How to Read a Nutrition Label

Join the girls as they delve into something every person experiences: reading a nutrition label! We’re talking everything from calories to protein to misleading health statements. Expect to leave with a greater sense of expertise when reading the label of your next Ben and Jerry’s pint.

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Transcript

Emily: 0:00

Hey everybody. Welcome to wellness. Miss the podcast where we take a hard look at the nutrition and wellness industry through a no bullshit lens. My name is, and I'm an anti-intuitive eating ed diet and yoga.

Vanessa: 0:13

And my name's Vanessa. I am also a registered dietician and I specialize in hormone. Emily. And I met back in college when we were studying to be dieticians and we basically never left each other's side. Since the moment we met and post grad, we haven't really left each other's side either we live across the country from each other, but that hasn't stopped us from being business partners and talking almost every minute of every day.

Emily: 0:40

Let's get into this week's episode.

Vanessa: 0:56

We have some big news on the pot that we're excited to share with you all. Can we share,

Emily: 1:01

we can share. I thought you were gonna talk about our group. I thought this was about our group coach,

Vanessa: 1:06

we'll talk about that too, because that's also big news, like ish, but less big news cuz you guys already know about it. If you're a frequent listener, you already know about the group program. But if you're not a frequent listener, and that sounds super interesting, stand by.

Emily: 1:20

Yeah. But yeah, I got a new job. I'm gonna be doing telehealth services for people I'm really excited about it and I feel like it's just gonna give me so much more inspiration for our episodes, seeing a larger volume of patients per week, and I can't wait. See what myths they bring me in session and what we can kind of continue to explore.

Vanessa: 1:49

Yeah, it's exciting stuff happening to the Wellness Miss Pod.

Emily: 1:53

It really is.

Vanessa: 1:55

any other like, news that's happening with us? Oh, we were talking about this before. We'll talk about the group program. Hang tight. Emily brought this up and I feel like we haven't talked about this on the pod yet, but we should because it's a current event, how expensive groceries are. I mean, this has been ongoing obviously, but Wow. Wow, wow,

Emily: 2:16

You know what I'm like kind of thinking like in my head I'm like, we need to do some kind of like budgeting like episode or like something about that. Like how to like combat inflation and like keep your nutrition on point. Because I was like at the store today, like doing all of these, like, okay, what can I do instead of this? And thinking of all these substitutes and like realize. Oh my God. Not everyone knows about like how to do this. Like I think there's so many, so much knowledge. We know as a dietician, like to be able to eat in a way that aligns with like a million different kind of parameters and goals. And so I think that could be actually a really good topic because Jesus Christ is so fucking expensive.

Vanessa: 2:55

Yeah, I agree. And if that sounds like an episode you wanna hear, DM us, email us and be like, freaking do it. We'll probably do it anyway, but I, I just like hearing from you

Emily: 3:06

It's one of those, it's one of those where you're not, you're not totally sure like how beneficial it would be. So it would help us if like you pressured us to do it. So if you want us to reach out,

Vanessa: 3:16

definitely. And I don't wanna spoil anything, but I just do wanna vent about one thing and then we'll move on from this and we'll talk about what this episode is actually about. But probably my biggest issue with inflation is the price of the eggs. And Emily as a vegan probably is less familiar with this, but you've seen it in the news and this. So frustrating to me because eggs have always been a really pure protein that was cheap and like something that people could count on as a cheap protein and they're not cheap anymore. And that is just really upsetting. And I was telling someone the other day, when you check out at the grocery store, a lot of times the. Grocery store clerk teller, cashier, that's the word I'm looking for. Grocery store cashier. They'll take a peek at your eggs and just make sure none of them are broken. And before, when eggs were like a couple dollars, I'd be like, eh, I don't even really care if they're broke. You know what I mean? Like you lose one big deal. And now I'm like, yeah, you better check those. Like those are like a dollar reach.

