You're listening to I Choose Me with Jenny Garth. Hi, everyone, welcome to I Choose Me. This podcast is all about the choices we make and where they lead us. And one of the most important choices we make every day is the food we choose to put in our bodies. People are always asking me, what do I eat, When
do I eat? All of the questions. Healthy eating has just become a way of life for me, but I also know it can be overwhelming sometimes and confusing with all the different things that we have available to us, all the different things that we see on the social media and the TV. Everybody, it seems, is giving us their tips and their hacks, and it can be a lot. I like to keep things simple, stick with the experts,
and hear straight from the source. So my guest today is the nutrition and healthy lifestyle expert for the Today Show. She is a number one New York Times bestselling author known for making the most delicious and nutritious recipes, and she's part of my QVC sisterhood from the Q fifty. Please welcome Joy Bouer to the I Choose Me Podcast. Okay, Joy, we just met, but I feel like I've known you forever because I watch you on the Today Show. You're my nutritionist guru.
You're making my heart pitter patter. Okay, So I have watched you forever and it was like super cool for me to be able to meet you at the event. I think you knew that, right. Did I lunge at you?
You didn't lunge at me anymore than I lunged at you. So we're good. I'm so happy to have you on the pod today because there are so many questions that I have for you personally and just from our audience. Things people need to know, should know, things I just want to know, burning questions. So I'm just going to jump right into it. If that's okay, great, I would love it. Okay. Well, before we get to the questions, I do want to ask you, how did you become
a nutritionist? Was this something that you loved since you were a little girl? Was this a driving desire for you? Did you fall into it? What happened?
You know what? A little bit of all of that. So I was sort of born with this passion for all things under the health umbrella. I was a huge athlete.
I loved every single sport that there was but by the time I was in middle school, I was a competitive gymnast, and so, like all serious athletes, sort of the food piece when hand in hand with the athleticism, and so I was always, you know, sort of researching and trying to figure out how to optimize my performance by eating better, making great, big messes in my mom's kitchen. Even though I called the masterpieces, truly they were message.
She would validate that. And then as I got older, I decided that I wanted to actually go into medicine. So I was pre med in college. I majored in biochemistry and kinesiology, and I thought I was going to become a pediatrician. And when I graduated from college, and throughout that whole entire time, I was fascinated with nutrition. It was more of a hobby for me, and that
point the sports was as well. And so when I graduated, I took a sabbatical from going to medical school and I got a graduate degree in clinical nutrition at NYU. And it was one of those moments we've all had them. All the moons lined up, the light bulb sort of went off. It was just my very first nutrition one oh one, and I thought, oh my goodness, like this could actually be a career. I love food. I was always a huge foodie. I grew up in a foody household.
We loved textures and flavors and ethnic cuisine and combinations. I love playing with food. I have the gift of gab. I love working with people, and so like this, this was my path and so for many years. I think a lot of people know me from television, But ironically, the entire first half of my career was in academics. I was in clinical nutrition, and I loved every single job I ever had.
Oh that's such a good story. I love that because that does seem to be such a natural progression from early athletics and knowing that your body runs better when you take better care of it and when you eat better, and then just growing that into this passion. It's such a good good story.
But truth be told, Jenny, the earlier days, when I was doing my own nutrition research in middle school, in way before the Internet, my nutrition wasn't necessarily.
I mean, what did we do before the internet.
Oh my gosh. I allotted things like mayonnaise, lad and coleslaw as my vegetables, and my complex carbohydrates were buttery ritz crackers. I mean, it was a mess. It was a mess, but the interest and the passion was there.
It's so true. We learn so much from the internet now. You know, if you start to follow nutritional feeds or healthy feeds, people that are putting really great positive content out there, you just start to get inundated with new recipes and new hacks and all the things that I mean, actually way more than we can even process. Sometimes it's just too much and you're like, now, I really don't know what to eat because there's too many ideas in my head.
Right and a lot of the information can be conflicting. So you know, it sort of goes back to being your own best friend and your own cheerleader and your own supporter, and like really listening to your own body. Because I think one of the things that I say over and over again, there's no one size fits all plan. There's hundreds of ways to get to the finish line. And I think each of us we are unique. We have our own eating styles and sensitivities and food preferences,
and we just have to figure it out. And that's part of the adventure.
How did you become the force that you are on NBC.
Wow, so TV was completely an accident. I was the director of Nutrition for pediatric Cardiology at Mount Sion and Medical Center, and I absolutely love my job. And part of my job I was in house. I worked in critical care, I worked in the transplant unit, I worked without patient, you know, all sorts of scenarios. But I also wrote this grant and I went out into underserved areas Harlem and East Harlem, and in a sense, I
tried to break the chain. I worked with communities that were at high risk for obesity and heart disease, type two diabetes, and really teaching kindergarten through twelfth grade how to eat better, how to exercise more, how to practice healthier lifestyles. Loved my jobs. You know, I think I'm getting the goosebumps right now thinking.
