As a temperature start to drop. Have you noticed any changes in your exercise habits over the past few weeks. Both Susie and I have noticed that our clients are moving a whole lot less. So today we're going to share our best tips and tricks on ways to keep
your exercise on track no matter what the weather is doing. Hi, I'm leanne Ward and I'm Tizzy Borrow, and together we bring you The Nutrition Couch, the weekly podcast that gives you up to date on everything that you need to know in the world of nutrition as well as exercise. Today we chat the easy ways to boost your protein intake and how HU meansabilism will benefit. We also have a lovely soupmarket soup that fits with the cooler weather
that we are giving top marks two. And our listener question is all about an old favorite chocolate milk exercise. So to kick us off, Susie, we are chatting all things winter and exercise. And it hasn't so much lately been raining in Brisbane, but I've heard Sydney has been very, very very wet and cold recently, so I imagine a lot of people aren't getting there frequent walking in How's yours I know you're a big walk out. How's yours going lately?
Oh, I'm pretty determined to get out, even though unless
it's torrential, I'll still go. And what I find with rain, and this is why I wanted to talk about this at the moment, coming into sort of those few months of the year where the temperatures really do drop, particularly if you're down south, is very Just say, there's seven days of the week and it's raining, and it has indeed been raining in Sydney for about a week and it's supposed to rain for another week and I know that I'm pretty sure that's the case in Victoria as well.
But there's probably one day out of those that I didn't get out and do a walk outside because it was really torrential. It was very difficult to go. But what I find on the whole is my clients don't go at all. And that was why I wanted to talk about it, because that's a real mindset shift around movement, because whether it's temperature or whether it's rain or even wind. I actually think wind is worse than rain because you can put a hat on, you can put rain protective gear.
If you've got an old perish use like again, unless it's dangerous where there's lightning and things in you know, light sprinkles here and then stop and start, which is certainly how it's been in Sydney. You know, it's like today, it's meant to rain later and it might have drizzled a little bit, but really it's been pretty clear most of the day.
So to me, there's no reason not to exercise.
But for some reason, I find clients in general, as soon as it's a bit colder, as soon as it's a bit drizzly, as soon as it's a bit windy, everything outside stops. So the reason I wanted to discuss it was that I think it's really worth spending time considering what your exercise program's going to look like over the next two three four months, particularly if your exercise
of choice is walking. So I have a lot of clients who may do pilates, but there are other exercises walking, which means where are victim then of the weather of the shorter days, Because of course it's often not safe for women to be walking on their own even early morning when it's still dark or after about six o'clock, which can really be limiting if you work long hours or have a reasonably long commute, and let's be honest, that's most of us in modern life, and so you're
setting yourself up to fail if you think that you're going to get through winter and maintain your training and movement, and if specifically your goal is weight loss, it's going to be very, very difficult because there's first of all, of course, the requirement to move each day, the human bodies program to move modern life, we don't move a lot because we tend to use transport right to the door, we drive right to the doorway of things. We walk as minle as possible, and many of us have got
their jobs long hours. So if you're not reaching six, eight, ten thousand steps just from movement each day, things are going to be pretty difficult. And that's not even exercise.
Exercise is then significantly increasing heart rate. So you've really got to think to yourself and be honest with yourself about what are you going to do Because it's probably going to be cold, it's probably going to be wet some of the time, it's going to be dark, so you're not going to get your walk in probably half, if not less than what you're used to doing so.
A few ideas or tricks and tips.
I've had from clients recently that prompted me to bring this up as a topic of discussion, and I'm sure you'll have others lean given your climate slightly different. Again, the first thing I have a lot of success with is hiring an exercise bike. Now, the reason for the hire is that how many people do you know by exercise equipment and don't use it. I can't tell you how many of my clients I'll say, oh, do you have any access to exercise equipment, and they'll say, I've
got a treadmill. It just doesn't come up and it's certainly not their use. So for those of you who do have equipment, come on like it's time to get it out. And basically it's got to be in an easy position in the house. If it's down the back shed on your own in the coll you're not going to use it. So this is where the odysty really is important at this time of the year. But I suggest that a bike higher and I had great success with two of my clients.
One is a.
