Episode 63 Celebrating Men’s Health Week: Nutrition, Lifestyle and Relationships

In this episode on International Men's Health Week I talk about men's physical and mental health. With heart disease being the leading cause of death and mental health issues like anxiety and depression on the rise, I unpack the critical need for awareness and proactive health measures.

Discover the essential role of nutrition in supporting men's well-being. I discuss the benefits of a balanced diet rich in protein, healthy fats, and colorful vegetables, and how these choices can impact heart health, metabolic health, and mental wellness. I also discuss the importance of social connections and activities that foster emotional wellbeing.

This episode aims to offer practical advice to support men's health.

As discussed in this episode, the Food and Mood ebook is available to download here: https://informedhealth.com.au/food-and-mood-ebook

Learn more about booking a nutrition consultation with Fiona: https://informedhealth.com.au/

Learn more about Fiona's speaking and media services: https://fionakane.com.au/

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Credit for the music used in this podcast:

The Beat of Nature

Music by Olexy from Pixabay

Transcript

Fiona Kane: 0:31

Hello and welcome to the Wellness Connection Podcast with Fiona K ane. Today, what I wanted to talk about is it's actually International Men's Health Week, so I wanted to talk a little bit about men's health. Before I start, though, I just want to acknowledge on the week that I'm recording this news has come out that Dr Michael Mosley passed away last week and I'm not going to go into the details of what happened to him. You can look it up because it's anyway. It's just tragic for his family. He's gone for a walk and passed away on that walk. I don't know the details. Anyway, what I wanted to do is acknowledge since it is International Men's Health Week, I want to acknowledge D dr M michael M mosley and his impact in the world of health and of nutrition in particular, and how he really championed a lot of nutritional information in regards to sort of eating low carb or fasting or different things that are really useful for for treating and reducing type 2 diabetes and just in general. He's Michael Mosley was always very curious and he wanted to learn and he was willing to question, you know, what we believe to be true, to find out what really was true, and I really admired that about him. So I just want to acknowledge Dr Michael Mosley. He will really be missed and I feel like his impact in the world of nutrition. He was a very important voice in there. He just had a great way of communicating and turning complicated information into something that was easily digestible for people. So, anyway, I just wanted to acknowledge that and just my thoughts go out to his family. And just a very sad loss. So, for International Men's Health, we could just start by saying really sad to hear about the passing of Dr Michael Mosley, a really important voice.

Fiona Kane: 2:28

Anyway, getting onto the topic of today, what I wanted to do is just talk about some different things that we need to be aware of in regards to men's mental health and men's health in general. So both health and mental health. So I just sort of came onto the website for the Australian Men's Health Forum to have a bit of a look at some statistics on here. They are quite shocking. We do know that heart disease is the biggest killer in men, so I'm going to talk a little bit about that issue. It's also worth knowing that.

Fiona Kane: 3:07

The other issue, another major issue, is that for younger men it's actually I've got to be careful of my language on YouTube, but self-deletion is a huge killer in men under the age I think it's under the age of 55. One in two will have a mental health issue during their lifetime. One in three will have a substance abuse issue. One in five will have anxiety disorder, one in eight will have a mood disorder like depression and it's three in four. Self-deletions are men and seven men die every day in Australia for that reason for that cause. Sorry about using weird language, it's just, youtube doesn't like certain words and it is, yeah, the number one killer in men under 55 is self-deletion. So clearly there is a big issue there.

Fiona Kane: 4:13

Now I think it's a complicated issue in a lot of ways because I believe that we are very much, we are wired to be certain ways. If you look historically at you know we all came from living in tribes and villages and those kind of. That was our background and there's very different. That was very different world and very different expectations, but also very clear expectations. So there was very clear expectations in the roles of men and women and of different people depending on their age and ability, et cetera, in a tribe situation or in a village situation. And now everything's topsy-turvy. We've turned things upside down and there's different. You know, a lot of women are doing what men used to do, and then men are doing like it's just been all mixed up. Let's just say it that way. The best way to say is it's all over the place, and I'm not saying good, bad or whatever, I'm just saying it has been mixed up, it has been changed, and I feel like our roles, our traditional roles as men and women, have changed a lot, and in some ways they haven't changed at all. In other ways, they've changed a lot and expectations have changed, and I feel like it's a good thing that we've had a women's movement for equality and all of that sort of stuff, and I think it's really important and I don't have any issue with that at all. I think it was really important that women are seen and heard and have a certain level of equality. So that is fine by me.

