Live better and longer with The Fitzeness Show, hosted by fitness expert, author, and TV personality, Fitz Kohler. She'll tell you why diets are dumb, supplements are snake oil, and the truth about how you can earn a lean, hard, pain-free, and athletic body. Now for our favorite bossy blonde, Fitz Kohler. Well, hi, team. I'm Fitz Kohler. your very hungry fitness expert from fitness.com. And welcome to the fitness show.
Today, we're going to talk about food. And that's why I'm hungry. That's why I'm hungry. My guest is an actual pro in nutrition. And so I always say, stay in your lane, whoever you are. I don't give out medical advice, right? And when it comes to the deep dive nuts and bolts of nutrition, I like to turn it over to an actual expert dietician. And not only is this woman a real smarty pants, but she's a wonderful person and someone I love very much, a dear friend we met through running.
In fact, running at Disney many moons ago and just kind of fell in love. She's a great gal. And you know what? I got to tell you, we've talked about mean girls a bunch here. She's one of the nice girls, you know, a girl who just has your back. I think we both have each other's back and I admire her so much, but she's also just a great person, which is, it's lovely to be able to promote someone like that. So this is what you got to know. Let's talk about the big brains.
She has a bachelor's, a dual bachelor's from Purdue, go Boilermakers in dietetics and nutrition fits and fits. Just throwing my name in there. Nutrition, fitness, and health. And then she stuck around and got her master's degree in health promotion. So she's been doing this for a long time. She goes by the Diet Diva. That's right. If you'd like to visit her website, it's dietdiva.net. She warned me that it's being rebuilt right now.
So I encourage you to visit her at dietdiva.net now, and then maybe go back in a couple of months when it's new and updated, refreshed. You can always follow her on Instagram. At Diet Diva Tara. And it's Tara, T-A-R-A. You may mispronounce it, Tara. It's not Tara. It's Tara, Diet Diva Tara. But she's been working in television forever. She's been the sports nutrition consultant for the US Tennis Association. Johnson & Johnson, a speaker for Disney and Canyon Ranch Spa and Rodale Publications.
I mean, just all over the place. She does the food version of what I do for exercise and fitness. And she's just super smart. She's on TV a lot. She has a lot to say. And we cover so much. Now, we don't cover it all. She's going to come back on the show in the near future because I know you guys have more questions. And really, I base the entire show off of your questions. So our conversation ranges from how much protein, How much water? Bone broth. That's a funny question.
Powders and supplements, creatine. What else? I don't know. You know what? Weight loss. You're going to have to stick around and listen to hear all about it. But I love Tara and I know you will too. And when you get to the end, think about your nutrition questions and then send them my way. And I'll bring Tara on and we'll have another fantastical conversation. So without further ado, here she is, a diadiva, Tara Collingwood. All right, Tara Collingwood, welcome to the fitness show. Oh my gosh.
I can't even tell you how excited I am to be here. I love you and I've missed you so much. So what a good reason for us to get together. Absolutely. Thank you for asking me. Of course. It's been forever. In fact, am I wrong? Was the last time we actually talked when I called to tell you that I had cancer? Well, that was one of them. But then when you were writing your book. Oh, that's right. That's right. Okay. Yeah. Yeah. Well. Congratulations. That's amazing.
Thank you. Thank you. They're doing well. And I'm working on number five right now because I'm a very stupid person. What about you? Do you have any new books coming out? No new books. Nope. Haven't gone back into that world for a little while. Well, I say good for you. As you know, it's a bear, but I write almost all of my pages on airplanes. Oh. Yeah. So as I get on and off the plane, or when I get on the plane, I'm stuck sitting there doing nothing. So...
I make good use of it until my laptop dies. And then, yeah, I got to start flying again soon because I need to make more progress. Much more productive than me watching Netflix. Smart woman. Smart woman. Okay. So listen, I have people send me all sorts of nutrition questions. And while I'm qualified to answer healthy eating stuff and weight loss things, there's some minutia that you are the true expert on.
And I thought, I'm just going to gather these questions and I'm going to give it to a girl I trust. So are you ready to answer not my questions, but other people's questions? Of course. This is like my favorite thing to do. So, I mean, this is going to be fun. Yeah, it is. And these other people mostly are from my online training group, the Howdy Body Fits in this Challenge. So shout out to those awesome people. They really, Tara, they are some of the nicest humans on earth.
Oh, I know. I see your social media about them, and I see them, you know, I mean, it is. You have created such an incredible community. They're wonderful. And just everybody's nice and supportive and they work so hard and they post these sweaty selfies, which just make me want to jump through my phone or my laptop and smooch them. I'm so gropey. So anyways, that's just who they're coming from. So not Tara, this is a question from Tara, Tara Stoller.
And she wants to know the benefits of drinking beef bone broth. Oh, okay. So beef bone broth. So bone broth got really popular, I don't know, you know, several years ago, and it's kind of died down a little bit, but there's still some devotees out there and then some people just finding it for the first time now. So absolutely great. It is going to give you some protein. It's not going to be as high in protein, of course, as, you know, just plain meat is going to be.
I guess it also depends on which one you're doing. You know, there are various forms of the bone broth, but it's also going to have certain B vitamins in there. And it's just kind of, I don't want to say refreshing, but a warming type of food for people. They really enjoy just sort of the broth side of it, that it's hot. It can be a little bit filling. Hot foods are filling. You know, be careful of sodium. That's the only thing. If you're exercising
a lot and you're sweating a lot, then you're losing a lot of sodium. So that's okay. But if you do have high blood pressure or, you know, something like that, I would say watch the, you know, look at the label and see how much sodium is going to be in it. Okay. So protein and a nice warm, like soup. It's just this, feels like soup. Okay. And I'm a vegetarian, so drinking bone stuff makes me go, yay.
But some people are really good. Yeah. Well, that was my first reaction, but I was trying to, you know, have the neutral face. What is the other thing that's in soup? Well, there was a sample lady at Publix, this lady, Betty. Golly, I love Betty. I haven't seen her forever, but she was talking about soup and she said there was, is it like chicken feet in soup or something that makes it a little thicker? You don't know? I don't know.
It was something I wish she hadn't told me. It was one of the things. Yeah, like, oh, no, didn't, could have lived without that knowledge. Well, it's the same thing. I was going to say collagen, you know, when you think about what collagen is made out of, That is cringy too. So, you know, again, certain bone broths might have that collagen in there too. And that's actually why I should have mentioned that. That's why a lot of people want to go, you know, for the bone broth.
So the collagen is made from, you know, ligaments. And I mean, it's from animal. It can be hooves and different things. And so, you know, there could be some calcium in there as well that could be, you know, a benefit. Again, they vary so much. It's hard for me to say one particular, you know, one might have some more of something than the other. But yeah, so that might be another benefit is some of the collagen that could be in some of that bone broth.
And how would people benefit by consuming collagen? So there's, that's, that's sort of a good question, because there's a lot of mixed messages out there about collagen. Some people think that, you know, it'll absolutely help with skin. And, you know, so it's more of an aesthetic thing, it can, you know, potentially also help with also muscle and and your own tendons as well. So, you know, it's sort of mixed out there. I'm more of the the idea of you know what, just eat your protein.
And, you know, if you want to do some collagen, I think I don't see a problem with it. But again, know where you're sourcing it from. So most of those powdered collagens, or of course, the bone broth is going to come from animal parts of some sort. So just, you know, be aware of that, especially if you're a vegetarian, like you and me, you look at that white powder and you go, oh, collagen.
