There Is A Method to the Madness
This is a podcast where I will be discussing all aspects of physical fitness. I am an exercise physiologist and personal trainer and owner of Maxwell's Fitness Programs for the last 25 years. My passion is health and fitness and I am excited to share my views, some stories, interviews and much more with you.
There Is A Method to the Madness
Food Fear: The Truth About What You Should (and Shouldn't) Eat
Welcome to there is a Method to the Madness. My name is Rob Maxwell and I'm an exercise physiologist and personal trainer. I am the owner of Maxwell's Fitness Programs and I've been in business since 1994. The purpose of this podcast is to get to the real deal of what really works and, most importantly, why things work. Hence the name there is a method to the madness. Before I get to today's show, I want to thank Jonathan and Lynn Gildan of the Gildan Group at Realty Pros. They are committed to providing the highest level of customer service in home sales. Why don't you give them a shout and figure out what your home is worth? 386-451-2412.
Speaker 1:I'm very happy and excited that everybody tuned in to this episode of there Is A Method to the Madness. I understand that this is a very pressing matter because everybody really wants to know what they absolutely should eat and should not eat. So I'm going to tell you what you should eat and what you should not eat. I mean, we know we tune into all of our different channels and on the TV and we're going to get different opinions by alleged doctors. Maybe they are, but you know they're not necessarily playing one necessarily on TV at that point. You know we're going to go on to our social media sites and we're going to be told to eat this and not that and I know you want to hear it from the horse's mouth at least the people that listen to this because you trust me, you trust the information, or you wouldn't eat that. Okay, now I could just end it right there and we'd have ourselves a nice 2 minute and 12 second podcast, but I'm going to explain that a little more, since I can remember and everything that I've looked before I got into this industry, which was in the early 1990s, and I was studying health and fitness even earlier than that, because I was a gym rat that loved to work out. So basically, from the 80s on, I've been looking at this stuff on. I've been looking at this stuff and then, when I look at the history of this type of thing, which is basically a cult dieting, I like to call it it's been going on forever.
Speaker 1:I mean, you can go back to religious beliefs and you know those are normally for different reasons other than weight loss, weight gain or health and fitness. They're usually not about that per se, but it's still this dogmatic way of avoid this and consume this type of thing. The reality is this human beings are omnivores and what that means is we can eat almost anything. An omnivore technically means you can eat animal product and you can eat plant products as well. So you can be vegetarian or you can be a carnivore, all right. So we can eat almost anything, and not to be like silly or rude, but it kind of looks like we do Right, here's what we need to understand that diet is a big.
Speaker 1:The diet industry is a multi billion dollar industry. None of the information that you're receiving out there that you're getting is new. It just takes on different packaging and different terminology to resell it to the general public. I think you can all think of at least one or two food groups you're not supposed to eat, right. So, carbs, maybe.
Speaker 1:Don't eat carbs. Oh, that makes complete sense, considering your brain runs on glucose. Oh, don't eat carbs because you know why? Oh, because a Baby Ruth or a Snickers bar happens to be a carbohydrate, awesome. So is broccoli. So is a sweet potato, so is rice. Those are two different things.
Speaker 1:But let's just, you know, lump it all together and say don't eat carbs, so that's one, right? Maybe you hear let's see what else is a common. Oh, don't eat sugar. Of course that's kind of the same thing, but it is different. So sugar is a form of carbohydrate. It's actually glucose or what we call a monosaccharide, but all that is is a carbohydrate broken down. So, no, we need that. Oh, you mean, don't eat overly processed sugar and too much of it. That's really what you mean, right? Yes, that's what the experts mean Don't eat too much of it.
Speaker 1:But see, human beings really struggle with that. They struggle with like I'm acting, like I'm not one. They, they. We struggle with gray area. We don't like to have to make decisions for ourselves. I guess it's, you know, it's the problem of having that, you know, prefrontal cortex right, we sit there and we process and we have to think about things for ourselves.
Speaker 1:Where other forms of animals that's not the case. They rely on their own instincts to eat what they can and not eat. I can throw down an egg yolk if I'm making an egg white omelet or something like that and I'm not using all the yolks and I don't like the waste. So I can put one in Hazel's bowl and she's going to gobble it up because she knows for her that's good food. Now, if it was rancid, she wouldn't eat it. You know dogs, cats, all animals we we just don't follow them have pretty good instincts. It's funny every time a piece of romaine lettuce which I eat a lot of too has fallen on the floor, she goes over, she looks at it, she turns her nose up at it. Why? Because it's not food for her. So animals are, for the most part, really really good at that.
Speaker 1:We are not right Now in fairness. We can eat more, are not right now In fairness. We can eat more. You know we can. Basically. You know dogs, cats mostly are carnivores, but there are also certain grains, certain plant foods that they can consume to. You know, like Hazel loves carrots, I'm sure your dogs do too. You know cats tend to or I should say my cat tends to like we'll lick up creamy stuff, even if it is like plant-based stuff. You know she's going to turn her nose up at other things, but we can eat many, many, many things.
