Business Innovators Radio - That Ain’t My Plate

Episode Date: February 27, 2024

The food pyramid was once the gold standard for nutrition in the US; but as research and observation over time taught us, the pyramid did not serve its purpose. Enter MyPlate in 2011 to reshape food requirements across the nation. Over a decade later, it seems that MyPlate – while closer to correct than the food pyramid – may have still missed the mark.In this episode, Dr. Dan and Angela dig in to the dietary recommendations from the USDA’s MyPlate guidelines. They provide a cautious review, arguing MyPlate makes positive changes from the outdated food pyramid but still promotes questionable advice on grains, dairy, fats, and beverages. As usual, they are dishing out a big helping of knowledge – pull up a chair!To learn more about this and other hot health topics, follow us on social media and subscribe to our WTH podcast. If you have a specific health question or would like to find out if we can help you with a personal health challenge, check out our office page or contact us at 412-369-0400/ [e-mail] always, our mission is to help you Get Healthy and Stay Healthy for a Lifetime!What the Health?!https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/what-the-health/Source: https://businessinnovatorsradio.com/that-aint-my-plate

Welcome to What the Health, where anything health is fair game as we tackle the trends and bust the myths about health and wellness. Here are your hosts, Dr. Dan and Angela Toro. And welcome to another episode of What the Health. I am Dr. Dan here with my co-host. Angela, welcome back, everyone. Got another one here. As you guys know, we're here for informational purposes only and no way offering individualized medical advice. Always consult your trusted health care professional before.

making changes. And this one is, I think today's topic is one that's very, a lot of conflicting information out there. So today we are talking about that ain't my plate. That ain't my plates, yes. So if you're not familiar with what my plate is, I think most people are familiar with the food pyramid. That's like the classic.

I was pictured on the cereal box. It was like the pyramid of the different food groups and kind of this. visualizing for people the quantities in which you should be eating things, the priorities, essentially. Yes, which is always very funny because, you know, what was it, the box? Six to 11 servings at grains, yeah. Right there plastered on the zero box, of course. Which is all sugar.

So anyway. Yeah, so we know there were a lot of issues with the food pyramid, which has been revamped. So they've gotten away from the food pyramid, and they now have what's called my plate. So, again, a different way to visualize it. I think they're going in the right direction, you know, showing on an actual plate. Yes, I think it's definitely an improvement of where the pyramid. Absolutely. But there's still, again, it's there's still just some general recommendations that are out there that we like to touch base on.

Because, again, if you're just kind of blindly following, it's, you know, you could be doing a lot of, a lot of detriment to your health without realizing it. Because you're like, well, I'm, you know, I'm following these guidelines that are saying that I should be doing this. and grains are a big one. So, you know, they're still showing a big portion of, I think it's a quarter, even a little more than a quarter of your plate as being grains. And the recommendation is make half of those grains, whole grains, where we would argue, if you're going to eat any grains, they should be whole grains. And so just, you know, just in there, kind of showing that you need to have grains at every meal, too,

I think becomes sort of a disservice for people. Because, you know, as we know, you can have a big, you know, big salad or, you know, a big plate of, you know, meat and veggies and without having any grains on it and get a complete full and satisfying meal. Well, and I think when you go back to, you know, just the, you know, in nutrition, they talk about a lot of, you know, macros versus micros, you know, the macronutrients being the carbohydrates, the proteins and the fats. and those are essentially the three nutrients that our bodies need to function, you know, in a healthy state.

Note how to use for energy as well as other processes. Energy, you know, the building blocks of cell functions, hormones, you know. So, you know, the breakdown when you look at carbohydrate, protein, and fat, you can look across the literature and there's different arguments on, you know, body types of what you, you know, what percentage you should eat. But at the end of the day, you can get your carbohydrates without eating grains. Yeah. And I think that's kind of, you know, to your point of, you know, the my plate, they're sitting there telling you, well, you should get your, you know, you should get your carbohydrates from your

grains. And it's like, it's just not true. You don't have to. Yeah. You can get them from sweet potatoes or regular potatoes. Vegetables in general. Yeah. Carrots.

