The Chain Effect Podcast
A Physical Therapist and a Registered Dietitian discuss health, fitness, kiddos, and fun in practical ways for real people and families.
Dr. Taylor Pope and Caroline Pope founded Chain Effect, a comprehensive wellness and fitness studio combining physical therapy, nutrition counseling, personal training, and active recovery services under one roof in Raleigh, NC in 2015. Their mission is to show people how every link strengthens the chain of health to feel better, move better, get strong, and increase health span.
Learn more about Chain Effect at www.chaineffect.com
The Chain Effect Podcast
Super-Nutrients in Our Produce
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
In this episode we discuss the lesser known superpowers of everyday produce and yes, why you should be eating more of it. We also talk about what exactly causes some extra weird pee and poo. And, do vegetables have feelings??
Welcome to the Chain Effect Podcast, where a physical therapist and a dietitian married with two kids struggle the struggle of running a business, raising a family, and prioritizing our own health, all while trying to have as much fun as possible.
SPEAKER_00We're your hosts, Taylor Pope, doctor of physical therapy, and
SPEAKER_01Caroline Pope, registered dietitian.
SPEAKER_00Together, we own and operate a health facility, bringing together physical therapists, dietitians, personal trainers, and active recovery services to create what we call the Chain Effect.
SPEAKER_01Today we are talking about some superpowers of food. I
SPEAKER_00hope we talk about coffee because like I love coffee.
SPEAKER_01Not today. This is part one. We'll probably have part two, part three. Yeah, there's all sorts of stuff we can do. But today we're talking about lesser known nutrients besides the more obvious.
SPEAKER_00Are there superpowers in ribeyes? Yeah. Okay. We'll
SPEAKER_01talk about meat next time.
SPEAKER_00Okay. Today we're going to talk about produce.
SPEAKER_01Mostly produce today.
SPEAKER_00Which is really exciting because, you know, it's probably some of the, like, more specialized superpowers, right? The things that are, you know, because random plants just have... you know, evolved over millennia to be doing what they're doing. And they each have their own little special trick that they're able to do.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Well, I remember a few months ago, whenever we had beats, you were like, there's gotta be something magical in this, right? Like turning your poop and pee red for days, for days.
SPEAKER_00Is it just like, coating my ins, you know, it's like, is it just coating my inside with dye? And then how could that be bad for me?
SPEAKER_01Well, the superpower in beets, if we just want to get into it.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, let's go. Let's get into it.
SPEAKER_01One of the compounds is beta lanes and they have, or a beta lane and it has antioxidant anti-inflammatory conditions. So that is a superpower that, or that is a super nutrient. I could say in beets. However, the compound that actually makes the poop and the pee red is a compound called beta-nin.
SPEAKER_00And
SPEAKER_01it gives its vibrant red hue. But what happens is it has a high uptake in the gut, which means that it's absorbed in really large concentrations, kind of like what you were thinking, same wavelength, which can cause the pigment to be excreted rapidly in your urine and then later in the stool. So it's a phenomenon called beeturia.
SPEAKER_00Beeturia. So
SPEAKER_01now we can refer it to it. Beeturia. Beeturia. Now, I also read only a small percentage of the population actually, this actually occurs.
SPEAKER_00Oh, what?
SPEAKER_01But every time with us.
SPEAKER_00You know, I think we've told this story before, but.
SPEAKER_01A lot.
SPEAKER_00I got, it's still so funny though, but I got bit in it when he was like, I don't know, three years old to eat a beet. Just so he could be in the purple poop club. And the, I still remember to this day, the look on his face when he like put that in his mouth and he was like dry heaving in his mouth, but he swallowed it. He swallowed that thing.
SPEAKER_01He will do
SPEAKER_00it. Yeah. He'll do it.
SPEAKER_01He's determined. He's a determined boy. I feel, I do feel like there needs to be a warning label on beats. That's like warning. Yeah. This could make your stool bright red and you might think you have bloody stools. Because a lot of people get concerned.
SPEAKER_00Right. And what's the... Is it like... What's the... There's like a vitamin that will also turn... Turn stuff red. What is that? It's like,
SPEAKER_01Oh, I don't know about the fight. Yeah. Different vitamins and multivitamins can, I knew some of the B vitamins can turn. That's what makes the urine like bright yellow or orange. Sometimes it could be one of the B vitamins. I'm not sure about red, but
SPEAKER_00yeah. Carotene like beta carrot. Oh yeah. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. It could have been.
