287: Is Your Event Breakfast Doing More Harm Than Good?

Tracy Stuckrath [00:00:06]:
Welcome to the catering at a meeting podcast. I'm your host, Tracy Stuckraff, dietary needs expert, certified meetings manager, certified food protection manager. I have searched the globe to find people and businesses who are creating safe, sustainable, and inclusive food and beverage experiences for their employees, guests, and communities. In each episode, you will find authentic conversations about how food and beverage impacts inclusion, sustainability, culture, community, health, and wellness. I know that sounds like a lot, but we're gonna cover it all. Are you ready to feed engagement, nourish inclusion, and bolster your bottom line? If so, let's go.

Jessie Gibson [00:00:51]:
Hey, everybody, and welcome to another episode of Catering at a Meeting. And I am so excited to bring to you today is your event breakfast. And my this is Jessie Gibson, and she is a clinical dietitian at UT Health East Texas, which is in Tyler, Texas. Right?

Jessie Gibson [00:01:11]:
That's correct the Piney Woods

Jessie Gibson [00:01:13]:
Okay. Well welcome to the show. I'm excited to chat with you and David Events recommended that I chat with you and we were gonna do this during healthy breakfast month or something, wasn't it?

Jessie Gibson [00:01:25]:
Like Yes.

Jessie Gibson [00:01:26]:
Yes. Last of September. So Back in September. So Or late than never. Exactly. And the day before Allergies. So let's not eat our Halloween candy for breakfast. Right? Alright.

Jessie Gibson [00:01:37]:
So tell me tell the audience, what is a clinical dietitian, and and and what do you do?

Jessie Gibson [00:01:45]:
Yeah. So the dietetics profession is pretty broad. You will see dietitians in schools, nursing homes, hospitals, dialysis centers. We provide something called medical nutrition therapy, which is where you take evidence based research, you pair it kind of with cognitive behavioral therapy to hopefully elicit a lifestyle change. Right? Whether this Mhmm. For personal reasons or medical reasons. So clinical diet headaches, we work in a hospital setting. We work with trauma patients, we work with NICU babies, we work with anyone who would need nutrition support or maybe nutrition intervention or education while in house.

Jessie Gibson [00:02:24]:
We also kind of work as the gap between your medical providers, so your doctors and your physicians and your nurses, and then also your, like, kitchen food service side of things. So we are the bridge between those two areas because sometimes the doctors right. They don't talk or the computer system kind of makes it a little bit cryptic what they're wanting. And so if the doctor wants a patient on a high protein diet, it's our job to go down to the kitchen and make sure that our staff knows what that is, that we have that product on hand. We're fortunate enough to have a dietitian that only works in the kitchen and. Just managing that aspect, a lot of smaller facilities, your dietitian will do both roles. Oh, wow. So that is what you will see in clinical dietetics.

Jessie Gibson [00:03:09]:
Well and and that's gotta be hard if you're seeing patients all the time and you're there's not somebody that you can collaborate with in the kitchen because I'm gonna say who knows who's in the kitchen? And if they know

Jessie Gibson [00:03:20]:
who's not dietary

Jessie Gibson [00:03:21]:
nutrition.

Jessie Gibson [00:03:22]:
Yeah. We do a lot of in services, a lot of trainings constantly. Every week, every month, we huddle and we'll go kosher, hey, here are some issues we've seen. Don't forget, don't put a banana on a on a renal tray. Right? So we're constantly going over that stuff to make sure we're delivering what the physicians are ordering for the patients.

Jessie Gibson [00:03:43]:
Okay. Well, that's a whole another thing is, like, don't put a banana on a renal tray. Yeah. Well, and and it's nutrition is super important, and it's relatively a I'm gonna say a new medical field. Right? And and nutrition is also very personal. Can you talk on that?

Jessie Gibson [00:04:03]:
Yeah. Dietetics, when it was initially founded and started, it was almost like a home ec degree. Right? It was lots of cooking, lots of they called it the the MRS degree. Right? So a lot of people would take this degree and they would go be stay at home moms. Right? And they would have all this cooking knowledge and food science and things like that. Recently, you've seen 2 big sectors food. And being the medical side of things where we're in the hospital, We have NPI numbers. We're billing insurance for our service.

Jessie Gibson [00:04:31]:
And so it's kind of seen more as a, like a medical license, if you will. The other side of things that has really boomed lately would be, like, your sports nutrition. Right? I just saw, on fact, that the NFL goes through, like, whatever, 800,000 Uncrustables a week. Right? Or a year or whatever, a month. And so the sports nutrition on that side is also really growing where you're gonna see dietitians on the sidelines for every major sporting team. So nutrition is definitely coming to the forefront across the board.