And you don't realize like what might be behind the scenes where they're sourcing it from either bovine, you know, cow or from pig.
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We're back. Okay. So I am going to ask my own question because I'm of the nature, I really am of the belief that most people can get what they need nutritionally from food. I'm not a huge fan of the local quote unquote nutrition store and all the what the hell is in those containers. Nobody knows it's unregulated. And so I think if most people eat a balanced assortment of foods, they're going to get the majority of what they need.
So what are your thoughts on that? And let's go specifically to protein, because I do believe if you're a carnivore, you're likely getting all the protein you need. What say you? Yeah, 100%. I mean, I think if you're eating meat, you're fine. Even with sort of the push on protein these days to eat, you know, more and more and more protein.
If you are a lacto-over-vegetarian or a vegan, I would say, yeah, maybe a little protein powder or a protein bar or one of the little ready-to-drink protein shakes might be a good little 20, 30-gram boost to your day to try to get to at least over 80, 90 grams for the day. Or for women, we're trying to get around there. For men, obviously way over 100. And so, yeah, if you're eating meat, you're going to be fine. Other supplements, then, you know, that's opening up a huge can of worms.
I am a believer in supplements. But just like you said, the word supplement means what? It's a supplement in addition to the food you're eating. So it's not a replacement. It's a supplement. So there's certain things that we don't get enough of in our diet as hard as we try, like vitamin D, like omega-3 fish, you know, or omega-3 fatty acids.
So there's certain, you know, probiotics, like, I think there's certain foods that I would or certain supplements that are on my like, These are the ones, so those are basically the ones that I mentioned, vitamin D, omega-3, probiotic, maybe a little bit more magnesium, especially for, you know, people who are sweating a lot. You know, it's good for digestive health, but I'm a migraine sufferer. So I take some extra magnesium.
You know, you can, I mean, we can go down the whole list. I am a huge fan of creatine as well, not just for bodybuilder dudes, but I've been doing creatine for years. That's on my list to ask. So talk to us about creatine. And it was a woman who asked, what's the benefit for women? So you can target both guys and gals with creatine. Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. So I think creatine is great for women. And especially, you know, as we're getting older, I just turned 50.
And so I've been taking it for a couple of years. We lose muscle as we age. We don't have to, as you know, and you preach. If we exercise and especially do resistance training, then we can maintain. I'm stronger at 50 than I was when I was 20. But that's not the norm for most people. but I've worked really hard for, for those muscles. So creatine, it can help definitely with, with muscle. It's not going to turn you into a huge, huge, you know, muscle guy, gal, whatever.
But what it can do is help you to retain a little bit more of that muscle and potentially help you to, you know, to build a little bit of muscle. It also is on concussion protocols. So it helps to protect your brain as well. And you're like, I don't have concussions. Great. Well, let's just have it regularly to help to protect our brain. And that's one of the advantages of omega-3s too.
You know, the omega-3 fatty acids, which are, you know, majority in fish, but you can find them in flax and walnuts and stuff too. But that also can help to protect our brain. So, you know, when we're looking at brain health, again, especially as we age and looking at foods that can or supplements that can help us with protecting ourselves, I would say creatine is one on that list as well. Okay. So creatine. It's thumbs up from Tara.
Yeah. How do you prefer people get it? And people can get creatine in meat, so it's not... It's not this outer space product that you can have if you're eating real food, but do you prefer powder or gummies or capsules? And when should they consume them? Yep, definitely powder. Five grams is kind of the going amount if it's creatine monohydrate.
If it's a different kind of creatine, so there's creatine hydrochloride from a different, you know, It depends on the brand that you're doing, which can be a higher concentrated source and absorb better. So you don't need quite as much, but they'll dose it correctly for whatever brand you're getting. And so I really don't. And I say the powders just because if you just do the capsule or the gummies, it's hard to get just like omega-3 gummies.
Like you have to eat a lot of gummies in order to get your thousand milligrams. So it's just easier to do the powder. and the powders, you know, you can, you can get flavored ones that you can just mix into water or mix into juice or whatever, or you can get just like the, the plain doesn't taste like anything. But if you just put that in water, it's like, it doesn't solubilize that well. So now you've got like this white powder. It doesn't taste like it's just weird texturally.
So, you know, if you add it to, like I add it to, I do like a little greens powder, you know, green juice thing. So I add it to that, shake, shake, shake, shake, shake, and then suck it down. Really, honestly, you'll read all kinds of stuff about when to take your creatine, before exercise, after exercise. Really, it's any time of the day because what you're doing is you're raising your body stores of creatine. So it's not like it's working right away.
I do take mine after my workout because that's when I take my green juice and my other supplements and da-da-da-da-da when I'm having, you know, then have my breakfast. But you know, if you you take it when it's convenient for you, you can throw it into a smoothie, you can, you know, throw it into chocolate milk and shake it up like whatever. So yeah, any time of the day is good to take the creatine. Creatine help you maintain and increase muscle mass and promote brain health.
So you if you get a concussion, you're protected from that. Yes. Yeah. And even you know, non concussion, I think it's just good for overall brain health. Okay. You know what I like that I actually eat walnuts all the time. From chemo, I got real memory loss, short-term memory loss. It was embarrassing. It was a real problem for me and my poor little family. I would say, you know, the kids, did you do your homework? Yeah. And then three minutes later, did you do your homework?
Did you do your homework? Mom, you asked me that three times. I just was so flighty. So I'm still pursuing brain health food. And I do the little crossword puzzles every day because I know our brains are neuroplastic. It's neuroplastic and they can grow and improve just like our bodies, right? Yeah. Let me do a little plug. I have a friend who wrote a book called The Mind Diet.
Okay. And that one is, so for anyone who's looking for, you know, foods for brain health and walnuts, of course, are one of those plums, like dried plums, prunes are another one. Like there's, you know, obviously the omega-3s, seafood. So there's a lot of really good foods for brain health, but Maggie Moon is who wrote The Mind Diet. It's a wonderful book. I have no doubt some of my listeners are going to get that because people are, you know, people are focused on their quality of life.
And it's not just about looking hot in the thong anymore. It's about, you know, how do I get this thing I live in to keep functioning at a high level? Okay. So speaking of, I'm going to jump, I'm going to stick with the protein thing. What are your favorite ways for vegans to incorporate protein? Oh, gosh. Yeah, it's so hard. So here's the deal is that I have been a lacto-ovo vegetarian since 1992, probably longer than a lot of people have even been alive.
Pause for a sec. So lacto means dairy. Lacto means milk. Ovo means eggs. That's how I am too. So it's far easier for me to get protein. And I eat a little bit of fish. But like when I say a little bit, like maybe once or twice a month, like it's really not a lot of fish. And so I struggle with protein. And so when I look at that, but okay, so that's just me personally, but now let me turn back to what the science says. The science says that animal protein is much higher quality.
And what does quality mean? It means the amount of amino acids that are in those foods. So, you know, you hear about some of these vegetarian proteins that are, you know, quote unquote, complete proteins. And what a complete protein means is it has all of the essential amino acids. But just because it has some doesn't mean it has a lot.
So like quinoa and soy and hemp are all complete proteins, but it doesn't mean that it's nearly as high of quality as, you know, let's say that animal protein is. So again, as a lacto-vegetarian, it pains me to say, you know, so vegans, it is difficult. And what I try to do is tell vegetarians, if the majority of your protein is coming from plant sources or all in a vegan's case, then I would increase your protein by 30%.
