Episode 19. Which of These Nutrition Beliefs Are Really Myths? Part II

Let's keep myth busting! 

In Part II we spill the tea on these common nutrition beliefs and more.

• You shouldn't eat after 7pm.
• You shouldn't eat processed foods.
• You can't trust your body.

Let us know if there are any other nutrition beliefs you want to chat about.

Thank you for listening! We love you latte!

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-Ashley & Carrie
This podcast is for educational and informational purposes only. It is not medical advice.

Transcript

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hey it's Carrie and Ashley we welcome you to the self-care Cafe we are both

health professionals and moms and nature lovers and food lovers and love helping

women get over dieting and just start living we think that talking about

bodies and perfect bodies and dieting is just

boring did we put you to sleep there Carrie yes so if you are ready to ditch

dieting and get to living and talk about more important things then you are in the right place we don't put shame and

guilt on the menu here you don't even have to tip us nope come hang with us the advice is

free we want to have a bunch of girlfriends to just hang out with and get real with and it's time to start

living

ladies welcome back everybody so this week is our part two of our nutrition

myth busting episode we didn't have time for the whole thing um last week so

here's the rest of our conversation we're going to jump right into it hope you love [Music]

it and that brings us to the next myth where there's only one right way to eat

wrong if that were true we would have probably figured it out by now right

like everyone would probably eat pretty similarly but if we look worldwide like how

different is it like it's night and day in some places for sure and you know

there's the general recommendations of nutrition which are you know fruits and veggies whole grains lean proteins

things like that and there's still room for fun stuff like we don't have to just

eat food that's healthy for us all the time there's room for other things right

remember not try not to put your nutrition under a microscope yes we we

do that so much we overthink it we overanalyze it we pick it to death we feel bad about if we eat one thing that

we think is not healthy um H so frustrating because again like even

Carrie and I we're both health professionals we eat differently Carrie's body needs things a little bit

differently than mine does and everybody has similar experiences with that I

think absolutely what about the good food bad food myth right and that is kind

of right with what we were just just talking about because I think a lot of us put a lot of pressure on ourselves to

only eat quote unquote Good Foods or healthy foods um and try to avoid those bad or unhealthy Foods however you like

to think about it um but when we do that we're putting that like morality into

food and so if we end up eating those quote unquote bad foods then we have

that like guilt shame spiral happen because why couldn't I have just avoided

that I'm so bad because I ate such and such whatever Pizza chocolate cake I

don't know whatever it is for you um and that is no way to live with food like we

can eat what we want and not have to feel any which way about it because we're nourishing our body right we tend

to even if you don't have't put it on paper in our heads we tend to categorize Foods right we've got the the good

category and we got the bad category when we eat from the good category we're good we're okay when we eat from

the bad category we are stupid we are weak we

are shameful you know how we're bad um why would you do that right um and a lot

of times this also comes down to you know what we're label foods but also how we

try to deprive ourselves from anything from the bad category right and then until we can't stand it and then

probably when you go to eat it you end up eating you know binging on it because

you've avoided it and you've deprived yourself of it right it's just like this this cycle that we get ourselves into

that just perpetuates like the guilt shame cycle it really does and it's interesting because almost all of my

clients that I see like oneon-one we go over like a typical day of eating that's just part of you know our assessment and

it's almost every person I do really good quote unquote during the day and I

eat XYZ foods and then at night I'm so bad like it's such a common theme and

it's because we're not eating enough during the day because we're trying to stick to those quote unquote good foods which aren't giving us enough and your

body knows better it's like um excuse me yes we ate food today but it wasn't enough for me so now I'm G to ask you by

craving something for some more energy right because calories our energy um and

then we try to battle our body and then like K said we might end up binging on

that food or feeling guilty about it or questioning our body like what are you

doing well we one even question we make it on ourselves right that we're weak we don't have willpower and during the day

it's like when we're in public we are showing that you know we're a good

person because we eating quote unquote right right and then what perpetuates

that shame is that it's probably done more in private right and so no one can see so

