Behind the Bluff
Uncover best practices to participate in life on your terms. Every week, hosts Jeff Ford and Kendra Till guide listeners with short conversations on trending wellness topics and share interviews with passionate wellness professionals, our private club leaders, and additional subject matter experts offering valuable tips. Each episode conclusion includes Healthy Momentum, five minutes of inspiration to help you reflect and live differently. Subscribe now and discover the keys to living your greatest active lifestyle.
Behind the Bluff
Sip These 6 Beverages for Better Health
We dive into the world of healthy beverages, exploring six drinks that can enhance wellness and become beneficial daily rituals beyond mere hydration.
• Water as our foundation, with a baseline recommendation of 64 ounces daily
• The importance of water quality and considerations for home filtration systems
• Coffee's benefits beyond alertness, including powerful antioxidants and potential prevention of neurodegenerative diseases
• The sweet spot of 2-4 cups of coffee daily, ideally before 2pm
• Various tea options including green, black, and matcha, each offering unique health benefits
• L-theanine in tea promoting calm and relaxation
• Dairy options including milk, kefir, and yogurt drinks providing protein, calcium, and vitamin D
• Plant-based milk alternatives with soy most closely matching dairy's nutritional profile
• Thoughtful inclusion of juice for targeted benefits, such as tart cherry juice for arthritis symptoms
• Building nutritious smoothies with fruits, liquids, proteins, vegetables and personalized additions
Think about breaking down your beverages throughout the day: stimulating options in the morning, hydrating choices midday, and relaxing beverages in the evening.
Welcome back to Behind the Bluff, where every moment is an opportunity to pursue wellness on your terms. I'm your host, jeff Ford. You know I've been thinking lately. We spend a lot of time talking about food when it comes to health, but what about what we drink? From coffee to tea to smoothies, beverages can be more than just hydration. They can boost our energy, support our gut and even become healthy daily rituals. Joining me today is dietician Lindsay Ford, who many of you know well, and together we're going to be breaking down six beverages that can truly enhance your health. Lindsay, welcome back.
Speaker 2:Thank you so much Happy to be here.
Speaker 1:I enjoyed our conversation on six foods that everyone can make a part of their weekly meals, and so that's what inspired me to, you know, get us together and talk about six beverages. That sounds great. Let's do it. Yeah, we're going to dive right in. So, lindsay, most people focus on food when they think about health. Why should we also pay attention to what we drink?
Speaker 2:So, thinking about what we drink, it is important to stay hydrated, so we get a lot of our fluid from beverages. I also think it's easy, it's accessible. Most of us like to have a cup of coffee in the morning, or it becomes like a ritual, you know and so it's a way to unwind, it's a way to wake us up, and so beverages just are a part of our daily lives.
Speaker 1:So let's just.
Speaker 2:I think that's a good thing to talk about.
Speaker 1:Just like meals.
Speaker 2:we drink things, so we could pay more attention to what those things are, something that we consume.
Speaker 1:So let's before we dive into the six. Obviously water is one of the six. Everyone hears the advice drink more water, but how much do we actually need in a day?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I do think. Of course I'm going to say this it's very individual, it is, I would say, 64 ounces of water every day is a really good baseline and I think we can basically go up from there, depending on the person, the movement level. Are they outside, Are they staying inside altitude? All those things are going to play a role. I know we have an episode we did on hydration where you know it dives into that a little bit further.
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, you can go back, it's. I'm blanking on the title. Electrolytes is where we dove into sodium, magnesium and potassium, so definitely check that out. Listeners.
Speaker 2:Yeah, but I mean, most of our bodies made up of water, so it only makes sense that we need to consume water and get enough of it.
Speaker 1:Okay, so 64 ounces general rule of thumb. That falls in line with like the eight glasses a day.
Speaker 2:Okay.
