0:00

I can't keep this in anymore. I can't even

0:02

believe I'm saying this, to be honest. You

0:04

know you can tell me anything. I'm capital

0:07

VFD42 capital Z lowercase m

0:09

underscore lowercase p capital L reverse slash apostrophe

0:11

lowercase rs. I know how you feel.

0:14

Just between us, I'm underscore

0:16

comma dash underscore dollar sign capital G lowercase

0:19

w comma forward slash dash dash reverse slash.

0:21

No way! I am so glad we

0:23

had this conversation. I know, me too.

0:26

Turn on total privacy with end-to-end encryption.

0:28

What's up? Message privately.

0:36

Hello, I'm Monica Reinagel. Welcome

0:38

to the Nutrition Diva podcast where

0:40

we take a closer look at nutrition trends and

0:42

headlines, explain what the latest

0:44

research means for you, and answer

0:46

your nutrition questions.

0:49

I recently got a call on the Nutrition Diva

0:51

listener line from someone who had apparently stumbled

0:53

across the podcast while Googling the answer.

0:56

To a burning nutrition

0:57

question, could eating

0:59

a high-sodium soup cause weight

1:02

gain? They went on to explain

1:04

that they'd gained a pound and a half even though

1:06

they'd eaten very little the day before. Just

1:08

some oatmeal, some cabbage, and

1:11

a small amount of soup, which they suspected

1:13

had been very high in sodium.

1:16

Now, if you're in the habit of getting on the scale every

1:18

morning, you've probably noticed that your

1:20

weight can vary wildly from day

1:22

to day in ways that sometimes

1:24

seem unfair.

1:26

How could I have gained two pounds

1:28

overnight? I had a salad for lunch. I skipped dessert

1:30

at dinner. I should weigh two pounds less.

1:33

It's tempting to think that whatever we

1:35

did or didn't eat yesterday

1:38

should show up the next day on the

1:40

scale, but it doesn't work that way.

1:43

It takes a lot longer for dietary

1:45

changes to result in fat loss or

1:47

fat gain. So if you gain

1:49

or lose even three or four pounds

1:52

overnight, most of that is probably

1:54

due to water weight.

1:56

Here's the thing. Water is heavy.

1:59

water weighs about one pound.

2:02

So if you were to weigh yourself and then

2:04

drink 16 ounces of fluids and immediately

2:07

weigh yourself again, you'd have gained one

2:09

pound in about 15 seconds.

2:11

A couple of hours later, a lot of that water

2:14

will be collected in your bladder. So

2:16

if you weigh yourself before and after visiting

2:18

the bathroom, you might be able to

2:20

enjoy the thrill of losing up to a pound

2:23

in 15 seconds. As you can

2:25

see, the amount of fluid in

2:27

your stomach and in your bladder will

2:30

have a fairly profound yet meaningless

2:33

effect on your body weight at any

2:35

given moment. Eventually, all

2:38

the water in your body passes through the kidneys,

2:40

which regulate how much

2:41

water is either retained or

2:44

eliminated in order to maintain

2:46

the right amount of fluids and the right concentration

2:49

of electrolytes.

2:51

Eating a lot of salt, for example, can cause

2:53

the kidneys to keep more water in

2:55

circulation in order to dilute

2:58

that extra sodium. So

3:00

yes, eating a salty meal can

3:03

lead to a temporary increase in body

3:05

weight, but that doesn't represent

3:08

changes

3:08

in your fat stores. That

3:10

is going to have a lot more to do with how many calories

3:13

you've taken in and burned over

3:15

the long term.

3:16

And as I said, those changes

3:19

are going to show up over a much longer

3:21

timeframe.

3:23

That's the answer to

3:25

the question that the listener asked me.

3:27

But after listening to the message again,

3:29

I

3:30

heard something that I think needs to be addressed.

3:32

There were some red flags in there, which

3:35

signaled that this was actually

3:37

not a question about sodium or

3:39

water retention, but potentially

3:42

something more serious.

3:44

Red flag number one was the fact that

3:46

the listener reported eating only oatmeal,

3:49

cabbage, and a small amount of soup

3:51

over the course of an entire day. That's

3:54

not enough calories to sustain an adult

3:56

human body.

3:58

Red flag number two. was

4:00

the description of a relatively small amount

4:02

of weight gain, just a pound and a half, as

4:05

serious weight gain.

