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Hey everyone, it's Mikki here. You're listening to Mini Mikkipedia on a Monday. And today I just wanna chat a little bit about the email I sent out actually on my birthday last week. So on Thursday, 4th of July, my birthday, well I thought it was 4.35, but apparently it was 5.30 p.m. I turned 47 and cannot even believe that I am 47. Like to me that is crazy. If you just think about like,

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everyone around you and how you view your parents or your grandparents or your children. I guess just the ages with which we perceive ourselves to be, like 47 is not the number that I come up with. I'm not who I picture when I talk about being middle-aged, but essentially if I'm lucky, I am. So I wrote an email and a post around 47 things that I'm thinking about. I'm not thinking about these all of the time, obviously.

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these are questions or inquiries that come into my brain, which I don't often share on social media, because some of which people don't love to hear, and there's a little bit of controversy around them. But of course, others are things that you hear me say all of the time. However, in light of those 47 things, I thought that I would just dive a little bit deeper into a few of them, not all of them. And of course I will put...

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all of them in the show notes for today's episode if you happen to miss my post or you're not on my email list, just in case you're interested because hey, some of you might be. So one of the first things that I want to chat about was number eight on my list actually, and it is that you can't get everything you need from food. And in fact, this came on the back of an email that I was sent by Michael, thank you Michael, asking me my opinion on multivitamin supplements.

02:03
I guess supplements in general, because often you hear, one, you can get everything you need nutritionally from food. Two, supplements are useless and there's no point taking them, and particularly don't take a multivitamin. I don't believe any of that really to be true. I think there is a use case for a broad spectrum multivitamin, and definitely in certain instances. One, if you don't have an appetite for eating enough food to enable you to get the nutrients you need.

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Taking a broad-spectrum multivitamin is a good idea because you're covering your nutritional bases. Two, if you're an athlete or if you are someone else under considerable physical stress, like through your work or something like that, if you're injured or ill, then there is an additional requirement for nutrients. And I do think I've chatted about this before, but equally, this is another good use case for a multivitamin supplement. And third, actually, is

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If you are in a calorie deficit and in following a diet to lose weight, that is another good use case for multivitamin supplements because you're limiting your opportunity for nutrients. That's really just the nature of a diet when you're limiting calories. So, having something that covers your nutritional basis makes sense to my mind. But of course, you need to be smart about what you take.

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You guys know I'm a huge fan of New Zest and they do sponsor our podcast and you can save 20% using the code MICAPEDIA actually. That Good Green Vitality powder, which I take daily, is a broad spectrum multivitamin and it's been formulated by experts, including our good friend Dr. Cliff Harvey, to provide nutrients in amounts that are synergistic to what we need. Now not all multivitamins are like that.

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and if you get just a super cheap multivitamin from your pharmacy or supermarket shelf, they've basically just gone and put all sorts of different minerals and vitamins in there, which you're not necessarily going to be able to use. Best case scenario, worst case scenario is they've put them in amounts that are detrimental to your overall nutrient status. There are certain nutrients which compete for others in the body. For example, iron and zinc and calcium.

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magnesium actually, these all sort of interact and use the same receptors to be taken up in the body. So if you have a high amount of calcium, for example, in a supplement, that's going to inhibit your absorption of iron. If you have a high amount of iron in a supplement and take your zinc alongside, that is going to inhibit your ability to uptake zinc. So you do have to be

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when you're considering a multivitamin supplement. So whenever you see reports saying multivitamin supplements are useless, I mean, one, just always take something like that with a grain of salt, particularly if it's reported on the news. But two, not all multivitamins are created equally. And outside of the multivitamin supplement issue, from a nutrition standpoint in New Zealand alone, selenium and iodine are very difficult to get from the diet, magnesium,

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almost no one gets enough magnesium from the diet, regardless of your calorie intake. Other trace minerals and micronutrients can also be difficult to obtain. On the base of it, despite the fact you hear some nutrition authorities saying you don't need supplements, that just shows that they actually, honestly, probably don't know what they're talking about. I don't say things like that lightly. However...

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Outside of the nutritional components of food, there's everything else that comes with food. Someone did email me back to say when they saw my list, they were like, really loved your list. And when I read that you can't get everything you need from food, I think I took an unintended meaning from that and went on to say that what they got from that was that food will not meet your emotional and all of your psychological requirements either. And

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Whilst I didn't write it in the vein with which this woman had taken it, again this is just such a valid point. We often use food to soothe. When we are angry at someone, when we are happy, when we are trying to work through complex problems, food is one of the things we use to distract ourselves and distract ourselves from hard work and work in the moment and uncomfortable feelings. But you can't get what you need from food.

