Latest / NHA Today Podcast / How to Read Food Labels Like a Dietitian (And Outsmart the Grocery Store) with Cassandra Sampson | Ep. 162

Transcript

How to Read Food Labels Like a Dietitian (And Outsmart the Grocery Store) with Cassandra Sampson | Ep. 162 · NHA Today Podcast

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  Record.
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  Perfect.
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  Recording has started, so I'll exit stage.
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  Bye.
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  Okay.
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  Well, I'll just jump into it here.
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  Let's do it.
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  Let's do it.
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  Hello,
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  and welcome to the NHA Today podcast.
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  I am so excited to be here as
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  a guest host,
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  and I could not be more excited to
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  be part of this community.
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  My name is Kylie Buckner.
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  And for those of you who I haven't
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  met yet, I am a nurse.
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  I am a health and wellness coach.
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  And my mission is to bring the pillars
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  of lifestyle medicine to people to help
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  understand how to fundamentally change
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  their health and their wellness and become
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  well and work towards wellness.
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  And through my coaching work,
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  I've seen so many people just transform
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  their lives.
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  And it's been such a gift and such
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  a joy for me in my professional career
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  to
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  I also am the host of the Green
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  Glow Podcast.
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  Sorry.
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  I'm also the host of the Green Glow
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  Lifestyle Podcast.
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  And I just love talking about all things
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  nutrition, nutrition science, wellness,
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  lifestyle medicine.
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  And I could not be more excited to
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  be here today with our guest,
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  Cassandra Sampson,
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  who is a registered dietitian.
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  She's a plant-based nutritionist.
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  plant-based expert.
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  And she's also my neighbor, my friend.
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  She's a plant-based mama.
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  We raise children in the same
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  neighborhood.
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  And we are here today to talk about
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  all things food labels and how to really
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  inform yourself in the grocery store.
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  And I just am so excited to have
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  you here today, Cassandra.
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  Thank you so much.
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  Thank you for having me.
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  I am equally as excited,
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  if not a tiny bit more excited to
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  be here.
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  Let's talk about food labels.
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  Yes, absolutely.
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  Before we get started,
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  since you're new to the NHA audience,
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  would you like to just share a little
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  background,
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  just a brief little intro as to how
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  you got started in the plant-based
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  pathway?
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  Yes.
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  So I've been a dietitian since around the
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  time of two thousand twelve.
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  And I have helped probably thousands of
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  patients and clients at this point improve
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  their quality of life and obviously their
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  health through optimizing their diet,
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  specifically with a plant based diet,
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  whole food plant based.
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  I have seen firsthand to be very life
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  changing.
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  And the way that I came across this
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  was actually.
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  Well, I mean,
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  my husband helped he when we started
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  dating,
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  he decided that he wanted to go whole
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  food plant based.
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  And that just kind of like sealed the
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  deal for me, honestly.
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  But prior to that, you know,
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  just studying and becoming a dietitian,
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  you learn all the things and you read
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  all the research.
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  And then we are able and empowered to
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  make our own decisions for how we're going
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  to eat moving forward.
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  And at that point,
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  I kind of decided plant based is the
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  way that I'm going to go.
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  Well, you know,
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  I think we align on so many of
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  the things that you just brought up there.
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  Number one is that once you see the
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  research and the evidence,
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  it's really hard to unsee that.
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  And as a healthcare professional myself,
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  as a nurse,
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  when I started reading back in
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  you know,
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  overcoming inflammatory diseases and
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  metabolic challenges.
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  And I was like, oh my gosh,
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  this is amazing.
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  This is what I want to focus on.
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  Right.
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  Once you start seeing that,
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  it's hard to unsee that.
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  And then once it becomes a family affair
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  and you're down that pathway with your
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  partner, your spouse, your children.
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  Yeah.
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  Yes, there's no going back.
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  But I also find that this is a
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  very satisfying space to be as a provider,
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  as a nurse, as a healthcare coach,
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  as a dietician,
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  because you do see such magical results
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  that happen.
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  And I've worked in other spaces where it
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  wasn't necessarily plant-based.
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  Like I've worked in
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  bariatric nutrition, for example.
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  And it was so focused on losing weight,
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  getting into a certain number on the scale
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  and everything else didn't matter.
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  It didn't matter how we got there.
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  It didn't matter what your diet looked
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  like, as long as it was, you know,
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  getting you to the,
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  to the place of weight loss.
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  So being in the plant-based space is just
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  super, super satisfying.
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  Yeah, that's awesome.
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  I know it is really rewarding.
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  And I mean, I've seen so many,
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  like you were explaining,
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  so many people just really gain control of
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  their health,
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  understand what levers to pull to actually
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  make progress towards, you know,
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  lowering their blood glucose and lowering
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  the blood pressure and just being able to
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  live a lifestyle that is full of vibrant
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  joy.
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  And I think that's really,
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  it's exciting to be a part of that
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  and to walk that walk with other people.
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  It really is.
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  Yeah, that's awesome.
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  Well,
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  One of the things that comes up for
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  a lot of people in my coaching world
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  and with my clients,
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  and I'm sure you see this all the
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  time, the question of what to eat,
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  what do I bring in the house?
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  How do I know what to bring into
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  the house?
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  And I think that conceptually speaking for
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  us, we've been doing this for many, many,
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  many years.
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  So we are like, oh, yeah,
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  just go eat.
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  Buy the beans.
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  Right.
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  You know,
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  I think that the NHA audience also
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  understands fundamentally, yeah,
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  like eat the vegetables, eat the fruits,
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  eat the beans.
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  And I think that's a really great place
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  to start.
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  But then, you know,
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  when you walk through the grocery store,
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  it can be so confusing.
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  Yes.
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  You know?
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  Yeah.
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  And a lot of that is strategically that
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  way.
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  And actually, my first job as a dietitian,
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  I was in New Jersey.
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  Yeah, because in New Jersey,
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  I started with ShopRite supermarket.
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  And I don't know if they still have
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  dietitians on their staff.
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  But at that point, they did.
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  And this was a very new thing.
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  And to this day,
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  I think it's kind of a new concept.
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  So my my role as a dietitian was
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  in the supermarket.
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  So more of like a community space.
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  But I bring this up because I learned
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  how much strategy is behind and how much
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  money, how much effort, how much time,
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  how much research is behind trying to get
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  people to buy things that they didn't come
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  into the store for necessarily.
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  And this could be marketing techniques,
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  obviously, prices, sales.
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  Um, the, what is it called?
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  The height on the shelf.
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  You know,
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  if it's something that's catered to a
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  child, it's going to be lower.
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  It's going to be brighter colors.
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  Um, what else?
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  Like different impulse buys.
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  Like there's so much strategy that goes
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  behind that.
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  So to your point,
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  when we go in the grocery store and
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  it feels overwhelming.
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  Yeah.
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  It's kind of on purpose to get people
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  to buy a lot of things.
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  Yeah.
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  Oh my gosh.
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  That's so interesting.
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  I didn't know that about your working in
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  the grocery store, but yeah,
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  like what an interesting perspective as a
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  dietitian.
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  Cause you're like, well,
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  why don't we just put the fruits and
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  vegetables out everywhere?
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  Let people buy fruits and vegetables
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  everywhere.
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  But you know,
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  the package and the processed foods are,
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  and you also mentioned, sorry,
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  I have to go back to this.
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  You mentioned the food at the children's
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  height.
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  I mean,
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  that is something as I shop with my
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  daughter, I have a four-year-old daughter,
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  you have a child around the same age,
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  you have two children and they, you know,
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  they do, they,
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  they reach for those
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  boxes right at their eye level.