Jessie Gibson [00:05:04]:
Well and I think each one of those athletes is different in in their needs. And and being in the food allergy world too, I mean, I know that, oh, there's a couple of football players who have their own food allergies, and and you can't just go feed everybody the same thing on a football team either

Jessie Gibson [00:05:22]:
Right the the days of serving everyone a pizza after the game is long gone. These guys get very specific meal plans very specific caloric calculations, and those are set with the team kind of in the off season, but they all do get a say in. Some people are more plant based. Some people are kosher or halal or vegetarian. Some people love protein and only want, you know, only want meat. And so, they have to and work with them, but also still meet their needs. We'll kinda leave there.

Jessie Gibson [00:05:53]:
Well, and during the and we're gonna get to the breakfast thing in just one second. But during the NCAA basketball tournament, my team, NC State, one of our players is Muslim, and he was following the halal that and it was during Ramadan. And so they act yeah. So he was fasting, so they had to give him the time to go fast and then come back to the game and make sure he got the nutrients he needed when he got back. Yeah. I thought that was really fascinating.

Jessie Gibson [00:06:18]:
Yeah. So that's really like worlds collide with he has to, you know, respect that, but also, you know, we don't want him cramping up or crashing or getting injured on the court. And so the dietary probably worked really closely with all of that.

Jessie Gibson [00:06:33]:
Okay. So back to what we were gonna talk about in beverage, but I mean, the it's nutrition and dietetics is very, very important to all of us. And I think there's people that pay attention to a lot more than others, of course. And so we were going to talk about breakfast. So I I'm just gonna kick it off with, is breakfast really the most important meal of the day?

Jessie Gibson [00:06:52]:
That is a campaign slogan. So like that I thought that was an old wives tale, but when I dug into it, that was really a push by Kellogg's to sell more cereal. I wouldn't say it's the most important meal of the day. I think they're all equally important. But when you compare fasted versus non fasted as far as cognitive effects and physiological effects, there are a lot of benefits to eating a good breakfast.

Jessie Gibson [00:07:14]:
Okay. And and that's an and thing talking about fasting because I was doing that for a while and I really kinda missed eating my breakfast. And maybe because it was just the norm of what I've done for my 56 years of my life is to eat breakfast. But not eating until 11 o'clock really just kinda in one way made me anxious because I wasn't getting that meal.

Jessie Gibson [00:07:35]:
Yeah. It depends on what your your biggest goal is. If your biggest goal is weight loss, intermittent meetings, or waiting a little bit longer in the morning, that can be a tool that works for people. I personally feel like I function better if I eat something in the meetings, and so, you know, my my hardest part of the day is typically my morning chunk of work where I'm seeing a lot of critical patients, and so I wanna be my sharpest. So to me, it's more important to eat a breakfast and have the positive effects of getting that fuel in versus maybe the caloric lessening I would have by fasting.

Jessie Gibson [00:08:09]:
Okay. So on that note, then what are and for you to kick off your morning and especially when we're talking about meetings and events a lot of meetings kick off it. We have breakfast at 7:30 and the the general session starts at 9 or 8:30 or whatever what are the important types of food to serve our attendees to make sure that they're paying attention to that keynote speaker and the and the breakouts that follow?

Jessie Gibson [00:08:33]:
Yeah. It's actually really cool because, you know, initially, the research for breakfast was children because we had the school breakfast program rollout and where we're giving all kids free breakfast during testing week because we found all these studies that they were scoring higher when we fed them. And that research has trickled down to studying adults, specifically in areas like memory and recall, which if you're talking about a speaker coming in or a training session coming in to teach your employees or your staff something, you want them to remember it if you want to be able to recall it. So it's it's it's definitely worth the investment of serving a breakfast. But, you know, I want people to kind of maybe pay a little bit more attention away from the traditional continental muffins, danishes, cereals, and kind of think about where we can maybe add value. So all of the studies, they focus on different areas. Some focus on the types of fats. Some focus on the types of proteins.

Jessie Gibson [00:09:29]:
Some focus on the types of carbs. But when you boil it down, it's you want, you know, a good decent chunk of protein. You wanna complex carbohydrates, so something that's high in fiber, something that's slow digesting. And then you want to kinda balance some healthier fats in there. So that could be eggs, that could be nuts, anything like that.

Jessie Gibson [00:09:49]:
Okay. So can you break down, like, what would that the each of those things, like, visually be for me as a meeting planner when I'm picking a menu?

Jessie Gibson [00:09:58]:
Yeah. So food example, instead of serving instant oats, serving a whole or a rolled oat. Right? It looks the same. A lot of people won't notice the difference. There's actually great benefits to serving that whole oat because your your attention span is gonna be a little bit longer because you're not having a spike and then a crash in your blood sugar from eating that rapidly digesting oatmeal. Same product, looks the same, you know, on the on the line, but there is actually a difference. Adding things instead of doing like a a low fat, doing like a whole fat yogurt.

Jessie Gibson [00:10:30]:
Mhmm.

Jessie Gibson [00:10:31]:
Right now we're getting the healthy fats in there. We're getting protein in there. I like a build your own parfait bar or individually packaged toppings if you're talking about cross contamination concerns for allergies. I like putting things in little cups that they can just take and put on their tray or plate and sit down and use it versus the spoons going Right. All over,

Jessie Gibson [00:10:53]:
which they do.

