Thank you for checking out The Community Conversation, brought to you by Prototype Training Systems, home of CrossFit Prototype! This episode of The Community Conversation is a NUTRITION EDITION! Typically, The Community Conversation highlights a different member of the Prototype Community each week and allows them to tell their story, share their life experience, and communicate their perspective on all things fitness. For this episode, we have two of our Prototype Nutrition Coaches dropping some Nutrition knowledge bombs!
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For this nutrition edition of the Community Conversation, Prototype Nutrition Coach Jon Collette and Prototype Nutrition’s Registered Dietitian, Sam Hally will be busting some very common nutrition myths. If you’re looking to learn more about nutrition for yourself or pick up some tips, you will want to check this out!
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Jon 0:02
Right. Welcome to the community conversation. Sam and I are back with another nutrition episode. This is actually a part two from what we did two weeks ago, we took last week off because of Thanksgiving, we’re back finishing our popular food myths. So we went, we’re literally just reading off of a list of popular foods this week. Last podcast, if you didn’t listen to it is it was the top 10. Now we’re going through 11 to 20 on this list, so And Sam and I are basically just going to talk about some of these myths why they might be mis and what, um, you know, basically what we know about it, we’re just going to give you our thoughts. So number 11, we’ll just start it right off number 11 was organic food is better for you. This is great, because this is like one of those ones, it’s just like, it’s like religion, it’s like you can’t, you can’t say that it’s not. So I guess we’ll have to put it put it in the best way possible. Pesticides are used on natural foods as well as organic foods. So the argument with organic foods is that they are better because they don’t use pesticides, which is false, they just use natural pesticides. So one way or another, you need to use pesticides on produce, in order to preserve the food from you know, getting, you know, eaten by bugs and things like that they need to be able to be protected from like natural things in life. So organic food still has to use those things, farmers still have to use those pesticides. And, you know, pesticides that are used on non organic foods are oftentimes, you know, really blown out of proportion because they’re synthetic, which just means that they’re not. They don’t come from nature. They’re they’re man made chemical. Sam, what are your thoughts on natural pesticides versus better pesticides? Because this is like one of the biggest things when it comes to why people might say organic is better. Did you give your two cents?
Sam 2:23
I mean, this is like like exactly what you said, it’s a hard one because it’s like this is a falls into the area of like people’s personal beliefs. And I’m never going to tell someone they like can’t eat a certain way when they want to. But yeah, at the end of the day, organic doesn’t mean healthy. And so like when we’re looking at like, okay, whichever pesticides being used for your organic produce, it’s still happening, like it’s still occurring. And if you’re eating organic produce, that’s awesome if you have the money to make that happen. And if you’re not eating organic produce, then that’s okay, too. For what it’s worth, when it comes to organic foods, like the label organic doesn’t actually mean that like everything that you eat is organic, like you could be eating, I don’t know organic, like rice cereal or something. And it’s not actually 100% Organic anyway. I think organics one of those like buzzwords in the nutrition world, that doesn’t always mean what we think it means, like organic is not synonymous with health.
Jon 3:26
Yeah, I mean, I think the big thing when it comes to the organic versus non organic argument is that some people think they can’t eat healthy because they can’t afford organic produce when like, understanding that organic is not inherently better for you, in the sense of you know, the nutrient content that you’re going to get from getting non organic broccoli versus organic broccoli. It’s like, it’s like the saying of don’t miss the forest for the trees like focusing on getting organic without focusing on the fact that you’re eating more fruits and vegetables, whether they’re organic or not, is going to improve your health. So I think that’s one of the big things when it comes to the organic conversation is just like, people just get caught up in like, okay, like, it’s, it’s like a, it literally is like a like a religious thing is that if you’re not eating organic, then you’re not doing the best that you can do. And I just, you know, there’s so much that goes into, you know, what people can afford, and if more people are eating fruits and vegetables, you know, there’s no need to stress over whether it’s organic or not. It’s really not that big of a difference.
