good evening.

Thanks for watching HealthLine here on PBS Fort Wayne.

I'm your host Mark Evans.

You like to eat?

Yeah, I know I do but we have to watch what we eat in order to maintain our weight and also to be healthy.

That's what we're going to talk about tonight and we're going to talk about how we can do it affordably.

We have a couple of great people I got to talk to them quite a while before the show started.

But Adrian Carthon and Adam Gehring both registered dietitians and licensed dietitians, it's great to have you on the show.

>> Thank you for having us.

Yes, it's great to be here.

>> You've both been guest on the show before so you know how this goes.

Yes.

All right.

And as a matter of fact, we're expecting some phone calls tonight.

The phone number is on the screen 866- (969) 27 two zero.

If you have any questions throughout this half hour program which we don't stop for commercials because we are public television, be sure to call in whether it's for you or someone you love or a good friend of yours.

>> OK, so let's go and get started.

First of all, what are the current nutritional issues and the biggest problem we face when it comes to nutrition in the United States right now?

Honestly in an ad and I are talking it's really the lack of information but also the amount of misinformation that the public gets day to day.

We as a culture are and indeed with nutrition advice from all different areas, oftentimes from individuals that are not really, you know, properly educated and giving that advice.

And so oftentimes we will get, you know, individuals that come to see us and they have been practicing or you know, doing things thinking that OK, like this was the best thing for me to do and we kind of have to, you know, really go through and kind of ask them to forget everything that they have heard or that they've, you know, maybe followed from a certain person and to try to build that trust that you know, we we are the experts as an artist and so what we're trying to ask them to do really is based on evidence evidence based research.

>> And so it gets to be really hard.

It really does become difficult.

I bet it does and I was doing some research a day or two ago about the number one nutritional disorder around the world is a lack of iron the iron deficiency.

>> What attributes to that?

Well, I think that is a lack of fortification in the foods that are available and this is a worldwide issue this is the number one deficiency in the world which is iron deficiency in the United States.

We have great fortification efforts to put it in different cereals and then many different products that we eat throughout the day and so we don't have as much of it here but it is an issue still for for children especially whenever they're having their checkups with doctor's offices, they get the hemoglobin checked and then recommendations can be made from there and definitely within pregnancy as well making sure that we're getting enough iron for for those pregnant women.

>> What are some of the natural foods that will provide a good iron balance?

Yeah, some of the natural foods could be any of your animal based protein sources really those would be excellent sources of iron and then just a lot of your fortified cereals are going to contain a lot of that iron as well.

>> OK, even we think about like vegetable sauces.

Spinach is a really good source of iron when the tip that we always say when we go back to our metabolism classes is the iron that is in vegetables actually we need acid or vitamin C to help break that for that iron to actually be absorbed in the body.

So you know, we'll typically recommend to parents that if we're using an iron supplement or we're using plant based sources of iron that we are taking it with a vitamin C rich food.

So oranges, strawberries, bell peppers, things like that to help better absorb.

>> Oh, very interesting.

Very good.

Well, you know, the official title of the show is Affordable Balanced Nutrition for Everyday Life and I love it because I'm doing a lot of my own preparation of food.

I used to be a big fast food are out to dinner every night or type of person and now I've I've realized it's much better to prepare your own food and select your own food and it's really help with maintaining weight as well and even losing a few pounds.

>> Yeah.

So where would we start?

I would imagine that you would have to before you go to the grocery store you're going to have to do a little planning in order to make this successful Rice yes.

>> Expand on that.

Yeah.

So I think the first step would be to sit down and actually just plan the meals that you want to eat every single evening morning and then your lunches that you're going to have throughout your week and then making sure that you're hitting all of the food groups that are available to you so you got your protein, you got your grains, fruits and vegetables and then dairy.

