Interview with Elizabeth

Cassandra: Before we start with the questions, I want to talk a little bit about our internship, just so you know a little bit more about us. So our internship provides us to build personal and professional skills to become better adults. A part of our internship is a community engagement project. So me and my partner decided to make a website and an Instagram account to where we talk about issues that involve being Mexican and having a diet or not, and just try to be as healthy as we can. And we noticed that some Mexican food can be unhealthy, so we wanted to try to make alternatives and nutritional help.

Monica: Hi, my name is Monica. My major is child development. I switched from psychology. So I'm really excited to go through this path. This is definitely something that's beneficial for me just because I'm pre-diabetic. So finding this and learning more information about it is going to be really helpful. Awesome.

Elizabeth: Thank you guys for sharing that. I guess I can share a little bit about myself too. So I, so you guys are both from a Mexican background, you mentioned? Yeah. So the same for me, like I, my parents are, well, all my family is from Mexico. I myself lived in Mexico for six years, so I'm very in touch with my culture, the language, and the food. So that's why sometimes my content tends to be geared more towards like our food, our culture, the things that we consume.

I went to San Jose State. That's where I did my dietetics program and all my schooling. So when you go to school as a dietitian, obviously it's going to vary depending where you go to. San Jose tends to be very diverse. But nevertheless, you still get sucked into this whitewashing of your culture, specifically in dietetics, just because it's an expensive program. You have to pay for a full-time internship. And it's like you're working a full time job, but you're not getting paid. You are paying to do the internship. So there is that barrier for many low income students. So you don't see a lot of African-Americans or Latinos in the dietetics program.

So when I started the program, it started making me question the foods that we eat, the ingredients that we use. And I feel like myself and a lot of my colleagues have gone through the phase of demonizing our foods because that's what we are taught. And I was grateful and lucky that my program really focused on diversifying diet selection, looking at nutrition through a different lens. So they did focus, like, then my professors focused on like, the HAYS model, so health at every size, and then really looking at different cultures and how nutrition interacts with that.

And That kind of like piqued my interest, but then when you go out into the real world, you start to see how there's so many cultures and how maybe what you learn in school is not necessarily, not to say right, but there's other perspectives per se. So that's kind of a little bit about myself right now. I kind of do little projects on my own, but definitely a big thing is teaching people that your foods, regardless of your background, whether you come from an Asian background or a Latino background, your foods have a place in your diet. That's great. I totally agree. Yeah, it's hard to like find things that are like, you just cut it out completely when it's like, so ingrained in your culture.

Cassandra: What would you consider a balanced diet, or can be considered a balanced diet?

Elizabeth: For that, it is what you wrote out there, that it's having the whole grains, a healthy diet. It's what is considered the macronutrients, so a protein source, a carb source, a fat, I like to call them like colors, so adding fruits and vegetables.

But a healthy diet, that's going to vary from individual to individual, depending on like their conditions and everything. But like a general rule of thumb is making sure you have a carb source. So if we are speaking more culturally, in our culture, in Mexican culture specifically, that would be like your corn, your tortilla, your corn tortillas.

Rice, obviously beans are a source of carb too, but also protein. You want to have a source of fiber. So that would be like your fruits, veggies, colors. So beans, and all legumes have fiber, but fruits and veggies also have fiber. Tortillas made from corn have fiber. You want to make sure you have a source of protein. So protein, we tend to think of meats.

So meat, obviously seafood, but our culture is very heavy on legumes. So lentejas, garbanzos, habas, all those are high in protein as well. And then like lower fat dairy products. And for fats, that would be what you use to cook. Dairy products contain fat as well. Avocado, which is something that I think our culture uses a lot. And then nuts and seeds.

And then for the vegetables, it is important to focus on adding like the non-starchy vegetables. So, you know, potato, carrots, those tend to be higher in starch. So we want to make sure we're adding things.

For example, in our culture is avocado, which is really high in fiber, obviously fat as well, but it's still a vegetable. tomatoes, onion, calabacitas, beets, bell peppers, people call it pimiento morron, cabbage, lettuce, carrots, chili, cucumber, jicama, nopales, chayotes, tomatillos. So there's always this misconception that our culture is high in sodium, high in fat, that it doesn't have enough veggies.

