Habits and Hustle - Episode 352: Calories, Carbs and Controversial Foods: Healthy Eating Insights from Max Lugavere

Episode Date: June 7, 2024

Have you ever wondered if all calories are created equal? In the world of nutrition, there's an ongoing debate about whether the source of your calories matters for weight loss and overall health. In my Fitness Friday episode, renowned health journalist and author Max Lugavere shares a compelling insight: while calories in vs. calories out does matter for body composition, the quality and source of those calories is equally important. If you're striving to optimize your diet, understanding nuances like this is key. Max separates fact from fiction and provides practical, research-backed tips you can put into action today. To get the full scoop and take your nutrition knowledge to the next level, tune in now to this eye-opening episode. Max's insights are sure to change the way you think about calories and help you make more informed food choices. Max Lugavere is a Health and Science Journalist, Host of The Genius Life Podcast, Best-Selling Author.  What we discuss:  Why the quality of your calories matters The best source of protein Hot potato vs cold potato  Unhealthy foods that people think are healthy Not all sugar alcohols are bad Thank you to our sponsor: Therasage: Head over to therasage.com and use code Be Bold for 15% off To learn more about Max Lugavere:  Max's Website - https://www.maxlugavere.com/  Max's Instagram -  @maxlugavere    Find more from Jen: Website: https://www.jennifercohen.com/ Instagram: @therealjencohen Books: https://www.jennifercohen.com/books Speaking: https://www.jennifercohen.com/speaking-engagements Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Hi guys, it's Tony Robbins. You're listening to Habits and Hustle. Crush it! Hey friends, you're listening to Fitness Friday on the Habits and Hustle podcast where myself and my friends share quick and very actionable advice for you becoming your healthiest self. So stay tuned and let me know how you leveled up. Before we dive into today's episode, I first want to thank our sponsor, Therisage. Their Tri-Lite panel has become my favorite biohacking thing for healing my body. It's a portable red light panel that I

simply cannot live without. I literally bring it with me everywhere I go and I personally use their red light therapy to help reduce inflammations and places in my body where honestly I have pain. You can use it on a sore back, stomach cramps, shoulder, ankle. Red Light Therapy is my go-to. Plus, it also has amazing anti-aging benefits, including reducing signs of fine lines and wrinkles on your face, which I also use it for. I personally use Therisage Trilite

everywhere and all the time. It's small, it's affordable, it's portable, and it's really effective. Head over to Therasage.com right now and use code BEBOLD for 15% off. This code will work site-wide. Again, head over to Therasage.com and use code BBOLD for 15% off any of their products. You don't think that a calorie is just a calorie, right? That's not your like, do people pick calories in versus calories out?

That's not what you think. No. Do you think that I'm not saying yes or no. I'm just asking. Yeah. No, I do think calories matter. I do think they definitely matter. The source that it comes from. Yeah.

The energy balance matters, but so does the source of the calories. A calorie is just a unit of measurement. So a calorie is a calorie. It's like saying a mile is not a mile, but the problem is a mile walking uphill is a lot different than a mile walking downhill. 100%. So if I had a Mars bar, for example, which is 180 calories versus having a piece of salmon that's four ounces, five ounces, there's a difference in how your body metabolizes it?

There is a difference. Yeah, yeah. 100 calories of protein is only going to yield about 70 calories because protein is a much higher thermic effect than fat or carbohydrates, for example. I like what you just said, though. That's so true. A mile up versus a mile down. Very different. Very, very different, right?

100 calories from broccoli is going to be a lot different than 100 calories from Oreo cookies. So where the calories come from absolutely matters. And that's not something that I feel like is discussed enough amongst fitness circles. Well, that's why I wanted to bring it up. I think there's a lot of people, there's 50% of the people who think your body, I think it does affect your body composition.

That's my take on it, but there are people, and it doesn't matter. If your diet's at 800 calories, it doesn't matter where you're getting those calories from. I do think it matters. I think how you're going to optimize your brain, your overall energy, makes a big difference. That's my opinion. Well, I think everybody would agree at this point that, I mean, the thing is, sometimes you'll see headlines like,

nutrition professor proved that you can lose weight by eating only Twinkies, right? Right, or like the Subway dude that lost them. The Subway dude, yes. Yeah. When you control for protein, it really doesn't matter from a weight loss standpoint where the other macronutrients come from, carbs and fat.

