Meant to Move Episode #16
Summary:
In this engaging and practical episode, Michael Fisher returns to discuss everyday strategies for improving nutrition through simple, enjoyable food swaps and additions. He shares insights on incorporating high-fibre foods like black beans and papadums, the micronutrient power of Brazil and tree nuts, and the cancer-preventative potential of mushrooms. The episode emphasizes adding nutritious foods rather than restricting favorites, like daily chocolate. Michael also highlights how food prep, variety, and nutrient timing (e.g., caffeine’s effect on iron absorption) can support health goals. Listeners are encouraged to focus on sustainable, joyful eating for long-term well-being.
Transcript:
Vanessa Leone (00:01)
Hello to my amazing husband, partner, amazing man sitting in the other room. Hello.
Michael (00:09)
Hello, I’m not your husband just yet.
Vanessa Leone (00:11)
Maybe when this episode lands, welcome for those coming back. You’re, this is your number two episode. had a lot of feedback from friends, from family, from people about your episode in particular. Good feedback. And I think one of the big take homes for a lot of people was hearing you talk so much about fibre, which is super important.
Michael (00:29)
a lot of feedback.
Vanessa Leone (00:41)
You’ve been dubbed now the fibre king. And yeah, I know it’s important. And so what I want to do, what I want to start with today is you have all of these incredible, super interesting bits of information that you have in your head that we’ve read in books that you actually put into practice daily. And we’ve created a bit of a list. Let’s start going into some things that people can do.
day to day to add more nutrition or add more benefit from maybe the nutrition they’re already getting into their life. So let’s launch in. Where are we going to start?
Michael (01:24)
Well, the first one I would not say would be adding more nutrition if I’m completely honest with you. But it has a lot of joy for me personally and you too, I think. When you buy the little small pappadams, you can buy them at like the big supermarket so I won’t name, you know who they are, those people that I don’t really like. There’s particularly a brand called Maharaja’s Choice. They don’t sponsor me if they want to, I’m all for it.
the little pappadams and you microwave them for like a minute to a minute and a half and they come out like perfectly crispy and like having six of them is like 50 cals and six of them is quite a lot. and they just, it’s just like a great like textural thing tastes really good. Ah, they’re gluten free cause they’re made from lentils as well. So that’s always positive. Ah, that doesn’t mean they’re high fibre though, cause they’re like cold but it doesn’t all sorts, but still point is they are.
very delicious and accessible and like price points accessible as well. that’s the first thing. I mean, like we had them last night, for example, we had like a hummus dish with like duck and a few other bits and pieces and instead of having bread with it, because necessarily gluten during the week, we had those with it and like a big piece of Lebanese bread is great. I would absolutely smash it happily daily.
But obviously there’s a big difference in like how much food you’re getting, how much energy, calorie, macro, whatever you you refer to it in this case, how much you’re getting from it.
Vanessa Leone (02:53)
Yeah, I think that’s a really good starting point because I like how you mentioned it’s joy as well, like food is joy and it’s important to make swaps for food that are actually like tasty, you know what I mean? Not just for the sake of swapping out something like great, it’s nutritious, it’s more nutritious or less nutritious or whatever, but tasty is super important. So like if someone was saying, okay, Michael, I’m going to get these pappadams and have them in the pantry.
What else would I do with them, so I don’t make a lot of Indian curry? I know you’re not going to get along with that person. But if they don’t cook a lot of curry at home, what else would you use a pappadum for?
Michael (03:29)
Yeah, don’t ask me.
Well, like said, in place of like a corn chip or a bread or something. like, to be fair credit, which you Adam Liao, although he gives talks on eating healthy. I don’t know how that happens. Just, I like you Adam Liao, but no more health food talk, please. You don’t know what you’re talking about. And you certainly don’t practice it. He made like nachos out of it, which I thought was actually really clever. So he microwaved a bunch of them first and then he just put like nacho topping on it.
top of them. And just get into context, like the chips in nachos are delicious, but they’re usually deep fried. So they’re usually a lot higher density of macros. So that’s more like if you wanted to have it like on a normal day, rather than like if you’re out with, if you’re like out with friends, having people over, like make something like with corn chips or whatever. It doesn’t mean you can’t make it without with something different too, but yeah. So just in places like bread, can crush them like you can microwave them, crush them up.
chuck them on top of things just for texture and that too. The taste is pretty neutral. So I mean, really, I mean, I’ve had them with just like, I’ve just had them with like Vegemite on them before and they’re rad, like so. Yeah, use your imagination.
Vanessa Leone (04:39)
I think that’s a really fun one to start with because it’s a really good swap. Yeah, they’re really good. So check them out. If you do or don’t like bread, then I think that they’re a really good swap for good texture. Let’s continue with our list. What’s next up?
Michael (04:54)
My mouth’s watering, but going.
So just like some things about nutrition, this is what I learned this one recently that black beans are more polyphenols and like the higher polyphenol content than blueberries, which is kind of mind blowing. You’re seeing is like berries are rightfully seen as like this super food, crazy healthy and all that sort of stuff. But like the cost ratio of blueberries to black beans and even like if you’re getting dried black beans, cheaper still.
is crazy and then obviously like black beans are very high fibre, they’re a source of protein as well. You’d want to have them with another protein source to complete the amino acid profile. So like in South and Central America there’s a lot of black beans and rice together that actually has a complete amino acid profile. You could do it otherwise too but just as an example you see that as like a staple in a lot of their meals and there’s good reason for it. And they’re tasty.