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  They're colorful.
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  They look pretty.
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  They're very inviting.
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  Yeah.
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  And it's not a coincidence that say
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  there's the Disney character that they
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  like on the sugary cereal.
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  There's the frozen people.
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  What are they?
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  Elsa and Anna are on, you know, it's,
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  it's all part of this big strategy that
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  it makes it tough for us parents to
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  kind of explain that.
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  Like,
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  how am I going to sit you down
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  and really allow you to understand what
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  I'm trying to
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  portray here when we're in the cereal
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  aisle and like you're about to lose your
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  mind, not you, my child.
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  Right.
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  Yeah, I know.
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  I just casually stroll right by that aisle
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  at this point.
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  But yeah, I know it is really challenging.
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  And I want to like pin that to
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  come back to that a little bit,
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  because first I want to kind of like
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  talk about being in the grocery store and
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  like what, you know,
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  if when we're looking when we're talking
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  about food packaging and like
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  The way that manufacturers are putting
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  labels on the front,
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  because I feel like it starts with the
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  front of the box.
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  I think so many people walk into the
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  store and they say, oh,
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  it says high fiber and organic.
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  And there's all these catchy words that
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  are trying to draw people in.
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  Yes, yes.
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  What should people really be looking for?
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  So I actually stole this from you from
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  a podcast that you did in the past
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  that the front of the package is a
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  billboard, right?
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  It's to get your attention.
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  It's to grab our eye.
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  But there is no what is the word?
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  I guess the word would be law.
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  Like there's no laws surrounding all of
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  what's on the front.
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  There is starting to be a little bit
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  like there are certain healthy claims that
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  are that the FDA has put out.
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  But for the most part,
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  what's on the front is just an eye
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  catcher.
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  It is not telling us the truth.
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  When we look on the back,
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  that's what's telling us the truth.
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  And that's where most importantly is the
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  ingredients list, but also the food label.
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  So anything that comes out of a package
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  is going to have a food label.
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  So if I had an apple and my
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  son is almost three.
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  He does this often.
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  He'll just grab an apple and that apple
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  is now his.
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  He takes a bite and we have committed
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  to it.
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  So that apple, for example,
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  and he does it with other things too.
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  It's terrible.
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  So at the end of our grocery trip,
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  I'm like, we have an apple,
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  we have a peach,
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  we have all of these things with bite
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  marks in them.
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  But that apple and that peach is not
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  going to have a food label because it's
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  plucked off the tree and then it's put
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  into our cart.
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  But if it is something like
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  A can of beans,
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  a box of rice that is going to
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  have a food label.
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  But of course, the I mean, the cookies,
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  the the crap foods or however you want
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  to call them, all of that.
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  So anything that comes out of a package
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  is going to have a food label.
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  And reading and understanding food labels
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  really empowers us to move from being.
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  what I call passive consumers to really
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  being informed and being an active
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  participant in our own health journey,
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  which is really important because you and
• 9:49
  me and everyone else out there,
• 9:51
  we are in the driver's seat of our
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  health.
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  So it's important for us to not take
• 9:56
  a backseat to this type of situation.
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  Oh my gosh.
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  That gave me chills.
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  I love that.
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  Empowered consumers.
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  Really?
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  Because the marketing, like you said,
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  the billboards on the front of these
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  containers, the boxes of cereals,
• 10:11
  the boxes of granola bars.
• 10:12
  I always think about it.
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  My friends will hand me a box and
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  they'll be like,
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  what do you think about this bar?
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  And I'm like,
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  do you really want to know the answer?
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  Cause like,
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  I'm not sure you're going to like my
• 10:21
  answer about it, but I will tell you.
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  Right.
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  And that's where we're going to go and
• 10:25
  talk about.
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  But like, I love how you said that,
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  like becoming an empowered consumer,
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  because when we look at the foods and
• 10:30
  the produce aisle,
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  when we go into the grocery store with
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  our list and stick to that list of
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  whole plant foods that are full of fiber,
• 10:38
  that are full of nutrients and shop that
• 10:40
  list,
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  you don't even need to look at a
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  label.
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  You know what you're getting, right?
• 10:44
  Yeah.
• 10:45
  Which is kind of funny when you think
• 10:47
  about it.
• 10:47
  Like the whole point is to have less,
• 10:50
  less things that are in packages,
• 10:52
  you know, when we go home.
• 10:54
  But the grocery store is still where we
• 10:55
  get all the goodies on the perimeter.
• 10:58
  But I mean,
• 11:00
  such a high focus I would recommend would
• 11:02
  be from the produce aisle or the produce
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  section,
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  which really doesn't have too many food
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  labels.
• 11:07
  I mean, there are some there,
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  but it's not like a heavy spot.
• 11:11
  Yeah.
• 11:12
  So let's say you find yourself in some
• 11:14
  of those middle aisles and maybe you're
• 11:17
  curious about what's on those labels.
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  Maybe you've never looked at a label in
• 11:20
  your pantry or in one of those center
• 11:22
  aisles in the grocery store.
• 11:25
  When you turn that food package over,
• 11:28
  and now I really regret not bringing a
• 11:29
  box with me,
• 11:31
  but when you turn that package over,
• 11:34
  you see, like you said, that food label,
• 11:36
  the black and white box with all the
• 11:38
  information on it.
• 11:40
  What are some of the things that would
• 11:42
  be of benefit to draw our eyes towards
• 11:44
  right away?
• 11:45
  Yeah.
• 11:47
  Well, right away, I would say,
• 11:49
  look at ingredients first,
• 11:50
  because I want to look at what's on
• 11:52
  the food label.
• 11:53
  If the first couple of ingredients are
• 11:55
  going to be sugar, oil,
• 11:58
  refined carbohydrates,
• 12:00
  because if they're in,
• 12:01
  I would say the top three ingredients,
• 12:03
  I don't want it anyway.
• 12:05
  So it doesn't really matter the numbers
• 12:07
  that are on the food label.
• 12:08
  So look at ingredients first, the
• 12:12
  The ingredients that are at the top of
• 12:13
  the list make up the bulk of that
• 12:15
  product.
• 12:16
  So we want to look at the ingredients.
• 12:18
  As far as the food label goes,
• 12:20
  I look at the serving size and the
• 12:24
  servings per container because let's be
• 12:26
  realistic.
• 12:26
  Whatever we're looking at,
• 12:28
  if we're going to be realistically having
• 12:30
  more than one serving,
• 12:31
  that makes a big difference because.
• 12:33
  Say there's five grams of sugar per
• 12:36
  serving.
• 12:37
  And I know myself or I know my
• 12:38
  family and we typically have two servings.
• 12:41
  Then that makes a big difference because
• 12:43
  now I'm looking at double the amount of
• 12:44
  sugar and double the amount of all of
• 12:46
  the numbers that are on the food label.
• 12:48
  So I would say ingredients.
• 12:49
  We look at that first.
• 12:51
  We look at the serving size.
• 12:53
  And then I would also look at the
• 12:55
  added sugar.
• 12:57
  And these are more things that I want
• 12:58
  to be aware of.
• 13:00
  So items that I would want to make
• 13:02
  sure that I have more of in the
• 13:04
  food label would be fiber.
• 13:06
  I mean, fiber, protein, yes,
• 13:08
  but I would say fiber trumps that.
• 13:11
  I totally agree.
• 13:12
  I think looking at fiber,
• 13:14
  looking at how many grams of fiber you're
• 13:15
  getting per serving makes a big difference
• 13:17
  in terms of the wholeness of the food,
• 13:20
  right?
