Build a Metabolically Positive Meal with These 5 Easy Hacks

On this Inside the Texas Heart Studio episode, Dr. Coulter and Keri Sprung sit down with Dr. Casey Means to discuss her new book, Good Energy. 

Dr. Casey Means cuts through the noise of today's confusing dietary landscape. She offers a clear-cut framework, empowering you to make informed choices about what goes on your plate. You'll learn about the 5 key elements to include in every meal to keep your cells fueled and your body functioning optimally. 

The five key elements are:

1.        Fiber Sources

2.        Healthy Proteins

3.        Omega-3s

4.        Probiotics

5.        Antioxidants

For more information regarding the importance of metabolic health, visit texasheart.org/tag/cardiometabolic-health/

Watch the sit-down interview here.

Watch On Demand Videos on Texas Heart TV

Visit Our Website: texasheart.org

Chapters

• 0:06 Confusion about Diet and Nutrition
• 1:26 Healthy Food Sources
• 3:55 Probiotics & Gut Health
• 8:10 Avoiding Harmful Foods
• 9:26 Food Processing Levels

Transcript

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We had a lot of fun going

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and finding some foods that you recommend in your book.

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And so we want you to talk a little bit about your approach

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and the five things we should think about

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as we're building a metabolically positive meal

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To create a really simple framework in the, in the book,

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the Good Energy Eating Plan,

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it was really prompted from just seeing so many thousands

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of people in the levels community,

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in my social media community who just feel

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so confused about what to eat.

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Like, am I supposed to be vegan?

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Am I supposed to be carnivore, paleo, keto, Mediterranean?

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It's so overwhelming. 80%

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of Americans are confused about nutrition,

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which is astonishing.

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Mm-Hmm. Um, yeah, it's especially astonishing

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because the more research that's published on nutrition,

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the more confused Americans are.

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Mm-Hmm. So let's keep it really simple.

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And my framework is really focused on like,

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we've got these 40 trillion cells in our body or more,

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and they need certain things to function properly.

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So how do we match what the food can give us

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with what the cells need?

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Because when that matching process happens, well often a lot

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of our symptoms will kind

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of melt away and will feel really good.

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So five of the key things that I believe,

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and I'd love to hear your guys' thoughts on this,

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that I really think can help the body do well if we try

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and incorporate them in almost every meal is a really good

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fiber source, a healthy protein source, an Omega-3 source,

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a probiotic source, and an antioxidant source.

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So then the key is actually having a mental model of

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what are your favorite things in each of those categories.

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Mm-Hmm. And just making sure they're in your kitchen.

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So it becomes almost like mixing and matching.

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So for me, some

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of my favorite Omega-3 sources are chia seeds, basil seeds,

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hemp seeds, salmon, sardines, mackerel.

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Those things are all shelf, you know, canned fish,

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wild caught fish and seeds and nuts, all in the pantry.

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So I always have those available to top the salad

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With. It's not necessarily expensive.

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No,

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No. You can get beautiful

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can of sardines

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and extra virgin olive oil for 2 99 at the store.

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And that has like 35 grams of protein,

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almost 2000 milligrams of omega threes.

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Various micronutrients and vitamins.

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And so that's a great, so just have 'em there

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for antioxidants, really, it's like any colorful fruit

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or vegetable plus spices, tea, coffee,

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and unsweetened cacao.

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So have those around.

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Those are gonna be great antioxidant sources.

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Spices are actually one of the highest antioxidant sources

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on planet earth per by gram.

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And so cooking with spices, dried spice is a great way

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to get antioxidants.

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I learned in writing the book

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that the highest antioxidant nut is pecans.

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So keeping Welcome

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To Texas. Welcome to

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Texas.

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It's like way higher than most

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other nuts, which is incredible.

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And then fiber sources.

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I love all beans, all legumes, chia seeds, basil seeds,

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again, hemp seeds, most nuts

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and seeds have a lot of great fiber. Um, what about

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Fruits? You

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know, fruit is fairly low in fiber. Mm-Hmm.

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The highest fiber fruit is raspberries. Mm-Hmm.

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And that's about eight grams per cup, which is awesome.

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But I would say, you know,

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I think we're really depleted in fiber in our culture.

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The average American's getting about 12 grams of fiber.

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I aim for 50 grams or more a day.

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And truly it's just about knowing what the best sources are

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and keeping them in your kitchen.

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So one really great way to get a lot of fiber for me,

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I have tons of canned organic beans in my pantry.

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Of course you could cook them in

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the pressure cooker, you could do 'em yourself.

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But for, for all of us who are

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so busy, canned beans are fine.

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You don't wanna have any extra stuff in there.

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It's basically beans. They're good salads, they're so great.

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So every Monday I take three

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or four cans of beans,

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which will be about 150 grams of fiber total.

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And I put take the can top off,

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I put 'em in the colander, I wash them.

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Me too. I put them in Tupperware.

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'cause then you don't have to do that all week.

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You just do it once. Yeah.

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And then quarter cup on a salad,

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put a little bit on the side of my eggs.

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They can go on anything.

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And so just having them at the ready is key.

