Men’s Health and Their Diet
June 7, 2021
Listen in to two nutritionists talk about men's health and how their diet effects different aspects of their health.
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- Male & Female Hormone Concerns
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Transcript:
TERESA: Welcome to Dishing Up Nutrition brought to you by Nutritional Weight and Wellness. I am Teresa Wagner. I am a Registered and Licensed Dietitian. And I'm in studio today with Britni Vincent, who is also a Registered and Licensed Dietitian. Today, we are going to spend the next hour sharing some different information. We don't typically focus as much on the information today as we do, well today, we're going to be talking about men's health. And we usually more do more general or maybe a little bit more female focused. So today we're going to be talking about men's health and how their diet affects their health. In this hour, we will focus on heart health, prostate health, fertility, and on men's mental health, especially depression. We plan this to be an action packed and, or maybe not action packed. I think more like information packed. It is kind of a show. So we hope you enjoy it.
BRITNI: Good morning. It's interesting to learn that men lead in eight of the top causes of death in the U.S. But oftentimes men are a little more reluctant to seek out medical care, get psychological counseling, or you know, make an appointment with one of us for nutrition counseling.
TERESA: Right. We were just talking about that, that the vast majority of our clients are female.
BRITNI: Yeah.
TERESA: And it's kind of fun when you get something, you know, different.
BRITNI: It is. And so I hope this inspires more men to, to seek help out.
TERESA: Right; right. And you know what, like even just thinking of that, I think, well, maybe we'll get into that later in the show. Some more interesting facts about men is that men abuse alcohol and drugs three times more frequently than women. And they commit 90% of all violent crimes. They also have a much higher rate of suicide than women.
BRITNI: And when we look at other health conditions, we find that heart disease; it's the number one killer of men. So today we definitely want to talk about how food and beverage choices affect heart disease. And I think, you know, that is one of the main reasons why men will come in to see us is they're concerned about their heart health and their cholesterol numbers. And so let's start with alcohol.
TERESA: Everybody's changing the dial.
BRITNI: So there are, there's some research out there that indicates that one small glass of red wine with dinner may be beneficial, but we definitely know an excess of alcohol is actually a heart stressor and can lead to depression, poor sleep. I mean, the list goes on and on. And so one, four or five ounce serving of red wine could be heart-healthy, but drinking more than that is actually very detrimental to your health. Hard liquor and beer also can be very inflammatory for the body. And if you're looking for the benefits of resveratrol in wine, we actually recommend just supplementing with it.
TERESA: Right.
BRITNI: Instead of, of drinking wine.
TERESA: Right, cause you have to drink so much wine to get that benefit.
BRITNI: And a supplement will contain 50 to a hundred units more resveratrol than a glass of wine. So, you know, it's just a much more efficient way to get it. And for those that are not familiar with what resveratrol is, it is, it's called a polyphenol, which is like a group of compounds that acts like an antioxidant.
TERESA: All right.
BRITNI: So it's basically an antioxidant is how you can think about it, and specifically very beneficial for our heart.
TERESA: Right. Okay. Well, if you have some common risk factors for heart disease, you know, some of the risk factors are high blood pressure, prediabetes, type two diabetes or high cholesterol, we suggest cutting out alcohol for six weeks and then having your doctor recheck your blood pressure, your blood glucose numbers and your cholesterol numbers. And I'm sure after even just six weeks that you'll see an improvement. With just that little change, sometimes people see dramatic results. And I say little change sort of well, because it's not such a little change for some people because we know how difficult changing this habit can be, especially because it's been a habit that's been really ingrained over the last year. You know, really, I, you know, so many people talk about how much more alcohol they've been drinking, you know, since COVID. And, so, so it is, it is a difficult habit to change. And sometimes when we're talking about changing behaviors, it's easier instead of to just cut out a behavior, it's easier to exchange behaviors, right? So instead of having, maybe you come home and you have a cocktail after work, or maybe you'd just come downstairs and have a cocktail after work, wherever you work. One of my clients, he, what he said he liked to do was have club soda with some bitters in it. And that felt like a cocktail because it wasn't sweet. It still had sort of edge, you know, that maybe alcohol has a little bit. And then I think it's more, maybe it's more appealing to men because it isn't like those sweet, fruity drinks that are sometimes alternatives for alcohol. Cause a lot of those are more the juice based drinks or, they're just higher in sugar. So this way, this is a low sugar, actually great for digestion too, with those bitters in there.
