our childhoods, so decades before a lot of people are
actually diagnosed with something like you know, colon cancer. So
the colabacterine linked mutations, they said in the research, can
(03:45):
show up at the early stages of the tumid developments,
and often this bacteria is linked back to the first
ten years of life. So it seems that these young
children around the ages of ten are basically being infected
with this E. Coli type bacteria, and a lot of
the times they're completely non symptomatic, like you wouldn't even
(04:05):
know that you've been infected as a child, so the
infection itself is quite non symptomatic, but it's very transient,
so the damage can persist and hang around for decades later.
But what I found a little bit alarming about the
research was that the study found that about fifteen percent
of the APC, which is the driver mutation of this
of this cancers, so these are some of the earliest
(04:28):
genetic changes that are directly related to promoting the cancer development.
Fifteen percent of these driver mutations were linked back to
this Coli bacterine type of E. Coli. So if someone
acquired one of these driver mutations by the time that
they're about ten years old, this could potentially be decades
and decades ahead of schedule for them going on to
(04:51):
potentially developed colon cancer later on. So instead of perhaps
them getting colon cancer at sixty, they might actually be
getting it a few decades earlier at forty. So it's
really I guess it's fascinating, it's kind of scary, but
it really does come back to why we should be
so invested and interested in our kids' house, our kids nutrition,
and even our nutrition, because there is a lot that
(05:12):
we can do for many cancers from a nutrition and
a lifestyle perspective. But you know, we don't want to
go getting ahead of ourselves. We can't say that a
equals be like this cancer is directly caused by this.
It's just a new study and a new research out
there to sort of, I guess, help us to understand
the development of some of these some of these types
of cancer. So the jury is still out on whether
(05:35):
this new colla bacterine is the main driver behind the
rises an early onset colorectal cancer cases or whether it's
just one of potentially many factors involved. Because we do
know that early onset colorectal cancer, there is a lot
of other factors.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
You know.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
We've got diet and nutrition, we've got inflammation, we've got genetics,
we've got environmental factors as well. So I think it's
really interesting key findings. I guess for our nutrition couch listeners.
There is rising incidents of cancers and young people. We
used to think that cancer was something that you know,
you didn't even have to think about until you were fifty, sixty,
seventy eighty years old. But some of the deadliest types
(06:13):
of colorectal cancers are diagnosed in Aussies who are twenty
five to thirty years old. And we do know that
there are a lot of contributing factors. Like I said,
lifestyle and nutrition is huge. The more ultra processed foods,
the more alcohol you have in your diet, the higher
risk of being diagnosed with some of these types of cancers.
Australians have very sedentary habits. We don't move anywhere near enough.
(06:35):
Even if you go to the gym for a thirty
forty minute session and then you sit down at work
for eight to nine hours for the rest of the day.
Then you come home and you sit on the couch
and watch Netflix for another tool three hours that night.
You're not moving anywhere near enough. And a lot of
these sedentary, poor habits that we've got into as a
nation are not serving us or helping us out from
(06:56):
a decreasing cancer perspective later on, because exercise assolutely decreases
the risk of cancer as well. We've also got environmental exposures.
We're hearing more and more about, you know, different types
of plastics and microplastics and forever chemicals particularly. I feel
like in the last year or so, it's very very
trendy online. I myself have swapped my different cooking pans.
(07:16):
I've swapped to you know, I've got rid of my
plastic chopping boards. I'm using different types. Now, I've got
rid of my plastic spachelors. I'm using you know, stainless
steel ones. So there's more and more of these contributing
factors that we're hearing about coming out. And another big
one is for young people in particular, is delaying diagnosis.
You know, young people they get these symptoms and they think,
you know, you know, medical professionals may potentially overlook them
(07:38):
because they say, oh, it's just ibs, Oh that's very normal.
Yet you know, all of these changes that we're seeing
were the early onset of colorectal cancer and it unfortunately
isn't getting diagnosed a lot later because it's just not
something we think young people would have. So I guess
it just brings home the basic message of balance, right,
adopting a balanced diet, whole foods, more fiber, fruits and vegetables, legumes,
(08:03):
whole grains. I'm actually getting in your pre and your
probotics as well, and limiting as much as possible our
ultra process foods and our alcohol and really just staying informed,
knowing what is a red flag from a symptom perspective,
knowing that even though you know the bow cancer screening risks,
you know, I think there were fifty, but I think
there's some talk it might have everyone already been done,
(08:24):
brought down to forty, like they're actually bringing forward the
bow cancer detection guidelines in terms of age, but being
aware that if you've got a family history of that,
if you know you've got a really poor diet, if
your symptoms have changed, if you have night sweats, if
you have blood in your stools, if you've had a
significant alteration in terms of your bower movements, if you're
losing weight unexplained. They're all big red flags to go
(08:46):
and get checked out by your doctor, and if something
doesn't feel right, push harder, go to another doctor, get
some more tests run. Because you know your body best,
and if things are changing and you haven't really changed
much from your diet or your lifestyle perspective, it is
some thing that you want to be aware of and
be alert about. So I don't think there's anything much
we can do well. The study didn't really go into
(09:07):
you know, us being able to prevent us getting this
type of collibacterine toxin. But it certainly does talk about
you know, lifestyle and nutrition choices reducing our risks long
term and early detection absolutely being key true.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
I think the take home message for me at this stage, well,
first of all, I found it interesting because, of course
they found that some certain types of ulcers were also
caused by bacteria, not that long ago, you know, when
for a long time we talked about ULCs being caused
by stress, but actually it was a bacteria. So I
think it's a fascinating area. But the take home message
for me is, particularly with young people, we see so
(09:44):
many digestive symptoms written off as irritable bow, and certainly
medical professionals can be quite indifferent to us just irritable
bowel ignora, you just got a sensitive tummy. So I
think the key thing for anyone listening is you do
notice a change in your tummy, bloating, bleeding, diarrhea, change
in bour habits. It's absolutely imperative to get that explored
(10:04):
by a professional who doesn't just say it's just irritable bow.
You want the test done. I remember melshaling from Maths
the same She was only in her forties and for
several months her GP had said to her, ignore it,
it's just irritable bowel. And she ended up having bowel
cancer and it was quite advanced. It wasn't stage one.
She had to have quite significant chemotherapy. So you know,
don't just discard gut symptoms. And certainly I know that
(10:28):
the free bow testing kits are available younger if you've
got a family history, you can access that. But even better,
you know, go and say you want a colonoscopy. You know,
I think it is an elective procedure. Can you do
pay a gap for it, but it's for peace of mind,
you know, whether you've got polyps that are at higher risk,
or really getting to the bottom of it, because yeah,
if whatever you can do to avoid more significant treatment
(10:50):
and adjust it early, even if you are in your twenties,
get it explored. So for me, that's the take home message.
So I thought it's good just to be on top
of it and are reminder to our listeners. If you
are over fifty and have not had a bower screen,
you must do that immediately. And if there's any positive
family history between breast, bow and brain cancer, which are
all associated, that would be assigned to also order a
(11:11):
kolonoscopy even if you're younger. All rightly and well, the
new diet study came across, and we do try and
balance our content to not be too diet focused, but
I did quite like this because it was a very
well controlled study published in a very reputable journal, and
it mimicked an approach I take with my own clients,
so I quite like to see and describe it. So
it was just recently published in April in the nalsitve
(11:34):
Internal Medicine, which is a very well known, big respective journal,
and it is a randomized controlled trial. So it was
a very well controlled study of one hundred and sixty
five overweight abese adults. And what they did was to
compare two different dietary approaches and they called it the
four to three intermittent fasting regime. So of course we
(11:55):
previously were aware of the five to two, which was
too extremely low calorie days and five regular eating days,
but this one played more on actually separating out four
to three days, just saying if you did three days
that were quite significantly calorie reduced, so it was just
eighty percent of calorie intakes. So that's a pretty low
(12:15):
calorie day, so that is like I should say, eighty
percent reduction in calories, so that is pretty low, Like
it would be between five six hundred calories. So a
day would be say a shake, a salad, a small
amount of maybe a tun nice salad, and some vegetables,
so three very very light meals or two light meals,
a soup and a shake. And they found that when
(12:36):
compared to four days of regular eating, not when clients
were not required to map but just eat whatever they
felt like, that it was seven point six percent average
weight loss compared to five percent with daily caloric restriction.
