Dynamic Dialogue with Danny Matranga - 312: 312: the 13 food choices keeping you fat, sick, and unhealthy
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Welcome in everybody to another episode of the Dynamic Dialogue podcast. As always, I'm
your host, Danny Matranga. And in today's episode, I'm going to be going over 13 food
behaviors that I believe really hold people back from being leaner, reaching their fitness
goals, maintaining a body fat percentage they're
content with for longer periods of time with a lot less suffering, eating in a way that
promotes your health, that promotes feeling good.
These are just things that I see people making mistakes with all the time and I have for
many, many years, over a decade now.
And I thought, what better way to kind of sit down and
have a nutrition centric episode than to talk about some of the kind of longest leverage food
behaviors that you can engage with, your clients can engage with, your friends, your family,
your coworkers, anybody really to live healthier and get a lot more out of their relationship with
food and hopefully have a less guilty time in doing so. This is
episode 312 of the podcast. As always, just thanks for tuning in. Thanks for listening.
I know there are so many different health and fitness podcasts out there. I take pride in
trying to make this concise, actionable, shareable, and really kind of gather from you, the audience, the questions that you'd like
answered from social media, from the podcast. And I want to thank each and every one of you
who has gone out of your way to leave a five-star rating and review.
We've got tons of reviews piling up now on Spotify and on Apple Podcasts. Apple Podcasts got way out in front, then podcasting
kind of shifted over to Spotify with the Rogan deal. That went kind of bonkers when it happened.
More people started listening to pods on Spotify. So the review shot up there. Now they're back up
on Apple. Big deal. Anytime you guys can leave a five-star rating and review, it really, really helps. A few that I've gotten recently that I thought were very, very nice.
This one is from Juju Luggins. And the question or the review rather says, been following you
since I want to say 2016, 2017. I've always enjoyed you. So informative. Makes me want to learn more. I really love this
pod. One of my favorites. This one's from SR Float, also from Apple Podcasts. I recently
found this podcast and each episode is better than the last. Practical and useful. Thank you so much.
This is an A-plus podcast. Thank you very much to both of you who left those reviews.
Really, guys, these reviews, it's cool to check in to see how the podcast is helping you,
how you're learning and what it is that you're learning from the podcast. Another cool one
from S Morgan VA 15. As a woman in the fitness space, I really appreciate that he's one of the
few people that gives us any attention and isn't afraid to talk about gas periods. Lots of great guests,
advice on nutrition and training. Thanks, Danny. Again, thank you for leaving the reviews. I try
to meet you where you are at. Reviews are a great way to know and to make sure that the podcast is
kind of hitting the way it needs to hit. And I'm getting those reviews from you. If you have been listening and you are not subscribed, or if you have been listening
and you have not yet reviewed, that's one way that you could really help. Okay, enjoy episode 312.
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listeners. Okay. The first and perhaps most, let's call it pervasive nutrition mistake that I see a
lot of people making is connecting buzzwords with health
promotion. So for example, because something is organic, therefore it is healthy. Because
something says keto, therefore it is healthy. Because something says low carb, high protein,
high fiber, insert the superlative, right? Whatever you think, best this, best that,
organic this, organic that, non-GMO, this non-GMO,
that now don't hear what I'm not saying. I'm not saying to disregard and not pay attention
to the importance of how it is that your food is produced, the way in which it is produced,
where it comes from. There are multitudes of things to consider, right? We've got to consider the economic cost of the food we
eat, the macronutrient profile, the micronutrient profile. And I think a lot of people look for
buzzwords when they're shopping more than they look at the nutritional profile, the nutrition
facts, right? So something can be organic, locally sourced, non-GMO, low carb,
keto, organic, and not the right choice for you and your current goals. I like to take a more
top-down approach to looking at nutrition. I want to understand what do I want to do with my weight?
Nutrition is a huge, if not the largest component of maintaining a healthy body weight.