I have them. I have the goosebumps just hearing your amazing story and like, I'm so inspired by all this amazing work that you've done, and like how many people you have helped. Just wow, You're wow.
Oh, thank you, thank you. I never take it for granted. I just I love my job so much. But that's me. I mean, there are so many different people in different fields that love their jobs as well. And look at you. I mean, you entertained us in such a huge way and brought so much joy into our homes. So I could say exactly the same thing to you, but they so there I was. I was doing my thing, and along the way, I started to write articles for magazines,
and then I got a book deal. And so when the book came out, it was at a very interesting time. It was in the late nineteen nineties and people were starting to really take food seriously. Not just in the way that the less you eat, the more weight you could lose. It was more about eating the right foods and the right combinations can increase your energy and enable you to think more clearly, and lower your cholesterol and
level out your blood sugar and regulate your mood. Like all of these things that we now know is you know, like everyday thoughts. But at the time it was new and it was exciting. So the book did really well, and then all of a sudden it landed on the desks of a lot of producers, and then producers started calling me in to do things on TV. And I'm not like you. The first television episode I ever did, I thought I was gonna throw up a food display.
Oh my gosh.
Part was racing a million miles a minute. I was a nervous wreck. And it was on the view. So there were four hosts and I was on with two couples, so I maybe had a line or two to say, but this was at my wheelhouse.
It takes time to get comfortable in front of the camera. It does for me if I haven't done it in a while. It's like riding a bike. It comes back to you, but it does take that initial period of thinking, oh, this is going terribly.
Yeah, no it yeah. It took me a lot to get my sea legs. I can hardly believe I'm saying this, but I have been the nutrition and health expert on the Today Show now for seventeen years. Wow, oh I am.
That's incredible though, And the reason is because you are so personable and you really do break it down into simple terms for people and give us so many healthy ideas and options that we can use in our lives. Like what the information that you give us is so digestible, no pun intended.
I love that.
Things change all the time when it comes to food and nutrition. I mean when I was younger and in school, and I mean everybody probably They give us the food pyramid, right, right, and that's how we learned that's what we were supposed to eat. And has that changed? Has the discussion around that food pyramid changed? Have the things on the food pyramid changed?
Oh? I sure hope. So I think, well, the short answer to that is absolutely. And I just think the common sense way that people who aspire to be healthy and who are you know, radical health nuts eat very very differently from the original food pyramid. I think we eat far less carbs now. The carbs that we do eat are slower burn, higher quality carbs, whole grains, you know, things like that. And also I think that we're much more thoughtful over our proteins. Plant proteins is explosive right now.
That has a huge place within all of the proteins. People are diversifying their proteins now. Are also very environmentally mindful, so you know, we put a lot of thought into how we could reduce our carbon footprint as well, and that plays a part on it. I think that some of the things that we used to know, like the saturated fats, even though I know there's different camps of thought the saturated fats will still be connected with an elevated risk of heart disease, and we do want to
reduce those. Even though the oils and sweets that we used to you know, once think we're okay, are now moderated, we're limited that much more, and a lot of the oils have switched in. Olive oil and avocado oil to me, are sort of the holy grail.
Right me too. It used to be vegetable oil and then oil, and so those things are off the table now. We're not supposed to eat vegetable oil or kennel oil or one I just heard about yesterday, rape seed oil.
Well, and I think that it's not necessarily that we need to totally avoid them, but they don't have the health perks or the benefits that we know we get from an extra virgin olive oil or a pure avocado oil.
Does it need to be extra virgin?
So extra virgin will have a more powerful array of antioxidants, but regular olive oil still has the mono unsaturated heart friendly fats. So what I usually will say to people is, if you're going to buy a really expensive bottle of olive oil, that's an extra virgin olive oil. I would probably save it for cold preps when you're really going to enjoy the powerful taste and you're not going to destroy any of the slightly heat sensitive antioxidant load that
you're paying for in this extra virgin. But that being said, what we are finding out now, if you would have asked me this question two three years ago, I would have said to you, like, all of the antioxidants within the extra virgin or heat sensitive, a lot of them are not and their heat resistance, and so you still can cook with extra virgin olive oil. But sometimes again, if you're paying a top dollar for it, it's not
really worth it. I would say save it for salad dressings and drizzling on hummus and things like that where you're really going to enjoy it. But extra virgin and
regular olive oil all great. And avocado oil, the new kid on the block, is interesting because we don't have a lot of research on it, but it has When we look at the lipid composition, it is so during similar to extra virgin and regular olive oil that I'm so confident that whatever we wind up moving forward in terms of studies, we're going to find the same enhancing hard health, reducing and easing inflammation. And the nice thing about avocado oil is that it has a higher smoke
point and it's also neutral tasting. So whereas back in the day we used to say, use canola oil for all your baked goods because it doesn't have a taste unless you're making olive oil cake. With all of oil cake, you would want that olive oily flavor, but not necessarily
with your chocolate chip cookies or your other things. So avocado oil is great for any time that either you're going to use a super super high heat for prolonged periods of time because it's not going to go rancid, or if you want something that is not going to affect the flavor of your creation.