But I think one thing that's very important to understand is that as Mexicans living in America, we don't consume Mexican food for every single meal. So we were to look at our week per se, we're not consuming what would be considered a traditional Mexican food every single meal, because we live in the US. So If we're working and we are out and about, we're going to maybe restaurants. If we are going to Mexican restaurants, it's more mainstream. So it's going to be more like meat, flour tortillas, maybe higher in fat. But that's not representative of what a traditional Mexican diet tends to be if you were to be living in Mexico, per see.

So I think what tends to happen as well is that when we think Mexican food, we think of celebratory foods. So we think of tamales, we think of pozole, of mole, but these aren't necessarily foods that we're consuming on a day-to-day basis. So for a balanced diet, I think definitely thinking of the components that go in a meal and thinking of the components that are traditional to your specific culture and your specific individuality. Because maybe not everybody likes sopales and that's okay. Just choose something that you like and you know you're going to consume and enjoy. So that's kind of like what can be considered a balanced diet.

Monica: I like your response because I've often been told this is like, oh, let's go get some food and the best food that would be considered like Mexican. We like carne asada fries, you know, or roll tacos. But in reality, you know, we could make that a little bit healthier and put that at home.

Elizabeth: And I think if you guys have had like family members come from Mexico to visit you guys here, One thing I have noticed is that for some reason, fast food in Mexico is more expensive. Burger King in Mexico is more expensive. So when people come here from Mexico, they want to go to Burger King. They want to go to In-N-Out because those are like higher standard foods in Mexico. Just because eating out in Mexico is expensive considering their salary.

So sometimes there is this idea too, and I don't know if this rings true for you guys, but frijoles are like poor people's food. Like, oh, come frijoles because you don't have money. And meat, it tends to be like the rich people food. It's the food that if you have money, you're going to buy it just because it's so expensive here and in Mexico. And the thing is that meat, specifically red meat, if we're consuming it every day, very constantly, that may increase our, not our cholesterol, but our, the saturated fat in your diet, because it does have more solid fat in it

So when you make a caldo de res, you see when it's cold, it has that layer of fat in the top, That's because red meat is higher in fat. That doesn't make it bad, necessarily. It just tells us that we need to add more variety into our diet, so adding more beans, maybe seafood, fish, or if someone wants to gear towards tofu, then doing that, too.

Cassandra: What's the difference between soluble fiber and insoluble fiber?

Elizabeth: Soluble fiber tends to be more, it's gonna dissolve, but it's like in the name soluble, so that can be, like oatmeal is a soluble fiber when you eat it. What tends to be insoluble is like plant fibers. So if you think of like celery, for example, I feel like that's more of a visual. If you eat celery, it has all this roughage that when you eat it, it's not gonna dissolve. It's just gonna go through your intestines and it's gonna help with like bulk and with like stool. like with your fiber. But insoluble tends to be what people call, sorry, soluble fiber tends to be what people call the heart healthy fiber because it helps absorb or like attach to like fat, cholesterol.

So usually it's oatmeal and what they call like pectins and fruit. So they're both important, and you don't have to necessarily know what foods contain insoluble or soluble, just knowing that by consuming whole grains, like corn, your whole wheat pastas, or your whole wheat grains, and then fruits and vegetables, you're having both insoluble and soluble fiber in your diet. So those are important like for diet and like your cholesterol levels.

Cassandra: Do you recommend the hand portion control method?

Elizabeth: that's actually very helpful for clients that Maybe are getting started with portion control and they don't really want to like track per se or use like measuring cups and measuring spoons so using the hand model or the hand portioning is helpful because obviously it's not gonna be perfect and the goal is never to be perfect when it comes to like portioning your food it's it's more of creating awareness so

Are you including a carb source?

Are you including a protein source?

And then are you including, I feel like fats tends to be the one that, you know, it's easier to include in your food just because we cook with oils and we add different components that already include fat in them. But making sure you have that in your diet and obviously the color in your plate, like fruits, vegetables, But this is an easy way to start clients with or your people because your hands are always with you.

