Highlights of the Podcast:
- Five widely-held myths related to health and fitness
- Myth 1: Eating foods containing cholesterol such as eggs increase your cholesterol levels
- Your body autoregulates its cholesterol levels
- Myth 2: Eating low fat foods will prevent high cholesterol
- Sugar is one of the biggest causes of high cholesterol
- Myth 3: It’s okay to eat carbs in the morning because you’ll just burn it off
- Carbohydrates boost the production of Serotonin
- Serotonin makes you sleepy, less alert and less productive
- It is best to have carbs in the evening to help you sleep better at bedtime
- Breakfast is important because it sets you off for the rest of the day
- Myth 4: Eating lots of fruit is good for you
- Fruits contain the sugar called “fructose”
- There’s a difference between a health food and a fat loss health food
- Limit the amount of fruits you have to lose weight
- Myth 5: Butter is bad for you
- Margarine and one cal sprays are worse than butter
- Butter in its most natural form is healthy and contains CLA as well
- It’s ideal to have a 1:1 ratio of Omega 3 to Omega 6
Transcript:
Mark: Hello and welcome to another new episode of the TheDVCC.com podcast. I’m Mark Gray, and sitting next to me is Stephen. Good day to you! I hope you’re having a very productive and enjoyable day. Stephen?
Stephen: We’ve just finished our lunch. We’re actually back at my house. My girlfriend has very kindly just cooked us a very healthy lunch. We had – what did we have? Well, we had a lot today, didn’t we? We had broccoli with some good quality beef burgers, and then we also had some chicken in a nice sauce.
Mark: Homemade sauce.
Stephen: Homemade sauce. So that was lovely. And we’re all energized and ready to…
Mark: The green teas are ready.
Stephen: With green teas next to us and we’re all ready to go.
Mark: So today, we wanted to talk to you about – it’s going to be a relatively short one. We wanted just to kind of follow on from a few other podcasts where we basically recount facts, or actually, their myths that we’ve been told by people over the years at a time and clients and family, friends or whatever, and we feel that’d be really good to tell you about them and to give you the real answers because they’re still believed. These are people believe as facts even though they actually are myths. So, we’ll get straight into them, first things first. Something to say, Stephen?
Stephen: No. Let’s get into it.
Mark: Right. Straight in. So, myth number 1.
Stephen: Myth number 1.
Mark: This is fairly kind of – I guess if you speak to us so with 30, if you – oh, that kind of hurts when we say it, but this is a myth kind of my parents’ age…
Stephen: 30 years ago.
Mark: Yes, 30 years ago, we were kind of my parents’ age when they were bringing us up and I guess they believed it to be true.
Stephen: Or to be fair, it still gets bandied around quite a lot. I’ve spoken to people that mentioned it actually literally yesterday. I was speaking to someone about – just that I was explaining to them actually one of the other myths we’re about to go through a bit later and I was just explaining about maybe having eggs, and they go, “Oh, what about cholesterol?” So, the myth is that eating foods that contain cholesterol such as eggs increases your blood cholesterol levels. So basically, the myth is that if you eat more cholesterol, you have high cholesterol. And from what everyone’s heard, having high cholesterol is a bad thing, right?
Mark: And then a lot of people attribute eggs as cholesterol.
Stephen: Yes.
Mark: So eating eggs will…
Stephen: So any food that contains cholesterol and everyone has kind of heard that eggs do contain cholesterol. So the yellow bit, particularly. So everyone thinks – well a lot of people still think that that’s the case, that if they were to have too many eggs, they’re going to have high cholesterol.
Mark: And actually, I guess it kind of is reinforced by the old school bodybuilders with their egg whites, separating their whole eggs from their egg whites.
Stephen: Well this lady I actually spoke to said, “Maybe I should take out the yolk?”
Mark: Ah. So, talk to us about it.
