The Nutrition Grouch
The weight loss industry is, has been, and always will be a dumpster fire. People like to say health & wellness (of which weight loss is a part of) is “broken” or full of “misinformation” but that is being too generous because it implies that some of it is good or that it is actually fixable. It is damaged beyond repair. If it were possible, I would burn it to the ground and start over.
While it is impractical to try to summarize what’s wrong with the industry in one podcast description, my premise is this: there is a truly astronomical amount of information that neither our media nor our professionals are able to communicate to you in a meaningful way without losing all context, applicability to real life, and/or the ability to see how all of the pieces fit together.
The media should just stop covering health & wellness because their soundbites explain nothing and are little more than headlines and talking points. They may raise awareness but not understanding, leading to the illusion of explanatory depth. Academics actually know what they are talking about and could help educate us but are too busy with their work and only some are engaged with the public. Most academics look down on and laugh at the quacks and zealots in the field but it’s the quacks and zealots that have the real power.
Businesses do not have the right people in place (PhDs or medical professionals) to drive product and service development (that’s left to the MBAs). After the brand is established, the number one rule is that you must protect and promote the brand no matter how myopic, self-serving, or unimportant that brand is. Healthcare is for the (already) sick and public health is so surface level.
When it comes to their health, the public is lazy. They want the most entertaining, convenient, and positive information available, even if it is at the expense of achieving their goals. Hard work, I think not. Let me take the path of least resistance and “do it on the side”. There’s no reason for real change.
Instead of being stuck in pedaling the news of the day, disconnected factoids and tidbits, overly reductionist, cliché, idealistic, magic cures, easy fixes, secrets, tips, tricks, hacks, fads, gimmicks, cherry-picked, binary, good/bad, flashy, insanely optimistic, exaggerated, fantasy land, sunshine and rainbows, theoretical, testimonial based weight loss information -- let’s come up with a more comprehensive, systematic, sustainable, realistic, semi-automated, results-oriented, pragmatic approach to weight loss with a slice of common sense.
I’ve spent an inordinate amount of time (years and decades) thinking about the thousands of nuances of weight loss (just Google Energy Balance Nutrition Consulting, The Paper Database, or The Science of Dieting). I’ve also spent thousands of hours trying to understand why the health & wellness field isn’t actually science based despite the information being readily available.
I am so fed up and exhausted by it all. It is so broken that on many days I want to say forget it. I’m done with this. It can’t be fixed. I’m a smart motivated guy that can take my talents elsewhere (LeBron). But something keeps drawing me back. It’s like a sickness or a bad relationship. I just can’t get out of it. At my core, it’s who I am. In this podcast I want to offer you truly science-based weight loss advice, critiques of the weight loss industry/diet culture, and thoughts on my experiences and failings in the profession. And with that, I bring you The Nutrition Grouch.
The Nutrition Grouch
Why I am Transitioning from Nutrition to Wellness
Good nutrition is not the same as wellness. In fact, nutrition is only a subset of a subset of wellness. And yet, if you listen to many of the experts in the field, you'd think that good nutrition is the be all, end all, of health.
In today's episode the Nutrition Grouch talks about how he used to think that "wellness" was just kind of a fluffy, meaningless, shallow term. And he also chronicles how he drank the diet and exercise Kool Aid starting as a high school student, then as a college student, and well beyond that before realizing that it just wasn't cutting it for him anymore.
By focusing so intensely on diet and exercise, many of us have neglected the other aspects of wellness that are ultimately responsible for our health and happiness. In future episodes he plans on exploring what it means to be well and how to best achieve it.
Some of the topics in today's episode include:
Why nutrition is NOT wellness (1:13)
The 8 components of wellness (1:45)
Willful ignorance (3:37)
Why I’m in a unique position to be hypercritical of the nutrition field (4:11)
Why I’m (sometimes) grateful for never having had a “real” nutrition job (4:56)
The worst thing that has happened to me in my life (5:19)
The luxurification of EVERYTHING! (8:07)
I used to think that wellness was kind of bullshit (9:56)
The power of writing your own obituary (12:45)
There’s too much focus on the food and not enough focus on the individual (16:02)
We need to stop “overeducating”, overcomplicating, and confusing people (16:21)
Influencers and companies oversimplify nutrition (17:42)
My high school weightlifting embarrassment (25:25)
Drinking the diet and exercise Kool Aid (27:52)
My switch from exercise to dietetics (30:26)
Deciding to become a college professor (31:53)
“Real world” nutrition is nothing like academia: that’s a shame (33:35)
There’s no support structure for health & wellness dietitians (35:59)
I hate, yes I said HATE, continuing education (36:58)
I thought I was pretty hot shit, then I did a Master’s (39:40)
Doubling down on the same failed approaches (40:03)
We’ve tried and researched EVERYTHING! (43:36)
Trapped in our own disciplines (44:39)
We lose weight to be happier, not healthier (45:47)
Happiness isn’t everything (48:04)
Seeking happiness through weight loss might be misguided (49:08)
The #1 predictor of weight loss success (51:05)