In Moderation
Providing health, nutrition and fitness advice in moderate amounts to help you live your best life.
Rob: Co-host of the podcast "In Moderation" and fitness enthusiast. Rob has a background in exercise science and is passionate about helping others achieve their health and fitness goals. He brings a wealth of knowledge and expertise to the show, providing valuable insights on topics such as calories, metabolism, and weight loss.
Liam: Co-host of the podcast "In Moderation" and new father. Liam has a background in nutrition and is dedicated to promoting a balanced and sustainable approach to health and wellness. With his witty and sarcastic style, Liam adds a unique flavor to the show, making it both informative and entertaining.
In Moderation
Protein-Packed Strategies for Everyday Meals
Looking to maximize your protein intake without the confusion? We're flipping the script on how we measure nutritional value by examining protein content per calorie rather than by weight—giving you a practical framework for making smarter food choices.
Egg whites emerge as the surprising champion with a whopping 22 grams of protein per 100 calories, essentially functioning as pure protein in water form. Close behind are staples like chicken (19g) and Greek yogurt (18g), while plant options like tofu (12g), tempeh (11g), and edamame (10g) offer impressive alternatives for those seeking more plant-based nutrition.
Beyond just listing numbers, we share kitchen-tested techniques that transform these ingredients into delicious meals. Learn how to properly press tofu for maximum flavor absorption, repurpose rotisserie chicken bones into flavorful broth for cooking nutrient-rich grains, and create sweet potato breakfast bowls that deliver both satisfaction and nutrition. These aren't complicated chef techniques—they're straightforward methods anyone can implement to elevate everyday cooking.
We also tackle the fiber conversation, highlighting often-overlooked sources like whole wheat pasta and legume-based alternatives. Despite common misconceptions about pasta being "empty carbs," these varieties deliver substantial fiber benefits that deserve recognition in any balanced diet.
Throughout our discussion runs a refreshing message: nutrition doesn't need to be complicated or stressful. By focusing on incorporating quality protein and fiber sources while maintaining simple habits like regular walking, you create a sustainable foundation for health without the anxiety that often accompanies diet culture. Whether you're tracking macros or simply looking to eat better, these practical insights will help you navigate food choices with confidence and ease.
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Hey everybody, welcome to the podcast. And I am getting dangerously low on diet soda, but sort of on purpose, because we're moving and I'm like, do I want to bring all this diet soda with me? I don't know about that, so I'm slowly just that sounds like a lot to pack Right, so I'm just drinking. I'm getting through so many Coke zeros.
Speaker 2:Okay, here's the thing. Have you checked the stores where you are moving to to make sure that they have all these fancy things that you have access to?
Speaker 1:I'll tell you what they don't have for sure is Mountain Dew Code Red Zero. So before we leave, I'm going to have to stock up on that. I also, when I visited, I didn't see Barks, and I'm very sad about this. I don't know. I don't know for certain, but I didn't see Bark Zero, and I really like Bark Zero. So I think they do have most of them, but definitely not all of them, and it's a little sad. So right now I'm drinking fago because I, oh man. So fago is the juggalo so you're juggalo yeah, so it's so great.
Speaker 1:One video I did that where I was just like, I just was like I'm gonna drink fago and then I just played a clip from Insane Clown Posse. Did you know? Did you know they weren't always the Insane Clown Posse, but they always were ICP. Did you do you know what ICP used to stand for?
Speaker 2:I don't actually.
Speaker 1:I'll give. I can't give a hint because it's late and I can't come up with hints, and my hint would just be telling you the actual thing. So I'm going to just tell it to you. Anyway, it was inner city posse, and then somehow Inner city, yeah, inner city posse, and then it swapped to insane clown posse. It's basically the same thing.
Speaker 1:I have to imagine they had that like the ICP and they're like we have to keep this. What can we do? What if we put clown makeup on and just acted insane? They're like, totally, this will work and it did, it worked better because, yeah, did you do. Did you know about the inner city posse? No, but you absolutely know about the insane clown posse definitely yeah well, there's your information, everybody. Good night, have a good night fastest episode ever oh, you now know about the insane clown posse.