Sam 4:37
Regardless of which kind you have, you should like still be washing it before you eat it. So
Jon 4:42
for sure. Um, okay, so number 12. We’ll move on number 12 is you shouldn’t drink less than eight glasses of water a day. And I’ve never heard that exact number of whether you should drink eight glasses of water A day. I mean, some people might need more than eight glasses of water a day. And some people don’t need that much just because they’re not as active in their smaller, I mean, how much you want to get into this one.
Sam 5:12
I feel like this falls on me, like, everything depends on the person and like, you’re never gonna tell a large group of people that they should be having a specific number of anything. Because nothing is the same person to person. So like, I mean, I’m gonna tell most people and most people listening to this, that you should have more than eight glasses of water a day, because you come to the gym, you workout regularly, like, Staying hydrated is one of the best things you can do for your body. Um, there are people that like 64 ounces of water is going to be a okay for them. There’s also people with certain health conditions that need to be on fluid restriction, and should not be drinking anywhere close to 64 ounces of water a day. So yeah, no, this is one of those ones where I’m saying, we don’t make blanket statements. So I need a glass, some don’t.
Jon 6:03
So let me ask you that question. Because that’s something that I’m not familiar with is like, what what type of people may not need, like it would be harmful to have 64 ounces of water?
Sam 6:15
Yeah, so like, pretty much the best example of this is like the cardiac unit in a hospital. Most people are on fluid restricted diet. Like I don’t know how much everyone knows about like hospital or John, if you’ve ever been like admitted to a hospital, but like me go in, the doctor will put you on a specific diet plan. So like, you would most likely be on just like a regular diet if you go in for like a broken bone or whatever it might be. But then, like people who go in with certain medical conditions might be on like a salt restricted diet, or a fluid restricted diet doesn’t like two of the most popular ones. And so you’ll see the fluid restriction, most likely and like the cardiac unit, most of those patients will be on fluid restriction. Because too much fluid affects the efficacy of certain medications. And also like taxes the body systems too much. So you have to be careful. It’s like a specific balance that everyone has to be in. So they won’t be getting 64 ounces of water a day.
Jon 7:12
Now is that is that usually like in like a like under medical supervision type of thing? Or does the normal day to day person some people have like, certain medications that they’re on the like their day to day life? They have to really watch how much water they drink.
Sam 7:30
Yeah, some people do, depending on how severe their condition is. It’s kind of like some people with heart disease will like be on a salt restricted diet. Like they can’t have more than two grams a day. It’s prescribed by a doctor, but they have to do it day to day in their normal life. Same kind of thing with fluid.
Jon 7:47
That’d be so hard to have lesson of the day.
Sam 7:50
Yeah, it’s real tough. Oh, my Mrs. Mrs. Dash is a is a seasoning. That’s where that came about.
Jon 8:00
Really? Okay. Yeah. Alright, so we’ll move on number 13 is carbs aren’t good for your body?
Sam 8:09
This is the dumbest thing I’ve ever heard in my entire life.
Jon 8:12
I mean, I agree. Why don’t you elaborate?
Sam 8:17
I mean, I feel like we talked about this ad nauseum. Like your body literally needs carbs to function, your body literally survives off the carbs. If you don’t have carbs. I mean, you can you can last a certain amount of time, but that’s your major energy source. You need carbs to break down into the sugars in your body that help you think and sleep and walk around and do all the things you need to do to be a living person. So if you don’t get any carbs in your diet at all, then you’re severely lacking in an entire macronutrient. That is never a good thing. No, do
Jon 8:54
you think that like this whole myth like occurred, like, in the early 90s When Atkins was like a huge thing when it was all about like, low carb high fat, which is kind of recycled now. They just call it keto into the act.
Sam 9:10
I think so. What because for a while it was fat was bad. Like remember when that was a thing? I mean, I don’t because I don’t think I was alive during that. But
Jon 9:20
But I mean, they all come on. Yeah.