I'm GNA eat this and then you feel more shameful versus if you just eat it and enjoy it yes wherever you are you

probably you know a lot of times when when you do that and you stop depriving

yourself um and taking away that label of oh this is bad like we almost like kids right like wasn't there a study

that was done where kids they were put in a room with M&M'S yes and they were told that you could eat every Eminem you

want except the red ones what and then what did they go and they ate the

red yes and we're so different like our brains yes they mature in certain ways and stuff but there's still that little

kid in us right it's like that restrict m& yeah if someone tells you you can't do something that's the first thing that

you want to do it's just how our brains are wired and then another part of it is like all food provides us nourishment in

some way like Twinkies are G to save us if we're starving to death like it all

gives us if you're diabetic and your blood sugar is tanked y yep exactly and

so all food gives us some sort of fuel some acts a little bit more quickly than others and some acts a little bit slower

than others and that's I hate to say it but that's pretty much the difference

like there's we overthink it for sure is the gist of that yeah yeah for sure okay

next myth you should only eat the serving size on the label or whatever

the you know recommended portion sizes is that true that's definitely a myth

also um so the serving sizes on like labels for example are they just based

on math and science because they have to put something on there and so the

manufacturer food company or whoever's creating this label they have to choose some amount of food to analyze to be

able to put those numbers out there right if they didn't pick an amount they couldn't give us that number so they try

to pick like a quotequote reasonable portion of whatever it is um I think

they're supposed to pick something that's like an average consumption or something like that and they have gotten

better I will say that and the past they were really small now things are a

quarter of a cup of ice cream or something right or like even a 20 oz bottle of soda before was like two and a

half servings on the label and now it's one bottle but then also like one can is

one serving so it's not like they across the board took like 4 ounces of soda and

made it a serving so I think that's the point is that you can eat whatever

portion is feeling good to you in that time in that time or place um you know

we might eat seven crackers today but maybe tomorrow we're going to eat 15 it

all depends on how hungry we are and what we need um I think the terms like

serving size and portion size are interchangeably used but I like to

think of it more as like the serving size is what's on the label or like car said like the recommended kind of

serving size um like one medium Apple for example things that don't have label have have that um but like a portion

size is like the portion of food I'm going to take to meet my Hunger needs at that meal or

snack but again most people use them kind of the same way and that's where intuitive eating comes in with paying

attention to hunger and fullness cues and all that good stuff um what about do we only burn

calories when we're awake no ma'am we burn them all day 24 hours our bodies

you know Carrie said said this I think in one of our past episodes she said something about our bodies don't punch

out for the day and I loved that because it's so yeah it's like our bodies are

constantly doing stuff right like we breathe um all day I hope because that's

how we stay alive and our body is making that happen for us behind the scenes right and we need calories for

that behind the scenes action to happen yeah one reason sleep is so

important is because there's a lot of things going on when we're sleeping a lot of you know your muscles

are uh recovering um cells are re turning over

and there's just there's all kinds and and digestion is still happening um your

heart's still be you know you're still breathing um all

all your organs are still doing something um so and your body's still

burning calories because if it didn't have any you wouldn't be alive right exactly and and

we need calories for our body to figure out what we need to do and then we need calories for it to do the thing right

like it's not just this one one thing that we're needing it for okay so so we

burn calories around the clock but what about um you know I've heard that you shouldn't eat past 7 I've heard that a

lot too um but again our bodies aren't machines we don't punch out our body is

meant to be able to process food any time I think what happens is we

mentioned it a little bit earlier like if we're eating quote unquote good during the day a lot of times evening is

a struggle for a lot of people and I think that that's where that

like guilt shame rolls in because maybe I'm really hungry after 7 o'clock and I

quote unquote shouldn't eat because my body can't handle it I think that's the main expectation there right like our

body can't digest food correctly um past 7 p.m. or it just goes to like fat

storage is another thing I've heard but that's not how it works we just fuel our

body how we need to um again based on into it of eating listening to our body and whether that's