So if I'm wanting, you know, a woman to eat 80 grams of protein or a man to eat 140 grams of protein or something, I'm going to multiply that by 30%. I'm going to, I'm going to add 30% to that. Okay. And, you know, get them to eat more because of the quality issue so that we get the amino acid content. So, you know, I get asked that question a lot. Should I do a plant-based protein powder or should I do the whey protein powder?
And I'm like, well, as long as you're okay with milk, as long as you're okay, you know, philosophically and allergic and all that kind of stuff. And by the way, lactose intolerance is not an issue because whey protein isolate is lactose-free. concentrate has a little bit of lactose in it. But if you're reading labels, whey protein isolate protein powder is lactose free. So you can use that. But, you know, do I have a problem with the,
you know, vegetarian protein powders, the pea protein and all that kind of stuff? No, absolutely not. But quality wise, you're not going to have quite as much in terms of the amino acid content. So that being said, back to your question, how does a vegan get protein? Well, you have to, you know, beans, beans, beans.
So, you know, all the kidney beans, garbanzo beans, lentils, you know, black beans, all that kind of stuff, nuts and seeds, but really nuts and seeds are more fat than they are proteins. So people say, oh, peanut butter. And I'm like, yeah, have you ever looked at how many grams of protein are in peanut butter? You know, it's 14 grams of fat and like three grams of protein. So, you know, yes, you can get some from nuts and seeds. But again, it's really not a whole lot.
You know, things like obviously tofu, tempeh, you know, a lot of those, you know, sort of vegan vegetarian proteins. And then doing, you know, like the fake meat. So doing some of these vegetarian, you know, chicken and hamburger patties and that kind of stuff, you can actually get very, very concentrated amount of protein in those.
And what they're using usually is a soy base or it could be some other kind of a bean base, you know, a pea protein or something else to make those those particular proteins or meats, fake meats. But just from a quantity perspective, you're going to get a lot more. And then of course, the protein powders are going to be good. When you're looking at milks, like soy milk or rice milk or almond milk or whatever, most milks, most plant-based milks don't have very much protein, like one gram.
Soy is the exception. Soy has a lot, hemp has a decent amount, but your oat milk, your almond milk doesn't have any protein. So you can't count that as protein either. So that's why the protein powders, you know, really do help when you're, when you're vegan. It's hard. It's hard to get whey protein isolate is the one to look towards if that's, if you're serious about it.
I honestly talk Tara, I think people are going to listen to the show, rewind and go back because you're giving out such great information. Oh, thank you. Yeah. Yeah. People are going to love that. So, um, and, and good for me to hear too. Cause I'm also, I never thought about being of nuts being more fat than protein and I gobble up nuts. So I gobble up more beans than nuts from now on. No, no biggie. Easy peasy, right? Yeah. Well, and you can do the, you know, the, uh, the bada bean.
Have you ever seen those? They're like, Oh my gosh, I love bada bean. So those are broad beans, dried broad beans. And so you can find them on Amazon, bada bean brand. It's enlightened was that was, they used to be enlightened, but then they sort of rebranded as, as bada bean. So those are great. You can do dried edamame. You can do, you know, dried chickpeas. So you can do like, if you still want the crunch of a nut, you can still do that, but it's a dried pea or bean.
That's a really good suggestion. And here's another thing. So I have, I often have a hard time with people saying like, you should have 1200 calories a day. Well, that's absurd because we're not all 120 pounds, right? We are, the guidance should go. And so you've said a couple of times, women should have this, but what if you're a really big woman or a really small woman? So we start at 90 for women, but if you're kind of larger, have more, and if you're smaller, have less.
Is that what we're going for? And how come men need more than women? So men need more protein because it's based usually either on percentage of calories. You can calculate it two ways. Percentage of calories, men need more calories because they have more mass, they have more muscle, and then it can also go on based on weight. So, you know, you hear all the time now, like, at least one gram per pound for protein. And I'm like, I just want to tear my hair out.
That's the absolute maximum someone should be shooting for, not the minimum. Okay. So if you're 120 pounds, what I would say is, you know, let's go about, you know, maybe 0.7. I always do it per kilogram. So, but I know most people think of it in pounds. So if we go to like 0.6 or 0.7 per pound, that gives us more kind of that like 80 to 90. You don't need to do one gram per pound. Is it bad to do one gram per pound?
No, if you can get that much protein in fine, but do you need more than that? No. I would say, you know, then now you're compromising your fat, you're compromising, you know, how much fat you're getting in your diet, how many carbohydrates you're getting in your diet. And so, you know, we definitely want to get that protein. So yeah, so take your weight, Multiply it by, you know, maybe 0.6, 0.7 at the most, maybe probably 0.8 for most people.
You know, athletes definitely are going to be on that kind of 0.7, 0.8 range. So, you know, that's where men, if you're a 200 pound man, you know, yeah, we're looking at 160, you know, grams of protein a day. Yeah. You know, it's funny. My oncologist last year told me to aim for like a hundred grams of protein. I just, I nodded my head and I thought, no, no, I can't do it. I won't. I won't. I need to be able to have some room to eat some fruits and veggies too.
But yeah. And what you need, you know, for just like deficiencies and stuff like that is probably more like 60, but from a, like, you know, because we exercise, we want to maintain muscle as we get older, it actually becomes harder to maintain that muscle. And so protein needs actually do go up, you know, 50, 60 plus years. So that's why I kind of err on the side of the higher amounts than like the RDA version of protein.
Yeah. Well, obviously I think we give people the moon to aim for and they land in the stars and we got to be excited about that. Right. There you go. Okay. Oh, So, okay, Chrissy Bergeron-Lyon says, OMG, bread, wheat, gluten. Is there any benefit cutting them out of my diet? Is that what's keeping it so hard to lose her tummy? Oh my gosh, I love this question. What's her name? Chrissy.
Chrissy? Yeah, Chrissy Lyons. Chrissy, thank you for, and I literally, I could have planted this question, but I'm so glad I didn't and that you actually like asked this question. So I sort of have a soapbox about this. So gluten, of course, is the protein that is in wheat, barley, and rye, okay?
0.1% of the population or something like that, not even, so maybe it's not 0.1, but it's not even 1% of the population has a gluten intolerance, has celiac disease, has some kind of an issue that they literally cannot digest gluten. There is no medication for celiac disease, for gluten intolerance. It's the only thing, treatment for gluten intolerance or celiac disease is to remove gluten from your diet.
So that's where it all started was people who had to, I mean, 20 years ago, 30 years ago, no one ever heard of gluten-free because it's such a small percentage of the population that needs to be gluten-free. That being said, are we diagnosing it more? Is there more intolerance? Is it made up? I don't know. But there's more people that claim that they are gluten intolerant, whether they think they're gluten intolerant or whether they've actually been
diagnosed. The best diagnosis is actually a biopsy. And if you're having significant issues, you go to a gastroenterologist and they will test for that and all that kind of stuff. Okay. So that being said, if you're like, oh, I don't really have any... And by the way, problems could be digestive issues. It could be, I mean, it can affect your skin. You know, it's not just all digestive. And what gluten intolerance is in celiac disease is, is it's the cilia.
So C-E-L-I-A. The cilia are like these tiny little baby hairs that are inside your gut. And that helps to move things along through the digestive tract. And when you are celiac, when you have celiac disease, the gluten irritates the cilia and it becomes very inflamed and it causes you to have some other inflammation in your body and or in your digestive tract. So that's why the only treatment is to avoid gluten so it allows that cilia to heal and then it can do what it's supposed to do.
