Busting Nutrition Myths with Doron Vaday [Ep. 138]

0:00 This is the eat well, think well, live well podcast. I'm Lisa Salisbury, and this is episode 138 busting nutrition myths with Daron Vidai. Daron is a registered dietitian and runs eat right nutrition. I've noticed his work on social media, and I really admire his approach and the way he is able to explain where many social media posts. Go off the rails. And he really brings it back to the real science and research. We are going to be all over the place with different myths around nutrition that are often perpetuated on social media. So enjoy this one and let me know if there are any questionable trends out there that we need to address next time.

0:43 Welcome to eat well. Well, the podcast for busy women who want to lose weight without constantly counting, tracking, or stressing over every bite. I'm Lisa Salsbury, a certified health weight loss and life coach, and most importantly, a recovered chronic dieter here. You'll learn to listen to your body and uncover the reasons you're reaching for food. When you're not truly hungry, freeing you to focus on a healthier, more fulfilling approach to eating. Welcome back to the eat well, think well, live well podcast. I am so excited to be interviewing, Vadai. He's a registered dietitian and I've been following him on Instagram for a little while and really impressed with his approach.

1:26 And so I invited him on and thankfully he accepted. So welcome. Why don't you introduce yourself as As far as, um, you know, what you do and kind of how you help people. And then we'll get into our conversation. uh, yeah, so I'm a, you know, it's interesting. I recently just did a podcast where they were driving more towards like the performance side of things because my background is in bodybuilding and I guess they saw that and they constantly want to talk about performance and I'm like, that was a long time ago. So these days I focus a lot on. Weight loss, fat loss, and metabolic health. So metabolic health being non alcoholic fatty liver disease. Uh, we focus on cardiovascular disease, cardiovascular risk.

2:08 We focus on type 2 diabetes. We also focus on intervening when they're taking medications, whether it be insulin, um, the GLP 1 medications, uh, and, uh, like something like metformin, and just managing overall lifestyle factors and risk factors for, uh, overall improving metabolic health. Okay. Awesome. Awesome. I, um, in a, in my past life, my first major in college was actually to be a registered dietitian. And I think it's so funny how many times I've kicked myself for not continuing with that and for changing my major, but these things happen. Um, so I admire what you do. Um, one of the things that you.

2:48 Um, and one of on Instagram specifically and putting content out on is some of the myth busting out there and combating some of these people that are, you know, yelling in grocery stores and that sort of thing. So we're going to be discussing some of the top myths that are going around on Instagram, social media right now. I'm sure it's on TikTok. I'm just not on there. Um, but what I really want to talk about too is. The fact that at your education level, you know how to read studies properly. And I think this is one of the biggest things that, um, you and others like you consistently comment on when these wellness influencers come on and they go, this study showed, and then you say.

3:34 Actually, that's not at all what it showed. So let's talk about studies first, and why it's so important to be able to read them properly, and what it is about your education that makes you qualified to read them, and like, what is the general population missing when they're looking at these studies? Why do they get interpreted so badly sometimes? So piece of that with people on social media is there's some bias in there and they're cherry picking specific studies that will prove their, uh, or, or support their thesis on whatever it may be. It could be, like, seed oils. It could be a keto diet is effective at, uh, treating cancer because, uh, glucose.

4:18 can feed cancer cells and therefore cancer cells can't grow and then you starve them if, if, you know, if you don't have any, um, if you don't have any sugar in the diet, which isn't true, right? So, part of it is you may find some studies that are sort of outliers, but oftentimes when we find those outlier studies that don't agree with the general consensus, it's a study methodology flaw. Right? So one of the biggest things, the first thing I do when I look at when I'm trying to evaluate a study is I'll first go to the conclusion. Some people might say differently. Some people will be like, Oh, we go to the methods first. I'll go to the conclusion and I'll say, what did they find? And that will give me, okay, they found this, but this is kind of different from other research that I've read.

5:05 And then I'll go into the methods and I'll say, how did they come to that conclusion? Right? So to give kind of an example of that. There was a recent, uh, there was a video that I did a while back on, you're familiar with, uh, Max Lugavere's, uh, podcast? Yeah, so there's, there was a, I don't know where they were from, there were two women that were talking about the artificial sweeteners. And artificial sweeteners increasing risk for Alzheimer's, and they mentioned a 2017 study. So I went in and I looked for that study. That study was published by the American Heart Association. And if you read into the study, it was patients with diabetes.

5:46 That, this is where you kind of have to think about it from a practical standpoint. It was patients with type 2 diabetes that drank soda and they measured like how much soda they drank and then increased risk. And the issue with something like that is you can't really separate because they're just basically saying they're reporting how much they're drinking, right? We don't have a mechanism to say artificial sweeteners. Increased risk for Alzheimer's. But what we do have is a mechanism for type 2 diabetes increasing risk for Alzheimer's. So, it's a, it's like a, uh, because you, you didn't start with a healthy population. right. So, in my eyes, I look at that, and even the authors, when they conclude in there, the authors are typically pretty honest, and they'll say, Well, we can't, we can't decipher whether or not this is reverse causality.

