Body Composition Goals For Our 20’s, 30’s and beyond. Processed Vs. Ultra-Processed Foods. Reviewing Noway Collagen Mousse. Choosing the Healthiest Dumplings.

is all about one of our favorites, dumplings. But to kick us up today, Susie I wanted to have a quick chat about ultra process foods because we received a quite negative comment on our podcast reviews, where somebody just two stars on the podcast Susie for cooling the Red Drop Daily Chips, which we were discussing a couple of podcasts back, which literally just have potato, salt and oil, and you and I had a bit of a convos slash little debate about whether they were a process or

an ultra processed food, and I think we landed on the fact that they are about a process food based on the ingredients were far better than some of the other chips in the supermarket aisle, and somebody basically was not happy with that and left us two stars for that, which I just think is a little bit petty because we've given how many years and years of free episodes away, So that's a whole other issue. On very upset about that. We take our ratings very seriously, don't we, hear, Susie.

We give away so much free time and value.

it has some level of processing to it. Might be yogurt, it might be milk, it might be rolled oats, it might be there's another example like a beautiful dense whole grain bread like our burg and soiling that we know that we love. So there are all examples of processed foods because they were very tin fish tuna yep tin yep tin tuna a great example. So they're all very different to how they're found in their very natural form,

right versus. The difference between a process and an ultra process food is that level of processing takes that next step, and typically the level of ingredients in there are not I guess good or healthy for your your health long term. So I found a little bit of a definition in

terms of ultra processed foods. So what they're basically designed for is manufacturers create these ultra processed foods to create highly profitable you know, foods to basically bring in additional money into their businesses because they want to make these foods taste good. Think about things like you know pringles for example, like the slogans what is it something about you?

add at home. So ultra processed foods tend to be highly palatable, tend to be very convenient, you know, packaged, and they tend to have quite a long ingredient list as well, compared to just what we would call a processed foods, which we know can still be very healthy, and a lot of what we would call whole foods or you know, relatively whole foods, things like yoga tin tuna can still be termed process but in a good way where we still would want to actively include those

things regularly in adult So I just wanted to let our listeners know a really practical way of, I guess, identifying the difference between an ultra process food and a process food. So my big tip for our listeners, Susie, is to really check the list of ingredients you're not going to really know based on the nutrition information panel, whether a food is processed versus ultra process you have to identify the ingredient list. Don't worry what it says

on the front package marketing. It doesn't matter if it's gluten free, it doesn't matter, if it's organic, it doesn't matter if it's low sugar.

ultra processed food. So some ingredients Susie would be high fouct dose corn syrup, hydrogenated types of vegetable oils, hydrogenlyzed types of proteins. You wouldn't actually put that kind of stuff into your food at home. So a lot of these like high protein based I guess products such as protein chips and protein bars and protein you know, musli bars.

glazing agents. All of these additives again are not something that you would add to say a banana bread if you're baking it at home, if you're baking some cookies with your toddler, you wouldn't be adding things in such as flavor andhandsers and emosifies and sweetness and thickeners and foaming agents and gels. So the addition of those things as well tend to make it more of an ultra process food. Now, when not saying that you can't ever

have an ultra processed food, you absolutely can. But it is about the amount and how regularly you have those things, and the less of those things in our diet, the better it is going.

So it is used to extend the sh life for some of the products, but also a lot of it is used also to extend the palatability of the product and make it so that you want more and more and more. So you know, food companies are very smart. They want you to buy more because when you buy, the more profit that they make. So that for me, sus is really the definition of an ultra processed food versus the processed food.

the differences between process and old to process foods. But it doesn't actually mean that our processed food is, you know, should be consumed more often because we know that there are more whole food based types of processed foods and more sometimes or soul foody types of ultra process foods

that we probably don't want too much of in our diet. Particularly, weight control is an issue because something like a potato chip is quite high calorie and not that filling compared to something like a tub of Greek yogurt, which is quite filling and is quite high in protein. You might

get some added calcium benefits as well. So when we're looking at whether a food is healthy and when we want to have it regularly, we also want to look at what are the nutrients it's providing our body and the overall energy density of that food as well in terms of how often we really should be consuming it. What are your thoughts on ultra processed foods? Do you believe that our two star rating was a it's valid on that once.

