https://draxe.com/nutrition/sunflower-lecithin/

#36: Christmas Special, This Day in Diet History, Healthy Chocolate Chip Cookies

Posted on by Wes Wise.

Ho ho ho, wise guys and gals! In this special Christmas edition of the podcast, we’re dishing up another enlightening segment of This Day in Diet History, where I break down my poor diet from Christmas Eve 2009 and compare with today. We’re talking about the types of foods you should be eating and avoiding to get in shape and optimize your health! We’re also sharing a delicious, healthy chocolate chip cookie recipe that Santa is sure to love! All that along with plenty of Christmas spirit and much more in Episode 36!

For show notes, pictures, transcript, and more, go to Wise-Eats.com/Episode36

Episode Timestamps

  • Wise-Eats.com/Episode36 for the show notes, YouTube video, and more! (0:00)
  • Merry Christmas! Fasted walking daily for fat loss (0:10)
  • Waking up every day with incredible energy instead of hitting the snooze over and over (0:50)
  • My health transformation from 2009 to 2020 (1:00)
  • Baby Wise update! (2:00)
  • This Day in Diet History: Comparing my Christmas Eve 2009 diet to today (3:15)
  • The strategy I used to lose 90lbs in 2009 and why it was wrong! (3:15)
  • Counting calories vs counting nutrients (3:15)
  • 2009 Breakfast: Eggs, Toast, Banana (4:00)
  • Eggs: What to buy and what to avoid (4:00)
  • Factory farming and chicken’s diet (4:30)
  • Eggs: Pasture-raised vs organic (5:00)
  • Enriched Wheat Flour vs Ezekiel Bread (5:20)
  • Bananas (6:00)
  • Lunch: Lasagna – Why it’s bad and what I would have now (6:30)
  • Conventional dairy and why to avoid it! (7:00)
  • Dinner: Crab rangoons and why to avoid Chinese food (7:20)
  • What I have today instead of Chinese food (8:00)
  • Binging on alcohol in 2009 and why I avoid alcohol now (8:15)
  • Avoiding poison and staying productive during the holiday (9:30)
  • Check out my complete 2009 diet journal entry at Wise-Eats.com/Episode36 (10:30)
  • Recipe of the Week: Almond Flour Chocolate Chip Cookies (11:15)
  • Coconut sugar vs regular sugar (13:20)
  • Monk fruit/erythritol powder, Almond Flour, Coconut Oil, Kerrygold Butter from Costco (13:40)
  • Bake Believe Chocolate Chips from Costco (14:30)
  • Check out the full recipe, nutrition facts, and health benefits at Wise-Eats.com/Cookies (15:00)
  • Conclusion! Happy holidays everyone (15:00)
  • Please don’t forget to rate, review, like, subscribe, send questions, and comment!
  • Blooper Reel / Outtakes (16:20)

Recipes Mentioned in This Episode:

Articles/Brands/Products Mentioned in This Episode:

Music Used/Mentioned in This Episode

Movie Clips

Website Design Thank You: DoeringDesign.com

Logo Design Thank You’s: @this_show, MGSignsDesign.com

Editing Animations Thank You: Darin Roberts aka Misteredit1 on YouTube

The Wise Eats Podcast is written, filmed, edited, and produced by Wesley Wise, and shared by YOU. Your support is greatly appreciated!

Submit questions, comments, feedback to WiseEatsPodcast@gmail.com or to @weswisefitness on Instagram. Thanks for watching, listening, reviewing, liking, subscribing, and sharing.

Merry Christmas & Happy New Year!

Be good to yourself, be good to others, and make wise choices!

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Intro

Well, ho-ho-ho, wise guys and gals, and welcome to a special Christmas edition of the Wise Eats Podcast! I’m former fat guy, certified Fitness coach, and Santa’s helper, Wes Wise. It’s my favorite time of the year. The decorations are bright, the music is playing, but the eggnog is not pouring because it’s too high in sugar! But that’s OK because we’re making wise choices for the holidays! 😊 We’ve got a great holiday edition of the show for you today. I’ll be looking back at TDDH and sharing a delicious homemade chocolate chip cookie recipe because what would Christmas be without some chocolate chip cookies, right?