From purely the standpoint of near term weight loss and body composition, as long as we're controlling for protein. Because protein is what helps us maintain our lean mass. So if you're talking about just losing weight from your body, which shouldn't be anybody's goal, right? Then it really is all about calories. But if we're talking about losing fat, then we wanna control for protein

so that we maintain our lean mass and then dial down the fat and carbohydrate intake. But does that mean that you can fill out the fat and carbs with the if it fits your macros model of just whatever else crap you want to eat? No, because your body still needs micronutrients that help keep you young. And that's going to reflect in your skin.

It's going to reflect in your metabolic health. It's going to reflect in so many aspects of your existence that I'm absolutely 100% an advocate of being mindful where your calories come from. We were saying this earlier, but for a vegan diet or a vegetarian diet, I still, no matter how many people come on this podcast or I've speak to in my regular life, I don't know where they're getting enough protein. Well, broccoli has protein. Broccoli does not have enough protein

to build lean muscle mass. Absolutely not. But I don't understand by how this is not more common knowledge. Yeah, it's just like, yeah, I mean, I don't know who's out there saying, certainly people are saying that broccoli has enough protein. Vegans and people who don't eat meat.

They're like, yeah. Very low quality protein, not appropriate amounts of. A lentil, though. Like lentils have protein. Yeah. But you're not, if I want to build muscle, is it more, maybe it's some more of a, you're the journalist. Maybe you've done way more research,

but I'm talking from experience and research I've done. Oh yeah, I live and breathe the stuff, yeah. Right? Like, I think if I need like lean out and build muscle, I need to eat salmon, chicken, meat, like, like animal protein fish, I don't know where you're going to get your protein from if you're a vegan. Yeah, I mean, soy is fairly high quality, actually, if you can believe it. And so there's nothing wrong with that. Also,

legumes are legumes have protein, also lots of carbs in there, but also lots of other non-protein calories. So if you're trying to lose weight, that's where that becomes relevant, right? And not granted, not everybody's trying to lose weight. But people want to be more muscular, more lean muscle as you get older. Who doesn't want to have more lean muscle mass? The highest quality protein is bar none animal protein. It's like the protein scoring method that is currently in use to determine protein quality has shown us that whether it's chicken, beef, fish, eggs,

dairy, the best of the best, really. And soy is up there. It's not quite as high as animal protein, but soy is decent quality from a digestibility standpoint. It's not something that I would eat regularly. But no, animal protein is definitely the way to go. Right. You're also a big fan of whey protein.

In your book, you talk about it. Yeah, I'm a fan of whey protein. I take it. I use whey protein isolate. It's got a great amino acid profile. It's very easy to hit the leucine threshold of 2.5 grams of leucine, which we need for muscle protein synthesis. Which brand do you like?

And then the other thing, first time, what brand do you like? I'm curious to find a good one. I currently use, there are two brands that I go back and forth with and I have no financial affiliation with either. One is a brand called Muscle Feast, which is a funny name. Oh, I never heard of those ones. That guy or that. Yeah.

Muscle Feast. It's on Amazon and I get the whey protein isolate. The vanilla I think is pretty good. The problem that I have with a lot of these protein powders is that they're too sweet. Yeah, they're very sweet. So sometimes I just buy the unflavored versions. Really? Yeah. I saw what just buy the unflavored versions. Really?

Yeah. I saw what you said in your book. This is what I was going to say in your book. That I also learned about chocolate protein, chocolate flavor versus vanilla, that chocolate is more, what was it? Like it was more arsenic. No. More lead.

More lead. Yeah. In the chocolate, in chocolate protein versus in any brand? Well, it varies brand to brand. But why would chocolate have more lead or there was something else in it too? Cadmium.

Yeah. Yeah, because chocolate can be a source of lead and cadmium for people. Really? Yeah, yeah, yeah. These are very small amounts. Right. These are lead and cadmium are neurotoxins. So They're heavy metals that you really shouldn't be ingesting.