Vanessa Leone (06:02)
That’s a cool…yeah.
You mentioned dried there, and I think at the moment everyone’s talking about cost. When people look at dried beans, they often think, there’s so much effort, like, ugh, I can’t be bothered. How do you get people around that barrier of, dried beans aren’t that hard, what do you have to do to a black bean to get it from a dried state to rice and beans?
Michael (06:29)
You can cook them with dried beans without soaking them. They just take a lot longer. Or you can do them with baking soda in there too. Or you can do them in an instant pot like a pressure cooker. All those things are okay, but you’re better off just if you’re relatively planned with your eating like the day before you soak them overnight and they’ll take about 45 minutes to cook till they’re soft. So it’s not like you have to like stand there and stir them. Get them up to temp, chuck them in on it.
chuck a timer of 45 minutes, come back, drain them. Yeah, it’s a big, and it’s actually, more digestible if you soak them as well. And the benefit of not getting tins, tins fine, tins great, is tin are all lined with plastic and if you see any dents in your tins, you’re getting a ton more microplastics every time you eat. That’s very well proven.
Vanessa Leone (07:05)
Yeah, I was dubious at first about dried beans just because again, it did sound like such an effort, you really do. I mean, obviously you make it easy. You weigh them out. You soak them overnight. You’re very good at remembering.
Michael (07:40)
I was about to say, it’s pretty, well,
you get someone that makes them for you. That’s how you make it easier. So just for context, everyone about Vanessa, she’s like, you know, it’s so easy to do these things. And I’m like, yeah, because I do them for you, but that’s cool.
Vanessa Leone (07:44)
He does, he does all of these things for me. I think everybody knows I say it. However, what I am trying to illustrate is that, you know, leaving it, even in the morning, like, you you go to work and you know, you’re going to cook them at night before you head out for work. You just chuck them in some water. They’re soaked, they’re soaked all day and then they should prepare like a lot easier that night. And it’s not just black beans that are.
Super incredible for you. Obviously you’re talking about the polyphenols from black beans to blueberries. I mean, like up on our shelf there, how many different types of dried beans do you think there are?
Michael (08:33)
There’d be about, there’s more than 10 and there’s more in the cupboard as well. And they keep for so long without losing much nutritional content as well. So yeah, they’re just like super handy to have around. Cause like I said, they’re quite a decent source of protein provided you put them with something else. So even if you just wanted to make it, even if you’re scared of carbohydrates, which is a different matter, you can make a like,
Yeah, a bean something with beans like a dahl or whatever and then just chuck some yogurt through towards the end mix it through and that’ll completely amino acid profile as well. So like I like I’m basically like being a medium radicalized. I still eat quite a bit of meat too, by the way. I’m not someone who’s like don’t eat meat, don’t eat dairy because yeah, anyway.
Vanessa Leone (09:11)
No, and I think this is, there’s quite a divide of, you know, people who eat meat or eat dairy products. It’s almost like, okay, I’m then not going to have a look at these plant-based options, which are so incredibly like good for me. And like you said, complete the meal. Dried beans, you just said beans and rice. So if someone was looking to
increase their nutrition? Do you recommend like, you know, half beans, half rice when they’re serving like their dinner up or something like that? Is that a good swap? you think?
Michael (10:03)
Yeah, because you’d get more from the beans because you’d get more lot more fibre and you’d get a lot more protein and you’ll get different. You get more and different micronutrients from the beans as well It’s just yeah black beans was the example I gave first up because that still blows my mind a bit about the polyphenols but Just surround just like pretty much all beans are healthy Well, they all are it’s just there’s people talking about like the anti nutrients and stuff in them,
which is a big rabbit hole, but basically soaking them more or less gets rid of that completely. And there’s still more advantages based off, well, thousands of years of people eating them and science to eating them with their anti-nutrients as they’re called, which they’re not really. There’s still more benefits to eating them than not eating them, as in like with all the fibre and proteins and other micronutrients in there.
Vanessa Leone (10:55)
Yeah.
Yeah, cool. Okay, beans are on the list. What do we got next?
Michael (11:03)
So to get your recommended daily intake of selenium, eating two Brazil nuts. This is yeah, exactly right. And it’s delicious too. And like I know that I mean, they’re on the more expensive side of some of the nuts, but you can get them again from your favourite supermarkets for the equivalent of about 30 bucks a kilo, 32 bucks a kilo, which isn’t too bad. And if you’re having two a day, I can say something crazy about
my macros and weigh all my food, depending on the size, blah, blah, blah. It’s like six to nine grams of them. So it’s not a big investment. Just keep them in an airtight container. And yeah, like I said, they’re delicious. You can eat them by themselves or you can just crush them up, put them over something else too. You can have more than two if you want to as well. Obviously, it’s not like they’re bad for you.
Vanessa Leone (11:39)
Yeah, they’re like one of the single biggest sources of selenium in terms of food that you can eat in like one go, which is really cool. Anyone who has thyroid issues, which is why I pointed at myself, they’re incredibly great for thyroid issues, specifically Hashimoto’s autoimmune. And I think that, you know, you’re talking about these micronutrients now, like last time we talked about macronutrients and, and, you know, carbs and fat and protein.
