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Episode 9a: Beyond Diets: Why Nutrition Feels So Confusing — And What Actually Matters
15 Plays7 days ago
In this episode of the Body Evolution Podcast, we begin breaking down one of the most misunderstood areas of health: nutrition.
Instead of focusing on diets, restrictions, or food rules, this conversation explores the foundations of how the body actually uses food for energy, recovery, hormones, brain function, and long-term health.
We unpack the role of carbohydrates, fats, and proteins, why nutrition feels so confusing today, and how different bodies respond differently to food. Most importantly, we explain why balance, context, and consistency matter more than extremes.
In this episode, we explore:
- Why nutrition feels overwhelming in modern health culture
- The role of protein, carbohydrates, and fats in the body
- Why carbs are not inherently “bad”
- The difference between simple and complex carbohydrates
- How processed foods affect blood sugar and insulin
- What insulin resistance and prediabetes actually mean
- Why fats are essential for hormones and brain health
- The role of protein beyond muscle building
- Essential amino acids and why protein matters for everyone
- Why whole foods support health better than processed foods
- How nutrition changes depending on goals, lifestyle, and metabolism
- Why there is no single perfect diet for everybody
This episode is an invitation to simplify nutrition and reconnect with the body’s real needs. When we stop chasing extremes and begin understanding how food actually works, nutrition becomes less stressful, more sustainable, and far more human.
📚 Resources & Research Mentioned
Harvard — Carbohydrates and Blood Sugar https://nutritionsource.hsph.harvard.edu/carbohydrates/
NIH — Insulin Resistance & Prediabetes https://www.niddk.nih.gov/health-information/diabetes/overview/what-is-diabetes/prediabetes-insulin-resistance
Harvard — Healthy Fats Explained https://nutritionsource.hsph.harvard.edu/what-should-you-eat/fats-and-cholesterol/
NIH — Omega-3 Fatty Acids Fact Sheet https://ods.od.nih.gov/factsheets/Omega3FattyAcids-Consumer/
Harvard — Protein: What It Is and Why It Matters https://nutritionsource.hsph.harvard.edu/what-should-you-eat/protein/
NIH — Essential Amino Acids Overview https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK557845/
NIH — Ketogenic Diet & Epilepsy Research https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/books/NBK499830/
Harvard — Ultra-Processed Foods and Health https://www.health.harvard.edu/staying-healthy/ultra-processed-foods-what-are-they-and-how-do-they-affect-your-health
🔗 Connect with Body Evolution
🌐 Website http://www.Body-evolve.com
🔗 Linktree https://linktr.ee/body_evolution
Follow us, join the conversation, and continue evolving with us.
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Transcript
Introduction to Body Evolution Podcast
00:00:03
Speaker
Welcome to a space for movement, mindset, and sustainable rhythm. This is Body Evolution.
00:00:13
Speaker
Hi, and welcome to the Body Evolution podcast, where health becomes simple, sustainable, and human. Hi, I'm Corey Repp. And I'm Eli Berenguer, and we break down fitness, nutrition, habits, and energy through one lens.
00:00:28
Speaker
what actually works in real life. So let's do
Transition to Nutrition Discussion
00:00:31
Speaker
this. let's do it sir So in the last episodes, we have been talking more about fitness, about movement, strength, endurance, all these functions of the body and how the body is adapting to training and daily activity. But today we want to talk about other of the pillars. One of the pillars are so important in our health too. And it's about nutrition. Nutrition is one of the essential pillars and we want to go a little bit deeper into the nutritional part.
00:01:04
Speaker
So we're not going to be talking today about diets and restrictions and food rules. We don't want to go into that part. We're going to talk about the foundational part of what is the nutrition and understanding what i food actually does in the body and why protein, carbohydrate, fats all have an important role in health. and for our energy and performance.
Navigating Nutrition Information
00:01:31
Speaker
And definitely, if you have not listened, the episode seven and eight is really connected because after you do exercise and fitness and strength movement and then everything comes the nutrition that is so important for our energy and for our performance.
00:01:48
Speaker
So for starting, Corey, can you help us to understand oh what do you think some Nutrition, let's say, why do you think nutrition feels so, so overwhelming for so many people these days?
00:02:05
Speaker
Yeah, well, it's mainly there's just so much information out there that, and there's a lot of good information, a lot of bad information, and people saying that this specific diet is the best one or that specific diet is the best one. So they they get confused. there's There's just so much out there and and there's, you know, people claiming some amazing or crazy things about this diet or that diet or this nutrient or that nutrient. And a lot of it's overblown.
00:02:37
Speaker
a lot of it's overstated.
Diet and Lifestyle Interactions
00:02:39
Speaker
And a lot of it is just that they they think that need needs to be one approach or another when the body is so adaptable that there's actually a lot of healthy paths we can take. So So when people focus on just a rule of a diet or or the specific nutrient is bad or this specific nutrient is good, then you know, it's like demonization of carbs or fats or depending on the era we were in, right? And things like that. Whereas if you really go from looking at it as like the set of rules versus just trying to understand how nutrients really work in the body, that's sort of can unravel that kind of thing. And that's what we want to really wanna do. So people don't need a perfect diet.
00:03:21
Speaker
What we want is just to gain some clarity about nutrition and how the body uses it. And then we can sort of get consistency on improving that. And so that's where, you know, we get into different things about how different areas of of our life affect how our diet is as well. I mean, our and and our diet affects other areas of life. So like stress and stress and sleep can affect how much, how our satiation and our hunger work and and on the vice versa. If we eat well, we have better energy for different things in life. If we don't, you know, there's certain foods that can cause us to be agitated or stressed or
00:04:05
Speaker
certain foods, foods that are calming as well. So these types of things are overlapping. And as we get into, we talk about our different pillar pillars of health, like we've just got done talking about the fitness stuff. And now we're going into this series that we're creating about nutrition. So this, this episode is going to be like you said, sort of not, not getting into all the details of every specific diet, but getting into some general frameworks about what
Individual Metabolism and Dietary Needs
00:04:31
Speaker
nutrition is about. And we'll get sort of deeper into some of those in later episodes.