Lawyer who works very very long hours and generally finishes very late, and that's something that just isn't going to change anytime soon, given her career and the demands of that. And then I've also got a client who's got gestational diabetes and she is finding it so helpful to just hop on that bike. So the three, five, seven, ten minutes after a meal. She doesn't want to walk too much because she doesn't want to induce early labor because she's heavy, and so a bike is perfect because it's
perfect to flush out glucose after eating. It doesn't put any pressure on her body, and she's stead of doing up to forty five minutes a day without even noticing because she just pops on, puts a show on her iPad, and off she goes. And in terms of costs, hiring is relatively and expensive. You get it delivered, you get taken right into your home. It doesn't occupy a huge amount of space. Don't go and buy that Audi manual bike that hurts when you sit on it.
It's got to be comfortable, because you won't do it.
You know they're not comfortable, they hurt, they're hard. If you're not overly fit and not a natural exercise, and you won't do it, So you're better to pay a bit more, get an electronic one. Often gyms have got great sales because they're closing down, or you can get great deals on Facebook Marketplace because all the other people have bought them and never use them and finally getting rid of them. But it's less offensive in terms of space and energy, and you can get a good workout
in five ten minutes, even just after a meal. So I think it very functional piece of equipment. Now, sure, if you've got room and want to invest in a treadmill, but they're expensively and good ones are huge. They take up a huge amount of space and time. They don't fit in most people's homes. But if you do have one or access to one, because that's the other thing, if you live in an apartment block or have access to a gym through work, just go and walk on
the treadmill. You don't have to go and do a high intensity workout for two hours. You can just walk for twenty thirty minutes to get that movement in, and you can do a work call on the phone, you can play your favorite show and just get your movement. So that may be a strategy, but things like cross trainers and rowers, you just can't do them for long enough, and they're boring. You can't watch TV. Really, they occupy a huge amount of space. You're not going to get
as efficient a workouts. That's my go to, which is hiring exercise bike. Or it may be time to take up a short term gym membership, again where you haven't committed hundreds and hundreds of dollars, but in which you can just go and use the equipment briefly. Because a lot of us are pre programmed to believe you have to do an hour of high intensity exit decides to get the results, which is not true. You can go and do twenty minutes before you pick up the kids
on the way. You can do ten to fifteen minutes after dinner just to move and flush the gluppost through the bloodstream. But again, doing it at more of a flexible gym membership might be much more a reasonable option, so that if you do have half an hour and a Sunday, or you finish work a bit early, whatever it is, it's accessible. And that's why I have a gym membership, not because I love the gym. For the last week when it has been raining a lot in Sydney,
I've just been going after dropping the kids. Rather than going up to do a run outside the bush, I've just been going and walking on the treadmill because then it gets my steps. I do calls or some admin or Instagram while I'm doing it, and it's just a functional reason. And I think it costs me like twenty dollars a week. I think it's like anytime one of those ones. So I want you to have that conversation with yourself, not you know.
What, should I need to exercise more?
How are you going to ensure you exercise given temperature, weather and short days for the next three to four months.
I'm certainly like you.
And I've got a lovely client at the moment down south in Victoria and it's quite cough downe there, and it's been raining quite a lot, and she has taken up a gym membership about a month ago and she's really enjoying herself. We got to start up with a pet to start with, just to make sure her form and the things that she's doing are correct. You know, the last thing we want to do is an injury.