Sam 9:23
Yeah, like for a while fat was bad. Carbs were bad. Like, yeah, they’re not bad. They’re so good for you carbs are like, I mean, obviously we prioritize protein, but like carbs are awesome. Any cards?
Jon 9:37
Right? And I mean, it probably also like this myth probably also happened when, you know, it was a big emphasis on the glycemic scale and like insulin spikes and all all that stuff when I’ve come to realize that the glycine rescaled really didn’t have too much of an impact on on overall health. It’s more of like an acute indicator. of what you’re doing versus like a, like a long term negative health out outcome. But Okay, so next one that we got is gonna move on to coffee will stunt your growth.
Sam 10:21
Have you ever heard this?
Jon 10:25
I mean, I’ve heard that a lot of things will send your growth like weightlifting will stunt your growth. And we know that that’s not true. weightlifting is great for you. I mean, we taught we like, we’ve like talked about this, like casually before, I mean, it probably is just a myth that occurred because their parents don’t want their kids all jacked up on caffeine. So they probably just like it’s not gonna be good for their growth development. And then some people probably just took it as is, and then became, I guess that’s how Miss Miss occur.
Sam 10:58
This is how they all started as parents just tell their children lies. And then children never do research.
Jon 11:05
There’s no yeah, there doesn’t seem to be too much research on showing that coffee does stunt your growth. So I mean, good thing that always pay attention to, if you’re, if you are looking into science is that, you know, if there’s a claim to be made, and there’s not anything that back up the claim, or there’s very weak evidence to back up the claim, then it’s good to keep it in mind. But it doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s true. There’s like, if there is something that there’s not enough evidence on something and more evidence starts to come out on it, that’s when we start to, you know, change your point of view on uncertain things. But until there’s evidence to be provided it this one doesn’t have any, doesn’t have much evidence on it.
Sam 11:48
I mean, for what it’s worth, like caffeine is on the banned substance list for like the Olympics, right? Because like caffeine can have a positive effect on athletic performance. So if anything, I feel like logically using that coffee is going to do the opposite of so your growth.
Jon 12:05
Yeah, probably helped me move more. Yeah. Number 15 is eating small meals throughout the day will boost your metabolism. I used to I used to believe this one, like wholeheartedly, I was like, this makes a whole lot of sense. Like, it’s like throwing wood on a fire you need to keep there. You need to keep getting that fire to burn, you know, you don’t want to do like die out. But I think where the myth lies is that you actually have to eat small meals that you have to eat every few hours for to have a functioning metabolism. And it really comes down to just consuming enough calories. So you don’t have like overall, like metabolic adaptation where your metabolism slows down, because you’ve been eating 1200 calories and occasionally binge eating because you’re playing catch up and your your body literally gets worried that you’re starving it because you’re just not eating enough. But it doesn’t have it doesn’t matter if you have six meals a day, or if you have two, two giant meals a day as long as the calories the same it doesn’t. Doesn’t really matter. So, yeah, eating small meals, if it works well for you, and you just feel better. Like not I’m not eating as much. That’s great. If you’re someone that is busy, and you just really enjoy eating like larger foods, let’s say you want to have two meals a day that are 1000 calories or three meals a day that are I don’t know 700 calories, like all if it equates to roughly the same amount of intake then metabolisms gonna be fine. And again, that’s just a random number. That’s not a everyone should be on a 2000 calorie diet. It’s a just an example. But do you have anything to add to that, Tim?
Sam 13:59
No, I feel like this one is people confuse metabolism with just like natural trending blood sugars of like, wherever you have natural blood sugar spikes and falls people like Oh, my metabolisms not working because my blood sugar is dropping. And it’s like that’s that’s how metabolism works. I feel like I say that sentence so many times in these conversations. Like that’s just not how this works. But yeah, like your metabolism still working even if your blood sugar is dropping. So like you feel tired at 3pm That’s like because of natural blood sugar drops. Like that’s how our rhythm works. But doesn’t mean you’re not metabolizing anything so you eat at the time to like keep your blood sugar at a safe and consistent level. But you don’t need to.