Speaker 1:I will say I just posted a video today talking about um, protein, and there was a list of like protein per 100 grams. So when they, when you do it by weight, it looks a little weird because anything with water isn't gonna really do well on the list, like chicken beef, these things have the water in them, water content, but things like peanut butter and dried beans don't. So you know, yeah, you get like 25 grams of protein, but also you know 600 calories. So it was like, well, you should do it by, you know, by calorie instead like what's a hundred calories. So I looked up a list. I kind of want to go through this and talk about ways to use it, because I feel like you know people like protein, everything, but also because I like to talk about fiber, maybe talk about a few high fiber foods and do kind of the same thing.
Speaker 1:So I'm going to give you, I'm going to give you a food and how many grams of protein are in 100 grams of egg whites go 100 grams of egg whites no. 100 calories of prot, 100 calories, 100 calories of egg whites? How? Much protein does it have? Yes, we're going by 100 calories.
Speaker 2:First of all, why are we measuring egg whites in grams? Um, okay, that's about that much I've. God damn, it's basically pure protein. It's basically, I mean yeah, it's basically protein, it's just okay, I'll get this.
Speaker 1:One says, I'll give it like 24 this one says 22. I probably would have said 24 and it might be I'm I'm not 100. You might have to double check it, but here I see, but like it's essentially pure protein. So if you're looking for, like, just the most protein for the fewest calories, the amino acids floating around in water.
Speaker 1:Yeah, pretty much, and you know we've talked about it before. Add it to your eggs. You know you're cooking eggs. Add some egg whites to it. That just makes it easy. You know what I'm saying. Or make those wraps or whatever. Man I've seen they have like people ask me about it. There's egg white wraps and I'm like those are cool but they cost like six bucks and you get like a few wraps and I'm like I just feel like maybe you could just cook some egg whites in a pan and that's pretty much all it is you know.
Speaker 2:That's what it is right If you want to pay for the convenience, sure, but like you put a little uh psyllium husk in there hell, yeah, you do.
Speaker 1:So you could add other things. You had seeds or whatever it's like, I don't know. Add something, uh. So I think, um, yeah, egg whites are pretty easy. Uh, how much do you think is chicken? How many? How many grams protein?
Speaker 2:100 calories, 100 calories. I'm gonna go with a little bit lower.
Speaker 1:Yeah, let's say 18 yeah, 19, 19 grams of protein chicken. I mean super easy. Oh you know, I just did another video um the costco, obviously, the rotisserie chickens. I really like the idea. He um broke it apart, use the chicken, obviously, and then, like the bones and the leftovers and all that stuff you don't eat, simmered it in water to make a broth and then use that broth to cook the rice that he made. I was like that's a good idea, I like that a lot, it'll just that broth to cook the rice that he made. I was like that's a good idea, I like that a lot, it'll just add flavor to it. He also had a quinoa to the rice, like you make it in the rice cooker and you add quinoa. And I was like, oh, that's a great way to add, like protein fiber, love that idea. So I'm doing a video about that as well.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I like using a good chicken stock and if you have the rotisserie chicken, just use that.
Speaker 1:Just throw the bones in there. Boom, you got broth you made how cool is that?
Speaker 2:Yogurt, nonfat Greek yogurt, nonfat Greek yogurt, let's go with 16.
Speaker 1:18 grams of protein. Man Yogurt is, for me, that is the thing when it comes to animal products. I need my yogurt, I need the yogurt. It's so versatile. I love it. I love the yogurt drinks. I love just like yogurt by itself obviously have fruit or sweeteners or whatever. It is like yo, for I I eat yogurt every single day. I probably eat as much yogurt as I eat beans, and that's fucking saying that is saying something, but what about cottage cheese? I do like cottage cheese.
Speaker 1:Good culture though good culture not a sponsor of, but I'll tell you it's the best damn cottage cheese you're going to find More expensive but worth it. Fage I've been getting into the Fage yogurt Also worth it. It's like seven bucks a container. I'm like damn, but really they have figured it out. It's the best consistency. Oh, oh, you can't and I've been even getting like the two percent. A little bit of fat in there makes it taste better and that's the thing it's like. Oh, if you don't like non-fat, get the full fat stuff. Full fat's also good. Like when it comes to like losing weight, I've seen like pros and cons for both non-fat and full fat because you know the fat adds to satiety as well.