BRITNI: That’s a great idea.
TERESA: So it's kind of a nice alternative.
BRITNI: Yeah. I have several female clients who tend to drink wine and just putting maybe their sparkling water in a wine glass; it, it does, it does the trick for them.
TERESA: Yeah.
BRITNI: It's a special glass.
TERESA: Yeah.
BRITNI: Something different.
TERESA: Yeah. The power of that glass. Right? So with this one, if you do the club soda and bitters, you just put it in your cocktail glass, you know, your high ball glass.
BRITNI: So we're now going to talk about the number one risk factor for heart disease. In the past, you know, we used to believe high cholesterol was the number one risk factor for heart disease. And we, I mean, we still hear that today.
TERESA: Absolutely.
BRITNI: But research has found that it's actually prediabetes, type two diabetes, insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome are the biggest risk factors for cardiovascular disease.
TERESA: Yeah, that's so interesting because a lot of times you don't make that connection of high blood sugar and cardiovascular disease, but…
BRITNI: Not at all.
TERESA: There is a clear link there, a link there. And truth be told, metabolic syndrome is the biggest risk factor for heart disease for both men and women. So, you know, people might be thinking, “Well, what is metabolic syndrome?” So there are, metabolic syndrome is more of a cluster of things that could be going on with an individual. It's not, you don't necessarily have to have all of them, but usually it's a few of these different things that are going on. So one of those things could be a fasting blood sugar of over 100. Another indicator could be high triglycerides. And usually we say high triglycerides is over 150, but we really, what we like to see as a healthy triglyceride level is less than 75. And for those of you that don't know what triglycerides are, those are the, the sugary fats that are floating around in your blood. So, you know, having a high blood sugar usually leads to higher triglyceride levels. Another indicator or another one of those cluster of things that could be going on with somebody is high blood pressure, known as hypertension. So more than 130 over 80 or 85, that's an indicator of metabolic syndrome. And having a low HDL cholesterol. So HDL cholesterol is the cholesterol number that we want to be higher. And for men, if their number is under 40, that is an indication or one of those things that could be a part of that metabolic syndrome. And the last thing that I'm going to mention is a larger waistline; having a waist circumference of more than 40 inches for men is one of those indicators of metabolic syndrome. So usually maybe, maybe you have hypertension, high blood or high blood pressure. You know, maybe your HDL is low and you have a waistline of 42 inches or something like that. You know, that can be, you know, metabolic syndrome. And, you know, usually blood sugar is a part of that one. So I would say, I would throw in that above 100 fasting.
BRITNI: So I'm sure many of you are wondering, “Can you reverse this?” Yes, you can.
TERESA: Absolutely can.
BRITNI: How do you do it? Well for most people, higher blood sugar numbers over 100 indicate they're eating or drinking too many carbs. So too much bread, too much pasta, too much candy, too much soda, too much fast food. I mean even could be too much sweetened ice tea.
TERESA: Right.
BRITNI: Or lemonade; too much sugary coffee drinks, too many handfuls of chips. I mean the list can go on and on of examples. And we know that the new nutrition message that is easy to follow is cutting out those processed carbohydrates from your diet and adding fat. But of course we want the healthy fat to be added. So butter, olive oil, coconut oil, avocado oil, nuts, nut butters, avocados, and then avoiding those refined damaged fats, like soybean oil, corn oil. All fats and oils in fast food and processed foods would be considered those refined inflammatory oils. You know what? It's time for our first break.
TERESA: Well, let's go.
