#120 – Ask Me Anything with Dr. Casey Means (Oatmeal | Protein Pancakes | Macadamia Milk vs. Pecan Milk?)

Macadamia Milk vs. Pecan Milk? What are the best foods for gaining weight while keeping blood sugar stable? Why am I getting a big spike with Protein Pancakes? What’s a healthier carb than oatmeal? Regulating your glucose levels through food is a journey of testing and trying different things to see what works for your body. But we do have some general guidelines that can help. In this episode, Levels Chief Medical Officer Dr. Casey Means dives into all these questions from our community.

01:45 – Steer clear of sweeteners

There isn’t too much of a difference between pecan milk and macadamia milk, but you have to check for added sugars.

What do you think about pecan milk and macadamia nut milk? First of all, either of these can be fine. The most important thing is that you’re buying a version that does not have sweetener in it. These nut milks are so sneaky. Because I have gone to so many coffee shops and said, “Oh, do you have any unsweetened nut milk?” And they say, “Oh yeah, all our nut milks are unsweetened.” And then the few times I’ve asked to see the box, there’s like seven, eight, nine grams of added sugar. You really have to be vigilant and make sure you’re buying the box that is actually unsweetened. Between pecan and macadamia nut, I think pecan is actually probably a better choice. It’s a lower sugar nut than macadamia nuts naturally, because all nuts actually do have a little bit of sugar naturally in them and pecan has lower than macadamia. And then you want to, of course, try and find one that’s organic, if you can, without a lot of the gums and fillers.

02:36 – Make your own nut milk

Dr. Casey offers her own easy, two-minute recipe for making nut milk with nothing more than nuts, water, a blender, and a nut milk bag.

Personally, I love to make my own nut milks. It’s so easy. I’ll tell you in two seconds. You take one cup of whatever nut you want to use, and you take three to four cups of water. Put those together in the Vitamix or another high powered blender, pinch of salt, little bit of vanilla. Blend until it’s all homogeneous about one to two minutes. Strain it through a nut milk bag, which are like $5 on Amazon. You’ve got a ton of two ingredient, delicious, thick, creamy nut milk. Try it out. It’s really, really good.

03:37 – How to healthily put on weight

If you want to gain weight while eating healthily, you have to strategize your workout regimen and eat lots of healthy protein.

We want to keep our insulin spikes down for optimal health over the long-term, but some people do want to put on weight. The best strategy here is probably going to be trying to put on muscle more so than trying to gain fat. That’s going to be more a question of how do we best hypertrophy our muscles to gain weight. This is going to come down to really making sure you’re getting the right workout strategy in for muscle gain and supporting that with all the nutrients that you need to build muscle. Of course, this is going to be healthy proteins. You want to think about clean whole food protein, so things coming from wild caught fish, pasture raised chicken, free range beef, eggs that are pastured. You want to think about plant-based proteins like organic beans, legumes, nuts, seeds. These are all going to be great sources of protein. And then all the other nutrients that are really important for maintaining cellular function. All the micronutrients that you’re going to get from whole foods, so abundance of fruits, vegetables, and thoughtfully sourced animal products. That’s really, I think, the focus is if you’re going to be trying to put on weight, try and put it on with muscle, not fat, and support the body with really healthy whole food proteins and micronutrients.

05:01 – Choose whole foods

When you’re adding fats to a calorie-dense diet, make sure you’re choosing the low-glycemic whole food forms of fat.

When you’re choosing fats as well to get more caloric density in the diet, also make sure you’re choosing the low-glycemic whole food forms of fat. You don’t want the processed foods that have fat in them. You want things like coconut, avocado, olives, nuts, seeds, nut butters, again, thoughtfully sourced beef or fish. Those would be some of the best options, I think.

06:13 – Refined carbohydrates turn to glucose

When carbs are processed into flours, they basically turn into glucose in the bloodstream, even if you consume a lot of protein with it.

The whole wheat flour and the whole grain oat flour and the brown sugar altogether, those are going to all be contributing to a glucose spike. Because wheat flour and oat flour, when those carbohydrates are processed to create flours, when you digest them, they’re basically just turning into glucose in the bloodstream. Even though this has 14 grams of protein per serving, that’s just probably not going to offset that amount of refined carbohydrates, which, again, just basically turn into sugar in the bloodstream. The product also has brown sugar in it. Even though there’s only three grams of sugar in the serving, there’s 30 grams of carbohydrates from that wheat flour and that oat flour.