People should have the vanilla protein or plain. Vanilla, you're safe. You just don't know where they're getting their cacao from in these protein brands. They're not like chocolatiers, right? They're probably just getting the cheapest of the cheap cacao flavoring or whatever. And so there was a, I believe the study was done by Consumer Reports that found that on average, the chocolate flavored versions of these protein powders

had higher levels of lead and cadmium. Now, are they levels that are really worth worrying about? Probably not. But if you're consuming this every single day, then maybe you do want to be concerned, you know? The other thing I, okay, so let's talk about this other thing. I was like, wow, this potato thing, the having a cold potato versus a hot potato.

And well, I didn't know that either. Talk about the potato. Like, can we go over like a, give me a few of these like food hacks. Yeah, so much. I love that stuff. Absolutely. So Genius Kitchen is full of this stuff. And the olive oil?

Yeah. Potatoes are, when we cook them, we create a highly digestible form of starch, right? A raw potato is rich in resistant starch. It's resistant to digestion. And we have to cook it to break that starch down so that it becomes available to us as a calorie source. Well you can actually retrograde the starch in a cooked potato and turn it into what's

called retrograde resistant starch by just cooling it off. Allowing it to return to room temperature is one option or you just throw it in the fridge. And what does it do? What's the benefit of that? So it's a really powerful food source for gut bacteria, really good for improving insulin sensitivity. So this is like, you know, a lot of people struggle with insulin resistance,

but I think primarily it's like a fiber source, but it's a really potent fiber source for gut bacteria that your gut bacteria, these microbes that live in your large intestine, they consume this resistant starch and they churn out metabolites like butyrate, butyric acid, which is a short chain fatty acid that's known to be really quite anti-inflammatory. So you end up getting this like,

you end up like firing up this like anti-inflammatory drug factory in your gut by eating resistant starch. So you take a potato, you cool it down for how long? Yeah, you just, well, you bring it to room temperature. You take it, you bring it to room temperature. And you'll actually, you could notice that there's a texture change in the potato. I do.

It starts to like gel a little bit. Oh, I see what you mean. Yeah, it's not so fluffy kind of thing. It's not so fluffy and grainy, yeah. You could also throw it in the fridge and like one meal prep tip is you can batch make a bunch of potatoes and throw them in the fridge. And then use them later on in scrambles or for future meals.

Because you'll already have retrograded the starch in the potato. And so. That's great. I love that. It's a good food act. And also, and potatoes are not the only starch that have that ability. Rice can become retrograde resistant starch.

One of the reasons why sushi rice is great, it's like cooked and cooled rice, right? Right. You can do the same thing, not that I don't eat pasta or wheat-based pasta, but you can do the same thing with pasta. I believe legumes are another source of resistant starch. So cooling your starches is a really good strategy. And so the benefits would be, like you said, for insulin. Yeah, and also like less carbs,

like less of a glycemic impact of these foods. Those are great. So you take the same potato, one is freshly cooked, one is cooked and cooled. The net carbohydrate content of the one that was cooked and cooled is less than the freshly baked potato. That's a great one.

So if I take French fries and just cool them down, does that work too? You could potentially. Yeah? Yeah, baked French fries. Yeah. Yeah, absolutely could. Or I was thinking more not baked. I wouldn't do not baked because of the unhealthy fats, you know.

And the oils. Well, the other ones, like you were saying, like olive oil, let's talk about the olive oil. Like people are blending these olive oils without even, would I not know if it's blended? Cause you're talking about like olive oils that have been blended. Yeah, you just want to look on the- Oh, so it'd say like extra virgin.

It would say blend, yeah. What are the best oils to cook with? Coconut oil, olive oil? I don't really cook- No, no, no, that's what I didn't mean. Yeah. Avocado oil. Avocado oil's great, coconut oil's great.

Butter and ghee occasionally I'll use, but primarily it's extra virgin olive oil and great, coconut oil is great, butter and ghee occasionally I'll use, but primarily it's extra virgin olive oil and it's avocado oil. It's a myth that you can't cook with extra virgin olive oil. You can, just I would use it. The smoke point though I thought was not high enough. It's not super high, it's higher with avocado oil.