6:37 So, reverse causality would be, what came first, the chicken or the egg? Right? So were they already at higher risk and the diabetes exacerbated it and caused the Alzheimer's? Or was it the diet soda itself? And in my eyes, based on the current research and based, based on the fact that we don't have a mechanism that we've pointed to, right, a mechanism is where you start and then you look at the data and you say, okay, well, does the data support this mechanism? And sometimes it doesn't, sometimes it doesn't. In my eyes, it's reverse causality. So if you just think about it logically, if I go to the doctor and I'm a type two diabetic and my. Doctor says, Hey, you need to reduce your sugar intake. I'm going to switch from regular soda to diet soda. And then they're going to see that people who are diabetic are drinking more diet soda, and they happen to have an increased risk for Alzheimer's disease or increased development.

7:27 It's not the diet soda. It's the fact that they're diabetic, which is a known risk factor for Alzheimer's. So it's really, you have to be careful about how you interpret these things. And I do think that a lot of people have to be honest about how they interpret these things. And I think on social media, that doesn't exist. Yeah, and there's such a difference between causality and correlation. I mean, I love those charts that are like, shark attacks go up with ice cream sales. You know, it's like, there, you can show correlation with so, so many things, and I mean, Alzheimer's has been called, like, type 3 diabetes, like, anecdotally, because it can be associated with metabolic disorders, so that's really interesting that they even bothered to look at diet soda when they already know that that is Yeah.

8:09 I don't know. I mean, I think it's worthwhile, worthwhile studying, but I also think that diet sodas for the most part are pretty safe. Right. They've been around for a long time. Uh, there are people, I mean, I've even had professors in grad school that would disagree with that, but based on the data that I've seen, people talk about effects on microbiome and then you have to kind of decipher, okay, like which artificial sweetener are we talking about? Because some of them like aspartame, for example, it breaks down into, uh, phenylalanine and, aspartic acid, which are two amino acids and they get absorbed in your small intestine. So you can't kind of blanket statement and say, Oh, all artificial sweeteners, quote unquote disrupt the gut because aspartame doesn't even make it to the colon where the bacteria is anyway.

8:51 So there are, you're not going to see any changes. And then we also have to define what is disruption? What does that even mean? Because everything that you eat is going to alter your microbiome. You eat more fiber. You eat a different type of carbohydrate. You eat more protein. Every single thing that you put into your body is going to Affect your microbiome in some way, shape or form. Ideally, what we want to do is we want to have more of the, be a greater proportion of the beneficial foods that are going to support a healthy gut microbiome. And in that case it's things like fiber. Really fiber is the, the most important one. Well, that's kind of, um, let's get into some of these myths and that's kind of one of the first ones that, um, artificial sweeteners are just so bad for you.

9:33 Um, the cancer causing study, I think is. It's probably the most overdone because when clients ask me this, I'm like, well, do you drink diet Coke from the moment you wake up all the way through the day until you go to sleep? Like that's how much diet Coke you would have to have to match the amount of artificial sweetener they were giving in this study. I mean, that's a, obviously it's like a sort of general thing, but it was just so much. It's just not, it's not realistic. If you're having one a day, one every other day, like. It is not a problem, right? Yeah, I mean, I think, I think I heard my buddy Joey Munoz say this, that, do you drink enough water and it's gonna be bad for you. Right? So any, anything in excess is is not gonna be great.

10:17 Okay. Well, um, one of the things I think that's really popular right now, just because in face of the, um, increasing popularity of the GLP one drugs is the term nature's ozempic wellness influencers love to tell you blueberries are nature's ozempic. And these things are, you know, Oat zempik, the oatmeal bowls, like, it's so silly. Um, but people fall for this because they're looking for that one thing that's gonna help them lose weight. And so they believe that if they just eat blueberries, they are a superfood. Why is that just not true? Uh, because of the half life of, uh, the GLP 1 produced. I think a lot of people think that when, and this was like the recent video that I did, a lot of people will get the misconception that these injections will raise your body's natural GLP 1 production, which isn't the case.

11:11 The half life of that is about like two to five minutes. Maybe a little bit more, maybe a little bit less, depending on which study you look at, but it's a very short lived. It does help, right? And there are other hormones that are involved in controlling appetite when you eat whole foods, right? Whole, unprocessed, predominantly unprocessed foods. There are other effects or other hormones that we can point to and say, hey, this is why it's gonna leave you satiated. But when we look at GLP 1 in particular, that hormone's half life is very short versus you get a full seven day half life on an injectable. Right, now, I would advise most people to still, obviously, eat a healthy diet, don't eat junk food, because I, I even have clients that take GLP 1s and they still, they still overeat because they're eating calorically dense foods, right?

12:01 So, it has more to do with, like, the volume of food that you're eating. If you're eating a small volume of food, and it's very calorically dense, you're still not going to lose weight taking these drugs. That's my experience with it. Some people will lose a massive amount of weight very quickly. Some people will not respond as well, and they still need to make those lifestyle changes. But the idea that a food will work as well as an injectable medication, or just really any pharmaceutical medication, it's just not true. And it doesn't mean we don't want to eat blueberries, absolutely. Eat them. Eat them. But not because they are some magical GLP 1 mimic.