Your hands are proportionate to your body. So for example, if you go to like your Theo's house or if you go out to eat, you can easily gauge like, okay, am I having protein? Then you can kind of visualize like, okay, like that looks like a good enough portion of protein. You can do a fist or you can do like the plate method along with the portion method. So saying like, OK, like my plate looks about half of it having some sort of vegetable in it. I'm having some sort of carb. And then obviously, like the fat, whether you have it on the plate or if it was used to cook with, you can kind of eyeball it. But for this, I think what tends to be challenging is that

People want it to be perfect, but it's not perfect. And that's fine. Like the whole point is to just make sure that you are including the components. And then in terms of culturally, it can be difficult because I feel like cultural foods tend to be mixed meals. For example, like a caldo, or like a sofrito, or, you know, or this picadillo, for example, it has different components. But as I mentioned, the goal is not to be perfect. It's just to create that awareness. So you usually use the hand-portioning model and you're eating, for example, like picadillo. Every family makes it different by looking at like, OK, does my picadillo have some sort of vegetable in it? And is it enough to count it as a like a ham portion. And if not, then you have your picadillo, which you mainly count as a protein and some veggies. And then you add like a separate, maybe not a fifth, but half a fifth of vegetables. So that's kind of how you can use it. But it is something that we use and we tend to start clients with either the ham portion or the plate method or both because they do help each other.

Cassandra: what do you recommend, sorry, what have you noticed that you have implemented to having a balanced diet but kind of staying relatively budget-friendly?

Elizabeth: I'd say the biggest spike I've seen in prices is in meat, especially red meat. They went from being a pound to like which is just a lot of money, especially if you're a heavy meat-eating family. But I'd say some ways in which somebody can stay budget-friendly when doing their grocery shopping is to check what they have at home. Sometimes And I see this a lot, for example, with my parents, that they just stop by the store after work. And I'll ask my mom, like, have you checked what you have in your pantry, in your fridge, in your freezer? And most of the time, the answer is no. So what tends to happen is that you start buying duplicates, and then the things that you bought, for example, if it's pantry stuff, it goes bad at some point, so you just start pushing it to the back. With produce, what happens too is that we have let's say cilantro and you bought another bunch of cilantro like it rots so then you have to throw it away.

So if you really think about it, you're just wasting money because you're buying all these products or all these ingredients that you're not using and you're just tossing them at the end of the week. So definitely making sure you check the food you have at home and that can even help you guide what you want to create for the week in terms of meals. So like If you have like a head of cabbage that you haven't used and it's been there for like half a week, then maybe thinking about something you can make. Like, can I make tHinga? Can I make like a salad as a side? Or can I make ensalada de nopales and add cabbage to it? Like you can always find ways to add things to the recipes you already make that are traditional to you or to your family.

So that would be step number one. Step number two would be planning your meals for the week with similar ingredients. So instead of, you don't have to overthink what you're going to have Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday. You can have simple foods, simple ingredients that you can use throughout the week. So a good example would be, for example, let's say on Monday you make caldo de pollo and you eat your caldo de pollo. You guys are good. You had that for lunch and dinner. So the next day you don't want to have caldo de pollo but you still have a lot that you made. You can shred the chicken and use it for tinga or use it for tacos or for quesadillas. And you can freeze your broth and use that for another day to make like sopa de arroz or sopita aguada.

So definitely finding ways to Use components that you can use throughout the week. And then if you can't, one thing I've definitely learned to use more often is the freezer. So another thing you can do is buying bulk item is cheaper.

So that's another thing you can do. Buying bulk items. So buying bigger packets of meat if you're gonna need like chicken, for example, buying the whole tray of like drumsticks is cheaper than buying the one pound. And what you can do is when you get home, you prepare them, you remove the skin, you trim them, you can even season them and put them in Ziploc bags and then throw them in the freezer. So that when you're ready to prepare it, you just take them out to thaw and then you cook them and they're already seasoned and you just gotta cook them. So that can be another option as well.

For grains, what you can do too is cook them and then freeze them in portions. So for example, beans, they take a long time to cook. Canned beans don't taste the same as home cooked beans. So what you can do is that you can make a big batch of cooked beans and then freeze them in individual portions or portions that you think you're going to use for the day. And then when you want beans or when you're in a hurry and you don't know what to make, you take out your little bag of cooked beans and you've got one component to your meal. So that can be another option as well that's gonna help you save money. And then, let's see, let me look at my list.