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I also keep jars of chia seeds, hemp seeds

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and flax seeds on the counter.

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Yeah. So that when I'm making that salad

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or that chia pudding, you just put a couple on top.

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Um, so it's just really having them accessible.

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So that's fiber probiotic sources for me,

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my absolute favorite is sauerkraut.

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So just having a big Costco has incredible gigantic, um,

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containers of wild brine sauerkraut.

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We actually, the research has shown that we want,

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this is wild, but ideally, six servings

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of probiotic foods per day for optimal, um, gut health.

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Gut health. Mm-Hmm. That is more than most people can do.

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So I would just say start with like two or three servings.

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But a lot of people think it's like just a

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tiny bit of sauerkraut.

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We wanna get that quarter cup out

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and put a huge amount on our salads. That's

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Gonna be a tough sell. It's tough.

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So for easier things, yogurt. Yogurt. Yeah.

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Great. And tell us a little bit about

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yogurt. 'cause yogurt's complicated.

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Yogurt's complicated. The key thing you wanna do

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with yogurt is find it that has basically one ingredient,

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which is just protein, you know, which is well,

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and just basically milk as the main ingredient.

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Or if you're doing a non-dairy, yogurt,

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as few ingredients as possible.

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Maybe it's almonds and water

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and one or two other ingredients. So get the

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Plain yogurt and get your own fruit.

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Well, plain is actually not good enough.

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A lot of plain yogurt is actually sweetened.

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And so you want it to specifically say unsweetened.

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So this says zero added sugar. That is very, very important.

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The only ingredient in this entire thing is

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cultured non-fat milk.

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So this is perfect. And then they

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also have the cultures in here.

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But then you look at another yogurt

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that looks potentially healthy. So this says organic,

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Well, it's skin itself. Organic.

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Organic. And it's got vanilla bean,

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dairy free, all these words.

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But it has about like 30 ingredients on the back.

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You know, it's got cane sugar, it's got tapioca starch,

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pectin natural flavors, Gugu, locust bean gum, agar,

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like just things you just don't need.

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So this is an unsweetened one ingredient yogurt.

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This is gonna be amazing. And you wanna make sure it

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has the live and active culture.

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So this is actually listing

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the bacteria then that's in there.

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So that's great. And then my third favorite

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probiotic source is actually, it's called Kavas.

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And it's essentially like a low sugar kombucha.

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Kombucha now at the store has basically become soda.

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It has like 15 to 20 grams of sugar in it.

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It, they've realized that people like kombucha

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and so they made it palatable to the American taste.

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And now it's filled with sugar.

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So, so kombucha is usually made

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with fermenting fruit and tea and sugar.

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Kavas is actually just fermenting beets and water basically.

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So the carbohydrate source is the beet and it has no sugar.

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And you can find that online. That's kind of a

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Sweet It is treat, Yeah.

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Yeah. But they, they ferments a lot of the sugar.

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So just make sure to read the labels.

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But yogurt, sauerkraut, kimchi, kavas,

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and just looking at your labels for kombucha,

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I would say don't buy a kombucha with over five grams

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of sugar for the whole bottle.

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Um, that's a good rule of thumb. So that's probiotics.

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And then protein. You know, protein is such an amazing

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macronutrient 'cause it makes us feel full.

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And I think a lot of women especially

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are probably under doing protein.

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Um, and it's one that we really do wanna prioritize

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for satiety mechanisms

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and for stimulating the maintenance of muscle mass, which

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of course is like our metabolic armor.

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It's gonna take up glucose, it's gonna release healthful

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hormones called myokines.

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And so I aim for about 30 grams of protein per meal.

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And so it's just like kind of knowing your protein sources.

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So each egg has six grams of protein generally.

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You know, knowing that like a,

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the chicken breast is probably gonna have between 25

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and 30 grams of protein.

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Um, a quarter of a package, a one pound package

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of ground beef is gonna have about, um,

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26, 25, 26 grams of protein.

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So kind of just having mental math of how to get, how

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to put together your At every meal.

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At every meal. Yeah. Um, and that's gonna keep you so full.

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And then of course, if you're using protein powders,

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just looking for the ones that have the least

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ingredients possible.

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Right. So like maybe, um, just one or two ingredients

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and no added sugar and no natural flavors.

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So that's kind of how I like to put together meals as fiber,

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antioxidants, probiotics, um, healthy protein

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and omega threes.

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And really it just comes down to a lot of like mixing

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and matching and having sources of each

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of those at the ready.

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And then the three things that I talk about keeping out

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of all our meals in the book, I'm about to ask that.

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Yeah. This one we have to talk about for,

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For a little bit. It's

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really simple. It's three things.

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It's ultra processed grains, ultra processed sugars,

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and ultra processed industrial seed oils.

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Um, and so these are things

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that are basically the main three ingredients in almost all

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packaged and processed

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foods that we're seeing in the country.

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Mm-Hmm. Almost 70%

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of our calories now are coming from ultra processed foods.

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And the base of an ultra processed food is ultra processed

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grains, ultra processed sugars

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and ultra processed industrial seed oils.

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And so if we actually just start by getting rid of those

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and starting to read labels

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and start to add in some of those five healthful aspects

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of food, our lives transform.

