5 Nutrients Vegans Should Watch | Dietitian Stephanie McBurnett

all right today we are talking about five count them up one two three four five nutrients that anyone eating a plant-based diet should be watching out for so what are they and why are they important and how do you get them we're about to find out welcome to the exam room live brought to you by the Physicians committee hello I am the weight loss Champion Chuck Carroll thank you so very much for watching and more than 150 countries around the world and making the exam room one of the most consumed nutrition podcasts anywhere on the planet and we do this each and every Wednesday at noon Eastern 9 A.M Pacific right here on YouTube and on Facebook so set a calendar reminder you can also follow And subscribe on Apple podcast Spotify and catch the replay anytime on your time my friends now let's talk about what we are talking about here today and that is that research continues to point to a whole food plant-based diet as being the optimal diet for your health one that will lower the risk of all of these chronic illnesses and diseases that are literally shaving years off of our life but the question for so many of them becomes well look if you're cutting meat out of your diet if you're cutting Dairy out of your diet if you're cutting eggs out of your diet are you also cutting other nutrients out of your diet well not necessarily but with any diet there are some things to keep an eye on and that's what we're talking about today dietitian Steph Mick Burnett is here with us to give her five nutrients that all vegans should be on the lookout for so are you getting enough you're about to find out also we're going to be opening up the dietitians mailbag today so if there's a question that you have for Steph go ahead and drop it in to the comments or in the chat and we're going to get to as many as we possibly can here on the program today and with that we welcome to the exam room live for the very first time my colleague Steph mcburnett Steph good to see you hi Chuck I love being here and it and I love hanging out with you so if it takes a you know a podcast invite to hang out keep sending the invites it's just how my time is structured these days but the Mrs and I would love to have you and yours over at some point oh yes all right we'll do a vegan picnic in the backyard but let's talk about the five nutrients that every vegan should be on the lookout for I know you're coming armed with a big list what is your first nutrient to be on the lookout for so the first one really is for plant-based eaters right so it's B12 and I know I'm preaching to the choir here you've heard it before so B12 is important for red blood cell formation for nerve function and production of DNA so it's very important and so if you're if you're not eating plant-based you're eating animals um the animals don't just have b12s they actually it's B12 comes from a bacteria in the ground in the soil so when animals eat grass or wheat or you know they're just snipping around the ground they are getting B12 and then if you're an omnivore you're eating B12 um and that's how you're getting it but since plant-based eaters don't eat animals we really don't have a reliable source in the diet there are fortified foods such as breakfast cereals and and now our plant milks have B12 in them most of them and nutritional yeast has some but it's not that reliable and so we really want to look at a supplement for plant-based eaters and actually um as a dietitian I recommend a supplement in B12 for anyone over the age of 50 or anyone who has absorption issues or who are on certain medications such as metformin or there's a few others so and that's because B12 needs stomach acid to actually decouple from protein and be absorbed so if you have any digestion issues or as we age we start we produce less stomach acid so I actually recommend a B12 for anyone over 50 anyone with digestion issues and then plant-based eaters now b12 um the recommended daily amount is very small it's about 2.4 micrograms and so um that's pretty easy to get um and so at pcrm we recommend a little bit more than that about 100 micrograms a day or you can actually have about 500 to to a thousand micrograms throughout the week and that's because B12 is actually stored in your liver and um so any extra that you consume will get stored for later so if you're like me and you forget to reorder your supplements and go you go a few weeks you will have some Reserve in your liver and actually um a lot of people who go vegan they don't eat they don't take any supplements for the first few years and that's because by uh B12 can actually be stored in your liver for up to five years so let's say you're kind of a new uh vegan you're like I haven't had any issues um with B12 well as you could be fine year two year three all of a sudden you're getting um maybe you're anemic and you don't know why you're having fatigue you have muscle weakness intestinal problems nerve damage or just kind of weird things happening ringing in the ears mood disturbances those could actually be linked to having a low B12 so this is the one that I really say you know please you know I know you don't want to I know we eat so healthy we don't want to take a supplement but I'm gonna have to say B12 is definitely number one on my list B12 is Numero Uno but I do know that there are actually a couple of different kinds of B12 out there we get these questions from exam roomies all the time which is the one that you recommend um I think I think 12 will work more than 2.4 micrograms or as we recommend 100 micrograms and if you pick any multivitamin let's say you don't want to go and get a specific B12 you just want to grab a multivitamin I um I looked up just a regular like a Centrum you know you know Centrum Silver Centrum adult it has six micrograms of uh B12 so you're going to get over the daily amount just by taking a regular multivitamin and is there a risk with taking too much I know that this is something Dr Barnard and I have actually spoken about on the show it's uh that they used to really didn't think that there was too much uh issue if you had B12 levels that were pretty high but then some other research came out and I was like yeah well you maybe really want to try to aim for That Sweet Spot yes you can um you can overdo it and they have there has been some research that shows that when you go really high in the amounts you can get digestional issues and other issues but