SPEAKER_00So in college, in college, I don't want to get us too off track, but in college, uh, some of my friends played a prank on me. Oh gosh. And they made these cookies and they were like, Hey, eat these cookies. And then like late the next day they were like, did you hear about so-and-so they had to go to the hospital because they, you know, woke up and it turns out they have meningitis and it's super serious. They're going to have to drop out from school. And I was like, Oh my gosh, like what were, what were their symptoms? And they were like, they went to the bathroom and their poop was bright red. And I was like, Oh my God, that's happening to me right now. Oh my gosh. They're like, you better go get checked out. And like, I was like on my way. What did they put in the cookies? They put like whatever. The vitamin? Yeah, they put that vitamin in the cookies. Or was it beet
SPEAKER_01powder?
SPEAKER_00No, it was something like the vitamin that made.
SPEAKER_01Oh my gosh.
SPEAKER_00And then I was like, I was on my way to the doctor and they were like, all right, chill out. We just, we were pranking you.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00They got me so good though.
SPEAKER_01Whoa.
SPEAKER_00Yeah.
SPEAKER_01Well, beet greens. So we've grown beets in the garden as well. And. We looked it up one time because we were adding beet greens to smoothies. We're like, these have got to be healthy. It's like spinach. Beet greens have a ton of vitamin K and more iron than spinach. So if you ever get beets at the store... We're big on not wasting different parts of the vegetable if you can use it. So kind of like, you know, some people will take the ends off the cut carrots, celery, onions, throw it into a stock, make like a chicken stock. You can freeze the different parts of vegetables and use it, you know, in something like that. So you're not wasting it necessarily. But for beet greens, same things. You know, we always chop off the greens. They are so healthy. One cup of cooked beet greens, you could saute it down if you wanted, has only 39 calories, but 1300 milligrams of potassium.
SPEAKER_00Wow.
SPEAKER_01So not only are they high in vitamin K, they have more iron than spinach. They are crazy high in potassium.
SPEAKER_00Wow. That's loaded up.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And another trick you could do, like we do this with asparagus all the time. So like if you cut the beet greens off and you're not ready to use them, you could take a little bowl of water. Sort of rubber band them all together and just sink it in a bowl of water in your fridge and it'll last like twice as long. Yeah, yeah, the
SPEAKER_01asparagus, that works really well. Well, I guess we should just move on to asparagus because that is another one. Now, it's a little bit more... That's the stinky pea
SPEAKER_00clove.
SPEAKER_01Right, so that's why I wanted to mention it with the beets. You know, it's very high in vitamin K as well. High in vitamin C, which are more common. You might think, oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, it's a vegetable. It's high in vitamin K. Vitamin K helps with blood clotting, bone metabolism, so really helpful for that stuff. It isn't in a lot of green leafy vegetables, broccoli, like some cruciferous vegetables. So asparagus is a great food to have. But the main culprit in the stinky pea is something called asparagus. Asparagusic acid. I don't even know how to say this. Asparagusic. Asparagusic acid, which is only in asparagus, hence the name. And when it's digested, that acid gets broken down into sulfur containing byproducts. So sulfur, because the smell is not very pleasant in general. So the sulfur byproducts evaporate almost immediately, causing you to smell that unpleasant scent.
SPEAKER_00Is it weird? I like the smell. It smells healthy to me. It's like I have some healthy like vegetable pee right now.
SPEAKER_01Kind of like Brussels sprout. For some people, Brussels sprouts give off a similar smell. Not me. Onions and garlic have been linked to odd smelling pee and some people too. So asparagus isn't the only thing, but I feel like it is the
SPEAKER_00It's the
SPEAKER_01most specific smell.
SPEAKER_00It's like 10 minutes after you eat it. It's like, how could this happen so quickly?
SPEAKER_01It can show up right away, and then it can last for several hours. But for some people, the smell could last up to 14 hours, one study said. So that's kind of a cool thing about asparagus. But in general, asparagus is super healthy. It's a cruciferous vegetable. It's high in vitamin K, vitamin C, good for our immune system. So that's another one to throw into... your diet. And you know, yeah, I love it in eggs. I was going to say some people don't really know what to do with it, but I love it in like a scramble and a frittata, chop it up.