06:53 – Alternatives to syrup

Try to find an alternative to syrup for on your pancakes. Make a simple fruit compote without sugar or spread nut butter on your pancakes.

In terms of syrups, definitely a good option to not have syrup on these. There are definitely some alternatives you can do for syrup. One thing that I love to do is just take some low-glycemic berries like raspberries, which actually have a lot of fiber, raspberries have some of the highest fiber of any fruit, and then blueberries, and just simmer them on the stove for like 10 minutes. You can even start with frozen berries. Don’t add anything to them, maybe just a little bit of water, and then mash them up and have a really nice unsweetened fruit compote on top. I’ll sometimes add tahini. I’ll add nut butters. These things all make the pancakes taste great. There’s also a brand of allulose syrup called RxSugar, which allulose will not spike glucose and has minimal insulin spike. That’s more of a traditional syrup that’s made of an alternative non-nutritive sweetener.

07:39 – Pancake alternatives

There are many alternatives to grain-dense pancakes, such as plantain pancakes or other keto-based pancakes.

In terms of pancake alternatives, there’s actually a lot of really cool things out there that you can do instead of these store bought pancakes made with grains. You can make plantain pancakes, which can be high protein. That’s made with plantains, which is a super high fiber probiotic fruit, low sugar, mix it with eggs and protein powder and baking soda and a few other ingredients. You can Google keto plantain pancakes online and I’m sure there’s a bunch of recipes. There’s also some other brands of grain-free pancakes like Birch Benders, and they actually have a keto version of their pancake. You can make it higher protein by adding protein powder or eggs. There’s a few alternatives other than these grain-based protein pancakes that are really delicious.

08:34 – How to reintroduce healthy carbs

When you’re trying to add some carbs back into your diet, make sure to add whole grain carbs and combine them with protein and fiber to stabilize the glucose spike.

This person asks, “What are some healthier carb alternatives to oatmeal? I’ve been eating very low carbs since January, but want to reintroduce some more carbs in my diet a few days a week.” First of all, we’re talking about oatmeal. There’s different types of oatmeal. There’s rolled oats, which are a processed version of oatmeal, and then there’s less processed versions. There’s steel-cut oats, and then there’s actually groats, which are the most chewy and whole food form of oats. Steel-cut oats and groats are going to be a way to get carbohydrates via oatmeal that are likely to less spike your glucose. And then, of course, you can also modify the oats to make them have less of a glycemic impact by adding that protein and fiber on them. Some of the best things you can add to oatmeal to help stabilize the glucose spike would be things like nuts, seeds. We especially love flax and chia, or really any type of nut, nut butters, coconut oil, coconut flakes, hemp seeds. You can also do a savory oatmeal bowl and add like smoked salmon or avocado. You can also scoop in some unsweetened protein powder. There’s lots of different ways to put stuff on the oatmeal that blunts the glycemic response.

09:47 – Healthy alternatives to oatmeal

If you’re trying to avoid carbs, you can make chia, flax, and hemp pudding, or you can just try to stick with whole-food forms of carbs.

We have a blog post about this actually on the Levels Blog about healthy alternatives to oatmeal. We have a really wonderful recipe on there that is a warm chia, flax, and hemp pudding. That’s from our good friend Kelly LeVeque. This is more like a seeded nut-based oatmeal, but really still has that same savory breakfast quality. Those are some things you can do to oatmeal. In terms of bringing in other carbohydrates to your diet, I think the focus should just be on whole food forms of carbs. Don’t jump for the bread or the pastas or things like that that are going to be made with ultra refined white flour. Stick with the whole food forms of carbs that are just full of nutrient dense foods, so things like the sweet potato. If you’re trying to bring in more carbs, things like squashes, or maybe some organic colorful potatoes like purple potatoes or something like that. You can also, of course, bring in some whole fruits and incorporate those into your diet. Those would be the main recs I have.

Dr. Casey Means (00:06):

We got a question of someone who is having protein, pancakes for breakfast, and they’re getting a big spike. Even though they’ve actually eliminated putting maple syrup on it, there’s still a big spike. I think the question is like, “Oh my gosh, I’m having these protein filled pancakes. Why am I still having a spike?”

Ben Grynol (00:32):

I’m Ben Grynol, part of the early startup team here at Levels. We’re building tech that helps people to understand their metabolic health, and this is your front row seat to everything we do. This is a whole new level.

