Johan Vesters: 0:00

What's up and welcome back to Talking Nutrition episode 32. Today, I'm talking about nutritional label serving sizes, and basically foods that you want to rely on for the most part, right? And kind of like, things you want to keep in mind, like when you look at a label, just so we understand it, right? I think Christine and I are both working on more like educational resources for clients. And you said you kind of took this from what you're building out, right, Christine? Yes. Awesome. So let's, let's kind of walk through it like step by step. So we'll start with serving sizes then we'll look into protein carb fat and fiber sources, etc. And then basically, which I think is quite misleading sometimes like serving sizes, you know, they can be very tricky to understand and a little eye opening to more should actually start weighing your stuff usually hits a massive bummer.

Kristine Andali: 1:01

Yes.

Johan Vesters: 1:03

But really quick before we get into the episode, anything anything new Chrissy?

Kristine Andali: 1:09

No, just going along working. Like it right Ross. For those of you watching roses in, in a video currently.

Johan Vesters: 1:23

And by the way, if you're not watching, go ahead and follow us on YouTube. So you can actually see rose today.

Kristine Andali: 1:30

She just she'll sit here and just wait till I hold her hand. See? And then I was gonna just hold her hand and she's fine.

Johan Vesters: 1:37

That's the best. That's great. Where are we already distracted? Yeah. Nothing new. Yeah, I mean, I'm also just working. Same shit. You know, there's long days, but it's it's rewarding. It's exciting. And I'm very, I just like creating shit. You know? So I've been working on guides and trainings and like, basically, I'm working on resources to cover like, every single problem and question that will ever come up. So that it's already there, you know? Yeah. Which for our fellow coaches, this might actually like it is related to the episode, but I think it'd be cool to talk about in the very beginning, or at least I felt like this, we probably did as well. You tend to think like, Fuck, I need all this stuff right away, you know, I need to have the training and the ebooks and not like the resources or whatever we actually don't. The cool thing is just how with fitness and nutrition and training, you just take it step by step, you work on your hydration, and then you get your protein intake and check whatever, same shit for us coaches, right, like you create a resource. And then maybe the next one, that maybe the next one, you don't have to do everything all at once. And, and I know at times, because we've been talking for a long time. And I know we we both felt very overwhelmed at times, wherever they're tricky that we have to, like, create this stuff. And like you always overthink it as a coach. Just take it step by step. So that's even still now stuff that we're working on. We're always building always improving, redoing stuff, updating stuff, you know,

Kristine Andali: 3:12

Constantly, yeah.

Johan Vesters: 3:15

yeah, it's fun. Yeah, keeps it exciting. You know, yeah, I really like to say,

Kristine Andali: 3:19

I love bringing value more value to the clients. It's a good feeling. Which

Johan Vesters: 3:27

we're just kind of cool. Because the longer you stay on, the more stuff you get, basically, you know, seriously,

Kristine Andali: 3:31

I've had clients with me for years, and they've seen off dates, like I've like they've started at Frick, I don't know, like, some of my stuff years back just in terms of like resources and check ins. And it's just like night and day difference. And they have been through that whole transition. And they're like, it's so awesome that you do this. I'm like, well, the eyes. I care, right. I want you guys to have a really good experience. Yeah, any

