Unknown Speaker 0:00
Alright guys, this morning I am with biscuit nutrition with Cara and Braden who are both with biscuit nutrition. And we've been doing some things with it for function to kind of add that nutrition component to aging, pain, recovery, fighting inflammation and those types of things. So I thought it'd be fun to get these guys on a call and just kind of talk about what is inflammation? How does food inflammation? How does that that kind of fit in. And then Braden is going to kind of dive into how oxidation affects aging and cell repair and some of those things. So should be a fun one kind of dive into some, a little more in depth topics of how food relates inflammation. We talk a lot about pain and inflammation and kind of how those responses go. But the nutrition side is so important. So do you guys want to introduce yourself before we kind of get rolling?
Unknown Speaker 0:48
Yeah. Hey, guys, I am Braden Iacobucci. I am a registered dietitian with biscuit nutrition. And a coach to crossfit coach at CrossFit Cowdray over in Hudson, Ohio.
Unknown Speaker 1:02
And my name is Kara Barton. And you guys probably know me from the west and CLE offices with it. And then I'm also a nutrition coach with this nutrition.
Unknown Speaker 1:10
Awesome. So let's dive right in. Let's talk about and we talk a lot about inflammation. You know, in Britain, in your opinion, what is inflammation? And then how does, how does our diet? How does food fit into that picture?
Unknown Speaker 1:22
Yeah, so inflammation itself is actually a natural process, right? It happens when we basically placed our bodies under some sort of stress. That could be anything from emotional stress to physical stress. So for example, if you're working out in the gym, you're tearing up your muscle fibers, inflammation is going to help repair the muscles with stress that can lead to brain inflammation. Or if you have an injury as well. So if you have some sort of cut or something like that, inflammation is what is going to get blood more blood into the wounded area, and help to repair the tissue that was damaged in those cells. So inflammation itself is not a bad thing, we need inflammation in order to heal. The problem is where we have chronic inflammation, our bodies are not designed to be in these states of stress all of the time. So maybe that looks like you are working out seven days a week, never giving your body a rest. Maybe it looks like you're stressed out all the time about job, work, family, whatever it is. And therefore you're in a chronic state of inflammation. So that is when it becomes detrimental to our health. Long term it does, it can actually just speed up the aging process because it takes such a toll on our bodies, because our bodies essentially feel like they your body likes to respond to the most pressing concern, okay? So a lot of times that could be digestion is a takes a lot of energy from the body. So maybe the body is focusing on digestion. But with inflammation, if you're placing your body under stress all the time, it essentially thinks Holy crap, okay, we need to fix this, this, this, this and it, it really wears out the body much quicker. If you can imagine, then, if we were to reduce our stress would actually take time to recover from workouts and things like that.
Unknown Speaker 3:38
Yeah, I think I think you make a good point that we talk a lot about inflammation, and we're always taking advantage, that inflammatory response response, because that's how cell repair happens. Yes. How does that fit in on the on the food side of things? Right. So when we talk about food and inflammation, I think there's there's a lot of buzz out there about inflammatory foods and leaky gut. How does that in your mind? How does that? How do those things tie together?
Unknown Speaker 4:06
Yeah, food has a humongous impact on inflammation. Essentially, added sugars, processed foods, a lot of things that we typically find in the American diet are going to unfortunately, increase inflammation. Part of that is because our bodies aren't necessarily used to the the certain kinds of foods that we are putting into our bodies. And therefore it doesn't know how to handle it as well or break it down as well. But yeah, unfortunately, a lot of the like fake sugars and processed foods, ingredients and processed foods, they're synthetic. And that's why our bodies don't really know They're manmade, I should say, so our bodies don't really know how to handle them as well as natural foods or Whole Foods. So that and then like I said, the added sugars also drastically increases inflammation. So you talked about you mentioned leaky gut. So that actually, diverticulosis and diverticulitis are two symptoms of a high processed food and added sugar diet, because they can actually lead to inflammation in the digestive system, which is what causes the leaks to appear. Essentially, there are holes that form in your small intestine, in your gut. And that can lead to inflamed pockets called diverticulitis. So inflammation can lead to all of these different chronic disease states. And that's part of the reason that we see so much chronic disease in America nowadays. I mean, it's the the statistics are just staggering. With these, if you ever look it up the amount of people in America that have some sort of chronic disease, and a lot of it is diet related. A lot of people want to say it's genetic, but unfortunately, a lot of it is because of our typical American diet. So chronic inflammation can lead to all these different things, different disease states. So yeah, food definitely plays a major role in that
Unknown Speaker 6:15
way. And I wouldn't on so.