Fiona Kane: 5:50

What I think has happened, though, in our striving to do this, some people have taken it too far, and what we've done is we've turned it into we don't need men. Men are worthless, and we don't need them in our lives and as part of our society, and there's really a lot of hate on men out there, in the, at least when I go online and I hear the different things that people are saying and see what's being said and even just looking at watching movies and things like that. These days it's quite acceptable to denigrate men and I know historically it's been quite acceptable to denigrate lots of people, including women. I just don't see that doing the same thing helps anyone. It's two wrongs don't make a right kind of thing. So denigrating anyone in particular is, I don't think, healthy and I think denigrating men is not healthy and I think there's a lot of that in our society at the moment and I find that to be really, really concerning.

Fiona Kane: 6:54

And I feel like our gender roles are very confusing right now and it's a very confusing time to be alive and to understand your roles and to thrive. And it's also hard to thrive because we've got a world where, just from a nutritional point of view, those sorts of things we've got there's never, ever historically been so many well packaged foods and those kinds of things available to us before, and you know DoorDash and getting things delivered and all these kinds of things it's just a very different world. We live in a world now where we can survive, at least to a certain degree, without ever learning to sort of cook or shop for healthy food or even move our bodies. We can do everything by pressing buttons and we've got our phones handy and we can just order food and all that sort of stuff. Of course it doesn't last if we live that way. Long term it does have major issues.

Fiona Kane: 7:48

But we actually do have a world where we don't have to go out and hunt and gather and we don't have to work hard, we don't have to physically work hard, and that's affecting us, men and women, it's affecting all of us that way that we're just not doing the things we were made to eat. We were made to eat well and move our bodies and be in touch with nature and all of those things, and we've moved way away from that. And when I say be in touch with nature, I mean kind of eating, going out in the sunshine and eating foods that are seasonal and understanding where your food comes from and eating food if you're eating food that's seasonal and local and it's real food, right? So just all of those things that we've become quite detached from. So I want to talk about some things that I think could be beneficial for men and some things that we need to sort of. I don't have all the answers. I'm not pretending I do so. All I'm doing is making some suggestions of things that could be really useful.

Fiona Kane: 8:47

So first, I'm going to start by obviously talking about nutrition, because I'm a nutritionist and it is important that we eat well. I've got a download, a food and mood download, and what I will do is I'll put a link for that in the show notes so that you can find it. But essentially, it is really really important to eat to nourish our bodies and eat to nourish our mind. And when we have a poor quality diet, you do get that sort of wired and tired and that strung out and you're not sleeping well and you donish our mind. And when we have a poor quality diet, you do get that sort of wired and tired and that strung out and you're not sleeping well and you don't feel good. And if you've got, if those things are happening because you're not eating well and you're tired and all of that sort of stuff, what we do tend to do is we reach for the sugar and we reach for the caffeine to sort of keep us going, and then it ends up just being this sort of constant sort of circle cycle and circle of sort of being tired and boosting ourselves up with stimulants and then getting tired again, and when we're in that mode it's very hard to manage life and to be resilient and to manage our mental health Also just our physical health, as in like doing exercise and things like that. It is hard to do that when you're really tired all the time right. So it's really important that we eat well to manage our mood, and my first thing would be to say, as I always say, excuse me, I just have some water. But the first thing I'd say is just make sure you're having protein. Sorry about that, just had to have some water. So protein with every meal.