• 13:20
  And then I like how you said about
• 13:22
  the serving size too,
• 13:23
  because I think what food manufacturers
• 13:25
  are getting really smart at is actually
• 13:27
  decreasing the serving size.
• 13:29
  So it looks like
• 13:32
  you know, there's a lot,
• 13:34
  you're getting less of the calories,
• 13:36
  less sugar, less oil per bite,
• 13:39
  but the serving size is much smaller now.
• 13:41
  So it's not going to be as,
• 13:42
  so you have to eat more of it,
• 13:43
  but then you're getting double or triple
• 13:45
  the amount of added sugar and things like
• 13:47
  that.
• 13:48
  Yes,
• 13:48
  I wanted to look up and I found
• 13:50
  it the official FDA document.
• 13:52
  So there's actually lots of documents on
• 13:54
  the FDA website that that correlates with
• 13:57
  the food label.
• 13:58
  Where does it come from?
• 13:59
  What are the laws in place?
• 14:01
  All of those kind of things are public
• 14:02
  knowledge.
• 14:02
  Thank God.
• 14:03
  And they're all on the FDA website.
• 14:05
  And the official FDA document states if a
• 14:08
  serving contains less than point five gram
• 14:10
  of
• 14:11
  The content when declared must be so not
• 14:14
  even an option must be expressed as zero
• 14:16
  grams.
• 14:18
  So if something like dangerous trans fats
• 14:21
  are point five gram per serving,
• 14:25
  it will be listed on the food label
• 14:26
  as zero.
• 14:28
  So this is very concerning because say I'm
• 14:31
  looking at something, I don't even,
• 14:33
  what would, what would trans fat be in?
• 14:35
  I don't like we'll say powdered,
• 14:37
  powdered coffee creamer.
• 14:38
  I don't know.
• 14:39
  So say one serving has realistically,
• 14:42
  it has point five grams.
• 14:44
  Okay.
• 14:44
  So over time, if I'm,
• 14:46
  having this powdered coffee creamer.
• 14:48
  And eventually I go through the whole
• 14:49
  thing.
• 14:50
  Maybe it's twenty five servings.
• 14:52
  I have had a considerable amount of trans
• 14:54
  fats at that point,
• 14:55
  but it has this health halo effect of
• 14:57
  it says zero grams trans fat.
• 14:59
  So, you know, what's the harm?
• 15:01
  And that's that's pretty scary.
• 15:03
  That's pretty dangerous.
• 15:05
  That is fascinating.
• 15:06
  So that goes for trans fat.
• 15:08
  I've heard that about sugar.
• 15:09
  I didn't realize that about trans fat and
• 15:11
  other, basically for any,
• 15:13
  any of the ingredients that are listed
• 15:15
  there.
• 15:16
  Sodium too?
• 15:17
  Salt?
• 15:19
  Sodium?
• 15:21
  No.
• 15:21
  Milligrams anyway, but.
• 15:23
  Yeah.
• 15:23
  I mean,
• 15:23
  that's not usually the one that I come
• 15:25
  across where.
• 15:25
  Okay.
• 15:28
  Well,
• 15:28
  that's very interesting because you're
• 15:29
  right.
• 15:30
  If somebody as a consumer is saying, well,
• 15:32
  this has zero grams of trans fat,
• 15:33
  zero grams of saturated fat,
• 15:35
  yet actually there's anywhere from zero to
• 15:39
  point four nine grams in that.
• 15:42
  It's really tricky.
• 15:45
  You know, on the FDA website,
• 15:46
  it didn't say why.
• 15:48
  Like, why?
• 15:49
  I don't understand.
• 15:49
  Why not just put the actual amount?
• 15:51
  I don't understand.
• 15:52
  That's very interesting.
• 15:54
  And that's, I mean,
• 15:55
  it seems like they're just like, well,
• 15:56
  just round down.
• 15:57
  Right, right.
• 15:58
  Exactly.
• 15:58
  No problem.
• 15:59
  We'll just round down.
• 16:00
  No big deal.
• 16:01
  It's fine.
• 16:01
  But it's hard.
• 16:02
  This health halo effect can go for what
• 16:05
  I call like the legal loophole,
• 16:06
  which is the you can round down to
• 16:08
  zero grams.
• 16:09
  But it can also be this health halo
• 16:11
  effect can be I mean,
• 16:13
  when us as consumers are influenced by
• 16:15
  foods that are labeled as vegan or plant
• 16:19
  based,
• 16:19
  but actually lack any type of nutritional
• 16:22
  density.
• 16:23
  And it's dangerous to perceive a food or
• 16:26
  even a beverage as healthy based on one
• 16:28
  single attribute, which might be, oh,
• 16:30
  it says vegan or it says plant based,
• 16:32
  you know,
• 16:32
  derived from plant based ingredients.
• 16:34
  So a food can be one hundred percent
• 16:36
  plant based.
• 16:37
  Of course, it's not coming from plants.
• 16:39
  Anything else is coming from a plant based
• 16:40
  source, but it's nutritionally bankrupt.
• 16:43
  And I've seen that happen a lot.
• 16:46
  A common pitfall that I see when people
• 16:48
  are going from the standard American diet
• 16:51
  over to a vegan diet, they're like, oh,
• 16:53
  it's plant based.
• 16:54
  Cool.
• 16:54
  But in reality, I mean,
• 16:56
  what is what can be plant based but
• 16:58
  have this halo effect?
• 17:00
  Oreos, soda, you know, things like that,
• 17:03
  like any type of very processed food.
• 17:06
  um meat alternative can also have this
• 17:10
  health halo effect
• 17:13
  Yeah, I love that term health halo.
• 17:14
  So if that's a new term for you
• 17:16
  and you're listening to this and you're
• 17:17
  like, ooh, what does that mean?
• 17:18
  Because I think sometimes when we can
• 17:21
  label our experiences a little bit more,
• 17:23
  it helps us to define what we're trying
• 17:25
  to really discern.
• 17:26
  And what you're saying is that the health
• 17:28
  halo is like these words that the
• 17:31
  manufacturers are using are sort of
• 17:33
  tricking our brains to believe.
• 17:34
  Like when we see the word organic,
• 17:36
  we see the word plant-based vegan,
• 17:38
  whatever the word is that kind of draws
• 17:40
  you in.
• 17:41
  Yeah.
• 17:42
  They're not showing you the other side of
• 17:43
  it, which is that, oh, yeah,
• 17:45
  but by the way,
• 17:45
  we've added oil in here, which is,
• 17:47
  you know,
• 17:47
  potentially high in saturated fat.
• 17:49
  We've added sugars, right,
• 17:50
  to make this very palatable for you.
• 17:53
  Right.
• 17:53
  So I think I love this term health
• 17:55
  halo because it really puts like a pin
• 17:58
  in that experience in the grocery store
• 18:00
  where you're walking around kind of like
• 18:02
  looking for healthier alternatives than
• 18:05
  maybe the straight up candy bar.
• 18:08
  Right.
• 18:08
  Right.
• 18:09
  Exactly.
• 18:10
  unfortunately sometimes there's just not
• 18:13
  an alternative.
• 18:14
  There's just not right.
• 18:15
  Unless you're making it yourself with like
• 18:16
  really like whole ingredients.
• 18:18
  Right.
• 18:19
  Yeah.
• 18:19
  And sometimes there isn't that
• 18:20
  alternative.
• 18:21
  And I think that's a good point because
• 18:23
  when people say to you and to me,
• 18:25
  you know, like, Oh,
• 18:26
  what do you think about these?
• 18:27
  And you know, they're from a package,
• 18:29
  they've got sodium in it.
• 18:30
  And it's kind of like, well,
• 18:31
  I don't think anything about it because
• 18:33
  this is not something that I would
• 18:34
  recommend that you consume.