Speaker 2:Whatever's gonna satiate you more yeah, right.
Speaker 1:So like you like the full fat, do that, add other things to it. The fucking yogurt, like when it's late at night and I'm like I kind of want something sweet, but I I wanted to get a little more protein pro yogurt bowl. Yo throw yogurt in there, throw fruit on there, throw nuts on there, granola done yeah I fucking love granola crunch. Oh, speaking of not crunch, because that doesn't segue into the next thing I was saying salmon protein or not salmon.
Speaker 1:Oh man, let's go go back up to 19 this one is lower, it says 14, and I'm actually curious I guess it's kind of pretty fatty it is pretty fatty, so like it's probably yeah. So salmon, um, yeah. And again, like we're talking about fat and like dairy, like fat, the fat in salmon, um, also seems pretty good for a hell of a lot of mono and polyunsaturated fat, so salmon is great. Oh, my god, I'm so. Can I tell you something? I'm so fucking over this wild caught. You have to get wild caught.
Speaker 1:Every time I make a fucking video, it's always just like no, no, no, no, you gotta keep killing your farm races. Like, oh, really, oh, that well, I don't know why that one pisses me off so much, but it really does. Like what is? Is farm salmon the real problem? That's why people aren't healthy. Get out of here with that shit, come on. So yeah, salmon, um, for me, I keep that. I keep either. Oh you know what I I bought some smoked salmon recently. It's expensive, man. Every time I get smoked salmon I'm like it's 10 bucks for like a little four ounce thing and I'm like damn, but it's good on a piece of toast, maybe some avocado Don't buy it for a year.
Speaker 2:Save up for your own smoker. There you go.
Speaker 1:You know that would be cool. Can I smoke some like tofu and stuff?
Speaker 2:Heck yeah.
Speaker 1:I might be interested. Smoke it if you got it. Smoke them if you got it. What you have is salmon, then you smoke it. That's good Tofu. You can see all of these are going down a little bit Okay.
Speaker 2:well, I guess, if our last one was 14, we'll drop down to 12.
Speaker 1:It is 12. See, you've worked out the game Tofu. I think it gets a lot of people, I know, because you eat it out of the package. It's not going to taste that great, but I think the best one. Invest in a press Press is good. They sell vacuum-sealed ones. Now you'll see it. The packaging is different. It's like in this really firmly sealed package, and I like those. It's a lot firmer and more protein because it's, you know, less water, more firm, whatever, and I think it's totally worth it. It's still only like four bucks or something like that. It's not too bad for like a pound Right, and I like to break it off into like not into cubes, I find breaking it off into pieces there's just more surface area.
Speaker 1:Then you sear it with lots of spices and a little bit of honey or maple syrup or whatever, just a little bit of sweetness, with a bunch of different spices like chili powder or cumin or whatever. That's probably the best way. I made vegan chicken, which of course, everyone got mad about that but basically you just shred it and then you bake it in the oven with a ton of like oil. Like you need a lot of oil. You need like six, seven, eight tablespoons of oil. Now you're not eating the whole thing, obviously in one go, but like you know, it's a decent amount of oil and you have to bake it pretty high, like 400 degrees, and gets all super crispy.
Speaker 2:Done that a couple of times that I think tofu yeah, the real secret with tofu is just getting the the water in it out. Yeah, it has the chance to get that nice crispy skin on it cornstarch also add some cornstarch.
Speaker 1:Cornstarch helps out a lot. So seasoning it was, you know, honestly, it's like salt, pepper, cornstarch. And then you can add in your spices with a mixture. So you take, like, say, your maple syrup and your honey or whatever, a little bit of like lemon juice, and then you put your spices in that and just mix it together. You just mix together and then pour that over the tofu as you sear it. Much better.
Speaker 1:Something similar tempeh Is tempeh less. All right, I'm just going to give this one. It says 11 grams. I thought it would be about the same because they're both soy, it's both made from soybeans, right, but it must be just. Oh, this is interesting Anyway. But yeah, tempeh is just fermented soybeans.