So the researchers argued that it's much easier to be
(12:56):
stricter on some days of the week rather than have
to be strict most days of the week. And the
reason it wasn't dramatic results in the sense Leanna and
I would hope to get much more than five seven
percent weight loss over a twelve month period, because it
was a twelve month study. But one of the strategies
I do use with my clients is the conceptly and
(13:16):
of lighter versus heavier days, So not as dramatic as
an eighty percent reduction, and that proactive calorie restriction, because
I don't think that's sustainable or viable for people who
need a lot more calories than that. But I did
like it because I thought it simplified things. Because what
I find with the complexity of life, for people who
are very very busy or feeling like they have to
(13:39):
constantly be mindful of every single meal, they do get
decision and fatigue around it. At times. You know, it
can get tiring, and that is why traditional models don't
always work, because they're not sustainable. Whereas the reason I
like light versus heavier days without specific calorie prescriptions is
that I think it lends itself well to life. Inevitably,
(14:00):
we have the weekends which are celebrations, more alcohol, restaurant meals,
and it's really really difficult to be constantly keeping those
controllers we've just experienced over Easter versus having Monday to Thursday,
Monday to Wednesday, Sunday to Wednesday lighter where I'll say,
I want you to have light meals at night which
are mostly vegetables and lean protein. I want you to
(14:21):
have no alcohol and very clear rules that make it
easy to keep on track, versus saying and then you
can have some other meals which are heavier. You don't
need to worry whether one day's five, you know, two
and a half thousand calories or two thousand, But you
just roughly know that those are going to be much
higher than the other days. And I find in life
that makes it a lot easier. So I kind of
(14:42):
just like the concept, but I think the actual reality
is very few people can eat, you know, eighty percent
less of their calories they require three days a week.
I don't think that's a viable approach, but I do
think in your mind, creating lighter versus heavier days makes
diet decisions easier in a life where we are constantly
exposed and offered food which inevitably is much higher in
(15:04):
calories than we need most of the time.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
No, one hundred percent. I couldn't agree more. And I
think it's a very balanced way to look at nutrition,
because that's real life. Like even you and ized dietitians
certainly go out for a beautiful meal, We enjoy a
glass of wine or two. We like to have some
fabulous desert if we're at a special restaurant or it's
a special occasion, And so we can't always have our
diet controlled to the key, you know, calories, and I
(15:27):
think all of the time. And I think that's why
so many people experience quite a lot of like diet burnout,
where you see people go hard, like one hundred percent,
foot on the gas one hundred percent, and they're falling
off the diet wagon three or four weeks later. And
that's the reason most people can't lose weight is because
it's just too difficult to fit into real life. You
basically have to say absolutely no to every social occasion,
(15:48):
cook every meal from scratch if you want to have
your calories controlled seven days of the week, twenty four
to seven. So I do like it. I think it's
a very easy concept for people to follow, and it's
certainly something that I with my clients, maybe not that exactly,
but talking about having lighter days during the week so
we can enjoy ourselves more what I call have a
few more soul foods on the weekend or really the
(16:09):
days that you're not exercising you're busy with work, lightening
up those days and having a bit more nutrition on
the exercise days, in the socializing days or for the
weekend as well, when you just want to be that
little bit more relaxed. So it's a great concept and
it's also something that we've covered in our book, which
we haven't mentioned for a while, Susie, So I'll give
our book a little plug because for any of our
listeners that are new to the podcast, Susie and I
wrote a fabulous book last year called Reset Nourish Burn.
(16:32):
It's available in an audiobook form, it's available in an
ebook form, and it's available at all good bookstores as well.
So it's a really sustainable balance way of resetting your diet,
helping you to burn unwanted body fat, and really learning
the key principles from a nutrition perspective to nourish your
body long term. And there's a ton of delicious recipes
and meal plans in the back of the book as well.
(16:54):
So if you haven't heard about it, Reset Nourish Burn
maybe what you need to reset your diet and lifestyle
after Easter and bring together some of these key concepts
and strategies that we really talk about on the podcast.
Speaker 1 (17:07):
True because it often reminds me of something that happens
if I've got clients who have calorie tracked in their life,
and I certainly don't encourage people to calori account because
we've discussed this before. It's really grossly inaccurate. You know,
when you look at calories on a pack or in
my Fitness Power, there's a twenty percent error rate at least,
just because of the way food is made and differences
in portions and differences in cuts of fresh produce and
(17:29):
all those variables. But I have clients who will be, okay,
I'm on just themselves after years of programming. I'll give
them a rough guide and they'll be like, okay, I
want to eat fourteen hundred calories, And I said, yeah,
but that's a guide. Some days you may only need
a thousand calories and some days you might need two
thousand because it's your period and you've done a big run.
So calorie intake isn't constant. It will have that natural
(17:51):
flux because some days inevitably will be heavier and some
days lighter. So keep that in mind too, And that
lends itself to that idea that it's not about a
stable calorie intel. It will differ and that's okay, And
that follows the natural cycle of physiology, hormones and just
different regimes or exposures to food throughout the week, So
that lends itself to that where it shouldn't be aiming
(18:12):
to always eat a similar number of calories. It should
be slightly different depending on all different variables. So yeah,
all right, Leanne, Well, there are new oats in the supermarket.
It is certainly oat season. There's like seven million varieties
of oats. If they're not like every time I look,
it's so many different ones. Now, I myself very transparent.
(18:32):
I don't eat oats. They're not for me. I cook
with them often though, if I'm making the kids muffins,
if I'm making banana bread, cookies, and I'll often blitz
them and use them as a flour like they're a
very nutrient rich whole grain. But myself, my family, we
don't eat oats or cook quick oats or any of those.
If I'm completely honest. The best oats a plain oats,
(18:53):
the two dollars one dollar bag at Coals and Woolies.
You don't need to get a branded version. They're cheap.
They're superfood, absolutely, But that's not the kind of oats
my clients like. My clients like oats which have big
slogans on them. Like these brand new ones that have
Milo all over them, which are a very attractive box
and in a similar way that all the music bars
are now chocolate bars, Tiqedo golden rough so too. Obviously,
(19:16):
it's proving very successful for food companies to add these
flavors to products to boost their appeal. I guess now,
Milo is a controversial ingredient because it is high in sugar.
Milo is extremely high in sugar. The Milo cereals are
generally high sugar. The Milo bars, the plain ones actually
(19:39):
not too bad, but in general they're often regarded as
a product that's heind sugar. But I am quite a
fan of Milo for one reason. Now, most of us
grew up for many of us listening group when we
used to have it, whether spoonful or on Milo, when
we were young, they didn't have the range of treats
they have now. But nutritionally, one of the reasons I
do sometimes go for it, particularly if I've got chill
(20:00):
d nor fussy eaters, is it's actually quite rich in
calcium and it's also got added vitamin D. So if
I'm dealing with children who have a poor nutrient intake,
I'm quite happy for them to have a glass of
Milo with milk because it's giving them a massive dose
of calcium along with a server of vitamin D, which
is in actually very few foods. So it's very much
a fortified food that can be used strategically as part
(20:21):
of type. But it doesn't translate that Milo oats are
there necessarily a good choice. So let's have a look
at what they're selling for. So they're currently a packet
of eight serves for six dollars thirty so they're in
a sachet form, and we will say that generally sache
oats are more processed. So when you have a whole oats,
it's got a low GI. You combine it with protein
(20:42):
yogurt or make yourself a bowl with protein powder. It's
got a low GI, high protein, very nutrient rich. As
soon as they start to process the oat down to cook,
it increases the glaciic index, so it's not as rich nutritionally,
it's not as good a choice. So looking at the ingredients,
the base is sixty nine percent whole grain oats, which
sounds high but really not really when you think a
(21:03):
bowl of oats is one hundred percent whole grain. The
next ingredient is sugar, and so that straightaway is a
bit of a watering sign because we don't really want
cereal blends in the wanting to have added sugar. Then
it's got eight percent of Milo pieces in it now. Unfortunately,
even though Milo does have these vitamins and minerals in
it at eight percent of the overall ingredient in not
getting those in any great concentration unfortunately. So it does
(21:27):
list all the ingredients of Milo, but you're not going
to get much in eight percent of the total volume.
