BITESIZE | Try This Simple Dietary Change To Help Reduce Cravings, Increase Your Energy, Get Stronger & Live Longer | Dr Rupy Aujla #583
00:00Today's bite-size episode is sponsored by the brand-new formulation of AG1,the daily health drink that has been in my own life for over six years.Now, some of the upgrades in the new formula include more magnesium,which supports muscle function and the ability of our nervous systems to relax,and it also now contains five instead of two strains of bacteriato reflect the latest advancements in microbiome science.It also contains key nutrients in bioavailable forms the body can easily and readily utilizemaximizing their potential benefits.
00:40AG1 makes it simple to be the best version of you.Over 70 ingredients, one scoop once a day for less than a cup of coffee.And right now, AG1 are giving my audience a special offer worth 58 pounds, which is almost 80 US.you will get 10 free travel packs and an awesome welcome kit with your first subscription.To take advantage, go to drinkag1.com forward slash live more.Welcome to Feel Better Live More bite size, your weekly dose of positivity and optimism to get you ready for the weekend.Today's clip is from episode 534 of the podcast with me.medical doctor and nutritionist, my good friend, Dr. Rupi Orgila.
01:35In this clip, Rupi shares why starting your day with enough proteincould help reduce cravings and increase your energy.He also offers some simple practical tips to help you upgrade your breakfastwithout over-complicating your morning routine.Proteins are the macro and microstructures of life.They are the most incredible biomolecules that are responsible for so many parts of our physiology.Everything from our DNA, our collagen, our skin, our hair, our enzymes, the receptors of signal molecules, hormones,that are on the surface of our cells,
02:26this is all protein.When you consume protein,only about a quarter of that actually goes to skeletal muscle.The majority of the protein that you consumeis actually being broken downand being used for those other structuresthat I just talked about.If you look at the more recent research studies
02:47to determine that we should be consuming more protein,we underconsume.And there is obviously a big range as well of people.And if you look at the typical diets that are largely ultra-processed,that are low in protein and low in nutrients, you can see how this plays out in the long term.And I think protein, whilst it's not the only thing, it plays a really important rolebecause of the magnitude of things that proteins are responsible for, our satiety levels,our cravings, but also our hormones, our weight maintenance,
03:28and even our immune cells, these are all built from protein.So we need to give ourselves the best building blocksto ensure that our health thrives.In your brand-new book, Reapie, Healthy High Protein, which I absolutely love,you make the case that many of us are under-eating protein.Why is it, do you think, that many of us are under-eating protein?What are the consequences of us doing so?And how should that play in to our breakfast?
03:58I think breakfast is a great place to startbecause we tend to under-consume protein at breakfast,and that sets us up for the rest of the day.And if you think about typical breakfast foods,and if anyone's listening or watching this,they can probably conjure up croissants, cereals, oats.While some of those are healthy,or healthier than other options,
04:24they have a common denominator in that they tend to be quite low in proteinunless we supplement with certain elements.And what that does is it does not replenish what we've been breaking down overnight.So when you wake up first thing in the morning,you're in a fasted state.And in that faster state during sleep,you're breaking down your proteins,you're repurposing those, you're rebuilding them up
04:50into all these different structures, some of which are muscles, other which are enzymes and hormones,and you need to replenish that store of amino acids, which are the building blocks of proteins.And so breakfast offers a prime opportunity to replenish those amino acids that your body has beenbreaking down. The other thing that I think a lot of people fall into the trap of is when you don'thave protein at breakfast, you tend to have hunger mid-morning. Everyone's had that time where they'vehad something quick, maybe a cereal or something on the go. And then by mid-morning, you're hungry again.You're like, I've just eaten. Why is that? Well, protein is incredibly satiating. So it signals toyour brain when you've had enough protein. There's a signal to your brain that says, I've had enough
05:44food. I don't need to crave any more food. So it curbs your cravings. And there is somethingcalled the protein leverage hypothesis that perhaps some of your listeners have heard, which isyour body will continue to signal to you to keep eating until you've met your personalprotein threshold. And unless you've hit that personal protein threshold, you will continue tobe hungry, hence why you're reaching for the biscuits, you're reaching for something sugary,even though you've just eaten a couple of hours before.And what happens when you eat proteinis that not only does it signal to your brain
06:20that you're having enough foodand it has the satiating effect,but it also delays something called gastric emptying as well.So when you consume food, if you eat something,you swallow it, it goes into your stomach,that is bathed in acids and other enzymesto break down that food.And if you're having protein in that mix,
06:41it delays that gastric emptyingso it spreads up the absorptionof those ingredientsover time so you don't get these big spikesin carbohydrates and sugarsand people might think to themselvesinitially, okay, well I'll just go forsome of those processed foods
06:56that label themselves as high proteinhaving 20 grams or 25 grams of proteinand that's not what I'm suggesting whatsoeverI think the majority of the processed foodsthat we see on supermarket shelvesare not only deficient inprotein, but they also have ingredients that are remarkably different from the initial ingredients thatthey were generated from, whether that's from wheat or grain, et cetera. And that processing
07:23makes it super easy to absorb the carbohydrates, the sugars within that food. And that leads tosugar spikes and corresponding crashes, but it's also not satiating. And with protein in themorning. Not only is it going to be satiating, it's going to lead to less hunger, reduce those cravingso you don't overeat, but it's also going to give you the best possible chance to actuallyconsume enough protein for your needs over the course of 24 hours. So if you're not havingenough protein at breakfast and you have to compensate at lunch and dinner, you're less likely tohit your overall target. And over time, you can see how easy it is to understand.to consume for your requirements.
