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The Rejuvenating Health Podcast
Join Women's Health Nurse Practitioner, Lindsey VanSchoyck for a weekly dose of Precision Medicine as she addresses the hot-button topics specific to Women's Health, Fitness and Nutrition, interviews expert guests and hosts round table discussions with the team of dedicated functional health care specialists.
The Rejuvenating Health Podcast
E157 | Food Labels Made Simple
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Food labels aren’t “confusing by accident” they’re designed to steer your brain. If you’ve been eating what looks healthy on the front of the package yet still deal with fatigue, cravings, mood swings, belly fat, or weight loss resistance, we’re pulling back the curtain on why. We talk through how marketing claims like gluten-free, organic, keto, and plant-based can create a health halo that hides what really matters: the ingredients your body has to metabolize.
We get practical and physiological. We connect refined carbs and hidden sugars to blood sugar spikes, insulin release, insulin resistance, and cortisol swings that ripple into hormone balance and thyroid function. We also break down why industrial seed oils (soybean, canola, corn, sunflower) show up everywhere, how the omega-3 to omega-6 ratio has shifted, and why chronic inflammation and mitochondrial dysfunction can look like brain fog, poor recovery, and feeling drained all day.
Then we give you a simple system you can use in real life: ignore the front, flip it over, scan the first three ingredients, check added sugar, look for seed oils, and assess protein quality and quantity. We also cover portion size distortion and why “high-protein” processed foods often don’t hit the protein target that actually keeps you full, including the leucine threshold and what a true 25 to 35 grams of protein per meal looks like.
If you want more energy, steadier hunger, and fewer “why isn’t this working?” moments in the grocery aisle, hit play. Subscribe, share this with a friend who buys the “healthy” version, and leave a five-star review so more women can learn to shop with confidence.
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Disclaimer And Welcome
SPEAKER_01Any views, thoughts, and opinions expressed on the Rejuvenating Health Podcast are solely those of the speakers and are intended as such. Please consult your trusted healthcare practitioner for medical advice. Let's go, girls.
SPEAKER_00Welcome back to the Rejuvenat Health Podcast. Thank you for joining us, ladies. I am Coach Lakin and I'm joined by Women's Health Nurse Practitioner Lindsay. And today we are going to talk about something that we get asked about a lot and it seems pretty basic, but it's actually one of the biggest reasons that women tend to really struggle with their nutrition and feel stuck.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, food labels are conf well, I think the food industry is just really confusing.
SPEAKER_00Intentionally so, yes.
SPEAKER_01Like even trying to teach my kids about it, I'm like, dang, everything's marketed a crazy way.
SPEAKER_00And greenwashed and yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. So we're gonna talk about reading food labels because it's not just about reading food labels. Like what you put into your body matters a lot. It matters to your metabolic health, your hormone balance, your inflammation. Like we hear every day that women are doing everything, but they aren't getting results. And a lot of it is because they truly, truly, truly think they're doing everything right. But we dig in and yeah, maybe maybe so much.
SPEAKER_00They're seeing in the marketing, not necessarily the label or the ingredients, makes them think that what they're doing is healthy, but it really isn't.
Why Labels Affect Hormones
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah. And food labels are a huge reason why. And there's not really like a lot of laws around how you can market stuff. Um I mean, I see that all the time in the supplement industry, too.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Yeah. So let's talk about why, why does this even matter? Like just beyond, you know, we talk about eating clean, but why does it matter to actually look at the labels or end up, you know, what happens a lot is misreading the labels on food.