uh B12 is one of those if you're just taking a multi or a supplement any supplement on the market even if it's higher than what we recommend you should be a hundred percent fine um so it's one of those you don't want to Super overdose on it like you can overdo it but I wouldn't worry about it in that aspect fair enough all right what's number two on your list of five here so number two is actually vitamin D and this really goes out to everyone not just plant-based eaters this is for omnivores because 35 to 40 of us adults are deficient in vitamin D I mean that's staggering numbers um you vitamin D is really important for absorption of calcium it regulates bone growth and it plays a role in immune function so vitamin D you can get it from the Sun so the UVB rays you can get it from supplements and there is some fortified Foods so but you really want to I'm going to push for a supplement on this one because you want to have a consistent amount and when we are not going outside every single day you know we want to protect our skin from sunburn or wearing even sunblock you are blocking those UB UVB rays and so you really want to think about [Music] um really getting enough because it can my sister actually is a uh ER vet and she's very active she has a dog she goes out every day um but she's also she's not fully plant-based but she's close and she all of a sudden was having fatigue she had muscle weakness she just was not feeling well she went to the doctor and she was extremely low in vitamin D and she was one of those individuals that think that vitamins are just expensive pee right you just buy multivitamins and you just kind of process and pee them out well that could be true for some but for vitamin D you really need it she is now prescribed a very high amount and hopefully in six weeks her levels will be up and she'll be feeling a lot better the daily recommended amount is is not super high um it's the RDA is 600 IUS if you're older like 70 plus it's about 800 I use but some people actually recommend more like a thousand or 2 thousand I use a day so um if you just grab like another Centrum that's gonna have about a thousand IUS um You Can Get Enough from being outside but you would have to be ten to or 15 to 30 minutes in midday sun with open arms no sunscreen open legs and you'd have to do that three times a week that can probably get you about ten thousand to twenty five thousand I use a week so that would kind of cover um what you're trying to do there is and I know someone's gonna ask about this there is two types of well there's two types of supplements for vitamin D D2 is plant-based it's cheaper and it's actually what doctors usually prescribe will be a lot like large if you're low my sister got D2 like a large amount of D2 um and then there's D3 which is the over-the-counter version which is from um animals wool like wool so it is it does um it is an animal source so you want to look for and there are vegan sources of D3 now and the big kind of controversy is that in the liver vitamin D2 it is said that vitamin D2 doesn't convert as well as Vitamin D3 but it does convert and everyone's kind of different with their liver conversion so for me if you're taking D2 you're taking 1000 to 2000 IUS a day and you're taking it consistently that's what matters it's not really that D3 is so much better than D2 they do both work but it's consistency that's key and if you're deficient in vitamin D you could your fill frequent illness fatigue and then osteoporosis because vitamin D plays such a huge role in absorbing calcium so you want to make sure you're getting that vitamin D every day so that you're absorbing your calcium and what are some foods that naturally contain vitamin D um let's start with there and then we'll talk about maybe some fortified options because a lot of the plant-based milks out there are also just like regular milk fortified with it yes so for plant-based Foods it's not many I think mushrooms have a little bit of vitamin D D2 so you really don't want to rely on especially plant-based sources of vitamin D so even if you're going out in the sun and you're having a ton of mushrooms and even if you're adding on to that fortified plant milks as you said or fortified cereals actually have vitamin D as well I just really as a dietitian and seeing kind of how important vitamin D is I really think that this is one that you do need to supplement I'm not a huge supplement fan but this is one of them and that's why it made my top five lists question from Richard Hubbard at 12 13. uh wondering I assume maybe this plays to absorption and getting those levels up he's wondering whether you need to take vitamin K2 along with the D3 so that is kind of new uh rhetoric that's out there um K2 actually or Vitamin K is found in Greens leafy greens and in a lot of plant Foods so if you're eating your plant-based diet along with taking your vitamin D you are getting K2 I don't work K Vitamin K now K2 there is it's kind of um back and forth with some research is saying that it's great for you you definitely need it and other is saying that you get enough from plant but you get enough vitamin K from plant sources so that one is a little bit mixed I don't think you need to combine them to get sufficient vitamin D that's not anything I've really heard so I wouldn't worry too much but I definitely would say eat your greens eat your leafy greens yep for that and so many other reasons right um what is number three on your list Steph okay so on my list number three is a little bit uh people might have heard about so I is a mineral and it's very important for thyroid function making hormones T4 and T3 for protein synthesis for our nervous system very important for small children and the reason I put it on this list is because it might be one that you want to supplement so on a plant-based diet the ways you would get iodine is through iodized salt through sea veg and through sea vegetables and then supplements so let's just say you you're trying to avoid salt for for hypertension reasons and you don't like seaweed you're really going to want to supplement it and a quick note about iodine or iodized salt I guess so where did it come from why is some salt iodized and some not so in the early 1920s there was a doctor in Michigan and they used to call Michigan the goiter belt because so many people had goiters and that is from that's when your thyroid is inflamed because you're not getting enough iodine and it's right here at your