Nutrition Hills I’ll Die On — Even If You Already Eat Healthy

hills that I will die on as a dietitian that specialize in insulin resistance, inflammation, and women's health. There is so much nutrition confusion out there with so many non-experts positioning themselves as experts in the nutrition space, so I felt like this would be a good way to cut through some of the noise, help you feel less confused, and dive into the 7 hills that I'll die on as a dietitian. This post was— it was originally a social media post that went completely viral and had a lot of benefit to a lot of people, so I hope that it helps you as well with, again, feeling less confused. Hill number 1 that I will die on as a dietitian is that it is so important to start the day with breakfast. The research is very clear on this, that starting the day loading your calories first thing in the morning or earlier in the day leads to more satiety, fewer calories eaten all day, more stable mood. We know that breakfast sets the tone. So what you eat first thing in the day impacts your energy that you have in the afternoon. It impacts the cravings that you have after dinner. It impacts the sleep that you end up getting. It impacts everything. Our food doesn't just impact us in the moment that we're eating it, and that is especially true with breakfast as it sets the tone for how you're going to feel for the entire day. And this can even be true if you do intermittent fasting. So many women that we work with do time-restricted eating, and we recommend it to a lot of women that we do work with, just as long as it's the right window and that you're front-loading your calories instead of waiting until 12:00 PM to eat breakfast. I would like to see you have an earlier dinner so that you can have an earlier breakfast so that you're aligning your nutrition more with your circadian rhythm and the time that the sun is out and the time that the sun is setting in order to help with improving your energy and so many other symptoms, especially for women, as we are more sensitive to cortisol. We are more sensitive to stress as a whole, especially with our hormones, our sex hormones changing throughout the entire month. And having breakfast in the morning can help with improving many of those symptoms because of that. And this is the experience that I have been working with thousands of women who have been doing intermittent fasting for long periods of time and see a lot of benefits in dialing that window back and then actually starting their day with a satiating breakfast. So when I say that I would like for you to have breakfast, I don't just mean any breakfast. Of course, not skipping breakfast is the first priority, but the second is then making sure that that breakfast is satiating enough, that it's giving you enough calories, enough protein, that is giving you enough fiber. Because if you're just eating a protein bar for breakfast, you're missing the calories, you're missing the protein, you're missing the fiber, and potentially also exposing yourself to other ingredients that aren't as beneficial. And that is not going to set you up for steadier energy, for more stable hunger hormones, and for a more stable mood later in the day. Hill number 2 that I will die on is that a high glycemic meal can be made up of healthy foods like oats and acai bowls and smoothies and so many examples of quote-unquote healthy food that still lead to adverse symptoms when they aren't balanced appropriately. We every day work with women or have calls with women, or I'm in the, the community or at speaking events talking to women who say, I eat pretty healthy. I hear this all the time, and it's because they have healthy foods in their diet, but that doesn't necessarily mean that the meal is optimal. It doesn't mean that the structure is appropriate for supporting your hunger hormones, for supporting your sex hormones, for decreasing insulin resistance. And because of that, because of a lot of quote-unquote healthy food being in the wrong ratios, it can increase blood sugar within an hour of that meal, which will lead to energy crashes. It will lead to more cravings later in the day, hunger soon after the meal, more brain fog, mood swings. And that's what you experience in that exact moment. But it's not just about the symptoms throughout the day that are holding you back and, and making it harder to function at your optimal state. It's then about what's happening underneath the surface. The increases in inflammation every single time that your blood sugar is spiking. I don't want to sound like I'm fearmongering because the body is resilient and it's equipped to offset increases in blood sugar that increase inflammatory compounds in a reasonable way. But if this is your everyday, if this is chronic, if this is happening all the time, multiple times per day, then that's where you run into the increased risk of chronic inflammation and the acceleration of aging and the increased risk of nearly every single preventable chronic disease, from Alzheimer's disease to cancer to cardiovascular disease, because all of them tie back to blood sugar. And outside of that, we could even talk about perimenopausal and menopausal symptoms that are exacerbated when a person is having more blood sugar fluctuations throughout the entire day. And often in this instance, women will say, well, I had no problem tolerating these foods when I was in my 30s or even maybe in my early 40s, although I guess early 40s can get a little wonky for, for plenty of women. And it's, it's not that you've changed anything. Many women haven't changed anything. It's