00:04:36
Speaker
I love it. And i'm adding for this, what you were telling, you were talking, and it was, is is it it's like that. There's so much information out there. So many follow this diet, these trends, and this is what you have to do. And definitely, I think that ah what creates a lot of confusion, too, is the different results people get from these diets. Because we are, each one has a different metabolism. We have, we are bio-individuality. You know, we are, different beings and not the diet that works for one person works for the other always so we are like segmented different groups but this brings like why this person is eating this and gets all these results and i'm not getting there so the metabolism can be different you know the genetic aspects how our body works how it process the energy that we consume so it's very confusing for a lot of people even because of the results they get and how they feel but it's look they can tell you hey eat a lot of fruit but if you're intolerant to fructose maybe you have to lower down you cannot eat that amount and you have to take more care about other stuff so there are so many things are important to understand better data this confusion that we have about nutrition there are not
00:05:59
Speaker
at all, as we were talking, there's no miracle diet, there is no something that is the best for everyone.
Sleep's Influence on Diet
00:06:07
Speaker
There are some foundations and that's what we want to talk about today. So I wanted to add this and i wanted to ask you not only, well, another thing that you were saying and mentioning and is this confusion and contradictory contradictions and advices that they give us You were saying something about ah this nutritional confusion that it got me for a long time. bro I was one of those persons, super confused, that I gained a lot of weight and everything in the process because of the confusion of diets. And I was having, they were putting me a diet and my biggest issue is something you mentioned, sleep.
00:06:51
Speaker
I was sleeping so bad that I didn't know that sleep was affecting me my craving so much. So I was overeating because I was all the time under the rule of cravings, you know? That that hit me hard for a long time. that ah case was not stress, was sleep, the one pushing me to eat a lot.
00:07:15
Speaker
So that's a very good point you put there. And I wanted to ask you, like, Okay, now we want to understand nutrition. We need to understand what the hell is nutrition, what we're
Understanding Macronutrients
00:07:26
Speaker
talking about. So there are different families and today we want to go more into one aspect, but yes, we have macronutrients, we have other kind of things that we need from nutrition, but we're going to focus today on the most big and important thing that is the macronutrients.
00:07:45
Speaker
So Can you explain to us what are the macronutrients and why do they matter? Yes. So, yeah, like you said, we're we're starting very general and as big as we can just to get a good feel for what nutrition does for our bodies. And macronutrients are the place to start because macronutrients, macro meaning the larger nutrients. These are the foods that bring bring us calories, the the things that kind of fill up our diet, fill up our plate. Those are, and most people have heard of, that macronutrients are proteins, carbohydrates, and fats.
00:08:21
Speaker
right. And so we're going to talk about those today. And because each of those is what provides our calories, we'll well talk about the protein provides four calories per gram of protein, whereas carbohydrates also four calories four calories pergram of protein. And fats...
00:08:46
Speaker
which get demonized for this, provide nine calories per gram of fat. And that's why i think for so long and for so many years, fat was so demonized because it is you know, increase your calories pretty quickly when you when start consuming fats in your diet. But we'll we'll talk more about how essential fats are for as a nutrient for your body. So, so again, these are the nutrients the body needs in large amounts like these are fill up the bulk of our diet, right? um And they all have different different roles. And we need to balance those in specific ways to provide the nutrients that our body needs.
00:09:28
Speaker
So the body, yeah, the body adapts to different things.
Balancing Diet with Goals
00:09:32
Speaker
And and and again, this is why we're not gonna give some ideal ratio of of these macronutrients for you because the body's adaptive and different diets with different ratios work in different ways, just as good for the body and the body adapts to make to using those things. and And the adaptability of the body sometimes is a goal for health as well. And we'll talk about that as well later. so um And depends, ah ah sorry to interrupt you, but it depends here too of your goals. What are you looking for? So it's not a specific diet that is perfect, but what are you looking at that moment in your life? but Are yeah if you planning to lose weight? Are you planning to gain muscle? Are you planning to heal your gut? Are you planning to just have a very balanced? So yeah I wanted to add that point because that's what you say, health depends, ah the nutrition depends more on the balance. Yeah.
00:10:27
Speaker
So it's not about what we take out or in, but what is what we're looking for and what but but do we need, you know, independent in what part or stage in life you are.
00:10:40
Speaker
Yeah, what you're providing for your body when it needs and and what you what you what you need for your goals. And we'll get a bit into that as well in terms of you know how you know for specific goals, we we want to get more or less of a specific type of nutrient. So um you talked about your confusion in the past and what – what that did for you or, you know, sort of hurt your ability to reach your own goals. Can you say anything that you sort of grasped that sort of some general thing that said, okay, oh, this, this is really
Historical Dietary Misconceptions
00:11:17
Speaker
the truth. And that really helped you out. What, you know, in terms about macro.
00:11:22
Speaker
So look, to put in context, people understand, ah I was like a Jojo all the time. I was going up and down. through my whole life with diet. My body, a the body of people have different ways to respond so I have to a fast responder body for different areas.
00:11:42
Speaker
So it's good because when I go to the gym I have a faster response and I can build a little bit faster but when I overeat my my body is fast responder too so it it comes with a lot of gaining weight easily.
00:12:00
Speaker
ah The last time i went, it was like crazy. I gained like five kilos almost in a week, something like that, because I overeat a lot of calories. So what I was not understanding in the past is...
00:12:16
Speaker
this role play between these, the importance of all of them. i entered because I was going to nutritionists and everything and it's not their fault ah in that time. There was a moment that there were some studies and research that were saying that the bad guy was fat, as you were saying, because of this amount of... hair But they were saying that all these issues of health were coming from the fats,
00:12:44
Speaker
especially. So we entered the famous era of 0% fat, of everything, 0%, like, like, 0%, 0%. But they were adding a lot of sugars or sweeteners and other things to give taste because once you strike fat for some stuff, it loses taste, it loses things. So you needed to recover and they were put in.
00:13:09
Speaker
And with some nutritionists and everything, I began to overeat carbohydrates, so carbohydrates are very essential but i wear I was eating too many carbohydrates, so imagine it's lower the grams of carbohydrates than the ones of fats, but what I learned is why is so important the balance?