Michael (12:24)
And fibre.
Vanessa Leone (12:24)
but with and fibre, the new, the new macronutrient.
But you know, these little micronutrients get talked about, we don’t, we don’t really hear about really cool ways to add them into our diet. And quite literally before dinner, I’ll just open up the jar, grab out two Brazil nuts and just munch on them all throughout the day or whatever it is. And it’s really, it’s just such an easy add to your, to what you’re doing.
Michael (12:50)
And the keyword there is add as well. like I said, they’re tasty. I guess the old caveat, if you’re allergic to them, don’t do it, but that’s your own responsibility to like figure that out and know that kind of stuff. I mean, cause like, even like that, I’ll use this to go into the next one because like, there’s quite a bit of like strong research to say that eating walnuts specifically or any tree nuts, 28 grams of, so one ounce in the US terms.
Daily during chemo treatment actually like greatly lowers mortality risk rate stuff like that. Why that’s not just fucking a common knowledge and it should be fucking common knowledge the way I’m saying that because like if you can lower someone’s risk of dying during chemotherapy or At least getting a better outcome if they don’t pass like It seems so stupid. It’s such a low cost.
Vanessa Leone (13:46)
Low risk.
Michael (13:47)
Yeah, like yeah and like even before I just double checked it like online before and it was quite funny because it was like It was there was quite strong warnings about make sure that the patient’s not allergic and I’m like fuck me like yes, obviously. But if they’ve got cancer like Jesus Christ, maybe we should be like looking at like warning if they’re not allergic, give this to them every single day. This is great for them. It’s just anyway, it’s it’s just the language around. quite interesting
But yeah, basically short version is walnuts specifically, but tree nuts in general are great for your health generally anyway, but particularly during chemo treatment, like it was just mind blowing. I remember listening to a podcast about it quite a while ago and I was just like, I was blown away that it’s a lot more widespread known, particularly most med pros, they’re not even very aware of it, which is like criminal to me.
Vanessa Leone (14:37)
Yeah, it seems bizarre that something so simple can have such a passive influence. if we know that it has an influence during your cancer treatment, you have to assume it goes a long way in terms of prevention as well, in terms of what it’s doing inside you biochemically to help heal things in your body that we don’t really know the true function and source of, but you can kind of make that assumption.
Michael (15:09)
Think about it like this. I genuinely do not quite remember what the percentage was in like dropping mortality rate. But if a pharma company came out with a drug that was like, you take this during chemo in conjunction with the other treatment, it’ll drop your mortality risk by 10%. Doctors will be falling over themselves to give it to patients. And so what I’m trying to get at here is like,
It’s just that it’s not common knowledge because basically it’s not an easy way to make money for people. Unfortunately, that’s probably a different podcast. But anyway, don’t start me on that road. Yeah, but basically what I’m trying to get at is like this. It’s such a low cost low. It’s base. It’s really no risk unless somebody has an allergy. And again, like if you’re an adult, that’s your that’s your problem. We have to know that if you don’t know that by the time you’re an adult, then that’s your problem. I’m sorry. Like you would know it by then. You think so.
Yeah, I think that’s a really great one just knowing things like that. So and just like around the 28 gram thing, because it’s not a huge dose. I mean, I understand around chemo, there’s like I have technically haven’t had to go through anything like that, that people can find appetite a problem. So that would probably be the only real issue around that is that if people are struggling to eat, they probably don’t want to just ram walnuts in. But you never know. I guess if you’re telling people that they have such a great potential benefit to them, they may want to.
Vanessa Leone (16:37)
Let’s link this tree nut benefit back to the beans, because you talked about completing this amino acid profile. If we started adding, you know, sprinkling of these Brazil nuts or tree nuts on top of our beans and rice now, how is that helping our overall meal in terms of balance?
Michael (17:00)
Well, you’re going to be adding by adding the, so for example, the tree nuts, you’re to be adding fats and protein and fibre more fat than anything. It’s not a huge amount of protein. It’s not a huge amount of fibre, but still you’re just adding good things to your meal and you’re adding loads of micronutrients again with the beans, obviously lots of fibre, lots of protein and they bulk your meal out nicely as well. And again, on the fibre thing, it’ll help you poo really nicely.
You eat beans most days or every day. It’s just a hell of a lot better when you’re in the bathroom, basically. And yeah, Well, it’s important to know, right? Because there’s some crazy percent of the population that are constipated. And it’s because everyone doesn’t, well, not everyone, it’s unfair.
Vanessa Leone (17:37)
We won’t go down that rabbit hole down this podcast, but that’s cool. It is.
Michael (17:56)
Most people don’t eat anywhere near enough fibre or just eat a healthy diet.
Vanessa Leone (18:01)
Yeah. Yeah. So it’s cool. We’re starting to build this kind of day of how we can add in all of these cool things in. What’s, what’s the next couple on our list?
Michael (18:10)
All right, so mushrooms help prevent breast cancer. The dosage, think, it was like 40 or 50 grams a day, and it can be like white button mushrooms. It can be pretty much any edible mushroom that’s not poisonous. Just again, that’s pretty obvious, but yeah, I I guess you’d prevent any sort of cancer if you ate death cap mushrooms. anyway, yeah, that’s not health advice, I wouldn’t think, but yeah.