Speaker 1:And we'll individualize it based off activity level, temperature, a lot of other factors we could get into the nitty gritty individually. Yeah, so, let's go ahead. So, let's go ahead. Water is the number one beverage that we want to consume on a weekly basis, or it's in these top six. Can you give us more about PFAs, chlorine, byproducts and other contaminants?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so I think this is something that we are, I think, as a community if we think of that from big community like our entire country, let's just say but then, even on the local, we're in Beaufort County, right, and so the Environmental Protection Agency they're gonna look at, okay, how do we keep our water safe? And so there's a lot of policies that. How do we keep our water safe? And so there's a lot of policies that exist to help keep our water safe for consumption.
Speaker 2:There's a lot of eyes on this right now because we know that these PFAs, or we'll just say forever chemicals, are landing in our water system and so we don't want to be consuming these. With that being said, I think it's very hard to say that these things are going to be completely extracted or that these things are going to just not show up. We've got our soil, we've got runoffs, there's all of these different things that are in our environment and on a home perspective, like in your own home, like this is something that we did was as our family, as we put in a filtration system, and so when we think about the number one beverage we're going to consume, we want that to be clean, healthy drinking water and our local community is going to have a huge role, and what that looks like if we're drinking from the tap.
Speaker 1:Should the average person think about getting a filter for water on their home?
Speaker 2:I think it's always something to look at. One thing that I actually would encourage listeners on is to go to like we can go into the Beaufort Jasper, like we can go to our water source and look at it's going to be safe in a sense. But we got letters in the mail saying, hey, there's higher levels of blank and blank, and so I know that kind of put us on a. Thankfully they communicated that, but it does kind of make you think a little bit of all right, do I want my drinking water to not have any of these things?
Speaker 1:um, depending on what it is that they're communicating that shows up, yeah, so if you don't live in the Buford Jasper County area, looking into water in your home area? Of like the levels and you can get that information quite excessively.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Okay, Now let's stay on water for a little bit here. What are some other options that are out there as far as filtration units?
Speaker 2:I know you maybe have heard of the term like reverse osmosis. That's a whole separate system. There's bottled water, spring water. I mean there's so many different types of water that we can consume. So when we're looking at the other types and the other types of processes, reverse osmosis would be one that's going to get rid of a lot of contaminants, but it can also get rid of things that we would find beneficial from our water certain minerals that we actually want to consume. Fluoride, I know, is a hot topic of a conversation as well, so it's going to get rid of that. So these are all things that I think big picture has a lot to do with policies and how that trickles down to then the local community.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and with reverse osmosis machines, putting directly typically underneath the sink, just staying on there for a second, it takes everything out, like the healthy minerals that are in water, so you sometimes would have to then add minerals back in, or think about an electrolyte supplement at that point.
Speaker 2:Yeah, which then adds complexity. Yeah, for sure.
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay, now final tips on water. What should people think about?
Speaker 2:Um, drinking it is better than not drinking it. So we can go down this rabbit hole of you know what's the best kind and this or that, but we want to make sure we're drinking enough. I would say we also get fluids from other beverages and also our food. So if we think about produce let's just use the orange as an example there's literally that water that you know and we call it the juice, but there is a liquid we are drinking, fluid that also comes along with it. So we're going to get, we're going to help stay hydrated also by the foods that we consume, not just the beverages.
Speaker 1:So eating a whole foods diet will help with the water intake.
Speaker 2:Yes.
Speaker 1:Yeah, great Coffee, number two on our list today. It's a daily ritual for millions of people. What are the health benefits?
Speaker 2:So coffee, one of the biggest benefits that we do know is that enhancement of focus, mental alertness, and I think that speaks volumes for a lot of people, I'd say. The other thing are the polyphenols and these compounds that are found in coffee being an antioxidant.
Speaker 1:So tell us more about the polyphenols.
Speaker 2:So chlorogenic acid is going to be a major beneficial powerhouse that coffee happens to have, and so that's going to be an antioxidant free rat. It's going to help neutralize free radicals in our body. That is just one.
Speaker 1:Now, when you say free radicals, these are some big words. Just want to make sure we clarify. Um, what does that exactly mean?
Speaker 2:So free radicals are compounds in our body that have been linked to, I would say, more inflammation. We're more susceptible to getting sick, and I'm not saying that a free radical is a virus, that's not, it's just more. We need antioxidants and these compounds from our food to help kind of neutralize and fight these things off. Everybody produces it. We can't not.