If you have one little particle of gluten, it can irritate that cilia and it can take weeks to recover again from that. So that's why if you have someone in your house who literally has celiac disease or gluten intolerance, they'll have a separate toaster for their gluten-free toast because they don't want your little particles from your, you know, getting in. Oh yeah, it's serious. So when someone legit is diagnosed with celiac disease, they are like fearful of gluten.
And then you have the rest of the population that's like, well. You know, I kind of sort of halfway avoid gluten, but I cheat and I'll have a muffin or I'll have a cookie or I'll have pizza. And I'm like, okay, well, then you're not gluten intolerant because you would know if you were causing this big, huge catastrophe now to your gut that had been healed. So there is absolutely no benefit that we are really aware of today medically of going gluten-free.
If you don't have a condition, and hopefully it's a diagnosed condition, so you know that you have it, that you should be avoiding gluten. It's hard to avoid gluten. And there's no benefit to doing it half-ass. So why would I sometimes avoid gluten and sometimes not avoid gluten? If you're gluten intolerant, you are gluten intolerant and you cannot cheat. It's not a diet. It's not a weight loss diet that you quote unquote cheat on because you are absolutely destroying the integrity of your gut.
So, you know, so yeah, Chrissy, no, don't go gluten free. Don't half ass the gluten. Don't, you know, sometimes avoid gluten and sometimes eat the gluten. Make a decision. Either you're gluten free and you feel much better.
Or what I would do is I would eat gluten. I would go to a doctor because if you avoid gluten and then you go to a doctor and if you've been avoiding it for three months or whatever, and then you go to a doctor, you'll probably end up with a false negative because there's no gluten in your system. So now you're not testing positive. So you want to continue to eat gluten, get tested. And if that testing shows that you're gluten intolerant, yes, avoid gluten.
But if you don't have a reason to avoid gluten, I wouldn't avoid gluten. And there's no benefit to avoiding it half the time. Okay. So I love your soapbox and I am so fired up on so many fitness topics. I could see, you just imploding, but I love it. I love it. So yeah, it was, it was fascinating to me about 10 years ago when people started gluten-free, this gluten, we're on the gluten-free diet.
Yeah. You know what? If you cut out breads and cookies and things like that, you're likely to lose weight because you're diminishing the amount of calories you're consuming, but it's not the gluten that was causing you to be overweight. And that's the thing you were doing was just cutting back on calories. That's how you lost weight. So it's very funny. And then the other thing is, I think it's. I think it's interesting where people diagnose themselves, right?
I mean, fine. If you're just... That happens all the time. Yeah. I'm going to cut off ice cream. Ice cream gives me a tummy ache. Okay, fine. But if you're saying, well, I need this. I'm going to go to the nutrition store and I'm going to pile up on those things. You could also go to a medical provider and get blood work and they can tell you where you are specifically deficient. Hey, bud, you need iron. You don't need magnesium. You don't need this stuff. You need iron.
And so there's a way for people to know the truth about their body and then consult with someone like you and get pointed in the exact precise direction on what they should use to, as you said at the start, supplement the places where they're lacking. Yeah. Yeah. Well, and that brings up another point of get tested regularly. So, you know, have a physical. I mean, obviously, you know, look at you.
Early detection is key. you are here today because you were able to detect your breast cancer and get treatment right away and beat it. And, you know, if you don't have a yearly mammogram, if you never have blood work taken, if you're, you know, 50 years old and you're like, I haven't seen a doctor since I was 22 when I had mono in college, like what, you know, so, you know, get, I mean, the, it depends on the insurance companies.
Now I used to say yearly physical now, you know, I mean, we're so driven in our healthcare system by insurance and coverage. I'm a big fan of getting blood work done and having an annual physical. At least do it every other year. You know, we know that, you know, getting and having that colonoscopy when you're 45, having those mammograms, like all this stuff, you know, pap smears, like all this stuff that can help you.
And yes, men, prostate checks, You know, it can help to detect prostate cancer is 98% curable. If you catch it when it's in its first stages. So catching these things early and not just going, oh, ignorance is bliss and all that kind of stuff. So pop into the blood pressure cuff at the CVS and see what your blood pressure is. Do some of those things on a regular basis. And then to your point, then you can do something about it before it's way out of control.
And we will be right back. Are you looking for the perfect gift for a loved one battling cancer? The Cancer Comeback Series by Fitz Kohler offers hope, inspiration, and practical guidance. With Your Healthy Cancer Comeback, My Noisy Cancer Comeback, and The Healthy Cancer Comeback Journal. These books are a lifeline for all patients and survivors. Right now, you can order autographed copies at a special discount. Show your support and help a loved one go from sick to strong.
Visit Fitzness.com today. That's F-I-T-Z-N-E-S-S dot com. Fitsness dot com. We're back. Absolutely. And also, you can save a lot of money on things you just don't need, and your body can't use excess of nutrients. I mean, once you've hit your usage limit, it gets stored as fat, or you pee it out, and it's just money.
And also, oh, my gosh, the other thing that kills me is when people go into, and air quotes, if you're just listening to this podcast, No, I'm losing air quotes because the quote unquote nutrition store manned by a minimum wage employee who has never been to college or has any sort of expertise in nutrition trying to sell you everything in the store. I mean, how much faith do you have in the minimum wage employee at the quote unquote nutrition stores?
Yeah, well, and that's a question I always get is what's the difference between a dietician and a nutritionist? And I'm a registered dietitian. And we actually, the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, our parent credentialing agency, actually, we've changed our credentialing in the last few years to be RDN instead of just RD. So we actually are officially now registered dietitian nutritionist, just because so many people out there were calling themselves nutritionists
and had absolutely no credentialing around it. So it can be dangerous. It absolutely can be dangerous. And you have no idea how much organic chemistry and biochemistry and stuff and microbiology, you know, dietitians have to take. It's not just a six month credential. And now they're requiring a master's degree and a, you know, 900 hour internship and all this different 400, 500, whatever it is. It's been a while for me.
So, you know, the internship and then you sit for the exam, like it's a legit credential to be a registered dietitian nutritionist. So, yes, I would say that, you know, that the people out there that are claiming to be nutritionists that are, you know, on social media, influencers giving out all kinds of information without having that credential.
It's a scary world. It's a very scary world out there. Just like for you with fitness, you know, I mean, so many people are out there, self-proclaimed experts, but they don't have all of the certification and, you know, they can, you can definitely hurt yourself. Absolutely. And it just, you know, with the nutrition part. So my, one of my second book, I had a publishing deal and it was 365 ways to boost your metabolism.
And so most of it is, most of it is activity, right? but there were some nutrition points. But when I finished the book, they said, we want to include two chapters. One was on negative calorie foods. I shit you not a whole chapter. And then number two was supplements you should take to lose weight. And so I came back and I said, absolutely not. And they said, well, these chapters will sell books. So we have to put it in. And so I actually went to a friend who was a pharmacist.
He asked me a favor, write a note to this publisher. So they know, you know, some of these supplements can be contraindicated for heart medicine and diabetes medicine and all sorts of things. It's a very complicated, dangerous world. And if you don't, if you're not the person, you shouldn't be recommending anything generically to the masses, right? And they stood their ground. I said, I am out. Take my name off of that piece of garbage.