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So, and it really pushes us more towards whole, you know,

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unprocessed, whole foods eating.

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Um, so that's, that's kind of the core of the, of

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where the research led me as I was trying to develop a,

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a metabolic health food framework that actually works

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for every dietary philosophy.

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You could be vegan Mm-Hmm.

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And you could follow that, those principles.

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You could actually be, it would be hard

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to be carnivore 'cause they don't need a lot of fiber.

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But you could certainly be keto, paleo, Mediterranean

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and absolutely do all eight of those things.

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Right. So it's more about principles

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and cellular biology than diet dogma.

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Will you talk a little bit about processed foods? Sure.

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Because I think, I think it's,

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people are unclear on what's actually

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processed and what's not.

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So bread and pastas and talk a little bit about flowers

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and what, how, how can we make that easier?

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When we're grocery shopping,

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There's actually a classification system for the level

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of processing of food,

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which is called the Nova classification that goes from

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unprocessed to ultra processed.

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And the thing that we wanna absolutely get rid

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of from our diet completely is ultra processed.

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And basically what that means is

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that in a factory somewhere,

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food was broken down into individual components

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like little teeny building blocks.

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And then industrial put back together like a little

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Frankenstein model.

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So it's taking like a particular component from one food

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and another and putting together something

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that our body just has literally no idea what to do with.

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And then often adding synthetic

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chemicals like colorings, preservatives, fillers

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that are used to increase taste

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and to trigger our brain for reward to increase shelf life,

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to increase the, the coloring of it, to make it more,

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you know, palatable or,

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or to make it more enticing in some way.

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And so those are ultra processed foods

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and like a, a whole wheat,

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which is basically you take the wheat

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and you can like grind it under a stone with a mortar

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and pestle and make bread.

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That's not ultra process

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because the ingredients,

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the components haven't actually been stripped apart

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and put back together in a literally a science fiction way.

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Whereas Wonder Bread is ultrapro.

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'cause that actually took the wheat, it grounded,

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it then removed the bran and it removed the fiber

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and the nutrients and just kept the germ

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the white part essentially.

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So it took one part

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and then mixed it with a bunch of other things like sugars

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and oils and built a Franken food.

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So those are two very different things.

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Like if you can grind a piece of wheat and mix it with water

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and make bread, that's a, that's a processed food,

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but it's gonna include all components

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that were in the original food versus an ultra processed

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food is like this mix and match.

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And going back to the conversation about inflammation,

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if we think about inflammation in the body,

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being the body essentially responding

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to a threat signal like it's inflammation is essentially

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biochemical fear in the body on a cellular level.

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Mm-Hmm. Well if you're putting something into the body

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that was made in a factory that has this mix

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and match of parts that the body over

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the literally like hundreds of thousands of years

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of modern humans have been alive that they've never seen

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before, it's gonna stimulate the body to be like afraid.

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And that's literally what's happening.

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We know that the more ultra processed food that people eat,

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the more likely they're gonna develop these chronic

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cardiometabolic diseases.

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So fully unprocessed is like this, this apple,

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it's like it came from that was picked off a tree

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and nothing has been done.

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And you know, hopefully you picked it straight from the tree

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and it, you know, didn't travel.

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And that's great. That's like the best,

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the best thing you could do if it came from good soil

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and it was picked today

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minimally processed is when certain things were done

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to the food to basically, um, you know, make it last longer,

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um, or, you know, have it stored in a particular way

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but isn't changing anything about the food itself.

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So minimally processed foods are canned beans just in water.

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The, the bean has been cooked and it's been sealed,

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but there's no, there's no like, um, sugar, there's no salt,

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there's no other flavorings

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or things like that in apple that's been chopped

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and put in a package that's minimally processed.

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It's been changed, but the apple is still all there.

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And none of these synthetic

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or artificial components have been added to it.

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So minimal processed peanut butter would be a minimally

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processed food if no sugar or palm oil were added to it.

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It's literally ground. Mm-Hmm. Almonds almond.

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So almond butter, I would say typically we can think

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of minimally processed foods as totally fine to eat.

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These kohl Robbie noodles are minimally processed

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'cause they've been turned into noodles,

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but nothing's been changed about the Kohl Robbie, um,

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versus the Ezekiel bread is a processed food.

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Mm-Hmm. But not in ultra processed food

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because it's still whole grain in there.

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So I would say we just want to eat as much unprocessed.

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I would say pretty much minimally processed is okay

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almost entirely.

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It's still gonna be farther away from the earth.

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So probably have lost some of its nutrient value,

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but it's still, I think, very much conducive

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with the metabolically healthy diet processed.

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We really wanna start limiting

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and alter process we never want to eat. And

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You mentioned your book pairing with exercise.

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There's some foods that you suggest

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that you pair with exercise.

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Talk about that a little bit. What exercise does

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to help you manage your glucose spiking?

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Yeah, I thought that was fascinating.

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If you just take a very short walk

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or do a little bit of physical activity right

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after a meal, it significantly

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decreases your glucose elevation,

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your blood sugar elevation from that meal.

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And it can be for as little as like five minutes.