>> So just making sure that you're really adequately incorporating all of those different food groups into every single meal that you're going to plan and then writing it all down and then creating a grocery list from that and then sticking to the grocery list as you go to the store because that's going to be what's going to save you the most money if you're able to stick with that grocery list that you create and look at your your ads.

You know, most major retailers put out an ad on a weekly basis and so really look at what's on sale when you're you know, sitting down and deciding what the family or what you want to have to for the week and build your meals around that.

So you know, my favorite thing is that there's a particular protein expensive you know, certain kinds of meats and things like that.

So if we can plan our meals around those items that are on sale for that week, that also helps save money for individuals and families.

I know a couple of people these days who are doing a lot of prep cooking a lot of cooking and they go and they buy a lot of ingredients like these 12 14 servings and they freeze it and all that.

>> Yes, but I'm not sure if that's such a great I mean that's a great idea.

Yeah, but are you going to go eat that particular food that you have prepped every single day?

>> I mean is that a good idea?

You know, I think it really comes down to personal preference.

You know, if it's something that they really enjoy as there's a balance, there's a balance and I mean I'll be honest if I you know, we'll make something at home that can be freeze typically I will prepare two portions.

I will also do like large batches of spaghetti sauce and I will freeze those into portions for my family.

So that way we actually did that tonight and be able to take it out of the freezer heated back up, you know, make some wholegrain noodles with a salad or a vegetable on the side and we're good to go.

>> Yeah, there's nothing wrong with that.

Sounds great.

What time's dinner?

>> I'm sorry are you already OK ?

The portion sizes I'm sure have something to do with it too especially if you're trying to maintain your weight but it's a tempting thing to do when you go in the store you buy and you prepare this food and it's so good if you're following a recipe or something handed down from the family but you'll want to eat, eat, eat, eat, eat it.

So along with getting the proper nutrition, how important are the portion sizes in this whole thing?

>> It's crucial.

In fact I think it's almost everything to have the proper portion sizes and then making sure that we have all the particular food groups once again it comes down to are you getting the protein, are you getting dairy?

Are you getting grains, fruits and vegetables?

And so here's a couple statistics that I did come up with love stats.

Yeah.

So so a really simple one is just eighty five percent of Americans don't eat enough fruits and vegetables, right?

Eighty five percent.

So I'm speaking probably to at least somebody that's I mean that's my that's one of my weaknesses to be honest.

Yeah.

Yeah.

>> And then another statistic is just 90 percent doesn't get enough dairy throughout the week and so I am going to go over just a handful of portion sizes just so that the audience is aware.

So I'll start with proteins.

It's a really simple one.

So if we're eating a animal based protein a great portion size to shoot four is three to four ounces a particular meal so that can be twenty one to twenty eight grams of protein and it's actually about the size of the palmier hand so that is going to be an excellent portion size for protein and then if you go on down to fruits and vegetables, the total amounts that we're going to want on average on average I mean this is just general information for vegetables.

It's about two and a half cups a day of vegetables and so I do encourage the audience to actually go out and grab a cup from your favorite cupboard and see how big a cup actually is because I think we have a distorted view of how big something is or how small something actually and honestly Cup isn't that big meeting multigrain cereal each morning and it's a cup and a third and it's like really that's all I get.

>> But when you add the milk with that and you eat you pace yourself, you don't gorge herself, you don't you're not going going through it within seconds you fill up a lot faster and it stays with you longer.

Yes.

there's a key to that.

We've got a call coming in and they're still retrieving that.

We'll get to that just a second.

Do you have more stats?

Yes.

So whenever it comes to fruits you would definitely want to have one and 1/2 cups per day of fruit.

If anything, we probably eat a little bit more fruit because it's the sweeter side.

People enjoy fruit more than they maybe enjoy vegetables.

That's not everybody.

But it seems to be the case many of the people that I'm I'm aware of and then whenever it comes to grains, three to six ounces is a good range to shoot for and some serving sizes of that would be like a slice of whole grain bread would be close to an ounce maybe an ounce and a half if it's a larger size piece of bread, a small tortilla and then a cup of like ready to eat like cereal flakes or something like that.