Jon 14:43
It’s so true, though. Like, people look at things like the acute effects of something versus like the chronic effects of something. Right. So if you were to have your blood sugar go up, right acutely, it’s stable majority of the time then you have nothing to worry about. But if you have chronic like high blood pressure or chronic issues where it’s always like in this like, not great zone, then that’s more of when we have higher risk for, you know, issues to, to arise. But I think people look at things like acutely a lot that’s like, like almost like every documentary that does a test. They’re like, okay, like, this person, like, ate this and their blood sugar went up, or they ate this and something happened when I was like, okay, but if you measure it for like, two weeks, and they ate that, did they have health outcomes? Like anything negative, like, no, okay, well, that’s because, like, who was acutely? So? Yeah, if you eat an ice cream cone, your blood sugars are gonna go up, you just continue to eat ice cream and continue to have your blood sugar elevated, then that’s not going to be good. Too much. Right? So um,
Sam 15:56
do you like if they tested your heart rate like right after doing a workout and they’re like, oh my god, 150 beats per minute. You’re dying because you’re way too high.
Jon 16:03
Yeah, exactly. That’s a perfect example is like, yeah, you do a workout. If you’re if your heart rates that high, like you should be concerned if it’s like that, like, for an extended period of time. Workout, it’s like, better understood that’s like an acute response to what you’re doing. Um, that’s a great example. Alright, number 16. Is eggs raise your cholesterol levels. Sam what’s up?
Sam 16:33
I said again, with the stupid fad diets for someone said that eggs are bad for you. And and here we are gonna love 30 years later. How do you feel about this one? Uh,
Jon 16:48
I mean, there’s two different types of cholesterol, you have your LDL and your HDL want to have a balance of having enough? Like, polyunsaturated monounsaturated, and then having like saturated, you don’t want to have like, the majority of your diet come from saturated fat, which eggs have some saturated fat in them, they also have some unsaturated fat in them. So the yolk in Yag, which does Yeah, contains cholesterol, but the egg also contains protein and other nutrients in them. So they just look at like the one thing of like, the cholesterol to be the, you know, to be something to be overly concerned, you got to look at like your diet as a whole. If you’re, if like, the main thing you’re having if the only fat sources you’re having is eggs and cheese and bacon, then yeah, great. But if you’re having like a variety of different types of fats, then it’s, it’s fine. I mean, there doesn’t seem to be too much issue. I mean, there’s so many people that have like five, six eggs a day that are completely, completely healthy, right? Like some people have a lot of, you know, they have like four eggs a day for breakfast. But their cholesterol is fine. Because they exercise, they eat a lot of fruits and vegetables, and a majority of their diet is well rounded. So, so looking at any food, and just like isolation is like, you have to put more context behind it. If you were to say ice cream is bad, or if you were to say eggs bad, you got to put more context behind like okay, well, how is it actually? How is it actually bad? Um, what are your thoughts on on the SAM, eggs and cholesterol?
Sam 18:32
I feel like this one’s such a hot topic. But like it’s always a hot topic, right? Like, I get emails in my inbox from the Academy nutrition. I’m just like the latest updates in like nutrition research on a daily and like sometimes weekly, depending on how how much new stuff is coming out basis. But I feel like, at least once a month, there’s some new article about eggs. And recently, everything is pointing towards the eggs or not specifically raising your cholesterol. It’s the total diet just like you said, it’s not one food. It’s not one part of a food. It’s what you do on a regular basis. that’s causing cholesterol to go up. Plus to like, when you look at studies like that, I think it’s important to acknowledge that sometimes, if you just survey people who eat six eggs a day and people who eat no eggs a day, like there’s other confounding factors that could be contributing to the data, right? Like someone who needs six eggs a day might have a tendency to overeat, right? Or like someone who only has two eggs a day might be someone who like, has that as a post workout meal. So there’s other factors going into it that aren’t just like the quantity of food going into them. That could be causing results. So everything that I’ve seen, especially in recent years is that eggs are not a contributor to high cholesterol.