neck and it kind of Puffs out and you can visibly see it and so so many people in Michigan had goiters that they called it the goiter belt so he realized that it was an iodine um deficiency so he he advocated for iodine to be put into salt and back in the 1920s everyone cooked at home so everyone was using this iodized salt the occurrence within a year the occurrence of goiters in Michigan went from 30 percent to two percent and so the following year the whole United States uh took on that program of iodizing salt or putting iodine in salt and so that's where this iodized salt comes from and um now in recent times people are using Himalayan salts there and then a lot of the processed foods that you see in in restaurants those are not iodized so you think oh I get plenty of salt because I I eat packaged food that has salt I go out to restaurants I actually have too high of salt well those those salts are usually not iodized because it is cheaper to have just regular salt and not add iodine to it so you need about 150 micrograms a day which is is not too much if you're pregnant or breastfeeding that does increase to about 250 micrograms a day and iodine is very important for a developing baby so please please please look at either an iodine supplement or multivitamin or you know getting your iodine when you are pregnant so for plant-based eaters iodized salt so about a fourth a teaspoon of iodized salt gives you 50 of of of your daily your RDA so 50 of and then if you have vegan Sushi throughout the week or you have some seaweed um there is I think it's Nori about five grams of nori will give you 80 of your daily iodine um RDA now there are some some sea vegetables that have too high so kelp you want to be very careful with kelp because about a tablespoon of flakes now this is straight kelp right if you have it mixed in with like a a seasoning or in your hemp seeds you know you have a little bit of kelp flakes in there I think that is fine to go ahead and eat but if you're having a full tablespoon of kelp that will give you 2 000 micrograms and you will oh you will over overdo it and that actually can cause racing heart uh fluttering flushing feeling you actually can get a goiter from too much iodine so um that is important to note as well but taking just again like a normal Centrum has 150 micrograms if you're just taking them like a multivitamin it will have iodine in it as well so let me see and then other kind of symptoms if you're feeling like you've sluggish fatigued tired you have your your hypothyroid it might be it could be iodine that is uh kind of messed up is not in the right amounts for you so just something to think about and for plant-based eaters I want us to be as healthy as possible so that might be one that you want to supplement a couple of uh questions here to follow up on that uh number one you talk about a quarter of a teaspoon uh would would have the RDA here um a lot of people love really like to eat that SOS free diet right so no salt whatsoever um maybe can you talk a little bit about what the effect is with that quarter of a teaspoon the effect that that might have on a person's risk for heart disease or high blood pressure hypertension things like that yes so if you're going the highest source of sodium in a average person so this is maybe not a plant-based person but an average person they're getting most of their salt from packaged processed foods or restaurant fast food that's why we see this this crazy high amount of hypertension 50 of adults in the US have hypertension so it's it's a lot of the fast food the processed foods now if you cook everything from home from from scratch from home and you have already normal blood pressure levels right then adding a little bit of salt won't hurt you and we need salt in our diet it is an electrolyte so adding a fourth of a teaspoon to you know throughout the day to something is not going to affect you now if you're someone who has chronic disease you have hypertension and you are saying I need to be SOS for my health I I completely understand that you don't have to take iodized salt you can just take a little little supplement of iodine so or you could eat your sea vegetables you just make sure you're being consistent at least twice a week of having you know maybe those little sheets of nori or having vegan sushi so it is important to be consistent with it you can store iodine in your thyroid so if you go a few days you know a few times if you go a few days without having the RDA it is okay but I just don't want you to skip a few weeks and then all of a sudden you're low in your iodine just out of curiosity though going going back to that that quarter of a teaspoon how does that compare to what you would get say uh in a combo meal if you were go to the drive-through and you get like the king size or whatever the biggest combo is these days right so you're going to have a lot of salt on the fries certainly there's going to be a lot in the burger or in the chicken or whatever else you're getting with those fries how does that quarter of a teaspoon compare to that versus what you get with the meal what these burgers at the at a restaurant just one burger and then if you add on fries but just the burger alone will be over to two grams or two thousand milligrams which as we may or may not know the American Heart Association recommends 2 300 milligrams a day if you have normal blood pressure and they recommend 1800 milligrams a day if you have hypertension so you're in one meal in one Burger you're going to be popping almost over what you should have in a whole day so um a fourth a teaspoon is going to be less than a gram so you you really won't have to worry unless you have that burger and then you're going home and you say oh I need my fourth a teaspoon of iodine today so I don't want you to do that you know um please it is good to to hold back on super of having too much salt especially through your fast food and your processed food so right on let's do a quick exam roomy roll call we got people tuning in right now from all over the world Teresa says Aloha from Hawaii Atlanta is watching us today in Germany Janelle is in Iowa hello Janelle we also have called to serve watching in Panama we have people all over the world tuning in today I believe we also have somebody watching from a Mountaintop in Wales which is really kind of cool one whales two Mountaintop that may be the winner for the day just just amazing um so we've got three out of the