Episode Transcript
[00:00:00] Foreign.
[00:00:09] You're listening to a recording from inside the members hub of the whole Health Revolution. These episodes are taken from my live weekly coaching calls where members can join me in real time for honest conversations around health, nutrition, weight loss and sustainable lifestyle change. The whole health revolution is not about restriction extremes or quick fixes. There's no fad diets here. It's about building long lasting healthy habits that support your body. Whether your goal is weight loss, managing chronic health condition, improving your nutrition, maybe you want to balance your hormones or simply start feeling better in yourself.
[00:00:46] So if you love this episode and would like to join these calls live, have your questions answered and be supported along the way, you can find out more at www.naturalhealthproject.co.nz Weight Loss Program. You'll also find these details in the show notes. Now let's get stuck into today's episode. So I hope you've had a lovely week and tonight I want to talk about supercharging your nutrition. Now if you've been with me for a while, you would have already been maybe optimizing your nutrition, you've maybe introduced some new foods, etc. Maybe you're sort of going into a more whole food D if you weren't before. If you're new to the program, then this is for you too, because I just want to talk about those little things that we can add into our nutrition that really make a difference and it doesn't have to mean a huge overhaul.
[00:01:40] Most people think eating healthier means eating less or eating perfectly. And we know that we're not after perfection on this program. We are after consistency.
[00:01:50] But actually it's not about that at all. It can be as simple as taking what you already eat and just levelling it up a few notches. The gimmicky kind of things that you see on social media that cost blooming heaps of money and they claim to cure this, that and everything. This is about real accessible foods, but these foods really do pack a big nutritional punch.
[00:02:13] So what do we mean by superfoods? If you think of your body like a bank account and your daily meals are going to be your standard deposits into that bank account, but these superfoods are your high interest investment. So they give you more nutrients per bite, more antioxidants, more fibre, more healthy fats, plant compounds, anti inflammatory benefits than your average everyday foods, and you don't need every one of these superfoods, but including a few into your day can be really beneficial. And I'm going to go into A few of the main ones today and just how much you need and it's quite often it's not much at all. So first on my list is matcha powder. It's one of my favorites, so I am a bit biased when it comes to this. Matcha is wonderful. I love it.
[00:03:00] I do prepare mine at home because when I go to the cafes and get a matcha latte, they are very sweet and they're often packed with sugar. So I do like to make my own. Yes, I do add a little bit of sweetness to it because it's a very bitter tasting tea.
[00:03:15] But the bitter is good because our liver loves bitter, remember? So I try and keep some of that bitterness while adding a little bit of coconut sugar or a bit of honey.
[00:03:24] And I just have one of those a day with some soy milk or almond milk and it's lovely. I love it. So what are the benefits to matcha?
[00:03:33] It provides clean energy, improves focus, it helps to boost back burning and metabolism. And it's packed with catechins and these are antioxidants.
[00:03:43] It does contain some caffeine and it also contains L theanine. So caffeine, yes, we know that's a stimulant, but L theanine is a calming amino acid. So together they give you that steady energy rather than a quick boost like caffeine might give. I can't actually drink caffeine because my heart. I get arrhythmias and my heart does funny things. But I can drink matcha. So the amount of caffeine and matcha plus it's mitigated with the L Theanine. It doesn't affect me at all.
[00:04:14] So a dose of matcha is about one teaspoon. I spoke to somebody the other day actually, and she has three teaspoons of it in her drink, which is really. It's quite a lot because it's very concentrated.
[00:04:26] Or you're looking at one to three cups of green tea daily that has the matcha in it.
[00:04:32] So I put. I probably don't even put a teaspoon of matcha in my drink.
[00:04:36] I've got a special little matcha scoop. It probably equates to about half a teaspoon and even then it's so strong tasting that you don't need much more. But you can make it into a morning latte like I do.
