Hello, health enthusiasts, and welcome to Rev Up Health, your go-to podcast for all things wellness. I'm Dr. Mark Hechler, and I'm Tandi Hechler. Together we're here to fuel your health journey with the best of functional medicine and holistic well-being. Each episode, we'll dive deep into topics that matter to your health, bringing you the latest insights, research, and inspiring stories. Whether you're on a quest for vibrant health or just looking for daily health tips, we've got you covered. So let's embark on this journey together and transform the way you live. So, Tandi, what's on our wellness radar for today?
Hello, and welcome to the Rev Up Health Podcast. Today we're going to be talking about nutrition, and that's such a broad subject — there are so many different things to touch on. I would say our theory behind nutrition is that it's an experiment. Everybody is different, so everybody's nutritional needs are going to differ and vary in some way. There are some key things that are the same, but whether it's vegetarian, vegan, or keto — pick which diet you want. I hate to say the word "diet"; we try to stay away from that. It's more a broad term — not necessarily what diet you pick, but what nutrition you want for your body. And it depends on how you're going to fuel your body for what you're going to do. If you've got a sedentary lifestyle, you've got to pick things differently than if you have a very active, elite-type lifestyle.
Our Experiments — Including Veganism
We've tried lots of different things. We actually tried a vegan diet for a while and felt good at first, and then not very long into it we weren't feeling so good — and maybe we weren't doing it right. The problem with the vegan diet is that a lot of true vegans will probably admit it's hard to get your ample amount of protein. You really have to work hard at getting protein of any substantial amount to sustain a very physically active lifestyle. And don't get me wrong — I have friends who are vegan and are very strong and fit, and they just do it really well. So it's an experiment of what feels good in your body, and what is also convenient and easy for you to do.
My experience with it: when we did that vegan lifestyle, I noticed a substantial weight loss in myself, and it wasn't fat loss — I think it was a protein loss, and I noticed a difference. I was training very well for my races, but when it came to race time, I struggled toward the end of the race, for the simple fact that I did not have the protein, I did not have the muscle strength in my muscles to sustain that endurance run. I know that for sure. But the key is everyone is different — even though that was our experience, that doesn't mean it will be yours. So everybody really has to try on nutrition and go with what feels really good.
Rethinking the "Recommended" Amounts
We were looking up some stats. These days, you can look at a lot of what the FDA recommends dietary-wise. What I thought was quite interesting is that the FDA's recommendations are based on a very high level of carbohydrates — essentially double the amount of fats or proteins. That level of carbohydrate intake is only necessary for people who are very active and have to have the fuel to get through those workouts — and I'm talking about workouts that maybe are hours long. So it's not for the basic individual, and it makes you wonder why the FDA requires that level of carbohydrates. They also say there's a suggested amount of sugar people need — and you don't need sugar.
You can look at Dr. Casey Means's podcast and recommendations. She's a very vocal, well-educated, well-spoken individual on dietary changes and the things that the government, big food, and big pharma are recommending, essentially to continue to sell products and keep us hooked on eating what they want us to eat so they can generate income. I won't get into the details of that, but it's certainly worth going through some of that information.
We recently also listened to a podcast with Dr. Stacy Sims on the Huberman Lab podcast, and it was quite interesting how women are completely different than men, and a lot of the studies that have been done nutritionally are done on men, on males versus females. So I think there's a lot to be learned still, and hopefully there are a lot of studies coming down the road that will get a little more specific about what a female needs nutritionally.
Experimenting With Fasted Workouts
For those of you who have been following along, you know I'm on a journey to change my body composition. Previously I had been doing my morning workouts in a fasted state, and what we're learning is that probably isn't the best — I should be getting some protein in before my workout. So we're changing that. This is again an example of how we're experimenting with nutrition and activity, and how everything goes together.
A lot of this is still being developed and discovered — it's a whole new facet of science, biology, and physiology to really learn what works best for the human physiology. There are so many studies done just on animals and mice, so at this point we don't have enough human studies to really get down to brass tacks. But I feel like over the next five to 10 years, we're going to have a lot more accurate information.
They talk about fasting — for a female, there are indications for it, and there are disadvantages to it. Rather than go into a lot of that, from an overhead view, women — and men, I feel like also — before we go doing heavy exercise, we really need to put a little protein in our system, so you can trick your brain into thinking, "Okay, I don't really need to withdraw these substances to perform this activity. I've got protein, I've got some carbs, and I'm going to utilize that for my workout." It helps a lot, and it makes a big difference for muscle synthesis, which we all need to focus on.
Getting Enough Protein
We'll be telling you our experience as we play around and practice with that — mostly me, because you've been doing it. But you just don't get enough protein in our diets. Essentially, we're looking at a good one gram of protein per pound of ideal body weight. So let's say you weigh 200 pounds, but your ideal body weight is 150-ish or 160 — then you need 150 to 160 grams of protein daily. That's a hard mark to meet; you have to work at it, it's a lot of work. You really need to be trying to get in 30 to 50 grams per meal. It's definitely doable, and there are a lot of people out there creating recipes and meal plans that have that high amount of protein.