That is such good news for me. I love avocado oil. I basically that's my oil now perfect. I heard though that there are certain brands which we probably shouldn't go into, but I've heard that there are some avocado oils that are better than other ones.
Yeah, because there are brands out there that it's kind of fraudulent, and we're going to get better at this because avocado oil is becoming more mainstream. So we're becoming smarter consumers. There are brands that do blends and they'll be just a little fairy dust dropping of the avocado oil and then they'll have cheaper ves sgetable oil blends that are in it. So it makes you it's not nice,
not nice at all. But again my hope is I'm crossing my fingers on my toes that because we're getting smarter, companies will shy against doing that, but doing it a lot.
What about coconut oil.
So I am not necessarily a fan of coconut oil. I could appreciate the mouth feel that it brings to the table, and I could also appreciate the flavor, and it's very versatile in some instances, more so than the real liquidy oils. The reason I say this is because coconut oil, so we're not talking about refined coconut oil. I'm going to talk about a high quality coconut oil.
So coconut oil is mainly saturated fat. And even though we have a lot of studies showing that the type of saturated fat that cocon coconut oil has is I refer to it as lipid neutral. So what that means is even though it falls under the umbrella of the type of fats that raise our bad cholesterol and subsequently can increase heart disease, the type of saturated fat in
coconut oil. Some studies show that it's lipid neutral, meaning that even though it has you know, let's call it the somewhat scary fat, it doesn't affect your arteries like let's say, full fat dairy and like the marbled red meats. So it's a little bit different. But the reason why I would never say or recommend from my standpoint to use it as your go to oil is because there are other studies and like the American Heart Association, it's a good it's a good resource to go to to
look at how they sort of bucket coconut oil. They show that there are some studies that do have a connection to elevating cholesterol with coconut oil and raising heart disease risks. So I would say it's a great accent oil, but not necessarily soroughly your go to oil like olive and avocado.
Okay, good to know. My daughter uses coconut oil when she makes popcorn, and I think, yeah, she enjoys the taste of it, but I'm going to have to try to switch her over to the apocado. Yeah, there are so many conversations around protein, especially protein for women as
we age. I have been really researching it a lot lately and learning so much about protein because I don't eat red meat, I don't eat dairy, which is another way to get protein, and so it's been just sort of a process of finding out what I can eat to get all my protein in because I've also learned that we need more protein than I ever even imagined. I heard yesterday it's like zero point four or or all the way to one percentage of protein you need to eat per pound.
If you were to ask ten different registered dietitians you positions, you probably would get ten different answers. And I'm fascinated by all the protein research. This is what I will tell you. I will say that one of the easiest reference calculations that you can use is if you take your weight in pounds and you have it, that is the least amount of protein grams you should be eating, and you should be eating it throughout the day, not all in one meal. And the reason being that protein
is an amazing nutrient. It helps to level out your blood sugars because it slows down the absorption of carbohydrate, and we inevitably eat carbohydrate, even if you're a low car person. You're eating vegetables, you're eating fruits. So it helps to level out our blood sugars so we're more even keeled and we feel less frazzled and volatile. It also helps to repair and strengthen every single cell within
our body. And it's all of our amino acids, of the amino acids or the building blocks of our protein. So if you take your weight, you divide it in half. That is the number you should have as your starting point, and it doesn't have to be an exact every day. And people are probably thinking, well, how could I even
figure out how many grams different things have? And so you can use some of the free apps or calculators that they have online and just log your food and be very specific with the amounts that you're eating, and make sure that you differentiate between cooked and between raw, especially for things like quinoa and brown rice and lentils, because there'll be different measurements for cooked and for dry
and sow and beans. And so if you log your food for three days and then you know what your goal is, and let's say if you weigh one hundred and forty pounds and your goal is seventy grams of protein per day, you want to really divvy that up. So in the perfect world, but of course we don't live in the perfect world, but it would be something like twenty grams at breakfast, twenty grams at launch, twenty grams at dinner, and then ten grams with your snacks scattered problem today.
Okay, that's so good. That's such a good breakdown.
