My Favourite Food Component

Listen in as Laura tells you her very favourite component of food, why you should have more of it, and how to incorporate it into your meals.

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Transcript

You’re listening to the Love and Lettuce podcast episode 35. Today we’re talking about my very favorite component of food. Just wait till you hear what it is.

Hey, this is Laura Lima, holistic nutritionist and founder of New Mama Nation, and host of the Love and Lettuce podcast. I am here to help mamas know what to eat to give them energy and help them feel fantastic. So they can better enjoy life with their littles. And remember, this podcast is for educational and informational purposes only, and does not replace medical advice from your healthcare provider, and is not intended to diagnose or treat any medical condition. As always, please consult your healthcare provider to find out what is right for you. With that said, let’s get to the show.

Could you use more energy Mama, I mean, who couldn’t right?

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So if you’ve listened to any of my podcast episodes, before, you will know the answer to this question.

What is my favorite component of food?

If you are thinking or saying out loud, fat, right now, then you my friend are correct. I absolutely love fat. Because number one, we need it. And number two, it’s so fun to talk about because it’s what we actually need. Now I know a lot of people, we have been trained or taught over the years lately that we need more of it. Fat that is. But at the same time, we’ve grown up in this culture of low fat, non fat, 0% fat. And so I feel like so many of us, that’s what we’re still going for. And I don’t like that. Because it’s not sustainable. It doesn’t help our blood sugar level.

First of all, when we have no fat or low fat in our food, it helps to slow down the release of carbs into our bloodstream. So when we have fat, our blood sugar level rises a little bit, but gradually and slowly. And then it goes down gradually. And slowly. It doesn’t have that huge surge of blood sugar or sugar entering our bloodstream, I should say. Which is always caused by this quick drop. When we have that quick drop of blood sugar level, we feel tired, we feel mad. Talk about moody, right? Mood swings going up and down. And what are we craving, we’re craving more carbs, more sugar.

If we go back to that meal, and we add fat to it or more fat to it, it really helps to balance out the blood sugar reaction from that meal. This means that we’re not hungry soon after. We’re not craving more carbs and more foods that are going to continue to perpetuate this cycle. But instead, we’re having more steady constant energy throughout the day. And that’s what we’re always after. Right? We need the energy to get us through and not just physical energy. But mental, especially mental, right? We need that brain power and that brain bandwidth that can only come when we feed our bodies, the right foods.

And I’m telling you fat is such an important part of that. Listen, our brain is made of fat. Our eyeballs are an extension of our brain, which means that our eyes are also made of fat. Our nerves – every single cell membrane in our bodies is made of fat. And so we have to get it in our body and in our diet. The other thing that so many of us have been taught in our lives is that unsaturated fat is the only fat that we should have and that we should actually avoid saturated.

Saturated fat vs unsaturated fat

But I’m here to tell you that that is not the case. We need saturated fat just as much as we need unsaturated. I know, it’s crazy, right? So saturated fats are the fats that are solid at room temperature typically. So we’re talking for example butter and coconut oil. These are solid at room temperature. Most animal fats can be thought of as saturated fats. But what a lot of these fats also provide beyond the fat which we do need because our cells get structure from saturated fats, and they get their stability. But they get more of their flexibility and fluidity from unsaturated fats, like olive oil, for example. Like avocado, nuts and seeds.

So what we also get from those animal fats is not only the saturated fat, but oftentimes we get the fat soluble vitamins like vitamin A, vitamin D, vitamin K. These are so important. Vitamin E as well. These are so important for us. But they’re not found in a lot of foods but are animal fats when we have the high fat or the full fat foods. The full fats form of these foods. They provide us with these highly nutritious, fat soluble vitamins that we need for so many functions in our body.

But we just can’t seem to get enough of from food typically, especially in a low fat diet. So we need saturated fats. We also need the unsaturated fats. And honestly, like I am not one to count the numbers, to count the calories, certainly. And to say, Okay, we’ll have exactly this or this proportion of saturated. No, I am all about eating a real food, diet, period. Eat real foods, have your body tell you when it’s full. That is where it’s at, in true health, in my opinion.

How to incorporate the good fats

So I want to give you some examples of how you can incorporate good fats into your life. Salad Dressing is like my number one because you make it yourself first of all. So here’s the other thing, we have certain fats that we have to avoid. When you get the salad dressing from the store, you are usually like 99.8% of the time going to get a salad dressing that uses vegetable oil as the base. So we’re talking straight up vegetable oil, it could just be called that in the ingredient list, or is going to be for example, soybean oil, or canola oil, or a combination thereof, which is called vegetable oil. So we don’t want that kind of fat. The type of fat that we should be avoiding is the, I call them damaged fats.

So these are like the high omega six vegetable oils. Omega sixes are one of the omegas that are essential, but the one that tends to cause inflammation in our bodies if we have too much of it. Whereas Omega three, also essential, is the one that is anti inflammatory and the one that we tend not to get enough of in our diet. So salmon is a perfect example of an Omega three rich food, vegetable oils, and everything that they contain. So most of our packaged foods, salad dressing, cookies, crackers, cake, most of these contain vegetable oils. This is the source of Omega six in our diet, for the most part in North America.