Carbohydrates: Essential and Misunderstood
00:13:31
Speaker
You can overeat a lot of carbohydrates, it's harder to overeat fats because they create more society, so if you have more fats and more proteins, you fill up and you feel nice, you know, and and you slow down the the consumption. But when you eat a lot of carbohydrates, you begin to i you eat a lot. You can overeat so many calories because it's like it doesn't fill the society in the body. So what I learned is that the balance of the three are essential. Yeah. um In that past, I was overeating carbohydrates and I was not eating enough proteins and fats, almost non-fats at all. And that was creating other issues yeah in me, related with hormones and other aspects that we will go deeper. We'll more about that too. But you you sort of segue right into carbohydrates. so
00:14:28
Speaker
So maybe you can help us explain what carbohydrates are, specifically what they do in your body and, you know, what what there are you know what beliefs are there are about them, good or bad?
00:14:43
Speaker
So, carbohydrates, the first thing that we have to understand that there is a meat that they are good or bad. There are no... Carbohydrates are essential. Look, there's people at the keto diet, um carbs are bad. No, we need carbohydrates. a We need them for performance. We need it for different things in life, for our body and at attention. But the main thing is that carbohydrates is the first...
00:15:07
Speaker
fuel option of our bodies, like the primary energy source that we need for our body. And carbohydrates have a very important role. So the problem is not carbohydrates, but where are those carbohydrates coming from? and sometimes it's processed foods, ultra processed foods, all these, that is the ones that are really creating the issue when we talk up now about carbohydrates. But essentially, almost all the foods we eat, they have a little amount of different of the macronutrients.
00:15:40
Speaker
Okay, so sometimes we're eating something that is very high in fats, very low in protein and carbohydrates, something that is very high in carbohydrates, very low in protein and fats. It's very hard in nature to find something that is very high in carbs and fats at the same time. It's very hard. it's But that's what we produce because these are the two sources of energy energy and we love carbs because of that. So We tend to go to ultra processed foods that are very high in energy and our body loves because it's like a huge energy. So if you eat the pizza, if you eat something, it's like you have all the cheese with the fats and everything, but the base is always carbohydrates. So to carbohydrates, we are always looking for them.
00:16:26
Speaker
Our body is always looking for carbohydrates because it's an easy, good energy source, so it keeps us functioning. So the the idea is to focus on whole food carbohydrates and put away the ultra process. And when we're talking about these good sources can be, and you know, potatoes, we can take so a fruits, rice, we can take say vegetables. My favorite is vegetables. If you have a good variety of vegetables, that in some way to you understand if view or if you heard fast carbs and slow carbs, well, when talk of slow carbs, it's coming from vegetables, it's coming from carbs that doesn't create super high peaks of insulin in the level of the body. But then we have the fast carbohydrates, bread, pasta, and this kind of processed foods that they spike a lot.
00:17:23
Speaker
So yes, carbohydrates is energy, is very important for different functions. But if you want to do performance in exercise, if you want to be good, you need carbohydrate for recovery performance on this aspect. It's very important. I don't know if you want to add something about the carbohydrates that important the listeners. Right, I think that it's good to highlight that carbohydrates are the preferred source of energy for our body and our brains. Our brains use 20% of the body's total energy expenditure is used by our brain, especially in those days where to think really hard, we're getting And so that's why day when you have to – a lot of brain power, use a lot of brain power, it actually drains you a bit.
00:18:08
Speaker
And so those sugars – because every all carbohydrates that we can consume or but are – we digest it into sugars you know which are – glucose in the bloodstream, right? And so that the glucose is preferred by the brain and and and that's a big source. And also by our muscles are are the first the first source of energy for our muscles is the that sugar, so well, the phosphocreatine is the first one the ap ATP that's already stored in muscles, but then there's sugar, sugar stored in the muscles in the form of glycogen, which are the, you know are that that power through the sprinting, the, the, li with the weightlifting, the the bursts of energy that we need.
00:18:50
Speaker
And, and so our bodies really like that, that source of energy. It's not the only source of energy. And that's why a keto diet can work for people and they can get, they can gain energy from other
Exploring the Keto Diet
00:19:02
Speaker
sources. Um, but carbohydrates in the diet are, has become our primary. And I think that the, the, the,
00:19:10
Speaker
The problem is not only the ultra process that but that we constantly always as as modern humans have carbohydrates in our diet and that wasn't historically how we were. And we'll talk a little bit about mix metabolic flexibility later, which is a we'll get into the details of what that means. But the fact that we have too many carbs that's and too consistently getting all our energy from carbohydrates.
00:19:38
Speaker
is is become why they are demonized and that's why some people say carbs are bad it's for that reason it's because we're overdoing it with the carbs especially with the highly processed ones yes and especially and wanted to add that when we're talking about carbs uh carbs uh we have the most dangerous carb in the world is processed sugar okay it's like the one that we overdo a lot and that's one of the ones i was overdoing because i was like look imagine this breakfast for a lot of people this is a breakfast that is super healthy it's like oh nice i want to have that breakfast a good toast okay imagine this nice bread toasted with a good batter on top of it and jam, you know, you put something, i don't know, you want blueberries, whatever, really nice, really nice. And companion, you have ah orange juice, okay? And you say, this is my breakfast. and And you take that breakfast like, ah, if you see it's a lot of carbs, it's the it's the bread, it's the jam, it's the juice, because it's not a smoothie even.
00:20:46
Speaker
the the The problem of juices are hiking carbohydrates and you're missing all the important things. This is so important in carbohydrates. Why we need carbohydrates? Because the majority of the fibers that we're going consume comes from carbohydrates, from vegetables and fruits. But when we do juice, we lose all the fiber. That fiber, we throw it away and we take only the juice, only the fructose, only the sugary part, the tasty part ah of of the fruit. So it's so important ah to understand that part of what is important of the consumption of carbohydrates, especially when it comes from vegetables and from ah fruits, is to take the whole with the fiber. So carbohydrates are very linked with fiber. So it's very important for our gut health. Yeah, for sure. so
00:21:37
Speaker
And if we were talking, you were explaining that we have different sources of energy and that keto diet, can help some people and one of those in my metabolism it work a lot well but because I teach my body that flexibility that you were talking about our metabolism later we're gonna be go deeper in that but now we we're talking about fats and keto diet well what is the role do fats actually play in our body
00:22:10
Speaker
I'll talk about that, but i so I want to go a little bit more into explaining some carbohydrates. Oh, um we Talk about, you ever hear the term complex carbohydrates versus simple carbohydrates?
