The Wellness Scoop - How to Get a Balanced Vegan Diet

Episode Date: January 15, 2019

With Veganuary in full swing, the number of people trialling a plant based diet is higher than ever. This episode answers all your questions about a vegan diet, beginning with the most infamous of all - how to get enough protein. Matt, Ella and nutritional therapist Alice discuss everything from iron, B12, soy, calcium, fats, vitamins and minerals, to supplementing, watch-out’s, how to eat a healthy plant-based diet and everything in between. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit podcastchoices.com/adchoices

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please go to connectsontario.ca. Hi, everyone, and welcome to the Deliciously Ella podcast with me, Matthew Mills, and my wife and business partner, Ella Mills. Hi, guys. how are you? So I'm really excited about today's episode. Lots of people this year are doing Veganuary or January is a time where we kind of up our veggie intake. There's obviously a lot of conversation at the moment around plant-based diets, veganism, vegetarianism, flexitarianism. I don't even know how many other words there are for this topic but lots of questions around it. Also if you can hear a little pitter-patter that's Austin our dog just wandering around the studio he is currently kissing Alice who's our guest today um the brilliant Alice

McIntosh who um I met um a few years ago who really helped me with quite a lot of my health issues and I've been seeing her ever since and she felt like the perfect person to come on today. And we're going to do a bit of, I guess, myth busting and question answering around a plant-based diet and nutrition. So welcome, Alice. Thank you, guys. It's great to be here. So I think one of the things that's interesting is that there's so much, this is quite a new topic. I mean, I know for me, I changed my diet to a plant-based diet back in 2012. So not actually that long ago but at that point everyone thought I was mad you know everyone was like what will you eat as if I'd only eat lettuce and tomatoes and air you know there was a kind of real confusion around it

and you know we've seen more and more of it but I think it hasn't come without questions you know questions around things like b12 protein calcium iron yeah if you are cutting out meat and fish you need to be really mindful of of the potential deficiencies that might come with that um you can certainly do it well um but you've just got to be a little bit more cautious and conscientious about what you're eating so when it comes to protein you need to be thinking about protein is really important from a structural perspective it's really important for building our muscles and our bones and our organs but it's also important chemically um it helps build our hormones and our neurotransmitters so we really need to get lots of it the general guideline is to be going the

government recommend to get around they sort of base it on your weight so it's like 0.8 grams of protein per kilogram so that would be for a male is what about 55 yeah yeah maybe slightly yeah around 55 around that kind of mark it's going to depend on how active you are and also things like you know if you're doing marathon running you're going to need more if you're pregnant you're going to need more so it does change at different times of your life but for a general goal that's what you should be aiming for some people think that it should be slightly more it should be more like sort of 60 to 70 grams, depending on your age and your weight. You can definitely do this with a vegan diet, but it's going to take a little bit more.

You're going to be a little bit more conscientious, basically. So the key thing to think about with protein is, first of all, the amount that you're getting, but also the types of protein. Because proteins are built themselves of amino acids so they're the building blocks of protein and there are 20 amino acids so 20 individual building blocks and around nine of them are you you have to get through your diet your body can't make itself and the body makes the other 11 yes exactly so if you're eating meat and fish you can get those in quite easily. But if you are only eating plant-based foods... And is that because they are complete sources of protein?

Yes, yes. Because I think that phrase gets thrown around a lot. Yes, you hear that phrase being thrown around, exactly. So complete sources of protein contain around, contain pretty much all those 20 amino acids. But things like beans and pulses and nuts and seeds don't contain all of them. So they might contain five, six, seven, but they don't always contain all nine. So you have to make sure that you're getting variety amongst your different plant-based proteins. So you might have a plate with some chickpeas or

three different types of beans, and you might have some seeds in some kind of sauce or a tahini dressing or something like that, which will hopefully give you the whole complement. Now, you don't have to get a whole complement every single meal, but you should be aiming to get variety throughout the day, throughout the week, as much as possible to make sure you're not missing out on those key building blocks. Because that was the question I also had, is how much does it matter what you have in one meal versus one day versus one week? If you see what I mean, in terms of like, you know, not just looking at protein here, but your kind of complete nutritional sort of spectrum yeah you know is it that you need to be aiming to hit every single no in each meal presumably that's quite challenging or is it really across the day

or is it just across the week it's certainly not going to be across every single meal and I would say if you have you know the odd bad day then that's not going to be a problem you know your body doesn't necessarily that we talk about daily guidelines because that's the easiest way to get it to get people to understand what they need to be trying to get each day but if you miss it then you you're going to catch up the next day you know or if you think about it per week and you're getting most of those nutrients in or that most of those proteins in per week then that that's going to be absolutely fine we all have days where we don't eat perfect diet you know the body has stores for things like that.