But for low to medium heat, it's perfectly fine to cook with extra virgin olive oil. So let's talk quickly about foods that are seemingly considered to be healthy for us, but they're actually not healthy, but people think that they're super healthy. There are a lot of those. I know. Yeah.

Let's talk about your top two. Yeah, I think agave syrup is one of those that a lot of people think is healthy. Do they still think that's healthy? Well, I'll walk through. I mean, not to bring up Erawan again, but like. But you have to is healthy. Do they still think that's healthy? Well, I'll walk through. I mean, not to bring up Erawan again. But you have to. Do they pay you on the side?

Come on. They should. No, they definitely don't. I've never gotten so much as even a meal credit. I mean, they should. You should be on some kind of retainer for them. No, I've never gotten anything from them. It's really sad.

But yeah, lots of products there or in Whole Foods will still proudly promote that it's sweetened with agave syrup, yeah. I think it's got a health halo on it. I don't know, because people perceive it as being natural. It comes from the blue agave plant or whatever. But yeah, it's like 80% fructose, which is just this like pure isolated sugar

that has a metabolic effect on the body that when we're eating it in this extracted, isolated form, it's not good. Isn't maple syrup so much better than that? Cause it's a natural form. Yeah, maple syrup is better. It's still very calorie dense. But yeah, maple syrup is a better option.

And honey? Honey's good, honey's good. Yeah, they're all different. There are a number of different like. But it's like calories in all of them. A lot. It's all sugar. It's like pure sugar.

Yeah, I'm very pro like, I mean, I'll use like monk fruit, stevia. I'm, there's a lot of people that like for some reason don't like certain sugar alcohols like erythritol. Like I'm super on board with erythritol. You are? Yeah, I am. I think erythritol. You are? Yeah, I am. I think erythritol is great.

Allulose is another good non-caloric sweetener. Yeah, people are not like, why is that? Why is there such a bad? Because here's the thing, some- I'm halo on those things. Yeah, some sugar alcohols, I think people have bad experiences with certain sugar. I mean, sugar alcohols is like a category.

There's a million of them. There's like tons of different sugar alcohols. Maltitol, sorbitol. The bloat is supposed to be bloating as well. Oh, it does. If you eat too much of certain sugar alcohols, you'll get like crazy like gas and diarrhea that you've never experienced in your life

if you overindulge on some of them. And they use them, they use these sugar alcohols in various, you know various sugar-free processed foods, like dietetic foods. And so people will think that it's like a free ride. They'll eat lots of whatever it is. I remember there was a chocolate bar that Trader Joe's used to make.

They probably still make it. That's a sugar-free dark chocolate bar that I used to buy. And it was sweetened primarily with sugar alcohols, with these in particular. With these ones, yeah. Yeah, and I remember not like being all that aware of what was in them and I would just like overindulge

in them and I would notice I'd get so bloated afterwards and I was like, is that the chocolate or is that something in the chocolate? Yeah, right, right. That's causing this effect and it's like one of them, it's like Sorbitol or Meltitol. I think those are the two primary. Sorbitol is Splenda or otherwise known as Splenda, isn't it?

No. No, it's not Suclarose, that's Suclarose, though, right? But Sorbitol actually is, I believe it's Sorbitol is Splenda, or otherwise known as Splenda, isn't it? No. No, it's not suclarose. That's the suclarose story, right? But sorbitol actually is, I believe it's sorbitol that's naturally occurring in prunes. One of the major reasons why prunes are such a powerful laxative is that they're very high in, I believe it's sorbitol. But if it's not sorbitol, it's one of these sugar alcohols.

Really? It's naturally occurring in prunes. Yeah, a lot of people think that prunes have this effect of making you go to the bathroom because of the fiber. It has nothing to do with the fiber in prunes. Yeah, a lot of people think that prunes have this effect of making you go to the bathroom because of the fiber. It has nothing to do with the fiber in prunes. It's almost like a drug-like effect. If you eat enough prunes, within an hour, you're gonna be sitting on the toilet.

Really? Yeah, yeah, yeah. And it's because of the presence of certain sugar alcohols in prunes. I didn't know that. But what's important, I think the nuance here is that not all sugar alcohols in prunes. But- I didn't know that. But what's important, I think the nuance here is that not all sugar alcohols have that effect. ["Dreams of a New World"]