And obviously making a list of the ingredients you will need for the meals you planned for the week. So that's definitely gonna help you. and then looking at ads of your local supermarket so usually ethnic supermarkets tend to be cheaper for like produce so in LA what we have is a store called El Super and it's a pretty big chain and every Wednesday and I think this is for most grocery stores I know Sprouts as well every Wednesday is like their sale day so that's when For example, in el super and in sprouts, I know that's when produce is the cheapest. So you can buy things that are in season because in season produce is going to be cheaper than when it's off season. So buying, for example, like berries right now or even as the months go forward, it's going to be much more expensive. You're going to be buying a little tray of blueberries for like seven dollars, whereas a couple of months back they were like ninety nine cents or a dollar. So making sure you're buying seasonal products. I already mentioned this, but buying bulk items, especially like meats and grains, that's going to be very helpful for saving money. And then another thing that's not necessarily related to buying stuff, but it's Making sure that you don't go to the grocery store hungry.

I know people tend to overlook this one, but when you go hungry to the grocery store, everything seems good. And then you have so many ideas of like, oh my God, I can make an omelet or I can make soup or I can make this. And your head, like you're just so hungry that everything you see, you're craving it. So making sure you do eat something before going to the grocery store and then trying to stay true to your list so just sticking with what's on your list because otherwise you're gonna you're gonna go way off your budget it's really helpful especially the grocery store you're just like oh that looks so good right now yeah um yes within the store

Cassandra: I really like what you said about just kind of reusing stuff in different ways. My boyfriend's family, like every single day, his grandma makes him go to the grocery store to buy more food to make, and he's like, there's still food in the fridge, but she's still making it, and there's like a whole bunch of stuff in the fridge that's not being eaten.

Elizabeth: Yeah, that's something that I've noticed too. I actually love a couple people, but Like, for example, with my parents, I tell them, if you already have items in your fridge, like, try to find things that you can make with what's in your fridge so you start clearing out what's in there versus, you know, maybe having all these ingredients in the fridge, but you want to make, like, a specific food that requires all different ingredients, none of which are in your fridge. planning that for later on the week and using what you currently have and then maybe if you're craving I don't know albondigas then that can be for once you clear a little bit your fridge so you don't have to be buying so much and you know the fridge always being full but you still having to go to the grocery store.

Cassandra: We understand that food cannot be all bad, but just the amount we eat throughout the day. What would you consider as healthy to something that is unhealthy? Or is it just based on how much you eat or portion control?

Elizabeth: That's actually a good question, and I feel like that's a question that it tends to be asked a lot because there is this perception, which I think Everybody knows that a banana is healthier or more nutritious than an Oreo, for example, or that a chocolate chip cookie is not maybe the best option compared to a bowl of strawberries. But the thing we really want to think about is what does your whole week look like? And what does your overall day look like? So for example, we do want to reduce the amount of ultra processed foods that we eat. We all know that we shouldn't eat as many ultra processed foods and that we should consume less of these.

The really important part is to look at what your overall day looks like. So if we do the example of the Oreo, what tends to happen is that people, what I would see in clients is that they would make themselves eat clean or eat good from Monday through Friday. They were gonna follow this really good eating plan from Monday through Friday and they weren't gonna eat anything that was like ultra processed. So think of sweets or chips. But then on the weekend, Saturday, Sunday, they would go all out because it was their cheat day or it was the day that they could indulge a little bit more. But usually what would tend to happen is that they were depriving themselves so much from maybe things they wanted to include in their meals that when the cheat day came, so Saturday and Sunday, that's all they ate. All they ate was chips and Oreos and they would go out to eat and they wouldn't feel their best, which makes sense because you're not including anything else in your diet. So usually what I would try to have clients understand is if you, for example, want to eat an Oreo, but you know it's not the healthiest, so you avoid it and instead you eat an apple and you're not satisfied so then you eat a bowl of like almonds and you're still not satisfied so then you move on and you eat like a little cup of yogurt and you're still not satisfied and in the end you end up eating that oreo that you wanted since the beginning wouldn't it have just made sense to eat that one oreo since the beginning satisfy that and be done because now what ends up happening is they ate all these things and they end up eating the whole sleeve of Oreos because they already messed up so they might as well eat the whole thing. So that's usually what tends to happen. So usually I try to explain to clients that what you can do is think of adding. So what can you add to this food you want to eat?

So let's keep going with the Oreo example. We know Oreos are not the highest in nutrition, like they tend to just be, you know, sweet foods that we crave. And they're not going to fill us up because they don't contain fiber. They don't contain bulk. So what can you add to it to increase that satiety? So if you eat the Oreo, it's going to help you like complete or satiate that craving you have. But what can you pair it with so that it fills you up and you're not eating Oreo after Oreo? Can you pair it maybe with Greek yogurt and berries and crush the Oreos on top or just cut them into pieces? Or can you pair it with a glass of milk and a piece of fruit? So by adding these items, you're adding fiber, you're adding protein, and you're adding bulk. So this same thinking of what can I add to it can be done with anything. So if we use, for example, fries, if you really want to eat fries, what can you add to them to make them more satiating?