Johan Vesters: 4:08

Anyhoo

Kristine Andali: 4:11

Okay, so I thought it would be a good topic to touch on is understanding food labels. I'm pulled this out of the course that I'm building for my clients. And I just think it's good to bring attention to cuz there's some stuff I feel like we don't pay attention to that we should. Or we get tricked by like marketing, right? Because like, for example, we could see a food and it says 70 grams, 70 calories per serving. And then you look on the back of that label. And there's like 10 servings, right and the serving sizes. I don't know like half a cup quarter of a cup, right? That's nothing or so they're like tricking You that way, that's marketing. So the first step, I mean, I have steps in this, but I mean, you can really put them in any order, right. But I do think a good first step is looking at the serving size, okay, per one serving size, and then how many serving sizes are in the whole product. So in the US, you'll see serving size, they actually just changed the look of the label, the serving sizes larger and bolder, and the serving sizes are updated. So they'll do like a cop, and then they'll put it in grams, which is typical. So that's going to be in bold, and then on the top of that you're gonna see serving size per container, or per bag, or whatever it is. So looking at that, okay, serving size is, say two thirds of a cup. But there's eight serving sizes in that container. Right. So now you have to compare. Like, for example, compare your portion to the serving size listed. So the serving size is one cup, and you're eating two cups, you're getting twice the calories, the fat, the other nutrients that are labeled, right, so I think this is where a lot of people do end up making mistakes. I guess you could call it a mistake, maybe I don't know. They just don't realize right what the actual serving size is. And that's why weighing and measuring your food for a period of time can be super, super helpful in understanding portion sizes. So I like to start with that.

Johan Vesters: 6:48

Yeah, for sure. I saw a video and don't know the dude's name. He's Aaron's friend. So Aaron and him are doing like educational course, for coaches. I saw his page. And he actually they had a video where he basically asked a girl like, here's a bowl, here's your granola, like put in, like a serving, like what do you think is like a normal serving? And it ended up being like 750 calories or something? Which I didn't even look that much. I guess it wasn't even too crazy. You know? So just learning from those things like being aware of like, Hey, okay, cool. One serving. Like, be like, I've been saying this to clients like one a lot recently, but like, be proactive in this situation, right? Like, don't just track don't just kind of like, kind of pay attention, like know, like, be present, like when you do this stuff. Look at the label term learn? Yeah, because the more you do, the sooner you're going to understand the easier it gets, the less stressful less time is going to be. And the sooner you can move away from it eventually, you know,

Kristine Andali: 7:54

right. It's kind of what like Casey posted on this. And it's something I talked about with my clients all the time is like, active versus passive tracking, right? Being active is looking at the nutritional labels, seeing what's in the food, looking at the portion size, say okay, this is four ounces, this is three ounces, that's actively tracking, passively tracking would just be like, you know, grabbing a portion size, putting it estimating, putting it into your tracker, not looking at any of the nutritional facts and not learning how to present. Okay, so that's, that's step one. I actually had an experience with this too, even years after doing this, like, I'm still blown away with some of the stuff so I'd see real the other day, and like a serving size of the serving size of cereal versus what I would actually put in my bowl was very different, right? Like cereal is another one where like, it can get away from you very quickly if you're not paying attention to the actual circumcise on the on the back, right and what it actually is. Okay, now, step two is looking at how much protein carbs fat fiber, and sugar are in that specific food. So these numbers will represent how much is in the serving size listed. So again, if you're having twice as much as the serving size, you're going to have twice as much of these seems obvious, but still something that a lot of people sometimes don't realize, I'm actively checking these values are is going to start to teach you what exactly is in the food you're eating. Now, I personally, as a coach, I want to talk about this because sugar, it's something that like I actually get asked about a lot when a client comes on and they're like, Well, how much sugar should I be in taking and I'm like, Well, to be honest with you. I don't actually focus on that number one What I'm focusing on is the foods you're eating and just starting to incorporate more whole sources of food. And that's naturally going to control that sugar intake. Right? So instead of focusing on sugar, we're just focusing on improving food quality, which is going to take care of the main excessive sugar potentially. But there's a difference between, like on our labels, if we go to it, there is there's total sugars, okay, so that's including, like, natural and added, and then added sugars here will be under that. And that is more of like your refined processed sugars. So there's a difference. And say, fruit, which is like a natural sugar, right, vers candy, which is like added sugar, refined sugar. Right. So again, by focusing on whole sources of food, most of the time, we are going to control that added sugar amount.