Do I want to gain muscle? Do I want to lose fat? Do I want to maintain my weight? Do I want to add
weight? What do I need to do with my weight to optimize my health? The next thing I want to look
at, macronutrients. Okay, am I getting enough of these really important macronutrients? Am I
getting an adequate amount of fiber, of protein, of carbohydrate, of fat? Then I look at micronutrients. Am I getting an adequate amount of fiber, of protein, of carbohydrate,
of fat? Then I look at micronutrients. Am I getting foods that contain polyphenols,
vitamins, minerals, right? These typically go together. Low processing or minimally processed whole foods in their primary forms. Example, red meat, eggs, vegetables,
fruit, grains, whole grains, minimally processed grains. These foods typically have macronutrient
profiles that are easy to work with, meaning they're not loaded with fat and carbohydrate. They're not
startlingly low on protein and fiber. A lot of these single ingredient foods are going to yield
the macros we want and a lot of the micros we want. So I recommend, be it organic or non-organic,
be a GMO or non-GMO, you're probably better off buying fruits, vegetables, lean animal proteins,
plant-based proteins, if you have a preference for that for ethical reasons, whole grain products,
and disregarding shopping for buzzwords. A lot of people go to the store and they actually buy
the items that they think are healthy because of the branding and because of
the marketing terminology on the package, not because of the actual contents. And, you know,
something I'll say is like fresh versus frozen, organic versus non-organic. You could argue that
a frozen bag of organic blueberries that's less expensive than a fresh little tray of organic blueberries might be a
better choice, even though, you know, like let's say they're both organic, you know, one is fresh,
one's frozen. Depending on that processing, you would actually be better off from a cost and
efficiency standpoint, just optimizing for whatever's practical. So look at the foods that
give you the nutrition you need. Make sure you understand
the nutrition facts and the caloric density of these foods. Make sure that they're practical
and cost effective. Then start using the lens of, okay, how much does organic matter to me?
How much does genetic modification matter to me? How much does sourcing matter to me?
Don't start there and think that just because
products are using a lot of buzzwords, they're inherently more health promoting or will lead
to weight loss or will generate certain health outcomes. Okay. Super common mistake people make
with their nutrition as well. Something I'm guilty of and something I think many of us could be
better of. We'll talk about some alternatives to this that are creating problems, in my opinion, but that is identifying
as a poor cook, saying, I don't know how to cook. I can't cook. I don't cook. One thing that's been
nice about the evolution of our diet culture over the years is there are many more options.
So even if you don't cook, there are meal delivery,
meal prep services that can deliver macro balanced, calorically reasonable, high protein
foods that you will probably enjoy. These can also be foods that have a lot of fiber, a lot of
fruits, a lot of vegetables, a lot of health promoting properties. You can pretty much get
what you want delivered right to your house now if in fact you don't cook. However, I don't think that that's super practical or super cost
efficient. So what I recommend for each and every one of you is to identify a few breakfasts,
a few lunches, and a few dinners, as well as a few snacks that are aligned with your fitness
goals. Now for general health promotion, I think we're talking
high protein, high fiber, a lot of diversity in the diet, good amounts of fruits, vegetables,
whole grains, legumes, lots of water, minimal alcohol, minimal sugar exposure. For gaining
muscle, we want more protein. We want more calories. We want resistance training. For fat
loss, guess what? We want more calories. We want more protein. We want resistance training. We want resistance training for fat loss. Guess what? We want more calories. We want more protein.
We want resistance training, want lifestyle stuff like sleep and movement to be where we want it.
But if you can break down what it is that you need to fuel your body to achieve the goals you want,
how many calories should I be eating? And what are some foods, single ingredient food sources
that I can purchase and make easy meals with.
Even if I don't love cooking, I will give you an example of an easy meal. Costco sells a bagged
Asian salad. You can buy two of these Asian salads, which will actually yield four bags of
salad. Um, and then I can walk right across the street in the, uh, the, uh, refrigerated
section to where they keep the fish. And I can buy a tray of poke and a tray of, uh, two trays
of poke, one ahi tuna, one salmon, each one of those bags. Okay. It has a salad, two salads in
it. So just doing that for about, uh, 50 bucks between the two, the two huge trays of raw fish and the four salads,
I can make, believe it or not, lunch for four days, dinner for four days. Because each one of
those bags is two salads, and each one of those trays is four servings, six ounce raw servings
of protein. That technically isn't even cooking. That's just
preparing. But what I want you to do to make your nutrition easier, to make food choices easier,
and to stop making the mistakes that so many people make is just identify things that you can
eat, you will eat, and keep the stuff required to make those dishes in your house at all times.