Can you pair it with like, I don't know, some meat that you made as a protein? Can you add a veggie on the side? So usually when we think of fries, we think of like burgers. So can you do like a beef patty, do kind of like a burger with no bun situation? with your fries and then doing like the toppings on the side so like lettuce, tomatoes, and that can be like your little side salad thing. So definitely thinking of what can I add instead of thinking what can I restrict or what can I stop eating because it's bad. That's really helpful. Let me know if you guys have any questions.

Cassandra: Yeah, I think you're really concise with everything you're saying Yeah, I feel like you do kind of just like If it already happened, then I'm gonna just keep eating bad. I feel like sometimes I get into that mindset a lot Because I'm like it's already happened when I could just yeah a stepping stone to be better and just Yeah And it's not gonna be perfect,

Elizabeth: like there are gonna be times where maybe you ate like four Oreos instead of just one, and that's fine. The whole point of that is that you're aware of it and you kind of acknowledge like, oh, I ate four Oreos. Like maybe you're not feeling your best after because it was a little bit too much. But then, you know, acknowledging that and then moving on. Instead of continuing that cycle of like, oh, I already ate four Oreos, I might as well eat a bag of Cheetos and eat, I don't know, order a pizza and eat the whole pizza, just acknowledging that and then moving on to your regular eating day. So, okay, I ate the Oreos for, I don't know, at a.m., now what can I have for breakfast that's gonna be high in protein and it's gonna actually fill me up and help me feel for the rest of the day? I think too that can be in addition to that that you mentioned was portion control so for example like Cheetos we tend to buy like the what's considered like the regular size that you buy at the store but what you can do instead is buy the little packs of Oreos or like the little packs of chips so that when you finish the small bag you're done you satisfy your craving and you're done with the bag so you don't have to keep eating because what tends to happen too is that we have so much accessibility to food that if we buy the bigger bag of Cheetos we're gonna eat the whole bag of Cheetos because that's just human behavior that's how I don't know that's that's how we're wired like if the bag is not done yet and it's like a portion that tends to be seen as normal, we're going to finish the bag because it's harder to stop and it takes more energy than if you would have just bought the one ounce little snack bag of Oreos or chips and ate them, be satisfied, and move on with your day.

Monica: I really enjoyed when you said adding something to it that can help and maybe start doing like which is with the Oreo and the yogurt. I think that would have made me a little bit fuller plus would have satisfied my cravings. So I'm definitely going to start doing that.

Elizabeth: Yeah. And it's going to help too with like, um, cause the thing tends to happen that it like spikes or blood sugar. So like if you're adding for anything that contains like some sort of sugar, If you add a protein or a fat to it, it's going to delay a little bit that spike. So if you were to just crackers, for example, like plain saltines, it may spike your blood sugar because it's just a carb with like a little bit of salt. But if you add like peanut butter to it or, you know, put tuna on top, like that's going to delay it a little because now it's taking more time for your body to process that, to digest it and it's not gonna have that big of a spike.

Monica: Have you noticed any differences in people based on cultures, such as food intake?

Elizabeth: So I think definitely I can only speak for our culture, but this is going to vary by individuals as well by families. For example, in my family, we tend to have like breakfast, lunch, dinner, but I do notice that there tends to be a lot of gracing, meaning that every time you pass by the kitchen, you grab something. You grab nuts, you grab a little bit of chips, you grab a cookie, you grab something. So even though you're having your meals, you're also having stuff in between the meals at all times. And this can be a downside because sometimes with gracing, you don't notice it because you just pass by and you grab nuts and you grab a banana and you grab this. So you're not very aware that that is happening. So when you start having negative health effects or when you're maybe gaining weight and that's having a negative effect on your health, You may say, well, I don't know why it's happening because I'm just eating my meals.