Now I do use some snack bars. There's some protein bars I might use, particularly to keep as a backup in your handbag or your workcase. And certainly there's some brands that like a nutbar, brands that can be better, but for me, they're still pretty processed. And in the case of many of the protein bars, they're absolutely ultra processed foods.

But my argument is to the clients, don't des grab the bar because you like it it's sweet, It's still much more process It's not going to be as filling as if you make yourself some yogurt with granola and berries, or some beautiful grain crackers with cheese and tomato. That's real food. It's completing it. It's got a fresh component. It's going to be much more satisfying. It's going to

take time to eat. You know, if you eat a protein bar, they can have one fifty one eighty two hundred calories and they're gone in three bytes and you don't even notice. And all my clients love to eat the bars, it's their preference, and they forget all the fresh food that goes with it. So for me, those foods are the backups. They're things you might have on special occasions. In many cases as dieticians. Let's be honestly, and we don't think of them as food. They're heavily

formulated products. So yeah, without spending hours in the supermarket, if you scan an ingredient list and you have to recognize half the stuff, it's probably not that healthy, which is an argument that comes up often with pre made marinades and sauces, because yeah, if I'm thinking about sources i'd use at home, it's extraversion olive oil, bit of

sour cream, bitter yogurt, bit of evaforated meal. Like, I don't have a lot of pre made marinads and sauces because when you look at them, they're so heavily formulated, in processed. They're absolutely ultra processed to make things taste good. And my argument is you better to stick to more natural flavors without incorporating those into your diet. So I think this is an ongoing conversation that nutrition professionals are up in arms in arguing that labeling foods ultra process

versus process is taking away from the key message. For me, it's semantics. It's very easy to see if for foods overly processed, and I think it's safe to say the less of those foods you have in your diet, the better, all right, Well, moving on land, there was something that crossed my path last week talking to some of my clients. And I was talking to one of my ladies in her late forties, and she's here because her goal is

to lose some body fat. You know, she wants to lose sort of eight ten fifteen kilos, and she's kind of coming out of that period with her kids. She's got more time to focus on herself. And you know, we were just talking about weight in general, and I said to her, look, the scales are important, absolutely, we do want to make sure you're in fat loss and

losing size. But even for me at the age bracket you're in, it's actually much more important to me that your waist is coming down because that's a direct measure of fat loss. And her waist is in its mid nineties, which is suggestive she's got at least ten kilos of body fat to lose. And I definitely want my ladies waste in their low eighties, if not slightly below. If I can get a waste to seventy five seventy am, I'm very happy because that's certainly a marker of disease risk,

but I thought it warranted a conversation about that. Leanne and you had a good example about one of your clients as well, because when I'm working with my women in their forties and fifties, I want them to build a body that is strong and functional into their senior years, because it's not better to be thin, even though aesthetically

we might feel into certain clothes. Certainly, observing people I know who are overly thin, I also know that they've got very little muscle mass because they've either lost a lot of weight even using drugs like oz and peak, and lost a lot of muscle mass, and I can see that their frame is small and they're almost getting a hunched overlook. So I can see as they get older that lack of muscle mass is not going to protect their skeleton. They're going to be more prone to

falls and fractures, and it's a frail type physique. Whereas I see my women and even myself as sure we could all be five kilos lighter, but is it not better to be strong and functional and maintain that level of muscle mass with a lean wist, because that is going to lean your body in good shape. To keep very active, to lift and play with your grandchildren, to be off to hype for long periods of time, and

as long as that WISTE measurement is low. In many cases, I don't really care what the weight is as long as you are functionally fit and feeling good in your body. So that might be eighty kilos, but if you've got a waste of eighty two, I'm actually not worried about it. So I just think it's good to talk about the

importance of body composition. And the example we wanted to give was when you do lose weight, and in particular for our listeners who perhaps are planning tour of lost large amounts of weight, it is impossible to just lose body fat without losing muscle mass. They go together. The body doesn't say, oh, well, I'm only going to lose body fat. It's a cycle and you will lose both. So certainly, when we're starting out with our clients, we are prepared to accept somebody fat and muscle mass loss.