Jessie Gibson [00:10:54]:
Which they do, which they do. Even adults get a little messy on the buffet. So

Jessie Gibson [00:10:59]:
Oh, they get very messy on the buffet.

Jessie Gibson [00:11:01]:
We've seen a big push in like tofu scramble versus and egg scramble. So we've seen a lot of that as like a protein alternative to the eggs, which works for a lot of people if eggs don't work for them. Mhmm. Or being more plant forward thinking about this including like a a vegetable in the scrambled eggs. Right? Like peppers and onions or a spinach tomato omelet situation. So finding areas where you can maybe just add in or swap a few things without changing the whole look of it can be cost effective, time effective, health effective.

Jessie Gibson [00:11:35]:
Right. So in I mean, breakfast, we have eggs, bacon, and sausage. That's typically what protein wise is served. Are there other options that are high in protein or good levels of protein that could be swapped in for breakfast?

Jessie Gibson [00:11:50]:
Yeah. Whole grains, quinoa, bulgur, whole wheat, oats events do have small amounts of protein. So when you're putting these ingredients together, even nuts, you put them together, you can get a decent 10 grams of protein and something that's not really meat. So like a baked oatmeal bar, sometimes they're portable. You can add in chia seeds and flax seeds and anything like that. They travel well, they're shelf stable, they do have a kick of protein in them. So I think sometimes we negate the fact that these items are not seen as high protein foods, but they do include protein. So 3 grams here, 5 grams here, 5 grams here, now we have a decent chunk versus thinking of just meat as our only option.

Jessie Gibson [00:12:32]:
Okay. No. I like that. And just speaking of protein, and I mentioned this before we started that I was reading the International Food Information Council's food and health survey, and they asked their whoever they surveyed, do you generally try to consume or avoid the following? And it the number one thing on the answer was protein, that 71% of people are trying to consume more protein on a daily basis. Is that and but there's and and you because you mentioned some animal based proteins there. I mean, I get a lot of comments from people who are vegan. They're like, stop asking me about my protein. And and you just kinda mentioned it because it's built into those things, but we don't think about it.

Jessie Gibson [00:13:16]:
We only really think about protein as animal based, but it is in spinach. Right? And other things?

Jessie Gibson [00:13:24]:
Yeah. So if you're a vegetarian or a vegan, you're probably focusing on things called complementary proteins. So right? Some foods the reason why we think of meat as superior and protein is because it has all of the amino acids in one product. So you eat that and you get all your building blocks. When you're looking at some of these plant based foods, some are lacking in certain amino needs. Some are low in like leucine per se. And so if you take one that's low in leucine and one that's higher in leucine and you pair them together, you've now made your own complete protein. Okay.

Jessie Gibson [00:13:59]:
So it just takes a little bit more forethought and planning and understanding how those play off of each other to to make a complete protein. But it's not that it's the end all be all meetings the only way to get it.

Jessie Gibson [00:14:12]:
Right. Okay. Now, okay. Now I'm gonna jump back to

Tracy Stuckrath [00:14:16]:
that conversation that we had at the very very beginning and

Jessie Gibson [00:14:18]:
you're talking about you've got dietitians that are in the NFL on the needs We don't have dietitians that are sitting in the hotels or the convention centers right and we're kind of just stuck with this menu that we're given how do we talk to chefs in hotels and convention centers to try to get them to give us some other options, especially for those plant based or plant based people and or the people who have food allergies to eggs or whatever. How do we have that conversation? And I'm sure you've struggled with this as well.

Jessie Gibson [00:14:55]:
All the time. All the time. And it's hard because labor is limited. So these chefs are usually thinking in terms of, like, can I produce this many different dishes with the staff that I have? How many individual plates am I making versus just the buffet offering? So I always try and convey it in the sense of, hey, if we include some of these options on our on our already existing table, we will have to do less individual accommodations, which will be easier production and staffing wise for you. At the end of the day, we work in a plantbased situation. You're in a customer service area, right? So you want the customer to be happy and if the customer is asking for these things, more plant based options, more vegan options, is that not their job to execute that? But we have to keep in and, the labor is where I feel like it's easiest to sell it to them, that we're trying to be labor smart and not make as many individual back end accommodation dishes and put better accommodating options already out on the table.

Jessie Gibson [00:15:57]:
Oh, I love that. I mean and it's it's like I say it too. It's like why not instead of making so many personalized plates or customized plates, why not incorporate the dietary needs into the overall menu planning so that you're not having to do that? But I like the fact that you're looking at it from a labor perspective.

Jessie Gibson [00:16:18]:
Yeah. That's that's a big kicker in food service is labor. It's hard to and. It's high turnover, and it is, you know, a limiting factor. A lot of time, we're talking about what kind of products the chef or whoever is ordering in house. If we have enough labor to do more things from scratch, that's gonna be better, right, versus a lot of like premade, prepackaged stuff? Right. So if we can save labor time, we might allow them to save money or time by decreasing that.