five out of the way right now Steph what is number four on your list okay so number four so the top three were ones that I really want you to think about possibly supplementing you got to find out what works for you now four I put on the list because people are going to ask you about this and I know that some people are are worried if you stop eating meat where are you going to get your iron so iron is number four iron is super important it it binds with protein to move oxygen throughout all your muscles so it is essential in the human diet but I don't want you to worry plant-based eaters are not any more low in iron than anyone else so iron historically is or low iron is found equally it's kind of like vitamin D it's equally can be low in omnivores or in plant-based diets so um let's see so iron the recommend daily amount of iron it for men and for women that are above menopause so have have are they don't menstruate anymore their iron actually needs are a little bit low lower because when you when you store iron you never get rid of it unless you you have to like bleed right you have to lose it through blood so men and women over 50 or through menopause need about eight milligrams a day which is pretty easy to get to so and but women who are menstruating um so kind of those child bearing years they need over double they need 18 milligrams a day right um and so that is something to think about if you are a woman just to really that is you need to be a little bit more mindful probably than your your spouse or you know your friend your buddy um but there is tons of iron in plant Foods so I don't want you to worry I will talk a little bit let's talk about heme iron versus non-heme Iron so iron that you get from meat and uh chicken and any sort of uh Animal product is bound it's called heme iron because it's bound to heme it's bound to a protein so when your body takes it in it actually can't regulate it it just kind of says oh okay we're getting more we'll just keep piling it on we can't say no because it's attached to this thing that we we are using so it has a higher absorption rate which in the past doctor said said oh well that means it must be better well actually iron um excessive iron is very dangerous and actually I had a friend who she was a runner and she felt fatigued and tired and she was having um a lot of issues and she thought she had low iron right because that's kind of the symptoms of low iron as you're just feeling achy you just feel like you're not getting good workouts in even though you're going running you just feel kind of tired well it turned out she had and she kept taking more iron well it turned out she had extremely high levels of iron and the only way that she could get back down to normal as quickly as possible is she had to give blood every six weeks for six months that was until she could get down into normal levels and elevated levels of um Iron cause health risks such as metabolic syndrome coronary heart disease stroke type 2 diabetes Alzheimer's Parkinson's arthritis cancer those are all linked to too high of iron amounts so going back to non-heme iron going back to plant sources of iron non-heme iron is actually regulated in our body so as it comes in our body goes oh you know if you're a woman oh I just had my period I just menstruated okay where iron is coming in and we're taking it because we need it right and you can regulate it better so plant-based sources of iron actually have been deemed healthier because your body can regulate them and just to um to go over that so to increase so let's say you are a menstruating woman or you want to you know make sure your iron levels are top-notch the plant foods that are very high in iron is you want to think of beans greens and whole grains now that's not the only Foods there are a ton of foods that have iron um that are plant-based like oatmeal but those are kind of like the Heavy Hitters you could say and then if you want to even increase the absorption combining them with vitamin C so iron and vitamin C together that's going to boost by almost four times so let's say you are a woman and you and you really need to kind of you're a little bit low you need to to Really bolster it a little bit I suggest adding some vitamin C or where's vitamin C so it's Citrus Foods it's berries it's bell peppers you know raisins have uh broccoli have vitamin C so you want to kind of pair a little bit in the same meal so even if you have fruit for dessert that will that will that's considered pairing um some other things so let's think breakfast so oatmeal you can pair it with berries whole grain toast which is high in iron pair it with Jam for lunch let's think tofu with you know saute tofu with bell peppers or just for snack hummus with crackers maybe add orange slices that's pretty high and oranges are high in vitamin C or even you have your whole grain pasta or your chickpea pasta that's going to be high in iron you know put it with tomato sauce which is high in vitamin C so as you can see some of the foods that already kind of go together are that pairing of iron iron rich foods with vitamin C um let me see and even multivitamins the Centrum like I said I looked it up that has 18 my micrograms of iron in it so if you are low that is an option um if you have low iron in the doctor prescribes you iron just be cognizant that you might have to go back and reduce the amount because you don't want to have too high of iron amounts now if you are a male or a woman older woman and you are like I'm running low on iron but Stephanie said that I really it should be easy for me to reach reach iron you might want to talk to your doctor about where would this iron be going like I always think to myself When someone tells me I'm I've had low iron I go okay so have you had a colonoscopy recently have you checked your colon do you have are you very stressed do you have stomach ulcers are you a marathon runner marathon runners will actually lose blood through their feet because they run so much so they will have lower iron because of that so you really or if you are a child bearing woman or you're menstruating is your menstruation really heavy and that you're just kind of really bringing down your iron levels so it is something to think about if you have low iron to maybe and you know that you eat you know you're eating your Healthy Whole Food plant-based foods and you're having your fruits like you like you're supposed to it might be something to look into getting