You know, I know that for many of you that might require
going to the store twice a week, but that's oftentimes more efficient than going in without
a plan or going in and looking for these items that are marketing themselves as health promoting.
So find some breakfast options that you can lean into. For example, a protein shake and a banana,
a smoothie with spinach and Greek yogurt, as well as a bunch of other frozen fruits. Could be
oatmeal with peanut butter, almond butter, some form of plant-based protein that can be quick.
For lunch, you can make sandwiches with good amounts of protein. You can have cheese, you can
have deli meat, which again isn't perfect, but it's high in protein. You can have cheese, you can have, you know, deli meat, which again, isn't perfect, but it's high in protein. You can have multi-grain bread, a couple servings
of vegetables on a sandwich. You can, you know, do exactly what it is that I just said I do with
the fish and the salad. You can do that with any protein you want. Just find some meals that you
can put together that do not require cooking or do not require tons of cooking and disconnect from the identity of
not being a good cook or not being someone who cooks. Okay, a third behavior ideology
misconception, let's call it, that is keeping people fat is this pervasive myth that fat is
satiating. I have heard so many people say that fat is satiating. And while not all fat is
inherently bad for you, many of the dietary fats that we eat aren't exactly the most health
promoting. You'll hear a lot of people rail against vegetable oil, but it's also worth
noting that saturated fats found in many of the popular animal foods we eat aren't the greatest
for us either. I'm of the opinion that a moderate fat diet is probably the best across the board
for most people because a moderate fat diet is going to keep your calories pretty under control. But there is a myth that exists that fatty foods or foods that contain more fat are very
satiating, which means they're very filling.
Now, I don't buy this and neither does the research.
In fact, Kevin Hall, who's one of the best nutrition researchers in the world, was sharing
a paper the other day on Twitter where the kind of take home of the paper was the satiety
index of food and how we rate this satiety index.
And the food most correlated with high energy intake paired to the satiety that we get back is fat, whereas the foods most associated
with low caloric intakes and high satieties were, you guessed it, protein and fiber.
So while fat is nutritious, especially things like omega-3 fat, and it does bring with it
some calories, which can be good for gaining weight, for weight management, management of
blood lipids, blood pressure, and various secondary health metrics that are going to be quite
important for your well-being. You absolutely can't go wrong with being mindful of your fat and it'll probably serve you quite well to move past the kind of misinformed take that is thinking
of fats as very satiating. Okay, number four, because it contains protein means it is a good
source of protein. I say this often, just because something contains protein does not make it a
great source of protein. If we go back to the branding and the marketing of nutrition, this
becomes more clear quite quickly. Many products that contain peanut butter or peanut additives
will tout that they contain protein because all nuts contain protein, but they usually also
contain quite a bit of fat. And while they do
have some fiber, when you turn those nuts into nut butter, you pulverize the fiber and you're
left with the fat, carbohydrate, and a little bit of protein. So know that just because something
has protein doesn't make it a good source. You need to look at the percentage of total calories coming from protein. I will use protein powder
as an example. So a plant-based protein powder that my fiance quite likes has 160 calories per
serving with 20 grams of protein. Not bad. That means that 20 grams of protein, 80 calories,
okay, of the 160 in the product, 80 calories come from protein.
So it's 50% protein by weight. I take away protein isolate that's 100 calories per scoop
and 22 grams of protein. 22 grams of protein is 88 calories. So 88 out of the 100 calories are
from protein. My protein has an 88% caloric weight coming from protein.
Hers has about a 50.
That's not bad. I like high protein foods to be above 40% of the total calories coming from protein.
You can set this rule however you like.
For some people, even 40% is too low.
But if you go to like Panda Express and say, you're like, oh, well,
I'm going to get a plate of orange chicken. That's protein. I'm going to get a plate of
Beijing beef. That's protein. I'm going to get a plate of fried rice. So that has some protein in
it, peas and eggs. I'm going to get two scoops of that. Okay. I'm walking out. Well, I got protein
on my plate. That is correct. Unequivocally, you probably got 50 grams of
protein there. Taking a break from this episode to tell you a little bit about my coaching company,
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you in the core coaching collective, my app-based training community.
