The Fundamentals of Nutrition & Bringing the Joy Back Into Food With Em The Nutritionist

With rates of obesity, disease and mental health disorders on the rise. We are going wrong somewhere with our nutrition.

In this episode of Vision of Health, Emily English, qualified BSc Nutritionist shares her knowledge of science, nutrition and love of hearty food, to teach us how to finally learn to eat in a way that makes us feel good, function well, and brings the joy back into eating.

Also known as ‘Em The Nutritionist’, Em has accrued millions of followers on social media by creating delicious and balanced recipes of food you actually want to eat. She is also the author of debut book ‘So Good’.

Emily shares her expert, but relatable advice on how to break free of diet culture, build a nutritious meal, and sets the facts straight on supplements, ultraproceesed foods and everything in between. Implementing her ethos and principles means you’ll never have to count calories again.

This episode covers:

– Her personal history of eating disorders and complex relationships with food
– How to change our relationship with food so we never have to count a calorie again
– Her take on where we are going wrong with our nutrition
– How to build a nutritious meal
– What to eat when you’re on the go
– Why we should be talking about fibre
– How to actually eat to support gut health
– Ultra processed foods
– Glucose monitoring
– Takeaway tips to easily improve your diet (and clue it doesn’t involve cutting anything out!)

LISTEN to the full episode here on Spotify https://open.spotify.com/episode/6dnGw8l5vCyZc3PEfHxDuq?si=QtmIei0PTMy2__kYPDFRDA and Apple Podcasts https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/vision-of-health/id1718142764?i=1000641636001

Follow Dr Frankie on Instagram @drfrankiejs

If you want to hear more from Emily English head to her social media page @emthenutritionist website https://www.emilyenglish.com and pre-order her new book So Good now https://www.amazon.co.uk/So-Good-Food-designed-nutritionist/dp/1399620053

This podcast is sponsored by Femfresh™, leaders in feminine hygiene products, who are also committed to opening up conversations on taboo subjects and busting myths on women’s health. You can explore our educational articles on their website https://www.femfresh.co.uk/expert-advice/ or on socials @femfresh_uk

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Dr Frankie

I actually say my whole life changed over a cheese role Emily is a BSC nutritionist with a degree from the prestigious Kings College London someone who was really really good at science didn’t have a clue about nutrition and that is what blows my mind and it wasn’t until her own relationship with food suffered Emily decided to pursue her academic career really learn about nutrition and I suddenly thought that food was the enemy she has taken social media by storm people don’t think about how they’re going to feel after their meal and enough where are people going wrong with their diet we don’t just eat nutrients we eat food bread is bad tell me why you don’t think the calories matter as much it’s not a simple a plus Bal C equation anymore you have foods that feed your body and also foods that feed your mind Ultra processed foods what are your thoughts of ultra process foods that is my mission to bring joy back to nutrition it’s just it’s just a piece of cake it does not make you bad person it’s not going to affect your health in a negative way just felt my tummy Rumble hi I’m Dr Frankie Jackson Spence and welcome to vision of Health the podcast where I talk to qualified experts about what being healthy really looks like to our conversations will bridge the gap between the scientific evidence base and you the everyday person who just wants to live a healthier lifestyle I am very much on a mission to provide evidence-based educational content and practical tips that you can actually Implement in your everyday lives our wonderful sponsors Fen fresh who have supported me for a number of years now share the same vision to open up conversations on tooo subjects to bust the health Miss and improve Women’s Health F fresh are not only industry leaders in women’s intimate hygiene products but also committed on educating on all things Women’s Health and this podcast just wouldn’t be possible without their support can also catch on socials @ femfresh and on their website FF fresh. co.uk I’m Dr Frankie and this is my vision of Health I am so excited for you to listen to our next guest Emily English she is a qualified BSC nutritionist with a degree from the very prestigious King College London she has a real love of food and her ethos is to marry the science of nutrition with The Joy of Eating and that really comes across spending her childhood summers in her Granny’s Restaurant kitchen and her school terms in the chemistry lab she grew really curious about what was on her plate and what was happening in her body and it wasn’t until her own relationship with food suffered during a period working in the modeling industry that Emily decided to pursue her academic career really learn about nutrition and take a different path using her seriously impressive knowledge of nutrition and her very evident love of food she has taken social media by storm I’m sure you’ve heard of her she’s someone that I absolutely love following and she creates some seriously delicious recipes that are not only nutritionally balanced but food you actually want to eat welcome to the podcast thank you so much for having me thank you so much for coming on I mentioned in the intro you have quite literally taken the World by storm you are absolutely smashing it and it’s because you’re so relatable to people and like I said creating recipes of food people actually want to eat can you tell me a bit about your journey of how you got to where you are so I actually say my whole life changed over a cheese role and giving a little bit of context to that I come from a family who love food food was our life my granny was a chef I used to work in her kitchen on Sundays from the age of 15 prepping all of the starters peeling all the potatoes and I used to just see her in action and be in awe awe for the flavor of the food but also the way that she made people feel through that Medium of food at school I was obsessed with science proper science B I loved chemistry loved biology anything that I could understand about the way things worked I was in for and coming from a family who Lov food I was never actually exposed to any