Johan Vesters: 11:41

I hear that one a lot. Still, you know, you know, because there's, there's sugars of fruit, like, should I watch out for that? Or, you know, is it bad if I get sugars from from apples and berries? I'm like, never, ever, ever was fruits to issue? You know? No. Like, if if we need to worry about like how much sugar is in fruit like that? We're just completely just missing the point here. Yeah, sugar isn't bad, per se. And it's still being demonized. And sure, like, you don't want to have a whole bunch of added sugar. Yeah, usually not a great idea. But that's something about the food quality, which we'll get into today as well about like, what foods we want to choose. But sure, like, look at that. But just like overall, just try to control your carbs, you know, and also get your proteins, your fiber, your fats, etc. and just focus on like the foods that you're getting. But sure there's some sugar in it, but it's not going to do anything. Negative, right, depending on the context, of course, but right again, it's it's never that the apple, yeah,

Kristine Andali: 12:52

very cheap. So an example of this would be plain dairy milk will show 12 grams of total sugars, which are naturally occurring from lactose per cup, but zero added sugars. And then, on the flip side of that, there'll be say, a cup of strawberry yogurt might show 20 grams of total sugars 10, which are added, and 10, which are naturally occurring from the lactose. So you're gonna see total, then you're gonna see added. So yeah, another thing to just, I mean, it's something to be aware of, but still, at the end of the day, I just like to just focus on, get adding more whole sources of food and not necessarily hyper focusing on this.

Johan Vesters: 13:38

Yeah, want to add a little side note as well, because there is a difference in terms of the carbohydrate on European versus American labels. And we both work with people from both over here as well as the US. So I think it's good to mention, just so we have a good understanding of this stuff, right? So there's carbohydrate, your total carbohydrate for the day, basically, which will be your target. If we then look at fiber, which is really a type of carbohydrates as well, it's not really broken down for no use for fuel, we can subtract that and that was, you know, left is net carbs. So net carbs is basically the stuff that you actually use for fuel right. Now, also, if you look on the label, so for you guys, you have your total carbohydrate. And then below that, you'll see like dietary fibers, sugars, right and added sugar. In Europe, it has carbohydrates, but it's actually not carbs, so has carbohydrate, and then sugars below that. And typically fiber is separate. So if we want to look at the label and understand the Europe, we actually have to add fiber to that carbohydrate number two get to our total carb.

Kristine Andali: 15:01

Yeah, because a lot of people think that fiber doesn't have any calories, right? Also. Yeah, but it does, it actually has two calories per gram. So it's just best to track totals. I mean, it's just easier.

