Simple Tool to Make Better Food Choices | Jeff Cavaliere & Dr. Andrew Huberman
00:00:00.000 | - How should people think about what to eat?
00:00:06.440 | - So, yeah, I have what I call a plate method, and it's just simple because it works for
00:00:11.240 | me.
00:00:12.240 | And, again, if you're struggling with real eating issues, these mechanisms become admittedly
00:00:20.000 | less effective because maybe you have emotionally triggered eating and you can't stop at one
00:00:25.280 | plate.
00:00:26.280 | I mean, you could get the plate right, but if the portions are out of control--
00:00:28.720 | - The plate.
00:00:29.720 | - Right.
00:00:30.720 | - Plate has a dimensionality of height.
00:00:31.720 | - Height, too.
00:00:32.720 | Or multiple plates.
00:00:33.720 | You know, like second and third.
00:00:34.720 | - Or plate.
00:00:35.720 | - Or plate, right?
00:00:36.720 | Like then, you know, all these things can be challenged, but what I say is when you
00:00:41.280 | have your plate, then you just simply look at it as like a clock, right?
00:00:47.540 | And if you just make a 9.20 on the clock, so one arm goes over to the nine and one of
00:00:54.240 | the arms goes over to 20, well, then you're basically, you're gonna take the second largest
00:00:59.480 | portion of that, because then you're gonna make a line towards 12 o'clock, too.
00:01:03.720 | And the largest portion is gonna be your fibrous carbohydrates.
00:01:06.780 | So that's the green vegetables, right?
00:01:10.320 | So whether it be broccoli or Brussels sprouts or asparagus or, you know, pick your favorites.
00:01:16.740 | You know, like those are the ones that give us a lot of the micronutrients we need.
00:01:20.400 | They're the ones that are generally accepted as more healthy and they're also gonna provide
00:01:25.800 | the fiber that's gonna be both beneficial in terms of its impact on insulin and also
00:01:30.520 | just through filling you up, right?
00:01:33.200 | And then I take the next largest portion of that and I devote that towards protein.
00:01:38.080 | And I think it's really important, especially for anybody active.
00:01:41.720 | The more active you are, the more you embark on trying to build muscle.
00:01:45.040 | You're gonna need to have protein in every meal, so I have that.
00:01:47.620 | And again, you know, we're talking cleaner sources of protein, but like you'll never
00:01:52.300 | find like boiled chicken on my plate.
00:01:54.440 | Like I ditched those days when I was 16 or 15 or 16.
00:01:57.520 | Like I realized after reading those bodybuilding magazines that maybe the low fat thing stuck
00:02:01.880 | for too long or the no fat thing stuck for too long.
00:02:05.560 | But the boiled chicken and, you know, a steamed broccoli thing, that ended quickly for me
00:02:11.000 | because I realized I'm not gonna eat this forever.
00:02:13.220 | So I'll have some sort of fish or chicken, but it will be cooked in a way that's like,
00:02:19.840 | you know, it's got maybe some sauce on it or it's got some, maybe it's tomato sauce,
00:02:24.000 | anything to just make it a little bit more palatable and interesting without blowing
00:02:26.920 | the value of the meal.
00:02:28.340 | And then that last portion is where I put my starchy carbohydrates.
00:02:31.840 | And again, that's the part that some people will say exclude them entirely because they're
00:02:34.480 | not healthy or they don't work for you or they're not, you know, beneficial long-term.
00:02:38.680 | For me, it's been a godsend.
00:02:40.880 | And I do think I'm like most people, my body craves those carbohydrates.
00:02:45.400 | I choose things like sweet potatoes, which is my favorite, you know, or I'll have rice
00:02:51.080 | or I'll have pasta.
00:02:52.080 | I'm Italian, so I like pasta and like I will have those things.
00:02:56.240 | I'm not excluding them, but I don't put them in the portions that you would generally find.
00:03:00.560 | You know, my wife and I will go out and we'll go to the restaurant sometimes like because
00:03:04.120 | we travel quite a bit or used to at least with baseball too.
00:03:08.200 | There's a Cheesecake Factory everywhere you went and I love Cheesecake Factory, but like
00:03:12.680 | the way they structure meals is it's all rice on the bottom and a little bit of chicken
00:03:17.360 | on top.
00:03:18.360 | And I mean, it's a plate full of rice that you wouldn't find me make a plate that way.
00:03:22.400 | I'm going to just devote that portion of the plate to the starchy carbohydrate.
00:03:26.920 | And so it gives me a little bit more responsibility in terms of portion control because those
00:03:30.680 | are the foods, again, probably, you know, dopamine driven that are most easily overeaten.
