Latest / Best of Business / Julia Sekula: Head Of Nutrition at Beef + Lamb NZ on the the health benefits of meat and plant-based alternatives

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Julia Sekula: Head Of Nutrition at Beef + Lamb NZ on the the health benefits of meat and plant-based alternatives · Best of Business

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  Speaker 1: You're listening to a podcast from newstalk zed be follow
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  Speaker 2: On the line right now with Julia Sokula. She has
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  Speaker 2: head of nutrition at Beef and Lamb and also registered
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  Speaker 2: dietitians to have a chat about these products. Very good afternoon, Julia.
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  Speaker 3: Hi, guys, HOWI you very good? So what is the
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  Speaker 3: latest on the healthiness of meat?
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  Speaker 4: Well, I think red meat and any of the animal
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  Speaker 4: source foods have a really good role to play in
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  Speaker 4: terms of how people eat in part of a healthy,
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  Speaker 4: balanced diet. They're a really good source of nutrition, they
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  Speaker 4: taste good, and they've got by available nutrients that we
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  Speaker 4: can absorb.
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  Speaker 3: So where are we sitting on the healthiness of plant
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  Speaker 3: based meat.
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  Speaker 4: Well, plant based meats often have lots of things added
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  Speaker 4: to them for a gentle salt and other things which
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  Speaker 4: naturally occur in meat, so they've got added vitamins or minerals.
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  Speaker 4: But we know that what's in our actual food, So
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  Speaker 4: what grows on our land or on our land has
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  Speaker 4: got really easily absorbed iron, zinc, vitamin big twelve. We
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  Speaker 4: don't need to add it into our food.
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  Speaker 3: So you know, as someone textsed in before that. You know,
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  Speaker 3: meat is just a plant based it's just got a
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  Speaker 3: different processing system as it goes through the animal. Why
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  Speaker 3: does that processing system why is that better for us
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  Speaker 3: than putting together all this stuff later?
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  Speaker 4: Well, I guess what, you know, what animals can do
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  Speaker 4: is they make use of something we can't. So we
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  Speaker 4: can't digest grass as human beings. So the system of
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  Speaker 4: a cow, you know, enables us to then down the track,
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  Speaker 4: you know, consume something that we know and from every meal,
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  Speaker 4: every mouthful that we have is a really good source
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  Speaker 4: of nutrition. We're not having to add a little bit
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  Speaker 4: of this, add a little bit of this, put it
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  Speaker 4: all together in an industrial kind of manufacturing side of things.
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  Speaker 4: You know, here in New Zealand, we are using the
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  Speaker 4: land that we have to make something that otherwise wouldn't grow.
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  Speaker 4: Some of the other foods that we you know, we
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  Speaker 4: bring into the country.
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  Speaker 2: So effectively, if someone wants to go vegetarian, Julia and
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  Speaker 2: I know that you've talked about the benefits of meat there,
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  Speaker 2: but if they want to go vegetarian, they should just
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  Speaker 2: eat plain old, regular growing the crowned vegis rather than
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  Speaker 2: these sort of products.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah. Well, and it's more than just vegees. So one
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  Speaker 4: of the big things about animals source foods is they're
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  Speaker 4: really good source of protein. So when you're substituting that out,
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  Speaker 4: and if you don't eat animal source foods, we need
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  Speaker 4: the plant based proteins, so your legumes, your nuts, your seeds,
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  Speaker 4: so the things that aren't going to give us those
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  Speaker 4: other nutrients. And you know, for people, you know, most
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  Speaker 4: of us eat a range of foods. We don't just
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  Speaker 4: eat one food. So for you know, for me here
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  Speaker 4: at beef and them, I eat a range of foods,
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  Speaker 4: red meat, white meat, as well as plant based meat,
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  Speaker 4: plant based alternatives, you know, legumes, et cetera. And that's
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  Speaker 4: a really good way to get balanced fiber and everything
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  Speaker 4: that our body needs.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, I mean, I guess that's the problem that people
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  Speaker 3: have been having on the the text machine. People don't
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  Speaker 3: have a problem with vegetarians, but they have a problem
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  Speaker 3: with foods that aren't meat being described as meat. Because
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  Speaker 3: that's fine. As I keep saying, I make a lovely
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  Speaker 3: lentil roast. Lovely, but I'll make you my lentl roast.
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  Speaker 2: We'll get your studio.
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  Speaker 4: I did do that many years ago, and I did
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  Speaker 4: pass it by my husband. But you can't beat an
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  Speaker 4: actual you know, a lamb roast, you can't beat that.
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  Speaker 4: They going back to what you were saying.
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  Speaker 3: Absolutely, my point is it's called a lental roast, not a.