Jessie Gibson [00:16:48]:
Right. Now, I thank you for that selling points. Okay. On one of your LinkedIn posts, because I wanna talk a little bit about some other meetings. I saw that you mentioned that you were shifting away from some processed fats and oils.

Tracy Stuckrath [00:17:02]:
And I know there was food a

Jessie Gibson [00:17:03]:
long time, like, let's stay away from fats. Let's stay but but those are just as important to our body as proteins. So but what kind of oil should we be using? And and I'm gonna just say when I go to the grocery store and I look at vegetable oil, it's not it's soy oil. So what should we be looking at when we're thinking about oils?

Jessie Gibson [00:17:24]:
I think what started this kick was the seed oil trend that everyone, maybe the past year or so, has been really focused on seed oils. No seed oils, seed oil free. That's really what triggered the deep dive.

Jessie Gibson [00:17:36]:
Seed oil free. So what are what are the seeds?

Jessie Gibson [00:17:40]:
The seeds are like like your vegetable oil. Right? Your Okay. Your canola oil, your omega sixes. So vegan 6 inherently is inflammatory. Omega 3, how it's processed in the body is inherently anti inflammatory. And so that's why those fats get the halal that they do of more omega threes. Omega threes are food. Omega 6 bad.

Jessie Gibson [00:18:02]:
But it's not quite black and white. You do need omega sixes. It's all about the ratio. So we want more omega threes than we want omega sixes. And if you look around in your processed food and in the grocery store and in our diet, we are bullasted with these omega sixes. And we don't eat a lot of fish and mackerel and and a lot of that stuff traditionally.

Jessie Gibson [00:18:24]:
Right.

Jessie Gibson [00:18:24]:
So in the hospital, we we actually changed the type of we give people lipids when they're not able to eat. We feed them through their blood and we put snippets right into their blood and we were using a a and% soy lipid product. It causes the triglycerides and some of those, like, inflammatory numbers to go up because they're having to process only vegan sixes. They're getting no food, so there is no omega 3.

Jessie Gibson [00:18:50]:
Okay.

Jessie Gibson [00:18:51]:
So we've now switched to a blend where it has some omega 6s, it has some omega threes, it has some like MCT oil and other things in there. And we're actually seeing better outcomes with those triglyceride levels

Jessie Gibson [00:19:05]:
And the omega threes are from fish You just said that right fish

Jessie Gibson [00:19:10]:
typically fish but like eggs have omega 6 and omega threes Some of your like nuts will have omega 6s and omega threes. And so it's all about that ratio

Jessie Gibson [00:19:19]:
That's a lot to learn.

Jessie Gibson [00:19:22]:
It's a lot. If you look it's funny because we're talking about trends, right? The trends that are coming up for the next year. I'm a TikTok girl. That's my generation. And so I think the pendulum is swinging the opposite way, and people are really obsessed with eating. They're eating on these, like, wooden cutting boards, but they're only doing whole food, eggs, berries, nuts, raw vegetables. There I think the pendulum is sort of trying to shift the other way, so I'm curious in the next year if we see people just eating more whole foods and less processed food. I think that that those numbers will naturally shift.

Jessie Gibson [00:20:01]:
Right. Yeah. Well and I'm doing a trend seminar right after this at 1 o'clock EST for meetings today. And it looking at the trends, and it says people are going away from the ultra processed. Because and because my one friend, Nina, chef Nina said, process is also a can of chickpeas. Right? I mean, that those chickpeas have been processed. But the ultra processed with the added sugar and the oils and all of that stuff, that's what people are trying to steer away from?

Jessie Gibson [00:20:31]:
Yeah. I think it's a big push of this younger generation. We we we don't want to be sick. We don't wanna be plagued with chronic illness and so we live in the information age where everything and anything is out there. So I think people are seeing or trying to get the right idea and shift away from some of those things.

Jessie Gibson [00:20:49]:
Well, and it's funny that you said TikTok because I was reading a Mintel food and beverage study, and they said, I think Chinese consumers get more of their health and nutrition information from social media.

Jessie Gibson [00:21:02]:
Yeah. It's it's a big source of information. It's also a big source of misinformation. So finding good sources that you can trust and that you feel like speak to you and your life and current situation, I feel like it's pretty important.

Jessie Gibson [00:21:18]:
Right. Exactly. And and making sure that we've got options for people. You mentioned kind of like a deconstructed thing that's a make your own. I like that too. And and that allows for personalization because people, nutrition wise as well as just likes and dislikes on that. How how can a well balanced breakfast with the right proteins and nutrient nutrients, what does it help us do throughout the rest of the day? And does that even include a break? Because typically, an event has breakfast break, lunch break, reception. What can we how does that help us?