SPEAKER_00Throw a little goat cheese in there. Yeah. Have it for
SPEAKER_01brunch on the side. You can grill it. You can saute it. You can roast it. Lots of different things. Let's move on.
SPEAKER_00Well, I want to say, is it just the weirder the vegetable looks like the more healthy it is for you? Cause it seems like these vegetables have something in common, like asparagus, broccoli, like they look strange and they're super
SPEAKER_01healthy. Yeah. Yeah. Crucifer. Oh, broccoli. Let's, let's go on to broccoli because that's another cruciferous vegetable and it does have something cool in it. That's called, speaking of sulfur, that's called sulforaphane, sulforaphane. It's a naturally occurring compound that actually can enhance muscle growth and overall health. But it can also reduce exercise-induced muscle damage. So it can help with recovery, reduce inflammation. So not only is it good for muscle growth, it can be helpful for muscle recovery after exercise. So for those trying to gain strength, gain muscle, lose body fat, Overall, improve your health and eat more of an anti-inflammatory way. Broccoli and other cruciferous vegetables are key for that.
SPEAKER_00And it's also a carb that has zero glycemic effect on you, right? It does not raise your blood sugar at all. Probably due to the fiber, but yeah. If
SPEAKER_01you had enough, maybe. But yeah, lots of fiber. Any of these non-starchy vegetables. And everything we're talking about today is going to have some good fiber in it. So produce in general, it's nature's... presence for us. It's like that's why we need to eat more of a whole food diet because all these things we're talking about is stuff from nature, plants, seeds, things like that. Let's talk about pineapple because we were somewhere the other day and someone was talking about the enzyme that's in pineapple and I said, oh yeah, bromelain. It's very good for your digestive health. It's a digestive enzyme.
SPEAKER_00Weirdly, he just threw it out. Yeah, he knew that fact. One of my friends just has these random facts rolling around his head. He's like, oh yeah, bromelain.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, so bromelain is actually a group of enzymes that break down proteins. So they're called like proteases or proteolytic enzymes, which means you're breaking down proteins into smaller amino acids or smaller compounds. So that can help with digestion in general. That can help with nutrient absorption. For some people, they take the supplement in a supplement form. like a pill every day if they have a lot of digestive issues. It's one thing that can be recommended. It can help with bloating or discomfort after high-protein meals because if you eat a lot of protein, it can make you kind of bloated.
SPEAKER_00I wonder if trying that, I'm going to have to try that with like my protein shakes. Because, you know, you do like a high protein shake and you just feel, ugh.
SPEAKER_01Maybe you add some frozen pineapple in there at the same time. Interesting. If you did a fruity shake. Yeah. I don't know, something to try. So the enzymes are found in the stem and fruit of the pineapple plant. So that's just a really cool fun fact because it can help with digestion. Yeah. not something you need to have every single day, but just to have in your back pocket if you're feeling bloated or you're having some high-protein meals. Maybe it's summer and pineapple's really good. Maybe you add some in.
SPEAKER_00You know what's weird is you go to those Brazilian steakhouses and those are just like pure meat, right? You're just getting meat and meat and meat. And you have the little card. And you turn it green when you want the person.
SPEAKER_01I don't know. Cause I would never go to that, but
SPEAKER_00well, not only would I go there, I would work at one and we just, I mean, I had so much meat during whatever six months I worked there and yeah. So they, but they would always serve a grilled pineapple with cinnamon. So I wonder,
SPEAKER_01and I was going to say some restaurants will give you a little pineapple shot at the end of meals, you know, we've been to places like in different countries and stuff where they'll give you like a little, you know, post meal shot. shot and that's to help with digestion. So that makes sense.
SPEAKER_00And another restaurant I worked at had the pineapple martini that they always tried to start people off with. And they, they, but they would say that it would help with like stimulating your appetite. I wonder if they were on the
SPEAKER_01sugar and alcohol would,
SPEAKER_00you know, I
SPEAKER_01don't know about that, but it was pineapple was traditionally used for for medicinal purposes in South and Central America. So like, you know, that's why all these cultures knew, know before we do like what these, you know, all these indigenous people knew what these plants did. They're very medicinal. So that's why having more of them in our life is always better. So, yeah. Well, on the, on the topic of, since a lot of these things we're talking about have antioxidant properties and anti-inflammatory properties, um, I just wanted to break down what an antioxidant actually does. So antioxidants act by donating electrons to free radicals, preventing them from causing further damage. So if you have a lot of free radicals in your body, that's not good. That's what can lead to more cancer growth, cancer cells. So they help reduce oxidative stress. So they basically protect against cellular damage and then therefore prevent the risk of... So, yeah.