They actually kept 90% of my words and they found some hack, probably nutritionist. And now her name is on my book with those two garbage chapters. Are you kidding me? I am not kidding you. And I fired my literary agent. I was like, no, this is it. This is not worth good for you for maintaining that integrity.
But to your point, you know, and your pharmacist friend probably told you this, that a lot of those pills out there that claim to be weight loss, you know, supplements and stuff, they're speed. I mean, it's caffeine, it's amphetamines. It's, I mean, they put crazy stuff into those things and it just race, it gets you to be like jittery and it suppresses your appetite because you're on speed, not because like it's, you know, some miracle things.
So yeah, it's, uh, it's really dangerous. So good for you. Wow. Good, good for us. And hopefully my listeners, our listeners today that will have higher standards because there's so many snake oil salesmen out there. They're just vultures. They just want your money. And most of them know jack. They know just enough to convince you, but not enough to help you. So, okay, back to the questions, because we could go on forever, right? Okay. Thank you, Chrissy, for the gluten question.
All right. David Kuntz. It's a nice question. He says, what food myth should we recognize as untruth? For example, eggs cause high cholesterol, fat makes you fat, butter is bad, et cetera. So food myths, which ones should people- Oh my gosh. There's so many out there. It's hard to, it's hard to, so here's what I would say. Let's just say, let's say a blanket statement for food myths that if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is, right?
So just like we were talking about with some of these supplements and, you know, different stuff, it's like, if it promises, you know, that you're going to, whatever, you know, lose 20 pounds in a week and do this, that, the other, it's probably, the other thing is, you know, if, if something is eliminating, so I say this about like kind of the fad diets, if something is eliminated and. Eliminating entire food groups, red flag.
Like if it says, you know, you can't have any fruit, it's like, wait, what? Really? What? Why? What's wrong with fruit? You know? I mean, if it cuts out alcohol and added sugar, I have no problem with that. But if, you know, if it's saying, you know, you can't have fruit, you can't have beans, You can't have like, I mean, I can't even tell you all the crazy diets that are, well, you guys probably know because you read them and see them.
So yeah, you know, I would say that that's probably one of those things that, you know, if it sounds too good to be true, it probably is. And if it makes you scratch your head and go, that's against like the wisdom that I've heard for many, many, many years, then, you know, that probably is a myth and something that's not true. Now, that being said, science changes.
So the egg thing, you know, I mean, back in the 70s, 80s, you know, eggs were the devil and don't eat, you know, egg yolks and everything was egg whites and all that kind of stuff. And that was back in the 80s, 90s when fat was the devil. And, you know, we were all eating snack while cookies by the box full. That's right. Anyone? Not me. And, you know, I mean, I, yeah, I remember, this will take me back.
So I was a student in college from 92 to 99. I did, you know, four years undergrad, year internship, and then two years master's. Go Boilers. I was at Purdue. So anyway, I remember my nutrition student friends, you know, we're all sitting there like studying late at night. And this was the fat-free craze, right? So we couldn't, you know, everything's fat-free. So we're sitting there getting Papa John's breadsticks because God forbid we get the cheese. Yes.
Because the breadsticks are like just bread. It's fat free. We're eating pretzels. We're eating snack bowl cookies. We're eating Twizzlers. Yeah. Fat free. And then what happened to America? We got fatter. So this whole fat craze. So that would probably be one of the myths, but I think that's pretty much been dispelled for years anyway, that fat makes you fat.
And then just this idea about the eggs, you know? So yeah, eggs were really bad years ago, but then we've learned that, oh, you know what? There's actually really good stuff in the yolk. Like that's where most of the nutritional value is. And so some yolk is okay. Yes, there's cholesterol, but dietary cholesterol doesn't really raise your blood cholesterol, but the yolk still has some saturated fat.
We know that saturated fat can raise your blood cholesterol, but you can have some saturated fat in your day. So, you know, now American Heart Association and, you know, other organizations are saying an egg a day is okay on average. So if you want an omelet, you know, a couple of days a week, you know, kind of average about, you know, seven yolks-ish a week and you're fine.
But, you know, years ago it was three yolks a week. So, you know, science does evolve, but, you know, some of this kind of black and white stuff of never eat this and you know, it's like a decent food. That's when I would scratch my head and go, probably not true. I got to tell you, there's a woman locally who I think I like her in so many ways, but she has this nutrition program. And I grab my head because it just makes me shake. Oh my gosh, it's so disappointing.
But the first three months of her plan is no fruit, no vegetable. And I've had people come and tell me they're working with her and I'm like, oh my God, she told you not to eat a raspberry. Right there, the second someone looks at you in the eye and says, don't eat raspberries, punch them in the face and run in the other direction. And oh, but I'm losing weight. Yeah, I bet you are. You're eating nothing. You're eating nothing. Yeah.
Okay, let's talk in four months and these people lost 40 pounds. Now they're 50 pounds heavier. It just boggles my life. Yeah, my favorite is the carrots. When people tell me, you know, carrots have too much sugar and I look at them and I go, I don't think eating too many carrots is your problem. Yeah. Right, like step back and think about this, people. Like yes, carrots are on the high, I mean, I understand where the message is coming from.
It's a higher glycemic vegetable, blah, blah, blah. But like, is it, boosting your blood sugar, spiking your blood sugar, like, you know, cake will, ice cream will. No, it's a carrot. Okay. This is something I'm throwing in there because people think in order to be healthy, they have to drink strange green juices. They have to blend up a bunch of stuff. I do not enjoy that. I do not do it. I chew my food. I get a lot.
I get all the fiber when I chew on the food, which keeps me full and it keeps my digestive tract moving. And yeah, what do you think about people's need to drink green juices? Yeah. So, you know, it depends on what the green juices that you're talking about. I mean, there's some of these popular, you know, green powders, and I think those are fine. I mean, if you want, a lot of people don't get enough fruits and vegetables in the day.
And if you want to do a powder of, you know, the green, you know. Powders that have all kinds of different antioxidants in it. I have zero problem with that. But what I don't want is for you to say, oh, I have my green powder, so I don't need to eat any fruits and vegetables. Because to your point, in the whole food or, you know, I mean, when I say whole, I don't mean you need to eat it whole. It can be chopped and cooked and whatever.
But that's where the fiber is, to your point, you know, all that kind of stuff. So, and the synergy of all the different vitamins and minerals and fiber and, you know, antioxidants and all that good stuff. So yeah, I think having those fruits and vegetables now, if you want to throw it into a blender and, you know, have a green smoothie. Great. I don't care. I like to eat my vegetables. I don't like to put spinach and kale into my smoothie.
I want my smoothie to be sweet and fruity and chocolatey and yummy, chocolatey and banana-y and yummy. And then I'll eat my spinach in a salad or cooked. But again, everybody's different. If they just want to plug their nose and suck it down, as long as you get it, I don't have a problem with doing some of the green juices.
But I just don't want you to say, oh, I'm going to have my, you know, little green juice or pill, you know, the, the fruits and vegetables, and then I don't need to eat them because yeah, it's not the same thing. Okay. So I subscribe to 85, 85 to 90% of my caloric intake is really healthy. And the other 10% fun time I do whatever I went with. So my, my pretty much must for every day is a piece of milk chocolate. Even if it's just a Hershey kiss, if I don't have a piece, I feel like it's
a sad day. What about you? What's your? Oh, a thousand percent. There's not a day that goes by that I don't have chocolate. That is my thing. I'm not big on alcohol. I mean, it's not that I don't drink. I'm just not one of those like have wine every night kind of people, but I am a have chocolate every day. Okay. And I go milk. Everyone who knows me knows that about me. Are you white chocolate, milk chocolate, dark chocolate, or does it matter?