Johan Vesters: 15:20

Yeah, that's the thing and there's already going to be a difference in terms of like maybe your tracking sheet versus like chronometer or like whatever up. But it's all just about like understanding it. Right? Yeah. Cool. Now in terms of kind of the foods that we want to aim for, we're going to benefit from kind of like going in with a plan, right? So even before we look for those kinds of foods, I want you to kind of think, okay, how am I going to put together my meal? Right, even before going into the store? I think that's a big one. Because yes, and no, we do this the same way. Like, when you look at a meal, healthy meals is going to keep you full, we'll give you the micronutrients, you need the macronutrients. And that's going to help you build muscle, lose fat, etc. Improve your health, we want to cover your proteins, your carbs, your fats, and then micronutrients and fiber as well. Right? So what you want to look at, on that label is, hey, like, how much am I getting in terms of carbs, fats, and protein? I will get into like a bit of a discussion, sometimes in a sec, but something that's called a primary protein source contains most calories from protein. So if we're looking at, you know, for example, chicken breast, that's a protein source. If we're looking at potato, you know, rice, it's a carbohydrate source, because most calories from that food come from carbohydrate in that case, for fats, once again, a fat source like most calories come from fats, which by the way, also means that eggs are really just a fat source. I know they're great. And it's a very high quality protein that you can get from eggs, egg whites, but eggs are really just kind of like a fat source with a good amount of protein. Yeah. So I, I will admit, I actually had I do have to amend my protein list. Now, I think of it, but I do also mentioned this to people, because it's usually kind of like lumped in with a list, you know, maybe I should just change that. Actually, I might actually move it. No, no, no to think about it, you know? But either way. So there's Moses a fat source now. So when you go into the shop, look at your label, look at Hey, like, are you getting mostly protein here? Are you getting mostly carbs here? Are you getting mostly fats? What does this give me in terms of like fiber and micronutrients? And it's good to remember too, that fats are 90, sorry, nine calories per gram, sorry, almost a 10th of my worth noncarriers for gram, and then for protein and carbs is for? That's a big difference, right? So you want to be aware of that. Now, here's the thing. When we're looking at protein sources, you know, there's meat thrusts fish, dairy products are can be great. Let's actually go down that list. So there's often a lot of you know, plant based options to write that aren't necessarily protein sources, like not primarily, and that's where this discussion kind of comes in. And I was just telling Kristine as well, when I did my CrossFit level one of someone in our class, basically, you will begin a discussion with the the crew who was doing the seminar. And they didn't agree that beans were a carb source. Because he, because he ate it as his protein source. And that's fine, by the way, like, that's totally cool. But we need to understand here, like, objectively how things work, right, and beans, and lentils and chickpeas and all those kinds of things are great. I love that stuff, too. And I have a lot of clients eat that stuff. And they're very healthy for you don't get me wrong, but they're not primarily protein sources. Alright, you can get your proteins there. But it's not all going to break down that well, because of that plant structure. So that's one sure you're actually losing protein already there. Plus, you're getting more carbohydrate. So it's definitely way more difficult to puzzle that in you know. And this is also why I'm not the biggest fan of things like protein breads and those kinds of things. Because Sure, they're like higher in protein, but even if you if you kind of get a little bit extra there like I still wouldn't say like try to get most of your protein from those sources.

Kristine Andali: 20:04

Yeah,

Johan Vesters: 20:06

it's still not going to be a great like quality protein source. Now. Going down to carbs mostly want to have your starchy carbs there for fuel right? So yeah, which potatoes, rice, quinoa, those kinds of things, even like whole grain products, like bread, like 30 years, those kinds of things. Big fan and of course your lentils and those kind of things to you fats, nuts and seeds, extra virgin olive oil is amazing avocados, eggs, like I said, anything else that's just for the most part, like those type of foods, you know. And then I do like to kind of have fruits and veggies as kind of like a separate group. Because here's the thing, fiber is a form of carbohydrates. Sure. But those foods, once again, like most carbs, they're they're not really gonna be used for fuel. They're mostly going to give you that fiber, you know, yeah, micronutrients, water to get to keep you full. For health, like those are key. And that's why as a fourth group, almost, I like to say, hey, you know, per meal, let's also get like a fruit or vegetable, for those reasons. And you got to get way fewer calories there, too.

Kristine Andali: 21:19

Yep. Yeah, so if we're, if we're looking for a good example, when in terms of like, if we had a food that was 10 grams of fat, 10 grams of carbs, and 10 grams of protein, because fat has nine calories per one gram, and carbs and fats have four, that would equal to 90 calories coming from fats, and 40 coming from protein and carbs. So it would be a primarily primarily a fat source. Just so you understand that a little bit better. Cool. It's not that it's not a protein sources mean, we have to definitely take a look at the quality of that protein, right? Like the protein in the protein and peanut butter is very clearly not the same as like, from a quality standpoint as like chicken or beef. Right. So it's there, but it's just not the same quality.

Johan Vesters: 22:20

Yeah, that's, that's why you kind of run into issues in terms of a lot of the plant based options, which I'm not against, again, like it's this is just objectively how things are like, it's fact that opinion here. I want to point that out, because this is not the kind of like, yeah, we're not hating on this off, we're just stating the facts like, yeah, if we look at a cup of broccoli, like we've all seen that post, right, it's like, protein from beef.

Kristine Andali: 22:49

First of all, you'd have to eat like two heads of broccoli, you'd be real gassy.