um kind of looking into it a little bit deeper to see what's going on yeah I like the way that you paired those Foods together because I was thinking for something like this you know my default is always just to squeeze a little bit of lemon or an orange on top of the salad to help with that uh iron absorption but you're like no just pair the foods and I'm like son of a gun like you know that's why I love you because you come with the these ideas stuff you just come with these ideas I dig it a lot I gotta ask you real quick before we get to the fifth and final one um we've mentioned multivitamins a number of time here on the show a lot of exam roomies are like well wait a minute you know I know that a lot of times we don't like to use supplements so who is a candidate for needing a multivitamin here because a lot of us really do try to eat the rainbow try to get as many of our nutrients as we possibly can with the food that's on our plate yes I totally understand that I don't take a multivitamin with every single vitamin under the hundred things in it um but like I said I really want you to have a B12 I want you to have a vitamin D and I want you to think about iodine and honestly if you are someone who's not going to go out and get those three individual supplements that's why I brought up the fact that you can as an insurance policy you know yes do you need all those extra vitamins no you eat plenty of fruits you get plenty of vitamin C you get plenty of niacin you all those different things but if you're not going to go out I really would prefer you just to have a small multivitamin to get those three I mean I don't know if you know I'm sure some exam rooms won't like that but um kind of you have to think about what you're willing to do are you going to go out and have those three supplements or is it easy for you to just get a multivitamin I will agree with all of you that just getting the individual supplement for these individual ones you might need Vitamin D B12 iodine those will be that's the best route right but um some people aren't going to do that so I try to think of everyone who comes to my door right and talks to me about these and so I just wanted to have an option for someone else do you think someone do you think someone who is plant-based but is eating a lot of those Ultra processed Frozen plant-based Foods um that are quick they're convenient um are they kind of at the same risk of somebody eating the standard American diet that too is relying on frozen meals Ultra processed grab and go type of deals in terms of coming up um short and with their vitamins and nutrients that they need would they then be more likely to need a little bit of supplementation definitely junk food vegan that you are not getting all the benefits you're really not you are better off right because you're not getting the cholesterol and you the foods are a little bit lower in Seoul and um you're not getting kind of a lactose in the hormones from the dairy right you are better off but you are leaving a lot on the table by eating processed junk food as as a vegan or as a plant-based person you will need you know you won't be getting potassium which you find in um vegetables magnesium all the fiber with different types of fibers right so beans and potatoes have resistant starches oatmeal has soluble uh fiber and you know those start the green leafies have the insoluble fiber you're leaving all that on the table when you're just warming up a burrito even you know even if it is a vegan one or if it has vegan cheese or you're just cooking up a Beyond uh Burger now I'm not going to you know say that in a special treat that or if you're going over to a friend's house that you're you know you're doing something bad by having a Beyond Burger but think about your day-to-day you will um definitely you're just leaving a lot out there um and a lot of those health benefits that you are thinking oh I eat 100 plant-based or vegan I should I shouldn't have hypertension well if you're still consuming processed food and the fast food the vegan fast food you're going to be consuming a lot of salt and a lot of saturated fat even if it is from coconuts and not from lard so you're gonna you're still gonna struggle with some of those issues so the more plants the better all right so we've got B12 we've got iron we've got D we've got iodine that's four out of the five what is the last one on your five nutrients that all vegans should be on the lookout for yes so this one um is not so much of a concern but it's calcium and this is because I put this on the list again kind of like iron everyone's gonna look at you and say you're not having milk where do you get your calcium from and you know I want you know where how are your bone are you gonna your Bone's gonna break and stuff like that so I want you to have a great answer and I will also say that studies um of children and their nutrient profiles they do find that all children kind of fall below the recommended daily amount for vitamin D and calcium and vegan children can be on the lower level of that so I definitely if you have children um who are vegan or plant-based so just make sure this is not I'm not trying to sound the alarm I'm just saying be mindful think about just make sure that they're having a wide variety of food and some of them are higher in calcium so calcium is not just for strong bones it's for your teeth it's for blood clotting it's for wound healing and maintaining healthy blood pressure so you do need calcium you need about a thousand milligrams a day or at least that's the RDA in the U.S in the UK interestingly enough it's lower it's around 500 540 milligrams a day so that could be another kind of reason why children are falling below the recommended daily amounts because it you know we can play around with why you know why is that number where it is but it is what it is the RDA is a thousand milligrams a day and historically people think of calcium with dairy right they think you know because there's calcium in cow's milk and in human milk and all milk um that people think that you're not having Dairy you're not getting calcium and actually I will say there is a little bit of a myth bust here calcium the the amount of calcium you can absorb from dairy is actually pretty low it's only 32 percent whereas when you look at the plant-based World calcium which comes from beans and greens and then some fortified Foods you're getting 40 to 65 percent absorption so you're getting