4:07

And red flag number three was

4:10

the listener's self-described desperation

4:13

to find out what caused this minor

4:15

fluctuation in weight. Taken

4:18

together, these red flags

4:20

might suggest that someone is dealing with disordered

4:23

eating and distorted body image. Disordered

4:26

eating is unfortunately quite common and it can

4:28

be very serious, which is why

4:31

I wanna take this opportunity to

4:33

just bring this out into the open. Disordered

4:35

eating is not primarily a nutrition

4:38

issue, it's a mental health issue. And

4:41

May is Mental Health Awareness Month, so

4:43

the timing really is perfect. For

4:46

anyone listening today who

4:48

may hear themselves in this discussion,

4:51

please know that however isolated

4:54

you may feel with these sorts of thoughts or

4:56

worries, or how desperate

4:58

the situation feels,

5:00

you are not alone and help

5:02

is available. If you're not sure

5:04

whether or not this is really a problem

5:07

for you, the National Eating Disorders Association

5:10

has an anonymous screening tool that you can

5:12

access at nationaleatingdisorders.org,

5:15

and there are more resources, including

5:18

an eating disorders helpline, available

5:20

at anad.org. Just

5:23

click on Get Help.

5:25

I can't keep this in anymore. I

5:27

can't even believe I'm saying this, to be honest. You know

5:29

you can tell me anything. I'm capital

5:32

VFD42 capital Z lowercase m underscore

5:34

lowercase p capital L reverse slash apostrophe lowercase

5:37

rs. I know how you feel. Just

5:39

between us, I'm underscore

5:41

comma dash underscore dollar sign capital G lowercase

5:44

w comma forward slash dash dash reverse slash.

5:46

No way, I am so glad we

5:48

had this conversation. I know, me too.

5:51

Turn on total privacy with end-to-end encryption.

5:53

WhatsApp, message privately.

5:57

In New Orleans, 2012, Bruce Kachera

5:59

drove to. address someone had given him

6:01

that didn't exist. As he stood in the parking

6:04

lot where the address should have been, he was

6:06

shot and killed. I'm Delia D'Ambra.

6:08

Join me for the newest season of Counter Clock

6:11

as I dive into the motive behind Bruce's

6:13

murder and a series of events

6:15

that have never been fully investigated until

6:17

now. Binge all 14 episodes

6:20

of Counter Clock Season 5 wherever

6:22

you listen to podcasts.

6:28

Just this morning, I got an email from a listener

6:30

that struck me as another case where the

6:32

question being asked was not really

6:35

the issue at hand. This listener

6:38

wanted to know how to send a food item to a lab

6:40

to have it tested for possible contaminants.

6:43

It involves a particular candy that I

6:45

eat far too many of every day,

6:48

the listener wrote. It's like an anti-stress

6:50

medication for me. But

6:52

if I found out that it was very

6:55

high in heavy metals, for example, maybe

6:57

that would help me cut down. I

6:59

think the cost of sending food

7:02

samples for toxicological testing

7:04

is probably going to be more than you'd

7:06

willing to spend. But do we really

7:08

need something like a heavy metal

7:11

scare in order to decide that

7:13

we'd benefit from limiting our consumption?

7:16

The fact that you're willing to go to

7:18

such lengths and expense to limit

7:20

your consumption of this candy suggests that this

7:22

is already creating some sort of problem

7:24

for you. Maybe it's uncomfortable

7:27

to feel like you can't control your actions.

7:30

Maybe all the sugar makes you feel crappy.

7:32

Or maybe you're concerned about the impact on other

7:34

risk factors such as your blood sugar or

7:37

weight or triglycerides.

7:39

Would a hypothetical consequence that

7:42

might play out years or decades

7:44

in the future be more compelling

7:47

than whatever actual consequences

7:49

are playing out right now?

7:51

From a purely practical

7:54

perspective, when there's a food that I find it difficult

7:56

to resist or I'm prone to overeat, I

7:59

generally don't

7:59

keep it in the house.

8:01

I find it a lot easier to exercise

8:03

my self-control once at the grocery

8:06

store than to battle

8:08

my willpower every night at 8 p.m.

8:12

But there was something else that struck me about this

8:14

question and maybe you heard it too. It's

8:16

the part about candy being like anti-stress

8:19

medication.