>> So that would be a good that's those are some good ideas.

>> Yeah.

Yeah.

And one thing I like to encourage as well you know to help fill up on fiber rich fruits and vegetables, you know, sometimes just a really quick easy visual is to fill half your plate with fruits and vegetables every meal and especially you know someone is trying to lose weight.

You're filling up a very large volume of food for very much fewer calories.

>> So that fiber they're actually helps keep you fuller for longer.

>> Yes.

So it can definitely be beneficial.

That is very important.

>> Mean if you don't mind, we'll go to take this call and we'll resume with your stats for sure.

Wesley is calling and he wants to ask this offline.

He'd rather not have be on the air but he says he has a friend who drinks too much pot.

>> What is the best method for them to cut back and what is too much any amount I think yeah.

>> This is actually a topic I'm very passionate about and take the floor with the added sugars.

I'm just because again research is showing that it leads to weight gain.

It leads to insulin resistance which is the precursor for type two diabetes and so really you know, when we are so used to having something if we try to cut cold turkey that tends to be really difficult.

We tend to crave and then we go back and we get into this vicious cycle and so, you know, ideally that over time we start cutting back.

So if we're used to drinking for cans of pop a day for the next week we're going to just try to only drink three and then for the week after that we're only going to try to drink two and we try to cut back you know that sweet flavor we get really used to that as human beings and so we tend to crave we want to go back to that and so doing like a flavored water or something else is going to be the sugar free will help kind of replace if that's something that they have a really hard time moving away from.

>> Well what about diet pop?

Is it so you know the artificial sweeteners you know they are recognized as safe by the FDA and this is kind of how I like to explain it is the studies that were done in the seventies and eighties, the amount of the artificial sweetener that they were giving to subjects which were actually rats studies I mean they were significant.

We as humans could not if we were to try to increase this or a dose of that up to something for a human being, there is no way that we could consume the amount needed to replicate the results of those studies every single day from now until the end of somebody's life .

So when we think about, you know, having an artificial sweetener there are also three hundred a six hundred times more sweet than table sugar.

>> The amount that's actually used is very small.

Okay, so really again if I have somebody that's going to choose between a regular soda and a diet soda, I would much rather they go with a diet option if that's going to help them stay successful.

>> Yeah, I read the labels on some of those diet products and it scares me because it's potassium chloride this and just these the names of these chemicals they put then there's like I'd rather not even go there.

>> I don't I don't want to consume those and put those on my body.

But when it comes to nutrition and trying to stay away from sugar, the diet is better for you.

Yeah, OK. Everything in moderation.

>> Yeah exactly.

Yeah moderation is the key and I think another way to look at that too is this is a step in the right direction.

You know I think that the best thing would be to go to just like water and I think water is the best thing.

>> Yeah, you just can't beat it.

And then you know, Adrian was talking about flavored water and stuff so you could put lemon in there.

You can put an orange slice in there so you can just infuse it with something that you like the flavor and taste of .

So that's everything is just kind of progressive.

It's in a better direction and that's where we would always want to lead the people that we're working with.

All right.

If you're just joining us here on HealthLine, we are talking to a couple of registered dietitians, licensed dietitians as a matter of fact, Adrian Carthon and Adam Gehring here on the program tonight.

We have another call coming in.

I'll go ahead and read that and this is from Harry says How do you determine portion size for male and female with huge height and weight differences?

Wouldn't a male over six feet in two hundred pounds need more in portion size?

>> Good question.

Thank you, Harry.

>> So the answer for that is yes.

And like I said, the portion sizes that Adam just went over were just a very general general, you know.

And so if we are looking at the needs there are all these fancy equations that we use every day in our jobs to help us kind of determine and nothing is an exact science.

But yes, generally men do need they require more calories than than a woman wide.