So the other thing would be to consider is the amount of protein that you're getting. So there's the amino acids and then there's the amount. And protein, well, plant-based sources of food do also tend to contain less protein total. So you really need to be making sure that you're getting enough of those protein-based foods on your plate. You know, a lot of vegans, when they're potentially starting out and haven't really realised this, might be loading up on a lot of carbohydrates, but not actually getting enough of those protein sources. So you need to make sure that they form sort of 30%, 40% of your plate. And what are the best sort of sources?

S-O-U-R-C-S. sort of sources sources as in so you are exactly yeah so certainly things like beans and pulses and things like nuts and seeds are going to be at the top of this things like tahini are great soy is a big one it actually is one of the plant-based uh protein sources that has it is a complete source so edamame beans are a great source of of all the amino acids he loves edamame beans yeah tofu would be another one i mean you know some people find that that doesn't really work for them but that is also a good source nut milks you know hemp seeds as well hemp seed milk in particular is much higher in protein than say almond milk which is good to know for some people you know even things like flax seeds chia seeds but even things like broccoli and kale.

Some vegetables also contain, you know, not huge amounts, but some protein. So you should be able to do it as long as you're aware of it. And having a varied diet, which seems to be from other, also other topics we've looked at, like gut health and things like that. This varied diet we come back to like time and time again, just seems to be the key, basically the cornerstone for health. And particularly, I would say with a vegan diet because because you are you don't have as much choice but there is still a huge amount of choice but you just need to get yeah variety amongst all these different things so don't just pick one bean get as many different

beans as you can exactly and there's so many ways to do that and i always say to people like when you're cooking for example like if you've got a recipe you know like we've got for example like a chickpea chili which I absolutely love it's delicious but you could do it with half chickpeas half cannellini beans or you could throw in black beans or you know there's so many you can take a recipe take inspiration from it but then add to it as well and like same with hummus like butter bean hummus is so delicious so again if you want to change up even black bean hummus is actually really delicious as well so you don't feel like you have to be kind of pigeonholed in so can we come back to soy so when I put this out to our readers that we were going to have this episode and you know did anyone have any particular questions there were lots of buzzwords that came back like protein

calcium iron etc but soy was a question that we had from people I think soy is a really confusing topic for people some people really rely on it for protein source you know there's more kind of fast food using like tofu and tempes and things like that in terms of the vegan space but it seems a topic that confuses people a lot like is soy healthy is it not healthy the link to estrogen and things like that yeah absolutely so I think think when people started going plant-based, say 10 years ago, which was a time where it was nowhere near as popular as it is now, a lot of people were talking about soy and adding all kinds of soy products into their foods. And one of the problems with soy is that certainly in the States, it's used as a sort of additive, a sort of agent that

gets added to a lot of foods to thicken things and bind things up. Interesting. And that often tends to be quite processed soy. You know, soy comes from soybeans, which that's what edamame are. Edamame themselves are really nutritious and really healthy, and they're completely unprocessed. But when you start making soy protein powders and soy milks and yogurts and all these kinds of things, they do tend to become more processed.

And that's when we want to try not to be overdoing those kinds of types of soy. Having things like edamame, tempeh is a particularly good protein source. It's also fermented. And can be very delicious, I think. Yeah, I mean, you would know how best how to make it taste good because it you know it's more challenging one generally isn't it but yeah i don't think cooking tofu and tempeh is the easiest i have to say like it's definitely they've always been my kind of slight hurdles i don't also they're naturally very very bland as well so they soak up everything you add to them so you've got to really add a lot of like ginger and sesame and stuff like that yeah

they're great sources of protein but they're great sources of things like calcium and iron as well so important nutrients that vegans can often potentially be at risk of deficiency of so i would say that we need to make sure that we're not having too much of the process types but if you if it does work for you having a modest amount it is an allergen so some people can't have it they're allergic to it but if you find you can tolerate it having modest amounts is good so say twice a week for example okay and you want to try to go for non-genetically modified and organic soy if you can and just not having soy as your protein powder and your milk and your yogurt and having having tempeh or tofu every day if you do have a hormonal problem there are so many reasons why