Speaker 1:So to neutralize and have less of the free radicals running around in our system.
Speaker 2:Yeah. So I would say coffee has these compounds that are going to help protect.
Speaker 1:And assist with that process. Okay, yeah, no, I appreciate kind of staying on that, because these are obviously beneficial things. When we're consuming coffee, even though we all love the taste of it as well, at what point does coffee go from helpful to harmful?
Speaker 2:So it is a stimulant, and so that's something really important to think about. It also has caffeine, which hence stimulant, but some people are very sensitive to that. We might take somebody that's a super wired, high energy individual. They might not need that extra stimulant. It's also can create just some GI issues Some people experience like heart palpitations. These are going to be probably the individuals that already know they're very sensitive to it, but I think it's just important to kind of factor in it's also an appetite suppressant. I've worked with so many people where they wake up, they have their coffee and then, before you know it, they haven't had anything to eat and they're starving by the time they get to lunch. So that's. The other piece of it, too, is that it can be a filler for food, when food actually is gonna give us true energy. Even though coffee can help boost our energy levels, for a lot of us we're not actually getting a lot of calories or nutrients out of it. Macronutrients per se.
Speaker 1:Yeah, definitely from a beverage perspective. Unless you are going to Starbucks and putting everything under the sun in your beverage order, there's not a ton of calories in coffee.
Speaker 2:Right right. Yeah, so there's other things. You know, someone might be taking a certain medication where coffee could interact in a negative way, but for most of us, consuming a small amount of coffee on a regular basis might actually have value and be beneficial and be pleasurable, versus something that's going to be harmful.
Speaker 1:Great. So what amount of coffee should we be consuming in a day?
Speaker 2:So I would suggest to our listeners somewhere between two and four cups a day being a pretty safe place to be. We don't want to impact our sleep in a negative way, so I'd say stopping before two o'clock for most. Some are more caffeine sensitive, so they know if they drink that cup of coffee at 5 pm just to kind of get them through the evening that it's going to disrupt their sleep, unfortunately. But I would say the average cup of coffee is somewhere between 150 to upwards of 300 milligrams of caffeine per eight ounces. So that's a pretty big range depending on where you're getting it from. So somewhere between two and four cups a day.
Speaker 1:And one cup of coffee is going to be eight ounces. Yes, Not what I do which is those big mugs that we have.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes, can I mention one more thing?
Speaker 1:Yeah, yeah, before we move on to tea, yeah.
Speaker 2:So what's really cool about coffee and this is where there's there is a lot of research that I think looks at coffee, and I think some of it is because so many people drink it, and so it's looking at the positives, the negatives and all these potential things that can come from it. And one of the things that is coming out about coffee and its benefits is the linkage of the prevention of Alzheimer's dementia, some of these neurodegenerative diseases, and so you know, when we look at just Alzheimer's dementia, a lot of people I know personally because my grandparents struggled with that, and so it is a concern. It is something that I know that I don't want to live with. I don't want my loved ones to have to see. But anyways, besides the point, I drink coffee and there's some pretty cool links with the neurodegenerative prevention and coffee.
Speaker 1:Wow, what an added bonus. Lindsay 100%. Let's go ahead and jump over to tea. Great. What are the main differences between green and black tea in terms of benefits?
Speaker 2:In terms of benefits. So green tea, black tea, are coming from the same plant, but they're processed differently, and so when we look at tea being beneficial, we're going to actually have benefits from both Across every version.
Speaker 2:Yes, Tea in general is just phenomenal Antioxidants, those polyphenols, and when there are links to the health benefits specifically green tea there's cardiovascular blood pressure, HDL up, LDL down. I would say it's looking more at the cardiovascular, some of the cardiovascular benefits. But also because some tea has caffeine, we're also still getting some of that stimulant, some of that focus, that that stimulant, some of that focus, alertness A lot of people prefer more of a non decaf tea cause they're using it in the evening, but we're still going to get the benefits from those tea leaves.