Emily: 4:25

It's crazy. I was literally, you know what's so funny? I don't think I've really ever thought about the price of eggs, but I, at a store today, I did because I was like looking at the like vegan liquid egg and I was like, wow. Like I never thought I'd, I'd see the day where like these are like slowly, steadily getting cheaper than. Like chicken eggs. And that was so surprising to me because I think for a long time, like that's, it's been like very out of reach. And I don't think that's like a good commentary on like the cheapness of like the vegan product. I think it's just like about how it's like insane that that other cost has gone up so much. So Yeah. I mean, we, we definitely need to do like a little, a little episode about.

Vanessa: 5:05

yeah. And you should be buying if you can, eggs from a farmer or someone who sells eggs near you if you can. So find your egg hookup because those people, they are slowly catching up to inflation. But my egg gal is still at three.

Emily: 5:21

Wow,

Vanessa: 5:22

And I'm like, you need to raise your prices. I almost gave her a five more. It was her husband. I almost gave them a five. I was like, how much are they again? I almost gave them a five, and he was like, oh my God. Like they're not that much.

Emily: 5:34

Wow. That's crazy. Yeah. Find your like underground connection, I guess.

Vanessa: 5:38

Yeah.

Emily: 5:39

And then our other quick note will be that our group coach is starting next month. It's all focused on intuitive eating and hormone health, and we would love to have you, we still have space, so let us know if you're interested in that. And we will have a nice chat with you and see if we're a good fit.

Vanessa: 5:59

Yeah, and when we say hormone health, I think sometimes that confuses people a little bit and I think we should clarify is hormone health is so much deeper than just hormones. Like hormones are just signals. If there's something going on with your hormones, there's something going on with something else in the body. So that's what we're talking about. We're talking about blood sugar, we're talking about the gut, we're talking about stress. So those are all big pillars in the program. So we are very excited to have you, like Emily said, reach out. Let us know if you're not sure. Have a little chat with us, we're happy to chat with you. If it's not a good, like, if it's not a good fit, we wanna find that out. So don't sit there and just wonder.

Emily: 6:45

Totally. Absolutely. Okay. Should we talk about our episode, because I'm pretty excited about this one.

Vanessa: 6:51

Yeah. Yeah. Let's.

Emily: 6:55

So today we're gonna talk about how to read a nutrition label. And this is something that is so universally experienced by everyone that literally anyone will get benefits from this episode. I think it can be really confusing and a lot of people are kind of like looking at it in kind of an incorrect lighting. There's so many like different things to look at and I think what I find is most helpful is kind of just going like line by line and seeing like, okay, what are you looking for in like each like category? So I mean, unless you're driving or something like that, don't do this. But you could totally like get a nutrition label out and look at something and kind of look at it along with our episode. And that might be helpful for.

Vanessa: 7:41

Yeah, that's a really good idea actually. I think this is something like Emily said, people are looking at nutrition labels all the time and there's a lot to look at back there. And depending on the product, you might be looking at different things. I know when I'm looking at certain products, I am not always focusing in on the same things. It depends what I'm looking for in the product itself.

Emily: 8:05

For sure.

Vanessa: 8:06

Yeah. And before we do that, I, I need to bring up juice because this is something that Craig, my husband, always has this like big shock factor if we're ever at the grocery store together. He loves juice and he, but he'll turn it around. He'll look at the nutrition label. And every time he freaks out, cause he goes, oh my gosh, it has so much sugar. And the thing is, if you're looking at juice, expect a lot of sugar. If it's all fruit, it's gonna be a lot of sugar. There's just no getting around that. If you are like looking at more of a cold-pressed juice and you want less sugar, it's gonna be mostly vegetables. But if you're looking at a fruit juice, it's gonna be a lot of sugar and there's just no way to get around that. So he's always like, oh my gosh, it's like 25 grams of sugar. And I'm like, yeah, that, that's it, babe. Like, that's, that's what it's gonna be. That's, what it's gonna be for juice. Now if you do want juice, expect a lot of sugar, the next line is gonna be added sugar. And that's actually something that they added like in the last couple years that was not always there. I loved that they added that added sugar.