that can happen and again everyone is so different but it is something to be mindful of not overdoing too many types of soy particularly things you know hormonal conditions that you might have been struggling with for quite a long time something to be mindful of interest that's really interesting um so i have one more question on protein and then we are allowed to talk about other things. Protein powders. Because that is, I feel like, a bit of a buzz at the moment. I feel like you go into some shops and you can't move, but for protein powders. I think the protein industry is now a $12 billion industry globally.

It's enormous. Really? Yeah. And we have a protein product in our range. We have an almond and blueberry ball, which is... That's my post-gym go-to. Yeah, exactly. Eight grams of hemp protein.

Yeah. But it has hemp protein powder yeah it's got it's almonds and hemp powder that the protein comes from there protein powder what's the kind of thought on that yeah i i have some mixed opinions about it i think that for a vegan that's struggling to get enough protein in through the diet say they can't tolerate beans yeah something so that they're struggling to find enough protein sources that they like or that they know how to cook or or they may be marathon training or weight training or something it can be a really useful easy way to get an instant delivery of amino acids into the body like your average protein powder per scoop will have about 20 grams

which is that's a lot so that's a third of your daily allowance so you're like daily target yeah exactly and ideally what you should be aiming for each meal is to get around 20 you can you can actually interestingly only absorb about 25 depends on the person but so actually people who are having like 40 grams of protein powder really aren't getting all the benefits of that so it's so interesting so you actually there's no point in overdoing your protein in terms so in one sitting you're not going to absorb more than about 25 grams and actually can potentially put a bit of strain on the kidneys which have to process all of that but it's certainly something to be mindful

of on that so it can be really useful for really active vegans um and also vegans that might be struggling with weight for example and don't want to consume excess levels of carbohydrates but a lot of protein powders on the market are really processed refined they have a lot of added sugars and flavorings to make them be more palatable or they have things to make them thicker and so on all that stuff is is not so good so you should be trying to get this sort of one with with barely no ingredients apart from the actual protein so brown rice protein powder for example or hemp protein powder would be a brilliant one they've also got extra fiber in them as well some nutrients

so those the ones if you are having them you want to go focus on those and focus on adding flavor with the things you're putting into a smoothie rather than putting banana and things like that yeah yeah we found that when we were developing because lots of things on the market in terms of with the things you're putting into a smoothie rather than... So put in banana and things like that. Yeah, we found that when we were developing, because lots of things on the market in terms of the protein space have like 20 grams of protein in a bar. And when we were developing our almond and blueberry protein bowl, we thought, oh, well, maybe we'll be able to get like 12 grams of protein in there. And you just can't make it taste nice.

So eight grams, we could have eight grams worth of protein in there and you just you just can't make it taste nice you know so eight grams we could have eight grams um worth of protein in there and it tastes like almond and blueberry and it's well if i say so myself i think it's really delicious and it's natural and any more than that and it just tasted you need to add a lot of stuff at that point which is why i presume lots of them have additives because you need the flavorings and stuff at that point to be able to mask the flavor of a hemp protein or a protein powder in general because like they're not the most delicious things in the whole entire world yeah it does also get to the stage where they become less and less like actual food yeah and you know where's the joy in that yeah totally exactly exactly okay so the next kind of buzzword we've got is iron we've got a lot of questions about iron and i know i've asked you about iron before

and we did a test and i was really pleasantly surprised yeah this was a few weeks ago to see that i wasn't deficient in iron which was brilliant yeah but it's definitely been something that i think we're all quite conscious of and it seems like iron deficiency is actually generally an issue especially amongst women yeah completely aside from vegans plant-based eaters vegetarians vegeters whatever we're going to call ourselves but what do we but to take it back a step further even what do we need iron for and what are the best sources of plant-based iron yeah so we need iron for some really really important stuff it's it's needed for your immune system it's needed for energy your thyroid needs it it's important for mood but it also carries oxygen around the body and your

blood which is obviously pretty important and it's one of those nutrients that when it does dip you can actually if you're kind of in tune with your body can really notice it quite quickly. Because you get such an energy dip? Well you get an energy dip and it's that kind of there's lots of different types of low energy right like you could be have low energy because you haven't slept well or because your blood sugar's low but low iron is more of a fatigue kind of feeling heavy limbs heavy arms you know legs and heavy head sometimes you can sometimes feel faint and you can sometimes get headaches so it's it's needed for lots of stuff and it's one that you can notice quite quickly. So how much do we need and that side of things?