Unknown Speaker 6:17
Oh, no, go ahead. I was gonna dive into that a little bit.
Unknown Speaker 6:20
Same. I'll dive in first. And so one part I do want to kind of bring to surface as well, because you were talking about how the diet has changed from the past to the current standard American diet. And one of the big things when you're talking about the different types of synthetic foods is also vegetable oils, and the increased use of omega sixes in our diet, and how the ratio of omega six to omega threes are is, you know, significantly larger than it used to be when really it should be, like a three to one ratio or lower.
Unknown Speaker 6:54
Mm hmm. Yeah, so we actually we need both Omega six and omega three fatty acids, which a lot of times are found in like you said, oils or seafood. Most of the time, especially those Omega three. So yeah, we should have a ratio of like three to one, Omega three to omega six, respectively. But unfortunately, due to the, like you said, fake, a lot of it is these saturated fats and trans fats that pop up in the diet that lead to increased Omega six intake. Yeah. And yeah, that definitely increases inflammation. Yeah, body, what's the typical?
Unknown Speaker 7:32
Again, I just to dive into that, before we kind of just kind of skim it. Um, you know, it's been a while since I, I've read about Omega sixes and omega threes. And, you know, I've seen a lot about trying to improve that ratio, whether that's through reducing sixes or increasing threes. what's the, what's the mechanism behind that? Or how does that work within the body? Like, why is that so important?
Unknown Speaker 7:53
So, essentially, it has to do with the structure of omega sixes and omega threes. And to be honest with you, it's been a while since I have dove into that myself. So I can't fully explain the mechanism behind it. And I'm not going to act like I'm some sort of genius who can break it down perfectly for you. I'll be honest, and just say that I it's been a while since I've dove into that. But essentially, I mean, omega threes have to do with balancing out your fed the positive fatty acids in the body. We want, as we know, majority of unsaturated fatty acids as opposed to saturated and trans fats, a lot of people understand that about the diet at least. So getting in the omega three fatty acids is going to help with joint mobility. It's going to help with a healthy digestive system, producing short chain fatty acids and medium chain fatty acids, stuff like that.
Unknown Speaker 9:05
And, Nick, you, you made that comment of not really knowing whether we're supposed to be increasing omega threes or decreasing Omega sixes. Typically, if people take the route of trying to get in, you know, MC seat, next nuts and seeds and olive oil, fish oils, but like, obviously, and fish, they're also going to be getting their Omega sixes from the Lean animal sources that they're eating. So at the end of the day there you're not really seeking out omega sixes if that makes sense,
Unknown Speaker 9:35
right? Yeah, I did. Rob Wolf. I forget I don't remember what his book was anymore. But he was big into that. And he had a calculator of like trying to balance that ratio. And I was actually doing shots of Carlson's fish oil, it was like this fish oil like because they wanted you to take in this enormous amount of omega threes. And to do it through a pill form was absurdly expensive but you can buy a bottle of fish oil. And you could shoot it like a shot. It was awful.
Unknown Speaker 10:06
How long? Yeah, for
Unknown Speaker 10:09
it's been a while. I mean, we're talking probably six years ago or so. But I did, I did it for a few months, I honestly didn't notice how much you know the scheme of things that affect kind of how you feel I didn't notice too much with it. But But I definitely did it for a while I bought like fish
Unknown Speaker 10:27
oil is fish oil is one of the supplements that I can most of the time recommend to people, especially if they don't live close to water, or consume a lot of seafood. Because like I said that, that isn't the only source. But that's a really good source of Omega threes. So you just have to make sure with supplements that it's a quality brand that you're getting it from like nature made is a good one. And you just want to check on the source of where they get their supplement. So if you guys do decide to do a fish oil, just make sure it's a quality brand reputable brand.