[00:04:48] You can include it in your smoothies, which is what I do for my husband because he doesn't like the hot drink, or you can whisk it into yogurts a therapeutic dose of matcha is about 1 teaspoon or 2 to 3 grams daily.
[00:05:01] And as I say, it's great for energy. It can help with brain fog and fatigue.
[00:05:06] It can help with weight loss. It can help with hormone stress and anxiety because it has that balancing effect. And it can also help with cardiovascular protection as it is known to reduce the LDL oxidation. So it has some real strong benefits.
[00:05:21] The next thing I like, especially for people that find it hard to include enough fruit and veggies into their day, is a berry powder. Berry powders are concentrated powders, and often they'll have lots of different things in them, such as acerola, beetroot, all the red berries you blueberries as well, and they're concentrated. And so the benefit of these berry powders is you don't need much, so you can pop them into different things. They're anti aging. They help with blood vessel protection. That's the beetroot. They're great for brain and heart health. Now you're looking at one to two tablespoons or actually, that's quite a lot, actually one to two teaspoons of powder or a half to one cup of frozen or fresh berries daily.
[00:06:07] And you can add those once again into a yogurt or into smoothies or little chia puddings, and it makes it a beautiful red color as well. Helps with brain and health and brain health and memory.
[00:06:17] Heart vessel protection is anti aging, because they're high in antioxidants, helps your skin health because of that, can definitely help with blood sugar regulation.
[00:06:29] And so it has lots of benefits. And it's just an easy thing to add into food if you don't want to eat lots of fruit. The next thing on my list is also green powders such as spirulina, chlorella, all the green blends. They have kale and spinach and all sorts of things blended into the green powders. I have this at home especially for my kids who don't eat enough vegetables.
[00:06:53] So I pop those into their smoothies. The benefit of these is that they are alkalizing. So if you've got quite an acidic diet or if you feel acidic, they are alkalizing, which is a much better state to be in.
[00:07:05] They support detoxification, so they help your liver and they also help your immune health because they're packed full of Minerals and vitamins. 1 teaspoon daily. A green powder is usually quite strong. So if you're starting it with children, for example, I always recommend starting with just a Quarter of a teaspoon and just gradually increasing it because I think if you put a whole teaspoon into a smoothie, they'll just detect it in no time.
[00:07:30] So, yeah, lots of benefits with your green powders. They help with your detoxification because they help to bind those heavy metals and toxins and so you can clear them from the body.
[00:07:41] Then we've got one of my very favorite superfoods I often recommend especially for my women that are going through hormonal issues such as perimenopause, menopause, flaxseeds. So flaxseeds are rich in lignans, omega 3s, and they can help bowel regularity, they help cholesterol to reduce the, the bad cholesterol, but definitely help in hormone balance.
[00:08:07] So I always, I recommend these all the time, but there is a specific way in which you must have these. You, if you buy them, I advise to buy them whole. Now, flaxseeds are also known as linseeds. It's exactly the same thing, just a different name. Linseed. Flaxseed.
[00:08:24] I say, as I say, I recommend to buy them whole, keep them in the fridge and when you're going to eat them freshly grind them. I usually grind a fair about a few days at a time.
[00:08:37] So I grind a few days in advance and I put them in the fridge, freshly ground and we just grab one to two tablespoons a day. I've got those in my husband's smoothies as well. He doesn't know what's in his smoothie, he just drinks it, which is great.
[00:08:50] So, yeah, recommended dose is 1 to 2 tablespoons. I like 2 tablespoons. You can add them to yogurt. If you're having some granola or cereal, you can put them on top of, add them into baking. The nutritional value doesn't change. If you bake them, you can make flaxseed crackers, sprinkle them on salads, put them in mince patties. You can do all sorts of things with these flaxseeds and whoever you're dishing them out to won't even know they're in there.
[00:09:17] So great for estrogen dominance because they are high in phytoestrogens. And so phytoestrogens help to balance though that hormone level.
[00:09:28] They can help with constipation because it adds bulk and motility to the stool.