I'm so glad that you asked that because people will probably go, well, Vince, you have to have dark chocolate. Why are you having milk chocolate? Like really, the difference between the antioxidant content of milk chocolate and dark chocolate at the end of the day is not that much. If you enjoy milk chocolate, then have milk chocolate. You don't have to do the 80% dark. I mean, that stuff's like,
Bitter. Very bitter. So yeah, I have zero problem with whatever kind of chocolate someone wants to eat. I want you to enjoy, it's an indulgence and I want you to enjoy that chocolate. White chocolate doesn't have any cacao, any cocoa in it. So it doesn't have the antioxidant content. But again, am I eating chocolate for the antioxidant? No, I'm eating spinach and broccoli and blueberries for the antioxidant content. The number one, did you know this?
Can you guess the number one source of antioxidants in the American diet? Take a guess. I'm going to get it wrong, but I was thinking like spinach. Coffee. Coffee. Oh, that makes sense. Yes. Not because coffee is that high in antioxidants. It's because people drink a lot of coffee. Oh, my. So coffee is actually, I mean, a cacao bean and a coffee bean. And I say cacao because that's what they call the chocolate bean. Okay. So the chocolate bean and the coffee bean are very similar.
So you know people get you can get antioxidants from your coffee so you don't have to drink you don't have to eat dark chocolate so i'm giving you the blessing to enjoy your your hershey kiss your dove whatever your you know doesn't have to be dark and to enjoy some indulgence you know i'm the same way where you know if i didn't eat sweets i would waste away because that's where i get like my junk calories my extra calories because i eat super pretty
healthy you know i mean a cheeto might past my lips every once in a while, but, you know, I mean, and that's what I, that's what I preach is that everything can, can fit, but the majority, so you're a 90, 10, you know, I teach 80, 20, but 90, 10 is better as long as you're okay with, you know, the 90, 10. Yeah. And it's wiggly. I mean, it could be. Yeah.
Yeah. Perfect's boring. Perfect's boring. However, you don't want a perfect sporing every meal of your day until you're overweight and out of shape and you're, you're sick and so forth. So some people are always making the exception, oh, well, it's just breakfast. I'm going to have a muffin. Oh, just lunch. I'm just going to have a, this or, okay. It's just step it up, step it up, make the majority of your choices, something you'd be proud to show Tara or I, and then the other side you can
have fun with and we'll celebrate that too. Right? Yeah. Yeah. And well, and what I always say is portion and frequency. So you can have French fries, you can have chocolate, you can have whatever. So when I say I have chocolate every day, or when you say I have chocolate every day, are we having three bars of chocolate every day? No. But I'm having a couple pieces. So it just depends on how often are you having, oh, I love French fries. Great.
You can have French fries, but are you having them twice a day, every day? And is it the super size? So there's a difference in I can have something? And then how often and how much am I having it? And then when I add up everything that I like, we're having six of those foods every day. Yeah. And then also, what are your goals? Right. So I think Tara and I are probably in maintenance mode. We like where we are. We don't have to be crazy, rigid.
But if you're trying to lose 50 pounds, maybe you're being a little stricter than others. So yeah. Okay. More back to questions. So Valerie Marble says, talk to me about water or fluids in general. She says, some say only plain water counts for daily water intake, while others say anything can, any fluid can count. And yet But others say if there is caffeine, it acts like a diuretic and that doesn't count. What counts and what doesn't count? And how much should we be getting?
I love this question too. So yes, I use the word fluid instead of water because everything you drink is hydrating with the exception of probably alcohol. So in the Institute of Medicine guidelines, they actually include caffeine-containing beverages in their total fluid guidelines. So if you want to count your cup of coffee or two in the morning, that can count in your total fluid.
So yes, caffeine is a bit of a diuretic, but we actually become, and most people probably know this, pretty accustomed to the caffeine that we're getting. And so your body actually does adjust to that as well. So I don't really count caffeine as much of a diuretic. Alcohol, yes. So I'm not going to count your six beers as your fluid for the day. One drink, I'm not, again, not going to worry too much about, but I wouldn't, and alcohol is pretty concentrated anyway.
So five ounces of wine is considered to be one drink. I don't think anyone's using that as their hydration for the day. So that being said, I would say, yes, let's call it fluid. Okay. So your milk, your juice, your tea, your coffee, your soft drinks, your Gatorade, your sports drinks, everything will count as fluid. And if you just, you know, add some, you know, crystal light to your water, it's still water. So if, you know, these people that are like, oh, I hate water.
I'm like, okay, great. That's fine. Let's figure out how to still hydrate you if you don't want to drink plain water. All right, let's figure it out. How can we zhuzh up that water that, you know, will still hydrate you? So yeah, sparkling water, same thing as water, and it does not leach calcium out of your bones. That's a myth. Oh, there you go. There's a myth. Oh, is that right? They say sparkling water leaches calcium from your bones? Okay.
So yeah, so that's all that would count with fluid. Now, the question was, how much do you need? And this is where it really varies. So the Institute of medicine guidelines are going to be about 80 ounces of fluid per day for women. And about a hundred, I think it's 120 for men. That sounds like a big difference though. Maybe it's 90 for women. I can't off the top of my head. I can't remember it right now. I still got to go there is what if she's 200 pounds or she's one. Exactly.
Is it the same? I mean, those. Well, that's what I was going to say is some people will say, drink half your body weight. Okay. Okay. That's a good gauge. What I, yeah. So that's a good rule of thumb. And again, if you're exercising, if you're sweating, if you're, you know, all that, then you need more. Why do you need more when you are sick? Because you have a fever.
And so your body is, you know, maybe sweating some of that out or your body's using extra hydration to cool your body down by fighting that fever. So there's times when we need a little bit more fluid, but exercise and sweating would definitely be the number one of needing more fluid. And the way that I like to gauge it instead of worrying about numbers so much is, look at you pee. You know, so look at the color of your urine. If it's barely yellow,
even clear is fine. I get that question all the time. What if I'm like literally peeing clear? Great. That means you're really hydrated. So, you know, it should be kind of the color lemonade or clear or more clear. And that means that you're perfectly hydrated. If it's bright, bright yellow, that means that you're probably like fluorescent yellow. That's probably supplements coming out. That's your B vitamins. There they are. And if it's darker, more like apple juice color, call the doctor.
Go to the hospital. That means that you're really dehydrated or you could have rhabdomyelosis and you're spilling protein into your urine, you know, all that kind of stuff. And you can also go by smell. I mean, obviously not including asparagus, but if it's stinkier, it's probably more concentrated. and so I need to go drink. So yeah. So I think those are better guidelines than sitting there taking away like how many ounces am I drinking?
Yeah. And then also feeling thirsty, having headaches or confusion could be dehydration, right? Absolutely. Yeah. Water or just keep that big giant Yeti or a gallon or just keep something with you at all times. I never leave home without this big camo cup of whatever's in there. And I just drink all day and I'm never dehydrated. Easy. Absolutely. Not so complicated. Okay. Here's a bigger question. Are you ready for it? I guess. Okay.
This one's from Darren William. He says, I have a nutritionist friend who swears that insulin resistance is the number one cause of almost all preventable health problems and insulin resistance can be decreased through high fat protein and very low carb diets and or intermittent fasting. She claims that when insulin is present in your bloodstream, it is chemically and metabolically impossible to burn fat stuff.