Then it's followed by thinking where the Milo ins dried
malt powder, bari mold extract flavor, glucose and other source
of sugar, anti caking, skim milk powder, cocoa. So it's
a pretty convoluted ingredient list for a product that should
be quite simple. So nutritionally perserve it's got about one
(21:51):
hundred and fifteen calories or five hundred and sixty kilodes.
It's got twenty two point four grams of total carbohydrates,
so similar amount to two slices of whole grain bread
five point six grams of sugar, so just over a
teaspoon of sugar person which is added sugars four point
one grams of protein, two point seven grams of dietary fiber,
which is pretty low for a cereal. We're sort of
(22:13):
wanting at least five in this day and age, and
no added salt. So I wouldn't buy it leanne. I
just think if you want oats, have oats, I'd go
for a no sugar sachet. You know, Carmens have got
a wide range of no sugar sachets for oats. If
it meant your child would then eat oats for breakfast,
(22:34):
maybe maybe it's got less sugar than say, Coca Pops
New Sure Grain. Oh, you know, i'd give it a
five six out of ten. It wouldn't be on my
meal plans. I wouldn't buy it for my own children.
Mind you, my kids have been eating Coca Pops in
the holidays, so I shouldn't really talk. But you know,
I don't know, what do you think. I think it's
a middle ground. I don't think it's good for my adults.
(22:55):
I wouldn't recommend it. I think there's much better quick
cook oats with no added sugar that are hiring. If
it meant your child was going to have a decent breakfast, maybe,
But that's probably the only time.
Speaker 2 (23:07):
What do you think I would rather, like if your
kid wants milo for breakfast, I'd rather give them a
teaspin a milot in a glass of milk, and like
you said, some lower sugar oats with a little bit
of cheer seeds or some berries on them, like I
do overnight oats a lot for my kids. Or I
just make them a bowl of porridge and put some
berries and a bit of cheer seeds in them and
make that up with some four cream milk. And I
think there's this massive misconception that oats take a long
(23:29):
time to cook. Like, honestly, if I'm gonna make oats
in the microwave, yeah, quick cook oats are ninety seconds,
like if you use the quick instant oats. But to
make a bowl of rolled oats, it's only an extra
thirty to sixty seconds. Like come on, Like, don't tell
me you don't have an extra thirty seconds, Like you're
kidding yourself. So nutritionally, absolutely, rolled oats will steal. Cut
oats are far better than the instant of the quick oats.
(23:51):
Can you do far worse at breakfast time? Absolutely? But
I just don't buy them like if I was traveling,
or if I, you know, we were staying in an airbnb. Sure,
but on a regular basis, I've got a huge glass
jar of rolled oats in my pantry and we go
through them a lot. I cook with them like you do.
My kids eat oats, more overnight oats in summer, more
(24:11):
of the hot porridge type oats in winter. And I'll
just make a big batch of them, or we'll have
them over a few days, or I'll just warm them
up like they're such a nurishing option. And if your
kid really wants Milo, sprinkle a teaspoon on top of that,
and add a little bit of healthy fats in there
as well, so that again that carbohydrate portion is getting
digested a little bit slower. I love cheer seeds, I
love hemp seeds, I love limb seeds. Even a teaspoon
(24:32):
of peanut butter with a sprinkle of Milo powder, it's
going to be far better nutritionally than these sashos. So
I wouldn't buy them. I wouldn't really even recommend them
for fussy kids. I'd probably say more so try and
make your own oats and sprinkle a little bit of
Milo on yourself. You save yourself a lot of money
because a bat you can get a kilo of rolled
oats for like two bucks. Maybe this is six dollars thirty,
(24:53):
so it's not insignificant and you're getting eight servings out
of that. You buy a killer of rolled oats, you'll
probably get twenty to thirty servings out of that. So
it's not something I would recommend, it's something something i'd buy.
It's not terrible. It is relatively low in sugar for
what it is. Let's be honest, Like five grams of
sugar is pretty good, but like you said, the fiber
content I would like to be a lot higher for adults,
(25:13):
and for an adult, like one hundred and something calories,
it's not even going to touch the signs like it's
nowhere near a balanced breakfast. So I'd rather use some
atural milo and sprinkle that on a little bit of
ovin Adot's with a bit of Greek yo get to
pimp it up, make it on a bit of milk
and add a bit of healthy fats to it and
a bit of fruit as well while you're at it.
I think that's a far more nourishing breakfast, and you
can still get the taste of Milo in if that's
(25:34):
what you really want, you know, slice banana, sprinkle of Milo,
make it on some milk. I think far better, Far
better for the budget, far better for your gut health
and really teaches our kids again to eat real food
as much as possible.
Speaker 1 (25:45):
I agree with you. I would prefer them to have
the glass of milk with the Milo in it, because
then they're getting a huge amount of calcium, they're actually
getting a lot more protein, they're getting the carbohydrate, and
then they're getting the fortified benefits of Milo, which includes
the vitamin D in the right amount. So I wouldn't
have an issue with that. If I had a fussier
eater and they wanted to have a Milo for breakfast,
I'd be like, go for it, quick and easy. If
(26:06):
you go calcium, protein, carbohydrate, kick the box. So that
would be how I would use the Milo to a
grade one hundred percent.
Speaker 2 (26:12):
Yeah, I'm like you, like, I've got Myla on my
pantry and my kids have it. Maybe it's a bit
of a treat once or twice a week. So it's
not something we're saying always dietitians, your kids can't have Milo,
But there are certainly better options on the market. Then
there's even these Milo bars, Like I don't buy the
Milo bars. I don't buy the Milo Porrige sashe as.
I'll buy pure Milo. Sure, But you know, you get
to take the winds where you can, and as much
whole food going in through the diet as we can
(26:33):
is going to be better for our kids. So take
that extra thirty sixty seconds, use the rolldoats, use the quicker,
the steel cut boats, and they're going to be far
better nutritionally and keep little tummies fuller for that little
bit longer, which is really what we want. Because small
children in particular, who this product is probably marketed at,
are constantly hungry. So if we can get a little
bit more fiber and we can get a little bit
of a lower GI carbohydrate into them, it's just going
(26:56):
to fill their tummies up for that a little bit longer. True, true, true,
All right, listener, question, how can I get more fiber
in my diet? What is the best fiber powder that
you can buy? Well, you're talking my language, listener, because
this is something that I love and I use a
fiber powder regularly daily myself. I have for many many.
I would say, even over a decade that I have.
(27:16):
I've had a lot of irritable bowel in my early twenties.
Like we discussed earlier, I've had klonoscopies, I've had endoscopies,
I've had all the blood tests. Mine is generally just
a sensitive stomach. I'm a sort of a very fast paced, anxious,
sort of semi stress person, So I do a lot
and I do tend to be more reactive to those,
you know, stress responses, and so that can really sort
(27:37):
of upset my erritable bowel. It's gotten a lot better
over the years. I rarely have issues with it, but
mine is genuinely true IBS. So I do work with
a lot of clients who do have irritable bowels sensitive tummies.