Emily: 9:16

I will like. And let me tell you too, I think this was like at the end of college for us. So it was not in the last couple years. It was like six years ago. So I don't, I don't

Vanessa: 9:24

oh

Emily: 9:25

there, but like that was a,

Vanessa: 9:28

Time flying. But college was just a couple years ago, Emily. Yeah. I don't know. My crow's feet don't say that. But anyway. So the added sugar, great line, especially if you're looking at something like. There's going to be a lot of sugar. You can expect that. But does it have added sugar? And that might be something you can decide. Maybe you don't want the added sugar and fair, but either way you're looking at a fruit juice gonna be a lot of sugar. Yes, it is sugar from fruit, but it is sugar. Nonetheless, the less.

Emily: 10:06

And it's like, you can look at that too. Like most juices will have no fiber in them. And fiber's kind of like we've talked before, like slows that intake of sugar. And so I mean, you're, you're looking at juice and this is why I think it's just hilarious that like everybody thinks juice is such this like, like, Unparalleled like healthy product because I'm, I'm not trying to like shame juice or anything, but it's just like, it's not really true. Like if you're, you are losing out on a lot of that fiber and sometimes like, you know, maybe you don't need like, you know, 30 ounces of green juice. Like maybe you just, you literally quite literally don't need that much food. But anyways so should we kind of start from the top of the nutrition label?

Vanessa: 10:46

Yeah. Are we, are we gonna look at the Silk Nutrition label and after, the Silk, I think we should talk about cereal.

Emily: 10:56

oh, a hundred percent.

Vanessa: 10:57

This this is just dedicated to Craig Shiff.

Emily: 11:01

He's gonna talk about cereal too. Okay, great. Love it. So we'll leave like you know what, I'll leave a little link in our show notes to this label too, if anyone's curious, but we're just gonna kind of use it to go off of, and I always have a lot of thoughts about non-dairy milk anyway, so you'll get to hear those too. So when you're kind of looking at the nutrition label, it's gonna have your serving size first, which is important. And serving size is not like the amount that you're supposed to eat. I feel like that's like a big myth with it. Like it's not saying like, oh, like you have to have this. It's just like the comparable amount, like it doesn't really have anything to do with like, this is the right correct value for you. And people are like shocked by that,

Vanessa: 11:40

Yes, yes. They have to have a metric to show you like what is in this product. So it may be sort of ambiguous. So that's the thing too, like people see chips and it's like the serving size is five chips. Well, that company also wants to put, like, they want their product to seem low calorie and things like that, because that's what people look at. They're gonna look at the calories. So yeah, they're gonna put five. Is, you know, 20 calories and people are like, oh, great, this is a low calorie food. That doesn't mean you should only eat five chips. Who's gonna do that?

Emily: 12:14

right. Yeah. No one's gonna do that. Or seven. I feel like I see seven ships lot and I'm like, what the hell is doing

Vanessa: 12:20

I, I feel like they're probably like seven is a little closer to 10. Like they might feel we're throwing on a phone a little bit.

Emily: 12:28

Right. So as you kind of go down the label, you're gonna see like total fat. You're gonna see percentages of daily values. Those are usually calculated on. Wait, fuck, it's two thou, it's 2000 calories. Right.

Vanessa: 12:44

Yeah, I think typically they do it on 2000.

Emily: 12:49

Okay. Let me just, let me just re-say that. So you're gonna see your daily value percentage on the right hand side, and that's gonna be like, what percent of your calories for the day should come from that, right? So like they're usually doing it off of 2000 calories, just a nice midpoint. Your calories are gonna range. It's gonna be really different. So it wouldn't be something that like you're looking at like, oh my gosh, okay, well I had 6% of my fat in this label and then I had 20% here. It's just kind of a general guideline to let you know like, okay, these are the components of the food. You know, and then as you're, you're going down, you're gonna see different types of fat. You might see saturated fat. That's one that you hear about a lot with cholesterol. And so sometimes people with higher cholesterol, you're limiting saturated fats, any sort of elevated cardiac lab. Type situation. You might wanna be looking extra carefully at that. And some of them will list other different types of fat too. Like the silk soy milk does that, but I don't think all of them do. Usually it's just like total fat and saturated.

Vanessa: 13:52

So as far as when we look at like saturated fat, trans fat, polyunsaturated, polyunsaturated fat and monounsaturated fat. So the unsaturated fats are gonna be like the fats that are room temperature. So you're looking at like olive oil, your oils saturated fat is similar to butter. So anything that's gonna, or like lard that's gonna harden at room temperature.