SPEAKER_00Get rid of those free radicals just roaming around.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, but more plants can really help that, especially the ones we talk about on Mediterranean-type diets, anti-inflammatory diets. So let's talk about tomatoes. Speaking of that, you know what's in tomatoes? Have you heard? It's in other things too, but...
SPEAKER_00Is it like... Leptopine? Leptin?
SPEAKER_01No, that's a hormone. No, lycopene.
SPEAKER_00Ah, that's close. You were close.
SPEAKER_01Lycopene is an antioxidant and it is a carotenoid, so it's in a lot of like orange... foods, orange, red foods, but it's very high in tomatoes and it protects cells from damage caused by free radicals. So tomatoes have, you know, they're in big in a lot of Mediterranean foods, Italy, Greece. Now, if you have the acid reflux, you may not want to eat a ton of tomatoes because they're acidic, but same thing with bell peppers and things like that.
UNKNOWNHmm.
SPEAKER_01However, just know that they do have some good antioxidants in them, and they're not bad. Some people are afraid of tomatoes because of the sugar, the natural sugar. Like if you look at tomato sauce and there's some sugar in it, you just want to avoid the ones with added sugar because tomatoes have some natural sugar in them, just like fruits and vegetables, depending on how much you have. There's going to be a little bit of sugar in that, but it's all natural. So you don't want to be afraid of tomatoes.
SPEAKER_00Can I tell you a crazy tomato fact I heard?
SPEAKER_01What?
SPEAKER_00I heard, and this could be true or it could be false, but I heard that when the knife is approaching the skin of the tomato, that the cells respond in some way as you're like... I
SPEAKER_01thought that was a lot of vegetables, not just tomatoes. Yeah, did we hear that in a book?
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it was like the tomato... Like they have
SPEAKER_01feelings? It's like a defense mechanism.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, it's like a defense mechanism, but the cells are like responding to that in some sort of creepy way, like as the knife... which makes me a little sad. I
SPEAKER_01know.
SPEAKER_00I mean, we
SPEAKER_01heard that in some, like a gastronomy book
SPEAKER_00or something. Yeah. But you gotta eat something.
SPEAKER_01But yeah, but they're good. They're good. Yeah. We gotta
SPEAKER_00eat. Gotta get our lycopene.
SPEAKER_01Humans gotta eat some plants, but I feel like it was more than tomatoes, but maybe I'm wrong. Um, so speaking of carotenoids, since lycopene is a carotenoid, beta carotene is probably the most popular that we hear about. And that's in a lot of yellow, orange foods like carrots, pumpkin, apricots, cantaloupes, sweet potato, um, more of the orange, red, bell peppers. So carotenoids in all those foods are more antioxidants. They help protect specifically eyesight. So if you think about them as a precursor to vitamin A, we know that or a lot of people hear that that helps your eyesight. Specifically, carotenoids like lutein, I'm going to butcher these. I never know how to say
SPEAKER_00that. It has a Z and an X within four letters. So what are you going to
SPEAKER_01do? Zia, xanthin, and beta carotene. So they all help eyesight by acting as antioxidants. But what's cool is what they're actually doing is filtering the blue light, which damages the macula, the central part of the retina in the eye. So they also help reduce the risk of macular degeneration, like age-related macular degeneration. But I thought that it's cool that they filter the blue light.
SPEAKER_00Yeah. And you know, we're getting, you know, we need that, you know, we're getting tons of blue light because blue light is emitted from all of our devices, the televisions, the computers,
SPEAKER_01maybe at night you should make it a practice to eat some carotenoids. Yeah. If you're watching TV or, If you're going to be on the computer late doing work, eat some carotenoids. They are also interesting in some dark green leafy vegetables like kale, spinach. Those have carotenoids as well. So it's interesting. But a lot of... They're more common in the yellow... Yeah, more concentrated in the yellow-orange foods. So that's cool. So that helps with our eyesight. And then another super... power of food, speaking of sleep or how blue light affects sleep, is foods that have melatonin naturally in them, which is the hormone that helps our quality and duration of sleep, helps us get sleepy, helps us go to sleep. And so some of those things that are high in melatonin are pistachios and almonds are pretty high, tart cherries and goji berries.