08:14If we go back to breakfast then, right,and talk about these common foods that people are having,which, as we've already outlined,are going to be low in protein.Let's go through a few of those, like oatmeal,like croissants, like breakfast cereals.And then perhaps you can suggesthow we might change that up.
08:36Yeah, right?Both for meat, eaters, and for v.Because what's interesting about healthy high protein, your new book, is these three pillars you talk about, right?Number one, maintain protein, number two, support gut health, number three, lower inflammation.For the last years, there's been a lot of talk about gut health and inflammation, right?And you're not saying they're not important in your book.You're just saying that we need to bring in protein into the equation, right?And there are three questions in the book you want people to ask themselves when they sit down to eat.
09:15Is there enough protein on my plate to meet my requirements?Are there ingredients in this meal that are supporting my gut health?And number three, is the overall impact of this meal going to be anti-inflammatory?Okay, how about this, Rupee?How about we look at breakfast and then try and apply these three questions to certain common breakfast meals?Is that a reasonable way of looking at this?That's a great way of looking at it. So let's imagine oatmeal, right? Oatmeal has beentalented as super healthy. It's got fibers that lower your cholesterol. It's got fiber that can
09:53support your gut health, beta glucans, et cetera, et cetera. If we look at it through the lensof those three questions, right, is there enough protein in plain oatmeal? The answer is no.No. Because even if you're consuming 300 grams of total product, let's say, it's aboutthree to four grams per hundred grams of protein in oats. So no, it's not going to be enoughfor folks unless you're super, super small and your protein requirements are very low, which we'veestablished is not the case. Is there, are there products that support gut health? Yeah, probably.Yeah, we've got some fibres in there. We've got some BT glucans. It's probably going to begenerally quite healthy. Is this going to be anti-inflammatory? Potentially, but with the blood
10:38glucose-spiking potential of oats, if you're not having it with berries or you're having anyother anti-inflammatory ingredients, like cinnamon. 2BD, I would say. I wouldn't say it's going to bea home run for inflammation. This is really interesting. So my bias based upon what I've seenthroughout my career is that I don't generally recommend oats to people for breakfast. I'm notsaying it can't be good for some people, but of course my bias will be based on what I've seen,right? So usually people are coming in to see the doctor, not always, but usually they've gotsome degree of health issue that they want to help with, right? And if we look at the degree ofmetabolic dysfunction in society, it is reasonable that a lot of patients who come in to see you or
11:29me over the years would have a degree of metabolic dysfunction. Yeah. So I've often found, not foreveryone, but I've often found oats tend to cause this big blood sugar high, blood sugar lowtwo hours later, people feel hungry again. Now, I know that's not the same for everyone,and I'm sure that will come down to their microbiome and their state of metabolic health. Somepeople have a big bowl of oatmeal in the morning, and they're not hungry again for four hours.So I think metabolically, microbiome-wise, there's something different going on.I personally don't have oats for breakfast, but you do, don't you? Yeah, but I havechanged the way I have my oats in the morning. And I don't always have oats in the morning.
12:11I change it up throughout the week because I think diversity of ingredients is super importantas well. The way I have my oats now, and just to riff on your point, you know, there aresome endurance runners, for example, people who do triathlons and marathons who love oats becausethey're using that big store of sugar to efficiently power their muscles. That's not most people.Most people in today's world are going straight from their oatmeal at breakfast,jumping on the train, and going to work where they sit down for multiple hours a day.They're not running up hills and doing mountains.And that's the context and nuance that it's missed so much when we talk about that.