Speaker 1:Yeah, I got it. And now does black tea have as much caffeine as green tea?
Speaker 2:Yeah, they can be similar and I think it just depends on the tea and it depends on where we're sourcing it from.
Speaker 1:Are there other types of tea besides those two that our listeners would find benefit in?
Speaker 2:So our listeners have probably heard of matcha, which is becoming extremely popular. There's not as much research on matcha, but I think there will be. I think there's going to be more coming out. Some of the research shows that matcha actually has more health benefits than just our traditional cup of black or green tea. But matcha is in essence green tea that in the most simplest way, turns into a powder and so we're getting the concentration, the concentration. So when we steep our tea leaves we're not actually getting the whole leaf, whereas when we are drinking matcha it's the full leaf that's turning into that powder, and then, yeah, so it's and that's why it almost feels more like a.
Speaker 1:I've had matcha tea before and I know it's very trendy right now. It's almost feels thicker than drinking other teas.
Speaker 2:Yes, because you kind of have to blend it in. And then there's the feeling that some people get where. It's like I feel more alert, I feel stimulated, but a sense of calm as well, like that calmness that comes from it. And part of that is like are we actually taking a moment to ourselves to just relax by drinking a cup of tea, which I think sometimes goes hand in hand? But our matcha has higher levels of L-theanine, Tell us about that.
Speaker 2:I actually really like L-theanine. L-theanine I like to see people do it more in the evening to help with sleep, but it's a compound that we get from tea that has been linked to more calm, relax enhancing sleep.
Speaker 1:What do you call L-theanine? What's that described? Described as?
Speaker 2:is that a I call it a neurotransmitter like I'm it, so l-theanine is a compound in tea or in plant so would that be considered a micronutrient?
Speaker 1:that's a good I'm just wondering how that gets classified. But what I'm was jumping into is like chamomile has that right. Is that a specific type of tea that has that?
Speaker 2:I wouldn't, I wouldn't be surprised. Yeah, yeah, okay yeah.
Speaker 1:Uh, and, and you alluded to timing where in your practice have you seen people become the most successful in drinking tea? Because for me it just doesn't. It seems like an afterthought, especially as a coffee drinker, like folks out there who develop this practice, what have you witnessed?
Speaker 2:I'd say I see it more mid-afternoon and in the evening probably. This is where the what I hear from people that drink it. They prefer the decaf, they prefer a non-caffeinated, just because they want to use tea more to relax. But that, I'd say, is very much the American culture, because you could look at other countries where they might use tea in the morning, the other thing, is English breakfast tea where they might use tea in the morning.
Speaker 1:Yeah, the other thing is English breakfast tea.
Speaker 2:Yes, and then, if anyone's ever heard of Herbamate, holy moly. This stuff is a powerhouse where people might be drinking that in the morning all day Like. It's like a very communal thing that's more popular in.
Speaker 1:Latin.
Speaker 2:America, in Argentina, uruguay, drinking like out of a gourd and sharing through like this. It's pretty gnarly, but anyways, tea has been around for years and years and years, and I think it's you know there's. We're now just drinking different types, kombucha being another one. I would actually put kombucha more into that tea category.
Speaker 1:You would classify kombucha as a tea.
Speaker 2:It's fermented tea.
Speaker 1:Okay, so walk us through the health benefits of kombucha Cause. That's very trendy as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so kombucha has it. So to make kombucha it's taking tea and then, if it's unsweet, it might be adding a little bit of sugar, and then there's basically a living organism that helps. That basically gets added to the processing part to make the end product, kombucha, where this is where we've got the probiotic development that ends up happening. And so there's SCOBY I could be saying it wrong, because I've never actually made it myself Scooby, scoby. For anyone that's actually made it, you're going to totally correct me, but that's fine because regardless, it's a fermentation process and then you've got the probiotic development that happens in the end result.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's really cool. We hosted a make your own probiotics drinks workshop here over at the farm and it was a huge hit.
Speaker 2:Oh, I bet it was a huge hit.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and it was by one of our yoga instructors, and she did an amazing job and it had a lot to do with the fermentation process.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so when we think ferment something, sit in steeps and so things really cool, things have time to develop and then we get to drink the benefit of it yeah, yeah, our members took home their um.