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food will only soothe in the moment, it is not going to solve the issues. And I think for a lot of people doing deep work and really unpacking what it is that they get from food can be a really good way to sort of move beyond this emotional eating component. And I really liked that I got that feedback on that particular point, and it is just such a valid one. So there were very, you know, there are so many ways with which you can't get everything you need from food.

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And I think the more that people sort of think about it in light of how this woman had read it, I think that gives them the opportunity to explore deeper how they use food and not just to fill themselves up, but how they might use it in place of other strategies to help them cope. Definitely worth thinking about, I think. Now another one which I got a little bit of feedback from was

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You can't be healthy at any size if you don't exercise. And this was number 20 on my list. And I think this is super important. And I had another one in the same vein, which was if you don't exercise, you aren't healthy even if you are lean. And this is so important. Like often we view body size as a means to illustrate health. But if you're not moving your body, you are not healthy regardless of your size. And

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Particularly if you carry excess body weight, even if your metabolic markers at this point in time are quote unquote in the healthy range, it doesn't mean that they'll stay that way. And humans were designed to move and to be active. And if you don't have structured exercise in your life or you aren't living an active lifestyle, then you are not actually healthy. You are not optimizing your health. I know you guys know this.

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I'm just going to run through it really briefly, but exercise helps with muscle mass maintenance and of course your metabolism. You don't burn that many more calories actually because you've got muscle mass on you, but the muscle that you have is much healthier. Interestingly, there is an association between intramuscular fat, fat within the muscle and overall health. And it's different if you're an athlete compared to if you are a sedentary individual.

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that intramuscular fat is an energy source, particularly endurance athletes who have upregulated their ability to utilize fat as a fuel source. And it is part of the substrate that they use when they're out training. So fat adapted athletes, when they've measured it, have high amounts of intramuscular fat stored in their tissues, ready to use. The triglycerides are just fluxing through, so they're moving through the cells.

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and they're being used as energy, and that is a really healthy thing. Intramuscular fat as a sedentary person is not healthy. It's linked to reduced muscle strength and function. It can interfere with muscle contraction and overall muscle performance. It's linked to insulin resistance and metabolic disorders. Healthy muscle tissue is crucial for our ability to uptake glucose from our bloodstream into the muscles and use it. And this also helps fuel

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the exercise we're doing but regulate blood sugar levels. High muscle quality means more lean muscle tissue being laid down. Obviously this is gonna result in less intramuscular fat as well. And it improves muscle efficiency, allowing for better performance and endurance during physical activities. So for an athlete to have intramuscular fat, it's no issue and it's beneficial. For someone who isn't an athlete, they have more intramuscular fat and it...

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is linked to more associated disease. And the thing is that you can't see this. So you can't look at an individual and know what their quality of muscle is. So a lot of people think that being lean or looking lean will equal health, but that just isn't the case. And of course, lastly, what I'll land on is that excessive intramuscular fat is associated with increased inflammation within the muscle tissue. And...

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Inflammation, it builds the foundation for chronic disease over time. And chronic inflammation can also lead to muscle degradation and reduce muscle function. Having these higher levels of intramuscular fat as a sedentary individual can also elevate oxidative stress in muscle cells, leading to cellular damage, mitochondrial damage, and impaired muscle health. So you cannot be healthy at any size if you don't exercise. And being lean

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does not mean that you are healthy. You still need to exercise. So that's why I wanted to include that point in these 47 things that I'm thinking about. Number 25 was that red meat isn't high in saturated fat actually. We always hear that one of the reasons to reduce red meat consumption is because it is high in saturated fat. Let me just give you the numbers on that.

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If we're thinking about mince or ground beef, that might have about 30% fat, which might be your usual mince that you'd get from the supermarket, that's got about 8.1 grams of saturated fat per 100 grams. So sure, it certainly isn't low, but if you go for the leaner cut of meat, so the one that is 90% lean, you're going to halve about half that and it's going to be 4.5 grams of saturated fat in that 100 gram serving.

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A sirloin steak has about 4.7 grams of saturated fat per 100 grams. A ribeye steak is quite high, and you'll know it's quite marbled, right? That's got 9.2 grams of saturated fat. And the T-bone steak has about 6.9 grams of saturated fat. Pork chop has about 3.7 grams. Pork belly is quite high, quite a lot higher in saturated fat because its overall fat content is higher.