Fasted LISS

Mrs. Wise and I recently purchased a treadmill because the weather has gotten crazy around here and we cannot go without our fasted walks in the morning! Fasted LISS (low-intensity, steady state) cardio is ideal for burning stubborn body fat.

2-Year Anniversary of Wise Eats!

We recently celebrated the 2-Year anniversary of launching the show. Thanks to everyone for watching and enduring me over that time. Hope to be doing this for a long time to come!

Baby Wise Update

Baby Wise is doing fantastic! She is approximately 13inches, 1.5lbs, and only 15 weeks until D-Day! She is the size of an eggplant currently. Mom is healthy, happy, and we’re both really excited to become parents. It’s a unique, special feeling, one I will admit I avoided for much of my life, but it’s here and we can’t wait!!

This Day in Diet History

In TDDH, we’re going back in time to Christmas Eve of 2009. At this time, I had lost 70lbs from March until Christmas, but was still eating very poorly. We’re going to dive into exactly what I was eating back then when I was extremely unhealthy and compare it to now.

2009 Breakfast: Eggs, Toast, Banana

This is a breakfast I would not scoff at today, although it would look much different today than it would have in 2009. Here’s why:

Eggs: 2009 vs 2020

Back in 2009, I was definitely buying the cheapest eggs possible, probably 99 cents per dozen, and I thought I was doing good! Eggs are high-quality protein, rich in vitamins, they raise HDL (good) cholesterol, lower triglycerides, and reduce stroke risk (Zelman, 2020).

What to Avoid: The cheap eggs you find in the grocery store are the worst of the worst because of factory farming conditions, added antibiotics, hormones. The chickens are also fed a steady diet of GMO grain, corn and soy. That poor nutrition is transferred from the chicken to the egg, to your body, so it’s crucial to buy the highest quality eggs. Even “free range” or “cage-free” are marketing gimmicks designed to trick consumers into believing that the process is more healthy or humane. These chickens are still confined in a cage with a little extra space to move around in. They do not go outside.

What Eggs to Buy: When buying eggs, organic, pasture-raised eggs are the best of the best. Very flavorful, nutrient dense, and non-GMO. My ultimate goal is always to get them fresh off the farm, but living the city makes that a challenge, so we do our best. Local co-ops are another great option.

Pasture-raised eggs are another great option. The chickens go outside in their natural habitat to feed on bugs and worms. The only problem is if they are non-organic they are still supplemented with GMO grain, corn and soy.

2009 Toast vs 2020 Toast

2009 Toast: The toast I was having in 2009 was definitely some sort of enriched white or enriched wheat bread, which is the worst of the worst.  It was likely some sort of multigrain bread that I mistakenly thought was healthy. These breads are not healthy because they off no nutrients and just spike your blood sugar.

2020 Toast: Today, we use a sprouted grain bread like Ezekiel that takes some getting used to but is so super good for you. We also use Dave’s Bread but it’s a little high in sugar.

Bananas

Bananas are pretty self-explanatory. I can’t be mad at bananas. I eat bananas nearly every single day to this day. They’re amazing, usually have them frozen in my smoothies.

Lunch: Christmas Lasagna

                Not to spoil the holiday fun here, but the lasagna most likely had white enriched flour pasta, non-organic cheese, and some non-approved sauces that was loaded with sugar and inflammatory oils. Certainly, something I would not eat today. if we were going to make lasagna, we would use organic whole wheat pasta, organic and/or grass-fed cheese, and an olive oil-based sauce with good ingredients and low sugar.

Enriched Flour: Highly processed with no nutritional benefit. Go for healthy alternatives like whole wheat flour, almond flour, coconut flour, or sprouted grains.