Vanessa Leone (18:26)
Don’t do that, not a recommendation.
Michael (18:40)
So it’s like, I remember listening to it. It’s basically the equivalent of eating two mushrooms. And so it’s easy enough to like, you know, if you’re making, I guess, Bolognese or something, chuck in a big handful of shredded up mushrooms, you chuck them in curries, whatever, like, whatever. Like, I mean, you can just eat them raw too, if you want to. Or can, you can slice them really thin and marinate them raw and chuck them in salads. They go really nice like that, if you want to add them in. But like, again, like,
Like mushrooms are one of those things like whenever there’s a study on them they’re like it’s good for this now too and something really weird mushrooms are closer to our physiology genetically than like apes and monkeys and stuff are just as a random fact which is possibly why they’re so healthy for us something to do with that
Vanessa Leone (19:28)
Yeah, there’s also that added weird interesting benefit that if you leave your mushrooms out in the sun or out during the day, they collect vitamin D. So if you’re vitamin D deficient, you can then obtain this vitamin D from the mushrooms in the sun. That’s wild to me. That’s so cool.
Michael (19:47)
Yeah, cinnamon on a window sill and they’ll absorb vitamin D. Yeah, which is really cool, right? And again, like you said, like it’s just one of those easy ways to get vitamin D. And like specifically if you’re like really light skinned like myself and you basically have to fear the sun in this country now. Or if you’re particularly dark skinned and it’s harder for you to get enough sun, especially, I mean, you think like in the UK, particularly where there’s a lot less sunlight and things like that.
People are generally a lot nicer in summer in the UK because they’re not as vitamin D deficient. It’s like an actual thing. yeah, anyway, so easy way to get more vitamin D. There’s naturally occurring vitamin D in them anyway, in them being mushrooms and then, yeah, sitting them in the sun, they absorb more.
Vanessa Leone (20:24)
Yeah, these are cool. like these. All right. Keep going.
Michael (20:38)
Cool.
Nigella seeds really helpful for normal thyroid function. So again, this was one I actually found when I was doing some like reading into how I could help you diet wise with your Hashimoto’s. so Nigella, like you can buy Nigella seed extracts and that, but like just buy Nigella seeds. They’re goddamn delicious. I mean, they’re a little bit on the more expensive side, but like they last like you don’t need tons of them.
It’s also known as a black human, which it’s not human at all, obviously. I say obviously, but to me it is. And I can’t quite think of the Hindi name for it. I know the Hindi name for a lot of spices.
Vanessa Leone (21:20)
Yeah, there was another name for them as well that at one stage we got a bit confused when we were looking at this research, but if anyone does get confused, come back and ask. But it’s definitely Nigella seeds. That’s the most common name.
Michael (21:31)
Yeah, no, Joe, think.
Yeah, yeah. So and you can just basically you can add them at the start of like in oil with like a curry, you can sprinkle them over salads at the end. You often you not often, but you see them a bit like sprinkle on top of bread and crackers sometimes before they’re baked. But yeah, just another nice, easy one. I think it’s about equivalent of a teaspoon from memory. Again, I don’t remember exact dosages of all these things, but.
It’s more about for me like holistically looking at trying to just get more good things into your diet rather than going, I need to have like a whole teaspoon of Nigella seeds today or I’ve not helped my thyroid or something because that’s not helpful.
Vanessa Leone (22:01)
Yeah. Yeah. A hundred percent. No, I think you make a really relevant point there. It’s like, we’re not telling you these things so that you then feel ashamed or deficient. We’re utilizing these things as ways that can make your life better really easily that you can just implement without too many barriers. And that’s kind of the point of this, right?
Michael (22:32)
Yeah, and like for example, we were talking about like how many different beans we had earlier and like spice and even like how many spices like by adding more variety to your diet, even if it’s like you might get black beans next week, you might get kidney beans and chickpeas, whatever. If you’re doing that, like rotating that weekly, it’s going to be beneficial to your gut bacteria as well. And it’s going to keep it interesting for you and you can try more things, see what you like. Same with spices, same kind of thing. But yeah.
Next one. So vitamin C Which is Okay, so oranges are like known as like the king vitamin 0f C far from it Three foods that always immediately come to mind for me to have a lot more than it like a lot lot more are red peppers or capsicums broccoli, broccoli’s got about twice the amount of an orange and Kiwi fruits as well, I think
They’ve got more than double the amount and soda and the red peppers do as well further. So, um, yeah, that’s just one of those things. Vitamin C just had like good PR, I guess, because like, I know it’s probably something to do with like, cause you know how orange juice is like seen as breakfast staple. It’s probably something to do with all the ad campaigns in like however long ago when that became popularized. So it’s just more to think about that. And like, so some of the things like, you know, everyone knows vitamin C is good for you basically like, oh, it’s going to stop me getting sick or whatever.
So what vitamin vitamin C is useful for cutting caffeine half-life So there’s a bit of there’s actually conflicting research on that and whether or not that’s a true thing But from personal experience because I am a coffee wanker, I go to like cuppings and coffee events and they usually at night And if I’m drinking coffee, it like usually I don’t drink caffeine. I try not to drink caffeine after midday
But if I go to something like that where I know I’m going to have caffeine, I will have something that’s very vitamin C rich on the hand to eat when I’m on the way home. So, like often I’ll go to like cuppings at my favourite coffee place. Diggy Doo’s I’ll just give him a shout out because I’m the best, the best in Sydney. And I’ll eat just like a raw red capsicum when I’m leaving, walking back to the bus and everyone looks at you weird, like eating like an apple.