00:22:23
Speaker
Yes. I want to sort of clarify that for some people because some people don't understand that simple carbohydrates are just another name for sugar. And – and so and high fructose corn syrup versus cane sugar versus beet sugar versus they're very, very, very similar for your, how your body responds. There's slight differences in those molecules and everything else. So there's,
00:22:48
Speaker
But the it's overdone. That's one of these things that is overdone on the media in terms of like this type of sugar versus that type of sugar. Sugar is your body is going turn right into blood sugar really quickly. Those simple carbohydrates, they break down quickly in ah in digestion and they get into your bloodstream quickly.
00:23:08
Speaker
That causes an insulin spike. because our but ah we can't have too much blood sugar at one time or it becomes toxic. Our bodies need to get rid of that blood sugar. And so it does that through insulin. Insulin delivers it to the cells, wherever whatever cells need it, hopefully to you know store it as muscle and liver glycogen.
00:23:28
Speaker
But when we get – when those stores get filled up, we store in our fat cells. So that's where – and when we get too much resistance too often, too much insulin too often, our cells become resistant to it. That's what they call insulin resistance. That's pre-diabetes when they come – when when when the insulin can't keep up with the sugar anymore, that's when you are a diabetic. So that's that's that's where carbohydrates really play into the whole metabolism game and the talk about insulin resistance, diabetes.
00:23:59
Speaker
That's where these simple sugars and know the the high insulin and high glycemic index here here, that term too, that means how quickly what you eat turns into sugar.
00:24:11
Speaker
in your bloodstream. That's the need index and and it can be it can be affected by so many things, including how much fiber, how much fat, how much how much protein you're eating along with the the carbohydrates that you're getting that slows down the digestive process. So it doesn't quickly get into sugar in your bloodstream. So there's a lot of factors. So no no specific food has one glycemic index. that Some have, it's on a spectrum and it depends on what you eat it with. So it's ah it's a little complicated, but you do avoid too much processed sugars, too much.
00:24:46
Speaker
you know simple carbohydrates where it's just all the sweets and things like that and the and the processed flours and breads all all those white foods the pastas also ah act really close to sugar the complex carbohydrates are those longer chain carbohydrates is these molecules are basically they're just longer molecules of carbohydrates they're similar and your body breaks them down it takes a little longer to break them down And therefore, they don't get in your bloodstream so quickly. And so, but the ones that are more processed are broken down, pre-broken down a little bit e for you. So it turns into sugar quickly. So those white breads and the white pastas and things like that will act almost like sugar in your body and have a high glycemic index. So those those are sort of some...
00:25:31
Speaker
scientific and terminology things I wanted to explain about about carbohydrates so people have confusion on on those things. So yeah. And I would like to add one thing. You were explaining the insulin. Definitely carbohydrates because the way we consume it, as you were explaining, the simple carbohydrates. So simple, but we have the two concepts. Complex this is low carbohydrates. Simple carbohydrates are fast carbohydrates, now and it's the way they work. But they have discovered not only the problem with insulin and diabetes, but even Alzheimer is being affected. One of the things that they discovered, people who consume very high carbohydrate diet through their life get affected. It's affecting the brain function in... in
00:26:25
Speaker
And reason that happens, they call it, mean, they've been nicknaming it type 3 Exactly. Dementia and in Alzheimer's related diseases in your brain. And what that really is, is insulin resistance in your brain cells.
00:26:43
Speaker
is that what comes to. And so its that' it's all the cells can become insulin resistant and it affects them in different ways. And you don't want that in your brain that that becomes dementia or Alzheimer's.
00:26:58
Speaker
And this is just part of what we were talking before. Our body is all about adaptability. Getting resistant to something It's an adaptation of the body, a response from the body for a signal you're giving them. So if you are taking too much carbs and you're producing, overproducing all the time, insulin, so they're storing the muscle, they're storing the liver. That's quite important carbs for our exercise and everything because we burn those carbs that are storing our muscle and then we have to replenish them. But once all is that cover, and Corey was saying, then you put into fat, but
00:27:41
Speaker
With time, this process, that that resistance is and a signaling of our body. It's an adaptation. Like, I cannot take this anymore. it' It's too much, you know? And it's a signal.
00:27:56
Speaker
When this happens, your body is talking to you to tell you, hey, lower this. Take less so you can give me the space to heal. And look, when you change your diet, it's so cool because the majority of the times you're going to reset. You're going to go back. If you are pre-diabetic, it's the right moment to change because you can reverse that really fast.
00:28:22
Speaker
But even if you get to be diabetic, if you keep long-term good healthy habits of nutrition, it will come down too. So it's really important. And I love that you add these points of carbs because it's before we jump into fats because it's really important, truly.
The Role of Fats in Health
00:28:42
Speaker
Well, why don't you go into into fats and then explain for us what what role the fats actually play in the body? Oh, I love fats. Sorry, it's one of my favorites. good avocado, good salmon and everything. ah Fats are, I love fats. So before I entered this world, as I was telling you in the past, fats were demonized. It's like fats are bad for the body and everything, but fats are are amazingly important, super important for our body. Even we were talking about Alzheimer and everything. Well, fats are essentially for our brain functions. It's super important. so Fats is the other source of energy, the favorite is the second favorite source of energy, let's say from the body. First is the carbs, then we have the fats the body loves because it's energy. But fats are energy, but then the most important thing is that they are super important for our hormones and our long-term health is essential.
00:29:44
Speaker
So
00:29:46
Speaker
is a way that we storage energy, is fats. So when we don't have carbs in demand, we can use those fats for energy, it's so important. It's our hormonal support. Hormones need a little bit of proteins too, to build, build, but we need those fats.