Jon 19:53
Yeah, it’s like the the correlation doesn’t cause like correlation versus causation like You know, you can you can, you can put like a large group of people that eat a lot of eggs it’s also the same people that probably consume too much salt and probably get a cat often and it’s just like an association with like a poor overall diet it’s like if you took a group of people and you said okay everyone that shopped at Whole Foods we’re gonna go ahead and we’re gonna we’re gonna test their you know, their health markers versus people that shop at Stop and Shop. People shop at Whole Foods are already going out of their way to spend more money and they’re probably more health conscious already so it may not be the causation that they shop at Whole Foods might be the fact that there’s a good possibility that those people aren’t the same people that are not exercising and not you know, eating fruits and vegetables like 30 like thinking health conscious like they’re shopping at Whole Foods like they’re probably snobs about it anyway.
Sam 20:57
They have the disposable income to shop at Whole Foods, that’s for sure.
Jon 21:01
Yeah. Um, alright, so it’s number 17 Drinking milk. Drinking milk increases your phlegm
Sam 21:10
I feel like this is the one that like started it all with like you said this to me and it was just like I have literally never heard this before my entire life. Well,
Jon 21:18
this is always one like when I was growing up like I I don’t know where I ever heard it, but it was something that like whenever I got sick, I would like I wouldn’t have sugar I wouldn’t have milk I wouldn’t have like I wouldn’t have like a lot of things I’d have is soup. Like soup. Like holy Damien’s gonna fix this. So like the the myth is like that. That it just like increases like your like your phlegm in it like doesn’t help you like get over like, over cold. My I literally don’t know why. Let’s see if there’s anything on this. It says. It says on this are on this that. There’s nothing worse than dealing with phlegm the sticky mucus that hangs in the back of your throat when you’re under the weather. The good news is that the myth that milk increases the amount isn’t true. According to Mayo Clinic drinking it might make it thicker and more irritable than normal but it doesn’t make doesn’t increase phlegm adjust may upset your stomach impurity dealing with that type of stuff. Um, but it says it doesn’t cause phlegm. I don’t know why aware that one even started. I don’t know. Maybe someone that was like really clever. Just like yeah, let’s start saying that. Um, alright, number 18. ology tape. This one, Sam, because this one’s brown sugar is better than white sugar. Why is why is that?
Sam 22:55
I don’t know where people got this idea. I I’m assuming that it’s because they think that it’s less refined than white sugar. But brown sugar that you find in the grocery store is literally refined white sugar, plus molasses. And for those of you who don’t know, molasses is just sugar. So
Jon 23:19
what about raw sugar versus white sugar?
Sam 23:23
I mean, sugar is still sugar, it’s like this whole thing of like, you don’t want to eat processed foods, or you only want to eat organic, like all of your food is processed. I’m sorry to say that everything that you eat is processed unless you’re literally growing your own carrots in your backyard. From a seed, which has been processed for you into a nice packet, like, like everything we eat is processed. So whether it’s white sugar, brown sugar being processed for you, like it’s still sugar, your body doesn’t really know the difference. If you’re comparing it to something like white rice versus brown rice, where like you strip off part of the grain to get white rice like then that’s a little bit of a different story because there are different nutrients and like the brand and the German the endosperm like the components of rice, but when it comes to sugar and like sugar, sugar, like it’s still the same 16 calories per tablespoon or whatever it is, and your body perceives it the same way. So you
Jon 24:26
mentioned brown rice and white rice. I know that some people listening might be thinking, Well, does that mean that brown rice is better than than white rice?
Sam 24:35
No, I mean, brown rice is just basically like the shell is still on the seed is the simplest way to explain it, which means that there’s like a couple extra nutrients like Yeah, but the thing is white rice is fortified with other nutrients that aren’t necessarily in brown rice. So I see them as interchangeable and you should Choose your rice based off of what goes best with a dish that you’re making, not because you think one is healthier than the other.
