Hi buddies! Long time no talk. A couple of weeks ago my partner and I closed on our house and, with the help of my parents and baby brother, we painted it and moved in. I am SO thrilled, its cozy and colorful and in a neighborhood we love. So that’s where I was. My mind has been far from work and nutrition and all of the things since then, but I am crawling my way back.

This week I wanted to speak to a part of wellness that is not necessarily nutrition related, but is for sure complimentary. I want to speak about ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁˖ movement ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁˖

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Do the oils you’re using matter?

Hint: yes, but not why you might think…

I need to tell you about something that happened last week.

I was doing a Mediterranean eating event at a local olive oil store, which attracts a very different demographic than my typical nutrition counseling clientele. I strive to be a well rounded nutrition professional, and flexing different counseling muscles is important, so here I was talking to a crowd more focused on health optimization rather than understanding the nuance that nutrition science brings.

During this event, a question pops up about seed oils, as usual. Something along the lines of ‘how do I replace seed oils with olive oil, when olive oil is so flavorful?”

I answered with something like: “Great question. Extra virgin olive oil has a very distinct flavor, and it may not always be a great choice for cooking.” I then went on to explain how to choose a cooking oil that best meets your cooking/baking needs and health choices. To put it simply — avoiding seed oils outright is truly unnecessary, and please don’t use your high quality extra virgin olive oil under high heat.

Why do seed oils have such terrible press?

There are plenty of reasons — most of which have something to do with claims that seed oils are inflammatory (not that simple), highly processed (true, most oils are), and are therefore bad for your health. This is a vast oversimplification. The truth that most nutrition professionals will tell you is that seeking to remove seed oils from your life is missing the forest for the trees.

When I explained this to the group I was speaking to last week, you would’ve thought I was working for Big Canola based on the looks on their faces (spoiler alert, I am not working for Big Canola, that’s not a thing).

Here are some neutral truths:

• Seed oils are, largely, highly processed. You are taking a plant and extracting oil from the seeds. That is more complicated than you might think.

• Seed oils are better for your health (based on empirical evidence) than lard and butter (and arguably coconut oil!) because they are very low in saturated fat and very high in unsaturated fat.

• Seed oils are included in many highly processed foods that, if we have the means, should not comprise the bulk of our diet.

• Seed oils are very inexpensive, making them the natural choice for cooking at scale (restaurants, food service, etc).

• Seed oils are high in omega 6 fatty acids — we get plenty of those. Too much omega 6 FAs and not enough omega 3 FAs can cause or worsen inflammation in the body.

• Seed oils are a neutral flavored cooking oil and most have a reasonably high smoke point making them a natural choice for cooking.

I could wax poetic on this topic and the precise science behind why these oils are not harmful, but here is the TL;DR:

Seed oils are not the reason for your inflammation or disease. When consumed as a part of a nutritious eating pattern they are no big freakin deal. They are getting terrible press because we (the general public) love clicking sexy headlines, and reading scientific studies and understanding the evidence is decidedly unsexy and boring. Thank you, next.

So what kind of oils should you be eating?

To answer this question, its important to understand the concept of smoke point.

“Smoke Point” refers to the temperature at which an oil will begin to smoke. You do not want to be burning your oils — this can make the oil taste bitter and can produce carcinogens (small amounts, don’t freak out, but best to avoid when possible)

Generally, less refined oils have a lower smoke point than refined oils, but this isn’t a perfect rule. It’s also important to remember that if you have a delicate oil like an extra virgin olive oil, heating it up (even to below its smoke point) can damage or denature antioxidants and phytonutrients that the oil contains.

Now that we have covered smoke point, let’s build an arsenal of oils for your home:

• Drizzle oil: a nutrient rich oil used to add flavor and nutrition to dishes before serving.

  • Ex: High polyphenol (antioxidant) extra virgin olive oil - best purchased from a local olive oil store if you can get to one!, chili oil, toasted sesame oil, butter

• Cooking oil: a med-high heat, neutral flavor oil that you can use to saute, bake, etc.

  • Ex: Grapeseed oil, canola oil, extra virgin olive oil (NOT your nice drizzle oil though!)

• High heat oil: Used for searing/deep frying, able to get very very hot

  • Ex. Avocado oil, refined peanut oil

You can’t go wrong using that lineup! We personally keep high polyphenol extra virgin olive oil as our drizzle oil, EVOO from costco and grapeseed oil as our cooking oils, and avocado oil for high heat cooking (namely Connor’s steak nights — he has in fact burned avocado oil heating it up to sear a steak. That’s hard to do!)