Or you can eat like a pun of strawberries, raspberries as well for another couple of examples, things that may be a bit more palatable people, like they’re just going to walk along eating it. I mean, you can just eat raw broccoli too, but that’s a bit less fun. And then with caffeine as well. So with, sorry, on the caffeine thing, that actually lowers your iron and creatine absorption.
So that’s to keep in mind around like when you’re having caffeine specifically for taking creatine or if you’re iron deficient or worried about iron deficiency and vitamin C actually helps absorb iron as well.
Vanessa Leone (25:30)
Yeah, it’s pretty interesting when we start to go down these nutrients that I suppose enhance or can limit or block uptake of other nutrients. And I think this is a really cool one, like caffeine limits iron, which for me was a really big one. I am definitely on consistently on the lower end of iron, always potentially boarding on anaemic.
And, you know, for me to take in that, that iron rich food, it’s really important that I like, have to space out my caffeine with it. Otherwise it’s almost negligible. Like I’m making all of this effort to eat healthy and eat well. And if I have a coffee, cause I really enjoy it, but if I have a coffee with it, I’m blocking the absorption of some of it. So, I think it’s really good to know.
how potentially some of these things can interact. That’s probably one good example and I’m sure we could find more for another podcast. But I really love showing people that, know, like even if you are doing quote unquote, all the right things, sometimes you do have to take it to that nth degree and find out things like, my caffeine’s blocking my iron uptake or something like that, that then really helps you get over the line to start feeling better or doing things better in your own life as well, which is why I think little bits of these kinds of information are so helpful for people because the more you hear it as well, then the more you can really absorb it and learn.
Michael (27:10)
Yeah, and just on that, like specifically around the iron absorption, the half-life of caffeine is somewhere between 8 and 12 hours, depending on the person. So it’s just important to know that kind of stuff. So it stays in your system up to that long. So not only from a sleep perspective, but like if from the iron perspective. So like, for example, if you’re eating dinner at 6 p.m. and like your iron deficiency, you’re like, you know, I’ll have red meat X amount of times a week for dinner.
you should probably really have your last bit of caffeine at 10 a.m. just to be a bit safer. Like, and it doesn’t mean you don’t absorb any of the iron, it’s just to mean you absorb less. And yeah, and like creatine, I specifically mentioned as well, because like creatine people, I think classically associate that with like bodybuilding and athletes and stuff, but like, that’s got a crazy amount of health benefits. And I think I even mentioned on the last podcast, can’t quite remember, but like,
It’s one of, is the most studied supplement and it’s like great for like dementia and the research you’re showing now. It can be good for like multiple sclerosis, obviously building muscle, which is great too, which is like not only it looks good, but also long term like longevity. Yeah, that’s right. That was another one. Yeah. So there’s tons. It’s like, it’s turning into like, almost like with turmeric every time it’s studied, they’re like, cool. It’s good for this we didn’t.
Vanessa Leone (28:24)
Women in menopause? Like symptoms?
Michael (28:35)
mean to find that but we just did. Yeah, so that would be another thing just like creatine and creatine monohydrate is the best form of it. It is the cheapest form of it. All the other ones are a load of crap. They’re they’re going to be as bioavailable or less bioavailable and they’re going to be more expensive.
Vanessa Leone (28:54)
Yeah. And I think you wanted to make this point as well. like quite a few of, you know, either energy drinks or perhaps maybe like creatine supplements that have like cool flavours or whatever actually have this negating effect where they have caffeine in it. And so you’re seeing this kind of mismatch of what you’re actually talking about of the supplement itself, having the blocker inside it when you’re trying to promote a creatine or something like that. Isn’t that right?
Michael (29:23)
Yeah, pre-workouts are the ones that that other one I have a problem with that. So as somebody who used to like take pre-workouts and all that sort of stuff, a lot of them have creatine in there and they just put it on there because it looks sexy. It’s another ingredient. So like they all have an ingredient list as long as your arm or not all of them, but a lot of them do. And they’ve got like 300 milligrams of caffeine in there. A lot of them, which is like, and again, I am not hating on caffeine. I fucking love coffee. Like caffeine’s great.
Caffeine is great for performance in the gym or sport and stuff too. But it’s like when you’re adding then creatine to that as well, you’re just like, and it’s like usually some crappy dose too. It’s like 500 milligram or a gram. So part of it is it fills it out. It looks good on there and it’s cheap. And then you’re going to absorb maybe half of it anyway. And like therapeutic dosing is a lot higher than that.
You’d be looking at like, well, recently around brain health, it’s like 10 grams a day. yeah, anyway, point being, there’s a lot of particularly in the supplement and like bodybuilding supplement industry. Unfortunately, there’s a lot of fluff. There’s a lot of fluff in all the supplement industry. There’s a lot of fluff in the medical industry too. So I’m not hating on supplements either. I quite like supplements depending on what they are. But yeah.