SPEAKER_01Well, I mean, every time you misinterpret a food label, it's not like that you're doing anything wrong, but if you misinterpret it, you're potentially triggering a blood sugar spike, something that's going to trigger insulin resistance, a cortisol spike, an inflammation spike is more probably common than anything. And over time, because we're consuming things that we maybe think are healthy, we're getting weight loss resistance and fatigue and hormone imbalances and sugar cravings. And it it really does add up.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. So Yeah, so all these things that like we see in like, you know, we hear that all the time when we're like, oh, I thought that was healthier. Oh, you know, I thought that that was I thought that was the good version of that thing that I was trying to eat. And it's like, oh, like unfortunately, no.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I mean, like like look at a protein bar. It's literally just a candy bar with protein in it. Like my son loves this one protein bar, and I like flipped it over and I'm like, dude, this is literally a candy bar. Like, yeah, you're getting a little protein in it, but it's it's a candy bar.
SPEAKER_00So yeah, it's a lot of sugar.
Blood Sugar Spikes And Fat Storage
SPEAKER_01Yeah, let's kind of dive in and talk about why this matters. Like what actually happens physiologically. So when you eat a food high in refined carbohydrates, I mean, that could even be a piece of bread or hidden sugars, your blood glucose rises really quickly. You get this blood sugar spike. And if you've ever worn a CGM, you can see this happen. And when that blood sugar spike happens, that triggers insulin to be released. And over time, those repeated spikes cause those cells to become resistant to insulin. And then you're spitting out more and more insulin, which we've done tons of podcasts on insulin resistance. So go back and look at those. But if you have elevated insulin, you're gonna have increased fat storage in your abdomen and your ghrelin and leptin, your hunger hormones are gonna be off.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. And so this is why a lot of people can be eating low calorie or what's marketed as them as like low calorie, low fat, but they're not losing weight because their blood sugar is not regulated.
SPEAKER_01Which is why I hate tracking macros.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And weight watchers. If it fits your points or your macros, you can eat it, but you're not taking into account what it's doing to your body physiologically.
SPEAKER_00And well, and the hidden sugars is really important too, because there's what, like 23 different names for sugar on food labels that they can use, and it can be disguised as anything because it's more marketable to say, you know, I don't know, brown rice syrup. And then you're like, oh, brown rice is healthy. It's sugar, right? It's all sugar.
SPEAKER_01And I think as women, especially women our age, we've always been taught it's calories in, calories out, and tracking calories and all that type of stuff.
SPEAKER_00And that's not or to be f afraid of fat. That was a big one.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and that's not really the case. The quality of your food matters a ton because insulin, not necessarily calories, is often the driver of fat storage. We just got back from vacation and we it was like a great vacation, and we're kind of bougie and we had like a butler, and they're like, How do you eat so much? Like you're so small. Like, how like I eat like a horse, but I eat whole foods that do not cause blood sugar spikes. And so that's where like if you followed me around for a day, you'd be like, How are do you eat that much food? But I'm eating stuff that's not causing insulin to spike, which isn't causing fat storage. I like I've seen people eat one meal a day and it's a piece of pizza, and maybe it's 800 calories, but they're overweight. So I mean, you add that in and then you layer on hormones, which we're all struggling with at this point in our lives if we're over 35. And your insulin impacts your estrogen balance, your blood sugar swings increase your cortisol, your cortisol disrupts your thyroid conversion. And we've talked about all of these things in podcasts in the past.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and all of those things are gonna cause the most common symptoms that we see, which is the fatigue, the weight gain, the mood fluctuations, like instability with mood, all of that.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and it's all from eating like healthy granola. Or protein oatmeal, or you know, just something that's marketed that you think you're eating right.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, like the protein pancakes or waffles. Like if if it's processed and it at the end of the day, like it is a carbohydrate trying to be disguised as a protein source and it's just not a protein source. Like that is a lot of it. And it'll be really interesting. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Like not carbohydrates that have some protein powder mixed in them.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, or high protein veggies if you are like legumes and you know, things like that, if you're if you're a vegan or vegetarian. But like I think it will be really interesting to see as this becomes more mainstream knowledge, because there has been a little bit like a shift more in the biohawker demographic, but I think it's becoming more and more popular of like blood sugar regulation. So it'll be really interesting to see as that takes hold or as that continues to trend, if that's the direction that the marketing will go next. But they always tend to overcompensate something for the other. So if it's like a low fat item that they're marketing is low fat or low calorie, they're gonna overcompensate with added sugars, for example, so it still tastes good. So it'll be interesting to see is as we go in the future, if the marketing will go more to like, oh, low sugar or you know, A1C balanced meal, like things like that. But what will they do to overcompensate for it? Yeah. So that'll be really interesting. And this is where clients will get stuck mentally because they'll say things like, nothing works for me because I'm doing all these things and I'm getting the right types of food, but they they don't know.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's like reality is it's not that nothing works, it's that like you're really unknowingly eating foods that are keeping your body metabolically stressed out.