• 18:36
  Like there's no need unless, okay.
• 18:38
  Say someone is
• 18:39
  having a travel day.
• 18:40
  This is the only option.
• 18:41
  They're going to be on the airplane.
• 18:42
  I mean,
• 18:42
  there are exceptions and it could fill the
• 18:45
  need.
• 18:46
  But for the most part,
• 18:47
  the goal is to get away from that.
• 18:49
  Absolutely.
• 18:50
  Yeah.
• 18:50
  It reminds me,
• 18:51
  I use this term a lot in my
• 18:52
  coaching practice.
• 18:53
  It's good, better, best.
• 18:54
  You know,
• 18:55
  when we're looking at a way of discernment
• 18:59
  around our choices,
• 19:01
  this starts in the grocery store, right?
• 19:02
  So the best choices may be in the
• 19:05
  produce aisle and in those peripheral,
• 19:06
  right?
• 19:07
  The
• 19:09
  But then there may be options in the
• 19:10
  grocery store that maybe you may find a
• 19:12
  better option than the other one.
• 19:14
  So like, for example,
• 19:16
  maybe I'm trying to think of a good
• 19:19
  example of this.
• 19:20
  Like maybe you find frozen vegetables that
• 19:23
  a better option is frozen vegetables
• 19:24
  without any oil compared to frozen
• 19:26
  vegetables with oil or frozen vegetables
• 19:28
  with seasoning versus oil or butter,
• 19:31
  right?
• 19:32
  I don't know.
• 19:32
  Like there's just, I mean,
• 19:33
  frozen vegetables are always a great
• 19:35
  choice, always the best choice.
• 19:35
  Yeah.
• 19:36
  There's levels to this at all times.
• 19:38
  Yeah, exactly.
• 19:39
  Exactly.
• 19:40
  But like you're saying,
• 19:40
  that maybe sometimes compared to like on a
• 19:43
  travel day,
• 19:44
  if you're taking a packaged food or
• 19:45
  something,
• 19:46
  compared to the fast food line at the
• 19:51
  airport, right, might be a better choice.
• 19:55
  But you're right.
• 19:55
  On the daily basis when we're at home
• 19:57
  with our tools of our trade in our
• 19:59
  kitchen,
• 20:00
  then we get to choose the best choices
• 20:02
  that we can.
• 20:03
  Yeah.
• 20:04
  Yeah.
• 20:04
  And food labels,
• 20:05
  like when you brought up good, better,
• 20:07
  best,
• 20:07
  I think food labels serve that purpose of
• 20:10
  we can compare if I'm really looking to
• 20:12
  get a granola bar and I'm not down
• 20:14
  with making it at home.
• 20:16
  OK,
• 20:16
  let me compare a few options and let
• 20:17
  me compare the sugar.
• 20:18
  Let me compare what the serving size is.
• 20:20
  Let me compare the ingredients.
• 20:22
  And I think that's one of the huge
• 20:24
  benefits of having a food label for
• 20:26
  packaged things is to is to just compare.
• 20:29
  Like maybe one is not perfect.
• 20:31
  I mean,
• 20:31
  nothing's probably going to be perfect.
• 20:33
  But at least we can make a decision
• 20:34
  based on, okay, well,
• 20:35
  this one stands above the rest when it
• 20:38
  comes to ingredients and numbers on the
• 20:39
  food label.
• 20:40
  And when we're in the grocery store,
• 20:44
  You know, and I say this very candidly,
• 20:46
  but I would say the grocery store is
• 20:48
  the most important exam room when we're
• 20:50
  talking about healthcare,
• 20:51
  because it is really where risk is either
• 20:55
  going to be reduced,
• 20:56
  or it's going to be reinforced.
• 20:57
  And this could be happening every single
• 20:59
  week, depending on your cadence of,
• 21:00
  you know, going grocery shopping.
• 21:02
  So long before someone's symptoms appear
• 21:06
  for maybe it's high blood pressure,
• 21:08
  maybe it's glucose imbalances,
• 21:10
  maybe it's
• 21:11
  digestive issues long before those
• 21:13
  symptoms are surfacing and they're sitting
• 21:15
  across from you or I,
• 21:17
  certain physiological things are happening
• 21:19
  behind the scenes that are a result of
• 21:22
  what we're choosing in the grocery store
• 21:24
  every week.
• 21:25
  And if we kind of compare it to
• 21:27
  most people might see their doctor a few
• 21:28
  times a year.
• 21:29
  Hopefully we don't get sick a lot.
• 21:31
  You
• 21:35
  I mean,
• 21:35
  whether it's someone shopping for us with
• 21:36
  Instacart or actually entering the
• 21:38
  building, it's often.
• 21:40
  And it makes a really big difference for
• 21:42
  our health.
• 21:44
  So well said.
• 21:46
  And I mean, I would totally agree.
• 21:47
  It really starts in the grocery store.
• 21:49
  Your health and wellness starts in the
• 21:50
  grocery store.
• 21:51
  And if you're bringing home foods that are
• 21:53
  high in saturated fat,
• 21:55
  that are laden with chemicals or other
• 21:58
  types of preservatives, things like that,
• 22:00
  that will lead to
• 22:02
  downstream complications like
• 22:04
  inflammation, like oxidative stress.
• 22:07
  There are complications and challenges
• 22:09
  that high-fat diets lead to insulin
• 22:12
  resistance.
• 22:12
  This is shown time and again.
• 22:14
  So if you're bringing home foods that are
• 22:16
  high in fat from plants, sorry, excuse me,
• 22:20
  from animals, from oils,
• 22:23
  those are the things that are going to
• 22:25
  lead to those health challenges in the
• 22:29
  These chronic health conditions,
• 22:30
  I think it's kind of a, you know,
• 22:32
  a misconception of like, oh,
• 22:34
  I just came down with it, you know,
• 22:36
  or like, oh,
• 22:37
  I just got diagnosed when like it's been
• 22:39
  happening behind the scenes.
• 22:40
  And that's really what I would want people
• 22:42
  to be aware of,
• 22:43
  that it's never too late to change your
• 22:45
  diet.
• 22:46
  Like it doesn't matter what age you are.
• 22:48
  I work with this this fella that's ninety
• 22:50
  years old and he follows a whole food
• 22:52
  plant based diet.
• 22:53
  And it's amazing.
• 22:54
  And he's had really great results with his
• 22:56
  inflammation.
• 22:57
  So something else that I wanted to
• 22:59
  mention,
• 23:00
  since I'm picturing us in the grocery
• 23:02
  store all together, all of us,
• 23:03
  is the ingredients list.
• 23:06
  And I kind of mentioned this,
• 23:07
  how it goes in descending order.
• 23:10
  But I think it's worth acknowledging the
• 23:12
  longstanding recommendation to avoid
• 23:14
  ingredients that you can't pronounce.
• 23:16
  And the reason why I think this is
• 23:17
  important to acknowledge is there are
• 23:20
  limits to that guideline or that like
• 23:22
  thing.
• 23:23
  way of thinking, right?
• 23:25
  Particularly when it's evaluated through a
• 23:27
  nutrition science lens.
• 23:29
  And again,
• 23:30
  I saw this from a podcast that I
• 23:31
  heard you speak on,
• 23:33
  but ascorbic acid sounds scary, right?
• 23:35
  Acid.
• 23:36
  I don't want that in my body.
• 23:38
  Sounds like a lab chemical, but it's,
• 23:40
  it's vitamin C and it's used to naturally
• 23:43
  preserve many foods and
• 23:45
  So that is not, you know,
• 23:46
  an ingredient that we need to be scared
• 23:48
  of.