Unknown Speaker 11:05
I remember that talking about, like the pills if they've been sitting on the shelf long enough that that omega three can actually break down like it could become like, like a rancid oil on there.
Unknown Speaker 11:13
Yeah, well, same thing with extra virgin olive oil. That's why you're actually supposed to keep extra virgin olive oil in opaque containers as opposed to clear because the light can actually break down those positive fatty acids in the oil. Yeah,
Unknown Speaker 11:29
if they're selling real olive oil, you see a book where they're like It's like one of the biggest counterfeit schemes coming out of Italy. Oh, really? Fake oils. Yeah. The markup on like, good extra virgin olive oil and Oh maduka Honey is the other one the honey out in New Zealand. People, people counterfeit it.
Unknown Speaker 11:50
I mean, it makes sense. Like people really if you get a bottle with some like Italian seen on it. And some olives people like I'll pay $17 for that. Sure.
Unknown Speaker 12:01
Sounds great. Yeah, at the same time, I've also seen olive oil being sold in very weird places like TJ Maxx who comes to TJ Maxx
Unknown Speaker 12:11
shops you guys like that shopping Chagrin Falls like, yes. What they sell is oil. Like they sell.
Unknown Speaker 12:16
Yes. I called my heart and Hudson as well.
Unknown Speaker 12:20
Is there one on Hudson too? There you go. Yeah, yeah,
Unknown Speaker 12:22
yeah. Anyways, we went off track a little bit with those oils bringing it back to inflammation.
Unknown Speaker 12:30
So what's the role of sugar the sugar in this is kind of my personal interest right now. I'm I'm actually playing around with the FreeStyle Libre like it's a it's a thing you can wear and like, kind of check your blood sugar all the time? What's the role of sugar and inflammation and insulin and glucose? Like?
Unknown Speaker 12:51
I want to say glucose, but that's not the word I'm looking for. This is that this? Is that baby button. I was talking about? Insulin, what's the counter hormone?
Unknown Speaker 13:02
To? Oh, glucagon, you're saying looking for? Yeah, gotcha. Gotcha. Um, yeah, so that's your question. Basically, added sugar, what it does is spike your blood sugar, because it's super easy to break down. Right. So, because of that spike in blood sugar, there's essentially it can over time, if you're consuming a lot of added sugar, it will lead to deep. So what happens when you take in sugar, any form of sugar or carbohydrate is the body has to release what's called insulin from the body and insulin is essentially acts like the key to allow glucose in the cells to energize cells, okay, so without insulin, we would not be able to essentially like have as much energy in our body would not be able to function as properly as it could. So with those quick sugars, if your body has way too much sugar in it over time, then it will cause insulin resistance. And therefore, insulin is not going to act as effectively as it could, if you were eating more complex carbohydrates, and the body breaks them down a little bit slower and is able to handle that super high load of sugar more easily than if it's just simple sugars. That's why we say avoid all those simple sugars. But that's where type two diabetes comes in, is when we have so again, this is one thing that is related to inflammation is type two diabetes and it's a very, it's becoming more and more prevalent, and even among kids nowadays in America, unfortunately. So increase added sugar intake. Over time, simple sugar intake, leads to increase insulin. On resistance, which means insulin isn't working as well, which means our cells aren't getting as much glucose, which leads to type two diabetes. So it's a really negative downstream effect. But as for sugar related to inflammation, it's most of it. It's that increase spike in blood sugar. That constant spike spike spike, that has a negative effect on the infamous inflammatory response, basically,
Unknown Speaker 15:32
I think it's really important to even bring up the fact that they're really linking sugar to Alzheimer's dementia in late stages as well.