12:43 Yeah. I mean, you're not going to get the same, you're not even going to get close to the same effect. You're going to get two to five minutes versus seven day half life. It's completely different. Okay, um, another thing that we see a lot on, um, on social media is the whole band in Europe, but not in the US or, um, they have so much more stricter guidelines or, you know, all of that kind of thing. I, I think one of the most popular things is Europe allows 400 ingredients and we allow 10, 000. And they weren't comparing in that particular one, they weren't comparing apples to oranges. It was, um, are you familiar with that? Oh, sorry. Which, which one? you know, um, I, I don't want to like throw people under the bus, but, There's a pretty famous clip of, I believe she goes by FoodBabe, and she talks about how there's 10, 000 ingredients allowed in the US food production and only 400 in Europe, but it is absolutely apples to oranges because she's cherry picking which ingredients they're counting.

13:45 Do you know that stat that I'm talking about? I don't know the exact specific stat. I can speak to the artificial colorings that they use. And the Europe actually uses more than us in terms of artificial colorings. And I think a lot of people like red 40 is a big one where people are like red 40 is banned in the UK. You don't see it on their labels. And it's, well, that's because it's called the E 1 29. It's not, it's not called red 40. They just call it something different and they allow it into the, in the food. Uh, but I think also when we look at some of that. We have to look at how the U. S. versus Europe approaches certain things. And in the U. S., we follow a, hazard plus dosage format, where we're saying, Okay, well, what is the, uh, what is the dosage that we're getting in?

14:31 And in Europe, they follow just overall hazard. Right? So, I don't, I can't speak to who's right or wrong in regards to that, but based on the data, for example, if we look at the recent one that was just banned by the FDA, which is red number three, I'm not convinced everybody's talking about like fruit loops and they have red number three. And in my eyes, I, I, you have to think macro, right? People are so fixated on these individual ingredients. And at the end of the day, that's fine. I'm totally fine. If you want to take red, red number three out and you want to replace it, like the better alternative is always going to be just to be on the safe side to, we can use fruit and vegetable coloring.

15:14 It's totally fine. I'm okay with that. But let's not demonize something. That isn't, there is no evidence to show that it's bad. In my eyes, the red number three, there's no evidence to show that it's bad. And there's not enough evidence to support safety of it. So I do think we should study it further, but also Fruit Loops are still going to be Fruit Loops at the end of the day. That's not the biggest thing that's going to affect you. The biggest thing that's going to affect you is that you're eating Fruit Loops in the morning every day. Yeah, it's, it's so far down on the list of what we need to attack in order to have a healthier diet, which leads into the idea of, um, ultra processed foods. I think it's, so you did a video on this about demonizing the ultra processed foods ingredients.

15:57 And so obviously there's a lot of ingredients and ultra processed foods. I do not choose, for myself, to eat. Most of the reason, truly, is because I haven't eaten that for so long, it doesn't taste good to me anymore. Like, I, I feel like I can taste the sort of chemical nature of some of those artificial, flavorings and colorings, and so I don't enjoy a lot of those foods. But, The ingredients themselves is not as critical as the fact that you can consume so many calories in one sitting. And I think that really is one of these, also these myths that gets kind of lost. Can you speak to that a little bit?

16:40 Yeah. So at the end of the day, When we look at like the plethora of data, calories are what is going to matter the most from a health standpoint. So, you're right about that. Now, it's kind of a, it's I'm kind of conflicted on this, to be honest, because here's the thing, individual ingredients, if we look at, uh, like a soybean oil or, uh, uh, safflower oil, like something that's high in omega 6, uh, and we look at high fructose corn syrup, those in and of themselves, like we have data that shows that. When you consume those things not in a caloric surplus, either in a maintenance calories or a calorie deficit, there aren't really any adverse health effects.

17:23 So the adverse effects come from the sheer quantity of calories that you're consuming. Now, I can make an argument that Those are the ingredients in specific foods that make it hyper palatable, that make it stimulate your brain's pleasure and reward center, that make you want more, right? Companies are in business to sell more of their products, and they do a very good job at making you want more of those products. So. I could make an argument that consuming more of those things will lead you to eat more calories, but those ingredients in and of themselves aren't necessarily harmful.

18:05 So, my stance is kind of this. Yeah, you want to avoid those ingredients, but not because the ingredients are bad for you, because the foods that contain those ingredients are highly processed, hyperpalatable. They're not very satiating because they're ultra processed. They're basically kind of pre digested for you. So, yes, avoid those ingredients, but not for the reasons that people say, if that makes sense. Yeah, totally. I think that's such an important nuance because it's not that seed oils in particular are the devil, it's what they're incorporated into. And so you have to look at the food as a whole.