Stephen: Well, it’s actually not the case and it quite has been – I mean, obviously it’s not been into mainstream knowledge, but the scientific knowledge has been around for quite a while now. But actually, that’s not the case. Your body doesn’t increase its cholesterol by taking in more cholesterol. It’s actually what’s called autoregulated. So basically, if you eat more cholesterol one day, what your body does is basically just produce less naturally the next day and vice versa. So your body keeps itself at the right level for your body. So when people have high cholesterol, a lot of the time, it’s an inflammation thing, but it’s not because they’ve eaten too much cholesterol food because like I say, your body autoregulates, which means it will adjust its natural levels the next day. So if you eat more eggs or whatever cholesterol-containing food, then your body will literally naturally produce less to compensate.
Mark: I mean, that’s a really widely held myth, isn’t it? That you can’t have too many eggs, you’re going to have high cholesterol.
Stephen: And then that’s bad for you, yes.
Mark: Yes. And it’s still told around. People who are doctors and things, they still believed, but all the research now, and it’s not even new, shows that that’s incorrect.
Stephen: That’s true. That actually leads us into our next myth, which is about cholesterol. Now I’m not going to – just talking about everyone kind of thinks or relates high cholesterol as giving you a risk of cardiovascular disease – now I’m not going to discuss that because I know that everyone, doctors and things around and they’ve been – I don’t want to get into that issue. However, the problem with that statement is that really people forget and don’t look at the other things that can be involved, and sugar is one of the biggest, biggest causes of people’s high cholesterol nowadays. So I think the reason I mention it is that I don’t want people to think that or to forget that by having too much sugar, too much sugary foods and things like that, you put yourself at a really great risk of having higher cholesterol.
Mark: Stony silence. I like that.
Stephen: That was my cue to you to say something.
Mark: Yes. I mean, it’s a contentious topic, but ignoring the thing about high cholesterol and cardiovascular disease, fasting blood sugar and triglycerides are great predictors of cardiovascular disease.
Stephen: Well, my point that I wanted to make was that they are predictors and people kind of ignore them. Basically, there are still people around that will try to eat lower fat foods because they think they’re trying to save themselves from having high cholesterol, but don’t mind piling in a load of sugar when actually having loads of sugar will cause you to have high cholesterol much more easily than having, like I said, having eggs or things like that, because if your body takes in cholesterol, it will naturally lower its own cholesterol. So my point being I really wanted to make was to really have a look at the amount of sugar you’re having because it’s being linked massively, the most important thing for fat loss and putting on weight, but as a result, also increasing inflammation in your body, and as a result, having higher levels of cholesterol.
Mark: Yes. Exactly. So, myth number four…
Stephen: This is three.
Mark: Oh, number three. Sorry.
Stephen: Yes. Go on. I’m counting.
Mark: So, myth number three is that eating carbs in the morning so you can burn them off throughout the day will basically give you a better body.
Stephen: Well, literally, it must have been the best conversation I had yesterday because I heard that exact same myth yesterday.
Mark: Well someone is tripping up with all these myths.
Stephen: Well, it’s ideal, wasn’t it? Because that gave me content for today’s podcast, but yes, eating carbs in the morning so that you can burn them off throughout the day, that’s what a lot of people have been told. So that’s not your fault.
Mark: And if you think about it, if you look at it with a small bit of knowledge, it does center…
Stephen: Yes. So I can understand how people think that, but what actually happens is that carbohydrates boost the production of what is called the neurotransmitter Serotonin. So a lot of people have heard of Serotonin as a hormone.
Mark: To feel good.
Stephen: Yes. It actually helps. Well, it actually helps you sleep. So, therefore, if you’re consuming carbs in the morning, you’re actually encouraging your body to produce the things that help it sleep. So actually, if you are going to consume carbohydrates – and we’ve talked about this a lot, I know, in a lot of podcasts, but I think it’s that important it deserves to be reiterated – that if you are going to eat your carbohydrates, the best time to eat them is – well, number one, for fat loss, you’re looking at after you’ve worked out. But, again, if you’re wanting to have some carbohydrates, the best time to eat them is in the evening because it will help you sleep.