Omega six

Too much Omega six equals inflammation equals pain, and so many other things that we don’t want. So we want to avoid the Omega six damage. That’s damage to our cells. That’s the bottom line. And that’s what we can think of. So those oils that are in packaged foods, so vegetable oils, they go bad at high heat. Most of them have been processed at high heat. So if they once contain nutrients, those nutrients are now basically out of the oil and the oil is destroyed.

The fatty acids are different from nature from what nature intended. And our cells cannot use damaged fats the way that they can use healthy healing fats. So the ones you want to avoid are vegetable oils, really try to reduce them as much as you can.

Salad Dressing

So back to my salad dressing. Use olive oil as the base. It is delicious. It is so easy to mix with like any of the vinegars that you might think of. So apple cider vinegar, balsamic, white wine, red wine, vinegar, all of those types of vinegars. Even lemon juice, or a combination of those delicious salad dressing. I always do a two-to-one ratio. So two parts oil to one part vinegar, or lemon juice.

And then you can add some chopped garlic, you can add some salt or pepper, or both some herbs of your choice. DELICIOUS! And that lasts in the fridge for a long time. I’m talking a few weeks, and you can use that not only on your salad dressing but even on your chicken or your fish or any of the other foods like vegetables. Any of the other foods in your meals. Yeah, throw it on there because you’re adding good fats.

Butter & olive oil

Another example of a good fat is adding butter or olive oil. Add them to your vegetables. Yeah, have your vegetables for dinner. But add not only butter, but also sea salt. By the way, make it even more delicious and nutritious. Add that butter to your vegetables. Because not only are you adding flavor, yes, but you’re adding that good fat, you’re making those vegetables last you longer in satisfaction before you’re hungry for your next meal.

That also increases the absorption of our bodies of minerals. So to set it in a more clear way. That’s helped to increase our mineral absorption into our bodies. That’s amazing! So adding that butter to your broccoli just made that broccoli healthier, it made your body better able to absorb the minerals from it. That’s pretty amazing.

Nuts & seeds

I also love nuts and seeds, I add seeds to my salad. A lot of the time I’ll add pumpkin seeds to salad or sunflower seeds or sesame seeds. I also love adding walnuts to salads. And I just love having nuts on there. Almonds, walnuts, cashews, pecans. And I will often make a trail mix. So I’ll do almonds, walnuts, whatever nuts I happen to have on hand. And then seeds. If I’ve got pumpkin seeds lying around, ideally toasted pumpkin seeds, even more delicious, I will add those in. And then I want a hit of sweetness in my trail mix, please. So I will add raisins, or dark chocolate chips for that sweetness. Done. Delicious. And you’re getting that extra hit of fat in a snack or even in a meal because you can add a handful or two of trail mix to a meal. Absolutely.

Yogurt

Another one is yogurt. Make sure you’re getting the full fat form of yogurt because then you’re getting the good fats. And you are getting therefore a more filling yogurt. Now you’ll see Greek yogurt out there, which is awesome because it’s higher protein. Love protein, but also look for the highest fat that you can find. So if you’re gonna get Greek yogurt, which is the one that I typically get, I will also look for, can I find that in it a 2% over a 0%. Can I even find it in a 10%, which I’ve seen before. That is the one that I’m going to get. It’s more fulfilling, it’s more satisfying way better for blood sugar, and it’s giving your body the fat that it absolutely needs and craves.

Coconut Oil

And finally, I love coconut oil. And specifically now the ones that you get off the shelf are typically in their solid form. So you can use those – you can sauté them and you know sauté foods with them, you can add them to a smoothie. But I also love the liquid coconut oil. And that’s the one that I add. Usually when I make smoothies, I just throw in that liquid coconut oil, because it’s already liquid. So it’s easier and it blends up nicer. I also add liquid coconut oil to my yogurt. So when I’m having yogurt, and I’m putting berries in it, maybe a little bit of maple syrup, and definitely hemp hearts, I will add some liquid coconut oil to add even more good fat. That meal will last me in fullness for at least three hours.

If I didn’t add that extra coconut oil, it wouldn’t last me quite as long. It’s still really healthy and really filling. But adding the fat makes it last even longer for me. And I love that.

So those are my examples of easy ways to add fats to your meals and why it’s so important. I hope that you have heard that today. And something maybe rings a bell for you or you’re like yes, I totally want to add this into my life. I know that I’ve been having low fat or I’ve been thinking that is bad for me in the back of my head. I hope that I’ve been thinking No, it’s not.

So thank you for listening today and I will talk to you soon. Bye friends. And don’t forget to get your free copy of my new mama energy guide. Just go to http://bit.ly/newmamas for instant access. Thanks for listening to the Love and Lettuce podcast to find out how to work with me and for more great info check out newmamanation.com.

This is Laura. Until next time, love and lettuce.