10: p.m. if you're hungry at 10: we can listen to that and say oh I need a snack if I already had dinner or it's silly

especially for people that work like second or third shifts because they often have a flipped schedule than most

of us um and they can process food past 7 P.M right and and with that said like if

you if you have you know acid reflux or you find that you just have a hard time

falling asleep on a full belly then but you find that you're still hungry like again gaug like maybe

don't have a full meal before bedtime but I can't sleep if my stomach is really rumbling and stuff I will have to

have a little snack before bed yeah um but again just like use some common

sense too so you know if you're eating a bunch before bed and then find that

you're really uncomfortable or just can't fall asleep then don't eat that much be right and try to space it out

during the day like because if you're not eating enough during the day and then you have or you feel like you have

to have this huge giant dinner meal but it's uncomfortable for you see if

changing around the times of when you eat helps not be so hungry at that dinner meal um that makes a big

difference for a lot of people yeah and some people too when you mentioned the evening eating um be honest with

yourself and ask yourself if you're using the food as a coping yeah method right like in the evenings when all of a

sudden things are quieter you're not at work anymore and maybe kids are in bed or whatever all of a sudden your mind

right starts going and you start thinking about stuff um and so for some people that is that eating the S of the

binging at night um is their coping mechanism so being Hest with yourself

about that too and and um you know and and that's another topic but um starting there and

just being aware start noticing um right being honest with yourself like okay am I trying to basically shove my

emotions Inside by eating yeah and if you haven't already um we do touch on

that in our hunger blueprint downloadable which is available in the link in the show notes um it helps you

kind of decide well what am I using this food for am I meeting my physical like

nourishment needs right now or is it more of an emotional coping mechanism like Carrie was just saying and yes if

you feel like you're constantly eating past 7 p.m. let's just say um but it's

for an emotional reason I think we really need to get to the root of that and figure that out like if anytime that

you're eating or using food or whatever is kind of giving you that like gut ick

feeling um like the intuition not actual like my belly hurts um I think it's

something to explore because you know it's not just oh I

shouldn't be doing eating past seven or whatever that's a whole different story right yeah it's a fine line there for

sure yeah um what about the myth I I've seen this a lot with people too like

some people just beat themselves up so bad like once they've eaten eaten something whether it's a meal or a snack

that they feel they shouldn't have eaten oh I blew you know I blew it all right

yeah like oh what we went out for ice cream and I had a small ice cream or I

had a Snickers bar or whatever and so I blew it and oh my gosh I can't believe it um and even people with blood sugar

issues oh my gosh my blood sugar is going to be a thousand or whatever it might whatever they might think but it's

so not true like one snack or one meal or one food is not gonna unless you're

allergic to it we said right is not gonna make or break your nutrition at all it's just not how our bodies work

like we said our bodies are meant to like process things on a regular basis and um it's all about patterns and so if

you're having something fun once in a while or honestly I have something sweet

every single day um it's not going to make or break your nutrition or your

health probably like I said unless you're allergic to it um so we can let go of some of that guilt and

shame around eating like sugar for example that's a big one I think people are really scared about sugar yeah for

sure it's Big Picture People yes exactly big picture we tend to put our nutrition

under a microscope and um it's just again it

just creates this guilt shame cycle and we beat ourselves up and

that's worse for us on a mental health

basis so um are you are you seeing the pattern of what we're talking about here like it

all is connected yeah yeah um what about the myth about processed foods first of

all what foods are processed Well Carrie thanks for asking I think most foods

that we buy at a store are processed and I think most people when they when we talk about processed food they're

thinking like box mac and cheese or deli meat or pizza or something like that

where there's probably a lot of like added sugars added salts and things like

that but in reality anything that has been through any type of process to be

able to get into the package that they're selling is considered processed so like canned peaches for example

technically those are processed Foods because they went through a process to be able to be

canned good point yeah and even like whole grain crackers right would be like

things that we might traditionally think of as healthy and there and they are you

know quote unquote healthy um but it's been Pro like the the wheat to make the

crackers had to be processed you're not getting that right we're not just going out in the field and eating wheat off of

the stem right so that's what our point is like most Foods you know when you go to buy meat even fresh meat that meat

has been processed you're not going to the cow right and lopping off it

whatever right um it has been processed on some level so what is now there's also Ultra

processed and I'm I'm actually pulling this on you because we didn't talk about this oh thanks a lot