Vanessa Leone (30:53)
I think the creatine, I’ve recommended many, many, many clients to go on it now. And like you said, the amount of research that’s on it is incredible. The safety of it is incredible. It’s like one of the most low risk supplements you could take and any of the adverse risks that they had potentially thought.
that creatine had only really occur if you have pre-existing conditions, which again is your responsibility to know and to find out about and make sure that you’re not having these contraindications. So always ask your medical professional when you’re starting any kind of supplementation, particularly if you do have existing medical conditions. Yeah.
Michael (31:34)
Yeah, specifically kidney or your own creatine. Sorry, just on that. just have a quote. Like I still remember years ago when I was working for a pharma company still and I went into a particular customer, like I was a sales rep store and I was saying something about taking creatine and they’re like, Oh, be really careful. It can be really bad for your kidneys. And I’m thinking like, fuck me. I’m in a pharmacy. Like look at your dispensary.
Everything’s bad for people in there and like yeah, some of it’s great short-term But like I’m just like the amount of side effects and those kind of things and then people get scared off by a supplement That’s overwhelmingly safe and overwhelmingly extremely well researched. It’s yeah, it’s just kind of crazy. It was like I was saying about the walnuts thing earlier, too It’s like careful don’t have an allergy and it’s like well, yeah, I mean That’s pretty I would have thought that like if a med pros looking into this like who’s giving someone chemotherapy. They should probably be asking things like do you have an allergy to certain things but or anyway but yeah sorry just that reminded me of that.
Vanessa Leone (32:31)
No, it’s very interesting. And like you said recently, I’ve upped the dose. we’re gonna, I’m gonna do a little experiment of myself. I’m gonna keep up my 10 gram dose for the next little while. Because what I’ve also found with this 10 gram dose is that it’s really reduced any like gastrointestinal, you know, just kind of like fluctuations, I suppose that you get,
because I used to have endo and female hormonal health and all of these kinds of things. That one was… Yes, yes, thank you. And that’s been really fascinating to me, but I want to make sure that I’m not dreaming it. So I will cut the dose back down, check it out, see what happens. if it does have a…
Michael (33:10)
Endoping endodermatosis,
Vanessa Leone (33:27)
beneficial gut effect. Like that’s super cool. Like it’s really interesting and it has been shown to have these effects for your gut as well. like stuff like that just really fascinates me because you know, you don’t seem to be getting too much of an effect on that. So it depends on the person as well, like how it can really affect your body. Like it might say it does something on the label, but it still can have a personal effect on you as well. I think that’s important to remember.
Michael (33:54)
Yeah, well, I suppose they’re going to react differently to the same things. But yeah, I mean, that’s super interesting around the gut, like the gastric side of it. Because if it’s helping with that, that’s obviously a big thing, even just for like lifestyle comfort and that for a lot of people.
Vanessa Leone (34:13)
Yeah, for sure. Now I think those are our big tips for this week. What I thought we could also talk about, you know, we’re talking about adding in, you know, nutrition, nutrition, let’s try that one again. We’re talking about adding a little bit more nutrition into your day, you know, some tasty things as well. You ensure.
before we talk about food prep, but you ensure that you have something that you really love every day. Isn’t that right?
Michael (34:47)
Yeah, chocolate. unless I actually don’t feel like it, which is fairly rare, I will make sure I have some degree of chocolate every single day. We discussed this a little bit on the last podcast about how I was having like, Lindt and peanut butter, but basically they turned into the devil. Are they a big corporate and they lie about what’s in there. So just be aware of that. Looking to it. If you want to like heavy metals and stuff at above safe levels.
But like for example this morning after my breakfast, like I got given some Cadbury favourites a while ago. So I just had like a little, dairy milk chocolate one. Cause I was like, yep, I want that. So I just had one and for calorie load, it’s like 68 cals and it just scratches, it just like scratches that little itch of like, Ooh, now I’ve had chocolate today. And then like in my head, it’s like, I’ve had chocolate. Great. So, and it’s just something I really enjoy. So another way I get it is like,
Sometimes I’ll mix just like unsweetened cocoa powder with coconut water and like cinnamon if I feel like any or any other spices and if I feel like which is most of the time for me, you don’t need to add those. But it’s just like basically it’s just like a very chocolatey kind of obviously baby coconuty a drink or I’ll make my hot chocolates from scratch which means I’ll put cocoa and cacao along with some spices and like a teaspoon of sugar in it and then I’ll just like
Mix all that up with some really hot water and then just frost some milk on the coffee machine. So there’s just ways to get chocolate in every single day and like just enjoy it and like, and that’s the important thing. And like if you’re having like cocoa and cacao, like I like a mixture or even just cocoa, you’re getting more fibre in there too. They’re actually really good source of fibre.
Not like when you’ve got like Cadbury Dairy Milk chocolate is not a good source of fibre.
But like just for clarity, it’s delicious though. I mean, I actually tend to gravitate towards much, much darker chocolate, like 70, 80, 90%, more towards the 90. But I do like, when I have milk chocolate now and again, it’s like heroin as well. So this is like intensely sweet hit. yeah, but it’s just something that I really enjoy, so I make sure I have it every day.
Vanessa Leone (36:57)
I think that that’s really important as well. The theme today is what can you add rather than what can you take away because traditionally diet culture is about removal. It’s about not doing things and we know that that doesn’t really work and it has such a detrimental effect and it can produce a lot of these shame and guilt feelings in people when they remove it and then they say they relapse and I say that in inverted commas because they want the things.
that make them happy. Food makes you happy, it’s comfort, it’s social. And so if you need to learn control over certain foods because they have control over you, including them in really small amounts throughout your day, every day, so that it doesn’t have so much power over you is really something that can be really, really beneficial for you in the long term. And I just want to put in there that coconut and chocolate water.
coconut water and chocolate thing that you make is so bloody delicious. It’s so good, honestly, like should try it. It’s so good.