SPEAKER_00Interesting. I have heard of people drinking tart cherries. Cherry juice right before bed.
SPEAKER_01And that's why. Huh.
SPEAKER_00That's
SPEAKER_01interesting. So it can help with, you know, help with sleep, helps with recovery as well, like lowering, you know, um,
SPEAKER_00Those free radicals.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Antioxidants. But it helps with like relaxing the body. Kind of like if you were to take like magnesium or eat a magnesium rich food, that can also help with sleep or just relax the body, help with muscle recovery. But yeah, tart cherries, goji berries, pistachios and almonds are particularly high in melatonin. So again, you may not have like a whole bowl of these things right before bed to help with your sleep, but it's good to help. to add variety into your diet and make sure you're getting some of these healthy nutrients.
SPEAKER_00Does it help with a toddler coming in in the middle of the night and jamming his elbows while I sleep through that? Jamming his elbows into my back over and over again? Yeah, I don't think it's
SPEAKER_01going to help with that. But speaking of melatonin, a lot of people give their kids little melatonin gummies. Ooh, little melatonin gummies. And a lot of people take melatonin. And, you know, there's a lot of research about this and it's, you know, it's been heavily marketed by wellness companies and supplement companies and they just took it and ran with it in the last, you know, 10 years, I would say. But melatonin, since it's a natural hormone, you could disrupt your own cycle if you start taking and supplementing a lot.
SPEAKER_00I always worry about that. Like, you know, with any of the hormones where you're like messing with it a little bit. Does your body just stop making it by itself? Like there's
SPEAKER_01mixed research and I don't know what the most up-to-date research is, but my opinion is, you know, really stay on the conservative side of taking supplements. Anything that's going to be, you know, could be disrupting your own hormone cycles or what your body is making itself. If you can help it, really try to avoid that. In kids as well, there's a lot of research that comes out, oh, it's totally safe, it's non-addictive, it's this and that. But it hasn't been around long enough, I feel like, to know, okay, what is that doing to the children when they're older? Can they go to sleep on their own ever? Or is it disrupting how much melatonin their body is producing? I'm not sure there's longitudinal studies that actually show if this is disrupting kids sleep if they've been given melatonin gummies.
SPEAKER_00And one of the other things to consider too, is that, you know, whenever we get something from whole foods, the dosage is going to be much less like what you're, the melatonin you're actually getting from the whole foods is probably going to be much less compared to something where they want you to see a result, right? Yeah. So they're going to, they're going to jam that thing full of melatonin so that you're getting a result. And then things are also marketed like Maximum strength. Well, maybe you don't need maximum strength. Maybe you need just a little bit. And so we're sort of indoctrinated to try and get the most bang for our buck with all these supplements. But really, we may need such a lower dosage than what's being marketed
SPEAKER_01to us. Yeah. I think in certain scenarios, use it... I would always err on the side of use it in certain scenarios, right? Like an overnight airplane or, you know, trip to Europe if you want to give it to your child to help them sleep. Or, you know, I know sleep can be really difficult for neurodivergent kids with autism or ADHD that have trouble going to sleep. I know it can be useful in those situations. So you want them to get sleep. So if the kid is just really struggling sleeping, but if it's just going to help them go to bed like 20 minutes earlier, then I think, you know, natural is always better.
SPEAKER_00Read a book.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. Try some other methods.
SPEAKER_00You know, I just got me thinking about the time we tried to give, was it Tali Benadryl on the plane?
SPEAKER_01Oh my gosh. Which just specifically says, do not give to make a child sleepy, but everyone was like, Oh yeah, just try it. But it can have a, You know, I was warned
SPEAKER_00it could have an opposite reaction. Yeah. And he's like up all night like, I want my bed. I want my bed. And who was up with him? Yeah, everybody. And everyone around him. And, you know, the lady next to us when we finally landed was like, it's okay, buddy. I wanted my bed too. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01It's like he fell asleep short term, then woke up and was up all night. Okay. So another superpower, a lesser known superpower of... Something we love is potassium found in avocado.
SPEAKER_00Okay.
SPEAKER_01We love some avocado.
SPEAKER_00Love it.
SPEAKER_01And those who enjoy avocado or have heard about it might think, oh yeah, it's a healthy fat. A lesser known fact about avocado that I always tell my clients is it's great in fiber. Very high in fiber because it's stringy, kind of like sweet potatoes. All those strings are fiber.