But you're making gracing such a habit that you don't notice it. So sometimes it's helpful to just have someone maybe track and like or not track, but in the journal, just write down throughout the day what you're eating, because that makes you aware of what you're eating. Another thing that can happen, too, And again, this is more variant, like family by family, but there is families that tend to skip more meals. So if someone, for example, works very early in the field or has a very early shift, they may not eat anything because it's too early. And then when it comes to their time for eating, they may be so hungry that they have a very large portion, or if there wasn't enough time to pack lunch or to eat what happens is that they just eat whatever is available to them so this can be you know if there's a starbucks nearby they'll grab like a like a pastry with like a coffee and then keep working and that's similar for many people like if you go to school we want things that are convenient because it's easier because

We all are having so many things to do that we don't want to spend additional time having to cook something, for example. But definitely, I think in terms of specific things, it's hard to say a whole culture does this. I think it is more variant of each individual because every person is going to have just different habits. And it's really important to understand what that individual does so that you can help them make small changes at a time.

Monica: Yes, when I go to work, and especially there's most of the times they're like, Oh, I forgot my lunch. Oh, I didn't prepare. So now I have to go find something easy, something fast. And it would be usually Pet Express or Sabra or something that's close to me. But So I definitely can, I do that a lot.

Elizabeth: when you want to change your habits, when you want to improve your nutrition and like improve your health, it's very important to understand where you're starting off as an individual. And sometimes the issue with, for example, doing more like public health things is that For example, when I used to do classes for like a group, for like a community, it's hard to give specific advice because you don't know what each person is doing. So you do the general advice, which is add more fruits, add more vegetables, more lean meats, which everybody knows.

But for individuals, it's very important to understand where are you starting? Like, are you starting, for example, skipping breakfast? How can we have you eat something for breakfast? Like maybe just getting you started with eating something. And then the next step would be, what are you eating for breakfast? So for example, if you go to work and let's say you have Starbucks nearby and you always grab a mocha and like a croissant. Well, what can we change that's already in Starbucks that's gonna be more nutritious for you. So can we do just a regular, like a latte, for example, with milk? And if you really need that sweetness, can we do the sugar-free vanilla syrup? And then instead of the croissant, can we maybe do like the, what is it, like the turkey sandwich or something that they have, turkey breakfast sandwich?

So you're still going to Starbucks, you're still having your coffee, you're still having something on the side, but now it's something that's maybe not so high in sugar, not so high in fat, and for the side item you're having, now we're having something that's not just the croissant, now we're having something that's maybe lower in fat and higher in protein. So both of these combined are gonna keep you fuller for longer, and they're actually gonna give you more energy versus just the mocha and the croissants. Does that make sense?

Monica: Yes, that makes perfect sense. Thank you. Yeah. What would you recommend for Latinos and Mexicans who want to change their diet but also like to stay true to their culture?

Elizabeth: I think this is sometimes the challenging part for us because there is, I feel, this misconception that Mexican food is bad for you. Like Mexican food is not healthy. It's not good for you. And it can even put this added pressure that, for example, if you're thinking of, like, your parents or, like, your grandparents, because they're more and more close to the culture, telling them, like, oh, you can't eat, for example, like, tortillas anymore. That's going to be hard for them because tortillas is a big component of our dishes. just telling someone out of the bag like, oh, don't eat that anymore, it's going to be hard for them. So it's very important to work with the culture. So I'd say for someone that just wants to start incorporating or just being a little bit more nutritious about their meals, definitely following what we mentioned about what does a balanced diet look like. So making sure that you're having that protein component, which I think Mexican meals tend to have a protein component to it and a carb component. So it would just be a matter of being more aware of what are you adding for color for your fruits and your vegetables.

So Mexican food does tend to be more of a garnish. So if we think of tacos dorados, we don't have a salad on the side, we have on top, like we'll add the lettuce, we'll add the tomatoes, and that still counts as a vegetable. But if you're trying to make a change, maybe making sure that you're adding a little bit more of that. So instead of just having lettuce and tomato, can you maybe add like some cucumbers, some sliced onions, some radishes, so adding more of that to your diet. And I think the other thing would be just the cooking method that we use. So for tacos dorados, it's not like you can't have tacos dorados anymore because they're fried and you use oil. It goes back to what does your overall day look like? So if you want to have tacos dorados, you can have them how they're regularly made, like dorados in oil. But the other thing you can do too, which now there's so many, what are they called? Kitchen tools, kitchen utensils. So the air fryer, I think everybody nowadays has an air fryer. And the air fryer, you can still, you can crisp up your tortillas or chilaquiles without using oil or using very little oil. You can make tacos dorados in the air fryer and just spring them a little bit with oil. So that's healthy. So you just need to think of what meal you want to have and if it has the components. Because I feel like sometimes, for example, carne con chile, just because it's Mexican food, that doesn't mean it's bad for you or unhealthy.

