[g_podcast id="9223385"]
In this episode, I talk to nutritionist Ulrike Gonder about, among other things:
I have known Ulrike Gonder for many years and I really admire her both for her specialist knowledge and for her relaxed and funny manner, in which she has even packaged nutrition topics in a funny way, such as in her coconut slam, where she answered the rumors that coconut oil is not healthy.
You can watch this video here
Today I have the lovely Ulrike Gonder on my podcast!Why don't you start by telling us how you got into nutrition and what you've already done in your life?
Ulrike: I have a degree in nutritional science. I was very interested in nutrition as a young woman and then I started studying and got stuck on fats, so to speak.
That's a good starting point, it's still a controversial topic today, although there should be enough information available
Ulrike: We now get too much information, which leads to uncertainty. We experts feel the same way when a new study comes out. For example, 'Low carb causes cardiac arrhythmia' or something like that. What's in it? Then I get the studies and read them. But a consumer can't and shouldn't do that. I would like organizations to classify it, so to speak. When it comes to fat, however, almost everyone has their blinkers on because we've been told for years that fat is bad.
Information comes out at regular intervals that directly unsettles people.
Ulrike: I also have the impression that a lot has been launched recently to make certain things look bad.
I don't think we should completely ignore the political aspects, where agriculture is being presented in a great light. For example, there is a lot of advertising for Swiss sugar in Switzerland.
Ulrike: That is justified if it says Swiss Sugar Association, for example. What annoys me is that the organizations financed by the state are not objective in many respects. And it is precisely these organizations that are quoted again and again. And I think they have a great obligation. After all, they read the same studies as ours.
I can understand that many people are unsettled. My tip would be to stick to people who have blogs and explain the background and who are also independent in the broadest sense. If you want to form your own opinion, choose 4.5 people to follow.
Ulrike: I think it's very important to listen to several opinions. And it's important that connections are explained - it has to make sense biologically. It's also great to cite sources! And I would also like to say something important that is often forgotten: our body and our metabolism are very clever! A healthy diet cannot work, if we don't listen to our body and appetite - in my opinion. There are so many things that are theoretically healthy (raw food, milk, whole grains, etc.). But there are people who can't tolerate them! It does me no good if whole grains are healthy but I can't process them. Your own appetite and body show you exactly what is good for you. Of course, it never hurts to find out what food quality is good, etc.
That's very important, yes! You speak from my soul. You often lose sight of your body's signals because you eat so much. That's why I always advise my clients to leave certain things out at the beginning, to reboot the system, so to speak.
Ulrike: You can train your appetite. Of course, junk food can disrupt the system, overeating is a problem. You can learn all that again. And if I have trained my appetite and have a good feeling for my body, I can differentiate much better between 'Are these cravings or does my body really need this? When I forbid myself something, I have it in front of me all the time. And another thing I have to say: when it comes to processed foods, it's important that they are produced in a good artisanal tradition (a certain maturing time, etc.).
I assume that people didn't know as much in the past as they do today. It was intuitive knowledge and that's where we come back to the body signals. As we said in our preliminary talk, we would like to talk about the fact that nutrition is actually not that complicated.
Ulrike: It would actually be relatively simple if we ate basic foods and properly processed foods and drank enough water. And what's important: eat meals! Don't snack all the time! You have to give your body breaks to process food. You just shouldn't make things complicated for yourself.
I also think we often make things complicated for ourselves. You once posted on Facebook that it's not that difficult. It was about fat, among other things, and someone commented 'You have to say which fatty acids'. No, you don't have to!
Ulrike: You don't have to. You can use a good, cold-pressed oil. You don't even have to eat oil. If you eat fatty fish or nuts, you don't even have to eat oil. But oils are part of our dietary culture, just like butter for many people. But then it's good if I mix them. Then I just put a little butter on my vegetables and eat a fatty fish. Then that's fine! A bit of variety on the plate - don't forget the vegetables, don't denigrate the fresh food and pay attention to quality. If you pay a little respect to the whole thing, it's also nicer to eat. If we then think about spices and herbs, which have great health benefits, there is a wealth of them and everyone can find what is good for them. We need science, common sense and our good appetite.
I recently read about a mother who gives her 3-year-old child syrup to drink. Why would you do that? You're already destroying so many signals.