Emily: 14:15

oil.

Vanessa: 14:16

Coconut oil. Yes. One that gets left out a lot. Because people typically think of coconut oil as a health food. And I'm not saying that it's not. But Emily's gonna have a lot to say on this. I know she is.

Emily: 14:29

No, I'm, so, I'm excited to talk about that. But also I remember, do you remember in undergrad when we were in medical nutrition therapy and one of our classmates who's a listener, brought in like their can of coconut milk to show us like how much saturated fat was in it. And we were all like, whoa. Like this is crazy. Like we were just learning about it and I remember our professor was like, yeah, guys, like it's crazy. Like how. Saturated fat is in coconut and like people just don't talk about it yet. People just go on and on about the saturated fat and like beef or something. It's just, it's so hilarious to me. And like, I think it's just sort of potentially because of like vegan propaganda. But like it's just, yeah, it's so funny. Coconut oil is totally saturated fat. And like, if you're having cardiac labs that are elevated, like cholesterol or triglycerides, like you definitely wanna look at.

Vanessa: 15:21

Mm-hmm. Yeah. So as far as if you're looking at a label, so saturated fats is something that is definitely okay to assu consume. But you want it to be at a moderate or lower amount. You want most of your fats to come from an unsaturated fat and then trans fat. I mean, really you can avoid, like, we don't need trans fats. There's really nothing good about

Emily: 15:48

And there's not very many products that have them. It's more like a processing thing and that it's definitely kind of going, going out of style. So

Vanessa: 15:56

yeah, yeah. It's, yeah. I feel like people know that trans fats are not it. So yeah, you really don't know that need, or, and if it does have trans fat, like what is, what is it? Like, do you wanna eat that?

Emily: 16:11

It's, it's, it's so uncommon that like it's very, yeah, it's, it's very, you will not be seeing it very often and I think there was enough vilifying done of it that like people are scared to like put it on their label and be like, yeah, we have this,

Vanessa: 16:25

Right. And it's crazy. You, you change a quick bond and it becomes a whole different fat. I mean, we, we won't make this chemistry class, but it's kind

Emily: 16:33

Yeah, it'll get too boring, but yeah. And then you're gonna see sodium after that.

Vanessa: 16:38

You skipped cholesterol.

Emily: 16:40

well, because cholesterol, they don't usually this is, this is more vegan propaganda. Like that's really what it's, cuz they wanna say it's zero. Like, okay, this is turning into like a vegan hate episode.

Vanessa: 16:51

No, no, but I just think we should mention this for cholesterol because this was also something for years that was a misconception, is that dietary cholesterol was like equaled, like if you ate more dietary cholesterol, your cholesterol would go up. That's not true. So, Dietary cholesterol does not affect your cholesterol numbers

Emily: 17:16

So now moving down to sodium, this is another kind of cardiac related lab. Or it can be rather and salt I feel like also gets kind of a bad wrap, even though like we need salt. Like that's, it's an essential part of our diets. I think just kind of looking at the sort of amount that's of salt that's in it. Like I have a patient right now who like, They have higher blood pressure, higher cholesterol, and they're like, why does every protein shake have so much sodium in them? And I'm like, oh, that's weird. I'm like, looking down. I'm like, yeah. Like they really do, like every single one has like a, a pretty like high amount of sodium.

Vanessa: 17:54

I actually did not realize there was a lot of sodium and a lot of protein powder. Is this protein powders or protein shakes?

Emily: 18:01

Kind of both, but mostly protein shakes. My theory was just like, it's like either like some electrolyte replacement as well. If it's like a post-workout thing or my theory was like to make it taste good because like they kind of don't taste good like otherwise.