unknownYeah.
SPEAKER_00So I'm gonna look at like the front label versus like the stuff that we want to focus on more, like the nutrition or the ingredients and the nutrition label. So the front label, it's gonna hijack your brain a little bit. And it's because that that package, that packaging and what's there is not by accident. It's very specifically designed to do so.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I mean, processed food is literally designed to keep you eating more, like to keep you addicted to it. And so is the food packaging. It's it's engineered. Food companies study psychology and they use cognitive biases, emotional language, color psychology. They use all of these tactics to get you to buy their food.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and to buy it in volume.
SPEAKER_01Right. Like, why do you think all these kids love, like, have you ever looked down the cookie aisle? Like it's all like Fruit Loops and Flamingos and bright colors and Yeah, and cartoon characters, and like it's all stimulating.
SPEAKER_00And there are certain colors that like appeal to our appetite. It's like this is all this is all on purpose.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah. And so there's that, and then there's also something called this halo effect where it's this health halo effect where if a product says organic or gluten-free or keto or plant-based, your brain automatically assumes, well, this is healthy. Like most of that stuff is not healthy. Most of the stuff that says gluten-free and keto, it's like literally just junk food with a label slapped on it that makes you think it's healthy, essentially.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. And it's funny because at the same time, your brain will also tell you that there's some type of association that that food's not going to taste as good. Like, how many times do you see people, especially like of an older generation, will like look at something and they'll be like, oh, it's gluten-free. It's not good. Like it's not gonna taste good. Or like, oh no, that's like I can't, no, that's gonna taste bad. And it's like, it's just funny how our brain starts to make these generalized associations just on like what the what the label says or what the advertising is on it.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah. And all those foods are like so dopamine driven. Any type of processed food is designed to activate your dopamine pathway, to override your satiety signals, to increase repeat consumption. Like, why do you think if you sit down with a bag of chips, oh, oh, they're all gone now. Like you didn't even pay attention to it because you just ate the whole bag of chips.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and it's not, it's not just a matter of like willpower, you know, I can't stop doing this. Like, I want to, and I can't stop doing it. Again, this is this is chemical warfare essentially on your brain.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, it's brain, yeah. It literally is neurochemistry. Yeah. This stuff is designed for you to overeat it and to be confused.
SPEAKER_00And to be clear, we're talking about if you did not know, we're talking about processed foods. This is we don't have to worry about this happening with, you know, an apple or a potato or, you know, like chicken. Like this is what happens when their foods are coming in a package, hence why it's foods that have a label on it.
SPEAKER_01Like, yeah, I don't know that I've ever seen someone just like sit down and like gorge on a chicken breast.
SPEAKER_00No, no, not unless it was covered in breading and sauce. And still, and then it probably came in a package if it's bread and comes with some.
SPEAKER_01Like the amount of people that say, like, I can't eat that many eggs, and I'm like, you could eat that many carbohydrates, like that's a mental thing, too.
SPEAKER_00Yes, yeah. And yeah, it's the association that you have with it, what kind of dopamine hit you're getting from it. And I also think it's it's like if we could start to get in touch with the feeling that we get when we eat in certain things, like how much of it is nostalgia, how much of it is like comfort or soothing as opposed to just matching my hunger with the input. Not to say that food should not bring joy, but it should not be like a sole source of joy. And there's a difference between enjoying a food experience and having joy that accompanies that, and avoidance or distraction or coping.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
unknownYeah.