Speaker 1:There was a name for it gosh. I'm um not with it right now, but they oh their starter, they took their starter home. That's yeah, yeah, yes, that's the, that's the scoby scooby so this is similar to uh, not to change courses off drinks, but sourdough has a starter.
Speaker 2:Yes, okay yeah, that somebody might have for like years and years and years. They'll like travel with it. They move with that thing. They're like no, this is my starter. This is my starter, this is what I use.
Speaker 1:Yeah I feel a bread episode in our future. Yeah, great. So we've got water, coffee, tea. Let's move forward into a bigger bucket dairy. What's the importance of potentially having a dairy beverage as part of a weekly nutrition plan?
Speaker 2:Yeah, so when I think of dairy, there's obviously milk, but I would love milk. So we can, we can talk about that, um, but I'm also going to throw in kefir and and yogurt and like yogurt, like beverages, into the mix, cause these can be extremely, extremely easy and affordable and also has a lot of nutritional value.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so let's start with milk. A common question that we've actually had a member ask us is what's best whole milk, 2% skim milk? Can you break that down?
Speaker 2:Yeah. So if you look at whole milk, I'd say the number one concern that people are going to have from a health perspective is the saturated fat that's found in our whole milk. So the average cup of whole milk might have five grams of saturated fat, which is, in essence, roughly around half of what could be a recommended intake in a day. With that being said, milk as just a general, you know, just if you look at the nutrition profile. You've got protein, you have the fat, you've got carbohydrate, and that's mostly in the form of lactose, but what I find to be probably the most valuable outside of the protein, is you've got calcium, vitamin D, small amounts of potassium. There are other benefits that we are getting from milk that I think vitamin D is one of those big ones that it's just hard to get from other food sources in such an easy way.
Speaker 1:Yeah, milk's very accessible.
Speaker 2:And it's very versatile. So smoothies if you're making oatmeal in the morning.
Speaker 1:Chocolate milk.
Speaker 2:If you're making oatmeal in the morning, chocolate milk, chocolate milk, yeah. And if we think about those that are very active and are working out and pushing their bodies hard, there's some really cool research around milk and recovery. It's got a high level of whey protein, and we know that whey protein is extremely bioavailable, and what I mean by that is we digest it pretty well. Where things get caught up with milk, where there's more, I'd say, pushback on it, is well, do we really need it? We're not necessarily. We're not in the ages of one to five anymore, and I would say it can. Actually, if we look at it from the nutrients we get from it, it can be really helpful. Plus, it is so versatile, and so you know, I think about a lot of the women back here too. We're not saying that they're not actually drinking that cup of milk, but they can work it in, whether it be a smoothie or working into their oatmeal, working into other things that can actually be helpful.
Speaker 2:Big thing on the calcium, the vitamin D and the in the protein.
Speaker 1:Yeah, Now let's go back to kefir and yogurt, drinks, health benefits and potentially some brands to look out. I think folks are less familiar with kefir, but it obviously falls into that probiotic category, like kombucha.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so that's really what we're going to get. The benefit is we're going to get that. We're going to get the benefit of the protein. We're going to get the benefit of the protein, we're going to get the benefit of the vitamin d. We're going to get all these, the similar benefits that we get from milk, but now we also get that extra layer of the probiotics and that healthy bacteria that our gut so much likes. Kefir tends to have more probiotics than it, you know, than that cup of yogurt that we could, that we would consume. Um, but a lot of companies are now making like a yogurt style drink, like, I think, of siggy's, you, you're, it's like a yogurt drink that isn't necessarily kefir but very similar, and you're kind of seeing on on the bottle how many, you know how many microbes are, how it's showing you the specific bacteria.
Speaker 2:yeah, yeah, and what I like about a lot of these companies the kefir it's usually like a lactobacillus and the bifidobacteriums, where scientifically, there's a lot of research of those being valuable.
Speaker 1:Now, are there any plant-based options for those out there who aren't fans of dairy that we could say as a count towards number five on our beverage list?