• 23:48
  But if someone has never heard of, of,
• 23:50
  of, wow, ascorbic acid,
• 23:52
  it does sound scary, right?
• 23:54
  Absolutely.
• 23:54
  Absolutely.
• 23:55
  Same.
• 23:56
  It's funny you said that because there are
• 23:58
  a lot of ingredients.
• 23:58
  Sometimes we don't recognize it.
• 24:00
  Guar gum is another example.
• 24:01
  It's fiber.
• 24:02
  It's fiber and it's a binding agent and
• 24:05
  it's used in,
• 24:06
  and that's how a lot of foods are
• 24:08
  getting a little bump of fiber.
• 24:10
  But if you're,
• 24:11
  if you're seeing whole food ingredients,
• 24:13
  plus guar gum, plus ascorbic acid,
• 24:16
  those are,
• 24:16
  those are ingredients that have very,
• 24:18
  they're not,
• 24:19
  they're non-harmful additives.
• 24:21
  compared to things like red dyes or
• 24:24
  yellow, you know, the different dyes or,
• 24:25
  again,
• 24:27
  chemicals that you cannot pronounce that
• 24:28
  are used as preservatives or food flavor
• 24:31
  additives or things like that.
• 24:32
  So great point.
• 24:33
  Right.
• 24:34
  And I wish that – and I'm sure
• 24:36
  this would be like a huge undertaking,
• 24:37
  but I wish that on the food label
• 24:39
  with the ingredients –
• 24:41
  they would be color coded and they would
• 24:43
  either be like red or green or yellow,
• 24:45
  like not meaning like red dye is red,
• 24:47
  but red dye being red because it's
• 24:49
  something that we really want to be
• 24:50
  cautious about and aware of.
• 24:52
  Whereas ascorbic acid could be green,
• 24:54
  something like that,
• 24:56
  because it is a little daunting when we
• 24:58
  look at an ingredients list.
• 24:59
  And especially if it's something like,
• 25:01
  that just has a lot of ingredients just
• 25:03
  because there's a lot of stuff in it.
• 25:05
  The list could be pretty long and to
• 25:07
  go through all of that and fact check
• 25:09
  it can be pretty time consuming.
• 25:12
  It's very true.
• 25:13
  And especially now because there's so many
• 25:15
  companies out there now.
• 25:16
  I have to say,
• 25:17
  when I first was plant-based in I did
• 25:20
  not really shop for any...
• 25:22
  Most packaged and prepared foods or
• 25:24
  refined products were not using
• 25:27
  ingredients that felt aligned to my
• 25:30
  plant-based endeavor, right?
• 25:31
  So...
• 25:32
  I didn't really buy any of them.
• 25:32
  I didn't buy the meat substitutes.
• 25:34
  I didn't buy the cheese substitutes.
• 25:35
  There was a lot of oil,
• 25:36
  a lot of trans fats.
• 25:37
  I did not consume those things.
• 25:39
  So when I started my plant-based journey,
• 25:40
  I just stayed in the plants,
• 25:42
  like truly whole plants.
• 25:43
  And that worked really well for me.
• 25:45
  But now, all of a sudden,
• 25:46
  there's these amazing companies out there
• 25:49
  that are really tuning in to the need
• 25:52
  and the demand for products that are
• 25:54
  wholesome, using wholesome ingredients,
• 25:56
  using whole ingredients that are prepared
• 25:59
  in a different way.
• 25:59
  So for example, using...
• 26:01
  beans for bean bars,
• 26:03
  chocolate brownie bean bars,
• 26:05
  and using date sugar instead of other
• 26:09
  types of sugar that has more of a
• 26:11
  harmful downstream,
• 26:12
  like instead of super refined sugar that
• 26:14
  has more of that inflammatory effect.
• 26:16
  And I think that this brings up the
• 26:18
  question,
• 26:19
  especially in the plant-based world of
• 26:20
  like, well,
• 26:21
  where are we going with some of these
• 26:23
  food labels?
• 26:24
  And how do we, again,
• 26:25
  how do we continue to compare and discern
• 26:28
  which of these ingredients is good for us?
• 26:30
  Right.
• 26:31
  And I feel that like like plant based
• 26:34
  plant derived ingredients has become such
• 26:35
  a buzzword.
• 26:36
  Like I was cleaning recently.
• 26:40
  And although I love that on the bottle,
• 26:41
  it said, you know,
• 26:42
  plant ingredients or whatever.
• 26:45
  But it's kind of like, I don't know,
• 26:48
  same like same situation with packaged
• 26:50
  foods.
• 26:51
  Now I'm looking at like cleaning supplies.
• 26:53
  I'm like, well, it says plant based.
• 26:54
  Like,
• 26:54
  I don't want to be naive and just
• 26:57
  get it because it's based on that.
• 26:58
  But I feel like that's probably a whole
• 26:59
  nother a whole nother class.
• 27:01
  Oh, my gosh.
• 27:02
  Totally.
• 27:02
  We could do a whole other talk on
• 27:03
  low-tox living and discerning food labels
• 27:07
  and things like that for sure or product
• 27:09
  labels.
• 27:10
  Yeah, absolutely.
• 27:11
  I mean, but to your point,
• 27:13
  when it comes to looking at food labels,
• 27:15
  one,
• 27:16
  there's a few different resources out
• 27:18
  there that can help with understanding
• 27:22
  some of the product labels and
• 27:23
  understanding what's out there.
• 27:24
  One is the environmental working group.
• 27:25
  Another is think pretty, act clean.
• 27:28
  You can, whether it's household items,
• 27:31
  there's a couple of others out there.
• 27:32
  I don't know if there's one that you
• 27:33
  use, but easier.
• 27:34
  Those are my two primary,
• 27:35
  but that you can go and actually,
• 27:38
  you know,
• 27:39
  look for ingredients that are listed,
• 27:41
  whether it's in your cleaning products,
• 27:43
  in your home environment,
• 27:44
  or in your food products that can help
• 27:46
  with understanding what some of these
• 27:49
  specifically chemicals,
• 27:50
  they can become endocrine disruptors,
• 27:52
  they can become carcinogenic, you know,
• 27:56
  and these are important things for the
• 27:58
  informed consumer,
• 27:59
  the empowered consumer to be aware of.
• 28:01
  Yeah.
• 28:02
  Heavy emphasis on the endocrine
• 28:05
  disruptors.
• 28:06
  There we go.
• 28:08
  Because I feel like that's so
• 28:09
  under-recognized and the research is still
• 28:11
  evolving on that,
• 28:12
  but it's something to really pay attention
• 28:14
  to.
• 28:16
  Absolutely.
• 28:16
  Absolutely.
• 28:17
  And it's something that, you know,
• 28:18
  in our home, because we live with,
• 28:21
  my husband lives with multiple autoimmune
• 28:23
  conditions and, you know,
• 28:25
  I've had my own history of inflammatory
• 28:26
  disease that I've been able to learn more
• 28:29
  and more and more over the years.
• 28:31
  But the endocrine disruption really was a
• 28:33
  big contributor to like my endometriosis
• 28:34
  as it turns out.
• 28:36
  And, you know, for years,
• 28:38
  even though I was plant-based,
• 28:39
  I still had this like underlying load from
• 28:42
  endocrine disruption.
• 28:43
  So, you know, as you are, you know,
• 28:46
  if you're listening to this,
• 28:46
  as you're thinking about ways that you can
• 28:49
  sort of look at labels in a way
• 28:50
  of like informing you and recognizing what
• 28:55
  ingredients on labels may no longer be
• 28:57
  serving you in this part of your life.