00:03:36.920 | I always ask the question, how was the last time you ate 10 chicken breasts at a meal?
00:03:41.320 | Like you're getting sick of it after maybe two or three, but you could eat a whole hell
00:03:45.120 | of a lot of carbohydrates, starchy carbohydrates, because they're just so satisfying.
00:03:49.800 | And I think those triggers, as you said, that want more, like that's what happens, right?
00:03:53.560 | You just keep, even when you're feeling full, you want more.
00:03:57.080 | And that's the biggest danger to carbohydrates.
00:03:59.120 | So if you can develop some sort of discipline around them, then you can still enjoy them.
00:04:04.840 | If you can't develop that discipline for whatever reason, then maybe they do become something
00:04:10.080 | that you have to work yourself around or adopt a different eating style.
00:04:12.760 | And as I said, I'm never to the point where I'm not trying to be dogmatic in my approach.
00:04:17.520 | I'm always trying to say, this is how I do it and I'm a believer in it, just like everyone
00:04:21.720 | else is a believer in their method.
00:04:23.680 | But I'm open to the idea that something that works for you and gets you to a healthier
00:04:28.760 | weight and a sustainability, like that is good.
00:04:32.520 | That's good for me.
00:04:33.520 | You know, provided it doesn't introduce other issues, you know.
00:04:36.360 | Yeah, something one can do consistently.
00:04:38.440 | That's something I picked up from you over the years, you know, what can you do consistently?
00:04:42.960 | And for me, that also meant what, when and how can I eat?
00:04:46.720 | What can I eat consistently that will also allow me to be alert after lunch so I can
00:04:50.280 | actually get some work done or eat.
00:04:53.360 | I like to train fasted in the morning, but I don't do any long-term fasting.
00:04:56.160 | It just so happens that I'm fine doing water and caffeine in the morning and training in
00:05:01.480 | the morning and then I eat my first meal afterwards.
00:05:04.000 | But I get carbohydrates at night.
00:05:05.720 | So my glycogen is restored.
00:05:07.320 | I think carbohydrates are wonderful.
00:05:09.280 | I just don't eat them in excess.
00:05:11.000 | So to me, it's, I feel like when, what you describe as a very rational, literally balanced
00:05:16.160 | approach and obviously there will be variations for people who are dealing with obesity or
00:05:20.600 | diabetes or, you know, I've got friends that are on the pure carnivore thing.
00:05:25.200 | I have friends that are vegan and it's always impressive to me when somebody can stick to
00:05:31.040 | anything consistently, except when they're sticking to just poor behavior.
00:05:36.440 | So there's nothing impressive about that.
00:05:38.040 | Well, I think that that's very helpful because I think there's a, for the typical listener
00:05:44.160 | of this podcast, you know, the online content that people see, the battles are very confusing.
00:05:50.320 | They're distracting because people really think, oh, there's a right way and a wrong
00:05:54.000 | way.
00:05:55.000 | And it's, it sounds like the way that one can eat consistently over time that's healthy.
00:06:00.640 | Certainly fewer processed and sugary foods.
00:06:02.560 | I think almost everybody agrees there.
00:06:04.120 | Dr. Justin Marchegiani Yeah.
00:06:05.120 | Almost everyone agrees on that.
00:06:06.120 | So I think it is a, it's, it's a, it's calorie manipulation through some other method, right?
00:06:10.840 | So even, even intermittent fasting, like, you know, like you said, like I, that could
00:06:15.280 | be it's, it's for people that are grazers, like if you are a grazer and your real problem
00:06:20.720 | is portion control over the course of the day, but you can respond to a rule that says,
00:06:25.600 | no, you're eating between here and here that you can obey that rule.
00:06:29.720 | Well, you're not going to be able to graze during the times that you might be doing additional
00:06:33.640 | damage.
00:06:34.640 | Sure, there's, there's, there's other hormonal benefits that people will talk about from
00:06:39.480 | that approach, but from a longevity standpoint and habit forming standpoint, if it's fixing
00:06:44.960 | the habit that you're breaking too often by eating throughout, whenever you feel like
00:06:49.320 | you walk by food, it's good, you know, and it works.
00:06:53.440 | And again, it's, it's, it's, you know, people can, will tell you, you can probably eat whatever
00:06:58.200 | you want to eat as long as you're eating within those, that window, but I think the more responsible
00:07:02.360 | people who are practitioners of that will say, no, you still want to avoid processed
00:07:06.840 | sugar and things like that.