form of diet culture so my mom never did any sort of like Weight Watchers or um uh what’s the one that you count the points oh Swimming World yeah so she she no one did that so I was lucky that I was very protected in that way and I had a lot of food freedom but also we ate really well like we ate loads of vegetables my mom cooked everything um from from scratch from fresh and then at the age of 17 I was at V festival and I got scouted from um Asos to be one of their in-house models I’m surprised oh did at at the time it was like the best thing that could ever happen to a 17-year-old girl and I was so excited and I loved my time at Asos they were wonderful they took care of me they showed me the ropes and like I really enjoyed it but I started to be exposed to eating habits and restrictions and rules and regulations that people were putting into place so I’d be sitting in the lunch canteen having a cheese and H Panini and someone next to me will be having an undressed salad with a bit of salmon in with nothing else and they would judge me and they would start to make comments being like Oh my God I can’t believe that you eat that and you stay so skinny but mind I’m a 17-year-old active girl and I’ve always been petite but it it just started to become like a little bit more like common that people will comment on what I was eating and from the age of 17 to 18 you know like you grow up a lot I started to become a woman I started to get bigger I started to fill out and at around that time I actually got a modeling agency so this is a professional modeling agency who were um kind of out in the real world not that Asos bubble anymore and I remember having the best summer of my life I went traveling for the first time I went to America I had this whole list of all these restaurants and Foods I wanted to try and eat and I ate it and had a great time without any guilt or body analysis and I came back and I did my poids with that agency and they sat me down after taking these pictures with me and basically turned around and said your thighs are too big like we need to do something about this and I don’t know what it was in my mind but it was like a switch went off and I suddenly thought that food was the enemy and it became this whole host of I can’t do this I can’t eat that I shouldn’t do this someone who was really really good at science didn’t have a clue about nutrition and that is what blows my mind I didn’t learn a single thing in food Tech at school to teach me how to make meals other than a cupcake I didn’t learn a single thing in biology about the food on our plates and how that translates to nutrition and our bodies and I ended up developing this horrific eating disorder that had a hold over me and I remember it comes back to the cheese rle now because I remember my mom making me making everyone a cheese roll and it was a lovely little seeded home meal bath sharp cheddar cheese fresh tomatoes like a little bit of olive oil loads of salad crack of black pepper and salt she put it down in front of me and she was like please Emily can you just eat the roll and I had that breakdown moment where I remember collapsing onto my kitchen floor being like Mom I don’t know why but I can’t eat this role and it’s destroying me the anxiety the pressure the the body dis morphia the the confusion around food boiled down to that one moment and that’s where my life changed and I left the modeling industry I um changed my because I was working I didn’t go to UNI straight away so I took a year out just to to do the modeling and that’s why I was like no I need to go to university now and I know what I want to study and I want to study nutrition because I had this whole hole of knowledge that I wanted to get to the bottom of and truly understand okay what’s the deal with this nutrition stuff wow amazing thanks for sharing that it’s super personal I think one thing that’s really evident from what you said there is um you know you mentioned your family and the love of food and your granny being a chef and then that’s one identity isn’t it someone who loves food someone who’s into cooking and then your identity almost changed into being a model and then you’re not supposed to eat these things and I think that’s something that’s really important when we think about Chang ing our habits you know people really um when you want to change a habit and Implement a habit you need to change your identity and I think when it comes to nutrition and diet it’s difficult because you know we have the clean eating identity and then we had veganism and now people are getting really obsessed with glucose monitoring or um you know people take their identities of food really seriously what would you say to someone who is struggling and wants to change their identity with food it’s okay to not do the same as what the person next to you is doing food is so individual and as we are all so unique we should be able to explore different patterns and food trends that suit us and make us feel good same with Fitness and movement we do not all have to move the same just because someone runs and absolutely loves it and you hate it doesn’t mean that you you should partake in running and the health the biggest issue that I think I have with the health movement and the nutrition industry is that it creates these rules and boxes it’s either it’s good for you or you’re going to be naughty you’re going to cheat or or have a little bit of that like oh you shouldn’t do that but once in a while it’s absolutely fine and it’s too much black and white thinking and people lose their identity because they’re searching for answers with people who turn around and say this is how you should eat not well how does it make you feel what do you love love eat like love to eat what do you enjoy eating and if you just focus on that you end up start like you end up organically growing your own identity in your relationship with food yeah I love that I think it’s also how the food makes you feel if you’re following a particular diet and you feel rubbish it’s not sustainable it’s not going to work out for you long term and it might work for someone else but not necessarily for that person I would love to get your opinion on this it’s something I’m really interested in in terms of like preventative medicine obviously obesity rates are on the rise we are seeing an increas in incidence of so many diseases from heart disease diabetes even cancers which is what I work in and I think diet is really a component of that where are people going wrong with