Non-Organic Dairy: If you’re not willing to buy organic, pasture-raised dairy, I would suggest not consuming it at all, because it’s really toxic. Non-organic dairy may contain as many as 20 pharmaceutical residues, including antibiotics, growth hormones, pesticide residues, anti-depressants, and even cholesterol medications. Also, the homogenization process releases the chemical xanthine oxidase, which can contribute to arterial damage and cardiovascular issues (Axe, 2020).

Inflammatory Oils: These include canola oil, sunflower oil, safflower oil, and some others. They are highly processed and toxic to the body. They are the most profitable oils to use which is why they’re so prevalent in our food supply.

Oils like these are highly processed at high temperature and high pressure which alters the fatty acid chemistry, making them unrecognizable by the body and inflammatory. Non-organic oils are extracted from the plant using a chemical called hexane which makes the processing more efficient and profitable, not healthier! They also contain an unhealthy ratio of Omega 6 fatty acids. If you’re going to use these oils, get organic, expeller pressed.

Approved Oils: Extra-Virgin Olive Oil, Virgin Coconut Oil and Avocado Oil

Dinner: Crab Rangoons & Dessert

Chinese on Christmas is a staple, but again, today I would never eat anything fried like crab rangoons, or even Chinese for that matter. It’s really the worst of the worst. Just a combination of trans fat, high fructose corn syrup, hydrogenated oils, MSG, sugar, and refined flours. These days, I don’t even mess with Chinese, but here is a recipe that is just as good, if not better, than sweet n’ sour chicken:

Baked Curry Chicken

aka Healthy Sweet & Sour Chicken

4 Boneless Chicken Breasts

1/2 Cup Honey 85g

1/4 Cup Butter, Melted 55g

1/4 Cup Yellow Mustard 65g

1 Tsp. Salt 5.6g

1 Tsp. Curry Powder 2.2g

Combine all ingredients together in baking dish

Halve the chicken breasts to make them thinner

Fully coat chicken in mixture

Bake at 375 degrees from 40-45mins

Serve with some jasmine white rice and enjoy!

Dessert: I didn’t even say in my journal entry exactly what the dessert was, but I can guarantee you it was something loaded with sugar and trans fats. These days, we do all of our own desserts homemade and control the amount of sugar we put in. And speaking of dessert, let’s get to a special Christmas Recipe of the Week.

Recipe of the Week: Almond Flour Chocolate Chip Cookies

  • ½ Cup Grass-Fed Butter (113g)
  • ¼ Cup Coconut Oil (54g)
  • ¾ Cup Coconut Sugar (150g)
  • 2 Tsp Vanilla Extract (8.4g)
  • 2 Large Eggs
  • ½ Tsp Baking Soda (3g)
  • ½ Tsp Salt (3g)
  • 3 Cups Blanched Almond Flour (288g)
  • 1 ¼ Cups Chocolate Chips (200g)

Directions

  • Pre-heat oven to 350 degrees
  • Line baking sheet w/ parchment paper or use coconut oil
  • Cream together butter, coconut oil, sugar (Hopefully you have a better mixer than me)
  • Mix in vanilla extract, eggs
  • Mix in baking soda, salt
  • Mix in one cup of almond flour at a time
  • Fold in chocolate chips with a wooden spoon
  • Form dough into tablespoon rounds and place on baking sheet 3 inches apart (Made my first batch of cookies too big)
  • Bake 10-13mins

Pro Tip: Form some cough dough rounds and place in the freezer for a few mins. Then store them in a separate freezer-safe container to have fresh cookies ready to bake at any time!

Nutrition Facts – 1 Cookie (28g)

  • Calories: 163
  • Fat: 13g
  • Protein: 3.1g
  • Carbs: 11g

Coconut Sugar & Alternative Sweeteners: We use coconut sugar in this recipe, which contains more nutrients and fiber than regular sugar but it is still sugar at the end of the day. These cookies are high in sugar (approximately 10g sugar per cookie, ouch!), so they should be enjoyed in moderation. Normally, I avoid anything that is higher than 4g of added sugar per serving.