Ben Grynol (00:47):

AMA, ask me anything. Often we get these questions from the community through different social platforms. Questions come in and people have very specific curiosities around food. Why do certain foods result in glucose spikes. On this episode, Dr. Casey Means, chief medical officer and co-founder of Levels, sat down and answered questions around oatmeal, protein pancakes, and even the difference between Macadamia nut versus pecan milk.

Ben Grynol (01:26):

It was really interesting to hear Casey’s perspective on everything and provide more insight into why some of these foods will result in certain metabolic responses for individual members. Here’s Casey.

Dr. Casey Means (01:43):

Okay, we have a question here which is, what do you think about pecan milk and Macadamia nut milk? First of all, either of these can be fine. The most important thing is that you’re buying a version that does not have sweetener in it. These nut milks are so sneaky. Because I have gone to so many coffee shops and said, “Oh, do you have any unsweetened nut milk?” And they say, “Oh yeah, all our nut milks are unsweetened.”

Dr. Casey Means (02:06):

And then the few times I’ve asked to see the box, there’s like seven, eight, nine grams of added sugar. You really have to be vigilant and make sure you’re buying the box that is actually unsweetened. Between pecan and macadamia nut, I think pecan is actually probably a better choice. It’s a lower sugar nut than macadamia nuts naturally, because all nuts actually do have a little bit of sugar naturally in them and pecan has lower than macadamia.

Dr. Casey Means (02:30):

And then you want to, of course, try and find one that’s organic, if you can, without a lot of the gums and fillers. Personally, I love to make my own nut milks. It’s so easy. I’ll tell you in two seconds. You take one cup of whatever nut you want to use, and you take three to four cups of water. Put those together in the Vitamix or another high powered blender, pinch of salt, little bit of vanilla. Blend until it’s all homogeneous about one to two minutes. Strain it through a nut milk bag, which are like $5 on Amazon.

Dr. Casey Means (02:58):

You’ve got a ton of two ingredient, delicious, thick, creamy nut milk. Try it out. It’s really, really good. Ooh, this is a good one. One of the questions here is, what are the best foods to eat to gain weight while keeping blood sugar stable? That’s a really interesting question. Not one we get as frequently, since more people are thinking about how to lose weight, but it’s a good question. I think what you’re getting at here is that we want to keep blood sugar stable for optimal health.

Dr. Casey Means (03:37):

We want to keep our insulin spikes down for optimal health over the long-term, but some people do want to put on weight. The best strategy here is probably going to be trying to put on muscle more so than trying to gain fat. That’s going to be more a question of how do we best hypertrophy our muscles to gain weight. This is going to come down to really making sure you’re getting the right workout strategy in for muscle gain and supporting that with all the nutrients that you need to build muscle.

Dr. Casey Means (04:09):

Of course, this is going to be healthy proteins. You want to think about clean whole food protein, so things coming from wild caught fish, pasture raised chicken, free range beef, eggs that are pastured. You want to think about plant-based proteins like organic beans, legumes, nuts, seeds. These are all going to be great sources of protein. And then all the other nutrients that are really important for maintaining cellular function.

Dr. Casey Means (04:40):

All the micronutrients that you’re going to get from whole foods, so abundance of fruits, vegetables, and thoughtfully sourced animal products. That’s really, I think, the focus is if you’re going to be trying to put on weight, try and put it on with muscle, not fat, and support the body with really healthy whole food proteins and micronutrients. And then, of course, when you’re choosing fats as well to get more caloric density in the diet, also make sure you’re choosing the low-glycemic whole food forms of fat.

Dr. Casey Means (05:10):

You don’t want the processed foods that have fat in them. You want things like coconut, avocado, olives, nuts, seeds, nut butters, again, thoughtfully sourced beef or fish. Those would be kind of some of the best options, I think. All right. We got a question of someone who is having protein pancakes for breakfast and they’re getting a big spike. Even though they’ve actually eliminated putting maple syrup on it, there’s still a big spike.

Dr. Casey Means (05:47):

I think the question is like, “Oh my gosh, I’m having these protein filled pancakes. Why am I still having a spike?” They actually sent the ingredients along with it. I’ll read them to you. The first ingredients are 100% whole grain wheat flour, 100% whole grain oat flour, wheat protein isolate, brown sugar, whey protein concentrate, milk protein concentrate, buttermilk. For me, this one’s a pretty clear cut case. This is the whole wheat flour and the whole grain oat flour and the brown sugar altogether, those are going to all be contributing to a glucose spike.