So she does a mix of some strength training and then some walking on the treadmill and she's very likely going to do that till spring hits because it's only going to get cold, it's only going to get darker, and that for her is very very easy something that she can do, and she generally wakes up on exercises at that time anyway. But like you said, it is just a little bit more, you know, potentially safer for
some women to not be exercising in the dark. But also it's a lot more comfortable when it's not freezing cold and raining outside, So that is a great option. Saying that you mentioned the treadmills, I had another client who got one of those walking treadmills, she's said, with a link on Amazon, and it was only like, oh, I want to say, like six hundred dollars, Like I know, this sounds like a lot of money, and I appreciate it is, but in terms of treadmills, it's actually quite
an affordable type of treadmill. She puts her laptop up there, she listens, like if she's got like a team meeting that she doesn't have to actively say too much on. She pops her headphones in and just listens while she's doing some steps on the treadmill and if anyone calls on it at ad comments, she just kind of steps to the side and you know, we'll talk, and then
kind of gets back on again. She's not running, she's not panting and sweating, but she's just actively getting some steps up, which is really important at this time of year. And I think Susie I mentioned once I got the clearance from my OBI around that six to eight week after I had Tilly, I actually hired an assault bike offlines on AsSalt Bike. I think they also call them air bikes. They're similar to stationary bikes, but they're just
I find them so much harder. They're insane, like the because it's a full body, arm and a leg workout at once, and then the bike I think they called an air bike because they pumped through the air. Just the amount of effort is I think ten times harder than a stationary bike. So if you have a large amount of weight to lose and you're not someone that's regularly into fitness, a stationary bike or just a statin
treadmill can be great. But if you are somebody with quite a good level of fitness that just doesn't like the cold or doesn't want to be out in the rain,
or doesn't you know enjoy exercising in winter. I think you're not going to get too much benefit from a stationary bike, if I'm being honest, I think you're probably going to get a better benefit in terms of calorie burn, movement, heart rate, increases, overall sort of metabolic benefits from using something like an assault bike and starting off, Susie, I would do thirty seconds, then have a minute and a half off, thirty seconds on a minute and a half off.
I did ten minutes of that and I was wrecked. My legs were like jelly like. It was so hard. And then as I got stronger and fitter and faster and built up from there, I think I heard it for a good few months. I was doing a minute on a minute off for ten to fifteen minutes on a really good day, twenty minutes, but not a lot
if the kids hadn't slept very well. And I remember looking online and there were quite a few companies themselves that hired them, But I remember I chose a guy of Facebook marketplace, and he I think him and his wife had bought a whole bunch of equipment in COVID and they just didn't use it anymore and they were traveling for work. So I rented his bike for I honestly think it was like fifteen dollars a week or something, and I think he charged me twenty bucks to drop
it off. He's like, you can come collect it for free, and I was like, I don't have a trailer. So he dropped it off. He like, carry it up with my husband up into the you know, we put on the pool deck and it was great, Like it was wonderful, and it was so cost effective. I didn't have to leave the house. I could just do ten minutes. If the kids were asleep, I put the baby monitor next to me, like I didn't have to go anywhere. It was a really really effective way for me to train
in those early post part of months. It got my heart rate up. I could go as easily or as hard as what I wanted or you know, felt like on the day. So I'm a massive fan of hiring equipment because I think you're right. I think a lot of people are put off by the expense of buying one of those bikes out right, which can be well over one thousand dollars, And how much are we really
going to use it. Like if you hire one and you're using it regularly for three to six months, yes, then look into potentially actually buying one and investing in one. But I think the large majority office only really use them for you know, a few months of the year, and at best I think you know the intentions there, but we actually don't use it as much as what
we think. And so sometimes it's a little bit of a remotivation to have the weekly subscription that you're paying because you see it come out of your account and you think, oh, I should be using that, almost like a gym membership, Whereas if you buy outright, you kind of buy that right forget about it, and then the motivation is kind of gone to be using that regularly. That's what I feel anyway.
Well, all I can say is that I saw that result and it looked like a piece of like army equipment, and it was like hardcore.
I was like a hard know on that, like let me lean leanne.
Trains like a machine people, And I know that a lot of us listening are not at that level, so don't listen to her.
It was like a brutal piece of equipment, like you would just feel like you're dying going on that.
But when I would just to end this segment, I think for women on their list of to do, exercise just becomes another thing and at the end of the day just we like we're all the same, just so exhausted and sort of having to do something else is just overwhelming. But the thing about having equipment in your sort of private area almost is like the space for you to just have a moment. And whether it's a bike or it ends something a treadmill, if it is at home, you don't lose any time because time is
our most precious asset. And sometimes getting to a gym park, getting inside the door, getting changed, it's just twenty thirty
extra minutes we don't have. Whereas if you have that equipment next to your bed, which isn't overly romantic admittedly, or in your study, you know, next to the second TV, it's just that little space for you where you can pop your iPad on watch one of your more indulgent shows that the rest of the family you don't want to, the husband won't watch, and it's just a good way of pulling back some time for you and if you can make it not stressful and not push so it hurts.