Yeah, and not difficult. You know, you just have and for you if you don't eat meat, it might even be like a protein smoothie in the morning if you add a scoop of a plant based protein powder. You know that generally give you, depending upon what brand, you could easily get about twenty grams from that. I am a huge Greek yogurt lover, so for me in the morning, you know, a piece of fruit and some Greek yogurt and you know, maybe a handful of chopped nuts on top,
and yes, I'd hit my quota as well. So it's not difficult. It's just being in the no knowledge is.
Right, absolutely absolutely, that is such a great equation for people, and so to understand basically half your body weight in protein grams per day, right, I love this, Okay. I just heard also that protein should be the primary food that you eat first thing in the morning, the thing that you break your fast with in the mornings.
So this is kind of going to go back to your personality and your eating preference. And the reason I'm going to say this is because people are always saying to me, is breakfast really the most important meal of the day, And in my opinion, I think whatever meal you're eating in that moment is the most important meal of the day. We have several options while we're eating to make really smart food choices, and every eating experience is a new opportunity to do better or to do
as best as you can. Many people are just not hungry in the morning, and so if you're not hungry in the morning, I would hate somebody to force themself to eat because they think that, you know, they're gonna crumble if they don't have breakfast. And as long as your energy level is still okay, and as long as it if you skip breakfast, that doesn't mean that you're sort of eating the house at night. When you get home. In other words, like your appetite still level, your energy
levels are level, It's okay to skip breakfast. If you're someone who wakes up ravenous. I would say your best bet is a balance between some sort of high quality carbohydrate that offers fiber and protein without a doubt, because again, it's all about that blood sugar enus that's going to help you power through your morning routine. Yeah.
I mean with my kids, I would always say, you need to eat something before you go to school. You want to fuel your brain if you want to listen, and you want to you know, be present in your classrooms and get good grades if that's what you're interested in. And I was always met with so much resistance about eating before they would leave the house.
And that's a kids thing, And I went listen. I'm a nutritionist and I went through that same thing with my kids. I have this vision in my head right now, like running to the school bus with a bag of dry cereal.
Oh god, Chris didn't anything. I know. I'm always like, just have it with you, what if you get hungry, just have it in your backpack. And they're so annoyed by me.
Yeah, but your strategy was the right strategy, Like, that's exactly what I did with them as well, you know. And I think it's a different reason. With kids. It's not necessarily because they're not hungry. It's because they're half sleeping still and they wait till the last minute to get up and they can't get out of bed and they're propty and they're thinking about a pop quiz that they have. But I think as adults, there are certain
people that just are not hungry in the morning. And I think also a lot of people are into this intermittent fasting. And if you have a window of time that you're eating, whether it's eight hours or twelve hours, you know they're afraid to start eating their breakfast too early for fear. Then you know they have to stop eating earlier on in the evening. So and in terms of intermittent fasting, you know, I think that there's interesting science there. I don't do intermittent fasting. I'm not a
big advocate or proponent of it. I don't push it, but it sort of goes back to so many different ways for people to be successful, and I love all the options.
Yeah, I love that too. For me personally, I eat when I'm hungry, and I know by I can regulate my hunger level by eating different foods. Certain foods will leave me feeling hungry in like an hour, and certain foods will hold me over for four hours. How can we speak to that?
So you're like the epitome of intuitive eating and eating. You've mastered it. You're very, very thoughtful, You're very tuned in to what your body needs, how your body responds. And I would imagine because you've been doing it, you've gotten yourself into some sort of a rhythm and a great groove. So you probably do a lot of the same rints and repeat.
M be fair, Yeah, definitely, Because I want to be comfortable. I want to feel good, and so by listening to my body, I've kind of learned what it is that makes me feel good and what it is that doesn't make me feel good. And I kind of like, for me, dairy. I stay away from dairy because it doesn't feel good when I eat it. I feel bloated, I feel gassy. I just don't love it. I mean I do. I don't eat dairy for health reasons, but I'm also an
animal lover, so there's that aspect of it. But I really do listen to my body, and my friend Adele was telling me that's intuitive eating. And I love when people can be that in tune with their bodies and listening to themselves enough to kind of get those messages.
No, it's a beautiful thing. It's when you know, all things come together. And I imagine that there were people that are listening that wish they could be as disciplined as you are, because you know, they crave sugar, and they crave meats and you know, macaroni like all of these things. But the great news is you can reimagine all of the things that you love in a health afied way so that you never have to feel deprived. Deprivation is the worst, the killer healthy eden.
I mean, deprivation and diet kind of go hand in hand for me, like those two words, because I grew up with a mom that was always on a diet, always following some new routine, some new books she had on her shelf about how she was supposed to eat. And that was really hard for me because I thought, oh, if I'm not doing it that way, then I'm doing it the wrong way.
And I imagine that you have role modeled for your children completely different.