BRITNI: So you are listening to Dishing Up Nutrition brought to you by Nutritional Weight and Wellness. Today, Teresa and I are discussing men's health and how food and nutrients affect men's cardiovascular health, fertility, and prostate issues. We'll be back.
BREAK
TERESA: Welcome to Dishing Up Nutrition. If you have heart issues or fertility concerns or even prostate issues, the first recommendation doctors will typically make is to lose weight. Yes, losing weight may help, but our Nutrition for Weight Loss plan focuses on learning how to make real food choices that supply the nutrients your body needs for good health. We have a 12 week session starting this Monday, June 7th. So this Monday, if you're interested. Time is off the essence. And there is also a class starting on Wednesday, June 9th. And both of these are in a Zoom format. So perhaps this would be a great summer project for couples. Think of it this way. COVID pandemic of 2020 equals extra pounds from overeating and not working out and summer of 2021 equals lose weight and get healthy. Give us a call at (651) 699-3438 and get yourself and maybe your spouse signed up. So before we went to break, Britni was talking about the importance of eating real food and how there is, you know, it's more common to hear nutrition information focusing on real food. And I just, I have to say, it's just really nice to see that there is this ground swell of people who are looking for eating more real foods. Like we talk about it on the show, you know, real proteins, vegetable carbohydrates, fruits, those types of real fats that Britni had mentioned before, you know, the, the avocados and nuts and seeds and those types of fats that are unprocessed really. And not so much eating those, those manmade food substances. Right? Cause so many of the foods that are in the center aisles of the grocery store, yes, they are edible. Yes. They do have calories and nutrients to them, but are they actual food? You know, they're so far removed from their original source that it's just really nice to see, you know, it's really fun. I, you know, to, to talk with people about some of those things and they're making those choices and feeling really good because of it.
BRITNI: And of course, I think the more people around you that are doing a similar thing just makes it so much easier.
TERESA: Right. Yeah. And that's why like, even just, you know, I, I kind of, you know, said and join with your spouse. But really when we have couples that sign up for the Nutrition for Weight Loss class, their success really, I would say is increased. I mean, it's not dependent on that, but having that support system where you're both doing the same thing and you can, you know, help the other person when, when there's difficult times, you know, when the person, when one person is craving ice cream, because it's going to be 99 degrees outside, like it is today, the other one can say, “No, remember our goal?” And because you take turns in your moments of vulnerability, and if you have that person that's on track with you versus sabotaging you, because sometimes that happens too.
BRITNI: That can happen too. And you know, if it’s not a spouse, a friend, a sibling, I think, any support system or support person you can have, it makes a huge, huge difference.
TERESA: Yes. Yep. And it makes it fun. It's more of a social gathering.
BRITNI: Yeah.
TERESA: But, and even if you are, so maybe you don't have that person that you think that you could sign up with a class for, you do make friends with the people in the class. Even through Zoom people establish relationships. And it is, it is really nice. So you can, you can make some new friends if your friends aren't interested.
BRITNI: It's really fun to witness that.
TERESA: It is. It is a lot of fun. Well, okay. So back to our topic today, and, you know, we were talking about cardiovascular disease in men and if we want to avoid, and actually a lot of this applies for women too. So, but if you want to avoid a cardiovascular event in the future, so, you know, heart attack, stroke, those types of things, it may be time to cut out some of those processed foods that like we were talking about that are in those center aisles like cereal, maybe cutting out the pastries, cutting out the stack of pancakes and switch to eating eggs and bacon with a side of green beans and carrots for breakfast. And, you know, earlier, when in the intro, when we were talking or just getting going, I said, I kind of paused and said, well, maybe that's information for later in the show. But really when we're working with men, I think a lot of times they're surprised about the suggestions that we have; pleasantly surprised about the suggestions. I think that they're coming to see dietitians and it's like, “Oh, it's going to be all this rabbit food I'm going to have to eat.” And when we're like, no for breakfast have eggs and bacon and for dinner have steak with asparagus and butter and you know, maybe a little bit of baked potato. It's like, yes, this is, this is man food.