better absorption from kind of the plant higher calcium foods um some of the Heavy Hitters if you are looking to you know bring up your calcium numbers um tofu calcium calcium set tofu is 512 milligrams a cup like that is a lot collard greens are very high 358 milligrams fortified plant milk so if you are someone who has um plant-based kids um fortified plant milk would be great if to trying to make sure that they get their calcium because if they're sometimes kids aren't eating their beans they aren't eating their greens it is nice to have a fortified plant milk there to just kind of make sure it's an insurance policy for the rest of what they're eating my kids like the Ripple milk um which has about 440 milligrams of calcium per cup so again the recommended daily amount is about a thousand if you're older 50 plus it's about 1200 so it's a little bit higher um some of the greens you can find it in is collards broccoli kale mustard greens brussels sprouts all have very high absorption rates beans like Black beans Navy beans white beans you can find it in tofu so you have your calcium set tofu or just soybeans actually are high in calcium and then your oatmeal and your whole grain toast with fortified milk will have a lot of calcium as well so um for strong bones I know people think only like calcium equals strong bones but I will say you need Vitamin D for strong bones as well you do need some calcium but you also need magnesium and potassium and you need to work those muscles too so all those things together will really help with strong bones you don't want to just I know if you're older and you have osteoporosis and you think oh I just need to take as much calcium as possible you have to think about what else you need to kind of build strong bones and what is the quality of the calcium that's found in Dairy versus the quality of the calcium that is found in plant foods can you compare the two I know you were talking about absorption just there but just in terms of overall quality how do they stack up well the quality is pretty much the same I think that what were what people talk about with quality is absorption so when you're taking in this Dairy you're only your body's only absorbing 30 of it right and when you're taking in plant plant-based sources you could say plant-based sources are preferred by the body because if they're absorbing 40 to 65 percent absorption versus 30 so that's kind of and you're not getting any of the baggage that comes along with with dairy milk right there's the the lactose the hormones the saturated fat um and everything else and you're not getting and you're not getting fiber potassium magnesium you know so it's a no-brainer for me right on um and most plant milks are are they just kind of by default uh fortified with d and calcium the same way that most Dairy milks are so it's not required but yes I would say nine out of ten plant milks that you're looking at at the store are fortified in D in calcium and in B12 now and I think it's because they want to compete with dairy milk and really the dairy industry just says oh well we provide x amount of calcium and we provide x amount of vitamin D and that's why you know children need to be consuming through milk three times a day and so a lot of the companies have said well we can do the same thing we can fortify with calcium we can fortify with vitamin T and now b12 now there are some brands that do not so if you're looking at brands that are just and some people don't want kind of all the extra stuff they just want soy and water like soy that's been you know strained through water that's not going to have uh vitamin C or sorry vitamin D calcium so just check the back and you literally go down to the bottom of the label and if it says there's any calcium or if you see like as long as it doesn't say zero on calcium and vitamin D it's been it has been fortified all right so there's your big five B12 iron D iodine and calcium and I know Steph that we're running a little bit long but we got to open up the dietitian's mailbag and grab at least a couple of questions from the roomies real quick or are you still with me I'm still with you I could go on and on I had a bonus one but if we need to do the mailbox we got bonus how quickly can you get through the bonus I mean you can't dangle that carrot and not just give the bonus I mean let's go well the bonus one is actually protein and the only reason I bring it out that was coming I know because one you're going to be asked but two just recently I was um I was with a group of plant-based Educators and we were in a class and someone asked well do you have to combine proteins from Plants to make a complete protein and I kind of looked over and they uh some of the Educators did not know and I was sitting there like oh I got can I answer can I answer can I answer and the answer is all plant Foods even raspberries because I looked it up today have all nine essential essential amino acids so there is no more incomplete or complete we have debunked that myth and I just realized when I was in this class how how it wasn't out there I thought it was very common knowledge but it is not so I just want to put that to bed um what but I also know I was searching on online today and it is everywhere people like influencers and random blogs they're still saying this incomplete and complete and that is completely false I you know I saw the research today I saw literally you know the raspberry has all nine but in very small amounts so that's kind of the difference is what we're seeing is beans are lower in the sulfur containing of essential amino acids um whereas Dairy let's say Dairy protein has has high amounts of all of them and kind of going back to kind of start off is protein is 20 amino acids 11 of them our body makes nine of them we have to consume through eating so it used to be thought that animal protein was Superior because it had all nine essential amino acids and so it was a complete protein well now we know that all plant foods from Beans whole grains breads raspberries they all and vegetables they all have all nine just in varying amounts right so your beans might be low in the sulfur containing amino acids like methionine and cysteine and your whole grains may be low in lysine but if you eat enough like let's say you were only eating that one amount I'm only eating beans right and so you would think oh well Stephanie will be low in methionine well I have to eat a certain amount of calories to maintain