Yeah. Your starchier. Yeah. All have good, healthy carbohydrate in them. but they're not. Yeah. Beans are an interesting one. That's the one that goes, it falls in kind of across.

Lagoon. Yeah. Yeah, sort of across the different. That's the other thing, too, is like, we try so hard. The more we know, the more we try to break things down into their parts, right? Carbohydrates, protein fats. But as we know, if you just eat a variety of foods, you're going to get those. And there's foods that encompass.

A lot of them. Yeah. So, yeah, beans, perfect example. You know, they're a protein. Yes. They're a vegetable. and they give you that starchy the the carbohydrate. So it's like, okay, well, so what does that count as one of the each?

Does it count like, how does this? It becomes, we're almost over-complicating what should be fairly simple. Well, and it's just so, you know, when you, again, the more we, you know, look to the stars and, you know, dive into our bodies, it's like the more we don't know, right? Yeah. Yeah. But, you know, again, simplifying it down to, hey, we're going to eat this. you know, normal, healthy, this healthy diet, you know, and getting a good balance in there. And again, it's like without going into the crazy measurement of like, you know, I'm going to

weigh this down to the one gram. Yeah. Again, you know, if you're doing a bodybuilder competition. Oh, yeah. Athlete athletes. Yeah. They have to measure that stuff out. And, you know, that's a very, very elite performance. Yeah, they're the exception.

Not the, except for the rule. But like, you know, the average human being should not have. If you eat, you know, five, ten, twenty more grams of a food one day and then less another day. Like, your body should not shut down. You're not going to put it into the spin cycle of, you know, just. It's when you're overconsuming or underconsuming for long periods. That's where it really becomes the issue. And so again, I think, yeah, people just drive themselves nuts sometimes.

Bananas. Bananas. I just had one. It was delicious. But yeah, yeah, the grains are still. one that, again, they're heading in the right direction, but it's just, it still drives me nuts that they, you know, make half of it whole grains. Like, really, you just shouldn't be the process that we talk about this all the time. The more process that something is, the more detrimental

it's going to be to your health in the long run, because it's just, it's, again, it's taking something away from that. It's natural state that your body knows what to do with, and it's turning it into something that's essentially becoming more of a toxin than a, than a food source for you. Well, and then go down that road for a minute in terms of what is a whole grain. Exactly. Yeah. Because you look on the box and you see, you know, whole wheat. And it's like there only has to be a certain percentage of whole wheat in there for them to label it as a whole, you know, whole wheat or whole, you know, something else.

So, you know, that that's another, you know, major issue in terms of, you know, again, just in terms of labeling and, you know, for people to truly understand. And what, you know, well, this says whole, you know, whole wheat bread. Oh, I know. Well, we, yeah. It's terrible. We talk about that all the time. The labels, like the, the quote unquote, healthy labels that get plastered on food to, again, drive consumerism. And, again, we know there's a big swing, you know, into this health kick.

And everybody wants to be healthy, but still wants to enjoy the thing. They don't want to give up everything. Yeah. So, again, the snack food industry is just all over. that. So they plaster, you know, whole grain or gluten-free or, you know, whatever, fat-free, sugar-free. And it's like, but it doesn't. And so people see those buzzwords and go, oh, it's healthy. But they're not realizing. It's, you know, I, it's so artificial it's processed. A friend Mike gave me the other day. He's like, oh, here, try this. It's a protein pops heart.

I'm like, what the heck is a protein popped heart? It tasted exactly like a Pop-Tart. And I was like, So there has to be something in this that, yeah. So it's like, of course, you know, look at the ingredients list and it's got, you know, a thousand things listed on it. And I'm like, yeah, I always tell people, if it tastes too good to be true, it's probably too good to be true. Well, and if you need a biochemistry degree to understand the ingredients on the label, just put it down. Exactly. You know, again, I can pick up a potato. And I know it's a potato.

It's a potato. The banana you just ate. Banana you just ate. Banana. I mean, you know, we won't, we won't get in on this episode on like what those bananas could have sprayed with from a organic perspective. Again, that's a whole other. That's a whole other topic.