Michael (38:05)
Yeah, it’s like weirdly delicious. It’s like one of those things
you haven’t you’re like, wow. And yeah, no, I agree on that. Like, and end, if it’s something like fried chicken, don’t have that every day. Like, yeah, like we do it within reason, like, but haven’t it but like, have it more often. Or, or have like, and had just have small serves of it. And just, just figure out what works for you. And like,
Once you get past that, like, letting it control you that you were mentioning, it becomes much easier to say no to like huge amounts of it at a time because you learn to satisfy it, like you learn satisfaction from it. And like also when you have it, it’s so much more enjoyable than it was previously. Whereas like previously you might scoff it down and like, like I can tell you that from absolute like personal experience.
Like scoffing whole loads of chocolate and like you can’t eat it fast enough before you know it you like how the fuck did I just eat a block of chocolate or like a jar of like chocolate covered fucking almonds like which I would eat over like Like a block of 100 gram Lindt chocolate I used to get it that’d be like five sittings So like five days like 20 grams a day and like it’s more than enough if you sit down and enjoy it. So
Um, yeah, just again, it takes away that control and it actually, find it’s up my enjoyment of it as well. Quite a lot.
Vanessa Leone (39:39)
Yeah, that’s a really good point. No, thank you. Thanks for sharing that. That’s awesome. For the last five, 10 minutes, let’s talk about how to prepare to food prep, because I think we get this message quite a lot from
know, health advocates and influencers and a whole bunch of people were doing food prep. We recommend it. Food prep is incredibly helpful. It’s incredibly useful. But I think that there’s a couple of ways to ensure that people are prepared enough that they have the right things in their house to make food prep easier for them. Where do you think we should start with this?
Michael (40:26)
Probably having containers. So if you’re doing food prep for two people, from Monday to Friday, just even if, say just like what we do, just your lunch, you will need at least 10 containers and you’ll need more than 10 because you’ll have stuff in the fridge just generally that you’ll put in containers, right? Like recommendation would be glass too, because you don’t want to heat things up in plastic because you get all the microplastics leaching and we all.
kind of keep hearing how bad that is for us, no surprise. Like as a recommendation, again, a plug for a massive company that doesn’t need it, Ikea, because people might think, it’s a big investment, but Ikea, the glass containers are quite cheap. I think they’re about four bucks each, depending on the size, which is very affordable for, think, nearly everyone. And then you can get plastic lids, just don’t leave the lid on when you’re reheating it would be another thing.
But yeah, so basically at least 10 containers if it’s for two people. So that would be the first thing. Something to take like if you’re taking out to work with you or whatever, like something to take it in. Like some sort of lunch bag. Get a Spider-Man lunch box, a lunch bag or something, get something sweet like that, that’s cool. Yeah, my boy Spidey or something or like Pokemon, something cool. yeah, go on, sorry.
Vanessa Leone (41:36)
Yes. f you had a lunchbox, am, I can see it now. You, that’s very, I have a pink sparkly lunchbox for context, everybody, so yes. Yeah. My, my recommendation is, make sure you have enough space in your fridge to stack.
said containers because every Sunday we play fridge Tetris, especially if we’ve just overbought a little bit or if we’ve maybe made extra meals or something like that where we quite literally have to juggle things in the fridge to make sure that they fit. if you have a big family and you have a lot of things in your fridge, that is a barrier to…
food prep. You know what I mean? Like if you can’t fit it in there, that’s, that’s going to be a challenge. The containers are a really, really good one. I’m going to say a sharp knife. Can you talk about why sharp knife is important?
Michael (42:52)
Well, it makes cutting a lot easier. It makes it safer too, despite what some people think. Because a sharp knife is less likely to slip. So that is just very handy. And like you want to make things like food prep as easy as possible. Like I’ll be honest with you, I don’t look forward to doing food prep any week. Like any week I don’t look forward to it. And like even being wilfully unemployed at the moment.
Like I have enough time if I’m like, I’ve got the patience to as well. I could cook myself lunch every single day quite happily, but just having the food prep there is super helpful because it just means I know I’ve got like a meal that’s somewhere in the vicinity. I can tell off my head about 50 grams of protein, about 15 grams of fibre and just has a shit load of veggies in there. And it’s got some nuts and seeds too. It’s got chicken like it’s so it’s a really complete meal.
And it’s actually really tasty as well. And so it’s just a nice easy way for me to get like just about a third of my daily fibre, because I usually eat about 45 to 50 grams of fibre and about just over a third of my daily protein as well. So like it just makes it easier the rest of the day to kind of make things around that that I like a lot too.
Vanessa Leone (44:02)
Yeah. I want to use personal story here. I definitely was the person who said that I needed to eat something different at least every week, if not maybe nearly every day, because I didn’t like eating the same thing every day. I have since changed that we have not changed our food prep recipe for I don’t know how long now, perhaps.
It’s been at least a couple of years, I would say. Our lunch food prep salads has been a staple for us for quite a few years. You know me. How did you help me change my position on this? What did you do? I think you did some things consciously, some things subconsciously.