We of course tick off all the boxes in terms
of appropriate screening, making sure it's nothing nasty, and then
from there, if we do come to the conclusion that
it is an irritable bower or a sensitive tummy, after
(27:58):
all the medical checks have been done, we would then
look at you utilizing something like a fiber powder on
a regular blimess, particularly when they're traveling, because when you
are traveling, when you're eating food that you're not making yourself.
The fiber intake tends to be a lot lower, so
I do get the majority of my clients to travel
with a fiber powder. So my favorite one, hands down,
(28:18):
and that has the bulk of the research behind it
from both a constipation and a diarrhea perspective, is cilium husk.
So Celium husk is available at any basically large supermarket
in the health food section. You can get it online,
you can get it at the chemists. Celium husk is
the active ingredient in the brand Meta Muscle, So you
can buy a pure cilium hustp by itself, or you
can buy a Meta muscle as well. I don't love
(28:39):
Meta muscle. It comes with a lot of the artificial
sweetness in the flavored ones, and it's a lot more
ground down. Celium hust by itself is a lot more coarse.
I do feel like if you can tolerate it, you're
not too bad with different textures. It's going to give
you the real deal the cilium husk. If you aren't
great with textures or drinking things, maybe try a Meta musle.
It's a little bit more gentle. So Celium husk is
a soluble fiber, but it's also a prebotic type of fiber,
(29:02):
so it forms a gel in your gut. It helps
to draw water into the bow, softening them, and also
helps to provide bulk to your stools. It helps with
cholesterol and blood sugar level support, and it's really really
great for those like sluggish bowels or those people who
feel like they experience a little bit of incomplete evacuation.
So Cilium Huss his hands down my favorite, and in
the most recent months I've found a really great brand
(29:24):
of it at Woolwors under their Macro Organic brand. It's
a Cilium Hust with added probotics in it as well.
I just looked it up before and at retails, a
two hundred gram pouch is eight dollars fifty, so it
is something that you would consider a supplement, but I
think for a lot of pozzies they probably could benefit
with a fiber supplement. So Cilium Hust hands down zero sponsorship,
(29:45):
is absolutely my favorite. My next favorite is a casier fiber,
so it's a very gentle, soluble prebiotic type fiber. I
love it so much that we have added it into
our pre and probotic nourished protein powder from our design
by Dietian Range. It's very very gentle on the gut.
It doesn't become thick or gritty in water like selium huster.
(30:05):
Side note, if you are someone with texture issues, you
don't like your drinks thickening, you don't like the gritty texture,
don't do sillium hust You're not gonna love it. Try
a casey of fiber instead. You can literally buy it
online just in a big bag and you add it
to your drinks or your food. As I said, it's
very gentle on the gut. It's low fodnaps, so it's
very appropriate for people with IBS, and because it is
a prebiotic type fiber, it helps to feed the beneficial
(30:28):
gut bacteria as well. So that's my second favorite, is
a casey of fiber. If you're a texture person, just
start with that. Don't do selium husty you'll hate it.
My next favorite one that I love is PHGG partially
hydrogelized guagum so it's basically gua gum. So again it's
a very gentle fiber. It helps to feed the good
probotic bugs in your gut. It's very good for ibs,
(30:49):
it's very good for sensitive tummies. It is sold under
the brands I think Sunfiber is one of them. Regular
Girls another one again if you jump online. You can
buy the hydrolysed guagum from many different breas online like
Amazon or I Herb, so I quite like that one
as well. The last two aren't as good for sensitive tummies.
Inulin and chickery root. They are probotic fibers as well,
(31:10):
so they promote the feeding of the good back to
you in your gut, but they're not great for sensitive tummies.
I myself get a lot of loading in gas from
inealin chickery root, as do many many people with IBS
and a sensitive tummy, So if you do have a
sensitive tummy, I would stay away from that. Funnily enough,
the inulin and the chickery root, although they're completely fine
to use from a fiber perspective, it's the two that
(31:32):
the food companies seem to use most when they're adding
additional fiber into products like bars and cereals. I find
that it's inualin chickery roots that are used routinely the most,
and I don't love that because so many people will
eat them usually buy or hub fiber and say to me,
I've just got really bloated or gas here. I've got
a bit of an upset tummy after that, and it
genuinely is because they've got a bit of a sensitive tummy,
(31:52):
and it's due to the amounts of chickery root or
inulin in there. So I don't mind it, but I
personally don't love it, and I personally don't use it
a lot. And then the last fiber that is big
on the market is more resistance starch. It's really really wonderful.
There's a range of health benefits from it. It's a
bit harder to find if you were looking for it.
In terms of food, it's in unripe green bananas, and
(32:13):
also if you cook and cool your starches such as
rice and pasta, you're going to build up the resistance
starch in there. So I love it. It's great from
a health perspective. There's many, many benefits. But you can
also buy resistance starch in powder form in the supermarket
as well. It's really good for gut health. There's some
evidence that it's good for metabolic support, but it's probably
more used in foods rather than drink. So if you're
(32:35):
looking for a powder to add to your drink, add
to your smoothie, my number one is sillium husk. But
again it does add a bit of sort of texture
and a bit grittiness and thickness to your drinks. Secondary,
I love a casey of fiber. If you're looking for
something that really doesn't change the texture or consistency of
your drinks, that would be my pick is either a
casi of fiber or the partially hydrolyzed gua gum. Does
(32:57):
that answer the question? Is it a good summary?
Speaker 1 (32:59):
Wow? Well, Fiona Fie, our very loyal listener and big
fan of design by dieticians, that was an answer for you,
and she has excelled herself.
Speaker 2 (33:08):
Thank you, Thank you Tech your Curtsey.
Speaker 1 (33:11):
Very impressive answer. So I love it. Thank you all right. Well,
that brings us to the end of the nutrition Couch
for another week. Please to keep telling your friends about us,
check out our book Reset Nourish BYRN and if you're
interested in some scientifically formulated supplements to help you bet
your best, check out our design bidietitians dot Com website
for that. Or if you're came for a little retreat
come October November this year in Kingscliff to meet us,
(33:33):
spend some time with us and get your life and
health in order. Check out the nutritioncouch dot com and
we will see you next Wednesday for our regular episode
drop have a great week.
Speaker 2 (33:43):
Thank you for your support.
Do you know someone who has had bow cancer or
breast cancer? A number of different types of cancer are
on the rise, especially in young people. And on today's
episode of The Nutrition Couch, we have some new research
to share which dells deeper into the disturbing rise in
the incidence of cancer in young people. Hi, I'm Cusie
Barrel and I'm Lea and Mott, and together we bring
you The Nutrition Couch, the weekly podcast that keeps you
(00:23):
up to date on everything you need to know in
the world of nutrition, as well as the latest in
cancer research. We have a new diet study which has
a novel approach to structuring your weekly meal plans. We
review a popular new porridge for winter, Don't Worry up today,
and our listener question is all about fiber powders prayer
healthy tummy, so Leanne. This is a lot of your
(00:46):
specialist area. Because I have to be honest, I'm certainly
asking a lot more of my clients about their routine
health checks. So you know, have you had your boobs
done not in an uplifting way, have you changed your boobs?
Have you, you know, had a bow cancer screening test?
And a lot of clients are onto it. I think
particularly out to listen to the nutrition couch because we're
(01:07):
constantly referring to medical tests that you should get done
at certain ages, but sometimes clients are like, oh no,
I haven't been told that. So we're constantly reminding people
about you know, there's a lot more we can do
lifestyle wise, but also prevention wise for a number of
different types of cancer. But that doesn't change the fact
that we're seeing dramatic rises in aggressive cancers, particularly digestive cancers,
(01:28):
in young people. And we know if we catch them
early that there's a great prognosis. But for young people,
I'm talking people in their twenties and thirties, you know,
sometimes the cancers are quite far advanced and they can't
do a huge amount, and so there has to be
something happening out there lifestyle wise. So this was a
study that just popped up last week, and I'm going
to hand over to you because digestive health is really
your area, and it's fascinating because it's just a really
(01:52):
fascinating piece of research suggesting why this is happening, isn't it?