The government say around 14 milligrams per day. That increases again if you're pregnant and women need more than men. Is that because of our periods? Exactly, yeah. So most women, if you're having periods each month, are going to be losing iron. Because you're losing blood. Exactly, yeah. So most women, if you're having periods each month, are going to be losing iron. Because you're losing blood. Exactly, yeah. And also if you are having children,

then you're losing even more blood. You're having to create so much more blood whilst you're pregnant and then you're losing some of that. So breastfeeding as well would also be a time where your iron stores can become depleted. What are the best sources of plant-based iron? Yeah, so there are lots of plant-based sources. And again, it's a lot of things like the beans and pulses, things like kidney beans, adzuki beans. It's found again in things like cashew nuts and tahini. It's found in chia seeds. It's also found in vegetables,

you know, the sort of spinach and kale and that side of things the only thing is that you've got to be aware of is that there are different types of iron there's plant-based there's obviously the plant-based iron which is non-heme and then there's the animal-based iron which is heme and the body absorbs heme really well but it doesn't absorb the plant-based non-heme as easily. So does that mean you need more? It means that you ideally, some research suggests that you need almost double. Interesting.

So there are things that can help you absorb it better. So there are things like vitamin C aids absorption. That was one of my questions. Yeah, so yes, that does help. Also fermented foods can help you get more of that heme iron. And really? Yeah, that can help with in the gut as well. And that's just because it helps your gut process it? It's more to do with absorption.

Yeah, processing and absorption. If you have coffee or tea or caffeine at the same time as having an iron source, you might not absorb. It might impact on the absorption of that. So it's definitely something that plant-based eaters are more at risk of. I mean, I can give you some levels of things that have got iron. Edamame, like half a cup's got about four and a half grams. I like this. Edamame seems to be recurring in our love.

Going for sushi, like going to Japanese is Matt's best thing ever. So edamame is like the first thing he orders. Yeah. I mean, not that we should be having, obviously, tons of that in moderation in all ways with diet. So dulse and some seaweeds have got decent sources of iron, sometimes around 11 grams for half a cup. That would be quite a big source. Yeah, I mean, you probably wouldn't eat as much as half a cup of dulse, but it's to give you an idea of how much is in there.

Lentils, lentils have got more protein actually than beans and often more iron. So we're looking at about three and a half grams per half cup dark chocolate raw cacao or even just having dark chocolate doesn't have to be cacao is a good source of iron um around four grams per serving so you you just need to make sure you're getting again a very diet yeah a very diet exactly and you should hopefully be getting enough of them if you notice again low energy sometimes sometimes women can find hair falling out as a sign of their iron levels dropping so it's worth getting it checked if you've been a long-term vegan or vegetarian or maybe you have heavy periods or you've had a couple of children maybe get it checked with the doctors and just be

sure yeah and then go for japanese food and eat chocolate. And we'll all be golden. And how about fatty acids and omega-3? Yeah, so one of the great things about vegans and plant-based eaters is that they don't seem to be too afraid of fats. You know, they don't have that fear. And we know now more and more research is pointing towards the benefits of getting enough fats and just how important the right types of fats are in the diet. Yeah, people used to be so scared of fat. But everything, I think, through Paleo and Atkins diet,

everything was just so protein-focused. I think people still are frightened, actually. I have a lot of clients that still just can't get their head around the fact that it's got calories, more calories than they want, and they're scared of it. But we know that the right types of fats, the good fats, have a lot of important benefits to the body. They're required to make our brains work properly. They're important for our mood. They're important for our hormone balance. They reduce inflammation. They're needed

for skin and hair, everything from that down to, you know, your immune system, their cardiovascular health, their really, really important joint health. And we need, again, with all things in diet, you need a variety of different types of fats. So saturated fats, which have the worst name, actually, we need some of those saturated fats. And vegans having coconut oil and macadamia nuts should get, you know, some saturated fats from those which are important for the body. We shouldn't be cutting those out totally. You've got polyunsaturated fats fats which are omega-3 and 6 and monounsaturated fats which are things like olive oil and avocado but so you want all three of those you want all of them yeah and which are the quote-unquote bad