I hope you feel equipped to go forth, buy the oils that make sense for you, and know that if you see bad press about seed oils — its safe to ignore. Good nutrition means looking at the big picture (the forest, overall dietary patterns), not zooming in (the trees, seed oils).

Thank you for giving me the space to educate and inform <3

(and no, the solution probably isn’t another Liquid IV)

One of my ALL TIME FAV questions to ask in a new patient appointment is “How much water do you drink in a day?” I work with funny people and 9 times out of 10 they give me FUNNY answers. I always quote them directly in my notes.

Now, hear me when I say that the best way to properly hydrate is not to go adding electrolytes to your water, despite what electrolyte marketing will tell you*. The solution is to start drinking an appropriate amount of water and then we can talk about electrolytes.

In school, dietetics students are taught a myriad of ways to calculate fluid needs. There are plenty of calculations, but at the end of the day, fluid needs depend heavily on your activity patterns and lifestyle. For example, a construction worker who wears long sleeve/ pants and a hard hat on a hot summer day sweats a lot more than someone working a corporate 9-5 who sits at their desk 8 hours per day.

So how do you go about determining if you’re well hydrated without spending time on a complex calculation or getting in the weeds about the number of ounces is in your owala? The answer lies in your urine. Yes my friends, we are talking about ࣪ ˖⋆˚pee ࣪ ˖⋆˚

The urine of a well hydrated person will be the color of lemonade. The darker your urine, the more concentrated it is because you don’t have enough water in your body to dilute it properly. The chart below can help you determine what your urine is telling you, in case you’re in your head about the color of your lemonade.

Now let me address the Liquid IV flavored elephant in the room. Electrolytes.

Electrolyte supplements ABSOLUTELY have their uses. I am not denying that. HOWEVER for the average person on an average day, they are largely unnecessary. These days, some brands have between 500-1000mg of sodium in them. You get plenty of sodium in your food, so if you’re not sweating and/or have another reason to eat lots of salt, adding that much extra sodium is not necessary. An occasional electrolyte sachet after a hard workout or day at the beach (or night on the town) is one thing, but daily use is usually unnecessary, especially if your urine is telling you that you’re well hydrated.

A fun fact: electrolytes work better if there is sugar because it gives them more than one way to get into your cells. So if you' want flavored sugar free water just buy crystal light. I am so serious.

*my folks with POTS/dysautonomia and/or very active folks, this is not advice for you!

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✧˖° antioxidants ˖°✧

What are they, why do we need them, where do you find them?

‘Antioxidants’ is a blanket term that describes chemicals that fight oxidative stress in the body. What is oxidative stress, you ask? Dear reader, that is too complicated for me to lay out to you in the course of this newsletter, but here’s what you absolutely need to know: Oxidative stress is caused by highly reactive compounds that, when left unchecked, do damage to our tissues and wreak havoc in our bodies. If I take my description any further, we’re gonna get into stuff like this

And I don’t want to go there <3 So we aren’t going to.

Antioxidants neutralize free radicals in our body. They can protect our tissues, absorb excess UV exposure, and help our body run more efficiently and help to reduce risk of developing diseases like cancer, heart disease, etc. .

Some common antioxidants that you may have heard of:

• Vitamin E (Tocopherols) - you may recognize this one as an ingredient in lots of ‘processed’ foods, because it slows aging! It’s a great preservative

• Vitamin A (Retinol)

• Carotonoids

• Flavonoids

• Phenolic Acid

• Vitamin C

Please keep in mind this is a vast oversimplification of antioxidant categories. All of those that I listed are broad categories that have over 50 chemicals underneath each one.

While we have identified these compounds, their sources, and how they help us, we don’t know exactly how much of them we need to support human health (with the exception of vitamins that fall under the ‘antioxidant’ umbrella, there are established targets for those). Many of these compounds are considered ‘phytonutrients’, and they are challenging to study and not as well understood as vitamins and minerals. As a dietitian (and a person who likes to know things), this is challenging because I want to provide you with comprehensive information but there is so much we don’t yet know.

Here’s what we do know, though. Part of the answer to many of these antioxidant questions is ✧˖° plants ˖°✧. This is part of why the sayings ‘eat your fruits and veggies’ and ‘eat the rainbow’ are so popular. I dislike that phrase because many folks I’ve worked with have felt a lot of shame because it was parroted to them so often throughout their lives. I will suggest my alternate phrase at the end of this section.