You really need that first meal of the day — whether it's breakfast, brunch, or lunch, whatever it is for you — to be something up in that 30 to 50 grams of protein. Don't eat oatmeal and expect that you're going to have protein synthesis. The best results you can get to help build muscle come from having 30-plus grams of protein at your first meal — that's what the studies are showing now.
Fiber and Gut Health
The other piece, along with that protein, is fiber — about 30 to 35 grams of fiber a day, though I think it needs to be higher than that, because that's going to help gut health. We're talking about preventing dysbiosis, gut dysbiosis. You want symbiosis — you want all the good guys to grow well together. An analogy: if you've got a field of grass, you don't want to feed the weeds, you want to feed the grass. That's the difference in what you can do for your gut to help it out, and the gut's going to help you.
Some tips and tricks on how to get fiber in your diet: sprinkle some nuts or seeds — chia seeds, flax seeds, sunflower seeds — on a salad or on your meal in general; basil seeds are really great for you as well. Those are easy to just top your food with. And nuts and berries are a couple of other ways to get some good fiber. Fruits and vegetables, and those cruciferous vegetables, do a lot more than just give you fiber too — there's a lot more downstream benefits there.
Another thing is focusing on eating the rainbow — eat lots of colors in your diet. That will help make sure you're getting good fiber, but also lots of phytonutrients, which are really healthy and great antioxidants that help clean up the system. If you can prepare your meals with a focus on fruits and vegetables primarily — a lot of good colorful vegetables — and make your protein your second choice on the plate, I think that's going to help a lot. But pick a good-quality, high-quality, sustainable grass-fed protein.
Quality of Your Food
We've really been looking into regenerative farming, and getting meats that are grass-fed, grass-finished, and farmed in a regenerative way, because it's more nutritious than farmed meats. The same goes for your fish — farmed fish is not as good as natural, wild-caught fish. So it's something to look for and be attentive to.
Another way to increase your fiber is to eat things with the skin on, especially fruits — leave that skin on there. Potatoes, for instance, anything with a skin or covering, leave it on there and prepare it if you can, so you get extra fiber. You just want to make sure you clean those good enough to get rid of any pesticides or herbicides that might be on the produce.
I even read somewhere that if we were to prepare one of our meals strictly vegetarian-based, it's a great way to get that extra boost of phytonutrients we really need for gut health, and it's great for fiber too. So we get a lot of fiber into our diet that way — one meal, just one meal, you don't have to get crazy with it. Beans and legumes would be really great to add into that meal, and really they're great to add into any meal.
Along with fiber, the other thing that will help with gut health is fermented foods — any kind of fermented food you can have: sauerkraut, kimchi. There are also lots of different fermented vegetables you can have. Kombucha is another fermented drink to consider.
A Look at Our Daily Routine
One thing I'd briefly discuss — some people ask, "What does your daily life look like? What do you eat?" Everybody's always wondering, "What do you eat?" — everybody's comparing. For us, we start the day — and our work days are different than non-work days, I may add. No matter what you try to do, it's still difficult; you can get more of a routine on a work day than on a non-work day, being time off or traveling.
Our weekday work days start off with a good protein shake that's supplemented with a lot of stuff. We've got the branched-chain amino acids — leucine, isoleucine, valine — and then we add some AG1 and creatine. Those are what we throw into our morning shake, and it doesn't have to be huge — I think it's only about a cup and a half of water, roughly, or maybe two cups. You use more than me.
Then I like to have a salad with protein — there again, you're increasing your fiber and keeping your protein levels up where they need to be. And then toward evening, we throw in a good variety, a good portion of vegetables of a lot of different varieties and colors, trying to stay carb-friendly and fiber-friendly. We want to watch that and maintain a good-quality protein too. I think we do a pretty good job trying to keep protein not necessarily what the meal is based around, but just an addition to our vegetables.
Quick Meals and Timing
During the week, on a work day, it can be hard for people to come up with a quick meal. The other piece of nutrition is that we also like to stop eating by a certain time, so we can go to bed with an empty stomach — two to four hours. I preach to patients all day long who complain of different symptoms related to reflux; they never knew they had reflux until you tell them that's a symptom of it. "Wow, really? But what am I going to do? I've got to drink water all night long because I'm thirsty." Okay, but there again, you've got to cut that food off two to four hours before bed.
One key we like to do is use the crock pot. We'll throw some meat in the crock pot in the morning, and I love Primal Kitchen sauces — they have a great Greek sauce I throw on meat, and these are sugar-free. Primal Kitchen makes a great product that's sugar-free with no seed oils; it's really good. They have a teriyaki, a sesame, lots of different types of sauces, so you can use their product every day of the week and eat a totally different meal. Cook that meat all day, and then when you get home, just throw some frozen vegetables with it. It's super easy and quick, and you're eating quickly when you get home.
