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
Carbs: The Most Misunderstood and Vilified Macronutrient
Most rational people realize that there are different varieties, types, and sources of carbohydrate. But the dialogue around carbs is not a rational one. We’re far more likely to hear about how carbs are bad, period. They make you fat. They give you diabetes. You shouldn’t be eating them. There’s just a blanket condemnation of an entire macronutrient without really knowing all that much about carbs.
In today’s episode The Nutrition Grouch explains what carbohydrates are, the difference between simple and complex carbs (there really isn’t), how carbs are digested, absorbed, and metabolized in the body, how carbs can be converted into fat but probably won’t make you fat, how energy balance and carbohydrate control fat burning, and what he looks for in a grain based carbohydrate product.
This podcast episode is jam packed with great information that hopefully can help you better understand carbohydrates, be a little less afraid of them, and maybe even learn to love them, guilt free.
Some of the topics in today’s episode include:
- Carbs weren’t the enemy for 99.999% of human existence (2:53)
- Hunter-gatherer diets varied greatly by region and availability (6:03)
- The saturated fat/cholesterol hypothesis of heart disease (9:03)
- Just say “NO” to saturated fat, says the American Heart Association (12:51)
- The low saturated fat diet became the “low fat” diet by mistake (14:23)
- If you don’t eat fat, you HAVE to eat carbs almost by default (15:22)
- Low fat diets should be low in fat AND low in carbs! (15:54)
- Along comes Dr. Atkins to turn diet advice on its head (17:03)
- How a high saturated fat diet can actually reduce heart disease risk (18:33)
- There isn’t just one type of saturated fat, there’s at least 10 in the diet (20:24)
- Not all saturated fats are bad and not all unsaturated fats are good (22:14)
- We tend to hate things we don’t know or understand (27:13)
- What do all carbohydrates ultimately become in the body? (28:15)
- Fat doesn’t control fat burning, carbs do! (29:14)
- The single unit sugars: the monosaccharides (31:25)
- More simple carbs, the disaccharides (32:38)
- Simple carbs (sugars) versus complex carbs (sugars) (32:56)
- The gut can only absorb monosaccharides, sorry di and poly (33:43)
- Glycogen is the storage form of carbohydrate in the animal (35:49)
- Will eating carbs make you fat? (37:23)
- How the body can convert carbs into fat (38:26)
- Energy balance, not fat, controls fat burning (40:10)
- Your inability to burn fat makes you fat (41:57)
- The oxidative hierarchy of nutrient metabolism (42:11)
- Carbs can turn to fat AFTER glycogen storage is maxed out (45:33)
- A calorie is a calorie is a calorie, the first law of thermodynamics (49:23)
- Fat and protein calories are not superior to carbohydrate calories (49:23)
- 32 controlled feeding studies, the nail in the coffin (Hall & Guo) (49:23)
- Macros DO NOT MATTER!!! (51:28)
- Is the ability to burn fat predictive of long term weight change? (54:08)
- The myth of choosing complex carbs over simple carbs (58:05)
- Less processed carbs have to be better for you than processed carbs, right? (58:53)
- Should I make my carb choices based upon the glycemic index? (59:19)
- What exactly are “added” sugars? Should I avoid them? (1:00:01)
- “0” added sugars don’t make a food healthy (1:02:55)
- There are no healthy desserts or indulgences (1:07:34)
- Two things I look for on a nutrition label (1:10:15)
- What food groups contain carbs? (1:13:30)
- Carbs are easy to produce at scale, that makes them cheap (1:15:36)
- Carbs: what are the take home messages? (1:19:46)