BRITNI: It’s doable; absolutely. And if you want to burn fat and reduce inflammation, you know, that's another reason it's necessary to reduce the amount of carbs that you're eating. And you also need to be eating fat to burn fat; totally counterintuitive.
TERESA: Right.
BRITNI: Just remember that eat fat to burn fat. And of course those, those healthy fats that, that we've been talking about. And the key to the successful fat burning is to reduce the hormone, insulin. So your insulin level is controlled by the amount of carbs that you eat. So here's, you know, a simple explanation of what happens in your body. When you eat carbohydrates, the pancreas secretes insulin, which makes it possible for the glucose to be carried into our cells. And then we turn that into energy. But when you have too much glucose from eating too many carbs, all of that extra glucose is just going to get stored as fat and create inflammation.
TERESA: And you know, the problem with metabolic syndrome is that it can sneak up on you. You know, it's slow moving. It's not something that happens overnight. And many people have metabolic syndrome for five to 10 years before it even shows up in their high, you know, in their numbers, particularly with high blood sugar. It may show up as higher triglycerides, so those fatty sugars in your blood or high blood pressure or an increased waistline. But for some reason that that sort of, that alarm bell that's in, in our brain isn't ringing, you know, so more often than not people do not change their diet or lifestyle. Or maybe, maybe the bell does ring, but they think that they'll start these new lifestyle habits, you know, maybe it'll be next week or on Monday. Right? All diets start on Monday.
BRITNI: Yeah.
TERESA: But you're waiting for that right day to come because you want it to be convenient and for easy to fit your lifestyle. But there's always going to an event. There's going to be a holiday. There's going to be a vacation or a trip to the cabin, or just a bad day. You know, we eat, sometimes, you know, soothe ourselves with food on bad days. And it keeps pushing that right time out into the future. And then, so that alarm bell is going off, but we're not, we're not acting on it.
BRITNI: Not doing anything.
TERESA: Yeah.
BRITNI: And you know, I challenge you, those of you who are listening today start today. Like, even if it's just one small change of, you know, reducing a sugary beverage or changing your breakfast or whatever it is, but just start today.
TERESA: Right.
BRITNI: Yeah.
TERESA: No time like the present.
BRITNI: Exactly. Yeah. Well it does look like it is time for our next break. So you are listening to Dishing Up Nutrition. All of us at Nutritional Weight and Wellness are really excited about our summer cooking classes. So I want to share the classes we have in store for you: Kitchen Tips for Farmer's Market Vegetables, Cooking Heart-Healthy Meals, Creating Healing Foods for Your Gut. So each class is only $25 and these classes are getting rave reviews.
TERESA: Yeah. You know what? I actually signed up for all three of these classes.
BRITNI: Awesome.
TERESA: So if anybody signs up out there, you might be in class with me. I'm not teaching. I'll just be a classmate with you.
BRITNI: A lot of different information to gain; that is for sure. So be sure to check our website for dates and times. All of these classes are offered to you virtually. And we will be right back.
BREAK
TERESA: Welcome back to Dishing Up Nutrition. I think most of us know that fast food, including those weekly pizza runs are not heart healthy or heart friendly. However, we get busy or do not want to cook or don't know how to cook or for whatever reason we get caught up in the convenience of the fast food world. We then find our cholesterol is up. We’re now prediabetic and we have sleep apnea from carrying around too much extra weight. Perhaps it is time to change your food to change your life. You may find it easier to take the guesswork out of cooking by having us make an eating plan specific for you. So let us work with you to set up an individualized eating plan built around your schedule and your likes and dislikes. Call us at (651) 699-3438. And let us find a date and a time that fits your schedule so that you can start feeling good again.
BRITNI: Like Teresa said earlier, there is no time like the present to get going.
TERESA: That's right.