Unknown Speaker 15:41
Yeah. So that can Yeah, that, if you're talking about that, specifically, that is related to brain inflammation, which is also related to that increased sugar intake. Your brain does, is fueled off of carbohydrates, but simple carbohydrates in too many at a time are definitely not not good for it. So yeah, the inflammation of the brain over time is what can lead to some of those cognitive decline disorders such as dementia and Alzheimer's.
Unknown Speaker 16:15
Yeah, that fascinating topic. You know, this, you know, when I was in school, there was a blood brain barrier, and inflammation in the bloodstream isn't getting to the brain, right. And yet, blood brain barrier is able to separate those things. And now we're, I think, pretty aware that through through the lymphatic system, the glymphatic, which trains the brain is, maybe maybe there is not quite the barrier that we thought and in certain things like exercise, and other things increase the permeability of that blood brain barrier. Which just changes the whole game when you talk about food and stress and inflammation exercise, because now it's not just, it's not just body composition anymore. Right? It's your it's your brain health. Right? It's yeah, talking. You know,
Unknown Speaker 16:57
I mean, just think about how much the brain does on a day to day basis. It's our, it's without a doubt, our most important organ, it's one of those complex things in the universe. And we, so a lot of people say that we can only use 10% total of our brains, but it's only portions at a time. That's what that means we can only use certain sections of the brain, we can't use 100% of the brain's capacity at one point in time. It's not necessarily like we can only use 10% of our brains. No, it's just at one period of time. But yeah, the blood brain barrier is, that's another reason we suggest a lot of the brain is made of fat. Okay, so that's why we recommend those unsaturated fats and the Omega threes is because they actually improve the health of your brain as well, and can slow down any cognitive decline that may be happening. I mean, that happens naturally with age, right? But yes, that so the short chain fatty acids are very beneficial for the blood that the blood brain barrier, but the brain itself.
Unknown Speaker 18:07
So a part of that conversation is oxidative stress, and kind of how that affects cell repair and cell regeneration and that kind stuff. What is oxidative stress? I have a very crude understanding of it. How does that affect the aging and cell repair process? And then, obviously, we'll dive into kind of how food plays into that. But what is oxidation? And how does
Unknown Speaker 18:30
that? Yeah. So oxidation is actually a natural process, it's impossible to stop completely. Everything from sunlight to pollution to chemicals in the food supply, can increase oxidation, but oxidation itself, there's these things called free radicals that are floating around in your bloodstream. And then also reactive oxygen species. So both of
Unknown Speaker 18:58
these things, what is a free radical? Like, what role does it play in the body?
Unknown Speaker 19:02
Yeah, so both of these things are very, they're, it's called reactive, they want to bind to other things, okay. They're essentially just molecules that are not complete, if that makes sense. It's sort of like, Tom without Jerry. And it's always searching for that for that Jerry, that's something to latch on to. Okay. So with increased free radicals and reactive oxygen species floating around in the bloodstream, they tend to grab onto electrons of other cells, and they actually damage the cells by doing so. So, that is why we want to reduce oxidation as much as possible. Because when these free radicals and reactive oxygen species are just willy nilly grabbing on to stuff that causes increased cell damage, which can over time leads to like, increased wrinkles in the face as a big one. And just the continuous breakdown of the body, essentially. So that's why we say aging in the title is because oxidation can if you have more oxidation, it can increase the aging process.
Unknown Speaker 20:28
So, so essentially, so essentially, you're saying that oxidative process is damaging cells?
Unknown Speaker 20:34
Yeah. It's sort of weird. It's like, it's a natural thing that our bodies just do. And no one you can't fully stop it. But we can do certain things to slow it down. So those certain things would be to everyone's heard of antioxidants. Right? When,
Unknown Speaker 20:55
again, this is this is my lack of understanding here. But there is it's like baseline role, like inflammation is there to clear out bad signal, right? Whether it's a damage cell, or it's a stranger signal, like a foreign substance in the body. That's what it's there for is to clear that out. What are the practice of free radicals?