8:20

Candy or wine

8:22

or chips or whatever it is for you may

8:25

provide a temporary distraction from

8:27

whatever stress you may be feeling.

8:30

But it obviously doesn't address the source

8:32

of the stress, whatever that may be. And

8:35

it doesn't really reduce the

8:37

stress that you're feeling in response. In fact,

8:40

to the extent that you find yourself googling

8:42

food testing labs, it sounds like it might

8:44

be adding more stress. In

8:47

the most recent episode of the Change Academy podcast,

8:50

I was talking about solutions that don't

8:52

fit the problem and I think this is a perfect

8:54

example of this. There's a mismatch here

8:57

between the problem, in this case the

8:59

stress, and the solution that's

9:01

being applied, in this case the

9:03

candy. And I suspect

9:05

that strategies for managing and

9:08

mitigating stress

9:10

would be more useful than sending

9:12

the candy away for analysis.

9:15

By the way, if you could use some support on this issue,

9:17

I have a program on overcoming

9:19

stress and emotional eating and you can learn more

9:21

about it at wayless.life.stress.

9:26

But now we have time for just one more listener

9:28

question.

9:29

Could you talk about the strategy of drinking

9:32

alcohol with a meal to control blood

9:34

sugar spikes for use on an occasional

9:37

basis? For example, when you're out for

9:39

a meal and you can't immediately get

9:41

up to walk around. Now

9:44

if you heard my last episode with diabetes

9:46

educator Jill Weisenberger, you might recall that

9:48

Jill mentioned that taking a 20 minute

9:50

walk after meals is an effective way

9:52

to improve blood sugar metabolism. Specifically,

9:55

it helps increase your cells' sensitivity

9:58

to insulin and that helps to to clear

10:00

sugar out of the blood and into the muscles and other

10:02

tissues. Although we didn't talk about

10:04

it in that conversation, low

10:07

levels of alcohol consumption, so

10:09

less than five drinks a week,

10:11

are also linked to improved insulin sensitivity

10:14

in longitudinal studies. And

10:16

that means that people who report low

10:18

to moderate alcohol consumption over time

10:21

also have a reduced risk of type 2

10:24

diabetes. However, it's

10:26

not clear to me anyway that having

10:28

a drink with a single

10:29

meal would have an immediate impact

10:32

on your blood sugar after that meal. More

10:34

importantly, alcohol also comes

10:36

with very clear and significant health

10:38

risks.

10:39

I don't think it's ever worth drinking alcohol

10:41

simply for the alleged health benefits. If

10:44

your goal is blood sugar management, I

10:46

suggest focusing your attention on the content

10:49

of the meal, things like portion size

10:51

and the amount of refined carbohydrates

10:53

that you choose,

10:55

and then take a post-meal walk when you

10:57

can, but don't worry about the occasional

10:59

situation when that's not possible.

11:02

This is a long game we're playing here.

11:04

This is Monica Reinagle, the Nutrition

11:07

Diva. If you have a question you'd like me to answer,

11:09

you can email it to me at nutrition at

11:12

quickanddirtytips.com or you can leave

11:14

me a message at 443-961-6206. Nutrition

11:19

Diva is a Quick and Dirty Tips podcast supported

11:22

by a fantastic team, which includes

11:24

our director of podcasts, Adam Sessel, audio

11:27

engineer, Nathan Semes, Davina Tomlin,

11:29

who runs our marketing and publicity, Holly

11:31

Hutchings, who is our digital operations

11:33

specialist, and Morgan Christensen, who

11:36

is our podcast operations and advertising

11:38

specialist. Thanks so much for

11:40

listening.

11:48

I have a great idea for dinner tonight. How

11:51

about a chicken cheddar broccoli

11:53

rice bowl, which you could whip up in

11:55

just 30 minutes with the help of a Knorr

11:58

cheddar broccoli rice side? Who needs

12:00

fast food when Knorr has these delicious

12:03

and nutritious recipes that you can make at home

12:05

in under 30 minutes? Make

12:08

your own taste combo. Show

12:10

us how you create delicious, nutritious

12:12

meals at home with Knorr using

12:14

hashtag Knorr versus combo

12:17

on social. Visit knortastecombos.com

12:21

to find other easy to make at home recipes

12:23

from Knorr.