Speaker 2:Yeah, I mean, there's a lot of dairy alternatives. If you look at it technically, what's going to be the most similar soy milk is actually the most similar. A lot of these companies, though, are recognizing that people aren't consuming cow's milk really anymore, so they're fortifying their almond milk or their nut milk, which it should technically be a juice, but besides the point because it's yeah, it's milk it should be coming from an animal.
Speaker 1:Let's talk about almond milk because for years I used almond milk as the base.
Speaker 2:I guess it's almond juice.
Speaker 1:It was the base of my smoothies and I never got bigger. I continued to stay small because it was so low on the calorie spectrum and I think it took some mind shifting for me to get away from almond milk and to go back to a dairy alternative. What is the problem with these nut milks, if there is one?
Speaker 2:Okay, so there's not an actual, there's not a lot of almond or a lot of nut, like if we were to buy that gallon of almond milk. This is more traditional. I mean, that whole section is so overwhelming to me I'm just stare at, I'm like, oh my goodness, there's so many choices but there's really not a lot of true almond in it. So there's a lot of fortification to then have it look similar to milk, even texturally. So we want it to have the same texture. But I would say this is where when we drink a cup of cow's milk, even skim, it has a creamier texture compared to an almond milk. Some of these will have thickening agents. I mean, it just kind of depends on the brand and what they're doing and what they're all about. Um, this is where, like for anybody at home that would like an alternative, you could make your own and I've I've heard of people doing that and yeah, just from scratch.
Speaker 1:And that's that's more legit thing, like cheesecloth and I've I've heard of people doing that and yeah, just from scratch, and that's that's more legit things like cheesecloth and I mean there's some steps involved, but I don't.
Speaker 2:I don't think it's all that hard, but then you're spending a fair amount of money on the actual nut itself and then you're still not getting maybe some of the fortification benefits. But I mean, it's something that you're doing yourself, but then you have all that meal left at the end. That what are we going to do with. So then there's that too.
Speaker 1:Okay. From a plant-based perspective, soy milk would be the best, alternative, though, to dairy.
Speaker 2:It looks the most similar. Texturally, it tends to be the most similar.
Speaker 1:And it's going to have closer to the protein profile of a cow's milk.
Speaker 2:Yes, yes. I would say, though for anyone that's just like nope, I'm not about the milk. I would say then, yogurt all day, kefir, like that stuff is great, whether it be a snack, working it into the smoothie, so you kind of pour it in if you're going to use it that way. You know yogurt and kefir are wonderful.
Speaker 1:Okay, yeah, we got two more beverages left. This one often gets a bad rap for being too sugary. Juice is on our list today. Are there ways to include juice in a healthy diet?
Speaker 2:Yes, and I think about the podcast that you did with the member that.
Speaker 1:Yeah, linda Witt, yes, oh my gosh.
Speaker 2:I mean just.
Speaker 1:Where juice is coming straight from her garden.
Speaker 2:Yes, and that's immediately where my head went. I immediately went to what she does and what she cultivates and what she prepares, and that, to me, is wonderful, where it almost acts like this multivitamin in a sense, where I think are 100% juices and if you can put veggies in it, if you can put ginger, if you can put these other things in it, then it can be a really beneficial thing for our body. The thing is is when we go to the store, it's not the same.
Speaker 2:It's just not the case or you're spending a lot of money on it as well, which is not as accessible for people. So I think when you can find a juice that has some vegetable in it, that has these other turmeric, ginger, lemon, these other things, that's great, that can be worked in. But I almost look at it like almost like a supplement of sorts, like it's going to give us this ton of multivitamin.
Speaker 1:It's like in my head I'm thinking multivitamin if I can consume juice on the regular, at the right amounts, where the sugar is natural.
Speaker 2:I'd say a lot of these are going to be loaded with the vitamin C, which is great, but then we're going to get some of those polyphenols, antioxidants that we're all. But we're missing the fiber. I'd say that's one thing is, when we think about our 100% produce juices, is we miss out on that fiber and some of that pulp that we would get from just eating the actual fruit or vegetable itself.