Unknown Speaker 21:12
It's kind of the byproduct, it's natural things that are occurring. If you're exercising, or it's great knee. It's the byproducts.
Unknown Speaker 21:20
It's just simply a byproduct. And then you need things to try to break that down. Get those out of there,
Unknown Speaker 21:25
correct? Yep. Yep. So yeah, that's a good point to make. Yeah, these these things aren't like you don't ingest free radicals, nothing like that. They're essentially Yeah, like she said, results of natural processes that happen all the time in our bodies. So the next question, obviously, is how do we combat oxidation? And the answer to that is consuming a good amount of antioxidants. Now in accidents is a very broad term. There's a lot of different inactions. But some big ones to note are the ones called anthocyanins and flavonoids. So these two things are, essentially, pigments. Give certain foods they're called, there's like a purple ish or reddish hue, okay. So like blueberries, any any sort of berry is going to have a good amount of antioxidants. Some other good sources of antioxidants, not necessarily berries, or I'm sorry, not necessarily flavonoids, or anthocyanins are going to be like nuts and seeds are really good extroversion, olive oil is another really good source. But what these in accidents do is they offer up basically, they, they offer up themselves as attachments, okay? So they have compounds in them, that will attach to those free radicals and reactive oxygen species. So that those bad things don't want to attach to other cells and damage those cells. So it's sort of like pumping your blood full of Jerry's, if we go back to that analogy, so that they can link up and then everything's a okay.
Unknown Speaker 23:22
So in the scheme of things, what's a better strategy trying to reduce free radicals or consume more antioxidants? Or is it just work combining these things?
Unknown Speaker 23:32
There isn't really a way to decrease free radicals. Like I said, it's just happens naturally. So it's definitely the better choice is to consume in accidents in the diet as much as possible. So like a serving a day of berries is plenty enough like a thing of cranberry juice, great. handful of nuts and seeds. Great. Maybe a tablespoon of extra virgin olive oil. Great. So I forgot to mention the How does. Okay, so how does oxidation link to inflammation is the next question. So instead of just going straight to oxidation, and not talking about inflammation, we have to link them together. So basically, those free radicals floating around in the reactive oxygen species, they are harmful to the body. And as we said at the beginning of the podcast, anything that's going to place the body under stress and harm, essentially increases the inflammatory process. So the more free radicals and reactive oxygen species that we have floating around, the more that we are going to see inflammation and well, I guess one of the things that does increase it, so this is, I guess, a way to decrease it. The amount of free radicals is chemicals in the food supply. So eating an organic diet. certified organic diet is one way to reduce the free radicals and reactive oxygen species in the body. Because consuming more of those essentially increases those numbers and leads increase inflammation. So really we just want to stay away from anything synthetic is what we're saying as much as possible to avoid increase inflammation and increase oxidation. Does that make sense? I sort of went on in a circle there, maybe.
Unknown Speaker 25:25
I mean, I think I think I think I understand where we're going with I mean, if we sell repairs the name of the game, right, and if damaged, cells are able to replicate bad things happen. So if we can repair those damaged cells, or kind of clear them out, then then regeneration and healing occurs. And that's kind of the the nature of the beast and the oxidative side of it is just something I haven't inflammations near and dear to the rehab game, right? Like injuries cause inflammation, inflammation is part of the healing process. So you know, deep, deep understanding of what's happening there. But how the oxidative process fits into that is something that that I'm learning, and it's cool stuff. So very, very interesting piece of the aging process. So as we kind of wind this down, if you could give people you know, a quick tidbit. And we should also mention that you guys have put together a free kind of PDF version of some of this information in our recovery corner that's available at FIT function, and in our people. So there's definitely place to read more about this. But if you could give people kind of a, you know, a quick rundown of we mentioned, avoid synthetic foods. We talk about organic and chemical kind of things. What's the biggest take home for the average person
Unknown Speaker 26:44
having a diet that is like fiber rich, whole grains, like your nuts and seeds and your deep colorful fruits and vegetables, they actually be a staple every single day. And not just, you know, once a week, like most standard American diets are.