SPEAKER_00I've heard that it has like the same amount of fiber as like four pieces of wheat bread or something like that. Like it's an insane amount
SPEAKER_01of fiber. I mean, yeah, it's a great source of fiber. It's such an interesting fruit. technically, because it's like, oh yeah, we know it's like a plant, but it's high in fat, high in fiber as well. It's a fruit, but technically I guess we call it like a vegetable.
SPEAKER_00Which you don't really get that much, right? Where things have a little bit of carb and a lot of fat. Yeah, it's a
SPEAKER_01very like good balance. I mean, higher on the fat for sure, but it's got carbs, fiber, fat. But
SPEAKER_00that's hard to find in nature. Like a lot of things have carb or maybe they have a little protein. Or they have protein and
SPEAKER_01fat together, like all our meats are protein and fat together. But it is interesting that it's
SPEAKER_00a fat. In the produce.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, in the produce section. But it is a great source of potassium. And we know potassium is a mineral that our body needs to work properly. It's an electrolyte. A lot of people might be low in potassium and also magnesium. And I think a lot of this is because Our typical more processed diet, we are not getting as many whole foods because whole foods have a lot of these electrolytes that we need. It helps our nerves to function and muscles to contract. It helps our heartbeat stay regular. So it's super, super important. But avocado is a great source of potassium. And what do you think of typically when someone says, oh, I'm going to exercise, I need some potassium?
SPEAKER_00Bananas.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
UNKNOWNYeah.
SPEAKER_00Oh, yeah. Coconut water, maybe. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01And that's another great
SPEAKER_00one.
SPEAKER_01But we always go to banana. I feel like that's the old school. Like, oh, I just need a banana because I'm going to go work out or I need to recover. One medium banana is about 112 calories and 226 milligrams of potassium.
UNKNOWNYeah.
SPEAKER_01compared to about the same amount of calories for half a cup of avocado has actually 364 milligrams of potassium. So it has 140 more milligrams of potassium for about the same amount of calories if you did one banana versus half a cup of avocado. And then on that same note is white beans. So this is another plant, a little different, but white beans have for the same amount of calories for half a cup of around that 115, 120 calories, they have 500 milligrams of potassium.
SPEAKER_00What? That's crazy. So
SPEAKER_01legumes are like a whole another category. We could talk all about that, maybe another episode.
SPEAKER_00Superpowers of
SPEAKER_01legumes. Yeah, get your beans on. But yeah, so white beans are very high in potassium, but avocado is a great source of potassium. So adding that into your diet is another great win for the avocado.
SPEAKER_00That's crazy, that white beans, because you look at those white beans and you're like, ah, they're probably, you know... That can't be that good for you.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, our poor neutral tan white foods. That's why I'm always telling people when we were talking about the color wheel of produce, it's like garlic, onions, great, great things in them just because they're tan and boring and you feel like they're not as concentrated in nutrients, but great anti-inflammatory properties. But while we're on the subject of electrolytes, I wanted to bring up pumpkin seeds because they have a great... great source of magnesium.
SPEAKER_00What if the, but the thing is with those, like I'm, I'm trying to like equate this back to like performance and I'm thinking I probably though shouldn't eat an avocado while I'm, or like before exercise, right? Right. And same with pumpkin seeds, right? Cause they, Right. Especially because they
SPEAKER_01have fiber and fat and same with avocado fiber and fat. So no, not to have like directly right before a workout, but maybe post-workout it could help at night pumpkin seeds because of the magnesium. Magnesium basically just relaxes. One of its functions is basically relaxing all of the cells in the body. So that's why some people take it for sleep or winding down in the evening. Some people take it for muscle soreness and recovery. Um, some people take it for constipation. There's all these different forms of magnesium.
SPEAKER_00Oh, like relaxing the... Relaxing the bowels. Oh, yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, if someone starts taking it to help with muscle recovery, I'm like, if you find your stools are getting a little too loose, your body could adapt, but maybe we reduce the dose a little bit. But most Americans are low in magnesium. So again, I think, and I said this earlier, I think it's, you know, if we upped the plant intake, if we upped our produce intake, that could help. But so like an ounce of pumpkin seeds have 37% of the daily needs for adults and kids four plus, which is 420 milligrams. That's kind of like the daily goal for adults and kids four plus, 420 milligrams.