Speaker 2:So and ideally we're eating the whole food. But I can't deny that we can get some benefit from our 100% juices. There's some cool research too about like 100% tart cherry juice and the benefits of because it's got anthocyanins, which is like kind of found in those purpley. This is the tart cherry juice linking to helping those with rheumatoid arthritis, those that have aches and pains and it's kind of helping with symptomatically feeling better. It's not going to treat it, but it's going to help someone feel better, manage those symptoms a bit better.
Speaker 1:It's not going to treat it, but it's going to help someone feel better, manage those symptoms a bit better.
Speaker 2:Yeah, so that's where something like that can come in 100% pomegranate juice, cranberry juice with urinary tract health. So there are some juices 100% or in those in like concentrated amounts, like we take that 100%, but it can be actually valuable and something to kind of work in.
Speaker 1:Nice, yeah, I think this clarity is extremely helpful. And cranberry juice, tart cherry juice, pomegranate juice, these three that you've mentioned. They have specific, unique benefits, I think that's quite interesting that the tart cherry juice helps with rheumatoid arthritis.
Speaker 2:Yeah, and I would call these enhancers, like I think that these can just enhance a little bit, based off of, hopefully, what somebody is already doing.
Speaker 1:So with juice it might be a ritual In the morning time you have a fresh juice. Maybe, you can get it from somewhere. Maybe Linda Witt will commercialize her product.
Speaker 2:I'm calling you out. I'm calling you out.
Speaker 1:Yeah, and then it's like, because there's not the fiber lunch and dinner, really focusing on the whole foods there.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:Yeah, okay, so we've actually hit five now, and this last one on our list is kind of a catch all where smoothies yeah, on our list is kind of a catch-all where smoothies yeah, what makes a good smoothie versus one?
Speaker 2:that's basically a milkshake. When I think milkshake, I think about my experience going to the island with mia where it's this new milkshake. It's phenomenal. I think ice cream, like. When I think milkshake like, I automatically think ice cream, I think think treat, I think dessert. But when I think smoothie, I think like a meal replacement. Or when I think about someone that is really busy on the go and they just, you know, got done playing tennis or pickleball and they're like, oh my gosh, I'm going to go off and do something else now. Like it can be very helpful to kind of fill them up, get them from point A to point B, and it takes maybe all of five minutes max to, to, to blend, and then you're kind of you're on your way.
Speaker 1:So, of the beverages on the list, smoothies are going to be closer to caloric intake and fuel almost.
Speaker 2:Yeah.
Speaker 1:How can someone build an ideal smoothie if it is a meal replacement?
Speaker 2:So I always think about a fruit. So adding a fruit, usually something frozen, that's going to help with texture. So frozen banana works really well, frozen mango works really well, frozen berries work really well. So, starting with a fruit, then some sort of liquid, any liquid, I can just choose whatever I want, so some people just like to use water, I think, something like milk, kefir and again milk.
Speaker 2:Open to your interpretation, even a splash of 100% juice can be used like a splash of orange juice, a splash of vegetable juice can be worked in, so some sort of liquid, because I mean, if you don't have the liquid, it's just.
Speaker 1:It's not a smoothie. It's not a smoothie. So we got fruit liquid. Then I like to think of like where's our protein coming from?
Speaker 2:So some people like to add your protein powders, nut butters, just adding nuts, adding seeds. This is where yogurt and kefir milk so this is where milk again can kind of come in and be the liquid and a solid protein source. Or you can do a blend of all these things and that can work. And then I like to think about some sort of vegetable, if we can add it to it, and it can be a handful of spinach. I've seen frozen cauliflower worked in. Uh, this is where I'm not gonna say I mean avocado can be thrown avocado works well.
Speaker 1:I've got some frozen avocado in the freezer right now that I throw in from time to time.