18:46 And certainly when you're choosing cooking oils for yourself, when you're cooking from scratch at home, you can decide what kind of oil you want to use. And if you decide to use It's not going to be the same as that ultra and so you're going to saute your chicken and vegetables in soft flour oil. That's a completely different end product than the ultra processed food, the, the crackers and the cookies and the, um, you know, other bars and whatever that contain those ingredients. It's going to be a totally different end product. Yeah, I mean, I would say this from like a smoking standpoint. I personally like to cook with avocado oil just because it can withstand a higher heat. I think it's like 425 or 450 degrees Fahrenheit, so it's less likely to oxidize, right?

19:33 And this is where we get. We see studies on frying foods in, like a soybean oil or something like a McDonald's would use that right that when it's heat. point on seed oils. Are they, I haven't It's, it's, I don't know exactly the smoke point, but it's much lower, so it's a lot more likely to oxidize and then you create trans fats. So yeah, when you're going to a fast food restaurant and they're frying with the fries, they're frying it and they're reusing the oil over and over again, that can definitely be problematic. But. When we see studies on actual like seed oils, it's interesting the seed oil thing came from I don't know if you want me to get dive deep into it. The seed oil thing comes from a mechanism, right?

20:14 So you have two different pathways you have a pathway in in a metabolic pathway in which omega 6 goes down is called the arachidonic acid pathway and then you have where the Omega 3 goes down a separate pathway. They kind of split off. And so the omega 6, sorry, let me interrupt. By pathway, do you mean a digestive pathway, or like, what, what is this pathway starting and ending it's, it's a metabolic pathway, I believe, within your cells, right? So what happens is you, when you go down the arachidonic pathway, you create these things called eicosanoids, right? So omega 3 and omega 6 will go down two separate pathways and you create inflammatory or anti inflammatory eicosanoids.

21:00 Um, and these eicosanoids, so that's where it kind of initially that came from is, well, omega 6 fatty acids, things like soybean oil, like all these quote seed oils, they go down this inflammatory pathway and they create inflammatory eicosanoids. So therefore consuming oils or fats high in omega 6 fatty acids will end up leading to increased inflammation. Okay, great. We have a mechanism. Awesome. But then you have to dive into, again, like I said earlier, you start with a mechanism. You start basically in a petri dish, which is like the lowest form of research. Then you go into animal models, and then you go into human models. So, you really have to look at is, beyond that mechanism, what happens actually in the human body?

21:46 And what we see in the human body is that, in some cases, it has no effect on inflammation whatsoever. Or it actually lowers inflammation. And when we look in the case of cardiovascular risk, these seed oils are some of the best things that you can recommend because they lower LDL cholesterol and can sometimes increase the good cholesterol, HDL cholesterol. So this is where that started with the seed oils is okay, this mechanism and people are kind of holding onto that for dear life, but when you look at the human studies and you actually. You look at inflammatory markers. So what are the inflammatory markers? Uh, C reactive protein, interleukin 6, right?

22:27 The actual markers of inflammation, you actually see them either lower or stay the same. So, I don't know how people can still hang on to this thought on this, based on this mechanism. And then they'll cherry pick like little studies here and there that didn't control for certain aspects of the diet and say, Oh, well, look, this proves my point. And I'm like, okay, well, that was poorly, a poorly done study. Mm hmm. And they're not controlling for, like, calories, or they're not controlling for, like, total fat intake, Yeah, either other, either calories or other aspects of the diet, they're just not, they're not controlling for any of that stuff. So, but when you look at the really high quality data, you'll see a plethora of information that shows that these things are actually good for you.

23:07 And again, like you alluded to before, the reason why they're bad is because of the processed foods that you're eating, right? So I've had many people tell me, well, I cut out seed oils and I feel much better. And then I'd ask the question of, well, what foods did you have to cut out in order to cut out seed oils? Chips. Cookies. Cakes. Okay, so you cut out all of the highly processed foods and now you feel better. You feel better because you cut out processed food, not because you cut out seed oils. So it's the mechanistic studies not in human bodies that, that are quote unquote showing inflammation because I still get people say, well, there's tons of studies that show seed oils cause inflammation, and I'm like, Where are those studies?

23:49 They don't really exist in human models. Is that correct? Yeah, so I think it, it's just a mechanism, right? It's a theory based on a mechanism. But when you look at the human data, the majority of the human data shows that, uh, these things are not inflammatory and they're actually good for heart health. If you have high LDL, um, and you're trying to lower your cholesterol through dietary methods, getting your saturated fat intake down is going to be huge. And so that is one way to do it. And like we said, you don't want to, like, fry in these oils. So no, no high heat cooking. But, um, you know, if you can just trade a few things a week for, for those kinds of oils, it can help with your cholesterol.

24:36 Yeah, absolutely. Okay. how about this one with this one of my favorite, Reels that I saw you do just because the person that you were, disagreeing with is one of my least favorite people too. Uh, that excess hormones or excess toxins cause weight gain. Um, this is so popular on social media right now is to say you've got, uh, hormone issues, hormone imbalance. And, and I say this as a perimenopausal woman who is on, and my listeners know, I'm a big fan of. Menopause hormone replacement therapy, estrogen therapy, like I'm all about that. I'm not saying hormones aren't, aren't important, but the idea that excess hormones or that if you just balance your hormones, you're going to magically lose weight.