It's more just gentle movement that you'll build fitness over time. I think it's very efficient because let's be honest, very few of us have that time, energy, and even financially money necessarily to be paying lots for private gym or pt So that's why I'm a big fan of even just hiring a piece of equipment and seeing if you can make it work for you at home. So definitely something just to think about. And yeah, feel free to let us know how you go on our Instagram. We
love to hear from you. But yeah, it's not going to be enough to walk.
It's just too tricky with weather and temperature and even safety for a lot of us at the moment. All right, well, we want.
To shock in Our next segment is the importance of having protein through the day. And I think this was an article that we found on Chemists Warehouse or one of the sites talking about easy ways to boost your protein and take through the day.
And we thought that is really good topic.
Because inevitably, what I see again with busy women and clients is that they have no issue getting perhaps their protein at nighttime with a serve of fish or chicken meat. But when you really break down their snacks and even their lunch, I'm constantly giving feedback to clients wears your protein add protein in the day, and so we thought it was lent itself to first of all, not only the importance of getting enough dietary protein, but the importance
of it having it regularly rather than all at once. Because, first of all, particularly as women move through their late thirties and forties, we know protein requirements increase, and we're learning more about the importance of that because basically, as we move through perimenopause and menopause, we become less efficient at burning carbohydrate. We're more likely to store fat round amount abdominal area. And one way to help prove that gradual weight creep around the middle is to get enough
dietary protein. Because dietary protein, until you have enough, your body will keep eating, and hence the importance of having it right through the day. It helps keep us full and satisfied. It helps to regulate insulin levels and so very very important to.
Regulate also glucose levels throughout the day.
You'll notice straight away if you have twenty to thirty grams of high quality protein at each of your meals, and even snacks that you crave a lot less through the day, you're not having that sort of urge to keep snacking. You feel much more in control of your energy, and it's a very empowering feeling to not be constantly
hungry and searching for food. Whereas if you start the day, say with a bowl of oats just made maybe with some plain milk, grab fruit through the morning, and even a soup at lunchtime at the moment and thinking you're eating really healthy, that profile is grossly an adequate and
dietary protein. Whereas if you'd had, for example, a birch and music bowl, maybe protein yoga or added protein powder, if you've had say some cheese with your fruit, if you've had a soup with some protein top, your energy will be so much better regulated because of that importance of protein through the day. So we thought we would just go through some dietary ways to get that no matter.
What your meal is.
So a few of the important I guess superfoods that I turn to at each of the meals, certainly at breakfast time if you're not having eggs. The couple of key foods I always use is a protein based yogurt, or if you don't enjoy protein based yogurt things like your pro Shabani because of the distinct flavor, just add some protein powder to your normal yogurt. So LeAnn and I of course have our own protein designed by dietitians
Nourish Women's Blend and Nourish pre and Probiotic. Not wanting to two dourn Horn, but they are great tasting, high quality proteins, and just a tablespoon added to your favorite cereal or oat mix, we'll give you it extra twenty grams of high quality protein, and that's going to really help regulate your glucose through the morning. When it comes to snacks, I'm either using small seves of cheese like
a baby bell, which is about twenty grams. Twenty grams of cheese roughly, we'll give you about five grams of protein. It's a bit on the low sides even still isn't leanne really because we're wanting even snacks to get to ten to twenty grams. So cottage cheese is why we like cottage cheese so much more because you get so much more protein in it. So if you like it, it's much much better on crackers. You can always use your yogurt as a snack with some fruit. What else
you take over? Because I'm just rambling, I'll.
Just say, if you're not a fan of cottash cheese as a viral, I think it's hot honey cottash shees toast at the moment, just google hot honey cottage cheese toast.
Give it a whirl.
Apparently it's amazing. I like cottas cheese, so I'm like five stars from me. But I have converted a couple of clients that aren't a big fan of cottage shees. I have been getting them to mix it a little bit of cottas shoes in with a couple of eggs to make a bit of a higher protein based scramble.
That's a good idea as well.