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  Speaker 4: Meat, absolutely, and from a nutrition perspective, so as a dietician,
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  Speaker 4: my concern is that some of these alternatives they don't
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  Speaker 4: give us the same nutrition side of things and they
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  Speaker 4: don't have that same profile. So some things called themselves
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  Speaker 4: or people choose to call them a milk, they're not
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  Speaker 4: a milk. They don't have the same amount o Milk's
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  Speaker 4: a classic example the calcium, and that for most of them,
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  Speaker 4: unless it's fortified, doesn't meet the needs for all, you know,
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  Speaker 4: for what we need for women, for teenagers, and yet
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  Speaker 4: it's been drunk in copious amounts. So the same goes
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  Speaker 4: for animal source chicken, beef, flam et cetera. Is we
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  Speaker 4: need those nutrients for our bodies and particularly the groups
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  Speaker 4: and who have higher needs, you know, our teams, our athletes.
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  Speaker 4: You know, we've got to fuel them in a really
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  Speaker 4: good way. And my concern with the products that call
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  Speaker 4: themselves a meat that are to meat is we're not
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  Speaker 4: doing that justice and we're throwing in other things that
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  Speaker 4: they don't need.
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  Speaker 3: So it is an interesting kind of thing, though, isn't it.
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  Speaker 3: Because when you've got meats, right, so there's there's a
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  Speaker 3: big whole whole foods revolution at the moment. Whole foods
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  Speaker 3: is better, but some meats are better than others.
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  Speaker 4: Right.
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  Speaker 3: So if you have just a lovely lamb roast like
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  Speaker 3: you're talking before, that may be healthy, but bacon is
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  Speaker 3: heavily processed, isn't it.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah, so what we'd go for is your lean red
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  Speaker 4: meat or your lean chip. And so from an overall
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  Speaker 4: nutrition perspective, that means we're getting all that really good nutrition,
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  Speaker 4: the protein, the iron, the zinc, the B twelve, all
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  Speaker 4: those things you get from the flammed chicken, but we're
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  Speaker 4: not getting that the added salt mainly that we're getting
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  Speaker 4: from processed meats. And that's one of the biggest concerns there.
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  Speaker 3: Hey, now I've got a question for you, Julia, that
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  Speaker 3: might be a bit confronting people. People are a bit
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  Speaker 3: skeptical on dietary advice because it seems to keep changing.
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  Speaker 3: Everyone's always says, hey, our eggs good for you now
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  Speaker 3: because they were yesterday and we all know that the
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  Speaker 3: food pyramid got flipped over. Yeah, the one that.
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  Speaker 2: I feel like coming for fruit now as well.
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  Speaker 3: I just feel it. I've heard people coming for fruit.
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  Speaker 4: Yeah.
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  Speaker 3: So how close are we to the truth in twenty
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  Speaker 3: twenty five.
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  Speaker 4: Well, I think first off, you need to be looking
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  Speaker 4: at where you're getting nutrition advice from, so registered dietitian,
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  Speaker 4: registered nutrition. They're going to move away from all the fluff,
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  Speaker 4: all the Instagram, all the social media stuff that sits
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  Speaker 4: there and wants to sell you something. I completely get
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  Speaker 4: it off work clinically in the universities and now an industry,
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  Speaker 4: and those messages that sit out there confuse everybody. I
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  Speaker 4: think at the end of the day, we've got to
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  Speaker 4: think about how do we reduce the confusion And that's
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  Speaker 4: one of the things that we're trying to do through
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  Speaker 4: Dietitians New Zealand and through the work that we're doing
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  Speaker 4: here at Beef and Land. But ultimately it's having food
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  Speaker 4: and meals that we enjoy, that they taste good. It's
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  Speaker 4: about thinking, you know, we're not perfect. You know. I
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  Speaker 4: don't think there's many dieticians who are going to say
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  Speaker 4: they follow everything to a tea. I think you've got
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  Speaker 4: to have a bit of flexibility and you've got what
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  Speaker 4: you eat. You've got to enjoy what you eat. And
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  Speaker 4: it's doing the right thing most of the time. And
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  Speaker 4: that's the range of everything getting not getting stuck on
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  Speaker 4: one particular thing, because we know that variety is key
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  Speaker 4: and you've got to build it into what you can afford,
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  Speaker 4: what's available. And we all live in different parts of
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  Speaker 4: New Zealand and some things are available at different times
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  Speaker 4: of the year for different prices, and that's the key thing.
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  Speaker 3: Yeah, all right, thanks so much.
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  Speaker 2: Yep, fascinating as always, Julia, thank you very much. And
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  Speaker 2: we'll get you into the mental roast at some stage.
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  Speaker 2: Rest assured.
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  Speaker 4: I mean I'll bring maybe I'll bring the Lamb Ros,
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  Speaker 4: bring the Lamb Roast to come with it.
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  Speaker 2: Goode all right. That is Julia Sekula, head of nutrition
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  Speaker 2: at Beef and Lamb and registered dietitian, and a good,
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  Speaker 2: good question about you know, the confusion and nutrition. But
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  Speaker 2: I thought that was a very good answer.
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