that their bodies are changing, that as they're going through these hormonal transitions, their insulin resistance is higher, which is decreasing their ability to tolerate quote unquote healthy foods that they used to be able to tolerate without as large of blood sugar fluctuations. Okay, hill number 3. Protein is very important, and you have heard a lot about protein. All the cookbooks, all the new foods that are coming out, uh, new products even that were just at Expo West— everyone is talking about protein and the benefits of protein. But what I want to say is that eating more protein is not a comprehensive strategy for improving your blood sugar balance, decreasing insulin resistance, and improving inflammation. So if you're a person who has increased your protein, which is great. It's great that you're being conscious about trying to make changes to your diet to help to improve how you feel. But if you have increased your protein and you don't feel that different, it's because eating more protein is not a comprehensive strategy for supporting better blood sugar and insulin sensitivity. At the same time, more is not always better. And it seems like in today's world, the message around protein is just, can't lose weight, eat more protein. You need to help build skeletal mass. You can't do this, eat more protein. You still feel hungry, eat more protein. And some people are eating plenty of protein, but they may be missing other components in their diet and other habits and, and fluids and fiber and so many other things that also play a role. So eating more is not always better. You don't always need more, and that may or may not be your case because some people absolutely do need more. the, the science behind our frameworks for our nutrition plans. And so many women report, this is amazing because I'm eating so many different foods than I've ever eaten before, and having the variety is so key because otherwise I'd be having the same grilled turkey burgers and broccoli and rice every night for dinner. So it's not just about eating optimal, it's about adding the variety so that you're able to do that in a way that sets your, your gut microbiome up for success and helps to decrease inflammation. And obviously adding variety, it takes a lot of time. It takes a lot of work and effort to think about it. And it's already hard enough to think about like what you're gonna make for dinner that night, which is where The Bean Collective, one of the many places that The Bean Collective membership can be so effective for helping with getting that variety. We strive for more than 30 plants per week in the meal plans, and that can be a huge game changer. And I do believe is one of the reasons that so many of our members have so much success. Okay, hill number 5, drink smoothies for lunch. This is the ultimate hack for afternoon energy. I discovered this many years ago. I am always on a quest for improving my energy given that I was diagnosed with narcolepsy and cataplexy, a neurological autoimmune disorder, 21 years ago and saw a functional medicine doctor 21 years ago that changed my life. But I still am always working towards improving my energy levels. It, they are never where I want them to be. And I realized that I was feeling more tired after lunch, even sometimes when my meals were blood sugar balanced. And I started doing smoothies for lunch, and my energy in the afternoon— I'm so much more focused, I'm so much more energized, I'm so much more mentally clear when I have a smoothie for lunch. This has been in the Blood Sugar Reset for the last 5 years. Almost 30,000 women have gone through the Blood Sugar Reset and have tried having the smoothies for lunch. And the number of messages that I get from people saying, wow, I can't believe how much just having a satiating smoothie that is blood sugar balanced and has, you know, lots of fiber— and we have the base of them typically is frozen cauliflower rice— how much that truly can improve your satiety, your energy, and your mental clarity. The reason that I love smoothies is because it makes it, one, really quick, especially if you work from home. You can quickly make the smoothie. If you don't work from home, you can still make it really quick the night before. You can put it in a Yeti, put it in your refrigerator, and bring it work with you. You could either drink it in the morning if that works better, or you could keep it in the refrigerator at work and have it for your lunch in the afternoon. The other thing is that it doesn't take a long time to eat, which is always nice if you are limited on time so that you can drink the smoothie. And it also provides an amazing way to get a variety of a lot of different nutrients in your diet that are in a form that's easy to digest and absorb. This isn't just about drinking any smoothie. I wouldn't recommend going to your local Smoothie King and ordering a smoothie every day for lunch, uh, when you're leaving the office. I would recommend making them at home so you have the control over the formulation. And I like to make smoothies based on various flavor profiles. So for instance, in The Bean Collective, we'll have a chocolate truffle smoothie, a strawberry lemonade smoothie, a blueberry lemonade smoothie, a chocolate peanut butter smoothie. We have so many different variations so that we can mimic different flavor profiles and make it that much more enjoyable. So that it feels like you're going to an ice cream store and getting a different flavor for lunch every day while also feeling satiated. So making it at home, making sure that you're adding enough protein, enough