And the question came up because my client had noticed a drop on the body composition scales in her muscle mass, and I said, as long as it's relatively small compared to the fat mass. I'm happy, but ultimately we do need to pull the muscle mass down. So say, if you're losing ten kilos, probably one or two of that

will be muscle mass. And then over time, once I've got your weight down to where you want to be or your waist, let's do a body composition scan and see where your body fat is sitting, but also your muscle mass, and in some cases that will then direct

the style of training you do. Because if you've never trained in your life, if you didn't from athletic background, if you didn't do a lot of sports as kids, if you've never lifted weights, your muscle mass is probably relatively low for your age and your size, and as you get older, we probably do want to build some of that tissue through your torso, through your legs, through your buttocks, so that you're creating a strong frame that is fit and agile as you get older, so to

me as part of that journey. Sure, and this is particularly relevant for anyone using a weight loss medication like ozen Peak, where you will lose large amounts of weight, it's okay to bring it down slightly get to where you want to be focused on a waste measurement as a measure of body fat loss, and then over time will scan you and rebuild your body composition so you're strong and fit and agile to move through those senior years.

So it's like a project to set you up for a strong and fit and healthy middle late period through your life.

mass and really try to just drop body fat. And you can do that by making sure the calorie deficit is only slight. You know, if you're going to drop ten kilo super quickly, you do some awful crash diet and you get ten kilos off in eight weeks or something, the large majority of that may potentially be muscle mass. But if you do it in the right way, where you've dropped ten kilos slowly and sustainably over six to twelve months, you're very likely going to hold onto that

precious muscle mass. So there's slower you lose it. The better it is from a muscle and a metabolic perspective. Also, the higher your protein intake is, the more likely you are to hold onto that muscle mass. Also, if your protein intake is more evenly distributed throughout the day, the more likely you are to hold onto that muscle mass.

to four sessions a week. And this is where I take a lot of my ladies who might come to me with the goal of, say ten kilos of weight loss, and they're in those you know, peri or metopause or years, and I might say, all right, we've got to drop ten kilos of body fat, but we want to maintain as much muscle mass as possible.

and just training in their home gym. So we'll get them started on some form of resistance or weight based training program to start with two days a week, and then what we find is that they actually start to enjoy it. They love how functionally fit they're becoming. They can carry all the shopping in with you know, from the car with you know, in one trip, instead of having to do two or three trips. They can play with the grand kids, they can toss them up in

the air. They love that feeling and feeling fit and strong, and they naturally will build off two days a week and increase to three and increase to four. So over time they're choosing to get stronger as their body gets, you know, functionally more fit. So they're a couple of things that we can do to really ensure that we

minimize as much muscle loss as possible. Is keeping our protein intake higher and evenly distribute it throughout the day, not putting ourselves in too large of a calorie deficit. Anything over about twenty percent, you're very likely going to be eating into that muscle mass a little bit more. And also making sure that the slower you lose it kind of the better it is. And doing some form of resistance training at a minimum of two but ideally sort of three to four days a week if you can.

If you can't fit that in no worries. You just do what you can. But you've got to do something. Gone to the days where it's like, oh, you'll be fine, just pick up some weight training in your seventies, Absolutely not. By then you're probably already osteoporotic. You've probably got some form of sycopenia or muscle wasting already going on, and it's probably a little bit too late. And the final thing I'll say here, su is is the gold standard when it comes to body composition is a dexa scan.