And so in those cases if we have somebody that is really wanting again weight management wanting to lose weight, ideally we would want to see them and be able to help them determine exact portion sizes for them again if their portion sizes are too big, what can we do to help them be successful in cutting back and.

>> All right.

Very good talking about as far as our topic is affordable balanced nutrition for everyday life and the phone numbers on your screen, these registered dietitians and other stuff because we've done shows with them before.

>> So give us a call if you have any questions.

We were talking about hydration earlier.

>> Is there a tendency if you are dehydrated that you tend to want to eat more or snack more?

>> Is there a correlation there?

I think that there can be I think that there definitely can be.

I know that if you are dehydrated even just like a couple of percentage points dehydrated, your cognitive abilities go down and so our bodies just don't function as well because our our bodies are about almost about 70 percent water in the first place.

And so we're we're built pretty much of water and then we have proteins and vitamins and minerals and everything else about the structure of our body.

So yeah, I mean if if we were lower in water content in that moment, I think that it could definitely affect our ability to, you know, desire food or crave different foods because we wouldn't be functioning optimally.

>> Right?

Absolutely.

Well, it makes sense to me that especially if you're trying to watch your weight I know we're not specifically talking about weight loss tonight but if you were trying to maintain or even lose weight that you would actually want to drink more water because that would fill you up.

>> I mean does that make sense?

Is there any any scientific logic to that at all?

Yeah, you I think to just if we think about hydration status generally the very first sign that you are going to have dehydration is thirst.

And if you have that, that's kind of a sign right there that you're already dehydrated.

And so sometimes people will also kind of mistake that as I'm hungry and it's not that you're really hungry, you're thirsty and your body is giving you that signal of I need I need that.

>> So let's talk a little bit about the processed foods when I hear anything about processed foods generally up until I just got educated on processed foods are bad.

>> I mean we're talking sugary beverages, chips, hot dogs, lunch meats, ice cream packaged desserts and instant soups and canned soups a lot of sodium in those but there are some good processed foods so people should not stay away from those especially when they're shopping because one of the better processed foods is frozen fruits and vegetables.

I mean it's better than not having them and you know, if you can't have access or if you can't keep fresh vegetables and I have habit they go bad on me.

But I buy a lot of frozen fruits and vegetables and keep those at home.

>> The nutritional value is about the same.

So when we look at the freezing process they flash freeze and it actually helps retain a lot of the nutrition.

So if fresh and we do live in Indiana, you know we're in a really great season but especially during the fall and winter.

You know, if fresh is not available, frozen would be the next best choice and on the list of good or minimally processed foods are along with frozen fruits and vegetables, salad mixes, dried beans, roasted and salted nuts, whole wholemeal bread and whole grain cereals, baked beans things of that nature.

Yeah, So just if it says processed it's not necessarily bad.

It's just as how it's processed .

And what I really encourage with that is, you know, when you flip a food product over there's the nutrition facts and below that is the ingredient list and you know often what I coach is can you pronounce all the ingredients that are in your food and for that ingredient list to be as short as possible and you know, that's pretty good telltale sign that what you have is minimally minimally processed.

OK, very good.

We have another call coming in.

In fact it's from James.

He's asking what's the new excuse me what's the nutritional difference between eating whole fruits and drinking fruit juices?

Yeah.

So the nutritional difference is going to be sugar, right?

Well both of them are going to have sugar in them for sure.

OK, so whenever we actually eat the food we are having to fight it or having to chew it.

We're actually starting the metabolic processes and in our stomach and so it's going to have fiber in it generally and there's just some just some of the phytochemicals that are maybe lost in the fruit juice itself and so whole fruit is going to actually fill you up and it's going to just be more satisfying I think in my opinion is just going to be a lot more satisfying to eat a whole fruit than just drink a fruit juice.

I'm not saying that a fruit juice is a bad option but if you do have the option of doing the whole fruit that may be really good in that situation.