Jessie Gibson [00:21:55]:
Yeah. I think from a from a mental aspect Mhmm. They they actually do studies where they they scan people's brains after meetings, and they see what parts of their brains are lighting up and firing the most intensely. And when people eat well balanced breakfast, you can see that certain parts of the brain are firing on all cylinders, meaning these people can do tasks faster, they can do them more accurate, their memory is more activated to actually store this information. And so kind of by lighting that up by having a breakfast and then a snack and then a lunch and then a snack, 6 small meals a day, for a lot of people that works really great because we're keeping a lot of their hormones and thing within a smaller window versus having large peaks and large valleys. Right? Meetings a big breakfast and then not eating anything for a really long time, and then we eat a big lunch and then we don't eat anything. If we can kind of maintain a smaller window, it it there's a lot of benefits hormonally, mentally, so that can be beneficial more long term.

Jessie Gibson [00:22:59]:
Okay. No. That makes sense. So that means we need to still can spend the money if we're not trying to cut budgets.

Jessie Gibson [00:23:05]:
Yes.

Jessie Gibson [00:23:06]:
If we can. Yeah. And but then I think it makes us help us think through things. And one of the other things so I'm gonna ask this question to a registered dietitian. Dietitian. One of the trends that I saw was people trying that are wanting to indulge, but also be healthful. So how can we that indulgence and I on my slide that I put, I've got an apple and a donut. How can we how can we balance those two things to make sure that our blood sugars are staying pretty level and we're not having those crashes?

Jessie Gibson [00:23:40]:
Yeah. I think food is really interesting because it's not only nutritional to your body, but there is a cultural aspect. There is a community aspect. There is a mental aspect of people finding food comforting or it feels good or it makes us happy. So it's a little bit more complex than we know we should be healthy, so only eat healthy. I always encourage people, especially those who maybe struggle with, like, the all or nothing, like, I'm either eating 5 donuts or I'm gonna never eat a donut ever again and there's no in between. I always try and tell them, how can you add value to that? Okay, you want a donut. Great.

Jessie Gibson [00:24:12]:
There's not a lot of protein in the donut. So why don't we add in a high protein food with that. Right? So can you do a donut and a Greek yogurt? Can you do a donut and a scrambled egg? Right? You can have the donut, but if we can maybe add something in that mitigates maybe some of the negative physiological effects, we've we've lessened that blow of just eating straight sugar.

Jessie Gibson [00:24:35]:
Right. Yeah. Well, and if you think about that, I mean, typically all of our cereals are sugar and are everything that we. Have been eating for breakfast without the proteins is all I mean the pastries like you mentioned earlier like those don't not the I mean the donut walls of course, but all those muffins and those croissants and I mean, croissants maybe not so much with sugar, but it's well, it's that carb sugar. Right?

Jessie Gibson [00:25:01]:
Right. It's still it it is buttery and high in fat, but at the end of the day, not a lot of fiber and not a lot of protein. And those are meetings that really help slow down that digestion.

Jessie Gibson [00:25:13]:
And that's and the so we wanna speed up the no. We wanna slow down the digestion.

Jessie Gibson [00:25:18]:
We wanna slow it down. The faster we're breaking it down and absorbing it, the higher your blood sugar is gonna spike and the higher your insulin levels go up, which means the harder they're gonna crash. If you go kinda more like a slow train, your body's actually able to, like, absorb and utilize those as you're absorbing it so that spike won't be as high or as hard. Okay. And that's where we have about things we with insulin resistance and that kind of stuff for you. That's why that's so important. Okay.

Jessie Gibson [00:25:47]:
And I was just gonna jump to that. So diabetes and is were October, November is diabetes awareness month? And of them is. So my question is is what are some what are some of the most common dietary needs that we should think about when we're planning our needs? And I would say diabetes is one of them. But when we say diabetes, a lot of people are like, well, I can manage it on my own or they have the monitor on their, on their arm. But at the same time we need to provide them food options that can help them balance that blood sugar and and I know I've done a session of web eating in a meeting episode on diabetes with a different dietitian But hyper and hypoglycemic, we don't know. We personally I I wouldn't know if you were having a a drop in in one or the other. Right?

Jessie Gibson [00:26:39]:
Uh-huh. Yeah. A lot of people aren't diagnosed. Right? They have these symptoms or maybe on a on a blood level, there are, like, some disruptions, but they don't notice it or feel it, and it's normal to them to feel that way. But diabetes affects a large amount of the adult population. Like, and out of 3 people have prediabetes, which means they're not even diagnosed and then you add on people that are actually diagnosed with type 1 or type 2. That's a large amount of adults. When you're thinking about sitting still in a chair, you're thinking about focusing, not getting too sleepy, your blood sugar can play a pretty big role in all of those feelings whether that be too high or too low.

Jessie Gibson [00:27:17]:
And so by giving people a good breakfast, hopefully, we can keep them maintained and engaged as much as possible.

Jessie Gibson [00:27:24]:
So, yeah. I mean, it's just kind of I mean, I don't wanna throw this onto a meeting planner, but it would be and really good thing for me as a meeting planner to hire a dietitian. If I can't get that from the hotel or the convention center, like why not have somebody review my menus?