I try, I definitely try.
Well, that's what the best we can do.
I love what you said about it. Every day is a chance to sort of reset and redefine your intention for your food that day, and just to give it some thought, because you know, we are all so busy and when you're hungry, we just want to fix that. We want to put food in there so we don't feel that those hunger pains. But if you kind of think it through a little bit, maybe in the beginning of the day or at some point during the day, then you are a little bit more intentional about your choices.
Absolutely. I think one of the best tips that I could give people is to take ten to fifteen minutes to sit down and come up with five meals that they can whip together in less than thirty minutes that will bring them satisfaction and joy, and then to always have at least the ingredients for two of those meals at all times in the house. The audience can change depending upon what your five meals are, but I think it's very, very important because when we have a roadmap,
you know, it's fifty percent of the battle. Eating healthy is fifty percent attitude. We both know it's not rocket science. It's not you know, it doesn't have to be complicated, but it should be the easy choice, the default choice, and you have to have somewhat of a plan in your head. And like the same thing goes for sugar. There are so so many ways that we could satisfy a sweet tooth, Yes, without sugar.
Let's talk about sugar. I mean, oh, I had a really bad sugar addiction, to the point where it's like heroin.
To me, like it is, I understand.
I feel like if I were to eat sugar, it's just I know, if I eat sugar, it's just so easy for me to fall off the wagon and just go back deep into eating sugar. I had a point in my life not that long ago, where I was so into sugar that my new obsession was caramel eminem's. I would write, and I would keep that in my car. I would keep them in my pocket of my robe, so that I was never anywhere in my house or on the road without my eminem's. Is that crazy?
What? Wow? And it's so hard on your mood and your blood. Sugars because even though it feels so good going down completely delicious and melt in your mouth, crave worthy. You dream about them. They sort of live up to the dream when you pop them in your mouth, but then they set your blood sugars subsequently your mood into a tailspin. And so like when it comes to sugar, I think different people can approach getting off sugar in
different ways. Maybe you what worked for you, and I don't know this for sure, but there's certain personalities that just want to go cold turkey. They could make the decision and they say, like, you know, some is opening the Pandora's box and I cannot even go there, so I just have to completely get off of it. And then there's another type of personality that can say, as long as I know, I can give myself one portion controlled thing every day. So maybe it would be one pack.
I don't know how big the packs were of the caramel em and MS.
Well, it depends if you're getting the family.
Side or so let's well say a handful.
Okay, that's good.
So like a portion control of you know, a sweet thing that brings you happiness and sort of does it for you, and you're able to stop after you have that one thing. And maybe it's the sort of thing
like you push it to the late afternoon. I would never tell anybody to open up that pans or box earlier in the day, but you push it as late as you can, and you know that you have it to look forward to, and then you also know that, okay, tomorrow there's another thing, and the next day there's another thing. So none of these sweets are the last sweet of my entire life.
That goes back to the deprivation exactly.
So I think like in both of those two directions, it's knowing who you are, knowing what will make the most sense for you, and no matter which one you choose, definitely having a whole slew of no sugar added sweet treats that you can enjoy. Jenny, I make one of
my favorite things is my healthiest chocolate shake. And all I do is I take a cup of almond milk, unsweetened almond milk, and I put it in a blender with one frozen banana, two spoons of unsweetened cocoa powder, half a teaspoon of vanilla extract, and a couple of ice cubes. I'm telling you you get a thick, luscious, rich chocolate shake.
And it just satisfies you. It satisfies that need for something sweet exactly.
And even on Saint Patrick's Day, I'll put a little bit of mint extract in there and it becomes a shamrock shake. I love that, but super simple. And another thing that I love to do is I go into the grocery store and I buy the bags of organic frozen fruit and I eat them right out of the freezer bag, things like pitted cherries and peach slices, and it almost feels and that mango chunks. It's like Italian ices without any of the junk.
Yes, So fruit is a great alternative to process.
Sugar, right, wonderful.
Okay, talk to me about other alternatives because there are a lot of things out there available.
Now.
I know I dabble with coconut sugar, Let's see what else. Monk fruit sweetener is another one that I've been baking with.
I love learning about all these things. So when it comes under the added sugar, the less process types of sugar, but it's still going to be sugar, will be honey, maple syrup, and coconut sugar, and I love them all and I'm not even afraid of sugar or brown sugar. It's just about using minimal amounts. Because I use all of these things in all of my recipes, and depending upon which ones work better in certain things, those are
the ones that I'm going to go towards. But they'll still count as added sugar because they still are going to produce an insulin response. They still will raise your blood sugar. So the name of the game is less is more. But I'm all for the real McCoy. When we talk about the sugar substitutes. I've done deep dives into the research, and the ones right now that I feel very comfortable with will be stevia, monk fruit, and I'm also very interested in allylose oh a l l
u l o O s e yes. So those those are the few that I am dabbling around with and I feel completely okay with, and in fact, some of the Greek yogurts that I'll get. Usually I'll get a plain Greek yogurt and I'll doctor it up myself, but sometimes I buy the flavor varieties, and i'll buy the flavor varieties with a stevia they use like a reb b a reb M, I think, which is just a different iteration of a Stevia and it's really they some of them have hit the mark, others not so much.