But, you know, at least I know that that ingredient. But that kind of comes back to like the whole grain. We're like, what's the whole grain? I should be able to look at it. Okay, that's an oat. The oats, that's, you know, barley. Yeah. If it's a powdered, powdery flowered substance, you don't really know what it is.

It's been broken down. And when it gets broken down, that's, so you hear, you know, when you're talking about carbohydrates, the whole carbohydrates or complex carbohydrates versus refined. Yes. And that's what we mean by refined. It's being broken down. So you can take a potato and chop it up and, you know, saute it. Or you can take a potato and process it and turn it into something else. And at that point, it's like now it's been processed.

It's been refined. The fiber has been removed from it. the nutrients have been removed from it and you're left with literally just the carbohydrates. So the same thing happens with flour. You know, flour, you know, it starts as wheat, which does have, you know, healthy nutrients. Yeah, nutritional value in this country, again, I would argue probably not anymore. But in theory, wheat at one point had good nutritional value to it. But when you, you know, go and you pulverize it and you remove the fiber and the nutrients,

and then what do they do in this country? Then they put all that stuff back in. They fortify it. Yeah. Yeah, so that's the other thing. Again, that just drives me nuts with those recommendations. They're like, you know, if, um, because it even says it says right on there, it's like, if you choose, you know, the refa, the flowers are refined grains or whatever, you know,

make sure you're choosing fortified ones. And it's like, well, or just choose the whole food to begin with that has the nutrients in it. Like we just, it's like, okay, so we take food, we take real food. We'll break it down. We strip it down and then we put the stuff back in and we, We say, okay, that's just as good. Again, you follow the science and, you know, they're putting like these artificial, you know,

vitamins back in, you know, these synthetic vitamins back in. So are they truly? A lot of our bodies cannot process. Yeah. So on a chemical level, it's okay, yes, it's technically. Yes, yes. That. But, yeah, I mean, you go down again, another rabbit hole that's not for today.

Well, it's not for today's discussion, but you go down the idea of, you know, vitamins and, you know, methylation. And just search vitamins and methylation on, you know, on your search engine. And you will just go down a whole path of, you know, the importance. You know, a lot of people have genes that, you know, have, what's what I'm looking for? They have, you know, markers on them or they basically don't have the ability. ability to process certain types of vitamins because they don't have the ability to methylate them to utilize it in the body. So consuming a methylated multivitamin is very, very important.

And again, tons of research out there. I'm not an expert in that, but it just goes to show you that, you know, the quality of what you're consuming is very, very important. And again, the most beneficial way to get that food source to get it. from the actual source, the food. Yeah. Yeah. You know, vegetables, actual whole foods, meat. They're packed full of all of those vitamins.

And, you know, that is your multivitamin. Yes. It's happening. You hear about eating the rainbow, eating an assortment of fruits and vegetables. And, you know, if you eat a variety of foods, you should be really getting that variety of nutrients. But instead, everybody just, you know, eats a crap diet. and then relies on their multivitamin to be the catch-all for everything. Correct.

I mean, you brought up the wheat, but they do the same thing with these protein powders. Oh, yeah. Just like they take, they strip this protein out of a, if it's a way protein, they strip it out of, you know, the milk. If it's a pea protein, they basically, you know, boil down the peas and strip the protein out. And again, you know, we could go down a whole argument of which is better. But, you know, when I stopped doing protein powder, probably over a decade again,

go. I just, I don't consume it. Every now and again, I will do like a detox or a cleanse that I might do it for 30 days. But I just, you know, I've gotten away from it because I'm trying to get, you know, my calories from good healthy food. And I always feel way better if, you know, I'm not doing the, you know, not doing way. Way better. Oh, there you go. I didn't even. It's too early. The coffee's still kicking in. But anyway, um, um, Yeah, it's just, it's amazing. And in fact, I remember when I was in college, our older cousin, Greg, you know, we were weightlifting.