I have had people suggest adding cottish shoes to like a smoothie. I'm a hard no on that. I just think it throws off the taste. It's not for me. I'd much rather have a delicious protein like designed by.
Dieticians in my smoothie.
Some other good ideas from breakfast baked beer's on toast can be good. A bit of smoke salmon, bit of cream cheese that could be good convenience. Snack wires, you can do like protein bars or balls. You can make your own kind of energy balls, add some protein powder in. There are a few ranges of like protein based I guess musely on nut based bars on the market. Definitely read your labels. They are what you would call a
process food. But again, I don't see it as an issue for my clients when they're busy, they're on the run, it's not something I get them to have every day. But if they're traveling or they're you know, going transitting through airports that sort of thing. For their work, I've always got them to have some sort of protein bar
or bite within their handbag. And then in terms of how much protein for the average healthy adult, about zero point eight to one gram of protein per kilo of body weight is what we would call would be sort of the recommended daily amount of protein. When the goal is fat loss, Susie I tend to recommend about one point five grams a day on average to my clients, and when the goal is muscle gain, it can actually
be up to about two grams of protein a day. Now, the kicker is a lot of people are aiming to gain muscle and loose that at the same time. That is a whole other segment that we could I could talk for hours on that. How that's not a good idea, like either go for fat loss or go for muscle gain. But I feel like a lot of people who take
recommendations from their pets in terms of protein amounts. I get so many messages from women zuzi saying, like pds recommending me to have one hundred and fifty one hundred and eighty two hundred grams of protein a day. It's far too much. So more protein is not better, but it is important that you ensure you are getting a regular speed of protein throughout the day. And if you're plant based and you don't have you know animal based products.
We do know animal based products contain the highest amount of what we call absorbable protein, so lean meats, chicken, fish, as zuzi, bension, greek yogurt, cottage, cheese, or great ideas. Plant based wise, we want to think about things like tofu tempas, our beans and our legumes, our lentils, our chickpeas. Quinoa has a small amount of plant based protein and it so do our nuts and seeds that sort of thing, but they're predominantly nuts and seeds are predominantly fats, although
they do have some plant based protein. Things like kinoa or beans have a bit of carbohydrate in them as well, which is not an issue at all. Even whole grains, like when you have pasta, when you have rice, there's a small amount of plant based protein in there as well, but we wouldn't call that. You wouldn't just have a stir fry with rice and say cool, I'm adding enough
protein to my meal. It's certainly not enough. We would ideally want you to add some legumes or some tofus or a sprinkle of nutritional yeas like so you can get some of those little like soy protein nuggets. There's a whole section of vegetarian based proteins. If you go to the health food section of the supermarket, there's texted vegetable protein. There's a whole range you know, quote unquote nutmeats I think they're called. There's a whole range of
plant based proteins. If your goal is to live a more plant based lifestyle, you just need to make sure you are getting as an average, if you're plant based I would ideally want eighteen to twenty grams of protein in your meal. So if you're buying something that's a vegan paddy or a vegan hamburg or a vegan based nitzel, really check the nutrition label to make sure it has
enough protein in there. If not, you might need to pair it with something else just to boost the overall protein in that meal.
And another couple that have come to mind, I love the tuna kind of cracker snappasi can.
Get, or if you like tinned fish, things like smoked oysters and muscles on.
Wafer crackers in the afternoon can be a really tasty, nutrient rich snap.
And we should also say that if you do.
Order designed by dieticians Nourish Protein, you get a free protein ebook, and in that we've got our personal favorite recipes for high protein protein balls protein pancakes, So have a look at that if you're interested. And then for all my Pery women listening, don't forget the Perry Plan, which is a collection of information on higher protein diets,
is available on our website, the nutritioncouch dot com. And then I've recently penned Peripan recipe, which is fifty new high protein recipes for women, and that is available on my website at Cdeburrel dot com dot au. So we're certainly big fans of protein and we've certainly got plenty of information around it to keep your metabolic rate and body composition on track as you move through your thirties, forties, fifties and beyond.
All Right, Lenne soup, and it's definitely soup season.
I always find it interesting because we sort of go along past Easter and it's still quite warm weather and everyone's still having their salads, and then it's like bang, something happens.