Vanessa: 18:19

Honestly, my theory was the same exact thing. Like those two things Exactly. Is that

Emily: 18:23

perfect. Well, that must be

Vanessa: 18:25

if, yeah. If the product is being formulated. For, and I think a lot of protein shakes are formulated, like with the thought of someone's using it, like either pre or post-workout. Yeah, adding that as an electrolyte or like you said, making it taste better. Salt is, I mean, if you don't know about salt, watch the documentary salt, what is it? Salt acid fat. Heat, heat,

Emily: 18:51

yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah. Wow. You got that

Vanessa: 18:53

in that

Emily: 18:54

No, that was, no, that, I think that is right. It's definitely like, I think it's just what I really want people to take away from this is like, you need salt. It's okay if something has salt in it, you know, you're gonna wanna stay around like 2000 milligrams a day. But it's not something to be super worried about. If you're not like seeing those elevated cardiac labs in your blood work you know, it's, it's something that's important. Don't stress too much about the sodium.

Vanessa: 19:19

Yeah, and like just a, a note for salt too is if I'm working with a client that is like burnt out or something like that, I'm like having them. Put salt into a drink and drink it. Because if you're burnt out, you are burning through a lot of electrolytes. So that's just a quick plug for salt because it's always painted in such a negative light. Typically and people are kind of scared of it. It's not something to be scared of. Yes, you don't want to just be like consuming wild amounts for no reason, but it's not something that you can't. Most importantly, it makes things taste better.

Emily: 19:58

Absolutely. Like if you're willing to like, okay, like, like you're more likely to eat vegetables if they have like some sort of salt or like seasoning or whatever on them. Like, great, like we're happy about that. It's just gonna be a totally individual situation for you to ideally discuss with the dietician.

Vanessa: 20:12

Yeah. If you're asking me to eat a roasted vegetable without salt on it, like No thanks.

Emily: 20:18

Yeah, I, yeah. That is not happening, but I'm sure a lot of people are trying to do that. And next we're gonna have our total carbohydrates, which I feel like Vanessa is good at explaining this part and how that breaks down into like fiber and all of that. So I'll let you take this.

Vanessa: 20:33

Yeah, so when you're looking at total carbs one, so when we're looking at the silk it's nine grams of total carbs and that is, A pretty low amount, but it also doesn't tell the whole story, right? So fiber, as we mentioned, is a big part of that. It's gonna slow down the release of the, you know, sugar into your system. So we're looking at how much fiber there is in there, and then it's gonna show sugars as well. And then included sugars. So for this particular label, it has two grams of fiber, six grams of sugars, and five of those grams of sugars are added sugars. So basically what this tells me is, I mean, one five grams of sugar, not that much. There's a little bit of fiber and there's not that much carb overall. So this would not be a high car. Or like something I worry about spiking my blood sugar. It also has some protein which we'll get to later. So if I'm looking at that portion of it, not that big of a deal, but if we were looking at something that's higher carb, that's what I'm gonna look a little bit harder at one, I'm gonna look at those included sugars a little harder, like if,

Emily: 21:51

Added, wait, wait.

Vanessa: 21:52

sugar in here?

Emily: 21:53

you keep saying included sugar, but it's added sugar.

Vanessa: 21:56

Yeah. I, it's because this

Emily: 21:58

You're seeing Cause it says includes Yeah, I

Vanessa: 22:01

and I just can't get past it. Yes. Added sugar. So I'm looking at that added sugar a little bit harder the more that car total carb goes up. Cause I wanna know what's. Making up that total carb, is it like a whole grain? And if it's a whole grain, that dietary fiber should be quite a bit higher too. So you're looking at all of that in conjunction. So I don't want you to ever look at a nutrition label and think it has 35 grams of carbs. No way. Okay. Well what are those 35 grams of

Emily: 22:34

Also that was like that, that loud, that loud noise that you just heard is Vanessa like just being super passionate, like about it and like banging around. So there you go.

Vanessa: 22:45

Yeah, I know maybe like an auto audio medium isn't the best for me.

Emily: 22:50

A little late to be discovering

Vanessa: 22:52

yeah, we make it work, but yeah, so you're looking a little bit harder at that added sugar number. We're gonna talk about carbs when we talk about cereal in just a minute here. So let's say something has 35 grams of carbs, which. You know, originally you're thinking immediately my head goes to like, that's just over two exchanges.

Emily: 23:15

Like that's not that much.