fiber, that the base of it is something like cauliflower rice, which is amazing for the creaminess of the smoothie, and then also the benefits of having a cruciferous vegetable that can be so beneficial for hormone health, and having the right ratio of protein to fruit in order to prevent a blood sugar spike. Hill number 6— this is probably the biggest for me. Hill number 6, I will absolutely die on this hill. Most of the supplements that your favorite influencers are advertising to you and pushing to you are a waste of your time and money. They are a distraction. So I want to just add the fact that, for context, I am a big believer in the importance of supplements. I know various healthcare experts have differing opinions on this. I have been recommending supplements for 10+ years, but not random supplements, not supplements that are a distraction. I'm thinking about supplements that are the core, like your magnesium and omega-3 fatty acids, but then also supplements that are personalized to your needs. I have tested thousands of people with nutrient deficiency testing, and even people who eat very healthy that are shopping at Whole Foods that buying mostly organic, that are paying attention to the quality of the ingredients that they're putting in their body, they still can have large health gaps or large nutrient gaps where supplements can play a really important role. And the confusing thing is that sometimes when we talk about influencers or people who are pushing these products, they could even be your favorite podcasters or YouTubers that are prominent doctors who are pushing AG1 for $79 a month, even though a recent research study looked at the control group that wasn't taking AG1 and the intervention group and showed no clinically significant outcomes for the intervention group compared to the control group. And this is something that you're spending $79 a month on that isn't necessarily moving the needle on your health, and you're being heavily marketed to on social media and probably netting out in the same place where you might not even feel that much better. So you want to be— you want to pay really close attention to all of the products that are being marketed by influencers that are non-experts that just have big followings, that have no background in health, that don't really understand the nutrition behind the recommendations that they're making because they're likely reading a script or something that was asked of them to incorporate from the company. And then also people who are even experts who are still recommending various products in order to, to secure the needs of that brand partnership. And I say this as someone who has had social media for a number of years. I've had an online presence for a number of years. Now I understand that when you have an online presence, because of having it myself, is that when you're spending as much time on the internet and building your brand, that there has to be some kind of compensation that you're getting for all of the time. Especially, you know, in my instance, this is my full-time job. I have a full team that are all depending on paychecks to feed their family from the nutrition programs that we've built. And so you have a number of options when you're online. One could be you make money through affiliates. So for instance, we have various affiliate partnerships. We have about 12 where for the protein powders, for instance, that I recommend, We include the link and then we get a small percentage of those sales. And I feel good about that because affiliates don't impact what you recommend, right? You get an affiliate link with anyone and it's not like they're paying you or telling you the messaging that you have to use when you're promoting something. The second is brand partnerships. This is when companies pay doctors, influencers, etc. to promote a certain product like AG1 and say, here's the benefits that we'd like you to speak to. Or maybe they're opening it up for that person to be able to speak to the benefits that they want to speak to themselves, but they get paid based on that partnership and the conversions that they drive, et cetera. Now, I had a few, just really honestly one interaction when I was very early on in my career where I really realized how much accepting money from a company can impact, can put you in a bit of a bind where it's not 100% what you feel and believe, but you can kind of like twist it a bit and be in alignment with what they're asking of you. I'll tell that story another time, but I realized like that is not the road that I want to go down in order to maintain a trusted expertise and to have your trust. Um, now there are ways potentially that I think I could take brand partnerships tips and make it aligned, especially with how expensive like running a podcast and YouTube is. But I do, I think that there's a right way to do it instead of just like going after the biggest companies. The reason I'm saying this is because I just want you to understand how reasonable it is that you feel confused. This is what I hear every day, all day, and I'm just talking through a few different scenarios and the impacts that they have. Another option that you have is building your own programs, which is what I chose to do, building out my own programs. With my team of dietitians because that's truly my expertise and where we can really make the biggest impact is in building amazing programs that change lives. And then, you know, you can say whatever you want about any product. And then having your own product line is another option that you can go down in order to have