If you want to reduce the amount of sugar, we replace it with the monk fruit/erythritol sweetener from Costco. It’s a fantastic 1:1 substitute for actual sugar. The ingredients are really good and it adds so much flavor! Be careful using these alternatives sweeteners though because many products add natural flavoring and other unnecessary junk. It’s also important to make sure you’re buying non-GMO. Finally, even the good alternative sweeteners like stevia, monk fruit, and erythritol should be consumed in moderation because they can cause digestive distress if consumed in large amounts.

Coconut Oil: Be sure to use organic, virgin, unrefined. We buy the Kirkland brand from Costco. We use coconut oil for EVERYTHING it’s super good for you. Rich in healthy fatty acids, helps lower cholesterol, can help with fat burning, brain energy (Gunners, 2020).

Grass-Fed Butter: We use grass-fed and/or organic butter because conventional dairy is extremely bad for you. It can contain as many as 20 pharmaceutical residues, including antibiotics, growth hormones, pesticides, and even medications that are given to the cows (Axe, 2020). The brand we buy is Kerrygold from Costco. Not 100% grass-fed and finished but it’s still a really great option for a great price.

Almond Flour: A much healthier alternative to the enriched flours typically used to make chocolate chip cookies. Almond flour won’t spike your blood sugar like refined wheat products and actually help your blood sugar. It can help with blood pressure, cholesterol, blood sugar, satiety, and weight loss (Leech, 2018).

Chocolate Chips: For this recipe, we used Bake Believe Chocolate Chips, sugar-free, non-GMO chocolate chips with a surprising amount of flavor and a really good ingredient list:

  • Chocolate Liquor (prefer it to be organic, but it’s non-GMO at least)
  • Inulin (Fiber-rich sugar substitute)
  • Erythritol (Non-GMO natural sweetener)
  • Cocoa Butter (Oil coming from cocoa beans, very good for you!)
  • Sunflower Lecithin (A plant-based emulsifier that allows ingredients to bind together, in this case forming the chocolate chip. Also has some health benefits like improved cholesterol, digestion, brain function, and skin health (Link, 2018).
  • Vanilla Extract (Offers many health benefits but be on the lookout for cheap imitations with hidden synthetic chemicals!)
  • Stevia Leaf Reb M (Again, limit your use of these sugar alternatives, but I would take this over high sugar content any day!

Conclusion

Well, that’s gonna do it for another Christmas edition of the Wise Eats Podcast. I hope everyone has an amazing holiday season and happy new year. 2020 has been a heck of a year and I know a lot of people are happy to see it go. Despite all of the challenges, I’m so thankful to be alive and for all of the amazing things in my life, and super excited to see what’s to come in 2021! I appreciate everyone listening to the podcast, watching on YouTube, liking, subscribing, sharing, commenting, all that good stuff! Have an amazing day, a Merry Christmas, be good to yourself, be good to others, and make wise choices.

References

Axe, J. [Dr. Josh Axe]. (2020, November 27). 10 ingredients destroying your health [Video]. YouTube. https://youtu.be/H6y8p8Q29z4

Gunners, K. (2020, February 12). Top 10 evidence-based health benefits of coconut oil. Healthline. Retrieved from https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/top-10-evidence-based-health-benefits-of-coconut-oil

Leech, J. (2018, September 6). 9 evidence-based health benefits of almonds. Healthline. Retrieved from https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/9-proven-benefits-of-almonds

Link, R. (2018, December 13). Sunflower lecithin: Brain-boosting supplement or unhealthy additive? Dr. Axe. Retrieved from

Zelman, K. (2020, June 1). Health benefits of eggs. WebMD. Retrieved from https://www.webmd.com/diet/ss/slideshow-eggs-health-benefits

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