• 28:59
  And this is a really,
• 29:01
  an easy place to start right with this
• 29:02
  is in your pantry right now, right?
• 29:04
  Yeah.
• 29:05
  Go do your homework this weekend or
• 29:07
  wherever,
• 29:08
  whenever you're listening to this,
• 29:09
  your homework is to go do a pantry
• 29:10
  sweep.
• 29:12
  A little audit inventory.
• 29:13
  I love that.
• 29:14
  Yeah.
• 29:15
  You know, clean out.
• 29:16
  It's, you know,
• 29:16
  we're almost approaching the spring
• 29:18
  season.
• 29:18
  Like maybe it's time for some spring
• 29:19
  cleaning and, you know, do a little audit,
• 29:22
  like check out those labels,
• 29:23
  look at the ingredients list.
• 29:24
  Like what's, what are the food,
• 29:26
  what are the things in your home that
• 29:27
  have salt, oil,
• 29:28
  or sugar listed in your first three
• 29:30
  ingredients?
• 29:31
  Yeah.
• 29:32
  Yeah.
• 29:32
  And sugar, you know,
• 29:34
  we haven't really like dived, dove, dived,
• 29:37
  we haven't really digged
• 29:41
  We're doing a deep dive.
• 29:45
  But on the food label,
• 29:46
  it's worth it to acknowledge that there is
• 29:49
  now on the newer food label.
• 29:51
  So it's updated every five years and it
• 29:54
  takes a pretty long time for food
• 29:56
  manufacturers to get all of their products
• 29:58
  out with the new food label.
• 29:59
  But there is a total sugar and then
• 30:02
  an added sugar like line item.
• 30:06
  And it's important to know the difference
• 30:08
  because added sugars is going to be the
• 30:11
  sugars that are obviously added.
• 30:13
  So if we're having something like a fresh
• 30:15
  apple,
• 30:16
  like my son takes a bite of the
• 30:17
  apple in the produce department,
• 30:19
  he's going to get sugar from that,
• 30:20
  but it's natural sugar.
• 30:21
  It's also coming alongside soluble fiber,
• 30:24
  insoluble fiber antioxidants.
• 30:26
  Whereas if he's drinking apple juice, he
• 30:29
  We're not going to get all of those,
• 30:31
  you know, wonderful side effects.
• 30:33
  We're going to get a lot of added
• 30:34
  sugar.
• 30:34
  So it's super important to differentiate
• 30:37
  between the sugars that are in my food,
• 30:40
  whether there is a label or not.
• 30:42
  Is it coming from natural,
• 30:44
  a natural source or is it coming from
• 30:46
  an added source?
• 30:48
  And your liver will know.
• 30:50
  Absolutely.
• 30:51
  Yes.
• 30:51
  Our bodies are very smart at detecting
• 30:54
  those,
• 30:54
  the different types of sugar that are
• 30:56
  coming into our body.
• 30:57
  And to your point that when they're bound
• 31:00
  to the fiber and the vitamins and the
• 31:02
  minerals and the phytochemicals and all of
• 31:04
  those amazing things,
• 31:05
  our body knows exactly what to do with
• 31:06
  all of those,
• 31:08
  all that part of the food compared to
• 31:11
  straight up, you know,
• 31:12
  added refined sugar that's been added in
• 31:14
  our, our liver gets very upset about it.
• 31:18
  I like to think about it as a
• 31:20
  slow drip versus a flash flood.
• 31:23
  So like a slow drip is going to
• 31:24
  come from the apple.
• 31:26
  Like it's going,
• 31:26
  there's going to be a slow rise in
• 31:28
  our blood sugar.
• 31:28
  It's beautiful.
• 31:29
  Whereas say like high fructose corn syrup,
• 31:32
  there is going to be a,
• 31:34
  like an all out flood.
• 31:35
  It's going to be a spike and it's
• 31:36
  going to be a drop and it's not
• 31:38
  going to be a great situation.
• 31:40
  That's a great visual.
• 31:41
  It really is when you think about it.
• 31:43
  And especially for anybody here who does
• 31:45
  look at their blood glucose,
• 31:46
  you may have noticed that in the past
• 31:48
  where, okay,
• 31:49
  you eat a piece of fruit and you
• 31:50
  don't see the same glucose exchange as you
• 31:53
  do when you eat something that's like
• 31:54
  highly refined or processed.
• 31:56
  I
• 32:01
  Do you have any thoughts on the idea
• 32:03
  of, you know,
• 32:04
  there's a lot of talk out there,
• 32:05
  you know, high carb, low carb, you know,
• 32:08
  low fat, high fat, protein,
• 32:10
  all these nutrients, macronutrients.
• 32:13
  When it comes to the carbohydrate and
• 32:16
  maybe, you know,
• 32:17
  you mentioned earlier about the fiber,
• 32:18
  you've mentioned a few times throughout
• 32:20
  here about the fiber and
• 32:22
  Those of you who don't know me,
• 32:23
  we love fiber.
• 32:23
  Fiber is my favorite F word.
• 32:25
  I will talk about it for hours.
• 32:28
  I do love fiber.
• 32:30
  What are your thoughts on, you know,
• 32:32
  carbohydrate and fiber and that
• 32:35
  combination?
• 32:36
  Like what, how,
• 32:36
  when you're looking at that label and you
• 32:38
  see carbohydrate, protein, fat, fiber,
• 32:40
  like how do you interpret all that?
• 32:42
  Right.
• 32:42
  So a way to determine if a plant
• 32:45
  based food is truly a whole food or
• 32:48
  if it's just like a health halo effect,
• 32:51
  there's something called the carbohydrate
• 32:54
  to fiber ratio.
• 32:55
  And the quote unquote golden rule is going
• 32:58
  to be a ratio of five to one.
• 33:01
  So if a product has five grams of
• 33:03
  total carbohydrates for every one gram of
• 33:06
  fiber,
• 33:07
  it's highly likely to have all of its
• 33:12
  packaging intact,
• 33:13
  meaning it's more of like a whole food.
• 33:17
  so this ratio mimics like the composition
• 33:19
  of unprocessed b uh plant foods like beans
• 33:22
  and lentils and and berries so that's what
• 33:25
  i would commit to memory five to one
• 33:27
  is the ratio that we're looking for five
• 33:28
  grams of carbs to every one gram of
• 33:31
  fiber oh my gosh i love this ratio
• 33:35
  and i love that you can take that
• 33:36
  to the grocery store so easily because you
• 33:37
  can just do the quick math on that
• 33:38
  and i also i want to hit my
• 33:40
  food logging app right now and start
• 33:41
  playing
• 33:43
  Right.
• 33:45
  There's another trick.
• 33:46
  It's when you divide by five.
• 33:49
  So if we're aiming for a five to
• 33:51
  one ratio,
• 33:53
  then the easiest mental math would be we
• 33:55
  look at the dietary fiber,
• 33:56
  we multiply it by five.
• 33:58
  And if that number is greater than the
• 34:01
  total carbohydrates,
• 34:02
  then we have like a real winner.
• 34:04
  So for example, if we had,
• 34:06
  we'll say we had lent like lentil pasta
• 34:11
  and say it's six grams of fiber and
• 34:13
  twenty five grams of total carbohydrates.
• 34:15
  We take that six grams of fiber times
• 34:17
  five.
• 34:18
  That equals thirty.
• 34:20
  So that is above the total grams of
• 34:22
  carbohydrates.
• 34:23
  So we are winning with flying colors.
• 34:25
  No surprise there with our lentil pasta.
• 34:28
  Fantastic.
• 34:30
  Yeah, that doesn't surprise me at all.
• 34:31
  That sounds about right.