their diet to start I think it’s lack of Education in the kitchen and I truly believe that we have this whole in our education system of teaching people how to cook and not just like like make a cupcake or how to make your own pizza dough cook properly get into the kitchen understand food understand how to prep store understand how to cook proteins freeze things properly make a stir fry like even these these little gaps in our knowledge I remember going to UNI and being so surprised that no one actually knew how to put together a delicious tasty meal and it’s not like we don’t just eat nutrients we eat food so how can we help people understand the food on their plates better and when you love and you enjoy your food and you enjoy cooking real kind of nonprocessed Whole Foods the physiological response that this has in your body makes it very difficult to ovat to the point where we can start to develop metabolic disorders and push into that side of obesity obesity is a very complex health issue because there’s so many kind of mental connections associated with it it’s not simply just oh well they eat too much it it’s it’s not it’s not just about that but if I think about tackling that obesity crisis I honestly just think education about cooking yummy delicious food that they want to eat is one of the most important things that we should be paying attention to yeah I think you know when you said about the cheese roll before that cheese roll that your mom made from scratch with fresh vegetables in good quality cheese probably good quality bread is a completely different lunch to a shop bought cheese roll that has a sell by date of a week later mhm exactly and that I think people get really confused on they just label like everything is bad in that category bread is bad it becomes this like umbrella of like oh you can’t eat that and then everyone gets obsessed over the like the additives and the emulsifiers and and and the food things that we’ve been using and processing for ages because one slightly crazy person puts a video out on t Tik Tok referencing one study that has only just come out that hasn’t proved anything yet and then suddenly we have this whole fear mongering and people are petrified of food and what they should be eating yeah and I think you know we’ve had years of one minute being told that carbs are bad and then fats are bad and then we should be intermittent fasting and then now we should be avoiding Ultra processed food or red meat or we should be going vegan and I think people really respect a professional and qualified opinion and kind of that external valid um that this is what they should be eating um what would be your guidance for someone who is you know consuming all of this information that’s quite confusing so try and make your diet predominantly foods that are whole that you recognized are nonprocessed a little like a creeping of an ultra processed food from time to time is not going to damage your health in a whole diet context and it’s a bit boring like no one wants to hear that no one wants to to hear oh moderation and balance but cuz that doesn’t sell that stuff isn’t sexy but that is the fundamentals of Health there are obviously a few things that we know we should be more careful around our consumption for um excessive sugar intake so that those High refined sugars in excessive amounts can be very damaging to our health um nitrates in our food and red meat so particularly cured meats things like salamis palah hands or be it delicious we need to to make sure that we’re consuming them with fiber and antioxidants so if you’re going to be having your salami in a in a lovely um fatcha with rocket and olive oil and again like fresh tomatoes those compounds in those foods can actually help negate the damaging effects which have them increase risk of chal cancer it’s it’s why we can’t just say oh my goodness cured meats increase coloral cancer risk I can never eat those again die context is everything yeah I completely agree with that and you know it’s like when we focus on those Foods being bad you’re right it’s completely neglecting what else you’re eating if you’re only eating those Foods then yes they’re bad but if it’s in the context of like you said a nutritionally balanced diet then I completely agree I’m definitely one to not demonize anything I said to you I think when we did an event together a few weeks ago you know we have some foods that are foods for nutritional value and then you have some soul Foods always like you have foods that feed your body and also foods that feed your mind love that love that just touching on what you said that people don’t have a good um Baseline education about nutrition I completely agree with that I was definitely one of those people that went into University and just did not know what to cook and I ended up freezing loads of meals that my mom would send me off to un how should people build a meal do you have any Staples in your fridge or your pantry that like your go-to building blocks of a nutrition meal so I actually love to say build off color and the reason why is because color is indicative of all of these wonderful Health compounds in our food that we want to be getting more of and I don’t know if anyone has ever heard of um something called polyphenols before but I’m obsessed with them they are incredible little compounds which most of them we can’t actually absorb and they go directly to our microbiome where they’re then metabolized and they get metabolized into all of these kind of secondary and tertiary um metabolites which are then absorbed into the body and have amazing anti-inflammatory antioxidant effects they support and and encourage a healthy diverse microbiome and we see a lot of those kind of health benefits of our our diet and having high polyphenol contents in our diet um throughout those populations who who live the longest who who live the healthiest lives so I love polyphenols so color red dark greens so if you’re next in the vegetable aisle look for those kind of dark Rich greens cavalon Nero leafy kale all of those things purple swap your broccoli to purple sprting broccoli beetroots all of those things oranges so sweet potatoes carrots and then Reds so red peppers um Tomatoes um lots of herbs and spices going off color is a really great way to build your meals to almost think of it like a Nature’s multivitamin I would say and then another really really important component of your food is your protein and your fiber protein and fiber is what is going to make you feel full