Mark: Yes. So clearly, if it’s going to help you sleep, you don’t want to be sleeping in the middle – like from the…
Stephen: That’s not the thing to start your day off. So a bowl of Frosties is only going to make you feel sleepy.
Mark: Yes. And do that one day. Have a bowl of Frosties one day, and then have an omelet and salmon the next morning and see how much more alert and better you feel.
Stephen: And also, how much better your food choices are and how much easier it is for your food choices to be good for the rest of the day.
Mark: So actually, the breakfast is one of the main things that we try and focus on with our clients in both Milton Keynes and Bedford because it generally holds true that if you get yourself sorted at the beginning of the day, you’re going to be far better throughout the rest of it. Whereas if you start off with a poor choice, you’re much more likely to overeat or eat the wrong foods for the rest of the day. So that’s one tip. If you want to take a little tip there, is get your breakfast sorted. If you can only fix one thing now, just your breakfast is the main thing.
Stephen: That’s right.
Mark: So, myth number four. Now this is a good one because I can understand how it is a myth, but eating lots of fruit is good for you. Now, this is quite an interesting topic because it sounds really convincing because fruit is natural, right?
Stephen: Exactly.
Mark: So, it should be good for you to eat as much as you want. But, the problem with fruit is that it contains something called “fructose.”
Stephen: Sugar.
Mark: It’s sugar, basically, but a specific type of sugar. Now, whether we’re talking about fat loss, or actually, we’re just talking about health, the thing with fruit is that people can or do overeat and eat large amounts of it and…
Stephen: It’s quite easy to eat a lot of fruit, and I experience and so do you, a lot of people that come in, when they first start with us, that I eat healthily, I have lots of fruit all day and I have loads of fruit I’m eating. Lots of bananas and…
Mark: Grapes.
Stephen: Grapes. All those kind of things. You can totally understand why you think that’s healthy, but like you’re saying, that it’s…
Mark: Well, there are two things. I think there are two points here, is that there’s a difference between a health food and a fat loss health food. So, some food, say for example a banana, if you look at it strictly, it is a natural occurring food and is therefore healthy. However, it’s not good for fat loss because of the things it does to your blood sugar and there’s very little fibre and things like that. But also, the point to make with – so basically, what we’re saying is if you’re looking for fat loss and weight loss, which most people who listen to this podcast are, then you want to limit the amount of fruit you have. One apple a day, a handful of berries would be more than enough, more than adequate. And the reason we say those fruits is because they contain the most fibre of fruits, and ideally you’d have them around post-workout would be a good time.
Stephen: So just after you’ve trained. Just after you’ve trained. Or if you’re not working out, then you could have them at breakfast. Basically, if you’ve lost weight and you’re therefore able to handle more carbohydrates, then you’d be thinking about having them at breakfast or after you’ve worked out, but overall, they’re not a necessity. But the second point to make is that eating too much in the way of fruit is bad for you. Too much fructose is bad for you and that’s quite proven now. So if you’re overeating, so don’t go and listen to this and think, oh, we say fruit is unhealthy because that’s not the case. But if you are overeating it, which some people can do, if you’re having 5 bananas a day or something similar, that’s too much fructose for how we are supposed to be, and fructose in too large quantities can be bad for you.
Mark: Yes. Exactly. So just as Stephen says, reduce it, limit it. Particularly for fat loss, limit it at least to only berries and apple.
Stephen: Exactly. And you’ll find that once you realize or once you understand that you’ve got the right intentions when you’re having it, but it’s not giving you the results that you’d actually expect it to, then a lot of people kind of have it when you’re having fruit because you think that you’re being good. But actually, it can just derail you and send you back to…
Mark: Yes, and massively because it is sugary.
Stephen: Right! Another one. Let’s move on. The last one. Butter is bad for you. That butter is bad for you and you might as well go and have like sunflower – what is that? Sunflower spread or what’s the…
Mark: Margarines.