• 34:33
  This is so much fun.
• 34:35
  I feel like I want to go to
• 34:36
  the grocery store.
• 34:36
  I just got back and now I'm like,
• 34:38
  I want to go back and go play
• 34:39
  this ratio game.
• 34:40
  So much fun.
• 34:41
  There's another interesting little tidbit
• 34:43
  that I've learned over the years,
• 34:44
  which is my total just experience of just
• 34:47
  writing tons of recipes,
• 34:48
  which is that
• 34:49
  As it turns out,
• 34:51
  fiber and protein tend to go along
• 34:54
  together in very close numbers.
• 34:56
  If you are somebody who's ever looking at,
• 34:58
  again,
• 34:59
  when you're looking at your food labels,
• 35:02
  when you're looking at those food labels,
• 35:05
  whole foods, especially from the legume,
• 35:09
  whole grain, and vegetable categories,
• 35:11
  the fruits are a little imbalanced in this
• 35:13
  way because fruits are just naturally a
• 35:14
  little bit lower in protein.
• 35:16
  Yeah.
• 35:16
  When we look at our higher protein plant
• 35:19
  foods,
• 35:20
  the fiber and protein numbers tend to be
• 35:23
  pretty equal within one or two grams of
• 35:25
  each other.
• 35:26
  And I have written so many recipes over
• 35:28
  the years that are just a hundred percent
• 35:30
  whole foods, you know,
• 35:31
  recipes with vegetables and beans and
• 35:33
  whole greens and all these different
• 35:35
  combinations.
• 35:36
  And I'll tell you,
• 35:37
  it just happens like every time.
• 35:38
  It's so interesting to me where they're-
• 35:41
  Yeah, it's a lot of fun.
• 35:43
  And the more fiber we consume,
• 35:45
  the healthier we are, right?
• 35:47
  The better our heart health,
• 35:48
  the better our digestive health.
• 35:50
  And then if we, again,
• 35:51
  think about this macronutrient of protein,
• 35:53
  which is certainly an important
• 35:55
  macronutrient to pay attention to,
• 35:57
  when we're eating enough fiber,
• 35:58
  guess what?
• 35:58
  We're also getting enough protein from
• 36:00
  whole foods, right?
• 36:01
  Yes.
• 36:01
  Yes.
• 36:02
  So if someone were to eat something and
• 36:06
  it was a high ratio carbohydrate,
• 36:08
  I've heard you say this before that you
• 36:10
  then clothe the carb, right?
• 36:12
  So that it's not naked.
• 36:14
  It's not lacking, you know,
• 36:16
  all the things.
• 36:17
  Um,
• 36:18
  so do you want to explain your trademark
• 36:19
  trick there with clothing the carb?
• 36:22
  Yes.
• 36:22
  Okay.
• 36:23
  So clothing the carb means that if you
• 36:25
  have a food that is, yeah,
• 36:27
  to your point,
• 36:27
  higher in carbohydrate and lower in fiber,
• 36:30
  this is a food or a meal that
• 36:31
  I would add extra fiber dense foods like
• 36:35
  raw leafy green vegetables or, you know,
• 36:37
  leafy greens, um,
• 36:39
  Or vegetables that are lower in
• 36:41
  carbohydrate that are high in fiber.
• 36:42
  So arugula, spinach, kale,
• 36:45
  all of the vegetables,
• 36:47
  beans are another good example of that.
• 36:49
  Where if you add more fiber-rich foods,
• 36:52
  you can actually adjust the ratio by
• 36:55
  adding more fiber.
• 36:56
  Yeah.
• 36:57
  So it kind of goes both ways.
• 36:59
  That's great.
• 37:01
  Yeah.
• 37:02
  Another good trick.
• 37:02
  Yeah.
• 37:03
  Thank you.
• 37:03
  I know.
• 37:03
  I'm like, well, and you know, again,
• 37:05
  I've worked with so many people with
• 37:07
  living with all forms of diabetes and in
• 37:09
  particular the glucose elevation that can
• 37:11
  come from a high carbohydrate approach.
• 37:12
  And especially when it comes to like juicy
• 37:14
  fruits, the juicy fruits are biggest.
• 37:16
  They're like the biggest red flag.
• 37:17
  Think about like an orange that like just
• 37:19
  like bursts with juice in your mouth.
• 37:21
  For somebody with diabetes or who injects
• 37:23
  insulin,
• 37:24
  that food can cause a much quicker
• 37:26
  elevation because it's not as clothed with
• 37:28
  fiber, right?
• 37:30
  So when you eat that orange alongside of
• 37:32
  a bowl of greens,
• 37:33
  so we put our oranges in salads.
• 37:35
  That's how we eat oranges.
• 37:36
  Oh, I do too.
• 37:38
  A lot of the time, you know?
• 37:39
  I put it in the salad dressing.
• 37:40
  I make my own dressing with miso paste
• 37:42
  and an orange, like, yeah.
• 37:44
  So good.
• 37:44
  Oh my gosh.
• 37:45
  Amazing.
• 37:47
  Yeah.
• 37:48
  We'll have to do that for our next
• 37:49
  dinner.
• 37:51
  Make that dressing.
• 37:53
  But I do think there's so much value
• 37:57
  in, again, learning these types of tricks,
• 38:00
  right?
• 38:00
  Finding ways of empowering yourself in the
• 38:03
  grocery store so that you're not blindly
• 38:04
  bringing things in that...
• 38:06
  you know,
• 38:07
  in a month or two from now,
• 38:08
  you're like, well,
• 38:08
  I thought I was eating healthy and my
• 38:11
  metrics haven't changed, right?
• 38:13
  Really, and again, we cannot,
• 38:15
  Cassandra and I together cannot
• 38:17
  overemphasize enough how important the
• 38:19
  produce aisle is.
• 38:19
  Exactly right.
• 38:22
  And fill your cart with those produce,
• 38:24
  you know,
• 38:24
  with produce as much as possible.
• 38:25
  But then, you know,
• 38:27
  really making those discerning choices and
• 38:29
  being able to hold your boundaries by
• 38:31
  informing yourself before you even go into
• 38:34
  the grocery store.
• 38:34
  And that's what this is all about right
• 38:36
  here.
• 38:37
  And you know what I think is kind
• 38:38
  of funny,
• 38:39
  and I've heard you mention this before,
• 38:40
  is that the foods in the middle aisles,
• 38:45
  oftentimes there's commercials that are
• 38:47
  trying to convince people to buy those,
• 38:49
  whereas
• 38:50
  an apple or an eggplant.
• 38:52
  I mean,
• 38:53
  these things don't really have
• 38:54
  commercials.
• 38:54
  I mean, maybe,
• 38:56
  but there's not exactly like a marketing
• 38:57
  team.
• 38:58
  No.
• 38:59
  People, which is funny.
• 39:00
  It's interesting.
• 39:02
  But I was thinking about commercials,
• 39:04
  especially with the Super Bowl.
• 39:06
  And then I,
• 39:06
  it led me to then Google, you know,
• 39:08
  how many people were watching the
• 39:09
  commercials from this past Super Bowl.
• 39:12
  And it was a hundred and twenty five
• 39:13
  million.
• 39:14
  It was actually one twenty four point nine
• 39:16
  million people were watching these
• 39:17
  commercials.
• 39:18
  And these commercials had a very captive
• 39:21
  audience.
• 39:21
  Right.
• 39:22
  And it was Lay's Chips.
• 39:23
  It was Dunkin Donuts.
• 39:24
  It was Budweiser.
• 39:25
  It was Skittles.
• 39:26
  It was hot dogs all displayed for millions
• 39:30
  of people to watch and then buy.
