hello, I'm Jennifer Bloomquist and this is HealthLine.

Thank you so much for tuning in tonight in case you're new to the show, this is a live program.

We are here in the studio tonight and we will take calls during the show tonight.

We're talking about ironically nutrition on Fat Tuesday but hopefully you had a chance to enjoy some indulging today and now get set for lunch and maybe doing something a little wiser.

But perfect topic though.

Nutrition a good good idea for all of us to be thinking about that if you want to ask.

We have two clinical dietitians who are kind enough to join us tonight and if you want to ask them a question any time during the show, there's the phone number.

We'll keep it up for you at the bottom of the screen it's (969) 27 two zero and if you're outside of Fort Wayne it's still a free call.

Just put an 866- in front of there and you have two options and you call in.

>> I always want to make people aware of this because some folks really don't want to ask the question live or talk live on TV and I completely understand that.

So if you call you will talk to a very nice lady named Brooke and she will talk to you and if you want to ask it live during the show, that's great.

If not, you can halbrook your question and she will relay that to us and we'll get it answered for you.

>> So please take advantage of getting some excellent advice tonight.

One of our guests in particular has been on a number of times and I can assure you she's got a wealth of information to share.

So I actually the this is Adrienne Kartal who's sitting right next to me and she's a clinical dietitian and she's been on with us a number of times over the years.

So good to have you back.

Thank you.

Thanks for having next to her.

>> Also equally expert in this topic is Amanda Lankin, another clinical dietitian.

>> A thank you to both of you.

Yeah, happy to be here.

Appreciate it.

There's so much that we can talk about.

>> One one thing I want to start with I know one when your office sent me some notes was nutritional information.

You know what's reliable, what you should look for what matters because you think people you know everyone knows about the nutrition labels now but you know, sometimes it's just funny to hear other people say oh it says no sugar added so this must be OK or you know ,trying to put the fat count in perspective fiber so pretty I mean doesn't the FDA have to approve each of those labels?

I mean would those be any on any food product?

Would that be reliable?

>> Yeah, yeah.

The FDA absolutely has to approve anything with the nutrition label and the claims on the front of them are regulated as well.

>> Oh, they are all right because I thought that was more of a marketing gimmick but that's yeah.

>> And that's kind of how some of that started and then the FDA stopped and made those regulated.

>> So it is I guess nice on our part if it is on up like a product that you see in the store that is regulated by the FDA.

>> Now see I'm old enough to know in fact I've got a little you know, like the spread butters I've got one of those little containers at home and my sewing box to all the buttons and I remember one of my kids looking at it and saying well there's nothing on here about the fat and stuff.

>> And I said That's right.

You didn't he didn't used to have that at all.

You so that's really I mean I'm kind of old but that's you know, not not been around forever but but I feel like some people just don't have a good idea and even I feel the same, you know is it's a good idea.

You know this has got some fat in it but not many calories or vice versa.

I don't know if there's kind of a good rule of thumb when you're assessing nutritional information.

>> So for me personally I like to kind of guide people to start with looking at the ingredient list oh on the food especially living in America.

A lot of food items in the store are highly processed and they add a lot of additives and things to the food to make them shelf stable for longer which for food companies.

I understand why they want to do that but I kind of like to encourage people to look at that ingredient list and to choose an ingredient list that has the least amount of ingredients.

OK, or you should be able to recognize the ingredients that are in your food for me I feel like that's beneficial if there's an ingredient that you don't recognize that is foods that are highly processed tend to be higher in sodium, higher in fat.

So if we can get more natural products you're not going to have all the additional things added.

>> All right.

Would you want to add anything to that, Amanda?

Sure.

>> I love my little rule of three that I created .

So when you're looking at the nutrition label, the nutrition facts for one serving roughly three hundred calories are less OK. Less than three grams of fat and less than three hundred milligrams of sodium.

>> OK, that's a good rule of thumb.

It is.

I mean it is amazing to me I know my kids love lunch me you know and I will make a sandwich to the grill sandwiches the stuff at home and I don't always eat much of that but the other night one of them had this like spicy turkey and I thought well that's really good.