my weight and if I were to only eat beans to maintain that weight I would get eventually get enough methionine right and that's not really how we eat either we eat oatmeal with soy milk we eat beans and rice we whole grain quinoa with adding raisins and cucumbers and everything so I just wanted to use this platform to kind of put all those kind of thoughts to bed that if you're eating a wide variety of plant foods you should have no problem I mean you're even if you just ate beans all day you would get 100 percent of your essential amino acid needs there you go myth busting with a bonus I like that get it off your chest girl you'll feel better after that I know get it out there that's cool we want you to be able to sleep well at night I want to say hi to uh Marilyn who says she loves the program Anton agrees thank you guys so very much for tuning in appreciate that here's another Global check-in Coco Kana is watching right now in Tokyo says that they always get their iodine from seaweed so that's pretty cool and uh Steph I gotta tell you Barb who's watching right now on YouTube is getting some iron from her oatmeal she says cool I eat an orange with my oatmeal every single morning which is fantastic now let's go ahead and open up the doctor's dietitians mailbag this week I should say and grab a question about oatmeal from Philomena who says recently two people not one but two people have told me that they heard oatmeal is bad for you is there any truth to that have you seen anything about this honestly that is something I have not heard oatmeal has always been pretty high even for people who are not plant-based oatmeal has actually reduced because of the insoluble and soluble fiber and the resistant starch it's super good for you it lowers it has been shown to lower cholesterol it's filling I'm not sure where that came from maybe they're talking about maybe it has some gluten in it because it was I'm not quite sure where that would come from or if it's not organic you know of course there's always that tension between if oats are organic or not and how much better they are I think any oats are better than none but if you can afford organic it's always great to kind of vote for Less pesticides with your pocketbook so um no I actually haven't heard that I am so sorry I'm gonna have to look that up after the show um let's see here uh devra is excited that you're back on the program um you were talking about tofu being a great source of calcium they are wondering calling back to the first time you were on as far as like five ways to get meat out of your diet they want to know uh because you were talking about tofu dogs what are some of the ones that you enjoy the most and where do you find them yeah so um the ones I use when I do food dogs it's usually for my kids um they they still kind of love that original look of a hot dog so I smart dogs is a tofu dog that we buy at the local grocery store right now it's not going to have cholesterol it's going to be lower and saturated fat but remember there's no fiber in there so um the healthiest hot dog replacement is actually a carrot dog which tastes pretty good once you add all the fixings on top you can't even tell that it's a carrot um and I know Chuck has talked about carrot dogs a lot on this program but um yes hot dogs are real hot dogs are I mean it's those are really bad for your health uh the just being a processed food if you could have a more that is like the most processed meat that you can get so I please recommend any way you can stay away from that please do so the smart dogs at the local Safeway is what I use the smart dogs right you want to be a smart dog just like the tofu dogs yeah they have great great labeling hey let's hear a couple of quick Health successes here before we wrap up today I want to say uh congrats to Ada who's watching right now in Montreal says love your show glad to be catching you live been vegan for a few years and I can't see any other way it is the best she says I'm 40 and healthy and definitely a Happy Herbivore now not to be outdone Here Comes Rich s I'm 72 I'm a bodybuilder I put on Plenty of muscle and get all the protein I need through my diet I do take B12 D3 zinc and some iron as well as vitamin C and iron dine vegan for five years with three count them three big bulging biceps so rich s 72 and a bodybuilder and vegan my friends that that is what we call goals 72 body Rich my man you're gonna have to expand on that man because that's you got me thinking about the future Jim is my question yeah right flowers at the gym does that take yeah are you lifting heavy are you Lifting for tone what are you doing Rich fill us in buddy um let's see here and let's get one more question in here really quickly Richard says can't wait to see the exam room live in New York City Rich Hubbard dude can't wait to see you too that's happening on July 12th at the Museum of the city of New York Dr Neil Barnard is going to be there with me along with rip esselstyn Mr Plant strong he's gonna be there and Dr Robert osfeld tickets are on sale now pcrm.org events or click that link that is in the show description right now would love to see you there we sold out La New York probably gonna sell out as well so lock your seats in today July 12th New York City at the Museum of the city of New York big night all about heart health and you and lowering your risk of the leading cause of death in the United States you know it amazes me Steph that 80 percent of heart disease cases are preventable and yet it is the number one cause of death in the United States by a wide margin it's insane and it's crazy that you can do I mean I would say simple changes to your diet to kind of bring down those those numbers so it's just it's pretty wild but it's but you know what the information is getting out there I'm getting excited I think the American Heart Association is really getting on board with you know lowering saturated fat from these very you know these animal products so I'm I'm thinking positively all right I like I like the Optima I think I think we are too I think at some point we're going to just reach that breaking point where people are going to wake up and be like the way that we're going just is not sustainable for so many different reasons our health being Chief among that and so we just need to do things differently and if you go in this direction the plant-based Direction I'm telling you uh for my personal experience can't speak for anybody else but