So if you have never had a dexic scan in your life and you are over the age of women I say maybe fifty, I would highly recommend that you do that A to check your bone mineral density risk and your risk of something like osteoporosis, and B it can also show you your fat mass and muscle mass distribution as well. You want to make sure that if you are using it from a body composition perspective, you're going in getting that scan first thing in the morning,

before you really eat or drink anything. If you're just doing it from a bone mineral density perspective, you can go at any time of the day, but like most body composition forms of measurement, you really want a measurement that can be repeated more accurately over time. So if you get that first thing in the morning, before you exercise, before you eaten, before you drink, it's more repeatable and.

So if the goal is to use it for your bone mineral density analysis, plus also a body composition analysis to check your muscle and fat mass, you do want to get that first thing in the morning. And that's the reason why a good dexiciclinic will actually open it probably like six am, to actually allow people to get those scans quite early on before they actually commence the day.

long it takes to metabolize fat. So for someone who has a lot of weight to lose, they on average can lose about a kilo a week of body fat, maybe a little bit more if they exercise a lot, but let's be honest, people who have a lot of weight to lose don't tend to be massive exercises, so it's usually about a kilo a week, whereas my Lena ladies.

Initially they might lose a bit more, but it's usually fluid, and I know they're losing about half a kilo a week body fat, or about a centimeter around their waste measurement. So I guarantee you if people are losing ten kilos in ten weeks, which I don't think is feasible anyway. For most most of it is a mix of fluid and muscle, with maybe three four kilos of fat max. So don't be misled by those fad diets. And they're always pushed by people who aren't dietitians because they can

say whatever they like and get those results. You'll never hear a dietitian say you can lose ten kilos in ten weeks, because you literally can't. You're losing muscle mass and stuffing at me metabolism over time.

such a huge calorie deficit. You haven't been doing the proper weight training, and you haven't been eating enough protein to get that ten kilos off, So metabolically you're far worse off, which means that not only do you put the ten kilos back on often, you put back on even more. You might put back on eleven or twelve over time, so you actually end up heavier than where you initially started, which is why we never ever recommend crash darting or fad diets or anything super restrictive to

get the weight off initially. If you can't maintain what you're doing to lose the weight longer term, just on more calories, it's probably not the right diet for you, which is why we always advocate not only just working with the registered health professionals such as a dietitian or a registered nutritionist, We actually recommend that you work with somebody who understands fat loss, because not all dietitians are trained and sustainable fat loss. Not all dietitians understand how

body composition works. You know, dietitians are trained fundamentally in medical nutrition therapy, but that doesn't actually cover fat loss.

It's sort of an extra area of upskilling. So if the goal is body fat loss or a little bit of body composition, I would actually seek out a dietitian who's properly trained in that area, not just a normal dietitian or a normal nutritionist or a normal health coach, because chances are they don't actually know what they're doing and you could end up doing more damage metabolically to yourself long term.

not a vegetarian product. Bobine gelatin, natural flavors, cocoa powder at six percent, which is quite a high percentage, sodium alginate which is probably some sort of binder, a kasia which I think is a binder, gum, and stevia, so it's actually reasonably clean ingredient wise, and certainly when I take a look at the nutritional panels, so a sachet gives you less than one hundred calories just eighty three

a massively and seventeen crams of broteine. Very low fat, it's like less than one grams of fat perserve and low fat product less than two grams of carbohydrate perserve, so insignificant, no sugars because they're using stevia to sweeten a little bit of dietary fiber, which is random like where's that gum? Is tiny and then very little sodium

in it. So you know, for me, and if you liked this product and needed more protein in your diet, I wouldn't have an issue with my clients having it, because I haven't tried it and I don't myself like mussy type things. But if you liked it and wanted to have it as you're after dinner dessert, that's high in protein for less than one hundred calories. I give it a thumbs up. I don't know what do you think.

doesn't have enough lucine. You need to ensure that your protein powder, if it's a WPI or away based protein, it would automatically have that this is just more important for a vegan based protein or something like collagen, where it needs to have at least two to three grams of lucine per serving to actually initiate that switch, which we know that fires up that muscle protein growth essentially.