BRITNI: So, before, before break, we were talking about heart health and, and reducing your, your insulin. And that is necessary to reversing the metabolic syndrome we've been talking about. So when you look at the big picture of everything, it may come down to you needing to change your nutrition to change or reduce your risk factors for cardiovascular disease. So I encourage men to take these nutrition classes that we've been talking about. Set up several nutrition appointments with a dietitian or nutritionist; one a month for a year to change those unhealthy heart habits and get on a real food plan that works for them with positive results. I mean, it's not, it's not a one appointment and everything's fixed.
TERESA: Right.
BRITNI: It takes time. It takes a lot of time. You know, we're, you're essentially creating new habits that maybe you've had since childhood. And the good news is people who lose just 6% of their weight found a drop in their blood pressure, a reduction in their cholesterol, a decrease in their blood sugar numbers; all factors that are better for heart health. So for example, a 200 pound person, if you change your food and beverage sources to lose just 12 pounds or 6% of your weight, you could reduce your personal risk of having a cardiovascular disease. I think it, you know, putting it that way feels less daunting.
TERESA: Right.
BRITNI: Yeah; less overwhelming.
TERESA: Well, let's switch gears here a little bit. And when we consider men's health, I thought we should also focus on low sperm count and infertility issues. Most people do not know that men can cause up to 50% of infertility problems and that sperm health is just as important as the quality of a female's eggs. With all the changes that have come with modern diet and lifestyle, you may wonder, “Has male fertility or infertility increased in the past 50 years?” And the answer is yes. It is estimated that in the last 40 years, the male sperm count has declined by over 50%.
BRITNI: Wow.
TERESA: Yes. That's 50%. So that's pretty incredible numbers. From the 1970s to the 2020’s, the sperm count has actually gone down 52%. So what are some of the lifestyle habits that we can do to boost fertility and sperm count? Britni, do you have some answers?
BRITNI: Yeah. Well, the first one on the list is losing excess weight. You know, carrying extra weight, especially in the mid section is associated with infertility. So if I'm working with clients who are experiencing fertility issues, we recommend again, a real food diet. So ask yourself, is it time to switch my carbohydrate choices from bread, pasta pizza, to vegetables like broccoli, cauliflower, green beans? If you're struggling with your weight, we believe it is important to lower or eliminate those processed foods and the foods that just simply contain too many carbohydrates. So I'd also like to have both men and women become aware of their fasting glucose numbers, their A1C, and you can also request a fasting insulin number. We've been talking about insulin, so that fasting insulin number will actually measure what your pancreas is secreting. And getting all three of those will help to give you a better sense of how insulin resistant you are personally. And then it helps us to better create an individualized plan for you.
TERESA: Right. Those numbers are so important. And when I'm working with couples that are experiencing infertility, part of that, bringing down insulin resistance, if it's there or just cleaning up the diet, is that I encourage them to give up any and all fast food.
And if we think about this, it's, you know, what's different in the last 50 years? How much more fast food we eat now than people did 50 years ago? How much more sugar do we eat now than people did 50 years ago? Processed foods; all those kinds of things. Those are, those are the changes. Really, a lot of those are the changes of things that have gone on in our lifestyle factors in any case. I also encourage men to limit their alcohol consumption like we've talked about before, because heavy alcohol consumption can reduce testosterone and can impair semen quality.
BRITNI: We also encouraged men who are experiencing fertility issues to focus on sleep and get at least seven and a half to eight hours most nights, or just start with getting more sleep than you're getting right now. And when, because we know that when men do not get enough sleep, their semen quality is affected.
TERESA: Yeah, I remember that in Dr. Matthew's book, Why We Sleep. There's an almost 30% decrease in the amount in the sperm count of men who had less sleep than the men that got that eight hours of sleep per night.
BRITNI: That is significant.
TERESA: Studies show that consistent, heavy drinking or binge drinking, which means five or more drinks in for men in a two hour timeframe has a negative effect on their sperm. When we are working with couples experiencing infertility, we look at all health and lifestyle factors that could be affecting fertility. And as one of my clients said, she would say “Less fiesta and more siesta.”
BRITNI: I love that.
TERESA: So to change habits, you know, we know it takes time. But it takes time and you can get success. It doesn't happen overnight. But Britni has a story that, about a client couple that she helped with fertility.