Ingredient List Rules That Matter
SPEAKER_00Yeah. So what do we do about this when we're being deceived by the food marketing industry?
SPEAKER_01Well, you gotta remove some decision fatigue. Like you have to make up a jillion decisions a day. So remove some of that decision fatigue. And kind of the rule is the front of the package is irrelevant. Like, I don't give a diddly squat what the front of the package says on it. Like, you should just not even look at the front of the package, don't even engage with it. It's the back of the package that matters. And really, ideally, you're not even eating anything out of a package except on occasion.
SPEAKER_00But I think we do have to be realistic. You're gonna eat it. Like we have to be realistic and meet people where they are. Like, there's gonna be some things, especially like depending on your lifestyle, depending on what's going on, convenience is king. Unfortunately, that just is the way of the world. And with time being an asset that's spent elsewhere, it's not spent as much in the kitchen as it used to be. I think that the reality is that most people are eating a good amount of packaged items. And so that's where we can utilize the tool of recognizing that the ingredient list is where we want to put most of our focus and attention because that's the most important part.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Yeah. The ingredient list tells you what your body has to metabolize. So the ingredient list is really important and the order of the ingredient list is crazy important. So ingredients are listed by their weight. So how much in how much of the ingredient is in the product? So normally the first three to five ingredients are the majority of the product. If the first ingredient is sugar, run because that thing is all sugar.
SPEAKER_00Or if it's like hydrogenated oil or, you know, something that you cannot pronounce, that's also a big one.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah. And because seed oils cause a ton of inflammation. And industrial seed oils are found in a lot of processed foods, and those are going to show up as soybean oil, canola oil, corn oil, sunflower oil. And these are all really high in omega-6 fatty acids, which are pro-inflammatory. And ideally, historically, when we weren't seeing all these processed foods, when you eat, you would have this ratio of omega-3 to omega-6 balance. And ideally, that ratio is one to one. So however many omega-3s, which are anti-inflammatory, you're gonna have omega-6s, which are pleuroinflammatory. That ratio now is 15 to 20 to 1.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Meaning not 15 to 20 is in like the range of 15 to 20 of omega-6s, like the bad one, versus the one omega-3, the anti-inflammatory.
SPEAKER_01Like it's literally 20 times the amount of omega-6s. Yeah. And that's what's causing the chronic inflammation, the insulin resistance, the mitochondrial dysfunction that we're all seeing right now. Like people really underestimate mitochondrial dysfunction. Again, I was on vacation and I posted that I was sitting in the sun. They're like, you're gonna get skin cancer. And I'm like, well, maybe, but really, what drives cancer? It's mitochondrial dysfunction. And I'm pretty sure that my body is mitochondrial, it's like real healthy. Like, again, you should wear sunscreen and I did, but but your mitochondria are like super important. They're your energy producers, they can turn on cancer genes, all that type of stuff. And if we're eating a bunch of those inflammatory oils, we're really gonna impair our ATP production and our cellular efficiency, essentially.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and that again is gonna show up as the fatigue, the brain fog, like not being able to recover from your workouts, basically feeling like shit all the time.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, exactly. And you know, you talked earlier about like the hidden sugars.
SPEAKER_00So they're everywhere.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, but chemically, there's a ton of hidden sugar names. And when you're eating those those alternate forms of sugar, it leads to glycation where your sugar binds up to proteins, and this causes collagen aging, damage to your blood vessels, to your organs, all that type of stuff, which is not good, and it's probably why you're not losing weight.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. So so far, like when we when we're looking for things to avoid, first of all, we're not engaging with the front of the package, we're looking at the back of the package, and even more so than than the nutrition label, because I think even people that have some knowledge about reading food labels will go there first because at least you're looking at okay, how much protein is in this, like the protein to carb ratio, things like that. That's all fine and good. But at the end of the day, the ingredients are gonna be the most valuable piece of information on that package because again, it's gonna tell you what is actually in the food, and you want to avoid things that are gonna have sugar within the sugar or in all of its forms in the first three to five ingredients, and you're gonna want to avoid anything that has, I would say more than five ingredients that you can't recognize or pronounce. So it's like it should be recognizable.