Jessie Gibson [00:27:39]:
Yeah. A lot of dietitians do do consulting work for menus. So, if you're talking about providing anything to, like, children, elderly people, or sick people, it has to be signed off by a dietitian. So there are people who just do menu analysis, who do, consulting work for, like, menu planning. Some event planners, I mean, you're very special, you're very educated at allergies, but a lot of event planners, that is not their wheelhouse, and they kind of depend on whoever their food service folks are to to just handle it and figure it out. And so it is important sometimes to have that referral, like you do need it, or they feel like something is so severe that it is too difficult to really process, the dietitian can go and and evaluate that.

Jessie Gibson [00:28:26]:
Yeah. Because it I mean, there's a lot to take in. And and there's and meeting planners are meetings, hey, we get that we ask the questions because it's a good thing to do is to ask the questions. Do you have any dietary restrictions? And then how can we help feed you? Right? And and but I mean, there are ones that are getting the list, like a full page list of foods that they can't eat. Right? And they're like, well, what am I supposed to do with that? Right? And how do I feed you? And then and and actually, there was a rant from and plantbased, like, a couple weeks ago in a Facebook group and disease saying, I'm over this. How are we supposed to do this? So how are we supposed to do this?

Jessie Gibson [00:29:04]:
I think there's a fine line between preference and allergy. Right? People people cross that line a lot of times and it can be really frustrating to those who actually have a medical anaphylactic allergy to things versus, well, I don't like blueberries, so I'm gonna say no blueberries because I'm gonna keep them

Jessie Gibson [00:29:23]:
all and me, but yeah.

Jessie Gibson [00:29:25]:
So I think that's a fine line, allergy versus preference. But again, you're in a customer service industry, so we have to provide what people are asking for. I if I have people that are really complicated, I just reach out and say, what do you typically eat? Is there any foods that you would feel would would would comfort you? People have safe foods, especially those with allergies, things that they feel really comfortable eating. Maybe that's a specific type of cereal or granola or whatever. So sometimes I will reach out and do, like, a little back end research of, okay, this is a lot. What do you eat? And sometimes you find that they're eating half the foods on their list that they say they don't.

Jessie Gibson [00:30:02]:
Interesting. Because maybe they're not reading the ingredients on what they're eating. I mean, apparently, they're probably not making everything fresh, so they're maybe using one of those prepackaged items.

Jessie Gibson [00:30:14]:
And stuff gets reformulated all the time. They don't the companies don't have to do us a due diligence and send us an email saying, hey, by the way, we changed our processing plant. We changed our ingredient. So things that were once gluten free might not be. And so sometimes having a computer system that is like kind of crunching those ingredients on the back and, or the suppliers on the back end is is necessary when you get to a certain scale because there's so much product coming in that you can't possibly check every label.

Jessie Gibson [00:30:43]:
Well, yeah. And I there was a gentleman from the UK that I interviewed, Simon, and he works at Y Boston. And I think the UK actually has to put in all of the dietary information, even if they're at a hotel. I know here in the States, we the restaurants have to only do it if it's 20 restaurant 20 locations or more with the same menu. That's the food in FSMLA. And but in the UK, they have to do it. So and and it got brought up because he's like, if I'm donating food to a charity, I have to provide all the nutritional information with that, which is a lot of work and and It's labor intensive. It's labor intensive.

Jessie Gibson [00:31:24]:
Right? Yeah. But they did change they went through all of their menus because they had to do this and they found like you said. Oh my gosh. We're changing these menu items because they're so caloric or they're so high in this whatever that they're like we can't serve this anymore Right? They didn't realize how bad it was for you.

Jessie Gibson [00:31:43]:
Yeah. COVID changed a lot. A lot of our people's suppliers got shut down or they couldn't ship in whatever. They had to change allergies, and so you'll notice that there was a lot of mix up going on in the market about either nutrient analysis of like the caloric intake, but also just this was processed in a peanut free facility and now it's not. And if you're a mom who always food your kid the same granola bar that they love and all of a sudden now it could contain peanuts, that's a big deal and you don't catch it unless you're checking it every single time you buy it.

Jessie Gibson [00:32:17]:
Yep. Well and that's really happened with sesame events sesame got added to the list because I know people are adding it purposely now to their recipes. Cut manufacturers, I should say, not people. So where do you see the future of event food and beverage heading as I mean, I would hope it's gonna go like the NFL's going. And then I when we're putting the NFL in there, I'm sure that the Major League Baseball and MLS has it as well, all of those different athletes. And and Simone Biles, I'm sure, has her own dietary plan and things. Do you see this going in more into food service and catering?