Everyone's like an US, no more salad. It's times of soup.
And I've noticed in the supermarket it was like decimated this morning with all the soup section and there's a lot of sales on.
So we've shifted to that now.
The first thing we will say is we are not suggesting that supermarket pre made soups are better than homemade. Myself, I don't buy pre made soup, so I like to make my own soup. I've got many recipes on Instagram. But what I will say is that to make soup, it takes a lot of time. It's actually quite expensive, particularly if you're making like a green soup to pay for all those veggies, and.
Not everyone has that time. So I don't have any judgment myself.
I like homemade soup, and I have time often to do it, and I'm doing it for work. But there are loads of supermarket soups that are actually pretty good in every million. When I go and do a review on supermarket soups, I'm shocked how good they're getting. Like they're literally it's hard pressed to justify sometimes making homemade when you see how cost effective and tasty and clean some of those are. So we wanted to share with you one of our favorites today, and this is a
brand that's been around for a really long time. We're going to talk about the Potango Chicken and Vegetable. And every time I look at them, they just get better and better. And all of them are great. They're in the fresh section of both woolies and coals. But for me, this Potango free range chicken and vegetable is just a standout nutritionally, it's five hundred grams now I think it
retails for about five dollars. It's about two fifty per serve, which is incredibly cost effective when you're thinking how much we spend on lunch out like this, how can you.
Go past this?
When I look at the ingredient list, it's forty six percent free range chicken stock, which is water, chicken bones, carrot, onion, herb, spice, and then forty five percent vegetable potato at seventeen, which is pretty good because sometimes you will Sea sweups are filled with potato, carrot, twelve corn, seven onion, sweet potato, three peas and garlic, water, free range chicken at five percent, salt, corn starch, white wine, thyme, Proprika sunflour oil, but pepper.
It is as clean as clean can be.
It's three and a half hell of stars, which just makes them again of the Health Star rating system, just quietly.
Because of the sodium. All right, It's actually pretty good though for a soup.
So the protein perserve there's two SEPs per pack is four point three. It's not overly high in protein, but that's okay because a soup generally isn't acting as a protein source.
But we'll talk about that in a minute.
Thirteen grams of carbohydrate and only three point three grams of sugars, none.
Of which are added because a lot of soups do.
And I just checked out the Wooly Fresh soups this morning and a lot of them have added sugar. Now, I would never add sugar to soup, so it frustrates me when pre made soups have it added. It shouldn't through a good quality one. So this has got no added sugar. Two protrograms of dietary fiber, which is pretty good. It's five hundred and thirty milligrams of sodium perserve, which isn't low, but you won't get a low soup like everyone's all hoity about soups containing salt. Imagine how much
you put into season at home. So for me, if it's under six eight hundred, it's pretty good. It can always be lower, but I trust me, if it's too low, you won't eat it.
It just won't taste good.
And if you wanted to increase the protein content to make this a meal, all you would have to do is ads and chicken breast to it when you heat it up, and you have this with a slice of berg and swee lean or a slice of protein toast, and you've got a beautiful meal. I can't fault this soup. I just think it's ten out of ten for me. And the fact it gets three and a half ELF stars. I'm like, really like this is as clean as clean can be.
What do you think? Lean You like it?
Yeah, the ingredient list is great. I've always liked the Potango brand in terms of soup, gluten free, perfect, brass selected, you know, people with sealate disease. It's three serves of vegetable, which is great, Like we see a bulk of vegetables
on that ingredient list. I really like it. I do personally think it's too low calorie for a meal, so like you said, I would be adding a handful of chicken, a handful of frozen broccoli just to bulk it, add a little bit and a nice slice of protein taste, or a beautiful slice of soil in bread just like you mentioned, just to round out that meal. Like aviet this, I'd be hungry get in and out, particularly because I'm breastfeeding and exercising. But I do love the fact that
it's packed with veggies. The ingredient liss is very clean. There's no extra additives or preservatives or anything like that that we don't want in there, just good quality stuff. It is made of New Zealand, not astray, but that's okay. We can support our friends across the way there. And it is a nice fresh soup as well. I get a lot of clients to say, I'm happy to buy, you know, a bit of a pre made soup, but I prefer a fresh one over like one you know
in the supermarket sholp section. So I'm a big fan of this as well. I just think be mindful to round it out. You know, you can add a bit of brown rice to this and I don't know, some leftover some pork or something, yeah, something like that. Just bulk it out with a little bit. Like carbs are very low, like thirteen grams of carbohydrate, we would ideally want that a little bit high, so a bit of extra vege, bit of extra protein and some sort of
carbohydrate with it. You could have this and then you know, a cup of fruit or something afterwards if you wanted, or you know, you could have a bit of a yopro afterwards, and that's what you wanted, a high protein yogurt. But I do think this is a great base to start a meal off with. And like you said, the sodium, it's high. So if you had issues with blood pressure or for some reason needed to limit the salt in your diet, you'd want to be a little bit wary.