Michael (44:59)
No, I didn’t. I didn’t very consciously. So we used to actually have two food prep meals. We used to eat four meals a day. Now we eat three. I prefer eating three because it means I can eat bigger meals and bigger meals to me are a lot more fun. But how I changed your mind on it was basically just talking to you about like, well, it’s one meal a day and it’s there for you every single day. So like if you’re at work,
and you think you’re in a rush and you can’t stop to get something or you don’t or you just grab whatever’s there. Like you spend like 20, 25 bucks on that shit that you don’t even like. So it’s a big cost save to begin with. And then as well, like you most mornings you’ll have a different breakfast and most nights you’ll have a different dinner. we’ll have like, I mean, something like dinners we’ll have Monday to Friday. It’ll be three or four different dishes over the five nights.
But then like breakfast, I’ll help you prep them and stuff if you need to take them to work. So it’s just like you can get variety in every other meal of the day. And then on the weekends as well, obviously, like we just, we don’t have anything, we rarely have anything pre-prepped, but it’s not from food prep. It’s just we might be pre-prepped from the day before or something. it’s just a real, and again, like I was just discussing before, just about getting a load of protein, a load of fibre.
and load of veggies all in one go, because that means throughout the day if you get less, it’s less of an issue. Like our salads would have somewhere in the vicinity of five or six serves of veg in there. And you’ll hear different recommended daily’s of five, eight, or 10 plus for fruit and vegetable. I very much subscribe to the 10 plus serves. What is a serve? It is 80 grams raw ballpark. That’s just the easiest way to look at it. So,
like that means over the over a day 10 plus serves is 800 grams of fruit and vegetable which sounds actually like a lot it’s actually not that hard to get um and like and like you don’t have to aim that high aim for five like forgetting five you’re getting more than like a stupid amount of the population like a huge percentage like I think it’s like I think it’s like something like uh the adult population gets like it’s like only like 20% of the people hit the the five are serves of fruit and vegetable a day, which is like unreal.
Vanessa Leone (47:31)
Well, it’s, it ties back in really well with what you said last pod about volume eating in terms of, you know, if you’re having 800 grams of fruit and veg, that’s going to make you feel full. Like, I’m sorry. Like I weigh not that much, but even if you weighed, you know, double me, that’s still a significant amount of food to, to be eating in, in just terms of the actual weight of it in itself. And I think that that’s.
That’s what’s lost on people is when we reduce ourselves to processed food and carbohydrates and processed carbohydrates and all these kinds of convenience foods. Like if you pick up a protein bar, it doesn’t weigh that much and it doesn’t fill you up, but it has more calories in it than a small meal. And, some do, some don’t obviously, but they can have more calories in them than a small meal. But you’re not.
feeling like you’ve eaten that much because you haven’t physically, there’s nothing there to occupy the space of your gut. And that’s where this adding fruits, adding vegetables, adding the 80 grams of one vegetable raw, like that’s, that’s a really significant way to change your lifestyle, your diet, your nutrition all in one go.
Michael (48:51)
The way to look at it as well, so to hit five, that means you need to have one serve at one meal and two serves at the other two, right? Or you could have it five in one. It’s from like, I don’t know if it’s better to spread it out, I’d imagine it would be, but like whatever, better to just get it in. But so you think about it, like if you have for breakfast, like yogurt or something, if you throw in 80, if you throw in a pun of blueberries, that’s 125 grams. So that’s one and half serves right there. And you think about it at lunch. If I don’t know, you have like, it doesn’t matter what you have, but if you have some like shredded cabbage next to it, it’s easy to get like another hundred grams, which is one and a bit. And then at dinner, if you have like a wedge of baked pumpkin, a potato, not a deep fried one, potatoes are excellent for you, leave the skin on them. They get such a bad rap. Eat the skin. And you have a potato.
It’s probably going to be a minimum of 150 grams. So that’s basically two more and you get a big wedge of pumpkin. So another 200 grams. That’s probably what already six, seven serves and it’s having fuck all like it’s not hard to do that. So it’s just about like, don’t think of it as like 10 serves or five serves. I mean, you just, if you have five different vegetables and a piece of fruit, you’re probably going to hit your daily. Like you probably are, or at least get closer to it.
The closer you’re getting to it or above it probably the better as well. So you don’t have to make it perfect from day one, but just try and get a bit more in with like every time you eat just think, okay, how could I add another veggie to this? Like a handful of rocket, a handful of different type of lettuce. I don’t know, like sprinkle some pomegranate seeds if you can be bothered peeling a pomegranate and getting all the arils out. It’s well worth it. I’ve been doing it every week and I’m like, it’s anyway, yeah, it’s great. They’re so tasty on top of things.
Vanessa Leone (50:33)
They’re so tasty, you definitely can say that. I think that that’s all amazingly excellent advice. Is there anything you want to finish on?
Michael (50:53)
No, from fuck Tottenham, 19 losses already this season. Just don’t edit that out.
Vanessa Leone (51:07)
Alright, there was always going to be a football reference. To those of you who have no idea what’s going on, don’t worry. But those of you who do, now you can laugh and follow what he says. Thank you, thanks so much. We’ll definitely get you on next time.
Michael (51:23)
See ya.
Vanessa Leone Movement Therapist 