SPEAKER_01I eat an RX bar every day, and it comes in a package, but that RX bar has like five ingredients, and I can say the name of every ingredient.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it's like egg whites, dates, nuts, or like nut butter.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. I don't even know what's maybe even the whatever flavor it is that I'm eating.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_01And so you also have to you can get in this really negative mindset too when you're looking at this and you're like, I can't have this, I can't have that. And again, you have to shift that into thinking, like, okay, like does this food love my body back? Like, that's sometimes what I think.
SPEAKER_00What is it really doing? What are these ingredients doing inside of my body?
Seed Oils And Chronic Inflammation
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah. So food labels, we're gonna look at can I recognize the ingredients? Can I pronounce them? Are there five ingredients or less? Then we have to dive into this whole portion size distortion.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, portion size is really sneaky. You know where I see it the sneakiest is nuts. Because nuts, especially even when they come in the like the individual serving size packets, if you notice, those packets are usually two to three servings, even in the individual packet. Nobody's eating half or a third of those little nut packets, but that is truly what a serving size is. And so when you look at how much fat is contained in there, and while they're healthy fats, it's still, you know, a good amount of fat. And I'm not like, I'm not villainizing nuts. It nuts are a quality snack. But when we look at anything that's packaged, again, that's where serving sizes can get really, really tricky.
SPEAKER_01I mean, it's just any anything in the US, the serving size is oversized. Yeah. Like m if you go out to eat, you're probably eating four at least double the serving size that you should be eating, if not three to four times. When we were at in St. Lucia, so we I don't know what we were talking about. Like the Italian restaurant there is not very good. And one of the waitresses was like, uh, what's your good Italian restaurant, Olive Garden? And we're like, not really, but it's a chain restaurant, you know? And she's like, I went there and there's a lot of food. I'm like, yeah, it's like four times the serving. Like when you go on an all-inclusive vacation, like they give you a legit they don't give you enough vegetables at all. Maybe not enough protein, but like carbohydrate servings. Yeah, but they're they're the right servings. Like serving sizes are manipulated a lot of times to like make the number look better. And humans are terrible at estimating portions. Terrible.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. Yeah, like when people start to try, like if you have no, that's why that's why tracking can be beneficial. Like, we're not super into tracking because what that like how that can start to create some behaviors. But the benefit of the knowledge that you gain from it for a period of time, like if you could just go into it with curiosity and the goal of like learning about what's in the food that you're eating, that can be really beneficial because we are terrible at estimating portion size.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I mean, like like what you were talking about earlier in the nuts. Like you're reading the food label and you're like, oh, this has 150 calories and five grams of sugar. Oh, but it's three servings. So I just ate this whole package and instead add 450 calories and 15 grams of sugar.
SPEAKER_00Right. Right. Yeah, that happens a lot. And it's again, it's just awareness, right? Like you have to have the awareness first. So it's not about shaming yourself for something that's already happened or like, you know, finding ways to judge yourself in the moment of when you read something and you're like, oh, I didn't realize that, or I've been doing this for this long. It's okay, bring awareness to it, release the shame of what's already happened in the past, recognize that you're going into it with new knowledge now, and ask yourself like, would I realistically only eat one serving of this? And if not, then multiply it so that way you're getting an accurate indication of what you are consuming.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Yeah, exactly. So let's talk about protein because we dig on protein a lot, but let's make it a little bit scientific here on why you should eat protein first and why it is so important. Protein, not processed protein. I'm not talking about your quest protein ships, like like healthy protein, like legumes, beans, tofu, meat products impact your satiety hormones. So they you can naturally raise your GLP1 by eating protein. They help with muscle preservation, they help with blood sugar stateability. So there is a certain amount of protein that you have to eat in each serving to make that protein beneficial. It's called a leuc threshold, right? And so to stimulate muscle protein synthesis, you need at least like 2.5 to 3 grams of leucine per meal, which usually requires about 25 to 35 grams of high quality protein per meal.