00:30:04
Speaker
Fats are important for our brain health and functions, as I was explaining before. And it's very important for our the the health of the our cells. It's super important for our cells. But not only that, but fats are important for the absorption of a of minerals, of vitamins. We have some vitamins that are fat soluble, so if we don't have a good intake of fats, we're gonna have even issues to absorb these minerals. so
00:30:39
Speaker
Fats are essential. We need them. And when people are cutting out high carbohydrate and high protein and very low fat, it's not good. We need a good balance. And we need, for example, this good ratio between omega-3 and omega-6. There are some fats with different functions. And all the people know about omega-3 and omega-6, they have heard about this, but we have other omegas. So we have other kinds of fats. and they have different functions but essentially if you don't if you have a very low fat intake ah you can have a lower your performance brain performance and at the same time you can have issues with hormones and hormones if you have issues with hormones there are a lot of things that can go wrong in your body we need hormones for everything especially men they will need to understand that it's so important to have fats because ah we need fat for producing, we need fat and cholesterol for testosterone, for example, it's so important to keep the testosterone levels in a good place.
00:31:50
Speaker
And fats are really good to not overeat. because they have this, it triggers a lot of society in the body. It gives you a lot of calories, so the body knows like, okay, um this is enough, this is good.
00:32:05
Speaker
So, it has too many things that they have demonized. One of the things that I love about fats, I did the keto diet. and It's nice, it works very well in me, but I don't like to go so,
00:32:22
Speaker
extreme with the carbs because I like the carbs so uh but I usually take a complex carbs as you were explaining you clarify for the people what keto diet really means oh sorry keto diet is a term that they well they these they discover this diet through the research when they were trying to help people with uh how is called when you have this attack that you're trembling ah Oh, anxiety attack?
00:32:53
Speaker
Not anxiety attack. It happens when people, when they see a lot of lights, epilepsy. They were trying to find out and they did try this and it helps for a lot of people with epilepsy, ah a keto diet. So it's called keto because there is a process in the body that is triggered when it had been or fasting for a long time.
00:33:17
Speaker
or there are not too many fats around so the body will use xo card around for your body will use the fats to produce other kind of energy that is called ketones that are produced through the liver too and is taking the fats to produce the ketones, the ketones is like another source of energy So to understand this, we always need ah around 4 grams, if I'm not wrong, of glucose in our but bloodstream, going all the time. So when the body realizes that there is not a lot of carbs around, it triggers this process. And it's called keto diet because it will trigger ketosis. And this ketosis is producing this kind of source of energy for our brain. So our brain loves glucose, but it works very well in this.
00:34:09
Speaker
a kind of diet sorry a kind of source of energy. So keto is a low carb diet, okay? You don't consume almost no carbs, like 20 grams of carbs a day, directly goes into proteins and fats and it's to keep triggering this aspect. So for some people it's gonna work well, but there is people it's not gonna work well because there are so many It's complex when we talk about digestion and metabolism and everything, we will explain a little bit deeper in that part, but it's very complex and how our mitochondria and everything can absorb the process of the digestion and everything, how we absorb things. For some people, very high fat is not going to work.
00:34:56
Speaker
It's not going to work at all. For some people, they will feel amazing. You can have the ketones in another way. If you want to boost ketones, you can do it through fasting and you don't need a keto diet exactly. So there are different ways, but all these diets, it will depend on what you're looking for or what you need. So for example, someone with prediabetic or diabetic, a keto diet can be interesting because you're going to lower the intake of carbs and for a little period of time that can help you to reset the sensitivity ah with the insulin. So that's can be a little bit of keto diet.
00:35:36
Speaker
Yeah. And I really just wanted to mention some things that you should eat for healthy fats, because what is healthy fats? So we have olive oil, we have olives, that is really nice too, a good source of fat. We have avocados, we have nuts,
00:35:53
Speaker
We have eggs, the egg yolk is really nice. It's one of the most complete, the eggs with the protein and the fats is really good. And fatty fishes, the most famous one for this is ah salmon, but we have sardines, we have our other kinds of fish, a lot of fishes give us a lot of good healthy fats.
00:36:14
Speaker
But I would like you to to explain to you about some aspects of fats and how we need why you know that fats are so important yeah i think we talk about people are afraid of fats the fats are they think fat eating fat is going to make me fat right and so that's we talked a little bit about that's because there's nine calories per gram of fat so when you do start consuming fat in fatty foods the calories add up quickly but like you said
00:36:46
Speaker
It's not going to make you fat unless you overeat them and you're not likely as likely to overeat them because there is that say, say, say, say society. um They're satiating, I should say. They're satisfying. you They satisfy hunger and they make you they trigger things, you know trigger hormones that make make you no longer hungry. And so you don't have that constant craving if you have fats in your diet. The other part is that they are essential. You talked about all the roles that they play in your body and your brain. Your brain's made up of, what was it?
00:37:22
Speaker
20, what was it? 20% fat? I've got study. 20% our brain is 20%- Made up from fat. Made up from fat. So imagine how important omega-3 is. Yeah, it it is. because And so the demonization of fat is is out there. And and yes, and when we eat too much saturated fat,
00:37:50
Speaker
you know, the animal fats and we have too much of that. It can lead to heart disease. It can, you know, it can raise your cholesterol. It's not a direct one to one, though, because consuming cholesterol doesn't even necessarily raise your blood cholesterol either. The serum cholesterol is you call it the cholesterol in your blood. is not necessarily raised when you it's it's how your how your digestion processes it. And when you have ah a healthy digestion going on and a healthy liver, then it processes the fats in a healthy way and and your body's not going to have
00:38:23
Speaker
ah the high cholesterol problems and things like that. And so they're demonized a lot because they're high calorie and they're they're associated with heart disease and because cholesterol is what carries fat around your your bloodstream. And so so, oh, the lipids, you know, the lipid molecules in my bloodstream, that's causing all these health problems and therefore fat's bad. But no, fat's not bad fat, but you do want to Okay, maintain the healthy fats as much as you can. Those are nutrients for the body. They're building blocks of so many parts of our cells and our brain and everything else.