>> Oh my gosh I think I drink a gallon.

I could not believe I don't know what you know because I bought it at the deli so it was cut fresh and I didn't have the ingredient label out of the bag but I could not believe how much sodium had to have been in there and I was thinking well it's Turkey, you know, that's usually a smart meat, you know, you would think but yeah, it must have been loaded with sodium so it's all I can imagine.

>> Oh go ahead.

And sorry it wasn't easy too.

We often get a lot you patients that we'll hear about something they'll read it off of Google or off of the Internet and I think in terms of trying to find nutrition information looking for Web sites that end in dot gov or edu yes.

Those typically come from our reputable sources.

I think also something else and you can change this you know parents that maybe have read something off of a blog you know, I often ask them a question who's writing that blog?

What is their background?

Are they an expert in this field or is maybe just something that they've tried and it's worked for them doesn't mean that it will work for everybody.

>> The one thing that frustrates me is just all these different diets.

You know, I mean there have been so many over the years you know, some of them are high carb or some of them high fiber and we've kind of Adriaan we've talked about this over the years.

I mean I hate to hear someone say oh, I'm following this diet.

You know, I don't know is there still a Palm Beach and I think that was it.

>> I don't know that story my age I guess.

But you know, in general I know we've talked about just kind of block all that out.

>> So if you're especially going into lend a lot of people like to give stuff up or maybe pay a little more attention to what they're consuming and be more conservative about, you know, which is a faith based for a lot of folks.

But what what guidance would you give somebody who kind of wants to make some changes but maybe not, you know, following these fad diets?

>> Sure.

I think the easiest thing to do is look at your beverages.

So many people consume high calorie beverages so the sodas are a big one if you're drinking soda even if it's diet that can start to have an effect on your body.

If it's regular soda it's going to be loaded with sugar.

>> Yeah, yeah.

So really looking at your beverages and seeing what kind of added calories or fats or in air so you know if you're doing heavy cream in your coffee maybe try a two percent milk or if you're doing you know a lot of sugar see if you can maybe cut it in half and then gradually wean yourself down.

>> Yeah, and I think too I was just talking about the pediatric population because you've been seeing a lot of kids and it's not just in children but adults.

>> Is our portion sizes really just being mindful and also paying attention to your body when are eating babies especially are innate to know when they're hungry and when they're full and as children they are as well and I know like I grew up where it was like you have to clean your plate.

>> Research has actually shown we don't want to do that because then we're we're actually teaching children to not listen to those hunger cues and that's good.

>> And so I really think a lot of education in that I give is just really looking at appropriate and apart like portion sizes.

I today watching a program about nutrition I think it was even on PBS years ago and there was this woman who went into someone's house which I would never want to do that myself but she was like watching the family all day and this little girl has a bowl of you know, like a sugary cereal every morning.

Well, this poll was it wasn't like a little cereal bowl.

It was huge and she just dumped it in there and she wasn't really an overweight kid or anything.

But you know, the woman said let me stop you right there.

I want to understand the two she she called it the two P's portion versus perception.

She's like you might think you're not eating a lot but this bowl is huge.

>> And so she you know, she was measuring Amuro like for a cereal bowl.

So that was you know yeah.

It's like well yeah if you've got some of these plates today are oversize and it may not look like you're eating a lot but yeah.

And I you know often encourage you know not that you have to do it for forever but sometimes even something that you eat everyday like cereal or oatmeal actually measure out what you're having and I would say probably nine times out of ten people are going to be surprised what's actually in front of them.

>> Typically they're taking typically going to be way more than you think you actually have.

Yeah, and a lot of folks don't want to you know, that's the thing is, you know, they want everything quick and I understand that it's fast but I mean do you in general advise people to kind of meaure out their food?

I mean sometimes it might be a matter of just how many slices of cheese you're taking, you know, which you can look up.

But you know, when it does comes to things like chips or dry dry foods like that and measure yeah I always go ahead.

>> I was especially you know, if we have small children again schedules are really crazy.

Those individual sized portion if you can buy snacks like that is fantastic.