Hidden Sugars And Glycation Aging
SPEAKER_00I want to be really, really clear with that. Yeah, because I feel like people hear like the 2.5 grams, right? It's like the 2.5 grams is of the leucine, which is an amino acid that's in protein. It's not the protein itself. So the total grams of protein that's required to get that much leucine is the 25 to 35 grams a day, which is why our general recommendation is 30 grams of protein per meal. 30 grams of protein is a full serving of protein. That means eating a piece of meat, roughly the size of my hand or my palm at least. And I'm looking at, you know, if it's something like eggs, it's not just gonna be like two eggs, like that's only what 16 grams of protein, maybe. So it's gonna be eggs and some egg whites, or eggs and some breakfast meat, or something like that. But that's why we also see so many people under. Undereating protein because it goes back to that underestimating or overestimating portion sizes. And we tend to underestimate things that we associate that take more effort to eat, which is our protein, and that doesn't and doesn't give us our dopamine hits. And we'll sorry, overestimate those and we'll underestimate the carb heavy things that give us that dopamine hit because then they're not giving us that satiety that protein does.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. And marketing, this is like another huge marketing trap, right? Like people will market stuff as high protein, like, oh, I'm eating protein pancakes. Like literally, there's six grams of protein in that protein pancake. Yeah. Like, okay, I get it. It has some protein in it, but it's doesn't really have that much protein. It has a lot of carbs and sugar in it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, that's where the ratios come into importance. It's like, yes, okay, it has some protein in it, but how much of the entire thing is made up of protein? Not that much. And again, if you were to look at the ingredients in that item, in that package item, it'll tell you where the protein is in the order of importance. And I can guarantee you it's not the first ingredient.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and like when you're choosing that, like ask yourself, is this gonna keep me full? Like that one protein waffle that has six grams of protein in it, is gonna keep me full for 30 minutes long. Where if I ate six eggs, I'm not eating anything again for four hours.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01So weigh that in too.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. So if we were gonna make this practical, like if we're if we're coaching someone and we want to create a system around it, what is the system that the we would put in place?
Serving Sizes And Portion Distortion
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so there's kind of like this five-step method. Ignore the front of the package. Like besides that, it says what you're actually like putting in your mouth. Ignore any of the marketing on the package. It's a piece of bread, whatever. Flip it over and read the first three ingredients. Check the added sugar, make sure there's less than eight grams of sugar, evaluate added sugar, yes. Evaluate what type of seed oils are in it, and then assess your protein quality and quantity. So you want to flip it over. Like I'm going to look at an RX bar. Okay, I'm ignoring everything besides that it says RX bar. I'm flipping it over and I'm seeing that it has five ingredients in it, no added sugars really. It doesn't have any seed oils in it, and it has 12 grams of protein. Not enough protein, but for a snack, it's fine.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, and if we were looking at like the protein ratio. So something that a quick way that I've done it before is like, okay, if you were to put a zero after the grams of protein and compare that to the total calories, what would that ratio look like? So for example, an RX bar is what, like 300 calories?
SPEAKER_01Two. So 200.
SPEAKER_00Okay. So let's say it's 200 calories, and if you added a zero to the 12, it'd be 120 to a 200, you know, ratio. That's pretty favorable because it's over half.
SPEAKER_01Yep.