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Whilst it has 12 grams of saturated fat, overall actually, only about 40% of the entire sort of fat composition is saturated fat in pork belly. A tenderloin is very lean, it's got one gram of saturated fat. The other place where we find quite a bit of saturated fat comparative to say chicken would be lamb. So you get 8.4 grams in a lamb chop, you get 6.9 grams per 100 gram in a lamb leg.

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and you get about nine grams in lamb mince or ground lamb. Oh, and if you have an eye fillet steak, you're getting about 3.2 grams per 100 grams. And the reason why I wanted to clarify that actually you don't get a tonne of saturated fat in meat is because it's so often painted as being a villain in our diet. And we're always told to cut back our saturated fat intake and...

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For this reason, we need to cut back our red meat options. And if you regularly include red meat in addition to a variety of other food choices, protein choices, vegetables, it just makes up the bulk of a healthy diet. And saturated fat is so important for hormones, for our immune health, for our brain.

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There are so many good reasons to include it naturally occurring in food. It just sort of rolls me up when I hear that red meat is high in saturated fat, so we've got to reduce it. But you guys know how I feel about that anyway. I just wanted to illustrate the actual amounts in saturated fat. And then in addition to that, we also hear that processed food is high in saturated fat. Well, processed food isn't high in saturated fat actually. For the very reason that saturated fat choices in the diet are

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are actually quite expensive compared to the cheaper industrial seed oils. So the most common oils used in processed foods are soybean oil, which contains polyunsaturated fats, palm oil, which is half saturated fat, half poly and mono unsaturated fat. We've got canola oil, which is largely mono unsaturated fat. It's got a very small amount of saturated fat in there.

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polyunsaturated fats including omega-6 fatty acids. Cotton seed oil is another really common oil used in processed food. Of the 14 grams of total fat, it might have 3.5 grams of fat per serve. Of saturated fat, very little of that comes from saturated fat. Then you've got palm kernel oil, which is very similar to palm oil actually.

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And that does have a higher percentage of its calories coming from saturated fat. It's got 11 or it's got 11 grams of the 14 grams of fat come from that saturated fat. And obviously these are going to vary according to different brands. But I just wanted to highlight that the majority of the fats that you find in highly processed food are not saturated. And it's not saturated fat that is causing the issues when it comes to highly processed food. It is the combination of.

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the fat, regardless of type actually, but not saturated, the sugar and the salt and the flavors and additives that are created to hijack our brain that make us eat more of that food and then have the potential to overeat because our brain thinks that it is filled with nutrients because they're designed to sort of mimic nature, but in fact it does nothing and it's just empty calories.

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So that is another one that I wanted to include that I have been thinking about of late. And that is numbers 25 and 26 on my list of 47. And finally, I do just wanna end on number 28, which is that you do not need to be entertained by every single meal. Regardless of your dietary goals, we know that if every meal that you put together has a real hedonistic value that makes you want to keep eating it,

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can be difficult to moderate your portion size. So for that reason, it is actually a really good idea to get used to and get comfortable with having meals that really just provide you with the protein and the fiber and the fats that you need with an appropriate amount of carbohydrate. And don't look for every single meal to be some sort of amazing textural sensory experience because that hedonistic value can lead you to overeat.

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It doesn't mean that you can't enjoy what you eat. And I enjoy most of my meals that I have. But if I'm not gonna enjoy a meal as much, that's okay because I'm gonna eat again at the next meal. So there's another opportunity to have something else that I'm going to enjoy more. And I think so often, again, this comes back to almost my first point of, you can't get everything you need from food. Like food is fuel and absolutely we should enjoy it, but.

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Don't put it on a pedestal and make it more than what it is. Just eat it and then move on. Alright team, well that's probably, I mean I could explain all of these and hey maybe I will in time but that's just a snippet of my list which I will pop in the show notes. And just FYI, I have a sale on for my birthday where you can save 47% on my fat loss plans, my athlete plan, my be more awesome.

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just real food plan and you can purchase them in either 12 weeks or 12 months options. And you can save 47% by the end of today, Monday, if you're listening on a Monday. So pretty good deal. I run this sale twice a year, so absolutely make the most of it. Hit me up if you've got any questions. You can find me over on Facebook @mikkiwillidennutrition, Instagram @mikkiwilliden. That's where I am on Twitter and threads as well.

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or head to my website mikkiwilliden.com and click on the mail plans and save yourself 47%. Alright team, you have the best week. See you later.