25:22 Such a myth. Right? I think it's just a defeat. It's, it's like a, those people appeal to people who are struggling. Right. And it's kind of like, uh, I don't know what to call them, like vultures or something. Like it's, it's, they're very much like, I know that people are going through this issue, they're struggling, and they, they, I've seen some content. They read some blogs somewhere that they think it's hormones. So let me kind of feed off of them. I think it's the worst kind of social media content, in my opinion, is people who kind of feed off of, uh, people who already think that they have an issue and reinforcing that and saying, Hey, I have the solution for you through nutrition to me, if you have a hormonal imbalance, I will send you to a doctor.

26:03 to get your hormones checked. You can't just assume that you have a hormonal imbalance. You have to, and if you do, it's, we'll balance that. And are there some nutritional strategies and exercise strategies that we can use? Uh, I know, especially specifically with men, um, that, I don't know if your audience is like predominantly women or what, but, it is. Yeah. But that's okay. Yeah, but specifically with men, like if you have low testosterone, your first stop isn't the doctor to get testosterone replacement therapy. Your first stop should be your sleep, your exercise habits, your nutrition, excess adiposity, right? If you're overweight, that's going to affect your testosterone. It's also going to affect your estrogen levels because, uh, having a higher body fat is associated with increased estrogen levels and decreased testosterone.

26:45 So I will address those things first. And if you're, if your hormones don't. Quote kind of balance. I don't want to sound like one of those kind of but if your hormones don't balance with that then okay Let's start. Let's go see a doctor. so I kind of advise them in which direction to speak with their physician, but obviously at the end of the day, their physician is their physician. What about for females? When you see a female saying, I think my hormones are out of balance or, you know, I think my hormones are, are the problem for, for my weight gain or inability to lose weight. Right. Right. Get them checked. That's literally the number one thing. Um, I mean, we have postmenopausal clients that are taking either progesterone or estrogen or a combination of things.

27:27 We have, uh, clients that are on testosterone because their testosterone was too low and now they feel great because they're taking testosterone and they're able to progress and get stronger. I think for a long time in the medical community, we didn't really think of the importance of testosterone in women. And now that's something that they're really starting to shine a light on that, like, even though women have far less testosterone than men do, it's still a crucial hormone for women. So if. We're starting to have that conversation now in the medical community with testosterone replacement therapy, uh, for women, which I think is something that's developed over the last five, maybe ten years, that we haven't even really addressed that previously. So I think that's great.

28:08 Um, but then overall, Hormones, I just feel like eight or nine out of 10 times. It's not really the issue. The issue is you're consuming too many calories. You don't know how to track, you don't know how to monitor. You don't know what 30 grams of protein looks like on your plate. So for me, it's, it's more, you need more education to be able to go through this process and come out of the other end rather than blame your hormones, because it's the same old story. It's like, I've tried everything and nothing works. And then when I see that they. have just no knowledge around macronutrients and calories, you kind of have tried things, and you thought you were trying things, but you haven't done them correctly.

28:49 So that's really my biggest, that's where I come in. Yeah, I feel like in my dieting days and and what I mean by that was jumping from one fad diet to another is I Just had this underlying belief that something was wrong with my body. Something was wrong with me And this was pre social media days. Thank goodness for for me Because I'm old older, you know that I was doing all this before social media was the way it is now But I just, I really did buy, like, so many different diet books and plans and things because I just was always looking for the next best thing, the easiest way. And it wasn't until I just dropped all of that and just got back to the basics and really, like, paid attention to how much protein I'm taking in and really was honest with my, um, you know, overall intake that I realized, like, Nothing's really wrong with me.

29:45 And that was really such a peaceful place to get to. and I, I think that so many, posts on social media are playing into our weaknesses and into our insecurities. I think also one of the things that a lot of these people do is they use the fallacy of N equals 1. Which N of 1 means this worked for me, and so it will work for everybody. I love a personal study. I'm always telling my clients the most important nutritional study that you will ever read for you is your own food journal. Like, your own food journal is going to be so informative for you. What works for you? Does a high protein, high fiber breakfast work for you?

30:26 What works for you? You gotta try a lot of things. But the fallacy comes in when you go this is how I I achieved my weight loss, so it's how everybody should achieve. And there certainly are pillars, but um, there's just so much of that end of one, where there's just one person in the study that people then extrapolate to everyone. Yeah, absolutely. Um, I mean, listen, the, the research. A lot of times in these cases that I'm thinking of one off the top of my head in particular, the research will show otherwise, um, we kind of have to use the research as a guide because I do agree that we should focus on the individual sitting in front of us as the client.

31:09 The research is used as a general guide and then you kind of modify and adjust based on the individual. But the thing is, is at the end of the day, when somebody loses weight, it's in a, they're in a calorie deficit always. So how the, so how they achieve that calorie deficit. Great, that might have worked for them. Whether I agree if it was optimal or not, for example, we look at something like a carnivore diet, like, hey, I lost weight on a carnivore diet, I never tracked my calories, and I ate as much as I wanted. Well, you were eating a lot of protein, and you were probably satiated, and you probably couldn't eat more calories you couldn't eat in a surplus even if you tried, because protein takes a very long time to digest, it keeps you satiated for a while.