But yeah if not just a couple of times of actually counting out twenty eight goldfish or whatever it is.

Yeah you're going to learn by sight that OK this is about it.

>> Yeah yeah about how or you're going to know right away that's way more yeah.

>> Serving sizes that's that's OK and once you start measuring things out and realize what it looks like in your bowl or on your plate.

Yeah.

That have it's going to start to develops over time you're going to be controlling portion without even thinking about it.

>> You're a reasonable already so well we did have somebody named Amy who called in.

She wanted me to ask the question for her so I'm going to go and do that with Amy.

>> So how can you tell the difference between oh hunger cues and an eating disorder?

That's a big topic especially after the eating disorders have just skyrocketed.

And really I kind of look at this as actually two separate things.

OK, so in terms of hunger cues, our body naturally gives those to us letting us know when we're hungry.

So what we call the hunger pangs that you'll feel in your stomach, you know, sometimes you may start to feel a little jittery.

I always joke my family will tell you I'll get hungry, start to get a little irritable and everybody is saying like hey, you know, like I need something to eat and then once you eat and your body is getting what we call like satiety, we're feeling satisfied those feelings start to go away.

And so, you know, I again recommend for a lot of people I think nowadays we're so on the go that we're just eating we're not paying attention to those.

But if it gets to the point where someone is having fears of eating or feeling like they have to restrict themselves and not listen to those hunger cues and again there can be a lot of fear based know situations that happen with eating disorders for me that would kind of be a red flag that maybe we would need to seek some help.

>> Yeah.

And I you know I mean what if somebody with an eating disorder a lot of times work with you in the beginning or is it more handling it psychologically and then meeting with a dietician to I think it's really a team approach without both of them together you're only going to solve part of the problem.

OK, it's a really getting making sure that the entire interdisciplinary team so the physician, the psychologist, the dietician are all on board and working together to help figure out what the root of the problem is and then how to solve it.

>> All right.

I appreciate this question.

That was a really good one and I would just want to remind everybody that we're only here till eight o'clock.

I'll be here a little bit later with these guys.

They have to leave at 8:00 and that's on our program and so please take advantage of getting you some free expertize tonight by calling us the number again is (969) 27 two zero and again if you're outside of Fort Wayne it's still toll free call if you put an 866- in front of their you know, I Adrian I want to talk to you about because I know you have four children of your own but you were saying that you've been doing a lot of pediatric cases in the past year and eating has definitely been impacted by the pandemic.

I mean everybody was totally off their normal schedules and it's just you know I mean I was guilty of this at home.

It's like I'm sitting there in the kitchen working all day and I'm like five feet from the pantry.

So my snacking kind of got out of control.

But you said you said there have been a lot of kids who gained even a hundred pounds in a year.

I can't even imagine that and probably pandemic related in most cases.

Yeah.

And I think when it comes to childhood obesity it is very multifactorial.

There's so many different things within a situation that can affect a child and I think, you know, with a pandemic, you know, we went from our normal routine going to school to being inside.

Yes.

For children who maybe are extremely active, they no longer had their sports or their activity, you know, or even maybe some fear of just being out outside in general and you know, with snacking or you know, I think sometimes too just with how everything changed very abruptly within our society, you know, finding that sometimes children actually coped with by eating practices during that time and there were times I think foods even for my family that were a staple on our house we couldn't find any right.

Yeah.

And especially working from home doing, you know, home schooling and wearing all the hats.

I definitely know a lot of parents were relying on what was ever quick and easy that they were able to be able to give to the family and kind of keep the schedule.

So I think a lot of different factors that that go into things and a lot of adults too.

And I was going to ask you about that.

Yeah, lots of weight during the pandemic and not just because of changes in food habits, you know, things not being available on the shelves like you said but gyms closing.

>> Yes, I thought that was so sad that they did that and fear of actually being outside and being able to go out and go for a walk or go for a run or you know, there are people that they go to the gym religiously three times a week, four times a week and that's how they were managing their weight and then they couldn't anymore.

>> Yeah, well, you know I mean it's it's you know, I it just is kind of shameful how it was handled.