BRITNI: Yeah. I worked with both the husband and the wife and they were trying to get pregnant. And I think they were trying for about a year and, and were unsuccessful. So they decided to come to Nutritional Weight and Wellness before going to a fertility clinic.
And so, you know, at that time we didn't know, was it something going on with the wife or the husband? So we, we focused on both of them. So of course, reducing eliminating this processed food that we're talking about, the refined oils, getting those out of your diet is huge for fertility because fat makes hormones. So how, how are you going to be able to make hormones with these inflammatory fats? And then, you know, the woman specifically, we did some hormone balancing supplements as well. But really by changing their food, getting good healthy fats on board, lots of vegetables as well, I got an email a few months later, which is one of the best emails ever to get. “By the way, I just wanted to share the great news: we're pregnant!”
TERESA: Yeah. Yeah. So, yeah, it's, life-changing.
BRITNI: It is, truly. So to all of the men listening to this show or podcast, giving your sperm a healthy make-over makes sense for every couple trying to have a baby. Here are some steps that you can do to start today to have super swimming sperm: eliminate or eat fewer refined oils. Just as Britni said, we need healthy fats in order to have healthy hormones. So getting more omega-3 fatty acids from wild caught salmon, or even just supplementing with an omega-3 fatty acid. I generally recommend about 4,000 milligrams of omega-3 fish oil per day for men.
BRITNI: Start shopping at the farmer's market. Fill up on fruits and vegetables, especially veggies, to help protect the quality of the sperm and the quantity too.
TERESA: Also adding vitamin D3 to the daily routine can help because vitamin D three helps sperms swim faster and better.
BRITNI: Including a zinc supplement can be helpful for healthy sperm count and a superior shape to the sperm.
TERESA: Skip the drinks and the cigarettes, you know, less fiesta. Smoking slashes sperm count up to 17% and more than one drink per day messes with sperm quality.
BRITNI: Be mindful of your weight because we know that adding extra pounds subtracts your sperm count and increases the number of abnormal sperm.
TERESA: So now we're going to switch gears again and talk a little bit more about prostate health. We know prostate problems can occur any time in a man's adult life. The most common prostate problem is called benign prostatic hyperplasia or BPH, which is a non-malignant enlargement of the prostate gland. About 50% of men will experience this enlargement by the age of 50. 80 to 90% of men who are 70 years of age or older will develop this problem. So that's the good majority of all men. And sadly about 20% of men who have that enlarged prostate will also develop cancer of the prostate.
BRITNI: And some of the symptoms that men experience from an enlarged prostate are needing to go to the bathroom frequently, even waking up at night to urinate several times. Other symptoms might be a weak stream of urine or a sense of urgency to urinate or dribbling, or it can lead to urinary incontinence.
TERESA: One of the most important nutrients to prevent or treat an enlarged prostate is a very common mineral. And that mineral is zinc. A zinc deficiency is common because zinc is deficient in our soil. But more importantly, zinc is depleted by smoking, by alcohol, too much coffee, infections and several medications. The prostate gland contains more zinc than any other gland in the body. So the prostate needs ample levels of zinc.
BRITNI: So good food sources of zinc would be seafood, eggs, organ meats, as in liver. And, you know, liver seems to be popping up on a lot of our Dishing Up Nutrition shows because it has so many benefits.
TERESA: It's nature's multivitamin.
BRITNI: There you go. So Teresa is going to share her special way of including liver. So her kids don't even know that they're eating it.
TERESA: Right, and it's really quite simple. And I'm pretty sure it wasn't my idea, but I can't remember who to give credit to. But what I do is I buy liver raw obviously, and then I will puree it, so it's, well, pureed. And then I freeze it into small glass jar, so about a quarter cup to a half a cup amounts. And then anytime I'm making something with ground meat, so ground beef, pork, turkey, chicken, I will add it to that ground meat. And it just is in there seamlessly. Now there's not a ton of liver in each of those, but I like big picture over time, that equates to much more than if we were going to sit down to liver and onions, which actually would never happen.