satisfied balanced for longer and I think people’s people don’t think about how they’re going to feel after their meal enough and it’s one of the biggest things I used to do with my clients okay when we’re building a meal how am I going to feel an hour after this how am I going to feel two hours after this so if you focus on making sure that you’re getting good color diversity good amount of protein and fiber in there you can pretty much have a play around with whatever that is and that can apply to a stir fry that can apply to a lasagna it can apply apply to a bowl of Oats it’s a really great easy simple tool to make sure that you’re getting it everything that you need yeah I love that um and I think one thing you touched on there is about how you feel after a meal completely get that because I definitely noticed that what I eat for breakfast affects how hungry I am for the rest of the day is there any to that like if I eat something that’s more maybe fiber rich or more filling up breakfast more protein Rich versus like a pastry is there science behind why that makes me feel different throughout the rest of the day so our bodies have like a different ways that we recognize that we’re full that we need to finish eating um we have something called incretin hormones so when we eat um our storic will expand uh those expansion senses will signal to the brain okay like we can we can stop eating now I’m full um and then all of those hormones that get produced as well also signal back to the brain saying I’m full and stop eating different meal compositions will initiate different physiological responses so if we are just going to be having a quick pan of Chaka you may find that you’re going to be starving due to that difference in the the physiological response compared to a lovely big bowl of Oats that maybe you put a scoop of protein powder into the protein content and topped it with fiber berries for example I always think everyone is so unique in this so some people do really well with a big bowl of porridge and know it’s a breakfast whereas some people really need um like eggs on on sourdough with avocado food for example work out what works for you and there’s no one size fits all here and I think that’s probably why people are into this like blood sugar monitoring Trend a little bit more because people are being like oh now I understand why I feel this this way whereas it’s not just directly correlated to the blood sugar response um but it does highlight the fact that we all have very unique like intervariability for the way that we respond and react to our food I’m so glad you mentioned the blood sugar responses and the glucose Bing it’s something that really fascinates me similar to like what you said before about how food um has an effect on your body I think it’s really interesting science and there is something in it but I don’t think it’s necessarily transferable to everyone so for example if you have a piece of fried chicken or you have an Apple the Apple is probably going to spike your blood glucose more than the fried chicken but it’s obviously healthier um what do you think about that like do you think this is something we should all be doing and we should all be learning about or do you think it’s just for select people we do not need to be walking around with blood glucose monitors on our arm to adopt healthier more balanced lives blood sugar Peaks um insulin release is a normal natural human physiological response to our diet that is our way of being able to absorb and metabolize all of the wonderful energy that we get from our Foods it blood sugar spikes are not bad excessive sugar intake is not good for your health excessive sugar intake will um decrease gut microbiome um uh strength and diversity increase inflammation within the body it’s directly correlated to mood disorders so having very high GI diets diets that do cause lots of rapid and high glucose spikes the evidence is there but to try and compare Fried Chicken to an Apple based on your glucose Spike alone is not what we should be doing to evaluate our diet pattern as you said the Apple contains so many vitamins minerals minerals lots of water lots of fiber just because it spikes my blood sugar more compared to the Fried Chicken doesn’t mean that it’s not as good for me and I think that’s what people need to get out of their heads the fact that they can choose one thing or the other based on your blood sugar Spike because that it’s there’s too much misinformation it’s too much of a Hot Topic and it’s getting the clicks yeah absolutely and I think what you said there about you know um the context of The Wider diet there is some of the experiments that show if you eat the sugar containing food in the context of fiber like with vegetables surrounding it it doesn’t cause the same Spike so it just kind of emphasizes that scientifically fiber although it isn’t in our like protein fats carbohydrates boxes is a very important nutrient that so many of us are not getting enough of like too many and I think Fiers is the one thing that I always try and tell people to not forget about as as I mentioned earlier like people focus on their protein they they worri about hitting their protein targets but they’re not as worried about hitting their fiber targets but it’s just as important yeah absolutely on touching on protein there um you mentioned when you were talking about your oats supplementing with um some protein powder what what is your take on protein from Real Food versus protein supplements so I’m always food first supplements are there too supplement so if you can’t get in enough or it’s it’s a really toour to be able to add more to a meal that doesn’t have a lot so if you are able to mix a quick scoop into your oat you’re suddenly getting a 25 gr breakfast over an 8 gr protein breakfast and again that’s going to make a real big difference to how you feel um your hunger levels in the morning but don’t just rely on supplements without addressing and thinking about okay how can I make sure that I’m planning and managing my nutrition properly to be able to get in every single thing that I do do need yeah I completely agree with that what would be your thoughts for someone who’s really busy say they have a long commute to work or they have children they’re looking after and they’re bit short of time I find that myself that’s me not I have children but I’m always on the go and I often end up eating the same thing every day out of convenience and because you said you know I know how it makes me feel