Episode 5 – Bullet Proof Your Shopping Basket! The Good, The Bad & The Ugly Part 1

Welcome to Genie Nutrition Secrets. This is podcast 5. My name is Angie White, I'm a Functional Diagnostic Nutrition practitioner, Health Detective, Bio-Hacking geek, and I love giving people the tools that they need to take back control of their health. So to say welcome back, and thank you so much for listening.

Last week we talked a bit about oil and how it can be a massive deal breaker when it comes to your health. This week, we're going to delve a bit more into the subject of nutrition. Because this is a bit of a meaty subject, (excuse the pun), I'm going to be splitting this subject into three podcasts, which you'll get over the next three weeks. Basically, it'll be split into The Good, The Bad and The Ugly. We're going to start with 'The Good' today and we're going to focus on getting the most nutrition bang for your buck when it comes to your shopping basket. So let's get stuck in!

Meat - When I work with my clients, I often get them to focus on the quality of meats and fish that they are eating. Really what we're looking for, in terms of the gold standard is grass fed, pasture raised meat. Basically making sure that the meat is from animals that have grazed on grass or whatever it is that's natural to them, rather than being fed things like corn or other grains that they're not naturally meant to eat. This causes them health issues which will ultimately then be passed onto you if you were to eat those meats. Also, hormones get pumped into them. We don't want to be taking those in, especially if you've already got hormone issues. Having meat that holds those hormones and then eating that meat is going to only make matters worse.

Fish - From a fish perspective, focus on wild caught fish if you can. If not, just the best quality fish that you can get. The closer it is to where you are, the better. It's usually pretty easy to get hold of wild caught salmon. Some of the other fish, not so easy, but just do the best you can.

Dairy - Now obviously this depends on whether or not you're sensitive to dairy. There's a very large population of people who can't tolerate it, or at least can't tolerate mainstream, conventionally raised dairy. What I like to focus on from a dairy perspective is at least making sure that it's organic. If you're in the UK, it depends what part of the UK you're from, but if you can, try to obtain raw dairy, (both milk and butter is usually available). As long as it's from a farm that has got really good hygiene and there's lots of testing to make sure that that is the case when they're producing raw dairy, but as long as that's the case, it could have amazing health benefits. Actually people who can't tolerate dairy, often find that they're fine with raw dairy. If you miss it in your diet, and you'd like to incorporate it, it's definitely something to look into. You won't find it in the supermarket but if you go to a farmer's market, certain farmer's markets do it. If you're in a more rural area, then you're more likely to be able to obtain it.

Eggs - Again, if you're sensitive to eggs, then this might not be a goer for you, but if you're not, they're absolutely chock full of nutrition, especially the egg yolk. It's been given a bad rap in the past, because of the level of cholesterol that's in it, but we're going to talk about cholesterol in a future episode. It's not something to worry about. It's really good for your health. If you have pasture raised eggs, then the balance of the omega 3 and omega 6 is much, much better, which again we'll talk about in a future episode.

Fruit & Veg - Everybody knows they need to eat their fruit and veg. A lot of people struggle with that. If you can, getting organic is great, but actually there are some veggies that you don't really need to worry about so much. If you go to the show notes, which are at http://genienutrition.com/secret5, you'll find a list of the Dirty Dozen and the Clean Fifteen. That's from the Environmental Working Group (EWG). It's actually based in America, but they're very, very similar. We do have some different standards when it comes to farming etc, but you're fine to use that list. This gives you a good idea of what fruits and veg you can get away with eating just standard, non organic, and those that you really want to focus on buying organic.

Water - We talked about this in Episode 3. If you haven't listened to it already, go back and have a listen. We deep dived into water a bit more. It's obvious to say, we absolutely need water to survive. Getting the best quality water that you can, either by putting in an in-house water filter, having good quality mineral water or spring water, anything you can do to really maximise the quality of your water is fantastic.

Mineral Salt - Just to add to that, my favorite subject, salt. Himalayan, Celtic, sea salt or any good quality mineral salt, will really help to properly put a zing in your water, so to speak. It's amazing for maintaining electrolyte balance, for dealing with any low blood pressure issues. If you do have high blood pressure, you'll want to talk to your doctor before adding salts in, but it's absolutely chock full of nutrition. I personally add it to my water every single day, and I really, really notice the difference when I go without it for a few days.

Oil - Finally, last week, we talked about oil, so go back and have a listen to Episode 4, if you haven't already. The good quality oils that we really focus on are cold pressed oils, coconut oil, MCT which is medium chain triglycerides, these are amazing oils that give you energy almost immediately. Grass fed butter, this is dairy, but I put it into the oil category too. Kerry Gold is my favorite. There are other grass fed butters about, but that's the one that's most readily available.

So they're the main areas. If you were to really focus on those categories when you go shopping, that would give you a really great selection of tasty, good quality, nutritious ingredients to really make some amazing meals out of. I've got loads and loads of recipes, which I'll be sharing with you in the future. So just start having a play with it. If you struggle with ideas, get in contact through at http://genienutrition.com/secret5, and it would just be amazing to hear how you're getting on, what you're noticing in terms of any changes from introducing these high quality, organic, fresh ingredients.

As I say, in the show notes, you'll find the dirty dozen and clean 15 documents. Also, I'm going to give you a list of foods to really focus on stocking up your trolley with. Sometimes when you go to the supermarket, there's so much there, it's a bit overwhelming. This will just give you a bit of an idea and give you some inspiration. If there's things you just don't like, don't have them. It's as simple as that. There's nothing that you have to eat. If you don't like beef, if you don't like fish, don't have it. Just focus on having good quality foods that you really enjoy, and start playing with them, and coming up with some amazing recipes.

For this week, your goal is to really try navigating the supermarket around the outer edges. Supermarkets are obviously set up differently. It's not always literally the case, but if you really focus on the aisles with the fresh ingredients, (not the bread aisle! No fresh bread!!), then you'll be on the right track. So when you lay out all of your ingredients on the conveyor belt, you should really see a selection of amazing, fresh food.

Often, when I go to the supermarket, the person at the checkout will often comment on just how healthy and nice the food on the conveyor belt looks. I'm not sure what that says about other people that are shopping, but just really aim for just being happy as you go through the checkout. It's quite a nice feeling, especially if you've had a while of buying ingredients that you just know aren't really good for you, and aren't going to work towards you getting to better health.

So that's it for this week. Have fun continuing to stock up your cupboards. Watch out for next week's podcast, where we're going to continue with Part 2 of this 3 Part Series. As I say, thank you so much for listening. If you have any comments at all that you'd like to share, or if you have any questions or need ideas for recipes, just post them in the comments field, which you can find at http://genienutrition.com/secret5, along with the transcribe of this podcast, and links to all of the information that I've referred to. As always, if you'd like to rate Genie Nutrition Secrets on iTunes, that would be absolutely amazing. Have a great week and have fun experimenting with this week's supermarket shop.