SPEAKER_00If we're looking at something where it's like, okay, like we did with the protein waffles, six grams of protein, I guarantee you it's more calories probably per serving than the 200 grams in the RX bar, then that's an unfavorable ratio. Then we're looking at only 60 to however many total calories there are, and it's definitely less than 50%. So that's just an example that we can give you guys of okay, if I'm running through these things, this is what I want to look for, and this is what I want to keep an eye out for, and this is how I'm gauging my food purchases when I'm looking at these labels. And the next piece is the behavior change strategy. Because again, this is not something that we're gonna overhaul everything all at once. That's not a realistic way to approach this. So start with one category like snacks, because that's a really big area of opportunity there, because that's gonna be where most of your packaged food is, hopefully. And it's also going to allow you to change out like a small portion of the day at a time as opposed to trying to overhaul everything that you're cooking currently. So start with one category like your snacks, replace, but don't restrict, right? So it's not saying I'm never gonna have any snacks. It's oh, I'm gonna look for an alternative to this snack that I've been using that doesn't fit this guideline of these, you know, this five-step label method. And then you want to build confidence as you go. So as you make these replacements, you're acknowledging the replacement that you made and you're recognizing the win of, oh, I'm choosing this alternative that's better for me. And I I'm noticing how I feel better when I do it. I don't get a big blood sugar spike. I don't get fatigue later in the day after I have that. I'm more consistent with eating my other meals because I'm getting the satiety that I'm looking for. Choose those those substitutes, but also acknowledge like the shift that you're making.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, and so you've got like the knowledge shift, the behavior shift, and then you have to do this identity shift and knowing that the goal is not perfection. The goal is I'm gonna be a person who understands what I'm putting in my body. And I'm making informed decisions. And it's okay if I want to make the informed decision of eating a dilly bar. Great. At least I know what I'm putting in my body.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. There's a lot of shame tied up in judgment of on both sides of like, well, I don't eat any of anything that contains this, or I only eat this way, or you know, I'm only eating, I'm not eating anything at all that ever comes in a package. It's like meet yourself where you are, be realistic with what works with your lifestyle, and then check like again, that same reframe that Lindsay just said, like, if the only goal was to understand what I'm putting in my body and create awareness around it, start there. And then you can start to make distinct um like affirmations about what works best for you, right? But there does have to be a phase of identifying what is actually currently happening and what direction do I want to go in before I just proclaim like I'm not eating any refined sugars forever, right? Like that's not that's not realistic and you kind of set yourself up.
SPEAKER_01Right. When I'm traveling, like I go to the gas station to get packaged foods, but you know what I get? Like the chicken and the hard-boiled eggs, or like a thing of like cheese and crackers and lunch meat. Is it perfect? No, no, it's better than a candy bar, right?
SPEAKER_00Right, or like a bag of chips, or yeah.
SPEAKER_01It is 2026, and literally, if you stop at a gas station, there's almost something that you can choose to be healthy.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, there's lots of options. You can get a yogurt, you can get like I love those like pickled vegetables things, like the pickled carrots.
SPEAKER_01Now, fast food restaurants, there's not always a good option.
SPEAKER_00It'll be disguised as a good option.
SPEAKER_01I don't even know that. Now, like I took my kids to like they wanted Wendy's, and I'm like, they don't even have a grilled chicken sandwich. Like, how do you not have grilled chicken, like where I can just take it off the bun? Like everything's deep fried. So, like maybe you go, I I chose gas station over that.
SPEAKER_00Like, yeah. I guess when you said fast food restaurants, I'm thinking like restaurants, because I don't yeah, I I got you. No, like lack of exposure because it's been so long, but yeah, like you don't have kids, yeah. Well yeah, but like the like a drive-thru situation, like yeah, I get it. Yeah, so if this episode changed just a little bit the way that you look at food labels, good.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, because awareness is the first step, yeah, yeah.
SPEAKER_00And if you want help applying this, like that's where we come in.
SPEAKER_01I will preach this till I'm dead. Knowledge without implementation doesn't change your outcome. So when it comes to your labs, when it comes to everything, you can have all the knowledge in the world. You can literally chat GPT anything these days, but you have to be able to implement it. Yes. So share this with a friend, give us a five-star review, and we'll catch you next time.
SPEAKER_00See you next time.