throughout the day should we be doing that or should we be looking for diversity across the week diversity across the week is King it’s the the issue is it is difficult it is difficult when we do live busy lives and we’re running and on the go so you just have to kind of find what works for you prep is King and I love to try and think about what I do grab and go from my my favorite supermarkets or my favorite kind of uh like pret or itsu and try and see if I can make something like that at home in in more batch so I make these um freezer friendly um frittata muffins so I’ll get loads of different vegetables loads of different herbs I’ll dice them all up I’ll bake it into a frittata I’ll slice it I’ll pop it in between a bagel or a muffin bit of spinach in there and I can wrap these and put them in my freezer and the night before if I know that I’ve got like an early morning train journey or if I’m I’m jumping to a meeting I’ll take it out and I’ll be able to eat it with my hands wherever I’m going so try and think about eatability as well I can mix up whatever veggies I use in that fata to still get that diversity another thing is like Chuck it in like overnight oats so any sort of pot that you can literally just be like seeds yogurt whatever fruit you want mix the fruit up seeds are really really good for you people do not eat enough seeds so we need to be getting in more seeds more more um nuts amazing mineral and vitamin content really great healthy fats really good fiber lots of antioxidants polyenals too so we love those so just try and think about how you can take the things that work for you and just mix it up and and get that diversity in where you can but don’t be afraid to go to um pret and pick up one of the little breakfast Pots if you need don’t be afraid to run to M&S and be able to just like have a grab and go option we live in a world now where we have access to really good op like really good options so we can go anywhere for lunch now and go and have something that is diverse it’s it’s full of plants it’s full of good nutrition and we don’t have to kind of stress ourselves out too much over it so say you’re walking into prep for lunch I do this literally every day what would you choose like what would be nutritionally balanced so again I always try and look for the protein and the the diversity so you don’t necessarily just have to get salad but I know that if I’m going to get one of the egg Mayo sandwiches the egg is going to be like a really good source of protein there’s lots of lovely vitamins in the yolk as well and I’ll probably pair that with either um God I haven’t been to prep for so long but I’ll probably get like a fruit pot so fruit pot lots of fiber again lots of lovely diversity I wouldn’t opt for a sugary drink I’d rather opt for like a warm tea or water um I don’t believe that we should be drinking high amounts of free sugars in drink form um always a smoothie for me over over a juice unless it’s like a hard green juice but that’s just my preference that doesn’t mean that because I don’t do it you suddenly can’t drink orange juice anymore it’s not about that but it’s just I understand how it makes me feel and how it makes my body feel so why is it that smoothie is better than a juice so juice when you do something you strip out all of the fiber yet when you make a smoothie you still do like a little bit of mechanical digestion so you still do kind of break it all up but you keep all of that fiber and that gut feeding fiber in there so then the way that our body responds to it the way that our body breaks it down and digests it is going to be different to the juices and I think a lot of people will will grab a juice thinking it’s Health Food whereas if if you do want to get into the nitty-gritty of it like picking up an apple is going to be much better for uh you and and and feeding your gut than having a coton of apple juice yeah absolutely it’s again the Forgotten fiber yeah yeah um so as we’re going into winter you can hear that I’m full of cold um lots of us are talking about how we can boost our immune system you know what’s supplements can we take to fight off a cold should we be you know hammering our body with orange juice and vitamin C when we’ve already got a cold what can we eat um well that’s not the right way to word it is there really anything that we can eat that supports our immune system so first of all I think it’s like we don’t boost our immune system we don’t need to boost our immune system we actually want a calm chilled out immune system who’s just doing its thing we’re able to recognize friend from Foe and every everyone’s kind of peaceful there are a lot of immunity supporting supplements out there on the market it can be very overwhelming and again a supplement is there to be what I call a safety net the vitamin C zinc and vitamin D all really really important nutrients to to help support our our immune system but our immune system is complicated and it’s very very kind of it varies for for what we need to give it but if you’re having a good well balanced diet you can be pretty confident that you’re getting every single thing in that you need as well when it comes to our immune system it’s very important we also think about our gut health again because 70% of our immune system is actually housed around our gut and the reason for that is the gut is kind of like a selective filter for what comes in and what stays out of our body so if you think about how many pathogens and toxins we do not want letting into our bloodstream it’s really important that we have our immune system there to be able to say it’s basically like a bouncer it’s like you’re not coming in hey vitamin vitam whatever it’s like you can come in like you’re allowed supporting a healthy gut barrier increase um it isn’t it basically reduces that level of immune system activation within the guts and how do we support healthy gut barrier diversity and the fiber that is King poly as well it just helps maintain good Integrity between our gut cells of and basically we call them tight junctions and when the tight junctions are nice and healthy they’re nice and and kind of stuck together it doesn’t activate that immune system whenever we eat they will always loosen a little bit and our immune system will always get slightly triggered but what we see now in the develop development of certain autoimmune conditions is that people have who have impaired gut barrier function within their gut it can trigger this like excessive opening of these tight junctions