Dr. Casey Means (06:21):

Because wheat flour and oat flour, when those carbohydrates are processed to create flours, when you digest them, they’re basically just turning into glucose in the bloodstream. Even though this has 14 grams of protein per serving, that’s just probably not going to offset that amount of refined carbohydrates, which, again, just basically turn into sugar in the bloodstream. The product also has brown sugar in it. Even though there’s only three grams of sugar in the serving, there’s 30 grams of carbohydrates from that wheat flour and that oat flour.

Dr. Casey Means (06:53):

In terms of syrups, definitely a good option to not have syrup on these. There are definitely some alternatives you can do for syrup. One thing that I love to do is just take some low-glycemic berries like raspberries, which actually have a lot of fiber, raspberries have some of the highest fiber of any fruit, and then blueberries, and just simmer them on the stove for like 10 minutes. You can even start with frozen berries.

Dr. Casey Means (07:14):

Don’t add anything to them, maybe just a little bit of water, and then mash them up and have like a really nice unsweetened fruit compost on top. I’ll sometimes add tahini. I’ll add nut butters. These things all make the pancakes taste great. There’s also a brand of allulose syrup called RxSugar, which allulose will not spike glucose and has minimal insulin spike. That’s more of a traditional syrup that’s made of an alternative non-nutritive sweetener.

Dr. Casey Means (07:39):

And then in terms of pancake alternatives, there’s actually a lot of really cool things out there that you can do instead of these store bought pancakes made with grains. You can make plantain pancakes, which can be high protein. That’s like made with plantains, which is a super high fiber probiotic fruit, low sugar, mix it with eggs and protein powder and baking soda and a few other ingredients. You can Google keto plantain pancakes online and I’m sure there’s a bunch of recipes.

Dr. Casey Means (08:03):

There’s also some other brands of grain-free pancakes like Birch Benders, and they actually have a keto version of their pancake. You can make it higher protein by adding protein powder or eggs. There’s a few alternatives other than these grain-based protein pancakes that are really delicious. We’ve got a question about one of the foods that we talk a lot about in the Levels world, which is oatmeal.

Dr. Casey Means (08:34):

This person asks, “What are some healthier carb alternatives to oatmeal? I’ve been eating very low carbs since January, but want to reintroduce some more carbs in my diet a few days a week.” First of all, we’re talking about oatmeal. There’s different types of oatmeal, right? There’s rolled oats, which are kind of like a processed version of oatmeal, and then there’s less processed version. There’s like steel-cut oats, and then there’s actually groats, which are like the most chewy and whole food form of oats.

Dr. Casey Means (09:01):

Steel-cut oats and groats are going to be a way to get carbohydrates via oatmeal that are likely to less spike your glucose. And then, of course, you can also modify the oats to make them have less of a glycemic impact by adding that protein and fiber on them. Some of the best sort of things you can add to oatmeal to help stabilize the glucose spike would be things like nuts, seeds. We especially love flax and chia, or really any type of nut, nut butters, coconut oil, coconut flakes, hemp seeds.

Dr. Casey Means (09:32):

You can also do a savory oatmeal bowl and add like smoked salmon or avocado. You can also scoop in some unsweetened protein powder. There’s lots of different ways to put stuff on the oatmeal that blunts the glycemic response. We have a blog post about this actually on the Levels Blog about healthy alternatives to oatmeal. We have a really wonderful recipe on there that is a warm chia flax and hemp pudding. That’s from our good friend Kelly LeVeque.

Dr. Casey Means (10:01):

This is more like a seeded nut-based oatmeal, but really still has that same like savory breakfast quality. Those are some things you can do to oatmeal. In terms of bringing in other carbohydrates to your diet, I think the focus should just be on whole food forms of carbs. Don’t jump for the bread or the pastas or things like that that are going to be made with ultra refined white flour. Stick with the whole food forms of carbs that are just full of nutrient dense foods, so things like the sweet potato.

Dr. Casey Means (10:30):

If you’re trying to bring in more carbs, things like squashes, or maybe some organic colorful potatoes like purple potatoes or something like that. You can also, of course, bring in some whole fruits and incorporate those into your diet. Those would be the main recs I have.