Speaker 2:Herbs and that can give it like a little bit of freshness. So a little bit of basil, a little bit of mint, that that's a nice way to use up if anyone's got their own herb garden. And then I would say my last piece is going to be what's that? One extra thing to make it maybe individual, whether it's ground flaxseed, if you need more fiber, maybe somebody is trying to get a little bit more potassium or a little bit more magnesium, and we can add something. So I'd say, adding one other little element that's going to personalize it for, and it could just be simply taste. So it could be a handful of dark chocolate, it could be. I mean, it could be a handful of dark chocolate, it could be. I mean it could be a splash of pure vanilla extract, and I'm talking tiny bit um, cause that is very potent cinnamon, um. So there's, there's other things, just to make it more your own.
Speaker 1:Yeah, that breakdown is helpful. As someone who is definitely a smoothie person, uh, having the categories of what to choose from almost gives me more ideas for variations to something that's already working. Yeah for sure, nice, all right. Well, we've covered the six beverages that everyone can think about consuming on a weekly basis water, coffee, tea, dairy juice and then smoothies that catch-all that obviously might combine some dairy and some juice. Final thoughts for our listeners To keep beverages fun and intentional without overcomplicating their day Lindsay.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I would say for our listeners, breaking it down into their day. So what is something they wanna do in the morning that they're thinking about? What's my hydration, what am I consuming through my beverages? And then midday, what do I want that to look like? And evening, what do I want that to look like? I think morning, I wanna be more stimulated, I want that to look like. And evening, what do I want that to look like?
Speaker 2:I think morning I want to be more stimulated. I want something that's going to give me energy. So it could be coffee and maybe a smoothie. That's a lot of beverage, I know, personally I'm not as much of a smoothie person because I like to chew my food. But that's just something to think about is breaking it down. Morning, midday, I want to say sustained, and so that's where I'd say water, and this is where, like electrolytes, which we didn't go too far into that. But that's where midday, like, what do I want to focus on? And then, as I get into mid-afternoon, early evening and then evening, now I want to find something to help me unwind and relax. Evening and then evening Now I want to find something to help me unwind and relax. I know, personally. For me that's going to be more of a tea and a non decaf herbal type tea, versus pulling that in earlier in the day.
Speaker 1:So that's a good example, and even in my case I'll sometimes like a glass of milk in the late evening to just get a boost of some protein and yeah, it seems to be pretty chill for me too.
Speaker 2:It gives me a little bit of a sweetness at the same time Comforting, and then there's a way to like heat it up, you know, like you can kind of, so there's something to be said about like that warm glass of something. Yeah, yeah, warm glasses, something.
Speaker 1:Well, this has been so much fun. Lindsay, I appreciate you bringing in the science and the health benefits behind each of these beverages and listeners. I think key takeaway here is don't just drink more water, think about the other beverages in your day, and I love kind of like looking at that whole day and thinking about how you're going to time these things.
Speaker 2:Yeah, yeah, thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 1:You're welcome, lindsay. I love spending time these things. Yeah yeah, thank you so much for having me. You're welcome, lindsay. I love spending time with you. Listeners, feel free to hang out with me for a few more minutes and get some healthy momentum for the rest of your week. If you're like me, you grew up doing puzzles with your grandparents, and even your mom and dad would pull puzzles out when it was raining outside for something to do.
Speaker 1:I find that in life and as we go throughout our days, it's sort of what we try to do every day is fit the puzzle pieces in, whether it's our workout, whether it's appointments for our job or time with family. Some days are perfect, where you have all the pieces designed, you know where you want them to go and, piece by piece, they fit together just so smoothly. And then other days don't work like that. You've got a few puzzle pieces that you try to jam in, you've got a corner that you just don't know where it goes on the overall map of the puzzle and challenges they happen.
Speaker 1:What I find most interesting about this analogy is that every day is a new puzzle. Every opportunity that we get to breathe and live allows us to design a different picture, and so, as you go throughout your week, I want you to keep in mind that if your puzzle pieces aren't fitting in on a day, want you to keep in mind that if your puzzle pieces aren't fitting in on a day, there's always tomorrow. And if those puzzle pieces aren't fitting in, ask yourself what's getting in the way of your ability to make that perfect puzzle. I want to thank you for spending time with us this week and remember to actively participate in life on your terms.