which can overstimulate the immune system and it’s then that our immune system is unable to recognize friend from Foe and it can start to attack friend and that’s where we see this um trigger for things like ecma psoriasis can all um stem within the gut and having um not kind of great gut barrier function so good diverse diet don’t forget your fiber take care of your gut health to look after your immune system and then don’t be afraid to supplement if you feel like you’re too busy and you’re on the go and your diet quality hasn’t been there but if you’re eating well if you’re um planning your meals properly and you’re getting in all of the lovely things the lovely range of color you probably don’t need that supplement yeah I always think of Health as like a pyramid like at the bottom is your diet sleep you know movement levels activity levels and then towards the top of the pyramid are these little extras like supplements like type of training like you know specific diets or whatever whereas people focus on the top first they want it just a quick fix they want to be sold something this is going to fix the fact that I haven’t slept or um I’m not eating any vegetables I can just pop a little supplement and actually we really need to be focusing on the fundamentals at the bottom of the pyramid first definitely and the thing is with supplements sometimes I love a little bougie supplement because it puts me into a well mindset a little routine like I have my little golden milk tea before bed that’s sort of like turmeric and ginger and I take it and I feel lovely and I’ll take a fi supplement in the morning and I’ll wake up and I’ll have my little ritual it makes me feel good but I don’t believe that it’s the reason why I’m healthy if that makes sense so supplements I encourage people to actually explore for their own well-being routines what keeps them motivated if they take something and it makes them feel really positive then that can only be a good thing but if someone is overspending and feels pressure of oh my goodness if I don’t have this supplement I’m not going to be healthy you don’t need to get stuck in that rat race you don’t need to be spending a fortune on these complete supplement routines because every single week we see another video that says take this try this this is what you need this is going to make your skin glow this going to do and it sometimes gets a little bit overwhelming but do what makes you feel happy and good and I think a great place to start yeah I really love that you said that because I also take supplements but for me it’s more like there’s unlikely any harm but I know deep down that it’s not going to compensate for the weeks where my sleep’s bad or I’m not exercising or my diet’s a bit poor um and I think that’s the attitude that should be the attitude of most people that you know it’s not going to harm it might help a bit but that isn’t the focus you can’t undo all of the damage by just popping a supplement so when we’re talking about keeping our guts healthy it’s something I’ve been interested in and I’ve seen a massive surge in the research and evidence base over the last five six years but I think think I think we are still literally just skimming the surface I think we’re going to have more research coming out but what’s really trendy is this 30 plants a week um number and that’s been shown in quite a robust study to be the optimal amount to support our gut microbiome diversity but 30 plants a week sounds really overwhelming can you break it down and give me some examples for people listening about actually how why that’s achievable so don’t forget things like your carbs also um count as plants so if I’m going to be picking up bread for example so let’s make a breakfast together to get Optimum diversity so rather than just my fluffy white slic bread I’m actually going to opt for oh this brown seeded um loaf like doesn’t have to be anything fancy doesn’t have to be expensive but the seeds and then the choice of grain you’ve already probably got two um different plants in there too I’m going to make my scrambled eggs gonna have my eggs why don’t I put a bit of fresh basil in there and Cho spring onion herbs also count count as your plant diversity so get in your herbs sprinkle them chop them mix them through they taste they make things taste amazing um you can also oper spices as well so um spices another part of of diversity that we can get in there then to top my eggs I’m probably going to put some mix seeds so I have a giant tub of like loads of seeds but they’re delicious as well especially when toasted um it’s like pumpkin seeds sunflower seeds Lin seeds I’ll sprinkle those over Okay so let’s add a couple of vegetable sides now what do I have in my fridge handful of cherry tomatoes throw them in the air fryer whack them in leave them to do their thing wil some spinach lovely squeeze of lemon juice to optimize the iron absorption over that spinach and then suddenly on my plate I have like five to seven different plants on my breakfast alone and we only need to get 30 so we’re basically just under a third of the way there so it’s all the little things that you can sprinkle chop add that make the difference if I’m ever making a spag Bowl I’ll put corett onions peppers carrots celery Tomatoes like spinach I put everything in there to create these meals that are recognizable and familiar but to optimize that plant intake so add add add whatever fruit or veg youve got left in the bottom of your fridge chop it up and whack it in because if you chop it small enough I promise you you won’t even notice it’s there just felt my tummy Rumble one thing I love your whole ethos is about what we are adding into our diet but I think for some people that have had a poor relationship with food that’s actually going to be quite a hard listen we’ve spent years counting calories I remember back in the day when I was in my macro counting gym girl era I would literally measure out how much peanut butter I was putting on top of my oats because I was fearful that I was going to be eating too many calories a day for my activity levels don’t get me wrong I’ve never had a restrictive attitude with food but I was always aware of the calorie content but you haven’t mentioned that you’ve mentioned you know adding in seeds some people might look at those nuts and seeds and think they’re very calorific or if they’re on Slimming World they’ll see them as a sin I really love that you focus on what you’re putting in tell me why you don’t think the calories matter