What do you think about that? Oh, wow. Okay. So I guess we're going to get a little biology lesson here. This can be really confusing. So insulin is not the devil. You would be dead if your body was not producing insulin or that's what happens with diabetics. So let's go back to, you know, what, when you eat food, okay, food is calories. Calories, there's only four things that have calories, carbs, protein, fat, and alcohol.
Alcohol is a different animal. So all those four things are the only things that have calories. You eat calories and whether it's a carb, protein, fat, or alcohol, doesn't matter. They all turn into glucose. So it's not just carbs that turn into glucose. All four of these turn into glucose in your bloodstream. Well, glucose stays in your bloodstream unless insulin comes in, binds to that glucose, and then gets it into the cells.
And specifically to your brain, your brain tells your heart to pump your lungs to breathe. So glucose in your bloodstream is not a bad thing. Insulin is not a bad thing. Now, excess glucose, excess insulin, both of those can be a bad thing. And what happens with diabetics is their body, either their pancreas is either not releasing insulin for some reason or another, or it's releasing insulin, but the body isn't recognizing the insulin.
And so that's where the medications come and it's like it takes off the blinders and go, oh, there's the insulin. And then it binds and then goes to where it needs to go. Or if someone is, let's say a type one diabetic, they're not producing insulin or not producing enough. And so then they have to do the injections of the insulin. Okay.
So what's happening is with this question is not necessarily someone who's diabetic or whatever, but they're saying if I'm overproducing insulin or if, you know. Insulin resistance is happening in my body, which can happen, that's sort of that pre-diabetic could be diabetic is, you know, basically insulin resistance. I'm not using the insulin like it's supposed to. It's not getting the glucose and putting it where it's supposed to go. And that is a problem.
Now, can you not lose weight because of that? Not necessarily. It's not that you're never, ever going to burn fat. And let's just point out too that he mentioned, what was the first part of the question about high carb?
Um sorry i'm i mean that insulin resistance can be decreased through high fat and protein and very low carb diets thank you so as i mentioned carbs are not the only thing that raises carbs raise your blood sugar more quickly than fat and protein so that's why these lower carb diets are more popular. And so if you go to any diabetic and say, are you eating zero carbs? They would say, no, absolutely not. I need carbs.
We all need carbohydrates. So when a diabetic is diagnosed with diabetes, we don't take away all carbs. We just go, okay, let's figure out how many carbohydrates, let's spread them out throughout the day. Let's buffer that with some fat and protein. So fat and protein help to sort of buffer how quickly that blood sugar is going to go up when you're having those carbohydrates.
And so yes, fat and protein are good for, you know, for preventing spikes in your blood sugar, but it's not that carbohydrates are the devil and that we should not be eating carbohydrates. So there's a little bit of, you know, misinformation information with how that question is worded that, oh, all carbs are bad. Carbs are going to spike my blood sugar. Protein and fat are not. No.
And then the intermittent fasting thing. Oh, Lord. So intermittent fasting is not going to solve insulin resistance either. It's just, and actually, it's interesting. Your blood sugar can actually spike more when you're fasting than when you're eating sometimes. And that's because your body needs glucose 24 hours a day. So I did one of the continuous glucose monitors a few years ago when they got real popular and people were asking me all about them.
And I was like, all right, let me do this thing so I can see what it's like for myself. Do you know when my glucose was the highest for the entire day? When I was exercising. I wasn't eating when I was exercising because my body was like, holy crap, what is she doing? I need glucose to keep up with her. So it was getting glucose out of my stores in my body to put into my bloodstream to get to my brain, to get to my muscles.
So, you know, fasting is not necessarily a good way to like reduce blood sugar. Eventually we need to eat. And so I'm a fan of, you know, maybe a 12 hour, like if you want to rest your gut and, you know, do a 12 hour, you know, go 12 hours without eating fine. But you know, this whole 18 hours without eating, I'm like, no, no, because then it's hard to get the nutrients you need. You're eating too much at one time.
When you eat too much at one time, then it causes that insulin to come in and go, whoa, that's a lot of food. I got to do something with that. And it's going to go into storage. And storage is not big muscle. Storage is going to go to muscle a little bit, but then it's going to go to fat. So I'm a big fan more of eat light, eat often, spread it out throughout the day, kind of the opposite of that whole intermittent fasting thing,
because you're using energy as you're getting energy as you need it. Supply and demand. I'm not going to stockpile it and then starve myself. That doesn't make sense to me. So thank you. Excellent argument. I mean, I just go crazy with the intermittent fasting people. Well, your digestive system needs a break. Okay. It's called sleep. We have a thing that's called breakfast. It's specifically breaking the fast. Food is essential. Starving yourself at any point, And especially if you're hungry,
It doesn't make any sense to me. And then of course, any of these diets are like, remove all of this, never eat this. I think the only nevers come when you have allergies or ethical reasons. So I'm vegetarian because I really, I have friends that are chickens and cows and I just morally, I can't do it anymore. How come you're a vegetarian? Yeah. Same thing. I mean, literally this, you're going to be sorry.
You asked the question when I was in second grade, Fitz, but literally when I was in second grade, I grew up in Wisconsin and there was a pig, my friend Katrina, shout out to Katrina Stern, who had a farm. And I would go over there and feed this pig. And I named him Blackie. He was pink with one black ear. He was so cute. And they raised this pig and then they brought Blackie to market and they invited me to dinner.
Cause this is what you did in Wisconsin. And we had a chest full of white, you know, cellophane wrapped parts of a cow. Like you'd buy a cow and split it with your neighbor and have all these different parts of the cow. This is what farmers and what people do. So I went home and I was like, to my parents, I'm like, did you know that pigs get turned into pork chops? My mom's like, yeah. And I'm like, I'm never eating a pig again. And to this day, I have not eaten pork since 7th grade.
Now, I grew up in Wisconsin in the 80s and my parents were like, well, what's a vegetarian? You can't. You have to eat chicken. You have to eat beef. We'll let you do the whole, you know, blackie thing. But, you know, so then in 1992 is when I left for college. And I was like, I'm done. I'm not eating meat anymore. I'm not eating that chicken. I'm not. So for me, too, it's a it's an animal issue.
I just don't want to eat the flesh of an animal. But again, I usually don't even tell people that because as a vegetarian, as a dietitian, I don't want people to think they have to be vegetarian. Yeah. I don't care. Right. Yeah. I kept mine a secret for a very long time just because I thought, well, people will think I'm radical and they won't listen to anything else of value I have to say. So you know, they can do what they want. Isn't that funny?
Yeah. When I was, so when I was six, we're in Fort Lauderdale. So a different story. We always had fresh seafood coming into the house. And my mom had this basket or big bowl of peel and eat shrimp and asked me to peel the shrimp. and I'm sitting at the table peeling the shrimp. And then in my mind, I look at the shrimp and it has a little red sneakers on. This is probably the dumbest story as anyone's heard, but like six little red sneakers. And it was saying- Oh no, shrimp is disgusting.
Oh my gosh. So I was like, the little shrimp with the sneakers. And so I haven't had one bite of seafood since I was six, since I saw those. But yeah, they are kind of like sea cockroaches, right? Uh-huh.