Fiona Kane: 10:14

Protein is what your body uses to make pretty much everything in your body. All of your structures are made from protein, but so your neurotransmitters in your brain, the things that make you feel happy and stable and all of that sort of stuff, and sleep and all the rest serotonin, all those things, dopamine they're all made out of protein, protein and they're all really important for healthy and happy or not sort of happy is probably the wrong word but a healthy and stable mood. So protein really really important and, like I said, our structures in our body are made from. That also balances your blood sugar levels. So it does stop you from having that wired and tired feeling to sort of feeling pretty good and pretty stable. And then of course you add all of the different vegetables, different colors of vegetables, and the good fats, so the healthy fats, whether it be olive oils or your avocados or eggs. You know you've got choline in eggs and vitamins A and D and so many nutrients, nuts and seeds and things like fish oil, those kinds of things. So eating really, really healthy foods a bit of fruit is there as well, and some legumes for those who it works for legumes and sort of the starchy carbs like rice and stuff like that. Some people suit really well with those foods.

Fiona Kane: 11:29

If you tend towards more insulin resistance and metabolic syndrome, maybe not a good idea to have as much of those. And that's in regards to the heart disease I was mentioning before. One of the biggest risks for heart disease is metabolic syndrome, is when someone starts to develop insulin resistance. So what you often see in people are the sort of symptoms that might make you think that someone is starting to develop an issue with their arteries and with their circulation and maybe with their heart. Some of the things you might see is you might. One is abdominal weight, so just that belly fat, right. So if you've got that belly fat, there's an indication there that there's a metabolic issue. The other is things like erectile dysfunctionile dysfunction. So essentially, if you're not getting circulation to, to, uh, to from a circulation point of view, circulation to the extremities, so things like brain and feet and genitals, right.

Fiona Kane: 12:26

So it's those places where you've got really small arteries. So where you've got those really small arteries, it's often where you see the first sign that something's not right, that you're just not getting the circulation through there. So that can be quite a sign. Obviously, things like the mental health issues, the depression or not being stable, can be a sign as well. But anything to do with if you're getting diagnosed with fatty liver disease or insulin resistance or if your doctor's saying that you're borderline diabetes a lot of people say that they've been told for the last 20 years that they're borderline diabetes. Well, all of those things and actually diabetes itself, insulin resistance and diabetes itself, they all take you towards heart disease and they're all indicator of heart health issues or they will head you towards and take you towards heart health issues. So be aware that managing your blood glucose levels is a really, really important part of managing your heart health. The two things go together and what happens is the insulin resistance, the blood glucose issues, all of that that precedes the heart issue often. So just have an awareness around that right and download my Food and Mood eBook. Like I said, I'll pop the link in for you, because that just gives you a really good idea of eating healthy just in general, but also eating healthy for a healthy mood.

Fiona Kane: 13:48

Now, what I also wanted to talk about as well is some other things that can be really, really useful and to consider in regards to men's mental health is, you know, it's really important that we connect with other people, right? So and I don't mean online, I don't mean in world of warcraft or whatever those things are called, I mean in real life okay, so we need to connect with people in real life, we need to meet our friends and real life, we need to meet our friends, and whether that's friends that we meet and we go and play cricket, or whether we just go to a concert together or go to the movies or hang out, or the other thing, too, is things like the men's sheds and that sort of thing. So men do really well when they connect over something that they're doing. So, whether it be going for a walk or doing a sport or doing some sort of craft or skills based thing, that just works really well for men and that is perfectly fine. I think that the other thing that we do what I see happening a lot is now that women have, you know, we're a lot more vocal in the world and we have a lot more say in different things, which is great in lots of ways and not so great in other ways.

Fiona Kane: 14:53

Like everything has its good and bad, but what I see happening is that now we're telling men that they need to be like us and they need to be sensitive like us and all of these different sort of you know, if you were more like us, you'd be better. And that's not really true. Men and men and women and women, and that's okay. And we have lots of, you know, some very similar traits, lots of crossovers because lots of different personalities. However, men just process things a bit differently. They are just differently wired, and that is fine, that is okay. They don't necessarily have to be more like us. They just have to have more opportunity to look after their mental health in the way that works for them.