as much so when you’re taking something thing like a nut and you’re taking a nut in its whole form I love this I love this example because let’s compare peanuts so peanut butter versus peanuts the way that our body is able to metabolize and absorb everything in those varies from the processing method so if I’m taking in whole um nonprocessed peanuts an extra sprinkle of those onto my meal the actual energy that I can pull out of that probably is is are only around 70% of the total calorie amount whereas if I blend them and make them into peanut butter it’s probably about 100% just because we have that mechanical digestion the more whole unprocessed foods that we eat the less calories matter because it’s not a simple a plus Bal C equation anymore we have to think about digestion processing how much we can extract and absorb and it’s why people who have these very kind of Whole Food um plant focused diets never really have to worry about calorie counting even though they’re putting in high energy high energy density foods like the nuts and seeds the avocados it’s because that fiber and it’s because that that the way that we digest and absorb all of the energy in that food isn’t the same as if we had something that was refined and processed yeah I love that I think it’s a you know when we think about ready meals you see these kind of calorie restricted ready meals that are 350 calories for your evening meal but actually there’s a reason that they’re low in calories is they’re often lower in nutrients and maybe aren’t going to make you feel as full for as long exactly um so knowledgeable I’m loving this conversation um so we touched on it earlier but it needs its own space ultr processed foods taking the media by storm really demonized at the moment it’s like there one thing after another and at the moment the headlines are on that what are your thoughts on Ultra processed foods it are anything that people try and demonize in such an intense way I’m never hit for I was on holiday a few weeks ago and you bet I was having my diet coke at 3:00 on the beach popping it open and not even thinking about it one Diet Coke does not make me a bad nutritionist or disregard every single other thing that I do for my body I’m going to say it again I know it’s so boring but moderation and balance is key if we are making Ultra processed foods a common occurrence to our day-to-day diets of course try and think about the little swaps and changes that we make but if there is a Ultra processed food that you love and and you really enjoy it can still factor in and be part of your lifestyle and Ultra processed food can sometimes feel a bit like oh my goodness what even is that but as soon as we change something as soon as we start cooking something we’re processing things the ultra process is where what we started with is so different to what what we’ve end Ed with and I just say for people to take the side of precaution but don’t feel guilty if you do have them or you are um like they are part of foods that you like to eat like do you have any Ultra processed foods that you love pasta yeah and actually what you said before about what you add into your meals often when I’m making a pasta dish it’s a night where I’m cooking from scratch and it ends up being one of the meals where I throw in loads of vegetables like mushrooms spinach um peas lots of different that isn’t a good recipe but I do throw in loads I do throw in loads of egges pasta I my boyfriend once put in apple and pork into a pasta it was disgusting I love the combination porking Apple I see what he’s doing but ex not in a pasta but what my point is that my pasta dishes are often the most nutrient Rich because I throw loads of things into them but pasta itself is processed food that often gets a bad W and that’s the thing like I’m so sick and tired of nutritionists and people in the health space taking foods that we love and making us feel guilty for eating them pasta is not bad for you carbohydrates are not bad for you blood sugar spikes are not bad for you in the context of everything else that you’re doing for your nutrition and for your body are you sleeping well are you moving that passes the best if you ever have a big bowl of pasta before you run you literally feel like Super Woman the next day so if you’re you’re trying to train you’re trying to improve your Fitness and you’re tired and you’re lethargic and you feel like it’s just wearing you down you need to actually be like think about your nutrition and get in the carbs eat the pasta and it doesn’t have to be a whole grain lentil split pee form it can just be white pasta and you can still be healthy yeah I think one of the best things for kind of there’s always room for improvement right but one of the best things for improving my relationship with food was running the marathon because I started to think how is this meal going to fuel my run and I’d find myself having a bowl of pasta at 4:00 in the afternoon because I knew the next day I had to run 20 miles or something crazy and it was interesting because I really got in tune with how the food is fueling me and everyone has different activity levels like you know I think it stems back to when we’re teenagers and you hear boys that are allowed a double portion of dinner because they’re growing boys whereas you know females are also going through massive physiological changes during puberty like we’re growing we’re growing boobs our hips are Widing we’re starting our menstrual cycle our hormones are all out of work our entire physiology changes and we’re not given that same allowance for um fueling our body we’re instead trying to like keep hold of our small prepubescent frames it makes me sad because there’s always been so much guilt and guilt language used around food and it’s why every single recipe that I create Joy is at the heart of it I want people to sit down and eat that breakfast that hot girl chicken wrap or whatever I bloody call it and sit there and think this makes me so happy yeah it tastes really good and it’s making me feel really good at the same time and I’m so sick and tired of nutrition being about deprivation rules oh don’t eat this this is bad for you oh I’m I’m a nutritious and this is what I eat for my lunch and it’s a bowl of SAU Kraut and leaves and seeds like no one actually wants to eat that no but if I make like an amazing like Bagel that I put like a chopped chicken mix on top and I sprinkle my seeds on there and maybe I put like a bit of sauerkraut through it and I put it in an accessible