BRITNI: Oh, that is such a great idea. Yeah. It is time for our last break. You are listening to Dishing Up Nutrition. If you're concerned about your prostate health, let me recommend a supplement designed to support the health of the prostate called Prostate Pro. This supplement contains, saw palmetto, which reduces inflammation that can tend to increase the size of the prostate. Additionally, it contains key amino acids, and vitamins B6, and zinc. You can order these or any of our supplements that we mentioned today online at weightandwellness.com or stop into one of our six locations.
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TERESA: Welcome back to Dishing Up Nutrition. Many of my clients are experiencing seasonal allergies and it's been bad this year I feel like; man. You know, and so these clients, they really want, they need relief, but they don't like taking over the counter antihistamines because they, they make them tired. And you know, sometimes they make them feel like they're down in the dumps too; like they really feel that correlation of low mood with those antihistamines. So one thing I recommend for those clients is a natural solution called D-Hist, which is a supplement from Ortho Molecular. We have recommended D-Hist and have had successful results for over 20 years because D-Hist works and it doesn't have any of those negative side effects that you can get with us over the counter antihistamines. If this is something that's interesting to you, you can order that D-Hist online at weightandwellness.com or stop into one of our six locations.
BRITNI: So before break, Teresa shared her tip of how to incorporate more in liver into, into the diet without your kids knowing, or even your spouse knowing.
TERESA: Right. And maybe what I should say is too, because I just put it in ground meats like that, like specifically recipes, I have strong flavors. You know, so tacos, you can't tell it's there. Egg Roll in a Bowl; that's on our website. You can't tell it's in that. If you think of Sloppy Joes, chili, you know, all these things that have strong flavors. So, I mean, if it was sort of a plain meat, maybe you would taste it a little bit more, but I don't typically just serve ground meats plain. But if you have some spices and things in there, I mean, honestly you just don't know it's there. And I try to push the limits a little bit with it. What I usually say is about a quarter cup of that pureed liver to one pound. That's about as far as I've gotten it to go.
BRITNI: Okay.
TERESA: Cause then it will also start to change the texture too. So then maybe they don't taste it, but they’re like something's up here.
BRITNI: They're suspicious. Well, and we were talking about liver in regards to prostate health.
TERESA: Yes.
BRITNI: So other important nutrients for prostate health include vitamin C, vitamin E and the mineral selenium.
TERESA: And besides those nutrients, a good source of B vitamins will help the body deal with daily stress. And I also just want to stress the importance of vitamin A, because it is an essential nutrient for maintaining a healthy reproductive system in both men and women. And I think there's been studies done where they've removed the vitamin A from an animal's diet and the, and the, and the offspring of those animals were born with different types of deformities and things. So it is really important to have that vitamin A on board. So again, good food sources of both B vitamins and vitamin A is liver. Oh man. So I, hopefully liver is flying off the shelves grocery stores. I don't have much confidence in that, but, but maybe, you know, you can, I mean, some people really do love liver and maybe making a pâté or something would be a way to get that into your diet. But some people, you know, they're just not liver lovers and they would prefer to supplement instead of taking or instead of eating liver. So we suggest a well-rounded multivitamin. I really like the multivitamin from Ortho Molecular called MitoCore. I suggest taking two of those Mitocore with breakfast and two with lunch. And the reason why we keep it in the first half of the day is because MitoCore also has this extra benefit of being an energy booster. And so, you know, as we talk a little bit about mental health here too, you know, a lot of times with depression, low energy levels are, are a problem. And so this, this specific multivitamin has some energy boosters in there too that can be really beneficial for that. And then in addition to those, adding a couple of teaspoons of cod liver oil is a great idea as well.
TERESA: And that'll give you some of that vitamin A. It gives you some vitamin D; not enough, but some vitamin D and then some of those omega three fatty acids in that cod liver oil.