Ulrike: That's why I think that information and education are definitely necessary. Basic education is needed at school. When I see how poor some young people's cooking skills are, I get a bit scared. We are making ourselves dependent on the people who prepare the bagged food for us. Everything looks great on the packaging and inside are the usual suspects.
You think you can trust because it is advertised. That's something you have to say goodbye to - trusting blindly because it says so somewhere.
Ulrike: And we as advisors can't see into other people either. We can recommend, we can accompany people. If the person concerned doesn't want that or doesn't make the effort, it can't work.
You wrote your latest book with three other authors. I have already conducted various interviews about ketogenic nutrition in the podcast. It's basically about eating more fat and fewer carbohydrates. What is the main message of this diet and why does it make sense?
Ulrike: The ketogenic diet is becoming increasingly popular because it is a very effective form of nutrition. You can achieve a lot with it, but you shouldn't think that we all have to eat a ketogenic diet now. There are many variants of the ketogenic diet. Ketogenic means that I have to get my liver to produce ketones. Because carbohydrates disrupt this process, I have to reduce them significantly. Ketones are made from fat - so fat has to come from somewhere. Logically, if I want to lose weight, there doesn't have to be quite as much fat on my plate. If I want to treat a disease like epilepsy, I have to be very strict about it. There are a lot of prejudices and that's one of the reasons why we wrote this book. We have tried to explain everything in detail. If you want to do the ketogenic diet, you have to put it together carefully.
Many people get involved with the diet when they already have a problem (for example, being overweight). And one of the messages of the ketogenic diet is that it's about so much more than just losing weight. At the end of the day, it's about quality of life and living my life without restrictions.
Ulrike: Exactly. You can lose weight with it, but you can also gain more energy and a better quality of life. However, you can't just try out the ketogenic diet for 3 days. The body needs 3-4 weeks to adapt. There are people who are migraine-free after changing their diet. There are diseases where the ketogenic diet makes sense and diseases where you can give it a try. It has had great success with type 2 diabetes - you can completely push back the diabetes (if it hasn't existed for very long)! I'm really pleased that there are now so many great recipes.
I think the main message is that nutrition is very powerful and that you can achieve a lot with it. And before you run from pillar to post, it would make sense to look at your diet first if you have chronic problems.
Ulrike: Absolutely! The ketogenic diet, as a relatively consistent form, shows quick and good effects. And you are simply incredibly flexible!
Metabolic flexibility would be a great topic to discuss at the end. It's about being able to produce energy from different fuels. It's about taking what's available and not suddenly standing there thinking 'if I don't get anything to eat now, I'll faint (or get in a bad mood, etc.)!
Ulrike: Ketones are very old in evolutionary terms and have probably contributed to the fact that we can afford this big brain. It needs a lot of energy and nature couldn't rely on us always eating enough carbohydrates. They didn't used to be available in such quantities. The body has to be kept going for many hours. If we eat all the time and eat lots of carbohydrates, we stop our organism from switching from sugar to fat metabolism and ketones. When hunter-gatherers didn't catch anything, they didn't eat anything. But then they couldn't lie down on their camp, they still had to go. You had to be particularly clever and efficient in a situation where there was nothing to eat. And that's why it's good to take a break from eating from time to time. Our body then automatically switches to fat metabolism and produces ketones. Ketones are also protective substances, they protect nerve cells and other body cells, they promote regeneration and much more. They are fuel, protective substances and signaling substances! There is much to suggest that we are on the right track.
This also shows that health is not a matter of fate, but that we can do a lot for it.
Ulrike: And that is the good news. We are not helplessly at the mercy of all this - and if it tastes good :-)
Your book is called Keto Compass. Here is the link to the book*: https://amzn.to/2HNhjTd
Where can listeners find you if they want to read more of your articles?
Ulrike: www.ulrikegonder.de and my blog www.ugonder.de where you can find everything you want to know!
So that was our interview! I hope you enjoyed it!
Ulrike is also an expert in my online course Gut Happiness, which is starting its next round soon. If you would like to learn more about gut health and optimal nutrition for more energy and performance, then Darmglück will definitely be of interest to you.
Now I recommend that you subscribe to the podcast so that you don't miss an episode, and if you like what you hear, then I would really appreciate a review on iTunes or Apple Podcast. Because these reviews also help other people find the podcast so we can spread the knowledge about gut and health more.