31:49 Sure, that worked for you. Do I think it's optimal? No. And the research, for example, I look at things like PCOS as a perfect example. When somebody says, Oh, well, I cured my insulin resistance and PCOS by eating a carnivore diet. Okay. Well, the research supports that. You lost weight and that affected your insulin resistance and you lowered your caloric intake. I think going back to the hormonal thing, a lot of people think that PCOS is something that's like a death sentence, right? It's like, I have PCOS, I'm not going to be able to lose weight. And it's really not the case because I've worked with plenty of people with PCOS and they can lose weight. They may have to work a little bit harder because they're more genetically prone to insulin resistance and they're more genetically prone to, uh, increased adiposity, but that doesn't mean that it's impossible.

32:40 And the research in that particular area in particular shows that the research on insulin, insulin resistance shows that increasing saturated fat is not great for insulin resistance. Um, And that it does, the research does slightly favor higher fat, lower carbohydrate for that specific population as of right now with the data, but it's very slight, right? So at the end of the day, it's what is going to, what is it going to take for you as an individual to be in a calorie deficit and also sustain that deficit for a long period of time? Um, And in a way that you feel like you could actually do forever. Because that's one of the things I really work with clients on is, let's not make drastic changes that you are thinking, well, I can do anything for six weeks.

33:27 Like. No, we want to be able to do this. This is not just your, um, your fitness era or your nutrition era. Like we're looking for long term lifestyle change. And so, um, that's kind of also the thing that you're looking at is can I do this for a really long time? One of the, I mean, it's come up several times that. To, to lose weight, we need to be in a calorie deficit. I don't have my clients specifically track calories we use like a hunger scale, and mostly because most of my clients come from a highly dieting background, and they're trying to, um, sort of distance themselves from that, because It makes us feel neurotic.

34:07 Um, but there's so many other ways that you can tell that you're in a calorie deficit. And I will say that if I have, if I have clients that haven't tracked in the past or haven't tracked for many, many years, it's time to do, you know, two weeks of really good tracking. So you can see what does 30 grams of protein look like and, and, you know, kind of get some. Information rather than thinking, okay, this is how I'm going to live for the rest of my life tracking calories. And, um, I think that's, that's really what I'm trying to get away from. But, what I want to come back to is one of the ways that you can tell, uh, one of the ways that you can utilize your own body to be in a calorie deficit or at least in maintenance is to use that, the rule of being 80 percent full.

34:48 And this sounds really like diet y, diet culture y, you know, like, walk around in a 20 percent hunger. You know, but that's not really what it is. There's a Japanese term for it, and I know that you pronounce it really well, and I don't. So, yeah, it's, uh, Hara hachi bun me yeah, can you tell us about that? Um, so that's the concept. I mean, listen, we know the Japanese population. If you actually, and I was actually shocked about this, when you look at the Japanese population's, obesity versus the us, it's about 40% in the US and it's 4% in, uh, Japan, which is just a wild statistic. I was like, mind blown when I heard that. Um, but it's really just the process, uh, the, the thought of. Eating slowly is, is one of the concepts to make sure that you know when you're full, and stopping at about 80 percent full, because here's the thing, when you stop about 80 percent full about 20 30 minutes later, you're gonna be at 100 percent full.

35:42 So I think people eat, I think people that I've encountered, And I think it's part of American culture too, is we eat very quickly, we do everything very quickly. So, uh, we're always on the run, we're always on the go. Oh, I have like 10 minutes to get this meal in, and we're always so focused on our careers and that stuff. At least my clients, that, that's a lot of what I deal with. And I have to tell people to slow down. So, a lot of it just has to do with really just slowing down, taking time, not being distracted while you're eating. So don't be texting on your phone, don't be on social media, don't be watching videos. Uh, just Be mindful and present and that's something that I really talk about with a lot of my clients is mindfulness and be present with your meal almost as if you're kind of meditating because meditating is just really the practice of being present in the moment.

36:26 So you can do that with your meal too. So, um, it's just you have to be mindful and present. With what the, what you're doing at the time that you're doing it. And then, you know, one of the other strategies outside of that, that I would recommend is, focusing on how you're filling up your plate, even if you're not focused on a calorie counter and you're not tracking your calories is what is your, I use a plate method, right? So like, what does your plate actually look like? Is it should be half a plate of vegetables, ideally. Um, obviously not for everyone. Everyone's different. Some people, you know, low FODMAP diet or whatever they have going on, but. Ideally, it should be that, and then one of the other things that I say is most people have two sets of plates in their house.

37:11 They have the large plate that they use for their dinner plate, and then they have the small plate that they use for their, their salad plate or whatever it is. I recommend sometimes eating off of that smaller plate. Because the larger plate is 12 inches and the smaller plate is 9 inches. A standard plate used to actually be 9 inches and those plates have grown over time. So I sometimes will tell people if you're not going to track in a food journal, and you're not going to track your calories, maybe eat off of a smaller plate because then when you fill up that plate, because there's a perception kind of thing there, right? There's like, if I, if I'm eating off a big plate, I have to fill up the whole plate. Right? So an easier way to, cut down your calories is just to use a smaller plate.