• 39:33
  I don't know.
• 39:34
  But it's interesting.
• 39:35
  Right.
• 39:35
  The produce department has no there's no
• 39:37
  major commercials for that,
• 39:39
  but it is lifesaving.
• 39:41
  I know.
• 39:42
  Isn't that wild?
• 39:42
  There's no spot with an audience that big
• 39:45
  for even if Fruit of the Loom had
• 39:48
  gotten on there.
• 39:50
  Right.
• 39:50
  Just dance.
• 39:51
  I remember those old commercials from the
• 39:52
  eighties dancing around.
• 39:54
  I mean,
• 39:55
  even that would have been like a little
• 39:56
  memory for somebody.
• 39:57
  It's so true.
• 39:58
  And I mean,
• 39:59
  in hot dogs for crying out loud,
• 40:00
  they're carcinogenic.
• 40:03
  It was wild.
• 40:04
  And I don't know if it's because we
• 40:06
  typically watch things that don't have
• 40:07
  commercials.
• 40:08
  I don't know.
• 40:09
  We don't even have cable.
• 40:10
  We just have the Netflix, Apple TV,
• 40:11
  whatever.
• 40:13
  So I was kind of like,
• 40:14
  taken aback by just the commercials in
• 40:17
  general,
• 40:18
  knowing how many people out there were
• 40:19
  watching like with a captive audience and
• 40:23
  how many probably millions of dollars were
• 40:25
  spent on those commercials.
• 40:27
  Absolutely.
• 40:28
  Absolutely.
• 40:29
  And I mean, it is such a wild,
• 40:30
  that is really interesting.
• 40:31
  Okay.
• 40:31
  So our vision is to get a spot
• 40:35
  in the Superbowl where we can talk about
• 40:39
  legumes and lentils and fruit.
• 40:42
  And we're going to become millionaires and
• 40:44
  it's going to be great.
• 40:45
  And we're going to just, you know,
• 40:46
  right off in the sunset.
• 40:48
  After we hit that – yeah,
• 40:50
  we need to fundraise – GoFundMe to start
• 40:52
  that – to get that commercial going.
• 40:54
  But I think also like to the whole
• 40:56
  point.
• 40:56
  Yeah.
• 40:57
  A plant-based diet is not like attractive.
• 41:01
  I don't know.
• 41:01
  Like it's not like –
• 41:03
  you know,
• 41:04
  like there's these other diets where it's
• 41:06
  like, I don't know,
• 41:07
  there's this like allure, this like draw.
• 41:09
  I don't know why,
• 41:10
  but like the plant-based diet has been
• 41:12
  shown to be the optimal diet for health.
• 41:15
  And yet it's just kind of like in
• 41:17
  the background.
• 41:18
  I know.
• 41:19
  Well, I know what you mean.
• 41:20
  It's not,
• 41:21
  there's so many influences there.
• 41:23
  I mean, we could again,
• 41:24
  do another whole episode on the influences
• 41:26
  of our, you know, again,
• 41:27
  our strategies that
• 41:29
  Um,
• 41:29
  I find a whole food plant-based diet to
• 41:31
  be highly attractive.
• 41:33
  I love the colors.
• 41:34
  It's so beautiful.
• 41:37
  I can't stop taking pictures of my food.
• 41:40
  I'm sure if anyone follows me on social
• 41:41
  media,
• 41:41
  which is probably very little people
• 41:43
  anyway,
• 41:44
  but they're probably sick of me posting
• 41:46
  like, Oh,
• 41:47
  here's my Pharaoh salad with blueberries
• 41:50
  and walnuts.
• 41:50
  Cool.
• 41:51
  but it is just so beautiful.
• 41:53
  It really is.
• 41:54
  Colors are vibrant and that's representing
• 41:56
  these amazing antioxidants that are
• 41:58
  working for us to be healthy in the
• 42:00
  future.
• 42:01
  Well,
• 42:01
  I know who would love to follow you.
• 42:04
  It's the people listening here from the
• 42:05
  NHL audience.
• 42:06
  So please, how can they follow you,
• 42:09
  Cassandra?
• 42:10
  You're such a wealth of knowledge and
• 42:12
  you've got this beautiful Instagram
• 42:14
  account.
• 42:14
  Please share how people can follow you.
• 42:16
  So on Instagram,
• 42:17
  I am nutrition underscore nibbles,
• 42:20
  underscore dietitian.
• 42:21
  Nutrition nibbles is my private practice
• 42:25
  that I have been running since two
• 42:26
  thousand sixteen.
• 42:27
  It's all telehealth.
• 42:29
  It's really grounded in the foundational
• 42:32
  principles of whole food plant based
• 42:34
  eating.
• 42:35
  I also have a website.
• 42:36
  It's CassandraGolden.com.
• 42:38
  That was my maiden name.
• 42:40
  And all the information is on my website,
• 42:42
  how you can get in touch with me.
• 42:43
  If you want to get more information,
• 42:45
  you can see what programs I offer.
• 42:46
  I do one-on-one appointments.
• 42:47
  I accept insurance.
• 42:49
  So everything will be right there on the
• 42:51
  website.
• 42:52
  Amazing.
• 42:53
  Private practice, dietitian, plant-based.
• 42:55
  I mean,
• 42:55
  you can't get any better than that.
• 42:56
  You accept insurance.
• 42:58
  Yeah.
• 42:59
  If you need help, I mean,
• 43:00
  if you are looking for help,
• 43:01
  Cassandra's your girl.
• 43:04
  But also I just want to say,
• 43:06
  we also are, I mean,
• 43:07
  we're going to come back and talk again
• 43:09
  about like plant-based parenting and talk
• 43:11
  about all the things that the challenges
• 43:13
  we face in the grocery store with our,
• 43:14
  you know, raising plant-based kids.
• 43:17
  And I think that this is just the
• 43:18
  beginning.
• 43:19
  This is, yeah,
• 43:20
  this is just our first step.
• 43:21
  But to your point with grocery shopping
• 43:23
  with a child,
• 43:24
  my daughter is almost five and this one's
• 43:27
  easy.
• 43:27
  I just don't take her with me.
• 43:29
  I go grocery shopping when she's at
• 43:30
  school.
• 43:32
  But because honestly,
• 43:33
  she'll just like grab all the things and
• 43:35
  then it'll have, it'll be a whole thing.
• 43:37
  But yeah,
• 43:38
  we should do a whole talk on how
• 43:40
  we navigate that,
• 43:41
  how we navigate like the pressures of,
• 43:43
  you know,
• 43:44
  what's out there in the real world when
• 43:45
  everyone else is eating differently.
• 43:48
  And there's a lot back there.
• 43:49
  Yeah, there is.
• 43:50
  And we will be back for that with
• 43:52
  a couple other people.
• 43:53
  We're going to do a little panel.
• 43:54
  So if you loved what you heard today
• 43:56
  with Cassandra and you would like to hear
• 43:59
  more,
• 43:59
  just rest assured we're going to come back
• 44:01
  and talk more about raising a family,
• 44:03
  a plan-based family.
• 44:04
  And I just want to say thank you
• 44:07
  so much for tuning in today.
• 44:08
  Cassandra,
• 44:09
  thank you so much for being here.
• 44:10
  It was a pleasure.
• 44:12
  You shared so many wonderful,
• 44:13
  valuable tips.
• 44:14
  And hopefully, as a listener,
• 44:16
  you're taking something away from this.
• 44:17
  And
• 44:19
  I hope to see you again soon.
• 44:20
  Have a great day and enjoy eating the
• 44:23
  rainbow.
• 44:24
  Bye.
• 44:25
  Bye.