In this episode, I talk to nutritionist Ulrike Gonder about, among other things:
- Why it's so important to listen to your body and your appetite
- What Ulrike believes are the most important principles of a healthy diet
- Why healthy eating is not that complicated
- Her new book the Keto Compass
- And: that healthy eating is not necessarily about losing weight
I have known Ulrike Gonder for many years and I really admire her both for her specialist knowledge and for her relaxed and funny manner, in which she has even packaged nutrition topics in a funny way, such as in her coconut slam, where she answered the rumors that coconut oil is not healthy.
You can watch this video here
Today I have the lovely Ulrike Gonder on my podcast!Why don't you start by telling us how you got into nutrition and what you've already done in your life?Ulrike: I have a degree in nutritional science. I was very interested in nutrition as a young woman and then I started studying and got stuck on fats, so to speak.
That's a good starting point, it's still a controversial topic today, although there should be enough information available
There is a lot of uncertainty about nutrition
Ulrike: We now get too much information, which leads to uncertainty. We experts feel the same way when a new study comes out. For example, 'Low carb causes cardiac arrhythmia' or something like that. What's in it? Then I get the studies and read them. But a consumer can't and shouldn't do that. I would like organizations to classify it, so to speak. When it comes to fat, however, almost everyone has their blinkers on because we've been told for years that fat is bad.
Information comes out at regular intervals that directly unsettles people.
Ulrike: I also have the impression that a lot has been launched recently to make certain things look bad.
I don't think we should completely ignore the political aspects, where agriculture is being presented in a great light. For example, there is a lot of advertising for Swiss sugar in Switzerland.
Ulrike: That is justified if it says Swiss Sugar Association, for example. What annoys me is that the organizations financed by the state are not objective in many respects. And it is precisely these organizations that are quoted again and again. And I think they have a great obligation. After all, they read the same studies as ours.
I can understand that many people are unsettled. My tip would be to stick to people who have blogs and explain the background and who are also independent in the broadest sense. If you want to form your own opinion, choose 4.5 people to follow.
It's important to form your own opinion and listen to your own signals
Ulrike: I think it's very important to listen to several opinions. And it's important that connections are explained - it has to make sense biologically. It's also great to cite sources! And I would also like to say something important that is often forgotten: our body and our metabolism are very clever! A healthy diet cannot work, if we don't listen to our body and appetite - in my opinion. There are so many things that are theoretically healthy (raw food, milk, whole grains, etc.). But there are people who can't tolerate them! It does me no good if whole grains are healthy but I can't process them. Your own appetite and body show you exactly what is good for you. Of course, it never hurts to find out what food quality is good, etc.
That's very important, yes! You speak from my soul. You often lose sight of your body's signals because you eat so much. That's why I always advise my clients to leave certain things out at the beginning, to reboot the system, so to speak.
Ulrike: You can train your appetite. Of course, junk food can disrupt the system, overeating is a problem. You can learn all that again. And if I have trained my appetite and have a good feeling for my body, I can differentiate much better between 'Are these cravings or does my body really need this? When I forbid myself something, I have it in front of me all the time. And another thing I have to say: when it comes to processed foods, it's important that they are produced in a good artisanal tradition (a certain maturing time, etc.).
I assume that people didn't know as much in the past as they do today. It was intuitive knowledge and that's where we come back to the body signals. As we said in our preliminary talk, we would like to talk about the fact that nutrition is actually not that complicated.
Nutrition is not that complicated
Ulrike: It would actually be relatively simple if we ate basic foods and properly processed foods and drank enough water. And what's important: eat meals! Don't snack all the time! You have to give your body breaks to process food. You just shouldn't make things complicated for yourself.
I also think we often make things complicated for ourselves. You once posted on Facebook that it's not that difficult. It was about fat, among other things, and someone commented 'You have to say which fatty acids'. No, you don't have to!
Ulrike: You don't have to. You can use a good, cold-pressed oil. You don't even have to eat oil. If you eat fatty fish or nuts, you don't even have to eat oil. But oils are part of our dietary culture, just like butter for many people. But then it's good if I mix them. Then I just put a little butter on my vegetables and eat a fatty fish. Then that's fine! A bit of variety on the plate - don't forget the vegetables, don't denigrate the fresh food and pay attention to quality. If you pay a little respect to the whole thing, it's also nicer to eat. If we then think about spices and herbs, which have great health benefits, there is a wealth of them and everyone can find what is good for them. We need science, common sense and our good appetite.
I recently read about a mother who gives her 3-year-old child syrup to drink. Why would you do that? You're already destroying so many signals.