Jessie Gibson [00:32:55]:
Yeah. As a dietitian, we typically will work really closely with, like, chefs at these type of allergies. Even in schools, even in hospitals, we all have chefs that work there. So it's our job to make sure that what they're preparing meets their needs, but it is ultimately the chef and the food service employee's job to execute it. So I'm hoping that people are kind of just starting to care a little bit more. I said I said, I think I typed up, people are sick and tired of being sick and tired, especially with these preventable issues, these, you know, chronic diseases that are habitual or lifestyle issues. So finding finding good resources and finding people who you feel like listen to you and advocate for you and and are kind of working on your team are super important when it comes to nutrition.

Jessie Gibson [00:33:44]:
Well, and well, in we're thinking when you're thinking about an event food, I'm like, I'm going to an events. I'm paying you money. You're feeding me, but I'm relying on you as a meeting planner, who then is relying on a event manager at a hotel, who's then relying on the chef to provide all of this. How do we there's a lot of change that has to happen in that realm.

Jessie Gibson [00:34:06]:
A lot of hands. Yeah. A lot of hands. We do a lot of, like, huddles and debriefing constantly. Like Mhmm. Before the event, we're briefing on here's our allergies, here's our people that we need to look out for or whatever. Then we're doing, like, day of, you know, again, everyone reminder. We also wanna make sure our staff has the right equipment.

Jessie Gibson [00:34:26]:
Right? So we use allergy kits, so it's a purple kit. Nothing else in our kitchen is purple and those are those are to only be used for each individual allergy case or patient or food that we're preparing. And so we're constantly doing that. Also, like meetings and checking in food time to time. I don't know what the food regulations are like for serving at like and of like pop up teardown events, but Right. They're strict for us. We have to constantly be following up, having protocols in place. If you can't physically be there, having someone who is halal, even if that's just a catering manager who can go through a checklist and kind of be boots on the ground for you, but it takes it's it's a constant checking in, checking in, checking in, checking in.

Jessie Gibson [00:35:13]:
Yeah.

Jessie Gibson [00:35:13]:
And it's a whole another job. Yeah. And right now it's being thrown on event planners and then we with the with the reliance that chefs and this is from I remember going to an event years ago and I think it was at Georgia Organics Conference and a a doctor was saying like he was sharing an example that he went to the obesity conference and they're serving chips and and brownies and everything to these doctors who are talking about obesity, but he's like chefs don't go to nutrition school and dietitians don't go to culinary school and so and he was with Tulane. I think at the time and really kind of meshing those 2 conversations together because teaching both. And I think that's something that we need to work food look forward to, hopefully, or push for.

Jessie Gibson [00:36:08]:
Oh, yeah. And collaboration is everything. If you can find a group of people that gel and work well and communicate well, like, hold on to further your life because to not let them go, they do not come every single day. But, yeah, I would love to see we do get some food science and cooking culinary classes, but it's nowhere near what they do. I would love to see people like double degree if they are interested in like a certain area. You can be a dietitian and also be trained culinary. Right? What a cool unique skill set would that be for people?

Jessie Gibson [00:36:42]:
Yeah well and I just saw on Instagram that chef Joni from Canyon Ranch in Las Vegan. He and. He's the head of all of all of the Canyon Ranch Hotels nutrition information and chatted with him a couple weeks ago just doing the same meetings. Right? And it's like getting him and and he's learned so much from different nutritionists about what to do and and how they're designing their menus and kind of like the football teams they're designing he's like, hey, tell us your macros before you show up to an event here and we'll design your menu around you. You can't do that for a group of 17,000 people. So something else that you said, it was oh, I forgot what I was gonna ask you. The how can alright. Just some basic things.

Jessie Gibson [00:37:29]:
So if I'm a meeting planner, what are some basic things I can think about when I'm designing my breakfast menu? Just easy tips to say, look for these things to make it a balanced breakfast.

Jessie Gibson [00:37:41]:
You wanna see lots of kosher. So whether that be fruits, vegetables, the more colorful not only is it visually pleasing and people tend to eat more of it, but the more color, the more micronutrients you're getting in. That's an easy tip. The other thing is is look for places to add fiber. That's something that we're all chronically well on, but there are lots of great ways to put that in, whether that just be swapping a whole grain product in there or adding it as a as a topping or a side to an item that can be really beneficial for a lot of people. And other than that, I think I think they think about protein. I mean, people are very for protein right now. So I'm sure that that's top of the list to add in there.

Jessie Gibson [00:38:22]:
But color and fiber would be 2 big ones that I think would really make they make things look more helpful. They look more nourishing on top of the actual benefits that people might receive from eating a little bit healthier.

Jessie Gibson [00:38:36]:
I'm I was just gonna joke, but not like the pink icing on a doughnut.

Jessie Gibson [00:38:39]:
Not Yeah. No food catering. We don't want

Jessie Gibson [00:38:42]:
Okay. So something that you shared with me before we started was that when I ask you, what do you wish more people knew about what you do and what dietitians do? And and David Stevens brought this up to me as well that somebody said to him is, like, we're not the police. Right? We're not the dietary police. Right? What tell explain a little bit more about what you meant by that.