Speaker 2 (01:56):
Yeah? One hundred percent, And I think we've seen more
and more come out about different types of cancers, the
risks increasing and the young people. Like in the Western world,
the cancer risk in young people is absolutely exploded and
there has to be a reason for that, and our
poor Western style diet absolutely has to be a key
part of that. Our excessive amounts of alcohol. Let's be honest,
(02:17):
Australians like to drink. Like if you go out to
a barbecue and you say I'm not drinking, people are like,
are you pregnant? Like there's something wrong with you if
you're the one not having a drink. It's so natural
and common to over drink to overeat in our culture
that it's not a good thing and I don't think
it's really helping us out as a society. So whenever
we do see new research regarding cancer risks, we really
(02:39):
should sit up and take notice of it, even if
it's small studies, because there's new and new stuff coming
to the market all the time. But this was really
groundbreaking new research. I haven't seen anything like this to date,
and it's basically the research. The study suggests that there's
a new type of gut dwelling bacteria that may potentially
be behind the recent surges in the early onset of
(03:01):
colorectal cancers. So colorectal cancers are some of the biggest
types of cancers that young people in their twenties and
thirties are actually dying from. And what this study is
suggesting that the culprit is a toxin. It's called Coli bactin,
and it's a toxin produced by certain strains of E.
Colid that tends to thrive in the colon and in
the rectum. So what this study found diving deeper into
(03:25):
this Coli bactin toxin was that they believe that the
exposure actually happens really early on, like basically back in
our childhoods, so decades before a lot of people are
actually diagnosed with something like you know, colon cancer. So
the colabacterine linked mutations, they said in the research, can
(03:45):
show up at the early stages of the tumid developments,
and often this bacteria is linked back to the first
ten years of life. So it seems that these young
children around the ages of ten are basically being infected
with this E. Coli type bacteria, and a lot of
the times they're completely non symptomatic, like you wouldn't even
(04:05):
know that you've been infected as a child, so the
infection itself is quite non symptomatic, but it's very transient,
so the damage can persist and hang around for decades later.
But what I found a little bit alarming about the
research was that the study found that about fifteen percent
of the APC, which is the driver mutation of this
of this cancers, so these are some of the earliest
(04:28):
genetic changes that are directly related to promoting the cancer development.
Fifteen percent of these driver mutations were linked back to
this Coli bacterine type of E. Coli. So if someone
acquired one of these driver mutations by the time that
they're about ten years old, this could potentially be decades
and decades ahead of schedule for them going on to
(04:51):
potentially developed colon cancer later on. So instead of perhaps
them getting colon cancer at sixty, they might actually be
getting it a few decades earlier at forty. So it's
really I guess it's fascinating, it's kind of scary, but
it really does come back to why we should be
so invested and interested in our kids' house, our kids nutrition,
and even our nutrition, because there is a lot that
(05:12):
we can do for many cancers from a nutrition and
a lifestyle perspective. But you know, we don't want to
go getting ahead of ourselves. We can't say that a
equals be like this cancer is directly caused by this.
It's just a new study and a new research out
there to sort of, I guess, help us to understand
the development of some of these some of these types
of cancer. So the jury is still out on whether
(05:35):
this new colla bacterine is the main driver behind the
rises an early onset colorectal cancer cases or whether it's
just one of potentially many factors involved. Because we do
know that early onset colorectal cancer, there is a lot
of other factors.
Speaker 1 (05:50):
You know.
Speaker 2 (05:50):
We've got diet and nutrition, we've got inflammation, we've got genetics,
we've got environmental factors as well. So I think it's
really interesting key findings. I guess for our nutrition couch listeners.
There is rising incidents of cancers and young people. We
used to think that cancer was something that you know,
you didn't even have to think about until you were fifty, sixty,
seventy eighty years old. But some of the deadliest types
(06:13):
of colorectal cancers are diagnosed in Aussies who are twenty
five to thirty years old. And we do know that
there are a lot of contributing factors. Like I said,
lifestyle and nutrition is huge. The more ultra processed foods,
the more alcohol you have in your diet, the higher
risk of being diagnosed with some of these types of cancers.
Australians have very sedentary habits. We don't move anywhere near enough.
(06:35):
Even if you go to the gym for a thirty
forty minute session and then you sit down at work
for eight to nine hours for the rest of the day.
Then you come home and you sit on the couch
and watch Netflix for another tool three hours that night.
You're not moving anywhere near enough. And a lot of
these sedentary, poor habits that we've got into as a
nation are not serving us or helping us out from
(06:56):
a decreasing cancer perspective later on, because exercise assolutely decreases
the risk of cancer as well. We've also got environmental exposures.
We're hearing more and more about, you know, different types
of plastics and microplastics and forever chemicals particularly. I feel
like in the last year or so, it's very very
trendy online. I myself have swapped my different cooking pans.
(07:16):
I've swapped to you know, I've got rid of my
plastic chopping boards. I'm using different types. Now, I've got
rid of my plastic spachelors. I'm using you know, stainless
steel ones. So there's more and more of these contributing
factors that we're hearing about coming out. And another big
one is for young people in particular, is delaying diagnosis.
You know, young people they get these symptoms and they think,
you know, you know, medical professionals may potentially overlook them
(07:38):
because they say, oh, it's just ibs, Oh that's very normal.
Yet you know, all of these changes that we're seeing
were the early onset of colorectal cancer and it unfortunately
isn't getting diagnosed a lot later because it's just not
something we think young people would have. So I guess
it just brings home the basic message of balance, right,
adopting a balanced diet, whole foods, more fiber, fruits and vegetables, legumes,
(08:03):
whole grains. I'm actually getting in your pre and your
probotics as well, and limiting as much as possible our
ultra process foods and our alcohol and really just staying informed,
knowing what is a red flag from a symptom perspective,
knowing that even though you know the bow cancer screening risks,
you know, I think there were fifty, but I think
there's some talk it might have everyone already been done,
(08:24):
brought down to forty, like they're actually bringing forward the
bow cancer detection guidelines in terms of age, but being
aware that if you've got a family history of that,
if you know you've got a really poor diet, if
your symptoms have changed, if you have night sweats, if
you have blood in your stools, if you've had a
significant alteration in terms of your bower movements, if you're
losing weight unexplained. They're all big red flags to go
(08:46):
and get checked out by your doctor, and if something
doesn't feel right, push harder, go to another doctor, get
some more tests run. Because you know your body best,
and if things are changing and you haven't really changed
much from your diet or your lifestyle perspective, it is
some thing that you want to be aware of and
be alert about. So I don't think there's anything much
we can do well. The study didn't really go into
(09:07):
you know, us being able to prevent us getting this
type of collibacterine toxin. But it certainly does talk about
you know, lifestyle and nutrition choices reducing our risks long
term and early detection absolutely being key true.
Speaker 1 (09:22):
I think the take home message for me at this stage, well,
first of all, I found it interesting because, of course
they found that some certain types of ulcers were also
caused by bacteria, not that long ago, you know, when
for a long time we talked about ULCs being caused
by stress, but actually it was a bacteria. So I
think it's a fascinating area. But the take home message
for me is, particularly with young people, we see so
(09:44):
many digestive symptoms written off as irritable bow, and certainly
medical professionals can be quite indifferent to us just irritable
bowel ignora, you just got a sensitive tummy. So I
think the key thing for anyone listening is you do
notice a change in your tummy, bloating, bleeding, diarrhea, change
in bour habits. It's absolutely imperative to get that explored
(10:04):
by a professional who doesn't just say it's just irritable bow.
You want the test done. I remember melshaling from Maths
the same She was only in her forties and for
several months her GP had said to her, ignore it,
it's just irritable bowel. And she ended up having bowel
cancer and it was quite advanced. It wasn't stage one.