Jon 25:07
Yeah, so when you go to Chipotle, like cheese, make sure you choose correctly. Um, alright, number 19, you can’t get enough protein on a vegan or vegetarian diet. I’ll start this one, because we talked about this a lot. And I think that people misunderstand, sometimes we’re saying you can get enough protein off a vegan and vegetarian diet is just the fact that it’s sometimes more difficult, especially if you’re like a novice to eating vegan or vegetarian, that it’s harder to get enough protein because you have to eat a larger quantity of food, which some people already have a hard enough time eating more food. So they’re either going to have to supplement by having more vegan or soy based type of proteins like like pea protein or soy protein, they’re going to have to supplement more in order to go ahead and get enough protein. Or they’re going to have to eat a larger quantity of things like black beans, and quinoa and tofu and things like that, which comes with more than just protein. It also comes with carbohydrates. So it depends on the it’s not that you can’t get enough it said it’s sometimes not as practical to get enough protein without just having like a little bit of length. Like let’s say eggs, and yogurt can just make it so much easier to have enough protein and that would still fall under vegetarian, I just think vegan is like a lot harder. But it’s totally possible you need to most people probably need to have a shaker to a day like that has to be like a regular thing they have in their diet, or they’re just not going to get enough. Um, what are your thoughts him?
Sam 27:02
Yeah, like you said, it just takes more planning, right, it’s a little bit easier, especially like with the like Western diets that were used to, to like cook up a chicken breast and get your protein in at dinnertime. Versus with like, vegetarian or vegan. It’s not that you necessarily need to replace that with something else. It’s just that if you take out like a chicken breast and you have like a potato and some vegetables, and there’s minimal protein in that. And so it’s you don’t want to have a strictly carbohydrate meal because having a balance of all the macronutrients on a meal is one more satiating, and to better for you in the long term. And I think the thing with vegetarian vegan diets is that it opens you up to more nutrient deficiencies. So like you said, like, it just requires more planning, and having a better awareness of the food that’s going into your body because you don’t want to be lacking in B 12, which is like the primary nutrient that’s going to come from animal proteins that’s not found in other versions of proteins that don’t come from animals. And so it’s like gonna require supplementation, and it’s going to require planning. And like, honestly, probably getting your blood checked on a regular basis, especially if you’re fully vegan, to make sure that you’re not deficient in more vitamins than you need to be.
Jon 28:19
Cool. Um, alright, so number 20 is eating an apple a day truly keeps the doctor away. I don’t even care about this math. Like I don’t know what this is don’t even know what this is. What is this just saying that like, is this just the same that like parents would say to their kids is just get them to eat more fruit. Like probably said, um, I mean, apples are, are good for you. If you eat an apple, and then you eat, you know, four Big Macs on a daily basis, that Apple is not going to provide you with enough health benefits to offset the poor overall diet that you have. So I don’t really know if there’s too much more to this except that there’s no foods, it’s inherently gonna be good for you. In itself, like it’s about the context of your diet as a whole if you have just like the myth of like, I wish this was on the list to have like, a grapefruit like burns tummy fat or like lemon in your like, like, like apple cider vinegar, like it’s like, those things like they just like having that one thing in your diet is not going to make you healthy. Or having that one thing that you would consider unhealthy in your diet is also not going to make you unhealthy. So what I mean is like, if you have an apple in your diet, it’s going to mean that everything else in your diet doesn’t matter. Just like if you have an ice cream cone, like everything else, you’re having all the fruits and vegetables and exercise and everything else like that doesn’t matter because you’re you Having that one thing that is like, not the most nutritious thing. It’s more like your diet as a whole. I mean, do you have anything to add for this apple one? Because I don’t really, it just kind of pissed me off. I don’t really? I don’t really know why this one I feel there’s a lot of other better Miss than that one.