[00:09:35] Definitely can help with high cholesterol and heart disease prevention. I'm giving them to my husband at the moment to help with his hypertension.
[00:09:44] Great for breast health. And there have been studies done on this. It's not just me saying it or Dr. Google. There's quite a few studies on flaxseeds and the relationship between taking those and hormone health when it comes to breast health and breast cancer. Answers. Even so, very, very good superfood to have in your cupboard. And the best thing of all is they're pretty cheap too. They're not expensive and you can buy them in big bags. Why I say to buy them whole is if you buy them already ground, you don't know how long they've been sitting around on the the shelf for.
[00:10:18] And because they're not refrigerated, they can go rancid. It's a fat, so any kind of fat will go rancid over time. So buying them whole, it keeps the integrity of the seed. But if you were to eat them whole, they'll come out whole. The so you won't actually be absorbing or digesting, they won't be absorbed in your bloodstream.
[00:10:37] The next one is chia seeds. Love chia seeds as well. Very tasty. Always have some floss when you eat them though, because they do tend to get stuck in the teeth. They're a gut soothing soluble fibre. They're rich in Omega 3s, so if you're plant based and you're not having fish, then chia seeds are excellent.
[00:10:55] They help with blood sugar regulation, they can give you energy and they're very mineral rich, especially when it comes to calcium. So a dose of chia seeds once again is about 2 tablespoons daily.
[00:11:08] So I often make little chia seed puddings and you'll see on the members hub, there's a few chia seed sort of recipes. We've got a chia seed jam, there's definitely chia seed puddings and they look too naughty to be good for you, but they're so good, they taste amazing.
[00:11:23] And so I do use those all the time. I put them into bliss balls.
[00:11:27] Yeah, put them in all sorts of things and smoothies, etcetera, etcetera. Or you can make them into a little gel. If you don't want to have the fuss of adding them to a recipe, just put a tablespoon in a little shot glass, top it up with water and just glug it down. It's not my favorite way to have them, but you can do that. The next thing are herbs and spices. Now you'll see in our most of the recipes in the members hub, they're very high in herbs and spices. I love adding herbs and spices. It's an easy thing to do and they really bring out the flavor in any recipe. I really love them, but they've got so many benefits to our health. They're nature's anti inflammatories and antimicrobial agents. Obviously I'm not going to go through all the herbs and spices today because there's so many of them, but you know, you can use them in anything sweet or savory. So for example, if you're looking at turmeric and ginger, they're highly anti inflammatory and they can really help with joint pain and inflammation. For turmeric, you're looking at a half to one teaspoon daily and that's fresh or dried ginger. Fantastic for your digestive system. Ginger is one of my favorite herbs to use in many things because it helps with a lot.
[00:12:43] It can help with bloating and nausea and indigestion. But it also is very highly anti inflammatory.
[00:12:50] If you add ginger. If I'm making a herbal tincture or tonic with liquid herbs, once you add ginger to the mix and you only ever add a little bit of, makes all the other herbs in that formula more effective. So it brings out the best in all the other herbs. So it's an amazing, it's amazing plant.
[00:13:10] If you're looking at garlic and oregano, fantastic for infections, immune support. Garlic is great for gut health. It can literally weed out all the bad guys in your gut, but usually it's in high doses and in a pill form.
[00:13:24] Oregano, oil of oregano can get rid of a lot of, of bad guys in the gut, especially if you've got an overgrowth of bacteria in the small intestines where they shouldn't be. We often use oil of oregano to get rid of that.
[00:13:39] Then we've got things like rosemary, great for cognition. I used rosemary essential oils in a burner when I was studying.
[00:13:48] So yeah, you're looking at herbs and spices. They've all got their own little benefits, but very, very powerful.
[00:13:56] Then of course, we've got nuts and seeds. Yes, we know that nuts can be fattening and what have you. If you eat too many of them. They're high in calories, but each nut, each different type of nut comes with their own benefits.