He was a senior. I was a freshman. And we were weightlifting. And he talked about there was a big protein brand at that, at that time called like methoxy something or other. I can't even remember what it was. But he and his friends, but specifically he made the connection just that when he was. that when he was consuming protein or his friends were consuming protein, they'd, you know, again, put a lot of muscle on because they're eating a lot of protein,

but they'd have this little gut that they couldn't get rid of. And he called it methoxygut. And I mean, it literally, like when you look at, you know, when you look at these individuals that aren't training appropriately or are overtraining and just, you know, putting this process stuff in their system, you literally cause liver congestion and we've talked about this. We've had a lot of women with the same thing. Yeah, they're like, you know, because again, and you know, now

protein, you know, used to be marketed towards like, you know, the athlete and the guy, but it's like now again, they're hitting the market for women. And so there's ones being marketed as like, you know, to help with weight loss and gut health and all that. And it's like, we have these women that are like, I'm, I eat so healthy. I just, I can't, again,

I can't lose that little, that little pooch. And it's like, just like, just try. Just cut out your protein powder for a couple weeks and see what happened. And the number one, they're like, oh my gosh, that blow, like immediately went down. Exactly. Exactly right. Yeah, it just congests your body.

Yeah. You know, again, I'm not saying you should never utilize that stuff. Yeah. I mean, again, it's the world we live in. It's like, you know, we talk all the time. That's, you know, it's, it's very, very difficult to be 100% perfect, 100% at the time unless you live on a commune somewhere and grow all your own stuff. But yeah, I mean, we live in a convenient world. There's going to be times you're going to indulge in those conveniences.

But if that's what you're making the base of your diet, then that's what it becomes a problem. Yeah. And then, yeah, in quality, you know, we're talking about that's another coming back to the my plate. They talk about the, it's the fat, the low fat craze that like just won't die is so frustrating. because that, I think that has just been one of the biggest health. Crisis. Yeah, health crises is when that low-fat craze kicked in. That's when we saw a skyrocketing of diabetes, the obesity, heart disease.

It's not the fat. It wasn't. It's the sugar. It's this huge influx in sugar, artificial sweeteners. And because again, there's two things that make food taste good. Fatter sugar, essentially. So if you take the fat out, they have to put something in to make people still want to consume it. And so that's when we saw a huge influx in sugar.

And then it's like, oh, well, maybe we shouldn't be in all this sugar. Oh, that's okay. We have artificial sweeteners. No calories. Okay, but they still taste sweet. So how it's like it has to be doing something. I just saw that commercial the other day of the Super Bowl with that, the new soda that came out. Oh, yeah, there's a new soda.

Yeah, I forget. They call it like it's going to be the next generation of soda. It's going to be the next diet. Yeah, well, that's what I'm very interested. I didn't look at the ingredients. So again, maybe they figured it out because a lot of these fizzy waters, you know, they figured out a way to, you know, add certain natural flavoring. But again, go back to like, well, what's the natural flavoring in there? Yeah, you know.

But yeah, it'll be interesting to see. Well, I'll have to look into that because I didn't even see what the ingredients were. But, yeah, I mean, they're always trying to. And again, at least they're taking a step of like, okay, they're trying to eliminate the, you know, the empty sugar calories that are in it. And not to mention all the other, like the toxic, the colors. Oh, the colors. Yeah, just terrible.

Like, yeah, just I was going to say that. If they had even getting away from that would be huge. But, yeah. So if you look at the dairy. the, which again, we have a whole, we have a whole podcast on milk was a bad choice. And so you can go without being it to death, you can go back to that.

But yeah, if you look at the dairy recommendations there, they still say you should choose low fat, low fat, yeah, options. And we know that, again, so dairy naturally has fat. So when you're, once again, you're taking something that naturally has, nutrients in it. You're taking away

a major component of it. And then you're putting other stuff in to, again, make sure that it's, you know, can have shelf life and taste good and whatever. And that's what they're recommending. And it's like the low fat, yeah, the low fat dairy. Because we were, I mean, we grew up on skin milk.

That was, we were a skim milk family. We had, we went through four to five gallons a week. Yeah. I mean, we had it all up and down our Yeah. You know, the, the refrigerator shelf and the extra refrigerator. Yeah. I mean, we would each probably go through a gallon a week.

