Quick Fix - What I Eat In A Day Content

A series of short, to-the-point chats with the industries best. No intro, no small talk, no wasting your time, just the answers you want & need to ensure you feel, be & look your best.

With Dietitian & Nutritionist, Jono Steedman.

EC.  What I Eat In A Day (#WIEIAD) content - let's chat about it because I've noticed a huge increase in my clients alone using this type of content to completely change and overhaul their diet. This type of content and can be 1. very unhelpful and 2. quite damaging, right?!

JS. Yes, I think that without any context or without knowing the individual, copying someone else's food is not suitable for whatever it is that you are trying to achieve.

EC. I have been guilty of posting this content before, however it was from a place of inspiration (eg. wanting to give people an idea of what a healthy day on a plate looks like). Do you think there's room to be able to continue to post this type of content, but in a way that doesn't go into the specifics? For example - if you are showing your omelette for breakfast, not giving the specifics of how many eggs that you put into that omelette?

JS. You have touched on a good point - it's not that the people posting these videos are doing it with any malice or evil intent. It’s engaging content, so people want to create it and like you said, you come from a place of wanting to give inspiration, ideas and and teach people about food. I do think creating a video about food and recipes is completely fine. I would preface it by either not giving specific amounts or if you do give specific amounts, explicitly saying - “this is for me and my requirements, yours might change”.

Another thing I've seen a few people do which I really like is content that's more focussed on the foods that they’ve been eating - breakfasts they’ve been eating lately or go-to snacks, rather than presenting it as a prescriptive “good day of eating”. Without measurements, is a much healthier way to present that content.

EC. Showing what a day looks like eating 2 fruits and 5 vegetables, could be really helpful too …

JS. Yeah, absolutely. That's another issue that can arise with these videos is that they're generally all about weight loss and how to eat low calories. How about other nutrition goals? Only 6.1% of Australians are currently hitting the recommended fruit and vegetable intake, so videos on how we increase that is a great idea, because that's terrifying.

EC. I see this with a lot of my clients - they're not eating the bare minimum, they're eating well below the bare minimum.

JS. I would also say that a lot of those day on the plate videos are scarily low in fruits and vegetables, because the focus is on calories or on consuming high protein, neither of which are bad, but it’s not the full picture. We should be posting - here's how to get 5 serves of veggies in per day, that's way cooler.

EC. They tend to advocate for 1 diet too - eg. this is what a day of keto looks like, or this is what a day of eating mostly bananas looks like …

JS. Oh, I remember that content creator! Eating too many bananas can actually give you ‘Arrhythmia’, which is an irregular heartbeat, because of the potassium, so don't eat lots of bananas. Bananas are great though. Just don't eat 20 of them per day!

The other thing that's really annoying about these videos is they generally start with some kind of body check, right?! Here are my abs, here's a flex or here's my butt and then they go into the day of eating. The underlying message is that if you eat like this, then you too can look like me and that's not true.

EC. Yes, I love that you've mentioned that and also preaching their beliefs about nutrition, which might not necessarily work for you. We need to remember bio-individuality and that one person's food can be another person's poison, so by all means gain inspiration, just don’t just copy and paste.

JS. Absolutely, and so if you are able to consume those videos and find a certain recipe and that's inspiring, then great. It's also your feed. If you are following people who make those videos and you find those videos uncomfortable or that they’re starting to influence your thoughts and feelings around food, then it's your feed - control it, unfollow, mute, do a social media detox. There is personal responsibility on people as well.

EC. Do you have any tips around avoiding this type of content? Like you’ve just said, curating your feed is so important in taking personal ownership of what you are seeing. Are there any tips that you can provide on how to curate and stop seeing this type of content?

JS. It takes a little bit, especially over on TikTok, it can take 3 months for the algorithm to stop presenting that sort of content, so it might take some time. I think the Instagram algorithm changes every 2 days, but basically, every time you see content like it and if it's from someone you're following, consider unfollowing them. If it is a suggested post or on the explore page, you can click ‘why am I seeing this’ or ‘I don’t want to see this’ and that gives Instagram feedback. It's a bit time consuming to begin with, but I’ve found that if you do it for a couple of weeks, you get a much healthier arrangement of posts being shown to you.

EC. Also, tuning into how you feel - if this type of content is inspiring you, fantastic but if this type of content is making you feel less than, guilty or shameful for what you include in your own diet, then you've got to take ownership of that and do something about it.

JS. Yes!!! People aren't going to stop making these videos. Like I said, I know they're not making it with the intent of making people feel guilty or uncomfortable, but for that reason alone, that’s why they're not going to stop making them. People making these videos don't see it as a negative, so if it's negative for you - there's plenty of puppies and cats on Instagram to look at.

EC. I would love to ask 5 quick questions to clear up some of the noise and confusion in the nutrition space. Fresh or frozen veg?

JS. Fresh for taste, frozen for cost, accessibility and shelf-life. Nutritionally, they're both exactly the same.

EC. I've also heard you say before that if pricing is a barrier, then you should always go with frozen?

JS. Oh, absolutely. Again, coming back to the fact that only 6.1% of us are eating enough fruit and vegetables. I would hate for the perceived idea that you need to eat fresh only to be a barrier. Even if it weren't as nutritious, eating 5 to 6 serves of frozen veggies is going be far healthier than eating 2 serves of fresh veggies. Sometimes frozen can be a little higher in certain nutrients too because it’s been snapped frozen, but whatever you can afford and get your hands on and eat - that's the best vegetable.

EC. Great answer. Organic or non-organic?

JS. Outside of certain inflammatory conditions, like endometriosis and sometimes PCOS, which is a different conversation, but for anyone else, non-organic is 30 to 40% cheaper, which I imagine is going to allow you to eat more fruits & vegetables. A study I saw recently reported that the pesticide residues found on these foods, because that's generally the concern, is the equivalent to a toxic load of 2 tablespoons of wine a year, so your body has it covered, right?

We're exposing ourselves to far worse things day in and day out, so from that point of view, and in terms of nutrients again, the nutrient levels are all exactly the same for both organic & non-organic.

EC. If it's the soil that you're worried about or the bacteria, just do a veggie wash, that’s what I do. When it comes to meat, what are your thoughts on grass-fed or grain-fed?

JS. Nutritionally - it makes a much smaller difference than we think. Grass-fed feels better, it sounds more natural, but the resulting product is virtually the same.

EC. Skinny milk or full fat milk?

JS. I’m going to give you my favourite answer, which is - it depends. Largely, it's a calorie conversation. When we're talking about low fat milk or dairy (yoghurt etc.) low fat is generally lower in calories. The fat in dairy is not necessarily good or bad. It's neutral. So, if you're someone who is trying to reduce your calories, then lower fat is great. I always see that lower fat = chemical poo storm. Skim milk, as it is suggested, is literally just milk that has had the cream skimmed off the top, no chemicals. Basically, I would look at your calorie requirements, taste and preference.

EC. Perfect and my final question is - are you a Coles or a Woolworths man?

JS. I’m going to get into trouble for this. I was a Woolworths man for years and years, and then we moved to a place where there's 2x Woolworths close to me, and they're both terrible. The Coles near me is fantastic, so as much as I hate the aggressive red branding, I think I’m a Coles man now, under duress.

Follow Jono Steedman on Instagram - @jonosteedman