the, the autonomy to, to develop what you want to have in the marketplace and then be able to market it in the way that you want. And then books and other things like that are also an option, but that's usually the money outside of just your book deal that's tied to income is typically like brand partnerships as you grow your personal brand. So the reason that I'm saying all this is because I just want you to be aware that products like green powders, colostrum, all of the ones that are being marketed to you, they are marketed to you in exchange for money that people are making. And that may lead to you taking products that you don't necessarily need to take. Nothing is more effective than dialing in your nutrition and doing it based on the latest research— eating more than 30 plants per week, getting enough fiber, getting enough protein, getting prebiotics, the variety of phytochemicals, omega-3 fatty acids. Although technically omega-3s are also in supplement form, my point here is that hitting these markers from a nutrition standpoint, taking your time and energy and putting it into that that is what will take you the furthest in the long run. Okay, hill number 7 that I will die on: it's not just about what you eat, it's about how you eat. And before I even get into the how, I do want to just note that extended beyond the how is your relationship with food. It's the presence that you have with your meals. It's your ability to slow down and actually chew your food to help to improve the digestibility of that food and assimilate more of those nutrients. And outside of those being an important component, it's also about how slow you're eating and the, the rate at which you're eating. So this really came up for me when I interviewed Dr. Sarah Berry, who is also a very well-known nutrition researcher out of the UK who's published a number of different studies alongside Dr. Tim Spector. And she said in that interview, if you can decrease the speed that you eat by 20%, you can decrease your total food intake by 15% without even thinking about it. So outside of just thinking about the digestibility and absorbing more nutrients when you slow down and you're more present with your meal, it also lends the importance of slowing down so that you can tune into your hunger and satiety cues, so that you give your body the ability to and the time that it needs to release those hunger hormones that help to signal to you, I'm satiated and I don't need to continue eating. And this can happen, you know, maintaining a healthy caloric intake can happen without obsessively counting and tracking calories. Slowing down can help with improving body composition and then also help with breaking down your meals so that it makes them more digestible, which is something that I feel is so important for both of those reasons. Now, with that said, I would love to invite you to join me in the Being Collective membership so that we can help you reduce the food and nutrition confusion. We can help you get really consistent on what really matters. It's not about working harder, it's about being smarter. It's about having the roadmap and focusing on the things that will move the needle with your health and joining a community of thousands of women who are on the same health optimization journey as you. This is everything that we include in the Being Collective. We release new meal plans every week, helping you hit these goals for increasing the variety of the 30 plants or more per week without having to think about it, saving you 2 to 3 hours a week. At the same time, hitting protein, hitting fiber, hitting a variety of different phytochemicals and phytonutrients to help with lowering inflammation and also making the food taste delicious so that you don't have to make a million different meals for your family. In addition to that, we have over 800 recipes that are included in your recipe bank. We have Brigid AI that we're rolling out, which is the, uh, AI chatbot that's been trained on hundreds of hours of trainings that I have done and templates and protocols that I have created over the last 11 years so that you can ask ask very specific questions and get very specific answers. We have the best community, and we would love to welcome you to that. So if you're interested in joining us for The Being Collective, you can click the link below, and more information will be there about The Being Collective. And now I want to recap the top 7 hills that I will die on. Number 1, the importance of eating breakfast, starting your day with breakfast, and setting the tone for the day. Number 2, a high glycemic diet can be made up of healthy foods like oatmeal, acai bowls, and smoothies. Number 3, protein is important, but eating more protein is not a comprehensive strategy for improving blood sugar and insulin sensitivity. Number 4, variety in your diet is so important for your metabolic health and decreasing inflammation. Number 5, 5, drinking smoothies for lunch is the ultimate hack for afternoon energy, as long as they are formulated appropriately in order to do so. Number 6, most supplements that your favorite influencers are pushing are a waste of money and a distraction. And number 7 is not just what you eat, it is how you eat. Let me know in the comments if you enjoyed this. Join us for the Being Collective membership. Please take the time to like this video and subscribe to The Being Brigid Show. It truly makes a huge difference. If you're listening on Apple or Spotify, if you can like and subscribe as well. Thank you so much for being part of The Being Brigid Show, and I'll see you next time.