SPEAKER_00Because most of those are like a quarter cup or so. Yeah, which is about an ounce.
SPEAKER_01So that has a good dose of our daily magnesium. Of course, other foods do too, but I wanted to point out pumpkin seeds because we can get burnout on the same nuts, you know, snacking on nuts, like healthy fats and getting fiber in. Pumpkin seeds are a great snack, or you can mix them in to make your own trail mix. I like to throw them on salads like the other night, threw some on salads. You know, you can do some different things with pumpkin seeds. You can make your own granola bars and have pumpkin seeds in them. Those little bites, those little energy balls, add pumpkin seeds into the mix. So it's just a great thing to add into your rotation.
SPEAKER_00One of my clients was talking about, um, who's on this glycemic low glycemic journey with me as we try to really figure out like the things that aren't going to spike our blood sugar. But, um, she, we were trying to, we were talking about nuts specifically and she mentioned macadamia nuts because they have quite a bit of, um, unsaturated fat and but they also have, they're really low in carb compared to other nuts. I thought that was interesting. And you know, that's not one that I typically, I know, I don't know that I could get
SPEAKER_01behind snacking on those. Really? I like them. Kind of like the Brazil nuts. Like they're just so big.
SPEAKER_00Brazilian nuts are huge. They're huge. But every macadamia nuts aren't that big.
SPEAKER_01No, no. It's just, yeah, it's just different. It's just different. I mean, I think that's why having a variety is, is key. Cause when you look at all of like, if you were to see a chart of all the different types of nuts. And seeds, I guess, but nuts specifically. They're all very similar, like for an ounce, an ounce of this, an ounce of this. They're pretty similar. Like they might be a carb or two, a gram or two higher in carbs. One might be a gram or two higher in fat. The calories for an ounce are roughly the same. Some of the protein levels are slightly variable, but they all have different micronutrients like vitamins and minerals.
SPEAKER_00Well, in Brazil nuts, you mentioned those. Those are like super high in zinc, right?
SPEAKER_01And selenium, I believe, too. Yeah. So, um, yeah, so that could be a, you know, it's good to have a variety if you, if you like all types
SPEAKER_00and that's good for your brain health and libido zinc. Yeah. Pretty sure. It's like the oysters and, um, different things with zinc in them are supposed to be really good. Oh,
SPEAKER_01okay. Wow. Okay. Last thing, um, is wine. No, I'm kidding. But not really. So let's talk about red grapes. There's studies that talk about glass of red wine a day, good for your heart health, good for your health, which alcohol is still a toxin. However, what that comes from is the polyphenols in the skin of red grapes specifically. And that's called resveratrol. It's the skin of red grapes. So when we make wine, it's fermenting The skins. The
SPEAKER_00tannins.
SPEAKER_01It's fermentation of the skins. And that's why in red wine, you're going to get more concentrated of the polyphenols compared to a small percentage in white wine. But this resveratrol is also found in blueberries and cranberries. So there is a little bit. It's just in higher concentrations in the skins of red grapes. So you can eat red grapes, snack on red grapes. But that's why red wine might have a little bit of... And
SPEAKER_00that's the big difference. In moderation. Because you know that the big difference between white and red wine is that red wine also has the skins. And white wine doesn't. Yeah. So there are still red grapes. Yeah, that's why it has the color. I was always like, oh, we're using these like white grapes for it. But yeah, no, it's the skins. That's
SPEAKER_01why, I mean, there's a little bit in the white wine, but not nearly as much in red wine. And
SPEAKER_00red wine, particularly carbs... Again, it is pretty low. Or I'm sorry, red wine, particularly cabs, is really low in carbs.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, lower in carbs. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00It's like lower sugar.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. So that's a fun one to end on. But I hope you enjoyed learning about some lesser known nutrients in especially produce this time and the superpowers of plants.
SPEAKER_00The superflowers of plants.
SPEAKER_01The superflowers of plants.
SPEAKER_00All right, well, thank you guys for listening. And if you could do us one favor, and if you found this podcast at all interesting and helpful, send it to someone, text it to someone, and that will help us grow our audience, which we really appreciate. And if you have any questions, email caroline at caroline at chaineffect.com. We've now moved on to the dot com these days. Yeah. And if you have any other questions about movement or anything like that, you can email Taylor at chain effect dot com and we'll catch you next time.
SPEAKER_01All right. See you
SPEAKER_00later.