Back to the show. But you also probably have 60 grams of fat north of 100 grams of carbs.
So the total net caloric weight of that protein on that plate is somewhere in the 20% to 30% range.
That's not great. So instead of thinking about looking for protein period and whether or not something contains protein, it's never a bad idea for something that you were going to eat anyway,
that wasn't going to have protein to have a little protein in it. Um, but don't build or select for
a ton of protein sources where the total caloric weight coming from protein is like less
than 40%. That's something that I would keep an eye on. It's a mistake I see people make often.
And really what ends up happening is you just ingest more calories to get protein when you
include more of these sources. Okay. Fifth tip, include plant matter at every meal and eating opportunity. I find for most people who don't have
IBS, IBD, or any of the kind of sensitive to fiber digestive distress, let's call them
contraindications or situations, if you don't have those kinds of things going on,
I really do not see any problem with including a little bit of fiber at every meal. I think it will
help a ton, a ton, a ton, a ton with your digestion. I think it'll help a ton with feeling
full. You'll get so much more exposure to micronutrients and macronutrients like,
okay, the big ones are fiber, but obviously carbohydrate. When you include these plants,
these whole grains, these fruits, these vegetables, and I think for a lot of people,
they think carbs are bad or they have this opinion that carbohydrates are bad.
But typically what it is, is it's the carbohydrates that we choose aren't very nutrient dense.
Whereas when you're looking to include fruits, vegetables, and whole grains at each meal,
you're going to be including a lot more nutrition and a lot more fiber.
So you'll feel fuller, you'll feel more energized, you'll eat less junk.
And I see so many people, they're not adding these things to each meal.
They have them maybe once a day.
Maybe they snack on a piece of fruit. I would recommend including these things to each meal. They have them maybe once a day. Maybe they snack on a piece of
fruit. I would recommend including these things with each meal. I think it can make a really big
difference. The sixth issue that I see is filling the house with too many of the wrong snacks.
So snacking is probably the most common eating behavior outside of like having meals. So it's important to acknowledge if you are
someone who snacks, do I have an environment that is conducive to snacking on the right things?
And for most people, they don't. What's interesting is you go into most people's
houses, you see most snack foods, the ratio of protein to carbs to fats is insanely low.
of protein to carbs to fats is insanely low. Most chips, cakes, cookies, candies, juices,
things that we feed our kids. I want you to think of like granola bars, crackers, all of these things typically are much higher in fat and carbohydrate than they are in protein. So
anytime we feel like snacking, we're diving into the macronutrient bucket of carbohydrate and fat and oftentimes
driving our caloric intake up and not getting any of that satiating protein and fiber.
So I would recommend preparing snacks and keeping snacks available that are high in protein and
fiber. This can be, of course, fruits, any type of berry, any type of apple, any type of, you know,
fruit that has a little bit of substance to it is going to be
high in fiber. You can pre-slice vegetables. You can use things like baby carrots, sliced celery.
These are all snackable, grabbable, favorable options. Even things like nuts and seeds,
which do contain high amounts of fat and can be calorically quite dense. If you keep the right
total caloric intake where
it needs to be, these are fine. I find things like cheese, which of course do contain some fat to be
good snacks, love protein shakes, love Greek yogurt, love jerky. These are all high protein
snacks. You can talk about bars, protein bars, protein shakes. Are you keeping snacks in your home that contain protein and
they contain fiber? Or are you only keeping snacks in your home that contain sugar, carbohydrate,
and fat? None of those things are inherently fattening. They just don't fill you up. They
probably set you up to want to snack more and more. So be mindful of that. Another big mistake that I see a lot, this is number seven, is too many liquid
calories. I saw a TikTok the other day. It was on Instagram, but I had the TikTok watermark.
And it was a girl saying, today is my 28th day straight of not having a binge. And I understand
how people are with the definition of binge eating. They think it's
an insanely high calorie total. But this woman was morbidly obese, probably like 300 pounds,
maybe a little more, and shared her full day of eating. And it was fast food for every meal.