Smart Snacking
At work, who doesn't get hungry — "I want a snack." There are a lot of things you can choose to snack on besides a bag of Fritos or Cheetos, which I used to do and still have sometimes; I had a little trouble with that. But at work, I'm going to grab nuts — walnuts, pistachios, almonds, macadamia nuts. Anything you can get from the nut variety is going to give you protein and fiber too. And then berries, and good fats — omega-3s, you really want that. It's the omega-6 you want to avoid as much of, because we all get plenty of that in our diet. Berries are really good antioxidants, and they're not going to bust your blood sugar off the chart either. Blueberries are really my favorite — I love those the best.
And, of course, chocolate. There's got to be a little bit of something out there that you break on, and that's not terrible — it's also got antioxidant properties, magnesium. There are a lot of things in chocolate that are actually good for us, but you've got to make sure it doesn't have what's not good for you. One brand we eat a lot of is Hu — they have some really good chocolate bars, some with nut butter, chocolate-covered almonds, milk and dark chocolate. We typically stay on the darker chocolate side — darker and real strong, I try to pick the strong stuff.
Eating Well While Traveling
It's really tough — obviously we're traveling right now, which is why we're dressed like we are today, with our travel shirts. When you travel, it's really hard. Tandi is always making fun of me that my backpack is the food backpack. I'm trying to bring the nuts, the good chocolate, and the snacks we can get, so I don't have to pay for it — for starters, it's really expensive in the airport — and we're not getting all the sugar we don't need either. We try to plan smart and pack smart so we can eat smart. But be careful, because Mark typically gets stopped at TSA, his backpack, just because of all of it. I'll put apples in — I've got cherries right now, some cherries we bought while traveling, like a pound and a half of cherries in my backpack. Although I have to say, he did get stopped more when his backpack was full of candy. That's true — you're right. So that's another positive about eating healthy.
The other thing on travel: we did a challenge one year for January. We were doing a lot of driving at the time across Kansas — at least once a month, sometimes more — and we were like, "We're not going to eat out for this whole month," which meant that when you were traveling, you couldn't stop and get snacks. We had, what, an hour drive — so we had to really plan, but we did it, and it was doable. You just had to stop to get fuel, go to the bathroom, and get back in the car. I think we saved a lot of money doing that too — a lot of money, and probably time. It takes a little longer to pick out road snacks.
Books and Resources
There are some good books out there. Dr. Mark Hyman has a book, Food: What the Heck Should I Eat?, and there's Good Energy by Dr. Casey Means. Lots of good books can help guide you. But ultimately, it is about experimenting and seeing how your body feels, because you are going to know. That's really part of what we're trying to help people understand about themselves — there's a lot you can know about yourself that you don't need someone else to tell you, if you stop and really listen.
Like last night, for instance — we ran a race yesterday, and I actually did run most of the race. After dinner we went for dessert, and I got a milkshake. It's totally fine to have a treat. But I can tell you that after said milkshake, I had to stop at a certain point, because I was like, "You know what, I already am not feeling great." So I was able to indulge a little bit, have a little of the milkshake, and then say, "Okay, that was enough," and go from there. Those little tips and tricks about what you can eat, how you can eat, and the order you eat it in, while you're out traveling on trips — it all helps.
If you want some good recipes that have high protein and high fiber, look at Nest Wellness on Instagram, and Sonya Manning — they both have really good, blood-sugar-friendly, high-protein, high-fiber recipes that are really good. We really loved that breakfast biscuit that was ground chicken and egg and some other stuff — it's such a great breakfast, especially on the run, because you can make a whole bunch, freeze them up, and take them out. They're pretty handy and heat up pretty quick.
Wrapping Up
Lots of good ideas there, but I guess we'll wrap it up. This kind of ends this episode on nutrition from Rev Up Health. I'm sure there'll be more of this to come — nutrition is always in an ever-changing form, and science is developing, new ways are coming out, and physiology, biophysiology, movement, and exercise are all becoming more and more researched. Hopefully we'll have a lot more information about the female body and the way their nutritional needs are, which is going to be exciting, because I think it's certainly going to be quite a bit different than it is for the male body.
Anyway, thanks for joining us on Rev Up Health, and we hope you have a great, healthy day.
Thank you for tuning in to another episode of Rev Up Health. We hope you're leaving with some valuable insights to supercharge your health journey. Don't forget to follow or subscribe to Rev Up Health wherever you listen to your podcasts, and if you enjoyed today's episode, please leave us a rating and review. Have a topic you want us to explore? Reach out to us on our social media channels — we love hearing from our wellness community. Until next time, keep thriving, and remember: your journey to health is a journey to a better you. Stay well, and we'll connect with you again soon. This is Tandi, and this is Dr. Mark, signing off from Rev Up Health. Take care.
The information provided in this podcast is for educational purposes only and is not intended as medical advice. The content is designed to support, not replace, the relationship that exists between a patient and their healthcare provider. Always consult with a qualified healthcare professional before making any changes to your healthcare regimen, including diet, exercise, or treatment plans. The views and opinions expressed in this podcast are those of the hosts and guests and do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of Revelation Health and Wellbeing.