She had to have quite significant chemotherapy. So you know,
don't just discard gut symptoms. And certainly I know that
(10:28):
the free bow testing kits are available younger if you've
got a family history, you can access that. But even better,
you know, go and say you want a colonoscopy. You know,
I think it is an elective procedure. Can you do
pay a gap for it, but it's for peace of mind,
you know, whether you've got polyps that are at higher risk,
or really getting to the bottom of it, because yeah,
if whatever you can do to avoid more significant treatment
(10:50):
and adjust it early, even if you are in your twenties,
get it explored. So for me, that's the take home message.
So I thought it's good just to be on top
of it and are reminder to our listeners. If you
are over fifty and have not had a bower screen,
you must do that immediately. And if there's any positive
family history between breast, bow and brain cancer, which are
all associated, that would be assigned to also order a
(11:11):
kolonoscopy even if you're younger. All rightly and well, the
new diet study came across, and we do try and
balance our content to not be too diet focused, but
I did quite like this because it was a very
well controlled study published in a very reputable journal, and
it mimicked an approach I take with my own clients,
so I quite like to see and describe it. So
it was just recently published in April in the nalsitve
(11:34):
Internal Medicine, which is a very well known, big respective journal,
and it is a randomized controlled trial. So it was
a very well controlled study of one hundred and sixty
five overweight abese adults. And what they did was to
compare two different dietary approaches and they called it the
four to three intermittent fasting regime. So of course we
(11:55):
previously were aware of the five to two, which was
too extremely low calorie days and five regular eating days,
but this one played more on actually separating out four
to three days, just saying if you did three days
that were quite significantly calorie reduced, so it was just
eighty percent of calorie intakes. So that's a pretty low
(12:15):
calorie day, so that is like I should say, eighty
percent reduction in calories, so that is pretty low, Like
it would be between five six hundred calories. So a
day would be say a shake, a salad, a small
amount of maybe a tun nice salad, and some vegetables,
so three very very light meals or two light meals,
a soup and a shake. And they found that when
(12:36):
compared to four days of regular eating, not when clients
were not required to map but just eat whatever they
felt like, that it was seven point six percent average
weight loss compared to five percent with daily caloric restriction.
So the researchers argued that it's much easier to be
(12:56):
stricter on some days of the week rather than have
to be strict most days of the week. And the
reason it wasn't dramatic results in the sense Leanna and
I would hope to get much more than five seven
percent weight loss over a twelve month period, because it
was a twelve month study. But one of the strategies
I do use with my clients is the conceptly and
(13:16):
of lighter versus heavier days, So not as dramatic as
an eighty percent reduction, and that proactive calorie restriction, because
I don't think that's sustainable or viable for people who
need a lot more calories than that. But I did
like it because I thought it simplified things. Because what
I find with the complexity of life, for people who
are very very busy or feeling like they have to
(13:39):
constantly be mindful of every single meal, they do get
decision and fatigue around it. At times. You know, it
can get tiring, and that is why traditional models don't
always work, because they're not sustainable. Whereas the reason I
like light versus heavier days without specific calorie prescriptions is
that I think it lends itself well to life. Inevitably,
(14:00):
we have the weekends which are celebrations, more alcohol, restaurant meals,
and it's really really difficult to be constantly keeping those
controllers we've just experienced over Easter versus having Monday to Thursday,
Monday to Wednesday, Sunday to Wednesday lighter where I'll say,
I want you to have light meals at night which
are mostly vegetables and lean protein. I want you to
(14:21):
have no alcohol and very clear rules that make it
easy to keep on track, versus saying and then you
can have some other meals which are heavier. You don't
need to worry whether one day's five, you know, two
and a half thousand calories or two thousand, But you
just roughly know that those are going to be much
higher than the other days. And I find in life
that makes it a lot easier. So I kind of
(14:42):
just like the concept, but I think the actual reality
is very few people can eat, you know, eighty percent
less of their calories they require three days a week.
I don't think that's a viable approach, but I do
think in your mind, creating lighter versus heavier days makes
diet decisions easier in a life where we are constantly
exposed and offered food which inevitably is much higher in
(15:04):
calories than we need most of the time.
Speaker 2 (15:06):
No, one hundred percent. I couldn't agree more. And I
think it's a very balanced way to look at nutrition,
because that's real life. Like even you and ized dietitians
certainly go out for a beautiful meal, We enjoy a
glass of wine or two. We like to have some
fabulous desert if we're at a special restaurant or it's
a special occasion, And so we can't always have our
diet controlled to the key, you know, calories, and I
(15:27):
think all of the time. And I think that's why
so many people experience quite a lot of like diet burnout,
where you see people go hard, like one hundred percent,
foot on the gas one hundred percent, and they're falling
off the diet wagon three or four weeks later. And
that's the reason most people can't lose weight is because
it's just too difficult to fit into real life. You
basically have to say absolutely no to every social occasion,
(15:48):
cook every meal from scratch if you want to have
your calories controlled seven days of the week, twenty four
to seven. So I do like it. I think it's
a very easy concept for people to follow, and it's
certainly something that I with my clients, maybe not that exactly,
but talking about having lighter days during the week so
we can enjoy ourselves more what I call have a
few more soul foods on the weekend or really the
(16:09):
days that you're not exercising you're busy with work, lightening
up those days and having a bit more nutrition on
the exercise days, in the socializing days or for the
weekend as well, when you just want to be that
little bit more relaxed. So it's a great concept and
it's also something that we've covered in our book, which
we haven't mentioned for a while, Susie, So I'll give
our book a little plug because for any of our
listeners that are new to the podcast, Susie and I
wrote a fabulous book last year called Reset Nourish Burn.
(16:32):
It's available in an audiobook form, it's available in an
ebook form, and it's available at all good bookstores as well.
So it's a really sustainable balance way of resetting your diet,
helping you to burn unwanted body fat, and really learning
the key principles from a nutrition perspective to nourish your
body long term. And there's a ton of delicious recipes
and meal plans in the back of the book as well.
(16:54):
So if you haven't heard about it, Reset Nourish Burn
maybe what you need to reset your diet and lifestyle
after Easter and bring together some of these key concepts
and strategies that we really talk about on the podcast.
Speaker 1 (17:07):
True because it often reminds me of something that happens
if I've got clients who have calorie tracked in their life,
and I certainly don't encourage people to calori account because
we've discussed this before. It's really grossly inaccurate. You know,
when you look at calories on a pack or in
my Fitness Power, there's a twenty percent error rate at least,
just because of the way food is made and differences
in portions and differences in cuts of fresh produce and
(17:29):
all those variables. But I have clients who will be, okay,
I'm on just themselves after years of programming. I'll give
them a rough guide and they'll be like, okay, I
want to eat fourteen hundred calories, And I said, yeah,
but that's a guide. Some days you may only need
a thousand calories and some days you might need two
thousand because it's your period and you've done a big run.
So calorie intake isn't constant. It will have that natural
(17:51):
flux because some days inevitably will be heavier and some
days lighter. So keep that in mind too, And that
lends itself to that idea that it's not about a
stable calorie intel. It will differ and that's okay, And
that follows the natural cycle of physiology, hormones and just
different regimes or exposures to food throughout the week, So
that lends itself to that where it shouldn't be aiming
(18:12):
to always eat a similar number of calories. It should
be slightly different depending on all different variables. So yeah,
all right, Leanne, Well, there are new oats in the supermarket.
It is certainly oat season. There's like seven million varieties
of oats. If they're not like every time I look,
it's so many different ones. Now, I myself very transparent.
(18:32):
I don't eat oats. They're not for me. I cook
with them often though, if I'm making the kids muffins,
if I'm making banana bread, cookies, and I'll often blitz
them and use them as a flour like they're a
very nutrient rich whole grain. But myself, my family, we
don't eat oats or cook quick oats or any of those.
If I'm completely honest. The best oats a plain oats,
(18:53):
the two dollars one dollar bag at Coals and Woolies.