Speaker 1:There is nothing that we shouldn't eat, except too much of anything, and therein lies the problem. What is too much? That's the problem. Well, everybody's different. Your resting metabolic rate might be 2,800. I've seen people with resting metabolic rates that high, and they exercise. So that means they could probably eat four to 5,000 calories a day and not gain a pound. And then there are other people that have RMRs resting metabolic rates of around 1,000. I've seen it lower. So that means anything they consume over a thousand calories, they're going to start to gain weight. Now they need to exercise a lot to kind of balance that out right, but that's still not very much food. So it just depends.
Speaker 1:How do we know? Well, we know from trial and error. We can get some testing done, but that's not the point. I can do and have an entire podcast on that. What we need to know is it's individual how much we can eat.
Speaker 1:Are there bad foods? What not to eat? Not really. I mean. There are foods that don't make as much sense at the time, but it doesn't mean they're bad. For example, if you are a diabetic and you go into a stage of hypoglycemia or a state of hypoglycemia, you better eat sugar that's going to be absorbed very quickly or you will die. If you or could die Sounds dramatic, but it absolutely is the truth.
Speaker 1:You can be running a marathon and taking zero sugar products the entire time. You will bonk. You will not finish. You need glucose and glucose polymers, which is a form of glucose to get you through. You're going to need it and you know. Most marathon runners will tell you I don't care if it's a goo of perfectly formulated, scientifically formulated glucose polymers or if it is jelly beans, because I know plenty of people, by the way, that have done marathons and eat jelly beans along the way. It doesn't matter, your body is going to absorb it. It's going to break it down, absorb it as sugar, so that's not bad.
Speaker 1:Right, then, that's not a bad food. You could be sitting at home, kicking back, watching your favorite television show and open up a bag of candy and munch munch, munch, munch. Is it a bad food? No, but it's really unnecessary and it's probably way more calories than you need at that particular time. It's not like you're in action or in motion and sugar isn't going to store as well as glycogen with with as glycogen, like your complex carbohydrates are. It's not that it's bad, it's that it's unnecessary. All right, we can play this game with any food.
Speaker 1:Now let's say that you, um. Now let's say that you have struggled with some obesity. Maybe you have a tendency towards some disordered eating. So you have a tendency towards binge eating syndrome. You know, and that's pretty common it's the more common eating disorder among males than the other two forms of anorexia and bulimia. But it's disordered eating pattern and again, and sometimes it just doesn't even go diagnosed because they're like, oh, that guy just eats a ton. It's like, yeah, but he's obese. That's not good that he eats a ton all the time. But for some reason as a society we give that a pass. And again, I can go off on that subject, but that's not the point of today's podcast. So let's say that you've struggled with that, you've had an obesity issue and you lost weight and you lost it. Of course, the only way really modifying your diet, exercising more, eating less for what you need. You lose weight, you get down to a certain weight. Okay.
Speaker 1:So maybe for you you're going to want to watch some of the sugars, the added sugars and foods. Are they bad? No, but for you they might trigger a binge eating episode, because they can. It's kind of like alcohol to an alcoholic If they stay away from it, they're going to be fine. If they get a sip of it, they're going to be in trouble. So the same could be said and it's true. It's a fact. For people who have struggled with some obesity, there tends to be sort of an addiction to the sugar, to the actual glucose and to the actual endorphin buzz that they might get from eating the serotonin kick and all that kind of thing. And so you know, if they're eating more high fibrous foods they don't get that, but as soon as they take a sip of Coca-Cola or something, they're going to have a tendency to want more and more. Ok, is it bad for them? Yes, but it's not good. A like forbidden food per se. It's like I don't know that this is going to be good for me only because I can't modify it. Okay, there you go. So for them, they may need to watch certain types of foods.
Speaker 1:If you have heart disease, study after study after study has shown that if you have high cholesterol, if you start to have some blockage in your arteries, one of the worst things you can consume is saturated fats and trans fats. That's not good. Does that mean all fatty foods are bad? No, what if you don't? What if you have inherited a perfect liver and you don't have the tendency to increase your cholesterol levels up to even remotely bad levels? Because a lot of that, a lot of cholesterol is genetic. So what if you don't? You're not overweight and you simply like fatty foods? Okay, why is that bad? It's not. We have to understand that not everything is black and white. But for that cardiac patient who went in, had their cholesterol checked and their total cholesterol is low, their LDL cholesterol is way too high, their HDL cholesterol is too low and their ratio is low.