fats because i think fats is because that's trans fats that we don't want is that correct yeah trans fats would be the ones that we want to try and avoid where possible and they tend to be the more processed fats so like margarines and uh trans fats also occur when oils are heated too too high because they're unstable so like a deep frying process yeah exactly exactly and sort of ready meals and things like that can often contain trans fats interesting so those are the ones you want to be trying to avoid but vegans generally tend to get most of the good types of fats. The other one to think about not getting too much off would be vegetable oils. Yeah. So, you know, using corn oil or sunflower oil and using a lot of that in cooking, not so good.

And the reason for that is because of this balance of omega-3 to omega-6. So to sort of summarise that, you might have heard as a plant-based eater that you need to have this ratio of three to six yes and that's really important so we need to have a little bit more six than we have three so the ratio is about three to one because it's it they're needed for lots of various things in the body okay but we need more sixes in our body than we do of threes yes but but the problem is with a vegan diet eight omega-6 is pretty abundant in a vegan diet because you're eating so many things like nuts and seeds, different oils and different vegetables and so on,

different vegetable oils, that you tend to get enough omega-6. Things like avocado, do they fall into that? To some extent, yeah. They are more of the monounsaturated. Yes, they do have some omega-6. So you should get enough of those quite easily but the omega-3s are the ones

that you tend to be at more risk of deficiency of because they are found in walnuts flaxseed chia seeds hemp seeds hemp seeds as well yeah they're also found in some green leafy vegetables but you sometimes you're not getting enough of those to balance that ratio of six two three yeah the other thing is that there are different types of omega-3 and the types that you get from a vegan diet are not the same as the types, they're not the most active forms in the body, if that makes sense. So when you eat fish, you get what's called EPA and DHA and they're the really anti-inflammatory beneficial omega-3s. When you eat flaxseed,

you get ALA. And actually, you need to convert that to these other types of more active types. So again, do you need a little bit more? You need to try to get more, but also you need to make sure you've got enough zinc in your diet, because that helps with that conversion. So you can also, some algaes have got some DHA in there. So like a spirulina or something like that? Yeah, exactly. It's not impossible at all. It's just something that you need to be mindful of if you've eaten a plant-based diet for a long time. Generally speaking, no matter how you eat,

we all need to be aware, basically, of having a varied diet, whether you're vegan or not vegan. Is that kind of right in saying? Yeah, absolutely. Yeah. The more variety you get, the less chance of deficiency. If you're eating the same foods all the time, and the thing is, as nutritionists, we don't want deficiencies and things. You want to just get as much variety in the diet as possible. So if you are, for example, with vegetables, the different types of fiber are going to support different types of gut bacteria in the gut. And the more variety you get on that front, the better and healthier you're going to hopefully be. it's so interesting yeah okay so we have a couple more key questions okay

because you just mentioned zinc so then kind of calcium magnesium zinc those sort of core groups what are our best sources of something calcium was one of the really big questions that we got from um readers for today's episode yeah yeah absolutely so calcium is another one a bit like iron you think of dairy when you yeah i just think of milk that's what we've been kind of taught from a young age i think people believe that calcium doesn't exist in anything outside of dairy actually you must have your glass of milk to get your calcium my My mum made us when we were kids because that was exactly what she had kind of been told.

So we had to have a glass. And I never, ever liked milk. It always freaked me out a bit. I don't know why there's something about that. I couldn't handle it. And I never liked it. So it was always a bit of a battle at home. But my mum used to make us drink a glass of milk

for breakfast and dinner every single... I mean, obviously, we got food as well well but with our breakfast and our dinner every single day on the presumption that if we didn't do that we'd have no calcium in our diets yeah yeah yeah exactly yeah yeah so i mean it couldn't be further from the truth that it's only calcium found that's only found in dairy there are so many sources of of calcium so again, it comes back down to like our beans and our pulses and our chickpeas, our lentils. It's also found in tahini, a good source of sesame seeds and things like that. But it's also in vegetables that have got a thick stem. So like bok choy, for for example or like tender stem broccoli or