Jessie Gibson [00:39:08]:
Yeah. So I always joke, especially with, like, young kids and stuff. I'm like, we're not the food police.

Jessie Gibson [00:39:13]:
If you

Jessie Gibson [00:39:13]:
see the dietitian in the cafeteria, people are like, oh, don't don't look at my lunch. Like, I'm having a burger today. We eat. We're normal people. I don't ever wanna take anything away from anybody. I'm always thinking about adding things in and sometimes you get subtraction by addition. By adding in helpful things, people naturally will will wean out some of those more more negative meetings. But I wish people understood that we are not food critics.

Jessie Gibson [00:39:39]:
We do not judge you. We do not want you to be miserable and only eat food that you don't like. Our job is to help help you get to where you want to go, and any good practices, whether nutrition or otherwise, is to kind of listen to you and come up with a plan that you feel like works for for you. So if you ever have a bad nutrition experience, I would encourage you to go find someone who you feel like really hears you and supports you because there are lots of different people out there with lots of different backgrounds that can help you.

Jessie Gibson [00:40:09]:
Yeah. Well and I think that we need to think that way just in designing our menus as well. Like, if you if and I was David posted something today. I keep mentioning him, and it was about a gym. But it's like we have to ask the questions upfront. Right? What are your capabilities in providing a more nutritious menu item options? Right? Mhmm. I can I go off of this menu that you have that's just sugar? Right? Or can I bring in different items, break items that are not filled with sugar? I mean, because that's typically what break items are filled with.

Jessie Gibson [00:40:44]:
Yeah. Lots of carbs.

Jessie Gibson [00:40:45]:
Lots of carbs. Lots of carbs. Yeah. Yeah. Alright. Well, this is a lot of food for thought. Thank you very much. And I well 2 things I did want to say you told me that you worked for a gourmet popcorn shop.

Jessie Gibson [00:40:58]:
So tell me a little bit about that and and you've mentioned like 3 different types of popcorn. Oh, yeah. So when I was in Cocoa chocolate department,

Jessie Gibson [00:41:06]:
No. So there are there I worked at a gourmet popcorn store. It was attached to a movie theater in my little small college town, and it was, like, the coolest job. I had been trying to get that job as long as I went to college there because it was, like, the place to go. And so there were 2 types of popcorn kernels. I didn't know that. They look the same, but when you pop them, if you go to the movie theater, you get what's they call a butterfly kernel. So it pops in like almost like an x formation.

Jessie Gibson [00:41:31]:
It has lots of wings and those are great for like butter popcorn or cheddar popcorn because the topping is a little bit lighter. But when you look at caramel corn, they call it a mushroom because it's got more of a round top on it. Mhmm. And those are sturdier. So they called caramel and chocolate beverage. And so they were very particular about the type of popcorn for the type of topping, which I never knew.

Jessie Gibson [00:41:53]:
No. Thank you for teaching us that. That's interesting. Oh my gosh. That's so cool. Okay. So my final question that I ask everybody is what does a safe, sustainable, and inclusive ex food and beverage experience mean to you, especially as a dietitian?

Jessie Gibson [00:42:09]:
I think giving people the space and the opportunity to ask questions, to speak up about their needs is is really important. We used to not ask people, Oh, do you have any preferences? You go to a restaurant now. I have catering asking, Do you have any food allergies? Does anybody have any allergies? That that's amazing. That is leaps and bounds better than what we've done in the past. So just being a safe space for people to speak up about it is why I feel really, really important.

Jessie Gibson [00:42:37]:
That's awesome. Well, thank you. Alright, everybody. This is Jessie Gibson, as you can see her name there, and she works for UT Health at East at East Texas in Tyler, Texas, and you can connect with her on LinkedIn under Jesse Gibson. And I so appreciate your time today. Thank you so much.

Jessie Gibson [00:42:54]:
Oh, this was so fun. I appreciate you having me on.

Jessie Gibson [00:42:57]:
Oh, you're welcome. And, everybody, I'm gonna take next week off because it's the day after the election, so I'm just gonna take a breather. We're all gonna take a breather, and I will be back in 2 weeks with a conversation about the Food Donation Improvement Act and how we can take our excess food over production and donate it to individuals in our communities. So, Jesse, thank you so much for being here. And, everybody, until then, stay safe and eat well. And, Jesse, stay on with me for one second more once I hit that. Alright. Everybody have a great day.

Tracy Stuckrath [00:43:30]:
Thanks for listening to the catering at a meeting podcast where every meal matters. I'm Tracy Stuckart, your food and beverage inclusion expert. Call me and let's get started right now on creating safe and inclusive food and beverage experiences for your customers, your employees, and your communities. Share the podcast with your friends and colleagues at our Catering at a Meeting Facebook page and on all podcast platforms. To learn more about me and receive valuable information, go to tracystuckcraft.com. And if you'd like more information on how to feed engagement, nourish inclusion, and bolster your bottom line, then visit eating at a meeting.com.