Vanessa: 23:17

It's not that much. So it's not a crazy amount. It's like a meal level amount if it has felt 30 ish carbs. But is it all carbs? Is it all sugar? Like is it just added sugar? Okay. Like,

Emily: 23:33

That's

Vanessa: 23:33

Yeah, I don't know that's gonna be different. Or is it 35 grams of carbs and it has 10 grams of fiber? Those are two completely different products, like wildly different.

Emily: 23:47

And what's I think is like important to the consumers, like you're gonna use those foods in different ways. Like number one, if that's, if all of those carbohydrates are sugar, it might be a dessert. Okay. I'm not surprised at that. Like, that makes sense. You know, if it's something that like, when you're looking at, you're thinking, okay, like if it has added sugars or if it's just low in fiber, that's gonna be quick energy. Like that's gonna gimme a lot. Like you'll see that on like a pre-workout or like something, or like those gels that. Feet when you're running a long time or whatever, like, like those types of things. Like you're gonna see clear sugar because it's energy and you need energy to burn. Like it makes sense, right? Or if people have low blood sugar, you don't want something with fiber right away. Like you need to like pull that blood sugar back up. So a spike sometimes is great, like you're using that for that. But other times, okay, you want long sustained energy, fiber's gonna be a little bit more of your friend there.

Vanessa: 24:40

Mm-hmm. Yeah. This is exactly why we tell like diabetics to keep juice in their fridge all the time. Because if they have a low blood sugar, which obviously if you're not diabetic, this, you're not like getting a low blood sugar to a dangerous amount like they would, but if they have a low blood sugar, we wanna spike that as quick as possible. And what can we do that with? A pure carb? We want no fiber in that. None.

Emily: 25:05

It just goes to show that like there's literally reasons for everyone to do different things, and so like you could never say like, oh, if there's no fiber in it, it's just so bad. Like you just couldn't, you just can't. So I think this is like the nuance that we can give you in this medium of a generalized podcast.

Vanessa: 25:22

Mm-hmm. And actually maybe I'll talk about cereal right now since we're talking about carb. Anyway so here's where Craig comes back into play. So, Craig loves cereal. Craig loves having a bowl of cereal at night, and he is sitting very close to me so he can hear he can hear me talking about him. When you're looking at buying cereal, cereal is one of those things that typically sugar, it can have a lot of added sugar, so it's kinda something you wanna watch out for. Obviously it's gonna be a little bit higher in carb. It's not atypical for a cereal to have about 10 grams of added sugars. And for a lot of people, especially Craig, I feel like he's gonna be really mad that I continue to say his name. Like he's eating, he's not necessarily eating the cereal for like extra nourishment. It's for like, enjoy. Maybe sometimes it's cuz he is hungry, but like he enjoys eating cereal. So you want it to taste good too. And that probably means it's gonna have some added sugar. So when I'm looking at these different labels in the grocery store, I'm thinking, okay, all of these are going to have some added sugar, probably about 10 grams ish. So how much fiber do they. And then how I'm picking between them is what has the most fiber, because I'm looking for something that's not going to be like a complete blood sugar spike and isn't gonna leave him feeling like crappy after he has his bowl of sugar cereal after his, he has his bowl of cereal. But it's still gonna taste good. So yes, it's gonna have added sugar, but I wanted to have some. And I also wanted to maybe have a little bit of protein.

Emily: 27:14

And I think what you're saying too is it's like looking at a label not to be like, okay, this is rigidly, like how much sugar I can have. Like I can, you know, only have like 50 grams of added sugar a day. That's like what they calculate the percentage with and stuff. It's not really like that, it's just like, where do you wanna spend it? Like my patient with the sodium filled protein drinks, this person would way rather have sodium on like French. Like they would way rather have like spend their sodium elsewhere because to them, like it's not making that big of a difference in the taste of something otherwise. Or like, oh, there might be a protein powder that has less sodium. Great. Then they can have that because it's not like they're getting the satisfaction that comes with it through that. Right. Like for me, I'm not a big cereal person, so like when I'm looking at cereal, I'm thinking like, okay, it has to be high protein. It has to be lower in sugar because like, I'm not having it because I like. Like, I'm just having it as like a pure utility food. So my approach is just gonna be totally different because like, I'm not having it like in a, I mean, it's a pleasant way I'm eating. It's fine, but it's not gonna be like my favorite meal. It's a desperation meal for me. So like, personally, like that's what I would look like. It's gonna always be different cuz your use case is gonna be different and each and every single person. So I love, I like that example.