00:07:08.720 | So, and that's just a mechanism of eating, not really a diet.
00:07:11.760 | Right.
00:07:12.760 | But like, it's, it's, I think that people, I hate this.
00:07:15.360 | I hate to be as like, as, as basic as, as it sounds with that, but it's for the exact
00:07:20.000 | reason that if it's that 23 hour a day phenomenon that it's like, you know, you said you're
00:07:25.480 | impressed.
00:07:26.480 | It is impressive.
00:07:27.480 | You know, it's so hard to control all of our behaviors and food being one of the hardest
00:07:31.440 | thing, one of the biggest temptations for people, you got to learn how to control that
00:07:34.680 | for so long and then do it day after day after day.
00:07:39.120 | Whatever that mechanism is that works for you is, is impressive and I'm a, I'm a believer
00:07:46.160 | in it.
00:07:47.160 | You know, I think that's the, that's, that's how I feel.
00:07:49.520 | I just feel like people need to be able to be given some reins to be able to, to find
00:07:53.400 | what works for them.
00:07:54.400 | Well, I love to eat and one of the beauties of weight training is I feel like I can eat
00:07:59.360 | plenty for my age and I'm not as lean as you are, but I'm, I'm happy with where I'm at.
00:08:04.960 | I could always do better, you know, with each year actually I've been getting better probably
00:08:09.520 | because I'm eating cleaner probably because I also have someone to cook for me now and,
00:08:13.520 | and we like, and we like, I have that too.
00:08:15.740 | We like healthy food and so we're, I'm very fortunate.
00:08:18.240 | I don't think we have any packaged food in our home.
00:08:21.080 | We even started making sauerkraut at home.
00:08:23.280 | I don't make it.
00:08:24.280 | Yeah.
00:08:25.280 | She makes it.
00:08:26.280 | Yeah, absolutely.
00:08:27.280 | You know, she, she turned me on to a tip that I actually shared with the whole channel,
00:08:30.920 | which was like, you can, you can go to, we have a Stu Leonard's around our, our big grocery
00:08:37.520 | store chain around us and they have a catering department and you know, they're often used
00:08:41.640 | for catering big parties and you know, big tubs of, of, of grilled chicken, but like
00:08:45.640 | really good grilled chicken again, not the boiled chicken, but you know, big tubs of
00:08:49.860 | sweet potatoes and we'll, you know, we'll get a bunch of those and she'll go over and
00:08:54.520 | she'll get them, then she'll sort of arrange, you know, them on plates and put the plates
00:08:59.000 | in and like, I'm okay with repetitive eating.
00:09:01.240 | I think more people are probably okay with repetitive eating than they think.
00:09:04.600 | I think that when you actually break down how many different breakfast variety, like
00:09:09.800 | variations do you have?
00:09:10.800 | Three, two?
00:09:11.800 | Two or three maximum.
00:09:12.800 | Yeah.
00:09:13.800 | So like, I think when people do, there's more variety for dinner probably, but like you
00:09:16.960 | even there, you probably eat five different types of dinners, you know, over the course
00:09:20.280 | of, you know, a week or a month.
00:09:22.440 | Well, you know, if you have that ability to identify the things that you like, and again,
00:09:27.440 | no plan is going to work if you're eating stuff you don't like.
00:09:29.800 | It's not going to work forever.
00:09:31.280 | Nothing will.
00:09:32.280 | You have to really enjoy what you're eating.
00:09:33.600 | As long as these, these variations of this meal are something that you really enjoy and
00:09:39.920 | there are limited versions of them, their reproducibility of that is simple.
00:09:44.960 | You know, it will take some time, but if you're fortunate enough in our case to have somebody
00:09:48.600 | who can prepare it for you, now that's even part out of the equation, you know, and it's,
00:09:53.400 | it's like, it just makes it very simple.
00:09:55.280 | But I do think when you tally up all the costs of medical care that are, that are, that are
00:10:01.280 | spiked by having poor nutrition and you then offset that by what it might cost you to invest
00:10:08.360 | in a faster strategy like this catering trick or whatever it might be, you'd be best off
00:10:13.720 | figuring out a way to maybe reallocate some of your money to preparing this because you
00:10:17.480 | know how, how important it is to your longterm health and longevity.
00:10:21.000 | If you can figure out your nutrition issues, if everyone listening to this podcast can
00:10:25.520 | figure out their nutrition issues, this whole world will be different.
00:10:29.240 | That is like one of the largest sources of disease and, and pain and discomfort because
00:10:34.060 | people really struggle with nutrition.
00:10:35.600 | [Music]