37:51 And then visually, you see that that smaller plate is full. And that's your portion. percent full too, I, I call that enough. Because when people get too satisfied, or I've, you know, satisfied comes with like a pretty, pretty full feeling. So if you are satisfied or full at the end of your meal, So when you get to that 80%, you're just, you're just at enough. And then, like you said, 20 minutes later, you're going to be like, Oh, that's actually all the way enough. That's all that, that is enough to get me until my next meal.

38:33 Another thing I practice a lot with my clients is just because we plan our meals, there's no like question about what's going to be for my next meal. Because a lot of times we overeat out of scarcity and that is from almost. Almost like a DNA perspective as far as like, you know, food has been scarce for the entirety of human existence until like, a hundred years ago. Like, literally. And so, our brains just have not caught up, as humans, to realize that like, lunch is literally right around the corner. There's an old Seinfeld bit where he's like, you know, my mom was like, don't eat that cookie, you're gonna ruin your appetite. I'm like, mom, I got another appetite coming right around the corner. And The thing is, is there is actual, not only is your appetite going to come back, but there is actually food right around the corner.

39:16 Every corner there is fast food and grocery stores and places to get food. Their food is not scarce anymore. And so when we stop at that 80%, reminding yourself like I have, you know, chicken stir fry or whatever you have planned for dinner, like that's going to be there. There is no scarcity of food. And that can also help you. I feel like stop at that 80%. Yeah, I feel like the, uh, the scarcity thing is a, um, it's kind of a double edged sword because we've solved one problem and created a new one. Yeah. So, you know, we've, we've solved agriculturally, we've focused for so long on producing enough to feed the population.

39:56 And if you look calorically speaking, we're producing way too many calories for the population now. And now we're just, we went from not having enough food to now having too much food and we don't know what to do with it. Like we're wired, we're not wired in that way, like you mentioned. So, all of these, like, myths and, and different things that we see on social media, it can get really confusing, and especially, I notice with my algorithm, you know, I'm watching nutrition based videos, and so then, like, the wackos Come up to like the algorithm. Can't really decide if the video that they're showing me is science based or not. And so you are going to come across a lot of videos that you're like, Oh, maybe that's correct.

40:41 And I mean pretty much my standard is if somebody's in the grocery store yelling. I'm not going to believe anything they're saying. I really want to do a video where I'm in the grocery store and just being like, all of this in the center aisle, this is great. Canned beans, it's a yes. Canned tomatoes, buy it. Like, there's so much good stuff in the center of the grocery store. I think it's so bad that we've totally demonized that. But, um, I just think it's something that we really need to pay attention to. How do we decide who to believe? What are some of the markers? I mean, like I said to you in the beginning, um, obviously Dr. Gundry. Nothing, nothing out of that guy's mouth. Don't believe anything. I'm just going to tell you right now, but you know, past, past the obvious, you know, supplement pushers.

41:26 So I will say for me, one of the ways I know is if they conclude their video with my discount code for all of my supplements is in the, is in the Lincoln bio. That's a sure way to know that they are trying to sell you something. I use supplements. You can join my full script if you want. That is to get things like multivitamins if you want or an omega 3 if your doctor recommends it, that kind of thing. Not weight loss supplements, not birth control cleanse, not parasite cleanse, those kinds of things. So that's kind of one of the ways I determine how do you decide when you're watching videos if people are, you know, believable or not. Uh, well, I think if we're speaking about, like, the general consumer of content, uh, number one, yes, the grocery store, if they're just automatically demonizing foods in the grocery store, that's going to be a hard no for me.

42:15 Um, but also if we're looking at the way that somebody speaks. If they sound, there's a certain way that they sound so confident and so sure about what they're saying. And to me, somebody who is most, like, you'll see in some of my content where, I don't know if you've noticed, like, I'll say, like, could likely do this, or may do this, and, and I'll speak in a way where, hey, like, this is what the research supports. And this may help you with something. I'm not going to say something definitely does something because the resource might change and then I'm going to end up eating my words down the road. Um, so most of the science based community, and it almost kind of sounds counterintuitive because if somebody sounds very confident, you're like, Oh, they must really know what they're talking about, but it's actually the opposite.

43:07 It's if they sound like they're kind of unsure of themselves. They're probably more likely going to be honest and, and more correct. and I know that that sounds, that doesn't sound right, because like, oh, an expert should be, uh, they should know everything. And I'm like, nobody knows everything, even the research. The one thing I say about research is there are far more things that we don't know than there are things that we do know. And that should be conveyed in a message on social media. Is that, well, maybe, it depends, the scenario, like, there are all different ways that this can go. So, that's really one of the biggest telltale signs for me.