00:38:58
Speaker
The proteins known as the building blocks of the body, but fats are also what our body is made out of. So so we need we need them to maintain and heal and all that fun stuff. And like you talked about hormones. But but yeah, there are there is a side of it where if you get into high fat foods and you start overeating them, your calories are going to shoot way up and you don't want to overeat calories because that's where weight gain comes from. And too much high cholesterol, high saturated fats.
00:39:28
Speaker
the trans fats, the the stuff that is oxygenated to make these softer fats solidified peanut butter, margarine, and things like that. The trans fats are are really bad for for our cardiovascular health as well. And so those things we want to stay away from the too much, you know, too much animal fat, ah too much saturated, but saturated fats are animal fats, too much, you know,
00:39:55
Speaker
ah the trans fats, the and the other thing that's sort of something to clarify about about fats and oils. It's been a lot of talk lately, a lot of back and forth about omega three versus omega six, the seed oils, the those are fat sources, the oils that we cook with the oils that we have in our, you know, in our diet, they're they're called, you know, they're different types of oils and the plant sources are usually what we talk about being the the unsaturated fats, the ones that are more heart healthy. And and so when we're having, when we're cooking with fat, we want when we want to minimize the
00:40:35
Speaker
the saturated fats and the in the high cholesterol fats. Then we get into, omega-3s or omega-6s. Omega-3s are the healthy fats you talked about. we know And those are the ones we kind of lack mostly. And so those, we want to get the fish oils. We want to get the nuts, you know the the the avocados and the you know that kind of stuff. but The omega-6s, the seed oils, the omega-6s are also essential for us.
00:41:07
Speaker
They are they are healthy for us. And and everybody says that the seed oils might cause inflammation systemically. And that's that's possible. There are mechanisms that they say explain that do that, but but on the whole,
00:41:23
Speaker
When people have seed oils in their diet, they don't have higher heart heart heart disease rates. The disease rates and the mortality rates are not higher. They're lower than if people are using saturated fats more so. And so they get demonized. The seed oils get really demonized. There's like kind of the Maha kind of kind of movement toward that.
00:41:43
Speaker
Yes, there's some indication that if you overdo omega-6s, don't get enough omega-3s, then that becomes an imbalance in your body and you can it can be inflammatory. But I think that it's been overstated lately. So it's something I wanted to clarify too we talk about that. I love that, to what you say, but there is a part that contradicts me because omega-6 is important, but When you see seed oils, I ah want to clarify for the majority of the people, the oils are bad. that
00:42:17
Speaker
The natural omega-6 from the seeds and all that is good, but the oils in general is bad because the waste produced is a lot of a chemical process in the in the production of this oil, like sunflower seed oil and all this.
00:42:34
Speaker
And These are very unstable oils that when we cook them, they get oxidized very fast and they can become very toxic very fast. ah so I'm going to push back on this because the the data doesn't really show that. And and the oxidation, actually, these these oils get oxidated at much higher temperatures than like an olive oil, which actually smokes and oxidizes more quickly. The, the seed oils are high temperature oils to cook with generally. And some of them, yes, are more highly processed and chemically processed to get that. And so you, there are healthier, some are healthier than others for sure. So that's, and that's, that's something you want to look for. And, and honestly, I don't, I think that canola oil is one of the better of the vegetable oils in terms of shelf stable cooking oils. Yes. For example. Yeah.
00:43:29
Speaker
Yeah, no, what I wanted to say, because there are too many ah seed oils, but some of them are overused. And the way when I was talking about oxidation is, sadly, this happened in a lot of restaurants where they are using the same oil for the whole day, burning and burning and burning stuff.
00:43:50
Speaker
Awful, awful. right That's where deep fried foods come in because that's the overuse and overheating of oils becomes oxidating and that becomes very much less, you know, more toxic for your body. So that's, that's good.
00:44:05
Speaker
It's good stuff to get into. And there's a lot of sort of detail and, and fighting science over, that over that kind of thing. So we don't want to get too controversial. We're trying to stay general here, but yeah. Yeah. I think that we can do even an episode in the future about, a specific about oils, you know, and we can go deeper in the different kinds of oils, where the best ones to cook, the best ones to be just in more daily, the, which ones that we can go deeper into that. Before we jump and we go farther, I wanted to add something about the importance in carbohydrates and in fats.
00:44:40
Speaker
And this is especially important for women, very important. but for men too, but especially for women to understand something about the hormones. So ah we need fats and carbohydrates as a process of the hormones. And we're gonna jump for one that that is the most important one, that is proteins. But for example, in the cycle, when when we're starting the cycle in women's and we're going up in the first part, follicular phase, estrogen is going up.
00:45:10
Speaker
Estrogen is a kind of hormone that really needs fat. It really needs fat. It loves fat. It's like, give me good fat so I can produce good estrogen in the body. And then when it's going after the ovulation phase, and we go into the luteal phase, and we're starting the luteal phase, we're changing, and the estrogen is dropping down, and now we need progesterone to go up. And progesterone is a hormone who likes carbs.
00:45:40
Speaker
So this is so important to understand. So we understand that our hormones need different levels of different kinds of fats, different carbohydrates and different kinds of proteins.
Importance of Protein
00:45:53
Speaker
And talking about this, this hormonal balance that we we need a little bit of all the macronutrients for a healthy balance of of of hormones. And it's so important. Hormones is something that is very underrated and in health,
00:46:08
Speaker
because it's not talked a lot, but hormonal imbalance produce a lot of of sickness, not like a lot of diseases come from these hormonal imbalance. And one of the most important things that we need is protein.
00:46:25
Speaker
So I wanted to ask you if you don't have anything add to add about fats and carbs. I really wanted to go into protein because sometimes I feel it's very misunderstood protein. Protein is for You know, people is like protein is body builders, you know, it's like, oh my God, this is for that.
00:46:45
Speaker
But no way it's like that. So can you tell us what is the importance of protein beyond muscle bindle. Yeah, for sure. And of course, protein supports muscle repair as it as it should and it does. And everybody understands that portion of what protein it does for everybody. Also other tissue repair though and and and immune function.
00:47:11
Speaker
But the the most interesting thing I think about protein is that protein is made up of a bunch of different molecules. There are different types of molecules that are all called proteins.
00:47:21
Speaker
And The there amino acids is what we call the different types of protein molecules that make up the proteins that we consume.