Stephen: Margarines. They’re far better for you. Actually, we spoke about it yesterday. A lady was talking about the…
Mark: You told that myth already.
Stephen: No. This was one conversation, actually. I’ve got all these myths. Which is what prompted us to do this podcast, but using these low fat spray things.
Mark: Oh, the one cal sprays.
Stephen: Yes. That’s what she was saying. So I want to make sure that people understand, we’re not talking about those. We’re not talking about margarine, we’re not talking about these sprays as being healthy. They’re super unhealthy. They’re very processed and they go back, they came about when people started trying to think that fat was bad for you and the whole low fat is the best way to lose weight, which is what actually got us into the obesity epidemic in this country and also in the US as well. So we’re talking about butter. Pure, unadulterated, organic butter from pasture-raised, naturally raised cows. Basically, we’re talking about butter in its most “naturalist,” if that’s a word, the most natural form.
Mark: Why though? Basically, this just kind of goes back to what we’ve said before, that you want food in their most natural state. Margarine and all those kind of things, the sprays, they’re being far, far away from their natural state. Now butter, when it’s, like what Stephen said, when it’s from grass-fed, pasture-raised cows, it’s very healthy because it contains something called Conjugated Linoleic Acid.
Stephen: “CLA.”
Mark: Actually, have you seen that photo? There’s a photo of, I think on a plate, a dollop of butter, a really nice butter, and a dollop of margarine, and they have ants, and the ants all shy away from the margarine. Have you seen that?
Stephen: Right. I think I have, a long time ago. Yes, they don’t eat it.
Mark: They keep away from it, yes.
Stephen: Yes. Exactly. And that’s because the butter contains CLA, Conjugated Linoleic Acid, which is a healthy fat. Now we talked about healthy fats. There are healthy fats. And then also a vitamin, vitamin K. I think K2. We’ve talked about this before, but you’ve got Omega 3s and you have Omega 6s. Now, naturally, you’ll eat more Omega 6s because that’s just how we’ve come about with all the processing and things of foods, but you want to be at a better ratio of Omega 3 to 6.
Mark: Just so no smart aleck realize, there are also Omega 9s as well.
Stephen: We don’t have smart alecks that listen to this. There’s no one going to be pedantic.
Mark: I know we have the odd personal trainer or whatever sometimes.
Stephen: Oh, okay. I welcome your comments. But yes, Mark is saying that basically, you want to have a good ratio of Omega 3 to Omega 6, and in the modern day diet people have far too many Omega 6s compared to their Omega 3s. So, obviously we’ve spoken about Omega 3. Fish oils being very good to take for fat loss, but also, just for health. So, the more you can do to actually keep your ratio of Omega 3 to Omega 6s as equal as possible, 1:1 ideally, then something – so butter, which has that ratio, is very, very good for you. So, it’s actually kind of a myth that you should shy away from really healthy, organic, Pasteur-raised cow butter, which is what we’re talking about now, and it actually contains a lot of healthful properties. So you don’t need to shy away from it and you can actually use it in your cooking or what have you.
Mark: Yes. It makes a good omelet.
Stephen: It makes a great omelet. It makes a great – my girlfriend makes – what do they call it? Not like the omelet. You have it and you stir it instead. Scrambled eggs. Really good for scrambled eggs.
Mark: [Laughs] Good from her. So yes. It’s be interesting to know actually if you’ve found this valuable because you’ve been thinking that these myths are true. Let us know. Do comment below in the box below the Facebook box. I’ve got rid of all the spam from the Lolita whatever link.
Stephen: Make it bigger.
Mark: Make it bigger and larger, engorge it, all those kind of things. I’ve got rid of all those now. It’s 5,000 spam posts I had to remove, one by one. Now that was pretty painful. But, comment below. Let us know if you’ve got any more to add to this list, or if you’re unsure of something, then we can let you know if it’s a myth or not and give you the truth. We hope you’ve enjoyed it. We will see you next week.
Stephen: See you then.
Mark: Bye-bye!
Stephen: Bye-bye.