12:52You know, that diet, that breakfast, in the context of what?As you say, if you're really active and you're a builder, you're a painter, you're a decorator,Okay, your breakfast need may be completely differentthan if you're actually sat behind a screen to four hours.I'll tell you who loves oatmeal, Kipchogi.He does.And Kipchogi is one of the world's fastest runners at distance.So, you know, it gives you the context, you know,
13:19just using that very simple example,that's someone who's going to thrive on oats.I'm not saying that you can't thrive on oatsunless you're like, you know, an ultra marathon or distance runner.but that's sort of the ballparkof where people are going to be thriving owners.So how have you changed the way you do oatsto meet these three criteria?
13:38So whilst I'm someone who exercises most days,I have a very simple base formula for my oatmeal in the morning.So I do overnight oats.In a big tub, which is literally what I had this morning,I'll have two tablespoons of oats,which isn't actually that much.It's around 30 grams of oats.Two tablespoons of milled flaxseed,
13:57a tablespoon of chia seed,and a tablespoon of shelled hemp seed.Let's go through the nutritionals.So oats are largely carbohydrates there, right?Quite low in protein, has some beta glucans.Milled flaxseed is around 20, 25 grams of proteinwith large amounts of fiber as well.Chia is on the lower side of protein in terms of the different seeds,
14:23but it's still quite a rich protein source,around 8 grams per 100 grams or something like that.Sheld hemp seeds is 30 grams per 100 grams of protein and it is one of those novel plant proteinsthat has all nine essential amino acids as well. I have that as my base and then I combineflavors on top of that so I have raw cacao again another really rich protein source. Sometimes I'llalso add a protein powder I'm sure we're going to get to protein powders a little bit laterthe pros and cons of those and then I'll have either water ora milk of choice that in my case is either full fat dairy or it's a plant milk that doesn't have
15:05any fillers or any extra sugars in. That compared to a typical overnight oats recipe is muchhigher in protein. It's like two different meals, isn't it? Completely different. When you look atthe nutritionals, the one that I've just described to you is around 35 grams of protein, the previousone was sub 10. Have you noticed they, I think you've already answered this, but let's just highlightlike the point, you've had times in your life where you'd have a standard bowl of oatmeal.Yeah.And how did you feel throughout that morning, energy, focus, hunger compared to when you're havingyour new, you know, improved, supercharged overnight oats, basically, with all these other
15:48protein and gut health sources?It's like night and day.It really is not in day.So you can feel a difference.You can feel the difference.Like, as I'm chatting to you now, I know I've had a couple of cups of coffee.but my focus, my energy, is completely steady.I'm not feeling like, gosh, I'm going to have another biscuit
16:06or gosh, you know, I wonder if I'm going to have a snack in between lunchtime,which I used to feel, particularly when I was working full-time in A&E.I now have this steady energy because I'm powering myself first thing in the morning with protein.And that's a mantra that I'm sort of getting people to think about.It's protein first power all day.if you have protein first in the morning, it will give you power all day. You will be, you willhave better energy. You will have less fatigue and less cravings as well. And so you're tipping thebalance towards more protein, higher fiber, less inflammation. It's a very simple way of
16:46analyzing any time you sit down to eat and what's in front of you and what's on your plateand how you can make some very simple tweaks. And I do this in the book quite a bit. It's, you know,can you add just one more?Can you swap this for that?And in terms of proteins, you know,there is a protein calculator for freethat you can use in the bookand it actually personalizes it to your age,
17:09your activity level,with your postmenopausal,all sorts of personalization there.So in terms of breakfast,I always think aboutare there leftovers that I can have for breakfast?Breakfast, I think, has got this brandof having to be sweet,
17:25Whereas actually, if you look at traditional diets, they tend to be very savory.Like my traditional diet, Punjabi breakfast is definitely a savour affair.It's whole wheat, it's dull, it's spinach, it's yogurt.These are all high protein ingredients that when combined together will give me enough sustenance for the day.Can you layer different proteins on top of each other?So just like I did with my oatmeal, I'm layering shelled hemp seeds,cacao, chia seeds, can you use toppers? Can you think about your breakfast in a, in a savorymanner? What about savory breakfast? They tend to be higher protein by virtue of the fact that using
18:07savory umami ingredients. My team, whenever I come in in the morning, they look at me, they used tolook at me quite strange because I would literally pile everything into a little frying pan,and put the lid on. And my go-to in the mornings is some kale, pumpkin seeds, hot smokesalmon, a little bit of olive oil on top of my protein bread. And I literally just put thaton the hob, put the lid on. And literally, I'm not exaggerating. It literally takes me five,six minutes. And I eat it straight out of the pan because it's actually quite a small saucepan.And they used to think, oh, isn't that funny, like, Rupi eating out of the pan and stuff,like for his breakfast. But now they've all started.