And she had a Sprite twice and then a high calorie coffee beverage as well.
and then like a high calorie coffee beverage as well. And while absolutely this might for her have not have been a binge, what caught my eye was to keep this 28 day streak going, right?
This individual has normalized a non-binging day, meaning she didn't go overboard, but she still
included three sprites. And I was thinking to myself, you know, you could have
had more food, uh, and probably less calories if you just ate a few, you know, health promoting
things like some fruit and some fiber and just switched all of those soft drinks to diet drinks.
Um, because like drinking your calories makes it feel like you're not eating as much, makes it feel
like your food volume is lower. Um, but like, you know, a 30 ounce Sprite, it's like 300 calories.
And that's something that a lot of people just don't understand. They start every day
with a high calorie coffee. Then they have a high calorie soft drink. Then they have alcohol at home
at night. And it's like, you know, not uncommon for Americans to drink 300 to 500 calories per day, which can be like, depending on your body size, 30 to 50%,
or I'm sorry, 300 to 500 calories. If you drank that every day could probably be somewhere between
20 to 25% of your total daily energy expenditure, depending on your body size. You know, if you drank that every day, could probably be somewhere between 20 to 25% of your total daily
energy expenditure, depending on your body size. If you're a small, relatively sedentary woman,
it's not unreasonable to assume that if you were to drink, let's say, if you were to drink
two sodas a day, that's about 300 calories, that you would probably pay for that because of your
small body size and the fact that your total daily energy expenditure, if you're sedentary,
might be like 1400 calories. And that 300 calories of soda you're drinking every day
is damn near a quarter of the whole energy your body needs. And you're getting no satiety from
that. And so many people engage in this, you know, pervasive
liquid calorie, just like they're just drinking calories, high calorie coffees, high calorie
sodas, high calorie alcoholic drinks, but I'm not eating a lot. I'm not eating a lot. I'm not
eating a lot. Well, yeah, but you're drinking the calories. And so this video reminded me,
there's still a disconnect between the color. Like, okay. For example, water has zero calories,
10 ounces, 20 ounces, 30 ounces, 40 ounces of water has zero calories. Well, 10 ounces of like
slightly sweetened lemonade could have 20 calories. Uh, 10 ounces of soda can have a hundred calories
and 10 ounces of alcohol can have 180 calories depending on the beverage. So this stuff scales.
alcohol can have 180 calories depending on the beverage. So this stuff scales and it's like,
well, if your food was like all the same size, but one dish had no calories and the other dish had, um, you know, 180 calories, they are the equivalent size and they have the equivalent.
In this case, it'd be nourishing property with beverages. It's like hydrating properties.
You'd be stupid for making that trade. So aim for more low calorie food choices.
Aim for more zero calorie beverage choices. Keep the diet drinks to a reasonable amount. I think
some people are sensitive to the artificial sweeteners. I respect that. You don't need to
include any artificial sweeteners if you don't want to. Things like sparkling water and plain
water are fantastic. Just stop eating so many calories. Another mistake a lot of people make, this is number eight, is
they don't start drinking water early in the day. They start drinking water when they realize
halfway through the day that they haven't had any. So a good tip for most of you guys, think about
your body weight right now. Cut that number in half. That's how many ounces you
should drink a day of pure water. If you start earlier, you know, like wake up, boom, grab a
water bottle right off your nightstand, drink 24 ounces. You'll almost never miss. Uh, okay.
Another habit people do, I call this snacking and grazing. So snacking is one I would cut back. If
you want to, you know, lose body mass, Snacking can also be convenient for gaining body mass.
If you want to maintain your body weight and include snacks in your diet, you certainly
can.
We've talked about a framework for doing that previously, but I think for most people,
snacking is a problem.
But a culprit that doesn't get talked about a lot is grazing, which is when food is out.
Okay.
When food is available, you can see it it's at work it's at
a party it's at a social event it's not something you've served it's not something you've consciously
said i'm gonna eat it's just something you can pick at and grazing is a huge source of what i
call caloric leak you know i used that term the other day i said you know condiments i was at
costco sharing condiments i said you know condiments are a huge source of caloric leak. And Max Lugavere, many of you are
familiar with Max Lugavere. He has a couple books, The Genius Life Podcast.