[00:14:08] And we're looking at healthy fats. They're, they've got a bit of protein in them, they've got minerals and they're fantastic for heart health. And they keep you satiated. You don't need too many to feel you know to feel the benefits of them. They're high in fiber, so just a small handful or a quarter of a cup daily is a therapeutic dose is enough. You don't really want to overdo that because, yes, you can be adding to the calorie load, especially if weight loss is a goal, but a quarter of a cup a day is absolutely okay. I like to toast them lightly for a bit of better flavouring, especially if I'm chopping them up and adding them to a salad. But let's look at a few different nuts. So walnuts, we're looking at six to eight halves and they are the highest in Omega 3s of all the nuts. They're anti inflammatory, they're antioxidants. They're also known for their brain health. They look like a brain and so it's no coincidence that they are really good for brain health, memory, cognitive decline or preventing cognitive decline. So just a few walnuts a day can really help. They can help with mood support and depression because of the omega 3s and the polyphenols in them. They're also good for heart, heart health. So, yes, they are a fat, but they're a healthy fat fat. And these nuts will help reduce that cholesterol and help your heart.
[00:15:29] Almonds are another favorite benefits to these are high in vitamin E, magnesium, they're a great plant protein. They can help with blood sugar stability, insulin resistance. They can also help with dry aging skin because of the vitamin E content. Vitamin E is known for skin health and because they're quite satiating, they can help with appetite control. So they can actually help you lose weight in the long run. You don't need many of them then. We've got pistachios now. Quarter of a cup. Quarter of a cup of all these, really. Quarter of a cup. Pistachios has been known to help you sleep at night.
[00:16:08] I did read a study once that said that they are as effective as a sleeping pill for helping you sleep.
[00:16:15] So, hey, it's worth a try, isn't it? Because it's a real food. So I'd much rather go down that avenue than go for a sleeping pill.
[00:16:23] They're high in melatonin and that's the reason why they actually, they're high in tryptophan, which is a precursor to melatonin. So they help your body make melatonin, which is what we want to come into play at nighttime when we're ready for sleep. Cashew nuts, rich in zinc, iron and tryptophan, once again is going to Help with your mood anxiety, reduce anxiety. If you're low in iron, they can help.
[00:16:48] And they're a lovely way to make those alternate creams or dairy blends. So making those whole food cheesecakes or making a cheese sauce, for example, really lovely. If you soak cashews, they make such a lovely creamy sauce.
[00:17:04] And Brazil nuts. So Brazil nuts, you're just looking at one to two a day and that's the maximum safe amount due to the selenium content. Now, we don't want to overdo selenium because it is a toxic in high amounts.
[00:17:17] But generally with food, our body knows what to do with that.
[00:17:22] Supplementation can really take you well over that safe limit.
[00:17:27] So, yeah, one to two a day is all we need to get our selenium requirements for the day.
[00:17:35] And selenium is really good for thyroid function. Now, I often see people that have like slow thyroid or they've said they've got low thyroid function, but sometimes it's not the actual thyroid it's made, maybe it's sometimes that they're low in selenium because the thyroid needs that.
[00:17:52] Selenium helps with fertility and hormone balance and it also helps in our immune system and can be cancer protective as well. So then coming away from the nuts, we've got oats. Oats are fantastic. I do like to recommend steel cut oats because that's the whole food form of the oats. They're less processed than say the rolled oats and they're going to give you less of a blood sugar spike. But they're very high in fiber, high in beta glucan, which is heart protective. They stabilize blood sugar levels. As long as you're having the right portion size and not overdoing it, they feed the good bacteria in our gut. So what we're looking at is a half to one cup of cooked oats per serving. Yes, it's a bit of a range, but it really depends. You know, if you're a 50 kilogram woman, you might want half a cup. If you're 100kg guy or woman, you're going to want more. So it depends on what, what you feel. It satiates you, but that's the range. The general range per portion is half to one cup. And of course, when you have oats, usually you're going to add other stuff to it. So half a cup is going to be quite satiating if you're adding berries and nuts and some sprinklings on top.