18:50doing it because I espoused these benefits of healthy high protein and they notice the benefitsthemselves as well because they're more intuitive about how they feel mid-morning and they have a lotmore energy. And that's one of the things I really like about this approach is that it doessimplify eating for people, right? Even those three questions that you propose, right? Is thereenough protein on my plate to meet my requirements? Are there ingredients in this meal that aregoing to support my gut health? Is the overall impact of this meal going to be anti-inflammatory?And, you know, there's a lot more education on that in your book for people who are interested.But it's not a bad way for people to assess breakfast, lunch, and all their meals, frankly, is it?
19:32It's quite a nice, elegant framework to think about your food.What about someone who's listening, Rupee?And, you know, they're interested in their health, but, you know, they're busy.They've got to rush out in the morning.They don't have much time for breakfast.And so, I don't know, let's say their current breakfast is two pieces of toast, butter, andstrawberry jam. Okay. So if that person came to you and said, Rupi, okay, listen, I'm hearing whatyou're saying here. I think from what you're saying, Rupi, that's probably a breakfast low in
20:01protein. Make the case to that person why they should think about changing it. And if they aregoing to change it, can you recommend something for them? Okay. Let's play with this. So let's imagineI'm not really asking you to change anything at all.If you fancy bread in the morning, toasted with butter, fine.Sounds delicious.Let's think about the bread first off, okay?So stage one is can we swap that white bread that is devoid of nutrientsand actually they've had them stripped out
20:37and then artificially added in in the flourto meet the recommended targets that are set by the government?can we swap that for a slightly higher protein bread?Now, bread doesn't naturally have that much protein in,but if you go for something like a sourdough,because of the fermentation processthat has been allowed to actually release a lot of those proteinsthat are naturally in the grain,
21:05your protein absorption actually increasesand the total amount of protein within that bread actually increases as wellby a factor of around 100%.So that's not a bad swap.if we're just looking for those marginal gainsand I'm doing the least amount I canfor this individual, that's probablysomething I would suggest. Let's imagine
21:23that you're going one step further.I've actually got a recipe in the book.You do, I was going to ask about that.For my own bread, right?And that one slice of breadoffers around 8 grams of protein.And the reason why is becausewe're using nuts and seeds
21:37and cillium husk, which is naturally high in protein,high in fiber, to deliverwhat is a really accessible and easy protein rich meal in the morning. So if all you've got time foris popping some bread in the in the toaster or under the grill, then that offers you a reallyeasy option. And that bread, I'm not a baker. I do not like baking. I don't do cakes. I don'tanything. That bread recipe, you put everything into a bowl, add a bit of water and oil, put it into aloaf tin and in the oven for about 60 minutes. I do this once a week with me and my wife. We have it everysingle week and we absolutely love it. And to go one step further, which is something that I do
22:18in the mornings as well, you can use that bread and instead of putting butter on it, maybe trypeanut butter. What about tahini? What about some sort of seed butter? Because that againpushes your protein slightly higher. And then if you've got a little bit more time, exactly sevenminutes, pop a couple of eggs into some boiling water. And that way you are far surpassing the 25 or 30grams of protein that you may require in the morning. And I almost guarantee, I know I don'tmake guarantees, but I'm confident that people who have enough protein in the morning forbreakfast will not have those sneaky cravings mid-morning anymore. We've seen it hundreds oftimes, right, with patients. If all you take from this entire podcast is to eat more protein at
23:06breakfast and then pay attention. Just pay attention to what happens in the day. I think peoplewill be quite surprised. I agree. Try it for a week and assess for yourself. Do you feel better?Because ultimately, that will be, that's where you find the gold. I hope you enjoyed that bitesize clip. Do spread the love by sharing this episode with your friends and family. And if you wantmore, why not go back and listen to the original full conversation with my guest. If you enjoyed thisepisode, I think you will really enjoy my bite-sized Friday email. It's called the Friday5 and each week I share things that I do not share on social media. It contains five shortdoses of positivity, articles or books that I'm reading, quotes that I'm thinking about, exciting
23:54research I've come across and so much more. I really think you're going to love it. The goal isfor it to be a small yet powerful dose of feel good to get you ready for the weekend. You can sign up forit free of charge at dr chattery.com forward slash friday five.I hope you have a wonderful weekend.Make sure you have pressed subscribe and I'll be back next week with my long formconversation on Wednesday and the latest episode of bite science next Friday.
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