Like if you think of carne con chile, you're using the beef. So what you can do is trim off the excess fat or when you're ordering your steak, ordering the steak that looks leaner, meaning that it doesn't have as much fat in between it. And then what do you add to your carne con chile? If you tend to add a lot of oil to crisp it up, to fry it, maybe not adding any and just letting it cook without any oil because meat has oil in it. So it is gonna crisp up on its own. And then if you think about it, you're adding la salsa. La salsa is a vegetable because if you're doing it, for example, with tomatoes, onions, garlic, cilantro, those are all vegetables that are adding nutrients to your meal. Because I think the other thing is that Mexican food does have a lot of salsa in it. And if you think of what is salsa, salsa is a vegetable. Like salsa is tomatoes, onion, garlic, chiles, cilantro. And we add a lot of it.

So that does count as a portion in it. So maybe I think it does take time. But thinking of what it is that your food contains. So how I said with the tacos dorados or with carne con chile or with picadillo, what are you adding to it? Because if, and I think backtracking a little, when I was in school there was this push that You can eat garbanzos and add garbanzos to your salad. And then you can eat brown rice and add it to, you know, grilled chicken. And that's when I started to question where, well, garbanzos are a legume, like they're a bean. So why can't I eat frijoles de la olla with rice? If, like nutritionally speaking, garbanzos and like frijoles are interchangeable and brown rice and you know white rice are technically interchangeable and that's where I started questioning well you know I can still have frijoles con arroz or I still can have tortillas because it's a whole grain. So it takes a little bit of unlearning and it does take having someone that's maybe familiar with the culture helping you guide you through that and maybe challenging what you've learned in mainstream nutrition per see

.

So if you have this messaging that like, oh, you can't eat tortillas because tortillas are bad because tortillas are a carb. It does take like, oh, well, why is that bad? Did you know corn tortillas are a whole grain? then you know that you can still consume them in moderation. Obviously, if you eat six tortillas, then maybe having this conversation of like, oh, well, where's your protein? Where are your veggies? Where is your source of fat? So it is, I think it does come down to like a little bit of a learning and learning to appreciate the things that your culture already provides you. Because for example, calabacitas are a big thing in our culture, like calabacitas guisadas, ensalada de nopales. Those are maybe not your typical roasted broccoli or steamed broccoli, but they're a vegetable with a lot of nutrients, a lot of antioxidants. It looks different than mainstream nutrition, but it's still nutritious and it's part of your culture. So it's something that you're going to eat and you're going to enjoy.

Cassandra: That's really helpful. I really like what you said about just like kind of unlearning because some things can only be true for a certain group of people compared to another group of people.

Elizabeth: And the conversation is going to look different because Latinos like it's so broad, like maybe what I'm saying is not applicable for someone that's Salvadorian. So maybe like learning what is traditional in the Salvadorian diet and like helping them understand like. The the things that are already nutritious in their diet and maybe the things that could be changed or improved And I think most often it's going to come down to portion control or like, yeah, like doing different portions of different food items. So if usually you fill half of your plate with arroz rojo, like maybe we can do a quarter of your plate and add a little bit more protein and then add more veggies, not necessarily doing like an overhaul of your diet and like overall of everything that you eat.

Monica: Is changing certain foods based on calories such as low-calorie tortillas really giving us anything nutritional or making us want to eat more because of the lack of density to make us full?

Elizabeth: So if you think of like low calorie, low fat, low sugar, low everything, it comes down in like your overall day. Like if in your overall day you're underfeeding yourself, it is gonna be harder for you to feel satiated because you're not giving your body what it needs. So if, for example, like bread is something you like to consume in your diet and sorry you're okay with like doing the low carb version that's fine but if you still enjoy like the regular bread then maybe again doing the portion control instead of having three slices of bread can we do one and a half or can we do two and can we add other components that are gonna help you feel full and satiated for longer. So this typically tends to be protein and a fat source. So if you think of like, for example, a sandwich, like what can you add to a sandwich to make it more satiating? You can add protein to it.