Fiona Kane: 15:34

So that might mean talking about it, and some men will benefit from that or they'll benefit from that in certain things, whether that be with some sort of therapist or a friend or something like that. So it might mean talking about it. It might mean boxing, going into the gym and boxing. It might mean going for a run. It might be, like I said, doing a craft or skills-based things with a friend, or playing a game of snooker, and sometimes even you know that trash talk that men do with each other.

Fiona Kane: 16:00

I think that there's a benefit in that too. I feel like it's just because men don't always process their stuff in a way that women think is the right way to do. It doesn't mean they're not doing it or it's wrong, and so I think it's okay that men do things a bit differently. However, it is good for them to learn to make sure they're doing it in a healthy way, of course, if they're processing their stuff. If anyone, male or female, is processing their stuff by drinking too much and taking drugs and things like that, obviously that's not helpful. So I just think it's okay. It doesn't have to look the way it looks for us. But essentially if we are connected to groups of other people, if we go outside and we get to see the sunshine and we talk to other people and we either do activities with other people and or talk to them, or a combination of both, that's ideal. So sort of just getting involved in, whether it be clubs or sports or groups or whatever interest groups, whatever it is, it's a really great thing to do.

Fiona Kane: 17:06

And I know that I don't know about if it's all around Australia or international, but I know certainly in Sydney there's men's walk and talk groups that have popped up over the place and they meet in the evenings. I know there's one in Penrith, which is not far from me, and in Springwood. I think there's one up in Terrigal as well, on the central coast. I know I'm being very Sydney local here, sorry about that, but wherever you are, look it up. There might be versions of that where you are as well. But they're the men's walk and talk groups where they just do a walk once a week and they can talk or just walk or whatever they want to do. But that's a great incentive just to have that connection, to have other people to be around.

Fiona Kane: 17:45

Sometimes, just being around other people, it's also really important, I think, for all people, particularly young people, whether men or women, but to have mentors and role models, so people in your life that you can sort of, to a certain degree, model yourself on I'm not saying completely copy, but as young people we do. We explore different identities and look at what other people are doing and we see what can be done. And if that's not within someone's family or it's not within your direct sort of line, you look around and there's no one that you can feel that way about in your life. Uh, you can go to the library for free and and hire um and hire books of of all sorts of autobiographies and things of people who've done really, really well and people who are doing great things. So you can certainly do that sort of thing and really have role models. So you can have role models that are within your life, ideally and hopefully they are, and you might find them in those clubs and places or schools or universities or wherever it is, or you might find them through books and things as well. But find role models, you will find them, and it's really, really beneficial to have role models in your life.

Fiona Kane: 19:04

The other thing I wanted to mention as well is I'm just checking my list just to see what I've got here. I'm just checking that I've got everything. I'm pretty sure I've got most of it so far. So the getting outside. The other thing is too like is having something to look forward to, being involved in your life, knowing that what you do has consequences, which so I understand that but also knowing that what you do has consequences, as in a good way, as in you make changes within your own life and it will change things for you. It can change your outcomes.

Fiona Kane: 19:42

So a lot of us now I think there's a real thing about a lot of people get really attached to victim mindsets or feeling like the world owes them or different things like that Go out and get involved in the world and, like Jordan Peterson says, he sort of says clean your room and people laugh at that, but he's absolutely right. If you can't get your basic, you know a good starting point is basic stuff of learning how to shower and look after yourself and have clean clothes and keep your room clean and keep your space clean. If you can do all that, then you can do the next level thing, which is go out and catch a train or get your license and drive a car and go out and have connections and relationships and all the different things in life. They kind of build on one another. So it's important to clean your room.