Speaker 1:My favorite way for that is just to shred it and put it into chili. I've done that many times. Make it into chili, shred up some tofu or tempeh, throw it right in there. You also shred up tofu as well. I've also done that, but I like tempeh more. It gives this kind of like nutty, crunchy texture that I like more in a chili. Uh, it will be next to the tofu.
Speaker 1:If you've never heard a lot of, you'll never heard of tempeh I threw. I think I've mentioned this before. I threw out the first thing in tempeh I got, because I thought it was moldy, because it looks moldy when you get it, so don't do that, uh. And then edamame. Edamame is the next one and it's lower. I love some good edamame, but 10, let me tell you something. So yeah, 10 grams protein per 100 calories. So very good if you don't like.
Speaker 1:If you never tried it before, though, and you go to an asian restaurant and they have it on the menu, I'd, I'd recommend trying it, because they make it better. I think it's just because it's not like the frozen stuff, like it's fresh or whatever, and I, whenever I go to Asian restaurant, I always get that little soy sauce. Oh, let me tell you, you want to keep it simple Get I think it's called muka mei mei when it's like out of the shell, so it's D, d shelled edamame. Get that stuff so you don't have to deal with the shell. If you told them to like, you know, try edamame. And then they think you eat the pod.
Speaker 2:It's not a snap pea, you don't eat the pod, you just eat the edamame in the pod yeah, so you know, what I like to do is um you take some pre-shelled edamame don't don't bother showing it yourself, that's a pain in the ass, it is um and you put it in a like a jar or a bowl or something. You throw some barbecue sauce in there. You water down the barbecue sauce so it you know it has the chance to soak in a little better. You let that soak and you throw that all in the air fryer.
Speaker 1:Air fryer. Does it actually get like crispy that way? It can get fairly crisp.
Speaker 2:Well, I wouldn't call it crispy. Huh, I guess it depends on how long you put it in. But then you get some.
Speaker 1:you know, a nice barbecued flavored edamame okay, I guess you're kind of like charring the barbecue sauce, almost. So it's like okay, I see where you're getting that. I see where you're getting that. I like that idea. I typically, yeah, I get the pre-shelled stuff and then I just microwave it and add it to rice, just super easy. Right, it's rice and beans, it's really just rice and beans. Um, I love that rice, oh so good. And then, uh, soy sauce and chili crisp, easy, just those two things. You can add more stuff if you want, like some, uh, furikake or whatever. It's rice seasoning you can go to like the asian section of rice seasoning. So it's got just like sesame seeds and usually it's got um seaweed and other things. Salt razor's got salt and then, yeah, you just throw that on top. It takes five minutes. I guess you have to cook the rice, but you know you could always get like the pre-cooked rice or whatever for that matter.
Speaker 2:It's super easy. Have that with some salmon.
Speaker 1:Oh, that really goes well together.
Speaker 2:Korean barbecue seaweed. It's like crack.
Speaker 1:You know what's funny? Oakley eats seaweed. The other day she woke up in the morning. She pointed at the seaweed. I opened it up and she was just smashing seaweed. She's all over her face. I'm like what? Two-year-old Like seaweed?
Speaker 2:Your two-year-old like seaweed.
Speaker 1:Your two-year-old apparently right I. I would have thought she would have turned her nose up that immediately, but she's just chowing down on seaweed. Most people hate seaweed, so I'm going to be very interested to see if she keeps that as she gets older. But I I'll keep offering her seaweed because, hey, it's great. Yeah, so yeah, seaweed.
Speaker 1:And then we got lentils. Lentils per 100 calories. Quick, how many grams of protein? Sounds like we're dropping down to eight. It is eight grams of protein for lentils and I just I like green lentils, but you have to.
Speaker 1:I feel like you have to treat green lentils a little. It takes more effort to make green lentils good. When I go to an Indian restaurant, I'll totally get green lentils. They do it right. When I make it myself, they're not as good, whereas red lentils, I feel like, are just more forgiving. They're softer. You don't have to get that perfect amount of chew like perfect amount of doneness where it's like too soft or too hard lentils, red lentils are just done. So I really like the red lentils and I've talked about cooking those in water and then blending it with pasta sauce.