Vanessa: 28:31

Yeah, and it's something too that like, if it's between something that has 10 grams of added sugar and no fiber and 12 grams of added sugar, but four grams of fiber, I'm getting the one that has some fiber in it. Like, even though it's a little bit more sugar, I'm, I'm choosing one that has some fiber in it. So it is nuanced. It is like we can't give you cutoff numbers.

Emily: 28:55

And then lastly, you're going to see the protein value at the end of your nutrition label good rule of thumb could be like about 20 grams of protein for your meal. So for example, the silk soy milk has eight grams of protein, which I love because not all non-dairy milks have this much protein. Um, So, soy milk is definitely a great choice for you if you are vegetarian or vegan and you're looking for a little bit of extra protein.

Vanessa: 29:23

Yeah, I feel like that's probably the most insidious thing about Non-dairy milks is that, you know, people are really, again, they're looking at calories only and they're seeing a really low calorie option. Maybe for something like almond milk or something like that, and that. Is fine, but again, it's not gonna have like, it's low calorie cuz it doesn't really have anything in it. And if you're eating a more sugary cereal, you would want to be eating it ideally with a higher protein milk. So if you're eating it with almond milk, It's again, something where we think with blood sugar, you're getting a bigger spike because you're consuming less protein.

Emily: 30:15

Definitely. I think that's like, that's a good rule of thumb to really try to be looking for that protein. Like if something's a little bit higher in protein, like that's, that's gonna be great. And then kind of moving down to the bottom is they're talking about different kinds of nutrients and different labels will have different nutrients on them. Some labels like to brag, like if they have a lot of a certain specific one, they wanna put it on there and show you that. And it's really important too. You know, this one, this non-dairy milk is like amazing. I just can't sing Soy milks praises enough because it has 30% of your daily calcium in it. And that's, that's a really good number and as well as 15% of vitamin D. But you're gonna see different nutrients labeled on different products and they're just including the ones that they deem to be most pertinent for you.

Vanessa: 31:04

Um, B12 is also popping on here. I did not realize that soy milk had so much B12 or at least silk. That's really cool too. And something that I, you know, obviously they are marketing that, you know, especially if they're looking for vegans or vegetarians, B12 is really important especially for that sub-sector. So that's that's great that, that has some extra there.

Emily: 31:32

Totally. So we kind of just took you through the nutrition label and how we usually go about reading it. One thing that I just wanna touch on is there's something else called nutrient content claims. And these are regulated by the F D A and there's different sort of there's nutrient content claims and a health claim. And. There's a lot of regulation around these because you really wanna make sure that consumers are getting accurate information on their food. So like, you know, for example, when it comes to calories, it would be like low calorie. Okay? That means there's a standard for that. They're not just making that up. It has to be 40 calories or less. It might be reduced calorie or reduced sugar. It means it has less than 25%. At least 25% less than the original comparable product. So that kind of goes all down the line for like low fat, reduced fat, all of those things. And it with sodium, like there's different standards for that, whether it can be a low sodium food or not. Just an easier way for people to be like, okay, like if you have cardiac lab elevations, then you need something that says low sodium. So you might see these types of claims on foods and just know, like they're not just pulling it out of thin air, but there's definitely a lot of claims that they are pulling out of thin air, like a super food or, you know, like wellness boosting, like anything that doesn't have like a literal, like very scientific term behind it. It's, it's questionable for sure whether that's something that they can fully make that claim.

Vanessa: 33:03

Yeah, there, honestly, there's a ton of those. A lot of times it's like promotes. Like it starts with promotes blank, and that doesn't necessarily have to be backed up by anything. I would hope that most times, like they have something behind you know, them saying that, like there's a certain ingredient in there, something like that. But promotes is a, is a big one.