43:48 Is that if somebody sounds overly confident, then they're probably not accurate. And when they start with, stop doing this one thing, Do you have an example? Like, what is, uh I just find that sometimes they'll be like, stop eating this one thing to lose weight. Right? Like, it's not just one thing. Or like, you have to eat this one thing. You have to take this one supplement. You have to, you know, eat protein within 30 minutes of your workout. Like, those kinds of, like, absolutes. Just like you're saying, like, the confidence versus the, this may help you. Um, I, I just find that those tend to be clickbait, you know, Yeah, absolutely.

44:35 And I, you know, I honestly think that's just what people that's what people tend to gravitate towards on social media, which is the unfortunate piece. But yeah, if there are like absolute If they're speaking in absolutes, like this is absolutely what you need to do, um, shy away from that because there are multiple different ways to get to an end point. And there are different ways what works for me will work differently for somebody else. You know, we go through and we touched up on this, I think before we recorded like the breakfast versus not breakfast thing. Like I can't confidently say somebody has to and a lifestyle and, and things kind of go together with this, that somebody needs to eat breakfast every day. Do I like people eating breakfast every day?

45:17 Sure. Absolutely. I think that keeps you satiated. You're less likely to overeat throughout the day, but then there's other research that might say, uh, yeah, you'll eat a little bit more in your later meals if you skip breakfast, but those calories, uh, may not be, may not equal what you would have had with breakfast. So you still end up creating kind of a deficit if you're trying to. So the answer is always, it depends. Right? If you don't need to work out a specific, I mean, you do need, I do, you, I want you to do some resistance training. I want you to do some level of cardio, but outside of that, it's like, okay, let's pick the number of days that works for you, the amount of time, the frequency, all that stuff. Um, it's, it's gonna be very individual. It's, you can't have a cookie cutter one size fits all.

45:58 which is why I'll go back to, you know, keeping a food journal and studying your own, your own body and paying attention to what is working for you. And part of what's working for you is what's sustainable. And I, and that's really, really critical as well. All right. Did we miss any big myths that you love to talk about? think that's pretty much it. I mean, we covered the artificial sweeteners. We talked about the sugar. We talked about the, um, the seed oils. We touched up a little bit on the carnivore, uh, which I personally think is probably the worst diet of all time and we'll find that out. The issue with the carnivore diet is we can't study it because it's unethical, um, to just give people a bunch of saturated fat and meat.

46:38 It's just, we're not gonna be able to study it. There's one study that people cite, quote, I'll say quote unquote study, uh, that was a self reported with the carnivore diet where people just reported that they feel better and they feel healthier. And that is constantly, uh, used as. I don't consider that evidence because it's not like I feel like I'm healthy or eating something. So I'm going to report that there's a lot of bias in there with those individuals are reporting that. and so. Unless health markers are actually looked at with something like the carnivore diet and people are actually shown to be healthier through biomarkers.

47:19 I can't take that as evidence, I guess is what I'm saying. Well, and there's just so much evidence for eating fruits and vegetables that it's, like you said, it's unethical to withhold fruits and vegetables when we absolutely have evidence that they are greatly beneficial. Yeah, we have mechanisms too. I mean, when we look at soluble fiber intake and the gut microbiome and production of short chain fatty acids like butyrate, which is really good for your colon. I personally think based on the data that I've looked at is that is the link with fiber. Uh, consumption and, uh, lower risk of, um, colon cancer. So, like, we have a mechanism, it explains it.

48:01 We have the data that shows that people consume, and this is what I'm talking about with interpreting the research, is we not only have a mechanism, but we have the data that supports it that shows that people who consume higher Uh, amounts of fiber, they have a lower incidence of colon cancer. So that is, that's where we go. Like if we compare data like that to something like seed oils, where we have a mechanism, but we don't have the data to support it in humans, that's where you kind of have to look at when you're interpreting the research, Mm hmm. Oh, well, I really love your approach. Just so down to earth, science based, but also willing to, like, learn. And I think that is so important. Like, we're always willing to learn more and do our best with the evidence and the real science.

48:44 that we have now. And um, so yeah, I just really appreciate you and your approach. So why don't you remind people where to find you online and how you can help people? Yeah, so you can find me on my website, eat right nutrition.com. Eat right is spelled E-A-T-R-I-T-E, so E-A-T-R-I-T-E. Nutrition. Um, the Instagram is also eat right Nutrition, E-A-T-R-I-T-E, nutrition, and, uh, podcast Eat Right Nutrition podcast. It's all the same. Great. All right. We'll put all those links in the show notes. Thanks for coming. Amazing Thank you. I'm so glad you tuned in today. Before I sign off, I want to remind you of the what to do when you overeat free three part video course that I have.

49:26 If you are trying to lose weight and you find yourself overeating too many times to see lasting success, be sure to check out that free course. It also comes with the reset and recover guide that will help you put everything you learn in the videos in writing and really clarify each step. So you can feel confident. Moving forward. You can also book a free consult session with me to see if my full 12 week, one on one coaching program is right for you. You can schedule it at the link in the show notes. Remember, it's not just about the food. It's about empowering yourself with choices that truly serve you have a great week. And as always, thanks for listening to the eat well, think podcast.