You don't need to get a branded version. They're cheap.
They're superfood, absolutely, But that's not the kind of oats
my clients like. My clients like oats which have big
slogans on them. Like these brand new ones that have
Milo all over them, which are a very attractive box
and in a similar way that all the music bars
are now chocolate bars, Tiqedo golden rough so too. Obviously,
(19:16):
it's proving very successful for food companies to add these
flavors to products to boost their appeal. I guess now,
Milo is a controversial ingredient because it is high in sugar.
Milo is extremely high in sugar. The Milo cereals are
generally high sugar. The Milo bars, the plain ones actually
(19:39):
not too bad, but in general they're often regarded as
a product that's heind sugar. But I am quite a
fan of Milo for one reason. Now, most of us
grew up for many of us listening group when we
used to have it, whether spoonful or on Milo, when
we were young, they didn't have the range of treats
they have now. But nutritionally, one of the reasons I
do sometimes go for it, particularly if I've got chill
(20:00):
d nor fussy eaters, is it's actually quite rich in
calcium and it's also got added vitamin D. So if
I'm dealing with children who have a poor nutrient intake,
I'm quite happy for them to have a glass of
Milo with milk because it's giving them a massive dose
of calcium along with a server of vitamin D, which
is in actually very few foods. So it's very much
a fortified food that can be used strategically as part
(20:21):
of type. But it doesn't translate that Milo oats are
there necessarily a good choice. So let's have a look
at what they're selling for. So they're currently a packet
of eight serves for six dollars thirty so they're in
a sachet form, and we will say that generally sache
oats are more processed. So when you have a whole oats,
it's got a low GI. You combine it with protein
(20:42):
yogurt or make yourself a bowl with protein powder. It's
got a low GI, high protein, very nutrient rich. As
soon as they start to process the oat down to cook,
it increases the glaciic index, so it's not as rich nutritionally,
it's not as good a choice. So looking at the ingredients,
the base is sixty nine percent whole grain oats, which
sounds high but really not really when you think a
(21:03):
bowl of oats is one hundred percent whole grain. The
next ingredient is sugar, and so that straightaway is a
bit of a watering sign because we don't really want
cereal blends in the wanting to have added sugar. Then
it's got eight percent of Milo pieces in it now. Unfortunately,
even though Milo does have these vitamins and minerals in
it at eight percent of the overall ingredient in not
getting those in any great concentration unfortunately. So it does
(21:27):
list all the ingredients of Milo, but you're not going
to get much in eight percent of the total volume.
Then it's followed by thinking where the Milo ins dried
malt powder, bari mold extract flavor, glucose and other source
of sugar, anti caking, skim milk powder, cocoa. So it's
a pretty convoluted ingredient list for a product that should
be quite simple. So nutritionally perserve it's got about one
(21:51):
hundred and fifteen calories or five hundred and sixty kilodes.
It's got twenty two point four grams of total carbohydrates,
so similar amount to two slices of whole grain bread
five point six grams of sugar, so just over a
teaspoon of sugar person which is added sugars four point
one grams of protein, two point seven grams of dietary fiber,
which is pretty low for a cereal. We're sort of
(22:13):
wanting at least five in this day and age, and
no added salt. So I wouldn't buy it leanne. I
just think if you want oats, have oats, I'd go
for a no sugar sachet. You know, Carmens have got
a wide range of no sugar sachets for oats. If
it meant your child would then eat oats for breakfast,
(22:34):
maybe maybe it's got less sugar than say, Coca Pops
New Sure Grain. Oh, you know, i'd give it a
five six out of ten. It wouldn't be on my
meal plans. I wouldn't buy it for my own children.
Mind you, my kids have been eating Coca Pops in
the holidays, so I shouldn't really talk. But you know,
I don't know, what do you think. I think it's
a middle ground. I don't think it's good for my adults.
(22:55):
I wouldn't recommend it. I think there's much better quick
cook oats with no added sugar that are hiring. If
it meant your child was going to have a decent breakfast, maybe,
But that's probably the only time.
Speaker 2 (23:07):
What do you think I would rather, like if your
kid wants milo for breakfast, I'd rather give them a
teaspin a milot in a glass of milk, and like
you said, some lower sugar oats with a little bit
of cheer seeds or some berries on them, like I
do overnight oats a lot for my kids. Or I
just make them a bowl of porridge and put some
berries and a bit of cheer seeds in them and
make that up with some four cream milk. And I
think there's this massive misconception that oats take a long
(23:29):
time to cook. Like, honestly, if I'm gonna make oats
in the microwave, yeah, quick cook oats are ninety seconds,
like if you use the quick instant oats. But to
make a bowl of rolled oats, it's only an extra
thirty to sixty seconds. Like come on, Like, don't tell
me you don't have an extra thirty seconds, Like you're
kidding yourself. So nutritionally, absolutely, rolled oats will steal. Cut
oats are far better than the instant of the quick oats.
(23:51):
Can you do far worse at breakfast time? Absolutely? But
I just don't buy them like if I was traveling,
or if I, you know, we were staying in an airbnb. Sure,
but on a regular basis, I've got a huge glass
jar of rolled oats in my pantry and we go
through them a lot. I cook with them like you do.
My kids eat oats, more overnight oats in summer, more
(24:11):
of the hot porridge type oats in winter. And I'll
just make a big batch of them, or we'll have
them over a few days, or I'll just warm them
up like they're such a nurishing option. And if your
kid really wants Milo, sprinkle a teaspoon on top of that,
and add a little bit of healthy fats in there
as well, so that again that carbohydrate portion is getting
digested a little bit slower. I love cheer seeds, I
love hemp seeds, I love limb seeds. Even a teaspoon
(24:32):
of peanut butter with a sprinkle of Milo powder, it's
going to be far better nutritionally than these sashos. So
I wouldn't buy them. I wouldn't really even recommend them
for fussy kids. I'd probably say more so try and
make your own oats and sprinkle a little bit of
Milo on yourself. You save yourself a lot of money
because a bat you can get a kilo of rolled
oats for like two bucks. Maybe this is six dollars thirty,
(24:53):
so it's not insignificant and you're getting eight servings out
of that. You buy a killer of rolled oats, you'll
probably get twenty to thirty servings out of that. So
it's not something I would recommend, it's something something i'd buy.
It's not terrible. It is relatively low in sugar for
what it is. Let's be honest, Like five grams of
sugar is pretty good, but like you said, the fiber
content I would like to be a lot higher for adults,
(25:13):
and for an adult, like one hundred and something calories,
it's not even going to touch the signs like it's
nowhere near a balanced breakfast. So I'd rather use some
atural milo and sprinkle that on a little bit of
ovin Adot's with a bit of Greek yo get to
pimp it up, make it on a bit of milk
and add a bit of healthy fats to it and
a bit of fruit as well while you're at it.
I think that's a far more nourishing breakfast, and you
can still get the taste of Milo in if that's
(25:34):
what you really want, you know, slice banana, sprinkle of Milo,
make it on some milk. I think far better, Far
better for the budget, far better for your gut health
and really teaches our kids again to eat real food
as much as possible.
Speaker 1 (25:45):
I agree with you. I would prefer them to have
the glass of milk with the Milo in it, because
then they're getting a huge amount of calcium, they're actually
getting a lot more protein, they're getting the carbohydrate, and
then they're getting the fortified benefits of Milo, which includes
the vitamin D in the right amount. So I wouldn't
have an issue with that. If I had a fussier
eater and they wanted to have a Milo for breakfast,
I'd be like, go for it, quick and easy. If
(26:06):
you go calcium, protein, carbohydrate, kick the box. So that
would be how I would use the Milo to a
grade one hundred percent.