So I don't like it from the fact that if you're using it as like a post workout gym kind of treat, but I don't mind it if you're just using it from a collagen perspective. So I think leave collagen as collagen. We know that there is some research around helping with skin elasticity, We know it helps with hydration in the skin. We do know that there's some good research for collagen, but that's sort of where it stops. There's nothing really that it supports anything to do with

gut health or intestinal barrier. And we also do know that collagen shouldn't be used for muscle building. So to me, I kind of separate those two things, like leave collagen as collagen and leave protein as more WPI or a good blend of a vegan proten powdered with at least

two to three grams of loosine in it. So that's my little side tangent to this, But I don't mind it overall as just I guess like a bit of a what is it like a sweet kind of dessert, like it's a moose, So yeah, I think it gives you a good hint of collagen.

it can that actually be healthy? So we're going to talk about supermarket dumplings today because I think there's quite a lot to talk about now. The first thing I am looking for in a dumpling is has it got added flavor enhances? Because to me, as soon as they've got added MSG, I'm not a fan. I don't think that's good to be adding that in. You're already it's already a product you consume with soy sauce. So I'm pleased to say that most of the mainstream bands and

supermarkets no longer contain added MSG. And we have spoken about the Audi dumplings, which are extremely cost effective, and they too have a very clean list in terms of no added MSG.

or pork in it. Now, obviously that's different if you're having vegetarian dumplings, but if you're having traditional whether it's pork or chicken, whichever, And basically the higher the percentage of meat in there, the better and the shorter the ingredient list is leanne and I've discussed today when it comes to the processing of food. So the highest amounts of protein you'll find ranges from about twenty five up to even thirty nine percent in one of them. Now,

they're tricky with their labels because what they do. They say the filling is sixty percent, and then you've got to work backwards how much percentage of the pork or chicken it is. Some at the bottom will say overall amount, but I'm looking for at least twenty five and as I said that one of the diner chains got to

thirty nine percent chicken, which is huge. So the other thing I want to say about dumplings is that whether you prefer chicken or pork, can you find one that's twenty five thirty thirty five percent pro tem which are certainly available. I would say that you have to remember that dumplings in isolation are not a meal. So if you just have twelve fifteen dumplings, it's too much. A serve of dumplings I would say is about six maybe eight, And then you have to complete the meal with the

vegetable component. So for example, if you use cauliflower rice as the base, that you can do as a fried rice, or you might do it with greens, your bockchoy or your Asian greens. You've got to complete the meal. And when you complete the meal, you only will get through six or eight or so dumplings, because what happens is if you just put all of that product with the soy in your bowl, you'll eat one hundred of them because they've got a really moorish taste because of the

yamami flavor coming from the soy sauce. So that's probably my main message. The main supermarket brands are pretty good. Short of the ingredient lists, the better look for the ones with at least twenty five up to thirty thirty five percent protein pork, whichever your filling is. And then you've got to complete it as a meal. A dumpling meal is not twenty dumplings. It's six eight, maybe ten

you're a big guy. But yeah, you've got to bulk the meal out and put the rest of it in the plate, otherwise you'll just keep eating them.

from like dimsem places as well. How I like to do it at home, Sousie is use you know my pants, spray a little bit of oil in there, fry the bottom off, but not nothing too crazy. I'm not adding a quarter of a cup of olive oil or anything into my pan. And then I'll pour about half a cup of water in there, put the lid on, and steam them until the water runs dry, essentially, take the lid off, and then just move them around the pan

to chrismen them for the last couple of minutes. And I find that that makes them like really nice in crispy. And then in my separate pan, I'm making my veggies essentially, and I like to serve my dodumplings with broccolini, zucchini, mushrooms.

quite small. Sometimes other goyosas are quite big as well. So it really does depend on the size of it. But overall, ideally you'd like to get in about twenty grams of protein overall, but to get in twenty proteins, if that means that you're eating twenty dumplings, you probably want to find that protein in another source.

range of supplements at designed by Dietitians dot Com. We have our Nourish Women's Hormone Blend and we have our Nourish pre and Probotic Guthouse blend as well, so you'll find both of them at designed bydietitians dot com. Thank you for listening and we will catch you guys on next week's episode.