I know that there are a lot of great stories that were shared in the chat today but this is the way to go I've never been healthier never been happier and uh just as a guy who still wakes up every morning who used to weigh 420 pounds always thought even after he lost the weight he put it back on to now be eating this way to be living this lifestyle man it just makes it just makes a world of difference and I hope that we all find our way there and that's why we do the show Steph that's why we do the show and why we do the work that we do so we can help people in this healthier Direction last question comes to us from let's see don't worry be happy I like I like that name a lot we've been talking a lot about supplements this one comes up from time to time as well when we're talking about omegas right in the diet those healthy fats should we be taking an omega-3 supplement when and how will we know if we do need one oh my gosh Chuck bonus number two and I knew I knew it would come up because this is a little bit of a Hot Topic and our body does need Omega-3s for cell membranes providing energy and signaling um our body's cardiovascular pulmonary immune systems all kind of use Omega-3s um the RDA for Omega-3s is actually very low it's 1.1 gram for females for adult females and 1.6 grams for males now if you're plant-based and you say well you know I don't I want to take less supplements I you know I get everything I need from food so that is true um you can do that with Omega-3s so Omega-3s are alas which I'm sure everyone's kind of heard these DHA and EPA right so DHA and EPA you can get from historically from fish but fish get it from algae so you can get algae supplements of the EPA and DHA right but if you wanted to go kind of more Whole Foods um chia seeds flax seeds and walnuts and nuts and seeds have ala that then gets converted in the in the liver to EPA and DHA now there is some controversy they're not controversy there is some research out there that shows that the conversion rate of ala to DHA and EPA is kind of you know it's it's hit or miss with each person right each person some people can convert it very well and some people cannot so you can kind of decide for yourself um if you first of all do you need to supplement omega-3 I do not think you need to right if you know as long as you're eating a wide variety because there's Omega-3s actually in fruits and vegetables so you you really as long as you're eating you know edamame kale kidney beans they all have omega-3s as well so I don't think you need to supplement but if you are someone who you really want to be on top of it because you've heard that it's great for brain health it's great for Alzheimer's so and but you don't want to supplement with the algae version of Omega-3s just one tablespoon of Chia seeds gives you 2.5 grams so remember males needed 1.6 grams so it's already over the amount of the adequate intake that the government puts out that National Institute of Health put out one tablespoon of flaxseed gives you 2.3 grams one tablespoon of walnuts gives you 1.4 4 grams so we're really as long as you have you know your you know have an almond you know have almonds with your oatmeal or have some flaxseed on top of your oatmeal because flax seeds are also really good for breast cancer um reduction and really they have great uh chia seeds are high in uh protein as well so these are all really healthy foods already so if you are kind of like oh do I need to take omega-3 well you can find food sources that will convert to uh DHA and EPA now you can check this at the you know at the doctors you can ask them say hey can you check my blood for omega-3 levels and if they come back and say you're fine with whatever you're eating right now if you're not supplementing and you're having flax every day you're fine you're good now if it comes back and says okay you're a little low then maybe you either try to bring in these you know chia seeds flax seeds walnuts or just kind of eat more of edamame kale just eat your Fresh Foods you can do that too or if you want to supplement with an algae based uh of like oil algae oil I will say that fish oil pills do have some negative research linked to prostate cancer so um that's what I'm saying like sometimes Omega-3s this the research is kind of mixed like sometimes it shows negative um outcomes and sometimes positive but it's the fish oil is is linked to the prostate cancer so or increase in prostate cancer incidents so anyway sorry yeah that was my that was a bonus one oh Chuck you're muted oh I don't know how that happened you came to play today my friend you just got all the answers man I was digging that and that was a question off of the top man that was that was fantastic now here's the deal I was gonna go right to the close to be perfectly honest with you but we got an answer from Rich about the workout so get your notepads out right shout out sag after get your notepads out and take these notes this is how you can be a bodybuilder at 72. Rich says I work out only three times a week for about an hour plus 25 minutes on the StairMaster at an intensity of eight he says I eat correctly on the days that I don't work out as well and I go for hikes he says it doesn't take that long to build up muscle and keep your muscle but you just have to do it so there it is it boils down to really easy things and just doing them Rich at 72 is a prime example Rich hashtag goals my friend this next sip of Joe is for you my friend that is fantastic and Steph you have been fantastic today thank you so very much for being here no thank you I have I had so much fun you know I love talking so anytime Chuck I got you I got you next time I'm on vacation all right we're just going to put you in the captain seat all right you got to do it all right many many thanks again to staff for being here and to the crew behind the scenes for making the magic happen thank you guys and to you exam roomies for all of your wonderful questions and hanging out and raising our health IQs literally all around the world from Tokyo Japan to the mountaintops of Wales do appreciate you guys from the bottom of my heart and for everybody here at the Physicians committee I am the weight loss Champion Chuck Carroll we will talk to you again very soon but until then keep it plant-based

Channel: Physicians Committee

Views: 39,928

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Id: K8LahSpKCuo

Length: 56min 41sec (3401 seconds)

Published: Wed May 24 2023