But for the average healthy human, you know, we're not going to be recommending that you eat this every day. A couple of times a week would be absolutely okay.
You won't find many supermarket soups lower than that sodium. It's just what's required to get it to a taste that's not bar And as I said, at home, you season with salt.
Everyone's so hoity, but any stock that you use is.
Salt based, so it's going to be hard to get soup low. Because don't forget that when it comes to sodium intake, it's a heavily buffet effect with potassium, which comes from vegetable So one of the benefits is heavy vegetable based SIPs like this, I'm giving you a lot of potassium, so the salt is actually less relevant unless you're very salt sensitive and have highloo pressure, which would be proactively avoiding some.
Of those pre made soups.
Anyway, you are right, it is low calorie and low card so it would be a very light dinner if you've had a big day of eating, or like you said, I like that idea of having it not with bread so much at night, but I think like a yo pro will give you that bulk factor or particularly if you add extra veggies or chicken to it.
But yeah, top match for me.
I think it's really good and it's probably I'm sure they've improved those formulations.
They weren't as good last year. I'm sure so well, jump potendo.
The more the products like that we have in the supermarket, the better to make healthy eating affordable and are tasting. So to wrap us up, Lynne, I'm going to do this section even though it's technically yours because it's a listener question that came to on it and start about chocolate milk and is it actually healthy?
And I thought we hadn't talked about it, and I.
Thought it was quite an interesting topic because certainly in sports duitation circles, chocolate milk is often referred to as a very smart recovery drink for particularly endurance type athletes who might be doing running training, because a few years ago there was some research to show that it promoted muscle recovery just as good as almost supplements, but of course it's a more cost effective option than say protein powders and athletes because chocolate milk is just basically dairy,
so some protein coming naturally from milk with some sugar added, so it's sort of a perfect mix of carbon protein.
So it's a bit controversial chocolate milk.
I actually give my kids chocolate milk for breakfast every day, and it's not a one I make.
It's actually got added sugar in it. And the reason I.
Do it is that my kids were not great milk drinkers. And also it's a long story, but when they were very little and had to get to preschool early, I didn't have a lot of time in the morning.
I had to leave like at seven.
Seven thirty, so I just used to give them that was quick and easy basically, And to be honest, I've just continued it because rather than having disgusting cereal balls to clean later or having to get up in my eggs we still have to leave quite early, I've always just given them a chocolate milk and they don't have a lot of other dairy.
Does it have added sugar, yes, But my.
Rationale is overall nutritionally, I'd rather they have the milk because it's really important time for their bones. For me, so I'm sort of a bit biased that I think there's actually nothing overly wrong with it, and I think that it's a hundred times better than other sweet drinks like fruit juice cordial soft drink. Now as kids get older, so my boys never ask for that because they get their chocolate milk in the morning and they know they've.
How to serve with calcium. But generally speaking, it does have added sugar.
You know, it's got up to sort of seventeen twenty grams per to two hundred and fifty more containers, so not insignificant.
So I think you've got to.
Be mindful that for most adults, we certainly don't need it, and if you're a gym, you don't need it for recovery. Like the only people I would suggest use a product like that for recovery would be quite high level athletes like rugby league players, basketball players, teenage boys who have really high energy demands. For the average person, it is a source of added sugar in the diet, which most
of us don't need. Given the recommendation is for twenty five grams of added sugars or less each day from the World Health Organization.