Ulrike: That's why I think that information and education are definitely necessary. Basic education is needed at school. When I see how poor some young people's cooking skills are, I get a bit scared. We are making ourselves dependent on the people who prepare the bagged food for us. Everything looks great on the packaging and inside are the usual suspects.
You think you can trust because it is advertised. That's something you have to say goodbye to - trusting blindly because it says so somewhere.
Ulrike: And we as advisors can't see into other people either. We can recommend, we can accompany people. If the person concerned doesn't want that or doesn't make the effort, it can't work.
You wrote your latest book with three other authors. I have already conducted various interviews about ketogenic nutrition in the podcast. It's basically about eating more fat and fewer carbohydrates. What is the main message of this diet and why does it make sense?The effectiveness of the ketogenic diet
Ulrike: The ketogenic diet is becoming increasingly popular because it is a very effective form of nutrition. You can achieve a lot with it, but you shouldn't think that we all have to eat a ketogenic diet now. There are many variants of the ketogenic diet. Ketogenic means that I have to get my liver to produce ketones. Because carbohydrates disrupt this process, I have to reduce them significantly. Ketones are made from fat - so fat has to come from somewhere. Logically, if I want to lose weight, there doesn't have to be quite as much fat on my plate. If I want to treat a disease like epilepsy, I have to be very strict about it. There are a lot of prejudices and that's one of the reasons why we wrote this book. We have tried to explain everything in detail. If you want to do the ketogenic diet, you have to put it together carefully.
Many people get involved with the diet when they already have a problem (for example, being overweight). And one of the messages of the ketogenic diet is that it's about so much more than just losing weight. At the end of the day, it's about quality of life and living my life without restrictions.
Ulrike: Exactly. You can lose weight with it, but you can also gain more energy and a better quality of life. However, you can't just try out the ketogenic diet for 3 days. The body needs 3-4 weeks to adapt. There are people who are migraine-free after changing their diet. There are diseases where the ketogenic diet makes sense and diseases where you can give it a try. It has had great success with type 2 diabetes - you can completely push back the diabetes (if it hasn't existed for very long)! I'm really pleased that there are now so many great recipes.
I think the main message is that nutrition is very powerful and that you can achieve a lot with it. And before you run from pillar to post, it would make sense to look at your diet first if you have chronic problems.
Ulrike: Absolutely! The ketogenic diet, as a relatively consistent form, shows quick and good effects. And you are simply incredibly flexible!
Metabolic flexibility would be a great topic to discuss at the end. It's about being able to produce energy from different fuels. It's about taking what's available and not suddenly standing there thinking 'if I don't get anything to eat now, I'll faint (or get in a bad mood, etc.)!
Ulrike: Ketones are very old in evolutionary terms and have probably contributed to the fact that we can afford this big brain. It needs a lot of energy and nature couldn't rely on us always eating enough carbohydrates. They didn't used to be available in such quantities. The body has to be kept going for many hours. If we eat all the time and eat lots of carbohydrates, we stop our organism from switching from sugar to fat metabolism and ketones. When hunter-gatherers didn't catch anything, they didn't eat anything. But then they couldn't lie down on their camp, they still had to go. You had to be particularly clever and efficient in a situation where there was nothing to eat. And that's why it's good to take a break from eating from time to time. Our body then automatically switches to fat metabolism and produces ketones. Ketones are also protective substances, they protect nerve cells and other body cells, they promote regeneration and much more. They are fuel, protective substances and signaling substances! There is much to suggest that we are on the right track.
This also shows that health is not a matter of fate, but that we can do a lot for it.
Ulrike: And that is the good news. We are not helplessly at the mercy of all this - and if it tastes good :-)
Your book is called Keto Compass. Here is the link to the book*: https://amzn.to/2HNhjTd
Where can listeners find you if they want to read more of your articles?
Ulrike: www.ulrikegonder.de and my blog www.ugonder.de where you can find everything you want to know!
So that was our interview! I hope you enjoyed it!
Ulrike is also an expert in my online course Gut Happiness, which is starting its next round soon. If you would like to learn more about gut health and optimal nutrition for more energy and performance, then Darmglück will definitely be of interest to you.
Now I recommend that you subscribe to the podcast so that you don't miss an episode, and if you like what you hear, then I would really appreciate a review on iTunes or Apple Podcast. Because these reviews also help other people find the podcast so we can spread the knowledge about gut and health more.