Fiona Kane: 20:30

So, in regards to men's health and men's mental health, look, I think it's important that we encourage each other if you're the man that I'm talking to, or for the women, encourage the men in our lives to actually go and get health checks, to be aware of what's going on with their health, to go for that annual checkup with the GP just to make sure everything's all right, but also encourage them to do something that they love, something that they really enjoy spending time with their friends. It is really, really important and I can't emphasize that enough with the right people, the people you spend your time with. What is it? You're some of the five people you spend most of your time with, so you want those people to be good quality people, people that kind of push you in a good way, and also people that accept you. You know there's that balance with accepting who you are. We do need to be accepted, and that's really important. But, at the same time, it's good to have people who absolutely, yes, accept you but also will push you to do better, to do better for you, so they'll push you outside of your boundaries a little bit and encourage you to flourish. We need people in our lives who are like that, and it is really, really important. And I think that another thing us women need to understand is that we can't be everything for the men in our lives. We can't. We just simply can't the same the other way around. They can't be everything for us. We actually do do need, and that's one thing we did understand when we had the tribe, right? Is we understood that?

Fiona Kane: 21:58

You know, um, liz gilbert talks about this in her book committed, where she's talking about marriage, and it's very good. She. She explains see, once upon a time, and and this is what happens in you know, if you go into a village in Thailand, or you know, or a village in Africa, or different places, different sort of places where they've still got that sort of village lifestyle, what you will find is that when people get married or they couple up, whatever they don't expect, you know, for example, okay, they don't expect. You know, oh, my husband, he's my spiritual guru and he's my lover and he's the person I talk to when I'm struggling and when I'm in trouble, and he's the person that he's my rock, but he's also this. He's also that he also like 57,000 roles, or the other way around, with women, where we're everything for men.

Fiona Kane: 22:55

We have this thing. It's modern day culture and you see it in the movies and all that sort of stuff. You know that whole what's that Tom Cruise movie? You complete me. No, we don't complete each other. We compliment each other. We don't complete each other, we compliment each other. And that's a great thing about men and women. We're different. We compliment each other. So there's a point to it. All right, I've just lost my train of thought. Now, what I was trying to say is that, oh man, I really have lost my train of thought. I'll be back. Hang on, I'm back.

Fiona Kane: 23:31

What I was going to say is that what we do is we in marriages, in relationships in the Western world is we have this idea that our partner is our everything. Your partner can't be your everything. Back in the day of the village or the places where they still have villages, there's the medicine man and then the medicine woman, and there's a person who helps with the children, and there's a person who you go and talk to, there's a person you play with, there's a person who's your lover. They're all different people, right, and what we do is we have this expectation, we put this high expectation that our partner needs to be our everything and I think that's a problem as well is that we we don't have, we don't surround ourselves with supportive people and we we try, we rely on each other for too much as couples, and I think that puts a lot of pressure on us as well. It was less of the grandparents, less of that sort of thing.

Fiona Kane: 24:20

So, wherever you are, whether it is your family or whether it's other people in your community, but if you can create that level of connection and that level of you know, know your next door neighbor, know your lonely older neighbour who might need support, but also they can support you in different ways, they can offer something special to you.

Fiona Kane: 24:39

So that whole idea that you complete each other as a couple, that I can be everything for my husband or he can be everything for me, it's just simply not true and I think we try and be everything, and it's just not possible.

Fiona Kane: 24:52

So be okay with the fact that your husband needs male friends and you know, just as you know, that you need female friends for the women who are listening to this.

Fiona Kane: 25:02

So I just wanted to encourage you in Men's Health Week is to think about men's health, whether it be the heart health or whether it be their mental health. Just to think about what are the things that you can do to improve either yours or your man's health, and it's a mixture of things. Like I talked about get outside in the sunshine, it's connecting with other people, it is eating a healthy diet, is moving your body, which I don't even think I got to touch too much on this, but just moving your body, going outside, doing the things that your body was made to do, and getting your regular health checks as well. So just putting a spotlight there and encouraging you to support men in your life and we don't support people by picking on them for being different to us. We didn't like that, so let's not do that for the men in our lives either. Anyway, thank you for listening. Please like, subscribe and share and all of those things, and I'll talk to you again next week. Thank you so much, bye-bye.