[00:19:02] So, yeah, they're going to be really Beneficial for your gut health, for blood sugar regulation, heart health. So it's definitely worth. If you like oats, then please do include them in your, in your diet. And there's lots of recipes in the program that use oats as well.
[00:19:16] Now I've just mentioned fruit and veggies because it's one of those things. They're not actually. I mean, yes, I think they're a superfood, but it's something that we generally under eat quite a bit. You know, if, if I find somebody that. And they're not eating enough veggies a day, and believe it or not, we should be having at least three cups of plants a day. So three cups or three decent handfuls, but optimally we should be having about eight of those a day. Now, I don't even meet that. I really don't. I find it hard to meet that amount. But that's what the recommended amount is to meet our optimal requirements. Many of us under eat fiber, so this is an ideal way to get fiber. But with fruits and veggies, it's really important to go for diversity, for color. And definitely those dark leafy greens such as your rocket, you'd see your spinach silverbeet here in New Zealand. Greens I think they're called in the uk.
[00:20:15] But those dark leafy greens are absolutely packed full of nutrients. Also the cruciferous vegetables such as broccoli, cauliflower, cabbage, these are all involved in our liver detoxification.
[00:20:27] And so the liver heavily relies on bitter foods, dark greens, cruciferous vegetables. Plus we're looking at things like onions and garlic. Great for gut health, our immune system, apples and berries and oranges, et cetera. You're looking for a wide variety of those over the course of a week. And yes, they can be very, very helpful in perimenopause for us women because they do assist the liver in clearing that estrogen. Because we don't want to be in a state of estrogen dominance and we don't want to have the estrogen that's not clearing from our liver. We don't want that recirculating because it makes us feel more toxic than when it went into the liver. So we need to be processing these things.
[00:21:09] And they also help with longevity and healthy aging. And who doesn't want that? So another superfood are your fermented foods such as sauerkraut, kimchi, kefir, yogurt, miso. The benefits of those are they are rich in probiotics, so fantastic for gut immunity and mental health. As well, because obviously the gut health, gut brain connection and sauerkraut, something like sauerkraut or you're only looking at one to two tablespoons.
[00:21:36] Now, fortunately for me, sauerkraut is just something I cannot warm to because I know the benefits are fantastic, but it's just not my thing. I can't enjoy it. I don't like it. But if you do, then absolutely go for it. Or if you're trying it for the first time, it just shows you don't actually need that much of it. One to two tablespoons, even a teaspoon, have it with your eggs and what have you in the morning or with your dinner or with a salad. Mix it into your salad, it's very beneficial. Or if you're looking at kefir, you're looking at about half a cup for kepi or yogurt daily. So it's not actually much. And so because they're so good for gut health, they're so probiotic rich, they're going to help with, they can help with bloating, ibs, irregular stools. If you've got certain conditions, such as sibo or small intestinal bacterial overgrowth, and you've got gut bugs where they shouldn't be, that is in the small intestines, you might not like probiotics, you might not like fermented foods. So it's really, if you don't, then that gives us a clue. Okay, maybe I've got sibo. So try them. If you're not used to taking them, try them in small amounts. First of all, if you don't, if yogurt upsets your gut, just check whether it's the dairy and the yogurt or is it the fermented food part of it, Is it the probiotics?
[00:22:55] And it's worth trying something like a non dairy alternative such as a coconut yogurt.
[00:23:02] So, yeah, a wonderful food to have into your daily routine.
[00:23:07] Now, another one that I'd like to speak about is creatine. Now, creatine is one of the most researched things really on the planet at the moment.