Speaker 1:I think that's the easiest way. Uh, just gives you a high fiber or high protein sauce like I. I would try that. So yeah, I mean all lentils, and they're just super cheap, and or I guess with green lentils, what you can do is just add it to ground beef. Um, like you can cook it. You can even use it canned if you want, but cook it and then you add it to ground beef. Make more food, less money, more fiber more food, less money, more fiber and then, uh, black beans, black beans, black beans.
Speaker 1:Have we dropped it? What are we at? Seven, seven is the next. Just one more down. Um, I would say, you know what's you know? I think we've talked about this before. But, man, the fucking refried beans underrated.
Speaker 2:I loves me some refried beans you know I got cohen posted a black bean brownie recipe at one point. I've been meaning to to try.
Speaker 1:I did make the. I've done, I've done the black bean brownies. Those are good. Basically you just add a can of blended black beans. You have to blend it with a little bit of water, so they blend and then just add it to a thing of you know brownie mix and so you can even add. You know what did I do? I did cookie mix with like a pumpkin puree and that was pretty good. I'm kind of curious if you could do like add black beans to it and then some pumpkin puree is like the liquid version and then you can have a really good like higher fiber and like more protein, like now you're thinking brownie, I'm thinking I might, I might have to try that. Now that I'm thinking about it, I like that, I gotta try that.
Speaker 2:Um, almonds, almonds well, I guess we're down to five almonds have four grams of protein.
Speaker 1:It is done I was wondering yeah, it's pretty much the last one, uh, and then like so yeah, almonds, obviously not the highest per 100 calories, only four grams, but it does, it's still there. Like people it was like oh, nuts, don't have that much. Like, yeah it. Yeah, it's not a chicken breast, we get it.
Speaker 2:And the other thing with nuts is that you're not necessarily going to absorb all the fat.
Speaker 1:That's also true if you eat them, like in their like the whole form, like some of the pests hauling through.
Speaker 2:Yeah, I think a lot of people are confused about that when it comes to like calories in, calories out. Calories in doesn't mean what's the number is on the bag, that's like the total calories measured by putting them in a bomb.
Speaker 1:Calorometer, right. So what actually is?
Speaker 2:calories in is what your body absorbs. So if any of that comes out of the other end in your poop that didn't get absorbed right, just like olestra.
Speaker 1:It's funny because, like everyone's worried now with the EPG, have you seen the like modified plant fat that doesn't get absorbed? Have you seen that?
Speaker 2:I remember us briefly talking about it at some point.
Speaker 1:So yeah, like it's in the David bar, they're trying to get like exclusive rights to something. I'm not that's what it was, but yeah, it's so EPG. They're saying people are like, oh, it's like elestra, because you don't absorb it, so you're just gonna poop out this fat. Um, but I think the problem don't quote me on this but I think the problem with with the elestra was it was solid at room temperature but liquid at body temperature, whereas epg is solid at both. So you're not, you shouldn't get the same thing happening.
Speaker 1:But like I understand, with all that, whenever there's a new thing, people are like, well, I don't want to be the first one to try. Like I get it. Like I totally understand, you can wait for it to be around for a while and see what happens. But it would be really cool to have something that gives the flavor of fat but for only, I think, 0.7 calories, uh, per gram, instead of, you know, the typical nine yeah, yeah, as long as it doesn't cause anal leakage problems in the bathroom yeah, yeah, but and then just uh talking.
Speaker 1:I don't want to have to wear a diaper while I'm eating this stuff exactly and talking, and then for fiber, because I mean, we've talked about mostly, is the protein I want to talk about, but the for the fiber, um, I think when it comes to like a meal, it's easiest for. For fiber, you just kind of like look at, you have a few fiber sources that you like that you can add into meals, right, and pick something that's pretty versatile. And what I want to talk about is that, like one that just doesn't I feel like get enough recognition for the fiber is pasta and I feel like I see people are like pasta, empty carbs, terrible for you, glucose spike, diabetes, like something you know somewhere along those lines. But they've done a really good job with the protein pastas, the lentil pastas, the chickpea pastas, all these things, even just regular plain old whole wheat pasta.