Johan Vesters: 22:59

Unless you purposely shaved yourself. On a serious note, though, like, like, it's just not a good idea. With fiber, fiber is great. And it's very, it's good to have a good amount of fiber. And actually even like going higher like, can be good thing, you know, you have your recommended amounts, that you can go a little little higher. With fire. You can go too low, you can also go too high.

Kristine Andali: 23:32

Oh my goodness, we have these like episodes where we lose it, we can't get it together.

Johan Vesters: 23:41

That's what makes make sense podcast and number one, nutrition.

Kristine Andali: 23:47

are the number one or the number one,

Johan Vesters: 23:49

number 1.1? Because we don't take ourselves serious, yeah. Are two series. But I'm not really don't like you can overdo fiber as well. Yeah, I've

Kristine Andali: 24:03

seen and I have a client right now that we're working on lowing her via fiber, because she's just having too much he's bloated, right. And it can can cause the same issues as having too little fiber. Gotta kind of find that sweet spot.

Johan Vesters: 24:16

Yeah, and it's also personal. And totally, I say most people kind of like a 30 ish range, you know, like 20 to 30, depending if they're new 40 If you're bigger individual, or if you're eating more, I should say because it's really more related to how much you're taking in per day. But like, you can definitely overdo it. And still then, like, even if you eat like a kilo of broccoli, a lot of it is just gonna like not be absorbed, it's going to be a mess, digestion wise at all. So that's not a great option. They got the peanut butter, same kind of thing. Like you might be hitting some protein, you're also getting a whole bunch of calories in. Right? So you might be looking at weight gain, even possibly, you know, but I just want to be aware of that stuff. Totally. I wanted to point out one thing here, which is really where it kind of ties back into food choices that we most want to make. I think Rose has something to say to she's but um, if we're looking at the more processed foods, which is not really something we've really touched on with a whole bunch of ingredients. That's where it gets a little more tricky because now we're looking at Have a lot of added sugars. A lot of fats, for example, right? We're not only are we just not looking at kind of like one ingredient, which are like the foods that we mostly want to get anyway, you know, a potato, which is just a potato, right chicken, which is just chicken, right? Instead of the more processed stuff that has like 20 different, you know, items in the ingredient list. Right?

Kristine Andali: 25:58

Yeah, so not like going into that is step three. I mean, I personally, I look at the ingredients list right away. But like I said, it's not like the order of the steps, you can do whatever order you want. But now, when we're looking at ingredients lists, like Johan just said, we want most of our foods being like whole sources, right? One ingredient, these aren't going to have really nutritional labels on them. But because both of us take a sustainable approach, right, there's going to be times when we are eating from packaged foods, there's going to be you know, a bunch of ingredients. And I think one thing a lot of people don't know about ingredients list is that foods with more than one ingredient, the ingredients will be listed in a descending order by weight. So those are the ingredients that have the largest amount in that specific product will be listed at the top, then it goes down from there based on how much is in that food. So if it's like mostly nuts, those are going to be at the top now if it's mostly water that's going to be at the top etc. And then it's just going to go down from there.

Johan Vesters: 27:19

Yeah. And that's also again, just just to emphasize that it's not bad for a food that like to have a bunch of ingredients. It's just a context, you know, yeah, like if your whole diet kind of consists of that kind of stuff. A you know, it's probably not going to be that great in terms of protein fiber micronutrients. But I do want to, you know, point out again that you can totally have those fruits it is fine, you know? What do you think, Kristine? I

Kristine Andali: 27:54

think that's good. I think we touched on pretty much all when it comes to ingredients lists and what to look for. plus roses. Needs to poop or pee or something loose. She's going crazy over here. I don't want to let her out of the room because I'm scared she's gonna

Johan Vesters: 28:14

she's Watch out with that. Cool, awesome. So episode, like the shorter ones that I'm going to try and stick below the 30 minute mark, or we should I should say. So that being said, we will talk to you guys next week. If you'd like to do so. Share our episode and in your stories. Drop us a quick review. And then we will be back next week with a q&a episodes. I'll talk to you then.

Kristine Andali: 28:41

Thanks for listening