But some of the brands have really mastered it and there's no aftertaste, and you know, but.
They still you're saying, they still spike your blood sugar level.
No, not Stevie or monk fruit, amazing, just the maple syrup, coconut sugar, and honey. So those fall under the added sugars. Stevie, monk fruit, and Allylose have no insulin response, and those fall under the sugar substitutes.
Oh my gosh, I'm so happy to hear this because monk fruit has become just a part of our lives here. We don't We just stopped buying sugar so we're not tempted, and we use munk fruit for baking. I use it in my teas every morning, you know, anything that we need that little sweet hit. And it's very sweet.
It's very sweet. And you have to sort of develop a knack for how you're putting in and the biggest tip is to start with less and you could always always add a little bit more because if you put too much in, oh, your drink is.
Toast, right, you're not gonna like that, yeah, but.
It's great that you've mastered it.
Another thing I really am interested in right now. It's kind of going back to the proteins, but amino acids and how consuming additional amino acids on the daily can help with your protein intake.
So protein is actually made of amino acids. And you know, we have different types of amino acids. We have something called essential amino acids, there's nine of them, and then we have non essential amino acids. And then now you leave it to progression. Now we have a new definition called semi essential amino acids. Nobody needs to remember any of this, but what you do need to know the
amino acids are building blocks for protein. So whenever you're eating protein, whether it's a plant based protein like lentils, or whether it's an animal based protein like a dairy or chicken, you are getting amino acids. Back in the day, we used to think that plant based proteins they don't it doesn't have like all the essential amino acids and all of all of the full list of complete amino acids, And we used to think that you need it's a couple all of these amino acids at the same meal
like brown rice and beans. So you are getting this complete list of amino acids. And now we know as long as you just like vary your diet and you're having a nice balance of different plant based or animal proteins throughout the day and you're hitting the amount of protein that you need, that there's a massive chance you are getting the right types of amino acids and you're
getting the amount of amino acids that you need. You don't necessarily need to be taking up and beyond those amino acids if you're hitting your protein mark unless you're treating something specific. And the reason I say that is because we know when we isolate certain amino acids, some one might be good for helping you with sleep, one might be good for mitigating headache, one might be good for or a bunch might be good for helping with
hydration status. So that's when you look at adding on very specific amino acids on top of your regular protein grams. Does that make sense?
Yeah? I mean I think I am doing that now. I'm currently adding an amino acid powder to some water every day and just kind of making sure that I get that in once a day and you feel great. Yeah, and it's you know, you got to make sure you're checking the boxes, make sure you're finding a powder form that doesn't have added sugar in it.
That's why it's important to read labels to know what's in them. There's a lot of emerging research right now when we mix certain amino acids with electrolytes, meaning potassium, sodium, and magnesium. So those three electrolytes help to balance our fluid on a cellular level, our balance, and so we have this emerging research. It's not quite there yet, but it seems to be exciting, and I'm keeping my eye on it, so I guess we'll have to stay tuned.
We need larger and larger human studies. But it's showing that when you couple certain amino acids with these electrolytes in a drink, you're able to enhance hydration. And now, for a regular person we could just sip regular water, but for Olympic athletes and elite athletes, that's huge. Even for regular people who hike a lot, to be able to hydrate more efficiently and effectively, that really exciting.
You're onto me right now, I have a water bottle that I carry with me everywhere, and I refer to it as my emotional support water bottle, and I always have electrolytes in it, and once a day I'll add in the aminopowder. I wonder, though, is there a point where I can overdo it on my electrolyte consumption.
Yes, because what electrolytes also do, aside from balancing our fluid management, is they also control muscle contraction, and our hearts are muscles, So you know, it's the sort of thing I wouldn't do it. I would only have you do that, probably when you're having an intense exercise about but I wouldn't have you do it regularly when you're drinking your water quota for the party. Then I would
stick with regular water. And the other thing to keep in mind is that you know so many people over fifty start dancing with high blood pressure, and high blood pressure is known as like a silent issue because you don't even know that you have it until you actually go to your doctor for your physical and they put the cuff on you and then you take blood pressure and they tell you you have high blood pressure, and
you're thinking, what, But I feel absolutely fine. Sodium. If you're having sodium in all of these drinks, sodiums and electrolyte that draws in water, so it could increase the water within your blood vessels, which then increases your blood pressure. That's what blood pressure is, right, It's the pressure on
our blood vessel walls. So that's why I would say, you know, if you're going to do it, first and foremost, make sure that all of your labs check out normal, that there's you know, nothing that that has a red flag. That you have normal blood pressure, you don't have a family history of blood pressure or heart disease. And I would say to do this only when you have a heavy bout of exercise.