Emily: 33:28

What I see so much of, and what makes me think, especially after like, honestly just doing the podcast is it's like, okay, like matcha, it might promote this. But you having this product once a week isn't going to move the needle. Like, so I think it's just recently really to think about. Like when you see something like, I don't know, all I can think about is bone broth right now. I don't know, like, oh, Provo promotes like collagen production or I don't know, whatever they fuck they wanna say on those. It's like, okay, sure. But having it once a week, does it do that? Like, I don't know. And, and so the, the like, Specificity on those is like kind of your first clue to be like a little bit suspicious. Like it might have something to do with it, but it's not gonna like cure your whole life and change, you know, your skinny elasticity and all of those things. Like, it's just, you just really have to kind of look at it critically and be like, okay, if this isn't something about a macronutrient, like fat, carbs and protein, if it's not something that says like, you know, something very specifically like CU Heart healthy or something like that like those things all have sort of, Regulations and guidelines, but the random sort of things can be very confusing for people. And there are no, there's no such definition for a superfood. I just wanna say that.

Vanessa: 34:41

Also circling back to our beginning conversation about the cost of groceries. Can we talk about the, well, Emily is not gonna be familiar with this, but the cost of bone broth is also wild to me because bone broth is a very simple. Like inexpensive thing that you could make at home,

Emily: 35:02

You know, like who you have to thank for that though.

Vanessa: 35:05

Yeah, I do. I sure do. Does anybody know? We'll give you a minute. It starts with a g

Emily: 35:13

Yeah. We need like a, like timer ticking down like type

Vanessa: 35:16

though. Okay. We're gonna, we're gonna wrap this up because it's going way too long and it's past my bedtime to be quite honest. But I just gotta say real quick, Gwenny pe coming back into the conversation. Our friend Gweneth pk, did you see her court case?

Emily: 35:38

oh, I've seen like a lot of random footage and pictures of her and Yes, totally. I've, I've seen a bit of content.

Vanessa: 35:46

So if you're unfamiliar, apparently allegedly. Gwenny P was skiing and she hit some guy and like gave him a concussion. I, I'm, I'm not laughing about the concussion, I'm laughing about what's to come after this, but gave him an, a concussion apparently, like it was really hard on him, like he couldn't work anymore. Who knows? I'm sure like maybe it was blown out of proportion. Maybe not. He said his girlfriend broke up with him because it like changed his personality again, if it was to

Emily: 36:17

Oh

Vanessa: 36:17

extent, who, who? Like, maybe he's lying, maybe he's not, who knows?

Emily: 36:22

The court of law will decide for us.

Vanessa: 36:25

I, what I saw is that, so apparently Gwyneth smashed into this man and then like he is like laying on the ski hill concussed. But then she was like asked her ski instructor to check on him because she had to go have lunch with her family. And people had so much to say about that cause they were like, she doesn't eat.

Emily: 36:50

Yeah. Like, yeah, like, was that an excuse? Like she doesn't really eat lunch. Oh my

Vanessa: 36:55

right. And then just one more thing about this. So then there's footage of her sitting in the stands and there's like a lawyer questioning her and they ask her if any damages were caused to her from this accident. Them, she looks dead ass up at this lawyer and goes. I, I lost a full day of skiing

Emily: 37:26

What?

Vanessa: 37:30

ruined.

Emily: 37:31

He's like, but like, sorry, you missed your day on the slopes. Wow. She needs some good PR team. She needs like a little crisis management or something, because between the like IV and everything that we talked about last week with her, she's just, it's, it's hard

Vanessa: 37:48

it's it's bringing her more fame. Like look it, we're talking about it, we're broadcasting this, and like people are gonna look at that up. Yeah. So, I mean, good for her.

Emily: 37:57

We're part of the problem. We're part of the problem. we

Vanessa: 38:00

we are, but anyway.

Emily: 38:03

Hopefully you learned a lot about nutrition labels and you will be able to look at things with a little bit more knowledge and nuance

Vanessa: 38:15

And we will be back hopefully every other week. More topics like this or topics that you send to us. We just got a request for food addiction, so that may be coming soon. Um, and stay tuned for more from us.