Speaker 1:Okay, the doctor, if they're being responsible and I don't know any that are not are going to say you know what you need to get on a low-fat diet, because it's the saturated fat that we know that increases the cholesterol in the bloodstream. Sugar does to an extent too. But if you ever notice, most calorically dense foods are high in processed sugars and fat. So for them, they're going to want to modify their diet Go more plant-based, go more vegetarian, eat more fiber. Is it bad? No, it's what works for you, okay.
Speaker 1:Finally, what are the great foods, the super foods you should eat? Oh man, let's just make that supplement industry that's also a billion dollar industry even richer. Come on, people I know you're not that dumb, really. I mean, come on that old snake oil salesman stopping at your door telling you if you just consume these super foods, your life's going to get rosy. Come on, you know that's not true, right? I mean, I have to say it to you straight right now, because I really can't believe how many people still fall for that crap.
Speaker 1:There is no such thing as a superfood. You could put protein into that category. You know, you have all these people, man. I don't know why I follow these accounts because all they do is bitch about them later on. But it's like I see these people and they give you the eight rules for life. You know type of folks on these fitness, you know websites or whatever, and one guy well, not one. They all do it, but they list eight things and almost every time one of the eight is and eat high levels of protein. It's like OK, protein is not a superfood.
Speaker 1:Protein is one of four macronutrients, the other three being carbohydrates, fat and water. Macro means you need it in larger quantities. That doesn't mean a ton. It means more than micro, which you need for vitamins and minerals. Just a little bit. So you need enough. You need enough Like.
Speaker 1:If I'm going to give you a blanket number, for most people it's going to be somewhere around 90 and 160 grams a day. If you weigh more, you might need a little more. If you weigh less, you might need a little bit less, but that's not high, high, high protein. So why does it work well for people? Well, because protein. Typically, if you eat lean proteins, it's pretty low in calories. So like if you eat Greek yogurt, it's pretty filling and it's only 90 calories. So you know that's why Does that make it special, great and super. No, we just need enough. We just need enough of everything, and the bigger and more active you are, the enough is more right. If you're smaller and inactive, the enough is less. We just need enough. There are no foods we have to consume. There are no foods we should never consume.
Speaker 1:It's really about learning how to moderate and getting back to that sugar example, because I think it's very important. Too many people become binge. Then, yes, you probably should learn to eliminate to the best of your abilities. But if you're a person who has great blood sugar levels, you are active, you are by no means overweight and you want to have a little bit of candy after every time you exercise, or maybe just as a little bit of dessert every day, who cares every day? Who cares? It's working for you, that's fine. If you can do it, do it. If you can't do it, don't do it. It's not about the foods people, it's about you, your behavior, your ability to moderate or not moderate. Nobody can sit there and make you do what you need to do. You have to get out of that right and left thinking and get in the middle and figure out what works for you. But please quit demonizing foods. It gets really, really old to us professionals, because we're constantly fighting this battle. I'll leave you with one more story on that. Fighting this battle. I'll leave you with one more story on that.
Speaker 1:Years ago, when I was teaching sports medicine, I had my students do all this research, go and find all this data. I already knew the answer because I'd done it before, but I wanted them to see it and I had them pull up all the specifications for the diets, like the Atkins diet, which is eat as much fat as you can eat, you know, and don't eat carbohydrates basically, which now they much fat as you can eat, you know, and don't eat carbohydrates basically, which now they just call keto. They just, you know, renamed it. That was the main one we looked at and I had them go to the website Dr Atkins website and I think I looked at a couple, but anyway I'll just keep it this one. And you know they were supposed to pull up exactly what the recommendations were based on the diet. And I said, all right, so pull up their typical day's diet for an average sized person. And they did. They brought it in.
Speaker 1:I said, all right, now let's break it down. Let's go in here, let's open it up. Let's find out how many calories are in each meal, how many calories this person's consuming all day, how many grams of carbs, how many grams of fat, how many grams of protein, yada, yada. Let's figure it all out. And then we pulled it up and I said so what stands out to you is why these people are losing weight on this hack and stide. Is it the fact that they're eating zero to 20 grams of carbs a day?
Speaker 1:And the students who are young look at it and go well, they're also only eating about 900 to a thousand calories a day, like right, that's the only reason, like the textbook way that they wanted you to do it was working. Because you're on a low calorie diet. There's only so much cheese and meat you can eat. You're on a low calorie diet. It's not like you're going to eat three blocks of cheese for lunch, right? So all of these diets work because they get you to eat less. What I want you to do is figure out if you need to lose. How can you get yourself to eat less without any of this magic potion, bs, stuff that's being pushed out there? All right, that's your homework.
Speaker 1:Thank you for listening to today's program. I ask you to please follow the show wherever you get your podcasts, and please select automatic download, because that really helps the show. Now I want to thank Overhead Door of Daytona Beach, the area's premier garage door company. They have the best product. They have the best service. I personally vouch for Jeff and Zach Hawk, the owners. They are great people with a great company. If you have any garage door needs, please give them a shout at 386-222-3165.