normal broccoli cauliflower those things types of things um okra is another good one another great source of calcium the only again edamame contains some calcium tahini and so chia seeds are another really good one for calcium but the main thing to be aware of is that there are some types of plant-based calcium that you don't absorb very well so for example things like spinach and chard and like collard greens yeah they actually contain something called oxalates which stops you absorbing as much of the calcium so you want to try to get again it just comes back down to variety you're still going to get some of it but you might not get as much of it okay um so it's just something to be mindful of but really important to make sure you're getting enough yeah that was one of the other things we tested recently and i was very

pleased to be definitely not deficient in because i think it is a kind of fear among plant-based eaters that you would be and i was really excited to see actually like eating a very varied diet but without kind of overthinking it i would would genuinely say it was easy to do. Ella, in your personal diet, what is the big watch out where you can become deficient? Is it just B12, which you take supplements for?

Yeah, so I supplement B12 and have done for the last few years. I mean, I try and take it every day. I do forget sometimes. I see a lot of vegans in my clinic who are deficient in zinc. Not all of them, but it's actually quite a common deficiency. More so than protein.

Yes, I would say so. I mean, generally, I'm always encouraging my vegan clients to try and get more protein if they can, if they're not eating enough of it. But if I test zinc and it's low, I see a lot of people for skin problems, for example, and hormonal imbalances and immune imbalances and zinc's very important for all of those things.

And that's a general deficiency in the population? Well, I mean, well, in my clinic, I see. I mean, I don't have a, I don't know whether there are figures on a general deficiency. Yeah, but you see it in lots and lots of people. I see it in more people than other nutrients, for sure. Interesting. Other minerals.

It's one of those ones that stressed out people, people that are not always getting enough sleep or if they're drinking and smoking all those things being exposed to sort of pollution and lots of long distance air travel um long haul air travel can be at more risk of zinc deficiency so i i see that in my clinic and zinc is also found in lots of meat and things like things like meat and fish but in a plant-based diet it's totally available as meat and things like meat and fish. But in a plant-based diet, it's totally available as well. And things like, again, it's tahini, sunflower seeds, pumpkin seeds, oats are a good source.

So yeah, we want to be trying to get those things in. Okay, so Oaty breakfast, eat loads of edamame beans, go for Japanese food and make all the hummus. Those are my takeaways. I'm thrilled with all of them. And raw cacao or chocolate. Oh yeah, so eat loads of Japanese, eat loads of chocolate and eat all the hummus. It sounds pretty doable to me.

Okay. So then the kind of key other thing. So B12 we just touched on. So B12 is the one thing, am I right in saying you can't get in a vegan diet? That is absolutely correct. I think there were some people at one stage that thought that you could either get enough through, the thought that you could get it through plant-based sources. True. Am I right in saying I think people felt you could get it through spirulina and chlorella and things like that? Exactly.

And can you just remind us why we need B12? Yeah. So B12 is another big one for some really fundamental things. It helps you make your DNA. That's pretty key. It's quite important, yeah. It's also needed to, well, it helps support a reaction called methylation in the body. And that's needed for lots and lots of things, including things like liver function, hormone balance, mood, cardiovascular support. So really important for all that kind of stuff. It's important for energy production. It's involved with the management of iron and zinc so they all kind of work together

and synergistically so it's a really really important nutrient and we store b12 so if you've been eating say meat or fish or eggs or dairy in your life you would have probably built up a bit of a store of b12 but the longer your plant-based for the more those stores can become depleted and you need to supplement it so so you do need to supplement it yeah so you can't get it through algaes and you some people thought that your gut fermentation processes might make enough b12 but it's not the case you have to supplement it but it's one of those ones and how many grams a day i mean it's it's the kind of you need to get your level tested to work out what you need it's going to be dependent on different people but doctors you can easily go to your doctor if you're plant

based and get it tested and I would recommend doing that every year if you can okay but I think you said this the other day to me that again b12 is something actually quite like it's not just people in a plant-based diet it's a general deficiency that we're seeing now in the country is that right yeah you're right actually it is one that is on the more common list of deficiencies so interesting yeah again is it to do with the fact that people are just not realizing that they're not eating enough protein yeah you know people are moving more towards a plant-based diet and just not realizing that that's something that they need to keep an eye on yeah so hopefully that message will get across um okay and then the last question um in terms of vitamins and minerals