And, and yeah, because it's, again, that was, you know, you're supposed to have milk. You have milk with every meal. And that's still the way that it's pictured with my plate. You know, they have the little, the little picture of the milk up there in the corner. And it's just like that's, and that's another thing that was kind of driving me nuts is I didn't see any recommendation about water intake. And that to me is just, I mean, that's a disservice. If you're talking about, you know, a well-balanced diet, getting enough water, good quality water is the basis of that. I mean, we can go, you know, you and I know, and we both do fasting.

It's like, we can go days. I mean, a lot of people could probably go weeks without eating. Like, you need the water. Like, water is the essence of, sorry, I totally, you know where I'm going to that. My gosh. I apologize. There's the essence of poised here. Oh, my God.

Sorry, Zoolander. Zoolander reference. Ben Stiller as a mermaid. Marman. Man. Okay. And we've lost it. Let's bring it back.

This is literally our family dinner conversations. Like, we literally would have conversations with movie references. And then just veer off in a movie. Yep, that's it. But no. But it is. Water is the essence of life. And it's so important. So the fact that, again, we're talking about, you know,

you're kind of showing what a healthy balanced meal should look like. And there's no mention of water. That's, I think, again, just doing a huge disservice to people and the fact that we're still promoting that kids should have, be having milk with their meals as opposed to water. Well, I'd take that a step further because even in the school systems, you know, the state and federally funded school systems, you know, the public school system, milk is included with your lunch.

You can get milk. If you want water, like a bottle of water, you have to pay extra for that. But included in the meal prices, you know, your white milk, your chocolate milk or your strawberry milk. I mean, yeah, I know. I know. I will never understand strawberry milk. I'm sorry. There was a very short period of time that I really enjoyed it.

And then it was like, no. But yeah, I mean, and again, again, you know. Again, the sugar content in that milk is worse than soda. It's disgusting. And so here we are, you know, federal and state funded tax dollars are used to basically advertise to the next generation that, yeah, you should be eating and drinking this stuff, you know, for every meal. And it's like, why can't we get a freaking, you know, bottle of water or figure out, you know,

spend, you know, $100,000 and put a couple of dollars and put a couple of good filter water systems and just have kids bring their own water bottles, which I know a lot of places are at least getting better with that kids can bring a water bottle. Because I mean, we weren't allowed. You couldn't have water bottles. And then again, you're wondering why kids are,

you know, having attention issues and being, aren't tired, they're dehydrated. You stick them in the classroom for eight hours and don't give them access to water. I'm like, oh my God, have you told me I had to go eight hours without drinking water?

So, yeah, that's, I know that's a big one is just, because again, it's like just that, that sugar. That it's so much sugar. It's so much other crap. And again, who knows what the heck is actually in strawberry milk? I'm afraid to look. It is not natural. Exactly. Now, again, is that to say that you can never have a glass of chocolate milk?

No. No, but I would read every meal every day. Absolutely. Yeah, that's ridiculous. And again, I would. argue it should be a good, if you're going to do chocolate milk, it should be whole milk. With real, yeah, with real chocolate. Yeah, it's all Brunton's.

I'm just saying the Brutton's chocolate milk now. I don't know if you've ever had that. I don't know. It's a local place and it's like, it literally pours out like melted ice cream. Yeah, like it's so good. I might have to try some of that. Story. Historical used to carry it.

I didn't notice last time I was there if they did. Because it came in like the glass, like the real glass. bottles. Yeah. But yeah, that's a... Yeah, the best, I mean, you get, you get like a whole, unpasteurized milk from the farm. Oh, my gosh. Yeah.

And then, you know, add some, you know, good quality chocolate to it. Yeah. And now try that and then try skin milk. And it's, it just becomes so... I think that's really what comes down to. It is, it's like once you experience what real food tastes like and get your body use to that. It's, it's really amazing.

You can just tell the difference when you start eating the other, the process stuff and the, um, the altered stuff. Because food, I mean, food is good. Like, food is delicious. There's so many, there's so many natural flavors and,

and textures and, but we again, have just taken everything and, because we can, we have figured, you know, we put everything into a, a box or a bag and to preserve the shelf life. When we talk about all the time. If it's, you know, if it can sit on your shelf for a year, do you really, is that something you really want to be putting in your, I mean, would you eat a banana that's been sitting on your shelf for a year?