That's going to give you at least half of that in one hit.
So it's more specific food I would use with specific groups like athletes, teenagers who have ig energy demands, or to me like to have that as a quick and easy breakfast on and go with a bit of apple. It's no issue. But that's obviously me as a dietician. With my own kid's diet, it's a little bit different.
But the other thing I want to talk about was there was recently a product and I think we even reviewed it on the podcast where there was a chocolate milk in supermarket with no added sugar mm bronze dairy.
But the trouble is it didn't taste very good, yeah, because there's no aded sugar.
So I bought it because I thought, oh great, I'll swap the kids over from the little devondale. I think it's like one very small like two hundred mimmle less that I buy Costco in bolk. I'll swap my kids over from that to the no added sugar. But they wouldn't drink it.
So that's the issue. As soon as you take some of the sugar out.
Foods aren't always palatable, and so there's what's ideally nutrition versus what people will consume.
So is it better to have a glass of milk with a spoon of miload? It's the same thing. The Milo's added sugar.
You know, it's got some nutrients added, but it still added sugar. It's more cost effective to have milk, long life milk with a spoon of Milo, And definitely it's probably nutritionally slightly better, and you can get a lower sugar Milo, but you're splitting hairs between probably a few grams.
Here and there.
So I think that in a place of a balanced diet for children it can be used, but certainly not a product I ever used with adults, only if they're athletes.
Yeah, I must have never in my entire career written chocolate milk into a client's milk plant. I predominantly work with women to lose weight. But there is some research out there, and I think this listener question it's a good one because there is some research, particularly as you mentioned, from a sports nuitition perspective.
I just pulled up the study.
It's a post exercise recovery beverage for endurance sports. That's the key endurance sports. It's not a five k run. It's not going there do your ten minute treadmill walk. It's an endurance sport. If you run marathons, if you're a triathlete, if you're doing ultra endurance, you know, walks through the forest that last three days. Chocolate milk is the prime you know, drink of choice for you getting the sugars, you're getting the protein. Basically, they are saying
it has a good carver hydrate to protein ratio. It's a forest to one. They actually in the research recommend low fat chocolate milk. We actually don't want too much fat as a post recovery option. We predominantly just want carbohydrates in protein in that forest to one ratio. So they're saying any sort of commercially you know, occurring chocolate milk like something you'd find and the soupermarket is fine.
You want to consume it essentially about one to one point five grams of it per kilo Graham immediately after exercise and again it to our post exercise mark. And this appears to be very optimal in terms of exercise recovery and do help minimize basically muscle damage. So this study was back in twenty twelve, when I don't really think the research has changed since then. I do know a lot of friends at a sports scietitians who continue
to recommend chocolate milk. But the kicker in this article is that is for endurance based athletes or what we would call weekend warriors, those who are very serious about their exercise. If you just take up weight training and you're doing two sessions with your PT a week and the goal is fat loss, I would definitely not be recommending chocolate milk few I think, you know, a glass of a glass of milk or a glass of skin milk is absolutely fine, but there's no reason that you
need to add added sugars to your milk. So I think for the average adult that listened to the podcast that we've surveyed, over a thousand of our listeners, Susie, they want weight loss. Like I think it was over ninety percent of our women listening want weight loss, chocolate milk is not something that we would recommend here on the Nutrition Couch for your goals, No, I.
Would say, though for me, for children, it's preferred able to soft drink and juice because there's a lot of you know, just being around kids that age. Now, I can't tell you how often they consume it, whether you're out at the club in a group situation. And if I had to choose as like a treat or something more indulgent, I would give it one hundred times instead of juice or soft drink, because at least they're getting some calciums and magnesium, and you can certainly find options.
That are lighter if you look at the label. So take a look, all right, Susie, thank you for that.
That brings us to the end of another episode of the Nutrition Couch. Now, if your diet is lacking in a little bit of protein, don't forget to check out our scientifically formulated protein range at design Bydietitians dot Com, and as USI mentioned, you get our free mini protein ebook with a couple of recipes in there as well, which will be automatically emailed to you after you place
your order. So thank you for listening to the episode, and we can't wait to catch you in next week's episode as well.
Have a great week,