Yeah, if I think about it too much, I won't eat fish either. but yeah but I started eating fish when I moved to Florida because I was like okay I mean it is an easy way to get more protein because as I've been sharing you struggle to get enough protein but you know as the years have gone on I'm eating less and less yeah yeah it just makes me sad but folks if you're out there and you like to eat meat that's fine just of course be reasonable about it and choose the the the whiter the lower
fat right and then keep red meats to a minimum they have a direct link to digestive cancer. So that really, my kids have never had red meat ever once because of those links to digestive cancers. I just thought I'm not going to give them any habits that might kill them one day. And they can do what they want when they get older. I mean, that's what people ask. Yeah. People ask me, they're like, did you raise your kids vegetarian?
I'm like, no, I want it to be a choice for them to, you know, to go vegetarian. But I think, you know, not having red meat, that's fine. They can. And then if they choose to, you know, eat hamburgers later, it's on them. That is on them. Yeah. So I gave them chicken and turkey and they've had seafood. But yeah. Anyhow, anyhow, us, any, let's go back to more questions. Okay. I think I'm going to finish with this question because I've been eating up so much of your time.
Speaking of eating, thank you. Oh my gosh, you're fine. Okay. Tim Patton, we love Tim Patton, says, any tricks or best foods for better gut health? Oh, I love this question too. So there is sort of movement out there, no pun intended, speaking of gut health. So of eating 30 different plants a week. Huh. Okay. So I know that sounds like a lot, but remember, what is a plant? It's not just a fruit or vegetable, but wheat is a plant. Oats are a plant.
Potatoes are a plant. So all your grains and your fruits and your vegetables and herbs and spices are plants. So when you add up all the different, different, so they all have to be different. So it's not, oh, I had three, I had an orange every day. So for seven days, that's seven oranges. No, it has to be 30 different plants and emphasis on the different. Why? Because that's what helps your microbiome. All of the different...
Species and different antioxidants and phytochemicals and vitamins and minerals and just amino acids, like all that different stuff that's in food helps to create a good flora for the bacteria in your gut. So in your gut, you have, as we are learning about the gut, we have a ton of bacteria and the bacteria feed on fiber. They feed on the foods that you're eating.
And so when you're eating different, and that's why we say plant foods, because it's really the fiber and the different components, the cellulose, the different components of a plant that the bacteria feed on. And that's good. That's good. That's good to keep that bacteria happy by eating those different plants. So that would be my number one suggestion for gut health is to get variety in your diet.
The other one is obviously probiotic foods. So you can do probiotic supplements, but probiotic foods, so kefir, kombucha, sauerkraut, but it can't be the jarred sauerkraut because that's the one that's like the shelf stable. They've killed off all the good stuff when they jar it. So it has to be like the fresh sauerkraut that you get in the produce section. Tempeh is also another one that's like that soy based, you know, stuff. Let's see. So those are all, you know, yogurt.
So those are all really good kimchi. Those are all really good, you know, for that kind of gut bacteria. But if you're like listening to that list and going, I mean, maybe I have a yogurt, but I'm not doing kimchi regularly. And the fresh sauerkraut, let me tell you, tastes different. It's, uh, it's. Very flavorful. Okay. The jar and stuff.
So yeah, so just, you know, eat a variety of stuff, you know, get some probiotics in your life, maybe take a supplement of probiotics if you're not big on a lot of those probiotic foods. And, you know, that's, those, those are my two biggest things. Well, I like them because they're very actionable. Those are things when I'm lacking and I ask a doctor, I'll say, what can I do? Like, what can I do? Give me the power. I want the power over every part of me if possible.
So 30 or close to it a week, you know, I think as people start aiming towards that, well, they'll get all these other benefits, too, because if you're having 30 different plants, well, then you're probably having a few less Cheetos or whatever. Right. Right. So that's that's a win win. So, Tara, there's a couple of things here. Number one, I love you. I'm so grateful for your expertise and all of that wonderful science inside your beautiful head. Thank you. Oh, thank you. For sharing with us.
Right back at you, girl. Yeah. Thank you. I love you. I always have. So I appreciate it. And we're going to do this again. Do you mind? Oh, for sure. Okay. Like tomorrow. Okay. I'll gather more questions and we'll hit you with them. All right. So we always end the show with two different things. So number one is a communication tip. What would you share with our audience? Because you're a tremendous communicator. You write books. You write articles. You speak on TV. You do public speaking.
What's something you would share to help them communicate better? Oh, boy. I would say, so when you say communication, just anything. And for example, I go often tell people to remove the word like and um from their speech pattern or become a listener. You know, there's a variety of ways to communicate better. But do you have any soapbox items that you wish more people would adhere to?
I think pausing for a second before you speak and then also being confident in your message and admitting when you don't know something. So instead of just trying to make something up, be confident in what you are saying or say, you know what, I'm going to have to look that up or I'm not quite sure about what that is. And I think that's okay. And people will respect that. Brilliant. I agree. I agree wholeheartedly. And then, so Tara, who just conquered Ironman half in Florida, congratulations.
Thank you. Or half Ironman. If someone's going to do Ironman activities, what song should they put on their playlist? They're swimming, they're biking, they're running or walking. Oh, Fitz. So my, I don't listen to music actually when I exercise, But I will tell you that when I ran the Disney Marathon in 2013, okay, I lost my husband to cancer. As you know, we've been through this journey. I lost my husband to cancer in October of 2012. And I did the Disney, it was a half in 2013.
And I remember about mile nine, you know, they have these big speakers blaring with different music. And I remember Kelly Clarkson's What Doesn't Kill Me Makes Me Stronger came on. I'm getting goosebumps and I'm getting teary just saying this story. That song came on and I was like... I am here. I am strong. And if 2012 and everything I went through in the year of 2012 didn't kill me, I am stronger. So you can take that as like, you know, when you're exercising and you're like,
I think I'm going to die right now. What doesn't kill me makes me stronger. Or the stuff we go through in life, right? You know, your cancer battle and, you know, all the things that we go through in life, literally, what doesn't kill me makes me stronger. So that song, and I mean, Kelly Clarkson is amazing anyway, but just the message of that song is, yeah, that would be the song. I love it. I love it. And what a perfect song for you to share.
And, you know, it does not go unnoticed how resilient you are. And I love seeing what a leader you are in your young widows club. I mean, that's a club, you know, we say with cancer. Nobody wants to be a part of this, but to be a young widow like that and to bounce back and it, you just, it was, it was, you have been mesmerizing since I met you. I just thought, wow, she's something special. So I still think that way. I think so even more now, because I know you and I adore you.
Thank you. Like I said, right back at you. I adore you as well. I love the community that you have put together. I love your energy. I just love everything that you have been able to do to make life changes in people's world. And I think that's why we are so in tune with each other is that we're real. We're realistic about it. And like, you know what, there is no such thing as perfect. Don't strive for, you know, a half Ironman if you can't even walk around the
block. Like, let's just start, let's meet you where you are and let's just, you know, start and, and any little step is going to be better. So, you know, that's really what it's all about. All right, beautiful girl. I have one more assignment and you got to look into the camera and with gusto, tell everybody to get to work. Get to work. Bye, everybody. I knew that was coming. Yay. Girl. That was genius. Perfect. Thank you. You're welcome.
Hi, this is Rudy Novotny, the voice of America's marathons. We all love how much running has benefited every aspect of our lives, so much so that most of us only wish we'd started sooner. Wouldn't it be wonderful to gift the opportunity to children of today? Well, you can. The Morning Mile is a before-school walking and running program that gives children the chance to start each day in an active way while enjoying fun, music, and friends. That's every child, every day.
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