I mean I understand in the first few weeks yeah.

Maybe shutting everything down we didn't know much about it but the more we learned about it it it almost seems just tragic now the things I feel like that from a public health perspective people's lives were just really damaged and people were scared, you know, and you can't blame them because of if that's what they're hearing.

So I'm just hoping that we can just move forward, you know, moving on this spring and a lot of the mandates have been dropped.

>> Everyone in the world had Omicron so I hope I don't hit so many people that hopefully we've between the vaccinations and and acquired immunity that will be in a better place here and I think like Amanda touched on earlier, you really encouraging anyone out there whether you're a child, an adult that you know?

Yes, there are times that our routine our schedule changes and things may happen.

You know, I didn't tell families I don't expect that you leave today in your perfect starting tomorrow.

That's reality and that's not realistic.

But studying those small goals and you know, every single day you work towards those habits and those habits is what makes that lifestyle.

So just trying to be I think is encouraging as possible is yes, we're here but that's OK and this is what we're going to do to move forward from it.

>> I think that's it.

People want quick results and you know and I'm glad you emphasize that it's a slow yes.

>> It takes time is a slow process.

Nobody got to a point where they're uncomfortable in a day so it's not going to change in a day and it's really taking that time to pick one or two things to focus on master those things if it takes you two weeks amazing.

>> If it takes you two months, that's OK too.

>> As long as you're looking for that solution and moving forward and trying to find something to do better make yourself healthier.

>> I'd like to device a doctor once gave me a center you just had a baby in the past year your fourth child and I loved it when she said you know because afterward I said Oh my gosh, I'm so fat.

>> She's like Honey, it's nine months nine months down.

>> Yeah.

You're not going to even as a dietitian I have to remind myself it takes time.

>> Yeah it does.

I mean because yeah she's like you didn't gain forty pounds over overnight she takes I'm going to drop it.

>> Yeah yeah it's always I just I always tell people do not pad don't take your regular clothes with you to the hospital so somebody else called and wanted me to ask a question Joe wanted to and I'm glad he's asking this do you have any suggestions for eating healthy on a budget because of course the junk food tends to be cheaper mac and cheese is cheaper than a basket full of produce so hit those staple items, get some frozen veggies when they're on sale they're going to last for a while frozen and canned.

>> I can probably have a lot of sodium or I didn't know if those were OK instead of the fresh it depends.

>> So you really have to look at the label and marketing companies are doing a really good job about slapping big old Red Label on the front of that can that says no salt or no soda?

>> Yeah.

So definitely look for something like that.

OK, if you're doing a frozen vegetable take a look at the back of the bag.

It should just be the vegetable that's in the bag and that ingredient list you might see a little bit of sodium on that nutrition label but that's naturally occurring sodium if you're not seeing it on the ingredient list, if it's just the vegetables, you're fine.

>> Go with that.

So and would in general I was thinking it would be zero grams of fat.

I mean does it I mean unless they're adding if you see something higher in fat I'm frozen veggies.

Yeah.

Typically I feel like a lot of the brands now have frozen vegetables that are you can put him in this tumor and they've got different seasoning buttons on them or they'll have like a butter sauce but those are pretty in my opinion pretty well labeled but just getting like steamed broccoli or corn and that's actually perfect.

>> I always joke, you know and we live in Indiana in the winter time.

Yes.

Been a good variety of vegetables.

>> Even fruit can be really hard.

I say frozen is the next best thing and then with fruits frozen fruit is always great to have on hand.

I encourage to make sure that it's not frozen in sirup just because that's going to be a lot of added sugar just again where the ingredient label is strawberries or blueberries or whatever.

>> Yeah because I know people always wondered if they get robbed of the nutrition's if they nutritional content if it's frozen or so and it's flash frozen so gets frozen really really fast so the nutrition in it isn't going to get as disrupted.

>> OK if you're doing a can vegetable it does kind of change the nutrition components a little bit but I'd much rather see somebody eat a canned fruit or vegetable then you know grabbing fries at the drive thru.