Speaker 2 (26:12):
Yeah, I'm like you, like, I've got Myla on my
pantry and my kids have it. Maybe it's a bit
of a treat once or twice a week. So it's
not something we're saying always dietitians, your kids can't have Milo,
But there are certainly better options on the market. Then
there's even these Milo bars, Like I don't buy the
Milo bars. I don't buy the Milo Porrige sashe as.
I'll buy pure Milo. Sure, But you know, you get
to take the winds where you can, and as much
whole food going in through the diet as we can
(26:33):
is going to be better for our kids. So take
that extra thirty sixty seconds, use the rolldoats, use the quicker,
the steel cut boats, and they're going to be far
better nutritionally and keep little tummies fuller for that little
bit longer, which is really what we want. Because small
children in particular, who this product is probably marketed at,
are constantly hungry. So if we can get a little
bit more fiber and we can get a little bit
of a lower GI carbohydrate into them, it's just going
(26:56):
to fill their tummies up for that a little bit longer. True, true, true,
All right, listener, question, how can I get more fiber
in my diet? What is the best fiber powder that
you can buy? Well, you're talking my language, listener, because
this is something that I love and I use a
fiber powder regularly daily myself. I have for many many.
I would say, even over a decade that I have.
(27:16):
I've had a lot of irritable bowel in my early twenties.
Like we discussed earlier, I've had klonoscopies, I've had endoscopies,
I've had all the blood tests. Mine is generally just
a sensitive stomach. I'm a sort of a very fast paced, anxious,
sort of semi stress person, So I do a lot
and I do tend to be more reactive to those,
you know, stress responses, and so that can really sort
(27:37):
of upset my erritable bowel. It's gotten a lot better
over the years. I rarely have issues with it, but
mine is genuinely true IBS. So I do work with
a lot of clients who do have irritable bowels sensitive tummies.
We of course tick off all the boxes in terms
of appropriate screening, making sure it's nothing nasty, and then
from there, if we do come to the conclusion that
it is an irritable bower or a sensitive tummy, after
(27:58):
all the medical checks have been done, we would then
look at you utilizing something like a fiber powder on
a regular blimess, particularly when they're traveling, because when you
are traveling, when you're eating food that you're not making yourself.
The fiber intake tends to be a lot lower, so
I do get the majority of my clients to travel
with a fiber powder. So my favorite one, hands down,
(28:18):
and that has the bulk of the research behind it
from both a constipation and a diarrhea perspective, is cilium husk.
So Celium husk is available at any basically large supermarket
in the health food section. You can get it online,
you can get it at the chemists. Celium husk is
the active ingredient in the brand Meta Muscle, So you
can buy a pure cilium hustp by itself, or you
can buy a Meta muscle as well. I don't love
(28:39):
Meta muscle. It comes with a lot of the artificial
sweetness in the flavored ones, and it's a lot more
ground down. Celium hust by itself is a lot more coarse.
I do feel like if you can tolerate it, you're
not too bad with different textures. It's going to give
you the real deal the cilium husk. If you aren't
great with textures or drinking things, maybe try a Meta musle.
It's a little bit more gentle. So Celium husk is
a soluble fiber, but it's also a prebotic type of fiber,
(29:02):
so it forms a gel in your gut. It helps
to draw water into the bow, softening them, and also
helps to provide bulk to your stools. It helps with
cholesterol and blood sugar level support, and it's really really
great for those like sluggish bowels or those people who
feel like they experience a little bit of incomplete evacuation.
So Cilium Huss his hands down my favorite, and in
the most recent months I've found a really great brand
(29:24):
of it at Woolwors under their Macro Organic brand. It's
a Cilium Hust with added probotics in it as well.
I just looked it up before and at retails, a
two hundred gram pouch is eight dollars fifty, so it
is something that you would consider a supplement, but I
think for a lot of pozzies they probably could benefit
with a fiber supplement. So Cilium Hust hands down zero sponsorship,
(29:45):
is absolutely my favorite. My next favorite is a casier fiber,
so it's a very gentle, soluble prebiotic type fiber. I
love it so much that we have added it into
our pre and probotic nourished protein powder from our design
by Dietian Range. It's very very gentle on the gut.
It doesn't become thick or gritty in water like selium huster.
(30:05):
Side note, if you are someone with texture issues, you
don't like your drinks thickening, you don't like the gritty texture,
don't do sillium hust You're not gonna love it. Try
a casey of fiber instead. You can literally buy it
online just in a big bag and you add it
to your drinks or your food. As I said, it's
very gentle on the gut. It's low fodnaps, so it's
very appropriate for people with IBS, and because it is
a prebiotic type fiber, it helps to feed the beneficial
(30:28):
gut bacteria as well. So that's my second favorite, is
a casey of fiber. If you're a texture person, just
start with that. Don't do selium husty you'll hate it.
My next favorite one that I love is PHGG partially
hydrogelized guagum so it's basically gua gum. So again it's
a very gentle fiber. It helps to feed the good
probotic bugs in your gut. It's very good for ibs,
(30:49):
it's very good for sensitive tummies. It is sold under
the brands I think Sunfiber is one of them. Regular
Girls another one again if you jump online. You can
buy the hydrolysed guagum from many different breas online like
Amazon or I Herb, so I quite like that one
as well. The last two aren't as good for sensitive tummies.
Inulin and chickery root. They are probotic fibers as well,
(31:10):
so they promote the feeding of the good back to
you in your gut, but they're not great for sensitive tummies.
I myself get a lot of loading in gas from
inealin chickery root, as do many many people with IBS
and a sensitive tummy, So if you do have a
sensitive tummy, I would stay away from that. Funnily enough,
the inulin and the chickery root, although they're completely fine
to use from a fiber perspective, it's the two that
(31:32):
the food companies seem to use most when they're adding
additional fiber into products like bars and cereals. I find
that it's inualin chickery roots that are used routinely the most,
and I don't love that because so many people will
eat them usually buy or hub fiber and say to me,
I've just got really bloated or gas here. I've got
a bit of an upset tummy after that, and it
genuinely is because they've got a bit of a sensitive tummy,
(31:52):
and it's due to the amounts of chickery root or
inulin in there. So I don't mind it, but I
personally don't love it, and I personally don't use it
a lot. And then the last fiber that is big
on the market is more resistance starch. It's really really wonderful.
There's a range of health benefits from it. It's a
bit harder to find if you were looking for it.
In terms of food, it's in unripe green bananas, and
(32:13):
also if you cook and cool your starches such as
rice and pasta, you're going to build up the resistance
starch in there. So I love it. It's great from
a health perspective. There's many, many benefits. But you can
also buy resistance starch in powder form in the supermarket
as well. It's really good for gut health. There's some
evidence that it's good for metabolic support, but it's probably
more used in foods rather than drink. So if you're
(32:35):
looking for a powder to add to your drink, add
to your smoothie, my number one is sillium husk. But
again it does add a bit of sort of texture
and a bit grittiness and thickness to your drinks. Secondary,
I love a casey of fiber. If you're looking for
something that really doesn't change the texture or consistency of
your drinks, that would be my pick is either a
casi of fiber or the partially hydrolyzed gua gum. Does
(32:57):
that answer the question? Is it a good summary?
Speaker 1 (32:59):
Wow? Well, Fiona Fie, our very loyal listener and big
fan of design by dieticians, that was an answer for you,
and she has excelled herself.
Speaker 2 (33:08):
Thank you, Thank you Tech your Curtsey.
Speaker 1 (33:11):
Very impressive answer. So I love it. Thank you all right. Well,
that brings us to the end of the nutrition Couch
for another week. Please to keep telling your friends about us,
check out our book Reset Nourish BYRN and if you're
interested in some scientifically formulated supplements to help you bet
your best, check out our design bidietitians dot Com website
for that. Or if you're came for a little retreat
come October November this year in Kingscliff to meet us,
(33:33):
spend some time with us and get your life and
health in order. Check out the nutritioncouch dot com and
we will see you next Wednesday for our regular episode
drop have a great week.
Speaker 2 (33:43):
Thank you for your support.
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