Okay, Okay, good good information. You mentioned sodium, and that's another hot topic for me personally. What is the deal with sodium. I've heard that, you know, just regular iodized table salt is not something you should be eating. I've then switched to Hamalayan salt, which I've now heard maybe not be the best choice, and now I'm onto Celtic salt. So I gotta find some alternative because anybody that knows me knows I like my salt.
Yeah, I'm your soul sister here. I love my salt too, and I'm a bit of a salt connoisseur because I love it so much. Salt is actually salt is salt is salt. So the deal with salt is salt is made of sodium chloride, and it's sodium within salt that is problematic. That is the component that draws in water, and when we have too much salt, it makes us feel bloated. It could raise the blood pressure like I
just talked about, and it could also exacerbate reflux. A lot of people deal with adjita partfer also known as reflux. So like, salt is not our best friend, but it makes things taste so dark good. So when it comes to salt, the different types of salt that we see on the market generally mean that they have subtle flavor differences. And that's because where they're coming from, the minerals that they're acquiring as they're made into salt, and so it's more of the flavor and the looks of them and
the coloring of them. It's not necessarily one is not necessarily healthier than the other. What I will tell you is healthier. Though, when you're following a recipe. When if you're completely following it and you're not salting to taste and something calls for a teaspoon of salt, what you want to do is always use a coarse salt like koaster salt or coarse sea salt, or of course Himalayan salt,
if you want anything that's coarse. And the reason being is because the coarse crystals will take up more space on that tea spoon when you compare it to a fine table salt or fine sea salt, and so that means that the recipe will have less soady in it. So it will only work when you're comparing teaspoon to teaspoon. Now, on the other hand, if you're just salting to taste, you could actually be adding double the amount of the core salt. Oh no, I would have for a table
you know, then for a fine salt. So it's a great rule of thumb when you are following a recipe, always go for the course. I love using kosher salt. That's generally my go to salt.
That is so good to know. Okay, So menopause is finally getting its stay in the sun. We're talking more about it. It's not taboo to talk about it, and we're learning so much. There's so much science about it, and we have a few friends in common that are just leading the way in these conversations. I had a friend ask what are the benefits of quitting sugar and how that affects your menopausal symptoms.
First off, just from the placebo standpoint, alone, quitting sugar is going to make you feel better.
Amen, sister.
Yeah, so that alone is enough to say pull back on your sugar intake. But pulling back on your sugar also helps to reduce your risk for cardiovascular issues. It's going to reduce your risk for heart disease hands down. It's also obviously going to reduce your risk for type two diabetes. And it's going to reduce inflammation. It eases inflammation. Sugar is proflammatory, it increases inflammation. It's going to light
us up. So when you pull back on sugar, it's only going to help you in everything, joy, everything I know. So I think that do the best that you can. It's in barbecue sauce, it's in our condiments and salad dressings. It's lurking where you cannot even begin to imagine. It's lurking.
But as long as you pinpoint the most obvious spots that you know that you're getting it in and toss them out of your diet, or get them off the menu and swap in other things that can satisfy a sweet tooth, you are so far ahead of the game. The incremental amounts will not make such a difference, I promise you. But when you get out the majority of it, Wow, you are going to feel so much better.
I think a lot of Americans, oh, the sugary drinks. It's at first it started with the sodas, and then we all learned that we shouldn't be drinking sodas and we should try to cut back on those. So people started drinking diet sodas, which is a whole other can of worms. And then there's the you know, frappuccino double delight that people get every morning on their way to work because they need it to get through their day.
Now, it's crazy. I absolutely love flavored sparkling water, like that's that's my soda. And what's nice about that is it gives you the bubbleafizz that we crave, so it's a little bit more exciting than water. Even though I water. I love plain water. I drink it all the time. But if I want something a little bit extra, that's my soda of choice. It's made with the essence of
natural fruit. There's nothing in it. There's no sodium, there's no sugar, there's no calories, there's nothing artificial, and there's so many flavors to choose from.
Oh my gosh. I went to the store the other day and it was one of those fancy health food stores. I won't mention the name, but there is an entire aisle. It's like a wall of cans of these new emerging sodas, like healthy sodas, probiotic sodas, sodas that heal everything. And I just want to know what is your stance on that, because literally, there would I would not have enough time in my day to take down every can of those sodas and look at the ingredient content.