>> Yeah yeah I hear you and of course kids like that stuff about ourselves a little bit of a battle try and convince them OK, we have a lot of folks who are shy but they're asking good questions.

>> Thank you Patrick for calling in.

He has looks like to question so he wants to know is there a change recently in the recommended nutrition scale?

And then there's a there's a second question why don't we take that?

So has there been have they recalibrated anything as far as like nutrition labels?

>> So I know there's been like a national standard over the last couple of years with sodium and particular a lot of restaurants or some of the food companies the amount of sodium that was in a single serving sometimes was twice or three times the amount of what we would recommend and I know that we are there should they have worked on slowly cutting back what manufacturers our restaurants are allowed to use but I don't know in terms of scale if there is and like at the label that did the nutrition label did get a revamp so the serving size is much bigger and then the calories per serving is much bigger at the top of the label.

>> But overall everything on the label has stayed the same.

They've just changed and font sizes and moved some things around.

>> OK yeah those are kind of I don't know if there's anything else.

>> I don't think there is a bigger question and then his second was in regards to the pandemic which foods are the best to build your immune system?

>> Oh good good question.

I think everyone's just more cognizant of , you know, doing what they can to stay healthy so you want to make sure yeah.

>> I would recommend the fruits and vegetables.

They're higher in your vitamins minerals especially vitamin C that's always one that we know is really good for your your immune system is vitamin.

>> So fruits and vegetables typically are going to be high in vitamin C but you're going to get some other stuff as well.

So vitamin A in your orange veggies so think carrots zinc is another one to look at, OK and that's going to be a mineral that it's not going to you're not going to find it in really high quantities but you don't need a really high quantity of it.

So just making sure you're including those fruits and vegetables at every meal is going to help make sure you're getting all those vitamins and minerals that your body needs to fight any virus and to stay strong.

>> Did you want to add anything or I guess in terms of fruits strawberry you like your citrus fruit, drop some of the stuff, spend itself a really good prices like something like a pound for like a dollar sixty seven.

That's pretty reasonable and I think you know something to add and I'm sure you know with critical hair seeing this over the last couple of years but there have been a lot of supplements that have been pushed on the market side or that you know they do seem to be in properties and I know this is something we I kind of wanted to talk about, you know, and just kind of being careful with what you're getting out there and that, you know, supplements are not regulated by the FDA that's something that shocks people.

>> They're always so just because something says that it contains a certain, you know, vitamin or a certain form of the vitamin, there's no regulation to actually make sure that that is happening.

So I know it's the NSF and another third party USPI, the USPI that will independently review certain vitamin companies so especially I feel like the immune supplements have been really popular that you're looking for those on a label and that means like a third party is kind of come in and and verify that yes.

What's in this product is what's on the label.

>> I'm glad you brought that up because I am seeing a lot of know I mean, you know, even just lots of stuff or probiotics and things like that and I always would be concerned because you guys had you had told me that years ago they weren't FDA regulated.

I mean just maybe ask your doctor is that a good you know, for a suggestion?

>> I mean could that be the better not to take that or if you are working with a dietitian ask them ask them.

You know, I want to take X, Y, Z as a vitamin.

Is it appropriate?

Yeah, it does it interfere with any other medications that you're taking?

It doesn't interfere with any medical conditions you might have though before you start any supplement regimen.

It's always good to check with your doctor, the pharmacist or a dietician if you're working with one.

>> Yeah and I think another red flag to look forward to is if you know let's say you're reading or somebody is promoting a supplement that they have created .

Yeah.

You know that if you take this two times a day for three weeks this is magically going to be gone and that's not reality.

No.

>> So that would be a really big red flag.

That's probably not something that you'd want to want to take you.

Yeah, sadly we have like ten seconds left I guess because you guys are so great great information so Adriana and Amanda, thank you so much.

I appreciate you guys.

Thank you for having you.

We need to within the hour at least contact you.

I'm Jennifer Blomquist.

Thank you so much for tuning in tonight and I know we all learned a lot.

I appreciate all of you who called in with questions.

Take care and happy starting tomorrow.

We'll see you next week.

>> Bye