BRITNI: Yeah. And not enough of those omega-threes either. I would say for most everybody need, need some extra omega-threes onboard. So the, the vitamin D and omega threes: so important for many, many different reasons. And of course we get vitamin D from sunlight, but oftentimes even in the summer, we're just not outside enough to get adequate levels of vitamin D. And if you're wearing sunscreen too, that blocks the ability for you to be able to make enough vitamin D. So I, you know, I have a lot of clients and myself included who just continue the same dosage all year round.
TERESA: Right. Because that sunscreen, it blocks, what is it; the UVB rays? Is that what we need to convert that vitamin D in this, in the cholesterol in our skin? Is that how that works? What's that process?
BRITNI: That’s taking me back to biochemistry years ago. And you know, of course, omega threes; we talk about those a lot on the show because there's so many different benefits and we get those from fatty fish, wild caught salmon, sardines, mackerel, but, you know, people just realistically do not eat enough of them. So supplementing with at least 400 milligrams of omega-3 is, is usually necessary for most people as well.
TERESA: And both of these nutrients, you know, when we're talking about depression being common and, and, you know, and more and more common in men, both of these nutrients are very important for, for mood and for, for brain health. So the omega three fatty acids really work in our brain as far as, decreasing inflammation. Depression is inflammation of the brain; so bringing down that inflammation in the brain. It also brings inflammation down in the blood vessels. So going back to cardiovascular health, those omega threes are important for that. Vitamin D, low vitamin D levels have been shown to be correlated with low moods; and so having adequate vitamin D. And like you said, you know, we just don't really get enough from the sun because we wear sunscreen. We usually work indoors during the hours where the, where we're suppose where vitamin D is most converted in our skin, like we were talking about before. So we need, you know, some of those are, are necessary for people unless you're eating fish, you know, almost every day, right? I mean, really, that's what they say, otherwise, it's…
BRITNI: Otherwise you need to supplement.
TERESA: And so if you're a struggling with mood issues, you know, really looking at the fat sources in your diet. Do you have enough vitamin D? Like, get your levels checked.
You know, you really want to be above 50.
BRITNI: Yup.
TERESA: And adequate sleep. Right? I mean, we've all experienced are the crappiness after a poor night's rest.
BRITNI: Yeah.
TERESA: And so having eight hours of sleep per night is really important for that as well.
BRITNI: Yeah. I, I can't stress the fat enough because we know most of our brain is actually made of fat. So if you're not eating enough fat, or if you're eating all those refined oils, how could your brain possibly work efficiently?
TERESA: Right. Yeah.
BRITNI: So again, those avocados, olives, raw or dry roasted nuts, olive oil, butter, preferably grass fed, heavy cream, if you can tolerate it. And those are all delicious things.
TERESA: Yeah, yeah, yeah. Yeah. Usually fats are welcome. Yes. When we're saying eat fat. Yes they are. Yes, please. Yeah. And I think that, you know, when we think about fats too, and our brain health and mood, you know, we, sometimes the term “you are what you eat” is thrown around quite a bit. And you literally are what you eat.
So, you know, how can you make this fatty mass that sits on top of your neck, you know, your brain, if your building blocks aren't coming from your diet? Where else are they going to come from? It doesn't spontaneously generate.
BRITNI: Yeah.
TERESA: And so we need to have those healthy building blocks to build a healthy brain, to build a healthy prostate gland, to build healthy hormones, all of those things. So our food choices, our drink choices; they so much affect the health of our body. Prevention is the key to good health. We encourage you to switch from eating fast food to cooking and eating real food at home. You just might enjoy the art of cooking with our culinary nutrition educator, Marianne. We mentioned that she has some classes that she's offering. So those cooking classes are being offered this summer via Zoom. So, and I think she, she has the Zoom set up right in her very own kitchen. So that's fun. So we can sign up for these classes. You can sign up with me to take these classes for great tips, fun conversation. Marianne has such fun tips. Just go to weightandwellness.com to sign up.
BRITNI: And our goal as always at Nutritional Weight and Wellness is sharing the powerful message of eating real food because eating real food truly is life changing. Thank you, and have a great rest of your day.