My bananas don't last. I hope. I hope not. So. Now, again, if you talk about something like a, natural preservative process, like canning, that's different. Yes, that's different. Yeah. Because, yes, you can take those foods and you can preserve them for, you know, a long period of time in a very healthy way. but again, you're taking the actual food. You're putting it in a can. You're sealing it, you know, and putting, you know, the salts or whatever you need to preserve that.

And it's designed to last for a very, very long time. But that's not what you're talking about, like, you know, taking an artificial, you know, something in a, you know, the artificial ingredients, putting it into a package, into a product and into a package that, you know, could literally sit on the shelf for years. I mean, I know people have done those experiments. with, you know, like burgers from different fast food restaurants.

And they just literally leave it out, not refrigerated. They just literally leave it out. And like months go by and there's like no change in it whatsoever. So imagine taking that and putting it in your digestive system and letting your body try and filter that out. Yeah. Good. But, but yeah, that's really what it comes down to. I mean, again, I'm not saying that I wouldn't be the one in charge of making general.

role recommendations for the entire public because as we know, that's why that's why I like what we do. We can work with people on an individual basis because that is really what it comes down to. What works for one person might not work for another. But overall, it's just this is really kind of that, I guess maybe just an overall like cautionary tale to not, you know, to take to take these recommendations that you see, take them with the grain of salt and make sure that you're doing your own research and that you're really recognizing, you know, where are these, where are some of these recommendations coming from? Are they truly for the overall health of, you know, of us as a population?

Or is somebody, as somebody, yes. Sugar, food, drugs. Dairy industry. Yeah. But yeah, you really just want to make sure it's, again, I have seen it make a big, big change. Like I said, compared to the food, you know, the classic food pyramid. that we, the first, the first attempt of that, it's definitely made a big change. And I, you know, I do like that, you know, I think overall, if somebody, somebody's living on fast food,

if they switch from that to my plate, they're going to be making steps in the right direction. Yes, absolutely. So, you know, I don't want to like bash anybody for, and I will say they have a lot of resources on there, a lot of information. So it's definitely a good place to start. But, you know, the end-all be-all is you still got to make sure that you're, as we always say, being an informed consumer, recognizing that quality does matter. And unfortunately, it's like, you know, we have so many choices now, which just makes it so much harder. Even look at the milk aisle. It's like, it's milk. I mean, it's like, why are there 20,000 choices?

So it's just, yeah, I mean, it makes it, it makes it harder on us as. a consumer, it makes it great for the people making money on all of these things, but it definitely makes it harder for us as a consumer. And it just, yeah, puts the responsibility back on you. You know, not all food is created equally. Not all products are, you know, created equally. So really just making sure that you're, you know, doing what's best for you and for your family and advocating, like you mentioned with the schools, you know, I know, um, you know, your wife Aaron has brought that to the school board attention many times. And, you know, that's, you know, that's what you have to do as a parent sometimes because it's, you know, the, it's just the, the more information

you can get out there and the more you can get them to realize, like, just have, they're not even saying don't have the milk. Just say, like, have the water available as an option. Yeah, yeah. You know, it's, um, it's okay to have options, but make sure the healthy options are there. And the fact that water, yeah, the fact that you can get free milk, but have to pay for water is a little mind-boggling. Yeah. So, all right. Well, that's that's the my plate.

The ain't my plate. And, you know, again, good, good maybe starting point, but definitely lots of room for improvement from an individualized, customized basis. So if any of this sounded interesting or resonated with you and you'd like to learn more, we've got a lot of other podcasts where we touch on different, you know, different eating. And like you said, we've got to talk about. touch on supplements and touch on, we go deep into the deep dive into the berry. But yeah, if any of this sounded interesting, resonated with you.

Or if you have questions, do not hesitate to reach out to us. We are more than happy to help guide you and get you into the results you're looking for. So with that being said, I am Dr. Dan with my co-host. Angela, thank you guys so much. And we'll see you next time. See you next time. You've been listening to What the Health with Dr. Dan and Angela Toro, brought to you by Toro family chiropractic.

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