[00:23:18] And back in the day, creatine in my view, was really just for men, bodybuilding men. My husband took it for a long time, he still takes it. But you probably have seen a lot about creatine lately, especially for women and especially for anybody, because it's not just for men and big and bulking up men, but what it does is it helps your muscles repair faster. So if you're training quite a bit if you're going to the gym all the time, it just helps you repair, helps you be able to, you know, hit the gym the next day and not feel that fatigue. It helps with strength because of that, but it also helps with brain health and cognitive protection as we age. And that's something that's quite new to me because it was all always, you know, a bodybuilding supplement, but it definitely can help our brain and cognition. So some specialists recommend that everyone should be taking this up to 5 grams a day, 3 to 5 grams a day. You don't need to cycle it, you can just take that ongoing. And it has many, many benefits. You might feel a bit of water retention when you first start taking it. That can happen. But nevertheless, it is very good for health. And, yeah, there's a lot more research probably going to be done on that.
[00:24:33] And you can mix creatine into smoothies and yogurt, like all of these things. You can even put it in your coffee because it's quite flavorless. And just a few little bonus superfoods to mention before I go, a cacao or dark chocolate. Fantastic for low mood pms because what it's doing is it's giving us some antioxidants, but also magnesium. PMS is often linked with a magnesium deficiency. So sometimes if we low in magnesium, we might crave that chocolate. But really it's the magnesium that our body's craving. Very antioxidant rich. And with cacao. I say cacao and not cocoa because we're looking for the raw cacao form. It's much better quality than cocoa.
[00:25:18] And if you're looking at dark chocolate, you want at least 72% plus dark chocolate or cacao.
[00:25:25] Anything below that will have a little bit too much dairy, a little bit too much sugar in it. So go for the high percentages if you can. 90% is very bitter, but also very, very rich in cacao.
[00:25:37] Another one is bone broth or collagen.
[00:25:40] Fantastic for the gut because it helps repair the gut walls, helps with the elasticity of the skin and joint health.
[00:25:47] With my husband and his ruptured Achilles this week I made a nice chicken soup, good old grandma's chicken soup. I mashed the bones, I add apple cider vinegar into it so I can mash the bones and that releases a lot of the collagen from the bo what I've been feeding him this week, because let's face it, food is medicine. And so hopefully that's going to help his Achilles tendon repair a bit faster because it's quite a slow heal, unfortunately.
[00:26:16] Also another couple are seaweed, great for iodine intake, which is also really important for thyroid health. And another one is apple cider vinegar.
[00:26:25] Can be really good, can help with reflux, it can help with weight loss, it helps us digest foods easier, it can help lower glucose spikes as well.
[00:26:36] So there's a few, there's quite a few there, actually.
[00:26:39] But I don't want you to sort of overthink it. I think, oh, my God, I'm not adding any of these foods to my diet. Just think about building up your pantry over time. I've got lot, I've got most of these, I've got all of these things in my pantry, but I certainly didn't go out and shop for them all in one go. It's over the years. This is just some of the staples that I use time and time again.
[00:26:59] So build up your pantry over time with these little healthy additions and maybe, maybe search out a few new recipes. There's so many recipes on the website in the members hub. We've got things like, yeah, chia seed puddings, chia jams. I've got a lovely beet and quinoa salad, matcha oats. You can match your oats and your matcha together.
[00:27:19] Detox shots, which is a little juice that you can make. And you just have a little shot in the morning. It's got ginger and beetroot and lemon. All these wonderful things in there that's gonna really get your liver working well for the day.
[00:27:32] So your mission this week is to choose just two of these superfoods and commit to using them daily.
[00:27:38] It seems a lot less overwhelming when you just try a couple of things at a time.
[00:27:44] Don't buy 25 powders, you never open. Just pick a couple of things that you think you're going to really enjoy and start there. Let me know if you do add any new superfoods to your diet this week. I'd be really interested to see what you think of it and maybe over time how you're feeling. If you notice any difference in your energy and your mood and your gut health, I'd love to hear from you. So once again, have a wonderful week, go well and I look forward to chatting again next week.