Speaker 2:I was just about to say whole wheat.
Speaker 1:Yeah, it's still pretty good it's got quite a bit of fiber in there, so, like I love having those. It just makes it so easy like, oh, what am I gonna have? Pasta, I can add other stuff to it, right, and you know. And then like even uh, pasta. So you know, like, um, marinara, I think, has. Marinara has like two grams of fiber per serving. Yeah, not a ton, but when the average American gets 10 to 15, every little bit helps, and then you got your pasta on top of that. That's pretty good right.
Speaker 2:And, like you said, you could blend some lentils into your sauce and then add a little bit more.
Speaker 1:Yeah, so I think pasta is such a great underutilized one and I think people are just afraid to use it because it's like oh, I've been told that bread and pasta are so terrible for you. Blah, blah, blah.
Speaker 2:Only in America. Once you go over to Europe, everybody's like bread, pasta.
Speaker 1:yes, it's good, it's so funny, but we're being poisoned by, you know, and it's just like well, well, I think it could be our access to like everything. That's probably the bigger problem, but sure, whatever, um, and then you know, it's a great, another great one that's very versatile. Um, sweet potatoes, I love I love sweet potatoes?
Speaker 1:um, obviously, you can just bake it, you can chop it up, you can? Um, well, you know what I've done. That's, that's really good, you? Well, I cook it in the microwave because I'm lazy, and then I cool it down by putting the fridge or freezer so it goes faster, and then you can actually take one of those, one of those like cake mix mixers, things, you know, is it whisk like the eggs and all that sort of stuff you know talking about? I'm talking about, yes, those little, whatever the mixers are Mixers. They're just called mixers. I feel like they should have a different name.
Speaker 1:It's called mixers. I don't like that. That bothers me. They should have a different name. But I will call them mixers from now on. You got your hand mixer.
Speaker 1:You got your stand mixer, I guess, because I think mixer is just too broad Hand mixer. I like that, I feel better. I'm back in. So you take your hand mixer and, yeah, after it's cooked you remove the skin and you can actually just like mix the flesh of the sweet potato with things like nut butter, like a little bit of honey. Right, you mix it together like some kind of liquid, like some type of milk or something, and you can make like a breakfast bowl and stuff on top of that. I've done that with like fruit and whatnot. That's really good, that's I gotta do that again now that I want that.
Speaker 1:I'm craving that now. Now that I'm talking about it, it's really good episodes over liam's going to the kitchen I'm going to give me some oil and, by oakley sleeping, turn the hand mixer on.
Speaker 1:That's great wait oakley's actually sleeping I know this kid man and she wakes up at like 5 am. I'm like, oh gosh, all right, let's go. That's fine, uh, but yeah, you add like berries to that or like avocado, other things that are higher in. Uh, I always like to add banana to it, that's. You know. All these things have more fiber. Boom, you're starting your day off pretty damn well, uh, or even just uh, what's you call it? Like sweet potatoes, mashed sweet potato. Like, instead of mashed potatoes, mashed sweet potatoes. It says, oh, here, yeah, one cup of cooked sweet potato has approximately 6.4 grams of fiber, which ain't too bad. That's pretty good. That's the same as Brussels sprouts, and I think people would like assume brussels sprouts would have more.
Speaker 1:Um, so yeah, like you know, find those sort of things that you have, like I'm also, I love um beans, so just like canned beans makes it easy, have those and then just just go to it when you need, when you need to, and then say just keep this shit simple, man, and don't over complicate it, don't stress. I've been getting a lot of comments from that, just like especially newer people finding me on youtube and they're like I'm not worrying about food and I'm like that's great, that's what I set out to do. It's just like chill out a little bit. The stress is only gonna take you out faster and eat your fiber and have your protein and go for a walk and you're good.
Speaker 1:Go walk your cat go walk your cat and drink some Faygo ginger ale Zero sugar. What does Faygo taste like? Clownish Okay.
Speaker 2:Okay, kind of what I expected.
Speaker 1:Magnets how do they work? Oh shit, I'd love to fucking see it's water, fire, air, dirt, fucking magnets. How do they work? And I don't want to talk to.