K but that would be more of the right those really super processed foods like

that have a lot of added sugar and salt yes yes artificial colors and flavors y

yeah exactly okay good so alra process versus process right so what about convenience Foods so convenience foods

are things that I think of as also processed foods but like um for an example um if you buy like cut up

pineapple at the store in the Proto style that's processed because it's already cut for you even though it's a

fresh pineapple but it they're all such timesavers I love those types of foods

and I'm always excited to see like how food companies or whatever come up with

new ways to help us out because I don't know about you but I do usually enjoy

cooking but I also don't want to be in the kitchen for like six hours so so using frozen veggies that's

a great timesaver you don't have to prep anything you just toss them in the microwave or the steamer however you

like to do them um and it's convenient and we're still getting the benefits of

the vegetables um or deli meats yeah they're processed a little

bit more than just like um meat off of the cow like we mentioned earlier um but

they're great protein source for some people other people they're probably not the best choice for like if you're watching your blood pressure and they're

really high in salt um um but right they they are all have their time and place

depending on what your health concerns are yeah I love the prepackaged veggies

like the fresh ones save so much time having to cut and wash and yeah I am a

big believer in the convenience foods like that it's just even the um like the

the Rices that are already cooked in the package little package you just tear the

corner stick in the microwave for 90 seconds boom rice exactly or even like the rotisserie chickens you can buy

fresh like yes they probably have some added salt in there and I feel like it's

still a whole chicken it's processed because they had to process the bird to get the chicken

on the Shelf um but it's a great protein source and you could do that with one of

the 90c Rices like Carrie just said and Frozen vegetable and dinner's on your table in what like 10 minutes

maybe yeah absolutely boom boom

um we touched on this one before uh the myth that you can't trust yourself and

you can't trust your body when it comes to food you can't trust your body to knowing what it you know knowing what it needs um that's a big myth I think that

we're all sold this message as a very like un under Ling or like subconscious

messaging like excuse me and I think that has a lot to do with consumerism

and marketing to be honest like if you can trust your body you don't need to buy my stuff right right like if Carrie

I'm just GNA use you for example Carrie if you trusted your body you wouldn't feel the need to go look for my program

online and I couldn't make money off of that right and so I think that it's such

a i and there's a lot more more pieces to it than just that for sure but like

we can't trust our bodies so you need to listen to The Experts on what you need

to do for your nutrition or you can't trust yourself to cook the food in a healthy way um and

only eat what you're supposed to eat so you need to buy the prepackaged diet

program food right because you can't trust yourself to do your own cooking so

let us do for you and right and that's of course they make it all convenient thing and a timesaver and it's so much

easier um but again it's a way for them to make money and forget how many

billions of dollars now the diet industry is up to the last time I looked it was

72 um and you just brought up another good point like portion sizes and we touched on this a little while ago

um we can't trust you to stop yourself from eating too much of whatever this

food is so here's your portion size serving size um amount and you

should stick to it and again that's a big myth because we can eat more than

that and our body can handle it um and we're relying on our hunger and fullness

cues instead of this like who knows

other source to tell us what our body needs when they have no idea they don't live in your body they have no idea like

do you have a really active job and do you know just there's they don't know what your lifestyle is like what your

natural metabolism is like your genetics and your any medications that may or may not you know make you gain weight or

lose weight or whatever um and there's just there's so so much to it and this

whole it really irks me with the whole you can't be trusted because that really

is even if they don't come out and say it that really is that underlying and we need to stop giving our money to

companies like that because we're born with this right like we are born with

knowing how to deal with food and nutrition babies do it every day they

tell you when they're hungry they tell you when they're full toddlers they're a little trickier but they do it too and

then as kids get older the adults are putting all of their food beliefs and

food rules onto kids and that is what roads that self trust for food and

nutrition especially and it's nobody's fault it's just our culture and how

things have worked for however long we've been around as humans but I think

we can do better because um we can trust our bodies we can figure out what foods

make us feel better generally what food satisfy us what foods taste good to us

and include all of those and yes it's normal to eat past comfortable fullness

sometimes and yes it's normal to accidentally skip a meal sometimes um

it's when we're doing those things maybe on purpose that's when it's not necessarily normal eating and that's