00:47:34
Speaker
And some of them our body produces, some them we consume in our diet. But the most interesting thing... this Sorry, this is what they call essential amino acids? Essential amino acids are the ones we need to consume that our body cannot produce themselves.
00:47:49
Speaker
Those are nine amino acids that our bodies don't produce through other means by by the chemistry that our body does, it it's something that we need to ingest so that we have those sources of and I'm not going to list them off here. We don't need nobody would remember them anyway. i don't have them all in my head. I'd have to have them listed, but all the nine essential amino acids. But a the most interesting I was going to get back to the thing i think about protein that most people don't know is that these amino acids these protein molecules are triggering mechanisms in the body for so many functions that's where the hormones and en enzymes come in those are those are protein hormones and enzymes are proteins that signal cells to do different things right and so their communication in our body these are the chemical communicators in our body are our proteins
00:48:42
Speaker
And so that is the coolest thing to me. And so that's why it is important to have ah enough of different types of proteins so that our body functions in those ways. And so the hormones are are supported by fats, of course,
00:48:59
Speaker
But they, you know, proteins are the main, main building block of our hormones and enzymes that that tell ourselves what to do and and and yeah how to produce things and everything else. So um so it's not just for athletes who want to get big muscles.
00:49:17
Speaker
But also, so that's that's sort of like the mix of protein and getting enough of certain types of protein for it. And it's almost like when we talk about it at the hormone and enzyme level, it's almost like a micronutrients, right? So those are the different types of things. We needed to get in enough milligrams of this type of protein or that type of protein for for these cellular functions. But the the mass of the macronutrient of protein and having enough of it to build the muscle, to have the tissue repair, things like that.
00:49:46
Speaker
it's not just for athletes or bodybuilders. That is for everybody to maintain healthy muscle. And we've we've talked in previous episodes and when we talk about resistance exercise and things like that, how important muscle is for our general health. And we talk about how important our maintaining the muscle is for, we talked about how carbs can be toxic when we have too much blood sugar, right? And so muscles suck up. Yeah, that muscle glycogen that we you know that we want,
00:50:16
Speaker
much more muscle more and bigger muscles are better for metabolic health from sugars and insulin sensitivity because it just sucks up sugar out of the bloodstream without having it to do a ton of insulin spikes and things like that so muscles are very hungry for sugars and protein is what builds the muscle. So, you know, we, everything sort of works together in that way. Right.
00:50:42
Speaker
And so we, we, we need the protein in, and it's not something that if you eat too much protein, I'm just going to get too big of muscle. So it's, it's all targeted. It's all you, your body is a certain, you know, designed to be a certain size. You're not going to get too huge by just having more protein or, and, and doing the resistance exercise part of it along with it. But it is,
00:51:04
Speaker
um it is essential that we do consume enough protein so we don't lose muscle because one of the statistics that as after the age of 30, our body starts losing like muscle mass through the throat years if we're not consciously being active and consuming enough protein.
00:51:23
Speaker
But we can we can stem that we can we can consume enough protein, we can be active but how much protein, that's a big debate as well. But it's that the range for healthy and adequate for people who are exercising or for people who are aging and want to maintain their their muscle and and to gain muscle 1.6 to 2.2 grams per kilogram of body weight.
00:51:46
Speaker
So that's can be confusing for some people. So When I say 1.6 to 2.2, 2.2 grams per kilogram is one gram per pound of body weight for people who measure their weight in pounds. So 2.2 is i the kind of the high ah end of things. If I get a gram per pound of body weight, that's a lot of protein in my diet every day, right? And that's and it's a challenge to get that much. 1.6 is at the end of research where they say that's really, we know that
00:52:20
Speaker
increasing your protein up to 1.6 is almost always beneficial for for muscle gain. Beyond 1.6, it gets a little more variable that the curve of improvement sort of starts to flatten out and it can go more and more, a little bit more improvement, especially for bodybuilders and things that people really trying to gain more muscle to get even more than a pound per or ah a gram per pound of body weight. you know But between 1.6 and 2.2 is a really good target range. and It doesn't have to be perfect every day, but to get adequate protein intake, it takes some conscious effort. Especially for people who aren't real big meat eaters, people who are meal might be vegetarians, things like that. You really need to concentrate on getting enough protein in your diet a day.
00:53:05
Speaker
So 1.6 grams per kilogram, if I weigh say 75 kilograms, right? I weigh a little bit more than that, but let's just do it. yeah know Okay, let's do 80. I weigh a little over 80 kilograms, but let's say I weighed 80 kilograms. So 1.6 grams per kilogram. 120 more or less. 120 grams-ish in that range, which is significant. If I break that down into three meals,
00:53:34
Speaker
in the day, that's 40 grams of protein. partygraph And so and and that's something that it's hard to get if you're on a vegetarian diet. it's itss It's something that sometimes needs to be supplemented to get that kind of higher level of protein.
00:53:52
Speaker
And I wanted to add in this point, it's so important our objectives. Of course, we're building muscle. So the more strength training you do,
00:54:02
Speaker
more demand your body needs of these proteins so it can repair better, it can do all the process so it's going to grow the muscle and the demand is going to be higher in that in case.
00:54:15
Speaker
And is these numbers, as you were saying, it's a big debate because it's not 100% depending on the objectives how much if we go to the range of 2.2 per kilogram Maybe it's because you're doing a very intense strength training, okay? And you want to build muscle and everything, grow 1.6 or a little bit lower is going to be fine to be healthy and to be in a good
Protein Misconceptions and Sources
00:54:40
Speaker
state. ah But I want to say that is there is some confusion. Some people think that ah how proteins work in a piece of meat or chicken or whatever, the people say like, okay, I'm going to eat a steak of 200 grams. And they think that they are consuming 200 grams of protein.
00:55:01
Speaker
It's not like that. Okay. 200 grams of a steak, it has around 100 grams of a steak of any of the meats are around more or less between 18 to 25 grams of protein, depending on the source we're taking. is like the range where the majority of ah proteins work, the pork, fish, and everything there will be, and depending on what part of the body you're eating, usually when we talk about steaks, we're talking about muscle. is when When we say we eat meat, we're eating muscle, okay? well
00:55:37
Speaker
Then we have the organs. Organs usually have a lower a point of grams of proteins per part of the organs if you're in tribes or you're eating liver and everything, the gram sometimes is a little bit lower than the main muscle, but usually comes with other benefits like a lot of other minerals and other nutrients and vitamins.