A lot of times, with the additives that they're putting in there, whether it be like a probiotic or vitamins and minerals and things like that, it's not necessarily enough to justify adding them in. So I say, pick the brand that you like, the flavor the best, of make sure there's nothing dangerous in it. Again, you're looking for
nothing artificial, no sugar, no sodium, ultimately no calories. And another little trick that you can do if you want to jazz it up and bring a little bit more flavor into it, because for a lot of people, going from soda to sparkling flavored water, it feels a little light. You add a shot of one hundred percent fruit juice in there. It could be a pomegranate juice, a cranberry juice, and orange juice, a pink grapefruit juice, and suddenly you're adding an explosion of additional flavor.
You know, I will say that when you're correct. I stopped eating sugar sort of cold turkey, because that's the way I knew how I had to do it. But if people are looking to cut back on sugar, it takes time. It's because your body is so used to that level of sweetness and that kind of automatic brain flood that you get when you eat sugar. You have to give yourself time to adjust because like you will start to not need it as much as you pull it back, you'll be satisfied with less. It just takes time.
And you feel so good that it takes on a life of its own. You just you want to keep going. That's that's the great part about eating healthy. You don't have to make these grand changes immediately. These all little changes make you feel so good that you want to
do another, and another and another. And when it comes to eating healthy or giving up sugar, the very first step is making the decision getting your head in the game, because again, fifty percent attitude, and when your head is in it for the right reasons, that's when the magic happens.
Yes, absolutely, I want to ask you a question. What is the last I Choose me moment you had? Could be big, could be little for me, example, choosing to use a sugar alternative in my tea this morning, that was an I Choose me moment? Or you know, they can be huge, like choosing to start a new career path or you know, big, little whatever it was, what was yours?
This is actually a pretty easy one for me to answer. So my I Choose Me moment was I had a work obligation scheduled for tomorrow night, and my younger daughter called and said that she was free, that her plans had just fallen apart did I want to come into the city and join her for dinner? And I thought, yes, I do, And so I canceled the work obligation and I chose myself and often I'm going to go tomorrow night to join my daughter for a glorious dinner.
Oh my god, I love that because I know how valuable that time is with your adult daughters. It just fills you up.
And like the old me wouldn't have done that. I would, you know, I like you. We say yes to every work obligation that comes about. You know, we never want to disappoint anybody. And I think the older I get, the the wiser I'm getting in, the more confident I'm getting with doing what I really want to do. Obviously, you know, never being mindful of never hurting anyone's feelings and making sure that I give the right people the right right and you know, do what I need to
do to make sure that my career is flourishing. But at the same time, you know, taking care of myself, nurturing my soul.
I love that and I love you. Thank you so much for being on our podcast.
You are so welcome.
My Jenny, Mike Kelly, my girl, I learned so much today, and I know our listeners did too, so this has just been wonderful. Thank you Joy.
Oh my pleasure. I want to have you over for a feast to my house one day.
I'm here, I'm ready.
Great, No sugar.
That was some incredible information from my friend Joy. Thank you Joy. There's always something new to learn about food and nutrition, and I'm just so grateful that she was able to chat with me today. As we continue to choose ourselves each week, how about this for and I choose me moment, Let's take a look in our refrigerators. How about we even go deeper. How about we look in our snack cabinets. I know you have one of those, because I have one, and ours is literally a disaster.
There's open bags, cookies falling out everywhere. It's actually pretty embarrassing. But let's not choose to focus on that. Let's focus on this. Are their healthy options in there? Or is it just a bunch of cracks? Yeah, I'm telling you. For me, I had to go through and physically remove any temptations that I know would be calling my name come eight pm. I had to throw out my precious
caramel m and MS. I had to hide Fiona's Cheetos on the top shelf where I can't really reach them, and I have to do that over and over because I don't know how they do it. But those tempting snacks, those not so great choices, they seem to sneak their way back in there every time. It's like they multiply in there somehow. So choose to clean all of that up. Set yourself up with success when it comes to healthy
eating options. Also, here's a question, when was the last time you cooked for yourself instead of getting drive through or ordering takeout? Like cooked real food. It doesn't have to be fancy or complicated. Maybe just grill some chicken, or boil up some wild rice, or make a big salad with whatever little lonely vegetables are hiding in there. You will feel so much better when you take the time to prioritize what you put in your body. I know, I know, our lives are hectic and it's easy to
forget these things. But hopefully this conversation today reminds you to choose healthy options for your next meal. That's it. Thanks for listening to I choose me. You can check out all our social links in the show notes and make sure to follow rate review, you know all that stuff. Use the hashtag I Choose me because I want to see what your eye choose me moments are. I'll be right here next week, and I hope you will choose to be here too,