>> I think if you squeezed your own oranges and so forth at home it's better I'm not sure I haven't done much investigation to try to see if I can find fruit juices that have not been added in sugar usually in the carton most of those 100 percent juice does not have the added sugar in it.

And the other thing too as a whole piece of fruit is going to have the fiber and yes, no matter kind of how you try to juice you're going to lose the fiber and that's when know we're talking about feeling fuller for longer and just getting the most nutrition that whole piece of fruit is going to give you all of that.

>> All right.

By the way, in just a couple of minutes because we're coming to the end of the program.

We're going to talk about resources for a healthy meal and snack ideas.

We'll give you some website ideas which are excellent by the way and we'll have those for you might want to grab a pen and paper but all right.

>> So you're at a loss and you might be interested in nutrition.

A lot of people aren't they just eat because it's a thing of sustenance or they enjoy eating so the doctor says you need to really watch what you're eating and then you're saying well, I need a dietician to help me out.

>> How would you be able to get help from a dietitian so most health care providers, you know, have access to dietitians especially if they're part of a larger health system and generally it's just a referral that's needed and that's something that your PCP or primary care physician can place for for somebody to get scheduled with a dietician and that's where again they sought the appointment and they get to meet with one of us and we just kind of dove into, you know, whatever it is specific to that individual that they need help with.

>> OK, very good.

So ask your doctor.

Yeah, ask your doctor.

They'll certainly have some resources.

>> So the next question I have for you foods to stay away from like nutrition, nutritious nutrition, dense foods I guess is the way they phrase it.

What are some of those foods that we need to stay away from as far as not getting any nutrition and they're just filler for the gut?

>> Yeah.

So again, those foods that are really high in added sugar so our sweetened beverages a lot of the snack type foods I call like snack dessert foods again they're going to have all that added sugar.

It fills you up but it doesn't fill you up with anything that really provides nutrition that your body needs, especially protein.

And so oftentimes you know, when we try to eat those foods or we're having them on a continual basis, we feel hungry a lot and that's where we get into some of the hard part of overconsuming.

We're getting too many calories and again leading to weight gain leading to that insulin resistance and we start to get in trouble.

>> So let's have some take home points for our viewers tonight.

You want to preplan your meals before you go to the grocery store.

You want to watch this, you want to watch your portions.

What are some other things that folks need to know about food choices?

>> What do we want to see on our plate?

We want to see some protein.

You want to see fruits, vegetables, fruits and vegetables.

>> That's half the plate.

Half the plate is fruits and vegetables that's going to be an excellent way to make sure that you're getting enough of those food groups in because because I guess that eighty five percent of Americans don't get enough fruits and vegetables and that's key to our health .

It really is.

>> And why that lean protein protein helps the satiety it helps you feel fuller for longer.

Yeah, oftentimes I think that can get overlooked and then again those whole grains they are going to be full of fiber as well and again just have more nutrition per ounce than a refined grain like white bread or white pasta.

>> All right.

The resources for healthy meal and snack ideas.

Yeah.

So a couple of websites that we want to point the viewers to.

One of them is going to be eat right dog eat right dog and that one is going to be our Academy of Nutrition that's that's like our governing body as dietitians.

That's the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, a public website for anybody to be able to look at and it's got recipes on there.

It's got all sorts of grocery list ideas and then just hand outs for how to eat healthy.

It basically can answer almost any question that you might have in a general sense of how to be healthy even with specific diseases that you may have and what's the other one and the other one is choose my plate dot gov choose my plate dot gov all right.

Yeah well I hate to cut you off here.

Oh we got four out and hopefully those will be very useful to you.

I know I'm going to do some research on those myself.

We thank you very much.

Thank you for having us both of you.

Adrian Kanthal and Adam Garrincha both registered dietitian and licensed dietitian.

So we appreciate the information.

Please come back again.

Thank you until next time.

Thank you for watching.

Thank you for your phone calls.

Until then, good night and good