Okay, we have the carb from the bread, we have the protein from the meat you're using, Now what are we missing? We're missing color or maybe like a fat too, like you add a little bit of mayo to it. But it just depends on how much of the like low calorie or low carb or low fat things you're adding to your diet throughout the day. The other thing too is that These foods do tend to be more expensive. Like if you compare the price of something that's like low carb, for example, I think it's mainly like the low carb.

Low carb does tend to be more expensive than the regular version. But like for other things like low fat milk, low fat cheeses, there's not much of a difference, unless if you go to like the packaged product, low-fat Oreos or low-fat, you know, chips or whatever. But in terms of like pantry items, it doesn't make much of a difference. It's more like a marketing thing, if that makes sense.

Cassandra: Yeah, I think, because even me, I try to look at the tortillas, and they're this tiny. And they're basically like paper. And it's just like, it's not helping me with anything, really.

Elizabeth: I mean, for example, with low-calorie tortillas, they're just smaller. So what you can do instead is, Instead of, usually the, I think for tortillas, for example, it's two tortillas for like calories, and I think it's like four grams of protein or two. But you're not just gonna eat tortillas. It's like, okay, you can have your two tortillas, but again, it goes back to like, what are you adding? Like, are you adding your protein, your veggies? source of fat so then that in conjunction is gonna make you feel fuller versus maybe having like four of the low-calorie tortillas which might end up being the same as two regular tortillas just pricier yeah that like in the end it's gonna be the same thing you know so just making sure you're you're being like an informed consumer

Sometimes what I like to do too is like looking at the nutrition facts label. So if you're buying something that's like, let's say like, like the other day I was gonna make flan and I looked at like the lechera and one was like low fat and low something else and it was more expensive. And I was like, I wonder what is so different about them? And I looked at the back And I think it was just like two grams of sugar less and like two grams of fat less. And I was like, well, like in in the big picture, is this really going to make a difference? And if the answer is no, then, you know, go with the regular product that maybe is cheaper. And then, for example, like with flan, let's say I made the flan, maybe having like a smaller portion. of it instead of having like half of the slam for myself.

So I think definitely being like more of an informed consumer is gonna be helpful but this sometimes does take a lot of education and like knowing where people stand so that you can help them navigate this because sometimes there is a lot of marketing in grocery stores unfortunately. The other day I saw a content creator who I don't know if he's a dietitian or a personal trainer but he is based in the UK and he did a video where he was like showing people products that are marketed as like protein bars, protein granola, protein cereal, protein bread and then he did the counterpart which would be regular granola, regular bread. And in terms of nutrition, it was like one or two grams different of protein, but the prize was like three times more. So he was saying how you need to be aware that if there's a lot of like buzzwords or they're really pushing something like, oh, this is very high in protein. You really need to look into it because maybe you can For example, if we're speaking of protein, maybe you can meet your protein by adding like half a cup more of milk or by adding maybe a little bit more beans to your plate. And you're saving yourself so much money versus falling for these marketing strategies that people use or companies use for food. Yeah, I think I saw a video a while back.

Cassandra: Someone compared like a protein cookie to like a cheeseburger and the cheeseburger was less than like sugar and like everything else. So it was like, yeah, they're definitely just trying to make you buy stuff. Yeah.

Elizabeth: Because in the end, it's like it's not to say, for example, like with the protein cookie, it's not to say that you can't have it, like if that's something you like and enjoy, like having it but being aware of what you're paying, like what it's giving you. And like, if you enjoy a protein cookie, that's fine. But if you enjoy regular cooking, then that's fine, too. Because sometimes I think we have this perception that like, oh, this is healthier than this. I'm going to eat this. But in the end, it goes back to like, well, what does your overall diet look like? You know, like if you're just eating protein cookies every day, like is that really helping you in the long run?

Cassandra: that's all the questions we've had. This is really informational. You really gave a lot of information and I think it's really helpful just trying to understand everything.

Monica: I just want to make a comment. It's informative and very insightful. And I definitely relate to so many stuff that you were saying. So I will definitely take that into consideration as well. And thank you so much for doing this once again.

Elizabeth: Well, I'm glad you guys got a lot of it. And I really hope it helps you with your project. Yeah, I think there are always so many things you can touch upon, but if it helps you, if you take something out of it that's going to help you improve yourself or maybe help others, that's great.

Cassandra: Thank you so much for doing all this, for being part of this.

Elizabeth: No problem. And good luck with your project.

Monica: Thank you. Thank you.

Elizabeth: Bye, Monica. Bye, Cassandra. Bye.