form that people recognize and they want to eat it brings Joy back to nutrition and that is my mission to bring joy back to nutrition I know where I’m going for lunch M I know so many people listening to this will be really on the ball with their nutrition you know if they’ve come to this podcast they have their own vision of health and they might be really great Monday to Friday picking nutritious Foods working out getting enough sleep and then the weekend comes and they maybe this is you know what they might say go off the rails get off the bandwagon and then Monday comes and a lot of people have a lot of guilt a lot of restriction they feel like they need to you know get back to being healthy what’s problematic with that and how can people change that so the binge restrict cycle is something that is increasingly more common especially when people start to put their own rules and regulations in place so they don’t actually listen to their body from that Monday to Friday and it’s this whole balance of self-care and self-love vers is self- discipline and a lot of people when they start a health Journey they’re like I’m disciplined I’m on it I’m going to do this and they don’t nurture that slightly softer side and they don’t actually listen to that voice in their head that it’s like oh can we just slow down or or I really do actually want that little sweet treat if I have a lovely big healthy lunch then having like a Cab’s bar with my cup of tea in the afternoon on a Tuesday or having a great example is actually when I always remember feeling so nervous if it was ever someone’s birthday and you go out for a pizza on a week night and they go out for pizza on a week night or they’ll bring her a cake into the office and you’d be like oh my God the sheer Panic it’s it’s just it’s just a piece of cake it does not make you a bad person it’s not going to affect your health in a negative way and we can get so obsessive with that level of um discipline I always encourage people to try and be the best versions of of themselves but don’t forget to show yourself that self love and care that you also need I will often wake up and not want to go to my pilates class and I’ll try everything I can do to talk myself out of it but as soon as I do it I feel amazing and I know it’s coming from a positive place but if I then go and it’s someone’s birthday in in the office and someone’s got cake there and I say no I can’t have that it’s Wednesday that’s not showing me like balance and selflove of course if it was Casey’s birthday on Tuesday and you’ve already had like a massive slice of cake and you don’t actually want one on that day fine you don’t have to have it but if you really do want it and it’s something that makes you feel really happy then you have to give yourself permission to do the things that you don’t always think that you should be doing yeah and I think it’s the same you know if you want a something sweet and you have something if you allow yourself that whenever you feel it you then don’t find yourself eating the whole pack of biscuits exactly exactly as soon as you actually loosen the rules you realize how much happier and relaxed you are around food I always thought I was someone that had to have a piece of chocolate after my dinner and actually now I just if I’ve got it in the fridge half the time I don’t even want it oh I wish I like definitely not like that I have to have something sweet after my dinner I’ve become more Savory over the years it’s bit weird so for someone listening who may have an average diet it’s not terrible but there is room for improvement they don’t necessarily restrict or put themselves in a box what would be three takeaway tips that they could implement this week that would improve their diet so number one would be add the herbs and spices not a lot of people appreciate that those herbs and spices are real nutrient powerhouses full of um vitamins full of minerals and also those lovely polyphenols that I mentioned earlier and they’re very easy to incorporate so have parsley coriander chives basil all in um all in your fridge not Basel in the fridge actually it goes Brown um but just chop it up and put it in your next meal cook with loads of those lovely spices for those gorgeous antioxidants too then the next one would be Toppers so always think about what you can finish your meal with and this can be a Sprinkle of seeds a crumble of feta a drizzle of extra virant olive oil really great ways to boost flavor but also Boost nutrition as I mentioned before the seeds are amazing source of fiber um vitamins um lovely healthy fats as well going to keep you full of fler and then the third thing is that you don’t have to change every single thing that you eat to overhaul your diet that’s why I love to take food and recipes that people identify with and they recognize I make burgers I make pasta dishes I make Caesar salads but I do little tweaks and changes to make them more balanced to make them more nutritionally viable and I think that’s the most important thing you don’t have to change every single thing that you love to eat in order to become healthier yeah and I can vout that your busnut squash mac and cheese is excellent at the end of this podcast I asked all our guest the same question what is your vision of Health what does Health look like to you when I feel like the best version of myself when I feel brighter when I feel energized when I feel happy and when I just feel calm and content around my food I love to enjoy my food food brings me so much happiness I love to cook and I love to share that with others as well and when I have that kind of happy harmonious balanced feel around my lifestyle and what makes me feel good that’s when I feel my best thank you so much for coming on vision of Health I have learned so much from these conversations and from chatting to you in general and from the few times we’ve met and I am positive that our listeners will have had some real takeaway knowledge bombs there um just want to say thanks so much for coming on no thank you for having me thank you so much for listening to vision of Health I hope you take away some realistic and practical Health advice that you can actually incorporate in your busy lives to become the healthiest version of yourself if you want to hear more from me then please do hit the Subscribe button share this post and also go follow me on Instagram @ Dr Frankie JS where I post a regular series of women’s health Wednesdays with our wonderful sponsors F fresh I’ll see you next time