and the rest of it was vitamin d um obviously i just think about getting that lying on the beach yeah i know and like i obviously we all lived in california or somewhere like sri lanka and here in gray rainy london yeah seems like we might not be getting so much vitamin d in our lives yeah yeah especially at this time of year so that is certainly one of the most common deficiencies that you find in in the general population it's certainly in the northern hemisphere but in the uk and if you're if you've got darker skin so the more dark your skin is the more pigment you've got the more melanin and the stronger the sunlight you need so if you are in in england and you this sun this level of sunlight might not be strong enough for you so you might need to consider supplementing or getting at

least tested but some people who don't like going in the sun also you know some people put lots of sunscreen on and completely stay out of the sun they're also at risk of it but at this time of year even if you're outside in in direct sunlight which doesn't happen to be honest very often i mean how many really sunny days are there anywhere this time yeah and you're covered up because it's cold it's it's you're you're very unlikely to be able to get enough so unless you go what are the effects of not having enough vitamin d? And how do you get it outside of sunlight? Yeah, yeah. So it is, well, vitamin D is needed for a huge array of things in the body. So your immune system needs vitamin D to function properly. It actually behaves more like a hormone, vitamin D, than a natural vitamin.

But it's needed for your hormone balance itself. It's needed for your immune system, mood, it would seem. It's important for bone health that's probably the biggest one that we know about but you know more research is needed to kind of explain all of these things that it's needed for but signs that you may not have enough it's tricky one because we don't know for sure actually and how do you get it outside of just so oily fish is a great source of of vitamin d as are things like eggs egg yolks mushrooms that have been left outside in the sun interestingly produce some vitamin d so if they sunbathe then you can think about massaging kale

and now we're sunbathing mushrooms yeah they might contain more vitamin d if you do that but generally it's going to be quite difficult to get enough of that for your diet even even as no matter what you are exactly so that's probably the best so it's going to be quite difficult to get enough of that for your diet. No matter what you eat. Exactly. So that's probably the best as a supplement. So it's one that you should get tested and probably might need a supplement. Yeah. One question I had was, I've heard that when you have lots of sunscreen on,

you can't absorb the vitamin D as readily. Is that true? Well, it's not about absorbing it. It's about making it in the skin. So you make vitamin D when your skin is exposed to sunlight okay and if you if you have sunscreen on it blocks the uva and uvb rays and you can't make the vitamin d so it's advisable in this country to try and get i think the government say to try and get like 20 minutes of of direct exposure you might want to be careful about doing that on your face for example

we say on your back if people who are really sensitive to the sun you know need to be really careful with that but that's that's a good and not a midday on the hardest day of the year yeah yeah so basically what i've my conclusion anyway is that from a plant-based diet you should really be able to get everything you need the only supplements that it for the general and obviously everyone's it will have their their individual circumstances but broadly speaking it's b12 and vitamin d are the two kind of major watch ads and everything as long as you're eating a diverse and varied diet we've heard from megan ross who told us about trying to eat 30 different plant-based foods a week where yeah if you're doing that you should be getting everything else that you need anyway it's really just b12 and vitamin d that the kind of watchouts that you

may need to be supplementing where everything else you should be getting if you're eating you should in theory yeah i mean everyone's different and some people might have health conditions yeah which might require them to need more more things or they might be deficient in certain things genetically for example um but on the whole yes if you're eating conscientiously you know getting lots of variety you should be able to do to do it yeah but as you said there's no one size with anything in life there's no one size fits all so it's so important to make sure it's working for you and you individually and your body rather than your friend's body or someone else's body and the way that they're doing it. One last question I had from readers, which we had loads of questions on, so I can't not ask you, is fiber.

Now, some people say they're inspired suddenly to do Meat Free Monday or just up their veggie intake. And, you know, they've been more like two a day and they're suddenly, I'm going to do my five a day, maybe they do six a day, seven a day. And they're really trying to up this veggie and fruit intake. As a result, they suddenly are eating loads of fiber that they weren't eating before and then people say they get so much bloating and things like that can you can you give us a thought process on that yeah yeah i mean any any change in the diet you know sometimes your

body can take a bit of time to get used to it yeah and uh certainly with something like if you go from eating one or two sources of veg a day to having all of a sudden you know seven sources of vegetables plus a plus a load of you know beans and pulses that can be a big jump and you'll probably poop a lot more yeah certainly certainly and you know some people can find they get really gassy yeah and some people you know who have a more sensitive digestion can feel that more. What I would say is you might want to do it a little bit more gradually, but if you are someone that has more sensitive digestion, then some people can struggle with foods that contain FODMAPs. Now, this is something that you might need one-on-one support with or speak to a doctor about,

but there are certain types of vegetables that contain more of those FODMAPs and beans and pulses, some plant-based foods fit under that category as well. And some people find that when they choose the vegetables that don't contain those, so tomatoes, for example, don't have many FODMAPs, but broccoli and Brussels sprouts, which are a classic food for making people really gassy.