when we need to say hey I'm actually not nourishing my body in a way that's helping it in the long run so how can I

get that inner nutrition wisdom as we like to call it back yes absolutely

that was good um what about I like I've heard I have to eat at certain times of

the day yeah it's kind of like the 7 PM thing um no you don't have to you can

choose to or or that I have to eat six small meals a day or just three Square

meals a day right so it comes back to what we were just talking about the whole like trusting your body to figure

out when am I hungry generally um when am I full like how

much food fills me up can I make it with just three meals a day

personally I usually can't because my

stomach is not the best in the morning so I have what I almost like to think of as like first breakfast or pre-breakfast

and then like maybe an hour breakfast appetizer yeah or may something really

light for the most part and then like an hour or two later I'm ready for way more

food um and that's not g to work for everybody um especially for people's SK

like and it comes down to all of the things right your schedule your budget your belly all of it how can you figure

out what do you need do three meals keep you full all day long they don't for me

I need snacks um but my meals tend to be smaller too and so if your meals are

bigger maybe they do last you longer I tend to be more of a grazer yeah like

naturally more of a gra remember my gram saying that to me once she goes you're really a grazer aren't you y same it's

just small amounts my belly feels better like that um instead of sitting down to

Big you know three large meals right um it doesn't make I just don't feel as

good right so so you can choose whether the a bunch of small meals or snacks or

however you like to think of them works for you or whether the three meals works for you but the point is it's what works

for you right you can decide am I hungry at this random time and normally I try

not to eat because it gets in my way it's not in my work schedule or whatever but then you tend to eat like way too

much at lunch for example and then your belly hurts um that's something to look at like using your experiences to figure

out what does work work for you and it it gets trickier with a family maybe we

should do a separate um episode on that you know intuitive eating for families

um because sometimes you you can't right

like sometimes it's not going to be convenient you're meeting you got a meeting coming up well it's right during

lunchtime or whatever right well how can you get a snack and before that right it's like it's some of it's just being

reasonable and I like to call it yeah I like to call it practical hunger yes

like that yeah like kri said if there's a meeting and it's normally at my lunchtime sometimes I'll just eat during

the meeting and I don't care or if food's really kind of not

allowed which is ridiculous if people are having a noon meeting that's just nuts to me but anyways um I'll figure

out a way like K said maybe I'll have a snack before U maybe I'll have a bigger breakfast or I know whatever it might be

to figure out a way because if I have to be functional I cannot have low blood

sugar right exactly yeah and FYI a lot of brain fog is caused from not eating

yes and that's so interesting you brought that up because I was just talking with a client the other day about like hunger signals and what they

might look like um especially if we've dieted for a long time our H hunger signals get really quiet or they show up

in different ways maybe sometimes we don't really notice them anymore um and

and that fogginess or like lack of clarity or difficulty concentrating or

whatever is a big sign of hunger and I feel like a lot of people feel like that

in the afternoon and I bet that it's not just from being tired or needing a

caffeine break or whatever they probably haven't eaten enough during the day or they're ready for a snack

right and then we ply ourselves with coffee and candy bars

uh this is a good conversation anything else you can think of I think we covered a lot today we sure

did but I love that you thank you for bringing up the hunger blueprint um yes

that's always a good place to start when you're learning about intuitive Ting yeah and trusting your

body again right because we have to start somewhere right um and there is a

saying in the coaching world that the way you do one thing is the way you do

everything yes so if you do not trust yourself with food you probably don't trust yourself in other areas also so

trust would be a whole area to be working on not not just around food but

um in general so sure side note yeah and

if you have questions or comments or want to chat with us you can find us in lots of places um we're on social media

our links are in the show notes um Spotify if you're listening on Spotify has a cool little um like Q&A

section that you can leave comments and questions or whatever on um and yeah I

think that's most of the places you can find us awesome well until next time till next

time love you latte love you [Music]

latte