00:56:02
Speaker
That I wanted to clarify that because you were talking about the composition of how to get those numbers. And sometimes people forget that some proteins and some carbs, they have some amount of proteins. they have a a small amount too, so it compounds. So if you were trying to aim to these, if you have some kind of protein in the breakfast, protein in the lunch and in the dinner, usually you're going to be usually in a good range, okay? you don't We don't need to get obsessed with the amount unless you're doing a specific training and reaching bad
00:56:43
Speaker
Yes, we should aim to an amount of proteins. I will say that a good amount at least to reach is one gram per kilogram at least that will be for some people 80 grams if you are 80 or 5 but at least to get to that point ah because and you don't have to consume this every day unless you are training if you're training is very important you do it but you can alternate and some days you eat more carbs, some days you eat more fat. The thing is that along the days you have a good harmony and you are in taking enough of these different macronutrients because they are important as we were saying. And this is a phrase that I feel like Oh, proteins is for bodybuilders. I said, no, proteins are the but but building blocks, no, it's for bodybuilders, it's the building blocks of our body. It's the...
00:57:41
Speaker
the one is like the bricks and and the cement and everything that we need like for our organs, our tissues, our enzymes, our hormones, our muscles, like we need for everything of tissue you see the skin, the hair, and the organs, the repairmen, the muscles, the hold ah we need proteins, so proteins is super important and the sources are really interesting because as you were saying Cory we have ah it's around 20 amino acids nine of them we have to consume yes or yes in our diet and different kind of sources are going to be higher or lower in some different of these amino acids so it's important to have a
00:58:29
Speaker
to do a variety of sources of proteins along the week. So we get all those intakes of those proteins. Right, right. and And so, yeah, most animal sources of protein with the dairy, the eggs, or the meats will have all of our amino acids. And at least it's some of them, they'll have all the essential amino acids. Can you name some of the the foods, some other food sources of protein besides the obvious animal sources?
00:58:59
Speaker
So, aside of the animal sources, we have the, for example, not my favorite, but because I'm intolerant to lactose, but we have the milk. We have proteins that come from the meat. It's an animal source, but it's not the meat that I'm talking about. The cheese have other kinds of proteins that we can add. We have nuts or we have a different kind of ah dry fruits a that really give us some levels of proteins. In the vegetables, we have small levels of vegetables that they have the small levels of protein in some of the vegetables, but in taking vegetables, you're going to get some of these, like peas and everything. You will see that they have been doing protein shakes, vegetarian protein shakes or vegan ones, and they're doing it from plant-based proteins. so But the thing is that for acquiring the amount of protein we need from plants,
00:59:58
Speaker
and all the variety of amino acids we need. If you're vegan, you have to be very strategic and eat a ton of this, you know. It's not only tofu, please don't only eat tofu for protein. For, oh no, I eat tofu. No, you need more amino acids. So ah we need to a big variety. So you will get proteins from plant-based, okay? So all the plants, they have some levels of proteins that are important for the body. So that's the idea. If you eat a good amount of vegetables. If you eat salads and you eat a steak, and ah you are getting protein from all these sources.
01:00:38
Speaker
But yes, animal proteins are maybe the most complete ones. So you don't have to be super strategic on how to get all of them. If you're a vegetarian, still, cool. You are drinking milk, you are eating cheese, you are eating eggs. And then you have the nuts and everything good. When you're vegan, I will say you have to, it's very important, it's more strategic. You all have to know, yes, what foods to take to complement all these amino acids. So there are different sources of proteins and the amounts are going to come different. So as was i saying, sometimes if you want to get all your
01:01:22
Speaker
amino acids from plant-based, ah you have to eat a lot of different kinds of plants, a lot of priority, so you can get all the amino acids and good quantities too. Yeah, I'd say there is even less room for a vegan to eat processed foods because the processed foods when the when the vegan foods are processed foods, usually the proteins are stripped. You need more and more whole foods, you know, the the beans, the nuts, to the legumes, the, you know, the the all the all the you know the whole grains and things like that, that then we need whole foods to get the proteins out of the plant foods. You you can't have the processed versions of them or that the proteins are generally going to be stripped.
Conclusion and Preview of Part B
01:02:09
Speaker
Yes. So, Cory, I wanted to tell you today we're going this going a long episode today. i think that we still have some themes to talk about.
01:02:21
Speaker
What about if we say here a little bit goodbye, then we continue the next yeah part. Yeah, so well we've talked about the three major macronutrients so far. um And so for the second part of this episode, we'll just split it into two parts, part A, part B of episode nine, I believe it is, of our podcast. um So from here, we'll we'll get into what we talked about before, metabolic flexibility and diet approaches.
01:02:50
Speaker
We'll also talk about the whole foods versus processed foods and we talked a little bit about that but we'll get deeper into that and then we'll talk about sort of some practical nutrition habits or practical diet strategies that just make more sense from a general standpoint not a specific diets but sort of sort of tendencies that you can do to take on and then sort of how to integrate that into your body.
01:03:15
Speaker
so Yes. And we need this. And we will talk about ah lifestyle integration of this. When you know how to manage your foods and everything and understand nutritional aspects, then you can work in a lifestyle integration and about identifying yourself with someone who really takes food as nutrients, you know? Right. So this is what we're gonna cover in part ah B of this session about nutrition and macronutrients. And yeah, I think that this is gonna be an amazing second part. I hope that you have enjoyed this first part of the episode where we have been explaining carbohydrates, fats and proteins and how they work and why they are important in the body.
01:04:06
Speaker
And please keep on watching. Subscribe if you can. Comment below if you have any questions or anything that we can address further. We'll reply to comments and we'll maybe create a new new episode going into answering other questions. So let us know. And if you're interested, we've got links to all our other information or other social media and our coaching as well. so Yes. And see you in Part See you in Part B.