Here are some common sources of antioxidants and some fun ways to work them into your meals/snacks:

• Sweet potato

• Pumpkin

• Spinach and kale

• Carrots

• Cantaloupe

• Carrots

• Blueberries

• Blackberries

• Strawberries

• Cranberries

• Cacao (the precursor to cocoa, yes it tastes like chocolate!)

• Nuts and seeds

• Cabbage

• Artichokes

A cool fact about antioxidants: many of them are also pigments! Hence why so many of the foods listed above are colorful!

As for how you incorporate antioxidants, here is what I will say: Eat these foods when you can, and don’t worry when you can’t. Everything counts, and it all adds up.

If you’re asking yourself ‘Riley, how do YOU incorporate antioxidant rich foods, here is your answer: I keep a bag of wild blueberries and berry mix in the freezer at all times. I try to keep a few different fresh/frozen veg in my rotation each week. I eat a nut-rich granola with berries over yogurt like 5/7 days of the week. When I make smoothies, I try to pack in as much fruit/veg as I can without making it taste like soup. Most importantly, I eat 3 meals and multiple snacks per day, most of which contain some color. Eating enough is crucial to getting enough of anything, antioxidants included.

To put a bow on this NTOTW, I will pitch you my new phrase: Create opportunities to eat colorful foods and if you can’t, don’t sweat it. You have your whole life to eat antioxidants.

Maybe its not as catchy as ‘eat the rainbow’ but it captures a bit more nuance in my opinion.

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My practice is almost 2 years old and in that time I’ve worked with countless cool clients, made some fun content, learned a LOT about business ownership, and grown a lot as a person & a provider. Truthfully I’ve felt the need to branch out from exclusively providing individual counseling for a while now. While I have historically disliked newsletters, I’ve really come around to the idea of a substack newsletter behind a paywall where I can be a little more candid, a little more vulnerable, and a little more Riley than I am on my business instagram or website.

Here’s how this is going to work: I have a format for my newsletter already picked out. It is subject to change based on my needs and preferences, but the categories are as follows…

• Nutrition Tip/Tidbit of the Week

• Research Roundup: Nutrition research/news you should be aware of

• Steal my Grocery List

• Weekly Favs: Pretty self explanatory but this won’t always be nutrition related

That’s the whole preamble, let’s get into it!

Nutrition Tip of the Week:

. ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁˖ . ݁fiber sprinkles. ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁˖ . ݁

This NTOTW is dedicated to working smarter not harder. At this point, most of my audience knows that fiber is important and most people don’t get enough. In case this is news to you (which is okay! we all start learning somewhere), here’s the quick and dirty on fiber:

We need ~25-30g daily, most of us get 10-15g daily

Not enough fiber = increased colon cancer risk, less satiety with meals, less than ideal bowel movements

Increasing fiber intake = improved bowel movements, decreased colon cancer risk, improved blood sugar regulation, more satiety following meals, decreased LDL cholesterol

Fiber is a carbohydrate that we cannot absorb in the form of calories (energy). It comes from plant based sources like fruit, veg, grains, nuts, seeds, beans, and legumes.

There are two categories of fiber, soluble and insoluble.

• Soluble fiber forms a gel with water. It absorbs excess cholesterol in the GI tract and helps make bowel movements regular.

  • Ex. Oats, psyllium, pectin, chia, flax, beans, legumes, fruits, veg

• Insoluble fiber remains in the GI tract unchanged. It contributes to stool bulk.

  • Ex. Whole grains, wheat bran, fruit skins, leafy greens (kale, collards, not so much romaine and iceberg)

That’s all for our initial speed run of fiber, otherwise I will be here writing for days.

Here’s how I recommend you get more fiber with a little fun and whimsy.

. ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁˖ . ݁fiber sprinkles. ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁˖ . ݁

I treat chia, flax, psyllium, and wheat bran like sprinkles. I put that sh*t on everything.

Yogurt bowls, oatmeal, salads, soup, toast, cereal, smoothies, bowls, etc etc. You name it, I’m probably adding sprinkles to it.

Adding . ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁˖ . ݁fiber sprinkles. ݁₊ ⊹ . ݁˖ . ݁ is a way to level up your nutrition game with health promoting foods without making it a daily grind.

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