Unknown Speaker 27:01
Yeah, the A good place to look is the Mediterranean Diet Food List is going to be packed with anti inflammatories and anti oxidants in it. So like Kara said, I mean, it doesn't even have to be anything crazy. Just make sure you get one serving of a deep colored vegetable or fruit daily, ideally, more than that, cook with extra virgin olive oil. Unless you're cooking above medium high heat, then use a different oil like canola or coconut oil, and then nuts and seeds are going to be the other one. Because you can't stop these processes, they're going to happen. All you can do is do your best to slow them down. So we're not saying stop exercising, we're not saying you can never be stressed out. That's ridiculous. In our world today, we are constantly gonna be under some sort of stress with phones and social media and the internet and all this crazy stuff that goes on kids, whatever. So it's gonna happen. The best thing you can do is just make sure that you like Kara said heavy whole foods diet as much as possible, reduce those synthetic foods in try to just get some colors, get some colors in the diet. That's the best way to combat these two things.
Unknown Speaker 28:26
Yeah, I've been doing some of my own reading on on anti aging and that kind of stuff in the Mediterranean diet is certainly one that continues to pop up.
Unknown Speaker 28:33
Yeah. And it's just not it's not even like a difficult diet. It's just how they eat in those countries. It's like you're not you're not restricting carbohydrates, like the keto diet, you're not only eating meat, like Atkins diet, whatever. Like it's just straight up eat foods from this pretty long honestly list of delicious foods and you'll live longer. So I go okay, yeah, sounds great. Let me go and do that.
Unknown Speaker 28:59
Easier said than done sometimes. Sure. Next time, I want to definitely do this again next time I want to dive into which I think is kind of the other buzz right now which is fasting and I don't want to dive into that just now but maybe next time we hop on a call because when you start talking about cell repair and regeneration stuff I think fasting and whether you're talking intermittent fasting or kind of these longer version fasts that Kara loves so much time Nick
Unknown Speaker 29:33
story here
Unknown Speaker 29:36
who gets the vaccine all the time system under high challenge
Unknown Speaker 29:47
do well I just shot COVID and said
Unknown Speaker 29:53
good. Anyway, but I would like to I would like to dive down that kind of part two of this kind of dive into your opinion on how all that plays in and how those things interrelate? Because I think that seems to be that seems to be when you start looking at the different authors that are out there and things. The fasting is the next bus, right? Like that's what everybody's talking about now. So
Unknown Speaker 30:17
it's huge. Yeah, it's really big. And that's something that, yeah, that's something that and we'll dive into this more in depth, but there's a couple different modes of fasting. So it's not just like, one size fits all, there are definitely like options that you can look into. So yeah, the research is pretty new on that. But I'd love to dive into that next time.
Unknown Speaker 30:39
We'll do that next time. So as we kind of wrap it up, where can guy where can? Where can people find more about you guys, and what you do and all that kind of stuff? You're gonna take though,
Unknown Speaker 30:48
yeah, I'll go right ahead. So we can be found at biscuit nutrition.com. And then both Brad and I believe I can be found at care at best nutrition.com If you want to reach out with any questions, the emails are Braden Braden, at physical nutrition, calm. And like
Unknown Speaker 31:03
social media are those good nutrition, Facebook, Instagram,
Unknown Speaker 31:08
like so he typed up all sorts of fun information that's at the recovery corners and all the Fit locations.
Unknown Speaker 31:15
So for function, comm our free online courses, if you get into that recovery corner, there's going to be a really nice really nicely done PDF with a lot of great information on there for you. Just to kind of tie in all the hot topic, things that we talked about here in this the short podcast.
Unknown Speaker 31:34
Love it. Cool. All right, guys. We'll do it again. Like I said, part two, we'll get it set up.
Unknown Speaker 31:40
Thank you for having me. Appreciate it.
Transcribed by https://otter.ai