He messaged me and said, that's a great term, caloric leak. So I want you guys to think about
this. Caloric leak is where calories are coming in that you're not conscious about calories coming in.
And I cannot tell you how much it stands out to me that grazing is just one of those behaviors
of caloric leak, grabbing a candy from the waiting room, grabbing a couple almonds from
a friend's desk. It adds up. Be careful of the grazing. Another one that I see way too much is eating out. Like I know that eating out is
enjoyable. I love to do it. I love trying new restaurants. I love trying new foods.
I think you want to do that. I think you want to find the balance though. So like,
are, am I eating out all the time for convenience or am I eating out all the time out of a bad
habit? Cause if it's for convenience, you know,. But if it's for just because of a bad habit, you don't want to cook,
you're not making time to fill your home with good foods, maybe you don't have that situation.
I don't know. But one thing I'll say for sure is the way that most foods are prepared in America,
the portion sizes of most of these entrees and even sides at most restaurants are aligned with
becoming obese relatively quickly. The sizes, the inclusion of fats, the inclusion of condiments,
and more of these things that just make caloric leak all but an inevitability. You'll never know
the oils used, how much of the oils were used, the condiments used, the calories added to the
dish by the time it shows up. An entree on average in America can be between 1,000 to 1,500 calories.
I mean, you go to the Cheesecake Factory. I went with my fiance and my dad like two months ago,
and everything was like 1,500 calories plus because the portion sizes are so big.
And every time you eat out, you're setting yourself up for
a lot of unknowns. So it's something I would dial back and do more socially in the long term.
Food delivery, our 11th tip, same thing. DoorDash, Postmates, Uber Eats, all of this stuff,
Uber Eats, all of this stuff, in my opinion, across the board, not bad, not impossible to manage your weight, not impossible to lean into convenience with these tools, just very hard to
do them often and get away with it for most people. And remember guys, most people have a weight loss
goal and most people have a limitation to what they can
reasonably spend on things.
A lot of you listening probably have more disposable income and more commitment than
the average person because you are listening to a health and fitness podcast.
Only like 20% of people on earth listen to podcasts.
Most people watch TV and drain their life on TikTok.
And most people aren't interested in personal growth and self-improvement. So you might not be somebody for whom eating out
and door dashing food on the regular is going to be a problem. But for a lot of people,
it's going to drain them of their savings. It's going to be inefficient and it's not going to
help with their health promotion goals. So I'm not saying that these things are bad. I do them.
It's just how much do you want
to do them and how much are they serving you? And for most people, I find they are not.
Just like our last two tips, mindless eating. So number 12 of 13 is mindless and distracted eating.
If you want to lose weight, sitting down with just your food is one of the most powerful tools you could ever, ever, ever
deploy. I swear, this works wonderfully. Sit down with just your food. Put your phone away.
No television, no audio books, maybe music. That's about it. But you sit down with a fork,
you sit down with a glass of water, and you eat. You don't flip on TikTok. You don't eat while watching a video.
You don't even eat while being social. I just want you to try the experiment of eating,
focusing on your food, focusing on chewing. We'll talk about that in a second. Focus on making sure
that you're tasting the flavors, picking up on the flavors, have a dialogue about the food,
and watch how much less you eat when you are not distracted. This is a remarkably effective
tip and tool that people can leverage. It just astounds me that they don't. The 13th tip is
start, this is the final tip as well, start chewing your food 15 to 20 times per bite to
make sure that one, you are sending that signal to the brain through mastication or
chewing that you are fed and also to improve digestion. I think a lot of people suffer from
gut health issues, gas, IBD, indigestion, GERD, because they just don't slow down,
eat mindfully and chew their food. They inhale a lot of food, a lot of oily food, a lot of spicy
food, a lot of high sodium foods, not enough fiber, not enough protein. And that's a lot on the stomach.
Sit down, be mindful, chew your food thoroughly and build from there. Okay, folks, that does it
for this episode. I want to thank you so much for tuning in and getting these tips. Please share
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