Yeah, everyone says Brussels sprouts make you fart. I mean, that's the old joke, isn't it? Yeah, exactly. And lentils for some people. But you might find that just being a little bit more choosy on that front might be better for you. Yeah. So again, coming back to exactly what we said, just making it work for you individually

and making slow, gradual, steady changes rather than ever feeling like you've got to change everything at once. Yeah, exactly. So Alice, that has been incredibly insightful. And I think we've both learned a huge amount changes rather than ever feeling like you've got to change everything at once yeah exactly so alice that has been incredibly insightful and i think we've both learned a huge amount and we hope all listeners have as well the way we typically end each episode is by asking our guest what a ritual or routine or practice that they live by each day is do you have one oh it's an interesting one being as it's the new year as well.

Yeah, actually, I have an interesting one. So I used to be one of these people that was straight onto my phone first thing in the morning in bed, which is awful. We're all so guilty of that. I know you've spoken about this. We're getting better at it, I must say. Yeah, it's not easy. It's not easy. I decided that, and I took it slow. I don't always manage it.

I get out of bed. Before I turn my phone on. I just do some journaling. So that doesn't necessarily mean like I sit and write for like an hour, but I might just write down some affirmations for the day or a couple of goals or some things I'm grateful for. And then I can, I do that with a cup of tea, I always make that's another big ritual yeah herbal tea normally and that I find is something I'm trying to do more of that I've really enjoyed I meditation is another one I try to do but it you know it doesn't always manage to fit into my schedule that one seems to be quite realistic for me that's something I'm doing at the moment I love that but you know what we've had lots of people say journaling or gratitude lists or something like that. And less phone. Yeah, and less phone. It completely seems to be for everyone that these things make a massive impact in their life. We're trying to do less phone, not charging by the bed.

You're charging outside of the room. My charge is in another room. And that makes a massive difference because the temptation isn't there in the morning. But Matt's Christmas present, I did get him something else as well, but I also bought him alarm clocks. So then we had clocks. Yeah. I said to people,

I'm not going to use my phone in bed. And they're like, well, how? Well, you know the time. Yeah, true. Oh, get a sad lamp, which wakes you up in the morning. Yeah, those are genius.

For the source of vitamin D. Yeah. And then we're trying to do 10 minute meditation before we go to bed, which has been... Yeah, yeah. We'll see how long it stays. No then we're trying to do 10-minute meditation before we go to bed, which has been... Yeah, yeah. We'll see how long it stays.

No, we're loving it. Loving it so far. Yeah, it's been great. Yeah, it's just making realistic objectives like that, isn't it? Because some of these things can be really difficult to maintain when you're really busy and just being kind to yourself. I can't always do it and that's totally fine. Exactly.

The thing I found though is that even though meditation feels like one more thing you're doing in the evening, it sends me to sleep so much quicker anyway, because it quietens my mind. You're passed out within like, you have to say goodnight to me before the meditation goes on. Because within like one to two minutes afterwards, there's just gentle snoring. Whereas before it'd take me a lot longer to go to sleep so it's great i actually tell a lot of my clients if they can't manage meditation because they're in a busy office all the time or they're commuting or whatever it is they can't manage it try to do four six breathing which i know you also talk about because you can do it anywhere totally and and there's a

lot of sort of physiological benefits it's psychologically good and supportive but physiologically been shown to be really good for the body as well and really reduce cortisol levels and four six breathing is when you breathe in for four yeah and then out for six yeah and if you can pause for a quick sec at the top and then exhale yeah amazing thank you so much alice my pleasure have a lovely day guys thanks for tuning in and please do if you have a sec rate us review us leave a comment makes the world of difference and we will be back next week you're a podcast listener and this is a podcast ad heard only in canada reach great canadian listeners like yourself with podcast

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